Tag: Sermons

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Sermon: Welcome to Grace

I’ve noticed that few Evangelicals really understand grace. This sermon, I hope, helps us to receive it — and, just as importantly, practice it. — JA

Welcome to Grace

Scripture reading: Psalm 119:33-40.
Sermon text: Matthew 5:38-48.

The command Be ye perfect is not idealistic gas. Nor is it a command to do the impossible. He is going to make us into creatures that can obey that command. He said (in the Bible) that we were “gods” and He is going to make good His words. If we let Him — for we can prevent Him, if we choose — He will make the feeblest and filthiest of us into a god or goddess, a dazzling, radiant, immortal creature, pulsating all through with such energy and joy and wisdom and love as we cannot not imagine, a bright stainless mirror which reflects back on God perfectly (though, of course, on a smaller scale) His own boundless power and delight and goodness. The process will be long and in parts very painful, but that is what we are in for. Nothing less. He meant what He said. — C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, IV.ix

We all have our favorite passages of Scripture. We love reading where Jesus tells us, “Let not your hearts be troubled” (John 14:1), “I with you always” (Matthew 28:20), or (probably our favorite) “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). We love these passages because they give us hope and comfort.

Then, we encounter the other passages, those we had rather avoid. Even the most devout believers will occasionally read something that convicts them and challenges them to do something they had rather not.

Today’s passage covers a set of verses most of us don’t want to hear. Few of us want to hear Jesus say, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,” and I’ve heard more explanations for “be perfect” than I can count. Interestingly, almost every explanation I’ve heard of this passage — except for the explanation in the C.S. Lewis quote above — tries in some way to say, “Jesus didn’t really mean it.”

We’ll get to that passage soon enough. However, we need to realize that Jesus’ words today give us far more hope than any of the comforting passages I’ve already mentioned. Christian, I have great news for you: One day, you’ll become the perfect image of God He created you to become —

And you will owe it all to grace.

Jesus opened this section of the Sermon on the Mount with a reminder of Moses’ teachings regarding justice. “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’” Most of us today have heard this saying, usually when uttered by someone praying (or hoping) for God to put holy smite on someone who just wronged them in some way. I don’t know that I’ve ever heard anyone use this phrase in a rational moment; it usually appears in the heat of the moment and at a decibel level approaching that of a jet engine.

We think of this kind of justice — often known by its Latin rendition, lex talionis — as cruel. Why should someone want to render exact payment like this in a justice system? It helps to know the history behind this version of justice.

In the ancient Mesopotamian world of tribes and clans, before the state assumed the role of arbiter in crimes, at least one member of every family served as the “blood avenger” who enforced the peace between families. If someone murdered or wronged a family member, everyone expected the blood avenger to avenge the murder or injustice. Lex talionis prevented the blood avengers from exceeding the bounds and inflicting more punishment than necessary to avenge the crime.

Jesus began with the Mosaic injunction of lex talionis and then redefined the law to describe God’s ideal: “Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles.” What did Jesus mean?

We must understand that Jesus did not refer to a judicial system. Instead, we must remember “we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:12). If our true enemy does not exist physically, then we cannot treat other humans with disrespect; we cannot wish vengeance on others if we love them as ourselves. Even as we work to end injustice, we must do so without descending into vengeance.

This leads us to Jesus’ more difficult teaching: “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’”

“Wait,” you say; “I can do this!” Of course we can. We love to love those who already love us. Anyone can hate his enemy, the one that despises you and seeks your harm. I can always manufacture “warm fuzzies” for those I love, and I don’t have to work at all to viscerally hate my enemy.

Then, Jesus gave His interpretation. “But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.”

That hurts. It turns out Jesus expects us to love our enemies as much as we love our neighbors. It seems Jesus really means this “love” thing.

I don’t know if I can do this; in fact, I don’t think I can do it on my own. I have no problem loving those who love me, but to love those who hate me? Why did Jesus say I must love those who work to cause harm to me?

Jesus said this because He did it; He lived as He expects us to live. Jesus lived among sinful humanity, in spite of our hatred and rebellion. Jesus loved even those who killed Him. Jesus never met an enemy He didn’t love, and we had best thank God for that love; that love led Jesus to die for our sins and rise again for our salvation.

In short, welcome to grace.

By grace, Jesus died to save us. By grace, “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). We had rebelled against God, but Christ died for us anyway. By grace, He calls us to believe in Him as the Holy Spirit draws us to the cross for salvation.

In Jesus’ teachings, we see how He wishes us to treat one another. God knows the injustices we inflict on one another, but He still loves each human, so much so that He offers grace to us instead of condemnation and judgment. Because God has loved us, we come to love each other so much that we do not insist on our own rights, but we willingly forego our own rights for the good of others.

Do you see the implications? If we treat each injustice as an opportunity to minister to everyone around us — even our oppressors — we begin to open avenues to proclaim the gospel to those who mistreat us.

These teachings may sound incredibly difficult to us, but Jesus’ next words seem impossible: “You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

I’ve heard a lot of interpretations of this verse. Some people want to interpret the Greek word “teleios” as “mature” so it sounds more as if Jesus didn’t mean “perfect,” but given the rest of the sentence, this doesn’t work. We can’t see a holy God as merely “mature.” (The Message sounds even worse: “Grow up,” as if God ever displayed juvenile tendencies.) No, Jesus said “perfect,” and He meant it.

Only Jesus Himself ever lived a perfect life, and perfection didn’t save Him from death. Why would Jesus expect perfection if no one has ever attained it? I can see at least 2 reasons why Jesus would seem to do this to us.

First, let’s go back a few verses, to the sermon text from two weeks ago, where we find these words: “unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” The scribes and Pharisees had tried to reinterpret holiness to mean adherence to their traditions rather than adherence to the spirit of the Law. The zealous protecting of the Jewish Law by the Pharisees had degenerated into legalism, so much so that the Pharisees demanded obedience only to the letter of their laws.

Legalism never works, no matter what day it rears its head or what group expounds it. If you’re expecting God to owe you a favor because you keep someone’s set of laws, you’ll find yourself in deep trouble. None of us will ever attain salvation by obedience; we will attain it only by grace, by coming to Jesus for forgiveness of our sins and spiritual rebirth. “You must be born again,” Jesus said to one of the foremost Pharisees (John 3:7).

Secondly, and more importantly, I believe C.S. Lewis accurately described the salvation lifestyle in the passage I quoted earlier. God loves us, but holiness defines God’s nature and character. God cannot and will not tolerate sin. We serve a holy God. Out of love, God forgives us of our sins when we confess Jesus as Lord, believing in His resurrection (Romans 10:9); out of love, God then adopts us into His family (Romans 8:13-17).

Then, by grace, God begins perfecting us. As Lewis puts it in the same chapter of Mere Christianity:

“Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on: you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of — throwing a new wing here, putting on a extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were going to be made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself.”

Christian, I believe we can read this passage and instead of despairing at our imperfections, we find we can take comfort and hope from Jesus’ words. God will perfect all His children. No, we won’t like it; yes, we’ll experience pain in the process. We will, however, find the ultimate result worth everything we experience in this life.

In the meantime, we find we must live to a higher standard than the world’s. We must understand that our every action can help someone to immortal joy with our Creator. We must understand that when God said, “Love your neighbor,” He meant it, even if loving our neighbor brings us harm. We must work in this life to fight injustice. We must work now to spread the gospel so that everyone around us will one day, in a new creation, experience the perfection God has prepared for all of us. God has shown us grace, and He expects us to demonstrate grace to others on a daily basis.

