Tag: Jesus

SERENITY PRAYER #7: TAKING THIS SINFUL WORLD AS IT IS

On By Pastor TomIn Podcast, Religion, Serenity Prayer, Sermon, UncategorizedLeave a comment
Photo by Tima Miroshnichenko on Pexels.com

Jesus has better things to do than try to directly fix all the places and patterns of sin in the world. He is, instead, focused on establishing a people who will be different, who will respond differently. Trying to make the world live differently is not a healthy response to its sinfulness. Instead, Jesus lives differently Himself, and He calls us to do the same.

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 Serenity Prayer Part 7

Taking, as Jesus Did, this Sinful World as It Is, Not as I Would Have It to Be

John 17:9-16; John 19:10-11; Matthew 22:16-21; 1 Corinthians 5:9-13

            I don’t know if you’ve noticed it this week or not, but the world is a wreck. We are surrounded by news around the world about wars, revolutions, economic collapse, famines, droughts, floods, earthquakes, disease. And sometimes things nearer to home aren’t any better. We experience painful losses, misunderstanding, betrayals, and disappointments on a somewhat regular basis. It is not hard to sing with Andrew Peterson that the world is broken, that the shadows deepen, and that all creation is groaning. But that same song (Is He Worthy?) also calls us to recognize that there is something else going on, and because of that, to move beyond despair into hope. Jesus did that. And this week, as we continue our journey through the Serenity Prayer, we will focus on the line, “Taking, as Jesus did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it to be.” Let’s pray as we begin.

            Maybe I’m stating the obvious, but it seems to me that if we want to take this sinful world as Jesus did, we should probably look at how Jesus (and His earliest followers) responded to the world. The brokenness of the world is nothing new. In fact, the description I gave as we began is a loose paraphrase of what Jesus says in Mark 13 and Matthew 24 as He prepares His followers for what is coming. And, in truth, that description has applied to much of the world for much of the time. Not all of it at once, of course, but some part of it almost anywhere at almost any time. And Jesus was describing the brokenness largely in physical terms. What about the brokenness of sin: murder, rape, theft, racism, abortion, sexual sin in all its diverse forms, deceit, treachery, greed? We encounter at least some of these almost daily, and others at all-too-frequent intervals. So did Jesus. The world of His day was one where the Jewish people lived in a relatively insignificant province of the Roman Empire, which was not a good place to live unless you were part of the handful of wealthy and powerful ruling families, or at least connected to them. So how did Jesus deal with the brokenness and sin of the world around Him?

            Let’s look at two stories where Jesus encounters the sinful world and see how He deals with it.

            We will start with the most direct encounter between Jesus and a representative of the sinful world He lived in – His trial before Pontius Pilate. Jesus has already stood trial in front of the Sanhedrin (the Jewish Leadership Council), and now He is in front of the person who wields the power of the Roman Empire. The Roman Empire was known for many things – most of all, the willingness to exercise power in whatever form was necessary to get the job done. Pilate was no exception to that rule. According to the first-century Jewish historian Josephus, Pilate eventually lost his governorship after slaughtering a group of Samaritan archeologists. Josephus and another first-century Jewish historian, Philo, also record separate incidents where many Jews rioted over Pilate’s decisions regarding images of Caesar, shields with inscriptions of Caesar’s divinity, and the use of the temple treasury to fund an aqueduct. This was not a good and godly ruler. We know his decision about the execution of Jesus was based on political expediency, not justice. He couldn’t afford another riot and the political fallout from it. So, when Jesus, the Son of God, is face-to-face with this unjust, callous manifestation of the sinful world, how does He respond? Let’s read Mark 15:1-5

“15 Very early in the morning, the chief priests, with the elders, the teachers of the law and the whole Sanhedrin, made their plans. So they bound Jesus, led him away and handed him over to Pilate.

2 “Are you the king of the Jews?” asked Pilate. “You have said so,” Jesus replied.

3 The chief priests accused him of many things. 4 So again Pilate asked him, “Aren’t you going to answer? See how many things they are accusing you of.” 5 But Jesus still made no reply, and Pilate was amazed.”

            If there was ever a time when Jesus could have demonstrated His power over the sinful world, this would appear to be it. He is in front of a corrupt political leader. He is there because of bogus charges. And Pilate’s only concern is how to get out of this with as little damage as possible. And what does Jesus say about the injustice of this? About the hypocrisy of the accusations? About His own innocence? Virtually nothing. His only statement in the synoptics is a short sentence: “You have said so.” He doesn’t admit to being the king of the Jews (because in the sense Pilate means it, He isn’t); He doesn’t deny it (because in a deeper sense, it absolutely is true). Jesus is not surprised by political corruption or the abuse of power by pagan authorities. He takes this world as it is – broken, sinful and a mess.

            John records another sentence of Jesus when He is on trial before Pilate. 

Jesus answered, “You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above. Therefore, the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin.” (John 19:11)

I’m not going to get into the different ideas about who “handed Jesus over” to Pilate today – but I am going to highlight that Jesus recognizes that even though Pilate is misusing the power that he has in Jerusalem, he only has that power because God above has allowed it. This connects back to what we talked about last week: that part of accepting hardship is recognizing the sovereign power of God to intervene, and trusting that when He doesn’t, He is still at work. Jesus has already asked the Father if there is another way and accepted that this path is the path of His Father’s will. In one sense, Pilate is just a bit player in the great drama of redemption that is unfolding. And while Jesus would be accurate to point out all that Pilate is doing wrong, He has more important things to focus on. He is taking the world of the Roman Empire, and its power over Jerusalem, as it is, even though that is not how He would like it to be.

            Let’s look at a less well-known example of Jesus recognizing the sinful world and choosing to do nothing directly about it. In Luke 9, Jesus is pivoting toward the crucifixion. Everything from that point forward is pointing toward Jerusalem. And as He begins that journey, He encounters the sinful world. Luke 9:51-56

“51 As the time approached for him to be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem. 52 And he sent messengers on ahead, who went into a Samaritan village to get things ready for him; 53 but the people there did not welcome him, because he was heading for Jerusalem. 54 When the disciples James and John saw this, they asked, “Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them?” 55 But Jesus turned and rebuked them. 56 Then he and his disciples went to another village.”

            Jesus is moving toward His death. The path takes Him through a Samaritan village, and He sends people ahead to prepare a place, but they are rejected by the Samaritans living there. Part of what Jesus is facing here is racial prejudice – the Samaritans and Jews were regular enemies (which is what makes the story of the Good Samaritan so offensive to its original hearers). It is unfair and not right that He can’t stay in the village. And two of His apostles, James and John, see the unfairness of it and jump to their master’s defense. They are ready to bring the wrath of God down on this village. They seem to me to be quite excited about the prospect, in fact. And Jesus, rather than approving of their fiery judgment or correcting the village, rebukes them! That must have been quite a shock. Not the first or last time Jesus shocked His followers, but still…why isn’t He ready to destroy those sinners? Instead, He just goes further on the journey, and hopefully (the text doesn’t tell us), gets a better welcome there.

            What do those two stories show us? If I could sum it up in a sentence or two, I might put it like this: Jesus has better things to do than try to directly fix all the places and patterns of sin in the world. He is, instead, focused on establishing a people who will be different, who will respond differently. Trying to make the world live differently is not a healthy response to its sinfulness. Instead, Jesus lives differently Himself, and He calls us to do the same. In John 17, as Jesus is praying for us, He acknowledges that we are still in the world, and will be subject to the evils of the world – we will experience the world’s hatred, in fact. But He explicitly says that He is not asking the Father to remove us from this sinful world, but to protect us so that we don’t give in to the ways of the evil one while we are surrounded by the sinful world. He is calling us to a different life (John 17:9-16).

            Now, an important side note here: we are talking about how to engage the sinful world as it is – not ignoring sin in ourselves or the people of God. Jesus does directly and firmly address the sin within Israel, almost always directing it at the most Godly and religious people. You can read Matthew 23 for a clear example of that. But this week we are not talking about taking sin in the church as it is – we are talking about taking the sinful world as it is, as Jesus did. And Jesus saved His confrontations of sin for God’s people, not the world at large.

If we go to Paul for a moment, he is really clear about the distinction between our response to sin in the world and sin in the church. 1 Corinthians 5:9-13 follows Paul’s direct statement to the church at Corinth that they were wrong to tolerate a man having an affair with his stepmother and needed to put him out of fellowship. And he goes on to clarify:

“9 I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— 10 not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world. 11 But now I am writing to you that you must not associate with anyone who claims to be a brother or sisterbut is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or slanderer, a drunkard or swindler. Do not even eat with such people. 12 What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? 13 God will judge those outside. “Expel the wicked person from among you.”

Paul is about as clear as he could be here. He does not expect Christians to cut off all relationships with sinful people – that would certainly make evangelism difficult, wouldn’t it? At the same time, he is drawing a hard line about tolerating sin in the church. And I do want to point out here that Paul’s list includes more than sexual immorality, and it can be worth thinking about how we deal with unrepentant sinners in lots of different categories – but that’s for another series of sermons, I think. The point I want to be clear on here is that, of course, we deal with sin among people who are committed to a life of following Jesus as Lord – but we don’t hold those outside the church to the same standard. We take, as Jesus did, this sinful world as it is – full of people and systems and structures that are opposed to the ways of God.

So, what can we learn from Jesus’ responses to Pontius Pilate and the Samaritan villagers? After all, most of us are unlikely to be sent to a kangaroo court in the middle of the night because our Messianic claims are making us too popular, or denied a place to stay while walking from one village to the next. We’d have reservations at a hotel or AirBnB ahead of time. Where and how are we likely to encounter this? And how can we respond?

I may step on your toes some at this point. If I’m wrong, forgive me. If I’m right, please listen! I am convinced that as American Christians, we spend way too much time and energy trying to make the world not be sinful when we would be better off focusing on tending the fruit of the Spirit in our own lives and our own communities. One of the places where I believe I see this most often is in the way we interact on social media. We condemn non-believers for acting like non-believers – how else do we expect them to act? I don’t like it any more than you do when people do or say outrageous things about Jesus Christ, but He put up with much more than that and chose to save His confrontations for the sin in Israel (and now, in us). Let me give you one concrete example of what I mean from this summer’s Olympics. Were there some offensive things done and said around the Olympics? Absolutely. Pagan things were exalted, and it should not be that way. But pagans do pagan things (around a contest that was pagan in origin to begin with). And me posting about my offense on Facebook doesn’t feel like the way Jesus responded to the pagan injustice of his day, or the way Paul tells us to. Again, I may be wrong, or only partially right, but I think it is at least worth considering the possibility that it is God’s job to defend us against the world, not our job to defend Him.

I think a Christ-like response to the sinful world begins with acknowledging that it is, in fact, a sinful world, and will be until the True King comes for His Bride. We don’t like it. We don’t approve of it. And we certainly should not cooperate with it. But we do need to accept that it is a fact, and then ask God how to respond to the evil that exists without being consumed by it or drawn into using the methods of the world to fight the world. Ephesians 6:12 tells us, “Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” Paul goes on to list the weapons of righteousness, which are very similar to the fruit of the Spirit, and he finishes by exhorting us to pray. Our main weapon in the battle against the sinfulness of the world is not social media posts, or protests, or better laws, or better politicians. All those may have a right time and place. But our main weapon is prayer, and living the life of Jesus in spite of the world around us that will not understand what it is that we are doing.

I am under no pretenses that this will be easy, and I am deeply aware that prayer often feels weak in the face of worldly power. This is one of the most difficult and challenging places for me to accept that Jesus’ way of living is best, even when it feels ineffective. As I was writing this sermon, I got a call from a family at church. I am currently furious about what I see as a deep injustice being done by an insurance company that could endanger the well-being of children in a family I care about deeply. I honestly want to go break something (or worse, someone). If I thought I could fix this by calling down fire from heaven, I would be very tempted to give that a try. But the first thing I need to do is acknowledge, this world is full of sin and brokenness. God has allowed this to happen. How does He want me to respond to this sinful world in this moment?

I don’t have all the answers to that yet, but I know it begins with prayer. I prayed for the person who called. I prayed for the medical people involved. I prayed for the insurance agency. I prayed for the whole family and everyone else who will be involved. And I asked a few others to pray as well. Now, God may also provide some steps for me to take in this situation. There may be actions that I will need to take with serenity, courage, and wisdom. But first and foremost, I need to seek my Father’s face and listen for His voice. That’s where the answers will be – whether I like them or not.

It strikes me that this is one reason Jesus was often withdrawing to pray. The sinful world puts lots of pressure on us, either to conform to it and its ways, or to respond to it in ways that don’t bring anyone closer to the kingdom of God. If I am going to be able to respond to this family’s situation in the manner of Jesus, I will need to continue to spend time with my Father and pray.

With that said, let’s close again this week with the Serenity Prayer. I hope you’ll join with me as we pray.

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

Living one day at a time, enjoying one moment at a time, accepting hardships as a pathway to peace.

Taking, as Jesus did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it to be.

Trusting that He will make all things right if I surrender to His will – that I may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with Him forever.

Next week’s phrase, “Trusting that He will make all things right” is one that strikes me as a key to this whole prayer, and indeed as something that is at the heart of the Christian way of life. Until then, may God protect you from the evil one as you walk through this sinful world this week.

