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Monday, December 27, 2021
Monday, December 13, 2021
Monday, December 6, 2021
Monday, November 29, 2021
Tuesday, November 23, 2021
Monday, November 15, 2021
The Church is Holy; Leviticus 20:7-8, I Peter 1:14-2:9
"Be holy as I am holy,” says the Lord. This is a command of God, given repeatedly throughout the Law and beyond. Our Old Testament reading this morning is one iteration of that command. As Moses was relaying the Law to the people and giving instructions, there would be periodic pauses after a list of instructions with the command to be holy. The command for God’s people to be holy is carried through the New Testament and today. In fact, Peter quotes these very words from other parts places in Leviticus. If we are to be holy, we need to know what holiness is.
God is described by the angels as “holy, holy, holy.” This is what they have and will be crying out and singing before God’s throne forever. This threefold use of the word holy tells us that of all that is holy, God is holiest. God is far more holy than the next closest being, person, or thing that is holy. What does it mean to be holy? To be holy is to be set apart. God is unique. There is no one and nothing like our God. God’s character, attributes, and abilities mark the holiness of God. If we are to be holy, then it would rightly seem that we are to be like God, but be like God in what ways?
It was in my childhood AWANA days that I learned that to be holy was to be set apart, but in our case, it is to be set apart for God’s purposes. This is also true for objects and places we call “holy”. Sacred and holy are interchangeable. Back when we looked at the church being one, I talked about saints. The word saint means a holy person. I shared with you the definition of a saint is “one whose will completely aligns with the will of God.” When we are living in and carrying out the will of God, we are being holy. We are doing holy work.
In our New Testament passage, Peter describes for us what personal and corporate holiness should look like. It means not looking like the rest of the world. If we are truly set apart, we will seem different to the larger culture around us. We aren’t supposed to look or act like the ways we did before we knew Jesus. Many of us came to know Jesus in childhood, so we might not have much of a past with which to compare ourselves as those of us who came to know Jesus later in life do. But Peter still helps us all out. He says don’t be conformed to lusts. I John lists two lusts—the lust of the eyes and the lust of the flesh. We desire things that we shouldn’t have. This is similar 10th commandment forbids: “You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor's.” We aren’t supposed to be fixated with stuff that isn’t ours, especially things that already belong to someone else. Peter goes on to say that holiness is what we mentioned last week—loving our brothers and sisters in Christ. In chapter 2:1, he continues that we are supposed to get rid of all malice (doing things with ill intent toward someone), guile that is fakeness, hypocrisy (saying one thing and doing another), envy (jealousy), and all slander (saying things that aren’t true about someone or saying things that would harm the reputation of another person). The things listed in this verse go right along with commandment number 9, “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.”
Growing in holiness also means growing in God’s word. Peter tells us we ought to desire God’s work like an infant desires milk, so that we can grow in our salvation. Do you desire to read God’s word? Are you seeking to grow in love and knowledge of the Lord? Or is Bible reading something you do to check off a list? Does you Bible remain largely unopened and unread? God doesn’t want us to stay spiritual babies. Since being a saint means being in the center of God’s will, we need to know what God’s will is. The Scriptures reveal the will of God. All that God desires and commands is the will of God. All that Jesus commanded is the will of God. All that the apostles taught regarding how we should live is the will of God. As we focus on God’s revealed will in Scripture and strive to live it, God in the Holy Spirit will reveal God’s specific will for our lives.
Sanctification is the process by which we are made holy, by which we are called and commissioned by God for special service. Sanctification is not a one-time event. Notice that in our Leviticus passage, God says, “I am Yahweh who sanctifies you.” We can’t even begin to follow God’s command to be holy if it weren’t for God first working in us to make us holy, to sanctify us. In our New Testament reading Peter tells us that we weren’t redeemed with corruptible things, but with the precious blood of Christ. This blood also purifies us. Because of the work of Christ and because we have placed our faith in Christ, we are sanctified and are being sanctified, and so we are called to live into holiness. As Thomas Torrance says, the church’s “holiness does not derive from any moral goodness or purity of its members, but from the holiness of God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The holiness of the Church is thus objectively grounded in the utterly transcendent holiness, glory, and purity of God’s being.
Notice that the command to be holy is to a people. In the time the Law was given, the command to be holy was given to the Israelites as God’s chosen people. In the New Testament, the command to be holy is given to the church, also God’s chosen people. As a people, the Israelites failed miserably in the command to be holy. Small groups and individuals did live well. These are the Old Testament saints. Just like we heard from Paul last week, Peter tells us that we are being built into a spiritual house with Jesus as the Chief Cornerstone. We are the living stones. One of the doctrines we emphasize as Christians in the Reformed tradition is “the priesthood of all believers.” I Peter 2:5 is one of those verses that supports this doctrine. Peter tells us that we are a holy priesthood offering up spiritual sacrifices through Jesus Christ that are pleasing to God. What are these spiritual sacrifices? Our praise, our prayers—particularly prayers of confession, intercession, thanksgiving, and praise—kindness, and love. Later on in verse 9, Peter calls us a royal priesthood. Because Jesus is both priest and king and we are His offspring. In the same verse, he calls us a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession. It’s no longer the Israelites. God’s purpose in making us a holy nation is that “we may proclaim God’s excellencies”, that we might tell of the great things that God has done! How is the church doing with the command to be holy? How is Trinity Presbyterian Church living out the command to be holy? How are you living out this command? We are called, as Jan Lochman puts it, “to move in the direction indicated by Christ’s work of salvation.” We are called to live in holiness both as individuals and as the church. May we live into the holiness to which God commands us. May we look more and more like Jesus every day as we allow the Holy Spirit to work in us and through us.
