Top 4 Reasons to be in Church… Reason # 4

An Attitude of Gratitude—Heb. 13:11-15

             When we are a third party looking on, I don't think we ever appreciate ingratitude. I have an acquaintance who was working at a camp one time, and he saw a situation that was really ugly—a fellow counselor whose son was attending the camp was having trouble with him.

            He was acting spoiled—like a basic ingrate. He was smarting off and sassing her. He was refusing to show her respect.

            My acquaintance had had enough, so he walked over to the kid. He told the boy to hold up his shirt. The boy obeyed. He pointed to the boy’s belly button. He told the boy, “Tell me what that is.”

            The boy was stunned. He finally mumbled out the answer, “A belly button.”

            My acquaintance said, “I want you to know that for nine months you were connected to that woman.” He pointed to the boy's mother. “And fluid flowed out of her body into yours, and she kept you warm, and she kept you safe, and she kept you alive, and she went through a great deal of pain to bring you into this world, and she went through all of that to give you a beginning here. Now you treat her with respect. You treat her with gratitude.”

            By the time he finished, that boy felt pretty bad. He should have; hopefully he changed his behavior.

            It is not nice to see someone who has been the recipient of much blessing, treat the source of great blessing with ingratitude. It is especially not nice for God when God is the source of that blessing.

            Ungratefulness is the source of all vice. When a person does not have the recognition of a higher source, he takes everything for granted and recognizes no authority, and his actions are not accountable.

            Back in the 1980s, a top defense lawyer in the Northeast, was very successful taking the cases of death row criminals and getting them off. By the mid 80s he had gotten off 78 convicted first-degree murderers.

            He made this statement, “Though I am committed to these men, I do not admire them. Of the 78 men that I have freed from the electric chair, I have not received so much as a thank you card. The common factor to these murderers is they are all natural ingrates.”

            Three decades ago, Tommy Nelson spoke about how Israel was to be an appreciative nation. They were a highly accountable nation.

            God consistently reminded every Israelite—every day, every week, every month, every season, every year, every seven years, every 50 years—he pounded into the nation the essential truth that the nation of Israel created and owned nothing, but were responsible for everything.

            Do you know how the day started in Jerusalem? With a sacrifice when the sun came up, and it ended with a sacrifice at twilight. It showed that God gave them that day. They thanked God that the sun came up.

            Every week Israel observed the Sabbath. They rested in recognition that the plants, the animals, the sun, the moon, the stars, the basic creation, the heavens, the earth, their families, and they themselves all came from God. God made it all; therefore, they rested on the seventh day.

            Six times in the Israelite year, they had a feast. For example: you celebrated the new year, you celebrated the independence of the Jew–the Passover, you celebrated the first fruits of the harvest, you celebrated the end of the harvest–Pentecost.

            You had six offerings. They included the grain offering to celebrate the harvest, when God blessed you with financial provisions. You made a burnt offering whenever your child was born, which meant you offered an offering to God to thank him for this child and to tell him it was God’s child. You had a thank offering when something good happened to you. You had offerings when your heart felt full of praise.

            Every seven years you had a sabbatical year. Anybody who owed you money was forgiven that debt, and it was in recognition that all money and all prosperity was from God.

            Every 7x7 years, every 50 years, you had a year of Jubilee. And all land that you had received would go back to its original owner, because God would not let anyone in Israel have a monopoly on the prosperity, and in recognition of the fact that the land was not yours, it was God’s.  

            Do you see what I mean? Every day, every week, every month, every season, every year, every seven years, or every 50 years, God pounded and pounded and pounded into Israel’s brain with tithes and offerings, that “your grain, your animals, the sun, moon, stars, your independence, your salvation, the kid from your womb” is God’s.

            The word thankfulness is used 166 times in the Bible. There's one guy in the Bible who every time he eats a meal, he prays. He prays eight times in Scripture for food. You know who it is? Jesus. Eight of Jesus prayers are over a meal.

