THE PROPHECIES OF CHRISTMAS

#014                                                      THE PROPHECIES OF CHRISTMAS                                                                             

Scripture  Matthew 2:1-23                                                                                                                Orig. 8-25-63 (12-77)

                                                                                                                                                                               Rewr. 12-18=86 

Passage:

After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi^[a] from the east came to Jerusalem ² and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”  ³ When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. ⁴ When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Messiah was to be born. ⁵ “In Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, “for this is what the prophet has written:

⁶ “‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
    are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
for out of you will come a ruler
    who will shepherd my people Israel.’^[b]”

⁷ Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. ⁸ He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search carefully for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.”  ⁹ After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. ¹⁰ When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. ¹¹ On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. ¹² And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.

¹³ When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.”  ¹⁴ So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, ¹⁵ where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called my son.”^[c]

¹⁶ When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi. ¹⁷ Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled:

¹⁸ “A voice is heard in Ramah,
    weeping and great mourning,
Rachel weeping for her children
    and refusing to be comforted,
    because they are no more.”^[d]

¹⁹ After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt ²⁰ and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who were trying to take the child’s life are dead.”

²¹ So he got up, took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel. ²² But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning in Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. Having been warned in a dream, he withdrew to the district of Galilee, ²³ and he went and lived in a town called Nazareth. So was fulfilled what was said through the prophets, that he would be called a Nazarene.

Purpose: To share a Christmas message drawing from the great prophecies about Christ and His birth.

Keywords:          Biographical, Joseph                       Messiah               Prophecy                             Christ, Birth

Timeline/Series:               Christmas

Introduction

                It  has been more than thirty  years since I first drove north out of Alexandria on the highway that fronts church property.  That first trip through the pine forests of central Louisiana was with the young woman who would become my wife, to meet her parents.  Because four pastorates and twenty years would be spent in the central and southern parts of our state, that highway would  be one “much traveled by.”

                We watched many changes.  Since much of it was in the National Forest, only as we approached the towns were there indications of people’s changing ways.  But even the forest changed.  An occasional tree hugging the right of way would be gone.  Places where the tree harvester plied his trade were in evidence.  We would see the void, where trees had been.  Next, the denuded landscape.  But by the next trip north, preseedlings would be in the ground beginning their inexorable growth.

                There were human changes as well.  At a central stopping place there was a break we regularly took.  It was a restaurant operated by a happy, God-fearing family man.  His daughters were grown and occasionally worked in the business.  His pride in them showed, not only in the pictures that adorned the walls.

                A much younger son was seen occasionally, and then over years, less and less.  He grew up during those years.  Graduated from Winnfield High School, went on to LSU, graduated there I believe, and became a pilot.  Then, on a later trip, Mr. Mercer told us that he was in Viet Nam.  An article in the Alexandria paper while we were still in Oakdale revealed that the young man was dead, shot down serving his country.

                The restaurant was still open on our next journey or two north, but things were not the same.  He, of happy countenance and friendly greeting, was not to be seen.  Then came the inevitable day, and a black, gloomy sign which read “Closed.”  It was understood that it also meant, “Not to be reopened.”  I do not recall whether other interests tried to make the Goat Castle thrive again.  I only know that it could not have been.  Now, the corner is marred by the memory of what was, and what is, and by what now occupies the corner on the south edge of Winnfield.

                It is a high price to pay to give one’s son, even if the cause is that in which one believes.  God gave His Son, knowing full well that for Him to be born would also be to die.  That’s an even higher price.

I.             There Is the Foretelling of His Birth to Wise Men.  It is not a prophecy in the Biblical sense.  There is scriptural intonation.  Numbers 24:16f “The utterance of him . . . who sees the vision of the Almighty, . . . I see Him but not now; I behold  Him, but not near. A star shall come out of Jacob; a scepter shall rise out of Israel.”

                Zechariah offers an apocalyptic image.

                Other verses allude to wisdom of men out of the east.  I Kings 4:30 “Solomon’s wisdom excelled . . . the men of the east.”

                We know something, of course, of those people and their distant land:

• In the east was Babylon, today’s Iraq, in the Tigris/Euphrates valley.
• Isaac’s wife, Rebekah, came from Abraham’s homeland, Mesopotamia.
• Egypt was the land of captivity, where some Jews remained.
  • The gospel song reminds us of this time:  “Wade in the water; wade in the water, children; wade in the water: God’s gonna trouble the water.”
• Ur, home of Abraham, is near modern-day Kuwait, which rests precipitously at the Northwest extremity of the Persian Gulf. 
• Jerusalem was the land of Daniel (Daniel 9:24-25), who prophesied 70 weeks (or years) until the coming of the Messiah.

The presence of these wise men demands two significant considerations: That the Messiah was known outside of Israel, disarming this as a political P.R. event, and that God intended faith in His Son to be the great, universal, foundation stone upon which hope and peace would be built.  Micah 4:2 “And many nations shall come, and say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for the law shall go forth of Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.”  Zechariah 2:11 “And many nations shall be joined to the Lord in that day, and shall be my people: and I will dwell in the midst of thee, and thou shalt know that the Lord of hosts hath sent me unto thee.”  Zechariah 8:23 “Thus saith the Lord of hosts; In those days it shall come to pass, that ten men shall take hold out of all languages of the nations, even shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying, We will go with you: for we have heard that God is with you.”

II.            There Is Prophecy Relative to Messiah’s Birth, Appearing Here As Questions of Those Men.  V2 “Where is He who has been born King of the Jews?”  With all of their learning, there are yet surprises: Surprise that Herod knows not of this, that a king would be born away from Jerusalem, that the star will show them the very place of His birth, and that they would be “divinely warned” in a dream.

                But be very sure that the prophetic word of God knows no surprises. Micah 5:2 “But thou, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall He come forth that is to be ruler in Israel.”  The wise men asked about a king, but when Herod called on his own scholars, he inquired of “Messiah,” and of Bethlehem.

                At Bethlehem, the picture begins to form of God’s love.   Could we with ink the ocean fill, and were the sky of parchment made; were every stalk on earth a quill, and every man a scribe by trade: To write the love of God above would drain the ocean dry, Nor could the scroll contain the whole, though stretched from sky to sky  (Frederick Lehman). 

                At Bethlehem also, we begin to discover the degree to which God will go for those He loves.  It took someone like Jesus to save us.  We dare not treat it lightly.

III.           The Forecast of Direction to Joseph for His Family.  V13 “. . . an angel appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, ‘Arise, take . . . go . . . stay.”  It is not Father’s Day, but perhaps it is:  A time to assume  joys and responsibilities; a time to learn of Joseph’s example; a time to bring joy to the hearts of 20^th Century Marys; a time for deepening relationships, of the spiritual sort, and of family.  God spoke  to Joseph.  He can speak to us: Through a dream then, perhaps now.  He speaks indisputably through His Word.

                The climax is that of obedience.  V14 “. . . He arose, . . . took the young Child and his  mother by night and departed for Egypt.” Knowing in obedience is doing.  The message is that of God’s providence. 

This is the Joseph of momentous decisions.  When he learned of the baby there were three choices:  Accuse Mary before the elders; simply put her away (Deuteronomy 22:26—sometimes the woman is helpless); accept Mary, and her baby, shelter them both, love them, and see the wonders of God.

When God persists in a plan, He provides the resource.  Three wise men from the east traveled for perhaps five months to provide resources for Joseph and his family in Egypt.

                Wise men still seek Jesus.

IV.          There Is Foreboding of the Murder of Children.  V16 “Herod . . . sent forth and put to death all the male children who were in Bethlehem and in all its districts, from two years old and under.”

                Is it conceivable for one man to harbour such malice, suspicion, and fear?  But clearly, to the warped mind human life is just another expendable commodity, political not spiritual.  Besides that, it was not just another human life sought by Herod, not just another number recorded on the parchment of over-populated land mass.  This was the king/messiah they were asking about:  What is done with the old king when a new one asserts himself?

                There are still Herods about.  These people didn’t find Jeremiah’s prophecy all that shocking.  Nor did the people to whom Jeremiah spoke.  “A voice was heard in Ramah, . . . Rachel weeping for her children, refusing to be comforted, because they were no more” (Jeremiah 31:15).

                Such are not born that way, they become that way.  “Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad with power.”

                Christian social enterprise without Christ’s redemptive love is hate.  I read of the Mayas of Mesoamerica, and their trials chiefly through Spain’s lust for gold.  There were places in their own native land where they could not walk on the sidewalks until 1965.

Conclusion

                In these areas, the prophecies of Christmas chiefly speak.  They testify that God is at work, and that He is at work in the human world.  The prophetic scriptures were fulfilled.  The Messiah was born of the Virgin Mary.  He was called the “Son of God,” because He was.  He was named “Immanuel” meaning God with us. 

                Harold Lindsell, contemporary scholar, wrote in Christianity Today (12/77), “By the light of nature we see God above us.  By the light of the law we see God against us.  By the light of the gospel we see Jesus as Immanuel who is God with us.”

                Skeptics and apostates may question and deny, but they deny only their own reason, and assert their own faithlessness.  They do no injustice to the truth of God.

                We believe the prophecies of Christmas because they are true.  They are true because God intervened in history and brought them to pass.  The Babe of Bethlehem became Calvary’s Captive: The Lord of glory, at whose feet we fall, and to whom we pay homage.  Blessed Christmas season when once again we remind, and are reminded, that God has tabernacled among us and we have beheld His glory.

