http://virb.com/brettwilliams Virb 2.0 (@brettwilliams) en http://virb.com/brettwilliams/posts/text/6035572 Pray: that Jesus be exalted and that we would have certainty concerning the truths about Jesus and that this certainty would lead a bold and loyal allegiance to Jesus Christ [Luke 1:1-4] “Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us, just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word have delivered them to us, it seemed good to me also, having followed all things closely for some time past, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught.” Tonight, is the beginning of a massive study of the longest Gospel in the Bible, Luke’s Gospel, and if we take Luke and Acts together as two-parts of a single book, what we have is the largest amount of material in the New Testament by any one author. Can you believe that? Paul has written more books of the New Testament but not more words, that alone goes to Luke, Luke and Acts make up 1/3 of the New Testament, and I say all this to say that Luke’s Gospel is vitally important to study and that it will take some time to complete this study. Most people would probably say that this is not a very smart strategy to grow a large youth group, “they’ll get bored” “it’s too much” “it’s too long” “they need practical help, etc.” well, they’re probably right that this will not grow a large youth group, but I don’t care about that! My desire is to have a deep youth group! I’ll take 1 or 2 true lovers of Jesus who will turn the world upside down, lit on fire by the truth of God and have a passion for His name to be magnified among every people group on the planet, than a thousand lovers of entertainment, experiences and social satisfaction! What a disservice it would be to you all, if I just went shallow, if we just kept serving up spiritual juice and cookies! I want you to feast on the meat of the Word and drink pure spiritual milk so that you may be wise and mature and deeply rooted and passionate disciples of Jesus. And studying through a Gospel like this, with the power of the Spirit infusing these words, will do just that. I. Why This Series On Luke? 1) That We May Know Him: In Philippians 3:8 Paul says, “…I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.” So for Paul, knowing this Christ was worth the loss of all earthly status and gain. Knowing Jesus was for him everything, surpassing worth, and it was his aim that he would know Jesus even more. You could say his soul longed for knowledge of Jesus, but where do we get this? Where do we get this kind of Pauline longing for the knowing Jesus? It comes from seeing Jesus, and the way we see Jesus is through the revelation of Himself in the Scriptures. So the aim of Luke’s gospel, you could say, is that we may know Jesus! Jesus is the theme of Luke’s Gospel, and it is Luke’s aim that Jesus be the theme of our lives. So this is the chief reason for this study…I want us to know Jesus! Now we could have picked any of the Gospels to do this, but Luke is the easiest Gospel to understand for those who have no prior knowledge of Jesus, it was written to a Gentile audience. Matthew’s Gospel was written to a primarily Jewish audience, so if we studied Matthew’s Gospel we would have to have a deep Jewish background. Mark’s Gospel is an easy Gospel and was probably written to a Roman audience, which would be easy to relate to, but Mark’s Gospel is bare bones and doesn’t give the detail we have in Luke, and Luke covers almost all of Mark, upwards of 98%, so if you read Luke, you knock out Mark too. Now John’s Gospel is not one of the Synoptic Gospels because John’s material doesn’t overlap any of the material in the other Gospels. John’s Gospel is a defense of Jesus deity and carries much of Jesus’ longer sermons and teachings, which carry many difficult concepts that would need a lot of explanation. So Luke’s gospel is a simple gospel that gets us straight to the Jesus we need to know, while taking us deep. So that’s the main reason. 2) That We May Have Certainty: The purpose of Luke’s letter, we’ll see, in a few minutes is so that Theophilus may have certainty; he wants Theophilus to be absolutely sure of the things concerning Jesus. So he writes that we may be convinced of the absolute nature of the truth of Jesus Christ. He doesn’t want there to be any doubting or wavering concerning the person and work of Jesus Christ, whether you’re a Christian or you’re just considering the truth claims of Christianity. At the end of this letter you should walk away knowing all you need to know to place your faith in Jesus and surrender your life to Him, swearing allegiance to Him and Him alone. As Christians you should walk away from this letter more convinced of who Jesus was and what He said and did and be able to spot false teachings about Jesus. 3) That We May Mature As Disciples of Jesus: The Great Commission says that we are to teach others to observe all that Jesus has commanded, and if we’re to learn what Jesus has commanded then we need to listen to Him, and the best way to listen to Him is to study one of the Gospels, and Luke is a great Gospel for this because 50% of Luke is Jesus’ sayings, and there is an overwhelming amount of material that the other Gospels do not contain. For example: there are 35 specific miracles recorded in the Gospels, 20 of them are in Luke and 7 are only in Luke. There are also 50 parables that Jesus taught, 35 of which are in Luke and 19 parables that are only in Luke. And on top of that there are 30 events in the life of Jesus that Luke records that no other Gospel does, so without Luke we miss 7 miracles, 19 parables and 30 events in the life of Jesus! That’s a lot! And by seeing this miracle working Christ, listening to His teachings, and observing these unique events we will inevitably, with the Spirit’s help, be mature disciples of Jesus Christ. So in the Gospel of Luke we will see our Master first hand and by reading this Gospel we will get as close to walking and talking with Jesus as we possibly can in this life, and there is one incredible section in Luke, 10 chapters (Luke 9:51-19:44), where we will walk behind Jesus on His way to the cross that awaits Him in Jerusalem. It is an amazing section and in it we will learn what it means to follow Jesus and the cost involved in this. So there is much to look forward to in this Gospel, much as Christians that we all long for: a deeper knowledge of Him, a greater certainty in the truths of the Lord, and a maturing in our walk and obedience as disciples of Jesus. What about you specifically? Out of those three aims in this series, which one do you most need in your life? Do you simply need to know Him? Do you desire Him and Him alone? Do you want a deeper communion with Jesus? Or do you need certainty? Are you struggling with doubts and the truths of Scripture? Do you just not know enough? Are you confident in the face of objections and questions concerning Jesus? Maybe you need certainty. Or do you want to be more radical in your obedience and following of Jesus? Do you want to walk as He walked and live as He lived? Do you want to be more like those men who gave up their lives for the message of the cross than all the kids you know who are giving up their lives for a few cheap pleasures in high school? Maybe this is you, maybe you want to be a mature disciple. Wherever you’re at…this Gospel will meet you there, and I can guarantee that because these Words are inspired by the Spirit of God and testify to Jesus Christ. So this is they why behind this series….and now let’s get into this book specifically…and we’ll answer 4 questions tonight from the Luke’s prologue: 1) Who is Luke? 2) How Did Luke Write His Letter? 3) Who is Luke Writing To? And 4) Why is Luke Writing This Letter? II. Who Is Luke? Luke’s not the kind of guy whose going to write a lot about himself and who tries to help us get to know him…remember Luke’s aim is that we know Jesus Christ and the events surrounding His life with certainty, so don’t expect little windows into Luke’s personal life. What we know about Luke comes from other sources in the New Testament and from ancient sources. First, let’s look at what we see from the New Testament sources… Philemon 23-24 Paul writes, “Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, sends greetings to you, and so do Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, and Luke my fellow workers.” Here we see that Luke was a fellow worker with Paul, accompanying him in his journeys and working together with him to promote the glory of Jesus Christ throughout the world. Colossians 4:14 Paul writes, “Luke the beloved physician greets you, as does Demas.” Here we see something of Paul’s affections for Luke and also Luke’s job. Paul calls Luke “beloved” and tells us that Luke is very dear to Paul. 2 Timothy 4:9-11 Paul writes to Timothy, “Do your best to come to me soon. For Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica. Crescens has gone to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia. Luke alone is with me.” Here Paul is writing in prison at the end of his life, we believe that 2 Timothy was Paul’s last letter and so at the end of Paul’s life when he has been deserted by Demas and everyone has left and moved on, right by his side is his fellow worker, and dear and loyal friend. This says a lot about what kind of guy Luke is, doesn’t it? Next, some ancient sources give us a further picture of Luke… We have to rely on these ancient sources because it is they that give us the assurance that Luke wrote this letter. Nowhere in the New Testament does it specifically say that Luke wrote this letter, probably because they didn’t think it was important, knowing that everyone in that day would have known who wrote it anyways, but later on, as the years went on they saw fit to make sure Luke was credited with authorship. The first and earliest evidence comes from around AD 125 when the four Gospels were assembled into a collection for the use of local churches, and they gave the title of the third Gospel “According to Luke.” The second evidence we have comes from the Muratorian Fragment written in 180 AD which listed books that belonged in the New Testament and in it this fragment affirms Luke as being the author and says, “The third book of the Gospel, according to Luke, Luke that physician, who after the ascension of Christ, when Paul had taken him with him as a companion on his journey, composed in his own name on the basis of report.” Another early source coming from the Anit-Marcionite Prologue (160-180AD), gives us a deeper insight to Luke’s character and says, “Indeed Luke was an Antiochian of Syria, a physician by profession, was a disciple of the apostles. At a later date he accompanied Paul, until the latter’s martyrdom. He served the Lord blamelessly. Having neither wife nor children, at the age of eighty-four he fell asleep in Boeotia, full of the Holy Spirit.” So this is Luke, the physician. He was a humble man. A man full of the Holy Spirit and dedicated to the spread of the gospel and the chronicling of the plan of God being worked out in history. He was a fellow laborer of Paul and a loyal friend. He also fell under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and through the investigation of eyewitnesses to Jesus’ life and death wrote an infallible Gospel and what happened as a result of that Gospel in the book of Acts. III. How Did Luke Write His Letter? “Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished (fulfilled) among us, just as those who from the beginning (That’s why Luke begins with the birth narratives) were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word have delivered (orally and written) them to us, it seemed good to me also (not that the others were bad), having followed (investigated) all things closely (precisely) for some time past, to write an orderly (somewhat chronological, but always logical) account…” The first thing we see from these verses is that Luke wasn’t charting new territory here with this letter. This obviously is not the first Gospel written. “Many have undertaken to compile a narrative…” so Luke is adding to the narrative compilation genre, which could by why his Gospel is much longer. He said that it seemed good to him also, since he had followed or investigated all things for some time past to write his Gospel. The second thing we see is where Luke was getting his information. He describes the people he received his information from as eyewitnesses and ministers of the word. The people he got his content from were there when Jesus was teaching and performing miracles and being crucified and rising from the dead. They saw and heard all the events and teachings of Jesus. So not only is this a narrative of events, this is a historically verifiable narrative of events. Luke wasn’t sitting in the woods someday and an angel came and gave him golden tablets…no Luke checked all the statements out. He interviewed sources, checked records, talked to people who saw Jesus first hand, and then after following things closely for some time wrote his Gospel under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. And I don’t know about you, but this gives me great confidence in the Scriptures and if you’re in here tonight questioning the reliability and authority of the Bible, I want you to think about who is writing this letter. Luke is a doctor. Not like “Trust me, I’m a doctor.” From the Dr. Pepper commercials, but a real doctor, a scientist, a studied man, who probably at one time was skeptical as well. Luke’s no idiot, so don’t expect him to just make something up out of the blue or put together something he doesn’t believe in or hasn’t researched. Luke has devoted his life to caring for people and in his profession he must have exact and perfect knowledge of a disease in order to properly treat it, and we can expect Luke to take the same care in his Gospel in order to treat the greatest sickness of all: a sin-darkened soul. Another thing that gives us confidence is in this letter is that the person Luke was writing to was no idiot himself. This man wouldn’t have bought anything thrown at him. We need to learn about this man…number 4… IV. Who Is Luke Writing To? “…for you, most excellent Theophilus…” Luke’s letter, as well as Acts, is addressed to the same individual named Theophilus, whose name means “Lover of God.” Kind of weird, but would be great for a name! Some commentators think that the name Theophilus is a name that refers to a group of people, those loved by God, and so the letter is written to a large community of Christians, but the evidence is against this view, and so we believe it was a certain individual and the reason being is the modifying words that come before the name: “most excellent.” 9 times out of 10 when you’re talking to your friends or a teacher or your parents you don’t call them “most excellent” even though I expect you to do that for me…just kidding…the point is that, in that day this was an uncommon greeting for ordinary friends and family, this was addressed to a important individual, such as a government official. For example, in Acts there are two times that this modifier is given and both are in relation to government officials such as Felix and Festus who were both governors. Therefore we can conclude Theophilus was someone in the government, most likely wealthy, and of an important status in society. I want you to think about something for a moment, and I want you to see something about Luke…Luke is writing this letter and Acts to one person! Now we know that it was obviously God’s plan that this letter be read by many, but for Luke, he wrote this letter to an individual either for the strengthening of his faith of that he may come to know Jesus in a saving way. Let me ask you a question: when was the last time you wrote something like this for one of your friends? What kind of friend are you? Are you willing to risk time, for Luke, it is believed to be two years, he spent investigating and interviewing people for this Gospel, for the sake of your friends soul? Luke was! He thought it every bit worth the effort for sake of Theophilus eternity, and may God give us the same kind of heart for our friends. So we’ve found out what kind of man Luke was, and how he wrote his letter and who he was writing to, and lastly, we come to the most important question of why? Number 5… V. Why Is Luke Writing This Letter? “…that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught.” So here we see that the reason why Luke is writing to Theophilus is so that Theophilus may have certainty concerning all the things he has been taught about Jesus Christ. Now I don’t know if you noticed, but this word “certainty” is a bold truth claim is it not? Luke’s not writing a Gospel in hopes that he might philosophically or argumentatively win Theophilus to the Christian camp…he’s giving him facts “exact” information; truths about events that took really took place, and it is the telling of these truths that will give Theophilus absolute certainty concerning the truth of Jesus Christ. Now we don’t know if Theophilus was already a Christian and was struggling with false teaching and Luke wanted to make sure Theophilus knew the whole truth or if Theophilus was seriously considering the Christian faith and needed to be sure of the message and then paid for Luke to go and investigate this matter for him. Either way, whether Theophilus was a Christian or considering becoming one, Luke wrote that Theophilus and anyone else for that matter may have absolute certainty concerning the Christian message of the good news of Jesus’ life and death. But there’s a certain kind of certainty that Luke is aiming for in his letter…it’s the kind of certainty that filled his own life, it’s the kind of certainty that made Luke give up a safe career in a safe medical practice making lots of money and living comfortably. It’s the kind of certainty that made Luke not want to marry or have children so that he could devote the whole of his life to the understanding and spread of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is the kind of certainty that makes a man forget about making a name for himself when the opportunity arose. He saw Jesus and that was the end of the matter for Luke. He was certain of this Christ and wanted Him alone to be magnified and exalted, and Luke was happy just being a fellow laborer of Paul in the background of perhaps some of the most excited days on earth. Luke wants us to have the kind of certainty that compels you to write letters to people with doubts and people young in the faith, and know that even if it’s not graded or no one sees it, it is worth a friend’s eternity to do so. It’s the kind of certainty that when everyone else deserts the mission for the love of this present world, you stay put and stay focused for sake of Jesus’ name! It’s the kind of certainty, that makes you stick beside your brother in Christ in prison and through all kinds of physical dangers because you’re committed to the mission, and because you are enamored by the Christ whose aim in coming to this world was to seek and to save the lost! Is this the kind of certainty you have? If not, this is the kind of certainty studying this Gospel will give. May God bless our time here looking to His Son. ]]> Mon, 09 Nov 2009 08:38:44 -0800 http://virb.com/brettwilliams/posts/text/6035572 http://virb.com/brettwilliams/posts/text/5887191 Pray: that Jesus be exalted and that we would be filled with great joy before the marvelous things that He has done [Psalm 98] Oh sing to the Lord a new song, for He has done marvelous things! His right hand and His holy arm have worked salvation for Him. The Lord has made known His salvation; He has revealed His righteousness in the sight of the nations. He has remembered His steadfast love and faithfulness to the house of Israel. All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God. Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth; break forth into joyous song and sing praises! Sing praises to the Lord with the lyre, with the lyre and the sound of melody! With trumpets and the sound of the horn make a joyful noise before the King, the Lord! Let the sea roar, and all that fills it; the world and those who dwell in it! Let the rivers clap their hands; let the hills sing for joy together before the Lord, for He comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world with righteousness, and the peoples with equity. Tonight we’re bringing our “Sing to the Lord” series to a close as we look at Psalm 98. If I were to give you a short summary of these three Psalms I would say that in Psalm 96 we see the urgent and happy response before Christ’s coming, and in Psalm 97 we see the seriousness and power of Jesus over all enemies, creation, and religious systems in His coming, and then in Psalm 98 we see absolute gladness filling the world because He has come, and rules over the world. To summarize it in musical instruments I would say Psalm 96 is like a trumpet as it’s call goes throughout the world, Psalm 97 is like a tuba thundering low before the coming Storm of Jesus, and Psalm 98 is like a flute that is free and happy and almost playful in tone. There are songs of joy, seriousness, and pure gladness surrounding the scene of Christ’s return, and it is this kind of joy and seriousness that I’ve been praying the Holy Spirit would form in you through these passages because we’re not just simply to be observing these affections; the aim is that we would share in these affections. And I just want to spend a few minutes before we dive in to tonight’s text talking about these affections… When we opened the series I led off with these words from C.S. Lewis, “There is a kind of happiness and wonder that makes you serious.” Would you not agree that to some degree you know what he’s talking about as we’ve studied these Psalms? Or if you haven’t experienced this, you can at least see where he’s coming from right? Now I think that this kind of happiness and wonder that makes one serious is the result of being a Christian, and it is something that we are to grow in. Christianity shapes and transforms every part one’s being. It is inevitable! As we walk with Christ we not only go where He goes, but we start to mimic His stride, copy His words, share His joy, feel His heart and live in a serious way. This means that the more we look to Jesus, the more we will have the emotional make-up of Jesus…and this is something we need. Now you may wonder why a serious happiness is something that is needed as Christians, or the result of being a Christian. Well, I would say that a serious happiness is needed because Jesus demands that we worship Him in “spirit and truth” which basically means we are to worship Him in a head-strong, heart-felt kind of way, and if we’re to do this then we need a different kind of happiness, one that keeps emotion and reality in check. It’s easy to have emotions that run away from truth and become light and meaningless, and it’s easy to have knowledge of the truth in our heads and no heart-felt joy in that truth. So, in order to worship Jesus in the way He demands, we need to be happy and we need to be serious. We need a happiness that makes us serious and we need a seriousness that aims for exclusive happiness in Jesus. So this serious happiness is the result of being made into the image of Christ, which means that Jesus is both serious and happy perfectly. You see, I don’t just want us to be serious and happy so that we’re different from the world, I want us to grow in this so that we’re more like Jesus and therefore more human in the process. To see this glory of Jesus’ happiness and seriousness we need to see Him in the most serious moment in the history of the universe, the cross, and we need to see that in this moment He was set on joy. Hebrews 12:3 says, “…for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” It was joy that led Him there, the joy of glorifying the Father in the salvation of sinners, and it was joy that kept Him there in the midst of awful shame, the joy of destroying the curse, and sin and Satan. You see, Jesus’ happiness made Him serious, and He was serious about happiness and I don’t know about you, but this kind of emotional make-up is exceedingly attractive. I want this! I want to be have such a joy and happiness in Jesus that it makes me blood-earnest in all I do and I want to be serious about happiness in Him, not settling for cheap and passing pleasure and not letting you all settle either. So by seeing Jesus both happy and serious, what God is doing is revealing the excellencies of His own nature, and through that, is attracting us to Him and transforming us to be like Him. I don’t know if you all know this, but seeing the glory of the Lord, is what changes us into the image of Jesus. That’s why it’s so important we gaze at His glory. 