Sermon
“How devoted are you to your mother?”
That can be a hard question to answer in a day like ours when the sadnesses and horrors of dysfunctional families and parental abuses are no longer “family secrets” but the stuff of headlines and bestsellers and Facebook message boards for all to see. And yet, generally speaking, you can still get away with insulting somebody’s dad, but don’t you go saying anything about someone’s mama!

So, again, I ask you: “How devoted are you to your mother?”
The Church used to be looked at as “a mother” to disciples. (We Protestants don’t tend to talk about that very much because it’s often thought of as a Catholic thing. But when Jesus was told that His mother and brothers were wanting to see Him, He responded, “My mother and My brothers are all those who hear God’s Word and obey it.” (Luke 8:20-21) And when a woman from the crowds following Him cried out to Jesus, “God bless Your mother – the womb from which You came, and the breasts that nursed You!” Jesus replied, “Even more blessed are all who hear the Word of God and put it into practice.” (Luke 11:27-28) So it was the Lord Jesus Himself Who changed our thinking to begin looking at fellow disciples and lovers of the Lord as family, and the church itself as “mother”.

2 John is even written to “to the chosen lady and to her children.” (2 John 1:1) Written during a time of intense persecution against Christians, it is universally understood that John was writing in code to “The Church”, with “the lady’s children” understood to be the particular “members” of the congregation.

This idea of Church as “mother” was so accepted and understood that The Revelation pictures the Church as “a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon beneath her feet, and a crown of twelve stars on her head.” (12:1) This woman gives birth to God’s Messiah, and so the devil pursues her and “declared war against the rest of her children – all who keep God’s commandments and maintain their testimony for Jesus.” (vv. 5, 13, 17) Again, a vision of the Church and her particular members.

My mom was a great mom; is a great mom (I can say as I thank God for her being alive and still a part of my life today). I was in a lot of plays during my Middle- and High School years. My mom never missed a performance. I have vague but happy memories of special birthdays for me that she planned and celebrated. I can remember her always bringing me ginger ale and saltine crackers when I was sick in bed, and a cool cloth that she would use to wipe my face with. I remember when I was in third or fourth grade telling her I was going to marry her, and not knowing what I was going to do when she told me that she was already married to my dad, and that I would fall in love with another woman someday and marry her. I could talk with my mom about almost anything, and we would talk about lots of things together: Girls, growing up, school, friends, finances, honor, and responsibility.

Anybody here have a short-but-sweet story you want to share about your mom? …

My first memories of Church are warm, welcoming memories: Being invited by a friend to sing in his church’s children’s choir; a friendly Sunday School teacher when I used to go to church with neighbors; happy and fun church dinners and breakfasts; holding hands with a girl under the table during Confirmation Class; and the pastor joking with me about silly things I’d written in my senior yearbook page… But Church became the place I went when I was in trouble, too. When I realized I was developing a drinking problem I went and talked to the pastor. It was fellow Christians that first spotted God calling me to be a pastor. It was the Church that encouraged me and comforted me and surrounded me and my family when my little brother was killed.

The Church hasn’t been perfect (as no mother is ever perfect). I have lots of memories where the Church wasn’t there when I needed her; when the Church said and did hurtful – horribly hurtful – things. But, as we just said, no mother’s perfect…

Anybody have a short-but-sweet story you want to share about Mother church? …

So, how devoted are you to your mother?

Acts 2 tells us that the first Christians devoted themselves to Mother Church by being a part of the apostles’ teaching times and not missing the opportunities for fellowship and sharing meals, and by participating in the congregational prayer times. They devoted themselves. That word “devoted” conveys a picture of a boat reserved for a particular trip, or of a manservant or maidservant who has no commitments all day or night except to be at their master’s beck-and-call. So for those first Christians, if there was teaching or get-togethers or meals or prayer times going on among the church, if they could be, they were there!

How devoted are you to your Mother?

In the Ten Commandments, Commandment Five is “Honor your father and mother.” It is the only Commandment that comes with a promise, “Honor your father and mother. Then you will live a long, full life in the land the Lord your God is giving you.”
Acts 2 gives us a picture of what devotion to Mother Church looks like, and then gives a picture of what results from such devotion: Those first Christians were filled with a deep sense of awe; many miraculous signs and wonders were being performed by the leaders; they were always getting together and sharing their things (as though God owned all their things and not they themselves); and they looked forward to Worship; and shared their meals together; and they overflowed with joy and generosity! and, all the people around them thought highly of them; and more and more and always more people became followers of Christ! All as the result of being so devoted to their Mother…

Don’t you want that: Being in awe of God, or being in awe of Him again – like you used to? Seeing and hearing about miracles happening all around you and being a part of them yourself? Never again fearing that you’ll be in need? Living secure that the Church has your back and that you have theirs? Bursting with joy? and generosity? People thinking highly of you around town and our communities? (Can you picture it?) And more and more and more of our neighbors, and the business- and government-folk around us, and our teachers and friends and colleagues at work coming to Christ?

… Don’t you want that?

All because we’re devoted to our Mother.
…
How devoted are you to your Mother?

According to Luke 23:46 [NLTse]

¹³ That same day two of Jesus’ followers were walking to the village of Emmaus, seven miles from Jerusalem. ¹⁴ As they walked along they were talking about everything that had happened. ¹⁵ As they talked and discussed these things, Jesus Himself suddenly came and began walking with them. ¹⁶ But God kept them from recognizing Him.

¹⁷ He asked them, “What are you discussing so intently as you walk along?”

They stopped short, sadness written across their faces. ¹⁸ Then one of them, Cleopas, replied, “You must be the only person in Jerusalem who hasn’t heard about all the things that have happened there the last few days.”

¹⁹ “What things?” Jesus asked.

“The things that happened to Jesus, the Man from Nazareth,” they said. “He was a prophet Who did powerful miracles, and He was a mighty teacher in the eyes of God and all the people. ²⁰ But our leading priests and other religious leaders handed Him over to be condemned to death, and they crucified Him. ²¹ We had hoped He was the Messiah Who had come to rescue Israel. This all happened three days ago.

²² “Then some women from our group of His followers were at His tomb early this morning, and they came back with an amazing report. ²³ They said His body was missing, and they had seen angels who told them Jesus is alive! ²⁴ Some of our men ran out to see, and sure enough, His body was gone, just as the women had said.”

²⁵ Then Jesus said to them, “You foolish people! You find it so hard to believe all that the prophets wrote in the Scriptures. ²⁶ Wasn’t it clearly predicted that the Messiah would have to suffer all these things before entering His glory?” ²⁷ Then Jesus took them through the writings of Moses and all the prophets, explaining from all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.

²⁸ By this time they were nearing Emmaus and the end of their journey. Jesus acted as if He were going on, ²⁹ but they begged Him, “Stay the night with us, since it is getting late.” So He went home with them. ³⁰ As they sat down to eat, He took the bread and blessed it. Then He broke it and gave it to them. ³¹ Suddenly, their eyes were opened, and they recognized Him. And at that moment He disappeared!

³² They said to each other, “Didn’t our hearts burn within us as He talked with us on the road and explained the Scriptures to us?” ³³ And within the hour they were on their way back to Jerusalem. There they found the eleven disciples and the others who had gathered with them, ³⁴ who said, “The Lord has really risen! He appeared to Peter.”

³⁵ Then the two from Emmaus told their story of how Jesus had appeared to them as they were walking along the road, and how they had recognized Him as he was breaking the bread. ³⁶ And just as they were telling about it, Jesus Himself was suddenly standing there among them. “Peace be with you,” He said.

Sermon

It is a two-hour walk from Jerusalem northwest to Emmaus. (Though the exact location of the city is unknown.) It was common to travel in groups, catching up with those walking ahead of you or slowing down so others could catch up to you. The bigger your band the less likely you would be bothered by thieves and muggers. So when Cleopas and the other disciple – perhaps his wife or perhaps some other – saw Jesus (though they didn’t recognize Him to be Jesus) they welcomed Him to walk with them.

