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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
Posted in Bible, Blog, Life, Sermon
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Posted by mikethestrand on August 11, 2024

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

Psalm 38 – Sermon Manuscript

-People handle sickness differently. Kids seem to get sudden onset sickness, like running around playing like everything’s normal, then stop and projectile vomit. And then go straight back to running around. As you get older, the approach to sickness has to change because you don’t bounce back quite as quickly, and sometimes that’s a difficult lesson to learn! 

-During college, I remember learning this lesson through a difficult experience. I had perennial sinus infections (at least once a year, hence surgery last week), so my way of combatting the these infections was trying to load myself up with EmergenC, the little powder form of vitamin C, and I’d mix it with my Mountain Dew. I don’t do that anymore, but I still will sometimes take EmergenC (with water)

-In this week’s text, we see David’s response to sickness.

READ/PRAY

  1. A Plea and a Prayer (Psalm 38)

-Helpful summary of this Psalm: “The Psalm opens with a prayer (1); continues in a long complaint (2-8); pauses to dart an eye to heaven (9); proceeds with a second tale of sorrow (10-14); interjects another word of hopeful address to God (15); a third time pours out a flood of griefs (16-20); and then closes as it opened, with renewed petitioning (21-22).” Spurgeon

-I’m going to spend our time in this Psalm looking at what David asks of God. The other parts are a continuation of how terribly David feels, and I want us to focus more on David’s prayers, and then look at some different responses to sickness.

-First thing to note is the first word David uses. When sickness comes, where do you look? 

-The impulse for believers should be to look to God! Acknowledge His oversight, His control, His plans.

-Do you trust in God’s direction in every area of your life? David doesn’t try to exonerate himself, doesn’t make excuses, but the consequences are heavy.

-Chatting with Micah this week about 3 different kinds of suffering: general fall, righteous suffering, being dumb. 

-God created the world good, without sickness or dying, everything working perfectly as God intended. But with the Fall, disobeying God’s law, comes death, destruction, chaos, and pain. Because of sin entering into the world, suddenly everything becomes difficult because of what scientists call “entropy” that things always fall into chaos and disorder, that’s a result of the Fall, it means life is going to be hard, it means your car will break down, your body won’t recover as fast as it did when you were a kid. 

-There’s also suffering that comes from being righteous and facing the influence of the devil, where Jesus tells us in this world we will have suffering and difficulty. 1 Peter says we should rejoice when we suffer for the sake of being righteous (in good standing with God). A subset of this is so that we can encourage others, 2 Cor. 1:4 “He comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any kind of affliction, through the comfort we ourselves receive from God.” Don’t miss that sometimes your suffering isn’t just for you! We need to remember that God sends us to others as well.

-Finally, sometimes suffering comes as a consequence to your own dumb decisions. Think of David who lost a son because of his adultery and murder, or Moses who missed out on the promised land because of his anger, or Peter whose impulsiveness during Jesus’ trial meant he betrayed his Savior. Your sin will find you out, either in this life, or the next.

-In this case, David is dealing with the consequences of his sin: look at the end of vs. 3 into 4.

-We live in a world that doesn’t have any space or understanding of the spiritual realities around us all the time. We look for purely naturalistic explanations for everything. We read passages in Scripture about demonic influence and use terms like epilepsy to describe it. When we talk about sickness, we often talk about germs and bacteria. And while that is right and true what we don’t often talk about is sickness being the consequence of spiritual decisions.

-As I say that, I want to be careful in the way we talk about this. Not all sickness is a consequence of a sinful decision, but I worry that we have gone SO far to the extreme that we have no room in our minds for sickness as a consequence of spiritual decisions we’ve made. Not health/prosperity gospel, but acknowledging the complex realities of being human where we’re impacted by biology AND theology! We have become so focused on the material world (taste, touch, see, smell) that I worry we too quickly neglect the spiritual world, the things that have eternal value. We’ll talk about that more in a bit, but don’t forget that in the meantime! 

-What does David ask God? To not be punished in anger. 

-Spurgeon: “I must be rebuked, for I am an erring child and You a careful Father, but do not throw too much anger into the tones of Your voice; deal gently although I have sinned grievously. The anger of others I can bear, but not Yours.” When we sin, there are consequences. David admits that, recognizes that reality, but he still asks God to be merciful and gracious to him.

–Heb. 10:31 “It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” Terrifying, living. God is completely unique among all the gods, the only one who’s alive, therefore He’s the only God who can punish sins committed against Him.

-Next: 9 Every desire is known to God. This is why God’s judgments are right and true, He can see down to every motive and desire of every human heart. 

-So why hide? If God knows everything we can’t hide from Him, so don’t! Confess yours sins to God, it’s not like it’s a surprise, and it’s not like He’s going to stop loving you because of it!

-Then 15 in the midst of recognizing the implications of his sinful choices where does David put his hope? In God. Friends, it’s far better to trust yourself to God’s judgment than the judgment of the world.

-Sin looks so enticing until you realize the implications of your sins. “If you understand what holiness is, you come to see that real happiness is on the far side of holiness, not the near side. Holiness gives us new desires and brings old desires into line with one another.” Keller

-Friends: sin always and only leads to death, either in this life or the next. We have to decide if we’re going to die to the sin in ourselves or die to Christ, but we will all face a death of some sort.

-And sometimes, but not always, the implications of our sin will be felt and experienced here and now, as David does. But I can guarantee even if you don’t see or feel like you’re facing any problems because of your sin here, you will face eternal realities due to not living according to God’s commands. 

-Last request 21-22 even though David is facing consequences from God, he realizes the only hope he has for salvation is by running to God. Being saved can’t come from anything or anyone else, even though we often act like it can.

-Why do you think food and drink are so enticing? Because we act like they can save us! Why are drugs so addicting? Because we act like they can solve our problems. Why do people cheat to get more money? Because we act like money can fix our deepest longings.

-Friends, David serves as a model here for how we should handle sickness and disease in our lives: run to God, He’s the only one who can truly save you!

-One of the people on my big hiking trip is an ER Dr, and he made the comment one night that we need to change the way we pray for medical issues. We often pray that God would guide the surgeon’s hand, as if the surgeon is the savior, when what we should be asking is God to intervene DESPITE the accident prone human working on us! (No offense to anyone who’s Dr) but doesn’t that put a different perspective on it? Ultimately the only hope we have for salvation here and in eternity is by running to God, putting our hope anywhere else is guaranteed to let us down.

-This Psalm is a glimpse of the physical implications of our sin, but there’s another important place in the Bible that shows not all sin is because of a specific sin, so I want to look at John 9.

  • Whose Sin? (John 9)

-Ultimately all sickness is traced back to the Fall, but what about individual sickness? There are accounts in the OT of physical sickness being traced to a specific sin (Miriam, Moses’ sister), but does that happen today, when we’re under a new covenant that came after Jesus’ resurrection? Yes! This story looks at the way we view sickness, and how Jesus views sickness.

-John’s primary point in this whole book is to demonstrate that Jesus is the promised Messiah, which includes healing people. He does this by connecting Jesus’ teaching to His healings. Jesus’ message isn’t just a proposition or intellectual argument, it’s supposed to be connected to physical wholeness and flourishing as a human.

-Cara and I were talking about this a few weeks ago – Jesus desire is for us to be truly human, sin causes us to become sub-human, or less than human. So Christianity is the process of becoming what God truly intended us to be: fully human. Jesus was the only true human to ever live!

-Think about that! Part of the implication of that is there was no division in Jesus. He is the only person who didn’t talk better than He walked! He both talked the talk and walked the walk, and He’s called us to do the same, which is the process of slowly, day by day becoming more human.

