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March 29, 2009
“Jericho and Bartimaeus”
Joshua 6: 20-27/Mark 10: 46-52
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Jericho is one of the best known cities in the Bible. Its fame is mostly due to its being the first city attacked and destroyed by the Israelites when they entered the Promised Land. Actually it is not entirely accurate to say that the Israelites destroyed Jericho. God played a major role in the destruction of Jericho.
If any of you attended Sunday School in a Presbyterian Church when you were children you know this story. (I have often wondered about the psychological makeup of the folks who wrote the Sunday School Curriculum when I was a child. It seemed that we were instructed in every violent story contained in the Old and New Testaments) But then maybe I have been overly influenced by the over-reaction to those stories that came as my generation became parents.)
Anyway, I am going to take it for granted that you know the story of the conquest of Jericho as it is presented in the Bible. You should remember that the Israelites marched around the city once each day for 6 days. They were led in their parade by armed-guards and the Priests and the Levites carrying the Ark of the Covenant. The Priests blew horns as they led the people around the city during the 6 days. On the 7th day, they all marched around the city 7 times with the trumpets blowing but as they completed their 7th circuit around the city, they shouted, and when they shouted the walls of Jericho fell down by the power of God. The Israelites then charged into the city and put almost everyone to death. The reason they were all destroyed was that the Canaanites and especially the residents of Jericho were under God’s curse.
The one family who was spared was the family of Rahab, a prostitute. She had hidden the Israelite spies in Jericho and she and her family were allowed to live because of her brave act of kindness toward God’s people.
Israel’s treatment of Rahab and her family is very interesting. According to the 10 commandments adultery was to be punished with death. Jericho was now under God’s curse. So logic would lead us to the conclusion that Rahab, the prostitute of Jericho would be under a double curse, Instead she and her family were spared and became a part of God’s people. We need to be very careful who we think might be under God’s curse.
After Jericho was destroyed, Joshua pronounced God’s curse on it again. If it was ever rebuilt it would cost the builder the lives of his oldest and youngest children. One of the problems with setting conditions on doing something is that someone is likely to come along and do it as a challenge or dare. About 500 years later, a fellow named Hiel rebuilt Jericho, and it cost him the lives of his oldest and youngest children.
But the rebuilt Jericho was never like the old Jericho. It was never as large as the old Canaanite city, and because of its climate, it became a bit of a resort. The climate of Jericho, because it lies at 850 feet below sea level, is sub tropical. It is the perfect climate for growing palm and balsam trees. In the century before the birth of Jesus a tract of land there containing groves of palm trees and balsam trees was given by Anthony to Cleopatra. This property was later purchased from her by Herod the Great who added a new section onto Jericho and built a winter palace there. Herod the great later died in Jericho.
And so Jericho in the time of Jesus was a city with unfortunate connections. It was the deathplace of the king who had tried to kill Jesus. Parts of it had been owned by two notorious gentiles, and it had been rebuilt in defiance of a curse pronounced by God.
One might have expected the Jewish Son of God to have avoided such a place. But holding old grudges and avoiding connections with the cursed and sinners were not the customs of our Lord. He not only visited Jericho, he passed through it on his final journey to Jerusalem. And while he was there, he made it one of the locations of his final miracles of healing. He healed a blind man named Bartimeaus in Jericho.
Because Bartimeaus was blind, many would assume he had done something to provoke God’s special anger. Blindness and other serious handicaps were considered to be the results of some curse of God. And since Jericho had an ancient curse connected with it, some might have assumed that Bartimeaus was doubly cursed and that Jesus would avoid speaking to such a man. But folks who would assume such a thing do not know our Jesus.
Among them would be some of those traveling with Jesus. Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem to die. But many of those who were traveling with him were merely on their way to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover. As Jesus approached the gate where Bartimaeus was begging, Bartimaeus began to shout “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me.” Some of those traveling with Jesus tried to get him to be quiet, but he yelled out more loudly “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me”.
It is possible that Bartimaeus believed that Jesus was the promised Messiah. Son of David was one of the messianic titles. At any rate, Bartimaeus obviously believed that Jesus could heal him, and so he would not be deterred or silenced even if some of those with Jesus considered him to be a real nuisance.
Even though some of the people with Jesus considered Bartimaeus to be a nuisance, Jesus did not. He called him to come to him.
