Podcasts about lord sit

Wednesday - Acts 2:22-24, 32-3622 “Fellow Israelites, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know. 23 This man was handed over to you by God's deliberate plan and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. 24 But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him.32 God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of it. 33 Exalted to the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear. 34 For David did not ascend to heaven, and yet he said,“‘The Lord said to my Lord:    “Sit at my right hand35 until I make your enemies    a footstool for your feet.”'36 “Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah.”

Acts 2:29-39 29 "Brothers, I can tell you confidently that the patriarch David died and was buried, and his tomb is here to this day. 30 But he was a prophet and knew that God had promised him on oath that he would place one of his descendants on his throne. 31 Seeing what was ahead, he spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to the grave, nor did his body see decay. 32God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of the fact. 33 Exalted tot he right hand of God, he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear. 34 For David did not ascend to heaven, and yet he said, " 'The Lord said to my Lord: "Sit at my right hand 35 until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet." ' 36"Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ." 37 When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, "Brothers, what shall we do?" 38 Peter replied, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off--for all whom the Lord our God will call."

Acts 2:1-41 When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place.  2 Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them.  4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. 5 Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. 6 When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard their own language being spoken.  7 Utterly amazed, they asked: “Aren't all these who are speaking Galileans? 8 Then how is it that each of us hears them in our native language?  9 Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome 11 (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs—we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!”  12 Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, “What does this mean?” 13 Some, however, made fun of them and said, “They have had too much wine.”   14 Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd: “Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say.  15 These people are not drunk, as you suppose. It's only nine in the morning!  16 No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: 17 “‘In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. 18 Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy. 19 I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and billows of smoke. 20 The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord. 21 And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.' 22 “Fellow Israelites, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know.  23 This man was handed over to you by God's deliberate plan and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross.  24 But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him.  25 David said about him:  “‘I saw the Lord always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.  26 Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will rest in hope,  27 because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead, you will not let your holy one see decay. 28 You have made known to me the paths of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence.' 29 “Fellow Israelites, I can tell you confidently that the patriarch David died and was buried, and his tomb is here to this day.  30 But he was a prophet and knew that God had promised him on oath that he would place one of his descendants on his throne.  31 Seeing what was to come, he spoke of the resurrection of the Messiah, that he was not abandoned to the realm of the dead, nor did his body see decay.  32 God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of it. 33 Exalted to the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear.  34 For David did not ascend to heaven, and yet he said, “‘The Lord said to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand 35 until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.”' 36 “Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah.” 37 When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” 38 Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.  39 The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call.” 40 With many other words he warned them; and he pleaded with them, “Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.”   41 Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.

In Episode 383 of the Influence Podcast, I talked to Allen Tennison about the good news of Christ's death and resurrection. The biblical narrative doesn't end with Christ rising from the dead, however. Consider Acts 2:32–36, for example, where Peter says: “God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of it. Exalted to the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear. For David did not ascend to heaven, and yet he said, ‘The Lord said to my Lord: Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.' Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah.” Pentecostals rightly emphasize the second half of verse 33 about the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. But we often overlook the first half of that verse, which alludes to Christ's ascension and enthronement at God's right hand. This episode releases on May 29, 2025, which happens to be Ascension Day, so in this episode, I talk to Allen Tennison about how Ascension and Pentecost are part of the gospel. I'm George P. Wood, executive editor of Influence magazine and your host. Allen Tennison is theological counsel of The General Council of the Assemblies of God. ————— This episode of the Influence Podcast is brought to you by My Healthy Church, distributors of The Holy Spirit in the Life of the Discipler. The Holy Spirit in the Life of the Discipler equips you with an understanding of the Holy Spirit's role in your life. As a resource for both laypeople and ministry leaders, it also imparts practical insight for anyone discipling others in receiving the baptism in the Holy Spirit. For more information about The Holy Spirit in the Life of the Discipler visit MyHealthyChurch.com.

David begins with praise:“Your steadfast love is higher than the heavens…” (Psalm 108:4)And ends with prophecy:“The Lord says to my Lord: Sit at My right hand…” (Psalm 110:1)These psalms point us to a King greater than David,a Priest forever,a Name exalted above every name.In battle or in worship, this is our cry:Be exalted, O God. Reign forever.

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2 Year Gospel Study - week 64 (Friday, 03–21-25) Up To Jerusalem - Teaching 6 Scripture - Matthew 21:45-46, Matthew 22:1-45, Revelation 7:9-17, Job 19:26, Isaiah 26:19, Daniel 12:2, Exodus 3:6, Mark 12:28-34, John 14:6, Micah 6:8 Today's teaching centers on Jesus' encounters with the religious leaders in the temple as recorded in the 4 gospels and enlightened by some of the latest findings of archeologists and others who have uncovered things that have been hidden for generations but that clearly testify to the truthfulness of God's Word.  We will see the display of absolute brilliance as Jesus encounters the religious aristocracy, as He answers the critics and as He clearly demonstrates the Divine plan to redeem the human race. Jesus is in the temple courts teaching - This is where we start today - Matthew 21:45-46 “When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard Jesus' parables, they knew he was talking about them. They looked for a way to arrest him, but they were afraid of the crowd because the people held that he was a prophet.” They wanted to arrest Him but also saw that the crowds were listening to Jesus and receiving Him with joy. Normally the Chief Priests and Pharisees did not see things the same way, but they did as far as how they both felt about Jesus.  Their desire to eliminate Jesus brought them together. Jesus' Teachings     ⁃    The Parable of the Wedding Banquet  (wedding feast / resurrection life / our destiny as true believers in Jesus) This is a banquet we do not want to refuse to come to!  In this parable Jesus also predicts the ultimate destruction of the city of Jerusalem which would happen in 70AD. Pastor dissects the part of the story about the man at the feast that wasn't dressed appropriately, in light of the teaching of Jesus found in Revelation 7:9-17.      ⁃    Paying the Imperial Tax to Caesar - following the Wedding Banquet parable the pharisees came together with the Herodians to lay out a plan to trap Jesus. Herodians were strong supporters of Herod's dynasty and of Rome and the pharisees hated Roman rule and their taxes. But the two groups unite to trap Jesus with this question that would force Him to choose either the Pharisees or the Herodians: “what is your opinion? Is it right to pay the imperial tax to Caesar or not?”  But to this hot button issue on Roman taxes - Jesus answers: “You hypocrites, why are you trying to trap me? Show me the coin used for paying the tax.” They brought Him a denarius and Jesus asks, “whose image is this and whose inscription?”  Their response is “Caesar's” Then Jesus said to them, “give back to Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is Gods” When they heard this, they were amazed. So they left him and went away. Their trap had failed.     ⁃    Marriage at the Resurrection - this onslaught against Jesus comes from the Sadducees with the story of seven brothers and the law in the Torah and Jesus again avoids their trap by confronting them with wisdom and scriptures.     ⁃    The Greatest Commandment -  “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these.” We are called to show love because God love us through His Son, Jesus. And then we read, “And from then on no one dared ask him any more questions.”     ⁃    Whose Son is Messiah? Now Jesus decides to ask a question, “Why do the teachers of the law say that the Messiah is the son of David.” Then Jesus adds a quote from King David. “David himself, speaking by the Holy Spirit, declared: “‘The Lord said to my Lord:“Sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet.”' David himself calls him ‘Lord.' How then can he be his son?”  Jesus is calling them to really think hard about what David is saying. Pastor shares an enlightened look at what David is saying and what Jesus is desiring for the crowd to understand. The teaching concludes with a look at some archeological  discoveries and a peek into next week's class. Our website –  https://www.awakeusnow.com Watch the video from our website! https://www.awakeusnow.com/2-year-study-of-the-gospels-upper Watch the video from our YouTube Channel!! https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLTaaqrC3dMOzMkhPyiNWwlJRpV6Bwpu01 Up to Jerusalem is a study of the final weeks of Jesus' ministry concluding with His resurrection and ascension, using the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John together with material from ancient sources and recent discoveries.  Up to Jerusalem is part four of our Two Year Study of the Gospels. Up To Jerusalem is the story of the plan of God to redeem the world, and the story of a Savior willing to obey the Father's plan. As we study Jesus' final days, we will be impacted as we discover the Love of God for each one of us.  This study is great for large group, small group or home group study and can be started at any time.

Psalm 110 (ESV) Sit at My Right Hand 110 A Psalm of David. 1  The Lord says to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.” 2  The Lord sends forth from Zion your mighty scepter. Rule in the midst of your enemies! 3  Your people will offer themselves freely […] The post Jesus is Lord (Psalm 110) first appeared on Hope of Christ Church.

John uses a combination of Daniel 7 and Psalm 110:1The Son of Man “I kept looking in the night visions, And behold, with the clouds of heaven One like a Son of Man was coming, And He came up to the Ancient of Days And came near before Him. And to Him was given dominion, Glory, and a kingdom, That all the peoples, nations, and men of every tongue Might serve Him. His  dominion is an everlasting  dominion Which will not be taken away; And His kingdom is one Which will not be destroyed. Daniel 7:13-14Yahweh says to my Lord: “Sit at My right hand Until I put Your enemies as a footstool for Your feet.” Psalm 110:1 (most quoted OT verse in NT)

Psalm 110 English Standard VersionSit at My Right HandA Psalm of David.110 The Lord says to my Lord:    “Sit at my right hand,until I make your enemies your footstool.”2 The Lord sends forth from Zion    your mighty scepter.    Rule in the midst of your enemies!3 Your people will offer themselves freely    on the day of your power,    in holy garments;from the womb of the morning,    the dew of your youth will be yours.4 The Lord has sworn    and will not change his mind,“You are a priest forever    after the order of Melchizedek.”5 The Lord is at your right hand;    he will shatter kings on the day of his wrath.6 He will execute judgment among the nations,    filling them with corpses;he will shatter chiefs    over the wide earth.7 He will drink from the brook by the way;    therefore he will lift up his head.English Standard Version (ESV)The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

Church Life                                 “Radical Ministry”                                     Acts 9:20-25   A Transformed Life (vv. 20-21)   1 Ti. 1:13a-c, 15b-16  13 though formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, 15......, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. 16 But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life.   An Apologetic Ministry (vv. 20, 22)   Psa. 110:1,5-6a The Lord says to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool…. 5 The Lord is at your right hand; he will shatter kings on the day of his wrath. 6 He will execute judgment among the nations, ” (53:3-12).  Jo. 1:1-3 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. Paul in Col. 1:15a-16, 19.15 He is the image of the invisible God, ....... 16 For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him.... 19 For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell,    A Risky Ministry (vv. 23-25)

*Listen to the Show notes and podcast transcript with this multi-language player.  Summary: It's about us walking out the Lordship of Jesus Christ in our lives today. As we walk in His Lordship, we minister His Lordship in all we speak and do. We are entering into that priestly ministry with Christ at the Father's right hand to see all things come into subjection to Him. Show Notes: Our walk with God is about the Lordship of Jesus Christ in our lives. We bow at His feet in worship. Our relationship with the Lord is the most important thing in our lives. We minister His Lordship in all we do and speak. We also enter into that priestly ministry with Christ. We must walk in the principles that are laid out in the scriptures. Our works were per-ordained before the foundation of the world that we should walk in them. We are walking in Kingdom relationships, first with the Lord and then with one another. Quotes: It's about the lordship of Jesus Christ. It's about knowing Him. It's about walking with Him, It's about believing Him, The Chosen: Mary came, and brought the ointment, she pours it over Him, it's just worship. And that's exactly where we need to be at. Is in our hearts and spirits, we bow before the Lord at His feet, and worship Him. It's just our relationship to the Lord is the most important thing in our lives. Every morning we wake up, we're in the presence of the Lord when we minister the Lordship of Jesus Christ over everything that we do, everything that we are, and everything that we speak. ...That final step that we're being led into is the final step of Christ's ministry, and that was the prophet priest of the kingdom. The story of Mary and the ointment, I try to take that and say, how do I duplicate, how do I walk in that level of love, and that level of caring today? Give us the ability to take those scriptures, and those principles, and function in them today to His glory. The kingdom is relationships. And the first relationship is the Lord. And then the communication with the Lord to the Lord in each one of us, we're coming into a place. We're realizing the unlimitedness of a spiritual connection with Him, and with each other. References: Matthew 22:44 “‘The Lord said to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet.” Daniel 7:13–14 (The Lord Jesus Christ given His kingdom and authority) Philippians 2:5–11 (The Lordship of Jesus Christ)

This teaching is from Matthew 22:41 - Matthew 23:1-12 In today's study of Matthew we continue looking at the last week of Jesus' life before His arrest, crucifixion, death and resurrection.  The religious leaders are continuing their pursuit of trapping Jesus into saying something that they could then bring charges against Him for and get rid of Him. Jesus asks the religious leaders this question: “What do you think about the Messiah? Whose son is He?” They answer “The son of David,” thinking they had done well in answering!  But Jesus replies, “He said to them, “How is it then that David, speaking by the Spirit, calls him ‘Lord'? For he says, “‘The Lord said to my Lord:
    “Sit at my right hand
until I put your enemies
    under your feet.” In this quote (Ps 110:1) who is the first Lord? It is God the Father.  Who is “my Lord”? David is saying his Lord, meaning this sentence is The Lord (God the Father, Eternal Creator) said to my Lord (David's Lord - the Messiah) … Then Jesus goes on (verses 45-46), If David calls Him “my Lord” how can his Lord be his son? Jesus pushes their answer right back to them. This answer causes the religious leaders to stop asking Jesus questions. The leaders could not comprehend that David was pointing to the Messiah and that Jesus was pointing to Himself as the Messiah. Jesus is pointing out that the Messiah is far more that just a descendant of David. He is instead the Living God who took a flesh - true Gd and true man and offers Himself as the sacrifice for sin for all people everywhere throughout all time. Verses 1-12 of Chapter 23 is a  HIPOCRISY ALERT A hypocrite is someone who doesn't practice what they preach.  In these next verses Jesus encourages the people to listen to what the leaders are teaching from the Torah, BUT No to do what they do because they are hypocrites.  They strove to show people that they were better than they were. They were showy. It was all about drawing attention to themselves and how great they were. Jesus calls us to Him as our Instructor and Teacher. To honor Him, serve Him, follow Him and warns us against raising up people to the level of God. Honor the Heavenly Father and listen to the voice of Jesus, and to heed what the Holy Spirit has to say.  Our Messiah - Jesus - is our Instructor. We want to learn from Him, we want to learn of Him, we want to know Him, follow Him, be immersed in His teaching and want His words to dwell within us in everyday, in every time and in every situation. Jesus teaches against hypocrisy with a final instruction saying the greatest among us will be a servant.  For those who exalt themselves (hypocrites) will be humbles and those who humble themselves will be exalted. Jesus is making it clear of us who know Him that we are called to serve God and others, because that is Jesus' example.  “The Risen Servant” Jesus speaks the SEVEN WOES in the next verses.  They were spoken against the Pharisees and against many of the religious leaders of His day.  These are cutting and difficult words spoken in love  to these leaders and teachers of God Torah (law) with the purpose being a wake up call to them, a way to show them they are sinners in need of a Savior. Plus these are words that remind us of the importance of taking to heart the very teachings of Jesus: love God above all else and love our neighbors as ourselves.  Jesus speaks truth bluntly to these leaders.  His heart is to call them back to Himself. Visit our website here https://www.awakeusnow.com Watch the video from our website https://wpww.awakeusnow.com/matthew-discipling Watch the video from Youtube https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLTaaqrC3dMOxHZDaamNk9DaM7h7LejJj7 Watch via our app. Text HELLO to 888-364-4483 to download our app. We invite you to join us for our Sunday service every Sunday at 9:30am CT (live or on demand) here: https://www.awakeusnow.com/sunday-service

Disordered: I wither away like grass. But you, Lord, sit enthroned forever sermon by Matthew Shedden.

Hiten Rajguru preaches on Psalm 102.