-The reason I want to take a look at this passage is because it shows the way we tend to respond to suffering, which has been a problem for a really long time. His disciples see a blind man and ask who’s responsible for this man’s problem?

-I don’t know about you, but one thing I’ve discovered is true of me is when I’m facing something difficult, I tend to ask God “Why me!? What did I do to deserve this!?” But I’m very slow to give thanks to God when things are going well. Maybe you’re the same way. Maybe you forget all the good gifts God’s given you! The fact that you’re here today is a gift that we shouldn’t neglect or take for granted. That’s our response, but look at how Jesus answers that question:

-SO THAT God’s Work might be displayed. Friends, our view of sickness and suffering is often way too short-sighted. Part of the reason we get so off base when we suffer is because we are so focused on the immediate feelings we have, but feelings come and go based on a moment. I read a fascinating article this past week that looked at being spiritually sick. Often it’s easy to tell when your physically sick (something’s not working as it should), but how do we tell when we’re spiritually sick? Have you ever been spiritually sick? See, Jesus tells us that sickness is meant to serve as different purpose than we often admit, and even sickness and suffering are meant to be tools to bring true healing in our lives, to make us more like Jesus, to make us more human.

-There’s a beautiful picture of this in The Chosen. A couple caveats, and then the story. This is extra-biblical, we need to use our imagination to fill in some of the details of these stories, just like the writers of this show are doing. Doesn’t contradict Scripture, but isn’t explicit in the text. Same reason we get caught up in stories, they help shape our imagination in things are good, true, and beautiful. Also, don’t pray to Johnathan Roumie who plays Jesus in this show, he’s just an actor! Story: Jesus has just commissioned his disciples to go out 2 by 2 to start preaching the gospel and heal people, just like Jesus had done. One of the disciples (little James) has a limp (actor has scoliosis). Jesus has healed a number of people of all sorts of maladies, but not one of the 12 disciples, and he was just tasked with healing others. It’s a few minutes long, but I think it’s worth watching.

-Do you see the kindness of Jesus here? He doesn’t promise an easy life, He doesn’t promise healing, but He promises Himself. That doesn’t mean life will always make sense here, but it will make sense if we have a long-term perspective instead of worrying about the immediate feelings. 

-Friends, even sickness and debilitating disease is only for a moment compared to the glory of eternity that is coming. Can we be faithful and endure suffering now for the glory that’s coming in the future, or do we expect God to fix all our momentary issues now?

-The final piece that I think we need to consider on this topic is God as our Father. Fathers are given a unique role in the family to represent and image God to the rest of the family. We know that no earthly father will do that perfectly, but they’re supposed to give us a little picture of what God does in all our lives.

  • Loving Discipline (Hebrews 12:7-11)

-We need to talk briefly about the role of parents here. Parents are meant to shepherd the children God gives them. This means training them morality, providing for them, and at times disciplining them as a necessary consequence to disobedience. 

-It’s not fun or easy to discipline, but it is necessary. I once heard a comedian say that he was spanked as a child, and everyone who wasn’t is just entitled today. Every parent has to discipline somewhere. For example, you’re not going to let your kid play by the stove without supervision (up to a point), or you’re not going to let your kids play in the street without first teaching them that cars would win in any battle they had with one! 

-Yet that discipline (though painful and difficult in the moment) leads to better outcomes because the children learn how to pursue the right things. God does the same thing with us. Sometimes He allows suffering to come into our lives (righteous suffering) so that we can be made more like Jesus, that is so that we can become more truly human. The question is can you be faithful in enduring that suffering, or will you just give up?

-One of my favorite quotes I’ve ever read: “Why do bad things happen to good people? That only happened once. And he volunteered.” R.C. Sproul

-Friends, any suffering we face is a tiny sliver of the suffering Jesus faced when he bore the penalty for our sins. He did that both to provide salvation for us, and to demonstrate to us how we can endure in the midst of our suffering, so for anyone who is sick today, either physically or spiritually: run to the Lord! Salvation, true eternal healing is found in Him, and Him alone. 

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by mikethestrand on August 4, 2024  •  Permalink
Posted in Bible, Church, Life, Sermon

Posted by mikethestrand on August 4, 2024

https://pastormikesmusings.com/2024/08/04/psalm-38-sermon-manuscript/

Sermon Manuscript – Psalm 36

-One of the comments that most stood out to me from my galivanting across Europe was standing near where John Knox is buried in Edinburgh. All these walking tours going by, overhearing the way his influence was described: demeaning to women (believing that the office of Elder is reserved for men), and working to expand Christianity in Scotland.

-Christianity is often viewed as opposed to: flourishing, happiness, fun. I learned in Geneva one of the jokes for kids is “Post Lux Tenebrae” after the light darkness. I even thought this growing up! That to be a Christian was the hardest thing in the world, that it meant no fun, no enjoyment, and came with only following incredibly difficult rules. Don’t want this movie, don’t listen to this music. It felt like a chore! I felt the same way that tour guide in Edinburgh did: we need to move on from the shackles of Christianity. But what if that thinking is wrong?

–John 10:10 “I have come so that they may have life and have it in abundance.”

-“There is a general assumption prevalent in the world that it is extremely difficult to be a Christian. But this is as far from the truth as the east is from the west. The easiest thing in the world is to be a Christian. What is hard is to be a sinner. Being a Christian is what we were created for. The structure of this world was created by God so we can live in it easily and happily as his children.” (Peterson, 115)

-We can caveat this a bit – Christianity isn’t necessarily easy, it involves dying to yourself which apart from the Spirit is impossible! But the sentiment is true: God created this world for His people, which means being a Christian begins the renewal process in your life to become what God has intended you to be all along in the world that He created you to flourish in.

-So why doesn’t it always feel that way? Let’s read this Psalm and find out

READ/PRAY

  1. The Motivations of the Wicked (1-4)

-To understand this Psalm properly, we need to go to the very beginning of the book Ps. 1:1 “How happy is the one who does not walk in the advice of the wicked.” 

-Wisdom literature, how to live in the world God has created. Not cute little sayings with no meaning, or even things that are always true, but give general guidelines for living in obedience to God. That’s true wisdom: Prov. 9:10 “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.” True wisdom is found only in God. 

-Does this mean that only Christians can be wise? Yes and no. Our way of measuring needs to change. Many of the big existential questions don’t often get discussed anymore: why are we here? What is the purpose of our existence? Listened to a podcast this week about 1 Kings 10 when the Queen of Sheba visit Solomon to interrogate him. The speakers contended that what Solomon provided for her was an explanation of God and the world that provided a solution to all her existential doubt!

-But how do we process what looks like those who are evil prospering? If the only way to true wisdom is through God, why do so many atheists seem to have all the recognition and acclaim? Doesn’t God care about those who follow Him? These have been questions throughout history, things David questioned too!

-He begins by stating the purpose of this Psalm: reflections on the transgression of the wicked. And remember where true wisdom comes from: fear of the Lord. But the wicked person doesn’t even dread God. 

–Heb. 10:31 “It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” How frequently do you realize that God can’t be messed with? How often do you recognize that God is holy and separate from us, and that He can’t tolerate one little speck of sin?

-Look how David goes on to describe this: flattering opinion of self. Can’t assess himself properly, therefore he can’t see and fight against his sin. Using the wrong measurements of holiness and sin. We can’t compare ourselves to each other, there’s always someone worse. And have you noticed that people only tend to compare themselves to someone they think is worse, not someone they think is better? 

-I was talking to a friend on my trip recently about his sister who has had a few failed marriages (husbands cheated on her) and has become convinced that there’s no good guys out there anymore. When my friend asks about all the pastors he knows he’s told “you and your friends don’t count!” Don’t we often do the same thing? We interpret all the events around us from our own perspective.

-David moves from internal realities about the wicked to the external consequences of their living.

