Sermon – Living Stones

Four times, three in the Old Testament, one in Peter’s first letter, we’re told “I am the Lord your God; consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am holy.”

God commands us to be holy—He does so because it is only as we grow in holiness that we can truly be connected to Him in the way that Peter describes in the reading you heard this morning.

We are all flawed masterpieces—in one way or another, and to one degree or another, the image of God in which we were formed has become broken or corrupted or twisted out of shape through what the Bible calls sin. Holiness is about the restoration of who we were made to be—God’s people. A people who are holy.

Because it is only when we conform to and reflect God’s holiness in our lives that we become fully and truly human. But we are so broken, often so certain that we know better even than God what’s best for us, that we resist, we rebel—we even run away.

The apostle Paul wrote to the Galatian church, a people unwilling to give themselves completely to God: “My little children, for whom I am again in the anguish of childbirth until Christ is formed in you!” (Galatians 4:19).

Paul had seen God’s glory—and once he saw it, he was never again the same.

Moses saw God’s glory—Exodus 24:16-18 says, “The glory of the Lord dwelt on Mount Sinai … Now the appearance of the glory of the Lord was like a devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the sight of the people of Israel. Moses entered the cloud and went up on the mountain ….”

And later, when Moses came down from his encounter with God on Mount Sinai, we’re told that “Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God” (Exodus 34:29).

God’s glory had rubbed off on Moses—the people saw it and the next verse says that “they were afraid to come near him” (Exodus 34:30).

God’s glory—which is His holiness—is so great that it terrifies those who are allowed to see it. God spoke to Moses “face to face, as a man speaks to his friend” (Exodus 33:11). And when He did, Moses face would shine with reflected glory.

The Israelite people, however, didn’t want that much God in their lives. They told Moses that he should talk to God and then just tell them what God said.

Are we like those ancient people? Wanting a little God in our lives but afraid to let Him in completely. Do we somehow understand that surrendering to Him completely will change everything in our lives? That we won’t be able to say no to anything He asks of us?

C. S. Lewis, in Mere Christianity, gives us a picture of building renovation to describe the way that God works in us. He writes, “Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps you can understand what he is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on: you knew those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised.

But presently he starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make sense. What on earth is he up to? The explanation is that he is building quite a different house from the one you thought of—throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards.

You thought you were going to be made into a decent little cottage; but he is building up a palace. He intends to come and live in it himself.

The process will be long and in parts very painful; but that is what we are here for. Nothing less.”

Much of the pain that he describes is, of course, our resistance to the work that God desires to do in us—the work of making us holy. A process that Lewis experienced firsthand when God brought him from atheism to complete surrender.

Because when C. S. Lewis encountered the glory and holiness of God, he could do nothing but give himself to the Lord.

The prophet Isaiah encountered the holy and living God—interestingly, God waited until after Isaiah had begun to prophesy to give him the vision that we heard in this morning’s reading. A vision that occurred after God had spoken to Isaiah in chapter 5, describing the future destruction of the vineyard of the Lord, which Isaiah knew was the nation of Israel. The Lord told Isaiah that, “My people go into exile for lack of knowledge” (Isaiah 5:13). Not for lack of faith—but for lack of knowledge.

Then Isaiah see the Lord sitting on a throne, “high and lifted up,” with seraphim calling out, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!”

Isaiah was still in the early years of a ministry that would last almost sixty years, a ministry that would cover the reign of four kings—Uzziah, who had recently died, was the first of those four. Uzziah, who had begun his reign so well, seeking God’s guidance and experiencing great success—but whose pride in that success led to his eventual downfall.

Isaiah is apparently thinking about all this in the temple when he meets the King of kings seated on His throne. Met the King who would never disappoint, who would never finish badly. The King who is really in control of all things. Isaiah sees not only the glory and holiness of God, but also his own sinfulness. His sinfulness that God removes—not because Isaiah has done anything deserving, but purely by the grace of holy and almighty God.

Isaiah is changed—so that when God asks in the next verse who He can send, Isaiah immediately replies, “Here is am, Lord, send me.” God has changed him, cleansed him, and for the rest of his life, Isaiah will be wholly devoted to serving the Lord.

For Isaiah, to see the glory and holiness of God was a call to action. A call to devote his life to this great God.

Peter and the rest of the apostles encountered God’s glory in Jesus, although it took them a while to recognize it. On the Mount of Transfiguration, Jesus revealed His glory to Peter, James and John—and they were terrified. They didn’t know how to respond.

Who is God? How can we see His glory? His holiness? This is what Philip wants to know in our gospel reading. The next day Jesus will die on the cross and He’s trying to prepare His disciples for His departure from them.  Jesus asks him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9).

Jesus is holiness with a face.

I know that some of you like to put together jigsaw puzzles. You begin with a jumbled mess, but as each piece is placed where it belongs, the picture becomes clearer. And with each piece that’s added, it becomes easier to fit new pieces into their places.

So it is with us as God goes to work fitting the pieces of our lives together to form the picture that He knows is there—despite the fact that we might be finding it very difficult to see the way all the mistakes and wrong choices we’ve made could ever be fitted together to form anything good or beautiful. Our part begins simply with our surrender: “Here I am, Lord. Do with me what you will.”

When you begin those jigsaw puzzles, you have a picture on the box to guide you. You know what the puzzle should look like when it’s finished. So, too, has God, in His great mercy and grace, given us a picture of the finished product—Jesus.

Hebrews 1:3 “The Son, Jesus, is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature.”

