Tag: hope

2 SAMUEL #25: SALVATION DOES NOT COME FROM GREAT LEADERS.

On By Pastor TomIn 2 Samuel, Bible, Bible Teaching, Old Testament, Podcast, Religion, Sermon, UncategorizedLeave a comment

The writer of Samuel is using his epilogue (closing part of the book) to emphasize certain themes again and again. One of the most important of these ideas is this: The Lord is the only source of salvation and hope. Even if the people imagined that a king like David could save them again, David’s own words point them not to any human leader, but to the Lord himself.

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1 SAMUEL #25. 1 SAMUEL CHAPTER 22:1-51.

Let’s remember where we are. The narrative history of the book of Samuel ended with 2 Samuel chapter 20. Chapter 21 does describe a historical incident, but it’s out of chronological order—it happened much earlier in David’s reign. Chapters 21-25 form a six part epilogue, organized according to an ancient writing style called chiastic structure. I want to remind us of the overall picture of this epilogue, because we have now come to the center of the structure.

Part A: A sin, and the need for atonement

Part B: God’s provision of salvation for his people, even when David becomes too old to fight

Part X (our section today): A psalm of David proclaiming that the Lord saves

Part X1: A psalm of David proclaiming that the Lord works through leaders

Part B1: The warriors who helped David save and lead Israel

Part A1: A sin, and the need for atonement, and God’s provision for it.

So we see that our section today (which is all of chapter 22) is building on what has come before.

2 Samuel chapter 22 is almost identical to Psalm 18, but there are quite a few differences between the Hebrew text of 2 Samuel 22 and Psalm 18, and some of those show up in the English translations. Almost all of those differences are due to the fact that the book of Psalms was gathered together and compiled a few centuries after the book of Samuel was written. During those intervening centuries, written Hebrew changed somewhat. Whoever collected the Psalms into one collection updated and standardized them so that all of the psalms used the same, latest form of Hebrew. Our verses today were written in the older form of Hebrew. The small differences between 2 Samuel 22 and Psalm 18 do not change any major teaching of the Bible (nor indeed any minor one).

The beginning of 2 Samuel 22 says:

 “1 And David spoke to the LORD the words of this song on the day when the LORD delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul.”

Because of the mention of Saul, and a few other things in the psalm, most Bible scholars think that David wrote this when he was a fairly young man, probably around the time when he first became king of all Israel.

Remember, the first section of this epilogue was about the seriousness of sin and the need for atonement. Next came the crisis of the giants, and how the Lord made sure to provide a warrior to save Israel from each one. Now, in the first part of the psalm, David makes the overall theme perfectly clear: God alone is our salvation:

“The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer,
3 my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge,
my shield, and the horn of my salvation,
my stronghold and my refuge,
my savior; you save me from violence.
4 I call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised,
and I am saved from my enemies. (2 Samuel 22:2-4, ESV)

The people of Israel may have begun to feel that David was their savior. He saved them from the first giant. He fought the Philistines and won many battles for Israel. He outlasted the unstable, volatile, king Saul. As a new young king, he defeated the Philistines again, more completely. But here he says clearly that salvation and deliverance come only from the Lord. He, David, is not Israel’s savior. That title belongs to the Lord.

Verse 4 is a concept that appears throughout the Bible. To call on the name of the Lord is to worship him, and to give over your life to serving and worshipping him.  Abraham “called on the name of the Lord.” So did Isaac and Jacob. Moses and the prophets urged the people to “call on the name of the Lord.”

The apostles made it clear that to call upon the name of the Lord was, in fact, the same thing as receiving and worshipping Jesus Christ. The apostle Peter quoted from one of the prophets when he urged people to receive Jesus:

21 And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.’ (Acts 2:21, ESV)

Paul wrote:

13 For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” (Romans 10:13, ESV)

To call upon  God’s name is to look to him earnestly and trustfully for help. It is to recognize that the only true help comes from the Lord, the only true salvation or deliverance comes from him alone. And as I said, the apostles taught that this was the same thing as receiving Jesus.

So calling on the name of the Lord is not simply saying the name “Yahweh,” or even “Jesus.” It means to worship the Lord, and to follow him, to allow your whole life to belong to him. David, for all his faults, did indeed do that.

In the next section of the psalm, verses 5-7, David talks about being in very serious distress. He called out to God for help in his particular situation. The way I read it, he is talking about the precarious way he lived for almost fifteen years. King Saul wanted him dead, so it wasn’t safe for him to go north into Israel. The Philistines wanted him dead, so it wasn’t safe among them, to the west. If he strayed too far south, the Amalekites were ready to get him. The wilderness he lived in was no picnic either. At different times during that period of his life, David faced all of those dangers.

The person who put together the book of Samuel included this psalm because he wants us to remember that following God did not always mean life was easy for David. We can therefore expect that sometimes life will be hard for us, even if we are faithfully following God.

Next, David gives us a very pictorial, metaphorical representation of how God responded to save him. The most remarkable thing about this is that God in all his majesty and power, cared deeply about David, and came to save him. Again, it was not David who delivered Israel, but the Lord who saved both David and Israel. David ends this section with this:

17 “He sent from on high, he took me;
he drew me out of many waters.
18 He rescued me from my strong enemy,
from those who hated me,
for they were too mighty for me.
19 They confronted me in the day of my calamity,
but the LORD was my support.
20 He brought me out into a broad place;
he rescued me, because he delighted in me. (2 Samuel 22:17-20, ESV)

The next section of the psalm, verses 21-25, is probably the hardest one to stomach. In it David claims that God dealt with him according to his (David’s) own righteousness. In the first place, that can make it sound like we have to be good people before God will help us. Second, we know that David was far from perfect. We know that even before the terrible sins he committed in the Bathsheba incident, he still sometimes forgot to ask the Lord for guidance, or, at other times, he was hot-headed and angry. He didn’t listen to what the Lord said about having many wives.

However, remember, David wrote this in his youth, long before he sinned with Bathsheba and had Uriah murdered. And I think that David, when he talks about being “blameless” here, means that he faithfully followed the Lord in not killing Saul, and in not trying to steal the kingdom for himself. In other words, he isn’t claiming to be blameless in every area of his life, but rather, he is talking specifically about the way he waited patiently for God to make him king, and the times he refused to kill Saul.

Remember when Saul promised that whoever killed the giant would marry his oldest daughter, and be made rich? Saul broke those promises to David. Not only that, but he added conditions onto his public promises. Saul made David kill an additional 100 Philistines before he allowed him to  marry his youngest daughter. David did not complain about the broken promises, nor use them as an excuse to serve Saul poorly. Instead, he continued to faithfully serve Saul, even when Saul treated him badly. David is thinking about specific things like this when he says he was “blameless.”

He is saying, in fact, that he knows the Lord gave him the kingdom, because he did get the kingdom for himself. He was “righteous” in not assassinating Saul, and in not leading a rebellion. He goes on:

26 “To the faithful you show yourself faithful;
to those with integrity you show integrity.
27 To the pure you show yourself pure,
but to the crooked you show yourself shrewd.
(2 Samuel 22:26-27, NLT)

This section includes amazing promises, and serious warnings. First, this isn’t about earning our salvation. It’s more like this: if we allow the Lord to build a straight, open pipeline within our hearts and minds, then God can show us his love and goodness directly. When we trust the Lord, He uses that to build an open channel to show us his love and goodness.

On the other hand, when we don’t trust God, we tend to make deals with him, or try to manipulate him into giving us what we want, no matter what. We ourselves throw twists and curves and complications into our relationship with God, and then we blame him because he seems tricky and shrewd to us.

This isn’t actually all that complicated. Imagine a good human father who has two sons. He showers both sons with love, and he also creates strong boundaries with discipline. The first son, Peter, responds by trusting his dad, even when he isn’t always happy about the boundaries, or when he doesn’t understand them. The second son, Eric, wants what he wants, right now. He doesn’t see his dad’s boundaries as loving—he only sees that his dad appears to be denying him what he wants. So he tries his best to subvert the rules, and manipulate his dad, and get what he wants. Peter’s relationship with his dad is likely to be warm and loving, and not super complicated. But Eric will have a totally different experience with the same loving father. Because Eric himself has not responded to his dad in love and trust, his dad will have to find additional ways to discipline him, different ways to relate to him, and get through to him. Because Eric is so fixated on what he wants, his perception is that his dad is standing in the way of that. Therefore, Eric will not easily be able to have an open, honest, loving relationship with his dad, even though it’s the same dad that Peter has, who loves Eric just as much as he loves Peter.

Honestly, I think perhaps David was thinking of Saul when he wrote this part of the Psalm. Both David and Saul served the same loving God. But they had a totally different experience of God because David responded to God in trusting faith, while Saul only tried to use and manipulate God. When we try to make deals with God, or manipulate him, we find that these things backfire on us.

David finished this part of the psalm with this thought:

28 You save a humble people; but your eyes are on the haughty to bring them down. (2 Samuel 22:28, ESV)

This is another concept that is echoed and re-echoed throughout the Bible—in both the Old and New Testaments.

Here are two examples from the New Testament:

6 But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” 7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you. (James 4:6-10, ESV)

Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”
6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, 7 casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. (1 Peter 5:5-7, ESV)

If we try to claim that we have something worthwhile to offer God, something with which to bargain, we will find God hard and inaccessible. If we think we don’t really need God, or that we can stand in judgment of him, we find that he opposes us. But if we approach him with true humility, with a understanding and attitude that we have nothing whatsoever to bargain with, no claim on him, no reason he should be kind to us, we find that he reaches out toward us in love and grace.

David continues in this psalm with a lot of words about his victories in battles, but if we pay attention as we read it, we notice that David always insists that it is the Lord who brought him victory, not his own skill or athleticism. He can “run through a troop” because the Lord enables him to do it. Over and over, in different ways, David tells us that the Lord alone is the source of hope and salvation. He is not king because he is an amazing person. He is king because God chose him. He did not win battles because he was a great warrior. He won them because he looked humbly to God, and God fought for him. We are meant to hear it clearly: God is the only source of hope and salvation.

One thought is that the way we approach God can have a large influence on our relationship with him. If we approach him like Saul, if our ultimate commitment is to ourselves, or to our own goals and desires, we might find that God seems difficult and tricky. If we approach him with pride or preconditions, we might feel almost like God opposes us. But if we approach him with open faith, and the humility to receive everything from him, even if some of what we receive we’d rather not have, we will find that God is kind and gracious and loving. He opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. If you feel like God has been opposing you lately, give thought to whether you have been humble enough to trust him in all things.

Finally, we need to train our hearts and minds to look to the Lord alone for salvation. And “salvation” doesn’t mean “everything goes the way we want it to.” It means that God has us in his hands, that he will be with us no matter what we face in this present life, and in the life to come we will find joy beyond imagining with the Lord, and with his people.

2 SAMUEL #19: BETRAYAL, FAITH AND RESILIENCE

On By Pastor TomIn 2 Samuel, Bible, Bible Teaching, Old Testament, Podcast, Religion, Sermon, UncategorizedLeave a comment

David and his followers worked hard and were faithful and finally stepped into what the Lord had promised: David’s godly Kingship. But now, in a few short years, Absalom had stolen it all away, destroying what his father, David, had worked for decades to achieve. Even in the midst of this awful betrayal, in fear for his life, David wrote: “Cast your burden on the LORD, and He will sustain you; He will never allow the righteous to be shaken.” When we trust Jesus Christ, we too, cannot be shaken, no matter what disaster overtakes us.

2 SAMUEL 2024 To listen to the sermon, click the play button:

For some people, the player above may not work. If that happens to you, use the link below to either download, or open a player in a new page to listen.

To download, right click on the link (or do whatever you do on a Mac) and save it to your computer: Download 2 Samuel Part 19

It is no secret that American politics have become very angry and divisive. No matter which party wins, almost half of the country apparently feels that it is a terrible disaster. We are no longer content to say that we disagree with politicians from the other party. Instead, we now declare our political opponents to be wicked and evil. With every election, to believe the rhetoric, the very existence of our country is at stake. Both sides claim this to be true.

The scripture that we are looking at today is especially relevant in these times. David was a good king; in fact, he was God’s choice for king. But Absalom sounded good, looked good and deceived enough good people, and recruited enough schemers, to take power and send his dad, David, running for his life. Politically, things looked bad for Israel. How could the country be so ignorant as to let this smooth-talking, charming megalomaniac come to power? Obviously, there were still many who supported David, and who felt that Absalom was a very bad choice for king. But they were defeated and silenced. God’s choice no longer mattered. Righteousness and right didn’t matter. Instead, power went to the one who was most ruthless and clever. Those who were wise and aware in Israel, who trusted the Lord, must have been deeply dismayed.

At the end of 2 Samuel chapter 15, we learned that when David fled from his son Absalom, he left behind a kind of spy network. Two priests who were loyal to David stayed in the city—Zadok and Abiathar. Their two sons—Ahimaaz and Jonathan—stayed outside the city, ready to relay messages to David. David also had a friend and advisor named Hushai. Hushai stayed behind and pretended to betray David, and so became a false advisor to Absalom, a kind of double agent.