You know, I think we need to remember how Jesus treated people whom others considered to be nuisances. To my recollection, the only people he considered to be nuisances were the Pharisees and Saducees. But he always had time for those who really wanted some attention from him. Many of us have people in our lives who have a lot of needs. They need the healing touch of Jesus and they need a lot of attention from us. Don’t allow others to define who is a nuisance. Remember how Jesus treated those who needed him and do your best to help them find what they need.
When Bartimaeus arrived in front of Jesus, Jesus asked him a question we might think strange. He said, “What do you want me to do for you”. It was fairly obvious what the greatest need of Bartimaeus was, he was blind, he needed his sight. Which is what Bartimaeus told Jesus. So why did Jesus ask? Because he wanted Bartimaeus to speak to him, and he wanted Bartimaeus to ask him in person. He didn’t want to rush Bartimaeus, he wanted to treat him with respect and have a conversation with him.
And, that, my friends is why we are to pray to God about our needs and the needs of others. God wants us to talk to Him. Yes, he knows our needs better than we do and he certainly knows the needs of others better than we do. But he wants us to come into his presence through prayer and ask Him for help.
Jesus healed Bartimaeus and he could see. The first thing he did was to follow Jesus on the way to Jerusalem. I wonder how far he followed Jesus on his journey. Did his newly restored eyes see Jerusalem welcome Jesus as its king a few days later on Palm Sunday? Did he see Jesus hung on the cross? Did he see the resurrected Jesus? How far did he follow Jesus?
How far will you follow Jesus? Will you follow him as long as there are others around singing songs about him? Will you follow him in the privacy of your home when all is going well? Will you follow him in the times of despair? Will you follow him when all others abandon him and ridicule his followers. Jesus would ultimately rise to heaven. Will you follow him there?
Pastor David Horner
Faith Presbyterian Church
West Lafayette, IN 47906
Posted by faithpres at 05:59 PM | Comments (0)
March 22, 2009
“The Son of Man and the Bronze Serpent”
Numbers 21: 4-9/John 3:14-21
Sunday, March 22, 2009
John 3: 16 is one of the best known verses in all of Scripture. Many people who don’t know much of the Bible know that verse. It is so well known that some people just write and post the reference (John 3: 16) and trust that people will know the words. Most people think that these words are the words of Jesus himself. If you have a red-letter edition of the bible, you may find that this entire passage is printed in red which supposedly signifies that they are the words of Jesus.
Knowledgeable Bible Scholars tell us otherwise. They say that verses 16 – 21 constitute a commentary of the Apostle John on the things that Jesus was just recorded as saying, particularly verses 14 and 15. These two verses would then be the end of the response of Jesus to Nicodemus. In the beginning of chapter 3 we are introduced to Nicodemus, a Pharisee and a member of the Jewish Sanhedrin, the ruling council of the Jews in Jerusalem.
In his first response to Nicodemus, in 3: 3 Jesus is recorded as saying “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.” Nicodemus did not understand this concept (he was not alone, this phrase caused considerable confusion during the Carter presidency in the late 1970s.)
So Jesus tried to explain to Nicodemus what he meant by being born again. The 14th and 15th verses of our passage are probably the last two verses of that explanation. But because they refer to an event from the Old Testament I have separated them from the rest of the dialogue with Nicodemus for our purposes this morning.
The Old Testament event was the construction by Moses of the bronze serpent. This event is described in our first lesson this morning. Moses and Israel were near the end of their road. The 40 years of wandering in the wilderness after coming out of Egypt were nearly at an end. And the Israelites seemed to have learned very little along the way.
Even at this point they were still grumbling against God. They were still angry at God and Moses for bringing them out of Egypt into the wilderness. They were still complaining about their lack of food and water. Now the interesting thing about all this is that at this point, there were only a few left who had been born in Egypt. Most of those who came out of Egypt had passed on at this point, But most of the people were still complaining about having been brought out of Egypt even though most of them had never been in Egypt.
You might also notice that the complaints of the Israelites against God and Moses were somewhat inconsistent or incoherent. They are recorded as first saying “We have no food” and then saying “We detest this miserable food.”
The truth is found in the second statement, they did have food. God had sustained their existence in the wilderness for almost 40 years by giving them the miraculous bread-like manna every morning but Saturdays.
