Instruments of Justice

Jesus Clams to be God

God! I Call For Help, But You Don't Listen! Habakkuk

Resurrection Sunday, Greatest Christian Feast

Devotional for Resurrection Sunday April 17, 2022

On Eagle's Wings – Tuesday of Holy Week

ISAIAH 49:1-7 ; PSALM 71:1-14; Psalm 91

The beautiful lyrics are based on the text of Psalm 91, and can also be found in Psalm 71. today. Psalm 71 begins, “In you, O Lord, have I taken refuge; let me never be ashamed…Be my strong rock, a castle to keep me safe;” Psalm 91, “He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty ...” What might it mean for God to be our rock, or to dwell in God’s shelter? How do we make God our refuge?

Many of the hymns and prayers plead with God to abide with us. We ask for God’s presence to come among us, for God to be known. Sometimes, we ask for divine intervention – for God to inspire peace in our hearts or kindness towards the stranger among us. Despite this plea, how often do we take it upon ourselves to draw near to God? It can be easy to sit in prayer that God be known to us – but are we taking the same initiative and making ourselves known to God? Dwelling in the shelter of the Lord – abiding in God’s shadow – what might that look like?

There is nowhere we can go where God is not. There is no place on this earth that is without God’s presence. Psalm 139: 7-12 sings, “Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend to heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there. If I take the wings of the dawn, If I dwell in the remotest part of the sea, Even there Your hand will lead me, And Your right hand will lay hold of me. If I say, "Surely the darkness will overwhelm me, And the light around me will be night, Even the darkness is not dark to You, And the night is as bright as the day. Darkness and light are alike.”

So the the whole world is in God’s shadow. There are places and times in our lives when it is easier to feel God’s presence. Perhaps you have heard others talk of times they have felt especially close with God. Sometimes, we feel closest to God when we are going through hard times. Something about tragedy or grief causes us to see the world through eyes more aware of the graces around us. We are more reliant on the kindnesses of strangers – more grateful for them when they arrive. We are more aware of the fragility of life – and being aware of mortality, our senses seem heightened to really enjoy the lives we have, as they are, right now. We can look around and see it all as what it is – a gift.

Lent may teach us this. We began the season with Ash Wednesday – with crosses marked on our foreheads, bidding us to remember that we are dust, and to dust we shall return. True Lenten disciplines are to bring us closer to God by eliminating some of the distractions – some of the noise in our lives. Lent is designed to bring us back to that awareness that we are finite – limited – mortal. That we, too, like all other living things, will come to an end. Lent lasts for 40 days of the year- it’s only a season among others; but shouldn’t it be year-round? 

We are not a Lenten people in the Christian faith so much as a Resurrection people. We’re not supposed to go around dreary all the time, walking around with ashen crosses on our foreheads, we are not called to live in a state of perpetual grief. Though we may feel God near to us during hard times, listen! There is nothing wise; nothing holy; nothing right about seeking out pain in order to experience that closeness.

So, how do we take the reminder of that mortality – and allow it to propel us toward God, toward dwelling and abiding with God at all times, and in all places?

It might be just simple awareness. How can you look at your world, right now, in this minute – and see a gift in it?

When we look at our lives with gratitude – recognizing that those lives are finite – we can see God’s fingerprints more clearly. We see that our entire lives are lived in God’s safety, in God’s refuge. We see as the psalmist says, that we have been sustained by God from our very beginnings.

May we dwell in this shelter – in this safety – in this awareness. And may we find that God is bearing us up on eagles’ wings. Amen 

SIGNS, PASSION, AND GLORY, John 12: 1 - 11 -- Monday Holy Week

Palm Sunday Special Service April 10, 2022

Palm Sunday Eve Devotional

Who is this Man Session 1

Jesus questioned His disciples asking them, “Who do you say I am?”  How would one answer this question?  What evidence would one use to support their conclusion?  I placed myself at the feet of Jesus as He asked the question, and thought how I would answer.  Is He the Son of God?  Is He the eternal infinite God-man?  Is He just a man whom God selected to be a redeemer?  Who is this man who said He is truth?  Jesus is God made flesh.  He died to redeem men from the shackles of sin and resurrected Himself from the dead to give me eternal life. I will sustain my assertion in two parts: First, establishing the historicity of Jesus, His claim to divinity, and the assurance of this truth.  Second, in an abridged systematic overview of the Scriptures as the inspired, infallible word of God having complete authority over all theological controversies and general revelation; the doctrine of the Holy Trinity; the attributes of God and how they relate to all believers; the omniscience of God; Who is man; Christology, why did Christ die; Justification by faith; Sanctification; the Holy Spirit, Who or What is He; Does the Holy Spirit guide Christians, and what is the Church?

