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Up from the Grave He Arose

Last July, six year-old Bridger Walker threw himself in front of a mean dog to shield his little sister from certain death.  After the dog tore open his face, he still got her to safety.  When asked why he did it, he said that as the big brother, “If someone had to die, I thought it should be me.”  Isn’t this what Jesus determined at Gethsemane and Calvary that He must do for us?  Just as the scars that Bridger carries are a reminder of the love he has for his sister, Jesus, being fully God, shields us from certain death by rising from the grave.

I.  Luke 24:1-7.  At the tomb, Jesus conquered our death problem.  Because we’ve all sinned (Romans 3:23), we’ve all earned death, but the gift of eternal life can now come to us because Jesus conquered death (Romans 6:23).  He was fully man to be our sacrifice, yes, but He was fully God to be our Savior.  We no longer need to be held in slavery to our fear of death because Jesus conquered (Hebrews 2:14-16).

II.  1 Corinthians 15:1-26.  At the tomb, Jesus had to be fully God to be our Savior.  The leaders of every other world religion died; only in Christianity do we serve a risen Savior.  Jesus reveals His divinity by promising to raise Himself from the dead (John 2:18-22).  On Pentecost, Peter confirms this by stating that God raised Him (Acts 2:22-24).  Because Jesus was fully God, the gospel can save us.

III.  1 Corinthians 15:42-57.  We can rise with Jesus who was fully God to be our Savior.  We, who die in Christ, will also live in Him.  Because death has been conquered, we can have victory in Jesus.  But we must obey.  Jesus’ work at the cross and at the tomb is ours to obey (Romans 6:3-5).  Because Jesus overcame death, He became our source of eternal salvation if we obey (Hebrews 5:7-9).

As noble as Bridger Walker’s saving of his sister was, Jesus’ conquering of death for all who obey the gospel is a better salvation story.  Have you obeyed it?

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Certainly This Man Was Innocent!

From Gethsemane through Calvary, we can see how Jesus, being fully man, became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey Him (Hebrews 5:7-9).  Because of sin, man owed a debt to God he could not pay, so God became a man to pay man’s debt to God.  In the gospel, Jesus was fully God to be our Savior, yes, but He was fully man to be our sacrifice.  This is seen in the Centurion declaring, “Certainly this man was innocent!”

I.  Luke 23:44-46.  First, the curtain that was torn.  In Leviticus 16:2-13, Moses was told to tell Aaron that he (and subsequent high priests) was not to just go behind the curtain of the tabernacle (and later the temple) where God’s presence was or he would die.  He needed first to make atonement for his own sins and then enter only once a year with blood to atone for the sins of the people.  The law was a shadow of the reality to come, however, and the man, Jesus, is the perfect and sinless High Priest that now enters heaven itself through the curtain which is His body with His own blood to perfectly atone for man’s sin once for all (Hebrews 10:1-23).  This was the point of the incarnation (Luke 2:10-12; John 1:14-18).

II.  Luke 23:46-49.  Second, the gentile Centurion.  Part of the Roman occupying force, this Centurion, no doubt in charge of a hundred men on crucifixion duty, was carrying out the death sentences for criminals from his superiors and keeping the peace while doing so.  A good soldier who did not get involved with the civilian affairs in this foreign land, he likely was used to the pleas and protestations from the condemned and the crowd.  Never did he see One like a lamb led to slaughter (1 Peter 1:17-19), and though he knew nothing of the Law or the significance of this great moment he was witnessing for him (Ephesians 2:11-16) or the fulfillment of very old prophecies (Genesis 12:13), this Centurion exclaimed what he did.

III.  Galatians 3:11-14.  That Jesus would be born to die for our sins though innocent Himself was predicted (Matthew 1:21; John 1:29) and the result explained (2 Corinthians 5:21).  We all were dead in our sins (Romans 3:23) and had no way to pay back our debt suddenly had a way through a man’s victory at the cross (Romans 6:23) because Jesus took our curse upon Himself on the tree.  He went through a terrible ordeal to do this for us (Psalm 22:1-19), but His work as fully man on the cross resulted in our sacrifice for sins (Isaiah 53:3-8).