David had another close friend who was an advisor. This man was named Ahithophel. 2 Samuel 16:23 says this:

23 Now the advice Ahithophel gave in those days was like someone asking about a word from God — such was the regard that both David and Absalom had for Ahithophel’s advice. (2Sam 16:23, HCSB)

This man truly did betray David. He supported Absalom and threw his lot in entirely with him. It is quite likely that when David wrote psalm 55, it was primarily Ahithophel whom he had in mind. He said these things:

12 Now it is not an enemy who insults me — otherwise I could bear it; it is not a foe who rises up against me — otherwise I could hide from him. 13 But it is you, a man who is my peer, my companion and good friend! 14 We used to have close fellowship; we walked with the crowd into the house of God. (Ps 55:12-14, HCSB)

…20 My friend acts violently against those at peace with him; he violates his covenant. 21 His buttery words are smooth, but war is in his heart. His words are softer than oil, but they are drawn swords.

When David first heard that Ahithophel had betrayed him, he prayed for the Lord to confound his advice and to defeat him. He said similar things in Psalm 55. There is something here that intrigues me. If you read the Psalms especially, David is never shy about praying for destruction to come upon evil and evil-doers. Whenever I read such things, I cringe a little bit. I think most modern Christians do. It sounds so simplistic to our sophisticated ears. These types of prayers seem to assume that we ourselves are good, not bad, and those who oppose us are the bad guys. I don’t think I’ve ever heard modern Christians pray that way. Now, Jesus did say to love our enemies and to pray for those who persecute us. So I think we ought to do that. But have we ever considered that part of our prayers could be asking God to frustrate and confound the schemes of unrighteous and wicked people? Here’s another sample from David:

14 Let those who seek to take my life be disgraced and confounded. Let those who wish me harm be driven back and humiliated. 15 Let those who say to me, “Aha, aha! ” be horrified because of their shame. (Ps 40:14-15, HCSB)

If we pray in faith, trusting that God knows who truly needs to be confounded and frustrated, and who doesn’t, I think it is appropriate at times to pray against the success of those who appear to be against God. I’m not saying that we get to judge who those people are – I’m just saying that we can appeal to God to restrain and defeat wickedness, trusting him to judge who is wicked and who is not.

Ahithophel certainly appeared to become a wicked person. His first advice to Absalom was that he publicly violate the women of David’s harem, who had been left behind when David fled. This was a symbolic cultural gesture, expressing contempt for David, and showing the people that he had completely cowed and defeated him. The possession of the King’s concubines was a way of solidifying his own claim to be the new king.

It’s worth clarifying who these women were. In the ancient middle east, powerful men often took multiple wives. We’ve already talked about that. In addition to many wives, such men also took on concubines. A concubine was officially recognized as a kind of lower-status wife. The main difference between a concubine and a wife was that the children of concubines were never recognized as legitimate heirs to their fathers. Thus concubines also had lower social status than wives. All of this is, of course, awful, and oppressive to women. The Bible never, anywhere, endorses polygamy, let alone the practice of having concubines. But this was one of the ways in which David failed, and we talked about that at greater length in 2 Samuel part # 3.

Absalom took Ahithophel’s advice, fulfilling Nathan’s prophecy that David’s wives would be treated publicly as David treated Uriah’s wife privately (2 Samuel 12:11-12). The Hebrew here leaves a little bit of room for interpretation. Absalom’s men pitched tents in public view – on the roof of the palace. The text says that Absalom “went in” to the women. It could mean that he raped them. But in the customs of those days, when a married woman was alone with a man who was not her husband, it was a disgrace. Whether or not anything happened, it was assumed that something had. So, whatever happened, from that time forth, those women were treated as if they had been raped. In those days, the custom (not biblical, just cultural) was that no other man would ever again be with them. They would have no place with their previous husband, nor any chance of a new one. Normally, such a thing would condemn them to lives of begging and/or prostitution. This is horribly unfair, but it’s simply the way the culture was (not how God wanted it to be). However, after the rebellion was all over, David made sure that these women were well cared-for, for the rest of their lives.

Ahithophel’s next advice was cunning and might have been effective. He told Absalom to pursue David quickly, to strike  and kill him while he was still on the run, and end any doubt about who was king. But Absalom chose to also ask Hushai, David’s secret agent in the palace. Hushai gave advice that sounded excellent. He reminded Absalom that David was a cunning, fearsome old warrior, and that some of the Thirty were also with him. It would be no small thing to take such heroes on without enough preparation or force.  David and Abishai (who was with him) had once killed six hundred men in a single battle, just between the two of them. Hushai suggested that Absalom could not risk bad news like a battle gone wrong, so early in his bid for power. Hushai’s advice was meant to give David more time to escape and organize a resistance, but it wasn’t necessarily wrong. We’ll see that it turned out that when Absalom’s men finally engaged David’s men, Absalom’s people became quickly terrified when they were face to face with David’s legendarily fearsome warriors.

 In any case, the Lord heard David’s prayer, and Ahithophel’s scheme was frustrated.

Ahithophel’s reaction seems completely out of proportion. He went out and hanged himself. The text doesn’t really tell us why. I have a few theories, but they are only guesses. One thought is that Ahithophel reacted a little bit like Judas did one thousand years later, when he betrayed Jesus. Ahithophel may have realized that what he had done was wrong, and failed to believe that he could be forgiven and restored. So rather than repent and trust the mercy of God, he listened to lies of the devil that there was no forgiveness or hope, and destroyed himself.

The text does give us one clue. It says that Ahithophel killed himself after he realized that his advice had not been followed. So, it could be that in his wisdom, he realized even at that early stage that if they didn’t kill David quickly, then they would inevitably lose. He may have seen right then that Absalom’s rebellion was doomed to failure. Rather than wait through all the turmoil and then be executed by David, he decided to put his affairs in order and deprive David the satisfaction of doing justice upon his body.

Finally, Ahithophel’s suicide was an answer to David’s prayer in Psalm 55. His prayer against evil was answered quite clearly.

Chapter 17 verses 17-29 read like an adventure novel. Hushai didn’t know at this point if Absalom would follow his advice or Ahithophel’s, and so he activated the spy network, warning David to flee across the Jordan river that very night. A servant girl went out from the palace bearing a message to the sons of the two priests. But the activity was noticed, and the two young men were pursued as they carried the message to the fleeing king. They took refuge in the courtyard of a friend, hiding in the well. The woman of the house spread canvas out over the well, and covered it with grain, so that no one even knew it was there. The soldiers of Absalom searched, but failed to discover the hidden well. Afterward, the young men continued on and successfully delivered their message, with the result that David and his household fled further on to safety.

So what do we do with all this? I know that many informed faithful Christians have been deeply concerned about every political election for the past twenty-five years. Some appear to feel real angst about the results of elections. This was also probably true for followers of the Lord in the time of our text. When David was kicked out and Absalom was the new king, many people became very concerned.

Even so, I want to point out that people have been following the Lord for thousands of years, and really only in the last two hundred and fifty years have human beings had consistent opportunities to choose their own government. Christian faith thrives in freedom. Christian faith thrives in oppression. God is not hindered by unrighteous rulers – if he were, Christianity would never have survived. Just remember your hope should be in the Lord, not in a ruler. This is true whether you approve or disapprove of any particular government.

Leaders and governments come and go. So do countries and nations. Israel’s true hope was not in David’s leadership, but in God’s faithfulness and sovereignty. Our hope is the same. If we are shaken by an election, for good or for bad, then to that extent, our faith is not truly grounded in an eternal God who promises us an eternal hope. David, as he fled from his murderous son and treacherous friend, wrote this:

Cast your burden on the LORD, and He will sustain you; He will never allow the righteous to be shaken. (Psalm 55:22)

This isn’t just about elections. This is about anything in life that threatens to shake us. What does it mean, “he will never allow the righteous to be shaken?” When David wrote that, he had lost all that he had worked so hard for decades to attain. He was in danger of losing his life. His own son was trying to kill him. But he says, “the Lord will never allow the righteous to be shaken.” Obviously, he did not mean that things would never be hard. Obviously, he did not mean that the future on earth would never look bleak. What he meant is that our faith in the Lord looks beyond the here and now.

You may wonder, “am I one of ‘the righteous’?” You are, if you trust Jesus. The promise of scripture is that Jesus imparts his own righteousness to us. This is not based upon what we have done, but rather on our faith in what he has done for us.

I think it is helpful to see David’s heart of faith in his extremely difficult and discouraging circumstance. Paul writes to the Philippians. He mentions people who are focused mainly on what is happening here and now:

They are focused on earthly things, but our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. (Philippians 3:20)

We are citizens of heaven. We have the same eternal king today that we had before the last election, or before the last crisis that threatened to shake us. We have the same leader that our predecessors in faith had two thousand years ago. Our best future is ahead of us, and nothing can take it away. It is difficult when life is unpleasant, or hard, or full of sorrow. But circumstances did not fundamentally shake David. They don’t have to shake you either. Set your hope fully in your eternal future with Jesus.

HOLDING ON TO HOPE

On By Pastor TomIn Bible, Bible Teaching, Easter, Jesus, Podcast, Religion, Sermon, UncategorizedLeave a comment

We who are Christians know that Jesus is alive. We know it through faith. We know there is more life, better life waiting for us with him. We know it. But everyone keeps saying we have to move on. Everyone tells us we shouldn’t spend so much time thinking about it. Sometimes it feels like God hasn’t come through. But we know better. Don’t let go of that knowledge. Don’t give up that hope. Don’t fill your life with other things, don’t make yourself a life apart from the one who truly loves you and is coming back for you, no matter how long it seems.

To listen to the sermon, click the play button:

For some people, the player above may not work. If that happens to you, use the link below to either download, or open a player in a new page to listen.

To download, right click on the link (or do whatever you do on a Mac) and save it to your computer:
Download Resurrection Sunday 2025

It’s always a challenge for me to preach about the Resurrection of Jesus. It is the central truth of our faith. Jesus physically rose from death; you either believe it or you don’t. In the past I have offered many facts and logical arguments that tell us it is reasonable to believe it. But this year I want to look at the difference it makes in our lives. It makes a huge difference in eternity, of course – the difference between heaven and hell. But it starts to make a difference right now, in the choices we make, and in how we deal with disappointment and grief here in this life.

One of my favorite movies of all time is Cast Away starring Tom Hanks. Hanks’ character, named “Chuck,” a FedEx executive, is on the verge of proposing to his girlfriend Kelly, the love of his life. But he has to take a business trip first, on a plane filled with FedEx packages. Over the Pacific Ocean, his plane goes down. He survives the next four years completely alone on a deserted island, aided by the contents of some of the FedEx packages. Finally, he is rescued. But four years with no word is a long time. When he returns, he finds that everyone had given up on him, and considered him dead. Even his true love, Kelly, had mourned him, and then moved on. She is now married, with a toddler.

Naturally, when Chuck returns – from the dead, so to speak – it is traumatic to both of them. Chuck drives to see Kelly at her house in the middle of the night, as the rain pours down. They both say goodbye in a heartbreaking scene, where much is left unsaid. Then, as Chuck pulls down the driveway, Kelly comes running out in the rain, calling his name. They stand in the rain, hugging and kissing. Then Kelly says:

“I always knew you were alive, I knew it. But everybody said I had to stop saying that, that I had to let you go.” Kelly pauses while they stare at each other. “I love you. You’re the love of my life.”

After another long pause while they look at each other, Chuck says, “I love you too Kelly, more than you’ll ever know.”

They get into Chuck’s car and sit in silence. But they both know that Kelly has to go back home, that it is too late for them to ever be together like that again. And so he drives her back up the driveway, and leaves her there.

If you want to watch the scene, here it is:

There is a lot of tragedy in this scene that is simply the result of circumstances that neither one of them could control. But there is also the tragedy that Kelly gave up on Chuck, gave up on hope, even when deep in her heart, she knew that she shouldn’t stop hoping. So she settled for life as best as she could get it. She quit working on her dream to be a professor. She married a decent man and had a child. And so when Chuck came back, it was too late. She had already made another life for herself, and there was no place for Chuck in it anymore.

This is heartbreaking, but it is, after all, just a movie. Even so, I think this part of the movie taps into a spiritual truth. It reveals the struggle of faith that we have sometimes as Christians. Our Lover – Jesus – has  been gone for a long time now. All around us, voices tell us to give up, to move on, to settle for life as best as we can get it. But if we do that, we find, like Kelly, that when Jesus returns, we have no room for him in our lives anymore.

Jesus’ very first disciples struggled with this. They traveled with Jesus, watched his miracles and heard him preach. They came to believe that he was God’s chosen Messiah – true God in the flesh, their only true hope for salvation and real life. And then he was killed. Now they didn’t know what to do with all their hopes and dreams. It was all over. On the third day after his death, some of these disciples went on a short journey. A stranger joined them as they walked and asked them why they seemed so sad. They told the stranger about Jesus and all he had done and said, and then they told him how Jesus had been handed over and killed. They end with a brief and poignant expression of their loss and confusion:

“But we were hoping that he was the one who was about to redeem Israel.”

You can almost hear the pain in their words. Things didn’t turn out the way they planned. They were sure they were following God. They were sure they had it right, and that their future was bright with their savior. They are hurt and lost. They had put their hope in Jesus, and now Jesus wasn’t there anymore.

Except that he was.

He was right next to them. He was the very stranger that they were talking to. This is extremely important. In our everyday life experience, we may feel far removed from the resurrection of Jesus. We may feel like it has nothing to do with us, like from now on we just have to get on with life as best we can. But Jesus is walking right next to us. Feeling or no feeling, whether we can perceive it somehow or not, the Resurrection of Jesus was real, and the resurrection life that he offers us is just as real.