Christian, I give you words of comfort: We live in grace. We live in hope. Through the grace of God, we have received forgiveness; through His grace, we can show grace to others. This week, live in grace in such a way that, when others ask why you love them, you can say: “Join me in grace.”

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Sermon: What Must I Do?

Scripture reading: Matthew 5:1-12.
Sermon text: Micah 6:1-8.

“Tell me what you want.”

Perhaps you’ve heard those words in an argument. Perhaps you’ve used those words in an argument. Few things can spark a conflict like ambiguity, especially when those arguing debate their expectations of one another. I’ve heard people say, usually in sheer exasperation, “Just tell me what you want.”

As strange as it may seem to us — or, perhaps not so strange — people have, on occasion, said the same thing to God. I’ve noticed that most people who want to know God’s expectations really want the bare minimum of His requirements. Human nature apparently drives us to demand in frustration the minimal expectations of God. We want to make Him happy with us, either to escape judgment or to keep Him satiated.

Let’s face it. Most of us, at some time or another, have demanded God to tell us His exact expectations so we can get Him to leave us alone.

In our more honest moments, we’ll all admit we’ve felt this way. We fear God’s judgment, so we want to make sure we don’t cross the line between happiness and fury. On the other hand, we often want to surrender to temptation to do something, so we want to know just how close to the line we can get without triggering punishment.

This mentality, unfortunately, dates back to the Garden of Eden. Even the chosen people of God, the Jews, demonstrated this mentality. Today’s sermon text both demonstrates humanity’s tendency toward sin and also God’s true expectations of us. I would love to tell you that we’ll find the exact line we can toe, but instead, God gives us freedom to live fully in His pleasure.

The prophet Micah began his ministry a few years before Isaiah in the eighth century B.C. He prophesied to the Southern Kingdom of Judah, as did Isaiah. While the king in Jerusalem mostly remained faithful to God, the people had wandered into idolatry and disobedience of the covenant of Moses. The book reads like a judicial indictment that culminates with today’s passage. In this passage, we clearly see the expectations of God for humanity.

The passage opens with the convening of a court: “Hear what the Lord says: Arise, plead your case,” the Lord said. The word for “plead” here literally means “to fight.” God would give Israel an opportunity to express their dissatisfaction with their God.

God called witnesses to this debate: “Plead your case before the mountains, and let the hills hear your voice. Hear, you mountains, the indictment of the Lord, and you enduring foundations of the earth, for the Lord has an indictment against his people, and he will contend with Israel.” Humans, with our short lifespan, would not qualify as witnesses. Only the mountains and hills, those features next to which humans appear as whispers, could serve as faithful jurors in this case.

God went straight to the point. “O my people, what have I done to you? How have I wearied you? Answer me!” God wanted to know what He had done to exasperate the Jews. How had He mistreated them to cause them to reject Him as their God?

God made a powerful argument that He deserved Israel’s worship. “For I brought you up from the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of slavery, and I sent before you Moses, Aaron, and Miriam.” When Israel needed to remember the care of God for His people, they could begin by remembering the Exodus. God had redeemed His people from the greatest superpower on earth at that time. No one would have believed the Egyptians would allow Israel to walk away from the burdens of slavery, but God had intervened to rescue His people and send them from Egypt to establish a nation. God had given “Moses, Aaron, and Miriam” to the people to lead them on the journey through the wilderness to the Promised Land.

God reminded them of an incident on the way to the Promised Land. “O my people, remember what Balak king of Moab devised, and what Balaam the son of Beor answered him.” You’ll find this story in Numbers chapters 22-24. Balak, king of Moab, had hired Balaam to curse Israel. Instead, God had used Balaam to bless the nation and prophesy of Israel’s greatness in the centuries to come.

Did this reminder of their history bring Israel to repent? Did this walk down “Memory Lane” cause the Jews to remember their love for God and turn back to Him in gratitude for His blessings and grace?

Unfortunately, the Jews persisted in their idolatry and greed. The Jews stubbornly insisted on living according to their interpretations of God’s law, in spite of the consequences. The Jews had no intention of returning to God and obeying the covenant; they decided to persist in their sins. Instead of repenting, the Jews insisted they had done nothing wrong. The fault, they declared, lay with God; He hadn’t told them what He expected of them. “With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before God on high?” they piously said. “What will please you? What do you want? Tell me what you want!” Did God want “burnt offerings” of “thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil?”

The Jews revealed the level of depravity they had reached with their next statement: “Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?”

Of all the idolatrous practices of the pagan Canaanites, nothing elicits more revulsion than child sacrifice. The Canaanite god Moloch required child sacrifice. In contrast, Moses had specifically forbidden child sacrifice (Deuteronomy 12:31). The sacrificial system required the Jews to sacrifice animals, but it prohibited child sacrifice.

An outburst like the one in Micah deserved a response, and God answered. “He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”

I know we say things in the heat of an argument that we wouldn’t ordinarily say. I’ll not deny my personal guilt. And yes, I’ve debated and argued with God. Anyone who reads the Psalms will find plenty of laments and outbursts as the psalmists try to goad God into acting for His people.

Still, this passage reminds us of something. We can raise our complaints to God, but we cannot make excuses to God.

God told Micah’s audience what He expected, and the same expectations apply to us. “Do justice.” We must act rightly with everyone we meet, and we must work to guarantee justice in our society.

“Love kindness.” God didn’t put a caveat on this command that limits kindness only to our fellow citizens, or to fellow Christians, or to people of our race or language. “Love kindness” applies to everyone God puts into our paths.

“Walk humbly with your God.” This command brings us back to Epiphany, the proclamation of Jesus in our lives.

Humans don’t like humility. I don’t like humility. The list of mortal sins begins with the original sin: Pride. Pride caused Adam and Eve to desire to “be like God, knowing good and evil” (Genesis 3:5). Pride caused Cain to kill Abel. You can trace every injustice, every crime, every genocide, every problem we face in our society to pride. Pride creates a rift between us and God, and only Jesus can heal the rift.

Jesus came into the world as a baby. You can’t find a more humbling and helpless way for the Son of God to enter humanity. Jesus never ruled a nation; He never wrote a book; He never sat on a throne.

Instead, Jesus walked humbly with God. He spent time in prayer with His Father. He spent time in the Scriptures. He spent time among other people, even those the religious elite considered the dregs of society. (Don’t worry; He spent time with the religious snots, too.) The longest set of His teachings in Scripture tells us what He expects of us, and you can summarize it with 3 commands: “Do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.”

Then, the only crown Jesus ever wore bloodied His scalp as the Romans rammed the crown of thorns on His head. He suffered the most humiliating death known to humanity as He hung naked and helpless on a cross. Like all people, Jesus had to submit to death.

The story doesn’t stop there! Jesus rose from the dead, conquering sin and death for us. Now, we can turn over our pride to Jesus, and He accepts us into a family of faith. We come to Jesus, confess Him as Lord, and believe in His resurrection (Romans 10:9).

Our walk with God begins with that confession. Jesus sends the Holy Spirit, God Himself, into our hearts so He can help us do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with God. The Holy Spirit directs us in life so we’ll meet people who need justice. The Holy Spirit directs us to people who need someone to show kindness. The Holy Spirit reminds us of our need to walk with God through worship, prayer, and fellowship with other believers.

