Christ Church

Sin & Dust (Easter Drive-In)

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Introduction

In the Garden of Eden, when God shaped the first man from the dust of the ground (Gen. 2:7), the Almighty was simply playing the part of a sculptor. He shaped Adam from the dust of the ground, but until the second half of the verse, this Adam was simply dust rearranged. After the semblance of a man had been fashioned out of dust, God breathed into his nostrils the “breath of life,” and it was then that man became a living soul. The dust was still there, but something else was not present. The image of God was now present.

But that image was soon to be marred. Despite the warning of God that if he ate the forbidden fruit he would “surely die,” our first father disobeyed, and in the curse was dragged back down to the dust of the ground. “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return” (Gen. 3:19).

The Text

“For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised: And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins” (1 Cor. 15:16–17).

Summary of the Text

God brought Adam out of a state of “death” when He first created him. Adam was not, and then he was. He walked with God in the Garden, and was free to eat from all the trees but one, and so had free access to the tree of life. He and his bride were really and truly alive. When they sinned, they plunged themselves and all their posterity into the dust of death. In our text this death is equated with being in our sins. That is what spiritual death is—separation from fellowship with the holy God. And that is what sin is—separation from fellowship with the holy God.

Notice Paul’s logic. If the dead are not raised, then Christ was not raised. And if Christ was not raised, your faith is vain, and you are still in your sins. Now if you put all this together, you should see that when Christ was raised from the dead, and we were raised from the dead with and in Him, we were also at that moment raised from our sins. Our sins are our death; our death was our sinfulness.

The Death That Is Sin

This is how Paul describes our previous condition in Ephesians:

“And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others” (Eph. 2:1–3, NKJV).

Notice here that death does not mean being “stone cold out of it” because when we were in this condition of death, we were walking around in the course of this world. When we were dead, we were living in a certain way. That way, that path, was the way of death, which meant that we were walking in a condition that was separation from God. So death is not simple cessation; death is separation. Physical death is the separation of soul and body. Spiritual death is the separation of man and God. When we die to the ways of the world, we separate from her unholy ways. “Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you” (2 Cor. 6:17).

So that is what death is. Death is distance, death is separation.

We used to live in a separated way from God, aliens to Him, enemies to Him. Christ came down to us in that condition, and in His passion and death, He experienced that death. “My strength is dried up like a potsherd; And my tongue cleaveth to my jaws; And thou hast brought me into the dust of death” (Ps. 22:15).

So Flip This Around, the Way Easter Did

Look again to the words of our text, and work the logic the other direction.

“For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised: And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins” (1 Cor. 15:16–17).

If the dead are raised, then it is not remarkable that Christ was the first to be raised. And if Christ was raised, then your faith in Him is not in vain, and more than this, you are no longer in your sins.

Ushered Out

Apart from Christ, what is the condition of man? Apart from Christ, where are we? Separated from God, what good is anything? We are the ones who reached for the forbidden fruit in our vain question to “be as God,” and what did we actually accomplish?

Now we live in the dry and choking places. Dust over everything. Broken bottles. The air is sour. The smoke of selfishness has left an acrid taste on your tongue. The walls lean in. There is scarcely any light. Ghostly shadows flicker faintly on the curtains, but they don’t mean anything. Nothing moves. The only sound we can ever hear is our own muttering, the bootless sound of endless complaint.

And in the middle of all of this dusty death, Christ suddenly appears. He speaks to the wall opposite you, and it vanishes. It had seemed immoveable and untouchable, and yet it just vanished. Christ turns to you, and speaks one simple word, and that word is come.

This is the day of resurrection. So what will you do?

This is Easter Sunday. Will you follow Him?

Today is the day of all reckoning. Christ embraced death. Christ descended to the grave. Christ has risen triumphant. That is the good word. That is the gospel. What do you intend to do?

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Sin & Dust (Easter A.D. 2020)

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Introduction

In the Garden of Eden, when God shaped the first man from the dust of the ground (Gen. 2:7), the Almighty was simply playing the part of a sculptor. He shaped Adam from the dust of the ground, but until the second half of the verse, this Adam was simply dust rearranged. After the semblance of a man had been fashioned out of dust, God breathed into his nostrils the “breath of life,” and it was then that man became a living soul. The dust was still there, but something else was not present. The image of God was now present.

