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Firstfruits of the Resurrection (Easter A.D. 2022—King’s Cross)

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INTRODUCTION

The Bible teaches that the resurrection of Jesus is an historical fact with cosmic ramifications. The resurrection of Jesus establishes the forgiveness of human sins, the bodily resurrection of all believers, and the renewal of all things. And so the resurrection of Jesus is the ground of all Christian hope.

THE TEXT

“Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead?…” (1 Cor. 15:12-26)

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

Paul has just reviewed the basics of the gospel, emphasizing the witnesses of the resurrection, last of all Paul himself (1 Cor. 15:1-11). From that record, Paul asks how any of the Corinthians can be saying there is no resurrection (15:12). Paul ties the resurrection of Jesus and the resurrection of all believers together: you cannot have one without the other (15:13). And if Christ is not risen, the problems pile up: our preaching is in vain, our faith is in vain, the apostles are false witnesses, we are still in our sins, and all who have already died are lost (15:14-18). If the Christian faith is twisted into a message that merely makes people feel better in this life, we are a most pitiful lot (15:19). But Christ is risen from the dead, and therefore He is the first fruits of those who sleep in death – so it makes sense that He would rise first and afterward all who belong to Him (15:20, 23). It should not seem impossible that God might bring resurrection through the man Jesus, since the man Adam plunged us all into death (15:21-22). Finally, Paul insists that this harvest includes all authorities, all enemies, up to and including death itself (15:24-26).

FIRSTFRUITS OF THE RESURRECTION HARVEST

In the Israelite festal calendar was the Feast of Weeks or Pentecost, a sort of harvest festival, but it began with the offering of firstfruits of the harvest (Lev. 23:10). This was kind a tithe, where Israel was required to give the Lord the firstfruits of the harvest in faith, trusting God for the entire harvest. Paul says that the resurrection of Jesus is like that: the resurrection of Jesus is the firstfruits of those who sleep (1 Cor. 15:23). When we proclaim the resurrection of Jesus, we are simultaneously confessing our sure and certain faith in the whole harvest, the resurrection of all who believe in Him, when He comes to judge the world (1 Cor. 15:23).

It may be that some were contemplating the heresy of “hyperpreterism,” which includes the notion that there is only a spiritual “resurrection” at death to heaven, and in another place, Paul specifically warns Timothy about profane and vain babblings that increase ungodliness, specifically those who say that the resurrection is past already (2 Tim. 2:18). But we know that the resurrection is not past already because one of the enemies that Christ has determined to put beneath His feet is death itself, the last enemy (1 Cor. 15:25-26). People are still dying, and therefore, that enemy has not been destroyed. But it’s not an accident that Paul calls death “sleep” throughout this text (15:6, 18, 20, 51). The clear implication is that those who sleep most certainly will wake. God is not an incompetent farmer. He does not plant and fail to get a harvest. As Job said, “I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: and though after my skin, worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh, shall I see God: whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me” (Job 19:25-27).

CONCLUSION: EASTER FORGIVENESS & HOPE

The Christian faith stands or falls on the resurrection of Jesus. If Jesus did not rise from the dead, then the apostles and hundreds of other witnesses lied, our faith is empty, those who have died already are lost, and we are still in our sins (1 Cor. 15:13-18). This last one leaves us the most miserable and hopeless. But if Christ is risen, then the power of death has been broken. The wages of sin is death (Rom. 8:28), but if a true man, a descendant of Adam has come back from the dead, then there is a way out, a way of escape. The debt of sin has been paid in full. So we are proclaiming forgiveness when we say, “He is risen!” So, how can you hold on to any grudges against anyone?

If Christ is risen from the dead, then the harvest has begun, and we have great hope beyond this life (1 Cor. 15:19-20). This is because God is the Farmer, and His harvest is certain. Winter is ending, the Spring has begun. And our hope is specifically that Christ must reign until all of His enemies have been put beneath His feet (1 Cor. 15:25-26). Hebrews quotes this same verse from Psalm 8 and says, “We do not yet see everything put under Him. But we see Jesus… that He by the grace of God should taste death for every man… that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage” (Heb. 2:8-9, 14). All of this means that Christians must be robust optimists. All things serve Him. He holds the keys of death and Hades (Rev. 1:18). Therefore, we are more than conquerors in life and in death, in prison or free, in perils, in success, in glory, in pain, and everything in between (Rom. 8:35-39).