Are you, along with the Centurion, certain of this man’s innocence to be the sacrifice for your sins?

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Night, with Ebon Pinion

Loneliness was the first thing God found in His creation that was not good (Genesis 2:18).  Today, it continues to be one of mankind’s biggest struggles and leads us to many sins, addictions, and negative coping mechanisms.  Being fully man, how did Jesus handle loneliness?  A glimpse into Gethsemane reveals the answer.

I.  John 17:5-12.  Just before Gethsemane, Jesus points to the fellowship He shares with His Father that He also hopes for us (John 10:30; John 11:42).  Yet, as He gets to the garden, His circle shrinks from eleven (Judas had left) to three to just Him, whose heart was sorrowful to the point of death (Matthew 26:36-38).  They had all insisted that they would stand by Him before He went (Mark 14:27-31), but after they all deserted Him (Mark 14:50).  As He bore the guilt of all our sins on the cross, even the Father would forsake Him (Matthew 27:46).

II.  Luke 22:39-46.  Jesus was fully God, yes, but to be our sacrifice on the cross, He had to face all temptations and struggles as fully man (Hebrews 2:14; Hebrews 4:15).  Having conquered the devil’s snares in the desert at the beginning of His ministry (Luke 4:13), the opportune time came for Satan to try again while all earthly support had been stripped from Jesus–Gethsemane.  Jesus leaned on the fellowship He shared with His Father in prayer, but the answer was a cup of anguish placed before Him that His Father would not remove.

III.  Hebrews 10:5-10.  So, in this body prepared for Him and all alone except for the Father, whose will it was to crush Him for our transgressions (Isaiah 53:10-12), Jesus wrestled in the flesh with remaining a living sacrifice (Romans 12:1-2) that did His Father’s will or living for His own will.  It is the same choice that is before us as we promised with our confession of ‘Jesus as Lord’ and our baptism to trust and obey.  Yet, is this what we do when life strips us of all earthly comforts and places a cup before us we don’t want to drink?

Do we, along with Jesus who made it possible for us to do so, say, “Not my will, but yours, be done”?

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Sought Him with Their Whole Desire

After the moral decline of Solomon’s reign and Reheboam’s unwise decision that split God’s people, his grandson, Asa, made a courageous move to rid Judah of its idolatry and return them to God (2 Chronicles 14).  What will God do for His people when a good leader gets those in his sphere of influence to seek Him with their whole desire?

I. 2 Chronicles 15:1-15.  Asa was given an ‘if’ by God, but unlike Solomon (1 Kings 3:14), Jeroboam (1 Kings 11:38), and Reheboam (1 Kings 12:7), he rose to the challenge.  He entered into a covenant with the people he led to seek God with their whole desire, and because they did, God gave them rest, peace, and possession of the land.

II. Hebrews 13:7-17.  We are to examine our leaders and imitate their faith.  This would include Jesus, who suffered–meaning that we may need to suffer as well.  Knowing their difficult position, we should make their job easier by obeying them.  Jesus seeks us (Luke 19:10).  But, do we want to be found (Luke 15:4-5)?  We must also seek God (Matthew 7:7-8), who promises that we will find Him.  Yet, we all are leaders in our sphere of influence (Matthew 25:20-27).  Let us love God fully (Luke 10:25-28), seeking Him with our whole desire.

III. Ephesians 6:10-13.  To seek God with our whole desire and get others to do so as well, we must take a stand by donning the armor of God.  At the time of captivity, God searched for someone who would stand in the breach but found none (Ezekiel 22:30).  God needs good leaders like Asa who will help a whole generation find Him.  The church is not a club that does some good in the world.  It is the spiritual vehicle to lead us to eternity (Hebrews 12:22-29).  It is where we seek Him with our whole desire here, to spend eternity with Him there.

