Begin with Prayer for the Messiah
Posted: December 3, 2023 Filed under: Belief, Blamelessness, Christ, Christmas, Community, Disobedience, Fathers, Infertility, Jesus, Marriage, Prayer, Sacrifice, Sermons, Service | Tags: calvary-assembly-of-god, christianity, Discipline, gospel-of-luke, Jesus, Prayer, sermon Leave a commentAnybody here ever prayed and it seems like God is doing nothing? It could be an illness that you just can’t shake. It could be a wayward loved one. It could be for a provision of a job or just funding. Maybe it is finding affordable housing? It could be your desire for children or grandchildren. It could be prayer for peace during ongoing conflict. Maybe you have become skeptical of Christianity or even defiant because God has not come through for you? If any of these things describe your thinking and feelings today, there is hope and there are some people who can relate to you, especially at Christmas time. However, they never stopped praying and neither should we. Let’s read and hear about them in Luke 1:5-25. Read Luke 1:5-25!
It is crucial we understand some background to the story in Luke 1. “Luke’s Gospel is principally about Jesus, but his name does not occur for the first 30 verses and Jesus himself is not born until well into the story.”[1] This is a reminder that prayer and patience create greater anticipation and thus greater potential joy in Jesus. This anticipation is what the Advent season is all about. The Gospel of Luke was written by Luke, a physician, which is another reminder that from the beginning smart and scientific minds have always followed Jesus. They also didn’t keep their beliefs hidden for protecting their profession. Luke writes a letter to a man Theophilus (which means “God lover”) so that Theophilus “may have certainty concerning the things he had been taught” (v. 4). What a reminder that we may believe in Christ and even be considered “excellent” (v. 3) and spiritually mature in our lifestyle by others, but we may have doubts from time to time. We need our faith reinforced by the facts. This is why today’s message is for the doubters, the skeptics, the discouraged, the mature and young in the faith along with the religious and spiritual. I believe it is a message for everybody, especially those who feel forgotten.
Why do I say that? Because this story picks up after 400 years of silence by God. “The people had no prophetic voice from God for 400 years.”[2] The last time God spoke to the people of Israel was in the prophet Malachi’s day. This is extremely important as we talk about prayer. If God had not spoken for 400 years that means there were multiple generations that had been praying and it seemed nothing had happened. But it was worse. For those who have tracked with us earlier this year through the Book of Daniel, you will recall that during that 400 years of silence, the Greek empire was predicted and actually rose to power. One of the Greek leaders was Antiochus IV. Antiochus defiled the Jewish Temple in 169 B.C. by sacrificing an unclean pig on the altar when only clean sheep and bulls were allowed to be sacrificed. Recall Daniel 8:9-11, “Out of one of them came a little horn, which grew exceedingly toward the south, toward the east, and toward the glorious land. It grew great, even to the host of heaven. And some of the host and some of the stars threw it down to the ground and trampled on them. It became great, even as great as the Prince of the host. And the regular burnt offering was taken away from him, and the place of his sanctuary was overthrown!” “The little horn mentioned there is Antiochus IV, the 8th ruler of the Seleucid dynasty.”[3] “He banned circumcision of the Jews, ended sacrifice at the temple in Jerusalem and deliberately defiled the temple by sacrificing a pig on the altar and placing an object to the Greek god Zeus in the Holy of Holies. He burned the Scriptures and slaughtered those who were faithful to God.”[4] “It was a little more than 6 years from the time when Antiochus IV murdered the Jewish high priest Onias III in 170 B.C. until the time of Jacob Maccabeus’ revolt in 164 B.C.”[5] These 400 years were marked with the Jews being persecuted and then guerrilla warfare in return by the Jews. But there was no message from the Lord. Instead, it would have been like your great, great, great grandparents praying and nothing seemingly happened. And then your great, great grandparents praying and nothing seemingly happens. And then your great grandparents praying and nothing seemingly happened except for a sacrilegious and oppressive leader. And then your grandparents prayed and nothing seemingly happened. And then your parents praying and nothing seemingly happened. 400 years of praying and nothing. So please do not take what I am about to teach us as any type of formula or promise that if you pray, you will get immediate answers and all that you want. This is not a “name it and claim it, blab it and grab it” message. I hate the health and wealth gospel that promises all problems fixed on earth. Such false teaching is fixing our eyes on earth and not Jesus.
And yet, we are called to hope in God and there is always blessing (eventually) that comes with prayer. Some of you need to hear this because you are on the verge of losing hope. Please remember this – the Messiah is coming. He came once when there were corrupt and illegitimate leaders like King Herod as we read about in Luke 1:5. He came when God had been silent. And if the Messiah, Jesus Christ, came the first time, He will come again because He promised He would. He is preparing a place for us where there is no more heartache and prodigals and rejection and sickness and lack of housing and lack of family. There is only blessing. Look at these words from Jesus in John 14:3, “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.” What a promise! Don’t lose sight of Jesus. One thing that I haven’t done well is unpack our church’s theme for the year of having our eyes fixed on Jesus. It means a lot of things. When I say, “Keep your eyes fixed on Jesus,” I mean don’t get distracted by sin or comparing yourself to others. Instead, savour Christ as the most important, beautiful person in your life. Keeping your eyes on Jesus means remembering He will come back and we will live forever with Him in the new heavens and new earth that He will recreate. That will mean investing in eternity rather than the temporary. Like what we learned from Matthew 6:19-21 a month ago, our hearts always go where we stare at. This is why when we pray, it should refocus us back on the Messiah. Prayer is how we seek the Messiah. Prayer is how we seek Jesus!
Here is how we can refocus on the Messiah when we are praying. None of these actions will be the magic trick to get God to do what we want. They only put us in the position for God’s grace and blessing. We could call them postures for seeking the Messiah. Here is the first posture for seeking the Messiah: Walk blamelessly! (v. 6) This is what we read in Luke 1:6, “And they (the priest Zechariah and his wife Elizabeth) were both righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and statutes of the Lord.” Before we can move, we need to define blameless. It is a word that has tripped me up before and maybe you too? When I first read the word “blameless,” I confused it with sinless and perfect. I know that there is no one who has not sinned or is perfect besides Jesus, so how could one be called blameless. Then I learned that blameless means that the person may still do wrong, but not intentionally. It has the idea of innocence. One Bible Scholar writes, “Blameless” people are those who cannot be accused of wrongdoing before people or God. When applied to Christians, the quality of blamelessness is both a positional benefit of salvation and a moral character to be achieved. Each person is worthy of accusation in the sight of God. The blameless character of Christians, however, is the intention of God, who “chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight” (Ephesians 1:4). Christ’s love and sacrifice for the church were such that He could present her to Himself “without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless” (Ephesians 5:27).”[6] On a side note, this is why I am shocked when people are so critical of the church and even more shocked at Christ’s restraint. If someone talked about my wife like people talk about Jesus’ Bride, I would have a hard time not using a lightning bolt on them. But we are to walk blamelessly. Blamelessness is a required trait of Elders (1 Timothy 3:2).
How are we to walk blameless? We seek God and His ways in all our relationships. One of those foundational relationships is marriage. Zechariah was blameless in choosing a wife. He wanted someone godly. Elizabeth was a daughter of Aaron according to Luke 1:5. Bible scholar Mark Strauss explains, “Marrying a priest’s daughter was considered highly pious.”[7] I’ve used this illustration before to explain how we should seek a spouse. We simply seek Christ and then God brings that person in our life. Imagine you are driving on the 401 highway behind the church. Your destination is heaven (and sometimes you come close to going to heaven while driving on the 401.) As you are going fast down the 401 eyes fixed on Jesus and then a godly potential mate pulls up beside you. You should be going at the same pace towards heaven as you are, maybe even a little faster. You shouldn’t have to slow down or take an exit ramp to find your spouse. They surprised you and don’t distract you because they too are following the Lord and focused on Him.
Zechariah and Elizabeth were focused on the Lord. Even their names conveyed blamelessness. “Zechariah (“Jehovah remembered”) and Elizabeth (‘God is my oath’) were a godly couple who both belonged to the priestly line.”[8] To walk blameless is to pursue both righteous relationships and righteous rules found in God’s Word. This is why verse 6 helps ground the blamelessness in obeying “the commands and statutes of the Lord.”
…But walk blamelessly does not mean walking without pain! (v. 7) Look at verse 7, “But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and both were advanced in years.” In that culture, “Child bearing was viewed as the highest calling for a woman and infertility brought social stigma and shame.”[9] Please let me speak to those who are struggling to have children. We love you and acknowledge that this pain is almost unbearable. May the church family always be a place where you are loved and not judged or treated like second class. This story provides hope that God could do a miracle in giving you a child as He opens and closes the womb no matter how long your struggle, but more importantly, (listen carefully), this story provides hope that in seeking the Lord for a child, you have the opportunity to find the Messiah in a special way. The miracle was only the medium to the Messiah. Our hope and satisfaction cannot be in our kids alone. It has to be in our Christ! The pain is a pathway to discovering Jesus. Not the pathway (that is Buddhist thinking), but pain is a pathway to discovering Jesus. So walk blamelessly! Take that pain to Jesus. I think Zechariah and Elizabeth did. It is a safe bet not because we find this in the text, but because every godly couple wanting a child seeks the Lord in prayer. “Zechariah and Elizabeth would have been no different and made their lack of children a matter of constant prayer.”[10] Recall, Zechariah kept praying because as his name means Jehovah remembers and Elizabeth kept praying because God was her oath – her commitment. The first posture for seeking the Messiah is to walk blameless. Don’t bail or wane in your belief because God hasn’t answered YET!