Jerusalem in these days was quite a place. If we likened Rome to New York City, we might liken Jerusalem to Vatican City: Much smaller than its cosmopolitan, center of the world counterpart, but with lots of grandeur and glamor of its own. And although it might not have had much influence when compared to Rome and the great cities of the Empire, just as Vatican City speaks for all the world’s Roman Catholics, Jerusalem spoke for all the Empire’s many Jews. And because it was the center of Jewish life, during holy days like the Festivals of Passover, Pentecost, and Shelters, it would have been packed to overflowing with Jews from across the Empire: From Parthia, Medea, Elam, Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus, the province of Asia, Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt, and the areas of Libya around Cyrene, Rome, Crete, and Arabia… And after three years of doing powerful miracles and showing Himself to be a mighty teacher, many of the Jews across the Empire had heard about Jesus of Nazareth, wondering if He were the Christ – God’s Messiah, and had come for the Passover hoping to see Him and judge for themselves.

But this Man who’d joined Cleopas and his companion didn’t seem to know anything about these things…

Until suddenly, after they’d told Him all about their messianic hopes and their confusion over His missing body, this stranger says, “You foolish people! You find it so hard to believe all that the prophets wrote in the Scriptures. Wasn’t it clearly predicted that the Messiah would have to suffer all these things before entering His glory?”

Would you open your Bibles with me to Genesis chapter 3… [As people turn to the page] This is the account of Eve’s being tempted by the Serpent and Adam and Eve’s choosing to trust the devil over God… After Adam and Eve eat the fruit God has told them not to eat, the Lord pays them a visit and – in v. 15 – speaking to the Serpent, He says, “Because you have done this, you are cursed … I will cause hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her Offspring. He will strike your head and your will strike His heel.” (v. 15)

Do you see? “Offspring” in English can be either singular or plural, but the Hebrew makes clear that this “offspring” is singular. One of Eve’s descendents will give the Serpent a death blow, but in doing so that Descendent will Himself be struck in return! From the beginning of all things God has told us to expect a suffering savior!

Turn to the Prophet Isaiah, 53… [As people turn the page] This passage is titled “The Suffering Servant”, though many Jewish Bibles distort this chapter, and it is not included in Jewish synagogue haftorah – that is, weekly Scripture readings…

“My Servant grew up in the Lord’s presence like a tender green shoot, like a root in dry ground. There was nothing beautiful or majestic about His appearance, nothing to attract us to Him. He was despised and rejected—a Man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief. We turned our backs on Him and looked the other way. He was despised, and we did not care.

“Yet it was our weaknesses He carried; it was our sorrows that weighed Him down. And we thought His troubles were a punishment from God, a punishment for His Own sins! But He was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed. All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own. Yet the Lord laid on Him the sins of us all.

“He was oppressed and treated harshly, yet He never said a word. He was led like a lamb to the slaughter. And as a sheep is silent before the shearers, He did not open His mouth. Unjustly condemned, He was led away. No one cared that He died without descendants, that His life was cut short in midstream. But He was struck down for the rebellion of My people. He had done no wrong and had never deceived anyone. But He was buried like a criminal; He was put in a rich man’s grave.

“But it was the Lord’s good plan to crush Him and cause Him grief. Yet when His life is made an offering for sin, He will have many descendants. He will enjoy a long life, and the Lord’s good plan will prosper in His hands. When He sees all that is accomplished by His anguish, He will be satisfied. And because of His experience, My righteous Servant will make it possible for many to be counted righteous, for He will bear all their sins. I will give Him the honors of a victorious soldier, because He exposed Himself to death. He was counted among the rebels. He bore the sins of many and interceded for rebels.”

Jesus Christ’s suffering was His path to glory. But the disciples were so caught up in the world’s admiration of political power and military might that they had become blinded to God’s Kingdom values: That the last will be first, and that life grows out of death.

Let’s look at the Prophet Zechariah, chapter 12 together… 500 years before Jesus’ birth Zechariah is speaking for God as to when He will deliver Jerusalem from all its enemies. And in v. 10 Zechariah speaks for the Lord, “Then I will pour out a spirit of grace and prayer on the family of David and on the people of Jerusalem. They will look on Me Whom they have pierced and mourn for Him as for an only son. They will grieve bitterly for Him as for a firstborn who has died…” (Now jump down to 13:1…) “On that day a fountain will be opened for the dynasty of David and for the people of Jerusalem, a fountain to cleanse them from all their sins and impurity.”

Do you see it? Sins forgiven! The rebellion started by Adam and Eve overturned! The relationship lost in the Garden restored! A spirit of grace and prayer, but the cost would be God Himself being pierced! And their grieving bitterly for Him like the way parents grieve and mourn at the death of an only child…

The Father had prepared His people – and has prepared us all – for a stricken Striker, a murdered Messiah, a crucified King. But the idea of a suffering Servant is no more popular today than 2,000 years ago.

So let us not be discouraged by bad circumstances or upsetting events or horrors or trials of any kind. Jesus said, “Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)

We follow the Suffering Servant; the crucified King. And to share in His glory we must first share in His sufferings. (See Romans 8:17)

Introduction

Several months ago I shared with you about the critical importance our Lord Jesus places upon confessing our sins. Guilt and shame get in the way of a close relationship with God, and – when we do confess – the Lord promises to take our guilt and shame and put it to death on the cross, giving us His righteousness so we can live our lives according to His Word and Holy Spirit within us.

That message lifted up the Lord Jesus’ concern for us to know His forgiveness and release from death and guilt and shame. This morning we see the Lord Jesus’ concern for the forgiveness and release of those around us…

John 20:19-31 [NLTse]

¹⁹ That Sunday evening the disciples were meeting behind locked doors because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders. Suddenly, Jesus was standing there among them! “Peace be with you,” He said. ²⁰ As He spoke, He showed them the wounds in His hands and His side. They were filled with joy when they saw the Lord! ²¹ Again He said, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent Me, so I am sending you.” ²² Then He breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. ²³ If you forgive anyone’s sins, they are forgiven. If you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”

²⁴ One of the twelve disciples, Thomas (nicknamed the Twin), was not with the others when Jesus came. ²⁵ They told him, “We have seen the Lord!”

But he replied, “I won’t believe it unless I see the nail wounds in His hands, put my fingers into them, and place my hand into the wound in His side.”

²⁶ Eight days later the disciples were together again, and this time Thomas was with them. The doors were locked; but suddenly, as before, Jesus was standing among them. “Peace be with you,” He said. ²⁷ Then He said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and look at My hands. Put your hand into the wound in My side. Don’t be faithless any longer. Believe!”

²⁸ “My Lord and my God!” Thomas exclaimed.

²⁹ Then Jesus told him, “You believe because you have seen Me. Blessed are those who believe without seeing Me.”

³⁰ The disciples saw Jesus do many other miraculous signs in addition to the ones recorded in this book. ³¹ But these are written so that you may continue to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing in Him you will have life by the power of His name.

Sermon

Jesus breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone’s sins, they are forgiven. If you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”

This is a difficult teaching.

Every time I have ever had a discussion about this with someone they have – without exception – told me, “Only God has the power to confess sins.” And, of course, I know that. Yet the Bible tells us that “Jesus breathed on them and said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone’s sins, they are forgiven. If you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.’” I didn’t do and say this. Jesus did and said this.

It gets me thinking about Jesus’ Own trouble with forgiving sins. Do you remember? He’d been teaching and healing, casting out demons and calling people to repentance and proclaiming the Kingdom of God. He was attracting a lot of attention, and so various representatives from the Jewish religious leadership joined the crowds following Him, watching and listening to find out if He was faithful to the Law and Covenant of Moses or if He was a heretic and leading the people astray.

Do you remember when, one day, some people brought to Him a man from the community who couldn’t walk because his legs were paralyzed? And how, when Jesus saw their faith that, He told the paralyzed man, “Your sins are forgiven”? And do you remember that some of those religious leaders decided then that He was a blasphemer and that He must be trouble because everyone know that only God can forgive sins? But, then, knowing what they were thinking, Jesus told them they were evil for thinking such things, and then healed He the man – who then got up and walked! – as proof to them that He had God’s authority to forgive sins? Do you remember that? Well, here – it’s several years later – and Jesus has been sacrificed for our sins and has overcome death, And Jesus is sharing that authority with us.

Maybe you’re thinking (as I believe many people do when they read this passage): “So, I can forgive people’s sins? And if I do then God will forgive them and they’ll go to Heaven? And if I don’t forgive them then they can never be forgiven and they’ll go to Hell?” And, of course, the answer is more complicated than that.

