Times of Refreshing; Acts 3:11-26

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The Benefits of Christ's Sacrifice; Hebrews 9:11-22, Titus 3:4-7

 

On this second Sunday of Easter, we celebrate that Christ, though His death and resurrection has secured our redemption.  Jesus fulfilled the requirements of the new covenant, a covenant not of dead works, but of love and grace, a covenant which the Holy Spirit applies to us.

            If you remember, a covenant was a binding agreement that if broken, required the death of the party who broke the covenant.  The “signing” of the covenant was done by the sacrifice of animals cut in half.  The parties agreeing to the covenant would walk through the carcasses to say, “May it be done to me if I break this covenant.”  When God made the covenant with Abraham, only God walked through the animal carcasses, showing that God alone would take on the death penalty for the broken covenant, a covenant which we broke time and time again.  In the Old Testament, God commanded Moses and Aaron to set up a sacrificial system.  This system was the way that the death penalty for the breaking of God’s commands was met.  Animal substitutes were used in place of people.  As animals were sacrificed, the people were made aware that it should be them who were killed, but even this was poor, since God already promised Abraham that God alone would take the death penalty for our sins.  We know that Christ instituted the new or renewed God’s covenant at the Last Supper.  He explicitly said that covenant would be sealed in His blood.  The concept of covenants cut in blood are gross to us, but how often do we consider that before God, we really deserve the death penalty?  For all the times it had been broken and would be broken again, Jesus paid the price.  He fulfilled the requirement of the covenant that God must die.  And because Jesus is also fully human, His blood covers us. We have taken a lot of the “blood hymns” out of modern hymnals, but sometimes we need to remember how precious it was that Jesus shed His blood for us and how powerful that blood is to wash us clean and secure our redemption.  Jesus fulfilled all the requirements of the covenant by His death and resurrection. 

            Our Hebrews passage tells that Jesus acted as both High Priest and Sacrifice.  And not only is He High Priest, He is the perfect sinless High Priest.  Sacrifices already had to be without blemish or spot, but the High Priest first had to sacrifice for his own sins before he could offer sacrifices for the people.  Jesus is the once for all sacrifice.  Sacrifices no longer need to be repeated.  Hebrews 9:13 mentions “the ashes of a red heifer” that was used to sprinkle those who were defiled.  There are people who want to restart the sacrificial system.  Many of you are aware that there are plans to sacrifice a red heifer during Passover in a few weeks in Israel so that it can be burned and the ashes used to purify people and instruments to rebuild a temple.  God’s people are the last temple.  We are living stones.  Any Christian participating in this is doing the devil’s work, not the Lord’s work.  Jesus doesn’t need us to help Jewish zealots set up a sacrificial system.  Jesus needs us to help proclaim that He is the true and only Messiah and that the time to believe in Him is now!  If you haven’t picked up any of the information on the back table that the Jews for Jesus missionaries left, I would encourage you to do so.  They need our prayers as they witness to the truth of who Jesus is.  Jesus’s blood paid for our redemption.  That is, the debt we owed to God that we could not pay, Jesus paid it all and did so for everyone!  Jesus died to redeem the world, not just one people group, but all people.  His sacrifice is complete.  No others are ever needed again.  The Jews cannot be saved by reinstating temple sacrifices.  They can only be saved by the blood of Jesus, just as we are.  The people living in the most isolated places in the world can only be saved by the blood of Jesus.  Jesus fulfilled the Law so we don’t have to. 

With redemption comes forgiveness.  All of our sins are forgiven.  Both of our passages today tell us we are washed clean by the blood of Christ.  Our consciences have been made clear.  We don’t have to continually beat ourselves up for the wrong things we have done.  We simply need to confess what Jesus has already forgiven. When we lay our burdens at the feet of Jesus, we don’t need to pick them back up again.  We might be called to make amends to someone we have hurt, but that is living into the forgiveness which we have been given, which brings us to the next benefit that Jesus by His sacrifice has given us.