            And so this preacher is finishing up this letter to the Christians of Hebrews, and he is trying to give these people a good motivation, a mature motivation, for following God. He is trying to give them an attitude of gratitude for following Jesus. He's trying to help them appreciate the grace of God. He’s telling them, after the cross, it should be as if our gratitude is on steroids:

            11 After the high priest offers the blood of animals as a sin offering, the bodies of those animals are burned outside the camp. 12 Jesus himself suffered outside the city gate, so that his blood would make people holy. 13 That’s why we should go outside the camp to Jesus and share in his disgrace.

            Now, here is the gist of his encouragement. Verses 11-12 reference the sacrifices of the Old Testament. When you were offered an animal sacrifice in the Old Testament, your priest took the remains of the animal and took them outside the camp and burned them.

          The skin and flesh of the bull, together with its legs, insides, and the food still in its stomach, are to be taken outside the camp and burned on a wood fire near the ash heap (Lev. 4:11-12.) CEV

            The remains of the bull and the goat whose blood was taken into the most holy place must be taken outside the camp and burned (Lev. 16:27.) CEV

            To a people about to quit, the Preacher attempts to resurrect an attitude of gratitude. He points them back to the cross. He takes them to the Old Testament teachings, upon which the cross was based.

            In Jerusalem you would take the remains of the animal and take them out to the ash heap, the city dump-outside the city-to a placed called Gehenna. The burning was ongoing. Sometimes that word in the New Testament is used, and we translate it in a different way—“hell.”

            The Preacher of Hebrews wants you to see this image of Gehenna—where the Romans would crucify the criminals. There would be skulls and bones everywhere. It was a place like this where the Lord was crucified.

            Question: how should you treat the Creator of the World? If the Creator of the World must die, how should he die?

            They crucified your Lord and mine in a place that was at the crossroads where people would come by from all directions, and they stripped him naked.            They would have taken his body and thrown it onto the trash heap to burn it: were it not for two men with power, influence, and money, Joseph of Arimethea and Nicodemus. They took that body, wrapped in a shroud, and placed it hurriedly in Joseph’s tomb.

            I like what one writer said about all of this,

            “I am recovering the claim that Jesus was not crucified in a cathedral between two candles, but on a cross between two thieves, on the town garbage heap… at the kind of place where cynics talk smut, and thieves curse, and soldiers gamble. Because that is where he died and that is what he died about. And that is where churchmen should be and what churchmanship is about.”

            --George McDonald

            McDonald is talking about the place where Jesus was crucified. Jesus never won “man of the year” from the Jerusalem Chamber of Commerce. He never won any commendations from the Jerusalem City Council. Jesus did not die in a cathedral. He died on a trash heap, next to a marketplace. He died stripped naked, in shame, those were the circumstances surrounding his death.

            The writer of Hebrews wants you to see all of the foul and decay this fallen creation has to offer surrounding Jesus. He wants you to see the flies on the degraded bodies. He wants you to smell the foul odors of decaying flesh.

            Isn’t it interesting that the most sacred place on this planet… was at the city dump?

            We have become so accustomed to seeing pictures of Jesus on the cross. They seem detached from us; removed from our experiences. They are safe and distant.

            I knew a guy who went to the house of a fellow, and there was this huge painting of Jesus on the cross. It was very vivid. It was well done; the fellow said it was probably the best one he had ever seen. As a Christian, his the first thought was “Praise God. That should have been me.”

            Later, he began to think himself, what if a secularist came into that guy’s house? What would he have done when he saw that painting? Agnostic people are so far removed from a biblical understanding, they have no appreciation of what the Bible teaches about the cross; so what would he think?            

            What if we visited the house of a Buddhist who had a giant painting of a monk burning himself alive?

            What if we visited the house of a fundamentalist Muslim, and we saw the picture of a Muslim man being killed by mob violence by “Christians” during the crusade? And it was in vivid color? And all of the gruesome details were included?

