All posts tagged Jesus

Father Abraham – Sermon Manuscript

-One of my favorite things about the Christmas season is getting all the Christmas cards.

-We don’t do it because my wife doesn’t believe in them, she just likes looking at them and seeing all the people we know (is it a Midwest thing?)

-We got what I’m guessing will be our last one this past week from a family friend of my parents, with kids my age (best friend from when we lived in ND), and it was amazing looking at all the grandkids and easily being able to tell which of the kids they belonged to! Many of you have commented to me that you can very easily tell who my kids are and that they’re siblings!

-But the reality is the similarities don’t just stop at the physical because the habits and patterns of my kids are also a reflection of me and Cara, and my kids regularly do things that I hear and think “I remember this one!”

-And as you get older, you start to realize just how many of your reactions are the exact same as your parents! And if you were to talk to your parents you’d hear similar stories! One of the most helpful things you can do is sit down and trace out your family lineage to start to see some patterns develop (just like every time you go to the Dr and they ask your entire family medical history)

-For those of us who are in Christ, we have our biological family, but we also have a spiritual family that we’re a part of, and just as it is helpful to trace your biological family history to learn more about yourself, it’s vital to trace your spiritual family history to learn more about yourself (and God)! One author I’ve read has said “Jesus may be in your heart, but grandpa’s still in your bones!” So let’s read about our spiritual family:

-READ/PRAY

-Why study Abraham right now? (because it’s in the Bible!) Because Abraham is the origination of the story of God’s people. 

-One of the keys I hope you take away from this sermon series is that God is always at work, even while we wait. Nothing is wasted, nothing is careless or pointless in God’s plans. As we read the biblical stories (like Abraham), we learn that God uses incredibly broken people to accomplish His purposes. We see things we should copy and things we should never do!

-Each year I pick a new word that I focus on for ministry that year, and my word for this year is “slowness” which I think is modeled in Abraham’s life. He was 100 before he had his child that was promised to him. Imagine waiting all those years! And a podcast I listened to this week was saying that the promise came when he was 75, meaning he waited 25 years! Our world today pushes and trains us to expect everything IMMEDIATELY! In the technology class, we heard an author say that technology has trained us to want things easier and everywhere-er, but God’s plans don’t always go along with easier and everywhere-er, do they? How often do you find yourself getting frustrated that your growth is taken longer than you wanted? Or that your prayers aren’t being answered as quickly as you expected? Abraham will teach us the way God works in people’s lives isn’t according to our timeline.

-This will be a bit of a different series, compared to what we’ve done over the past year! How should we read and interpret a story about someone (narrative), and how do move from faithful interpretation to faithful application in our lives?

-First, we should read this as history. I believe what the Bible records is true: real events that took place in time and space. We can become so accustomed to these stories that they lose their humanity and become almost like fairy tales for us. Abraham lived and walked on earth! He had hopes, dreams, desires and he was called out by God to start a new line to bring about redemption.

-Second, we should be reading this story as Christians, which means looking for hints of Jesus in them. Walking on the road to Emmaus. All Scripture points us to Jesus: either in preparation of or looking back to. Paul tells us all the promises of God are yes (fulfilled) in Jesus, so we respond “amen.” The other piece of reading it as Christians is what Paul writes in:

–Gal. 3:7-9: what we see here is anyone who puts their faith in Jesus is now a part of Abraham’s family, so when we read the story of Abraham, we’re getting a picture of our spiritual family history, and one of the realities I want you to walk away with is no matter how broken your biological family history is, God’s family history has the potential to redeem and restore whatever has been broken.

-I preached through Genesis 1-11 in the Fall of 2021, so if you want to go back and listen to those you can for more detail, but we’re going to take today to situate ourselves in this book with an overview of the first 11 chapters. 

  1. In The Beginning…

-Many of you may have this memorized: in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Another way of translating the Hebrew here is: WHEN God began to create, which changes the focus of this a little bit. The focus of Genesis 1 isn’t how, it’s a who and a why. 

-Who creates? God does, He speaks and it appears, creation bends to His will. This is contrary to all the other religions of the day when Moses was writing this. The fact that the stars are a throwaway line in the midst of everything else is significant, because in the other religions the stars are gods! But this God is unique because He creates the stars with a passing word. Don’t miss that the focus is God.

-The second piece is why? For things to be very good, for creation to be in relationship with God, out of His love and plan comes this creation to acts as God’s ambassadors on earth, and there’s order to the creation where 3 days build out the areas, and the corresponding 3 days fill those areas. What we get at the end of Genesis 1 is this beautiful declaration from God:

-Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, subdue it. Adam and Eve are given a job: to work to extend the borders of the orchard of Eden until it eventually fills the entire earth! In order to do that, they’re going to need more people (multiply). God has given them everything they need! Think of this in terms of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs: God has given them air, food, water, shelter, there’s nothing to harm them so they have safety, He is in relationship with them (Gen. 3 talks about God walking in the garden at night), self-esteem because they are naked and unashamed, where Maslow gets it wrong is that the top is worship, it doesn’t come from within us, it comes from outside us, from God. God provides all these things for Adam and Eve, and where God intends it for good, humans use it for evil.

-God’s intent: People, place, possession (land, seed, blessing)

-What we’re going to see is the initial shrinking of this blessing, to the eventual fulfilling of this blessing in the new heavens and earth (Revelation). Humans are created to be like God, spreading His rule across the world.

-But God’s intent goes askew in Gen. 3. The 1 rule God gave was to not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which they do when tempted by Satan. But the fallout from it isn’t what you would expect, instead of being cursed, the serpent is cursed, and the ground is cursed, and God continues caring for His creation. A key to understanding the rest of the OT story is the enmity between the seed of the serpent and the seed of the women (children of God vs. the children of man) Remember we’re looking for glimpses of the gospel message being preached here: think of these wounds – how bad is a heel wound? What about a head wound? But think about what we saw in Revelation last year – how is Satan described there? A dragon, a huge serpent, and can trace that theme throughout the rest of the Bible: are you a descendent of the serpent or a descendent of Adam, the son of God?

-This section ends with banishment from the garden, which is a gift, because if they had remained in there and eaten the tree of life they would have stayed in their state of rebellion, but God cared about them enough to send them away “east of Eden” to provide an ultimate way for them to approach Him. 

-And the story just keeps getting worse. After sin breaks their relationship with God, then we see the way sin breaks the relationship between humans, and Cain kills his brother Abel. And it continues spiraling out of control until Gen. 6:5 says “every inclination of the human mind was nothing but evil all the time.” Wow! What a fall from the state of perfection that it was before! 

-Then we get the account of Noah, where God determines He needs to wipe out every creature because of their wickedness. Noah and his family are the only ones who survive, on a floating zoo, as the world breaks down around them, and the description God gives to the flood through Moses is as if the world is being de-created. The waters that were separated come together, the lands that were parceled out are covered, and the creatures are destroyed, except for the ones called out and protected by God. And Gen. 8 begins saying “God caused a wind to pass over the earth, and the water began to subside.” Which should make us think of the very beginning where the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. Moses is telling us this flood is a major reset, where God is starting fresh with a new people in a new place to have possessions and blessings from God.

-And once again, we have an epic fail. Noah plants a vineyard and gets drunk. Once again, the fruit of the vine leads God’s chosen one into sin, just like Noah’s first father had done.

-God’s good plan each time seems to be spoiled! And then Noah’s descendants decide that they want to try to become like God, just like Adam and Eve did, so they build a tower that you’ve often heard referred to as Babel, but it’s the same word for Babylon later in the Bible, and if you were here last year for our Revelation series, that word should also have special meaning for you! Think back to what we saw of God’s commission to Adam and Eve: fill the earth and subdue it, spread out so God’s kingdom covers the world like the water covers the sea, and what do the people want to do? NOT scatter. Throughout the Bible, Babylon (the city of man) stands in for all those who are opposed to God’s ways and instead pursue idolatry. So right at the beginning we see the ways humans continue running further and further away from God, and in the Babel story there’s no one who’s righteous, up until this point the story had been tracing 2 lines, this is almost as if everyone forgets about God. And in His mercy, He confuses their language so they can’t continue building against Him.

-There’s another theme that emerges in throughout these opening chapters of Genesis:

  • The Family Records of

-While God’s plan is the entire world being blessed by serving and ruling with Him, that plan needs willing and obedient partners, so some of what we see taking plan in Genesis is tracing the seed of the woman down through generations, and each time the reader should be thinking “Is this the one?” 

-Each primary section of Genesis has this phrase “the records of,” translation of the same Hebrew word, signifies the way the storyline is being traced forward, almost like a fast forward button, then it pauses on one person in the story to focus on them.

-But what’s important to note is the way God continues propagating the human race: through children. So the seed of the woman is continuing to spread down through the centuries, you can trace the way the family line goes. One thing to note is these kinds of lists aren’t the same way we do genealogies today, so some generations can be skipped to make a point (Adam to Noah is 10 generations, Noah to Abram is 10 generations, intentionally connecting the 2 lists) I say that because throughout the Bible the generation lists aren’t exactly the same, and there’s a reason for that! Doesn’t mean the Bible is wrong, but it isn’t trying to answer the same questions we’re asking in the 21st century!

  • Abram

-Now we can finally get to today’s text about Abram! But I wanted you to have all that history, because we’ll see some of the same patterns emerge in Abram/Abraham’s life (spoiler alert, there’s a name change coming!)

-What’s unique here is this seed of the woman is specifically called out from all the families of the earth. Even as sin continued corrupting, God was preserving a remnant for Himself, even people who weren’t faithfully following after Him, which is a reminder for us that grace, God’s gift, isn’t something any of us can earn. Look at what we read in Joshua 24

-So God takes an idol worshipper, and begins stirring in his heart to move, there’s some debate about where Ur was, but here’s the general trajectory of their journey.

-One thing to note is that the ANE was a BRUTAL place! Violent, depraved, dangerous, everything including your survival depended on the tribe you were in. Didn’t have police, national guard, laws to follow, it was survival of the fittest (or most connected). To leave your clan meant almost certain death. So Tarah setting out from his family connections meant something significant was going on. That’s the first piece to note – God works even in people that aren’t following after Him!

-The second piece to note is what does the text say about Abram’s wife? Unable to conceive. What had we just read about the seed of the woman? It means that you need kids to continue the line! So what is God doing here focusing on a barren woman? Much less a barren woman, living in an idolatrous place, worshipping idols instead of the one true God?

-Friends: the primary point from today’s passage is nothing and no one is outside the reach of God. God picks a seemingly insignificant man in a seemingly insignificant place and accomplishes His perfect plans with this guy and his barren wife. 

-This is a small picture of someone else who is born to a barren woman (a virgin) who also accomplished God’s plan. The mother is an insignificant woman in an incredibly insignificant place who God uses to accomplish His perfect plans. This also tells us that if you’re still breathing, God’s still not done with you or anyone you know! Continue trusting God, continue walking with Him, and trust that His plan is better than anything you could come up with anyway (which we’ll see throughout Abraham’s life!) This is going to be a wonderful series learning about and from one of the great patriarchs of our spiritual family, with gospel glimpses of a perfect patriarch to come and set the brokenness right.

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by mikethestrand on February 2, 2025  •  Permalink
Posted in Bible, Blog, Church, History, Life, Sermon
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Posted by mikethestrand on February 2, 2025

https://pastormikesmusings.com/2025/02/02/father-abraham-sermon-manuscript/

The Practices of the Church – Sermon Manuscrip

-Family habits/practices

-Christmas was a BIG deal in my family growing up! We’d have a whole services before we were allowed to open presents. This was in addition to whatever church services we were also a part of. In my younger years, I latched on to this and planned out the whole thing (mostly so I’d know exactly how much time was left before I could open presents). 

-Got together with my cousins this year, we pulled out the same lyric sheet we’ve used since before I was born.

-Summer time at the cabin, 4th of July, Thanksgiving, every family has celebrations that mark the changing of seasons, but in the family of God, what are those things? How do we mark time according to God’s plan?

READ/PRAY

-Last week we looked at the reality that God has always had a people he’s called out from the world to be His representatives to the rest of the world (Jesus says we’re supposed to be salt and light: preserving and shining into the darkness)

-3 markers that must be in place to be considered a church: preaching the gospel, regular celebration of the sacraments (or ordinances, we’ll get to that), and church discipline. 

-Preaching of the gospel is commitment to the Word of God, church discipline is something I’ve talked about before (Matt. 18 gives clear instructions), but what are the sacraments of the church? And how many are there? Because if any of you have any Roman Catholic friends, they would tell you there are 7 sacraments (the word matters greatly, but hold on to it): 

-When Protestants came along, and with it a renewed focus on God’s Word alone, the question became how many did Jesus give us? 2 (very small minority say 3, based on John 13:14 “So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet.” Most Protestants have argued that’s a call to service, not an ordinance)

  1. What is an ordinance? 

-What term should we use? Historically, it’s been either a sacrament or an ordinance, and I use them interchangeable, although generally Protestants have preferred ordinance to sacrament to distinguish our beliefs from RCC.

-Sacrament refers to a mystery, the mysterious way grace is given from God to his people. Ordinance refers to “ordained” and attempts to bring the focus on the things Jesus ordained for His followers to do. 

-The other piece to note is what makes these sacraments effective? Is it merely taking a shot of grape juice and tiny cracker getting grace? RCC would say yes, we would say no: it’s connected to the Word & faith

-What does the EFCA say? Here’s statement 7 of our SOF, notice the later half of this statement: 2 ordinances, express the gospel (connection to God’s Word), requirement of faith, and they both “confirm and nourish” that is they do something. 

-There are spiritual realities/implications to literally everything we do, that was one of my biggest takeaways from the series in Revelation last year, we’re either actively living out the realities of heaven, or we’re actively living out the realities of hell.

-And we see this playing out in real time around us right now! Rise in people who say they’re “spiritual but not religious” or I was just reading this past week about people who believe in miracles has gone up for the first time in America in years! That’s where Paul will say “whether you eat or drink, do all to the glory of God,” we’re supposed to do everything as a way of living as citizens of heaven, not citizens of earth. 

