|
|
 Postings on this page include April 2007 sermons. Scroll down to view sermons in this series, week by week. If you wish to view or print individual sermons, click Archives to make your selection. This page was last updated 4/29/2007. Week of: April 1, 2007 Easter musical - No Sermon However, here are the answers to your homework! Old Testament only. Miriam (Exodus15:20) Deborah (Judges 4:4-5) Huldah (2 Kings 22:14) Isaiah's wife (sorry we don't know her name) (Isaiah 8:3) And then last and least Noadiah, a false prophetess if she counts. (Nehemiah 6:14)
Week of: April 8, 2007
Series: The Bible and Prophecy ~ Continued from March 25
Title: Part 2 - Things Have Changed Scripture: John 12:32; Isaiah 53:12; Zecheriah 12:10; Psalms 22:7-8;17,18; Psalms 22:1; Psalms 16:10; Psalms 49:15; John 11:25,26; 1 Corinthians 15:17-19; 1 Corinthians 15:21; 2 Corinthians 5:13-21 How about emailing me, and letting me know you are getting this off the web before our service?
One good thing about being a student of history is to realize just how much has changed and how much of human life has remained the same. There are things that will pretty much remain the same down through the eons, like people are still hating and killing one another. The only thing that has changed about that is they are killing each other more creatively and more efficiently than before. But the good news is that there is also more goodness in the world as well. I think that goodness and evil in the world are increasing, growing in strength, heading toward many head-on clashes, until one day there will be a knock-down-drag-out battle in which evil will be completely destroyed . In a general sense, that is what Biblical prophecy wants to teach us. Now, whether that will be a literal blood and guts battle or a spiritual battle of cosmic proportions, I don't know. I tend to believe that the truly decisive battles in history are and will continue to be spiritual battles.
If you will remember, Jesus, as He was arrested, told Peter when Peter drew his sword and cut off the temple guard's ear that “those who live by the sword will die by the sword.” Meaning that physical violence and hatred are never-ending processes in which everyone loses. So I believe that the greatest battles in history will be won and lost in the spiritual realm.
For example, the first spiritual battle was between Eve and the Serpent, as she took the forbidden fruit and tempted Adam to eat it. The big dummy (Adam) took the forbidden fruit, without so much as a question why, and ate from it just because his wife gave it to him. If Eve was dumb then Adam was dumber, and sin came into our world. To some that would be spiritual battle that was lost.
Now, the Old Testament is just full of literal and spiritual battles that were won and lost in which God used to further His kingdom. The battle between Pharaoh and God in which the children of Israel where forced to be set free is another example. The children of Israel coming home from seventy years of captivity in Babylon would be another.
There are no doubt others, but the greatest of battles, spiritual or otherwise, has to be what we come today to remember. Many people don't realize the importance of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. They don't realize that the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ was not an accident. Jesus himself spoke of his death, when he said: “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself.” (John 12:32). Old Testament scriptures speak of the Messiah as being, “…poured out Himself to death, and was numbered with the transgressors; yet He Himself bore the sin of many, and interceded for the transgressors” (Isaiah 53:12). Zechariah 12:10 speaks of his hands, feet, and side being pierced. Psalms 22:7, 8 said the He would be mocked and sneered at. Psalms 22: 17, 18 prophesied of the soldiers gambling for His clothing. Psalms 22:1 speaks of Him being forsaken by God for us. And Psalm 16:10; Psalms 49:15 foreshadowed His resurrection.
Many people don't realize that the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is the hope of our death and resurrection. Again Jesus Himself said, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me shall live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11:25,26) The question still echoes down through the years to us as disciples : Do we believe this? Paul says we must: “And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile (or useless); you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep (who have died) in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.” (1 Corinthians 15:17-19)
There are religious and non-religious people alike that are very skeptical about a literal and bodily resurrection of Christ. The non-religious people just say that it is a hoax—a hoax that was pre-fabricated by the early church. But to put an end to such a hoax all that was needed was to produce the body of Jesus. And even if the authorities didn't have the body of Jesus, how could nearly five hundred of Jesus’ followers claim to have seen the risen Christ? Listen, when Jesus was crucified on the cross, everyone thought that the life and ministry of Jesus Christ was over. They believed that their hope, the words of wisdom that Jesus spoke, His miracles, His promises of salvation were all gone with Him being nailed to that cross . But what lit a fire under the discouraged group of believers who had put their trust in Him was the resurrection. Look what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:1, “Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel…, which you received and on which you have taken your stand.” This gospel, which he defines as the belief that “Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep.” These post-resurrection appearances brought the church to life and changed everything.
