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Revelation 13 – Sermon Manuscript

One of the realities of humanity is that we become what we worship. If you worship money you become greedy, trying to hoard as much as you can. If you worship recognition you become desperate to keep up appearances. If you worship success you become a jerk. All these things demand your allegiance, your devotion, your time, and none of the outcomes are good. 

-Great picture of this in Voyage of the Dawn Treader where Eustace, the antihero and a miserable boy tries to ruin the vacation of his cousins, the Pevensies. He only worries about himself and doesn’t get along with anyone. They’re drawn into Narnia (again) and Eustace finds a hoard of dragon treasure, what he doesn’t realize is the greed that made him want all the treasure corrupted him and turned him into a dragon! His love of the gold corrupted his life.

-Today we’re going to look at what happens when you worship government & politics, and the outcome is beastly!

READ/PRAY (pg. 44, 1097)

-What do we need to remember?

-A letter, written to 7 churches.

-A mix of 3 genres: apocalyptic, prophetic, epistle

-Why are we studying Revelation? To be blessed

-Outline of the book based on 1:19: seen in the past, what is presently, and what will take place in the future.

-I would argue that what the best way to faithfully interpret this book is to understand John is talking about things that will continue being true throughout history until Jesus comes back, not exclusively about future events. Therefore we shouldn’t read it chronologically. Satan will continue fighting, sin will continue wreaking havoc and destruction, and none of that withstand the strength and power of the Risen Jesus! So the primary call in Revelation is for us to understand that God is in control, despite what it looks like in the world, so we must remain faithful in the midst of any suffering and persecution we face.

-Remember that Satan is not omniscient – he has no clue when Jesus is actually coming back, so we should expect to find an antichrist in every stage of history. 

-We’re in the middle of an interlude between the trumpets and bowls. Similarities between all of these 7, but increasing intensity.

–Rev. 12 began recounting the birth of Jesus, the preservation of God’s people, and the dethroning of Satan where he is cast out of heaven and goes to make war against God’s people. We were left in the Spring with this verse.

-The sea for Jews – the place of chaos, terror, uncertainty. If you get far enough out in the ocean it can start to feel flat, but not by the land, the land is constant being hit by waves! 

  1. Ten if by Sea (1-10)

-The dragon calls forth from the sea a beast. We’ve seen the grotesque descriptions of the dragon before, this first beast has ten horns on 7 heads.

-One of the primary keys to interpreting Revelation correctly is to know the Bible, especially the OT, and guess what’s been decreasing significantly in our world: understanding and deep reflection on the Bible which means we don’t know how to study Revelation. In this case, John is referencing a vision from Daniel 7

-Just as in Rev. Daniel recounts that 4 beasts are arising out of the sea (the place of chaos), and these 4 beasts are representative of 4 different governments that will arise in the future: Babylon, Medes/Persians, Greeks (Alexander the Great), and Rome as the worst of them all. When the 1stcentury churches heard this their minds would have immediately jumped to this prophesy in Daniel, what’s different in Rev. is all the beasts are suddenly combined together into a grotesque parody of an animal. 

-Remember: numbers are almost always symbolic: 10 being complete or full, 7 being perfect. This is the dragons attempt at perfect and complete power, but even in that he falls short because one of his heads is wounded.

-This is significant, because what John is seeing here is the continual rise and fall of tyrannical governments who are opposed to God and His people. When John’s writing this that would be Rome, who demanded full and complete allegiance from every citizen, there was no separation between church & state like we have today. To be a citizen meant you bought in completely and worshipped the governmental structures in place. This is where the Jews had so much conflict with the Romans – Jews claimed to worship the 1 true God, which meant worshipping no one else, and nothing else, but doesn’t that make them bad citizens? That’s one of the cruxes facing the early church, who was viewed as a subset of the Jewish faith until about AD 70 when the temple was destroyed. Since this was written after, this is where the church would have started facing increased persecution again.

-But to get more of what John’s saying here, we need to turn to Rev. 17, John sees a woman riding the beast from Rev. 13 (7 heads & 10 horns)

-Notice that it says the beast “was, is not, and is about to come” TWICE! Does that sound like anything else we’ve heard in this book before? Rev. 1:8

-If this was written in the 90s, this is most likely a lull in the midst of intense persecution from the Romans. The totalitarian government seems like it’s gone away, at least a little bit: it was, it isn’t, but it’s coming back! Remember, Satan doesn’t have complete control, he can only mimic what God has done, so he won’t always be in complete control. However, even when it looks like his work is done, get ready because he’ll come roaring back and try it all over again. That’s what John’s getting at here in vs. 3 that even when it looks like he’s dead, he’ll come back.

-How do people respond? They’re all in! The dragon has been defeated twice before (first in trying to eat the child being born from the woman, then he tried to send water to drown the woman but he was defeated again, and then he goes to wage war against Christians), but this time it looks like he’s successful. The whole earth gets in line to worship the dragon because he’s given authority to the beast. 

-Remember, who is this beast representing? Any government that attempts to claim total and complete power, and governmental force that attempts to become god! When they do that, they’re becoming beast like, they’re following the way of the dragon, by worshipping the beast the people will become beast-like.

-Look at how this beast goes about his business: utters boasts and blasphemies, and allowed authority for 42 months.

-Blasphemes God, heaven, and everyone who dwells in heaven. Who allows this? God does. God is still in complete control, even of this grotesque beast. Nothing happens outside of God’s plans!

-42 months: half of 7, not God’s final plan, did a whole sermon on this in the Spring you can listen to!

-Permitted (allowed from God) to wage war against the saints and conquer them. Well that’s discouraging! It’s means that in the short-term, we lose, we’re humiliated, we’re cast-off, we’re beat down. I hate to tell you, but it’s going to happen. Why? Because we won’t be like the earth-dwellers who worship the beast.

-Technical term in John for unbelievers. Comes up regularly, always refers to those who aren’t following Jesus.

-The Lamb who was slaughtered. Another reminder that the way of the Lamb comes about through death.

-Then John quotes from Jer. 15:2, there it signifies God’s punishment for not following God’s commands, but here John is saying this wall fall on God’s people as validation that they are His. Only believers will face this persecution from the beast.

-Finally, John ends with the reminder that despite this persecution, there’s a call for: endurance and faithfulness.

-I want us to think about this for a minute because I think this passage demonstrates to us what’s going on in our world today. What we see is that the work of the dragon is to create complete allegiance to political systems and structures, and to oppress anyone that stands in their way. This is one of the things that historically made USA unique – it was built on the premise that power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely, but I would argue that we’re now just as influenced by the dragon as any other nationality. Just look at the way politics is discussed today, where each side demonizes the other side and demands complete allegiance (worship), otherwise you’re cast off, dismissed from operating in that political sphere.

-But we’re called to operate by a different set of rules where the way of the Lamb reigns supreme, where we lay down our swords and seek to outdo one another in showing honor to each other. 

-Eugene Peterson: This is what we’re seeing play out in the church today, either attempt to takeover various institutions and communities, or abandon any cultural engagement and create a sanctified huddle which doesn’t engage the world for fear of becoming stained. Neither is what God calls us to! I’ve shared this before, what we’re called to is faithful presence! Here we see it worded as endurance and faithfulness. Friends, endure the ridicule, endure the scorn, endure the mockery and be faithful where God has you. Work to be the best employee, the best neighbor, the best friend, the best parent you can be, that’s what faithfulness looks like! And that today is absolutely needed (and rebellious!)

-Christians should work hard to be the best citizens we can, because that’s how we can go about ensuring that the gospel can continue to be spread. And on this side of Jesus’ return it doesn’t look impressive, it doesn’t look powerful, but the call for Christians hasn’t changed: endurance and faithfulness.

  • Two if by Land (11-18)

-To complete his mimicry of the trinity, the dragon calls forth a beast from the land. 2 horns like a lamb. Can anyone think of where we’ve seen that before? Back in Rev. 5 where a slaughtered lamb is seated in the middle of the throne! 

-The characteristic of this beast sound similar to the Holy Spirit: compels worship, performs signs, calls down fire, deceives people, gives breath (like the Spirit) to the image of the beast, compels people to adopt his mark so that his followers can participate in the economic system of the day. 

-Once again, we need to remember that Satan, the old dragon, doesn’t have ultimate power and authority. He’ll keep trying to usurp Jesus, he’ll keep trying to fight against God, but all Satan can do is a poor copy. Notice that fire comes down from heaven, like the fire that came down to rest on the early church at Pentecost, just like the early disciples were given power to perform miracles to validate their message, the beast performs signs, just like the Holy Spirit awakens people in salvation, here this beast “awakens” the image of the beast. Do you see how it’s a poor imitation of God’s work? Satan can’t compete, can’t keep, up, so he keeps falling short, but he doesn’t give up! 

-And what else does he attack? Finances. Did you know that Jesus talks more about money than almost any other topic? Jesus had no problem talking about money, and He went so far as to say that how you spend your money reveals who your God is. Friends, the way you spend your money reveals if you’re following the dragon or the Lamb.

-Not a literal mark, this is yet another lame attempt by the beast to copy what God has done. Think back to Rev. 7 where God seals His people on their foreheads. Seal vs. a mark. A seal is eternal and infinite, nothing can stand against it, and once it’s in place it’s viewed as enacted. A mark can be wiped off, like if you’ve ever gone to a concert or a fair they’ll stamp you to show that you paid, but it washes off after a couple days. This mark is Satan’s lame attempt to draw the battle lines against God, but just as his trinity falls short, so does his mark.

This calls for: wisdom. 

-We need to understand and remember that even though these beasts look impressive and powerful, they’re not. There’s something bigger going on here than the world can recognize, and it only comes about by following the way of the Lamb who was slain.

-Friends, this isn’t going to be a literal mark that people have on their hands or their heads, it’s not a barcode, it’s not a tattoo. This is a way of referring to your worldview, and how you live your life (hand). It’s not enough for us to just have all the right theological answers, Christ demands that we submit everything to Him! Our minds, our hearts, our lives, everything. To be a Christian is not less than having a new worldview, but it’s much more than that. It must affect the way we engage with governments, the way we engage the workplace, the way we engage our neighborhoods, all of it is supposed to be Christ-like.

-There are some accounts of trade guilds in the first century requiring allegiance and receiving a mark in order to participate in them. One of the difficulties the early church faced was in regards to which jobs a Christian could have, because these trade guilds would at times require you to make an offering to their patron deity. Metal had one, wood had one, sailing had one, travelers had one, all these random gods and focuses competing for allegiance, and only 1 God rules over them all.

-Peterson quote.

-Do you think anything in our world today attempts to manipulate us economically? Maybe the entire commercial system we have? If you’re looking for something fascinating to study, look up the shift in America’s economy during the 20th century. “We must shift America from a needs to a desires culture…. People must be trained to desire, to want new things, even before the old have been entirely consumed. We must shape a new mentality. Man’s desires must overshadow his needs” Paul Mazur CEO of Lehman Brothers (4th largest investment bank in the US until it went bankrupt in 2008)

-Friends, this is the reason this book is so critical for us today. It helps us to raise our eyes above our problems and issues and reveals to us the ways God is still working behind the scenes to bring His perfect plan to completion, but it requires us to participate! It requires us to remain aware and engaged in the world! It also requires us to worship correctly. If we worship the way the world worships we’re going to end up beast-like, but if we worship God, then John tells us 3 explicit things that will mark us as Christians: endure, remain faithful, and remain wise.

-How do we endure? We surround ourself with others who will help us persevere. We don’t give up! We continue taking 1 step closer to Jesus each and every day, which is the second piece
-Remain faithful. As our world becomes increasingly divided, we cannot give up on God’s call to be faithful every day. That means continually doing the right thing, continually working hard, continually loving and serving others even when it feels like no one else is. God sees your faithfulness, and will reward you for it!

-Finally, remain wise. Keep your eyes on Jesus Christ. True wisdom is found in Him, don’t give in to the dragon’s temptations, don’t play by the worldly rules, don’t look at things through power and prestige. Look to the slain Lamb, His ways are the only way to find true, eternal life and healing. 

-And the best part of this story is that the one we worship became like us. God took on flesh, added humanity to his divinity and then died in our place to allow us to be rescued and redeemed from sin to live new lives through Him, and we get to celebrate that reality. The boy Eustace learned that in Voyage of the Dawn Treader. In order to become a boy again he had to rip off all his scales, and it HURT! It took dying to his misplaced worship and worshipping the right way for him to become truly human again.

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by mikethestrand on September 1, 2024  •  Permalink
Posted in Bible, Blog, Church, Sermon, Worship

Posted by mikethestrand on September 1, 2024

https://pastormikesmusings.com/2024/09/01/revelation-13-sermon-manuscript/

How to Go to Church – Sermon Manuscript

-In 1940, a philosopher named Mortimer Adler published what has become an often used book that remains in print even today, titled ‘How to Read a Book.’ 

-The irony is you need to know how to read a book to read this book, and often we assume we already know how to read a book. But where this is helpful is it demonstrates to you different ways of reading that we often just assume as when we pick up a book. You used to be able to demonstrate this with a newspaper (anyone remember those things?) maybe a better way of thinking today is reading differently based on the website you’re using. I read ESPN differently than CNN. I read a blog differently than I read The Onion. Because we know the kind of writing that’s taking place, we interpret what we read differently. I don’t read ESPN to learn how the stock market is doing (nor do I look to athletes for help on political opinions, but that’s a talk for a different day!)

-We approach buildings similarly, even though we don’t often think about it. I don’t go to Cub Foods to buy clothes, I don’t go to a hospital to try to buy a car (or for their coffee!) So how do we approach the church, and how should we approach the church? What should we be looking for, what should we expect, and what should our attitude be?

PRAY

-To help you remember today, I used alliteration and fill in the blanks!

  1. Excited 

-How are we supposed to be excited about coming to church, where we have to sit still for over an hour, listen to me talk for half of that time, and then miss the beginning of football games pretty soon? Do you think that maybe that’s overly idealistic?

-To see why and how we should be excited, we need to look at a few Bible passages.
-1 Thess. 5:16-24:

-We’re excited because the Bible commands us to rejoice always. Always, explicit command. This means even on Sunday morning we’re supposed to be joyful, filled with joy. That doesn’t mean we pretend everything is fine when it’s not, this joy is talking about the implications of our salvation. If our sins have been fully paid for, how should we respond? With joy! With excitement! Friends, can you believe that NOTHING can now separate us from God’s love? Death can’t, life can’t, angels can’t, the rulers of the earth can’t, anything you see now can’t, anything that’s coming in the future can’t, any other power can’t, you can’t climb high enough to escape it, you can’t dig down deep enough to outrun it, NOTHING can separate you from God’s love! Isn’t that amazing? Not only is that true, but we also now have a family of people to remind us of that truth every week, an entire group of people who are committed to rejoicing together because of the salvation Jesus has purchased for us. If you can’t get excited about that, I don’t know what to get excited about! No matter what happens to me, NOTHING is going to change my eternal position.

-What else do we see here? Constant prayer: we can be in constant conversation with the God of the universe. He not only hears us, He also cares about us and responds to us when we cry out to Him. Yet another reason to rejoice!

