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The Warning of Justice Sermon Series: Obadiah Ryan DB Kimmel Lead Pastor Peace Church Main Passage: Obadiah 10-18 Transcript Today is the day that the Lord has made. So let us rejoice and be glad in it. And everyone said with all your hearts, Amen. The election is over. Praise be to the Lord on high. I will be completely honest with you. I was getting real tired of it. I'll get real sick of it. I did not become a minister of the gospel of Jesus to talk about that. I became a pastor to preach Jesus and His kingdom come. And yes, to talk about the kingdom and how it works in this world, you have to talk about the affairs of this world and what is going on. And we do not get to choose the time that we live in. We don't get to choose the world events that are happening around us. We just choose to speak into them or not. And many Christians, many Christians spoke up during this previous election. But I have to wonder if we sent the right message. I say that because it wasn't the best week of my life, to be honest with you. Got a lot of messages online from people who are hurting. And the old saying is, hurt people hurt people. Let hurt people lash out. And got a lot of that. And I'll kind of summarize it with what one person said. I'm kind of synthesizing, but I'll use language they said. One person said, this election showed me that Christians actually can get motivated by what they believe in. I've never seen them do it for Jesus like I've seen them do it for Donald Trump. I guess I know where their faith truly lies. Now listen, you can debate that and push back on that all the live long day. But here's what I'll say to you. If you'll put a Trump sign in your yard, but not a join us for Easter sign. If you will share a political post on social media, but not one from the church. If you know how to defend Trump's civil cases, but you don't know how to defend the historicity of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, then all I'm saying is that maybe those people aren't completely off their rocker for saying these things. So let me say this to us, Christians in the house. Do we live our faith by the love of God? Amen. Say amen if you believe that. Do you believe that we are to live our faith out in a holy fear before God's reverence? Say amen if so. Say amen if you also believe that we are to live out our faith with immense hope in what is to come. Amen. And I say amen to that too. And one of the places we see all three of those coalesce is in this little book called Obadiah. Now, I call it little because if you were here with us last week, then you'll know that it is not little. It is the shortest book of all the Old Testament. So, please turn in your Bibles to the book of Obadiah. If you want to use the Bibles we provided, please do that. That's on page 891. Now to clarify, Obadiah is so short it has no chapters. It only has verses. And we're going to be looking at verses 10 to 18 today. Now, there's an incredible context in history going around this prophet. Can't get into all of it. Go back and listen to last week's message if you want to know more about that. But let me just try to summarize what's going on here with this prophet. So Obadiah is a prophet, gets a message from God that he is to share with a specific nation, the kingdom of Edom. See, God calls them out for what they've become and what they've done. Last week we saw and talked about what they've become. They became a prideful nation. And you know what pride is? Pride is saying to God, I don't need you. Pride is saying to God, my ways are better than your ways. That's what this nation had become. They had become prideful. And if that wasn't enough, there was actual an event. There was a thing that happened. They did something that was the catalyst for this prophecy to be given. As we look at this simple theme here today, the warning of justice. Now what's justice? Justice is setting things right. We say in America that we long for justice. I just wonder, do we know what we're actually asking for? So here's the story, what happened? So they became prideful, but what have they done? Here's the context, here's the quick story. Jerusalem has been conquered by Babylon. Babylon has come in, decimated the kingdom, decimated the city, and they brought the people into exile, and they were forcing them to live now as Babylonians in Babylon. This is a world history event. You can look this up. This happened in 586 BC, and all the while that's happening all the while that Babylon is coming in and decimating God's people Edom does two things. Edom as a reminder is a neighboring country to Israel. Edom is also the ancestral brothers of the Israelites. They have a special lineage together but Edom does is nothing. They stand by and they watch what's happening. But then, then they do something else. Then after the devastation happens, then Edom goes in and like crows, they pick and they steal the leftovers, and if that wasn't enough, the other thing they do is they find any of the survivors of Jerusalem and Judah, and they round them up and they bring them and give them over to Babylon. And God is saying, that's it, I've had enough, and he brings the hammer down on Edom. And so with that, we're going to read verses 10 to 18 today. If you are able, would you please stand for the reading of God's word. Would you hear the word of the Lord, the prophet Obadiah, verses 10 to 18. Obadiah 10-18 10 Because of the violence done to your brother Jacob, shame shall cover you, mand you shall be cut off forever. 11 On the day that you stood aloof, on the day that strangers carried off his wealth and foreigners entered his gates and cast lots for Jerusalem, you were like one of them. 12 But do not gloat over the day of your brother in the day of his misfortune; rdo not rejoice over the people of Judah in the day of their ruin; do not boast in the day of distress. 13 Do not enter the gate of my people in the day of their calamity; do not gloat over his disaster in the day of his calamity; udo not loot his wealth in the day of his calamity. 14 Do not stand at the crossroads to cut off his fugitives; do not hand over his survivors in the day of distress. The Day of the Lord Is Near 15 For the day of the LORD is near upon all the nations. As you have done, it shall be done to you; your deeds shall return on your own head. 16 For as you have drunk on my holy mountain, so all the nations shall drink continually; they shall drink and swallow, and shall be as though they had never been. 17 But in Mount Zion there shall be those who escape, and it shall be holy, and the house of Jacob shall possess their own possessions. 18 The house of Jacob shall be a fire, and the house of Joseph a flame, and the house of Esau stubble; they shall burn them and consume them, and there shall be no survivor for the house of Esau, for the LORD has spoken. Amen. This is God's Word. Who's ready for some fire and brimstone today? Let's pray and we'll continue. Let's pray together first. Father, would you please send us your Holy Spirit to illuminate these words for us, words that have echoed throughout the ages, may they be a warning and a hope, for that these words may in some beautiful way drive us to know and love Jesus Christ all the more. For it is in His precious, perfect, and powerful name that we pray. And everyone said, Amen. Amen. Go ahead and have a seat. So church, this probably feels like a foreign passage with a foreign context, and there's no way that it can relate to any of us here today. But here's what I'd say to you. This is where we have to look beyond the surface, and when we do, we're going to find an eternal truth. And you know what eternal truth is? It's something beautiful that speaks to us not just right now, but in our own future. I'll just be honest with you for a moment. I became a Christian when I was 18 years old. I felt called to go to Bible college when I was 26. So from 18 to 26, I tried to figure out what God wanted me to do with my life, but I became a Christian, so during that time I looked for a church to attend, both in Michigan and I lived in Tennessee for a while as well, and I was looking for a church, but I'll tell you, one thing I really wanted, there's two things I was looking for in a church, and no, it wasn't good music. I wanted a church that I knew was gonna preach the gospel, but also teach the Bible. I wanted to know what the Bible actually meant, what it said. I definitely wanted to hear that my ultimate hope is in Jesus Christ, but I wanted to know how to read the Bible. Like, because I think what happens is we come to books like Obadiah, and we have no idea what's being said. And so we skip over books like that. And it's to our massive detriment because what is revealed in these books is so beautiful and profound. If we would just take a moment to understand the context. This is my big way of saying to you, we're gonna do some Bible teaching here today. Some of you are like, oh no. Some of you, hopefully, will appreciate this because I want you to understand what's going on here, what's being said. Obadiah is a prophetic poem and I understand sometimes the wording can be a little confusing but if we are patient, lean in, I think you'll see it's actually life-changing and very challenging. So we're gonna look at four things in this passage. Let's break it down into bite-sized pieces. As we look at this one main idea here today, it's this. God's justice is found in his judgments. So as we look at this notion, we're going to pick up four things as we dive into this text. God's justice is found in his judgments. First thing we'll look at is how God judges sin of omission. Then we're going to look at how God judges the sin of commission. Then we'll see how God judges sin to bring justice. And we'll wrap it up by looking at how God judges sin to bring restoration. So we're already behind, let's try to catch up. First thing, God judges sin of omission. So let's just clarify what we're talking about here. Omission is defined as a failure to do something, especially something that has a moral or legal obligation to do. Let me say it again, omission is defined as a failure to do something, especially something that has a moral or legal obligation to do. So here's what's happening. Jerusalem and the kingdom of Judah is attacked and Edom does nothing. My friends, listen to me. We think that we are safe from sin by not taking a side, and by trying to play some peacemaker that actually doesn't bring peace between two opposing sides. We need to know that God judges sin of omission. Listen here, God lays down a hard judgment upon the nation. Look at verse 10. Because of the violence done to your brother Jacob, remember, remember, Edom is the ancestral brother to Jacob. Jacob is the ancestral name of the Israelites So clarify because of the violence done to your brother Jacob the Israelites shame shall cover you and you shall be cut off forever I Became the lead pastor of Peace Church in 2020 I Wouldn't blame you if you've put that year out of your memory. Wonderful time for all of us, I'm sure you remember. I became the lead pastor during that time. And my very first lesson on day one was, welcome to a world where you cannot make a decision that will make everyone happy. Oh, I'm sorry, every leader already knows that. That's leadership. What we learned, especially during that time, was not only can you not make a decision that will make everyone happy, no matter what decision you make, there will be large groups of people who will be viscerally upset at you. That's the world that I became a leader in. And so when we look back at what's happening, what just happened, for me, I was like, yeah, this is the world. You can't make a decision without making an incredible swath of people vehemently upset with you. And that was proven true this past week when I got a number of messages sent to me personally that were everywhere from not kind to less than kind, put it that way, where people were very, very angry about the ways that we engaged the last number of months. And a lot of judgment, a lot of how dare you, a lot of I never want to see you again and I'm gonna block you. And we looked at this this moment that we were in and I'll just tell you I looked at the moment we're gonna speak into. We don't know the future. We're gonna learn from our mistakes because we made some, but I looked back and I said I don't want to I don't want to commit the sin of omission. There's too much going on here. Thank you. So we come to verses like this, you don't get off the hook just by speaking into it. You don't get off the hook just by not committing the sin of omission. So let's continue. This hopefully will make more sense in a moment. Jerusalem is attacked and Edom stands by and does nothing and God says to them, you shall be cut off forever. Here's the lesson. Here's the great hard lesson. did nothing and it cost them everything. And I'd rather speak into the moments and have to learn from our mistakes than not. James chapter four verse 17 says, whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin. God judges sin, even the sin of omission. I didn't feel like we could sit this one out. I don't ever necessarily feel like that. We have to speak up, we have a message to share, we have a part to play, and we need to play that part. Verse 11 goes on to say, this is where God really presses in, He says, On that day you stood aloof. You stood there like clowns, you stood there like bozos not doing anything. On the day that strangers carried off his wealth, meaning Babylon came in and carried off everything. His wealth is just using personal pronouns to talk about the kingdom of Judah and Jerusalem. The Babylon stole everything. God goes on to say, and foreigners entered his gates and cast lots for Jerusalem. Meaning foreign invaders came in and decimated them. And if that wasn't enough, they sat there and played games to see who would get the plunder. And then God says to Edom, and this is the thing that's, I think, probably the hardest phrase in this entire passage. And then God says to Edom, you were like one of them. This is hard. This is hard when we think that we are innocent when we stand by and do nothing. It's hard when we think that we'll stand by and do nothing, we can keep our hands clean, but God is like, if you don't get into the fight when evil abounds, then you are just as evil. This forces us to ask, what are we doing? What are we doing, how are we responding? Even more than just this political moment that we are in that will come and go, do you understand the great evil that's happening in this world? How are we responding? Little girls right now are being trafficked in Thailand with unspeakable things happening. What are we doing? Christians all over the world, let's just look at Africa, Christians are being slaughtered for simply bearing the name of Christ. What are we doing? Fighting over who's going to be president of our wonderful country? Now listen, this is not to pit this against things like proclaim and us expanding the building. I understand there are very cynical people out there that say, oh, you're just spending money on sticks and bricks. No, we're not. We're creating a space where we can be more effective in our ministry so that more people can know and love Jesus and so that more people can be part of His gospel redemptive work in this world. That's why we're doing this, because we want to see more people engaged in the fight. But we have to ask ourselves, what are you doing? When evil abounds, how can we just stand by? God says, you were like one of them. And then God says this because God judges the sin of omission. That may be a surprise to us, but this next one surely isn't. God judges the sin of commission. So if omission is the act of not doing what you should, then commission is the act of doing what you should not. So let me I want to point something out. I want to say something. We're going to pin it against the wall. We're going to do a Bible study and we're going to come back to it. OK, so here, hear me. God judges Edom not simply for failure to live according to a moral code or or some vague sense of love. God judges them not just on principle but on particulars. Okay? Now let's pin that to the wall. We'll come back to it in a second. Let's look at verses 12 to 14. In verses 12 to 14 we have three verses but eight charges against Edom's actions. These statements may seem like prohibitions when we read them but you have to understand this is a prophetic poem that Obadiah is reciting and so these are not just future things, these are indictments of things that Edom has actually done. Look at verse 12. "'Do not gloat over the day of your brother, and the day of his misfortune.'" Again, pointing to the ancestral brotherhood between Edom and the Israelites. Edom was the descendants of Esau, the Israelites were descendants of Jacob, Jacob and Esau were twins. That's why God says, "'Your brother.'" He's saying, you have tied, you have a hot shared history together. How could you not stand up when they were being attacked? Our verse continues. Do not rejoice over the people of Judah. Again, Judah was the Israelites of the Southern kingdom. Do not rejoice over the people of Judah in the day of their ruin. Do not boast in the day of their distress. There is no boasting or gloating to more specific acts they've done. Look at verse 13. Do not enter the gate of my people in the day of their calamity. Do not gloat over his disaster in the day of his calamity. Do not loot his wealth in the day of his calamity. As we mentioned, Babylon comes in, destroys the kingdom, but Edom, like a bunch of rats, goes in after the dust has settled, picks up the leftovers, and then their evil goes to the next level. Look at verse 14. Do not stand at the crossroads to cut off his fugitives. Again, his fugitives, meaning the remnant of Judah that had escaped from Babylon. It continues, do not hand over his survivors in the day of distress. Because here's what was happening. Edom had rounded up the remaining people and then gave them over to Babylon. This is just wicked stuff. Do you know what this is? This is tried and true, old-fashioned human trafficking, among the most evil things that humans can take part of. And so, there's a lesson being here that I really want to make sure that we're clear on. I think it's very, very important, not just for our day and age, but for our cultural moment that we are in right now. It's that thing I pinned up against the wall. Let's bring it down and let's talk about this. Earlier I had said, God judges Edom, not simply for the failure to live according to a moral code or some vague sense of love. God judges them, not just on principle, but on particulars. This is important, and I think many of us are missing this right now. We forget this. Right now, right now especially, I hear a lot of calls to love your neighbor and a lot of calls saying we just have to love. Here's the danger in this, because there is a danger. Here's the danger in this. We can't take that principle to just love and then live that out however we want, thinking that we are all good as long as it's done in the quote-unquote name of love. God has given us clear mandates in a biblical morality and he has prohibited certain behaviors and lifestyles and practices and we can't ignore this and just go around saying, well, we're just supposed to love one another. We can't do that and then think that we are safe from God's judgments. Why? Because we can't live just by principle. We have to live by particulars. Hear me clearly. We cannot live just by compassion. We have to live by God's commandments. Because what we do with compassion is we kind of redefine it to make it culturally appropriate for our day and age. When God has given us a standard that surpasses all human culture, society, and opinion. And this is because, let me remind you, God's vision for the world and for our lives is better than our vision and hope for the world. The reason God judges sin is not because he's mean, bigoted, or hateful. God judges it in order to bring about his justice, which is the third point. God judges sin to bring justice. So God brings judgment upon Edom, but not just Edom, but to all nations. Verse 15, for the day of the Lord is near upon all the nations. So the day of the Lord is a great day of reckoning. Israel had theirs. Judah had theirs, Edom will soon have theirs, and actually history shows us Babylon will have theirs. Because we must remember, it does not matter if you believe in God or not, there is a God in heaven who is working out his plan in this world and he will execute judgment. Why? And why is this good? Because this reminds us that there is a standard of right and wrong that goes beyond human opinion, beyond human culture, or beyond popular vote. It's His judgment