The second posture for seeking the Messiah is: 2) Serve sacrificially (v. 8-9). Serve whom sacrificially? The community! This community is first the family of God (Galatians 6:10), but extends to the community you live, work and play in. And when I mean sacrificially, I am not talking just about giving your treasure, thoughts, time and talents. I mean sacrificially with a focus on the Messiah’s sacrifice – trying to turn the conversations to our atonement by God. This is what Zechariah was doing in verse 8-9, “Now while he was serving as priest before God when his division was on duty, according to the custom of the priesthood, he was chosen by lot to enter the temple of the Lord and burn incense.” Zechariah had essentially won the lottery in the draft of priests. This is because there were “Twenty-four orders of priests (1 Chronicles 24:1-19). With such a large number of priests, this privilege might come only once in a priest’s lifetime.”[11] And winning that lottery meant going on behalf of the people and offering a petition to God for the people’s sins. Don’t confuse this with the full-fledged Day of Atonement that only the High Priest performed, but it was significant. Listen to this description by one scholar: “There were, each day, about 50 priests on duty in the Temple. In the early morning, they divided into two groups to make a pre-daylight torchlight inspection of the Temple courtyards. The two groups then met and marched in two columns to the Hall of Hewn Polished Stones where the day’s duties were assigned by lot. The lot was used four times during the day: twice before the gate was opened, and twice after. Choosing by lot prevented personal ego or favoritism from having a part in the selections. The coals of the previous day’s fire still glowed on the altar of burnt offering. A priest, chosen by lot, stirred the fire into fresh flame. Then another lot was taken to designate:
- Those who were to take part in the sacrifice itself
- Those in the Holy Place who were to trim the wicks of the golden candlestick (Menorah) and to add oil, and
- Those who were to prepare the altar of incense
By now, morning had broken and, before the worshippers were admitted, the sacrificial lamb was brought out and inspected for its fitness for sacrifice. It was given water from a golden bowl, and then it was laid on the north side of the altar with its face to the west, as tradition described the binding of Isaac. Then the gates were opened to the people. All of the priests and the people were present as the officiating priest, standing on the east side of the altar, sprinkled the lamb’s blood from a golden bowl on two sides of the altar, below the red line which marked the difference between ordinary sacrifices and those which were to be wholly consumed by fire. In the meanwhile, other chosen priests made everything ready in the Holy Place, where the most solemn of the day’s ceremonies was to take place – that of offering the incense, which symbolized Israel’s prayers being accepted by God. Again, a lot was taken to decide who was to be honored with this highest act of mediation between God and man. A priest could perform this task only once in his lifetime; and after that he was to be called “rich”, leaving to his fellow priests the hope that they would sometime be called upon to do the “incensing”. It was fitting that taking such a lot would be preceded by prayer and confession of their faith on the part of the priests. One of this group of priests was Zechariah, who was more than 60 years old. He had never been chosen to perform the incense ritual before, yet he was well-known in the Temple. Zechariah’s first task was to choose two friends or relatives to help him in the sacred service. Their duties were completely spelled out. The first helper removed what had been left on the altar of incense from the previous evening’s service; then, in prayer, he walked backward away from the altar. (One never was to turn their back on God.) The second helper now came forward and spread live coals taken from that morning’s burnt offering; then he, too, worshipped and retired. As the people and other priests waited outside, Zacharias now stood alone in the Holy Place, lit only by the seven-branched candlestick. In front of him at some distance, toward the heavy Veil that hung before the Holy of Holies, was the golden altar of incense, on which red coals glowed, as near as possible to the Holy of Holies. To his right was the Table of Showbread; to his left was the golden candlestick. Zechariah kept waiting until a special signal indicated that the moment had come. He walked forward and spread the incense on the altar. The priests and the people had reverently moved back from the altar in the courtyard, and prostrated before the Lord, offering unspoken prayer and thanksgiving for God’s mercies, provision, and deliverance, along with petitions for blessing and peace. A cloud of smoke from the incense was beginning to form and move upward in the Holy Place. Zechariah waited until he was sure that the incense was burning well. He would have bowed down in prayer and then reverently left the Holy Place.”[12] The takeaway is this: Take great care in serving God and His people! Serve sacrificially! It is a privilege.
… But to serve sacrificially doesn’t mean you won’t be surprised by God (v. 11-13). Zechariah as we just learned was blessing the nation, but it was God who wanted to bless Zechariah and ultimately the world including us sitting here today. If Zechariah was wearing socks, it would have blown them off. Zechariah was serving sacrificially on one of the biggest days of his life and God had so much more planned for him. I am wondering if some of you think God is a skinflint – that He doesn’t want to give you an amazing gift to serve God’s people – not your own self-fulfillment. Look at verses 11-13, “And there appeared to him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense. And Zechariah was troubled when he saw him and fear fell upon him. But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John.” “John means ‘Jehovah is gracious.’”[13]“Zechariah and Elizabeth weren’t expecting any of this. They were simply devout people going about their regular business serving the Lord.”[14] They walked blamelessly and served sacrificially all the while praying. God noticed! God heard! What if when praying for the immediate, God gives the immense? The immediate meaning temporary atonement and forgiveness of sins when God was giving the immense – the forerunner of the Messiah who would provide forgiveness of sins eternally.
“The specific content of Zechariah’s prayer is not given, it most likely would have included at least two petitions: Zechariah would have been interceding on behalf of Israel as a nation and apparently also raised a second petition for a child. Zechariah must have prayed for a child hundreds of times over many years and now at last the answer has come.”[15] It was the grace and generosity of God. “Little did Zechariah and Elizabeth know that when God answered their prayers, He would give them, not a priest, but a prophet.”[16]Sometimes serving sacrificially for the community results in God answering us personally that will bless the world eternally. It is not about us!
The third posture for seeking the Messiah is: 3) Believe immediately (v. 18-25)! This is where Zechariah failed and Elizabeth passed the test, which is a reminder that even godly couples are not always at the same pace in their faith. To use the 401 highway analogy again, one spouse may hit the gas when God says, “Go!” and the other spouse, “Might say, ‘What did you say, Lord?’” This is an example of not keeping your eyes on Jesus. Zechariah turned his gaze to his age and his wife’s age (which always gets you in trouble). Look at verse 18, “And Zechariah said to the angel, ‘How shall I know this?’” Time out! What did the angel just say? Go back to verses 16-17, “He will turn many of children of Israel to the Lord their God and he will go back before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared.” Shouldn’t the news of this miraculous birth have turned the heart of Zechariah, the father-to-be, to his child rather than to being disobedient? Is that too harsh? I don’t think so. I was taught – delayed obedience is disobedience. Gabriel’s response in verses 19-20 proves this true, “I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God and I was sent to speak to you and bring this good news. And behold, you will be silent and unable to speak until the day that these things take place, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time.” After 400 years of silence from God, now Zechariah will be silent himself for 9 months during his wife’s pregnancy. Friends, there are some of us who despite a vision from God and a miracle do not believe immediately. We need more proof! It is time to repent of this unbelief, even if you have walked blamelessly and served sacrificially in the past. “Unbelief is something God does not accept.”[17] It is the unpardonable sin.
Contrast this with Elizabeth. Look at verses 24-25, “After these days his wife Elizabeth conceived and for five months she kept herself hidden, saying, ‘Thus the Lord had done for me in the days when he looked on me, to take away my reproach among people.” This was Elizabeth going on a long “spiritual retreat to know God better after His answered prayer.”[18] Zechariah and Elizabeth were old when they had John and this means they avoided the suffering of watching their son be jailed and beheaded for providing wisdom for the disobedient. And maybe Elizabeth needed that time alone with God. Maybe you do too? To prepare your heart. You see, “Not only was she to have a son, but the birth of her son was evidence that the Messiah was coming.”[19]
Prayer is placed throughout the lead up to Christ and should for us too! The unrecorded prayers during the silent times. The prayers of the people for forgiveness of sins. The prayers of Zechariah and Elizabeth before, during and after the angel’s announcements. They all led to the Messiah who would take not just Elizabeth’s reproach, but all our reproach on the Cross when He died for our sins. God’s delays are often for His displays of power and salvation. God never is doing nothing. He is always up to something good. Let’s pray! Let’s walk blamelessly, serve sacrificially and believe immediately! As we conclude, some of you have given up on praying to God because of God’s delays. Maybe after hearing this message you will start back up again? Maybe some of you are the ones delaying. Remember delayed obedience is disobedience and you need to start believing immediately by receiving Christ or getting baptized or getting married or whatever the Holy Spirit is prompting you to do. Others of you need to serve more sacrificially. Still others of you need to spend some quiet time alone with God. This Christmas seek the Messiah in prayer!
[1] Wright, 6.
[2] Warren Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition – Volume 1 (Wheaton: Victor Books, 1989), 170.
[3] Edward J. Young, The Prophecy of Daniel (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1980), 178.
[4] Iain Duguid, The ESV Study Bible (Wheaton: Crossway, 2008), 1605.
[5] Timothy Paul Jones, The Rose Guide to End Times Prophecy (Carol Stream: Rose Publishing, 2011), 160.
[6] Source: https://www.biblestudytools.com/dictionary/blameless/#:~:text=%22Blameless%22%20people%20are%20those%20who,Then%20will%20I%20be%20blameless%22%20(. Accessed November 30, 2023.
[7] Mark L. Strauss, The NLT Study Bible (Carol Stream: Tyndale House Publishers, 2017), 1699.
[8] Wiersbe, 170.
[9] Strauss, 1699.
[10] Wiersbe, 170.
[11] Strauss, 1699.
[12] Source: https://www2.gracenotes.info/topics/zacharias.html. Accessed November 30, 2023
[13] Wiersbe, 171.
[14] Tom Wright, Luke for Everyone (London: Westminster John Knox Press, 2004), 7.
[15] Wayne Grudem and Thomas Schreiner, The ESV Study Bible (Wheaton: Crossway, 2008), 1943.
[16] Wiersbe, 171.
[17] Wiersbe, 171.
[18] Strauss, 1699.
[19] Wiersbe, 171.
TOGETHER Figuring Out the Purpose of Marriage
Posted: July 18, 2021 Filed under: Church, Jesus, Marriage, Sacrifice, Submission, The Holy Spirit Leave a commentThe day is still vivid in my memory. I sat in a hard wooden chair in an old building with cinder block walls painted institutional white. It felt like any other school built in the 20th century. Next to me was Lori sitting in another wooden chair. Across from me was Dr. Harry Shields, my favourite college professor. Lori and I were coming to him excited and nervous as we sought him out to lead us through pre-marital counseling. We wanted to get married, but felt like we needed the help of somebody outside of ourselves to discover more about each other. I highly recommend and we actually require 4 pre-marital counseling sessions for couples to be married here at Temple because it increases a couple’s chances of marital success by 30%.[1]
Back to my story! Dr. Shields wanted to hear our story of how we met. I told him the story of how we were playing football just blocks from there on the beach in downtown Chicago as an event between the brother and sister floors. We were attending Moody Bible Institute and so the male-only dorm floors and female-only dorm floors paired up with each for social events and also for the male students to serve and protect the female students if they had to go somewhere unsafe in the big, wicked city of Chicago. Lori was a freshman student and so on that opening weekend of the school year, we had a Bro-Sis event of playing football on the beach. Lori happened to be on my team. Now, many of you know that I am competitive and so my focus was on scoring touchdowns and not on scoring some girl to be by my side. I remember catching a pass and getting tackled by one of my floormates. I wasn’t wearing a shirt and when I came back to the huddle, I felt this female hand on my shoulder rubbing the sand off it. Well, that got my attention. And she’s been helping me out ever since!