-And give thanks all the time. Give thanks when things are going well, give thanks when things aren’t going well. And part of the reason we can give thanks is because we never go through life alone. God is with us, and He’s given us an entire church body to walk with us!

-Finally, who’s the one who actually does this work God or us? Yes! God himself will sanctify us completely, that means He will make us perfectly holy. But it comes about by living out what all the previous verses said. God works in us, and expects us to work out our faith along with Him. Jesus gives us a picture of what this looks like when He says that He can only do what the Father tells Him to – God wants us to be completely surrendered to Him, to represent Him in every area of life and to walk with him day by day in fellowship with other believers.

-Heb. 10:25

-I was recently listening to a podcast from a Christian rapper who said this verse doesn’t mean what we tend to think it means in America, that we need to go to church each Sunday, and I’m going to disagree with this rapper here because he’s only half right. It actually means that going to church on Sunday isn’t quite enough, it means that we need to be involved and engaged in one another’s lives so much that we can know how best to encourage each other.

-There’s some provocative language here: provoke love and good works. I don’t know about you, but I don’t ever think of provoking being a good thing, and I see a lot of provoking happening in my house! A sister provokes a brother until he hits her, a twin grabs his other twin until he provokes crying. But what if we provoked each other in positive ways? Provoked someone to better love other, provoked someone to act kindly toward others. How much more excited would you be to come to church if you knew the outcome was being provoked to love and good works? Yet that’s exactly what this tells us we should be doing! The way that happens is by encouraging, how much? Even more! Anyone in here just feeling overly encouraged today, like your encouragement tank is just completely full and you can’t handle anymore? And look at the urgency that we should have for our encouragement: ALL THE MORE. What’s “the day”? Bible talks about 2 days: today, and THE day. Today we’re supposed to be faithful, because THE day when Jesus returns is coming. Each day brings us 1 day closer to THE day, so be faithful today in encouraging others!

-Rom. 12:10

-Last verse has 2 ideas in here: first is be devoted to one another in love. That’s an incredibly strong commitment, isn’t it? I heard someone recently say that the Bible talks about being devoted in 2 places: to the church, and in marriage. What I saw was the Bible primarily talks about being devoted to the Lord, but here it says we’re to be devoted to each other. That’s a much stronger commitment than just showing up 1 day a week, isn’t it? That means remaining involved in each other’s lives.

-I had someone at one church I served who was trying to take this idea to heart, and would take time each week to randomly stop by church member’s houses! Might have been taking it a little too literally, but I think the sentiment was good.

-Then we see how we’re supposed to compete with each other: outdo one another in showing honor. If you see something that God is doing in someone, encourage them in that! Honor them in that! Don’t worry them being overly encouraged, or getting a big head, let’s compete with honoring each other!

-We’re excited because we get to be with our family to be encouraged and encourage others.

  • Expectant 

-What do you expect when you come to church each Sunday? Are you expecting (as one pastor has called it) a U2 concert followed by a TED Talk? Are you expecting a choir? Are you expecting some good coffee? What is it you expect, and what should we expect?
1 Cor. 11:18

-First I want you to notice that there’s the expectation (twice) that we gather together as the church. Gathering together isn’t an optional add-on for those who claim to be Christians. 

-Second is that there are divisions where there shouldn’t be. Divisions come about when we’re not outdoing one another in showing honor, but they’re not supposed to be markers of the church.

-Finally, when there aren’t divisions, then we can celebrate the Lord’s Supper, otherwise we’re just taking a tiny piece of bread and little shot of grape juice that has no deeper significance or meaning, which we’ll see next:

Matt. 18:20

-You may have this one cross-stitched on a pillow at home! Some bigger context: Jesus is talking about church discipline. Jesus actually gave the church His authority before He left that means part of the church’s role is to help the world understand who is a part of Jesus’ kingdom and who is not. 

-It’s a delegated authority, not a final authority.

-While this verse applies specifically to church discipline, the principle is true: when we gather as the church, Jesus is here among us. So when we gather together, our expectations should be that we are meeting with God. There is something sacred and unique about our weekly gathering as the church that marks this as different than the other 166.75 hours in our week.

-We’re expectant because we actually get to meet with God

-Because we come excited and expectant, that means that we need to come:

  • Engaged 

-Church isn’t a passive spectator sport. It’s not like what I do on Sunday afternoons during football season where I turn into Uncle Rico from Napoleon Dynamite “I could throw the pig skin a quarter mile. Would’ve won us state.” I would yell at Captain Kirk Cousins on the regular! You know what I’ve never done? Had a 400 pound lineman trying to kill me while attempting to throw an oblong ball at some of the fastest human beings on earth. It’s easy to be an armchair quarterback, but I’ll never get into the game. The church is the opposite! Church requires every single one of us playing our part in the whole body for us to function as we should, for us to be a healthy church. Think if you’ve ever broken a bone, doesn’t it make everything more difficult? 
2 Tim. 4:2

-There’s a reason preaching takes up so much time on a Sunday. We see this explicit command in there: preach the Word! We want everything we do to be built on God’s Word, and anything that doesn’t come from there needs to disappear. It doesn’t matter what season we’re in, the solution is the Word. Our lives are meant to be changed and shaped by the Word. Each week we gather to learn more about God’s Word, and then apply that Word to our lives this next week. Paul says “correct, rebuke, and encourage”

-Do you expect God to speak to you when you come here each week? An old Reformed Confession called the Second Helvetic Confession states “The preaching of the Word of God is the Word of God.” When I stand up here each week, I’m claiming to be God’s mouthpiece, which is a terrifying thing! It leads to much prayer on my part, and I have copied John Calvin’s practice of each step I take on my way up here saying “I believe in the Holy Spirit.” But that also means you have a responsibility to each word you hear. I have a little book here titled “Listen Up! A practical guide to listening to sermons” that I think gives some good advice on how to remain engaged each week.

-But preaching is only half of what we do, there’s a couple other passage that show us how else to remain engaged. 

Col. 3:16

-Once again, we see the emphasis on the word of Christ, AND we’re supposed to admonish and teach one another through our singing, the word Paul uses has this idea of setting right or correcting. So singing is meant to be a teaching tool where we admonish/teach each other AND sing to God. 

Eph. 5:19

-Which is what this passage says! Speaking to each other through our singing. This is why I love listening to you all sing every week! It teaches me, but it also means you need to sing! We were laughing this past week about former pastor Bruce’s ability to sing loudly enough to be heard across the room even when he doesn’t have a microphone! But that’s a blessing and encouragement to me, because he’s engaged!

-We’re engaged because we need to teach others

So be:

Committed 

-I understand that we live in a transient and consumeristic culture. Transient in that people come and go pretty regularly without any thought given to where and how they’ll remain connected to a local church body. One of the things I’ve started encouraging people if I hear they’re thinking about moving is to factor in the church into their decisions. Friends, it’s better to get paid a little less if it means you have a place where you can serve and grow more like Jesus. The math isn’t even close! But our world is also consumeristic where there’s a tendency to pick and choose the things that I like or want instead of committing myself to a body. I’ve known of people who would go to 1 church for music, then hop in their car and drive to another church for the preaching, and then were involved in a life group in a different church! Friends, commit to a local church where you engage holistically with the same people on a regular basis. It’s the best way to grow!

-Micah and I have been chatting recently about this tendency, if you are a member of a church you’re supposed to be “devoted” to it, similar to marriage. Yet I’ve had numerous conversations with people who say they’re “just looking around” at other church for a season. How do you think that would go if you told your spouse you were going to stay married to the, but you wanted to take some time to just date around for a little bit? That’s why we need to commit to 1 body.

Concerned

-Paul actually gives us instructions on how to encourage each other when we gather.

-Warn those who are idle. One of the expectations of someone who follow Jesus is to work hard. There’s no place for laziness in the kingdom of God. Just as with most things in our faith, there’s a fine line to walk because there is lots of room for play, enjoying God’s good gifts, but the Bible commands us to work hard as if everything we were doing was done for God (because it is). In 1 Tim. 5:8 Paul says that if someone will not provide for his family, he is no longer following Jesus, and is worse than an unbeliever. So one of our jobs when we gather is to exhort those who aren’t working.

-Comfort the discouraged. Friends, the church is a place for you to receive comfort. It’s the only place where you can find lasting, eternal comfort, and we as Christians are meant to comfort others just like Jesus comforts us. This is a joyful privilege for anyone who is now in Christ – we get to minister to each other as Jesus would minister to us if he were here. Do you look for ways to comfort other people?

-Help the weak. At some point, I can guarantee, you’re going to be overwhelmed by something in your life. Sickness, loss, wandering children, the troubles of this world will catch up to you, and will stretch you far beyond what you can handle. Where do you turn? My encouragement is to turn to the church! They’re people who are committed to you, concerned about you, and want to help you when you’re weak. I don’t know how anyone survives without a church family!

-Lastly, if you don’t fit into the idle, discouraged, or weak camp: then be patient. What a good reminder, because just like a nuclear family, sometimes your church family will drive you nuts, offend you, or even hurt you, so when that happens, remember to be patient with EVERYONE. At some point in my life, I’ve been all of these, and I’ve needed other people to be concerned enough for me to help me work through my issues.

-Paul summarizes this as always pursuing what is good for one another. You can’t just worry about you and God, it always has to be about WE and God, what can I do to encourage my brother or sister? How can I pursue their good? We actually need to care and value others more highly than ourselves.

Compassionate (forgiving)

-Because we live on this side of Eden and Eternity, there is going to be conflict, tension, turmoil, difficulty. That’s a guarantee. The question is what do we do with that? We are kind, compassionate and forgiving. One of our jobs is to assume the best in others instead of the worst.

-How do you go to church? Excited, expectant, engaged, which means we all need to be committed, concerned, and compassionate.

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by mikethestrand on August 25, 2024  •  Permalink
Posted in Bible, Blog, Church, Life, Sermon

Posted by mikethestrand on August 25, 2024

https://pastormikesmusings.com/2024/08/25/how-to-go-to-church-sermon-manuscript/

Psalm 40 – Sermon Manuscript

–A few years ago, a man and a woman met online and started dating. Unfortunately, he lived in Holland and she lived in China. The man eventually got fed up by the distance and decided to buy a plane ticket to visit her. He sent her all his flight information and boarded the plan. When he landed, he looked all around for his love and she wasn’t there. But he was in a new county that spoke a different language, and he had 1 mission on this trip, so he decided to wait for his girlfriend. And wait he did! After a couple days he started trending on social media, a local new outlet did a segment on him, and after 10 days of waiting he had to be taken to the hospital because of physical exhaustion. A news outlet tracked down his girlfriend, and she thought he was joking! 

-We wait pretty much daily, don’t we? I waited at a stoplight driving here this morning (just 1 thankfully)

-How do we wait for God? Today’s Psalm instructs us in what it looks like to wait for the Lord, and it doesn’t involve being ghosted at an airport

READ/PRAY

-John Stott’s outline was really helpful, so I just borrowed this from him. 

  1. Looking Backward (1-3)

-David begins by looking backwards and reflecting on God’s provision, notice past tense “waited”

-Heb. “waiting I waited” have you ever noticed how slow it is to become like Jesus, and how much effort it takes? There’s a theme throughout the Bible of periods of waiting and preparation before God uses you.

-Abraham promised a child at 75, child at 100. Joseph spent decades in servitude after being his dad’s favorite child, then he rose up to the number 2 in all of Egypt. Moses was exiled in Midian for 40 years before God came to him in a burning bush, David was anointed young and didn’t become king until 30, Paul had this radical conversion story and then he goes off to the wilderness for 3 years. But none of these experiences were wasted, and God wasn’t ignoring any of these people, instead God was using these experiences to shape and form all these men to be ready to be used by God later.

-The waiting season is rough, you may be in one now! Waiting for a new job, a new house, to go back to school, lots of life is waiting. But waiting isn’t doing nothing, despite how it often feels to us. If you just remain faithful in the midst of the waiting it is always remarkable how much work God does in those seasons, isn’t it?

-Just reflecting this past week with some people over my waiting to come here! It took almost 2 years of me looking and hoping and praying and waiting to find a church that would hire a young guy like me! Was told from 1 church that I wasn’t a good enough singer, another church told me they loved everything about me but wished I was 3 years older it was humbling and stretching! But God was still working. So friends, keep waiting! And if you’re not waiting encourage those who are waiting that you know! This will come up again, but you’ll have to wait.

-After the season of waiting, David is saved from God, notice the description in vs. 2 Hiking in mud is awful! Through my trip I experienced this, your feet get heavier, literally start weighing you down and wearing you out. Unlike that is walking on a rock-solid road. Clear path ahead, nothing to burden you. 

-And friends, that’s what it looks like to follow after God. By being obedient to Him, it allows you to be brought from muddy clay to a rock. It doesn’t mean that life will be easy, but it does mean that God will be with you in the midst of it. God’s way it right, good, true, and beautiful, it leads to flourishing as a human.

-Have you ever noticed how sociological data demonstrates this truth? I was just this week listening to a podcast that talked about all the benefits of biblical marriage: between 1 biological man and 1 biological woman in a lifetime monogamous covenantal relationship. Financial stability, healthier children, healthier lives for both spouses, it’s almost as if God knew what He was doing! 

-New song – the response of God’s movement in His people is singing. Friends, there’s a reason that we sing so much each week! Singing has been marker of God’s people since the beginning. Some theologians believe that God created through singing, I think when Adam meets Eve he bursts out in singing, this book of Psalms is an entire book dedicated to songs of God’s people. In Rev. (pick up again in 2 weeks) it says there’s singing around the throne of God 24/7. We must be a people who sing God’s truth to each other and back to Him 

-When this salvation is happening and God’s people are singing, what will other people see? They’ll start to see how God saves His people, and what’s their response? Fear and trust the Lord. Notice it doesn’t say the David will trust in the Lord, it says THEY

-Our lives are meant to be a witness to others, this means that our lives need to look different. Does yours? I think one of the reasons we need to gather together as the church is to be reset to this reality that we have a reason to trust in the Lord, that He has proven Himself faithful over and over again, so we can know that He’ll continue to!

-If you’ve ever been a part of team you’ve experienced some of this reality. When you’re running suicides with the rest of the bball team it helps when you can look over and see someone else persevering. Same thing in the church, when you’re struggling and hurting it helps when you can look down the pew and see a brother or sister who has walked through something similar to you. This is why God brings us into a new family called the church when we’re saved, we need that support and encouragement.

  • Looking Upward (4-5)

-Same idea that we’ve seen the past few weeks, God’s ways are the best way, they lead to our flourishing as humans, including happiness (not the pursuit of happiness, true lasting happiness)

-Same word here as the beginning of the whole book, another reminder that we need to read this as a whole book, there’s an intentional ordering to it that builds on certain ideas or topics.

-It’s wisdom literature, similar to Proverbs, just structured slightly differently. But this whole book is meant to give us language to express ourselves in the midst of life’s circumstances. We’ve seen language from the past few weeks on how to suffer well, how to voice those complaints to the Lord. This week we see how we wait on God in the midst of those times, which David goes on to tell us what we should be doing when we struggle:

-By remembering all the things God has done for David and His people. What are these wondrous works that David would think of? Exodus, wilderness wanderings, safety from enemies, food.