-This should excite you! It excites me! Because it means everything we do has a deeper meaning and significance than any of us realize. We have the opportunity to live holy, set apart lives which has bearing on our eternal existence. That’s why what we do on earth matters! Friends, the way you spend your time, the way you spend your money, the way you spend your words all are loaded with eternal significance. 

-Which is also true of the sacraments or ordinances. Seemingly normal, insignificant things that are loaded with massive spiritual implications and meaning. Things that God has chosen to bind His people to each other and to Himself! Practices that Jesus began and connect us all the way back to Him, practices that tie us to all of the church throughout all of history.

  • Baptism 

-First is baptism, because it’s meant to be one of the first steps of obedience for a Christian. If you read through the NT you see faith connected to baptism repeatedly, and it all starts with Jesus in the great commission at the end of Matthew.

-What’s the sign that someone is a disciple? Baptism! Notice that it gives us 1 instruction too: in the name of the Trinity (Father, Son, Holy Spirit)

-Initially, baptism was immediate. As soon as someone was saved, they looked for water to dunk them in. As time went on, they started realizing that some people were claiming conversion for cultural influence, so they added a season of catechesis, education and training in Christianity to ensure that those who wanted to be baptized were truly saved and walking with the Lord.

-However, because of this intimate link between salvation and baptism, one of the debates was whether or not someone who wasn’t baptized was actually saved! One debate was imagine that someone confesses that Jesus is Lord, and on the way to the waters of baptism, they fall and break their neck and die, will they be with Jesus? Yes – salvation comes by faith alone in Christ alone apart from anything else, BUT that doesn’t mean that baptism is an optional tag on for a Christian. 

-Gregg Allison quote. To be a Christian means working to obey and follow all of Jesus’ commands, one of which is baptism, and just to be frank, it’s probably the easiest of all of Jesus’ commands! How many of you have perfected “turning the other cheek.” Or perfectly “love your neighbor just as you love yourself”? 

-Just as I shared last week that church membership isn’t essential to be saved, I’ll say the same thing about baptism, it’s not essential to be saved, but it is essential to be obedient to all of Jesus’s commands (which Jesus also says in the great commission)

-What should baptism look like, and who should be baptized? EFCA is an anomaly here, because historically this has been a divisive issue in the church, and it breaks down between credobaptism or pedobaptism (creedal vs. infant), should we baptize babies or is it for believer’s only?

-EFCA statement

-That being said, I am convictionally a credobaptist and wouldn’t be comfortable baptizing an infant for a few reasons. First is the word “baptize” means “to immerse,” which is also what we see with Jesus. He was laid all the way under the water, then brought back up to a heavenly affirmation of His calling.

-Second is because of what we see throughout the rest of the NT in the connection between salvation and baptism. If it’s a picture of salvation, then it should take place after salvation. Think of what Peter says in Acts 2 after his incredible sermon where 3,000 people are saved, “Repent and be baptized.” That connection must remain together.

-The third reason is the picture baptism serves, which we see in Romans 6. Here Paul tells us that as we go down into the water, it’s like we were buried with Him, signifying that we have died to our old ways of living. The early church even went so far as to have the person being baptized take off their clothes in the baptistry, and then put on new clothes after their baptism to signify that they have crucified their old selves and put on a new person following after Jesus. And that’s the significant part, is that you don’t stay under the water (even though my son told me the last time we had a baptism that he didn’t want to be baptized yet because he was scared I’d leave him under the water), we are raised with Jesus, which gets us to a final picture of being washed clean.

-So why does the EFCA allow infant baptism? Because VERY quickly the early church moved to adopt infant baptism as a sign of the children being a part of the household of God. And since true, orthodox Christians have differed on this issue, the EFCA allows both. I have dear friends that are pastors who were baptized as infants and I could allow them to be full members of South Suburban without changing their baptism position, which I think is a gift!

-The last reason I still hold to believer’s baptism is because of the baptism instructions we read in one of the oldest writings on church order called “The Didache” (Greek for “teaching”)

-We see the Trinity command, notice “living water” which means moving, natural water. So important that in excavations under St. Pierre Cathedral in Geneva (4th cent), they’ve found this baptistry: notice the water coming in, and a pipe to let it out

-Then cold water, but warm is acceptable. If none of that is good, get a water bottle on the head! AND fasting leading up to it! Not something to take lightly!

-So who should be baptized? Any and everyone who has put their faith in Jesus!

-Summary: baptism is the first marker, signifying that you have been buried with Christ, had your sins washed away, and raised up to the newness of life. But there’s 1 additional piece to it, that we get as we trace the continual development of Christianity. Nicene Creed (happy 1700th birthday!) says: one baptism. 

-Meant to signify the entry into faith, thus it’s only supposed to happen once. How many times is a baby born? Once! Supposed to be the same thing with baptism. Unlike the next one, which is a regular and ongoing act meant to look back to our baptism.

  • The Lord’s Supper 

-The first thing I want you to note is the connection between baptism and the Lord’s Supper (we’ll get to the names). The earliest instruction to the church says that only those who have been baptized are to participate in the Lord’s Supper. Why is that? 

-Because the Lord’s Supper is meant to be done carefully and sequentially. Remember, as Protestants we believe that there are 2 ordinances, and they are meant to be done in order: baptism as the entry, the Lord’s Supper as the ongoing reminder of the baptism we have celebrated, but it doesn’t make sense to celebrate one if you’re unwilling to celebrate the other, so baptism should happen before you take the Lord’s Supper, as far as the passage quoted, I’m not sure that’s the best verse, but the ordering does make sense!

-So let’s think about this further. First, the name. What should we call it? Communion, the Lord’s Supper, the eucharist, the breaking of bread? Our SOF calls it “Lord’s Supper”, but the what does that mean, and what do all the other names mean?

-Communion refers to “sharing” or “participation,” we are sharing together a cup and bread, we are participating in what Jesus told His followers to celebrate

-Lord’s Supper refers to the language in the Gospels that say after supper Jesus instituted this new rite that His disciples continued practicing together

-Eucharist refers to thanksgiving, which is what we’re supposed to do as part of this celebration together

-Breaking of bread is picked up from Acts 2 where it describes the practices of the early church

-All of these refer to the same event: where Jesus on the night before he was betrayed took bread and wine, elements of the Passover celebration that he shifted in focus from the Exodus to Himself. 

-3 components: past, present, future. Past: tied to the Passover, the most significant even in Israel’s history. Celebrated annually to remember how God provided for His people in the midst of their slavery to Egypt. Each year, Israel was commanded to celebrate the night that God passed over their sins and brought death every firstborn son of Egypt. This was to point forward to the day when God would bring death on His own firstborn at the cross.

-Present: it’s a way of reminding of what God has done in our lives to save us and redeem us, and bring us together as 1 body and people.

-Future: Jesus also told us that He wouldn’t celebrate this again until He returns

-But what does it take for us to actually celebrate the Lord’s Supper? Can we use Oreos and Mountain Dew or do we need bread and wine? Let’s see what Paul says:

-The issue is divisions, which he says means what they’re celebrating “is not the Lord’s Supper.” (20) Which means one of the purpose of this celebration is unity.

-One of the purposes of communion is to demonstrate that we are united together in 1 body, even though all of us come from completely different backgrounds. Just think of what the church is supposed to signify: people from different background, countries, cultures, demographics, sexes, vocations all gathered around 1 thing: the gospel of Jesus Christ. Yet how often are we divided over things that don’t matter in eternity? Money, politics, house, cars. Friends, none of that matter when we approach the cross. 

-But what’s the main thing about this celebration? Jesus “in remembrance of me” Do you remember Jesus as we partake of these otherwise ordinary things together?

-Spiritual things are taking place around us regularly, but we don’t have the eyes to see them. And somethings (Lord’s Supper) are meant to be spiritual realities of the gospel and do we realize that? Even in partaking in this celebration or thanksgiving, we’re proclaiming the realities of the gospel!

-But Paul goes on to explain what else we need to consider when we celebrate this:

-Unworthy manner. Growing up I always thought this was general sin, but Paul gives more instructions:

-Examine, recognize the body. Yes, sin is a part of it, but particularly Paul is talking about sin that leads to division in our body. Each time we celebrate communion we’re supposed to think about how this unites us together as a body and continue working to preserve the unity among our body. This isn’t just a “me and God” thing, this is supposed to be a “we and God” thing. 

-This gets to something I said last week: that church discipline is a subset of the ordinances, because the practice of excommunication is meant to be disinviting someone from participating in the means of grace God has given, including the Lord’s Supper. Historically, some pastors would interview the entire membership of the church before the Lord’s Supper and give tokens to those who could come, more could be said but I need to keep moving: 

-Sick and ill: something more than just a spiritual thing, it has physical implications too. Yes, this nourishes us bodily, but in the same way it nourishes us spiritually, it gives grace to us.

-Real celebration: 

-Welcome one another

-Gather together

-I don’t know about you, but if there was something God had given to us that we would allow be to receive God’s grace on a regular basis, I’d want to celebrate that as much as I could, wouldn’t you?

-Been thinking the past year about “Holidays” (Holy-days) and the way we think of time because of my trip to Geneva this summer. In Geneva, the church bells told people what time it was. Who tells us what time it is today? Apple? Google? Target? Amazon?

-What habits or practices help to shape and form us into followers of Jesus? What clocks do we keep to help us in following after Him? What if we started to arrange our schedules and practices around God’s plans instead of our own? Think of the way the early church changed their worship practices: Saturday to Sunday. If you’ve ever been a part of a church that changed service times you know how big of a deal that is! (Cheyenne moving 30 min back) 

-If the Lord’s Supper is supposed to be a marker of God’s people, wouldn’t you want to celebrate that more than 1/month? Moving forward, we’re going to be celebrating 2/month, and we’re going to change some of the ways we practice it, because historically people would come forward and receive the elements (more in Sermon Scraps)

-One last piece to note about the sacraments is who recognizes and affirms baptism and the Lord’s Supper? It’s not meant to be an individual act that is meaningful to 1 person, it’s meant to be done by THE CHURCH. 

-You can’t baptize yourself, it’s done as a sacrament of the church. You can’t take the Lord’s Supper by yourself, it’s meant to be a practice (marker) of the church, which means it can’t be done by yourself

-COVID conversation about celebrating communion alone with your family

-2 sacraments: baptism and the Lord’s supper as markers of His people. Have you participated in them both, and if not what are you waiting for?

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by mikethestrand on January 12, 2025  •  Permalink
Posted in Bible, Church, Life, Sermon
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Posted by mikethestrand on January 12, 2025

https://pastormikesmusings.com/2025/01/12/the-practices-of-the-church-sermon-manuscrip/

The Called Out Ones – Sermon Manuscript

-Starting a new series for January that’s a continuation of what we’ve done the past couple years, “Theological Tune Up” but the tune up is only going to be connected to 1 thing: the church. 

-The 1 thing I’m most passionate about is the church. The church is what Jesus died for, the church is what Jesus promised that the gates of hell would not prevail against, and the church is what is going to last into eternity.

-The church isn’t viewed with a lot of trust today! Most people like to complain about the church, point out the problems in the church, run away from the church, but if God has promised that He will build His church, then if we claim to follow God that includes following Him in working to build His church.

-For today’s sermon, the most helpful book, and what I’m borrowing heavily from is The Local Churchby Edward Klink (EFCA Pastor in Roscoe, IL)

-We’re going to be looking at some important things about the church over the next few week: next week we’ll look at the practices of the church (baptism and communion), we’ll also look at how the church functions with men and women working together (complementarianism), and finally we’ll look at the implication of that in the offices God has called for the church to function (elders and deacons)

-It’s been interesting over my life seeing the engagement of people toward the church shift in some pretty dramatic ways.

-Growing up it was fairly trendy to engage in church. Even if you weren’t super involved, people still wanted some associating to the church (90s) but that’s looking back with slightly rose-colored glasses, because I was told that we were facing increasing hostility and persecution from the world (hence my parents homeschooling me to provide a safe environment for me). I even have a distinct memory of my mom telling me in early Middle School that it would break her heart, but even if someone were to take me away from her she wouldn’t be able to deny Jesus. You want trauma, let me tell you about it! 

-Starting in the late 90s into early 2000s came what became known as the “emergent church” movement. One of the leading churches was in Minneapolis called “Solomon’s Porch” (to the surprise of no one, it no longer exists). They started asking questions about the way church was run, so at Solomon’s Porch they sat on couches and had conversations, not sermons. I got to attend another emergent church called Mars Hill in Grand Rapids, where instead of having a platform on one side, they had a platform in the middle of the room. Asked TONS of questions of Christianity, but never seemed to resolve any of them, so pretty soon they tore down even the essentials of the faith (which is why many of them now are self-proclaimed speakers, writers, and activists)

-After that was what was called the “missional church” movement, where it was thought that the problem was the buildings and institutions, so we need to focus our energy outside the walls and become “missional” in everything we do. After all, God is a sending God (sent His Son, sends the Spirit, sends us as his missionaries). But if that’s true, then where and why do we ever meet? And why does Paul talk about the churches meeting in specific locations in His letters?

-And all this was before every church went livestream during COVID (remember those days??) and I think that even further revealed the ways we think about the church are so broken. I talked to some people who enjoyed being able to “attend” different churches each week because everyone was online!

-Also add in the rise of the EX-vangelical, the deconstructing of faith (including famous people like Joshua Harris who write I Kissed Dating Goodbye), the general distrust of institutions, and the church looks to be on either the losing side, or the wrong side of history. I even know of someone who used to be a pastor at an EFCA church nearby that is now working on trying to create “micro-churches” which are basically Life Groups that are all independent.

-So why on earth would someone devote their life to working in the church? What’s the point of fighting against these cultural tides and what should the church actually look like? Is the micro church more accurate than us gathering in a large room each week? 

-The reality is there are benefits to every component that I’ve mentioned, but they take either an implication or a periphery of what the church is called to be and make it the primary identity marker, which means everything is going to be off because of that.

-If you ever mow your lawn and pick the wrong spot in the distance to aim at, doesn’t your entire mowing line get thrown off? My back yard is a weird shape so I make it work, but it still bothers me! 

-We need to understand what God has called to the church to do and be PRIMARILY so that we can distinguish between the essential, the good or helpful, and the things that we really shouldn’t be spending our time on. 

READ/PRAY

-Let’s begin with what is essential: Belgic Confession of Faith (1561): 3 markers according to this. 