Dr. Shields laughed and liked the story but he immediately turned the conversation to a more serious question and asked: why are we getting married? If I recall, Lori and I both said that we thought we would make good ministry partners as we were both pastor’s kids and understood each other. It sounded very spiritual and was aligned with our reason for being at Moody Bible Institute – a training center for vocational ministry. Dr. Shields said that might be the case, but then graciously corrected us and said that we should get married for really one reason – to become more like Christ. In other words, God would use marriage as a mirror to show us how we could look and be more like Christ. Some get married because they are a good match socially and economically. When I was in Kolkota, India, I saw advertised in the paper requests for marriage based on social standing and educational achievement. For example, in The Telegraphthere was the Matrimonial page with sections entitled “Grooms Wanted” and “Brides Wanted.” The paper being written in English automatically filtered out some who only spoke Hindi or Bengali. Under the “Grooms Wanted” section I read: “age 25+, 5’3.5”, Bachelor of Technology, Software Engineer, sweet looking, fair complexion, slim, working information system in Bangalore. Seeks professional groom with MBA around 30 based at Bangalore, handsome, smart, Brahmin acceptable.”[2] That may seem strange to some of us but it is not very different than what we have in Canada with online dating apps. Some get married for social and economic reasons – to be provided for or to have a good match educationally. In fact, the Bible describes, not prescribes, a number of marriages that were made for political and economic reasons. King Solomon making the most of them having 700 wives (1 Kings 9:16; 11:1-3). Others might get married for the reason of companionship! That is a good reason! We are especially in need of friends as we journey through this pandemic. Some young people are actually using dating apps to find friends without benefits as reported in the Wall Street Journal this past week.[3] Meaning they just want a friend, not a romantic partner. In fact, I won’t marry couples unless they are marrying their earthly best friend. Others of you might get married to have sex in a life-long committed relationship and also to have children. Again, those both are legitimate, Biblical reasons to get married (Genesis 1:28; Malachi 2:15; 1 Corinthians 7:2). However, as Timothy Keller reminds us, “If you marry mainly a sexual partner or mainly a financial partner or even a friend, you are going nowhere together, really. And those who are going nowhere can have no fellow travellers.”[4] You see we are all trying to reach a destination and that is heaven. “Each spouse should see the great thing that Jesus is doing in the life of their mate through the Word, the gospel.”[5] The destination is the new heavens and new earth. And as Rebecca McLaughlin says, “Marriage is not a destination; it’s a signpost.”[6] Don’t stop at the sign post! Jesus is who we must have our sights on! Therefore, the reason you get married is to show off Christ. Singles can show off Christ as well, just in different ways. So now we know the purpose of marriage – to become like Christ – let’s learn from Ephesians 5:15-33 how to live out the purpose of marriage. And lest you think that this is just for the married people, pay close attention singles, widows and widowers. You don’t get this Sunday off. This is for anybody who belongs to the Bride of Christ. Marriage points us to something larger as Rebecca McLaughlin explains: “If you’ve ever built a model airplane, you know that the pieces (wings, cockpit, tail, wheels, etc.) match up with pieces of a real airplane. Likewise, the pieces of a Christian marriage match up with Jesus’ love for His church.”[7] Let’s read about that love right now! Read Ephesians 5:15-33!
The number one rule in interpreting the Bible is that everything must be read in context. The immediate context for Ephesians 5:21-33 are verses 15-20. And at first, it would appear that Paul is just verbally processing and all these verses are not tied together. Maybe Paul is just writing random thoughts as a writer who is disturbed in writing and has to come back to his or her writing? That happens all the time to us when we try to write email or text and are interrupted and then we make typos. Remember, in those days when writing on papyrus, one couldn’t hit the delate button or use white-out. Paul would have had to just move on. But Paul didn’t make a mistake. He was guided by the Holy Spirit. What we must understand in studying this whole passage is that our marriages and more importantly our lives, regardless of whether we are married or not, require living wisely, being opportunistic for good, not being drunk but being filled with the Holy Spirit, being joyful and thankful. If we bring these things into our marriage and more importantly, integrate them into our lives, then we will showcase Christ’s love for the church. As an aside, Spirit-filled living cannot help but overflow into praising God. This is why it is time for those listening online who have fallen out of the habit of attending church to come back. Did you know that “prior to the pandemic, about 1 in every 6 Americans sang in a choir!”[8] I’m not sure we are as choir-happy here in Canada, but I think we like to sing together. I believe God wants joy and praise to ooze out of us and this is why we have prioritized worship in our search for a new staff person. A joyful life sure helps in our jobs, in our schools, in our community and in our marriage. Maybe one of the applications for us today is to listen to our favourite worship music and put our minds back on God?
Now as we take a deeper dive into Ephesians 5:21-33, we are going to discover that the ultimate purpose for marriage is Christlikeness! Remember what Dr. Shields told Lori and I. This is the main point of this passage! The longer couples are together they should not only like one another more but be like one another. They are one, united, together, which is the constant theme of Ephesians! I think of Lawrence and Ruth Caldwell, married for 70 years, who are “like one another” as they hold hands coming into our church every week. How much more is Jesus trying to make us His Bride the Church to be more like Him. But some of you say, such a goal is disastrous in marriage. I remember when Lori and I first got married, as much as we were warned not to do so, we tried to make the other person like us and manipulate them to do things our way. Okay, it is was more me trying to get Lori to be like me because I like me! I have since learned that being one is different from being the same. I don’t need a clone of me I need someone who complements me. In the case of our relationship with Christ, we are to be one with Christ, but He is changing our character to be like His.
So it begs the question: how do we become like Christ? How do we attain Christlikeness? There are 3 ways we become like Christ from Ephesians 5:15-33: 1) Be Spirit-filled (v. 18) – We read this in Ephesians 5:18 (NIV), “Do not be drunk with wine, which leads to debauchery, but be filled with the Holy Spirit.” What is debauchery? One writer says it is, “Sexual excess or lack of control.” That has direct implications on both life and marriage. More importantly, what does “being filled with the Holy Spirit” mean? It means that the Holy Spirit has more and more control of you. Don’t think of being filled by the Holy Spirit like my water here where after drinking a little bit it needs to be filled up again. The Holy Spirit is not a fluid. He is a person! Think of filling like a balloon that creates greater capacity continually filling and stretching us in areas of our life. (Blow up balloon – tight camera shot) But we are to cooperate with the Holy Spirit as He fills us! We are the ones being stretched as He breathes more life into us (c.f. John 20:22) This is why the verb translated “be filled” is in the passive voice. Sometimes that means just being still, listening to His whispers, which take the form of reminders from God’s Word. I like what Charles Spurgeon said, “‘When home is ruled according to God’s Word, angels might be asked to stay with us and they would not find themselves out of their element.’ The trouble is many homes are not governed by God’s Word – even homes where the members are professing Christians – and the consequences are tragic. Instead of angels being guests in some homes, it seems that demons are the masters. The 18th century poet William Cowper called the home, ‘the only bliss of Paradise that hast survived the Fall,’ but too many homes are an outpost of hell instead of a parcel of paradise.”[9] The vaccine to hellish homes is being filled with the Holy Spirit. “Someone defined the home as ‘the place where we are treated the best – and complain the most!’”[10] This should not be! As already stated, being filled with the Holy Spirit makes us walk with Christ and being opportunistic for good, but it should fill us with gratitude and worship. More than any human being or worship leader, we need the Holy Spirit to truly worship Christ. This is why the prayer that I ask most often pray for my family is, “Lord, please fill Lori, Jessie, Josiah, Noah, Luke and myself with the Holy Spirit.”
So the first way we become like Christ is being Spirit-filled, whether we are married or not. Pray to God, “Holy Spirit, fill me today.” The second way we become like Christ is 2) Be submissive (v. 21, 22, 24). The overarching verse in this passage in marriage is Ephesians 5:21, “Submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.” This has to be true for both the male and female, the married and the unmarried, the young and old. Submission is one of the hardest things to do and we have had lots of practice during the pandemic, haven’t we? Submission is voluntarily following the lead of another.
That is so much easier when the leader is loving and putting you first. But what about if a person who is over us is not acting like a good leader or you disagree with the direction they are going. The second half of verse 21 gives us the answer: submit out of reverence (lit. fear) of Christ. Maybe you have that hard time submitting to that difficult person in your life? Submit for the sake of your Saviour! Of course, I am not asking you to follow somebody who is calling you to disobey one of God’s commands or to do evil. But being submissive means you understand authority and that ultimately Jesus is in charge. Your appeal is to Him!
Let’s get more specific in the marriage relationship. In verses 22 and 24, we read that “wives are to be submissive to their husbands as to the Lord.” As it was for verse 21, the key phrase is “as to the Lord.” This is a repeated them in Ephesians as children are to obey their parents “in the Lord” (6:1) and slaves are to obey their masters “as you would Christ” (6:5). As Rebecca McLaughlin, a former atheist who holds her Ph.D. from Cambridge states and explains, “The call on wives to submit to their husbands isn’t because women are somehow inferior to men, just as the call on husbands to give up their lives for their wives isn’t because men are less valuable than women. It also doesn’t mean that all women should submit to all men, or that a wife should never say no to her husband if he is treating her badly. In fact, a husband abusing his wife is the total opposite of the picture the Bible gives us, where husbands are called again and again to love their wives (Ephesians 5:26, 28, 33; Colossians 3:19) and to understand and honor them (1 Peter 3:7).”[11] We become like Christ when we submit because He Himself submitted. There are numerous Scriptures that evidence this. Remember Jesus’ famous prayer to His Heavenly Father in the Garden of Gethsemane, “Not My will, but Yours be done” (Luke 22:42). Another is Philippians 2:8, “He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” And this verse in Hebrews 5:8, “Although He was a son, He learned obedience through what He suffered.” So who is God asking you to submit to?
Remember, God has put that person in a position of authority over you. Verse 23 declares, “For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, His body, and is Himself its Savior.” Notice that the husband’s headship is directly under Christ. We must always this, husbands, we submit to Christ and are answerable to Him! The problem is that this principle of headship has been abused at times in what some have labelled “hyper-headship,”[12] where the husband tries to force the wife to submit under the guise of male headship. Remember, submission is VOLUNTARY! And what happens then is a tug of war of in the relationship – hyper-headship on one side and passiveness of women on the other side or passiveness on men on one side and domination on the other side. The problem is when you pull the marriage relationship too far in either direction the relationship becomes distorted. Both men and women are responsible for becoming like Christ this requires a mutual submission to Christ and each other.