-God not only has done wonderful things in His people, but He also has future plans for them. What are God’s plans? Salvation in Jesus, which leads to life with God, which is the only way to have lasting happiness. God wants us to live life to the full! God wants us to enjoy His good gifts of food, drink, observing His creation. But notice that His plans aren’t just for God, He has plans for US. God throughout history has always been identified by and connected to a people. Adam and Eve, Noah and his family, Abraham and his family, this is why the Bible calls Him the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Those who aren’t in the family don’t get the family blessings. 

-Think about how many things God has done to the people in this room. How many are God’s wondrous works in this room? David describes them as “more than can be told.” How often do you talk about and reflect on how God has been good to you? Multiply that among all of God’s people throughout all of history and how great is our God?

-One encouragement I have for you all is to find ways to be celebrate when God works in you. An old song we sing “Come Thou Fount” has a line that makes no sense to our modern ear: “here I raise my ebenezer, hither by thy help I’m come” When I was growing up all I thought of was Ebenezer Scrooge (and not even from the original story, from the Muppets Christmas Carol). What that song refers to is a Hebrew word ebed (stone) ezer (help) a stone of help. God’s people would build stone altars when God saved them so that in the future when they were struggling and hurting they could look at these altars and remember how God had provided for them. What can you do to give thanks for God’s provision in your life so that you can remember His faithfulness when you’re struggling?

  • Looking Inward (6-8)

-The next place David looks is inside Himself, how does God’s provision affect his internal life?

-A bit of an exaggeration here, because God does delight in sacrifice and offerings. David mentions all the required offerings from Lev. 1-4 here. Leviticus can be a difficult book for us to understand, but the point of the whole book is: how can an unholy people be in relationship with a holy God? What does it require? It requires a sacrifice, a way for the penalty for sin to be paid, as David says here it takes sacrifice, offering, burnt offerings, and sin offerings.

-I think David is actually picking up a story about his predecessor in the office of King of Israel: King Saul. He’s commanded to completely destroy an enemy, including all their animals, but he doesn’t. He leaves the king alive and takes all the spoils of war. Because Saul doesn’t obey, God rejects him as King, and sends Samuel to confront Saul. In that confronting, Saul says he was just saving these spoils as an offering to the Lord, and Samuel replies 1 Sam. 15. Yes, God does demand sacrifices and offerings, but the heart of even those offerings is to create a spirit of obedience in His people.

-Jesus picks up on this idea in Matt. 23. Jews loved creating a hierarchy of laws, prioritizing some over others, but missed what all these laws were pointing to: a life fully surrendered in obedience to God. Jesus summarizes them as: justice, mercy, and faithfulness. What God wants from us is growing in holiness, taking 1 step closer to God each day. What does that take?

-God’s Word, obedience to God’s Word, internalizing God’s Word so that it becomes evident in your life. This is what David had been fixating on, mediating on, soaking himself in day after day. Friends, just as God works in the waiting, God also works through things that seem very ordinary and at times boring. It’s not magic or rocket science, it’s what have been referred to as the ordinary means of grace: the Bible, prayer, the church. All 3 of those elements are what it takes to have our internal life grow more holy.

  • Looking Outward (9-11)

-After working internally we can move to looking outward.

-Last week we saw the need to keep silent in the midst of wickedness, this time we see what we should talk about: righteousness. Means “straight” or “what is in accordance with law or social norm.” (EDOT)

-There is an external drive to the way God wants us to live, we’re supposed to speak out about God’s faithfulness, about how to pursue righteousness, we’re supposed to tell others the truth of who God is and that He continues working and moving in the world.

-This also means we need to tell each other how God has provided for us. Twice in here David refers to the “great assembly” The word “church” is taken from the word “assembly.” Again we see one of the purposes of our gathering together so that we can remember who God is, and remind each other the to live differently because of that.

  • Looking Around (12-15)

-Faith has precedent because of what God has done in the past. We are commanded to be students of history, our faith literally hinges on historically verified events. If the tomb is not empty, that everything we’re doing in here is worse than pointless, it’s a waste of time and we should be pitied. But because the tomb is empty, we can cry out to God when we’re surrounded by evils. 

-Because we’re supposed to be students of history, we’re offering a class at 9 AM this fall titled ‘Echoes of Faith” I heard someone said this class isn’t helpful or practical, but the truth is knowing church history helps prevent us from making the same errors, and demonstrates to us the validity of our faith. Church history is theology applied – 

1- gives us a broader perspective on God’s working in the world. It can be too easy to see our moment as the most important moment and each crisis as the worst crisis ever, but when we see how God has worked in the past it gives us confidence in the future.

2- it helps us to evaluate theology. I remember learning about the liberalizing tendencies of the German church in the late 1800s and realized that many people were doing the exact same thing today!

3- it helps us to mediate extremes. There’s a tendency to overreact (think of deconstruction today), but when we know church history we can understand the way things come and go not overreact to either side. It helps us to know that those who are opposed to God will someday be dealt with.

  • Looking Forward (16-17)

-Because of how God has moved in the past, we can continue to say that the Lord is great. God has promised to be our helper and deliverer, all these promises find their fulfilment in Jesus. 

-If you love God’s salvation (which I hope you do!) then we should moment by moment say “the Lord is great!” 

-Tertullian, the great North African theologian, said about David, “He sings to us of Christ, and through his voice Christ indeed also sang concerning Himself.” These Psalms are meant to point us to Christ, and Jesus used Psalms at key moments of His life to demonstrate that He was the fulfillment of all the promises to David, but this Psalm has a double application to Jesus

–Heb. 10:5-10: Jesus’ arrival means there’s no more sacrifices we can make, His death was complete and final, there’s nothing else you can add and nothing else is required. That’s the message of the gospel, the message that Jesus came to save sinners like you and me, so because of what Jesus has done we can walk in a new way and we can with Jesus say the Lord is great!

-What does this require of us? We’ve seen a few things in this text:

-Waiting patiently. God doesn’t work on our timetable

-Celebrating when God provides for you. Find ways to commemorate those moments

-Both of those mean that we must live unique, sacred, set apart lives

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by mikethestrand on August 18, 2024  •  Permalink
Posted in Bible, Blog, Life, Sermon

Posted by mikethestrand on August 18, 2024

https://pastormikesmusings.com/2024/08/18/psalm-40-sermon-manuscript/

Psalm 39 – Sermon Manuscript

-Do you know anyone that never seems like they’re actually interested in talking to you? They always look just past you to see if there’s someone else they should be talking to so you end up feeling like an inconvenience. I know someone like that, and it frustrates me every time I talk to him! I’d rather he just tell me he’s busy than stand there and pretend to listen to me! At the other end of the spectrum I’ve met a number of people who are “Christian famous” who will remain completely engaged and focused on you no matter what’s going on around them. Met Matt Chandler once, and it really stood out to me!

-Which one of those responses do you view God’s way of engaging with you?

READ/PRAY

  1. Silent Suffering (1-3)

-Who is Jeduthun? Psalm 62, 77 – 1 Chron. 25:1

-Remember, these are written as the songbook for God’s people, just like we might make notes to Tami, Richie, or Micah

-David begins by contemplating how to be a happy person, which is the aim of this book! “How happy is the one who does not walk in the advice of the wicked or stand in the pathway with sinners or sit in the company of mockers! Instead, his delight is in the Lord’s instruction, and he meditates on it day and night.”

-How are we happy? By living the way God commands us to!

-He starts by pursuing holiness with his mouth, the way he speaks.

–James 1:26. 3:6-10. Isn’t it fascinating the way James talks about the tongue? He says that the tongue is the marker of whether or not someone is “religious” (said in a positive way here, truly following after God). He goes on “no one can tame the tongue” no one. Out of the same mouth praises God, and belittles humans who are created in God’s image.

-Reflection on Jesus’ words in Luke 6 – the mouth reveals what’s really in your heart. 

-Maybe you’ve had this experience where something happens to you that you know isn’t good or right, and you overreact. Anger, frustration, flippant, and even in the middle of your poor response you tell yourself that you’re overreacting, but you can’t stop! 

-Swindoll “Life is 10% happens to you and 90% how you react to it.” Jesus talks about this reality earlier in Luke 6: If anyone hits you, turn the other cheek. If anyone takes your coat, give them your shirt. You can’t control what other people do, but you can control the way you respond, and that’s what God cares about. We’ll talk more about this idea later, but keep it in mind as we work our way through it.

-This is what David is meditating on in this Psalm. He doesn’t want to sin against God, but he’s seeing the wicked sinning and seemingly not suffering for it. He kept silent even when he wanted to speak good, so he got more and more frustrated at the lot of the world.

-Don’t expect the world to act like Christians, they’re not saved! But you will feel an inner turmoil about it, I know I do! It’s hard when it feels like Christians are being increasingly marginalized, when pastors are no longer trusted (read this week that trust in clergy fell to the lowest on record at 32%), when pastors fail at what feels like an alarming rate. Is there anyone actually following after God? What’s the point?

-We’re not the first people to feel that way! This is part of the reason the Bible remains relevant even 3,000 years after it was written – humans haven’t changed! We have the same desires, we still sin, and God is still God.

  • Short Shadows (4-6)

-Eventually, the tension builds up in David and he can’t help but talk, but just as last week he directed his focus in a specific direction, this week he does the same thing. 

-Look at the first word of this verse: Lord. Up to this point the pressure had been building in David, the frustration was increasing, but instead of blowing up at someone standing nearby, he aims his direction to the only one who can truly help him with his situation.

-Maybe you’ve been in a situation like this, where you were working your hardest to not respond in a mean way. Kids, maybe you’ve had that experience where your sibling just keeps pushing your buttons and they won’t stop! David is demonstrating for us here the right way to respond: go to God! Pray! Ask God to help you! God can handle your complaints, He knows all your emotions, and He’s promised to walk with you through every situation in life.

-But what David asks isn’t help in the present situation, it isn’t for God to destroy his enemies, this time he asks God to help David remember the end of his life.

-That’s a fascinating thought, isn’t it? All of us are mortal, we will someday die, and the older you get the shorter you realize your life is. Calvin turned 7 this past week, and I don’t feel like I’m old enough to have a 7-year-old! In my mind he’s still crawling in diapers! One of the things I’ve tried to do with my kids (imperfectly) is to not make them feel like they’re growing up too quickly, because of this reality. Calvin has lived 7 years, he should be a 7 year, regardless of how I feel, and if I just try to keep him stuck at where I feel like he should be both he and I miss out on the joy of our relationship today! This is what David’s expressing in theses verses. Our lives are nothing when you compare them to eternity. That’s why last week’s message is so important: endure in the midst of suffering and difficulty, because the end is coming! 

-There’s a sobering that comes when you reflect on your future, isn’t there? It shifts your focus, keeps today’s difficulties in perspective, and should bring joy to today’s experiences. I think this is where it’s so important to spend time with people older and younger than you. Older people help you remember that life is short (“just you wait, blink and they’ll be in high school”), younger people help you remember to take advantage of each day. Every day when my kids wake up they ask “what fun thing are we going to do today?” Every day is full of potential, if we are willing to be faithful with it!

-There’s a phrase that David uses here at the end of vs. 5 that is most often used in Ecclesiastes: vapor. It’s the Hebrew word hebel which has led to all sorts of debates about its’ meaning! It’s translated as breath, or emptiness, or vain, or futility. Some have translated it as fog.

-And David is comparing human life to that hebel, that vapor. Thankfully, winter hasn’t come yet, but during a cold winter day when you walk outside, what happens when you breathe out? You can see your breath! How long can you see your breath? A couple seconds? That’s how God sees human life, just like we see our breath.

-But this is only true of our earthly life. That’s what David means when he talks about being aware of our end! We need to factor eternity into our daily lives, and by keeping an eternal perspective, it will shift the way we engage our lives today. 

-There’s a missionary named CT Studd (1860-1930) served as a missionary in China, India, Africa who wrote a poem that has a refrain that is embedded in my mind: “only one life twill soon be past, only what’s done for Christ will last.”

-Selah. Contemplate the idea that your life is a vapor.

-David then continues contemplating the how short his life is, describing life as a “mere shadow,” where people rush around to get stuff, but they don’t know where they’ll end up. Have you ever considered that nothing you have will last forever?

-We see this in history, I think. Think of how we’ve discovered the Egyptian Pharaohs buried: with all their stuff, and sometimes even some of their slaves, which his incredibly morbid. But they didn’t believe this! They thought they were able to take all their possessions into the afterlife! 

-I read a couple stories this week about some of these realities that helped me to understand some of what David’s saying. The first was a man who looked at the average life expectancy for a male in the US and calculated how many days he had left. Each day he would knock a number off to remind him to “count his days.” Similarly, my dad’s dad died of a heart attack at 62. My dad and his brothers calculated the exact day, and when each of them turned that age they send a text out to the thread to give thanks for their good health. How do you number your days?

-The second story was about a man who lost his wife in his late 60s, but by God’s grace was able to meet another woman who had lost her husband about the same time. This man worked hard, but he wasn’t wealthy by any means! The woman he married, however, first husband was VERY wealthy! So this man who never had much suddenly had access to this other man’s wealth: friends you can’t take anything with you, even money! Only one life, twill soon be past, only what’s done for Christ will last.

  • Substance (7-13)

-Once again, David turns his attention to the Lord. He asks a question that’s true for all of us: What are we waiting for? 

-I think just as he’s been contemplating the realities of living in the world, here he’s continuing to ponder that idea. Another component of being human is waiting, isn’t it? You wait for food to be done, you wait in line at the grocery store, you wait at traffic lights, you wait for your kids to get ready, or you wait for your mom and dad to play with you! But then as you get older, you’re waiting for bigger things: you wait for your dream job, you wait for your dream car, you wait for the perfect house, you wait for a vacation, you wait for retirement. Yet each time you achieve what you were waiting for it changes, doesn’t it? That dream car doesn’t seem to be quite a dream when you have to take care of it, the dream job isn’t quite as dreamy as you had thought when you run into issues and conflict, and it’s not quite as fun or enjoyable as you thought it would be.

-What does David wait for? He says his hope is in the Lord, he’s hoping for God to be present to him. He’s asking God to be with him, to come alongside, to support him. If God is with him, it changes all the other waiting that we do on earth, doesn’t it? Suddenly all the other waiting starts to make sense because God is doing a work in us even as we wait. It shifts our perspective and mindset as we wait for the events on earth.

-But there’s a second component to this hope because David needs salvation from God. Another component to numbering our days is pursuing holiness instead of dabbling in our sin.

-We talked quite a bit about this in last week’s Psalm, but there are consequences to our sin, the question for us is what do we do with our sin? Do we continue to play with it assuming that it’s not that big of a deal, or do we confess our sins and bring them to the only person who has provided a way for our sin to be dealt with?

-When we keep our focus on eternity it begins to make our sins look really dumb. God doesn’t give us a list of rules as a punishment or as chains, God tells us how to live so that we can have life to the full! He wants us to live full, healthy lives in this world that He’s created, which means He knows best how we should live and desires that all of us can be in lasting relationship with Him.