The question before us is: Am I willing to surrender my will to God? Am I willing to be changed into the image of Jesus, to be made holy?

Holiness is a gift we receive when we believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. But we need to unpack and use the gift

Most of you are probably familiar with the much more famous 19th century missionary, Hudson Taylor, who works for many years to bring Christ to the Chinese. Although we remember him today as a man of great faith, a powerful prayer warrior, totally devoted to serving the Lord, Hudson Taylor went through a period of great struggle, longing for more holiness in his life. He wrote, “I prayed, I agonized, fasted, strove, made resolutions, read the Word more diligently … but all was without effect. Every day, almost every hour, the consciousness of sin oppressed me. … Must it be thus to the end—constant conflict and, instead of victory, too often defeat?”

Most of us can probably relate to this—I know I can. We want to know God more, we want to overcome sin in our life—we try and try and try and nothing works.

For Hudson Taylor, the answer came in the form of a letter from his friend and fellow missionary John McCarthy, who had recently encountered God in a new way. McCarthy put it this way: “The Lord Jesus received is holiness begun; the Lord Jesus cherished is holiness advancing; the Lord Jesus counted upon as never absent would be holiness complete.”

McCarthy went on to describe the radical difference this message was making in his life: “Abiding, not striving nor struggling; looking off unto Him; trusting Him for present power; trusting Him to subdue all inward corruption; resting in the love of an almighty Savior; … this is not new, and yet it is new to me. I feel as though the first dawning of a glorious day has risen upon me.”

For Hudson Taylor, this was transformative. Later he wrote that after reading his friend’s letter, “As I read, I saw it all! … I looked to Jesus and saw (and when I saw, oh, how joy flowed!) that He has said, ‘I will never leave you,’ ‘Ah, there is rest!’ I thought. … I saw not only that Jesus would never leave me, but that I was a member of His body, of His flesh and of His bones … Oh, the joy of seeing this truth! … It is a wonderful thing to be really one with a risen and exalted Savior; to be a member of Christ! Think what it involves. Can Christ be rich and I poor? Can your right hand be rich and the left poor? Or your head be well fed while your body starves? All this springs from the believer’s oneness with Christ. And since Christ has thus dwelt in my heart by faith, how happy I have been!”

This is what Peter is describing in the passage we heard this morning. He gives us the picture of a church built out of living stones. Stones that are connected, every single one, to the cornerstone that is Jesus. Stones that can be, through that connection, changed.

Isaiah 35:8 says, “And a highway shall be there, and it shall be called the Way of Holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it; it shall belong to those who walk on the way; even if they are fools, they shall not go astray.”

Brothers and sisters in Christ, we can grow in holiness, we can overcome sin in our lives—even besetting sins that we’ve battled for years—we can do all this simply by handing over control of our lives to Jesus. In looking to Jesus, Hudson Taylor discovered the power to live a holy life. He wrote, “I am as capable of sinning as ever, but Christ is realized as present as never before. He cannot sin; and He can keep me from sinning.”

Jesus can keep you and me from sinning. And when we do sin, He will cleanse and pardon us. Through the cross of Jesus Christ, God has made provision for every sin we could possibly commit. And His grace is far more powerful than any sinful bondage.

Another famous man of God who lived in the 19th century said, “Though you have struggled in vain against your evil habits, though you have wrestled with them sternly, and resolved, and re-resolved, only to be defeated by your giant sins and your terrible passions, there is One who can conquer all your sins for you. There is One who is stronger than Hercules, who can strangle the hydra of your lust, kill the lion of your passions, and cleanse Augean (impossible) stable of your evil nature by turning the great rivers of blood and water of his atoning sacrifice right through your soul. He can make and keep you pure within. Oh, look to Him!”

Are we ready for this much God in our lives? Are you? And are you actively seeking Him? Did you come here this morning hoping to hear some words that would encourage you a bit during the coming week? Or did you come expecting and preparing to encounter the living God? To encounter Him in a mighty and powerful and life-changing way?

Do we want to have the power of God

Do you know God? Really know Him? Or do you just think you do? Isaiah and Moses and Hudson Taylor and John McCarthy and C. S. Lewis all thought they knew God—until they developed such a longing for Him that He revealed Himself to them in all His glory and holiness.

Do we want just a little bit of God or do we want to really know Him?

A pastor named Tommy Tenney writes in his book, The God Chasers, about the way he met God in a Houston, Texas, church.  He thought he new God but he and his friend, the pastor of the church, had been praying for God to really show up. Really praying.

He said the pastor read 2 Chronicles 7:14 “If My people, who are called by My name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways; then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and I will heal their land.”

Then the pastor said, “The word of the Lord to us is to stop seeking His benefits and seek Him. We are not to seek His hands any longer, but seek His face.”

In that instant, Tenney wrote, he “heard what sounded like a thunderclap echo through the building, and the pastor was literally picked up and thrown backward about ten feet. … When he went backward, the pulpit fell forward, … and by the time the pulpit hit the ground, it was already in two pieces. It had split into two pieces almost as if lightning had hit it! At that instant the tangible terror of the presence of God filled that room.”

“No one really paid much attention to the split pulpit; we were too occupied with the torn heavenlies. The presence of God had hit that place like some kind of bomb. People began to weep and wail.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, are we prepared to receive God in that way in our midst? Are we crying out for the living God to come—not for what He can do for us or give us, but simply because we long for His presence, for His holiness?