And they were sick and tired of the same diet. But like many Americans of our day, they seem to have been confused in thinking that because they didn’t have what they wanted, they didn’t have what they needed.
So the Israelites complained against God and He punished them. He caused poisonous snakes to come into the camp and bite them. Many of them died. They then confessed their sin of complaining and blaming God and God answered their prayers and confessions. Notice that he did not immediately get rid of the snakes. Instead he offered an antidote.
He ordered Moses to make a bronze replica of one of the snakes and put it up on a pole in the midst of and over the camp so that all in the camp could see it. Seeing this snake would save the life of any one who was snake-bitten. Whenever one was bitten by a snake, to survive, they had to look at the bronze snake that God had provided though Moses. Looking at the bronze snake would reverse the punishment they suffered because they had insulted God.
Now you won’t find this bronze snake in any museum of Middle Eastern artifacts. It existed for almost 900 years but it was destroyed by King Hezekiah. Now Hezekiah was a good and godly king, so you might wonder why he destroyed it. If you look at II Kings 18 you will discover that he destroyed it because the people of Judea had been offering incense to it. They had been worshipping it and sacred poles and sacred rocks and all sorts of things. So Hezekiah destroyed the poles and the rocks and the bronze snake that Moses had made.
700 years after it was destroyed, Jesus referred to it. In our NT lesson for this morning, Jesus said that He (the Son of Man, remember Him from a few weeks back?) “must be lifted up…just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so…that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.”
Then John, in his commentary drew some parallels between the Son of Man and the bronze snake. The first of which is given in that most famous verse 16. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.” Jesus was given to us for a similar though much greater purpose as God gave the bronze serpent through Moses. To keep us from dying. In our case it is eternal death that is the issue, not earthly death.
Other parallels are developed in verses 17 and 18. “Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him. Those who believe in Him are not condemned, but those who do not believe in Him are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God.”
Moses made the bronze snake after the judgment had been enacted. The judgment was that because of their grumbling against God and Moses, snakes would kill them. The bronze snake was given to reverse the judgment, so that they could live in spite of their sins and God’s judgment.
So it is with the coming of Jesus, the Son of Man. The judgment of God was already levied against all human beings, We have all sinned in many ways, including grumbling against God. And the judgment of God against those sins is that we shall perish and be separated from God and his eternal kingdom forever. That is God’s just judgment against us. Before and unless we believe in Jesus, we are dying eternally.
Do you understand that? Do you understand that your unbelieving friends and the other unbelieving people of this world are already under God’s judgment. They are not in danger of being in trouble with God, they are already headed toward eternal condemnation as a result of their sins. Their only way out is to believe in Jesus. And they only have this lifetime available to them to believe. Does that help you? Does that make you understand how much the unbelieving people of this world need our prayers and our testimony and our encouragement that they might believe? They are not headed for the possibility of Doom, they are headed for the certainty of Doom unless they believe. As we live this life amidst unbelievers we are in many life and death situations.
I wonder if the story about the destruction of the bronze serpent influenced John as he wrote verse 19. “And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil.” The descendants of the Israelites took the bronze snake that God had given their ancestors to give them life and had used it as a substitute for God. They had turned something given to save life and used it as an instrument of Death, a false God.
I would like to end my comments this morning by thinking out loud about what Jesus meant by his being lifted up. Of course the most obvious lifting up was his being nailed to the cross on the ground and lifted up as the cross was raised to its killing position. Jesus died on that cross to pay for our sins and win for us the gift of eternal life.
But on the Sunday morning after that, Jesus was lifted up again. He was lifted up from death to life. He overcame our deaths and gave us eternal life with him.
And 40 days after that, Jesus was lifted up once again. He was lifted up into the Glory of God’s eternal throne room where he rules over us and for us.
But he still needs to be lifted up. He needs to be lifted up in our lives. In our words and our deeds we need to lift up Jesus before others because some of them are still under God’s judgment. How are you lifting up Jesus the Son of Man and the Son of God before others so they can see him and believe in him and have the curse of eternal death removed from them? How can you better lift up the Son of Man in your life and your world?
Pastor David Horner
Faith Presbyterian Church
West Lafayette, IN 47906
Posted by faithpres at 01:39 PM | Comments (0)
March 15, 2009
“The Wisdom and Power of God”
Isaiah 29: 13-21/I Corinthians 1: 18-25
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Last Spring it was announced that the winner of the National Spelling Bee was a resident of West Lafayette. A few months ago it was announced that West Lafayette was one of the smartest communities in America. The next morning the TV headline had changed to specify that West Lafayette was the best educated community in America.