-So friends, deal with your sin. Because your life is just a moment, keep short accounts. Because your life is just a vapor deal with your sin today.

-Selah. 

-The last place David goes is asking God to hear him because this world isn’t his home.

-I don’t know about you, but I love home (the place where your phone automatically connects to the Wi-Fi). I know where everything is (most of the time), I’ve got my earthly possessions there, I can grab food from the fridge whenever I want, it can become too easy at times to remember that this world isn’t actually my home. It can get too easy to get comfortable here and not count my days, not deal with my sin, not keep God as the focus of my life, which is why I need reminders like this Psalm. I need the reminder to keep an eternal perspective each day so that I don’t become complacent in my walk with God.

-As we wrap up, I want us to contemplate David’s direct requests to the Lord throughout this Psalm, there’s 3: (4) make me aware of my end, (7) what do I wait for, and (12) hear my prayer. 

-These 3 requests together are how we are able to keep eternity as the focus of our lives. The first is the reminder of our mortality. Because of sin, we will all die at some point. Because we will die, we should live differently today, which is what leads to the second request.

-We wait for the Lord! I think Paul gets at how we do this in Phil. 4:6-7. Because of what Jesus has done for us, we can live a worry-free life! That’s a whole lot easier to say than to live. But look at the outcome: the peace of God will guard your hearts and minds. Friends, lasting peace is possible, but only through Jesus, which gets us to the third one, and what Paul also mentions here:

-In everything, through prayer and petition, present your requests to God, or as David says “Hear my cry!” Bring everything to the Lord: your hopes, your sickness, your sin, your joys, He’s honestly the only one who’s patient enough to deal with it all! 

-Just as we saw last week with David’s reaction to being sick was to run to God, we see the same thing this week. We need to each day run to God because He cares for us, because He helps us to number our days, and because He’s the only one who can bring lasting peace to our lives. 

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by mikethestrand on August 11, 2024  •  Permalink
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Posted by mikethestrand on August 11, 2024

https://pastormikesmusings.com/2024/08/11/psalm-39-sermon-manuscript/

Sermon Manuscript – Geneva Reflection

-Isaac Newton: “If I have seen further it is by standing on shoulders of giants.”

-I love studying history (almost majored in archaeology in college), and getting to walk in the places that have impacted me was one of the most impactful moments I’ve ever had. It’s a reminder that this isn’t all there is, we have ended up here for a purpose and there are reasons behind what we as the church do today. It is chronological snobbery to pretend that we have all the answers, that we are self-contained, that we are completely independent.

-Purpose of this trip: learn more about the historical developments of the pastor and the church, go for a LONG walk (113 miles), and grow closer to these other pastors. Additionally, 1 of the pastors has been a friend for a while, so we added some extra time on the front and back ends (with the support of our wives) to do some of our own exploration.

-Backwards church history tour: stopped in Dublin and explored the city. I’ve shared before the way Arthur Guinness used the proceeds from his beer to bring Sunday school to Dublin, did a ton for worker’s rights and care for his employees, used brewing of beer as a way to glorify God. Descendent today is Os Guinness. Lesson: part of the reason we need to build institutions and organizations is because they will outlast us – will our institution (church) be a force for good or bad in the world? We tend to think too immediately and need to do better to think generationally. 

-Flew to London: British Museum – they claimed the spoils of the world, so it’s only fair that they let the world come and see them. If you’re able, it’s free! The Rosetta Stone: opened the world to interpreting ancient languages. Contained an edict in 3 different languages. Statues from the Parthenon, statues that Paul would have walked by on his second missionary journey. My friend and I talked about when we get to heaven chatting with Paul about his perspective on the statues! But when he saw them, they were painted! And then we turned another corner and found this. Remnants from the Assyrian empire! Friends, this was a brutal, brutal period. Doors, reliefs on the doors depicted their victories in war. Killing children, impaling on stakes. From there we went to tour Westminster Abbey. They don’t make churches like that anymore! Operating since 1066. Unbelievably ornate. But what stood out to me was the mixing of politics and religion. Here is the coronation chair, for anointing the next ruler of the nation in this chapel. Right next to Westminster is Parliament, where the governmental decisions are made. But I think you also see it in the people that are buried there. Christendom has given way to “influence” in many minds of Westerners. How else could Hawking, an atheist, be buried in a church? Our last visit was to Metropolitan Tabernacle (proof I was there), and here’s the back of that beautiful façade. Protestant influence is so different from RCC or Anglican. It’s just a building! We can meet anywhere! What’s fascinating to me is there’s a theology behind that. On our hike if we came across a RCC we would peek in, and every time the doors were open, because for them there are sacred spaces that people may need. For Protestants the building is secondary, so it doesn’t need to be open for God’s people to meet. We’re in God’s presence whether we’re gathered or scattered. 

-Train to Oxford, one of the oldest universities in the world, and probably my favorite town that we visited. Both Lewis & Tolkien taught at Oxford (you knew I’d have a LOTR connection in here somewhere!) and we stopped by the pub their writers group (Inklings) would frequent, as well as walking the path they would often take together (Addison’s Walk), a walking path next to Magdalen College, where Lewis taught. While not as big or impressive as London, I enjoyed Oxford much more, and was reminded of the need to be connected to God’s natural creation. Walks like this are hard to find in the US, and I think contributes to the sense that we can exist apart from God. If we don’t see His rule in the rest of creation, why would we see His rule in our lives? I pulled up a Mere Christianity recording as we were walking this path and thanked God for Lewis’ influence in my life (some weird theology, but I’m still profoundly thankful for him).

-Train to Edinburgh: John Knox and Scottish Presbyterianism at St. Giles (1124). What I didn’t realize is this was also the birthplace of Harry Potter! Edinburgh was VERY different from any of the other places we went. They’re not sure what to do with their Christian heritage. Heard a tour group say the best thing to do to Knox is to stomp on his grave as you walk over. Where the other places still acknowledge their Christian influence, Edinburgh celebrated humanist philosophers, actually a number of philosophers who influenced America’s founding. It was also a very dark city, buildings not cleaned as well, foreboding architecture, it felt like a picture of a country where the Christian influence has been all but snuffed out. We attended a church of maybe 100 people downtown, a tiny percentage of the population, and when we exited we walked through a group of tourists taking pictures of the building. Are we ensuring our faith isn’t dying? Are we passing on our faith to our children, and our children’s children so that the church continues to flourish? 

-Fly to Geneva where we had an extra day before meeting up with everyone else and got an official tour from a native Genevan. The next day, we got a tour from a Calvin scholar, as well as a couple lectures from him. Calvin’s house, St. Pierre, Geneva from the tower, mosaic ruins from an early church. Reformation museum: The sermons of Luther from 1523, a Bible from 1562, Protestant propaganda where the Bible is heavier than all the works of the RCC, finally I was relieved to see that not even the great John Calvin could keep his students engaged all the time, here’s some doodles from the margins of his students’ notebooks! So if you need to doodle, feel free, you won’t hurt my feelings. One of the things that stood out to me about Geneva was the reality that in many ways it’s a post-Christian nation. There’s a Reformation wall, but it doesn’t talk about the theological distinctions of the Reformation, it talks about the political distinctions which led to Geneva being a democracy, and it made me wonder if what we’ve been trained in is political engagement but not Christian witness.

-Then we hiked the Tour du Mont Blanc (the tour of the white mountain) which passes through France, Italy, and Switzerland, covered 113 miles, about 10 miles a day. Each night someone would lead a discussion on an aspect of pastoral ministry (mine was counseling, which Cara laughed at when she heard), but each night was a new aspect of pastoral ministry that we discussed and shared and prayed about together. It was incredibly helpful to have men who are laboring together discuss these important things: prayer, administration, personal discipleship, physical health, delegation, worship, equipping the saints, evangelism, church discipline. Not all easy topics, but necessary. 

-Then, because 113 miles wasn’t enough, we ended flying to Rome (toured the Colosseum and Vatican and did MORE walking). This blew my mind! All the biblical or Christian events that have taken place here. Think of how impressive this city would have been before it was ruins! And Paul says it doesn’t matter. Here I am standing where the emperor would have stood looking down on his kingdom, thinking he’s a god. If you’ve watched the new trailer for Gladiator they’ve got a scene that shows this view in it. And I walked by the emperor’s tomb. He’s still there. But do you know who’s not in his tomb anymore? Jesus. Paul was taken to Rome, he saw this in all its’ glory and he says all of this is dung compared the riches of the glory of Jesus. None of this matters! 

-One of my favorite pieces I got to see was this arch, finished in AD 72. The destruction of the temple in Jerusalem.

-To end on a lighter note: as we toured the Vatican we ended in St. Peter’s Square, which is probably what it would have been like to tour the Roman ruins when they were still up. But what stood out to me was the fact that it’s sponsored by Samsung!

1. John Calvin 

“History is theology’s laboratory, in which it can assess the ideas that it espouses or considers espousing” (Erickson, Christian Theology, 28).

-Initially dad wanted him to work in the church, then had a change of heart and wanted him to pursue law. He pursued that, but had a friend who become convinced of the Protestant ideas, which Calvin joined in. He had to flee the place where he was getting his education and began applying what he’d learned in law to theology. 

-Humanism: not the way we would think about it, going back to the original sources, original languages, church fathers.

-3 years later writes his first edition of the Institutes (only 250 pages) and plans to become an academician, serving in obscurity for the rest of his life, but his travel plans led him to Geneva. Calvin was a Frenchman, who ended up as a refugee. William Farel finds out Calvin is in town and sets out to convince him to remain in Geneva and serve as a pastor. Calvin refuses, so Farel calls down a curse on him if he continues on: Calvin caves in and spends the rest of his ministry (minus a couple years) serving as a pastor in Geneva.

-Sought to bring Reform to every part of life, using the standard of Scripture for everything. There wasn’t the same unity between RCC and government, nor the complete separation we have today: the church worked with the local government to deal with sin. I know we can hardly fathom that today, but this idea was revolutionary at the time.

-How did Calvin structure the church?

-Services everyday of the week, with everyone in the community expected to attend at least 1 service. But there were also churches all over: 3 in Geneva, as well as smaller churches in the surrounding communities. This required pastors to serve in! But the Reformation was still in its’ infancy stage, so he needed to train them, leading to him building a college for pastors (drawings).

-What shocked me was how similar Calvin viewed the pastoral office then to what we do today: primarily centered around the word, praying for the congregation, visiting the congregation. He changed the liturgy (service order) to better teach people the truths of the Bible, he created a catechism so people would know how to explain what the Bible teaches. But Calvin essentially reformed the pastoral office (with help/influence from Martin Bucer, then passed to Theodore Beza)

-What was fascinating to me was he created 4 offices: elders, deacons, pastors, and doctors (teachers) of the church. We’ve somewhat morphed that into separating the doctors from the church and placing them in the academy (Seminary), but the seminaries were meant to be the place where pastors are trained.

-Friends, God’s plan for all of human history is traced back much before our present day, much before Calvin’s day, God’s plan begins in eternity past. But now we’re in our era of human history – how are we going to preserve the faith that has been passed down to us? We have a job to do: we need to love the church, we need to help people take 1 step closer to Jesus in every area of life. God can use us just like he used Calvin or Luther, Lewis or Newton! 

2. Stretching

-There are all sorts of spiritual allusions to hiking, and we talked about many of them while our bodies felt like they were falling apart. From hoping that we could be like Christian in Pilgrims Progress to have our loads released, to just taking 1 step at a time, to the need for continual persevering. But a trip like this is absolutely exhausting! 20 lbs on your back doesn’t feel like a lot until you’re going up and down 8000’ a day!

-One of my friends asked on the trail: what adversity have you faced on the trail, and how has God met you in that adversity? 

-Answers were all over the place, my friend who asked that question had his rain jacket stolen from the place we had stayed the night before, I had a moment where I felt like my body was giving up and didn’t think I’d be able to make it. Another friend had a similar experience. But we’re all going to reach those times and moments in our lives where we are pushed absolutely beyond our comfort zones, where we feel like we won’t be able to go any further: how do you respond? Do you ask for help? Do you cry out to God? Do you throw a fit and demand things change? It’s amazing to me the mental spiraling you can do when you’re exhausted, not sleeping well, and being forced to walk 10 miles through mountains! I asked a couple guys to pray for me and got some much needed encouragement to persevere!

-The other key is to remember to receive and ask for help: we tend to try to do everything by ourselves. We’re independent people after all, aren’t we? We look up to the “self-made” person. What we often fail to realize is just how dependent we really are. 

-Our bodies, our vocations, the air we breathe. Even a trip like this was dependent on everyone putting training before the trip, being willing to carry their equipment on the trip, we relied on a Dr. who was able to guide us through any medical issues, we relied on the plans of a group to ensure we followed the right trails, and at times we relied on each other to share food and water! 

-There is something amazing about doing physical activity in creation. Ps. 121:1 “I life my eyes toward the mountains. Where will my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.” 

-Impressive mountain, beautiful views, variety of people plants and animals. 6 countries visited, each with its unique culture, food, geography, and the Lord God made them all! It made me incredibly excited for all those things to be redeemed and renewed when Jesus returns and has the rulers of these places bring their riches into the new kingdom.

3. Fellowship

-Friends, life is hard, but one of the ways life becomes more manageable is by sharing life with others. Just as I couldn’t have done this hike alone, and would have definitely given up without others pushing me on, I can’t do my daily life alone and need others who can push me on to remain faithful.

-Not just that, but there were incredible conversations had on the trail. You know when you get together with likeminded people and can let all the fake fall off and allow conversations to get to a deeper level so much quicker? That’s what happened on the trip.

-DS said You guys have had years of time together that can’t be duplicated in any other setting. I made new friends on this trip that could be men that I serve alongside for the rest of my life! We’ve already got a text thread going continuing to share memories and thoughts (as well as weight gained or lost).

-I share that to encourage you: surround yourself with people who will push you toward holiness. Hold tightly to them and allow yourself to be open and honest with them, and I would hope and pray they can come from the church.

-camaraderie: Psalm 133:1 “How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in harmony!” There are some great EFCA Pastors in MN who I consider it a privilege to serve with! We are not the only church (praise God), we’re not even the only healthy church!

-Similar goals in ministry (contextualized), similar convictions, similar training, and a similar desire: to see Jesus glorified and His church built up. 

-I’ve shared before that it seems like God is doing something amazing in our area of the EFCA, one friend said he thinks we’re living in “the good old days” right now. I sure hope not! I hope this is just the beginning of those days as we see more people come to a saving knowledge of Jesus and see people strengthened to live more holy and faithful lives for the good of God and others.

-can’t survive the Christian life alone. If you’ve been trying to clean your life up or fight your sin by yourself you’ll never find victory. God has called us into a new family 1 Pet. 2:9 “You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession.” We are all together those things! We need each other, we rely on each other, and we can’t exist by ourselves, and the best part is we don’t! God has brought us into a global family called the church where God continues working today. So church, keep persevering today! Keep encouraging others, and keep serving God with joy!