Are we willing to allow Him to be at work in our lives, doing whatever need to be done to make us more holy? To shape and transform and renovate us into the living stones that He created us to be? Are we willing to say not only, “Take me, Lord, but take all that I have, take my entire life, take this church—and do with us what you will?”

Are you living God’s plan for your life? A life that is holy? A life that is growing ever more sanctified? A life of truth, love, joy, humility and servanthood?

And if we’re not, what are we doing here? Why are we wasting our time? Because if you’re not living that kind of life now, what makes you think you’d want to live that kind of life after you die?

Sermon – Pursuing Holiness

Imagine for a moment that, as we’re gathered here this morning, the angel Gabriel suddenly appears—and tells us that Jesus will return tomorrow morning.  How might that change what you had planned for the rest of the day?

What if we received advance notice that Jesus will return in December—this December. How might that change your plans for the year? Or maybe just your plans for November? Perhaps just the last week of November?

How might your priorities change?

This is the question we’re being asked by the author of the letter to the Hebrews, who is reminding us of the “Day drawing near” (Hebrews 10:25). Reminding us that it matters how we live.

2000 years ago, the angel Gabriel suddenly appeared to a young girl—an ordinary girl living in an obscure village in Galilee.  Appeared in what had been, up to then, an ordinary day—a day when this girl named Mary was just living her life.  Appeared and told her that the Holy Spirit would come upon her and she would become pregnant—with the Son of God. And from that very moment, everything changed for Mary—suddenly and unexpectedly. Whatever she had planned for that day—and for the rest of her life—was set aside to follow God’s plan for her.

The child promised to Zechariah and Elizabeth was in response to many prayers. The promised child to Mary was a complete and total surprise. The angel didn’t ask how she felt about becoming the mother of the Son of God—he didn’t ask if she was OK with it. He didn’t ask her to think about it and get back to Him—Gabriel just told her God’s plan for her, and she replied, “I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word” (Luke 1:38).

She did ask wonder how it was possible for an unmarried virgin to become pregnant. “And the angel answered her, ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God” (Luke 1:35).

We know this story—we’ve probably heard it hundreds of times. But when you hear it, how often do you consider the fact that the Holy Spirit that came upon Mary all those years ago in Nazareth is the same Holy Spirit who’s come upon you and me? How often do you consider that this Holy Spirit who could conceive a child and place it in the womb of a virgin is the same Holy Spirit who has come upon you and me? Who lives in you and me—bringing that same power to do incredible, miraculous things through you and me? It wasn’t Mary who caused herself to give birth to the Son of God. All she contributed was her physical body and a willing heart.

Why Mary? Was she perfect? Without sin? There are some in the church who believe that she was—who believe that she could not have been the mother of the Son of God unless she was totally free of sin. This doctrine is known as the Immaculate Conception.

The problem with this doctrine is that we don’t find it anywhere in Scripture. There’s no evidence that Mary was anything other than an ordinary young girl—born into the world infected with original sin, just like you and me. There is in fact evidence of sin on Mary’s part when she tries to get the adult Jesus to stop preaching the kingdom of God.

Mary wasn’t perfect—but at the same time she was set apart, she was holy. In the passage we heard earlier from Leviticus 20, God says that the Jewish people are holy because He had separated them from all the other peoples.

The author of the letter to the Hebrews calls us to remember that we are holy not because of anything we’ve done. We’re not holy because we’re better than other people. We’re holy because we have been called out by God to belong to Him. Holiness isn’t something that can be earned—holiness is a gift that God bestows on His people.

I don’t think most of us in the church really understand holiness—and maybe that’s why we so rarely talk about it. Somehow we have the idea that we have to make ourselves holy—and when we’re being honest with ourselves, we all know that’s impossible.

The Bible doesn’t just tell us it’s impossible for us to make ourselves holy—it shows us. We have the entire Old Testament, in which God calls out a people to belong to Him. 2000 years before Jesus was born, God called Abraham to be the father of a people—a people that God would set apart from all other people. A people who would belong to Him. A people who, as we see in Leviticus 20:26, who are holy to God because God is holy. God is holy and so when He separates people to belong to Him, they become holy also.

Why Abraham? We don’t know—we find plenty of evidence that Abraham is a sinner, but God chose Him anyway. And God takes the Jews, descended from Abraham’s son Isaac out of Egypt—He separates them from the Egyptians and all the other nations. He gives them a land of their own and He gives them His law—His rules that will, if they keep them perfectly, make them holy. That will, in effect, bring them back to a perfect world, to heaven on earth. He tells them:

Deuteronomy 28:1-10 If you faithfully obey the voice of the Lord your God, being careful to do all his commandments that I command you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. … Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the field. Blessed shall be the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground and the fruit of your cattle, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock. … Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out. The Lord will cause your enemies who rise against you to be defeated before you. … The Lord will establish you as a people holy to himself, … if you keep the commandments of the Lord and walk in his ways.

It was a big if—and of course God knew that they would never be able to keep the law.

But now, everything has changed. The letter to the Hebrews reminds us that something has changed—but it’s not us. We have received this gift of holiness—and with it we have received the same Holy Spirit that fell on Mary that day when everything in her life changed.

We have power available to us that those ancient Israelites didn’t have. We have been made holy through the offering of the perfect sacrifice of God’s beloved Son, Jesus, who in perfect obedience to His Father lived a perfect life—a life totally without sin. It is because of His sacrifice that the Holy Place, the place where we meet with God, is open to us.