This leads us to the third way we become like Christ: 3) Be sacrificial (v. 25)! We read in verse 25, “Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her.” How did Christ give Himself up for her? Did He surrender to the authorities for some crime He committed? Actually, He did surrender but not for any crime He committed. He became the crime or as 2 Corinthians 5:21 (NIV) states, “God made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.” So Christ surrendered to wicked authorities and gave up Himself. In fact, the word order in the original language in Ephesians 5:25 places the word “Himself” irregularly at the front of the phrase to emphasize that Jesus did this for Himself and not just for His Bride. This was not selfish but aligns with putting God first and it has practical implications for the married. Verse 28 alludes to this, “In the same way, husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.” This is where the most selfless act also has the greatest self-rewards. It has taken me a long time to figure this out and I still have a long way to go, but it follows Jesus’ words in Acts 20:35, “It is more blessed to give than receive.” I heard of one husband who got for his Father’s Day gift a new mitre saw which he immediately passed on to his wife because she loves to build things. And if any of you sees this said miter saw in an upcoming Instagram story just remember this, “Happy wife; happy life!”
I think this is what Jesus had in mind. In rescuing His Bride, Jesus took on her penalty in the most beautiful love story of the universe, He benefitted as well because when He rose from the grave, He had a bride that was now no longer guilty. And now He is cleaning up her soiled clothing from the muck and mire of sin. Do you feel Him washing you? Let verses 26-27 wash over you, “that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that He might present the church to Himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.” Some see the church as only ugly and there are definitely some ugly parts. But the late Pastor John Stott describes the Church so well, “On earth she is often in rags and tatters, stained and ugly, despised and persecuted. But one day she will be seen for what she is, nothing less than the bride of Christ, ‘free from spots, wrinkles, or any other disfigurement,’ holy and without blemish, beautiful and glorious. It is to this constructive end that Christ has been working and is continuing to work. The bride does not make herself presentable; it is the bridegroom who labours to beautify her in order to present her to himself.” The pimply-faced, gangly 13-14 year old girl that we experience as the church now is going to blossom into a fully mature and absolutely beautiful bride. Jesus is the one who picks out His Bride’s dress! Ladies, when your husband has bough you a new dress, how does that make you feel? Special! Jesus is doing that for His Brie. If that sounds like I am feminizing Jesus, I would remind you that He was the one who took the towel and washed His disciples’ feet with a future look for His bride being fully washed (John 13:1-20) and He will clothe you. You just need to the dress on (Revelation 19:7-8).
But let’s remember that Jesus is not objectifying His bride in making her beautiful. He is not trying to parade the church for the world to see. “Just as a husband cares for his body’s needs, so his love for his wife should be of the sort that cares for her needs and facilitates her growth and development.”[13] This is also for His benefit. It is for His glory! It is for His pleasure (but don’t sexualize that). Sexual love is great and God-given, but there is a deeper, abiding love. I had a young person ask me recently, “How do you know when you are in love?” I told him what my dad said, “At first, no one is in love! They are just in lust.” They desire the other person and feel miserable when away from their presence. However, deep, abiding love is nurtured through the choice and commitment to love the other person and do what is best for them in the good and bad times.
As Rebecca McLaughlin states, “God made us so that men and women have different bodies, picturing the radical difference between Jesus and us. But He also made us so that men and women’s bodies could fit together in a life-giving closeness, which gives us a picture of Jesus and His church. Paul says this ‘one-flesh’ reality is a deep mystery and that it’s about Christ and the church. In that picture, every believer (male or female) is part of Christ’s bride and a member of Christ’s body.”[14] This is what Jesus did in sacrificing for you. Who or what are you to sacrifice to God?
I’ll end with a poem by Jack Taylor:
The bride bent with age leaned over her cane,
Her steps uncertain need guiding.
While down the church aisle
With a long toothless smile,
The groom in a wheelchair gliding.
And who is this elderly couple thus wed?
You’ll find when you’ve closely explored it:
This is that rare, most conservative pair
Who waited until they could afford it.
The truth is that your marriage, whether single or married, was already paid for with the greatest cost. Jesus gave His own life for you and for me. And He will make us like Him if you let Him and take Him up on marriage proposal to be married to Him forever!
[1] https://healthresearchfunding.org/20-significant-premarital-counseling-statistics/. Accessed July 13, 2021.
[2] The Telegraph, “Matrimonial Page,” (Kolkata, India: March 28, 2010).
[3] https://www.wsj.com/articles/why-young-people-are-using-dating-apps-to-find-friendswithout-benefits-11626101537. Accessed July 13, 2021.
[4] Timothy & Kathy Keller, The Meaning of Marriage (New York: Dutton, 2011), 120.
[5] Keller, 121.
[6] Rebecca McLaughlin, 10 Questions Every Teen Should Ask (and Answer) about Christianity (Wheaton: Crossway, 2021), 117.
[7] McLaughlin, 125.
[8] Bradley Baurain, Today in the Word – Volume 34, Issue 7, “Following the Good Shepherd,” July 2021, 19.
[9] Warren Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary (Wheaton: Victor Books, 1989), 48.
[10] Wiersbe, 49.
[11] Rebecca McLaughlin, 10 Questions Every Teen Should Ask (and Answer) about Christianity (Wheaton: Crossway, 2021), 117.
[12] The first time I heard about this term was from Jason Meyer and then picked up by Justin Taylor in an article he wrote “Hyper-headship and the Scandal of Domestic Abuse in the Church.” https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justin-taylor/hyper-headship-and-the-scandal-of-domestic-abuse-in-the-church/. Accessed July 18, 2021.
[13] Andrew T. Lincoln, Ephesians – Word Biblical Commentary (Dallas: Word Books, 1990), 378.
[14] McLaughlin, 117.
Growing in Christ by Working with God
Posted: March 28, 2020 Filed under: Jesus, Joy, Justification, Obedience, Sacrifice, Sanctification, Sermons Leave a commentThis sermon can be watched at www.templebaptistchurch.ca!
Are you self-employed spiritually? In other words, are you working to make the best you so that God will let you into heaven or is God working with you? I would say that most of us if we were filling out heavenly tax forms would check off the box – self-employed. We think we are on our own and must be responsible in determining our own destiny. We think we are in our own self-renovation project. I know for a long time, even after asking Jesus to forgive me of my sins, I thought that God had done His part and so the rest of it was up to me. I thought I was self-employed spiritually and at the end of my life I would receive my just wages in heaven for my perseverance. That is how I figured the heavenly reward system worked. Do you think like that? Don’t we hate it when people don’t take responsibility for their actions and don’t do their part. In fact, I once had a great conversation with some Muslims who struggled to understand how Christians could embrace Christ and seem to do whatever they want to. They felt that was irresponsible.
Did you know that they were right? You can’t embrace Christ and do whatever you want! You have to obey Christ! And so this led me to being confused and thinking I was essentially self-employed spiritually here on earth. God got the ball rolling with my salvation and I was to pick up the ball and carry it to heaven. My growth was a handoff from God to go score the touchdown. This is how I thought until God did something amazing for me and for my family and I believe He will for you today too. God taught me about how His grace and even the means He used demonstrated His grace.
Lori and I were living in Illinois at the time and I was attending Bethel Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota to obtain my Master’s degree. The year was 2000 and the month was January. We had just survived the Y2K crisis where computers needed to be reprogrammed for the turn of the millennium and there was great angst that our technology would fail and planes would fall from the sky and traffic lights would cease and great chaos would ensue. Lori and I were struggling to make ends meet. Then when I was attending a class six hours from home, I got word that a donor had given the seminary $20,000 towards a Devotional Life Scholarship to be disbursed in ten $2000 awards. The only catch was that to win the scholarship you had write a paper and it had to be one of the 10 best papers on the devotional life. Well, there were a lot of students in the seminary and frankly I was one of the youngest and least experienced of them. However, we needed the money so I thought I would take the chance and find some precious extra hours to write a paper. My motivation was the money. But in God’s grace, I decided to pick a topic that I had wanted to study for some time and that was whether it was God’s work or our work to grow us and if there was a divine-human cooperation how did that work. I essentially wanted to know how grace and works work together.
So I wrote the paper the best I could knowing that I only had about 20 hours to work on it along with my full-time ministry responsibilities and full-time school responsibilities. I learned that God’s grace saves us from start to finish and yet we work with Him in our response to His grace. He comes our way. In fact, what was revolutionary for me is that though God is always the initiator in salvation – the majority partner in the gospel – we are God’s co-workers in our sanctification. Sanctification is a big fancy word for making us like Christ. It is the word for the process of holiness and that we are being saved. So, I wrote the paper, submitted and forgot about it assuming that the scholarships would be awarded to students who were far better writers than I. Most of those in the program were 20 years my senior. I believe it was the summer when I next attended class in St. Paul that I heard back from them. Back in those days we went up for school only 4 weeks a year and the rest was done online. By the way, I have a lot of empathy for those going to school online right now due to the Coronavirus, I’ve been there and it’s hard to keep at it.
So when I arrived on campus that July we all met for chapel and they announced that they were giving out the devotional life scholarship awards, but what was odd was that there was no ceremony for it. However, the Dean of the Seminary came up to me after the chapel and informed me that I had won the scholarship. I loved this Dean and he was one of my favourite professors, but I was perplexed because he and I both knew that I was not a very good writer. That was telling from all the red marks on my papers he graded. He then let me know a little disappointingly that I was the only one that submitted a paper. And so by default I got the $2000 cash scholarship. I didn’t deserve it but by grace I received it. That was a game changer for me in understanding God’s grace and sanctification. The paper was on God’s grace and He showed me His grace even in the prize. We laid aside the money for an emergency fund. Here is the kicker, Lori soon got pregnant and when our daughter Jessie was born 2 months premature the next year, we had hospital bills of about $6000 out of pocket which came in at nearly 25% of our salary. That $2000 rewarded paper on grace was the grace that allowed us, along with some other savings, to pay for our hospital bills without any debt. I tell that story not to boast except in God but to also remind my family and my church family that God and His grace will take us all the way to heaven and cover any expenses along the way.