IMAGE DESCRIPTION: Saint Luke the Evangelist. Russian Eastern Orthodox icon from Russia. 18th century. Wood, tempera. Via Wikimedia Commons. https://www.foxnews.com/lifestyle/ultraviolet-light-reveals-scientists-hidden-bible-passage-1500-years-later (for Luke) Unique passages: https://www.julianspriggs.co.uk/pages/UniquePassages  Thanks Biblehub.com's parallel chapters tool. Words of Jesus ("All the Red Letter Scriptures") https://www.jesusbelieverjd.com/all-the-red-letter-scriptures-of-jesus-in-the-bible-kjv/    Parallel Passages in the Gospels https://www.bible-researcher.com/parallels.html#sect1     The Eye of the Needle (crossword/sudoku feedback): https://www.theguardian.com/notesandqueries/query/0,5753,-25583,00.html#:~:text=The%20%22Eye%20of%20the%20Needle,in%20order%20to%20enter%20heaven   Camel needle w/Aquinas citation (of Anselm of Canterbury)-- Anselm of Canterbury as cited in Catena Aurea, Thomas Aquinas, CCEL Edition. https://classictheology.org/2021/10/12/through-the-eye-of-an-actual-needle-the-fake-gate-theory/    The Widow's Mite: https://numismatics.org/pocketchange/the-poor-widows-mite/    Miracles of Jesus reference list: https://sunnyhillschurch.com/3301/the-37-miracles-of-jesus-in-chronological-order/    TRANSCRIPT   Welcome to the Popeular History Podcast: History through Pope Colored Glasses. My name is Gregg and this is episode 0.21g: Sayings of the Savior Part VII: A Look at Luke.   All of these aught episodes are made to let us build our Pope-colored glasses so we can use the same lenses when we look at history together. If you're lost, start at the beginning!   Today we continue our Sayings of the Savior series with a look at Luke, covering everything Jesus said in that Gospel that we haven't yet discussed–so leaving off things like the miracles we did in 0.20 and the parables and other sayings we did in earlier Sayings of the Savior installments- so we'll be leaving you in suspense right before the concluding few chapters discussing Jesus' death and His (spoiler alert) resurrection, which we'll cover as we finish the remaining mysteries of the rosary in future Catholic worldbuilding episodes.   We already covered the first three chapters of Luke gradually from Episode 0.14 to Episode 0.19, and we'll cover the last three chapters as we talk through the Passion and the Resurrection (oops, spoilers). Which leaves Luke chapters 4 through 21 as our focus for today.   Luke 4 starts with the Temptation in the Desert. As you know by now, it's not unusual to find parallel scenes in the Gospels, especially in the so-called synoptic Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, and fitting with that pattern, we saw a version of this scene in Matthew, and it actually made an appearance in Mark as well, though the Mark version was so abbreviated it didn't actually assign any dialog to Jesus or Satan so I didn't zoom in on it–after all, this is Sayings of the Savior.   Anyways, let's see Luke's temptation scene and note what differences we see from Matthew's version.   In the first temptation, Matthew has Satan referring to multiple stones Jesus could turn into bread after his 40 day fast, while Luke has just one stone. I'm sure there's commentary that discusses this difference--it's the Bible, there's commentary for everything– but unlike the Mark episode, I'm not going to go into quite that level of detail with Luke. It's worth noting that when Christ responds with   LUKE "It is written: 'Man shall not live on bread alone.'”   GREGG he leaves off the second half of the quote from Deuteronomy 8:3   “but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.”   which Matthew had included.   Then, the second and third temptation we saw in Matthew are reversed. In Luke, Satan first tells Jesus he can give him all sorts of power if He worships him, which, I mean, I guess things would have been pretty different if Jesus had taken him up on that. Like, serious plot twist. But nah. He says   LUKE “It is written: 'Worship the Lord your God and serve him only”   GREGG and then the third temptation in Luke's ordering is the testing of God's protection of Jesus. Rather than seeing if God will save Him, Jesus says:   LUKE: It is said: 'Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'”   GREGG After seeing the devil off, Jesus begins his traveling and preaching ministry and soon enough winds up in his hometown. This is a scene that showed up in Matthew and Mark as well, the one where Jesus notes that no prophet is welcome in his hometown. In Luke it's more thorough and frankly dramatic. Long quote ahead, let's get into it:   LUKE 4 16He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. He stood up to read,   17and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:   18"The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free,   19to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.”   20Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him.   21He began by saying to them, "Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”   22All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips. "Isn't this Joseph's son?" they asked.   23Jesus said to them, "Surely you will quote this proverb to me: 'Physician, heal yourself!' And you will tell me, 'Do here in your hometown what we have heard that you did in Capernaum.'"   24"Truly I tell you," he continued, "no prophet is accepted in his hometown.   25I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah's time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land.   26Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon.   27And there were many in Israel with leprosy in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed--only Naaman the Syrian.”   28All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this.   29They got up, drove him out of the town, and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him off the cliff.   30But he walked right through the crowd and went on his way.   GREGG   So, just to recap, we have Jesus preaching a bit of a softball passage from Isaiah, promising good news to the poor. That was a long quote, so let's hear just that passage as a refresher:   “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor”   The good news part is clear enough In terms of freedom and healing, but what is the year of the Lord's favor mentioned?   By all accounts it's the Jubilee year described in Leviticus 25. You know how the seventh day is the Sabbath, a day of rest for the people? Well the seventh year was a “day”of rest for the fields, where they were to lie fallow, that is, go untilled and unworked, letting nature take its course for a year. Crops could not be harvested in an organized way, though what grows could be casually consumed by the owners, or by the needy,  or really by anyone, or by animals. Going further, personal debts among the people of Israel were cancelled in a levelling move. This custom is still in force in much of Israel, where it is called the Shmita. Of course, following the quasi-precept of “two Jews, three opinions”, application slash abrogation of this practice varies.   Anyways, the Jubilee year was not the seventh year, the Smhita I mentioned, but rather the fiftieth year, being the year after the seventh set of seven years, because symbolism. In the Jubilee year, things were even more intense, for instance going beyond personal debt forgiveness to returning sold land to the tribe of origin and to freeing Israelites who had sold themselves into slavery, basically a factory reset for society.   But note, this was only enslaved Israelites who were to be freed in the Jubilee year, the “year of the Lord's favor”. And this is where we turn back to Luke 4, because Jesus pivots the conversation away from the people of Israel to the fringes and even beyond the borders of Jewish society, to Sidon and Syria. But sending the good news to the gentiles is quite a bridge too far for his audience, who prepare to kill him in their rage. Like I said, quite the scene, and it's easy to understand why skeptics might place it as having been written after Christianity had already begun to spread among the gentiles and catch flack for doing so on the home front. My main narrative episodes haven't gotten far, but we've already started to see some of that tension, and it will only grow.   Of course, I've committed to getting my Catholic Worldbuilding stuff done before I dive back into the main narrative stuff, and to do that we need to get through the rest of Luke, and to do *that* we at least need to get through the rest of Luke 4.   After escaping the assembled mob, apparently by miraculous means of some kind because it simply says He walked right through the crowd, Jesus proceeds to do other miracles in towns around the region. The people who lived near Peter's mother-in-law must have really appreciated the assist, because in stark contrast to his hometown reception they tried to keep him from leaving. He responded:   LUKE 4 “I must proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns also, because that is why I was sent.”   GREGG Luke 5 opens with Jesus calling his disciples to follow Him. We covered the miraculous catch of fish that got Peter on board when we did our roundup of miracles, and other assorted miracles carry us through to Verse 27, when we have the Call of Matthew, known to Luke as Levi.   Matthew vs. Levi Is worth a minute. Matthew is the more common name for this disciple, and may have been his Christian name. But Levi is the name preferred here in Luke and also in Mark. One explanation I saw in multiple places is that Matthew is a Greek name while Levi is Hebrew, an explanation that suffers from being wrong, as Matthew is Hebrew for “gift of God”. A perhaps more successful explanation is that Matthew was a Levite, you know, someone from the Tribe of Levi, and things got a bit garbled. Or there was a name change that just didn't get recorded in Scripture or in any other tradition for that matter..   Matthew and Levi being separate individuals seems to be the least popular theory, so regardless of the particulars, your takeaway from this should be the same as it was when we talked about this last episode: they're the same person.   Either way, here's the call of Matthew *cough* Levi:   LUKE 5 27Jesus went out and saw a tax collector by the name of Levi sitting at his tax booth. "Follow me," Jesus said to him, 28and Levi got up, left everything and followed him.   GREGG OK, maybe I didn't need to go into all that detail for two words of Jesus, but hey, what's done is done, so “follow me” across a few more verses, where Jesus gets questioned about the company He's chosen to keep:   LUKE 5 Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” 31Jesus answered them, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. 32I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”   GREGG That's good news for us sinners, I can tell you that much.   Luke 5 finishes with some parables, which we covered in the Parables roundup earlier in this series, so on to Luke 6, which opens with the grain-picking scene we've seen a couple of times already. SYNOPTIC ROUNDUP, you know the drill [airhorn], except I'm skipping rehashing the other two accounts, just, you know, general reminder that synoptic parallels are a thing.   Anyways, let's get another dose of that “Lord of the Sabbath” action:   LUKE 6 1One Sabbath Jesus was going through the grainfields, and his disciples began to pick some heads of grain, rub them in their hands and eat the kernels. 2Some of the Pharisees asked, "Why are you doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?” 3Jesus answered them, "Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? 4He entered the house of God, and taking the consecrated bread, he ate what is lawful only for priests to eat. And he also gave some to his companions.” 5Then Jesus said to them, "The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”   GREGG Oh yeah, good stuff. Check my Matthew and Mark episodes if you want more commentary on it, I want to buckle down and get to John. Of course by that I mean John the Baptist, whose inquiry  gives us of the next section we need to cover. Of course, as is so often the case with these synoptic Gospels, this isn't actually a whole new section. This next chunk closely matches a parallel passage in Matthew 11. If you want to follow along, in Matthew it's the start of that Chapter, while in Luke we're at chapter 7 verse 18:   LUKE 7 18John's disciples told him about all these things. Calling two of them, 19he sent them to the Lord to ask, "Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else? 20When the men came to Jesus, they said, "John the Baptist sent us to you to ask, 'Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?'” 21At that very time Jesus cured many who had diseases, sicknesses and evil spirits, and gave sight to many who were blind.   GREGG Oh look there's a batch of miracles that didn't make it into my miracles roundup, at least not directly. It's pretty vague, and it's unique to Luke. This small difference is exactly the sort of thing that gets analyzed to try to understand the relationship between Matthew and Luke, and like every other bit of Scriptural analysis you can find someone taking pretty much any conceivable stance. In any case, the reference to those timely miracles helps set the stage for the next verse, which is back to closely paralleling Matthew:   LUKE 7 22So he replied to the messengers, "Go back and report to John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor. 23Blessed is anyone who does not stumble on account of me.”   24After John's messengers left, Jesus began to speak to the crowd about John: "What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed swayed by the wind? 25If not, what did you go out to see? A man dressed in fine clothes? No, those who wear expensive clothes and indulge in luxury are in palaces. 26But what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. 27This is the one about whom it is written: "'I will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way before you.' 28I tell you, among those born of women there is no one greater than John; yet the one who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.”   GREGG Now, I went back and checked my commentary on Matthew's version of this scene, and it was basically nothing. Which is fair, I was pretty deadline-crunched at the time and knew I'd be revisiting it here. But it's definitely worth noting that both passages have John the Baptist, who Jesus proclaims as a great, or even the greatest, prophet, both passages have this spiritual giant publicly uncertain about whether Jesus is the Messiah.   You could perhaps argue this was a ruse, but John seems to have been a straight shooter- that's why he's sending delegates from prison after all rather than asking himself. So it seems to be a genuine question. Which means if you're under the impression that having faith or even being the greatest prophet ever automatically means you have no remaining questions and can see all of God's plan perfectly, apparently not. After all, John had been the one ministering at Jesus' baptism, where Heaven had opened and the Spirit had come down as a dove and God's own voice had told Jesus: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”   And yet now John is asking, publicly: “Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?"   There's a lesson in there on vulnerability and openness to God's plan. Or perhaps a lesson in how everyone can encounter uncertainty, no matter how certain their role seems. We'll see Jesus go even further in questioning during the Passion narrative when the time comes.   Skipping a few verses of parenthetical commentary that can only be found in Luke, let's pick back up at Luke 7 verse 31:   LUKE 7 31Jesus went on to say, "To what, then, can I compare the people of this generation? What are they like? 32They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling out to each other: "'We played the pipe for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not cry.' 33For John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine, and you say, 'He has a demon.' 34The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and you say, 'Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.' 35But wisdom is proved right by all her children.”   GREGG If you aren't willing to listen, you'll find any excuse to dismiss the message. But the wise will be shown by making the right choice.   After wrapping that up, Jesus goes on a bit of a parable tour until he winds up with a bit more family awkwardness In Luke 8:19:   LUKE 8 19 Now Jesus' mother and brothers came to see him, but they were not able to get near him because of the crowd. 20 Someone told him, “Your mother and brothers are standing outside, wanting CORRECT  to see you.”   21 He replied, “My mother and brothers are those who hear God's word and put it into practice.”   GREGG Ouch, but also yay, Jesus doesn't put His earthly family above others. Which is good news If you didn't start out as His family, though it might sting a little if you did.   The rest of Luke 8 is a bunch of previously-discussed miracles, so we're on to Luke 9:   LUKE 9 9 When Jesus had called the Twelve together, he gave them power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases, 2 and he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal the sick. 3 He told them: “Take nothing for the journey—no staff, no bag, no bread, no money, no extra shirt. 4 Whatever house you enter, stay there until you leave that town. 5 If people do not welcome you, leave their town and shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them.” 6 So they set out and went from village to village, proclaiming the good news and healing people everywhere.   GREGG This Isn't the first or even the second time we've seen these basic marching orders, but it actually is the last as John is, well, a very different Gospel, as we'll see in our next worldbuilding episode.   Anyways, after feeding the 5,000 we get to verse 18, where Luke's version of Peter's confession begins. As with Mark, don't get too excited:   LUKE 9 18 Once when Jesus was praying in private and his disciples were with him, he asked them, “Who do the crowds say I am?”   19 They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, that one of the prophets of long ago has come back to life.”   20 “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”   Peter answered, “God's Messiah.”   21 Jesus strictly warned them not to tell this to anyone.”   GREGG   So that's three for three on synoptic Gospels having Peter describe Jesus as the Messiah. Only Matthew did the keys thing, though. Also note the messianic secret trope popping up again- Jesus will apparently reverse his gag order after the Passion, because the Book of Acts- which was also written by Luke, or at least by whoever wrote Luke, will be all about telling everyone Jesus is the Messiah.   Immediately after that exchange, Jesus starts talking about his future, and it's not rosy:   LUKE 9 22 And he said, “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.”   23 Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. 24 For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it. 25 What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit their very self? 26 Whoever is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.   27 “Truly I tell you, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God.”   GREGG This is all closely paralleling Matthew, and Mark as well, though as usual Mark was a bit shorter, skipping the last verse about some standing there not tasting death before they see the Kingdom. Again, you can see why early Christians were basically a doomsday cult expecting the end sooner rather than later. Certainly *your* end will come, so, you know, keep that in mind.   We're going to skip the transfiguration since that's its own mystery of the rosary with its own episode, and there's another miracle account after that. So skipping along, come with me to Luke 9:43:   LUKE 9 While everyone was marveling at all that Jesus did, he said to his disciples, 44 “Listen carefully to what I am about to tell you: The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men.” 45 But they did not understand what this meant. It was hidden from them, so that they did not grasp it, and they were afraid to ask him about it.   GREGG If my episode on Mark is still fresh in your mind, you may already predict where this is going, as this particular section is a close Mark and Luke parallel. Matthew split things up in different ways but for both Mark and Luke the conversation with a child and being the greatest in the kingdom follows immediately after Jesus states what will become of him, leaving the disciples too afraid to ask.   Let's carry on with the next verse:   LUKE 9 46 An argument started among the disciples as to which of them would be the greatest. 47 Jesus, knowing their thoughts, took a little child and had him stand beside him. 48 Then he said to them, “Whoever welcomes this little child in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. For it is the one who is least among you all who is the greatest.”   GREGG The next verse is a bit of a random aside, but an important one as I mentioned before when it came up in Mark:   LUKE 9 49 “Master,” said John, “we saw someone driving out demons in your name and we tried to stop him, because he is not one of us.”   50 “Do not stop him,” Jesus said, “for whoever is not against you is for you.”   GREGG Skipping ahead to verse 57, we have some stray sayings that underline the urgency of following Christ:   LUKE 9 57 As they were walking along the road, a man said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.”   58 Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”   59 He said to another man, “Follow me.”   But he replied, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.”   60 Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.”   61 Still another said, “I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say goodbye to my family.”   62 Jesus replied, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.”   GREGG A bit harsh, but Jesus is like that sometimes.   Luke 10 opens with an long section on Jesus' next project, sending out seventy-two disciples, or seventy according to some manuscripts. Some may recall a previous seventy vs seventy-two discussion when we talked about the Septuagint, and I expect there's a reason for that parallel, but either way that's not the particular rabbit hole I want to go down here today. Instead, I want to note that we can have some fun with this Luke-only passage, and that we wouldn't be the first to do so.   You see, seventy is a long but not completely impractical number of folks to list off, and while Luke doesn't give names, there are plenty of extrabiblical sources assigning names and biographical details to some or all of the seventy. This passage discussing Jesus sending out seventy disciples was especially useful for ancient or wannabe ancient dioceses that couldn't trace back to a specific Apostle. Instead, lo and behold, turns out their founder was one of the unnamed seventy. Boom presto, a biblical founder!   Of course that's the skeptical read, it could well be that some such stories are true. But there are enough names assigned to the 70 that they certainly aren't *all* true, kind of like how there are at least four heads of John the Baptist floating around. In the end, as a reminder, Catholics are generally free to believe or disbelieve in the authenticity and or efficacy of any particular relic or tradition as long as they accept the fundamental teachings and authority of the Catholic Church.   In terms of the promised fun we can have, I'd like to announce a little side project, a game where I share a story of someone spreading Christianity and the next episode we'll discuss whether it's real or made up and what the sources are.   We'll start that at the end of this episode. For now, let's hear about the seventy slash seventy-two:   LUKE 10 After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go. 2 He told them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. 3 Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves. 4 Do not take a purse or bag or sandals; and do not greet anyone on the road.   5 “When you enter a house, first say, ‘Peace to this house.' 6 If someone who promotes peace is there, your peace will rest on them; if not, it will return to you. 7 Stay there, eating and drinking whatever they give you, for the worker deserves his wages. Do not move around from house to house.   GREGG Someone tell the Jehovah's Witnesses…   LUKE 10 8 “When you enter a town and are welcomed, eat what is offered to you. 9 Heal the sick who are there and tell them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.' 10 But when you enter a town and are not welcomed, go into its streets and say, 11 ‘Even the dust of your town we wipe from our feet as a warning to you. Yet be sure of this: The kingdom of God has come near.' 12 I tell you, it will be more bearable on that day for Sodom than for that town.   13 “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. 14 But it will be more bearable for Tyre and Sidon at the judgment than for you. 15 And you, Capernaum, will you be lifted to the heavens? No, you will go down to Hades.   16 “Whoever listens to you listens to me; whoever rejects you rejects me; but whoever rejects me rejects him who sent me.”   17 The seventy-two returned with joy and said, “Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name.”   18 He replied, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. 19 I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you.    GREGG That verse is the root of some of the quirky snake-handling churches in Appalachia by the way…   LUKE 10 20 However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”   21 At that time Jesus, full of joy through the Holy Spirit, said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this is what you were pleased to do.   22 “All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows who the Son is except the Father, and no one knows who the Father is except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”   23 Then he turned to his disciples and said privately, “Blessed are the eyes that see what you see. 24 For I tell you that many prophets and kings wanted to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.”   GREGG   Those last two verses touch on an interesting discussion throughout Church history, namely the fate of those who lived before the time of Christ.   Could they be saved? Observant Jews of the time, yes, certainly. But those who never encountered Christianity or Judaism because of when or where they lived historically has proven a bit of an awkward question for the Church. The “well you better go tell them” impulse has long served to recruit missionaries, but on the other end many did and do argue that it hardly seems fair to expect folks to follow what through no fault of their own they've never been exposed to. Granted it's less of an issue nowadays when very few folks worldwide haven't at least heard of Christ, but the question remains. Certainly the Catholic Church insists that all humans who are saved are saved through Christ, there's no other way. And yet the Church also affirms that God is not bound by time, as evidenced by the defined belief required of all Catholics in the Immaculate Conception, where the Blessed Virgin Mary was preserved from all stain of sin from the moment of her conception. Obviously that took place before the Incarnation, so it's not like the years going from BC to AD is a firm barrier for the saving action of Christ in the eyes of the Catholic Church. Indeed, by implication, the previously mentioned Jews who awaited the grand opening of heaven were able to do so by the work of Christ according to the Church, though given how many horrible things have been done to Jews in the name of Christ through the years that isn't something that tends to be emphasized.   In the end, I think you probably know me well enough by now to correctly guess that I land on the hopeful end of this discussion. By one means or another, all through Christ, I hope for all. But to be very clear, that's my hope, and for what it's worth. Pope Francis' hope as well according to a recent interview, but it's not established Church teaching.   Skipping past the parable of the Good Samaritan, let's go to verse 38 for Martha and Mary, an exchange that's my go-to analogy for the two basic types of service to the Church, with Martha being the “active” type and Mary the “contemplative”.   LUKE 38 As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. 39 She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet listening to what he said. 40 But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”   41 “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, 42 but few things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”   GREGG   The first part of Luke 11 covers Luke's take on the Our Father-covered in 0.21b- and the Friend at Midnight covered in our parables roundup. So skip along to Verse 9, which parallels Matthew's Sermon on the Mount, so it will sound familiar:   LUKE 11 9 “So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 10 For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.   11 “Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? 12 Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? 13 If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”   GREGG Skip ahead again, this time to verse 24, because verses 14-23 were covered under miracles:   LUKE 24 “When an impure spirit comes out of a person, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, ‘I will return to the house I left.' 25 When it arrives, it finds the house swept clean and put in order. 26 Then it goes and takes seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that person is worse than the first.”   27 As Jesus was saying these things, a woman in the crowd called out, “Blessed is the mother who gave you birth and nursed you.”   28 He replied, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it.”   GREGG There's a reminder that relapsing can be worse than the initial lapse, and a nice compliment session preserved only in Luke. But then the tone shifts, and the rest of the chapter has parallels in Matthew:   LUKE 11 29 As the crowds increased, Jesus said, “This is a wicked generation. It asks for a sign, but none will be given it except the sign of Jonah. 30 For as Jonah was a sign to the Ninevites, so also will the Son of Man be to this generation. 31 The Queen of the South will rise at the judgment with the people of this generation and condemn them, for she came from the ends of the earth to listen to Solomon's wisdom; and now something greater than Solomon is here. 32 The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and now something greater than Jonah is here   GREGG Then there's a comparatively light lamp analogy, which I kind of covered during the Sermon on the Mount commentary, but not in its entirety, so I'm giving it all to you here:   LUKE 11 33 “No one lights a lamp and puts it in a place where it will be hidden, or under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, so that those who come in may see the light. 34 Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eyes are healthy, your whole body also is full of light. But when they are unhealthy, your body also is full of darkness. 35 See to it, then, that the light within you is not darkness. 36 Therefore, if your whole body is full of light, and no part of it dark, it will be just as full of light as when a lamp shines its light on you.”   GREGG And now as we get back to a more challenging tone, and as Jesus targets the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law specifically, I want to give the same general note that I gave for the parallel verses in Matthew: do not take these verses out of context to justify antisemitism, which has no place in the Catholic Church, or really in the world. For one thing, keep in mind Jesus is a Jew speaking to fellow Jews here.   Anyways, let's continue: LUKE   37 When Jesus had finished speaking, a Pharisee invited him to eat with him; so he went in and reclined at the table. 38 But the Pharisee was surprised when he noticed that Jesus did not first wash before the meal.   39 Then the Lord said to him, “Now then, you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness. 40 You foolish people! Did not the one who made the outside make the inside also? 41 But now as for what is inside you—be generous to the poor, and everything will be clean for you.   42 “Woe to you Pharisees, because you give God a tenth of your mint, rue and all other kinds of garden herbs, but you neglect justice and the love of God. You should have practiced the latter without leaving the former undone.   43 “Woe to you Pharisees, because you love the most important seats in the synagogues and respectful greetings in the marketplaces.   44 “Woe to you, because you are like unmarked graves, which people walk over without knowing it.”   45 One of the experts in the law answered him, “Teacher, when you say these things, you insult us also.”   46 Jesus replied, “And you experts in the law, woe to you, because you load people down with burdens they can hardly carry, and you yourselves will not lift one finger to help them.   47 “Woe to you, because you build tombs for the prophets, and it was your ancestors who killed them. 48 So you testify that you approve of what your ancestors did; they killed the prophets, and you build their tombs. 49 Because of this, God in his wisdom said, ‘I will send them prophets and apostles, some of whom they will kill and others they will persecute.' 50 Therefore this generation will be held responsible for the blood of all the prophets that has been shed since the beginning of the world, 51 from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who was killed between the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, I tell you, this generation will be held responsible for it all.”   GREGG Let's take a moment to reflect on that last line: “this generation will be held responsible for it all”. It's surprisingly harsh, even for a surprisingly harsh Jesus, for Him to hold the generation he was talking to responsible for all the blood of all the prophets that has been shed from the beginning of the world. But there it is. I can see a case being made for these verses as part of a theological justification for original sin, though really the key verse for that is Romans 5:12, which we'll talk about later. Either way, given the emphasis on “this generation”, I don't think that's what's going on here, as original sin doesn't like, target specific generations.   So, what's up? Why is Jesus focusing in on the present generation, at least the present generation as of His lifetime?   Well, there's the key. It's His generation. Jesus is there, and all of the sin of history, past, present, and future, will be brought to account through Him.   Jesus, as always, is the answer. It's not that the world was especially sinful in the first century AD. But the answer to all sin was walking the earth then. *That* is why it's a generation that deserves a particular singling out.   Of course, that reflection- my own theological musing I should say, which is a dangerous thing to do and I defer to any correction that may come my way– anyways that reflection should not detract from the straightforward fact that Jesus is really taking the Pharisees and Teachers of the law to task here   LUKE 11 52 “Woe to you experts in the law, because you have taken away the key to knowledge. You yourselves have not entered, and you have hindered those who were entering.”   53 When Jesus went outside, the Pharisees and the teachers of the law began to oppose him fiercely and to besiege him with questions, 54 waiting to catch him in something he might say.   1Meanwhile, when a crowd of many thousands had gathered, so that they were trampling on one another, Jesus began to speak first to his disciples, saying: "Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy   2There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known.   3What you have said in the dark will be heard in the daylight, and what you have whispered in the ear in the inner rooms will be proclaimed from the roofs   GREGG Fortunately no one in our day falls into religious hypocrisy anymore, right? …right?   Anyways, the next few verses, once again paralleled with Matthew, put things into context, while weaving in hints of future persecution:   LUKE 12 4 “I tell you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more. 5 But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear him who, after your body has been killed, has authority to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him. 6 Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God. 7 Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don't be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows. 8 “I tell you, whoever publicly acknowledges me before others, the Son of Man will also acknowledge before the angels of God. 9 But whoever disowns me before others will be disowned before the angels of God. 10 And everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven. 11 “When you are brought before synagogues, rulers and authorities, do not worry about how you will defend yourselves or what you will say, 12 for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that time what you should say.” GREGG After a break for a parable, the overall theme resumes in verse 22:   LUKE 12 22 Then Jesus said to his disciples: “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear. 23 For life is more than food, and the body more than clothes. 24 Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds! 25 Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to your life? 26 Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest?   27 “Consider how the wild flowers grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 28 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today, and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, how much more will he clothe you—you of little faith! 29 And do not set your heart on what you will eat or drink; do not worry about it. 30 For the pagan world runs after all such things, and your Father knows that you need them. 31 But seek his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well.   32 “Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom. 33 Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will never fail, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. 34 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.   GREGG Did you catch one of the most challenging things Jesus says?   “Sell your possessions and give to the poor”   This isn't the only place Jesus says that, but it hits a little harder when he's giving it as general counsel rather than as specific advice to a rich young man looking for specific advice on how to live well. If you have more than you need, your excess needs to go to those who lack. You will ultimately have to account not only for what you did, but what you didn't do. If you've seen Schindler's List, think of his regret after all he's done, that he didn't sell the car to do more. When your life is done, what regrets will You have?   I know I need to do more, part of this project is to remind myself of that and to embarrass myself publicly for my shortcomings. Listen to Jesus' message, don't get hung up on the messenger.   A few parables take us forward to verse 49, a source of top notch dad jokes about our matchless king. But Jesus goes beyond that, preaching division. His message is hard, it will not be universally popular.   LUKE 12 49 “I have come to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! 50 But I have a baptism to undergo, and what constraint I am under until it is completed! 51 Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division. 52 From now on there will be five in one family divided against each other, three against two and two against three. 53 They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.”   54 He said to the crowd: “When you see a cloud rising in the west, immediately you say, ‘It's going to rain,' and it does. 55 And when the south wind blows, you say, ‘It's going to be hot,' and it is. 56 Hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and the sky. How is it that you don't know how to interpret this present time?   57 “Why don't you judge for yourselves what is right? 58 As you are going with your adversary to the magistrate, try hard to be reconciled on the way, or your adversary may drag you off to the judge, and the judge turn you over to the officer, and the officer throw you into prison. 59 I tell you, you will not get out until you have paid the last penny.”   LUKE 13 13 Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. 2 Jesus answered, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? 3 I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish. 4 Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them—do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? 5 I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.”   GREGG That excerpt took us into Luke 13, which continues with parables and a miracle until verse 23, which is, frankly, basically the start of another parable, but not one I covered in the parables roundup so we'll do it here.   LUKE 13 23 Someone asked him, “Lord, are only a few people going to be saved?”   He said to them, 24 “Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to. 25 Once the owner of the house gets up and closes the door, you will stand outside knocking and pleading, ‘Sir, open the door for us.'   “But he will answer, ‘I don't know you or where you come from.'   26 “Then you will say, ‘We ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets.'   27 “But he will reply, ‘I don't know you or where you come from. Away from me, all you evildoers!'   28 “There will be weeping there, and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but you yourselves thrown out. 29 People will come from east and west and north and south, and will take their places at the feast in the kingdom of God. 30 Indeed there are those who are last who will be first, and first who will be last.”   GREGG I recently saw one of the first verses in that passage cited as pointing towards the idea of Hell being full. After all,   “many I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to.”   Is fairly clear, and even accounting for Jesus' action as the owner of the house, in this and elsewhere ultimately those who are out on the cold are truly out in the cold. As much as I freely admit I don't get the logic of hell being populated, I also freely admit that the idea of it being empty is an exegetical stretch given passages like this. In the end, God reigns and I do not. I know what God asks of me, and I do it. As much as I like to know and to talk, I accept that I don't have and cannot have all knowledge.   Anyways, Jesus continues with a lament over Jerusalem we saw in Matthew, which Luke supplies with a little more context:   LUKE 13 31 At that time some Pharisees came to Jesus and said to him, “Leave this place and go somewhere else. Herod wants to kill you.”   32 He replied, “Go tell that fox, ‘I will keep on driving out demons and healing people today and tomorrow, and on the third day I will reach my goal.' 33 In any case, I must press on today and tomorrow and the next day—for surely no prophet can die outside Jerusalem!   34 “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing. 35 Look, your house is left to you desolate. I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.'”   GREGG And now with that note looking to Jesus' future- something he definitely keeps doing throughout the Gospels- we have something of an intermission, because Luke 14, 15, and 16 are all so full of parables that we've already covered along with all of Jesus' words from those chapters. Luke 17 opens with yet another parable, and then a miracle, so we're actually regrouping at Luke 17:20, where Jesus talks about the upcoming kingdom and talks about the end times, always fuel for a discussion, though I am skeptical about how productive such discussions are, given how Jesus opens the discussion by noting that the coming of the kingdom cannot be observed. And really, if there's something you'd be doing differently if you knew the world was ending--honestly that's probably something you should be doing *now*, because your life will end very soon in the grand scheme of things, and you can't rule out today.   Anyways, let's resume:   LUKE 17 20 Once, on being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, “The coming of the kingdom of God is not something that can be observed, 21 nor will people say, ‘Here it is,' or ‘There it is,' because the kingdom of God is in your midst.”   22 Then he said to his disciples, “The time is coming when you will long to see one of the days of the Son of Man, but you will not see it. 23 People will tell you, ‘There he is!' or ‘Here he is!' Do not go running off after them. 24 For the Son of Man in his day will be like the lightning, which flashes and lights up the sky from one end to the other. 25 But first he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation.   26 “Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man. 27 People were eating, drinking, marrying and being given in marriage up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all.   28 “It was the same in the days of Lot. People were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building. 29 But the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all.   30 “It will be just like this on the day the Son of Man is revealed. 31 On that day no one who is on the housetop, with possessions inside, should go down to get them. Likewise, no one in the field should go back for anything. 32 Remember Lot's wife! 33 Whoever tries to keep their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life will preserve it. 34 I tell you, on that night two people will be in one bed; one will be taken and the other left. 35 Two women will be grinding grain together; one will be taken and the other left.” [36]   [KJV] 36Two men shall be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left.   37 “Where, Lord?” they asked.   He replied, “Where there is a dead body, there the vultures will gather.”   GREGG Oh, hope you don't mind me throwing in a little bit more KJV there. I would have announced it in advance but I was kind of on a roll with that transition and didn't want to kill the vibe. I'm no scripture scholar but my guess is the reason the KJV keep having verses the NIV is skipping is because back in the day folks were more reluctant to identify a passage as an addition due to manuscript evidence, you know, just in case. Better safe than sorry. But again, I'm no expert. Now, if I ever do get a budget for this beyond basic hosting fees I do have an expert in mind, so periodic reminder I do have a Popeular Patreon kicking around somewhere.   In any event, that's it for Luke 17, and we can basically skip the first half of Luke 18, since that's a couple parables and related stuff we've already addressed.   In Luke 18 verse 18, we've got a familiar question, not only familiar because it already came up in both Matthew and Mark, but it's actually already come up in Luke as well, as part of the runup to the parable of the Good Samaritan. That parable was split off from the other synoptics, being present only in Luke despite being extremely famous. But this time around, the passage is a close parallel to both Matthew and Mark. Let's go!   LUKE 18 18 A certain ruler asked him, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 19 “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone. 20 You know the commandments: ‘You shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, honor your father and mother.'” 21 “All these I have kept since I was a boy,” he said. 22 When Jesus heard this, he said to him, “You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” 23 When he heard this, he became very sad, because he was very wealthy. 24 Jesus looked at him and said, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God! 25 Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” 26 Those who heard this asked, “Who then can be saved?” 27 Jesus replied, “What is impossible with man is possible with God.” 28 Peter said to him, “We have left all we had to follow you!” 29 “Truly I tell you,” Jesus said to them, “no one who has left home or wife or brothers or sisters or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God 30 will fail to receive many times as much in this age, and in the age to come eternal life.” GREGG We treated the “eye of the needle” thing almost embarrassingly thoroughly last episode, so refer back to my Mark commentary for detail on that. The ending simply promising a much greater reward for giving things up to follow Jesus is a mild tweak of the “first shall be last” thing we saw concluding this passage in Matthew and Mark, for what it's worth.   Next up, Jesus gives the third prediction of his death he's given in Luke:   LUKE 18   31 Jesus took the Twelve aside and told them, “We are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written by the prophets about the Son of Man will be fulfilled. 32 He will be delivered over to the Gentiles. They will mock him, insult him and spit on him; 33 they will flog him and kill him. On the third day he will rise again.”   34 The disciples did not understand any of this. Its meaning was hidden from them, and they did not know what he was talking about.   GREGG Jesus predicts his death three times in each of the synoptic Gospels, so that being the third and final prediction is a sign we're getting close.   Chapter 18 finishes with a miracle, so we're on to Chapter 19, which opens with the second account of Jesus calling a tax collector to follow him present in Luke. And unlike the call of Matthew slash Levi, this call of Zaccheus is *only* present in Luke.   LUKE 19 19 Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. 2 A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. 3 He wanted to see who Jesus was, but because he was short he could not see over the crowd. 4 So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way.   5 When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.” 6 So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly.   7 All the people saw this and began to mutter, “He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.”   8 But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.”   9 Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. 10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”   GREGG I mentioned a bit ago we were getting close to the end of things for today, and another sign that we're getting close is that the next thing we get to cover, after skipping another parable, is Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem, which is liturgically covered in the Palm Sunday observances that kick off Holy Week, aka the week leading up to Easter Sunday. Let's hear what Luke has to say, starting at verse 28:   LUKE 19 28 After Jesus had said this, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. 29 As he approached Bethphage and Bethany at the hill called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples, saying to them, 30 “Go to the village ahead of you, and as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, which no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. 31 If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?' say, ‘The Lord needs it.'”   32 Those who were sent ahead went and found it just as he had told them. 33 As they were untying the colt, its owners asked them, “Why are you untying the colt?”   34 They replied, “The Lord needs it.”   35 They brought it to Jesus, threw their cloaks on the colt and put Jesus on it. 36 As he went along, people spread their cloaks on the road.   37 When he came near the place where the road goes down the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of disciples began joyfully to praise God in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen:   38 “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!”   “Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”   39 Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples!”   40 “I tell you,” he replied, “if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.”   41 As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it 42 and said, “If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes. 43 The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side. 44 They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of God's coming to you.”   45 When Jesus entered the temple courts, he began to drive out those who were selling. 46 “It is written,” he said to them, “‘My house will be a house of prayer'; but you have made it ‘a den of robbers.'”   47 Every day he was teaching at the temple. But the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the leaders among the people were trying to kill him. 48 Yet they could not find any way to do it, because all the people hung on his words.   GREGG From the classic handwaive of “the master has need of it” to the admittedly brief account of Jesus driving the moneychangers out of the Temple, there's a lot of good stuff in there, but nothing especially new, all things we basically saw in Matthew and Mark.   Similarly, the opening verses of Luke 20 are also close parallels of the other synoptic gospels. But hey, you know the drill, let's hear Luke tell it:   LUKE 20 One day as Jesus was teaching the people in the temple courts and proclaiming the good news, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, together with the elders, came up to him. 2 “Tell us by what authority you are doing these things,” they said. “Who gave you this authority?”   3 He replied, “I will also ask you a question. Tell me: 4 John's baptism—was it from heaven, or of human origin?”   5 They discussed it among themselves and said, “If we say, ‘From heaven,' he will ask, ‘Why didn't you believe him?' 6 But if we say, ‘Of human origin,' all the people will stone us, because they are persuaded that John was a prophet.”   7 So they answered, “We don't know where it was from.”   8 Jesus said, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.”   GREGG The next few verses are taken up by the Parable of the Talents, so we'll skip that and go on to more close synoptic parallel passages starting in Verse 20. If you're wondering, we're parallelling Matthew 22 and Mark 12 here:   LUKE 20 20 Keeping a close watch on him, they sent spies, who pretended to be sincere. They hoped to catch Jesus in something he said, so that they might hand him over to the power and authority of the governor. 21 So the spies questioned him: “Teacher, we know that you speak and teach what is right, and that you do not show partiality but teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. 22 Is it right for us to pay taxes to Caesar or not?”   23 He saw through their duplicity and said to them, 24 “Show me a denarius. Whose image and inscription are on it?”   “Caesar's,” they replied.   25 He said to them, “Then give back to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's.”   26 They were unable to trap him in what he had said there in public. And astonished by his answer, they became silent.   GREGG Yes, as you'll recall, giving God what is God's means giving God everything, but at the same time, like, pay your taxes.   The parallels continue with the next section   LUKE 20 Some of the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to Jesus with a question. 28 “Teacher,” they said, “Moses wrote for us that if a man's brother dies and leaves a wife but no children, the man must marry the widow and raise up offspring for his brother. 29 Now there were seven brothers. The first one married a woman and died childless. 30 The second 31 and then the third married her, and in the same way the seven died, leaving no children. 32 Finally, the woman died too. 33 Now then, at the resurrection whose wife will she be, since the seven were married to her?”   34 Jesus replied, “The people of this age marry and are given in marriage. 35 But those who are considered worthy of taking part in the age to come and in the resurrection from the dead will neither marry nor be given in marriage, 36 and they can no longer die; for they are like the angels. They are God's children, since they are children of the resurrection. 37 But in the account of the burning bush, even Moses showed that the dead rise, for he calls the Lord ‘the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.' 38 He is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive.”   39 Some of the teachers of the law responded, “Well said, teacher!” 40 And no one dared to ask him any more questions. 41 Then Jesus said to them, “Why is it said that the Messiah is the son of David? 42 David himself declares in the Book of Psalms: “‘The Lord said to my Lord:     “Sit at my right hand 43 until I make your enemies     a footstool for your feet.”' 44 David calls him ‘Lord.' How then can he be his son?” GREGG   Yes, all closely paralleling Matthew 22 and Mark 12 still, both of which we've discussed. For what it's worth, John is going to be something quite different.   In any event, the last bit of Luke 20 is absent from Matthew, only parallelled in Mark 12:   LUKE 20 45 While all the people were listening, Jesus said to his disciples, 46 “Beware of the teachers of the law. They like to walk around in flowing robes and love to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces and have the most important seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at banquets. 47 They devour widows' houses and for a show make lengthy prayers. These men will be punished most severely.”   GREGG Luke 21 opens with another section we that we didn't see in Matthew but covered in Mark, namely the Widow's Offering:   LUKE 21 As Jesus looked up, he saw the rich putting their gifts into the temple treasury. 2 He also saw a poor widow put in two very small copper coins. 3 “Truly I tell you,” he said, “this poor widow has put in more than all the others. 4 All these people gave their gifts out of their wealth; but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on.”   GREGG I do love the message there, namely that God sees and accounts for effort when it comes to our actions, including our giving. Like I said, the Widow's Offering was in Mark too so I went into some more detail last episode.   As the chapter continues, the parallels with Matthew resume, now in Matthew Chapter 24, and Mark 14. Overall the theme is the end times, fairly appropriate given the transition to the Passion that will come in the next chapter    LUKE 21 Some of his disciples were remarking about how the temple was adorned with beautiful stones and with gifts dedicated to God. But Jesus said, 6 “As for what you see here, the time will come when not one stone will be left on another; every one of them will be thrown down.”   7 “Teacher,” they asked, “when will these things happen? And what will be the sign that they are about to take place?”   8 He replied: “Watch out that you are not deceived. For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am he,' and, ‘The time is near.' Do not follow them. 9 When you hear of wars and uprisings, do not be frightened. These things must happen first, but the end will not come right away.”

We continue to work through Psalms that are connected with Asaph. This section started in Psalm 73 and goes through 83. There have been themes of lament and remembrance (often connected with the lamenting). This Psalm is also categorized as a corporate lament. But there are a couple unique elements to it, including it's description of God, and it's description of Israel. The basic structure of the psalm is this:v.1-3 - Appeal for God to Hear and Savev.4-7 - A lament of God's current anger toward his peoplev.8-13 - A lament of God's protection being removed from his peoplev.14-19 - Appeal for God to See and SaveAs we walk through this Psalm we are going to do a couple things. We will be looking at several larger chunks of scriptures to help fill out the context that brings this Psalm together. We are also going to walk through this Psalm mainly through the lens of what we learn about God. So as we walk through the outline just mentioned, we are going to focus on three things. In the first section we will look at the Description of God. In the next two sections that are the main lament, we are going to look at the Love of God. And in the last section, we are going to look at the Answer from God.Let's pray.Father, show us a glimpse of your glory this morning. Give us understanding, encouragement, and confidence in your love for us as we spend time in your Word together. Appeal for God to Hear and Save (verses 1-3).He opens by saying “Give ear” to our cries. He wants God to hear them out in their trouble and he addresses God in three different ways.1. “Give ear…O Shepherd of Israel.”This is an important theme for Asaph. Psalm 23, which is of David is probably the most famous Psalm regarding the Lord as a shepherd for his people. But in this series of Psalms related to Asaph, this is a theme he returns to again and again.Psalm 77:20,“You led your people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron.”Psalm 78:52,“He led out his people like sheep and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.”Psalm 79:13,“But we your people, the sheep of your pasture, will give thanks to you forever.”Psalm 80:1,“Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, you who lead Joseph like a flock.”This is more than just a good illustration, there is an enduring likeness the Psalmist sees between us and sheep. The illustration might be the most acute as Israel was led in the wilderness, but there are several enduring realities from this analogy.We like sheep, are dependent on God, on our Shepherd to guide and lead us. We like sheep, are weak and need to be protected and defended. We see that this theme of sheep and a shepherd further carries on into the new testament. Jesus sees the crowds as sheep without a shepherd. Pastors are called to shepherd the the flock of God, under the chief Shepherd.This illustration wasn't just for God's guidance throughout the wilderness, it is relevant to how we approach God even today.So the Psalmist first appeals to God, the shepherd of his flock, to hear the cry of his sheep. And he carries the metaphor through the whole Psalm as he talks about us being fed by God, and for him to restore them and turn them back. God our Shepherd, Guide us back to you, we need your help.2. The Lord God of Hosts Verse 3,“Restore us, O God; let your face shine, that we may be saved!”Verses 4, 7, 14, and 19 all describe God as the God of Hosts. God is the commander and leader of the armies of heaven, of the hosts of heaven, God almighty is a similar description. God has power and authority to change the situation, to rescue at any point he pleases to.And we know his authority is not limited to the heavenly realm. Every week in the commission at the end of our service, we are reminded “that all authority in heaven and earth has been given to [him].”God of angel armies, restore us and save us, make your face to shine upon us.3. “[The one] who is enthroned upon the cherubimVerse 2,“You who are enthroned upon the cherubim, shine forth.”He brings to mind the Ark of the Covenant, specifically the top cover of it, where God dwells and speaks to his people. This is bringing an image of authority and power, but also several other things… It conveys God's Holiness and Presence. The ark was guarded very carefully because God's Holy presence was there, and it needs to be kept separate from a sinful people.It also is where the cloud and pillar would rest when he would speak with Moses. He is described as enthroned upon and among the cherubim, because that is the place where his voice was heard.It conveys God's Glory and Goodness. He asks God to “shine forth.” Show us your glory and power as you come to the aid of your people. He is an enthroned king who rules with power and authority. He is: The Lord of Host who is enthroned upon the Cherubim. These often are seen together in scripture.And if he is enthroned, there is a seat there that He hears and speaks from, and it is called the mercy seat.Exodus 25:17–22, God instructs Israel,“You shall make a mercy seat of pure gold. Two cubits and a half shall be its length, and a cubit and a half its breadth. And you shall make two cherubim of gold; of hammered work shall you make them, on the two ends of the mercy seat. Make one cherub on the one end, and one cherub on the other end. Of one piece with the mercy seat shall you make the cherubim on its two ends. The cherubim shall spread out their wings above, overshadowing the mercy seat with their wings, their faces one to another; toward the mercy seat shall the faces of the cherubim be. And you shall put the mercy seat on the top of the ark, and in the ark you shall put the testimony that I shall give you. There I will meet with you, and from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim that are on the ark of the testimony, I will speak with you about all that I will give you in commandment for the people of Israel.”The Lord God almighty, the Lord of hosts, the Shepherd of Israel — this God hears and speaks to his people from above the mercy seat. The Psalmist pleads,“Hear us, let your glory shine forth, stir up your might, come to save us, have mercy on us! Come and answer us from the mercy seat.”One possibility on why he mentioned Ephraim, Manasseh, and Benjamin is that he may be recounting what it was like when God led Israel through the wilderness. When they were on the move, these were the three tribes that would follow directly behind the ark as the camp moved out. They were also the offspring from Rachel, and were given great blessing from God. So the Psalmist addresses God as the Lord of Host, who is enthroned upon the Cherubim, who is also the Shepherd of his flock, Israel.2. Lament of the current destruction (verses 4-13).He mourns the current treatment and circumstance of God's people using two illustrations. He continues the description of Israel as a flock, and he also describes Israel as a nurtured vine. And in the midst of this, he address God with two questions.How long will you be angry with your sheep?Psalm 80:4–6, “O LORD God of hosts,how long will you be angry with your people's prayers? You have fed them with the bread of tears and given them tears to drink in full measure. You make us an object of contention for our neighbors, and our enemies laugh among themselves.”Up to this point God's favor has been removed, he has removed his provision from them, his face is turned away from them.Their food and drink is their tears. No green pastures, no still waters. Their neighbors and enemies are hostile towards them, and mock and ridicule them. No comfort from the protection of God rod and staff. No meal prepared for them in the presence of their enemies.This is an especially bitter scenario, that God is described as having turned his face away even from the prayers of his people. This could be a description illustrating how silent God has been to answer them, or could be related to the nature of their prayers.They pray insincerely. Psalm 78:36–37,“But they flattered [God] with their mouths; they lied to him with their tongues. Their heart was not steadfast toward him; they were not faithful to his covenant.”He is poetically describing that God has not answered them, with favor and provision. God's response has been a lack of sustenance and an object of contention and conflict with our neighbors. “We have asked to be saved, and…” Verses 5-6,“You have fed them with the bread of tears and given them tears to drink in full measure. You make us an object of contention for our neighbors, and our enemies laugh among themselves.”So that's question 1, how long will you be angry with your flock?2. Why have you removed your protection from your vine? (Only psalm)Psalm 80:8–13, “You brought a vine out of Egypt;you drove out the nations and planted it. You cleared the ground for it;it took deep root and filled the land. The mountains were covered with its shade, the mighty cedars with its branches. It sent out its branches to the sea and its shoots to the River. Why then have you broken down its walls, so that all who pass along the way pluck its fruit? The boar from the forest ravages it, and all that move in the field feed on it.”He recounts God's special care for his vine. And as he moves from one description to the other, he is appealing not to their worthiness, but to God's love.God's love is on full display here.Isaiah gives us another detailed description of God's extraordinary love for his vine, and also an explanation for why it is being destroyed.Isaiah 5:1–7, “Let me sing for my beloved my love song concerning his vineyard: My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill. He dug it and cleared it of stones, and planted it with choice vines; he built a watchtower in the midst of it, and hewed out a wine vat in it; and he looked for it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes. And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard. What more was there to do for my vineyard, that I have not done in it? When I looked for it to yield grapes, why did it yield wild grapes? And now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard. I will remove its hedge, and it shall be devoured; I will break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down. I will make it a waste; it shall not be pruned or hoed, and briers and thorns shall grow up; I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it. For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are his pleasant planting; and he looked for justice, but behold, bloodshed; for righteousness, but behold, an outcry!The rhetorical question lands hard. Against all odds, this vine bore bitter, sour grapes. It had everything going for it and still it bore bad fruit and acted wickedly.Not only did he provide every possible thing necessary for the vine to bear good fruit, but God went even farther for his flock and for his vine.The refrain that appears through out the Psalm borrows language from the Aaronic blessing,“Restore us, O God; let your face shine, that we may be saved!”Here is what the Lord commanded Aaron and his sons to do, Numbers 6:22–27,“The LORD spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying, Thus you shall bless the people of Israel: you shall say to them,The LORD bless you and keep you;the LORD make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. So shall they put my name upon the people of Israel, and I will bless them.”God commissioned a whole group of men to bless the people of Israel, and remind them of the favor and grace and peace He is ready to give them.Not only did God lavishly care for and provide for this vine, but he even commission Aaron and his sons to proactively speak a blessing over the people, and ask for His favor so that He would come and bless them. Just in case they are slow to ask for themselves, God sent out a group of people to ask on their behalf, so that He could come and bless you even if you were slow or reluctant to ask yourself. This is going the extra mile to say the least. This has been fresh for me this week. Each night I pray this blessing over my children swapping in the name of Jesus at points.What has been fresh is to remember: God gave us these words for us to use on behalf of others so that he may bless them. The vivid image of them being spoken to a God who hears, and answers from the mercy seat. His answers flows from His love and mercy, not from our worthiness. The Lord of Hosts, who is enthroned upon the Cherubim, above the mercy seat, hears me speaking back to Him the words he gave us!But we see, despite all of this, the vine only bore wild fruit. With everything going for it, it somehow managed to bear only wild, sour fruit. The vine was a delight in God's eyes, and when he came looking for justice he found bloodshed; when he came looking for righteousness, he found none.A few years back my wife made a fairy garden in one of our big planters in the back on our deck. We planted a few small plants in there but one day a sunflower seed sprouted. We staked it, weeded around it, it was just starting to bloom, then one morning we woke up and it was gone…a squirrel, proportionally the equivalent of a wild boar, destroyed that flower.In the end, I felt what the psalmist wants God to feel, don't let your vine get totaled, destroyed. What was all the work for?3. Appeal to God to See and Save (verses 14-19).Verse 14,“Turn again, O God of Hosts! Look down and have regard for this vine,”He appeals to God to not let all his work get ruined, all his care go to waste. Have mercy on us and restore the works of your hands. You love your flock, you love your vine. You have led it in the past, you have planted and cared for the vine. Take notice of the destruction to your vine, bring back your sheep, give us life that we may call upon your name. Let your face shine that we may be saved.And if God were to look on his people, two things would happen. The turning of His face is both terror, and salvation.Terror for those who take advantage of the vulnerability of the vine.Verse 16,“They have burned it with fire; they have cut it down; may they perish at the rebuke of your face!”Back to the squirrel who demolished our sunflower plant… When I see the squirrel, it's over for him, the games up. The wicked and the wild bore had their moment, but when God's face turns, it's over. The enemy can only do what it is granted for a season to do. Terrified, the wicked flee at the turning of His face toward them… Salvation for the vine that he once again smiles upon. With God's face come his attention, with God face comes his strength and energy, with his face comes his glory and favor for His people.As God's favor goes, so it all goes. When God's favor is on his people, no circumstance can hinder them. “If God be for us, who can be against us?”.His favor can rescue us from trial, or make us prosper through trial. His favor can be seen through trial.Exodus 1:8–12, after Joseph died,“Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. And he said to his people, ‘Behold, the people of Israel are too many and too mighty for us. Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply, and, if war breaks out, they join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land.' Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with heavy burdens. They built for Pharaoh store cities, Pithom and Raamses. But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and the more they spread abroad. And the Egyptians were in dread of the people of Israel.”If God is with his people and his face is towards them, then they will be alright.The prayer for God to hear, to see, to turn his face towards his people has been answered again and again for his people, and has ultimately answered through God sending Jesus.And God's ultimate answer is Jesus.Jesus is the man of God's right hand who came to save his people. The Son of Man that God has strengthened to provide salvation.The psalmist asks, Psalm 80:17, “But let your hand be on the man of your right hand, the son of man whom you have made strong for yourself!”Psalm 2:7–9,“I will tell of the decree: The LORD said to me, ‘You are my Son; today I have begotten you. Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel.'”Psalm 110:1, “The LORD says to my Lord: ‘Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.'”They were looking for salvation to come from a king, whether that was David, or Solomon, or the long list of kings after them. And that hope was fulfilled in Jesus who is the king who will reign forever and is the man of God's right hand.And isn't it interesting that so many people do that same thing today? With all of our self-expression, self-discovery, self-sufficiency, self-worship. Yet so many people are still looking for one person to save them. Whether that be a president, or a king, or some other leader.This testifies to how we are made.They look (and we can look) to the wrong person to save us from the wrong things. What we really need is Jesus to save us from our sin. The true savior for the true problem. Jesus is the son of man with God's favor on him to rescue his people.Jesus is the true vine, that bears good fruit.Israel failed to be the vine that brought blessing to the nations. Jesus picks up this theme in John 15. The Father all along has been the vinedresser, the owner of the vineyard, but what is new is that Jesus declares is that HE is the vine.John 15:1–5,“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.”The true vine is not those who are connected to Israel, the true vine is those that are connected to Jesus. Jesus takes it upon himself to be the vine that bears good fruit for the blessing of Israel and ultimately the blessing of the nations.We get it wrong, when after Jesus saves us, we then look to ourselves, or the church to be the vine, and not to Jesus. You cannot do it on your own, or you will fail again and again like Israel. The branches must depend on the vine to supply them with sustenance. The sheep must depend on the shepherd to lead them.Both metaphors have ongoing relevance. Nor, can you look to the church instead of Jesus.The church is Christ's body, and is an amazing blessing, and a place where a bunch of branches hang out, but Jesus is still the vine. When we look to the church to be everything Jesus should be for us, we will always find something wrong, or something missing, and we won't ever be satisfied.But it's because we have looked to it to be the vine instead of Jesus.Jesus is the true vine, and by being connected to Him, He will ensure that we bear good fruit instead of bitter fruit. He saves us and supplies us.Jesus is the God who sits enthroned on the true mercy seat in heaven. He hears and speaks from there, seated at the right hand of the father in heaven. He has made full, complete atonement for all who take refuge in Him, any who will abide in him, in His love, in His grace, in His forgiveness. We need not be shy to ask him for help for apart from him we can do nothing. We need not fear bringing messes to him, He answers from His throne of mercy.There has never been a time where He answered you because you deserved it. It's not: “sometime I earn it, and sometime I don't.” You NEVER earn it, it's ALWAYS Grace.When we ask for him to see us, shine on us, revive us, save us, it is according to his steadfast love and mercy. God answered his people before Christ, He answered his people with Christ, and he continues to answer his people through Christ.Forgiveness and help is not granted because we deserve it, but because God opens wide his arms and says come to me, all who are weary and heavy laden. So come to him, undeserving as your are, believe in the king of heaven, who has all authority in heaven and earth, and sits on the mercy seat. Ask Him to shine on you.Let's pray,Father, if there are any who do not know you this morning, would you let them see your glory and goodness, that you came to rescue us from ourselves, to give us life forever with you. Father, we ask that you would bless us, and keep us, would you make your face to shine upon us and be gracious to us. Would you lift up your countenance towards us, and give us peace. We ask this through the merit of Jesus on our behalf, Amen.The TableThis table reminds us that we now can have confidence to enter into the true Holy places in heaven, where Jesus sits because of His blood that was shed for us.