Not only did Jesus redeem us, He cleanses us from dead works.  We don’t have to try to earn salvation by merit.  We don’t have to worry that we have or haven’t done enough to gain eternal life and entrance into heaven.  Our Titus passage tells us that our works of righteousness don’t save us, but it is the mercy of God our Savior who saved us out of love for us.    However, it doesn’t mean we don’t do anything. The rest of Hebrews 11:14 says that Christ freed us from dead works “to serve the living God.”  We can serve God freely.  I think back to the story of the Prodigal Son.  The older brother kept working for his father, but he resented it.  He was trying to prove something to his father, his worthiness, not understanding that as a son, he didn’t need to prove anything.  He had access to all that the father wanted to give.  In fact, when the younger son asked for his share of the inheritance, the father divvied up the inheritance to both sons, of which the older brother would have gotten double.  Yet, he never accessed what was his.  He kept trying to earn it, and kept building more and more resentment.  God wants us to serve freely.  God did create good works for us to do.  God wants us to participate with God in God’s work.  In fact, we were saved for service; our salvation is not simply acquiring “fire insurance” so that we don’t go to hell.  At the same time we don’t have to do works to pay off debt.   We serve out of gratitude.  This also frees us from worrying about outcome.  When we serve God freely, the results are up to God.  Faithfulness is the measure of our success.  Do you know that the word “serve” and “worship” are the same word?  To worship God is to serve God and to serve God is to worship God. 

Eternal life of course is another benefit of Christ’s sacrifice.  This means that there will never be a time when we are separated from the presence of God.  It means that physical death is not the end for us.  We will live with God in a new heaven and earth where time does not exist.  We will live where there is no more death, pain, grief, fear, worry, or evil.  We will live where everyone not only gets along, but really and truly loves one another. 

Another benefit of Christ’s sacrifice is sanctification.  That is, we are made holy; we are made saints.  We have the capability to become more and more like Jesus, and when God looks at us, God already sees Jesus in us.  Sanctification means transformation.  We are being remade into the people that God always intended us to be.  It takes our cooperation.  As people of the Reformed tradition, we call this the “perseverance of the faith.”  We cooperate with the Holy Spirit. Because of Christ’s sacrifice, we have all the blessings that God has promised God’s people.  We joint-heirs with Jesus of all God’s good gifts.  We are made siblings of Christ, children of God by believing in Jesus.  We are Christ’s brothers and sisters as well as His bride. 

            Speaking of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit is the greatest blessing we have been given as a result of Christ’s sacrifice.  God gave us Himself through Jesus Christ, and then God gave us Himself again in the person of the Holy Spirit, who was sent to us by Christ.  Jesus is God with us—Immanuel.  The Holy Spirit is God in us.  The Holy Spirit gives us full access to all the benefits secured by Christ’s sacrifice.  Without the Holy Spirit, we would have no faith.  We would not be able to confess Christ.  It is the Holy Spirit who illumines our consciences, who convicts us of sin and opens us to our need of a Savior.  The Holy Spirit teaches us by helping us to understand God’s Word and applying it to our lives.  It is the Spirit who gives us the power to resist temptation, who enables us to keep God’s commands, who empowers us to do good works for the glory of God.  The Holy Spirit reveals the will of God to us.  The Holy Spirit is eternal life—the Fountian of Living Water welling up within us. 

            The sacrifice of Jesus is everything.  In Him we have redemption--we have no debt to God.  We have forgiveness. We don't have to earn salvation through good works, rather we are free to worship and serve God by doing good works for God's glory, leaving the results to God.  We are made saints.  We have eternal life.  We have the Holy Spirit.  We are never alone.  Jesus has bought our salvation through His precious blood!  Amen!  

Our Living Hope; John 20:1-18, I Corinthians 15:1-20, II Corinthians 4:6-10

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The Second Adam; Genesis 3:14-19, I Corinthians 15:21-26, 45-49. John 19:1-16, Galatians 3:13-16

 One of the sufferings of Jesus on this Holy night is the crown of thorns being placed on His head.  Obviously, the Roman soldiers doing this are continuing the mockery started by the Temple soldiers and at Herod’s palace of Jesus being the King of the Jews.  Jesus didn’t say He was the King of the Jews.  He said He was a King and that His kingdom is not of this world.  But this crown holds much more significance than mocking Jesus’s kingship.  It’s no accident that thorns were used.  The soldiers meant it as another way to inflict pain and humiliation, but for Jesus and for us, it means much more.  Jesus’s crown of thorns was a physical symbol of an incredible spiritual reality—His taking on the curse of man for us.  And yes, I’m using “man” specifically.  Jesus becomes the second Adam. 

