October 31st - Reformation Day, An Eyewitness Account

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Todd Love injuries
Pastor Aaron Preaching
Fall Festival
Marietta Square

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Praise for Mark's finger being better

Disciple Now

Text – Romans 1:17

Good morning, isn’t it a beautiful Wednesday October 31st, Anno Domini 1517? My name, for today, is Reverend Scherer, Augustinian Monk in Wittenburg, electorate of Saxony, Confederation of the Rhine, which is in Deutchland. Something is going to happen today, I fear, for Brother Martin has been complaining of the validity of some of the practices within the Papacy. I share some of his concerns, but he has written 95 charges against the Church and the Pope, surely this will bring great dissension and maybe even cost Brother Martin his life! I mean, a few may start a dialogue, but 95 will start a war!

Let me give you some background. The year is 1517, Anno Domini, which means 1,517 years after the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, as estimated by a Scythian Monk named Dennis the Short in AD 525. Throughout this time the Lord has had a church on earth, a representative of his kingdom, an ambassador to the heathen.

This church has had such great saints in it as Peter, Paul, John, Polycarp bishop of Smyrna who remained true to Christ in such great persecution, Augustine of Hippo who wrote that great systematic theology, Nicholas bishop of Myra who stood up to that antichrist Arius who denied Christ as God, Patrick who converted Ireland, Boniface who converted our beloved Germany, Francis who preached directly out of God’s Word in the open air and called men to repent and trust in Jesus Christ, Savonarola who fought corruption within the Church, and Christopher Columbus who has just recently taken the gospel to previously undiscovered heathen lands; time would fail me to tell of all of the great men and women who stood and even died for the one true faith delivered once for all.

But alas, there is great corruption within the Church, just last year John Tetzel came to Wittenberg to sell men tickets to sin, called indulgences! Only a hundred years ago there were two Popes operating in Christendom…at the same time! It is said that there is a prostitute in Rome for every ten men, and some of them even dress as nuns! It is a sad day in the Church, surely something must be done.

I have here a Bible authorized by the Papacy, translated by that godly man Jerome of Stridonium. Beloved, I would that you could read this book, but it is in Latin, and you speak German, and most of you cannot even read that language. I could read it to you, but I am untrained in how to interpret it for you, and the true meaning seems to be veiled to my eyes; from Rome comes the message of which I will preach to you on Sunday, and even then I will deliver this message to you in Latin, a language I hold a masters degree in from Erfurt, but still find difficult to understand.

This Book is God’s Word to us, and the German language is too harsh for us to dare translate it into, lest we blaspheme our Creator. Two men whom the Church leaders hate, Jon Hus and John Wycliffe, did presume to translate this Book into the vernacular, the common language, of the people. Wycliffe into the English language, and though sentenced to death by burning escaped only by natural death, a stroke most likely. Hus into the Bohemian language, and he was burned at the stake for it. Aha, Wycliffe did not escape the fire though, for they burned his bones along with Hus’. Oh how the Church hates these men!!! But…I am not so sure they were in the wrong, for I have been reading this Book in a new light ever since I have been talking to Professor Luther.

Brother Martin asked me to read Romans 1:17, which was strange because my Bible does not have numbers in it, which won’t be added until 1558, but he asked me to read this verse. Fraulein Hannah, would you read this for us?

Romans 1:17 Iustitia enim Dei in eo revelatur ex fide in fidem sicut scriptum est iustus autem ex fide vivit.

Isn’t that beautiful! How have we missed that until now? It means things that we have not been taught by the Church, it says that our greatest fears are relieved by our amazing God, it sets my heart at ease! It attacks those who say we can buy our way into Heaven, it rejects our Prince’s relics which we look upon to hope for Heaven, and it rejects that wolf Tetzel who comes and steals from our widows and orphans by selling them a license to sin. Oh how I hate that extortioner Tetzel, who uses religious ignorance and our sinners’ heart to deprive us of us sustenance and sends the money to Rome to build that worthless Basilica of St. Peter.