But that image was soon to be marred. Despite the warning of God that if he ate the forbidden fruit he would “surely die,” our first father disobeyed, and in the curse was dragged back down to the dust of the ground. “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return” (Gen. 3:19).

The Text

“For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised: And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins” (1 Cor. 15:16–17).

Summary of the Text

God brought Adam out of a state of “death” when He first created him. Adam was not, and then he was. He walked with God in the Garden, and was free to eat from all the trees but one, and so had free access to the tree of life. He and his bride were really and truly alive. When they sinned, they plunged themselves and all their posterity into the dust of death. In our text this death is equated with being in our sins. That is what spiritual death is—separation from fellowship with the holy God. And that is what sin is—separation from fellowship with the holy God.

Notice Paul’s logic. If the dead are not raised, then Christ was not raised. And if Christ was not raised, your faith is vain, and you are still in your sins. Now if you put all this together, you should see that when Christ was raised from the dead, and we were raised from the dead with and in Him, we were also at that moment raised from our sins. Our sins are our death; our death was our sinfulness.

The Death That Is Sin

This is how Paul describes our previous condition in Ephesians:

“And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others” (Eph. 2:1–3, NKJV).

Notice here that death does not mean being “stone cold out of it” because when we were in this condition of death, we were walking around in the course of this world. When we were dead, we were living in a certain way. That way, that path, was the way of death, which meant that we were walking in a condition that was separation from God. So death is not simple cessation; death is separation. Physical death is the separation of soul and body. Spiritual death is the separation of man and God. When we die to the ways of the world, we separate from her unholy ways. “Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you” (2 Cor. 6:17).

So that is what death is. Death is distance, death is separation.

We used to live in a separated way from God, aliens to Him, enemies to Him. Christ came down to us in that condition, and in His passion and death, He experienced that death. “My strength is dried up like a potsherd; And my tongue cleaveth to my jaws; And thou hast brought me into the dust of death” (Ps. 22:15).

So Flip This Around, the Way Easter Did

Look again to the words of our text, and work the logic the other direction.

“For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised: And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins” (1 Cor. 15:16–17).

If the dead are raised, then it is not remarkable that Christ was the first to be raised. And if Christ was raised, then your faith in Him is not in vain, and more than this, you are no longer in your sins.

Ushered Out

Apart from Christ, what is the condition of man? Apart from Christ, where are we? Separated from God, what good is anything? We are the ones who reached for the forbidden fruit in our vain question to “be as God,” and what did we actually accomplish?

Now we live in the dry and choking places. Dust over everything. Broken bottles. The air is sour. The smoke of selfishness has left an acrid taste on your tongue. The walls lean in. There is scarcely any light. Ghostly shadows flicker faintly on the curtains, but they don’t mean anything. Nothing moves. The only sound we can ever hear is our own muttering, the bootless sound of endless complaint.

And in the middle of all of this dusty death, Christ suddenly appears. He speaks to the wall opposite you, and it vanishes. It had seemed immoveable and untouchable, and yet it just vanished. Christ turns to you, and speaks one simple word, and that word is come.

This is the day of resurrection. So what will you do?

This is Easter Sunday. Will you follow Him?

Today is the day of all reckoning. Christ embraced death. Christ descended to the grave. Christ has risen triumphant. That is the good word. That is the gospel. What do you intend to do?

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Palm Sunday A.D. 2020

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Matthew 21:1–11, Psalm 118

1-7 The King Enters Jerusalem

Jesus had visited Jerusalem many times before, but this was to be his last visit prior to his arrest. And when he entered, he entered on the back of a donkey, in fulfillment of an Old Testament prophecy.