-The way they talk is malicious and deceptive. Jesus in Luke 6:45 “his mouth speaks from the overflow of the heart.” Do you want to see what’s in someone’s heart? Listen to how they talk. If someone complains about others all the time I can guarantee when you’re not around they’re complaining about you! Words matter greatly, they can build someone up or tear someone down.

-The wicked have also stopped all pursuit of wisdom which means they no longer do good. Who defines what good is? God! Rooted in God’s character. If they have no fear of God it means they also won’t be demonstrating goodness.

-Even on his bed: even times of rest are spent pursuing evil. Rest is a good gift from God, a reminder that we aren’t God, but even those moments can be used for evil!

-A path that is not good: I’m working on framing out my basement, and it’s incredible tricky because no house is built perfectly plumb! And when you’re trying to build straight walls it can quickly become a nightmare! When you’re building long walls, being just a degree off quickly becomes massively out of line! Same with our lives: 1 degree of unholy living doesn’t look like much at the beginning, but over the course of a lifetime it becomes a chasm separating you from what is good, right, and true.

-The reality of all these descriptions is they can be true of us! 

-Some debate about whether David is referring to the wickedness in his own heart, or if he’s contemplating in his heart the way of the wicked. One person translated the first verse “An oracle of the transgression of the wicked in the midst of my heart.”

-Our culture today tells us to look inside our heart to find our meaning and purpose to life, but the Bible tells us that our hearts are desperately wicked, and apart from God intervening in our lives we would continue in the path of wickedness! Only because of His grace and pursuit of us can this next section be true of us:

  • The Motivations of the Wise (5-9)

-Notice that David had only been talking about the way wickedness thinks and acts, and in order to remedy that he has to lift his eyes to a different direction. I was reflecting on this idea while touring the Roman Forum. This was the place where the emperor would stand and look down on his kingdom. But if he’s only looking down it’s going to be hard for him to look up and understand himself the way God understands him. And how prone are we to do the same thing? That’s why David begins by directing his gaze up toward the Lord.

-Acknowledging the Lord is the most important decision you can ever make! All of us begin as wicked, and only because of God’s saving work is there hope for renewal and reconciliation with God. I love the way Eph. 2 summarizes this idea as us being dead, BUT GOD who is rich in mercy has made us alive in Christ. This turn from death to life, from wicked pursuits to wisdom is the most significant change any of us can make. Look up to the Lord and cry out to Him, and everything else in your life will change and start to make sense. See, even suffering and difficulty can make sense when you have the Lord at the center of your life. This is why Christianity alone can actually lead to a flourishing life! 

-David is going to give us 5 aspects that are true about God, and then 5 blessings that come from walking with God. First, the things about God:

1- Faithful love: Hebrew word chesed covenant faithfulness, never ending love. It’s not just love, it’s faithful love. Love that means no matter what happens it will not stop. We can hardly start to get our minds around this kind of love because we have endings to everything we do. But God doesn’t. God is eternal, and so is His love. His love is so much that it goes to the heavens!

-“Guess How Much I Love You” a little brown rabbit is trying to communicate to his dad how much he loves him. Spreads his arms, dad does. Jumps high, which his dad jumps higher. Ends by saying he loves his dad to the moon, then falls asleep and his dad says I love you to the moon and back. That’s our love compared to God’s love. Our love will fall short, but His won’t.

2- Faithfulness: has the idea of being steadfast, immovable, unchanging. 2 Tim. 2:13 “if we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself.” This one reaches all the way to the clouds. 

-Hiking trip: clouds on top of clouds. We can’t reach them, we just see them.

3- Righteousness: in right standing. This, too, is only possible because of who God is. And God’s righteousness is like the highest mountain. Solid, unmoving. If you’ve ever been to CO you’ve seen this! The mountains are breathtaking and nothing can stand against them. That’s like God’s righteousness: nothing can fight against it.

4- Judgments: connects to the deepest sea in that God is able to see to plumb the depths of everyone’s inner most desires. God’s judgments are perfect because He knows every detail, so we can trust the outcomes He determines. Even in His judgments He is perfectly right.

5- Preservation: other translations have care or save people and animals. God wants to see His entire creation saved and redeemed. That’s why He sent His Son to the world. He hates wickedness, He hates sin, He hates the bondage that creation was subjected to, and His intent is to see all of creation serving Him once again.

-Do you see that God even cares about the animals? The wicked person won’t be saved because he’s living outside of God’s plan, but not the animals!

David then transitions to 5 blessings that come from walking with God.

1- Refuge: During my hiking trip we stayed at places along the hiking trail called refuges. They’re definitely not a 5-star hotel (most of them probably wouldn’t be considered 1-star hotels!) but after hiking 10 miles in rain and snow and 45 mph headwinds, there’s something incredibly comforting about seeing shelter, regardless of how many stars they have. You know it means rest, warmth, and food. And that’s what God provides to those who trust in Him. It means that when the storms of life come He will take care of you. The picture David’s painting here is like a mother hen who tucks all her chicks under her wings to protect them. 

2- Flourishing: Following God means satisfaction to all the deepest longings of your heart. It means God’s provision for everything you need to grow like Him. Nothing else can ever fully satisfy you. Food, drink, sex are all good gifts from God, but they pale in comparison to having Jesus! Once again, we see that the only way to get true and lasting provision is from God. And it’s not just eternal, it’s abundant! More than enough!

3- Joy: what are these refreshing streams? God Himself! Ps. 16:11 – “You reveal the path of life to me, in your presence is abundant joy.” Joy and flourishing are 2 implications of being found in Christ. We flourish only when we are in Him, which means we can have joy in our lives despite the circumstances around us. 

-Think of the Apostle Paul who claimed to learn the secret to being content. In seasons of plenty and seasons of want, he still claims that because God is in him all his circumstances can change and he’ll still have a life of flourishing!

4- Life: wellspring, the starting point of life is found only in God. But this also connects to

5- Light: God illumines everything else in creation. I love the example CS Lewis shares from a moment in a little shed. He was able to see the beam of sunlight shining in, and it made him realize that God is like the sun. We don’t stare into the sun, but the sun illuminates everything else so we can see it. Because God is light, he allows us to see and understand the rest of His creation as He intends us to understand it. This is what Eugene Peterson was saying in the quote I shared at the beginning. None of the rest of creation can make sense until you understand the Creator behind it all.

-And this is where we see this Psalm pointing us directly to Jesus. Think of how the Gospel of John begins. See how light and life are connected to Jesus? And how all creation comes about by Him? The only way to have a life filled with abundance and joy is by being found in Jesus. Only when you’re in Jesus can you then go on to pray the way David prays next:

  • A Prayer for Wisdom (10-12)

-David’s first request is asking God to spread his faithful, covenant love over those who follow Him. Just as he previously said that people take refuge in the shadow of his wings, here he’s asking God to spread his wings of protection over His people.

-Similarly, His righteousness is spread over the upright in heart.

-Connects to God’s judgments going down into the deepest parts of a person. God knows if someone is upright in heart and knows how to faithfully judge them.

-David’s big request is to be saved from the wicked. He doesn’t want to be in their company or be cast away from the places God brings.

-If we’re honest, I think we all need this reminder regularly in our lives. We are tempted to be selfish, we are tempted to neglect God, we are tempted to give in to our sinful impulses. But they can never lead to life, much less a flourishing life! God has given us exactly what we need for growth in Christ-likeness: his Word, His Spirit, and His people the church. This is why God has built into the created order these rhythms of gathering with His people each week. Our hearts slowly become cold toward the things of the Lord, we start to question His goodness and His love and care in our lives, but then we have the Lord’s Day each week to remember who God is and remind each other that God is transforming us.