Monday, November 8, 2021
Wednesday, November 3, 2021
Monday, October 4, 2021
Monday, September 27, 2021
Monday, September 20, 2021
Tuesday, September 14, 2021
Tuesday, September 7, 2021
Monday, August 30, 2021
On the Third Day He Rose Again in Accordance with the Scriptures; Matthew 28:1-10, I Corinthians 15:5-8
I
would think you regular folks wouldn’t be here today if you didn’t believe in
the resurrection of Jesus. While maybe
overly simplistic, I find these videos helpful because we don’t always know how
to express what we believe. While we do
have to accept the resurrection of Jesus on faith, we can’t fully prove it,
evidence like this shows it can’t be disproven either. There is actually a lot of logical reason and
evidence for believing the resurrection.
The truth of the resurrection of Jesus Christ is the foundational truth
of the Christian faith. We have looked
at other belief claims that are unique to Christianity, such as the concept of
the Trinity, but it is the resurrection that is the key claim of our faith for
without it, we cannot be saved from our sins—we cannot have eternal life. We might claim to be followers of Jesus
without believing in the resurrection in some moralistic human fashion, but by
the historical definition of those who were called “followers of the Way”
before they were called Christians, we could not call ourselves
Christians.
When the writers of the Creeds
included this phrase, “On the third day He rose again from the dead according
to the Scriptures,” they were merely continuing to affirm what the earliest
followers of Christ believed. When Paul
wrote the I Corinthians passage we read this morning, he tells us he was
writing down the truth that had been handed down to him. Paul didn’t make this up. He quotes an actual creed the Church was
using at the time. “Christ died for our
sins according to the Scriptures. He was
buried. He was raised on the third day
according to the Scriptures.” We know
that this is a quote because of the literary style. We find a lot of these in Paul’s
letters. Then he lists a bunch of people
to whom Jesus appeared during the 40 days between the resurrection and the
ascension, including a group of 500 people at once, which was referenced in the
video. And finally, Paul Himself
received direct revelation and instruction from Jesus Christ. We affirm the truth of the resurrection. It’s what Jesus’s disciples have always
affirmed.
This earliest of confessions tells
us that Christ rose again on the 3rd day according to the
Scriptures. These believers were talking
about what we know as the Old Testament.
You remember the two disciples walking home to Emmaus and Jesus comes
and starts the Law and goes all the way through the prophets “explained to them
what was said in all the Scriptures concerning Himself.” So where do we see the promise of Jesus’s
resurrection in the OT? Psalm 16:10 is
probably the most direct allusion to Christ’s resurrection. The psalmist has hope and rejoices “because
You will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One see
decay.” While the first part could speak
of the psalmist’s resurrection, the Holy One speaks of Jesus. And if it weren’t for the Holy One not seeing
decay, the psalmist wouldn’t have the promise of resurrection. Psalm 49:15 reads similarly: “But God will redeem my life from the grave;
he will surely take me to Himself.” Psalm
22 has many references to Jesus’s passion and suffering, but it ends with hope
and praise by the One who had been afflicted. Isaiah 53 is the famous chapter
of the Suffering Servant which also clearly references Jesus’s passion, but
verses 10-12 say:
Yet it was the Lord’s
will to crush him and cause him to suffer,
and though the Lord makes[a] his
life an offering for sin,
he will see his
offspring and prolong his days,
and the will of the Lord will
prosper in his hand.
11 After he has suffered,
he will see the light of life[b] and
be satisfied[c];
by his knowledge[d] my
righteous servant will justify many,
and he will bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore I will give him a portion among the great,[e]
and he will divide the spoils with the strong,[f]
because he poured out his life
unto death,
and was numbered with the transgressors.
For he bore the sin of
many,
and made intercession for the transgressors.
Only Jesus
can make intercession for the transgressors and justifies many. It is He that has seen the Light of
Life. It is His days that are prolonged,
and we are His offspring.
The only place the third day is
mentioned in the OT in regard to the resurrection other than Jesus comparing
Himself to Jonah as we mentioned last week,
is Hosea 6:1-2. Come, and let us return
unto the Lord: for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and
he will bind us up. 2 After two days will he revive us: in the third day
he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight. Notice
this verse is in the plural, but prophecies always have multiple meanings. It points to the fact that because Christ is
raised we too will be raised. It can
also be read as a royal plural referring directly to Jesus. In Job 19, Job testifies to the truth that he
knows his redeemer lives and will one day again stand on the earth and that Job
will see his Redeemer in the flesh. So
not only is the Redeemer alive, but Job has sure hope of the resurrection for
himself.
We will talk much more about our
resurrection in weeks to come, but that is one of the major implications of
Christ’s resurrection. In fact, Paul is
going to spend a good portion of I Corinthians 15 affirming our resurrection
and the fact that we would have 0 hope of it if it weren’t for Christ’s
resurrection. We wouldn’t even have any purpose of following Christ even in
this life if there weren’t hope for the life to come. We might as well, “eat, drink, and be merry.” We already talked about suffering in this
life, and we are certainly seeing the suffering in our world right now. But we are called to step into the suffering
because we believe in something better. Because
Jesus is alive, we have gospel work to do.
We are commissioned to make disciples.
The resurrection of Jesus gives life meaning and purpose.
Without the resurrection, our sins would
not be forgiven. Jesus paid for them on
the cross, but it is the resurrection that gives that payment efficacy and
universality, not just covering one person’s sins but all sin. Paul says
preaching would be in vain if Christ wasn’t raised. We would still be under the law. Christ’s sacrifice would only have a limited
effect of forgiveness, not a lasting one.