and His justice we are going to face. And God warns us in a very unique way. Look at verse 15. God says, as you have done, it shall be done to you. Your deeds shall return on your own head. This is real simple, my friends. This is real simple. Because Jesus summarizes this so well. Jesus says, do unto others as you'd have them do unto you. We all know that, right? You know the golden rule, do unto others. Do you know why Jesus says that? Is it because he's trying to foster an environment of love and a culture of love? No. Jesus tells us why he says do unto others as you'd have them do unto you. Why? Because with the judgment you used, it will be used upon you. And here's how God puts it in this Obadiah. Let's check out verse 16 and then we'll talk about it because it can be a little confusing if you're not familiar with Old Testament language, but it's really powerful. Look at verse 16. For as you eat them, for as you have drunk on my holy mountain so all the nations shall drink continually they shall drink and swallow and Shall be as though they have never been All right, let's take this apart. Make sure that we're clear. God says for as you have drunk on my holy mountain What's that? Well, that's that's Jerusalem Jerusalem is 2500 feet above sea level by comparison Grand Rapids is 700 feet. So Jerusalem is very high. Meaning it's like God is saying, Edom, you came in and gloated over the destruction of my people and add to that, you celebrated in my own city. For as you have drunk on my holy mountain, then God says this, so the nations shall drink continually. So now follow this. God poetically takes this imagery of drinking as in a sinful celebration and turns it about how they're going to drink continually. What is going on here? And this is where we need to understand biblical imagery. To drink in this sense is to drink the cup of God's wrath, His judgments. This is why Jesus says in the garden right before He's crucified, He says, Lord, let this cup pass from me because Jesus was about to drink the cup of God's wrath, the cup that we should have drunk. God is saying this is coming for you, Edom, you and all the nations. And then we see God double down to make it abundantly clear. They shall drink and swallow. What God is saying is you will soon understand what you have done. You will soon taste the wickedness and the bitterness of what you've done, and my wrath will come with you, except you will not be able to spit this out. There will be a point of no return. You will drink it and you will swallow it, because God's judgment and his justice is complete and final. And then we see this, we see where it leads to. They shall drink and swallow and shall be as though they have never been." Because that's where God's wrath ultimately leads, utter destruction. I told you it would be fire and brimstone today. Historically, we know this happens. Historically, this is prophecy fulfilled. Jerusalem was invaded by Babylon in 586 BC, remember that for your Bible test later. Then Edom comes in for a final looting, turns the survivors over to Babylon, but Edom is soon going to find out that they were just feeding the lion that was going to kill them. Because 30 years after that in 553 AD, Babylon invades and completely destroys Edom. Destroys them to the point where they will never rise again. But remember, this prophecy extends to Babylon as well. For less than 15 years after that, Babylon is destroyed by Persia, led by King Cyrus. And side note, for those of you who went to Sunday school, you may remember biblical history. What we're talking about now all coincided with the time of Daniel. We have to remember the end of this verse, and shall be as though they have never been. This is prophecy fulfilled. Edom is no more. Babylon is no more. But you know from Biblical history and from world history that Persia, after they can't conquer Babylon, they allow the Jews to return home to Jerusalem and rebuild. It's Edom and Babylon who were wiped away forever, but God's people remain. Edom and Babylon were the ones who were wiped away, and all we have left from them now is some carved out caves and broken pottery. And this is because God is clearing a way for something new to happen. God judges sin to bring about justice. Justice is setting things right because it leads to this. God's justice leads to restoration. So God judges sin to bring about restoration. So after laying out his judgment and his pronouncement upon Edom and the nations, God turns back to his people and reminds them that even in their devastation, there is still hope. Look at verse 17. But in Mount Zion, there will be those who escape and it shall be holy. So Mount Zion here often refers to Jerusalem, but it could also mean spiritually God's presence. So it could be referring to a future time where Jerusalem is restored, which we know has happened, or Obadiah is simply saying that if you stay in the presence of God, you will find peace and restoration. But here's what I'd say to you, if you kind of got lost in that. The idea here is less about specifics and more about contrast. The other nations nations conquered God's city but will forever be destroyed because of it. Whereas God's people were conquered but they will forever be restored even though this happens. And that's what we see in the next verse here. And the house of Jacob shall possess his own possessions that which was stolen from them will be restored. Remember Jacob is the name, the renaming of Israel who becomes the father of all Israel. So the house of Jacob just means God's people. Those who have been destroyed and their stuff stolen, restoration and reclamation is coming. Okay, there you go. That was a whole load of a lot of meat and potatoes, Bible teaching for you there. And you are fair and right, and I want you to ask, okay, 2,500 years later, what does this even mean for us? Who cares? Why did I get out of bed for this? Pastor, I wanted you to talk about the election today. My friend, I have so much more for you than just a simple cultural moment in the history of America. I have an eternal plan that I want to share with you that God is inviting us to be a part of. My friends, you are, you know, but Obadiah, you are seeing prophecy fulfilled and there's good news even in this. What this passage reminds us of is that even if your life falls apart, even if your life falls apart to the point where you feel like nothing is left, if you remain in God, there is always hope. Never forget this. Hope for a better day, and though the road may be rough and painful and maybe even evil, remember in Mount Zion, there shall be those who escape and it shall be called holy. Our Mount Zion is no longer a place that we go to to find God's presence. We now have the true Mount Zion in Jesus Christ, for He is our rock. He came in the power of the Spirit who sends us the Spirit that we might go and share this message with a world that is clearly still broken. And for God's people, we will always bring a contrast. You know you are outside of God's will and outside of God's plan for the church when you no longer bring a contrast to the world. Look at this, verse 18, the house of Jacob shall be a fire and the house of Joseph a flame. Joseph being the son of Jacob just reminds us that God's people have a promise that goes to them and their descendants. But remember, Esau is the father of Edom. And the house of Esau, so all of Edom, will become stubble. They, meaning the house of Jacob and Joseph, they, God's people, shall burn them and consume them, and there shall be no survivors for the house of Esau, for the Lord has spoken." What's going on here? So God is saying to Edom, you think you've had the last laugh, but you will come to destruction and Israel will watch They will watch will happen to you because they will survive and you will not and with the words for the Lord has spoken We see God put his final stamp on this The pronouncement and the judgment has been made and while this is calamity for the nations. This means hope for God's people God's judgment upon Edom is a message to Israel that the evil that has been done to you will be undone to you. And the same goes for us. When Christ returns or when we go into his presence, the evil that has been done will be undone. That's the power of Jesus. That's the hope that we long for. No, we don't have nations that crush us, at least not right now. But what we do have is sin that crushes us. And from this, we should be the ones suffering the wrath of God. But Jesus stepped in and he took the cup of God's wrath from our hands and he drunk it himself so that we wouldn't face God's judgment. And yet so that we could still have God's justice. Because remember God's justice is found in his judgment. But for us what we understand is that we get God's justice because Jesus took God's judgment. Our Mount Zion isn't something we go to. Our Mount Zion is Christ who came to us. For the wrath was ours to drink, but Jesus drank it for us when he died upon the cross, being crushed for the sins that we have committed, so that we too can long for our hope of full restoration, where everything that is bad will become unbad Everything that is done and evil will be undone No, our promise is not a land that some at some place on the planet. We have something even better We can be restored not to a piece of property on planet earth. We are restored to God where we will feast forever on Mount Zion, which is in the presence of our Savior." That's the message we need to be longing for. That's the message that we present to the world. That's why we gather every single Sunday, not so you can hear a pastor spout off about all the wicked things going on in this world and tell you who to vote for. So we can all be reminded that we are to long for and look to Jesus Christ and Him alone. At the end of my days, when you gather for my funeral, please say, he lifted up one name before the world and it was the name Jesus. But here's a beautiful thing. While this gives us a shadow of what is yet to come, we can experience part of that now. And we do that here when we gather amongst brothers and sisters in Christ and we lift up songs of praise. So let me leave you with this final reminder. In Mount Zion, there will be those who escape, and it shall be holy. This is what God is making us to be holy, distinct in this world. Because one day, we will forever, truly, and fully be on Mount Zion. And that's when we enter into the presence of our Savior. Finally, fully, forever. Amen.

Sermon Discussion Questions 1 Title Sunday, October 13, 2024 Take Courage 2 Chronicles 15:1-7 Take Courage 2 Overview Main Idea: In a world turning from Him, God calls us to take courage in Him! Sermon Outline: 1. Stand in the Spirit (vv1-2) 2. Stand in the Contrast (vv3-7) 3 Pre-Questions In Mark 6:50 Jesus tells His disciples, “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.” What fears or challenges do you currently face where Jesus’ words could be comforting? How does recognizing Jesus’ presence in your life impact the way you deal with fears? 4 Questions Verse 2 of 2 Chronicles 15 warns, “But if you forsake Him, He will forsake you.” What does this teach us about the consequences of turning away from God? In what ways might people today forsake God, and what are the spiritual or emotional effects of this? King Asa responded to Azariah’s message with reforms (later in chapter 15). How can spiritual leaders today lead others toward faithfulness and renewal in God’s ways? In what practical ways can we - as a group - encourage one another to seek God more diligently and remain faithful even when faced with challenges? PDF Download

What is Revival? Video Teaching Jon Delger Jon Delger I Didn't Know I Needed the Church Jon Delger Coming Out of Catholicism | Session 2 Creating Meaningful Traditions Jon Delger Christianity and Politics: Q+A Jon Delger I Didn't Know I Needed the Bible Jon Delger Coming Out of Catholicism | Session 1 Jon Delger Withstand: How The Culture War Is A Spiritual Battle Jon Delger Christianity and Politics: Where Do We Go From Here? Jon Delger Coming Out of Catholicism | Q & A Kelly Needham | Women's Christmas Party People Pleasing Jon Delger Christianity and Politics: Are We a Christian Nation?

Killing the Characters: Mistake #1 in Teaching the Bible Ministry Shannon Popkin Author & Podcast Host Live Like It's True Podcast Published On: January 18, 2024 I didn’t go to seminary. I don’t have a Bible degree either. Yet most months, there are several times that I stand before a group of women with my Bible open, and offer a message of truth. It would be wonderful to enroll in a seminary class, but where would I find the time? My ministry calendar is bulging full. Can you relate? Now, I’m not saying I’m completely ill-equipped. I have been taught to study God’s Word, and I regularly experience the Spirit’s empowerment and guidance. I know I wouldn’t have any insight apart from Him. But sometimes when I prepare a message or stand up to share it, I have a vague sense that I’m making mistakes which could be avoided. And you know what? A while back, I found out I was right. Three Common Mistakes I had the privilege of attending a workshop where Jeff Manion , who taught at Ada Bible Church for over thirty years, shared three common mistakes Bible teachers make. As my page filled with notes during the workshop, I realized I was making all three! Yet I didn’t leave discouraged. I was excited! It was like having new tools in my hands, as I got back to work studying God’s Word and teaching it to others. I’ve already been amazed at the difference it makes to know about these pitfalls so that I can avoid them. Jeff graciously agreed to let me share these three common mistakes with you in a three part series which was first offered as a Revive Our Hearts Leaders’ Resource . Mistake #1: We Kill the Characters Perhaps it’s because we know that the Bible is inspired by God that we sometimes feel the freedom to wipe away the background stories of the Bible’s characters. For instance, we might teach a psalm without telling the backstory of the psalmist. Or we quote from Isaiah without mentioning the prophet, the people he spoke to, or their time in history. Or we teach the logical flow of a chapter in an epistle, but we fail to mention that this chapter is part of a letter, written by someone to a group of someones. I do this all the time. I’ll say: “In Philippians it says . . . ” Or, “God tells us in Romans 6 . . .” I would never do this when quoting from other books. I always mention the author and a little background, saying something like, “Here’s a quote from Jim Elliot, who was a missionary martyred by the Aucas . . . ” Or, “Listen to the words penned by hymnist Horatio Spafford after losing his daughters in a shipwreck . . . ” I think that maybe we kill the characters because we’re in too much of a rush. We see little overlap between the here-and-now lives of our people and the there-and-then lives of Bible people, so we rush ahead to the application. We want our listeners to hear directly from God—that’s the important part, so we put these characters from a different era and culture on mute. But in doing so, we vacuum away much of the richness and meaning packed around the words of the text. Yes, it’s true that God’s breath on these Bible words is what gives them living power! But God was pleased to use real people in real situations to unfold these truths. And if we’ll look carefully, we have far more in common with Bible people than we might expect. By allowing Bible characters to “live” and by inviting them to be part of the message we share, we provide our people with more depth of understanding and greater implications for their lives, not less. Here are a few examples. Example 1: To the Pastor of a Wealthy Church I’m pretty sure I’ve used this verse in every article, chapter, or message I’ve ever shared on the topic of generosity: As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy . ( 1 Tim. 6:17 , emphasis mine) But here’s the part I left out. I never mentioned that this verse was part of a letter written to Timothy, the young pastor at a church in Ephesus ( 1 Tim. 1:3 ). I also never mentioned anything about Ephesus being a trade city. Anything you wanted to buy, you could get it in Ephesus. Its excavated terrace houses were elaborately decorated with mosaic floors, ornate columns, and marble structures. And its Square Agora, which was surrounded on all four sides with double-colonnaded stoas, housed nearly one hundred shops. Since the Jesus-followers of Timothy’s church were definitely affected by the wealth of Ephesus, Paul was mentoring this young pastor on how to give guidance. For those of us who lead or mentor wealthy people, Paul is mentoring us also. Look back at 1 Timothy 6:17 and notice how Paul offers balance in the two words I put in bold. We’re to train our listeners to enjoy what God has blessed them with, but not put their hope in what they have. Example 2: The Song of a Grieved Parent I have quoted this verse many times, in my writing and teaching: You, O LORD, are a shield about me, my glory, and the lifter of my head. ( Ps. 3:3 ) But here’s the part I left out. This is a song written by King David, when he fled from his son Absalom. David deserted the palace in Jerusalem; He was away from home. His son had betrayed him, and his life was in danger. Imagine the devastation and shame David felt as Absalom publicly undermined and sought to kill his own father to get his position and possessions. As we serve our people, imagine how much richer the application becomes for the parent who has experienced a child’s betrayal. Perhaps someone’s son has left the faith and is living in a way that doesn’t even remotely reflect the way he was raised. Or perhaps another person’s daughter only remembers the mistakes her parents have made. She refuses to forgive and holds her parents in constant contempt, which she has gradually made more public. Or perhaps still another lost custody of her children. Her ex-husband has deceitfully stacked the evidence against her, and she’s trying to find her way through the fog of shame of what her neighbors think, now that the kids don’t live there anymore. Each of these listeners is wondering, “How am I to respond? What should I do with this grief and pain?” And here is the Bible’s response: a song, lifted by a parent whose eyes were filled with tears of grief and shame and fear. King David was at one of the lowest points in life, yet who was his shield? The Lord. Who was the lifter of his head? The Lord. This same Lord is the shield and lifter of the heads of our dear people as well. Keeping the Characters Alive In both of these examples, we could lift the words off the page and offer them to our listeners. They would still be the inspired words of God, and they could still offer guidance and hope. But by allowing the characters to speak, we give the verses the richness of context. Here are a few more tips for you, as you work to include Bible characters in your message prep: With the epistles, repeatedly draw your people back to the context. This is a letter with a writer and recipients. If you teach a series on the book of Philippians, then invite Paul and the church in Philippi to be part of every lesson—not just the introductory one. In Psalms, be sure to read the ascriptions at the beginning of the individual psalms. Find who wrote the song and when they wrote it. Study that part of the Bible’s history to understand it better. Suppose you’re teaching in the Old Testament, and you want to reference a verse from the New Testament. Spend a moment to add a little bit of context. You could say: I want you to hear from an inmate on this subject of contentment (then read from Philippians) Listen to what a man who spent three years with Jesus had to say about Him (then read from First or Second Peter) Here is what a man who had supernatural wisdom had to say (then read from Proverbs) Here is part of a song written by a brokenhearted father (then read from Psalm 3 ) I want you to hear a mentor’s advice to a young pastor (then read from First or Second Timothy) So are you ready to go open your Bible and get back to work? Whatever chapter you open to, remember not to kill the characters! We’d love to hear from you, with examples on how you’re putting this in practice. And check in next time for a second post on common mistakes we make when teaching the Bible. Read Mistake #2 in Teaching the Bible: Killing the Characters Read Mistake #3 in Teaching the Bible: We Villainize the Villains More Blogs You'll Like What Is a Deacon? Exploring the Role, Qualifications, and Purpose of Deacons in the Church Read More What Is An Elder? A biblical definition of those who are called to lead Read More Why Church Membership Understanding the Biblical Foundations of Church Membership Read More