            How are you going to react to that? What if the owner of the house says, “Want to stay the night? Igor, prepare a room for our guest.” Make you feel a bit creepy, would it not?

            Our lovely truck broke down the other day, and I was with two of my girls; we walked about a mile back to our house. Various people offered help. It was very nice of them. It was morning; the sun was up; it was a beautiful day.

            What if it had been at night? What if it had been pouring down rain? What if we had experienced thunder and lightning? What if a man stopped, rolled down his window, and had hanging on his rearview mirror a toy-like model-very precisely done-of a man dying in electric chair? What if the precision was so detailed, we could see the wisps of smoke coming out of little guy’s head? And what if the driver asked, “Want a ride?”

            How do you think we would feel?

            Those are probably close to the emotions that some of these people in the cultures surrounding these Christians of Hebrews felt as they observed this group of people, who were dedicating themselves to following the fellow who had been crucified. It was just flat-out weird. Jesus was just another criminal. He was not somebody to be respected, much less love and adored.

            (Ancient graffiti details the God of the Christians being crucified on a cross. He had the body of a man—and the head of a donkey.)

            These were some of the challenges the Christians were facing.

            Jesus died at the city death, and he bore all of the scorn and disgrace. We follow a Savior who endured. He was reliable. He calls his people to do the same.

            I have seen evangelistic Bible studies that imploded because the CHRISTIANS were not reliable. At times the non-Christians hung in there because they wanted to learn something about the God. It was the Christians who were not reliable.

            But Jesus was reliable. He was not buried with a flag on his coffin. Instead, he was faithful… despite the scorn. Verses 14-15 tell us:

            14 On this earth we don’t have a city that lasts forever, but we are waiting for such a city. 15 Our sacrifice is to keep offering praise to God in the name of Jesus. (Heb. 13:11-15.) CEV

            We offer sacrifice and praise. We do it everyday. We have offered something well pleasing in God's sight.

            Here's where it really comes down to it. This is the challenge. Verse 13–let us join him outside the camp. Let us identify with him. Your will be done not my will.

            That… is… so… hard.

            Jesus says—I know. My prayer in the garden was “let this cup pass… but not my will be done; you’re will be done.”

            Can we reach that point? Can we pray that prayer?

            It is so costly. It is so scary. It is counterintuitive. It is not what we want to do. It forces us into a corner.

            And the Preacher of Hebrews says, “Do you want to get in or not.” It is so hard.

            You say, “I don't want to be an ingrate. But I want to grab as much as I can have in this life.”

            He says, “You got to make a choice.”

            Now, the interesting thing is that does not necessarily mean God will not entrust us to manage things of this world, or organizations in this world.

            Our leadership, however, will mean nothing to us if we are not serving God. There will be no ulterior motives of grabbing all that we can out of this life. It'll be property management—for God.

            Remarkably, all of this is very liberating. When you play for an audience of one, you are truly free. People cannot hurt you. They cannot say anything to hurt you. Ultimately, while you offer them basic human respect, their opinion means nothing; God’s opinion means everything--you play for an audience of one.

            That's why Hebrews says unapologetically to devote yourself to the most important group in the world. You're not losing anything, if you lose everything. The great philosopher Don Meredith once said, “Them that ain’t got it can't lose.”

            To be candid, I don't lie awake at night wondering what the people of New Guinea think about me. I don't lie awake at night worrying about what the people in China think about me. I rarely worry about what the people of the United States think about me.

            How about you? What if I told you that everyone in Christ is a leader. Not necessarily in the church, but in this world.

            Frankly, some of these people did not feel positive emotions. They were called to make a decision with the will. It was tough, but they were called to practice agape love.

            What if we parented like we live our Christian lives? What if we did everything based about whether or not our kids liked us? We have a term that describes that parenting style–child abuse.

            No, we practice agape love; we seek what's best for the child. We sacrifice. We are willing to surrender their good opinion of us, the opinion of others, and status; we will do what it takes.