The disciples’ lack of faith is surprising. Jesus told them exactly what was going to happen. He said several times that he would be taken captive by the authorities and executed, and then that he would rise from death on the third day (for instance, Luke 9:44-45 and 18:31-34).

But here’s the problem: They didn’t want to believe the part about him dying, until they had no choice. They wouldn’t accept what he was saying. Peter told him not to have such a negative outlook (Matthew 16:21-23). Because they wouldn’t accept the message of sorrow and suffering, they also, unknowingly, rejected the message of the hope. It’s all one message, and you can’t have one without the other. They had no hope because they first refused to believe the difficult part, the hard part, the suffering. I think this is really important. Sometimes, we fail to believe in the goodness of God because we reject that goodness when it comes in and through suffering.

So, when Jesus did die, they still didn’t believe the part where he told them he would rise again physically, because they hadn’t believed in the first part, either. Therefore, the death of Jesus destroyed them mentally and emotionally. They were completely lost.

Sometimes, we are like those disciples. Jesus told us exactly what is going to happen. He said we would have trouble in this world (John 16:33), but he also told us not to let our hearts be troubled (John 14:1). Living in a world of sin, we will experience sorrow and grief. But living in faith in Jesus Christ, those sorrows and griefs are not the final word. They are not as real as the great reality that is coming for those who trust Jesus. The pain and severe disappointment experienced by those disciples walking along the road was real. But the man walking beside them was real too, and he had already overcome their grief, even before they were aware of it. The reality of his resurrection was greater than the reality of their sorrow, whether they knew it or not.

I think the danger we face as believers in the risen Messiah is that, like those other disciples, we forget the promises of Jesus, or we think he is not close, not next to us. And so, in the meantime, we try to just go on and get some kind of life and hope for ourselves.

There is another poignant scene in the film Cast Away. For four years alone on the island, Chuck had no companion. So he began to talk to a volleyball (from one of the FedEx packages) that had a face-shaped bloodstain on it. He called it Wilson. In a strange way, he grew to care for the volleyball and became deeply attached to it. When he is sailing to try and find help, the volleyball comes loose from where it is tied. Chuck tries to swim after it but he is held back by a rope that attaches him to the raft. He finally needs to make a choice whether to hold on to the raft, which is his only chance at living and seeing Kelly again – or swimming after the volleyball, and drowning with it in his arms.

To watch the scene, watch below, or click here. It goes for the first 2 minutes, and then after that are other movie clips, so please stop at 2:00 in.

He reluctantly chooses life, but he cries his heart out at the loss of Wilson. It may be just a stupid volleyball, but it is all he has had for four long years. It is hard to blame Chuck for being so broken up after he lets Wilson go. We can understand it and even feel some of his pain. In the context of the whole movie, it is actually a very moving scene. And yet even though it is perfectly understandable, we know (and even the character Chuck knows) that ultimately, it is just a volleyball. It isn’t a real person. It isn’t worth giving your life for.

Sometimes I think we spend half our lives like Chuck in that scene, tugging on the end of the rope, not quite sure whether we are going to give up the raft, or give up the volleyball. Chuck’s problem was that after four years alone, part of him actually believed that Wilson was a real person. He wasn’t sure of the truth. He may not have been fully convinced that the raft would really bring him back to civilization and real people. Because of his experience, Wilson seemed more real, more important than the raft.

We are like that sometimes. This life sometimes seems so much more real than the Resurrection Life that Jesus told us about. The things we can have here tempt us to believe the lie that they are more real and more important than our eternal future. This is understandable. It is understandable also to have a hard time giving them up, just like Chuck had difficulty letting go of Wilson. But even though we understand, and it is hard, the choice is perfectly and completely clear. There is nothing in this life that is worth holding on to if it keeps us from the real Life that Jesus offers us.

Will we hold onto something that is ultimately worthless, or will we give it up for real life? To give it up requires faith. It requires us to trust that there is a real resurrection, that real life is still waiting for us. We can see and touch the fake things, like Chuck could touch and see the volleyball Wilson. But those things are not as real and true as what awaits us when we trust in Jesus. Jesus said:

1 “Your heart must not be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in Me. 2 In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if not, I would have told you. I am going away to prepare a place for you. 3 If I go away and prepare a place for you, I will come back and receive you to Myself, so that where I am you may be also. 4 You know the way to where I am going.”

5 “Lord,” Thomas said, “we don’t know where You’re going. How can we know the way? ” 6 Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. 7 “If you know Me, you will also know My Father. From now on you do know Him and have seen Him.” (John 14:1-7)

The fact of the resurrection tells us that there is real life waiting for us. There is still true love possible. Our dreams have not been shattered and lost. We just need to recognize that the time is not yet. We are in the dress rehearsal, the practice before the real game begins. We are camping in a tent, not living in our home. We are practicing to love, practicing to be great.

One of the things that helped Chuck make it through was his hope of the life that existed away from his island. So I want us to dwell for a little bit on the resurrection life that waits for us, away from this little island that we mistakenly call life.

I think a lot of Christians have the feeling that the resurrection life will be a never ending worship service. Let me be honest with you. I am a pastor, and that thought does not excite me. Don’t get me wrong, I love to worship the Lord with other believers. But I also love to fish, to hike and come around the corner of a ridge to a new vista I’ve never seen before. I love to just hang out and laugh with my family and close friends. I like to write, and read and experience moving stories. I believe amazing worship will be part of our experience of resurrection life. But I think there will also be so much more.

John Eldredge writes that you cannot hope for something you do not desire. The overwhelmingly good news is that resurrection life is where our deepest, strongest, purest desires are fulfilled. The desire for intimacy that sometimes we get confused with a desire for only sex – that intimacy will be fulfilled in resurrection life. The desire to be deeply connected to beauty – the thing that causes us to ache when we see a beautiful person, or an awe-inspiring view, or hear uplifting music – that will be fulfilled. The desire to be significant, to be recognized for who you are and for the God-given gifts you have – that will be fulfilled in resurrection life. That thing in you that loves to rise to the occasion and meet challenges – that will find its ultimate expression in resurrection life.

We won’t be ghosts or angels, floating around somewhere. Jesus was not resurrected as a spirit – he had a physical body. On several occasions after he was raised, he sat down and ate with the disciples. He promises us resurrection bodies also (1 Corinthians 15). He promises us a new heavens and new earth (Revelation 21 & 22) where will live and love and do the things we love to do, and be connected to God and to each other without the destruction and cruelty of sin and sorrow.

I will never get all the love I am seeking from human beings. I may never be recognized for who I am in this life. My talents might go unappreciated. I might have to toil and spend a lot of time doing things I don’t really want to do. If this life is all there is, that would be tragic. But if all that is fulfilled in the next life, in my resurrection, which Jesus made possible – then what I face here and now is bearable. It isn’t the final word. I’m not getting too old – I’m actually getting closer to the fulfillment of all I want as I age.

I’ve heard an expression: “Some people are so heavenly-minded, they are no earthly good.” I detest that expression. It is entirely false. I have never met anyone who is too heavenly-minded. And the most resurrection-oriented people I know are the ones who have done the most for the Lord and for their fellow human beings here and now. It is only when we lose sight of resurrection that we become focused on making ourselves happy here and now, whatever the cost.

Think back to Kelly, from Cast Away. Deep in her heart, she knew Chuck was alive. But she lost faith. She gave up that hope and settled for what she could get at the moment. Because of that, she missed out forever on the life she might have had with Chuck if she had only held on.

We who are Christians know that Jesus is alive. We know it through faith. We know there is more life, better life waiting for us with him. We know it. But everyone keeps saying we have to move on. Everyone tells us we shouldn’t spend so much time thinking about it. Sometimes it feels like God hasn’t come through. But we know better. Don’t let go of that knowledge. Don’t give up that hope. Don’t fill your life with other things, don’t make yourself a life apart from the one who truly loves you and is coming back for you, no matter how long it seems.

He is Risen!

ADVENT 2024 #1: WHAT HOPE IS THERE?

On By Pastor TomIn Advent, Bible, Bible Teaching, Jesus, Uncategorized1 Comment

Advent is a time when we remind ourselves that God is at work in human history. We reflect on what God has done in the past, and on his promises for our future. As we do these things, we can live with patience, and hopeful anticipation.

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ADVENT 2024 #1. 2 Peter 3:1-13

I grew up in a church that observed the “church year,” and the “lectionary.” Stick with me while I explain this a bit. Many centuries ago, one way that the medieval church sought to bring unity to congregations scattered around the world was to have all churches use the same set of readings from the Bible each day. These became known as “the lectionary.” As church became less central to the lives of most people, the readings were generally reduced to just the ones used each Sunday. The lectionary readings were organized around various “church seasons.” Even after the reformation, many protestant churches continued to use the church year.

There are some small variations, but in general the seasons are: Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Easter, Pentecost and “after Pentecost,” (sometimes call “ordinary time”). Each season has a kind of “character” to it. For instance, Christmas is all about the birth of Jesus and the significance of His incarnation. Lent is a time many Christians use to reflect on the suffering of Jesus, and to engage in personal repentance. Easter is about the resurrection, and so on.

I want to emphasize that these church seasons are not given to us by the bible; they are traditions, and no true Christian would say that it is necessary to observe them in order to be a follower of Jesus. One of the negatives of the church year is that it means that huge portions of the bible will never be read in churches which strictly observe it, since those churches focus only on the lectionaries given for each season. Even so, I think we can benefit at times from the traditions associated with the church year.

For me particularly, Advent is one of the seasons that I find very helpful. Advent is the first season in the church year, so that means the church year begins at the end of November, or in early December. One reason I appreciate advent is because the readings serve to remind us that God is still pursuing his goals for human beings. Advent reminds us that history is not random (as atheists might say) nor is it just an endlessly repeating cycle (as Buddhist or Hindus might suggest, and as most ancient pagan religions believed). No, the Bible teaches us that history is going someplace, that it is being guided by God toward a goal, an endpoint. God is at work in the world.

I think advent is a particularly helpful season in our current cultural moment as well. Things seem to be changing rapidly, and generally not for the better. The effect of AI is uncertain, and is likely to shake things up. Presently there is a war in Ukraine, and another in Israel, and both of them seem to be teetering on the edge of engulfing other nations. The economy is pretty good – but only for those who own businesses or a lot of stocks. Most of us ordinary people are paying a lot more for basic necessities than a few years ago, and our incomes haven’t kept pace. Our politics appear to be broken—people seem to be no longer able to maintain friendships with those who think differently from them. Advent can help to reorient our thinking, to make sure that our trust is in the Lord and his promises, not in our circumstances.

We’ll kick off advent with the third chapter of 2 Peter. Things weren’t exactly wonderful when Peter wrote this letter, either. The emperor was Nero, who blamed the great fire of Rome on Christians, and instituted a great persecution, burning many Christians alive. Peter himself was executed by Nero probably less than six months after he wrote this letter.

When Peter wrote, the days when Jesus walked the earth were thirty years in the past. Jesus said he was coming back, but apparently nothing had changed, at least not for the better. Instead, things appeared to be getting worse. What was going on? Peter wrote his second letter to address those kinds of concerns. Our first advent reading comes from 2 Peter 3:1-13.

In the first chapter, Peter reminds us of the amazing promises we have through Jesus Christ, and how they are enough to supply us in this life as we wait for our eternal home. Next, he identifies false prophets and false teachers who are trying to lead Christians astray. He makes it clear that they will be judged by God. Then he says this:

1 This is my second letter to you, dear friends, and in both of them I have tried to stimulate your wholesome thinking and refresh your memory. 2 I want you to remember what the holy prophets said long ago and what our Lord and Savior commanded through your apostles. (2 Peter 3:1-2, NLT).

This is a pretty good description of what Advent is all about. It is intended to stimulate our wholesome thinking, and to remind us of the Biblical prophecies, how they were fulfilled in the past, and what we can look forward to in the future.

 Peter writes that he wants to stir up his readers, to remind them of two things. In the first place, he wants to remind us of the teachings of the Old Testament prophets, and the teachings of Jesus through the apostles (in other words, the New Testament). These scriptures tell us that Jesus will return one day to bring an end to history as we know it, to destroy this present world, and then to remake it into a new creation. Jesus taught extensively about his own return in Matthew chapters 24-25. After speaking about it for a little while, he says:

36 “But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only. 37 For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. 38 For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, 39 and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. 40 Then two men will be in the field; one will be taken and one left. 41 Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one left. 42 Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. 43 But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. 44 Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect. (Matthew 24:36-44, ESV)

History is neither meaningless, nor an endless cycle. The Lord is working in the world, and one day, his purposes will be complete, and then our history as fallen and sinful people will end, and a new history will begin.

Now, it often doesn’t feel like this is so. Instead, it feels like things are only getting worse. Peter, addresses this. Clearly drawing on the teaching of Jesus (above, from Matthew 24), Peter explains that though people believe nothing will ever change, they thought the same things in the days of Noah, and yet the flood did finally come.

The same was true about the first arrival of Jesus as a human. The prophecies about the messiah were spoken many, many centuries before Jesus actually came to earth. The people of Israel failed to recognize him when he did come, but the signs were all there. What Peter is saying is that we should live with an attitude of patient expectation. I want to consider both patience, and expectation.

We need patience because we mostly do not see how God is at work in the world, and things appear to be going on as they always have since the beginning of human civilization. Our technology is much better now than it was in the beginning, but our human nature shows no signs of improvement. We still murder each other, as Cain did to Abel at the dawn of human history. We still hate, still lust, still hoard our treasures selfishly, still get drunk and high, still manipulate and ruin one another. In fact the main change seems to be that with our advanced technology, we do all these things more frequently, and more efficiently: that is to say, we are becoming even more destructive.

