Thursday, June 18, 2009

The Temptation in the Wilderness

This is simply one of my favorites. I think that's because, every time I "preach" it, the riveting drama of that scene in the wilderness arrests me all over again and what Jesus really means to the world (whether or not the world knows it) and, most of all, to God. The word "hero" comes to mind, but it can never suffice.

(Read Matthew 4:1-11)

Jesus is in the wilderness. There’s no food, no water, no friends, no shelter. There’s also no temple, no synagogue, not even a Bible.

But what is there? In the day there’s scorching heat, in the night, bitter cold. There’s rocky ground. There’s loneliness and silence. But there’s also something else. Waiting for Jesus there in the wilderness is an enemy who wishes Jesus only evil, who strives with all he’s got to destroy this Jesus, knowing the central role Jesus plays in this key moment of the world’s existence. And therefore, the devil mercilessly capitalizes on Jesus’ hunger and fatigue, trying to find his weak spot, his vulnerability, to get the upper hand on him and ultimately finish him off. This is the enemy Jesus talks about in the Gospel of John (read John 8:44).

In these temptations it’s clear how the devil launched his attacks at the most sensitive element of the human soul: self-knowledge. We use various terms for this concept: self-esteem, self-awareness, self-understanding, self-image. But we can sum it all up in one question: “Who am I?” I think we have all had the frightening experience of waking up in the middle of the night – maybe when you’re on a trip somewhere – and not knowing where you are. For a moment or two there’s a very unpleasant disorientation! But it all comes back quick enough. Now imagine how much worse it is to not know who you are – to really not know what your name is, where you come from, or anything that has ever happened to you – to have no idea what the word “I” means. If you’ve never experienced it, be very glad. Because it’s a terrible place to be. And this is the place the devil is trying to get Jesus to with the continual repetition of one word, “if”.

(Read Matthew 4:3,5)

In the utilization of that one word “if” echoes all of the devil’s hatred for Jesus, all the insidiousness with which he tried to plant doubt and fear in Jesus’ mind.

But take note: Jesus never even responded to the hint. He refused to even recognize the suggestion. He didn’t argue, saying, “What do you mean: ‘if’? How dare you! I am absolutely the Son of God!”

If Jesus had started arguing that way with the enemy, then the enemy would already have won, because he’d be dictating to Jesus the terms of the argument, he’d be deciding the meaning of this confrontation. In that case, Jesus would have been defending himself, talking about himself, focusing on himself, in the same way the devil’s questions were focused on Jesus. As awful as it sounds to even say it, Jesus would have been following the devil’s lead.

Unfortunately, this is precisely how Eve reacted to temptation. She allowed the devil to dictate the terms of the encounter, the “rules of the game”. The devil raised questions that exposed God’s express word to doubt – “Did God really say...? – and Eve decided to try and explicate, to elucidate the matter to the devil (as if he didn’t know), and that led to nothing but her finally caving in, and we know what that meant. And the devil knew very well how much more it would mean if he could pull it off again, this time, out there in the desert, with Jesus.

But the Savior of human souls’ response is on a different plane altogether. He never permits the devil to dictate terms. He doesn’t cave in to insinuations about his identity. In fact, he doesn’t even give them the time of day. Jesus wasn’t about to debate the issue with the enemy. Instead, he fixed his gaze on what I would call the “actuality of the truth”. That is, the truth that is not merely conceptually true, theoretically true, but the truth which is, in fact, what really is – the way things are. That is the truth that is real and defines us and can always be leaned on, because it is. It actually is. We can abandon ourselves to it because it is greater than we are. Ultimately, this truth is God.

Look at Jesus’ answers to the devil in verses 4, 7 and 10 (read). You’ve probably heard many sermons already where the preacher points out that Jesus always responded with the same words. And what were those words? (“It is written”). Yes, and the lesson is always identified as “We must use Scripture to overcome temptations”. Well, you have heard that lesson many times. So I want to point out something different that maybe you never noticed. In every one of Jesus’ answers there’s another word, too. What word is it? ...... (Yes) The word is “God”. Did you ever notice that before? Every time the devil attacks, saying “If you're the Son of God... thrown yourself off the temple... I’ll give you all these things... you, you, you”, Jesus answers saying, “God. God. GOD.” Jesus throws himself totally on the reality that surpasses, transcends, overcomes this particular situation. He is completely directed by the all-encompassing truth, the truth that is his shelter and refuge here in the wilderness, his bread and water, his comfort and strength, his all in a place where he has nothing.

And it is here precisely that we find an utterly profound lesson in this event. All of Jesus’ attention there in the wilderness was fixed on God alone. And the profound paradox of the profound lesson is that by fixing his attention on God, Jesus threw off every attack on his own self-image. Paying no attention to himself, he saved himself. Not worrying in the least about who he was, he proved who he was.

Let’s read what it says in Matthew 16:24 (read).

Jesus is not pronouncing empty theory here. Jesus is testifying from personal experience. He went through this in the wilderness, and not only there. And He came out the winner. This tells us that it can be done; it’s realistic and it’s do-able in life, even in our lives. Christ went through this and, living in us, will get us through it, too. The one who lives in us by grace is the one the apostle Paul says the following about (read Phil. 2:5-11).

Just as the reality of God transcended the devil’s attacks, so Jesus always transcends whatever situation we may find ourselves in. The truth of God is our shelter in the wilderness, our bread and water, our liberation from the enemy’s attacks and a sanctuary for our hearts. There we are never alone.

But if we depend on external things, if we lean on what’s tangible, then it’s hard to find and stay in that spiritual place of strength and freedom. And sometimes God allows us to find ourselves in the wilderness, where we don’t have, perhaps, the usual feelings, no spiritual comforts or even desires, and in such a spiritual wilderness a deep question arises: can I stay faithful, can I even remain a Christian, especially when the enemy shows up and says, “Are you really a Christian? Look, you’re in the wilderness. What makes you any different from anybody else? What does this ‘faith’ of yours mean? It’s not faith; it’s just... an opinion. Well, fine, everybody has opinions. So what? Why pretend your opinion makes you anybody special? Who do you think you are, really?” And in all those temptations the key words, yet again, are “you, you, you.” The devil’s attacks will always turn our attention on ourselves. But here’s the thing: we are not the Author of faith, we are not the eternal Creator, we are not the source of life, we are not the triumphant Savior, who is risen and returning. we are not the answer, but the ones who depend on the Answer – the Answer Who encompasses, embraces and keeps us now and into eternity itself. There is no other answer to the devil’s attacks but to fix our eyes on Christ, on his word of life, on the unshakeable expectation which he has won for us with his death and resurrection.

(Read Hebrews 12:2)

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

A Holy Place, a Holy Purpose (Part Three)

This is the concluding sermon in our little series. I have to admit, this final sermon could ITSELF be three sermons, but I’ll try to pack a lot of ideas into this one message, touching on each idea at least a little bit.

In the last two sermons, we thought about the Garden of Eden as God’s holy place of fellowship with Man. The Fall interrupted what should have been a wonderful, spontaneous, natural growth in loving knowledge between God and Man. It also interrupted, I might say, threw a monkey wrench into, Man’s proper role and appointment in the sphere of creation. Man became incompetent to shepherd the created order into its God-intended perfection. But at the Fall the work of redemption was also launched, in which God labors to bring Man back to the holy place. And over the course of those labors, God gives us glimpses and reminders of the original design – a design that inheres in and informs the pattern and aim of redemption. On the mountaintop God appeared to the elders of Israel, surrounded by glory, and they were awed that they could see Him and live. For a moment the veil was lifted on the vision of ultimate holiness, and Man fellowshipped with God and ate and drank in His presence. But the veil came quickly down again, and the incredible, astounding vision became symbolized – you might say, locked up – in the ark of the covenant behind the curtain in the Holy of Holies. And the cherubs were part of the curtain and part of the ark, reminding us all of the holy place we lost long ago, when the cherubs were placed on guard in front of the Garden and the way to the Tree of Life. The whole rest of the story can be summed up with one question: how can man get back; how can Man pass again through the cherubs and the terrible sword and come to the Tree of Life in God’s holiest place?

Now please put on your running shoes as we will be racing together through many passages that trace this story and these images through history.

The prophet Isaiah says these words (read Isaiah 2:2-3).

Just as the elders of Israel met God on the mountaintop, so the whole world will one day be summoned to God’s holy mountain, to hear the word of the Lord from God Himself. The mountain speaks of excellence, of supremacy; it stands as the theological center of creation, out of which radiate God’s glory and holiness. Physical symbols like the temple or the ark of the covenant, though they are holy because they are God’s, are nevertheless only shadows of the real thing, as the writer of the epistle to the Hebrews explains. Indeed, Jesus Christ sitting on the mountain teaching his followers was much more of a fulfillment of this divine design than any temple or ark could be.

Then Isaiah sings a poetic allegory for us (read Isaiah 5:1-2).

Who is this “one I love”? It is of course the Lord. And He has planted a vineyard, as He once planted a Garden, and the vineyard is Israel. God did everything possible, provided everything necessary, created the best conditions in which Israel might become a representation, a picture of the perfect design God had for Man in the beginning – even if only in miniature and approximately. The Garden was a place of fertility and fruitfulness. And here God has appointed Israel to be a place of fertility and fruitfulness, to taste something of the intimacy between God and Man that had been lost. Ideally, Israel would become a new center, like the Garden, from which would radiate out the glory and good news of God’s kingdom. But this vineyard brought only bad fruit and grief. The curse of sin continued to wreak its destruction – but notice, all the same, that the original design and desire of God persist. God does not give up.