Talk 38  Mark 12:35-44 Jesus warns against the Teachers of the Law Welcome to Talk 38 in our series on Mark's Gospel. Today we're looking at Mark 12:35-44. So far in this chapter, Jesus has faced questions from Herodians, Pharisees, and Sadducees, all of whom have been trying to trick him into giving an answer that might give them grounds for taking action against him. But on every occasion Jesus' answers have silenced his opponents.   Now, in today's passage, Jesus: ·      asks them all a question which they are unable to answer (35-37) ·      warns the people to beware of these hypocritical teachers of the law (38-40) ·      and draws a contrast between their self-seeking behaviour and the generosity of a poor widow (41-44). 35 While Jesus was teaching in the temple courts, he asked, "How is it that the teachers of the law say that the Christ is the son of David? 36 David himself, speaking by the Holy Spirit, declared: "'The Lord said to my Lord: "Sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet."' 37 David himself calls him 'Lord.' How then can he be his son?" The large crowd listened to him with delight. Jesus' purpose in asking this question is not to catch his opponents out as they had tried to catch him out. His purpose was not retaliation, but to make them and the others listening think. As we shall see, the implications of his question are enormous. They reveal, without a shadow of a doubt, who Jesus really is. The teachers of the law had rightly understood that the Scriptures predicted that the Christ, God's Anointed One, the Messiah, would be a son (i.e. a descendant) of King David. This view was widely held by the Jews at the time of Jesus, and Jesus is not disputing it. But what he is saying is this:             If the Christ really is to be a son of David (which he certainly is), how is it that David refers to him as his Lord?   Jesus is referring to Psalm 110:1 which says:   The Lord says to my Lord, ‘Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet'.   This psalm was widely held to be messianic (i.e. prophesying about the Messiah).  But, asks Jesus, if David is speaking of the coming Messiah, how can he call him my Lord if he is one of his descendants? It would be unthinkable to a Jew that a child could be superior to its father, or a descendant superior to an ancestor. Matthew 22:46 makes it clear that the teachers of the law could not find an answer to this riddle, but the early Christians certainly knew it, as this very verse is quoted in Hebrews 1:13 where the writer is demonstrating the deity of Jesus. And this is what Jesus is trying to show them by his question. If the Messiah was to be David's Lord, he must be more than a physical descendant. He must be none other than God himself. But that was a mystery that the Jewish leaders were completely unable to fathom. Now, in the next section, verses 38-40, Jesus warns the people against the teachers of the law.   38 As he taught, Jesus said, "Watch out for the teachers of the law. They like to walk around in flowing robes and be greeted in the marketplaces, 39 and have the most important seats in the synagogues and the places of honour at banquets. 40 They devour widows' houses and for a show make lengthy prayers. Such men will be punished most severely."   The meaning of these verses is clear. The Jewish religious leaders – the majority, at least – were insincere and wrongly motivated. Note the words like to in verse 38. They enjoyed dressing differently, to show, as they thought, their superiority to others. They felt entitled to have the most important seats in the synagogues and places of honour at banquets. The motivation in all that they did was to be admired by others, and even their prayers were designed to impress others rather than to seek the blessing of God.   But Matthew's account of what Jesus said is more detailed. In Matthew 23:3-7 Jesus makes the following accusations against the teachers of the law and the Pharisees.   1.     They do not practise what they preach (v3) 2.     They tie up heavy loads and put them on men's shoulders (v4) 3.     Everything they do is done for men to see (v5) 4.     They love the place of honour at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues (v6) 5.     They love to be greeted in the marketplaces and to have men call them ‘Rabbi' (v7). And in verses 13-36 we read how Jesus again and again calls them hypocrites, blind guides, blind fools, blind men, and even describes them as you snakes, you brood of vipers! and warns them of the judgment to come as a result.   Of course, it's easy enough for us to identify with Jesus' condemnation of the hypocrisy of the religious leaders of his day, but I wonder how seriously church leaders today take Jesus' words of instruction to us as his disciples. Notice what he says in verses 8-12:   But you are not to be called 'Rabbi,' for you have only one Master and you are all brothers. 9 And do not call anyone on earth 'father,' for you have one Father, and he is in heaven. 10 Nor are you to be called 'teacher,' for you have one Teacher, the Christ. 11 The greatest among you will be your servant. 12 For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.   If you're wondering why Matthew includes these verses and Mark does not, it's important to remember that Mark was writing for a mainly Gentile audience whereas Matthew's audience was largely Jewish. It was important that Christians with a Jewish background should understand that there was no room for such practices in the Church of Jesus Christ. And the Book of Acts and the New Testament epistles bear witness to the fact that Jesus' forthright teaching in these verses was largely followed. For example, unlike the practice in many churches today, the gifts mentioned in Ephesians 4:11 were never used as titles. Words like apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor, and teacher described a gift God had given a person to fulfil a certain role in the church. They were not used as titles. Paul did not refer to himself as Apostle Paul but as Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ. Agabus was a prophet named Agabus, not Prophet Agabus. Philip is described as Philip, the evangelist, not Evangelist Philip, and so on. Interestingly, no one is named as a pastor in the New Testament. Pastor means shepherd and it was the elders who shepherded the churches in the New Testament. Yet today the term Pastor is frequently used as a title, a practice completely foreign to the spirit of the New Testament.   But does it matter? Isn't the culture different today? Yes, it is. But we should align our practices with the teaching of the New Testament, not with the culture of the day, or even the culture prevalent in the church. The New Testament does teach us to respect and pray for our leaders, but the culture of honouring pastors in some churches is in danger of encouraging the very things that Jesus was so strongly condemning in these verses.   But it's time to return to our passage in Mark 12. So far we've seen how Jesus asks the religious leaders a question which they are unable to answer, but which clearly implies his deity (35-37), and then warns the people to beware of these hypocritical teachers (38-40) and in Matthew's account telling his disciples that it must not be so among them. Now, in the final section of the chapter Jesus draws a contrast between the self-seeking behaviour of the religious leaders and the generosity of a poor widow.   41 Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. 42 But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a fraction of a penny. 43 Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, "I tell you the truth, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. 44 They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything – all she had to live on."   Perhaps you'll remember that in verse 40 Jesus accused the teachers of the law of devouring widows' houses. To understand this fully we need to realise that in those days widows had little or no power in the courts. A husband would appoint a scribe or Pharisee to be the executor of his widow's estate. This gave them authority to deal with the widow's estate and a corrupt lawyer could easily trick a widow out of her house. In doing this they were directly disobeying their beloved Law of Moses which clearly stated in Exodus 22:22, Do not take advantage of a widow or an orphan. It's not surprising that the word Pharisaical has become a synonym for hypocritical! No wonder Jesus said, Such men will be punished most severely.   So when he sees many rich people throwing large amounts of money into the temple treasury, Jesus takes the opportunity to compare their ostentatious behaviour with that of the Pharisees who prayed long prayers for a show, and to contrast it with the abandoned generosity of one poor widow. Note the contrasts between rich and poor, between one and many, between large amounts and only a fraction of a penny. Yet her offering was greater than all the wealth of all the others put together. If, as we have seen, Jesus told his disciples not to behave like the Pharisees, here he is surely teaching them that they should follow the example of this poor widow. Her commitment was total. NIV translates the last few words of this chapter as everything – all she had to live on, but literally translated the Greek says her whole life! And that's exactly what Jesus demands of his followers. Unless we deny ourselves and take up our cross and follow him we cannot be his disciples. And unlike the Pharisees he does not demand of us more than he himself was prepared to give. He threw in his whole life. It cost him everything he had.   So for us the challenge is not merely to avoid the hypocrisy of the Pharisees – and, if we're honest, that's not always as easy as it may sound – but to follow the example of the poor widow, whose prodigal giving is but a picture of the abandoned generosity of Jesus in giving his whole life for us.   As we have seen in previous talks, he was the fulfilment of what Israel was meant to be, he was the fulfilment of all that the temple stood for, and he was the fulfilment of the Law for he loved the Lord his God with all his heart and with all his mind, and with all his strength, and he loved us, his neighbours, enough to die for us.   Surely the least we can do, is live for him.