Let’s open our Bibles to 2 Corinthians 5:18c-20… Paul writes:

¹⁴ …Christ’s love controls us. Since we believe that Christ died for all, we also believe that we have all died to our old life. ¹⁵ He died for everyone so that those who receive His new life will no longer live for themselves. Instead, they will live for Christ, Who died and was raised for them.

¹⁶ So we have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view. At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view. How differently we know Him now! ¹⁷ This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!

¹⁸ …God has given us this task of reconciling people to Him. ¹⁹ For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And He gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. ²⁰ So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making His appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!”

Do you see? In giving us the authority to forgive others or to keep them in their sins, Jesus is merely giving us specific details about our roles as His ambassadors here. But what is an ambassador?

An ambassador, generally speaking, is a respected official acting as a representative of a nation. Sent to a foreign land, the ambassador’s role is to reflect the official position of the sovereign body that gave him or her authority. What that means for us is that we Christians are God’s ambassadors in that, according to 1 Thessalonians (2:4), “We speak as messengers approved by God to be entrusted with the Good News.” So as we go through this world, we represent another Kingdom – Jesus’ Kingdom that is not of this world (John 18:36) – and it is our responsibility to reflect the “official position” of that Kingdom, the official position of Heaven. You and I are in this world, but not of it, Jesus tells us (John 17:16). And empowered by God the Holy Spirit, we must take the message of our King to the “ends of the Earth” (Acts 1:8), imploring men and women everywhere to be reconciled to God, and helping reconcile them to Him.

So just as the Lord Jesus can say to a paralyzed man, and to you and to me, “Your sins are forgiven,” likewise, led by the Spirit of Christ (that is, the Holy Spirit) we, in the Lord Jesus’ name and as the Lord Jesus’ ambassadors, we can tell each other and others, “Your sins are forgiven!” As Paul wrote, “God is making His appeal through us. We are speaking for Christ.”

James 5:16 comes to my mind, where we are called to “Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.” But let’s not just read that, let’s picture that together:

Here we have one Christian is telling another Christian – or perhaps several – how sorry they are for their sins. So, do the other Christians respond by asking God to forgive them? Yes. And yet at the same time, we know that 1 John 1:9 commits to us that when we confess our sins to the Lord that “He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.” So our fellow Christians need to pray for God to forgive us, and yet we’ve also already asked God’s forgiveness ourselves? So what I think James is describing here is the listening Christians not only joining the confessor in asking the Father for His forgiveness, but also speaking to the confessor in Christ’s name the assurance of God’s forgiveness. (Perhaps something like, “Ben, in the name of Jesus Christ, know your sins are forgiven, be healed and know Christ’s peace.”)

After all, isn’t that what I say after you and I have confessed our sins together during various Worship Services? (Of course, sometimes we confess our sins silently, which clearly is not as effective, but many of you confess your sins aloud.) And afterward I tend to say something like, “My brothers and sisters, according to your lives of faith in Jesus Christ, know your sins are forgiven and be at peace.” And isn’t it a blessing to hear it spoken aloud?

That’s being an ambassador. And Christ is sending each of us, not just me but each of us, out to be His ambassadors of forgiveness and reconciliation to our fellow believers, but also to others, it seems, as well.

Because the Lord Jesus does, here, clearly seem to be conveying upon His disciples some level of authority to forgive the sins of even unbelievers, or at least of those who are not yet believers (though there’s no way we can know for sure who such folks are, around us). So it’s a great mystery, and it requires much humility and much faith.

But it’s also clearly true that the sins and guilt and shame of many people weigh them down with a crushing load. King David sang of such things in Psalm 32:

“When I refused to confess my sin, my body wasted away, and I groaned all day long. Day and night Your hand of discipline was heavy on me. My strength evaporated like water in the summer heat.

“Finally, I confessed all my sins to You and stopped trying to hide my guilt. I said to myself, ‘I will confess my rebellion to the LORD.’ And You forgave me! All my guilt is gone.”

God is calling people to Himself, and sometimes that call comes through the weight and weariness of sin and fear and guilt and shame. Just like it used to be for us, we are surrounded by neighbors who are wearing out: Being crushed; dying under the load of darkness and death and regret and remorse. And in trying to escape such burdens, oftentimes these folks who are beloved of God only end of sinning all the more and multiplying their weariness and misery.

When we forgive the sins of others we both introduce them to God’s forgiveness in Christ (as we explain to them the authority with which we speak), but we also lighten the person’s load, as David sang about and, as they experience the lighter load, by the Holy Spirit’s work upon them, they get drawn to Christ!

I picture it working something like this: I’ve stayed after school for some activity and I say, “Hi” to a friend, or perhaps it’s just an acquaintance, in the hall. We get chit-chatting, and he or she shares something that they’ve recently done. Somehow the Holy Spirit makes me aware that they are not happy about what they’ve done, so I ask, “Are you happy about that?” And they respond, “No, I can’t believe I did it!” And here I am, Christ’s ambassador, and I say, “Are you sorry for it? I mean, really sorry? Sorry to God?” And here, perhaps, I start to sense some tension between us. Maybe it’s because of where I’ve taken the conversation and I’m feeling self-conscious, or maybe it’s because the devil is feeling threatened and is trying to get me to back off. But I picture my friend then responding, “Yes, I am so sorry!”

So then, trusting that the Holy Spirit has orchestrated this whole beautiful situation, I say, “Well, I am a Christian, a follower of Jesus Christ. And I tell you, in the name of Jesus Christ, that your sins are forgiven: Be healed! and be at peace with God.” And maybe the conversation continues or maybe it ends there and I walk away, but I trust the Lord to use what I’ve said to draw them to Himself, and I offer myself to let Him use me by keeping in touch with them as the days go by, as well.

I know this requires boldness: Speaking for Jesus; trusting that He has indeed made us His ambassadors; and, trusting that He does indeed give us His authority, at least to the extent that we accurately represent Him. But I see in our reading today Jesus giving us a soap bucket and scrub brush and calling us to get dirty cleaning people up with Him in His name!

The unrepentant, those who aren’t really sorry for their wickedness need to remain unforgiven and in their sins until they come to repentance, desperate for Christ and His sacrifice. But for all those who are repentant, our brothers and sisters here and across the Tri-States area and to the ends of the Earth, and to all those the Lord Jesus seems to be drawing to repentance and drawing to the Father, let’s forgive them their sins. Jesus promises us and their sins will have been forgiven for His glory and all of our good…

Sermon

It was a traditional part of Jewish grieving rituals for the nearest of kin to remain home in mourning for seven days. Mourners couldn’t wash, work, have intercourse, or even study the Scriptures during these days! Mary Magdalene, who it seems would have grieved as much as the family, would have likewise remained indoors had it not been necessary to finish the work of preparing Jesus’ body for burial left undone due to His death just hours before the Sabbath.

The first day of the week began at sundown on what we would call Saturday night, so the Sabbath – Friday sundown to Saturday sundown – had ended hours before Mary approaches the tomb.

Sepulchers were often carved into soft stone hillsides. Disk-shaped stones rolled in front of the entrances, often so heavy that they frequently required several men to roll them away.

Some have doubted the empty tomb story simply because Paul does not mention it (though 1 Corinthians 15 presupposes it), but the disciples could not have credibly proclaimed the resurrection in Jerusalem if Jesus’ body were still in the tomb. Ancient Jewish men didn’t accept women as reliable witnesses, and so we see John and Peter moved to look for themselves.

Of course, had robbers stolen the body they would have taken it in its wrappings, and had they left the wrappings they surely would have left them in disarray. Yet, whoever left them left them neatly. The face wrappings separated from the linens is not merely “folded up” (as in our reading and the NIV) but most accurately “rolled up”, which could be an indication of neatness or that it was still rolled the way it had been when it was wrapped around Jesus’ head – that His body had risen straight out of the wrappings and cloth!

Skeptics proposal that Jesus had only appeared to have died and then recovered would not explain how he could have loosed the grave cloths tied around Him or escaped a sealed tomb, but it also ignores the nature of crucifixion: The Jewish historian Josephus had three of his friends taken down alive from a cross, but two of them died despite medical attention because their bodies had been so weakened from the trauma of the cross.