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by mikethestrand on July 14, 2024  •  Permalink
Posted in Blog, History, Life

Posted by mikethestrand on July 14, 2024

https://pastormikesmusings.com/2024/07/14/sermon-manuscript-geneva-reflection/

Psalm 32 – Sermon Manuscript

-Do you ever feel like someone’s always watching you? Security cameras everywhere (even in our building!), self-checkout you can watch them recording you!

-It would take 17 hours to read the terms and conditions for the top 13 apps in the UK

-I figure at this point that Google knows more about me than I do. And if that’s true of Google, how much more is it true of God? He created us, He knows us far more intimately than even Google does! So why do we so often pretend like we can keep things hidden from Him? 

-We’re going to talk to today about something that affects us all, something that has been true of almost every human being who has ever lived (1 exception, which we’ll get to), that is we are all sinners. EDoT: “Sin is not only an act of wrongdoing but also a state of alienation from God.” Rom. 3:23 “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Anyone left out of that? Nope!

-But we don’t talk about it much today, and if we do we’ve somewhat sanitized this idea. We talk about messing up, a mistake, it was my bad, but we don’t often think about it how bad it is: cosmic treason against the Holy Creator God. I don’t say that lightly or carelessly, but because we have committed treason, all of us, we are worthy of eternal separation from God. 

-We talk a LOT today about God’s love, about His forgiveness, His mercy, and those are all right and good, but the only reason they’re good is because of just how terrible sin is, and I don’t think we give much thought to that anymore. We may have thought about it when we read ‘Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God’ in high school, or if we hear about someone REALLY messing up, but we don’t think about ourselves as sinners very often.

-Today’s passage gives us the reality that we’re all sinners, but it also tells us how to deal with that sin so it no longer affects us.

READ/PRAY

  1. Joyful Forgiveness (0-2)

-David wrote this, has some similar ideas to another Psalm he wrote – 51, after his sin with Bathsheba was uncovered. 

-Maskil – no one knows what that means, root word has to do with teaching or instruction, but that title is on a number of Psalms that don’t fit that.

-Joyful: happy, blessed. Begins the exact same way as the very first Psalm. Our minds should immediately jump back to that first Psalm, which gives us the theme of the whole book. If you want to be truly happy (not fleeting, like graduation which the gifts eventually break, or wedding day which is just 1 day, or getting a new car which eventually becomes an old car), it only comes through being obedient to God, by being a God-like person, responding as God would respond if He were you. Heavy job!

-Jesus talked about this too! One of his most famous sermons Matt. 5. Same word used here! Happy are the…

-Instead of rooting this joy/happiness in what we would think of blessing, David goes to sin. Does that feel like a sharp left turn to you? Maybe this should tell us something about the way we think about our sin! Instead of being flippant or careless to it (which has been an issue since at least the 1st cent.) Where Paul had to warn someone not to continue in sin to get more grace because that’s not the way it works! If we want blessing it comes by continuing to fight against the sin that we have within us.

-David uses 3 words to describe sin here, each one having a slightly different connotation and significance to them:

-Transgression – this gets to the idea of rebellion. Think of what we saw in Rev. 12 of Satan stirring a great rebellion against God. He tried to become god and let an entire revolt against him, but lost. If we don’t trust in Jesus we are a part of the rebellion. I think this is a part that is often missed today. We don’t start from a place of goodness, or even a place of neutrality when we look at God’s standard. All of us start in the same place: condemned as sinners.  I’ve had 5 kids now – it’s amazing how much we don’t need to teach them to be sinners! And it’s also amazing how much work it is to shape them to become upright people (I’d say it’s impossible until they’re saved!). 

         -This means that because we sin, God sees us in outright rebellion against Him. That’s why I’ll saw there’s only 2 options in your life! And we often only compare ourselves to other sinners, not to a completely perfect God, who is the standard we’re supposed to compare ourselves to. When we compare ourselves to perfect, who would dare to say they’re good enough? Think of one of the old proverbial phrases “to err is human” Being human means you will err, you will sin, you will transgress.

         -Think of it like this: could you get pulled over for going 1 mph over the speed limit? Technically, yes! That is breaking the law as it’s supposed to be the LIMIT for driving in that area, but we all know we’re not going to get pulled over. We tend to view God’s law the same way: technically it’s breaking the law, but God’s going to give grace to me, when in reality we’re just demonstrating that we’re more willing to rebel against Him than we would care to admit. 

-Sin – this one is picked up by a Greek word that means “missing the mark.” Often used in connection to archery. Think of your favorite local retail store: anyone know what store this is? Target. If you were aiming at the bullseye and you hit here, would that be successful?

         -Once again, so often we’re using the wrong standard of measurement when we think about sin. If we miss the mark, well that’s just human. Exactly! There’s an eternal chasm that separates the perfection God calls us to and the way we actually live. We all constantly and repeatedly miss the mark, no matter how hard we try we can’t ever reach it.

         -One of the best days of my life growing up was when I finally reached a mark. As I’ve shared, I love basketball, I’ve been playing basketball as long as I can remember, and there’s different goals you have as you grow. When I was in 7th grade I remember finally being able to touch the net. From there it’s grabbing the net and pulling yourself up, and then the backboard, and finally the rim. Rim is 10’, do you think it would be possible to ever touch it if it were 20’? Anthony Edwards can jump ridiculously high, but I don’t think even he could touch that net! What if it were in space? That’s where you start to get how far off the mark we are compared to God’s perfect standard. There’s literally no way for you to reach it.

-Iniquity – corrupted or twisted. This gets to the very motivation for us. Not only do we sin, but we still want to do sin! Think of what Paul says in Rom. 7“For I do not do the good that I want to do, but I practice the evil that I do not want to do.” We can’t help ourselves! We’re literally at war within ourselves for anyone who is in Christ. We fight against the sin within us, striving and straining against the sin, at least we’re supposed to be.

         -There’s a word that’s not used much anymore, but signifies what we’re supposed to be doing: mortifying sin, that is killing it. John Owen “be killing sin, or sin will be killing you.” (The Mortification of Sin). Friends, it’s much easier to just ignore it, or pretend sin isn’t an issue, but until Christ returns we’re going to continue needing to fight against sin, and until we actually start fighting and pushing back against sin, we won’t be blessed or happy. Remember, to err is human, but the quote goes on: to forgive divine. How does forgiveness come in?

-This is where we see 3 words that show us how God’s grace comes against even our sin, 1 for each of the ways we sin, did you see them as we were reading?

-Forgiven – pardoned from holding you accountable for your rebellion. Have you ever considered the power of forgiveness? Think of Les Miserables: Jean Vaujaun is forgiven for stealing silver and it literally changes the course of his life, that’s meant to be a picture of the what forgiveness does to us.

-Covered – when you miss the mark, God’s mark is counted instead of yours. Gets to the idea of the Passover (we’ve seen in Revelation the need to keep the Exodos story at the front of our minds). Anyone remember whiteout?

-Does not charge – take the biggest loan you’ve ever had (house, car, college) and imagine logging into your account and seeing the balance is $0, and you didn’t pay it. And all of this is rooted in who God is (grow in your theology!)

-Do you see what David’s saying here? The way to be happy is have all your sins dealt with once and for all, and that’s only possible because of who God is. He’s actually picking up on an idea from the Exodus:

-Some commentators believe David was reflecting on this passage because he uses the same language: Ex. 34 – forgiving iniquity, rebellion, and sin, same words! And look at how this passage describes God. Slow to anger, abounding in hesed. Compare His judgment to His love and forgiveness. The God of the OT isn’t all judgment and wrath!

-Paul quotes these verses in Rom. 4 to make the point that forgiveness from God is only possible if you have faith in Him, which begins an argument 2 chapters earlier where we see that God’s hesed is meant to lead to repentance. If we repent, we will be happy/blessed people, but what happens if we don’t? David goes on to list exactly what happens.

  • Sinful Desolation (3-5)

-Unlike someone who’s happy, because their sins are covered is someone who refuses to acknowledge that they’ve sinned. David could think on a time like that, and it literally affected his body!

-If you’ve ever had secret sin, have you ever felt this way? Like it physically was eating you up from the inside, and if people only knew what was actually going on inside they’d reject you? Remember: God knows everything, including what you think. You can’t hide from him, but many people do try to hide. What’s scary is if you become numb to sin and don’t have a reaction! That’s when you need to start worrying.

-Selah: I want you to take some time now to reflect and ask the Lord to reveal any sins that you need to confess.

-After having his body waste away from trying to hide, David confesses, and God forgives. John picks up this same idea in 1 John. We see this tension between still being sinners, but being able to be cleansed from our sins, and all it takes is confession. Doesn’t that seem too easy? On the one hand, I worry that we don’t take our sin seriously enough, but at the same time I also worry that we sometimes don’t confess because we feel like we need to pay some kind of penance or earn God’s forgiveness. This is why the message of the gospel is (or should be) so scandalous! It’s not based on what you or I have done, it’s based on what Jesus has done.

-I realize we just had one, but there’s another Selah in here for a reason! So take some time and think about the sins the Lord may have just brough to mind and confess them.

  • The Response of the Forgiven (6-11)

-Therefore: building on everything else said so far. Since forgiveness is possible, what should the response be?

-Instead of bottling it up and trying to hide, pray IMMEDIATELY to God and ask for forgiveness! When this happens, you suddenly go from being in rebellion against God to being able to withstand anything that comes your way. See: great floodwaters won’t hurt them (even a flood like Noah faced). God becomes our safe place. I onetime heard a story about the way we should think of God in relation to our sin, when a little kid gets into trouble is their instinct “Oh no, dad’s gonna kill me!” or “Oh no, I need to go find my dad!” Friends, because of what Jesus has done for us, our response should be the second one. When we sin, we run to God because His grace and mercy are enough for all our sins.

–Selah

-Here we see what this could be viewed as instruction, we end with an exhortation from David. He contrasts following and being obedient to God with bring like a horse or mule who can’t do the right thing. Very similar to how Paul describes unbelievers in Rom. 1 as suppressing the truth and refusing the acknowledge the Creator God who rules over them.

-He goes on to say that many pains come to the wicked, but whoever trusts the Lord will be surrounded by faithful love.

-We don’t always see that around us. Doesn’t it often seem like the wicked are the ones who are doing well? That the one who cuts the most corners gets ahead, the one who cheats gets the raises and accolades, and Christians are increasingly marginalized? Psalm 73 talks about that exact idea! Asaph is complaining about how the wicked always prosper and do well while he’s wasting away, but then he gathers with God’s people and is reminded what’s truly true. Friends, God will bring about perfect and eternal judgment and justice someday, and when that day comes you can either have many pains, or faithful love: which one will you have?

-The last verse is a reminder for us to praise God for His forgiveness that is given to the 1000th generation! We can choose today to be forgiven, to be healed, to have our sin covered over, and to be finally and fully happy and blessed.

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by mikethestrand on June 16, 2024  •  Permalink
Posted in Bible, Blog, Church, Life, Sermon
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Posted by mikethestrand on June 16, 2024

https://pastormikesmusings.com/2024/06/16/psalm-32-sermon-manuscript/

Revelation 12:1-18 – Simon Manuscript

-8.5 years ago, there was much anticipation and excitement as the next Star Wars movie was released. This had been building since 2012 when Disney bought Lucasfilm, and it took 3 long years to get The Force Awakens to release. I remember eagerly sitting down to watch it, and it was a blast! Seeing Han and Chewy get back on the Millennium Falcon, watching lightsabers shoot out again, and it even featured a new cross shaped one! 

-Just 1 problem: it was literally the same story as Episode 4 – A New Hope. Bad guys are building a battle station, the good guys need to blow it up. It was so close to being such a good story, and then the next movies just devolved from there! Today’s text has a similar feel: things are so close to being good and right, only in this case, instead of bad writing, we have a literal enemy, a dragon.

READ/PRAY

  1. A New Hope (1-6)

-Preached on this section on Palm Sunday, so we’ll just do a quick overview! First is “a great sign” that John is shown of a woman who is unbelievably glorious.

-Descriptions are similar to some descriptions about God, and connects to Joseph’s dream back in Gen. 37

-Stand in for the people waiting for the Messiah, as if in labor, which is a description of Israel a number of times in the OT

-Another sign: a dragon. opposed to God’s people, tail sweeps stars out of the sky, many people believe this is referring to the original fall of Satan and his demons.

-Stood in front of the woman: Satan knows Gen. 3:15, and he has done his best throughout history to destroy all the offspring of the chosen one: Pharoah, Herod.

-Have you ever noticed that theme in the Bible? How many barren wombs are a part of Jesus’ genealogy? Or how many stories in the Bible are of a barren woman where God intervenes and brings about children? God’s plan was to save the world through an offspring, God works in people and families to bring about His perfect plan, and Satan has done everything in his power since the very beginning to thwart that plan and kill off God’s family.

-After all that, notice that the Son isn’t called a sign. The others are pointing to something else, but the Son is the point.

-Quickest description of Jesus’ ministry: born straight up to God! The dragon thought he was ready, thought he would finally win and defeat the Messiah, but he was again thwarted.

-Made me think of the lion, the witch, and the wardrobe. The Jesus figure is a lion who allows himself to be killed by the white witch in the story. He’s then raised back to life, and when asked why he says there’s a deeper magic that she didn’t know. Satan is just the prince of this world, he’s limited in what he can do, but God isn’t.

-Woman (God’s people) off to the wilderness. Think of all the times God’s people were led off into exile: Egypt, Babylon, Rome, place where they learn to fully rely on God. Yes, it’s a place that looks desolate, looks like only death is possible, but with God the wilderness becomes the place of provision.

-How many of you have experienced something similar in your own life? Times and seasons of stretching, times and seasons where you feel like you’re about to break, and then when you’ve made it through you look back and see God’s fingerprints over each step of the journey. I’ve had times like that, and I know some of you are having those times right now! One of the ironies I’ve found in my life has been the place that I viewed as a slice of heaven became one of the biggest wildernesses in my life.

-My last semester of college, I got asked to play piano for a friend’s wedding in Denver, and I fell in love with CO. I’ve been to Hawaii twice, I like CO better. I was going to move there after college at find whatever job I could, but I ended up back here! Then got a call to a church in Wyoming (close enough!), but after 4 years Cara and I moved to CO, I made it to heaven on earth! What I didn’t realize was the church had some major disfunction that took a couple years to rise to the surface. Church was growing numerically, which hid some of the issues, so then we tried adding a second campus, which also started to grow, so then we needed a second person to preach, and I was asked to take on that responsibility, but didn’t get to release the music side, so there were many weeks where I would lead the music and preach. I was exhausted and on the verge of quitting. A friend and I joked about working at the Smuckers plant next to the new campus just to provide for our family. Yet God was doing something in the midst of that that I can see now, but couldn’t at the time. He was stripping away some of my self-reliance, He was wooing me more to Him and affirming some of the ways He’s wired me that I didn’t want to admit. What I had thought would come from living in my favorite state, came from moving back to where I grew up: a church to love me and my family.

-Friends, don’t rush through the wilderness seasons – God doesn’t waste it, He wants what’s best for you, and wants you to realize that if you have Him, then nothing else matters.