Because He lives, we don’t have to fear death, as I mentioned at the end
of last week’s sermon. Because Jesus is
alive, He has been given all authority on heaven and earth. All must obey Him. All will bow down to Him. Because Christ is risen, evil has been
defeated. Even when it looks like it is
winning the battle, evil has lost the war.
Because Jesus is alive, He can help us.
He can be the agent answer of our prayers. The resurrection of Jesus
shows not only the Father’s love for the Son, but the fullness of the Father’s
love for us. A living Jesus is an active
Jesus. We will see more of this next
week when we look at the phrase, “and is seated at the right hand of the
Father.” The fact that we serve a risen
Savior makes all the difference.
The video mentioned in this sermon is: What Would You Say?
Monday, August 23, 2021
Monday, August 16, 2021
Sunday, August 1, 2021
Monday, July 26, 2021
Christmas in July; Matthew 1:18-25, Luke 1:26-38
Today we get to celebrate Christmas in July, not because we are also beginning work on Operation Christmas Child, but because the phrase in the Nicene Creed that we are examining today is “was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary and became truly human.”
We have seen in more than one sermon, in
more than one statement that Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, is 100% fully,
totally God. There are many people who
struggle with the doctrine of the Virgin Birth.
They ask, “Do I really have to believe that Jesus was born of virgin in
order to follow Jesus or to be a Christian?”
My question in return would be, “What else don’t you believe and
why?” Because as I will continue to
reiterate, everything we say we believe has implications. Our beliefs determine the way we live, how we
interact with people, how we relate to God, how we see ourselves, how we see
the world. It is not my place to
determine whether anyone is or isn’t a Christian, though I can help people have
the assurance that they are saved, that God loves them, that God forgives
them. But I can also tell you that
there is not one church father, not any of the Nicene fathers, not any
pre-Nicene fathers, not any Reformer, who ever considered the Virgin birth a
minor doctrinal point. It was a big
deal. If the seed, the sperm, did not
come from the Holy Spirit, how could Jesus be 100% fully God. Jesus didn’t become God. Jesus wasn’t part God. Jesus wasn’t a demigod. Jesus was and is fully God. It was so important to the church leaders,
both early and latter, that they taught or at least considered the doctrine of
the perpetual virginity of Mary, that Mary did not have any other children
besides Jesus. Even Luther and Calvin
taught this. The main exception I could
find of the early church fathers was Turtullian. The majority of church fathers and mothers
believed that Jesus brothers and sisters are either his cousins or children of
Joseph from a previous marriage and this is why the disciple John is given the
charge to care for Mary by Jesus from the cross. Notice that this latter
teaching is not included in any of our creeds or confessions, but the Virgin
birth is. Both gospel accounts—Matthew
and Luke—emphasize that Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit. It was such a concern to Joseph that Mary was
pregnant that he was going to put her away—he was going to issue a declaration
of divorce, break off the engagement. The
Greek word used to describe Joseph when he heard the news implies anger, not
merely shock and surprise. If she had
gotten pregnant by Joseph, he wouldn’t have pursued this route. He decided to pursue it quietly because it
could have cost Mary her life if he had chosen to make a big deal of it. She could have been stoned as an
adulteress. The angel had to tell Joseph
that the baby was conceived by the Holy Spirit.
In Luke’s gospel, Mary specifically asks Gabriel how she is going to
bear a son since she is a virgin. Gabriel
tells her the Holy Ghost will fall on her and she will conceive, and it is for
this very reason that her holy begotten child will be called the Son of
God. By the way, we are pretty sure that
Luke got his source material for the stories involving Mary from Mary
herself. Luke is the one who tells us
that Mary kept, pondered, treasured these things in her heart. The implications that Jesus was conceived by
the Holy Spirit is that Jesus is fully God.
Jesus was also born of Mary. He was fully human. He wasn’t God in human form, like some sort
of avatar, like Krishna in Hinduism or like the Greek and Roman gods who took
on human form. He was a real flesh and
blood human being. He got hungry, thirsty, tired, angry, sad. He loved
puns. We don’t get to see them in
English, but they are there in Aramaic and in Greek. Jesus knew what is was to grieve and to be
lonely. He knew what is was to be
humiliated. He was amazed. Nearly everything we feel, Jesus has
felt. He learned. The unlimited God became limited. Galatians 4:4 tells us that in the fullness
of time Jesus was born of a woman, born under the Law. Jesus lived in a specific time and
culture. He was a faithful Jew. He was subject to the law. He had to be
obedient. Gal. 4:5 gives us the implications of Jesus being born in this
manner—“in order that He might redeem those under the Law that we might receive
the adoption as sons.” Jesus was also
tempted. Hebrews 4:15 tells us that
Jesus was tempted in every way we are but without sin. Because of this, Jesus can sympathize with
our weaknesses. Jesus knew poverty. II Corinthians 8:9 says, “For you know the
grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He
became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich.” Jesus endured earthly poverty so we could
attain heavenly riches. In becoming
mortal, Jesus gave us immortality. These
are just a few of the implications we get from Scripture that we receive
because Jesus is 100% fully human.
The implications of Jesus being fully
human are just as significant as the fact that Jesus is fully God. Because Jesus was fully human, Jesus could
really die. The implications of that are
so big, we will spend some time in coming weeks when we get to talking about
Jesus’s suffering, death, and burial. And
because Jesus rose again and still IS fully human and ascended as fully human,
that has huge implications for us as well.