In the Old Covenant, only the appointed high priest could enter into the “holy of holies” and then only once each year. But as Jesus’ body was torn apart as He was beaten and hung on the cross, so too was the curtain that separated the holy of holies from the people torn in two. And at that moment, everything changed. No longer must we go through a priest to come to the Lord God.

Now all of us who believe in Jesus as Lord and Savior are invited—are welcomed—into the presence of God at any time. Day or night, no matter where we are or what we’re doing. But, the author of Hebrews is telling us, but unless we enter with confidence and with “full assurance of faith,” we will fail to receive the full benefit of the spiritual resources available to us.

“The Most Holy Place” is the place where we meet God—and through the new life in the Spirit which the New Covenant provides, He has come into our hearts. And, because we have Him living in us, we have become, in the words of Paul, “colaborers with God.”

We have become holy. And while believers are never called to make themselves holy, we are called to care for the gift we have received—and we’re called to show it off, to display it to the world in the best possible light. It is, as one writer put it, as if we have inherited the gift of the family silver. We didn’t earn it; we didn’t buy it; it became ours as the result of a death in the family. But now that it’s ours, we must polish it and take care of it and use it for the benefit of others. We must display it to the best advantage.

Especially, as Hebrews tells us, as we “see the Day drawing near.”

We can do this, Hebrews says, not because of any confidence we might have in our own abilities, but because we have a “great priest over the house of God.” We have Jesus, who is continually available, always completely aware of our situation, and always totally committed to remaining involved with us in working all things together for good. His great concern is the welfare of each member of the household of God, and “we are his house” (Hebrews 3:6).

Caring for this great gift of holiness that comes along with the gift of faith is our responsibility. And that gift can grow strong and resilient only if it is nurtured and nourished on the Word of God. Only if we feed ourselves regularly with the bread of life—not just a nibble here and there, but a full-course meal. On a regular basis.

This is how we can prepare ourselves and then keep ourselves ready for the Day that is drawing near. The day for which we have been promised there will be no advance notice—the Day when Jesus returns? Returns to judge the living and the dead.

How ready are you?

Was Mary ready when the angel Gabriel suddenly appeared and told her that her life was about to change forever? Did she have any idea of what lie ahead of her? Did Abraham know what lie ahead of Him when God called him to pack up and follow Him, not knowing where he was going? Did Moses know what lie ahead of him when he approached that burning bush and heard God’s plan for the rest of his life?

We’re all really busy with lots of things—things that we think are really important. How willing would we be to set those things aside if God sent an angel with a new plan for us?

Mary, Abraham, Moses … and so many others. None of them had any advance notice that God had big plans for them until He just showed up. Somehow, though, they were ready. And they had willing hearts.

So what is it that we must do today and tomorrow and the next day and every day? We must be holy. We must live as if we knew—and really believed—that Jesus would be returning tomorrow morning.

We must be holy—not just for ourselves but for everyone else. Because just as an inheritance of the family silver isn’t about just our personal enjoyment, but our using that gift to allow the rest of the family to enjoy it as well, so too, is the gift of holiness not just something for our personal enjoyment.  The letter to the Hebrews isn’t addressed to individuals—it’s addressed to the body of Christ. Because the author, like Peter, like Paul, understood that we’re all connected. That what I do affects you and what you do affects me and everyone else. Peter, in his first letter, describes us as “living stones built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” (I Peter 2:5).

We have this idea in our culture today that you can do whatever you think is best for you and I can do whatever I think is best for me—and what we do doesn’t affect anybody else.

Think about it—how many people have been affected by Adam’s sin? Every single one of us. And how many have been affected by Jesus’ holy life and holy sacrifice? Every single one of us.

How many people were affected when Joseph trusted and obeyed God even when his life seemed to be going from bad to worse?

How many people were affected by Moses’ willingness to lead the Israelite people out of their captivity in Egypt? What if he’d said, “No, thanks, God.”

How many people were affected when Paul accepted Jesus’ call to him?

How many people were affected when Martin Luther refused to renounce his understanding that salvation is by faith alone? Refused to stop teaching that salvation comes from God alone and not from the pope? When Luther was excommunicated from the church, most people believed that he was condemned to hell—because they didn’t know that it was God alone and not the pope who determines our salvation.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, what must we do?  The author of Hebrews says that we must be holy. What does that mean? It means that we must live as we would live if we knew that Jesus would be returning tomorrow morning.

We must live in a way that never forgets the great gift we have received. Never forget the blood that Christ shed for us, the way He opened—that He tore apart with His body—and the work He does. This letter mentions the blood shed by Jesus Christ on the cross more than any other New Testament book.

When we continually hold before us what Jesus has done for us—and when we consider where we would be had He not—it changes the way we live. But it’s not just about the way we worship or pray or read the Bible—it’s about the way we live. Every single thing we do or think should be done with a reliance on Jesus—and with the understanding that what we do affects others.

We’re called to hold fast to our Christian belief in the midst of a world where values are continually changing.

10:25 “not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.”

When we’re all part of the same family, we have a responsibility to encourage one another. In the words of John Wesley, “The Bible knows nothing of solitary religion.” The failure to meet together, to join the assembly for worship is seen in this letter as a serious weakness. Part of the reason may be that we are limiting our opportunities to do good works for the care of one another. Close and regular fellowship with other believers isn’t just a nice idea—it’s an absolute necessity for the encouragement of Christian values.