THE PREACHING OF JESUS

#008                                                            THE PREACHING OF JESUS                                                                                   

Scripture  Luke 6:39-49 NIV                                                                                                                      Orig. July 4, 1985

Passage:  ³⁹ He also told them this parable: “Can the blind lead the blind? Will they not both fall into a pit? ⁴⁰ The student is not above the teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like their teacher.  ⁴¹ “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? ⁴² How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when you yourself fail to see the plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.  ⁴³ “No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. ⁴⁴ Each tree is recognized by its own fruit. People do not pick figs from thornbushes, or grapes from briers. ⁴⁵ A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.  ⁴⁶ “Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say? ⁴⁷ As for everyone who comes to me and hears my words and puts them into practice, I will show you what they are like. ⁴⁸ They are like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. When a flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well built. ⁴⁹ But the one who hears my words and does not put them into practice is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. The moment the torrent struck that house, it collapsed and its destruction was complete.”

Purpose: Continuing a Wednesday night series from Luke emphasizing the preaching of Jesus

Keywords:          Luke, Christ, Preaching

Timeline/Series:               Luke

Introduction

                From the preaching of Jesus we have an example of preaching in the mold of Hebrew preaching in that day.  It not only helps us to understand the context of preaching in the way that He experienced it, but it also shows the variances that He added to for others to follow.

                Our text contains eleven verses.  There are at least six distinct ideas contained therein.  The themes are: Following those who don’t know where they are going; relationship of teacher and pupil; reality therapy; a tree and its fruit; good and evil persons; and building a house.

                Herein is the essence of Hebrew preaching.  The Jews had a word for it: charaz, meaning “stringing beads.”  The preacher, in order to maintain interest, was taught to hurry from topic to topic.  The Book of Proverbs is a fairly good example of such preaching.

                Here, we have an example of using this kind of contemporary communication.  But He was not limited to this.  We find Him broadening the base of preaching by using it to convey specific truth through teaching.  He controlled the manner of His preaching as surely as He did the message.

Rule #1—We can Share Effectively Only What We have Come to Grasp Sufficiently.  V39 “Can the blind lead the blind?  Will they not both fall into the ditch?”  The blind person is totally helpless with anything he has not experienced.  The blind person is helpless.  It is remarkable what some have achieved within their limitations.  There are golf tournaments for the blind.  A blind woman named Vera painted her house in New Orleans.  To try to take another where we have not been is a risk.  There are compensations for sighted persons, such as maps, aids. 

                There is room for consideration of both literal and metaphorical blindness. The Greek word tuphlos refers to either kind of blindness.  Its use here seems to suggest a literal blindness (physical).

                There are variances of blindness.  Some don’t see; some won’t see; some can’t see.  Helen Kellen spoke at Southern Seminary and said, “The worst thing is to have eyes and not be able to see.”  V40 “A disciple is not above his, but everyone who is perfectly trained will be like his teacher.  Perfect/perfected—katertismenos in the Greek—suggests mending torn or broken nets.  In Matthew 4:21, “He saw James and John, . . . mending their nets.” Galatians 6:1 “Brethren, if a man is overtaken in a trespass (fault), you who are spiritual restore such a one in the spirit of meekness.”

                There are compensations for blindness whether literal or otherwise. If literal, there is a cane, guide dog, surgery, miracle; if none of these work, there is always the arm of a friend. It is  so for metaphorical blindness, but the helper must first be able to see.

                The Golden Rules of Teaching

• A teacher is a hinge on which one’s future swings.
• We teach more by our walk than by our talk.
• Sometimes, an ounce of Christian living before a pupil is worth a ton of talk.
• It is not what the pupils remember that constitutes knowledge, but what they cannot forget.

Rule #2—Misshapen Attitudes Affect Us both as Teachers and Learners.  V41 “And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not perceive the plank in your own eye?”  There is another consideration of “don’t, won’t, can’t.”  What these two have in common:  Both have been rendered incapable of sight; both have seemingly correctible conditions.  Now, a look at the ways they differ: a speck v. a plank or sawdust v. a saw log; accident v. carelessness; knowledge v. ignorance; beyond control v. self-control.

                Dr. Criswell told about preaching in an Oklahoma revival.  Members came, but a wife and husband went to sleep. When the power suddenly failed, the husband woke up in the dark.  “Dr. Criswell,” he shouted, “Stop preaching and pray for me!  I’ve gone stark blind!”

                Don’t work to change others until you’ve made room for change in your own life.  A psychiatrist is an M.D. who goes through psychoanalysis himself.  As Edward Wallis Hoch wrote, “There is so much bad in the best of us, and so much good in the worst of us, that it hardly behooves any of us to talk about the rest of us.”

Rule #3—Good and Evil are Alike Products of Human Personality.  V 45 “A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of the heart brings forth evil.”  Obedience to the highest good we know is the final test. Matthew 7:21, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven; but he who does the will of my Father in heaven.”  Psalm 1:2 “His delight is in the law of the Lord.” 

                The tree is known by what it produces.  I have two plums in my yard.  One is surrounded by little plums from last year’s fallen plums.  The other I race the birds to them. My tomato plants are not producing.  In the same way, the human heart produces what it is.  Does God see the maliciously evil differently from the ignorantly evil?  The evil done in the name of religion? The hostages! [1979-81]

Rule #4—What is in the Human Heart is Given Expression with What We Say.  V45 “Out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.”  What does one say under pressure?  What does one habitually say? What do we say when no one hears?

Rule #5—They Are Happy Who do not Exchange Future Advantage for Present Pleasure.  V48 “He is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock.”  The house builder is a useful illustration. He built his house during the dry season in the river bed.  When the rains came it was more difficult and more expensive. 

                We often have a choice between immediate convenience and long-term good.   Many people have trouble choosing what can’t be seen, such as the essence of spiritual decision.  Let us rebuke carelessness of spirit, as the University President whose goal was to raise a Christian family.  Let us require steadfastness; 1 Timothy 6:19, “Storing up for themselves a good foundation for the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life.”  Let us restore hope.  Storms do come.

***THE REMAINDER OF THIS SERMON HAS BEEN LOST***

THE GREAT PHYSICIAN

#003                                                                THE GREAT PHYSICIAN                                                                                       

Scripture  Luke 5:27-32                                                                                                                                     Orig. 6/21/64

                                                                                                                                                                                    Rewr. 8/1/87 

Passage:  ²⁷ After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector by the name of Levi sitting at his tax booth. “Follow me,” Jesus said to him, ²⁸ and Levi got up, left everything and followed him.  ²⁹ Then Levi held a great banquet for Jesus at his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were eating with them. ³⁰ But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who belonged to their sect complained to his disciples, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”  ³¹ Jesus answered them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. ³² I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”

Purpose:  To share with my people various spiritual sicknesses and that only a sense of sin leads us to the One who can heal.

Keywords:          Christ, Saviour                   Faith                      Doubt                   Sin

Introduction

                The years have passed far too quickly.  We have watched with fascination, and sometimes with dismay, the progress of American space missions.  We remember particularly some of the earlier ones because we watched our TVs with our hearts in our throats.  We read the responses of the returning astronauts.

                I remember the cosmonaut who returned loudly proclaiming that if heaven is out there, he saw  no evidence of God.  It was only a few weeks later that an American astronaut responded, having viewed what’s out there with eyes of faith, and having seen great evidence of God everywhere he looked.

                Later, someone, I forget who, added a footnote to this debate.  It is a message not to be overlooked.

“Nothing has been found up there that has changed the ground rules down here.  Nothing has been gleaned along the Milky Way which has made the good life easier or the wrong less attractive.  There is nothing out there that can warm one heart chilled with loneliness here, or bandage one mind that’s bleeding to death from doubt, or forgive one sin that has turned one soul prematurely grey. . . .”

I.             It Is the Self-Righteously Sick Who Need the Physician.  5:31 “. . . not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.”  He is the person who has answers even to questions which haven’t been asked.  Scribes and Pharisees were smart men.  They had read the writing and knew the mind of God.  Why do you associate with such? (Levi). 

At Simon’s for dinner (7:36), Jesus was approached by a sinful woman, who anointed Him.  Simon concludes, “If he were a prophet he would know the kind of woman she is.”

People are often flippant about the mind of God.  Psalm 25:14 “The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him; and He will show them His covenant.”  Romans 11:34 “Who hath known the mind of the Lord?”  I Corinthians 1:25 “The foolishness of God is wiser than men.”

Besides this flippancy about God, there are those who gloss over their own sin.  They are not so forgiving of others’ sins.  It should be our most accessible trait.  The Bible shows the character of God.  Evidence described a Christ who lived it.  But day by day we are surely overcome by our failure even to come close to the expectations of God.  John 15:22 “If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin.  Now . . . they have no excuse for their sin.”

We must also consider the parent refusing to acknowledge spiritual responsibility.  A great man once spoke of his majestic city, saying that if allowed to do so, he would go to the highest place in that city, call all the citizens together, and ask why they were turning every stone to scrape wealth together, yet taking so little care and concern for their children to whom they must one day relinquish all. The man was Socrates, speaking in Athens in 400 B.C.

II.            It Is the Cynically Sick Who Need the Physician.  “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.  I have . . . come . . . to call the righteous . . . to repentance.”  The cynic sees only the ugly in our society.  We will do well to dispense with false ideals.  Sin and hypocrisy among well-meaning people are too easily spotted.  

There are legitimate claims of hypocrisy in the church.  But people who use hypocrisy as an excuse can’t afford to be hypocritical.  If you stay away from church, for example, you must also find businesses without hypocrisy.  Be careful that those who teach your children are above hypocrisy.  Plan ahead so that your funeral coach driver is without such sin.