Then in chapter six, Isaiah receives the vision from God (read Is. 6:1-3)

Perhaps we rush to conclude that the seraphs of Isaiah’s vision are entirely different creatures than the cherubs, because they have different names. But these names are simply descriptions. Just as you could say that I am a teacher and an American and a missionary. But I’m still one person. The meaning of “cherub” is not entirely clear, but the meaning of “seraph” is much clearer. It means a “fiery one”. I think it is quite possible that these seraphs, in fact, are the cherubs, and the term “fiery ones” describes what they looked like at the moment, standing before God’s throne. They glowed, they blazed in the unquenchable glory of His holiness, the same holiness that radiated in the fiery sword and the burning bush. And they proclaimed the holiness which is whole entire meaning and existence.

In all other passages, it is only the cherubs who are linked this way with God’s holy place and glory. Later in Ezekiel, when we read about God abandoning the temple in Jerusalem, there is no mention of seraphs, as such, but the cherubs are there. And they are quite similar to the seraphs – understandable if, in fact, they are one and the same thing. And if the ark of the covenant symbolizes God’s throne, with the golden cherubs molded right into it, then I think that’s even more proof that the seraphs standing next to God’s throne are cherubs glowing with a fiery glow. But even if I’m wrong and they are different kinds of beings, they still have more in common than differentiates them. They all guard and exalt the holiness of God. They all shout, “Holy! Holy! Holy!”, the seraphs here and the cherubs in the book of Revelation. They are immediately associated with God’s glory – Isaiah sees the temple filled with God’s glory and there are the seraphs; Ezekiel sees the glory of God departing the temple, and with it go the cherubs. When the cherubs-seraphs appear in the story of redemption, clearly it says something about the holiness and glory of God. They are telling us something about the real order of things in the heavenly places, about the centrality and eternality and sacredness of God’s presence. An order meant to be reflected in all the earth, and which one day will be.

But there’s one more part of the vision we really cannot let slip by: (Isaiah 6:8) “Then I heard the voice of the LORD saying, ‘Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?’ And I said, ‘Here I am, send me!’”

You remember that we observed in Genesis how God spoke in the plural, “We”, two times, and both times were involved with a fundamental issue of Man’s nature and God’s relationship with him? God spoke this way when He created Man and again when He expelled Man from the Garden. Now, again, God says “We”, and once again it involves a fundamental aspect of God’s timeless design for Man. God is doing His missionary work, the pursuit of Man that started as soon as He sent Man away from the Garden. Isaiah sees the vision of glory and hears the seraphs cry “Holy! Holy! Holy!” and the first question, the only question, to be decided is, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” God is not content to remain a prisoner behind His own veil of holiness. He is not content to hear only the seraphs cry “Holy!” He is not content to leave Man outside the Garden wall, exiled, estranged and lonely. Ultimately, God is not content to have only a temple as His holy place. God’s true holy place must finally be the heart of Man, a place of holy intimacy. Glory, holiness and mission; these three realities are inextricably bound up with each other.

But this story takes many turns, often tragically. We have spoken about Man’s exile from the Garden, but how often do we think of God’s exile from the temple? Let’s read from Ezekiel 10 (read vv. 9-15, then 18-19).

Those “whirling wheels” strongly remind me of the flashing, twirling sword that appeared with the cherubs in front of the Tree of Life. I can’t say for sure that it’s the same thing, but I know at least they have this much in common: they appeared together with the cherubs precisely at the landmarks of history when God withdrew His holy presence from Man. The appearance of the cherubs and the mysterious fiery symbol, which itself didn’t fit any human definitions, speaks, I believe, of the incomprehensible, un-graspable holiness and glory of God, as well as the tragically fallen state of Man that makes him incapable of understanding what he sees. It reminds us of what we lost in the Fall. Here in this vision we meet the cherubs again, and they are engaged in a tragic task. They are accompanying the glory of God out of the temple. God is abandoning His house; the dream is dead, the glory has departed. Most heartbreakingly, just as the cherubs reach the entrance, the last step before utterly deserting the temple for good, they stop. The glory of God stops there, above them, as if pausing to take one last look, in grief, before the final goodbye. And then they go. The house is empty. The day when the shekinah glory inhabits the temple of Solomon is over, and will never come again. Because God never does exactly the same thing twice.

The good news, though, is that God will do something even better. His glory is too great – He will not allow anything to defeat Him.

When Christ appears on the earth, he tells his disciples: (Jn. 15:1) “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener” and (15:5) “I am the vine; you are the branches”, and he tells the Samaritan woman at the well, (Jn. 4:14) “Whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” And again he says to his disciples, (Jn. 15:8) “This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.” And yet again (Jn. 10:10) “I have come that they may have life, and have it abundantly.”

That is, Jesus comes to the world, to the lost children of Adam and Eve, speaking again the language of fertility, fruitfulness and abundance, the language of the Garden.
Desiring the knowledge of good and evil more than the knowledge of God, man became incompetent and ignorant, but Jesus speaks of true knowledge, the knowledge that man needed most from the very beginning:

(Jn 10:14-15) “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me—just as the Father knows me and I know the Father”, and, (Jn. 15:15) “I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.”

Jesus speaks also the language of holiness and intimacy: (Mt. 5:8) “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God”, and (Jn. 15:3-4) “You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me and I will remain in you”, and (Jn. 14:23) “If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.”

The heart of man finally will be God’s home. God has accomplished His holy desire. And the good news is that God’s holy desire is also our blessedness.

Like the Garden, and like Israel, which were centers of divine action and purpose, centers which were supposed to grow and radiate the glory and holiness of God to the whole world, now Jesus uniquely, perfectly fulfills it all in himself. Now there are no walls, no borders, no veils! Jesus says, “Mt. 5:14) “You are the light of the world”, and, (Mt. 28:18-19) “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations....”
As no one else could, Jesus passes through the cherubs and sword, tearing apart the veil of holiness and pouring his own life’s blood on the ark of the covenant, exchanging his death for ours. The glory has come home again to the Temple, not like before but even greater. The heavenly creatures that Isaiah saw as they cried “Holy! Holy! Holy!” now cry out again, as we read in Revelation 4 (read Rev. 4:2-8) and they sing a new song to the Lamb (read Rev. 5: 9-10).

And God will have his holy people, in a new creation, in perfect love and never-ending joy: (Read Rev. 22:1-5).

A Holy Place, A Holy Purpose (Part Two)

I suppose I should note that this trilogy of sermons was not, in fact, designed for a church service. They’re a bit heavy for regular church services. These three sermons were composed for our chapel services at the Bible college, for an audience of students.

In the last sermon we thought about the Garden of Eden and Man’s expulsion from it. Now we’ll go on and look at key moments in the history of redemption that recall that scene and, at the same time, point to the future.

As we continue to read the story of God’s acts in human history, it should not surprise us it, here and there, we catch brief glimpses of that Garden, reminders of the last images Adam and Eve saw when they left the Garden in grief. Why shouldn’t it surprise us? Because the grand movements and tides of God’s history take their very sense and meaning from that original place where God and Man enjoyed holy fellowship. The end of the story, where everything is heading, must in some way be similar to the beginning. Why? Because that’s the very meaning of redemption! Redemption means bringing back, restoring what was lost. And if so, then we can expect to see a similarity between the beginning of all things as God made it and the end of all things as God will make it.

No, I’m not saying that the future will simply be an exact copy of the past. I believe that God never does exactly the same thing twice. In the future, a completely redeemed creation will be something more and greater than the original creation was. In what ways? No one knows all the ways, of course, but here’s at least one way: in God’s eternal kingdom, Man will forever be Man redeemed by the blood of the Lamb; this is a reality that would never have been if man hadn’t sinned. That doesn’t make it good that man sinned; it just proves God’s power to conquer the worst evil and darkness and to accomplish an even more glorious purpose than anyone could have imagined.

But – ! Even if the future creation will contain a greater glory than the original, all the same the future creation cannot negate the original. God’s design for the first creation was holy and good, and His fellowship with Man in the Garden was wonderful. God’s design for a new, redeemed creation will not negate that but only raise it to greater heights of fulfillment – just as Jesus did not come to destroy the Law but to fulfill it.

Whether we recognize it or not, the whole meaning of the Garden is still a present, determinative meaning in the affairs of God and Man; the Garden is still essential to who we are, and to Who God reveals Himself to us as. The holiness and intimacy, the fruitfulness and fertility, the Lordship and glory – all these living realities of the Garden are intrinsic to the spirit of redemption, both in its present operations and its final consummation. It is therefore inevitable that these realities would be glimpsed again and again in the history of redemption.

Let’s look at two passages that offer us such glimpses. The first is Exodus 24:8-11 (read)
Suddenly the elders find themselves in the very presence of the living God. They “saw the God of Israel”. They didn’t fully understand what they saw. Under his feet was “something like” a pavement made of sapphire, clear as the sky. What it was exactly, they didn’t know – or else they would have told us! They saw something that was beyond their understanding, but they knew that this was God. It is a shocking, unexpected moment. They knew that, by all rights, they should have been struck dead instantly but, astonishingly, they live. Not only lived, but ate and drank before God! And “He did not stretch out His hand against them.” Man had not experienced anything like this since... the Garden! The Garden also was a place where God came and fellowshipped with Man, and where Man ate and drank and enjoyed the bounty of God’s creation. And in the Garden, too, God did not stretch out his hand against Man. This astonishing, frightening event on the mountaintop is like a veil being momentarily lifted, allowing a glimpse into realities that have always been there, behind the visible world. For a moment, the elders of Israel are allowed to be where no one should be, and to see what no one should see. Why? After the nation’s long exile in Egypt, they need a vision – a vision that speaks of both the beginning that Man lost and the future that God will restore. They needed this vision, or God would not have given it to them. Only God has the prerogative to depart from the norm like this, at the time and place of His choosing and for His inscrutable purposes.