On the other hand, those modern critical scholars who have suggested that the original disciples meant only that they had a powerful spiritual experience but had not intended to claim that Jesus rose bodily read our own modern culture into the New Testament: “Resurrection” meant bodily resurrection and nothing else, and no one would have persecuted the disciples for claiming that they had had merely a spiritual experience. Mere belief in ghosts and apparitions was widespread and would not have gotten them in trouble with anyone.

There are other evidences: Jesus very public execution; a high official securing His grave and yet, despite the guards, it was found to be empty; many people claimed to have seen Him; His apostles were dramatically changed; witnesses to His resurrection were willing to die for their claims; the Jews who became believers changed their day of worship from the Sabbath to the day of resurrection; and, of course, Jesus Christ being raised from the dead and alive today fits the experience of those who trust Him, even today!

So what about you? What questions, what doubts do you have that keep you from believing that Jesus Christ is alive today and even here with us now as we worship Him in this place?

And if you do believe that He’s alive and that He’s here and that He is with you and me always, then what’s keeping you from being even more honest and open about your faith and trust in Him, and letting all of Milford, the Tri-States area, and to the ends of the Earth know that He’s risen?

When He showed Himself to Mary, she must have fallen down before Him and grabbed Him around His feet and legs, because He said to her, “Don’t cling to Me.” (And perhaps even better, “Stop clinging to Me!” – exclamation point.) Because He wants her to release Him to go testify for Him, even though she’s a woman and her testimony will be suspect, even though the news sounds impossible and too good to be true, even though it may lead her into all kinds of trouble it has already led her into her greatest joy where she will never ever be separated from her Rabboni again!

Jesus died for you and lives! Live for Him and never truly die!

Luke 19:41-44 [NLTse]

⁴¹ But as [Jesus] came closer to Jerusalem and saw the city ahead, He began to weep. ⁴² “How I wish today that you of all people would understand the way to peace. But now it is too late, and peace is hidden from your eyes. ⁴³ Before long your enemies will build ramparts against your walls and encircle you and close in on you from every side. ⁴⁴ They will crush you into the ground, and your children with you. Your enemies will not leave a single stone in place, because you did not accept your opportunity for salvation.”

Sermon

Ours is a faith of mixed emotions: Celebrating the new life we’ve been given in Christ, even as we lament the troubles of this fallen world around us that loves darkness more than light; on the one hand we live at peace with God and enjoy – by His grace – a growing peace with ourselves and those around us, and yet people can suddenly rise up and hate us in an instant and hold us with contempt and disdain, not for anything we’ve done, but merely because we follow Jesus; we can be so excited about the hope we have in the Lord and all His promises to us along with His whole worldwide bride, while at the very same time we can be sad and hurting for the many among our friends and family members who don’t know God nor love Him and who often don’t even seem to want to hear about Him…

Palm Sunday is filled with mixed emotions like that. Jesus is surrounded by waving palm branches and singing, cheering, adoring supporters, while the religious leaders glare-on scoffing and condemning Him and those who shout His praise; and though the Lord seems to be genuinely celebrating along with the waving, adoring, and dancing crowds, clearly His heart is heavy…

1 Timothy 1:15 says that, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners”; in Mark Jesus proclaimed, “I came, not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” (2:17); in Luke He said of Himself, “The Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost” (19:10); in Matthew the Lord makes clear that He came, “To give His life, a ransom for many” (20:28); and, in John the Lord Jesus said to Pontius Pilate (the Roman governor), “For this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth” (18:37). We could go on and on, but the reason for God being born the Man Jesus of Nazareth is clear: He came to show all people – but Jews especially – God; He came to speak God’s truth to humankind, but, again, especially to Jews; and, He came for His death to serve as a sacrifice for human sin so that sin would never separate human beings from God ever again.

No wonder He weeps as He drew nearer and nearer to Jerusalem: Sure, many were cheering and praising, celebrating and supporting Him around Him; but Jesus knew how shallow their faith was. They loved Him because He fed them. They followed Him because He healed them. They praised Him because He’d brought Lazarus back from the dead. They sought to make Him their king because surely in Him they had the One Whom God had sent to lead their revolution against the harsh Roman rule and Who would set them free!

But Jesus had not come to hand out to people the goodies of this life. No. He came to give them – to give us all – peace: Peace with God; and so that we might live at peace and harmony with one another.

Jesus is the Way to Peace. But the people had not understood the way to peace, they had rejected Him, and, He says, now peace was hidden from them…

In English we tend to think of peace as merely a lack of conflict: “A state in which there is no war or fighting,” Merriam-Webster Dictionary says; “a state of tranquillity or quiet”; “harmony in personal relations”; and the definition goes on similarly. But here in Luke this English word “peace” translates the Hebrew word shalom, and although includes the ideas of harmony and tranquility and lack of conflict, shalom has a far richer meaning in addition to all this.

In Christ, God’s peace – God’s shalom – is a complete peace: Shalom speaks of contentment and completeness, of wholeness and well-being and inner-harmony; God’s peace – His shalom – includes health and safety, one’s welfare and prosperity, a person’s perfection, their fullness, their soul at rest, the absence of any kind of agitation or discord whatsoever! The noun shalom comes from the root-verb shalom which means to be complete, to be perfect, to be full…

The prophet Isaiah famously prophesied the Lord Jesus to be called “The Prince of Peace”. And the apostle Paul writes, “Christ Himself has brought peace to us – He is our peace. He united Jews and Gentiles into one people when, in His Own body on the cross, He broke down the wall of hostility that separated us,” (Ephesians 2:14) that separated us from one another; that separated us from God.

If you have not yet trusted Jesus Christ of Nazareth to be your Savior – your sin-sacrifice – and if you have not yet committed your life to following Him as your Lord – God’s messiah and Christ – then know that Jesus is weeping for you today. He’s not angry with you, He’s not threatening you; He weeps for you, He loves you. He has good things for you, the very best things. (Of course, the very best of those very best things is He Himself. J)

We all tend to know John 3:16, “For God loved the world so much that He gave His one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life,” but we don’t tend to remember John 3:17 all that well, that “God sent His Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through Him!”

If you’re holding onto some secret or public sin today, know that Jesus weeps for you, as well. Let it go. No matter how much a part of you you think it is or has become, Let it go. Accept His shalom. His peace…

According to John 11:1-44 [NLTse]

A man named Lazarus was sick. He lived in Bethany with his sisters, Mary and Martha. ² This is the Mary who later poured the expensive perfume on the Lord’s feet and wiped them with her hair. Her brother, Lazarus, was sick. ³ So the two sisters sent a message to Jesus telling Him, “Lord, Your dear friend is very sick.”

⁴ But when Jesus heard about it He said, “Lazarus’s sickness will not end in death. No, it happened for the glory of God so that the Son of God will receive glory from this.” ⁵ So although Jesus loved Martha, Mary, and Lazarus, ⁶ He stayed where He was for the next two days. ⁷ Finally, He said to His disciples, “Let’s go back to Judea.”

⁸ But His disciples objected. “Rabbi,” they said, “only a few days ago the people in Judea were trying to stone You. Are you going there again?”

⁹ Jesus replied, “There are twelve hours of daylight every day. During the day people can walk safely. They can see because they have the light of this world. ¹⁰ But at night there is danger of stumbling because they have no light.” ¹¹ Then He said, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but now I will go and wake him up.”

¹² The disciples said, “Lord, if he is sleeping, he will soon get better!” ¹³ They thought Jesus meant Lazarus was simply sleeping, but Jesus meant Lazarus had died.

¹⁴ So He told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead. ¹⁵ And for your sakes, I’m glad I wasn’t there, for now you will really believe. Come, let’s go see him.”

¹⁶ Thomas, nicknamed the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, “Let’s go, too—and die with Jesus.”

¹⁷ When Jesus arrived at Bethany, He was told that Lazarus had already been in his grave for four days. ¹⁸ Bethany was only a few miles down the road from Jerusalem, ¹⁹ and many of the people had come to console Martha and Mary in their loss. ²⁰ When Martha got word that Jesus was coming, she went to meet Him. But Mary stayed in the house. ²¹ Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if only You had been here, my brother would not have died. ²² But even now I know that God will give You whatever You ask.”

²³ Jesus told her, “Your brother will rise again.”

²⁴ “Yes,” Martha said, “he will rise when everyone else rises, at the last day.”