The cynic sees Christ not as physician, but as meddler.  But for Christ’s intervention, he could be openly amoral.  John 15:24 “If I had not done among them what no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin.”  No, they would just be consigned to the region of the damned, of the earth, earthly.  But for Christ, gold would be our eternally adorning God.  I Peter 1:18 “You were not redeemed with corruptible things, such as silver and gold.”  But for Christ, our children would be the fruit of fate, not faith.

III.           It Is the Pseudo-Religiously Satisfied Who Need the Physician.  5:31 “It is not the healthy who need a doctor . . . .  I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”  Such is often the person without spiritual values—unmoved, unmotivated, satisfied not to be last.  Regrettably, even using Philippians 4:11 as proof text:  “ . . . for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therein to be content,” ignoring what Paul went on to say: “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”

                Morality for too many people today is staying out of jail and out of the doghouse.  Many excuse themselves saying the New Testament standard is outdated. In a cartoon, two people stood before a painting by one of the great masters.  One said, “I’m not impressed.  Are you?”  The other, “The painting is not on trial.  We are!”

                The values of our day become more confused.  In Steinbeck’s novel, The Winter of Our Discontent, the son of his protagonist won an essay award through plagiarism.  When confronted by his father after the award was taken away, the young man said, “Who cares? Everybody does it . . . .  Don’t you read the papers? Right up to the top!”  This is not a barb at youth.  It is a stab at the pathetic example set for youth.  When we come to doubt the reasons for the things we do, we are in trouble.

IV.          It Is the Seeking Sick to Whom the Physician Comes.  V32 “I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”  First of all, the truly righteous know their state before God.  Psalm 112:7 “His heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord.”  Isaiah 32:17“The effect of righteousness will be quietness and assurance forever.”     

                The true seeker, though yet unredeemed, knows the hope of salvation. He is standing under the burden of sin:  Romans 3:23 “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.”  He knows that a day of reckoning must come: Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through the Lord Jesus Christ.”  What he may not know is the fullness of this salvation and its availability:  Romans 15:13 “Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound.”

                There are times, as a true seeker, that I fear for my role as pastor of First Baptist Church.  Oh, we are baptizing our children.  But what else of significance? How much closer to the Lord are you?  What would a roll call of  deacons, Sunday School teachers tell us?  How excitedly do you take your place on Sunday morning? Why do you not come back on Sunday evening? Wednesday? Why do you make no effort to further missions activities of your church?

                My fear is in the full realization that God will not suffer through an ineffective leader to the spoil of His church, and this church is a precipitous one.  It’s time then, for a lot of us, as true believers, to begin thinking repentance.

Conclusion

                I found a paragraph at the conclusion of a sermon written 20-25 years ago telling of the critical nature of contemporary events.  A journalist had published a book, Two Minutes till Midnight.  A missionary had delivered a much-publicized message entitled “Wake Up or Blow Up.”  A piece in the newspaper had told of individual B-52s on air alert, carrying explosive power equal to twelve times the explosives dropped during all of World War II.  During that same time, a statesman had spoken of people living under a “balance of terror.”

                Armageddon is a Biblical reality, and we may be closer than we think.  Whatever else may be on the brink, it is time to seek peace.

JESUS FOLLOWERS

#002                                                                    JESUS FOLLOWERS                                                                                          

Scripture  Luke 5:27-39                                                                                                                                      Orig. 7/14/63

-                                                                                                                                                                                Rewr. 4/10/85 

Passage: ²⁷ After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector by the name of Levi sitting at his tax booth. “Follow me,” Jesus said to him, ²⁸ and Levi got up, left everything and followed him.  ²⁹ Then Levi held a great banquet for Jesus at his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were eating with them. ³⁰ But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who belonged to their sect complained to his disciples, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”  ³¹ Jesus answered them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. ³² I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”  ³³ They said to him, “John’s disciples often fast and pray, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours go on eating and drinking.”  ³⁴ Jesus answered, “Can you make the friends of the bridegroom fast while he is with them? ³⁵ But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; in those days they will fast.”  ³⁶ He told them this parable: “No one tears a piece out of a new garment to patch an old one. Otherwise, they will have torn the new garment, and the patch from the new will not match the old. ³⁷ And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the new wine will burst the skins; the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. ³⁸ No, new wine must be poured into new wineskins. ³⁹ And no one after drinking old wine wants the new, for they say, ‘The old is better.’”

Purpose: Continuing a study from Luke, calling attention to some who early came to be followers of Jesus

Keywords:          Bible Study

Timeline/Series:               Luke

Introduction

                The first part of our study has to do with the call of a tax-collector to be a Christ-follower.  The scripture makes clear that they were a hated breed, and the reason is clear.  The Romans didn’t have an IRS.  There were  no computers to foul up, and there were no refunds to grant.

                They assessed a certain district the amount of taxes that were to be paid, and then sold the collecting rights to the highest bidder.  The officials didn’t care how much or how little money has actually collected, just so long as they got their assessed gross.

                It is easy to see how such a program could be abused, and how thieves with strong-armed tactics would tend to become the tax-collectors; and how they could become hated by the people.

                U.S.A. Today did a piece this week on numbers of assaults on IRS agents.  It’s up 50% in the last five years.  The article centered around a citizen’s going after some agents with his unregistered AR-15 rifle as they were about to seize his Cherokee in lieu of payment.

                The point is that tax people still are not all that popular, especially this time of the year.  We all know that it has to be done, and that our system, while not perfect, is the best available.  Yet tax people are not popular folks.

I.             The Selection of Matthew.  V27 “After these things He went out and saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the tax office.  And He said to him, ‘Follow me.’”

                At this point there were only four who were followers of Jesus—Simon, Andrew, James, and John (Matthew 4 and Luke 5).  Jesus already envisioned calling more.  But He must teach even these four.  A lesson they need to learn is based on human worth and repentance.  These were simple men, and thus were easily teachable.  Both Mark and Matthew include the disciples at the feast.

                Jesus’ method was to reach out to people who needed Him.  It had nothing to do with “who” they were, or “what” they had.  It had to do with “how” the perceived themselves in relation to God.  There are down-and-outers and up-and-outers, but chances are the ones walking alone are  more open to spiritual profferings.

                A major purpose here is to communicate the need for repentance.  Remember, his link with John in Matthew 3:1: “John, preaching, saying ‘Repent ye, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.’” Matthew 4:17: Jesus said “Repent,  for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.”

                At the feast Jesus will have occasion to illustrate repentance. Levi the publican becomes Matthew.  Many  publicans are at the feast to hear Jesus.  They need repentance.  Many religious leaders are contemptuously looking on.  They need repentance also.

                There is a terrible danger in the lives of many contemporary religious folk, that their religion becomes a shield against repentance.

II.            Secondly, A Question to Jesus About Why His Followers Are Different.  V33 “Why do the disciples of John fast, likewise those of the Pharisees, but Yours eat and drink?”  We need to try to get to the real question.  Why don’t your followers fast?  Why don’t your people commiserate rather than celebrate?

                Don’t disdain fasting.  I don’t know but one other thing that would more for the pastor and people of Transylvania Baptist Church—That’s prayer.

                The time comes when Christians ought to fast. Isaiah 58:6 “Is not this the fast that I have chosen?  To loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke.” 

“Yoke” is used to gain advantage.  Orthodox Jews like orthodox religionists of today believed that religion was supposed to make one appear uncomfortable.  They endured the Sabbath.  We take it in two hour units.  They fasted on Monday and Thursday (6a.m. to 6p.m.).  They put ash on their faces to show their fasting.

Anytime we are in such stricture of soul that our time with God is not interrupted for nourishment, whether by design or by forgetfulness, it is fasting.

Jesus uses the occasion of the question to share three parables:

(1) The true spirit life is like a wedding feast.  V34: “Can you make the friends of the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom is with them?”  We are not compelled to do what we wish not to do.  We are not denied things because they are pleasurable.  We are simply promised that living life in faith based on the Word of God is what brings true happiness.

(2) The true spirit life is like a piece of new cloth.  V36 “No one puts a piece from a new garment on an old one.  It will tear, and they do not match.” The Greek word for “tear,” pronounced “sxisma,” is our word for “schism.” The first three usages are about religious division. There is a present struggle in the Convention.  Jesus is not demeaning of the Old Testament but, rather, the way they looked at it.  They could not repair it by  attaching some new ideology over an old error.  Jesus was certainly not certifying that the new is better than the old.  He wanted to get to the heart of truth and build thereon.

(3) The true spirit life is like fermenting juice.  The life situation is that these were not bottles but goatskins. The Greek word pronounced “bota” is our word for “boot.”  Old skins are weak, cracked.  Fermentation will penetrate.  What Jesus is teaching is that people who know will  not choose the new wine over old. The value is in the aging, the changing.  The good comes from the new in the process of change.  Work through a new thought for it to become truth.  Leave room for repentance to be contained in your vessel of speculation until it ferments into truth.

Closing

                George Whitefield, 1700’s, said in one of his sermons, “You see, brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, what great blessings are treasured up for you in Jesus Christ and what you are entitled to by believing on His name. Take heed, therefore, that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith you are called.  Think often how highly  you are favored; and remember, you have not chosen Christ, He has chosen you.”  (Whitefield’s Sermon Outlines,  Eerdman’s Publishing 1956, p.122)

THE PARABLE OF TWOS

#005                                                               THE PARABLE OF TWOS                                                                                      

Scripture  Matthew 7:13-14                                                                                                                           Orig. 12-08-63

                                                                                                                                                                       Rewr. 10-81; 5-9-91 

Passage:  ¹³ “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. ¹⁴ But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”

Purpose: Sharing a message from this early parable of Jesus reminding us all that choices all around us need to be based on both reason and faith.