Even so, notice that they received this vision only after going through the blood. Before there was glory on the mountaintop, there was the spilling of blood and the words, “This is the blood of the covenant.” Later in history a different meeting between God and His chosen people takes place, but the glory is hidden in human flesh. And there is again eating and drinking, but a different voice, one greater than Moses, says, “This is the blood of the covenant.” And even though this scene would appear less dramatic to any observer, in a real sense the disciples in the upper room were seeing God even more truly than the elders of Israel did on the mountaintop. As Jesus said to Philip, “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?” And they ate and drank in his presence and he did not stretch out his hand against them, but called them his friends, and, after they had sung a psalm together, he led them out into the night, and to a garden and a cross....

But let’s return for now to the book of Exodus. Immediately after that incredible vision on the mountaintop, in the very next chapter, we find God’s instructions for the building of the Tabernacle. And we read these words (read Exodus 25:17-22).

When the elders of Israel were on the mountaintop it was as if the veil had been lifted for a moment, the veil separating Man and God. But then the veil falls again on the scene, the departure from the norm is concluded. It is not yet time for Man to remain freely in sight of the vision of God and live. The veil comes down again on this departure from the norm and now, instead, the ark and the Holy Place will be the witness to this past and future reality. Once again the cherubs appear, just as they did when Man was banished from the Garden. Just as they guarded the Tree of Life, now they guard, once again, God’s holy place. Specifically they guard the “atonement cover”, the most holy place on earth. The atonement cover is the testimony of the blood which will pay the price for the sins of the world. Just as the real cherubs stood in front of the Tree of Life together with a supernaturally blazing sword that swept and slashed in every direction, so these golden cherubs stand over the place where the blood must be spilled. The only way back to the Tree of Life is through a sword, and through blood. The cherubs will allow nothing but pure holiness to enter there. The cherubs face each other, but they do not look at each other. They gaze forever at the atonement cover. The holiness of God is their sole occupation - you might say their obsession, their only reason for existing.

The cherubs appear not only on the ark of the covenant but also in the veil that hides the ark in the Holy of Holies. (Read Exodus 26:31-33) How can we help but notice that, first, God explicitly pointed out that the golden cherubs must be made of one piece with the atonement cover and then He says that the cherubs must be worked into the veil. That is, they must be part of the veil, part of the barrier separating Man from God’s holy presence, just as they are part of the atonement cover that demands the sacrificial blood for restoration and return. The curtain and the ark both speak about the integrity, the wholeness, of God’s purposes. There are no shortcuts to the ultimate accomplishment of His plan. You can’t leave any part out. It will all have to be thoroughly, absolutely, perfectly carried out. There is no way back to the Garden except through the cherubs and the sword. There is no way into the Holy of Holies except through the cherubs and the blood. There is no way “back to the future” except to cross, somehow, through the terrible curtain of holiness, the divine holiness which the cherubs worship and protect.

The vision on the mountaintop has been taken away, and Moses has gone on alone to receive the Law from God’s hand, the law that convicts of sin and makes manifest to everyone why Man suffers his present exile from the holy place. And the heavenly glory has hidden itself behind the curtain, separated from Man, guarded by cherubs, waiting for the day when one Man will reunite the past and future at the cost of his own body. Through the tearing of his own heart he will tear the veil, too, the holy curtain that divides the Father from the children made in His image. And the cherubs will then cry out, more gloriously than ever, “Holy, holy, holy! Worthy is the Lamb!”

“Worthy are you to take the book and to break its seals, for you were slain and purchased for God with your blood people from every tribe and nation. You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God, and they will reign upon the earth.”

From the very beginning God’s intent and design was one holy people for Himself. He will achieve His purpose and nothing will stop him.

God gave the elders of Israel a vision because they needed it.

So do we.

Monday, June 15, 2009

A Holy Place, a Holy Purpose (Part One)

This and the following two sermons constitute one series. (These are longer and heavier messages, by the way!) The general gist of the three sermons together is this: Man was created from the very start to be God’s unique, sacred, holy dwelling place, in love and mutual knowledge, and this thread of meaning can be traced in certain fascinating, and generally overlooked, images and themes that develop and grow from Genesis to Revelation. The concluding simple picture of the round world, and what is meant by it, are taken from the poem by C.S. Lewis, “Poem for Psychoanalysts And/Or Theologians”. I discovered in a certain commentary on the Internet that this poem was originally called “The World is Round”. The commentator found Lewis’ alteration to the longer title “inexplicable”. To me, it’s anything but inexplicable. I find Lewis’ final choice to be both delightfully ironic and movingly wise. You could write a whole book about that title. Or at least, Lewis could.

(Read Genesis 3:21-24)

I want to begin by addressing a common misperception about one of the first, most important events recorded in the Bible – the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden. In our imagination, thanks to picture Bibles and works of art and posters hanging on Sunday Schools walls, we see Adam and Eve trudging away from the Garden, dressed in animal skins, cowering in fear and shame, while behind them stands the angel holding the sword.

The picture is wrong.

Now, maybe the picture is alright as far as Adam and Eve go. They may have looked just like that. But the picture of the angel is all wrong. For a few reasons. Look carefully at the text. It never says that the angel was holding a sword and, in fact, it never even says there was an angel there at all! On top of that, whoever it was that God did put there to guard the garden, the Bible says there was more than one of them! So the picture we have in our minds – one angel holding sword – is just about as wrong as wrong can be. And this is the starting place of my sermon today, and the next few sermons that will be connected to it, not because I’m a stickler for details or I just like being picky. This is the starting point because God has invested a profound theological lesson, in fact a heartbreakingly glorious revelation of Himself and His purposes, in what really happened there at the Garden. If we love God, then of course we want to understand His lessons right, so we can know Him and His ways more and more deeply all the time.

Now, about the angel... who wasn’t there. The Word actually says that God put cherubim there. A better translation, as maybe some of your Bibles have, is “cherubs”, because the Hebrew word is “cherub” and the ending “-im” is like the English “-s” – it just means there was more than one of them. Now when I mention “cherubs”, the very first thing we absolutely must do is delete from our minds all thoughts and images of cute little naked winged babies, the image with which the word “cherub” has become associated in western tradition. That picture has nothing at all to do with real cherubs. I doubt you’d find anything in the least bit “cute” about real cherubs. I doubt Adam and Eve did. They were probably terrifying.

How many cherubs did God place in front of the Garden, blocking the way to the tree of life? Text doesn’t say. But usually in the Bible there are four cherubs whenever they appear – and that’s several times: in Exodus, Ezekiel, Revelation, possibly in Isaiah. And what did the cherubs look like? Again, you can refer to Ezekiel and revelation to find out, and we will be saying more about the “what” and the “why” of these cherubs in the next few sermons. But for now, just think: “the four living creatures”. If anything, they look more like animals than what we think of as angels.

Now we turn to the sword. Somebody might ask, “Well, alright, then. If there were four or more cherubs, then which one was holding the sword?” That’s easy – look at the scripture. The answer is, none of them. The text doesn’t say anyone was holding the sword, and if you read the description very carefully it looks like no one could have been holding it. It says that God placed cherubs and a sword in front of the Garden. The sword was a flaming sword, flashing back and forth. What kind of “sword” is that? I don’t know, but it’s definitely impressive! It was just there, blazing, somehow flashing, maybe slashing, back and forth, perhaps even revolving. Between this and the cherubs, the message was clear: approach this tree and die. Imagine what a heartbreaking message that is for God to send.

And why did God banish Adam and Eve forcefully from the Garden, with such a terrible sight blocking the way back? Why was it so important that they not go back? What does this tell us about the Garden, and about God, and about man? These are the questions we want to explore together.

The text gives an immediate answer as to why God expelled Adam and Eve from the Garden: “And then the LORD God said, ‘The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.’” These words reveal a great mercy. Tell me, what’s worse than being a sinner? It’s being a sinner who can never die. This is something beyond our imagination. To be a sinner means to live in a ruptured relationship, alienated from God, even from your own self, not to mention other people. Imagine how horrible it would be to live eternally in that condition. God saved humanity from such a fate by expelling Man from the Garden – at least, until Man would be ready to come back to this holy place and eat from this tree.

What else do we notice in God’s words? We notice that He speaks in the plural: the man has become like one of us. There are only two places in the story of creation where God speaks this way. The first is when God says, “Let us make man in our image.” So the first time that God speaks in the plural, it is uniquely, significantly in connection with the creation of Man. God didn’t talk that way when He created light or water or stars or animals. Only when He created Man. Could that mean something? I think it does! I think it reflects the fact that, unlike all other created things, only Man reflects the triune being of God. God is in His very self, a Being of relationship. Even without anyone else existing, God is Himself a perfect relationship of love. And Man, uniquely in God’s creation, is a creature of relationship – relationship within himself, relationship between people and, ultimately, relationship with God. I believe that this is why God speaks in the plural here, because this part of creation, Man, especially connects to the “Us-ness” of God, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. When God created Man in His image, God created Man in the image of relationship, in the image of love.

And now, only the second time in the whole story of creation, God speaks in the plural, saying, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil.” Here the revelation about who God is that started in the words “Let us make man...” grows even deeper . Once again, God’s speaking in the plural is directly tied to His dealing with Man. Only with Man. This time, God is comparing the creature Man to Himself – Man is now “like one of us, knowing good and evil.” Now, someone might ask, “What’s wrong with that? Didn’t God say He wanted man to be in His image? Wasn’t Man supposed to be like God?” Well, that’s easy: the answer is a clear yes-and-no. Yes, “like God”, with personality and a free will to freely love Him. But no, not like God in the sense of being God, or overriding God’s decisions. Here, Man grabbed for himself something God said wasn’t for Man – or at least, not yet. But Man grabbed it, and now Man knew what good and evil were.

Again, someone might object: what’s so bad about knowing good and evil? God knows good and evil and that doesn’t make God a sinner. Exactly. Because He’s God. We’re not. God can do no evil. He cannot be tempted with evil. But He knows evil, because He knows all things. God must know what evil is, and He can know it without being it. But here’s the big difference between God and Man. Man cannot know evil without being evil. At least, that was true at the time of Adam and Eve, in the infancy of humanity.