Some of you might think that God doesn’t really care if you’re not in church every Sunday, especially if you’re involved in what might seem to you to be important activities. The author of Hebrews is concerned about more than attending worship, however. It’s about interacting with your Christian brothers and sisters, in a way that lets them know you care about them. It’s about our willingness to help struggling faith wherever Christians meet. It could be getting together for lunch now and then with a fellow Christian or beginning a Bible study in your home. It could be extending friendship to a neighbor or volunteering at the school or at our daycare. It could be visiting that lonely senior citizen who lives alone.

Because the Day is drawing near.

The reason why we seem to be continually experiencing earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, wildfires and tornadoes, blizzards and hailstorms, wars and rumors of war, it to help us to remember that the Day is drawing near.

We’re called to live every day as if that Day were just beyond the horizon. If you knew for certain that Jesus was going to return in the morning, how would you spend this day?

Martin Luther

Hebrews was written to believers who were struggling; some scholars believe that they may have been considering isolating themselves from the local church. While there is no local church that is perfect, we’re called to work to correct deficiencies—work together—rather than to run away. We need to put our common faith ahead of all differences as we deal with one another in love. And that love must have a practical outcome.

When the day that is drawing near arrives, we’ll all wish we’d done so much more. Surely as we look around and see who’s not part of the set apart people of God, we’ll wonder if we might have done something that would have pointed them to Jesus.

Think about these things this week—in the words of Hebrews, “Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works.”

January Announcements

THE ANNUAL MEETING WILL BE HELD ON SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2020 immediately following our worship service.

PORTALS OF PRAYER devotional booklets for January – March 2020 are available on the table in the narthex.

PRAYER FOR OUR NATION continues to be held every Monday evening at 6:00 PM.  Join us as we pray for God to work in powerful ways to heal our nation and our world.

GUITAR LESSONS WILL RESUME ON FEBRUARY 9. They’ll be held on the second and fourth Sundays of each month immediately following Sunday School.

OUR DAYCARE IS LOOKING FOR PART-TIME STAFF: Especially needed are afternoon workers, who can help from 2:00 – 6:00 PM. Please contact Ashley at the daycare if you’re interested.

CONFERENCE ROOM SIGN-UP: Our Conference Room is in high demand on Sunday mornings, so we’re asking you to sign up in the church office if you plan to use that room for a meeting or class to avoid conflicts. Reservations will be on a first come, first serve basis.

THURSDAY MORNING WOMEN’S BIBLE STUDY resumes at 10:00 AM on Thursday, January 9 with a 5 week DVD study by Kyle Idleman called “Don’t Give Up,” based on Hebrews 11 and 12. All women of the congregation are invited to join us at 10:00 am on Thursday mornings. Come and grow in your relationship with Jesus Christ and with one another.

SUNDAY NIGHT MEN would also welcome additional men to join them at 7:00 PM. Men will resume their studies on January 12.

SUNDAY MORNING PRAYER MINISTERS will gather in the Fellowship Room for a time of prayer following our worship service this morning. If you are presently involved in our prayer ministry, or if you would like to be, join us. Anyone in need of prayer is encouraged to come and receive.

WINGS OF REFUGE CAPITAL CAMPAIGN continues; donations may be made payable to Bethany. Our goal is $4,000.00. To date, we have collected $3,180.00.

ALUMINUM CAN TABS continue to be collected. Tabs go to the Rochester, Minnesota, Ronald McDonald House, where they benefit the families of seriously ill children hospitalized at Mayo.

Who is good?

SERMON FOR SUNDAY, JANUARY 5, 2020

As you all know, this is the first Sunday in a new year—in a new decade. And I’ve had a very strong sense that the most important thing we can do this year is to grow in our knowledge and understanding of who God is. The best way to do this is to read and study God’s written Word—to read His book.

We live in a world that’s increasingly confused about who God is. Even many of us who call ourselves Christian have many wrong ideas about God—and the primary reason for this is that we don’t know God’s Word.

The Reformation of the Sixteenth century occurred because people had lost their understanding of who God is and what He calls us to be and do. The church had strayed far from God—but they had an excuse. They had almost no access to the Bible. Until the invention of the printing press, almost no one, including priests, had Bibles available to them.

We don’t have that excuse. A recent Lifeway study found that 87% of American households own at least one Bible—but 53% of Americans have read none of it or only bits and pieces here and there.

The study found that only 11% of Americans have actually read the entire Bible at least once. 9% have read it more than once, which seems to indicate that a very large majority of those who read the Bible once find that they need to read it again—and again.

But the 89% of us who have read little or none of Scripture are basing our ideas about who God is primarily on what we hear from other people—or what we observe in those around us who call themselves Christians.

Can you see the problem here? A few of you have developed the habit of reading the Bible through every year. Some of you have another plan for regular Bible study. I’d like to see all of you begin this year to regularly feed yourself on God’s Word—we have the Bible available on CD for those of you who prefer listening to reading and there are smart phone apps that will allow you to read or listen to the Bible wherever you are.

Focusing on really getting to know the Bible this year is something I’ve been thinking about for a while. But it was the recent piece written by Mark Galli, recently retired editor of Christianity Today magazine, calling for the impeachment of President Trump that really showed me how little understanding there is even among Christian leaders of our great and awesome God. Mark Galli is a Presbyterian pastor who believes that President Trump has been disqualified for office by, in his words, his “blackened moral record.”                                                           

My job as your pastor isn’t to talk about politics—it’s to proclaim the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. But in light of the enormous and continuing publicity surrounding Mark Galli’s editorial, I think we need to pause for a moment and consider what the Bible has to say about what God looks for in a leader, about how God works in difficult situations and, most of all, what we can learn from God’s Word about how we ought to live in this broken world.