-Friends, remember that it’s easy to be a Christian. Don’t give into the ways of wicked, walk in the ways of wisdom and find life to the full. Once we see that God’s ways are the best way and get a taste of the goodness that comes from following Him, we’ll never be satisfied with settling for our sins. Take these last 3 verses and pray them for yourself each day this week, keep your heart warmed toward the things of the Lord so that you can find life and life to the full in Jesus.

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by mikethestrand on July 21, 2024  •  Permalink
Posted in Bible, Church, Life, Sermon

Posted by mikethestrand on July 21, 2024

https://pastormikesmusings.com/2024/07/21/sermon-manuscript-psalm-36/

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
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Posted by mikethestrand on June 16, 2024

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

Psalm 31 – Sermon Manuscript

-Have you ever had one of those experiences where your response to a situation doesn’t match what’s happening? I remember most acutely feeling that during college. You leave for a year, then come back home and suddenly things at home feel weird. Siblings bother you in new ways, parents rules are overly restrictive all of a sudden, your best friends are acting weird (graduates, just wait a year, and I promise I won’t say I told you).

-As we grow as Christians, there will be times and seasons where our response doesn’t match the situation at hand. What do we do when that’s true? How do we snap out of it, and what would God have us do in the midst of those situations?

-I remember hearing someone onetime say the problem with people is they listen to themselves instead of preaching to themselves. If we feel discouraged doesn’t your inner voice make it worse? Or if you’re sad doesn’t your inner voice make you more sad? Or if you’re feeling guilty doesn’t your inner voice heap on even more guilt? Today’s text will demonstrate exactly what it means for us to take every thought captive for Christ – and it doesn’t come by faking it til you make it, or by reciting a verse out of context (God causes all things to work for good), but by being real with God.

READ/PRAY

-Housekeeping notes:

-Book of Psalms vs individual Psalm (please don’t get a tattoo PsalmS)

-Psalms were the songbook of God’s people throughout history, the songbook of Jesus, and gives words to the gamut of human emotion and experience. Luther called it a “mini Bible,” because it traces the whole storyline of Scripture, and points to realities of the incarnation of God’s Son. Athanasius “Whatever your particular need or trouble, from this same book you can select a form of words to fit it, so that you . . . learn the way to remedy your ill.” 

-These are used to help you know how to talk to God during every season of your life. I use that term season intentionally. I’ve found it helpful for myself to think of life in terms of seasons. Read The Resilient Life in seminary on this

-Every ministry job I’ve interviewed for has asked the question to my about balance in work and life. I don’t think there is. Wobble is better word.

-But God is still God in every season you’re in. “All of my life in every season you are still God.” (Desert Song). The Psalms are here to give us words in every season we’re in. Soak your mind in them, friends. 

-I know many people who read through this book each month, I’m doing a Bible reading plan this year that reads through it twice. Some orders of monks read through it every week.

-These are poetry, very different than prose, very different from apocalyptic. Read it full of flowery language, lots of extremes (very high highs and very low lows). Lots written by King David, all have musical notation, but none have the musical notes (intentionally).

-Last thing is the headings (verse 0) are a part of the original writings. Some give information about events that inspired the Psalm, some have musical notations, some tell the author. 

-Can be hard to preach, so keep that in mind! Because it’s poetry in order to get a cohesive outline we need to read it more section by section instead of verse by verse, so if I don’t touch on a verse you really liked or wanted to learn more about, I’m sorry! 

-Some notes about this Psalm: themes repeated in other places in the Bible. Psalm 71 copies the first 3 verse verbatim. Jesus quotes vs. 5 on the cross, Jonah quotes 6 from the belly of the fish, Jeremiah quotes vs. 136x. This one was apparently popular!

  1. God Is a Refuge (1-8)

-David begins by committing to seek refuge in God. 

-There are many times and places where David would be tempted to beg this of God. Chased by Saul, surrounded by enemies after he’s king, wayward children in his elder years who tried to take the kingdom away from him. There were many seasons in his life where he would need God to be a refuge.

-Disgrace means different things here than it would to us. Has a bigger and deeper meaning to them: social outcast, ghosted.

-If he’s been dismissed by everyone else, he starts to wonder if God will treat him the same way.

-Trusts himself to God’s righteousness. What does that mean? It means David is trusting himself in that God is right and will do right by His people. Since God is righteous, He can only be righteous to His children.

-Listen closely. One of the realities of being a parent today is the use of screens and how to handle them well with kids. I’ve had to learn how to be more present with my kids because they notice if I’m not actually engaged with them and distracted by my phone. This is David proverbially taking God’s face in his hands and saying “look at me!” That’s BOLD and takes courage, but is possible because he’s our Father.

-Interplay between 2-3. Asks God to be a rock of refuge, but it’s because God is a rock and fortress.

-James Montgomery Boice “’You are…then be…’ should be the prayer of every Christian.” Church, the reason we need to grow in theology is because it gives us a foundation to build the rest of our lives on. We could spend the rest of this sermon on this idea (actually the rest of our lives). Since God is faithful, we can ask Him to be faithful to us. Since God is love, we can ask Him to be loving to us. Since God is good, we can ask Him to be good to us. See, it’s only because of true things we know about Him (theology) that we can trust in Him throughout our lives. It’s only because we grow in theology that we can continue persevering in our faith and know that God will continue working in our lives. Theology isn’t just an intellectual pursuit, it’s a pursuit that is meant to help us better understand and trust Him. Keep that in mind as continue, I’ll come back to it.

-And notice how David continues: for your name’s sake. It’s not ultimately for us. 1 Cor. 6 your life is not your own, you were bought with a price. 

-David repeats this idea until vs. 6 where he contrasts himself with the wicked. I thought we were supposed to love everyone, including our enemies? Did Jesus just upend all this judging and hatred of the OT?

-Judge not? We’ve been reading some pretty dramatic ways Jesus responds to evil in Revelation lately. Does He just sit passively back and let evil run unchecked? No! Because God is the ultimate judge that provides a meaning even to our suffering today. On top of that, we even have a passage in the NT that tells us one of our jobs is to judge, but only a subset of people: the church. Friends, we must love each other enough to judge each other when we see sin grabbing a hold in someone’s life. 

-Idols were thought to bring healing and protection. Think more like a rabbits foot than a cosmic judge who sits on clouds. There were gods of each aspect of life. God of sea, god of rain, god of crops – needed to appease the right one based on the activity you were pursuing. 

-Where David lands this section is important. Instead of being handed to his enemy, God places him in a spacious place.

-Where would you rather go for a walk? Think of the freedom and joy that comes from a wide-open space to run and play. Think of Psalm 23 “He lets me lie down in green pastures.” Friends, this is God’s plan for your life! Wide open spaces. I remember growing up terrified that if I took 1 wrong step I would be outside God’s will and never get back on track. That’s not how God’s will works! He’s told us His will for all of us, and it leads to wide open spaces! You don’t have to be afraid of taking the wrong step, you don’t have to worry you’ll never get back on, this is the point of the overquoted passage in Rom. 8 that God causes all things to work together for the good of those who love Him. It means even when we take the wrong step, He’s still with us.

  • God Is Gracious (9-20)

-Things seem to take a sharp left turn for David here, almost as if he did step out of God’s plan for his life! He lists all sorts of issues: his body is failing him, he’s ridiculed, abandoned by his friends, ghosted, oppressed everywhere he looks. How do you respond in those situations?

-I remember when I was in high school reaching a point where God was starting to become more real to me. It felt like I was the only one following after God in the school, felt like I was the only one taking my faith seriously, and then my dad showed me 1 Kings 19: Elijah onetime felt the same way and God told Him (basically) get over yourself, you’re not as big of a deal as you think, I’ve got 7,000 others besides you. I learned that God works in community, not just individuals, so because God works in community, I can ask Him to give me community. God is always working to preserve His people! I can rely that I’m not alone and be encouraged to remain faithful. It is graduation season too – so high schoolers (and those who know a high schooler) remind them to remain faithful. It may feel like you’re the only one following God (even at a Christian college) so use this Psalm as a reminder to continue being faithful.