²⁵ Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in Me will live, even after dying. ²⁶ Everyone who lives in Me and believes in Me will never ever die. Do you believe this, Martha?”

²⁷ “Yes, Lord,” she told Him. “I have always believed You are the Messiah, the Son of God, the One Who has come into the world from God.” ²⁸ Then she returned to Mary. She called Mary aside from the mourners and told her, “The Teacher is here and wants to see you.” ²⁹ So Mary immediately went to Him.

³⁰ Jesus had stayed outside the village, at the place where Martha met Him. ³¹ When the people who were at the house consoling Mary saw her leave so hastily, they assumed she was going to Lazarus’s grave to weep. So they followed her there. ³² When Mary arrived and saw Jesus, she fell at His feet and said, “Lord, if only You had been here, my brother would not have died.”

³³ When Jesus saw her weeping and saw the other people wailing with her, a deep anger welled up within him, and He was deeply troubled. ³⁴ “Where have you put him?” He asked them.

They told Him, “Lord, come and see.” ³⁵ Then Jesus wept. ³⁶ The people who were standing nearby said, “See how much He loved him!” ³⁷ But some said, “This Man healed a blind man. Couldn’t He have kept Lazarus from dying?”

³⁸ Jesus was still angry as He arrived at the tomb, a cave with a stone rolled across its entrance. ³⁹ “Roll the stone aside,” Jesus told them.

But Martha, the dead man’s sister, protested, “Lord, he has been dead for four days. The smell will be terrible.”

⁴⁰ Jesus responded, “Didn’t I tell you that you would see God’s glory if you believe?” ⁴¹ So they rolled the stone aside. Then Jesus looked up to Heaven and said, “Father, thank You for hearing Me. ⁴² You always hear Me, but I said it out loud for the sake of all these people standing here, so that they will believe You sent Me.” ⁴³ Then Jesus shouted, “Lazarus, come out!” ⁴⁴ And the dead man came out, his hands and feet bound in graveclothes, his face wrapped in a headcloth. Jesus told them, “Unwrap him and let him go!”

Sermon

The focus for today’s message is not the Lord Jesus bringing Lazarus back from the dead. And yet how can we read about it without being amazed by God’s grace? What must the Lord Jesus have been experiencing to pray, “Father, thank You for hearing Me”? Had He asked the Father for Lazarus’ life, and had the Holy Spirit spoken and given Him the Father’s okay? We don’t know. But Jesus says to Martha, “I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in Me will live, even after dying. Everyone who lives in Me and believes in Me will never ever die.” And then Jesus, always ready to back up His claims with action proves it by tearing Lazarus out of Death’s hands and bringing him back from the dead!

He is God, this Jesus Whom we worship. Only God has the power over life and death. And Jesus brings Lazarus back to prove that He and the Father are indeed one! How great is our God! How mighty is our Savior! Our lives can be put in no better hands and to no better use than trusting Him, repenting of our old ways, and living our lives following Him wherever He leads!

Amen?

Now, along with the Lord Jesus’ confidence of the Father’s hearing His prayer for Lazarus, I want to draw our attention to v. 21 and Martha’s confidence in the Lord Jesus Christ, where she says: “Lord, if only You had been here, my brother would not have died.” She doesn’t say, “Lord, if you’d been here, You might have been able to save Lazarus.” No, she said, “If you’d been here, my brother would not have died.” And her sister Mary shows that same faith when in v. 32 she falls at Jesus’ feet and says the exact same words: “Lord, if only You had been here, my brother would not have died.”

How confident – like children – these sisters are, not only confident in Jesus’ power but also confident in Jesus’ love for them and their brother that they knew – they knew – that He would have used God’s power to save their brother, Lazarus.

Are we as confident? How confident are you that Jesus has and will keep on saving you through your troubles and through to the new Heaven and Earth and eternal life? Are you “pretty sure”? Do you like to “hope so”? We talk about being the family of God. What assurance to you have that you’re part of God’s family? Being the Church is like being a part of God’s team here in the world. How confident are you that you’re on God’s team?

Earlier in John the Lord tells us how we can have such confidence. He says, “I tell you the truth, those who listen to My message and believe in God Who sent Me have eternal life. They will never be condemned for their sins, but they have already passed from death to life.” (5:24) Most literally Jesus is talking here about “those who are listeners [on-going action] and those who are believers [on-going action] have eternal life.” And the “believers” here is that pisteu-o I spoke about some months ago: Not some passive, intellectual believing but a faith that reorders our values, priorities, and morals and directs our thoughts, words, and actions according to what we have believed.

So, I ask you, “Who here has listened to Jesus’ good news message?” … And, “Who here have believed that message, acting on it and letting it transform your lives?” … Well, then, according to Jesus Christ – not according to me – but according to Jesus, as you continue listening and believing you will never be condemned for your sins having already passed from death to life!

That’s you..! That’s me..! Hooray!

Let’s look at another one: 1 John 5:13… The apostle writes, “I have written this to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know you have eternal life.” John is telling us, and all who would read his letter, that if we believe in the name of the Son of God – Jesus – that we have eternal life. Again, believe is on-going action, so most literally, “you who continue believing”, and “believe” is, again, pisteu-o, that is, faith that is active, exercised, acted upon, and that transforms us more and more into the likeness of Christ.

Again, I ask you, “Who here believes in Jesus Christ, and has let His great news change what we set our minds to, what we say and how we say it, and what we do and why we do it? Have you let His great news change you?” Then, according to the apostle John, you have eternal life!

And we need to know this. We need this confidence. We need this assurance. Because, what happens to a child who isn’t assured of their mother and their father’s love? They go looking for love in all the wrong places. And what do Christians do who are not assured of the Father’s love? We add to the good news: Things like, God will save me because I’ve been good, or, God will save me because I tithe, or, God will save me because I gave up this or that bad habit, or, God will save me because I helped this or that person, etc.

All of these acts are a part of our believing Christian life, but none of them is why God has saved us. No, we are saved because, by God the Holy Spirit coming upon us and within us, we miraculously continue listening to and actively believing on the great news of Jesus’ sacrifice for sin, and our having been born anew into His resurrection-life because of it!

As a part of your devotions one day this week, write down a description of when, where, and how you began listening to the good news and began believing it.

Our Father not only wants us to be saved from sin, eternal death, and the fear of death, He also wants us to know He’s saved us from it all. The Lord Jesus is asking us, along with Martha, today, “I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in Me will live, even after dying. Everyone who lives in Me and believes in Me will never ever die. Are you believing this?”

Introduction

The word “holy,” in contemporary thinking, has become almost like an offense. How insulting to be thought of as “holy” (“O, aren’t you so holy!”), even in the church. Many want to add God to their lives but with little or no change needed on our parts. Some Christians want to be just like everyone else, they want to fit in, not make waves.

But the Christian life is not for those kinds of people. Because, by its very nature, being a Christian means being holy, being different. The Old Testament prophets, along with John the Baptist and, of course, then Jesus, called for a radical change for those who would trust and obey God. “Believe!” and “repent!” are at the heart of all truly New Testament preaching.

And “repent” means to change, not only our thinking but our actions. When we become disciples of Christ we are saved from the death our old desires and practices are leading us to, and called to live lives of holiness.

This call to holiness comes very early in Peter’s first letter and continues to be stressed throughout…

1 Peter 1:13-2:3 [NLTse]

¹³ So think clearly and exercise self-control. Look forward to the gracious salvation that will come to you when Jesus Christ is revealed to the world. ¹⁴ So you must live as God’s obedient children. Don’t slip back into your old ways of living to satisfy your own desires. You didn’t know any better then. ¹⁵ But now you must be holy in everything you do, just as God Who chose you is holy. ¹⁶ For the Scriptures say, “You must be holy because I am holy.”

¹⁷ And remember that the heavenly Father to Whom you pray has no favorites. He will judge or reward you according to what you do. So you must live in reverent fear of Him during your time as “foreigners in the land.” ¹⁸ For you know that God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life you inherited from your ancestors. And the ransom He paid was not mere gold or silver. ¹⁹ It was the precious blood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God. ²⁰ God chose Him as your ransom long before the world began, but He has now revealed Him to you in these last days.

²¹ Through Christ you have come to trust in God. And you have placed your faith and hope in God because He raised Christ from the dead and gave Him great glory.