https://www.foxnews.com/lifestyle/ultraviolet-light-reveals-scientists-hidden-bible-passage-1500-years-later (for Luke) Unique passages: https://www.julianspriggs.co.uk/pages/UniquePassages  Bibleref.com commentary on Mark 6:5: https://www.bibleref.com/Mark/6/Mark-6-5.html  Thanks Biblehub.com's parallel chapters tool.   Words of Jesus ("All the Red Letter Scriptures") https://www.jesusbelieverjd.com/all-the-red-letter-scriptures-of-jesus-in-the-bible-kjv/    Parallel Passages in the Gospels https://www.bible-researcher.com/parallels.html#sect1     The Eye of the Needle (crossword/sudoku feedback): https://www.theguardian.com/notesandqueries/query/0,5753,-25583,00.html#:~:text=The%20%22Eye%20of%20the%20Needle,in%20order%20to%20enter%20heaven   Camel needle w/Aquinas citation (of Anselm of Canterbury)-- Anselm of Canterbury as cited in Catena Aurea, Thomas Aquinas, CCEL Edition. https://classictheology.org/2021/10/12/through-the-eye-of-an-actual-needle-the-fake-gate-theory/    The Widow's Mite: https://numismatics.org/pocketchange/the-poor-widows-mite/    Miracles of Jesus reference list: https://sunnyhillschurch.com/3301/the-37-miracles-of-jesus-in-chronological-order/ LINK BIBLEREF.COM MENTIONED IN CHAPTER 8 SECTION (“Can't” do miracles in hometown- keyword absolute for lookup)   Welcome to the Popeular History Podcast: History through Pope Colored Glasses. My name is Gregg and this is episode 0.21f: Sayings of the Savior Part VI: Messages from Mark.   All of these aught episodes are made to let us build our Pope-colored glasses so we can use the same lenses when we look at history together. If you're lost, start at the beginning!   In previous worldbuilding episodes, we looked at quite a few of Jesus' words: the sermon on the mount and the sermon on the plain, plus all the Parables and miracles on our list, and his sayings closely tied to all those.   All that made for a good start, but if we're going to look at the sayings of the Savior, we should be comprehensive to avoid cherry-picking. So we spent the last of these worldbuilding episodes going chapter by chapter through the first gospel in order of appearance, the Gospel of Matthew, up until things caught up with where our rosary themed tour of the New Testament will carry on when we get to the next mystery. I am aware that what was once upon a time supposed to be a couple quick background episodes introducing my listeners to, well, all of Catholicism has ballooned wildly into wheels within wheels, but hey, I wouldn't have it any other way.   Anyways, next up in the traditional ordering is the Gospel of Mark, so that's our mission today. We'll go chapter by chapter, glossing over what we've already discussed and focusing on the Sayings of the Savior, since, you know, that's the deal here.   MARK 1 opens with a description of Jesus' cousin John the Baptist, and you'll never guess what John does to Jesus when He shows up. Actually you probably will because I was trying to set you up with a fake out where John refuses to baptize Jesus but it turns out that initial refusal is in Matthew but is absent from Mark's generally sparse account. Anyways, we get Jesus' first words in Mark only after he's baptized and had an express version of the temptation in the desert. Sometime after John was arrested, we're told Jesus preached a message that sounded a lot like what John had been saying,   MARK 1:15 “The time has come,” … “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!”   GREGG Of course we just got a bit meta, since “Good news” is where the word Gospel comes from. A very “Begun, the Clone Wars have” moment. This urgent call to repentance has been a consistent refrain throughout Christian history, with the good news bring that repentance really can lead to reconciliation with God. Shoutout 0.1 if you need a refresher on why such a reconciliation is needed in the Catholic perspective.   Having begun to declare the Good News, Jesus the Christ soon picks out folks to help him, starting, like all good missions, with a pun. Talking to two fishermen, the brothers Simon and Andrew, Jesus says   MARK 1:   Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men   GREGG When I covered this section in Matthew- we're deep in parallels here- I stuck with my usual NIV translation. Not because I'm an NIV snob, but because the New International Version is the one that shows up first on biblegateway.com and it's good enough, especially when I'm doing a LOT of scripture quoting like I have been with this series.   But because the NIV went for inclusivity, they translated the line as “make you fish for people”, which simply isn't as smooth a pun. I did check with my toddler-level skills and it looks to me like the pun is present in the Greek, so it's worth calling out. Jesus' humor is often downplayed, which is a shame.   If you're wondering why I'm going on about this, well, honestly, Mark is short and we've already covered most of what's there in Matthew. So we might as well take our time. There's plenty there, to be clear, I don't want angry letters from scholars whose primary focus is Mark saying I'm dismissing it offhand.   Alright, enough dilly dallying, what's next? Jesus calls more fishermen–the sons of Zebedee, James and John–but His actual words and possible new pun are not recorded. The next time he speaks he's talking to a demon in one of the healing miracles we discussed in 0.20, followed by another miracle–the healing of Simon's mother in law–later in the same chapter. Then, after assorted other miracles, Jesus goes out to pray by Himself in what's described as a quote unquote “desolate place”. When His disciples track Him down and tell Him everyone is looking for Him, He says   MARK 1:38 Let us go somewhere else--to the nearby villages--so I can preach there also. That is why I have come.   GREGG Though Jesus' disciples did in fact say no to Him on a downright alarming number of occasions, they went along with His plan this time, and another montage of undescribed healings and exorcisms finishes off with the healing of a grateful leper who ignores Jesus' command to tell no one. Mark 1 concludes with Jesus getting mobbed with requests for miracles as a result.   Chapter 2 opens with the healing of the paralytic who had been let in via the roof–a great bit of drama, but something we already covered under our review of miracles. After that, He called His tax collector disciple, who we got to know as Matthew in the Gospel of, well, Matthew, but who's listed as Levi here and in Luke. Using different names in different contexts was absolutely a thing,  but both Matthew and Levi are Hebrew names so the usual Greek vs Hebrew divide doesn't seem to be the culprit here, and what's more neither Mark nor Luke explicitly identify Levi with the apostle Matthew, though the inference isn't a terrible reach over all.   In the end, our main hook in this particular series is the actual sayings of the Savior, and this calling is carried out with a simple “follow me”, so perhaps we shouldn't dive into it too much.   After taking out a section of parables we covered in 0.21c as part of a SYNOPTIC ROUNDUP, we arrive at Mark 2:23, notably without leaving the SYNOPTIC ROUNDUP room because you can also follow along in Matthew 12 and Luke 6. As a reminder if you're rusty on Jewish customs, the Sabbath rest begins Friday at sundown and continues through the day on Saturday. Picking grain as we're going to see here would be considered working on the day of rest and therefore a violation.   MARK (2:23-2:28, NIV)) 23 One Sabbath Jesus was going through the grainfields, and as his disciples walked along, they began to pick some heads of grain.   24 The Pharisees said to him, "Look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?”   25 He answered, "Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need?   26 in the days of Abiathar the high priest, he entered the house of God and ate the consecrated bread, which is lawful only for priests to eat. And he also gave some to his companions."   27 Then he said to them, "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.   28 So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”   GREGG this section is one of the earlier signals of what would become a core piece of Christianity: its distancing from the Law of Moses. There are still aspects of continuity, for example most Christians including Catholics actually do still maintain *a* day of rest, just Sunday rather than Saturday and they'll generally skip the night before business though some of that has carried over in the form of vigil practices, as we'll see when we get there.   Anyways, I've always thought those last couple lines were pretty baller, and it turns out they're one of the few bits unique to Mark, so let's go ahead and hear them again:   QUOTE The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath. END QUOTE   This bold claim lies at the heart of what will in time lead to the followers of Christ being seen as a religion separate from Judaism, which is fair enough but also don't sleep on just how much that takes, given there's such a thing as secular Jews and Jewish atheists. There have been other messiah movements in Jewish history; though they fizzled out it's not much of a stretch to imagine a world where Christianity is still seen as part of a wide tent Judaism, indeed there is still a common heritage. But there are absolutely differences as well, principally, of course, centered around Jesus, the Son of Man, Lord of the Sabbath.   That other part   “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.”   is the context for the start of the next chapter, serving as a good reminder that, while convenient for finding your place, chapter and verse divisions are not part of the original texts of the Bible, so it's important to not treat them as fences where you have to stop. You see, in Mark 3 we have the healing of the man with a withered hand in the synagogue on the Sabbath:   MARK 3 2 Some of them were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal him on the Sabbath. 3 Jesus said to the man with the shriveled hand, "Stand up in front of everyone.” 4 Then Jesus asked them, "Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?" But they remained silent.   GREGG I mean, it's a bit of a false dichotomy perhaps, are those really the only two options? But obviously I'm siding with Jesus here, mark me down as pro-healing when one can heal. And yeah, we actually already covered that exchange when we talked about the miracle in our miracles roundup, but the words are important there and Mark is short so forgive me for fitting it in here too.   Mark 3 continues with Jesus dealing with crowds now that word is getting around due to His miracles, and simultaneously He's ordering demons not to share the apparent secret that He is quote “the holy one of God”. We don't have his exact words in commanding the demons here so there's more room for interpretation than usual but the general take on these sort of passages is that it's tied to His time not having yet come to be revealed as the Messiah. Of course, unless I missed something, the specific instances where Jesus talks about His time having not yet come are in the Gospel of John, so reading that into Mark is something most modern scholars wouldn't go for- especially since the general consensus is Mark came first by a fair stretch- but that sort of quibble wasn't much of a barrier for most of the history of Christians reflecting on Scripture, so the traditional interpretation is what it is and I don't think it's too much of a reach.   After telling assorted demons to hush up, Jesus appoints the Twelve Apostles starting in verse 13, no direct quotes there so no need to tarry though interested folks are always welcome to check out the naming differences between the Gospels.   Starting in verse 20 we have the house divided parable, covered in our parables series a few episodes back, then in verse 28 we hit “the unpardonable sin” section, and believe it or not it's not being a weeb, it turns out it's, well, let's let Jesus explain:   MARK 3 28 Truly I tell you, people can be forgiven all their sins and every slander they utter, 29 But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; they are guilty of an eternal sin."   GREGG When we covered the parallel text of this in Matthew 12–seriously, over 90% of Mark is parallelled in Matthew–I focused on the idea of the sin against the Spirit as being despair. But Mark's telling has a bit of context that has lead to another popular interpretation, especially among–Catholics cover your ears– *whispers* Protestants.   MARK 3 30He said this because they were saying, "He has an impure spirit.”   GREGG Using that verse, which at a glance is simply explaining why Jesus said what He said, the passage is taken to mean that rejecting Jesus as the Son of God slash Savior slash Messiah is the sin against the Spirit being referred to here. And though I called out Protestants specifically a minute ago, it's not like that interpretation is unheard of within Catholicism, typically it's a both/and sort of thing, accepting the despair angle and the “ya'll need Jesus” angle. Nor are the two interpretations unrelated, as someone wholly given to despair will have a hard time accepting Jesus' offer of salvation.   Of course, when I speak of accepting Jesus' offer of salvation, now I really AM getting into the fundamental faith vs works discussion. That's faith and works in the context of salvation from sin. We'll be getting into it in more detail in future episodes, but as an overview all major forms of Christianity agree that faith in the saving power of Jesus Christ is fundamentally necessary for salvation. The disagreement comes in whether anything else plays any role- “anything else” being summed up under the umbrella term of “works”, or it might help to rephrase the question as whether our actions have any meaning when it comes to our salvation.   For Catholics, the answer is yes, while for most Protestants, the answer is no. Generally speaking when there are fights about it, Protestants will take the position that your works having meaning, as Catholics argue is the case, means that you can save yourself through your works. Some people do think that, of course, but not Catholics, at least not Catholics who know their onions, as the Catholic Church condemned that position as a heresy over thousand years before Protestantism became a thing. However, the Church is far from perfect, and in the time of Martin Luther, whose teachings are typically seen as the spark that ignited the Protestant Reformation, it's clear that some within the Church were comfortable blurring the lines for financial gain.   I've got more on faith vs works and Catholicism vs Protestantism planned for future episodes, and I don't want to bury that conversation where no one will look for it, so let's leave that there for now and get back to Mark, with chapter 3 verse 31 to 35   MARK   31 Then Jesus' mother and brothers arrived. Standing outside, they sent someone in to call him. 32 A crowd was sitting around him, and they told him, "Your mother and brothers are outside looking for you.” 33 "Who are my mother and my brothers?" he asked. 34 Then he looked at those seated in a circle around him and said, "Here are my mother and my brothers! 35 Whoever does God's will is my brother and sister and mother.”   GREGG Thanks to the Marian doctrine of Our Lady's perpetual virginity we discussed back in episode 0.14, the surprising fact that Jesus doesn't immediately attend to his family members isn't the most discussed aspect of this passage when it comes to Catholicism. No, that would be the fact that Jesus' brothers, the Greek term is Adelphoi, show up. Generally these are understood as Jesus' half brothers, via his earthly father Saint Joseph from a previous marriage.   As for the question of whether Jesus just kind of blew off his family here, half brothers or cousins or full brothers or whoever was there with Mary, while I can see how you might get that impression, it's not like His every action is recorded. It's entirely possible that He checked in with them after making a quick positive observation- one that I don't want to lose in the rest of this analysis so I'll repeat it:   MARK 3 “35 Whoever does God's will is my brother and sister and mother.”   GREGG   Anyways, as is the custom with Mark, we're on to the next scene in a hurry, launching into Mark 4 with the next verse as a classic transition:   MARK 4 1 Again Jesus began to teach by the lake.   GREGG I'm not going to go into detail about what He taught by the lake here, because Chapter 4 is made up entirely of miracles and parables we've already covered in 0.20 and earlier in 0.21, respectively. We've got the Parable of the Sower, then the Lamp on a Stand, then the Growing Seed and the Mustard Seed, capped off by Mark's account of Jesus calming the storm at sea.   Similarly, Mark 5 is a string of by-now familiar miracles- and if any don't seem familiar you know by now Miracles are in one of the 0.20 episodes, right? The Gerasene Demoniac, the Bleeding Woman, Jairus' Daughter, they're all there, and in Mark 5 too.   Mark 6 give us a bit more food for thought on Jesus' local life and family dynamic. A sign of how things hit differently at home, it's worth a long quote:   MARK 6:1-6 6 Jesus left there and went to his hometown, accompanied by his disciples. 2 When the Sabbath came, he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were amazed.   “Where did this man get these things?” they asked. “What's this wisdom that has been given him? What are these remarkable miracles he is performing? 3 Isn't this the carpenter? Isn't this Mary's son and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas and Simon? Aren't his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him.   4 Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his own town, among his relatives and in his own home.” 5 He could not do any miracles there, except lay his hands on a few sick people and heal them. 6 He was amazed at their lack of faith.   GREGG Many of Jesus' sayings have become proverbial, and while it's not in the level of turning the other cheek, “a prophet is not without honor except in his own town” has some popularity. It does seem to speak to a common truth of celebrities.   I do like the touch that He was unable to do any miracles there except for the miracles which He did do, which evidently still failed to impress. Of course, the idea of Jesus being *unable* to do miracles is theologically interesting, since He's, you know, God. Of course, God does seem to have had some trouble dealing with iron chariots back in Judges 1:19, so maybe there is some precedent.   But we've got our Pope-colored glasses on, so not only is Jesus God but God is omnipotent, so it's fair to ask: what gives? It could be that old favorite, the translation issue, but I admit my personal Greek skills are basically at the naming barnyard animals level, so I decided to bring in an expert to verify. An expert by the name of bibleref.com, linked in the show notes. Their commentary on the passage notes that in the parallel passage in Matthew, it simply says Jesus “did not” perform many miracles in his hometown, which isn't as controversial though of course it's always fair to ask why God doesn't just fix everything for everyone since he's all good and all knowing and all powerful. But that popular question isn't where we're at today because apparently it's not a translation issue, Mark 6:5 does specifically say Jesus *could not* perform the miracles in the Greek according to the commentary. But it goes on to note that there can be multiple senses of inability, like how you can't touch the ball when playing soccer, or football for my non-US listeners, and yeah, I'm not counting goalies. Anyways, obviously you can physically touch the ball, but you cannot in the sense that it's against the established rules of the game. If that's the sense, it makes some sense that Jesus quote unquote “can't” perform miracles in His hometown because His miracles are supposed to draw people to Him and they aren't having that effect at home. At least not much, keep in mind he did do some miracles there according to Mark, so in any event the whole “can't” thing definitely isn't absolute.   Of course, I personally find it awful to think that God would play games with our salvation- hence my quasi-universalism. I get respecting our free will, but I also know He's omnipotent and isn't going to give up on us, no matter how much we try to give up on ourselves if there's another chance we can get He's going to give that to us. But we have to accept at some point, so don't think I'm downplaying the urgency there.   Anyways, let's get back to Mark 6, now in Verse 8 where He's sending the disciples out in pairs with the following instructions:   MARK 6:8-11   8 Take nothing for the journey except a staff--no bread, no bag, no money in your belts.   9 Wear sandals but not an extra shirt.   10 Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you leave that town.   11 And if any place will not welcome you or listen to you, leave that place and shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them.”   GREGG As you should by now have come to expect, these instructions do have a parallel in Matthew that we covered in the last worldbuilding episode. But it's not as close a parallel as you might think. Often, as we've talked about before, parallels in the synoptic gospels are so close that you'd get dinged for plagiarism, with maybe a word being changed here or there. But here, it basically reads like two different people were told to write down a speech shortly after they finished hearing it. Which, I mean, matches tradition, for what it's worth. The most obvious difference is that Mark's telling skips Matthew's bit about only going to Jewish households, forbidding visits to Gentiles or Samaritans. Though as we've seen Mark's Jesus was already laying the groundwork for some serious reframing of Mosaic Law by taking on the title of Lord of the Sabbath, I think on the whole it's more likely that in Mark's account that's simply taken as a given and perhaps left off for brevity rather than this being a separate incident or its absence being a sign that the disciples were to ignore those cultural barriers at this stage.   The rest of Mark 6 is taken up by his narrative of the death of John the Baptist, where, unusually for the Gospels, Jesus is offstage, and then there's two banner miracles, the Feeding of the 5000 and Jesus walking on water.   Which brings us to Mark 7, which has Jesus… let's see… excoriating the Jewish authorities… then calling a woman a dog… and let's not forget giving someone a wet willy.   Don't believe me? Let's go.   MARK 7   1The Pharisees and some of the teachers of the law who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus 2and saw some of his disciples eating food with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed. 3(The Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they give their hands a ceremonial washing, holding to the tradition of the elders. 4When they come from the marketplace they do not eat unless they wash. And they observe many other traditions, such as the washing of cups, pitchers and kettles.) 5So the Pharisees and teachers of the law asked Jesus, "Why don't your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders instead of eating their food with defiled hands?” 6He replied, "Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written: "'These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. 7They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules.' 8You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to human traditions.” 9And he continued, "You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions! 10For Moses said, 'Honor your father and mother,' and, 'Anyone who curses their father or mother is to be put to death.' 11But you say that if anyone declares that what might have been used to help their father or mother is Corban (that is, devoted to God)-- 12then you no longer let them do anything for their father or mother. 13Thus you nullify the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And you do many things like that.”   GREGG Note that while there's a close parallel between these passages and Matthew 15, Mark is apparently much more concerned with explaining Jewish custom to his audience, suggesting the intended audience is not Jews themselves.   The rest of the chapter we've covered before, from the Parable of the Heart of Man to the two miracles that give the tibits I teased earlier. Jesus calls the syrophoenician woman a dog in the runup to healing her servant, and he totally heals a deaf guy via wet willy at the end of the chapter. But I already covered both of those in 0.20c, so check them out there for more.   So that means we're on to Chapter 8, which opens with… another miracle! Turns out Jesus did a lot of those! Who knew?   That's the feeding of the four thousand, but you know the drill, we're skipping that and on ahead to verse 12, where Jesus is responding to a group of Pharisees asking for a sign.   MARK 8:12 He sighed deeply and said, "Why does this generation ask for a sign? Truly I tell you, no sign will be given to it."   GREGG Ok. Remembering that by a sign here they mean a miracle, we've got the guy known for working miracles getting annoyed at requests for miracles. Why? You'd think He'd be all about that. Is it another sort of hometown situation, where folk's lack of faith is an impediment?   Well, kind of sort of. But not quite.   In the parallel passage from Matthew 16, which I admit I kind of glossed over last time because I was excited to get to the Papally significant Matthew 16:18, Jesus calls those asking for a sign “a wicked and adulterous generation”, which can help explain why Jesus is refusing the request–after all even in Mark's shorter version their motives are implicitly questioned, with Jesus asking why they're asking for a sign.   The typical interpretation goes that Jesus is refusing the request for a sign because the Pharisees have the wrong *motives* in asking. Unlike those in His hometown, they seem to believe Jesus can work miracles, but they just want to see a show, they aren't interested in Jesus' message beyond that. And Jesus for His part, is interested in signs *for the sake of* His message, He isn't there to entertain.   These various passages that show Jesus specifically not working miracles could be taken to suggest some embarrassment by the authors about Jesus' miracles not being as renowned as they would like, forcing them to give explanations for why that's the case. I can definitely picture some neckbeard arguing if God wanted to make everyone believe he'd make miracles known to all and be undeniable. Which is a reasonable enough thought except unless God removes free will, there's never going to be such a thing as undeniable anyways.   In the next few verses, Jesus warns against the teachings of the Pharisees and Herod. Though technically the “teachings” part isn't spelled out in Mark, so it could be He's actually meaning to go in another direction with things than He does in Matthew's version, though I think their teaching or at least their general influence is His most likely target. Let's hear it and regroup after.   MARK 8 14-15 14The disciples had forgotten to bring bread, except for one loaf they had with them in the boat.   15"Be careful," Jesus warned them. "Watch out for the yeast of the Pharisees and that of Herod.”   GREGG Certainly He isn't talking about literal bread, as is evidenced from His reaction. Also, it's interesting that Mark warns against Herod's yeast specifically, while Matthew leaves Herod off in favor of tossing in the Sadducees to accompany the Pharisees. If Mark is the rougher, earlier version as most scholars currently argue–and as I'm inclined to believe looking at the two side by side these last few months–then it seems like one can argue Matthew's account has been modified to perhaps be a little more authority-friendly in this case, keeping in mind the Herodians were the client-kings in charge of the area in Jesus' day. Check out 0.13 on the Hasmoneans for more on that.   After a miracle interlude–healing the blind man in a two-step process where the miracle is evidently incomplete at first–a fairly intriguing Mark-only one that is arguably sanitized out of other accounts, but one we already covered so I'm not getting back into it today– anyways after that we hit Mark's account of Peter's testament, you know, with the binding and loosing and the keys and all that. Except actually *without* all that in Mark's version.   Here's the whole exchange as Mark tells it:   MARK 8:27-30 27Jesus and his disciples went on to the villages around Caesarea Philippi. On the way he asked them, "Who do people say I am?” 28They replied, "Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.” 29"But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?" Peter answered, "You are the Messiah.” 30Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about him.   GREGG Like I said, not a key in sight. Peter does give the critical answer, but none of what would become the principal text for the Papacy is presented here. And again, if you consider Mark as the older account, as most scholars do, it's fair to raise an eyebrow at that. Yet in the end, one way or another, we have a Pope, and I do think there's something to be said for the unifying force of the role. After all, if no one is Pope, then everyone is Pope. But I digress.   Of course, poor Peter can only wish he were simply downplayed in Mark 8. The reality is he does pop up again later in the chapter, in a familiar but unflattering way:   MARK 8:31- 31He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again. 32He spoke plainly about this, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. 33But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. "Get behind me, Satan!" he said. "You do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”   GREGG So there you go. If you want to make a case for the Pope not always being right, there's an easy one. Not everyone gets called Satan by, well, God. Of course, there's a surprising amount of room where you can accept Papal Infallibility *and* the idea that the Pope isn't always right, but we'll get to that in time.   The chapter finishes with Jesus reflecting on what his stated fate means for his followers, and it's, uh, not the cheeriest image. It bleeds into chapter 9 so don't put your Bible down too quickly If you're following along.   MARK 8:34-9:1   34Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: "Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 35For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it. 36What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? 37Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? 38If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his Father's glory with the holy angels. CHAPTER 9 1And he said to them, "Truly I tell you, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see that the kingdom of God has come with power.   GREGG Goodness, Jesus, it's hard for me to keep my running joke of treating the Crucifixion as a spoiler when you're literally telling your disciples to take up their crosses before it actually happens. Oh well.   Mark 9 continues with The Transfiguration, but like I mentioned in our Matthew discussion, that's it's own mystery of the rosary that we haven't gotten to yet, so pardon me and I'll skip that here too.   After that, we have a miracle- the boy with an unclean spirit that can only be driven out by prayer and fasting. So on to verse 30, where we have more talk of the upcoming Passion:   MARK 9:30-32 “30They left that place and passed through Galilee. Jesus did not want anyone to know where they were, 31because he was teaching his disciples. He said to them, "The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men. They will kill him, and after three days he will rise.” 32But they did not understand what he meant and were afraid to ask him about it.   GREGG Jesus was speaking pretty plainly here, so it's not immediately clear why the disciples didn't understand what Jesus meant, but it's probably related to the way Jesus keeps telling folks either to talk or not to talk about things. There's definitely a focus on pacing the spread of the Good News throughout the Gospels, especially in Mark, and it seems like a supernatural barrier to the Apostles' understanding here would fit in with that.   The fear of asking is more easily explained: if someone you know is really good at making predictions and you're pretty sure they just predicted something awful, you may well be hesitant to confirm that with them.   Being hesitant to talk about stuff with Jesus carries us into the next few verses, where Jesus apparently puts His omniscience to good use in a wonderfully passive-aggressive way:   MARK 9: 33-35 33They came to Capernaum. When he was in the house, he asked them, "What were you arguing about on the road?" 34But they kept quiet because on the way they had argued about who was the greatest. 35Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, "Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last, and the servant of all.”   GREGG The first will be last is one of Jesus' recurring themes, and the whole “I'm-pretty-sure-I-heard-you-but-since-you-won't-confirm-I'm-just-going-to-respond-indirectly approach reminds me of dealing with the drama of children, though I suppose a lot of things remind me of interacting with children these days given my current life situation, and that approach is not necessarily one that exclusively applies to children. Either way, Jesus does bring children into the conversation as His next move.   MARK 9:36-37 36He took a little child whom he placed among them. Taking the child in his arms, he said to them, 37"Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me.”   GREGG That passage is one of the more often-remembered portions of the Gospels, in part because it's in all three synoptics [air horn], but also in part because it's a handy pastoral lesson to push back on folks who might complain about the presence of children in worship services. As they say, if no one in your church is cryin', it's dyin'.   Next up we have some verses you might wish had been left off if you've ever gotten tired of hearing “in Jesus' name” a lot:   MARK 9:38-41 38"Teacher," said John, "we saw someone driving out demons in your name and we told him to stop, because he was not one of us.” 39"Do not stop him," Jesus said. "For no one who does a miracle in my name can in the next moment say anything bad about me, 40for whoever is not against us is for us. 41Truly I tell you, anyone who gives you a cup of water in my name because you belong to the Messiah will certainly not lose their reward.   GREGG Personally I'm thankful for that passage, because I'm a big supporter of ecumenism and cooperation, and “whoever is not against us is for us” is an immensely helpful sentiment in that context.   For the next section, where Jesus gets pretty intense, there are several verses that simply aren't present in my go-to NIV version, presumably for bible nerd manuscript reasons. Now, the point of the Sayings of the Savior series is to make sure we cover *everything* Jesus said in the canonical scriptures, and those verses are speaking lines for Jesus, so that won't do. Thankfully the King James version has us covered, so I'm going to switch to that for those verses.   So you can tell the difference easily, I'll be switching to a guest narrator as well. Lebron James hasn't responded to my calls, so the King James Version of the King James Version will have to wait, but my brother has come in clutch for podcast purposes. PJHERE MARK 9:42-48 42"If anyone causes one of these little ones--those who believe in me--to stumble, it would be better for them if a large millstone were hung around their neck and they were thrown into the sea. 43If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go into hell, where the fire never goes out. [NIV leaves off verse 44 “44Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.”-KJV] 45And if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than to have two feet and be thrown into hell. [NIV leaves off verse 46 “46Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.”-KJV] 47And if your eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell, NIV leaves off verse 48 “48Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.”-KJV]   GREGG So yeah, by “verses” I kind of meant “one verse used as a refrain”, but it's officially verses 44, 46, and 48, so I am technically correct, which I'm told is the best kind of correct.   Thanks to the reference to “leading little ones astray”, the great millstone imagery has had some use in response to the sexual abuse crisis, though the most commonly cited of these evocative instructions is plucking out the eye, thanks in no small part to the frequency of admonitions against pornography in the online era. Cutting off the hand is also referenced, while I think most folks if they're being honest won't even necessarily recall cutting off the foot is among the scenarios mentioned.   Anyways, Jesus finishes this section with a few salty verses that initially bear a strong resemblance to Matthew 5:13- the salt of the earth bit from the Sermon on the Mount. I'm thinking I might have actually pointed these verses out when I was going over that due to the similarity, but just in case, here they are:   MARK 9:49-50 49Everyone will be salted with fire 50"Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can you make it salty again? Have salt among yourselves, and be at peace with each other.”   GREGG “Have salt among yourselves” is an unusual turn of phrase, the typical interpretation of this Mark-only phrase is that Christians are supposed to bring out the best in one another, the way salt brings out the best in food.   We're now entering Mark 10, which- surprise surprise, has close parallels to Matthew 19 and 20. I'm not going to give the Matthew sections as a side by side, partly because we've already covered them independently, partly because this episode is already going to be one of my longest despite Mark being the shortest Gospel. But it's worth giving it a thorough treatment since scholars tend to think it's the oldest and also because if I'm going to go all-out it might as well be with the shortest of the bunch. You know, for efficiency.   Anyways…   MARK 10:1-12 1Jesus then left that place and went into the region of Judea and across the Jordan. Again crowds of people came to him, and as was his custom, he taught them. 2Some Pharisees came and tested him by asking, "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” 3"What did Moses command you?" he replied. 4They said, "Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce and send her away.” 5"It was because your hearts were hard that Moses wrote you this law," Jesus replied. 6"But at the beginning of creation God 'made them male and female.' 7For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, 8and the two will become one flesh.' So they are no longer two, but one flesh. 9Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.” 10When they were in the house again, the disciples asked Jesus about this. 11He answered, "Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery against her. 12And if she divorces her husband and marries another man, she commits adultery.”   GREGG This version of Jesus' teaching on marriage and divorce notably does not include the exception for adultery we saw in Matthew's account. Additionally where Matthew focused on Eunuchs for the kingdom–and other kinds of Eunuchs–Mark concluded with that extra condemnation of divorce, with remarriage as adultery.   In the next passage, the conversation changes direction:   MARK 10:13-16 13People were bringing little children to Jesus for him to place his hands on them, but the disciples rebuked them. 14When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. 15Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” 16And he took the children in his arms, placed his hands on them and blessed them.   GREGG We'll meet the Church Father who was allegedly one of the children in this scene as we go about our big timeline, once we get through this worldbuilding and go into that. But for now, it's time for one of the most inconvenient passages in the Gospels, at least if you're rich.    MARK 10:17-31 17As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. "Good teacher," he asked, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 18"Why do you call me good?" Jesus answered. "No one is good--except God alone. 19You know the commandments: 'You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, you shall not defraud, honor your father and mother.'” 20"Teacher," he declared, "all these I have kept since I was a boy.” 21Jesus looked at him and loved him. "One thing you lack," he said. "Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” 22At this the man's face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth. 23Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, "How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!” 24The disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said again, "Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! 25It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” 26The disciples were even more amazed, and said to each other, "Who then can be saved?” 27Jesus looked at them and said, "With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.” 28Then Peter spoke up, "We have left everything to follow you!” 29"Truly I tell you," Jesus replied, "no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel 30will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age: homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields--along with persecutions--and in the age to come eternal life. 31But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”   GREGG There is a surprisingly thorough and ranging discussion of the whole “eye of the needle” bit in the digital edition of the British newspaper The Guardian, in the Nooks and Crannies section of their Notes and Queries page. Which I think makes it the most random thing I've cited here, but hey, it's got it all so let's get a sampling going:   First, the original query: The Guardian.com “I recently read that one of the gates into Jerusalem was named "The Eye of the Needle," and was quite tricky to negotiate, since it was quite small. Does this mean that when Jesus said "It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven," He meant that, far from being impossible, it was merely tricky?” Dara O'Reilly, London, UK   GREGG The first reply is a fairly representative take on the gate theory:   GUARDIAN The interpretation that seems to make sense is this. The "Eye of the Needle" was indeed a narrow gateway into Jerusalem. Since camels were heavily loaded with goods and riders, they would need to be un-loaded in order to pass through. Therefore, the analogy is that a rich man would have to similarly unload his material possessions in order to enter heaven. Rick, Brighton Uk   GREGG But then the plot thickens, as William Elsom of the UK is having none of it:   GUARDIAN No. The failure is in the translation. The original word that should have been translated was "camella" which means rope. (presumably Greek, but I am open to this being corrected.) "It is easier for a rope to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven" makes more sense as a comparison. William Elsom, UK   GREGG There's something of a scholarly telephone game going on in the background, as basically every “mistranslation” take offers a variation on the root word and apparent correct meaning. Which is fairly normal for translations especially when there are different alphabets involved, but still, I chuckled.   GUARDIAN I am currently studying the Aramaic language and indeed the word "gamla" (transliterated) does mean both "camel" and "thick rope." Assuming the original manuscript with that teaching of Jesus was recorded in Aramaic and later translated to Greek, the translator may have been familiar with only the "camel" definition of the word. I have not been able to find any reliable information on a city gate called "The Eye of the Needle." -Xakk, FL USA   GREGG As much as I hate agreeing with someone who spells Zach Xakk–though presumably that's a choice his parents made– anyways as much as I hate to admit it, this overall take seems the most likely to this non-Aramaic specialist. The general meaning is still the same, it's not something you're going to get done.   It's also worth noting that at least as of the return from the Exile, if the Book of Nehemiah is to be believed, there was no “Eye of the Needle” gate in Jerusalem. And I can state that with confidence because as longtime listeners will recall, I had a whole special episode devoted to the topic from July 2020 entitled “Literally A Detailed Description of the Gates of Jerusalem and Who Fixed Them in the Time of Nehemiah”, which, despite being exactly what it says it is, has been a pretty popular episode. In any event, it *could* be that an Eye of the Needle gate was established at a later point, though really the whole gate thing feels like wishful thinking on the part of the rich or the would-be rich to me.   Of course, as you might expect, there are also literalists who agree it's wishful thinking and would rather cut to the chase. Plus people like my man David:   GUARDIAN The translation is irrelevant. We all know in our hearts we cannot love money above God.   David Porter, Orangevale, US   GREGG Let's conclude with my favorite take:   GUARDIAN “Blessed are the cheesemakers?” Mike Conn, San Francisco,    GREGG After the second Gate-Gate scandal we've come across in this show (shoutout Samson if you've forgotten), we arrive at Jesus' third prediction of His own death in Mark   MARK 10:32-34 32They were on their way up to Jerusalem, with Jesus leading the way, and the disciples were astonished, while those who followed were afraid. Again he took the Twelve aside and told them what was going to happen to him. 33"We are going up to Jerusalem," he said, "and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the Gentiles, 34who will mock him and spit on him, flog him and kill him. Three days later he will rise.”   GREGG Mark gives no record of the Apostles' reaction to this third prediction, unless the next verse is the actual reaction, which is a hilarious thought because it would be shockingly tone deaf. But yeah, it's the very next verse without any transition except the word “then”, so you can certainly read it that way:   MARK 10:35-45 35Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to him. "Teacher," they said, "we want you to do for us whatever we ask.” 36"What do you want me to do for you?" he asked. 37They replied, "Let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory.” 38"You don't know what you are asking," Jesus said. "Can you drink the cup I drink or be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with?” 39"We can," they answered. Jesus said to them, "You will drink the cup I drink and be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with, 40but to sit at my right or left is not for me to grant. These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared.” 41When the ten heard about this, they became indignant with James and John. 42Jesus called them together and said, "You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. 43Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, 44and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. 45For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.   GREGG It turns out James and John, the Sons of Zebedee, have massive… cojones. But in the end their reward is understood to be martyrdom–perhaps not what they had in mind, they certainly seem to have had more of an earthly kingdom in mind.   In any event, here we have more of the “first will be last” motif popping up, and Scriptural background for why the Pope is considered, at least in theory, the “Servant of the Servants of God”.   Mark 10 finishes up with the healing of the blind Bartimaeus, so it's on to Mark 11, with Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem:   MARK 11:1-11 1As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage and Bethany at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two of his disciples, 2saying to them, “Go to the village ahead of you, and just as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, which no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. 3If anyone asks you, 'Why are you doing this?' say, 'The Lord needs it and will send it back here shortly.'” 4They went and found a colt outside in the street, tied at a doorway. As they untied it, 5some people standing there asked, "What are you doing, untying that colt?” 6They answered as Jesus had told them to, and the people let them go. 7When they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks over it, he sat on it. 8Many people spread their cloaks on the road, while others spread branches they had cut in the fields. 9Those who went ahead and those who followed shouted, "Hosanna!" "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” 10"Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David!" "Hosanna in the highest heaven!” 11Jesus entered Jerusalem and went into the temple courts. He looked around at everything, but since it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the Twelve.   GREGG We'll talk more about Palm Sunday in the future, for now just know that this scene is the basis for that. It's also a sign that Jesus is approaching the end of His earthly ministry, though we've still got another couple chapters for today after we finish this one.   We'll skip verses 12-14 as that's the cursing of the fig tree we covered under miracles--and that's right, it's a non-healing miracle. At least His target is a tree and not a human as happens in some of the apocrypha.   Which brings us to Mark's version of the scene with the moneychangers in the Temple:   MARK 11:15-18 15On reaching Jerusalem, Jesus entered the temple courts and began driving out those who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves, 16and would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts. 17And as he taught them, he said, "Is it not written: 'My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations'? But you have made it 'a den of robbers.'” 18The chief priests and the teachers of the law heard this and began looking for a way to kill him, for they feared him, because the whole crowd was amazed at his teaching. 19When evening came, Jesus and his disciples went out of the city.   GREGG Mark's somewhat abbreviated account leaves off Him making a whip, which is a loss, but hey, the core is there. As a reminder, and yes, I'll say this every time, just remember when someone asks “what would Jesus do” that flipping tables is absolutely a valid option.   Then, we're back to the fig tree, seeing the result of the curse on the way out, and this is extra special because this is actually an extended Mark only reflection. Including another King James specific verse that the NIV leaves off. Let's hear it!   MARK 11:20-26 20In the morning, as they went along, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots. 21Peter remembered and said to Jesus, "Rabbi, look! The fig tree you cursed has withered!” 22"Have faith in God," Jesus answered. 23"Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and does not doubt in their heart but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done for them. 24Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. 25And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive them, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins." [NIV omits but KJV has] 26But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses.]   GREGG Of course, when I said “Mark exclusive”, that may have been a bit of an oversell, because while the now-proverbial “faith to move mountains” doesn't appear in Matthew's fig tree discourse, it does line up closely to another section, Matthew 17:20, several chapters before Matthew's fig tree. As for the rest, the sentiment is overall familiar, but worth repeating so I'll say it again:   MARK 11:25-26 if you hold anything against anyone, forgive them, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins." [NIV omits but KJV has] 26But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses.]   GREGG Next up we've got an attempted trap that Jesus turns around, Bugs Bunny style.   MARK 11:27-33 27They arrived again in Jerusalem, and while Jesus was walking in the temple courts, the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders came to him. 28"By what authority are you doing these things?" they asked. "And who gave you authority to do this?” 29Jesus replied, "I will ask you one question. Answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I am doing these things. 30John's baptism--was it from heaven, or of human origin? Tell me!” 31They discussed it among themselves and said, "If we say, 'From heaven,' he will ask, 'Then why didn't you believe him?' 32But if we say, 'Of human origin' . . . " (They feared the people, for everyone held that John really was a prophet.) 33So they answered Jesus, "We don't know." Jesus said, "Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things."   GREGG Mark 12 opens with the Parable of the Tenant Farmers, which I personally prefer to call the Parable of the Bad Tenants since I think just calling them farmers ignores the amount of murdering they do in the parable. But anyways, we're not covering it here, ‘cause parable. So on to Verse 13:   MARK 12:13-17 13Later they sent some of the Pharisees and Herodians to Jesus to catch him in his words. 14They came to him and said, "Teacher, we know that you are a man of integrity. You aren't swayed by others, because you pay no attention to who they are; but you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. Is it right to pay the imperial tax to Caesar or not? 15Should we pay or shouldn't we?" But Jesus knew their hypocrisy. "Why are you trying to trap me?" he asked. "Bring me a denarius and let me look at it.” 16They brought the coin, and he asked them, "Whose image is this? And whose inscription?" "Caesar's," they replied. 17Then Jesus said to them, "Give back to Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God's." And they were amazed at him.   GREGG This tax exchange, which we saw in Matthew and we'll see again in Luke (SYNOPTIC ROUNDUP AIRHORN?) is intended to be a sort of sting operation, with the expected result being Jesus objecting to the tax and therefore being guilty of rebellion against the Roman government. But I don't think Jesus even needed to tap into His omniscience here, they were acting pretty suspicious with the leading flattery and line of questioning. Plus, what does God ultimately need money for?   In the end, of course, everything we have ultimately comes from God, so while I mentioned it with Matthew it's worth mentioning again now- when we give Caesar what is Caesar's and God what is God's, God gets everything.   Next up we've got Jesus fielding yet another insincere question from religious authorities, this time from the Sadducees:   MARK 12:18-27 18Then the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him with a question. 19"Teacher," they said, "Moses wrote for us that if a man's brother dies and leaves a wife but no children, the man must marry the widow and raise up offspring for his brother. 20Now there were seven brothers. The first one married and died without leaving any children. 21The second one married the widow, but he also died, leaving no child. It was the same with the third. 22In fact, none of the seven left any children. Last of all, the woman died too. 23At the resurrection whose wife will she be, since the seven were married to her?” 24Jesus replied, "Are you not in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God? 25When the dead rise, they will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven. 26Now about the dead rising--have you not read in the Book of Moses, in the account of the burning bush, how God said to him, 'I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob'? 27He is not the God of the dead, but of the living. You are badly mistaken!”   GREGG That last bit– “You are badly mistaken!” is a Marcan flourish that helps emphasize Mark's generally less Pharisee-slash-Sadducee–friendly stance, underlining the intensity of Jesus' disagreement with them.   The next section is the part about The Greatest Commandment which we used to open the Sayings of the Savior, so check out 0.21a for that. Then we have a theological question apparently designed to further undermine the Credibility of the Teachers of the Law. This time around, it's Jesus who picks the fight,   MARK 12:35-40 35While Jesus was teaching in the temple courts, he asked, "Why do the teachers of the law say that the Messiah is the son of David? 36David himself, speaking by the Holy Spirit, declared: "'The Lord said to my Lord: "Sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet."' 37David himself calls him 'Lord.' How then can he be his son?" The large crowd listened to him with delight. 38As he taught, Jesus said, "Watch out for the teachers of the law. They like to walk around in flowing robes and be greeted with respect in the marketplaces, 39and have the most important seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at banquets. 40They devour widows' houses and for a show make lengthy prayers. These men will be punished most severely.”   GREGG “The large crowd listened to him with delight”, we're told, as Jesus excoriated the religious establishment of His day. Sounds like a political rally almost. No wonder He was condemned as a revolutionary.   The last scene in Mark 12 is one we haven't seen before- it's one of the few passages in Mark not paralleled in Matthew- and it's one of my favorites:   MARK12:41-44 41Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. 42But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a few cents. 43Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, "Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. 44They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything--all she had to live on.”   GREGG This scene is generally called the Widow's Mite, not because “mite” was the term for small copper coins in ancient Judea–though they would retroactively be called mites–and not because the mite was the term for small copper coins in 17th century England where the King James Bible was produced, though they would pick up that name, but rather because the King James translation used a Dutch term for some small denomination coins that had originally been picked up for Biblical use by William Tyndale.   For once, I'll spare you a deeper rabbit hole, and move on from the names of coins to the lesson of the coins.   I mentioned before this passage is one of my favorites. While I appreciate the challenge behind Jesus' admonition to be perfect that we saw in Matthew, here we see that if all you have isn't much, God still sees the effort and meaningful sacrifice. There's something comforting in that for extremely inadequate folks like myself.   On the other hand, there's the lesson that giving out of your abundance may be mathematically and physically helpful but it's not spiritually significant. It's the right thing to do, of course, but an even better thing than giving your excess is to give beyond just your excess.   “But I need the rest”, you might argue. And it's certainly true, you may well have just reasons for keeping some aside. It would be irresponsible of me to sell all my worldly possessions and go live in a cave, as even if my wife signed onto it we've got kids too young to voluntarily renounce the world, it's our responsibility to care for them.   So, where's the line? When do we go from taking care of our responsibilities at home to hoarding?   Well, if you have any money, you should be giving. It doesn't have to be all you have, especially if you've got responsibilities to those in your household, but it should absolutely be more than nothing, and everything is best.   Ultimately Christians are not to see money as theirs to use how they see fit, as something they've earned. That simply isn't a Christian mentality. Money is a means by which you can help others–those you have primary responsibility for first, like your children, and those in need should be prioritized urgently as well. The Church speaks of the “preferential option for the poor”.   I'm not saying you need to become a shell of a human, doing nothing for yourself and allowing your own mental and physical health to collapse- though certainly some saints lives point in that direction. But putting yourself first is something that needs to be balanced against your ability to be a blessing to those around you.   This isn't the last time I'll bring up this sort of thing by any means, and it looks like I avoided one tangent only to go into another, so let's get back to Mark, now in Chapter 13, which opens with a prophesy of the destruction of the Temple, then flows into a description of the End Times– keep in mind from the Christian perspective time has not only a beginning but an end–that parallels Matthew.   It's understandable to want to read this as being written after the actual historical destruction of the Temple in 70AD, but as I argued in my chat with Garry Stevens last June, it's not like it was hard to see such a calamity coming during Jesus' life, Rome was already in control of a rebellious Judea with the Temple as a potential center of nationalist resistance. And that's of course if you discount the possibility of actual prophecy, which, remember, we're making our Pope-colored glasses, so Jesus actually prophesying Is the most straightforward explanation. Either way, a post 70AD dating for Mark is really pushing the outward edge of scholarly dating for the work, keeping in mind scholars tend to argue it's the oldest of the Gospels.   Without further ado, here's a long quote, going from Mark 13:1 to 27.   MARK 13 1As Jesus was leaving the temple, one of his disciples said to him, "Look, Teacher! What massive stones! What magnificent buildings!” 2"Do you see a

Acts 2:22-41 “Fellow Israelites, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know. 23 This man was handed over to you by God's deliberate plan and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. 24 But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him. 25 David said about him: “‘I saw the Lord always before me.  Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken. 26 Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will rest in hope, 27 because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead, you will not let your holy one see decay. 28 You have made known to me the paths of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence.' 29 “Fellow Israelites, I can tell you confidently that the patriarch David died and was buried, and his tomb is here to this day. 30 But he was a prophet and knew that God had promised him on oath that he would place one of his descendants on his throne. 31 Seeing what was to come, he spoke of the resurrection of the Messiah, that he was not abandoned to the realm of the dead, nor did his body see decay. 32 God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of it. 33 Exalted to the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear. 34 For David did not ascend to heaven, and yet he said, “‘The Lord said to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand 35 until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.”' 36 “Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah.” 37 When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” 38 Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call.” 40 With many other words he warned them; and he pleaded with them, “Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.” 41 Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.