Keywords:          Decision               New Birth            Eternal Life         Judgment

Timeline/Series:               Parables

Introduction

                We call this “The Parable of Twos” because herein are two gates, two avenues, two companies, and two destinies.  We are told that they are not alike in any eventuality.  One almost compels us to choose it, the other beckons  only under the circumstance of privation and struggle.  But the advice of Jesus is to think the matter over carefully, and choose for eternity, not for the here and now.

                We have few songs that testify of “wide gate and broad way.” Many, however, instruct us about the “way” we need to follow.

                Listen as they are sung.  Footsteps of Jesus: “Tho’ they lead o’er the cold dark  mountain.”  I Have Decided to Follow Jesus:  “Tho’ none go with me, I still will follow; Tho’ none go with me, I still will follow; Tho’ none go with me, I still will follow; No turning back, no turning back.”  O Master Let Me Walk with Thee: “O Master let me walk with thee In lowly paths of service free; Tell me Thy secret, help me bear The strain of toil, the fret of care.”  The Master Hath Come: “The Master hath called us, the road may be dreary, And dangers and sorrows are strewn on the track; But God’s Holy Spirit shall comfort the weary; We follow the Saviour and can not turn back. The Master hath called us, though doubt and temptation May compass our journey, we cheerfully sing: ‘Press onward, Look upward,” through much tribulation The children of Zion must follow their King.”

                This parable came at the  end of a lengthy discourse known today as “The Sermon on the Mount.”  People were hearing Jesus for the first time.  They were told, in effect, that “life is hard.”  It certainly was not going to be easy to follow Jesus.  They were told in that sermon of the need for “meekness,” of the tribute of those that “hunger for righteousness.”  He spoke to them of the clear mandate of the law opposing killing, but of a higher law that addressed hatred.  Jesus said that prayer was a sacred trust, and forgiveness, a spiritual necessity.  7:12 “All things ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them.”

I.             The Parable of Twos Shows Us First that There are Two Gates.  V13 “Wide is the gate,”  v14 “strait is the gate.”  The words themselves help us.  “Wide” gives us our word “plateau,” platys.  “Narrow” is the word stenos from which we get “stenography,” or narrow, lined writing.  Luke 13:24 “Strive (agonize) to enter through the strait gate.” 

It is brought down to choice in its simplest form.  If I am buying shoes and only two pair fit, I take one pair and leave the other.  But if there are a dozen possibilities, it is more difficult.  When I was a boy, ice cream was available only in vanilla and chocolate.  When I take my grandson to Baskin-Robbins, it will be different.

We can set this simplicity in religious context as well.  There were those who heard Jesus, and believed.  There were others who did not.  Some listened to His message.  Others rejected it.  It is the application of two gates, one identified with Jesus, the other, not.  The gate imagery piles up on us.  One is colorful, filled with boisterous people; a refreshment stand interrupts.  The other is inconvenient, and must be carefully approached; people seem serious to the point of foreboding.

It really should not surprise us that there are only two choices.  Deuteronomy 30:15 “See, I have set before you this day, life and good, and death and evil.”  I Kings 18:21 “And Elijah said, . . . if the Lord be God, follow Him: but if Baal . . . .”

II.            The Parable of Twos Goes on to Affirm Two Ways.  “Wide is the gate . . . that leadeth to destruction . . . Strait is the gate . . . which leadeth unto life.”  No doubt, all of us have measured life in terms of broad ways and back roads.  I haven’t been east or west on Highway 80 for more than a few miles in years.  Remember how glad we were to get back in this auditorium from the confinement of the Fellowship Hall?

                It was our good fortune to live in New Orleans while old Tulane Stadium was around.  The word “concourse” was reserved for airports.  At Tulane Stadium everything was jammed tightly together.  After the game, you squeezed through the aisle,  then the gates, then it got difficult.  You had to get your car out of someone’s yard. 

                Now, we have the Louisiana Superdome.

                While the two gates refer to broad and narrow, the two ways are destruction and life.  This is encroaching on two destinies. We will look at that last.

III.           The Parable of Twos Tells Us Also of Two Companies.  There is a consortium of “many,” and another of “few.”  The gate through which the two companies have passed is symbolic.  John 14:6 “Jesus said, . . . I am the way, . . . no man cometh unto the Father but by me.”  John 10:7 “Then said Jesus . . . , Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door . . . .”  It is interesting that there is no other differentiation.  They don’t come from different districts.  They have no specific nationality.  Wealth, education, physical status seem to offer  no criteria of involvement. 

                The ONE thing that separates them is Jesus.  He has taught them about God’s Kingdom.  He described a religious value system.

                In this sermon, He has so spoken.  Matthew 6:1 “Do not announce  your alms before men.”  6:7 “When you pray, use not vain repetitions.”  6:17 “Fast . . . not unto men, but God.”  6:21 “Where your treasure is, so is your heart.”  6:24 “No man can serve two masters.”  7:24 “A wise man who built his house upon a rock, . . . [another] built . . . on sand.”

IV.          In Conclusion, It Is the Parable of Two Destinies.  Some are passing through the gate and along the way to destruction.  Those who have rightly chosen, are passing through to life.  It is so easy to become enthralled with the “broad” way.   

                The things with which we occupy ourselves are not necessarily bad things.  Ann  and I attended some Mardi Gras activities while in New Orleans.  Locals were there in droves.  Revelers came from around the country.  Money was spent irretrievably on junk.  There were excesses of flesh jeopardizing health.  Bad disposition remained for weeks.  It took weeks to clean up the clutter.  Too often there was a dead child who had taken too big a risk chasing a doubloon. 

                Having seen Canal Street under these circumstances left an indelible view of this text. Canal was dubbed “the world’s widest thoroughfare.” 

                Those things may do nothing more than keep our eye off of the main things in life.  Let this “broad” way remind us that there is a “narrow” way.  This narrow  way leads to “life.”

                There is a final thought from the word’s meaning.  Two Greek words define “life.” Bios (biography) means duration, manner of life.  Zoe (zoology) is life in its absolute sense.  1 John 1:2 “. . . We . . . show unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us.”  John 1:4 “In Him was life; and that life was the light of men.”

                About destruction, several words contain the idea of loss: Luke 15 parables (sheep, coin, son). The idea is that of loss of well-being.

                The idea here, in Matthew 7:13, is more.  It is the impact on everything worthwhile.

JUDGMENT DEFERRED

#865                                                                JUDGMENT DEFERRED                                                                                       

Scripture John 7:53-8:11                                                                                                                          Orig. April 3, 1991

Passage:  7 53 Then they all went home, 8 1 but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.2 At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. 3 The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group 4 and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. 5 In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” 6 They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.  But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. 7 When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” 8 Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.  9 At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. 10 Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” 11 “No one, sir,” she said.

Purpose: Resuming the study of John’s Gospel, here showing Jesus’ compassion upon the woman taken in adultery.

Keywords:          Christ, Mercy, Compassion

Timeline/Series:  Sequential/John           

Introduction

                One of the books that has been the most helpful to me over the years has been A.T. Robertson’s A Harmony of the Gospels(1).   Whenever I have needed to study parallel texts from two or more of the gospels, this book has been my teacher.  Additionally, there is a supplemental section dealing with texts that are to some degree troublesome.

                Our text for this evening, did not, however, receive such scrutiny.  He only adds a footnote.  “Most of the ancient authorities omit John 7:53-8:11.  Those that contain it vary much from each other.”

                The reference is to the fact that this passage is not found in but one of the early manuscripts.  Six of the best, according to Barclay, make no mention of it.  Two others leave a blank space where it should have been.  And the so-called “church fathers” do not mention it.

                It does appear in the Roman Vulgate, so Jerome knew about it in the fourth century.  Augustine and Ambrose comment on it, so it was known to them.  Other manuscripts that include the story, have it at the end of John’s Gospel, while some even insert it at the end of Luke 21.

                The best explanation I have read about this is that the early church had to deal so vigorously with paganistic sexual practices, that the story seemed a compromise.  Knowing the teaching of Jesus, this seemed to offer justification to those susceptible to more questionable practices.

                In spite of all these questions, the story is where it belongs, giving evidence of the gracious way that Jesus dealt with the people he encountered.

I.             Judgment Begins Actually with the Woman Herself.  V4 “They say unto Him, Master, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act.”

                The law relative to adultery is quite clear, she had to know it.  In the eyes of the Jewish legalists, it was a serious crime.  Parenthetically, it may have been this Jewish influence keeping this from before the people.  It was the Rabbi’s teaching.  “Every Jew must die before he will commit idolatry, murder, or adultery.”  Leviticus 20:10 says that both parties shall die without specifying how they are to die.  Deuteronomy 22:13f is complicated and states that the woman can be stoned to death.

                Knowing all of this, she chose to live in this unacceptable, and illegal way.  We do not know if she was a wife or a betrothed.  Only that she was taken in the act.  We also know, however, that there is no mention of her partner.  They claim affinity for the law.  We do not know why they did not likewise bring the man.  We know that they had little interest in this wretched woman.  Their interest was entrapment.  Jesus is himself the object of their spite.  V6 “This they said, tempting him.”  Peirazo—“prove by soliciting to sin.” Zodhiates p.1720.  James 1:13 “Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted by evil, neither tempteth He.”