But because Jesus was fully human and fully God, He could be that perfect
sacrifice, that ransom, that atonement we talked about last week for our
sin. Romans 8:3 says that God sent His
own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh. The Law couldn’t save us but Jesus as one
under the Law, fulfilling the Law, could even be the sacrifice for our
sin. The writers of the Nicene Creed
elaborate on the implications of Christ’s humanity. Athanasius, echoing the earlier church
father, Origen, spoke of the importance of Christ coming in the flesh. This is what he said…
The
Savior having in very truth become man, the salvation of the whole man
was
brought about…Truly our salvation is not merely apparent, not does it
extend
to the body only, but the whole body and soul alike, has truly obtained
salvation
in the Word Himself.[i]
Thomas
Torrance adds, “This was held to include the redeeming and sanctifying in
Christ of the mind and affections of ‘the inward man’, for they have been
apportioned and renewed in the self-sanctification of Christ for our
sakes.
Because
Christ is fully human, we are saved body and soul. St. Basil the Great said, “If Christ had not
come in our flesh, He could not have slain sin in the flesh and restored and
reunited to God the humanity which fell in Adam and became alienated from
God.” Gregory of Nazianzen and Gregory
of Nyssa both spoke of the fact that it is because Jesus is fully God and fully
human, He can save us body and soul.
Adam was fallen in both body and soul, thus we are as well. We need redemption of both body and
soul. Iraenaeus summed it up like
this: “Out of His measureless love, our
Lord Jesus Christ has become what we are in order to make us what He is
Himself.” Years later, Jean Calvin
expounded on that by saying:
This
is the wonderful exchange which out of His boundless kindness He has
entered
into with us: by becoming Son of Man
with us he has made us sons of
God
with Him; by His descent to earth He has prepared our ascent to heaven;
by
taking on Himself our mortality he has bestowed on us His own immortality;
by
taking on Himself our weakness he has made us strong with His strength;
by
receiving our poverty into Himself he has transferred to us His riches;
by
taking upon Himself the burden of the iniquities with which we are weighed
down
He has clothed us with His righteousness.[ii]
Finally, in His humanity, Jesus shows us
what we were originally created to be.
He is the perfect human. He shows
us what it is to live perfectly in the will of God, to love perfectly, to be
kind, to be truthful, to do justice in the sphere and station of life we have
been given. So yes, brothers and
sisters, it is important that Jesus was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the
Virgin Mary and became truly human. Do
you believe this?
Thursday, July 22, 2021
Thursday, July 15, 2021
Thursday, July 8, 2021
Sunday, June 27, 2021
Friday, June 25, 2021
Passing Along the Faith; Joshua 4:19-24
Happy Father’s Day and Happy Men of the Church Sunday! You need to hear today that you are important. We live in a society that increasingly says that you, as white men, have nothing important to contribute to the society. Your time is over. But as Mr. George and I were talking about after church last week, God isn’t finished with you until God calls you home. Your maleness is God-created and is part of what God uses for God’s purposes. It doesn’t make you better than or superior to us women, but it does make you different with different responsibilities.
Have you ever noticed that the 10 Commandments ends with a commandment in masculine language? “You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet thy neighbor's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is your neighbor's.” The women weren’t left off the hook. They are responsible as well, but it was the Fathers who were to be the primary instructors of the children. You see, the Law was written primarily to men. Women were only responsible for portions of the Law and were covered for the rest under the man in whose household they resided be it father, husband, brother, or uncle. Women rarely lived alone in Old Testament times, unless they were widowed, and then it became the responsibility of the community to care for the widows and any children they had. The telling of sacred history was the responsibility of both parents, but primarily of the fathers. We see it in the questions asked in the celebration of Passover—the fathers answer the questions and tell the sacred history. We see this in today’s passage as well, “When the children ask the Fathers, ‘What do these stones mean…”
And when the Fathers didn’t do their job of passing along the faith, there were sad consequences. All we have to do is a flip a few pages in our Bible to find out. Turn to Judges 2:6-10:
6 After Joshua had dismissed the Israelites, they went to take possession
of the land, each to their own inheritance. 7 The people
served the Lord
throughout the lifetime of Joshua and of the elders who outlived him and
who had seen all the great things the Lord
had done for Israel. 8 Joshua
son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died at the age of a hundred and ten.
9 And they buried him in
the land of his inheritance, at Timnath Heres in
the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash. 10 After that whole
generation
had been gathered to their ancestors, another generation grew
up who knew neither the Lord nor what he had done for Israel.
Uh-oh! What happened in this passage? At some point, parents forgot to teach their children. It wasn’t that children rebelled against their parents; it’s that the parents didn’t teach them. The text says that the people did not know the Lord nor the work that He had done for Israel. It was an ignorant generation. This doesn’t excuse them, but certainly there was an unfulfilled responsibility on the part of a whole generation of parents.
Why did they stop teaching the faith? Maybe it wasn’t because they stopped believing for themselves, but with so many competing religions around them, maybe they left it up to their kids to figure it out for themselves. We see the same thing happening today. People say, “I’m not going to impose my beliefs on my children. They can grow up and decide for themselves.” Yet, children are brought up without exposure to anything. This is not beneficial. It’s one thing if your children end up rejecting what you’ve taught; it’s another thing altogether if you’ve failed to teach them. Each person must make their own profession of faith, but it is our job to lay a solid foundation. You don’t have to have all the answers; you can learn together.
Remember that God equips those God calls, and no one can fulfill their calling without God. Ask the Holy Spirit for wisdom and help.
Or maybe the fathers stopped teaching their children because they thought it should be somebody else’s job. They expected someone else to do it. Again, this is something we see today. Parents are to be the primary instructors of their children. Many have gratefully let others take over that job, but at what price? Parents have less and less hands-on time with their children. They may even go to all of their children’s activities, but they are usually watching from a distance and not engaged. I heard a TED talk in 2013 on pornography. A study showed that the average age of first exposure to porn for boys is age 10. Today, the average age is 8! Even those who put restrictions on their children’s electronics probably have friends whose parents don’t have the same restrictions. Another study was attempted to test the effects of pornography use on relationships among college-age men. The people doing the study could not find a large enough sample of non-porn users to use as a control group! The analyst giving the talk suggested using ex-porn addicts as a control group since not enough non-users could be found. If we aren’t teaching our children, who is?