SERENITY PRAYER #4: WISDOM

On By Pastor TomIn Podcast, Religion, Sermon, UncategorizedLeave a comment
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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 Serenity Prayer Part 4

James 3:13-18

            Brothers and sisters in Christ, welcome back for another look at the Serenity Prayer and how God can use it in our lives as part of His work in transforming us into the image of Christ. Two weeks ago, we talked about serenity – the ability to accept with peace and confidence the reality that life is sometimes difficult and painful. Last week, we talked about courage and the need at times to take action in response to those circumstances. This pretty naturally leads to the question, “How do I know when to serenely accept something and when to courageously take action to change it?” And this week, we will look at at least a partial answer to that question. We are going to talk about asking God for the wisdom to know the difference.

            What does it mean to have wisdom? We will look to the Biblical text in just a minute, but before we do that I want to distinguish between wisdom and knowledge. Knowledge is information, facts, data. These days, you can learn in five minutes on your phone what would once have taken hours at the library to look up. Is that good or bad? Probably some of both. But my point here is that some knowledge is pretty easy to obtain. How much did it rain in London yesterday? Who holds the world record for the 100m dash? When was Louis the 14th King of France? How can I get to this address? But having information and knowing how to use that information – those are two different things. Wisdom is more concerned with the second.

            For instance, knowledge can tell you where you can purchase a certain piece of equipment for your home or business, how much it will cost, even how long the warranty will last. But it takes wisdom to know if now is the right time to make that purchase. And particularly when it comes to human relationships, knowledge may be important, but wisdom is far more helpful in navigating those relationships. So, one way to look at wisdom is by saying, “How do I use the information and tools that I have?” And as Christians, we are asking, “God, how do You want me to use the information and tools that You have given me in order to bring You glory?” This includes the tools of serenity and courage – things that He has been giving us in response to our prayers.

Wisdom is something that appears to be pretty high on God’s radar for us. The Bible is full of references to wisdom and descriptions of wisdom, including entire books of the Old Testament like Job, Proverbs and Ecclesiastes. Several of the psalms also connect with that theme of wisdom. But I want to start with a New Testament reference to wisdom. The book of James, traditionally assigned to James the brother of Jesus, is clearly influenced by his knowledge of the Jewish wisdom tradition. As with most of the New Testament, the Jewish background that prepared the way for the Messiah takes on new depths once Jesus has come and paved the way for the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. So, while the language that James uses would have been very familiar to his readers, who were primarily early Jewish Christians, he is adding depth to their understanding now that the Messiah has been revealed. In some ways, this is similar to what Jesus was doing with the law when He preached the Sermon on the Mount – building on a foundation that God has laid in Israel and taking it farther than Israel had dreamed it could go.

            Let’s look at one of the passages in James that describes wisdom. We’re going to read from James 3:13-18.

“13 Who is wise and understanding among you? Let them show it by their good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom. 14 But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth. 15 Such “wisdom” does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. 16 For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice. 17 But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. 18 Peacemakers who sow in peace reap a harvest of righteousness.”

            There’s a lot packed into these six verses. If God gives us wisdom, what is it going to look like? One of the first attributes James mentions is humility. There’s one place where the difference between knowledge and wisdom comes sharply into focus. I love the way C.S. Lewis describes humility in Mere Christianity at the end of the chapter The Great Sin, which is about pride:

Do not imagine that if you meet a really humble man he will be what most people call ‘humble’ nowadays: he will not be a sort of greasy, smarmy person, who is always telling you that, of course, he is nobody. Probably all you will think about him is that he seemed a cheerful, intelligent chap who took a real interest in what you said to him. If you do dislike him it will be because you feel a little envious of anyone who seems to enjoy life so easily. He will not be thinking about humility: he will not be thinking about himself at all.

If anyone would like to acquire humility, I can, I think, tell him the first step. The first step is to realize that one is proud. And a biggish step, too. At least, nothing whatever can be done before it. If you think you are not conceited, it means you are very conceited indeed.

Honestly, I’m tired of hearing Christians – myself included – go on and one about how smart we are, how we have the right answers to everything, and how everyone ought to just stop and listen to us. We may have the right knowledge – but in that case we are still lacking in wisdom. And that can be hard when I do, in fact, have some right answers. But James is right to point us to humility as a key component of wisdom. If my response to a situation is built on how good it is going to make me look, or boosting my ego, that solution is not based in wisdom (at least, not in Godly wisdom). One of the most brilliant Bible professors I ever knew, a man who was fluent in multiple ancient languages, the contexts in which the passages were written, and the history of their interpretation, would often begin his answers to a difficult theological question by saying, “I might be wrong, but it seems to me…” His humility was profound.

            James goes on to talk about the dangers of envy and selfish ambition. Paul says almost the same thing in Philippians 2:3. He is calling the church in Philippi to imitate Christ in unity, and he also makes the connection between humility and selfish ambition:

“3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves.”

Am I seeking to get my own way in a situation? Am I trying to make sure I come out ok? Then I am probably not operating in wisdom. James associates that kind of wisdom with disorder, wickedness, and even the demonic. So, what is Godly wisdom like? We’ve already talked about humility, and the important role that it plays. Let’s look at a few more of the characteristics James mentions

            Full of mercy and good fruit. Mercy is so central to God’s character. And wisdom will often call on us to show mercy to others rather than demand what we may deserve in a situation. Our responses are to be full of the attitude that God has toward us – rich in mercy, slow to anger, and desiring repentance where there has been wrong. Wisdom, like love in 1 Corinthians 13, is not self-seeking and does not keep a record of wrongs. And I think James is intentionally connecting this to good fruit. Merciful actions toward others will often result in good fruit – and especially when we are engaging other believers. Of course, sometimes we don’t see that fruit until years later, if ever. But wise choices on our part should be ones that open doors to good outcomes in the lives of the people we are engaging.

            Impartial. Wisdom doesn’t play favorites. If we use the information or influence we have to steer the outcome of a situation toward what we want (instead of seeking what God wants), we are operating in that realm of competition to get what I want – we are engaging like the world does. James goes on in the next verses (which start chapter 4) to talk about how the world fights for what it wants, but that is not God’s way for us. And it can be so easy for me to convince myself that what I want is really what is best anyway. That’s why I need God’s wisdom – and in just a few minutes we will talk about some ways to help us sort through our own agendas, needs, and preferences to hear the wisdom of God more clearly.

            Sincere. Wisdom is honest in its dealings with others. Wisdom does not play the game of pretending to believe one thing so that we can manipulate a situation to get what we want out of it. God’s wisdom doesn’t need to be sneaky and deceptive in its dealings. When we are behaving wisely, we mean what we say, and we follow through on it as best we can. No promising one thing while intending to deliver another.

            And finally, peace. Wisdom leads to peace. Now, what is James, as a Godly Jew, thinking of when he uses his word for peace? The Hebrew word for peace is “shalom.” We often use “peace” to describe a situation where there is an absence of conflict. We sent the kids to their separate rooms so that we could have a little peace. But shalom is deeper. Shalom is not just an absence of conflict – getting everyone to put down their weapons. Shalom describes a situation where the conflict has gone away because the causes of the conflict have been appropriately and healthily dealt with. In other words, the peace that is a part of Godly wisdom is not just accepting whatever happens, no matter if it is right or wrong (that is not the serenity that we have been asking God to give us). But this peace is the peace that comes when things are well-settled. And that may actually require some healthy conflict in order to get to a place of real peace. Wisdom will move in the direction of peace – eventually. But wisdom does not always mean just doing what it takes to “keep the peace.” With God, things often are more difficult in the short-term, but He is looking toward a very long end – eternal even – and He is willing to have conflict now to bring true and lasting peace.

            My wife and I have had our struggles over the years with doing this well. I’ll give you one example that may seem small, but it points to a bigger problem. When we first started dating, I really wasn’t good at remembering flowers for special occasions. Well, one time I brought her some chrysanthemums. And she was so glad that I bought her some flowers that she made a big deal over them, and I decided that must be her favorite flower. For the next ten years or so, any time I got her flowers, I bought chrysanthemums. It turns out, those weren’t particularly her favorite. But she didn’t want to upset me or discourage my flower-buying, so she didn’t say anything. And I thought all was well until she eventually told me the rest of the story. Now I sometimes buy her chrysanthemums, but I also buy roses, or lilies, or whatever I see that makes me think of her. And in that small area of our lives, we are closer to shalom. But we only got there when she took the risk – found the courage – to bring up an area that could have caused conflict. By the way, there are much more significant examples of conflict in our marriage over the years – I just decided to tell a simple one.

            Okay, there’s several of the attributes of wisdom. But, in addition to praying, what else can we practically do to help us make wise decisions? Here are three things that I have found helpful in making wise decisions.

            First, slow down. Yes, some decisions have to be made in the moment, but even then, there is rarely a time where I am faced with a significant decision, and I can’t take a moment to breathe and ask God for help, rather than simply react. This is especially true for me when I’m feeling strong emotions about whatever is going on where I need wisdom. Alcoholics Anonymous has a great line for me to remember: “We pause when agitated or doubtful and ask for the right thought or action.” If I want wisdom, I generally need to stop, take a breath, remember that God is running the universe, not Wade, and see what He has to say.

            And most of the time, I don’t have to make a decision on the most important things in that moment. I usually have time to stop, to think, to pray. And what has become really important for me is having trusted friends that I can ask for input. When I am facing a difficult decision, it is easy for me to be blind to my pride, selfishness, hidden agendas, and mixed motives. And taking my own advice about what is wise has led me to some of the stupidest decisions of my life. When I talk to my wife, my fellow pastors, my most mature friends, and others, I can gain a perspective on the situation that is not skewed by what I know I want. And I am much more likely to receive the wisdom that God has for me.

             About two years ago, Jayme and I were trying to make a difficult decision about how to handle a situation with our children. We both stopped and prayed. We took time to think about it. And after months of doing that, we were still in different places about what God wanted us to do. So, we came together to Tom and Kari and laid out our perspectives as best we could. Jayme (my wife) and I agreed ahead of time that we would trust Tom and Kari and take their advice. I didn’t like their answer. They agreed more with Jayme. And we have followed their input since then. I still don’t know that I like it – but I agree that it was wise to listen to them. Involving other people takes courage, because I am surrendering my right to be in charge and trusting that God will use His people to help me.

            Here’s a different example, also family-related, where getting input from the Holy Spirit through other believers has led me towards the serenity to accept something I can’t change instead of the courage to change something. I run into this with my kids regularly. They have a problem. I have an answer. And my answer is probably right. But one of the wisest pieces of advice I’ve ever been given – and this applies to more than just my children – is, “Wade, stop answering questions that people aren’t asking you.” Wow! That requires a lot of the humility James talked about. I have to stop thinking of myself as the fount of information and answers and trust that God is at work in the situation, and sometimes the wisest thing for me to do is Shut Up! I don’t like that. And it may not always be the perfect answer – but it is often a good one.

            And that’s suggestion number three. Some of us, including me, can get hyper-focused on making sure we have the wisest answer, and then we get bogged down and don’t do anything because we are not completely sure which way to go. I am convinced that God is more interested in the long process of developing relationship with Him than He is whether we get a specific decision exactly right. So sometimes, we pause, we take input, and then we make the best decision we can, trusting that even if we got it wrong, God is able to work with us and in us and around us to bring things back on course. He certainly did that with the history of Israel. And He has certainly done that with me.

            So, when do we accept a thing we cannot change, and when do we courageously act to bring change? We ask God for wisdom. We look for answers that lead to humility, mercy, and true peace. We take a breath, ask others for help, and take action trusting that God can work in our imperfect decisions.

I’ll close again this week by praying the Serenity Prayer, and if God leads you, please feel free to join me in learning and praying this prayer.

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

Living one day at a time, enjoying one moment at a time, accepting hardships as a pathway to peace.

Taking, as Jesus did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it to be.

Trusting that He will make all things right if I surrender to His will – that I may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with Him forever.

Well, now we have gotten through the more familiar part of the Serenity Prayer. Next week we will start into the less-known part. May God bless you with serenity, courage, and wisdom until we talk again next week.

1 SAMUEL #27: DARING DEEDS BY DAVID

On By Pastor TomIn 1 Samuel, Bible, Bible Teaching, Jesus, Old Testament, Podcast, Religion, Sermon, Uncategorized1 Comment
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Saul had abused his power and mistreated David in several despicable ways. But David’s main complaint was that Saul was cutting him off from worshipping in God’s sanctuary, and from God’s people. Even so, once again David refrained from harming Saul when he had the chance. In this incident David reminds us that we need fellowship with God’s people. He also shows again what Jesus is like: he does not treat us as our sins deserve, but instead showers grace on us unconditionally.

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 1 Samuel Part 27

1 SAMUEL #27. 1 SAMUEL CHAPTER 26;1-25

Often when I teach through the Bible, I am looking for tightly focused themes and messages in each passage. That works pretty well when we encounter the teaching genre in scripture. But often, when we get to narrative history, I feel like each passage is a box of chocolates: a lot of variety, a few surprises, but all of it is sweet.

