Names are very important and in the Bible this is especially so.
There is a book in our Bible that’s original name was The BOOK OF NAMES.
We call it the book of Exodus but the Hebrews originally and literally called this book the Book of Names.
To this book I would like to turn our attention this morning. We will be in Exodus chapter 1.
This book begins by naming the sons of Jacob and Jacob’s family that came with Jacob down to Egypt.
This first chapter of Exodus begins by linking the book of Exodus with the book of Genesis. It begins by linking the place where Genesis ends with Joseph in Egypt and his family with him there in Egypt.
You remember the story well from childhood that Joseph was sold into slavery and after much struggle rose to 2nd in command to Pharaoh in Egypt and was reunited with his brothers and fathers. Genesis closes with the children of Israel being in Egypt.
To link up Exodus 1 with the prior parts of Genesis we must go back to the promises made to Abraham.
I. God Keeps His Promises
Genesis 22: 16-17
By Myself I have sworn, declares the LORD, because you have done this thing and have not withheld your son, your only son, 17 indeed I will greatly bless you, and I will greatly multiply your seed as the stars of the heavens and as the sand which is on the seashore ; and your seed shall possess the gate of their enemies.
Abraham’s seed will be multiplied as the stars of Heaven.
Exodus 1: 5-7
5 All the persons who came from the loins of Jacob were seventy in number, but Joseph was already in Egypt. 6 Joseph died, and all his brothers and all that generation. 7 But the sons of Israel were fruitful and increased greatly, and multiplied, and became exceedingly mighty, so that the land was filled with them.
We see a parallel in this passage and what was promised to Abraham. We are going to see a major point that the writer of Exodus will try to hammer into our noggins and that is God KEEPS HIS PROMISES.
We see that in Exodus God’s people are being multiplied and are flourishing in a foreign land of Egypt.
We also see a connection with God’s covenant with Adam in Genesis where Adam is told to be fruitful and multiply and now we see God’s son, Israel, being fruitful and multiplying. God is carrying out His purposes, man had disobeyed but God was still faithful to His Promises.
This is a fact and something that we cannot state enough that God is true to His promises. God does not lie and God does not change. When God makes a promise God keeps His promise. Even if man is deficient in his end of the Covenant, God will keep his end of the Covenant.
We further see Exodus linking the narrative in this book with Genesis.
In Genesis 10 the Jews numbered the decedents of NOAH after the flood were 70. After God had destroyed the earth he replenished the world by starting with 70.
Now in Exodus we see the Nation of Israel starting off as 70. We are told in chapter 1 of Exodus that 70 begin their in Egypt as Israelites and before long they will number as the sands on the seashore.
Also, this number of 70 would be considered by the Jews as the total number of nations on the earth. These nations would be the ones that Israel would bless through the promise made to Abraham that all nations would be blessed through his seed.
So we see in Exodus that the writer is really telling us that the God of Genesis, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, is keeping His promises and will fulfill His purposes.
Romans 3: 3-4
What then ? If some did not believe, their unbelief will not nullify the faithfulness of God, will it? 4 May it never be! Rather, let God be found true, though every man be found a liar, as it is written, "THAT YOU MAY BE JUSTIFIED IN YOUR WORDS, AND PREVAIL WHEN YOU ARE JUDGED."
Paul makes this point in Romans, the same point that the book of Exodus is making and that is no matter how frail we are, or how unfaithful we may be, God will keep His promises.
We can pillow our heads at night knowing that God’s promises don’t depend on how good we can be. God promises such things to us that He would be with us even until the end of the age.
That when two or more or gathered together in His name, he will be there among us.
These are promises that we can show up on Sunday morning and know that God is in our presence. We have gathered in His name, a powerful name, a name that was not even utterable in the OT, we gather in this Name, and know that his presence is among us.
Not because of any good we have done but because God loves us and keeps His promises. This is good news, this is wonderful news.
We have a God that is unshakeable and isn’t fickle like the gods of ancient Greece or the unknowable God of Islam.
A God that wants to build relationship with you and share His life with you. He wants to give you what He has promised, He wants to fulfill His promises in your life. He wants to bring a great work about in your life, not from anything inside of us, but by His power, His faithfulness, and His Promise.
II. NAME BECAUSE OF OBEDIENCE
I would like to now turn back to the narrative of Exodus 1, and in verse 7 we learned that the Israelites had multiplied in Egypt in great numbers, so much that they filled the land. We pick up in verse 8.
Exodus 1: 8-17
8 Now a new king arose over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. 9 He said to his people, "Behold, the people of the sons of Israel are more and mightier than we. 10 "Come, let us deal wisely with them, or else they will multiply and in the event of war, they will also join themselves to those who hate us, and fight against us and depart from the land." 11 So they appointed taskmasters over them to afflict them with hard labor. And they built for Pharaoh storage cities, Pithom and Raamses. 12 But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and the more they spread out, so that they were in dread of the sons of Israel. 13 The Egyptians compelled the sons of Israel to labor rigorously ; 14 and they made their lives bitter with hard labor in mortar and bricks and at all kinds of labor in the field, all their labors which they rigorously imposed on them. 15 Then the king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other was named Puah ; 16 and he said, "When you are helping the Hebrew women to give birth and see them upon the birthstool, if it is a son, then you shall put him to death ; but if it is a daughter, then she shall live." 17 But the midwives feared God, and did not do as the king of Egypt had commanded them, but let the boys live.
We see that a new Pharaoh comes to the throne that did not KNOW Joseph.
This word KNOW does not just imply remembering Joseph but it is a Hebrew word for making of a covenant, the word KNOW means covenant relationship.
The covenant partnership of Israel and Egypt has been ruptured. It has been destroyed.
Why is this so?
Historians tell us that the Pharaoh in the time of Joseph that was friendly to Joseph was from a group that had taken control of Egypt.
This group was known as the HYKSOS. The Hyksos were ethnic cousins with the Hebrews. They were Semitic people like the Hebrews.
The Hyksos were friendly to the Hebrews because they were from the same ethnic stock. Sometime later we find that the ethnic Egyptians rose up and ran the Hyksos out of Egypt and this new Pharaoh would be the one that took control after the Hyksos were run out of Egypt.
Now imagine how this new Pharaoh would feel about the Hebrews. The Hebrews had been partners with the Hyksos so this new pharaoh would look upon them with suspicion and would not extend the covenant partnership to the Hebrews.
Pharaoh wants to stem the growth of the Hebrews, he forces them to work hard- and they still multiply,
He commands the Hebrew midwives to kill the Hebrew newborn males Something terrible they are commanded to do.
We find that these midwives feared God more than Pharaoh and did not do this detestable thing.
One thing that is fascinating about this passage is that the midwives were called by name in the narrative to be kept in memory everywhere the Bible spreads and the gospel is preached.
The names Shiphrah and Puah are remembered to this day for their obedience.
In contrast, the book of Exodus never names Pharaoh. All of the Pharaohs had specific names that were part of their royal title and to not name them in their full title was considered an outrage.
It is slap to the face of Pharaoh that Exodus does not name this pharaoh and the contrast and irony cannot escape us. God is sending a message and a contrast. The women are the epitome of faithfulness and obedience where Pharaoh is the example of evil.
These women are named because of their obedience.
In Acts 5: 29, Peter told the Sanhedrin that he Must obey God rather than man.
We see this example in this story that rings true today that simply our lives must be lives that obeys God rather than man. We can look at these ladies and see where this simple act of disobedience to Pharaoh and obedience to God stands as a shining example to all of us.
The ultimate insult was to either leave a prominent historical figure’s name out of a record or literally blot this name out. We see in the book of Revelation this connection between obedience and blotting of a name.
Revelation 3: 5
5 He that overcometh shall thus be arrayed in white garments; and I will in no wise blot his name out of the book of life, and I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels.
Jesus tell us that He that overcomes will not have their name blotted out. The one that obeys, just like these two ladies, will have their name recorded in the book of life.
III. The Name of God
As we close out there is a name that we need to consider and that is the name of God.
For centuries the Jews would not even say that name of God. As a matter of fact the word Yahweh is a just a guess as to what God’s name was in the OT because the Jews would never add the vowels to the name out of respect when they wrote it.
The name of God carries with it great importance. Just proclaiming something in the name of God held great reverence and significance for the people.
One such instance that we just really don’t consider the magnitude of is our baptism. In Matthew 28 Jesus commands His disciples to baptize people in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Our lives, in baptism, are no longer our own but belong to God. WE wear a new name a name that the Jews would have killed to know and this is the very name and identity that we are asked to wear.
WE just don’t understand what God has promised us. When we are baptized into Christ we are promised forgiveness of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit.
We just can’t start to imagine the life that God has promised us that He has for us. He is faithful to His promise and if we are not experiencing that life we are the ones being faithless, not God.
When I think of the promises of God, I’m reminded of the story of the young man who had a dream to go to America. He scrimped and saved, and did everything in his power to save enough money to buy a ticket on a boat bound for America. The day came when he had precisely the amount of money needed, and he went immediately and purchased that ticket. The ship was to leave the next day, so with great excitement, and with all of his possessions wrapped neatly in a blanket he boarded the ship, and settled down for his great journey. After the first couple of days, the young man had exhausted the meager supply of food that he had been able to scrimp and save in his blanket, and he began to get hungry. He knew that if he could only survive for a few days more, he would enjoy all the riches that America promised.
It was that evening that a steward found him preparing to sleep in a secluded corner on deck. The steward confronted him, accusing him of being a stowaway. Protesting his innocence, the young man produced his ticket. The steward apologized, but then asked "but why are you sleeping here on deck, when you have quarters below"? When the young man replied that he had only enough money for the passage but no room, the steward explained that the room was included in the price of the ticket. As the steward led the astonished young man to his room, they passed the large dining room where a sumptuous meal was being laid out. The young man peeked in and saw that the room was filling with people, and the steward told the young man that he could be seated for dinner in about fifteen minutes, as that was included also.
God has so many good gifts to give us,
If you haven’t been baptized ………………….
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Saturday, January 23, 2010
Christ in Us the Hope of Glory AM Sermon
Christ in Us the Hope of Glory
Many people wonder what a preacher’s stance on the end times is all about. Are you a premillennialist, post millennialist, a millennialist? When will Christ return and can we open up the newspaper and read Scripture being fulfilled before our eyes?
Well I want to share with you a sure sign that the Apocalypse is upon us and that sign is that a conservative Republican won one of the Senate seats in the state of Massachusetts.
So what was that all about? Why was the Washington establishment shook up by this election? Why were people mad because the seat of Ted Kennedy went to someone that believes in limited government?
Well this morning you might be here thinking, Why is a preacher talking about politics? The Church house is not for that. I would challenge that notion and ask where does that line of thinking come from? Can we find that in the Bible? I would propose that the Bible applies to every aspect of life and if that is not the case we need to go home and live it up.
I think what we witnessed in that election was people understanding that the government cannot save you nor solve all of your problems. What is fascinating is we have a book written in a time period that a certain government told the people that peace and security could only be found in Caesar. It was a government that reminded the people that there was free bread given out in the name of Caesar and without Rome you would starve. Without Rome the pirates on the sea would reign supreme and you would not be safe. Without Rome and Caesar the economy could crash. Sounds familiar doesn’t it.
Whenever the State or any entity becomes too big for its britches it kicks out God because there is no room for God. If Caesar, or the President, or the Senate, or the Speaker of the House can solve all of your problems, what do we need God for? Read Karl Marx and the rise of the Communistic system and that is exactly what developed that system of government. Marx was a deist and eventually became an atheist. He didn’t need a God when the State or government was the ultimate authority. Communism in its purest form didn’t necessarily say you had to be an atheist but it lead to atheism because you didn’t need God you just needed the State, the government, the Proletariat.
Enlightenment settlement – holding pattern – carve up the world, separate the world into different spheres, God is not involved.
The Answer for Christians is to return to the Bible and look at God’s view of our situation and have a renewed call to our vocation and our calling.
I. Jesus is the Presence of God’s Glory upon this Earth.
We must realize God has returned in His Glory to this Earth in the person of Jesus Christ. The Coming of Jesus Christ the first time in flesh was an epoch event that changed all of history and shook up the entire cosmos. We can’t put too much emphasis on this fact.
God called Abraham that through the covenant with Abraham was to fix the disobedience of Adam.
The Rabbis of Jesus time would say Adam sinned and God called Abraham to fix things.
Adam was the angled mirror in which God would work to bring order to his good Creation, and when Adam decided not to do that then things changed.
Now God wants to call us to do that again.
That is one of the main purposes of God’s covenant made with Abraham.
In the Book of Romans Paul reminds us that He has been faithful to the covenant made with Abraham through the man Jesus Christ.
God wants to get the Adam project back on track. In Romans 5 Paul brings all of this to view.
In Romans 1:18- Chapter 4 Paul is arguing that God has been faithful to the covenant made with Abraham through Jesus Christ and takes us to his big argument in Romans 5.
Romans 5: 12-17
12 Therefore , just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned - 13 for until the Law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. 14 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of the offense of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come. 15 But the free gift is not like the transgression. For if by the transgression of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many. 16 The gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned ; for on the one hand the judgment arose from one transgression resulting in condemnation, but on the other hand the free gift arose from many transgressions resulting in justification. 17 For if by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.
We will come back to verse 17 in this passage later in the sermon but for now I want us to understand what Paul is laying out. God wants to get the Adam project back on track. Adam backfired and failed to reflect to God’s creation His glory and act in obedience to God. Now, God is bringing that project back on line through Jesus.
Paul has packed this passage with so much info that I boggles your mind as you read it. Life and obedience are coming through Jesus but death and disobedience came from Adam.
It goes back to God’s glory returning to this Earth. We remember that in 1 Kings 8 when Solomon dedicated the Temple that God’s glory filled the Temple and the priests could not even stand in the Presence.
Shekinah was the word used for this. The Templing Presence of God was there in the Temple.
The Temple was an advanced sign for what God wanted to do for the rest of the world. God wants to bring his Glory to all of His Creation.
In Ezekiel we see God’s presence leaving the Temple because of the Sin of Israel. We see it in the form of a wheeled object that lifts off and takes off somewhere into the wilderness never to be seen again.