Oh beloved, this verse in Romans is so beautiful; Brother Martin says when he read it a light broke forth over him! He felt that he was instantly born again, and that he entered into the kingdom of paradise through open gates! Oh the beauty of this verse, don’t you agree? What? You don’t understand it! Oh, forgive me, I forgot that you do not speak Latin.

Oh beloved, in order to translate this for you I put my own ordination at risk, I break Roman law not to preach the Word of God in the vernacular of the people! Oh, but is it wise to obey men or God? I must speak that what I have seen and heard of this Christ!

Romans 1:17 Sintemal darin offenbart wird die Gerechtigkeit, die vor Gott gilt, welche kommt aus Glauben in Glauben; wie denn geschrieben steht: "Der Gerechte wird seines Glaubens leben."

Now you must see it! Surely you see it?! No? Oh, we’re not German, we’re only pretending, let us try one more time!

Romans 1:16-17 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, "The righteous shall live by faith."

The righteous shall live by faith! We are not saved by indulgences, or prayers, or offices, or relics, or Sabbaths, or priests, or baptisms, or Church membership, or communion, we are saved by the Gospel of Jesus Christ, received through faith, for, righteousness is revealed from faith for faith! Beloved, you have no idea how this puts my soul at rest, I had tried so hard to keep the laws of God, but in my body I feel that I am slave to sin, that I have no ability to choose good nor God, and that my sin had utterly separated me from Heaven! But thanks be to Jesus Christ who paid for my sins, who bore my condemnation, who indeed paid it all, and now beloved, all to him I owe.

And now Brother Martin is going to start a theological war with the Papacy, he has detailed how Rome has failed to adhere to the Bible, he has placed the Bible as his sole authority. I would like to take some credit for this, for Brother Martin was once an amazing priest of the Roman Church, a better priest could not be found. He took his ordinances seriously, he spent hours in confession boring the confessional priests with peccadillo, or petty sins, and he became exceedingly angry on that day when he heard me joke in my duties. For you see, when we Roman priests take the bread for communion and lift it in thanks, we are required to say, “Hoc Est Corpus Meum” and declare the bread to be the very body of Jesus Christ, but beloved, in my boredom and God feeling so distant, once I said, “Panis es, et panis manebis,” which is certainly the truth, that “Bread thou is, and bread thou shalt remain.” Dear Brother Martin overhead and became irate, but ever since then he has diligently studied the scriptures and has genuinely become a new man! I wish that I could take credit for his conversion, but I know that all honor and power belong to the Holy Spirit of God.

At this very moment Brother Martin is on his way to nail his list of grievances to the door of the Cathedral where all public announcements are made. Ninety-five grievances, no more, no less, all vehemently attacking the corruption of the Church. Are these Theses perfect? No, by no means, I see a great many errors even in my early reading of the Holy Scriptures, but I have no doubt that Brother Luther will grow much in the following years, that is, if he survives this war he is about to declare. I have no doubt that he will grow greatly in his understanding of the Word, especially as he has confided that he would like to translate the Bible into the German language. But as for these Theses, some are quite good and accurate, I have here a few of his theses which I would like to read,

#1 When our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ, said "Repent", He called for the entire life of believers to be one of repentance.

#21 Therefore those preachers of indulgences are in error, who say that by the pope's indulgences a man is freed from every penalty, and saved.

#27 There is no divine authority for preaching that as soon as the coin in the coffer clings, a soul from purgatory springs.

#32 All those who believe themselves certain of their own salvation by means of letters of indulgence, will be eternally damned, together with their teachers.

#52 It is vain to rely on salvation by letters of indulgence, even if the commissary, or indeed the pope himself, were to pledge his own soul for their validity.

#62 The true treasure of the church is the Holy gospel of the glory and the grace of God.

#82 To wit: -- "Why does not the pope empty purgatory, for the sake of holy love and of the dire need of the souls that are there, if he redeems an infinite number of souls for the sake of miserable money with which to build a Church? The former reasons would be most just; the latter is most trivial."

These are the statements which Brother Martin has taken to the church. I tried to stop him, asking him if his life and the unity of the Church were worth him making his statement. He replied to me that he sought peace if possible, but truth at all costs.