What is 'Probably' Missing From Most Nativity Sets Theology Ryan DB Kimmel Lead Pastor Peace Church Published On: December 20, 2024 It’s routine every year at Christmastime – you set out the Nativity set and check to see if anything is missing: Mary - check. Joseph - check. Multi-Ethnic Wisemen - check. Shepherd(s) - check. Sheep, camel - check. Angel - check. Baby Jesus - check. Little Drummer Boy - ummm, not part of the biblical story, but sure - check. If your nativity set is anything like mine, you likely have all those familiar pieces (well, except for the little drummer boy). The infamous Nativity Scene, though common in Christian households during Christmastime, is not actually Biblical — at least not in the sense that all those well-known characters were present at the same time, surrounding and adoring Baby Jesus. While all the characters represent true Biblical accounts of the birth and early childhood of Christ, the Nativity Scene as it is typically displayed never actually happened. It's a conglomeration of various stories brought together into a festive decoration. What's Missing? What is often missing from many nativity scenes, however, is something truly powerful, yet perplexing: the star. The infamous Star of Bethlehem, mentioned only in Matthew chapter 2, which guided the wisemen to the newborn king. Too many nativity scenes fail to display this remarkable element of the birth narrative. Does yours have one? But what actually was the so-called "Star of Bethlehem"? There are really three possibilities: It was supernatural. Meaning, this event was something miraculous and spiritual, and therefore unknowable and unrepeatable, something to be appreciated as a true once-in-the-moment miracle that helped to announce the birth of Jesus Christ. It was superstition. Meaning, it wasn't something out of astronomy, but rather astrology; that the wisemen followed a normal astrological occurrence in the night sky that they interpreted as symbolic due to their spiritualism or pagan faith. This understanding of the Star of Bethlehem means there was no unique event in the cosmos, but it also means that it doesn't assert something about the star that contradicts cosmological history. It was scientific. Meaning, it was a true (even if isolated or rare) event or object in the universe which was observable to the human eye. While a miracle is a wondrous explanation, I have to admit, the pursuit of a scientific explanation intrigues me...and there may be some validity to it. But before we begin to discover what the star was, let's first remind ourselves of the story of the star. Matthew 2:1-2, 9-11 ESV (1) Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, (2) saying, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.” (9) After listening to the king, they went on their way. And behold, the star that they had seen when it rose went before them until it came to rest over the place where the child was. (10) When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. (11) And going into the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh. For such a famous part of the Christmas story, there is surprisingly little about the star in the biblical account, but that is not to say there isn’t great insight to be mined from this passage. Miracle, Myth, Meteor? Identifying What "The Star" Truly Was The first thing we must consider is if this event was a tried-and-true miracle. As noted, if this was a supernatural event, then we are content to leave it as just that: A powerful miracle of God, unknowable and unrepeatable; undocumented with any other credibility outside the Bible and something to be celebrated and revered as a momentary act of God, leading men from outside Judea to come and worship the newborn King, that they may be the first global missionaries to take the news of Christ’s birth outside of Judea. If this is the true explanation, I am joyful to celebrate it at Christmas as just that, by enjoying the wonder of such a beautiful miracle. But – what if it wasn’t that? What if it was something more… natural? Clues In The Context When it comes to identifying this " star " as something in the universe observable in the ancient middle east night sky, we must take note of the clues given in the text: Clue 1: It rose in the east. When the wisemen say they saw " his star when it rose " (verse 2), how it is stated in the original text is " we saw his star in the east ." This denotes a morning star, an important note if we want to trace and find the origins of this occurrence in the records of history. Clue 2: It appears over numerous nights. Verse 9 continues, “After listening to the king, they went on their way. And behold, the star that they had seen when it rose went before them…” The star that they had seen and had led them to Judea, appears again after their court with King Herod. Meaning, the star was seen over multiple nights. Clue 3: It appears to move unlike other celestial bodies. Another clue is that there also appears to be motion associated with the star. As verse 9 states in the biblical narrative record, the star " went before them until it came to rest over the place where the child was .” Clue 4: The timeframe of the star must be near the birth or very early childhood of Christ. It’s important to narrow down the timeframe of Christ’s birth if we are to look to astronomical records to determine the identity of the star. The accepted timeframe of the birth of Christ is dated using three important markers from the Bible and history: The death of King Herod is said to have happened in 4 B.C. The Roman census (ordered by Caesar Augustus in relation to the time of Quirinius serving as Governor of Syria, Luke 2:1-2) is believed to have taken place in roughly 6 B.C. Dating the life of Christ based on the start of his ministry, and his death during Passover. Luke 3 records that Jesus was “about 30 years of age” ( Luke 3:23 ) when he started his ministry - and earlier Luke records this start is near or shortly after the time of the start of John the Baptist’s ministry which was in the “fifteenth year of Caesar Tiberius” ( Luke 3:1 ) which is dated to be 29 A.D. Using these markers, the accepted timeframe for the Birth of Christ is between 6 B.C. and 2 B.C. The reason Jesus’ birth doesn’t line up perfectly with the B.C. and A.D. distinction is based on the miscalculation of the year of his birth by monk Dionysius Exiguus who lived between the fifth and sixth centuries A.D., and who came up with the B.C./A.D. separation of the calendar we now use the world over. Clue 5: The wiseman themselves! Knowing the wisemen were from the East, and were given the biblical term of magi ( μάγος , wise men, magician; related to the Old Persian " magush ," referring to a member of a priestly caste), this leads us to believe with little doubt the wisemen were Zoroastrians from Persia; a people who were obsessed with studying the stars of the sky, both in terms of the myth of astrology, and its deep connection with the scientific study of astronomy. Given these clues, is it possible to posit and even determine in actuality what the star was? Again, if it was truly a miracle, then it should be left and celebrated as that for there is nothing else to be known, but given that we have some important clues in our text that could lead us to believe it was something else, let's investigate the two remaining alternatives: Astrology or Astronomy. Astrology: Pagan, But Perhaps Right This Time? While this is the least likely option, it is plausible. This theory is that the Star of Bethlehem was a routine star (or planet) in the night sky and that astrology (the myths and superstitions) of the wisemen led them to believe during that time that it was symbolic of something special happening in Jerusalem. There is no way to validate this, but to take this approach means that God allowed their astrology to be “right” in the sense that their interpretation of the sky led them to the true birth of the King. Again, if this is the true interpretation, it makes it nearly impossible to know what “star” they were referring to. If the answer is that God, in His providence, did allow the pagan belief of astrology to lead the wisemen to the newborn King using the guidance of a routine occurrence in the night sky, then again, we give praise and thanks to God for adding this detail in the Scripture. But again, details given in the text seemingly point to something more than that. Admitting this, we turn to the science of astronomy to see if an answer lies there. Astronomy: Searching The Historical Night Sky By the astronomical records of the ancients and by retracing the paths of stars and planets using modern science, we can know a lot about the events of the observable universe in the distant past. Because of this, there are things we can rule out and things we can seriously consider. For instance, we know Halley's Comet was visible on Earth in 12 B.C. , but there are a number of reasons to rule this out as "the Star of Bethlehem": 12 B.C. is outside the accepted timeframe of Christ's birth. The path of Halley's Comet in the sky does not line up with the details listed in the biblical account. The same can be said for other occurrences such as meteors (shooting stars). Comets were seen as bad omens in the world of antiquity, ruling out all comets. We can also rule out novas and supernovas, not only because during this time there are no historical records giving confirmation of this, but primarily because the "path" the wisemen would have taken does not line up with the movement of how the glow of a supernova would have behaved in the sky. (Side note: Chinese astronomers do record a nova-event in 185 B.C. ) The Stars Align With ruling out comets, meteors, and supernovas, there is another option: The aligning of stars, or more technically: the conjunction of planets and stars . What does astronomy say about this option? Quite a lot, actually! It's important to note that the wisemen did not visit Jesus on the very night of his birth, but rather they visited him sometime after, maybe even months or years; the Scriptures say, “ And going into the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother ( Matthew 2:11 ). Note, the word used was “child” ( παιδίον; child, little one ), rather than “baby” ( βρέφος; infant, child in arms ). So, as we consider the timeframe of Christ’s birth and/or His very early life, there were three key planetary alignments that would have been a unique sight in the night sky, which all happened within this timeframe: On June 17, 2 B.C. there was a conjunction of Jupiter, Venus, and Regulus (a star in the constellation Leo). On August 12, 3 B.C. there was a conjunction of Jupiter and Venus visible in the early dawn sky. On April 17, 6 B.C. there was a conjunction of Jupiter, Saturn, the vernal equinox, the sun, and the moon within the constellation Aries. The favored of these three is the last one (an event so rare that it won't happen again until 16,213 A.D., minus the vernal equinox). This event is also purported to be commemorated on a Roman coin minted in Antioch ! The further significance of these events is found in the retrograde motion of their path in the night sky, which line up nicely with the Biblical narrative because this retrograde motion is not normally the path taken by planets visible in the sky. The rising in the east and following it until it came to rest over where the child was is a critical detail for determining if this was an astronomical event. Faith In The Story In truth, we may not know with exact specificity which of these events it was, if any of them, but what we see from the Biblical narrative, historical records, and astronomical archives is the undeniable plausibility of the Star of Bethlehem being a true historical and astronomical event! For me, this is as exciting as if it was a miracle of heaven. For the Star of Bethlehem to have been a true event in the cosmos, we must realize that this would have required God to orchestrate the stars, planets and constellations to follow a very specific and timed path since the creation of the universe, so that they would align in accordance with the birth and early life of Jesus Christ! How truly amazing it is to consider the scope of this! Putting The Star Back In The Nativity Whatever the star was, it was something truly amazing that God ordained to have happened – and so may that deepen your belief in the goodness, power, and sovereignty of God! May this short analysis and investigation of the Star of Bethlehem inspire you not only to include the star in your nativity set, but may it also deepen your faith in Him who is the focus of your nativity scene: Jesus Christ, the newborn King and the Son of God, whose birth was heralded by angels, worshiped by wise men, and adorned by the celestial. References and Resources: www.britannica.com Magus | Zoroastrianism, Priests, Rituals | Britannica Magus, member of an ancient Persian clan specializing in cultic activities. The name is the Latinized form of magoi (e.g., in Herodotus 1:101), the ancient Greek transliteration of the Iranian original. From it the word magic is derived. It is disputed whether the magi were from the beginning www.space.com What was the Star of Bethlehem? The Star of Bethlehem probably wasn't a star. www.nd.edu Royal Beauty Bright Grant Mathews, director of the Center for Astrophysics at Notre Dame, uses his expertise to identify the star of Bethlehem that the Bible says announced the birth of Jesus www.britannica.com List of comets | Comets, Astronomy, Space | Britannica Comets are a class of small celestial objects orbiting the Sun and developing diffuse gaseous envelopes and often long luminous tails when near the Sun. The comet makes a transient appearance in the sky and is often said to have a “hairy” tail. The word comes from the Greek komētēs, meaning “hairy www.britannica.com Herod | Biography, Facts, Reign, Temple, & Jesus | Britannica Herod, Roman-appointed king of Judea (37-4 BCE), who built many fortresses, aqueducts, theaters, and other public buildings but who was the center of political and family intrigues in his later years. The New Testament portrays him as a tyrant, into whose kingdom Jesus of Nazareth was born. www.nasa.gov Oldest Recorded Supernova - NASA This image combines data from four space telescopes to create a multi-wavelength view of all that remains of RCW 86, the oldest documented example of a supernova. www.history.com A Brief History of Halley’s Comet | HISTORY The famous comet named for astronomer Edmond Halley only passes by the Earth roughly once every 76 years, but it’s appearances have often played a surprising role in historical events. tyndalehouse.com Was Luke wrong about the census of Quirinius? David Armitage explores the widely debated issue of how we reconcile Luke's account of Jesus' birth with other historical writing that seems to contradict it. www.patternsofevidence.com Warnings in the Sky: Anniversary of the Star | Patterns of Evidence On this day in 2 BC, a rare planetary conjunction took place which may relate to Matthew's account of the Magi coming to Jesus in Bethlehem. www.smithsonianmag.com What Was the Star of Bethlehem? Who better to ask than the Vatican? www.coinworld.com 12 Days of Christmas: Ancient coin shows Star of Bethlehem www.biblicalarchaeology.org When Was Jesus Born—B.C. or A.D.? New Testament scholars place Jesus’ birth in 4 B.C. or before. This begs the question: How could Jesus have been born in B.C.—“before Christ”? www.biblestudytools.com Why Was There a Roman Census at Jesus' Birth in the Bible? Luke 2:1 is the traditional starting point for the Christmas story of Jesus' birth: “In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world.” So how did a Roman census lead to the fulfillment of prophecy and one of the most beloved stories of all time? That’s what we’re here to explore. More Blogs You'll Like Do the Resurrection Accounts Contradict? How differences in the Gospel accounts strengthen rather than undermine the credibility of the resurrection Read More What is 'Probably' Missing From Most Nativity Sets Miracle, Myth, or Meteor? Identifying What the ‘Star of Bethlehem’ Truly Was Read More Is The Bible Really Without Error? A Closer Look at Scripture’s Reliability, Inerrancy, and Historical Trustworthiness Read More

The Fight Is Now Sermon Series: Contender Ryan DB Kimmel Lead Pastor Peace Church Main Passage: Jude 1-4 Transcript Today is the day that the Lord has made. So let us rejoice and be glad in it. And everyone said with all of our hearts, amen and amen. So we're here, we're gathering as a church. And I know not everyone is, but many of us are Christians. And that means we're part of what God is doing in this world, or at least we're meant to. And I'll tell you this, Christianity is trying to do something remarkable in this world. Not only are we trying to convince the world that there's a God in heaven, but that he also loves us and wants to save us from our sins. And we're trying to do this for a world that loves darkness over light, a world that loves their pride more than righteousness, a world that in their hearts have already rejected a God that they don't even know. Or to put it another way, what we're trying to do is we're trying to unify the world around the kingship of Jesus Christ who was risen from the dead after he died for our sins on the cross. That's why we gather, that's why we come together to worship and be built up so that we can go out and do this. Now, as you can imagine, the problems facing the task for the church are actually quite immense. On the one hand, we have our very own flesh that works against us, that works against God's plan in us. We have the ways of the world, just the rhythm of the world that's opposed to the things of God. Add to this, we also have a very real enemy in the demonic forces. Because I don't know if you know this, but the world is not just stuff. There is more than what you can just see with your eyes. There is a good thing happening in this world, and there is a spiritual evil happening in this world. And we have all three of those things working against the mission of the church. But yet we are still called to contend for the faith, even as opposition arises. Amen? Amen. But I'll tell you this, of all the problems that Christianity and the church face in our global mission, some of the worst problems come from within. And I think Jesus knew this was going to happen. That's why in his final prayer, right before he went to the cross, do you know what the main thesis of his final prayer was, was for unity among his believers. It was for unity among the church that we'd be one in both his love and his truth. But ever since the earliest days of Christianity, people have been twisting the faith into something that was not meant to be, something they wanted to be, rather than what Christ intended it to be. And the book of Jude confronts this head on. So would you go ahead and turn to the book of Jude, I'll give you a clue. It's the second to the last book of the Bible. Go ahead and turn to Jude. If you want to use the Bibles we provided, that's on page 1308, because as we are called to contend, what Jude is going to remind us of today is this, that the fight is now. It's not later, it's not after you graduate high school, it's not when you're older, it's not when your kids are out of the house, the fight is now. 1308 is the page if you want to use the Bibles we provided. As we are going to see today, Jude's call to contend for the faith. Now we'll talk about the man Jude in just a moment, but this is a letter that he wrote. We don't know the exact context, but it seems to be an open letter to all Christians, maybe a little special emphasis on Hebrew Christians, Jewish people who had come to faith in Jesus, but either way, Jude writes to give us some important principles about what it means to fight, or the word he uses, contend, to contend for the faith, even as opposition arises, and even as we face some of that from within our own ranks. Now, if you're there, you probably noticed that Jude is a short letter. There's no chapters, there's only verses. And today we're going to look at verses one to four. So hopefully you are there now. With that, I would ask that if you are able, would you please stand for the reading of God's word? Would you hear the word of the Lord, the letter of Jude, verses one to four. Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, to those who are called, beloved in God the Father, and kept for Jesus Christ, may mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you. Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people who pervert the grace of our God, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen. This is God's Word. Remain standing. Let's pray. We'll continue. Let's pray. Father of glory, we ask on this day that you would help us to know your word more fully, that we might fight the right fight, the one that's right before us, that we'd contend for the faith. So please, would you send the Holy Spirit to continue to lead and guide us here and now, for it's in Jesus' name that we pray these things. And everyone said, amen, amen. Go ahead and have a seat. All right, I have to ask, when we talk about Jude, who immediately thought of the Beatles song, Hey Jude? Let me see. I just wanted to see who's old in the house. Some of the Gen Zers are like, what are the Beatles? So as we kick off this series, let me give you one main thought to get us through this passage here today, and it's this. That we are to contend for the faith because the fight is now. The fight is now. I'm no longer a youth pastor, but in my days when I was a youth pastor, you'd be surprised, or maybe you wouldn't be surprised, how many teenagers said they loved Jesus, but they also said they'd get serious about their faith later. I'm here to tell you then then with all due respect you don't love Jesus. You love the idea of Jesus but if Jesus is somebody that you say you know and you also get at the same time put off till later then you don't know Jesus. We are called to contend because the fight is now. Let me say it again for those in the back. We contend for the faith now now This letter starts out like most ancient letters It begins with the author and his title the passage starts off like this by saying verse 1 Jude a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James. That's not who was written to that's who it was written by So I know that probably many of us don't immediately see it But Jude Jude or actually probably his Hebrew Aramaic name was probably more like Judah but Jude was a brother of Jesus Christ a blood brother of Jesus the gospel tells us that Jesus had four brothers and Jude's here says that he is the brother of James who's James there's no qualifiers given because this is the one and only James who is the current leader of the church based out of Jerusalem who was also the brother of Jesus, making Jude as well. But did you notice that Jude is so humble? He doesn't call himself the brother of Jesus. He calls him his servant. This shows us a lot, not just about Jude's character, but about the tone of the letter that we're about to read. It's genuine, it's humble. He is not saying, hey, listen to me because I'm Jesus' brother, y'all. He's like, I'm like you. I serve Jesus. So let's talk about how we can live out our faith more fully. Because I have to say this to you, it's amazing how well a conversation can go with people when you level with them, rather than immediately trying to exert your authority. Jude comes out and he does have authority. He's the brother of the Savior of the world. But he says, I'm his servant. Now listen, Jude has some strong words for Christians, but he starts by acknowledging that he is a servant of Christ, but also by offering up words of blessing. Verse 2, may mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you. What a beautiful blessing. Remember that, because we'll be using that during this series. So now that the introductions are set and the tone is now set, we'll see how these opening verses of Jude calls us to contend for the faith and to do so with a sense of urgency that is lost among many American Christians. Jude says there's something real going on and we need to attend to it right now by contending for the faith. He tells us to be unified, to be aware, and to be holy. Unified, aware, and holy. Let's look at the first one. The fight is now, so we are to be unified. It is very simple. It is very, very simple. The church is to be unified. Jesus himself said a house divided cannot stand. As a pastor, I will tell you now that my strongest words are not for lost sinners. My strongest words are for Christians who sow discord in the church. Jude, following his brother's call, Jesus' call, he wants unity. In verse 3, listen to how Jude appeals to their shared faith and their unified beliefs for the grounds of his letter. He addresses them as beloved, reminding them that they are objects of God's love. Christians, this is a just an aside. When we come here and we worship and we declare that we love God, did you know that if you are a believer and God loves you, that when we stand here and worship and we declare our great love for God, do you know that God has also declared his great love for you? You are an object of God's love. So he addresses them as beloved. Verse three, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. So Jude is first like, hey, I first wanted to write and just talk about how awesome Jesus is and how much we love him together. That's what I wanted to write, but there's something going on right now that I need to address, so listen to what I have to say. But before he does that, he starts with the unity that Christians are supposed to have. In verse three, if you notice, he talks about our common salvation and our faith once delivered. Our common salvation, referring to our common Savior, Jesus Christ, who was raised from the dead. And then Jude says that we are content for the faith, if you have your Bibles make sure you see this here, content for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. Saints just simply meaning fellow Christians. Uh-oh, modern day Christians. The faith that was once for all delivered to the faith. We are to have the same faith that Jude had. The faith does not change. It does not change based on culture. It does not change based on new societal norms or scientific discovery. We have the one faith, the true faith, that was handed down from Jesus himself to the apostles to the early church, which has now been in succession up until now. We don't get to change the faith because we think we're so enlightened. It is the one faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. We are to have the same ethics, same theology, and same as Jesus. And our fight for the faith will fail if we are not unified in this. So, let me say something here that may be a little scandalous for some people. This is why I think creeds and confessions are a good thing for the church. Not because they replace Scripture, hear me, they do not. Not because they're perfect, they most certainly are not. But what they do is they help ensure that the proper way to understand scripture is passed down through the ages. Because the Bible and the scripture is a lot like numbers. You can make numbers say anything you want them to say, whether or not it's the actual real answer. And with the Bible, you can pull things out of context and you can certainly misapply his teachings, especially around love. That is one of the biggest ways that our current culture, especially modern day Christians, are twisting the gospel is that we are misrepresenting what God's love truly is and how we are to love others. You can make numbers say whatever you want to do if you ignore the equations, and you can make the Bible say whatever you want if you ignore the context. But creeds and confessions, what they do is they help to ensure that the true and pure message of scripture doesn't get warped by heretical teachers, by changing times, or new generational trends. At Peace Church, we hold, this is the set of creeds that we hold too, it's called the Three Forms of Unity. Hatterberg Catechism, Belgic Confessions, and Canons of Door. Again, not because they're perfect and not because they replace scripture. They are subservient to scripture. They're not perfect, the scriptures are, but they are helpful tools to guide the teachings of the Bible through the church into the generations that are to come when pastors and elders change hands to the next generations. We need to be unified in what we believe about our common salvation so that we can contend for the unchanging faith that was once for all delivered to the Saints. But before we move on, I need to ask an obvious question. What does it actually mean to contend for the faith? Well, I think the answer lies in the word contend. Surprise, surprise. So, Bible study time. Despite the English word contend being used twice in Jude, the original Greek word that Jude uses here is a word that we only find once throughout the original manuscripts of the Bible. Here's the definition. The Greek word, the Greek verb that Jude uses for contend describes, listen to these words, it describes vigorous and determined effort, a struggle or contest, it conveys the idea of striving with intent, focus and dedications. Okay Christians in the house, let me challenge you for a moment. Don't let me challenge you, challenge yourself. Do any of those words describe your faith? Vigorous, determined, striving with intent focus. I think it is both safe and sad to say that many Christians are not contending for the faith. They're comfortable in the faith. Or worse, they're complacent. And this is why Jude, before anything else, he's calling us to stand unified, and then he's gonna call us to mission and call us to address the problem, which he does here now. He goes on to identify the immediate problem. This is the second thing. The fight is now, so we need to be aware. Yes, be unified, it's mission critical. We will not succeed if we are not unified, but we need to be awake to what's happening. And here's where the Bible begins to say things that I think are increasingly offensive to our modern ears. So my friends, here's your trigger warning. Let's look at the first part of verse four. If you're unfamiliar with the Bible, when we say 4a or 4b, we're talking about the first part of the scriptures. So verse 4a is the first part of verse 4. It says this, for certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people who pervert the grace of God. And so we are now getting to the crux of the matter for why Jude has written his letter. We must wake up and contend for the faith. Did I read this right? Because ungodly people have crept in. Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold on a second. Jude, I thought the church was supposed to be a hospital for the broken, not a museum for the saints. Shouldn't we welcome ungodly people were coming to church. We want that to happen. Amen. We want lost sinners. We want people who don't know God to come into the church to hear the gospel message and to believe in the name of Jesus. We want that to happen. That's not what Jude is referring to here. There's a deeper problem. When Jude says people who have crept in, he's not talking about people who just come and attend church. Everyone's welcome to do that. He's talking about people who call themselves Christians and who are part of the church, maybe even leaders or teachers. The problem is that these people have begun to pervert the grace of God. That is as Jude will describe. They're using grace as an excuse to satisfy and sanction sin. And Jude is like, if you lose grace, you've lost it all. Even if the people who are doing it call themselves Christians. He's saying we need to contend for the faith, the faith that was delivered all. Because there's people who are within our ranks who are twisting the faith. So we need to be aware. But let me just say one thing real quick. He's not saying, therefore go on a witch hunt and find out who the heretics are. I think the first call is to look in the mirror and make sure that you're not one of those. Because the notion here, as we'll get into this letter, the notion here is that what was increasingly being shown is that there was a massive disconnect between what people people said they believed and how they lived. Meaning, meaning Sunday morning there were one type of person and then on the job site there were another type of person. Meaning they were one type of person at church, another type of person online. This is not a call to go on a witch hunt. This is the first to call to reflect in the mirror and then ensure that the faith is being made pure among all. But take note of Jude's word choice here. Ungodly people who pervert the grace of God. Now pervert is a strong word here, and it does lean into the nuance of what Jude says is happening, but the word simply means to change the position of something, to reinterpret. What had happened is there were people in the church who were taking grace and they were misapplying it, they were reinterpreting, they were changing its position of what it means. So what is grace? Great question. Very simply, I'd say it like this. Grace is how you are saved. You are saved by grace. Grace is getting what we do not deserve salvation but God gives it to us he graces it to us through our faith in Jesus Christ this is the gospel my friends that when we call upon the name of Jesus and believe that he rose from the dead we are saved not because God owes us or because we found some magic formula but because Jesus Christ died on the cross in our place paying for our sin and when we believe God chooses, graces us to apply Christ's sacrifice to our debt of sin. This is grace. It's God's gift to us. It calls us out of our sin and into a living relationship with the living God where Christ has now become the Lord of our life, leading us into the life that God has designed for us, how we are to live both before him and in our relationship with him. But what these people were doing was taking grace, taking God's love and forgiveness, and using it as an excuse to remain in their sin, as a license to do whatever they wanted. They were perverting grace into an excuse to sanction whatever they desired, what God called sin. It's almost like they were saying, we're saved by grace, therefore we can do whatever we want because God loves us. It's almost like they were saying, Jesus loves us just where we are at and exactly how we are, or how we might say it today, Jesus loves me for me, and there's nothing about me that needs to change. You're not gonna find that in the Bible anywhere. This is what worldly and ungodly people say. We think because God loves and forgives, that means we can do whatever we want, and therein lies the problem. So again, rather than going on a witch hunt, let's first look in the mirror. Let's first be aware of our own life and actions to make sure that our life and our doctrine line up. Because people who call themselves Christians need to be pursuing holiness, and that's the last thing we'll look at. The fight is now, so we need to be holy. The verse finishes, ungodly people who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only master and Lord Jesus Christ. Now I know we have kids in the room and I'm thankful for it, so I'll try to keep this PG. Here's the definition of what the Bible means by sensuality, edited for audience purposes. The word refers to unrestrained, shameless behavior, often associated with sexual excess or moral depravity. In the New Testament, it's people who give themselves to their own personal desires rather than giving themselves to God's Holy Spirit. And Jude is saying there are people like that within the church. And it shows because their lives do not align with a true faith that was handed down once for all. So here's the rub and here's the truth bomb and here's something that I'll probably get some emails about. Not everyone who calls themselves a Christian is a Christian. Pastor Ryan, you can't say that. That's way too judgmental of you. Okay, then you tell me what else we can derive from this passage. Because it's not just that they've twisted grace, but by doing so, they've even as the passage continues, they've denied our only master and Lord Jesus Christ. How can a person say they're a Christian and also deny Jesus as Lord? There's two ways actually. The first is when they call themselves a Christian, but they don't live for Christ. If you are a Christian, that means Jesus is your master and Lord. You live for him. That's what it means to be a Christian. Christian just means a little Christ, that he is our Lord and Master. But also, the other way, maybe a shock to people here, particularly in Peace Church, because we're so innocent here. But there's a fair amount of people who openly say they are a Christian and openly say they do not believe Jesus is the Lord. In 2022, so pretty recently, in 2022, Ligonier Ministries found that 43% of professing evangelicals, 43% agreed with this statement, Jesus was a great teacher, but he was not God. That's almost half. If that's a shock to you, hate to break it to you, but you live in a bubble. That is the state of Christianity in this world. That's why we take so seriously what we're doing here at Peace Church. Half, nearly half of professing Christians are like, sure, Jesus was a great moral teacher, but he's not Lord or God. You see, my friends, this is what happens when a generation stops going to church. This is the fruit of that. When parents chose other things, when families didn't make church a priority, this is what happens. And we should not be surprised at all. When we stop going to church to hear the word preached, when we stop seeking the Spirit, when we stop training our kids in the way of righteousness and holiness, when we abandon the faith once delivered all to the saints. This is what happens when we stop contending for the faith, that vigorous determination. The question before us is painfully obvious. Parents and grandparents, are you teaching your kids to contend for the faith? Dads, do you understand that your house is a training ground for faith? Do we teach our kids to contend for the faith or do we teach them to cherry pick the faith? You know what cherry pickers are, right? They'll pick and choose what commandments and teachings of Jesus they want to honor and obey. They'll talk about his love. Oh, we love to talk about his love, but we will not even come close to engaging his call to repent. They'll love Jesus' words against religious people, but completely ignore the fact that Jesus also calls out the crowds. We don't get to cherry pick which teachings of Jesus we are to follow. Jesus calls us to pick up our cross and follow him. We are called to contend. I don't know about you, but I will trust my life with the one who saved my soul. So my friends, where are you? Comfortable, complacent, or contending. I don't know if you've ever been in a fight, but it's kind of an all-or-nothing thing. When you are in a fight, there's not a part of you that's not engaged in what's going on. When we are called to contend for the faith, it is a all-or-nothing endeavor. There's no cherry-picking, there's no half-heartedness. To contend for the faith takes our entire body, our entire spirits. So do you contend for the faith? Do your words and actions contend for or against the faith once delivered for all? See, we live in a world... I wonder if I should include this part, but I'm just going to. We live in a world where people post their lives online for all to see. Where we go on vacation, when our kids go to prom, what we had for lunch, what we believe about immigration. I'm simply asking you, what are you showing the world? By all means, by all means, share good memories. My son turns 10 today. You better believe I'll be posting pictures of him online. By all means, share good memories. But I'm telling you, there is too much going on in this world for Christians to do anything other than contend for the faith here and now. To show how faith informs every aspect of our lives, that we are contending for the faith, not just living comfortable lives. I'm thankful for the comforts that we have in this world. But some of us, that's become the very trap that keeps us from contending for our faith. This is the time to stand and to hold fast to what matters most. So may you contend for the faith because the fight is right now. It's happening here now in your homes, in the world, outside your doors. It's time to contend, to be all in. Contend for the faith because the fight is now. And before we close up, let me just recognize one thing. I know many of you, I know many of you would say, I don't have the strength to fight right now. And let me just say something to you with pastor, pastorly love. You never have the strength to do this. Whether your life is terrible or terrific, you don't have the strength to do this. This is why we have to call on the presence of the Holy Spirit and the power of the name of Jesus Christ. That's where we get our strength to contend. That's where we get our focus. You think he's gonna call you to do this and then leave you alone in the battle. He is right there. He is your strength. Many of us, we just, we fall to our sin without even putting up a fight, without even calling on the name of Jesus. Trust in the promises of God. Trust in the power and presence of the Holy Spirit and trust in the power of the name of Jesus. Amen? Because we need to contend because the fight is right now. Amen. power of the name of Jesus. Amen? Because we need to contend because the fight is right now. Amen. Amen.