A lot of things like war, hatred, greed, violence has remained the same, but Easter is the reminder that all of these things have radically changed. Things have changed because of what happened at the cross and resurrection. Everything has changed because now we have the hope of a resurrection of life. I don't know what form or likeness we will be like in heaven. All I know is that it is nothing like this world nor like death…it is a wonderful and glorious resurrection that will get us there. And like Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:21, “For since death came through a man, (called Adam), the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man (Jesus Christ). For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.” What this world takes away, Christ gives life to, and that is our source of hope.
It also changes our world view or our point of view of everything that we do. In fact, such was the change of Paul’s point of view that folks in Corinth accused Paul of being crazy or out of his mind. (When was the last time someone called you crazy for you religious beliefs? Where you insulted? Upset or embarrassed? Well, assuming you’re not just plain going crazy, it could be a compliment! Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 5:13, “If we are out of our mind, it is for the sake of God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you.” For (what we do and say) Christ's love compels us, (wouldn't it be wonderful that some day you and I would be so Christ like, compelled by Christ's love that folks would think we were crazy.), because we are convinced that one died for all, therefore all died. And He died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves (if that is not a change of one's point of view I don't know what is one), but for Him who died for them and was raised for them. So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. (Wouldn't it be nice not to see people from a worldly point of view? What does that mean to you?)…therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!
The resurrection has brought a new beginning to our lives. It is trying to bring a new beginning to this world. The only problem is that the evil and the sin in this world, doesn't die easily. It fights, fights, and fights even though it knows that it has lost the war, it hopes to win one more battle. It is not going to surrender even though it knows all is lost. It is lost because of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ which by the grace of God will change everything.
Week of: April 15, 2007
Series: The Bible and Prophecy Title: Part 3 ~The Character of God Scripture: Hosea 11 The true character of God has always been discussed and debated. What is God like? Is He angry, God as some would suggest, or is He a loving sugar daddy, a cosmic pushover as others would lead us to believe? What is God really like? I truly believe that each person must ultimately discover that for themselves, but the Bible, the prophets, and of course Jesus Christ can lead the way in our understanding of God.
First off, you are doomed to failure if you think that you can figure God out. Sure, the Bible gives us much guidance into the mind, heart, and character of God, but it doesn’t say that we can fully grasp God. A lady by the name of Madeline L’Engle says that “some professional religion-mongers [want] to make God possible, to make [God] comprehensible to the naked intellect, domesticate [God]so that [God is] easy to believe in (L’Engle, Glimpses of Grace). She goes on to say: “Every century the Church makes a fresh attempt to make Christianity acceptable. But an acceptable Christianity is not Christian; a comprehensible God is no more than an idol.” Well, does this mean that we give up trying to understand God; that we give up trying to explain God to people we know and love? Does it mean we quit trying to education our children and grandchildren about what God is like? Obviously, no, but most of us, if not all of us, have to try to understand what cannot be fully understand. We just need to approach God and our understanding God with a lot of humility. If I lived a thousand lifetimes devoting myself to studying God, I could not figure out the divine nature of God. Therefore I must approach Him and His understanding in humility and a cloud of mystery.
With that said, let us look at what the Bible and the prophets say about God. The prophets give us an awesome picture of the holiness of God. The clearest picture of what it means for a human being to stand in front of the holy God is Isaiah 6. (Read scripture please) God is so different, so fearsome and wild, so completely foreign to us that there is a part of us that doesn’t feel comfortable being in the presence of God. In fact, in this unfiltered exposure to God, Moses and the prophets were sure that not one could not live.
Another view of God that the prophets present to us is that of a jealous God. As someone once said “the prophet provides an antidote to the view of God as sideline or hobby,” as a god that we can go with today and turn our back on tomorrow, or as someone that we two-time or triple-time for someone else. They say God is jealous. Jealousy is a bad word or a bad emotion in our culture; however did you ever stop to understand that in some instances jealousy might be warranted. Certainly someone that is jealous of you when you’ve done nothing to make them jealous is a sickness. But what about the person that is jealous about someone when there is a just cause? When a spouse is being unfaithful? See, according to the prophets, God knows when there is just cause for jealousy and is only jealous when we are striving to put other things before Him. Hosea 2: 19-20 reads “I will betroth you in righteousness and justice, in love and compassion. I will betroth you in faithfulness …” In having this kind of relationship, God asks us to be faithful to Him. He knows beyond a shadow of doubt if we stray from that.
The next characteristic that the prophets portray of God is even more disturbing to us. When bad things happen to us, we want to know ‘what have I done that God is mad at me?’ God’s holiness and wrath is not only a problem that we have, but others as well. A second century heretic by the name of Marcion was so troubled by a wrathful Old Testament that he distained the God of the Old Testament. He thought that the God of the Old Testament was bloodthirsty, cruel, capricious and juvenile. So much so he believed and taught that there are two gods. One was the evil creator god of the Old Testament and the other was the loving, caring, spiritual God of the New Testament, Jesus Christ, who came to save us from the evil creator god. To deal with the problem of God’s wrath, he simply made a good god and a bad god out of them.