-Back to 1,260 days – the time period between Jesus’ 2 comings, which could be summarized as a wilderness time! Things are difficult, but they’re training us that we need to rely more fully on God.

  • The Dragon Strikes Back (7-9, 13-18)

-God’s people are taken to the wilderness and protected/preserved by God for a season, but how does the dragon respond? With war!

-Michael (name means: who is like God) is viewed as the protector of God’s people, leads the charge against the dragon (the devil, Satan, deceiver)

-Because of his rebellion against God, he’s thrown out to the earth, where his reign seems to be supreme. 

-“The one who deceives the whole world” What do you think that looks like? Questioning God, doubting His Word and work, not obeying Him. Why do you think people so often question whether God exists or not? Why do you think when anything bad happens one of the first places people go is blaming God? Why do you think people who go through a wilderness season are more prone to give up on following after God? Do you think maybe there’s someone who’s sowing those kinds of seeds into the world?

-Think about what Paul tells us in Rom. 1 the world suppresses the truths of the gospel. People don’t want to admit that there is a supreme judge, an author of life who has expectations for his creation. Where do you think that comes from?

-We’ll look at that middle section at the end, because John picks up the idea of the dragon a few verses later.

-After losing the war, do you think Satan just gives up and admits defeat? Nope, when have you ever heard of a defeated enemy giving up easily? If he can’t win in heaven, he’ll try to take it out on God’s people who are left on earth.

-Reiterating what had already been said in the previous section, remember the woman was persecuted by the dragon, but then taken to the wilderness.

-God’s protection and provision are evident in how carefully He cares for His people. The wilderness looks like a place of desolation, but it’s the place where God can be proven the most faithful.

-Wings like an eagle: Ex. 19:4 “You have seen what I did to the Egyptians and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself.” Remember the exodus account is meant to serve as a model and foundational story for the way God’s people view the world. It’s the same thing for us! We were once slaves to sin, had no purpose or identity in ourselves, but God has made us a people, a kingdom of priests who love and serve the true God together.

-How long was she nourished? Time, times (2), half = 3.5, same time period we saw last week and in vs. 6. Remember, numbers are symbols not statistics in apocalyptic literature. They’re a stand in signifying something else. God’s provision of His people will continue through their entire wilderness wanderings. Just another reminder that God is in complete control, we can trust Him, we can follow Him, and we can persevere in difficult because we know our outcome is secure. 

-“from his mouth” think back to last week where something came out of the mouths of the witnesses. This time it’s a flood: accusations, deceptions, anything to get rid of this woman! I think this is pointing back to the deception that the devil brings. It’s literally in his name to deceive, to lead people astray, to discourage them and lead them away from following and obeying the one true God.

-And who helps the woman now? Creation. This is picking up another piece from the Exodus: as God’s people have been delivered they sing “You stretched out your right hand, and the earth swallowed them.” (Ex. 15:12) Creation knows who the king is, creation knows who to obey. We’re the ones who tend to disobey, the ones who give into the lies of the deceiver, we have since the beginning! Even if we were the ones in the garden, we would have eaten the forbidden fruit.

-I think this is modeled in Jesus’ so-called triumphal entry on the back of a donkey. The religious leaders get upset and tell Jesus to command everyone to stop praising Him, and Jesus responds. There’s a certain irony here, because the stones are crying out. The rest of creation operates as God intended, humans are the ones who don’t! Rocks cry out to God by being rocks! Dogs cry out to God by barking and wagging their tails. Fish cry out by being fishy. Humans are supposed to cry out by worshipping God with all they have and are, but so often we worship creatures instead of the Creator. Even nature obeys God’s commands, and this shows that God will continue protecting His people despite the work of the dragon.

-The woman is protected, so the dragon lowers his expectations a bit, and decides to go after the rest of the offspring. Who’s that? Those who believe in Jesus, the church!

-“Keep the commands” it’s no coincidence that what Satan first attacked was God’s commands. This is also the way we demonstrate that we’re children of God instead of children of the dragon: we are obedient to God’s commands. Think of what Jesus said as His last commission to His disciples: “Go, make disciples of all nations, baptizing and teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you.” Everything He commanded. Turn the other cheek, bless those who curse you, caring for the least of these. All of that is included in this command! And that’s just the first part!

-“hold firmly to the testimony” What do you hold on to firmly? What are you looking to as your source of comfort and strength? Easy life, money, job, marriage (if single), house, car, obedient kids, even the “right” church. All those things will fail you. Unless you hold firmly to Jesus you will be let down.

-Note that it says the dragon is waging war. This will continue happening. Satan isn’t going to give up just because the gospel message has been preached. He knows it better than we do, but he views that as even more reason to fight!

-I kept thinking of the old hymn by Martin Luther in connection to this passage this week ‘A Mighty Fortress’ which says at the end of the first verse: “On earth is not his equal,” but that’s not the end of the story, it goes on to say, “One little word shall fell him.” What’s that word? Jesus:

  • The Rise of Overcomers (10-12)

-Because Satan has been defeated, there are implications for you and me, and anyone who’s following after Jesus.

-First notice that how Satan is described: the accuser. Friends, don’t miss the reality that no one can out-sin the grace of God. Nothing can separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord! When the accuser heaps his accusation on you, when it feels like a flood bearing down on you, remember that he has no more power.

-John Newton said, “Although my memory’s fading, I remember two things very clearly: I am a great sinner and Christ is a great Savior.” Newton wrote the hymn “Amazing Grace,” was saved while he was a working in the slave trade, then pursued abolition and became an Anglican priest. Yet he fought to see the slave trade abolished, and saw it happen just months before he died. Can you think of the guilt John had as he reflected on his life? You can’t just wipe those kinds of images off your mind. Yet God’s grace goes deeper still! Christ was, is, and always will be a great savior.

-Secondly, we need to remember back to the letters to the churches. One of the promises God gives is to the one who conquers, but that was just setting it up to get to this reality. How do we conquer?

-By the blood of the lamb. Think of what washes us as white as snow, nothing but the blood of Jesus. Jesus victorious death rendered all the accusations the devil can throw at us useless. The opposite of velcro. Rom. 8:33-34 Satan has no room to accuse! Only 1 person does, and He’s on our side! There’s a difference between guilt and shame for your sin. God wants us to run to Him when we’ve sinned! Because his mercy is greater than all our sin. The devil wants us to be like our first parents and run and hide. But if Christ died for us (which He did), then we need to run into His arms.

-By the word of their testimony. I think there are 2 aspects to this, the first is we need to be careful of our words. Are we zealous about telling the truth all the time? We worship and serve the one who described himself as the way, the truth, and the life, that means we can’t even be content with a little white lie (as if there was such a thing). Our testimony must be rooted in the truth. But secondly, we have to be willing to testify, regardless of the consequences. Jesus told us the world would hate us because it hated Him. We need to stop worrying about trying to be cool or impressive and instead worry about pleasing God.

-They did not love their lives. Death isn’t the worst thing that could happen to us, second death is. Jesus even said we shouldn’t be afraid of those who threaten to kill us physically. What does death do to us? And if even death doesn’t hold power over us, then we shouldn’t be afraid of anything else! 

-Finally, we end with a reminder to rejoice. Eph. 2:6-7 “He also raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavens in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might display the immeasurable riches of his grace through his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.” We’re already in heaven, we just don’t see it yet. The devil will continue thrashing around like a chicken with its’ head cut off, but it has no power. His time is short because we have an eternity to look forward to living with God. So persevere now, run to Christ when you sin, and know that his grace covers all of your sins.

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by mikethestrand on June 2, 2024  •  Permalink
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Posted by mikethestrand on June 2, 2024

https://pastormikesmusings.com/2024/06/02/revelation-121-18-simon-manuscript/

Revelation 11 – Sermon Manuscript

-Have you ever been told someone has some good news and some bad news, which do you want first? I’m a bad news first guy, get that out of the way, deal with it, and then move on to the good stuff.

-God’s Word is that way. It starts with the reality that everyone is a sinner – separated from God and worthy of condemnation. But the good news is it doesn’t need to stay that way! God provided a way of being adopted into His family, of having the penalty our sins paid for, and allowed to come near to God without any fear, knowing you’ll be completely welcomed in. My favorite way of thinking about this is from Tim Keller who said: who dares wake up a king for a glass of water at 2 am? His child. We have that kind of access to God. Regardless of what the world thinks of Jesus, or Christianity, we’re given privileged access to the Creator and sustainer of everything! But then with that comes bad news – the world isn’t as great as you may have thought it was, and what comes with following Jesus is a guarantee that you will have struggles and difficulties, today’s text is a reminder that Jesus is still in our side.

READ/PRAY

-I want us to think a little bit about where we’ve been so far:

-Letters to 7 churches: different strengths & weaknesses to every church, but often a reflection of the community the church is in

-John is given a glimpse of heaven, where he hears about the lion of Judah and sees a lamb who takes the big scroll and opens 6 seals in short order

-Then we get a break where John sees (I believe) the entirety of God’s people from all history gathered around the throne right before the 7th seal is open and we’re brought right to the end of history.

-Then John takes us back to look at the same events from a different perspective, this time using trumpet blasts. First 4 quickly, then slows down for 5 (locusts) 6 (invading army) Finally, another interlude where John is commissioned to prophesy again to many people and kings, which leads us here:

A call to the church to continue witnessing to the truths of the gospel despite increasing persecution.

  1. Measuring the Temple (1-2)

-Picking up John’s commission from 10, similar to Ezek.

-Signifies the protection of God over His people. Even when there is persecution, tribulation, difficulty, God sill protects and preserves His people.

-42, 3.5 years – referring to the time period between Jesus’ 2 comings: not God’s final word on the matter, things are not “7” perfect or complete.

  1. Measuring a Witness (3-14)

-2 Witnesses. Who are these, and why does John talk about them?

-I believe they’re the church, picks up a prophesy from Zech. 4 referring to the priest and the king, this means that the church will be a kingdom of priests. That is a CRAZY idea! John has the gall to proclaim that everyone now has easy access to God. You don’t need a buffer, you don’t need a sacrifice, you don’t need a temple, all you need is the Holy Spirit in you! 

-Additionally, think of one of the purpose of a lamp: light up a room. Think of one of the descriptions Jesus gives of His people: the light of the world. One of our jobs as God’s people today is to be a shining light into the darkness of sin, despair, and brokenness. But in order to shine into the darkness, we also have to have the light of Christ IN us and be able to shine. That’s part of the reason it’s so important for us to have this regular rhythm in our life of gathering as God’s people: we gathering to be built up and edified, and then scatter (are sent) to bring God’s light into our daily lives. Friends, don’t miss the reality that we’re all in ministry, we just get our paychecks from different places. God has equipped and gifted you, and then sent you into your workplace to be an ambassador of His gospel message. You have an eternal job to do! 

-This prophetic witness of God’s people is kept safe by God. Just as He commissioned John to measure the temple and count His people, God will protect and preserve them in the midst of their ministry.

-Let’s think about the picture John’s painting here. What comes out of your mouth? Words (hopefully nothing else, otherwise you probably shouldn’t be here!) Words come out and consume their enemies (who also happen to be the enemies of God if they’re opposed to His people). Our enemies are God’s enemies.

-This is showing us that God’s message brings death and judgment to some people. To those that are opposed to God, the gospel message is a message of condemnation, not life. Similar to John’s call to prophesy that will taste as sweet as honey, but make him sick to his stomach.

-But just as John has done throughout this book, it’s also pointing back to the way God’s message has been preserved through His people in the past by recounting major prophets and stories from the OT from the newest to the oldest.

-The first story is about Elijah from 2 Kings 1. Elijah is seen by the king as a thorn in his side, so he continually tries to deal with Elijah to get rid of him, but since Elijah is a prophet he can’t! Culminates with the king getting sick and sending messengers to ask Baal if he’d survive. Elijah intercepts the messengers and tells the king he’ll die, so the king sends 50 soldiers and a captain to get Elijah. And this happened TWICE! Finally, a 3rd captain is sent, falls on his face in front of Elijah and begs for his life. But the theme is God’s protection.

-The second story is an earlier one from Elijah’s’ ministry, actually the first time Elijah is introduced into the story, and he has a message of doom and gloom! He shuts up the heavens so that it doesn’t rain during his ministry. Bookends of Elijah’s ministry, then John goes further back.

-This one is a more well-known story (and featured in 1998 classic The Prince of Egypt): Moses. In Ex. 7 it shares the first plague leveled against Egypt, but that’s just the start! 9 more plagues come, and culminate in the death of the firstborn (for everyone, but it only affected those who weren’t covered by the blood of the lamb, pointing to the ultimate firstborn who would die for them)

-Finish their testimony – who gave them the authority? What time is this referring to? 

-“The beast” (Not beauty and the beast, setting up the stage for what’s to come) those opposed to God and His ways. We see here the same thing we’ll see in 12-13: Satan and his minions fight against God and his people for all history. Satan hates when the church is healthy, he hates when the church is flourishing, he hates when people take their faith seriously, he hates when Christians are faithful in their witness and he’ll do everything in his power to fight against God’s plan. And from an earthly perspective, he’s incredibly successful. It says “conquer them and kill them.” Have you ever heard or read that the church is dead? There’s a phenomenal book that came out recently titled ‘The Great DeChurching’ that says this is the most significant religious shift in our country’s history right now with church attendance declining faster than it’s ever declined before (and faster than it grew during both great awakenings). I’ve read articles from the 90s that said the church was dying then! This reminds us that we have nothing to worry about! If God’s on our side, no one can stand against His plans! (This book is actually very good, I’d highly recommend it, and the biggest take away is most of the time those that left church would go back if someone just invited them, they just got out of the habit)

-Dishonor them:

-Leaving a dead body out was shameful, a way of heaping even more abuse on an already dead person

-Where is this? Great city would be Rome, Sodom was destroyed a long time before this was written, Egypt is an entire country, Lord was crucified is Jerusalem. This is a way of signifying the city of man. Nations, civilizations opposed to God and His ways

-Do you ever feel marginalized as a Christian today? This is taking place all the time! Satan works his hardest to discourage and bring down God’s people! This is why we need each other, we need to be able to encourage each other when we’re getting discouraged. Don’t get out of the habit!

-These people (earth dwellers) go on to celebrate, to party, it’s described the way we celebrate Christmas today! 

-This is painting a picture of Christians viewed as the killjoys, now that the church is gone we can finally have fun and party, we need to throw off the shackles of religion and Christianity.

-How do you view your faith? Do you see it as only rules and regulations, as only difficult and struggling? Or do you see it as life, and life to the full? Friends, this changes your entire way of living! If it’s just rules you become self-righteous and look down on anyone who can’t measure up to your standard. But Jesus doesn’t let you do that, He forces you to rely completely on Him because you can’t ever measure up! At some point you’ll even fall short of your standards! I heard a story this week of a pastor who was taken to the hardest level of a prison (serial murderers) and he prepared a message thinking these people would be struggling with self-confidence, so he began by asking on a scale of 1-10 how good were they? The lowest score was a 10! Friends, don’t look to yourselves to be justified, look to Jesus who will make you more human than you could ever dream!