-EFCA:                

-Here we see some additional pieces, such as “all who have been justified” that is the members of the church must be believers. We also see the interplay between the invisible church and the invisible church. See every believer is immediately brought into the invisible church, but that also means they must look to live out that spiritual reality in the physical reality of a local church. 

-This is why I’ve talked so much and so regularly here about church membership since I first came! Whether you want to admit it or not, membership is the expectation for a Christian, it’s not salvific (just like baptism isn’t salvific), but it’s essential to your sanctification (growth in holiness). I’ve preached on this before, and we’ve got a membership class coming up on Feb. 9, so if you want to hear the whole reason I think membership is important come to that class! But to summarize, I’ll quote from the book I mentioned earlier: 

-Gospel, ordinances (sacraments), church discipline (which is a subset of the sacraments, and requires church leadership, we’ll get to that next week)

-These are the things that MUST be in place for a church to be called a church, if you don’t have 1 of those 3, by definition you don’t have a church. What’s fascinating to me is how often 1 of 2 of these get thrown out for convenience.

  1. Called Out By God

-When we talk about the church, we’re referring to the Greek word “ekklesia” which is a compound word made up of “from” and “to call” so literally the church is to be “called out from” or the “called out ones.” Generally in English we translate it as an “assembly,” “gathering,” or “church.”  

-But the key I want you to remember from this is that the church is meant to be those who are called out, and not just called out, but called out by God Himself. This is what the EFCA SOF is getting at when it says “The true church is manifest in local churches, whose membership should be composed only of believers.” 

-The difficulty is that there are people who come to church each week who aren’t believers, and each church is going to have strengths and weaknesses, just like individual Christians have strengths and weaknesses. 

-One of the most helpful things the elders have used on a regular basis in the midst of our conversations about the way we structure our church is this graph. On this side of eternity, there will be no perfect church ever! Even when people who are Christians spend time together, there’s going to be conflict and issues because sin impacts all of us. But that doesn’t mean we run away from the church, it generally means we need to double down on our commitment, confess were we’ve sinned against others, forgive as Jesus forgave us, and work through the issues TOGETHER. This is how we move to a more pure church, TOGETHER. You literally can’t have a church by yourself! And at the same time, at some point the lack of purity in a church means they move from being a church to not being a church. However, the bar there is fairly basic, remember 3 things: gospel is being preached, sacraments or ordinances are being practiced, and church discipline is taking place (often we don’t know when it’s happening, Matt. 18)

-Back to the called out idea, God has always had a group of people that He has called out to be His faithful representatives to the world. Starting with Adam and Eve, then calling out Noah, then calling out Abraham from among the nations, then calling out the nation of Israel, then calling out His Son, and then now He calls out people to move from the world into being a part of His Kingdom, which is represented by the church, as we heard when we read through 1 Peter (we’re getting close to getting there!) But first, a brief overview of God’s calling out throughout Scripture.

-First, God calls out to creation in calling it, he separates the skies, the waters, the lands. Then He calls out to a person (Adam) and commissions Him to join with God in caring for the creation and expanding God’s rule over the rest of creation. But then Adam wants to BE God instead of obeying God, and He chooses sin instead of obedience, and then we read this fascinating account of God’s response.

-Even in sin, God’s response is to continue moving toward His people.

-Then God calls out a specific person, and tells Abram His plans.

-And the book of Hebrews tells us that Abraham did this by faith, and in Galatians Paul tells us that this promise is fulfilled in the church.

-History moves forward, and Abraham’s descendants are sold into slavery in Egypt, but then God decides to save them through Moses, and God calls out to him from a burning bush while he’s working as a shepherd for his FIL.

-Last picture I want you to see of this is when God speaks to Isaiah to remind His people who has created them. 

-Friends, this is vital for us to understand. God is the one who calls and creates a people. It’s not something we do in our own power or strength, it’s only done by God’s sovereign hand. This is also true of the church! No person can create a church in their own power, it’s only done by God’s sovereign hand. So when we talk about the church, we ALWAYS need to remember that we are talking about God’s church. We’re just stewards, tasked with caring for a church in this time and place, but God is the only one who can claim ownership of every church. That’s why it’s so important for us to focus on the church!

  • By God We Are…

-With that, we can now come to Peter, where we see that the church has been called out from darkness into marvelous light. Look at all the descriptions: chosen race, royal priesthood, holy nation, people for his possession, proclaim the praises, God’s people.

-4 things, seen in your outline, but before we see what we are, what does this mean the church is NOT:

-Church is not: 

-a social club. Not gathering to socialize around any human activity. Socializing is a component and will happen naturally, but that’s not the definition of a church. 

-a community organizing group. Not meant to create community, community is the byproduct of being brought into the family of God, but it is not a church

-merely a building. As we’ll see in a minute, the church needs a building, some kind of place to meet, and it helps to have 1 spot where we can gather, but the church can gather even without a building

-a voluntary society. This is why we need to remember that God is the one who creates the church. If we’re a Christian, we commit to the church.

-a political action committee. As Chuck Colson used to say “Salvation doesn’t come on Air Force One.” Jesus rules above any political conversations that take place in our world. Earthly kingdoms rise and fall, but Christ sits forever on His throne ruling through His church.

-a metaphor. We tend to talk more about the invisible church and give secondary importance to the visible church of which we’re participating now. Church isn’t just a reference to a theoretical idea, it’s referring to a real thing.

-coffee with friends. That’s an outworking of it (especially when it’s good coffee), but that’s not a replacement for the actual weekly gathering of God’s people.

-A human endeavor. Only done by and for God.

-Look at how the NT describes the church.

  1. Present – a chosen race 

-A component to being a part of a specific lineage or family is location. Think of how much time people spent on their ancestry (I’m 100% Norwegian, thank you very much). This idea that we are a chosen race means that we’re supposed to be God’s ministering presence in the world.

-Think of it like a country and an individual. Anyone who owns a home has a spot to call their own within the boundaries of a country. Similarly, each local church is a part of the universal church (visible vs. invisible), but God places each church in a location for a purpose! To shine as His marvelous light into the darkness.

-This means the south metro should know that we’re here! If we’re commissioned by God to shine as a light, we must bring that light into the world with us. We need to look for ways to be present and engaged in the area God has placed us. This is where we need to acknowledge the reality that the church is an institution AND an organism. NT wording lean toward organism (body, flock), but the rest of the NT writings lean toward institution (a way of conducting ourselves)

-Believing the truth of the Gospels will lead to organizing yourself by the way the Epistles describe.

  • Priests

-Priests work as a go between so humans can meet with God. 3 components to this: corporately, individually, restricted.

-Corporately: we are to be a blessing to the world. We work to bring good into every sphere of human endeavor in which we participate. If we believe God is God then nothing is outside His oversight. Work, play, eating, resting are all to be brought underneath His Lordship. 1 Cor. 5 describes us as ambassadors, God is working to reconcile the world to Himself through the church:

-Individually: each of us is responsible to do that in our lives. All of us are meant to know God’s Word and be changed by knowing and applying God’s Word.

-Restricted: some people are set apart, recognized by God and the church as leaders, we call these pastors/elders. Not better, just called to a higher level of service. I have the freedom to read and study with the hours that many of you spend working to provide for your families or take care of your home. It’s not better, it’s a different calling, we’ll get to that in a few weeks!

  • Pilgrims

-Not Thanksgiving pilgrims, “a holy nation” a people who aren’t at home here. The early church was actually described as living as foreigners, only making use of their earthly citizenship when it served to help them spread the gospel. We need to be careful to regularly remember that this world isn’t our home. We’re not primarily Americans, we’re primarily Christians, our heavenly home will never disappear! 

-Church is supposed to be a picture of that! An embassy in a foreign land where we’re reminded what our home looks like!

  • Proclaimers

-“So that you may proclaim the praises of the one who called you.”

-Our response matters in light of who God is. We proclaim the truths of the Bible in order for us to be reminded each and every week who we are, why we’re here, and what our aim in life is. On top of that, the Word of God compels us to proclaim to the world those exact same realities: Jesus is the King, and only by obeying Him and entering into His church can the world make sense.

-The church matters, and should matter to us because it matters to God. And God also has told us how the church should function and operate, and it comes down to us living in the reality of God calling us out of darkness and into His marvelous light, where we’re now a part of a body, a temple, a new people who are under God.

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by mikethestrand on January 5, 2025  •  Permalink
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Posted by mikethestrand on January 5, 2025

https://pastormikesmusings.com/2025/01/05/the-called-out-ones-sermon-manuscript/

End Time Ethics – Sermon Manuscript

-Spend some time giving thanks together for the ways God has worked among us over the past year, but before we look back, I want to take a minute and help us look forward into the next year. 

-Saw an Apple commercial this past week that was talking about the need to get an Apple Watch to motivate you through “quitting Friday” (the 2nd Friday of January)

-As we look forward to another year, what things has God been impressing on you to focus on in your spiritual life? How are you going to take 1 step closer to Him over 2025? It can be easy to assume your spiritual life because it’s less tangible. With physical health you can tell – you can lift more, you can run further, but how do you measure growth in love toward others? How do you measure being more holy?

READ/PRAY

-Begins “The end of all things is near” we’ve spent the last year studying Revelation together, and this is another reminder that we’re living in the last days, and have been living in the last days since Jesus ascended to heaven. But what do we do with that reality? Peter tells us 4 things we should do because we’re living in the last days:

1. Pray 

-How do we pray? The opposite of “The Gentiles” in the previous verses – self controlled and sober minded.

Juan Sanchez 1 Peter For You “We are not to lose our heads; we’re to think clearly. We’re not to set dates; we’re to be ready. We’re not to withdraw from society; we’re to proclaim God’s excellencies. We’re not to panic.” (148)

That is: to pray more effectively

-How are you planning to grow in your prayer life over the coming year?

-Asked at seminary: how’s your prayer life? I’ve always felt like I’m “supposed” to say “it could be better” here’s the thing: God takes the little and makes it that much better. Think of the 5 loaves and 2 fish. A little lunchable. So don’t give up! Keep praying with all you’ve got! As much or as little as you can, God loves when you engage with Him! There’s always room to improve, but don’t give us just because you’re not where you want to be. Start where you’re at and take 1 more step.

2. Love.

Alluding to Prov. 10:12 “hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all offenses.”

In a sense, it’s true that love covers EVERY sin! 1 John 4:8 “God is love” John 3:16 “For God so LOVED the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” It’s because of God’s love that sin our sin is payed for! And it’s only through God’s love that we can be forgiven.

“Above all”…this is the root of everything we as Christians are called to do

-We are commanded to love each other. Period. No ifs ands or buts. 

-These verses are very similar to 1 Cor. 12-14 where we’re reminded that love is the supreme virtue. You can be as gifted/talented/charismatic that you want, but if you don’t love you’re as helpful as a clashing cymbal. 

-We’re actually commanded to love each other in the same way that Jesus loved us. 

-Poster of the “one another’s” Again, no one is perfect at this, but what can you do to take 1 step closer to loving like Jesus loves over the coming year?

3. Be hospitable

-An article I shared before titled ‘Why Hospitality Beats Entertaining’ has been quoted back to me numerous times by people in the church (you should go read it) but the point is that this doesn’t mean our houses need to be perfectly cleaned to be hospitable.

-In the 1st century this would have involved a lot more intrusion into their lives because they didn’t have hotels, so as Christians traveled this was a command for people to open their homes to each other. 

-Friends, hospitality is supposed to be the norm for Christians. Whether your good at cooking or not, whether your house is perfectly clean or not, look for ways to invite people in, because the point is to be involved in each other’s lives. We’re supposed to love each other like family, and engage each other like family. 

-“Without complaining” Individualism leads to complaining. Individualism leads to NOT being hospitable. Individualism is a sin that needs to be repented of. Think of Mary and Martha. What was Martha’s response? 

4. Use Your Gifts

All spiritual gifts are a form of service. Remember, these are done IN LOVE

The point of your gifts isn’t to build yourself up, it’s so “serve one another.” 

My wife has a gift of discernment without being condemning. I don’t know how she does it! 

“as good stewards of the varied grace of God.”

James 1:17 “every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights.”

You, ALL of you, have been given a gift by God to serve others. How are you doing at stewarding that gift? Maybe you have the gift of encouragement. Maybe you have the gift of setting up tables. Maybe you have the gift of hospitality. Maybe you have the gift of teaching.

Peter specifically mentions 2 gifts: speaking and serving.

“If anyone speaks, let it be as one who speaks God’s words” the message, the words of God. Everything we do is supposed to point people back to God. We’re called the aroma of Christ. I LOVE that imagery

C.S. Lewis “You have never encountered a mere mortal. All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations.”

Every conversation you have either points people to or away from God.

“if anyone serves, let it be from the strength God provides.”

We’re all commanded to serve in some way! But remember it’s serving from a never ending well that God supplies. 

Proverbs 21:31, “The horse is made ready for the day of battle, but the victory belongs to the Lord.”

Galatians 6:9-10 “Let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.” 

“so that God may be glorified through Jesus Christ in everything. To him be the glory and the power forever and ever. Amen.”

Benediction (in many letters)

Everything we do is meant to be an act of worship. Our entire lives. 

“through Jesus Christ” Jesus as our only worship leader

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by mikethestrand on December 29, 2024  •  Permalink
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Posted by mikethestrand on December 29, 2024

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Jesus Did You Know? John 1 – Sermon Manuscript

-End of our series, looked at Mary, Joseph, Herod, and we’re going to end this week looking at Jesus. 

-Not a lot about Jesus’ life to be able to accurately or fully answer this question, the Bible tells us a bit about his birth, we have 1 account of him as a 12 year old in the temple (Luke 2), but then all the accounts jump straight to Him as a 30 year old adult, so we’re somewhat in the realm of speculation when we try to answer this question.

-But I do think it’s important for us to talk about Jesus! If you haven’t figured it out yet, He’s going to come up every week here! He’s literally at the center of all of creation, He’s literally at the center of history, and He’s literally the center, the focal point of all of Scripture. One of the commentators I was reading this week was saying that the fulfillment of the OT isn’t the NT, it’s Jesus. The OT points forward to Jesus, and the NT looks back to Him.