I believe the Church must work to bring justice, kindness, and humility to our society. We cannot site idly by while others face injustice, regardless of their race or region. We must show kindness to others and serve them humbly. Only then will they see Jesus in us.

This week, I urge you to demonstrate the qualities of God in your life. Christian, I call on you to do justice for the oppressed and downtrodden. I call on you to love kindness and show kindness to all those you know and meet. I call on you to demonstrate humility to others. Serve God by serving those who need you so you’ll hear the words of Our Father Himself: “Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me” (Matthew 25:40).

Go forth, and serve God by serving others. Love God by loving others. Proclaim Jesus in your life that others will know what God expects of us.

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Sermon: “Now What?”

12 August 2012

Scripture reading: Ephesians 4:17-24.
Sermon text: Ephesians 4:25-32.

“Now what?”

I saw the latest Bourne movie on Friday night. Following a thrilling motorcycle chase that involved spectacular stunts and ended with a horrific crash, the hero and heroine sailed off into the South China Sea on an old boat. My daughter, who really likes neat endings, expressed her frustration: “Now what?” What happens to our intrepid couple? Do they survive? Do they marry? Do they stay under the radar of the government agency trying to destroy them? We won’t know until someone produces the next Bourne movie.

I’ve noticed that over the past few decades, many Christians haven’t answered this question any better than the writers of the Bourne movies. We’ve focused our attentions almost solely on the salvation of those around us to the point we conduct special services, host special events, even write special prayers for people to repeat after us, all in the hopes that others will be born again. I still remember reading about one poor soul who said he was saved 4 times while walking across the quad at his university because he repeated a sinner’s prayer with 4 different evangelism groups on his way to class.

Don’t misunderstand me: I see nothing wrong with evangelism. In fact, I encourage it. However, any focus can become an obsession, so much so that we forget the rest of the picture. Salvation involves more than spiritual freedom and deliverance from eternal condemnation. Salvation involves a lifestyle that, when properly lived, brings joy to the Christian and conviction to unbelievers. The joy experienced by believers should flow out of their lives into the lives of everyone around them, convicting them of their need for salvation and drawing them to the only place they’ll find it: The cross and empty tomb of Jesus, Our Lord.

Following his call for church unity around the gifts of God to the Church — those God has called to serve the saints — St. Paul shifted gears in his letter to the Ephesians. St. Paul began describing the lifestyle the Ephesian believers should demonstrate in their society. Some of the qualities we read here appear in other works of philosophy in the ancient Greek world. None of these qualities would have appeared totally foreign to the Ephesians. However, the ability to live by this lifestyle would come only by the empowerment of the Holy Spirit, whose presence in the Christian would shine through the characteristics we read in the Scripture reading and sermon text for today.

St. Paul began by telling the Ephesian believers, “You must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds.” Here, St. Paul adopted the term “Gentiles” to denote unbelievers. Ephesus boasted the world-famous temple of Artemis, the Greek goddess of the hunt and of fertility and childbirth. The Greeks and Romans in Ephesus would have worshiped an entire pantheon of deities, with each deity overseeing a specific area of life. According to St. Paul, “They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart.” The pagans remained separated from God because of their ignorance, but many of them refused the truth of Christ because of their hard hearts.

St. Paul continued by saying, “They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.” Almost every ancient civilization witnessed sexual immorality of some sort. Repeated exposure to immorality both lessens the inhibitions to participate and increases the temptation to participate. Every civilization has eventually had to confront the damage caused by immorality. Never forget the lesson of history: Immorality demands a heavy price.

St. Paul then reminded the Ephesians, “But that is not the way you learned Christ!” The Ephesians didn’t learn of God in immoral pagan temples; they learned of Him in the Jewish synagogues. Then, when St. Paul came to Ephesus, he first visited the city’s synagogue and preached Christ to the attendees there. After the synagogue threw out the Christians, St. Paul taught the believers in the hall of Tyrannous (Acts 19:9) for 2 years. Throughout the Roman world, Gentiles disgusted with the immorality of their pagan religions had found their way to the synagogues, drawn there by the righteous lifestyle of the Jews. St. Paul didn’t take these Gentile “God-fearers” back into immorality; he brought them farther away from it through a living relationship with a living Christ.

Instead, St. Paul said, the “truth is in Jesus,” who called Himself “the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6). As the truth of Jesus permeated their lives, the Holy Spirit would help them “to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires.” The Ephesian Gentiles had once lived in spiritual death, but St. Paul had already written that Christ had “made alive” all who believed in Him (Ephesians 2:4-7).

I believe St. Paul’s next words tell us plenty about how the Holy Spirit will transform us. He had already written to the Romans, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect” (Romans 12:2). Now, St. Paul told the Ephesians “to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.” Salvation does not instantly change us; rather, the Holy Spirit begins “making new” our minds.

Renewing our minds involves a new mindset, a new mentality. This involves a process of carefully selecting what we put into our minds. This also involves a conscious effort to use our minds to accomplish God’s plan for our lives. Many people seem to believe that the salvation lifestyle does not involve any mental preparation. God wants us to develop our minds for His glory. When we allow the Holy Spirit to guide our minds, He also guides us into “true righteousness and holiness.”

Believers will “put away falsehood.” Because we are “members one of another,” we will “speak the truth” with one another. The truth may sometimes hurt, but it will always strengthen us and guide us into righteousness.

The salvation lifestyle also helps us learn self control. “Be angry and do not sin,” St. Paul wrote; “do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil.” Few things bring shame on a person like a bad temper. No family wants a reputation as quick-tempered. Few things “give opportunity to the devil” like a temper tantrum. Few things give proof of the Holy Spirit’s transforming power like control of our anger.

St. Paul then turned to other practical issues in the Christian life. He told the thieves to “no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need.” Christians should perform “honest work” so we can help others. We should also encourage others to work for this purpose as well.

According to St. Paul, we must also prevent using “corrupting talk;” the words we speak should “build up” or encourage other people. The media today constantly spread words that belittle or discourage others; some people go through their entire lives without hearing an encouraging word. We should seek to build up other people with our words; every word we speak should remind others of their true worth before God, who created them in His image.

We must also “not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.” We should bring joy to the Holy Spirit. We bring joy to the Spirit by avoiding “bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander;” our words will bring joy to the Spirit. Also, we should “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.”

Can any of the actions we read here show Jesus’ work in us? I think of all the actions listed by St. Paul, forgiveness ranks as the action most needed in our world today. We will always face the temptation to resent those who harm us, but we must forgive them as Jesus forgave us on the cross. Jesus prayed, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:24). God, who is “rich in mercy” (Ephesians 2:4), has forgiven us of our sins and adopted us into His family (Romans 8:15). If our holy God can forgive us, we must forgive others.

This may sound like a lot of things for us to do; this sounds like a long “to do” list for Christians. I have great news for you! Jesus told His disciples the key to keeping all these actions: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:27-39). When we keep these commandments, we will naturally fulfill St. Paul’s instructions to the Ephesians.

To everyone who has asked the question “what now,” I have the answer: Love. Love, as Christ has loved us; love, and we will naturally speak wholesome words to one another. Love, and we will do honest work so we can provide for others. Love, and we will exercise self-control so we do not offend others. Love, and we will prepare our minds for the work of God in the world.