When the Israelite people demanded a king, God gave them Saul—Saul who looked like a king and who led his people to victory in battle just as they had hoped, but who God rejected because, as he told the prophet Samuel, “he has turned back from following me and has not performed my commandments” (1 Samuel 15:10).

But Saul had done most of what God told him to do—he’d just changed a few of the details in ways that made sense to him. Sure, he’d failed to kill the king God told him to kill, and he’d kept the best livestock, even though God had told him to kill all of it—to us that seems like not a big deal. To God, however, it was a really big deal.

1 Samuel 15:23 “For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and presumption is as iniquity or idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he has also rejected you from being king.”

Saul had succumbed to the sin of pride—he’d started to think that he and God were partners and that he could adjust the plan if he had a better idea. Apparently God did not agree.

So God anointed a new king—a young shepherd boy named David. A boy who defeats the giant Goliath who terrified the entire Israelite army. Killed him with his slingshot and a few small stones—killed him not for the reward promised by Saul, but that “all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, and that all … may know that the Lord saves not with sword and spear. For the battle is the Lord’s and he will give you into our hand” (I Samuel 17:40).

David achieves great success in the Israelite army, so much so that King Saul becomes jealous and determines to kill David. He pursues him with his army, but twice when David could have killed Saul, he refused—refused because Saul was “the Lord’s anointed.” Saul had been named king by the Lord God and David refused to do anything contrary to God’s will.

Saul was eventually killed and David became king, a king “who inquired of the Lord”—a king who tried to do God’s will—most of the time. One day, however, this morning’s reading tells us that David stayed in Jerusalem when he should have been with his army in battle. That was his first mistake. It gets worse—a lot worse.

David goes up on the roof of the king’s house—perhaps looking over his kingdom below. He sees a woman bathing and sends his servants to bring her to him. He seduces her and then when she discovers that she’s pregnant, he kills her husband and marries her to cover up his sin.

But that’s not the whole story. When I was in seminary, a woman who led us through a directed retreat told us about the system that she used to read the Bible. It didn’t sound that good to me at that time, but later I decided to try it—and it’s a system I’ve used many times since then.

Markers to divide Bible into sections—read one or more chapters from each section each day. Always reading different passages together.

Using this system, I often find connections between events or stories that I might have otherwise missed. Anyone who’s read through the entire Bible knows that there’s a lot of repetition—the same stories are told more than once. And different details are included in different places.

So in reading the various books that talk about King David, we find additional details—details that make it clear that this wasn’t just a sin that occurred because both David and Bathsheba happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. No—it was a carefully premeditated sin by David.

Because in 2 Samuel 16:23, we read that “in those days the counsel that Ahithophel gave was as if one consulted the word of God; so was all his counsel esteemed … by David …”

2 Samuel 23:34 “Eliam the son of Ahithophel” was one of David’s mighty men.

So Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah the Hittite, is also the daughter of Eliam, who, along with Uriah, is one of David’s mighty men. And Eliam is the son of David’s most trusted counselor, Ahithophel.  Which makes Bathsheba the granddaughter of David’s most trusted advisor, surely also one of his closest friends.

And as such, it seems unimaginable that he would not have been an honored guest at the wedding of his close friend’s granddaughter and one of his mighty men.

Although David inquired of his servants who the woman he saw was, he already knew. He’d planned the whole thing—all except for the part about Bathsheba becoming pregnant.

Talk about a “blackened moral record.” If you or I had been writing this story, we probably would have quit before David got to this point. That’s not how God works, however.

So did God then “reject David from being king” as he had Saul. No—He didn’t. He took Bathsheba’s child from him—the baby died. And He told David that He would “raise up evil against him from within his own house” (2 Samuel 12:10). And we surely see that in the rest of David’s story. But not only did God not disqualify David from leadership, He calls him a man after his own heart.

How can this be? Why did God reject Saul for what might seem to us like a fairly minor infraction, but not only allow David to remain on the throne, but to declare him a man after God’s own heart.

David wrote Psalm 51 after the prophet Nathan confronted him with his sin—his sin which he immediately acknowledged and repented of.

Psalm 51:10-12 “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence and take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.”

This was the prayer of David’s life. God loved David not because David was so good or so moral. God loved David because David recognized himself as a sinner in need of forgiveness—in need of a Savior.

What was it that made David a better man in God’s eyes than Saul? It was that the deepest and most deliberate desire of David’s heart was to do as God requires and to be holy as God is holy.

So why is his great sin so carefully recorded in Scripture? It’s recorded as a warning: it shows the danger of interrupting, even briefly, our duty to watch and pray. The danger of failing to remain alert, to keep awake.

It shows the danger of even thinking about sin, the danger of thinking that it’s OK to listen to songs, to read books, to watch movies or television programs, to look at websites, that pollute our mind, because we’re also polluting our soul.

It shows the ruin and havoc that can occur when we decide that we can tolerate and gratify just one sinful desire. When we start to think, “what can it really hurt”?

David’s story reminds us that we can throw out all but one match—and still manage to burn down the whole house.

So who is qualified for leadership? Whoever God puts there. You and I might very well have declared Moses morally unfit for leadership because he killed a man before God ever called him to lead His people out of Egypt.

We would almost certainly have demanded David’s removal from office after the Bathsheba affair.

We might have refused Solomon as king because he was Bathsheba’s son.

We might have refused to welcome Paul into the church because of his murderous past. In fact, if it hadn’t been for Ananias, that might well have happened.