It is important to understand that in biblical literature the donkey was actually a sign of kingship. This goes all the way back to Jacob’s dying prophecy over Judah (Gen. 49:10-11). And throughout Scripture we continually see kings riding donkeys. Remember when David publicly announced that his son Solomon was to be the new king of Israel, he demonstrated this by parading Solomon through Jerusalem on the back of the king’s donkey (1 Kings 1:38, for other examples of rulers riding on donkeys see Judges 5:10, 10:4, 12:14). So it make sense that Zechariah would prophesy that the new king of Israel would arrive in Jerusalem on a donkey, a king who would exercise universal dominion (Zech. 9:9-10).

8-11 Hosanna

This next bit gets particularly hard to understand. The people lay branches in the road before Jesus as he enters Jerusalem, and they cry out “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” This seems like a bizarre way to behave. But to understand what is happening here, you need to understand Psalm 118 and that is not easy.

Psalm 118

Psalm 118 is like a confused dream if you just read it by itself. But when you hold it up to the rest of Scripture, especially to the life of Christ, and especially to his triumphal entry, then instead of being this confused dream, it turns into an answer key that helps to make everything else make sense.

Feast of Booths

Remember that in Old Testament Israel there were three pilgrim feasts – Passover, Pentecost, and Booths. At all three of these celebrations, the Jews would sing the Hallel – Psalms 113-118. And as part of the Feast of Booths, the Jews would bring their lullavim, made from the branches of the fruitful trees of Israel, and cast their lullavim onto the altar, while reciting Psalm 118:25. The cry “save now” in Hebrew is Hosanna!

So the people were taking the pieces of their celebration of the Feast of Booths and were applying this ceremony to Jesus. What they had celebrated as a type and a shadow they were now able to actually celebrate in its reality.

The Cornerstone

In verses 22-24, the Psalmist describes a rejected cornerstone, describing the very humble beginning of a building project. This is likely why bits of this Psalm are picked up to celebrate the laying of the foundation of the second temple (Ezra 3:11-13). But in a very early Jewish tradition this passage is understood as referring to David’s selection as king over all his brothers. And so you see all of these elements picked up in Jesus’ triumphal entry.

The Rejection

Over the next several chapters the Jewish leaders (Pharisees, Sadducees, Herodians, the chief priests, and the scribes) all make clear their final rejection of Jesus’ teaching. He makes this the point of his parable of the wicked vinedressers (21:42-45, quoting Ps. 118:22-23). And again, after completing denunciation of the Jewish leadership in Matthew 23, he concludes with 23:38-39 (quoting Psalm 118:26).

Conclusion

One of the greatest vices of the evangelical church over the past century has been our bad habit of attempting to read our Bibles in light of our current events, instead of the other way around, which is to read our current events in light of our Bible. In Scripture you have a firm and certain word. In the world around you, as we have right now, you have a raucous multitude driven by whatever emotion has worked its way to the top of their esophagus. If you go from that raging emotion to Scripture you will have no end of confusion. But if you start with the clear testimony of Scripture you will find that you suddenly have your feet on an immovable rock.

So let’s start with Scripture and the promises of Psalm 118. These things have been promised to us and for us to be obedient means reading our current situation in light of this text.

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State of the Church 2020

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Introduction

The Lord has been blessing our congregation in many striking ways. We have been growing in remarkable ways, and an essential part of this growth entails the inevitable growing pains. Quite a few of you just moved to our community within the last year, and it may seem to you that you have jumped into the middle of a conversation that has been going on for forty years. But some of you newcomers might be puzzled over something else. Where you came from felt like a wilderness to you, and so you would devour all kinds of things that would come out of Moscow, and then when you arrived here, you found yourself more checked out about what is going on than some of the people who have lived here for years. Life is funny.

The Text

“And Samuel took a sucking lamb, and offered it for a burnt offering wholly unto the Lord: and Samuel cried unto the Lord for Israel; and the Lord heard him. And as Samuel was offering up the burnt offering, the Philistines drew near to battle against Israel: but the Lord thundered with a great thunder on that day upon the Philistines, and discomfited them; and they were smitten before Israel. And the men of Israel went out of Mizpeh, and pursued the Philistines, and smote them, until they came under Beth-car. Then Samuel took a stone, and set it between Mizpeh and Shen, and called the name of it Eben-ezer, saying, Hitherto hath the Lord helped us” (1 Sam. 7:9–12).