I want to point out again David’s precarious situation. He was trying to lead and support 600 men who couldn’t stay in one place. In fact, they couldn’t stay in any civilized place, because the king had declared David an outlaw, under a death sentence. He was dependent upon gifts from friends and strangers. He was also vulnerable to those same people if they chose to betray David and his men. We don’t know for sure how long David lived this way, but it was certainly years – maybe even as long as a decade.

One of the reasons I like to point this out is because many churches and popular preachers seem to suggest that if you have faith in God, everything will always go well for you. By implication, if things do not go well with you, it must be because you don’t have enough faith, or you are not righteous enough. David was an imperfect human being, but he did live in faith. In fact he had a great deal of trust in the Lord, and always repented from his sins, and was willing to humbly learn to do better.

 Even so, for many years, it did NOT go well with David. I just want to make sure that no one reading this ever falls prey to the teaching that if life is tough on you, it is automatically because you don’t have enough faith, or you are a bad Christian or something like that. Sometimes, by our own choices, we do make life harder than it needs to be. But sometimes, life is just hard, for no reason that we can understand. Certainly David had a heart for God and a great deal of integrity, and those did not save him from trouble and hardship.

Also, I want to make sure you don’t believe that you can earn favors from God by being righteous, or saying the right words or having the right kind of faith. We live by God’s grace. If we had to earn God’s favor, no one would ever earn anything good. You don’t understand the gospel if you think you can earn blessings by being righteous, or saying the right things, or having the right kind of faith. David was not the only person in the Bible who had great faith, but a difficult life.

I do want to say, however, that David became the great man he was because of his faith. Sometimes things went very well for him and sometimes they didn’t. But how it was going on the outside was not as important to David as the quality of his relationship with the Lord. And because that relationship was more important to David than anything else, God was able to use him in amazing ways, and also to bless David without David thinking he had earned it.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful to receive all of life as blessing, whether or not it looks that way outwardly? If we could do that, it wouldn’t matter much to us whether circumstances were good or bad. We would always be experiencing life as blessing. David was getting there.

In chapter 26, David was still in a time of outward difficulty. But we will quickly see that things were very good with his heart. Once more, the Ziphites betrayed David – the same people who almost got him killed in chapter 23:19. They knew where David was, and they told Saul to come and get him. As far as we know, Saul had left David alone since the incident when David spared his life in the cave. But the Ziphites basically tempted Saul to sin. Having betrayed David once, this group of people probably thought that if David were not killed, he would take retribution on them if he had the chance, so they may have been quite urgent and persuasive in trying to get Saul to start hunting David again.

Apparently, David could hardly believe it, so he took a few men on a reconnaissance mission to see if Saul had really started hunting him again. One of the men he brought with him was Abishai. Abishai was one of the sons of David’s sister Zeruiah, which made him David’s nephew. Abishai’s brother Joab became the commander of David’s armies later on. If you remember, among David’s men eventually there were “the Three” who became outstanding warriors, and then “the Thirty” who were also an elite force of great fighters among David’s other men. Here is what it says about Abishai elsewhere:

18 Abishai, Joab’s brother and son of Zeruiah, was leader of the Three. He raised his spear against 300 men and killed them, gaining a reputation among the Three. 19 Was he not more honored than the Three? He became their commander even though he did not become one of the Three. (2 Samuel 23:18-19, HCSB)

Now, for those of you who are Bible geeks, like me, you might find a translation that says Abishai was commander of the thirty, rather than the three. In fact, the translators of the ESV couldn’t make up their minds about this, and older editions read like the HCSB (above) and newer editions have Abishai as commander of the thirty, rather than the three. The problem is that while most ancient texts read like the HCSB (quoted above) two well regarded ancient texts have it the other way, and it seems to make a bit more sense the other way – how could he be chief of the three, if he wasn’t one of the three? This is one of those “major issues” in Bible translation, but of course, it isn’t really that important. What is clear, no matter which way is correct, is that Abishai is one of the greatest warriors alive during David’s lifetime.

Since David was the youngest of ten, it is possible that even though he was technically Abishai’s uncle the two of them might have been basically the same age. It is even possible that Abishai was a little older. They might have spent a lot of time together as boys. At this point, they were both probably in their early or mid-twenties, in the prime of physical power and maybe a little inclined to try something crazy.

The two of them decided to sneak into the heart of Saul’s encampment at night. This was the desert, so the soldiers probably did not have tents. The picture seems to be that Saul chose his sleeping spot, and then the whole army arranged themselves around him, with his bodyguard closest to him and the rest spread around them generally. David and Abishai crept through the entire group of three thousand sleeping men and came to Saul sleeping soundly, along with Abner, the chief of Saul’s bodyguard.

This incident appears somewhat similar to the one in chapter 24. Certainly, the result, and the main point (David sparing Saul) is virtually the same. However, other than that, almost every detail is different. Saul didn’t come alone into a cave where David and his men were waiting. Instead David crept with only one companion into the middle of Saul’s camp. This time it wasn’t Saul almost finding David where he was hiding, it was David finding Saul where he was camped openly. Before, David was passive. This time he initiated the action.

I think that it is no coincidence that this second opportunity to harm Saul was given to David after his interactions with Nabal and Abigail. In chapter 24, we have the record of how David was tested in the cave with Saul, and he passed that test. But with Nabal, he failed. He fully intended to take matters into his own hands regarding Nabal, and was saved from sin only by the wisdom of Abigail. Now, once more, he gets the chance to either take matters into his own hands, or trust the Lord.

It is almost as if the Lord was giving David a chance to see if he really had learned his lesson from the incident with Nabal. It isn’t just a test – obviously, God already knew what was in David’s heart. But David may not have been sure of himself. He may have had times where he thought about the incident with Nabal, and condemned himself, and wished he had behaved differently. The Lord was giving him a second chance, a “do-over.” In the Torah, it says all legal issues must be established by at least two witnesses. Now there were two occasions that “witnessed” David’s commitment to not harm Saul, and to not take matters into his own hands. Those incidents were witnessed by both Saul’s men, and David’s followers also.

Abishai however, did not yet have David’s wisdom. He asked permission to kill Saul with Saul’s own spear. By the way, in one of Abishai’s exploits (recorded elsewhere) he killed three hundred men with a spear in one battle, so he knew how to use that weapon. He’s not just boasting when he says one thrust would do it. It would be all over. The good times could begin. The days of wandering homeless, despised by people around them, in danger all the time, could all be ended by one swift spear thrust. As before, it was a powerful temptation. Who could blame David? In Saul’s mind, anyway, they were enemies. It would be an act of war. It wouldn’t even be David who struck the blow.

But David had learned his lesson thoroughly. He said:

10“As the LORD lives, the LORD will certainly strike him down: either his day will come and he will die, or he will go into battle and perish. 11 However, because of the LORD, I will never lift my hand against the LORD’s anointed. Instead, take the spear and the water jug by his head, and let’s go.” (1Sam 26:10-11, HCSB)

He saw the battle with Goliath as the Lord’s fight. So now he sees the struggle with Saul. It isn’t his own fight at all, really – it is God’s business, and David trusted God to take care of it in His own time and in His own way.

As morning broke, from a safe distance, David called and awakened the camp. He showed them the spear and the water jug he had taken from Saul’s side. David was young and strong, and he had accomplished an amazing, bloodless feat of arms. So he teased Abner, Saul’s commander for a moment. I get the feeling he was rejoicing in what he and Abishai just did. Maybe he was “crowing” just a little bit. But then, once again he respectfully confronted Saul with his wrongdoing. Like Abigail did with David, so David now did with his king, Saul. He showed Saul he was wrong; he reminded him of true righteousness in God’s eyes – but he did it all with respect. You might say that similar to Abigail’s attitude toward David, David was submissive to the authority of Saul, but he was not subservient or a doormat.

Review the history of abuse Saul has heaped on David: He refused to honor his promises to the conqueror of Goliath. He didn’t reward him with money for killing Goliath, like he had promised to do. He initially didn’t allow David to marry his daughter (as he had promised). Then he made David pay a bride price for the privilege, even though he had promised that killing Goliath satisfied the bride price. He sent David on the most dangerous missions against the Philistines. He threw a spear at him, twice. He tried to have him killed. Then after David fled, several times Saul pursued him with thousands of warriors, to try and kill him.  Even after David spared his life in the cave, here is Saul again, trying to kill him.

But listen to what David’s biggest complaint about Saul is:

For they have driven me from my home, so I can no longer live among the LORD’s people, and they have said, ‘Go, worship pagan gods.’ 20 Must I die on foreign soil, far from the presence of the LORD? (1 Samuel 26:19-20, NLT)

Saul’s worst offense, in David’s eyes, is that he is cutting him off from the people of God. David can’t go and worship at the sanctuary any more. Remember, things were different before Jesus came. God’s presence was in the sanctuary in a special way, and David was denied access to that. This is his biggest concern.

At the end of the discussion, David showed where his trust is:

23 May the LORD repay every man for his righteousness and his loyalty. I wasn’t willing to lift my hand against the LORD’s anointed, even though the LORD handed you over to me today. 24 Just as I considered your life valuable today, so may the LORD consider my life valuable and rescue me from all trouble.” (1Sam 26:23-24, HCSB)

He didn’t ask Saul to treat him the way he treated Saul. Instead, he declared that he trusted the Lord to treat him with righteousness and love.

Throughout this, Saul seemed to be full of remorse. But he was remorseful last time too, after David spared his life in the cave. David has learned something important from Saul: Remorse is not the same as repentance. Saul let his emotions rage through him uncontrolled. Sometimes he was full of murderous fury; sometimes he was full of regret and sorrow. But the regret and sorrow did not lead to true repentance for Saul – they were just feelings he had sometimes. So, even though Saul invited David to come back with him, David did not do it. Saul was in God’s hands, but David was wise enough not to trust him.

It’s another great story, and I love it just for the daring deeds and passion and trust in God. But what does it mean for us now? What does the Lord want to say to us through this passage today?

When I read this at first, I am tempted to see it as a reason to admire David and Abishai. Here are two deadly warriors who, between just the two of them, can overcome hundreds of enemies at a time. And now, they seem to be showing us that in addition to a capacity for incredible violence on the battlefield, they can move as silently as stalking cats. But verse twelve paints us a different picture. It says that it was the Lord who made this whole incident possible. It was the Lord who made a deep sleep fall on the entire army. It wasn’t the skill of David and Abishai. This was an opportunity given by the Lord.

David shows that withholding violence takes more courage than doing something violent. With one violent act, his troubles could have been over. It was much harder – it was a much greater deed – to leave Saul unharmed. I think we can all learn from that. Jesus told us to turn the other cheek. It takes a lot more courage to do that than to take matters into our hands, and protect ourselves. It takes courage not to reply with harsh words or gossip when someone hurts us. It takes courage to not repay hurt with hurt.

As we read the Old Testament especially, I think it is helpful to ask: “Where is Jesus in this text?” Remember, David is sometimes a “type of Christ.” What this means is that God used David at times to show the world what the real Messiah (Jesus) is like – to people who would never get the chance to know Jesus in their earthly life.

This passage does show us a little bit of what Jesus is like. Like David, Jesus is a mighty warrior, forever in the prime of life, full of bravery and wisdom; ultimately and absolutely victorious over his enemies.

David held back from harming Saul, who, without a doubt, deserved to be harmed by David. In the same way Jesus holds back the punishment that we all richly deserve. Jesus told us to love our enemies, to pay back evil with good. David did that very thing. Jesus forgave the people who were crucifying him, even as they did the deed.

Here’s something else that I think is very significant. David did not know at the time that the Lord was using him to show the world what Jesus was like. He didn’t realize how significant his actions were. But because he lived in trust and obedience, many people in his generation, and for a thousand years after, had some idea of what the Messiah was like.

We don’t always know when someone has a chance to see Jesus through us. We can’t always tell when the Lord is doing that. Very often the opportunity comes when we least feel like it. There was a huge temptation for David to act precisely opposite of how Jesus is. So in the same way, it may be in our toughest moments that God uses us to show Jesus to the world.

The other thing that speaks to me here is David’s strong desire to worship God with other believers, his desire to be counted among all God’s people. I think today in the Western world, we sometimes forget how important this is. Through Jesus, the Holy Spirit lives inside of us, so it’s easy to begin to think we don’t need any other Christians to help us. But David had the Holy Spirit, also, and the Spirit caused him to yearn to be in fellowship with God’s people, and to worship with them. Sometimes the way we do church in the Western world is a bit messed up, and it doesn’t really reflect God’s design for church. I have a friend who has several valid criticisms of Evangelicals in America. But my friend takes it too far. He says that he is “in church” whenever he has coffee with fellow Christians, or goes to a barbeque with them, so he doesn’t need to be part of a local church. That is not what scripture says. It is vitally important for believers to be in real community with other believers, and especially to learn the Bible together, worship and pray together, and together renew Jesus’ covenant with us through the Lord’s Supper (Acts 2:42). David understood how important it was to worship with, and be connected to, God’s people.

What is the Holy Spirit saying to you right now?

1 SAMUEL #26: ABIGAIL SAVES THE DAY

On By Pastor TomIn 1 Samuel, Bible, Bible Teaching, Old Testament, Podcast, Religion, Sermon, UncategorizedLeave a comment

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Faced with a similar situation to the time Saul was in his cave, this time David almost failed, and took things into his own hands. Thankfully, the Lord sent a gracious, wise woman to remind him of right and wrong, and of the Lord’s promises. What about you and me? How do we respond when we are angry, or when we want to control things? Just as David was an example for us last time, Abigail is the one to imitate this time: to graciously speak the truth, and entrust ourselves to the Lord with the results.