Have you noticed how many of the people God called to do great things in the Bible were murderers? People who had sinned greatly?

Have you noticed how badly we often fail to recognize what God is doing? Have we forgotten that the King of kings came into the world—but He looked so unlike the world’s idea of a king that even the leaders of His own people failed to recognize Him?  Hated Him so much that they killed Him?

King Herod was a cruel and evil king in Israel when Jesus was alive. And yet Jesus never says anything at all about trying to get rid of him.

The early church lived under the rule of the Roman Emperor Nero, a man who persecuted Christians in horrible ways. And yet the apostle Paul wrote to Timothy: “I urge supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way” (I Timothy 2:1-2).

So what are we to do?

The Bible tells us quite clearly that God is in charge of all things—including who will be allowed to rule over any nation. This has not changed. President Trump is president only because God has allowed him to be. Whether this is for good or for evil only history will really be able to tell us. Our job is to pray for him.

What does God expect from us? He expects us to pray for all people, including those we don’t even like. He expects us to love one another and to love our enemies. He doesn’t care what we look like on the outside—He cares greatly what we look like on the inside.

In the gospel of John, people bring a woman to Jesus who has been caught in the act of adultery. They want to stone her to death. Jesus says, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her” (John 8:7).

Matthew 5:44 “But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons (and daughters) of your Father who is in heaven.”

Brothers and sisters in Christ, if you’ve been among those who have publicly condemned our president, you need to repent. Repent of thinking that you know better than God. If you’ve been one of those who fails to recognize that our president is far from perfect, that he—like all of us—is a sinner, you also need to repent. There is only one God—and it is Almighty God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

No president can save us, no army can save us—only God can do that. Can and will—if we come to Him acknowledging our sin, our failure, our inability to live without Him.

Jesus’ picture of the kingdom heart is a heart overflowing with tenderness for everyone. A heart that weeps over wrongdoing and sin as He wept over the city of Jersusalem.

Why have we moved so far from this understanding of God as a nation? Because we have turned away from His Word. When we fail to know God’s Word, it’s inevitable that we’ll fall back into that place where we, like so many of those that we read about in the OT, begin to “do what’s right in our own eyes.” And not just do, but believe. We begin to believe that right is whatever seems right to us.

The prophet Hosea wrote God’s words: “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.” The more we study God’s Word, the more we understand that our greatest lack of knowledge is simply that we’re blind to how little we really know. It’s so easy to take a verse or two and think we understand it. But to read and meditate on the entirety of God’s Word introduces us to a God that is far beyond our ability to understand—His power and His glory is simply too great for us to ever fully comprehend, at least in this lifetime.

And yet in His greatness, His omnipotence, He cares for us—every one of us. He loves us with an everlasting love. He loves us in a way that we seem largely incapable of even beginning to love one another.

So let us truly become people of the Word—the Word that Jesus described as the bread of life. When we are as anxious to consume this bread as we are to consume food for our physical body, when we spend at least as much time feeding our soul with God’s Word as we spend consuming all the good foods the world provides, then perhaps we will begin to change not only ourselves but the world in which we live.

Stay Awake

Grace and peace …

Lord, …

In August when Denny and I were in Venice, we visited St. Mark’s Basilica, considered by many to be one of the most beautiful churches in the world. This nearly thousand year old structure was built to replace a previous building that burned in the year 976. Over the years, there have been additions added, as well as almost continual renovation and refurbishing. On the Saturday morning that we were there, we joined a very long line that stretched across the square, a line waiting to tour this magnificent cathedral. Everywhere in Venice, beginning at the airport, there are signs and posters inviting tourists to come—admission is absolutely free, these ads proclaim.

Once we were inside the multi-level basilica, however, we discovered that all the rooms outside the main sanctuary require a fee to enter. And there are a lot of other rooms, most of them with intriguing names, such as “St. Peter’s Chapel,” and “St. Mark’s Relics.” Much of the interior is covered with mosaics made from ground gold. As we walked through this magnificent structure, it made me think of what it must have been like to enter the Temple in Jerusalem in Jesus’ day—another building covered in gold and marble. Another building created to worship God that had become more a place of business than a place of worship.

Thousands of people tour the basilica every day—and collecting a euro from only a fraction of them to tour secret rooms is surely an incredibly profitable venture for the church. On Sunday morning, however, when the building is closed to tourists, we returned to the Basilica for worship, to find ourselves sitting with maybe 40 other people in the vast sanctuary—about half of whom were nuns.

This bring us to the beginning of this morning’s gospel reading:

Luk 21:5  And while some were speaking of the temple, how it was adorned with noble stones and offerings, he said, 

Luk 21:6  “As for these things that you see, the days will come when there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.” 

So after visiting St. Mark’s, I imagine that I can understand at least a little bit what it must have been like for Jesus outside the temple, just a day or two before He’ll be sacrificed for all these people who care more about this beautiful building than they do about the God the building was created to worship and glorify. The God who provided the building, the God who gave them their country, the God who, out of His enormous and never-ending love, has sent His only Son into the world to die.

I can also imagine how shocking His words would have been to those listening. The Temple was a thing of wonder; people came from all over to visit it, to admire it. But even beyond its beauty, it was a solid and massive structure, the destruction of which would have hard to comprehend. Some of the individual stones were more than 60 feet long and 7 feet high. How do you begin to destroy solid stone of this dimension?