-What’s hard today is what do we do with Jesus? You may have heard this quote attributed to Gandhi:

-On the one hand, this is disappointing because the name “Christian” is meant to signify “Little Christ” aka little representatives of Him, but this is also at the crux of Christianity: we can’t completely be like Christ, which is why He had to become like us! 

-But the other component to this quote is that obviously Gandhi wasn’t a Christian, but he liked what Jesus taught. I have yet to meet or talk to anyone that doesn’t like Jesus, or the Jesus they have in their mind, because often people haven’t actually studied much about Him, they go on what other people say, and it’s amazing how much of their interpretations tend to be more of a reflection of themselves than Jesus Himself! So today I want to look at what Jesus’ plan was, what did He know, and why did He enter into His creation? Because the reality is we can’t separate Christmas from eternity!

READ/PRAY

  1. The Word (1-3)

-“In the beginning”

-I hope by now you’re starting to learn that in order to interpret the NT correctly, we need to know the OT. 1 story from beginning to end. Pointing back to Gen. 1, almost as if he knows the other Gospel accounts that start with Jesus, this one tells us the story of Jesus goes back even further than his birth. John is saying: you think the birth is amazing, let me tell you the true beginning!

-Friends, this is what I said earlier: the reality is that the Christmas story begins before the dawn of creation. Our kids often ask where they were at various events in our lives before they came and we tell them it was before they were born, and Cara has trained them to say “When I was just in God’s mind?” That’s exactly right! Before the earth was here, when it was just in God’s mind, Christmas, the arrival of Jesus, the one and only God-man was the plan. This tells us that even when we go back and read Genesis 1 we should read Jesus in that event, which is where John goes next:

-“was the Word.” What word? What is meant by the word “word”? A whole lot, it turns out, because once again that single word contains a host of OT allusions that we need to understand! 

-First, the immediate context: what did John mean when he used this word? 1st cent. context can be essentially distilled down to basically 2 things: inner thoughts of something: some have argued translating this word as “reason” where we get science, bio-logy (study of bios created things), psych-ology (study of the psych) the-ology (study of God). Second option is an external message or speech, like we use WORDS. 

-And then, as always, what is meant by this throughout Scripture? How does God use words? Since we’ve already been there, and John’s readers would already be thinking about creation, how does God create? Through words. God’s act of speaking has consequences and demands a response! Out of nothing comes something, it can’t help itself since God spoke it, is MUST happen. God speaks, it happens, there’s no waiting, no fighting of anyone else. Have you ever considered how violent other creation myths are? Think of the Big Bang, the beginning of EVERYTHING is an explosion! Other stories talk about various gods fighting and the wreckage of that fighting is the creation. Here it almost is like someone sitting in a La-Z-Boy playing armchair QB, but in this case the creation actually responds!

-Throughout the OT there’s also references to God revealing Himself through words (prophets), and delivering His people (think of the whole Egypt story where God tells Moses “Go TELL Pharoah MY WORDS”)

-But then the most significant place where we see God’s Words is when God reveals Himself to Moses. They’d been led out of Egypt, God had called Moses to the mountain to tell His words and commands to him (10 commandments written by God on stone), Moses comes down to the people partying and worshipping a golden calf, so he goes back up the mountain to meet with God and beg Him to not destroy the nation. During his conversation with God, Moses asks “Let me see your glory.” 

-Does that seem a bit weird to you? What does Moses want? He’s looking to see God fully instead of mediated or clouded (pillar of fire or cloud). Think of the way Jesus is described during the Transfiguration: whiter than the whitest bleach can cause, the disciples can hardly look at Him! And that’s small stuff compared to the full glory of God!

-But notice, how does God say his goodness or glory passes by Moses? By proclaiming His name. God is connected to His name, you can’t separate God from His name, so then when we think of John describing Jesus as the Word, you can hardly find a better word (pun intended) to describe the God! I like the way Carson summarizes this idea:

-All this biblical background with just 1 word! And we’re only on the 6th word of this whole section, and John goes on to identify this Word as being with God and being God. So not only is there all this wealth of allusions in this word, but John leaves no room for interpretation or misinterpretation about what he’s talking about, he’s clear that this is the 2nd person of the Godhead, God the Son, who was the agent of creation, which means everything only exists because of Him, apart from Jesus everything would go back to nothing. Yet many people don’t realize all that is contained in this word, which is why John goes on:

  • The Light (4-13)

-We’ve had the Word to describe Jesus, but says that in Him is LIGHT. Well that has different connotations than the Word!

-John here says that light and darkness can’t coexist, which is true! He is the true light that shines, that reveals where there is darkness.

-Darkness did not overcome: master, comprehend. Darkness can’t comprehend the light, it doesn’t have a way to understand it, the light seems like foolishness to it. So how can the darkness be made aware of the light? Need a witness.

-John: witness, used 3x! “He came as a witness to witness about the light. He came to witness about the light.” I love that word! What are you a witness to?

-Think of that quote from Gandhi that I shared earlier. Does your witness make much of Christ or do you get in the way? Look at the sun (don’t actually look at it) but how can you see anything in the world? Isn’t it because of the shining sun? The sun is so bright that it’s literally the way we see everything in the world, apart from its light we would live in darkness.

-But what about when something gets in between the sun and the earth? Something like the moon? We call that an eclipse, and it’s an eerie experience! We were living in CO when the eclipse came through in 2017 and it was odd to experience darkness during the day! But I think that’s a picture of what we can tend to do with the light of the gospel. How often do we get in the way and refuse to let God’s light shine out because we’re too scared, or because our lives aren’t actually marked by the light of the gospel? Or what about when we add things to the gospel message, things that God didn’t say we needed to do? Look down at vs. 12 – it’s very simple: believe in His name. Trust that Jesus is the Christ, the Savior of the world who came to earth as a baby, but grew and completely and perfectly obeyed God, letting the light of God shine perfectly into the world.

-The Word (that gives light) was in the world, the world only exists because of this Word, but the world wanted to be their own god instead.

-A.W. Pink. (pastor in the early 20th century) This is what we see in Gandhi! He’s blind to the fact that the Messiah, the Savior who came to save the world from their sins has come to the world. Friends, are you blind, or do you see and acknowledge that Jesus is God?

-This is where we’re already seeing that it’s not enough to just like Jesus as a cool dude. Like if you’ve ever heard the icebreaker question: what 3 people would you have dinner with, dead or alive? Jesus is almost always on the list, right? The thing is we already have a whole bunch of stuff that Jesus said about Himself, and God thinks what we have is enough! 

-His own people: we saw that last week. Scribes, rulers knew the right answers, but didn’t follow through on the correct response.

-All those who were supposedly watching completely missed it. If you’ve ever seen a street “magician” (really illusionist) performing you’re aware of this. The whole goal of those people is to distract others from what they’re really doing, which is why it’s often called sleight of hand, they’re essentially forcing you to focus on one thing while they do something else.

-What’s ironic in the Christmas story is that’s not what God did. It’s not like it was a massive secret! He sent angels to shepherd, He sent wise-men to Herod, He sent an angel to Mary and Joseph.

-Children of God: comes only by belief, demands a response “To all who did receive Him.” What’s amazing about that is the only thing it takes is receiving Jesus! Think about the Christmas carol ‘O Little Town’ “Where meek souls will receive Him still, the dear Christ enters in.” Then you become children of God, that’s all it takes

-What is this birth thing John talks about? He’ll expand on it in chpt 3 (which we don’t have time to go to), but he contrasts it here with 3 things, that feels unnecessarily repetitive and redundant, don’t they? We get it John, it’s only “of God” but what do you think all these things John’s talking about mean? 

-Natural descent: this is referring to genealogy. In Jewish circles, genealogy was literally make or break for you! Either you were Jew or you were of the “ethnicities.” So if you were of the wrong blood-line, you weren’t a part of God’s people. But this thought continues today! The assumption that you’re a Christian because you’re American (less so today) or that you’re good because your parents took you to church. Friends, I hate to say it, but your bloodline has no bearing in the kingdom of God.

-Will of the flesh: this has to do with sincerity. Originally, this is a husband and wife coming together to produce a baby, there’s desire there for children, earnest to earn the gift of a baby. But friends, all the sincerity in the world can’t make you a child of God. You see this with people who assume they’re good because they went through the right motions: I went to church all growing up, I went to Awana all the way through, I did confirmation. Once again, John is telling us here that none of those things can save you, which gets to the third one:

-Will of man: effort. No matter how hard you try you won’t become a child of God. I listened to a podcast this week that was comparing Christianity to other world religions, all of which have some element of effort required to achieve salvation, but Christianity doesn’t have that, which is why so many people struggle with it and add works to salvation. 

-There’s only 1 way to become a child of God: But of God. God redeems you and adopts you as His child. That’s it! It’s only by believing in His name! But what did it take for it to be that simple? 

  • The Flesh (14-18)

-Back to the Word, but this is weird, he became flesh and tabernacled (moved into the neighborhood) How can the eternal Word step into time? 

-To understand this one, we need to understand both tabernacle and (tabernacling) God dwelling among His people. Throughout the OT, God’s manifest presence was confined to the tabernacle (then the temple), so that His people wouldn’t die. Just as light can’t coexist with darkness, God’s glory can’t coexist with sin. So when we read that the Word, who was with God and IS God, became flesh that would have made NO sense, much less tabernacling among us, if God is with us we’re done for! But John keeps going:

-And we SAW his glory! Remember what we saw with Moses back in Exodus, no one could see God’s glory and live, and here John says WE SAW HIS GLORY! Suddenly, the God who was completely separate, unobtainable, unapproachable is here, walking and talking with us. Do you see why Jews struggled to believe Him?

-Full of what? Grace and truth. We need BOTH! This is the amazing thing about the gospel – we get the truth that we are far worse than we ever dared imagine, but we also get the grace that we are far more loved than we could ever dare to hope. Christianity is the 1 religion that can deal with the complexity of the world, because Christianity is the 1 religion that is true.

-From Him, we have received grace upon grace, better translated as grace instead of grace, grace on top of grace, but it only comes through the truth, the truth that Jesus is God and came to take away the sins of the world, which includes you if you’ve believed in His name.

-Jesus is better even than Moses, which is another reason we should be thinking back to Ex. 33-34 when we read John 1

-Jesus reveals the unseeable God in seeable form. John’s epistle begins this way: beginning, heard, seen, observed, touched, then passed down, JOY

-One of my favorite Christmas songs begins with “Joy to the world the Lord is come.” Joy is possible, but it only comes about be believing in Jesus, who had planned from all eternity to come to earth as a baby boy. To live the perfect life that we could never live, and die the death that we all deserved to die to give us joy and the opportunity to hear Him, to see Him, and to some day touch Him. Joy that nothing can take away, joy that lasts even when you don’t get the Christmas gift you wanted. Joy that can and will last into eternity all because the Word became flesh and moved into the neighborhood, which means we now can become children of God.

-And now, as we look forward to celebrating Christmas this week, we have the reminder that we are now the ones who are supposed to move into the neighborhood and shine as lights in the darkness. The Christmas story, the story of Jesus first coming culminates in a second coming where we’ll be with Him forever! And until that second coming, our job each Christmas is to continue overcoming the darkness, through joy.

-So church, by joyful, always.

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by mikethestrand on December 22, 2024  •  Permalink
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Posted by mikethestrand on December 22, 2024

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Herod, Did You Know? – Sermon Manscript

-I shared 2 weeks ago how I feel like a bit of a Grinch at Christmas because it’s so easy to just become numb to it (especially when they put up Christmas decorations in October) But last night, I had a visit from 3 ghosts and I’m now a new man! If you haven’t watched or read A Christmas Carol, that comment makes no sense to you! The best version is the Muppets, and it’s not even close

-Every good story needs an antagonist, a bad guy. Scrooge, Voldemort, Sauron, Thanos, even the new Barbie movie needed the enemy of “the system” (cleverly disguised as Mattel) to fight against! 

-And the Christmas story is no exception, except this story is real, with real stakes! No CGI was used in this production. This bad guy is Herod, and he’s really a bad dude!

READ/PRAY

  1. Some Righteous Dudes (1-15)

-Last week we saw the righteousness of Joseph, who was thought to be the father of Jesus (Luke 3:23), he took Jesus and Mary’s shame on himself, willingly. 

-We’ll get to Herod after we look at these “wise men.” 

-Magi (where we get magic, sorcery), men who were in the upper realms of society and gifted in astrology.

-“From the east” where is the east? We’ve spent a lot of time over the past year tracing how the Bible fits together and the way it alludes to previous stories that we should hear, so when we come across this phrase, Matthew’s picking up on previous themes.

-Daniel tells the story of siege of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar from Babylon. Where’s Babylon? To the east! The Jews were taken into exile into the east, but even when they’re in exile God still blesses them. Daniel 1:17 (Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, also known as Belteshazzar, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Lion’s Den and fiery furnace), 2:2 (additionally, what was a common practice in Babylon? Magi) Many scholars believe these Magi are in the same lineage as what we see in Daniel. After centuries of oppression of God’s people, those nations who were oppressing them are now coming to worship the one true God.

-Balaam was talked about a few times in Revelation, he’s the one who had a donkey talk to him after being beaten by Balaam. Balaam was hired by the king of Moab to curse Israel, but instead of cursing them, the only thing he can do is bless them. Look at what he says to the king of Moab: Num. 24:17. And where does Balaam come from? 23:7 FROM THE EAST.

-And the last thing we need to know about the east occurs all the way back in Gen. 3:23-24. The Bible begins with everything being very good, in harmony with each other and with God but then our first parents disobeyed God, committing treason against Him and were banished from Eden, but notice which way they were banished, drove the man out, and as he was sent out a cherubim was stationed to prevent him from returning into the garden, they’re sent “East of Eden” as John Steinbeck summarized it. So the significance of wise men coming “from the east” is that God is finally bringing harmony to what was broken all the way back in the beginning.

-Matthew writes this Gospel to demonstrate the way Jesus fulfills all of God’s promises, hence so much quoting of the OT here.

-“Star-led wizards” (Douglas Sean O’Donnell), from the east (where the enemies of God’s people are) who are coming to worship the king of the Jews. That’s a reversal of fortunes from what had happened to the Jews! God’s way of saying that even these wizards can worship the one true God.