So God did his work and taught me that we are not self-employed in His salvation project, but it is by His grace that we are God’s co-workers in salvation. Today, I want to drill down deeper on this truth from the Letter of Philippians as we continue our series entitled “Growing in Christ.” Today we are going to learn what it means to work with God and again how we are partners in the gospel. We have touched on the subject back in Philippians 1:6, which has been our memory verse for the month of March, “And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it completion at the day of Christ Jesus.” So let’s read Philippians 2:12-18 and we are going to see how God works in us so He can work with us. Let me say that again: God works in us so He can work with us. I think we will find this to be very practical as we try to obey and apply God’s Word today. Read Philippians 2:12-18!
Before I go on and explain this passage, I want to show you a chart by Dr. Douglas Moo that is really helpful in clarifying how God and we work together to grow us in Christ:
Different Views of Responsibility for Sanctification by Dr. Douglas Moo[1]
Justification Sanctification
- By God By God (& us) – “Let go and let God” (Keswick & Nee)
- By God By Us (& God) – Justification by grace; sanctification by struggle
- By God By God & Us
Let’s be clear that we are justified by grace alone through faith alone in Jesus Christ as Romans 3-4 teaches. However, when it comes to sanctification, the question is who does the work? The first view holds to what I call the “spiritually unemployed.” It’s all God and not much us. We are laid off from doing much of the work of growing in Christ. I think this is what my Muslim friend balked at. The second view holds to what I call the overworked or “workaholic” in the sanctification process. This is a form of practical deism. God came and saved us, but left it up to us to figure life out on our own as we read our Bibles and get a little help through prayer. Some of us with a Protestant Work Ethic are not just trying to “make our calling and election sure” (2 Peter 3:10). The danger is that we start to think we should get paid for our hard work and don’t appreciate God’s grace. I still stumble into this thinking at times. It takes the form in my prayer life when something goes wrong and I say in my mind or even dare to pray, “God, can’t You see what I have done for you. You owe me…” Really that prayer is “God, can’t You see what I have done for me. You owe me… health and wealth or you fill in the blank.” You fight that by praying such a selfishly ambitious prayer out loud and you will immediately be reminded that God owes us nothing. This is why we need what the last view teaches that we are co-workers with God in growing us to be like Jesus. My dad, Dr. Phil Stairs called this “salvation that works.”[2] We continue to work out our salvation, we don’t work for our salvation! As Bible Scholar Frank Thielman puts it, “Work out ¹ work for our salvation.”[3] I love what the late Dallas Willard said, “Grace is opposed to earning, not effort.”[4]
And so with this foundation and clarification in the short time we have remaining, let’s dive into Philippians 2:12-18. I could summarize the passage this way: Work with God so He works in you! Look at verses 12-13, which has left many confused until we understand to work with God so He works in us, “Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence (what a timely word to be obedient as we are all apart and have to be separated due to the pandemic), work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.” That phrase “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling” is what trips us up. It is the phrase that makes me and possibly you think that we are self-employed spiritually or at least have dual status as both employed by God, but also self-employed. However, I want to reinforce that God never lays us off from His work, but gainfully employs us, yet He works with us. Better yet, we join Him in His work because He started and will complete the work in us. He is the great player/coach who manages and participates in the game. He gets His hands dirty without infecting us.
As Bible Scholar Frank Thielman teaches and I don’t expect you to write this down so just let it sink in, “If we place too much emphasis on verse 12, we may lapse into the notion that salvation is a matter of our own untainted free choice and that by human efforts we can ‘work for’ our salvation with fear and trembling. If we place too much emphasis on verse 13, however, we stand in danger of retreating into an equally unbiblical quietism that is passive and doesn’t obey God.”[5] In other words, Paul is not teaching “a self-help salvation.”[6] “Humans come only to God because He enables them to come.”[7] Or I love what our own Dr. Wayne Baxter explains in his book Growing Up to Get Along, “Sanctification isn’t all on me. I needn’t live life as if I’m walking on thin ice that might give way at any moment. Conversely, the truth that I must work makes me live responsibly; sanctification isn’t just ‘let go and let God.’ GOD WORKS SO WE WORK; AND AS WE WORK GOD WORKS ALL THE MORE”[8] (emphasis added).
God works all the more as we work, not because we become the master and crack the whip, but because He is the Master and captains our ship. And how does He do this? Let me quickly show you three works that God works in us. It is a call to work with God so He works in you to be 1) obedient. Isn’t this what Paul says at the beginning of verse 12? Paul said the Philippians always obeyed. Wow! What if that was said of us as children? And even better of us as God’s children? Today, my friends, your task and my task is to first of all obey. As we learned last week, when we obey it saves lives as demonstrated with Jesus becoming obedient even to death on a cross (v. 8). And we, as a world, are learning that our obedience to the government’s edicts of keeping social distance saves us from the deadly pestilence of the Coronavirus. So I keep asking this same question because God asks me it all the time, what command of God do you need to obey right now? One of those commands that was in Paul’s mind when he was in prison and away from the Philippians was a very fatherly command: Do all things without grumbling or questioning (v. 14). The NIV replaces “questioning” with “arguing.” What a relevant command for us to live as we may be going a little stir crazy confined to our homes. We are not to grumble, complain or argue in all things. How’s that going for you?? I can assure you that have been some moments of complaining and arguing in the Stairs house over little annoying habits that start to seem major irritations as we spend weeks on end coped up in a house together. And I don’t think we’re the only ones! Now, I’m sure that Paul had in mind the Israelites, his forefathers, who grumbled and it cost them 40 years of wandering a desert instead of being in the Promised Land. People literally died from their grumbling. And even if you are alone, God can still hear the grumbling under your breath. I am not trying to say that we can’t be disappointed. However, as the late Pastor Warren Wiersbe said, “Life is not a series of disappointing ‘ups and downs.’ Rather, it is a sequence of delightful ‘in and outs.’ God works in and we work out”[9] and I would add the words “through the pain.” You see, when you obey God you are working with God so He works more in you and grows you to be more like Jesus.
However, you are not only to work with God so He works in you to be obedient but to also work with God so He works in you to 2) shine. This is what we find in verses 15-17, “that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain. Even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith.” I could use a lot of words such as blameless and innocent, lights, holding fast and sacrificial but I am putting those all under the banner of the word “shine.” To shine greatly you can’t have a blemish. We are in such a different world. Just this past week I pulled into the Food Basics grocery store and there was a young man in a car that pulled up to the parking spot beside me. He put on his bandana with a skull on it and then put his hood over him. Three weeks ago, I would have called 911 to interpret a robbery in progress. That day, I prayed for him because he was scared. Friends, this is the time to let the light of the gospel shine in our lives and care for people like never before. This may require us to be poured out as a drink offering. I am not saying to be reckless or not protect others including your family but let’s take every precaution but be courageous servants. It is not time to give our lives to sin but to our Saviour. 28,000 people gave their lives to Christ last weekend on Church Online America. God is working in and through us!
And not only will God receive pleasure from our working with Him, but it seems that other believers, especially our leaders like Paul was to the Philippians will be proud and feel like their work is worth it. Look again at verses 16-17, “Holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labour in vain. Even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all.” We forget that when we shine for God, it brightens other believers with us. How you are living right now, though separated, will make us proud! Every time you pray, make a phone call to a fellow believer, check on your neighbours, fight (not literally) to get toilet paper for somebody in need, this brightens others. Your sacrifice is an altar we can worship God on. Tell us about that at info@templebaptistchurch.ca so we can share it with others. “Paul uses two metaphors here – running and working – to describe the rigors of Christian leadership,”[10] and I can say that I have never had such non-stop ministry like it has been since this crisis began here. You living obedient and shining lives for Christ helps me and our Elders, Staff, Deacons and Members keep going.
And this leads us to the third work. We not only work with God so He works in us to be obedient and shine but also to be joyful for God’s pleasure. Verse 18 is such a great place to finish, “Likewise you also should be glad and rejoice with me.” Remember, Paul was in prison when he said these words. And what is he doing chained between two guards? Having a pity party? No, he is rejoicing! And in the same way only God can work in you to rejoice in the midst of suffering.
And we see this most in His own Son. Remember, “it was Jesus who for the joy set before Him endured the Cross.”(Hebrews 12:2) God is working, my friends. You are not self-employed – alone and overworked. You are also not laid off in His work. You are God’s fellow-workers in this awesome mission to turn broken people into whole people who multiply Christ-followers.
[1] Douglas Moo, “Book of Romans” D. Min. class, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, Deerfield, Illinois, 1995. (Sourced from one of my mentors Dr. Rick Cryder)
[2] Phil Stairs, “Salvation that Works” sermon, preached at Huron Park Baptist Church, Woodstock, October 7, 2006.
[3] Frank Thielman, The NIV Application Commentary on Philippians (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1995), 145.
[4] Dallas Willard, The Great Omission (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 2006), 133.
[5] Thielman, 138.
[6] James Montgomery Boice, An Expositional Commentary Philippians (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1971), 162.
[7] Boice, 166.
[8] Wayne Baxter, Growing Up to Get Along (Rapid City, SD: Crosslink Publishing, 2016), 69.
[9] Warren Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary – Volume 2 (Wheaton: Victor Books, 1989), 80.
[10] Gerald F. Hawthorne, Philippians – Word Biblical Commentary (Waco: Word Books, 1983), 106.
Christ is Our Passover
Posted: April 19, 2019 Filed under: Beauty, Good Friday, Jesus, Lamb of God, Passover, Sacrifice, Salvation, Sermons Leave a commentThis sermon can be listened to at www.templebaptistchurch.ca from our 2019 Good Friday service.
Are you looking for transcendence?Something greater than yourself? The transcendentals are the way we connect with God and they focus on three ways: truth, beauty and goodness. Listen to what the 19thCentury Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky provocatively proclaimed in his novel The Idiot, “The Church has lost the truth, is losing its goodness and has forgotten beauty, but beauty is what will save the world.”[1]Of course, Dostoevsky said this in the context of much corruption politically with the oppressive Romanov dynasty of the Czars as he writes in his more famous novels The Brothers Karamazov and Crime & Punishment.The Russian Orthodox Church itself was corrupt as seen most vividly shortly after Dostoevsky’s death with the rise of the evil mystic Rasputin. This is not unlike today where there is corruption in government and in the church with many leaders falling. Much of the truth and goodness has left the church. We are humbly trying to reclaim truth, goodness and beauty at Temple, which is why we have labeled this weekend: Beauty Will Save the World. We want to express in word, and song and artistic expression that beauty in itself won’t save the world, but the beauty of Christ’s sacrifice on the Cross is the ultimate beauty that will save us. But at first it wouldn’t appear that beauty will save the world. This weekend is rather ugly at first glance when you think of Jesus being beaten, whipped and crucified leaving Him one bloody pulp hanging on a tree. To look at Jesus would have been ignominious; not inspiring. This is why at the moment of His death, He had few followers. However, artists tell us that light is most vivid when it is contrasted with darkness. The backdrop of the Cross was dark. Christ died on the Jewish Passover and during the week of the Festival of Unleavened Bread. In fact, Easter is celebrated at a different time every year because it is so integrally tied to Passover. One of my sons asked me if we can know when Jesus died and I said absolutely because His death was on the Jewish Passover weekend. Christ’s death is cemented in history. If you are a sceptic here today, please check out the book or movie entitled The Case for Christ.It will show the reasonable evidence for historical person of Jesus Christ.But we want you not just to be educated on Christ but encounter Christ this weekend.