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 1 Samuel Part 26

1 SAMUEL #26. 1 SAMUEL 25:1-38

As always, I strongly encourage you to read all of the text for this time, which is 1 Samuel chapter 25:1-38. It’s a little long to include as part of the text of the message here. Depending on what version you use, some things might be a little bit unclear, so let me set the stage. After the incident when David spared Saul’s life, Saul left David alone for a while, but apparently their issues were not really resolved. He didn’t invite David back to rejoin him in peace, and David didn’t push his luck. Instead, David and his men retreated further into the wilderness at the southern edge of Israel, the wilderness of Paran. This is desolate country, and it goes almost all the way down to the northeast corner of the Red Sea. It included some of the region where the Israelites wandered for forty years with Moses. In David’s time, it might have been a bit more green than now, however, it was still at least semi-arid, and people who kept large herds of sheep had to wander far into this wilderness in pursuit of water and food for the animals. There were no permanent towns or settlements there; it was kind of a no man’s land.

There was a man named Nabal who lived at the northern edge of this wilderness. He was very wealthy, and had large flocks of sheep and goats. Apparently, he regularly sent hired shepherds out into the wilderness of Paran with his flocks. They generally spent months at a time out with the flocks in this area. It was lonely and dangerous work for the shepherds. From time to time lions, bears and other animals attacked the sheep. At times lawless bandits would swoop down out of nowhere and steal some of the animals. In the spring time, the shepherds would return north with the sheep, bringing them back to the town of Carmel, where Nabal, the owner, would have them sheared, sell the wool, and butcher some of them also, and feast on the bounty of the harvest.

While Nabal’s shepherds and flocks were out in the wilderness, they encountered David and his men. At this point, David’s band numbered about six hundred. There was no way they could hunt and gather enough food to supply so many, therefore, it is certain that David and his men relied upon the kindness and generosity of others who lived at the edge of the wilderness. In spite of their need, they did not take any of Nabal’s sheep or goats when they encountered them. They certainly could have simply taken as many of the animals as they wanted – no small band of shepherds could have prevented them. Instead, they helped guard Nabal’s flocks against bandits and wild animals. In the springtime, when the herds were brought back from the wilderness, no doubt there were more than usual, since David’s men had helped protect them from the normal losses due to wild animals and bandits.

The owner of these animals, Nabal, was now cashing in on the bounty that David had helped to secure. So David sent word to Nabal respectfully asking for help for his men. He probably felt that one good turn deserved another. He could have demanded a certain percentage. He could have held all of the flocks of sheep for ransom in the wilderness until Nabal agreed to help him. Or, he could have simply taken them all. Instead, he basically said, “I have freely given protection to your people and animals. Ask your shepherds, and they will tell you. Now, would you please give us whatever you think is appropriate.”

Nabal responded with contempt and derision. He not only refused to help, but he deliberately insulted David.

Remember the previous chapter? Saul was trying to find and kill David. Though David had never done him wrong, and in fact, had risked his life time and again in Saul’s service, Saul was hell-bent on destroying David. (I am not swearing when I say “hell-bent,” I mean it literally. Saul’s rejection of God left him with a soul that was twisted to the purposes of hell). Even so, when David had the chance to fight back and destroy Saul, he did not do it. Instead, he said, “Let the Lord judge between me and you. Let the Lord bring about vengeance, if that is what he wants to do, but my hand will never be against you.” He rested in the Lord’s purposes, and refused to take matters into his own hands.

Well, here we are in a similar situation. Another powerful man had treated David unfairly. David had the ability to do something about it. But this time, David lost his cool. Rather than trusting the Lord to judge Nabal, he got into a towering rage, and started north with four-hundred of his men to destroy Nabal and his little empire.

And then comes the real heroine of the story, Abigail. She was Nabal’s wife. Some of Nabal’s men came to her, and explained what had happened. She made some immediate emergency decisions, and went out to meet David with plenty of food and supplies for his men.

Some of you have heard me preach through New Testament passages that teach us about biblical roles for women and for men. I think of Abigail as an amazing example of a woman who was used by God as a woman – not as a man. This is how it might look sometimes as we engage in the gender dance the Lord has designed for us. Abigail was wiser than everyone around her at this point in time. For a while, she was the only one who was truly committed to doing what was righteous, and she had to deal with two men in leadership who both wanted to do wrong (that is David, and Nabal). But she approached the situation with an amazing womanly grace and uniquely feminine strength.

She offered David gifts for himself and his men, which was the right thing to do. She also apologized for her husband. There is a play on words here. His name, Nabal, would have been pronounced “nu-bawl.” A Hebrew word for foolish or worthless is pronounced “nu-bawl-uh.” It’s a little like saying “Stu is acting just like his name: stupid.” (Deepest apologies to anyone named Stu who might be reading this).

Throughout the narrative it is clear that Abigail placed herself in David’s hands, and under his authority. However, while she was clearly submissive, she was not subservient. She did not hold back from exhorting David to do what was right. She reminded him of God’s promises to him. In particular, she gently reminded him that up until this point, he had fought only the Lord’s battles, and this battle he was going toward at that moment was not the Lord’s fight.

28 Please forgive my offense. The LORD will certainly give you, sir, a lasting dynasty, because you are fighting the LORD’s battles. May evil never be found in you as long as you live. 29 Even though someone pursued you and sought your life, your life is wrapped in the bundle of life which comes from the LORD your God. But he will dispose of the lives of your enemies like stones thrown from a sling. 30 When the LORD does all the good he promised and makes you ruler of Israel, 31 you shouldn’t have a troubled conscience because you spilled blood for no good reason and claimed your own victory. (1 Samuel 25:28-31, God’s Word)

You can see that she reminded him of the incident with Saul that we read about in the previous chapter. That might have been months, or even years, ago by this time. She pointed out that David was once again in the same kind of situation. She encouraged David to trust the Lord, not his own strength, and to trust the Lord’s promises to him. She pointed out gently that destroying Nabal would be something he would regret later, and it would be a shameful blemish on his record of trusting the Lord. She did it all with womanly grace and attractiveness.

There is no doubt that Abigail was in the right, while both David and her husband were wrong. Even so, there is no sense in this narrative that Abigail has somehow taken on the role of a man, or that she was imposing some sort of authority or leadership over either one of them. This is one example of what biblical submission can look like. You can see it is not subservience, or rolling over and accepting whatever men want to say or do. In her submission, her grace and wisdom were powerful and attractive. Abigail is a beautiful example of a woman who plays a significant role in God’s kingdom without violating what the Holy Spirit says elsewhere in scripture about gender roles.

And here is something important: she really got David’s attention. I suspect that David, being in the foul mood he was in, would have reacted angrily to a man who came and told him he was being stupid and making a mistake. But Abigail, with her womanly grace, completely disarmed him. He repented, and freely confessed that she was right and he was wrong.

They parted, but obviously, David never forgot the exchange. Abigail went home. She was still in a tough place, because now that she had dealt with one angry man, she had to deal with another, her husband. We have to read between the lines, but everything I see here suggests that Abigail was trusting the Lord to work out that conversation also. The next morning she told her husband, straight out, what she had done. Apparently very soon after, he had a seizure from which he never recovered. The Lord took care of it for her. I think the last time I preached about male and female roles it was from 1 Peter chapter 3. One thing I said there is that women are not being asked to trust their husbands, rather, they are asked to trust the Lord. Abigail did exactly that.

So, a couple thoughts for application. I like knowing that David needed help. Here was the man who would become the greatest king known to Israel, and not only is he in hiding, but he is barely holding on, dependent upon donations from kind friends and strangers. David wasn’t just a lucky guy who had everything fall into place for him. He spent a significant portion of time in real need, and he never would have made it without help. This is humbling, but the fact that David lived this way encourages me when I feel humbled by my own needs.

When I was preparing this sermon, I wrote the paragraph after this one, and then took a break. During the break I found out that the person who repaired my wife’s computer not only failed to fix it, but also told us that her hard drive was dead (it was working just fine when we turned it in). In addition, without mentioning it, he removed her original hard drive, which was 256GB, and replaced it with one that was half the size. For the privilege of secretly taking our hard drive in exchange for a smaller one, and not fixing the computer, they charged us almost $200. Did they think we wouldn’t notice that it was a different hard drive? Were they treating us like idiots? I was caught up in thinking about all the things I would like to say to them, and the review I would write, and maybe a phone call to the appropriate authorities. In that frame of mind, I returned to work on this sermon, and read the following paragraph, which I had written just before the break:

I think the more important message, the main one, is about trusting the Lord, and not taking matters into our own hands. David made a great choice with regard to that in the incident with Saul. But this time, David let the situation get to him. Abigail had to remind him to leave it with the Lord, or he surely would have done something that he later regretted.

Sometimes, it’s hard to be a preacher. Seriously, this sort of situation really gets under my skin, and in the past I have sometimes said things (or said them in a particular tone) that would make me embarrassed to later tell the person I am in conflict with that I am a Christian and a pastor. I have never sworn at anyone, but I have certainly been angry, and said things that were unkind and unchristian.

I let things sit for a day or two, and then all the way to the shop I prayed that I would not be a poor representative of Jesus to the repair guy. The situation is still ongoing as I write this, but I can report that I didn’t say or do anything I regret, and even after our encounter, I wouldn’t be ashamed to tell the guy that I am a pastor.

As it turns out the message from this chapter of scripture is one that is repeated in many places throughout the Bible:

35 Vengeance and retribution belong to me [says the Lord]. (Deuteronomy 32:35, ESV)
22 Do not say, “I will repay evil”;
wait for the LORD, and he will deliver you. (Proverbs 20:22, ESV)
29 Do not say, “I’ll do to them as they have done to me;
I’ll pay them back for what they did.” (Proverbs 24:29, ESV)
17 Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. 18 If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. 19 Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” (Romans 12:17-19, ESV)
19 Remember this, my dear friends! Everyone must be quick to listen, but slow to speak and slow to become angry. 20 Human anger does not achieve God’s righteous purpose. (James 1:19-20, GNT)

Maybe you don’t tend to lose your cool, like I do. Many people who remain calm still struggle with the impulse to control everything. You might feel uncomfortable waiting for God to do his thing, maybe you wonder if he is ever even going to act, and so you take matters into your own hands, in order to make sure that it does get done, and gets done the way you want it to be. I think this passage is for you folks, as well. Part of David’s problem was uncontrolled anger. But the text clearly shows that part of the danger for him was the temptation to take matters into his own hands. I have observed that many people struggle with that same temptation.

Of course, there is a balance. We aren’t supposed to sit on our hands and never do anything. At times, following Jesus means we ought to do something in various situations. But even when we act, we need to do it with a sense that Jesus is acting through us. If you struggle to tell the difference between controlling things for yourself, or acting in response to faith in Jesus, ask yourself this question: Are you OK if things turn out differently than you intended them to? If you aren’t, you might be trying to control things. On the other hand, if you are OK no matter how things turn out, then you are probably acting from a place of faith.

One of the encouraging things here is that David blew it here, but someone else came along to graciously steer him away from doing the wrong thing. The Lord knows we are not perfect, and he has never expected his people to follow him without help. He gives us the help of the Holy Spirit inside us, and also, as demonstrated in this text, he gives the help of other people who are also trying to follow him.

Listen to what he has to say to you today.

1 SAMUEL #25: HISTORY’S MOST EXCITING POTTY BREAK

On By Pastor TomIn 1 Samuel, Bible, Old Testament, Podcast, Religion, Sermon, UncategorizedLeave a comment

David once again shows us what genuine trust in the Lord looks like. He apparently had an amazing opportunity to end his troubles and enter his destiny as God’s chosen king. However, David refused to take it, because it involved harming the man who was trying to kill him. It was more important to him to be right with the Lord than to achieve his ambitions. He trusted that the Lord would bring it about in His own time, and he, David, would not have to compromise to receive what God had promised.

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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1 SAMUEL #25. CHAPTER 24:1-22

This is one of my favorite stories in the entire history of David. I think what David does, and what he refrains from doing in 1 Samuel 24, shows more courage, faith and heart for God than any of his amazing feats in battle. This is David at his best.

I want to briefly summarize the end of chapter 23, since we did not cover it in detail anywhere else. After David left the town of Keilah, he took his men and went into the wilderness on the other side of the Judean mountains. It may have been more green there 3,000 years ago, but these days, it is mostly desert. It was farther away from Saul, and in terrain that was significantly more rugged. Even so, Saul pursued David there several times, hoping to capture or kill him. During this time, Jonathan came secretly to David, and “encouraged him in his faith in God.”

