New Testament Archives - Page 93 of 209

Truth & Lies (Good Friday 2021)

Christ Church on April 2, 2021

Pilate therefore said unto him, Art thou a king then? Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice. Pilate saith unto him, What is truth? (Jn. 18:37-38).

And you shall know the truth, and the truth will make you free (Jn. 8:32).

Freedom and truth go together, hand in hand. Freedom is not merely lack of constraint or the power of choice. Because it if were, truth would have no bearing on freedom. You wouldn’t need truth to be free. But Jesus says that you cannot be free apart from the truth. The truth is what makes a man free. And therefore, lies are what enslave. Lies are captivity. “Therefore my people are gone into captivity, because they have no knowledge…” (Is. 5:13).

The truth is what makes people free because then they may act and live in a way that corresponds to reality – the world as God actually made it. Truth is solid ground. Truth is true all the time, everywhere. Truth is granite. It holds fast. Truth reaches all the way to heaven. If something is really true, it is even true to God. Francis Schaeffer called this “true truth.” It’s true all the way the down, all the way up, all the time, everywhere, absolutely. So we may build on it. We may live in light of it. In this way, we may say that freedom is simply living honestly before God.

But a lie wants the world to be different than it actually is. If you lie about what happened yesterday, you are lying about history. If you lie about who you are, what she said, what he did, what you have done, what belongs to you, you’re attempting to twist the world into your control. A lie lays claim to rule the world. It may be a very small lie, a very small part of the world. But in that one place, a lie declares war on God and His world. And you cannot start only a very small war with the Ruler of the Universe because to declare war, any war against God is fundamentally to declare war on all of it.

A lie is also a false claim to absolute truth. It’s false, but it necessarily collides with God and His truth. Therefore, lies divide. And lies divide in the same way that truth divides. Either you believe or you do not. A lie makes an objective claim that people will either live according to it or not, just like the truth. But a lie hobbles you, hampers you, and ultimately enslaves you. In this way, a lie is always necessarily violent and coercive and full of malice.

“A lying tongue hateth those that are afflicted by it; and a flattering mouth worketh ruin” (Prov. 26:28). While God often restrains the impact of many lies, they all fundamentally are at war with God and His world and therefore are always ultimately attempts to ruin everything.

You may have seen the story on CNN this last week reporting on Gov. Kristi Noem’s executive orders in South Dakota prohibiting biological males from playing in women’s athletics. Quite apart from whatever is going on in South Dakota, in the article, the CNN reporter wrote: “It’s not possible to know a person’s gender identity at birth, and there is no consensus criteria for assigning sex at birth.” And as far as I know the writer still has his job at CNN, as do his bosses.

There are of course the surface lies about whether it’s possible to know someone’s gender identity at birth and whether there has been any consensus on assigning sex. But there are other lies underneath those lies: the assumption that a gender “identity” is even a thing to be discerned or that sex is something that is “assigned.” But underneath those lies are additional lies about the glory of male and female, the glory of the image of God. And beneath it all is a seething hatred of God, His image, and His world. But what is ironic is that all of these lies are begging for submission, begging for consensus. There is not consensus about whether someone is a boy or a girl, he claims, beckoning everyone to agree with him.

Lies always invite belief. The truth invites belief and freedom; every lie invites belief and slavery. But of course lies do not advertise the slavery part. Lies are almost always full of flattery. If you eat this fruit, you will become like god, knowing good and evil.

“For there is no faithfulness in their mouth; their inward part is very wickedness; their throat is an open sepulchre; they flatter with their tongue” (Ps. 5:9). Speaking of Israel, Psalm 78 says, “Nevertheless they did flatter him with their mouth, and they lied unto him with their tongues.” Flattery and lies go together. But the flattery and the lies are always a set up: “A man that flattereth his neighbour spreadeth a net for his feet” (Prov. 29:5).

The set up is this: if you don’t go along with my lie, there will be consequences, maybe initially just awkwardness, no friendliness, no compliments, no flattery. And if it’s just one person, that can be odd or challenging, but what we are witnessing in our day is the multiplication of lies on such a massive scale and widespread belief in them, such that now, to not believe the lies is to be considered a threat to the peace and unity of society. If you don’t believe that a man can put on a dress and become a woman, if you don’t believe that two men can be married, you are now a threat. You are a threat to the attempt to remake the world with lies. You are a threat to the consensus.

And many Christians say, why won’t they just leave us alone? You can do your thing over there, and we will do ours. But this is to radically misunderstand and underestimate the claims of truth and lies. And as the lies multiply, the liars frequently understand far better than the truth-tellers, that lies are absolute claims. Lies are necessarily absolute claims because they contradict God’s absolute truth.