Today, I see that Martin Luther is birthing a veritable Reformation of the Church! I see that unless God does a mighty work in the hearts of the Papists, we must split and become two churches, one following the truth, and the other a lie. Oh that this division would not have to happen, for many of my friends are loyal to the Papist cause, and it is my fervent hope and prayer to God that they may be saved. But see that there are great distinctions which will grow out of Martin Luther’s call for truth, something which some day may be called the Solas of the Reformation.

Sola Fide – Faith Alone, we see this preached oh so clearly in Romans 1:17, that we are saved not by works plus faith, but by faith alone. We trust in Christ, and it is counted to us as righteousness.

Solo Christo – Christ Alone, that our salvation was accomplished totally by our great God and Saviour on the cross and in his resurrection, not that he opened a way or made it possible for us to be saved, but that he has forever secured for us salvation, if we trust in him. Would someone please read for us Hebrews 10:14, in English, please,

Hebrews 10:14 by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.

Sola Gracia – Grace Alone, of course we see now that it is not Christ plus our good deeds, but Christ alone that has saved us. Beloved, I have thought on this long and hard, and it seems that we must view grace in light of justice. For justice is when we get what we deserve, and having transgressed the laws of Heaven, what we deserve is the punishment of God. If God were to merely commute our sentence and give us mercy, we would be freed from punishment, but we would still miss Heaven. Here is grace, that what we did not deserve, entrance into the very kingdom of Heaven, God has given us as a free gift, purchased at so great a cost on Calvary’s cross.

Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Sola Scriptura – Scripture Alone, no-one can or should speak for God apart from his Word, it is how he speaks, it is what he intends for us to know about him. The Archbishop of the Roman Church, known as the Pope, has claimed to be able to speak for God, but we have seen him fail time and time again, and it has become clear to those of us reading our Bibles that the Word is how God speaks to us, not through prayers, not through funny feelings, not through hunches, not through dreams, not (dare I say it) through Popes; but by the very Word of God.

Romans 10:17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

Soli Deo Gloria – Brother Martin has put it so well, The true treasure of the church is the Holy gospel of the glory and the grace of God. The purpose of our salvation is not primarily for our benefit, it is to exalt our Sovereign Lord, demonstrating the extent of his justice by punishing sin so violently on the cross, and magnifying his grace by giving us the righteousness of his Son freely; truly this is a gospel worthy of all acceptation.

1 John 2:12 I am writing to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven for his name’s sake.

Sola Sacerdos – One of the reasons I became an Augustinian Friar is because of the things which the Papists believe the priest, the Sacerdote, is able to do. For example, you saw earlier that it is believed that I have the power to turn bread into the very body of Christ. The priest in the confessional is able to forgive sins, it is believed, and a priest can turn your money into a pardon for sin in paper form.

The Church, and I myself, have become guilty of Sacerdotalism, of worshipping the priesthood instead of God! It is tragic, beloved, and if what Brother Martin has deduced from the Bible is true, it is just a matter of time before this separation of priests and laity fails and we become a church of Sola Sacerdos, of one priesthood, where there is no distinction in God’s eyes between male and female, slave and free, Jew and Greek, and priest and parishioner.

In a Sacerdotal religion, only priests can approach God to receive grace, but in a religion of priests, everyone can enter into the holiest of places, for Christ has made us a congregation of priests, and now we all can enter into his holiest of places.

Hebrews 10:19-22 Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

This has huge implications for me beloved, for I stand before you in this priests’ frock, a manner for separating me from you and identifying myself as having more grace and favor than you. But if this Christ esteems us all the same and gives to us all of the same privileges, then this outfit means nothing.