Think about what that tree was called: the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. I have said that God is a God of relationship. “Relationship” means knowing. When we know a person we have a relationship with him. When God made Man, He made Man to know Him. What Man needed to know was God, not evil. That’s about as plain and simple as I can put the whole idea: what Man needed to know was God, not evil. God was all that Man needed to know; there could be nothing better. There was nothing that tree of knowledge could offer to outshine the discoveries waiting in the daily walk with God through the Garden. The relationship between Man and God was – again, to put it simply – just fine; it wasn’t broken, there was no need to fix it. More than that, it was holy, sacred, inviolable. The Garden was their sacred place, a place of fruitfulness, growth, and not only in the material sense. It was the holy meeting place, and nothing could improve on the growing love and understanding there between God and His children. But instead of knowing God, Man chose to know good and evil. Unfortunately, Man cannot know “good and evil” without knowing evil – it’s a package deal. But to be in the process of knowing evil is to not be in the process of knowing God, who is holy. I cannot be experiencing evil and experiencing God simultaneously. To the extent I choose to know evil, I choose not to know God. That’s the choice Adam and Eve made.

Oh, yes, Man does gain a certain kind of knowledge from the experience of evil – that’s why God called the tree a tree of knowldege (and God doesn’t lie) – but it is not the sort of knowledge Man needs. When they grabbed the fruit of that tree, Adam and Eve gained a knowledge which didn’t enrich them; rather, it deprived and impoverished them. They learned precisely what they had no need to know – that was a first in all creation, that Man, the creature made in God’s image, expended time and energy and free will and personal initiative on something that was totally useless and destructive. Imagine! And having learned what they didn’t need to know, they lost what they did need to know. They lost their personal knowledge of God. Gaining knowledge, they lost knowledge. The knowledge of God was knowledge of a different kind. It was primordial, of the first order, before even the knowledge of good and evil. With that ultimate knowledge, Adam and Eve, in fact, didn’t even need the knowledge of good! They only needed to know God and fellowship with Him in His special place, in their special place, the Garden. There was no temple, no Holy of Holies, no Jerusalem, just Man and the Garden. And the knowledge of God – more magnificent and than any knowledge of good and evil. (You know, I don’t think it’s any accident that Jesus told his disciples, “You will be holy”, not “You will be good.”)

As I said, there was no temple, no sanctuary, no city where God had placed His name. If there was an holy place for God’s dwelling, it was the earth itself, and especially the Garden, and most especially of all, Man Himself. Man was God’s special holy place – special, pure, beyond price, exclusively God’s. And the inconceivable holiness of that relationship made everything it touched holy, too. The holiness of that love-relationship between God and Man was appointed to radiate out and raise the entire creation to the status of holy place and a total offering of love to God. I don’t believe it was simply “Man’s job”, as they say, to “take care” of the earth, like you ask a friend to take care of your dog when you go away on a trip. I believe rather that this was supposed to be man's participation with God in His holy purposes, to creatively, joyfully make the whole world in a fitting “temple” for God’s glory. In that sense, the first missionary was Adam. God gave him a mission to go out and subdue the earth, to make it all a perfect “house” for God’s love-relationship with Man. That doesn’t mean there was anything wrong with the earth the way God first made it, that Man had to go out there and fix things. No. What it means is, God filled the whole earth with a potential that only Man could materialize. This was a task that demanded the very best talents and wisdom God gave man, but it would be a work that brought the deepest satisfaction and pure delight, not frustration and disappointment.

But when Man chose to know evil instead of God, he stopped being a “holy place” for God. He became unholy, unfit, inappropriate for God’s fellowship. He became like the square peg in a round hole, a misfit, a stranger, unfit to carry out the Maker’s wondrous plans for creation. All we need to do today is look around us, at the violence, the corruption, the degradation of the natural world, to see what a misfit Man turned into in this world. No wonder the Scriptures say that the creation is groaning for the appearing of the true children of God. Because the whole world, as well, lost its meaning when Man lost the Garden. Like when you see a puppy on the street and it’s obviously been abandoned and it breaks your heart. That’s the condition the whole creation is in, wondering where its master has gone and why it’s been left all alone. The terribly irony is: we’re right here, but it doesn’t know us.

So the terrible historical irony is this: having grabbed the fruit of knowledge, Adam and Eve become incompetent and unfit. Incompetent to realize their true appointment and meaning; unfit to remain in the holy place where they enjoyed face-to-face relations with God. Sin is a terrible college. It gives you knowledge that makes you incompetent and unfit.

Therefore, they were banished. They were no longer fit to inhabit the holy place; they had become foreigners, alien to God and He to them. The glory that before had been their delight was now a stabbing pain to their eyes; the holiness which had been the very air they breathed, was now a burning fire they couldn’t stand. Adam and Eve were banished because they had to be banished. They could no longer endure the vision of God. So he expelled them from the Garden and set a guard, the cherubs and the sword. Every time we meet the cherubs in Scripture, they are serving as guards of the holiness of God. We will talk about them more in the next sermons. I just want to emphasize one idea now: usually, when we think of the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden, especially with our familiar but incorrect image of the sword-wielding angel, somehow the focus, the center of attention is Man: look how sad they are, and look at how that angel with the sword is there just to keep them from coming back. It all seems to be about Adam and Eve. Today I want to suggest that the central meaning in this event is God, far more than man. The cherubs are there to guard and glorify God's holiness; the sword serves as a symbol of the infinite, unknowable reaches of God’s holy being, from which Adam and Eve had cut themselves off. The whole picture speaks of what Adam and Eve gave up and lost, which is nothing less than God Himself. Really, from the moment they ate the fruit of the tree, their exile and wandering had already begun.

But so had the redemption! Behind the wall represented by the cherubs and sword, inside the holy place that became off limits, the Tree of Life still stood, and waited. God created it so that its fruit would be eaten, eventually. God would see to it that its purpose would be fulfilled, no matter what it cost. For not only Adam and Eve had suffered shattering loss. God did, too. We often think of the grief and pain of Adam and Eve when we look at pictures of them leaving the Garden. How often do we think of the pain and grief they left behind them, behind that veil of impenetrable holiness? About the devastated love of God for His lost, wandering children? Adam and Eve weren’t the only ones who found themselves behind a wall and shattered. Man could never make himself fit for the Garden again, or worthy to eat from the tree of life. Without God’s help, Man would be a wanderer and a stranger in a hostile world forever, finally good for nothing. Was that what God wanted when He said, “Let us make Man in our image”? It couldn’t be. And how could God Himself possibly stay there, like a prisoner, behind the bars of His own untouchable holiness, exiled and alienated from His very own image, the creatures He made His children? It couldn’t be.

From the moment that Adam’s exile began, the redemption began, too. Because it had to. As soon as Adam failed in his “missionary work”, God had to become the missionary – reaching out, reaching ahead, forward, to the . From the moment Adam started suffering, God started paying the price. Yes, and even before that, for Christ is the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world. Slain, because that’s the only way back to the Tree of Life. Right through that sword that blazes and flashes with God’s unutterable holiness, the sword that will kill you if you dare to come close. But there’s no other way to reach the Tree. And Man had to get back. That is the whole meaning of history. With each step that Adam took, wandering in this big world, farther and farther from the Garden with its memories of the face of God, with every step Adam was taking a step closer, too, because God was at work, bringing him closer and closer, back to the Garden, back to the Tree, closer and closer to reunion.

It was a big, dark and unfriendly world Adam and Eve were thrown out into. Yes, the world is big. But it is also round. God made it that way. And He chose in His blazing love to make the end of the road a beginning. And His holy purpose will not be defeated.

Saturday, June 13, 2009

Easter Sermon II

A year or two later, the next time I was in Armenia for Easter, I preached the following sermon in several churches, including some where I had preached the other Easter sermon (so I made sure I had a new sermon!). The style in this sermon is significantly different, more stream-of-consciousness – perhaps even “machine gun” at times, though careful intonation will make it seem less so. An unusual (for me) element in this sermon is that I freely weave the biblical quotes into my own words. With one or two exceptions, I don’t stop to say, “Let’s turn to 1 Peter 1:3” or “As it says in John 11:25...”. And that’s why you’ll see nearly all the scripture passages in this text, not the usual “(read text)”. This sermon picks up on the “peace” theme of the Triumphal Entry II sermon, so there was a conceptual link for those who heard that one a week earlier. The main thing I tried to do here was to present as many stark pictures as I could of the results/effects/outcomes of the resurrection in “real life”, precisely for the nonbelievers who would be likely to make an unaccustomed visit to church for Easter day. The concluding thoughts echo the earlier Easter sermon, but they are more directly evangelistic.

