Category: Sermon Supplements

Matthew 2 & Invictus!

While at a Robbie Seay concert I saw a guy with INVICTUS tattooed on the underside of his arm.  It was inked such that the letters began at his wrist and read down toward his elbow.  That way it would be shown off when he held a microphone.   It looked cool, but I think the message is foolish, especially for a Christian.  It seems safe to say he professes Christ since he works for a Christian radio station.

Invictus, Latin for unconquered, could be tolerated if one meant to communicate that because of Christ they are victors, not conquered by sin, Satan, or death.  If that is what the aforementioned person means, my apologies for referring to his tattoo as foolish.  But that is not the popular idea behind the word today.

The word’s current popularity is no doubt due to the film, which, by the way, I really enjoyed.  I do admire Nelson Mandela, and I love Clint Eastwood as a director / actor, but Invictus, well, it’s a lie.  The popular meaning is informed by the poem by William Earnest Henley.

Invictus

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

I think Herod would have loved this poem.  I bet he had an invictus tat too.

Outside of Christ we are not conquers but conquered – in bondage to sin and death.  Yes in Christ we have victory, but it is His victory, a victory that we enter into by grace.  Christus Victor!  – that is our battle cry, not Invictus!

So will you seek the King?  Will you bow? Will you submit?  Will you give your treasures?  Will you worship?

Don’t fail to recognize how you may be similar to Herod.  Do you look at the humility of Christ and see it as an opportunity to exploit Him?  Do you tolerate or excuse sin by presuming upon His grace?  Do you treat Jesus as a ticket to get to some other main attraction?  Do you think you can dissect Him and take Him only as Savior and reject Him as Lord?

Woe to those who think they can conquer the unconquerable King.  There is only one man who legitimately wears Invictus; it is written down His thigh, “King of kings and Lord of Lords.”

Matthew 1:18-25 & The Necessity of the Incarnation for Salvation

In order for Jesus to be Jesus (meaning “Yahweh is salvation”) He has to be Immanuel (meaning “God with us”).

When the angel commands Joseph to name the child “Jesus”, he also gives him the reason why, “for He will save His people from their sins.”  This is an allusion to Psalm 130:8.  In this Psalm the “He” who redeems Israel from his iniquities is Yahweh.  Only God can forgive sins ultimately. It is His prerogative; He is the most offended party (Psalm 51:4).  You do not have the right to forgive a debt against someone else.  The scribes theology was sound when they questioned, “Who can forgive sins but God?” (Mark 2:1-11).

In the 11th century Anslem of Canterbury wrote an important book titled, Cur Deus Homo, loosely translated, Why the God-Man?  Why did Jesus have to be Immanuel to deal with sins?  Why must the second person of the Trinity take on human flesh?  His answer, in short, is that in sin we incur a debt that only man ought to pay and only God can pay. Thus, in order to pay this debt, a God-Man is needed.

In creation, the law, and our conscience we know God above us and against us.  Only in the gospel do we know God for us and with us—God incarnate, born of a virgin, truly man, truly God—with us.

Christ, by highest Heav’n adored;
Christ the everlasting Lord;
Late in time, behold Him come,
Offspring of a virgin’s womb.
Veiled in flesh the Godhead see;
Hail th’incarnate Deity,
Pleased with us in flesh to dwell,
Jesus our Emmanuel.
– Hark! the Herald Angels Sing by Charles Wesley

Matthew 1:1-17 & Glorious Genealogy

A sad effect of the fall is that we find man’s fiction more fascinating than God’s fact.  Man’s fiction should awaken us to the bigger reality we live in.  Man’s mind is smaller than God’s and God’s story is more glorious than any we could dream.  “Avatar” is a children’s board book.

Matthew begins his gospel with a genealogy.  This is not a speed bump slowing your entry into the book, it is a majestic mountain to be stunned by.  Unless you are a Tolkien nerd you have very little clue what it means when Strider says, “Elendil!  I am Aragorn son of Arathorn and am called Elessar, the Elfstone, Dunadan, the heir of Isildur Elendil’s son of Gondor.”, but you know it means a great something!  The one with the rightful claim has come, here is the one hoped for, the one with authority.  A hidden hope has come to light and the darkness now trembles. Matthew is doing something like that with this genealogy.