God’s presence does not show up again until we pick up the Gospel of John.
John 1: 14
“14 And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
John uses two Temple terms to describe Jesus – the term Dwelt which literally means Tabernacled or Templed and the term Glory which hearkens back to God’s glory that would fill the Temple.
John is telling us that the Glory of God has returned to Israel in the person of Jesus Christ.
.This was predicted by the OT prophets that God’s glory would one day fill the earth.
Numbers 14/ Habakkuk 2/ Isaiah 11/ Isaiah 40
I would propose that in the Person and Ministry of Jesus we see the first phase of this project begin, this project of Adam that went bad, and the project of filling the earth with His glory begins in Jesus.
John builds up this theme of the presence and glory of God throughout his entire Gospel until you get to Chapter 19 and you gaze at a full view of God’s glory
You are gazing at in John 19 the full view – Glory of God – total self giving love. This is what it looks like when Yahweh returns to Zion – enthroned on a cross – in total self giving love for mankind to get God’s project back on track.
That takes us back to my introduction and the talk of Empire vs. the Bible. What does this have to do with the Glory of God in Christ.
First of all we need to see how Caesar presented himself:
Caesar has is a servant of the state by building this road and now he is exalted to be the Son of God, he is now proclaimed as Lord and God.
Paul brings us to the feet of Jesus in Philippians 2 and tells us that Jesus humbled Himself even death upon a cross and at his name every knee will bow and every tongue will confess. Not Caesar but Jesus!
Anything Caesar can do, Jesus can do better.
Peace and Security
1 Thess 5: 3
Peace and Security Was a Roman Slogan
What power did Rome have over people? - They would kill you, they had the power of death over you.
We turn to Romans the 1st chapter and we see Paul lay out his argument for the true King.
Jesus is of royal lineage – David, He is the true son of God by the resurrection. That is the linchpin argument because through resurrection the state has no power anymore. Jesus has conquered death so we no longer have to fear death. This was the view of the earliest Christian martyrs. The Empire had no power over them because they didn’t have to fear death.
Ephesians 1: 7-10
7 In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace 8 which He lavished on us. In all wisdom and insight 9 He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him 10 with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth.
God wants to SUM up ALL things in Christ. God wants to put together what was broken in this world and fractured in this world in Jesus. Politicians are not able to carve up this world because all things are summed up in Christ.
II. God wants us to reflect that Glory
Earlier I said we would return back to Romans chapter 5 and now I want to look back at verse 17
Romans 5: 17
. 17 For if by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.
The Greek in this verse for the idea of ‘reign’ is literally translated Will Be MADE Kings.
In Christ God wants to make us Kings in this world. This is not triumphalism but is a sobering thought. It is one that should bring us wonder but also pause.
Paul is bringing this beautiful argument to a close. Adam backfired but the project is back on line with Christians. Adam refused to reflect God’s glory to the Creation but now we are called to do just that.
Become Kings like Jesus became a King. A king that is put on a cross. We will reflect God’s glory by working to reflect God’s glory into the world.
Ephesians 2: 10
10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.
The word for Workmanship in this passage is the same word we get the word Poem from in English. Paul is telling us that Christians are literally God’s masterpiece.
If we will only submit and allow God to shape us and restore the image that was marred.
We have a mirror at Clay-Chalkville High School that is made to show demonstrations to classes in lab. It is hung on the ceiling and can angle to show work on the table top to the students.
Our lives in Christ are much the same. We are an angled mirror. We are to reflect God’s glory to the people around us.
When they see us they shouldn’t see anything special about us but see Christ in us. They should see God’s workmanship to His glory.
Every aspect of our lives shaped by God.
Paul tells us In 1 Corinthians that God wants to make us Temples of the Holy Spirit. Each individual Christian is a reflection of God’s Glory in Christ.
If we are to reign as Kings – What type of Kings should we be?
What about the ultimate King, King Jesus? If we are to reign with Christ, how did he show us? Total self giving love.
We have to be willing to take up the cross and reign in this world in self giving love that reflects the love of God.
The Kingdoms of this world may be built with compromises made in back rooms. It may be made with kickbacks to certain states that vote for a certain bill but God’s kingdom was established at a much higher price.
It cost Jesus his life, a life that He was willing to give and take it up again. This is a kingdom that is true and it unshaken.
Paul warns in I Thess 5 that there will be a time when people are saying peace and security but then sudden destruction will come. This was a slogan used by the Romans – peace and Security – Paul reminds us to put our hope in a Kingdom that is permanent.
III. God wants to reflect His glory through the Church
Ephesians 3: 9-10
9 and to bring to light what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God who created all things ; 10 so that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places.
Paul told us in Eph 1: 10 that God wants to sum up all things in Christ and then in 2:10 that we are his workmanship and now in Eph 3: 10 that the church will be the agency that he will bring His glory to bear on this earth.
Colossians 1: 27
to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
Christ in you the hope of glory
In this passage the ‘you’ is plural in the Greek. Paul is speaking to the Church of Colossae as a whole as the ones that would carry the glory of God through Christ into a lost city.
Isaiah is one of the pilgrim songs that would be sung.
Isaiah 40: 1-5
1 "Comfort, O comfort My people," says your God. 2 "Speak kindly to Jerusalem ; And call out to her, that her warfare has ended, That her iniquity has been removed, That she has received of the LORD'S hand Double for all her sins." 3 A voice is calling, "Clear the way for the LORD in the wilderness ; Make smooth in the desert a highway for our God. 4 "Let every valley be lifted up, And every mountain and hill be made low ; And let the rough ground become a plain, And the rugged terrain a broad valley ; 5 Then the glory of the LORD will be revealed, And all flesh will see it together ; For the mouth of the LORD has spoken."
The glory is not FOR us. Paul is planting churches that are small in number, maybe 10 converts in Colossae, 5 in Ephesus, a few in Thessalonica – These churches are advanced signs to the world and to the Empire that God’s glory is here and it is being reflected in these groups of people.
These little groups of people will grow and fill the entire earth. They will bring God’s glory to this Creation.
Caesar- and any other rulers are to be put on notice, the Adam project is back on track, God is redeeming people to reflect His glory, people that are loyal to God and understand that God alone is Sovereign.
God alone gets the glory and not the President, Caesar, Sports Heroes, Holly wood actors, all of our modern idols have been put on notice.
There is a true King and it is not them.
We see that God’s progression of bringing this action to completion began in Christ, went to individual Christians and then to networks of people in Churches. The Called out of God, the Ekklesia the Church. These groups will be called out to reflect back to God and Creation what Adam refused to do.
So How Should We Then Live?
1) Realizing our Vocation- Called to reign as God’s ambassadors, called to reflect His glory we must consider things:
Paul would tell many of the Churches that he labored with that not even a hint of immorality should be present among God’s people.
How can we call down the principalities and powers to subjection to God, if we cant win the battle over sin in our own lives?
How can we be effective if we are sinful and bring an air of hypocrisy. This generation craves a genuine Christianity.
We must think in terms of God’s kingdom. We must engage our culture. WE cannot retreat from the argument but must be ready to give a defense of our faith.
Lastly, we must share this message – God wants to fill the earth with His glory of people transformed but we stifle the Spirit because we don’t want to preach to people. We must be willing to share our faith. This is Good News and it means it is good news for everyone. Jesus Christ is Lord even if they don’t believe it.
We must realize that we are sharing a fact, not selling a product. We must state it as fact and quit being apologetic about the Gospel because it is truly good news for all.
Many people wonder what a preacher’s stance on the end times is all about. Are you a premillennialist, post millennialist, a millennialist? When will Christ return and can we open up the newspaper and read Scripture being fulfilled before our eyes?
Well I want to share with you a sure sign that the Apocalypse is upon us and that sign is that a conservative Republican won one of the Senate seats in the state of Massachusetts.
So what was that all about? Why was the Washington establishment shook up by this election? Why were people mad because the seat of Ted Kennedy went to someone that believes in limited government?
Well this morning you might be here thinking, Why is a preacher talking about politics? The Church house is not for that. I would challenge that notion and ask where does that line of thinking come from? Can we find that in the Bible? I would propose that the Bible applies to every aspect of life and if that is not the case we need to go home and live it up.
I think what we witnessed in that election was people understanding that the government cannot save you nor solve all of your problems. What is fascinating is we have a book written in a time period that a certain government told the people that peace and security could only be found in Caesar. It was a government that reminded the people that there was free bread given out in the name of Caesar and without Rome you would starve. Without Rome the pirates on the sea would reign supreme and you would not be safe. Without Rome and Caesar the economy could crash. Sounds familiar doesn’t it.
Whenever the State or any entity becomes too big for its britches it kicks out God because there is no room for God. If Caesar, or the President, or the Senate, or the Speaker of the House can solve all of your problems, what do we need God for? Read Karl Marx and the rise of the Communistic system and that is exactly what developed that system of government. Marx was a deist and eventually became an atheist. He didn’t need a God when the State or government was the ultimate authority. Communism in its purest form didn’t necessarily say you had to be an atheist but it lead to atheism because you didn’t need God you just needed the State, the government, the Proletariat.
Enlightenment settlement – holding pattern – carve up the world, separate the world into different spheres, God is not involved.
The Answer for Christians is to return to the Bible and look at God’s view of our situation and have a renewed call to our vocation and our calling.
I. Jesus is the Presence of God’s Glory upon this Earth.
We must realize God has returned in His Glory to this Earth in the person of Jesus Christ. The Coming of Jesus Christ the first time in flesh was an epoch event that changed all of history and shook up the entire cosmos. We can’t put too much emphasis on this fact.
God called Abraham that through the covenant with Abraham was to fix the disobedience of Adam.
The Rabbis of Jesus time would say Adam sinned and God called Abraham to fix things.
Adam was the angled mirror in which God would work to bring order to his good Creation, and when Adam decided not to do that then things changed.
Now God wants to call us to do that again.
That is one of the main purposes of God’s covenant made with Abraham.
In the Book of Romans Paul reminds us that He has been faithful to the covenant made with Abraham through the man Jesus Christ.
God wants to get the Adam project back on track. In Romans 5 Paul brings all of this to view.
In Romans 1:18- Chapter 4 Paul is arguing that God has been faithful to the covenant made with Abraham through Jesus Christ and takes us to his big argument in Romans 5.
Romans 5: 12-17
12 Therefore , just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned - 13 for until the Law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. 14 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of the offense of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come. 15 But the free gift is not like the transgression. For if by the transgression of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many. 16 The gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned ; for on the one hand the judgment arose from one transgression resulting in condemnation, but on the other hand the free gift arose from many transgressions resulting in justification. 17 For if by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.
We will come back to verse 17 in this passage later in the sermon but for now I want us to understand what Paul is laying out. God wants to get the Adam project back on track. Adam backfired and failed to reflect to God’s creation His glory and act in obedience to God. Now, God is bringing that project back on line through Jesus.
Paul has packed this passage with so much info that I boggles your mind as you read it. Life and obedience are coming through Jesus but death and disobedience came from Adam.
It goes back to God’s glory returning to this Earth. We remember that in 1 Kings 8 when Solomon dedicated the Temple that God’s glory filled the Temple and the priests could not even stand in the Presence.
Shekinah was the word used for this. The Templing Presence of God was there in the Temple.
The Temple was an advanced sign for what God wanted to do for the rest of the world. God wants to bring his Glory to all of His Creation.
In Ezekiel we see God’s presence leaving the Temple because of the Sin of Israel. We see it in the form of a wheeled object that lifts off and takes off somewhere into the wilderness never to be seen again.
God’s presence does not show up again until we pick up the Gospel of John.
John 1: 14
“14 And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
John uses two Temple terms to describe Jesus – the term Dwelt which literally means Tabernacled or Templed and the term Glory which hearkens back to God’s glory that would fill the Temple.
John is telling us that the Glory of God has returned to Israel in the person of Jesus Christ.
.This was predicted by the OT prophets that God’s glory would one day fill the earth.
Numbers 14/ Habakkuk 2/ Isaiah 11/ Isaiah 40
I would propose that in the Person and Ministry of Jesus we see the first phase of this project begin, this project of Adam that went bad, and the project of filling the earth with His glory begins in Jesus.
John builds up this theme of the presence and glory of God throughout his entire Gospel until you get to Chapter 19 and you gaze at a full view of God’s glory
You are gazing at in John 19 the full view – Glory of God – total self giving love. This is what it looks like when Yahweh returns to Zion – enthroned on a cross – in total self giving love for mankind to get God’s project back on track.
That takes us back to my introduction and the talk of Empire vs. the Bible. What does this have to do with the Glory of God in Christ.
First of all we need to see how Caesar presented himself:
Caesar has is a servant of the state by building this road and now he is exalted to be the Son of God, he is now proclaimed as Lord and God.
Paul brings us to the feet of Jesus in Philippians 2 and tells us that Jesus humbled Himself even death upon a cross and at his name every knee will bow and every tongue will confess. Not Caesar but Jesus!
Anything Caesar can do, Jesus can do better.
Peace and Security
1 Thess 5: 3
Peace and Security Was a Roman Slogan
What power did Rome have over people? - They would kill you, they had the power of death over you.
We turn to Romans the 1st chapter and we see Paul lay out his argument for the true King.
Jesus is of royal lineage – David, He is the true son of God by the resurrection. That is the linchpin argument because through resurrection the state has no power anymore. Jesus has conquered death so we no longer have to fear death. This was the view of the earliest Christian martyrs. The Empire had no power over them because they didn’t have to fear death.
Ephesians 1: 7-10
7 In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace 8 which He lavished on us. In all wisdom and insight 9 He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him 10 with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth.
God wants to SUM up ALL things in Christ. God wants to put together what was broken in this world and fractured in this world in Jesus. Politicians are not able to carve up this world because all things are summed up in Christ.
II. God wants us to reflect that Glory
Earlier I said we would return back to Romans chapter 5 and now I want to look back at verse 17
Romans 5: 17
. 17 For if by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.
The Greek in this verse for the idea of ‘reign’ is literally translated Will Be MADE Kings.
In Christ God wants to make us Kings in this world. This is not triumphalism but is a sobering thought. It is one that should bring us wonder but also pause.