Even so, we can have patience for two reasons: First: God’s timing is not our timing. For him, a thousand years might pass like a day; or maybe sometimes he can accomplish in just one day the work of a thousand years. Jesus will return in his own time, and we human beings are not given to know that time. So it could be another thousand years. It could also be tomorrow. Jesus himself made it clear that no one will know exactly when it will come. God doesn’t work like us. God has not forgotten us, nor is he moving too slowly. Just as he promised the messiah, and then sent the messiah, so too, he will send Jesus once more to lead us into the new creation.

The second reason we can have patience is that God’s apparent inaction is, in fact, an open door that allows more people to repent and turn to him. The delay in Jesus returning is so that the maximum number of people will receive salvation. Since it is out of love and goodness that God waits, we too can be patient, knowing that every moment allows more people to join us in the new creation.

Now, what about the expectation? We aren’t just waiting around patiently for nothing. There is an end goal, a hope for which we wait. Peter gives it to us succinctly:

But we are looking forward to the new heavens and new earth he has promised, a world filled with God’s righteousness (2 Peter 3:13, NLT)

Peter makes it clear that the old world will be destroyed by fire. That’s part of what we hope for, because it means the end of sin and suffering. But it isn’t just an end that we hope for. After the end comes the real beginning. We will be given new immortal bodies which will inhabit a new, uncorrupted creation. The limitations that bother us in this life will not be present in the new one. We will begin new lives that are untouched by sorrow and suffering, lives that will last forever.

Even though our bodies are corrupted by sin, we can still experience some of God’s goodness and joy in this life. In the same way, even though we can appreciate the goodness and beauty of the earth right now, it, too, has been corrupted by sin. Both our bodies, and the earth, will be recreated new, without corruption, decay, sin or evil:

18 Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will reveal to us later. 19 For all creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when God will reveal who his children really are. 20 Against its will, all creation was subjected to God’s curse. But with eager hope, 21 the creation looks forward to the day when it will join God’s children in glorious freedom from death and decay. 22 For we know that all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 23 And we believers also groan, even though we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, for we long for our bodies to be released from sin and suffering. We, too, wait with eager hope for the day when God will give us our full rights as his adopted children, including the new bodies he has promised us. 24 We were given this hope when we were saved. (If we already have something, we don’t need to hope for it. 25 But if we look forward to something we don’t yet have, we must wait patiently and confidently.) (Romans 8:18-25, NLT)

That is what we wait for with expectation. That is the promise of Second Advent – a Christmas present so amazing that the world itself groans in anticipation.

Peter tells us that our patience and our amazing hope should lead us to live in certain ways. He says that in anticipation of these promises we should live holy and righteous lives. Another way to say it might be this: we should begin living now the way we will live in the New Creation. Even now, we are citizens not of this earth, but of the one to come. So, live like it. If I am just a stranger on earth, just passing through, I don’t need to worry about getting everything I want here and now. The future is coming when my every desire will be fully satisfied directly in the presence of God. So, I can wait, and leave some desires unfulfilled now.

My friend Wade Jones has a great illustration of this kind of living. He and his wife were called, for a time, to be missionaries in Prague, Czechia. For a period of time they were still living in the United States, while they prepared for the move overseas. They started learning the Czech language, even while they were here. Czech wasn’t much use here, in America, but they were getting ready for their new home, so they learned it even though it didn’t benefit them immediately.

In the same way, as we learn to live like citizens of our eternal new home, some of the ways we live won’t make sense to people who live fully in this world. That’s OK. We have the patient expectation of an amazing hope, and the more we live like it now, the more real it becomes, and the more ready we will be when eventually we enter that hope.

2 SAMUEL #1: WHEN DREAMS KINDA, SORTA, COME TRUE. MAYBE. A LITTLE BIT, ANWAY.

On By Pastor TomIn 2 Samuel, Old Testament, Podcast, Religion, Sermon, UncategorizedLeave a comment

David shows us that God does not hate those who hate him, and does not delight when bad things happen to them. He also serves as a model of patience. God’s promises were only partially fulfilled for him at this point, but he trusted and waited, because he recognized his life was about God’s purposes, not his own ambitions. In this life, even for Jesus, God’s promises have only been partially fulfilled. We wait with joyful expectation for the day when all of them come to complete fruition.

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We recently finished the book of 1 Samuel. However, that book leaves off in the middle of the action, so to speak. It doesn’t tell us what happened to David after Saul died. The reason for this is that originally, First and Second Samuel were one book. The Jews who translated the Old Testament into Greek divided this history into two books. Probably the division arose because Greek uses vowels, where Hebrew does not. This means that the Greek translation is much longer than the original Hebrew. As a result, it had to be put into two separate scrolls – the “first,” and “second.” Bear in mind as we study it, however, that it is all part of one work.

At the very end of 1 Samuel, we considered the lament that David wrote about Saul and Jonathan (2 Samuel 1:17-27). But there were a few things which preceded that. Remember, David and his men had fought a battle of their own with the Amalekites, who had attacked when everyone else in the region was off to the Israelite-Philistine war. Two days after he got back from defeating the Amalekites, a man came from the north, bringing news of the great battle between the Philistines and Israelites in the valley of Jezreel.

This man got the main news correct – Israel lost the battle, and Saul and Jonathan were killed. But then his story diverges from the one recorded in 1 Samuel 31. In 1 Samuel 31, it says that Saul killed himself when the Philistines got close to him. The writer does not make editorial comments, but it is clear that whoever wrote it regarded 1 Samuel 31 as the accurate record of events, and the story of this stranger as embellishments and lies.

Jewish tradition holds that the man who came to David with this story was actually the son of Doeg the Edomite, whom they also suppose was Saul’s armor bearer at the time Saul died. They think his claim to be an Amalekite was to hide from David the fact that his father was the infamously evil Doeg. There is nothing in the text one way or another to tell us if this is so or not, but it is possible that Doeg was elevated to the status of Saul’s personal armor bearer and bodyguard after he did him the favor of killing the priests when no one else would. If this man is Doeg’s son (and if Doeg was Saul’s armor bearer), it would explain his presence close to Saul, and how he was able to take Saul’s crown and escape.

He claims that the Philistine chariots were coming close to Saul. This shows us, the readers, that he is not being completely truthful. He probably said it to try and justify to David why he (allegedly) ended Saul’s life. Chariots were formidable weapons that the Philistines had and the Israelites did not (at this time). It would be the modern equivalent of tanks closing in on an infantry position. If the chariots were close, then indeed all was certainly lost. However, we know that Saul was on Mount Gilboa, and the messenger even affirms this. There were no roads (the way we think of roads) in those days. Chariots simply did not work well, if at all, on roadless mountainsides. Therefore, it is extremely unlikely that they used chariots on the mountain where Saul died.

David, experienced warrior that he is, probably sensed right then there was something wrong with the story. Even how the messenger begins is quite suspicious: “I happened to be on Mount Gilboa…” He “just happened” to be in the middle of a battle? Just “happened” to be near king Saul? Not likely.

It was clear however, that this man thought claiming to have killed Saul would make him a favorite with David. Whoever he was, he completely misunderstood David. This was because he assumed that deep down, David was not really serious about being the Lord’s man; or perhaps since he was part of Saul’s retinue, he had never heard anyone talk about David’s strong faith. He condemns himself with his lie.

16 And David said to him, “Your blood be on your head, for your own mouth has testified against you, saying, ‘I have killed the LORD’s anointed.’”

David had him executed immediately for the crime of killing Saul. Once again, as harsh as this seems, it is a reflection of David’s humble heart and in a way, a reflection of how the Lord felt about Saul. God is not happy that Saul is dead. Neither is God’s servant. And David, by executing this man showed everyone that there was nothing to be gained by lies or treachery or unnecessary bloodshed. If anyone thought they could ingratiate themselves to David with that kind of behavior, their illusions would be shattered. God didn’t want Saul dead, and neither did David. You won’t earn any favors with God by hating or hurting people whom you think are God’s enemies. People do turn away from God and do evil, and God does not want them to do that. But he doesn’t hate them — He grieves over them, as he grieved over Saul. Saul was destroyed by himself and his own choices, not by God. You can destroy your own life, as Saul did, but the Lord is never out to destroy you.

I am writing this less than a week after someone tried to assassinate former President Trump, who is campaigning to become president again. Our political situation in America is very tense at the moment. It is a good and timely reminder that God does not rejoice at the death of those who have turned away from him. So, we who follow Jesus should not be happy at the downfall of others, even others whom we think might be enemies of God. We will not earn God’s favor for hating, or trying to harm his “enemies.” This goes for all sides of the political spectrum. War and the punishment of crime are situations in which evil might be restrained, or good defended, but they should not be motivated by hatred or anger. Rather, they are a sad necessity in this fallen world. Listen to how the Lord puts it to the people who were rebelling against him:

11 As surely as I live, says the Sovereign LORD, I take no pleasure in the death of wicked people. I only want them to turn from their wicked ways so they can live. Turn! Turn from your wickedness, O people of Israel! Why should you die? (Ezekiel 33:11, NLT)

 By the way, this lesson is repeated three times in the first four chapters of 2 Samuel, which means we are really supposed to pay attention to it, and take it seriously.

OK, moving on, once Saul was dead, David’s reason for staying out of Israel was gone. His main obstacle to becoming king and fulfilling the Lord’s calling was removed. David knew he was anointed to be the next king of Israel. A large portion of the population knew this also. I think a lot of people at this point would move ahead and “just go for it.”

Not David. The first thing he did was to ask God what he should do. He did not assume anything. I think the reason for this is that David was not trying to establish his own kingdom – instead, he was trying to be God’s servant. His attitude was not, “How can I behave so that God can help me?” That was Saul’s basic approach to life. But David’s heart was this: “Lord, what do you want to do next?” He did not view God as his assistant in achieving his goals. Instead, he felt that his whole life was God’s own project. His role was to try and assist God, not the other way around. David’s anointing and his destiny were not about David – they were about the Lord. So becoming king is not David’s idea nor his goal – his goal is to serve the Lord.

I also want to point out that in this matter, David learned from his mistakes. He did not ask God before he took his family, his men, and their families to live among the Philistines (1 Samuel 27:1-3. We looked at this in 1 Samuel sermon #28). However, after that mistake, he started asking God what to do even for decisions where the conclusion seemed obvious.

As I have pointed out before, David is one of the people in the Old Testament who sheds light on what Jesus is like (that is, David is a “type” of Christ). Jesus expressed this same attitude of being here for the Father’s purposes in John 8:28 and 12:49 (among other places)

So Jesus said to them, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he, and that I do nothing on my own authority, but speak just as the Father taught me. (John 8:28, ESV)

For I have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment-what to say and what to speak. (John 12:49, ESV)

This is not complicated, but it is HUGE when it comes to living out our faith practically. It is so easy to fall into the idea that the life of faith is about God helping us each achieve our own destiny. We make this seem good and spiritual, because we assume that our destiny was created by God. And of course, it is. But it isn’t about us. It is about God. When we think that it is about us, we inevitably get angry or disappointed with God when he fails to do things for us that we think would bring about our destiny.

Our true destiny is to bring glory and honor and praise to God – not  to meet our own personal goals. Achieving that destiny is God’s business from beginning to end. Some people, like David, brought glory to God in very public ways, like becoming a well-known leader. Others do it quietly, like being a loving wife and mother, or praying regularly for others.

I think some things in life get a bit easier once we really accept this. We should give all of our strength, skill and energy to the things God wants us to, but we no longer have to control the outcome. Our hearts can be at rest as we trust God to fulfill his own plan and purpose.

Now, I think it would be wrong to assume that David didn’t care either way if he became king. First, he wanted what God wanted, and God did want that. Second, because God wanted to work in this way through him, David was drawn to it. He wanted to lead because he was created for it. So I am sure that David really wanted to become king. Even so, he subordinated his own desires to God, because he understood that it wasn’t really about him. Like Samuel’s mother, he had real desires that he acknowledged, but at the same time, he also surrendered them to God.

This is important, because right after he asked God what to do, David received a partial fulfillment of God’s calling, but it was only partial. The Lord told David to return to Israel, to the town of Hebron in the territory of Judah. When he did that, the tribe of Judah received David as their king. However, Saul’s war-leader, Abner, rallied the other tribes around Saul’s one remaining son, Ish-Bosheth. So the other 11 tribes still did not acknowledge David as their king.

Judah was one of the largest, most powerful and prestigious tribes. Though just one of twelve tribes, their territory made up about one quarter of all the land held by Israel in Saul’s lifetime.  In two generations after David, Judah became its own independent country and most of the Jews living today come from that tribe (that’s why they are called Jews. “Jews;” from “Judah”). Even so, being king over just one tribe and about one quarter of the territory of Israel isn’t exactly what David thought the Lord had planned for him. It is sort of a fulfillment of God’s promise and calling. He was now a king. But he wasn’t the king of the whole nation. At that point, his kingdom was only 25% of the kingdom that Saul had ruled.

There was potential here for David to become frustrated. After all, you could not make any argument that Saul was more worthy than David, but even so, Saul’s kingdom was much larger than David’s (at least during this period of time). And David waited a really long time, even for this partial fulfillment of God’s call on him.