2 Corinthians 3:18 says, “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another.” The promise is this: if we at the serious and happy glory of Christ we’ll have it! We will have it! So when Lewis says, “There is a kind of happiness and wonder that makes you serious.” He’s saying, “The kind of happiness and wonder that makes you serious is seen in Christ and if you look to Him you’ll have it.” And that is why David was the kind of worshipper he was, that’s why he sang and danced unashamedly…he was consumed with the glory of God and was transformed. In everything, his one desire was to behold Him in His glory and as a result David worshipped God head-strong and heart-felt. We need to nail this down so let’s expand on this, follow closely here or you’ll get lost…Let’s look to God... God is Serious and Happy You don’t get a singing and joyful universe without a God who is both serious and happy. Psalm 98 doesn’t happen if God is not both serious and happy and as a result serious about happiness. Let me show you how this works… First, everything is serious to God. Everything. And it is His seriousness that protects our happiness and works for it. For example, because God is serious about death and the removal of sin that ensures the greatest happiness imaginable will be realized. Where there is no sin there is pure happiness (which means God is the most happy being in the universe), which if you turn to Revelation 21:4 you’ll see how God’s seriousness ensures our happiness. John writes, “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” Do you see it? All the barriers to happiness are removed: death, mourning, crying, and pain. The former things pass away that the new may be ushered in and remain forever. So everything being serious to God means that He deals with things with the right force and perfect precision so that happiness in Him is secured. Second, the happiness of God is forever. Now this is something we don’t understand very well because when we think of being with God forever we actually never get out of the initial arrival stage. Think about it: when we think of eternity with Christ we think of sin’s removal, death’s defeat, songs of joy, global worship, transformation into the image of Jesus, sensory overload, and in truth, that’s only as far as Scripture takes us so we don’t go any further. The Bible in many ways is simply an introduction filled with glimpses into the real Story that will last forever. So grasping this kind of forever happiness is hard, and we struggle with this kind of happiness because much of our kind of happiness is so short-lived. It is constantly being interrupted, to use our earlier term, by “former things” which unfortunately are now, present things. It always seems like we are planes who can never quite take off…the moment we’re ready to fly something breaks or a storm comes and so our happiness never reaches it’s glorious end or actually beginning, however you look at it. So to understand what it will be like in flight with Christ is something that we just don’t have the capacity for, but that doesn’t mean we settle for light happiness. We should seek a heavy, God-like happiness and we should seek it in Him! Therefore We Must Take Happiness Seriously Let me ask you a question: when was the last time that God Himself made you glad or just made you smile? When the joy you found in Him made you think that your face would be stuck in a permanent grin? When was the last time you read the Scriptures and laughed in the wonder of Christ? If these moments are few and far between it is not the Truth that is failing to make you happy, the issue is that you don’t trust the Truth to make you exclusively happy. And as a result of not trusting the truth of Jesus for lasting happiness you search out happiness in places and in things that will only satisfy for a few moments, and you’re never happy. So the issue for us in that condition is that we’re not taking happiness seriously. We have ignored the commands in Scripture to be glad and rejoice in God and we have as a result grieved the Holy Spirit. You see, a failure to be happy in God and to take happiness in Him seriously is sin. Now you might have never thought about this, the truth that God commands you to be happy, and to be happy in Him! He has exclusive rights to your joy. And amazingly and graciously He directs us to Himself where and only where we have true joy. Jesus is the source and end of all joy and to find it anywhere else (which you can’t) is sin and death. Let me show you something in Deuteronomy 28...I want you to see that God promised punishment for Israel’s failure to be glad in Him. Pick up in Deuteronomy 28:45-48 “All these curses shall come upon you and pursue you and overtake you till you are destroyed, because you did not obey the voice of the Lord your God, to keep His commandments and statutes that He commanded you. They shall be a sign and a wonder against you and your offspring forever. Because you did not serve the Lord your God with joyfulness and gladness of heart, because of the abundance of things, therefore you shall serve your enemies whom the Lord will send against you, in hunger and thirst, in nakedness, and lacking everything.” You see that? Joyfulness and gladness of heart matter greatly to God, so to ignore your emotions and your affections for Christ and to not seek a serious happiness in God is great and grievous sin. Now, knowing that, don’t you think we should take happiness seriously? I do. And to cultivate this kind of happiness, won’t come by trying to work it up through sad stories, repetitious music, or any other way of working up our emotions…it will come as we meditate and learn the truth of our great Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and with that let’s get into Psalm 98 where we see the result of ecstatic joy and worship before the truth of the reigning King! The Future Setting of This Song Now as we’ve done in the other Psalms, I’ve sought to give you a future setting of when these songs will be employed by connecting some of the images to future events and here I want to do the same. This doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t sing these songs now, but that we should sing them in view of the future reality and when that future reality comes then we will understand our songs more fully. The future setting of this Psalm seems to be somewhere after the last battle with the kings of the earth, after the defeat of Satan, after the judgments, and before the new heavens and new earth is completely established. It’s almost as if this song is sung as the city of God comes down out of heaven, which is the picture at the beginning of Revelation 21 when we read, “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God prepared, (This a fulfillment of the promise of Jesus in John 14:2-3 when he says, “In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And If I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.” Well, this is Jesus coming good on His promise!) as a bride adorned for her husband.” So this seems to be an appropriate scene for Psalm 98 and the reason why I say that, is the past-tense nature of the first 3 verses in this Psalm, the world-wide seeing of the salvation of God, the absence of idolatry like are present in the other 2 Psalms, the praise party of verses 4-6 and because of the joy of the created order in the last 3 verses, almost as if the world is again becoming what it once was, but now better because the curse of sin is being lifted, and Jesus is coming to rule over His people with righteousness and equity. So here is the happy scene of this Psalm…I want you to picture yourself there in that moment and O how I pray you will be there with Jesus in joy and not in Hell weeping and gnashing your teeth looking to escape eternally from the fire but finding no relief. I pray there will be singing for you and not screaming! And so that means that this moment, this time, and what you do with Jesus now matters infinitely! And if you have Christ…this Psalm will be your song. Let’s look at it in three parts: 1) The Theme of Our Song 2) The Expression of Our Song 3) The Theater of Our Song 1. The Theme of Our Song (v.1-3) Oh sing to the Lord a new song, for He has done marvelous things! His right hand and His holy arm have worked salvation for Him. The Lord has made known His salvation; He has revealed His righteousness in the sight of the nations. He has remembered His steadfast love and faithfulness to the house of Israel. All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God. The reason why we’re singing is that He has done marvelous things. These are wonderful, astonishing, and extraordinary things. What He has done has no parallel, it is unprecedented. So what are these marvelous and wonderful things that have become the theme of our song? Let me ask you another question, what word is used the most in these three lines? It is the word “salvation.” Salvation is the marvelous thing and all that is included in it. Now the word here for “salvation” carries the idea of “victory” and this is significant for understanding what we’re singing about here because now we are singing about a completed victory. The Lord has won the battle! The sword that has come from His mouth and struck down the nations and all His enemies, has now been put in its sheath! The white horse that He rode upon with blood to its bridle has now been cleaned and put in the stall! The triumph over Satan and his hosts has been complete and now they are left only to grovel in defeat in the torment of hell forever and ever! But that is not all that is included in this salvation. No, the cross has not just secured the overthrow of Satan in the end, but it has also secured the complete overthrow of sin. We talk about our deliverance from sin in 3 stages: 1) Deliverance From Sin’s Penalty: This victory has already been accomplished on the cross when Jesus became sin and a curse for us, the penalty of sin is death and Jesus died our death that we might live forever. We still die, but death is transformed for us is now as Paul says, “Gain!” 2) Deliverance From Sin’s Power: This victory has taken place and is continually taking place in us. The power of sin over us has been broken. We are no longer under it’s mastery, we have a new Master, and we have the power to say no to sin and yes to righteousness. 3) Deliverance From Sin’s Presence: Now in some degree we are now being freed by sin’s presence in our lives through a process called sanctification, but there is no way in this life that sin’s presence will be destroyed, we need resurrection, we need to see Christ, we need glorification, and that’s what is coming and that will be the last victory…the last victory is the victory over sin’s presence when it will be completely eradicated from our bodies, our minds, our words, our thoughts and our hearts! And this is marvelous isn’t it? And this will be the theme of our worship! We will forever sing about the Lamb slain who has conquered through the shedding of His blood upon the cross! This theme will never wear out and we will never tire of singing of it! So salvation and the marvelous things of God is the theme of our song, and next in verses 4-6 we see… 2. The Expression of Our Song (v.4-6) Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth; break forth into joyous song and sing praises! Sing praises to the Lord with the lyre, with the lyre and the sound of melody! With trumpets and the sound of the horn make a joyful noise before the King, the Lord! A) Our Song is Joyful: Our worship on that day will be pure joy. There will be a happiness there that we can scarcely imagine here. Joy is the expression of those who have seen a great salvation and it will be the forever expression of the people of God in Zion. In our Master’s joy there will be joy and it will be uncontainable. B) Our Song is Loud: So not only will our songs be joyful but they will be loud! It is a joyful noise we will give with our lips and with instruments! It will be a noise unlike anything you can imagine! God is not a God who likes it quiet, there is always a noise around Him, whether it is the thunder of His voice or the unceasing worship of the angelic hosts, but here there will be a noise sounding out from all of the redeemed, as every tongue sings His praises with all that is in them! C) Our Song is Beautiful: Our song there will be beautiful as well, melody and music will fill the earth. Can you imagine what the heavenly orchestra or band and choir will sound like? It will be beautiful! That is the only way to describe what will be there! The best song we have ever sung here will sound nothing like what we will give there. And the reason why it will be so different is this… D) It is Before the King: There will be no distractions, there will be no pressing into His presence, we will live in His presence and we will be like David, before the King, the Lord! Now we’re scarcely ever exclusively before the Audience of One, we’re so distracted, but there distraction will be impossible, and even if it were possible we would only be distracted by other manifestations of His glory! So salvation is the theme of our joyful, loud, and beautiful song, and now let’s look at, number 3… 3. The Theater of Our Song (v.7-9) Let the sea roar, and all that fills it; the world and those who dwell in it! Let the rivers clap their hands; let the hills sing for joy together before the Lord, for He comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world with righteousness, and the peoples with equity. The reason why I’m using the term “theater” is because it is the way that John Calvin would refer to the universe in the Institutes. He would say that it is the theater of the glory of God, because if you wanted to see the glory of God and be entertained by it then to do so you would need to go to the theater, which is the universe. Here in the last stanza of this song we see a joyful universe a universe breaking out in song with the world and all those who dwell in it! There is music and joy from the Pacific to the Atlantic, from South Asia to Northern Russia, to the South Pole and to the North Pole, on the tops of every mountain to the bottom of every valley, across every plain and in every river. There is nowhere that you can turn and not hear the voice of praise and singing to the Lord! We will see His glory and it will not be mistaken! The curse of sin will be completely reversed! So here we see a sea that is roaring, but not with disaster. There are no Tsunamis, and storms and tidal waves that wipe out homes, and swallow ships and drown little children. The fallen sea that is frightening is no more…this sea roars with praise to God and makes its own music with the children of God before the Lord. Next we see rivers that are no longer flooding their banks and flooding homes and killing crops and wiping out bridges, these rivers are not out of control like a runaway train but these rivers travel their course and when their waves splash along the banks or upon the rocks, they clap in beat to the majesty of Jesus! They move in response to the Lord! Next we see the hills, and these are not mountains and hills that break in landslides or mudslides or send rocks hurling down their faces like awful tears, but these mountains are moving and swaying and singing with joy together before the Lord! It is if they are rising and falling like a great choir in song! This is a picture that we can faintly see and comprehend! It is of a new world where righteousness dwells and where there is peace and where the glory of the Lord covers the earth as water covers the sea! In every direction the world is responding to the Lord, and with the joy of the children of God! I had read somewhere, I think by Spurgeon, that when we are happy everything else seems to be happy as well. The hills seem to be alive and we see everything with joy and nothing annoys us. When we’re happy we don’t run out of the rain, but sing in the rain and when the wind blows through the trees we hear music and are not scared and when we see grass blowing over we see it as if it is bending over and grabbing its belly in laughter. Well, when the reign of sin has been overthrown completely and the Righteous King is reigning in righteousness this is how we will see the world, and it won’t be in a passing way! Everything will be alive with joy and it won’t just seem that way…it will actually be that way! The prophet Isaiah gives us a glimpse into this theater of our song, when Christ reigns in righteousness, when he writes in Isaiah 11:5-9 “Righteousness shall be the belt of His waist, and faithfulness the belt of His loins. The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together; and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze; their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder’s den. They shall not hurt or destroy in all My holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.” Do you notice something here? Do you notice the innocence of the created world? There is no memory of fallenness here. The wolf and the lamb don’t know they are enemies, but they dwell with one another. The wolf’s mouth doesn’t salivate at the sight of the lamb and the lamb doesn’t run at the sight of the wolf…they just dwell with one another. The same goes with the leopard and goat, and the cow and bear and we see that the lion isn’t eating meat, but eating straw side by side the ox. Also notice that the infant is playing over the hole of the cobra without fear, and without the child’s mother grabbing the child for it’s own safety, neither the mother nor the child have any fear of any animal. Mankind once again has dominion over all the animals of the earth. The world has been transformed…everything is new, there is not even a hint of the curse and our memory of the fallen world has been erased as we experience the Master’s joy and what’s the difference? The earth is full of the knowledge of the Lord! All of creation now lives and breathes the breath of God and walks in the light of the Lamb and knows nothing but the glory of God and all is right and all are joyful! Most of you are familiar with Isaac Watts hymn “Joy to the World” but what you probably didn’t know is that it wasn’t written in view of Christmas, it was written out of Psalm 98 and I want to close with verse 3, and it says this… “No more let sins and sorrows grow, Nor thorns infest the ground; He comes to make His blessings flow Far as the curse is found, Far as the curse is found, Far as, far as the curse is found.” ]]> Mon, 02 Nov 2009 09:13:58 -0800 http://virb.com/brettwilliams/posts/text/5887191 http://virb.com/brettwilliams/posts/text/5759928 Pray: that Jesus be exalted and that we see and love His reign and as a result hate evil I want you to know that I’ve wrestled over preaching this message, because I almost preached a different one after this morning on Ephesians 6, but instead of preaching that, and expounding on those verses, let me just read them and let this morning’s service be the exposition…Ephesians 6:1-3 says, “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father and mother (this is the first commandment with a promise), that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.” Obey your parents, submit to them in the Lord, honor them, do as they say, pray for them, and ask and beg for their care of your soul in accountability and discipline. If they are not leading you to the cross, ask them to do so. Do not rail against their God appointed authority over you. Parents were God’s idea and so is their discipline of you and you should love the means through which God’s guards your soul from Hell! This is right! In a thousand ways it is right. So that’s the message in short, but I believe Psalm 97 was planned for a reason and the reason is that while many of us are shaken and unsure right now it is good in this state to look to a Sovereign God and our text directs our attention to Him. So turn with me to Psalm 97… [Psalm 97] “The Lord reigns, let the earth rejoice, let the coastlands be glad! Clouds and thick darkness are all around Him; righteousness and justice are the foundation of His throne. Fire goes before Him and burns up His adversaries all around. His lightnings light up the world; the earth sees and trembles. The mountains melt like wax before the Lord, before the Lord of all the earth. The heavens proclaim His righteousness, and all the peoples see His glory. The worshipers of images are put to shame, who make their boast in worthless idols; worship Him, all you gods! Zion hears and is glad, and the daughters of Judah rejoice, because of Your judgments, O Lord. For you, O Lord, are most high over all the earth; you are exalted far above all gods. O you who love the Lord, hate evil! He preserves the lives of His saints; He delivers them from the hand of the wicked. Light is sown for the righteous, and joy for the upright in heart. Rejoice in the Lord, O you righteous, and give thanks to His holy name!” The Present Context and Future Fulfillment Any time you begin studying a passage of Scripture one of the first things you need to know in order to understand the passage and the perspective of the passage and the why behind it, is the background. So in order to understand this Psalm we need to know the occasion for which it was written…unfortunately, the occasion for which Psalm 97 was written is not very clear. However, there are some things that we can assume from the passage and it is this: 1) A Great Victory Has Taken Place (v.1-7) 2) There is Great Rejoicing in Zion (v.8) 3) There is a Great Response and Great Joy in and to the Lord’s Promises (v.10-12) That’s what we know from the context and there is much to apply to our own lives from the vision of God laid out here and the joyful response of the people, but in the Psalms, if you remember, there is that prophetic piece that looks forward or foretells a future event. So while there is a present fulfillment here there also can be a future fulfillment. This is what theologians call “double-fulfillment.” However, in this case there could potentially be a “triple-fulfillment.” And this why applying this passage is so difficult and where it gets tricky to understand. Let me explain: Fulfillment 1: The Great Victory Over a Present Enemy Fulfillment 2: The First Coming of Christ and The Advancement of the Kingdom of God in the Kingdom of this World Fulfillment 3: The Second Coming of Christ When He Will Reign Over All the Earth So with those 3 fulfillments on the table, I believe, that the one that is most clear, for our instruction and edification is fulfillment 3, in that, this Psalm is looking forward to the Second Coming of Christ when He will have full reign over all the earth and every enemy will be fully and finally destroyed in the heat of His wrath, and there will be great rejoicing on every coastland. We’ll dive into this Psalm in 4 parts, let’s look at verse 1 and see point 1 which is… I. The Lord Reigns, Rejoice! (v.1) This verse sets the tone for the whole Psalm and is a summary statement of what is to follow. It’s kind of like a “tweet” on the Psalm. The truth is this: the Lord reigns, rejoice! And what this is teaching us is that the Lord’s reign is to be something that fills us all peoples with joy. It is something we should look forward to and bank on…He will reign fully over all sin and creation and peoples and He will reign on the earth because He does reign! The specific attribute this verse is highlighting is God’s sovereignty, and God’s sovereignty in short means that God does all that He pleases for His eternal pleasure and purposes. This means as Sovereign He governs and controls every single action and cause and effect in the universe. In other words, He micromanages everything from the flight of a wasp through the sky, to the dance of dust particles in a sunbeam. Over everything God is King and at this we should rejoice! We should contend for this truth and sing of this truth! He reigns supreme and this should be our great delight, as it was for Jonathan Edwards who said, “Absolute sovereignty is what I love to ascribe to God.” And why should one be so enthusiastic about the Lord’s reign over all things? Because of the great contrast of the Governing of God compared to all other earthly rule. Let me just give you six contrasts of Christ’s reign to all other reigns… His Reign is one of… A) Freedom not Oppression: King Jesus said in Luke 4:18-19, “The Father has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of the sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” And that’s what He did. He freed people from oppression to sin, especially the sin of self-love, and from the oppressive service of serving Satan rather than God. If you are in Christ, the kingdom of God and the reign of Christ has broken in on your life freeing you from oppression! B) Righteousness not Wickedness: In Hebrews 1:8-9 we read, “But of the Son he says, “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever, the scepter of uprightness is the scepter of Your kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions.” C) Justice not Injustice: In the book of the prophet Isaiah in chapter 11 he says of Christ, “And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. And His delight shall be in the fear of the Lord. He shall not judge by what His eyes see, or decide disputes by what His ears hear, but with righteousness He shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; and He shall strike the earth with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips He shall kill the wicked.” D) Delight not Drudgery: Those who are under the reign of Christ experience delight not drudgery and this sets apart false professors from the true. All enter the kingdom of God with joy. Matthew 13:44 says, “The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy (note the word, he’s not upset about giving all he has up) he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.” E) Singing not Sorrow: Of the coming kingdom Isaiah 35:10 prophecies, “And the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with singing; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.” And we’re not the only ones singing…Isaiah 62:5 says, “…as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you.” F) Life not Death: In Revelation 21:3-4 in view of the new heavens and new earth a loud voice from the throne says, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be His people, and God Himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall their be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” This is what is and what will be! The kingdom has broken out upon the earth and is even now in our midst and one day it will be the only kingdom there is, and it will be a kingdom marked by freedom, truth, righteousness, justice, delight, singing and life! And as you hear this, you might be saying, “Wow! That is awesome, but can I really trust that it will be accomplished. Is He really able to pull this off even in the face of what seems to be great enemies and worldwide religious indifference and even hatred to the truth of God? Can He do this?” The overwhelming answer is yes…and He won’t be stopped from establishing His rule. The cross of Jesus Christ has set it into motion and it will not be undone…“It is Finished!” Jesus said, and He will come back to make it final! Look and see in verse 2-7… II. The Unstoppable Sovereign (v.2-7) The point of these verses is that we see the Sovereign, Unstoppable Christ who dwells in the storm and rides in the storm. First, we see Him on His throne and we see Him surrounded by clouds and thick darkness. All throughout Scripture when there is a vision of God this is how He is revealed…from Sinai to the throne in heaven in Revelation, He is God in the storm! Second, the throne is mentioned as having a foundation that is righteousness and justice. It is a good and great and immovable throne. But there’s movement in this Psalm from the throne that we’re supposed to see and be stunned by. We see Him on His throne and then rising from His throne and on the move with unstoppable power: a power that is over all enemies and all creation and a power that is over all idolatry and religious systems. What we see is that nothing can stand before Him or can contend with Him! The first thing we see is that… His Enemies Cannot Stop Him (v.3) “Fire goes before Him and burns up His adversaries all around.” The most foolish and pointless thing sinful men and women have ever done and are doing on this earth is seeking to live under their own rule. It is vain task that will not amount to anything! Listen to me, you may think you are doing whatever you want, you may think you are living independently and that your actions are being overlooked by God, but let me tell you on the authority of the Spirit-breathed Scriptures, you are deceived! No one! No one, lives independently or outside of the reign of Christ and no one will be able to escape His judgments! His fire will burn up all those who have sought to establish their own rule in whatever capacity that may be. His consuming fire will burn up all those who have rejected Him by open hatred or passive indifference! His fire will burn up every enemy who has chosen earthly pleasure and temporal joy of Eternal Treasure and Forever Joy! His consuming fire will sniff out and scorch all those who will seek to hide from Him on the day of His return! He will have ultimate victory over every single one of us and He will do this in one of two ways: He will either do this by saving you or He will do this by destroying you! He rules and you cannot stop Him, none can stop Him! But not only will He have victory over all the enemies of humanity, but He will have ultimate victory over all Satanic and demonic forces of evil. The great powers of Satan that we cannot see that deceive and destroy and ruin and kill will one day all be burned up by Jesus! Many people tend to think that Satan will still have power forever in Hell, as if he is not affected by the flames and torment of Hell, but is more ruler over it. Well, that is a false picture that has been made in the mind of man, because in the mind of God revealed to us through the Scriptures we see Christ as the Ruler over Hell and Satan and his demons suffering at His hand. There is a reason why when a demon saw Jesus in the flesh on earth 2,000 years ago he said, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God.” He rules over demons, you need to see this. In Revelation 20:10 we read, “…and the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be (look) tormented (consciously) day and night forever and ever.” You see that, Satan will be tormented as well and all those whom Christ does not own will be with him, and that’s what we see in verses 11-15 where we read, “Then I saw a great white throne and Him who was seated on it. (Compare the imagery here with our Psalm) From His presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. Then Death and Hades were throne into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.” No enemy will escape Jesus or prevail against Him. And this power over earth and sky that flees at His presence is what we see in the next block of verses in our Psalm… His Creation Cannot Stop Him (v.4-6) “His lightnings light up the world; the earth sees and trembles. The mountains melt like wax before the Lord, before the Lord of all the earth. The heavens proclaim His righteousness, and all the peoples see His glory.” When Christ comes in His glory creation will clear the way before Him and announce His coming. It’s almost as if David is composing a song for Matthew 24:27-31 when Jesus says, “For as lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man…Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And He will send out His angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.” All of creation responds to Him and nothing can stop Him from coming. He is over creation not subject to it; it is subject to Him! It will not stop Him! Religious Systems Cannot Stop Him (v.7,9) Lastly, what we see is that when Jesus comes in His power from His throne all those who have sworn allegiance to any god, but Christ will be put to shame. They will be shocked, stunned, embarrassed and shamed that they ever worshipped anyone but Him, and all the world will give Him the worship He is due! Every knee in heaven and on earth will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father! He will have His glory over all religious systems! All the millions who have spent their lives worshiping themselves, their own wealth, beauty, popularity, position, and possessions will be put to shame when the Treasure of the Universe shows up! The millions of Hindu worshipers who bow to countless idols will bow down before the feet of Jesus in shame and in terror that they ever worshiped anyone but Him! The millions of Muslims who bow down and pray five times a day will not bow down to Allah on that great day, but they will bow down to Yahweh! And let this be a warning, all those who have believed in a Christ of their own making will be ashamed at the “Christ” they created. And you better be sure you are truly His because there are some who will stand before Jesus and will confidently claim that they were His saying, “Lord! Lord! Didn’t we prophesy in your name and in your name cast out demons and in your name perform many miracles” and He will say to them, “Depart from Me! I never knew you!” They will find out they had the wrong Christ! And if you don’t repent and forsake the ‘god’ of your own making that day will be a great shock to you as well! You cannot settle for the fact that you almost had it right, you almost repented, you almost believed, you almost surrendered your life…No 'almost Christian' will inherit the kingdom of heaven! Only those who have lost everything and died to themselves will live to God! He will not be stopped! Now I want you to see something here…You remember that at first, we said this Psalm was pointing forward to the day of Christ’s second coming where He will reign over the earth? I want you to know that I didn’t make that up, because what we’re seeing in Psalm 97 is exactly what John saw in Revelation 6 when the last seal of judgment was opened… Revelation 6:12-17 “When He (Jesus) opened (and only He can open because He has conquered Rev. 5:5), I looked and behold, there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth, the full moon became like blood, and the stars of the sky fell to the earth as the fig tree sheds its winter fruit when shaken by a gale. The sky vanished like a scroll that is being rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place. Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, calling to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?” And that is the question isn’t it: “Who can stand?” From the perspective of those defeated, none can stand before the wrath of the Lamb, and it is true, but there are some who will stand on that day…and they stand because on the day Jesus was crucified, the storm clouds of darkness gathered above the head of the Son of God and there the Precious Lamb was treated as the Father’s enemy and the fire of His wrath consumed Him! That is the only reason that they stand and it is the only reason that anyone of us will stand in this room…we must place our trust in Him, surrender to His reign, and confess our sins in repentance for ever seeking to assert our own independence! Oh, let me ask you again, “Will you stand in that Day?” Will you stand when the Storm of the Lamb comes? Will you be found safe in the Son or exposed and seeking to hide in death but not being able to die? We will all face Him! We will all find Him in one of two storms…which will it be? I pray you meet Him at Calvary, find Him there, even now. ]]> Tue, 27 Oct 2009 07:05:30 -0700 http://virb.com/brettwilliams/posts/text/5759928 http://virb.com/brettwilliams/posts/text/5597798 Pray: that Jesus be exalted and that we would be a worshiping people empowered for mission and urgent and joyful in light of the Lord’s returning [Psalm 96] “Oh sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord all the earth! Sing to the Lord, bless His name; tell of His salvation from day to day. Declare His glory among the nations, His marvelous works among all the peoples! For great is the Lord and greatly to be praised; He is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the peoples are worthless idols, but the Lord made the heavens. Splendor and majesty are before Him; strength and beauty are in His sanctuary. Ascribe to the Lord, O families of the peoples, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength! Ascribe to the Lord the glory due His name; bring an offering and come into His courts! Worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness; tremble before Him, all the earth! Say among the nations, “The Lord reigns! Yes the world is established; it shall never be moved; He will judge the peoples with equity.” Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice; let the sea roar and all that fills it; let the field exult, and everything in it! Then shall all the trees of the forest sing for joy before the Lord, for He comes, for He comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in His faithfulness.” If you remember from last week the background of this Psalm is 1 Chronicles 16 when David is bringing the ark of God, the symbolic throne of the Lord, into Jerusalem. He is dancing and rejoicing before the ark and offering a sacrifice of praise to God. As the ideal Israelite he is unashamed of his God and undignified in praise before the Lord! He is God-conscious and in stark contrast to self-conscious Michal, David’s wife, who thinks David has lost his mind! But David shows us what the true worshipper looks like and in his action we see what we should be like. We see where our hearts should be and where we’re lacking. So this Psalm in its context is about the arrival of the true King coming into His kingdom to sit on His throne, which points forward to a greater reality, and that is the coming of Christ to earth in His return. If you didn’t know, Psalms have a prophetic piece, in that, they foretell something else, namely, Someone else: Jesus so this Psalm points us forward to this day, this night as we await the return of Christ. And before the coming of the Lord, this Psalm shows us how the people of God, the nations, and all of creation should respond as we wait. Many commentators call this a Missionary Hymn, which is a right assessment and in it we will see the worldwide and cosmic effects of salvation, and we’ll answer this in 3-parts tonight… 1. How Should the People of God Respond? Sing! Sing! Sing! 2. How Should the Nations Respond? Ascribe! Ascribe! Ascribe! 3. How Should Creation Respond? Let! Let! Let! 1) How Should the People of God Respond? Sing! Sing! Sing! (v.1-6) Oh sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord all the earth! Sing to the Lord, bless His name; tell of His salvation from day to day. Declare His glory among the nations, His marvelous works among all the peoples! For great is the Lord and greatly to be praised; He is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the peoples are worthless idols, but the Lord made the heavens. Splendor and majesty are before Him; strength and beauty are in His sanctuary. How should the people of God respond to the coming of the Lord to Judge the earth? With singing! You might find it strange that we look forward to Christ coming to Judge, but we do, and we do because before Him we are innocent! We have been counted righteous in Christ! As the hymn says, “God the Just is satisfied to look on Him and pardon me.” So before His coming we sing! We sing as those innocent! We sing with joyful singing that reflects the joy that God has in Himself, and expresses the joy that He will give us when He comes! There is to be a gladness and a delight that floods the hearts of those who love and long for His joyful appearing. In Verse 4 David captures this relationship when he says, “God is great and greatly to be praised.” Because God is great, His praise should be great! My daughter in her childlikeness understands this better than we do sometimes. This has been her verse for the last few weeks as I’ve been studying this at home, and what we do is get her to fill in the blanks, so we say, “God is what?” and she says, ‘Great!’ “and greatly to be what?” And she says, ‘Praised!’ and then she throws her hands up in the air and says, “Woo! Woo!” We need to recover this kind of childlike wonder and response before the Wonderful God who does marvelous works! We can’t be cool and be worshippers of the living God at the same time! Michal was looking for a way to do this, but not David. David lost his dignity and pride as king before the King of universe and why should we who have no standing at all be more dignified and proud than he was? Singing is the appropriate response and this singing is to the Lord, but why is singing the appropriate response? Look at verse 6… Verse 6 says, “Strength and beauty are in His sanctuary.” Singing is a reflection of God’s character which is both strong and beautiful, and last time we talked about how singing is the appropriate response to God’s strength and beauty because singing is 1) a powerful medium to communicate truth (if you don’t believe just turn on the radio and prove the point) and 2) singing is a way to appropriately reflect the beauty of such a God who has splendor and majesty before Him. You see, you can’t just talk about Him! If you know Him, you have to sing about Him! Lovers understand this don’t they? Lovers just don’t talk about each other, they sing about each other! For example, many of you know my wife Jody and many of you could tell people a lot about her. You could talk about her character and personality, her hair and eye color, her clothes, her silliness and sarcasm, but you won’t talk about her the way I talk about her. We might even say the same things, but here’s the thing, you would say them…I would sing them! It’s because I love her and know her, because I have studied her and we are in a covenant-relationship with one another. The same is true for those who know the Lord and are in covenant-relationship with Him, they don’t just talk about Him; they sing about Him, and O is He worthy of our songs! There was a minister who preached during the days of the Puritan Samuel Rutherford and had this said to say about him, “Many times I thought he would have flown out of the pulpit when he came to speak about Jesus Christ. He was never in his right element but when he was commending Him.” That’s how a true David-like worshipper responds to God’s greatness…they sing about Him and are never in their right element except when they are praising God! But the coming of the Lord doesn’t just cause us to sing, it causes us to move in action. In other words, the praise of God leads to the proclamation of God. Here’s what the people of God need to see, our singing and great passion and feeling for the Lord should fuel us in mission. Another way to say this is that worship is the fuel for missions. Pick up in Verse 2 where he sings, “Tell of His salvation from day to day.” He’s saying, ‘Speak it continually wherever you are! Never stop. Day to day it must be told!’ This is good news and our words should reflect it. In Verse 3 he sings, “Declare His glory among the nations, His marvelous works among all the peoples!” Here’s our message: His glory! And because this is a parallelism, the second part of verse 3 tells us what the glory is: it is “His marvelous works!” We are to tell people the gospel of the glory of God in Jesus Christ who has died for sinners! The glorious One has been crucified for sin! This includes declaring Jesus’ sinless life, His atoning and wrath-satisfying death, His powerful resurrection whereby He destroyed sin, death and the devil, we are to declare His ascension to the right hand of God where He reigns in supremacy having completed His work, and we are to declare that He is coming to Judge the earth, and that now is the time to repent and believe in this Christ and receive His life freely through faith! We are to tell His glory among those who do not know Him! We cannot keep this truth in the walls of the sanctuary, we must go where there is no fear and worship of the true God, because as verse 4 says, “He is to be feared above all gods.” And verse 5 tells us why “For all the gods of the peoples are worthless idols, but the Lord made the heavens.” In Hebrew this is a play on words, it says, “All the (elohim) of the peoples are (elilim).” Literally, their gods are no gods or their somethings are nothing! And this truth doesn’t just apply to those who bow down before images or sculptures…idols are anything that people love and give worship to other than God alone! You see, God demands exclusive worship, and He’s worthy of it, He can do that! And He knows we exist to praise Him! Our lives only make sense when we’re glorifying God. So whenever people give worship and love and praise and sacrifice to anything other than God Himself it is idolatry. Idolatry is worshipping creature rather than Creator and this can be the worship of a sports team to the worship of celebrity or the most common idol: self. None of these so-called gods are God at all! They have no glory, they can do nothing, they are nothing! Only God is something, only He holds weight, only He has made the heavens! So look up, you see the God who stretched out the heavens, that you cannot fully see and the stars that you cannot number…He holds all that in His hands! The glory is His! Fear Him! Do you all remember the song, “He’s got the whole world in His hands?” Have you ever really stopped to think about what you’re singing in that song? I mean really. Think about what’s being said, “He’s got the whole world in His hands!” That’s awesome! You know I don’t think clapping and bobbing your head is always appropriate…someone should stop the song and tell everyone to just get on their faces. This song should be sung with muffled voices because everyone’s face is pressed to the floor! “The Lord made the heavens!” Everything we’ve ever known, the furtherest science has gone and man has imagined has not yet made it out of the palm of the hand of God! Let that sink in! Oh, the nations must know Him! How can we who know this God, let the world perish for lack of knowledge of Him? What will move us to go? What is driving the world-wide spread of the gospel? I believe this Psalm tells us that it is worship that is head-strong and heart-felt. Worship that is in spirit and in truth. Worship that knows God deeply and feels God deeply! That’s why we must go deep in God’s Word and why as a student ministry we’re not going to just go all surfacey and entertaining on you and that’s why we’re not going to be about hype. We’ve got to go deep in God’s truth in order to feel deeply about this truth, and to go to the furtherest corners of the earth with this truth! In Acts 1:8 Jesus says to His disciples and to us, “You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” If we’re going to go to the end of the earth…we need head-strong and heart-felt worship! So this is how the people of God should respond to the coming of Christ, but what about the nations? What about them? Well this Psalm has a message for them… 2) How Should the Nations Respond? Ascribe! Ascribe! Ascribe! (v.7-10) Ascribe to the Lord, O families of the peoples, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength (omnipotence)! Ascribe to the Lord the glory due His name; bring an offering and come into His courts! Worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness; tremble before Him, all the earth! Say among the nations, “The Lord reigns! Yes the world is established; it shall never be moved; He will judge the peoples with equity.” Before the coming of the Lord the nations who have been ascribing glory (weight and worth) and strength to gods who are nothing should now ascribe or give the glory and strength to the true God! Notice that the song doesn’t say, “We think it would be a good thing for them if they gave the glory to God or what about giving God the glory now.” No, it is bold and unbending! Give the glory to God! It’s not just a good idea, it’s the only idea! Give the glory due His name! Bring a sacrifice of praise to the Lord! Stop giving your life and your praise and your money to something that is nothing! Sing for no other! Join in the worship of the true King of kings and Lord of lords all the ends of the earth! We are to tell them to come and “worship, literally bow down before, the Lord in the splendor of holiness.” He alone is holy transcendent other! He sits in the splendor of His holiness and He calls people to worship Him in holiness! Jesus said, “You must be holy as the heavenly Father is holy.” Mark it down: this is what is needed to be in His presence, and this what all men and women are lacking, and how you get this holiness is not by being really good or by not being really bad…you get this holiness by coming empty to Christ in full-surrender and open-handed receiving His holiness in exchange for your sin! It is the Great Exchange, and this is what is offered in the cross of Jesus. Your sinfulness for His holiness, and only then can you come before Him! This is a call for conversion! And before this Holy God in holiness there should be trembling! “Tremble before Him all the earth!” Those who come by way of the cross to the Holy God should not tremble as those frightened before the Lord, but as those who have been saved from the wrath of this awesome and Holy God! It is a trembling joy! The kind of joy that you have when you’re sitting on the side of the pool because you’ve just been saved from drowning! And then once the trembling nations rise before the Lord in the splendor of His holiness, covered in the holiness of Christ, they should join the song of declaring the glory of God among the nations. They too are to go! No one who has encountered this God can keep from singing or stay still! That’s what David is calling for in verse 10, “Say among the nations, “The Lord reigns! Yes the world is established; it shall never be moved; He will judge the peoples with equity (fairness).” Tell the world the Lord is sovereign King, ruler over the world and it will not be moved and as it is not moved so His judgment will not be moved and He is on His way to judge the peoples with equity! And that’s how the nations should respond. So now we have the people of God singing, the nations giving the glory to God as the singing people go out telling about the salvation of God, and now David turns…to creation? That’s right…creation should respond the coming of Christ…number 3… 3) How Should Creation Respond? Let, Let, Let! (v.11-13) Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice; let the sea roar and all that fills it; let the field exult, and everything in it! Then shall all the trees of the forest sing for joy before the Lord, for He comes, for He comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in His faithfulness.” Now we see, the cosmic effects of salvation and the word from David is “Let the heavens be glad, Let the earth rejoice, let the sea roar, let the field exult and everything in it!” What he’s doing is covering everything in creation and he’s calling them to stop groaning and start rejoicing. The language of “let” is one of calling something that is in bondage or in slavery to freedom. It’s like saying, “Let’s stop doing this…and start doing this! Let us no longer be sad, but be glad!” But this sadness that should be turned to gladness is not for us here…but for creation! And this is astonishing! Most of you have probably never considered how creation is affected by sin, and how it is and will be affected by the cross of Christ but this song calls attention to this truth. Go to Romans 8:18-23 so we can understand this. Paul says here, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing to the glory that is to be revealed to us. All right, so what’s going on now in this age, is not going to be anything like what is coming. There is glory coming that will be revealed, and Paul will tell us what this is… For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. Get this, creation is waiting with eager longing for something and that something is the revealing of the sons of God. The glory is the revealing of the sons of God, that’s us! Creation is waiting for something to happen to us, but why is creation longing for this? Here’s the reason: For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.” This is why creation is to sing and to rejoice! When Christ comes and we’re glorified creation will be set free from it’s bondage to sin! Sin will not be found anywhere and it will not exist anymore! The only traces of the curse of sin will be the scars on the body of Jesus as an eternal reminder of His marvelous works! When He comes there will be a new heavens and a new earth! Creation will not just be back to normal as it was at the beginning, but it will be better than the beginning…it will be new and it will be new in Christ! And just as creation bore the curse of our sin, so now, creation will bear the blessing of our freedom and creation will join in our song of praise and we will eternally tell of His salvation! “Then shall all the trees of the forest sing for joy before the Lord!” The Underlying Urgency In This Song But behind all this joy and all this celebration there is an underlying urgency in this Psalm…He comes to judge the earth! And yes, there is singing, and proclamation, and gladness spreading throughout the world, but it is spreading with urgent passion and this is what I want you to feel! I’m so scared that few people anymore ever feel the urgency of the coming of Christ! We get familiar with the Scriptures and the warnings and the sermons and unfortunately we get familiar with a reality that we aren’t meant to be familiar with. This is one thing in Scripture that should constantly wake us up. Have you ever seen those sticks that people break and put under people’s noses who have passed out? They wake up from their slumber in a hurry right? Well, the truth of Christ’s coming is to be like that! Any time we read it or hear it or sing it we should come to our senses, and this truth is here as well that those who do not know Christ might wake up to His soon coming and turn from their sin! In 1 Thessalonians 5:2-6 Paul says it like this, “For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night No one ever expects a thief and his coming is never pronounced. While people are saying, “There is peace and security,” then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. Some of you are saying this and thinking like this. You might not be using the same words, maybe you’re saying, “I’ll commit to Christ later.” You don’t have time! Or “I don’t understand enough now.” Let the reality of His coming make you seek harder to know Him! Or maybe you’re saying, “I don’t feel anything! It doesn’t bother me at all.” Oh may the Spirit of God blow the cold wind of His coming upon your heart that you may feel for a second the majesty of Christ coming in His glory! Be bothered that you’re not bothered! Paul continues, “But you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief. For you are all children of the light, children of the day. We are not of the night or of the darkness. So then let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober.” That doesn’t mean don’t take naps and don’t drink, that means don’t give yourself to anything that dulls your senses to the reality of Christ’s coming! Don’t put yourself in the sway of entertainment that makes you drunk in it’s mindless pleasure. Don’t put yourself in the sway of company that doesn’t keep you alert to the true Reality! Don’t let your mind slip into the drunkenness of indifference and worldliness! Keep awake and be sober you children of the light! So rejoice, Christian, go the world in singing and praise, declare His glory for He is coming and He will be marveled at among His innocent saints who stand in Christ! And repent, O sinner, go to the throne of grace in humility and lowness of heart and receive the gift of God’s grace in the cross of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins. All your elohim are elilim! Do not give your praise and glory to them! All the glory is God’s! Only He is Something and without Him you are nothing and less than nothing! In Acts 17 Paul is standing in the midst of the Areopagus in a sea of idolatry and he closes his sermon with these words, “The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now He commands all people everywhere to repent, (Why?) because He has fixed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom He has appointed; and of this He has given assurance to all by raising Him from the dead.” The times of ignorance are over, you know the truth, you are responsible for the truth and the command is simple: repent of your sin, turn from your sin and believe in this Christ…you can be assured He is coming! In fact He is on His way. Amen. ]]> Mon, 19 Oct 2009 08:26:39 -0700 http://virb.com/brettwilliams/posts/text/5597798 http://virb.com/brettwilliams/posts/status/5521662 Thu, 15 Oct 2009 08:25:28 -0700 http://virb.com/brettwilliams/posts/status/5521662 http://virb.com/brettwilliams/posts/status/5477696 Tue, 13 Oct 2009 09:01:07 -0700 http://virb.com/brettwilliams/posts/status/5477696 http://virb.com/brettwilliams/posts/text/5456017 Pray: that Jesus be exalted and praised among us and by us before all peoples for He is great and greatly to be praised [Psalm 96] “Oh sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord all the earth! Sing to the Lord, bless His name; tell of His salvation from day to day. Declare His glory among the nations, His marvelous works among all the peoples! For great is the Lord and greatly to be praised; He is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the peoples are worthless idols, but the Lord made the heavens. Splendor and majesty are before Him; strength and beauty are in His sanctuary. Ascribe to the Lord, O families of the peoples, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength! Ascribe to the Lord the glory due His name; bring an offering and come into His courts! Worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness; tremble before Him, all the earth! Say among the nations, “The Lord reigns! Yes the world is established; it shall never be moved; He will judge the peoples with equity.” Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice; let the sea roar and all that fills it; let the field exult, and everything in it! Then shall all the trees of the forest sing for joy before the Lord, for He comes, for He comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in His faithfulness.” Tonight, we’re starting a three-week series entitled “Sing to the Lord” on Psalm 96, 97, and 98. The reason why we’re focusing on these three Psalms is first of all because I want you to see the God who is praise-worthy and why it is important for us to sing praises of worship to God, and how we should be growing in worship and its expression. Second, I want you to see what the coming of the reign and kingdom of Christ does to a heart and life on this earth, how it will fill you with hope and passion and joy. Third, I pray that the studying of these Psalms would awaken in you deep and serious happiness in the sovereign God. As C.S. Lewis says, “There is a kind of happiness and wonder that makes you serious.” I believe that the whole of Scripture creates this, but even more specifically these three Psalms let us see that statement played out, because in these three Psalms what we will see in 96 and 98 is pure joy, delight and gladness before the coming King and in 97 we will see the seriousness of the King and His coming, and the result I pray will be a kind of happiness and wonder that will make us serious. But before we just jump into Psalm 96, I know some of you have probably never read the Psalms or you have and you don’t get it or why they are there and how they fit into the Bible so let me give you some info on the Psalms, the author, and then we’ll look at the background of this psalm and then we’ll get to the content. The Book of Psalms: It is a collection of 150 praises or songs, divided into 5 books (96-98 are in Book 4) written in poetic fashion for the purpose of personal and mostly congregational singing. As you read through the psalms usually you will see the word “song: beside the number or a direction to the “choirmaster.” This being the case the Psalms read differently because of how they are written, and therefore how we study them and apply them should be different from how we study other genres in the Bible such as historical records, or narrative, or eyewitness account, or apocalyptic, or letters. Poetry is meant to be beautiful, creative, and to evoke the imagination and heart of the reader. So what you’ll see in the Psalms is a lot of parallelism (saying the same truth twice in a different way) and you will see the whole range of emotion of life experience. There are highs and there are lows in the book that we are meant to feel with the author. One of the things I personally love about the Psalms is how they inform my feelings and how feelings are not overlooked. I want you to see that as well. Feelings are not the enemy to truth, though you can have feeling and no truth and truth and no feeling. God, however, has both and His desire is that we have both and it is patterned after Himself, as He is both The Truth and Joy: Holy and Happy in beautiful harmony. The Author: The author of this Psalm is David, King David, Israel’s first true king over a united kingdom, and as king he was to be the ideal Israelite setting an example for the people to follow. As king he was to be a protector and applier of the Law and lead worshipper of the nation to the God of Israel. And the Scriptures say that he was a man after God’s own heart, and with that in mind, as we look to David, take note of his heart that you may share his heart for God, and that it may be said of us that we are men and women after God’s own heart. The Background: If you would, turn with me to I Chronicles 16 and in “David’s Song of Thanks” look at verses 23-33 and what do you see? They are almost verbatim the words of praise from Psalm 96 and that being the case we assume that these words were composed for this occasion or they were fitting to be sung on this occasion. The reason behind these words of praise is that finally, the ark of God, the place where God would come down in His glory and meet with His people upon the mercy seat, between the cherubim, was coming to Jerusalem, the city of David. Previously the ark had been in the house of Abinadab and now that Israel was established he wanted the ark in Jerusalem, so they took it out of the house and on the first journey Uzzah reached out and touched the ark as it was falling from the cart (they were supposed to carry it) and he fell dead because He presumed to touch that which was holy. So David was frightened and saddened and they kept the ark in the house of Obed-edom for three months. Then God told David the time was right for the ark to return and it was upon this return that David sang and danced before the Lord, and it was for this occasion that the Psalm was written. The Lord, the true King was returning to His Kingdom and to His City and so this Psalm also looks forward to the return of Christ when He will come and establish His rule on the earth. This is the prophetic-side to the Psalms where there is a present fulfillment (the ark returning to Jerusalem) and a future fulfillment (Christ coming to earth) that you’ll see throughout the book and prophetic literature. But what I want us to zero in on here, before we get into the content of the praise, is the heart of David, the worshipper, and we see his heart clearly in the parallel account to 1 Chronicles 16 which is… [2 Samuel 6:16-23] “As the ark of the Lord came into the city of David, Michal the daughter of Saul look out of the window and saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord, and she despised him in her heart. And they brought in the ark of the Lord and set it in its place, inside the tent that David had pitched for it. And David offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the Lord. And when David had finished offering the burnt offerings and the peace offerings, he blessed the people in the name of the Lord of hosts and distributed among all the people, the whole multitude of Israel, both men and women, a cake of bread, a portion of meat, and a cake of raisins to each one. Then all the people departed, each to his house. And David returned to bless his household. But Michal the daughter of Saul came out to meet David and said, “How the king of Israel honored himself today, uncovering himself today before the eyes of his servants’ female servants, as one of the vulgar fellows shamelessly uncovers himself!” And David said to Michal, “It was before the Lord, who chose me above your father and above all his house, to appoint me as prince over Israel, the people of the Lord—and I will make merry before the Lord. I will make myself yet more contemptible than this, and I will be abased in your eyes. But by the female servants of whom you have spoken, by them I shall be held in honor.” And Michal the daughter of Saul had no child to the day of her death.” The Heart of a Heart After God One of the most influential books in my life is a book by Jonathan Edwards entitled: A Treatise Concerning Religious Affections, basically a fancy way of saying, “This Book is About the Place of Feelings in Christianity.” In that book, he says something (well a lot) that is vitally important for us in understanding David and ourselves, he writes: “The things of religion are so great, that there can be no suitableness in the exercises of our hearts, to their nature and importance, unless they be lively and powerful.” In other words, “What we find in Christianity is so great and so important that the only way they can be expressed is by a heart alive and powerful in feeling toward God.” Ultimately, Christians feel the way they do because of who Christ is, and they’re great affections are directed toward Christ because He satisfies us with good. What we’re seeing from David here is the heart of a heart after God, and the mirror of the Word is revealing our own hearts and showing us either David or Michal. The question is which are you? Are you making yourself merry before the Lord, dancing and leaping and sacrificing and giving in the Presence of the Lord or are you watching out for yourself, concerned with what is respectable and how people view you? Are you God-conscious or self-conscious? In David, this is what we as the worshipper are to look like before the audience of One! Do you see the way he feels and the way he acts, and in this Psalm the way he talks? The way he, in a sense, loses himself in praise and in enjoyment of God? Take note here brothers and sisters: this should be us! To use John Piper’s phrase from his book Desiring God, David is a Christian Hedonist of the first order: he is seeking and finding all his pleasure and joy in Christ and therefore giving glory to God, for the truth is this as Piper says, “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.” You see want to show the world the worth of God, worship Him in a worthy way! As this Psalm says, “God is great, and greatly to be praised!” All right, go back to Psalm 96 now that we have the background, and we’ve seen the heart of the worshiper, let’s look out how this heart expresses itself in song and we’ll do it by looking at the three sets of three important instructions in this Psalm: Sing, Sing, Sing, Ascribe, Ascribe, Ascribe and Let, Let, Let. Remember, that as we’re looking at these three instructions that we do these things with a view to the coming of Christ: “for He comes, for He comes to judge the earth.” 