            That makes us leaders in the culture. Every Christian is a leader in the world. You may be thinking, “No one is following me.”

            The world defines leadership by who is following;

            the Bible defines leadership by who is leading.            

            What that means is if God is leading you, and no one else is following you, that trumps somebody else who has a ton of followers but is not following God. If you are following God, GOD is leading. By the world’s standards, Jesus was a failure as a leader when he died on the cross, he had virtually no followers… except for the fact he was following his Heavenly Father. Because of who he was following, I would say this was the greatest moment of leadership in the history of the world.

            That's how we are supposed to live for God. That's what this letter is about. We sacrifice the opinions of others, we do what's best according to our benefactor, God, and we live in agape love. We play for an audience of one.

            Last week I saw a movie about Margaret Thatcher—THE IRON LADY. I was stunned that the people in the Motion Picture industry were as faithful as they were to the events of her life, and that they treated her with respect and even admiration.

            Here was a woman, who from the very beginning had to live her professional life surrounded by men, which meant she was a novelty. Most did not respect her or her opinion. They certainly did not like her.

            She was isolated and marginalized in so many ways. What those experiences did, though, was form her character. She learned to function without the admiration of those around her. She learned to diagnosis solutions to societies problems and proclaim them. This was unusual. All other government officials and political leaders were posturing for position to gain a political settlement or to gain votes. Great Britain was at an economic and cultural stalemate. It was in a mess and falling.

            So she up and announced, “Here is what we need to do, and I want to lead.” Stunningly, she won leadership of her party and then the nation.

            She was not flawless, but did you know that she is the first living prime minister to have a statue in the House of Parliament?

            All of this was because she was willing to stand alone and lead. We need to offer ourselves to lead a fallen world.

            How do we cultivate this attitude of gratitude?

            How do we summon the God-given power in our will to follow God stand out from culture?

            Well, in Hebrews, the Preacher says–

1. We meet with the church.

            We don't care what everybody else says, we go to the most important group in the world and we hear them tell us once again what is most important. Because God is speaking through them.

            It is not as hard as you might think to know whether he is pleased with us, because

2. We get into his Word. And we do that through the Bible. One of the reasons why we should get into the word is because it helps us understand what God wants.

            Finally,

3. We express our concerns to the Heavenly Father. This is called prayer. We offer God our thoughts, our yearnings, our questions, and our laments.

            Doesn’t it make you feel good to know that of all the groups on the planet, if you are in Christ, you are part of the most important one?

            I hope that thought gives you strength for tomorrow.

Thanks James Thompson, David De Silva, and Tommy Nelson

            

Have You Been Cleansed by the Blood?

            Remember the Shiites in Iraq a few years ago? The news media transmitted pictures of pilgrims whipping themselves in rituals designed to address their guilt.

            I know Christians who live the same way. They spiritually whip themselves with guilt.

            Guilt can be a bad thing. Paul Harvey tells the story of a twelve-year-old boy named Addie, who was asked by his older sister to stay for a party that she was giving, to which some of her school friends were coming. 

            Addie stayed, but he found himself bored with the games of the high school kids.  Finally, one of the older boys casually mentioned to him that he had learned the manual of arms—an army drill, which involved the twirling of a rifle with crisp precision.  The only problem was, they needed a gun! 

            Then Addie remembered that his dad had a .22 rifle.  Quickly, he ran to fetch it.  After a demonstration by the "military expert", Addie decided he wanted to give it a try.  

            What followed remained locked in the mind of Addie until the day he died.  The eyewitness accounts varied. Some said that after the older boy showed Addie the manual of arms, Addie tried to duplicate his actions.  Others said that he was trying to put the rifle away, while one person swore that Addie "took the gun from the older boy...pointed it at one of the girls... and pulled the trigger."

            However it occurred, the gun was loaded and in Addie's hands when it was fired.  The resulting gunshot killed a young girl named Ruth Merwin. 