I think I mistakenly said in an earlier sermon that the last time David and Jonathan ever saw each other alive was recorded in chapter 20. I was wrong, obviously. However this, here, in chapter 24, was indeed the last time the Bible records them being together. I want to focus for a minute on this last meeting of the two friends:

15 David was in the Wilderness of Ziph in Horesh when he saw that Saul had come out to take his life. 16 Then Saul’s son Jonathan came to David in Horesh and encouraged him in his faith in God, 17 saying, “Don’t be afraid, for my father Saul will never lay a hand on you. You yourself will be king over Israel, and I’ll be your second-in-command. Even my father Saul knows it is true.” 18 Then the two of them made a covenant in the LORD’S presence. Afterward, David remained in Horesh, while Jonathan went home. (1 Samuel 23:15-18, HCSB)

Remember, Jonathan, like David, had a heart for God. Like David, he was filled with faith, and confident that God would fulfill his plan. In fact, Jonathan was entirely at peace with the idea that David, not he, himself, should be the next king. What a contrast between Saul and his son! Saul thought David might be God’s next chosen king, and his reaction was to be filled with hate and fear, and to try and kill David. Jonathan thought the same thing, but his reaction was to encourage David. Jonathan’s faith is even more amazing when you think about the fact that at this time, David was running for his life. It sure didn’t look like David was ever going to be king. Even so, Jonathan had confidence that the Lord would take care of David, and that he would make sure his plan indeed happened. Jonathan himself encouraged David with this attitude.

I love that one line: Jonathan encouraged David in his faith in God. Even David, man of God, sometimes needed encouragement to continue to trust the Lord. If that was true of David, how much more so of us.

The people of the region betrayed David, as the citizens of Keilah had done. When you read the Psalms that David wrote, you will often find references to treacherous people, liars and friends who betray. This is because this sort of thing happened to David astonishingly often. In spite of his integrity and the help he brought to others, in spite of his faithfulness to God and respect for Saul as king, people were quick to believe the worst of him, and spread lies about him, and betray him to Saul.

I don’t know about you, but this encourages me. I think my natural expectation is that if I surrender my life to Jesus and have integrity in letting him live through me, people will see it, and like it, and praise God for it. I expect a positive response to God’s life shining through me. I expect good results, and favor with people. But Jesus said we ought to expect the opposite:

18 “If the world hates you, understand that it hated Me before it hated you. 19 If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own. However, because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of it, the world hates you. 20 Remember the word I spoke to you: ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will also keep yours. 21 But they will do all these things to you on account of My name, because they don’t know the One who sent Me. (John 15:18-21, HCSB)

He explains that there is blessing for us in this situation:

10 Those who are persecuted for righteousness are blessed, for the kingdom of heaven is theirs. 11 “You are blessed when they insult and persecute you and falsely say every kind of evil against you because of Me. 12 Be glad and rejoice, because your reward is great in heaven. For that is how they persecuted the prophets who were before you. (Matt 5:10-12, HCSB)

Peter, in his first letter, also talks about this:

19 For it brings favor if, mindful of God’s will, someone endures grief from suffering unjustly. 20 For what credit is there if you sin and are punished, and you endure it? But when you do what is good and suffer, if you endure it, this brings favor with God. (1Pet 2:19-20, HCSB)
13 And who will harm you if you are deeply committed to what is good? 14 But even if you should suffer for righteousness, you are blessed. Do not fear what they fear or be disturbed, (1Pet 3:13-14, HCSB)

Seeing the life of David, and hearing what the New Testament says, gives me hope. Being a person with a heart for God is not necessarily a way to get a whole bunch of people to like you. It isn’t a road to sure success. It is often the opposite. But I cling to these promises that there is great blessing for us in those sorts of trials, sooner or later. At this point for David, he experienced the persecution, but not the blessing.

At one point, David was almost caught. He and his men were in a valley or canyon, and Saul and his men were coming down another valley on the opposite side of the mountain. They were gaining on David. But before they could close, messengers found Saul, reporting that the Philistines were attacking elsewhere in Israel. Saul had to break off the pursuit. Once again, I want to point out that David did not know what his future held. He didn’t know for sure what God was doing, and he might very well have been caught. In that particular incident, it must have seemed like it was merely lucky timing that saved him.

And then we come to the incident described in chapter 24. Saul was back to his new hobby of trying to find David and kill him. He and his men were traipsing around the rugged desert and mountain terrain where, according to rumour, David was hiding. They weren’t having any luck. David appeared to be miles away. One day, Saul had to relieve himself, and he went into a cave alone for privacy. It just happened to be the cave where David and some of his men were holed up.

I want to make sure we understand the scenario. David was anointed by Samuel to be God’s chosen instrument. David and his brothers (who were there at the anointing, and with him in his trials) probably assumed that the anointing also meant that he was supposed to be Israel’s next king. Jonathan certainly thought so, and so did Saul, and probably, along with his brothers, the rest of David’s men. Israel’s present king – Saul – who was no longer God’s instrument, has been trying for a long time to kill David. Now Saul was alone, unarmed and unaware, standing right in front of David, sun-blind in the dark cave, back-turned with his pants down. Saul could not have been more helpless.

David could not have possibly have had a better opportunity to kill Saul without hurting anyone else.

David’s men believed that this was a gift from God. Surely Now was the time for David to kill Saul, and become king himself. I suspect that nine people out of ten would agree with David’s men. Killing Saul at that moment would have been easily justifiable self-defense – after all, Saul was there for the express purpose of killing David. Saul was acting contrary to God’s stated will and purposes – he was trying to kill God’s chosen instrument. So killing Saul would be not only self-defense, but also protection of God’s work in the world. I don’t believe there was a person living at the time who would have blamed David.

Hopefully, you have read the scripture. You know what happens: David creeps forward, knife held low and ready. He raises his arm to strike…and then lowers it, and quietly cuts off the corner of Saul’s robe. He creeps back to his men, and a furious but quiet argument ensues. Now David’s men, seeing that he will not kill Saul, are eager to do the deed themselves. Once again, who could have blamed David if he had let one of his men do it? Not only would he have the justifications listed already, but he could always claim that it wasn’t actually him who killed Saul, and he really didn’t want it to happen. But David argues vehemently, and commands his men not to touch Saul. Finally, Saul leaves the cave and the opportunity is lost.

I picture that the cave was up on the slope of a hill or something. After Saul has gone down a little ways, David emerges, and calls to Saul. He bows low to the ground in respect. Then he shows Saul the corner of his robe and says:

11 See, my father! Look at the corner of your robe in my hand, for I cut it off, but I didn’t kill you. Look and recognize that there is no evil or rebellion in me. I haven’t sinned against you even though you are hunting me down to take my life. 12 “May the LORD judge between you and me, and may the LORD take vengeance on you for me, but my hand will never be against you. 13 As the old proverb says, ‘Wickedness comes from wicked people.’ My hand will never be against you. (1Sam 24:11-13, HCSB)

All this wisdom from a man not yet thirty years old. But of course, it wasn’t really David’s wisdom – it was the Spirit of God at work within David. I think the key is verse 12: “May the Lord judge between you and me, and may the Lord take vengeance on you for me, but my hand will never be against you.” David literally refused to take matters into his own hands. Remember when Saul was about to lose the entire southern portion of Israel? His army was deserting him, Samuel wasn’t showing up, and so Saulheld a worship service merely for the purpose of getting people to stick around. Saul took matters into his own hands. But David would not do that. His trust was not in what he could do, but in what the Lord said the Lord would do.

We tend to look at circumstances as if they “prove” what God wants us to do. I think this is a very dangerous tendency. I knew a man who thought God was calling him to have an affair, because he felt that circumstances had so clearly put him and the other woman together. He thought it must be God. I am not making this up. It might be better to wonder if circumstances are being used by the devil to tempt us. Now, I’m not saying that circumstances never align with God’s will, but it should not be our default position to think that.

However, there is a natural question. When God sends your enemy into your cave with his pants down, unable to see in the dark, facing away from you, how do you know that it isn’t God’s will for you to kill him? I mean, we’ve already offered many reasons why no one would condemn David for doing it. So how did David know he shouldn’t do it?

I think there are two answers. The first is one that I never get tired of talking about: we need to live in a day-by-day, moment-by-moment relationship with the Lord. The ten commandments told David not to murder, but it would have been easy to justify it as self-defense, or war, not murder. David, like us, had to rely on a connection of faith with the Lord. Through that faith, the Lord communicated to him that it would be wrong. In the first place, let’s get real: if stabbing an unarmed, unaware person in the back isn’t murder, what is? David knew that the word of God was against murder.

We might say also, that David knew in his heart that to kill Saul was wrong. However the reason he knew it in his heart is because he knew the word of the Lord (in this case, “do not murder”), and he knew the Lord himself. It isn’t some mystery. If we want to know the will of the Lord, we too need to know His Word (the Bible) and spend time with him in prayer, worship and fellowship with other believers. Without that, what we “know in our hearts” might be very, very wrong.

I also think that for David, the Lord guided him in this situation through other “ordinary” factors. David, at least for a while, viewed Saul like a second father. Though Saul seemed to hate David, David did not hate in return. He still respected him, and had affection for him, and he was sad that they couldn’t have the relationship they used to have. In addition, I think David probably thought something like this: “How could I ever look my best friend Jonathan in the eye again, if I kill his father?” These might seem like very ordinary, “unspiritual” factors to go into such an important decision, but I think that the Lord uses exactly such things to guide us at times. He made each one of us. He knows the way each of us tends to make decisions, and honestly, I think we are too quick to put things into the category of “spiritual” and “unspiritual.” In my own opinion, everything is spiritual, because all of life belongs to the Lord.

Another thing is this: I think the Lord allowed David to see that to kill Saul at this point would be taking matters into his own hands, rather than trusting. I believe that there are times when God calls us to act speedily and courageously without hesitation. But there are also times when the Lord calls us to let opportunities pass by, and trust Him to bring about his purposes in his own way. Personally, I think the second way is harder, and in our culture we almost never think that way. We typically assume that if we see a means to meet our goals, it is God giving us that chance, and we should take it. Sometimes, that may indeed be true. But sometimes the Lord calls us to wait and trust so we can receive it from him, not get it by our own effort. Especially in our world today, I think we need to consider waiting on God as a first option, and only act if we are sure God wants us to. I say this because our culture will never encourage us to do that. We are taught by everything around us to act rather than wait.

Consider this: if David had killed Saul at this point, he might always afterwards wonder if God really wanted him to be king, or, if he had simply made himself king. And there was something that was more important to David than reaching his goal of becoming king. It was more important to him to be right with the Lord than to achieve his ambitions. So he said, “Yes, I’d like the Lord to judge you Saul, for what you’ve done. But my priority is not to judge you, nor to make my goals happen. My priority is to be right with the Lord.”

I want to point out that David did not meekly accept the way Saul was abusing him. He confronted Saul about how unjust he was being. He had proved his loyalty, and proved Saul’s own suspicions to be false, and he pointed those things out to Saul. He confronted Saul with the truth, but he left judgement to the Lord. So, when we are treated badly, it is not necessarily wrong to  speak out against it. It’s not necessarily wrong to get out of a bad situation if we can. But like David, we can leave judgment to God.

So, today, what’s your priority? Think of something that you really, truly want. Now imagine that you have the power to make it happen, right now. It would be easy. Would you do it, even if you knew in your heart that God didn’t want you to?

Now, I don’t want the message to be that we are just not as righteous as David. That’s not actually true. David wasn’t any better than us. He just learned to trust God, and he made that trust the primary and most important part of his life. But he wasn’t perfect. In fact, we’ll see in the next chapter that David forgot every thing he had demonstrated here, and had to be reminded of it. So, the message is: Trust God. I’ll say it again: Trust God. The thing that you want so much, the thing that you are convinced is even God’s will for you – God will take care of that. David eventually did become king. It didn’t happen that day. In fact it was still years away. But God did take care of it. He worked it out the best way possible.

I want to add something else. Maybe you’ve tried to trust God, and you haven’t been able to do it like David did. Understand this: David trusted God by the power of the Holy Spirit. If we want to trust God, it is more about surrender to the work of the Holy Spirit in us than about us trying hard. It’s about giving permission to the Lord to lead you. Once you give that permission, and you surrender your choice to God’s best will, search the scriptures, and if you have no definitive answer from that, do what seems best, trusting that the Lord is leading you.

Also, we need to remember that when we fail, we have the Anointed One, Jesus, who trusted God perfectly, on our behalf. He did what we could not do, so that when we fail (not if!), we can trust that he has made it right between us and God. To do better next time, the main thing we need is more trust.

So trust him.

1 SAMUEL #22: FOLLOWING AN EXILED KING

On By Pastor TomIn 1 Samuel, Bible, Bible Teaching, Podcast, Religion, Sermon, Uncategorized2 Comments
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David and his men teach us some things about Jesus and his followers. Like the followers of David, we come to Jesus desperate and poor. Like David’s men, following Jesus means we are “all in,” with no backup plan. We are called to wholehearted commitment to Jesus. When we answer that call, even our ordinary lives are significant in the spiritual realm.

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 1 Samuel Part 22

1 SAMUEL #22. 1 SAMUEL 22:1-12

1 David departed from there and escaped to the cave of Adullam. And when his brothers and all his father's house heard it, they went down there to him. 2 And everyone who was in distress, and everyone who was in debt, and everyone who was bitter in soul, gathered to him. And he became commander over them. And there were with him about four hundred men. 1 Samuel 22:1-2

In the previous message we saw how David took the time to stop at the tabernacle to worship the Lord. This almost certainly cost him the chance to go home to Bethlehem for a final time before his exile. He did this because he wanted to be in the presence of the Lord once more. He wanted to hear what God had to say to him in this difficult circumstance. Those things were more important to him than home, family or even the certain help he would have received in Bethlehem. After stopping at the tabernacle, he went to Philistine territory, but found life among his enemies to be very insecure. Realizing he’d made a mistake, he fled from there, and ended up hiding and living in a cave near a place called Adullam. In fact we now know that there is a whole network of caves in that area.