PODCAST That's a Good Question Paradise Explored: Biblical Insights on Heaven April 21, 2024 Jon Delger & Cheyenne Werner Listen to this Episode So Hey everyone, welcome to That's a Good Question, a podcast of Peace Church and a part of Resound Media. You can find more great content for the Christian life and church leaders at resoundmedia.cc . That's a Good Question is a place where we answer questions about the Christian faith in plain language. I'm Jon, I serve as a pastor as well as part of this show. You can always submit questions at peacechurch.cc/questions . Today I'm here with Cheyenne. Hey Cheyenne. Hey, good to be here. Cheyenne is our Women's Ministry Director at Peace Church, and we get to talk together about heaven. We're in the midst of a sermon series at Peace Church called The Church Never Preaches On. This is one of the topics in that series. Over the next several weeks, we're going to get to grab some of the questions that we don't get to cover in the sermons and still cover those because people send in just some awesome questions. So, we'll be doing a little bit of that, talking about heaven. Cheyenne, you ever talk to your kids about the afterlife? It seems like we talk about it often. I've gotten questions. One that I remember my daughter asking when she was four was, how does the box get to heaven? The box? The box, yes. And at first I was trying to think, is there a box in Revelation? I'm trying to think through, and what she meant by the box was the casket. Her understanding was that God just takes the whole box up to heaven. And so, yeah, no, it's good to have these conversations. I feel like we have these conversations quite often with the kids, but I will tell you one more story that made me realize that we need to continue having more conversations because they might not be getting all of it. So good that we're having this conversation today as well. Recently and my kids are eight and 10, so this was kind of like, oh man, shocking to me. Recently I realized that my kids thought that Satan was the king of hell. Oh, yeah. And it was a common misconception. Yeah, I guess I didn't realize how common it was and that we hadn't clarified like, no, no, no, Satan does not want to go to hell. Like this is his eternal punishment. And so we had to clarify a few things there. Yeah, yeah, he's being punished there as well. But in the cartoons and stuff, he's the guy with the pitchfork and presides over the whole ordeal. Yeah. So it's good to have these conversations and not that this conversation is in particular about hell, but good to clarify our understanding of heaven as well. Yeah, totally. Yeah, we're going to talk about the good place instead of the bad place today. Other episodes that we talk about the bad place, but yeah, so talk about heaven. A handful of questions. We're gonna kind of move through these rather quickly because there are several, but excited to get to tackle these. So first question, here it is. After a billion years in heaven, won't we get bored? You know, this is one that my son, who is very energetic and is always asking, this is the kind of question that he asks me all the time. And he probably gets frustrated with my answer, but I tell him never, never. We will never get bored. I tell him, think of the most exciting thing here on earth. And that's just a taste of what heaven will be like. Because it will be constant roller coasters, constant fishing, eating, swimming pools. Because we will be with God. And so all of these good things are just a taste, a shadow of how good and great and fun our God is. And I think that's hard probably for our kids to conceptualize, but that's why we have these conversations over and over, not just for our kids, but for ourselves too. Yeah, totally. Yeah. No, it's a really important, I can see how naturally thinking about it, somebody might wonder after, yeah, a billion years, wouldn't you get tired of what you're doing? But yeah, that's a core Christian conviction is that the reason, you know, even just thinking about our salvation, our salvation is not fire insurance, it's not just trying to escape from the bad place. We want to be with God forever. That's the point, is not to get to a better place that has nice things, it's to get to be with God. I pulled out a couple of passages just in thinking about this. This one's John 14 3. Jesus says, if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to myself, that you may be where I am also." So that's the whole point, to be with Jesus. A couple of the passages in the Psalms, I think, highlight how important it is that – or just the idea that our hearts were made to be with God and have joy in God. Psalm 37, verse 4 says, "...Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart." So what's he going to give you? Well, if you delight yourself in the Lord, he's going to give you more of the Lord. And that's the point. It's not, I'm not going to give you, if you, you know, I'm not going to give you lots of money or, or cars or a swimming pool because that will make you happy. I'm going to give you more of myself because that's what, yeah, delight yourself in the Lord. Yeah. And you get more of the Lord. Last one, Psalm 16, the very first verse says, I say to the Lord, you are my Lord, and I have no good apart from you. So the Psalmist just kind of gets it, right? All these good things in this life that we can enjoy are just, like you said, a taste, just a taste of what it's like to be with God. Love it. So we won't get bored. We get to be with God. Another, you know, as a kid, I had kind of that misconception that heaven would just be like, you know, part of a church service all the time, that we would just, we'd sort of stand in rows and have hymnals or something like that, we just sing songs. I think that's kind of how you picture it. I picture some of it being like that, yeah. But we will also get to work and to fellowship in heaven. So it's all types of worship, not just worship or worship service, but worship how it was meant to be in the garden, right? Right. So yeah, I'm excited because I don't garden, but maybe in heaven I can actually figure out how to garden and I won't have the black thumb that I currently have. Nice. Yeah, yeah, we're gonna be going back towards what things were like in the Garden of Eden, getting to do the human life the way human life was supposed to be done. It's one of the ways I think of it is, you know, you go to work each day in today's life and we face frustration, just like Genesis 3 tells us, our toils, our work is full of frustration. We're going to get to do work without frustration, which I can't even imagine what that would be like. That's mostly because I work with you, Cheyenne. Oh, that's on record. Wow. Just kidding. Totally kidding. Totally kidding. Yeah, so we get to not just sing in rows with hymnals. Because I imagine that, you know, the 12,001st verse of Amazing Grace would probably get boring. But that's not what it's going to be like. Alright, next question. Did Judas go to heaven? And the person asks, if not, and then they're going to ask about a very specific verse, what about in Revelation 21, 14, where it talks about the 12 foundations being the 12 apostles. So we'll get to that in a second. But what about that first question? What do you think? Did Judas go to heaven? So my understanding is he did not, but I would like your answer because I didn't have time to look up. I knew you were going to have to get my back for that comment. I deserve that. So Pastor Jon, can you share with us? I would be happy to share some thoughts about that. I think some people have tried to make the argument that Judas repented because we do see remorse. He feels bad, or at least he realizes what he did was horribly wrong, but that's not the same thing as faith and repentance. We don't have any evidence that he actually trusted Jesus as a Savior, that he said, Lord, I have sinned greatly. Please forgive me. I trust Jesus. His sacrifice is the only way I can be saved. We don't have any evidence of him doing that. Instead, we do have some very specific verses that I think speak to Judas receiving God's wrath in hell as the punishment of his sin. So Matthew 26, 24 says, the Son of Man will go just as it is written about him, but woe to that man who betrays the Son of Man. It would be better for him if he had not been born. So the scripture wouldn't say that if he spent eternity in heaven with God. One more, John 17, 12 says, While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction, so the scripture would be fulfilled. So I think that's a pretty clear answer to that question, that Judas did not go to heaven. And those were before he had even betrayed Jesus, right? So he would have been hearing these words even and. Sure. Yeah. Terribly tragic. Terribly sad, but I think we do have that clear answer. So, to answer the other part of the question, yeah, this is one I hadn't really thought of until the person asked the question. So, in Revelation 21, here's the passage they are referencing. 21 14, it says, and the wall of the city had 12 foundations. Okay, so this is John's vision of heaven. And on them were the 12 names of the 12 apostles of the Lamb. So they're asking the question, all right, if Jesus didn't go to heaven, then how are there 12 foundations, 12 apostles? So I think the answer comes in Acts chapter 1, when we move from the Gospels to the story of the early church. If you remember in Acts chapter 1, the apostles get together and Judas is gone, and they recognize somebody's got to take Judas' place, and Matthias is the guy that they, you know, they set up some criteria. They say it's got to be somebody who's been with us from the beginning, who saw all of Jesus' ministry, who was around for his life, death, and can be a witness to his resurrection, and they choose Matthias. So I think that's the answer. No, that's where my mind went to. Yeah. So there are still 12 apostles. It wasn't Judas. It was the other one. Some people like to make the case that it's Paul. I think Paul is actually like Apostle number 13. Right, yeah. Cool. All right, next question. Are there levels in heaven, like when the Apostle Paul said he knew somebody that went to the third heaven? Okay, so my initial answer is no, but I don't have anything to back that up other than what I do know of heaven that I feel like we can misinterpret that easily or take it too literally. But I would like to hear, again, I'd love to hear your answer, Jon. Well, I think the answer is that because you endure the frustration of working with me, you're going to be a higher level of heaven than I am. Now I feel like I'm trying to make up for my joke. Yeah, you're trying to make up for it now. I'm trying. I forgive you. Thank you. That's very kind of you. No, I've read some different speculation on what that means. So in 2 Corinthians 12 is the passage Paul references that he knows somebody who was caught up to the third heaven, he says. So I don't think there's any for sure answer as to what Paul is exactly talking about. Paul had some visions and some experiences that the rest of us have not had. So I think the short answer is actually we don't know exactly what that's going to look like. But there's been some speculation of just like that the third is maybe like the final or the fullest or the completion. And, you know, the word heaven is we use it different ways. And they did too back in ancient times, talking about, you know, the heavens meaning like the skies or the heavens meaning like where the stars are, outer space. Or you know, in the Psalms, it actually talks about God being enthroned above the heavens. So maybe third heaven simply means it's just the place where God is, the highest place, the highest heaven. That's my best guess. So he met a man who had been caught up in the third heaven? Yeah, that's what it says. So whether it be by vision or however. Oh yeah, yeah. That makes sense. I mean, I think we have to weigh it against what we know for sure that's very clear, right, about heaven. And it can mean something that goes against what we know. Yeah. Jesus makes clear. So. And one of those things that we do know is that salvation is by grace through faith, not by works. Right. Ephesians chapter 2 verses 8 and 10 make that really clear among other passages in the Bible. So I don't know for sure answers, but I would I would lean towards saying I don't think it's like that. Like I sort of joked about about the idea of that just doesn't make sense. That's contrary to God's system of salvation. I think it's more maybe like others have said of just saying it's the highest place, it's the place where God is. All right. A more serious one. So the person asked, what about somebody who commits suicide? And so I think they're asking the question, what happens to somebody who commits suicide? Do they end up in heaven? Do they end up in hell? Obviously for us, one of the first things we want to talk about is, you know, if they're a Christian or not, because that's what the difference is between somebody who goes to heaven and goes to hell. Somebody who has the way to get to heaven is not by hard work. It's not by doing religious things. It's by having your faith in Jesus as your Lord and as your Savior. And it's only by grace through faith that we can get to heaven. So let's kind of narrow our conversation to what happens if somebody who is a Christian or has said that they're a Christian commits suicide. We'll be right back after this break. Hi, I'm Elizabeth, one of the co-hosts of MomGuilt, a podcast with new episodes every Monday. MomGuilt is a podcast about the daily struggles of motherhood. Stephanie and I share real experiences of MomGuilt and how we have found freedom from that guilt through the gospel. Listen to us on resoundmedia.cc or wherever you find podcasts. That's a hard and heavy thing, and so we have to lean on what we do know about them, and I think it's a comfort to remember that it is by faith and not by works, like you said, but I'm sure that is, while it's somewhat comforting, I think that there's also probably some questions left in people's hearts and minds, and so I don't know, I would just want people to feel encouraged in knowing that God knows their heart and the genuineness of their faith, and to hold on to that. Well, so we were talking a little bit earlier. I think you and I have both heard some probably wrong answers to this question. You talk about like one of the wrong answers you've maybe heard of this question, because one of the ones I've heard is just the simple, well, they ended their life. It was a sin to do so, you know, murder. And they weren't able to they weren't still alive to ask for forgiveness. And so they went to hell. That was that was an explanation I got kind of early on in life. I don't even know where I heard that, but it was, I remember as a young, as a young man, that was sort of how I thought about it, and somebody must have told me that. Yeah, I think I have kind of the same thing where I can't really trace exactly where I first heard kind of an answer to this question, but I think I, on the other side, on kind of the other side of the spectrum, heard more of like that if they ended their life, then that act meant that they did not trust Christ as their Savior. And so it's been helpful for me to learn just more about what it means to have faith in Christ and to know that one sin does not define the genuineness of your faith. Yeah, totally. I think we know in our day even more than we have in past days. We talk more about mental health today than we used to. We know that people can get into a very dark place and can do things that they might not otherwise have done. You know, I think anybody who is at that place is in a place that's not a healthy state of mind. And so it's a terrible place to be. So in trying to give a shorter answer to the question, can somebody who committed suicide go to heaven? My answer would be yes. Yeah. Salvation is not by works, it's by grace through faith, I think, like I said earlier, I think it is clear that somebody who commits suicide is not in a right and healthy state of mind. And that's terrible, that's tragic, that's sad. We hope that that person gets help if somebody's listening. We hope that you get help if you're asking that question. Hopefully it's not because you're thinking about that in your own life. Man, we'd love to pray for you, talk to you. Please reach out for help to us or somebody else. If a Christian is also asking the question, I can imagine some Christians maybe thinking, well, if I'm a Christian and I'm going to heaven, why wouldn't I commit suicide then? I could see why somebody might think that way. And I think the short answer is, well, to be a Christian is to love the Lord and the Lord wants you to obey his commandments. And one of his commandments is not to murder. Taking your own life is still murder. You're ending the life of a person created in God's image that God has a plan and a design for, good works designed for them to do Ephesians 2 10. Even if your life feels like it's more of a burden to someone else that is not what's true about your life. If you are living then God has a reason for you to be living. Yeah, that's a heavy one. It is a heavy one. Yeah, but again good for us to talk about these otherwise you do go along your life you know believing things that you don't know where you got them from. You don't know what is true about them and what's not true and not knowing how to correct it. So, a good question. I'm glad that that was submitted. Yeah. We got a couple more, a little bit lighter questions. Let me see. Two more. Here we go. Will we get married in heaven and will we have more kids in heaven. My understanding, again please correct if I'm wrong, but my understanding is we will be married to, we will be the bride of Christ in heaven. So in some ways, yes, we will be married in heaven, but we will not be married to our spouse. There will be no marriages in heaven. And therefore, I guess I would extrapolate and say we won't be having kids. And I feel pretty confident on that. But again, throwing it back to you, John. Totally. I think that's fair. I'm actually trying to pull it up here. I didn't have it right in front of me. I'm trying to pull it back. In Matthew 22, Jesus gets into an interesting conversation with the Sadducees about the resurrection and how that works. And where is it? Here it is. Here's his answer. This is Matthew 22, verse 30. For in the resurrection, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like the angels in heaven." Now, I don't know exactly what that means about the angels in heaven because we don't know a ton about the marital life of angels in heaven. I assume that means that they don't get married. Yeah. Right. Yeah, but Jesus seems to pretty clearly say they're not married or do they get married? Which, like you said, God designed that the context of having kids happens within marriage. So, we would sort of assume that's the case also. I think that also makes sense with the overall story of Scripture that God told Adam and Eve to go forth and multiply. In the New Testament, our mission is to make disciples of Jesus, which is essentially the same mission, just accomplished in a different way. Originally, if Adam and Eve would have just had kids, taught them to follow the Lord, they would have filled the entire earth with disciples of Jesus. We have the same mission, but it's because of the fall into sin. It's not just have kids. It's go and make disciples of people who are already alive that they would turn and follow Jesus. But the end goal is the same, that we would fill the earth with followers of Jesus. So when Jesus comes back, that mission's over. So we've already filled the earth with followers of Jesus. Mission completed. Yeah. Mission complete. So I think no more childbearing. But again, just tying back to the beginning, that can feel like such a bummer. But again, if that's a bummer for you because you have such a strong marriage, for one thing, that's amazing. That is the marriage to be. Praise God that you want to spend eternity with your spouse. You're doing great. That's good. But also, going back to the first question about will we be bored in heaven? No, because if you have had a wonderful marriage, your marriage as the bride of Christ, your marriage to Christ, your time in heaven will be infinitely greater than that. So it's only just meant, even the best things on earth are only meant to be a taste or a shadow of how great heaven will be and how good our bridegroom is. Totally. One, Ephesians 5 kind of tells us that the whole point of marriage is to be a foreshadow of the relationship between God and his bride, God and his people. So once we get to heaven, the need for a foreshadow is over. So I think that makes sense also. One of the things, it doesn't say that you won't have any kind of relationship with your spouse on this earth. So even though you're not married and won't be the same thing, I don't know what it'll be like, but I would assume that you would still, you know, have some kind of connection to that person in eternity. I think we'll definitely have connection with people, those people in eternity. Yeah. All right, last one. Does the promise to the meek that they will inherit the earth mean anything when we are in heaven? I think that's a very interesting question. That is an interesting question. Okay, so I want to make sure I understand the question. Can you repeat it one more time? Maybe our listeners need that too. Yeah, so, you know, in Scripture there's this promise, the meek will inherit the earth. Right. So what is that? So if we're all going to heaven, who cares? About being meek because we're already going to be... Yeah, yeah, like, I'm just trying to put myself in the mind of the question asker, I think. Yeah, what does it mean, how can the meek inherit the earth if we're all going to heaven? Okay, so I think maybe it's helpful to think about the context of that passage. So it comes from the Beatitudes, right, which are mostly, if not pretty much all, talking about enduring suffering with patience. And we'll one of the, so we can extrapolate then from that, that we are not going to have to endure suffering with patience in heaven. And so there's something to be inherited. Yes, in heaven, like heaven is our inheritance. There's something that we can inherit here on earth too. And that is the presence of the Holy Spirit with us as we're enduring and as we are suffering in meekness and patience while we're waiting for the real inheritance in heaven. But I'd love to hear from you. I think that's great. I actually, yeah, I had a different answer, but I think that's really important to remember that it's, so I was going to use kind of a future-oriented thought, but you're right. There is a present-oriented fulfillment of that. The meek do inherit the earth in that way. Our inheritance is not just in the future in heaven, our inheritance is also partly now. So the other aspect of that that I was going to say is, I think this is one of those other common Christian misconceptions is that where we're going to spend eternity is this faraway place that we're going to get sort of sucked out of this world and never to return, and that earth was just a temporary thing. But that's actually not how it's going to work. Heaven and earth are going to be one for eternity. So yeah, Christians go to heaven after this life, but then when Jesus returns, heaven and earth become one. They come back together. So that was the first thought that had come to my mind was that the meek will inherit the earth. Sure. When the new heavens and the new earth come together, they'll have the whole earth. So we're both right. We're both right. It's that whole already, not yet. That's right. Awesome. Well, hey, thanks everybody for your questions about heaven. That's all we got time for today Some great questions look forward to catching the next week. Thank you. Cheyenne. Of course. So happy to be here everybody You can always ask questions at peace church dot CC slash questions. Follow us on Facebook Instagram resoundmedia.cc . Thanks everybody. Have a great week. You can find That's a Good Question at resoundmedia.cc or wherever you listen to podcasts.