            In the years that followed, this incident was never mentioned by Addie.  He went on to have an outstanding career in public service, serving as governor of his home state, and twice being nominated for the presidency of the United States.  And there are those who say that had he run against anybody besides a certified world hero (Dwight Eisenhower), he would have won.

            Some who knew him well enough to know about that tragic event believed he could never shake the guilt.

            This story reminds us that:

            People were not built for guilt.

            In the excellent book, UNVEILED GLORY, authors Jeff Childers and Fred Aquino offer several points concerning the saving work of the Gospel; I want to offer three:

1. Power.

            Here are two verses that reflect this understanding:

9bGod lives fully in Christ. 10And you are fully grown because you belong to Christ, who is over every power and authority…. 15There Christ defeated all powers and forces. He let the whole world see them being led away as prisoners when he celebrated his victory. (Col. 2:9b-10, 15.) CEV

28 In the same way, the Son of Man did not come to be served. He came to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many people"(Matthew 20:28.) NCV

            The idea here is that Jesus is the cosmic Lord who defeats the powerful forces of evil and liberates us from the power of sin. We sing songs to celebrate this: “Faith is the Victory” and “The Battle Belongs to the Lord” are two examples.

2. Purpose

            Paul wrote, For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died (II Cor. 5:14.) NIV. Jesus’ love motivates us to do what he would have us to do, think like he would have us to think, and to live like he would have us to live.

3. Pardon.

            Childers and Aquino write concerning pardon, “The image of salvation as satisfaction widely stresses God's goal of addressing the cosmic effects of sin and restoring the divine order. Justice and salvation are tied together.”

            In this blog, we want to look at the pardon of God in Hebrews 9:1-10:18.

            I have found interest on occasion observing what theologians and philosophers consider the crucial questions of humanity. One consistent question is this: what can we do about our guilt?

            I find it interesting the way the Bible addresses guilt. Early on, God, through word and visual aids, taught people: for you to live, something must die. Go back to Genesis three. Adam and Eve sinned, and what did they try to do? Cover themselves with leaves, the products of their own efforts. But it wasn’t good enough. God provided them with the skins of animals. Innocent blood was shed. For Adam and Eve to live, something had to die. Blood had to be shed.

            Thus, begins a pattern throughout scripture. In the Old Testament, it was found in sacrifices such as the burnt offering, the sin offering, the guilt offering, the fellowship offering, the Day of Atonement, and even the Passover. (As the renowned Levitical scholar Jacob Milgrom wrote,) “[In the Bible] Blood is the ritual detergent.”

            Under the New Covenant, you had a change. Instead of—for you to live, something must die—it became: for you to live, someone must die. The Son of God shed his life-sustaining liquid on the cross. His blood marked an eternal difference—but what a high price!

            I always crack up reading about the time-worn story of a wealthy woman who was traveling overseas and saw a bracelet she thought was irresistible; she sent her husband this cable: "Have found wonderful bracelet. Price $75,000. May I buy it?"

            Her husband promptly wired back this response: "No, price too high." But the cable operator omitted the comma, so the woman received this message: "No price too high." Elated, she purchased the bracelet.             When she arrived back home, she was effusive in thanks to her husband. She proudly showed him the bracelet.

            Puzzled, he asked her WHY she purchased it. She answered, “You telegrammed me: no price too high.”

            Remember, God loved you so much, no price was too high.

            Many are growing to love Tim Keller’s writings. A relevant statement from them is this, “Here's the gospel: you're more sinful than you ever dared believe; you're more loved than you ever dared hope.”

Christ Is the Perfect Sacrifice

            Look how the Preacher of Hebrews cultivates his thoughts, 11 So Christ has now become the High Priest over all the good things that have come. He has entered that greater, more perfect Tabernacle in heaven, which was not made by human hands and is not part of this created world. 12 With his own blood—not the blood of goats and calves—he entered the Most Holy Place once for all time and secured our redemption forever.