Paul is bringing this beautiful argument to a close. Adam backfired but the project is back on line with Christians. Adam refused to reflect God’s glory to the Creation but now we are called to do just that.
Become Kings like Jesus became a King. A king that is put on a cross. We will reflect God’s glory by working to reflect God’s glory into the world.
Ephesians 2: 10
10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.
The word for Workmanship in this passage is the same word we get the word Poem from in English. Paul is telling us that Christians are literally God’s masterpiece.
If we will only submit and allow God to shape us and restore the image that was marred.
We have a mirror at Clay-Chalkville High School that is made to show demonstrations to classes in lab. It is hung on the ceiling and can angle to show work on the table top to the students.
Our lives in Christ are much the same. We are an angled mirror. We are to reflect God’s glory to the people around us.
When they see us they shouldn’t see anything special about us but see Christ in us. They should see God’s workmanship to His glory.
Every aspect of our lives shaped by God.
Paul tells us In 1 Corinthians that God wants to make us Temples of the Holy Spirit. Each individual Christian is a reflection of God’s Glory in Christ.
If we are to reign as Kings – What type of Kings should we be?
What about the ultimate King, King Jesus? If we are to reign with Christ, how did he show us? Total self giving love.
We have to be willing to take up the cross and reign in this world in self giving love that reflects the love of God.
The Kingdoms of this world may be built with compromises made in back rooms. It may be made with kickbacks to certain states that vote for a certain bill but God’s kingdom was established at a much higher price.
It cost Jesus his life, a life that He was willing to give and take it up again. This is a kingdom that is true and it unshaken.
Paul warns in I Thess 5 that there will be a time when people are saying peace and security but then sudden destruction will come. This was a slogan used by the Romans – peace and Security – Paul reminds us to put our hope in a Kingdom that is permanent.
III. God wants to reflect His glory through the Church
Ephesians 3: 9-10
9 and to bring to light what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God who created all things ; 10 so that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places.
Paul told us in Eph 1: 10 that God wants to sum up all things in Christ and then in 2:10 that we are his workmanship and now in Eph 3: 10 that the church will be the agency that he will bring His glory to bear on this earth.
Colossians 1: 27
to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
Christ in you the hope of glory
In this passage the ‘you’ is plural in the Greek. Paul is speaking to the Church of Colossae as a whole as the ones that would carry the glory of God through Christ into a lost city.
Isaiah is one of the pilgrim songs that would be sung.
Isaiah 40: 1-5
1 "Comfort, O comfort My people," says your God. 2 "Speak kindly to Jerusalem ; And call out to her, that her warfare has ended, That her iniquity has been removed, That she has received of the LORD'S hand Double for all her sins." 3 A voice is calling, "Clear the way for the LORD in the wilderness ; Make smooth in the desert a highway for our God. 4 "Let every valley be lifted up, And every mountain and hill be made low ; And let the rough ground become a plain, And the rugged terrain a broad valley ; 5 Then the glory of the LORD will be revealed, And all flesh will see it together ; For the mouth of the LORD has spoken."
The glory is not FOR us. Paul is planting churches that are small in number, maybe 10 converts in Colossae, 5 in Ephesus, a few in Thessalonica – These churches are advanced signs to the world and to the Empire that God’s glory is here and it is being reflected in these groups of people.
These little groups of people will grow and fill the entire earth. They will bring God’s glory to this Creation.
Caesar- and any other rulers are to be put on notice, the Adam project is back on track, God is redeeming people to reflect His glory, people that are loyal to God and understand that God alone is Sovereign.
God alone gets the glory and not the President, Caesar, Sports Heroes, Holly wood actors, all of our modern idols have been put on notice.
There is a true King and it is not them.
We see that God’s progression of bringing this action to completion began in Christ, went to individual Christians and then to networks of people in Churches. The Called out of God, the Ekklesia the Church. These groups will be called out to reflect back to God and Creation what Adam refused to do.
So How Should We Then Live?
1) Realizing our Vocation- Called to reign as God’s ambassadors, called to reflect His glory we must consider things:
Paul would tell many of the Churches that he labored with that not even a hint of immorality should be present among God’s people.
How can we call down the principalities and powers to subjection to God, if we cant win the battle over sin in our own lives?
How can we be effective if we are sinful and bring an air of hypocrisy. This generation craves a genuine Christianity.
We must think in terms of God’s kingdom. We must engage our culture. WE cannot retreat from the argument but must be ready to give a defense of our faith.
Lastly, we must share this message – God wants to fill the earth with His glory of people transformed but we stifle the Spirit because we don’t want to preach to people. We must be willing to share our faith. This is Good News and it means it is good news for everyone. Jesus Christ is Lord even if they don’t believe it.
We must realize that we are sharing a fact, not selling a product. We must state it as fact and quit being apologetic about the Gospel because it is truly good news for all.
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Spiritual Discipline - Glorify God in All Things
Many people are lost today and one way we are lost is we have lost our spiritual compass.
To illustrate this point I will share with you a lesson that I have to share with my students many times.
As a science teacher I have had to teach my students about the idea of a heliocentric solar system.
For thousands of years people thought that the earth was the center of the Solar System. They thought that the Sun and all other celestial bodies orbited around the earth. The Earth was the Center of all things.
Some of the Greeks had proposed that the Sun was the center of the Solar System but the theory did not gain much traction.
It wasn’t until the 16th century that Copernicus proved that the Earth actually revolved around the Sun. This was a revolutionary teaching during this time period. It was later proved by Kepler and Galileo that the Earth indeed does go around the Sun.
In the same way a seismic sift has occurred in many Churches. Many groups, and this crosses across all boundaries, have placed man at the center of the Christian faith. Many have exalted man as the decider of all things and a doctrine that was coined in Latin as Sola Deo Gloria has taken a beating. The Earliest Christians and all orthodox Christians through the centuries have understood that all things are to be done to God’s Glory.
We must understand that God is the center and not man. Salvation is not about us but about God. Nothing that we do is about us but about God.
It is all to God’s Glory.
1 John 2: 12
12 I am writing to you, little children, because your sins have been forgiven you for His name's sake.
Our very salvation is to give Glory to the name of Christ.
When we consider all that we do as we order and discipline our lives we must begin with this axiom that cannot be shaken. If we don’t start here we will not have our lives ordered and disciplined in a way that is proper and godly.
Christ came to this Earth for that Purpose. The very Son of the Most High God came to glorify the Father.
Philippians 2: 5-11
5 Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. 8 Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
In this passage we see the very essence of the Incarnation of Christ. Jesus purposefully emptied Himself of glory just to come to this earth.
He was humbled, He was humiliated, He bore the Cross with a willing heart and All for What?
We miss the point many times but Paul makes it clear that Jesus’ main purpose in all of this was to the GLORY OF GOD THE FATHER.
IT IS ALL ABOUT GOD’S GLORY.
Our lives must be ordered around this controlling thought and all actions should stem from this.
Even in the Cross Jesus glorified His Father.
John 12: 27-28
27 "Now My soul has become troubled ; and what shall I say, 'Father, save Me from this hour '? But for this purpose I came to this hour. 28 "Father, glorify Your name." Then a voice came out of heaven : "I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again."
Jesus took on the pain, the scorn the ridicule all for God’s Glory. To Glorify the name of God.
Jesus understood that He would have to go and was troubled because of it but He set this as His goal as he readily accepted this task of the Cross.
I. Our lives must be ordered in that All things Glorify God.
As we look at this we ask how does this apply to us.
How does this apply to how we order or live our lives?
1 Corinthians 10: 31
31 Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.
After this argument over food that is sacrificed to idols and whether or not a Christian can partake of such food Paul makes his main point and that is that all things are done for the Glory of God.
That has huge implications for the Christian life.
We must take inventory of our lives.
Do you live each day to Glorify God?
Is that an over-riding principle in your life?
How do we know? There is a saying that actions speak louder than words.
1) Time – how do we spend our time. How do you spend your time?
If you were to sit here today and take an inventory of the last week in your life, how much time did you spend Glorifying God?
Many misunderstand this as time that you are praying or reading your Bible but it means more that just that.
Glorifying God encompasses every second of your day, how we treat others, how much time we spend in prayer, what we watch on TV, what types of movies we watch, what type of music we listen to.
All of that is God’s territory, there is not turf that you get to keep for yourself.
Are you carving out time for yourself and neglecting God. Is there an area of selfishness that you want to hold on to for your own recreation, or pride, or desire that takes president over your devotion to God.
African Proverb – A rich man was a tyrant and a poor family wanted to desperately wanted to buy a house. The rich man sold them a house for a very low price and the only catch to the deal is the rich man would still own one portion of the house. The portion of the house would be one nail over the door of the home. That would be the rich man’s lone last possession of that house.
The family purchases the house and moves in and pretty soon the rich man comes and brings a dead carcass and hangs it on the nail over the door. After a short time the animal becomes very decayed and the smell is so bad the family moves out. The man repossesses the house and continues his money making scam on the next family.
The moral to that story is that if we give Satan one area of our life, one small section of our time and hide it from God, he will the make the whole thing a decaying mess of sin.
2) We must be all in. – This is a phrase used in sports a good bit and coaches understand for a team to be successful it must be all in your will loose.
Christianity is an all or none deal. Our modern world of self-help sermons and me first Christianity with entertainment replacing worship is misshaping our faith.
If we are going to live a life that Glorifies God we must be willing to sacrifice all for His Kingdom.
Matthew 10: 34-39
34 "Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth ; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35 "For I came to SET A MAN AGAINST HIS FATHER, AND A DAUGHTER AGAINST HER MOTHER, AND A DAUGHTER-IN-LAW AGAINST HER MOTHER-IN-LAW ; 36 and A MAN'S ENEMIES WILL BE THE MEMBERS OF HIS HOUSEHOLD. 37 "He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. 38 "And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. 39 "He who has found his life will lose it, and he who has lost his life for My sake will find it.
Jesus makes it clear that His Kingdom must come first. How many of us can say that we live up to this. I know that in my own life I read this passage and realize that work must be done with the help of God. I know deep in my bones that without God’s kingdom this earth is hopeless. If it is that important, if eternal salvation and the salvation of this world is that important than the Kingdom must be pretty important in my life.
How much is one soul worth? Can we put value on the soul or eternal destiny of an individual? When we look at our loved ones I would ask how much do we value their soul?
It is of ultimate importance that we ask ourselves this question.
How important is the Kingdom to us?
Do we live our lives in line with Jesus and what He is saying?
Do you believe that the work of the Church is part of God’s Kingdom?
If you don’t I would challenge you to look at Scripture and it is clear that the local Church and the Church universal will be the bearers of this good news of the Kingdom and the mysteries of God.
When you look at your life does this church and the assembly of this Church take precedence over all other things.
My Dad did something one time that I will always remember. I had football practice during our Gospel Meeting. I told my Coach that I had to leave to go to church at 5:30 and he was a little curt with me about it. At about 5:45 my Dad walked on the practice field without saying a word and took me off the field. My coach got angry but it left an impression on me that church was more important than football. It was a lesson that has come back to me that now that I am an adult I want my kids here every time the door opens to be around godly people.
Do we have enough a commitment to the Kingdom that our money, time, and devotion to the assembly of the Church are in line with a life that will seek the Kingdom at all costs.
3) In a life that Glorifies God do we abhor sin. Does sin upset us and even grieve us or make us angry?
Many times we sugar coat the Bible and neglect certain parts because we feel like it will offend people but there is one story that I would like to turn back to that doesn’t get preached about very often.
The story of the Golden Calf in Exodus 32 and the consequences of that sin.
Moses has just got a glimpse of the glory of God and his face is shining because of it. Moses leaves the Israelites in the charge of Aaron his brother and a terrible thing happens.
The people make a golden calf – much like what they had worshipped in Egypt and gave this graven image the glory that was supposed to be given to God. They take of their clothes and do things so detestable that it embarrasses them even before the heathen people around them.
When Moses returns from the Mount he is in raged by what he sees. It is at this point we pick up in the narrative of Exodus 32.
Exodus 32: 26-29
26 then Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, "Whoever is for the LORD, come to me!" And all the sons of Levi gathered together to him. 27 He said to them, "Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, 'Every man of you put his sword upon his thigh, and go back and forth from gate to gate in the camp, and kill every man his brother, and every man his friend, and every man his neighbor.' " 28 So the sons of Levi did as Moses instructed, and about three thousand men of the people fell that day. 29 Then Moses said, "Dedicate yourselves to the LORD -for every man has been against his son and against his brother today to other -in order that He may bestow a blessing upon you today."
Moses asks for the faithful and it is the Levites, the ones that will become the priests of the nation that respond.
What does Moses ask them to do? To go out and kill those that have sinned, not kill the enemy but brother friend and neighbor.
God’s holiness is more important than any familial relationship it is sacred and when it is disgraced something must be done. People have such a hard time with Judgment day and the wrath of God but they forget that sin is affront to an all holy God.
Sin is serious business that must be dealt with.
Many say, that was in the OT and wrath of God is an old thing. I would say that you find that same wrath toward sin in the New Testament.
It has been judged by Christ and is awaiting a final day of vindication and it is coming. It will not be the Levites that go out and collect the evil but it will be the angels of God that will come and collect those that have been disobedient.
Jesus had this same type of zeal that we see in Moses.
There was Psalm of David in which David cried out to God in distress because of all the wrongdoing going on around him and it said of David that he:
Psalm 69: 9
9 For zeal for Your house has consumed me
David was consumed with zeal for God and this same verse is quoted by the apostles when they remember what Jesus did when He cleansed the Temple in Jerusalem. They saw this verse as a Messianic prophecy of the zeal of Jesus.
The Temple had become a place of corruption. All over the Empire different currencies were used but only one type of Temple currency could be used to buy sacrifices in the Temple. The Temple had a pretty good racketeering operation going on in the time of Jesus.
One would get to the Temple and go through the money changers to change out their money into the Temple currency. They would skim a little off the top at that point and basically take your money and not give you as much back in Temple currency.