1) Sing, Sing, Sing! (v.1-6) Oh sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord all the earth! Sing to the Lord, bless His name; tell of His salvation from day to day. Declare His glory among the nations, His marvelous works among all the peoples! For great is the Lord and greatly to be praised; He is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the peoples are worthless idols, but the Lord made the heavens. Splendor and majesty are before Him; strength and beauty are in His sanctuary. The first thing David calls for in his song is singing and it is specifically the singing of a new song. Not that his song was new but new and creative songs should be sung to God for the new and creative things He is doing. He calls all of creation to sing to the Lord and to bless His Name. There is to be no indifference among those who are hearing these words. It’s not like how when we sing a song with the words, “We lift up our hands” or “Dance a dance of joy” and we do nothing, which is really strange, David expects his hearers to join with him and sing, sing, sing! Singing is the Appropriate Expression For a Glorious God: Have you ever wondered why the people of God sing so much and why singing is so important, and why it is that the Godhead is constantly surrounded by music? First of all singing is so important because of its power as a medium to communicate truth. There is a saying that has been attributed to Plato, which says, “Let me make the songs of a nation and I care not who makes its laws.” His point was to call attention to the power of the medium over people, which is music and singing. When the people of God sing, that truth is captured in a way that can be remembered and the music to the song has a profound way of moving the emotions to capture the truth of the song. It is powerful! Second, music is important because of its beauty, and how it calls attention to what is Beautiful. If you want to call attention to the Lord of whom splendor and majesty go before, and strength and beauty are in His sanctuary then you do it by singing. Allen Ross writes, “By singing, the worshippers lift up their voices in beautiful words and memorable sounds appropriate to the beauty of the holiness of God. (Ross, Allen P. Recalling the Hope of Glory, p.259)” And the Godhead is surrounded by such strength and beauty in song because strength and beauty are found in Him! So singing is the appropriate expression of our hearts to God. And I pray that you will see the worth and the importance of singing in the life of someone alive to God and that you would be more like David than Michal and all your life would be "before the Lord." May the God who is Strong and Beautiful fill your hearts with deep feelings and great and new songs that appropriately reflect His worth. ]]> Mon, 12 Oct 2009 09:26:49 -0700 http://virb.com/brettwilliams/posts/text/5456017 http://virb.com/brettwilliams/posts/text/5307573 Pray: that Jesus be exalted and that we be obedient to the voice of Christ that calls outside the camp [Hebrews 13:9-16] “Do not be led away by diverse and strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods, which have not benefited those devoted to them. We have an altar from which those who serve the tent have no right to eat. For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy places by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp. So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through His own blood. Therefore let us go to Him outside the camp and bear the reproach He endured. For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come. Through Him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge His Name. Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.” Tonight we’re bringing the book of Hebrews to a close and the Arrived Series, where we have seen from Hebrews 12-13 that Christianity is not just what we have come from but what we have come to. We have seen that we have arrived at the Lion’s love, meaning, now in Christ God is our Father and He loves us with tough love that even when we are persecuted or suffer it is all love from God. We have seen that we have arrived at the City of the Living God, not Mt. Sinai, and here in Christ’s unshakeable kingdom there is joy and worship and life, and by faith we are already here. Last week we saw that we have arrived at a new way of living because we are new creatures and being new creatures we look to Christ and love insiders (brothers and sisters in Christ) outsider, and we hold marriage in honor, hate sexual immorality and the love of money, are content because we have Christ, the Greatest Treasure, and we submit willingly and joyfully to church leadership so that they can watch over our souls. And tonight, we come to one last thing we have arrived at and it is this: We have arrived to go outside the camp. Retreat or Risk It All For the believers hearing this letter read out loud, this was the make or break part of the book. In truth, it’s felt like the whole book has been a make or break calling to come completely to Jesus, but there is something here in what the author will say that will make or break these people. How these people respond to the closing part and sum of the message will determine everything for them, and for us it is no different! God will not allow us to get away with ignoring Him here and as real and pivotal as this message was for them, so it is for us. David Platt, at the SBC Convention this year summarized what the author of Hebrews was saying to the people here, and said they were given two options: 1) They Can Retreat From the Mission God Had Given Them or 2) They Can Risk Everything in the Mission. We can go outside the camp toward the need of the lost and dying world or we can retreat to comfort and waste our lives, yes, God will forgive us if we fail to go, but we might be just like the nation of Israel and suffer to perish in the wilderness and God pass this generation by for one that will rise up and follow. So here in these verses is a call to retreat or risk it all. We can stay in the camp or we can go outside the camp. But before we get outside the camp, we need to first see what kind of people Christ creates… 1. Jesus Died to Set Apart a People Like Himself: “So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through His own blood.” The first thing we see in these verses is that “Jesus suffered outside the gate” and we need to understand what this means, because in the next verse the author will call us to go outside and suffer with Him. So when Jesus suffered outside the camp what does that mean? If we could sum it up in a word, it means rejection. For the nation of Israel, the camp was to be a sacred, holy, and clean place while outside the camp it was dirty, unholy, and unclean. If you were diseased or sick or impure you were supposed to be outside the camp, because God’s presence was in the camp dwelling among the people. So for Jesus to suffer outside the camp means that during the suffering of His cross in the shedding of His blood He became the most horrible and wretched person ever because there He took on Himself all the diseases of sinful humanity. It was there that He became a curse by hanging on a tree and took upon Himself all the curses of the law for disobedience. It was there He was rejected by the nation of Israel, rejected by His disciples, and ultimately and this is the worst…rejected by God the Father as He poured out His Holy Anger on Him. “He was despised, and rejected, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief…the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” This is what it means by the words, “Jesus suffered outside the gate.” The second thing we need to see is the reason Jesus suffered outside the gate and it is this: “to sanctify (or set apart) the people through His own blood.” There was a reason for this kind of suffering for Jesus, and the reason was to set apart a people like Himself! Now I’m saying “like Himself” for a reason and it is this: when Jesus sets us apart (or sanctifies us) He doesn’t just set us apart from the world, but He sets us specifically apart to Himself. In sanctification, we behold the glory of God and are transformed into the image of Jesus. The work of sanctification is to be more like Christ, which leads to the work and goal of glorification which is that we will be like Jesus. 1 John 3:2 says, “Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when He appears we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him as He is.” So if in sanctification we are becoming more like Jesus, that means that not only are we becoming more like Him in His love, and speech, and obedience, and passion but we are becoming more like Him in His suffering. If we are truly being sanctified and set apart to Jesus and becoming like Him then we should be sharing more in His sufferings, for that is how we see Him on earth. Jesus died to set apart a people like Himself, and these people He has sanctified by His blood will be like Him! His blood is effective in creating a people like Himself who risk their lives for the sake of others! And Jesus said it this way before He went outside the gate, in Matthew 10:24-25: “A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. It is enough for the disciple to be like his teacher, and the servant like his master. If they have called the Master of the House, Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of His household.” He knew what His blood would accomplish. He knew the kind of people it would create: people like Himself. He freed people by His blood to suffer with Him and like Him. And now, number 2… 2. Jesus Now Calls His People to Come to Him: “Therefore let us go to Him outside the camp and bear the reproach He endured.” When the author of Hebrews calls his congregation to go to Jesus outside the camp, he has in mind two camps: the camp of compromise and the camp of comfort. First… 1) The Camp of Compromise: For this group of Christians, this was first of all a call to leave the camp of compromise and identify fully with Jesus Christ. Some of these Christians found it easier to blend in among the Jewish community, continuing to practice the traditions handed down to them and keep their commitment to Christ quiet. But they must leave the camp and claim Christ. They were to be bold in their association with Him confessing allegiance only to Him! Echoing in the call to leave the Camp of Compromise are the words of Hebrews 10:39 “But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.” For some of you, this might be the step God is calling you to tonight…commit yourself fully to Him! Stop dabbling in the world and in sin, you can’t serve two masters, you’re compromising! Leave the camp of compromise and sell out to Jesus! 2) The Camp of Comfort: For this group of Jewish Christians this call to come to Christ outside the camp and suffer, was secondly a call to leave comfort and safety and go forward in the mission of reaching non-Jewish people with the Gospel. In other words, it was a call to go out to the Gentiles, to go to Judea, and Samaria and to the ends of the earth and make disciples. This is a dangerous call from Jesus that most people and even some Christians try to silence. It will be a lot easier for you in this life if you ignore what Jesus is saying here, but it will not be easier for you in the life to come. The author is calling us to turn our ear to the Voice that is calling outside the camp, (listen even now) and the Voice is the cry of Jesus and He’s saying, “Come to Me! Come to Me!” And outside of the gate His arms are not free, and His body is not clean, but His arms are nailed to a cross and body is battered in blood! He’s saying, “Come to Me here!” He’s not calling us to safety and comfort and ease…He’s calling to us outside the gate, outside the camp to bear or literally to sustain reproach! It will be constant! You know this would be a lot easier if the author left off the words “…and bear the reproach He endured.” Here’s what we have to remember though, we have to remember that we’re going to Him! This is the key to going outside the camp. Yes, He is calling us to come outside the gate where our lives will be lived in sacrifice, where the unclean are, where it is dangerous, where the godly are persecuted, and where some are even killed, but we’re not to be focused on those things, our attention is to be directed toward Him! When we go, we go to Him! So, if this is where Christ is and where He’s calling us then why don’t more people who swear allegiance to Christ live their lives in radical, risk-taking ways? I believe Hebrews 13:13 would answer that people simply don’t want Him! Now, no one in here wants to admit that they don’t really want Jesus. It’s not cool to say you don’t want Jesus, but by open confession and repentance that this is the truth, it might be the very thing to save you from nothingness and waste. But really, do you want to be with Him? Do you want Jesus not just in the glories and rest of heaven, but in the horrors of the cross’s rejection and suffering? How bad do you want Him? How desperate are you for Him in His offer? He’s calling us to Himself out there, will we answer His call? Will we risk everything or retreat? I say we risk everything and that He is worth it. And the author gives us one more reason and instruction to get us to Him… 3. Go To Him Looking to the City that Lasts: “For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come.” Here’s the deal, we will go to Jesus and bear the reproach He endured when the city that lasts means more to us than this one. When we talk about the City that lasts we’re talking about Mount Zion, the City of the Living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, where innumerable angels are in festal gathering, where the Church of all those written in the Lamb’s Book of Life are in perfect righteousness, and most importantly where God, the Judge of All is, and where Jesus the Lamb Slain is in full glory giving light to the city and soaking His people in His presence. This is the city that is to come! This is the city we are to look forward to and seeking, but you will not give a glance to that city as long as you are mesmerized by the glitter of this one. Let me ask you a question: what do you have here that can be compared to what you will have there? The obvious answer is nothing! Nothing compares! So seek the city that is to come. The eternal city where Christ is in full glory and where you will be like Him must be on your heart or else you will make this city home; you will settle! Don’t comfortable in a world and a city that will be completely destroyed! Christian this is not your home! “But as it is, we desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called our God, for He has prepared for us a city.” (Hebrews 11:16) Our desires are not meant to be fulfilled here, but will be fulfilled in the city Christ has prepared for us, and if we desire that city more than this one, the God will not be ashamed to be called ours! So we must live and seek and desire the city that lasts! Now I know what some of you are thinking… “Brett don’t be so radical! If you talk like this people will just be miserable here or else they will not have good jobs or care about school and they will just live in tents and be viewed as weirdos and will not reach the city for Christ.” My answer to that is this: First of all, me nor any other preacher or person will ever be more radical than what Christ has called us to, and we’ll never stand before God and He rebuke us for being to radical! Second, our enjoyment of this present city should not be an ends but a means. We should love and enjoy the city and do good to the city and live in it and have homes and jobs, but we should do this as a means to make the name of Christ known and praised in the city. We don’t have homes and jobs and go to school just to live the middle-class comfortable American dream, we do these things for the sake of the Gospel and the city that is to come! For some of you who are smart, going outside the camp, may include for you taking tougher classes and maybe studying medicine or molecular biology so that you may have money to assist the local church and missionaries and possibly go there yourself, but don’t make the making of money and ends, it won’t last. Make and use the money for the means of the city that is to come! Another objection I’ve heard from people is this: “If I think too much of the city that is to come then I look forward to that and I don’t do anything here.” Another way people talk about these people is this: “They are too heavenly minded to be of any earthly good.” My answer to that line of reasoning is this: You can never think too much about the city that is to come! You can never seek it hard enough! You can, however, think wrongly about it, but you cannot think too much. That’s the problem. People who believe focusing too much on the lasting city is damaging to earthly life really are not seeking the right thing. They are looking to the lasting city to escape this present life and when they think of the city that is to come they are not thinking about the God of that city who left heaven and came to earth to suffer, and there’s the problem. If you’re seeing it rightly and seeking it hard you will run to Christ outside the camp and join with Him in reproach and you will do much here. In fact, it is those who are most heavenly minded who are of the most earthly good. So what city are you living for and will you live for? Howard Guinness asked of students a long time ago this, “Where are the young men and women of this generation who will hold their lives cheap, and be faithful even unto death, who will lose their lives for Christ’s, flinging them away for love of him? Where are those who will live dangerously, and be reckless in this service? Where are the men of prayer? Where are the men who count God’s Word of more importance to them than their daily food? Where are the men who, like Moses of old, commune with God face to face as a man speaks with his friend? Where are God’s men in this day of God’s power?” For the Global Purposes of God Two years ago, when we started this series, there were 5 reason for why we began this series and with this text in mind, knowing we would eventually get here, my prayer and reason for this series is that God would alert some and many of you to God’s global purposes in the world and perhaps send some of you to join in Christ’s mission of making His Name great among the nations as a career. This is what I said… “I am praying that God will call many of you through the teaching and preaching of Hebrews to share in Jesus’ sufferings in the purposes of God, especially in world missions. I want God to send out “his chosen warriors to do battle with the infidel hosts. And what if you should die? With the Spirit of Christ inflaming your hearts, you should go forward, your courage not damped nor your fervor stilled---each one of you counting it an honor to die for Christ throwing yourself into the discord of sinful humanity determined to win for Christ, and spread His name throughout the whole earth, or else to perish in the attempt.” (Paraphrase of Spurgeon) I am praying for you that Hebrews 13:12-14 will be the music to which you march into the world for Christ. “So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through His own blood. Therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured. For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come.” Oh, that you would bear the reproach He bore, knowing that whatever suffering or shame you might endure will be nothing compared to the wrath He bore for you. Oh, that would seek the city that is to come and stake your lives upon the rock, the precious cornerstone of Jesus Christ. Nothing here lasts! Nothing! This youth group won’t last! This church building won’t last! Your schools won’t last! These mountains outside won’t last! The seas won’t last! And to think these little insignificant self-centered kingdoms that we build will last is laughable before an eternal King who’s Kingdom has no end! Oh, when we don’t seek the lasting city and care about our own it is like feverishly building a sandcastle in the shadow of the soon to crash Tsunami of God’s eternal kingdom! Fasten your life to what lasts! Shore yourself on the sure rock of Jesus Christ and eternal salvation!” My prayer is still the same and the call still stands, and with fresh force tonight. Maybe God is pulling your heart to do work like Jonathan is doing, maybe even for the rest of your life. Or maybe God is pulling your heart and calling you to a new level of radical, risk-taking obedience in His mission. Whatever the pull and whatever the call…you will need the Christ of the book of Hebrews to equip you in the task. Hebrews 13:20-21 “Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the Great Shepherd of the Sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do His will, working in us that which is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.” ]]> Mon, 05 Oct 2009 08:15:06 -0700 http://virb.com/brettwilliams/posts/text/5307573 http://virb.com/brettwilliams/posts/status/5206716 Wed, 30 Sep 2009 08:36:48 -0700 http://virb.com/brettwilliams/posts/status/5206716 http://virb.com/brettwilliams/posts/text/5163629 Pray: that Jesus be exalted above all and that every area of our lives would be dominated by a vision of Him and His kingdom [Hebrews 13:1-8; 17-19] “Let brotherly love continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body. Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous. Keep your life free from the love of money, and be content with what you have, for He has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” So we can confidently say, “The Lord is my Helper, I will not fear; what can man do to me?” Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the Word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever…Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.” I’ve got to be honest with you and say that preaching from a passage like this makes me exceedingly nervous because the danger is that what is being said could be misunderstood for morality. In other words, you might hear this and say, “Here goes the pastor again, preaching against sex and money and telling us to hold hands and be nice people in the world.” No, that’s not what I’m saying and that’s not what this author is saying, so please listen and understand why these things are written. They are written because Jesus is Glorious and Great! That’s why they are here! They’re not here just so you do the good things and avoid the bad things. They’re here so that you exalt Christ and the Gospel and that all the glory of our good works results in praise to God. Practical instruction in the Bible flows out of the preeminence of Christ and our position in Christ. We’ve got to understand this. A Great Vision of Christ Results in a Transformed Life It’s not because we aren’t doing enough of the right things that we fail to live out the radical life the Gospel calls us to, it’s because we’ve lost sight of the Gospel and the vision of Christ that it gives. Deficient living is the result of a diminished Christ. The author of Hebrews knows this, and that’s why he’s waited until this point to give practical instruction about how we live out the Gospel. He knows that a great vision of Christ results in a transformed life. So let me just remind you of some of the things he has said about Jesus, and He has given Christ some of the highest praises in all the New Testament… Hebrews 1:1-4 “Long ago, at many times and in many ways God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son, whom He appointed the heir of all things, through whom He also created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of His nature, and He upholds the universe by the word of His power. After making purification for sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name He has inherited is more excellent than theirs.” Hebrews 7:26-27 “For it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens. He has no need, like those high priests, to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins and then for those of the people, since He did this once for all when He offered up Himself.” Hebrews 8:1-2 “Now the point in what we are saying is this: we have such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, a minister in the holy places, in the true tent that the Lord set up, not man.” Hebrews 9:11-12 “But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) He entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of His own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.” Hebrews 9:27-28 “And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for Him.” And over and over again in the book the author has directed our attention to Jesus and showed us that it is only out of a vision of Him, that we will live rightly: “Look to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith…” (If you want to run this race to the end, and endure, and get rid of sin, then you need a strong faith and it comes by a vision of Jesus) and “Consider Him who endured such hostility against Himself…” (If you want to stand in the midst of persecution and isolation and rejection, then you need to look to Him and consider how Christ made it) and again, “Consider Jesus the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, who was faithful to Him who appointed Him…” (If you want to be a faithful servant of God, then consider Christ who was completely faithful and never swerved off the path to Calvary) And it is out of this Christ whom we look to and are astounded, and we consider and are grateful, that we live transformed lives. It is out of this great Christ that Christians live in great, counter-cultural ways. And we do this because we want Christ to be seen as the Treasure He is and the way we draw attention to His supremacy and Treasure Him is by a new way of living. And that’s what the author is calling attention to in Hebrews 13. He’s waited 12 chapters before giving practical instruction on living out the Christian life, and I want you to see that for them, it was something they had arrived at. New Creatures Live New Lives You see, becoming a Christian means you arrive at a new way of living, almost immediately, because you are a new creation in Christ Jesus and the old has passed away. Back in Hebrews 8:10-12 we read God’s contract agreement to save sinners, and what He will do for us and it is this: “I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall not teach, each one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. (Why? What will make this possible?) For I will be merciful toward their iniquities and remember their sins no more.