Paul closes 1 Corinthians 15 with this exuberant celebration: “But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord” (1 Cor. 15:57-58). Earlier it says that our bodies are seeds that go into the ground (1 Cor. 15:37-44), but the implication here at the end is that our entire lives are a sort of seed, since our labor is not in vain in the Lord. Since God is the Farmer, He knows how to plant and water us and every detail of our lives perfectly so that we will yield the greatest crop. So do not grow weary in doing good. Be steadfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord. He is risen indeed.

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Slaying the Sea Dragon (Good Friday A.D. 2022)

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If you would slay sea dragons then you must go down into the sea. It is dark down there, of course. But there is just no way to crush the head of the sea serpent without going down into the waters. Our Lord’s passion can be considered under many themes and slaying the sea dragon is one of them. Dragon slaying appears a fair amount of times in Scripture.

God will slay the sea dragon once and for all on a future day when Christ returns. The prophet Isaiah tells us, “In that day the LORD with his sore and great and strong sword shall punish leviathan the piercing serpent, even leviathan that crooked serpent; and he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea” (Isaiah 27:1).

But we don’t have to wait until that final judgment to see God slaying dragons. Asaph says in Psalm 74, “For God is my King of old, working salvation in the midst of the earth. Thou didst divide the sea by thy strength: Thou brakest the heads of the dragons in the waters. Thou brakest the heads of leviathan in pieces” (Psalm 74:12-14). Asaph here speaks of God burrying Pharaoh and his army under the Red Sea. Isaiah addresses the same event when he says, “Art thou not it that hath cut Rahab, and wounded the dragon? Art thou not it which hath dried the sea, the waters of the great deep; that hath made the depths of the sea a way for the ransomed to pass over” (Isaiah 51:9-10).

Isaiah’s words remind us that not only did God wound the dragon Pharaoh in the sea. But he also made his people Israel pass through the depths of the sea. We know from Exodus that they passed through the sea at night, which certainly would have made the whole event far more scary (Exodus 14:15-25). Being in that dark and watery dragon’s lair is not foreign to the saints’ experience. In Psalm 44 the saints cry, “Though thou hast sore broken us in the place of dragons, And covered us with the shadow of death.” Now we often wonder why the covenant people must go through the place of dragons. We are sometimes like the poor Jewish milkman Tevye from Fiddler on the Roof, who upon receiving news of another wave of trials, looked to heaven and prayed, “I know that we are your chosen people and all, but just for once, could you choose someone else.” “Why are we in the place of dragons?” we ask. And the answer is God has dragons to slay down there.

This is the very thing we see on Good Friday as Christ, our older brother, goes to Golgotha, the place of the skull, to strike the head of the serpent. It is remarkable that all of the dragon battle stories, be they legend like St. George and the Dragon or biblical like Michael warring against the dragon in heaven or David warring against the armour-scaled Philistine in the Valley, all point to this central conquest of our Lord over the old serpent. Christ is the seed of the woman who ultimately crushes the sepent’s head. And he does so as the Greater Jonah who went down to a watery Sheol. Jesus himself said that the sign of Jonah would be the only sign given to the evil and adulterous generation. As Jonah spent three days in the whale’s belly so Jesus said he would spend three in the heart of the earth. In so doing, he struck the dragon’s head. In fact, we’re told in Revelation that upon Christ’s passion an angel came down from heaven, laid hold on the dragon, bound him with a chain and cast him into the bottomless pit where he awaits final judgment when he will be thrown into the lake of fire.

Now the saints do pass through dragonish places. But the death of Christ, his descent into Hades, and his triumph over the principalities and powers has radically transformed things. We go through dragonish places after Christ, not before. Jesus took up the cross. And we must also. But Jesus said, “Take up your cross and follow me.” He did not say, “Take up your cross and lead they way, I’ve got your back.” Jesus has already passed through the watery deeps where the dragon lived and crushed his head. We follow him through those waters and are promied that God will crush Satan under our feet, too. We are not promised that we won’t pass through the waters. But God does say to his covenant people, “When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee” (Isaiah 43:2).

So as Israel faced the dark waters of the Red Sea and went forward, and as Christ set his face toward Jerusalem and went forward, likewise you must face the dark waters and go forward. What are the dark waters? That sin that you really don’t want to face up to and confess. That family trouble that you’ve been refusing to address. That bitterness you’ve been holding on to. That sacrifice for the welfare of your children and grandchildren that really is costly. That forgiveness you know you need to seek from your brother. That godly decision you know you are to make that will certainly lead to persecution. That discipline and self-control that you should have exercised long ago.