“I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me will never die.” Jesus Christ spoke these words to Martha at the gravesite of her brother Lazarus. With these words, Jesus let her – and you and me – know that he himself represented the central moment of all human history, the very center of God’s salvation for us all. Everything depends on this and this alone: that Jesus is the resurrection and the life. Without the resurrection there is no forgiveness of sins, no reconciliation with God, no hope of eternal life. The Apostle Paul wrote: “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless – you are still in your sins.” But Christ is raised! The angels said to the women at the tomb: “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here but has risen.” And so our hope is perfect and will never disappoint us, as the apostle Peter says, “God has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”

Born again! Because of Jesus’ resurrection we have new birth. Jesus said, “Because I live, you also will live”. For us to live, Jesus had to rise from the dead, to fill us with his resurrected, victorious, imperishable life. But to rise, Jesus had first to die – in order to redeem us, “with precious blood, as of a lamb, unblemished and spotless”. This was the only way to solve man’s deepest, most critical need – the need that, if it is not solved, then no other needs can every truly be solved. Or even if they were solved, in the end it would still mean nothing. If this first, all-pervading need is not solved, then everything else in life is meaningless and lost. The need is: peace with God. Jesus gives this peace. When he appeared, resurrected, to the disciples, he said, “Peace be with you.” This was a new kind of peace, which no one had experienced since the Garden of Eden: peace with God. Jesus made this peace possible because he took away the terrible barrier between us and God. Our sin, which God cannot accept, was taken away in the body of Christ when he died. Like a curtain that separates two rooms, our sin was torn apart when Jesus’ own heart broke on the cross. Jesus made the way to God open and clear again through the sacrifice of his own life. This is why Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.” Only his death tore open the curtain that was separating us from God. This is also why Jesus said to Mary Magdalene, when he appeared to her after the resurrection, “Go to my brothers and say, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.” Only Jesus’ resurrection could make his Father our Father again, too. “I am the way.... No one comes to the Father except through me.” Because Christ has risen, we can call God our God and Father. We can know God again as a friend, not a stranger. We can find the source of life, and all the sense of life, in close fellowship with our Maker. And he accepts us completely, because of his perfect, glorious, beloved Son Jesus.

All of human history is the story of Man’s need for God, for the true meaning of life. The very beginning of the story tells us about the terrible tragedy, the wrong choice which our first parents made when they chose pride instead of love, self instead of God, sin instead of obedience and freedom. if they had remained in perfect obedience to God, they would also have known perfect freedom and no other desire except to please God. But when they forsook obedience they also forsook freedom. They made themselves slaves of sin. And to this day people still deceive themselves, thinking that they’re free when they are really slaves to their own sins. They have no strength, no power over themselves; they cannot stop themselves from harmful, destructive actions; they poison their bodies with drugs, alcohol, tobacco; they poison their minds with immorality; they poison their relationships with pride and selfishness – and they can’t stop. And yet, they think they’re free. What a successful deception the devil has performed! There’s only one thing that can defeat such a powerful deception. Hebrews 2:14-15 says (read text). And 1 John 3:8 says, “The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil.”

It was considered a great event in America when Abraham Lincoln abolished slavery, and many thousands of black slaves became free citizens of the United States. But how much greater is it that God has destroyed the power of the devil in the life of countless millions for the past two thousand years by the power of the Resurrected Christ! People have been liberated from the fear of death, from pride and hatred, from greed and selfishness, from self-destruction and cruelty, because Jesus lives. The power is his. The life is his. And the victory is his. Jesus Christ says, “I am the first and the last, and the Living One, and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and hades.” We should not be surprised that God accompanied the birth of His Son with a star in the sky. People shoot fireworks into the sky to mark great events, such as Independence Day. But no event in history was greater than the arrival of the Great Liberator of human souls. No greater victory was ever won than the victory over death. When a war ends on earth, it means one kingdom has conquered another. When Jesus paid the price of our sins on the cross and then rose from the dead, it meant that the kingdom of God had the total victory over sin and death, over everything that could stop us from coming to God. The way was clear. The wall fell down. The veil in God’s temple, which hid the holiest place, was torn in half, and God’s holy presence was open to all who come through Jesus. The prophecy was fulfilled that said, “He will swallow up death for all time” (Is. 25:6). And now we can say together with the apostle Paul, “Death is swallowed up in victory. Where, O Death, is your victory? Where, O Death, is your sting?”

Today the choice is every person’s: to be a citizen of the victorious kingdom, or the defeated kingdom. Jesus said, “No one can come to the Father except through me.” Jesus is the “narrow gate”; he is the “door”. He is the only victory and the only way that God has given – given at the highest cost and with supreme love. He is the only way into the kingdom. There is only one thing that can stop any of us from going through that door and finding God’s peace and friendship. It is we ourselves – our pride, our disbelief, our unwillingness to admit we are sinners and accept his forgiveness. For many people, that is a wall that stops them from accepting Christ. It blocks them from receiving the free gift of life from him. God offers freedom freely to us; we can’t buy it – Jesus paid the price. But God leaves the choice with us; only we can choose to accept or reject.

I am confident of this, however. If we even take a small step toward God, He is ready to take a large step toward us. Jesus said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven”! When we come to him, admitting that we have nothing, and that we do not deserve his salvation, and we certainly can’t buy it, and we ask him to cleanse our sins and accept us, then we are poor in spirit. To such poor ones the risen Son of God has promised the kingdom forever and ever. Jesus said to Martha by Lazarus’s grave, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

Christ is Lord, Christ lives, Christ is returning, and Christ will bring the kingdom of God into the heart of everyone who believes – right now. Jesus asked Martha, “Do you believe this?” There is no more important question in the whole world. Your eternal destiny depends on your answer. The risen Christ continues to ask every heart, “Do you believe this?” To those who believe, the risen Christ gives eternal life as a free gift, in his overflowing love. May the answer of each of our hearts today be the same as Martha’s: “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, the one who was to come into the world.”

Thursday, June 11, 2009

Easter (I)

This is the first Easter sermon I preached in Armenia. I recall the surprising, even jolting enthusiasm and excitement with which the congregation stood and exclaimed at the end, “He is risen indeed!”

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life.” Easter is the day when those words are uniquely fulfilled! God did not simply love the world. He did not simply give his Son. In fact, by this God reached, achieved the whole desire of his grace: He met our ultimate, unimaginable need. He created a new day, one in which Adam’s children can walk with him again in friendship, without shame or guilt. He sent his Son. And he didn’t simply send his Son, but he gave him up for us. And he didn’t only give him up for us, but he received his Son back, too, risen, triumphant, clutching with his nail-pierced hands our salvation – the prize, the victory. Christ is risen! The stone which the builders rejected has been made the very cornerstone; it is God who did this and it is a miracle to us all! Only the Lord created this new day; only he gets the glory for it. Our job is to rejoice over it, to be thrilled with it.

Let no one think that this day, the day the Lord has made, is one simple day that will pass and be forgotten. No. The prophecy speaks not of a 24-hour day but of a new age. It’s the day in which God has made the rejected stone into the very cornerstone. He has made the rejected Christ into the very center of His whole plan and will and purpose and eternal relationship with us – Christ, the Resurrection and the Life. This day will never end, because Christ is risen forever. No one can wrest salvation from his nail-pierced hands; he has conquered sin and death. “It is finished!”, he cried from the cross, and now he sits at the right hand of the Father on high. Yes. He is truly risen.

What is this “resurrection”? Why is Jesus’ resurrection unique? Doesn’t the Bible tell us about other people who rose from the dead? Yes, God in his power raised others from the dead. There was Lazarus, for example, or the widow’s son or Jairus’s daughter. But the key thing is this: they all died again. That wasn’t resurrection in the ultimate sense. Jesus Christ is, so far, the only one in all human history who has risen in the true resurrection. He is the firstborn from the dead, never again to die.

No one here should think today that Easter is simply about “life after death”, that we Christians get all excited about Easter because it proves that death isn’t the end. That’s just wrong. There’s a vast, an immeasurable, difference between “life after death” as most people think of it, and resurrection. Those who don’t know Christ talk wishfully about “life after death”. But the followers of Jesus know there is a resurrection coming. We don’t rejoice over the mere fact that this life isn’t the end. God forbid! In fact, you could say we rejoice over the fact that this life is the end! What I mean is, God has put a definite end to this life, the old life, the life lived in a fallen, sinful world. In the death of Jesus, God closed the book on this chapter of the story. “It is finished”, Jesus cried. And in the resurrection, God unveiled the new chapter, the actual never-ending story; he gave birth, through the Son, to a new creation – redeemed, indestructible, full of grace and glory.

The apostle Paul tells us that Christ is the firstborn from the dead, the firstfruits of those who will rise like him, those who have a share in him. Therefore, we who have a share in Christ can shout together with Paul, “Death has been swallowed up in victory! Where, O Death, is your victory? Where, O Death, is your sting?”

Jesus Christ says, “I was dead, but now I am alive forever, and I have the keys of death and hell.”

So for those who are in Christ by faith there is a sure victory, a glorious hope. He has made them new creations, children of God, as Jesus told the Sadducees (Lk. 20:36): “They can never die again, but they are like the angels, and they are the children of God, for they are the children of the resurrection.” The apostle Paul writes, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, all has become new!”

For this glorious purpose the Father sent the Son into our rebellious, dying world: to make a new creation starting in his very self, to become the first of many children of the resurrection, to freely bestow perfect, eternal salvation to each who believes. “For God so loved the world that gave his only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life.”

Friends, eternal life is not simply life-after-death; it is new life. It is the life which our risen Savior possesses within his very self and gives to whomever he wants (John 5:26): “For as the Father has life in himself, so he has given it to the Son to have life in himself.”

Because he is risen, because he is triumphant over sin and death, and because he is the very Son of the Father – “light from light, true God from true God” – he has the power and right to bestow this life on whomever he wills (John 10:28): “I give them eternal life and they will never be lost, nor can anyone take them out of my hand. My Father, who gave them to me, is greater than all, and no one can take them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.”
Because he is the Father’s beloved Son, in whom all the Father’s pleasure abides, we have confidence that we too are pleasing and acceptable in God’s sight – because the Father accepts us in the Son! “Our life is hidden with Christ in God,” the scriptures tell us. There is no safer place where our life can be hidden than with the triumphant, victorious, conquering, risen Son who sits at the right hand of the Father.

Jesus’ people don’t wonder about life-after-death, because in their union with Christ they have already died and new life already fills their souls in him. We aren’t waiting for life-after-death, but for the final revelation. The apostle Paul writes (Col. 3:3): “For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God, and when Christ, who is your life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory.” This is our whole hope, and it is a sure, fixed, unmovable hope – because He is risen.