This is why Christians must hate all lies. All lies, all deception, all falsehood is an attack on the living God, His world, and His people. Liars may not be consciously aware of the full extent of their rebellion, but it is there, all the same. Lies aim at the destruction of everything. To put up with a little bit deception is like putting up with a little bit of poison, a little be of nuclear fallout, a little bit of murder.

So tonight, we gather with Christians throughout the world to celebrate and proclaim the truth. We gather to sing and pray and hear once more the Truth of the crucifixion of the Son of God. But this is not just a small truth. It is the Truth, the truest Truth of them all. That God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. And that Son, who is the Truth of God, willingly laid His life down for the sins of the world. The Truth became a Man so that the lies of men might condemn Him, slander Him, mock Him, beat Him, and kill Him. And that True Man let them do it because He intended to take all their lies, all our lies and crush them.

If you are a descendent of Adam and Eve, you have been born into a world full of lies. And you have trafficked in them from time to time, whether in the world around you, whether in your own heart, or in your words, or in what you have been willing to think or do or believe. And that world of lies is not freedom. It is only chains, and snares, and threats, and ruin.

But Jesus came to set you free. He came to set this world free. He did not come to flatter you. He did not come to tell you lies. He came to tell you the honest truth, which is that you are the problem, your sin and rebellion are the problem, and you have committed treason against God and you deserve to die. But the truth is also that God is love. He is not the love of Hallmark movies or Disney. He is not the fake love that is only sentiment and feeling and emotion. He is not the fake love of mask mandates only wanting everyone to feel good or look like He was doing good. No, He is true love, truthful love, honest love, and He came to actually do good. He came to do what needed to be done, not what anyone thought He should have done. He came to take to the penalty for your sin. He came to bear God’s wrath against your rebellion. He came to tell the truth about your lies. He came to suffer what you deserved.

And so He did. And it is finished. If you look to the Truth on the Tree, the Lamb of God, you can see your sins there. You can see all of your lies there. You can see your guilt and shame there, dead on the cross. And you should also notice that Jesus is no longer there. He is alive. All of this is true. It is true all the way down, and all the way up, and all the way into the throne room of God, now, and every day, and forever. And all the lies in the world cannot change it. Nothing can take it away. Nothing can separate you from that love.

And so, all of this is why Christians must not put up with lies: whether pronouns, or history, or creation, or sex, or marriage, or money, or Christ. Christians may not go along with any lies. Lies are at war with God. Lies are at war with His Cross, with His Christ, with His church. And so we are at war with all lies because we have been made free by the truth.

Palm Sunday and the Prophetic Office

Christ Church on March 28, 2021

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INTRODUCTION

When the Lord entered Jerusalem in His triumphal entry, He was walking steadily toward a triumph that only He really understood. His followers knew that it was a triumph, certainly, but they did not yet know what kind of triumph it was going to be. The Lord was going to die on a cross, and that is why He set His face to go to Jerusalem (Luke 9:51). And this is why, as Chesterton once observed, the cross can never be defeated. It can never be defeated because it is defeat.

THE TEXT

“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord” (Matthew 23:37–39).

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

The Lord Jesus enters Jerusalem in triumph, and He is met by an enthusiastic crowd of disciples (Matt. 21:1-17). That entry culminated in the second cleansing of the Temple (vv. 12-17). Jesus had cleansed the Temple once before, at the very beginning of His ministry (John 2:13-17). Remember how in the Old Testament, the priest would inspect a leprous house two times before it was condemned (Lev. 14:39). Remember also that Jerusalem contained three main factions—the disciples of Christ, who knew and loved Him (Matt 21:9), the Jesus mobs who were greatly impressed by Him (Matt. 21:26, 46), and the establishment Jews who hated Him (Matt. 12:14).

After the triumphal entry, Jesus told a few parables (not to mention cursing the fig tree) that indicated the coming cataclysmic judgment on Jerusalem. Not only so, but in chapter 22, He has a series of doctrinal collisions with the Pharisees, Herodians, and Sadducees, again with pending judgment in view. And then in chapter 23, the Lord launches into an extended diatribe against the hypocrisy of the religious establishment, and that chapter concludes with our text. Jerusalem! Jerusalem! How often they killed prophets and stoned messengers sent to them! How often Christ wanted to gather the children of that fated city under His wings, but their leaders wouldn’t have it (v. 37). Their house is therefore left to them desolate (v. 38). But the one who comes in the name of the Lord is blessed (v. 39).