Here is a line of kings, but the glory has faded; the regal glory and power that once flowed giving life, hope, protection, and salvation has run dry.  But from this dry ground a Savior and salvation spring forth.  His name is Jesus (meaning “Yahweh saves”, cf.  Matthew 1:21).  From the stump of Jesse a shoot comes forth (Isaiah 11:1-10).  He is the son of David, the Christ, meaning the Anointed One, the Messiah.

The King has come.  He will come again.  And of His rule there will be no end.

Matthew’s genealogy does not get boring, but it does get dry.  But from this dryness springs the one who is the Life.

Psalm 110 & How God’s Wrath Can Be for your Good

Say you’re checking out at the supermarket and as the grocer goes to weigh your produce on the electronic scales you notice that there is dust on the scales. Do you yell out, “Hold on! Clean the scales off first, I don’t pay for dust.” Of course you don’t, because dust is counted as nothing. In Isaiah 40:15 we learn that all the nations arrayed in all their pomp, splendor, vehemence, and power are accounted by God as dust on the scales and we also see that truth here.

Here we see the scepter of the Son crushing all enemies, but do not miss grace for the fury. God the Son has eternally ruled (Colossians 1:16-17). This text does not teach against the Son’s eternal rule, but it does teach something in addition to it. Here we have a King not just over us, but for us.

The this psalm deals with the Messiah’s session (v.1). Jesus’ session is the important, but too often neglected doctrine concerning Jesus’ being seated on His throne at the right hand of the Father. This specific session follows Christ’s priestly action for us (Hebrews 1:3; Ephesians 1:20-23). This is the main connection I think you are meant to see between God’s oracle spoken to the Messiah as King (v.1), and His oath spoken to the Messiah as Priest (v.4). Jesus priestly work and kingly work are interrelated.

Christ, at his weakest moment in human flesh, acting as our High Priest, was also a King conquering our greatest foes – Satan, death, and sin. He was the meekest Lamb and the fiercest Lion in the same act. So Jesus’ priestly work is also king work, and his Kingly rule is also priestly action.

When Jesus comes to quell all rebellion in the day of His power, it will also be an outworking of His priestly action for us. Because of Christ, all that God is, He is for us. You may only think of God as being for you in His grace, mercy, kindness, love, faithfulness, goodness, and patience, but in Christ His sovereignty, power, justice, righteousness, judgment, and yes, even His wrath are also for us – total God, totally for you. In Christ His enemies are now ours. Even God’s wrath against His enemies now works to our salvation in Christ.

So, to put succinctly, how can God’s wrath be for our good? In Jesus – because Jesus bore the wrath of God as our substitute, when He returns, His anger unleashed upon His enemies will also mean the end of those who oppose our greatest joy. His wrath will not burn against us, but for us.

Genesis 2:18-25 & At Last

It is “not good” that man should be alone because our God is a master storyteller. Marriage is a mystery, and God holds the suspense for over four thousand years before he reveals the mystery climactically in Christ. As John Piper says our momentary marriages are a parable of permanence. Marriage will give way to something fuller, deeper, eternal, and perfect – the marriage that in the heart of God preexisted every other, the one after which earthly one-flesh covenant unions between man and wife were patterned.

This marriage between Christ and His bride has been inaugurated but is not yet consummated. One day we will like Adam cry out “at last!”

Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out,

‘Hallelujah!
For the Lord our God

the Almighty reigns.

Let us rejoice and exult

and give him the glory,

for the marriage of the Lamb has come,

and his Bride has made herself ready;

it was granted her to clothe herself

with fine linen, bright and pure’—

for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.
–  Revelation 19:6-8

This is the big story all of our little stories (marriages) find themselves in. It is the one they are to tell. The gospel is both the pattern and the power for our marriages (Ephesians 5:22-33). So seek to tell the story with your spouse, and when you or your spouse fail, don’t forget the story that you are trying to tell, and know that one day the struggles will be no more. The temporal will one day give way to the eternal, we will cry out “at last”, and our union will be perfect as we are perfected in our Beloved.

Hebrews 13:17 & Authority Issues

If one has authority issues they have God’s issues. God has ordained various kinds of authority structures in His creation.