            Only Jesus, as a man, could take away the curse that was pronounced on the first man, Adam.  It is a curse that affects us women too, but it was a curse pronounced on the man.  We read from Genesis 3 this evening.  God confronts Adam, Eve, and the serpent in the Garden of Eden after they have broken God’s one command not to eat of the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.  The first curse is pronounced on the serpent, who would now slither in the dust and have enmity with the woman “and with your seed and her seed.”  But part of the serpent’s curse is the first great promise of a Redeemer.  “He shall bruise or crush your head, and you shall bruise Him on the heel.”  There has only been one “seed of a woman.”  That is Jesus Christ, Son of Mary.”  Satan bruised the heel of Jesus in His sufferings, trying to prevent Jesus from going to the cross.  Because the death of Jesus, instead of being a victory for the devil, was the sign of Satan’s sure defeat; for in His death, Jesus paid the atonement price for all humanity.  And by rising from the dead, the serpent’s head was crushed.  We know the end of the story that one day, the devil and his angels will be cast into the lake of fire.  The first part of the curse was being broken, just as God promised to Eve’s consolation and the serpent’s chagrin.

            But it is the 3^rd curse being broken symbolized by the crown of thorns.  It is the ground that is cursed because of Adam.  Instead of growing everything needed easily, the ground would now produce “thorns and thistles” and have to be cultivated with effort.  Jesus allows the thorns to be placed on His head, showing that He is taking all of the curse, for the ground as well as the ultimate curse of death!  We sing about this in the hymn, “Joy to the World!” –“No more let sin and sorrow grow, nor thorns infest the ground.  He comes to make His blessings flow, far as the curse is found.”  Christ’s reign undoes the curse wherever it is found.  Most women still experience pain in childbirth, farmers work hard even with modern technology, and it’s becoming even more of a challenge these days.  We still have to deal with thorns and thistles!  The thistles especially are growing rapidly right now, and we still die.  Romans 8 tells us all creation is groaning for the Day of Redemption, but our hope is sure!  As sure as Christ rose from the dead, He is returning to complete the reversal of the curse. 

            But even now, we see the curse being undone.  Our I Corinthians passage tells us what it means for Christ to be the last Adam.  Because of Adam’s disobedience, we all die, but in Christ, all will be made alive.  We will all be resurrected.  Verse 23 tells us Christ was the firstfruits—He rose on that Feast, and after that, those who are Christ’s will be raised at His coming.  And if we read Revelation, those who are not in Christ will be raised after that.  Then those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life will get to live with Him forever in the new heaven and new earth, and those who are not will go into eternal destruction.  And then there will be no more death!  Jesus, the second Adam, the last Adam is a “life-giving spirit.”  Paul exhorts us in I Corinthians 12:49, that even now, we, as new creations in Him, are called to bear the image of the heavenly even while still bearing the earthly image. 

            When I was at Antioch Presbyterian Church, I was doing a lot of elder training in preparation for their departure to the EPC, which uses the Westminster Confession of Faith and the Westminster Larger and Shorter Catechisms as its sole confessions, along with the Nicene and Apostle’s Creeds.  And those confessions hold more authority than our Book of Confessions.  We vow to be guided by our Confessions, but they vow to accept and abide by the Confessions, and any scruple must be defended, so it’s crucial to know this confession inside and out!  When we were going over the lesson on anthropology, the doctrine of humans in relationship to God, the concept of Jesus as the second Adam came up.  We of course, looked at this I Corinthians passage.  One of my elders said, “I have never heard Jesus called the Second Adam or Last Adam before.”  I replied, “Really?  We sing it every year at Christmas in “Hark, the Herald Angels Sing,” and proceeded to quote the verse you have printed at the end of tonight’s service.  They all looked at me strangely.  Sure enough, even though I had been pastoring that church for almost 4 years, their hymnal did not have that verse, so most of them had not grown up singing it.  Our hymnal doesn’t have it either.  And even though I’ve had this verse memorized since childhood, it’s not in a lot of newer hymnals, even 30-year-old hymnals!  And yet the theology is so rich!  Jesus is the woman’s Conquering Seed, whom we implore to crush the serpent’s head in us.  Yes, we still fall prey to the devil’s wiles and temptations, and we need to ask Jesus to break the power of the curse in us, to free us from patterns of sin.  Erase in us the “old man” as Paul exhorts us in Ephesians 4:and instead, mark us with Yourself, Jesus, so that we look like you.  Second Adam from above, in Your love, put us back into your good graces!  Make us Your children. 