On this Easter day there is no more important question each of us must answer than the one Jesus asked Martha by the grave of Lazarus. Jesus said (Jn. 11:25): “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me, even if he dies, yet shall live. And everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

I ask you, “Do you believe this?” Perhaps you are not sure. Perhaps you have never taken the step of faith to receive him. He waits for you, He calls you. Through the Holy Spirit the risen Christ invites you into his fellowship, into the reconciliation of Adam’s children with God. He offers you grace – the forgiveness of sins and the gift of eternal life. There is no more important question, no greater need in life, than this. For this, for you, the Father gave up his Son and then received him back into glory. He wants to receive you, too, together with his Son, through his Son, with his Son, cleansed by Christ, reborn in Christ, and a child of the resurrection and child of God, just as Christ promised. Don’t delay. Receive him and become a child of the resurrection.

And if you do believe with your whole heart, then you can say together with me, “Christ has risen! He has risen indeed!”

The Last Supper

This sermon was first delivered on a Maundy Thursday evening in a small village church practically in the shadow of Mount Ararat on the plains of Armenia.

(Read Luke 22:14-15 and Psalm 118: 22-24)

Jesus greatly desired to eat this Passover together with his disciples. This should amaze us. Jesus clearly knew that this was his last supper, that right after this supper come indescribable sufferings and agony. Who could look forward to that, or to anything leading to that? Jesus perfectly understood that the world was about to completely reject him, that soon he would be crying out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” And yet Jesus says, “I have greatly desired to eat this Passover with you before my suffering.” How can this be?

In the book of the prophet Isaiah, chapter 55, verses eight and nine, it says: God says, “My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are my ways your ways.... But as the skies are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.”
We can apply these words to all people, with the exception of only one: Jesus Christ. Jesus’ thoughts were, in fact, God’s thoughts and his ways God’s ways. Jesus’ desire and will were one with the Heavenly Father’s. And what exactly is the Heavenly Father’s desire? That all might be saved. “For God so loved the world...”, proclaims the Scripture. And Jesus also so loved the world, that he thirsted, he longed for the completion of redemption, regardless of the fact that redemption happened to cost him the highest price of all.

You remember how Jesus once said, “I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how I long for it to be fulfilled!” That clearly tells us how much Jesus shared one will, one heart and desire with his Father – the desire to save a perishing humanity and restore it to free relationship with God. And so it is with complete sincerity that Jesus says, “I have greatly desired to eat this Passover with you....”

In America you might hear people say, “Wouldn’t it be wonderful if every day were Christmas?” Or perhaps, “For the believer, every day is Easter!” People say things like this because these are joyful, delightful, celebratory holidays. But it’s interesting that you’d never hear anyone say, “Oh, how I wish every day were Good Friday!”.

But if it weren’t for Good Friday, if it weren’t for the cross, then there’d be no Christmas, no Easter, no reason to rejoice, no Gospel at all.

The psalmist says, “This is the day the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.” So what day is it exactly he’s talking about? It’s the day of salvation. “This is from the Lord, and it is marvelous in our sight.” What exactly is it the Lord did which is so marvelous, so miraculous in our sight? He made Christ the cornerstone of salvation, the very center of His overflowingly benevolent design and intention towards us. This is definitely a marvel, a wonder. But what did it take? The psalmist goes on, “The stone which the builders rejected....” Without the rejection, there would be no cornerstone, no new day of salvation, nothing to rejoice and be glad about. For Jesus, the scorn and agony and dying had to take first place. And it is right on the edge, on the verge of this living nightmare that Jesus says, “How I longed to have this Passover meal with you....” This is the ultimate love, the true love that resounds across time and space to every human heart and gives itself without limit.

Isaiah 53:10 says, “Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer.” For our well-being the Lord saw fit to do this. Who can comprehend love like that? It’s not for us to comprehend, but we can believe, we can receive, and we can offer ourselves back to this very love.

And when we love him, we accept not only his love but his sufferings, too. And his sufferings transform our lives. When we resist sin, the sufferings of Christ strengthen us, as the apostle Peter said (read 1 Peter 4:1).

The sufferings of Christ comfort us, as the apostle Paul said, (read 2 Corinthians 1:5).

His sufferings are close to us in our hope of the future, as Paul said in Philippians (read Phil. 3:10), and as Peter also said, (read 1 Peter 4:13).

Jesus told his disciples, “I have greatly desired to eat this Passover with you before my sufferings.” Do we desire to eat this Passover with him? Are we willing to turn away from anything the world might offer us in order to embrace the sufferings of Christ? Are his sufferings more precious to us than any of the pleasures of sin? Are we ready to die with him, in order to live with him? Will we accept that great love he holds out to us? And the last question: are we ready to take the body and blood of Christ, uniting ourselves to him, and then to get up from the table and follow him out there, to where he’s going, to the garden, to the scorn and torture, to the crucifixion and the tomb, and to resurrection?

If we’re ready, then let’s prepare our hearts, cleanse our consciences and ask the Lord to make it so that our thoughts are more and more like His thoughts and our ways more and more like His ways, so that we might be able to grasp deeper and deeper all the time just what it really means that “the stone which the builders rejected has been made the cornerstone. This is the Lord’s doing and it is marvelous in our sight. It is the Lord who made this day; let’s rejoice and be glad in it!”

Triumphal Entry Sermon (II) – “Peace Will Conquer”

This is the Palm Sunday sermon I preached in Armenia a year later.

(Read Matthew 21:10-17)

Sometimes when we witness to people, they ask us questions like, “If Christ saved the world, then why is there still so much evil? If Christ came to bring peace, why is there no peace?”
But I would like us to think now about Christ himself, entering Jerusalem, riding on a donkey, knowing what lay before him – the rejection and the suffering, the cruel death on a cross; think of Christ doing this for the world, out of love and obedience to the Father in heaven. Certainly, Jesus could have asked some questions, too! He could have asked, “If I’m bringing them peace, why do they hate me? If I’m their savior, why will they kill me?” Did Jesus ask himself these questions? I doubt it. I believe he didn’t need to, because he already knew the answers.

People are very quick to ask questions. Often the questions aren’t really questions but accusations, or a strategy, or a manipulation. The last thing the person asking wants or expects is an answer. What’s more, they certainly don’t want anyone, least of all God Himself, to ask them a question in return.

In Matthew 21:16, some people ask Jesus a question: “Do you hear what those children are saying?” What was it these people were trying to determine? Whether Jesus’ hearing was good? No, of course not. Did they even expect a thoughtful response? I don’t think so. What they expected was for Jesus to shut those children up! And many apologize for having let things get so out of control. But instead, Jesus asked them a question, which started, “Haven’t you read...?” Think about that: “Haven’t you read...?” Jesus pointed them to God’s word. It’s the same thing with those around us today who ask, “So where is this salvation, huh? What exactly is this ‘peace’?” We can answer as Jesus did: “Haven’t you read...?”, and direct them to the word of God.

For example, have you never read where Jesus says (John 14:27), “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” Here, Jesus points out a special peace – real, essential peace, the peace that comes from a restored relationship with God. Can the world give such peace? Absolutely not. Not even when there is outward, visible peace – for instance, when nations stop warring with each other – not even then can the world place real peace in our hearts. Jesus came, in the first place, to grant this most necessary peace to those who willingly receive it. And to do that, Jesus knew very well what price he had to pay.

And so, he willingly say on that donkey and rode through the city, freely offering his life as a ransom for you and me. He came to bring peace, but he knew that rejection must come first. He came to save, but he knew that a terrible death must come first. He was ready to pay that price, without question. This is his love towards you and me.

The truth is, God has brought peace. God is bringing peace. And God will bring peace. But not peace as this world understands it.

We know very well the prophecy of Zechariah which Jesus fulfilled in his triumphal entry (read Zech. 9:9). But now, let’s read the next two verses (read Zech. 9:10,11). Do you think that Jesus, who knew very well the prophecy in 9:9, also knew about the next two verses? I do. I think we hear the words of Zechariah on the lips of Jesus when he says, “This is the blood of the covenant, shed for you.” And Zechariah says, “Because of the blood of my covenant with you, I will free your prisoners from the waterless pit.” The prophet also says, “He will proclaim peace to the nations.” Will God finally bring peace to the world – peace of a visible, external, universal kind? Yes, He will. And “his rule will extend from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth.” But on that day it will be too late for those who do not receive his peace now. His peace is salvation. His peace is life. People say, “Where is this peace?” We ask in reply, “Yes, where is it? Is it in your heart, or isn’t it? If not, then it is no surprise you can’t see it anywhere else.” We say in reply, “Look at Jesus, meek and lowly, riding into Jerusalem, a king riding on a donkey, not with a crown or royal robe, not with a sword in his hand, but with only an overflowing heart of love for you. He rides into Jerusalem to be a sacrifice. He wants to come into your soul as Friend and Savior. Then you will know peace.”

God has brought peace. Do you know this peace? He is bringing peace; to those who don’t know Him He offers salvation, eternal life, forgiveness of sins in the blood of His precious Son – peace. And, God will bring peace. In His time, He will restore all things, coming as king to reign forever. Then we will be able to shout together with the prophet Isaiah (Is. 62:10-11): Pass through, pass through the gates! Prepare the way for the people. Build up, build up the highway! Remove the stones. Raise a banner for the nations. The Lord has made proclamation to the ends of the earth: “‘Say to the Daughter of Zion, ‘See, your Savior comes! See, his reward is with him, and his recompense accompanies him.’”

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

The Triumphal Entry (I) – “Jesus in Control” (Luke 19:28-35)

This is one of two Palm Sunday sermons I composed in Armenia. My teaching trips to Armenia are often around Easter time.

(Read Luke 19:28-35)

We see here that Jesus is in control. We need to remember that Jesus was never a victim of circumstances. Jesus never depended on others for the success of his ministry. Yes, he loved them, he gave them every possibility of being his disciples, but he never depended on them.