Man over the earth – Genesis 1:26-28
Husband over his wife – Ephesians 4:22-24
Parents over children – Ephesians 6:1-3
Government over citizens – Romans 13:1-3

Here we see God’s authority structure for the church. The congregation is to submit to and obey its leadership. Throughout scripture there are a variety of terms used to refer to the same office that these leaders occupy. Primarily and most often they are designated elders. They are also referred to as overseers, and surprisingly to some, they are least often called pastors. These are different words to describe the same office. It is God who calls these overseers and makes them shepherds of His flock (see Paul’s admonition to the Ephesians elders in Acts 20:28). Pastors are His gift to His church for their edification (Ephesians 4:11-12). When the church fails to follow godly, Biblically faithful leadership, she does so to her own detriment and sins gravely.

Rebellion against godly pastors, is then, rebellion against God. But it is worse than just saying that God had a bad idea. Authority isn’t just an idea God has, it is who He is. He can delegate authority because He has all authority. He is Lord, He is King, He is the supreme authority.

Further, within the Trinity we see that though they are all equal in essence and equally God they have different roles. The Father sends the Son, and the Father and the Son send the Spirit. God is the head of Christ (1 Corinthians 11:3). Authority and submission do not then always necessarily imply that one party is of greater value, dignity, and worth than the other, but they may simply mean that the parties involved have different roles. God the Father and God the Son are equal in worth, but they have different roles. Likewise husband and wife are equal in worth, but they have different roles.

However, God’s authority over us is of a different kind all together. We are not equal to God in any way. Having loved the serpent’s lie and desiring to be God ourselves, we hate His authority. So rebellion against any authority demonstrates our attitude toward the Sovereign God who orders all things. In hating authority structures, especially those of the church, we don’t simply tell God that He had a stupid idea, but that His very being is stupid. This blasphemy is seen to be amplified in the church for Godly pastors seek to lead God’s sheep not according to their preferences, but according to God’s precepts, that is, God’s Holy Word. The faithful under shepherd’s delight isn’t that you are following him, but that you are following the Chief Shepherd (3 John 4). And submission to the King’s yoke is light and easy. It is where we find rest. Under His rule, we all find peace.

1 Corinthians 5 & Pride and Church Membership

What you think about church membership and discipline says much about how highly you regard the church and her Head, the Lord Jesus Christ. What you think about church membership will reveal more truth about you than the church.

If you desired to be a Marine would you think it unnecessary to attend any classes or go through any training in order to understand and be shaped into a Marine? Would you think their qualifications and standards intolerant? Would you think taking their oath ridiculous?

The church is the highest institution on earth and she is the only one that will last eternally. Christ purchased her to Himself by His own blood. Her King is worthy of all and calls for complete and total allegiance.

Church discipline requires the concept of covenant church membership. Discipline says there is an in and an out, the idea of covenant forms the basis of why one is put out.

The Corinthians are tolerating someone who is in a incestuous, adulterous relationship with their stepmother. Membership is being belittled and discipline is being ignored. How can the Corinthians do this? The answer is pride vv. 2, 6. Pride mixed with spirituality is a most deadly concoction. The Corinthians boasted in their spiritual heritage (1:12, 3:21). They were especially gifted, but loved the more showy gifts. It seems a kind of pride had so grasped them that they blinded themselves to any reminder that they had not yet arrived. Here is a pride that has forgotten we are always sinners in need of grace. It’s the kind of pride that says “nothings wrong” with both eyes closed. They are like the athlete who has been told that if he plays anymore he will cause irreversible and refuses to hear it because of pride.

It is pride that hates the idea of church discipline and membership. Covenant membership means clothing yourself with a garment of humility and inviting others into your lives. It means submitting to others and doing what is best for them. It means your business is their business. Covenant membership glories not in self, but glorifies the Passover Lamb whose sacrifice made us unleavened v.7.

Psalm 67 & Motivation for Missions

The chief motivation for missions should be the “You” praised, not the “peoples” praising. The chief motivation for missions, both for God and us, is not the love of man, but the love of God. If you have been blessed to know and enjoy all that God is for us in Jesus Christ, you will long as the Father does for every tribe , tongue, language, and people to praise the name of Jesus. For this psalmist, in desiring God, God’s desires have become his own. He longs for:

God’s way to be known v.2.
God’s saving power to be known v. 2
God to be praised vv. 3-5.
God to be delighted in as just v. 4
God to be delighted in as sovereign over all nations v. 4.
God to be feared v. 7.

Oh yes, missions should be done because we love people, but by first being zealous for God’s glory, we will love people more and we will love them best.

So yes, use resources like Operation World and Joshua Project to fuel your passion for nations by learning of the unreached peoples of the world, but the best resource to fuel missions is to dig into the Bible and discover how stunningly glorious your God is. In God you discover one so cosmically glorious all of the world must be wrapped up in praise.

