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Do the things you do every day line up with the things you say you believe? We Christians can be quick to profess our faith, we talk about love, forgiveness, and following Jesus. But what does your life actually show? Royalty Free Music: https://www.bensound.comLicense code: HPKTAAQWKQPOUBYFMusic by https://www.bensound.com/free-music-for-videosLicense code: GGD2CJB9Y8NXQQL1
Gospel of Mark: We Christians might assume that the Lord's favorite title for Himself, being God the Son, would be, the Son of God. Indeed, the Gospel of Mark begins by identifying Jesus in that way. However, five times more frequently, Mark uses Jesus own favorite title for Himself, the Son of Man. Throughout all of eternity past, He had always been the Son of God. However, to become the Son of Man, He would need to lower Himself. Indeed, the Lord lowered Himself in so many ways, as He would need to do even to have the evangelist Mark write this amazing account of His life, death and resurrection. The Gospel of Mark Bible study vol. 1 is available on MP3-CD, MP3 Download or in video in a 9-DVD Set. BEL SUBSCRIPTIONS: Please consider one of our monthly subscriptions that will not only help support BEL, but they also promote better understanding of the Bible and may equip you to more effectively reach those around you. Monthly Downloads: Enjoy your monthly subscription is download form rather than on disc. Monthly Sermons: Enjoy all of Bob's sermons from the month on Sermon Video DVD, great also to watch with the family. Or, get these on Sermon Audio CDs which are standard audio Compact Discs that will play on any CD player including the one in your car. Or get them on a single Sermon MP3-CD which will play on an MP3 player, in a DVD player, or in your computer.Monthly Bible Studies: Enjoy the Scriptures with Bob's Monthly Bible Study DVDs, great too for a small group Bible study. Or get these teachings on a single Monthly Bible Study Audio MP3- CD which will play on an MP3 player, in a DVD player, or in your computer.Monthly Topical Videos: Coming to your mailbox, you'll get a Monthly Topical DVD to enjoy one of Bob's great videos specially selected to be entertaining and to teach about life from a biblical worldview.Monthly Best of Bob Shows: Every month our crew selects the eight best BEL shows of the month and for the folks who might have missed some of them, we mail them out on the Best of Bob MP3-CD.Monthly BEL TV Classics: Enjoy Bob Enyart's timeless, popular TV show delivered to your home on the Monthly BEL TV Classics DVDs with great audio and video clarity thanks to our state-of-the-art mastering from the studio-quality Sony beta tapes to DVD!Monthly Donation: For folks who just want to make sure that Bob Enyart Live stays on the air, please consider making a pledge in the form of a Monthly Donation.
Tax season is approaching! Most of us don't like paying the government. It was the same in Bible times. Even then, people avoided—and even cheated on!—taxes. Jesus called out the hypocrisy of the religious leaders who weren't honest in their giving to the government or to God. We Christians are to do everything as unto the Lord, so we have to be honest in all of our exchanges.
Pastor Lee brought an inspiring message on We (Christians) are a Holy Naton, We are a peculiar people and We are to declare God's praises to others!
Jesus' second coming is actually talked about more in the New Testament than His first. We Christians make an enormous deal out of Christmas – and we should! – the Incarnation of God on earth was the event on which all of human history pivots! But Jesus Himself repeatedly called people to look ahead to His second coming.
Get ready for one explosive lesson. It all focuses on Gen. 12:1-3 ... Now the LORD said to Abram, "Go forth from your country, And from your relatives And from your father's house, To the land which I will show you; And I will make you a great nation, And I will bless you, And make your name great; And so 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." (NASB Gen 12:1-3) If there is one place in the TORAH, if there is one instance in the Old Testament where God proclaims "good news" for all of us, it is right here. I normally do not rely on Orthodox Rabbinic commentary to help me understand the Bible. Too many times rabbis interpret the Bible in ways that are not based on the historical or cultural context or make up explanations that they need to deal with a scriptural difficulties or issues too tough to answer rationally. It is like the miracle of the oil at Chanukah. It never happened. I am not stating my opinion. I am just telling you what scholarly Jewish sources teach. We Christians fall into the trap of assuming the Orthodox rabbis are THE resource for understanding the Bible from a Jewish point of view. Far from it. For example the Orthodox say the 1st temple was destroyed in 423 B.C. based upon their personal interpretation of some verses in Daniel. However, they are wrong. Archaeology and history prove the temple was destroyed in 586 B.C. So, we need to be very very careful when accessing Orthodox Rabbinic Bible commentary. Here's a link to one of those sources to help you understand that the miracle of the oil never happened on Hanukkah. Link - https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/transforming-hanukkah/ However, Rabbinic commentary is not always so off; that is not always the case. I do access rabbinic commentary, not as my primary source, but I need to glean from their ideas and thoughts. In the case of Genesis 12:1-3 their commentary blew me away as I think it will you. Their contributions to understanding these three verses are truly amazing and show us that the foundation of the New Testament is the TORAH. Here we will see, thanks to the rabbis, the gospel of the Kingdom, their view that this is a new start for all mankind, and that the Hebrew of these verses gave Paul insights into his picture of us Gentiles being "grafted in." We recall the verse ... But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive, were grafted in among them and became partaker with them of the rich root of the olive tree ... (Rom 11:17) Here's a picture of branches grafted into an olive tree ... Here's an article you may find interesting that goes into the Hebrew of these verses that relate to the Gospel, the Good News, that God inspired Moses to write about. Link – https://moedtorah.blogspot.com/2012/10/torah-portion-lech-lecha-blessed-and.html Rev. Ferret - who is this guy? What's his background? Why should I listen to him? Check his background at this link - https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/8qth6w4e56oub9js1w1gu/BackgrndTeacher-mar-25-2020.pdf?rlkey=f14fr2wmde5fezjmnrny8cycl&st=8kag3nil&dl=0
We Christians would all probably say that we love him, but how can we really know? What is the metric for that? How can I be sure?
November 16, 2024Hello and Happy Day! This is Dr. MaryAnn Diorio, Bible Teacher, Novelist, and Life Coach, welcoming you to another episode of Winning with the Word. Today is Saturday, November 16, 2024, and this is episode #22 in Series 2024. This episode is titled, “The Truth about Healing."Recently, I was severely criticized for my position on healing. Interestingly, the criticism came not from non-Christians who don't believe in Jesus Christ, but from born-again, Christ-Followers who do. While the criticism troubled me, it troubled me for a reason other than what you might think. I wasn't at all troubled because I was criticized. Jesus warned us believers that criticism would come, and I have certainly had my share over the years. The criticism troubled me because the critics, for whatever reason, were missing out on one of the greatest blessings Jesus Christ died to give all of us. The blessing of healing and health. Whenever a question comes up about a topic, we should go first to the Word of God. The Word of God is like a referee. It alone determines the truth or error of a particular belief or belief system.So let's take a close look at what Jesus Himself said about healing. First, God makes clear in His Word that healing is in the Atonement. The Atonement is the reconciliation between God and humanity that Jesus brought about by dying on the Cross and rising from the dead. Through the Atonement, Jesus paid the price for the forgiveness of our sin and the healing of our bodies. We acknowledge this truth every time we take Holy Communion. The wine represents the Blood of Jesus that earned for us the forgiveness of our sin. The Bread represents the Body of Jesus that paid for our physical healing. Jesus died to save the whole person, not just the spiritual person. Now, God is not only able to heal us; He wants to heal us. And even more than that, He has already healed us. When Jesus took the 39 lashes on His back just before being crucified, He paid for our healing. He took our sickness and disease and, in exchange, gave us His health. Let's look closely at some Scripture verses that reveal this truth: __Matthew 8: 17 NLT - "This fulfilled the word of the Lord through the prophet Isaiah, who said, 'He took our sicknesses and removed our diseases.'” Notice Jesus “took our infirmities” —our sicknesses—and “bare [or "bore" in modern English] our sicknesses” so that we would not have to bear them. __Psalm 103: 2-3 NLT - "Let all that I am praise the LORD; may I never forget the good things He does for me. He forgives all my sins and heals all my diseases." Notice: God heals ALL our diseases; not some, but ALL. Just as He forgives all of our sins, He heals all of our diseases. Imagine if we believed that God forgives only some of our sins or that He forgives the sins of only some people, but not the sins of all people. I don't know of anyone who believes in that kind of partial forgiveness of sin by God. Yet, that is exactly what we believe about healing. Why would the God Who forgives all sin heal only some sickness?We Christians sometimesdon't think straight. We don't carry their thinking to its logical conclusion but we hold on to tradition or wrong teaching without ever questioning it.Here is another Scripture verse on healing: —-Mark 11: 24 NJKV - "Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask, when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them."Notice: This verse instructs us to believe when we pray, not when we receive the answer to our prayer. If we believe when we pray, then we receive what we prayed for the instant we pray for it. But, the manifestation—or the showing up—of what we prayed for usually comes later. For example, I believe that I receive healing the instant I pray for it, but the healing may not show up in my body until later. Sometimes a lot later. God's will for healing is clear in the verses I cited above, and in many other verses throughout the Sacred...
This is the most important message I can send. If you wish to share in this work, kindly consider supporting me: https://www.givesendgo.com/berggren Yes, the Jews are the Antichrist. The Jews are the 666. Jews have been antichrist since their ancestors began murdering the prophets long ago. Jews murdered the Christ of God — who rose from the dead. Jews exactly fit the description of Antichrist in 1 John 2:22, 1 John 4:3 and 2 John 1:7-11. Pastors who great and welcome Jews share in the wicked work of the Antichrist. No, I”m not kidding. Jesus Christ made it clear that Jews are the devil's children and that Jews do the work of their father who is murders and lies in John 8:44 Jesus Christ made clear that Jews are liars and of the synagogue of Satan in Revelation 3:9 Jesus Christ made it clear that he rejected the Jews and will cause the Jews to bow down before the European Christian Church. Revelation 3:9 “I will make those who are of the synagogue of Satan, who claim to be Jews though they are not, but are liars—I will make them come and fall down at your feet and acknowledge that I have loved you.” Revelation 3:9 Jews do Satan's work to steal, kill, lie, destort, defraud and murder. Shame on preachers and Christians who support the antichrist. Wake up, Church. We have been deceived and we have been cowardly. The name of Jews was left as a curse and God's people are called by a new name, Christian. Never equate “Jew” with Israel. Jews who call themselves Israel are no better that the tranny males who call themselves womean — they are frauds, liars, and imposters. “Those who call themselvs Jews but are not but are the synagogue of Satan.” As soon as Saul converted to become Christian, he immediately begin confounding the Jews. Stephen immediately accused the Jews of murdering the Prophets and Jesus Christ. Peters first sermons identified thew rebellious sons of Israel as the murderers of the Righteous One: Acts 3:14 Yet we live in an age even the elect have been deceived. But what do our Pastors do? They grovel before the Biblical Antichrist. David never had a star — the symbol of the Jews is the Star of Rompha The Jews explicitly rejected Christ as king and asked for a murderer be granted them. Judas Iscariot sided with the Jew. The destiny of Jews is Luke 19:27. We Christians are willfully guilty of cowardice before the antichrist. For those who cannot make this stand, Christ will disown us in the presence of the Holy Angels. Fritz Berggren, PhD bloodandfaith.com
Christians must participate in the electoral process. We cannot sit it out because we don't like the candidates. We only have human choices on the ballot, and we always have a better choice or a worse choice. We simply cannot sit home and not participate. We Christians are a huge force to be reckoned with […] The post #392 The importance of the evangelical vote appeared first on Heidi Harris Show.
https://youtu.be/1Jp6o_9RVtk?si=MXn3Nwadrey_eP7N Taking Hatred Head on - 2 - The High Cost of Hatred and a Better Option Taking Hatred Head On Bumper Welcome to Redemption Church of Plano Tx. My name is Chris Fluitt! Hatred Head On Hatred is widespread.-in our heart. Extreme radical Hate Extreme radical Community The answer to hatred is a new heart and community. The Challenge Weeks from now… Be extreme & radical in community. Take constant steps in LOVE over hate. Days from now… That surprising anger – STOP and pray for your enemy. Might feel awkward/insincere at first, but stick with it. It changes your heart. How are we doing? Today…The High Cost of Hatred and a Better Option Me- The high cost of Hating College – jerk, better than you, show off car, unlikeable Hits me with his car. Still a jerk. Hard to not hate this guy. The high cost of being Hated Grocery store with Alex. See someone(perhaps), who hates me… has lied about me, has been threatening to my wife… Anxiety, fear, panic, flight You- Imagine the person you hate…-the person you have trouble loving, serving, caring… Imagine the person that hates you…-causes you to want to fight (hate them back)-causes you to want to flight (shame, guilt, fear) Someone in the office, school, church…Someone from a past relationship…Just a random person…Someone in the news, social media, celebrity, a Philadelphia Eagles fan. Aftermath- Consumed by hatred – High Cost. • Deterioration of mental health: Increased stress, anxiety, and depression. • Physical health issues: Cardiovascular problems, weakened immune system, and other physical ailments. • Damaged relationships: Destroyed friendships, romantic partnerships, and family bonds. • Reduced productivity: Obsessing over hatred can distract from work and personal goals, leading to decreased performance. • Emotional exhaustion: Maintaining hatred requires significant emotional energy, leaving little for positive experiences. • Impaired decision-making: Cloud judgment and lead to poor choices in various aspects of life. • Spiritual/moral decline: Hatred is detrimental to personal growth and spiritual well-being. We can see the high cost of hatred EVERYWHERE! We Christians are not immune to the struggle of hatred. What does Jesus say about this? What if the cost of hate is higher than we know?What if some of our actions that we feel are justified are not justified and hateful? Matthew 5:21-26 21 “You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘You shall not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.' Murder is real serious. Real hatred.I don't go that far… 22 But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to a brother or sister, ‘Raca,' is answerable to the court. And anyone who says, ‘You fool!' will be in danger of the fire of hell. What “judgment?” The judgment of murder. Anger is murder. Do you have unresolved issues of anger?Could God judge you as a murderer? It is not enough to say… well I am angry but I have not done anything… What is in the heart is still judged. What about what comes out of our mouth? “anyone who says to a brother or sister, ‘Raca,' is answerable to the court.” Raca- empty headed insult. “And anyone who says, ‘You fool!' will be in danger of the fire of hell.” The hate in our heart… and the hate in our word is judged. Anger is murder.Our angry words put us in danger of hell fire. Do we take our anger serious? 23 “Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, 24 leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to them; then come and offer your gift. How serious is Jesus about overcoming hatred and anger and becoming reconciled? The gift at the altar… Israelites would travel to the temple in Jerusalem to bring a sacrifice to the altar. They could travel hundreds of miles…
September 6, 2024 Today's Reading: 2 Kings 4:8-22, 32-37Daily Lectionary: 2 Kings 4:8-22, 32-37; Ephesians 5:15-33“And he said, “At this season, about this time next year, you shall embrace a son.” And she said, “No, my lord, O man of God; do not lie to your servant.” But the woman conceived, and she bore a son about that time the following spring, as Elisha had said to her.” (2 Kings 4:16-17) In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. God is in the business of resurrection. He brings life into the non-living. It's who He is– He is life, and it's what He does– He is the giver of life. God may give life directly by Himself, or He may use someone or something else, but He is always the source. In the beginning, God brought forth life out of nothing by His Word and Spirit. He breathed life into dead dust, and Adam became a living being. He gave life to Sarah's womb, and she bore a living son, Isaac. Scripture is full of stories such as these, and they tell the wonderful story of the life-giving God who is in the business of making alive what is dead. Elisha, the prophet of God, told a woman from Shunem that she would have a son, although she and her husband could not have children. Sound familiar? Sure enough, God was true to His Word, and she bore a son. Tragedy struck, and her first-born only son died. In faith, she sought out Elisha and told him the news. Elisha entered into the room of her dead son, prayed to the Lord, touched him, and he awakened from death. “Talitha cumi… Little girl, I say to you, arise” (Mark 5:41). Jesus spoke these words over the lifeless body of Jarius' daughter. Death had to bow to the Lord of life. Jesus' words breathed resurrection life into her, and she became a living being. Word, breath, Spirit, and life – God's instruments for resurrection given to the dead to make alive. “And you were dead in [your] trespasses and sins” (Ephesians 2:1). What hope do we have of life when we are already born dead? Like Adam, Sarah, Jarius' daughter, and the son of the Shunammite woman, who needed life to be given to them, so do we, and God did. “God, being rich in mercy…made us alive together in Christ, by grace you have been saved” (Ephesians 2:4). Jesus died! He was buried! And on the third day, he rose again from the dead that he might be the firstfruits of those who have died (1 Corinthians 15:20). And if Jesus is the firstfruit, that means there are certainly more to follow. Christ has covered all your sins by His death, and He has conquered your grave through His life. We Christians do not fear death. No, Jesus' words trump our sin and our death. They hold no power over us. His Word has been spoken over you. They are words of life. You are forgiven! Arise! Eternal life is yours! In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.It was a strange and dreadful strife When life and death contended; The victory remained with life, The reign of death was ended, Holy Scripture plainly saith That death is swallowed up by death, Its sting is lost forever. Alleluia! (LSB 458:4)-Rev. Darrin Sheek, pastor at Prince of Peace Lutheran Church Anaheim, CA.Audio Reflections Speaker: Pastor Jonathan Lackey is the pastor at Grace Lutheran Church, Vine Grove, KY.The new Guiding Word series takes you through all the books of the Bible in six volumes. Starting with the Books of Moses—Genesis through Deuteronomy—you will explore every passage of every chapter of each book with the help of maps, diagrams, links between the testaments, and clarification points.
“We (Christians) have a very positive message in addressing all the cutting edge issues–from abortion to homosexuality to transgenderism–all of them involve, in some way, the body. And as Christianity today that has a much higher view of the body than any other religon or philosophy. [That] gives us the opportunity to have a very positive approach when we’re talking to our friends and family members on these issues.” ~Nancy Pearcy Self Evident is delighted to share our conversation with the one and only Nancy Pearcy.… Continue Reading
Acts 14:2–3 Some of the Jews, however, spurned God's message and poisoned the minds of the Gentiles against Paul and Barnabas. But the apostles stayed there a long time, preaching boldly about the grace of the Lord. Paul and Barnabas were having an amazing time on their first missionary journey. A large number of people were becoming followers of Jesus. At the same time, they were meeting fierce opposition. At Iconium, in central Turkey, the mob was stirred up against them and, after a while, the situation became so dangerous that they fled the city. There was every possibility that they were going to be stoned to death (vv5–6). But I love the fact that, amidst the intensity of the opposition, their message was one of grace. It must have been very tempting for them to turn on the crowd and to deliver a message of judgement and condemnation. But they chose to speak about the grace of the Lord. Grace is a dominant theme in Paul's ministry. In Ephesians 2:8 he wrote: “God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can't take credit for this; it is a gift from God.” There is nothing that we can do to gain salvation. It is completely outside our grasp. But, because God is so incredibly generous, he was willing to do for us what we could never do for ourselves and set us free from our sins. And our gracious God goes on being generous to us. In our Christian lives we, sadly, continue to fall far short of perfection. But God continues to love and forgive us, setting us free to live lives of liberty and fulfilment. We Christians have many things that we would like to say to our society but, above everything else, we need to ensure that we are declaring boldly the grace of the Lord. Question How would you explain the grace of God to someone who had never heard about it before? Prayer Gracious God, thank you for your generosity to me. Help me to take every opportunity to tell other people of your amazing grace. Amen
We Christians and those who don't think of themselves as a Christian deal with temptations of many kinds. It is amazing to know that even Jesus was tempted. But He, unlike us, never sinned. Join Pastor Terry as he unveils a helpful tool Jesus used that can help us to resist giving in to temptation. NEXT STEPS: I will become more aware of times when I am tempted. I will follow the example of Jesus and use Scripture when tempted. I will create a list of scriptures to access when tempted.
Revelation 22:5b Wait! We Christians shall REIGN in Heaven...?
Revelation 22:4A - Wait! We Christians will see God's FACE?
“Salt and Light” Matthew 5:13-16 May 19, 2024 Pastor Tony Felich Sermon Application [file] ----more---- Matthew 5:13 “You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet. [14] “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. [15] Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. [16] In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. Christians have an important effect on a world that is corrupt and dark. • We (Christians) are citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven living in the Kingdom of this world. • We (Christians) function as salt in the world. • We (Christians) function as light in the world.
We Christians at times think that we have reached a certain level of maturity in the faith and yet in reality we have just plateaued. In this sermon, Pastor Donnie McClurkin admonishes us to continually change and transform our image and likeness unto God and realize who we are to be according to God's purpose for our lives and travail until you become as such for we have been credentialed by God. Matthew 16:13-19 Luke 10:19 We stream live every Sunday at 11 am ET and every Wednesday at 8 pm ET. Visit our website: https://perfectingfaithchurch.com Connect with us on social media! Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PerfectingFaithChurch/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/perfectingfaithchurch/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/PFCNY Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@perfectingfaithchurch
Moses had it all. He was Pharaoh's daughter's son, after all. Then he realized, “Wait a minute. I'm a Hebrew.” So by faith he said, “I'm not identifying with what's easy. I'm identifying with who I really am in God.” We Christians can be so tepid. Who are you—Democrat, Republican, white, black, southern, American? Or by faith will you boldly say, “No, I'm a Christian.” Let's be courageous. Let's walk by faith.