Pause for a moment and consider how low David has fallen. He was anointed to be God’s chosen instrument, ultimately, to be the king. He served as a feared and honored warrior – he was, in fact, a national hero. He was the son in law of the king. He had lived in comfort and honor. Now he is hiding for fear of his life, in a cave. Caves are not known for their comfort. There is nothing soft to sleep on. There is no natural light. There are no bathrooms, so after a while of living there, it would smell pretty ripe. And yet, David’s heart didn’t falter. He did not appear to think he was somehow too good to live that way. Arthur W. Pink commented on this:

“The high favorites of Heaven are sometimes to be located in queer and unexpected places. Joseph in prison, the descendants of Abraham laboring in the brick-kilns of Egypt, Daniel in the lions’ den, Jonah in the great fish’s belly, Paul clinging to a spar in the sea, forcibly illustrate this principle. Then let us not murmur because we do not now live in as fine a house as do some of the ungodly; our “mansions” are in Heaven!”

Sometimes I think we Christians in the Western world are a little soft. God loves to bless his people, but his main purpose for us in this world is not that we merely feel comfortable. David was God’s chosen instrument, just as we Christians are today. And the Lord was with him in the cave, perhaps even more potently than when David finally lived in a palace. We need to take the long view, the view of eternity. What happens here and now is not the end. I like where I live right now, but it is a dump compared to my permanent home in heaven. David knew that was true for him as well.

There are two Psalms that show in the superscription that they were written by David “in the cave.” Unfortunately for David, he spent time hiding in several different caves, and at different periods in his life. So we can’t know for sure that these were written in the caves near Adullam at this particular time. But there’s a good chance that  either one or both of Psalm 57 and 142 were written at this point in his life. Remember, the Psalms are not collected in chronological order, so 142 could easily have been written before 57.

Both Psalms start with David expressing fear and anguish at his dangerous and uncertain situation. But both end with him declaring his trust in the Lord, and his praise to him. Psalm 142 seems particularly appropriate for David’s situation in 1 Samuel 22.  The last line of Psalm 142 says, “The righteous will gather around me; because you deal generously with me.”

 This is a declaration of trust. It is also an optimistic take on what actually happened shortly afterwards. David’s brothers and his father’s whole family came to live with him in the cave. He was no longer all alone – his family shared in his hardship and persecutions. In addition, more men joined him until there were about 400 altogether. The text says that these men were all either “desperate, in debt or discontented.” It doesn’t sound exactly like “the righteous.” It sounds more like a ragtag band of malcontents and ne’er-do-wells. David’s family aside, these sound not like the cream of the crop, but rather the sludge of society.

However, they all agreed upon one thing – David was now their leader. This was actually a pretty big deal. As we will learn next time, Saul the King felt that anyone who helped David was committing treason, and he sentenced them to death. So when these men gave their allegiance to David, they forfeited their lives. There was no going back. If David was not vindicated, if he didn’t end up as the true king, they were dead men.

In the Old Testament, sometimes we encounter people or events that theologians call “a type of Christ.” What they mean is, sometimes God used historical events or individuals to show the world what Jesus was like, even though Jesus had not come yet. It is a foreshadowing – a partial picture of what the real messiah will look like. These “types of Christ” serve two purposes. First they were for the people in Old Testament times, to help them understand what God is really like, and how he really saves people. Remember, Romans 3:25-26 tells us that even people in Old Testament times were saved through Jesus, as God looked ahead to what he was going to do at the cross. And so there are these shadows and parts of pictures that gave people a sense of what was to come. Second, these “types” are there to strengthen our faith. Even the Old Testament is all about Jesus, and so when we read it, we should be looking for Jesus and how it shows Him to us.

By the time Jesus walked the earth, even the Jewish Pharisees believed that many of the people and incidents in the Old Testament were pictures of the coming Messiah. In particular, the Jews felt that David’s life and character would help them to identify what the Messiah was like. David was anointed with oil and with the Holy Spirit to be God’s uniquely chosen instrument. Both the Hebrew word “Messiah” and the Greek “Christ” mean simply “anointed one.” Jesus Christ means “Jesus, Anointed One.” So some of the life of David, the anointed one, looks ahead to the ultimate Anointed One.

In this particular case, there are several significant comparisons. David was God’s chosen anointed one, and yet he was rejected by the leader of the nation. He lived with integrity and didn’t do anything wrong, yet he was forced to live as an outcast. Jesus was God in flesh, the Ultimate Anointed One, and yet he was rejected by the status quo of Israel. He too was an outcast. David accomplished miraculous things in battle against the Philistines. Jesus also performed many miraculous signs – healings, driving out demons, calming storms and more. He destroyed demonic enemy strongholds.

There is one “type of Christ” in this passage that I want to dwell on a little bit longer, and that is the followers of God’s anointed. The men that followed David were of no account. They were shiftless and in trouble, the dregs of society. And yet mostly from these ragtag 400, came some of the mightiest names in the history of Israel. There was an exclusive trio of warriors, known as “the three.” One of the three was the warrior Eleazar. Once he and David were surrounded by Philistines in an open field. They stood back to back, just the two of them, and fought against dozens, or possibly hundreds, of enemies. They prevailed and all their enemies were killed (1 Chronicles 11:12-14; 2 Samuel 23:9-10). There was a larger elite force of “thirty mighty men.” From what we can tell, they all started out among this group of no-name, no-account people who came to David long before he actually became king.

In the same way, the important members of society did not join the ragtag band of Jesus’ disciples. Instead he got tax-collectors, prostitutes and smelly, calloused fishermen. He had his “three” – Peter, James and John. He had his twelve then beyond that, a few more.

The followers of David had to be kind of desperate to go to him. They were literally giving up everything to join him. If he didn’t come through, they were lost. There was no halfway commitment. This wasn’t, “I’ll go hang with David for a while, and if it doesn’t work out, I can always go back.” No it was an irrevocable alignment with David, breaking off the loyalties of the past.

Jesus calls for that kind of allegiance from us also. He doesn’t want us to come to him, keeping our options open in case something we like better comes along.

37 Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. 38 And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 39 Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. (Matthew 10:37-39, ESV)
24 Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 25 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. Matthew 16:24-25

Peter and the twelve, like the first followers of David, went all in. Peter expressed the kind of commitment they made to him:

After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. So Jesus said to the Twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?” Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.” (John 6:66-69, ESV)

Peter was saying “We have nowhere else to go. We’re with you all the way – we have no backup plan.”

Just as David’s followers were desperate and poor, Jesus calls to the broken and poor in spirit. Let’s face it, it is hard to really give ourselves over to Jesus unless we realize that without him, we are lost. Paul describes it like this:

26 Brothers, consider your calling: Not many are wise from a human perspective, not many powerful, not many of noble birth. 27 Instead, God has chosen what is foolish in the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen what is weak in the world to shame the strong. 28 God has chosen what is insignificant and despised in the world — what is viewed as nothing — to bring to nothing what is viewed as something, 29 so that no one can boast in His presence. 30 But it is from Him that you are in Christ Jesus, who became God-given wisdom for us — our righteousness, sanctification, and redemption, 31 in order that, as it is written: The one who boasts must boast in the Lord. (1Cor 1:26-31, HCSB)

Now, let’s be honest. Sometimes it seems like it might be more exciting to be one of David’s men than to follow Jesus. I mean, as I read this, I think about David and Eleazar fighting back to back against the Philistines. It’s like a scene out of Lord of the Rings or some other action movie involving heroic hand-to-hand combat. It’s amazing. I often wonder if this real history might have been the inspiration for the legend of Robin Hood. Even if Robin Hood was real, he might have been inspired to his deeds by this very story. There are battles, betrayals, secret hiding places, defections. It is all very well to say David is a type of Christ, but most of us will go through our entire lives without these types of exciting events. Following Jesus can seem almost boring. I mean we go to work or school and come home and do stuff, go to bed and then get up and do it all again. Sometimes we’re so bored, we make excitement for ourselves, even when it’s self-destructive.

I think that is all because we fail to recognize the spiritual reality that exists with and alongside our world, hidden, but no less real. What David and his followers were involved with physically, Jesus and his followers are engaged in spiritually. David was the king who was chosen by God, but rejected by many of the people. He lived almost as an agent in enemy territory, gathering those few worthless people who had nowhere else to turn to help him. In the same way, C.S. Lewis describes our life of following Jesus like this:

Enemy occupied territory – that’s what this world is. Christianity is the story of how the rightful King has landed, you might say landed in disguise, and is calling us all to take part in a great campaign of sabotage.

–C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

You see, though the battle is more spiritual than physical, it is no less real for all that. We have a faithful, loving intrepid leader. We are undercover – living as part of society, but not living for the same purposes as the rest of the world. Sometimes perhaps we need to wake up, and open up our lives to be more engaged in this secret mission. We need to be more aware of how the Lord wants to work, to be more aware of the people he is bringing across our paths and into our lives. I think when we are in the new creation we will be amazed at how significant our ordinary lives were. We’ll see how amazing it was that we said that encouraging word, or spoke the truth into a hostile situation, or forgave others, or showed them compassion. I think in the spiritual realm, these sorts of things are actually great battles, moments that will amaze us as much as we are amazed by the exploits of David’s mighty men – or maybe even more.

Joining the Rebel King paints a target on our backs, a target his enemies would love to use. But if we trust him and submit to his leadership, he will mold us into mighty men and women of faith, significant in God’s kingdom forever.

If you have never done it, would you consider going “all in” on Jesus, right now? I mean burn your bridges, like the followers of David did. Have no backup plan if Jesus disappoints you in the short term. Give yourself fully to Jesus, and break forever from every other means of feeling good about your life. You won’t fit in very well with the world when you do this. But you gain far more than this broken world could ever offer.

HEAVEN, PART 3. WHAT DID JESUS HIMSELF PROMISE US?

On By Pastor TomIn Podcast, Religion, Resurrection, Sermon, UncategorizedLeave a comment
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Greetings, and Happy New Year!

This is the third (of four) in the series about Heaven from pastor Peter Churness.

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 Heaven Part 3

Peter preaches from an outline, and does not provide a written version, but below is a rough outline.

Jesus promised three major things about life after death:

  • 1. A home.
  • 2. Rewards
  • 3. A wedding (his own presence, fully with us).

Three major application points:

  • 1. Cultivate longing for your eternal home.
  • 2. Live in both worlds at once
  • 3. Evaluate your eternal investment portfolio.

PALM SUNDAY 2023

On By Pastor TomIn Podcast, Religion, Sermon, UncategorizedLeave a comment

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Palm Sunday, 2023. Matthew 21:1-11

 This week we celebrate Palm Sunday. In many churches, Palm Sunday is celebrated with waving palm branches, songs of joy and praise and a big celebration. I’ve been in churches where someone actually rides a donkey down the aisle; I’ve seen camels in church (excerpt from building committee minutes “…discussed how to remove camel dung from carpeting in narthex…”) and just big Palm Sunday productions in general. I think Palm Sunday appeals especially to American Christians. It’s loud. It’s super-sized. It’s positive and fun. It’s a big ol’ church party.

Picture it. A swarming, wiggling mass of humanity has gathered near Jerusalem, to celebrate the Passover in the Holy City. The crowd struggles to squirm through the ancient gates. This is Christmas, only better, because it’s a week long. Some of the out-of-towners are telling stories about a man they’ve seen out in the countryside, near their homes. They tell that this man, named Jesus, borrowed a little boy’s lunch and fed 5,000 people with it. Some of the people in the crowd had personal contact with this Jesus character, and were healed of various diseases and ailments. One man in the crowd claims he was leper until Jesus healed him – some of the people move uneasily away from that one.

Now some of these country folk meet up with people who live nearby, in the town called Bethany. They recount how one of their own hometown boys, a guy named Lazarus, recently died of an illness. They buried him, naturally, and four days later, along comes Jesus, and raises Lazarus from the dead.

Soon a good portion of that boisterous, loud, pushy crowd is shouting back and forth snippets of gossip about Jesus. And then suddenly, from the middle of the crowd, the yelling rises above the usual raucous level. People ask their neighbors what’s going on. Soon the word comes back.

“That Jesus guy is here. He’s riding a donkey over there. Look at him!”

“He’s got a kingly bearing.”

“Who but God’s chosen messiah could do the things he’s done?”

“Jesus! Jesus!”

“Praise God! The messiah is here! Alleluia!”

The shouting catches on. The crowd sees a few Roman soldiers nearby and yells even louder, in defiance of their oppressors. Soon the whole crowd is cheering in one sustained unquenchable voice. The excitement grows. What a King Jesus will be! He’ll end hunger and poverty – after all he fed the 5,000. He’ll end sickness and disease – he’s done it before! And when we fight the Roman oppressors and kick them out – well if any of us get killed by the soldiers, Jesus will just bring us back to life and we’ll go on. With him as our King, we’ll be unstoppable! And so the crowd cheers. They cheer because it seems like God is about do something for his people Israel, once more. They cheer because they want their lives to be better, and for the moment, it seems like it is about to become so. They cheer because their neighbors are cheering. They cheer because they are stuck in this big hot crowd, and it relieves the boredom. They cheer because it gives vent to inarticulate passions that gnaw unfulfilled inside them. They cheer because they hate the Romans.