Are you seeking Him with your whole desire?

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When in Rome, DON’T Do …

For much of our nation’s history, Christians could float with the current of culture as it was going generally in the same direction we wanted to go.  Christianity was ‘mainstream’–literally!  But, several decades ago, while complacency and compromise with things in the culture that didn’t fit with the Bible let us drift asleep, the current swept us down the wider branch that leads to destruction instead of the narrow creek off to the side that few find (Matthew 7:13-14).  Many are just now waking up to our danger and wanting to fight upstream but don’t know how.

I.  1 Peter 4:12-19.  We must know the current.  In the first century, Christians were persecuted because the paganism of ancient Rome insisted that they worship the emperor as a deity.  Terrible things occurred to those who trusted in no other God and wouldn’t bow to the affairs of the state.  Today, humanism that tolerates no god but man himself, seeks the state as man’s savior and demands fealty to doctrines contrary to biblical teaching, such as gender identity, homosexual marriage, abortion until birth, etc.  It’s no wonder that Christians today find themselves in the rapids and up against the rocks of persecution like those twenty centuries before (Philippians 3:10-11; Hebrews 2:10-11).

II.  2 Corinthians 10:2-6.  We must know our equipment.  To fight upstream in this spiritual battle, we must know that we will lose if we wage war as the world does.  We have spiritual weapons that can demolish strongholds.  Among many methods mentioned in Colossians 3:12-17, love is foremost to bind all these efforts together and should be used while leaning on God’s understanding (1 Corinthians 1:18-25).  The full armor of God with all of its various functions is essential as a true “life” preserver in determination to regain the narrow fork.  We must recognize the attitudes, beliefs, values, and practices of the world that we’ve accepted into our lives and put in the hard effort of paddling upstream to return to God’s Word in all things for life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3-11).

III.  1 John 3:1-3.  We must know our destination.  As individual Christians we must know to avoid the world (2 Timothy 3:1-5), but we must help others keep the focus of walking as children of light (Ephesians 5:8-11).  Fixing our eyes on Jesus, who for the joy set before Him, endured the cross, we won’t grow weary and lose heart in the hard work that will be required to set ourselves back on the narrow fork (Hebrews 12:1-4).  Jesus is that hope through the temporary trials of the rapids and rocks (1 Peter 1:3-7) until we reach our goal.  It will take great determination to purify ourselves and encouragement of others to fight our way upstream.

The pull of the humanistic current of culture is strong and hard to resist.  Awakening to the spiritual battle, we must understand the danger, equip ourselves with the weapons God has provided for us, and fight upstream to the destination promised to us.  Who can you get to fight against the current with you?

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DON’T Lean on Me, When …

For many generations, the church in the West has been able to float lazily along on an inner tube because the current of culture was flowing in roughly the same direction.  And so, we fell asleep, not realizing that in the past few decades the current has reversed its course.  Like the frog in the pot that tolerates each increased degree of heat until it boils, Christians need to recognize what is happening to us and why.

I.  John 8:31-47.  Jesus addresses “the Jews who had believed him” and yet contrasts them with true disciples who abide in His word, know the truth, and do the works of God.  It wasn’t enough for them to be descended from Abraham if the shriveled and wormy fruit they were showing was that of their father, the devil.  The same goes for those who point to their baptism into Jesus for the forgiveness of sins but who are blinded by complacency in their faith or whose hearts are hardened by compromising with the culture.  These love the world more than they love God (John 12:37-43).

II.  1 John 2:15-17.  As we float along on the wide river that leads to destruction (Matthew 7:13-14), we can take too much confidence that we differ from those drowning around us in degree but not in character.  What Eve reasoned in her mind to justify disobedience to God (Genesis 3:2-6) is exactly that which describes those who love the world.  The current of culture affects the love we have for God, which should be with all of our heart, mind, soul, and strength (Luke 10:27-28), and therefore our obedience (John 14:15) and the seeking of His kingdom and righteousness (Matthew 6:33).