THE PROPHETIC VOCATION

We know that Jesus Christ is our prophet, our priest, and our king. Our purpose in this message is to consider His role as a prophet, the supreme prophet. Moses foretold the fact that a prophet like Moses would eventually arise (Dt. 18:15), and Jesus is that prophet. Because He is that prophet, He fulfills the prophetic vocation perfectly.

But what is that vocation? What is a prophet called to do? This is almost entirely neglected in our day, and when we do pay attention to it, we often understand just half of the prophet’s task. We think the prophet is supposed to denounce the sins of the people. But it is not nearly so simple.

We begin with shalom, with peace between God and His people. But tragically, second, the people become faithless, and they do so in two directions. They are faithless toward God in their worship (vertical) and as a result they grow faithless toward one another (horizontal). Then third, God gets angry with them. This happens because He is a jealous husband (vertical), and because He cares for the downtrodden and oppressed (horizontal). At the penultimate fourth stage, God’s righteous anger is poured out on the people. And last, God calms down, and balance is restored.

The prophet’s role is two-fold. When the people start to veer off, he is to warn them about the destructive path they are on. This is the part of the prophetic ministry that we understand. A prophet denounces the sins of the people. But when the people don’t turn away from sin in repentance, and God’s anger is aroused, the prophet’s calling is to turn back to Jehovah and demand that He turn away from His wrath.

The Hebrew word shuv means to turn. It refers to a change in behavior. The people are called to turn (shuv), and then God is called upon to turn (shuv). For those who understand who God is, this is audacity without boundaries. But this is what Abraham does (Gen. 18:22-25). This is what prophets do—Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Amos, this is their calling. This is what Jonah was so reluctant to do. Jonah’s problem, as the book bearing his name reveals, is that he was only taking up the first half of the office. And what does the king of Nineveh say?

“But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily to God; yes, let every one turn (shuv) from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. Who can tell if God will turn (shuv) and relent (nhm), and turn away (shuv) from His fierce anger, so that we may not perish?” (Jonah 3:8–9, NKJV).

This is the pattern Moses follows. Look closely at this exchange between God and Moses. God says, “Let me at them . . .” “And the Lord said unto Moses, Go, get thee down; for thy people, which thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves” (Ex. 32:7). And how does Moses talk back? “And Moses besought the Lord his God, and said, Lord, why doth thy wrath wax hot against thy people, which thou hast brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power, and with a mighty hand?” (Ex. 32:11).

We need to remember these things. A prophetic ministry does not just argue with the people about God. There is also the audacious element, the one in which we argue with God about the people.

THE RECKONING AT GETHSEMANE

The prophets of old are all types of the coming one, some very clear types (Jeremiah), and others not so much (Jonah). But all of them establish the pattern and all are types. Jehovah wants a prophet to arise, and come before Him to do this.

“So I sought for a man among them who would make a wall, and stand in the gap before Meon behalf of the land, that I should not destroy it; but I found no one. Therefore I have poured out My indignation on them; I have consumed them with the fire of My wrath; and I have recompensed their deeds on their own heads,” says the Lord God” (Eze. 22:30–31, NKJV)

“Therefore He said that He would destroy them, had not Moses His chosen one stood before Him in the breach, to turn (shuv) away His wrath, lest He destroy them” (Psalm 106:23, NKJV)

Jesus is the one who turned back perfectly in order to stand in the gap, and in order to stand before His Father. And in doing this, He made the choice that led straight to our salvation.

Forgiveness for All Nations (Palm Sunday 2021)

Christ Church on March 28, 2021

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INTRODUCTION

What’s wrong with this world? What do we really need? The central answer of the Bible is that our problems all flow from the problem of sin, and therefore, what the world fundamentally needs is forgiveness. When Jesus entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, He went straight into the temple. And then over the next few days, He keeps returning to the temple: first clearing it out, then preaching and teaching in it. Jesus insists that the point of His life is to fulfill what the temple always pointed to: forgiveness for sins.

THE TEXT

And Jesus entered into Jerusalem, and into the temple: and when he had looked round about upon all things, and now the eventide was come, he went out unto Bethany with the twelve.

¹²And on the morrow, when they were come from Bethany, he was hungry: ¹³and seeing a fig tree afar off having leaves, he came, if haply he might find any thing thereon: and when he came to it, he found nothing but leaves; for the time of figs was not yet. ¹⁴And Jesus answered and said unto it, No man eat fruit of thee hereafter for ever. And his disciples heard it.