-Let’s look at how David responds, start in vs. 14

-Instead of focusing all his attention and energy on his peers, “friends” David looks to the Lord, and preaches to Himself in vs. 15. This is another reason I find the Psalms so helpful for us today: how often do we forget to preach to ourselves? How often do we succumb to listening to ourselves and then spiral worse and worse? Friends, this is part of the reason it’s so vital that we soak our minds in God’s Word. We need to have our minds shaped by what God says about us, not what we think or how we feel, because that changes minute by minute.

-Make your face shine is a way of denoting spending time in God’s presence. I’ve been kind of surprised how often that idea has come up in Revelation – the face shining connects back to Moses (Ex. 34) and also points to the transfiguration, which is then supposed to be reflected in believers today (2 Cor. 3:18).

-He goes on to contrast himself with the wicked (17-18), before going back to contrast them with those who fear (follow) God. He ends this section with something that we saw earlier that I told you to keep in mind. “God is….so be…” 

-God is good, therefore he asks God to be good to him, and everyone who fears him. Another reminder that we ask things of God because of who He is. Friends, God is good! And He is always working things out for us but it may not look like that while we’re on earth. Notice how it’s “stored up” Goodness is piled up in heaven just waiting for us!

-We’ve seen that through our time in Revelation: God continues protecting and preserving His people despite increasing persecution on earth. This is why we worship and praise God – because of His goodness (He IS good), because of His love (He IS love), because of His faithfulness (He IS faithful), even when it doesn’t feel that way. 

-This is another remind how important this gathering is in the lives of Christians. I don’t know about you, but I get discouraged during the week! I beat myself up, I doubt things about God that I know are true! But then I get to come in and have my selfishness shaken up each week! I get reminded that there’s something bigger than me, someone supporting me, and some people that He has called me to, which is the same place David ends:

  • God Is Faithful Love (21-24)

-It’s almost as if David has spent time in church! His outlook has been shifted, his desperation has changed and he realizes that God is on his side!

-The word he uses here is important hesed Sally Lloyd-Jones in The Jesus Storybook Bible “Never Stopping, Never Giving Up, Unbreaking, Always and Forever Love.” Because of all these truths about God, He always heard and always answers our prayers.

-We then see the need for us to live a certain way. Because God is faithful love, we can ask Him to be faithful in His love toward us, but we also need to respond by faithfully loving Him. If we do that then we can preach this last verse to ourselves and each other. We don’t need to fear, we don’t need to doubt, we can be strong, we can be courageous (bold!) because we know our outcome is as solid as the tomb is empty.

-End praying how this teaches us to pray. Spurgeon “We may pray to enjoy in experience what we grasp by faith. Faith is the foundation of prayer.”

-God is a refuge, so be a refuge

-God is faithful love, so be faithful love

-God is gracious, so be gracious

-God is good, so be good

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by mikethestrand on June 9, 2024  •  Permalink
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Posted by mikethestrand on June 9, 2024

https://pastormikesmusings.com/2024/06/09/psalm-31-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 11:1-4 – Sermon Manuscript

-A defining story of your life, or your family’s life?

-some of my most fond memories from growing up involved my parents taking too long to go home after church. Playing football, running through the dirt paved parking lot, trying not to get into trouble. First time parents warned you we’d be leaving in 5 minutes meant we had AT LEAST 30 min. My parents locked the doors of the church when they got married!

-We all have these family stories that we can use to communicate something about ourselves. The Bible does something similar, and it’s important for us to understand the Bible’s defining stories if we want to understand the significance of God’s message, given to John, passed down to us today. The defining story for God’s people is the Exodus: God’s deliverance out of slavery into a season of exile.

READ/PRAY

-Not sure about you, but I think this might be one of the most difficult passages in the Bible to interpret correctly! Full of OT allusions, mention of specific times and days. I’m going to give an overview of the whole chapter, and then we’ll walk through it over the next 2 weeks, just so there’s no surprises. I say most of this with a grain of salt, and I reserve the right to change my opinion on this in the future! But as I’m working through this letter and trying to study this section this week I think this is the best way to interpret the text.

-This is a call to the church to continue witnessing to the truths of the gospel despite increasing persecution.

-John is told to measure the temple and count the worshippers. This is referring to God’s people today, not a physical temple that will someday be built. 

-The 2 witnesses are similarly referring to the church (again, wait until I build my case for that!)

-The numbers are a way of pointing back to Jesus, but through a prophesy in Daniel. Their story also parallels an upcoming story in Rev. 12-13 about the beast persecuting God’s people. Their death and resurrection points to God’s provision of His people throughout history and validation of their witnessing to the truths of Jesus as the Savior and King.

-Finally, the last trumpet takes us all the way to the end, where God’s kingdom has come and His will is being done on earth just like it is in heaven. That’s where we’ll be going over these next 2 weeks, now let’s talk about how I got there!

  1. Measuring the Temple (1-2)

-John is given a commission, connected back to his role from last week to “prophesy again.” 

-Connected to Zech. 2, Ezek. 40-42. John is the next in line! 

-Notice “was given” this is all from God, God’s work, and God’s plan

-The idea of measuring is connected to counting. Think of Jesus who said God counts even the hairs on our heads (which is easier for some people than others!) It’s a way of signifying that God knows each and every person who belongs to Him. No one can take them away, no one will be lost, He will keep track of them all and preserve them all.

-Before we go on, I want to ask you a question about that: if John were asked to go and count His people today, would you be included in that number, or would you be left outside and be trampled? If you want to ensure you’re a part of God’s people, if you want be counted in the temple, then you need to confess that Jesus Christ is the Lord, and believe that He was raised from the dead. If you do, you’ll move from death to life, from outside the temple to inside the temple, and God will welcome you in with open arms.

-A few options about this temple:

-A physical temple that’s rebuilt, a heavenly temple, or the temple that we today refer to as the church. I don’t think it’s a physical temple because of the way this book uses symbols and imagery throughout to communicate a bigger spiritual reality. Similarly, I don’t see how it could be a heavenly temple because I’m not sure how “the nations” could trample any part of it then. 

-I also think there’s an assortment of other NT passages that tip the scale in the direction of the church, here’s a few. 

-All of these are referring to the church. Similarly, when we trace the idea of the temple (or tabernacle) throughout the Bible, it signifies God’s dwelling place with His people, not necessarily just a building. It’s meant to be a new Eden because of the way sin broke the relationship between God and His people. When Jesus comes, the Bible says God tabernacled among us (God moved into the neighborhood), and then Hebrews reminds us that Jesus is the fulfillment of God’s promises, so there’s no more need for priests or sacrifices or a temple, they’re pointing to Jesus who now fills his people with the Spirit, making them a new temple. 

-The last piece that tilts the scales for me in this direction is the ending of this letter, Rev. 21:22 says God’s eternal plan is no temple. This is like Eden where God’s plan was to be in perfect relationship with his creation, no separation, no divide, but sin broke that. That’s what’s signified by the lack of a physical temple, we don’t need that anymore, Jesus has provided a way to approach God that’s superior in every way (again, read the book of Hebrews).

-Why is there an area excluded? 

-“Court of the Gentiles” or “court of the women” most likely the first as it had been given over to the nations already.

-If the temple is the church (as I’ve argued) this could either refer to persecution of a segment of the church, or is a way of signifying that not everyone is a part of God’s people. I lean slightly toward the latter as I think it makes better sense of the comment “outside the temple.” The only way to avoid being trampled is by becoming a part of the temple, or the church. 