If you brought your own animal from home to be sacrificed the priest would simply declare it unclean and you would have to go into the Temple courts to buy a clean animal for sacrifice. The prices for these animals would be astronomical. It is into this type of corruption that Jesus walks and you can imagine His anger.
Jesus burned with such anger at the corruption that He drove them from the Temple. I think we don’t realize the violence of this action. Jesus drove them out. These guys that were making all of this money would not go easily but Jesus drove them out.
When we look at this, do we have this same type of view of sin as God does?
Are we seeking to Glorify God so much in our lives that sin makes us upset along with God?
When something comes on TV that is terrible for our children to watch do you keep it there and watch it or do you turn it off?
When there is a magazine eye level with your child at a check out counter in the grocery store or Wal-Mart with basically soft porn staring at them do we say something to the manager? Do we just put up with it and say well that is just the world we live in?
When someone in our company tells a bad joke or a dirty joke do we laugh and play along or do we address the issue?
Do you allow people to take God’s name in vain in your presence?
These are all ways in which we can manifest the same attitude God has toward sin. We can grieve along with God and do something about the sin.
Conclusion:
We are called as all humans to give honor to God. Philippians 2 tells us that one day all men will bow and confess Jesus. In this life we have the opportunity to do so and live in victory. God wants victory over sin and the Devil in your life now. That begins by acknowledging God as Sovereign and Jesus as His only Son. The only way to give God glory is the acknowledge His Son Jesus. We must then respond to that fact and order our lives properly.
To illustrate this point I will share with you a lesson that I have to share with my students many times.
As a science teacher I have had to teach my students about the idea of a heliocentric solar system.
For thousands of years people thought that the earth was the center of the Solar System. They thought that the Sun and all other celestial bodies orbited around the earth. The Earth was the Center of all things.
Some of the Greeks had proposed that the Sun was the center of the Solar System but the theory did not gain much traction.
It wasn’t until the 16th century that Copernicus proved that the Earth actually revolved around the Sun. This was a revolutionary teaching during this time period. It was later proved by Kepler and Galileo that the Earth indeed does go around the Sun.
In the same way a seismic sift has occurred in many Churches. Many groups, and this crosses across all boundaries, have placed man at the center of the Christian faith. Many have exalted man as the decider of all things and a doctrine that was coined in Latin as Sola Deo Gloria has taken a beating. The Earliest Christians and all orthodox Christians through the centuries have understood that all things are to be done to God’s Glory.
We must understand that God is the center and not man. Salvation is not about us but about God. Nothing that we do is about us but about God.
It is all to God’s Glory.
1 John 2: 12
12 I am writing to you, little children, because your sins have been forgiven you for His name's sake.
Our very salvation is to give Glory to the name of Christ.
When we consider all that we do as we order and discipline our lives we must begin with this axiom that cannot be shaken. If we don’t start here we will not have our lives ordered and disciplined in a way that is proper and godly.
Christ came to this Earth for that Purpose. The very Son of the Most High God came to glorify the Father.
Philippians 2: 5-11
5 Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. 8 Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
In this passage we see the very essence of the Incarnation of Christ. Jesus purposefully emptied Himself of glory just to come to this earth.
He was humbled, He was humiliated, He bore the Cross with a willing heart and All for What?
We miss the point many times but Paul makes it clear that Jesus’ main purpose in all of this was to the GLORY OF GOD THE FATHER.
IT IS ALL ABOUT GOD’S GLORY.
Our lives must be ordered around this controlling thought and all actions should stem from this.
Even in the Cross Jesus glorified His Father.
John 12: 27-28
27 "Now My soul has become troubled ; and what shall I say, 'Father, save Me from this hour '? But for this purpose I came to this hour. 28 "Father, glorify Your name." Then a voice came out of heaven : "I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again."
Jesus took on the pain, the scorn the ridicule all for God’s Glory. To Glorify the name of God.
Jesus understood that He would have to go and was troubled because of it but He set this as His goal as he readily accepted this task of the Cross.
I. Our lives must be ordered in that All things Glorify God.
As we look at this we ask how does this apply to us.
How does this apply to how we order or live our lives?
1 Corinthians 10: 31
31 Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.
After this argument over food that is sacrificed to idols and whether or not a Christian can partake of such food Paul makes his main point and that is that all things are done for the Glory of God.
That has huge implications for the Christian life.
We must take inventory of our lives.
Do you live each day to Glorify God?
Is that an over-riding principle in your life?
How do we know? There is a saying that actions speak louder than words.
1) Time – how do we spend our time. How do you spend your time?
If you were to sit here today and take an inventory of the last week in your life, how much time did you spend Glorifying God?
Many misunderstand this as time that you are praying or reading your Bible but it means more that just that.
Glorifying God encompasses every second of your day, how we treat others, how much time we spend in prayer, what we watch on TV, what types of movies we watch, what type of music we listen to.
All of that is God’s territory, there is not turf that you get to keep for yourself.
Are you carving out time for yourself and neglecting God. Is there an area of selfishness that you want to hold on to for your own recreation, or pride, or desire that takes president over your devotion to God.
African Proverb – A rich man was a tyrant and a poor family wanted to desperately wanted to buy a house. The rich man sold them a house for a very low price and the only catch to the deal is the rich man would still own one portion of the house. The portion of the house would be one nail over the door of the home. That would be the rich man’s lone last possession of that house.
The family purchases the house and moves in and pretty soon the rich man comes and brings a dead carcass and hangs it on the nail over the door. After a short time the animal becomes very decayed and the smell is so bad the family moves out. The man repossesses the house and continues his money making scam on the next family.
The moral to that story is that if we give Satan one area of our life, one small section of our time and hide it from God, he will the make the whole thing a decaying mess of sin.
2) We must be all in. – This is a phrase used in sports a good bit and coaches understand for a team to be successful it must be all in your will loose.
Christianity is an all or none deal. Our modern world of self-help sermons and me first Christianity with entertainment replacing worship is misshaping our faith.
If we are going to live a life that Glorifies God we must be willing to sacrifice all for His Kingdom.
Matthew 10: 34-39
34 "Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth ; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35 "For I came to SET A MAN AGAINST HIS FATHER, AND A DAUGHTER AGAINST HER MOTHER, AND A DAUGHTER-IN-LAW AGAINST HER MOTHER-IN-LAW ; 36 and A MAN'S ENEMIES WILL BE THE MEMBERS OF HIS HOUSEHOLD. 37 "He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. 38 "And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. 39 "He who has found his life will lose it, and he who has lost his life for My sake will find it.
Jesus makes it clear that His Kingdom must come first. How many of us can say that we live up to this. I know that in my own life I read this passage and realize that work must be done with the help of God. I know deep in my bones that without God’s kingdom this earth is hopeless. If it is that important, if eternal salvation and the salvation of this world is that important than the Kingdom must be pretty important in my life.
How much is one soul worth? Can we put value on the soul or eternal destiny of an individual? When we look at our loved ones I would ask how much do we value their soul?
It is of ultimate importance that we ask ourselves this question.
How important is the Kingdom to us?
Do we live our lives in line with Jesus and what He is saying?
Do you believe that the work of the Church is part of God’s Kingdom?
If you don’t I would challenge you to look at Scripture and it is clear that the local Church and the Church universal will be the bearers of this good news of the Kingdom and the mysteries of God.
When you look at your life does this church and the assembly of this Church take precedence over all other things.
My Dad did something one time that I will always remember. I had football practice during our Gospel Meeting. I told my Coach that I had to leave to go to church at 5:30 and he was a little curt with me about it. At about 5:45 my Dad walked on the practice field without saying a word and took me off the field. My coach got angry but it left an impression on me that church was more important than football. It was a lesson that has come back to me that now that I am an adult I want my kids here every time the door opens to be around godly people.
Do we have enough a commitment to the Kingdom that our money, time, and devotion to the assembly of the Church are in line with a life that will seek the Kingdom at all costs.
3) In a life that Glorifies God do we abhor sin. Does sin upset us and even grieve us or make us angry?
Many times we sugar coat the Bible and neglect certain parts because we feel like it will offend people but there is one story that I would like to turn back to that doesn’t get preached about very often.
The story of the Golden Calf in Exodus 32 and the consequences of that sin.
Moses has just got a glimpse of the glory of God and his face is shining because of it. Moses leaves the Israelites in the charge of Aaron his brother and a terrible thing happens.
The people make a golden calf – much like what they had worshipped in Egypt and gave this graven image the glory that was supposed to be given to God. They take of their clothes and do things so detestable that it embarrasses them even before the heathen people around them.
When Moses returns from the Mount he is in raged by what he sees. It is at this point we pick up in the narrative of Exodus 32.
Exodus 32: 26-29
26 then Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, "Whoever is for the LORD, come to me!" And all the sons of Levi gathered together to him. 27 He said to them, "Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, 'Every man of you put his sword upon his thigh, and go back and forth from gate to gate in the camp, and kill every man his brother, and every man his friend, and every man his neighbor.' " 28 So the sons of Levi did as Moses instructed, and about three thousand men of the people fell that day. 29 Then Moses said, "Dedicate yourselves to the LORD -for every man has been against his son and against his brother today to other -in order that He may bestow a blessing upon you today."
Moses asks for the faithful and it is the Levites, the ones that will become the priests of the nation that respond.
What does Moses ask them to do? To go out and kill those that have sinned, not kill the enemy but brother friend and neighbor.
God’s holiness is more important than any familial relationship it is sacred and when it is disgraced something must be done. People have such a hard time with Judgment day and the wrath of God but they forget that sin is affront to an all holy God.
Sin is serious business that must be dealt with.
Many say, that was in the OT and wrath of God is an old thing. I would say that you find that same wrath toward sin in the New Testament.
It has been judged by Christ and is awaiting a final day of vindication and it is coming. It will not be the Levites that go out and collect the evil but it will be the angels of God that will come and collect those that have been disobedient.
Jesus had this same type of zeal that we see in Moses.
There was Psalm of David in which David cried out to God in distress because of all the wrongdoing going on around him and it said of David that he:
Psalm 69: 9
9 For zeal for Your house has consumed me
David was consumed with zeal for God and this same verse is quoted by the apostles when they remember what Jesus did when He cleansed the Temple in Jerusalem. They saw this verse as a Messianic prophecy of the zeal of Jesus.
The Temple had become a place of corruption. All over the Empire different currencies were used but only one type of Temple currency could be used to buy sacrifices in the Temple. The Temple had a pretty good racketeering operation going on in the time of Jesus.
One would get to the Temple and go through the money changers to change out their money into the Temple currency. They would skim a little off the top at that point and basically take your money and not give you as much back in Temple currency.
If you brought your own animal from home to be sacrificed the priest would simply declare it unclean and you would have to go into the Temple courts to buy a clean animal for sacrifice. The prices for these animals would be astronomical. It is into this type of corruption that Jesus walks and you can imagine His anger.
Jesus burned with such anger at the corruption that He drove them from the Temple. I think we don’t realize the violence of this action. Jesus drove them out. These guys that were making all of this money would not go easily but Jesus drove them out.
When we look at this, do we have this same type of view of sin as God does?
Are we seeking to Glorify God so much in our lives that sin makes us upset along with God?
When something comes on TV that is terrible for our children to watch do you keep it there and watch it or do you turn it off?
When there is a magazine eye level with your child at a check out counter in the grocery store or Wal-Mart with basically soft porn staring at them do we say something to the manager? Do we just put up with it and say well that is just the world we live in?
When someone in our company tells a bad joke or a dirty joke do we laugh and play along or do we address the issue?
Do you allow people to take God’s name in vain in your presence?
These are all ways in which we can manifest the same attitude God has toward sin. We can grieve along with God and do something about the sin.
Conclusion:
We are called as all humans to give honor to God. Philippians 2 tells us that one day all men will bow and confess Jesus. In this life we have the opportunity to do so and live in victory. God wants victory over sin and the Devil in your life now. That begins by acknowledging God as Sovereign and Jesus as His only Son. The only way to give God glory is the acknowledge His Son Jesus. We must then respond to that fact and order our lives properly.
Saturday, January 9, 2010
Spiritual Discipline Part 3 - Prayer
Winston Churchill was known for eating a good meal and especially a good lunch. One such day he had a good lunch, and returned to Parliament to hear a debate among the members of Parliament. On this particular day one of Churchill’s nemesis and enemies gave a speech to Parliament. At the beginning of the speech Churchill propped up his feet and went fast to sleep.
The man stopped the speech and asked Churchill, “Does the good prime minister HAVE to go to sleep each time I begin to speak!”
Churchill opened one eye and told the member of Parliament, “My good man, I assure you that I go to sleep purely by my own volition!”
There are many things we can remember of Churchill but one of the greatest things he accomplished was to lead the British people through the darkest hours of WWII. When all seemed to be lost he helped the people find their will to fight. Once he promised the British people,
“I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat.”
One fact has emerged from study of World War II Britain and it is quite astounding. Even in the darkest times of the bombings and Blitzkrieg of the Germans the British were pretty optimistic people. As a matter of fact, when WWII began in Europe cases of depression plummeted in Britain as well as cases of suicide. The people were driven and disciplined. They had a job and task to do. They felt that they had a piece to play in the survival of their country. They lived a regimented life and all things fell into place.
We can learn something from this example. This takes us back to our talk about Spiritual Discipline in our faith. We must understand that we are in a state of war with Satan and the dominion of darkness.
We need to know that we are under siege and our King Jesus has given us tools to sharpen our sword and get spiritually fit. To win in this all out war we must practice Spiritual Discipline to stay alert.
This takes back to the subject that I introduced last week and that is prayer. Today I want to delve further into this powerful tool God has given us in our spiritual development.
Prayer is a powerful thing and today I want to look at certain attitudes that we must have if we want to be effective in our prayer life.
This study on Prayer begins in an unlikely place.
Matthew 22: 35-40
35 One of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, 36 "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law ?" 37 And He said to him, " 'YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.' 38 "This is the great and foremost commandment. 39 "The second is like it, 'YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.' 40 "On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets."
In this passage Jesus lays out the core of what was most important in the Law of Moses and gives us some insight into where we should begin in the Kingdom and in particular Kingdom prayer.
1st of all our axis on which our life turns is our love for God. We must begin with a love for God before we understand Biblical teaching on prayer.