                                              PART I

THE HISTORICITY AND DIVINITY OF JESUS

There are intellectuals today, as in the past that attempt to establish doubt and negate not only the divinity, but the existence, of the man Jesus Christ.  However, just as there has been and to the present day is an attempt to deny the holocaust ever having taken place during World War II (though there are existing reliable witnesses and documentary evidence to refute those claims), there exists written documentation from established and recognized secular and Christian historians of the first, second, and third centuries who have recorded the existence of the individual called “Christus” and the sect of men that were “given to a new superstition”,[i] along with accounts of the founding and intensification of the Christian faith. 

 

              SECULAR HISTORIANS

Thallus a chronologer during the 1^st century to the latter part of the 2^nd century is mentioned in the works of the early Christians writers.  He has been cited for the details on Syrian and Assyrian history and has been identified in the Chronicles of Eusebius of Caesarea as the author of a history of the Mediterranean from the fall of Troy to the Olympiad of 109 B.C.  He was first mentioned by Theophilus Bishop of Antioch in A.D. 180 in his Ad Autolycun.  In A.D. 221 Julius Africanus cites from Thallus’ History of the Mediterranean World from the Trojan War up to his own time, which was c. A.D. 52, in response to Thallus’ comment on the darkness that enveloped the afternoon sky during the crucifixion of Jesus.  In the third book of his three books, Thallus explains away the darkness that enveloped the sky on the day of Jesus’ crucifixion as an eclipse of the sun.[ii]  Thallus is the first historian to mention the man Jesus and gives us insight that the account of the crucifixion of Jesus and the darkness that occurred was a known fact, even then, requiring an explanation.

Cornillius Tacitus, c. A.D. 56(7) - 120 called the greatest historian of ancient Rome, in the Annals XV covers the reign of Nero and the fire of Rome which was blamed on the sect of Christians.[iii] 

Nero “. . . ordered the conflagration, the fire of Rome.  Hence to suppress the rumor he falsely charged with great guilt, and punished with most exquisite torture, the persons commonly called Christians . . . the founder Christus, was put to death by Pontius Pilate procurator of Judea during the reign of Tiberius; but the pernicious superstition, repressed for a time broke out again, not only throughout Judea, where it originated, but through the city of Rome also”. (Annals XV 44)

 

It is commonly believed that this pernicious superstition is in reference to the resurrection of Jesus.[iv]

Gaius Seutonius Tranquillus, c. A.D. 70 to 130 or a little after, a Roman historian, court official and annalist under the Emperor Hadrian, wrote in the Life of Claudius, “Judaeos, impulsores Chresto, assidue tumultuantes Roma expulit”, ("Since the Jews constantly made disturbances at the instigation of Chrestus [Claudius] expelled them from Rome). The Jews were expelled from Rome in A.D. 49 by Claudius because of their disturbances, for not worshipping idols and for loving all, including their tormentors the Christians, (Life of Claudius 25:4), which were being instigated by the one called Chrestus [Christus].[v]  This same incident is recorded by Luke in Acts 18:2.  In his Lives of the Caesers, 26.2, Tranquillus writes, “Nero inflicted punishment on the Christians, a sect given to a new and mischievous religious belief.”  This places the Christians in Rome less then twenty years after the crucifixion of Jesus.

 