²² You were cleansed from your sins when you obeyed the truth, so now you must show sincere love to each other as brothers and sisters. Love each other deeply with all your heart.

²³ For you have been born again, but not to a life that will quickly end. Your new life will last forever because it comes from the eternal, living Word of God. ²⁴ As the Scriptures say,

“People are like grass; their beauty is like a flower in the field. The grass withers and the flower fades. ²⁵ But the Word of the Lord remains forever.”

And that Word is the Good News that was preached to you.

So get rid of all evil behavior. Be done with all deceit, hypocrisy, jealousy, and all unkind speech. ² Like newborn babies, you must crave pure spiritual milk so that you will grow into a full experience of salvation. Cry out for this nourishment, ³ now that you have had a taste of the Lord’s kindness.

Sermon

We often minimize the gravity of our sin. “It’s no big deal,” we can think to ourselves. “I’m not as bad as others.” And likely you are not. But our standard for holiness as Christians is not “others”. Our Father doesn’t say, “Be holy because others are holy,” He says, “Be holy because I am holy.”

How casually, sometimes, we talk about our holy God and pray for the Holy Spirit: We pray for Him to come into our churches and into our hearts, but what would He find if He should come? Might He not find much that is painful and agonizing to Him?

Evangelist, writer, pastor, and educator R. A. Torrey once wrote, “What would we think if vile women from the lowest den of iniquity in a great city should go to the purest woman in the city and invite her to come and live with them in their disgusting vileness with no intention of changing their evil ways? But that would not be as shocking as for you and me to ask the Holy Spirit to come and dwell in our hearts when we have not thought of giving up our impurity, or our selfishness, or our worldliness, or our sin. It would not be as shocking as it is for us to invite the Holy Spirit to come into our churches when they are full of worldliness and selfishness and contention and envy and pride, and all that is unholy. But if the denizens of the lowest and vilest den of infamy should go to the purest and most Christ-like woman asking her to go and dwell with them with the intention of putting away everything that was vile and evil and giving to this holy and Christ-like woman the entire control of the place, she would go. And as sinful and selfish and imperfect as we may be, the infinitely Holy Spirit is ready to come and take His dwelling in our heart if we will surrender to Him the absolute control of our lives, and allow Him to bring everything in thought and fancy and feeling and purpose and imagination and action into conformity with His will. The infinitely Holy Spirit is ready to come into our churches, however imperfect and worldly they may be now, if we are willing to put the absolute control of everything in His hands.”

…

We are, all of us here, sinners. But we have not all given up our sin. Some of us cling to our sins – our impure thoughts, our gluttony, our sexual perversions and lusts, our hostility, our greed – we cling to our sins, our insecurities, our fears, but they keep us from Christ. So let’s lay them down!

Some of us will not give-over control of our lives to the Holy Spirit, needing and wanting to remain in control ourselves. We’ve always been jealous, proud, angry, unforgiving, ambitious, divisive, and conceited. “What’s wrong with that?”

What’s wrong is that Christ has put such things to death in His death on the cross, and He has put them to death in you! So cast them off today!

We don’t understand God’s hatred of sin, nor do we understand how destructive such ways are, so we keep on in our worrying and wild living, in our controlling and our lying and our “me”, “me”, “me” focus, in our quarreling and gossiping and envy… But they are killing you and killing those around you, your sins…

Because some are murderers, idolaters, and drunks, and because some have been involved in demonic activities, and because some are cheaters and adulterers and thieves Jesus Christ, the Son of God, had to be sacrificed, and whipped almost to death! He needed to be mocked and to die shamefully – completely rejected by His family and friends and all humanity because of our sins…

…

In his first letter, John writes, “We are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in [sin]; we are not practicing the truth. ⁷ But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, His Son, cleanses us from all sin.” (1 John 6-7)

Let’s come to the cross…

Matthew 5:13-16 [NLTse]

¹³ “You are the salt of the earth. But what good is salt if it has lost its flavor? Can you make it salty again? It will be thrown out and trampled underfoot as worthless.

2 Corinthians 6:14-18 [NLTse]

How can righteousness be a partner with wickedness? How can light live with darkness? ¹⁵ What harmony can there be between Christ and the devil? How can a believer be a partner with an unbeliever? ¹⁶ And what union can there be between God’s temple and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God said:

“I will live in them and walk among them. I will be their God, and they will be My people. ¹⁷ Therefore, come out from among unbelievers, and separate yourselves from them, says the Lord. Don’t touch their filthy things, and I will welcome you. ¹⁸ And I will be your Father, and you will be My sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.”

Paul’s First Letter to the Thessalonians 5:12-22 [NLTse]
¹² Dear brothers and sisters, honor those who are your leaders in the Lord’s work. They work hard among you and give you spiritual guidance. ¹³ Show them great respect and wholehearted love because of their work. And live peacefully with each other.
¹⁴ Brothers and sisters, we urge you to warn those who are lazy. Encourage those who are timid. Take tender care of those who are weak. Be patient with everyone.
¹⁵ See that no one pays back evil for evil, but always try to do good to each other and to all people.
¹⁶ Always be joyful. ¹⁷ Never stop praying. ¹⁸ Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.
¹⁹ Do not stifle the Holy Spirit. ²⁰ Do not scoff at prophecies, ²¹ but test everything that is said. Hold on to what is good. ²² Stay away from every kind of evil.

Sermon
Richard Foster begins his book, Celebration of Prayer, saying, “We today yearn for prayer and hide from prayer. We are attracted to it and repelled by it. We believe prayer is something we should do, even something we want to do, but it seems like a chasm stands between us and actually praying. We experience the agony of prayerlessness…
Does he speak for you? Do you want to pray, even yearn to pray, but for some reason avoid the practice when opportunities come? Do you find yourself too busy with work and family obligations to spend set-apart time fellowshipping with God? And yet you’re aware that your busyness rarely keeps you from eating or sleeping or shopping or watching the big game.

Do you believe that before you can really pray that your life needs some fine tuning? or that you need to know more about how to pray? or that you need to understand better how prayer works? Etc., etc…?

Let me steal your crutch and take away all your excuses by saying that you and I will never have pure enough motives, or be good enough, or know enough in order to pray rightly. So it’s time to set all these things aside and begin praying.
I’m not talking about what many have come to call “flash praying”: Those interactions we might have with the Lord as He comes to our mind at different times throughout the day, or when situations around us turn our hearts towards prayer. These are good. “Flash praying” is good. But Paul writes to the Thessalonians in verse 17, “Never stop praying.” And “flash praying” is a part of that, but God’s Spirit is calling us to something more.

“Praying without ceasing” means praying repeatedly and often. “Without ceasing” translates the Greek word adialeiptos. And in Romans 1:9, where Paul uses this word in a different context, he writes, “God knows how often I pray for you. Day and night [adialeiptos] I bring you and your needs in prayer to God, whom I serve with all my heart by spreading the Good News about his Son.”

Although Paul says, “Day and night,” surely he wasn’t in prayer for the Romans every minute of his waking hours, or even every minute of his prayers. Surely he also prayed about the many other things we read of throughout his letters. And yet clearly he mentioned them over and over, and often.
So “without ceasing” doesn’t mean that we have to be speaking prayers every minute of the day, but that we should be praying again and again, and often.
Paul is calling the Thessalonians – and all Christians – to make prayer a regular, habitual, recurring, disciplined part of our lives. We, who have put our independent, old lives to death with Christ and been raised to new lives, wholly dependent on God’s grace, need to treat prayer the way we treat eating and sleeping and doing our jobs; not hit or miss about it; not assuming that time will mystically appear in the midst of our other things. A husband who says he doesn’t need to have special times alone with his wife because he always feels so very close to her will not long feel so very close. Paul is calling all of us to a life of regular, planned meetings with God in prayer in which we praise Him for Who He is, and thank Him for what He has done, and ask Him for help, and seek His blessing on those we love, including the peoples of the world.
Don’t be discouraged if you’ve always had trouble praying. You don’t take an occasional jogger and sign them up for a marathon. If prayer is not a regular discipline for you, then set a goal for something that is practical and do-able for you, and begin there.

Jesus’ example to us is one of “rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark” and going out to a desolate place to pray (Mark 1:35), and also of going up to area mountains to pray, and praying “to God all night” (Luke 6:12).