The Lord is risen! The Lord is risen indeed!Whatever the origins of our English word Easter — and they are apparently too ancient and complicated to trace with certainty, even for Encyclopedia Brittanica — Easter has come to function for us today as a two-syllable designation for “Resurrection Sunday.” That's six syllables down to two.Easter is the highest day in the church calendar, the one Sunday that we specially celebrate the reality which we seek to live in light of every day of the year: that Jesus, the eternal Son of God, who lived on earth in full humanity, and died on the cross on Good Friday, rose again bodily, on Sunday morning.And this Easter we find ourselves at the halfway point of Philippians. In meditating on these verses, with Easter in view, I've paused over this word safe in verse 1. What does Paul mean that his “writ[ing] the same things . . . is safe”?As I was pondering Easter safety this week, I started seeing the word everywhere. Apparently, we are a people very conscious of safety, and very interested in safety, and perhaps hardly realize how much. In the news just this week was more of the Boeing “safety crisis.” And I saw headlines that read, “Eclipse safety: NYS task force has been working since 2022 to prepare for April 8”, “Senators say Meta's Zuckerberg is slow-walking child safety inquiries.”And I found appeals to safety in my own inbox: The city of Minneapolis directed me to get an HVAC “safety check” as part of a home inspection. I saw a message from SportsEngine with the call to action: “Keep your athlete safe.” And I received unwanted marketing emails that offered the option to “Safely Unsubscribe” (in small print at bottom).Some of our constant pursuit of safety is, of course, shallow and misguided and overly fearful. Our modern lives can be filled with petty and disordered desires for safety. And at the same time, there are wise, holy, reasonable desires for safety. That's what Paul appeals to in verse 1:“Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you is no trouble to me and is safe for you.”Easter JoyBefore we focus on “Easter safety,” which will be our theme this morning, let me first say something about “Finally” at the beginning of verse 1. I know there's a preacher joke here. “Just like a preacher! Paul says ‘Finally' when he's only halfway done!”However, this “finally” is actually a loose connecting phrase that can mean “finally” in some contexts, but in others, it can be “so then” or “in addition” or “above all.” The key here is that Paul just mentioned joy and rejoicing in 2:28–29. And before then, he mentioned gladness and rejoicing, twice each, in 2:17–18. And before that, he made a double mention of his own rejoicing in 1:18. Have you noticed how often Paul not only talks about joy in Philippians, but does it in pairs? We'll see it again in 4:4: “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice.” It's like he just can't say it enough. To say it just once doesn't seem to do it. He needs to say it again.And Paul is aware of how often he's talking about rejoicing, and doing so in pairs, and so after saying “rejoice in the Lord” in 3:1, he adds a little bit of a defense for it. He wants his readers to know he's aware he might sound like a broken record, but he means it, in the best of ways. He's not being lazy, or simple-minded. He doesn't want to bore them, but to help them, to make them safe. He overcomes whatever dislike or distaste he might have for obvious repetition, and says, “To write the same things to you is no trouble to me and is safe for you.”It's safe to keep saying, Rejoice in the Lord. It's for your good. You can't overdo rejoicing in the Lord. Now, you can underdo all sorts of other things, while rejoicing in the Lord. You can underdo sorrow and grieving. You can underdo seriousness and playfulness. And you can overdo all those. You can overdo all sorts of good things. But joy in Christ, rightly understood, truly experienced, you cannot overdo. You cannot overdo rejoicing in Jesus.Three SafetiesOur question this morning on Easter is, Safe from what? What does Easter joy, the double joy, repeated joy, the great joy of the resurrection of Jesus, which is the beating heart of the joy of Christianity, what does joy in the risen Christ give safety from and how?I see three threats in these verses, and so three safeties for us in the Easter joy of rejoicing in the risen Christ.1) Easter joy gives us safety from foes.To be clear, foes, or opponents (1:28), in and of themselves, are the least concern of these three threats. Still real, but the least troubling on their own. So, Paul says in verse 2:“Look out for the dogs, look out for the evildoers, look out for those who mutilate the flesh.”So, who are these “dogs” nipping at the Philippians' heels?My family and good friends will tell you I'm not a dog person. I recognize that many of you are dog people. I can respect that — to a degree. Sometimes when dogs come up, I like to say, with a smile, “Well, you know what the Bible says about dogs, don't you?”Let's just say the picture is very negative — but it does have a twist. Dogs were the scum of ancient cities. They were unclean and nasty, like we think of rats today. Dogs would devour dead flesh and lick up spilled blood. And perhaps related to this, the Jews came to associate “Gentiles” (non-Jews) with dogs. Gentiles were unclean, according to the old covenant; they were outsiders. You may recall Jesus's interaction with the Canaanite (Gentile) woman in Matthew 15 (and Mark 7), where he says, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. . . . It is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs” — the Gentiles.For Paul, there is an insightful irony in calling these foes “dogs,” because they presume that they are the insiders, and that Gentiles, like the Philippians and us, are the outsiders. We're the dogs, unclean and unsafe, they think — unless we add old-covenant law-keeping (marked by circumcision) to faith in Jesus.We call these opponents “Judaizers.” They tried to Judaize Christianity; they tried to put Christ-believing Gentiles back under old-covenant Judaism, rather than letting them just be Gentile Christians in the new covenant without the baggage of the previous era. These Judaizers went around telling Gentile Christians that, essentially, they needed to become Jews physically in order to be truly saved, and safe. And these Judaizers often dogged Paul's ministry. They followed him around. After he'd bring the gospel to Gentiles, and move on to the next town, they'd sweep in and try to get new Gentile Christians to think they needed to add Judaism to their faith.So, when Paul calls them “dogs,” he's not aiming to insult them but to use instructive irony for the sake of his readers. He's turning the tables to make the point that believing Gentiles are actually the true Jews (spiritually), and these Judaizers have become the new Gentiles, the outsiders, the dogs. Now Christ has come, and been raised, and inaugurated a new covenant. With Easter Sunday, old is gone; behold, new has come. And these Judaizing foes might think of themselves as doing good works, according to the old covenant, but in fact they are “evil workers.” In trying to circumcise Gentile flesh in obedience to the old covenant, they are, in fact, mutilators of the flesh. They have missed how Good Friday and Easter have remade the world.So, how does Easter joy, rejoicing in the risen Christ, make us safe from such foes, these and a thousand others? Specifically, rejoicing in the real Jesus fortifies our souls against trying to add anything to the grounds of our rejoicing. In rejoicing in him — in who he is, in what he accomplished for us at the cross, in his rising back to life, and in that he is alive today and our living Lord on the throne of the universe — we come to know a fullness of joy that will not be flanked or supplemented by anything else. Being satisfied in the risen Christ keeps us from being deceived by other shallow appeals to joy, and keeps us from temptations to try to add to him.Rejoicing in Jesus is practical. Are you seeking to rejoice in him? Do you aim at this, and pray for this? When you open the Bible? When you pray? When you gather with fellow Christians, and when we come to worship together on Sunday mornings, and when you go to work, and when you live the rest of life, are you seeking to rejoice, to be satisfied, to be happy in the risen Christ?So, Easter joy gives us safety from foes.2) Easter joy gives us safety from our own flesh.This is a greater concern — the danger of self-ruin, the threat of our own sinful hearts, various habits and patterns that would lead us to trust in ourselves for salvation. Or, we might say, the way that foes are a real threat to our souls is through our own sin. Foes harm us by deception. Then, being deceived, we move to trust in ourselves. Verse 3:“For we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh.”Remember from verse 2 these Judaizing foes — who claim to be God's true people, his Israel, the circumcision — they are actually the dogs, the new Gentile outsiders. Because, Paul says, in verse 3, with emphasis, we are the circumcision. We Christians, both Jews like Paul and Gentiles like the Philippians, who — and this is such an important “who” with the sequence that follows. Here we get to the heart of the Christian life, which is the human heart. Oh get this clear on Easter Sunday. Get this heart. Get what it means to be God's new-covenant people. Circumcision of the flesh is not what makes and defines us. Human deeds and efforts and abilities do not make us and define us. Rather, what circumcision of the flesh had been pointing to all along is circumcision of the heart. That is, a new heart, new desires. A born-again soul. New creation in you. God opens the eyes of your soul to the wonder of his risen Son. He changes your heart to marvel at Jesus and rejoice in him. So, here in verse 3 we get three marks of what it means to really be a Christian.One, we “worship (live, walk, serve) by the Spirit of God.” That is, God has put his own Spirit in us. He dwells in us. We have the Holy Spirit. Can you believe that? If you are in Christ, you have the Holy Spirit. God himself, in his Spirit, somehow “dwells in” you. We saw it in 2:13: “it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” What power against sin! What power to rejoice in the risen Christ! What power for taking the initiative to love and serve others and gladly do what Christ calls us to do. The risen Christ has poured out his Spirit, and ushered in a new era of history following Easter. Now, God's people are no longer under the tutelage of the old-covenant law, but have his own Spirit at work in us. We do not worship and live in the old era but in the new, with God's own Spirit dwelling in us.And so, two, we “glory in Christ Jesus.” Which is more joy language, but elevated. “Glory” is literally “boast” — we boast in Christ Jesus. “Boasting” is tricky in English because it has negative connotations. So the ESV translates it “glory” (as in 1:26). What makes boasting, or glorying, good or bad is its object. And so we boast, The Lord is risen! The Lord is risen indeed!True Christians are those who glory in Christ Jesus as the sole grounds of our full acceptance with God. So, when someone asks, How do I get right with God? Or, how can I be truly safe — not in the little trivialities of this life but forever? We boast in Christ. “On my own, I'm ruined. But I glory in the risen Christ. I boast in the one who died for me and rose again. He is worthy. I glory in him!”So, “boasting” or “glorying” is stronger language for the rejoicing of verse 1. This is Easter joy. This is double joy. This is joy intensified, joy magnified, joy heightened, joy expanded, joy enriched, joy elevated, joy resurrected.Which means, third, by contrast, Christians are people who “put no confidence in the flesh.” We boast in the risen Christ, not self, for ultimate safety. And if you wonder what “flesh” means here, Paul will make it clear in verses 4–6, as we'll see next week. In sum: putting “no confidence in the flesh” means not trusting in ourselves or any mere human effort or energy to get and keep us right with God. Not any privilege of our birth, nor any natural ability, nor hard work, nor achievement, nor human wisdom — nothing in us or related to us, whether who we are or what we've done. Rather, we glory in Jesus.Which leads then to one last safety that's implicit beneath the first two. So, Easter joy gives us safety from foes and from our own flesh, and . . .3) Easter joy gives us safety from God's righteous fury against our sin.This is the greatest threat of all: omnipotent wrath. The offense of our sin against the holy God is the final danger beneath the other dangers. The reason foes could be a danger is they might deceive us to put confidence in ourselves and our actions. And the reason putting confidence in ourselves is a danger is that this discounts the depth of our sin and leaves us unshielded, unsafe before the righteous justice of God against our rebellion.When Paul says that rejoicing in the Lord “is safe for you,” what's at bottom is ultimate safety, final safety, eternal safety, safety of soul, safety from the divine justice that our sin deserves.But Easter joy keeps us safe from the righteous fury we deserve, because rejoicing in the risen Christ is the way we take cover in the Son of God who came, and died, and was raised, to deal with our sin and usher us safely with him into the very presence of God. You might put it this way: the safest soul in all the universe is the one that rejoices in the risen Christ.Rejoicing in the Lord is a place of great safety, shielded from every real threat, even the greatest. God will not destroy those who delight in him. Delight in him is a stronghold (Nehemiah 8:10), a fortress, a safe place, because God always preserves those who delight in him.So, Cities Church, rejoice in the risen Christ! To say it again is no trouble for me, and safe for you. The Lord is risen! The Lord is risen indeed!Seeds of Joy at the TableAs we come to the Table, let's address a question some of us have on a high feast day like Easter, and in a book like Philippians that accents the importance of rejoicing in the Lord. What if you're not feeling it? What if you don't feel happy in the risen Christ? Perhaps you want to rejoice in Jesus, you want to glory in him, but you're a sinner, your heart's not where you want it to be. One answer, among others, is this Table.This Table is not only for those who are boiling over with Easter delight, overflowing with joy in Jesus. It's also for those who feel their hearts to be sluggish, and know they're not rejoicing in the Lord like they want to, or like they should. And yet, in the ache of that desire is the seed of joy. In the longing. In the wanting is the seed of Easter joy that we come to nourish and strengthen at this Table.If you would say with us this morning, “I claim the risen Christ. However high or low my rejoicing, I know myself undeserving. I put no confidence in my flesh. But I do put my confidence, for final safety, in the risen Christ.” Then we would have you eat and drink with us, for joy.
John Farley Pastor Teacher Sunday, March 31, 2024 Happy Resurrection Day! There shall be no more death. Over 2,000 years ago, Christ burst forth from the grave, triumphant. He was victorious over sin, death, and satan. On the first day, Jesus died on the cross. During the second day, His lifeless body lay in that virgin tomb. But then, early the next day, the third day, He was raised from the dead. He died because of our sins. He was raised because believers are justified. We Christians believe that the most momentous things happened at the cross. He bore the sin of the world - including our sins, all of them - in His body on the cross. We were under the wrath of God. But He took our punishment for us. Isa 53:5-6 He loved you - no matter who you are -... for full notes: http://www.lbible.org/index.php?proc=msg&sf=vw&tid=1682
John Farley Pastor Teacher Sunday, March 31, 2024 Happy Resurrection Day! There shall be no more death. Over 2,000 years ago, Christ burst forth from the grave, triumphant. He was victorious over sin, death, and satan. On the first day, Jesus died on the cross. During the second day, His lifeless body lay in that virgin tomb. But then, early the next day, the third day, He was raised from the dead. He died because of our sins. He was raised because believers are justified. We Christians believe that the most momentous things happened at the cross. He bore the sin of the world - including our sins, all of them - in His body on the cross. We were under the wrath of God. But He took our punishment for us. Isa 53:5-6 He loved you - no matter who you are -... for full notes: http://www.lbible.org/index.php?proc=msg&sf=vw&tid=1682
This might be the most important interview we have ever done. We Christians have been so concerned with maintaining our "rights" and focusing on maintaining our (pitiful) "freedom" in society that we have abdicated the very glory and honor of King Jesus and have allowed His good decrees to be trampled. Rather than asserting the crown glory of Christ we have sought ease and comfort at the cost of far too much. In this interview we sit down with the great implicational thinker David Fowler of the "God, Law & Liberty" podcast and we are given a wake-up call. It is time to think through the utterly wicked and far-reaching implications of the U.S. Supreme Court's analysis in its 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges where the state-demi-gods have redefined marriage. But, we also discuss our own wickedness in doing nothing and seeking ease and peace. By doing nothing we have become guilty of standing approvingly while the state audaciously plays God and assumes it is the arbiter of truth. Yet, as Fowler reminds us, the government doesn't create truth - its job is to acknowledge truth. Marriage is, and has always been, between a man and a woman who exchange promises before man and God. The shocking reality is that every minister who signs a state marriage license bends their knee to the government's arbitrary definition of marriage and takes it on as their own. It is simply an evil we can not abide. The disastrous and far reaching implications of living in a post-Obergefellian world are daunting, yet, there is much that can and should (must!) be done. We are grateful for David Fowler in sounding the alarm on this great evil. After a damning diagnosis we are offered tangible steps to see true piety take shape not just in our prayer closets but in the halls of congress and every square inch of this world that belongs to our mighty King of Kings. Pro Rege!
Revelation 19:12-14 We Christians fight alongside ANGELS???
We Christians have the hope of Jesus Christ. So, even though we live in a godless world of corruption and suffering, the Last Day is coming when God will judge the wicked and save His people.- -Foolish Humanity -vv. 1-4--Frustration of the Wicked -vv. 5-6--Future Salvation -v. 7-
We Christians have the hope of Jesus Christ. So, even though we live in a godless world of corruption and suffering, the Last Day is coming when God will judge the wicked and save His people.- -Foolish Humanity -vv. 1-4--Frustration of the Wicked -vv. 5-6--Future Salvation -v. 7-
Why do we fast, practice self-denial, and learn to say “no” to ourselves? This episode offers a perspective on asceticism that is challenging, yet also profoundly positive. We Christians are called to pursue a radical lifestyle of fasting and self-denial – not to punish ourselves or earn God's love, but to be freed from earthly attachments and to become “new wineskins”, ready for an infilling of the new wine of the Holy Spirit.
We Christians have the hope of Jesus Christ. So, even though we live in a godless world of corruption and suffering, the Last Day is coming when God will judge the wicked and save His people. Foolish Humanity (vv. 1–4)Frustration of the Wicked (vv. 5-6)Future Salvation (v. 7)
We Christians believe in eternal life. Yet we still manage so often to think and speak of those who have died in the past tense. But Jim is a poet. And though he wasn't reading a poem here, it takes a poet's heart to lay bare the beautiful forgotten truth in such simple terms. A man standing mere feet from the ashes of his friend's body and speaking of him in the present tense. The words for what I came to understand that day did now show up immediately. But now I have them. When someone dies we do not stop loving them. Our love is not past tense. And it's not just grief or nostalgia or sentimental memories. It is love in the present tense. It is love that still manages to shape us. We continue to be transformed by love after their death. And I believe I know why. Our loved ones who died are still loving us. They are in eternal life. Right now. They are alive in Christ - not as a metaphor, but as a bare fact. They are in the present tense. Their love is in the present tense. And so is ours. Our love remains. And when I say our love remains, I am not saying it remains as a stubborn insistence to hold onto what was. No, our love remains because it is alive and active and we continue to share it with the dead who live in the present tense. Want to support our podcast? Give Here https://redeemercincy.tpsdb.com/Give/podcast
1 Peter began with the idea that Christians are aliens and strangers in their own hometowns, and now, at the end, it explains why this is the case. Our way of life is patterned after that of a crucified Messiah. We Christians are called to follow the way of the cross.