But in all that great thronging mass there is one man who is not cheering. He doesn’t rejoice with the crowd. The excitement and noise utterly fail to touch him. Their desire to overthrow the Romans doesn’t even begin to move him. The man who seems so different from the rest of the crowd, so disconnected from their excitement is right there in the middle of it all, even so.

He is the man on the donkey. Jesus.

Because he is a man of infinite compassion, Jesus, when he saw people who were hungry, fed them. Because he cares more deeply than other being that exists, Jesus healed sick people when he was near them. Because of his great friendship with Mary and Martha, Jesus raised their brother Lazarus from the dead.

But he didn’t come into the world mainly to heal people and feed them. He didn’t come to raise people from the dead and place them back into this mortal life of pain, sin and suffering – a two-edged resurrection if ever there was such a thing. And so, in the middle of that rollicking crowd, he’s the only one who truly understands that he is entering Jerusalem not as a King, but as a sacrifice. He came for something better than temporary healing, more satisfying than temporary food and more eternal than temporary resurrection. He came to give these people life that was far greater, deeper and permanent – life far more wonderful than what they are cheering about.

Lloyd Douglas, in his excellent novel, The Robe describes how a fictional Corinthian slave named Demetrius made eye contact with Jesus on “palm Sunday.”

The eyes calmly appraised Demetrius. They neither widened nor smiled, but in some indefinable manner, they held Demetrius in a grip so firm it was almost a physical compulsion. The message they communicated was something other than sympathy, something more vital than friendly concern, a sort of stabilizing power that swept away all such negations as slavery, poverty, or any other afflicting circumstance. Demetrius was suffused with the glow of this curious kinship. Blind with sudden tears, he elbowed through the throng and reached the roadside. The uncouth Athenian, bursting with curiosity, inopportunely accosted him.

“See him – close up?” He asked.

Demetrius nodded; and turning away, began to retrace his steps toward his abandoned duty.

“Crazy?” persisted the Athenian, trudging alongside.

“No.”

“King?”

“No,” muttered Demetrius soberly — “not a king.”

“What is he then?” demanded the Athenian, piqued by the Corinthian’s aloofness.

“I don’t know,” mumbled Demetrius in a puzzled voice, “ but – he is something more important than a king.”

The Robe, Lloyd Douglas

I think that often, I am like that Palm Sunday crowd. I cheer for Jesus because of what I think he will do for me – provide for me financially, or heal me, or get me out of the mess I’m in, or squash the people I don’t like. I am often interested in Jesus because he can make my life more comfortable right now. But Jesus — on that first Palm Sunday, and today as well – is interested far more real, eternal, life for me. That life starts right now – not when I die. But that doesn’t mean I automatically get to be more comfortable here. It’s sort of like asking him to get you an air mattress for the tent you live in next to the city dump, when all the while, he’s building you a 3 million dollar house in the countryside. The difficult part is, you have to give up the dump before you can move the country, before you can even see what the country is like. And you might have to go without the air-mattress so you can learn to want a feather-bed.

Jesus knew that to get that life for the crowd, he had to die. They thought he was coming as a king. He knew that he was coming to die a gruesome, ignoble, humiliating death. That Sunday was the same day that most people drove the lambs into Jerusalem – the Passover lambs that would be killed to remember God’s deliverance of his people. Jesus came into town like them – not gentle and fearful like a lamb – but like a Passover lamb in just this one respect – he was a sacrifice that would save all people from death and deliver us from our slavery to sin and grant us a new life.

There is indeed a lot to cheer about here – but it is not the stuff we most often dwell upon, or think about yelling for. As we celebrate Jesus today, let’s celebrate not so much the earthly, temporary things he could get us, but rather the eternal, unbreakable life, and forgiveness that he won for us, riding a little donkey toward his own painful death.

1 PETER #31: HUMILITY

On By Pastor TomIn 1 Peter, Bible Teaching, House Church, Podcast, Religion, Sermon, UncategorizedLeave a comment
The Bible

Jesus explicitly taught his disciples to be humble. Humility is not the same as humiliation. Jesus, being who he was, understood that he was, in fact, the most amazing being in the universe. Yet, he did not insist that others recognize him as such, even though he knew it to be true. The essence of humility is trusting God to make all things right, in his own time.

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 1 Peter Part 31

Humility is a challenging topic for me to teach about, because it’s so difficult to be humble when you are as amazing as me. (Sorry, I had to do that one – it was so obvious!) Actually, when I think of how bad I am at humility, I am humbled. (OK, I’ll quit now). All right, on a serious note, I do actually struggle with the whole topic of humility, because I struggle with the idea of injustice. It seems wrong to me – unjust – when people are not recognized for their amazing gifts, achievements, or personalities, while other people, less deserving, get credit when they don’t really deserve it. However, Jesus and his apostles are crystal clear about humility: Humility is part of the character of Jesus, and therefore it should be part of the character of every Christian. Paul explains this in many places, but perhaps nowhere better than in his letter to the Philippians:

3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. 4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. 5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

(Philippians 2:3-11, ESV)

Jesus himself explained the importance of humility to his disciples many times:

7 Now he told a parable to those who were invited, when he noticed how they chose the places of honor, saying to them, 8 “When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not sit down in a place of honor, lest someone more distinguished than you be invited by him, 9 and he who invited you both will come and say to you, ‘Give your place to this person,’ and then you will begin with shame to take the lowest place. 10 But when you are invited, go and sit in the lowest place, so that when your host comes he may say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher.’ Then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at table with you. 11 For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

(Luke 14:7-11, ESV)

Jesus’ own life was one huge example of humility. Being God, the Creator and Ruler of the universe, he humbly confined himself to the limits of human flesh. Even when he did that, he did not choose to be born in Rome, or Athens, which were the centers of power and culture in those days. He did not become the son of a king, emperor, or even just a noble family. Instead, he became the son of a poor family. Not only was he not born in a palace, he wasn’t even born in an ordinary house, but rather a stable. He grew up in Nazareth, which was a no-account town in a no-account region in a no-account country. When he spoke, it was with a Galilean accent, which sounded to the people of Jerusalem like a hillbilly/redneck way of talking. He washed the feet of his disciples as if he was a common servant. He was put on trial and mocked by people who should have fallen on their faces to worship him. The wood that was used to crucify him came from a tree that would not have existed if he hadn’t caused it to be. And even today his name is mocked. This is how it is supposed to be, for now, says Jesus:

25 But Jesus called them to him and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. 26 It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, 27 and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, 28 even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

(Matthew 20:25-28, ESV)

Now, I do think sometimes we misunderstand humility. Perhaps we think it is similar to humiliation. We might imagine that to be humble means to have a low opinion of ourselves, or even hate ourselves. But if we look at Jesus as the greatest example of humility, I think we can see more clearly.

Jesus did not have a low opinion of himself. He did not think of himself as worthless, useless or pointless. If you took every human being who ever lived, and every great work of art, culture, literature or engineering that was ever made, and threw in all the gold and jewels and real estate in all of the history of the entire world, all of it together is not as valuable as the life of Jesus. And if Jesus is who the Bible says he is, he must have known that. He knew that he was the most amazing human being to ever walk on the surface of this planet. He knew that the entire planet was not equal in worth to a single drop of his own blood.

So Biblical humility does not mean self-hatred. It does not mean you pretend you are worthless when you know you are not. But Jesus, being who he was, knowing who he was, did not insist that everyone else acknowledge that. He had self-respect, but he did not demand that others treat him with the respect he deserved. In the verses from Matthew chapter 20 (above) he says: “I didn’t come to be served, but to serve, and to give my life as a ransom for many.”

When we are humble, we do not insist upon our own way, even when we could rightfully do so. We do not insist upon getting credit for something, even when we deserve that credit. When we are humble we patiently endure it when others treat us unjustly and unfairly, knowing that one way or another, God will eventually make all things right. We don’t have to defend ourselves, our abilities, our work, or our reputation, because God will do so in his time and in his way.

This leads us to another important aspect of humility. In order to truly be humble, we need to trust God. We need to trust that he will look out for our interests, for our credit, for our good and safety. If we think we are on our own, if it is up to us to look out for ourselves, we cannot be humble, because the world will run over us, and we won’t get what we need and deserve. But if we trust that God will look out for us, we can let go of the need to make sure we get “our rightful share” of everything in life.

On the other hand, in order to trust God, we need to be humble. Humility says, “I need God. I am not enough on my own. I need grace and forgiveness.”

I recently watched a TV show. The story was about a woman named Donna who was married to a violently abusive husband. She had an affair, and got pregnant from the affair. A teenage girl found out, and threatened to tell her husband, so Donna killed the girl. She allowed an innocent man to be convicted of the murder, and that man served twenty-years in prison for Donna’s crime, until she was found out.

When the police finally found out that Donna was the murderer, she blamed everyone but herself. She said it was her abusive husband’s fault. She said it was the girl’s fault for threatening to tell. It was the fault of the man she had an affair with. It was the police’s fault for not making her feel safe from her husband (though she never told anyone, until after he died, that he was abusive).

After serving a few years in prison herself, she developed terminal cancer. The sister of the girl who she murdered came to see Donna, to tell her that she forgave her. Donna’s response was “-—you, and -—forgiveness!” (“—” stands for a swearword). I think this portrays a very real kind of attitude. You see, in order to receive forgiveness, Donna would have to admit that the murder was indeed her fault. She would have to give up defending herself. She would have to put herself in a place of need that she could not fill herself. In short, she would have had to humble herself, and she refused to be humble.

I know that’s only a story, but like all good stories, it connects us to something real about life. Most of us have not committed murder. Even so, we need forgiveness no less than the character of Donna in the story. But in order to be forgiven, we have to admit that we have a need for it, and we cannot meet that need ourselves. Humility means we must depend upon God – we can’t do it alone. We have to rely on him for something – we cannot rely on ourselves alone. We need forgiveness, but we don’t deserve forgiveness, and we are at the mercy of God’s willingness to give it to us. That is a place of humility, and many, many people refuse to be so humble.

We will spend next week on the phrase “casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.” But for now, I want to point out that to cast our anxieties upon God requires humility. We have to admit that we can’t handle it all. We have to give up trying ourselves to make life work, and trust God. That requires humility.

Peter urges us to be humble not only toward God, but also toward one another. A few weeks ago in one of our local house churches, someone shared some very personal struggles they were having. This person was allowing us to see that they didn’t have it all together, admitting that they had needs that they themselves could not fill. I was struck by two things. First, it required real humility to be so open and vulnerable with us. That person’s open sharing was a demonstration of humility in action. They were willing for us to see their personal struggles, willing to show that they did not have life all working well. Second, it struck me that this kind of humility requires great courage and strength. We tend to think of people who keep it all in as “strong, silent types.” But I realized, while the person was sharing, that I was seeing incredible bravery and incredible inner strength on display. I think it takes much more courage and inner fortitude to be openly humble like that than it does to keep silent.

So humility can be difficult. It requires vulnerability and trust. But Peter tells us that we will not have to humble ourselves forever. Right now, it is the attitude we should have. But what Jesus and his disciples taught, and what the Old Testament teaches also, is that when we humble ourselves, we are trusting ourselves into God’s hands. If we will trust him by being humble, he will make sure that in his own time, we are lifted up. That of course, is what Peter says in the text today: humble yourselves, and then God, in his time, will lift you up. That is the implication of what Paul writes in Philippians: Jesus humbled himself, and then God lifted him up and gave him honor, and he will receive even more honor when  he returns. Many Old Testament scriptures teach the same thing:

6 Though the LORD is great, he cares for the humble,
but he keeps his distance from the proud. (Psalms 138:6, NLT)
15 For thus says the One who is high and lifted up,
who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy:
“I dwell in the high and holy place,
and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit,
to revive the spirit of the lowly,
and to revive the heart of the contrite. (Isaiah 57:15, ESV)
34 He mocks those who mock,
but gives grace to the humble.( Proverbs 3:34, HCSB)

We need to trust that he will indeed “lift us up” when the time comes.

A few thoughts for application: As you have been reading this, is there some way in which the Holy Spirit is prompting you to be humble? Is he asking you to be vulnerable about something with other believers? Is he gently calling you to let go of getting your own way in something? Perhaps he wants you to hold your peace when someone less deserving gets credit for something.

On a different line of thought: how is the Lord calling you to humbly trust him right now? Do you need to let go of pride, or self-sufficiency?

Let the Spirit speak to you today!

1 PETER #25: THE MEANING OF BAPTISM.

On By Pastor TomIn 1 Peter, Christianity, Podcast, Religion, Sermon1 Comment
Photo by Su Casa Panamu00e1 on Pexels.com

Using this text as our starting point, we are going to take a deep dive into the meaning and practice of baptism. Before we do, I want to make sure some things are very clear. For several centuries now, good and true Christians have disagreed about baptism – what exactly it is and what it means. It is not necessary, therefore, at New Joy Fellowship, or the Life Together Churches network, that everyone hold the same view about baptism.  What is necessary with regard to this issue, is that we treat each other with respect, and allow the same differences of opinion that the Lord has allowed in his church for the past five centuries. Since so many great Christians of the past have disagreed about this issue, it would be a tragic mistake to let differences of opinion on baptism divide New Joy Fellowship.