III.  1 Corinthians 1:18-25.  We’ve all heard Bill Withers’ song, “Lean on Me” that, if promoted, can be a false comfort from one not aware of himself floating with the current of culture.  Rather, we must stick to Paul’s model of comforting and demonstrating of the Christian life (1 Corinthians 11:1).  Our understanding before we became Christians was not to be trusted (Proverbs 3:5-6), so should it not be leaned on if we are complacent or compromised Christians.  Rather, we must lean on God’s wisdom as found in His Word (2 Timothy 3:16-17).  Avoiding the world’s wisdom (2 Timothy 3:1-5), we must walk in the light and awaken (Ephesians 5:7-14).

We must all jump out of the pot that is almost at boiling.  We must all sit up on our tubes and paddle furiously upstream. How much have you let tolerance of the world affect you?

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None of Self and All of Thee

In our relationship with God as in our earthly relationships, we would all insist that we love the other, but to what degree do we love?  The transition to love for God begins when we recognize ourselves in the first stanza of this song and obey the gospel:

O, the bitter pain and sorrow That a time could ever be,

When I proudly said to Jesus, “All of self, and none of Thee” …

[In brackets, I will tell the story of four Valentine’s Days or my spiritual journey: In our last semester of college while student teaching, my wife and I both obeyed the gospel on Sunday, February 14, 1993, just four months before we would graduate and be married, and thus we began our married life together as new Christians.]

I.  1 John 4:7-12.  Growing in our relationship with God, however, progresses from our second birth–just as a baby grows from his first birth or a marriage grows from a wedding.  Sadly, many Christians stagnate for years with a head knowledge of God and the gospel.  They can often cite book, chapter, and verse and can tell all about the love of God (Romans 5:6-8) without truly loving Him in return.  They are caught in the second stanza:

Yet He found me; I beheld Him Bleeding on th’ accursed tree,

And my wistful heart said faintly, “Some of self, and some of Thee” …

[On February 14, 1994, my wife gave me a study Bible to celebrate our first birthday in Christ.  I dove into knowing everything I could learn about it, God, and salvation, even completing a Bible degree.  While my wife was always a solid rock of faith–even through a cancer diagnosis of 2012 and a first brain tumor diagnosis of 2017, I used the gifts God gave me to teach and preach for the next three decades with a strong head love for Christ that went up and down through the years.]

II.  1 Peter 1:6-9.  In the Old Testament, God speaks about refining His people in the furnace of affliction.  In the New Testament, He speaks of using various trials to test the genuineness of our faith that hopefully leads to the salvation of our souls.  In most places today, the freedom to worship and general lack of persecution has made Christians complacent in our spiritual growth and content living with a low level of faith.  Struggles can stir us to a heart love for God as seen here:

Day by day His tender mercy Healing, helping, full and free,

Bro’t me lower while I whispered, “Less of self, and more of Thee” …

[The previous summer had my wife reacting to air quality, chemicals, surfaces, electricity, and wifi.  In desperation, she attended a naturopathic clinic in Kansas in January that showed a mold toxicity in her system.  I began mold remediation and reconstruction in the house to prepare it to sell while also cleansing, storing, trashing, or burning our possessions.  Living with a friend with similar issues, my wife met me for dinner on February 14, 2020, less than a month before her second diagnosis of brain tumors, where we spoke about our uncertain future.  Through radiation, a host of physical struggles, and months of hospice care, God gave us a last season together while He and I worked to break through my wall and I could grow in my heart love for Him.]