Early-morning prayer begins our day acknowledging our dependence on God and giving whatever our waking hours may hold into His hands. Instead of waiting until temptations hit and we feel surrounded and overwhelmed, early-morning prayer takes the initiative and strikes first in the spiritual battles of our-coming day. And, of course, it is so predictable how Satan uses even good things to squeeze prayer out of our schedules. If we say to ourselves, “I will give some time to prayer later,” it generally does not happen.

So, saints across the centuries have demonstrated there to be many benefits to early-morning prayer. That being said, I tend to be an late-evening prayer person. But regardless of when, I would encourage us all to enjoy several times of prayer across our days: A longer time in focused prayer and Bible reading in the morning or at night (though it could be anytime), and then two or three other shorter times throughout the day, perhaps consistent with waking and/or mealtimes and bedtime.
These shorter occasions for prayer may be no more than a few minutes: A few minutes of focused calm and quiet, with your Bible open in front of you (or perhaps recalling and refreshing in your mind the words of the Scripture you were reading during the longer, morning or evening devotional time), asking that God would grant you contentment in Him for the next part of the day, and free you from sinful desires, so that you might shine for Christ and love people… So you are consciously dedicating every part of each day to God in focused prayer.
(And it is amazing how just a few minutes reading and praying the Word of God can bring spiritual clarity and power and peaceful-joy to the hours and segments of our days, even in the midst of much pressure.)

Plan ahead of time not only when but where you will pray and read throughout each day. (As we’ve already stated, the Devil will thwart you if you let him.) The longer, devotional time will need a place of relative privacy so you are not distracted and are able to read and sing and even cry…

Perhaps you don’t have space in your home for a “prayer closet” (as some call it). So do your best, perhaps explaining to your spouse or children or your roommate that when you are in that chair at that time that you would like to be undisturbed. Consider where could you create such a space? Do you have a spare closet where you could have a kneeling cushion, with a light for reading the Bible? Is there space under your stairs for a prayer bench or chair?

Evangelist and minister to orphans, George Mueller, used to take a walk for his longer devotional time: “I find it very beneficial to my health to walk thus for meditation before breakfast, and am now so in the habit of using the time for that purpose, that when I get into the open air, I generally take out a New Testament of good sized type which I carry with me for that purpose… I find it very profitable, not only to my body, but also to my soul.”

Most people (and that surely includes me) don’t have the godliness of heart and mind to offer up to God prayers of significant spiritual impact for any length of time. I think that to pray for longer than a few minutes in a God-centered, Christ-exalting way requires help. So let the passages you are reading devotionally be transformed into the basis for your prayers: Leading you to confess sin or to give thanks, to ask God for the help He’s promised or offered for you or those around you in the world; and then go on to the next words of verse, turning it all into prayer for yourselves or others as the Word leads you to it.

Prayer is nothing more than the communication in an ongoing and growing love-relationship between you and God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Anybody can do it because only one thing is required: Love.
So, “never stop praying”; or as Paul says to the Romans, “keep on praying” (Romans 12:12); and to the Ephesians, “pray in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion… alert and… persistent in your prayers for all believers everywhere” (Ephesians 6:18); and to the Philippians, “devote yourselves to prayer with an alert mind and a thankful heart.”
Would you pray with me?

Father in Heaven: By Your Spirit, help us to honor those who lead us in Your work. Grant us the grace to show them great respect and wholehearted love because of their work. Be among us that we would live peacefully with each other.
Speaking the truth in love, move us to warn those who are lazy and to encourage those who are timid and to care tenderly for those who are weak. Holy Spirit, overflow us with patience for everyone.
May we so follow after our crucified King, Your life the source for our lives, Lord Jesus, that not one of us would pay back evil to those committing evil against us, but always seek to do good to each other and to all people.
Fill us with Your joy; disciple us so that we never stop praying; and, move us to thanksgiving in all our circumstances.
May we never stifle the Holy Spirit, not scoffing at prophecies, but testing them instead. Grant us to hold on to what is good and to stay away from evil of every kind. We know this is Your will for all those who belong to Jesus Christ. And we ask, praying in Jesus’ name.
Amen?

Romans 6:1-4 [NLTse]

Well then, should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of His wonderful grace? ² Of course not! Since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it? ³ Or have you forgotten that when we were joined with Christ Jesus in baptism, we joined Him in His death? ⁴ For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives.

Sermon

There is a community of Christians in Africa that have an unusual baptismal practice that vividly illustrates what we believe about baptism. When the pastor dips the infant into the water, he says “I kill you in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.” Then he again dips the infant in the water again and says, “And I raise you in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.”

Remember you’ve been baptized…

1 Corinthians 6:9-11 [NLTse]

⁹ Don’t you realize that those who do wrong will not inherit the Kingdom of God? Don’t fool yourselves. Those who indulge in sexual sin, or who worship idols, or commit adultery, or are male prostitutes, or practice homosexuality, ¹⁰ or are thieves, or greedy people, or drunkards, or are abusive, or cheat people—none of these will inherit the Kingdom of God. ¹¹ Some of you were once like that. But you were cleansed; you were made holy; you were made right with God by calling on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

Sermon

Protestant reformer and founder of the Lutheran Church, Martin Luther, struggled earnestly with overwhelming feelings of unworthiness and questioning whether or not he deserved God’s love and grace. Legend says that he had written over his desk: “Remember, you have been baptized.” Baptized as an infant as a Roman Catholic, Luther’s meditations on the fact on his baptism as an infant impressed upon him the meaning of grace and being saved by grace alone (through his faith in Christ). Martin Luther grew to realize the futility of his fretting over whether or not any of us are adequate or worthy. Luther realized that, with the exception of Jesus Christ, none is truly worthy. But we have sure and certain hope in our salvation through God’s grace and mercy so freely given to us in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Luther reasoned that an infant is helpless to choose God or even to move toward God, let alone able to choose to be baptized or not. His baptism as a helpless infant starkly reminded him and refreshed in him that God had chosen him; that God had brought him to faith; that God alone, according to His love for Luther from before the foundation of the world, saved Martin Luther and brought him to that zealous, saving faith that led Luther to stand against the Roman Catholic Church of his day and be a part of birthing the Protestant Reformation that we are inheritors of this morning!

God’s grace is freely poured over us like running water. And in our baptism we are united with that grace, with Jesus Christ Himself. Remembering that we have been baptized highlights to us the question, not, “Are we worthy?”, but, “Do we believe God would really choose us?” …

Matthew 3:13-17 [NLTse]

Then Jesus went from Galilee to the Jordan River to be baptized by John. ¹⁴ But John tried to talk Him out of it. “I am the one who needs to be baptized by You,” he said, “so why are You coming to me?”

¹⁵ But Jesus said, “It should be done, for we must fulfill all righteousness.” So John agreed to baptize Him.

¹⁶ After His baptism, as Jesus came up out of the water, the heavens were opened and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and settling on Him. ¹⁷ And a voice from Heaven said, “This is My dearly loved Son, Who brings Me great joy.”

Fred Craddock, while lecturing at Yale University, told the story of going back to his hometown one summer, to Gatlinburg, Tennessee, to take a short vacation with his wife. One night they found a quiet little restaurant where they looked forward to a private meal – just the two of them.

While they were waiting for their meal they noticed a distinguished looking, white-haired man moving from table to table, visiting guests. Craddock whispered to his wife, “I hope he doesn’t come over here.” He didn’t want the man to intrude on their privacy. But the man did come by their table.

“Where you folks from?” he asked trying to be friendly.

“Oklahoma,” Craddock gave a short answer.

“Splendid state, I hear, although I’ve never been there. What do you do for a living?”

“I teach homiletics at the graduate seminary of Phillips University.”

“Oh, so you teach preachers, do you? Well, I’ve got a story I want to tell you.” And with that he pulled up a chair and sat down at the table with Craddock and his wife.

Dr. Craddock said he groaned inwardly: Oh no, here comes another preacher story. It seems everyone has one.

The man stuck out his hand. “I’m Ben Hooper. I was born not far from here across the mountains. My mother wasn’t married when I was born so I had a hard time. When I started to school my classmates had a name for me, and it wasn’t a very nice name. I used to go off by myself at recess and during lunchtime because the taunts of my playmates cut so deeply.