I suppose the change in the headline had to do with quantifiability. You can determine who is well educated. That is a matter of record. Determining who is smart is not so easily determined. We are the best-educated community in America but we don’t seem to be able to build a road through a bog that won’t sink. Oh well, everyone needs something to keep them humble, maybe that is what Lindberg Road does for us.
For those of us who live or work in West Lafayette, it is a matter of record that we value education and that many of us have pursued it.
It is not unusual that there should be several Presbyterian churches of different denominations in such a community. Presbyterians have always valued education and have set the highest educational standards for their Pastors. Until recently all who applied for ordination as a Minister of Word and Sacrament in the PC(USA) had to take courses in Hebrew and Greek and pass exams on exegeting a Scripture text from one of those languages.
So as a new member of the best educated community in America and an old member of the best educated group of ministers in the world, I was shocked, I say shocked, to read what Paul wrote about human wisdom in this passage. He actually quotes one of the verses in our OT passage to demonstrate that God often acts in ways that frustrate the knowledge of the wise. Although the word order is slightly different, Verse 19 in our Corinthians passage is a quotation of verse 14 on our Isaiah passage. The world order is slightly different due to language and translation issues, but the meaning is the same. Sort of.
In the Old Testament passage, the prophet Isaiah was pronouncing judgment on the ruling class of Israel. The members of that class were using their wisdom and their educations to develop ways of cheating the other classes of people, so that they would remain in their positions of power and authority. They were using those positions to dominate others. Isaiah was prophesying the elimination of the ruling classes and the increasing of the other classes. He was also clearly stating that people, no matter how smart or how well educated they might be, cannot outsmart God or permanently impede God’s purposes.
But writing over 600 years later, Paul quoted this verse to prove a slightly different point: that God chose an unwise and illogical way to get people into his kingdom, at least unwise and illogical according to the standards of worldly wisdom and logic.
In the 20th verse of our NT passage, Paul wrote a rhetorical question: “Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?” The implied answer is “yes He has”. But lest you misunderstand what Paul meant and think him to have been an anti-intellectual, please let me remind you who and what he was.
Paul was one of the elite Jews of his day. He was schooled by the revered Jewish Rabbi Gamaliel. He was one of the most knowledgeable people of his day in the Hebrew Old Testament, Hebrew Literature, and Israel’s history. But the breadth of his education went far beyond his Jewish origins and culture. In the speech he made to the people of Athens Paul quoted an obscure Greek poet. Paul was well educated in all the areas that were considered valuable in his day. He was so well educated that the Roman Governor Porcius Festus once said to Paul “Your great learning is driving you insane.” (Acts 26:24)
So when we read Paul’s comments about God making human wisdom foolish we need to remember who and what he was lest we think he was saying that an education and intellectual pursuits are worthless. Paul greatly valued his education and spent much of his time teaching his Gentile coverts Biblical Jewish History. Paul honored the scholars of his day.
But he knew that human wisdom and scholarly pursuits could not lead anyone to God. God, in His infinite wisdom chose to bring people to Him through an act that made no sense to the knowledgeable people of this world. The Almighty God sent his almighty Son into this world to live as a human being and die on a cross. That was the act of Salvation.
And the greater intellects of Paul’s day could not fathom such an act on the part of God. The well-educated Gentiles could not understand it because for them a cross was the most inhumane form of execution reserved for rebellious slaves, notorious criminals and other sorts of human refuse. They could fathom worthwhile and honorable people being killed by other means or being forced to commit suicide, but they could not conceive of a great human, let alone a God dying on a cross.
The Jewish scholars could not accept a dead Messiah. They had studied the Old Testament and they understood that God was going to send a Messiah, but they could not comprehend that the Messiah would die. Suffer, maybe, but not die, and certainly not die as a criminal on a cross.
The doctrine of Jesus’ death on a cross was unacceptable to the Jewish and the Gentile scholars of Paul’s day. And it is equally unacceptable to many scholars in our own day. I am sure that each one of us knows someone whose knowledge and intellect we admire who does not believe in God or his son Jesus. That is because human knowledge, as valuable as it is, cannot lead one to accept Christ as the savior who died on a cross.