However, let us also not let different opinions keep us from seeking what the Bible says about it. If we end up disagreeing, that’s OK. It won’t divide us. But we can still seek the best understanding possible about baptism. I think we can all agree that the goal is to search the scriptures with an open mind, and a desire to know what it really teaches.

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 1 Peter Part 24

1 PETER #24. 1 PETER 3:18-22

Our focus this time is on verses 21-22. In verse 20, Peter uses the people who disobeyed during the time of Noah as an example of the types of people to whom Jesus proclaimed the gospel in hell. I think Peter uses Noah’s time particularly, because he wants to introduce the next thought, which is about baptism. In Noah’s time, the flood killed almost everyone by drowning. But the water also washed the earth clean of wickedness and filth, and it lifted up the ark and carried it, causing the people within it to be saved. Peter says “this corresponds to baptism.” Or, in other words, “it gives us a picture of baptism.” The water brought a special kind of cleansing. Before, Noah and his family lived in a horribly depraved, sinful world. Then, through water, and a special vehicle (the ark), they were brought into a world that had been renewed by God. How does this paint a picture of baptism? We live in a horribly depraved, sinful world. Through water, combined with a special vehicle (the promise of God) baptism cleanses us, lifts us from the dying, sinful world, into the Kingdom of God.

Using this text as our starting point, we are going to take a deep dive into the meaning and practice of baptism. Before we do, I want to make sure some things are very clear. For several centuries now, good and true Christians have disagreed about baptism – what exactly it is and what it means. Since it has not been necessary for about 500 years that Christians agree about this, it is not necessary, at New Joy Fellowship, or the Life Together Churches network, that everyone hold the same view about baptism.  What is necessary with regard to this issue, is that we treat each other with respect, and allow the same differences of opinion that the Lord has allowed in his church for the past five centuries. Since so many great Christians of the past have disagreed about this issue, it would be a tragic mistake to let differences of opinion on baptism divide New Joy Fellowship.

Having said that, I will present my understanding of the Bible, and of history, with the same force and rigor that I try to use with every sermon. In my own mind, the most important things about baptism are quite clear from the scripture. Please understand, however, that if you disagree with me about baptism, it is not a problem. I have my opinions, but I recognize many of the great Christians of the past five hundred years have had different ones about this topic. Though I think I’m right, and I might come on strong, I’m telling you right now that I realize I could be wrong. So, let’s give each other grace here.

In the meantime, I want to teach clearly what I really think the Bible says about baptism, because it seems to me that these days, many things about baptism often get confused, and distorted. Sometimes, some of the most powerful scriptures about baptism are not even part of the conversation.

When it comes to baptism, I think there are three main issues: 1. What, exactly is baptism? What kind of meaning does the Bible attach to it? 2. Who should be baptized (for instance what about infants in believing families?) 3. How should we go about baptizing people?

The truth is, there is quite a bit of Biblical material about the first question. The biblical information about the second two questions is much more thin, and harder to process. Therefore, today, we’ll try to consider the first. What is baptism? What does the Bible say about it? I want to point out that today, what we cover should not be particularly controversial. We’ll simply be looking at the things the bible clearly teaches about the nature of baptism.

The English word baptism comes directly from the Greek word in the Bible. We don’t really have a good single English word for all the Biblical meanings. In general, it means “a ceremonial, or religious washing with water.” The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia says this:

The Greek words from which our English “baptism” has been formed are used by Greek writers, in classical antiquity, in the LXX and in the NT, with a great latitude of meaning. It is not possible to exhaust their meaning by any single English term. The action which the Greek words express may be performed by plunging, drenching, staining, dipping, sprinkling.

(International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, article on Baptism)

“The LXX” means: “the ancient Greek version of the Old Testament.” So, even before the time of Jesus, Greek-speaking Jews used the words baptize/baptism to mean a wide variety of things, but the common idea was some kind of ceremonial, or ritual, washing with water. The Easton’s Bible Dictionary agrees, saying:

Baptists say that it means “to dip,” and nothing else. That is an incorrect view of the meaning of the word. It means both (1) to dip a thing into an element or liquid, and (2) to put an element or liquid over or on it. Nothing therefore as to the mode of baptism can be concluded from the mere word used. The word has a wide latitude of meaning, not only in the New Testament, but also in the LXX Version of the Old Testament, where it is used of the ablutions and baptisms required by the Mosaic law. These were effected by immersion, and by affusion and sprinkling; and the same word, “washings” (Heb. 9:10, 13, 19, 21) or “baptisms,” designates them all.

(Easton’s Bible Dictionary, article on Baptism)

So, we don’t get a ton of help from the word itself. As the two quotes above point out, in the Greek version of the Old Testament (which was probably used by most of the early Christians) the word generally used for rituals involving cleansing with water was “baptism.” Again, it can mean immersion, dipping, pouring or sprinkling.

John the Baptist used baptism in his ministry. For those who received it, it meant that they were repenting of their old way of life, receiving forgiveness of sins, and entering into a new mode of living. Baptism was a kind of “initiation” into that  new way of life.

4 John appeared, baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 5 And all the country of Judea and all Jerusalem were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. 6 Now John was clothed with camel’s hair and wore a leather belt around his waist and ate locusts and wild honey. 7 And he preached, saying, “After me comes he who is mightier than I, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. 8 I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

(Mark 1:4-8, ESV)

This concept of initiation into a new way of life seems to be a key factor with regard to baptism. Also, put a little mental note on the part where John says that Jesus will baptize with the Holy Spirit. Mark records these words of Jesus:

28 I tell you, of all who have ever lived, none is greater than John. Yet even the least person in the Kingdom of God is greater than he is!”
29 When they heard this, all the people—even the tax collectors—agreed that God’s way was right, for they had been baptized by John. 30 But the Pharisees and experts in religious law rejected God’s plan for them, for they had refused John’s baptism.

(Luke 7:28-30, NLT)

The people, by being baptized, had aligned themselves with John, they were, in a sense, one with him. By refusing baptism, the religious leaders made it clear that they were not aligned with him. They did not want to be part of him or his movement. So baptism initiates you into something, aligns you with it. Christian baptism means you have been joined with Jesus Christ, and with his people. Galatians makes the same sort of argument about Christian baptism. We weren’t just “baptized” in some vague, general way. We were baptized into Christ.

26 It is through faith that all of you are God’s children in union with Christ Jesus. 27 You were baptized into union with Christ, and now you are clothed, so to speak, with the life of Christ himself. 28 So there is no difference between Jews and Gentiles, between slaves and free people, between men and women; you are all one in union with Christ Jesus. 29 If you belong to Christ, then you are the descendants of Abraham and will receive what God has promised.

(Galatians 3:26-29, GNT)

So, being baptized into Christ means that you become “part of Christ,” in some way – you were baptized into union with Christ. You are initiated into him. Paul uses this same concept of being brought into union with someone or something in 1 Corinthians 10:1-5. He affirms this again in 1 Corinthians chapter 12:

12 For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.

(1 Corinthians 12:12-13, ESV)

We were all baptized into something. We are brought into union with Christ, and brought into the body of Christ (that is, true spiritual fellowship with everyone who trusts Jesus). In Romans, Paul says that part of the meaning of baptism is that we were united with Christ specifically in his death and resurrection.

3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

(Romans 6:3-4, ESV)

He says something similar in Colossians:

11 In him you were also circumcised. It was not a circumcision performed by human hands. But it was a removal of the corrupt nature in the circumcision performed by Christ. 12 This happened when you were placed in the tomb with Christ through baptism. In baptism you were also brought back to life with Christ through faith in the power of God, who brought him back to life.

(Colossians 2:11-12, God’s Word version, bold formatting added by me)

So baptism unites us with Christ in a general way. It also, in a special way, applies his crucifixion and resurrection to us, or unites us with them. God does something in us when we are baptized. This leads to another thought. No one baptizes themselves. Baptism is something that is done to us, and for us.

I want to pause and point out a few things. Some people view baptism as a kind of testimony – something we do for God to show that we do indeed have faith. That could be a part of it. But clearly, in the New Testament, baptism is also much more than our testimony of faith and obedience. In fact, it is portrayed mainly as something that God does for us.

Baptism brings you into union with Christ. It identifies you with the death and resurrection of Christ. It initiates you into the body of Christ. All that should be plain from a straightforward reading of the texts above.

But wait! There’s more! In the New Testament, baptism is often also connected to forgiveness of sins:

37 Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” 38 And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.”

(Acts 2:37-39, ESV)

16 And now why do you wait? Rise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on his name.’

(Acts 22:16, ESV)

The early church took this very seriously. Sometimes too seriously, in fact, or at least, too literally. The only arguments critical of infant baptism during the first 1,500 years of the church were about this. Some few people thought that since baptism washes away sins, it was a waste to baptize infants, since they were certainly going to sin again as they got older. Instead, these folks argued, baptism should be delayed as long as possible, so that the baptized person had a chance of dying before they sinned again.

Finally, there are many promises connecting the Holy Spirit to baptism. Acts 2:37-39, already quoted above, seems to say that the Holy Spirit is connected in some way to baptism. Mark 1:4-8 (return to the mental note I told you to make) supports this. Jesus himself had a special encounter with the Spirit at his baptism, and he involves the Holy Spirit in his command to baptize:

19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

(Matthew 28:19-20, ESV)

Paul found some people who were baptized with John the Baptist’s baptism. He demonstrated that they needed to be baptized into Jesus, after which they received the Holy Spirit:

1 And it happened that while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul passed through the inland country and came to Ephesus. There he found some disciples. 2 And he said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” And they said, “No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.” 3 And he said, “Into what then were you baptized?” They said, “Into John’s baptism.” 4 And Paul said, “John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in the one who was to come after him, that is, Jesus.” 5 On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. 6 And when Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they began speaking in tongues and prophesying.

(Acts 19:1-6, ESV)

The apostle Peter preached to some Gentiles. The people heard and believed, and it became clear to Peter that they had been given the Holy Spirit, so he ordered them to be baptized. Later, he explained this to the Jewish church:

15 As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell on them just as on us at the beginning. 16 And I remembered the word of the Lord, how he said, John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ 17 If then God gave the same gift to them as he gave to us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could stand in God’s way?”

(Acts 11:15-17, ESV)

To reiterate what we’ve learned so far. Baptism is an initiation into Jesus. It unites us with his death, his resurrection, and his life. It unites us to other Christians. It is connected in some way to the forgiveness of sins, and to the Holy Spirit.

I also want to make it clear that these verses, along with many others, show that baptism is a part of the salvation process. If you are a follower of Jesus, you should be baptized. It’s part of the deal. Jesus commanded us to baptize as part of the process of making disciples (Matthew 28:1-20, quoted above).

Also, much like with salvation in general, we cannot receive any of the gifts given to us by baptism unless we repent of our sins and put our trust in Jesus Christ. Jesus died for all people, whether or not they repent and trust him. If someone does not repent, and does not trust, she will not receive any benefit from the death of Jesus. The benefit is there. But without faith, it is not applied to a person. The person cannot “take hold of” salvation, except through faith. So, in a similar way, when we are baptized, all of the benefits of baptism are made available to us. But they do us no good unless we receive them in repentance and faith.

We’ll talk more about infant baptism next time, but there is an important point here. Those who support infant baptism do so with the understanding that the baby will be brought up to, and taught, a life of repentance and faith, so that the child can take hold of the wonderful promises given to him at his baptism. No real Christians believe that baptism works like magic. Those who baptize infants simply believe that faith can begin very early.

In brief then, we can see that baptism is a ritual that involves water connected to the promises of God. Water, combined with the Ark was, in a sense, a gateway from the old world to the new for Noah’s family. In the same way, water, combined with the promises of God (that is, baptism) is a kind of gateway from our old life, a life that was oriented on our sinful flesh into our new life – into the life of Jesus himself, who lives in and through us. Peter is saying that, combined with faith, this baptism is part of the process God uses to save us, through the death and resurrection of Jesus.

One useful way to think about baptism is to compare it to a passport given to a child that was born outside of his home country. As a citizen of his own country, but living elsewhere, that child needs a passport. He doesn’t earn it for himself – it is given to him as part of his citizenship. It allows him to go back to his country of citizenship when the time comes. The passport means he belongs to his home country. The passport enables him to live where he is, but it gives him all the rights and privileges of his home country.

In the same way, we are children born again as citizens of heaven. We don’t yet live in our real country, our true home. But baptism marks us as belonging to God through Jesus Christ. Baptism grants us the rights and privileges of the children of God, even while we live this mortal life.

A couple of possibilities for application: first, if you are a follower of Jesus and have not been baptized, I strongly encourage you to be baptized soon. Second, for those of us who have been baptized, let’s learn to appreciate and understand all that God has given us through baptism and faith. He has dealt with the problem of our sinful flesh, by crucifying it with Jesus in baptism. He lives his new life in us by the Holy Spirit, through baptism. We have been initiated into Christ – we belong in the kingdom of God. Baptism is our passport, our certificate of birth and citizenship. Take hold of these things by thanking God for them!