-After 3.5 days: 

-Remember how John so often uses OT ideas. Here’s another one of them! One of my favorite OT passages, Ezek. 37. Ezekiel is taken to a valley filled with dry bones, “they were VERY dry.” God asks is those bones could live, Ezekiel says only God knows. So God commands him to prophesy over the bones. As he prophesies the bones come together, muscles and tendons form, then skin covers the bones, but that’s not enough, they’re still dead. Prophesy about God’s breath on them. He does and suddenly it’s a vast army. This is what God does: he raises the dead to life until they’re an army! And spiritually, God has brought the dead to life and made them a kingdom of priests who are commissioned to prophesy to the world that they too can be brought to life! This story serves as a picture of what the church has become today – God’s Word brings people back to life, before they’re a useless sack of flesh, but once God saves them they’re made a truly living person who can serve God and witness to others.

-Think of how the world responded to their death. Do you think they would respond similarly to their resurrection? No way! “Great fear” 

-Same description of Jesus’ ascension, or the end of Elijah’s ministry, connecting the ministry of the church all the way back to Elijah! This is a way of validating the message of the church. It might take away for this validation, but it will come!

-Earthquakes are connected to the very end in Revelation, but this judgment is revealing God’s mercy. Yes, even judgment can reveal God’s mercy! Remember: numbers are symbols not statistics. This is alluding back to some previous judgments we’ve seen in the past.

-Isa. Look at the numbers here. How many are left? 1/10, how many are killed in Revelation? 1/10

-Amos: what percentage is left? 1/10

-1 Kings: Only 7,000 were preserved, but here only 7,000 are killed and 63,000 are left. Even in God’s righteous judgment, His mercy is made evident! And this comes about because of Jesus! Jesus has born the brunt of God’s wrath, what’s given to us is grace and mercy!

-There is some debate about this last phrase. They’re terrified and “gave glory to God” is this referring to saving faith or just admitting that they were wrong, as is promised in a place like Phil. 2 that every knee will someday bow to Him?

-At this point I’m leaning slightly toward saving faith, but might change tomorrow! Strongest point I see for that is we’ve seen before in Rev. that even in the midst of suffering the world still refuses to acknowledge God. I lean toward saving faith because otherwise they couldn’t truly give glory to God! So the job of the church is to witness to God’s saving grace, and in response, people are saved! 

-Still not done yet! There’s another woe (trumpet) to come!

  1. Measuring the End (15-19)

-Seventh angel blows his trumpet, and heaven responds: the end is here! Remember, this is the focal point of the whole book (not just Revelation) God’s goal for all of history has been: God’s people, living in God’s place, serving under God’s rule and reign. This last trumpet gets us to that reality!

-And what’s the only right way to respond to God’s kingdom now being seen? Worship. One of the pastors I worked with said the theme of Revelation is worship, and I agree! The Bible opens and closes with worship – praising God with everything we have and everything we are.

-Notice the acknowledgement that the nations were angry: entire nations were upset with God! But God has dealt with them. Not always here and now, but they will one day be dealt with, so Christians should be on the front lines of affirming good nations and standing against evil nations – and that starts with recognizing that the church is called to be a unique nation. We’re not supposed to completely align ourselves with any nation or culture on earth, that’s idolatry. Instead, we’re supposed to live as foreigners and exiles who look for ways to be more faithful witnesses.

-See again that this is referring to the very end: the dead with be judged and entered either into glory or separation from God. Have you ever considered that those who oppose God are destroying the earth? This stood out to me this week as I consider how people talk about earth care today. We’re told that humans are destroying the earth, that it’s irreversible, and that we’ll all die within the next few decades. But they’re focusing in the wrong direction. Those who don’t obey God are the ones destroying the earth. I think connected to that is that Christians should care about the earth. Not abusing or destroying, but seeking to care for it since that’s God’s call on the human race. Lots more that could be said about that, and I don’t think it’s explicitly in this text, so I’ll leave it there! 

-Last piece we see in this section is the temple of God in heaven (not a literal physical temple, referring to the place where God lives as signified by the ark of the covenant)

-John was able to see where God’s presence is contained. This is part of the reason I believe this is the center point of the book, it’s hinting at God’s presence no longer being hidden or removed or far off, it’s now accessible to everyone who follows Him.

-The ark of the covenant in the OT was the place where God presence was made visible. It was completely separated from the rest of the temple, it was only approached periodically and by someone who entered with fear and trembling. But not anymore! Because John can see it, anyone can see it! This is pointing to Rev. 21:3 “Look, God’s dwelling is with humanity, and he will live with them.” This is another evidence to me that shows we’re not supposed to read this book strictly linearly or chronologically. Just as other apocalyptic writers will do, he’ll talk about something, then go talk about something else, and then eventually make his way back around to talk about something he talked about previously. Here we’re once again brought up to the very end (as we were with the seals), as evidenced by all these weather phenomenon’s. But we’re not quite done, because we’re only halfway through this book.

-Once again, the question in front of us at the end of this sermon is: what do we do with this text? I think there are 3 things, and I said them at the very beginning.

1) Continue witnessing. It will often feel like our witnessing is pointless, and at times even worse than that because it will lead to persecution! But this text reminds us that even though some Christians will die for our faith, God will continue preserving His church, so we have to be faithful with our job.

2) Truths of the gospel. We don’t preach a message of self-help or how to improve your life, we preach a message that nothing you can do will save you, so come to Jesus and find true life! We don’t preach ourselves, but God sends us as ourselves, so find ways to use your personality to share the truths of the gospel.

3) Increasing persecution. Don’t get comfortable here! I’ve been reflecting recently on some of the alarming things I’ve read about our country, often coming from people who claim to be Christians. Why would we expect anything other than persecution? I think we at times forget that the 1 thing Jesus promises us is suffering, but with that promise He reminds us to be encouraged because He has overcome, and if we’re in Him, we will overcome too!

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by mikethestrand on May 26, 2024  •  Permalink
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Posted by mikethestrand on May 26, 2024

https://pastormikesmusings.com/2024/05/26/revelation-11-sermon-manuscript/

Revelation 7 – Sermon Manuscript

-I grew up around farmers, which also means I grew up around farms. Both grandparents were farmers, uncles took over those farms. I don’t remember the exact time, but I know at one point I learned about branding the cows.

-For the uninitiated – cows have a tendency to wander, even going so far as to break down fences to continue their wandering. If your livelihood is connected to your cows, don’t you think you’d work hard to make sure you had them all? Branding became the solution. Each farm had to come up with a brand (and coinciding name) that stood for their farm. And you can imagine that as more people continued building these farms, they would have to come up with some kind of system, right? Here’s what they came up with! Pretty impressive, right?

-Today we’re going to be looking at what it means to be branded by God, to has His name imprinted on us.

READ/PRAY

  1. Sealing the Servants (1-8)

-The next part of John’s revelation, after seeing the undoing of the natural world is 4 angels, standing at the 4 corners of the earth, restraining the 4 winds. Remember 4 signifies the whole thing, just as the 4 living creatures stand in for all of the created order, here the 4 corners are standing in for all the earth.

-But what are the 4 winds? Let’s think back to what we saw last week where we saw another 4. 4 horsemen. Most scholars believe this is referring to that same event, the judgment of God coming down on the earth. A small group of people would argue this is referring to the literal stopping of winds from the earth, which for a 1st cent. Civilization that depended on the winds to sail would have been devastating. The outcome is the same, just different way of interpreting the text

-Another evidence that we shouldn’t read Revelation as linear. That’s us imposing our Western way of thinking onto the text of Scripture that takes place in a completely different time and place. The Bible has a specific context, written by people with personalities, yet guided along by the Holy Spirit each step of the way. It’s our job to (with the HS) figure out what exactly was going on, we’re not supposed to impose our ideas onto the Bible!

-4 angels holding the judgment back, another angel comes out from the east who has something in his hand: the seal of the living God.

-Remember we’d just seen the seals being torn open (at least the first 6)

-Another loud voice (just last what we saw last week)

-Don’t harm any of the creation for a bit. I want us to think about that for a bit. Remember from last week, even in the midst of suffering, even in the midst of persecution, even in the midst of difficulty God is still in control. He’s not an absent landlord, He’s not far off and removed, He’s ruling and reigning over everything and only allows evil to go so far.

-There’s this beautiful story that models that for us in the book of Job. Job was called a righteous man, God had blessed him with a big family, lots of wealth, but allowed Satan to test him by taking all his wealth, killing all his kids, and even making him incredibly sick. It got so bad that at one point his wife’s encouragement was: curse God and die. Super helpful! And then his best friends come and try to argue theology with him and try to convince him he’s done something wrong. All these terrible things happen, yet in the midst of that it says Job does not sin. I don’t know about you, but it takes a LOT less than what Job went through for me to jump to sin, blaming God, accusing God, asking God why (and to be fair, Job does finally get to ask God why), but what’s important for us to note from this story is that God’s in control. Satan can’t do whatever he wants, his power is limited.

-What that means, dear friends, is that evil will someday end. Evil is only permitted between the Fall in Genesis 3, and Christ’s second coming. As we’ll see in just a few verses, grace can’t be counted, but evil can. God will only allow a certain level of evil to continue, and then he’ll say “no more.” 

-Another way of thinking about this that’s been helpful for me is like food. When I was growing up I remember my mom teaching my about expiration dates on food, which means I turned it into a game to find the latest date possible on all the food we needed. I would scour the shelves trying to find one that expired later than the one my mom found. Just as our food eventually expires, Satan and evil have an expiration date. They can’t fight it, they can’t beat it, they can only submit to it. It’s the same thing for us – evil can only do so much to us, either Jesus will return and fix it, or He’ll take us home where evil can’t dwell!

-What does it mean to be sealed? Once again, John is picking up a theme from the OT (the knee jerk reaction to what we’re reading in here should be to think there’s some connection to the OT)

–Ezek. 9 – God’s temple was being abused, as we see throughout the OT, God’s people would swear allegiance to Him, then slowly start drifting away and need to be called back to Him. In this case, only some people are grieving the way God’s temple is being treated, so God has a mark put on them so that when the killing begins they’re spared. Once again, that should sound similar to another story in the OT that also has important mark being given: 

–Ex. 12 – The Passover. All these plagues bearing down on the Egyptians to demonstrate who the true God is (just as Revelation demonstrates God’s power over Satan and his followers, look at the way God is described in the seal “the living God” that’s how He’s unique! No other god is alive like our God). The last plague is the death of the firstborn. This is a way of signifying the family line would stop. But there was a way to be saved from this plague: and look at how it’s described “The blood…will be a distinguishing mark for you” Do you see that, even in the OT, God’s people were marked off as different and unique.

-Adventures in Odyssey mark

-We also need to pull in a couple other NT passages to understand what John’s getting at here, both in Eph. When does the sealing of God’s people take place? The moment of conversion, that time where your new life is given and you’re made a new person. But there’s also a future orientation to this sealing, the 4:30 says there’s a coming day of redemption where this sealing will matter.

-This sealing is also brought up again in Rev. 14:1 where it says the sealing is with the name of the Lamb and his Father’s name on their foreheads. The name is a way of referring to all of someone’s being. So this marker means they’re identified with God.

-What about the forehead? I think this is picking up a theme from Deut. 6 (which the 1st cent. Jews would have known) God’s words are said to be so important that we should “Bind them as a sign on your hand and let them be a symbol on your forehead.” Our entire way of viewing the world should be so saturated by God’s Word that it’s like it’s tattooed on our forehead. People need to see that there’s something different about us, not just that we say something, but that we live differently. This also picks up a theme we see back in Rev. 7 – 144,000

-We then have an interesting section, and one of those that probably reminds you of the sections of the Bible you tend to gloss over or skip: genealogies. I’ll keep saying this through the book, but remember numbers are almost always symbolic, trying to signify or stress something. So in this case we have 12 x 12 x 1000, specifically “every tribe of the Israelites.”

-Weird ordering, because Reuben is the oldest, only 1 of Joseph’s sons is listed and so is Joseph, but Dan isn’t listed. Judah makes sense because the focus of this book is the revelation of Jesus, and he comes from Judah’s line, but no one really knows why the rest are on here.

-To understand what John’s getting at we need to take a look at the next section:

  • Salvation for the Servants (9-12)

-Remember 2 weeks ago we saw a vision of the throne room where John was told about the lion, but looked and saw a lamb. 

-In this section, John is told a number of the sealed, but then he looks and sees what? A vast multitude! This is important, because this means people like you and me can be welcomed in, and it shows the fulfilment of God’s promises all the way back in the beginning.

-All the way back in Genesis 15, God met with Abram (not yet Abraham) and promised him that his family lineage would be so big that you couldn’t count them. And what does John see in Rev? A family so big that no one can count them. Friends don’t miss this: God’s plan from the very beginning has been to bring people from every tribe, tongue, and nation into His kingdom! Whereas it used to be limited to a specific ethnicity, He’s now blown open the limits and welcomes everyone in. 

-But John’s referring to them here as Israelites why is that? It’s a way of saying that God’s plans haven’t changed. Just as He preserved His people in the OT, He’s continuing to preserve them today.

-John is picking up some ideas throughout the rest of the NT. Romans 2: where the sign of being a follower of God was circumcision in the OT, now it’s the circumcision of the heart, which only the Holy Spirit can do! 

-Similarly in Gal. 3: who are Abraham’s seed now? Those who belong to Christ! God’s plan of redemption, while it started with a specific ethnic group, has now gone global! Everyone is now welcome to the family of God, and will be in heaven with Him forever.

-How do you think he can tell there’s all these ethnicities? People look different! If it’s just a glance that John’s given, he can see these different groups of people represented. Think of that. Jesus even talked about the implications of that in Acts 1: Jesus tells his disciples that they would witness about Him: in Jerusalem, all Judea, Samaria, and to the end of the earth. Church you’re sitting here today because that’s true! 

-I was listening to a podcast last month that was talking about this idea. If you think in terms of generations, we’re only 50 generations removed from these disciples. Isn’t that crazy? If you take 40 years as an average generation, we could trace our faith lineage back by only 50 generations to the beginning of the church. What Jesus promised would happen has happened! You and I are sitting here today because 50 generations of people have had their lives changed by the coming of Jesus, and have been willing to share that with other people. And the great news that will continue happening until Jesus comes back! Even if it takes 100 more generations it will happen!

-Look at the way this multitude is described: standing before the throne. Think back to last week, which ended with a question: “who is able to stand before the lamb?” Here’s the answer: a multitude of people who were clothed with white robes.

-Remember we saw those white robes last week. They were given by God to the martyrs as a symbol of their purity. That idea first came up in 3, letter to the church at Sardis, those who walk with the Lord will be clothed in white.

-They also have something in their hands: palm branches: connects to palm Sunday – celebration for salvation.

-Think of what the people sing when Jesus enters Jerusalem: “Hosanna (save us) blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” What do the people sing this time? Salvation belongs to God alone, who is seated on his throne, and to the Lamb. 

-This is a celebration! They’re rejoicing that Jesus has come back again, salvation has been accomplished, they’re now able to stand in God’s presence without fear so they rejoice.