At age 43, I can still remember times when I felt like my body was improving. I could tell I was getting stronger, or running faster, or my overall energy was increasing. But now the most recent and prevailing feeling has been: I'm getting older. I notice the incremental declines. I can feel movement slowly but surely becoming more challenging. New aches and pains come and linger. In recent years I've felt both the glory and the humiliation of the human body in this age.C.S. Lewis wrote in 1960, Man has held three views of his body. First there is that of those . . . who called it the prison or the “tomb” of the soul, [those] to whom it was a “sack of dung,” food for worms, filthy, shameful, a source of nothing but temptation to bad men and humiliation to good ones. Then there are [others], to whom the body is glorious. But thirdly we have the view which St. Francis expressed by calling his body “Brother Ass.”Lewis says, “All three may be . . . defensible; but give me St. Francis for my money.” He continues,Ass is exquisitely right because no one in his senses can either revere or hate a donkey. It is a useful, sturdy, lazy, obstinate, patient, lovable and infuriating beast; deserving now a stick and now a carrot; both pathetically and absurdly beautiful. So the body. (Four Loves, 93)As Lewis saw 60 years ago, so we see them too today. We have those who feel their body to be a prison; they accent the humiliation of the body. The body holds them back; screens and virtual reality and plastic surgery create new possibilities.On the other hand, those same screens show image after image of meticulously sculpted and enhanced bodies — those for whom the body is glorious, or must be glorious no matter how much dieting and exercise and surgery it takes.Third, we have perhaps the road least traveled. Saint Francis's road. Lewis's road. Our road. The road of the cross: humiliation now, but not humiliation forever. And that mixed with glory now, but not the glory that is to come.I mention “Brother Ass” because our passage this morning (surprisingly) mentions our bodies — our present bodies created for glory, now in a state of humiliation, with a spectacular glory still to come — and because we live in times in which we are especially prone to consider the earthly things the real things, and the heavenly things to be pretense or speculation or wishful thinking. What's implicit in the world's way of thinking is that the earthly is more real, and right now, and better, while the heavenly is distant, and less real, and less desirable. But Philippians 3:20–21 says exactly the opposite.Stand Firm Like ThisWe saw last week at the end of verse 19 Paul's warning about “the enemies of the cross” who have “minds set on earthly things.” This morning we turn to verses 20–21 where Paul makes a contrast between these enemies of the cross and those who are friends of the cross and citizens of heaven. Verse 19 speaks of mere citizens of earth: “their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame” — and especially significant is the final phrase “with minds set on earthly things.”What we'll see this morning is the contrast in verses 20–21. Last week was the warning: don't be like this. Now we catch another glimpse of true Christianity, of the friends of the cross, as we've seen other glimpses in chapter 3.But before we linger in verses 20–21, let's not miss the main point in 4:1: “stand firm thus in the Lord.” This idea of “standing firm” goes all the way back to 1:27:“Only let your manner of life [literally, your citizening] be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel, 28 and not frightened in anything by your opponents.”The idea of “standing firm” marks off the heart of the letter in 1:27 to 4:1. We have the citizen language and talk of opponents (be they legalistic Judaizers, 3:2, or worldly “believers,” 3:18–19), and the call to stand firm — and do so together (“in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side”) and do so “in the Lord.” At this structural level, we might summarize the main point of Philippians as stand firm together in the Lord.But critical to this letter is not just that they stand firm but how. See the “therefore” at the beginning of 4:1? It points us back to all of chapter 3, and even to chapter 2, back to 1:27. Also, see that word “thus” in 4:1? “Stand firm thus in the Lord.” That means, Stand firm like I've been saying. Stand firm in this way, like I've been showing you. As I've been writing about Jesus in chapter 2, and Timothy and Epaphroditus, and like Paul's own testimony in chapter 3, expressed in such a way that he means for us to imitate him. Stand firm in this way in the Lord. Stand firm like Paul stands firm: on the footing of Christ's work for you, stand firm against legalistic threats and worldly temptations, and press on to know Jesus now, and look forward to seeing and knowing him, Jesus, face to face. And all that is especially captured and summed up in verses 20–21, which lead into 4:1 for a reason. So let's linger in this vision. And what's striking is that Paul casts this vision in terms of citizenship or civic belonging.Our Commonwealth in ChristThe leading claim in verses 20–21 is that “our citizenship is in heaven.” Our commonwealth, our homeland, exists in heaven. Our place of true belonging is not just elsewhere on earth, but it is alive and well in heaven.There is a match here between this citizenship theme in Philippians and what we learn about Philippi in Acts 16, when the gospel first came to town. Philippi wasn't originally Roman, but had become a Roman colony, and with Rome being the great superpower of the day, the citizens of Philippi naturally prided themselves on being Roman citizens.How does Paul speak into that civic consciousness in Philippi? He says to those in the church: “our citizenship is in heaven.” No balancing word here about dual citizenship. Nothing like, “Ah, yes, you're privileged to be Romans, of course (what an exceptional nation), and remember you're Christians too.” He says simply, without qualification or adjustment, “Christians, our citizenship is in heaven.” Our commonwealth is heaven. Our homeland is heaven. Not “we have another homeland also.” But our homeland, our one homeland, in Christ, is heaven. Which is our deepest and most fundamental identity and place of belonging.Ask yourself: Am I truly more deeply American or Christian? The spoken answer is easy. But what are the instincts of your heart? And if you can say in good conscience, “Oh, yes, Christian over American,” we might also ask, By how much? Because we ourselves are not Roman, we don't get nervous if a first-century Christian says, “I'm a Christian ten thousand times more than a Roman.” Amen! That's right and good. But as Americans today, with all the socialization it involves, and how we've been conditioned and songs we've sung and putting of our hands over our hearts, and pledging our allegiance, do we hesitate to say, “I'm a Christian ten thousand times more than an American?”Back to verse 20, where the key contrast is earthly versus heavenly. Our homeland being heaven contrasts with those who have “minds set on earthly things.” What does that mean to “set your mind on earthly things”? There is a difference between dealing with earthly things and setting your mind on earthly things. Christians and non-Christians alike live in this world and deal with earthly things. But enemies of the cross “set their minds on earthly things.” They awake to earthly things, and reset to earthly things, and default to earthly things. They dream about earthly things and meditate on earthly things. They're animated by earthly things. They have the mindset of the world, of natural man, rather than of the Spirit, and of heaven. Three Marks of Heaven's CitizensBut in contrast to those enemies of the cross, with minds set on earthly things, verses 20–21 give us three marks of heaven's citizens. 1. Heaven's citizens marvel at the power of our King.Verse 21 ends with “the power that enables him [Jesus] even to subject all things to himself.” In our homeland of heaven, a King sits on the throne, a divine-human king. We have a king. If you are in Christ, you have a king — the King of kings. He already rules over all the universe by right. All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to him by the Father. And he exercises that power as he chooses, and works primarily through his poured-out Spirit, indwelling his own people. And one day, when he returns, he will rule over all in conspicuous, indisputable manifest power.In celebrating Jesus's power, Paul uses this curious expression “subject all things to himself.” In the background are two famous psalms and a link between them.Psalm 8 celebrates the majesty of God by marveling at his grace toward us lowly humans. And Psalm 8:6, remembering the creation, says about man, “You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet.” The trouble is, as we saw last year in Hebrews 2, “we do not yet see everything in subjection to him,” that is, man. This world, its creatures, its weather, its disasters, and even our own lives do operate under our control. Not yet.“But,” says Hebrews 2:9, “we see him . . . namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death.” We ourselves have not yet fulfilled the commission of Psalm 8, but Jesus is crowned with glory and on heaven's throne. Already, in principle, he rules over all, and in function, all is being put under his feet.Which brings in the second psalm: 110. Verse 1: “The Lord says to my Lord: ‘Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.'” Psalm 110 is King David talking, and he says that the Lord God says to David's lord, the promised Messiah, “Sit at my right hand,” on the throne in heaven, “until I make your enemies your footstool.” This is a picture of what's going on in the world right now: God almighty is putting Christ's enemies under his feet. And it's not as if the Father has all the power and the Son sits back passively. But Christ himself, even now, wields “the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.”His sovereign power is unstoppable, uncurbable, unthwartable. He will, with utter certainty, accomplish his will in the ways he sees fit and in the perfect timing he sees fit. His power, his ability to accomplish what he wills, is infinite power, which he not only wields over Satan and demons, and over nations and their rulers and their elections, and over technology and algorithms, and over hurricane force winds and tsunami-size waves, but amazingly he uses this very power, his infinite power, to benefit us, and not only in soul but also in body.So, heaven's citizens marvel at the power of our King.2. Heaven's citizens anticipate the spectacular upgrade of our bodies.This is the first part of verse 21: Jesus “will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body.”The phrase “lowly body” is the “body of humiliation” we mentioned earlier. On the one hand, our bodies are “fearfully and wonderfully made” (Psalm 139:14); they were created with a glory, and they have glories still. And on the other hand, because of human sin, God subjected all creation to futility (Romans 8:20), which we see not only in natural disasters but in our own bodies. And so we “groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for . . . the redemption of our bodies” (Romans 8:23). God's glorious design and building of our human bodies has now become a “body of humiliation” for us in various ways. From aging to disability to sickness to disease, to the aches and pains that dog us or devastate us, our bodies are now not what they were — and not what they will be. Now, this is a young church. Some of you have the most able, strong, healthy bodies that you'll have in this life. Soon you will age, and your body will never again, in this life, be what it was. More acute bodily humiliation is coming. And many in this room, deal with devastating disability and disease and weakness and sickness in this fallen world. Oh you know well “the body of humiliation,” and how sweetly does this promise fall on your ears? Jesus “will transform your body of humiliation to be conformed to the body of his glory.” You will be changed. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, it will all be gone, all the pain gone, all the frustration gone, all the humiliation gone.The place where Paul lingers longest over this glorious, resurrection body that will be ours is 1 Corinthians 15, especially verses 42–49:“What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. 43 It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. 44 It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body [that is, a body fit for the fullness of human life in the Spirit]. . . 49 Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust [Adam], we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.”Your resurrection body will be spectacular. Not more aches and pains. No more colds and COVID. No more sprains, contusions, and broken bones. No more heart attacks and strokes and cancer. No more devastating physical and mental disabilities. Brothers and sisters in Christ, you will shine like the sun, not as mere spirits floating like ghosts in heaven, but in your perfected, strong, imperishable, glorified human body. And the best part of it all isn't what your body will be like, but who our imperishable bodies and souls will help us to know and enjoy and be near and praise: “the man of heaven.” Our focus in the new heavens and new earth won't be our bodies. Our perfected bodies will get the distractions of our previous humiliations out of the way. They will enhance and support our making much of our King. But the focus in glory will be the one that we as Christians eagerly await right now — the man of heaven.So, we marvel at the power of our King. And we anticipate the spectacular upgrade of our bodies.3. Heaven's citizens wait eagerly to see Jesus face to face.Back to verse 20: “our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.”Heavenly citizenship matters because Jesus is there as heaven's king. And glorified spiritual bodies matter because they enable us to enjoy Jesus with full focus and without distraction. As Christians, our hope doesn't terminate on perfect human societies or perfect human bodies. Our prevailing hope, as Paul says in Philippians 3:10 is “that I may know him and the power of his resurrection.” Seeing him face to face. Hearing him. Praising him. Knowing him. Enjoying him. When he returns, the partial knowing of verse 10 will become the full knowing of verse 11 as we ourselves “attain the resurrection from the dead.”Do you await him? That is, do you eagerly wait for him? Romans 8:19 says, “the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God.” And Romans 8:23 says, “we wait eagerly for adoption as sons.” Galatians 5:5: “we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness.” And Hebrews 9:28: “Christ . . . will appear a second time . . . to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.”Let me ask you this: What do you want more than Jesus coming back? Ask yourself, query your heart, where are your instincts, how has your heart been conditioned by the conversations you have, the articles you read, the shows you watch, the podcasts you listen to, the allegiances you pledge, the anthems you sing. Have your habits of life produced a heart and mind that really are set on earthly things?Do you say, from the heart, “Amen. Come, Lord Jesus”? What is it that makes you hesitate? What relationship(s)? What comforts and luxuries? What joys seem to you like they will be better if Jesus delays rather than returns this week?Are you eagerly awaiting his coming? And how does it, or how might it, shape our lives as we await his coming?Let's close with the “mindset of heaven's citizens.” The main contrast in this passage is that there are those whose minds are set on earthly things, and those who eagerly await Jesus's return. Enemies of the cross set their minds on earthly things, while friends of the cross, citizens of heaven, set their minds — where? Not merely on “the things of heaven” but on “the man of heaven.”Two ways to set our minds on the man of heaven. Just two among many: one daily, one weekly.Daily, we wake up and turn our early morning spiritual hunger to God's good news, not the world's news. In the words of Colossians 3, we seek the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. We open God's word and set our minds on things above, not on things that are on earth. And not just early mornings. But the man of heaven, and his things, animate us, woo us, captivate us, spur us on in life.Weekly, we gather here each Sunday to worship the man of heaven together. Which brings us back to 4:1, where we started. Isn't it amazing how Paul talks with such over-the-top affection for his fellow believers in Christ: “. . . my brothers, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm thus in the Lord, my beloved.”We are not lone citizens of heaven. Heaven is a society. Our love for Jesus, and longing for Jesus, and joy in Jesus, becomes a love of and longing for and joy in those who likewise eagerly await his return.See Him Face to FaceWe do not come alone to this Table week in and week out. And we do not come alone to know and enjoy Jesus. Together we come to him, love him, long for him, seek joy in him, and eagerly wait for him — spiritually now, by faith, in this bread and cup, and fully and finally and physically at his second coming.Brothers and sisters, we will see him face to face. As surely as you hold and eat this bread, and as surely as you take and drink this cup, you will stand before him face to face. And so at this Table, the friends of the cross eagerly await his return.

Message from Lic. Aaron Arnold on March 31, 2024

Matthew 22:34-46 New International Version (NIV) The Greatest Commandment 34 Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. 35 One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: 36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” 37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.'[a] 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.'[b] 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” Whose Son Is the Messiah? 41 While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, 42 “What do you think about the Messiah? Whose son is he?” “The son of David,” they replied. 43 He said to them, “How is it then that David, speaking by the Spirit, calls him ‘Lord'? For he says, 44 “‘The Lord said to my Lord:     “Sit at my right hand until I put your enemies     under your feet.”'[c] 45 If then David calls him ‘Lord,' how can he be his son?” 46 No one could say a word in reply, and from that day on no one dared to ask him any more questions.

Psalm 110 (English Standard Version) Sit at My Right Hand A Psalm of David. 110 The Lord says to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.” 2 The Lord sends forth from Zion your mighty scepter. Rule in the midst of your enemies! 3 Your people will offer themselves freely on the day of your power, in holy garments; from the womb of the morning, the dew of your youth will be yours. 4 The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind, “You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.” 5 The Lord is at your right hand; he will shatter kings on the day of his wrath. 6 He will execute judgment among the nations, filling them with corpses; he will shatter chiefs over the wide earth. 7 He will drink from the brook by the way; therefore he will lift up his head.

We have sanitized the Christmas story and made it clean and cute but think for a moment of what the Christmas story includes. The Christmas story is not only the announcement to Mary and Joseph of Jesus miraculous conception in Marys womb while remaining a virgin, it is not only the pronouncement to lowly shepherds keeping watch over their flocks by night, nor is it simply the visit of the magi. The Christmas story is far more than a nativity scene! Think about Jesus resurrection and all the details that surround it. In a culture that did not have much regard for women, it was a woman who first witnessed the resurrection of Jesus. If the gospel writers made up the story of Jesus resurrection, they would not have chosen women to be the first to witness the greatest event in history. In Matthews gospel account, to whom Jews were the primary audience, it is the magi who are included at the beginning of his story in connection to proving the point that the infant Jesus was indeed qualified as the rightful heir of King David. The irony in this is that if you are going to tell a story about Jesus and the motive in doing so is to prove to every Jewish reader that He is the Messiah and greater than David, why in the world would you insert magi into your story?Who were the magi you ask? The magi were royal counselors who used astrology for guidance. Do you know what the Old Testament says about astrology? The Bible forbids the practice of astrology (Deut. 4:9) and uses strong language against it (Isa. 47:13-15). So, why would Matthew include the magi in his story about the life of Jesus? Because God summoned gentile pagans to the Savior of the nations by speaking a language that they could understand. Do you not find it to be both ironic and encouraging that the story of the pagan magi and a woman with a shady past serve as book ends of the four gospels included in the Bible to show us that Jesus is not just the King of the Jews, but also the Savior of the world. Jesus is Gods Yes! to all of His promises of which the one made to Abraham is no exception: And I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing; and I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed (Gen. 12:2-3). Through Jesus, a son of Abraham and David, the nations are blessed the invitation of the magi and Mary Magdalene to witness the two most extraordinary events in human history is testament to Jesus as the hope of the nations. God Wields Time and Space for His Own Sovereign Designs We are not told how many magi saw the star and we are not given the exact longitude and latitude from where their journey began. All that we are told is that magi were from the East. Now, as I mentioned last week, there are two principals at work that made the first Christmas possible; those principles are: 1) the incarnational principle, and 2) the grace principle. The promise, birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus was never plan B but always plan A in the mind of God, because His intention was always to dwell with His people. The principle of the incarnation is seen in the Garden of Eden before Adam and Eves sin, Israels experience with God in the wilderness, and in the promise of Isaiah 7:14, Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and she will name Him Immanuel. Matthew is quick to point out that Immanuel means God with us. Connected to the incarnation principle is the principle of Gods unconditional grace in that when it came to the virgin birth, there was nothing anyone could have done to make it happen or to prevent it from happening; Christmas happened all because of Gods unconditional and unmerited grace. It was the apostle Paul who wrote: But when the fullness of the time came, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons and daughters (Gal. 4:4-5). In Matthew and Luke we are provided two separate genealogies that demonstrate this. In Luke 3:23-38 we receive what many scholars believe to be Marys genealogy since the point of Lukes gospel is to show Jesus humanity. In Matthew 1:1-17, we are given Josephs genealogy showing Jesus legal standing as a member of the tribe of Judah as the rightful heir to Davids throne, but before we look at Josephs decision to follow through with his marriage to Mary, I want you to see why the magi are so important to Matthews gospel. For now, what you need to know is that God moved history, empires, and kings so that Joseph and Mary would meet, fall in love, and get engaged with a plan to start a family together. Sandwiched in between the time Mary and Josephs genealogies represent, is the 70 years much of the tribe of Judah was carried off into exile into Babylon (see Jer. 29:10). Babylons method of exile was to ingraft their culture into the culture of the Hebrews. What was threatened by the Babylonian exile was the preservation of the tribe of Judah. One of the Hebrews exiled into Babylon was a young man by the name of Daniel. God had gifted Daniel as a prophet and used him to speak into the life of one of the kings of Babylon known as Nebuchadnezzar. Daniel spent all of his long life as an exile, but for purposes related to this sermon, I want to turn your attention to the time Nebuchadnezzar had a dream of a huge statue made of four distinct types of material with a head of gold, a chest and arms made of silver, a belly and thighs made of bronze, legs of iron, and feet made of both iron and clay. The Chaldeans were summoned by the king to interpret his dream without being told what dream Nebuchadnezzar had. The Chaldeans were also known as Babylons wise men, and because they told the king that to interpret a dream without being told about the dream was impossible, Nebuchadnezzar threatened death upon all the wise men who could not interpret his dream (Dan. 2:1-18). Because the God Daniel worshiped is the God who can do the impossible he revealed the dream and its meaning to Daniel. Before Daniel interpreted Nebuchadnezzars dream, he praised God with these words: May the name of God be blessed forever and ever, for wisdom and power belong to Him. It is He who changes the times and periods; He removes king and appoints kings; He gives wisdom to wise men, and knowledge to people of understanding (Dan. 2:20-21). Daniel told the king what he dreamed and then interpreted it for him. The kingdoms represented in the different materials of the statute included Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome. There was a fifth kingdom represented in Nebuchadnezzars dream that was separate from the statute which was in the form of a stone not cut out by human hands that struck the statues feet which resulted in the crushing of the entire statue. Here is Daniels interpretation of the stone that destroyed the earthly kingdoms: And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which will never be destroyed, and that kingdom will not be left for another people; it will crush and put an end to all these kingdoms, but it will itself endure forever (Dan. 2:44). Guess what the king did next after Daniel finished interpreting his dream? He promoted Daniel as ruler over the entire province of Babylon and chief over, all the wise men of Babylon (vv. 46-49). I dont think the magi worshiped the same God of Daniel, but I do think they could trace their roots all the way back to Babylon, and I am convinced that their interest in finding the King of the Jews was related to the stone that was in Nebuchadnezzars dream. I think they included in their studies of the stars any sacred document related to Daniels people in an effort to find and discover the King of the Kingdom that Daniels God would set up that will have no end. If the magi were familiar with Micah 5:2 and its connection they made with Numbers 24:17, which states: A star shall appear from Jacob, a scepter shall rise from Israel (see Matt. 2:1-6), dont you think they were also familiar with Isaiah 9:6-7? I think that the magi connected the dots in the Old Testament and believed that Micah 5:2; Numbers 24:17, Isaiah 7:14 and 9:6-7 were about the One a powerful pagan Babylonian king dreamed about 500 years before Jesus was born: For a Child will be born to us, a Son will be given to us; and the government will rest on His shoulders; and His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace on the throne of David and over his kingdom, To establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness from then on and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of armies will accomplish this. The way that God spoke to the magi was through a language they could understand as they looked to the stars the God of Daniel created. We are not told how God did it, but He was able to lead the magi with a star because He is the One, who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think (Eph. 3:20)! God Shatters the Assumptions of Man Through His Redemptive Plans Now back to Joseph and Marys genealogies and personal lives. Following Gods promise to Abraham that He would bless him by making him a great nation and a blessing to the nations were 430 years of Egyptian slavery, 40 years in the wilderness, and 70 years in exile. There were some good years in-between those hard years of slavery, wilderness wandering, and exilic discipline, but during those seasons, I am pretty sure that it was difficult for the Hebrew people to see any silver lining or hope that God would, or could, turn the ugly around into something beautiful, but what Joseph and Marys genealogy shows us is that is exactly what God was doing with the 430 years of Egyptian slavery, 40 years in the wilderness, and 70 years in exile! Gods plan for Israel and the nations always included a king, but not any old king. The king God intended was a King both human and divine. The plan was never for Israel only to have a human king just like David, nor was His plan of Israel to be only divine. Jesus was always plan A and never plan B. Let me briefly show what I mean by reminding you what we have looked at in the Bible during this series so far. In Exodus 19:6, God said of Israel after their deliverance from Egypt and as a people large enough to be their own nation: and you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. What would set Israel apart from all the other nations, is that Yahweh would be their King. In Isaiah 44:6 we are told what kind of King to Israel Yahweh is: This is what the Lord says, He who is the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the Lord of armies: I am the first and I am the last, and there is no God besides Me. In other words, Yahweh is King, Redeemer, the Almighty One, eternal, and unlike any other god of the nations in that He is utterly unique! Just as we see in the first two chapters in Genesis before Adam and Eves fall, Yahweh would be King over His people. Yet, in Genesis 49:10, God spoke through Jacob to Judah long before Israel was ever a nation and promised: The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the rulers staff from between his feet, until Shiloh comes, and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples. Then when we come to 2 Samuel 7:13, we discover God planned for Israel that not only would the obedience of the nations belong to a human king from the tribe of Judah, but a King who, shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. Furthermore, we are told in Psalm 2 that this King will rule the nations with a rod of iron but will also be One in Whom all who find refuge in Him will be blessed (vv. 8-12). In Psalm 110, David says of his descendant who will be King over the nations: Yahweh says to my Lord: Sit at My right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet (v. 1). So, what kind of human King can be a physical descendant of David, have the obedience of the nations, and not be subject to the limitations of death because His reign will be eternal? The kind of King the magi sought, Mary would carry while a virgin, and Joseph would become the legal but nonbiological father of. Both Mary and Josephs bloodline could be traced back to David, Abraham, and Adam. The problem with sin is that it is passed down from the father to his child, for we are told in the Bible: Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all mankind, because all sinned. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of the violation committed by Adam (Rom. 5:12, 14). Sin is a genetically transmitted curse passed down from a mans sperm cell to a womans embryonic egg. For Jesus to be the rightful and legal heir of Davids throne, he needed to be a legal son of a man who was from the tribe of JudahJoseph qualified to be that man. For Jesus to be conceived without the curse and plague of sin being passed down to him while remaining a descendant of David, Abraham, and Adam, He had to be conceived and born of woman without biological requirement of a human sperm cell from Joseph. This is why the angel explained to Mary how she could be pregnant: The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; for that reason also the holy Child will be called the Son of God (Luke 1:35). Conclusion The stakes for Joseph and Mary were very high. If Joseph followed through with ending his relationship with Mary because of a refusal to believe that her pregnancy was a miraculous act of Almighty God through His Holy Spirit, then Jesus would not have been qualified legally to be King of the Jews. Regarding Marys pregnancy, there was no turning back; she could not walk away from her pregnancy like Joseph could have. However, both Mary and Joseph chose to trust the God who sovereignly wields time and space for his redemptive plans even though it blew to ashes any assumptions they had for what was impossible or possible. Together, Mary and Joseph would raise the One the magi sought to find, the one read and studied about from the prophet Micah: But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you One will come forth for Me to be ruler in Israel. His times of coming forth are from long ago, from the days of eternity. When the magi found Jesus, they appropriately worshiped Him and brought to Him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh fit for the kind of King Nebuchadnezzar dreamed about 500 years earlier. The treasure for the magi, Joseph, and Mary was Jesus, and having Him in their lives was truly a source of great joy. There are two important lessons from Matthew 1:18-2:12 that I want to briefly mention and think more deeply upon next week: In the same way that God wielded time and space to make the virgin birth a reality and the visit of the magi a possibility, God has done, is doing, and will do to accomplish his redemptive purposes in and through your life. Your circumstances and sins are swallowed up by an infinitely greater God who bears the title: Redeemer. If God is able to move time and space to accomplish His redemptive purposes for mankind even in the 430 years of Egyptian slavery, 40 years in the wilderness, and 70 years in exile, dont you think he can do the same in the midst of the circumstances of your life caused by your own sin? Do you really think that your problems are greater than Gods ability to turn your life around? In order to experience the great joy that Jesus brought to Mary, Joseph, and the magi they had to let go of their assumptions, dreams, future, and safety for the purpose of embracing Jesus as the One promised in Isaiah 9:6-7, For a Child will be born to us, a Son will be given to us; and the government will rest on His shoulders; and His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness from then on and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of armies will accomplish this. In order for you to embrace Jesus as Savior, it will require you to trust Him as Lord over and in your life. To find Jesus the Savior will require that you let go of your idols to experience Him as Redeemer. To say yes to Jesus will mean that you will have to say no to the idols of your heart. Christmas is about Jesus as the type of King we need!

We have sanitized the Christmas story and made it clean and cute but think for a moment of what the Christmas story includes. The Christmas story is not only the announcement to Mary and Joseph of Jesus miraculous conception in Marys womb while remaining a virgin, it is not only the pronouncement to lowly shepherds keeping watch over their flocks by night, nor is it simply the visit of the magi. The Christmas story is far more than a nativity scene! Think about Jesus resurrection and all the details that surround it. In a culture that did not have much regard for women, it was a woman who first witnessed the resurrection of Jesus. If the gospel writers made up the story of Jesus resurrection, they would not have chosen women to be the first to witness the greatest event in history. In Matthews gospel account, to whom Jews were the primary audience, it is the magi who are included at the beginning of his story in connection to proving the point that the infant Jesus was indeed qualified as the rightful heir of King David. The irony in this is that if you are going to tell a story about Jesus and the motive in doing so is to prove to every Jewish reader that He is the Messiah and greater than David, why in the world would you insert magi into your story?Who were the magi you ask? The magi were royal counselors who used astrology for guidance. Do you know what the Old Testament says about astrology? The Bible forbids the practice of astrology (Deut. 4:9) and uses strong language against it (Isa. 47:13-15). So, why would Matthew include the magi in his story about the life of Jesus? Because God summoned gentile pagans to the Savior of the nations by speaking a language that they could understand. Do you not find it to be both ironic and encouraging that the story of the pagan magi and a woman with a shady past serve as book ends of the four gospels included in the Bible to show us that Jesus is not just the King of the Jews, but also the Savior of the world. Jesus is Gods Yes! to all of His promises of which the one made to Abraham is no exception: And I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing; and I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed (Gen. 12:2-3). Through Jesus, a son of Abraham and David, the nations are blessed the invitation of the magi and Mary Magdalene to witness the two most extraordinary events in human history is testament to Jesus as the hope of the nations. God Wields Time and Space for His Own Sovereign Designs We are not told how many magi saw the star and we are not given the exact longitude and latitude from where their journey began. All that we are told is that magi were from the East. Now, as I mentioned last week, there are two principals at work that made the first Christmas possible; those principles are: 1) the incarnational principle, and 2) the grace principle. The promise, birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus was never plan B but always plan A in the mind of God, because His intention was always to dwell with His people. The principle of the incarnation is seen in the Garden of Eden before Adam and Eves sin, Israels experience with God in the wilderness, and in the promise of Isaiah 7:14, Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and she will name Him Immanuel. Matthew is quick to point out that Immanuel means God with us. Connected to the incarnation principle is the principle of Gods unconditional grace in that when it came to the virgin birth, there was nothing anyone could have done to make it happen or to prevent it from happening; Christmas happened all because of Gods unconditional and unmerited grace. It was the apostle Paul who wrote: But when the fullness of the time came, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons and daughters (Gal. 4:4-5). In Matthew and Luke we are provided two separate genealogies that demonstrate this. In Luke 3:23-38 we receive what many scholars believe to be Marys genealogy since the point of Lukes gospel is to show Jesus humanity. In Matthew 1:1-17, we are given Josephs genealogy showing Jesus legal standing as a member of the tribe of Judah as the rightful heir to Davids throne, but before we look at Josephs decision to follow through with his marriage to Mary, I want you to see why the magi are so important to Matthews gospel. For now, what you need to know is that God moved history, empires, and kings so that Joseph and Mary would meet, fall in love, and get engaged with a plan to start a family together. Sandwiched in between the time Mary and Josephs genealogies represent, is the 70 years much of the tribe of Judah was carried off into exile into Babylon (see Jer. 29:10). Babylons method of exile was to ingraft their culture into the culture of the Hebrews. What was threatened by the Babylonian exile was the preservation of the tribe of Judah. One of the Hebrews exiled into Babylon was a young man by the name of Daniel. God had gifted Daniel as a prophet and used him to speak into the life of one of the kings of Babylon known as Nebuchadnezzar. Daniel spent all of his long life as an exile, but for purposes related to this sermon, I want to turn your attention to the time Nebuchadnezzar had a dream of a huge statue made of four distinct types of material with a head of gold, a chest and arms made of silver, a belly and thighs made of bronze, legs of iron, and feet made of both iron and clay. The Chaldeans were summoned by the king to interpret his dream without being told what dream Nebuchadnezzar had. The Chaldeans were also known as Babylons wise men, and because they told the king that to interpret a dream without being told about the dream was impossible, Nebuchadnezzar threatened death upon all the wise men who could not interpret his dream (Dan. 2:1-18). Because the God Daniel worshiped is the God who can do the impossible he revealed the dream and its meaning to Daniel. Before Daniel interpreted Nebuchadnezzars dream, he praised God with these words: May the name of God be blessed forever and ever, for wisdom and power belong to Him. It is He who changes the times and periods; He removes king and appoints kings; He gives wisdom to wise men, and knowledge to people of understanding (Dan. 2:20-21). Daniel told the king what he dreamed and then interpreted it for him. The kingdoms represented in the different materials of the statute included Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome. There was a fifth kingdom represented in Nebuchadnezzars dream that was separate from the statute which was in the form of a stone not cut out by human hands that struck the statues feet which resulted in the crushing of the entire statue. Here is Daniels interpretation of the stone that destroyed the earthly kingdoms: And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which will never be destroyed, and that kingdom will not be left for another people; it will crush and put an end to all these kingdoms, but it will itself endure forever (Dan. 2:44). Guess what the king did next after Daniel finished interpreting his dream? He promoted Daniel as ruler over the entire province of Babylon and chief over, all the wise men of Babylon (vv. 46-49). I dont think the magi worshiped the same God of Daniel, but I do think they could trace their roots all the way back to Babylon, and I am convinced that their interest in finding the King of the Jews was related to the stone that was in Nebuchadnezzars dream. I think they included in their studies of the stars any sacred document related to Daniels people in an effort to find and discover the King of the Kingdom that Daniels God would set up that will have no end. If the magi were familiar with Micah 5:2 and its connection they made with Numbers 24:17, which states: A star shall appear from Jacob, a scepter shall rise from Israel (see Matt. 2:1-6), dont you think they were also familiar with Isaiah 9:6-7? I think that the magi connected the dots in the Old Testament and believed that Micah 5:2; Numbers 24:17, Isaiah 7:14 and 9:6-7 were about the One a powerful pagan Babylonian king dreamed about 500 years before Jesus was born: For a Child will be born to us, a Son will be given to us; and the government will rest on His shoulders; and His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace on the throne of David and over his kingdom, To establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness from then on and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of armies will accomplish this. The way that God spoke to the magi was through a language they could understand as they looked to the stars the God of Daniel created. We are not told how God did it, but He was able to lead the magi with a star because He is the One, who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think (Eph. 3:20)! God Shatters the Assumptions of Man Through His Redemptive Plans Now back to Joseph and Marys genealogies and personal lives. Following Gods promise to Abraham that He would bless him by making him a great nation and a blessing to the nations were 430 years of Egyptian slavery, 40 years in the wilderness, and 70 years in exile. There were some good years in-between those hard years of slavery, wilderness wandering, and exilic discipline, but during those seasons, I am pretty sure that it was difficult for the Hebrew people to see any silver lining or hope that God would, or could, turn the ugly around into something beautiful, but what Joseph and Marys genealogy shows us is that is exactly what God was doing with the 430 years of Egyptian slavery, 40 years in the wilderness, and 70 years in exile! Gods plan for Israel and the nations always included a king, but not any old king. The king God intended was a King both human and divine. The plan was never for Israel only to have a human king just like David, nor was His plan of Israel to be only divine. Jesus was always plan A and never plan B. Let me briefly show what I mean by reminding you what we have looked at in the Bible during this series so far. In Exodus 19:6, God said of Israel after their deliverance from Egypt and as a people large enough to be their own nation: and you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. What would set Israel apart from all the other nations, is that Yahweh would be their King. In Isaiah 44:6 we are told what kind of King to Israel Yahweh is: This is what the Lord says, He who is the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the Lord of armies: I am the first and I am the last, and there is no God besides Me. In other words, Yahweh is King, Redeemer, the Almighty One, eternal, and unlike any other god of the nations in that He is utterly unique! Just as we see in the first two chapters in Genesis before Adam and Eves fall, Yahweh would be King over His people. Yet, in Genesis 49:10, God spoke through Jacob to Judah long before Israel was ever a nation and promised: The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the rulers staff from between his feet, until Shiloh comes, and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples. Then when we come to 2 Samuel 7:13, we discover God planned for Israel that not only would the obedience of the nations belong to a human king from the tribe of Judah, but a King who, shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. Furthermore, we are told in Psalm 2 that this King will rule the nations with a rod of iron but will also be One in Whom all who find refuge in Him will be blessed (vv. 8-12). In Psalm 110, David says of his descendant who will be King over the nations: Yahweh says to my Lord: Sit at My right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet (v. 1). So, what kind of human King can be a physical descendant of David, have the obedience of the nations, and not be subject to the limitations of death because His reign will be eternal? The kind of King the magi sought, Mary would carry while a virgin, and Joseph would become the legal but nonbiological father of. Both Mary and Josephs bloodline could be traced back to David, Abraham, and Adam. The problem with sin is that it is passed down from the father to his child, for we are told in the Bible: Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all mankind, because all sinned. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of the violation committed by Adam (Rom. 5:12, 14). Sin is a genetically transmitted curse passed down from a mans sperm cell to a womans embryonic egg. For Jesus to be the rightful and legal heir of Davids throne, he needed to be a legal son of a man who was from the tribe of JudahJoseph qualified to be that man. For Jesus to be conceived without the curse and plague of sin being passed down to him while remaining a descendant of David, Abraham, and Adam, He had to be conceived and born of woman without biological requirement of a human sperm cell from Joseph. This is why the angel explained to Mary how she could be pregnant: The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; for that reason also the holy Child will be called the Son of God (Luke 1:35). Conclusion The stakes for Joseph and Mary were very high. If Joseph followed through with ending his relationship with Mary because of a refusal to believe that her pregnancy was a miraculous act of Almighty God through His Holy Spirit, then Jesus would not have been qualified legally to be King of the Jews. Regarding Marys pregnancy, there was no turning back; she could not walk away from her pregnancy like Joseph could have. However, both Mary and Joseph chose to trust the God who sovereignly wields time and space for his redemptive plans even though it blew to ashes any assumptions they had for what was impossible or possible. Together, Mary and Joseph would raise the One the magi sought to find, the one read and studied about from the prophet Micah: But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you One will come forth for Me to be ruler in Israel. His times of coming forth are from long ago, from the days of eternity. When the magi found Jesus, they appropriately worshiped Him and brought to Him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh fit for the kind of King Nebuchadnezzar dreamed about 500 years earlier. The treasure for the magi, Joseph, and Mary was Jesus, and having Him in their lives was truly a source of great joy. There are two important lessons from Matthew 1:18-2:12 that I want to briefly mention and think more deeply upon next week: In the same way that God wielded time and space to make the virgin birth a reality and the visit of the magi a possibility, God has done, is doing, and will do to accomplish his redemptive purposes in and through your life. Your circumstances and sins are swallowed up by an infinitely greater God who bears the title: Redeemer. If God is able to move time and space to accomplish His redemptive purposes for mankind even in the 430 years of Egyptian slavery, 40 years in the wilderness, and 70 years in exile, dont you think he can do the same in the midst of the circumstances of your life caused by your own sin? Do you really think that your problems are greater than Gods ability to turn your life around? In order to experience the great joy that Jesus brought to Mary, Joseph, and the magi they had to let go of their assumptions, dreams, future, and safety for the purpose of embracing Jesus as the One promised in Isaiah 9:6-7, For a Child will be born to us, a Son will be given to us; and the government will rest on His shoulders; and His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness from then on and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of armies will accomplish this. In order for you to embrace Jesus as Savior, it will require you to trust Him as Lord over and in your life. To find Jesus the Savior will require that you let go of your idols to experience Him as Redeemer. To say yes to Jesus will mean that you will have to say no to the idols of your heart. Christmas is about Jesus as the type of King we need!