But the message of Jesus dying on a cross is the only doorway to God, so Paul preached it, so do I and so does every truly Christian preacher. The cross is the number one symbol for those who believe in Jesus. We have one lifted up above the highest point of our church building. Whenever we worship on this property we worship under the shadow of the cross.
In this passage, Paul refers to the crucifixion of Jesus as the power of God and the wisdom of God. He says that the supposed foolishness of God is wiser than human knowledge. He says that the weakness of Jesus on the cross is stronger than any human strength.
The Christian message of salvation through the death and resurrection of Jesus sounds silly to many educated ears. That is not because it really is silly but because academic knowledge cannot lead one to salvation through Christ. Human intelligence cannot lead one to salvation through Christ. Only faith can bring us to Salvation through the crucified Jesus, and Faith comes only from God.
So do not allow yourself to be cowed or intimidated by brilliant scholars who do not believe that there is a god. Do not be afraid of geniuses who consider faith to be a prop or a crutch for the weak or uneducated. They are people of great intellect and great learning and they deserve our respect in their disciplines, but their intellects and their learning can not lead them to Jesus, only the faith that comes from God can do that.
On the other hand, do not be embarrassed at your wisdom and education. Human wisdom and education are great things. They, too, are gifts of God given by Him to help the people of this world. Christians are to pursue knowledge and wisdom wherever and whenever we can. But do not allow your wisdom and your education to lead you away from God. Continue to embrace the foolishness of the death of the Son of God on the cross. It is by that degrading and foolish act that the door to God and his eternity was opened for us. Even the wisest, most educated people of our world need to hear about the death of Christ and what it means. Will you tell them?
Pastor David Horner
Faith Presbyterian Church
West Lafayette, IN 47906
Posted by faithpres at 02:34 PM | Comments (0)
March 08, 2009
“On What Is Your Mind Set?”
Mark 8: 31-38
Sunday, March 8, 2009
How do you refer to yourself? How do you sign your letters and e-mails? A friend of mine once made fun of me for the way I sign my e-mails. I either sign Dave Horner or my initials DLH. My friend said that people know who my e-mails are from because of the e-mail address so I really didn’t need to sign my last name. But I identify myself as Dave Horner, so that is how I sign. St Paul often referred to himself as the chief of sinners or as an Apostle by the Grace of God. The Apostle John referred to himself as the Beloved one or the one whom Jesus loved.
Jesus’ favorite term for himself was the enigmatic term “the Son of Man”. Now at first it might seem to us that that term was confusing and might imply just the opposite of what we claim about Jesus. Those of us who believe in the Virgin Birth of Jesus might find it awkward to call him the Son of Man. After all, we believe that he was the son of a woman and the Holy Spirit. He was strictly speaking not the son of a man. Of course the term Son of Man could be used to refer to him as being the son of a human, which he was.
But when Jesus referred to himself as the Son of Man he was not speaking of his human origins at all. He was using a term which came from the Old Testament. More specifically, it came from the Old Testament scripture we read as our first lesson this morning.
This lesson from Daniel 7 is obviously a description of God’s presence. Some might say it is a description of God in his throne room. It is also a depiction of Judgment day. In verse 10 we read that books were opened before God. We have read passages like that before and we know that the book contains names and deeds that are to be judged by God.
This judgment seems to be upon beasts. There is one preeminent beast that has been mentioned in Daniel’s prophecies and this one beast is slain and its body thrown into a blazing fire. Other beasts are also mentioned and they are stripped of their authority but allowed to live for a while longer.
Then into this scene of judgment comes another splendid person. Let me read to you once again what Daniel wrote about Him in verse 13 & 14. He was “coming with the clouds of heaven. And he came to the Ancient One and was presented before Him. To Him was given dominion and glory and kingship, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that shall not pass away, and his kingship is one that shall never be destroyed.”
This everlasting king is given a title in the beginning of verse 13. This title is impossible to find in the English translation we are reading this morning because of what you might call a generic translation. In our translation Daniel writes “As I watched in the night visions, I saw one like a human being coming with the clouds of heaven.” but the Hebrew text that is here translated “One like a Human being” would be better translated into English as “one like a Son of Man”. In Israel the phrase Son of Man had become one of the lesser-known terms for the long-expected Messiah.