2nd of all our attitudes toward our fellow man are critical when it comes to our prayer life and the success of our prayer life.
I. Our Attitude Toward God in Our Prayer Life
Before we can start to understand how we should pray and our expectations of prayer we must begin with our thoughts and attitudes toward our Creator.
God is Sovereign and Lord over All. God is in control we must get that drilled through all the noise and rhetoric of a pluralistic society. God is all in all.
To see the proper attitude toward God in prayer we need to turn to Luke the 18th chapter.
Luke 18: 9-14
9 And He also told this parable to some people who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and viewed others with contempt : 10 "Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 "The Pharisee stood and was praying this to himself : 'God, I thank You that I am not like other people : swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. 12 'I fast twice a week ; I pay tithes of all that I get.' 13 "But the tax collector, standing some distance away, was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breast, saying, 'God, be merciful to me, the sinner !' 14 "I tell you, this man went to his house justified rather than the other ; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted."
When we compare the attitudes of the Pharisee and the tax collector we get a glimpse into the type of praying heart that God is looking for. We must have a humble heart as we approach the Throne of God.
God is the Sovereign and all Holy Creator of the Universe and it is with this in mind that we approach his throne room. Last week we looked at the book of Hebrews in which we saw that we have access through Grace to enter the most holy place in Heaven.
When we consider this we must think about the type of attitude we should have.
What if we had a dignitary coming to visit our Church this morning or if they were coming to your home. Imagine if Ronald Reagan were coming to your home, would you have some type of respect when you meet him? What if you were to meet the queen of England? Would there be some type of pomp and circumstance when you met with her.
Now imagine that you are going before the throne of the all powerful God and what should your attitude be?
I think the attitude of the Tax Collector says it best, “have Mercy on me the sinner!”
One of the earliest Christian prayers that Christians prayed other than the Lord’s Prayer was something called the Jesus prayer.
They said that if you walked the streets of Constantinople during the 4th century you would have heard this prayer all through the streets.
The people would simply say, “Jesus Christ have mercy on me the sinner!” This prayer was a repetition of the prayer prayed by the publican. Christians from the earliest days understood our place before the sovereign God.
II. Our Attitudes toward our fellow man effect our Prayer lives.
Many people do not make this connection between how you treat your fellow man and prayer but Scripture talks a good bit about it.
Jesus says in Mark 11: 23-26
23 "Truly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, 'Be taken up and cast into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says is going to happen, it will be granted him. 24 "Therefore I say to you, all things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them, and they will be granted you. 25 "Whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father who is in heaven will also forgive you your transgressions. 26 ["But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father who is in heaven forgive your transgressions."]
Many people hear the words of mountains being thrown into the sea and praying and being granted your prayer but miss one of the most important aspects of this passage.
Jesus clearly states that when we stand to pray forgive our brothers and sisters. If we want God to forgive us we must forgive others. I find it fascinating that Jesus makes this point in reference to prayer.
I think it goes back to the very basis of the Law of Moses. To love God we must love others. To share in the Divine Love and be able to converse with God in a powerful way in prayer we must love as God loves.
James makes this point in James chapter 3
James 3: 8-10
8 But no one can tame the tongue; it is a restless evil and full of deadly poison. 9 With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the likeness of God ; 10 from the same mouth come both blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be this way.
James makes the obvious point that it is absurd to curse a fellow man that God made in his own image and then turn around and praise the same God that made the man you just got finished cursing.
This just seems ridiculous when you put it in perspective.
John carries this point a little more in 1 John 4
I John 4: 20-21
20 If someone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar ; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. 21 And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also.
The Apostle John points out to us that evidence of the love of God in us is how we treat other people.
John points out that if we can love the human sitting in front of us that we can see, how can we love and invisible God?
So to get a proper idea of what it means to pray in Christ’s Kingdom we must consider our relationships with our fellow man and shore those up to have a stronger prayer life.
III. Our Attitude toward God’s Kingdom will shape our Prayer life.
To have a proper perspective of our Prayer life we must tune our minds to God’s will.
We must see ourselves as God’s co workers. We must want what God wants for the world. This should shape our prayer life.
What does God want for this Church - that is what we should be praying for.
What does God want for our families – that is what we should be praying for.
What does God want for our community – that is what we should be in prayer for.
Matthew 6: 33 states, “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”
We are to seek God’s kingdom first in all things but how do we get to this point? How does our prayer life get to the point that we are seeking God’s kingdom first?
Matthew chapter 6 lays the ground work:
Verses 1-6: Our status before man and materialism should not matter. We should not care about worldly status and what other folks are after in their lives.
Verse 7: Mantras and manipulations don’t work. The pagans saw their gods as cosmic vending machines in which mindless mantras would get the god’s attention. Their heard didn’t even have to be into the prayer it was just the right formula and then the gods give you what you want.
Kingdom first prayer doesn’t work that way. We are God’s co-workers, we want what God wants when we are in tune with His will.
Verses 25-32: Tell us that Kingdom first living cannot be wrapped in anxiety. We must look to God as our sustainer in all things we can get caught up in trying to solve all of the worlds problems.
God is in His Holy Temple, let all the world be silent. Sometimes we just need to be silent before our God and let him fix the problems and not worry so much about it.
We cant be anxious people and be Kingdom first people.
Philippians 4: 6
6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.
This attitude that Paul speaks of is where we need to get in our prayer life and walk with God. Paul lays it out simply for us in that we should not be anxious but live in a constant state of thanksgiving and prayer.
In 1 Corinthians 3:9
Paul tells us that we are God’s fellow workers.
God wants us to come into the fullness of life in His kingdom and search for that Kingdom.
Our challenge as we enter this new year is to get more spiritually fit.
As we pray let us remember our place before God.
Let us always pray with a humble heart toward God. A heart that is thankful and is not anxious.
Let us remember our fellow man before we enter in prayer and make sure we have made amends with all in our lives.
Let us take a mindset in our prayer life that we want to cooperate with God.
Do you not believe that God wants to great things in this church and community? Why not cooperate with God’s plans and let our prayer life be a channel through which God works. A conduit of Grace that God wants to richly bestow on you and your family.
Let us pray for the success of the Kingdom in our lives, families, church, and this community.
God wants to start a great work, Let it be in your life first……
The man stopped the speech and asked Churchill, “Does the good prime minister HAVE to go to sleep each time I begin to speak!”
Churchill opened one eye and told the member of Parliament, “My good man, I assure you that I go to sleep purely by my own volition!”
There are many things we can remember of Churchill but one of the greatest things he accomplished was to lead the British people through the darkest hours of WWII. When all seemed to be lost he helped the people find their will to fight. Once he promised the British people,
“I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat.”
One fact has emerged from study of World War II Britain and it is quite astounding. Even in the darkest times of the bombings and Blitzkrieg of the Germans the British were pretty optimistic people. As a matter of fact, when WWII began in Europe cases of depression plummeted in Britain as well as cases of suicide. The people were driven and disciplined. They had a job and task to do. They felt that they had a piece to play in the survival of their country. They lived a regimented life and all things fell into place.
We can learn something from this example. This takes us back to our talk about Spiritual Discipline in our faith. We must understand that we are in a state of war with Satan and the dominion of darkness.
We need to know that we are under siege and our King Jesus has given us tools to sharpen our sword and get spiritually fit. To win in this all out war we must practice Spiritual Discipline to stay alert.
This takes back to the subject that I introduced last week and that is prayer. Today I want to delve further into this powerful tool God has given us in our spiritual development.
Prayer is a powerful thing and today I want to look at certain attitudes that we must have if we want to be effective in our prayer life.
This study on Prayer begins in an unlikely place.
Matthew 22: 35-40
35 One of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, 36 "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law ?" 37 And He said to him, " 'YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.' 38 "This is the great and foremost commandment. 39 "The second is like it, 'YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.' 40 "On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets."
In this passage Jesus lays out the core of what was most important in the Law of Moses and gives us some insight into where we should begin in the Kingdom and in particular Kingdom prayer.
1st of all our axis on which our life turns is our love for God. We must begin with a love for God before we understand Biblical teaching on prayer.
2nd of all our attitudes toward our fellow man are critical when it comes to our prayer life and the success of our prayer life.
I. Our Attitude Toward God in Our Prayer Life
Before we can start to understand how we should pray and our expectations of prayer we must begin with our thoughts and attitudes toward our Creator.
God is Sovereign and Lord over All. God is in control we must get that drilled through all the noise and rhetoric of a pluralistic society. God is all in all.
To see the proper attitude toward God in prayer we need to turn to Luke the 18th chapter.
Luke 18: 9-14
9 And He also told this parable to some people who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and viewed others with contempt : 10 "Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 "The Pharisee stood and was praying this to himself : 'God, I thank You that I am not like other people : swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. 12 'I fast twice a week ; I pay tithes of all that I get.' 13 "But the tax collector, standing some distance away, was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breast, saying, 'God, be merciful to me, the sinner !' 14 "I tell you, this man went to his house justified rather than the other ; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted."
When we compare the attitudes of the Pharisee and the tax collector we get a glimpse into the type of praying heart that God is looking for. We must have a humble heart as we approach the Throne of God.
God is the Sovereign and all Holy Creator of the Universe and it is with this in mind that we approach his throne room. Last week we looked at the book of Hebrews in which we saw that we have access through Grace to enter the most holy place in Heaven.
When we consider this we must think about the type of attitude we should have.
What if we had a dignitary coming to visit our Church this morning or if they were coming to your home. Imagine if Ronald Reagan were coming to your home, would you have some type of respect when you meet him? What if you were to meet the queen of England? Would there be some type of pomp and circumstance when you met with her.
Now imagine that you are going before the throne of the all powerful God and what should your attitude be?
I think the attitude of the Tax Collector says it best, “have Mercy on me the sinner!”
One of the earliest Christian prayers that Christians prayed other than the Lord’s Prayer was something called the Jesus prayer.
They said that if you walked the streets of Constantinople during the 4th century you would have heard this prayer all through the streets.
The people would simply say, “Jesus Christ have mercy on me the sinner!” This prayer was a repetition of the prayer prayed by the publican. Christians from the earliest days understood our place before the sovereign God.
II. Our Attitudes toward our fellow man effect our Prayer lives.
Many people do not make this connection between how you treat your fellow man and prayer but Scripture talks a good bit about it.
Jesus says in Mark 11: 23-26
23 "Truly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, 'Be taken up and cast into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says is going to happen, it will be granted him. 24 "Therefore I say to you, all things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them, and they will be granted you. 25 "Whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father who is in heaven will also forgive you your transgressions. 26 ["But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father who is in heaven forgive your transgressions."]
Many people hear the words of mountains being thrown into the sea and praying and being granted your prayer but miss one of the most important aspects of this passage.
Jesus clearly states that when we stand to pray forgive our brothers and sisters. If we want God to forgive us we must forgive others. I find it fascinating that Jesus makes this point in reference to prayer.
I think it goes back to the very basis of the Law of Moses. To love God we must love others. To share in the Divine Love and be able to converse with God in a powerful way in prayer we must love as God loves.
James makes this point in James chapter 3
James 3: 8-10
8 But no one can tame the tongue; it is a restless evil and full of deadly poison. 9 With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the likeness of God ; 10 from the same mouth come both blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be this way.
James makes the obvious point that it is absurd to curse a fellow man that God made in his own image and then turn around and praise the same God that made the man you just got finished cursing.
This just seems ridiculous when you put it in perspective.
John carries this point a little more in 1 John 4
I John 4: 20-21
20 If someone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar ; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. 21 And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also.
The Apostle John points out to us that evidence of the love of God in us is how we treat other people.
John points out that if we can love the human sitting in front of us that we can see, how can we love and invisible God?
So to get a proper idea of what it means to pray in Christ’s Kingdom we must consider our relationships with our fellow man and shore those up to have a stronger prayer life.
III. Our Attitude toward God’s Kingdom will shape our Prayer life.
To have a proper perspective of our Prayer life we must tune our minds to God’s will.
We must see ourselves as God’s co workers. We must want what God wants for the world. This should shape our prayer life.
What does God want for this Church - that is what we should be praying for.
What does God want for our families – that is what we should be praying for.
What does God want for our community – that is what we should be in prayer for.
Matthew 6: 33 states, “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”
We are to seek God’s kingdom first in all things but how do we get to this point? How does our prayer life get to the point that we are seeking God’s kingdom first?
Matthew chapter 6 lays the ground work:
Verses 1-6: Our status before man and materialism should not matter. We should not care about worldly status and what other folks are after in their lives.
Verse 7: Mantras and manipulations don’t work. The pagans saw their gods as cosmic vending machines in which mindless mantras would get the god’s attention. Their heard didn’t even have to be into the prayer it was just the right formula and then the gods give you what you want.
Kingdom first prayer doesn’t work that way. We are God’s co-workers, we want what God wants when we are in tune with His will.
Verses 25-32: Tell us that Kingdom first living cannot be wrapped in anxiety. We must look to God as our sustainer in all things we can get caught up in trying to solve all of the worlds problems.
God is in His Holy Temple, let all the world be silent. Sometimes we just need to be silent before our God and let him fix the problems and not worry so much about it.
We cant be anxious people and be Kingdom first people.
Philippians 4: 6
6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.
This attitude that Paul speaks of is where we need to get in our prayer life and walk with God. Paul lays it out simply for us in that we should not be anxious but live in a constant state of thanksgiving and prayer.
In 1 Corinthians 3:9
Paul tells us that we are God’s fellow workers.
God wants us to come into the fullness of life in His kingdom and search for that Kingdom.
Our challenge as we enter this new year is to get more spiritually fit.
As we pray let us remember our place before God.
Let us always pray with a humble heart toward God. A heart that is thankful and is not anxious.
Let us remember our fellow man before we enter in prayer and make sure we have made amends with all in our lives.
Let us take a mindset in our prayer life that we want to cooperate with God.
Do you not believe that God wants to great things in this church and community? Why not cooperate with God’s plans and let our prayer life be a channel through which God works. A conduit of Grace that God wants to richly bestow on you and your family.
Let us pray for the success of the Kingdom in our lives, families, church, and this community.