We, however, realize that there can be two sides to the same God, just like there can be two sides to a good person. Jesus himself was angry and drove out the money changers in the temple. Even the most mature and loving person can and should get angry. There are things that happen in our world that should make us angry. As Paul says “be ye angry, but sin not.” It is possible to get angry at injustice and sin, but at the same time, not to become excessive, obsessive, and violent.
The prophets never said that God’s anger was quick, nor obsessive. Instead, He was “slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness” (Exodus 34:6). God’s anger is slow in coming, and always tempered by His loving and faithful nature. And I am so thankful for that. In fact, I would be terrified if I thought for a minute that God was angry at me. I have never seen a real-life instance of God being angry at anyone that I’ve known. To actually experience the anger of the living God would be a horrible, horrible thing.
There are other characteristics of God which the prophets tell us. Isaiah 54:8, “In a surge of anger I had my face from you for a moment, but with everlasting kindness I will have compassion on you.”
· Love- Jeremiah 31:3 “The Lord appeared to us in the past, saying: ‘I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving kindness.”
· Faithful- Zechariah 8:8 “I will bring them back to live in Jerusalem; they will be my people, and I will be faithful and righteous to them as their God.”
· Forgiving- Jeremiah 33:8 “I will cleanse them from all the sin they have committed against me and will forgive all their sins of rebellion against me.”
· Long-suffering Isaiah 48:9 “For my own name’s sake I delay my wrath; for the sake of my praise I hold it back from you, so as not to cut you off.”
(Homework: Look in the Old Testament and find as many different characteristics of God that you can find with a least one scripture to support it.)
Well, how do you reconcile the way in which God is portrayed in the Old Testament and then in the New Testament? First off, I am not sure that they are that different. For example, there are wrathful deeds in the New Testament as well as the Old Testament, only less. There is also more talk of God’s love in the New Testament than the Old Testament, but still there are many references to the loving kindness of God in the Old Testament.
In my mind, I reconcile it like this: suppose you are in room in a house without an open door or any windows. There is no source of light in the room except a night light on the ceiling. With the aid of the night light you could see somewhat in the room, but many things would be left in the dark and there would be virtually no details or colors to be recognized. However, if you put a spot light bulb in the same outlet and turn the switch on, the things you would see would be much clearer and greater. Compared to the night light the detail, color, composition of the room would be the difference between night and day.
Many things in the New Testament still remain a mystery and they will be a mystery until we get to heaven, but some things, because of the light of Jesus Christ, have become so much clearer. Jesus is by far the best possible light that we have in understanding the character of God. If I want to know what God is like a must take Jesus very seriously. He is the light of the world but also the light into the heart and mind of God.
April 15 homework answers will be posted after April 29 service :)
Special Service April 22: Virginia Tech Remembrance to worship our Savior and remember those who have suffered because of the terrible tragedy of April 16, 2007. Week of: April 22, 2007
Title: How Could Something Like This Happen? Virginia Tech Killings
Scripture: Galatians 6:2
Last Monday, on April 16, there occurred something that we don’t understand and may never fully understand, because a young shooter-killer took 33 lives, wounding 29 others, on Virginia Tech’s campus in two separate shootings. In doing so, the pain and human suffering that was and is still being inflected on countless people is incalculable. It seems too often we are shaking our heads and saying: How could something like this happen? How could anyone systematically and cold-blooded kill and hurt so many innocent and defenseless young people? No one knows and I certainly don’t know but I would like to suggest some things that might make it easier to understand the horrible deeds that the shooter did.
First off, the mental health of people in the United States and in our world seems to be getting worse. For all the things that we’ve got going for us, people don’t seem to be happy. I heard someone say few years ago that you don’t seem to see as many people smiling, and hear as many people whistling as you used to do. We have more things, and are doing more things, and don’t seem to be the better for it. Our time is filled, our lives are active, and yet people seem to be less satisfied. The shooter at Virginia Tech lived in the most prosperous country on the face of the earth, during the most prosperous time on the earth, attended one of the best schools in the eastern United States, and yet was sure that he was being mistreated and was sure he was underprivileged. All this goes to say is that prosperity, opportunity, and activities don’t make people healthy-minded and happy.
Another thing that it doesn’t take a genius to notice is that a lot of the shooters are very lonely people who feel alienated by family and friends. The shooters in the Columbine massacre felt like they were all alone, that no one really understood them, appreciated them, cared for them, and even liked them. The shooter at Virginia Tech would not even talk to his roommates and spent his time, evidently, in a make-believe world stalking co-eds and fantasizing about murdering innocent people.