“Missions exist because worship doesn’t.  The ultimate issue addressed by missions is that God’s glory is dishonored among the peoples of the world.  When Paul brought this indictment of his own people to a climax in Romans 2:24, he said, “The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.”  That is the ultimate problem in the world.  That is the ultimate outrage.

The glory of God is not honored.
The holiness of God is not reverenced.
The greatness of God is not admired.
The power of God is not praised
The truth of God is not sought.
The wisdom of God is not esteemed.
The beauty of God is not treasured.
The goodness of God is not savored.
The faithfulness of God is not trusted.
The commandments of God are not obeyed.
The justice of God is not respected.
The wrath of God is not feared.
The grace of God is not cherished.
The presence of God is not prized.”
– John Piper

Numbers 6:22-27 & When Vanity is Virtuous

For God alone vanity is virtue.

God is holy, that is to say more than that He is pure and without sin. Holy primarily means separate, distinct, other. God is the ultimate other. Nothing else belongs in His classification. There is only One who falls under the category “creator”, all else belongs to the category “creation”. Part of God’s distinct otherness is He is the only one for whom vanity is a virtue.

God can give us nothing greater than Himself. God’s passion for His own glory is His passion for our deepest joy.

The Blesser is the Blessing; the Giver is the Gift.

Blessedness is not God making much of you, but making much of Himself. Blessedness does not mean God worshipping us, but showing us how worthy He is of all of our worship. Blessedness does not mean God giving us whatever our sinful hearts desire, but giving us new hearts that desire the best thing He can give us – Himself.

God is the highest good of the reasonable creature, and the enjoyment of him is the only happiness with which our souls can be satisfied. – To go to heaven fully to enjoy God, is infinitely better than the most pleasant accommodations here. Fathers and mothers, husbands, wives, children, or the company of earthly friends, are but shadows. But the enjoyment of God is the substance. These are but scattered beams, but God is the sun. These are but streams, but God is the fountain. These are but drops, but God is the ocean. – Therefore it becomes us to spend this life only as a journey towards heaven, as it becomes us to make the seeking of our highest end and proper good, the whole work of our lives, to which we should subordinate all other concerns of life. Why should we labor for, or set our hearts on anything else, but that which is our proper end, and true happiness?  -Jonathan Edwards

1 Corinthians 15:1-8 & God Speaks Therefore I Am

[Commenting on 1 Corinthians 15;1-4] Here we see that the gospel is continual, in that we must continually be reminded of it; proclamational, in that it must be preached to us often, including preaching it to ourselves; essential, in that we must continually cling to it alone for the assurance of our salvation; central, in that it is the most important truth in all the world; eternal, in that it is passed on from one generation to the next without modification by religion; Christological, in that it is about the person and work of Jesus Christ alone; penal, in that the wages for sin – death – was paid; substitutional, in that Jesus’ death on the cross was literally in our place for our sins; biblical, in that it is in agreement with and the fulfillment of all Scripture; and eschatological, in that the resurrection of Jesus reveals to us our future hope of resurrected eternal life with him. Mark Driscoll in Death by Love

When Paul seeks to remind the Corinthians of the gospel this isn’t simply an instance of remedial Christianity, for it is by this gospel that they “are being saved” and it is in this gospel alone that they “stand”. The gospel of Christ isn’t the ABC’s of Christianity but the A to Z of Christianity. You don’t graduate the gospel as a Christian to go on to other things. If you ever graduate the gospel, you graduate Jesus only to flunk.

As a church we gather not to do, but to hear and be reminded what God has done for us in Christ. In fact, it is God who gathers us by His proclamation. It is the gospel that is the power of God unto salvation, making a people of those who were not His people. God’s Word gathers and sanctifies His church. Having heard God in the public assembly we then scatter to tell others what God has done, and in doing so long for Him in that act of proclamation to further act.

We begin our services with a call to worship to subtly communicate this fact. God first speaks, then we respond. We do not pull God down by our sacrifices, rather He has graciously condescended in Christ and become the sacrifice for us, and now the Spirit ministers this Christ to us as God’s Word is heralded. We sing because He has spoken. We gather not to serve, nor to be served by man, but as needy beggars we come to the table to feast on Christ. We serve because He has served. Having feasted we then serve others shouting to them that there is eternally satisfying bread available without cost.