God wants to start a great work, Let it be in your life first……
Sunday, January 3, 2010
Gospel of Mark #3 - PM Service
In Matthew 3:2 we read of John the Baptist started to proclaim that the Kingdom of God is at hand.
The Greek for At Hand means that it is coming, it is near, it is at the threshold.
We see Jesus pick up this message and many times he references His miracles as evidence to the kingdom.
This coming Kingdom of God was something that was expected since the time of David. God promised David in 2 Samuel 7 that one of his descendents would sit on his throne forever.
There would be a Davidic King that would establish His kingdom forever and would bring a just rule to the earth.
Daniel 7 lays out this idea of an everlasting Kingdom that would be established.
Daniel 7: 13-14
13 "I kept looking in the night visions, And behold, with the clouds of heaven One like a Son of Man was coming, And He came up to the Ancient of Days And was presented before Him. 14 "And to Him was given dominion, Glory and a kingdom, That all the peoples, nations and men of every language Might serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion Which will not pass away ; And His kingdom is one Which will not be destroyed.
We notice that the one on the clouds of Heaven that was coming was called the Son of Man. Jesus would take on this title of the Son of Man.
One of the major themes of the Gospels is the coming Davidic Kingdom that Jesus was ushering in His ministry.
Tonight we will look back at the Gospel of Mark as we study through this book and look at the clash of this Kingdom with the kingdom of darkness.
In Scripture there is this conflict between what Paul in Colossians 1:13 called the domain of darkness and the Kingdom of God.
This conflict will come to life in Mark’s Gospel, specifically in the casting our of the Demonic.
Before we get to our main passage tonight in Mark 5, I want to go back and build up some background information found in Mark chapter 3 that tells us a little about this conflict and the nature of Christ’s kingdom that He came to establish.
Matthew 16: 15-19
15 He said to them, "But who do you say that I am ?" 16 Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." 17 And Jesus said to him, "Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. 18 "I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church ; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it. 19 "I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven ; and whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven."
Peter in his foundational confession that will form the bed-rock of this Kingdom movement tells us many things. Jesus’ response to Peter informs us to the type of kingdom that He will establish.
1st of all- He makes this confession at Caesarea of Philippi and this was the place of worship of Pan. Caesarea was named for Caesar and the brother of Herod – Philip. There were two temples in Caesarea on a rocky ledge, one to Caesar and one to Pan. Very evil acts that cannot be mentioned in public occurred at the Temple of Pan.
There was an opening in the rock known as the Gates of Hades. Many scholars believe that Jesus was referring to this place when Peter made his confession.
In other words, Jesus is telling Peter and His followers that the Kingdom that He will establish will never die and it will go right into the heart of paganism and defeat it.
This would not be a place to go retreat to the wilderness but would be a Kingdom that takes the fight to Satan and His minions.
2nd Thing that we can learn from this passage is Jesus is referring back to a passage about the Davidic Kingdom in Isaiah 22.
In Isaiah 22 the Lord issues an oracle to Shebna who is the steward of King Hezekiah. Shebna is the man in charge of the King’s household. Shebna had been unfaithful and God was deposing him from his position and was establishing Eliakim as his replacement.
When this steward received his honor of being over the King’s household he was given the key to the Kingdom of David.
Isaiah 22: 20-22
20 "Then it will come about in that day, That I will summon My servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, 21 And I will clothe him with your tunic And tie your sash securely about him. I will entrust him with your authority, And he will become a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. 22 "Then I will set the key of the house of David on his shoulder, When he opens no one will shut, When he shuts no one will open.
We see the idea of keys and opening and shutting. When Jesus issues this statement to Peter he is letting everyone know that the true Davidic King was here and he was setting up his apostles as His stewards. We will witness Jesus giving this authority of binding and loosing to all of the apostles later. This idea of binding and loosing is a Rabbinic idea that relates to their teaching ministry.
We will see this apostolic authority in Jesus Kingdom many times.
With this we turn to the Gospel of Mark
Mark 3: 13-27
13 And He went up on the mountain and summoned those whom He Himself wanted, and they came to Him. 14 And He appointed twelve, so that they would be with Him and that He could send them out to preach, 15 and to have authority to cast out the demons. 16 And He appointed the twelve : Simon (to whom He gave the name Peter ), 17 and James, the son of Zebedee, and John the brother of James (to them He gave the name Boanerges, which means, "Sons of Thunder "); 18 and Andrew, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus, and Simon the Zealot ; 19 and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Him. 20 And He came home, and the crowd gathered again, to such an extent that they could not even eat a meal. 21 When His own people heard of this, they went out to take custody of Him; for they were saying, "He has lost His senses." 22 The scribes who came down from Jerusalem were saying, "He is possessed by Beelzebul," and "He casts out the demons by the ruler of the demons." 23 And He called them to Himself and began speaking to them in parables, "How can Satan cast out Satan ? 24 "If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. 25 "If a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. 26 "If Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but he is finished ! 27 "But no one can enter the strong man's house and plunder his property unless he first binds the strong man, and then he will plunder his house.
In this passage we see some very important points as we unpack this idea of God’s Kingdom.
1st thing:
Jesus appointed 12. Since the Diaspora and loosing of the 10 northern tribes of Israel it had been prophesied that God would one day reestablish the 12 tribes.
This was believed to happen when the Messiah would come.
In verse 14 we read Jesus ‘appoint’ 12 disciples or literally it says that he made 12.
In Matthew 19 Jesus tell his apostles that in the last days He will sit them on 12 thrones judging the 12 tribes of Israel. Any astute observer would notice that Jesus is reconstituting Israel.
2nd thing:
In verse 24 of Mark 3 Jesus makes a reference to the Divided House after being accused of being of Satan. Jesus is making a direct reference to the divided Kingdoms of Judah and Israel. Because of their disobedience, the kingdom was rendered in half after the death of Solomon and Rheboam and Jeroboam ascended to power. Jesus is bringing something new, something that will unite humanity.
The Apostle Paul will speak of this in his epistles and we see this illustrated in Acts 2 when the apostles speak in tongues and everyone could hear them in their own language. The curse of Babel in which humanity was divided by language was symbolically reversed at Pentecost. Man is being united under a true King.
3rd thing:
Jesus is the strong man. John the Baptist predicts that one more powerful than he is coming. Jesus is the strong one.
All of these themes are going to come to bear on the passage I would like zero in on tonight. In Mark 5 we see Jesus take on the Kingdom of Darkness and we see just what this new kingdom of God will look like.
Mark 5: 1-17
1 They came to the other side of the sea, into the country of the Gerasenes. 2 When He got out of the boat, immediately a man from the tombs with an unclean spirit met Him, 3 and he had his dwelling among the tombs. And no one was able to bind him anymore, even with a chain ; 4 because he had often been bound with shackles and chains, and the chains had been torn apart by him and the shackles broken in pieces, and no one was strong enough to subdue him. 5 Constantly, night and day, he was screaming among the tombs and in the mountains, and gashing himself with stones. 6 Seeing Jesus from a distance, he ran up and bowed down before Him; 7 and shouting with a loud voice, he said, "What business do we have with each other, Jesus, Son of the Most High God ? I implore You by God, do not torment me!" 8 For He had been saying to him, "Come out of the man, you unclean spirit !" 9 And He was asking him, "What is your name ?" And he said to Him, "My name is Legion ; for we are many." 10 And he began to implore Him earnestly not to send them out of the country. 11 Now there was a large herd of swine feeding nearby on the mountain. 12 The demons implored Him, saying, "Send us into the swine so that we may enter them." 13 Jesus gave them permission. And coming out, the unclean spirits entered the swine ; and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea, about two thousand of them; and they were drowned in the sea. 14 Their herdsmen ran away and reported it in the city and in the country. And the people came to see what it was that had happened. 15 They came to Jesus and observed the man who had been demon-possessed sitting down, clothed and in his right mind, the very man who had had the "legion "; and they became frightened. 16 Those who had seen it described to them how it had happened to the demon-possessed man, and all about the swine. 17 And they began to implore Him to leave their region.
In this story of the Gerasene demoniac we can see many themes of God’s Kingdom coming to bear.
The background to this entire story is a prophecy found in Isaiah 65.
Isaiah 65: 2-4
2 "I have spread out My hands all day long to a rebellious people, Who walk in the way which is not good, following their own thoughts, 3 A people who continually provoke Me to My face, Offering sacrifices in gardens and burning incense on bricks ; 4 Who sit among graves and spend the night in secret places ; Who eat swine's flesh, And the broth of unclean meat is in their pots.
Isaiah speaks of a time when the Jews would sit among the tombs and eat pig’s flesh. Both of these actions individually would make you ceremonially unclean by themselves but combined it would make one unclean.
This story is illustrating the degradation of this community and how far they had fallen.
As we start to look at this particular story will notice a few points that we need to draw out.
1st of all:
The demoniac was so strong that he had to be bound by chains. We will learn later that this man is possessed by multiple demons. Jesus asks this man His name and in Jesus day and time this was a common theme for an exorcism, you made the possessed say their name to take authority over the situation. What is fascinating, we see that Jesus is the STRONG MAN in this situation. Jesus will be able to clean this man of his unclean spirits. The man bows to Jesus because he knows that Jesus is the stronger.
Many times we paint Jesus as a pasty, weak character but Scripture does not. Jesus is the strong man. Our Savior holds the power, not Satan.
Many times we live in fear and timidity.
2 Timothy 1:7
For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline.
God has not given us a spirit of fear but of power. This kingdom is a powerful thing.
Mark 9:1 Jesus tells His followers that they will witness the Kingdom come with Power.
We have nothing to fear because the True Strong Man is our King.
2nd of all:
God’s kingdom changes the situation and brings light to the darkness.
Jesus heals this man of the demon possession and sends the demons into a herd of swine. This is a highly symbolic action because the swine were unclean animals.
2000 pigs run into the water and are killed. The entire economy of this place is destroyed in a few seconds. I think it is interesting that when Jesus sees evil He does not shrink back and make excuses for the people practicing evil.
The Temple authority got a taste of this when Jesus ran the money changers out of the Temple.
The reaction of the people in this town is telling. They want Jesus to leave the region. They don’t want the change that the kingdom of God brings to them.
They are more concerned with their economic situation than what is right and wrong.
I think as Christians it is important to remember the type of Kingdom that God has called us to:
1) God’s Kingdom will confront the forces of darkness and destroy them.
1 John 3: 8 Jesus came to destroy the works of the Devil
That was his main purpose to come and bring the war to sin.
2) The Kingdom we belong to has a true strong man in charge and that is Christ. There is no spiritual or fleshly force that is greater than Him. He was there when this universe was framed and created.
3) God’s kingdom will unite what was once divided and scattered. There are Christians all over this world of every tongue and nationality and we are all united under on King Jesus. We are truly the first Global movement in the history of the world.
4) God’s kingdom will shake up everything. Even the economy of a region can be changed instantly because of the truth and justice that God’s kingdom will bring.
The Greek for At Hand means that it is coming, it is near, it is at the threshold.
We see Jesus pick up this message and many times he references His miracles as evidence to the kingdom.
This coming Kingdom of God was something that was expected since the time of David. God promised David in 2 Samuel 7 that one of his descendents would sit on his throne forever.
There would be a Davidic King that would establish His kingdom forever and would bring a just rule to the earth.
Daniel 7 lays out this idea of an everlasting Kingdom that would be established.
Daniel 7: 13-14
13 "I kept looking in the night visions, And behold, with the clouds of heaven One like a Son of Man was coming, And He came up to the Ancient of Days And was presented before Him. 14 "And to Him was given dominion, Glory and a kingdom, That all the peoples, nations and men of every language Might serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion Which will not pass away ; And His kingdom is one Which will not be destroyed.
We notice that the one on the clouds of Heaven that was coming was called the Son of Man. Jesus would take on this title of the Son of Man.
One of the major themes of the Gospels is the coming Davidic Kingdom that Jesus was ushering in His ministry.
Tonight we will look back at the Gospel of Mark as we study through this book and look at the clash of this Kingdom with the kingdom of darkness.
In Scripture there is this conflict between what Paul in Colossians 1:13 called the domain of darkness and the Kingdom of God.
This conflict will come to life in Mark’s Gospel, specifically in the casting our of the Demonic.
Before we get to our main passage tonight in Mark 5, I want to go back and build up some background information found in Mark chapter 3 that tells us a little about this conflict and the nature of Christ’s kingdom that He came to establish.
Matthew 16: 15-19
15 He said to them, "But who do you say that I am ?" 16 Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." 17 And Jesus said to him, "Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. 18 "I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church ; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it. 19 "I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven ; and whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven."
Peter in his foundational confession that will form the bed-rock of this Kingdom movement tells us many things. Jesus’ response to Peter informs us to the type of kingdom that He will establish.
1st of all- He makes this confession at Caesarea of Philippi and this was the place of worship of Pan. Caesarea was named for Caesar and the brother of Herod – Philip. There were two temples in Caesarea on a rocky ledge, one to Caesar and one to Pan. Very evil acts that cannot be mentioned in public occurred at the Temple of Pan.
There was an opening in the rock known as the Gates of Hades. Many scholars believe that Jesus was referring to this place when Peter made his confession.
In other words, Jesus is telling Peter and His followers that the Kingdom that He will establish will never die and it will go right into the heart of paganism and defeat it.
This would not be a place to go retreat to the wilderness but would be a Kingdom that takes the fight to Satan and His minions.
2nd Thing that we can learn from this passage is Jesus is referring back to a passage about the Davidic Kingdom in Isaiah 22.
In Isaiah 22 the Lord issues an oracle to Shebna who is the steward of King Hezekiah. Shebna is the man in charge of the King’s household. Shebna had been unfaithful and God was deposing him from his position and was establishing Eliakim as his replacement.
When this steward received his honor of being over the King’s household he was given the key to the Kingdom of David.
Isaiah 22: 20-22
20 "Then it will come about in that day, That I will summon My servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, 21 And I will clothe him with your tunic And tie your sash securely about him. I will entrust him with your authority, And he will become a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. 22 "Then I will set the key of the house of David on his shoulder, When he opens no one will shut, When he shuts no one will open.