And if you are tempted to say, “I can’t go into those waters, it is going to kill me.” God’s response is twofold:

First, He says, “You’ve already died in the waters.” The Apostle Paul says in Romans 6:4, “Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death.” You are not going to die in the waters in front of you. You have already died in the waters.

Second, He says, “Those waters you fear are now truly dragonless.” Jesus went down into them before you and took care of that problem. And he turns to you saying, “The dragon is behind you, bound and in the bottomless pit. The dragon and his army is behind you, and God has come between you and him, putting him in darkness and shining light upon you. You must come follow me through the waters, and they won’t hurt you.” For, “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory” (1 Corinthians 15:55)? In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, amen.

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Palm Sunday as Powder Keg

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INTRODUCTION

Over the years, I have mentioned a number of times that there is no good biblical reason to use the hosannas! of Palm Sunday and the crucify him! of the Passion account as proof of the fickleness of crowds. We have no reason for assuming that the make-up of the crowds was in any way identical. But because we are living in a time driven by mass movements, it is past time for to develop a theology of crowds. Given that America is filling up with competing mobs now, one of the things that believing Christians ought to do is go back to the Scriptures to see what we can learn about mobs. There is a great deal there, actually, and if we pay the right kind of attention, we can profit more than a little bit.

The Text

“And they reasoned with themselves, saying, If we shall say, From heaven; he will say, Why then believed ye him not? But and if we say, of men; all the people will stone us: for they be persuaded that John was a prophet” (Luke 20:5-6).

Summary of the Point

In our text, Jesus asked His adversaries what they thought of John the Baptist, who was a real dividing line. Jesus had cornered them by asking a question that forced them to choose between their own actions, and the hostile reactions of a very hostile crowd. All the people will stone us. A few verses down from this, we see that the Jerusalem elites were plotting against Jesus, and they thought they needed to deal with Him secretly because why? Because they were afraid of the people. Jesus was really popular with a lot of people who did not really grasp the implications of what Christ had come to do. “And the chief priests and the scribes the same hour sought to lay hands on him; and they feared the people: for they perceived that he had spoken this parable against them” (Luke 20:19).

The gospel writers tell us this over and over. Two chapters later, the same thing is repeated. “And the chief priests and scribes sought how they might kill him; for they feared the people” (Luke 22:2). In the gospel of Mark, the same thing is mentioned and emphasized. “And 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 . . . But if we shall say, Of men; they feared the people: for all men counted John, that he was a prophet indeed” (Mark 11:18, 32). And in the next chapter of Mark, we see the same thing repeated. “And they sought to lay hold on him, but feared the people: for they knew that he had spoken the parable against them: and they left him, and went their way” (Mark 12:12).

And this same pattern does not disappear after the Lord ascended into Heaven. Not at all. When officials went to detain some apostles, they handled them quite gingerly. And why? Because they feared for their lives. “Then went the captain with the officers, and brought them without violence: for they feared the people, lest they should have been stoned” (Acts 5:26).

A Room Full of Fumes

When the Messiah was born into first century Israel, He was born into a room full of fumes, ready to go off. It was politically volatile, and complicated, but it was also a complexity that could be reduced to two basic groups—those who had been baptized by John, and those who had refused it.

But before we get to that reduction, we have to take a number of other factions into account. That way we know what we are reducing down to their version of red state and blue state. There were the Sadducees, well-connected to the aristocracy that controlled the Temple. They were theologically liberal but quite conservative when it came to their own vested interests. There were the Herodians, whose connections were to the political elite, and who had a deep investment in what Rome was seeking to maintain. The Pharisees were a lay renewal movement, highly respected among the people, at least until Jesus got done with them. There were about 6,000 Pharisees in Israel at this time. They were largely merchants who had made enough money to be able to retire to a life of personal devotion, their goal being to get the average Israelite to live up to the holiness standards that the Torah required of priests.

I am (temporarily) excluding from this political roster the immediate followers of Christ—His twelve disciples, other extras, and the women in His entourage, but I am not excluding the crowds who loved Him, and who were not far from the kingdom. This was yet another group. Think of the massive crowds who welcomed Him during His Triumphal Entry.