The abomination of desolation signifies the desecration of the temple in 70AD by Romans and foretells a final desecration by the Antichrist, leading to Christ's return. - Sermon Transcript - Turn in your Bibles to Mark 13. I can hardly imagine a more terrifying scenario than running for your life with some powerful, violent men chasing you, seeking to capture you, seeking to bring you in for questioning, to interrogate you, seeking to imprison you, to torture you, perhaps ultimately even to kill you. I can hardly imagine a more terrifying scenario than that. It was a scene that was played out again and again in the dark days of World War II. Nazi troops would win battles and conquer territories, and on their heels would come the SS and the Gestapo who would seek to weed out every Jewish person and every perceived threat to the Nazi state, including Christian leaders. Refugees would have to flee in the middle of the night, breathlessly waiting under bridges while their Nazi pursuers would travel over them, so close they could hear their conversations. Others fled by train using falsified travel permits. They had to endure the suspense of Gestapo agents moving systematically through the rail cars, checking papers, asking questions. Others fled through mountain passes into Switzerland, avoiding Nazi roadblocks only by scaling forbidden mountain sides in the snow and during freezing temperatures. Some hid among baggage and crates on freight ships, their hearts beating wildly and beads of sweat forming on their brows as Nazi guards with German shepherds were inspecting the cargo holds where they were hiding, getting closer and closer to their secret positions. All of these refugees were fleeing because of terror, fleeing the might of the most sinister and powerful force of evil the world had ever seen up to that time. But I believe all of those experiences of fleeing are as nothing compared to the days that will come right before the end of the world, the days when the Antichrist will be ruling the world by the direct power of Satan himself, seeking to exterminate anyone who refuses to worship him as God. Brothers and sisters, I don't know if that day will come in our lifetime, but this text implies that we are to get ready for those days. We are to get ready for what is coming. When Jesus says, "I have told you everything ahead of time," that implies a certain weight of responsibility on us; on me as a teacher of the Word of God, on me as a father, on me as a discipler and as a preacher. All of us as Christians, take seriously these themes, to immerse ourselves in them and to study them. Jesus's mentality is, forewarned is forearmed. I have carefully studied this text, Mark 13:14-23, and compared it with the parallel texts of Matthew 24:15-26. They're almost completely identical with just a few simple differences, so I'm going to weave the two together where needed, but my home base is Mark 13. Let's talk about context. Context is Jesus's statement of the destruction of the temple. Look at Mark 13:1-2, "As he was leaving the temple, one of His disciples said to Him, 'Look, teacher, what massive stones, what magnificent buildings.' 'Do you see all these great buildings?' replied Jesus. 'Not one stone here will be left on another. Every one will be thrown down.'" Then the disciples came to Jesus in private. Fuller version's in 24 Matthew. "'Tell us,'" they said, in Matthew 24:3, "'Tell us, when will this happen?’" Not one stone left on another, "'And what would be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?'" It's pretty clear that Jesus's answer soars far above the events surrounding the destruction of Jerusalem and of the Temple, and go right to the end of the world. It's very clear if you read Mark 13 and Matthew 24. In this section of Mark 13, in verses 5-13, we have the nature of the ministry of the Word of God and the progress of the Word of God between the First and Second Comings. That's what unifies those verses, Mark 13: 5-13. The focal point is us being witnesses to Him by the power of the Spirit and the ongoing persecution that will happen as the gospel spreads. That's been the story for 20 centuries. But then at verse 14, as we saw last week, there's a decisive break in the narrative and an event that's unique to people living in a certain place at a certain time. When you see the “abomination of desolation”, and we talked about that last time, in a nutshell, it's a two-fold answer, both the desecration of the Temple by Roman forces in the year AD 70, and I believe going out to the end of the world, the desecration of the Temple at the end of history by the Antichrist, are in view in this phrase. Last week we walked through all that. We saw how God has four times allowed the Gentiles to trample on His holy place. We talked about what that holy place was, how we understand that. And we saw it in the time of Eli when he allowed the Ark of the Covenant to be captured by the Philistines. Again, when the Babylonians destroyed Solomon's temple, burned it to the ground. In 162 BC when the Greek king Antiochus Epiphanes sacrificed pig's blood in the temple that Haggai had rebuilt, desecrating it as predicted in Daniel 8 and Daniel 11. Then again in AD 70 when the Romans destroyed Herod's temple four times. But I also believe that it points ahead to that eschatological principle, “as it was so it will be", to one last time, all of those being dress rehearsals for a final desecration. I believe that implies, based on 2 Thessalonians 2, a rebuilt temple, rebuilt by the Jews, in what I consider to be an open defiance of the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross. The themes clearly articulated in the Book of Hebrews, the ending of the old covenant based on animal sacrifice and the blood of bulls and lambs and goats. All of that finished at the moment that Jesus died. But an unbelieving Jewish nation with veils over their hearts and minds, unable to see in Jesus the consummation of the old covenant, and unbelieving, reestablishing the curtain in the Temple that was torn into from top to bottom, showing a motive and a movement toward temple sacrifice, which went on for another generation after Jesus's death in defiance of His finished work. Jesus's counsel to His people, His lasting counsel, I didn't even finish. I kind of did last week. I preached on a fragment of a verse: "When you see the abomination of desolation..." This sermon is the rest of it, but I said it last week, and it's in the title of this sermon: Run For Your Lives.. What it openly says is, "When you see the abomination that causes desolation, standing where it does not belong, let the reader understand, then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains." And it goes on from there. In other words, run for your lives. I. The Desolation Leading to the Flight Let's talk about it. Let's begin with the desolation that leads to the flight. It is the spiritual desolation of Israel, consummated in their rejection of the Son of God, the incarnate Son of God, and their murder of Him. Israel's rejection of Jesus as their Messiah is the essence of their spiritual desolation. As Jesus says at the end of 23 Matthew 38-39, "Behold, your house is left to you desolate. For I tell you, you will not see me again.” It's pretty simple. If you put that together, two and two together, "The essence of the desolation is you're not going to see me again, until you say, 'Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.'" In other words, until you recognize me by faith, that I was the one sent by Almighty God as your Savior. So until you say that, you'll be desolate, empty. Desolation means emptiness. That spiritual desolation then leads to a physical desolation, a city of slaughter left with no inhabitants. Above that or behind all that is the demonic side, a satanic and a demonic side that we need to understand. It comes very clearly in the Book of Revelation, chapter 12. There is a dragon, clearly identified as Satan, that ancient serpent. This dragon is standing by the sea in Revelation 13, and he calls from the sea a beast, a clear connection with Daniel 7, where up out of the sea come a succession of four beasts that represent empires, represent human political governments, empires with military power, with economic power, et cetera. That's Daniel 7. We get the consummation of that in Revelation 13. It is the dragon, it is Satan that calls the beast from the sea. Jesus spoke about demons. You know that Jesus drove demons out effortlessly, exorcism after exorcism. People were stunned. They were amazed at His power. Even the demons are subject. In his name, easily, Jesus sent out His disciples and gave them the power as well to drive out demons. The demons were on the run, but they didn't cease existing, they didn't cease hating. They were just pushed back for a time. Jesus warned that they're going to come back. He makes this very plain. In Matthew 12: 43-45, He says this, "When an evil spirit comes out of a man, it goes through arid places seeking rest and doesn't find it. Then it says, 'I will return to the house I left.' When it arrives, it finds the house unoccupied, swept clean and put in order." Unoccupied sounds like desolate to me. Empty. Finds a house unoccupied, swept clean, put in order. “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 man is worse than the first.” AJV says famously, "The last shall be worse than the first.” "That is how it'll be with this generation." I thought we were talking about a man and then we're talking about a house. Now we're talking about a whole generation. It's the same, the same, the same. When the demon goes out, it's going to come back. If the individual, if the nation is not filled with God, filled with the spirit of God, filled with light, the darkness is coming back. We've already said that the nation of the Jews is desolate, empty. Not believing in Jesus, it's ready to be reinvaded by demons. The image that I have here is of an individual in the deep woods of Alaska or Siberia or Canada, and a ravenous pack of wolves is chasing this individual. He's been able to start a bonfire and push all the pack of wolves back, but he can see their eyes surrounding his campfire. They're still out there in the darkness and they still want his blood. When that fire goes out, they're going to come flooding back in, ravenous. We Christians, we're not secularists, materialists. We actually believe in a spiritual realm, and we believe that the events that happen with nations and with politics and with invasions has a demonic backing, though we cannot see it. I believe that it is demonic force that pushes the Romans in, and it's going to be overtly a satanic, a demonic kingdom at the end of the world. “As it was, so it will be.” We get these dress rehearsals. It says it twice in Luke, in Luke 17:26, "As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man." And again, Luke 17:28-30, "As it was in the days of Lot, so it will be on the day when the Son of man is revealed." “As it was, so it will be.” It's a repeated principle, an eschatological interpretive principle. We get things happening again and again, dress rehearsals. The overt statement of this is in 1 John 2, "You have heard that Antichrist is coming and even now many Antichrists have come." Lots of dress rehearsals on that Antichrist theme. But there is one coming. So as it was in the days of the Roman desecration of Jerusalem, so it will be in the days before Christ returns. As it was in the days of Antiochus Epiphanes of Daniel 8 and Daniel, 11, so it will be in the days before Christ returns. The destruction of the Jewish Temple in the city of Jerusalem in the year AD 70 by the Romans is a dress rehearsal for the end of the world, I believe. The signal to Jewish Christians living in Judea, Jewish Christians living there in Jerusalem, is you have to watch what's happening in current events. When you see certain things, get out of the city, get out of that area, run for your lives. He says it openly in Luke 21: 20-22. It's just as clear as anything. You don't have to wonder about it. "When you see Jerusalem being surrounded by armies, you will know that this desolation is near. Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Let those in the city get out. Let those in the country not enter the city. For this is the time of punishment and fulfillment of all that has been written." There's a Jewish Christian Church in Jerusalem, the very ones that Paul raised money for and brought [in Romans 15] money back to Jerusalem and Judea, the Pentecost. Those were Jewish Christians that came to faith in Christ. They lived there. It was a Jewish church of Jesus Christ. Those people are living there, followers of Christ. He's telling them what to do. Let's talk about what actually happened at the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans. Josephus, a contemporary of those events, wrote a history, and we're able to read that history and find out what happened. Rome was the dominant world power at that point. Judea at that time was ruled by Roman procurators, most of whom knew little or nothing about the Jewish religion, which resulted in continuous provocations to the Jewish people, continuous irritations to them concerning religious issues. A group within the city of Jerusalem, within that area of Judea, called Zealots, were very active at that time, very patriotic about the Jewish heritage and about the promised land, et cetera. They wanted the Romans out, and they convinced the general population there to rise up against Rome and rebel. There were three stages then to the Roman response and the conquest of Judea and Jerusalem in the 1st century AD. Stages one and two resulted in the Jews surviving and even winning marginal victories. That led to the Jews having a sense of being unconquerable by the Romans, a false sense of being unconquerable. But they weren't. Shortly before Passover in April of the year 70, a powerful Roman general named Titus arrived at Jerusalem with legions, to finally put an end to the Jewish revolt and crush the insurrection. Titus encircled the city to prevent help from reaching the Jews and began this final stage, the very thing Jesus was talking about. During this time, those who attempted to flee were either prevented from doing so, killed by the Jewish Zealous factions within the city, or captured by the Romans, tortured and crucified outside the city as a warning to those still inside the city. The Romans built an embankment, or rampart, around the city just as Jesus had foretold they would do. Titus' soldiers breached the third outer wall of Jerusalem on May 25th of the year 70 and captured the newer portions of the city of Jerusalem. By June, the siege had progressed into the second walled area and the Jewish people retreated behind that last wall that protected the city. The Fortress of Antonia was taken by Titus on July 22nd, followed by the Romans setting fires to the gates of the temple, against the desires of Titus, their commanding general. During the attack, a soldier threw a firebrand through a window into one of the Temple's side chambers, followed by a second firebrand being thrown into the holy place, which set the whole sanctuary ablaze. All Jewish resistance in the city was quelled by September 26th in the year 70. According to Josephus, 1.1 million Jews were killed during that campaign, a staggering number. 97,000 Jews were taken into captivity by the Romans. Over the next three years, the temple stones were dismantled entirely. Every stone involved in the Temple was leveled to the ground, which Josephus describes, saying, "It was so thoroughly laid even to the ground by those that dug it up to the foundation that there was nothing left to make those that came later believe there had ever been a building there." That's complete fulfillment of Jesus's prophecy. Caesar eventually gave orders to level everything else, with the exception of what we can still see today. Part of one of the external walls, not directly connected with the Temple but near it, was left to demonstrate what kind of city the Romans had defeated and as a display of Roman power. That is the famous Wailing Wall that Jews from all over the world go pray in front of, and many of them, I believe, are praying for a rebuilding of the temple. Given those horrors that were coming, Jesus gave his people living in Judea a prophetic warning: when you see the indications, run for your lives. Mark 13 is Jesus's warning for them to flee when they see the city surrounded by soldiers. There is no record at all in church history or by Josephus of Christians in Judea and what happened with them. We have no record. However, we have to imagine that many of the church did in fact heed Jesus's warning and ran for their lives. When the time was right, they fled from Jerusalem. Now, that would have been the exact opposite of what many of the Jews would have been doing when they heard that the Roman legions were marching in. They're going to run to the fortress for the preservation of their lives. That makes perfect sense. The Christians are running the opposite direction. And as I said, the destruction of Jerusalem in the year 70, was just a dress rehearsal for the final desolations, the end of the world, because of their ongoing rejection of Jesus as the Christ, the spiritual desolation of Israel has continued in every generation since. Every generation there's been a small remnant within that generation of Jewish people who believe in Jesus. The are called Messianic Jews or Completed Jews, et cetera. In every generation, there's been some, as predicted in Romans 11. But the general population of Jewish people have not received Jesus as Lord and Savior, and so the desolation continues. The rebuilding of the Temple would be a consummation of that desolation. It's a direct affront to God and to Jesus, saying, "You're not the Messiah, your death means nothing. We want to reestablish the old covenant, animal sacrifices." They yearn to obey the law of Moses. They are able, I believe, by reading the 70 weeks prophecy and other predictions in the Book of Daniel and other places, to rebuild the Temple. They're able to get what they want. How that would be, with the Dome of the Rock and all that is hard to see. But it seems like the Antichrist, the ruler of the people who is to come, in Daniel 9:26, will, in Daniel 9:27, "Confirm a covenant with many for one seven," a seven-year period. In the middle of the seven, three and a half years in, he'll put an end to sacrifice and offering. That implies sacrifice and offerings going on for the first half of that last seven-year period. "And on a wing of the temple, he will set up an abomination that causes desolation until the end that is decreed is poured out on him." Those are the predictions that we look through, et cetera. II. The Danger That Causes the Flight Let's talk about the danger that causes the flight. The basic concept is Christ's people must run because we can't handle the temptation of that moment. Consistently in the Lord's Prayer, we pray, "Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one." You're to avoid temptation. You're not to show how powerful and strong you are by stepping right into the fire of temptation and resisting it. No. Run, get out of there. A very clear example in parallel of this is found the night that Jesus was arrested. In John 17, Jesus prays to the Father concerning the Elect. He said, "I have not lost any of all that you have given me." He prays specifically that. As you read that in John 17, you know He's not lost them spiritually. They still believe in Him, they still are trusting in Jesus. He's not lost any of them, and He won't. But then in John 18, as the detachment of 600 soldiers comes and they're there to arrest Jesus, Jesus goes out and confronts them and asks them who they've come to arrest. He takes the initiative. "Who are you looking for?" "Jesus of Nazareth." Jesus says, "I am." And at that moment they draw back and fall to the ground. That's His name, He's God. And He says, "I am," and they fall on the ground. Again, Jesus asked them a second time, "Who are you looking for?" They pick themselves up off the ground and answer like robots: "Jesus of Nazareth." Jesus said, "I've told you that I am. If you're looking for me, then let these men go," speaking about His apostles. Then John comments, John 18: 9, "This happened so that the words that Jesus had spoken would be fulfilled. 'I have not lost any of all that you have given me.'" Do you realize the significance of that? If they were arrested physically, they would have been lost spiritually. They weren't ready to be tortured, they weren't ready to die, they weren't ready to be crucified, they weren't ready. And they would've been lost. So Jesus makes a way of escape for them to get out. They all ran away at that moment, all of them, including Peter. Jesus knows that there are some trials so great our faith can't handle it. "You're to avoid temptation. You're not to show how powerful and strong you are by stepping right into the fire of temptation and resisting it. No. Run, get out of there." Peter, in his arrogance that night, did a U-turn and followed at a distance. You saw what happened to him. Within a short amount of time, Satan had maneuvered it so that Peter denied ever even having heard of Jesus. That's hours later. Don't think you're so mighty, so strong in your faith as so you can handle anything. Jesus says to His people, "Run for your lives. Run for your souls. Get out of there." How much greater will the trial be when Antichrist is ruling the world through the direct power of Satan, and the secret police and the ones chasing are directly demonically instructed? Where are you going to hide? It's a time of utter carnage, of martyrdom like has never been seen before. That's what it's going to be like. The beast of Revelation 13:1, it says, "The dragon stood on the shore of the sea and I saw a beast coming up out of the sea.” Revelation 13:2, "The dragon gave the beast his power and his throne and great authority.” We've seen in multiple places, the beast, the Antichrist, is able to do great signs and wonders. "To deceive," Jesus says, "the elect, even the elect, if that were possible." The Antichrist will rule the earth and conquer the saints physically. It says in Revelation 13: 5-8, "The beast was given a mouth to utter proud words and blasphemies and to exercise his authority for 42 months." That's three and a half years. "He opened his mouth to blaspheme God and to slander His name and His dwelling place and those who live in heaven. He was given power to make war against the saints and to conquer them." That's exactly what's taught in Daniel 7 as well. What does that mean? There's going to be dead Christians, lots of believers, saints, slaughtered by the beast. He was given authority over every tribe, people, language and nation. That's the one world government ruling every nation on earth, one guy. All the inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast. That's the consummation of wicked government, and it's the consummation of wicked religion focused on this one person. All the inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast. All whose names have not been written in the Book of Life, belonging to the Lamb that was slain from the creation of the world; so the non-elect. Basically then, one world government and one world religion at that point, far too powerful for any person to resist. The Antichrist's specific enemies at that point are Jews and Christians. This deception leads to the final destruction, and so we must run. Revelation 14: 9-12 says, "A third angel followed them and said in a loud voice, 'If anyone worships the beast and his image and receives his mark on the forehead or on the hand, he too will drink the wine of God's fury, which has been poured full strength into the cup of his wrath. He'll be tormented with burning sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and of the lamb, and the smoke of their torment rises forever and ever. There is no rest day or night for those who worship the beast and his image or for anyone who receives the mark of his name.'" Revelation 14:12, "This calls for patient endurance on the part of the saints who obey God's commands and remain faithful to Jesus.” In other words, that's a call to patiently endure that temptation. The temptation is to receive the mark of the beast and worship him as God for the preservation of your life. Therefore Jesus says in verse 13, "He who stands firm to the end will be saved." III. The Desperation That Characteristics the Flight That's the danger, the desperation that characterized the flight. We'll look at the verses, verses 14-19, "Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Let no one on the roof of his house go down or enter the house to take anything out. Let no one in the field go back to get his cloak. How dreadful it would be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers. Pray that this will not take place in the winter because those will be days of distress unequal from the beginning when God created the world until now and never to be equaled again." There's a sense of immense urgency in these verses -- do you get it? -- as you read it, there's a breathless pace here. No earthly possession's worth your soul. You won't have time -- you think about the flat roofs back then -- you wouldn't have time to go down from that flat roof, down into the first floor of the house to get anything out. There's not time for that. Someone working out in the field doesn't have time to go back and get a garment, a cloak. There's not time for that. And it's dreadful, says Jesus, for those who can't run fast, pregnant women or nursing mothers. It's all about running for your lives with murderous enemies nipping at your heels. Pray for an easement of circumstances. Pray that it won't take place in the winter when it's harder to run, or in the Sabbath, Matthew adds, because it would be harder to travel at that point. Anything that would slow down the flight would be a detriment. He says, unequal distress. Those would be days of distress, unequal from the beginning when God created the world until now, never to be equaled again. KJV, ESV, NSB all use the words “great tribulation.” That's where you get the expression "the great tribulation"; it comes right from that verse. IV. The Destination of the Flight The destination of the flight, verse 14, "Then those who are in Judea flee to the mountains." The mountains, perhaps caves, crags, hiding places. Luke 23:30, "Then they will say to the mountains, 'Fall on us into the hills. Cover us.'" Looking for a hiding place from the forces of Antichrist, the forces of the desolator that sets up the abomination of desolation. Whether the Romans in 87 AD or Antichrist at the end of the world, looking for mountain hiding places in Judea. You think about Masada, it was a mountainous area. The Jews held out for a number of years after the fall of Jerusalem, probably another two or three years. It's very hard to get to, and so a place where you can hide. The purpose at that point, at the end of the world, is to wait for the Lord's coming and to count the days. V. The Duration of the Flight What's the duration of the flight? “If those days”, verse 20, “had not been…”, “If the Lord had not cut short those days, no one would survive. But for the sake of the elect, whom He has chosen, He has shortened them.” It's a terrible time. You have to read the whole of the Scripture to understand how terrible it is. You have to read the Book of Revelation. You have to read the trumpet judgments in Revelation which has ecological disasters unlike anything that had ever been seen before. The trumpet judgments and then the bowl judgments. It's going to be hard to live on planet Earth. A third of the drinking water, polluted. A third of the seas, polluted. A third of the living creatures, dead. Trees burned, grass burned. It's an ecological horror show which leads, I think, to the one world government. That's the cause of it, I believe. It's so bad, and the slaughter focused on believers in Jesus is so bad, and the martyrdom, the machine of martyrdom is so great, Jesus has to ask, “Will there be faith on Earth when He returns?” There have to be some believers left when He comes back. So the days are counted out, and He says, short. And if they continued on even a few more days or weeks, no one would be left. That's what I think brings, for me, the full understanding of the mystery in Revelation 11 and 12. From the time that the daily sacrifice is abolished and the abomination that causes desolation is set up, there will be 1,290 days. Blessed is the one who waits for and reaches the end of the 1,335 days. Because Revelation 12 is talking about the general resurrection of both the righteous and the wicked, as it says in verse 2 and 3, "Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake," [that’s the Second Coming]. "Some to everlasting life. Others to shame and everlasting contempt. Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens and those who lead many to righteousness light their stars forever and ever." It's the end of the world. Then the counting of the days, 1,290 days and 1,335 days, goes ahead. It's not talking about Antiochus. It's not talking even about the Romans. It's talking about a general resurrection to heaven or hell and the end of the world in Daniel 12. At that time of the Antichrist, when God's people are hiding in caves, trying to survive, demonically instructed and led Gestapo-type folks are searching them out to martyr them. In the midst of that, when they're counting the days, Jesus returns for His bride. He returns to rescue her and protect her, so that there will be faith on earth when He returns. Who are the Elect Jesus had in mind, "For the sake of the elect, those days will be shortened"? Elect are people chosen from Jews and Gentiles to believe in Him. I believe this is the consummation of the whole story of the Jewish nation. It's the consummation of their salvation. It's been a long journey, a long journey between Jesus and the sons and daughters of Abraham, the biological descendants. That consummation, I believe, is revealed in a mystery in Romans 11: 25-27, "I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brother, so that you may not be conceited. Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel will be saved. As it is written, the deliverer will come from Zion. He will turn godlessness away from Jacob." Those are incredibly important words. He's going to drive godlessness, atheism, unbelief from the Jewish nation. What's there instead? Faith in Christ, just in time. Again, Zechariah 12:10, "And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, a spirit of grace and supplication. And they will look on me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves her first-born son.” This is directly quoted by the apostle John in the account of Jesus. "In his death, they will look on him whom they have pierced." But they haven't looked yet, have they? Not by faith. At the end, in Revelation 12:10, God is going to pour out a spirit of grace on them and they will look finally to Jesus and trust. Those are the people Jesus is coming back to rescue, among others. VI. The Destiny Beyond the Flight What is the destiny beyond the flight? Verses 24-27, "But in those days following that distress, the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light. The stars will fall from the sky and the heavenly bodies will be shaken. At that time, men will see the Son of man coming in the clouds with power and great glory, and He will send His angels and gather His elect, from the four winds from the ends of the earth to the ends of the heavens.” More next week, that's the Second Coming. VII. Application This morning as I was thinking about application, I wrote out some, and at the top I wrote two words. "So what?" So what? Run for your life. The overwhelming majority, if not every single person sitting here, will probably not have to run for your life, unless you're planning a move to Judea. If you're going to go live in Judea, then you might want to pay more special attention to this injunction and run for your lives. But it would have to be at the time when the abomination of desolation is set up. So how do we take this to heart? First of all, salvation is a fleeing. Salvation itself is a fleeing, but the fleeing of far greater terror than anything Satan or the Antichrist could ever orchestrate. John the Baptist said to his enemies, "You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?" What's the wrath to come? It's Almighty God, the omnipotent God, pouring out His wrath on His enemies. Where are you going to hide from God? It's one thing to try to hide from Satan and from demonically instructed agents. How do you hide from an omnipresent, omnipotent, omniscient God? There is a refuge, and that refuge is Jesus Christ. The cross of Christ is the refuge. That's where you flee, but you got to do it now. You got to do it today. Today is the day of salvation. Now's the time to flee the wrath to come. When it comes, it will be too late. Therefore, look again to the cross of Christ. Understand what was really going on there. Look with eyes of faith and say, "The reason Jesus died on the cross is to forgive a sinner like me." Repent of your sins, trust in Him and you'll find forgiveness. He will be your refuge. As the Book of Proverbs says, "The name of the Lord is a strong tower. The righteous run and are kept safe." Run to Christ, flee to Him while there's time. "Salvation itself is a fleeing, but the fleeing of far greater terror than anything Satan or the Antichrist could ever orchestrate. …" What's the wrath to come? It's Almighty God, the omnipotent God, pouring out His wrath on His enemies." Second of all, understand where world history is going. We're going to an orchestrated, planned out, scripted destination. Enough information has been given in the books of the Bible. So understand, we're going somewhere. Understand, Revelation 13 says, "The beast from the sea will rule the whole earth." So even if you don't live in Judea, the same force that's hunting our brothers and sisters down in that geographical region will be ruling the whole world., and he will hate your faith as much as he hates theirs. The mark of the beast is worldwide, not just for Judea or those living in Jerusalem, and no elect person will ever receive it. Why not? Because we know what it is, and we know not to do it. The essence of it is that we will not bow our knee to a creature and worship that creature as God. We're not going to worship and serve the Antichrist as God, which will make us his enemies. Know where all this is heading. His government is going to rule the whole earth. It says in Revelation 3:10, "I will keep you from the hour of testing that's going to come on the whole Earth." It's not just Judea, it's coming all over the whole world. So understand, just understand where that's going. Third of all, you could say, "Why should I care what happens to those living in Judea and Jerusalem?" Because you're part of the body of Christ, and it says in 1 Corinthians 12:26, "If one part of the body suffers, the whole body suffers with it.” We should care what happens to people who are being persecuted in other parts, even today, even now. The spirit of the Antichrist is at work now, whether the Antichrist is on Earth now. We are a unity, we as the body of Christ, we should care what happens to those that are being persecuted. Though it may not be that it will happen in your lifetime, it may well happen in your children's lifetime. It may well happen in your grandchildren's lifetime or your great-grandchildren's lifetime. Someone will be alive who needs to know this information in order to save their lives and their souls. Paul says, concerning these eschatological details in 2 Thessalonians 2,"Don't you remember that when I was with you, I kept telling you these things?" Paul thought this was important enough to teach as part of his body of doctrine and part of body of teaching that he taught to the Thessalonians. I think it's important for you all as well. It is complicated, immerse yourself in it. Flee to Christ. I could do other things right now and say, "Flee temptations," and all that. That would be a good preaching point, but it doesn't line up with the eschatology we're talking about today. But if you want to take that, good. Flee sin this week, that's a good idea. But foundationally to eschatology, learn these facts. Teach them to your kids and grandkids. Let's be ready. Close with me in prayer. Father, we thank you for the depths of the riches and the wisdom and the knowledge of God as revealed in scripture. It is not easy to follow these things, not easy to understand. Father, I pray that you would please press to our hearts the truth that we've heard today. And even if it doesn't directly apply to us so that we ourselves have to run for our lives physically in fulfillment of these words, help us to understand these words so that they have the right shaping effect on our theology, our understanding of history, our understanding of government, of Satan, of brothers and sisters in Christ, of the Jewish nation, of all of these themes that we've addressed. Thank you for Christ. Thank you that Jesus died to take the wrath of God so that we would not have to. It's in His name we pray. Amen.