(Read John 2:23-25)

Jesus knew what was in man. He knew that the heart of man was inconstant and unfaithful. Jesus knew that even his closest friends would deny him. But he loved them, and he continued to go forward, obeying the Father’s will, fulfilling the plan of salvation. Yes, Jesus knew what was in man, but he also knew what could be in man. Jesus was there when man was made in God’s image; Jesus knew the beauty and the glory which were in man in the beginning. Of course he knew, because he himself is that beauty and glory. He is the image of God.

Jesus knew.... Circumstances and events never shocked him or overpowered him. Here in Luke 9, Jesus shows himself as the Lord of events. He tells the disciples beforehand that they’ll find the donkey tied up, and what the owners of the donkey will say, and how the disciples should answer. Later, when we read about the crucifixion, we must remember that Jesus was not a victim of circumstances. He was the Lamb of God, who went willingly to the cross for you and me. Remember what Jesus said, “No one takes my life from me; I lay it down of my own will, and I take it up again.”

But maybe today I’m saying what should really be said on Friday, when we remember the Lord’s death. Traditionally, today is a happy day, when we celebrate Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem. Yes, we should rejoice today, just as the people rejoiced on that day long ago. And we should rejoice even more than they, because of what God has done in our lives through this same Jesus.

But... Jesus knew what would happen shortly after this triumphal entry, and we also know. So this is part of the story which we cannot ignore. The Lord knew that these people greeting him on this day would soon reject and kill him, but here is the amazing thing: he allowed them to praise him. Why? He loved them and he was going to die for them. Also, regardless of the unreliability of the people saying the words, the words themselves were true. They were words that needed to be exclaimed. The words were true even if the hearts weren’t (read Luke 19:35-40). This moment was a moment of glory, even if the people didn’t understand it. The truth is bigger than people.

Jesus’ words are true to this day. If we don’t praise him, then the stones themselves will shout his praise. The glory of God is the one, single, unique reality behind everything. All creation is groaning for the day when God’s glory is fully revealed. We, who are God’s children, understand that and we also groan for that day. And we rejoice to think of it.

Jesus allowed these people to praise him, even though they would reject and kill him. Here the great grace of God shows itself. Also, Jesus was serving His Father. Nothing could stop Jesus from obeying the Father. God’s word predicted – “Behold, your king is coming, meek and lowly and riding on a donkey.” Jesus came to fulfill all the Law and the Prophets, no matter what it cost, even if it meant receiving praise from those who would prove untrue. In the end, of course, it cost Jesus everything.

Look at Jesus now, riding into Jerusalem on a donkey, with all the people waving palm branches and shouting, “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” Look at the crowd. You see Jesus’ closest friends there. They’re ecstatic. They think this is the beginning of the kingdom on earth. They don’t know that in only a few days they will run away in fear and abandon Jesus. In that crowd, also, are those whose lips are still and voices silent, and their eyes full of hatred. They want to eliminate this Jesus. To them he is dangerous, a threat to their power and comfortable position. Also in that crowd are those who have almost no idea, really, of what’s going on. Maybe they never heard of Jesus of Nazareth before – they simply heard the noise, came to see what was happening and joined in the fun and excitement, and so they’re shouting with the rest, not even knowing why! Such is the power of a crowd. A very dangerous power.

And Jesus knows all this, and he goes on – the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, presenting himself to God for all these people, giving himself to all these people even as He gives himself up to the Father in ultimate love. The real glory of this “Palm Sunday” is not the triumphal entry or the loud welcome Jesus received; no, the real glory is hidden in the heart of that young man riding on the donkey, the heart of him “who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising its shame.” He knew, but he went on, for us.

Did Jesus feel joy on the day of his triumphal entry? I believe he did. Not because the people were shouting for him; he knew what was in the heart of man. But Jesus’ joy was to do the will of his Father; he rejoiced in glorifying his Father. I believe Jesus also rejoiced that his mission would soon be over, finished, and that a new day would dawn for the children of God. John 1:11 tells us that he “came to his own”, that is, he came to that which was his own creation – in fact, he even made those stones that would cry out in praise if the people didn’t! But, “his own did not receive him”. Even in his triumphal entry they weren’t really receiving him – they didn’t really know who he was or what it meant to choose him, or what it would cost. They didn’t know his heart and will; they couldn’t share his love for the Father. At least, not yet. “But, to those who received him, to those who believed in his name, to them he gave the right to become the children of God, children born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.”

For us this is the joy of the triumphal entry. We see Jesus our King who comes in the name of the Father. And we know he has come to make us children of his heavenly Father. This Jesus, meek and lowly and riding on a donkey, has come to offer us his heart, so that we might be like him. he has come to give us peace – not peace as the world gives, but true peace with God – reconciliation and fellowship. This Jesus has come not to enjoy praise from unbelieving lips but to reveal the true glory of God, so that even the stones will cry out, “Hosanna! Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”

Have you received this king into your heart? Has he made you a child of God? Have you received the peace he offers? If not, then you are like one of that crowd – maybe shouting and rejoicing, but not knowing why, still in the dark. If you welcome this King, Jesus Christ, into your heart and life, then you can rejoice in truth, with knowledge and understanding, because you will know him. He will open your eyes to see more and more who he truly is. And he will also let you know who you are – a sinner saved by grace, a reborn child of God, a servant of the King. Then, with all God’s children, you will wait with confident hope for the day of his return. He will come triumphant to receive his people as his Bride. He will finally answer the groaning and yearning of all creation, which waits together with the children of God to see him and shout, “Hosanna! Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”

The Word that Changes Everything (The Calling of Peter, Luke 5)

It is not at all subtle here that I’m looking at the incident recorded in Luke 5 - Jesus’ calling of Peter and his fellow fishermen - through the lens of Hebrews 1:3, where it says that God “sustains all things by His powerful word”.

(Read Luke 5:1-7)

Jesus was teaching. He wasn’t fishing. Nor did he come with any announcement, “Just watch, I’m going to give the biggest catch of fish you ever saw.” No, Christ was about His business. He was teaching. God is always occupied with His own business – it couldn’t possibly be otherwise. God’s business is always a perfect business and in fact the very essence of everything there is. Jesus was teaching the people, revealing to them the truth of the heavenly kingdom, unfolding to them His very self as Savior, Redeemer. And the people so excitedly responded that Jesus had to get in a boat and teach from there, because there was no room left on the shore. And in all of this, even in the fact that there was no room left on the shore and Jesus had to get into a boat, God was continuing about His holy business, carrying out His perfect plan.

Peter also was about his business that day, a fisherman’s business. But at just the right moment, God’s intention for Peter began to materialize – stunningly, vividly; right at the moment when Jesus Christ needed Peter’s boat. And whose boat was that, by the way? Yes, it was God’s boat. Because all created things in all the universe belong to the Creator. If, as it says in Hebrews 1:3, God sustains all things by His powerful word, then it follows that all things all the time play some sort of role in God’s perfect intentions. Of course, it’s not always clear to us what God’s intention could be in one situation or another, since we’re not God! But there is a great gift that’s been given to us; it’s called faith. Even when we can’t see, when we don’t understand, we can do this: believe. We can know that God is acting, is taking things somewhere, and that the outcome of His activity will be supremely glorious.

Jesus sat down in Peter’s boat and continued his teaching. At that moment there was only one assignment for that boat: to serve as a pulpit for the Son of Man. A glorious assignment, don’t you think? That little boat never expected such a privilege, never dared to dream of such a thing. Moreover, its owner, poor Peter who assumed that this day would be a regular humdrum day, no better, no worse than any other day, is sitting there in the boat stunned, stopped dead in his tracks by the sudden presence of Heaven itself in the words and power of Jesus. Perhaps he’s too overwhelmed to think anything at the moment but, “My God... my God....” And at this instant in time and eternity, Peter’s whole world has changed, because the one who sustains all things by the power of His word is sitting in Peter’s boat and teaching the people.

The Heavenly Son condescended to become the Son of Man, to enter our world which is His world, to open up the glory of His grace to the eyes of sinners to transform the fallen into the redeemed. Of that glory the apostle John writes (John 1:14), “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” And here on this very day Peter looks upon the glory of the Only-Begotten, hears the truth of heaven from His lips, and life becomes something altogether new. And the Son of God is altogether capable to this very day to come to us, wherever we may be occupied with life’s everyday humdrum affairs, and utterly change our whole world, starting before all else with what’s inside us.

I quite imagine that if anyone else had said to Peter (read v.4, “...Push out into deep water...”), Peter would have given a rather different answer! But not to Jesus Christ. To Jesus, Peter says (read v.5). Peter was already different, had already become someone else. He could have hardened his heart, as many others did, but in contrast to them Peter began instead to love. “Lord, I don’t understand this, and I fished all night with nothing to show for it, but it doesn’t matter: if You say to do it, I’ll do it.” It is miraculous how the One who sustains all things by His powerful word with just a word pierced to the very heart of this strong-willed fisherman.
We also often need a word, just a word, from God, for Him to pierce to our deepest heart with transforming truth. But His word is not always the word we expected. Like Peter, we need to be ready to answer: “Lord, I don’t understand, but all the same, if you say it, I’ll do it.”

And that’s what Peter did. And the result was, they caught a great quantity of fish, so much that their nets began to break. The One who sustains all things by His powerful word, who one day turned water into wine, who multiplied the bread and the fish and fed multitudes, that very One transformed Peter’s “daily bread”, his perfectly common, humdrum livelihood, into a manifestation of divine glory. Those fish hardly expected that they would become the manifestation of the power of Christ, but when the call came, they answered and with alacrity! They sped to the nets when the One who sustains all things by His powerful word called. And what was His purpose? Just to give Peter and company the biggest catch of their lives? Make the biggest one-day profit their business ever saw? Throw a humdinger of a party and invite the whole town? No. The Lord demonstrated his power in order to conquer the heart of a self-assured fisherman.