“What was worse was going downtown on Saturday afternoon and feeling every eye burning a hole through me. They were all wondering just who my real father was.

“When I was about 12 years old a new preacher came to our church. I would always go in late and slip out early. But one day the preacher said the benediction so fast I got caught and had to walk out with the crowd. I could feel every eye in church on me. Just about the time I got to the door I felt a big hand on my shoulder. I looked up and the preacher was looking right at me.

“Who are you, son? Whose boy are you?’

I felt the old weight come on me. It was like a big black cloud. Even the preacher was putting me down.

But as he looked down at me, studying my face, he began to smile a big smile of recognition. “Wait a minute,” he said, “I know who you are. I see the family resemblance. You are a son of God.”

With that he slapped me across the rump and said, “Boy you’ve got a great inheritance. Go and claim it.”

The old man looked across the table at Fred Craddock and said, “That was the most important single sentence ever said to me.” With that he smiled, shook the hands of Craddock and his wife, and moved on to another table to greet old friends.

Suddenly, Fred Craddock remembered: On two occasions the people of Tennessee had elected an illegitimate son to be their governor. One of them had been a man named Ben Hooper… A man with a great inheritance.

Remember, you’ve been baptized…

Let’s pray… We’ve died… We’re new, born again, new creations… We’ve been washed… You’ve chosen us to be Your Own, a part of Your holy family, a son, a daughter of God… Too often we believe what we see in the mirror, we forget these things, this new identity… Remind us… Refresh us…

1 Corinthians 13:1-14:1 [NLTse]

If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. ² If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. ³ If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing.

⁴ Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud ⁵ or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. ⁶ It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. ⁷ Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.

⁸ Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever! ⁹ Now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture! ¹⁰ But when the time of perfection comes, these partial things will become useless.

¹¹ When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things. ¹² Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.

¹³ Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.

^14:1 Let love be your highest goal.

Sermon

I’ve been the pastor here at First Presbyterian Church for almost seventeen years. I’ve preached from every book of the Bible (even Song of Solomon that people say nobody preaches from) and through some passages that life-long Christians have told me they’d never heard anyone preach on before. But I’ve never preached about speaking in tongues. I have talked with different ones of you personally about the practice, and I’ve prayed with different ones of you in these beautiful and mysterious languages, but I’ve never preached about it before. So, by God’s grace, here we go…

First let me begin with a definition: Speaking in tongues is Holy Spirit-inspired speech in a language that is unknown to the speaker. So, if I learn Spanish in order to share the good news with and be a blessing to my Hispanic neighbors or a Hispanic community nearby – even though my native language is English and I am speaking in Spanish to a person, or a crowd, or a small group – I am not speaking in tongues: I am speaking Spanish. I’ve learned the language so it’s a language that’s known to me. If I’ve never learned and don’t know a word of Spanish but find myself preaching strange words that are being understood by the Hispanic folks around me, and someone tells me that I’m speaking fluent Spanish: That’s speaking in tongues, speaking a language that is unknown to me by the leading of the Holy Spirit. Or I may be praying, and I begin praying strange words that have come into my mind that don’t make any sense to me, even if nobody around me understands their meaning either, and even if there’s nobody around me to understand them because I’m praying alone, that is speaking – or praying – with tongues. Tongues is Holy Spirit-inspired speech in a language that is unknown to the speaker.

The Bible speaks in several different places about speaking or praying in the Spirit, as tongues is sometimes called. In Mark 16 the Lord Jesus Himself, after His resurrection, said that His followers would perform miraculous signs including casting out demons, speaking in new languages, and healing the sick. (vv. 17-18) And tongues praising and preaching accompanied the coming of the Holy Spirit that very first Pentecost, and accompanied the Spirit’s coming when many who were baptized by the Holy Spirit across the Book of Acts received Him. And the place of tongues is discussed and debated in Paul’s First Letter To the Corinthians, in chapters 12 and 14.

In every instance tongues is spoken of as a positive experience, a gift God has given to individual believers personally and privately to enhance and bless their personal and private worship, as well as a gift given to congregations-as-a-whole when the Lord is desiring to share a special message with His church, that is, when someone is present who’s been gifted to understand the tongue-message that has been spoken.

I think I have shared before my first experience of the blessing of tongues at the congregational level. Amy and I were worshiping at Christ Presbyterian Church in Richmond, Virginia. And in the middle of the congregational prayer time the pastor’s wife began speaking aloud in this strange language. I remember the pastor all-but-glaring at her as he said something like, “I know that my wife is aware that we are not to speak aloud in strange tongues unless someone is present who is able to interpret what they’ve said. So I trust,” and he continued giving her a fairly hard look, “I trust there must be someone here who understood what she just spoke.” And then a lady in the far back corner of the room raised her hand and said, “I understood her clearly…”

I regret that I don’t remember what God’s message was to us all that morning, but He sure got our attention, and Sunday Services were never again the same as we all began to anticipate the Holy Spirit’s personally speaking and guiding and encouraging us as we met together during Worship.

I first experienced spiritual language (as some call it today) as a personal practice when I was in seminary. Although I had believed in Jesus for many years, I had only truly submitted my life to Him the year before. So I’d already been born again, come alive, been made new in Christ for about a year (if I remember it correctly). And it had been a wonderful adventure! The Lord had been teaching me new things. I was understanding aspects of God’s character and of the gospel that I’d never grasped before. And I was growing in my own discipleship by leaps and bounds.

The night I first prayed in a language unfamiliar to me – the words of which I believe the Holy Spirit had put in my mouth – I was at a Bible Study focusing on the person and work of the Holy Spirit. The Study had ended with a time of extended prayer where we were encouraged to ask God’s Spirit to give us the gifts He wanted us to have so that we could love Him better, love others better, and to help us do our part of spreading His Kingdom – person by person – across the face of the earth.

And I remember kneeling there, wondering what might happen. Because others there at that little Presbyterian Church praised God and prayed with tongues, and I’d never asked them what it was like and how it worked. I didn’t know if God was going to just ”take over” my mouth or if it was going to feel weird or if nothing was going to happen to me at all and God would choose to give me another gift or other gifts instead. The teacher had told us to simply speak whatever words it seemed that God was putting into our mouths or that came into our minds. And so I did.

I can tell you that it seemed like gibberish to me, only, there were some words that sounded to me kind of like Hebrew mixed in, too. (Which got me wondering if I was just making the whole thing up, since I had just finished my Intro to Hebrew class a month or so before.) But the words kept coming into my mind, and so I kept at it: Hoping it was something real and that it would indeed be something wonderful, just like I’d heard others say.

So I continued speaking the funny words. And it didn’t strike me at all as a very spiritual experience. But I was encouraged by others who’d been given their own “spiritual language” to praise and to sing with. And they told me that, just as praying had been a strange discipline that I’d had to learn and believe God was truly listening-to when I first believed, that I needed to keep at the practice, continuing to ask God to give me words and language to speak, and to speak them trusting that God knew their meaning and that He would be blessed by it as I did, and that, just like my regular praying, that I would grow to be blessed by it, too.

Of course, now, speaking and praying with tongues is as much a part of me as praying in English. When I don’t know what to pray I am blessed to believe that the Holy Spirit is praying through me with these words that sometimes seem like strange noises and groaning. And when I’m so filled with wonder and praise and love for our Father, praising Him in the Spirit is so much more freeing than trying to struggle to put my thoughts and feelings into words that don’t even begin to capture the bursting going on inside me.

The apostle Paul spoke to the Corinthians thanking God that he spoke in tongues more than any of them did. And the apostle John was given The Revelation while he was in the Spirit one precious Sunday. I believe that our Father would have us all experience this beautiful gift. I don’t believe every born-again Christian has to. Nor do I believe that every Spirit-filled believer necessarily will. But even as the Lord Jesus says that tongues will be one of the miraculous signs He will give us, and even as the apostle Paul desires that we might all speak in tongues, it is my hope that our Father would give each of you your own spiritual language, as well: To strengthen your faith and to encourage your faith because of its supernatural nature; to help you praise and pray when our English words either seem to fail us or seem lacking; and, to nurture in you an ever-greater fellowship and intimacy with God that we know He longs for and that I know you long for, as well.

We’re going to worship God singing Him a song. And then, let’s pray…