Sadly, today part of the reasons we don’t see more male teachers is that we don’t value teachers. We say we do, but our practice indicates otherwise. Few teachers are paid even a livable wage. I taught school in a former life. You don’t see many male elementary school teachers anymore. I only had 3 in my cohort at UNCG and one quickly went on to become a principal. I taught for 3 and half years both private and public, and if I had not lived in subsidized housing, I could not have afforded to teach. I lived in a home owned by my parents. I paid utilities, property taxes, and insurance, but no other rent. The situation isn’t better today, especially considering those with college debt, of which I had none.
Sometimes outsourcing instruction, especially in the faith is necessary. We need men in church. Too many children today are growing up without dads at all. Not just absentee dads, but no dad. Mom may not know who the father of her child is, or she wants nothing to do with the father of her children and doesn’t want them to have anything to do with him either, or she may have had her children by in vitro fertilization, or a child might have lesbian parents. And though society has negated the importance of men, it is a fact that boys who do not have fathers are more likely to end up in gangs because they are drawn to other men, even if they are not appropriate role models. It is a fact that girls use their fathers as a first type for good or for ill of people they are likely to date and marry. Both girls and boys suffer when positive male influence, especially from fathers, are absent in their life. Though society is relegating fatherhood to the margins, it is very important. And most importantly, people need to know they have a Heavenly Father. As we heard last week, God, the perfect Father. Some people have a difficult time with this image because of the poor or absent examples of their earthly fathers. As we recounted in our biblical examples, earthly fathers often do fall short, even the excellent ones. Remember, everything in this life is only a type. God is the real thing. Earthly fathers are only intended, even at their best, to represent God and to point us to God. They are never intended to replace the need for our perfect Parent, our heavenly Father, the One who adopts us as His own with full privileges of adult, naturally born children, who receive the full inheritance of all that God has to give. who God is the Father who will never leave us nor forsake us, who will never leave us orphaned, but has an extra-special place in His heart for the orphans and fatherless. God is the Father who loves us fully and unconditionally, who always extends forgiveness to us. God is the One who seeks us and pursues us when we go astray. God is the Father who corrects us and disciplines us so that we will grow, without ever putting us down. God is the One who knows us inside and out, better than anyone else, including ourselves. God is the Father who collects all our tears in a bottle, who sends the Holy Spirit to comfort us, and who will one day wipe away every tear from our eyes. God is the Father who fashioned and designed us and put His image in us. God is our Father, the One who wants to have a relationship with us. God is the Father who makes His people into His family. This is the perfect Father, and the Father of us all.
We need men to work with not only with youth and children, but younger men. We need men to lead small groups and to be mentors. We need men to learn so they can lead their families. I love that we host the Scout program in town. What a place for young people to gain values and skills to become healthy and productive members of society. Thank you, Joe, for being our charter representative. Thank you, Tracy for all you do with our Scouts. But as great as Scouting is, it is passing along the faith that is most critical. Sometimes things like Scouting can be an avenue for that to happen. It’s those side conversations. Sometimes it’s at our jobs where we can pass along the faith. I keep telling people I’ve had more opportunities to share the gospel, to share my faith working at the restaurant for the past 9 months than I have in my role as pastor, other than with the folks in church, in the past 2 years. Now it is rarely a full gospel presentation in one shot, but it’s bits and pieces here and there. It’s a prayer with someone for healing or for a difficult relationship, or a Scripture verse, or sharing what Jesus has been doing in my life recently or a Biblical truth. But they are small ways that might result in a person taking one step closer to Jesus or that might lead eventually to a discipleship relationship. Listen and be intentional. There are lots of resources on mentoring. Another resource I would recommend to you older gentlemen is a new book out called, “The Gun Lap: Staying in the Race with Purpose” by Robert Wolegemuth. It’s about finishing well, for indeed, we are not done until God calls us home. May you be those who ever strive to pass on the faith.
Mary Ellen found this poem this morning by Leonard Wagner, which I think is a perfect way to sum up:
THE WORLD NEEDS MEN
...who cannot be bought;
...whose word is their bond;
...who put character above wealth;
...who are larger than their vocations;
...who do not hesitate to take chances;
...who will not lose their identity in a crowd;
...who will be as honest in small things as in great things;
...who will make no compromise with wrong;
...whose ambitions are not confined to their own selfish desires;
...who will not say they do it "because everybody else does it;"
...who are true to their friends through good report, in adversity as well as in
prosperity;
...who do not believe that shrewdness and cunning are the best qualities for
winning success;
...who are not ashamed to stand for the truth when it is unpopular;
...who can say "no" with emphasisis, although the rest of the world say "yes."
God, make me this kind of man.
May the Lord make You such men as well.
Sunday, June 13, 2021
Sunday, June 6, 2021
God is One; Deuteronomy 6:4-9, Mark 12:28-34
Last week, on Trinity Sunday, we emphasized that God is Three in One. We saw that we cannot rename the members of the Trinity based on function because the functions overlap. God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Over the next several weeks, we will flush out this relationship. Though we don’t understand it, we saw that it has great implications for us. In Romans 8 we see that Father, Son, and Holy Spirit all work together to accomplish the fullness of our redemption and salvation, and even the redemption of the created world. Today as we begin our series on the Nicene Creed, our emphasis is that God is One in Three. The Nicene Creed begins, “We believe in One God.” God is One. We do not worship 3 gods. I don’t if it is easier to think of God as One in Three or Three in One. It’s just not something our minds can fully grasp, but we see it again and again in Scripture.