Lucius Annaeus Seneca, c. 4B.C.- A.D.65, born in Córdoba, Spain, Roman philosopher, dramatist, and statesman, was one of the most eminent writers of the Silver Age of Latin literature. Educated in rhetoric and philosophy in Rome, Seneca the Younger, as he was known, was deeply influenced by the teachings of the Stoics, whose doctrines he later developed.  In A.D.49 Seneca was made a praetor and appointed tutor to Nero, the adopted son of the Emperor Claudius.  Upon the death of Claudius in 54, Nero became emperor. Much of the decency and moderation of the first five years of his rule was the result of the sane guidance of Seneca and Sextus Afranius Burrus, Roman commander of the Praetorian Guard. By 62, however, Seneca had lost all control over the emperor. The great wealth that Seneca had amassed aroused the jealousy of Nero, who attempted unsuccessfully to have him poisoned. Seneca, by this time in retirement, devoted himself to philosophical study and writing.  In 65, however, he was implicated in a conspiracy to kill Nero, led by the plebeian Gaius Calpurnius Piso, and he committed suicide by imperial order.  Seneca is considered one of the outstanding Stoic philosophers of Rome.  He wrote of the horrors inflicted upon the Christians in his Espitulae Morales, Epistle 14, On the Reasons for withdrawing from the World: “The other kind of evil comes, so to speak, in the form of a huge parade.  Surrounding it is a retinue of swords and fire and chains and a mob of beasts to be let loose upon the disemboweled entrails of men. . . Think of human limbs torn apart by chariots driven in opposite directions, of the terrible shirt smeared and interwoven with inflammable materials, and of all the other contrivances devised by cruelty, in addition to those which I have mentioned.”

Flavius Josephus, born Josephus ben Mattathias in Jerusalem in A.D.37/38 - A.D.101, a Jewish historian, was of both royal and priestly lineage.  A man both learned and worldly, he was a member of the Pharisees, and also a public figure who, before the Jewish revolt against Rome A.D. 66, had made friends at the court of Emperor Nero.  In his Jewish Antiquities, XVIII, 33 he wrote that there was a man called Jesus and that it can be questioned if he really was a man because of all the good works that he did.  He makes the additional controversial statement that this Jesus was the Christ, and that after being put to death by Pontius Pilate at the instigation of principle men within the Jews, this Jesus appeared to many of his followers after three days, just as the prophets had foretold.

 

SATIRIST AND POETS

Decimus Junius Juvenalis, A.D.65 – A.D.128, was a Roman satirical poet, born in Aquinum in southern Italy. All that is known of his life is that he had a short army career, fell out of favor with the Emperor Domitian, and was exiled (perhaps to Egypt). On his return to Rome he lived in poverty, but toward the end of his life his circumstances improved—probably because of the favor of the Emperor Hadrian.  In his Satires, Juvenal references the torture of the Christians by Nero. 

Lucian of Samosata, spoke contemptuously against both the Christians and Christ, never assuming or denying their existence, or that they and Jesus were not real.[vi]  “The Christians, you know, worship a man to this day, the distinguished personage who introduced their novel rites, and was crucified on that account. . .”[vii]

---

[i] Josh McDowell, New Evidence That Demands a Verdict, (Nashville, Nelson Publishers 1999) p 121

[ii] Ibid. p 122

[iii] Michael Grant, The Ancient Historians, (New York, Barnes and Noble 1970) pp 275, 280

[iv] Josh McDowell, New Evidence, p 120, 121;

[v] Ibid. p 121

[vi] Ibid. p 121

[vii] Internet resource, westarkchurchof Christ.org/library

Free at Last, Psalm 126

Free at Last, Free at Last

Thank God Almighty, we are Free at Last

Scripture References: Psalm 126;

April 3, 2022, Quacco Baptist Church

Introduction

I would think that we’re all up to date on the Russian invasion of Ukraine and can get a pretty good idea of what a siege is along with its results. This is a military operation in which enemy forces surround a town or building, territory, cutting off essential supplies, with the aim of compelling a surrender. This tactic goes back at least 4000 years. These days it may be accompanied by H & I (Harassment & Interdiction) fire. Artillery and or rockets fired at no specific target. Just done to harass you. In Vietnam, we did it to the NVA/Viet Cong and they would also return the favor. Usually in the hours between 1 am and 3 am.

Psalm 126 is one of the Songs of Ascent, a special group of psalms comprising Psalms 120—134. They are also called Pilgrim Songs. Four of these songs are attributed to King David (122, 124, 131, 133) and one to Solomon (127), while the remaining ten are anonymous.

The city of Jerusalem is situated on a high hill of mount Moriah. Jews traveling to Jerusalem for one of the three main annual Jewish festivals traditionally sang these songs on the “ascent” on the uphill road to the city. According to some traditions, the Jewish priests also sang some of these Songs of Ascent as they walked up the steps to the temple in Jerusalem.

 Psalm 126 offers encouragement for those who are looking, who are seeking to worship God today:  The Lord has done great things. And, He will continue to do great things. These Psalms serve as powerful examples of how we can express our worship, our love for God through the power of song.