(Read vv. 8-11)

And when the boat and the fish and the nets had fulfilled their assignments, Jesus Christ and His new disciples left them there on the shore. Let somebody else, maybe a pauper, sell the fish, let it be a blessing to him and his family. But to Peter, John and Andrew, Christ says, “I will make you fishers of men.”

God’s business is to seek and save human souls, to the glory of His name. The One who sustains all things by His powerful word will utilize anything He wants, everything He has created, to do that. As the apostle Paul says in Colossians 1:16-17 (read: “...And he is before all things, and all things by him exist.”) This is the same one of whom the apostle John writes (John 1:11-12), that he came to his own, but his own did not receive him. But as many as did receive him, those who believed in his name, to them he gave the right to become the children of God.

Saturday, June 6, 2009

When is the End? (Acts 12:1-19)

This one is just special. The lessons I took from the passage mean very much to me personally, and I have been deeply gratified to hear from others that the sermon helped them through critical moments in their lives. The whole sermon could be summed up in one idea: God is working out something great, and there is never a time when He's not. When we really grasp what that means, there is genuine liberation of the heart. It does require faith, however....

Let’s think for a moment about everything that was going on before the twelfth chapter of Acts. First, you had Jesus Himself fulfilling His mission on the earth. The disciples followed Him for three years. It seemed to be a successful, joyful period. Crowds were gathering to hear Jesus. The disciples were ready to set up God’s kingdom on earth, when suddenly – the cross. The end. Everything finished. But, not so! On the third day, Jesus rose. And then He ascended to heaven, and then came the Holy Spirit, and thousands of people turned to the Lord. A new beginning, a mighty movement, “full steam ahead”, when suddenly – Stephen is stoned to death. Shock, grief. Oh, yes, the Church knew that such a thing could happen. But knowing something might happen and seeing it with your own eyes are two different things. I can imagine the newborn Church suddenly grew profoundly grave and reflective. Could it be... maybe... this is the end? Perhaps the Lord gave us a very brief time, indeed, to spread the news and now, we will be led as lambs to the slaughter? Perhaps His coming is already at hand? Quite possibly such thoughts circulated among them. After all, they couldn’t know that we would be here talking about them two thousand years later! As they were going through these things, these weren’t storybook events, they were real live, happening-right-now-to-us things. And the question was (as it always is), what will tomorrow bring?

Earlier in my life I did a fair bit of acting on the stage. It’s a lot of fun to play a part in a play. For a little while you live in a different world, you’re a different person. And you know all the words you’re going to say, and everything that’s going to happen to you, and how others are going to treat you and how you’ll react to them. And, you know how the play ends. But real life isn’t like a play. When you wake up in the morning you don’t have the day’s script sitting by your bed where everything’s written down – exactly what you’ll say, how others will reply, how they’ll treat you, how you’ll react, or even whether this day is going to bring you more joy or more grief. Real life isn’t like that. But we easily forget that the people we read about in Scripture were people just like us, not characters in a book. These are not figures in a painting by Da Vinci. Peter didn’t have a book of Acts sitting by his bed, where he could check it in the morning and find out, “Ah! Today the Holy Spirit descends on us in tongues of fire and I preach a sermon to three thousand people!” It’s important to remember that Peter and all the others in the Bible were the same kind of people living in the same kind of real world as us. Why is it important? Because God moves in the lives of real people, not in the lives of storybook characters. We discover this in the scriptures and we can take encouragement from it.

Let’s read Acts 12:1-5 (read).

Why did Herod do this? Did he do it because the Bible told him to do it? Of course not. Like Peter, Herod also didn’t have such a “script”. He did this because this is the kind of person he was. Herod thought mighty highly of himself. You remember what he did at his big birthday party? He pronounced a proud promise to demonstrate to one and all just how magnanimous, and rich, he was. But then, in order not to lose face in front of the guests, he fulfilled his foolish, foolish promise, even though he really didn’t want to. Herod behaved like a fool, worrying about what others thought of him. He was ready at any moment to commit reckless, cruel actions if it meant that he’d get honor and praise from others. And so, Herod – the same Herod who killed John the Baptist – now kills James, because it made the people happy. And again, imagine the jolt this was for the young Church! James, a young man, all at once, gone. But he was one of the ones who walked with Jesus for three years, he was one of the special three who saw the Transfiguration, the raising of Jairus’s daughter, he was with Jesus at the last supper and in the Garden, he was in the upper room when the Risen Jesus appeared and on the Mount when Jesus ascended to heaven, he was there at Pentecost, at the birth of this mighty movement of God, one of the Twelve destined to lead the Church for years and years, maybe even till Jesus comes again. But they killed him, he’s gone. Just like that. It can’t be. There must be a mistake. It seems totally unfair, wrong. But it’s reality. For James the road came to an end far sooner than anyone expected. God allowed James to glorify Him with his early and heartbreaking death. It was truly a sacrifice, a loss for the Church.

And so, Herod, steered by the opinion of the people, next arrests Peter. If the death of one of these Christians added points to his popularity ratings, then why not two? And now Peter has every reason to think that the end has come for him, too. But it turns out that God has other plans for Peter.

(Read vv.6-11)

In the midst of a very serious situation I find, nevertheless, a bit of humor. Peter wasn’t expecting an angel. When the angel appeared, Peter didn’t say, “Well there you are, finally!” On the contrary, Peter thought this was all a dream! And the angel deals with him rather like a child. First he gives him a nudge in the side, says, Hey, get up! Peter opens his eyes but he’s still in a dream-world and blinded by the light, and I think our dear Peter would be lying there still if the angel hadn’t micromanaged the situation, telling him every single thing to do! First the chains fall off, and then the angel says, “Get dressed”, so Peter gets dressed. Then the angel says, “Put your sandals on”, so Peter puts his sandals on. Then the angel says, “Put on your coat and follow me”, and Peter does it all like an obedient child, though he has no idea what’s actually happening. And you know, there are times in life when we, too, cannot grasp what is happening. Here Peter is like a helpless child. None of us likes being in a position like that. We like to present a completely different image, as people completely in charge of things. But there are those times when we stand face-to-face with the depths or our helplessness. It reminds me of the catastrophe of September 11th. That morning a lot of people came to work, at the World Trade Center – executive directors, computer specialists, international bankers, the movers and shakers of the world economy. And suddenly, all in a moment, they were trapped, at the windows of the 90th, the 100th floor, and all that they had left in life was a choice: to jump to their death, or to burn to death. Utter helplessness. Blessed is the person who always recognizes his helplessness and God as his helper. When we know this, then God will send into our lives a multitude of surprises, but we can accept them, with God as our helper. Surprise, James! Today, you will give you life for Christ and enter everlasting joy. Surprise, Peter! Today isn’t your day. For you there’s still work to do.

(Read vv. 12-17)

The Church was praying. What words do you think they were praying? I strongly doubt they were praying anything like, “Lord, please send an angel who’ll make the chains fall off of Peter and then lead him out of the prison. And make sure that the gates open up all by themselves and none of the guards even notice Peter walking out. Could you do that?” Even though I’m sure the early Church had enough faith to accept that God could do such a thing, I doubt they had the imagination to ask for it! They were asking God to save Peter, though they had no idea how He might do that.

So then Rhoda hears knocking and goes to the door and sees the last thing in the world she was expecting to see – the answer to their prayer! Surprise! Do you know that God will performs surprises like that in your life, too? He will answer your prayers in ways you never imagined. And sometimes you will need more faith to accept the answer than you needed to make the request. As for Rhoda, she couldn’t believe it!

Again, I find humor in this scene, when they finally let Peter in. Peter had to wave his arms to shush them all up! Why? Because they were making a racket and he had to quiet them down to get a word in edgewise. It is kind of funny here how Peter has changed roles. The one who was just the dazed child whom the angel had to lead by hand has now become the papa who has to quiet down his over-excited, chattering children! I imagine some of them were already expounding their theories on how Peter got out, while others were asking, “What were we praying for? Peter’s not in prison – he’s right here!” And nobody’s listening to poor Peter, who happens to know exactly what happened. ‘Cause he was there! So finally he quiets them down and says, “Now I’ll tell you all what happened.” And when we, like Peter, will allow God to take us, too, by the hand and lead us in ways we don’t understand, then at the end of the day we all will have something to tell others, and with authority, because we know. We were there when God worked.

And then Peter leaves for another place. God didn’t save Peter for Peter to march boldly into Herod’s palace and say, “Ha, ha! You see how God saved me?” God gave Peter, and us too, common sense. If God saved Peter from Herod, it meant Peter other places to work, other deeds to do for Christ. For Peter this wasn’t the end. But for others, it was.

(Read vv.18-19)

These guards were sort of in the same position as those people who came to work at the World Trade Center that terrible day, never imagining that that day was their last day. But it was. And not only for the guards but reading a bit further we find that Herod’s life suddenly came to a miserable end. At precisely the moment Herod was basking in the praise which rightly belongs only to God, he received an absolutely unexpected blow, from a Power higher than his, and he died in agony, with his body consumed by worms.

At the beginning of the sermon I asked, “When is the end?” You might ask, “The end of what?” Actually, it could be the end of anything! Maybe the end of a difficult period of your life. When is the end? Even the end of a wonderful chapter in your life. When is the end? Perhaps the end of particular suffering, pain, illness, trial. When is the end? Or life itself. When is the end? And what will it be like? We don’t know when it will be or what it will be like. And we usually don’t know, as a rule, what new beginning these endings in our life will lead to. But we know this: God is for us and not against us. God is the helper in our helplessness. God is real and moves in the lives of real people – people like James, and Peter and you and me. And when we trust Him, then He will turn that unknown ending – whatever it might be the end of – into the occasion for His glory. And He will turn every ending into a new beginning, most of all that ending when we take our final breath, and then begins our real, never-ending story.