Simplicity: Making Room in Our Hearts 11.26.23 "Spiritual disciplines facilitate a process that is out of one's control, but it does not have the capacity to determine an outcome. A gardener for example, does not actually grow plants. The gardener practices finely honed skills, such as cultivating soil, watering, feeding, weeding, pruning. But there is nothing the gardener can do to make the plants grow. However, if the gardener does not do what a gardener is supposed to do, the plants are not as likely to flourish. In fact, they may not grow at all. Gardening involves skills of receptivity. The skills are necessary but by themselves insufficient." -Martin Laird Simplicity is an inward reality that results in an outward lifestyle - Richard Foster 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[b]? 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. Luke 12:22-34 “We Christians must simplify our lives or lose untold treasures on earth and in eternity.” -A.W. Tozer 1. Diminishes Distraction 2. Increases Time "In frantic fidelity we try to meet at least the necessary minimum of calls upon us. But we're weary and breathless. And we know and regret that our life is slipping away, with our having tasted so little of the peace and joy and serenity we are persuaded it should yield to a soul of wide caliber. The times for the deeps of the silences of the heart seem so few. And in guilty regret we must postpone till next week that deeper life of unshaken composure in the holy presence, where we sincerely know our true home is, for this week is much too full." - Thomas Kelley 3. Exposes Idols of the Heart Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it. Proverbs 4:23 What are the things in my life that distract me from His Kingdom? What are the things in my life that are stealing too much time? Are there any idols in my heart that need to be exposed?
Every moment of the day, Jesus Christ's call to us is to pour ourselves out in service to the needy, deny and spend ourselves for them, and love them as we love ourselves. - Sermon Transcript - The scripture tells us that all of creation is groaning because of human sin, groaning through its endless bondage to decay and death. But the groaning of nature is nothing compared to the groaning that sin has caused among the human race itself. I can hardly imagine what it must be like for the perfectly compassionate God to hear those groans 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The Bible tells us that God saw the miseries of Israel when they were in bondage in Egypt. He heard their groaning because of their task master's lash, and we are told He was deeply concerned about them. It's a picture of the compassion of God. Then after saving Israel from slavery in Egypt, He taught them not to oppress their neighbor, because then their neighbor would cry out to him. Exodus 22:27 - "And If he cries out to me, I will hear, for I am compassionate." How costly has human sin been? How many times have people rebelled against the Second Great Commandment that we are studying this morning, and have not loved their neighbor as themselves? How many groans have gone up as a result? Not only so, but our general human condition, caused by Adam’s fall into sin, has resulted in miseries, not caused by any direct evil human choice, but they're just part of our fallen condition. Diseases, like cancer, leave people groaning in hospital wards all over the world. Natural disasters, like hurricanes, and tornadoes, and floods, have wiped out crops, and destroyed homes, and taken lives, and left misery and groaning in their wake. God heard the collective groan of pain and suffering from the human race, and in mercy He moved toward misery. Out of compassion, He moved toward misery. He sent his beloved son, our Lord Jesus Christ, to enter this world, fully-human in the incarnation, to make his dwelling among us, and to share our sorrows. Jesus, in mercy, moved toward misery, and now He's calling on his people to do the same. Our tendency, naturally, is to flee misery, to run away from it, to avoid it. In our society, there are so-called first responders who are paid by our society to move toward misery, to move toward the car accident, to move toward the fire, to move toward the flood, to move toward the bomb threat, to move toward the collapsed building, but most everyone else instinctively flees. Jesus, in the Second Great Commandment, especially in the parable of the Good Samaritan, has commanded his people, in mercy, to move toward misery, and to alleviate it. That is the call of the Jericho Road that's in front of us this morning. It’s exactly the opposite of our self-saving, self-serving nature. We desire to be insulated from suffering. We desire to move through this world of pain with as little personal pain as possible, until we finally escape it, and go to heaven, a world free from all death, mourning, crying, and pain. I remember well, a number of years ago, the first time I was ever out of the country, riding through the streets of Mombasa, in Kenya, my first overseas mission trip. It was the last week of a summer-long trip. We were staying in a comfortable resort right on the Indian Ocean. Some of us wanted to see the city, Mombasa, and so we were touring, in some of the poorer districts of Mombasa, in a brand new air-conditioned van. That was nothing unusual for any of us Americans. We're used to air-conditioned vans. What was new for me, anyway, was the site of urban poverty in a country not our own, another country. I had never seen poverty like that in all my life. The more streets that we drove down, the more uncomfortable I became with what I was seeing. The shocking disparity I saw between what I know to be my life, the life I'm used to, and what I was seeing through the tinted glass in that air-conditioned van ride. It also became a symbol of the way that I was making my way through this world, that that air-conditioned van ride, that bubble of security, was the way I honestly wanted to move through this misery-filled world, to be in a different way of understanding this phrase: “In the world, but not of it.” It's like, that has nothing to do with me, and I've been convicted ever since of that tendency. I had a second experience a year later, when I was in Pakistan, my second time out of the country. I was on a team, at that point, that summer, ministering. It was 1987. We were ministering to refugees who had fled from Afghanistan to Pakistan.They fled because of the Russian invasion in that summer of 1987. Again, I had never seen poverty like that in all my life. As a matter of fact, they're still the most destitute people I've ever seen in my life. They had literally nothing, except the clothing that they were wearing. Because they had fled for their lives, they brought nothing with them. Most of them had recently lost loved ones, violently, to the ravages of war. They had a haunted, and terror-filled look on their faces. They were squatting in a desolate area, across the border, in Pakistan. They were barely tolerated by the Pakistani government. They were basically ignored by the local Pakistani population, and they made an impact on me. But it wasn't really even them that I have in mind. It was a later experience I had in that city, Peshawar. We were going through the streets of the city, and we became accustomed to being accosted by beggars in ways that we don't really face here in our culture. They would come up to us, and pathetically point to their mouths, and to their stomachs, indicating that they were hungry. They were starving to death. The missionaries that we're working with told us that there were professional begging syndicates that used women, children, cripples. They were organized by strong men, similar to the way pimps work with prostitutes in our country. The missionaries didn't seem that concerned. They'd been in that country for decades, and it just wasn't something they were really that worried about, but they saw our unease with the topic of beggars, and they suggested, "Well, why don't you just go buy some naan", which is that beautiful flat bread in one of the bakeries. “Just carry it with you, around, and as you do your work, and then as they come up and point to their mouths, and their stomachs, you can give them food, immediately.” I thought that was a great idea. So we bought naan, and I carried it around. It was still steaming hot, delicious, really some of the best bread I've ever had in my life. Sure enough, later that morning, one of the beggars came to me, and she pointed to her mouth, and her stomach, and triumphantly, I produced the bread. When I gave it to her, she angrily threw it on the ground, and walked away. She didn't want bread, she wanted money, and she was using this hand and stomach thing. What really bothered me, however, was my reaction to what she did. I felt somewhat relieved. Relieved from what? Relieved from the whole problem. You can see why. The whole thing's kind of a scam, right, and we don't really have to be that concerned. The only problem was as the morning continued, soon another beggar came with a child and did the same kind of gesture. So I produced the loaves, and she took them immediately out of my hand, and gave one to her daughter, and they both started eating it like they hadn't eaten in a week. So now I was stuck. My earlier happy kind of outcome was now destroyed. I gave her the bag that I had. I realized that I was seeking, like the lawyer in the story you just heard, to justify myself. This is the big danger, that we seek to justify ourselves, and exonerate ourselves, from the vast problem of the haves and have-nots in the world, and I don't think that Jesus is meaning to exempt us. He's not going to give us... Not in this sermon, not in any good solid right teaching, you'll ever hear a way out from the problem. Probably the most convicting thing I've ever heard in this, is when Jesus said, "The poor, you will always have with you, and you can help them anytime you want." Why is that convicting? There's another understood statement: "We'll talk about that on Judgment Day, how much that was." It's going to be a topic of conversation. "This is the big danger, that we seek to justify ourselves, and exonerate ourselves, from the vast problem of the haves and have-nots in the world, and I don't think that Jesus is meaning to exempt us." This morning, we're going to look down the Jericho Road. We're going to look at the Second Great Commandment's call to a heart of compassion, a heart of mercy, that instinctively moves toward misery, and not away from it. That's what I think the call of the Jericho Road is. It's dangerous, because it searches us. Like the Scripture says, "Lord, you have searched us, and you know us." The Scripture is searching us. That's what law does, by the way. Jesus said, "What do you read in the law?" This is law. This whole parable is law. We need to understand that. We need to, therefore, see what is the law supposed to do. What does it do in your life? I went through that in the beginning of my sermons on the two Great Commandments that say, "Law fundamentally crushes your self-righteousness, and brings you to Christ, but then once you've come to Christ, then the law tells you the right way to live." That's what I expect this law, this Jericho Road, to do. The Jericho Road has to do with interactions with other human beings. The Lord Jesus is testing us to the core. Are we going to see misery, and move toward it in this world, in our trip through the world, or like the priest and Levite, are we going to see it, and move by on the other side of the road? Are we going to put a road between us and the misery? We can imagine, if we're honest, a life in which we move, like that air-conditioned bubble, through this world of misery with as little compassionate suffering as we can, and the Lord is calling us to a better kind of life. It's a relentless call of Jesus Christ, that we would pour ourselves out in loving service to others, to deny ourselves for them, spend ourselves for them, and to love them as we love ourselves. I. The Two Great Commandments Again, our context here. We're in the Gospel of Mark, but I chose to focus, this morning, on the Parable of the Good Samaritan as an illustration of the Second Great Commandment, but our home base is the two Great Commandments, and this is the last sermon I'll preach on the two Great Commandments. In Mark 12:28, one of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating, noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer. He asked him, of all the commandments, which is the most important? The most important one is this, said Jesus, "Here O Israel, the Lord our God. The Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, with all your strength. The second is this, love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these." As we compare this to the text you heard this morning, in Mark, about an inquirer, a lawyer, who in my opinion, is an honest seeker of spiritual truth. He's a very different individual than the one who came in Luke. In Luke, he comes to justify himself. In Mark, I think this man comes to know the answer he wants to know. The recitation of the same answer is given, but in Mark's Gospel, it's Jesus that gives it. In Luke's Gospel, it's the lawyer seeking to justify himself that gives it. We can know the right answer. These two commandments, the two Great Commandments, are intertwined. True love for your neighbor depends on first, loving God, but true love for God always results in loving your neighbor. They're intertwined. 1 John 4:20 , "If anyone says I love God, yet hates his brother, he's a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen." They're intertwined. II. What Does It Mean To Love Your Neighbor What does it mean to love your neighbor? That was the question in front of us last week, and last week I gave this definition: Love is a heart attraction, resulting in cheerful, sacrificial action, for the benefit of another person. Heart attraction, cheerful, sacrificial action. Love is heart attraction. There's a heart movement toward the person. We see that in the Good Samaritan. He is moved with pity, moved with compassion. The Good Samaritan has a heart attraction to the individual. Love is also a sacrifice. It's a willingness to give something valuable: time, energy, money yourself, your attention, your gifts, your personality. Without sacrifice, there's no love, and the more sacrifice there is, the greater love, but the sacrifice must be given cheerfully. You have to be delighted to give it, not reluctantly, or under compulsion. There's something flowing from that heart attraction, and it results in beneficial action. The actions you take are going to be beneficial to the person you're helping. That's last week's definition. The two aspects I argued last week are indispensable. There has to be a heart attraction, or God doesn't see it as love, and there has to be sacrificial action, or God doesn't see it as love. If it's just the one, or the other, it doesn't meet the criteria of the Bible. Jesus has given us a beautiful example of this through his perfect ministry. A very good example of this is in Mark 1:40 and 41, Jesus' heart of compassion. "A man with leprosy came to him, and begged him, on his knees, 'If you are willing, you can make me clean'. Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. 'I am willing', He said. 'Be clean.'" The number one emotion ascribed to Jesus, in the gospels, is compassion. Again and again He knit his heart with people like this leper. What would it be like to be a leper? Filled with compassion, He wants to alleviate his suffering. His mercy moves toward misery, and He heals him. In that case, the Holy Spirit, through the gospel writer, Mark, ascribes it to Jesus. Filled with compassion. But later, in Mark 8, He ascribes it to himself. He describes himself. "During those days, another large crowd gathered. Since they had nothing to eat, Jesus called his disciples to him and said, 'I have compassion for these people. They have already been with me three days, and have nothing to eat. If I send them home hungry, they will collapse on the way.'" That's a beautiful picture of that heart connection with a suffering person, or in that case, a crowd. “ I have compassion. I can't just ignore what's going to happen. If I send them home, they're going to collapse.” Jesus says that He has compassion, that’s his heart attraction. What about his sacrificial action? No one sacrificed more to fulfill the Second Great Commandment than Jesus. Day after day after day, there was a huge urgent crowd of sick people surrounding him so fiercely that, at some places, He almost couldn't breathe. In some places, they couldn't bring the next paralyzed person to him, so they had to dig through a roof. He was crushed by need, every day, and He never once pushed back, or complained, or did anything but be there for hours and hours, caring for sick people. But of course, the ultimate display of the Second Great Commandment is Jesus' death on the cross. No one has ever more perfectly fulfilled the Second Great Commandment than Jesus's substitutionary atonement on the cross. He took our sins, and the wrath that we deserve under the justice of God, on himself. He took our misery on himself. He took hell, our hell, on himself, on the cross, and died under the wrath of God. There is no more perfect display of the Second Great Commandment than that. That's Jesus’ giving example. Now, He calls on us to love our neighbor as ourselves. The words of the command is: “To love your neighbor as yourself.” What does that mean? We talked about this last week. You have spent, since last week, a whole week loving yourself. I'm not saying it's wrong. There's not a sense, at all, in the command that it's wrong, that you need to stop loving yourself. It's not saying that at all. It's saying, expand your love. The way you already love yourself, love your neighbor as you do love yourself. How is that? You're constantly thinking about your own preferences, your goals, your pleasures, your desires, your aspirations. Turn it around. What is somebody else's preference? What is somebody else's goal? What is somebody else's aspiration? What is somebody else's emotional state? Expand yourself, and take theirs into you, the way you do for yourself. That's what it means to love your neighbor as yourself. Also, physical needs. You will alleviate whatever misery you have, as best you can. Again, there's nothing wrong with that. Are any of you uncomfortable right now? There's not much I can do to help you. The temperature's not exactly right, et cetera, but you know at least you can shift around in the pew, and get yourself comfortable. If you have some problem with your lower back, you're going to alleviate it. Love your neighbor as yourself. How can I alleviate suffering? How can I alleviate pain? Mercy moves toward misery. That's the command. We're told in Philippians 2:4, "Each of you should look not only to your own interest, but also to the interests of others." That's the Second Great Commandment. The non-Christian is fanatical about self-interest. It's what they do. Philippians 2:21 says everyone looks out for his own interests. Looking out for number one, survival of the fittest, dog-eat-dog selfishness is the root of what makes life here on Earth so utterly miserable. It's been going on since the beginning of our journey in evil, from the tree. But a loving Christian learns to see others' needs as if they were his. A Christian looks at that third world's urban poverty and says, "What would it be like for me to live here?" What would it be like if I were one of those people on the other side of that tinted glass? What would it feel like for me to be a day laborer in India, clamoring with a hundred, or 200, other day laborers, surrounding one guy who had 10 jobs to offer that day? That's it. If you're not one of those 10 people, you won't work that day, and your family probably won't eat that day. What is that like? I saw day laborers like that, from a hotel room in India, when I was there a couple years ago. Also, a Christian looks at the lostness of a coworker. It has nothing to do with socioeconomics. It has to do with the fact that they're lost. They're without hope, and without God in the world. They're under the wrath of God, and they're accumulating more wrath every day. We're told in Romans 2, "Every day, more wrath." What is that like? What is it like, that every day that they live on earth, they have more wrath waiting for them when they die? What is it like to be on that broad road that leads to destruction? What is that? Paul responded in Romans 9, with this, "I have great sorrow, and unceasing anguish, for I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ." For the people of Israel, the lost among his own people. “I would be willing to give up my salvation for them, but I can't, but I'd be willing to do it.” That's what it looks like. It's mercy moving toward misery, and seeking to alleviate it. Jesus gives us this new command: "A new command, I give you: Love one another as I have loved you." That's the newness of it. The Old Testament already told us, love your neighbor as yourself. That's why the lawyer gave him that answer, it was well-known. It's well-known as a summary of the law, Leviticus 19:18. But Jesus says in John 13:34, "A new command, I give you: Love one another as I have loved you." You must love one another. Ultimately, as I said, Jesus going to the cross, greater love has no one, than this, that he laid down his life for his friends. We're not going to be called to die for somebody else. Paul says in Romans 5, "Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man, someone might possibly dare to die." It's a very unusual thing, that you would, literally, physically give your life for someone else. It does happen, but it's rare. But the question is, how can you metaphorically die for another person? How can you die to yourself in evangelism, or in mercy ministry, benevolence ministry? How can you die to your own preferences? It feels like dying, because you have things you want to do, and instead, you don't do them. How can you, like Jesus, be willing to die for a neighbor? It says, in 1 John 3:16... “This is how we know what love is. Jesus Christ laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers." There is a laying down of your life, similar to Jesus dying on the cross. III. Heart Attraction Described: 1 Corinthians The heart attraction, we walked through last week. I want to remind you of it, from 1 Corinthians 13. What does it mean to have a heart that's genuinely attracted? Without it, any sacrifice, even the greatest sacrifice, will be as nothing on judgment day. 1 Corinthians 13:3 , "If I give all I possess to the poor, and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing." Meaning, on Judgment Day, it's not rewardable. I can do this incredible sacrifice in an unloving way. My heart isn't attracted to the person in that way. I have not gone out, in compassion, to them. Then he just beautifully describes what that heart attraction looks like. 1 Corinthians 13:4, and following, "Love is patient. Love is kind. It doesn't envy. It doesn't boast. It's not easily angered. It keeps no record of wrongs. It's not rude. It's not self-seeking. Love does not delight an evil, but rejoice in the truth.” That's what it's like. It carries itself. Love carries itself that way. You could do the most amazing benevolent ministries in the city here, or anywhere, but if you're not like this, it's actually doing more harm than good. That's that heart attraction, resulting in sacrificial action, but it must move out to act, and that's what the Good Samaritan is all about. Look at it if you would, or just listen along. IV. Sacrificial Action Described: Luke 10: 13 Luke 10:25-37, look at the words again. "On one occasion, an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. ‘Teacher’, he asked, ‘what must I do to inherit eternal life?’” A very important question. What must I do to inherit eternal life? “'What is written in the law?’, He replied.” How do you read it? “He answered, ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and love your neighbor as yourself.’ ‘You have answered correctly’, Jesus replied. ‘Do this, and you will live.’” But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?" It’s a very important moment in this whole account. He wanted to justify himself, and ask, who is my neighbor? In reply, Jesus said, "A man was going down, from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was, and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him, and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine, then he put the man on his own donkey, took him to an inn, and took care of him. The next day, he took out two silver coins, and gave them to the innkeeper. 