-Why did they come to Jerusalem? Apparently they knew some of the OT promises, but not all of them, so they came to the capital of Israel

-Contrast the response of these wizards with the response of the chief priests and scribes.

-Religious and political leaders of the day, they had the right answer, but what did they do with it? Nothing. 

-Friends, this is one of my biggest concerns with our world today is ambivalence to the realities of Jesus. I could understand Herod’s response of anger because Jesus means everything changes, what I don’t understand is not caring, and my concern in the church is our hearts aren’t led to worship when we think of Jesus, we check a box that we go to church, or we’re here because our parents made us, but it doesn’t actually affect us. If Jesus came and lived on earth (which he did) then everything in our lives has to change.

-C.S. Lewis Mere Christianity. Something about us has to change, which is true for these Wizard/magicians

-Something different about this star unlike a normal star that we see in the sky: sounds more like the fire that led the Israelites in their wilderness wanderings, something supernatural that God used to guide these people.

-Just as we don’t know much about Joseph, we don’t know much about these guys, but we know they were wealthy, and that they were obedient, they responded with worship. 

-Gifts were kingly gifts! Much better than the diapers and blankets babies get today! Not only did these guys understand the stars, they also understood dreams, and when they left they didn’t go back to Jerusalem.

-Just as we saw last week with Joseph’s obedience to the first angel appearing in a dream, same thing here when an angel appears to him in a dream. It seems that he woke up as soon as the dream was done and fled!

-Don’t miss the humanity of this: left home, vocation, extended friends and family, become refugees to save his adopted son. And how do you think they paid for this move? Most likely with the gifts from these wizards.

-Even when it seems like a powerful ruler can thwart God’s plans, he can’t. (Psalm 2) Nations rage and people’s plot against God and His anointed, but God laughs.

  • An Unrighteous Dude (16-18)

-Did you notice how many times Herod was called a king: vs. 1, 3, 9, contrasted with the king of the Jews

-Herod was a vindictive and jealous man. Killed wives who crossed him, sons who crossed him, as well as any enemies he didn’t like. Was referred to as “The Great” but that was just due to his building programs. Rebuilt the temple in Jerusalem (where Jesus would preach from)

-Look at vs. 3 “Deeply disturbed” better translated as “greatly agitated” or “in turmoil” how would “all Jerusalem” be bothered by this?

-2 proposals: leaders of Jerusalem, or people would be terrified that Herod would go into a rage and kill someone (which he does)

-Herod’s response should have been to actually do what he tells the Magi he’ll do: worship. But that’s not what he does, he responds differently to Jesus: (vs. 16)

-The irony is if Herod was the true king of the Jews, what he should have done was searched the Scriptures and obeyed. See Herod wasn’t even a Jew, so if someone was born who was the in the correct lineage they would have a legitimate claim to the throne – more than Herod would, which is why he flies into a rage, he’s livid!

-So he does exactly what he’s done before – kills any and all potential threats to his power, in this case all boys 2 and younger. Just imagine the implications of that: a city where the little boys who used to run around and play in the streets are gone. Boys ripped from their mother’s arms to be killed.

-Once again, I want to point out that you can often tell who the enemy of God is by how they treat the youngest of us, because God is on the side of most vulnerable, which is who we as Christians should care for as well. Just think of God’s commands throughout the Bible: to not pursue power and wealth, but to look to how we can care for others, literally the opposite of what we see here in Herod! 

-What’s most ironic to me is that he’s known as Herod the Great, and what does Jesus tell us greatness looks like? Greatness is service in God’s kingdom. If you want to be truly great, it means humbling yourself and looking to serve others instead of looking to get from others and how you can be served.

-Because Herod isn’t living as God intends people to live, the response for this part of the Christmas story is weeping and mourning (quoting from Jer. 31:15)

-I understand some of you may feel this way as we approach Christmas. It’s hard to be joyful when you’re weeping and mourning, and part of the reason we have an Advent season is to remember that in between Jesus’s 2 comings is waiting and longing and mourning. Friends, the Lord knows! Trust in the Lord, He hears every cry and knows the mourning that you’re walking through, so bring it to Him

-One of my favorite components of Christmas is it’s the 1 time of year where we listen to music in a minor (sad) key. It’s (somewhat ironically) the 1 time of year where it’s ok for us to admit we’re not ok.

-I often think of Psalm 23 when I’m struggling: “even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, you are with me. Your rod and your staff they comfort me.” Even when we’re in the depths of despair, God is with us. His rod and staff both protect us from enemies and help to guide us on the right path, but that means we have to trust in His plans for each step along the way.

  • God’s Plan (19-23)

-What happened to Herod the Great? He died. How great is a king who ends us as a footnote in the introduction to the story about the true, everlasting King of kings?

-Herod died in 4 BC, and his kingdom was split among 3 sons and his sister (another Herod Antipas who was around during Jesus’s ministry)

-An angel appears to Joseph again and tells him it’s time to move back to Israel, and once again Joseph immediately obeys, but settles in a different place than before: Nazareth.

-We know from Luke 1 and 2 that this was where Mary and Joseph were originally from, but there’s no OT passage that Matthew quotes here, but what he’s most likely doing is pointing out how despised Jesus would be, he’s taking the sum total of how the prophets talked about the coming Messiah and summarized it as “being from Nazareth.” Nazareth was scorned even by people who lived nearby. No one would willingly claim that as their hometown, kind of like when people show up to churches in MN wearing Packers jerseys, they’re asking for the scorn of the people!

-Remember, God’s plan has always been to take seemingly insignificant people and places and use them for His ultimate purposes. He didn’t choose Israel because it was the biggest and best, He chose them in spite of all their external attributes, and it’s the same for us. God chooses what the world despises and then transforms and glorifies it to magnify His name.

-Think about the Christmas Carol – Scrooge is the one who seems to have everything the world wants: money and power. Yet how does that work out for him at the beginning of the book? Not so well! In this story, Herod is the one who has everything the world wants: money and power. And how did that work out for him? 2 words: Herod died. And despite trying to stamp out his opposition, the king that he was aiming to kill is still alive today.

-What we see in the midst of this entire story is the way God’s perfect plan can’t be stopped. Even when it seems like evil has the upper hand, even when it feels like everything is failing around us, God is still at work. Think of what Joseph says to his brothers at the end of Genesis: What you meant for evil God meant for good. What Herod meant for evil, God used for good, the ultimate good or providing salvation for the world!

-Eucatastrophe – a good catastrophe, everything sad will come untrue. God takes even what is intended as evil and somehow and some way uses it as good in our lives, but only if we’re trusting in and walking with Him. Friends, this reminds us that even when it feels like our lives are falling down around us, keep walking with God, because it’s worth it receive God’s gifts at the end.

-We’ve seen 3 responses to Jesus in this story, and as we come to the end the question in front of us is: which response do you have to Jesus? Anger, apathy, or adoration

-Anger: some people are legitimately angry about Jesus, but that isn’t the trend today. You saw that quite a bit in the early 2000s with the so called “4 horsemen of the new atheism” but even they are far less angry now than they used to be! In fact, one of them (Richard Dawkins) has recently come out saying he is a cultural Christian! He said he appreciates much more of what Christianity has brought to the world than any other religion, and he enjoys the cultural trappings, particularly at Christmas and Easter (hymns, decorations, etc)

-And maybe you’re not angry at Jesus broadly, but are there areas in your life where you harbor a “Herod spirit” against Him? This is more than being a Scrooge, this is an area where you’re not completely trusting that He cares about you and you’re angry at Him for not fitting within your plans, refusing to realize that His plans are far better than yours. Tim Keller. Keep praying!

-Apathy: this is knowing about Jesus but not letting it change anything about you, and I think this is the most dangerous place to be. You can see this with people who have almost been inoculated against Jesus – they know about Him, they’ve read the Bible, but it hasn’t actually changed anything about their lives. They view Jesus as an optional add on instead of the essential component to everything in life.

-Think of the difference between the Operating System and the Apps on your phone. Without the OS your phone is an expensive paperweight, AND without your OS the apps are pointless. Similarly in our life, without Jesus, everything else in life is pointless. It can seem enjoyable, but that joy only goes so far and eventually you’ll need to chase something else to find that same hit of joy. With Jesus, He literally changes everything about us so that we can finally make sense of our lives, of our joys and sorrows, and help us understand what our lives should look like:

-Adoration: this is what Jesus wants from everyone, and will someday demand from everyone when He comes back again. When we understand who Jesus is, this is the only way we can respond! He helps us to appreciate the gifts He’s given us (food, drink, books, nature, friends, family), He helps us understand that those things aren’t ends in themselves, but they help us to understand His love and care for us.

-There can be a tendency this time of year to shame people for enjoying the sentimentality of Christmas with the reminder that “Jesus is the reason for the season” and while that’s true, the way we experience Jesus today is through the gifts He’s given us, so friends, this Christmas season it’s ok to be sentimental and enjoy all the experiences that come with Christmas, but view those as opportunities to adore Jesus because He came to earth for you!

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by mikethestrand on December 15, 2024  •  Permalink
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Posted by mikethestrand on December 15, 2024

https://pastormikesmusings.com/2024/12/15/herod-did-you-know-sermon-manscript/

Luke 1:26-56 – Sermon Manuscript

-Christmas songs tend to make me laugh. As I was growing up my favorite was ‘Joy to the World’ which I found out wasn’t written as a Christmas song! Based on Psalm 98, focused more on Jesus’ second coming than His first.

-As I’ve been in ministry myself for a number of years now, my favorite has become ‘O Come All Ye Faithful’ because it gets to the primary focus of the Christmas season: “O come let us adore Him!”

-But now we’ve also got more contemporary Christmas songs, like “You’re a mean one, Mr. Grinch” or “All I want for Christmas is you.”

-There are 3 songs that make me at least chuckle, if not LOL every year: Little Drummer Boy. After having kids, I don’t think any mother after giving birth would nod to a little drummer boy once the baby is asleep. First, who wants a snare being hit next to a sleeping infant, but secondly have you ever heard a little kid play drums? There is nothing calming or quiet about it!

-Which gets me to my second one: Silent Night. Has anyone ever heard of a silent baby? They’re only quiet when they sleep, but on top of that, the delivery is the opposite of calm and bright. Someday I’ll do a Christmas series ruining Christmas songs for you.

-The last song that makes me laugh is ‘Mary, did you know?’ which is the inspiration for this sermon series, mostly because I see this meme float around every Christmas. Written in 1984 as a poem for a church Christmas musical, it eventually came together as the song we know today in 1991, but it asks a series of questions of Mary, like “did you know that your baby boy would save our sons and daughters, has come to make you new” and the reason I think it’s funny is because Mary is explicitly told the answer to all these questions in today’s text! No, she didn’t know every little detail about Jesus’ future life, but she did know the primary direction His life was going to take!

-Please stand with me, as we read Luke 1 and hear exactly what Mary knew.

PRAY

-I’ve shared this before, but the other thing I think of each Christmas is Bilbo Baggins, who is described in LOTR as “the most unlikely creature imaginable” to find the ring, similarly, Mary is the most unlikely creature imaginable to be chosen as the mother of God’s Son.

  1. The Most Unlikely Creature Imaginable (26-38)

-A couple things I want you to keep in the back of your mind for every Christmas season: 

-First is that we’re coming off 400 years of silence

-Second is we’re dealing with real people who had full lives, emotions, hopes and dreams just like we do. It can be easy for us to separate these stories from reality because it’s just words on a page.

-Finally, don’t forget how incredible this is! I at times feel like the Grinch this time of year: I have to go back and preach the same texts I’ve done numerous years in a row, I’ve heard this same story every Christmas as far back as I can remember, it’s way too easy to just slip into sentimentality and gloss over just how significant the incarnation is. God literally took on flesh, the Creator became creature, the author of history entered history. What human would come up with a story like that to provide salvation to the world? 

-Friends, we’ve seen this over and over this past year as we’ve walked through Revelation, God is in control, His plans can’t be stopped, His ways are right and good, but it is going to run in conflict with the way the world trains us to think and live. His ways are better, but we are tempted to live by the ways of the world. Christmas is our annual reminder to not become seduced by the dragon, but to live in the way of the sacrificial Lamb, who came not in power or influence, but came in obscurity, with nothing, to a poor family living in a tiny community.

-6th month refers to Elizabeth, wife of Zechariah who was a priest. An angel had just appeared to him to tell him that in their advanced age, they would have a child (we’ll see them again in the next section), but just as God has a history of redeeming childless wombs, here we see Him doing it again.

-I don’t know if you’ve ever considered this, but the story of Jesus is littered with barren wombs until God intervenes. I don’t think it’s too much of a stretch to take that idea to mean that you can tell which side God is on by the way someone cares for infants and children. God loves when families grown, and Satan hates it. There’s a reason God has to overcome so many childless women.

-Nazareth: tiny, backwoods town. Didn’t have any extrabiblical accounts of it until the 1960s, so insignificant that no other historical accounts thought it worthy of a mention. There’s a reason Nathaniel says “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” John 1:46.

-Surprisingly little is said about her – we know her name, that she was engaged, and that’s about it.

-Notice that there’s nothing in Mary that makes her worthy of being favored. She didn’t achieve this by doing something special or by being born in the right family or living an exemplary life, what’s most significant about Mary is that she obeyed God’s commands. That’s it. She did what’s possible for all of us to do: hear God’s Word and respond in obedience. 

-Friends, you can find favor with God! The key to understand what’s happening here is God speaks, and Mary responds with obedience. This is a picture of what salvation looks like. God speaks through His people, and through His Word, and ultimately through His Spirit as the dead are brought to life. When that happens, suddenly we have favor with God! 

-Obedience doesn’t mean Mary has no questions, she knows where babies come from! And she’s never had the opportunity to create a baby.

-But what we view as impossible is nothing to God. The word “overshadow” here is used often in the OT to talk about God’s presence descending on a place. There were times where Moses couldn’t enter the tabernacle because the cloud that signified God’s presence “overshadowed” the tabernacle. This isn’t (as some have argued) the Holy Spirit taking on flesh to have intercourse with Mary, this is a unique creation. Just as God had opened the womb of so many of Israel’s ancestors, what’s going 1 step further and creating new life in a womb?

-Because of this unique conception, He will be called “the holy one” and the Son of God. This was considered fairly normal at the time.