-Church, this is the reason we meet each week! We gather on Sunday because it is a reminder to us that Jesus accomplished salvation on our behalf when he walked out of that tomb. This gathering is a celebration because salvation belongs to God alone, and we rejoice at the fact that we can now come boldly into his presence without fear because of what Jesus has accomplished for us.

-But it’s not just the saints praising God, look who else joins in! The rest of the creation: angels, elders, 4 living creatures. 

-This section is unique in the whole Bible: Amen at the beginning and the end. They’re agreeing with everything the saints have said, but they go on to share 7 things they’re praising God for. Because God’s plan is perfect.

  • Sheltering the Servants (13-17)

-Elders asked a question (equal to John, not above, another reason to think of these as angels) 

-GRK John calls him lord. John doesn’t have any idea who they are or where they came from. So he’s given an answer.

-The great tribulation?

-Just like last week, where the 4 horsemen are wreaking havoc on the earth, this is referring to what’s going on now. Doesn’t say anything about limited this tribulation to 7 years.

-Think of WW2 – some of the most intense fighting was when the war had essentially been decided, so Satan will continue fighting up until the very end. 

-“For this reason” what’s the reason? They’ve been washed, saved, sealed. All this is a jump forward to the very end.

-Sheltered by God: live with them. God’s dwelling place will be with His people again (tabernacled)

-No more struggling or suffering (hunger, thirst, heat)

-Lamb as a shepherd

-Wipe every tear: no more grief at all!

-All of this only for those who have been sealed by the Lamb, those who have put their hope and trust in Him, who can have the confidence to stand in that day of judgment.

-Last week I exhorted you if you haven’t put your trust in Jesus as Lord to do that, but today I have an exhortation to those who are saved. What are you doing to pass on that faith to the next generation? Not just talking about little kids (although they’re included too!), but what are you doing to be faithful to be Jesus’ witnesses to the end of the earth? Share the good news of the gospel with others, tell them about how to stand when the day of wrath comes, tell others how God is working in your life, but don’t keep it to yourself!

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by mikethestrand on April 21, 2024  •  Permalink
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Posted by mikethestrand on April 21, 2024

https://pastormikesmusings.com/2024/04/21/revelation-7-sermon-manuscript/

Revelation 6-16 – Sermon Manuscript

-Where people start to freak out about how to read!

-I’m going to present my current reading of how to interpret this writing, subject to changing over the course of my life! 

-What I’m presenting isn’t anything new, isn’t heretical, but it may be different than what you’ve currently heard. When we got to Revelation in seminary, my professor regularly said “This is the conclusion I’ve come to, try it on for size, see if it makes the most sense of the WHOLE Bible.”

-Bryan Chappell’s book.

-There are legitimate options for how you interpret this book. But it is probably the most difficult book to get 100% correct. And part of this is because we’re reading an ancient text, this is the last book written, and it’s still written something like 1,931 years ago. This reminds me of a post I saw a few years ago on how to read the Bible literally.

-Please don’t divide fellowship with other Christians who believe differently than you!

PRAY

-What we’ve learned so far:

-Numbers are almost always symbolic. 7 being the most used, referring to perfection. We’ve also seen 12 or multiples of 12 come up (24 elders) signifying God’s plan. We’ve seen 4 come up signifying all creation (4 living creatures, 4 corners of the earth). 10 often signifies completeness (10 commandments, we have 10 fingers & toes)

-Representation. Remember the angels of the churches in heaven, representing them around the throne. Last week we saw the prayers of the saints being like incense around the throne. There are spiritual (heavenly) implications to the things we do on earth.

-Another way of saying this is: what’s seen on earth isn’t always the true picture. I read an article this week titled ‘A Christian revival is under way in Britain’ One of the fascinating things I’ve been reading is the way even atheists are changing their minds about Jesus and Christianity. There were 4 people referred to as the “4 horsemen of the new atheism” One of them, Richard Dawkins, just admitted he is now a cultural Christian. After actively trying to tear apart Christianity for decades, he’s suddenly changed his tune after finally seeing the good Christianity has brought to Western civilization. We’ll get to the reason this is taking place as we work through today’s sermon.

-Last week we saw the centrality of Jesus in everything (God, creation, salvation)

-The way of Jesus is as a slain lamb. It’s not responding in kind, it’s not repay evil with evil, it’s trusting ourselves to a good God who has a plan for us and all of history to lead to His eventual outcome: God’s people in God’s place, serving under God’s rule and reign.

-But before we get there, there are some things that will be happening.

  1. The Seven Seals (6:1-8:5)

-There are 3 sets of 7 that we’ll be looking at, the seals, the trumpets, and the bowls. I found the way my professor at seminary explained it very helpful.

-Grand Canyon (or any big hole in the ground), walk right up to the edge. Then you come back and walk a little further but eventually come back close to the edge, then you come back and go a little further and this final time you actually go and look straight over the edge. 

-If that doesn’t make sense, he used another illustration of having 7 seals, then using a magnifying glass and zooming in on the 7th seal to find 7 trumpets, then zooming in on the 7th trumpet to find 7 bowls. 

-This is called recapitulation, that is restating or repeating the same event from different perspectives. 

-One author summarized it this way: “In the seven seals we are seeing things from the perspective of the suffering church. In the seven trumpets we are seeing things from the perspective of the world as it is being called to repentance. In the seven bowls we are seeing things from the perspective of the temple, from the throne of God.”(Discipleship on the Edge, 303)

-4 horsemen of the apocalypse

-White horse – some debate about whether this rider is Jesus, because in Rev. 19 we see Jesus riding a white horse. Also picks up the “conquering” language that we saw with the churches

-Red horse – wars, and these happen regularly

-Black horse – the rich get richer, and the poor can’t survive

-Pale horse – ¼ of the earth dies by plagues, famine, animals.

-Nothing about them is unique to the future, happens over and over again and will continue happening over and over again. Think of what Jesus says in Matt. 24 “You are going to hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, because these things must take place, but the end is not yet.”

-5th seal: martyrs are begging God to end all things, but they’re told not yet. 

-6th Great earthquake, not literally, as the earth we knew it could not continue. Marker of the judgment of God, every person on the earth realizes it. They’d rather die by an earthquake than face the wrath of the Lamb. 

-Again, think of what Jesus says in Matt. 10:28 “Don’t fear those who kill the body but are not able to kill the soul; rather, fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” Eternal death is far worse than earthly death.

-Then there’s a big interlude in 7 to the beginning of 8

-Chapt. 7 – The great tribulation, sealing of God’s people. Think of the sealing of the scroll that we saw in chpt. 5. 

-One thing to note about this sealing: John’s using Israel to describe all of God’s people. Just as what John heard about the lion in chpt. 5 didn’t match what he saw (a lamb), here we have 144,000 (12×12, then 10x10x10) then when John looks to see it’s more people than anyone could count from every nation and tribe, people and language. The gospel has gone to the 4 corners of the world, and everyone is now welcome!

-7th: no judgment, just silence: All creation pauses before God

-But God isn’t pausing: the prayers are being brought before God. Don’t forget that prayer changes things. God listens, God responds, they don’t stop at the ceiling. 

-The description of this event will come up again, same wording and phrases for the other 7s.

  • The Seven Trumpets (8:6-11:19)

-Again, the first 4 come out in quick order: 1/3 of the earth burned up, 1/3 of the sea becomes blood with 1/3 of the creatures dying, 1/3 of the rivers and springs, finally 1/3 of the sun moon and stars. Almost as it the creation is becoming undone. What God had done in Genesis couldn’t withstand these terrors. 

-The key fraction is 1/3 – both a lot, yet noticeably less than half. The majority world (or could call it the 2/3 world) could say that these judgments have already occurred, or are already occurring.

-5th trumpet: notice that the pit is opened, these woes are overtly demonic, those who argue this is just helicopters or human warfare don’t acknowledge the spiritual component, just as some argue that Jesus’ miracles weren’t supernatural events

-Believers are still protected (9:4) This tells us that believers will be there in the midst of these events.

-6th trumpet is allowing 1/3 of humans to be killed. We’ll talk about the pictures John is drawing from when we get here, but it is meant to be repulsive.

–9:20 – Still no repentance from unbelievers, meant to lead to repentance. Even God’s judgment is intended to lead people to repentance, so this signifies that people will have no excuse when the final day of judgment comes. 

-Once again, after the 6th event there’s another interlude: 

-Little scroll, similar to a story where Ezekiel was told to eat a scroll, but this time there will be no more delay, and John is commanded to continue to prophesy

–Chapt. 11 we have an interesting story about 2 witnesses, who are they? It’s important to remember that the Bible requires 2 witnesses to make a matter stand. It’s not enough to have just 1 witness, you need 2.

-Vs. 4 describes them as 2 olive trees and 2 lampstands. Olive trees picks up an idea from Zech. 4where Joshua the priest, and Zerubbabel the governor are described as 2 olive trees, the last time we saw lampstands was in Rev. 2-3 describing the churches, so most scholars believe these 2 witnesses is a way of signifying the church. The church is the true witness, who is protected and preserved by God in the time between Jesus’ 2 comings (what we’re living in now) So the olive tree signified God’s people as the new kingdom and priests (we saw that last week in Rev. 5:10)

-There’s some timing listed in this chapter too, that I haven’t talked about before, but there’s a number of ways it’s described: time and times and half a time, 42 months, 1,260 days all signifying 3.5 years. That 3.5 years is half of 7. 7 is a way of signifying the perfection of God (7 churches), 3.5 is a way of signifying it’s not God’s final word on these matters. I get that from the way a 1st century Jew would have thought. For anyone born in the early 90s, if I say 9/11 what comes to mind? The World Trade Center. If I say “4 score and 7 years ago” what comes to mind? Gettysburg address. There are certain phrase that become so embedded in the culture they become shorthand for referring to something bigger. 3.5 years is the time of a major event known as the Maccabean Revolt where a group of Jews fought off the invaders and won! So 3.5 years became identified with a period of extreme suffering that would only last for a period of time and then stop. It also unlike 7 where it’s perfect, it’s half of it saying it doesn’t have the final word.

-This also shows us that things won’t only get worse or only get better as time moves on. I love the way my professor at seminary summarized what we see taking place: progressive polarization in the world. People respond to the gospel message, but increased persecution is also a reality. Both things will be taking place at the same time. And don’t we see that in the world around us? It seems like there’s always little pockets of places where the gospel is flourishing and spreading like wildfire, and then other places where it’s receding and falling away. Rise and fall, but the gospel continues to spread, and Satan continues to fight.

-I’m actually going to jump ahead to chapter 16 now, because I want to conclude in something that blew my mind from the middle section here 

4.  The Seven Bowls (16:1-21)

-Here we see the wrath of God being poured out as from a bowl. There is enough similarities between the events taking place here, and the 7 trumpets to think that they could be referring to the same event.

-Jim Hamilton’s comments.

-But notice this time, there’s no break between any of these judgments. No interlude, no more waiting. We’ve gone back to review it enough, and the judgment is now here! So just as I said at the beginning, we’ve seen the repeats, now John is seeing the whole thing in front of him! And this time we get a loud voice saying “It is done” That should bring to mind a phrase we think about on Good Friday “It is finished.

-One other thing is the increasing severity of these judgments. Where initially it was ¼, then we went up to 1/3, and now there’s no one and nothing left out. It’s as if all creation is coming undone because of the wrath of the lamb! More to come on these, because now I want to look at a couple things from the middle section which explains the way the battle continues to unfold.

  1. The Dragon vs. the Lamb (12:1-15:8)

-We looked at the first 6 verses of this on Palm Sunday: it’s a heavenly perspective on the Christmas story. But John continues, and goes on to talk about the way the war would unfold. The dragon is called the devil and Satan, he is thrown out of heaven, and is described as the accuser and deceiver. That’s literally his job! He is right now doing any and everything he can to fight against Jesus and His followers – the church. 

-Then we have the completion of what’s been called “The Satanic trinity”

-Satan doesn’t have complete power, so all he can do is copy. And that’s what he’ll try to do! Copy everything God has done, but it will always fall short and be insufficient in some way.

-The second part of this trinity is a beast from the sea. John picks up descriptions from Daniel 7 to describe it, which tells us this beast is kingdoms of the earth. Rulers, governments, earthly authorities that refuse to submit to the Lordship of Jesus and instead try to become god. And the beast is the one behind it all! It’s described as appearing to be fatally wounded, but is healed, and how often have we seen that with various forms of government across the world? Think of the 20th century: the rise of Naziism, which dies and has communism take its’ place, and followed by nationalism, and then socialism, and on and on the isms go. This is the work of the best in human history! But it’s not just 1 beast, because then there’s a beast from the earth who supposedly looks like a lamb (where have we seen that before?) but speaks like the dragon! This final beast empowers worship of the sea beast. People using worldly standards, and looking to worldly powers to solve all their problems. Of course the world is going to oppose the work of the lamb, they’re empowered by the devil, and he’s had millennia to hone his craft! 

-vs. 18 has to be one of the most misunderstood texts in the Bible, and I won’t say this is most definitely the correct interpretation, try it on for a bit, think of the rest of Scripture.

666 – Gematria, but doesn’t really make sense because “Six hundred, and sixty, and six” in Greek. I think a better way of thinking about this is referring to the unholy trinity. Just as God’s perfect number is 7, so the trinity would be 777, but Satan falls short every single time. So you can read 666 as Fail, Fail, Fail.

-I want to end with Rev. 14, because I’m still reflecting and processing an interpretation I read from a commentary this week. It’s a section titled ‘Reaping the Earth’s Harvest’

-Most scholars believe there are 2 different reapings taking place. The first section is Jesus reaping out the believers. Think of what Jesus says in Matt. 9 “the harvest is abundant, but the workers are few.” So reaping is positive throughout the NT. 

-What I’m still processing is whether or not the second reaping is also positive. Here’s why. There’s enough language that’s the same between the 2 accounts, that they could be referring to the same event. Throughout the Bible, there’s also references to Israel as the vine of the earth throughout Scripture. So the first readers could have heard this referring to the true Israel of God’s people. 

-Then we have anther significant phrase “outside the city.” There’s a pretty significant event that took place outside the city in the Bible: the crucifixion of Jesus. That is the place where God’s wrath was laid out in full. And is there enough blood in that event to cover over the sins of everyone? Listen to what he says:

-Now, it may be true that these connections are just a little too clever, and I wouldn’t say it’s most definitely correct, but it does make sense of the text, it makes sense of the Bible, and it makes sense of the cross.

-Church don’t miss this. Jesus’ precious blood that was shed on the cross is enough to cover every sin you have committed, will commit, and is the only way you can ensure you’re following the way of the Lamb instead of the way of the dragon.

-As we continue seeing our world continually polarized, our command hasn’t changed: make disciples of Jesus. Whether you were alive in the 1st century, the 4th century, all the way down to the 21st century the command hasn’t changed. We faithfully focus on telling everyone the truths of the gospel, and living in such a way that shows that we believe it. 

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by mikethestrand on April 7, 2024  •  Permalink
Posted in Bible, Blog, Life, Sermon
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Posted by mikethestrand on April 7, 2024

https://pastormikesmusings.com/2024/04/07/revelation-6-16-sermon-manuscript/

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