            The crown of thorns points to the day when all things will be rightly ordered once again.  We will dwell in a new heavens and new earth without plants that will cause us harm.  Tending the earth will be a joy.  Jesus will have many crowns, diadems we give Him, and none of them will be made out of thorns.  Jesus wore the crown of our curse, taking the curse of Adam upon Himself.  Jesus broke the generational curse of death to give us life.  He wore the thorny crown for us!

The following was added at the very end of the service just before reading the Galatians 3 text and was followed by the singing of verse 4 of "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing".

Friends, it is Good Friday.  Jesus has been crucified, and He rests in the tomb.  But it is Good Friday.  His death and suffering were not in vain.  Everything He went through, every injustice, every type of suffering, has deep meaning and significance.  Nothing was by chance or is incidental to the story.  Jesus had to fulfill all things, all Scripture, to take all of God’s wrath for us.  The work He accomplished was Good!  And It is Finished!  We have one more Scripture telling us what it means that Christ took the curse of Adam on our behalf.  And then we will sing that 4^th verse of Hark, the Herald Angels Sing.  As we contemplate Christ’s death tomorrow on Holy Saturday, may we do so with reverence and thanksgiving, so that we can fully celebrate with great joy on Resurrection Sunday.  Here these words from Galatians….

A House of Prayer for All People; Isaiah 56:1-8, Luke 19:29-48, Colossians 3:11-16

 

Several years ago, Ned gave a good Palm Sunday Sermon about Jesus’s casting out the money changers and His critique of making God’s house a robber’s den.  Ned rightly pointed out that all this money changing and selling of animals took place in the Court of the Gentiles, and this was the reason that Jesus was so angry.  I want to elaborate on this truth this morning, and for this, we have to start in the Old Testament.

            When the Israelites came out of Egypt, God gave Moses very specific, detailed plans for setting up a worship space.  It was the Tabernacle.  It was to be set up in the very center of the camp, and all the tents of the people were to be set up around it in a very specific order.  We see these instructions in Exodus 25-31.  The Tabernacle had 3 main parts:  an outer court, the Tent of Meeting, and the Holy of Holies within the Tent of Meeting.  No one could enter the Tent of Meeting except for the priests.  No one could enter the Holy of Holies except the High Priest once a year, but the outer court was open to all worshippers of Yahweh with certain conditions.  You had to be repentant and ritually pure.  If you were a male, you had to be circumcised. Women were allowed in the outer court.  Even foreigners were allowed in the outer court to worship if they had been baptized and circumcised.  Everyone worshipped together.  The outer court was where you brought your sacrifices and offerings.  There were a few exceptions of people who were permanently excluded from worship in the outer court, however, even if they were sincerely repentant and wanted to worship.  They had to have others offer their gifts for them.  We find this list of people in Deuteronomy 23:1-8.  And yet, there are exceptions to this.  Ruth was a Moabite.  She lived among the Israelites and married an Israelite man.  She probably worshipped in the tabernacle with him.  By the time Solomon was born, David and Bathsheba were legitimately married.  Their firstborn died just a few days after his birth, but even so, Solomon might still be considered illegitimate by some.  But he not only worshipped in the temple, he oversaw the building of the temple!  This shows that God sometimes changes the rules. 

            Our Isaiah passage shows us that it was God’s plan to open up worship.  In this oracle, Yahweh says, “Let not the foreigner who has joined Himself to the Lord say, ‘Yahweh will surely separate me from His people.’”  Here God shows breaks down the barrier of nationality and ethnicity altogether.  It doesn’t matter which nation you are from, what your ethnicity is as long as you have placed your trust in Yahweh. Yahweh goes on to say, “To the eunuchs who keep My sabbaths and choose what pleases Me, and hold fast My covenant, to them I will give in My house and within My walls a memorial, and a name better than that of sons and daughter.  I will give them an everlasting name which will not be cut off.”  Oh, what wonderful promises!  God welcomes them into God’s eternal family.  We see this with the Ethiopian eunuch in Acts 8.  No follower of Yahweh is to be excluded from fellowship and worship.  God ends this oracle promising that God will continue to gather together not just the dispersed of Israel, but others with them. 