-All Jews thought of themselves as God’s children. In fact, even the name that this child was given was one of the most common names in the 1st century: Yehoshua (Joshua) Iyasous (Greek) meaning “God saves.” Once again, this is demonstrating the ways God chooses to work in the world is through what we would see as weakness. A normal child with the most common name, born to a poor woman in a tiny town that no one cared about.

-However, this child is unique among all humans because He has no earthly Father, just a heavenly Father.

-This also shows us the way salvation comes about in all our lives. What could you do to save yourself? Nothing! What could you add to merit God’s salvation? Zippo! But what’s impossible with us is nothing to God.

-See most of us are similar to Jesus. Not worth much based on what the world values. Not smart based on worldly standards. Yet God still chooses those exact people to bring them into His family because nothing is impossible with God.

-Connects to a story Jesus tells about how difficult it is for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven, his disciples say then heaven must be impossible, Jesus replies “with God ALL things are possible.” Think of the hymn ‘Rock of Ages’ “Nothing in my hands I bring, simply to the cross I cling.” We trust that Jesus is who He said He is and we are saved.

-This brings us to the next section of this text.

  • The Second Most Unlikely Creature Imaginable (39-45)

-Mary hurries south to see Elizabeth. Remember the angel had told her that her relative was pregnant, even in her old age, so I think Mary rushes there to see if Elizabeth is truly pregnant, or if the angel was pulling a fast one on her.

-Hurry is a bit of a relative term, couldn’t drive, people would generally walk everywhere, so Mary would have to travel somewhere between 3-4 days (80-100 miles)

-I read onetime that God’s speed is 3 mph, that’s how fast Jesus walked, and some estimates say He spent as much as ¾ of his ministry walking, to Jerusalem, back to Capernaum, back to Jerusalem, and we get frustrated when 70 mph isn’t fast enough!

-Already we see the way people should respond to the arrival of Jesus: John in the womb leaps for joy, and Elizabeth is filled with the Holy Spirit.

-Blesses Mary (again, not for anything she’s done, because Mary is obedient) We see that explicitly: (45) she who has believed what the Lord has spoken. That’s the way God works: He speaks, we should respond. But how often do we not respond? How frequently are our hearts too hard to fully obey God? Mark Twain quote. 

-The Bible’s purpose isn’t just to comfort us (although at times it does that) in many cases the Bible’s purpose is to make us UNcomfortable because it asks something from us. Think of Rom. 3:23 “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” All. That includes me! That tells me I’m a sinner, I have fallen short, thankfully it doesn’t stop there because it goes on to say “and are justified by his grace as a gift” That means there’s hope, and that I need to live differently.

  • Respond with Praise (46-56)

-Magnifies: to make greater. The blessing given to Mary is an opportunity for her to continue praising God.

-If you think about it, that’s a great way to summarize the point of worship: to make greater. But it’s not make yourself greater, it’s acknowledging that Jesus is the greater one, that He’s the only one who deserves being made greater. Greater than what? Everything. The whole book of Hebrews is a long explanation of how Jesus is better than everything that came before in God’s plan. He’s better than the sacrificial system, better than any priest, better than Moses, better than the angels, He’s better than everything, and because of that we must respond with worship.

-But why is she looking to make God greater? Because He looked with favor on her humble/poor condition. She recognizes that in God’s view she has nothing.

-This is an example for how we should approach God, humbly and not entitled.

-Kent Hughes.

-Friends, do you approach Christmas as the poor and humble or as proud and self-sufficient? Be honest. Each year we have times and seasons to take time to reflect on certain things, Christmas is our annual reminder that Jesus came for the poor, humble, and lowly, that’s inherent to the gospel message. This is why Jesus said it’s so hard for the wealthy to enter the kingdom of God, it requires admitting that you can’t do it on your own. 

-Not only can you not be saved on your own, you can’t continue growing as a Christian on your own: 

-From generation to generation – this has been God’s plan all along.

-What God does when He saves us is adopt us into a new family. This new family provides as place for you to truly be yourself, a place to find belonging and direction to your entire life. I don’t want to stretch this imagery too far, but the fact that we’re adopted means it at times is going to feel unnatural to us, just like someone who’s adopted is going to at times struggle to figure out their new family rhythms and routines. I don’t know about you, but I often struggle at holidays because my routines are thrown off! God is trying to teach us a new way of living in His family, which is different from the way the world teaches us to live.

-This new way of living is shown through God’s mighty deeds, and as we saw throughout Revelation, it’s the opposite of the way we expect the world to work:

-scattered the proud: those who think they’re self-sufficient, that they’re able to do whatever they want in their own power and strength, like the tower of Babel

-toppled the mighty: who can stand against God? No one! Trust in Him!

-Satisfied the hungry: God provides the solution to the deepest longings of your heart, only when you trust in Him can you be completely satisfied

-Kept His word: God has made promises and delivered on every single one of them. Trust in Him because His ways are good and true. If God has said He’ll do something it’s guaranteed to happen.

-Just like Mary, we are the most unlikely people imaginable to be chosen by God to be his children, if we trust in what He’s said. 

-That doesn’t mean life will be easy, or that you’ll always trust and obey God perfectly. I remember growing up reading the Bible stories and thinking to myself “If I experienced these kinds of things I would NEVER have questions or doubts in my faith.” But friends, everyone has questions and doubts at some point in their life, even Mary. 

-In Mark’s Gospel, we read that early in his ministry, as His fame was spreading, news reached His family, and here’s what they thought. But surely not Mary, right? She had this amazing visit from an angel, you’d think that everyday she’d be reminded to keep faith because Jesus was right there in front of her! Her miracle child! But just a few verses later, Mark says who was there. His mother and his brothers. See, even a visit from an angel eventually wears off. This is why the “camp high” needs to be connected to the truth. Emotions fade, experiences get less potent, but God’s Word remains the same.

-As we enter this Christmas season and look at these 4 characters of Christmas together, I’d like you to think back to why you are a Christian, and if you’re not a Christian, what’s holding you back? Questions and doubts are normal for Christians and non-Christians. If Mary, the mother of Jesus, can have doubts, so can you. But don’t just leave them there. Explore them, doubt your doubts! One of the best things about Christianity is the wealth of knowledge to draw from in studying and researching. 

-But do something. One of our mottos here is 1 step closer: what step are you going to take this Christmas season to grow closer to Jesus? Read a new devotional, read a book on the incarnation (Athanasius, written in the early 300s), read a reflect on Matt. 1-2 or Luke 1-2. 

-Or maybe you need help doubting your doubts. Reach out to me, I’m guessing I have a book or resource on whatever question you’re facing, because Christians have been wrestling with this faith for centuries.

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by mikethestrand on December 1, 2024  •  Permalink
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Posted by mikethestrand on December 1, 2024

https://pastormikesmusings.com/2024/12/01/luke-126-56-sermon-manuscript/

Revelation 22:6-21 – Sermon Manuscript

-We did it! We’ve made it through the entire book of Revelation! After having someone tell me I should NEVER preach through this book because no one can understand, I was worried we’d end up with confusion and frustration every week, but I’ve already had a number of people tell me they finally feel like they have a grasp of how to interpret this book, which was my prayer when we started this.

-Today’s text serves as a summary, direct application to our lives, and some final reminders on what we’re supposed to do now that we’ve walked through this whole book, not only that, but it’s the last verse of all of Scripture, the last words God wanted us to hear regarding His plans for the reconciliation and renewal of all things. Because the reality is Jesus is coming soon. Now, it’s going to take us another 30 minutes to understand what that means!

READ/PRAY

  1. Look to the Word (6-11)

-The first thing we need to notice is there’s wording and themes here that should sound familiar. Look at the parallels between chapter 1 and 22. It’s almost like there was a plan, purpose, and direction to this entire book to communicate these ideas! This section also sounds very different from all the stuff we’ve been reading over the past number of months.

-Said this in the first sermon I preached in this series: combination of apocalyptic, prophecy, and letter. We’re back to the letter part.

-Begins with the reminder that these words are faithful and true, exact same phrasing we saw in 21:5. God communicates and identifies Himself through words. Words that come from a God who is faithful and true are also faithful and true. 

-Reflecting on why we have the written Word. What’s the best way to communicate something that can be saved and preserved for centuries? Write it down! Make copies of it! (working on digital stuff, have 3 copies of everything)

-Since God wants us to know Him, He had people write down what He wanted us to know, therefore the mark of a Christian is trusting that His Word is faithful and true. Friends, don’t give up on the Bible!

-God of the spirits of the prophets. What is that? True prophets only speak on behalf of God. John is identifying himself in that lineage. Just as God spoke previously to His prophets, He’s concluded His speaking here to John.

-Sent his angel, just like the beginning.

-Soon take place. Look I am coming soon. How soon?

-Is 2,000 years soon? God looks at time differently, think back to Rev. 6 where the martyrs beg God to return and He says “not yet.” My kids think waiting a half hour is FOREVER, and we laugh! Don’t you think that may be a picture of how God looks at time, even 100 years is nothing to Him! But whether it’s 2,000 or 20,000 years, the next step in salvation history is Jesus coming back. 

-If you just think through the primary events in God’s plan of redemption: creation, fall, redemption, salvation, and then consummation is the only thing left!  

-Blessed: Revelation beatitudes. Jesus gives beatitudes in Matt. 5, things like blessed are the poor in spirit, for the kingdom of heaven is theirs. 

-6th of 7 blessings promised throughout this book. Review the blessings:

-Read, hear, and keep the words (remember there’s an end goal for us to DO something with this text)

-If we die in Christ we actually live!

-Alert and clothed: alert to not give in to the way the world works to seduce us, and clothed in Christ’s clothing (19:8: “fine linen represents the righteous acts of the saints.”)

-Invited to the marriage feast – those saved and washed by the blood of the lamb

-First resurrection, when Jesus returns and sets up His kingdom on earth

-Then here we’re back to the start: keep the words of this book (pointing back to the start), 1 more to come.

8-Reminder of who wrote this book: John! Once again, he’s tempted to worship an angel, one of God’s messengers. This happened once before in Rev. 19. 

-All of God’s creation is meant to have 1 aim and goal in life: worship God. Worship isn’t just what we do on Sunday morning (though it includes that), it’s not a type of music (though it includes music), worship is an orientation to our entire lives, it’s what we do all the time, everyone worships something or someone. The most dedicated atheist worships something, but generally their worship is geared/focused on themselves

-I think this focus of this book is to force us to answer the question: what are you worshipping? Some people worship politics (the beast from the sea) and some people worship the power and influence that comes from politics (the beast from the land) but we’re all tempted to worship in worldly categories instead of heavenly categories, the way God intended us to. The temptation is to worship the gifts God has given that point us to Him, because if we pursue them as an end in themselves we will always be lacking. Augustine: our hearts are restless until they find their rest in God. That’s why Revelation is so timely! Do you think anyone is looking to politics for salvation today? Do you think anyone is looking to power and influence for salvation today? Pastors aren’t immune! Why do you think pastors always question how big each other’s church is?

-Friends, what are you worshipping?

-We glance by this: DON’T seal up. Why does that matter?

–Dan. 12:4. God is telling John that the end is now here. It has been the last days since this book was written, 1900 years ago. 

-Vs. 11 seems weird, doesn’t it? Where do we see God encouraging people to sin?

-Once again, John is picking up an idea from Daniel, where it’s not encouraging people to pursue sin, but it’s saying that sin blinds people, and until they are saved they will continue pursuing sin.

-Connection here is unrighteousness leads to being filthy, righteousness leads to being holy. The way you live has spiritual implications, we don’t just work to become a better human, we need a complete transformation. 

-I love the way Jeremiah 31 describes it, it says God will remove our heart of stone and give us a heart of flesh. He’s saying even a quadruple bypass isn’t enough, we need a transplant, an inbreaking of something completely new and alien to us, we need to be spiritually raised from the dead.

  • Look at Your Works (12-15)

-Once again, a reminder that Jesus is coming soon! While He comes in judgment, He also comes with a reward that’s only given to those who live according to His will and ways.

-This comes about only by a transformed heart. You can’t offer good works to God without His Spirit changing you from the inside out. We talked about this idea in Rev. 19, so if you want to hear more about that go back and listen to that sermon, but the core idea is that faith comes by grace alone through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone, but then as Calvin says the faith that saves is never alone because it’s always accompanied by new good works that God has called us to

-And all of this is possible because in 3 different ways, Jesus identifies Himself with God and as the author of history: alpha and omega (A and Z), first and the last (and everything in between), and beginning and the end.

-Time itself only exists in God, that’s why He can speak with confidence and authority about the way everything is going to happen. 

-Final Beatitude (blessing) in the book: wash their robes. What does that mean? Picking up a theme from the rest of the book.

-Multitude in Rev. 7 praising God, one of the elders asks John who they are, John says that the elder must know, so the elder responds: 

-The way our robes are washed is by being washed in the blood of the Lamb. This is picking up another theme that God spoke about back in Isa. 1. The means by which clothes are washed is through faith in Jesus Christ, the outworking of that is “the right to the tree of life” and “entering the city by the gates”

-Remember back to last week where we saw this odd combination of a city and a garden. Reflections back to Eden with the tree of life and the water of life, but now remade as a city. The perfect place, the new Most Holy Place where God lives among His people.

-I also think it’s significant that we enter “by the gates,” where angels watch over them, and they point to the historical validity of Christianity. One of the reasons I remain a Christian is because of history! 

-Think of this: for Buddhism, what would happen if we were able to definitively say that Buddha didn’t exist? Nothing! Hinduism, too many gods to articulate, but has no reflection in reality. Mormons: take away Joseph Smith and nothing happens to their faith (even when their religion is proven time and time again to be historically unverifiable). What is often called Liberal theology even argues that even if Jesus didn’t rise from the dead they would still be Christians (which honestly is just dumb!). Friends, part of the reason you should be a Christian is because of history. We look back to a definitive event where Satan was defeated, and we look forward to an end point in history where death will be no more! Where the gates will never be closed, where everything will be finally work in perfect peace and harmony.

-But not everyone will be there, only those whose lives are marked by Jesus, who are clothed with the righteousness of Jesus, who realize that they can’t do anything in their own strength but need Jesus to work in them.