DAVID SAW into the throne room of God—a vision used by Jesus himself to reveal his divinity. Psalm 110:1 reads: [Yahweh] says to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.” Jesus used this verse to teach that “my Lord” (Hebrew adoni) was not David, since David was the author of the Psalm (see Matt. 22:44, Mark 12:36, Luke 20:42, and Acts 2:34). The conclusion is that the Lord to whom David referred was the Second Power in heaven—Jesus, the Messiah. (The verse is also quoted in 1 Cor. 15:25 and Hebrews 1:13.) We also discuss “the order of Melchizedek,” which the author of Hebrews used to demonstrate the primacy of the priesthood of Jesus, our high priest before the throne of God, to the earthly Aaronic priesthood, and that Jesus was distinct and superior to the angels. See Hebrews 4:14–5:10 and 6:13–8:13. Our Build Barn Better project is nearly complete! Our 1,200 square pole barn now has HVAC, along with a new floor, windows, ceiling fans, upgraded electric service, and insulation. Wall paneling is going up and we're beginning to produce programs out there. Thank you for your support! If you are so led, you can help out at GilbertHouse.org/donate. Get our free app! It connects you to these studies plus our weekly video programs Unraveling Revelation and A View from the Bunker, and the podcast that started this journey in 2005, P.I.D. Radio. Best of all, it bypasses the gatekeepers of Big Tech! The app is available for iOS, Android, Roku, and Apple TV. Links to the app stores are at www.gilberthouse.org/app/. Video on demand of our best teachings! Stream presentations and teachings based on our research at our new video on demand site! Check out our online store! www.GilbertHouse.org/store is a virtual book table with books and DVDs related to our weekly Bible study. Take advantage of our monthly specials!——————Join us in Israel! Our 2024 tour of Israel features special guest Timothy Alberino! We will tour the Holy Land March 31–April 9, 2024, with an optional three-day extension in Jordan. For more information, log on to www.GilbertsInIsrael.com.——————Subscribe to our new YouTube channels! Unraveling Revelation: www.YouTube.com/UnravelingRevelation These weekly studies and Derek's podcast: www.YouTube.com/GilbertHouse ——————Our favorite Bible study tools! Check the links in the right-hand column at www.GilbertHouse.org. For the complete Gilbert House Fellowship archive, go to www.spreaker.com/show/gilbert-house-fellowship.

DAVID SAW into the throne room of God—a vision used by Jesus himself to reveal his divinity. Psalm 110:1 reads: [Yahweh] says to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.” Jesus used this verse to teach that “my Lord” (Hebrew adoni) was not David, since David was the author of the Psalm (see Matt. 22:44, Mark 12:36, Luke 20:42, and Acts 2:34). The conclusion is that the Lord to whom David referred was the Second Power in heaven—Jesus, the Messiah. (The verse is also quoted in 1 Cor. 15:25 and Hebrews 1:13.) We also discuss “the order of Melchizedek,” which the author of Hebrews used to demonstrate the primacy of the priesthood of Jesus, our high priest before the throne of God, to the earthly Aaronic priesthood, and that Jesus was distinct and superior to the angels. See Hebrews 4:14–5:10 and 6:13–8:13.

église AB Lausanne ; KJV Psalms 110 The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool. The LORD shall send the rod of thy strength out of Zion: rule thou in the midst of thine enemies. Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power, in the beauties of holiness from the womb of the morning: thou hast the dew of thy youth. The LORD hath sworn, and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek. The Lord at thy right hand shall strike through kings in the day of his wrath. He shall judge among the heathen, he shall fill the places with the dead bodies; he shall wound the heads over many countries. He shall drink of the brook in the way: therefore shall he lift up the head. ...

Acts 2:14-41 Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd: “Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say. 15 These people are not drunk, as you suppose. It's only nine in the morning!  16 No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: 17 “‘In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams.  18 Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy. 19 I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and billows of smoke. 20 The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord. 21 And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.' 22 “Fellow Israelites, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know. 23 This man was handed over to you by God's deliberate plan and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross.  24 But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him.  25 David said about him: “‘I saw the Lord always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken. 26 Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will rest in hope, 27 because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead, you will not let your holy one see decay. 28 You have made known to me the paths of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence.' 29 “Fellow Israelites, I can tell you confidently that the patriarch David died and was buried, and his tomb is here to this day.  30 But he was a prophet and knew that God had promised him on oath that he would place one of his descendants on his throne.  31 Seeing what was to come, he spoke of the resurrection of the Messiah, that he was not abandoned to the realm of the dead, nor did his body see decay.  32 God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of it.  33 Exalted to the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear.  34 For David did not ascend to heaven, and yet he said, “‘The Lord said to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand 35 until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.”' 36 “Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah.” 37 When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” 38 Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.  39 The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call.” 40 With many other words he warned them; and he pleaded with them, “Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.”  41 Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day. You Were Made For This    You do not have to be defined by denial.   You can be healed from the hurt.     Your deficiency can become your opportunity.

The Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity: What do you think about the Messiah? St. Matthew 22:34-46 by William Klock I used to have a boss who prided himself on finding creative employees who were good at thinking outside the box.  When he interviewed them he'd always ask weird questions like, “How do you put an elephant in a refrigerator?”  (The correct answer is, apparently, “You open the door and put him in,” because no one said how big the refrigerator was.  Or he'd hand the prospective employee a big balloon and a small box and ask them to fit the balloon into the box.  The solution to that one was to let enough air out of the balloon that it would fit in the box.  Extra points if, instead of untying it, which a lot of people with big fingers couldn't manage, you pulled a pin from the bulletin board a few feet away and poked the thick spot just under the knot, where the balloon wouldn't pop.  That might be a good solution in a job interview, but it's also just the kind of the solution a lot of people take when they're confronted with Jesus' question, “Who do you say that I am?”  The full answer doesn't fit in our box, so we let some air out of the balloon.  We leave out Jesus' divinity.  Or we leave out his call to repentance and his demand for holiness.  Or we cut out all the things he said about judgement so that we're just left with the warm-fuzzies.  However we do it, if our solution is to let some of the air out of the balloon, what we're left with isn't the real Jesus—and we inevitably end up with a false gospel to go along with it. In our gospel today Jesus asks this same question of a group of Pharisees.  The Sadducees had just confronted Jesus with what they thought was a “gotcha” question and Jesus turned it back on them, leaving them nothing to say.  And now the Pharisees have their turn.  Look again at Matthew 22:34.  Matthew writes: But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together.   This will be his last dispute with the Pharisees.  The next chapter, Chapter 23, is a long denunciation of the scribes and Pharisees.  It's the beginning of the end.  They've been shut down by Jesus at every turn and will go off to plot to have him killed.  But first, Matthew tells us: One of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him.  “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?”   The Sadducees took issue with Jesus over his teaching about the resurrection of the dead.  The Pharisees took issue with Jesus over his approach to the law.  They'd counted up all of the Lord's commandments to Israel and the total came to 613.  There was some debate about which commandment was the most important, but for the most part, the Pharisees had this one figured out.  Israel's “creed”—her daily prayer, and still her daily prayer as part of her liturgies for morning and evening prayer—was the Shema, Deuteronomy 6:4: “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.”  And it goes on, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.”  These Pharisees, however, seem to have expected Jesus to say something else.  I'm not sure what they expected.  They just expected that whatever he said about the law would be wrong.  But look at what he says in verses 37-40: And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.  This is the great and first commandment.  And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.  On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”   And there's nothing here the Pharisees can argue about, and that leaves them frustrated and fuming. Here's why.  Think of it this way.  As Christians, as Jesus' people, we know that when he rose from the dead, Jesus inaugurated a new age and God's new creation.  It isn't consummated or fully here yet, but one day it will be.  In the meantime, we're the royal heralds of the Messiah, the King, called to live out the life and values of the kingdom here and now in the midst of the world's brokenness and to proclaim that he will come again one day to finish what he has started—to call people to repentance and faith in preparation for the Messiah and God's new world.  Consider that the Pharisees thought of themselves in a very similar way.  The Messiah would come to set things to rights and they were the ones heralding his return and calling the people to repentance—to a better and more rigorous observance of the torah—in anticipation of the Messiah's coming.  They were, in so many ways, on the right track.  But their vision of the kingdom and the Messiah was just too small, too narrow.  It only included Israel and it misunderstood the purpose of the torah.  It was like they'd let half the air out of their Messiah balloon. So Jesus and the Pharisees agree on this question.  They agree—at least on the surface—about the law: Love God.  Love your neighbour.  But how they do that is different from how Jesus does that and they know it.  That's why they're so frustrated with him.  The know that they and Jesus can't both be right.  Jesus' answer, in effect, is saying to them: You're not loving God as you should.  And you're not loving your neighbours as you should either.  Jesus' is subtly—or maybe not so subtly—once again asserting his Messiahship, while call the Pharisees to repentance—to get in line with the new thing that Israel's God is doing in their midst.  So they can't argue with Jesus' answer, but they're still convinced he's wrong.  They're left frustrated and fuming. So in this first part of our Gospel, Jesus gives them the answer they dare not question, but then he in turn asks them a question that they dare not answer—at least that's how Bp. Wright rather brilliantly puts it.  With his answer about the law it seems like Jesus has shut up the Pharisees as soundly as he had shut up the Sadducees, but Jesus knew there was one more point that needed to be made.  What they understood of the person and ministry of the Messiah was just as important to the Pharisees as how they understood the law.  And so Jesus goes on to tie the two together.  Look at verses 41 and 42: Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them a question, saying, “What do you think about the Messiah? Whose son is he?”   If the answer to their question about the law points to the ministry of the Messiah, then it makes sense next to ask just who they think this Messiah is or will be.  So Jesus points them in the right direction with that odd question about whose son they think the Messiah is.  He knew very well what their answer would be if he put the question to them that way.  Everyone knew that the Messiah was—or would be—the son of David.  In fact, that was one of the Messianic titles.  And the Pharisees answer just as we'd expect. They said to him, “The son of David.”   And it's the right answer.  Jesus has a way of showing everyone that they're on familiar ground, and then using that to show how they're looking at things through the wrong lens.  “Son of David” is the right answer, but now Jesus has to show them that this doesn't mean what they think it means—or, at least, that how they understand it isn't the whole picture. So Jesus replies in verses 43-45: “How is it then that David, in the Spirit, calls him Lord, saying,          “‘The Lord said to my Lord,          “Sit at my right hand,                   until I put your enemies under your feet”'? If then David calls him Lord, how is he his son?”   That “The Lord said to my Lord” bit can be confusing.  It helps if we know that Jesus is quoting from Psalm 110.  It's the most oft-quoted Psalm in the New Testament.  And if we go back to it you'll see that in our English Bibles the first “Lord” is in small capitals.  That means that this is the “Lord” that refers to God.  It's the title the Jews used instead of saying the divine name that was given to Moses: Yahweh, “I am”.  This important distinction between Lord and Lord is lost in the Greek version, which is what Matthew quotes from.  But if we understand this, then the passage starts to make more sense.  Instead of “The Lord said to my Lord,” we can read it, “Yahweh said to my Lord”.  It's not just any two “lords” here; it's Yahweh, the God of Israel addressing someone.  But who is that someone?  Who is “my Lord” referring to? At this point, let's just look at the whole psalm.  Again, this is Psalm 110.  Go ahead and turn there.  It's titled “A Psalm of (or to or for) David”. Yahweh says to my Lord:          “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.” Yahweh sends forth from Zion          your mighty scepter.          Rule in the midst of your enemies! Your people will offer themselves freely          on the day of your power,          in holy garments; from the womb of the morning,          the dew of your youth will be yours. Yahweh has sworn          and will not change his mind, “You are a priest forever          after the order of Melchizedek.” Yahweh is at your right hand;          he will shatter kings on the day of his wrath. He will execute judgment among the nations,          filling them with corpses; he will shatter chiefs          over the wide earth. He will drink from the brook by the way;          therefore he will lift up his head.   So, first, “my Lord” is David.  The psalm is addressed to David, maybe written by a court musician or possibly a prophet like Nathan.  David is his Lord, his King, and he sings of what the Lord, Yahweh, the God of Israel, has promised to King David.  There's no reason to think that this was intended to be a messianic psalm when it was written.  It speaks of God's promises to David.  Yahweh, the Lord, seats him in a place of honour and gives him his sceptre—think of Samuel going out to anoint the lowly shepherd son of Jesse.  The Lord will give him victory over his enemies.  David was not of the priestly tribe of Levi, but the Lord, in making him King in Jerusalem (Zion), gives him the priesthood of Melchizedek, the priest-king of Jerusalem in the days of Abraham—and that kingly authority will be forever.  But then things are reversed.  As Yahweh has seated David at his right hand, now Yahweh places himself at David's right hand to give him victory, to make him the instrument of his judgement and wrath on the nations. It's not hard to see how, many years later, this psalm came to embody the messianic hopes of Israel.  In a time when no son of David was on the throne and Israel was governed by fake Jews like Herod and foreign pagans like the Romans, the people looked to the promises of this psalm for hope.  The people longed for the son of David to return.  David's throne—his kingly line—as the psalm implies, was to stand forever and the people knew that the Lord is faithful to his promises.  The people longed for the day when their God would judge the nations and so they sang this psalm in hopeful longing, sure of God's faithfulness and looking for the day when the son of David would come with might to take up his throne.  The Pharisees sang this psalm, too, and longed for the Messiah.  This was their hope.  When they spoke of the Messiah as the son of David, they were looking forward to the great king who would come to bring God's judgement and to defeat the nations. But this gets back to Jesus' answer to their question in the first part of the passage—the answer that pointed to the ministry of the Messiah that would finally set right the hearts of the people, that would finally enable them to truly love God and neighbour.  If the son of David is just a king who comes to crush the nations, what does that do to solve the heart problem of God's people?  How does it solve the problem of sin and Israel's inability to keep the law?  This should have been on the Pharisees' radar.  They, of all people, knew how Israel struggled to be faithful.  They of all people knew how desperately Israel needed a change of heart. So Jesus plays off the way in which this psalm had come to embody messianic hopes and that it was commonly attributed to David.  They understood the psalm to be about the son of David—the Messiah—and Jesus says, “Well, okay, that's all well and good, but there's more, because if in composing the psalm David refers to the central figure—the one you identify as his son—but calls him “my Lord”, how can that be?  How can the Messiah be David's son and David's lord (his master) at the same time?” Jesus is, in fact, the son of David, but here he draws in another identification that we see throughout Matthew's gospel.  Again, think back to Matthew 16 and Jesus' question to Peter, “Who do you say that I am?”  And Peter responded, “You are the Messiah, the son of the living God”.  That was another option the Pharisees could have given in answer to Jesus' question.  There was more than one facet to the Messiah, but hardly anyone was putting them all together. The son of David is the great king, the one who will come in judgement to set all to rights by crushing the enemies of the people.  But there's also the son of the living God.  In Matthew's gospel the son of the living God is the representative of Israel.  This title, too, is drawn from the Old Testament Prophets.  This son will fulfil the Lord's purposes for Israel where Israel has consistently failed.  This is the son who was called out of Egypt—remember how Joseph and Mary fled Herod?  This is the beloved son, the anointed servant of God—remember Jesus' baptism and the descent of the Spirit on him?  This is the Israel who is obedient in the wilderness, who is consistently faithful to the Lord and to his commands—remember Jesus tempted by the devil?  This is the son of God who acts to make peace—remember the sermon on the mount and Jesus' statement, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be sons of God”?  This is the son of God who is tempted to abandon his servanthood, first in the wilderness, then at the cross, but is faithful both times. Eventually, a few chapters later, Matthew brings the son of the living God and the son of David together as Jesus stands before the high priest, Caiaphas.  “I adjure you by the living God, tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God,” the high priest demands.  And Jesus responds, “You have said so. But I tell you, from now on you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of power and coming on the clouds of heaven.”  Jesus brings together both of these “sons” in his answer.  He brings together the son of the living God story about the one who will stand as Israel's representative, as the servant who will suffer for the sake of his people, and the story we see in Psalm 110 of the son of David, the great king who will rule over the nations with the authority of the God of Israel.  When we put these stories together we see Jesus as the Lord's anointed servant, the son who humbles himself to represent the people, and who, because he has suffered and died, will be raised to God's right hand where he will reign as both king and judge.  Jesus will be the King, because he was first the servant, and as King he will judge his people by that servant standard.  That's what upset the high priest—Jesus' claim that he would sit as judge over the leaders of Israel with the authority of the God of Israel.  The Pharisees—and so many other people in Israel—they wanted the King, but the servant wasn't on their radar—and without grasping that Israel was called and created to be a servant people, they could never really understand—not really—what it meant to love God and to love neighbour. But our Gospel lesson today, this final dispute with the Pharisees, is part of the story that gets us from Peter's confession that Jesus is the son of the living God to Jesus' claim before the high priest.  Who is Jesus?  Jesus himself draws on the narrative of the people of God.  He is the son of God who will represent the people in his suffering and death and he is the son of David, not just by birth, but because it will be on account of his suffering and death that he will be raised to rule at the right hand of God. And, of course, this also redirects the people to the real source of their problems.  When they limited the identity of the Messiah to the son of David, they saw the gentiles, the nations, people like the Romans as their enemies—people the king could put to death with his sword and his army.  But when we bring in the son of God, the suffering servant, who dies and rises again, we see that what he's really come to defeat are enemies common to Jew and gentile alike: sin and death.  The Romans, the Babylonians, the Assyrians, the Edomites, the Egyptians—the nations—were never really the real problem and destroying them was never really the solution.  Sin and death are the enemies—and they're the common enemy of all humanity.  And so it's then through this dual identity—both son of God and son of David—that Jesus opens the way for the salvation not only of Israel, but of the nations. Matthew ends the passage in verse 46: And no one was able to answer him a word, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions.   Jesus shut down the Pharisees once and for all.  The next we see of them, they're plotting to have him killed.  And, of course, if they'd really understood what Jesus was getting at here, maybe they'd have thought twice.  Instead they help Jesus to fulfil his role as suffering servant.  They didn't really understand.  Neither did the disciples.  Not at that point, anyway.  But that would change once Jesus has been raised from death and had ascended to the right hand of his Father.  Ten days later the Spirit descended on his disciples, just as he'd promised—not just as Jesus had promised, but just as the Lord had promised through the Prophets centuries before—and then they understood.  David died and was buried, but Jesus rose from death and is seated at the right hand of God.  Let me close with what Peter preached that day: “Brothers, I may say to you with confidence about the patriarch David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day.  Being therefore a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants on his throne, he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the [Messiah], that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption.  This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses.  Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing.  For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he himself says,          “‘The Lord said to my Lord,          “Sit at my right hand,          until I make your enemies your footstool.”'   Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and [Messiah], this Jesus whom you crucified.”  (Acts 2:29-36) Let's pray: Almighty God, gracious Father, we give you thank for your promises and for your faithfulness to them.  We think today especially of your promises to David and the Prophets that gave them a hope for your Messiah.  He is both David's son and your own son, the true Israel, and in him we have forgiveness of sins and the life of your kingdom.  We pray that as we live the life he gives, we would also live in hope, knowing your faithfulness and trusting in your promises, and joyfully expecting—and participating in—the work of your Church, empowered by Jesus and the Spirit as we look forward to your renewal of all things.  Amen.

A Psalm of David. 110 The Lord says to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.” 2 The Lord sends forth from Zion your mighty scepter. Rule in the midst of your enemies! 3 Your people will offer themselves freely on the day of your power, in holy garments; from the womb of the morning, the dew of your youth will be yours. 4 The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind, “You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.” 5 The Lord is at your right hand; he will shatter kings on the day of his wrath. 6 He will execute judgment among the nations, filling them with corpses; he will shatter chiefs over the wide earth. 7 He will drink from the brook by the way; therefore he will lift up his head.

In Christian meditation, we are re-aligning ourselves vertically. We're remapping our horizontal realities with a vertical view/perspective. Enabling us to embody that vertical perspective replaces anxiety and tension with a calm confidence. If your podcast app is set to skip the silent sections, disable that in your podcast app for this podcast. Jesus views the Psalms in the Hebrew Scriptures (the Old Testament) as “by the Holy Spirit.” Mark 12:36 NIV “David himself, speaking by the Holy Spirit, declared:  ‘The Lord said to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet.”'” Jesus was quoting from… Psalm 110:1 NIV Of David. A psalm.  1 The LORD says to my lord: “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.” So when we read the Psalms we should have the same view Jesus had. Psalm 147:1 ESV “Praise the LORD!” “The LORD” in our English Bibles is indicating that in Hebrew God's name, Yahweh, is used. Yahweh is the ancient Hebrew verb form for “HE IS.” God's name in the Hebrew scriptures is used more than any other term for God. More than “God” is used. When we survey the various truths associated with God's name, HE IS, in the Hebrew scriptures (what we call the Old Testament), four important aspects of God are emphasized.  HE IS the Creator and Sustainer of ALL that exists, including this entire universe.  HE IS the Giver and Sustainer of ALL life everywhere always. HE IS the Eternal God. HE IS ALWAYS 100% present with you in every present moment (without being any less present anywhere else in the universe, because HE IS infinite). These four realities of what God's name means are easy to memorize, and so to remember them when you “Praise the LORD” will help you replace anxieties and self-protective guarding with a calm confidence and peace. Who can you share this podcast with? If you found this episode helpful, consider sharing it on social media or texting it to a friend you think might benefit from it. Follow Dave Cover on Twitter @davecover Follow A Bigger Life on Twitter @ABiggerLifePod Our audio engineers are Matthew Matlack and Diego Huaman. This podcast is a ministry of The Crossing, a church in Columbia, Missouri, a college town where the flagship campus of the University of Missouri is located.

In Christian meditation, we are re-aligning ourselves vertically. We're remapping our horizontal realities with a vertical view/perspective. Enabling us to embody that vertical perspective replaces anxiety and tension with a calm confidence. If your podcast app is set to skip the silent sections, disable that in your podcast app for this podcast. Jesus views the Psalms in the Hebrew Scriptures (the Old Testament) as “by the Holy Spirit.” Mark 12:36 NIV “David himself, speaking by the Holy Spirit, declared:  ‘The Lord said to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet.”'” Jesus was quoting from… Psalm 110:1 NIV Of David. A psalm.  1 The LORD says to my lord: “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.” So when we read the Psalms we should have the same view Jesus had. Psalm 147:1 ESV “Praise the LORD!” “The LORD” in our English Bibles is indicating that in Hebrew God's name, Yahweh, is used. Yahweh is the ancient Hebrew verb form for “HE IS.” God's name in the Hebrew scriptures is used more than any other term for God. More than “God” is used. When we survey the various truths associated with God's name, HE IS, in the Hebrew scriptures (what we call the Old Testament), four important aspects of God are emphasized.  HE IS the Creator and Sustainer of ALL that exists, including this entire universe.  HE IS the Giver and Sustainer of ALL life everywhere always. HE IS the Eternal God. HE IS ALWAYS 100% present with you in every present moment (without being any less present anywhere else in the universe, because HE IS infinite). These four realities of what God's name means are easy to memorize, and so to remember them when you “Praise the LORD” will help you replace anxieties and self-protective guarding with a calm confidence and peace. Who can you share this podcast with? If you found this episode helpful, consider sharing it on social media or texting it to a friend you think might benefit from it. Follow Dave Cover on Twitter @davecover Follow A Bigger Life on Twitter @ABiggerLifePod Our audio engineers are Matthew Matlack and Diego Huaman. This podcast is a ministry of The Crossing, a church in Columbia, Missouri, a college town where the flagship campus of the University of Missouri is located.

June 6, 2023Today's Reading: Acts 2:14a, 22-36Daily Lectionary: Song of Solomon 2:8-3:11, John 5:19-29 He foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption.  (Acts 2:31)In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. When Jesus met two of His disciples on the Emmaus road after His resurrection, He taught them how to read the Old Testament, to read it with eyes, hearts, and minds fixed on Christ's death and resurrection. “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.”When Peter delivered his sermon in Acts 2 on the day of Pentecost, he was preaching what he had heard Jesus teaching, that all of God's promises and prophets' words of the Old Testament are found and fulfilled in Jesus.In today's reading from Acts 2, Peter quotes two psalms of David. First, is Psalm 16. What's Psalm 16 about? David and Peter tell us. It's about the Messiah, the Holy One, Jesus. In Psalm 16, David foretells what Jesus, the Son of David will do; He will die and be buried but He will not see corruption. Jesus was not abandoned in the grave. Jesus rose again from the dead, and in doing so, Jesus, the Son of David, fulfills David's words. Psalm 110 is the next psalm quoted by Peter. “The Lord says to my Lord: Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.” Psalm 110 is another messianic psalm, pointing to the work of Jesus the Messiah. Peter moves us from Jesus' death and resurrection to His glorious ascension and His reign on the throne of heaven. In Psalm 110 David proclaims the victory and triumph over the enemies of the Lord. Which enemies are those? Sin, death, and the devil. By His dying and rising, Jesus stomped and crushed the serpent's head underfoot as Moses recorded in Genesis 3:15. And in His ascension, Jesus reigns as our victorious crucified and risen King forever.Peter's sermon reminds us that when we go into the Old Testament, we see the work of Jesus already foretold, so that when we come to the New Testament, as in Peter's own sermon here in Acts 2, we see the work of Jesus fulfilling the Scriptures for you. David points us to Jesus, the Son of David. Peter points us to Jesus, who is both Lord and Christ and who was crucified, rose from the dead, and ascended where He rules and reigns for you. In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.Blessed Lord, You have caused all Holy Scriptures to be written for our learning. Grant that we may so hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that by patience and comfort of Your holy Word, we may embrace and every hold fast the blessed hope of eternal life; through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.-Pastor Samuel Schuldheisz is Pastor at Beautiful Savior Lutheran Church in Milton, WAAudio Reflections Speaker: Jonathan Lackey is an LCMS seminarian.Study Christ's words on the cross to see how you can show more Christlike grace in your life. Perfect for group or individual study, each chapter has a Q&A at the end, and the back of the book includes a leader guide. Available now from Concordia Publishing House.

Acts 2:26-47   New International Version     Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices;     my body also will rest in hope, because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead,     you will not let your holy one see decay. You have made known to me the paths of life;     you will fill me with joy in your presence.' “Fellow Israelites, I can tell you confidently that the patriarch David died and was buried, and his tomb is here to this day. But he was a prophet and knew that God had promised him on oath that he would place one of his descendants on his throne. Seeing what was to come, he spoke of the resurrection of the Messiah, that he was not abandoned to the realm of the dead, nor did his body see decay. God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of it. Exalted to the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear. For David did not ascend to heaven, and yet he said, “‘The Lord said to my Lord:     “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies     a footstool for your feet.”' “Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah.” When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call.” With many other words he warned them; and he pleaded with them, “Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.” Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day. The Fellowship of the Believers They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

Luke 20:41-44 Then Jesus said to them, “Why is it said that the Messiah is the son of David? 42 David himself declares in the Book of Psalms: “ ‘The Lord said to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand 43 until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.” ' 44 David calls him ‘Lord.' How then can he be his son?” What does this say about God? About people? What is your response? A transcript can be found at amyburgin.com.

Matthew week 1   Matthew 1:1 ESV   The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.                       2 Samuel 7:12-13NIV   12 When your days are over and you rest with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, your own flesh and blood, and I will establish his kingdom. 13 He is the one who will build a house for my Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.       Mark 12:35-37 NIV   35 While Jesus was teaching in the temple courts, he asked, “Why do the teachers of the law say that the Messiah is the son of David? 36 David himself, speaking by the Holy Spirit, declared:   “‘The Lord said to my Lord:   “Sit at my right hand   until I put your enemies   under your feet.”'   37 David himself calls him ‘Lord.' How then can he be his son?”       Genesis 22:18 NASB   18 In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.”       Galatians 3:16 NASB   16 Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. He does not say, “And to seeds,” as referring to many, but rather to one, “And to your seed,” that is, Christ.       Ezra 2:62 NIV   62 These searched for their family records, but they could not find them and so were excluded from the priesthood as unclean.       Titus 3:9 NIV   9 But avoid foolish controversies and genealogies and arguments and quarrels about the law, because these are unprofitable and useless.       Matthew 1:2 ESV   2 Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers,       Matthew 1:3-16 ESV   3 and Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, and Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Ram,4 and Ram the father of Amminadab, and Amminadab the father of Nahshon, and Nahshon the father of Salmon, 5 and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse, 6 and Jesse the father of David the king.   And David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah, 7 and Solomon the father of Rehoboam, and Rehoboam the father of Abijah, and Abijah the father of Asaph, 8 and Asaph the father of Jehoshaphat, and Jehoshaphat the father of Joram, and Joram the father of Uzziah, 9 and Uzziah the father of Jotham, and Jotham the father of Ahaz, and Ahaz the father of Hezekiah, 10 and Hezekiah the father of Manasseh, and Manasseh the father of Amos, and Amos the father of Josiah, 11 and Josiah the father of Jechoniah and his brothers, at the time of the deportation to Babylon.   12 And after the deportation to Babylon: Jechoniah was the father of Shealtiel, and Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel, 13 and Zerubbabel the father of Abiud, and Abiud the father of Eliakim, and Eliakim the father of Azor, 14 and Azor the father of Zadok, and Zadok the father of Achim, and Achim the father of Eliud, 15 and Eliud the father of Eleazar, and Eleazar the father of Matthan, and Matthan the father of Jacob, 16 and Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ.   17 So all the generations from Abraham to David were fourteen generations, and from David to the deportation to Babylon fourteen generations, and from the deportation to Babylon to the Christ fourteen generations.       Genesis 38:26 NIV   26 Judah recognized them and said, “She is more righteous than I, since I wouldn't give her to my son Shelah.”       1 Timothy 1:15 NIV   15 Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst.       Matthew 9:9-13 ESV   9 As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he rose and followed him. (Cornett lol)   10 And as Jesus reclined at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and his disciples.11 And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” 12 But when he heard it, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. 13 Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.' For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”          

Hebrews 11:1-6: 1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen ... 6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. Deuteronomy 6: 4 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. I Kings 8:27: “But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you; how much less this house that I have built! Jeremiah 23:23-24: Am I a God who is only close at hand?” says the LORD. “No, I am far away at the same time. 24 Can anyone hide from me in a secret place? Am I not everywhere in all the heavens and earth?” says the LORD. Psalm 139:1-4: 1 O LORD, you have searched me and known me! 2 You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar. 3 You search out my path and my lying down are acquainted with all my ways. 4 Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O LORD, you know it altogether. Psalm 147:5: Great is our Lord, and abundant in power; his understanding is beyond measure, God's knowledge and care for you is so great Jesus said... Matthew 10:30: But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. I Chronicles 29:11: Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is yours. Yours is the kingdom, O LORD, and you are exalted as head above all. Genesis 3:15: ...he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel Ephesians 4:6: "one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all Galatians 4:6: And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!" Colossians 1:15-20: 15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16 For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. 17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. 19 For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. John 15:26: 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, 17 even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. John 8:58: “Truly, Truly. I say to you, before Abrahm was, I am.” John 10:30: “I and the Father are One.” Psalm 110:1: “The LORD says to my Lord: ‘Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.” John 17:1: “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you...” Hebrews 11:6: ... And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. 2 Corinthians 13:14: The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.”