When Jesus spoke of himself as the Son of Man he was saying to those who knew the term that he was the one described in this passage of Daniel, the Everlasting King who was to come. The Apostles understood who he was claiming to be. And that is why Peter was so confused by what Jesus said in our Second Lesson.
Mark wrote that Jesus began to teach them that He, “the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.” Peter was stunned. For Jesus to speak of the Son of Man, the glorious everlasting king who would judge and rule over all nations and people forever as suffering and being rejected and killed was inconceivable to Peter. It was totally against all that he had come to understand about the coming Messiah.
Peter was right to expect the Messiah to come. He was right in believing that Jesus was that Messiah. He was wrong in thinking that the role of Messiah would always be glorious, that there would be no degradation and suffering before the glorious reign.
So Peter attempted to take Jesus aside to explain to him that If Jesus was the Messiah he ought not to speak of himself as suffering and being killed. He was, after all the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, the great and eternal judge.
As Peter began to rebuke Jesus in that manner, Jesus said to Peter in front of the rest of the 12 “Get behind me, Satan! That seems pretty harsh doesn’t it? But Jesus recognized in Peters rebuke the temptation that came from Satan that we read about last week.
I hope you remember that Satan came to Jesus in the wilderness to tempt Him. One of the temptations involved Satan suggesting that Jesus throw himself down from the pinnacle of the temple so that the angels could fly in and save him in full view of the people so they would immediately recognize him and revere him as the Messiah. That would allow Jesus to be honored as the Messiah without the suffering which God had ordained for him.
Jesus recognized in Peter’s rebuke the same temptation that Satan had presented. Last Sunday we saw that in the temptation in the wilderness, Satan took Jesus to the pinnacle of the Temple and tempted him to throw himself down. Satan argued that God it was predicted in Scriptures that God would send his angels to rescue the Messiah so he would not strike his foot against a stone. All the people seeing the angels rescue Jesus would easily believe that Jesus was the Messiah.
Both Satan and Peter wanted Jesus to be promoted to Glory without any suffering. Satan desired it as a way of ruining God’s plan for Jesus and defeating him. Peter had more pure motives, he just wanted Jesus to be glorified without the suffering. Surely this would be best for all concerned.
But Jesus told Peter that he was “setting his mind not on divine things, but on human things.” Now when I read Jesus response to Peter, I am reminded of certain battles between the genders that I have been involved in. Sometimes the comment is made that one is “such a man” or that one is “Thinking just like a man”. Well, those of us who are men don’t consider that to be a fault. We are men and are for the most part pleased that we think like men.
So those of us who are human (which would include all beings in this room who are occupying space), fail to see the insult here. Of course Peter is setting his mind on Human things. And so, for the most part, do we. And a part of the human way of life is to avoid suffering. We take pills to alleviate major and minor pains. We pay extra for appliances that remove the most labor from us or provide more instantaneous service for us.
So, according to the human way of thinking, surely God would not send his Messiah, the Son of Glory, the everlasting king of kings, to suffer. The problem is that He did send the Messiah to suffer. And to die.
And, to make matters even more difficult, he wants those who follow his Son to think more like God. He wants us to be humble, he wants us see that it is sometimes in God’s plan to bring glory out of suffering and pain. And he wants us to be willing to suffer to help others.
After Jesus rebuked Peter, he turned to the crowd and called them to suffer. He called them to take up crosses and follow him. In those days a cross was not a piece of jewelry or a decoration on the pastor’s robe. It was only an instrument of death. It was the electric chair or the wall in front of a firing squad. Except that it exacted much more pain and suffering in death than those other instruments of death.
Jesus invited his followers to follow him in being willing to suffer and die for others. He invited them to place other considerations above their living pleasant, luxurious, and pain free lives.
We are not to be embarrassed of Jesus or of his words or of his people or of his demands that we be willing to suffer.
Now please do not misunderstand Jesus or me. Please do not go out those doors determined to suffer for Jesus. Please do not figure out how to increase your suffering or how to cause yourself to suffer more. There is no reward simply for suffering. The reward is in doing God’s will, even if it requires suffering. Just be willing to suffer for him. Recognize that suffering for Jesus is not bad, that God’s glorious plan is often revealed to sufferers and that God sometimes turns us into much better people through our suffering.