¹⁵And they come to Jerusalem: and Jesus went into the temple, and began to cast out them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves; ¹⁶and would not suffer that any man should carry any vessel through the temple. ¹⁷And he taught, saying unto them, Is it not written, My house shall be called of all nations the house of prayer? but ye have made it a den of thieves. ¹⁸And the scribes and chief priests heard it, and sought how they might destroy him: for they feared him, because all the people was astonished at his doctrine. ¹⁹And when even was come, he went out of the city.

²⁰And in the morning, as they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots. ²¹And Peter calling to remembrance saith unto him, Master, behold, the fig tree which thou cursedst is withered away. ²²And Jesus answering saith unto them, Have faith in God. ²³For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith. ²⁴Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them. ²⁵And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses. ²⁶But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses (Mk. 11:11-26).

Summary of the Text

Having ridden into Jerusalem on palm branches and shouts of ‘Hosanna!’ Jesus went directly into the temple and looked around (Mk. 11:11). The next day, Jesus is on His way back into Jerusalem, sees a fig tree without any fruit, and pronounces a curse on it (Mk. 11:12-14). The cleansing of the temple comes next: driving everyone out, overturning the tables of the money changers and pigeon-sellers, and not allowing anyone to walk in the temple for most of the day (Mk. 11:15-16). He was also preaching and teaching on Isaiah 56 and Jeremiah 7 during much of this time and held a rapt audience of many, such that the chief priests and scribes were powerless to do anything (Mk. 11:17-19). Coming back into Jerusalem the next morning, the cursed fig tree has withered to its roots, and Peter points it out (Mk. 11:20-21). To which Jesus replies that Peter should have faith in God, and he may even command this mountain to be cast into the sea. In fact, whatever any disciple asks in prayer will be granted, particularly forgiveness for others, so that God will also forgive all their sins (Mk. 11:22-26).

The Problem

Beginning at the end of our text, the problem is forgiveness of sins. In the Old Testament, God established a system of sacrifice by which God promised to forgive the sins of Israel (Lev. 4:20ff, 1 Kgs. 8:30ff). And when this system was fully functioning, it was to be the kind of light that would draw the nations, so that they might also receive forgiveness (Num. 15:26, 1 Kgs. 8:41-43). The temple was supposed to be a “house of prayer for all nations” (Is. 56:7), and specifically keying off of Solomon’s temple dedication prayer, prayers for forgiveness. The sacrifices of the tabernacle and temple were a sign to Israel and the whole world that God forgave sins. But what was happening at the time of Jesus was what had happened in the days of Jeremiah: people went through the motions of going to worship, chanting slogans about the temple of the Lord (Jer. 7:4). The problem was not with the temple, the problem was with the people sinning up a storm and then going to the temple as an act of empty ritual and formalism. They turned the temple into a “den of thieves” because they brought their sins with them like stolen treasure – with no intention of giving them up, much less seeking forgiveness for any of it (Jer. 7:11). God says that when this happens, He will destroy the temple because it’s become a place where sin is being spread instead of forgiven (Jer. 7:12-14).

Leprous Houses & People

Wound through this episode is a fair bit of Old Testament allusion and symbolism. The fact that Jesus looks around the temple the first evening and then returns the next day refusing to let anyone do anything in the temple is reminiscent of the duties of a priest for a leprous house (Lev. 14:34ff). Leprosy in the Old Covenant wasn’t just a skin disease, it seems to have been a fairly broad category of things that made people and objects ceremonially unclean, which usually just meant they needed to wash and wait until evening before they could offer any sacrifices (although some forms of uncleanness could last longer). The general point of the ceremonial system was to teach Israel that their entire lives mattered to God, and they needed to give thought to how every detail needed to honor Him. Every detail is either pleasing to God and under His blessing and growing life, or else it isn’t pleasing to Him and in some way it’s actually spreading death. In the Old Covenant, washing could make you clean, but you were constantly becoming unclean again. Uncleanness was always contagious. The really striking thing about the New Covenant is that Jesus comes and He’s constantly touching or being touched by unclean people, but instead of becoming unclean, Jesus cleanses the unclean (cf. Mk. 5:27-34, Mt. 8:2-3). In Jesus, cleanness has become contagious. But here Jesus is essentially declaring the temple “unclean”.

This brings us to the cursed fig tree. Fig trees were among the signs that the land of Canaan is a good land (Dt. 8:8), and so the phrase “every man under his own fig tree” became a common expression in Israel for the good life (1 Kgs. 4:25, 2 Kgs. 18:31, Is. 36:16). And in the prophets, the fig tree became a common image for the people of Israel (Jer. 8:13, Hos. 2:12, Joel 1-2). In context, the fig tree in our passage represents Israel and is parallel to the temple. Just as Jesus “inspects” the temple and finds it unclean, so too, when Jesus comes looking for fruit on the fig tree, He is displeased. The curse is also the same: an empty, destroyed temple is the same as a withered, fruitless tree of Israel. And given all of this, it does not seem likely that Jesus changes the subject when He tells Peter that believing prayer will uproot “this mountain” and cast it into the sea. Which mountain? They are on their way to the temple on Mount Moriah.