            Yet, by the time we get to Herod’s temple, instead of being one people worshipping together, there was far more separation than during the time of the Tabernacle.  Now there is a court of Gentiles surrounded by walls, and they could go no further.  Then there was the court of women, but only Jewish women.  It was also surrounded by walls, and they could go no further.  Then there was the court of Jewish men—no Gentile converts allowed!  And then there was the priests’ court, the temple itself and the Holy of Holies.  The outer was the closest Gentiles could get.  They couldn’t see their sacrifices being offered.  They couldn’t even give their own tithes as the money boxes were located in the court of women.  They couldn’t fully participate in worship.  With all the ruckus taking place in the court of Gentiles, there was no quiet, reverent place to pray. Jesus rides into Jerusalem, takes a look around in the temple on Sunday evening.  While others are impressed with the size, scope, architecture and beauty of the Temple, Jesus isn’t impressed, and has some plans for the next day.

On what we call Holy Monday, Jesus returns to the temple, tosses the tables and drives out the animals and traders from the court of the Gentiles.  Then Jesus spends most of HIs week preaching and teaching in the court of the Gentiles near the entrance to the court of women.  Here anyone could stop and listen to Him if they wanted.  His message was and is for everyone.  By His presence, Jesus shows that He is not a fan of walls that divide people who love God and want to serve God.  Holiness and purity still matter; there is still “worship” that is unacceptable to God.  But how one is born does not in any way exclude any one from worship or from being able to be part of God’s family. 

God’s dream that all the Lord’s people would be united together in prayer as one people was not being realized, but Jesus came to make that happen.  When He died, the veil of the Temple was torn in two.  Not only did that expose the sham worship the high priests had been offering for centuries, because there was no Ark of the Covenant present, but now, not only were the priests no longer separated from the presence of God, but God was showing that no one need be separated from His presence any longer.  It took awhile for the early church to realize this.  The leaders in Jerusalem had to hear from Peter about his experience with Cornelius and Paul and Barnabas about their travels before they determined that, yes, the Gentiles are welcomed into the family of God with few restrictions—those being don’t eat meat which has been sacrificed to idols, don’t eat blood or animals that have been strangled, and from sexual immorality.  Even Paul will talk about whether or not it’s okay to eat meat sacrificed to idols later on.  His comments have to do with company and with intent as to whether or not it’s right or wrong.  When James, leader of the Church in Jerusalem, makes his pronouncement that the Gentiles should be welcomed into the family of faith, he quotes another Old Testament prophet, Amos 9:11-12, another oracle of Yahweh, who said, “In that day, I will raise up the fallen tabernacle of David, and wall up its breaches.  I will also raise up its ruins and rebuild it as in the days of old; that they may possess the remnant of Edom and all the Gentiles who are called by My name.”  God isn’t talking about a literal rebuilding of the temple, and the Jerusalem council knew this.  In his first letter, Peter writes, “You also, as living stones, are being built up into a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” 

Jesus came so that God’s plan for all of God’s people to worship together as equals, as one family, as one holy temple could come to pass.  Paul tells us in our Colossians passage what that should look like.  We need to be compassionate and kind to one another.  We need to be humble and gentle and patient with one another.  We need to bear with one another and to forgive one another, and let the peace of Christ rule in our hearts.  Our worship should include sharing God’s Word with one another, letting it live in and through us.  We should use God’s word to encourage one another in songs and glorify God in all ways.  God wants His temple to be a house of prayer for all people.  Sadly, like the people in the past, we continue to be divided.  Denominations keep multiplying by the day.  Most churches remain largely segregated.  How do we live in unity?  I’m not convinced that we all have to become Catholic or Orthodox and get rid of our distinctive Christian traditions and practices.  We serve a big God.  I think the different ways we worship add to the richness of what it means to be Christian.  I don’t think any of us have perfect theology.  I think we need to learn from one another, appreciate one another, and acknowledge that despite these differences, we are still one in Christ.  I think we need to rejoice with other congregations and mourn with them.  I think we need to work together in shared ministry to reach our community and world for the Kingdom of God.  I don’t think every congregation is for every person, but I believe that there is a place in the capital C Church for every person.  I believe as the Creed says, in “one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church.”  But all this doesn’t let individual congregations off the hook.  It doesn’t let us off the hook.  We need to examine ourselves and ask--Whom are we excluding?  Is it intentional or unintentional?  Are there ways we can be more welcoming to those whom God might want to join us?  Are we harboring racism, sexism, classicism?  Are there walls keeping people out that need to be torn down?  How is our relationship with our sister congregations?  Is there more we could do to partner with one another?  Are we jealous of the congregations that are growing?  Do we notice and mourn the congregations that have closed? 

Don't Cry for Me; Luke 23:26-31, Revelation 6:12-17

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Injustice System; Luke 22:66-23:25

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