These things, beloved, that I have said to you are radical to the Church at Rome, truly I could be defrocked just for saying them, that is ejected from their priesthood, but to reject the tradition of men and be welcomed into the priesthood of Christ is gain, for though it took so long and so much effort to earn this frock, I count it as rubbish compared to the gain I have in Christ, being found in him with a righteousness not my own, but one received through faith, knowing the power of his resurrection. This may mean that I must suffer many things for his name’s sake, but I know that I will be made like him in his death, with a full assurance of partaking in his resurrection from the dead. (Philippians 3:8-9)

Beloved, I perceive that in the future as this Reformation of the church continues, the wearing of vestments, of robes, will become a matter of greater and greater contention. Men ordained to the gospel ministry, having read their Bible, will refuse to put on a robe, and some of them will even die for it. Others will attempt to redefine the purpose of this robe, stating that it is to take the emphasis off of the pastor and put the emphasis on the Word. Those that redefine this robe will begin to refer to it as a Geneva Gown, named in honor of the Geneva Reformation which will be sparked in only a few years. Two-hundred years in the future George Whitefield will preach in a robe very similar to this one for 18,000 sermons, calling two entire nations, England and America, to repentance in the Living Christ.

But as for me, beloved, I will be reminded that this Reformation is born in Sola Fide, and it is growing in Sola Scriptura, and these two are vitally important, as are the rest, but if this Reformation survives until Christ returns, it will be sustained in Sola Sacerdos, with every believer knowing that they are a priest of the most high God, Christ our overseer of the church, and these priests will take their duties seriously, knowing the scriptures, and carrying the gospel of grace to all peoples. For beloved, there is great darkness in the world today, even in the Church, but this Reformation will preach under a banner of “Post Tenebras Lux”, that out of the darkness comes the light. This world is set to explode in light, for the Word of God has been revealed. Within fifty years, a man burned in Britain will say to his companion, “Play the man, Ridley, for we this day shall light such a candle in England as I trust shall never be put out.”

In just a few years a new believer, William Tyndale, will translate the Bible into English, and he will say of the Roman priesthood, “A boy behind a plow will know more scripture than you.” He will lose his life, burnt at the stake, for his belief in the priesthood of believers, but his prediction will come true. Brother Martin, starting this war, will spend years in seclusion hidden in a castle as he translates the Old and New Testaments into German, and God will mercifully spare his life and bless his efforts. The printing press, invented less than 100 years ago, will ensure that these Bibles are disseminated, and that gospel tracts containing the glorious gospel of Christ will flood throughout the continent and the British isles.

I represent any number of reformed believers, my name is lost to history, but my labor in the Lord was not in vain. I will remove this robe and preach no longer in Latin, but in the vernacular of the people, for faith comes by hearing, and hearing the Word of Christ. I will not submit to a man acting vicariously in the place of Christ, but my affections and loyalties will only be to the King of kings. Many whom I represent will be hunted and killed by the Papal Church, but this gospel of Christ will not fail before it accomplishes its purpose, that someone from every nation and tongue will praise the name of Christ for his grace and sacrificial death on the cross.

Beloved, as you hear this message, I implore you first and foremost to be reconciled to God through faith in Christ and Christ alone. Then know your Bible, for it has God for its author, salvation for its end, and truth without any mixture of error for its content. Men have bled and died so that you can own this Book and read it in English. They have given their lives in the gospel ministry, knowing that any gain apart from Christ is utter rubbish, and that each of us has only one life, and it will soon be past, and only what is done for Christ will last.

October 17th - Priest and King

Prayer Requests
Pastor Aaron Preaching
Taste of Acworth/Marietta/Swift Witnessing
Hawg-Happening Booth
Fall Festival
Cedric Gifford
Leon's Back
Jennifer's friend's spinal surgery
Jimmy Robertson
Mt. Paran in Student Who Died

Text – 6:9-15

Today we get to the end of eight visions, which were explained along the way, but here at the end it is going to tell us the major point of all of these visions. This passage we’re going to read today happened on the same night as the visions, but it’s not a vision, it’s God’s explicit word and command, and his interpretation of what we’ve read over the past seven weeks.

The book of Zechariah is hard to put in a box and tell exactly how to break it into sections. At the very least we can say chapter 1 is the introduction, chapters 1-6 are confirmation that God is working and does indeed care for his people, based largely in the past, chapter 7 is about the present, 8-12 is about the coming Messiah, and 13-14 are set in the End Times. Today we are transitioning from the past to the present for Israel. Their past is put away, they have the promise of a coming salvation, and all that stands before them now is new life.