Conclusions & Applications

And this brings us back to the central problem: if that temple mount is removed and destroyed, how will Israel and the nations be forgiven? Without the sacrifices, priests, and temple, how can they know if they are actually forgiven? Jesus tells Peter and the other disciples: forgive others. But how does that help us?

We sometimes hear these commands/warnings and wonder if Jesus is veering somewhat close to some kind of works-righteousness (e.g. if we do our part, God will do His…?), which can sometimes make us doubt (e.g. Have I really forgiven…? Am I really forgiven…?) But this radically underestimates the task of forgiving sins. To forgive is to release, to set free, to erase the debt of sin. But how can any mere human actually release another human from sin, which properly speaking requires death? Remember, this was one of the great objections of the scribes and Pharisees: no one can forgive sins except God alone (Mk. 2:7). And they were right. Only God can forgive sins. And that was only possible through the shedding of blood (Heb. 9:22). But even the blood of bulls and goats couldn’t actually take away sins; it had to be the blood of a perfectly obedient man, who could truly represent us (Heb. 10:4, 10-22).

Christian forgiveness is a promise not to hold the sins of another against them on account of the blood of Christ. In other words, whenever a Christian forgives someone, they can only do so by holding up the blood of Jesus, which is your forgiveness as well. If you say you cannot forgive someone, you are in effect saying, “there is no bled shed for this.” But if there is no blood shed for their sin, there is no blood shed for your sin. If you do not forgive, you cannot be forgiven. But when you see the blood of Jesus shed for you, there can be no doubt that it is enough for them. But no one has ever forgiven or been forgiven by humanistic good will.

We live in a sin infested world. And having rejected the blood of Jesus, we have turned to all manner of schemes and theories to try to wash away our sin, like trying to use soap on tattoos, and so our culture is quickly becoming a foul cesspool of guilt and shame and uncleanness. But we proclaim the blood of Jesus that cleanses every stain. We proclaim the blood of Jesus which is more potent that the most heinous sin, and His righteousness which is more contagious than all the filth in the world.

Be Faithful Unto Death

Christ Church on March 21, 2021

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THE TEXT

8 “And to the angel of the church in Smyrna write: ‘The words of the first and the last, who died and came to life.

9 “‘I know your tribulation and your poverty (but you are rich) and the slander of those who say that they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan. 10 Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and for ten days you will have tribulation. Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.

11 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The one who conquers will not be hurt by the second death.’” (Rev. 2:8–11)

The Light of Life

Christ Church on March 7, 2021

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THE TEXT

But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.

²Now early in the morning He came again into the temple, and all the people came to Him; and He sat down and taught them. ³Then the scribes and Pharisees brought to Him a woman caught in adultery. And when they had set her in the midst, ⁴they said to Him, “Teacher, this woman was caught in adultery, in the very act. ⁵Now Moses, in the law, commanded us that such should be stoned. But what do You say?” ⁶This they said, testing Him, that they might have something of which to accuse Him. But Jesus stooped down and wrote on the ground with His finger, as though He did not hear.

⁷So when they continued asking Him, He raised Himself up and said to them, “He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first.”⁸And again He stooped down and wrote on the ground. ⁹Then those who heard it, being convicted by their conscience, went out one by one, beginning with the oldest even to the last. And Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst. ¹⁰When Jesus had raised Himself up and saw no one but the woman, He said to her, “Woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you?”

¹¹She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said to her, “Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.”¹²Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.”¹³The Pharisees therefore said to Him, “You bear witness of Yourself; Your witness is not true.”

¹⁴Jesus answered and said to them, “Even if I bear witness of Myself, My witness is true, for I know where I came from and where I am going; but you do not know where I come from and where I am going. ¹⁵You judge according to the flesh; I judge no one. ¹⁶And yet if I do judge, My judgment is true; for I am not alone, but I am with the Father who sent Me. ¹⁷It is also written in your law that the testimony of two men is true. ¹⁸I am One who bears witness of Myself, and the Father who sent Me bears witness of Me.”

¹⁹Then they said to Him, “Where is Your Father?”Jesus answered, “You know neither Me nor My Father. If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also.” ²⁰These words Jesus spoke in the treasury, as He taught in the temple; and no one laid hands on Him, for His hour had not yet come. John 8:1–20