-We’ll get to the holy city a little more when we get to vs. 8, but really briefly notice that it’s referred to by 5 names. Holy city, great city, Sodom, Egypt, where their Lord was crucified. Can’t be all of those at the same time, and 1 of them is a country! Once again, John is using a well-known idea to signify something bigger: there will always be rulers, nations, and civilizations opposed to the work of God. Once again we see that there’s no middle ground: you’re either for God or against Him.

-We now get to a hugely debated section that is very difficult to understand and needs to be nuanced incredible carefully: how do we interpret the 42 months? One of my primary arguments through this series has been we struggle to understand this text (Revelation) because our minds aren’t saturated enough by the whole text. The 1st century reader would have devoted themselves to the Bible, many of them had memorized large sections of it, if not the whole thing. Our minds today are too cluttered by useless trivia (or movie quotes for me) to memorize large portions of God’s Word, much less go on to meditate on those Words and then apply them to our daily lives. If our identity starts to become defined by anything other than God’s Word we’re in trouble! 

-This text kicked my butt this week! I’ve shared before that my Hebrew prof. in seminary: wrestle with the text. I did a LOT of wrestling this week! Because there’s so much background to this text, I also divided this sermon into 2 weeks, so consider this part 1. Also, fair warning, you’re going to need to put your thinking caps on! There’s a mountain of other texts being referenced here that we’re going to need to wrestle through together today to understand John’s message.

First, remember numbers in Revelation are symbols not statistics, the numbers are standing in for something important. We’ve talked about these before, so 7 (and it’s multiples) refers to: perfection or completeness. 10 (and it’s multiples) refers to fullness. 4 refers to the whole creation/earth. 12 (and it’s multiples) is God’s people. But then we start adding in halves, or lesser numbers. So if you remember back a few weeks ago to the overview: 666 is signifying that Satan and his unholy trinity false short in every case (fail, fail, fail). With 42 months:

-It’s another way of saying 3.5 years. If you look at vs. 3, you’ll see 1,260 days, which also happens to be 42 months. Vs. 9, 11: 3.5 days. Maybe these are all referring to the same period of time?

-To understand this reference, we need to go back to a prophecy in Daniel 9, which itself is a meditation on God’s Word from Jer. 25, which itself is using language from Lev. 25. Do you see why this book can be so hard to understand and interpret correctly? Are you ready to wrestle through this text with me?

-First, Daniel introduces this section to us by saying he was reflecting on Jeremiah, and notice what he’s wearing, because that will come up again. This tells us that Daniel is meditating on a specific passage in Jeremiah, something to do with 70 years. 

-Jeremiah is God’s plan for getting the people out of Babylon. They’d been carried off into exile as a penalty for their sin, but there was an end point to that exile. God will bring His people back and redeem them.

-Those 70 years are the season of exile, where Israel is under the Babylonian captivity. As Daniel starts doing the math, he realizes that 70 years is close to coming up! So he begins by confessing his and the nation’s sins and asking God to listen and respond. God does by sending the angel Gabriel to visit him and tell him what’s going to happen. Before we get there, 1 very important note: Israel wasn’t in exile for 70 years, it was more like 60. So if that number is a symbol (like in Revelation) we should also expect the rest of the numbers to be symbols.

-We begin with “70 7s (translated as weeks)” Anyone remember the significance of 7? Completion, perfection. This means Gabriel is picking up the language from Jer. 25 but using weeks as a stand in for years. Look at the 6 things promised from God, specifically 2-4, stop sin, atone for iniquity, everlasting righteousness. God is saying He will take care of the sin Daniel had just been confessing. Who do you think that’s talking about? Sunday school answer: Jesus! Just wait, it gets even better!

-Gabriel then he goes on to break those years down, starting with 7 weeks. This gets us back to Lev. 25 on the sabbatical year and Jubilee (7 7s). Israel was supposed to practice the year of Jubilee every 50 years. Those who had sold property would have it reverted back to the original family, anyone that had sold themselves into slavery would be freed, it was a reset so that no one would be getting rich off the rest of the people and helped them place their ultimate trust and allegiance in God. It was a celebratory year! What’s fascinating is we have no account of Israel ever actually practicing a year of Jubilee. They became complacent and were too enticed by the world and riches instead of continually trusting in God’s provision for them. 

-The 7 7s would have started with a decree from Cyrus in 538 BC, meaning the completion should have been 489, but nothing happened then! So Gabriel begins by what would have been seen as a cycle to get to Jubilee, or a great reset. Therefore, this most likely refers to the time period between the edict and either the rebuilding of the temple or the wall (515 or 444, 23 or 94 years).

-Then Gabriel goes another 62 weeks, which would be referring the time period between the rebuilding of the temple/Jerusalem to the arrival of the Anointed One (Jesus) Math isn’t my strong suit, but my calculator said 434 years after this is getting close to Jesus’ arrival, but not exactly. There is 1 person who has added all these together (490 years) to argue that it gets to 33/34 AD, the exact day when Jesus died, but I would argue that for some imprecision in their dating because there’s MAJOR debate about which decree is referred to, and Gabriel intentionally breaks up these 70 weeks. 

-Plaza and moat: completely rebuilt, and difficult times facing various atrocities and even more persecution from the Romans.

-Finally, we get to the end. These are 2 verses referring to the same thing, first half about the sacrificial work of the Anointed One, the second half referring to the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple. A better translation of “have nothing” is “but not for himself,” meaning this “cut off” is for someone else.

-Then we see this strong covenant with many, but in the middle of this week (which would be how many days? 3.5) Jesus’ death means there’s no longer a need for sacrifices and offerings. So we’re still in the time period of these 70 weeks, because the second half of the week is the rest of the time before Jesus comes back a second time. 

-But what this refers to is the fact that we now look forward to living in the year of the ultimate Jubilee. If 7 7s (weeks) in Leviticus brought about Jubilee, then 70 7s would be the ultimate Jubilee! I read a quote that I thought summarized this well: 

-Jesus’ death on behalf of others provides the means for living in this new time of Jubilee. Sin is dealt with, Jesus has made a sacrifice once and for all, and now we get to live with the Holy Spirit in us, making us as new temple! Isn’t God’s story good? All that background to help us understand that when John talks about 42, he’s referring back to this promise from Daniel, reminding God’s people in the 1stcentury that God is still in control! 

-So to summarize: 42 = 3.5 years, or the time period in before we get to the ultimate Jubilee of God dwelling with His people forever. In between Christ’s first and second comings is an incomplete time because things aren’t as they will finally be forever. Half of perfection, meaning it’s not God’s final word on the subject. God will use however much time He needs to bring about His perfect plan.

-Another way of thinking about this connects to the exile idea I mentioned earlier. 7 would be the perfect and completed plan of God, but until that day we’ll be living in 3.5, not God’s final plan. God cares much more about our spiritual exile then our physical exile, so much so that he’s ok leaving us as exiles for thousands of years.

  • Measuring 2 Witnesses (3-4)

-This section will be a little easier, and take less time because I’ll pick it up again next week. The question is: who are these 2 witnesses? Why do they have authority, and what’s the significance of the days?

-I would argue this is referring to the church. Why? Look at the description of them in vs. 4. Olive trees and lampstands. What is that? Can anyone think of a passage in Revelation where we’ve seen lampstands before? First few chapters, ironically enough, does anyone remember how many churches had no critiques from the Lord? 2.

-This is picking up a prophesy from Zech. 4: Olive trees and lampstands. Later on, the olive trees are identified as 2 anointed ones, a king and a priest. By calling these 2 witnesses by this identification, John is saying the church will be a kingdom of priests – a theme throughout the Bible, but mentioned in reference to the church in Rev. 1:5-6 “To him who loves us and has set us free from our sins by his blood, and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father.”