Jesus accused Peter of setting his mind on human thoughts rather than on divine thoughts. What kind of thoughts is your mind set on? Do you have the mind of Peter or the mind of Christ? Are you primarily seeking to keep or raise your standard of living, or are you seeking to do God’s will in all things even if doing His will involves suffering in some way?
Pastor David Horner
Faith Presbyterian Church
West Lafayette, IN 47906
Posted by faithpres at 02:49 PM | Comments (0)
March 01, 2009
“Temptation”
Matthew 4: 1-11/Hebrews 4: 14-5:10
Sunday, March 1, 2009
A few months back as we were celebrating Christmas, we noticed that Satan began to work against Jesus as he was born. Satan used the Herod family to attack Jesus and His family. So when we read about the beginning of Jesus’ ministry we are not surprised to find that Satan was very active trying to sabotage the work of Jesus at the very beginning. What we are not expecting is to find the Holy Spirit of God participating in the process. Our passage informs us that “Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil”.
Some of the bible scholars I read obviously had a difficult time with this passage because of the involvement of the Holy Spirit. They seem to be unwilling to allow that the Holy Spirit led Jesus to the place of Temptation. So they posit that The Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness for a 40 day period of prayer and fasting and that at the end of that period, Satan invaded the retreat and tempted Jesus.
Now it is reasonable to assume that Jesus prayed often during the 40 days of the temptation but there is no mention in any of the accounts of these temptations of Jesus praying. Whether or not we are comfortable with this duty of the Holy Spirit, the Bible clearly states that the Holy Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness for the purpose of his being tempted by Satan.
Now I know that in the epistle of James there is the information that God tempts no one. But it does not say that God does not allow us to be tempted or even bring us to the place where we will be tempted. Maybe that is why in the Lord’s Prayer Jesus instructed us to pray that God would not lead us into temptation. That we are instructed to ask God not to lead us into temptation implies that on occasion He does.
If and when He does, it might be for our own strengthening and our own victory, or it might be so we can play some important part in God’s defeating of satan and his evil plans.
While God did not tempt Jesus, the tempting of Jesus was a part of God’s plan for him and for us. The temptations of Jesus were to demonstrate that he was capable of defeating satan. The temptations of Jesus were to allow us to know that Jesus experienced some of the same indignities and temptations that we deal with. The author of the epistle to the Hebrews argues that Jesus had to become like us in order to become our great High priest. Part of His being like us involved His being tempted.
He was tempted to wrongly gain access to food when he may have been near starvation after a 40 day fast.
He was tempted to be publicly recognized and adulated as God’s Son earlier than God’s plan allowed.
And he was tempted to take on and rule the worldly kingdoms. In other words, he was tempted by the lure of political power. Most of us at one time or another have been critical of and disgusted with some of our political leaders when they refuse to enact the reforms they have promised to or when they take part in the corrupt process they promised to change. Rather than being critical we need to take these actions as evidence of the tremendous power that political temptations have on human beings. Jesus was tempted with all the political power in the world and withstood it.
He overcame his temptations because of his wisdom, and his dependence on and knowledge of the Holy Scriptures. His reply to each temptation is a quotation of Scripture.
The meal we are about to participate in is connected to temptations. By receiving this sacrament we acknowledge that Jesus has the power to forgive our sins. Part of that ability comes from his being victorious over all of his temptations, not only the 3 mentioned in our passage.
In this meal we acknowledge that we need the forgiveness that Jesus can impart. We need that forgiveness because we have not been victorious over our temptations.
While we will have Communion at our Morning Prayer Service on Wednesday March 18th, the next opportunity most of us will have to receive this sacrament will be on Holy Thursday and then again on Easter. Wouldn’t it be great if we had less to forgive then than we do now? It would certainly please God if we were better able to overcome more of our temptations between now and then.
How can we accomplish that? Consult the only one who has experienced success at overcoming all temptations. Jesus. Read about him in the Bible and seek his guidance through prayer as you face temptations. It might also be wise to ask God to help you to recognize your temptations.
Let us pray.
Father, we thank you for Jesus, our great, tempted-yet-sinless High priest. Help us to see him as not only our High priest but also our example and counselor in overcoming our temptations.
Pastor David Horner
Faith Presbyterian Church
West Lafayette, IN 47906
Posted by faithpres at 03:44 PM | Comments (0)