Think about it. Samuel anointed David when David was perhaps fourteen or fifteen years old. At first it seemed like everything was falling into place. He grew a little, killed the giant and became a famous warrior and trusted member of the king’s court, all while he was very young. But it all fell apart again after just a few years. It was likely more than a decade that David had been living like a vagabond, with only a band of misfits who called him their leader. When Saul died, David was thirty years old. Probably fifteen years went by between the time he was anointed to be king and the time when Saul died. That’s a long time – half of his entire life up until that point. And now finally he was one out of two kings of Israel. His kingdom was the smaller of the two. It will be seven more years before he becomes king of all Israel. That’s a total of twenty-two years waiting for God to fulfill his promises.

This partial fulfillment is also a “type of Christ.” The kingdom of Jesus Christ has only come in part so far. Jesus reigns over the hearts of those who will let him, but not everything is under his rule, as it will be when this world ends. Speaking of Jesus, Paul writes:

9 For this reason God highly exalted Him and gave Him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow — of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth — 11 and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Phil 2:9-11, HCSB)

But currently, at the name of Jesus, not every knee does bow, not every person does worship. There is a part of Jesus’ exaltation and kingship that is still in the future. It is not fully here yet. The writer of Hebrews says:

7 You made him lower than the angels for a short time; You crowned him with glory and honor 8 and subjected everything under his feet. For in subjecting everything to him, He left nothing that is not subject to him. As it is, we do not yet see everything subjected to him. 9 But we do see Jesus — made lower than the angels for a short time so that by God’s grace He might taste death for everyone — crowned with glory and honor because of His suffering in death. (Heb 2:7-9, HCSB) (added italicization)

We do not yet see everything subjected to Jesus. The fulfillment of the prophecies about Jesus are, at this point in time, only partial. In the same way, we too have only partially what has been promised us. Paul writes to the Ephesians:

13 You heard and believed the message of truth, the Good News that he has saved you. In him you were sealed with the Holy Spirit whom he promised. 14 This Holy Spirit is the guarantee that we will receive our inheritance. We have this guarantee until we are set free to belong to him. God receives praise and glory for this. Ephesians 1:13-14, God’s Word)

We haven’t received the whole inheritance yet. We have the Holy Spirit as a guarantee that some day we will fully receive everything that He has promised us.In other words, right now, we have only part of what has been promised us. This means that Christianity is above all, a faith that is all about hope. We know this world doesn’t fully satisfy. True justice isn’t available here and now. True, unblemished joy is scarce and temporary. True satisfaction, contentment and fulfillment are always elusive. Those who don’t surrender their hearts to Jesus get angry at God because of this. But they aren’t listening. The true fulfillment of  God’s love for us and his promises to us comes after this world ends. We don’t have to make the credits outweigh the debits in this life. We don’t have to have everything we have dreamed of before we die. It is still coming. It was still coming for David. It is even now, still coming for Jesus, who is not yet king over everything. And it is still coming for us.

How is the Lord speaking to you through this text today? Perhaps you need to remember that even those who have rejected the Lord are not our enemies. We could all use a reminder that not even God is happy when those who reject him are hurt. I am not suggesting that we allow people to do evil without attempting to resist it. But even when we have to be involved in restraining evil and defending good, we can reflect God’s heart of sadness that people have chosen to reject him.

Possibly you need to remember that your life is not really yours, but that it belongs to God. I think we could use reminding that God is not there to help us fulfill our personal desires or destinies. Instead, we are here to serve God.

Maybe you are struggling because it seems like you have received only part of what you think God has promised you. First, make sure you know what God has indeed promised. And then, remind yourself that in this life, all fulfillments are partial. We have an amazing future in which everything that God has promised will indeed be completely ours, and that future is in a New Creation where there is no more sorrow, suffering or death. Until we reach those eternal shores, everything we have here is just a temporary shadow of the stunning reality that will be ours. This should help us to have patience as we wait in hope.

RESURRECTION 2024: FINDING JESUS WHEN YOUR DREAMS ARE DEAD

On By Pastor TomIn Easter, Podcast, Religion, Sermon, Single Sermons, UncategorizedLeave a comment

On the day of God’s greatest triumph for humanity, the disciples thought that they had lost everything. Their dreams were indeed dead, but those dreams were far too small and limited. God was doing something much greater than anything they had imagined. They were profoundly discouraged because they could not see Jesus. Jesus came to them and showed them (and us!) how to see him from now on.

Unfortunately, there were some technical difficulties with the audio for this sermon. It is perfectly understandable, but we apologize for the “fuzzy” sound at the edges, which was caused by audio clipping.

To listen to the sermon, click the play button: For some people, the player above may not work. If that happens to you, use the link below to either download, or open a player in a new page to listen. To download, right click on the link (or do whatever you do on a Mac) and save it to your computer: Download Resurrection Sunday 2024

RESURRECTION SUNDAY, 2024. LUKE 24:13-49

This is a wonderful part of the scripture. It is Resurrection Day, the day that the world changed. Everything has gone exactly according to God’s plan. But the disciples don’t know it yet. In fact, it seems to them that God’s plan has come to a screeching, tearing, smash-up end.

Two of them are walking, trying to get their heads around what they see as a tragedy. It is actually not a tragedy at all, but they can’t know that yet. They were so sure that Jesus was the One. He had to be from God. They knew him. The one called Cleopas was the uncle of Jesus (according to an early-church writer: either the brother, or brother-in-law of Joseph), so he knew him well, even before Jesus started going around doing miracles. Neither Cleopas or his friend had ever met anyone like Jesus. They heard him, and he spoke like no one had before. They saw him do genuine, honest-to-goodness miracles, so blatant that they knew he was sent by God. It was obvious to them that he was the one sent to deliver their long-suffering country from brutal foreign oppression.

But now the same old story was repeating itself. It was just one more crushing defeat in the long war against evil. This bright star, this man unlike anyone they had known, had been killed by the powers-that-be, who felt threatened by him. It was over.

I want us to get into their mindset just a little bit, to understand their feelings, because I think we are also prone to feel that way at times. Clearly, (in their eyes) whatever Jesus had been doing, it had come to nothing. Clearly all of their hopes and dreams that Jesus would save their country were shattered beyond repair. When they met a stranger on the road who asked about their conversation, “They stopped, and looked discouraged (Luke 24:19, CSB).”

Let’s back up a minute. The Resurrection had happened. This was absolutely necessary. Jesus claimed to forgive sins – something only God could do. In his time ministering, he talked and acted like he had the very same authority that God had. He told people that they were supposed to follow Him – not God, but Him. He even said people should make him – Jesus – more important than anything else in life. So if he wasn’t God, he was the very worst kind of egomaniacal demon. But he didn’t act like a demon either: he healed people, he treated people with compassion, he taught people to love one another. He also predicted on many occasions that he would die, and that he would rise again.

So if he did not rise from the dead, Jesus was a fraud. If he didn’t rise from the dead, his words about forgiveness and following him, and loving others were all meaningless. And that’s exactly what it looks like to the disciples on resurrection day. In fact, Jesus has already risen, but they haven’t seen it yet. They can’t quite believe he was a fraud, but what was he then? Even in the moment of wildest victory, they think they are defeated. They only see tragedy, even though the reality is wonderful, amazing victory. They literally cannot see what is right in front of their faces.

They were profoundly discouraged, because they couldn’t see Jesus. They had been hoping he was going to deliver Israel from the Romans. That dream was now dead. But Jesus was up to something far, far bigger than they had ever imagined. He wasn’t there to deliver one small country from the Roman Empire. If he had been there merely to fulfill their earthly dream of delivering Israel, where would that leave us today? He would be a footnote in history, like Judas Maccabees.

But Jesus was there to open a door to something eternal and lasting, something much better – infinitely better – than any thing they, or we, could hope for in this mortal life. The reality is, they had nothing to be discouraged about. Something even better than all of their small hopes has been realized in the man who is standing in front of them. But they can’t see him, not yet.

Instead of revealing himself as the man in front of them, he shows them the path that all Christians will have to take in the centuries to come:

27 Then beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted for them the things concerning himself in all the Scriptures. Luke 24:27

There is a reason he did that. He would not always remain on earth, and he was teaching them the best way to find Him whenever they wanted to. This is now the primary path to seeing Jesus: the Bible. As he reveals himself to them through the scriptures, their hearts burn within them with a strange fire.

Then, they reach the house and start the meal. Finally, he reveals himself to them fully. Again, he shows himself in a particular way. He does it in the breaking of the bread – that is, what we now call communion, or the eucharist. Once more, he is showing the way for all generations afterwards – we can find him in the breaking of bread. This is another major way that we can see Jesus.

They are thrilled beyond measure. Though he leaves them again, they run, full of joy, all the way back to their brethren in Jerusalem – seven miles! They are met with more tidings of joy, for Jesus has shown himself to Peter also.

Now, Jesus comes to all of them at once. I love this next part. Two of them spent several hours with him earlier, and finally knew him at the breaking of bread. Peter has seen Jesus earlier also. Now, he stands in their midst…and they think he is a ghost!

This is so comforting to me. It means doubts are normal. Even after he had appeared to them on the road and revealed himself to them through the scriptures, and then at the breaking of bread, when he appeared to them again, they thought it was a ghost. With him standing right in front of them, they doubted. Doubt is not a sin. Jesus understands it. He makes them give him a piece of fish. He makes them come touch him, and look at his scars. He understands that what he asks us to believe is improbable. The resurrection is wildly improbable, even though he told them it would happen.

I think we are like that so often. We don’t understand what Jesus has been up to. We are focused on things in the world, and we miss the eternal promises that are offered to us: promises that will never spoil or fade, never be destroyed by age or the limitations of this mortal life. We so badly want to him to heal our friend, or fix our relationships, or fulfill our dreams that we fail to see he has already done something that is so much better than any of that.

Now, the difficult thing for us is that Jesus is not standing in front of us. The Bible explains clearly why. If he remained in physical body, most humans would never get a chance to spend even a few seconds with him. So he sent his Holy Spirit instead. But the fact remains, we don’t get to touch his body, see his scars and watch him eat. He spoke to them then, and what he said was for our sake – for us, who never saw his body:

44 He told them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you ​— ​that everything written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” 45 Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures. 46 He also said to them, “This is what is written: The Messiah would suffer and rise from the dead the third day, 47 and repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in his name to all the nations, beginning at Jerusalem. 48 You are witnesses of these things. 49 And look, I am sending you what my Father promised. As for you, stay in the city until you are empowered from on high.” (Luke 24:44-49, CSB)

He isn’t revealed to us in a physical body any more. But he is revealed in the scriptures. The purpose of the Bible is to reveal Jesus to us. If you want to know Jesus better, read the Bible. Start in Matthew, Mark, Luke or John. Read a chapter a day, or less, if you need to. Keep on through the New Testament. After a month or so of regular reading, you will have more of Jesus than you did before. After two months, even more.

He is also revealed in the breaking of the bread – what we call communion. This is one reason we do communion every week in our house churches. It is one of the most important ways that Jesus reveals himself. In communion we see again the Jesus that died for us. We see again the Jesus who secured an eternal covenant for us by his blood. And through the eating and drinking we have fellowship with Jesus, and with one another.

Finally, we have something that the disciples did not yet have on resurrection day: The Holy Spirit. This is what Jesus is talking about when he says: “what my Father promised,” and “until you are empowered.” We have Jesus within us through the Holy Spirit. This is even better than having him as a person we see and touch. This is why Paul could write:

20 I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20, CSB)

When we live like that – by faith in Jesus – then Jesus can express himself not through one human body, but through every person who trusts him. I can see Jesus through you. You can see him through me. Maybe I can see his laughter and humour through one person, and his thoughtfulness and depth through another, and his care and compassion through yet another. Maybe, perhaps, you can see a little bit of his suffering through those who suffer. I don’t want to gloss over this too quickly. In the Western world, we Christians have often forgotten the importance of seeing Christ in the community of believers. This is part of his gift to us. We can catch glimpses of Jesus in one another. I hope you can see that obviously, this applies to all Christians, not just pastors and leaders.

Through the Holy Spirit, we also find Jesus within ourselves. I don’t mean we are little specks of God, or any similar nonsense. I mean that when we repent and trust, we are forgiven, and the Holy Spirit makes his home in us, and we can access him for guidance, grace, hope and comfort. We don’t have to go to a temple, or kneel on a rug facing east, or anything like that. If we have repented of our sins (which means being sorry, and having the best intentions to not continue in them) and trusted in Jesus then he is right there, all of the time. I began my own walk of faith even before I can remember. I was very young. And so, I cannot recall a single day in my life of feeling truly alone. This is because Jesus has always been there through the Holy Spirit. I’ve had one or two crises of faith where I thought maybe I didn’t believe anymore. But each time, I couldn’t escape the fact that He was still with me. He is with us always, just as he promised (Matthew 28:20).

All of this was made possible by the resurrection. It is all available to you and I. It isn’t cheap – it cost Jesus dearly – but it is free to us. So today, consider some questions:

Are you profoundly discouraged? Without minimizing the struggles you are facing, can you also trust that what Jesus has accomplished for you is more wonderful than you could even imagine? Even in your moment of deepest sorrow, the reality is that Jesus has secured eternal joy for you.

Are you focused on something Jesus can do for you only within this life? Can you learn to reorient your focus, so that you can see that whatever you might lose or miss out on in this life is nothing compared to the eternal life Jesus gives us? Cleopas and his friend wanted freedom from oppression. That’s a good thing to desire. It’s not wrong. But their vision was too small, too limited. Jesus came to bring eternal freedom, and not just to Israel, but to all people. Perhaps, in your discouragement, your vision is also limited.