-For those people:

  • Look to Jesus to Come (16-21)

-Another reminder who’s in control: Jesus. Everything centers on Him, all of History hinges on Him, and the End is held off until He comes back. 

-He’s even in charge of the angels (messengers), notice that the angel’s job is just to serve as the messenger of Jesus.

-Who is the message to? Not to angels, to the churches, the churches which are comprised of those who have washed their clothes in the blood of the Lamb. Picks up the same idea at the very beginning where John recounts that Jesus sent an angel to John, who recorded everything that was revealed (Revelation) to him.

-Jesus is the root and descendent of David (the Messiah), picking up a theme from Isa. 11:1, Jesus is David’s promised son who sits eternally on God’s throne.

-Bright morning star: Num. 24:17. Balaam’s prophesy (mentioned back in 2:14, letter to Pergamum) Balaam hired by a king to curse Israel, goes to do it, but only blessings come out. Friends, God can use even greedy, wealth-seeking false prophets to carry out His will and plan! And the prophesy here is that some star will come to destroy the enemies of God’s people. What has happened over the course of this book? God’s enemies have been destroyed! All of them! None are left. The descendent of David has won!

-What word do you see repeated in vs. 17? Come! This is to anyone who is hearing this message (all of you), and it gives both a command and a commission:

-First the command: Spirit and the bride (anyone remember who the bride is? The church!) they say to come. Come and align yourself with Jesus, wash your clothes in His blood so that He can bring you near.

-Next, the commission: anyone who hears join with the Spirit and the church to say “Come!” Friends, this is where all of us are a part of God’s reconciling plan to bring all things under His sovereign rule and reign. This book isn’t meant to be us sitting in a room by ourselves trying to figure out if we’re living in the last days, because we are living in the last day, and even if Jesus were to come back tomorrow, it would change nothing about what we should be doing today! We’re supposed to be bearing fruit and inviting others to come to have their clothes washed in His blood. I shared this idea a few weeks ago, but I want to say it again: the point of a sermon isn’t for you to walk away with 3 new things to try to “fix” your life in your own strength, the point of a sermon is for you to behold God and remember what Jesus has done for you! And then we are sent back out into the world to continue inviting others to come!

-Which gets us to the third invitation: anyone who is thirsty. Thirsty for what? John 4 – eternal life. Jesus provides the solution to all the deepest longings of your heart. Jesus’ offer is for any and everyone. So if you’re here today and you haven’t yet trusted Jesus to be your Savior and Lord, why not? Your life won’t have any ultimate purpose or meaning until you do, you won’t find the answer to the deepest longings of your heart until you do!

-Then there’s a warning: do not add or take away from any words of this book, but that could also be extended to the rest of the Bible. If God has spoken, we must respond. This actually picks up almost the exact wording in Deut. 4:2. 

-Tertullian: “Just as Christ was crucified between two thieves, so this doctrine of justification is ever crucified between two opposite errors.” 1 error is adding to God’s Word, this would be called “legalism.” This tells you not only what sin is, but how far you need to stay away from even the appearance of sin. But the opposite error is taking away from God’s word, this would be called “licentiousness” living however you want. We must be completely obedient to God’s Word alone, and the temptation is to lean one way or another and call it the gospel, but Jesus doesn’t allow us to do that, He perfectly embodies grace AND truth, not grace OR truth.

-Once again, we’re remined that Jesus is coming soon (in salvation history), and in response John (and we) respond with “Amen!” yes, we agree, come, Lord Jesus!

-This should be the prayer and cry of every Christian down through the ages. We’re supposed to live as Jesus comes back tomorrow, which means get busy being obedient to Him! Luther was asked if he knew Jesus was coming back tomorrow what would he do? He said he would plant a seed today. Where are you planting seeds today that will bear fruit in eternity? Where is God calling you to be faithful today so that you can be ready to see Jesus face to face? Because the reality is He is coming soon! No one knows when, but we need to faithful today because it’s one day closer to THE day.

-God’s grace (undeserving free gift) be with everyone. Amen. What an appropriate way to end this sermon! God’s grace is freely available to everyone! So come, and come Lord Jesus.

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by mikethestrand on November 24, 2024  •  Permalink
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Posted by mikethestrand on November 24, 2024

https://pastormikesmusings.com/2024/11/24/revelation-226-21-sermon-manuscript/

Revelation 21:1-22:5 – Sermon Manuscript

-This American Life, the Sound of Music favorite movie, sharing it with a friend who agreed, minus the Nazis. The primary person said what Nazis? Turned out she’d only ever seen half the movie, so in here mind it was a charming flick about a nanny who brings order to this house, teaches children how to sing, and then rides off into the sunset singing “Good night!” When she was growing up, her family only had 1 of the VHS tapes and had somehow lost the second one.

-That’s the temptations of the human heart, to miss the end of the story. Think of the impulse toward “eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we die.” If this is the only life we have that impulse makes sense. Pursue pleasure and alleviate pain

-But the reality is much different than that. Friends, life is only going to get better, but I can’t promise that will happen before eternity. However, when we know what eternity is like, it makes it easier to endure whatever happens here.

-Norwegian rats and swimming. 

-Book on navigating the future “We tend to oscillate between naïve optimism and cynical pessimism (see the narratives of decline across the political spectrum or the alarming statistical trends in depression, loneliness, and suicide.” “It is only if we can reclaim a sense of Purpose that we will be able to articulate a fully human and cosmic sense of flourishing and address our crisis.” I would say that Purpose (capital P) is to prepare for a new heavens and a new earth.

READ/PRAY

  1. What is New (1-8)

-New heaven and new earth: there is an earth! 

-Passed away – some debate about the significance of this, I would argue that this is similar to the death we will go through. We’ll be raised again, we’ll still be ourselves, but purified.

-Sea: place of chaos, doesn’t mean there’s no water in the new heavens and earth! Probably best to refer to it as the new earth, because the point of this passage is that heaven comes down to earth so they’re now 1 place instead of 2, where right now they separated, they won’t always be

-The holy city, new Jerusalem

–Gal. 4:26 – “The Jerusalem above” Heb. 12:22 “the heavenly Jerusalem”

-We’re supposed to contrast this description with the other woman John saw: Babylon the prostitute. Here all of God’s people are described as a new city

3-The goal of this entire thing, the goal since the Fall has been this reality: God dwelling, tabernacling, living with His people.

-Promised back in Leviticus, promised again in Ezekiel, God is saying all those promises that He made in the past are fulfilled here in the new earth.

-Also shows us that in the new heavens & earth we’re in community. There’s no isolationism in Christianity, there’s no just me and God, it’s always WE and God

4-God will take away all sadness and pain. Those are gone, along with death.

-I want to just mention this briefly (if you want to talk more about this let me know) but one of the realities of heaven is we’ll understand God’s justice rightly, so there won’t be the sadness of knowing someone we loved is in the lake of fire

-Goes on to say that nothing is left out of this renewal! EVERYTHING is made new. Trees and bees and grass and buildings and stars and planets and galaxies, all made new.

-And He guarantees it “faithful and true.”

6-Just like Jesus “it is finished” God has been there from the beginning, He will be there until the end. He gives ridiculously generously to all. But there is a caveat:

7-The one who conquers. Remember that language from the beginning of the book? To each of the churches, God had promised something to the one who conquers, pointing here. Sonship isn’t saying men only, it’s signifying the familial blessing, that context women didn’t receive inheritance

-Unlike the one who conquers is those who go to the lake of fire, not a complete list but representative of a wide assortment of sins

  • What is Symbolic (9-21)

-Some debate about this section (again), is this referring to a literal city, or is it signifying something else. Probably won’t surprise you that I lean toward this signifying something else, we shouldn’t expect to see this giant cube city on the new earth (but again, I’m fine being wrong because God can do whatever He wants!) Just to give you some perspective, here’s the measurements as outlined in the book.

-Why do I think it’s symbolic? Because of vs 10, carried me away in the Spirit, that happened before! Rev. 17 where he saw the fight between the dragon and the woman in labor. Just like that was a symbol of something else, I think this is a symbol of something else.

-Beautiful city, without any of the vices or problems of cities today. Cities in the 1st century were places of protection and security, walls meant bad guys were kept out.

12-12 gates, 3 on each side, named for the 12 sons (tribes) of Israel (Jacob), and 12 foundations built on the apostles.

-God’s goal has always been to have a people living in His place serving under His rule and reign. This is signifying that the ways the world divides people no longer exists. God’s people have come from every nation and culture and all of them are given unmediated access to God Himself! 

15-Angel is given a measuring rod, need the original wording here to not miss the focus of the numbers (symbols not statistics): 12,000 stadia. Just like the 12 gates and 12 foundations, 12 x 103 ALL of God’s people. Not just square, a perfect cube (which has 12 sides)

-Did you know that there’s 1 other place in the Bible that’s a perfect cube? The Most Holy Place in the temple, 1 Kings 6:20 tells us the measurements of it. What’s significant about this is where the Most Holy Place was only accessed 1/year by 1 person, now the whole city is the Most Holy Place, and everyone is welcome there! Direct access to God’s presence!

17-144 cubits (again perfect, 12×12)

-What is the significance of the jewels? No one’s sure, there’s some overlap between this list and the jewels on the priestly garments, but what scholars have found is this exact same list used in the signs of the Zodiac, but backwards. So some think it’s John’s way of saying all the predictions the world offers are cheap imitations, but this is the reality.

-Pearls were the most costly jewel in the 1st century, and I think it should make us think of the parable Jesus tells of the pearl of great value! In the new earth gates are made out of them, and lastly the streets of gold. Picked up from 1 King 6:30

-The temple was meant to be a picture of Eden, which was thought to be modeled after heaven itself, and here we see we now have the full picture. Turns out it was modeled after heaven! 

  • What is Missing (22-27)

-John notices something that’s gone that he was expecting to see. After millennia of God only meeting with his people in a temple, now there’s no temple because there’s no need for one! God is the temple! We have full access to Him without needing anything or anyone else standing in between.

-Vs. 23 doesn’t say there’s no sun or moon, it says there’s no need for them. God’s light illuminates everything else.

-Then vs. 24 says that the nations will walk by its light. So here we see that nations still exist, which means if you haven’t gotten to travel on this side of eternity but there’s places you’ve wanted to visit, just wait. But I would also argue that what is meant by this isn’t just referring to illumination, but is referring to the way everyone’s living is according to God’s will and way. Think of Psalm 119 which says God’s word is a lamp for me feet and a light for my path. Doesn’t mean we hold a Bible to navigate when we go into a dark room, it means our life is guided by God. And think of what Jesus says in John 8 “I am the light of the world. Anyone who follows me will never walk in the darkness but will have the light of life.” 

25-Gates will never close by day, and no night. 

-What’s the point of gates if they never close? Gates are meant to provide protection, and night is the time when people are most susceptible to being attacked. See I don’t think John is saying there’s no more sunsets or sunrises in heaven, I think we’ll still be able to enjoy them, as well as sleeping. What’s meant (similar to the sea) is the negatives that come during night no longer exist. Again, I could be wrong, I’m making speculations based on all Scripture, but I have reasons to think these things!

26-Bring the honor and glory of the nations. Friends, this means things will be redeemed from here and brought there. We’ll still have technology, we’ll still have trees and grass and food and water, but they’ll all function perfectly without ever breaking.

-I read Heaven by Randy Alcorn this week, if you haven’t read it PLEASE get it and read it ASAP, it’s just beautiful. (don’t read “heaven tourism books though) But one of the words he uses in there that I want you to understand is what is being described here is very earthy. It says new heavens and NEW EARTH. I would postulate that what we’ll see there will look very similar to what we see here, but better. Colors will be more vivid, smells will be more potent, but it will be real. 

-Picture of this in The Last Battle of Chronicles of Narnia where Peter and Edmund are looking around at Narnia’s version of heaven where they start to notice familiar hills nearby, then looking closer they realize they are the exact hills they were thinking of!

-What I would argue based on Scripture, is that heaven is all around us, but our eyes can’t see it. Sometimes you can get glimpses, maybe it’s through a specific song or a conversation with a friend or a bite of the most delicious food you’ve ever had or a time of prayer where you get a sense of how wonderful God is, God allows us these glimpses to spur us on. I think there are 2 examples in the Bible that bear this out – think of the stoning of Stephen in Acts 7. He’s giving a glimpse of heaven to encourage him as he faces death! And then 2 chapters later, I think Paul is given the same glimpse, but because he’s not saved he falls on his face. 

-I realize this sounds a little weird, but I truly believe that heaven is a different realm that we can’t see right now. Quantum physics even points us in this direction where they say that there’s all these quarks (real word!) that all interact and engage with each other across the universe. Over my head, so I’ll stop there, but I think heaven is real, those who have died in faith before us are there now waiting for the Lord to enact his Kingdom here just like it is there. There’s more, but let’s finish these last 5 verses:

  • What is Central (22:1-5)

-River of the water of life, where does it come from? Throne, God’s provision for His people. Straight through the heart of this city. Tree of life (apparently a LARGE tree, enough to go across the river) 12 seasons of fruit.

-Once again, I would argue science backs this up. People are trying to bio-hack their bodies to lower their biological age. I read a story this week of someone who celebrates his birthday every 19 months because that’s how long he believes it takes his body to advance a year. What if God has created a fruit that allows our bodies to live forever?

-Leave are for healing of the nations (once again, nations in heaven) 

-No curse, no thorns or thistles in response to our work

4-Right now, no one can see God and live is now changed to we will see His face and our entire orientation is toward Him.

-Finally, we will reign with God. God will have some area (I’m sure of varying sizes) delegated to us. Think of the parable of the servants who were left with talents to steward, then God commissions them with more. Some will be given oversight of a little piece of land, others will be given oversight of cities or nations, but everyone will have some oversight of something in the earth.

-So what? Why is all this important? Because we need to have hope in the midst of the uncertainty of this world. The movie doesn’t end in the middle where we sing “the sun has gone to bed and so must I” and ride off into the sunset, there’s a direction we’re heading. AND in Col. 3 we’re commanded to set our minds on heaven. I believe we’ve over-spiritualized heaven and neglected to read Scripture as God has actually revealed the new heavens AND EARTH to us. 