Love sent Christ to the cross and through death to a glorious resurrection. Love will bring us through the trials of this life to the eternal joys of a new heaven and new earth, a creation in which we’ll never have to wonder what comes next.

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Sermon for Good Friday: Behold Your King

Sermon text: John 19:1-37.

I’ve read sci-fi and BYTE Magazine author Jerry Pournelle for years, both as a science fiction buff and as a computer geek. Several years ago, someone started a discussion on Jerry Pournelle’s site regarding the question: Is it good for emperors to go into battle at the head of their armies? Someone pointed out that in the history of our Republic, only 2 of our presidents — George Washington and Dwight D. Eisenhower — have fought in battle, and both of them fought prior to their elections. We have never witnessed a U.S. president personally leading our forces in battle during a war.

This is a good thing, because the record of kings/presidents/ emperors in battle is not very good. Shakespeare wrote of several, but two of the most noteworthy both died: Macbeth and Richard III. There’s a good reason to keep your leaders away from a battle. Battles are deadly, and people in the front tend to get shot at first.

On the other hand, soldiers tend to fight harder for leaders willing to accept the same risks their troops face. In ancient Rome, rare was the emperor who didn’t come up the ranks of the army. Almost no emperor could rule without the title Ave Imperator, which designated someone as worthy to lead the armies of Rome. I think we all remember the reception President Bush received in Baghdad at Thanksgiving. The very fact the president was willing to risk flying into Baghdad, even though the visit was short, greatly motivated the troops stationed there. It also did some good for morale at home to see our President cared that much for our fathers, sons, and friends in Iraq.

We’ve all heard the Church compared to the army of Christ. We know Christ is our head; through the Holy Spirit, He gives the orders, we follow the orders. This setup works really well, as the growth of the Church from fewer than 200 to more than 2 billion today attests.

But the Church has succeeded for one reason: Our King was willing to shoulder our risks, even though it killed Him. Literally.

The Scriptures tonight demonstrate the twisted humor of Pilate and the Romans. In the preceding chapter (which I encourage you to read), the Jews have accused Jesus of declaring Himself a king. Pilate, after questioning Jesus, decides the charges are false and decides to release Him. To elicit the Jews’ sympathy, Pilate has Jesus whipped; the Roman soldiers, hearing this man has called Himself a king, taunt Him. “Hail, king of the Jews!”

But then the Jews play their trump card: “if you release this man, you are not Caesar’s friend.” They knew Pilate was on the hot seat with Rome for his treatment of the Jews and the trouble it caused. Caesar wanted everything quiet in the East, and Pilate wasn’t exactly helping attain this goal. Pilate faced a choice: risk the Jews’ accusation making its way to Rome, or crucifying an innocent man. Ever the pragmatist, Pilate chose the latter, but not before getting one last dig at the Jews: “Behold your king!”

By this point, Jesus looked like anything but a king. Isaiah had prophesied saying, “his appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance, and his form beyond that of the children of mankind.” To call Jesus “king” was the ultimate in ironic cruelty. Or so Pilate thought.

I once received a Good Friday e-mail from the Practical Christian Life list. I’ll quote from it here:

In those terms, we may say that God has paid his dues, has earned the right to talk to us about suffering because he has endured it with us. He endured not only physical pain, but the torments of doubt and uncertainty and fear. In the Garden of Gethesemane, waiting for the soldiers to come and arrest him, he was clearly in great distress of mind. Some people think that this shows a character flaw — that a truly great man, or a truly wise man, would say, “I never worry about things I can change, and I never worry about things I cannot change,” and so would not have been bothered by the prospect of torture and death. I reply that a man who did not let such things bother him would have very little to say to the rest of us.

And I take comfort in this; I take comfort in the fact that my King was not just bothered by the prospect of torture and death; He was terrified of them. He knows my fears; He knows the temptation to run and hide, to try to weasel out of trouble. And He faced it and won.

I found this passage in C.S. Lewis’ Letters to Malcom Chiefly on Prayer:

The beginning of the Passion — the first move, so to speak — is in Gethsemane. In Gethsemane a very strange and significant thing seems to have happened.

It is clear from many of his sayings that Our Lord had long foreseen His own death. He knew what conduct such as His, in a world such as we have made of this, must inevitably lead to. But it is clear that this knowledge must somehow have been withdrawn from Him before He prayed in Gethsemane. He could not, with whatever reservation about the Father’s will, have prayed that the cup might pass and simultaneously known that it would not. That is both a logical and a psychological impossibility. You see what this involves? Lest any trial incident to humanity should be lacking, the torments of hope — of suspense, anxiety — were at the last moment loosed on Him — the supposed possibility that, after all, He might, He just conceivably might, be spared the ultimate horror. There was precedent. Isaac had been spared: he too at the last moment, he also against all apparent probability. It was not quite impossible…and doubtless He had seen other men crucified…a sight very unlike most of our religious pictures and images.

But for this last (and erroneous) hope against hope, and the consequent tumult of the soul, the sweat of blood, perhaps he would not have been very Man. To live in a fully predictable world is not to be a man.

At the end, I know, we are told that an angel appeared “comforting” Him. But neither “comforting” in sixteenth-century English nor “ennischuon” in Greek means “consoling”.  “Strengthening” is more the word. May not the strengthening have consisted in the renewed certainty — cold comfort this — that the thing must be endured and therefore could be?

Again, this fact comforts me, strengthens me: that Jesus experienced that which we all face as we carry out His orders. For at the moment that Pilate sarcastically declared, “behold your King!”, Jesus was on the verge of winning the greatest battle ever fought. Within a matter of hours, Jesus would win victory over death. Not even the Roman emperor could even attempt to fight death.

What do you face tonight? Fear? Behold your King. Uncertainty about life? Behold your King. Are you waiting for God to answer your prayer, but you’re afraid of what the answer will be? Behold your King.

Christians everywhere tonight have heard the words, and I urge you to look to the cross, witness Jesus’ sufferings, and take the words to heart: “Behold your King.”

Sources:

“Empire and Battle,” available online: http://www.jerrypournelle.com/mail/mail302.html#Empire. Site copyrighted by Jerry Pournelle, 2004.

Isaiah 52:14.

James Keifer, “A Good Friday Meditation on an Unlikely Text.”

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Sermon: “Reaching Higher”

I delivered this sermon to New Hope on 11 February 2007. The sermon addresses the topic of “glossolalia,” or speaking in tongues. I encourage you to read the entire sermon before making up your mind.

Sermon text: Jeremiah 1:1-10.
Sermon text: 1 Corinthians 14:1-20.

The Church exists to glorify God, and only to glorify God. We bring glory to His name by fulfilling the task of carrying the gospel of Jesus Christ to the nations. For millennia, the Church has accomplished this task through ministry, proclamation of the gospel, and through baptizing new believers into the Body of Christ.

The work of spreading the gospel benefits from a unique aspect of the Church: We have never claimed the Bible exists in purity in only one language. We have never required anyone to learn Greek or Hebrew to read the “true” Bible. We can trust our Bible in English just as the original believers could trust their Bible in Koine Greek.

This advantage also implies a great intellectual challenge: The translation of the gospel into the languages of the world. A few weeks ago (28 January 2007 p.m.), we studied the confusing of the languages at Babel in Genesis 11. The results of pride on that occasion has complicated our task, but we continue undaunted in carrying the gospel to people of every tribe and language. We may be tempted, as was Jeremiah, to tell God, “we do not know how to speak.” However, as with Jeremiah, we find that God accepts no excuses; He accepts only obedience.