Summary of the Text

On the threshold of battle, the prophet Samuel interceded on behalf of Israel, with a sacrifice and intense prayer, and the Lord heard him (v. 9). In the very moment of offering up the ascension offering, or whole burnt offering, the Philistines approached the Israelites to do battle (v. 10). But the Lord responded from heaven with loud thunder, so much so that the Philistines were thrown into confusion and Israel overcame them (v. 11). The men of Israel seized control of the situation and drove the Philistines back as far as place called Beth Car (v. 11). In response, Samuel in his gratitude set up a monument stone, and named it Ebenezer, saying that the Lord had helped them to “this point” (v. 12). The word Ebenezer literally means “stone of help.”

Earlier in the narrative, when the Ark of the Covenant had been captured by the Philistines, they took the ark from the place called Ebenezer to their city of Ashdod. This lost battle was a humiliation to Israel, and an indicator of their idolatrous faithlessness. Twenty years later, Samuel called Israel to return to God with all their hearts (1 Sam. 7:3), which they did. God granted them this victory, which Samuel memorialized, and the hand of the Lord was against the Philistines all the days of Samuel (1 Sam. 7:13).

Here I raise my Ebenezer
Hither by Thy help I’ve come
(Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing)

Our Ebenezer

I would like this message to serve as an introduction for our “new members,” and a reminder for our old timers. Our congregation is alive and thriving, and there were many occasions when it all might have gone otherwise. Thus far the Lord really has helped us. We have no right to still be here.

The Centrality of Worship

We believe that the most important thing that any of us can do in the course of a week is to appear here before the Lord. “Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve [worship] God acceptably with reverence and godly fear: For our God is a consuming fire” (Heb. 12:28–29).

The Interconnectedness of All Things

But worship is not a disconnected important thing, like a diamond in a load of driveway gravel. Rather it is central and connected to absolutely everything else we do—the way the engine is central to the function of the car. “And he is before all things, and by him all things consist” (Col. 1:17). We believe that all things in the universe are related to one another, and they are related in Christ. In fact, the only reason why the universe can even be a universe is because of Christ. God is sovereign and therefore Christ is Lord.

Three Governments

Self-government—which is the fruit of regeneration—is foundational to every other form of God-given government. Those three other governments are the government of the family (Gen. 2:18), the government of the church (Eph. 4:11-12), and the government of the state (Rom. 13:1-2). The state is the ministry of justice. The church is the ministry of Word and sacrament. The family is the ministry of health, education, and welfare. Among other things, this means that you and your family all belong here at worship.

Chestertonian Calvinism

We are followers of Christ alone, and so it may seem odd to describe one of the attitudes that we are seeking to cultivate by using the names of two of the Lord’s more notable servants. But that is all that it is—odd. “Then he said unto them, Go your way, eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared: for this day is holy unto our Lord: neither be ye sorry; for the joy of the Lord is your strength” (Neh. 8:10). Joy is not just an attitude we have going into the fray. That joy is one of our most formidable weapons.

All of Christ for All of Life

If there is one most noticeable thing that is missing in our lost generation, it is the fact of identity. They have had almost all of their old established (and idolatrous) identities smashed, and now are reduced to making up their own ad hoc identities as they go along. To this we answer, not with “traditional values,” but rather with the message of the crucified and risen Christ.

He is the risen one, and therefore the Lord of all. He is Lord extensively, and He is Lord intensively. There is therefore nothing in this cosmos that He did not extend His scepter over. Our task is to fan out and claim it.

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Part 4: A Theology of Christmas Presents

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Introduction

In the light of all the foregoing, we should therefore not be surprised when we find we must affirm the goodness of the material world. This should be obvious, but tragically many Christians find it easy to slip off the point. When the Creator God created and fashioned everything, it was His good pleasure to declare it all good or very good (Gen. 1:4, 10, 12, 18, 21, 25, and 31). In the second place, the Incarnation of Christ was a permanent reality. The second person of the Trinity took on flesh (Jn. 1:14) and dwelt among us. He will be Immanuel always. He is our priest forever, making intercession for us always (Heb. 7:25). And third, we were not promised immortal souls, but rather a resurrection from the dead. We will be embodied creatures forever (1 Cor. 15:12).