Understanding Passover will help you encounter Christ. Passover begins at sunset on the 14thof Nisan in the Jewish calendar, which changes due to the lunar-solar seasons. Passover harkens back to the Book of Exodus in the Bible and the night when Pharaoh and the Egyptians refused to let their slaves, God’s People, the Israelites leave Egypt so they could worship God. And so God sent the Angel of Death to enact a plague where all the firstborn sons would die. The only protection was if the Israelites first cleansed themselves after slaughtering a lamb without defect. On the night of the Passover, the Israelites and anybody else who believed in God sequestered themselves in their homes and painted the mantle of their doorway with blood from the lamb so that when the Angel of Death came, he would literally pass over that house and let everyone in it live. This is where we get the term “Passover” because the word sounds like its meaning. The Festival of Unleavened Bread was also part of this night because the Israelites were to make bread without leaven. They didn’t have time for the yeast to raise the bread because the next day, they were leaving Egypt for the Promised Land. It was an act of faith that they would survive the night. God would protect, provide and guide His people. If you watch the movie The 10 Commandmentswith Charleston Heston this weekend you will get a better picture of this backdrop.
As we have been studying the Book of Ezra as a church, the returned Jewish exiles finally return to the Passover after years of neglect. Ezra 6:19-22declares, “On the fourteenth day of the first month, the returned exiles kept the Passover. For the priests and the Levites had purified themselves together; all of them were clean. So they slaughtered the Passover Lamb for all the returned exiles, for their fellow priests and for themselves. It was eaten by the people of Israel who had returned from exile, and also by everyone who had joined them and separated himself from the uncleanness of the peoples of the land to worship the Lord, the God of Israel. And they kept the Feast of Unleavened Bread seven days with joy, for the Lord had made them joyful and had turned the heart of the king of Assyria to them, so that he aided them in the work of the house of God, the God of Israel.”Notice the process: purity, followed by inclusivity, then exclusivity resulting in a party. The people purified themselves, they sacrificed, they welcomed those outside their group who believed and yet, they stayed faithful to worshipping God alone. And it leads to joy. I was once in Jerusalem on Sabbath Friday night and have never seen a party like it with all the families gathered to celebrate. Jesus’ purity, sacrifice, invitation to follow Him and remain faithful despite what others may do and think will lead to our joy. This new Passover will lead to our joy.
I want to take a few minutes and explain the elements of Passover and then my dad will explain how Christ’s death was a Passover, which has led to our forgiveness. And as you see the table before me, this all leads to the Lord’s Supper. Jesus observed the Passover with His disciples on the night He was betrayed as Pastor Dan will read later on in Matthew 26:17-30. However, the Passover has developed into a larger ceremony since Jesus’ time, called the Seder, which in Hebrew means, “order.” Most likely, Jesus and His disciples didn’t observe a full Seder meal.[2]There is a picture above me of a Seder Meal. Maybe we have a full Seder here someday for the entire church as I believe only our seasoned saints in Prime Time Plus have been able to experience it. This weekend we want you to use all your senses to encounter Christ – sight, sound, smell, touch and taste. After the service, we invite you to go to our Beauty Will Save the World Art exhibit down the hall to my right in our Family Centre to see how we as a church are trying to worship God and witness Christ through beauty. But first stop by our GO Café and sample some of these Passover foods we have prepared. These include the “Matzah (unleavened bread), a bowl of salt water to convey crossing the Red Sea, wine or red grape juice to communicate the atoning blood sacrifice of the lamb, a hard boiled egg (to convey new life), horse radish (a bitter herb to convey the bitterness of life in bondage, which should serve as a reminder that many are still in bondage physically and spiritually) parsley (to convey the hyssop used for sprinkling the door posts – cf. Psalm 51:7) and charoset (a mixture of nuts, cinnamon, honey, cloves and grape juice which serves to sweeten the bitter herbs. It symbolizes the mud mixed in with straw that the Israelite slaves used to make bricks to build Egyptian structures.)”[3]The shank bone of a lamb is often there too, but the Jews do not eat a lamb since the Temple has been destroyed, which is why I left it out. We have been studying a lot about the Temple in Jerusalem at our church these past few months as we rebuild and recreate our property here, but I dare say it isn’t the Temple that has stopped lambs being sacrificed. It is the fact that Jesus came as the perfect, final and ultimate Lamb of God to take away the sins of the world.
Jesus simplified all of this imagery to two elements: the bread and the cup. This has allowed believers both rich and poor all across the globe to participate in the essence of Jesus’ gospel message. His Body was broken for our sins. You see our sins are what ultimately destroy our bodies and explains why there is death and decay. The Bible best answers the reason for death and its remedy. The Apostle Paul said it best when he asked, “Wretched man that I am! Who will save me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Romans 7:24-25) And then the cup symbolizes His blood as the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Our sins have been a capital crime against God, which requires a blood sacrifice. The blood of the lambs in Egypt were painted on the doorways of the Israelite homes during Passover. The blood of the Lamb of God has now acted as a permanent protection against the Angel of Death. Christ has become our Passover Lamb. The Apostle makes this explicit in 1 Corinthians 5:6-8, “6 Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?7 Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed. 8 Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.”Did you catch that? Jesus as our Passover Lamb gives us life marked by sincerity and truth. The firstborn of God died in our place and God has now passed over with His forgiveness transforming us to live a new life.
It is this beautiful act of Christ that has saved the world. At the end of the service, you are invited to come and participate in this new Passover, which we call the Lord’s Supper. Like in the days of Ezra, no matter your affiliation or background, you are welcome into the house of God today. If you believe in Jesus Christ as your Passover Lamb and your atoning sacrifice, then you can join us in this simple but profound meal. If you are not a believer, consider what God has done for you by giving you Jesus. And if you want transcendence, pursue truth, goodness and beauty and you will find it leads to Christ – our Lamb, Lord, Saviour and great King!
[1]Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Idiot
[2]Source: https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/people-cultures-in-the-bible/jesus-historical-jesus/was-jesus-last-supper-a-seder/and https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2017/march-web-only/jesus-didnt-eat-seder-meal.html. Accessed April 15, 2019.
[3]Source: Dennis Bratcher, “Introduction to a Christian Seder” http://www.crivoice.org/seder.html. Accessed April 14, 2019.d
REBUILD to Worship
Posted: February 10, 2019 Filed under: Atonement, Building, Jesus, Sacrifice, Sermons, The Lord's Supper, Worship Leave a commentThis sermon can be watched or listened to at www.templebaptistchurch.ca!
Why do you worship?You do know that it is impossible not to worship. Last Sunday night after the Super bowl, there was a show hosted by James Corden with celebrity and international judges entitled “The World’s Best.”[1] Did anybody watch it? I didn’t watch the show long because it was past my bedtime but I was amazed at the literal kick-off of the show. The Korean Flying Taekwondo group jumped and kicked through wood boards high up in the air. It was jaw dropping and when the group was finished their routine, all the judges and audience leapt to their feet in applause and praise. Unlike what happened at the Super bowl, where some praised and others pouted, everybody worshipped. You see, as human beings created in the image of God, we cannot help but worship. We were made to worship. Animals don’t worship, but we do. It is impossible for us not to worship. When we see something praise worthy or something that impresses us we clap, shout, and tell others about what we saw.
It is impossible not to worship. So this begs two questions: 1) Who are you worshipping? 2) Why are you worshipping? Today’s sermon focuses on why are you worshipping and this will help answer who you are worshipping. And all this is done in view of the Lord’s Supper. Often the Lord’s Supper is a reflective time, but today we want to make a rejoicing time. In other words, today is less contemplative and more celebrative. Why? Because we are to remember the Lord’s death until He comes and He is coming again! That is super exciting. It is super exciting if you know and believe in Jesus. Do you believe in Jesus and that He is coming again to earth?
Why are we celebrating the Lord’s Supper? It is the same reason why the returning Jewish exiles rejoiced in Ezra 3:8-11. The Lord had freed them and re-established their worship of God. I sometimes wonder whether we don’t rejoice enough because we are not freed enough. There are still too many things that we are attached to from our old life. The Jews were freed from Babylon after 70 years of exile and could go back home to worship God. I want you to be free from sin, from debt, from bondage to Satan. Jesus can do all this for you!
I am going to read Ezra 3:8-11 in a minute but I first want to give us the background. The Jews came back after the long and dangerous trip and the first thing they did after going back to their hometowns was re-establish worship in Jerusalem. We learned last week that they built an altar unto God at the site of the temple. Ezra 3:7 records, “They set an altar in its place, for fear was on them because of the peoples of the lands, and they offered burnt offerings on it to the Lord, burnt offerings morning and evening.” Maybe you have glossed over that verse or similar verses like this in the past, or maybe you are so familiar with your Bible that you are apathetic to animal sacrifice. I was until I went to India and saw Hindus sacrificing goats to appease their gods. When you see a small baby goat getting slaughtered it changes you. I have held goats in Israel and have seen them up close and personal in Africa. Lori and I really like goats. If we lived on a farm, we would have goats. So why sacrifice goats and sheep?
Permit me to be a little crass so I can confess my uncertainties. Here is a question I have wondered for sometime: Why does God love barbeque? I mean I love barbeque. The smell makes my mouth start to water. Often celebrations are coupled with barbequing meat such as having a barbeque on Canada Day or Memorial Day weekend. That makes sense to me, but what I hadn’t figured out until just recently is why does God seem to love barbeque? Why would He create these cute little animals and have them humanely slaughtered and burnt on an altar. In fact, the Bible calls such aromas as “pleasing aromas unto the Lord.” This is first mentioned in Genesis 8:21 when Noah first came off the ark and sacrificed animals on an altar to the Lord. This pleasing aroma to the Lord is repeatedly mentioned in Scripture in such places as Leviticus 1:9 and Numbers 18:17 to name just a couple.