-But why 2? Throughout the Bible, the minimum required number of witnesses for it be true was 2. It’s a way of validating the truth of their message.

-The final reason I think this refers to the church is the overall structure of the book. One of the predominant ways Jewish authors wrote was through chiasms. A chiasm is named after the Greek letter chi (looks like an X), a way of emphasizing the middle point, then the outer parts connect/mirror each other. Here’s the chiasm for the entire book of Revelation, emphasizing Jesus being Lord, and responding to that reality in worship.

-So just as the church will face opposition from Satan in the next couple chapters, the church will face opposition from Satan in this section, do you see how they pick up similar themes? But the middle remains the same: worshipping God because we’re now a part of HIS kingdom, instead of the kingdom of Satan.

-So what do we do with this? How should we respond to this reality?

-Worship. Do you worship and praise God because He is in control and has a perfect plan for all human history? This is why, even when life is really hard, Paul can say “Rejoice always.” This is why Christians can be faithful to love and serve God when it looks foolish, when worldly rulers and powers are bearing down because this passage reminds us we live in the 3.5, not the 7. 

-And because we live in the 3.5, we are supposed to be prophesying, declaring God’s Word to believers and unbelievers. It’s God’s Word that saves people, and it’s God Word that sanctifies people (makes holy). 

-I’m currently taking a class on pastoral ministry during the Reformation “The Christian life is a pilgrimage with a banquet spread in the wilderness for weary travelers.” Friends, if you are a part of God’s family, we have all the riches we need to grow more into what God has created us to be, and that allows us to prophesy faithfully to each other and the world.

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by mikethestrand on May 19, 2024  •  Permalink
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Posted by mikethestrand on May 19, 2024

https://pastormikesmusings.com/2024/05/19/revelation-111-4-sermon-manuscript/

Revelation 10 – Sermon Manuscript

-Have you ever eaten the wrong thing, and then you end up with a stomachache?

-Growing up one of my favorite candies was Starbursts (still is, just can’t do this anymore). A friend and I would go buy a bag of them and eat the whole thing that night. And when I say a bag, I’m not talking about one of those cute little ones you buy at a gas station, I’m talking about a BAG. Quick gourmet tip for those of you that like to spice your culinary delights up a bit – mix and match the different colors to create some new flavor profiles, really takes the Starburst experience to a whole new level! The only bad thing about this culinary delight is when you eat in large quantities there are consequences. And they’re not very fun. Usually starts with aches and pains in the belly, and just progresses from there.

-But the crazy thing is, when I was 17 that didn’t bother me! I’d weigh the consequences of eating the whole bag and still thought it was worth it for my starburst sandwiches.

-Today’s text has a similar story and experience that I had with Starbursts. But instead of eating candy, John is commanded to eat a scroll, but the consequences are the same. 

READ/PRAY

  1. A Hidden Word (1-4)

-Another mighty angel, with some interesting descriptions about him, leading some to argue that it’s Jesus. But Jesus is never called an angel in this book, and there’s many other places where servants of God are described with similar characteristics to God. Right out of the gate, one of the things for us to take away is: do, or can, people use the descriptions of God to describe you? The name Christian means “little Christ,” part of the reason Jesus left the earth is so that He could be multiplied in His church.

-Wrapped in a cloud: Ex. 13:21 – signifying God’s protection and provision

-Rainbow over his head: Rev. 4:3, Gen. 9 – connected to God’s judgment, and that He always keeps His commitments

-Face like the sun: Rev. 1:16; Matt. 17:2 – the transfiguration was a glimpse of Jesus’ true nature that was concealed in His humanity. Also points back to Moses whose face would glow after spending time with God so he had to put a veil over his face so people wouldn’t be scared of him.

-Legs like pillars of fire: Rev. 1:15; Ex. 13:21 – again, back to the Exodus, which serves as a theme for God’s people throughout history.

-You can tell this person is sent from God because he looks similar to God. That should be true of us! Just like Moses’ face would glow because of his time with God, our faces should glow because of our time with Him. Does yours?

-This angel who has been spending time with God has something in his hand: a little scroll: different than the large scroll Jesus holds. Remember back in 5 where John saw the one on the throne holding a scroll with 7 seals, and then the Lamb opened those seals 1 by 1. This time, it’s a different scroll serving a different purpose, as we’ll see when we continue through this text.

-This angel is HUGE! Notice where he stands: feet on the sea and land. Historically, would have brought to mind the Colossus of Rhodes: one of the 7 wonders of the ancient world, a 100’ statue straddling the harbor. About the same size as the Statue of Liberty. Ships had to sail under his legs to get the Rhodes. What is the significance of the angel in these places? 2 things:

-God’s sovereignty over everything. What’s left out? He came from heaven, he stands on the sea, and on the land. Nothing! God’s rule extends to every sphere of existence.

-But the second is needing to know the context of the rest of this book. Coming up in Rev. 13, 2 unholy beasts will come to work with the dragon out of 2 places: the land and the sea. This is setting the stage for that vision and demonstrating God’s complete rule, even over these beasts that will be coming.

-He calls out, yet another loud voice like we’ve seen a couple times before! But this time he gets a response from 7 thunders. What are these?

-Most scholars believe this is referring to Psalm 29 (which I preached on last Aug, so if you have questions go listen to that) but what’s fascinating about that Psalm is it describes “the voice of the Lord” 7 times. Anyone remember the significance of 7 times? And anyone want to question whether or not God was inspiring the writing of this book? It’s incredibly how He oversaw the writing and preserving of His Word! Psalm 29 begins by saying “The voice of the Lord is above the waters, the God of glory thunders.”

-Something very interesting about these thunders, we don’t know what they said! Throughout this book John recounts what he hears and sees until he gets to these thunders, and this time he’s told NOT to write it down! 

-I hope as we’ve been walking through this book week by week it’s giving you a better way to understand, interpret, and apply this book. I think the way people tend to approach the whole book is like a divine conspiracy theory, and there are things that are confusing (this is one of them!) but most of it makes sense if you dig in a little bit, and it’s for our encouragement and blessing. Even when something like this isn’t revealed, it’s meant to teach us something:

-Osborne quote. 

  • A Present Word (5-7)

-This angel had been signified as God’s emissary, then promises by raising his hand. This is a common way of swearing to heaven, and he’s swearing that there won’t be any more delays.

-This is picking up a theme from Dan. 12:6-7. See here the angels are promising that there will be a delay. Even though God’s people are scattered from their homeland, even though their oppressed and insignificant, they still need to wait.

-Which is where we are today! God’s final judgment hasn’t come, but it’s close:

-“In the days when the last trumpet.” God’s plans are coming to completion. Everything that God wanted to happen in the past would happen exactly as He planned. We get this interesting phrase here “the mystery of God.” What does that mean?

-Remember we just saw an aspect of this with the thunder: we don’t know what the 7 thunders said, John heard it but didn’t share. As Osborne said there “God is in control, and the saints (that’s us) do not need to know all the details.” But I think there’s a couple passages that help us understand what’s meant here by mystery. When we hear that word I minds go to something no one can possibly know. When the Bible talks about God’s mystery, that’s not what it’s talking about, it’s saying something hidden by God in the past, but now revealed today. And in some cases, the mystery is prophesied in the past and then fulfilled today. So how can it be hidden AND prophesied? Have you ever considered that?