'Look after him', he said, 'and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.'" His inquiry begins as an effort at self-justification. The lawyer was seeking to justify himself, rather than to repent of sin. I can tell you the big picture. The whole point of this excursion into the Second Great Commandment, the law, and this Good Samaritan story, is not to help any of you justify yourselves. Rather, it must be to convict you, so that you can live better, or so that you can come to Christ, but not so that you can look at it and say, "I thank you, God, but I already do the Good Samaritan stuff." Not at all. That's the point. He's seeking confirmation that his righteousness was enough. He's already done enough. So, day after day, we seek that air-conditioned van ride through the world. We seek to be the priest and the Levite, going on the other side. But along with that, as knowers of the Bible, we seek to justify ourselves. We want some escape, some way to say, "Hey, what I've done is enough." We will make excuses. We'll come up with concepts like the undeserving poor. Things like that. What is undeserving poor? Somebody who I don't have to help, because their poverty, or their circumstances, are their own fault. So we're exempt, because they're undeserving poor. Or we'll look at the costs, and say, "Look, you got to realize how busy I am in my life. You got to realize I have my own limitations." Or I have my own family needs, et cetera. I understand. We make these kinds of excuses. We all try to draw boundary lines around who we should love, so tightly, that it excuses the most difficult mercy ministries. There are two key questions in front of us in this parable of the Good Samaritan. Who is my neighbor, and what does it mean to love him as myself? But above that is the question, what must I do to be saved? The big question is: What must I do to be saved? Then below that, within the parable, these two questions, who is my neighbor, and what does it mean to love him as myself? Let's walk through the parable. The setting is the deadly, dangerous, Jericho Road, which was notorious for robbers that could hide in the mountainous clefts, and the twists and turns of the road. This was just a well-known dangerous spot. The story unfolds, as you know. There are six people in the parable. First, we have the victim. We know literally nothing about him. We don't know nothing about him. We don't know his nationality. We don't know his race. We don't know his age. We don't know his socioeconomic status. We don't know anything. That's striking. You get the feeling that none of that matters. It's not important who he is. He's human. He's been attacked. He's lying, bleeding, by the side of the road. Nothing else about him matters. Therefore, Jesus's answer to the question who is my neighbor is: “Anyone in need. It doesn't matter who the person is.” Next we have the robbers. Let me line up the mentality that each of the actors in this drama has about resources, about money. The robbers have this attitude: “What's yours is mine, if I can take it from you.” These are the people in the world who are takers, they’re thieves, they’re violent. They absolutely are breaking the Second Great Commandment. No doubt. They're criminal elements, and they will assault, or invade, or do what's necessary to take other people's stuff. The robbers; what’s yours is mine, if I can take it from you. Then you've got the priest, and the Levite. They're basically the same. It's just two times the same person. The doubling is for emphasis. There's no essential difference between the priest and the Levite. It's just doubled for emphasis. Their attitude is: “What's mine is mine, and what's yours is yours,” period. I mean, you live your life, I'll live mine. Your problems are not my problems. My problems are not your problems. This is the way most people go through this world. Furthermore, Jesus makes it clear that both the priest and Levite see the guy on the side of the road. They see him, and move by on the other side. They willingly choose not to get involved. The separation by the road, the distance, represents willful ignorance, staying far enough away from the suffering so you don't know its details, because if you find out the details, you might get drawn into it. You might get involved, and you don't want to, so you're on the other side. It's willful. It's a symbol of willful ignorance, and that's also a problem for most of us Christians. Most of us aren't just cold-hearted, bad people. We just are ignorant of the suffering of the people in the world. We just don't know that much about it, and we choose to be that way. Notice, also, that they're both religious people. The priest is religious, the Levite is religious. They're religious people. It's just a common problem. The lawyer, who's coming, is a religious person seeking to justify himself. For us, we need to be mindful of the fact the most terrifying sins that we're going to be pressed on, on Judgment Day, will be sins of omission. These would be good works, that God went ahead of you, in advance [Ephesians 2:10], and set up for you to do, and you didn't do it. That's what sins of omission are. Good deeds, good works God set up, and you didn't do them. This is the topic, very much the topic, of the sheep and the goats, which isn't a parable, it's just an analogy of what Judgment Day is going to be like. Jesus is going to come and sit on a throne of glory. He's going to assemble all the people that have ever lived in front of him, and He's going to separate them into two groups; the sheep and the goats. He's going to say to the goats, the reprobate, those about to be condemned, "I was hungry, and you did not feed me. I was thirsty, and you gave me nothing to drink. I was a stranger, and you did not welcome me in. I was sick, and you did not visit me. These are things you did not do." The sins in the sheep, and the goats, are sins of omission. We know full well there are sins of commission too, but that's not what He describes there. "We need to be mindful of the fact the most terrifying sins that we're going to be pressed on, on Judgment Day, will be sins of omission. …Good deeds, good works God set up, and you didn't do them." What will it be like for us, on Judgment Day, to see a replay of our lives, and see all the good works that God set up, day by day, for us to walk in? What will that be like? My job as a pastor is to make that moment acute to you now, by faith, and by the ministry of the Word. To make it sharp. Make it clear what's going to happen. You are going to give an account to Jesus, and so am I, for every moment you've lived on earth. "We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done in the body, whether good, or bad.” [2 Corinthians 5]. "Please don't tell me" [Romans 8:1] "I thought there was no condemnation." Friends, I'm not talking about condemnation. I'm talking about accountability. You're going to give an account to Jesus, and that includes sins of omission. Then we've got the innkeeper. What's his attitude? “What's mine is yours, for a price.” This is the innkeeper, a merchant. This is a professional medical person. This is their job. It's what they do, but that's not Second Great Commandment stuff. That's the market. That's the job. That's what it calls the price. Then you've got the Good Samaritan. His attitude is “what's mine is yours, if you need it. What's mine is yours if you need it.” I find it amazing that Jesus chooses the Samaritan to be the hero. Jesus loved doing this kind of thing. It's like, "Oh, I'm not supposed to heal on the Sabbath. Watch me heal on the Sabbath." He goes right at things that would be irksome to the Jews. The hero of the story is an outcast, that they all hated. I think the feeling is if the victim had been a Samaritan, and we are supposed to... In the story, we're Israelites. What are we supposed to do? Help the Samaritan. That's the point. So what does he do? He helps sacrificially. He stops. His heart is moved with compassion. He's drawn over. He stops. He helps. He pours oil and wine on the wounds. He binds them up. Immediate first aid is given, then he puts him on his donkey, and gets him down to an innkeeper so that he can be cared for. He spends the night caring for this individual, and then he gives of his money, paying the two days' wages to the innkeeper, to meet the needs, and he promises to come back later, and make certain that the man's all right. He's invested, he's committed. Then Jesus summarizes the whole thing [verses 36-37], “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?” It an interesting way to phrase that. “Then the expert in the law replied, ‘The one who had mercy on him.’ Then Jesus told him, ‘Go and do likewise.’" You just feel like, for all of us, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, that's what He's saying to us, “Go and do likewise”. Now we have those questions. Who is my neighbor? Any needy person that God brings into your life. What does it mean to love him as I love myself? Sacrificial acts of service to meet the need presented. Let's ask the hard questions. It starts with that whole question, what must I do to be saved? Is mercy ministry necessary for me to go to heaven? That's an interesting question, isn't it? What must I do to inherit eternal life? Do I have to be the Good Samaritan in order to go to heaven? Let me say, directly, the law cannot save you. No one is saved by obedience to the law, and this is law. When Jesus says, "go and do likewise”, He understands the theology of salvation by grace very well. He's just doing something different there. He's not saying law can save you. Then what is the function of the law? It is to convict you, to kill you, basically, and bring you to the cross. Fundamentally, we are not justified, that is forgiven of our sins, by our own mercy ministry. We are justified, forgiven of our sins, by Jesus's mercy ministry toward us. Jesus had compassion on us, and in mercy, moved out to alleviate our eternal misery, which is hell. Therefore it says, in Romans 59, "In order that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy, we're going to spend eternity glorifying God for his mercy." We're not justified by our own good works, we’re not justified by our own obedience. "We are justified, forgiven of our sins, by Jesus's mercy ministry toward us. Jesus had compassion on us, and in mercy, moved out to alleviate our eternal misery, which is hell." The next question: What is the scope and dimension of my life of loving my neighbor? Like the lawyer, aren't we ready to ask who is my neighbor again, and again? We tend to excuse ourselves from this service. I've argued that the law crushes you, kills you, and brings you to the cross, but then it's not done with you. Then having been forgiven, we are now filled with the Holy Spirit, who wrote the law to begin with. Now, He enables you to obey it, by his power through Christ. We circle back to the Good Samaritan, and say, "Okay. How can I do this? Who is my neighbor?" Let's begin by acknowledging we have the tendency to justify ourselves, and try to get out of it by... Like I said, the whole idea of the deserving poor. I'm not saying that there's not addictive behaviors that destroy people's lives, and it would be very good for them to stop doing them. I'm not saying we should just give money to anybody that comes up and asks, especially to addicts, knowing full well that that money will go right into intensifying their addiction. I think we have to be intelligent about it. What I'm saying is, we can't excuse ourselves from this whole thing. That's all I'm saying. V. Priorities in Love How then can we be transformed to be a person that actually fulfills this law? I want to give you priorities that I have discerned in Scripture based on this topic. What are our priorities? Top priority: Justification before mercy ministry. First, make certain that your sins are forgiven through faith in Jesus Christ. What is the work of God? John 6, "This is the work of God. Do you believe in the one he has sent?" Start there. Don't try to earn your way to heaven by your good deeds, by being the Good Samaritan. You'll never do enough. Besides which, it's apples and oranges. You can't use present, or future, obedience to the law, to pay for past disobedience to the law. You can never get ahead or get extra credit. If you do a Good Samaritan thing today, you were supposed to do it. So you can't use it to pay for the fact that you didn't do a Good Samaritan thing last week. So, the top priority is your own justification by faith in Christ, before any mercy ministry. Second priority: Minister to the soul, above the body. What would it profit someone, if they should gain the whole world, and lose their souls? Therefore, any mercy ministry this church does has to prioritize the proclamation of the Gospel, for the salvation of souls. It is more important, like when Jesus forgave the sins of the paralyzed man, before healing him of his paralysis. There is a clear priority structure. Your sins are forgiven. This was, by the way, the flaw of the social gospel, and I worry sometimes that American evangelicalism might go right back into the social gospel again, caring more for the temporal needs of people, and forgetting that they are on their way to hell, apart from the gospel. Therefore, I think this is a good slogan: We Christians care about alleviating all misery, but especially eternal misery. And what is eternal misery? It is condemnation in hell. So the top priority of our ministry to others is the soul above the body. Third priority: Ministry to the family of believers, especially your own family, above ministry to outsiders. Our top priority, in terms of physical provision, is for our own biological family. As in 1 Timothy 5:8,”If anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for his immediate family, he has denied the faith, and is, worse than an unbeliever." In other words, all you families, and heads of households, and all that, take care of your own people. Don't bring them to the church for benevolence. That's the strong message of 1 Timothy 5. But then, even within our benevolent ministry, we should care about the needs of Christians, before we care about the needs of outsiders, as it says plainly in Galatians 6:10, "Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers." What does the word “especially" mean? That's our top priority, but it doesn't exclude the other ministry.Wh Start with the household of faith. We start with believers. We seek to alleviate their misery as best we can, and then it moves out from there. Then fourth: Ministry to the poor, above ministry to the rich. What does that mean? Jesus said in Luke 14, "When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers, or relatives, your rich neighbors. If you do, they may invite you back, and so you'll be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you'll be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous." That's the priority structure, but that doesn't mean we can't do mercy ministry to rich people, because they suffer in other ways, and ultimately, through the proclamation of the gospel. Those four priorities should shape the way we do mercy ministry. VI. Application: Moving Toward Misery As I finish applications, let's just start, all of us, with repentance. “God, show me my sin.” It could be, for some of you, repentance and faith in Christ. You came here an unbeliever. Start there. Repent, and believe the good news of the Gospel, for the forgiveness of your sins. Start with that. But if that's happened to you years ago, say, "Lord, how am I like the lawyer seeking to justify himself? How am I like the priest who saw him, and move by on the other side? How am I like the Levite who saw, and moved on the other side?" Then, "How can I then move out into mercy ministry here, where I live? Who are my neighbors, my actual physical neighbors? What do I know about them?" We have less of a neighbor-feel than we've ever had in our society. Do we even physically know our neighbors? What do we mean by the word “neighbor”? Wouldn't it be a shock if we actually, in some cases, got to know our neighbors, and then found out what was going on in their lives? Maybe see a tree down, and bring a chainsaw over there, and maybe find out that one of them has been in the hospital for while, and bring a meal. Love your church member as you love yourself. Take the church phone directory. Go through it. Pray for people daily. A page a day, or two pages a day, whatever. Then also say, "Is there some kind of suffering in the church that I can alleviate, some way that someone's hurting? What can I do?" Use the home fellowship as a basis for that. Then love your urban neighbor as you love yourself. Our urban setting has changed radically in the last number of years, some call it gentrification. More and more wealthy people are buying up ramshackle properties, and then renovating them, et cetera. You used to be able to walk, literally, three minutes, and get to poor and needy people, and care for them. Now it's a different time, but like Jesus said, "You'll always have poor people." So the question is, what benevolent ministries can our church be involved in? We're already involved in refugee ministry. We could be involved more. There are always more ministries. Find out what opportunities there are in our city for this kind of service. And then finally... I'm going to preach, God willingness, on this sermon soon, in Mark 13. How can we love unreached, people groups better? How can we care about eternal suffering of people that have never heard the gospel? How can we love our lost coworkers better. In evangelism, how can we use mercy ministry to couple it with the words of the gospel? What is God calling us to do, individually, and as a church? Close with me in prayer. Father, we thank you for the time we've had to walk through this powerful passage. God, teach us to have a heart of mercy that moves toward misery. Teach us, O Lord, to care about the suffering around us, and to seek to alleviate it. Give us opportunities to share the gospel with people who are on that broad road that leads to destruction. Help us, out of compassion for them, to do that. God, give us opportunities to alleviate suffering here in our community. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
Christ died to fulfill the Second Great Commandment — love your neighbor as yourself, and to enable us at last to fulfill it ourselves for all eternity! - SERMON TRANSCRIPT - I want to begin this sermon by speaking directly to all of you, who are my brothers and sisters in Christ. I feel a privilege this morning as a messenger of God to tell you that you are infinitely rich, and not only are you infinitely rich, you're getting richer by the day, and someday you're going to come into an infinite inheritance, the scope and magnitude of which I guarantee you underestimate. My task this morning as I begin this sermon is to give you a sense of that richness, the sense of that wealth, that inheritance. Imagine that I were a lawyer entrusted with the opening up of a sealed will, and you've been invited to come and hear as an heir what you're going to get. Imagine a fabulously wealthy business magnate has died, and you're part of the family, and I am going to read the will. I read your name, and I tell you that you stand to inherit millions of shares of blue-chip stock in a Fortune 500 company, thousands of bonds, shares in some oil fields in the Persian Gulf. The list goes on, and on and your mind starts to spin with the realization that all your financial problems are solved forever. That's not what's happening today. I'm not doing any of that, but I am telling you that if you're a Christian, you are an heir to a vast fortune of immeasurably, even infinitely, greater value than any of those things I just listed. Ephesians chapter 1 mentions the word “inheritance” three times. I was pondering that this morning. Ephesians 1:11 says, "In Christ, we have obtained an inheritance having been predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, so that we who are the first to hope in Christ might be for the praise of His glory." The first mention of the word “inheritance" in Ephesians 1:11and then Ephesians 1:13, "In Him also, you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, having believed you are sealed in Him with the promised Holy Spirit who is a deposit guaranteeing your full inheritance until we acquire possession of it.” That's the second mention of inheritance and the gift of the Holy Spirit as a down payment, a payment or a foretaste of that full inheritance. But the one that really captivated me this morning, the reason I'm mentioning it to you now, is the third mention of the word “inheritance” in Ephesians chapter 1. Paul prays for the Ephesian Christians and, through Him, for all of us, that the eyes of our heart would be enlightened in order that we would know the hope to which He has called us, the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints, and His incomparably great power for us who believe. That phrase captivates me this morning. That's why I'm even mentioning this whole concept to you today, the vast inheritance you have in the saints. Sometimes, when we're listing the various forms of wealth held by fabulously wealthy people, we talk about how they made their wealth and what their wealth was in. We use that kind of language, like we would say that Rockefeller made his money in oil. Carnegie made all his money in steel. Vanderbilt made his money in railroads, that kind of thing. Warren Buffett made his money in stocks. So what's our inheritance? According to Ephesians 1:18, our wealth is in saints. Your wealth is in the saints. I'm not going to have you do it, but look around, look left and right. That's your wealth, right there. Your brothers and sisters in Christ are part of your inheritance. You might say that's a little bit of a letdown. I was hoping for something better in heaven. You know that again and again, from this pulpit, I've preached that your genuine wealth is God. What you get when you go to heaven is, you get God. There are so many statements of this, so many pictures of this— the Levites didn't get an inheritance, but God was their inheritance. They represent all of us, I think. A beautiful statement in Genesis 15:1, "Fear not Abram, I am your shield. I am your very great reward." God is your reward. God is what you get. Heaven is all about God. Heaven is all about the glory of God. That's what you get. However, there are other verses that expand our sense of the inheritance. A simple one in the Sermon in the Mount is “blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.” We don't just say, "God, we get the earth. We inherit the earth." There are many other such statements and Ephesians 1:18 is one of those. If you look at the earth, we, the redeemed, are going to get the earth. We're going to get not this cursed earth, but we get this earth, I believe, resurrected in a new form called the new heaven and new earth. You're going to get it. You're going to be an heir with Abraham of the earth, and that new heaven, new earth is going to shine with the glory of God. They're not separate. You get God in the form of the new heaven, the new earth, as He has made it beautiful, and His radiance and His glory will shine, for the earth is full of His glory, and it'll be even more evident in the new heaven, the new earth. So with that idea, go back to Ephesians 1:18, our inheritance is in the saints. We are rich in the saints. Our wealth will be in some part each other, and that is in a multitude greater than anyone could count from every tribe, language, people, and nation. That's why I say you are immeasurably wealthy, and you get wealthier every day because every day more people cross over from death to life, and they become part of your inheritance, and you get them just like they get you. I understand why you would feel a little bit disappointed in this because you know you're no great shakes. I'm not trying to insult you, but it's only recently that these words would be overtly true of you. Romans chapter 3, "There was no one righteous, not even one. No one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away. They've together become worthless." Think about that word. Imagine a worthless inheritance, but that's what we were, but it is not what we are. We were at one time worthless, "There is no one who does good, not even one. Their throats are open graves, their tongues practice deceit. The poison of vipers is on their lips. Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood. Ruin in misery mark their ways, and the way of peace they do not know. There is no fear of God before their eyes." That's what you were. That's what I was, but it is not what I am, and it is not what I will be for all eternity. However, because of how terrible we are in our sin, it's not surprising, a little bit shocking, that one of the foremost philosophers of the 20th century in 1944, John-Paul Sartre, said famously, "Hell is other people." Hell is other people. Imagine being his friend and reading that. “Tell me, Jean-Paul, how you really feel about our friendship?” Hell is other people. What I'm saying today, based on Ephesians 1:18, is, heaven is other people. Think about that. Heaven is other people, in part, not in any way minimizing that God is our reward. Actually, it's because the glory of God is going to be shining in unique and beautiful ways through each of the redeemed that each one of them is part of your inheritance because each one of them will shine with the glory of God and of the Father in ways that will be special, unique, and beautiful, and I argue because I believe in a dynamic heaven in which you'll never be omniscient. You'll have a lot to learn. You haven't met most of your inheritance yet. You don't know them yet. You won't know them when you die. You'll meet them in heaven, and it's going to take a long, long, long, long time to meet them, as God in some sense says, "Have you considered My servant Job? Have you considered My servant so-and-so?" You will have the opportunity to consider each of your brothers and sisters and the glories of each one. At that time, the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father, and you are going to see how beautiful they are, how radiant they are, and how glorious they are. As it says in John chapter 3, "Everyone who lives by the lie does not come to the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But everyone who lives by the truth comes into the light so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God." So each of their good works, which will have been perfected by the fire of Judgment Day and come through shining, each one of them will be a display of the glory of God in their lives. Their glories will be your glories, their honors will be your honors, their privileges will be your privileges because we're all part of one body, and when one part of the body is honored, the whole body is honored with it. You have a glorious inheritance in the saints, and it's getting richer every day, not just in the redemption of people crossing over from death to life but in the good works they're doing. They're enriching the kingdom of God every day, and so are you, by your good works. I believe that it's relevant to today's text because it is the perfect fulfillment of the second great commandment when we get to heaven. Our sin has made us constricted. We pull into ourselves. All we really care about is us. We pull in, and we become like a medieval castle with a moat and a drawbridge. The drawbridge is pulled up, and we're all about me, intensely committed to selfish me. That's what sin does to us. Redemption does the opposite. It makes us open and expansive to include others more and more and more so that others’ delights are our delights, others' blessedness becomes ours, and we get to live that out now by the power of the Spirit. The more we do, the more the glorious gospel of Jesus will be put on display. The more our church is characterized by that kind of heavenly openness and love in which we really genuinely delight in the blessedness of others, we're willing to sacrifice to make somebody else blessed, and we find delight, personal delight in somebody else's happiness, the more the gospel's going to shine in this church. I tell you, this region, this country needs it. This is a dark place, and we are put like a light up on a pedestal to shine in this dark place. We're a city on a hill. We're called to do this. “Behold how they love one another,” one of the ancient observers of Christians said. Or as Jesus said, "By this will all men know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." It's this open expansiveness that gets up out of self and includes another in our own happiness so that their blessedness is ours, their delight is ours. Years ago, I saw a movie that pictured this for me, and it depicted a love scene in the movie. It wasn't actually romantic at all, but it was between a man and a woman. It comes from the movie Driving Miss Daisy. Morgan Freeman plays an African-American man hired to drive around an older Jewish woman in the South a number of decades ago, and it depicts their budding relationship. It moves from employer-employee, eventually, at the end of the movie, to friends, just genuinely friends. Morgan Freeman is very elderly at this point, as is the woman Jessica Tandy plays. The woman is very old, she's in a nursing home, and maybe some mild dementia, et cetera. He goes to visit her at the nursing home, and she's sitting there. It's Thanksgiving time, and they have a conversation. They haven't seen each other in a number of years, they get reconnected, and she's not all there, but she definitely knows that he's with her, and she has a piece of pie in front of her that she hasn't started yet, and at some point he says, "Now you haven't eaten your pie." He starts to feed it to her, and as he feeds her each piece, the acting is just really excellent in this. As he feeds her each piece, it's like you can see him enjoying it as though he's enjoying it through her. The enjoyment of that pie is his. It's a beautiful scene, and I think it captures a little bit of what I think it means to love your neighbor as yourself, that you are expanded, your heart is expanded into the joy of someone else's joy. Or we could say negatively, "If someone else is suffering, you're suffering with them, and then to alleviate that suffering brings you delight." You're free now from that pain because you are so joined in your heart. That's what I think it means to love your neighbors yourself. Let's talk about the context. It's the last week of Jesus' life. He's already made the triumphal entry to the cries of “Hosanna.” He's cleared the Temple of its filthy money changers, and He continues his ministry of teaching and of healing there in the temple area. He's in the final stage of His life because His enemies are overtly, clearly plotting His death. They want to kill Him. The chief priest, the Scribes, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the Herodians, they want to kill Him. They set up one trap after another. First, the Pharisees and Herodians, with their question on taxation, designed to get him in trouble with the Romans and get Him killed. Then the Sadducees, with their ridiculous question about resurrection, that case study with the man that had seven brothers and married to the one woman. Remember that? Then, along in Mark's Gospel, comes this expert in the law who seems different than them. He's a different spirit. I think he really genuinely wanted to know the answer that of all the commandments, which is the greatest, and Jesus's commendation of him is unusual. Jesus answers, "The most important one is this, 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, with all your strength.' The second is this, 'Love your neighbors yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these." In the last few sermons, we've looked at the first and Greatest Commandment, the vertical one, love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. Now we're going to look at the second one. This commandment is an old commandment that's made new. It's an ancient commandment. Jesus is quoting the law of Moses, as He did with the