II.            The Next Turn of Judgment is on the Part of These Religious Leaders.  V3 “The scribes and Pharisees brought unto Him a woman taken in adultery.”  They are performing a legitimate function.  Law is meaningless unless it is enforced.  Digressions from the norm must be treated without compromise.  Everything must relate to the severity of the offense. There is a difference in telling your child he can’t have a cookie, and telling him he can’t play in the street.  If it is life-threatening, he needs something to help him remember. Their interest was not in judging her but in judging Him.  Evidently, they cared little about the way she lived her life.  They are out to get Jesus.

III.           Their Point is that Jesus Make a Judgment Relative to This Woman.  V5 “Moses in the law commanded us, . . what do you say?”  V7 “They continued asking him.” The background is of Jesus being hounded by the religious leaders.  He was in Galilee as Chapter 7 begins “because the Jews sought to kill him.”  Now he has come to Jerusalem for the Feast of Tabernacles.”  Officers were sent to arrest Him.  There was division among the people. There were unbelieving rulers.  7:53: “And every man went to his own house.” 8:1 “And Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.”

                They determine to use this woman for entrapment.  His reputation with the people is of mercy, the friend of sinners.  He could be made to appear to flaunt the law.  If he condemns her, however, he could be in jeopardy with Romans.  The immediate response of Jesus seems to be uncharacteristically vague.  He stoops and writes in the dirt.  Not graphein—“to write.” Rather, katagraphein—“to record against.”  Job 13:26 “Thou writest bitter things against me.”  It could be because of her shame, he forcibly takes his eyes from her—she would have been emotional, the state of her dress or undress may have shamed her.

IV.          Where Judgment Ultimately Takes Us However, is in Jesus’ Assessment.  V7 “He that is without sin, let him first cast a stone at her.” 

                It shows Jesus’ different set of values.  There is a sense of authority to expose the sinner.  Jesus sought to understand and redeem, find oneness with, show compassion for.  George Whitfield: “There, but for the grace of God, go I.” B.H. Carroll reminding us of Song of Solomon 1:6: “Thou hast made me a keeper of vineyards, but mine own I have not kept.”  After golfer Ed Dunlop experienced vandalism against his property, he hung the [damaged] desk top in his office “to remind me to be more tolerant.” (Pro 2/9, p35)

                It shows a proper relationship to people. Their interest in this woman was to use her.  She was a tool.  We have a need to certify ourselves.  Do we care about people? What kind of people?  Our kind? What steps are we willing to take to redeem?

                Dr. W. Barclay refers to Paul Tournier’s “A Doctor’s Casebook in the Light of the Bible.”  How fond the Bible is of people’s names.  Exodus 33:17—“I know thee by name.”  Isaiah 45:3 (Cyrus): “I am the Lord which call thee by thy name.” Dr.  Tournier’s patients were more than gallbladders or lungs.

                Consequently, Jesus gives us His attitude toward sin.  Only the sinless has the right to judge sin.  Matthew 7:1 “Judge not that ye be not judged.”  One of the two choices left is apathy.  Philippians 2:21 “All seek their own, not the things that are Jesus Christ’s.”  Amos 6:6 “They are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph.”

                The remaining and appropriate attitude is the helpful spirit.  Jesus does not tell her that her sin does not matter.  He tells her she deserves a second chance.  A point of great importance is that there will be a last chance.

                “How I wish that there was some wonderful place, called the land of beginning again,     

                Where all our mistakes and all our heartaches and all our selfish grief

                Could be dropped like a shabby old coat at the door, and never put on again.” –Louisa Fletcher

                John 5:14 “. . . behold thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee.”  Impatience is the last and worst thing.

CONCLUSION

                Lee Atwater is dead.  He is Chairman of the RNC. Quoted (MMS 11-3-90) “I have found Jesus Christ.  It is that simple.  He’s made a difference, and I’m glad I found Him while there’s still time. . . .  For the first time in my life, I don’t hate somebody.” (Card 91:4-7)

1Robertson, A.T. (1950). A Harmony of the Gospels. Harper & Row.

WHEN THE WINE RUNS OUT

#858                                                          WHEN THE WINE RUNS OUT                                                                                 

Scripture  John 2:1-12                                                                                                                      Orig. October 17, 1989

Passage:  On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there, 2 and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. 3 When the wine was gone, Jesus’ mother said to him, “They have no more wine.” 4 “Woman,[a] why do you involve me?” Jesus replied. “My hour has not yet come.” 5 His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.” 6 Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons.[b] 7 Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water”; so they filled them to the brim. 8  Then he told them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.” They did so, 9 and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew. Then he called the bridegroom aside 10 and said, “Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now.” 11 What Jesus did here in Cana of Galilee was the first of the signs through which he revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him. 12 After this he went down to Capernaum with his mother and brothers and his disciples. There they stayed for a few days.

Purpose: Continuing a study of the gospel, here calling attention to Jesus’ beginning of appeals to his disciples for their faith.

Keywords:          Bible Study          Miracle                 Series, John        Christ, Glory

Timeline/Series:               Bible Study/John

Introduction

                This is not to be a treatise on or against the use of beverage alcohol. If it were, I would use some other text.  This passage has a much deeper, much more lucid meaning for us to grasp.

                But I will give you a testimony.  I will remind you that alcohol remains the true nemesis of our times.  I grew up in a home where it was the principal source of strife.  The absence of it frustrated my father, the presence of it was my mother’s strongest antagonist.  I can still remember times in young childhood when my dad was picked up for public drunkenness.  It was not a difficult decision for me to make to decide that my children would not have to struggle with that, nor their mother.  I contend, to this day, that leaving the use of beverage alcohol out of my life has cost me nothing, and gained me much.  That’s all I have to say on the subject.

                Let us now get back to what the text does say.  Let’s see that when Jesus and his disciples (Andrew, James, Simon Peter, Phillip, Nathaniel, and John) arrived, Mary was already there.  She may have been an official part of the proceedings, a hostess, if you please.  It could well have been a kinsman who was the groom.  Some say John himself.  For instance, the women who come to the garden tomb to prepare the body of Jesus are identified.  One is called Salome (in Mark).  Matthew mentions another woman, without naming Salome, and calls her the mother of Zebedee’s children.  They say, then, that Mary and Salome were sisters.

                Mary’s responsibility in the household was certainly official.  She saw that the refreshments were gone, and that embarrassment was ahead.

I.             So, Jesus Has Begun His Earthly Ministry.  V1 “The third day was a marriage in Cana, of Galilee; and the mother of Jesus was there.”  The form of the verb “to be” suggests station. It is imperfect—she has been there all along.  Jesus came at her request.  Six extra guests didn’t deplete the wine.  His purpose was to define his role for the disciples. 

                The groom made his choice, makes arrangements, and has come to his father’s home, or to his new home.  His guests waited there.  Her guests entered after their return.

                Mary reports to Jesus the embarrassment of having run out of wine.  This is fermented juice of the vine.  Without refrigeration, it’s the only alternative.  I remember when Ann opened Welch’s grape juice out of an unplugged refrigerator. 

                Mary’s direct comment to the servants suggest some official position.  Wealthy or poor cannot be derived. It is important that we note Jesus’ presence at ordinary events.  Jesus was not an ascetic like John the Baptist. Luke 7:34 “The son of man came eating and drinking, . . . a friend of publicans and sinners.”

                A comment must be made relative to the miraculous in Jesus’ ministry.  Remember, John calls it a “sign” (sémeion) as he does throughout.  John also uses numbers with significance.  “And the third day” concludes a description of the first week.  He has revealed six disciples, a number for incompleteness.  Interestingly, there will be mentioned six waterpots.

                Also, John selects only seven miracles. There were 35-40 in the gospels.  Several are reported by Matthew, Mark, and Luke.   Five of the seven only John records.  Here; healing the nobleman’s son (John 4); making the lame man walk (John 5); feeding the 5,000 (John 6); calming the storm (John 6); restoring sight to the blind man (John 9); and raising Lazarus (John 11).

II.            He Begins This Earthly Ministry Coming to the Rescue of a Bridegroom in Distress.  Undoubtedly, he has put his seal on the institution of marriage.  Nearly every marriage ceremony affirms this.  I would remind you that marriage is of divine, not Christian, origin.  The institution preempts expensive ritualism and legal documents.  Marriage is commitment to another person and to a divine mandate.

                Mary calls upon Jesus to offer aid.  Remember the status of her faith.  She was chosen. She is celebrated in the Magnificat (Luke 1:47), “My spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.”        

                The aid he has come to offer is to define his Messiahship. He “manifested forth His glory” (v 11), that “his disciples believed.”  The answer given to Mary is not as sharp a rebuke as it sounds.  She is already called “mother of Jesus,” though this is the FIRST sign Mary knew her son.  She may well have known John the Baptist’s identification of Jesus.  She would conclude that “His time had come.”  The hour of public assertiveness is on hold in concern for the disciples.

                By the way, “woman” (gynaika) is exactly what he called her from the cross in John 19:26.

III.           There Is a Spiritual Meaning Here Open to Each of Us.

                V3 “They have no wine.”  When the wine runs out, when that upon which all else depends is gone, what do we do?  When life’s exhilaration vanishes, where do we go?  He decided to provide the wine, but the true miracle is the message delivered to his disciples.  To the six:  “What will you do when the exhilaration turns to exhaustion, execution?”  To all of us: “To whom (what) do you turn ‘When the wine runs out’?”  Surely you have experienced it. The sun hides, birds hush, songs die.  Life’s elixir becomes tainted.  What do you do “when the wine runs out”?