 The words from Martin Luther King’s I Have a Dream speech: Free at Last, Free at Last Thank God Almighty, we are Free at Last.

The Jews, after 70 years in exile, the horrors of the siege and sack of Jerusalem, now in 538 BC were beginning their return to Jerusalem. They had been besieged twice, the first in 597 BC then in 587 BC for 18 months. 

Now, in another 650 years Jerusalem would be at war with the Romans and be under siege again for five months, and along with the Temple be completely destroyed by Titus in 70 AD. There would be over 1.1 million non-combatants will be killed by the Romans and also die of starvation during the siege along with around 90,000 combatants killed. Then would the diaspora or dispersion of the Jews among the Gentiles be in full swing. It actually began with the dispersion of the Northern kingdom of Israel in 722 BC, then the Babylonian exile, and now completed after Rome’s destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple.

Following would be centuries of persecution and various pogroms too many to include in this sermon; There would be full-scale persecution of Jews in many places, with blood libels, expulsions, forced conversions, and massacres. An underlying source of prejudice against Jews in Europe was religious. They were frequently massacred and exiled from various European countries. The persecution reached its first peak during the Crusades. In the First Crusade (1096), flourishing communities on the Rhine and the Danube were utterly destroyed, a prime example being the Rhineland massacres. In the Second Crusade (1147) the Jews in France were subject to frequent massacres. The Jews were also subjected to attacks by the Shepherds' Crusades of 1251 and 1320. The Crusades were followed by expulsions, including in 1290, the banishing of all English Jews; in 1396, 100,000 Jews were expelled from France; and, in 1421, thousands were expelled from Austria. Many of the expelled Jews fled to Poland. In 1492 were the inquisitions in Spain. Jews came to the new world but the inquisitions also came to the Americas. 

The Black Death epidemic was a time when more than half of the European population died. The Jews were blamed. We can go on to the persecution by the Russian Tsars; During the rule of the Soviet Union, the Jews were moved to western Russia, Poland, Ukraine, Moldova, the Baltic states. Then the holocaust of WWII. 

1890 years After 70 AD, on May 14, 1948, Isaiah’s 2,600-year-old prophecy from the 8th century BC will be fulfilled: Who has ever seen anything as strange as this? Whoever heard of such a thing? Has a nation ever been born in a single day? Has a country ever come forth in a mere moment? But by the time Jerusalem's birth pains begin, her children will be born, (Isaiah 66:8). President Harry Truman recognized Israel on the same date and time that David ben Gurion declared Israel a nation.

Transition

Our Psalm this morning, Psalm 126, “Free At Last, Free at Last”. Six verses that throb with relief. The joy of being set free. A psalm with two stanzas. Vs 1-3 beings with great joy of being released from their captivity in Babylon & return to Zion, Jerusalem. Vs 4-6 Describes a time when they returned, the hard times, unrewarding labor & weeping but contains a prayer & a prophecy for better days to come.

It may be hard for us to appreciate the opening stanza I don’t know how many of us have experienced joy and happiness similar to this homecoming. 

If you have seen clips of the six-day war in 1967 you can get a good idea of the joy they felt when you see the Israeli troop's react as they reached the Temple Mount, Western Wall. our mouth was filled with laughter, And our tongue with singing. 

The Israeli airstrike destroyed the Egyptian air force on the ground, paving the way for Israel to defeat Egypt, Jordan and Syria in what came to be known as the "Six-Day War." Israel’s lightning victory over its Arab neighbors in June of 1967 stunned the world and surprised even the Israelis themselves. Then they said among the nations, “The LORD has done great things for them.” The LORD has done great things for us, And we are glad.

 

There may, though, have others that have experienced joy and laughter similar to what the returning exiles did. The leper in Matt. 8:1-4 as he stands before Jesus and feels the touch of His hand when asked if he wants to be healed replies yes if Jesus would be willing to which Jesus says He is willing and heals the leper’s putrefied hand. The man goes off talking about what just happened. 

The lame beggar that was healed by Peter and John, who With a leap he stood upright and [began] to walk; and he entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God. (Acts 3:8). This is for us even today. A person wracked with cancer is healed. Someone involved in a serious accident and, as many will report, miraculously survives.

Then there’s the protagonist ‘Christian’, in Bunyan's Pilgrim’s Progress who sings with joy of sins forgiven, in the joy of peace with God. 