III.  James 4:7-10.  A total submission to God in a Christian’s head, heart, soul, and strength is required for him to truly love God and live (Luke 10:27-28).  This soul love can only come with a yielding of oneself to Him entirely and is beyond a head and heart love.  It comes through much prayer and perseverance.  When seeking of His kingdom and righteousness (Matthew 6:33) is added to fear of God and the keeping of His commandments (Ecclesiastes 12:13), submission can be achieved.  It is beyond the first four stages of grief after a great struggle or loss: denial, anger, bargaining, and depression.  It is found in acceptance and is spoken about in the last stanza of the title song:

Higher than the highest heavens, Deeper than the deepest sea,

Lord, Thy love at last has conquered, “None of self, and all of Thee” …

[I did not arrive here when my wife died in mid-December.  It was only in the past couple of weeks when I finally gave up in my fight against God, no longer struggling to make provision for the flesh (Romans 13:11-14), that I awoke to that soul love for God and Christ, my Savior.  Not that I no longer face temptations, but I am wearing the armor of God while fully submitting to Him and seeking for Him.  And so, this is the lesson I am preaching this Sunday, February 14, 2021, on the 28th anniversary of when my wife and I first professed our love for God, having first realized His great love for us.]

Which stanza of the song do you find your love for God?

 

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Behold Your Gods, O Israel

Writing just decades before the Northern Kingdom was taken into captivity, Amos attributed its decline to the sins of Jeroboam two centuries before (Amos 7:8-11).  This is how any nation ends that doesn’t put God first.  From a study Bible section on the historical situation of Amos, I’ve substituted the U.S. for Israel:

“The U.S. was enjoying great prosperity and had reached new political and military heights.  It was also a time of idolatry, extravagant indulgence in luxurious living, immorality, and corruption of judicial procedures and oppression of the poor.  … The U.S. at the time was politically and spiritually smug.  … The nation felt sure, therefore, that she was in God’s good graces.  But prosperity increased the U.S.’s religious and moral corruption.”

I.  1 Kings 11:9-40.  Because Solomon had not lived up to the “if” God gave him in following His commands (1 Kings 3:14), God raised up enemies for Solomon.  Among them was an ambitious man named Jeroboam, who once he heard that God was going to give him ten tribes of Israel to rule, turned against Solomon and escaped to Egypt until the crowning of Solomon’s son as king.  Even though God knew the choice that Jeroboam would make, in His greatness, God still gives Jeroboam his own “if” that if followed would result in his own covenant like God had made with David.  Jeroboam was faced with a choice after the prophecy came true if he would trust in God’s promise or in his own power to rule his new nation.

II.  1 Kings 12:13-32.  Because he rejected God for the might of his own strength, Jeroboam needed to rewrite history, lest the people of the ten tribes of Israel he now ruled remembered that they were God’s people.  So, erecting golden calves in the northern and southern reaches of his new nation, he told them that these were the gods who had really rescued them from slavery in Egypt (Exodus 32:7-10).  He then assigned priests from any tribe he wanted to (based on bribes perhaps?) and even offered sacrifices himself.  Jeroboam’s sins became so ingrained in the culture that the works of every evil king was compared to him, e.g. 1 Kings 22:52.  There would be no dynasty for Jeroboam as he turned from God’s offer (1 Kings 15:29-30).

III.  John 4:19-30.  Once the prophesied split was made, Jeroboam divided his country not just from Reheboam but from David [and so ultimately Christ] (2 Samuel 7:16) and from Moses [and so the covenant with God] (Exodus 19:5-6).  The Assyrians sent the Northern Kingdom off into captivity after Amos wrote.  The area was resettled by a mixture of peoples, but did that mean that God was done with them?  The heir of David’s covenant revealed Himself as the Christ to a Samaritan woman at a well and spoke of true worship that was soon open to all.  With joy, she went away proclaiming Jesus as the Christ to any who would listen.  John 15:1-17 gives us our own “if” to obey His commands and abide in Jesus.

Will we trust in God’s promise or our own power?

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What Portion Do We Have in David?

An heir to his grandfather’s and father’s big legacies, Reheboam had a choice if he would seek God like they did or lean on his own understanding.  Just as we cannot get to heaven on the coattails of another’s faith, the new king should have tapped into what had made David and Solomon’s forty-year reigns great in the first place.