However, at certain times in the history of the Church, the Holy Spirit has “helped” the Church through a great gift: The gift of “tongues.” The most obvious example of this gift appears in Acts 2, when the Church began at Pentecost. In a great miracle, God blessed Galilean and Judean Jews with the ability to speak numerous languages with no previous study or experience. As a result, the Church spread into numerous nations from this one event.

Unfortunately, this great gift has brought great controversy from the first days of our existence. When St. Paul wrote his first letter to the Corinthians, he had to address the abuse of “tongues.” Chapter 14 contains the greatest and most specific treatment of this gift.

As Southern Baptists, we tend to ignore this gift at worst, or belittle it at best. Some in the Convention and in other parts of Christendom confidently claim the gift no longer exists. In light of events in the Southern Baptist Convention (2007), I believe our belittling and cessationist tendencies have returned to haunt us. We can no longer ignore the fact that a large segment of Christianity emphasizes this gift, even to the point of teaching that only those with this gift have received the Holy Spirit at salvation.

Therefore, I want to address 4 questions today:

  1. What is the gift of “tongues” in the Bible?
  2. Are tongues necessary for salvation or for the reception of the Holy Spirit in a new believer’s life?
  3. Does the gift of tongues still exist?
  4. Lastly, should the Church give greater emphasis to the gift of tongues?

First, let’s consider the terminology relating to tongues.

The word “tongue” in the King James Version can refer to either a known human language or to an ecstatic utterance that no one understands, including the speaker. The events of Pentecost in Acts 2 lead us to believe that the believers’ words sounded like gibberish to most people except to those who heard in the “gibberish” the gospel in their own language.

The Greek word translated “tongue” in chapter 14, “glossa,” means just that: “tongue.” For that reason, the term for ecstatic utterances is “glossalalia.” In Koine Greek, this word refers to both the organ we call the tongue and to language. In the King James Version, the word is translated consistently as “tongue.” (The only occurrence of the word “language” in the New Testament in the King James Version is Acts 2:6, where the translators used the word as a translation for “dialektos.”)

When St. Jerome translated the New Testament from Koine Greek to Latin, he used the used the word “lingua,” the root for our word “language.” St. Jerome’s action, however, doesn’t help us much as the word “lingua,” like the word “ glossa,” can also refer to “tongue.”

As you can see, a great deal rides on the translation, especially in languages such as English that distinguish between “tongue” and “language.” If the word refers to “language,” then it may eliminate ecstatic blabbering as a possibility in the translation, because a language requires structured, consistent use of sounds.

In recent translations of the Bible into English, most versions, including the English Standard Version (my preferred version), the New American Standard Bible and the New International Version, translate this chapter using the word “tongue.” On the other hand, the new Southern Baptist translation, the Holman Christian Standard Bible, translates “glossa” as “language.” (Perhaps the translators wanted to eliminate any ambiguity as to their doctrinal preferences in this chapter.)

We can see where both definitions — ecstatic utterances and language — can apply to Corinth. Corinth was a major sea port of the Roman Empire, and Corinthian Christians would have routinely encountered people from across the Roman Empire and from the Black Sea. Those blessed with the gift of languages such as believers at Pentecost could have ministered to people from many nations on a routine basis.

On the other hand, St. Paul seems to imply that the other definition dominated the church at Corinth. Many Corinthian believers claimed the “gift” of tongues and attempted to display them every time the church gathered. For that reason, St. Paul tried to give some guidelines on the use of “tongues.” It is difficult to see these restrictions placed on those who spoke natural human languages, especially the restrictions on women. (Interestingly, in many cultures, women make better translators than men, leading to some rather amusing gaffs by men learning the language from women.)

I believe we may safely assume that St. Paul is referring to ecstatic utterances in this chapter.

Secondly, many people claim that only those with the gift of “tongues” have received the Holy Spirit and therefore qualify as true believers. Is this really the case? Are those of us who have never spoken in tongues really bereft of the Holy Spirit in our lives?

While event in Acts seem to imply that speaking in tongues always followed conversion, this belief lacks historical validity. For centuries, the Church believed that those born again received the Holy Spirit at the moment of conversion. St. Paul wrote the letter to Corinth in A.D. 55. When he wrote to the Romans in A.D. 57 and to the Ephesians in A.D. 60, he didn’t mention tongues in relation to the spiritual birth.

In the Summa Theologica, St. Thomas Aquinas refers to St. Augustine’s statement that in his lifetime, the gift of tongues no longer appeared at the moment of conversion. St. Augustine lived at the turn of the fifth century A.D.

In the eighteenth century, a religious renewal we call the Great Awakening swept through the New England colonies. The minister Jonathan Edwards, who some call America’s greatest theologian, oversaw this awakening in his church and in the surrounding areas. Edwards wrote several treatises on the awakening, explaining it to skeptical ministers in both the American colonies and in England. In A Divine and Supernatural Light, Edwards wrote:

The Holy Spirit operates in the minds of the godly, by uniting himself to them, and living in them, and exerting his own nature in the exercise of their faculties….

When it is said that this light is given immediately by God, and not obtained by natural means, hereby is intended, that it is given by God without making use of any means that operate by their own power, or a natural force God makes use of means; but it is not as mediate causes to produce this effect. There are not truly any second causes of it; but it is produced by God immediately.

We are there abundantly taught, that the saints differ from the ungodly in this, that they have the knowledge of God, and a sight of God, and of Jesus Christ.

It is rational to suppose, that this blessing should be immediately from God; for there is no gift or benefit that is in itself so nearly related to the divine nature, there is nothing the creature receives that is so much of God, of his nature, so much a participation of the deity: it is a kind of emanation of God’s beauty, and is related to God as the light is to the sun. It is therefore congruous and fit, that when it is given of God, it should be nextly from himself, and by himself, according to his own sovereign will.

Edwards, then, believed that, as St. Paul taught in Romans and later letters, that the Holy Spirit comes upon us immediately at conversion. Otherwise, we would not recognize the work of God in our lives and would lack the protection of the Holy Spirit St. Paul clearly taught we enjoy.

Thirdly, does the gift of tongues still exist?

Remember that I pointed out Corinth’s advantage in tongues in relation to its purpose in the Roman Empire. The gift of languages would have greatly aided the church’s ministry. However, in A.D. 90, the Bishop of Rome, Clement, wrote a letter to the Corinthian church exhorting them to peace and cooperation. (Apparently, the Corinthians had a merry tradition of disunity that continued for decades after St. Paul’s death.) For this gift to claim such prominence in St. Paul’s time, St. Clement never mentioned tongues at all. Apparently, the gift had ceased in Corinth in the roughly 5 decades since St. Paul’s letter.

I mentioned St. Thomas Aquinas and the Summa Theologica earlier. St. Aquinas gave us the reason St. Augustine stated the gift had ceased: “whereas even now the Holy Ghost is received, yet no one speaks in the tongues of all nations, because the Church herself already speaks the languages of all nations: since whoever is not in the Church, receives not the Holy Ghost” (St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, “Of the Grace of Tongues, Reply to Objection 3”). In other words, St. Augustine saw no reason for the gift since the Church had reached every tribe surrounding the Empire.

If the gift ceased at that time, is it back? Could God have sent the gift back in our time?