                It is in this context, then, that Jesus works a miracle.  He instructs the workers to fill the six waterpots.  2-3 firkins would be 25-30 gallons.  Water was always identified with purification (i.e., salvation).  Isaiah 44:3 “I will pour water upon him that is thirsty.”  53:12 “he poured out his soul unto death.”  55:1 “He poured out his soul unto death.”

                When the waterpots were filled to the neck, to the brim, it was not enough.  Stone pots filled represent law.  Filled, they suggest that now the law has been filled full.  There was a stone pot for each of the six disciples.  Six means “not enough,” incomplete.  What do you do when the wine runs out?  When all else comes up short?  A hundred gallons of wine makes for a happy wedding, but who can make it happen?

                F.W. Boreham (T47.8p209) quotes the old violinmaster to his pupil “before you have finished the world will do one of three things with you.  It will make your heart very hard, it will make it very soft, or else it will break it.”  When exhilaration becomes exhaustion, when the wine is gone, what do you intend to do?  Jesus still holds the answer.

                A final comment must be made on verse 10.  “Thou hast kept the good wine until now.”  Where but in Christ does exhilaration follow exhaustion?  The world insists the best be used first.  Beauty spends itself for maturity.  Youth surrenders in time to age.  And the world counts them losses. 

                The believer who stands by his faith sees it become.  Jesus said to Nathaniel in John 1:51 “Hereafter.”

                The choicest blessings of marriage await the exhaustions of time.

A MAN BESET

#062                                                                        A MAN BESET                                                                                               

Scripture John 3:1-21 NIV                                                                                                                    Orig. 4-25-71 (9-83)

                                                                                                                                                                                  Rewr. 2-23-88

Passage:  Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. 2 He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.” 3 Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.[a]” 4 “How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!” 5 Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. 6 Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit[b] gives birth to spirit. 7 You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You[c] must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”[d]  9 “How can this be?” Nicodemus asked. 10 “You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things? 11 Very truly I tell you, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. 12 I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? 13 No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man.[e] 14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up,[f] 15 that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.”[g] 16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. 19 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20 Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. 21 But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.

Purpose: To share with my people a measure of the life of a man, Nicodemus, that we might all be more honest with the spiritual values that touch our lives.

Keywords:          Biographical                        New Birth            Revival                  Christ, Redeemer

Timeline/Series:  Greek Texts    

Introduction

                Picture, please, the coming of Nicodemus to counsel with Jesus.  He is a man, deeply perplexed.  He sees as we often do, people living differently from their stated religious values.  He sees long-held doctrine no longer constraining the lives of his people.  He hears of this man Jesus who is adding a new assessment to moral/ethical standards.  Jesus defines spiritual values as those held constructively in the heart, and therefore influencing the way people live.

                So Nicodemus, the Pharisee, a religious pace-setter, and Nicodemus, “a ruler of the Jews” (Sanhedrin), wants to discuss with this itinerant preacher these waning, changing values of his people.

                We need to come to grips ourselves with changing standards.  We need to be sure we understand what is at the heart of our ethical/moral values.

                Bruce Larson, in his book, No Longer Strangers (N34p12), shares the admission for South Hadley Seminary (now Mt. Holyoke College). It was one of the first finishing schools for girls.  These were the requirements:

1. No young lady shall become a member of this school who cannot kindle a fire, wash potatoes, and repeat the multiplication table.

3. No cosmetics, perfumeries, or fancy soaps will be allowed on the premises.

5. Every member of this school shall walk at least a mile every day unless a freshet, earthquake, or some other calamity prevent.

7. No member of this school is expected to have any male acquaintances unless they are retired missionaries, or agents of some benevolent society.

9. No member of this institution shall tarry before the mirror more than three consecutive minutes.

11. No member of this school shall devote more than one hour each week to miscellaneous reading.  The Atlantic Monthly, Shakespeare, Scott’s novels, Robinson Crusoe, and immoral works are strictly forbidden.  The Boston Recorder, Missionary Herald, and “Washington’s Farewell Address” are earnestly recommended for light reading.

                We are not interested in such strictness, not for ourselves, nor for our daughters.  But clearly, standards are still in our best interest.  So let’s keep this appointment with Nicodemus as he seeks out Jesus.

1. First of all, We Must Learn what We Can of Nicodemus.  “There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews: The same came to Jesus by night.”

                He was clearly a man of position.  By today’s standards, he lived in the best neighborhood, served on the community council, was a favored donor at political clambakes.  Had he lived in the old south, he would have been an aristocrat.  In Victorian England, of the ruling class.  In 14th Century Europe, a Lord.

                He was recognized by his peers as a man of truth.  Now, integrity and position do not always go together.  Compromise is thought by some to be a virtue.  Here, however, is a man respected at every level of social interaction.  He was aware of needs about him.  He knew what the injustices were, and spoke out of the underdog.  Hear him in 7:48f as he withstands those who rebuke the soldiers sent to take Jesus: “Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed on him? 49 But this people who knoweth not the law are cursed.” 50 Nicodemus saith unto them, (he that came to Jesus by night, being one of them,) 51 “Doth our law judge any man, before it hear him, and know what he doeth?”  What bothered him as much as anything was the inconsistency in his religious peers.  Here was a man who was still willing to learn from the insights of others.

                Who better is there to go to than Jesus?  John 1:18 “No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.”  It is of total inconsequence that he came to Jesus by night.  Some say he sought to hide his intent from others.  More accurately, he simply wanted time to address Jesus on critical issues undisturbed.  So ought we, to go to our Lord, with those issues that beset us, at times convenient for our full concentration.

II.            Having Considered the Man, We Now Turn to His Question.  V2 “Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God; for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him.”  It is not a question about “Are you a teacher sent from God?”  He knew Jesus by word and deed.  Perhaps he had been a quiet listener during the Galilean ministry.  He had been impressed by what he had seen.  Perhaps when Jesus drove the money-changers from the temple.  He saw a consistency in Jesus’ life not found in others.  Nicodemus did what has never been too-hastily done:  He went to Jesus.  In John 7:50 he verbally defended Jesus.  “Nicodemus saith unto them, (he that came to Jesus by night, being one of them,) 51 ‘Doth our law judge any man, before it hear him, and know what he doeth?’” In John 19:38f he helped prepare his body for burial.  “38 And after this Joseph of Arimathaea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, besought Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus: and Pilate gave him leave. He came therefore, and took the body of Jesus.  39 And there came also Nicodemus, which at the first came to Jesus by night, and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pound weight. 40 Then took they the body of Jesus, and wound it in linen clothes with the spices, as the manner of the Jews is to bury.”

                We can fairly well assume that the question had little to do with the duplicity of birth.  Now, he asks this question. V4 “How can a man be born when he is old?”  Not the only statement found with question mark.  But this seems to be only some shock-reaction to Jesus’ insight to his problem.

                To know what the real question was, we must delve into the answer given it by Jesus.  Answer: “Nicodemus, flesh is flesh.  That born of the flesh is flesh, nothing more.  Spirit can only be born of spirit.”  Wycliffe P289 reads, “The law of reproduction is “after its kind”. . . Sprit produces spirit, a life born, nurtured, and matured by the Spirit of God.”

                Question: “If I am made a Hebrew by virtue of my birth, is it likewise my good fortune to claim the sanction of God because I am Hebrew?  Note that the answer to that question is “Absolutely not!”  You are flesh, and all that flesh can reproduce is more flesh.  To be a man of the spirit requires reproduction beyond human understanding.  He illustrates by using “wind.”  “Wind,” “breath,” “spirit” are all the same.  It produces observable effect, but where it comes from, and where it is going, we cannot control.

III.           The Next Best Step for Us is to Apply this Answer to Ourselves.  V14f “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up: That whosoever believeth in him, should not perish, but have eternal life.  For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son. . .”

                The first application is to the new birth.  V3 “Except a man be born again.”  As always, the Scripture speaks generically.  There are no exceptions, all are included. 

                We must be able to give priority where it belongs.  I know all the rudiments of my birth. Born in LaGrange, GA, to James Ewell and Allene Thompson Skinner.  I am proud to claim such genealogy.  Don’t we all over-play the birth records?  We have a daughter born in Texas.  We were in Texas when Alaska was admitted to the Union.  They took it offensively. 

                Do we as well know the specifics relative to our spiritual birth?  It isn’t necessary to know the verse of the song being sung.  Nor who was preaching. Nor what the month and day were.  You should know, beyond human speculations, that it did, in fact, happen.  You were there. Who else was is immaterial.  You are the one who took the hand extended to you. 

                I regularly have people, out loud, invite Jesus, in response to Revelation 3:20—“Behold I stand at the door and knock”—into their hearts.

                There needs to be a birth-like identification with the Kingdom of God.  I had absolutely no emotional feeling when born.  But the birth of two daughters brought great joy.  I have shared that happiness with many others over many years as pastor.  So, the new birth, or second birth, being born of God’s spirit, is consummate joy.  And it happens through Jesus Christ only.

Conclusion

                In James Agee’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel, A Death in the Family1, a boy of nine sits clutching a daily newspaper and his father’s pipe.  The father is dead, auto accident.  “My daddy’s dead.  He can’t ever come home: not tomorrow, or the next day, or the next, or the next.” What terrible grief.  But the new birth is the antithesis of such grief.  It is joy.

1-Agee, J. (1957). A Death in the Family. McDowell, Obolensky.

WITHOUT EXCUSE

#028                                                                    WITHOUT EXCUSE

Scripture  John 3:19 NIV                                                                                                                 Orig. 11/12/61 (11/76)

                                                                                                                                                                                  Rewr. 4/20/87 

Passage:  This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.