first and greatest commandment. He's quoting again with the second commandment. It's Leviticus 19:18, "Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord." Love your neighbor as yourself. What does that mean? It's not, you have to first love yourself, and then you'll be able to love your neighbor. It's not that. In the sense of this verse, you already fanatically do love yourself. From infancy, you have been fanatically committed to yourself. The infant howling at 3:00 AM is loving him or herself. They can't articulate it, but that is what is going on. They have a need, they want it met. They're increasingly aware of a particular person who keeps meeting the need, and they want that person. They can't even say mama yet, but they are, from infancy, committed to self. This is innate. The command tells us to do for others what we've been doing all our lives for ourselves. One of the articulations of this is in marriage, and I think it makes it a little clearer exactly what this commandment entails in marriage. It says, "Husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife, loves himself. After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it." That's a very practical explication of the Second Great Commandment in the context of marriage. It's very easy to see a very clear connection between the Second Great Commandment and the one Paul gives in marriage, but he specifically is very physical with it. The way the husband feeds and cares for his own body is the way he should look after his wife. I think we could say the same thing in general for our neighbor. Look how you care for yourself. When your stomach is growling and empty, you feed it. When your tongue is dry, you drink. When you have an itch, you scratch it, even if it's right between your shoulder blades and very difficult to reach. You do what you need to do to alleviate the pain. If you are in pain in any way, you alleviate it, you shift how you're sitting in your pew. If one part of your body is falling asleep or whatever, you're going to adjust to alleviate the pain. If your body is cold, you're going to put on a sweater. If it's hot, you're going to get into some AC and alleviate it. If it's raining, you seek shelter. You do this constantly. You've been doing this every day of your life, pretty much every moment of your life, from infancy. The way you've been doing that for yourself, do it for your neighbor, do it for everyone else. I. An Old Commandment Made New This is an ancient command—love your neighbor as you already do love yourself. But . . . we’re told a new commandment, a new command. Jesus said in John 13:34-35, after the foot washing, He said, "A new command I give you, love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this will everyone know that you're My disciples if you love one another." It is effectively an old commandment made new, as John writes in 1 John 2:7-8, "Dear friends, I'm not writing you a new command but an old one which you've had from the beginning. This old command is the message you have heard. Yet I am writing you a new command. Its truth is seen in Him and in you because the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining." How is this old command, or ancient command, made new? Jesus is the answer. It's because of Jesus that this old command is now incarnated and it is made new. How is that? First, by Jesus's example; Jesus showed us how to love our neighbor as ourselves. He gave us a role model that we should imitate. He's the only one in history that has ever perfectly fulfilled this horizontal commandment. As we read Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, we see all of His encounters with men and women and children and with everyone. We just have much information education now in what it looks like to love our neighbor as own self. Then we see it definitely in the atoning work of Jesus and the atonement of Jesus. Jesus said in general universal principle, John 15:13, "Greater love has no one than this, that he laid down his life for his friends. You are My friends if you do what I command you." The principle is laying down your life. Jesus's teaching tells us what it means to love our neighbor. Jesus's death on the cross is the perfect pinnacle of a human being loving his neighbors. It is a perfect pinnacle example of the Second Great Commandment being fulfilled. As it says in Romans 5:8, "God demonstrates His own love for us in this. While we're still sinners, Christ died for us." Jesus loved His enemies. He gave the infinite gift of Himself under the wrath of God so that we would not suffer eternity in hell. He cared about where we were heading. He cared about alleviating eternal suffering, and He was willing to take it into Himself so that we would be set free, and by gazing therefore at the example of Jesus and at the cross of Jesus. This is a new command. It's an ancient command made new now, and it's made new because the Spirit of Christ is in us working it. If you're a Christian, the Spirit of Jesus is in you, working this horizontal command so that you'll love your neighbor as yourself, and by the Spirit alone can we do it. We've seen this again and again in Ezekiel 36:26-27, "I'll give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you. I'll remove from you your heart of stone, and I'll give you a heart of flesh and I will put My Spirit in you and move you to follow My decrees and be careful to keep my laws." Consummated in the two Great Commandments., the Spirit of Christ is in us, moving us to love God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength and to love our neighbor as ourselves. That's what the Spirit is moving you to do if you're a Christian. Therefore, in Galatians 5:22, the first thing it says, "The fruit of the Spirit is love." That's what the Spirit does in you. When He's working in you, He makes you love. Only by the spirit of the indwelling Spirit of Christ can we truly love our neighbors. God is the source of that love, and He gives us that love that flows out vertically through us, then horizontally out by Christ's mediatorial work and by the linking, connecting work of the Holy Spirit of God. That's how it happens. 1 John 4:7-8, "Dear friends, let us love one another. For love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.” There is a beautiful picture in Revelation 22 of the throne of God in the center of the new Jerusalem and the river of the water of life flowing eternally and endlessly generated from the throne, and out it flows. This river of the water of life is crystal clear. I don't think it's very difficult to say, it's also a river of love. So love just flows from God, for from Him, through Him, and to Him are all things. He is the source of love, and you cannot love, not like this, apart from Christ. "Love just flows from God, for from Him, through Him, and to Him are all things. He is the source of love, and you cannot love, not like this, apart from Christ." Let me stop and say to all of you, are you in Christ or are you apart from Christ? Have you received from Jesus Christ the forgiveness of your sins? Have you realized that you are that sinner described in Romans 3, that you are worthless and a viper, and on your way to hell? Jesus came to intervene, to save you, and to die into the wrath of God for your violation of God's laws. Have you come to that place and asked Him? Have you called in the name of the Lord for the forgiveness of your sins? If so, that the moment that happened, you received the gift of the indwelling Spirit of Christ. You began a career of love vertically, and horizontally. II. Love Defined Let's try to understand it. What is love? How will we understand love? We're going to go again to Jonathan Edwards, and Edwards taught us that the soul has two faculties. First, the ability to comprehend or understand things in the universe, including our neighbor, that we're able to understand. It has that capacity to study and know. Then secondly, to be inclined or disinclined to that thing that it studies and knows to a greater less degree, such as liking or loving or disliking and hating. The soul does this. This is what is designed to do by God. I pictured it in terms of a magnetic attraction like a bar magnet north-south attracted, and then, to a greater less degree is, that number line of affection, positive being liking on up to loving and the negative numbers being disliking onto hating. Therefore, I give this definition of love. Love is a heart attraction that results in cheerful, sacrificial action. Love is a heart attraction that results in cheerful, sacrificial action. First, it's heart attraction. Your heart is attracted to your neighbor. Your heart goes out to your neighbor and includes your neighbor within yourself. Therefore, it is not enough just to act. Many people say love is an action, and they're quoting a verse I'm about to quote. It's important that love is action, I get that, but first there has to be the heart attraction. If there's no heart in it, there's no love. You can give the utmost gift, the costliest gift, but if your heart isn't attracted, if it doesn't go out to your neighbor and yearn to bless that, and you don't find personal delight in it, it's nothing. 1 Corinthians 13:3, maybe, in some sense, one of the harshest verses in the Bible, "If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames but have not love, I gain nothing." Wow. I can't imagine a more amazing gift. The individual gave all of their worldly possessions to the poor and died, and they get nothing. Why? Because they didn't do it in love. It's incredible. What that means is, behind that is, there must be a heart attraction. There has to be a yearning to bless the person. My heart is linked to yours. Jonathan Edwards put it this way, "In some sense, the most benevolent, generous person in the world seeks his own happiness in doing good to others because he places his happiness in their good. His mind is so enlarged as to take them as it were into himself. Thus, when they're happy, he feels it. He partakes with them and is happy in their happiness." Isn't that beautiful? That's Morgan Freeman enjoying the pie through Jessica Tandy. That's what it is. My heart is going out. It's expanded and includes you. If you personally get no delight out of your service to your neighbor, you get nothing on Judgment Day. You have to enjoy doing it, delight in doing it. But there has to be an action. Now we get to that other verse I was mentioning. You can't just have really sweet feelings for everybody, and it never amounts to anything. 1 John 3:16-18, "This is how we know what love is. Jesus Christ laid down His life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? Dear children, let us not love with words or speech, but with actions and in truth." So you've got to have both sides of that equation. You got to put it together. You can't just have the sweet feelings and do nothing. You can't just do things and not have the feelings. It's together. But it has to be sacrificial actions, it’s got to cost you something. Isn't that what sacrifice is? David said, "I will not offer the Lord a sacrifice that costs me nothing." It's got to cost you. You can measure love by sacrifice. “Greater love has no one than this, that he laid down his life for his friends.” You see, it's a measurement, greater love. So the more the sacrifice, the more love has been revealed. Obviously, literally, to die for someone else is the greatest sacrifice anyone... It's the greatest thing you could ever do. But lesser gifts are sacrifices as well. You're giving of your time, of your energy, of your money. You're giving something that costs you something. You are in some way depleted because you gave to your neighbor, you made a sacrifice for them. But it has to be cheerful. So it's like, "Pastor, you put too much in the definition." But there are Bible verses behind each of these. What kind of giver does God love? God doesn't just love a giver, God loves a cheerful giver. 2 Corinthians 9:7, "Each of you should give..." He's talking about finances, "Each of you should give what he has determined in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion because God loves a cheerful giver." Therefore, Jesus was a cheerful giver on the cross. This is infinitely mysterious, but it's true. In Hebrews 12:2 it says, "We should fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who, for the joy that was set before Him, endured the cross scorning in shame and sat down at the right hand of God." He looked beyond the misery and the horror of the cross to the good thing that would come from it, the joy. What is that joy? His joy in saving a multitude from every tribe, language, people, and nation, so that they would be with Him and see His glory and spend eternity in heaven. This is my composite definition of love. Love is a heart attraction to another person that results in cheerful, sacrificial action on behalf of that person. "Love is a heart attraction to another person that results in cheerful, sacrificial action on behalf of that person." IV. What Love Is and Is Not Let's describe it a little more— what love is and what love is not. 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 describes negatively and positively what it is and is not, "Love is patient. Love is kind. It doesn't envy. It doesn't boast. It's not easily angered. It's not proud, it's not rude. It's not self-seeking. It keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trust, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails." So love is patient, it puts up with a lot. It's long-suffering. It's kind. It freely does good things for people. There's a kindness to love. There's a gladness, a gentleness, a giving nature to love that is wrapped up in the word “kind”. There's a kindness to it. It doesn't envy. It's not jealous over the benefits given to others. There's no envy or jealousy. It is glad to see other people blessed and benefit. You're not in competition with them in that regard. It doesn't boast. It's not proud. This love that we're talking about here is actually a very humble thing. It's humble. It's not rude. Let's put it this way, it's well-mannered. There's just good manners to love. I think all that system of manners that parents teach their children, it's basically Second Commandment stuff. When you're at the table, you don't talk with your mouthful. All of those rules are preciousness of others, you’re caring about others. So it's not rude. It's not self-seeking. It doesn't constantly say, "What's in it for me?" We shouldn't misunderstand that. There should be heart desire. So there is something in it for me. I should desire it. But it's not that selfish, independent, "I want to get something whether you get anything or not." That's what self-seeking means. It's not easily angered. It has a short fuse, it doesn't fly off the handle quickly, and it keeps no record of wrongs. How difficult is that? I'm not remembering what you did to me last week. I'm ready to forgive because I've been forgiven much. It doesn't delight in evil. There's no schadenfreude. It seems like so much of the internet, so much of the digital media is delighting in other people's misfortune, finding humor in some bad thing that happens to another person. Love doesn't do that. That’s not loving. If we see somebody dragged down, we don't delight in it. We rejoice in the truth. What does that mean? Jesus is the truth. I rejoice to see Jesus come into somebody's life. I rejoice to see the Bible's truth flourishing. It delights in Christ and the Bible succeeding in the world and people living according to it. We love that. Then it always protects, always trust, always hopes, always perseveres. It never fails. It just stands with individuals, and it's there permanently. If you ask, what is love like and what is it not like? I would commend 1 Corinthians 13:4-8. How does it act? I can tell you how it does not act. It doesn't do any harm to the neighbor. Romans 13:9-10, "The commandments, 'You shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not covet.' And whatever other commandment there may be, are summed up in this one command, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' Love does no harm to his neighbor. Therefore, love is the fulfillment of the law.” Remember, I talked a few weeks ago about there have to be negatives after prohibition? You can't just tell our corrupt generation, love is love. Just love how you feel. No, there's a bunch of prohibitions in the Bible, but what Paul says in Romans 13 is that all of those prohibitions are summed up in the positive command to love. Because love doesn't do any harm to the neighbor. So you shall not commit adultery. It is not loving to break up someone's marriage to be a homewrecker. That's not love. Paul talks about that in another place. Don't take advantage of your brother by winning over his wife. That's not love. That's damaging to him, stealing, damaging, taking his things. Those prohibitions are summed up in the statement “love”, because love doesn't do any harm. So that's what love does not do. We don't damage each other, hurt each other. That's where gossip and slander comes in. If I'm gossiping and slandering, I'm destroying somebody's reputation. What does love do? It acts in such a way that the individual is, in some way, blessed. You could do it negatively by alleviating suffering, positively by helping them grow and grace in the knowledge of Christ, bringing blessings into their lives materially, physically. A great statement is Jesus' depiction of Judgment Day in Matthew 25, "All the nations will be gathered before Him and He's going to separate the people one from another as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He'll say to the sheep, the righteous on His right. He'll say, 'I was hungry, you gave Me something to eat. I was thirsty. You gave Me something to drink. I was a stranger, you invited Me in. I needed clothes, and you clothed Me. I was sick, and you looked after Me. I was in prison, and you came to visit Me.'" That's a whole list of actions that you can do out of love. Those are all Second Great Commandment actions, especially on the issue of alleviation of suffering. We Christians should care about suffering. We should care about all suffering, and we should desire to alleviate it. Next week, I'm going to preach on mercy ministry, on the Good Samaritan, and the alleviation of temporal suffering. I heard a long time ago, and I like this, we Christians care about the alleviation of all suffering, but especially eternal suffering. What is eternal suffering? It is the torment of hell. How could that torment be alleviated? There's only one way, by repentance and faith in Jesus Christ. How should we care about that? We should care whether people are going to hell or not. It should matter to us, and this is what I taught this past week, Romans 9:1-3. The apostle Paul said this, "I speak the truth in Christ. I'm not lying. My conscience confirms it in the Holy Spirit, that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish. For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my own people, the nation of Israel." What is he saying? Saying, "I would be willing to give up my own salvation if they could be saved. I could wish that, but I can't because I'm not their mediator. I'm not their savior. That was already done by Jesus. But I'm telling you that's the level of my concern for them.” I believe that we don't witness, we don't share our faith like we should, because we don't grieve over lostness and over its ultimate destination like we should. We should ask God to give us a heart of grief and brokenness over lost people, the alleviation of eternal suffering. That's what it is. V. Heaven: Love Perfected As I close today, I just want to expand your mind and bring you into that heavenly realm that we're going to go to, that new heaven, new earth, that eternal state. When both of these commandments, the First and Second Commandment, will be consummated in each of us, how much are you looking forward to that? How beautiful is that world of love going to be when, at last, you'll finally love God with all of your heart, with all of your soul, with all of your mind, and with all of your strength, and you'll at last love all of your neighbors as yourself? And you're going to have a lot of neighbors. Revelation 7:9-10, "After this I looked, and there before me, it was a great multitude that no one could count, from every tribe and language and people in nation standing before the throne and the front of the lamb. They were wearing white robes and they were holding palm branches in their hands. They cried out in a loud voice, 'Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.'" Let's imagine that the thesis of my Heaven book is true. That you'll have a perfect mind and a perfect heart, but you'll never be omniscient. What that means is, you'll be able to learn things in heaven, and the central topic of heaven is the glory of God. The central and the greatest display ever there has ever been of the glory of God is in the redemption of His people by the blood of Jesus Christ. It's the greatest display of glory there ever has been, ever will be. How much of it did you know here on earth? A very, very tiny percent, 0.0001%. How much will you learn in heaven? Much. All of it. How long will it take? Forever. Imagine meeting a new brother or sister, one that lived 263 years before you. They'll be in heaven. He's not the God of the dead but of the living, and you'll meet them. How could you know them? You couldn't. But you'll meet them in heaven and imagine two things. You want to know two things. How were they saved, and how were they used? Imagine being so expansive in your love that you'll actually care about the answers. “Tell me your testimony. How long do we have? Okay, I'll give you two minutes.” It's not going to take two minutes to find out how God sovereignly saved each of your brothers and sisters in Christ, what He orchestrated providentially to bring messengers and evangelists into their lives, either through their family, through missionaries, or through an evangelists, and you're going to be enthralled because it is to the glory of God how they got saved. As the elder asked a couple verses later in Revelation, these in the white robes, "Who are they and where did they come from? You've got forever to answer that question. How awesome will that be? "So please tell me, how did God save you?" Imagine Jesus himself saying, "Let me tell you what I did in his life or her life." Then the second question, "How did God use them? What are their good works? What are their rewards?" Again, you're not in competition because if one part of the body is honored, the whole body will be honored with it. You're going to be delighting in their honors, performance, and privileges as though they were your own because we're part of one body. How awesome will that be? That is where we're heading, brothers and sisters. The more we can live it now, the better for the gospel here in the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill area. Close with me in prayer. Father, thank You for the time we've had to just immerse ourselves in the Second Commandment. We know that it's for the failure of the Second Commandment that all the wars, dissensions, factions, divorces, fighting, and crimes have ever been committed. We thank You that You, Lord Jesus, by Your blood and by Your spirit, are the only remedy, and You are a perfect remedy. We thank You that You have made us rich now in each other, and You're making us richer by the day. Enable us, oh Lord, to love one another by the power of the Spirit to live out the gospel and put the gospel on display here in this region. In Jesus' name, amen.
Gospel of Mark: We Christians might assume that the Lord's favorite title for Himself, being God the Son, would be, the Son of God. Indeed, the Gospel of Mark begins by identifying Jesus in that way. However, five times more frequently, Mark uses Jesus own favorite title for Himself, the Son of Man. Throughout all of eternity past, He had always been the Son of God. However, to become the Son of Man, He would need to lower Himself. Indeed, the Lord lowered Himself in so many ways, as He would need to do even to have the evangelist Mark write this amazing account of His life, death and resurrection. The Gospel of Mark Bible study vol. 1 is available on MP3-CD, MP3 Download or in video in a 9-DVD Set. BEL SUBSCRIPTIONS: Please consider one of our monthly subscriptions that will not only help support BEL, but they also promote better understanding of the Bible and may equip you to more effectively reach those around you. NEW Monthly Downloads: Enjoy your monthly subscription is download form rather than on disc. Monthly Sermons: Enjoy all of Bob's sermons from the month on Sermon Video DVD, great also to watch with the family. Or, get these on Sermon Audio CDs which are standard audio Compact Discs that will play on any CD player including the one in your car. Or get them on a single Sermon MP3-CD which will play on an MP3 player, in a DVD player, or in your computer.Monthly Bible Studies: Enjoy the Scriptures with Bob's Monthly Bible Study DVDs, great too for a small group Bible study. Or get these teachings on a single Monthly Bible Study Audio MP3- CD which will play on an MP3 player, in a DVD player, or in your computer.Monthly Topical Videos: Coming to your mailbox, you'll get a Monthly Topical DVD to enjoy one of Bob's great videos specially selected to be entertaining and to teach about life from a biblical worldview.Monthly Best of Bob Shows: Every month our crew selects the eight best BEL shows of the month and for the folks who might have missed some of them, we mail them out on the Best of Bob MP3-CD.Monthly BEL TV Classics: Enjoy Bob Enyart's timeless, popular TV show delivered to your home on the Monthly BEL TV Classics DVDs with great audio and video clarity thanks to our state-of-the-art mastering from the studio-quality Sony beta tapes to DVD!Monthly Donation: For folks who just want to make sure that Bob Enyart Live stays on the air, please consider making a pledge in the form of a Monthly Donation.
Gospel of Mark: We Christians might assume that the Lord's favorite title for Himself, being God the Son, would be, the Son of God. Indeed, the Gospel of Mark begins by identifying Jesus in that way. However, five times more frequently, Mark uses Jesus own favorite title for Himself, the Son of Man. Throughout all of eternity past, He had always been the Son of God. However, to become the Son of Man, He would need to lower Himself. Indeed, the Lord lowered Himself in so many ways, as He would need to do even to have the evangelist Mark write this amazing account of His life, death and resurrection. The Gospel of Mark Bible study vol. 1 is available on MP3-CD, MP3 Download or in video in a 9-DVD Set. BEL SUBSCRIPTIONS: Please consider one of our monthly subscriptions that will not only help support BEL, but they also promote better understanding of the Bible and may equip you to more effectively reach those around you. NEW Monthly Downloads: Enjoy your monthly subscription is download form rather than on disc. Monthly Sermons: Enjoy all of Bob's sermons from the month on Sermon Video DVD, great also to watch with the family. Or, get these on Sermon Audio CDs which are standard audio Compact Discs that will play on any CD player including the one in your car. Or get them on a single Sermon MP3-CD which will play on an MP3 player, in a DVD player, or in your computer.Monthly Bible Studies: Enjoy the Scriptures with Bob's Monthly Bible Study DVDs, great too for a small group Bible study. Or get these teachings on a single Monthly Bible Study Audio MP3- CD which will play on an MP3 player, in a DVD player, or in your computer.Monthly Topical Videos: Coming to your mailbox, you'll get a Monthly Topical DVD to enjoy one of Bob's great videos specially selected to be entertaining and to teach about life from a biblical worldview.Monthly Best of Bob Shows: Every month our crew selects the eight best BEL shows of the month and for the folks who might have missed some of them, we mail them out on the Best of Bob MP3-CD.Monthly BEL TV Classics: Enjoy Bob Enyart's timeless, popular TV show delivered to your home on the Monthly BEL TV Classics DVDs with great audio and video clarity thanks to our state-of-the-art mastering from the studio-quality Sony beta tapes to DVD!Monthly Donation: For folks who just want to make sure that Bob Enyart Live stays on the air, please consider making a pledge in the form of a Monthly Donation.