Do you have trouble seeing the reality that through Jesus, the ultimate victory is won? Do you still act like you have been defeated?

First, if you have not ever consciously repented and trusted, why not try it now? Repentance is not about feeling guilty all the time – quite the opposite. The process I am talking about removes our actual guilt and should lead to far fewer feelings of guilt. I don’t say “no feelings of guilt,” because I am being realistic: some of us had guilt drummed into us at an early age, and though we are declared “not guilty” when we repent and trust Jesus, we still carry it around in our minds. But when we do truly repent, and then trust, those guilty feelings are reduced, and some people, as time goes on, find that even the feeling of it is almost entirely removed. Whether or not the feeling goes, the reality is that when we repent of our sin and trust in Jesus the actual guilt is removed. Our sins have been fully punished – but in Jesus, not in us.

A second thing:  this is all very good news. And Jesus, even as he assured them of the fact of his resurrection, called them to be his witnesses to that good news. All Christians are called to be witnesses. A witness simply tells what he or she knows. We don’t have to argue anyone into the kingdom of God. We bear witness to Jesus as we have come to know him through the scripture, through communion, and through other believers.

Finally Resurrection Day is something to celebrate. Though our culture makes Christmas the premier holiday, in fact, Resurrection is the biggest day of all for us who trust Jesus. This is the day that Jesus made good on all his promises. This is the day he opened the way to eternal life, to better hopes and dreams than anything we could find in this life. This is the day he triumphed over the powers of evil.

This is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it!

HE HAS RISEN!

PSALMS #6: BAD TIMES, GOOD PRAISE. PSALM 34.

On By Pastor TomIn Podcast, psalms, Religion, Sermon, Uncategorized1 Comment
Photo by M Venter on Pexels.com

When we read psalm thirty-four, and then find out what was going on with David that caused him to write it, it can be surprising. This psalm of praise, joy, and trust was written during one of the most desperate times of his life. We too, can find hope, peace and joy, no matter what we might be going through.

To listen to the sermon, click the play button:

For some people, the player above may not work. If that happens to you, use the link below to either download, or open a player in a new page to listen.

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Psalm thirty-four is one of my personal favourites. When I was in university, I learned a song that is made up entirely of words from this psalm. The song doesn’t contain the whole psalm, but all of the words of the song come from it. We use the song in our yearly Passover seder, and so for me, psalm thirty-four is a reminder of joy and thanksgiving, gathering with family and friends in the presence of the Lord.

Before we actually look at the words of the psalm, let’s dig into the background. There is a superscription (that is a note attached to the psalm in the original Hebrew text) to this psalm which reads: “Of David, when he changed his behavior before Abimelech, so that he drove him out, and he went away.” This sounds a lot like the incident described in 1 Samuel 21:10-15, with one exception. The person mentioned here before the psalm is Abimelech, but the name of the king of Gath in 1 Samuel 21 is Achish. However, like many ancient leaders, he probably had more than one name. It is also possible that Achish is his name, and Abimelech is a title, like “Pharoah.” (The Philistine civilization was relatively small and brief, and we don’t know everything there is to know about it).

Anyway, the situation was this: David was warned by Jonathan that king Saul was absolutely determined to kill him. So David fled to the Philistine city of Gath. Remember, the Philistines were the mortal enemies of the Israelites, and David had already, by this point, killed many of them in battle. This shows us how entirely desperate he was: he was trying to hide among his enemies. He left with absolutely nothing: no food, not even a weapon. Shortly after he arrived in Gath, he was recognized. Some of the Philistines said, “Isn’t this David, the hero of the Israelites? Aren’t the Israelites singing songs about how many of us Philistines he has killed in battle?” They grabbed him, and brought him before their leader: Achish/Abimelech. This was a terribly dangerous moment. David had just escaped one enemy, only to be captured by another. He had the idea to pretend that he was insane. The leader of Gath saw him acting like someone who had lost his wits, and in disgust, he told his men to escort David out of town. It isn’t clear if he believed that it was David, gone mad, or just a generic madman that his men had brought to him. Either way, they kicked him out of town without harming him seriously. He fled from there, and went and hid in a cave. So it was a tense time, and a very narrow escape for David. However, in the end, he was safe (for the moment), from both Saul, and the Philistines. Afterwards, David wrote this psalm. With all of that in mind, let’s see what David has to say.

1 I will bless the LORD at all times;
his praise shall continually be in my mouth.
2 My soul makes its boast in the LORD;

let the humble hear and be glad.
3 Oh, magnify the LORD with me,
and let us exalt his name together!

4 I sought the LORD, 
and he answered me
and delivered me from all my fears.

5 Those who look to him 
are radiant,
and their faces shall never be ashamed.

6 This poor man cried, 
and the LORD heard him
and saved him out of all his troubles.

7 The angel of the LORD encamps
around those who fear him, and delivers them.

8 Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good!
Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!

9 Oh, fear the LORD, you his saints,
for those who fear him have no lack!

10 The young lions suffer want and hunger;
but those who seek the LORD lack no good thing.

11 Come, O children, listen to me;
I will teach you the fear of the LORD.
12 What man is there who desires life
and loves many days, that he may see good?
13 Keep your tongue from evil
and your lips from speaking deceit.
14 Turn away from evil and do good;
seek peace and pursue it.

15 The eyes of the LORD are toward the righteous
and his ears toward their cry.
16 The face of the LORD is against those who do evil,
to cut off the memory of them from the earth.

17 When the righteous cry for help, the LORD hears
and delivers them out of all their troubles.

18 The LORD is near to the brokenhearted
and saves the crushed in spirit.

19 Many are the afflictions of the righteous,
but the LORD delivers him out of them all.
20 He keeps all his bones;
not one of them is broken.

21 Affliction will slay the wicked,
and those who hate the righteous will be condemned.

22 The LORD redeems the life of his servants;
none of those who take refuge in him will be condemned.

In the first place, the psalm shows us that in his time of great danger and fear, David put his hope entirely in the Lord. David isn’t just praising God because he happens to be happy. He isn’t writing a psalm like this because he’s never had any problems or experienced trouble. Already by this point in his life, he had faced a literal giant, and been in many battles. And then, just before writing this, he was in the very tricky situation I described above. So we can’t accuse David of being unrealistic about the serious challenges people face in their lives. Even so, he maintains that it is good and right to put our faith in the Lord, and praise him at all times.

Second, as I mentioned, David wrote this sometime relatively soon after his narrow escape from both Saul, and the Philistines. However, even then, though the immediate danger was suspended for the moment, he was still in a pretty precarious position. He had to go live in a cave in order to hide from Saul’s men, and also from the Philistines. In other words, he had enemies in all directions around him. He had no guarantee even about the source of his next meal.

Therefore, when he wrote this psalm, it was almost certainly the lowest point in David’s life so far. Things had started so well, and then came crashing down spectacularly. He was anointed by Samuel to be Israel’s next king. Not long after, he challenged Goliath, and won. Then he became Israel’s foremost warrior, and he spent time also moonlighting as a musician. He became a personal favourite of King Saul. He even married Saul’s daughter. It seemed like everything was on track. His career was moving forward. But then suddenly, everything fell apart. Saul tried to kill him. His best friend warned him to run for his life. He left with nothing – no food, not even a weapon. He couldn’t even find shelter hiding anonymously with Israel’s enemies. So, finally, he ends up in the cave.

But David shows remarkable perspective. He had a great deal to complain about. Things had gone from terrific, to bad, to worse, to “living-all-alone-in-a-hole-in-the-ground.” But instead of complaining, he remembered that God had saved his life. I might have been complaining about why God allowed such things to happen. David, however, thanked God for saving him. Not only that, but he wrote this:

8 Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good!

Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!

Clearly, there is something going on here that transcends David’s actual experience. I don’t think he means: “Oh, how wonderful it is that that I’ve lost everything, and I was almost murdered twice and now I live in a cave with nothing to my name.” But something in his experience of God was much more significant to him than his experience of fear and loss. I do hesitate to use the word “experience,” here. True spiritual things transcend mere feelings. But at some level David connected with the truth of God’s love and care for him, even when his circumstances told him otherwise. I believe the essence of that connection was faith.

If you have read many of these messages, you have probably picked up on the fact that I have some kind of health issue. The short version is, I have a never ending phantom kidney stone. I am in a great deal of pain almost all the time. I am in pain as I write this. Sometimes, I feel sorry for myself, especially when other difficult things happen to me. At times, I think it is healthy to vent my feelings of frustration, and even to complain to God. We have already considered a psalm in which David did that. However, though God can handle our complaints, too much complaining is not good for us. Although venting my feelings can be cathartic, if I continue to complain for very long, I start to feel worse again. What does reliably help my heart is to surrender in faith to what the scripture says about God’s goodness and love. When I trust, in spite of the circumstances of my life, that God is good and that he loves me, it lifts my spirit, and brings me peace. I think that is exactly what is going on with David in this psalm.

David invites us to taste and see that the Lord is good. How do we do that? I think it begins with thanksgiving. For my part, I have learned that it is important for me to thank him for all things, and especially for the difficult things in my life; even for my literal pain. I am learning to trust that the Lord is with me in the middle of this suffering, and therefore, I can thank him for it.

You might say: “Great thought, Tom, but that’s not going to happen for me.” I might say: “Sure. How’re things working out for you doing it your way? Are you finding peace and grace in the midst of your struggles?” So, I encourage you to try it, even if it is hard, at first to thank God for difficult circumstances. I don’t mean feel thankful, I mean say “thank you” to God for what troubles you. You might be surprised at how much just that one act of will can change your heart.

You can almost feel David’s joy and peace in this psalm. The only explanation for it is that he trusted God beyond what he could see and feel. He said, “I will bless the Lord at all times.” This isn’t the peace of “everything is all right at this moment.” It is the peace of: “I have a hope that no tragedy on earth can destroy or touch.”

The overall point I am making is that in order to taste and see God’s goodness, we have to start by trusting that he is indeed good, whether or not we can feel his goodness at the moment. We taste his goodness when we surrender our own insistence that God do things our way, and instead trust that he is indeed good. Again, I think one way to help us do that is through thanksgiving.

Some of the verses in this psalm raise certain issues for me. There are many such troublesome verses in other psalms as well. For instance:

9 Oh, fear the LORD, you his saints,

for those who fear him have no lack!

10 The young lions suffer want and hunger;

but those who seek the LORD lack no good thing.

The reason this verse troubles me is because it seems to me that at times, I have suffered a lack of good things. For instance, in my particular case, I think it’s fair to say that while, like all human beings, I struggle and fail, at the same time, I do, by any reasonable measure, fear the Lord, and seek the Lord. Even so, I lack healing. Setting aside my own issue, I have travelled all over the world, and there are millions of Christians in other countries, even today, who lack good things like freedom, justice, access to good medical care, and even sufficient food. What do we do with this?

One thing to keep in mind with verses like this, is that this, like all psalms, is poetry. Because of the genre (poetry) we know we aren’t meant to take this in a overly literal way. The psalm invites us to enter into praising God. It also expresses certain truths, but those truths are general, and they are consciously exaggerated in order to express the feeling that David wants to convey. So this is not meant to be a straightforward teaching telling us that all believers will always have every single thing that they think they need. Instead, it invites us to see how good God is to his people, and how much he cares for them.

Secondly, and most importantly, we only receive all the fulness of God’s promises in eternity. That is, we don’t get the “full package” until we die in faith, and then stand with Jesus in our resurrected bodies. So, in that sense, we could say: “The Lord promises that he will completely, and utterly deliver us from every single trouble that we experience in this life.” He does promise that. And we get that total and complete deliverance, along with our new resurrected bodies, in the New Creation. Until then, we still do get some good from God, even when we don’t deserve it. But the complete version of the promise must wait until we step into eternity. Some people might think that’s a bit of a raw deal, but actually, if it were the other way round, that would be the raw deal.

Let’s do a thought experiment to understand why. Imagine you are a kid at a game arcade. In order to play any of the games, you need tokens that only work in that arcade. The tokens will also allow you to buy any of the food sold on the property. As it happens, your dad is a billionaire. You say, “Hey Dad, why don’t you give me a hundred million game tokens, so I can play these games and eat here whenever I want to?”

He says: “I’ll give you some tokens, because I love you, and like seeing you enjoy yourself. But too much time here, and too much of this cheap food would actually be bad for you.” Almost certainly, you don’t understand how just having fun and eating hot dogs could be bad for you. But your dad goes on: “What I actually want to give you is a hundred million dollars in real money. Then you can use it, even when you leave this place. But I have to wait until you are ready to handle it.”

Would you rather have a hundred million dollars worth of game tokens that you can only use in the arcade, or a hundred million dollars of legal tender? Obviously, any mentally competent adult would pick the real money. The game tokens are of limited use. When the kid gets older, he’ll probably stop enjoying the games that much, and he’ll certainly be sick of the cheap hot dogs and stale chips that the concession stand serves. The dad refrains from giving his child everything the child wants in order to give him something far, far better.

So, God does give us good things to enjoy in this present life. But his best promises are only fully realized in our eternity with Him. Jesus told us that the best kind of treasure is the stuff that lasts forever:

19 “Don’t store up treasures here on earth, where moths eat them and rust destroys them, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 Store your treasures in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal. 21 Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be.