So how did a group of returning Jewish exiles come to a place of rejoicing after an animal sacrifice? Were they in a demonic trance from the shedding of blood as I saw in India? No, Michael Morales explains animal sacrifice, “The rite of a burnt sacrifice not only transforms the animal into an aroma pleasing to God, but also by that transformation – causes it to ascend to his heavenly abode.Stated differently, the transformational burning was for the sake of transferring the animal, and the worship vicariously through it, from the ordinary earthly plane to the divinely heavenly realm, to the ownership of God.”[2]In other words, the animals burning created a sweet smell on earth that the priest and sometimes the sacrificer would eat, like at Passover but the aroma also rose to heaven. This meant it was a fellowship meal between God and His people, but it was so much more. By accepting this sacrifice of a perfect lamb, God was in a sense seating the one atoned for in heaven. This is how Ephesians 1:3 & 7 start to make sense, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places… in Him (Christ) we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace.” There are some who are appalled at animal sacrifice. There are still others who are appalled at substitutionary atonement and that Jesus would need to become the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world (John 1:29). However, as this video from the Bible Project shows, it is this sacrifice of Christ that does multiple things:1) Atones for our sins; 2) Seats us in heaven with Godin a relational and spiritual sense; and it 3) Gives us fellowship or Communion with God, which is why the Lord’s Supper is often called Communion. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_OlRWGLdnw)
Now that we have seen that video, the rejoicing after the sacrifice and building starts to make sense. Let’s read Ezra 3:8-11 and then respond with great singing and eating to the Lord. Read Ezra 3:8-11!
Here is the truth we find from this passage in a sentence: Sacrificing and building leads to worshipping God! Or to make it more personal: Sacrifice and build for God and it will shout His praises.The returning exiles took the time just long enough to rebuild their homes and take care of their families. But they didn’t wait too long before focusing on sacrificing to God as we learned last week. And in only the second year back from the exile, we read in Ezra 3:8-9 they began the work on the house of the Lord, “Now in the second year of their coming to the house of God at Jerusalem in the second month, Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel and Jeshua the son of Jozadak and the rest of their brothers the priests and the Levites, and all who came from the captivity to Jerusalem, began the work and appointed the Levites from twenty years and older to oversee the work of the house of the Lord. Then Jeshua with his sons and brothers stood united with Kadmiel and his sons, the sons of Judah and the sons of Henadad with their sons and brothers the Levites, to oversee the workmen in the temple of God.” We notice a number of lessons from these two verses: 1) Work began soon after arrival; 2) Everybody worked including the governmental and religious leaders; 3) Young people worked on God’s House and 4) This was a family project. The work began in only year two of the return. This included Zerubbabel, the governor as well as Jeshua, the high priests. In fact, notice the phrase “ALL who came from the captivity to Jerusalem.” No one was left behind and everybody had a job to do. Derek Kidner reflects, “There was enthusiasm, reflected in the ‘all’ who came forward for the work, but there was strict attention to standards, as is shown by the double mention of the oversight: first of work (v. 8), secondly of the workmen (v. 9).[4]These workmen began young and younger than what was expected. Everybody has a part to play, but they have to play their designated part.
Numbers 4:1-3 required that the minimum age for the Levites to work onthe Tent of Meeting was age 30, “The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron saying, ‘Take a census of the sons of Kohath from among the sons of Levi, by their clans and their fathers’ houses, from thirty years old up to fifty years old, all who can come on duty, to do the work in the tent of meeting.” Numbers 8:23-24 required the minimum age to work inthe Tent of Meeting was age 25, “And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, ‘This applies to the Levites: from twenty-five years old and upward they shall come to do duty in the service of the tent of meeting.” However, when you are short of Levites as we discovered in Ezra 2:40-42 where there were few Levites in comparison to the priests (Ezra 2:38-39), you lower the minimum age.
Let me apply these lessons to our situation at Temple. 1) If you are new to us, we want you to jump right in with service to the Lord.Sure, it takes awhile to get to know each other and we have a 6 month rule of regular attendance to work with our children as well as a key leadership position requires time-testedness, but the best thing you could do is start serving. Join today! Talk to one of our pastors! 2) We want everybody to serve who calls themselves followers of Christ. We need the skills of the Zerubbabels who have business and governmental experience and expertise and we need the skills of the Jeshuas who have religious experience and expertise. We want and need everybody to serve. 3) If you are young and have the character and competence to serve, we will platform you.This is why young children can become members at Temple. Sure, they might not become Elders at age 14, but they can serve. Did you know that we have teenagers joining Pastor Jason and George Kalil on our Benevolence Committee? Young people can do ministry that really matters here at Temple. 4) Serve together as a family!Parents, if you want your faith to be contagious, takes your kids wherever you go and serve. I take my kids on hospital visits. We have those in Frontline ministry who have their kids help them serve. We call them Jr. Frontliners! Those are the kids who are asking us pastors about getting baptized because they are serving with their parents. Are your kids engaged in ministry?
Look what happens in Ezra 3 when the people sacrificed and built – it spilled over into praise. And not just muted praise! Verse 10 declares, “Now when the builders had laid the foundation of the temple of the LORD, the priests stood in the their apparel with trumpets, and the Levites, the sons of Asaph, with cymbals, to praise the LORD according to the directions of King David of Israel.” Trumpets and cymbals make loud praises to the Lord. We are conscious not to blast you out of the Worship Centre or to damage your ears, but God wants loud worship. And yet notice, the worship was still orderly. They followed the directions of the sweet song leader of Israel, King David!
And then notice verse 11, “They sang, praising and giving thanks to the Lord, saying, ‘For He is good, for His lovingkindness is upon Israel forever.’ And all the people shouted with a great shout when they praised the LORD because the foundation of the house of the LORD was laid.” The loudest instrument the people used was their own voices. I love what Pastor Jason has said, “The best instrument is the human voice because it is the one that God directly created.” At Temple, we try to be Spirit and congregational led in our worship. We want you to drown out the instruments with your voices. We want you to silence Satan with your loud praises to God. And we want you to sings songs of praise and thanks. This verse teaches, “Two types of songs were sung, namely, songs of praise and thanksgiving songs.”[5] What are you praising God for? What are you thankful to God for? Shout it out!
So let’s go back to my original question: why do you worship? It isn’t just because of sacrificing and building. But because you have met not only the World’s Best but the Universe’s Best. You have witnessed God’s best – His Son Jesus Christ. And He is good! We praise the Lord because He is good! God is good, all the time! All the time, God is good! His lovingkindness endures forever. It is this lovingkindness, which is hesed or covenantal love. God has kept His covenant with us. And we see this most clearly in the sacrifice of Jesus and the new covenant He has established with us. Let’s rejoice and eat together with our great God and let’s build a house for us to worship God in greater ways!
[1]Source: https://www.cbs.com/shows/the-worlds-best/. Accessed February 7, 2019.
[2]L. Michael Morales, Who Shall Ascend the Mountain of the Lord? (Downer’s Grove: Inter-Varsity Press, 2015), 136.
[3]Source: https://thebibleproject.com/blog/animal-sacrifice-really/. Accessed February 7, 2019.
[4]Derek Kidner, Ezra & Nehemiah – An Introduction & Commentary – Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries(Downer’s Grove: Inter-Varsity Press, 1979), 47.
[5]F. Charles Fensham, The Books of Ezra and Nehemiah – NICOT(Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, 1982), 64.
Rebuild with Unity and Sacrifice
Posted: February 3, 2019 Filed under: Generosity, Sacrifice, Sermons, Unity, Worship Leave a commentThis sermon can be watched or listened to at www.templebaptistchurch.ca!
What would happen if we acted as one man?Have you ever been in an environment when there was great agreement on a common cause and a group was bonded in a short period of time? Maybe it was a sport team who came together to win a championship? Maybe it was work team or department within your company that completed a massive project? Maybe you were part of a squad of soldiers? Maybe it was a mission’s trip? Maybe it was a core team that planted a church? Maybe it is a couple or a family that has reconciled? Often the group comes together to face a common danger or enemy. There is actually a term for this! Anthropologist Victor Turner calls this phenomenon “communitas.”[1]It is a sense of community on steroids and often creates a greater bond than family, which is why those in the military or police or firefighters may have a greater sense of loyalty to their fraternity than their family. An example of communitas that Alan Hirsch describes is what happens in some tribal groups, “In some tribes younger boys are kept under the care of the women until initiation age – around thirteen. At the appropriate time the men sneak into the female compound of the village at night and ‘kidnap’ the lads. The boys are blindfolded, then roughed up, and herded out of the village and taken into the bush. They are then circumcised and left to fend for themselves in the wild African Bush for a period lasting up to six months. Once a month the elders of the tribe go to meet them to help debrief and mentor them. But on the whole they have to find both inner and outer resources to cope with the ordeal pretty much by themselves. This test involves intense feelings of social togetherness and belonging brought about by having to rely on each other in order to survive. If the boys emerge from these experiences, they are reintroduced into the tribe as men. They are thus accorded the full status of manhood – they are no longer considered boys.”[2]And they become men together forging the next generation of a band of brothers who will lead the tribe someday.
There was a group of Jews who experienced such communitas. They had been living in captivity in Babylon for nearly 70 years and were finally released by King Cyrus to go back to their homeland in Israel. They were the first to go back. They had a dangerous and significant task to do – rebuild the temple of God. And as my friend Mike Thiessen says, “The first one through the wall has bloody teeth.” This group was going headfirst. They were diving in and would have the scars to prove it. And they did it together. They were on a God-ordained adventure. “Most adventure stories involve a group of desparate people who have to work together to overcome a looming danger. Communitas features in just about every adventure movie from The Wizard of Ozto the Lord of the Rings.”[3]So let’s read about what happens next for the returning exiles and their God-ordained adventure in Ezra 3:1-7! Last week we learned that we need a sense of belonging, which will result in purity and generosity. The connector between Ezra 2 and 3 is that you first had to establish qualified leaders for communal and legitimate worship and this is why there was a listing of all the families. Now we see what those families did when they reached their destination in Ezra 3. Read Ezra 3:1-7!