 13 Under the old system, the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a young cow could cleanse people’s bodies from ceremonial impurity.

            Several years ago, I heard of a fund called “The Conscience Fund.” Perhaps, it is an urban legend, but supposedly, our government maintains this fund now holding over 3 million dollars.

            The people who fund it are those who formerly cheated on their income tax. The fund was founded in 1811 when a gentleman sent six bucks. The highest gift has been $14,250 from a person in London.

            The best statement I read was from one guy who sent fifty buck—"I can't sleep; my conscience is bothering me. Enclosed you will find a check for fifty dollars. If I still can't sleep, I'll send the balance.”

            When I think about that story, I think of Hebrews 9:13-14: The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean. 14How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!

            Remember those who could not get over their guilt? Years ago, biblical scholar Leon Morris noted that the word “blood” was found 460 times in the Bible: 362 in the Old Testament and 98 in the New Testament.

            What gives? Why so much emphasis on blood?

            I think there are several reasons. However, in chapter 17, dealing with how you kill animals for sacrifices or for food, you find a nugget of knowledge. In verse 11, the Lord says, “11 For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one's life.”

            That sentence packs a lot of religious teaching and symbolism. The writer of Hebrews plays off that verse when he writes,“22 In fact, according to the law of Moses, nearly everything was purified with blood. For without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness” (Heb. 9:22).

            There are churches all around us though that, many years ago, began having trouble believing this. People became so sophisticated that they did not like the idea that blood needed to be shed to save us. There was something so “barbaric” about that a lot of people found it offensive. So you'll hear very little in many churches today about the blood of Christ.

            I remember years ago talking with a couple of graduate students who asked the same question, “Why blood? Why did the blood have to be shed to save us?” They were disturbed by that idea and could not buy into it. Something within them desired sophistication so much that they refused to believe blood would be important to God.

            One reason for their belief was they held a high view of humanity. It is a view that considers people to “not be that bad.” Oh, there are a few that are bad. But most people are very good. And most of us pretty close to being how we need to be.            

            So for us to be saved, all that needs to happen is for God to say “I forgive you.” That is it; no one needs to die for us.

            Here is the problem with that view. History does illustrate our goodness.

            100 years ago, throughout Europe and here in the United States, people in churches began to think, “At last, we're becoming what we were made to be. Man is getting better.”

            Then, an event happened that shattered that illusion–World War One. European kinfolk began fighting back and forth and lost a generation of young men. Millions of people died. People became disillusioned; Christians became disillusioned.

            But humanity started to pick up steam again and to move on. And people commenced to feel better about themselves. Then World War Two began. Then, the Korean War began. Then Vietnam. Then the Gulf War. Then Afghanistan and the Iraq war.

            On top of that you had in the twentieth century the “killing fields” of Cambodia, the tens of millions of murders committed by Stalin, and Hitler…

            Last time I checked, blood is still being shed.

            I don't think we’re getting better. These are problems humanity had at the very beginning. We all have the impulse to be God. And when we realize we can't do the job, we all have the impulse to try to get better at the job. We all have the impulse solve our sin problems ouselves.

            What you see here in Hebrews is the blood of Christ washing away sins. Over and over again the writer quotes God saying, “I am going to clean your conscience.”            

            I think those who are turned off by the need of the shedding of the Savior's blood are expressing subconsciously an unhappiness at the thought that they can stand before God condemned. They do not want to see themselves as sinners.

            Have you ever met somebody and took an instant dislike to him or her? And then you have a mutual friend who says to you, “I don't see why you cannot get along. You two are just alike.”

            Bingo! You see your flaws in the other person, and you don't want to see them in yourself. You do a pretty good job of ignoring those.

            I think this vision of blood is a betrayal of the fact that we do not like seeing ourselves as we really are. We don't want to feel the need to be forgiven. We want to think there's not much sin within us. But we have to go before the Father, by going to the cross; we have to kneel at the cross, and with a confessional attitude, and an attitude of repentance, we must say, “You, God, are holy and I'm not. I do not deserve the eternal life of heaven. I do not deserve to live with you forever. I need the blood of Jesus.”