Before we read it, let's talk a bit about Joshua. This is obviously not the same Joshua who followed Moses, this is quite a bit later. He is our High Priest of the day, and Joshua is actually a pretty common name. In Ezra it tells us that his name can also be pronounced Jeshua. In the first century, this was a hugely popular name, many children would be named Joshua, because it means "God Saves" it comes from Jehovah and Yasha, which is God and salvation. This would have been Jesus' name, through different languages we've seen it change to Isous, then to Jesus. It's not so important what you're calling Jesus as long as you're referring to the One who bled and died on a cross and was raised three days later. You can call him Immanuel, God with us, or Faithful and True, or the Way, the Truth, and the Life, or the Resurrection and the Life, or the Son of God, or the Son of man, or Isa in Arabic, or Joshua, or God manifest in the flesh, as long as you're referring to the Living and True God the Son. While we're on names, one of the neatest studies I ever did was on the names and titles of God, like Jahoshephat is "God the Judge", and Jehovah Nissi is "God our Banner", and Hallelujah is "Praise God."

We're going to see in Zechariah that Jesus Christ is prophesied by name, let's read it,

Zechariah 6:9-15 And the word of the LORD came to me: "Take from the exiles Heldai, Tobijah, and Jedaiah, who have arrived from Babylon, and go the same day to the house of Josiah, the son of Zephaniah. Take from them silver and gold, and make a crown, and set it on the head of Joshua, the son of Jehozadak, the high priest. And say to him, 'Thus says the LORD of hosts, "Behold, the man whose name is the Branch: for he shall branch out from his place, and he shall build the temple of the LORD. It is he who shall build the temple of the LORD and shall bear royal honor, and shall sit and rule on his throne. And there shall be a priest on his throne, and the counsel of peace shall be between them both."' And the crown shall be in the temple of the LORD as a reminder to Helem, Tobijah, Jedaiah, and Hen the son of Zephaniah. "And those who are far off shall come and help to build the temple of the LORD. And you shall know that the LORD of hosts has sent me to you. And this shall come to pass, if you will diligently obey the voice of the LORD your God."

So a little bit of context before we look at what this means; Israel has been in captivity for 70 years in Babylon. When allowed to come back, some didn’t want to come back, they had gotten too comfortable in Babylon. This can be easily allegorized to be people who are too in love with the world and sin to flee to Jesus Christ; when given the option of God or sin, they choose sin. Many Jews did not return but would die in a foreign land. When given the opportunity to come back, some did, among them were Zechariah the prophet, Zerubbabel the governor, and Joshua the high priest. Remember that Zerubbabel is the one who started and will complete the temple, it’s important for this prophecy.

Other Jews didn’t come back at first, but later their consciences got the better of them, as well as the allure of a new temple, and they would return to Jerusalem and ultimately to God. One of the neatest stories is Nehemiah, who had a TOTALLY sweet job in Babylon, but forsook it to come and oversee the rebuilding of Jerusalem.

So what we’ve got here is a new caravan of exiles arriving in Jerusalem who were a little late in returning, but did come. They come bearing gold and silver for the sake of rebuilding the temple, but God has other plans.

v.9-10 And the word of the LORD came to me: "Take from the exiles Heldai, Tobijah, and Jedaiah, who have arrived from Babylon, and go the same day to the house of Josiah, the son of Zephaniah.”

These are the newly arriving exiles, Josiah must have been a metal smith living in Jerusalem, which is what many commentators guess, and that’s why Zechariah is to go to that house, he will take what is in verse 11.

v.11 Take from them silver and gold, and make a crown,

The silver and gold is meant for the temple, but God has bigger plans, to make one of the most amazing prophecies in the whole Old Testament for his Son. The word for crown is plural; most of our newer Bibles will only say crown, thinking the plural means two types of metal in one crown, but we’ll see in the New Testament that there are definitely plural crowns here, at least two, a silver and a gold one. Why two? I can’t say, except to probably denote two major offices of the one whose head it will be put on, or some think that gold represents the law and silver the nation; or maybe two crowns for two people? Let’s read on to see where these crowns will go.

v.11 and set them on the head of Joshua, the son of Jehozadak, the high priest.