Can you imagine if communitas happened at Temple? I actually think it has. We have enjoyed such precious unity here these past six years. We have witnessed God overcome the closure of our Academy we had for 35 years. We saw God’s protection and provision through a lawsuit. We have seen time and time again, the life of this church has been threatened but we have stuck together, especially in an ever-increasing hostile culture to the things of God. Many of our Elders and Deacons have been war-time leaders and have also learned to be peace-time leaders. God has given us a common mission. We have been humbled and know that we are on mission with Jesus to turn broken people into whole people who will multiply Christ-followers. We have experienced what Ezra 3 describes! Here is the truth of the passage: Pursue sacrifice and generosity continuously and you will maintain unity.At first I thought we should pursue unity, but I don’t think that is the Biblical teaching or reality. Unity is a result of sacrifice and generosity, not the cause of it. What would happen if we pursued unity is that we would trade for it uniformity. We would demand that everybody think and be the same. That is what happens in a cult. You see, “Uniformity is about being identical, having a sameness that defines and characterizes you and others … whereas unity is about made one as various parts are combined or ordered to promote a common identity.”[4]None of us are identical, but we have the same identity in Jesus Christdespite our backgrounds, ages, gender, culture and ethnicity. As authors Brad House and Gregg Allison remind us, “The church is summoned not to create but to maintain unity, which is itself a gift from the Holy Spirit through the bond of peace.”[5](Ephesians 4:1-4) Here at Temple we are pursuing Jesus first and then joining Him on His mission!This unites us!
This pursuit was actually the same mission for the returning exiles. They came back to build the Temple of Jerusalem that would re-establish their worship of God and community with each other. It resulted in unity. Let’s unpack each of these pursuits of sacrifice, longevity and generosity throughout this passage. We will establish unity first. Unity is very clear from the beginning of the passage. Look at verse 1, “Now when the seventh month came, the sons of Israel were in the cities, the people gathered together as one manto Jerusalem.”The people settled in the towns first. It was most likely they went back to what was left of their hometowns after the Babylonians had destroyed them. However, verse 1 shows that they didn’t just have the attitude of a settler and stay in their cities. They didn’t just want to be hometown heroes, but worship restorers. The returning exiles had been united by their journey, their jubilance and their Jehovah! The journey was difficult, the task was jubilant and their worship was for Jehovah. It was a difficult journey as it was 900 miles or over 1400 kilometres through the desert. It was a jubilant task because they were the first to return to the Promised Land. And it was worship because it was aimed at only Jehovah God. That seems like a formula that creates communitas – A jubilant journey with Jehovah Jesus. It is a formula that results in unity.
What would happen if we gathered together as one man? What if instead of complaining about how difficult and long the journey was, there was an eager expectation to return to God’s promises. Let’s go back in history. Contrast the first time the children of Israel went to the Promised Land. They were in captivity in Egypt and God miraculously rescued them from the hand of Pharaoh. They even crossed the Red Sea on dry land. And yet the children of Israel did what many children do on a journey. They complained and asked, “Are we there yet?” “When are we going to eat and drink?” “Can’t we go back to home?” Yet, you find none of these statements from the returning exiles despite the fact that their journey from Babylon was 2 ½ times longer. It was only 600 kilometres from Egypt to Israel whereas it was nearly 1500 kilometres from Babylon to Israel. It would appear that the children of Israel had matured during the 70 years of exile, which is a good lesson for us. When you lose all of the physical blessings of God and see what life is like for people without God, your love for God can be purified.Even your priorities are purified. The returning Jewish exiles were purified and were locked down on God’s promise of returning to the land of Israel. They were focused. They made no time for complaining because there was work to be done. And even when the Jews got there, they did not try to live a life of comfort, at least not at first, but made it a priority to build an altar to God. Later on, as we studied in Haggai, the people lost sight of their original priorities and began to care about their own houses before God’s house. You can see this on the chart from Dr. Paul Benware, my Old Testament Professor at Moody Bible Institute (see chart).[6]There was a work stoppage later on but they originally had a worship-first mentality.
This worship-first mentality led to joyful work and lazer-like worship of Jehovah God. Their continuous sacrifice and generosity led to unity. Let’s talk further about the sacrifice. Look at verse 2, “Then Jeshua the son of Jozadak and his brothers the priests, and Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel and his brothers arose and built the altar of the God of Israel to offer burnt offerings on it, as it is written in the law of Moses, the man of God.” No wonder why the people were joyful and jubilant. For 70 years, they did not have atonement for their sins. There were no lambs sacrificed and Jesus hadn’t come yet to make permanent atonement for their sins. So when they came back, they were ready to sacrifice. But not just sacrifice – obediently sacrifice. The key phrase that emphasizes their obedience is, “as it is written in the law of Moses.” They went back to the beginning. That is always a good place when you return to God and His promises. I shared this with the Staff a few weeks ago about something God taught me from Revelation 2:5where Jesus speaks to the church at Ephesus. Jesus says, “Remember therefore from where you have fallen: repent, and do the works you did at first.”Repentance always requires returning to obeying God’s Word! I will say that again for you to write down and more importantly get into your heart, Repentance always requires returning to obeying God’s Word. So the returning Jews were sacrificing again, but they now understood to obey was better than sacrifice and what’s even better was obediently sacrificing! So what command do you obey and what work did you do at first that you need to return to?God, through the Holy Spirit, will help you obey and do that initial work!
This is not to say that obedient sacrifice does not mean that it will be easy or without fear. In fact, the returning Jews’ fears caused them to obey God rather than man, but they still feared people. Look at verse 3, “So they set up the altar on its foundation, for they were terrified because of the peoples of the lands; and they offered burnt offerings on it to the Lord, burnt offerings morning and evening.” Rather than run away from worship, the returning Jews ran to worship God. They drove a stake in the ground of enemy worship. It makes me think of the voodoo drums I heard one particular Friday morning at 3 am in Benin. Lori and Luke slept through it. I was awake as were some of the other team members. It was a scary sound, but we just prayed it down.
Interestingly, the phrase “peoples of the land” is possibly a term that refers to what we better know as the “Samaritans.”[7] It is this backdrop that actually helps us understand Jesus’ interaction with the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4:20-21. After Jesus offered her living water and confronted her about her immorality, the woman tries to redirect the conversation to being about worship location. She suddenly becomes a theologian and says, “’Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.’ You see the Jews considered the Samaritans half-breeds because they inter-married with the surrounding nations when the rest of the Jews were taken off to Babylon. There was much fear and avoidance of each other over the issues of sex and worship. But listen to how Jesus replies to her in John 4:21, 23, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father…worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship Him.”
God is still looking for such worshippers. In fact, God seeks 24/7 worshippers! This is what I meant when I said, “Pursue sacrifice and generosity continuouslyand you will have unity.” Notice in verses 4-5 how worship was not only obedient but continual, “They celebrated the Feast of Booths, as it is written, and offered the fixed number of burnt offerings daily, according to the ordinance, as each day required; and afterward there was a continual burnt offering, also for the new moons and for all the fixed festivals of the Lord that were consecrated and from everyone who offered a freewill offering to the Lord.” By reinstating the Feast of Booths (Deuteronomy 16:13-17), which was a time to recall the desert wanderings and how God miraculously led His people through the desert when they lived in tents, they were obediently worshipping God. But notice these returning Jews were not holiday worshippers coming only for the festivals. They were continual. Their sacrifice produced worship longevity. May our sacrifice and generosity call the “Sunday-only Christians” to a constant state of worship of our Creator and Lord.
But it wasn’t just continuous sacrifice that resulted in unity, but also generosity. The last phrase in verse 5 records, “from everyone who offered a freewill offering.” Their worship and giving was voluntary. No one gave out of duty or obligation but out of gratitude. They had been freed. God had set them free so they freely gave. May that be true here.
And look at the result. Verses 6-7 declare, “From the first day of the seventh month they began to offer burnt offerings to the Lord, but the foundation of the temple of the Lord had not been laid. Then they gave money to the masons and carpenters, and food, drink and oil to the Sidonians and to the Tyrians, to bring cedar wood from Lebanon to the sea at Joppa, according to the permission they had from Cyrus king of Persia.” Notice that the returning exiles’ sacrifice and generosity resulted in unity as well as witness. The surrounding nations would hear and actually participate in the reconstruction of the Temple. God had redeemed His name. The nations must have thought God was powerless if He would let His Temple be destroyed and His people carried off to Babylon, but God actually used the surrounding nations to rebuild His Temple. A Temple that Jesus said was built to be a place of prayer for the nations! (Mark 11:17)
My friends, sometimes God judges His people on earth. Churches decline! Christians are oppressed and imprisoned. All seems lost. However, it isn’t! God loves to revitalize. He loves turn-around projects that bring glory to His name. He does it when His people sacrifice and are generous, not just with their money and possessions, but with their attitudes. They put others first and forgive when sinned against. God loves us such turn-around projects.
Did you realize that we are a turn-around project?We were sinners and God used His Son to turn us around and bring us back from the exile of sin to be restored to unity with God and His people. And this unity has caused us to obediently sacrifice, worship with longevity and generously witness to the nations God has brought to our nation. May we have such communitas with God! May we have such unity with our great Saviour Jesus Christ and His Church! As the Apostle Paul declared in 2 Corinthians 7:3, “I do not say this to condemn you, for I said before that you are in our hearts, to die together and to live together.”
So what are you going to sacrifice for God? Who are you going to be generous to? This is Superbowl weekend and last night the NFL gave out their awards including their top award. The top award is not the MVP but the Walter Payton award given to the player who displays excellence on and off the field with giving back to the community. This year’s winner was Chris Long, the son of NFL great Howie Long. Chris gave his whole salary this past year to help children learn how to read. He is also involved in drilling wells in Tanzania and his foundation has drilled 55 wells so far. He takes his fellow players to climb Mount Kilimanjaro and see the water projects. He is trying to create his words “Warriors of Philanthropy.” But he also understands something crucial. When he got his award last night, he said, “I’m here because of the grace of God.”[8] Chris Long is a born again Christian. His sacrifice and generosity come from the ultimate captain of his team in life Jesus Christ. Chris may be able to sacrifice and give more than we can, but how can we sacrifice and be generous to spread the love of Christ for this hurting world.
[1]Victor Turner, The Ritual Process (Cornell: Cornell University Press, 1969).
[2]Alan Hirsch, The Forgotten Ways (Grand Rapids: Brazo Press, 2006), 220-221.
[4]Brad House and Gregg Allison, Multichurch (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2017), 103-104.
[6]Paul Benware, Survey of the Old Testament (Chicago: Moody Press, 1993), 129.
[7]F. Charles Fensham, The Books of Ezra and Nehemiah – NICOT(Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, 1982), 63.
[8]Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHEvGJrHrEQ. Accessed February 3, 2019.
Commissional 