(Matthew 6:19-21, NLT)

The best “good thing” I can have in this life will still be destroyed. At most, I will get to enjoy whatever it is until I die. But the Lord promises good to us that will last forever. He is still kind to us, to bless us and give us many things to enjoy in this present life. But those are weak and cheap compared to the real things, which we will be able to enjoy for eternity.

David writes: “The righteous person faces many troubles, but the LORD comes to the rescue each time,” (verse 19, NLT). So we aren’t promised a trouble-free life. In fact, that verse says that those who follow the Lord will indeed face many struggles. But we do not face them alone. And again, the promise will be completely fulfilled in the New Creation, but even now we get partial fulfillments.

Finally, there is this: “The LORD redeems the life of his servants; none of those who take refuge in him will be condemned.” The Lord is merciful. If we take refuge in Him, we will not be condemned. Hear these promises. Trust that they are true, and receive them, and praise him in response.

A HOPEFUL WAY TO SUFFER

On By Pastor TomIn Bible, Bible Teaching, suffering, UncategorizedLeave a comment

As most of you know, if you have followed my writing for very long, I suffer from a fairly extreme kind of ongoing pain. That pain has begun to limit how often I am writing and recording sermons. Even so, I am trying to make the most of the time when I feel up to it, so I am continuing to do sermons, and to write books.

Not only that, but I’m trying to turn lemons into lemonade. I’ve had a lot of time to think about suffering, and difficult times, and how those relate to faith, and peace and hope. With the help of my good friend, Wade Jones, who is also a pastor, and happens to be the father-in-law of one of my daughters, I have been working on a podcast about suffering and hope. I have literally lived the things we talk about.

In the unlikely event that you miss the sound of my voice, you can hear it in the podcasts. If you are interested in how the Lord has guided my journey of pain and suffering, the podcast is for you. Especially, the podcast is for you if you want to prepare yourself for future suffering; or if you, or a loved one, is already suffering. It isn’t easy. But there is joy, peace, and hope, even in the middle of suffering.

Below is a link to the first episode of the podcast, on a platform called substack. Once you click the link, you will be able to listen to the podcast right there on the substack website. You will also have the chance to load it into your favorite podcast app. Before you do any of that, however, be sure to click the “subscribe” button on the substack page, to make sure you don’t miss any episodes.

If you are a podcast veteran, the show is also available on Apple, Spotify, and Google podcasts. Search “Hope in Hard Times Tom Hilpert.”

You will also find, on the show’s web page, a title at the top labeled “It is Well With My Soul.” I will be posting a written version of the content there. If you want to read that regularly, please click on that title, and then subscribe to that, also. If you want those writings, you have to subscribe to that in addition to subscribing to the podcast, or you won’t get the written content.

I hope these things will be a blessing to many of you. Please feel free to pass them on to anyone who might be encouraged by them!

— Tom.

Here’s the link:

https://hopefulsuffering.substack.com/p/the-beginning-of-pain-and-hope-c11

The main page for the whole project is here:

https://hopefulsuffering.substack.com/

P.S. If you know what to do with a podcast feed, here you go (note: don’t click on it. Copy it into your favorite podcast app)

https://hopefulsuffering.substack.com/feed

RESURRECTION 2022: THE ONLY REAL HOPE

On By Pastor TomIn Bible, Easter, Podcast, Religion, Resurrection, Sermon1 Comment

When we are faced with the death of a loved one, or our own death, we have to reckon with the reliability of what we hope for. Do we have a real hope? Do we have a hope that offers true comfort? The Christian hope is built upon the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and it is very different from any other hope offered by skeptics, or by other religions. It is the hope of LIFE.

To listen to the sermon, click the play button: To download, right click on the link (or do whatever you do on a Mac) and save it to your computer: Download Resurrection 2022

RESURRECTION 2022. 1 CORINTHIANS 15:12-23; 48-58

When I was in seminary, Kari and I met Paul and Becky Hagen, and their kids. I was there for my master’s degree, and Paul was studying for his doctorate. They were about fifteen, or so, years older than us. We became dear friends, and we have remained so for the past twenty-five years. We had the pleasure of watching their children grow up. They watched our children be born and grow. Paul & Becky are godparents for our daughter, Alana. Their family feels like part of our extended family, and we theirs (I also went to college with one of Becky’s younger brothers). Paul and Becky, or their kids, or Becky’s mother or brother, and other family, have often stayed at our house. Their son Tim married Gerte, a woman from Albania. We stayed with Tim and Gerte in Albania in 2013. They had their third child just a few months ago.

This was just after Tim was diagnosed with cancer.

Tim died this past Wednesday, four days before Easter Sunday. His youngest child will never know him. His wife is a widow. His parents have lost a son. His siblings have lost a brother.

As I think about this, I am filled with grief for my friends, Paul & Becky. No parent should have to watch the death of a child. I’m overwhelmed with sorrow for Gerte who has lost the love of her life, and for their three young children, who have been deprived of their father. I am so deeply sad for Tim’s sisters, and his brother. I am so sad myself. I stopped and wept while I was writing this.

Sometimes, I think we are almost unaware of how much the Bible influences our way of looking at the world. In order to better appreciate the wonderful gift that Jesus brought to the world, I want us to think about things – temporarily – from other points of view.

Just for a moment, imagine the death of this fine young man, but consider it as if you had no Christian faith. It seems so tragic that a young man who had a loving wife and three young children who need him, should die. His parents have outlived him. It feels so wrong. If we looked at Tim’s death without the eyes of faith, it would be an unmitigated tragedy. Everyone who loved Tim should be inconsolable. If this life is all there is, then nothing could ever balance out the tragedy of his death for his wife, his kids, his parents. It’s appalling, heart-breaking, and that’s all there is to say.

But wait. If this life is all there is, why should death be appalling to us? If the atheists are right, the universe arose by accident from nothing. It has no meaning, no purpose, which logically means that life has no meaning or purpose. Things simply are what they are. Life is what it is, and death is what it is. Neither death nor life has any significance. In such a universe, death is simply natural – no different, for example, from any other natural thing, like digestion, or breathing, or the color of the sky. If death has no more significance than a burp, why should it upset us? I’ve not heard any atheists address this issue.

One of the arguments made by skeptics is that religion was developed in order to help human beings cope with the tragedy and fear associated with death. But the atheists are not thinking deeply enough. Why, in the first place, should we even think of death as a tragedy? Why should we fear it, if it is as natural and normal as blue sky?

I think the logical answer is this: death is unnatural. When we encounter death, something inside us says, “It should not be this way.” It is as if we have some kind of ancient instinct that knows death is wrong. Deep within us, our hearts tell us that the world was supposed to be a different kind of place than it actually is. I suspect that even most committed atheists cannot actually make themselves feel indifferent about the death of those they love, and about their own death. That’s extremely strange, and very difficult to explain, unless it happens to be true that death was not originally part of what it means to be human.

A lot of people believe that all religions are more or less the same. I’ve already mentioned the religion that is called atheism (and atheism is based upon blind faith, whatever people say). Atheism is very different from Christianity in this matter of death – as I say, it is meaningless, and there is nothing afterwards.

Buddhism is also not remotely like the Christian faith when it comes to death, and the possibilities of life after death. To a Buddhist, life after death is a bad thing. The whole point of Buddhism is to cease to exist altogether. They do believe in reincarnation, but reincarnation is a negative thing for a Buddhist. It means that they failed to end their existence and become nothing, and now they have to try again, possibly adding more suffering to the world as a result. The great hope of Buddhism is not life, but rather absolute nothingness, a complete cessation of being.

Hinduism is also very different from Christianity. Hindus, like Buddhists, believe in reincarnation – they suggest that the average soul is reincarnated about 8.3 million times before reaching nirvana. However, the ultimate goal (nirvana) is to cease to exist as an individual and be absorbed into the all-encompassing oneness that is the Brahman. In other words, in “heaven” you will no longer be a conscious self. For all intents and purposes, this too, as in Buddhism, is the destruction of your soul, the end of your “you-ness.”

Islam believes in a paradise that is somewhat like the Christian one, but it sounds a lot nicer for men than it does for women. Paradise is also divided into classes, with the more pleasant areas being reserved for the men, and for those who were the best Muslims. Even so, no Muslim can know whether or not they will actually go to paradise. It is based entirely on how you lived, and no one knows how much is good enough.

Judaism today is very different from the religion that began with just the Old Testament. It is very diverse, and many Jews either don’t believe in life after death, or simply assume it is some kind of mystery. Some Jews believe in a spiritual heaven and spiritual place of the dead (Sheol) but it would be inaccurate to say that modern Judaism’s view of life after death is similar to that of Christianity.

My point is this: All religions are not the same when it comes to life after death. The Christian view of resurrection after death is unique. To the small extent that Judaism and Islam are similar, it is because they were influenced by Christianity.

Before you start thinking this is all so theoretical, let’s apply this to the death of my friend, Tim. If he was Buddhist, what hope would we have, what hope would his wife and kids have? Well, one thing that is certain is that they will never again see him, certainly not to recognize him as the person they have known. The best case scenario is that he has ceased to exist forever. I don’t know about you, but that doesn’t bring me much hope or encouragement. It leaves me with nothing useful or kind to say to his family.

An atheist/skeptic/agnostic might say that Tim will live on in the memories of those who loved him. In the first place, that doesn’t help his wife Gerte when she wants Tim to hold her. It doesn’t help his son when he wants to play catch with his dad. Also, let me ask you this: how many of you have memories of your great-grandparents? I remember one of my eight great-grandparents. I have no memories of the other seven, and certainly none of the generation before that. Even my memories of great-grandma are few and fuzzy. So, if Tim lives on in the memories of those who knew him and loved him, seeing as Tim died young, the best case scenario is that he “lives on,” for another seventy years or so. Then his memory will be lost to this world. Not much of an afterlife.

If Tim was Hindu, one might say, “perhaps he will be reincarnated as someone you will meet.” Of course, he will now be younger than his own infant child, so it’s not like his wife will be able to remarry his new, reincarnated self. And obviously, if he is reincarnated, he will appear to everyone, including himself, as an entirely different person. Also, it is unlikely that in this world of billions, his family will happen to run into the reincarnated Tim. Once again, there is no hope that his family will ever again see him or know him as the person they loved. And again, the best-case Hindu scenario for Tim would be that he loses all personhood, and becomes indistinguishable from the all-encompassing oneness that is called the Brahman. (Although, because Tim was not the proper Hindu Caste, he would not be eligible for that “ultimate salvation,” anyway.)

Let’s try the Islamic hope. Well, Tim was not a Muslim, so it would be automatic hell for him. But even if he was a good Muslim, the only way to actually know for sure that you will be in paradise is to die in the cause of Islam – to be martyred. Apart from martyrs, everyone’s salvation is always in doubt, no matter how hard you have tried to be a good Muslim. So, for Tim’s family, there would be no substantial way to offer them hope. And if Tim was a particularly good Muslim, and he did make it to paradise, he may have earned more women for himself, which would not be an encouraging thought for his wife, Gerte.

As far as the Jewish hope – and I say this with a smile on my face, and love in my heart for my Jewish friends – there would more likely be a lively argument about the various possibilities for life after death than any substantial and firm hope for Tim’s family. That’s not to say that Jewish people lack compassion; rather it is that they lack a substantial hope of resurrection.

For most of my life I have had friends from all of these religious traditions. I love those friends, and I respect their freedom to make their own religious choices. In the event of a person’s death, they have great compassion, and many kind words. But all of these traditions are very different from Christianity, different in ways that mean everything when we are confronted with the reality of death.

The Bible says that the resurrection of Jesus proves that he has conquered death on behalf of all who trust him:

20 But as it is, Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21 For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead also comes through a man. 22 For just as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive. (1 Corinthians 15:20-22, CSB)

Here we have the clue we started with: death was not part of God’s original plan for humanity. Death came into the human race through Adam. Human beings were not created to die. Death is not the way it is supposed to be. Here we also have this amazing hope: through Christ, though we all must die, resurrection to eternal, joyful life is now possible. Death came through Adam, but resurrection comes through Jesus Christ. Peter writes about this hope:

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, 5 who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. (1 Peter 1:3-5, ESV)

The hope of resurrection comes through Jesus Christ alone, through his resurrection. When we belong to Him, His resurrection shows us our future:

1 See how very much our Father loves us, for he calls us his children, and that is what we are! But the people who belong to this world don’t recognize that we are God’s children because they don’t know him. 2 Dear friends, we are already God’s children, but he has not yet shown us what we will be like when Christ appears. But we do know that we will be like him, for we will see him as he really is. (1 John 3:1-2, NLT)

We will be like Jesus. His resurrection is the beginning. Ours is assured through him, because of him, and one day we will be like him. Jesus once spoke to another grieving family:

25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me, even if he dies, will live. 26 Everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this? ” (John 11:25-26, CSB)

And so, Christian salvation is not earned (as in all other religions). It is not based upon the doubtful performance of imperfect human beings. It is based upon the performance of just one Person, who was perfect in every way. The way to receive it is to entrust ourselves, mind, body, soul and strength – to Jesus Christ.

What happened to Tim is a great tragedy. It is important for those who loved him to acknowledge that, and to grieve. But death will come to each one of us eventually. Sooner or later we have to face it, and when we do, the great question is the same as it is for us today: “Where is your hope? Do you have Jesus Christ?”