(My Son on the cross will accomplish this and do this for a people)” So a new way of living is not something that sneaks up on you, but right living is the result of who you are. Your life is different because your heart is different. It is the result of already being part of the Unshakable Kingdom of God and not yet experiencing it in full. And the way we live before the world, in the world, is to be a visible sign of the already and not yet Kingdom of God: we are a visible picture of an invisible reality. From every corner of the earth through the power of the Gospel and the Spirit of God dead men and women are coming to life, and as they do, they begin walking and going against the grain of the world for the sake of the world, and these people live as strangers and aliens here. They are an unusual group. To say it in the language of Lecrae these people “are in rebellion:” rebellion against the culture, the ways of this world and this age. So if you want to change the world…live against the world! And just as the preacher in his song says, “That’s the only rebellion that is left.” It’s the only rebellion there is! And this rebellion evidences itself in several ways and the author of Hebrews is going to show us… A New Way of Living in How We Relate To 5 Things 1. Insiders: “Let brotherly love continue...Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body (physically)." Love for our brothers and sisters in Christ is one of the first ways a new life is evidenced. 1 John 3:13-14 says, “Do not be surprised brothers that the world hates you. We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death.” So we go from selfishness to selflessness or at least a strong desire to be selfless and sacrificial in our love for those who are now part of our new family, and that’s what you’ve got to see: we love insiders because they are family! And this new family is part of Christ’s promise in coming to Him. This is one of the blessings of salvation! Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life (Mark 10:29-30).” You see this? You leave and you gain! Is coming to Christ worth it? Yes! A thousand times over! And how we love each other is radical, or at least should be, why? Because Christ’s love for us was radical. 1 John 3:16; 18 says, “By this we know love, that He laid down His life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers…Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and truth.” This is the way we are to love. This is what the author is calling us to. Let this kind of brotherly, Christ-like love define us! And when it does nobody who names the name of Christ will be forgotten. We will remember our suffering brothers and sisters wherever they are and we will lay down our lives to provide for them. That’s the first way this new life shows itself and second this new life shows itself in how we relate to… 2. Outsiders: “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.” So not only do we live differently to those who are like us, but we live differently to those who are strangers; outsiders. I’m reminded of what Jesus said in Luke 6:32-33 “If you love those who love you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners do the same.” We’re called to love those we don’t know with a different kind of love. We are to be hospitable. Now in this context it means inviting these strangers into your home (brothers or strangers) and caring for them, meeting their needs and welcoming them as if they were angels. In this culture, dining with someone and inviting them into your home was a sign of friendship and was a big deal and when these Christians did this and lived this way it set them apart from their culture, and it will set us apart from our culture as well. You know how it is, in Wal-Mart, for example, how everyone walks around with their heads down, rarely making eye-contact or greeting each other…it’s just weird. In the midst of an individualistic culture that’s scared of everyone and is surfacy in everything, let’s show a different way. Let’s not keep people at a distance but bring them close, welcome them in, dine with them and show a different Way and different Christ who welcomes the sinner and bestows them with riches. Be hospitable. (And you can do this in many ways: lunch table, dinner with your family, spending the night at your house, etc.) Now the author is going to move on and talk about how we relate to sex and money, and I think there is a connection with the next two instructions to the first two and it is this: to live radically others-oriented you must deal with two areas where you can be radically self-centered, and that is in the areas of sex and money. So first of all, sex… 3. Sex: “Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous.” In the context of this local church, there was a teaching in the community that was putting down marriage and saying that it wasn’t a holy thing and a good thing so the author was confronting that, but at the same time he’s also exalting sex within God’s design of marriage where it belongs, and at the same time giving a warning of God’s judgment on sexual immorality and adultery. So he’s basically saying, “In the context of marriage sex is honorable, and pure and great, but outside the context of marriage it is dishonorable, impure, and deadly.” Now hear the Word of the Lord here and not the language of this world! Marriage and sexual immorality is a serious issue no matter how lightly the world takes it and abuses it and disregards it. Sexual immorality ruins more lives than marriage! People always joke about marriage saying, “It’s slavery to a ball and chain. It’s the end of freedom and doing what you want to do, etc. So live your life now and date and make-out and hook up with as many people as possible.” That’s the message of a thousand movies and that’s not real freedom no matter what the TV or your heart may be saying…that is slavery and bondage to sin! Scripture is clear: 1 Corinthians 6:13 says, “The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.” Can it be any clearer? You’re bodies aren’t made to mess around, you’re eyes aren’t meant for pornography or sexual explicit television, and you’re minds are not meant for sexual jokes and innuendo! You’re not made for this! You’re made for God! And Christian, “Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.” And as Paul also says in 1 Corinthians 6:18 “Flee from sexual immorality.” It’s hard to lay down your lives for others that they may find pleasure in Christ whenever you’re seeking your own little pleasures! Let me ask you a question: “Will your hundreds of little moments of elicit scattered pleasures be worth throwing your life away or disregarding someone else’s forever?” Go against the grain! In Christ, say no to sin and hold marriage in honor in your hearts and honor every woman and man by seeing them as made in the image of God, and I pray to God, remade in the image of Christ! That’s the first enemy and the second enemy to a radical self-sacrificial love for brothers and others is money. 4. Money: “Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for He has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” So we can confidently say, “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?” Notice something here: it’s not money that is the issue, it’s the love of money that’s the issue and that’s a big difference. That means, you don’t have to be rich to have a problem with money, in fact, you can have no money at all and still have a problem with money! Paul’s going to give the same kind of instruction in 1 Timothy 6:9-10 which says, “But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.” You see the issue? It’s your desires, your wants, your longings. If you long for things of this world and want what the world wants you won’t magnify Christ and your life won’t reveal a great Christ who satisfies, but a small Christ who merely entertains on the weekends and hopefully keeps us from Hell! Keep your life free from the love of money! Wanting stuff and possessions is not an innocent desire, but something that rises up against a God-centered vision! Contentment is key and contentment here is shown to be satisfaction with the Christ who will never leave you nor forsake you! If you have Him, what more could you want? "The Lord is my Shepherd I shall not want." So the question is, are you satisfied in Him? Is He enough? 5. Church Leaders: “Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the Word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday today and forever…Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning for that would be of no advantage to you.” This is the last way we evidence a new way of living and we do this in who we look up to and who we submit to and why? The first thing the author calls us to is to remember leaders. For these Christians these were probably past pastors, maybe founders of the church, who spoke to them the Word of God. He’s saying, “Let these be your heroes. Imitate these men. Look at the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith in Christ.” For many of us, we probably haven’t had any former leaders to remember, but one of the ways we can do this is by biographies of great men of the faith. These will stir your heart to greater faith! For example, listen to this excerpt from Spurgeon’s biography of his baptism: It was on his mother’s birthday, May 3, 1850, that he “put on Christ,” when he was within a few weeks of being sixteen years of age. Up early in the morning he spent two hours in prayer and dedication, then walked eight miles to Isleham Ferry, on the river Lark, a beautiful stream, dividing Suffolk from Cambridgeshire, which is dear to local anglers. It was Friday, and there was not such a crowd of people as assembled when there was a baptism on a Sunday. Still, quite a respectable number were present. Never having seen a baptism, the young confessor was somewhat nervous…Here is his own description of the scene: “The wind blew down the river with a cutting blast as my turn came to wade into the flood; but after I had walked a few steps, and noted the people on the ferryboat, and in the boats, and on either shore, I felt as if heaven and earth and hell might all gaze upon me, for I was not ashamed, then and there, to own myself a follower of the Lamb. My timidity was washed away; it floated down the river into the sea, and must have been devoured by the fishes, for I have never felt anything of the kind since. Baptism also loosed my tongue, and from that day it has never been quiet.” That evening was spent in happy conversation in the Isleham vestry. There was a prayer meeting, at which the newly baptized disciple prayed. “And people wondered and wept for joy as they listened to the lad.” (p.40-41) See what I mean about the power of Christian biography? So that’s how we relate to past leaders, but how do we relate to present leaders? Answer: obey them and submit to them and let them do it with joy, not groaning. Why? They’re keeping watch over your soul as those who will have to stand before God and give an account as to how they did in this area. And this is a radical new way of living! Nobody talks like this saying, “I’m going to church or hang out with my elders because they love me, pray for me, and are keeping watch over my soul!” People will say to you, “Why do you always go to church?” And you say, “So my pastor can care for me, and speak to me the words of life that will keep me from death. So he can pray over me and help me to the child of God Jesus has called me to.” That’s radical! Trust in the Unchanging Christ And the key in all this is to remember and rest on the rich truth that “Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday, today and forever.” Fix your vision on Him for He is the same! He is the One from forever and will continue for forever. His years have no end. He has been gracious and He will be gracious. He is forever wise. Forever holy. Forever loving. Forever good. He is the only One who has truly loved others completely by laying His life down for them. He is the only One who has shown true hospitality to strangers by taking into His presence sinners, enemies and outsiders. He is perfectly pure in the areas of sex and money, and money was not the driving force in His life and we see this because it was by His poverty that He has made us rich. He is the Great Treasure and will be forever! And lastly, let this One, Jesus Christ, be your Pastor and Shepherd, for He is always and forever worthy of imitation and our submission and He always performs His service and ministry to us with joy, never groaning! Is this your Christ? Is this One filling your vision? Is this the One to whom you look for in your yesterday, today and forever’s? I pray He is yours and more importantly that you are His. ]]> Mon, 28 Sep 2009 10:48:36 -0700 http://virb.com/brettwilliams/posts/text/5163629 http://virb.com/brettwilliams/posts/status/5080668 Thu, 24 Sep 2009 07:02:54 -0700 http://virb.com/brettwilliams/posts/status/5080668 http://virb.com/brettwilliams/posts/status/5013241 Mon, 21 Sep 2009 10:11:52 -0700 http://virb.com/brettwilliams/posts/status/5013241 http://virb.com/brettwilliams/posts/text/5011801 Pray: that Jesus be exalted and that we would be grateful for a kingdom that cannot be shaken worshipping God with reverence and awe and that for those apart from Christ still in their sin would be shaken from their love for this present age and turn to the King and receive His offer of grace Welcome to week 2 of the Arrived Series where we are looking at the last two chapters in Hebrews where the author is calling attention to the truth of what these believers have arrived at in Christ. And the reason we’re looking at this is because it’s important that we see Christianity is not just about what we have come from, but what we have come to in Christ. And this being the case…it requires we look at things differently, and we’ve got to in this passage tonight. You see, in Christianity we are called to look to the unseen things and not just the seen things. Therefore, to see the unseen things requires a different type of sight, and we call this faith. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:7 that “we walk by faith, not by sight.” In other words we’re looking to something else than what is seen and touched. We walk or live by faith in the unseen, not the seen. So if Christianity is to be about what we have come to in Christ and not just what we have come from it means that we’ll need faith to see what we have come to, because much of what we have come to cannot be seen with physical eyes or touched with our physical body…yet. This is especially true when it comes to the kingdom of God, which we come in contact with tonight in this passage. Jesus called attention to the unseen reality of His kingdom when He was standing before Pilate by saying, “My kingdom is not of this world.” And He’s not joking, and it wasn’t something He said because He failed to set up His kingdom when He came 2,000 years ago. No, He said it wasn’t of this world because it wasn’t of this world! We should know that this is a different kingdom… What kingdom gets started by the death of the King? And what kingdom is there whose King has risen from the dead to live in rule forever and ever? And what kingdom is there whose subjects are called sons and daughters? And what kingdom is there whose gates can’t even by shaken by the armies of Hell? And what kingdom is there that wins not by force and might but by sacrifice and the Spirit of God and whose people fight not with pistols and bombs but by prayer and the Bible? This is no ordinary kingdom! In this kingdom the poorest son is richer than any prince in this world! In this kingdom every son and daughter has unlimited access to the King! In this kingdom there is unending joy and praise for the King! And this kingdom is the only one that matters because when all the kingdoms of this world are no more, this will be the only kingdom there is! And if you don’t enter it now by faith…you will not live in it then by sight. And this is what the author is saying here in this section in Hebrews 12. So let’s take a closer look, with eyes of faith, to see the wonder of the things spoken here. The author breaks it down into 3 sections: 1) What You Have Not Come To 2) What You Have Come To 3) What You Do I. What You Have Not Come To [Hebrews 12:18-21] “For you have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest and the sound of a trumpet and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further messages be spoken to them. For they could not endure the order that was given, “If even a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned.” Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, “I tremble with fear.” To set up the contrast of what we have come to in Christ’s kingdom the author is going to take us back to Mt. Sinai, the place where the law was given, and the events that surrounded the nation of Israel’s encounter with God in the wilderness. This is probably the most terrifying event to ever take place on planet earth…the reason being is that God shows up in a way that was meant to make the people tremble before His Holiness as their sinfulness was exposed, and to let them see the utter hopelessness of dealing with God without a Mediator (someone to step in on their behalf and God’s). Where the author of Hebrews gets this is from Exodus 19 and 20, turn there and check this out. Exodus 19:16-20 and 20:18-21 “On the morning of the third day there were thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud on the mountain and a very loud trumpet blast, so that all the people in the camp trembled. Then Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God, and they took their stand at the foot of the mountain. Now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke because the Lord had descended on it in fire. The smoke of it went up like the smoke of a kiln, and the whole mountain trembled greatly. And as the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him in thunder. The Lord came down on Mount Sinai, to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up.” So Moses goes up and God sends him back down to warn the people again not come close so that they don’t see God and perish. And then Moses got to bring Aaron up with him. Then the law was given, and we see the response of the people in Exodus 20:18-21 “Now when all the people saw the thunder and the flashes of lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, the people were afraid and trembled and they stood far off and said to Moses, “You speak to us, and we will listen; but don’t let God speak to us, lest we die.” Moses said, “Do not fear, for God has come to test you that the fear of Him may be before you, that you may not sin.” The people stood far off, while Moses drew near to the thick darkness.” The Three Mountains Now the author of Hebrews takes this encounter and he’s going to point out three main realities of Sinai: It’s Physical, Frightening, and Inaccessible. And he’s going to tells us that in order to set up a contrast with Mt. Zion, which is Spiritual, Joyful, and Accessible. It’s the contrast of the Law and the Gospel. Before the Law we are completely sinful and God is completely holy, and we are therefore, completely dead. We can’t come near Him; we’re not welcome in His presence. Sinners can’t stand at Sinai. And this is judgment we all must face, and we either face it at Mt. Sinai or we face it at Mt. Calvary where Christ has taken the horrors and the curse of Sinai upon Himself; where He endured the penalty and punishment for breaking the Law. Only at Mt. Calvary is there hope for the sinner because there you find a Mediator who brings God to man and man to God in reconciliation. At Mt. Calvary law and gospel meet in the bloody death of Jesus and sin is punished and sinners are saved! And after Mt. Calvary sinners become saints and the author of Hebrews will tell us what this means…in Hebrews 12:22-24 we see… II. What You Have Come To [Hebrews 12:22-24] But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.” This is what you have come to in Christ! You’re already here! This is why I said earlier we need faith and need to walk by faith not by sight: it’s too amazing to be grasped except by faith! This is what you have arrived at! It’s like taking a step from darkness to light: it’s the step from the law to the gospel and it’s breathtaking. And the author in a sense gives us a grand tour of the place we’ve arrived at…First of all, he says, you have come to… The Grand Tour 1. Mount Zion: This is like a far off view. Imagine you’ve just been taken out of the Kingdom of Rebellion and you’re being sent to the Kingdom of God and you’re on this journey and your tour guide points ahead and says, “This is what you’ve come to…” He’s going to say this is your home, the place where you belong. Now Mt. Zion was a real place and still is, Jerusalem is there. For the Jewish people though it was the place of God’s presence, and in a greater way it is for us. It’s where the temple was, which is where God dwelt among His people. And this Mt. Zion is not earthly, it is heavenly and it is wonderful! But that is not all we have come to. We must go further…we have come to… 2. The City of the Living God, The New Jerusalem: In this part of the journey we come up Mt. Zion to the gates of the City of the Living God, which open only to those who are citizens here, and for you, you are a prince or princess here. You are royalty in Christ. In Revelation 21 we get a fuller picture of the city. This is what it says in verses 2-4, “And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband (God coming to man; welcome). And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold the dwelling place of God is with man. (No longer inaccessible) He will dwell with them, and they will be His people, and God Himself will be with them as their God. (The God of Sinai with us!) He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” One author writes, “At the center of the contrast between Sinai and Zion, in fact, is the contrast between a holiness which is terrifying and unapproachable and a holiness which is welcoming, cleansing and healing.” (Wright, Hebrews for Everyone, p.161) You see that? God’s holiness no longer calls us to stay away but welcomes us in where the holiness of Christ heals us! And what makes this city wonderful is that here the God of Sinai dwells with man! Later in Revelation 21 we also see it is the place where God’s glory is seen and beheld. It is the light of the city and the lamp is the Lamb. The glory emanating from the Lamb is what fills this city with light. No shadows and no darkness here! All brightness and healing holiness! But that’s not all…we have also come to… 3. Innumerable Angels in Festal Gathering: Now as you’re in the gates, you hear the sound of shouting and praise. It is festive like. There thousands upon thousands of angels rejoicing and singing and praising the God of all grace! The angels here do not frighten us so that we keep our distance, but they are here to serve us and minister to us and wonder at the salvation we have in Christ and come around us in worship! Here we join the angels in the praise party! 