            This brings to the surface a lot of verses that talk about cleansing of sin, for example I Peter 3 talks about baptism being an appeal for a clean conscience.

            Saul is told in Acts 22:16, “And now what are you waiting for? Get up, be baptized and wash your sins away, calling on his name.’”

            We can take solace in the fact that we have been saved once and for all. We have been forgiven once and for all. Jesus did not have to die over and over again. At one point in history, on a cross, an act was performed by which he has forgiven us.

            Years ago, back when the British soldiers were redcoats, they participated in a parade. A little boy in his father’s shop looked up and said, “Dad, look at those white coats.”

            The father said, “Son, those aren’t white coats.” And the son said, “Those are white coats.”

            The father kneeled down to where the son was, and he looked up and he saw that the son was viewing those coats through a prism of red glass. That glass, coupled with the sunlight, created an optical illusion. Those coats appeared white.

            In a sense, God says, “When I look upon you through the blood of my son, you are white. You are spotless.”

            Looking again to Hebrews, 14 For by that one offering he forever made perfect those who are being made holy (Heb. 10:14.)

            We stand before God and perfection, so bloodshed is important. 17 Then he says, “I will never again remember their sins and lawless deeds.”

 18 And when sins have been forgiven, there is no need to offer any more sacrifices (Heb. 10:17-18.)

Here’s the result:

            You can know you are forgiven;

            You can know God has forgotten.

            You can enjoy a life free of guilt.

            What is the response of a cleansed of people? The Preacher asked these Christians in Hebrews, “Why would you want to leave a group of people who have been freed from sin by the shed blood of Jesus for a group of people who have not? Why would you leave a group of people who have clean consciences to join the group of people who don't?”

            Don’t you want to set aside time each Sunday to reflect on this in the Lord’s Supper? For example, aren’t you are applying this when you partake of the grape juice? Aren’t you remembering the work of the blood?

            Twice in my life I have been to Ford's Theatre in Washington, DC. The last time was two years ago with my daughter, Abby, and some of members of her class.

            On the bed where Abraham Lincoln died was a pillow and on this pillow was a stunning, huge red stain. It was a bloodstain. Now why in the world would somebody keep a pillow stained with blood? Because that was the bloodshed by Abraham Lincoln. He shed it to help free an enslaved people.

            There is one who shed his blood 2000 years ago. He did so to free an enslaved people, enslaved by sin, and by it he said, “You are free.”

            Back in 1944, Japanese forces were fighting American forces on an island in the Pacific. A Japanese soldier realized the battle was being lost. And so, refusing to surrender, he decided to hide in a cave. He stayed there 22 years. He lived on bugs and other items. Having never heard the war was over, he continued fighting the war. Finally some hunters found him. They told him the war was over. They rescued him. They gave him freedom.

            This is a tragic story. Here was a guy living a life that was based upon past sins; he was not even taking advantage of the atonement that was offered for him. The war was over. He was free. The Japanese and the Allied forces were enemies no more. They were friends and allies. But he did not live like it.

            I talk with people like that every day. If you are a Christian, you need to know the war with sin is over. There is atonement. You no longer have to be an enemy of Jesus. Reconcile with his forces.

Community, Cross and New Creation

Community, cross and new creation—these are three motifs that come to us from the pen of Richard Hayes. You can see these symbols in some of the passages relating to the work of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. I understand there’s more to the passages; however, consider what we see in Matthew’s words,

20But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, "Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins."

22All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: 23"The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel"—which means, "God with us" (Mt. 1:20-23.)

Here you see community in that the father, son, and Holy Spirit and are working together. You see, symbolically, the cross in the sense of the Son denying self in His willingness to become human. (Philippians 2 talks much about this.) You, literally, see new creation in the birth of Jesus—God becoming a man—with the Holy Spirit facilitating this progress.