The Text

“Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me” (Phil. 4:11–13).

Summary of the Text

The apostle Paul is thanking the Philippians for the financial support they had sent to him, but he hastens to add that he would have been alright regardless (v. 10). He was content before their gift arrived, and he was grateful and content after it had done so (v. 11). This is something that the apostle had to learn, and we may be assured that we must learn it also. But then when he starts to explain the lesson, we see how much we have to learn. He had to learn in both directions, and we tend to assume that we only have to learn in one direction. Paul had learned to be abased and he had learned how to abound (v. 12). He was instructed on how to be full and how to be hungry (v. 12). He had learned to abound and to suffer want (v. 12). He can do all things through Christ, the one who gives him strength (v. 13).

We think we need lessons for our afflictions, of course, but we assume that we have abundance nailed. We have that down. But I am afraid we do not. We must still learn contentment when we have never had it so good, and simply going without won’t teach us that.

Two Basic Errors

On the one hand is the error of the “health and wealth” preachers, those who say that godliness should be an automatic path to wealth (1 Tim. 6:5-6). On the other hand are an abundance of suspicious gnostic teachers, who despise the material world. If you let a devil teach you, what will he teach? “Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth. For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving” (1 Tim. 4:3–4).

“Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not highminded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy” (1 Tim. 6:17).

Learning Gladness and Gratitude Is No Trifle

“Because thou servedst not the Lord thy God with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart, for the abundance of all things; Therefore shalt thou serve thine enemies which the Lord shall send against thee, in hunger, and in thirst, and in nakedness, and in want of all things: and he shall put a yoke of iron upon thy neck, until he have destroyed thee” (Deut. 28:47–48).

When Israel went down in defeat before her enemies, why was this? When Israel was hauled off into exile, what was their sin? Their sin was an inability to rejoice in their stuff in the presence of God. The carnal heart cannot bring those two things together. The carnal heart wants to come to church and give the good Lord His due, and then sneak off to enjoy whatever idolatrous tidbits it can off on the side. But God will have none of it. He wants us to come before Him and rejoice in what He has given us there.

Faith is the Eye

But we are not to look at our faith through our goods. Rather we look at all our goods through faith. Faith is what sees. Faith is the eye. What we have, or do not have, is what we are supposed to see in faith.

Faith does handle adversity well. But faith also handles affluence well. We mark the great heroes of the faith for their accomplishments, some of which the world would call success and some of which the world would call humiliating defeat. What do we call it and why? We call it whatever faith teaches us to call it.

Sometimes faith subdues kingdoms, works righteousness, obtains promises, stops the mouths of lions, quenches fire, escapes the sword, grows strong when weak, became valiant in war, repulsed invaders, and received the dead back to life (Heb. 11:33-35a). And other times faith is tortured, mocked, scourged, imprisoned, stoned, sawn in two, tempted, slaughtered with the sword, wandered in the wilderness, impoverished, afflicted, tormented, and living in caves (Heb. 11:35b-38).

O So Merry and Bright

And so this is something we all of us must learn. The material world is good. The material world is very good. The stupidity of our sinfulness tried to wreck it, but despite our best efforts, has not succeeded. The world is broken, but still with plenty of goodness to go around. And the main thing that is wrong with it—look in the mirror—has been put to rights in the sacrifice of Christ on the cross. He did that so that we might be recreated in His image.

“Then he said unto them, Go your way, eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared: for this day is holy unto our Lord: neither be ye sorry; for the joy of the Lord is your strength” (Neh. 8:10).

So as you bake, and as you shop, and as you wrap, and as you smuggle contraband into the house, and as you decorate the tree, and as you set the table, and as you invite people over, and as you deliver cookies to friends, and as you tighten your belts this year, and as you give a lavish gift that is ten percent beyond wise, and as laugh over dinner, and as you come here to sing carols, remember that Christ is in all of it. All of Christ for all of life. As the poem by Hopkins has it, Christ plays in ten thousand places.

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