4. The Church of the Firstborn Enrolled in Heaven: Another particular of the City of the Living God is that it is the place of the Church: the people of God from every nation, tribe and tongue. There is beautiful palette of people here and this is our church! The word for assembly is ekklesia. It is the place where those purchased by the blood of the Lamb belong. It is called the church of the firstborn because we have been united and joined to Christ as He is the firstborn over all creation and the church! We share with Him in His inheritance. What is His is ours by our union with Him! And Christian it’s as if the tour guide in this verse is now taking you to the Lamb’s book of life and opening it and saying, “Look here! Look here! This is your name! You have been written here from the foundation of the world! And when the Lamb was slain at Mt. Calvary He was slain for you because you were chosen for Mt. Zion!” Every Christian is a member of this church and when we come together…in this moment…by faith we are joined with that great church we cannot see! But this is not all we’ve come to…we’ve come to… 5. God, the Judge of All: In the City of the Living God we have now entered into the most sacred area…the immediate presence of God! The tour guide now brings us to His throne and says, “Here is your Judge!” And rather than shrinking in fear from Him, because He is judge, we do not; we draw near with confidence because this Judge has become our Father and there is nothing to fear about Him because Christ has taken our punishment! I don’t want to be irreverent in saying this, but coming to the Judge we don’t come as a convicted criminal; we come pardoned and we crawl onto the Judge’s lap because He is our Daddy! The Judge is for us! And He will Judge those against us! His justice is no longer working against us but for us so that we shine in His kingdom! We have come to God, church! We’ve come to God! And we have also come to… 6. The Spirits of the Righteous Made Perfect: Meaning we join in with those who looked forward to the day of Christ: David, Daniel, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses and all the others. We join in with them as we all share in the righteousness of Christ which makes us complete or perfect. No one in this assembly lacks anything. We have been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places! But this is not all we have come to…we have come to… 7. Jesus, the Mediator of a New Covenant: By now in the tour we should be breathless! We have come to Jesus! Behold Him! Behold the Lamb slain for sinners! You have come to Him: The Mediator…the One who represents us to the Father and the Father to us and who has made the way for us to be here! We owe Him all! And if you listen closely the voice of His blood is saying something… 8. The Sprinkled Blood that Speaks: The blood of Christ in the city of the Living God speaks differently than Sinai. Here the blood of Christ, speaks in thundering tones that are not frightening but welcoming, the blood speaks: “I love you. I forgive you. I purchase you. I cleanse you. I protect you. I keep you. I will always be there for you.” (Piper) This, this is what we have come to! This is what we have arrived at! And now in the next section the author is going to answer the question, “What do you do with this truth?” The great thing about the Bible is that it doesn’t leave you in the dark as to what you’re responsible for and what’s expected. So we’re not sitting here saying, “All right, what does this mean for us?” The author tells us what this means… III. What You Do [Hebrews 12:25-29] “See that you do not refuse Him who is speaking. For if they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape if we reject Him who warns from heaven. At that time His voice shook the earth, but now He has promised, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.” This phrase, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of things that are shaken—that is, things that have been made—in order that the things that cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.” 1) Don’t Refuse Him, Receive Him: “See that you do not refuse Him who is speaking. For if they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape if we reject Him who warns from heaven.” He’s saying, “If you think Mt. Sinai is scary with it’s fire and darkness and trembling and noise wait until you meet the King whose cross and forgiveness you have rejected and whose kingship you have rebelled against!” Don’t refuse His voice! Listen to Him, receive His invitation to grace and walk with Him! See to that you don’t refuse His voice! Listen to what He’s saying to you tonight? It’s the same thing Jesus said in Mark 1:15 when He began His ministry: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” Listen to the blood that speaks tonight! It speaks words of healing for the sickness of sin, of forgiveness for falling short of His glory, words of acceptance in Christ, of pardon for guilt before God, of purchase and of atonement! Don’t refuse Him, receive Him! That’s the first thing and then second… 2) Get Ready for the Heavenquake: “At that time His voice shook the earth, but now He has promised, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.” This phrase, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of things that are shaken—that is, things that have been made—in order that the things that cannot be shaken may remain.” There is coming a day when the voice of God will shake earth and heaven so hard that only one thing will remain: the kingdom. Are you ready for that day? Are you in the one thing that will not be shaken? Are you apart of Christ or are you in what will not remain? Get ready for the heavenquake by living for what will last and what will remain! This is God’s gracious warning to you to get your hands off of things that will not last and to loose your heart from loves that are lesser than Christ! Get ready. 3) Be Grateful and Worship: “Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.” Let thankfulness and gratefulness fill your heart tonight, for you have a kingdom and are part of a kingdom that can’t be shaken: not by Satan or by God. Let me explain: Satan can’t shake it because he’s not powerful enough and he knows this because of how the kingdom got started: through the crushing of his head by the heel of Christ! And God can’t shake the kingdom because He has built it and established it and what He has set into motion cannot be reversed! You can trust Him and this kingdom! No matter what happens in heaven and earth this kingdom will not be shaken! This is what you have come to, Christian. This is what you are a part of! Let this truth fill your heart with gratefulness and worship. Why? The passage closes by saying… For God is A Consuming Fire Let me ask you a question in closing: “How will you meet this Consuming Fire?” Will you meet Him at Mt. Sinai or Mt. Zion? And therefore, the question of infinite value is this: have you been to Mt. Calvary? The kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the Gospel. ]]> Mon, 21 Sep 2009 09:13:23 -0700 http://virb.com/brettwilliams/posts/text/5011801 http://virb.com/brettwilliams/posts/status/4932662 Thu, 17 Sep 2009 08:20:52 -0700 http://virb.com/brettwilliams/posts/status/4932662 http://virb.com/brettwilliams/posts/status/4914455 Wed, 16 Sep 2009 12:28:22 -0700 http://virb.com/brettwilliams/posts/status/4914455 http://virb.com/brettwilliams/posts/status/4891362 Tue, 15 Sep 2009 13:13:49 -0700 http://virb.com/brettwilliams/posts/status/4891362 http://virb.com/brettwilliams/posts/status/4859936 Mon, 14 Sep 2009 11:08:58 -0700 http://virb.com/brettwilliams/posts/status/4859936 http://virb.com/brettwilliams/posts/text/4852968 Pray: that Jesus be exalted and that we would see His deep love for us in discipline and that as we undergo His discipline we would not treat it lightly or fall under it but that we would see behind the blows our Father working for our good, our holiness, our peace, and our righteousness Tonight we’re starting a new series called “Arrived” based on Hebrews 12-13 that will last for four weeks. The reason why we’re looking at this stuff is because number 1, we’re going to finish out the book of Hebrews that we started back in October of ‘07 because we’re committed to the preaching of the Bible line by line because that’s how it’s written and it’s powerful. Second, we’re looking at this passage because you need to understand that in Christianity it’s not just about what we have come from, but what we have come to, and that’s what the author of Hebrews is trying to get through to his people. These people had come out of Judaism, with the sacrifices and with the focus on the law, and the truth is, some of them were thinking so much about what they had come from that they were thinking about retreating from what they had arrived at in Christ. On top of that, they were thinking about retreating back into Judaism because it was safer. It was tough being a Christian then, and for some of them their lives were at stake and the easiest thing to do is back away, but the author knows that this will be even worse if they turn back, because of who they’re turning their back on…Jesus! So he’s calling them forward, and to help them go forward in the race, he’ll spend the last portion of this book by explaining to them what they have arrived at. So, with that being said, in our text tonight the author is going to show them that they have arrived at new relationship with the Father because of Jesus’ work. They are now His son’s and daughter’s. [Hebrews 12:3-17] “Consider Him who endured from sinners such hostility against Himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. In your struggle against sin you have not resisted to the point of shedding your blood. And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by Him. For the Lord disciplines the one He loves, and chastises every son whom He receives.” It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which we all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share His holiness. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.” The Love of the Lion In C.S. Lewis’ the Chronicles of Narnia we come upon an interesting story in the book “The Voyage of the Dawn Treader” where we meet a character named Eustace and Eustace is pretty much a jerk of a kid; he’s mean and selfish. And what’s funny about this story is that Lewis has Eustace turn into a dragon, and the symbolism is that Eustace became on the outside what he was on the inside. Eventually though, Aslan (The Lion, symbolizing Christ) comes to Eustace one night, to transform him and he does it in a painful way. This is what happened in Eustace’s words to Edmund Pevensie: “Well, anyway, I looked up and saw the very last thing I expected: a huge lion coming slowly towards me. And one strange thing was that there was no moon last night, but there was moonlight where the lion was. So it came nearer and nearer. I was terribly afraid of it. You may think that, being a dragon, I could have knocked any lion out easily enough. But it wasn't that kind of fear. I wasn't afraid of it eating me, I was just afraid of it - if you can understand. Well, it came closer up to me and looked straight into my eyes. And I shut my eyes tight. But that wasn't any good because it told me to follow it.'' “You mean it spoke?'' “I don't know. Now that you mention it, I don't think it did. But it told me all the same. And I knew I'd have to do what it told me, so I got up and followed it. And it led me a long way into the mountains. And there was always this moonlight over and round the lion wherever we went. So at last we came to the top of a mountain I'd never seen before and on top of this mountain there was a garden - trees and fruit and everything. In the middle of it there was a well. “I knew it was a well because you could see the water bubbling up from the bottom of it: but it was a lot bigger than most wells - like a very big, round bath with marble steps going down into it. The water was as clear as anything and I thought if I could get in there and bathe it would ease the pain in my leg. But the lion told me I must undress first. Mind you, I don't know if he said any words out loud or not. “I was just going to say that I couldn't undress because I hadn't had any clothes on when I suddenly thought that dragons are snaky sort of things and snakes can cast their skins. Oh, of course, thought I, that's what the lion means. So I started scratching myself and my scales began coming off all over the place. And then I scratched a little deeper and, instead of just scales coming off here and there, my whole skin started peeling off beautifully, like it does after an illness, or as if I was a banana. In a minute or two I just stepped out of it. I could see it lying there beside me, looking rather nasty. It was a most lovely feeling. So I started to go down into the well for my bath. “But just as I was going to put my foot into the water I looked down and saw that it was all hard and rough and wrinkled and scaly just as it had been before. Oh, that's all right, said I, it only means I had another smaller suit on underneath the first one, and I'll have to get out of it too. So I scratched and tore again and this under skin peeled off beautifully and out I stepped and left it lying beside the other one and went down to the well for my bath. “Well, exactly the same thing happened again. And I thought to myself, oh dear, how ever many skins have I got to take off? For I was longing to bathe my leg. So I scratched away for the third time and got off a third skin, just like the two others, and stepped out of it. But as soon as I looked at myself in the water I knew it had been no good. “Then the lion said - but I don't know if it spoke – “You will have to let me undress you.” I was afraid of his claws, I can tell you, but I was pretty nearly desperate now. So I just lay flat down on my back to let him do it. “The very first tear he made was so deep that I thought it had gone right into my heart. And when he began pulling the skin off, it hurt worse than anything I've ever felt. The only thing that made me able to bear it was just the pleasure of feeling the stuff peel off. You know - if you've ever picked the scab of a sore place. It hurts like billy-oh but it is such fun to see it coming away.'' “I know exactly what you mean,'' said Edmund. “Well, he peeled the beastly stuff right off - just as I thought I'd done it myself the other three times, only they hadn't hurt - and there it was lying on the grass: only ever so much thicker, and darker, and more knobbly looking than the others had been. And there was I as smooth and soft as a peeled switch and smaller than I had been. Then he caught hold of me - I didn't like that much for I was very tender underneath now that I'd no skin on - and threw me into the water. I smarted like anything but only for a moment. After that it became perfectly delicious and as soon as I started swimming and splashing I found that all the pain had gone from my arm. And then I saw why. I'd turned into a boy again. (C. S. Lewis, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, chapter 7 “How the Adventure Ended,” pp94-96) This story is highlighting something that the author of Hebrews is telling to his people and it is this: we need the Lion’s love if we’re to be the children of God and not dragons. That’s what this passage is getting at. This is how God loves His children: metaphorically speaking, He sinks His claws into us not to punish us but to save us from the sin that will destroy us. He strikes us to save us. And this is what we have arrived at in Christ. We’ve arrived at the Lion’s love. And I’m telling you this is a radically different view of the love of God than most of the world and most of us have. I hope that as we look at this passage you’ll see a different and more biblical view of the love of God than you had when you came in here, and I also hope that you will more fully understand the work of God in your life in suffering and persecution. So let’s walk through this... 3 Types of Discipline 1) Training: v.5 “discipline” A lot of the hardship and pain that the people of God go through is for the purpose of training us in further obedience and training us to renounce sin and turn completely in trust to God. Sometimes the best way for God to train us is not by having us read the Bible, but by having us suffer in this world. For example: a runner will not learn to run simply by watching people run, the runner will have to get out and run and sweat, and throw up and maybe bleed from blisters. That’s how they will be trained. This is what the Father does for us. He puts us out in the middle of pain and suffering, gets our attention, and helps us run the eternal race with endurance. The Father isn’t concerned with temporal comfort and ease, but with eternal rest, and to get us there that means pain here! 2) Punishment: v.6 “he chastises (scourges or punishes) every son whom He receives.” There is specific discipline for sin in our lives, but know that this punishment is to correct us, not to condemn us. We have no condemnation in Christ Jesus, but that does not eliminate corrective discipline that hurts in this life. That doesn’t mean that all discipline is because of sin, but some of it can be, and when it is, this doesn’t mean God is angry with you, but He is loving you like a Father. For example, we shouldn’t think that because we have cancer or some disease that it is because of a specific personal sin. (Ex: Job. He was an upright and godly man and yet the Lord sent horrible suffering into his life through Satan to reveal, ultimately, how great God was. Sometimes to know God’s greatness, it won’t come through singing, but through suffering.) David, on the other hand, was disciplined by God for his sin with Bathsheba and against Uriah the Hittite, and yet he was still a man after God’s own heart. God took his first child with Bathsheba and caused the “sword” to remain upon his house, and yet this was all in love. The Lord was saving David from sin in this form of painful discipline. 3) Prevention: Through the other forms of discipline the Lord will also aim to prevent us from further sin and hardship. (Ex: Spanking a Child for Touching a Cool Oven so that when it’s hot they don’t get burned) In preventative discipline the Father is protecting us from further damage. So what you may see as something being unfair or not right in your life, God could have that there so something else that is worse might not take place. 2 Ways in Which God Disciplines 1) Through the Sin of Others Against You: Verses 3-4 “Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against Himself…In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.” God will use persecution, physical, emotional, and social in order to discipline us. For the people in this book that’s what they were experiencing and we will go through the same thing, but know that behind all persecution and suffering from others sin, this is God’s way of loving you and making you love Him more. What wisdom there is in God! 2) Through Suffering: This suffering can include any trial, hardship or pain that a child of God might go through (both physically and emotionally, like conviction for sin). We don’t always know why God brings suffering into our lives and it won’t always be in the same form, but being in Christ we are guaranteed that it is all for love and for our good. In all suffering God is loving us and making us more holy! 5 Reasons Why God Disciplines His Children 1) He Loves Us: Verse 6 says “the Lord disciplines the one he loves…” Why do we suffer as we do? Because He loves us. It’s that simple. God loves us like a Father and like a Lion. Yes, it hurts sometimes, but it is love. In the book “When God Weeps” Joni Erickson Tada, who was paralyzed as a teenager, asked the coauthor when they were younger why she was paralyzed and in the wheelchair. This was a tough question and the guy took a long time to respond but eventually he said three words that made sense of it all for Joni: “He loves you.” God’s discipline is a proof of His love. 2) He’s Proving our Adoption: Verses 7-8 say, “It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which we all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.” Discipline is a good thing, because it reveals to us that we are His children. Think about it: most parents don’t go out of their way to discipline other parent’s children do they? No. They discipline their own kids for their good because as parents they know what their child needs. Same thing with the Lord. He disciplines us because we need it and because we’re His. He won’t have spoiled children in His family. 3) He’s For Us: Verse 10 says that, “He disciplines us for our good.” The best thing for us most of the time is not for us to go and do whatever we want. That would be awful and closer to wrath than love. Think about it: what would be best for Ansley when she approaches a hot oven that will burn her hand: me spanking her or just letting her get burned really bad? Of course, spanking her. It’s for her good that I spank her, even though it might hurt, it won’t hurt worse than the burn. God is for our good in ways we can’t comprehend and He knows what we need to be in the best condition possible and that is discipline. 