Gospel of Mark: We Christians might assume that the Lord's favorite title for Himself, being God the Son, would be, the Son of God. Indeed, the Gospel of Mark begins by identifying Jesus in that way. However, five times more frequently, Mark uses Jesus own favorite title for Himself, the Son of Man. Throughout all of eternity past, He had always been the Son of God. However, to become the Son of Man, He would need to lower Himself. Indeed, the Lord lowered Himself in so many ways, as He would need to do even to have the evangelist Mark write this amazing account of His life, death and resurrection. The Gospel of Mark Bible study vol. 1 is available on MP3-CD, MP3 Download or in video in a 9-DVD Set. BEL SUBSCRIPTIONS: Please consider one of our monthly subscriptions that will not only help support BEL, but they also promote better understanding of the Bible and may equip you to more effectively reach those around you. NEW Monthly Downloads: Enjoy your monthly subscription is download form rather than on disc. Monthly Sermons: Enjoy all of Bob's sermons from the month on Sermon Video DVD, great also to watch with the family. Or, get these on Sermon Audio CDs which are standard audio Compact Discs that will play on any CD player including the one in your car. Or get them on a single Sermon MP3-CD which will play on an MP3 player, in a DVD player, or in your computer.Monthly Bible Studies: Enjoy the Scriptures with Bob's Monthly Bible Study DVDs, great too for a small group Bible study. Or get these teachings on a single Monthly Bible Study Audio MP3- CD which will play on an MP3 player, in a DVD player, or in your computer.Monthly Topical Videos: Coming to your mailbox, you'll get a Monthly Topical DVD to enjoy one of Bob's great videos specially selected to be entertaining and to teach about life from a biblical worldview.Monthly Best of Bob Shows: Every month our crew selects the eight best BEL shows of the month and for the folks who might have missed some of them, we mail them out on the Best of Bob MP3-CD.Monthly BEL TV Classics: Enjoy Bob Enyart's timeless, popular TV show delivered to your home on the Monthly BEL TV Classics DVDs with great audio and video clarity thanks to our state-of-the-art mastering from the studio-quality Sony beta tapes to DVD!Monthly Donation: For folks who just want to make sure that Bob Enyart Live stays on the air, please consider making a pledge in the form of a Monthly Donation.
In this episode, Angela braves the waters of a topic that is bound to trigger many... That is, how identifying as a republican doesn't make you a good person, and how being on the "right side" of politics won't save anyone. Angela attended a national conservative convention back in June 2023 when the Lord put this issue on her heart to speak on at large: that there are way too many conservatives who claim Christ without abiding in Him, how Christ is missing ALTOGETHER from many conservative spheres, and how conservatives have the same dangerous tendency as leftists to create an idol or identity of their politics which creates the false notion of self-righteousness. There is discussion includes, but is not limited to, the dangers of conservative influencers obsessed with vanity & pop-culture, political ally does NOT equate to philosophical ally, that conservative values all actually derive from the Bible, how the savior complex of politics is a massively distractive deception, the golden-calf of Donald Trump, and the obsession Christ-less conservatism has with "winning back the country" when the TRUE GOAL should be to WIN SOULS TO JESUS! The truth is... Christ-less conservatism does not hate sin. It just hates leftism. So really, Christ-less conservatism is no better than leftism... We CHRISTIANS shouldn't forget that. Conservatism isn't saving anyone Only faith in Jesus Christ can do that. TO BE CLEAR... Angela is in *NO WAY* condoning leftism for anyone immersed in the Christian faith, as any true Bible-believing follower of Jesus would never vote for nor identify with their blasphemous, murderous, antichrist policies. +++ Angela's Instagram: @angelamarieucci +++ Ways to Support the Show:
What is MEvenge? MEvenge is ungodly revenge. It's hurting those who have hurt you. In this message, Pastor Jamie Nunnally shares how to handle the desire for revenge. Revenge is not the same thing as self-defense.It is a good thing to stop someone from hurting you.Luke 4:28-30 Acts 9:24-25 Revenge is not the same thing as justice.Justice is stopping someone from hurting someone else.Isaiah 1:17 MEvenge thrives on the idea that if someone hurt you, "don't get mad, get even." But think about it. Why would you want to be even with, and on the same level as, someone that hurts others? Jesus teaches us a better way than MEvenge. There is a Godly revenge when you let the Lord be your defender. Romans 12:17-21 Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. 18 If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. 19 Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay,"says the Lord. 20 On the contrary: "If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head." 21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. How do we stop MEvenge?1. Be careful to do the right thing. (Romans 12:17)James 4:17We do the right thing, not because it's popular, and not because it will benefit us, but we do the right thing because its the right thing the do. 2. Live at peace with everyone. (Romans 12:18)1 Corinthians 6:73. Leave room for God as your defender. (Romans 12:19)God won't fight you for the position of defender in your life.Hebrews 10:30-31Treat people well, or else God may have to get on their side to defend them against you. 4. Do good to your enemy. (Romans 12:20)To "heap burning coals" is a Hebraism meaning "to awaken one's conscience" with a burning shame. Matthew 5:43-48MEvenge is NOT freedom from the pain, its furthering the pain.5. Overcome evil with good. (Romans 12:21)We Christians overcome bad behavior, we don't use bad behavior for our own purposes. We fight fire with water, putting out the fire, and we overcome evil with good.Hebrews 12:15That person who hurt you is already in pain. They don't need punishment, they need deliverance. If they get right with God, they won't hurt anyone any more.Are you walking in MEvenge is the Lord your defense?
Jesus exposed the plot to kill Him through a question on taxation and affirmed it is lawful to support the government, but also it is essential to obey God's commands. - SERMON TRANSCRIPT - Turn in your Bibles to Mark chapter 12 as we continue this incredible journey through the Gospel of Mark. From the beginning of church history, Christians have had an uneasy and challenging relationship with secular government. It was Caesar's governor, Pontius Pilate, who ordered the crucifixion of our Lord, and it was Roman soldiers that nailed Jesus to the cross. But the awestruck Roman centurion who carried out Pilate's orders gave this stunning statement about Jesus as He died. Mark 15:39, "Surely this man was the son of God." Soon afterward, it was a godly Roman centurion, Cornelius, who began the gathering of Gentile converts to Christ by his repentance and faith in Christ, preached by the apostle Peter. The greatest apostle of them all, Paul, was both a Christian and a Roman citizen, and Paul frequently claimed the benefits of Roman citizenship and used the advantages of the Roman Empire, the transportation system, the commerce of the Roman Empire to spread the gospel. Yet in the end, it was the Roman Caesar Nero that ordered Paul's execution. The New Testament constantly commands willing submission to the government. Yet it was the government that savagely persecuted Christians and murdered Christians for the first three centuries of church history. Then the Emperor Constantine declared himself to be a Christian in the year 312, but that declaration eventually brought a wedding of church and state that it's not hard to argue, was nearly ruinous for the church of Jesus Christ. It required a massive reformation of the church twelve centuries later. In many nations around the world, it is the government that is the bitterest enemy of the gospel, hunting down godly Christians and their pastors, incarcerating them, persecuting, even killing them. Yet in America, there has been for well over 200 years a mostly comfortable relationship between Christianity and secular government, and many godly Christians have had a massive influence in the governmental life of our nation over that history. Because of that, some have even gone so far as to call America a Christian nation because of the pervasive influence of Christianity on our nation's government and history. However, recently this comfortable relationship between the genuine Christian Church and secular government has begun to decay. It's become clear that our surrounding culture is increasingly hostile to Christianity, and therefore many elected officials that represent those people are bolder and more aggressive and speaking slanderous, even blasphemous words against Christ. Many recent policies are directly contrary to biblical truth and put Christians consistently in a difficult place, in a bind in the workplace. The question stands before us as it has for ages, how exactly should a Christian relate to government? In our text today, Jesus finds a way to elude a trap that's set for him and begins a significant answer to this deeply divisive issue with the principle that you just heard read. "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s." In that one statement, we're not going to find a comprehensive answer to the problem of the relationship between Christians and government, but we're going to take a significant step forward in understanding how Jesus saw both sides of that equation. I. An Attack Plotted and Executed We see here in this text, an attack plotted and executed by Jesus' enemies. Look at verse 13, “Later, they, [his enemies] sent some of the Pharisees and Herodians to Jesus to catch him in his words." It is the final week of Jesus' life. We're in Mark's Gospel and there's just one conflict after another, leading up eventually to his condemnation and his execution on the cross. We saw two weeks ago the parable of the wicked tenant farmers that refused to give the owner his due, and the parable that Jesus walked through, culminating in the text that I preached on last week, “the stone the builders rejected has become the capstone.” The Lord has done this and is marvelous in our eyes. We talked about the builders being the leaders of the nation, the movers and shakers, the governing officials there of the Jewish nation. In verse 12, it says they, these enemies, looked for a way to arrest him because they knew that He had spoken this parable against them, but they were afraid of the crowd. So they left him and went away, but their hatred for Jesus burned hotter than ever before. Their fears of the crowd, however, and of the Romans and losing their position with the Romans was boxing them in. They had to become sly and plot some devious way to trap Jesus so that they could get him killed, which is what they wanted. So they plotted against him. In Matthew's account, Matthew 22:15 it says, "The Pharisees went out and laid plans to trap him in his words.” They took counsel together, they made some kind of devious plot here. Now, as you think about it, there'd be two ways of killing Jesus, getting rid of him. They could do it directly themselves by force or they could do it by law, by legal means. If they wanted to dispense with Jesus by legal means, by law, they had a problem because He had to be made a criminal in the eyes of Rome for the Romans would not allow the Jews to execute anyone. They had no authority to put a man to death. The Romans for their part had no interest in Jewish religious controversies at all, so Jesus' claim to be the Son of God, while blasphemous to the Jewish leaders, would've meant nothing to the Romans. They wouldn't have given it the time of day. Jesus had to be made a criminal in the eyes of the state, in the eyes of Rome. If Jesus was espousing rebellion against Roman rule, now that would be something, and saying in general as somebody who is so popular with the people, "We need to stop paying taxes to Caesar." That would've been of intense interest to the Romans, hence the question about taxation. On the other hand, if Jesus's Jewish enemies had wanted to just kill him directly, just rise up against him and kill him, the problem there was the people. The people loved Jesus for the most part. They held that He was a prophet at least. A number of times, Jesus' enemies wanted to seize Jesus. But even in the texts we have here, they want to arrest him, want to lay hands on him, but they're held back by their fear of the people, so they have to strip his protection away. The Jewish people have to turn on Jesus. Somehow they have to manipulate the crowd so that they turn on Jesus and hate him. If Jesus espoused that they should pay taxes to Caesar, that would do it for a lot of them. The patriotic Jews among them, not just the zealots but just general rank and file Jews would be deeply offended by this open teaching of submission to Rome and paying taxes to Caesar and all that. Hence, I hope you can see the dark genius of this plot laid. They have him, they think either way. Now, springing this trap, bringing this trap are some strange bedfellows here, the Pharisees and the Herodians. Matthew 22:16, "The Pharisees sent their disciples." So some young zealous Pharisees are sent, dispatched along with the Herodians. The eyebrows really should go up if you realize who these people are. The Pharisees on the one part are Jesus's most vocal and consistent enemies. Vehement, they're known for their passionate commitment to the laws of Moses and their belief that obedience to the laws of Moses was the means by which they could earn their salvation, favor with God and they thought they did keep the laws of Moses. Now along with this, of course, with their fierce commitment to their Jewish heritage, they hated the Roman occupation, the Roman legions. Some Pharisees were even zealots who were secretly plotting rebellion against Rome, wanting to overthrow the Romans. They would've adamantly, passionately rejected the Messiah teaching that we need to pay taxes to Caesar, would've hated that, the Pharisees. The Herodians on the other hand are disciples or followers of King Herod who was a puppet king of the Romans. He derived his power from Roman rule, that's how he was in power, and all the taxes that were gathered, some of them went to Herod and to the Herodians. They actually benefited from the taxes paid to Rome. How in the world do these people get together? Ordinarily, they would've hated each other, but there's an old adage, the enemy of my enemy is my friend. We see this, you see it in the military , as in World War II. How did the UK and the United States get together with the wicked Soviet Union and Joseph Stalin? They had nothing in common in terms of government, but they had a common enemy: Hitler and the Nazis. So we see this kind of thing, these two groups who are normally enemies, they get together, they represent opposite sides of the question on taxation, but they're both committed to one thing and that's getting rid of Jesus. They hated Jesus so they banded together in their desire to get rid of Jesus. This is a sinister, dark, devious trap that Jesus is encircled with here and they bring it with some flattery. Look at verse 14, “They come to him and said, ‘Teacher, we know that you're a man of integrity. You aren't swayed by men because you pay no attention to who they are, but you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth.’" This should make you feel sick as you read that, you realize who it's coming from. Flattery is very different than encouragement. I hope you realize that. It's good to encourage other people, it’s bad to flatter them. What's the difference? The difference is your motive, and whether you believe what you're saying or not. Flattery is insincere praise given for selfish reasons. Years ago I was reading the Aesop's Fables and I came across one of the fables, the fox and the crow. It's a fun story. A wily fox sees an ugly crow sitting up on a branch up high with a coveted piece of cheese in its beak. The fox looks up and persuades the crow that it has the most beautiful singing voice of any bird in the forest and that he would love to hear a single song from its golden throat. Filled with pride, the crow opens its beak and begins to squawk its nasty little song while the precious piece of cheese falls to the ground right into the open mouth of the fox. Moral of the story, don’t trust flatterers. The Book of Proverbs says the same thing. Proverbs 29:5, "Whoever flatters his neighbor is spreading a net for his feet." That's exactly what Jesus' enemies are doing here, they're flattering him and spreading a net for his feet. The thing is the words they used are actually true and for us as believers in Christ, we could walk through them and worship Jesus for these things, but they didn't believe them, for the most part. First of all, Jesus was in fact a man of integrity. Never has there ever been a man so much, a man of integrity, a man absolutely committed to the truth, willing to die for the truth and exactly what he appeared to be. There's no deception, no corruption. He wasn't just true, He was truth incarnate. He didn't say, "I am the way and I teach the truth." He said, "I am the way and I am the truth and I am the life." He is truth incarnate. That's who He was, but they didn't believe this. They actually believed that He was a deceiver, teaching false doctrines. Jesus actually did teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. He perfectly spoke the words of his heavenly Father. No one has ever taught more pure and perfect doctrine than Jesus. He did teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. But again, they didn't believe this. They believed He was a heretic, a false teacher. "Jesus actually did teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. He perfectly spoke the words of his heavenly Father. No one has ever taught more pure and perfect doctrine than Jesus. He did teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. But again, they didn't believe this. They believed He was a heretic, a false teacher." The next statement they make, "We know that you aren't swayed by men since you pay no attention to who they are, but you just say your convictions no matter who you're talking to." They actually did believe that, and it actually was true. Jesus wasn't concerned at all with the person He was talking to in terms of any fear He would have. He wasn't afraid of Pontius Pilate, He wasn't afraid of Annas, He wasn't afraid of crowds, He wasn't afraid of anybody ever. He taught what He believed. He didn't look at the individual's face, that’s literally the expression. He wasn't moved by the face, the appearance, the position, it didn't intimidate him at all. Nowadays, politicians are constantly governing by opinion polls. They stick their finger in the wind and try to find out the prevailing opinion, and then they'll make their judgments based on that. Jesus never did that. He had zero fear. He's the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, He's the judge of all the earth, and He knew it. No fear. Now, as I said, Jesus' enemies actually did believe this about him and they were counting on it. You understand they're counting on Jesus just saying what He thinks here. They are wanting to trap him in his words so they come, the trap sprung. They say, "Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not? Should we pay or shouldn’t?" He was stuck so they thought. If Jesus says, "No, we should not pay taxes to Caesar,” how long do you think it would've taken them to go tell Pontius Pilate? I mean it would have been later that hour that he would've heard about it. But if on the other hand Jesus says, "We should pay taxes to Caesar." He's surrounded right there in the temple area by hundreds of people that are listening to every word He says. He would've lost a lot of those patriotic Jews right there and then. So either way, it was a trap designed to get Jesus killed. II. Jesus Exposes Their Hypocrisy Jesus begins by exposing their hypocrisy. Look at verse 15, “Jesus knew their hypocrisy. ‘Why are you trying to trap me?’” Now it's one thing to have an instinct about hypocrisy or an instinct about flattery. It's another thing to actually know the motives of another human being's heart and Jesus is omniscient. John 2:25 says, "Jesus doesn't need any testimony about a man because he knows what's in a man.” He knows what's inside someone's heart. It’s like when He spoke to Nathaniel, He knew that Nathaniel was a man of integrity and he was a true Israelite. “How do you know that?” Nathaniel asked. "I saw you while you were under the fig tree.”[ John 1]. Jesus knows people. He knows their hearts because He's omniscient. He understands what they're trying to do and He evades their trap. Now how in the world is He going to get out of this one? You've already read the text so you know how He gets out of it, but it's really quite remarkable. First of all, fundamental to this whole exchange is that they do not understand who He is. They don't understand who they're dealing with. Like most of you do, I like the amazing person incognito kind of story. I mean the Kyrie Irving, Uncle Drew thing. I mean there are a lot of athletes that do this. Eli Manning dressed up, Chris Bryant, Greg Maddox, you don't know who he is. It's like, "Man, this dude's got a good curve ball." That was Greg Maddox. What did you think? But you didn't know. He thought he was the sound guy. I like those things. Or Joshua Bell, the violinist just incognito there with his Stradivarius in a DC subway kiosk playing some amazing pieces. People just walk by and don't even care. That's Joshua Bell right there. Or there's some of these CEO incognito stories, like there's a TV show about this where you don't know that you're dealing with, the CEO of the whole company, and you find out later who you were dealing with. Isaiah 53 says, “He [Jesus] had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him." He was despised and rejected so they underestimated him. They thought, "Hey, we're going to trap him. We're going to kind of triangulate and trap him." They're crossing swords, however, with the mind that created the universe. They're playing chess with the infinite God of the universe. You're not going to trick him. You're not going to trap him. Jesus' death could never be an accident, could never be a trap or a trick. He will say in John 10:18, "No one takes my life from me, but I lay it down of my own accord." “You're not going to trap me. You're not going to trick me into dying here. I'm going to die because I want to die.” III. Jesus Evades Their Trap He wanted to teach principles. He wanted to teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. He wanted to talk about taxation. He's not shrinking back from it. So He uses an object lesson. Look at verse 15, "Bring me a denarius and let me look at it." They brought it. They bring in this coin, and He's holding it. You can picture him holding up the coin and then He says, "Whose portrait is this?" He points to the coin. "And whose inscription?" The coin itself would've been odious to any religious Jewish person because it would've had an image of Tiberius Caesar proclaiming him to be God. On the obverse, it would've had a picture of Tiberius Caesar in priestly robes like he was some kind of a high priest. It would've been extremely offensive, a violation of a law against idolatry. Anyway, Jesus' enemies are happy to produce the coin. They think He's about to put his head in his own noose with his own words. "Whose portrait is this?” "Caesar's," they answer. Then He gives his answer, "Render to Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God's?" Jesus changed the word the Jews used. It’s not that we are to give the tax to Caesar as if it was something that didn't really belong to Caesar, but we're going to give it to him anyway. He changes the word in the Greek, it's “give back”, or “render,” with a sense of give what is truly owed to that individual. That's the word. He actually changes the word. The word “render” in this case is a little awkward for us. It’s not a word we would use commonly, and therefore I think it's good to think of it that way. "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar." It means to give back to him what is really his. That's the whole point of the object lesson. Do you see it? If you mint the coin, you're in charge, you run the country and therefore you have that authority, give it back to him. It belongs to him. That's what Jesus is saying, but He doesn't stop there. He says, "Render to God the things that are God's." It's amazing in the first half, "Render to Caesar." Jesus is vigorously, clearly, no doubt about it, upholding the very government that very soon will execute him and He knows it, and yet there He is upholding the authority of this idolatrous pagan government and the right they have to receive taxes. He upholds it. But that second statement, "Render to God the things that are God's." We'll spend eternity understanding it and doing it. The reaction to this is that they're astonished when they heard it, they were amazed. [Matthew 22:22] They left them and went away. I would think bad move, be astonished and fall on your face and worship him. How about that? They're impressed, they're amazed, probably a little frustrated, they're not going to be able to do anything with that statement, and they walk away. Instead, they should have loved him and worshiped him and believed in him. IV. What We Must Render to Caesar Let's go back and try to understand this. What must we render to Caesar and what must we render to God? How do we understand that? First of all, taxes. I know, I know, but I'm not going to be up here saying you don't need to pay your taxes. You do need to pay your taxes. Jesus says so. We need to pay taxes, and the reason is that you are supporting, you're paying the salaries of God's servants who are governing in the language of Romans 13, "The authorities that exist have been established by God." God set them up, so of course the Son of God is going to uphold them. Daniel 4:17 says, "The most high is sovereign over the kingdoms of men and gives them to anyone he wishes and sets over them the lowliest of men." That's Nebuchadnezzar's statement, it's absolutely true. That means that Caesar's power, Rome's power, came from God. It's not an accident. Furthermore, and this would've really stung for patriotic Jews, Caesar's power is just in a line of Gentile overlords that were there as a direct judgment on the Jews for not keeping the law of Moses. That's why the Romans had control of the Promised Land. It's the very thing that God had said through Moses in Deuteronomy He would do. They're getting the Promised Land on condition of their obedience to the laws of God and the laws of Moses. It's the condition. If they do not keep his laws, He's going to use Gentile armies to evict them. It's in the song of Moses in Deuteronomy 32. It's a clear prediction that that's what He's going to do. He's going to make them jealous," he said, "by people that are not a people." It's a very clear statement. He's predicted ahead of time what they're going to do. This is not an accident. It's not something He didn't know. From the Babylonian exile through the Medo-Persians, through the Greeks and now the Romans, it’s been a series of Gentile overlords that were direct judgments by God on the Jews for violating the laws of God. He specifically judged Jews who refused to submit to the Gentiles. Read about it in Ezekiel 17. He's very angry with them that they're not submitting to Babylon. It’s very surprising. I mean do you think those things were taught much among the Zealots and among the Pharisees and all? I don't think those themes were lifted up much, but it was clearly true. Jesus called it the “Times of the Gentiles.” Ezra knew it. When a small remnant of Jews came back from the exile of Babylon to rebuild Jerusalem and to rebuild the temple, Ezra said these things. Ezra 9:7, "Because of our sins, we and our kings and our priests have been subjected to the sword and captivity to pillage and humiliation at the hand of foreign kings as it is today." That's it. That's why this is happening says Ezra. “But now for a brief moment, the Lord our God has been gracious in leaving us a remnant and giving us a firm place in a sanctuary, and so our God gives light to our eyes and a little relief in our bondage. Though we are slaves, our God has not deserted us in our bondage. He has shown kindness in the sight of the kings of Persia, allowing us to return and rebuild the city in the temple.” That's what he's saying. Ezra understood it. The patriotic Jews, the Zealots who wanted to rebel against Rome were forgetting the sins of their fathers and God's just judgment against them. In addition, they were forgetting the benefits of wise Roman government, and there were many. The Roman conquest of the Mediterranean world brought with it tremendous advantages and unification. They united that part of the world in something called the “Pax Romana,” the “Roman peace." This meant that as long as a conquered country accepted the Roman yoke, accepted Roman rule, they pretty much could live out their whole lives in peace free from warfare. That's a big advantage back then. You're not going to have raiders coming in and taking your crops. The Romans were excellent at long-term stability. They used local leaders and regional kings to keep the peace. They allowed freedom of religion within a certain measure and guaranteed a semblance of justice for the people. They established commerce, roads, a economic system where some people became pretty prosperous in that system. As with any reasonable government, they protected its people from rampant crime, from anarchy, from armed mobs roaming the streets. They brought stability and order and daily peace to life. And so it is today, the benefits of government today, Romans 13:4 says, "The ruler is God's servant to do you good." 2 verses later, Romans 13:6, "This is also why you pay taxes for the authorities are God's servants who give their full time to governing," and because they give their full time, they need to be paid. That's their salary, so it's right to pay taxes. God's servants and government do you good. They promote peace and public order. They establish and uphold a system of justice. They punish evildoers. They protect people from military threats. They promote health and prosperity by roads, infrastructure, common economy, all of these things. There are many benefits. By contrast, I think the worst possible situation there could be, I've thought about this, it's debatable whether it's tyranny, dictatorship or anarchy. I think anarchy is worse. It's not like there aren't going to be any people trying to control that situation. You look at, for example, the reign of terror during the French Revolution or you look at Somalia for example, from 1991 to 2006. There was no permanent government in Somalia, it was just anarchy. What would it have been like to live in Somalia in 2000? You couldn't go out of your home really. There’re roving bans of gun-wielding young men that gun you down, steal things from you. It was horrible. There are all kinds of markers of what life was like in Somalia in terms of infant mortality, in terms of disease, in terms of education, literacy, adult literacy rates. All that plummeted, it was horrible. But we owe to government more than just the payment of taxes. The scripture says there's other things. We owe honor. We owe honor to governing officials. 