PODCAST That's a Good Question Embracing the Sacred: A Deep Dive Into Holy Week's Significance March 25, 2024 Jon Delger & Logan Bailey Listen to this Episode Jon So Hey everyone, welcome to That's a Good Question, a podcast of Peace Church and a part of Resound Media. You can find more great content for the Christian life and church leaders at resoundmedia.cc . That's a Good Question is a place where we answer questions about the Christian faith in plain language. Jon I'm Jon, I get to serve as a pastor at Peace Church. I also get to play a role in this podcast. You can always submit questions at peacechurch.cc/questions . Today I'm here with Pastor Logan. Logan Howdy! I'm also here with our producer Mitchell Leach. Mitchell As always. Jon As always. Great to see you guys, and today we're going to have a conversation. It's Monday of Holy Week, and so we're going to talk about Holy Week and answer some questions that have come in about that, as well as have a little discussion. All right, let's jump in. First question, who actually turned Jesus into Pilate? Jon Who done it? Logan I saw that question beforehand and I had an answer, but as you just asked it, my answer now is different. Jesus. Jesus handed himself over to be crucified. Theologically speaking, that's my answer. Jon Is that what it says in the text? Mitchell Yes. Logan Yes, it does. Jon But I would say like there is name that text Logan Name that text mitch Mitchell John 10 and john 8 I believe Logan yo, let's go Jon Acts chapter 2 and Acts chapter 4. Yeah. Oh my gosh You guys are great. He was crucified by the jews. He was crucified by the romans, but he was also crucified by the will Predestined plan I believe it says of the father. Yeah, and then jesus says No one takes my life. I lay it down on my own accord. Right, right, right. Logan But we include Judas in our answer. Mitchell Correct. Logan Yes, that's what I was gonna go for next. Jon But Judas isn't the one who turned him over to Pilate. So, shall we? Mitchell We can start. Logan That's a good nuance of the question, that's true. Jon Yeah, so shall we, just for fun here, let's start in Thursday and walk our way through the timeline real quick if we can. And I'm doing this off the top of my head, so you guys help me out. So they have the Lord's, the last supper, the Passover meal on Thursday evening. And then they go out to the garden and pray. And then Judas, with a small regiment of Roman soldiers, shows up. Judas gives the betraying kiss. The soldiers take him down and he goes to, first he goes to Annas, which is actually the father-in-law of the high priest. So there's some discrepancy in the text about, it talks about Annas and it talks about Caiaphas and both of, Annas was the high priest, then Caiaphas, the son-in-law, is the high priest, and so there's a little bit of, kinda, it's a little bit tough at points to see which one they're talking about, but so it goes to Annas first, he gets questions, then he goes to Caiaphas, the actual high priest, with some of the Sanhedrin, the Jewish council, which are Pharisees and Sadducees, elders, those scribes, those kind of guys, and it's actually the middle of the night,so that's why they can't get the whole crew together So there's you know, they're holding really this sort of sham trial. Yeah, this sort of secretive in the dark False testimony. Yeah false testimony. It's just not by the book at all, right? The whole thing's sketchy from beginning to end they don't you know, and and Jesus points that out at different points You could have arrested me anytime while I was teaching in the temple the pilot notes it too. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, this could have happened any time, but they waited until in the dark, out in the woods, they grab him, they bring him back to this sort of secret, fake trial where not everybody's actually present. And then morning comes, and then the whole group gathers, so they have the full Jewish council, the Sanhedrin, and then they continue the trial then. And then, when we get to hand him over to Pilot, it's because the Jews want to put him to death, but they don't actually have the power to do that. Logan They don't have the legal power to do that. Jon Right. Right. Mitchell Yeah. And it was on a holy day celebrating the Passover. And so they wouldn't have put someone to death at that time either. Jon So they so Pilate gets involved. And because with Roman law, he can put people to death. So then that's when the Roman part of the trial begins. And it goes from he goes from Pilate to Herod, back to Pilate, and then final decision. Logan Yeah, I think from their perspective, you were making the point about the time of Holy Week, and from their perspective, this is a time to stoke the religious fervor of the crowd to get them to stand up against what they perceived as blasphemy. And so that's why the crowd is so energized about it. Ironically, if that is the right use of the word ironically, I don't know anymore. It is not only Holy Week from their perspective, it makes sense, but it also makes sense from God's perspective because of the connections with the Old Testament that Holy Week has. That when we look at Jesus and the New Testament, we're not just floating out in the sky somewhere in terms of religious symbolism and symbolic, like, biblical symbolism. It's so connected to the Old Testament in so many cool ways. So when we look at communion and even Pentecost, like all the things that we look at when we look at the New Testament, they're all connected. Jon Yeah, that's a super important part of understanding Holy Week. So actually, you want to talk more about that? Logan Yeah, I mean, you could start with communion, the Last Supper. I think you'd also start with the triumphal entry of Jesus, which we looked at on Palm Sunday, obviously. But I was just talking with our women's director Cheyenne about when he walked when he when he came in on a donkey That's not only looking at revelation with the palm branches surrounding the throne of God It's also looking at King Solomon when he was brought in on a humble donkey before the people and the I forget exactly the right words, but like the thunderous noise of everyone who's coming in and so When Jesus was coming in and people were shouting and crowds were surrounding him. It's symbolism, both in eternity and in the Old Testament in Solomon. You go to the communion, Maundy Thursday. I'm pronouncing that right. It's a connection to Exodus and the Passover lamb. And obviously we think of Good Friday, the sacrifice of the lamb and the lamb's blood that the God's wrath passes over us because of God's grace. That's what my brain just came up with. I don't know if you had anything else to say. Jon No, that's good. I'm just trying to, I always think, and maybe if nobody else finds this interesting, that's okay, but when it comes to Holy Week, I like to really think through just kind of the timeline of Holy Week and what Jesus is doing, what the crowds are doing, as well as just what's going on in the Passover celebration. And I just really, I just like to think about kind of the historical context. Logan Yeah, I think, and if someone knows a Jewish person today or grew up in a Jewish family, one hard thing is that the way that things were celebrated back then aren't necessarily the way that things are celebrated now. There's that just kind of distant, obvious 2,000 years of distance between us and them to know exactly how they celebrated these different things. But there's a lot in the text and historical records and there are some things that are consistent even today if you studied cedar and things like that. Jon Yeah, I mean, you get the whole, the full week of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, seven or eight days, and then from what I've seen, there's some discrepancy in modern day, at least about whether it's seven or eight days. Mitchell And that's natural with any celebration. I mean, you look at the history of Christmas or Thanksgiving, like things have evolved and changed. Logan Even just in our lifetime, we've seen drastic changes. So yeah, sure. Jon So they're celebrating this This festival that points back to the book of Exodus like you pointed out Which is the self-depict story in the Old Testament Yeah, the Exodus is is the story of the Jewish people being saved by God It's no accident that it was on Holy Week and Pentecost is the crown jewel of the festivals that happened throughout the the Jewish calendar So this is the primary that's the festival that they remembered this exodus. Logan So from the religious leaders perspective that don't believe he's the Messiah, it makes sense for them because they're trying to arouse the crowd against blasphemy and yet from God's perspective, from Christ's perspective, it is, you have no idea, this is so symbolic, you are, this is going to be the new symbol of my people, for my people and of my grace. Actually think about that, like, so this first holy week while Jesus is going on trial, he's crucified, he's resurrected, I think there's a lot of maybe haze for the followers who are witnessing this for the first time but could you imagine like the first time they get to celebrate Passover again and like the things that- Logan Like that following year. Jon Oh, and just how everything starts to like, fall into place throughout all the Old Testament. I mean, how, what a cool time for that. Logan The first believers were Jewish believers. And that's when we read the whole, the New Testament, you do see there's, there's a challenge between how do Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians, how do we coincide and live together in Jerusalem? Council Acts 15 talks about how they live in harmony better but a Jewish Christian first century would definitely know all of these connections better than we do because it's their background they know the Old Testament better it's just a good reminder the more you know the old better you can understand the new yeah the more you know the new the better you can understand the old when you look back and look at the Exodus story it's so beautiful to go back to the Exodus story and look at it through the lens of Christ it's almost like every time Jesus stood up and said, you've heard it said, but I say to you. That's in essence what he's saying at the Last Supper when he says, this is my body. This is my blood. He's saying that Exodus story, like the story of salvation, actually it's about me. Like that's so, gives me chills. Mitchell I think it was B.B. Warfield who said, the Old Testament is like a room that is dimly lit, and the New Testament is like it with the lights on. That's really good. So seeing the connections between the two is just so cool. Logan B.B. Jon Mm-hmm. Logan Out of the guys. His name's not B.B. It's- Mitchell Correct. Jon B.B. So, since we've wandered down many paths on this thing, just for just to kind of summarize on what we've said. So in the Old Testament, the salvation story is God rescuing his people out of slavery in Egypt. And the conclusion of that is when the angel of death comes, and if you remember in the Old Testament, the Israelites have to mark their doors with blood, because the angel of death is going to come and take the firstborn from any family. The only way it will know that God's people are special and marked out and not to kill their firstborn son is because a lamb was killed in the place of that son and its blood was put on the door. And so the symbolism is amazing that the salvation story of the New Testament and of all of human history now is the Son of God, the Lamb of God coming and He dies in the place of God's people who are supposed to die for their sin and they become marked with His blood and that's sort of illustrated in the Lord's supper where he tells you that this is my blood, the cup of the new covenant. And so, and then of course, he dies in our place. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Logan The symbolism, it's so consistent and coherent. It 's so beautiful. I think of all the layers that meet, their focus is on and they're met and fulfilled in the person and work of Jesus in so many beautiful ways. Jon So, to wrap up the answer to the question that was asked about who handed Jesus over to Pilate, well, Judas, and then the Jews, and then to Pilate. And then to Herod for a minute, and then back to Pilate. So that's the answer. There's a lot of people complicit in the killing of the Son of God, and I think that's an important part of the story. It's not just Judas, it's a lot of people involved in the killing of the Son of God. Logan And I was just talking to a congregant about how Pilate knows what he's doing is wrong. He knows that this is an unjustified killing, and that's why he attempts to wash his hands of it in front of them. And it's just the symbolism there of you need a different baptism. You need a different cleansing than what you're trying to provide for yourself. You know this is wicked and like for it's easy I think to read the Gospels and almost like feel for Pilate and yeah oh man you know this is wrong and oh but he he's trying to cleanse himself from it and you need a different cleansing than what you're trying to provide. Jon Yeah there's a minute in there where I think you're tempted to feel like maybe he's a good guy who's just getting dragged along in this thing but it's really not the case I think really what's going on is he's a shrewd politician. And he knows that Jesus has a lot of supporters, but he also has a lot of enemies, and he's trying to balance the whole thing and not lose his own power. Mitchell And even if he was just a good guy in a bad situation, like he still made the wrong choice. It 's still sin. Logan I like the way you said it, Pastor Jon. You said there's a lot of people complicit in the murder of the Son of God. Mitchell Let's jump into our second question, second listener question. In John 10, 24 and 25, it says, How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly. Jesus answered them, I told you plainly, but you did not believe. Here's the question. If he had told them plainly, he was the Christ, would that have made a difference? Would they still have called it blasphemy? Jon And the reason I wanted to include this one in our, you know, there's a question that we've been holding on to for a little while. I want to include it in this conversation because this, the same thing basically, the same thing that's going on in John 10 essentially happens in Jesus' court trials. He's being accused of all these things and he doesn't respond, you know, he doesn't defend himself. Logan Yeah, so the question is, if he had told them plainly that he was the Christ, would that have made a difference and would they have still called it blasphemy? I think he did say it pretty plainly. I guess would be my follow-up. There were a lot of moments where he did not defend himself against all the accusations and the questions of Pilate and the Jewish leaders. But Jesus did say a lot of things plainly at other points too. And they thought it was blasphemy. That's why they think it's blasphemy in the first place, is so they know what he's saying. Jon We'll be right back after this break. Elizabeth Hi, I'm Elizabeth, one of the co-hosts of Mom Guilt, a podcast with new episodes every Monday. Mom Guilt is a podcast about the daily struggles of motherhood. Stephanie and I share real experiences of Mom Guilt and how we have found freedom from that guilt through the gospel. Listen to us on Resoundmedia.cc or wherever you find podcasts. Jon Right, I think in some ways it goes back to a question I've heard a lot of people ask, why didn't Jesus just sort of show up with all of his power and just say, I am God, and hear me roar, and just do a lot of miraculous things? But he kind of did. Yeah. And I think the point is that people's hearts are so hard. Yeah. And I think the point is that people's hearts are so hard. Yeah. That, you know, there's, there's more than, than simply seeing going on. There was, there was their hearts involved. There's their sin involved. There's a religious authorities wanted to hold onto their power. There's just so many things going on. Logan Which I think is so similar to Exodus because Pharaoh's heart is so hardened continually by God's intervention and grace into the story and his heart just continually gets hardened by the actions of God of I'm gonna send this curse and you're still gonna have a hard heart despite me trying to save my people and it gets to the point of the death of Pharaoh's son but the death of the firstborns in Egypt anyone that's not covered by the blood of the Lamb is killed and that is what gets the people to leave and then his heart is hardened again, and he doesn't understand that he's complicit in the death of his son, the firstborn of Egypt, he's complicit in it. And when we think of Holy Week, we're complicit in the murder of the Son of God. Like we are involved in that killing. Mitchell I think that even goes into a similar way of how Jesus responded and how he was during his ministry on earth. You think about his parables, right? The parables were there to make complex things simple to people so that way they could understand. But it was also a way for him to kind of hide and make it so that way there were certain people who couldn't understand. In this, he told people plainly and they didn't want to hear. But he didn't say it so like, I am Yahweh, I am, you know, this is exactly, I'm going to explain, you know, the three persons of the Trinity. He did it in a way that made it so that way there were people who, whose hearts were hardened, couldn't respond. And yet he's explained it in a way for other people who were illuminated by the Holy Spirit and completely transformed. Logan I would say that he does say, I am. And so there is like a, like, yeah, it's like that, that that's true. Given the kind of like when he's talking to the religious leaders, and he says, Give to Caesar was Caesars. Yeah, give to God was God's masterful, masterful response. So you see both the masterful responses, and you see him being pretty clear about who he is, who am I? Peter says, Christ, he says I am before Abraham was I am yeah I go back and forth because I think there is cleared like there They believe that he is blasphemous because he's clear enough and yet they you're right They don't have a clear enough thing to accuse him of so they have to come up with false things Yeah, which I think is maybe maybe I'm thinking of Paul when he says, didn't I teach in... no, maybe it's Jesus. Like, didn't I teach in the courts every day? Yeah, it's Jesus. I've been out here teaching. And yet that goes back to the night thing. Jon That's like his first answer. I believe that's his first answer in the thing. They accuse him of some things and they ask him to answer and he says, didn't I teach in the synagogues? And then he gets slapped in the face by the Roman soldier. Don't you talk to the high priest that way. But he says, well, did I lie? I mean, I said it. So it's almost like he's saying, hey, this stuff's all on YouTube. You know, like, I don't know what you want from me. I said it. It's out there. Should we talk about a couple other questions about Holy Week? I think there's some fun ones here. Logan Nate, give us your funnest one. Jon The funnest one, I think, is this. What happened to Jesus between Friday and Sunday? Logan I think that's a great question. Much debated question. I was just asked this this morning, actually. So, I mean, Apostles' Creed, which is a great early church preservation of the good core Christian teachings that the apostles taught. It isn't scripture, but it's giving a good account of scripture and its goal is we say it when we do communion it says Christ was Crucified dead and buried he descended to hell or to the dead or to the dead Jon And then so that whole line is an original apostle screen, but it's so enlighten us I've always thought that it was just that you choose which Latin way you want to word it because how Hades, Sheol, like there's a lot of words for death in scripture that are also real places that you could go to. Logan Like it's an idiom or a euphemism for dying. Jon So the oldest manuscripts we have of the Apostles' Creed don't have that line at all. It doesn't say any of those words. He descended to the dead or he descended to hell. But a lot of the manuscripts do. And so, I mean, it was added at some point, which is fine. It's not scripture, you know, so it's okay to add things. And then there's a discrepancy. Is it hell? Is it the dead? I think as we talk about our interpretation of what happens between Friday and Sunday. So here at Peace Church, we say he descended to the dead is the line we use. Logan Which is what I would actually – I would say that would be my interpretation of even when the manuscript said hell. It would be – it's trying to convey that he died. Well, the earliest ones say dead. The earliest, which just goes to, yeah, my earliest ones that include that that line. Yeah. Yeah. So but essentially the question, I think the question people that the average person is asking is, did Jesus go to hell? Yeah, I think that's really the question I ask is after Jesus died on Good Friday, what happened to him? Did he go to hell? On the other side, there isn't a passage in Scripture that says that he didn't, but there are inferences that when Jesus is on the cross and he's speaking to the... Jon Why can't I think of his name? The thief? Logan The thief on the cross, yes. The most famous guy. Yeah, that's a great... Mitchell This is great. He says, today you will be with me in paradise. And so, not like, hey, you're going to die, and it's going to be weird for you for like two days and then it's going to be all right. No, today you'll be with me in paradise. So there's an inference there that he's going to be in heaven. Logan Am I wrong when I'm thinking, man, but isn't there a verse that talks about him going and freeing souls or captives? Jon You're talking about the very interesting verse of 1 Peter 3. Logan Yeah, which I interpret even that of saying like he is saving people from hell. It's not that he's going into hell and opening cages. Jon Yeah, 1 Peter 3 is a very interesting and kind of tough passage to understand. Real quick, we'll circle back to that one, but I want to just tie off the, did he go to hell or not? And