4) He Wants Us to Share His Holiness: Verse 10 also says that, “He disciplines us…that we may share His holiness” Isn’t this awesome…God doesn’t just want us to look at His holiness and tremble before it and be frightened to approach Him, but He wants us to share His holiness! And to share His holiness means that He must deal with our sin and get it out of the way. You’ll have a greater share of His holiness once you have been disciplined by Him, and that’s His aim. The holiness we’re sharing in is specifically Christ’s holiness, because God is conforming us through all discipline to the image of Jesus, who is the Holy One of God! Wow! 5) He Desires Our Fruitfulness in Peace and Righteousness: Verse 11 says, “For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness for those who have been trained by it.” The Father desires to have fruitful children, but to get there, of course, requires discipline and it is painful. Sometimes to bear fruit we need to be pruned; meaning branches that are bad in our life need to be cut back so that they will bear greater fruit. (See John 15:2) At the end of the pain is peace and righteousness. 2 Things to Watch Out For Personally in Discipline 1) Taking it Lightly: Verse 5 says, “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord…” It’s easy to have God discipline us and we completely ignore it and excuse it away and not see what God is doing in it. We just say, “Oh, this is how life is.” Or “These things always happen to me.” Or “This is so and so’s fault.” And we may miss out on what God is doing. So for the child of God we need to pray and turn to the Lord in any hardship or trial and listen to what the Father is saying to us. Don’t question God, but trust Him! I know that for me, when others sin against me or wrong me in some way and it hurts, I usually see myself and how I do exactly what I hate in others, but sometimes I can miss it. So I need to learn not to take it lightly. 2) Getting Weary and Giving Up: Verse 5 also says, “…nor be weary when reproved by Him.” A second thing we can do in discipline is get weary or weak and then give up. Sometimes when the pressure of discipline is upon us we are tempted to throw our hands up and walk away where the pain isn’t as bad. A lot of people are surprised that in Christ the pain of life doesn’t go away, but sometimes intensifies and for these people they walk away pretty quickly when it hurts. Also some discipline can last for a long time and seems like it will never go away, but we must endure the tough love of the Father and remember how much love He is showing us and what will be the produce of the pain. So watch out for these things. And since this is the way the Lion love's the author says in warning in Hebrews 12:12-17 Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather healed. (Here he’s saying, “Hey, stand up under love, don’t get weary, He’s doing this for your good.” This is coming from Isaiah 35 where the prophet speaks of the day that is to come, the day of Judgment and the Day when there will be a new heavens and earth. He’s calling them to look past their affliction and hardship and focus on what is to come in Christ!) Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. See to it (be on the lookout for yourself and others) that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled (This is coming from Deuteronomy 29:18-19 and it’s speaking about people who are outwardly apart of the community of faith, but inwardly are going after other gods. This person will defile themselves and will seek to destroy the community of faith) ; that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal. For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears.” (Esau regretted his decision but did not seek to change his course. He is the premier example of what it means to live for the moment and temporal pleasures of this life. Beware lest you follow His course and instead of meeting the Lion in discipline, you meet Him in wrath. Fail not to obtain the grace of God. It is before you tonight in Jesus.) ]]> Mon, 14 Sep 2009 08:50:46 -0700 http://virb.com/brettwilliams/posts/text/4852968 http://virb.com/brettwilliams/posts/status/4794153 Wed, 09 Sep 2009 06:10:30 -0700 http://virb.com/brettwilliams/posts/status/4794153 http://virb.com/brettwilliams/posts/text/4757540 Pray: that Jesus be exalted on earth for what He has done that He may be praised for ever in Heaven by peoples of every nation tribe and tongue and that we would be radically committed to one mission and vision on this earth I want you to ask yourselves one over-arching question tonight and it is this: “Why am I here on earth?” Or another way you could say it is, “What is God’s plan for me on earth, since He hasn’t taken me to heaven?” You see, these are questions that we need to nail down and I believe that because many Christians have failed to find out why they are here and what God’s plan is that they are so ineffective, indifferent, and selfish. Many of the trivial problems of our lives and the Church and our pointless pursuits in this life would be solved if we as the Church of God knew why we’re here. I believe God does have a plan and first and foremost it is a plan for the glory of His great name. The universe exists for His glory and so does every individual on earth. Our one great aim in this life and the life to come is the glory of God. And there is a plan whereby God is bringing this glory to Himself from every people, nation, language, tribe, and tongue, and it is the plan of bringing to Himself His people who were purchased through the death and resurrection of Jesus. And this plan has been given to the church to guide her on her earthly exile and it is the Great Commission found in Matthew 28:18-20. Now I know that some of you might not be as convinced as I am that this is the reason that the Church is still on earth and hasn’t been taken up into glory and my aim is that by the end of this message you would see it and know it and feel it and that we would join hands in fulfilling it. We’re going to look at 5 things: 1) This Phase of Redemptive History 2) The Position of the People of Christ and the Lost World 3) The Power for the Mission 4) The Purpose of the Mission 5) The Presence in the Mission I. This Phase of Redemptive History Turn in your Bibles to Matthew 24. When we talk about Redemptive History, we are talking about God’s timeline and activity in the history of mankind. It is about His saving plan and purposes for people made in His image and Redemptive History has a clearly set beginning, middle, and end and if you were to read Scripture all the way through this is what you would see, and now we are in a set time in Redemptive History. In fact, we are in a unique position: we are between Christ’s resurrection and return. And I want us to look in Matthew 24 where Jesus tells us what we’re to be about in this phase of redemptive history. Matthew 24:3-14 In Matthew 24:14 Jesus clearly lays out what this phase of redemptive history is all about: “And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.” It is about the proclamation of the gospel going throughout the whole world to all nations or as Jesus will say in Matthew 28: Go and make disciples of all nations…and this is what we’ll do until the heavens are ripped open and Christ appears in His glory! So this is the phase of redemptive history we find ourselves in and now you can answer the question of “Why am I here on earth?” Either to proclaim Christ throughout the whole world or to receive Christ. The next thing we need to see and more specifically feel is… II. The Position of the People of Christ and the Lost World I want you to consider for a moment what you are in Christ and what you have in Him and the glory you have beheld in the Lamb, and I then want you to turn from this and consider the world in their state apart from Him. You see the reason why many Christians are unconcerned about the position of people apart from Christ is because they are not amazed at their own position in Christ. It means nothing that God is our God and we are His people! We are just like the nation of Israel: blessed with food, clothing, shelter, and fatness and we have forgotten that we are to be a means of blessing to the world. We love it that we are in Christ, that all the blessings He died to achieve are ours and that we will be with Him forever and we love to sing of these things and learn about these things but these things don’t move us! And that is because we don’t know Him and His blessings as well as we think we do. If we’re not moved to make much of Christ’s name on earth then we might not know much about what it means to be in Christ as we think we do. If the glories of Christ and our identity in Him will not move us to mission then nothing will! You see, the risen Christ, the Defeater of Death, sin and Satan, the Lord forevermore, the Living One…He is our reason for the mission! It is because of what we have seen in Him that we renounce everything we have and obey every word He has given, and it is because of Him that we will go wherever He asks no matter what awaits us there. I want you to listen to what Paul endured and how he talks in [2 Corinthians 4:7-12]. Notice what he says, He is always being given over to death for whose sake? Jesus’ sake (motive or vision: the glory of Christ) so that others may experience the life of Christ (mission) and then bring glory to Jesus’ great name! So Paul endures physical death so that spiritual life may come to those dead in sin. Why live like this Paul? He had seen glory in Christ, and he knew that Christ was worthy of all his own glory and the glory of the nations! He knew Jesus to be worthy of praise and the hope of the world! He knew who Jesus was and he knew how desperate the world was apart from Him, and he was compelled to go and proclaim the Crucified One until His return or until he gave up his life for His sake! Do you know Him? Do you know this Christ? And do you care for those who don’t? Do you hear the voices of the damned souls in Hell? Do you hear the cries of the perishing from every corner of the earth, 2.7 billion who have never heard His name, who have no gospel? Oh, if for one moment you could hear the screams of lost souls in Hell suffering under the weight of God’s just wrath, experiencing the second death, knowing who God is but not enjoying Him at all you would not live the way you do! You would not! You would not! You would be concerned not only for this city and your cafeteria but you would have worldwide concern! You’re heart would say, “The nations must know Him! The nations must know Him!” Transition: And if this is the state of those in Christ and those apart from Him, then we must go and make disciples of all nations because it is the only outlet for these truths and feelings. At this point though, many people think about the worldwide task, and think it is impossible. It becomes overwhelming to them. “So many need Christ, what can I do?” And usually that’s as far as people get. Before a seemingly impossible task, we’re normally paralyzed by fear or by our own weakness and knowing this, Jesus begins His commission, not with a command but with a promise; a fear and weakness-conquering promise… III. The Power for the Mission “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me.” We must know this! Oh, and we must bank on this truth, because you will not move one finger for the sake of the gospel if you do not know who has all authority…but know for sure, this day, the power and the right to rule in whatever way Christ pleases on heaven and earth is His! This is the power behind us and before us and with us in the mission! The power for the mission is not ours it is His! He has authority over the angelic hosts, this means Jesus is the Commander-in-Chief over the armies of heaven, they are all His and they move when He says move!. He has authority over every demonic power and Satanic force, there is nothing Satan does on his own authority without God overruling his actions. Satan’s weapons, are disease, suffering and death and know that Christ has authority over all diseases, He has power over all suffering, and He has shown His power over all death because on the cross “death by dying He slew’ and raising from the dead He stripped death of it’s power and took ownership and now He holds the keys of death and Hades! He has authority over every cloud, over every drop of rain, over every hurricane, over every Tsunami and earthquake and forest fire! He has authority over all rulers, kings of the earth, governments, presidents, policemen, and school boards! He has authority and power over the course of human history including wars and famines and the rise and fall of kingdoms and nations. He has power over all men and women, husbands and wives, daughters and sons and He has authority over every single student in every single middle school and high school on earth, and know this tonight, He has absolute authority and power over every one of us! He rules over the Church it is His! There is no denomination, no local church, no mission board, no parachurch organization, no Christian bookstore and no band that names His name that He does not have rights over! They are all His! All authority in heaven and earth has been given to Him! Why? Because “He did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped but made Himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in this form, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore, (here’s why) God has highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father!” (Philippians 2:6-11) Everything is His and He wants us to know this! You’ve got to know the power is His so you’re not paralyzed by the fear of rejection, isolation, persecution, contracting diseases or dying! The power for the mission, then, is not the authority in us; it is the authority in Christ and so when we go out in this mission and live this thing out…we’re going in His power and authority! I like the way David Platt says it: “Be dominated by His authority.” So after Jesus opens with the promise that all authority in heaven and earth is His, removing our fear and weakness He then gives us… IV. The Purpose of the Mission This is where we see our purpose and God’s plan for us being here on earth. This is our part, but remember in doing this part, don’t forget the power is His to accomplish this work! With the power and authority of Christ upon us, Jesus says, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.” Let’s break this down into 4 parts (as it is on your handout): 1) Go: The first thing Jesus says is “go” but “go” is not the main command here. In fact, the word “go” is assumed, because as a Christian we are “sent” into the world as soon as we were given new life in Christ. As soon as we came to Him we became aliens on this earth because our citizenship is in heaven! So when He says go He’s saying, “As you are going…” And as we are going in this city, in our schools, at our jobs and outside the camp we are to… 2) Make Disciples of All Nations: Now this is the central command in the Great Commission; make disciples of all nations. This is the purpose of the church on earth: to make disciples. Not make programs, not take trips, not just hang out, but to make disciples! Here we see 2 things: 1) The Command: “make disciples” and 2) The Scope of the Command: “of all nations.” First, let’s look at the command: make disciples. Well, we need to ask what is a disciple? The word used here, means 2 things: learner and follower. Also, giving more definition to what a disciple is we need to look to the “discipleship passages” in the Gospels [Matt. 10:34-39; 16:24-27; Mark 8:34-38; Luke 9:57-62; 14:25-33] where we see that a disciple is someone who has left everything to follow Jesus, someone who has renounced everything for His sake, someone who has put their hand to the plow and not looked back, someone who has lost their life that they may find it, someone who has taken up their cross and dies daily as they follow Jesus, and someone who has counted the cost of following Jesus and has seen persecution and suffering and death but more importantly has seen Christ as infinitely valuable and has found following Him worth it in every way! In simple terms a disciple is a Christian. If you’re not His disciple, you’re not His. This is the last command of Jesus to His Church on earth: to make disciples! So the Church is not only what God is saving, but the church is the means through which God is saving and this process is called disciple making. This is what we are to be about, every single one of us! We have to ask ourselves, how are we doing? Are we about the purpose of God for His Church or are we about other things? Second, we see the scope of making disciples and it is all nations. Now this is the part that we love to make excuses for and I believe it is because of these words “all nations” that people throw off the command on a select few missionaries. “This can’t possibly apply to me! I’m called here!” Few things about that: 1) If you’re really called here then why aren’t you living like you’re called here. Most of us in this room would say we are called here, but we usually say that because we’re comfortable here. So if you really are called here then live like it. Live like you’re a stanger here, live for Christ’s great name alone, and see everyone and everything as an opportunity to preach the gospel! Let your life be like Paul’s, that while you were here you decided to know nothing among them except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. 2) The option of you going is never to be ruled out for anyone. You should be living a lifestyle in which it would be easy for you to leave and go to an unreached people at any moment. And we must be available to the calling of God to go where He may need us. 3) If the scope of your disciple-making is global, then it will change everything you do locally. A missionary once said, “The light that shines the furthest burns the brightest where it is.” This should be us. Oh, may this be us! So we are to make disciples of all nations and next… 3) Baptize Them: This is the first step of obedience for every disciple. We see time and time again those in Acts who were saved were immediately baptized. It’s not that baptism saves you, but baptism does give evidence that you are saved. So someone who does not want to be baptized or is a Christian and hasn’t been baptized is a disobedient disciple and if one is not baptized or refuses it, how do we expect them to follow everything Jesus has commanded? So baptism is an important first step, for being a disciple because of what it symbolizes and how it identifies you. Baptism is by “immersion” which means that it is a plunging into the water. It is a symbol of death and resurrection, in that in Christ we have died with Him and we have risen to new life. (Romans 6) It is also a symbolizes our relationship and fellowship with the Godhead: Father, Son and Holy Spirit whereby God is our Father and we are His sons’ and daughters, the Son is our Lord and King who has saved us, and the Spirit is in us and with us as the guarantee that we are God’s. But not only is baptism symbolic it is also an identifying mark for the disciple. It is how one goes public in Christianity. It is a bold open statement to the world that we are with Christ! So we are to proclaim Christ’s gospel, and call people to renounce all they have and follow Jesus, then we are to baptize them and lastly we are… 4) Teach Them to Observe Jesus’ Commands: This is what all disciple makers are called to do for those who have come to Jesus: teach them to observe all the commands of Jesus. Which ones? All of them! Remember disciples are learners and followers. True disciples will want to learn, because they will have a hunger for God’s Word because they are passionate about becoming more like Christ. This past week I have been reading the Gospel of Mark in private worship and one of the coolest accounts is in Mark 5 when Jesus heals the demoniac with the legion or many demons. He’s the crazy one who lives among the tombs, runs around naked, foams at the mouth, breaks chains and shackles and cuts himself with stones and rocks. Well, Jesus shows up, with the authority of heaven and earth and casts out the demons from the man and immediately he is changed! Of course the town freaks out and when they come to see what happened they find the man it says, “sitting there (sitting at the feet of Jesus, the place of a disciple who was learning) clothed and in his right mind.” The point in disciple-making is not that we have to make people hungry for God’s Word, true disciples already are hungry; we are called to just feed them the Word. The point though is not that we all are just being made disciples, as if our only duty now is to just learn and accumulate knowledge. This is what the demoniac man wanted to do. In fact, he begged Jesus to let him follow Him, but Jesus told him: “Go home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how He has had mercy on you.” And that’s what he did! The story closes saying, “And he went away and began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for Him, and everyone marveled.” This is how it should look in our lives as disciples: sitting at Jesus feet and then rising to proclaim how much He has done for us! The goal in disciple making is that we would make disciples who make disciples and this is what every single one of us is commanded to be involved in! So we have seen the phase of redemptive history, the position of those in Christ and the lost world, the power of the mission, the purpose of the mission and finally we see the… V. The Presence in the Mission “And behold, I Am with you always even to the end of the age.” The GC is not something that Jesus just watches His people do at a distance but it’s something His intimately involved with us in, or to say it more clearly, it’s something we’re intimately involved with Him in. So here, He grabs there attention, saying, “Look, check this out, pay attention, behold I myself am with you!” Let me ask you something, “What more could you want?” Nothing. Jesus promises that He will be with us in this mission! He Himself! And He says that He’ll be with us even to the end of the age, so right now in this phase of redemptive history, He is with us in Presence and Power giving us Position and Purpose! And I want you to see something here that is really important: Jesus promises His presence for those engaged in His mission. I would say that for every Christian the one thing they long for more than anything else on earth is the Presence of Christ. There is nothing like it when He draws near to us. We ask for His presence to be with us in prayer, in worship, in preaching and in private worship but there is a way that His people experience His presence unlike any other time, and it is when we are involved in this mission of making disciples of all nations. Could it be that you haven’t known Christ’s presence in a while because you haven’t been engaged in His plan and purpose for your life? Could be. Could be. All right, now bringing this full circle ask yourself again: “Why am I here on earth?” And then the important follow-up question to that is this: “Does the way I live my life reflect my reason for being here on earth?” If not, repent and believe again. Take this moment now and pray to the Lord that your heart would be more in line with His. ]]> Mon, 07 Sep 2009 07:09:50 -0700 http://virb.com/brettwilliams/posts/text/4757540