1 Peter 2:17, "Show proper respect to everyone, love the brotherhood of believers. Fear God, honor the King." There's a certain respect that goes to governing officials. We owe obedience as far as we're able. Romans 13:1. It says, "Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities for there is no authority except that which God has established." The authorities that exist have been established by God. In our government system, we also, I think, owe wise participation. We're able to take advantage of being, for those of us that are, American citizens, who are able to participate in government, able to vote out officials that we think have policies we disagree with. We're able to debate them, raise up questions, concerns, et cetera. You look at the way Paul behaved nine times in the Book of Acts, the Apostle Paul is referred to as a citizen of Rome. He had that Roman citizenship card in his back pocket and he's going to pull it out at some key moments, like one time when they were stretching him out to beat him. He says, "Is it lawful for you to beat a Roman citizen who hasn't even been condemned?" The Roman guard at that point pull back and said, "Whoa, whoa, whoa. What are we doing here?" Paul used that Roman citizenship card. It was his Roman citizenship and it was his appealing to Caesar, which was his right to do as Roman citizen that enabled him to go to Rome and preach the gospel to Caesar. For us, it's a matter of voting, participation, jury duty. Also, many godly Christians, as I mentioned at the beginning of my sermon, actively participate as elected officials or participate with government, federal, state and local officials. Throughout history, Christians have used their convictions to be salt and light in those settings. Very much like Daniel in Babylon where he was the third-highest ruler in the kingdom. He's able to do that. What else do we owe to government? We owe prayer. We need to pray for governing officials. 1 Timothy 2: 1-2, "I urge then first of all that request prayers, intercession, and thanksgiving be made for everyone, for kings and all those in authority that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness." So pray those things. Go to 1 Timothy 2 whenever some elected official from the President on down, even to local government does something that really irritates you. I would say first and foremost, go to 1 Timothy 2: 1-2, read the text and then pray for them. Pray for them. Paul goes on in the next two verses to imply we should be praying for their salvation. 1 Peter 2: 3-4, "This is good and pleases God our savior, who wants all men to be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth." Friends, think of it this way. If the tyrant Nebuchadnezzar could be, as I believe, genuinely converted, so that he writes incredible worship to almighty God at the end of Daniel 4, I do expect to see him in heaven. If a guy like that who's running the world, can be converted, God can convert anyone. We pray because God desires all men to be saved and just because they are leading, are leaders, a prime minister, a dictator, whatever, doesn't mean that they can't be converted. But there are limits, aren't there, to our obedience? There should be limits. When government commands something contrary to the Word of God we need to resist. For example, in the Book of Acts, the governing officials there, the Jewish government, the Sanhedrin, forbad Peter and John from preaching the gospel. "We forbid you from speaking the name of Jesus anymore." Just shortly before that, Jesus had given the Great Commission, right before He ascended to Heaven, to preach the gospel in all the world. So who are you going to listen to? They knew who they were going to listen to. They said, "Judge for yourselves, whether it is right in God's sight to obey you rather than God, for we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.” A Christian should still do this disobedience with a respectful attitude. I think we see this with Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, and also Daniel. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego in the fiery furnace were respectful to Nebuchadnezzar still. How do I know that? I mean it's important don't you think for governments to make laws that are enforceable? That's why I say no government can ever make a law against coveting because they can't enforce it. Well, here's the most unenforceable command ever. They're in the fiery furnace, miraculously sustained by the hand of God, and Nebuchadnezzar shouts "Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, come out.” Suppose they said, "Come and get us." What's he going to do? His soldiers burned to death throwing them in there. It's unenforceable. But that wasn't their attitude. There was nothing immoral about the command to come out. There was something immoral about the command to bow down and worship an idol. You've got to distinguish. It’s the same thing with Daniel in Daniel 6. It was immoral to be commanded not to pray to any God except the emperor. Daniel disobeyed it. He continued to pray to God, and they threw him in the lion's den, but he was still respectful to the emperor. Romans 13 presents government as a servant of God. Revelation 13 presents government in its final state as a direct servant of Satan. No doubt about it. The dragon is Satan and he's behind the beast from the sea, who is the Antichrist. It's one thing to be demon possessed, what it's like to be Satan possessed?I believe that is the final form of human government on Earth, and in that final form during the reign of the Antichrist, which is that one world government that I believe is coming, all the nations of the earth are going to bow down to this one individual. It's the final form of human government. One of the indicators of submission to that wicked ruler will be the mark of the beast. It’s very plain that if you receive it, you'll spend eternity in hell [Revelation 14]. So none of the elect ,Jesus said, will be deceived and none of the elect will receive the mark of the beast. That's overt rebellion against the world government. V. What Must We Render to God What must we render to God? I'm going to table a full discussion of this to three sermons I'm going to preach on the first and greatest commandment, but here's what you owe God. You owe it to him to love Him with all of your heart, soul, mind and strength, and to show your love by your total absolute obedience to him. That's what you owe him. You owe him your worship, you owe him your heart, you owe him everything. As a matter of fact, your rendering to Caesar is a subset of what you owe to God. You do it because God's told you to do it. Everything you give to God. Governing officials need to be careful and not seek to be gods themselves. It's always that temptation, and that's what's going to happen with the Antichrist. He's going to want to be, he's going to demand to be worshiped. This is that tendency where governing officials get filled with themselves and filled with ego and they seek to be worshiped. That is not something we render to Caesar. That's something we give to God alone - worship. Render means to give back as rightful due, ascribe to the Lord, Psalm 29, "Ascribe to the Lord almighty men, ascribe to the Lord the glory and strength, ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name." That's what you owe him. Give him the glory that his name deserves. Then realize if render means give back, everything in the universe is going back to God. From him and through him and to him are all things, everything's getting rendered back to God ultimately. Therefore, everything that we do, whether we eat or drink or whatever we do, we do it for the glory of God. We Christians can look forward to a perfect government yet to come. We're looking ahead to the Kingdom of Jesus Christ, the Eternal Kingdom of Christ described in many places. One of my favorite is this Isaiah 9: 6-7, "For to us a child is born, to us a son is given and the government will be on his shoulders." Think about that. "And he'll be called wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace, there will be no end. He will reign on David's throne and over its kingdom, establishing and upholding it. From that time on and forever, the zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this." That was going to be the end of the sermon until this morning. Then I wrote this extra page, and I want to read it to you. I believe many Christians living in America today are intensely disappointed with what's happening with our government, and I share your disappointment. Many Christians have expectations of government that I am worried about, frankly, I'm concerned about it. Those expectations are not being realized. And as they look ahead, they wonder how can we get those expectations realized? So I wanted to just say a few things about the difference between the kingdoms of this world and the Kingdom of Christ. There's just a significant difference between the kingdoms of this world and the Kingdom of Christ. How do they advance? How do the kingdoms of this world advance? How does the Kingdom of Christ advance? How are they governed? How do the kingdoms of this world, how are they governed, and how is the Kingdom of Christ governed? I mean right now? How do they handle opposition? How do they handle enemies? How do they handle opponents? With the kingdoms of this world, it is the compulsion of the sword. You oppose, you die, ultimately. Whether you're criminal or if you're taking up a sword against the government or an opposing an enemy army, it's the sword, the compulsion of the sword. With the Kingdom of Christ, it's the compulsion of truth and love. That's what we do with our enemies, we love them and we give them the truth. "With the kingdoms of this world, it is the compulsion of the sword. You oppose, you die, ultimately. …With the Kingdom of Christ, it's the compulsion of truth and love. That's what we do with our enemies, we love them, and we give them the truth." Therefore, it is force, physical force even, compulsion by force on the one side versus persuasion and love on the other. Or if I could keep it simple, the kingdoms of this world advance, get larger by killing, and the Kingdom of Christ gets larger by its subjects dying. It's very different. Therefore, there are two verses in my mind. John 18:36, "Jesus said to Pilate, ‘My Kingdom is not of this world. If it were my servants would fight for me.’" Think about that. That's what it means to have a kingdom of this world. My servants would take up the sword and fight for me. But Jesus said earlier in John 12:24, "Unless a kernel of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains a single seed. But if it dies, it brings forth much fruit." That's why I say the kingdom of this world, kingdoms of this world advance by killing and the Kingdom of Christ advances by us being willing to die. Maybe not physically, but you die to yourself, you die to what's best for you, you share the gospel, you're willing to serve. And in some cases, some martyrs actually did lay down their lies. The blood of martyrs was seed for the church, they're willing to die for Christ. Therefore, I go back to the beginning of the Gospel of Mark as I conclude, Mark 1:15, Jesus said when He began his preaching ministry, "The time is at hand. The Kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the gospel." That's how we enter the Kingdom of Christ, by repenting of our sins and believing the good news that God sent his son to die for us under the wrath of Caesar, under the wrath of the Sanhedrin, to die for us that we might have eternal life. So repent and believe the good news, enter the kingdom, live that life for his glory. Close with me in prayer. Father, we thank you for Jesus's amazing statement here. I don't think we've even begun to scratch the surface of what it means to "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's and to God the things that are God's." But I pray, oh Lord, that you would just teach us, oh Lord, help us to understand government biblically, help us to fulfill our duties properly, help us to look ultimately to the Kingdom of Christ, while we do not shrink back from influence, salt and light influencing policies as we're able. God give us wisdom for the facing of this hour. We thank you for the gospel. Thank you that Jesus Christ offers full forgiveness of sins by his death and his resurrection. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.
* District Attorney Euthyphro weighs in on Spike Lee and Gen. Flynn: Athens' district attorney Euthyphro weighs in on the hoax charges against General Michael Flynn being dropped and then on Spike Lee within 24 hours praising and then apologizing for praising Woody Allen. (See this at kgov.com/pedophiles. Turns out Jerry Falwell was ahead of his time. Thirty years ago on Bob Enyart Live we'd say that Falwell would schedule on his calendar, "Monday, issue statement. Wednesday, apologize." For whenever the Moral Majority leader would say something about a current moral controversy within 48 hours he would apologize. Now, #MeToo and Cancel Culture have leftists doing the same. Ha!) Euthyphro also explains why the concept of a "hate" crime, even though there's no such thing as "love" crimes, is nonetheless a valid concept. At this point in the program Bob introduces Euthyphro himself, a state's attorney headed to court in Athens to prosecute his own father who happens to come upon Socrates. If you search the web for: Christian answer to Euthyphro's dilemma, you'll see that Google ranks Bob's article at or near #1 at kgov.com/euthyphro and that one of the world's most brilliant scientists, Dr. Jonathan Sarfati, links to KGOV from his own writing on Euthyphro. Atheists today correctly use Euthyphro's dilemma (though they're unaware of doing so) to falsify Islam's claims of deity for Allah. We Christians however, beginning with the teaching of Jesus Christ, are able to answer Socrates, Euthyphro, and the atheists. * Hannity Mentions Neal Boortz: Our recollection being prompted today by Sean Hannity, we suggest that you may enjoy hearing Bob Enyart debate this national "conservative" at kgov.com/boortz. * To Hear the Full Series: - Euthyphro Part 1 - Euthyphro Part 2 - Euthyphro Part 3 - Euthyphro Part 4 - Euthyphro Part 5 - Euthyphro Part 6 Today's resource: Spiritual Growth Pack: Christians sometimes need a push forward to grow spiritually. After forty years as a Christian, these teachings represent my best effort at discipling another Christian to mature in his or her relationship with God: The Plot presents an amazing overview of the whole Bible story. The Tree leads a believer into a deeper relationship with God. Predestination & Free Will will help the believer better understand God and reality. Bible Tour of Israel brings the viewer along on our trip to Israel and celebrates much of what he has already learned reinforcing the key spiritual truths! So many believers have said that their understanding of the Bible has grown greatly and their spiritual lives have matured as they have benefited from these four teaching materials. We invite you to do likewise!
We Christians share the Ten Commandments with Judaism. Except they call them something different., they don't have all the same commandments that we do, and they interpret them differently, also. And, wait until you hear how they understand the commandments were written on the stone tablets! Once you listen to this episode, you may be thinking about the commandments in totally new ways. ———————————————————————————————————————. Have a spiritual, theological, or religious question you would like me to tackle?Contact me via email: Dan@SkyPilot.zoneAnd be sure to check me out on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SkyPilotFaithQuest...........................................................................................Music: Composed for SkyPilot: Faith Quest by Arlan Sunnarborg
Hope is essential for life in this sin-cursed world. And the hope of glory is found only by faith in Christ, the sin-bearer. This hope helps us to persevere through the present tribulations and sufferings of this world. We Christians are sustained by hope. But even hope is not sustained in our own strength. Romans 8 has been teaching us how the Holy Spirit ministers in various ways to the children of God for their holiness, comfort, and security. Now, emphasis underscores the Holy Spirit as the helper of hope. By highlighting prayer with glowing significance, the Holy Spirit reveals deep and wonderful truths about His ministry in and for us in these two rich and insightful verses.
Thursday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time IJuly 20, 2023Hello and welcome to the Word, bringing you the Good News of Jesus Christ every day from the Redemptorists of the Baltimore Province. I am Fr. Karl Esker from the Basilica of our Lady of Perpetual Help in Brooklyn, NY. Today is Thursday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time. Our reading is taken from the holy gospel according to Matthew.Jesus said: "Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves. For my yoke is easy, and my burden light."The gospel of the Lord.The gospel, as well as the first reading today, ask us to reflect on how we see our God. The ancients thought they had to perform extended rituals to get their gods' attention. The moderns think that, if there is a God, God created the world and then wandered off to do something else, leaving mankind to its own designs. We Christians believe in a God who cares about us human beings. We see that in both readings today. Jesus, in the gospel we just heard, calls us to himself: "Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest.” And in the first reading, God says to Moses: “I am concerned about you and about the way you are being treated in Egypt; so I have decided to lead you up out of the misery of Egypt into ... a land flowing with milk and honey.” The one thing God did not tell Moses, was how long it would take to get to the land flowing with milk and honey. The Bible tells us that it took forty years; and through it all, God accompanied the people. God gave them the Passover as a memorial and the ten commandments as a code of conduct that would identify them as God's people. They would pass through times of doubt and conflict and their faith would have its ups and downs, but God remained faithful to the Promise, and always accompanied and protected the People.There is a similar journey to Jesus' offer of rest. As Jesus gathered his disciples into the new People of God, he asked them to take his yoke upon them and learn from him. Jesus had already given them the Beatitudes as the code of conduct for his disciples and later would declare the great commandments of loving God with one's whole heart and loving one's neighbor as oneself. The disciples did not fully understand, but were willing to follow Jesus. Then just before his death on the cross, he gave them the Eucharist as a memorial of his saving actions. It was only after Jesus' death and resurrection that they understood that taking his yoke upon themselves and picking up their cross and following him were the same thing.I am sure the disciples wondered, as we do today, how all of this is an easy yoke and a light burden. The secret is in learning with Jesus to do God's will. He is the fulfillment of God's promise and just as God promised to be with the people always, Jesus promises to always be with his disciples.Once they received the gift of the Holy Spirit, they discovered their identity as God's children, and began to live Jesus' example. And there was a joy in their living because they were united with Jesus. The yoke is easy and the burden light because Jesus carried it with them.And the same is true for us. When we can place our cares and worries with the Lord, our problems don't go away, but we find a clearness of mind and heart that allows us to deal with them and still find peace. I am sure you have met and admired people who have found that peace. I know I have. It is the effect of love, love for Jesus who first loved us and gave his life for us.May God bless you.Fr. Karl E. Esker, C.Ss.R.Basilica of our Lady of Perpetual HelpBrooklyn, NY
For Part 2, click here. * Bob Enyart finds out about the Latter Day Saints: Talking with Mark Cares, author of Speaking the Truth in Love to Mormons, we learn about Mormons, and especially, how to reach them. This brief program will equip you to know what is most important about bringing Mormons to a saving faith in Jesus Christ. Also, you may want to tune in for the conclusion of our discussion Part 2, when Bob and Mark will have a special guest join them! And finally, you may also want to hear Bob's interview with former BYU professor Lynn Wilder! * Get Pastor Cares' Book: Just click on the image to get his book from Mark's website, at tilm.org, or you can get it at Amazon.com. * See Also: - Bob's interview with former BYU professor Lynn Wilder - Bob's interview with Mark Cares, Speaking the Truth in Love to Mormons - Bob's interview with Matt Wilder of Adam's Road (see above) - Screenshots from the official Mormon church website listing the kids they say you can kill - The BEL programWhat Romney's Mormon Relative Says We Christians might assume that the Lord's favorite title for Himself, being God the Son, would be, the Son of God. Indeed, the Gospel of Mark begins by identifying Jesus in that way. However, five times more frequently, Mark uses Jesus own favorite title for Himself, the Son of Man. Throughout all of eternity past, He had always been the Son of God. However, to become the Son of Man, He would need to lower Himself. Indeed, the Lord lowered Himself in so many ways, as He would need to do even to have the evangelist Mark write this amazing account of His life, death and resurrection. Today's Resource: Gospel of Mark Bible Study DVD set or HD Video Download
Friends of the Rosary: Today, the universal Church celebrates the Solemnity of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist, the Precursor or Forerunner of the Lord. “Amongst those that are born of women there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist,” Jesus said (Matthew xi, 10-12). Ordinarily, the Church observes the day of a saint's death as his feast, because that day marks his entrance into heaven after ending the trials of this life and gloriously triumphing over the world. To this rule, there are two notable exceptions, the birthdays of Blessed Mary and St. John the Baptist. Mary, already in the first moment of her existence, was free from original sin, and John the Baptist was cleansed of original sin in the womb of his mother Elizabeth. All other persons were stained with original sin at birth. The Lord willed to announce to men His own coming through John the Baptist, who represented the Old Covenant and the Law. John, who was born in a town of Judea, would precede and recognize the Redeemer instantly. The birth of John is observed on the day of the summer solstice, six months earlier than the nativity of Jesus on December 25 at the time of the winter solstice. In a sense, then, we are celebrating Christ's incarnation today. Christmas is a “light” feast, the same is true today as John's Fire symbolizes Christ the Light. We Christians are the light of the world and we are united in reverence and love for this prophet-saint whose life was an incomparable example of both humility and courage. The Catechism of the Catholic Church, 719, states that John the Baptist is “more than a prophet” (Lk 7:26). In him, the Holy Spirit concludes his speaking through the prophets. John completes the cycle of prophets begun by Elijah. He is the “voice” of the Consoler who is coming (Jn 1:23; cf. Isa 40:1-3). As the Spirit of truth will also do, John “came to bear witness to the light” (Jn 1:7; cf. Jn 15:26; 5:35). “He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit. And I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God…. Behold, the Lamb of God” (Jn 1:33-36). Ave Maria!Jesus, I Trust In You!St. John the Baptist, Pray for Us! To Jesus through Mary! + Mikel A. | RosaryNetwork.com, New York
On today's broadcast, we're talking about words that the left uses to vilify and embarrass you, for example, nationalism; why is that being vilified? We Christians just want God to be glorified and our people to be free! Tribalism is precisely the trap that globalists want us to fall into, and the empire of China is rising.
Episode 138: Spirit Or Truth? We Christians are presently living in an unusual time. While the culture is becoming increasingly aggressive in advancing an anti-God agenda, the Church is beginning to see some amazing releases of awakening and revival. Local assemblies need to be adjusting and preparing for both sides of this equation. Battling against spiritual wickedness in high places needs to be prioritized as we also become people of deeper worship and mission. Some churches are remaining caught between an allegiance to the Word and a move of the Spirit. They are not going to be able to straddle the fence between these two priorities much longer. It is time for your church to become a people of Spirit AND Truth. If your church refuses to do so, this episode boldly calls you to find a new faith-family to unite with.
Today's message is entitled Why are We Christians, preached by Dag Heward-Mills. Dag Heward-Mills is a healing evangelist, a best selling author and a mega church pastor. He's the founder of the United denominations originating from the lighthouse group of churches, overseeing over 3000 churches across EVERY continent of the world. He pastors the First Love Church, a vibrant church in the city of Accra, transforming the lives of thousands of young people for the Lord. Now listen to Dag Heward Mills.
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