–Rom. 16:25-27 – Notice Paul says that the mystery is centered on Jesus, who has now been revealed through the Scriptures. This is saying that all those prophecies in the past were about Jesus, and anything else people say they’re focusing on misses the point. But it’s also very easy to miss that point! We get another glimpse of this shortly after the resurrection

-Jesus appears to 2 disciples on the road who can’t tell it’s Jesus, so they essentially call him a dumb dumb (are you the only one who hasn’t heard???) Then Jesus replies: Luke 24:25-27. This is the spot I most wish I could have been a witness to in all of stories of the Bible! He literally gives these 2 disciples the proper interpretive key to understand the Bible! And notice what it centers on: “concerning himself.” If you miss that focus, you risk misinterpreting the whole Bible, including Revelation! 

-Have you ever asked why God wasn’t more explicit in His prophecies? Why do you think He operated with themes and ideas instead of coming out and sharing exactly what was going to happen. 

-Let’s take Isa. 11. First you need to know who Jesse was (father of King David) so this Messiah will come who will be from the genealogical line of Jesse/David (we saw that at least alluded to back in Rev. 7), then you need to see wisdom manifested in Him, similar to King Solomon who was called the wisest man who ever lived (continuing in the line of David). There’s also a reference to a stump, why a stump? Because David’s line wasn’t on the throne at this time. It only lasted 2 generations after David, and David was promised to have a descendent on the throne forever. Why didn’t God just tell Isaiah to write “during the time when Quirinius is governor of Syria, Mary is going to give birth to a child named Jesus who is the Savior of the world.” He could have! Why didn’t he? And I think part of the reason is because humans have the responsibility to be obedient to pursue that which is good, right, and true, or not. If Pilate had read the Scriptures and seen that prophecy how do you think he would have responded? Would he have gone along just because it was prophesied? Or would he have refused to go along in order to break the prophesy? Friends, this is where we get to mystery. God is in complete control in ways we’ll never fully understand, and at the same time we are responsible for our choices and actions, and each choice and action we take moves us either closer to God or further away from God. He’s given us everything we need to know how to move closer to Him, do we take advantage of them or not?

-But it wasn’t just in prophecies that I think we see this mystery, I think it continued in Jesus’ ministry. In Mark 4, Jesus tells a parable of some seeds (seeds sown indiscriminately, God’s Word should be sown indiscriminately regardless of the outcome) but then look at the reason He says He does this. Because those outside won’t understand. The mystery that God is doing won’t be in wisdom or strength (like the world wants it to be), it will come through the message of a crucified Savior, who died in our place, and rose again to offer us the freedom to be truly human: united to Him through the gospel message.

-Paul summarizes this well in Rom. 10– the way to not be left on the outside is through faith in Jesus Christ. This is why it’s a mystery that is both prophesied and hidden. It’s fulfilled in Jesus and revealed to His followers.

-With all that, what we see in this section is that when the dawning of the new age, where God’s kingdom is made visible (Rev. 11), the mystery is fully seen. The prophesies are done because they’re being completed, God’s full revelation is finished, now there is new life, just like He has been promising this whole time.

-If this helps you think about it, think back to the way a mystery story works. All these hints and clues throughout the book lead to the final resolution at the end where you go “Now I get it!” When Jesus returns, we’ll be able to look back at His Word and His plan in history and say “Now I get it!” But until that day, we see a job for God’s people in this last section.

  • A Bitter Word (8-11)

-Prophets had an interesting job in the OT – speaking on behalf of God, which at times including some not fun things. These not fun things were acts God commanded them to pursue that carried a deeper meaning.

-Jeremiah was commanded to bury his undies then dig them back up in Jer. 13, Hosea was commanded to marry a prostitute which included buying her back out of prostitution on multiple occasions. Carrying in that prophetic line, John here is commanded to eat a scroll. But he’s not the only prophet to do that:

–Ezek. 2:8-3:3

-Since God is in control even of history, He can repeat Himself to make a point. And the original audience who read Revelation would have had their minds immediately go to this passage in the OT. 

-He’s supposed to eat the scroll (God’s words) and then spit them out to God’s people. And notice the description of the scroll: As sweet as honey. This picks up another theme from the OT in the Psalms (Psalm 119:103, Psalm 19) With those ideas in mind, go back to Rev.

-Do you see any differences between John’s experience and Ezekiel’s experience? It’s going to taste sweet, but the sweetness stops in his mouth and will be bitter in his stomach. 

-John’s given a warning, this isn’t going to be a pleasurable experience for him. Just as many of the other prophets were warned. Sometimes speaking on behalf of God isn’t the most enjoyable thing to do, at least on this side of heaven. But sometimes it’s what God commands, as we’ll see.

-This also connects John to Isaiah 6. Isaiah sees a vision of God (similar to John in Rev.), and Isaiah comes undone. WOE is me! Not woes for other people (like we saw last week) woe for HIM! He’s a sinner coming into God’s presence, it’s unbearable! But an angel is sent to purify him, and as soon as his sin is dealt with God asks a question. Look at Isaiah’s response. We tend to read this with some unction behind it, but Isaiah is meekly saying “only if there’s no one else, send me. If you’ll allow me I’ll do it, but only for a bit.” Because as soon as he’s given the message, he asks how long. God answers. 

-Do you think Isaiah will have a popular ministry? Do you think he’ll attract great crowds and be sought out by those in authority? Nope. But he’s still commissioned by God to carry this out. And a few chapters later, God tells him how long this destruction will be. We looked at this earlier in Isa. 11 – it’s until Jesus comes. When Jesus comes everything changes! We now have hope, we have a future, we have a life with a job to do, which is what the last verses show us.

-Despite the warning, John’s obedient, and just as he was promised he gets an upset stomach.

-Just like me with the Starbursts, John figures obedience to God is worth it. And the picture this is painting is the need to ingest and digest God’s Word. All of it. We don’t get to pick and choose the passages we like and leave out the rest, we MUST ingest it, even when it’s bitter and feels harmful to us.

-Which gets to the content of the scroll. The outcome of the scroll is “prophesy AGAIN” that second word is important. I think the best way to interpret that is that this prophesy is setting the stage for the next 2 chapters. He prophesies to the church in 11 and then to the kings in 12 (which we’ll see over the next 2 weeks, so don’t miss that!)

-The question ahead of us today though us: are you willing to trust God’s Word even if/when it’s bitter? And further than that, are you willing to speak God’s Word even if it’s bitter?

-What John would experience because of speaking God’s word was persecution (he was on Patmos because he had been exiled, kicked out of his home) Are you willing to be like John and trust and obey God’s Word regardless of the outcome?

-There are things that God commands in His Word that I don’t like, that don’t come naturally to me, and sometimes run contrary to the way our culture trains us to think. Think of something like “turn the other cheek.” I don’t like doing that! When someone badmouths me I REALLY want to get them back! But that’s not the way God has commanded me to live. So I die to my preferences, I die to my desires, and I obey, even though it’s bitter in my stomach.

-Or think of what the Bible says about gender and sexuality! It lays out the parameters that sex is for 1 biological man and 1 biological woman in the monogamous covenant of marriage. Do you think people today view that as bitter?

-Or take politics! Jesus isn’t afraid to talk about politics, but when He does, He doesn’t pick sides! He says both of you are right in some areas and wrong in others. That’s a stomachache just waiting to happen when you enter into that conversation!

-I’m not going to pretend this is easy, not going to pretend it’s always fun. But I can promise you that it’s good and will lead to a much better outcome than if you aren’t obedient to God’s Word. This is part of the blessing John talks about in the Rev. 1. If you are obedient to God’s Word, then we don’t have to be afraid of anything, we proclaim God’s Word regardless of whether it’s bitter or sweet, regardless of how much of a stomachache it brings, and we trust that God is working in the midst of all these things.

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by mikethestrand on May 12, 2024  •  Permalink
Posted in Bible, Church, Life, Sermon
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Posted by mikethestrand on May 12, 2024

https://pastormikesmusings.com/2024/05/12/revelation-10-sermon-manuscript/

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