Our Old Testament reading is known as the Shema, which is the first word of this verse in Hebrew. It is the command form of the verb to hear with the implications that what you hear, you take seriously to obey and live it out. It tells us that Yahweh our God is One. We are given God’s name. Last week, we saw that Name applies to both the Father and the Son. Jesus also said that more than once when He declared, “Before Abraham was, I AM”. The Jews who heard Jesus tried to stone Him because they knew He was using the Divine Name for Himself. Jesus also said in John 10, “I and the Father are One.” In II Corinthians 3:18, the Spirit is called Lord. “And we who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory are being transformed into His image with ever increasing glory which comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.” Although the New Testament word “Lord” doesn’t always correspond to the Old Testament Divine Name Yahweh, it seems to here. The two “Lords” in this verse are equal. Father, Son, and Spirit are One. We worship One God.
In our gospel reading, Jesus is being tested. Having been asked several questions by teachers of the Law, scribes, and Pharisees, Jesus is given one last test and is asked, “What is the Greatest Commandment?” He quotes the Shema and adds the second greatest commandment—to love your neighbor as yourself. This intrigues one of the scribes who is pleased with the answer. This scribe reiterates that God is One and there is no other God. No one is like God. He agrees with Jesus that loving God and loving neighbor is greater than all other commands combined, and sums them up. In return, Jesus is pleased with the man’s intelligent response and tells the scribe that he “is not far from the Kingdom of God.” Perhaps he is one of the scribes who later embraces Jesus as Lord and Christ. When you’ve summed up the Law, there is no reason to ask anything else. The Law of God is love. Jesus though continues to teach using the Psalm we alluded to last week to indicate that He is Lord. He is equal to Yahweh. He is One with God.
The Lord our God is One God. There is only one God. Our God is not one option among many. There are many spiritual beings but only One is God. None of the others would exist without Yahweh. Nothing can exist without our God. Our God is the God of everyone, whether or not they acknowledge God. Many choose lesser gods or false gods. But there is only one true God. The truth of who God is demands a response. We are told to teach it to our children and grandchildren. We are told to remember it and repeat it.
Like last week, even though we might not understand the doctrine of the Trinity, it has huge implications for us. God as Three in One works for our benefit to bring us into relationship with God. The fact that God is One in Three demands a response from us. The revelation that God is One is tied to a command. In fact, we heard Jesus call it the greatest commandment—“And you shall love Yahweh your God with all of your heart, and with all of your soul, and with all of your mind, and with all of your strength.” So how much do you love God? Do you love the Lord with all of your strength? Strength refers to physical ability. All the various things we do with our physical bodies represent all of our strength. You might think, “I’m not that strong. At least not any more.” Even though you may not be able to physically do the things you used to be able to do what are you doing with your body? Are you using your body in such a way that you can say, “I’m loving God with all of my strength?” Love the Lord your God with all of your mind. This refers to your thoughts. Do you love God with ALL of your mind? With what are you filling your mind? If you want to work on loving God with all of your mind is to practice Philippians 4:8 “Finally brothers and sisters, whatever things are true, whatever things noble, just, pure, lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue or any praise, think on these things.” Do you love the Lord your God with all of your heart? In the time when the Shema was first spoken, to love the Lord your God with all of your heart was a matter of the will. Is all your will aligned with the purpose and intent of loving God? By the time Jesus reiterated these words, the heart was beginning to take on the connotation of the seat of the emotions. I think Jesus intended it to mean both. What we love with our heart we talk about. What we love we spend our time and resources on. What we love with our will we invest in. What are you passionate about? Are you passionate about Jesus? And you shall love the Lord your God with all of your soul. Your soul is what makes you you, the core of your being. Are you marked with love for God? Can someone look at you and say, “There’s a person who loves Jesus?” That is what it looks like to love God with your soul. God wants 100% of all of you and everything you got. If you had to measure yourself on how much you love God, how would you do? Could you give yourself a 50% score? 80%? Do you love God with 100% of you heart, soul, strength, and mind?
Jesus tells us that the truth of who God is—the fact that the Lord our God is one also demands that we are to love other people as we love ourselves. James tells us we cannot love God if we do not love especially our brothers and sisters in Christ. Jesus calls us to love everyone, including our enemies, and that our love is a witness that we really do love God. Do you really love God?
Sunday, May 16, 2021
Monday, May 10, 2021
World Conquerors; I John 5:1-12
Caesar Augustus, Alexander the Great, Hannibal, Constantine, Napoleon, the Ottomans, the British Empire…Who comes to mind when you think of world conquerors? Our passage today says that “whatever is born of God conquers the world.” Overcomes can rightly be read as conquers. Verse 1 says “Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, is born of God.” If we are born of God, we are world conquerors. We aren’t world conquerors in the way the emperors were, but we can overcome the world. John tells us that it is our faith which enables us to be world conquerors. This morning we will see what it means to be a world conqueror and the faith it takes to be a world conqueror.
You might not think you have much faith, and you might not be feeling very victorious today, but lets look at what John defines as victorious faith by reviewing what he has already said in this letter. Basically there are just three things that we are called to believe.
1. John has said that to believe in Jesus is to declare that Christ has come in the flesh. In other words, it is to believe that Jesus is fully human .
2. He has also said that to believe is to say that Jesus is the Son of God and that He came from heaven. In other words, it is to believe that Jesus is fully God.
3. and it is to know and believe that Jesus has laid down His life for us. In other words, it is to accept the redeeming work that Jesus has done on our behalf.