again, I'll chime in and say, and add no. I was just thinking that would be my one counter text. Yeah, sure. So I think the other thing to add, yeah, so he said, today I'll see in paradise. He also said it is finished. Yeah So yeah, so biblically and theologically Yeah, the reason we believe Jesus did not go to hell after dying on the cross is that he bore hell on the cross He did not need to there was nothing to happen after that. That's right. He took he took the father's wrath So we believe about the cross is that Jesus didn't just bear physical pain But he bore all the wrath of God for all the sin of God's people. There is some spiritual going on, something we couldn't see. I think typically we say that when it goes dark, that that's sort of symbolically picturing that there's sort of a veil cast over Jesus that we can't see what exactly is happening, but he's suffering at a spiritual level the very wrath of God. He's suffering hell itself while he's on the cross. And on that point, for people who want to continue to say in the Apostles Creed that Jesus descended into hell. That is where we can say, sure, we can say that. What we mean is that he died. And that he took hell on the cross. He took the full, that's because that's what hell is. It is. It's taking the full wrath of God towards sin. Mitchell And that's what Jesus took. Jon Yes. Yeah. If I'm in another church and, and they're saying, and what's on the screen is he descended into hell. I'm okay with saying it, but in my mind, I'm thinking what I mean is he suffered hell on the cross. Logan Absolutely. Jon Yeah, so that's the thing. So if you say that Jesus went to hell to suffer after Good Friday, you're undermining when Jesus said it is finished. You're denying that the atonement was fully completed on the cross, and that's a problem. Because usually, not usually, when Jesus says something, he means it. So when he said it was finished you sure did he did mean it that's right so then do you want to go to the tricky yeah yeah so let's talk about first peter three and then i think that leads us to one of the questions which is was it three literal days isn't that what we mean when we say three days yeah it was three 24-hour days i think we can talk about that yeah i think after we get to the first peter in our western context context i think that's what we think of when we think of three days, we think, you know, midnight on. I want the minute marker of Stephanie died and I need to, yeah, yeah. And so I've heard some atheists, we'll get to there. Jon Well, it's also why we typically say on the third day. Because it is on the third day. Logan But when you think, when you hear that, you think, Jon oh, that's three literal days. And I've heard atheists say, well, it wasn't actually three literal days. Logan So therefore it wasn't true and it wasn't a fulfillment of prophecy. I know we keep saying we'll get to it, but I feel like we've already dived in, so I need to say this. We're gonna keep going. It is three literal days. It's not three literal 24-hour days. There are three days. They are very real. Friday, Saturday, Sunday. Three actual days. And that's how Jews understood the calendar too. Like when they would have talked about three days. Sabbath starts on Friday evening and end to Saturday. Correct. So he died before the end of the day on Friday. He was dead the entire day on Saturday and was resurrected on Sunday. We don't have the time markers of, correct, every minute. I mean, it does say like on the ninth hour and things like that, but we don't have like at exactly this moment, he died and then you can count 36. Jon Yeah, it's kind of how, like when I talk about, when I was in student ministry, when I would talk about a retreat, Logan I don't know why I said 36. Jon But when I would talk about a retreat, I would say this is a three day retreat, but really we're getting up there on Friday night, all day Saturday, and then coming back home on Sunday. Logan Wow, just like Jesus. Jon Just like Jesus, yeah. That's why you do that, right? 72, right? Logan I'm trying to do math on the fly. That's three days You went to Bible College Jon Math 110 the last math class of my life was it like biblical math was like go forth and multiply There we go, all right, I'm gonna read first Peter 3 just for fun because this is a tough passage. Here we go. It's starting in verse 18. I'll just read a little bit of it. It says, For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the Spirit, in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, because they formerly did not obey, when God's patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water. And then it goes on some more. But even just hearing that part,you can hear this is a tricky passage. There's a lot of stuff going on. You guys want to jump in? Logan You want me to tell you? Like we talked about earlier, Peter is alluding to different Old Testament moments to draw this picture of the depth of meaning that the New Testament has, talking about Noah and things like that. Jon Yeah, there's a lot going on. So I remember I preached through first Peter once I remember coming to this passage and saying, oh boy, here we go. If I remember right, I think I think there's a few different ways you could take it. But I think one of the simplest is to say, yeah, if if what it's saying is that Jesus went somewhere and proclaimed to the spirits and meaning, we people souls in in hell or in or in Abraham's bosom. That's a whole other discussion. Jon Whether they were believers or not believers and where they were. Logan Or in the covenant family or outside. Jon Yeah. We can still say that on Saturday, Jesus could have gone somewhere and proclaimed his victory. That absolutely could have happened. Yeah. Logan I think too that we read souls in prison and automatically think, hell, but the souls in prison, what's it say? I'm misreading it. No, I'm saying, oh, it doesn't say hell. Jon It says, yeah. But even if you were to believe, even if you were to say what 1 Peter 3 says is that Jesus went and proclaimed his victory to souls in hell, he still didn't go to hell and suffer. And that's the important theological point. His atonement was done. Logan I would, I believe in this moment, I'd read it as the gospel has been preached to people that are imprisoned to their sins. And once they die, their final judgment will be in accordance with what they're a slave to, which is their sins. They can't untangle themselves from that which they're a slave to, which is sin. Jon That's what the gospel of preachers too. So, the short story is, we don't know what happened between Good Friday and Easter Sunday morning. We do know a few things that didn't happen, which is that Jesus didn't go to hell and suffer. Logan All right, I'm gonna ask one last question. Jon What the heck is Maundy Thursday? Mitchell Maundy. Jon Maundy Thursday. Logan I'm just going off whatever Jon said. Yeah.I always forget the Latin phrases, but yeah, mandi is what's the actual full Latin word? Mandatum. Jon Mandatum, which stands for mandate, referring back to on Thursday night when Jesus mandated the Lord's Supper or established his body and blood as symbols of the new covenant. Yeah, so that's why we call it Maundy Thursday because it's on Thursday night, Jesus, the bread and the cup and he says take and eat and that's the mandate. Yeah, yeah. Mitchell It's not a suggestion. Logan Not suggestion Thursday. Jon Mandate Thursday, you know, that's awesome. Logan Yeah, yeah. Jon So Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Sunday are traditionally the three major days of Holy Week that we celebrate. Is it like Silent Saturday? Is there a name for Saturday? Yeah, I think Saturday is good. Logan Yeah. Jon It's also the reason, like at Peace Church, why we do communion on Good Friday is to remember what happened on Monday, Thursday. Logan Which he was pointing towards Good Friday. Yeah. Jon Yeah, there are some churches that will do either a Monday, Thursday, or a Good Friday, or both. Yeah. And so, there's a little bit of combining which is okay. Yeah. Usually practically churches just choose between Thursday or Friday because it's pretty hard to do a service on both. Yeah. Thursday, Friday, and Sunday. Yeah. Jon Awesome. Well hey, as you're celebrating Holy Week, we hope this has been helpful to you to think about what is going on in the midst of Holy Week, what's going on in Jesus' death in between, and then of course in his resurrection. So next week we're gonna spend some time talking specifically about Easter Sunday and the resurrection. It'll be just after it has happened, talking about it on Monday and Tuesday after Easter Sunday. So look forward to that. Jon I hope everybody has an awesome Holy Week. Give the Lord the glory he deserves for his life, death, and resurrection. Give the Lord the glory he deserves for his life, death, and resurrection. You can find That's a Good Question at resoundmedia.cc or wherever you listen to podcasts.

What is Justification? Theology Jon Delger Multiplication Pastor Peace Church Published On: November 16, 2023 As you are studying the Bible, you will eventually come across some big words that you don’t use in everyday conversation. Justification is one of those words, and it is an important word, so let’s talk about it. Short Answer: What is Justification? Simply put, to be justified is to be declared righteous. Some key passages include Romans 3:21-26; Romans 4:1-8; Romans 5:1; Romans 8:30; Romans 10:10; Galatians 2:16. When we look at these passages, we see that justification is at the very heart of the gospel, the good news of Jesus. We are sinful people. We have fallen short of God’s perfect standard (Rom. 3:23). As a result of our sin, we are deserving of death (Rom. 6:23). Unlike us, Jesus came and lived a life of perfect righteousness (Heb. 4:15). He then died on the cross not for his own sin, but for our sin as a substitute (Rom. 5:6). What happens on the cross has been called “The Great Exchange.” On the cross, Jesus takes our sin and dies for it, while giving us his righteousness. All of our sin was counted to him, and all his perfection was counted to us. When we put our faith in Jesus as Lord and Savior, God declares us righteous (Rom. 10:10), not because we are perfect but because Jesus has taken away our sin and given us his righteousness. When we repent and believe the gospel (Mark 1:14), trusting Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we are justified. Longer Answer: What is Justification? The gospel is the heart of the Christian faith, and justification is at the heart of the gospel. So let’s go a step further and make sure we understand it accurately by looking at a few of its parts. Justification is a legal change. God is the judge and we stand in the courtroom guilty and condemned. But then Jesus steps up to receive the guilty sentence in our place. As a result, God declares us innocent and righteous. It is a legal declaration. It does not mean that we are actually perfect in our actions or that we will now no longer sin. Justification is part of our union with Christ. When we put our faith in Jesus, Scripture says that we are now “in Christ” (2 Corinthians 5:17). We are one with Christ. This is another way to think about how we can be called righteous. It is because we are one with Christ the righteous. Justification has a relational component. God is holy and cannot tolerate sin. How can a sinner have a relationship with God? When we are justified, our sin is wiped off the slate and we can finally have a relationship with God. Justification is related to a specific understanding of the cross. Throughout history, some liberal theologians have said that Jesus died as a great example of love, but that his death did not have to do with taking away our sin. Liberal theology has always struggled to talk about sin, hell, and God’s wrath. However, the idea of justification depends upon understanding the cross as penal substitutionary atonement (John 1:29). Penal = punishment, Jesus took our punishment. Substitutionary = Jesus was our substitute, dying in our place. Atonement = Jesus’ death atoned for or took away our sin. How justification works is at the center of the divide between Catholics and Protestants. Catholics believe that righteousness is not imputed (given/counted) to us by Christ, but rather is infused into us. According to Roman Catholic teaching, we are justified by a combination of Jesus’ death on the cross as well as partly earning our justification through good works. By contrast, Protestants see in the Bible that justification is a gift from God that cannot be earned. Our good works are the fruit of our salvation, not part of the means by which we get saved. Finally, it is important to know that justification and sanctification are distinct but also cannot be separated. For more, see our article on Sanctification. More Blogs You'll Like Do the Resurrection Accounts Contradict? How differences in the Gospel accounts strengthen rather than undermine the credibility of the resurrection Read More What is 'Probably' Missing From Most Nativity Sets Miracle, Myth, or Meteor? Identifying What the ‘Star of Bethlehem’ Truly Was Read More Is The Bible Really Without Error? A Closer Look at Scripture’s Reliability, Inerrancy, and Historical Trustworthiness Read More

The Story of Job - His Loss Sermon Series: The Story of Job Ryan DB Kimmel Lead Pastor Peace Church Main Passage: Job 1:20-22 Transcript Today is the day that the Lord has made. So let us rejoice and be glad in it. And everyone said, Amen. Amen. So I got a question for you. Who here keeps things that you do not need just in case one day, maybe you'll need them. My people. I don't know if it's because I'm 40 or because I'm a dad, but I saw this post the other day and I just totally resonated with this post. Breaking news, today I used a piece of wood that I kept in my garage since 2006 in case I might need it. Anybody got wood like that? Ask my wife, she'll tell you. Although, I think this kind of connects to what we're going to talk about today, actually. I think the subject matter before us is something you may not feel like you need right now, but you may. You may not feel like you need to know the story of Job right now, but one day you may. And so, would you turn in your Bibles to Job, Job chapter 1, as we look at his loss today? Now, as you're turning there, just as we get going with this sermon series, here's some context for you with the book of Job. Job is from a land called Uz. We don't know exactly where it was, but what's important to know about this land is that it was outside Israel, meaning Job was not Jewish, and yet he worshipped the God of the Hebrew Bible. Job had 10 children, seven sons, and three daughters. Those are two important numbers for Scripture, denoting completeness and wholeness. Job was extremely committed to his children's spiritual development. In fact, Job would often make offerings on their behalf. Unlike so many parents today who don't really care about their children's spiritual well-being, Job was highly invested and cared a lot about it. In fact, we see that Job probably wasn't very familiar with Old Testament law because we see Job making offerings and sacrifices, which only priests should do. And yet God looked with favor upon this man. He was extremely rich and prosperous, which really flies in the face of our culture which thinks every rich person is evil. Job was extremely rich and prosperous. He cared for people. In verse eight, God says this about Job. He says, there's none like him on earth, a blameless and upright man who fears God and turns away from evil. See, Job was not just a righteous man. He was a devoted man. Job had one wife that he loved and cared for. He was faithful. He was devoted. He was a man of integrity, integrity so strong it got the attention of God. Job was a man of worship. Job was good But that's not why we know about Job, is it? Unfortunately, good men largely go unnoticed in our world. It takes a tragedy for us to pay attention to anybody. Job's life is marked by tragedy. His life was about to change, and his life began to unravel even before he knew it. Job 1:6 says, Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them." Let's just stop there for a second. Let's have a little Bible study here. What is this important meeting and who are the sons of God? Now biblically speaking, the sons of God are part of God's divine counsel. Some of your translations may say angels, but here's the reality. These were spiritual beings that God created and uses to enact his will. Not because he needs them, but because he uses them. You can sort of think of this as the president's cabinet. So this divine council convenes and Satan shows up. Now there's actually some theological debate as to whether or not Satan should have been there, whether he was called there or not, or if he's just crashing the party. We can have fun talking about that later, but that's not important for what we're going to talk about right now. Either way, Satan shows up and it says that he's come from wandering the earth. Now we're not given the whole story here, but the Bible seems to show us that God, without any real connection, immediately points to Job. Satan shows up and God immediately brings up Job without any real connection. And so we're kind of left to think that God knows what Satan was up to. Satan was wandering, scouring the earth, having influence over people. And so God goes right to Job with Satan. Satan shows up and God says, have you considered Job? And Satan's like, oh yeah, oh yeah, God, we know about Job. We know you think he's all righteous, but here's the reality, God, he's only a good man because you bless Him so much. You take away His blessing, God, and you're going to see who He really is. You take away His blessing, He's going to curse you to your face. And God responds and He basically says, you don't know Job as I do. Go ahead, take away all that he has. Don't touch him, but take away all that he has, and you'll see, Job is faithful." And so Job's life was about to change. If you read your Bible, verses 13 to 19 describe how everything in Job's life was taken away. Remember, he's a good man who cares for his people. His servants were out working in the fields and they were killed by bands of murderers. His animals, his property, his income, his livelihood, and his animals grazing in the field were killed by fire and lightning. And need I remind you, this is in the day before insurance. No insurance adjuster was going to come and survey how bad things were. This was a total and utter, completely devastating loss, and there was no recovery or going back from this. All of Job's children were together in a house and the house collapsed and killed all his sons his three daughters and This all happens not just in a day, but in a moment For the news of all this came at once in one terrible moment Job lost all his wealth his way of life, and his children. I once heard it put like this, you can approach Job from one of two chairs. Everyone reads the story of Job from one of two chairs. You either read the story of Job from an armchair or a wheelchair. You either read the story of Job from an armchair, where you've never really dealt with true pain and suffering and loss. And so you can only engage the story of Job intellectually or philosophically, kind of with your finger to your face, just, hmm. Or you read the story of Job from the wheelchair, maybe not literally, but symbolically, as you have had a life marked with pain and suffering and difficulty. And as we read the book of Job, it becomes quickly apparent from which chair you read this story. And I would say the vast majority of us sitting in this room, especially here in America, the majority, not everyone, but the majority read us, read the book of Job from the armchair, from a place of comfort. And I'm not saying that there aren't people in here who haven't dealt with real trials or faced things bigger than themselves, but the way you engage Job shows the chair from which you read Job. But as we look at what happened, one thing we all have to ask ourselves right now is in your greatest moment of pain, how do you respond? What do you do in that moment? Well, we're going to find out from Job what he does. So Job has been told that he's lost it all, his wealth, his way of life, his own children. And this is how he responds. This is what he does. And so, would you hear the word of the Lord? Job chapter 1, we'll read verses 20 to 22. Would you hear God's word? Then Job arose and tore his robe. He shaved his head and he fell on the ground and worshipped. And he said, naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. In all this, Job did not sin or charge God with wrong. This is God's word. Let's pray. We'll continue. Let's pray. Father in heaven above, you are good. You are sovereign over all. You give and you take away. And we thank you that in the midst of this, you have given us the greatest gift there is, grace. That you gave your son to die in our place for our sins, so that we might not receive what we are due, but we would receive grace, a favor from you that we do not deserve. So as we look at the story, Father, we pray, Lord, we'll never fully understand it. Would you help us in some small way to begin to see your goodness in the midst of this story as we wrestle with this, that by you, we would in some way be prepared for our time of suffering? We pray these things, Father, for your glory, by the power of the Spirit, and in the name of your Son, Jesus. And everyone said, Amen and Amen. Church, as we get going, and as we get going for this entire series, do not forget this thing. What is Job's objective? What is Satan's objective? What is Satan's objective? He's not just trying to torture Job because he hates the human race. Satan's great objective in this is to get Job to reject his faith. Satan is trying to get Job to turn his back on God. That's what Satan's great objective is. That's what it was for Job and I think that's what it is for us. Satan will use any tactic for that to happen. Now, in the story of Job, it happens by taking away things. He wants to take away Job's livelihood and his children to get Job to turn his back on God. But I think, in our day and age, he's given us a lot. He's given us a lot to keep us happy and distracted so that we don't feel like we need