We see the idea of keys and opening and shutting. When Jesus issues this statement to Peter he is letting everyone know that the true Davidic King was here and he was setting up his apostles as His stewards. We will witness Jesus giving this authority of binding and loosing to all of the apostles later. This idea of binding and loosing is a Rabbinic idea that relates to their teaching ministry.
We will see this apostolic authority in Jesus Kingdom many times.
With this we turn to the Gospel of Mark
Mark 3: 13-27
13 And He went up on the mountain and summoned those whom He Himself wanted, and they came to Him. 14 And He appointed twelve, so that they would be with Him and that He could send them out to preach, 15 and to have authority to cast out the demons. 16 And He appointed the twelve : Simon (to whom He gave the name Peter ), 17 and James, the son of Zebedee, and John the brother of James (to them He gave the name Boanerges, which means, "Sons of Thunder "); 18 and Andrew, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus, and Simon the Zealot ; 19 and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Him. 20 And He came home, and the crowd gathered again, to such an extent that they could not even eat a meal. 21 When His own people heard of this, they went out to take custody of Him; for they were saying, "He has lost His senses." 22 The scribes who came down from Jerusalem were saying, "He is possessed by Beelzebul," and "He casts out the demons by the ruler of the demons." 23 And He called them to Himself and began speaking to them in parables, "How can Satan cast out Satan ? 24 "If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. 25 "If a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. 26 "If Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but he is finished ! 27 "But no one can enter the strong man's house and plunder his property unless he first binds the strong man, and then he will plunder his house.
In this passage we see some very important points as we unpack this idea of God’s Kingdom.
1st thing:
Jesus appointed 12. Since the Diaspora and loosing of the 10 northern tribes of Israel it had been prophesied that God would one day reestablish the 12 tribes.
This was believed to happen when the Messiah would come.
In verse 14 we read Jesus ‘appoint’ 12 disciples or literally it says that he made 12.
In Matthew 19 Jesus tell his apostles that in the last days He will sit them on 12 thrones judging the 12 tribes of Israel. Any astute observer would notice that Jesus is reconstituting Israel.
2nd thing:
In verse 24 of Mark 3 Jesus makes a reference to the Divided House after being accused of being of Satan. Jesus is making a direct reference to the divided Kingdoms of Judah and Israel. Because of their disobedience, the kingdom was rendered in half after the death of Solomon and Rheboam and Jeroboam ascended to power. Jesus is bringing something new, something that will unite humanity.
The Apostle Paul will speak of this in his epistles and we see this illustrated in Acts 2 when the apostles speak in tongues and everyone could hear them in their own language. The curse of Babel in which humanity was divided by language was symbolically reversed at Pentecost. Man is being united under a true King.
3rd thing:
Jesus is the strong man. John the Baptist predicts that one more powerful than he is coming. Jesus is the strong one.
All of these themes are going to come to bear on the passage I would like zero in on tonight. In Mark 5 we see Jesus take on the Kingdom of Darkness and we see just what this new kingdom of God will look like.
Mark 5: 1-17
1 They came to the other side of the sea, into the country of the Gerasenes. 2 When He got out of the boat, immediately a man from the tombs with an unclean spirit met Him, 3 and he had his dwelling among the tombs. And no one was able to bind him anymore, even with a chain ; 4 because he had often been bound with shackles and chains, and the chains had been torn apart by him and the shackles broken in pieces, and no one was strong enough to subdue him. 5 Constantly, night and day, he was screaming among the tombs and in the mountains, and gashing himself with stones. 6 Seeing Jesus from a distance, he ran up and bowed down before Him; 7 and shouting with a loud voice, he said, "What business do we have with each other, Jesus, Son of the Most High God ? I implore You by God, do not torment me!" 8 For He had been saying to him, "Come out of the man, you unclean spirit !" 9 And He was asking him, "What is your name ?" And he said to Him, "My name is Legion ; for we are many." 10 And he began to implore Him earnestly not to send them out of the country. 11 Now there was a large herd of swine feeding nearby on the mountain. 12 The demons implored Him, saying, "Send us into the swine so that we may enter them." 13 Jesus gave them permission. And coming out, the unclean spirits entered the swine ; and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea, about two thousand of them; and they were drowned in the sea. 14 Their herdsmen ran away and reported it in the city and in the country. And the people came to see what it was that had happened. 15 They came to Jesus and observed the man who had been demon-possessed sitting down, clothed and in his right mind, the very man who had had the "legion "; and they became frightened. 16 Those who had seen it described to them how it had happened to the demon-possessed man, and all about the swine. 17 And they began to implore Him to leave their region.
In this story of the Gerasene demoniac we can see many themes of God’s Kingdom coming to bear.
The background to this entire story is a prophecy found in Isaiah 65.
Isaiah 65: 2-4
2 "I have spread out My hands all day long to a rebellious people, Who walk in the way which is not good, following their own thoughts, 3 A people who continually provoke Me to My face, Offering sacrifices in gardens and burning incense on bricks ; 4 Who sit among graves and spend the night in secret places ; Who eat swine's flesh, And the broth of unclean meat is in their pots.
Isaiah speaks of a time when the Jews would sit among the tombs and eat pig’s flesh. Both of these actions individually would make you ceremonially unclean by themselves but combined it would make one unclean.
This story is illustrating the degradation of this community and how far they had fallen.
As we start to look at this particular story will notice a few points that we need to draw out.
1st of all:
The demoniac was so strong that he had to be bound by chains. We will learn later that this man is possessed by multiple demons. Jesus asks this man His name and in Jesus day and time this was a common theme for an exorcism, you made the possessed say their name to take authority over the situation. What is fascinating, we see that Jesus is the STRONG MAN in this situation. Jesus will be able to clean this man of his unclean spirits. The man bows to Jesus because he knows that Jesus is the stronger.
Many times we paint Jesus as a pasty, weak character but Scripture does not. Jesus is the strong man. Our Savior holds the power, not Satan.
Many times we live in fear and timidity.
2 Timothy 1:7
For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline.
God has not given us a spirit of fear but of power. This kingdom is a powerful thing.
Mark 9:1 Jesus tells His followers that they will witness the Kingdom come with Power.
We have nothing to fear because the True Strong Man is our King.
2nd of all:
God’s kingdom changes the situation and brings light to the darkness.
Jesus heals this man of the demon possession and sends the demons into a herd of swine. This is a highly symbolic action because the swine were unclean animals.
2000 pigs run into the water and are killed. The entire economy of this place is destroyed in a few seconds. I think it is interesting that when Jesus sees evil He does not shrink back and make excuses for the people practicing evil.
The Temple authority got a taste of this when Jesus ran the money changers out of the Temple.
The reaction of the people in this town is telling. They want Jesus to leave the region. They don’t want the change that the kingdom of God brings to them.
They are more concerned with their economic situation than what is right and wrong.
I think as Christians it is important to remember the type of Kingdom that God has called us to:
1) God’s Kingdom will confront the forces of darkness and destroy them.
1 John 3: 8 Jesus came to destroy the works of the Devil
That was his main purpose to come and bring the war to sin.
2) The Kingdom we belong to has a true strong man in charge and that is Christ. There is no spiritual or fleshly force that is greater than Him. He was there when this universe was framed and created.
3) God’s kingdom will unite what was once divided and scattered. There are Christians all over this world of every tongue and nationality and we are all united under on King Jesus. We are truly the first Global movement in the history of the world.
4) God’s kingdom will shake up everything. Even the economy of a region can be changed instantly because of the truth and justice that God’s kingdom will bring.
Saturday, January 2, 2010
Spiritual Discipline #2
We live in a time where we don’t need more intelligent people, more deep people, or even more talented people. We live in a time when we need more DEEP people.
The curse of our age is superficiality and an age of instant gratification.
Everyone wants a quick fix and New Years is a time when people are trying to loose weight, do better financially, etc.
Many fad diets and exercise programs promise results without much sacrifice.
We know deep inside that these are empty promises of success. We know that success comes with hard work and that has always been the case.
Why do you think some coaches are more successful than others?
They make their players work harder.
Talent can take you so far in sports but hard work kicks in and usually the team that works harder will defeat a team that doesn’t work hard. Coaches know that the more skin you have in the game, the harder it is to quit.
Psalm 42: 1-2
1 As the deer pants for the water brooks, So my soul pants for You, O God. 2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God ; When shall I come and appear before God ?
God is the fuel that our souls run on. Whether we realize it or not we cannot run properly without a steady dose of God in our spiritual tank. This eliminates any notion of Sunday only Christianity. Christianity is a life style. It is not a mental set of ideas. It is not an ideology like Communism or Socialism. Christianity is a way of life.
"The spiritual life is first of all a life. It is not merely something to be known and studied, it is to be lived."
-Thomas Merton, "
"Everybody thinks of changing humanity and nobody thinks of changing himself."
--Leo Tolstoy
Last week I pointed out that one of our motivations for the beginning of spiritual discipline in our lives is the seriousness of sin. I want to pick up on that theme as we get a little more practical this morning about how one goes about this battle.
I.) Sin is a very serious ingrained matter that must be dealt with.
Many times we think of sin as just personal disobedience to God and that is true but Paul elaborates a little more on sin in Romans. Paul goes as far as in a sense speaking of sin as a powerful force at work in our bodies.
The Hebrew people took sin so serious that they had 6 nouns to describe sin and 3 verbs to describe sinful action.
In Romans 3 Paul lays out how sin is a plague of the entire human race that is ingrained in almost every aspect of the human life.
Paul in Romans 7 speaks of a war that is going in the human being that is under the subjection of the Law. Without the life in the Spirit of God one will continually loose the battle with sin.
I think we can all concur that many times when we meet sin in our lives we try various approaches to get rid of the sin that plagues us. Many times we will go on a full frontal assault on that sin and declare that we will stop having problems in that area.
It may be anger, fear, bitterness, or gluttony that we war with in our flesh.
We say at a times like New Years, that we will no longer have problems with this just a few days later to fall right back down on our face and fail miserably in that area of our life.
II. Goal of Spiritual Discipline
Many people see this battle with sin as a dilemma. They feel that God’s salvation is a free gift and that we can do nothing of ourselves to change the condition that we are in. That is true. God’s transformation of our lives is a gift from Heaven. But that does not mean idleness or mean that we should wait for God to come in and just transform us as we wait.
There is a path that God has laid out for us once we have received His grace. It is a path that will place our lives before Him so that He can transform us into the image of His son.
Imagine someone leaving the big city to become a farmer. They purchase a field in the winter.
They wait until the spring and until harvest and the only thing that their field grows is weeds and dandelions.
They wonder what they did wrong.
They never cultivated that field, they didn’t plow their fields, plant seed, and weed out the unwanted plants.
Many people come to church their entire lives and wonder why they are no different.
They think, I am a Christian, I go to church services but I struggle with sin.
I am not much different than I was before.
Paul talks about this type of sowing in Galatians 3:7-9.
Galatians 3: 7-9
7 Do not be deceived, God is not mocked ; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap. 8 For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. 9 Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary.
Paul makes it clear that the development of the spiritual life is one that takes some effort on our part. We must use the disciplines that God has given us to shape our lives.
God has blazed a path in Jesus for us to follow. We can look at the example of the farmer and plug in what Paul is talking about. What if those same people came to the country to plant a field and did everything right. They cultivated, plowed, planted, fertilized it, and weeded it.
They would still be dependent on the natural events of rain, sun, and all those things necessary to grow a plant.
In our own spiritual development we can put all things in place but God will do the work. We have to believe that or we are no better than atheists.
We must believe that God will work in our lives and give us the grace to overcome what besets us if we open ourselves to the path of spiritual discipline.
The way that we recapture the image of our Creator that has been marred and misshaped is by allowing God to transform us into the image of His Son.
In Romans the 8th chapter Paul tells the Romans that God has predestined us to be conformed to the image of His Son. God’s ultimate purpose is to mold us into the image of Jesus.
We can think of the spiritual disciplines as a path that must be walked.
It is a path that has deep drop offs to the right and to the left. As we walk the path the chasm to our right would be trying accomplish virtue by our own efforts.
Making the Spiritual disciplines a work or Law to be obeyed. This leads to works righteousness and death.
The other drop off or chasm is hedonism. This is just giving up the struggle with sin and allowing sin to reign supreme in our bodies. This also leads to death.
The path that we are called to walk is one that we must work toward but realize that it is the work of God and it is path on which grace will shower our lives.
We can never let this degenerate into a sense of just trying to become moral people. This must be an inward change of heart that leads to a pure life.
2 Corinthians 3: 5-6
5 Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God, 6 who also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit ; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
This can never become an external change like the Pharisees.
Jesus said that we must exceed the righteousness of the Pharisees. They had neglected the heart and the inward man.
This is the very place that the spiritually disciplined life goes to.
We have to put ourselves on this path and stay on it to allow God to work on us and conform us.
What we are looking for in the transformed life:
Galatians 5: 22-25
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control ; against such things there is no law. 24 Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.
When we set our hand to the plow of becoming a mature Christian, this is what it will look like.
LOVE, JOY, PEACE, PATIENCE, KINDESS, GOODNESS, FAITHFULNESS, GENTLENESS, SELF CONTROL.
Why do we not have all of these? Do we believe God wants to give us these qualities? Who doesn’t want to live like that?
Who in this room doesn’t want a spouse that acts like this? Children that grow up to look like this? How many of us have children that we want their future spouse to have these qualities?
This morning let us look at one avenue that will start to lead us on this path and that is PRAYER.
III. Prayer will help God in his endeavor to mold us into the image of His Son.
1) Prayer means communion with God.
Part of the task of prayer is communion with God. That communion was ruptured in the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve sinned. We witness Adam and Eve hide from the presence of God.
God wants continual fellowship with His creation and part of the task of prayer is to restore that bond of communication.
The Temple in Judaism stood as a symbol of God’s presence but it also reminded the people of their sin.
There were zones of holiness. Only the most holy place could be entered into by the high priest and that was only once per year.
The holy place in the Temple is just a copy of what is in Heaven.
The Hebrew writer tells us something fascinating.