In Chuck Swindoll’s “Book of Quotes & Illustrations”, on forgiveness, he writes of a father who tells his son, “This is the third fatted cafe we’ve killed”; well the Lord our God does that time & time again.”

This brings us to mind Gene’s sermon last week on Luke 15, “You Can Always Come Home”.

All of us, everyone, every single Christian can sing a song of joy & praise of sins forgiven, of being in the joy of peace with God; Being in the peace of God.

A reality

Maybe we have trouble thinking of joyful times like those of the first stanza of the Psalm, but I’m sure, if you’re like me and are nostalgic, don’t have any trouble thinking of times in which we’ve lost some former joy, however great or even weak it may have been.

What about a loss of spiritual good times? James Boice suggested four occasions where many experience great joy and the sense that God has done great things in their Christian life.

Can you lose the joy of salvation? 

Those who have been believers for some time, those who became Christians later in life, especially having lived apart from God for a time, conversion to Christ was really thrilling - I’m not talking necessarily about having a Damascus Road Experience - it was a wonderful thing; one is always talking about Jesus, telling everyone; so much so, that people start avoiding you, sort of.

But then that initial joy passes, one gets more settled but the songs & laughter are gone. There may be discouragement of defeats & doubts that slip in. Nothing seems to go right and the Christian starts to wonder if their even a Christian.

Losing this initial joy in no way means that a person is no longer as Christian; it is though a difficult experience to live through and somembelievers never seem to recover.

The joy of spiritual victory?

The joy os spiritual victory comes later in the Christian life, when we become concious of some sin and are struggling against it. Now before we were a Christian there would have been no hope of victory; for that matter, not even have a desire to overcome it. We’d have been content just as we were. But, God points it out to us, we struggle but then there’s a break through.

That grudge we held against the one or one’s who did us wrong is gone; the addiction to drugs or alcohol or both and that was destroying us mentally, physically, and now that’s been removed - Ruptured family relationships have been healed.

But there are many times that we run into other failures & that joy becomes a faded memory - Holy cow, are we going to have to struggle like this to the end? Will there ever be a time when I’ll be happy again?

One of the best wrote, The trouble is with me, for I am all too human, a slave to sin. I don't really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don't do it. Instead, I do what I hate …  I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. I want to do what is right, but I can't. I want to do what is good, but I don't. I don't want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway. … what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? 

Doesn’t sound to encouraging does it? But he goes on and writes: Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord. So you see how it is: In my mind I really want to obey God's law, but because of my sinful nature I am a slave to sin.

 

We’ve talked on fellowship, How about losing the joy of fellowship?

There are commentators that say fellowship is the closest, probably, we’ll get to know the joys of heaven in this life here on earth.

But then the person we’re closest to may die; a relationship may be destroyed by some sin, arguing over something that was silly or grave. Churches have been destroyed by sins of some, strong disagreements and taken the arguments to secular civil courts. 

A fellowship could lost simply by the relocation of a close friend because of a change of job, school, retirement. The communion of saints goes beyond barriers here on earth, even death, but one can’t deny the feelings of a great loss when those close to us have meant much to us in life and our Christian walk.

How about the joy of a new work for God.

Then there’s that excitement of new challenge or when starting a project that soom settles down to be hard and tiring work - Your home study group or Sunday School takes on a project but soon becomes difficult & you find yourself struggling along in the trenches as some like to say. Its not as exciting as the planning. 

What are you to do when those slugging times come? Do we give up & settle down to just merely humdrum Christian living? 

No don’t give up. Yes the labor is hard; this is a very sinful world….. Vs 5-6: But those who sow in tears reap with shouts of joy!  He that goes forth weeping, bearing the seed for sowing, shall come home with shouts of joy, bringing his sheaves with him.

I don’t think there could be anything that could compare to the joy in heaven to the one who stands before the Lord with those who have been saved through their faithful service sharing and teaching God’s word. And many of those will be ones we may have never known.

Let me close by quoting in part Eugene Peterson’s summary of Psalm 126 - “The Psalm does not give us … joy as a package or formula, but … it shows the tinnines of the world’s joy & affirms the solidity of God’s joy. … the accelerating cost & diminishing returns of those who pursue pleasure as a path toward joy. It tells the story of God’s acts which put laughter into people’s mouths & shouts on their tongues. It repeats the promises of God  who accompanies his wandering, weeping children until they arrive home. It announces the existence of a people … who along with whatever else is happening are able to say, at the center, “We are glad.”