So the faith that overcomes the world says Jesus is fully human, fully God, and has redeemed me by dying for me. The first two statements make the third possible. Only one who is fully human and fully God could fulfill the law and atone for our sins. To believe this is to be born of God, and we are world conquerors because the One who has overcome the world, Jesus Christ, lives in us. Our faith brings us victory, because Jesus is Victor. Are you still having a hard time believing? Paul says that even this faith is given to us by God. And John says that there are witnesses that testify to the truth of these 3 foundational beliefs.
These witnesses are the water, the blood, and the Spirit. There is a lot of discussion about what these witnesses mean, but the point is that the water, the blood, and the Spirit testify to who Jesus is in regard to those 3 point of faith just mentioned. Let’s look at the options:
1. The water and the blood of Jesus’s birth testify to Jesus being fully human. This was true incarnation, not just a spiritual birth as some tried to say. Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. Jesus is fully God and fully human.
2. Jesus was baptized in water and His blood was shed at the cross—these testify to Jesus’s redeeming work. He was set apart at baptism to be Messiah and accomplished His work on the cross. The Holy Spirit rested upon Him at baptism, and just as He died, Jesus cried, “Into Your hands I commit my Spirit.” God spoke at Jesus’s baptism saying, “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well-pleased.” The centurion testified at Jesus’s death saying, “Surely this was the Son of God.”
3. When he was speared, blood and water flowed out of His side—again this is testimony to Jesus’s humanity—He really died, and His Redeeming work.
Finally, we have the sacraments, which are a testimony to us. In the OT people who wanted to worship had to be sanctified in order to enter the tabernacle. They had to be ceremonially washed with from the bronze laver that contained water mixed with the ashes of a red heifer. These washings took away ceremonial uncleanness—not their sin, but from anything that made the worshippers ritually impure. It made them holy. Next the worshippers brought sacrificial animals, which the priests would kill and offer the blood for the cleansing of the sin of the people. It was through the blood that their sins were taken away. This is justification. In Jesus, we have both sanctification and justification.
We have sacraments of water and blood. The waters of baptism reminds us of Jesus’s baptism and are a sign of our sanctification. We don’t need to undergo more than just this one washing to be purified, because Christ has made us pure once and for all. Baptism reminds us that we have been cleansed and made holy by Christ, set aside for His purposes. We remember the blood shed for the forgiveness of our sins when we participate in the Lord’s Supper. The sacraments remind us of the times that water and blood testified to the person and work of Jesus Christ and they testify to us that we are children of God. Finally, Christ has given us the Holy Spirit, who reassures our hearts that we are God’s. In a couple of weeks we will be celebrating Pentecost Sunday, remembering when Jesus sent the Holy Spirit and birthed the Church. The Spirit is truth and will guide us into all truth. The water cleanses us, the blood atones for us, and the Spirit gives us life. This is the ongoing work of Christ.
More than human testimony, God testifies to the person and work of Jesus Christ both externally by proving the words written in Scripture to be true and within our own hearts. Our eternal life testifies that we have the Son of God. With all of these witnesses, it is foolish not to believe. In fact, to deny that Jesus’s humanity, divinity, and redemptive work is to make God a liar and to forego eternal life.
What does it mean that we have victory that conquers the world? We have the ability through faith to successfully endure whatever the world throws our way. We can stand against sin. We can overcome temptation. We can live differently that worldly systems tempt us to follow. We can overcome evil with love. Last week we heard just how powerful love is. It has the power to radically change lives because it is God at work. Love is the most powerful thing in the universe for it is outside the universe. Love is not something that is created; Love is God Himself. As overcomers, we have Love in us. We have Christ in us. In Christ we have that which is superior to the world. In Christ, we have the One who has defeated the world. Remember that John starts this whole thing off by saying that God’s commandments are not burdensome, for whatever is born of God conquers the world. John has repeatedly told us in this letter that God’s commands are to love God and to love each other. To love God is based in faith in the person and work of Jesus Christ, apart from whom it is impossible to keep God’s commandment of loving each other. Love is the Victor for God is love. Love is never in vain, even when it may seem to be based on the circumstances around us. That is why faith is the victory. Faith keeps us going when our senses tell us that we are losers, not conquerors, and the Holy Spirit inside us reassures us in truth that we know that we know that we know that Jesus Christ has redeemed us and that we are God’s children and that we have eternal life. Nothing in this world can take away our eternal life. If you do not have Jesus, you do not have eternal life. Put your faith in Jesus and be a world conqueror.
Monday, May 3, 2021
Friday, April 23, 2021
Monday, March 29, 2021
Hosanna! Save Us, Lord; Psalm 118, Mark 11:1-11
Hosanna! This is the word we shout on Palm Sunday, but do we really think about what it means. “Save us, Lord”. Today’s Psalm 118 is a thanksgiving psalm which was normally used for processionals during the Feast of Tabernacles, and it was also often recited at the end of Passover. But this crowd was apparently singing or shouting or chanting parts of it here, just BEFORE Passover in honor of Jesus’s triumphal procession. As Jesus enters Jerusalem, his disciples and part of the crowd recite Psalm 118:25 and 26. “Save us, Lord! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.” These verses are emphatic. “We beseech thee, Lord, save us, we pray you.” It’s a begging for salvation, and yet there is joy in this psalm and with the crowds who welcomed Jesus. Hosanna is a cry for the Messiah, and joyful because at last He has come.
But did they know what they were saying? “Save us, Lord, we beg you.” They wanted salvation from their enemies. Normally this was thought of as political enemies, invaders, social oppressors, and they even recognized the enemy of death. In the Psalm, the original author speaks of being surrounded by the nations, and that it was like being surrounded by bees. And then giving thanks for being delivered from that and being delivered from death. And although Jesus did come to bring deliverance and justice, He came to save us from death in a way that we could never imagine or expect, just like this crowd. Who or what is your enemy? Too often, we perceive people who are different from us as our enemies. But Scripture tells us that our enemy is not flesh and blood, but principalities, and powers, and spiritual wickedness in the heavenlies. Ideologies can be enemies. Bad ideas can be enemies. But we have to be very careful when it comes to demonizing people. Jesus came to deliver us from these spiritual enemies. Jesus also came to deliver us from death.