We’re currently witnessing one of the greatest expansions of the Church in her history. The gospel is spreading faster in Africa and Asia than anywhere else in the world. I’ve heard of missionaries in these areas who speak of experiences where they utter some saying that was interpreted by those around as the gospel in their native language. I’ve heard too many cases to discount them; however, I also know from personal experience that language study is difficult, demanding, and exasperating work. While I believe God can give the gift of languages to someone, I also believe He expects most of us to go about language study the old fashioned way: the daily grind of intense study.

I’ve also noticed that the part of the Church growing fastest, the Pentecostal movement, is also the part that most emphasizes the gift of tongues. I’m unprepared, however, to believe this vindicates their emphasis on tongues, especially since most Pentecostals tend to emphasize the ecstatic utterances definition over that of human languages. As St. Paul pointed out, “If, therefore, the whole church comes together and all speak in tongues, and outsiders or unbelievers enter, will they not say that you are out of your minds?” (14:23)

I really believe St. Paul wanted the Corinthians to spend more time ministering to the outside world than demonstrating their experience with ecstatic utterances.

This brings me to my last point: should the Church give greater emphasis to the gift of tongues, and should we seek this gift today.

Recently, I read C.S. Lewis’ sermon “Transposition,” which he delivered on Pentecost, 28 May 1944. In this sermon, Lewis discussed the limitations of our physical bodies in responding to spiritual events. Ironically, Lewis started the sermon with a mention of glossalalia: speaking in tongues. I’d recommend you read the sermon, simply because Lewis has such an excellent point, which is: We respond physically to spiritual experiences, simply because we have no other means to respond.

This sermon caused me to think a bit about a discussion with a former student. I’m somewhat convinced, reading Lewis, that we seek the ecstatic because we desire a “repeat” of our conversion experience, especially if that experience was a joyful, emotional one. Some seek a repeat of conversion in music; my student mentioned a worship leader transposing between chords, sending the congregation into ecstasy simply from a higher chord in a song. Others seek to repeat the emotion through gossalalia.

Our spiritual experience at conversion caused a physical and emotional experience, and some part of us urgently — longingly — desperately, even — desires to repeat that experience.

Is this logical? Should we constantly seek to repeat the reaction to the greatest event in our lives, the event that signaled our spiritual birth?

St. Paul says, “No.” The Corinthians longed for a repeat experience, so much so that they elevated glossalalia above any other spiritual gift. Paul urged them to seek a higher gift: prophecy. Unfortunately, my personal experience tells me that prophecy doesn’t always bring an emotional “high” anywhere near my own conversion experience. Prophecy — the gift of proclaiming the truth of God’s word, not the foretelling of events — is difficult work. Prophecy requires immense preparation, and the proclamation of unpopular truths will certainly cause opposition. In my knowledge, no one was ever martyred for glossalalia. We can’t say the same for prophecy, Jesus reminds us. People have died in the prophetic service.

I see this error in the Church today: refusing to seek “higher ground” because we seek a repeat of an emotional experience instead. We plan our services to elicit emotional responses equivalent to our conversion. Then, worship leaders and congregations are sadly disappointed when the experience fails to repeat itself. “The Spirit just wasn’t here today.” Well, Our Lord tells us He is present when 2 or 3 are gathered in His name, regardless of whether the emotion appears or not. Still, disappointed worship leaders work harder on next week’s service: new songs, new chording, new arrangements of music, new slides in the Powerpoint presentation, new testimonies; anything to bring about an emotion approaching that of conversion.

I’m realizing that the desire to repeat an emotion, an experience, explains more than the problems afflicting the Church today. People seek to repeat the emotion of first love, the “high” that comes when you first meet someone, the infatuation. Then, when the infatuation fades — as it inevitably does — people panic, not realizing that infatuation transforms itself into true love that does not fade but lasts forever. Unfortunately, people so seek the infatuation they leave the one for whom they are no longer infatuated, failing to see the devastation in their wake as they leave relationships God never intended to be broken.

Yet, St. Paul calls us higher. “I would rather that you prophesy,” he says. There are events that cannot — should not — be repeated. We are called to seek higher gifts, regardless of their emotional value. Man cannot live by bread alone, but he also cannot live on emotion alone. Glossalalia is a gift. I will not join my SBC “brethren” in denying its existence or denigrating its value; however, glossalalia is a sign of the Spirit’s presence, not the sign. We have no leeway to think Cornelius and Company stopped growing and spoke in tongues the rest of their lives. I’d like to believe Cornelius and his household went on to proclaim the gospel throughout Caesarea and the Empire, wherever they went.

I believe we fear reaching higher, for the greater gifts. Lewis said in his sermon “The Weight of Glory” that “we are far too easily pleased.” Too many people are willing to settle for glossalalia when so much more is waiting on those willing to ask for it. “Ask and it shall be given,” Our Lord tells us. Paul told the Corinthians, “Brothers, do not be children in your thinking (1 Corinthians 14:20).” As we grow, we must seek higher gifts. Perhaps we’ll keep the gifts we were given, perhaps not. I’ve found that God never takes anything from us without giving something far greater.

Higher gifts are difficult, and in spite of our desire for them, we have no guarantee God will give us the exact gift we crave. I didn’t ask for the gift of prophecy, of proclamation; it was given to me by grace. However, I propose a spiritual “Montrose’ Toast:” “He either fears his fate too much, or his desserts are small, who dares not put it to the touch, to risk or lose it all.” Ask high! Aim high! Montrose spoke of risk in a military sense, but Our Lord says He wants to give us good gifts. There is no risk in asking God for greater gifts. God promises great things to those who seek them.

Conversion is great. Spiritual growth is greater. Those who content themselves with the emotion of conversion, or with any pale substitute like glossalalia or musical stimulation, will find they rob themselves of great gifts from the Father of Lights. Let’s not settle for the former things when God has great things, greater blessings, waiting for us.

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Trinity Sunday: “Go”

The Trinity ranks as the greatest mystery of Christianity. Here’s another Trinity Sunday sermon, preached on 15 June 2014.

Scripture reading: Psalm 8.
Sermon text: Matthew 28:16-20.

We live in a nation of restless souls.

The children of immigrants founded America. Immigrants, either voluntary or involuntary, built our nation. People from around the globe still travel here to escape ancient prejudices, recent debts, and class restrictions, believing in the dream of creating new lives for themselves and their children.

Even native-born Americans wander. We live in the most mobile nation on the planet. Americans think nothing of moving across the continent for a better job. We travel worldwide on vacations. We constantly look for something to fill our hearts, clear our minds, or bring excitement to our lives.

I see an opportunity here. As I see it, we have everything necessary to fulfill one of Jesus’ greatest desires: The desire of His people to go and proclaim the gospel.

Today, the Church celebrates “Trinity Sunday,” the Sunday on which we clearly teach one of the greatest the mysteries of the Christian faith: One God, Three Persons, each completely independent yet completely One with one another. Our belief in the Trinity separates Christianity from the other monotheistic religions. I believe it also gives us a fuller picture of God and helps us understand how God works in us to carry out His desire for the salvation of humanity and all creation.

After His resurrection, Jesus met the disciples in Galilee. St. Matthew recorded that Jesus had “directed” the disciples to go to a certain mountain in Galilee where He met them. We don’t know to which mountain St. Matthew referred, but we know the disciples obeyed Jesus and met Him there.