Purpose:   In preparation for revival, remind my people that sin remains a problem that can only be controlled through the Cross.

Keywords:          Christ                    Forgiveness                        Man                       Lost                        Sin          Disobedience

Introduction

                Matthew Arnold was a prominent author and poet of Victorian England.  His concept of sin, however, was far removed from that found in the scriptures.  To quote Arnold, sin was pictured “not as a monster but an infirmity.”  He spoke of it more directly as “an infirmity to get rid of.”

                The Victorian poet’s views are shared by many people today.  However, neither Arnold, not these contemporary dreamers, ever give us the foggiest notion about how we may get rid of it.  Sin abounded then, as it surely does now, but the resolution to it is found somewhere other than in the human will.

                It would be a wonderful thing, indeed, if humanists owned an answer to such a question.  Of course, to do so, they would have to know more of the human heart than God knows.

                The attitude of the Father is one preoccupied with the seriousness of sin.  God’s disposition was not to admonish us to be done with it, for indeed, he knew we could not.  He, rather, moved in the direction of taking matters into His own hands.  He sent His Son to die with man’s sin burden squarely upon Him.  Man’s deliverance was and is in Christ’s death.

                “Don’t take it seriously” may be the attitude of some, but the attitude of God is intervention.  The Bible declares a substitutionary atonement.  Man’s sin separates. Christ’s death redeems and restores the separated one to favor once more.

                Back in the 1600-1700s, the Black Death claimed millions of victims.  So little was known by way of treatment that two meaningless methods were tried.  Thinking fragrance would help, victims were walked through rose gardens.  If they could no longer walk, attendants (doctors) walked around their beds sprinkling them with posy petals.  Ashes were also used to stimulate sneezing in the hope that some good would result.

                Innocent children still sing a song at play that came out of that awful time.

                Ring around the rosies,

                A pocket full of posies:

                Ashes, ashes, we all fall down.

                Only when the cause was perceived to be the bite of fleas of diseased rats was the Black Death controlled.  So is sin.  Only the liberation wrought through Jesus will bring us deliverance from it.

I.             First Note that Man is the Fallen Creation of God.  V19: “Men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.” And Romans 5:12: “Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned….”

                Man was created in and for holiness.  Acts 17:26f: “From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live.  God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.” NIV.  Thus was Adam created, free of sin, but with the potential to choose.  Of course, the official position is that we evolved.  Judge Duplantier’s writ still stands.  Our schools must teach it scientifically.

                We all find our way into the world the same way.  The baby is conceived.  It comes with potential to health and disease.  Parents seek to protect its wellness.  At some point, we must assume self-responsibility. 

                Created, as we surely are, in holiness as we most certainly are, responsible under the law of God:  Thou shalt not kill/steal/abuse: Yet overnight there may be as many as 15,000 arrests for these wrongs; child abuse alone has reached epidemic proportions.  A man shall leave father and mother, and cleave to his wife: Yet the statistics on marriage indicate that every other one ends in divorce; pregnancy among youth is a major social problem, as is HIV.  Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself: Prison populations are growing faster than society can expedite solutions; mental institutions are full; last night there were 75 or more suicides, some of them teenagers.

                “Submit yourself to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake,” 1 Peter 2:13.  The plight of national solvency is affecting tens of millions.  Population will double in less than twenty years.  Hunger is legion.  Amos 5:24 “Let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream.”

                This unique creation of God, voluntarily fallen… V3:19b “Men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil.”  Note: “rather than,” not “more than.” 

Someone calls attention to what is our ultimate hope.  “Lord, I find the genealogy of my Saviour strangely checkered with remarkable changes in 4 generations.  Rehoboam begat Abijah: a bad father begat a bad son.  Abijah begat Asa: A bad father begat a good son.  Asa begat Jehoshaphat: a good father begat a good son.  Jehoshaphat begat Joram: a good father begat a bad son.  I see from hence that my father’s piety cannot be handed on.  That is bad news for me.  But I see also that actual impiety is not hereditary, and that’s good news for my son.” (Thomas Fuller, 1608-1661)

II.            In Adam, All have Inherited a Tendency to Sin.  Romans 5:19 “For by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.”  It was potential to sin, not compulsion.  We know only that he sinned, we cannot imagine if he had otherwise chosen.  It is inconceivable that he had no other choice.  He was not foreordained to sin.  A theater manager was telling a trainee about his new job. “What would you do if a fire broke out?” The trainee replied, “Don’t worry about me.  I’d get out alright.” 

Man’s choice could have been that of obedience.  We have the example of Jesus of the One who chose correctly.  The consequence of Adam’s sin is that all mankind is marked by the taint of sin.  It is the sin of self-will.  It is the sin of conscious deliberation.  Moliere: “It is not only what we do, but also what we do not do, for which we are accountable.”  Psalm 51:5 “Behold, I was shaped in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.”

III.           Finally, We are Under Just Condemnation to Eternal Ruin.  Galatians 3:21-22:   “Is the law, then, against the promises of God?  God forbid: For if there had been a law which could have given life, the righteousness should have been by the law.  But the scripture has concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.”  For all humankind, it is a dilemma. 

The love of God is obvious.  God’s love does not and cannot alter man’s sin nature.  God’s word leaves no uncertainty as to man’s guilt.  Romans 6:23 “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ.”  Therein the “good news” of the gospel is established.  There is one way to go home again.  Many say you cannot.  It is because home is ever a variable.  But the gift of God is a constant.  Faith in Christ brings us back to an acceptable posture before God.  John 3:17 “For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.” 

The means through which this restoral is activated is repentance and faith.  Thomas Fuller: “You cannot repent too soon, because you do not know how soon it will be too late.”

Conclusion

                Charles Haddon Spurgeon closed crusade sermons with an admonition to faith.  “This I will venture to say: If thou casteth thyself on Christ, and he deserteth thee, I will be willing to go halves with thee in all thy misery and woe.  For he will never do it; never, never, never!

                “No sinner was ever empty sent back, who came seeking mercy for Jesus’ sake.                 “I beseech thee, therefore, try him, and thou shalt not try him in vain, but shalt find him ‘able to save to the uttermost them that come unto God by Him.’”

#028                                                                    WITHOUT EXCUSE

Scripture  John 3:19 NIV                                                                                                                 Orig. 11/12/61 (11/76)

                                                                                                                                                                                  Rewr. 4/20/87 

Passage:  This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.

Purpose:   In preparation for revival, remind my people that sin remains a problem that can only be controlled through the Cross.

Keywords:          Christ                    Forgiveness                        Man                       Lost                        Sin          Disobedience

Introduction

                Matthew Arnold was a prominent author and poet of Victorian England.  His concept of sin, however, was far removed from that found in the scriptures.  To quote Arnold, sin was pictured “not as a monster but an infirmity.”  He spoke of it more directly as “an infirmity to get rid of.”

                The Victorian poet’s views are shared by many people today.  However, neither Arnold, not these contemporary dreamers, ever give us the foggiest notion about how we may get rid of it.  Sin abounded then, as it surely does now, but the resolution to it is found somewhere other than in the human will.

                It would be a wonderful thing, indeed, if humanists owned an answer to such a question.  Of course, to do so, they would have to know more of the human heart than God knows.

                The attitude of the Father is one preoccupied with the seriousness of sin.  God’s disposition was not to admonish us to be done with it, for indeed, he knew we could not.  He, rather, moved in the direction of taking matters into His own hands.  He sent His Son to die with man’s sin burden squarely upon Him.  Man’s deliverance was and is in Christ’s death.

                “Don’t take it seriously” may be the attitude of some, but the attitude of God is intervention.  The Bible declares a substitutionary atonement.  Man’s sin separates. Christ’s death redeems and restores the separated one to favor once more.

                Back in the 1600-1700s, the Black Death claimed millions of victims.  So little was known by way of treatment that two meaningless methods were tried.  Thinking fragrance would help, victims were walked through rose gardens.  If they could no longer walk, attendants (doctors) walked around their beds sprinkling them with posy petals.  Ashes were also used to stimulate sneezing in the hope that some good would result.

                Innocent children still sing a song at play that came out of that awful time.

                Ring around the rosies,

                A pocket full of posies:

                Ashes, ashes, we all fall down.

                Only when the cause was perceived to be the bite of fleas of diseased rats was the Black Death controlled.  So is sin.  Only the liberation wrought through Jesus will bring us deliverance from it.

I.             First Note that Man is the Fallen Creation of God.  V19: “Men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.” And Romans 5:12: “Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned….”

                Man was created in and for holiness.  Acts 17:26f: “From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live.  God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.” NIV.  Thus was Adam created, free of sin, but with the potential to choose.  Of course, the official position is that we evolved.  Judge Duplantier’s writ still stands.  Our schools must teach it scientifically.

                We all find our way into the world the same way.  The baby is conceived.  It comes with potential to health and disease.  Parents seek to protect its wellness.  At some point, we must assume self-responsibility. 

                Created, as we surely are, in holiness as we most certainly are, responsible under the law of God:  Thou shalt not kill/steal/abuse: Yet overnight there may be as many as 15,000 arrests for these wrongs; child abuse alone has reached epidemic proportions.  A man shall leave father and mother, and cleave to his wife: Yet the statistics on marriage indicate that every other one ends in divorce; pregnancy among youth is a major social problem, as is HIV.  Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself: Prison populations are growing faster than society can expedite solutions; mental institutions are full; last night there were 75 or more suicides, some of them teenagers.

                “Submit yourself to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake,” 1 Peter 2:13.  The plight of national solvency is affecting tens of millions.  Population will double in less than twenty years.  Hunger is legion.  Amos 5:24 “Let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream.”