God. See, I think Satan's great objective is to get you to turn away from God, and he'll do that through supply or through suffering. And I think for a lot of people in our context, Satan is having such victory because he's given you so much, you don't feel the need for God, so you don't turn to God, and proverbially in your heart, you've already turned away, and Satan has won without even showing his hand. But the book of Job reminds us that no matter what Satan is doing, God has a good plan behind it. So, as we continue with this story, here are a few things that I want to pull up from this message, from this chapter, as we consider Job. Here are some tools that you may or may not need for the future, but are probably good to keep around. Three things we see from the Book of Job. We worship God not because of our wealth, but because of His worth. We worship God because of Him, because of His goodness. Three things we see from our passage. God is worthy of our worship, even in our laments. The second thing we see is that God is worthy of our honor, even in our loss. And the third thing we're going to see is that God is worthy of our devotion, even in our lows. So, first thing, God is worthy of our worship, even in our lament. Church, let me say this to you. I think this is one thing we all need to hear. The best way you can prepare for times of suffering and pain is to know God. To know God and to know who He is. And I say this not because of my great experience, I say this because I know and love my church and I think about the people of this church and they have already taught me this. It is hard to preach a message like this and not think of specific people from our church family who have had Job-like experiences, who have lost and lost deeply. It's hard to preach a sermon like this from the armchair to those who I know who read the book of Job from the wheelchair. I know men through demonic opposition have lost everything in a job they love. I know mothers who have spent years on their knees praying for their children only to have lost them. But we all have to understand, whether you approach Job from the wheelchair or from the armchair. We all of us approach God who sits on the throne. A God who sits on the throne and answers to no one. A God who sits on the throne and does not owe us anything. A God whose every action leads us to ultimately one response, and it's to acknowledge that He is God and that we are not, and His ways are beyond our ways. And I am telling you now, at the end of the day, I'd rather have a God who's bigger than my understanding than a God I can wrap my mind around. So God is worthy of our worship, even in our laments. Job lost it all, and then he arose, tore his robe, shaved his head, and he fell on the ground and he worshipped. What's going on here? What we see here is a man broken. We see a man broken in half. He's crying out in pain. He's grieving. He's mourning. He's lamenting. But what is his response? Worship. His response is to worship. Why? Why? It's because he knew God. Because he knew God, his only response was to worship, whether, through happy times or horrendous times, our response to God is to worship. The God who in his goodness is present with us in our pain, even when he doesn't have to be there, but because he wants to be there. Because no matter what God allows, we need to understand that God is good. So if we see a disconnect between God being good and what's happened in our lives or the state of this world, if we see a disconnect, the problem isn't with God, the problem is with our limited understanding. Who here has ever actually read the book, Moby Dick? The movie doesn't count? Now, Moby Dick, you guys know that great story about the obsessed Captain Ahab and the white whale, right? This story was narrated by a character named Ishmael. Now in chapters 55 and 56, Ishmael, who's a whaler, right, goes out on the open ocean and hunts whales. He talks about how when he's on land and he sees all the depictions and all the paintings of whales, how they're so inaccurate. He talks about how even the best paintings of whales are insufficient because all these paintings are too small. He's saying a whale is this ginormous, beautiful, mega animal. You could never capture it on a small little piece of paper. And then he says, I'm going to read to you a part of what Ishmael says here. He says, there's no earthly way of finding out precisely what the whale looks like. And the only mode in which you can derive even a tolerable idea of its living contour is by going a whaling yourself. But by doing so, you run no small risk of being eternally stove and sunk by him. Do you hear what Ishmael is saying? He's saying there's no way to truly know the power and the beauty and the enormity of a whale. And the only way to even come close to understanding is to get out there and the vast ocean and face this Leviathan yourself. But if you do, you'll never be the same if you even come back at all. He's saying you can't know a whale just by looking at a painting. You have to spend time with them. Now clearly, the parallel here to God is profound. We have people who judge God who has never spent time with God. There's also a parallel for suffering. We have people who judge God who has never truly suffered even. They've never experienced suffering and yet they judge those who have suffered and they judge God who's sovereign over all. But when we move away from the distractions of the world and we approach God in prayer, experience God will never be the same, if not totally destroyed. But we will know that we have truly encountered God in faith when our response to God is reverent, holy, fearful, and worship. Listen to me, listen to me, especially if you are seeking God right now. If your response to God is judgment, mocking, scorn, scoffing, or criticism, I'm telling you right now, it's not God that you're approaching. It's a caricature of God that you probably gleaned from culture. For you to truly experience God is to bow to your face and declare you're not worthy, only He is. The right response to God is worship. For when we know God and His worth, we are in some small way prepared for loss and pain, and we worship even in our lament. I've sat with those of deep faith as they've tragically lost their spouse. They approach that moment differently than those who don't. I'm not saying it makes it easier. in some small way, those who know God, are prepared. Even when God is the one who allows the pain in our life, growing closer to Him in our pain is better than letting our pain drive us away from Him. As C.S. Lewis said, pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers in our pleasures, He speaks in our conscience, but He shouts in our pain. It is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world. Translation, pain isn't God abandoning us. It's a way that He's using to draw us to Himself, which is why we can worship even in our laments. And secondly, God is worthy of our honor, even in our loss. And Job said, naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Let me ask you a question. Have you ever met a truly humble person that you despised? Have you ever met someone and said, yeah, they're really humble, but man, what a jerk? No, no. There's something attractive about people who are truly humble. This is why the book of Job is so profound because Job is a truly humble man. But listen to me. This doesn't just mean he's nice to other people. When someone is truly humble, they know their place in the universe and that's hard to find Job is a humble man. He's not presumptuous. He's not assuming He is a man who knows that God owes him nothing He's a man who knows that God has every right to everything he has and that is a weighty Nearly impossible thing for us here in the West, especially in America, to get our minds wrapped around. What did you do to be born? Nothing. What did you bring with you into this world? Nothing. What will you take when you leave this world? Nothing. Is anybody here really fascinated by ancient Egypt? I love to look up the ancient Egypt stuff. It's just, I think for me it's compelling, it's fascinating, there's so much mystery there. I love to look up the dynasties. And you know, every time they like to uncover a pharaoh's tomb, do you know what they find inside? A dead guy with a bunch of really valuable stuff. Gold and jewelry. I mean, arguably the most famous of all the pharaohs is King Tut. Do you know that King Tut, when they discovered his tomb, do you know that wealth in his tomb is estimated to be at least $750 million? Nearly a billion dollars worth of stuff this guy was buried with. Let me ask you a question. How much did any of the pharaohs enjoy the stuff they were buried with after they died? Nothing. You come into this world with nothing. You leave with nothing. Your grave doesn't come with a closet to put your fancy clothes. Your grave doesn't come with a bank account to pull out money whenever you need it. Your grave doesn't come with a safe to keep your valuables in whenever you want to enjoy them. You came into this world with nothing and you're going to leave with nothing. And as hard as it is to realize and to acknowledge when everything is taken from you, do you know what you're left with? This goes against everything that our culture says right now. But when everything is taken from you, do you know what you're left with? You're left with everything you're entitled to. When everything is taken from you, the only thing you have left is what you are entitled to. Even our children belong to God. We're just given custody of them for a time. But a day will come when we have to give them back. We just hope that we're not around to see it. And Job said, "'Naked I came from my mother's room, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.'" Whether in prosperity or poverty, we only have what the Lord allows us to have, and it's all His anyway. And when everything gets taken from you, this doesn't mean you can't be sad, this doesn't mean you can't be mad, this doesn't mean you can't cry or lament. What it means is that we can still bless and honor God even in our loss. And it also means that God is worthy of our devotion even in our lows. Look at this last verse, verse 22. In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong. Even in Job's lowest moment, he didn't blame God. He was still devoted to God. Now, listen, I know I'm not an old man, but I got some miles on me. Ministry will do that to you. And there's one thing I can tell you that I've seen over my time. So much of the pain that people have in their lives is a product of their own choices. Not everyone. Terrible things happen. But as I've been a pastor and sat and listened to people who sat across my desk and listened to their pain. So much of it comes from people's own poor choices. God has shown them the good way, and they chose not to walk in it. And then they wonder why their life's a mess. And these people end up blaming God. They blame God because they didn't follow His ways. They followed their own ways. But listen here, Job did nothing to deserve this. Job followed God's ways. Job did nothing to deserve this and he still doesn't blame God. Do you know what's really powerful about this passage? Do you know what Job is doing when he doesn't blame God? He's proving Satan wrong. That is a powerful spiritual reality here. Yes, things in our life may come crashing down. Yes, everything may be taken from us. Yes, we may have to suffer immense loss, but there is a God in heaven who sits on the throne and He is good. And because our good God sits on the throne, you can have hope no matter what you face. And because you can have hope, you can still be devoted to God even in your lowest moments. As we look at the story of Job, there's so much more to the story. We're only getting going, and if you come back next week, you're going to find out it doesn't get better for him. And so as we look at this first message from Job, and as we look at the end of this first sermon, I don't want to tie a bow on this right now. I just kind of want to let us hang with this moment of loss and let us all wrestle with it for this week because in the book of Job, you have to wrestle with it. I don't want to tie a bow. I kind of want to just leave it as it is and pick it up next week. So rather than tying a bow on this message this morning, let me just end by maybe taking my stab at answering a question maybe we have. Does Satan still approach God for permission to bring disaster upon our lives? Here's what I'd say. Here's my way to begin to answer this. The cross changes everything. The cross changes everything. History took a new turn with the cross. Our lives, when we believe, take a new turn. The cross changes everything. It's impossible to look upon the Old Testament, knowing where we are now, and not look through the cross of Jesus Christ. The cross brings light to our suffering. It brings assurance to our hope. It brings, yes, reality to the blackness and the grievousness of our sin. The cross brings fulfillment in some profound way to the story of Job. The cross changes everything. Jesus Christ told us this himself. You know this. We just looked at this at Easter. When Jesus was approaching the crucifixion, like literally as he is marching towards the cross, he says, now the ruler of this world will be cast out. No, Satan does not enter the divine divine counsel among the sons of God and sit and accuse you anymore. He sits among us and accuses us. He's still at work though, but his objective is still the same, whether through pleasure or poverty, he's wanting for you to turn your back on God. But the cross changes everything. See, Job, Job lost everything, but he stayed true to God. Jesus lost everything because we don't stay true to God. In our sin, we deserve the eternal suffering of Job. In our sin, we deserve the wrath of God that Jesus took in our place on the cross. The cross is so amazing. I don't think even Christians fully understand what happened. See, by faith, when we believe in Jesus on the cross, our sin has been removed because the payment for sin has been paid in full by Jesus himself. We sing that and we celebrate that regularly, but I think sometimes we forget there is an exchange that happened that continued to happen on the cross. See on the cross, Jesus took our sin and paid the penalty for it. But you know what also happens? By faith, when we place our faith in Jesus, we get his righteousness. The righteousness of Jesus, the Son of God, is now imputed into us so that when God looks at us, he sees someone who is more righteous than Job. He doesn't see us, he sees His Son within us. And now our relationship with God that's been broken has been restored through faith in Jesus. See the cross changes everything. It prepares us for the suffering that we will have on this side of eternity until God makes all things right. See the cross changes everything. The cross helps us to prepare for the life that's before us. When we think about pain and suffering, we approach with certain lessons that we've learned. I'm telling you right now, we don't approach pain and suffering based on the powerful lessons of Job's suffering. We approach pain and suffering with the life-giving power of Jesus and what He did for us on the cross. This is why we can say even louder than what Job did, the Lord gives and the Lord takes away, but blessed be the name of the Lord. This is why we are a different set of people than the world out there. We can say the Lord gives and takes away, but blessed be the name of the Lord. If you can say that, would you say amen? Amen. Amen. Would you please stand and let's prepare our hearts to worship? Would you bow your heads and just hear these words for a moment? The Book of Job is one of the most weighty subjects that we can ever approach. It's a story that needs to be wrestled with, but it's a story that should prepare us. Prepare us to worship. Prepare us for a God who's bigger than us. So before we go to prayer, if you are prepared to worship a God who gives and takes away, if you are still prepared to say, blessed be the name of the Lord, would you do me a favor, if no one else is looking, just raise your hand. As we sing, I encourage you, at some point, to raise your hand to declare that you believe the words that we're singing. We're going to sing a song that comes right out of the Book of Job. So Father, I pray, here and now, Lord, that you'd prepare our hearts by the power of your Spirit through the life-giving power of Jesus, Father, that we can declare the good news to the world. There's a God in heaven who loves us, who sent his Son to die in our place. We say that because the Spirit fills us now, and so Father, I pray that we'd be people who can show the world that yes, the Lord gives, the Lord takes away, but blessed be the name of the Lord because you are good and you've shown your great love to us, oh God. So help us now by the power and presence of your spirit to worship you. So help us now by the power and presence of your spirit to worship you. It's in Jesus' name that we pray these things and everyone said, amen.

More Than Meets the Eye Christian Life Stephanie Delger Podcast Host Mom Guilt Podcast Published On: “Congratulations, it’s a girl!” Images of us coloring, baking, and reading together immediately flooded my mind. I had everything figured out. I was going to be the perfect mom. Fast forward five months, and I was sitting in the nursery holding my daughter—only everything wasn’t as I had pictured it would be. We were going through another sleepless night, with her crying inconsolably in my arms. What was wrong with me? Why couldn’t I figure this out? Did God make a mistake when he gave me this precious baby? I couldn’t keep my own tears from flowing and mixing with hers on her tiny cheeks. This wasn’t the way I imagined motherhood. It was supposed to be filled with snuggles, smiles, and giggles. Yet here I was, covered in yesterday’s makeup, spit-up, and tears. I had dreamed of being a mom all my life. Why weren’t things happening like I thought they would? After a few weeks of trying and failing to figure things out on my own, I texted a friend. She came over and sat on my couch as I poured out my heart and frustrations. After a while, she looked at me and asked, “What if God designed motherhood for more than our happiness?” Motherhood Demands Dependence Sometimes we think we have things all figured out. We feel like we are in control. Motherhood, however, has a way of humbling us and revealing that the control we thought we had was only an illusion. From morning sickness and leg cramps to labor and delivery, motherhood quickly shows us that we are not in control. This is a terrifying feeling, especially when we look down into the tiny eyes of another human being who is completely dependent upon us. Thankfully, we don’t care for our children all by ourselves. The same God who assured Joshua, “Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go” (Joshua 1:9), is our God as well. We don’t embark on this motherhood journey alone. God is with us and will never leave us.[1] In his goodness, God has also given us the gift of Christian friendship. His design for the church is that believers surround and take care of each other while we raise the children that he has blessed us with. Sometimes as a mom, we lament that we only have two hands. But God has actually given us many more—the hands of the body of Christ with whom we gather and worship each week. Motherhood Cultivates Holiness Sanctification, or the process of being made holy, is a lifelong process. It starts well before motherhood, but for many of us, motherhood reveals many sins. When our baby wakes in the middle of the night and we resentfully trudge to the nursery, our sin of selfishness is revealed. When a friend shares that her baby is crawling well before ours and frustration seizes us, our sin of coveting is revealed. While ranting to our husband about how much we have to do and how hard it is, we realize that we have not done everything without complaining or arguing.[2] Have you ever experienced moments like these? Through motherhood, God chooses to love us and make us more like him. Romans 8:29 says that God “predestined [us] to be conformed to the image of his Son.” His design for our lives is that through our circumstances, we would be made to act, think, and love like Jesus. Before we start viewing this as an overwhelming burden, we can rest assured, remembering that we have the Holy Spirit working in us to help us become more like Christ. God will not ask us to do something that he himself will not help us achieve. God will equip us to fulfill the tasks and duties that he has asked us to do. Motherhood Brings Us to Worship When facing our own shortcomings and sins, we are asked not to look to ourselves, but rather to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Our standing is secure, not because of how we perform as a mom, but because of what Jesus did on the cross. Our identity is rooted in being a daughter of God, not in being an outstanding mom. This means that on days when things go well, we can praise God for his wisdom and guidance. We can thank him for the gifts he has given us, which were used to nurture our children and teach them about their Creator. We can worship God, knowing that all good things come from him.[3] And on days that feel more like a hurricane than like sunshine and rainbows, we can cry out to the Lord, thanking him for being with us through it all. When nothing seems to have gone right—when we have yelled at our children and are counting the minutes until bedtime—God is there. The blood of Jesus covers our sins. We can stand confidently before God knowing that he sees Christ’s perfection, rather than our many failures. Motherhood has been designed by God not ultimately for our earthly happiness, but for his eternal glory. And that’s good news when you feel stuck in the trenches—there’s more at play than meets the eye. This article first appeared on Risen Motherhood. [1] Deuteronomy 31:6; Psalm 139:7; Psalm 145:18; Isaiah 41:10; Matthew 28:20; John 14:16-17 [2] Philippians 2:14 [3] James 1:17 More Blogs You'll Like Is Prioritizing Love Un-Christian? What Does The Bible Say? Read More More Than Meets the Eye Discovering God’s Purposes for Motherhood Read More Mom Guilt and How to Fight It Read More