It's safe to say that no Hebrew man or Hebrew woman in 1st century AD, would have heard the term “High Priest” and wondered what it was referencing. Upon hearing it, most of them would have pictured a man: who had a bloodline that traced back through Aaron to Levi, who was clothed with an Ephod, and crowned with a turban, and who once a year would go into the Holy of Holies, to offer sacrificial blood for the covering over sin. Jesus met none of these criteria. Not a single one. He was from the tribe of Judah, not Levi. He was clothed in simple garments, befitting the labor of a carpenter. He was visiting the Temple, sure, but not entering in – at least not into the Holy of Holies. Yet, the author to the Hebrews, transitioning from a focus on Jesus' superiority to angels, and to Moses, is now making the claim that Jesus, the Son of God, is, in fact, the Great High Priest — Better than the High Priests from the line of Aaron. And it's a claim he's going to expound upon in detail from here all the way up to the midpoint of chapter 10 — five chapters worth of turning the diamond of Jesus' appointment as Great High Priest and the offering he provides, in comparison to the High priesthood of Aaron.In today's text, we have in miniature many of the facets of Jesus' High Priestly ministry that will be explained at length in later sections. So, we're going to content ourselves with majoring on a few of them here, minoring on others, trusting that those minors will become majors in the weeks to come. So, we're going to major on three characteristics of Jesus as the Great High Priest: He is Son, he is sinless, and he is sympathetic.We'll begin with son.SonRight away we'll note the connection between Jesus as Great High Priest and Jesus as Son. The text begins, 4:14, “Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God.” In 5:6 we see, “You are a priest forever.” right before that, (5:5) “You are my Son, today I have begotten you.” 5:10, “Being designated by God a High Priest” a little earlier, verse 8, “Although he was a Son” Three times over, Hebrews labors to show us that the office of Great High Priest, and the office of the Son of God, are held by the same man – the God-man, Jesus. Hebrews wants us to see that Jesus' Sonship, and Jesus' Great Priesthood, go together, function together, are joined at the hip so to speak. And we, of course, want to ask, why? Why these two – Priest and Son? I mean, Jesus is also the Good Shepherd…why not put Priest and Shepherd together here? Jesus is Prophet. Why not put Priest and Prophet together here? Is it as if Hebrews has before it the mix-and-match combo of Jesus' titles, and simply selects this one out of all the other options? Or, is the pairing of High Priest with Son of God particularly significant? One way to answer that question is to look through the Bible as a whole and ask, “have we seen priest and Son paired together before?” The answer is yes. Prior to the pairing of Priest and Son in Hebrews, we see the same pairing in Exodus. God says of his people, the Israelites, about to exit Egypt, “Israel is my firstborn son, and I say to you, ‘Let my son go that he may serve me.'” (Exodus 4:22-23) Later, in Exodus 19, God's speaking again to this people, “You shall be to me a kingdom of priests” (19:6) It's not insignificant, we just got done talking about this very people who, though called God's son (lowercase “s”), and a kingdom of priests, hardened their hearts in their rebellion against God. The priest-Son, of the exodus generation failed.Is that the Priest-Son Hebrews has in mind here? Is he wanting to connect Jesus to the failed Priest-Son of Exodus? Look at the center pairing of Priest-Son in 5:5-6. It's at the very center of this section's chiastic structure, which is really the author's way of saying, “You want to know what the big idea is here? Well, I've framed it up for you, with matching ideas on either side that lead you in to the dead center, where we find, “You are my Son” and “You are a Priest forever.” Note where these two quotes are coming from. “You are my Son” is not quoting Exodus, but Psalm 2. “You are a Priest forever” is not quoting Exodus, but Psalm 110.See though in the Exodus generation, like Adam in the Garden before them, we find a failed priest-son, its in the Psalms, beginning in Psalm two and stretching on through to Psalm 110, that we're told of another Priest-Son to come who will succeed. This Priest-Son is foretold in Psalm 2, “I will tell of the decree: The LORD said to me, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you. Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession.” And he arrives, and is enthroned, in Psalm 110, “The LORD says to my Lord: ‘Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.' [and] The LORD has sworn and will not change his mind, ‘You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.'” This is incredible. Hebrews is looking back on that plotline from the Psalms and saying Psalm 2 and Psalm 110 are about Jesus – the story of the Son enthroned in heaven as a Priest forever, foretold in the Psalms, is about Jesus. And, by the way, the Gospels seem to be picking up on the same story. Jesus' baptism, at the very beginning of his ministry, we hear Psalm 2: “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased” And days before his death, Jesus implying himself as Messiah, quotes Psalm 110, “The Lord said to my Lord, ‘Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet'” [and then he adds] If then David calls him Lord, how is he his son?” Hebrews, pulling from the Psalms, and perhaps the gospels as well, is pointing out that: the same Son whom God appointed the heir of all things and through whom also he created the world, the same son who is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, the same son who upholds the universe by the word of his power, the same Son foretold in Psalm 2, and enthroned in Psalm 110 has become the Great High Priest, who after making purification for sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high (Heb. 1:2-3). “You are my Son” and “You are a Priest forever” are being said of the same person, and his name is Jesus.Jesus, Great High Priest, is the Son of God.SinlessJesus is Son, and he's also sinless.The High Priests in Jerusalem were “Chosen from among men” (5:1). Mere men. Flesh, bone, a heart deceitful above all things (Jer. 17:9). Like the people they represented, they too were ignorant, wayward, of the flesh, sold under sin, perhaps possessing the desire to do what was right, but, without the ability to carry it out (Rom. 7:14, 18). They, every single one of them, chapter 5, verse 2, were beset with weakness. Lacking the strength needed to live holy in a sinful world. For this reason, they were obligated to offer sacrifice for their own sins just as they did for the sins of the people (5:3). They, in a very real way, approached God with the blood of a spotless lamb, while clothed in garments stained by their own sin (Jude 1:23, Zech. 3:3). Jesus, on the other hand, the Great High Priest, is sinless. Peerless in holiness before God.Glorious, right? Much better than the High Priests beset with weakness, right? But how does it make you feel to know that your Great High Priest is sinless? How do you perceive him knowing that he, unlike you and me, never committed a single sin, nor was deceit ever found in his mouth (1 Peter 2:22)? Would you expect such a Priest to be relationally warm to you, near to you, interested in you, involved with your life, or knowing that you've sinned, and that he never did, might you, even subconsciously, assume him to be cold to you, distant, cut-off, disinterested, maybe even slightly bothered by your constant need for help? Ask it in another way: do you picture the holy one beckoning you toward him with open arms, or turning his face away from you in hopes you stay where you are? Does his sinlessness make you think, “Oh, well if that's how he is, then he must be very, very far away from me.” See when a sinful people hear about a sinless man we don't, by nature, assume affection. Hebrews is not surprised by that. In fact, it almost seems to ask, “would it, perhaps, change your perception of him if I told you that your sinless Great High Priest knows what it feels like to be tempted and to suffer?SympatheticHebrews 4:15, “We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses.” Any guess as to why the author uses a double-negative here (we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize). I mean double-negatives tend to mess us up a bit. We might read them and think they're saying one thing when in fact they're saying another thing, and that's the reason all our middle school English teachers told us to get rid of them. Well Hebrews uses a double-negative here because he knows what we're all assuming: if Jesus is that great, then surely he doesn't get us. If Jesus is that perfect, certainly he's going to be annoyed by our weaknesses. If Jesus is that spotless, then obviously he's not going to sympathize with our weakness.Hebrews jumps in and says, no, no, no, no, I know what you are thinking and I'm telling you, “We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses.” And for clarity, we can take the two negatives of this sentence and let them cancel each other out, the sentence reads, “For we do have a high priest who is able to sympathize with our weaknesses.” We do! We have a high priest who is able to sympathize with our weaknesses.Jesus, can you sympathize with our weakness? Can you lean in when we're feeling weary? Can you be there for us when we feel we can no longer carry on? Jesus says, “Yeah, I can do that, cause I know what is feels like to be human in a broken world.”See that's the thing, isn't it? Jesus' sinlessness is not a distant and untested sinlessness. It's not a sinlessness that was never once challenged to obey in the face of incoming trains of suffering. It's not a sinlessness via a lack of contact with a sinful world, lack of leaning in to life here, lack of breathing this air and walking this ground and dealing with what we call “real life.” He is not the CEO on the top floor who's never put his hands to the work in the warehouse. Remember, Jesus, took up residence here, lived life here, and was tested, here.For 30 years from Jerusalem, to Egypt, to Nazareth, to Galilee, to the Decapolis, to Perea, and back again. From the fields, to the deserts, to the mountains, to the seas. From the manger, to his home, to an upper room, to the Temple, to the cross, before Pharisees, Priests, Sadducees, Scribes. Before tax collectors, fishermen, centurions, the paralyzed, the sick, the leprous. Before family, friend and foe, and even as the family and friends turned into foes. Whether working, resting, talking, listening, walking, sitting, waking, sleeping. Jesus, The Great High Priest, entirely unlike the High Priests in the line of Aaron, endured the trials, and the troubles, and the torments of this world “Yet without sin.” Ever obedient to the Father from eternity past, learned a new form of obedience here — obedience in the ring of suffering (5:8). Ever Perfect from before the dawning of time, he was made perfect here as he lived out a full, and holy, human life (5:9). And though he could have at any moment called down a myriad of angels to come to his aid, he, instead, offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, in reverence, and trust, that he'd be heard by His Father (5:7). So stand in awe of him. And recognize, that the one who is the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him knows what it feels like to be human. He, get this, he, the Son of God, the second person of the Trinity, the one who upholds the universe by the word of his power, knows what is feels like to be weak.You ever felt weak? It's kind of like asking, “You ever breathed air before? I mean we are beset with weakness.Maybe for you, you've known a weight of depression that can hang so heavy upon you, seem so authoritative over you, make you feel like you just have nothing – no energy, nor desire to overcome it. Maybe you're all too familiar with temptation to sin, how it lures you in, wraps its tentacles around you, whispers “Just give in, you know it's inevitable, you've been here before, you are without strength to fight it.” Maybe it's anger, or envy, or pride, or sloth that at just the moment you think you've rid yourself of it, there it is again!Have you felt weak, without strength? The shocking truth is that in the midst of your weakness, Jesus, the sinless Great High Priest, is not leaning away from you with, “Listen, I don't get what the problem is,” but leaning in, saying, “I'm here, I'm listening, I'm here to help.”Therefore, Draw NearFor The ChristianWhat then shall we say in response to these things? “Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (4:16). See this is where it all comes together — the call to draw near to a throne, and not just any throne, but the very throne of God Most High! The very throne from which flows flashes of lightning, rumblings and peals of thunder, the very throne that's lined by the seven torches of fire – the seven spirits of God, the very throne that's surrounded by a sea of glass and the four living creatures – full of eyes around and within – who day and night never cease to say, “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!” Hebrews says draw near to that throne, go forward to that throne, in your time of greatest need, and deepest shame, and most discouraging moments, move onward, and unencumbered, with greatest certainty, and surest boldness to that throne, because Jesus is standing there — as Son, at the right hand of the Father and as Great High Priest, ever living to intercede for you. Make no mistake my brothers and sisters, the throne of God in heaven is a throne of grace!You've been walking away from the Lord for some time. You've been indulging in the sinful pleasures of this world. You've been gone for too long, ignored him for too long, run away for too long. No, no you haven't. You can yet draw near, with the confidence of Jesus' blood shed for you, his throne is a throne of grace!Sexual sin has gotten a hold of you, you keep trying to hide it, you keep trying to suppress it, but it's just gotten darker, gotten deeper, just gotten a stronger grip upon you, you've run up a debt of sin too great for him to pardon. No, you haven't. You can yet draw near, to his throne of grace!You've gotten bitter at God, doubtful of God, he's not provided you with the job you wanted, the spouse you wanted, the children you wanted, the health you wanted, and you feel as if he has showed up for everyone around but you, and you've reached the point where you just don't have the ability any more, or desire any more, or capacity any more to wait for Him. No you haven't. Draw near, his throne is a throne of grace!In the midst of the strongest temptations, after succumbing to the greatest of sins, in all the moments when you think: “I don't have enough energy for what I got to do today”“I have to make this decision and I just don't have the wisdom to know what to do”“I have all this stress, and all this fear, and all this temptation, and all this pain, and all this weakness, and I'm just now waking up to the fact that I am just a human.” Draw near, to the Beloved Son of the Father who calls you brother!Draw near to the Great High Priest who washes you white as snow!Draw near, my brothers and sisters, to the throne of grace!For Non-ChristiansAnd for those who've never drawn near to this throne. Assumed he wouldn't want you there, assume you wouldn't be welcomed in, assumed you'd need to clean yourself up and get your act together first, hear his words to you, right now, as he calls to you, literally, from his throne of grace, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me. The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne.” (Rev. 3:20-21) Do you hear his voice? Open the door, draw near to him as he draws near to you. And if you're wondering, “How do I do that? What does that mean? A few of us will be up hear and would love to talk with you about what drawing near, as a sinner in need of a Savior, looks like.Brothers and sisters, Jesus has passed through the heavens into the very presence of his father and is standing ever ready for you to draw near to him in your time of need. So, draw near. Draw near. TableAnd this brings us to the table. Each Sunday we come together we land here, at the Table. It's at this table we remember that Jesus came to live and to die and to rise again for you and for me. It's at this table we remember, and we celebrate, and we proclaim, that he has become the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him.So if you're here today and you've trusted in Jesus, if you've put your faith in Jesus, if you've drawn near and are continuing to draw near, then we invite you to take and eat. If you've not put your trust in Jesus, we ask that you'd let the elements pass, you not partake, but we pray you would, in this moment, draw near, for the very first time, to him by faith.

Psalm 110   as read by Noelle   1-3The LORD says to my Lord: "Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet." The LORD will extend your mighty scepter from Zion; you will rule in the midst of your enemies. Your troops will be willing on your day of battle. Arrayed in holy majesty, from the womb of the dawn you will receive the dew of your youth. 4-7The LORD has sworn and will not change his mind: "You are a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek." The Lord is at your right hand; he will crush kings on the day of his wrath. He will judge the nations, heaping up the dead and crushing the rulers of the whole earth. He will drink from a brook beside the way; therefore he will lift up his head. Right mouse click or tap here to save/download this Psalm as a MP3 file

Psalm 110 (Listen)Sit at My Right HandA Psalm of David. 110:1   The LORD says to my Lord:    “Sit at my right hand,  until I make your enemies your footstool.”  2   The LORD sends forth from Zion    your mighty scepter.    Rule in the midst of your enemies!3   Your people will offer themselves freely    on the day of your power,1    in holy garments;2  from the womb of the morning,    the dew of your youth will be yours.34   The LORD has sworn    and will not change his mind,  “You are a priest forever    after the order of Melchizedek.”  5   The Lord is at your right hand;    he will shatter kings on the day of his wrath.6   He will execute judgment among the nations,    filling them with corpses;  he will shatter chiefs4    over the wide earth.7   He will drink from the brook by the way;    therefore he will lift up his head.Footnotes[1] 110:3 Or on the day you lead your forces [2] 110:3 Masoretic Text; some Hebrew manuscripts and Jerome on the holy mountains [3] 110:3 The meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain [4] 110:6 Or the head(ESV)Hebrews 7:11–25 (Listen)Jesus Compared to Melchizedek11 Now if perfection had been attainable through the Levitical priesthood (for under it the people received the law), what further need would there have been for another priest to arise after the order of Melchizedek, rather than one named after the order of Aaron? 12 For when there is a change in the priesthood, there is necessarily a change in the law as well. 13 For the one of whom these things are spoken belonged to another tribe, from which no one has ever served at the altar. 14 For it is evident that our Lord was descended from Judah, and in connection with that tribe Moses said nothing about priests.15 This becomes even more evident when another priest arises in the likeness of Melchizedek, 16 who has become a priest, not on the basis of a legal requirement concerning bodily descent, but by the power of an indestructible life. 17 For it is witnessed of him,   “You are a priest forever,    after the order of Melchizedek.”18 For on the one hand, a former commandment is set aside because of its weakness and uselessness 19 (for the law made nothing perfect); but on the other hand, a better hope is introduced, through which we draw near to God.20 And it was not without an oath. For those who formerly became priests were made such without an oath, 21 but this one was made a priest with an oath by the one who said to him:   “The Lord has sworn    and will not change his mind,  ‘You are a priest forever.'”22 This makes Jesus the guarantor of a better covenant.23 The former priests were many in number, because they were prevented by death from continuing in office, 24 but he holds his priesthood permanently, because he continues forever. 25 Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost1 those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.Footnotes[1] 7:25 That is, completely; or at all times(ESV)

Psalm 110 (Listen) Sit at My Right Hand A Psalm of David. 110:1   The LORD says to my Lord:    “Sit at my right hand,  until I make your enemies your footstool.” 2   The LORD sends forth from Zion    your mighty scepter.    Rule in the midst of your enemies!3   Your people will offer themselves freely    on the day of your power,1    in holy garments;2  from the womb of the morning,    the dew of your youth will be yours.34   The LORD has sworn    and will not change his mind,  “You are a priest forever    after the order of Melchizedek.” 5   The Lord is at your right hand;    he will shatter kings on the day of his wrath.6   He will execute judgment among the nations,    filling them with corpses;  he will shatter chiefs4    over the wide earth.7   He will drink from the brook by the way;    therefore he will lift up his head. Footnotes [1] 110:3 Or on the day you lead your forces [2] 110:3 Masoretic Text; some Hebrew manuscripts and Jerome on the holy mountains [3] 110:3 The meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain [4] 110:6 Or the head (ESV)Hebrews 7:11–25 (Listen) Jesus Compared to Melchizedek 11 Now if perfection had been attainable through the Levitical priesthood (for under it the people received the law), what further need would there have been for another priest to arise after the order of Melchizedek, rather than one named after the order of Aaron? 12 For when there is a change in the priesthood, there is necessarily a change in the law as well. 13 For the one of whom these things are spoken belonged to another tribe, from which no one has ever served at the altar. 14 For it is evident that our Lord was descended from Judah, and in connection with that tribe Moses said nothing about priests. 15 This becomes even more evident when another priest arises in the likeness of Melchizedek, 16 who has become a priest, not on the basis of a legal requirement concerning bodily descent, but by the power of an indestructible life. 17 For it is witnessed of him,   “You are a priest forever,    after the order of Melchizedek.” 18 For on the one hand, a former commandment is set aside because of its weakness and uselessness 19 (for the law made nothing perfect); but on the other hand, a better hope is introduced, through which we draw near to God. 20 And it was not without an oath. For those who formerly became priests were made such without an oath, 21 but this one was made a priest with an oath by the one who said to him:   “The Lord has sworn    and will not change his mind,  ‘You are a priest forever.'” 22 This makes Jesus the guarantor of a better covenant. 23 The former priests were many in number, because they were prevented by death from continuing in office, 24 but he holds his priesthood permanently, because he continues forever. 25 Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost1 those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them. Footnotes [1] 7:25 That is, completely; or at all times (ESV)

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth — who was sent here when the fullness of time had come, the Son of God born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law so that we might receive adoption as sons — and thus fulfill our holy calling to which God has called us according to his own purpose and grace which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began and which now has been manifested through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel…This is the gift of Jesus to this world — he is the gift we've just celebrated during Christmas, and of course our celebrations don't stop now but they continue throughout the whole year because Jesus is still the gift — not who had been given but who is being given in this exact moment. There is not just a Christmas Day and a Christmas season, but we are in the Christmas age of world history. And untold peoples for untold years in untold ways have longed for such a gift in such an age. Because apart from God, we abound in darkness and we are deprived of hope. Apart from God, every human soul is fully lost and meaningless. And deep in each of our persons we know what that's like. We know what it's like to be distant from God and we want so badly to bridge that distance. Whether it's the pursuit of worldly pleasure or the embrace of man-made religion, the whole story of this world, from one angle, is our desperate attempt to find God. We want to experience the happiness that would be in God's presence; we want to know the purpose that would come from God's design. We all want that, and collectively, we as mankind have searched for that down a trillion dead-end roads, and we never find what we're looking for. And then God comes and says here. Here is all of that! And he gives, which is why it's a gift, and the gift is Jesus. Jesus is the voice of God to us, the way of God for us, the reign of God in us and over us. And he is new, in that no gift like him has ever been given before; and he is final, in that no gift like him will ever be given again. Jesus is the ultimate, definitive, world-changing, history-defining gift and he's right here, standing in front of your heart's face. Now I don't know if you've ever imagined your heart as having a face, but think about that for a minute, and imagine that Jesus is standing right there. Jesus is right in front of the deepest part of you. And what are you gonna do? You gonna try to go somewhere else? Why would you go somewhere else?Welcome to the Book of Hebrews.For most of this entire year on Sunday mornings we're going to be in this book, and it is a book of Jesus in your heart's face. Historically, the Book of Hebrews has been considered a letter, although it's not like the other letters in the New Testament, because it doesn't start like a letter at all. There's no sender or addressee mentioned; there's no greeting; the book just starts with the Jesus, right here in your heart's face.According to some clues later on in the book, most likely Hebrews was actually a sermon for the early church (if you were to read the entire book out loud it'd take you 45 minutes — which is a solid sermon length). The prose here is careful; the arguments are beautiful; the repetitions are strategic; and Jesus is front and center throughout the whole thing. What we read about the glory of Jesus in these first four verses echoes through the rest of the book.And we have the whole year to see this unfolding logic of Hebrews, but as we get started today, I at least want to give a broad introduction to the book as a whole. I think we could summarize the overall message of Hebrews to simply be a solution to a problem. A solution to a problem.So what's the problem? What's the solution? Those are the two points of today's sermon. Here's the first:1) The problem is the possibility of our apostasy. Now, when I use that word apostasy I want you to think the opposite of endurance. If endurance means to press on and hold fast, apostasy means to turn back and fall away. Endurance is to persevere in faith; apostasy is to abandon faith. And abandoning faith is a real temptation for us in real-time. Now there are some deep theological waters we can get into here, and we're going to go there in this series. But briefly, when it comes to apostasy, we know plainly from 1 John Chapter 2 that those who fall away from the faith were never actually in the faith. If you end up abandoning Jesus you only prove that you never actually knew him in the first place. But if you do know him, if you are born again, if you are united to Jesus, then you are secure forever. Jesus himself says of his people, his sheep, John Chapter 10, verse 27: “I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.” Jesus is saying he's got you, and that's an amazing promise. So at a high level, the basics are this: If you fall away you were not actually in. If you are truly in, you will not fall away.Everybody get that?We have eternal security in the salvation of Jesus, and that is peace for us. We rest here. And, at the same time, we should be aware of ways that eternal security has been misapplied.I saw this growing up in church. Growing up in the church where I did, there was a teaching I heard all the time that said “once saved, always saved.” I'm not sure if that's a phrase you've heard before, but “once saved, always saved” is a big deal among Christians in some parts of our world, and it is absolutely true at face-value. Once you are saved — in that God resurrects you from spiritual deadness — if God does that you are always saved. God doesn't make you spiritually alive and then later reverses that. When you are saved, you are always saved. The mis-application of that truth, though, has to do with the meaning of being saved. In a lot of places “being saved” just meant that you had to walk down an aisle during an altar call and ‘pray' a prayer. “Being saved” was reduced down to basically doing a thing and checking the box, and then you could go live however you wanted and have nothing to do with Jesus at all.And I say this with a sickness in my stomach, but there are countless people in our country, where I'm from, who blatantly deny Jesus in how they live — they care little to nothing about Jesus; they're not actively involved in a church — but they and everyone around them thinks they're Christians because they repeated some words one time. They think that they were “once saved” and therefore, they think they're always saved.The “saved” part is what they get wrong, and it's a deadly error. It's one that we reject expressly through church discipline. If you say you belong to Jesus but your behavior repeatedly denies him and you don't repent, the local church is meant to help you by saying that we don't think you actually belong to Jesus.Remember that to be saved is to be saved to God. Saving faith in Jesus is to receive him as Lord, Savior, and Treasure; it means we worship him; we cling to him; we surrender to him as our only hope, and yes he forgives us, and unites us to himself, and we are in.And if we're in, we are secure, we won't fall away. But how do we know we're in?That's the question, right? How do we know if we're really saved. Well we know we're saved because God keeps us in that we believe. We press on. We hold fast. We endure in faith. We trust right now in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of our sins and the fulfillment of all God's promises.And that exhortation for us to trust, to believe, to hold fast — that is a vital on-going exhortation in the Christian life and its one that we see repeated in the Book of Hebrews. Because apostasy is a possibility. People have fallen away. People do fall away. So don't.The Pull of ApostasyAnd I wanna get to the solution as soon as possible, but I need to say one more thing about apostasy. I want to pop the hood on apostasy for a minute and show you more about how it works, and this is the way I want to summarize it: apostasy is always a pull from something else. I'll put it like this: nobody abandons Jesus because they pursued Jesus and found him lacking. People abandon Jesus because they suspect that they will have it better somewhere else. Jesus doesn't push people away from him; but people are pulled away from him by something else. For the original audience of Hebrews, that something else was Judaism. The first hearers of this sermon were Jewish Christians — they were Jewish people who had embraced the gospel, trusted Jesus as their Messiah, they had become Christians — but some of them had started to fall away back into Judaism. Most likely there was some kind of persecution going on. Christians were taking some heat. And apparently the pull away from Jesus was the short-sighted idea that “if I leave Jesus and go over there I won't get mistreated.” They thought: “Things will be better for me apart from Jesus and his people.” That was the pull.And you might think that's silly, but “pulls” like that still happen today. It's probably not Judaism for us like it was for this first audience, but there are “something elses” all around us in this world. And that “something else” doesn't encourage you toward Jesus, but it pulls you away from him. And they're not necessarily hostile things, sometimes it's just the stuff of life, what Jesus called: “the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desire for other things” (see Mark 4:19). Something elses. They're the kind of things that makes being a Christian seem uncomfortable or inconvenient.You know, in our language we use the phrase often of a “nominal Christian.” We mean someone who claims to be a Christian but isn't really serious about it. Where I grew up, they were called “backslidden Christians.” And I know what they're like because I used to be one. You just go through the motions and do all the external things.Well, look, in reality, whatever we name that category, the so-called nominal Christian is actually just a non-Christian who doesn't know it yet because they've not been tested. They've not been pulled. Following Jesus has not been uncomfortable or inconvenient for them, yet.But it will be. You're going to get pulled. And many of us know what that's like. Some of us are getting pulled now in our current circumstances. There are things around us that would persuade us to forsake Jesus. And that's a problem. All of this is a problem that is there all the time, and so what do we do? What's the solution to this problem?2) The solution is to hold fast to Jesus.And you might be thinking wait a minute… Hearer: So you're saying the problem is that we could fall away, and the solution is to hold fast? That's like saying the solution to falling away is to not fall away.Me: And that's right. I'm saying to do the opposite of falling away. Hold fast. Hearer: And hold fast to what? Me: Hold fast to Jesus and the hope that we have in him, which we do by remembering him. We must see him. That's the purpose of Jesus in your heart's face — which is how Hebrews starts. We're not first bombarded by the problem, but instead the Book of Hebrews starts by saying “Here he is! The Savior has come! Look at him! Look who he is! Look what he's done! Trust him!” That's what's going on in those first four verses, and it's absolutely glorious. In verses 1–4 we read ten facts about Jesus:He is the one through whom God has spoken He is appointed by God to be the heir of all things. He is the one through whom God created the world.He is the radiance of the glory of God. He is the exact imprint of God's nature.He upholds the universe by the word of his power.He made purification for sins.He afterwards sat down at the right hand of the Father.He is superior to angels.He has inherited a more excellent name. Historically, it was the Reformer John Calvin who first elaborated on the fact that Jesus as the Messiah means that Jesus serves in a threefold office —Jesus is the promised Messiah who has come — that's his office — but Calvin says that this office “enjoined upon Christ by the Father consists of three parts.” Jesus is Prophet, Priest, and King. And then later Reformed theologians developed this more. It's in all the Reformed catechisms, like our favorite, the Heidelberg Catechism: Question 31: Why is [Jesus] called “Christ,” meaning “anointed”? Answer: Because he has been ordained by God the Father and has been anointed with the Holy Spirit to be our chief prophet and teacher who fully reveals to us the secret counsel and will of God concerning our deliverance; our only high priest who has delivered us by the one sacrifice of his body, and who continually pleads our cause with the Father; and our eternal king who governs us by his Word and Spirit, and who guards us and keeps us in the freedom he has won for us. You heard the words there. The Catechism explains that Jesus is our chief prophet, our high priest, our eternal king. These are the three parts of his Messianic office and they give us a fuller picture of how Jesus is our Savior, and get this: we see all three parts in the Book of Hebrews (we actually see all three parts in these first four verses — right at the start). We see Jesus is the Prophet — God has spoken to us definitively in him (verse 2). We see that Jesus is the Priest — he has made purification for sins (verse 3). But the resounding theme we see here — the part that shines brightest in verses 1–4 is that Jesus is the King. We see his supremacy here. That he reigns.Just look at his preeminence — Jesus inherits all things and all things were made through him. That means he is the beginning and the end. “Radiance of God's glory!” That means he is the ray of light beaming forth from the perfections of God. This is why the Nicene Creed calls Jesus the Light from Light. “Exact imprint of God's nature!” That means Jesus is the precise representation of God's heart. It means God is Christlike, and in him there is no un-Christlikeness.Now look at his royal sovereignty — Jesus upholds the universe by the word of his power. Which means he is dependent upon nothing but all things are dependent upon him. What a king, right!?And then what makes the kingship of Jesus clearest here is in verse 3: “he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.” And that's a really big deal because this phrase about Jesus sitting down at the right hand is an allusion back to Psalm 110, verse 1 when David writes, The Lord says to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.” You've probably heard that verse before. That is the most quoted Old Testament verse in the New Testament. When the apostle Peter preached his ground-breaking sermon at Pentecost, in Acts 2, when the church was birthed, Peter concluded that sermon by quoting Psalm 110:1. That was the crescendo. Psalm 110:1 was also the verse that Jesus quoted to the Pharisees that finally shut their mouths. This is in Matthew 22. The Pharisees were altogether and Jesus asked them a question. He said: “What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?” They said to him, “The son of David.” This is right — everyone knew the Messiah would come through the lineage of David.Verse 43, Then Jesus said to them, “How is it then that David, in the Spirit, calls him Lord, Now where does David call the Messiah Lord? In Psalm 110. Jesus quotes it. Verse 44, The Lord said to my Lord,Sit at my right hand,until I put your enemies under your feet. Then Jesus says, Look…Verse 45, “If then David calls [the Messiah] Lord, how can [the Messiah] be his son?” And the Pharisees were speechless. Matthew tells us, “no one was able to answer him a word, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions.” Why? Because Psalm 110 gets at the heart of who the Messiah is. There is an answer to the question Jesus asked. It wasn't rhetorical. Jesus asked how can David call his son, the Messiah, his Lord? The answer is that it's because the Messiah is not just the son of David; he is the Son of God! He is our divine Messianic King — that's what it means that Jesus sat down at the Father's right hand. It means he is our Messianic King who is reigning as God.The Unending VerdictAnd you know, if we take this all in — if we give honest attention to the testimony of Scripture about Jesus and if we look around honest about the world, we'd understand that Jesus is incomparable. He has no rival. He has no equal. But because there are pulls from something else, because apostasy is a possibility, the Book of Hebrews welcomes comparisons. Jesus is incomparable, but Hebrews says: Fine, give it a try. Put beside Jesus whatever you want. Compare him to whatever you want. The verdict is always the same. And that same verdict we first see here in verse 4 — this is the first time the word is used. It's the word translated here as “superior” — the Greek word kreitton — the word is used seven more times in Hebrews and it's translated as “better.” That's what it means. Jesus is better.And you know, if the main purpose of Hebrews is to encourage us to endure (to not fall away but to hold fast), and that means we must look at Jesus, which requires some level of comparison (of our seeing the superiority of Jesus to every possible alternative), then it's accurate, I think, to summarize this entire book in those three words: Jesus is better. Better than every something else. If you're going to hold fast to Jesus, you gotta know that. Take all the “something elses,” bring them altogether, put them side by side. Look at them all. Look at Jesus. Jesus is better.Do you believe that?The reason some of you have not surrendered your life to Jesus yet is because you don't think that's true. Jesus is standing in front of your heart's face and you're saying, “Yeah, I don't know.” What else are you looking for? What do you think could possibly be better than him?And that's a question for all of us, all throughout our lives, and what we need is what the Book of Hebrews does for us. This book shows us that Jesus is better by helping us to “see Christ exalted, bright and burning, full of power and purity.” Would that God do such a work in our hearts!Father in heaven, indeed, we ask that this year, through the Book of Hebrews, make us to behold your Son. Moses prayed and asked you to show him your glory, and we are asking the same thing when we pray for you to show us Jesus. Make us to see Jesus — our Prophet, Priest, and King. Make us to know that he is better. Make us to surrender everything that we are to him. For your glory, in his name, amen.

“A Psalm of David. The LORD says to my Lord: ‘Sit at My right hand Until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet.' The LORD will stretch forth Your strong scepter from Zion, saying, ‘Rule in the midst of Your enemies.' Your people will volunteer freely in the day of Your power; in holy array, from the womb of the dawn, Your youth are to You as the dew. The LORD has sworn and will not change His mind, ‘You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.' The Lord is at Your right hand; He will shatter kings in the day of His wrath. He will judge among the nations, He will fill them with corpses, He will shatter the chief men over a broad country. He will drink from the brook by the wayside; therefore He will lift up His head” (NASU).

THE THESIS: The Party clearly intends to censor anyone who opposes them. We will gather in the way God intended, in ways that are far more difficult to cancel. If we abide in Christ. gathering in real life in the name of God is uncancellable by The Party.  THE SCRIPTURE & SCRIPTURAL RESOURCES:  The religious technocrats of the days of the early church thought they had permanently “cancelled” Jesus the Christ. Yet, after the Lord Jesus was resurrected, spent time with people and then had returned to Heaven, 3,000 people (probably many more), gathered, heard from the Apostles and were publicly baptized right in front of the forces who crucifided Jesus. They formed, on that day, a tight bond that has been tested, but never been broken or “cancelled.” PayPal and Venmo can cancel people fighting to defend children from perversion and mutilation, but they cannot cancel our backyards, neighborhoods, churches and family meetings. Be tightly connected as believers and you, too, will be uncancellable.  Acts 2: 42-47 The Fellowship of the Believers 42 They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43 Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. 44 All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45 They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. 46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. THE NEWS & COMMENT: Meta's Nick Clegg says the company risks being “the greatest industrial-scale censor ever in human history”, Yet the platform continues to censor opinions. But, censoring what opinions, exactly? Big Tech thinks this is hate speech:  [AUDIO] - Gays Against Groomers @againstgrmrs founder Jaimee Michell @thegaywhostrayd appears on Tucker to discuss her org being banned by PayPal and Venmo: "We're not scared, we're not intimidated and we're not going to stop." Big Tech thinks this is “one love . . . “ [AUDIO] - So-called “scholars” are doing exactly what I said they would do ten years ago: they are attempting to make pedophillia into just another “sexual orientation.”  Just like Big Tech thinks questioning their fellow technocrats is a thought-crime PayPal shuts account of group who fought to keep schools open during pandemic; Another casualty of the recent PayPal purge. Abd, it's not just Big Tech. Journalism can be legally punished if journalism makes a point against The Party. Democratic firms prevail in suit against Project Veritas; A jury returned a $120,000 verdict against purveyors of hidden-camera stings against liberals. Unless we change our culture by abiding in Christ, it won't just be PayPal and Venmo. And, it will not just be Facebook, Google, Twitter, PayPal and YouTube doing the spying:  Senator Wyden: US military bought mass monitoring tool that includes email and browsing data The tool reportedly covers 93% of the world's internet traffic. There is some reason to be hopeful Federal Appeals Court Upholds Texas Law Banning Viewpoint Discrimination On Largest Internet Platforms; In a split decision, the Fifth Circuit reverses district court decision in NetChoice v Paxton. But, there is a better reason to be Biblical: they will never cancel God:  Acts 2 The Holy Spirit Comes at Pentecost 2 When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. 2 Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues[a] as the Spirit enabled them. 5 Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. 6 When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard their own language being spoken. 7 Utterly amazed, they asked: “Aren't all these who are speaking Galileans? 8 Then how is it that each of us hears them in our native language? 9 Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia,[b] 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome 11 (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs—we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!” 12 Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, “What does this mean?” 13 Some, however, made fun of them and said, “They have had too much wine.” Peter Addresses the Crowd 14 Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd: “Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say. 15 These people are not drunk, as you suppose. It's only nine in the morning! 16 No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: 17 “‘In the last days, God says,     I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy,     your young men will see visions,     your old men will dream dreams. 18 Even on my servants, both men and women,     I will pour out my Spirit in those days,     and they will prophesy. 19 I will show wonders in the heavens above     and signs on the earth below,     blood and fire and billows of smoke. 20 The sun will be turned to darkness     and the moon to blood     before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord. 21 And everyone who calls     on the name of the Lord will be saved.'[c] 22 “Fellow Israelites, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know. 23 This man was handed over to you by God's deliberate plan and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men,[d] put him to death by nailing him to the cross. 24 But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him. 25 David said about him: “‘I saw the Lord always before me.     Because he is at my right hand,     I will not be shaken. 26 Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices;     my body also will rest in hope, 27 because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead,     you will not let your holy one see decay. 28 You have made known to me the paths of life;     you will fill me with joy in your presence.'[e] 29 “Fellow Israelites, I can tell you confidently that the patriarch David died and was buried, and his tomb is here to this day. 30 But he was a prophet and knew that God had promised him on oath that he would place one of his descendants on his throne. 31 Seeing what was to come, he spoke of the resurrection of the Messiah, that he was not abandoned to the realm of the dead, nor did his body see decay. 32 God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of it. 33 Exalted to the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear. 34 For David did not ascend to heaven, and yet he said, “‘The Lord said to my Lord:     “Sit at my right hand 35 until I make your enemies     a footstool for your feet.”'[f] 36 “Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah.” 37 When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” 38 Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call.” 40 With many other words he warned them; and he pleaded with them, “Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.” 41 Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day. The Fellowship of the Believers 42 They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43 Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. 44 All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45 They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. 46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jesus Our King and Priest Romans 5:12 (ESV)“…sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men…” (Anthropos - man kind, male and female)Romans 5:15 (ESV)“…many died through one man's trespass…”Romans 5:16 (ESV)"…judgment following one trespass brought condemnation…”Romans 5:17 (ESV)“…because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man…”Romans 5:18 (ESV)“…as one trespass led to condemnation for all men…”Romans 5:19 (ESV)“…by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners…”Luke 24:44 (ESV)“…everything written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets, and the Psalms must be fulfilled.”Psalm 110 (ESV)“The LORD says to my Lord:“Sit at my right hand,until I make your enemies your footstool.” The Lord sends forth from Zion    your mighty scepter.    Rule in the midst of your enemies! Your people will offer themselves freely    on the day of your power,    in holy garments;from the womb of the morning,    the dew of your youth will be yours. The Lord has sworn    and will not change His mind,“You are a priest forever    after the order of Melchizedek.” The Lord is at your right hand;    He will shatter kings on the day of His wrath. He will execute judgment among the nations,    filling them with corpses;He will shatter chiefs    over the wide earth. He will drink from the brook by the way;    therefore He will lift up His head.” Jesus our Messiah is our great King and our high priest. Psalm 110:1 (ESV)“The LORD says to my Lord:“Sit at my right hand,until I make your enemies your footstool.” Matthew 22:41-46 (ESV)“Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them a question, saying, “What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is He?” They said to Him, “The son of David.” He said to them, “How is it then that David, in the Spirit, calls Him Lord, saying, if then David calls Him Lord, how is He his son?” And no one was able to answer Him a word, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask Him any more questions.”Psalm 110:2 (ESV)“The Lord sends forth from Zion    your mighty scepter.    Rule in the midst of your enemies!” Psalm 110:3 (ESV)“Your people will offer themselves freely    on the day of your power,    in holy garments;from the womb of the morning,    the dew of your youth will be yours.”Psalm 110:4 (ESV)“The Lord has sworn    and will not change His mind,“You are a priest forever    after the order of Melchizedek.” Psalm 110:5-7 (ESV)“The Lord is at your right hand;    He will shatter kings on the day of His wrath.He will execute judgment among the nations,    filling them with corpses;He will shatter chiefs    over the wide earth. He will drink from the brook by the way;    therefore He will lift up His head.”