Hebrews 10: 19-20
19 Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, 20 by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh,
We are told that we now can enter the most holy place of God but this holy place is the true throne of God in Heaven. This is not a copy but the reality.
One of the main differences between Judaism and Christianity is that the Jews felt that what they did was a copy of what was in Heaven where the Christians knew that we actually participated with Heaven.
When we pray we, through Jesus, are allowed access to the very Holy Place of Heaven.
That should form our entire attitude about prayer.
We are lifted into Heaven as we talk to our Creator. Either we believe that or we are wasting our time as Christians. That was one of the benefits of the cross of Jesus is that we have access to the Father by one Spirit.
2) God wants to redeem time.
God wants to redeem all things. That is why he gave the Israelites feast days to help them remember their Creator in the ebb and flow of time.
The Hebrew calendar was set up on feasts that happened throughout the year and a weekly schedule that included the Sabbath.
Their entire calendar reminded them of their Creator.
Even their day was claimed by God.
In Psalm the 55th chapter we read David exclaim that evening, morning, and noon I cry out to you.
These were the typical three times of the day that the Jews would stop and pray to God. They set specific times in which the prayed.
We can see the Jewish times of prayer all throughout the Roman Empire.
In a Roman city the bell would sound at 6 am for work to begin. The bell would again toll at 9 am - This would usually be the first time of prayer for a Jew and it was called the 3rd hour by the Jews.
The bell would toll for a siesta at 12 noon which was the 6th hour for the Jews and would be another time of prayer.
The bell would toll at 3pm for work to continue and this 9th hour also marked a time of prayer for the Jewish people. A bell would finally toll at 6pm, the 12th hour for a Jew, and it would end the work day for Romans.
Some might look at these fixed times of prayer and say, “Well that is just a Jewish practice that was abolished with Christianity and our freedom in Christ.” If we assumed that we would be wrong.
One just has to look at the New Testament and see that the first Christians continued to observe hours of prayer.
In Acts 10: 9 that Peter went on the housetop to pray at the 6th hour, which was noon. I also find it fascinating that the angel appeared to Cornelius earlier in Acts 10 during another hour of prayer for the Jews the 9th hour or 3pm.
In Acts 3:1 we read that Peter and John were going up to the Temple at the 9th hour for the hour of prayer or 3 pm in the afternoon. Peter and John were specifically going to the Temple for the hour of prayer.
In Acts 13 we see this idea of set time of prayer again. In this passage we read:
Acts 13: 1-2
1 Now there were at Antioch, in the church that was there, prophets and teachers : Barnabas, and Simeon who was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manaen who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. 2 While they were ministering to the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, "Set apart for Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them."
Leitourgeo- in Classical Greek this word meant the work of the people but in Judaism it had a specific meaning.
It specifically meant the liturgy of the Temple of the Levites but also the Liturgy of the time of prayer.
Paul and Barnabas are not going out and door knocking but are fasting and praying. They are in a time of worship when the Holy Spirit sets them apart.
In Luke 5 we read that when Jesus fame had spread about his healings He would still go into the wilderness to pray alone.
In the example of Jesus and His earliest followers we see that they set certain parts of the day apart to pray.
This is one of the first practical things that I believe that we can implement to start conform to the image of Christ.
It seems simple but we must start.
We must set specific times of the day to pray. We MUST do this if we are going to try to order our lives to the way of Jesus.
Prayer is a powerful tool. If we don’t know what to pray, just pray the Lord’s prayer until you get comfortable with praying during the day.
Let us as a Church commit to setting time throughout our day to pray. It might just start with just praying in the morning and the evening before bed.
As we progress we may take on the way the Jews prayed and do so three times per day. Let us start to order our lives. Many of us have ordered our weeks by being here on every Sunday but I believe that God wants to order every day.
Let us commit to praying at set times daily to develop this relationship with God that he so desparetely wants to have with us.
Next week we will focus on the content of prayer and how to pray as we continue to look at how one is to develop a spiritually disciplined life in this New Year.
The curse of our age is superficiality and an age of instant gratification.
Everyone wants a quick fix and New Years is a time when people are trying to loose weight, do better financially, etc.
Many fad diets and exercise programs promise results without much sacrifice.
We know deep inside that these are empty promises of success. We know that success comes with hard work and that has always been the case.
Why do you think some coaches are more successful than others?
They make their players work harder.
Talent can take you so far in sports but hard work kicks in and usually the team that works harder will defeat a team that doesn’t work hard. Coaches know that the more skin you have in the game, the harder it is to quit.
Psalm 42: 1-2
1 As the deer pants for the water brooks, So my soul pants for You, O God. 2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God ; When shall I come and appear before God ?
God is the fuel that our souls run on. Whether we realize it or not we cannot run properly without a steady dose of God in our spiritual tank. This eliminates any notion of Sunday only Christianity. Christianity is a life style. It is not a mental set of ideas. It is not an ideology like Communism or Socialism. Christianity is a way of life.
"The spiritual life is first of all a life. It is not merely something to be known and studied, it is to be lived."
-Thomas Merton, "
"Everybody thinks of changing humanity and nobody thinks of changing himself."
--Leo Tolstoy
Last week I pointed out that one of our motivations for the beginning of spiritual discipline in our lives is the seriousness of sin. I want to pick up on that theme as we get a little more practical this morning about how one goes about this battle.
I.) Sin is a very serious ingrained matter that must be dealt with.
Many times we think of sin as just personal disobedience to God and that is true but Paul elaborates a little more on sin in Romans. Paul goes as far as in a sense speaking of sin as a powerful force at work in our bodies.
The Hebrew people took sin so serious that they had 6 nouns to describe sin and 3 verbs to describe sinful action.
In Romans 3 Paul lays out how sin is a plague of the entire human race that is ingrained in almost every aspect of the human life.
Paul in Romans 7 speaks of a war that is going in the human being that is under the subjection of the Law. Without the life in the Spirit of God one will continually loose the battle with sin.
I think we can all concur that many times when we meet sin in our lives we try various approaches to get rid of the sin that plagues us. Many times we will go on a full frontal assault on that sin and declare that we will stop having problems in that area.
It may be anger, fear, bitterness, or gluttony that we war with in our flesh.
We say at a times like New Years, that we will no longer have problems with this just a few days later to fall right back down on our face and fail miserably in that area of our life.
II. Goal of Spiritual Discipline
Many people see this battle with sin as a dilemma. They feel that God’s salvation is a free gift and that we can do nothing of ourselves to change the condition that we are in. That is true. God’s transformation of our lives is a gift from Heaven. But that does not mean idleness or mean that we should wait for God to come in and just transform us as we wait.
There is a path that God has laid out for us once we have received His grace. It is a path that will place our lives before Him so that He can transform us into the image of His son.
Imagine someone leaving the big city to become a farmer. They purchase a field in the winter.
They wait until the spring and until harvest and the only thing that their field grows is weeds and dandelions.
They wonder what they did wrong.
They never cultivated that field, they didn’t plow their fields, plant seed, and weed out the unwanted plants.
Many people come to church their entire lives and wonder why they are no different.
They think, I am a Christian, I go to church services but I struggle with sin.
I am not much different than I was before.
Paul talks about this type of sowing in Galatians 3:7-9.
Galatians 3: 7-9
7 Do not be deceived, God is not mocked ; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap. 8 For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. 9 Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary.
Paul makes it clear that the development of the spiritual life is one that takes some effort on our part. We must use the disciplines that God has given us to shape our lives.
God has blazed a path in Jesus for us to follow. We can look at the example of the farmer and plug in what Paul is talking about. What if those same people came to the country to plant a field and did everything right. They cultivated, plowed, planted, fertilized it, and weeded it.
They would still be dependent on the natural events of rain, sun, and all those things necessary to grow a plant.
In our own spiritual development we can put all things in place but God will do the work. We have to believe that or we are no better than atheists.
We must believe that God will work in our lives and give us the grace to overcome what besets us if we open ourselves to the path of spiritual discipline.
The way that we recapture the image of our Creator that has been marred and misshaped is by allowing God to transform us into the image of His Son.
In Romans the 8th chapter Paul tells the Romans that God has predestined us to be conformed to the image of His Son. God’s ultimate purpose is to mold us into the image of Jesus.
We can think of the spiritual disciplines as a path that must be walked.
It is a path that has deep drop offs to the right and to the left. As we walk the path the chasm to our right would be trying accomplish virtue by our own efforts.
Making the Spiritual disciplines a work or Law to be obeyed. This leads to works righteousness and death.
The other drop off or chasm is hedonism. This is just giving up the struggle with sin and allowing sin to reign supreme in our bodies. This also leads to death.
The path that we are called to walk is one that we must work toward but realize that it is the work of God and it is path on which grace will shower our lives.
We can never let this degenerate into a sense of just trying to become moral people. This must be an inward change of heart that leads to a pure life.
2 Corinthians 3: 5-6
5 Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God, 6 who also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit ; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
This can never become an external change like the Pharisees.
Jesus said that we must exceed the righteousness of the Pharisees. They had neglected the heart and the inward man.
This is the very place that the spiritually disciplined life goes to.
We have to put ourselves on this path and stay on it to allow God to work on us and conform us.
What we are looking for in the transformed life:
Galatians 5: 22-25
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control ; against such things there is no law. 24 Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.
When we set our hand to the plow of becoming a mature Christian, this is what it will look like.
LOVE, JOY, PEACE, PATIENCE, KINDESS, GOODNESS, FAITHFULNESS, GENTLENESS, SELF CONTROL.
Why do we not have all of these? Do we believe God wants to give us these qualities? Who doesn’t want to live like that?
Who in this room doesn’t want a spouse that acts like this? Children that grow up to look like this? How many of us have children that we want their future spouse to have these qualities?
This morning let us look at one avenue that will start to lead us on this path and that is PRAYER.
III. Prayer will help God in his endeavor to mold us into the image of His Son.
1) Prayer means communion with God.
Part of the task of prayer is communion with God. That communion was ruptured in the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve sinned. We witness Adam and Eve hide from the presence of God.
God wants continual fellowship with His creation and part of the task of prayer is to restore that bond of communication.
The Temple in Judaism stood as a symbol of God’s presence but it also reminded the people of their sin.
There were zones of holiness. Only the most holy place could be entered into by the high priest and that was only once per year.
The holy place in the Temple is just a copy of what is in Heaven.
The Hebrew writer tells us something fascinating.
Hebrews 10: 19-20
19 Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, 20 by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh,
We are told that we now can enter the most holy place of God but this holy place is the true throne of God in Heaven. This is not a copy but the reality.
One of the main differences between Judaism and Christianity is that the Jews felt that what they did was a copy of what was in Heaven where the Christians knew that we actually participated with Heaven.
When we pray we, through Jesus, are allowed access to the very Holy Place of Heaven.
That should form our entire attitude about prayer.
We are lifted into Heaven as we talk to our Creator. Either we believe that or we are wasting our time as Christians. That was one of the benefits of the cross of Jesus is that we have access to the Father by one Spirit.
2) God wants to redeem time.
God wants to redeem all things. That is why he gave the Israelites feast days to help them remember their Creator in the ebb and flow of time.
The Hebrew calendar was set up on feasts that happened throughout the year and a weekly schedule that included the Sabbath.
Their entire calendar reminded them of their Creator.
Even their day was claimed by God.
In Psalm the 55th chapter we read David exclaim that evening, morning, and noon I cry out to you.
These were the typical three times of the day that the Jews would stop and pray to God. They set specific times in which the prayed.
We can see the Jewish times of prayer all throughout the Roman Empire.
In a Roman city the bell would sound at 6 am for work to begin. The bell would again toll at 9 am - This would usually be the first time of prayer for a Jew and it was called the 3rd hour by the Jews.
The bell would toll for a siesta at 12 noon which was the 6th hour for the Jews and would be another time of prayer.
The bell would toll at 3pm for work to continue and this 9th hour also marked a time of prayer for the Jewish people. A bell would finally toll at 6pm, the 12th hour for a Jew, and it would end the work day for Romans.
Some might look at these fixed times of prayer and say, “Well that is just a Jewish practice that was abolished with Christianity and our freedom in Christ.” If we assumed that we would be wrong.
One just has to look at the New Testament and see that the first Christians continued to observe hours of prayer.
In Acts 10: 9 that Peter went on the housetop to pray at the 6th hour, which was noon. I also find it fascinating that the angel appeared to Cornelius earlier in Acts 10 during another hour of prayer for the Jews the 9th hour or 3pm.
In Acts 3:1 we read that Peter and John were going up to the Temple at the 9th hour for the hour of prayer or 3 pm in the afternoon. Peter and John were specifically going to the Temple for the hour of prayer.
In Acts 13 we see this idea of set time of prayer again. In this passage we read:
Acts 13: 1-2
1 Now there were at Antioch, in the church that was there, prophets and teachers : Barnabas, and Simeon who was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manaen who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. 2 While they were ministering to the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, "Set apart for Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them."
Leitourgeo- in Classical Greek this word meant the work of the people but in Judaism it had a specific meaning.
It specifically meant the liturgy of the Temple of the Levites but also the Liturgy of the time of prayer.
Paul and Barnabas are not going out and door knocking but are fasting and praying. They are in a time of worship when the Holy Spirit sets them apart.
In Luke 5 we read that when Jesus fame had spread about his healings He would still go into the wilderness to pray alone.
In the example of Jesus and His earliest followers we see that they set certain parts of the day apart to pray.
This is one of the first practical things that I believe that we can implement to start conform to the image of Christ.
It seems simple but we must start.
We must set specific times of the day to pray. We MUST do this if we are going to try to order our lives to the way of Jesus.
Prayer is a powerful tool. If we don’t know what to pray, just pray the Lord’s prayer until you get comfortable with praying during the day.
Let us as a Church commit to setting time throughout our day to pray. It might just start with just praying in the morning and the evening before bed.
As we progress we may take on the way the Jews prayed and do so three times per day. Let us start to order our lives. Many of us have ordered our weeks by being here on every Sunday but I believe that God wants to order every day.
Let us commit to praying at set times daily to develop this relationship with God that he so desparetely wants to have with us.
Next week we will focus on the content of prayer and how to pray as we continue to look at how one is to develop a spiritually disciplined life in this New Year.
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