-And here’s what I mean when I say that. The primary thing we’ll get is being with Jesus, but there’s also additional benefits that are OK to hope for and look forward to. Things like time with dear friends, going for long walks where you knees don’t hurt, time to spend doing the things you love that you don’t have time for now. All those things will be redeemed in heaven. Here’s why I believe that, Heb. 11, the hall of faith: seeking a homeland, desire a better place. Friends, it’s ok to get excited about the gifts of God’s creation, He wants you to! That’s why there’s things that are enjoyable even on this side of heaven. That’s why sunsets are so pretty, that’s why the gentle lapping of the waves at the beach is so soothing, that’s why a perfectly cooked medium rare steak tastes so good, God gives us these things to point to Him and help us remember that He loves us extravagantly!

-But what’s even crazier about this is when can we start getting excited about heaven and preparing for that new home? Right now. Look up at vs. 5, what tense is the verb in? Present. God right now is enacting this new heavens and earth among us. Think of what Jesus said when He taught His disciples to pray: “Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” God’s eternal kingdom is breaking into this earth right here and right now. When you are a humble you’re living in heaven, when you are a peacemaker you’re living in heaven. When you live as God intends you to live, you’re living as a citizen of heaven instead of earth. You’re preparing yourself for life after life after death. God’s plan to redeem creation has already started, it started the moment Jesus rose from the dead. 

-So what are you doing today to take 1 step closer to living in the new earth? And not just for you, who else are you encouraging to grow 1 step closer to living in the new earth? You don’t need to wait to live for eternity, because eternity starts now. Friends, set your minds on heaven, and as the old hymn says “The things of earth (the old earth) will grow strangely dim.” By focusing on heaven we are able to live faithfully here and now.

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by mikethestrand on November 17, 2024  •  Permalink
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Posted by mikethestrand on November 17, 2024

https://pastormikesmusings.com/2024/11/17/revelation-211-225-sermon-manuscript/

Revelation 20:11-14 – Sermon Manuscript

-One of my favorite movies is Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003), based on a ride that’s been at Disneyland since 1967. Who knew you could make a whole feature length movie on a theme park ride, but they did it! The reason I liked it is because it was the next movie from a LOTR star (had to get that movie in there somewhere)

-If you haven’t seen it, follows the story of Captain Jack Sparrow, a pirate who is on a quest to recover his perceived rightful place as the captain of the Black Pearl, a ship from which he was mutinied. Early in the movie, Jack is shown arriving to town on a sinking ship where he quickly runs into trouble. After being cornered by a group of soldiers, a woman that he accidentally saved protests his arrest saying “Commodore, I really must protest. Pirate or not, this man saved my life.” Commodore: “One good deed is not enough to redeem a man of a lifetime of wickedness.” Jack: “Though it seems enough to condemn him.” Commodore: “Indeed”

-I think this is the way many of us tend to view today’s topic: the final judgment, here called the lake of fire, otherwise referred to as hell. If we think of hell at all, we tend to view it as unfair condemnation, and I understand that impulse.

-Not something to take lightly, don’t joke about it, I understand that this topic often comes with much grief 

-I approach this topic with great fear and trembling

-At the same time, as I’ve shared before, where Scripture is emphatic, I’m going to be emphatic, so because it’s in here (and not just a periphery issue), it’s something we need to address.

READ/PRAY

  1. The Great White Throne (11)

-This is the 7th glimpse of the throne in Revelation, so when John mentions it this time he wants us to remember all the previous things we’ve seen:

-1: Rev. 4:2 – someone seated on a throne (no one else is allowed to sit there, and no votes for this position), rainbow around the throne signifying God’s mercy, 24 more thrones with elders on them, in the middle of the throne stands the slaughtered lamb. Centrality of Jesus on the throne, friends this cannot be overstated!

-2: Rev. 7:9 – great multitude who can’t be counted, who cry out that salvation belongs to God, shows us the central place that worship should have in our lives

-3: Rev. 8:1-5 – silence in heaven about a half hour, prayers of the saints rise up to God like incense, shows us that prayer is brought to God’s very throne

-4: Rev. 11:16 – elders giving thanks to God that He has begun to reign and the time to judge has come. Shows us the way God’s just judgment is worthy of praise

-5: Rev. 16:17-19 – voice from heaven “It is done,” praise to God for his ways are just and evil has been vanquished, goes on to recount the destruction of Babylon viewed from the throne. Even the most powerful human institutions can’t stand against God.

-6: 19:4-5 – God seated on his throne, voice from the throne saying to praise God, multitude responds who are invited to the marriage feast of the Lamb showing that there is a way to come before God’s throne: being his pure bride. People used to complain to me about “Jesus is my boyfriend” songs, and I would tell that the problem wasn’t that it was too intimate, it was that they weren’t intimate enough, because Scripture talks about Jesus as our husband.

-All that is now gone, and the focus is on the “great white throne” Great: large, impressive. White: purity

-One seated: the Lamb. That’s why it was important for us to think through all those other glimpses we had of the throne previously. 

-So pure that the corrupted earth and heavens can’t be in his presence. Think of some of the other examples we’ve seen of creation coming undone. 16:20 “every island fled, and the mountains disappeared” peals of thunder, millstones thrown to earth, hail, earthquakes. Think of Rom. 8 where Paul tells us that creation is groaning for this day. Creation was subjected to sin, to death, to decay because the people God created to steward creation destroyed His perfect plans

-Sin can’t be in the presence of holiness. Isa. 6 the prophet catches a glimpse of God seated on His throne and he becomes undone! He worries that he’s going to die because he can’t be in God’s presence and live. God has to send an angel with a burning coal to touch Isaiah’s lips so that he can speak to God. 

-And what’s amazing is because of the slain Lamb we can come boldly into God’s presence. We don’t need any other sacrifices, we don’t need coal from the altar, we can talk to God whenever from wherever! 

-Not a literal fleeing, but creation is coming undone, just like we’ve seen at the end of the seals, trumpets, and bowls. This is preparation for the new heavens & earth

  • The Dead (12-13)

-Throne is the predominant focus, but that’s not all John sees: there’s also the dead

-“great and small” not just wealthy or well known, this is everyone who has ever lived coming to stand before God waiting their turn to be judged.

-And books were opened? Maybe like me, you enjoy reading! Perennially, some of the best-selling books are biographies, and there’s always some bit of juice that comes out each time some new celebrity releases one.

-Look at the end of the verse, “according to their works by what was written in the books.” Apparently there’s a library in heaven with the biography of everyone who’s ever lived. You and me have book that recount our entire life story in them, and according to this everyone will be judged “according to their works.”

–Luke 12:2-3 “There is nothing covered that won’t be uncovered, nothing hidden that won’t be made known. Therefore, whatever you have said in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have whispered in an ear in private rooms will be proclaimed on the housetops.” When I was growing up, the way this was taught to me was that someday there’s going to be a movie that plays for everyone to see what you did in your life, so be careful! But I don’t think that’s what’s meant here.

-Pointing that God is aware of everything. Every thought in your mind, every step you take, Jesus says He knows how many hairs are on your head! Nothing is hidden from Him, which means His judgments weigh everything, He knows everything that has ever happened and nothing escapes from His oversight. Friends, think just how comforting that is! When you’re walking through the valley of the shadow of death, who is with you? God is! Nothing catches Him by surprise, nothing catches Him off guard, even your sins. He knew every sin you would commit, He knew that before sent Jesus to die for you, yet He still did it so that now nothing can separate you from Him.

-What this means is everyone will someday give an account for their actions, and the question for us is whose actions will you be judged by? Because all our actions are as useful to getting to heaven as garbage. Jonathan Edwards said “You contribute nothing to your salvation except the sin that made it necessary” Your contribution is the problem, but we’ll talk about that again at the end.

-Who else comes?

-Sea: if people weren’t given a proper burial, as was customary

-death and Hades: the storehouses of the dead (Rev. 1:18 – Jesus holds the keys to these places meaning He’s in charge of them) 

-These people are also judged according to their works

-How does this language fit with the belief that we are saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, and not according to works? 

-John Calvin: “It is therefore faith alone which justifies, and yet the faith which justifies is not alone: just as it is the heat alone of the sun which warms the earth, and yet in the sun it is not alone, because it is constantly conjoined with light.”

-How do you know if someone is saved? How do you know if someone just says they’re saved? And how do you know if someone isn’t saved? Jesus tells us how in Matt. 7:16 “You’ll recognize them by their fruit.” The question is: what fruit is being demonstrated? See, we’re not commanded to judge whether or not someone is saved, but if someone claims to be saved we do have room to ask if their lives are marked by the right fruit. Jesus says that people can claim to follow Him, prophesy in His name, and even perform miracles in His name, but still not be saved. It must change everything about us, including the ways we live. If we claim to be in Christ but don’t give any evidence of that in our lives (bear fruit) then people should ask us if we’re truly believers. 

-That’s what John is saving here. Salvation only happens by faith alone through grace alone in Jesus Christ alone, but then if we’re truly saved, there will be enough evidence in our lives to demonstrate that reality. 

-This connects to what I shared last week: Jesus wants to be with us in every area of our lives, which means everything we do is an opportunity to honor and glorify Him. Eating, drinking, sleeping, working, playing: all can be done as a way of honoring Jesus as your Lord. And if not, the Bible calls that sin, which as Jack Sparrow learned is enough to condemn someone.

  • The Lake of Fire (14-15)

-This section begins with death and hades are thrown into the lake of fire

-Joining the 2 beasts and Satan, the second death. Everyone dies once, but only those who are going to the lake of fire will die a second time. Similar to Jesus talking about being born again. Everyone is born once, but only those who put their faith in Jesus are born a second time.

-Just so we understand how all the Bible fits together: 1 Cor. 15:26 the last enemy to be abolished is literally death itself. Just as we’ve seen creation coming undone, death is now undone as well.

-Who else? Anyone whose name was not written in the book of life

-This took place before the earth was created. Referring to the beast: (Rev. 13:8) Notice WHEN this happened “from the foundation of the world.”

-Friends, what this means is the ultimate destiny for anyone who worships the beast is the lake of fire

-How could a loving God send anyone to hell? That’s a good and right question to ask! God describes Himself as love, as slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and mercy, as gracious, as patient, so why would He send His creatures to hell? We first need to address what it is we’re talking about, and then I have 7 things (in keeping with the theme in Revelation) we must believe about hell based on Scripture.

-First, when we talk about God we need to recognize that He is God and we are not. He knows more than we do and His judgments are completely right, even when we don’t agree. What that means is while God describes Himself as love, He gets to define love, and while God is love, His love also includes wrath and justice. Think of it like marriage. My wife loves me. If I were to be unfaithful toward her she would rightfully be full of wrath. Throughout this book we’ve seen spiritual idolatry referred to as harlotry, so God’s response to that is condemnation.

-Secondly, everyone believes that some people deserve hell. Hitler, Stalin, etc. THOSE guys deserve hell! Why do we get to go from there to determine who should be deserving of hell? Our judgments are going to be off, but not God’s. Anytime someone wants to debate this topic this is where I go.

-Emotional reaction to this. Emotions aren’t necessarily wrong, but our emotions can’t always bear up to the weight of reality. Pinnock, Stott

-EFCA SOF: “We believe that God will raise the dead bodily and judge the world, assigning the unbeliever to condemnation and eternal conscious punishment and the believer to eternal blessedness and joy with the Lord in the new heaven and the new earth, to the praise of His glorious grace.”

1-The lake of fire is real. While there is a lot of imagery that we shouldn’t take literally in Revelation, the lake of fire is a real place where the unholy trinity will spend eternity with all those he deceived in rebellion against God.

2-The lake of fire is eternal – both in existence and in terms of decision. Once someone dies there are no second chances. Heb. 9:27 tells us that people die once, and after that death face judgment. 

3-The lake of fire is just. No one can blame God (even though they will), no one is there who doesn’t deserve to be there because the judgment of God is perfect. We saw this in Rev. 19:2, the multitude praises God because His judgments are true and righteous. We will someday worship God because He judges everything as it is supposed to be judged. There won’t be any room to debate or defend yourself

4-The lake of fire is where God’s presence in wrath is poured out. We saw this back in Rev. 14:9-11. Undiluted wrath poured out on the unbelieving, and how long does it endure? Forever and ever. That’s a VERY long time!

5-Jesus believed and preached on hell, a lot! He had no issue telling people exactly where their destiny was! For the sake of time, just one example, but we could pick any of the Gospel accounts and find Jesus talking about the reality of hell.

6-People choose to spend eternity in the lake of fire we often quickly jump to the throwing into the lake of fire, but what we miss is that people willingly pursue it. Remember, people will give an account for how they lived, and even if they were given the choice to leave they would still want to stay in torment. You can see this in the parable Jesus tells of Lazarus and the rich man in Luke 16. The rich man in hell never asks to be released. Hell is where he’s supposed to be. 

7-Eternity is the destiny for everyone. Everyone lives forever, some will spend eternity in the new heavens and earth, and some will spend eternity in the lake of fire.

-Once again, just as we’ve seen throughout this whole book, there’s only 2 ways to live: either for God, or opposed to God. You either willingly bow the knee to Jesus now and find the life you’ve been looking for, or you’ll be forced to bow the knee to Him later where you’ll get the life you deserve.

-But this isn’t something to gloat over, it’s not something to wish away, it’s something to remember because each day you’re helping point people (and yourself) to one of these 2 places.

-I shared the story of Jack Sparrow at the beginning, and we saw in the passage that everyone’s story is being recorded in heaven. But there’s a big difference in the story between someone who’s been washed by the blood of the Lamb, and those who have chosen to live their own way. In many cases, the stories would read exactly the same! Snapped at his kids here, gossiped about a friend there, cut someone off in traffic here, but for some people, next to the sins it says “forgiven.” Those sins are crossed out and in their place it says “read Jesus’ book here.” 

-If anyone here wants to have their story changed, now is the time! Don’t let this moment pass you by, believe in your heart that Jesus is who He said He was: the Savior of the world, and then confess that He rose again your book can be rewritten, you no longer need to worry about ever being condemned.

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by mikethestrand on November 10, 2024  •  Permalink
Posted in Bible, Church, Life, Sermon
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Posted by mikethestrand on November 10, 2024

https://pastormikesmusings.com/2024/11/10/revelation-2011-14-sermon-manuscript/

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