On this mountain, Jesus appeared to His disciples. St. Matthew wrote, “when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted.” The disciples recognized Jesus as worthy of worship. Remember, all the original disciples believed in one God. As Jews, they had recited Moses’ teaching their entire lives: “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might” (Deuteronomy 6:4-5). To the Jews, God and God alone deserved the worship of His people. St. Peter had already spoken for the disciples in his great confession of Jesus’ identity: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16). Jesus’ resurrection further convinced the disciples of His deity.

Notice that although all the disciples worshiped, “some doubted.” I don’t think this should surprise us. Those of us who have lived inside the Church our entire lives often take for granted what we ask people to believe about Jesus. We ask people to believe in a man crucified by the Romans who then came back to life after lying dead in a grave for 3 days! Even the original disciples had trouble understanding what had happened, and they saw Jesus face to face after His resurrection. People sometimes need more tangible evidence of Jesus’ resurrection, of His life within His Church. More on that later.

As the disciples worshiped, Jesus told them,  “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” Who gave Jesus, the Son of God, this authority? Only the Creator, God the Father, could grant this authority. Jesus had actively participated in the creation of all things, but as St. Paul wrote to the Philippians, He had “emptied Himself” of His heavenly attributes to dwell among us (Philippians 2:7). At His resurrection, Jesus received the authority of all creation, an authority He had possessed since the foundation of the world.

Because all authority rests with Jesus, He can command His people to carry the gospel, the good news, of His death for humanity’s sins and of His resurrection, by which He defeated sin and death. “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations.” Jesus sent His disciples throughout the world, empowering them through the Holy Spirit to teach all He had commanded them and to make disciples of all who believed their message.

Once people believed the message of the gospel, Jesus told the disciples to baptize them “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” Everything proceeds from God the Father; salvation comes from the finished work of God the Son; conviction and belief comes from the work of God the Holy Spirit, who draws us to the cross of Christ for salvation and indwells us that we may know what God expects of us and how to live as Christ commands us.

Through God the Holy Spirit, Christ could truly say, “And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” The omnipresent Holy Spirit constantly reminds us of Jesus’ presence in our lives.

One God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; One Church, composed of all who believe the message of the Apostles; one great command, to go and make disciples.

How does this command apply to us today, at New Hope?

For one thing, I believe that we cannot go anywhere until we’ve arrived at the place where God can use us to carry the gospel. Too many Christians today have come to treat church as an option or an obligation. I don’t want you to see worship as an option; for a Christian, worship comes with the privilege of calling yourself a child of God. I want you to see worship as an opportunity to praise God for your salvation. I want you to see worship as an opportunity to pray for those around you, the hurting, hurtful, sorrowful, stubborn people who need Jesus.

You cannot worship God in spirit and truth (John 4:23) without genuine conversion and repentance. For too long, too many Christians have desired Jesus’ salvation without accepting His command to live holy lives. I see a serious problem here. How can we go and tell others of Jesus when we refuse to live godly lives ourselves?

“Why would you say this, John?” I’m glad you asked. Let’s go back to Jesus words. In the English translations, the word “Go” appears as a command. Greek has an imperative tense, but Jesus didn’t use it when He said to “go.” The tense Jesus used here better implies, “As you go.” You cannot make disciples unless you go out as a disciple yourself. “As you go” means you will always show the people around you, in your everyday life, what it means to live as a disciple of Jesus.

That poses a problem for many. The people around you may hear you say all kinds of good things about your God and your church, but they also see how you live as you go through your life. I said earlier that people need tangible evidence, clear evidence, of Jesus’ resurrection. Your lifestyle must provide that evidence. Christian, your life, your actions, your words, your desires, will prove Jesus’ resurrection more than anything else I can mention. Does your lifestyle assist the Church in making disciples? Do your actions bring people to Jesus, or do they drive them away?

Let’s take this to the congregational level. We’ve all enjoyed celebrating our big anniversary this year. I enjoyed the celebrations last week. However, we cannot rest on what we’ve done over the past 175 years without looking ahead and moving forward. Jesus has commanded us to make disciples in this community. Have we done everything necessary to reach our communities and our area for Christ? If not, what must we do?

First, I issue a call for repentance. We’ve treated church as an option, and then we wonder why our children decide not to worship at all in their adulthood. Church will rarely rank higher in their priorities than it does in ours. If you treat worship as merely an option (or even worse, an inconvenient obligation), you children will see it that way as well. Our children and our community see the lives we live outside the walls of our sanctuary. We must show them we believe in Jesus’ salvation through our own lives. If you’ve allowed something else to come between you and God, pray for genuine repentance and forgiveness. Only then can the Holy Spirit guide you to go and make disciples.

Secondly, I issue a call to our congregation to minister to our communities. The communities of our area have grown exponentially in the past decades. Had the churches in our areas grown as quickly, we would all have grown exponentially as well. Why haven’t we? What has hindered us from reaching those who have moved here? We, too, must repent for not reaching those God has placed around us. We must do whatever we find necessary to minister to the people around us and bring them to the cross of Christ, our Redeemer.

Lastly, I call on you to look ahead and decide what kind of congregation we will pass to our children. Will the people of New Hope one day celebrate our sacrifices or mourn our timidity? I’ve never met a timid person in this community. I believe God has given us a holy calling, a glorious calling, to build a congregation worthy of passing to succeeding generations.

I know we’ve had our fun celebrating our past. I know many in the Church today, especially in America, believe the world will eventually get too bad for anyone to do anything about it. Yes, I’ve read the Scriptures, and yes, I know that times will come in which it appears the saints have lost. Those times have come in the past, and the Church has triumphed. Jesus assures us He possesses all authority in heaven and on earth. Forget everything you’ve ever read about how bad it will get, because you’ll never read anywhere where Jesus gives us the option to surrender. Go, and live in victory! Jesus has won, and so will we!

We’ve sat and celebrated. Now, we must go to the cross in genuine repentance and receive the forgiveness of our sins as we confess them to Christ. Go, and make disciples by showing everyone that you have become a disciple yourself. Go, and in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, bring your community to the cross and empty tomb of our Lord for salvation and service in the name of God.

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Trinity Sunday: “Called for His Glory”

The Church celebrated Trinity Sunday this past Sunday. This sermon comes from a series on Romans from 2008.

Scripture reading: Isaiah 6:1-13.
Sermon text: Romans 1:1-7.

Each year, the Church dedicates the Sunday following Pentecost to one of the most crucial — but yet most misunderstood — doctrines of the Christian faith: The Doctrine of the Trinity. Our belief in 1 God in 3 Persons separates Christianity from both Judaism and Islam, the other monotheistic faiths of humanity.

Some scholars have tried to prove that the early Church didn’t truly understand the Trinity, even going so far as to claim that Jesus Himself did not understand His relationship with the Father. Given the teachings of Christ included in the Gospel of St. John, I find it difficult to believe that Jesus misunderstood His identity when He claimed to be the Son of God the Father. “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30), “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9), “That they may be one even as we are one” (John 17:11, 22); these statements clearly depict Jesus as claiming perfect unity with the Father, the God of the Jews.

Today’s sermon text also contradicts any notion that the early Church failed to grasp the concept of the Trinity or the importance of the doctrine. St. Paul wrote his letter to the Romans in c. A.D. 57, or roughly 24-25 years after Jesus’ crucifixion, resurrection and ascension and possibly before the composition of at least 3 of the Gospels (St. Matthew, St. Luke and St. John). The opening words of St. Paul’s letter provide clear evidence that he both perceived and understood the working of the Trinity in the salvation story that the Church proclaims to the world.