THE THESIS: We can get back on track if we get serious about examining where we left the track.  THE SCRIPTURE & SCRIPTURAL RESOURCES:  Jesus did not tell the apostles to distribute copies of what Jesus said to have people read, he told them to baptize people and teach them to follow His way. He told them to create church communities: Acts 2 The Holy Spirit Comes at Pentecost 2 When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. 2 Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues[a] as the Spirit enabled them. 5 Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. 6 When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard their own language being spoken. 7 Utterly amazed, they asked: “Aren't all these who are speaking Galileans? 8 Then how is it that each of us hears them in our native language? 9 Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia,[b] 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome 11 (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs—we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!” 12 Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, “What does this mean?” 13 Some, however, made fun of them and said, “They have had too much wine.” Peter Addresses the Crowd 14 Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd: “Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say. 15 These people are not drunk, as you suppose. It's only nine in the morning! 16 No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: 17 “‘In the last days, God says,     I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy,     your young men will see visions,     your old men will dream dreams. 18 Even on my servants, both men and women,     I will pour out my Spirit in those days,     and they will prophesy. 19 I will show wonders in the heavens above     and signs on the earth below,     blood and fire and billows of smoke. 20 The sun will be turned to darkness     and the moon to blood     before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord. 21 And everyone who calls     on the name of the Lord will be saved.'[c] 22 “Fellow Israelites, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know. 23 This man was handed over to you by God's deliberate plan and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men,[d] put him to death by nailing him to the cross. 24 But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him. 25 David said about him: “‘I saw the Lord always before me.     Because he is at my right hand,     I will not be shaken. 26 Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices;     my body also will rest in hope, 27 because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead,     you will not let your holy one see decay. 28 You have made known to me the paths of life;     you will fill me with joy in your presence.'[e] 29 “Fellow Israelites, I can tell you confidently that the patriarch David died and was buried, and his tomb is here to this day. 30 But he was a prophet and knew that God had promised him on oath that he would place one of his descendants on his throne. 31 Seeing what was to come, he spoke of the resurrection of the Messiah, that he was not abandoned to the realm of the dead, nor did his body see decay. 32 God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of it. 33 Exalted to the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear. 34 For David did not ascend to heaven, and yet he said, “‘The Lord said to my Lord:     “Sit at my right hand 35 until I make your enemies     a footstool for your feet.”'[f] 36 “Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah.” 37 When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” 38 Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call.” 40 With many other words he warned them; and he pleaded with them, “Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.” 41 Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day. The Fellowship of the Believers 42 They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43 Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. 44 All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45 They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. 46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. THE NEWS & COMMENT: The electorate stopped applying religious and character litmus tests when hiring people for government through the vote [AUDIO] - Kammi Harris lying about the border being secure. [AUDIO] -  Chuck Todd: “We're now as a nation battling a threat from within. Is the threat equal or greater than what we faced after 9/11?” Kammi Harris: “…there is an oath that we always take which is to defend and uphold our constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic.” On 9/11: Liar and DHS boss, Alejandro Mayorkas warned today of threats posed by individuals in the U.S. "radicalized to violence" by ideologies "of hate, anti-government sentiment, false narratives propagated on online platforms, even personal grievances" ALSO on 9/11: “US prosecutors may negotiate plea deal with 9/11 architect Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, other conspirators: Report.” . . . reinstitute that test at every level of government, starting in school boards and zoning commissions We made government school compulsory and allowed the government to supposedly negotiate with its big donors, the government school employee collectively known as unions [AUDIO] - Middle school teacher at @NSLA244 says she kneeled for BLM in the classroom and changed the words in the pledge. She also taught her students to protest and become activists and suggests throwing bricks at people with opposing views.  . . . we are constitutionally obliged to provide for education, NOT to provide schools. Return to that, freedom involves choice, serfdom involves diktats.  We let Jefferson's separation of church and state letter become imposition of state on religious expression NY Times Hit Piece On Hasidic Education Published On Eve Of NY Regents Vote To Undermine All Religious Schools; A New York Times article attacking boys' Hasidic schools was published today, on the eve of the New York State Board of Regents vote on regulations poised to undermine the way Jewish religious schools have operated for generations.  The timing of The Times' attack appears planned to influence the vote. WHY did the wise-Latina do the right thing, here? If this was a Christian group, would she have also done the right thing? Could it be that God is reaching her? Maybe Justice Thomas is witnessing to her? Justice Sotomayor Stays NY State Court Order Forcing Yeshiva University To Recognize “Pride Alliance” Club -- “Yeshiva shouldn't have been forced to go all the way to the Supreme Court to receive such a commonsense ruling in favor of its First Amendment rights.” Eric Baxter, Vice President and Senior Counsel at Becket, said, “We are grateful that Justice Sotomayor stepped in to protect Yeshiva's religious liberty in this case.” We let a court pretend that not engaging in interstate commerce IS actually engaging in interstate commerce, which is what gave rise to the federalization of the states and gave teeth to the power of the extra-constitutional administrative state which has metastasized into the Deep State: Men in Black: How the Supreme Court Is Destroying America Levin in National Review (before it's permanent case of TDS) discussing the court's ever-expanding power Authoritarians come in (at least)  two flavors: 42% of Republicans prefer strong unelected leaders to weak  elected ones. 42% of Dems say the president should be able to remove judges whose decisions "go against the national interest." We let so-called journalists hide campaign donations behind the First Amendment  NPR Skips the D-Word on Las Vegas Reporter's Killer, Alludes to Trump Instead [AUDIO] - The @EverettHerald asked the @MurraSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Good morning Church! My name is Trent Houck, and it's my joy to be one of the Pastors here at FCBC. I want to invite you to turn in your Bibles to Colossians 3:1- 4 and have that open in front of you as we set this passage up. Here is my main point today: Jesus is the Focal Point of the Christian Life. Because Jesus is the focal point: God calls Christians to seek Christ, set the mind on Christ, and to see Christ. 1. Seek Christ (Colossians 3:1) 2. Set the Mind on Christ (Colossians 3:2-3) 3. See Christ (Colossians 3:4). Jesus saves us into a life of singular focus. Our argument today is set against the backdrop of the human condition. That is, living with multiple focal points. For example, we want flourishing families. So, we try to center our lives on family. We want flourishing bodies. So, we focus ourselves on happiness and health. We want financial stability. We want to be relieved of our stress. So, we adopt practices that minimize strain. We track our sleep, see a counselor, or become minimalists. Our hearts are crowded by the objects of desire. The more we want something, the more we focus on it. I want to begin this morning by asking a few simple questions: What do you want? What do you desire? What motivates your affections? What is the focus of your life? My argument this morning is that we want whatever it is that takes up the imaginative space of our hearts. It's what we think about when we have nothing else to think about. We want those things that we are sure to keep an eye on. We want those things to which we pay closest attention. Let me just illustrate this by the idea of a focal point. What is the focal point of this first image? The obvious answer is the single air balloon. Your eye is drawn to the center of this picture. You probably feel a sense of peace. The lake is serene and placid. The sky is monochromatic. The trees are all aligned. The horizon is linear. It's beautiful. This is what it's like to have a single focus. 2 However, if I show you a contrasting image. What is the focal point of this second image? The answer is debatable. There may be no focal point. Maybe it's the largest balloon. Maybe it's the nearest. Maybe it's the one in the center of the picture. Your eye moves around, rather than staying focused on a single point. You might feel a sense of stress, unease, or crowdedness. I am personally anxious about the balloons running into each other and seeing people fall from their wicker baskets. The Old Testament is a single story about competing focal points. God commands that his people "have no other gods before me", and he warns that those who construct idols, or take on false gods, become like them. This is not because God feels threatened, or wants to steal our joy, but precisely because he knows that he alone is the source of our highest joys. He proscribes a life of singularity. The Bible teaches that what we want, desire, or pursue eventually becomes the object of our affections. Our pleasures become our pressures. God knows that we are habitual creatures, and that whatever we take pleasure in becomes precious to us. This generation is characterized by the disembodied, absent presence of unchecked desires. We are walking zombies. If you were to ask a sociologist what this generation of people wanted more than anything, I think the sociologist's answer would be: "Everything and Nothing." We are a distracted people, holding hands with God, while engrossed in finding satisfaction in this world. We are everywhere and nowhere at once. Jesus addresses us as the Martha generation: "Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary" (Luke 10:41-42). This is a dangerous way to live. Cal Newport warns that, "[If you] Spend enough time in a state of frenetic shallowness and you permanently reduce your capacity to perform deep [focused] work." This concept also applies to deep worship. Even Winnie the Pooh once 3 famously said, "Sometimes the smallest things take up the most room in your heart." Little things become focal points. So, what do you want? What is the focal point of your life? As a Pastor, I am constantly wrestling with multiple objects of desire. I want our church to be unified. I want ministries to be flourishing. I want to preach well. I want to write. I want to administrate. I want to persuade. I want friends. I want clarity and precision in my thinking. I want to read. I want to feel. I want my marriage to thrive. I want my kids to excel. I want to leave this place better than I found it. I want to be missed when I'm gone. Which of these will become the focus? Well, it depends on the time of day! The Christian life, however, is one of singular focus. We need to know, more than any other generation that we cannot have everything, do everything, experience everything, see everything, be everything, or maintain everything without losing something. Jesus famously said: 24 “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 25 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. 26 For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul? (Matthew 16:24-26). Echoing Jesus, the American Missionary to Ecuador, Jim Elliot, once wrote, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.” And, C.T. Studd, once wrote, "Only one life, 'twill soon be past. Only what's done for Christ will last." Or, to quote our very own Steve Walker: "In 70 years, none of this will matter." What do you want? What is the focus of your life? The Christian can only be about one thing. To say with the Psalmist, 4 One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple (Psalm 27:4). Are you ready to be about one thing? Do you want to be about one thing? We are learning that the Colossians were quite like us. They were at a spiritual set of crossroads. They were being tempted to engage in an infinite number of distractions that would cloud their vision and affection for Jesus. Their one life was threatened and assailed by "...philosophy and empty deceit" (Col. 2:8). Their lives were judged on the basis of what they ate and drank and how they organized their liturgical calendar (Col. 2:16-19). So, they were tempted to submit to regulations that were "...of no value in stopping the flesh" (Col. 2:20-23). The pressures were mounting. In short, they were being given a set of metrics to measure their sense of assurance or spiritual fitness. They were being tempted to regress to the spiritual shallows of multiple focal points. The false teachers were whispering, 'You can have it all!'" They were beginning to slide down the slope of self-righteousness. 'Holiness is this way. Follow us to Christ." Paul, having furiously warned of the dangers of succumbing to this kind of frenetic and chaotic life, now demonstrates in all of chapter three what the Christian life ought to be focused on. And, we can say plainly, that it ought to be focused on Christ alone. Jesus Christ is the single and solitary focal point of the Christian life. There is only one thing that should really matter to the Christian: Jesus Christ. Jesus is enough. There is only one road and only one way. So, we must ask: Why do other focal points crowd out our gaze on Christ? Isn't it astounding to think that Christians, who have come to know Jesus Christ, to 5 love "the glory of God in the face of Jesus" (2 Cor. 4:6), to be filled in Christ (Col. 2:8-10), to be born again to a living hope (1 Peter 1:3), could ever grow distracted by other things? Paul certainly thought so as he wrote to the Galatians, "I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel…" (Galatians 1:6). Why does this happen? You might remember that last week David challenged us to reflect on why we make human-centered rules to maintain our sense of self-righteousness. He said, "The answers to the deeper 'why' questions will reveal a reward you are pursuing or a pain you're avoiding." We start making rules when we get our eyes off of Jesus. Why aren't we growing in Christ? Why are we discouraged, or stuck? Maybe the answer is that we've made our growth the focus of our gaze, instead of Jesus. We're still, in some small way, focused on ourselves! To our surprise, our relationship with God may be about us, and not God. Our Bible reading may have become a vendetta to get something from God, rather than be with God. The problem for the Colossians is the same problem for us. They were tempted to add to Jesus. Ever since the Garden of Eden, we get spiritually stuck when we add something to Jesus. The human-focused way to get unstuck is to adopt idols. New rules. But, that only deepens our ruts. Our hearts are 'idols factories' and ruleproducing. Jesus shows us a better way. God calls the Christian to seek Christ, Set the mind on Christ, and See Christ. 1. Seek Christ (Colossians 3:1) 2. Set the Mind on Christ (Colossians 3:2-3) 3. See Christ (Colossians 3:4). Heavenly Father, we come before you again and ask that you would magnify your name. We want to seek the one thing that really matters. Your words divide between soul and spirit, joint and marrow, and we would ask that you would use it 6 to cut through our defenses. Show us our disordered desires and the ways in which we are inclined to make something or someone else central to our lives. Jesus, thank you that you not only show us what it means to live with a singular focus, but for the joy set before you, you endured the Cross. Your perfect righteousness is now imputed to us by faith so that we stand before you righteous and not guilty. We can now stand before you totally focused on you alone. Holy Spirit, we ask that you would apply these truths directly to the areas of our hearts that we most need them today. Cause us to be open to your ministry, available to your Word, and attentive to your voice. Cause us to be able and willing to lay aside those things that are not central to our purpose in you. In Jesus' name, I pray, amen. First, the Christian is called to seek Christ. Paul writes, If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. The statement "If then you have been raised with Christ…" draws us back to the arguments that Paul was making in Colossians 2:8-15. He writes, "...you were raised with him[that is, Christ] through faith by the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead" (Col. 2:12). While in English, the conditional 'if' seems to indicate doubt, (i.e. if you really love me, you will do the dishes) in Greek, this is what is called a 'first class condition'. That is, something that is assumed for the sake of the argument. So, Paul is saying: "If [as it is the case that] you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is…" He is not contradicting what he said previously. He is showing a connection between the reality of our resurrected state and the command in the second part of the verse. Essentially, he is saying: because you were raised from the dead with Christ, you now exist in a new sphere. You have been transferred into a new dimension, a new kingdom. You are now participating in the new creation. The Kingdom has arrived in Jesus, and it is now being made evident through the work of the Holy Spirit. You have a new identity. A new self. 7 Resurrections happen as people believe the Gospel. We need to pause here and express a sense of wonder. When did this resurrection happen? Paul indicates that this is a past tense, completed action. You "have been raised with Christ." Furthermore, this is something that took place while we were in a state of deathly passivity. He wrote earlier in chapter 2 "When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ (Col. 2:13). Illustration: maybe you have personally witnessed the unresponsiveness of a dead body. They are cold to the touch, immovable, and no matter how loudly you might address the body, he or she would not respond. That is, unless God was speaking. Have you been raised? How would you know? The New Testament reframes the Old Testament idea of resurrection. If you read the gospels, the disciples are consistently confused about when the resurrection will happen. In Jewish tradition, resurrection only happens at the end of the age, if at all. The New Testament, however, teaches that there are different types of resurrection. In Luke 7, for example, the gospel writer shows a physical, material resurrection in the here and now: 11 Soon afterward, Jesus went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a large crowd went along with him. 12 As he approached the town gate, a dead person was being carried out—the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. And a large crowd from the town was with her. 13 When the Lord saw her, his heart went out to her and he said, “Don't cry.” 14 Then he went up and touched the bier they were carrying him on, and the bearers stood still. He said, “Young man, I say to you, get up!” 15 The dead man sat up and began to talk, and Jesus gave him back to his mother. So, there you go: dead people can hear Jesus. That's why if any of you are spiritually dead in this room right now, the second that Jesus wants to, he can say, "Young man, or young woman, I say to you, get up!" 8 But, physical, material resurrection is not what Paul has in mind here. The resurrection that Paul has in mind is a resurrection with Christ. That is, the resurrection here is one that happens through faith. Paul writes, "...you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead" (Col. 2:12). Jesus died on the cross and was buried in the tomb. On the third day, Jesus was raised from the dead. When he was raised, Paul says, you were also raised! This outward, objective, historical reality becomes spiritually significant for you as you believe. It happens within you through faith. That is, the evidence of a spiritual resurrection is not physical, material change but spiritual alertness and responsiveness. Paul writes elsewhere, "So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ" (Romans 10:17). When Jesus speaks, those who have faith respond. This is describing what theologians call regeneration. That is, the new birth. When God speaks, he acts. And, as that action takes place, God calls into being something that was not previously there. God does not perform CPR on a nearly dead heart. He creates a new one. That is why Paul says that when you are buried with Christ and raised to walk in newness of life. You are a new creation in Christ Jesus. If you are a Christian, you are a walking miracle. This should never cease to amaze you! So, now that you are spiritually alive by the power of God, what are you supposed to be up to now? Paul says, If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. The Christian is called to be continually seeking the priorities of God's throne room. It is, as it were, that we continually rap on heaven's door. We are continually placing the priorities of Jesus on our calendars. One author writes, the things that 9 are above, "…include his[Jesus'] character, his presence, his heavenly joys. We are not to be seeking heavenly geography, but the One who dwells there.” Illustration: If you are familiar with the film Free Solo, you know that rock climber, Alex Honnold gives us a great example of this. The central aim of his life was to free solo El Capitan in Yosemite, CA: a 3,000 climb up sheer granite wall without a rope. To "seek" this mountain peak meant to daily, monthly, and yearly training, planning and preparation to scale this wall. Seeking this peak involved careful planning, meticulous placement of hands, feet, fitness, and food intake. The cost for failure was extremely high. El Capitan set the agenda. Alex Honnold conformed his life, his fitness, and his focus to El Capitan. In the same way the Christian's seeking the things that are above defines the Christian life. We are always climbing further up and further into the Person and Work of Christ. Do you have this kind of exalted picture of the living Christ? Jesus is glorious and unreachable, invisibly seated at the right hand of God. Underlying this text is Psalm 110:1, The Lord says to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.” The Father says to the Son, "Take the throne." Hebrews also speaks of this throne room in this way: 3 He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, 4 having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs. (Hebrews 1:3-4). To sit down at the right hand of God is to take up the kingly residence that the whole Old Testament anticipates. It is the highest place. Jesus is preeminent. There is no higher place with which to be preoccupied. 10 To the Christian, this text is saying: "Do that which you most enjoy, and never stop doing it." Seek Christ continually. Set your eyes on Christ. For the new creature in Christ, this is not drudgery. But, it requires total focus and devotion. It is upward and onward. Sermon Illustration: Shasta Fetching Illustration: we are blessed with an Australian Shepherd, Black Labrador Retriever who doesn't need to be told to "continually fetch a tennis ball." It's part of his nature. In fact, it's baked into his name as a retriever. However, if something compelling comes along as a distraction, like a squirrel, he does need to be reminded! In the same way Paul is reminding the Colossians to 'seek Christ.' How does the Christian do this? If Christ is high and exalted like this, how do we reach up to where he is? Those questions lead to the second point. Second, Christians are called to set their minds on Christ. The Christian is called to make their new creation lives about seeking Christ, and conforming your life to Christ is regulated by setting the mind on Christ. 2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. 3 For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. Let me illustrate what this looks like first: Sermon Illustration 1: "Hold on!" Illustration: One of the keys to parenting is manufacturing fun things for your kids to do. We decided, when there was no snow, to take our kids sledding. One of the key commands in sledding is "Hold on!" Keep a tight grip on the sled. While my kids are clinging on for dear life, I am moving them forward. In the same way, the Christian advances in the Christian life by clinging to the cross, by keep our eyes fixed on the Gospel. Rather than advancing on the strength of our moral efforts, the Christian is pulled forward by the strength that the Spirit provides because we have already been seated as Sons and Daughters with Christ. 11 So, what does 'clinging' or 'setting' our minds on Christ look like? First, we need to be clear that the physiological brain and spiritual mind are not the same thing. When Jesus rebukes Peter for misunderstanding Jesus' purpose he says, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man” (Matthew 16:23). Jesus is not saying that Peter has made an intellectual error, though the intellect is a part of the mind. Jesus is not mainly saying, "You marked A instead of B; you failed the test!" He's saying, "The whole way you think about things is actually Satanic, Peter." Whoa. Your mind is framed with Satanic presuppositions. You don't have the right priorities. Further, when Paul uses this word in Philippians 2, "Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus," Paul is not saying: "Have a single brain" though surely he wanted them to think about things similarly. In this text: 1. This is the new, resurrection 'mind'. This is the mind that has been raised from the dead. The mind that responds in faith, trust, and hope. The mind that is unified to Christ by the Holy Spirit. This is the mind that is powered by the Gospel. This is your whole way of thinking now that you are alive in Christ. It's not just the brain. That's why our application can't just be "Memorize Scripture, read your Bible, or Say your prayers." Scripture memory ninjas might have strong brains, but weak minds. 2. This new mind is yours. When a person becomes a Christian, God does not rob them of agency. You are not made less yourself when you become a Christian, but a new self in Christ Jesus. Everything you do, and everything 12 you are is now in relationship to the living Christ. So, the new you has a unique mind. Your God-centered perspective is still yours. 3. This mind makes choices. It is possible for the new mind in Christ to either be fixated on things above or things that are on the earth, but not both at the same time. a. Illustration: A few years ago, due to some health issues, I began eating gluten-free. This involved a change of mind, or a change of heart. I left the world of pizza, pasta, and sourdough bread for a world of rice, meat, and salads. Once I had tasted and seen the new world of new energy, new emotional stability, I didn't want to go back. a. Application: by setting our minds on things above, we are going with the grain of our newly created selves. Sin, for the Christian, is actually a weariness, not a joy. Following Jesus, empowered by the Spirit is the gravitational pull toward Christ and not away from him. b. Connection: this is what is so silly about adding rules to Christ. We don't grow by making life harder on ourselves. We grow by taking on Christ's easy yoke. The truth is that being singularly focused is surprisingly way easier than having multiple foci. So Paul says, 2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. 3 For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. So, what is this new hidden life like? Illustration: we play hide and seek quite a bit in my house. When Sam is "hidden with Damaris in the closet", they are usually pretty loud and easy to find. On the 13 other hand, if I go play hide and seek in the Boise National Forest, the tragic headline might read: "Man lost, hidden with dog in the forest." Verse 3 is perplexing. It requires us to exercise our imaginations. Paul says, "Set your minds [that is, the new mind that is united to Christ's mind] on things that are above…FOR [reason] you [that is, the old mind and heart that was crucified with Christ] have died, and your life [the totality of your new selfhood] is hidden [invisible] with Christ in God. One commentator writes, “…[Christians'] lives are now securely hidden with Christ in God and thus belong to the invisible realm. Their sphere of being, action, and enjoyment is therefore now totally different from that of their former situation.” So, setting your minds on what is above is the natural outflow of your new nature. Do you see what this means? If you are a Christian, you already live in heaven. Hebrews 12 puts it this way: 22 But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, 23 and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, 24 and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. The Christian lives spiritually in the City of God. "Your life is hidden with Christ in God." So, your participation in the Kingdom of God is the natural outflow of your new citizenship in heaven. But, you might say, that's not mapping onto my experience. That leads us to our last point. 14 Third, are called to see Christ. Even though the Christian participates in all of this through faith now, they cannot yet see the things for which they hope. What we see is only partial. Though this is the true reality: "Your life is hidden with Christ in God," we live in the here and now where we are still learning how to put on our new selves. Hebrews puts it this way: 13 These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. 14 For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. 15 If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. 16 But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city (Hebrews 11:13-16). However, even though we cannot see all this yet, we are assured of a promise in this next verse: 4 When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. God has appointed a date for the return of Christ. It will certainly happen. As sure as we are that August 8th is coming, we can be sure that Christ will return. For the Christian, this is not a day to be fearful, but a day for which we long. This is good news for two reasons. First, Because Christ will appear, we will appear too. We need to rest assured that when he comes, we will see him. Whether we are living or dead, we will all see the living Christ when he comes. This is a moment planned in history. Illustration: The simultaneity, or singularity of this event is quite like when someone knocks on our door: the kids run to the door, the dog barks, the parents finish cleaning. It's a simultaneous event to which we all respond. We will not miss it! Second, Because Christ appears, we will appear in his glory. This verse is an invitation to meditate on heaven. 15 Activity: Look around you for a moment. How glorious does the person who is sitting next to you appear? Don't answer that. The truth is that if the person next to you is in Christ, they will one day be absolutely radiant. 1 John 3 says it this way, See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2 Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. 3 And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure (1 John 3:1-3). The Psalmist, anticipating this day says, As for me, I shall behold your face in righteousness; when I awake, I shall be satisfied with your likeness (Psalm 17:15). Romans 8:28-30 says, 28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good,[h] for those who are called according to his purpose. 29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30 And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified. Would you like to spend 30 minutes in heaven? Ladies and gentlemen, through faith you just did! One day, our faith will be sight. And, we will finally realize that our time in the Word, our fellowship with one another, our worship in this place was closest we ever came to heaven in this mortal life. To close, in C.S. Lewis' The Weight of Glory, he writes, “It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest most uninteresting person you can talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree helping each other to one or the other of these destinations. It is in the light 16 of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all of our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations - these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit - immortal horrors or everlasting splendors.” In 100 years, when this generation is dead and gone, what will really matter is Christ. He is, therefore, the only single focal point worth living for. Let us live for him! Let's be rooted in him. Summary: God calls Christians to seek Christ, set the mind on Christ, and to see Christ. 1. Seek Christ (Colossians 3:1) 2. Set the Mind on Christ (Colossians 3:2-3) 3. See Christ (Colossians 3:4). Because Jesus alone sought things above, set his mind on things above, he fulfilled the law. But for our sake he was treated as someone who failed to seek what is above, and to set his mind on things above, so that by his death, burial and resurrection, we might be counted as righteous before God. When he was raised, our justification, sanctification, and glorification were all assured by Christ. So, we are safe with Christ in God. This is good news! 1. Make a List. List your identities and rank them in order of their importance to you. How could the Gospel be applied to each identity? How would the Lord re-rank them? 2. Give. Give something [material, talent, time] away this week that takes your focus off of Christ. Instead of engaging with a distraction, pray. 3. Memorize. Memorize Colossians 3:1-4. Post it somewhere in your home. 4. Read. Read Richard Chin's Book Captivated by Christ with a few people in your Life Group. 17 5. Calendar. Schedule 30-45 minutes each day to read your Bible and pray. Instead of just checking the box: ask the Lord to increase your delight in Him. Focus on Jesus in your reading. 6. Teach. Teach some of the concepts in this text to your kids. Play hide and seek and explain how our true lives are invisible to us, but will be visible one day. Hide in a particularly hard spot and explain that the tension we feel when we can't find a person is a lot like when we can't see Christ right away. Even in the hard times, we can be assured that we will see him. 7. Purge. Sift through your possessions. Ask "Does this matter to Jesus? Or, just to me?" Give or throw away things that are distracting. 8. Plan and re-prioritize. If you knew the date of Jesus' return, or the endpoint of your life, what would take up time in your near-term schedule? 9. Pray and share the Gospel with someone using this resource. https://twowaystolive.com/ 10.Think Deeply. Watch Tim Keller and John Piper discuss the nature of sanctification. Why are we so inclined toward distractions? How can this happen? I think the answer has something to do the cross pressures that assail our identity. For example, by my count I have at least ten identities: I am a 1. Human Being 2. Christian 3. Husband 4. Father 5. Son 6. Brother (friend) 7. Pastor 8. Citizen of the US 9. Suburbanite (i.e. home owner, pet owner, car owner, etc.) 10.Student I would argue that we grow distracted because we can't keep our desires or our identities in proper order in relation to Christ. For me to grow in Christ, the Gospel must be applied to all ten of my competing identities. Everything must be seen in relationship to the single focal point. If you have to balance all these 18 identities, you can see why it might feel necessary to make rules and regulations to keep yourself in order! Sin splits our identities and disorders our priorities. Why is the human heart so inclined toward stagnation? The answer is: We get distracted by multiple focal points. We lose track of ultimate, eternal goals. We age. We grow accustomed to our shortcomings. We leave problems unaddressed. We settle into our self-knowledge, and we begin to repudiate change. We fall into ruts. We begin to make it about us. In short, we get our eyes off of Jesus. Illustration: My wife Lauren has planted sunflowers for the past two years in our backyard. They are now over 10 ft. tall. Imagine one day if I walked out into the backyard and said, "Lauren, why isn't this sunflower growing?" She would respond, "It is." "Oh," I might say, "I can't see it." Precisely. Our Christian growth cannot be measured in daily metrics, experiences, or moments but over a lifetime. In fact, in most cases, we cannot see it. The human tendency to measure things can only give an account for what's happening on the human plane. So, when it comes to spiritual growth (i.e. how much is your soul being stretched right now?), we can't answer those questions, except through the revealed word of God. The ultimate answer to this "Why?" questions are found just inside the gates of the Garden of Eden. In Genesis 3, Eve took of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge good and evil, which Adam had been commanded not to eat from "...and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate" (Genesis 3:6). Later, God's curse is grounded on the fact that "...You[Adam] listened to the voice of your wife…", implying that Adam had failed to listen to the one voice that truly mattered: God's voice. His gaze was distracted. He failed to stay focused. He took on two focal points: obedience to God and Eve. Jesus shows us a better way than Adam. John Piper writes that sin is to fail to recognize the centrality of God to our identity. He says that sin is, ● The glory of God not honored. 19 ● The holiness of God not reverenced. ● The greatness of God not admired. ● The power of God not praised. ● The truth of God not sought. ● The wisdom of God not esteemed. ● The beauty of God not treasured. ● The goodness of God not savored. ● The faithfulness of God not trusted. ● The promises of God not believed. ● The commandments of God not obeyed. ● The justice of God not respected. ● The wrath of God not feared. ● The grace of God not cherished. ● The presence of God not prized. ● The person of God not loved. The answers to the why questions of our rule making, the pressures of our responsibilities and identities reveal that our hearts are 'idols factories.' Why is the human heart so inclined toward stagnation? The answer is: We get distracted by multiple focal points. We lose track of ultimate, eternal goals. We age. We grow accustomed to our shortcomings. We leave problems unaddressed. We settle into our self-knowledge, and we begin to repudiate change. We fall into ruts. We begin to make it about us. In short, we get our eyes off of Jesus. The ultimate answer to this "Why?" questions are found just inside the gates of the Garden of Eden. In Genesis 3, Eve took of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge good and evil, which Adam had been commanded not to eat from "...and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate" (Genesis 3:6). Later, God's curse is grounded on the fact that "...You[Adam] listened to the voice of your wife…", implying that Adam had failed to listen to the one voice that truly mattered: God's voice. His gaze was distracted. He failed to stay focused. He took on two focal points: obedience to God and Eve. Jesus shows us a better way than Adam. God is calling us today to seek Christ, set our minds on Christ, and to see Christ. This is the key to reordering our lives around God and the Gospel, and not ourselves or our multiple identities.

29 “Fellow Israelites, I can tell you confidently that the patriarch David died and was buried, and his tomb is here to this day. 30 But he was a prophet and knew that God had promised him on oath that he would place one of his descendants on his throne. 31 Seeing what was to come, he spoke of the resurrection of the Messiah, that he was not abandoned to the realm of the dead, nor did his body see decay. 32 God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of it. 33 Exalted to the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear. 34 For David did not ascend to heaven, and yet he said, “‘The Lord said to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand35 until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.”' 36 “Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah.” Acts 2:29-36