Last April, when fire destroyed much of another great church, the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris, we were able to watch it live, witnessing the heartache people were experiencing as they saw their beloved cathedral go up in flames. And yet while the building suffered massive damage, damage so great that some wonder if it is even possible to restore or rebuild, when it was all over, we saw that the main altar, the gold cross on the altar, and the large cross hanging above it, remained untouched.

2000 years ago, the Jewish Temple was the very center of life for the Israelite people—and its ultimate destruction will bring about an end to much more than just temple worship. Jesus knows this—He also knows that none of them are ready to understand what this means for them. At the same time, He knows that someday, when the city and the temple are utterly destroyed, they’ll remember His prophesy.

And so following what was surely a shocked silence:

Luk 21:7  And they asked him, “Teacher, when will these things be, and what will be the sign when these things are about to take place?” 

And in His answer, Jesus describes two separate events. The first, the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, will occur in the year 70 AD, only 35-40 years in the future. He tells them they will know that event is at hand when they “see Jerusalem surrounded by armies.”

Luk 21:20  “But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation has come near. 

Luk 21:21  Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, and let those who are inside the city depart, and let not those who are out in the country enter it, 

Luk 21:22  for these are days of vengeance, to fulfill all that is written. 

Luk 21:23  Alas for women who are pregnant and for those who are nursing infants in those days! For there will be great distress upon the earth and wrath against this people. 

Luk 21:24  They will fall by the edge of the sword and be led captive among all nations, and Jerusalem will be trampled underfoot by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.”

It will be unimaginably horrible, far worse than anything they’ve ever experienced. The Jewish historian Josephus reported that 1,100,000 Jews in Jerusalem were murdered during the Roman invasion and another 97,000 were taken to Rome as part of the triumphant victory parade to the capital. He recorded stories of mothers murdering their own children, roasting them and eating them as an illustration of just how awful conditions were for those living in Judea at that time. After it was all over, the Romans crucified those left alive until they literally ran out of wood for making crosses.

So Jesus warns His listeners to run as soon as they see armies surrounding the city. Run to the mountains immediately—as fast as they can possibly go. Don’t stop for anything.

We’ve often heard it said that history repeats itself. 2000 years ago in ancient Israel, the Jewish people also knew this saying—knew it and believed it, probably far more than we do. They knew their history. And while they often strayed from following God, they absolutely believed in the God of Abraham. Not only believed in Him, but believed that He controlled all things, including history.

This was a culture where every little Jewish boy, educated in the synagogue, knew how God had rescued His people from slavery in Egypt—how He’d sent the plagues and then rolled back the waters of the Red Sea, allowing His people to cross over to the other side on dry ground. And then rolling the waters back to destroy the army that was trying to recapture them.

And they understood their God to be a God of order. Every one of them had learned the creation story—the story of how God had spoken created order of chaos. How He had created a world in which everything—the earth itself, the plants that came from the ground, the animals and birds and fish in the sea, and then humankind itself—all connected.

They understood that God controls all things—and that there is a reason for everything that happens. And they believed that are patterns that repeat themselves. History repeating itself over and over again. It’s clear, for example, that they saw their exile to Babylon as a repeat of the pattern of the exodus. They understood that there were times when they were faithful to God and He gave them rest—and other times when they turned away from Him and He brought trouble upon them.

Jesus was Himself, of course, one of those Jewish boys who had been educated in the synagogue—and so when, during His final week of life on this earth, He wanted to explain what would happen in the future, He did it in a way that would be familiar to them. A way that they would remember.

But before that happens, Jesus says, there will be other troubles. He says, beginning in verse 12 and continuing through verse 19:

Luk 21:12  But before all this they will lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors for my name’s sake. 

Luk 21:13  This will be your opportunity to bear witness. 

Luk 21:14  Settle it therefore in your minds not to meditate beforehand how to answer, 

Luk 21:15  for I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which none of your adversaries will be able to withstand or contradict. 

Luk 21:16  You will be delivered up even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends, and some of you they will put to death. 

Luk 21:17  You will be hated by all for my name’s sake. 

Luk 21:18  But not a hair of your head will perish. 

Luk 21:19  By your endurance you will gain your lives. 

People aren’t going to like these followers of Jesus any more than they liked Jesus Himself. They’re going to be persecuted—and we find, in the Book of Acts, all these things happening. Jesus doesn’t want them to be surprised.

Following Jesus will be hard; they’ll “be hated by all for Jesus’ name’s sake.” But there’s good news, too: “Not a hair of your head will perish. By your endurance you will gain your lives.”

And whatever happens, Jesus will be with them. He assures them that He’ll tell them what to say and what to do.

Until the Romans come—then they’re to run. Run fast.

And after Jerusalem is destroyed, there will still be trouble in the world—they’ll still need to persevere and remain strong in their faith.

Luke 21:8-11

Luk 21:8  And he said, “See that you are not led astray. For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am he!’ and, ‘The time is at hand!’ Do not go after them. 

Luk 21:9  And when you hear of wars and tumults, do not be terrified, for these things must first take place, but the end will not be at once. 

Luk 21:10  Then he said to them, “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. 

Luk 21:11  There will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and pestilences. And there will be terrors and great signs from heaven. 

Brothers and sisters in Christ, these are the days in which we live. Jesus was describing the new era that would begin on Pentecost: the church era. He was describing events that would occur all around the world. These events would end only when Jesus returns again.

Luk 21:9  And when you hear of wars and tumults, do not be terrified, for these things must first take place, but the end will not be at once. 

Luk 21:10  Then he said to them, “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. 

Luk 21:11  There will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and pestilences. And there will be terrors and great signs from heaven.