Since before time, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit have related to each other; they are part of a community. In Genesis one and two, the Godhead looked at Adam and saw that it was not good for man to be alone. God created human beings to live in relationships, just as God lived in a relationship

as the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. So, to reflect the image of God, it was necessary to create at least one other being there and so God created woman.

It is because he made a woman, this man and woman should begin reflecting what it was to be made in the image of God. And, of course, they go on to have children, and they show how to relate and live in community as a family. (Unfortunately, as you can see in Genesis 3-4, the first family also offers examples of how NOT to live in relationship and in community, in a family.)

Fast forward to the New Testament. It is interesting to me, when you get into the New Testament, you see Pharisees and teachers of the law, coming up to Jesus. Notice how they typically approach him. Did they come up to him and say, “Say, Jesus, we want to ask you some questions about marriage and how we can make marriage better or what marriage should be like?”

No, typically, when they go to Jesus, what do they want to talk about? Divorce. They want to focus on what should be, in humanity, the exception, not the rule. And, so, they want to talk about the negative and not the positive. You see this in Mark 10.

Back then, you had different thoughts from different Rabbis about what was an acceptable divorce and what was not an acceptable divorce. These teachers of the Law come to Jesus and, to test him, basically ask, “Okay, who’s saying it right? Who’s giving the right answer? Who’s teaching it the right way?”

In verses five and six, Jesus says, 5"It was because your hearts were hard that Moses wrote you this law," Jesus replied. 6"But at the beginning of creation God 'made them male and female.'

Did you notice in verse 6 what Jesus did? He took them back to the garden. He went back to creation. And, what is he taking them back to? Is he taking them back to divorce? No, he is taking them back to marriage, and what marriage should be.

Then, in verse 9, Jesus says, “9Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate." You see what Jesus does? He makes another move. He takes them to what? Discipleship. The Cross. He connects marriage to being a follower of Him.

He paints this picture – if you are really serious about marriage – then, you need to understand there is a connection between marriage and following me. So, he very much plugs marriage into himself.

But that is not all. He is calling marriage a new creation, a work done by God. It is a community, like the Father, Son and Holy Spirit form a community.

And Jesus, again, puts marriage in the realm of relationship. This time he is talking about a relationship with himself – the Son. That is why, we need to understand, when we look at marriage–the manner in which one behaves in his marriage is an external symptom of his relationship with Jesus. Now, that’s very important and very critical to understand.

In marriage, you are a new creation, formed by God, living under the cross, for the purpose of building a godly community.

Five Things I Think I Think (with a nod to Peter King for this idea)

1. Time Magazine did a cover story on the iPad last week. It was a good read. I suppose this will be the salvation of the magazines and newspapers that are still left. In the future, probably a year or two, I suppose the PC companies will be coming out with their own versions of iPads. Of course, they tried this ten years ago and they did not catch on. But there is something about Steven Jobs that allows him to see into the future and begin a trend.

2. I saw where my buddies Tim Archer and Steve Ridgell are doing book-signings all over the country. I think we, here at Shiloh, are going to use their book LETTERS OF THE LAMB as a resource next spring when we study Revelation in our Bible classes. I really enjoyed reading the book and think it is going to be helpful for those of our church, who choose to make it a conversation partner. What I did was read a chapter a day and just spend some time thinking about the images from Revelation, practical teachings from LETTERS, and allow them to point my mind toward God. I highly recommend this book. (No, they are not paying me for an endorsement! However, feel free to write the authors and encourage them to do so.)

3. I read THE TIME TRAVELER’S GUIDE TO MEDIEVAL ENGLAND, by Ian Mortimer, over the weekend. It discusses life in England in the fourteenth century. I can sum it up in one word---“ouch.” What a painful life it was back then!

4. I survived the first sermon in my series on sexuality yesterday morning. Actually, I am gratified at the response.

5. Dare I hope for a good season from the Rangers?

Have a great week!