But there is another group, almost always overlooked, a bit more surly and anti-establishment, but still clearly in the pro-John-the-Baptist, pro-Jesus camp. This was a group of significant size that was hostile to the establishment that was hostile to Jesus. And by this I mean that they were seriously hostile, and at life-threatening levels. They were “on the Lord’s side,” but had not really internalized all that Sermon-on-the-Mount stuff. The Lord once rebuked a few of His disciples for not knowing what spirit they were of (Luke 9:55), but it should be pointed out that there was quite a large group out there who fit in the same category.

Now can we all agree that these crowds, as warmly affectionate toward John the Baptist as they might have been, and as doggedly committed to the honor of the rabbi Jesus as they were, were people who had not taken on board the full import of what the Scriptures required of them? I mean, had you gone to one of their rallies, who knows what kind of flags might have been there. And did their presence in the mix in any way discredit what Jesus was up to? Not even a little bit.

No. The Lord knew of this group’s cluelessness. He understood their cluelessness. He even used their cluelessness in His debates with that other form of cluelessness, the respectable kind—the kind that is always the last to know. But Henever apologized for their cluelessness. “And the Lord spake unto them, saying, ‘I have recently been informed that the chief priests have been receiving credible threats against their lives, and I wanted to hasten to apologize . . .’”

So in this powder keg called Jerusalem, what did Jesus do? Did Jesus come in to pour soothing oil on troubled waters? No. He went into the Temple, for crying out loud, and started flipping over tables.

Ownership of the Public Square

And this is why we need to follow Christ, Christ above all. There is only one kind of defiant joy in the world that can successfully stand up to this kind of godless pressure. There is only one path for defying the screechers—without becoming a screecher yourself. That path is Christ, the one who has risen from the dead. And He rose from the dead the same place they crucified Him, which is to say, in the public square. Remember: the reason Christians still own the public square is because Jesus rose from the dead in it. I know that the militant secularists despise this truth, but truth it is, and they should have thought of those objections before they crucified Him there.

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Psalm 118 (King’s Cross Church)

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OVERVIEW

Part 1 (v. 1-4 ) Enduring Mercy – First, the author of the Psalm begins with an exhortation to contemplate God’s goodness and his enduring mercy.

Part 2 (v. 5-18) A Godly Confidence in Turmoil – Here the Psalmist remembers a time when he was surrounded on all sides by entire nations that wanted him dead. But, in the name of the Lord, he had the victory and conquered them. And God has become his salvation.

Part 3 (19-24) A Triumphant Entry – Now he enters through the Gate of the Lord, triumphant, praising God for having saved him from his enemies. Again, he declares that God has become his salvation. But the onlookers are startled by this triumphant entry.

Part 4 (25-29) Hosanna – And now the author calls to God, “O please send salvation O Lord.” It’s strange because he has just finished describing several cases where God has sent salvation. It’s as if the author is begging for another salvation, a salvation still to come.

KING DAVID

Traditionally, this Psalm has been assigned to King David. The events described in the Psalm seem to resonate with the events in David’s life – a man surrounded by enemies on all sides, who puts his trust in the Lord and, as a result, has his right hand strengthened so that he conquers all his enemies.

FEAST OF BOOTHS

But there was another aspect to this Psalm for the Jewish reader. Look at Leviticus 23 where you will see a list of the Old Testament festivals. The last feast listed is the Feast of Booths, which celebrated God’s bringing the Israelites out of Egypt in the Exodus and into the Promised Land of Israel. This feast became closely associated with Psalm 118 and the cry “Hosanna.”

FAILURE

In a very important way, however, both the Exodus and the anointing of David failed to bring about the ultimate salvation of Israel. This Psalm describes something much bigger than what happened with Moses or with David.

NEW TESTAMENT

Psalm 118 is quoted at least a dozen times in the New Testament, and is used in all four of the Gospels to describe Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem. See – Mt. 21:9,42, 23:39; Mk. 11:9; 12:10-11; Lk. 13:35, 19:38, 20:17; Jn. 12:13. This Psalm found its real fulfillment in Jesus, who has become the salvation of the Lord. (See also – Acts 4:11, Heb. 12:5-6, 13:6, 1 Pet. 2:7).

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State of the Church 2022

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INTRODUCTION

We live in troubled times, certainly, and a regular response that rank-and-file Christians have to this difficulty is found in the lament, “But what can we do?” This year, our annual state of the church message is going to set before you a very local response to a very global and international panic, not to mention the totalitarian “solutions” that are being presented to us. And as it happens, the Scriptures we will bring to bear are Scriptures that are equally pertinent to our local and national situations both.