Few books can claim the impact of the book of Romans on Western Civilization. Romans was instrumental in St. Augustine’s conversion. After reading Romans 13:13-14, Augustine wrote, “I had no wish to read more and no need to do so. For in an instant, as I came to the end of the sentence, it was as though the light of confidence flooded into my heart and all the darkness of doubt was dispelled.” (Augustine’s Confessions (London: Penguin Books, 1961) p. 178). Martin Luther would read Romans and become convinced that salvation was accomplished solely by justification through faith. This insight would lead him to challenge the Roman Catholic Church and centuries of doctrines. John Calvin would read Romans and become convinced that God’s sovereign plan unfolded in time in spite of the worst attempts of evil to confound it.

St. Paul wrote Romans while he was in Corinth. St. Paul wrote Romans to prepare the Roman church for his visit on his way to Spain (15:28). St. Paul was writing to a church he did not found; therefore, he could not exert any authority over them without an introduction.

The letter to the Romans is Paul’s longest letter. The letter itself is a tightly written argument for the necessity of God’s righteousness in life, for the love of God demonstrated in Jesus’ sacrifice, for the inclusion of the Jews in God’s salvation plan, and for the continued presence of visible proof in Christians’ lives that a spiritual birth has occurred in their lives. Today, we also see that St. Paul clearly taught the doctrine of the Trinity through his masterpiece work.

Many people wonder why Christians so emphatically cling to the doctrine. When we begin reading the letter to the Romans, we find several reasons why the Trinity speaks so dearly to believers.

First, St Paul reminded the believers at Rome of Jesus’ identity as the Son of God. St. Paul called himself a “servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God.” St. Paul recognized Jesus as his Lord and King. Saul the Pharisee had believed in God; he had often quoted the Shema, the declaration of Moses that Jesus called the first commandment: “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one” (Deuteronomy 6:4). When the Christian movement began sweeping through Judea, Saul attacked the believers as heretics. However, on the road to Damascus, Saul encountered a living Jesus. Saul quickly realized that Jesus lived again, changing his perception of the God he had loved and served his entire life.

Saul — now known as Paul — realized that Jesus had set him apart for a special purpose. First, Jesus called him as an “apostle,” or “sent one.” An “apostle” in the Greek world served as a messenger with a special message to those entrusted to his mission. St. Paul knew his message: the “gospel of God.” At this point, God the Father entered the conversation with the Roman believers.

God the Father had revealed Himself to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Jacob’s descendants as the God of the Covenant. He had first made a covenant with Abraham: “I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies, and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice” (Genesis 22:17-18). God had confirmed this covenant with Isaac and then with Isaac’s youngest son Jacob. On Mt. Sinai, God again confirmed His covenant with Jacob’s descendants through Moses, calling Israel — the tribes descended from Jacob — as a “ a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Exodus 19:6).

Throughout Israel’s history, God had sent prophets proclaiming His coming. In time, the prophets began predicting a strange event in history: God would come to the earth as a human, more specifically as a descendant of David, Israel’s greatest king. Practically every major prophet from Moses forward prophesied regarding the coming of God in flesh.

Unfortunately, these prophecies also included those of Isaiah that God would suffer and die for the sins of His people and for the sins of all humanity. St. Paul reminded the Romans that Jesus’ resurrection following His sacrificial death firmly established His identity as the Son of God, just as He had claimed (John 10:36). Christians from the resurrection forward clearly proclaimed Jesus’ identity in this way, beginning with some before His death (cf. Martha, John 11:27) and emphatically afterward (John 20:31). After his own conversion and calling, St. Paul himself had “proclaimed Jesus in the synagogues, saying, ‘He is the Son of God’” (Acts 9:20).

St. Paul also reminded the Romans of the Holy Spirit’s work in salvation history. Jesus had promised to send another “Comforter” or “Advocate” to indwell believers after He ascended to the Father (John 14:16-17). On the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came into the world and empowered believers to carry the gospel of God to all humanity (Acts 2). The Holy Spirit goes everywhere that believers go, giving us the courage and wisdom to proclaim Jesus as the “Son of God” through His resurrection.

Once we hear this proclamation — Jesus has died for our sins, risen from the dead, and now offers freedom from sin to all who believe in Him as Lord — we receive “grace.” Grace refers to the undeserved merit we receive from God, who forgives us of our sins against Himself and against others and declares us as “justified,” or having the standing to approach Him knowing He has forgiven our sins.

As believers in Jesus Christ, we, too, have received the “apostleship” to carry the news of Jesus’ resurrection to those in our lives. The Church has spread around the world to tell people of every nation and language about the freedom from sin we experience through the work of the Trinity in our lives. St. Paul carried this message throughout the Roman Empire, calling people to believe in Jesus and live in “the obedience of faith for the sake of his name.”

St. Paul then addressed the Roman believers directly, reminding them they were “called to belong to Jesus Christ;” the Holy Spirit had worked in their hearts to convict them of their sins and bring them to salvation through their confession of Jesus as Lord of their lives. One of the Church Fathers, a man known as Ambrosiaster, stated that the Roman Christians accepted Christianity without any notable miracles and without any apostolic proclamation of the faith. Most likely, Jews from Rome were present at the events of Pentecost and carried the new faith back to Rome itself.

St. Paul opened the main portion of the letter with a new form of the customary salutation in Greek letters: “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” Greek letters often opened by wishing “grace” to the recipient of the letter, but St. Paul added “peace” to his salutation. St. Paul reminded the Romans both of the grace they received through their salvation and the peace with God that their confession in Christ had brought.

I believe these verses remind us today of the Trinity’s work in our own salvation.

First, we must remember that when we confess Jesus as Lord, we must live according to His expectations and commandments. We cease our service to self and sin and begin serving our new Lord, who calls us to proclaim His resurrection to the world. The gospel consists of the good news that while all humanity suffers from our sins, Jesus has paid the penalty and conquered both sin and death through His crucifixion and resurrection.

We should also find encouragement in the prophecies regarding Jesus’ coming. These prophecies remind us that God the Father, in His omniscience, knows what we faced in life and what we will face in the future. He has already prepared for what we will face later today and for the rest of our lives. This fact should lead us to trust Him even more in our lives. If we can trust God for our salvation from sin, we can also trust Him to provide for us and guide us in life.

The Holy Spirit Himself (remember that the Holy Spirit is God, not an emotion!) also works in us. He helps us to live godly lives as a witness to His work in us. He also works in unbelievers to draw them to Jesus, pointing them to the only true source of salvation: Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

The God we serve — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — cares deeply about you. Everyone who confesses the Son as Lord finds peace with the Father and experiences the calming presence of the Spirit. The joy of our faith revolves around the love of God for us, a love that extends beyond the love of the Persons for one another to encompass us as well. You’ll find no stronger love than the love of the Trinity for one another and for all believers in Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

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Sermons on the Revelation

I preached through the Revelation of St. John in 2007. I’ve compiled those sermons in .pdf format and uploaded them here for anyone interested. As always, email me if you have questions or comments about the sermons.

You won’t find the standard prophecy-heavy line here. I focus more on other aspects of the Revelation. I hope this approach will increase your appreciation of the only apocalyptic book you’ll find in the New Testament.

Sermons on the Revelation