                This unique creation of God, voluntarily fallen… V3:19b “Men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil.”  Note: “rather than,” not “more than.” 

Someone calls attention to what is our ultimate hope.  “Lord, I find the genealogy of my Saviour strangely checkered with remarkable changes in 4 generations.  Rehoboam begat Abijah: a bad father begat a bad son.  Abijah begat Asa: A bad father begat a good son.  Asa begat Jehoshaphat: a good father begat a good son.  Jehoshaphat begat Joram: a good father begat a bad son.  I see from hence that my father’s piety cannot be handed on.  That is bad news for me.  But I see also that actual impiety is not hereditary, and that’s good news for my son.” (Thomas Fuller, 1608-1661)

II.            In Adam, All have Inherited a Tendency to Sin.  Romans 5:19 “For by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.”  It was potential to sin, not compulsion.  We know only that he sinned, we cannot imagine if he had otherwise chosen.  It is inconceivable that he had no other choice.  He was not foreordained to sin.  A theater manager was telling a trainee about his new job. “What would you do if a fire broke out?” The trainee replied, “Don’t worry about me.  I’d get out alright.” 

Man’s choice could have been that of obedience.  We have the example of Jesus of the One who chose correctly.  The consequence of Adam’s sin is that all mankind is marked by the taint of sin.  It is the sin of self-will.  It is the sin of conscious deliberation.  Moliere: “It is not only what we do, but also what we do not do, for which we are accountable.”  Psalm 51:5 “Behold, I was shaped in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.”

III.           Finally, We are Under Just Condemnation to Eternal Ruin.  Galatians 3:21-22:   “Is the law, then, against the promises of God?  God forbid: For if there had been a law which could have given life, the righteousness should have been by the law.  But the scripture has concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.”  For all humankind, it is a dilemma. 

The love of God is obvious.  God’s love does not and cannot alter man’s sin nature.  God’s word leaves no uncertainty as to man’s guilt.  Romans 6:23 “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ.”  Therein the “good news” of the gospel is established.  There is one way to go home again.  Many say you cannot.  It is because home is ever a variable.  But the gift of God is a constant.  Faith in Christ brings us back to an acceptable posture before God.  John 3:17 “For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.” 

The means through which this restoral is activated is repentance and faith.  Thomas Fuller: “You cannot repent too soon, because you do not know how soon it will be too late.”

Conclusion

                Charles Haddon Spurgeon closed crusade sermons with an admonition to faith.  “This I will venture to say: If thou casteth thyself on Christ, and he deserteth thee, I will be willing to go halves with thee in all thy misery and woe.  For he will never do it; never, never, never!

                “No sinner was ever empty sent back, who came seeking mercy for Jesus’ sake.                 “I beseech thee, therefore, try him, and thou shalt not try him in vain, but shalt find him ‘able to save to the uttermost them that come unto God by Him.’”

GOD'S INTENT TO BLESS

#19                                                                 GOD’S INTENT TO BLESS                                                                                     

Scripture John 7:37-39; Acts 2:1-4 NIV                                                                                             Orig. 4/5/64 (5/79)

                                                                                                                                                                                    Rewr. 3/3/87 

Passage:  John 7:37-39 NIV  ³⁷ On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. ³⁸ Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.”^[a] 39 By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.

Acts 2:1-4 NIV  When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. ² Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. ³ They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. ⁴ All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues^[a] as the Spirit enabled them.

Purpose: To remind us that we are God’s people, and that it is His intent to bless in His purpose and by His presence.

Keywords:          Christ                    Death                    Faith                      Sovereign God                  Revival                                  Holy Spirit     

Introduction

                The presence of God never comes by accident.  We never perceive Him under conditions that He did not intend.

                If Jesus went through those times when he did not perceive God’s presence, and He did, then the chances are that we will also.  Gethsemane suggests this aloneness that Jesus felt.  Luke 22:44 “Being in agony he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat were as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground.”

                Later, on the cross He would experience more, with greater eagerness to pray.  Mark 15:34 “My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?”

                The scripture gave prophetic utterance that it would be so.  That such a feeling of aloneness would occupy Jesus before His death.  Isaiah 63:3 “I have trodden the winepress alone; and of the people there was none with me.”

                The theme of “aloneness” of Jesus would occupy some of the New Testament writers.  I Peter 2:24 “Who His own self bore our sins in His body on the tree, that we being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness, by whose stripes ye were healed.”

                Though Jesus was forced to endure such separation, He was never out of the mandate of God’s caring.  As believers, nor are we.  The times when we feel so, are in reality times when He would magnify both purpose and presence in our lives.  Consider what Jesus truly endured at Calvary.  His followers scattered into the night.  One had denied even knowing Him.  Another had been instrumental in his arrest.  The religious people of Judea clamored for His blood.  Roman soldiers perceived His mortality as a cat and mouse game with Him as the victim.  In 1868 Elizabeth Cecilia Clephane wrote the hymn, “There Were Ninety and Nine”:

“But none of the ransomed ever knew how deep were the waters crossed,

Or how dark was the night that the Lord passed through ere He found His sheep that was lost.

Out in the desert He heard its cry, sick and helpless, and ready to die.

Lord, where are these blood drops all the way, that mark out the mountain track?

They are shed for one who had gone astray, ere the Shepherd could bring him back.

Lord, whence are thy hands so rent and torn? They’re pierced tonight by many a thorn.”

                In the midst of such agony of aloneness, God used the faith of a dying thief to bolster the dying Saviour.  A revolutionary, a convicted felon, is remembered now as the one who brought the healing balm of faith to the festering wounds of Jesus.

I.             To Bless by His Purpose.  V37 “In the first day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried saying, ‘If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink.  He that believeth on me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.’”

                We cannot separate this even from Jesus’ death.  John 7:6 “Therefore Jesus told them, ‘the right time for me has not yet come.’”  This is about opportunity, intervention, and destiny. V7:30 John: “His hour was not yet come;’ v33 Jesus: “I go unto Him that sent me”; v39 John “Jesus was not yet glorified.” God’s glory is manifest when one performs service of honor in His name.  What greater service than giving of one’s life.

                Now Jesus was in Jerusalem for the Feast of Tabernacles.  Late October was the harvest festival.  The last day was reserved for a special ceremony.  Water, symbolizing the life of the harvest, had been brought in a golden vessel from the pool of Siloam.  As it was poured out, it was accompanied by an ecstatic burst of Levitical trumpets.  Of all God’s blessings at harvest, the longing for Messiah is keenly felt in such a celebration.  There is a sudden pause of stillness and silence.  In this climactic void, Jesus speaks, “If anyone thirsts, . . . come unto me and drink.”

                The interpretation is easy.  Without water from heaven, there would be no harvest.  Without the effusion of Christ’s presence, an exceeding spiritual drought is evident.  Out of Jesus, says the text, do these waters come forth.  The Holy Spirit is not yet given. But Jesus entrusts to us the sharing of these waters of life.  John 14:12 “He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also, and greater works.”

II.            To Bless by His Presence.  Acts 2:4 “And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak in other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.”  First, a clarification.  We must let Luke speak God’s message for us here. The text speaks of “other” languages, not “strange, unknown” ones. 

Scripture defines the “unknown” tongue of the Corinthian church.  I Corinthians 14:39 “Thou shalt not forbid to speak in tongues.”  The text here speaks otherwise. Acts 2:1 “And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all in one accord in one place.”  The Holy Spirit was working.  This day constitutes God’s empowering of believers to communicate the Gospel. 

The performance of God’s presence is manifest through three quintessential steps in believers.

Step number one is repentance.  One becomes concerned about sin when we perceive it contrary to our good. More than regret.  More than fear of consequences.  Rather, anguish that one’s life is out-of-step with God’s plan.  Psalms 51: “Against thee, thee only have I sinned, and done that which is evil in thy sight.

Step number two is the step of believing, faithing Christ as Lord and Saviour.  This is an intellectual faith, but not that only.  II Timothy 1:12 “. . . for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day.” What we believe is secondary to in whom.

Faithing Christ is commitment in Him, surrender to Him, being changed by Him.  John 12:32 “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.”  Not “all” without exception, rather “all” without distinction.  It is the work of Christ. It is the work of Christ alone.  But we are encouragers not discouragers of seekers.  “Out of his belly flowed rivers.” 

Step number three is that we are the “rapids” through which those waters move out to bless humanity.  Thus, in this melding of repentance and faith, the new ground is broken in which the Holy Spirit works.  John 14:23 “If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.” John 14:26 “. . . the Comforter, which is the Holy Spirit,  whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and will bring all things to your remembrance.”

When next you come upon a windmill, watch it closely.  See if you can see the source of its energy.  Look good for pulleys and gears.  They are not there.  But you can see the result of the wind’s intractable presence.  As the blades turn, life-giving water is pumped where it is needed.  So with the Holy Spirit.  As we believe, and allow the living waters to be manifest in us, others come to be blessed by these waters.

Conclusion

                When the Passion Play first began to be performed, the lead was played by Anton Lang.  It was early suggested that a papier-mache cross be devised instead of the heavy wooden timbers.  Night after night, a “real” cross would be too much.  He refused, demanding, “Unless I feel the weight of the cross, I cannot play the role.”                 Too often we pursue the easy, convenient way to live as believers, a way more contemporary, more tasteful.  We are looking for papier-mache crosses.  The Holy Spirit has come to make the purpose and the presence of God a blessing:  A blessing to us, and to those around us.  There is no second-hand, less demanding Holy Spirit.