I.  1 Kings 12:1-5.  Born sometime, no doubt, in the spiritual decline of his father’s reign into a chaotic household of 999 stepmothers or “aunts” who worshiped a variety of gods, Reheboam might argue today that he was a victim of a lost world plunged into sin and relative morality.  And yet, he was on the waning edge of Israel’s golden age and knew the covenants God had made with his grandfather.  His dad built the temple!  At the moment of his crowning, however, Reheboam had a choice to make.  Would he include God in his decision-making (Joshua 24:14-15) or would he lean on his own understanding (Proverbs 3:5-6)?

II.  1 Kings 12:6-17.  He had at least heard of his father’s wisdom given to him by God (1 Kings 3:10-13) if not seen those coming to the palace seeking it (1 Kings 10:21-27). But, he seemed to have forgotten the important ‘if’ attached to the gift (1 Kings 3:14) and the reason for the spiritual decline of the kingdom because his father had ignored it too (1 Kings 11:1-4).  So, when forced to choose between relying on those who had advised his dad and stepping out on his own, he chose the counsel of the young men who had grown up with him.  The result was that he did get to establish his own legacy–that of splitting God’s kingdom!

III.  John 5:19-23.  Jesus lived to be his Father’s Son as well … except that His Father was God!  He went around doing good (Acts 10:38), spent regular time in prayer (Mark 1:35), insisted on others knowing the Scriptures as He did (Mark 12:24), and was an example for us to live up to (John 13:15).  His dying on a cross and rising from the dead empowered us to be our Father’s children as well (John 20:17).  So, we must seek wisdom (James 1:5-8), answer with gentle words (Proverbs 15:1-5), seek advice from godly counselors (Proverbs 24:6) who follow God’s Word (Psalm 119:24), and live as an imitation of Christ (Ephesians 5:1-2).

Oh, how things might have turned out differently if Reheboam had chosen differently!

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By Him All Things Were Created

Since the second Person of the Godhead is eternal, what was Jesus doing from creation through incarnation?  The Great Christology of Colossians 1:15-20 tells us quite a lot.  Far from just arriving on the scene for the first time in Bethlehem (Luke 2:11), God says that He alone would be the Savior (Isaiah 43:11) over seven centuries before.

I.  Colossians 1:15.  Jesus was active as the exact imprint or essence of God.  Ask and someone will say that Lincoln is on the penny.  Is he or is that his image?  Jesus backed this concept up with Caesar (Matthew 22:19-21).  Hebrews 1:1-18 further explains this and its necessity for Jesus’ preeminence over all things but especially our salvation.  He was God to be our Savior but man to be our sacrifice.  Though the subject of theophanies in the Old Testament isn’t conclusive that they are Christ and not angelic ambassadors speaking for God, being the exact representation of God would allow for Jesus to be addressed as God if was indeed Him (Genesis 16:10-13, Genesis 18:17-19, Joshua 5:13 — 6:2, Daniel 3:24-25, et. al.).

II. Colossians 1:16.  All things were indeed created through Jesus (John 1:1-18), and so He has dominion over all things as our Sovereign Lord (Romans 9:16-21).  This also means that because of His sovereignty, all things were created FOR Him as well.  Throughout the Bible, God upholds the idea of property rights (Proverbs 22:28, Acts 5:4).  David brings us back to the concept from creation that all things belong to God (1 Chronicles 29:14-16).

III.  Colossians 1:17.  Jesus has also been active since creation (and still is) at sustaining all things.  This means what we often attribute to the laws of nature are really the laws of Christ.  Again Hebrews 1:1-3 deepens our understanding of Jesus’ work.  That means He was upholding the universe while challenged (Matthew 22:18-21), in the garden (Matthew 26:53-54), before Pilate (John 18:36-37), and at the cross (Luke 23:34).  He is sustaining it now while we are here in this chaotic world and for our loved ones who have died in Him.

That Jesus is in control is a comforting thought, especially when we are bombarded by the world’s headlines.  We must put our trust in Him and in His gospel!