Having Jesus Christ means putting all of our trust and hope in him. It means that through faith, we trust in him each day. It doesn’t mean we are perfect. It doesn’t mean we never struggle. But we cling to Jesus every day as our only hope. Here is more of the hope that is promised to us in Jesus:

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea no longer existed. I also saw the Holy City, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared like a bride adorned for her husband.

Then I heard a loud voice from the throne: Look! God’s dwelling is with humanity, and He will live with them. They will be His people, and God Himself will be with them and be their God. He himself will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death will no longer exist; grief, crying, and pain will exist no longer, because the previous things have passed away.

Then the One seated on the throne said, “Look! I am making everything new.” He also said, “Write, because these words are faithful and true.”  (Rev 21:1-5, HCSB)

This is our future in Jesus Christ. It isn’t today. Today, we live in a world where a young husband and father dies, leaving behind a grief-stricken family. But we have a promise that someday, no more! Someday, no death, no crying or grief. So what about today? There is hope for today also. Listen:

What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He did not even spare His own Son but offered Him up for us all; how will He not also with Him grant us everything? Who can bring an accusation against God’s elect? God is the One who justifies. Who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is the One who died, but even more, has been raised; He also is at the right hand of God and intercedes for us.

Who can separate us from the love of Christ? Can affliction or anguish or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: Because of You we are being put to death all day long; we are counted as sheep to be slaughtered.

No, in all these things we are more than victorious through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that not even death or life, angels or rulers, things present or things to come, hostile powers, height or depth, or any other created thing will have the power to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord!  (Rom 8:31-39, HCSB)

My hope for Tim – the only reasonable hope for him, and for his family – is in Jesus. Our hope for ourselves is Jesus. Our hope for just getting through the rest of today is Jesus. He is hope for us, right now, and forever. Trust him! Cling to him! These bible verses that I have read are his promises for everyone who trusts him. Look at them as his own words to you.

Meditate on these words about the resurrection:

48 Earthly people are like the earthly man, and heavenly people are like the heavenly man. 49 Just as we are now like the earthly man, we will someday be like the heavenly man.
50 What I am saying, dear brothers and sisters, is that our physical bodies cannot inherit the Kingdom of God. These dying bodies cannot inherit what will last forever.
51 But let me reveal to you a wonderful secret. We will not all die, but we will all be transformed! 52 It will happen in a moment, in the blink of an eye, when the last trumpet is blown. For when the trumpet sounds, those who have died will be raised to live forever. And we who are living will also be transformed. 53 For our dying bodies must be transformed into bodies that will never die; our mortal bodies must be transformed into immortal bodies.
54 Then, when our dying bodies have been transformed into bodies that will never die, this Scripture will be fulfilled:
“Death is swallowed up in victory.
55 O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?”
56 For sin is the sting that results in death, and the law gives sin its power. 57 But thank God! He gives us victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ.
58 So, my dear brothers and sisters, be strong and immovable. Always work enthusiastically for the Lord, for you know that nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless. (1 Corinthians 15:48-58, NLT)

He has risen!

He has risen indeed.

1 PETER #9: THE HERO OF MY LIFE’S STORY

On By Pastor TomIn 1 Peter, Bible, Bible Teaching, Christianity, Podcast, Religion, Sermon, UncategorizedLeave a comment
Photo by Daisa TJ on Pexels.com

Jesus was foreknown from before the foundation of the world. That means that God knew ahead of time all of the pain and suffering that would occur after he created the world, but he did it anyway. He did it for love. The fact that Jesus was planned from the beginning also means that He is the Hero in the story of my life. My life is here to show the glory of Jesus to the world. This is true of all of us who have trusted him.

To listen to the sermon, click the play button: To download, right click on the link (or do whatever you do on a Mac) and save it to your computer: Download 1 Peter Part 9

1 Peter #9.  1 Peter 1:17-21

Last time in our 1 Peter series, we talked about what it means to live in the fear of the Lord. Among other things, it means we do not need to fear anything else at all. Next, Peter reminds us that our salvation does not come from perishable things, like silver or gold, but rather from the precious blood of Jesus Christ.

This is one of those places that we might miss if we read too quickly. I think most of us do not think of silver or gold as perishable. To get literal about it, there are Roman gold coins from the time Peter wrote still in existence. That doesn’t seem very “perishable” to me. In fact, to get even more technical and literal, even though it is rare to find a two-thousand-year-old gold coin, the actual gold that was used in Roman coins is still almost certainly in circulation today, one way or another. What I mean is, over the centuries, people who had gold coins, or acquired them in some way, melted them down for other purposes. Nobody just throws gold away, and two-thousand year old gold is just as valuable as gold that was mined yesterday. The same goes for silver. Even though, unlike gold, silver tarnishes, it does not lose its value, and it does not cease to be silver, no matter how much time passes.

It is almost certain that Peter knows all this. In those days, people used coins made of actual precious metals (and some less precious, like copper). They were quite familiar with the properties of those metals. Peter certainly knows that fire does not destroy gold, but only refines it (1:7). So, why does he call gold and silver “perishable?”

In the first place, he knows that most people would think like me, and say, “wait a minute. Gold doesn’t really perish.” He’s getting our attention, and saying in comparison to the preciousness of Jesus Christ, yes, it is perishable.

Second, he knows that, no matter how long they may actually last on earth, the value of gold and silver to human beings does not last. To be very direct about it: the moment I die, gold becomes completely worthless to me. I might spend my life amassing millions. When I die, it will mean nothing to me. Most of us spend our lives desiring, and often pursuing, more money. When it comes to the end, however,  the amount of money you have is meaningless. It can’t help you when you stand before the throne of God. The moment you die, it is absolutely worthless.

Third, the value of gold and silver is relative, not fixed. There is nothing absolute, or permanent about its value. A  huge, untapped gold mine might be discovered, and then suddenly gold could become as common as rocks, making it worthless. Or humanity might decide for some reason that they don’t care so much about gold anymore – after all, other metals are much more useful for making things. Gold is only worth something because people have decided it is. They could just as easily decide they don’t care about it anymore. This is even more true of paper and “electronic” money. Inflation is the process by which money becomes less valuable. It happens all the time, and, in fact, is happening in 2022, when I am writing this. You can’t trust money to remain valuable.

Finally, in comparison to the preciousness of Jesus Christ, gold and silver are like moldy bread. That is the message of these verses: that Jesus Christ is infinitely valuable, and through faith, we have a part in that infinite value. What we have in Jesus is the most precious thing in the universe, and it will remain the most precious thing in the universe for all time. Remember, we have a hope that can never perish, spoil, or fade.

Just a quick note about the first part of verse 18. Peter mentions that his readers were ransomed from the futile ways handed down from their forefathers. This statement makes it almost certain that at least some of the readers were Gentiles. Neither Peter, nor Paul, nor any New Testament writer, considers the heritage of the Jews to be “futile ways.” They all agree that the Jews did not recognize Jesus, who was the point of it all, but they are clear that the Old Testament scriptures point to Jesus, and that, taking into account that it is about Jesus, the Old Testament is a reliable guide to faith and life. Peter would never call the Old Testament, nor Jewish traditions, futile. He might have argued that people used those things in futile ways, but the things themselves have value.

Peter continues:

20 He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you 21 who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.

1 Peter 1:20-21

Here is a stunning truth, tossed out rather casually by Peter: Jesus was foreknown before the foundation of the world. This sounds very theological, and so we often get a kind of glazed look in our eyes and move on. But it says something incredible about God.

Before He even began to create the cosmos, God knew that the humans he was going to create would turn against him, and reject Him. Before he spun the first light out of nothingness, he knew that we humans would create a massive mess of things, and bring death, and evil, and cruelty and horror into existence. Before anything at all existed (except for Him) he knew that he would enter a world of suffering; he knew that he himself would suffer a torturous death, and even go to a hell that had not yet been spawned, in order to save the creatures he was going to make. He knew it all long before it even began, before he put creation into motion.

And he created us anyway.

Knowing the horror that we would unleash by rebelling against him, God created a plan to neutralize our rebellion. He planned out ahead of time how he would defeat evil. That’s what Peter means when he says that Jesus was foreknown before the foundation of the world. When Adam and Eve fell, and sinned, in the Garden of Eden, God was not taken by surprise. His plan was already in place.

Now, why would God do this?

We Christians believe that God is one being, but that he is a Three-Person Being. The three Persons of God love one another with an eternal, infinite love. In fact, of all the worlds’ religions and philosophies, Christianity alone can legitimately show that love is at the core of God’s nature, and therefore, love is the foundation of the universe.

Because there is no limit to God’s love, he chose to make creatures who could share in his love. Now, love must always involve a choice. Imagine you could create a person who would love you unconditionally, no matter what. If you slapped this person in the face, he would adore you. If you mistreated him, ignored him or threw him out, he would still adore you. There would be no choice.  He would have to love you, because you created him without any say in the matter. Now, for the first few days, it might be kind of fun to have someone like that. But after awhile you would realize that this person actually has no will of his own. He doesn’t love you for your own sake. He doesn’t appreciate your good qualities, or forgive your foibles. This person simply does what he is programmed to do. In fact, after a while we would realize that if there is no choice in the matter, then it is not actually love. Real love involves a choice.

Now, if God is ultimate goodness and love, the choice against God has to be a choice for evil. So, as soon as God created angels and humans who were capable of love, he also created the possibility that evil would come into being. And, of course, it did.

To put it simply: He planned from the beginning that he would make creatures who are capable of true love. Therefore, he had to take into account from the beginning that there would also be evil. Therefore, he also planned from the beginning that he would send Jesus Christ into the world in order to defeat evil without destroying love. And he did it all for us, so that we could love each other, and especially so we could love him.

There is another important implication of the fact that Jesus was foreknown before the foundation of the world. It means that Jesus is the hero of the story. First, he is the hero of the grand salvation story found in the Bible. Second, Jesus is the hero in the story of my life, and the story of your life.

I don’t naturally think that way. I tend to think that the story of my life is about me. This leads me to act as if life is all about what I want, and what I need. Even if I devote myself to unselfish things, like my family, and the ministry of the gospel, I still look at it as if life is all about me. However, this way of thinking – that life is all about me – does not typically make me happy. It leaves me trying to figure out what I’m supposed to do. It leaves me trying to solve problems on my own. Even if I let Jesus enter the story of my life, if my life is still all about my own aims and goals, then it is up to me, ultimately, to figure things out. Jesus might help me (in this way of thinking), but the final responsibility for everything is still mine.

But Jesus was planned before the world began. Every person’s story is actually the story of what Jesus will do in and through their life. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote the world-famous Sherlock Holmes novels. He made a very interesting choice in telling the stories. The action is narrated by a man called John Watson. We are told the story from the point of view of Watson’s life. To illustrate what I mean, it reads like: “I met Holmes at our club, and then I told him about the empty room,” and so on. You might say, it is the story of Watson’s life. However, the story is not about Watson. The hero of the story, and really, the main character, is not Watson, but Sherlock Holmes. Watson’s life, and his story, were designed by Conan-Doyle to show the greatness of another character: Sherlock Holmes. If we were to put it in theological terms, we might say that Watson’s life becomes a platform to give glory to Holmes.

In the same way, our own lives are meant to be a platform to show the greatness of Jesus Christ. The story is not about us. Yes, we see it from our own perspective, just as Watson sees things from his own perspective. But the real story of our lives is not about us; the real story is about the Hero, the One who was known from before the foundation of the world: Jesus Christ.

When I realize that my life is not telling my story, but rather, telling the story of Jesus, a lot of pressure is taken off me. I don’t have to perform. I don’t have to save the day, or move things forward. Jesus is the main character of my life’s story. Jesus is the hero. I’m a sidekick. We sidekicks are still important. Without Watson, the story of Sherlock Holmes would not have been told. In a similar way, God wants to tell a story about Jesus through my life. There is a story through my life that will bring glory to Jesus in a way that is different from the story told through someone else’s life. But I am not the point. I’m along for the ride, along to admire and trust the Hero, who was foreknown from before the foundation of the world.

Now, this sounds very wonderful and lofty, but what does it really mean: “Jesus is the hero of the story of my life?” Let’s get real. I was thinking about this just a few minutes ago, while my pain was starting to get worse. Some nights, when that happens, I’m looking at hours and hours of pure misery. I prayed without much hope, “OK, Jesus, since we’re talking about this, I need a hero to save me from the pain in this moment.”

I’m telling the truth when I say that within a few minutes, the pain stopped getting worse, and even backed off a little bit. But let’s keep it real. I have often prayed for relief, and received none. What then? What happens when the hero doesn’t save you?”

Here’s the truth: He has already saved us. Yes, I live a difficult life. But the end of the story was written before the beginning of time, space and matter. Jesus always planned to go through hell so that I only have to go through earth. I won’t be thrilled if my suffering lasts a few more decades, but a few decades is nothing compared to the eternal joy that awaits me, because the Hero has already won the final battle. For followers of Jesus, every defeat in this life is temporary – even death! Every moment of suffering will be overwhelmed by joy piled upon joy. The Bible fully acknowledges the reality of suffering in this mortal life. But the end of the story makes everything else more than worth it:

6 For his Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children. 17 And since we are his children, we are his heirs. In fact, together with Christ we are heirs of God’s glory. But if we are to share his glory, we must also share his suffering. 18 Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will reveal to us later. 19 For all creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when God will reveal who his children really are.

(Romans 8:16-19, NLT)

So, recognizing that Jesus was foreknown from before the foundation of the earth, we can live a life of hope:

16 That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day. 17 For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever! 18 So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.

(2 Corinthians 4:16-18, NLT)