I was reading an article the other day that said America’s social capital was in decline. “Social capital” means the opportunity for people to socialize with one another, to talk with one another, to visit and have positive interaction with each other. Social capital says that people need opportunities to be with one another to develop trust and healthy relationships. For years many people have believed, and continue to practice, the adage that “tall fences make good relationships and healthy relationships with our neighbors.” This simply is not true; tall fences and no friends simply make lonely isolated people, who soon begin to live in their own little isolated world.
Our scripture today says “bear one another’s burdens.” We cannot bear the burdens of life that folks have if people don’t come together. The early church had “fellowship” and without fellowship they could not and would not have survived. Yes, we are supposed to cast our burdens and fears on the Lord, as 1 Peter suggests that we do, but we are also supposed to share our fears and burdens with each other. We all would be surprised to know just how lonely people feel in the world we live in. There are people out there, and maybe even in here, that are desperate to know that someone cares about them. I’ll never forget an interview I heard years ago on the Phil Donahue program. It was an interview between Donahue and the Bishop of the church of Satan on the West Coast. Donahue asked him how he managed to recruit so many people under his influence. He said it was easy; he just looked for the lonely people, the people that Christians never wanted.
But lonely people don’t always do what these shooters do to other people. They don’t always kill innocent people. To do so, they need to be really angry. Have you ever felt like you were so mistreated that you got angrier and angrier until you hated someone. I hope not, but I would imagine at one time or the other you’ve known what it is to be mad, and what it was like to get mad and madder until you felt like you were going to explode. People like the shooter are walking time-bombs that have obsessed, obsessed, and obsessed about what they are going to do until finally they work up the courage or the stupidity to do the horrible things that they do. Pent up anger and hatred are of the most destructive forces on the face of the earth. It is no wonder that the Apostle Paul writes the folks at Ephesus and tells them: “In your anger do not sin: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry.” You’re going to be angry from time to time… that is just human nature, but don’t stay angry for very long. Because it will grip you, and grip you until it destroys you and others around you.
But then to do the horrible things that these shooters do, Satan has to have control over them. In that same verse that Paul tells us “not to let the sun go down while you are still angry” he also says, “and do not give the devil a foothold.” At one point and time, shooter’s and killer’s behaviors, thoughts, and feelings might well have been a sickness, as some would suggest, but once Satan gets a foothold or a toehold on these feelings and thoughts, they can quickly become evil deeds and behaviors. Satan does so, not by some Hollywood version of demonic or Satanic possession, but just plain old lies. Do you remember what Jesus called Satan? The “father of all lies.” The power of Satan is his ability to influence people by lies.
NBC and the news media made a big mistake by broadcasting the lies that the shooter believed. For other tortured minds, like that of the shooter, are eager to absorb and soak up any and all the lies that can be found, and Satan will convince others like them that craziness and insanity are where the truth is found.
But no matter what the shooters believe, say, or do, they will not have the last word. Their terrible and horrible Satanic deeds will not be the last word on things. Because God is greater and more glorious than all the evil imaginable and God will eventually win out. The greater good will be victorious. As Paul says in Romans 8: 28 “We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him…” I know sometimes this verse becomes a cliché on our lips when things go wrong, but I truly believe that many of the 25,000 + gifted young men and women on the Virginia Tech campus who have been traumatized by this horrible deed will someday rise above their pain and by the grace of God do good and wonderful things. I believe that by the blood of those who have been slain there will raise a greater good and greater consciousness that will help change the way we look at our nation. Not because of us, but despite us, something of a greater good that God will bring out from the blood of these young people who have died.
Main article: List of victims of the Virginia Tech massacre (Wikipedia.org)
Excluding the deceased gunman, there were 61 people shot: 32 people were killed, and 29 were injured.
West Ambler Johnston Hall Dormitory (first shooting)
Emily J. Hilcher
Ryan Christopher Clark
Norris Hall Engineering Building (second shooting) Students
Ross Abdallah Alameddine Brian Bluhm Austin Cloyd Matthew Gwaltney Caitlin Hammaren Jeremy Herbstritt Rachael Elizabeth Hill Matthew La Porte Jarrett Lane Henry Lee Partahi Lumbantoruan Lauren Ashley McCain Minal Panchal Daniel Patrick O'Neil Juan Ramón Ortiz Daniel Pérez Cueva Erin Peterson Michael Steven Pohle, Jr. Julia Pryde Mary Karen Read Reema Joseph Samaha Waleed Mohamed Shaalan Leslie Sherman Maxine Turner Nicole White
Faculty
Christopher James Bishop Jocelyne Couture-Nowak Kevin Granata Liviu Librescu G. V. Loganathan
May they rest in peace.
Week of: April 29, 2007
Guest Speaker ~ Rev. Chris Campbell of Nash's Chapel Baptist Church
Scripture: Romans 9:1-5 No notes this week.
|
|