And Jesus also came to save us from the enemy within, our own sinful nature. Sometimes the darkness resides in our hearts. There was a radio show out of Canada which I used to listen to quire frequently called the Drew Marshall Show. Drew interviewed all kinds of people, many who had gone through all kinds of pain or difficulties in their lives. Frequently Drew would ask toward the end of the interview, “Who has hurt you the most?” Frequently the answer is “Myself.” As much as we want to blame, after all this is our inherited nature from Adam and Eve, who very quickly learned the blame game, aren’t we our own worst enemies? Jesus knew this, for Jesus was there from the beginning.
The crowds shouted, “Blessed is He who comes in the Name of the Lord.” And Jesus certainly came in the name of the Lord. He carried the Name Yahweh and was killed for it, when He should have been blessed and recognized as the promised Messiah. The religious leaders used the very charge of blasphemy, that Jesus equated Himself with God, as their excuse to exercise the death penalty against Him. And over and over Jesus said, “I don’t come in my own name, but in the name of My Father. I do what My Father tells me.” Jesus never did anything on His own authority but only did the will of the Father. Jesus said the Messiah had to come in the name of the Lord, and that’s exactly what the Old Testament taught. He rebukes in fact the religious leaders for initially accepting a false Messiah who came in his own name. In John 5:39-44, after telling the Jews that He came only to do the will of the Father, Jesus said, "You search the Scriptures because in them, you think you have eternal life, but I tell you that these bear witness of Me." Jesus is on every page of Scripture. He is the fulfillment. He is the Messiah. It is Jesus that gives eternal life. It can be found nowhere else except in Him. He is the one who delivers us from death. He is the one who gives us abundant life. He is the Light given to us by God and He is the sacrifice that was bound to the altar for us. He is the one who gives us success. He is the One who Saves.
The first part of Psalm 118 is a call and response, and the latter part of Psalm 118 is written in the plural, saying, “Let’s do this.” But the middle part is very personal. It’s first person. And individuals in the crowd could chant that part and imagine all the kinds of things for which they needed a Savior. For the NT crowd it could include oppression from Rome, for example. But like the crowds, I think we are often unaware of just how great our need really is for a Savior. We forget how sinful we really are. We forget how helpless and out of control we really are. And rightly, every individual needs to acknowledge that help comes from the Lord, that the Lord alone is MY salvation, MY strength, and MY song. And certainly verses 17-18 of Psalm 118 apply to us, but they apply to us because of Jesus.
Though the crowds were shouting at least parts of this psalm, Jesus could have easily been praying this psalm in His own heart down and up that path because He knew what was coming. And He could already see the passion and the cross before Him. Jesus is the Savior who would be saved. He would be brought back from the dead. Jesus came to save us not as a conquering king but as a humble servant. He saved us through suffering and dying and rising. And like the Psalmist, He could say, “I will look upon those who hate me.” Jesus would see His enemies again because He would rise from the dead. But at the same time, Jesus died to save His enemies. So Jesus’s triumph is not a “Ha, Ha in your face” kind of triumph, but “look at what I’m offering you.” He offers life, grace, mercy, forgiveness, restoration, relationship. He too could say, “I will not die, but I will live and declare the works of the Lord.” St. Augustine pointed out that just as bees make honey in the hives, our Lord’s persecutors, unconscious though they were, rendered Him sweeter unto us by His very Passion, so that we might taste and see that the Lord is good. “The Lord has punished me severely, but He did not give me over to death.” Jesus understood the bittersweetness of His triumphal entry. He knew that He was opening the gates of righteousness for all who would follow Him, and yet He grieved the impending punishment that He was about to take upon Himself in order to open those gates. He was that sacrifice bound with cords.
Jesus was and is that building block that was rejected and has now become the chief cornerstone. This is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes. Although this verse about Jesus being the chief cornerstone is not placed in any of the 4 gospel accounts of the Triumphal Entry, this passage is quoted on 4 separate occasions in the NT and more than that if you count each gospel story as a separate one. Jesus used it to refer to Himself after He told the parable of the man who owned a vineyard and hired it out…This parable is recorded in each of the synoptic gospels. In addition, Peter uses it in his defense to the Sadducees and the high priests in Acts 4 and in I Peter 2:7, and Paul references it in Eph. 2:20. It is marvelous in our eyes, because it is not what we expect, and yet it is glorious. Jesus is the exalted Messiah. Jesus is our Savior.
Hosanna! Is it the cry of your heart? Do you acknowledge your need for a Savior? Do you shout it with desperation? Jesus hears! Do you shout it with joy because you know that Jesus is your Savior? From what have you been saved? Rejoice! This is the day that the Lord has made! The gate of righteousness is open for you! Give thanks to the Lord for He is good. His steadfast love endures forever. The Savior Messiah has come.
Wednesday, March 24, 2021
Sunday, March 14, 2021
Love That Satifies; Numbers 21:4-9, John 3:11-21
To listen, click here.
Here is a link to the song mentioned at the end of the sermon: Worthy of My All by Andrew Brunson
Wednesday, March 3, 2021
Wednesday, February 10, 2021
Monday, January 25, 2021
Jesus--Our Link from Earth to Heaven; Genesis 28:10-17, John 1:43-51
Jesus fulfills all OT Scripture.
To listen, click here:
Tuesday, January 12, 2021
Sunday, January 3, 2021
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