This is quite striking, because if we zoom out, we see that things have not been so bad in quite some time. But if we zoom in, looking at our community of believers, things have never been so good. What should we do with this?

THE TEXT

“Use hospitality one to another without grudging” (1 Peter 4:9).

“Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares” (Hebrews 13:2).

“Do all things without murmurings and disputings: That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world” (Philippians 2:14–15)

SUMMARY OF THE TEXTS

The three texts might be described as social exhortations. They have to do with our life together, with our social interactions, and they warn about the kind of sin that disrupts such fellowship. Peter tells us to be hospitable to one another, and he tells us to do this without grumbling or complaining (1 Pet. 4:9). The reason for warning us about this is that hospitality gives rise to occasions where you want to grumble or complain. They didn’t invite you back, or they didn’t wipe their feet, or they didn’t say thank you. Hebrews 13 tells us to show hospitality because we never know who it is we are being kind to (Heb. 13:2). The most inauspicious guest might be an angel—and when it isn’t an angel, it turns out to have been Christ (Matt. 25:40). And then in Philippians, we are warned against grumbles and disputes (temptations which, again, occur often in a community where hospitality is practiced).

But the reason I selected these three particular exhortations has to do with the larger context. Peter says that we are to be hospitable without grumbling, but what was that larger context? He was preparing his readers for persecution. Their faith was to be tried by fire (1 Pet. 1:7). Christ suffered so that we might follow His example (1 Pet. 2:21). They were going to encounter false accusations (1 Pet. 3:16). All this is the run-up to “be hospitable, and no whining.” In Hebrews, we are told to take strangers in—but again, what is the context? These people had undergone great afflictions (Heb. 10:32), had been reviled (Heb. 10:33), and had had their property confiscated (Heb. 10:34). These are the people who are to take strangers in. In Philippians, it is the same. Be blameless, harmless. No murmuring or disputing. But what had Paul said just a moment before? “For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake” (Philippians 1:29).

THE EARLY CHURCH IN ACTS

On the day of Pentecost, three thousand souls were added to the church (Acts 2:41). Later, as the gospel gained strength, there were about five thousand more (Acts 4:4). This process continued, and it started to cause problems. “And in those days, when the number of the disciples was multiplied, there arose a murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews, because their widows were neglected in the daily ministration” (Acts 6:1).

The apostles responded in two ways. The first is that they refused to abandon prayer and the ministry of the Word—as that was the driving engine (Acts 6:4). But second, they made a judicious set of ordinations, setting aside godly deacons to address the problem (Acts 6:3).

All of this was good preparation for what was to come (Acts 8:1).

COMMUNITY, HOSPITALITY, FRIENDS

Because of the cultural disarray in many other places, and because God has been so kind to us here, hundreds of people have moved here. Perhaps you have noticed. All the indications are that hundreds more are on the way. What does this mean? First, it means that there will be multiple opportunities to be hospitable without grumbling. Second, it means that it is quite possible that the trouble we see elsewhere is headed our way. We have no guarantees that it won’t happen, and we do have the assurance of these passages that being kind to strangers is a very good way to prepare. What can I do?

Most of you here don’t know most of you here. In a room filled with strangers, what can I do? We have to understand that God does great collective things by means of doing countless tiny things. No one raindrop feels responsible for the ocean, but each one is. This is how God works.

Koinonia fellowship is a great grace of the Holy Spirit, and we certainly have that blessing here. But do not confuse it with other things. It is not the same thing as friendship, for example. Jesus loved His disciples, and He loved them and protected them all (John 17:12). But He also had Peter, James, and John as friends (Matt. 17:1). And among those three, John was His best friend (John 13:23).

CHRIST IS HERE

At the conclusion of this service, Christ invites you to sit down at His table. This is a glorious kindness. One of the things that it teaches us to do is this—when it comes time for us to set our tables, we should be hungry for opportunities to invite Christ to sit down at our tables. But He travels incognito, remember? You may not recognize Him until He takes the loaf from you, says grace, and breaks the bread (Luke 24:30-31). You might not recognize Him even then. You might not realize any of this until the last day.

When you come to His house, His identity is known and declared. When He comes to yours, He often comes in the disguise of a nuisance.

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