Here is where it gets crazy, not that both of these crowns are going on one man, but who that one man is. God is very clear that there is to be a high priest AND a king, but by putting the crown on the high priest, we are seeing that the high priest is the king! Twice in the Old Testament the king tried to do the duty of the priest, it didn’t turn out well for them,

2 Chronicles 26:18-19 They withstood King Uzziah and said to him, "It is not for you, Uzziah, to burn incense to the LORD, but for the priests, the sons of Aaron, who are consecrated to burn incense. Go out of the sanctuary, for you have done wrong, and it will bring you no honor from the LORD God." Then Uzziah was angry. Now he had a censer in his hand to burn incense, and when he became angry with the priests, leprosy broke out on his forehead in the presence of the priests in the house of the LORD, by the altar of incense.

Likewise, Saul the King offered a sacrifice to God instead of waiting for Samuel the priest to do so, and in so doing Saul lost his entire kingdom. It’s a big deal that God has both a priest and a king, it works for the main reason of setting up a system of checks and balances, that one bad person won’t wreck the whole nation, but ultimately it is pointing to the purpose we see here in Zechariah, that God is predicting that his Messiah will be both the perfect King, and the perfect High Priest.

v.12 And say to him, 'Thus says the LORD of hosts, "Behold, the man whose name is the Branch: for he shall branch out from his place,

This Branch language was used a bit before:

Zechariah 3:8 Hear now, O Joshua the high priest, you and your friends who sit before you, for they are men who are a sign: behold, I will bring my servant the Branch.

So what we are seeing in Joshua wearing the kingly crown is that the Branch previously spoken of will be both High Priest and King. We remember from Isaiah too that Branch is prophesying that Jesus will be called a Nazarene, which is one Hebrew word for Branch.

Joshua would understand that he was not the Messiah, and also that he wasn’t the king, but that this is highly symbolic. This is also important for the next part of verse 12,

v.12 and he shall build the temple of the LORD.

Zerubbabel, the governor of Jerusalem, was actually the one who built the temple in Zechariah’s day, so we’re seeing something farther off in the future. Ezekiel, while in the Babylonian exile, had prophesied a much more amazing temple than the one which is being here built (chapters 40-47), so this coming Messiah is going to build a much more amazing temple, and Jesus clearly identifies himself here in John 2:19,

John 2:18-21 So the Jews said to him, "What sign do you show us for doing these things?" Jesus answered them, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." The Jews then said, "It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?" But he was speaking about the temple of his body.

So this is a definite prophecy for the coming Christ, that he will be both priest and king.

v.13 It is he who shall build the temple of the LORD and shall bear royal honor, and shall sit and rule on his throne.

God says it multiple times so that the hearers definitely get it, that there will be a High Priest as King, and King as High Priest. What is amazing here is both that the High Priest gets to sit on the King’s throne, but also that the High Priest gets to sit down at all.

Hebrews 10:11-12 And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God…

Of all of the things in the temple, from the lampstand to the table of showbread, to the altar of incense, to the mercy seat; the thing that was not present was a chair. The priests were always working, working, working, never able to rest because sins continued to be committed and need atonement. But Jesus Christ offered himself once for sin, then he SAT DOWN.

Hebrews 10:14 For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.

Now one more time for the crazyness of a priest sitting in the place of the king, God is going to assure us that this is in his plan,

v.13 And there shall be a priest on his throne, and the counsel of peace shall be between them both."'

This both here is speaking of the offices, not two people, stating that there is no contradiction between a King being High Priest, so long as both are perfect and acceptable and pleasing to God. Beloved, this just could not be in the Levitical priesthood, they were not permitted to be kings, but there is a historical precedent for a king who is also a priest,

Genesis 14:18 And Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. (He was priest of God Most High.)

Salem is the old name for Jerusalem, do you see the etymological link? Jeru means new, salem means peace. Jesus Christ is not a priest after the order of Levi, who couldn’t be king, but a priest after the order of Melchizadek, which means, “King of Righteousness.”

Hebrews 7:14-16 For it is evident that our Lord was descended from Judah, and in connection with that tribe Moses said nothing about priests. This becomes even more evident when another priest arises in the likeness of Melchizedek, who has become a priest, not on the basis of a legal requirement concerning bodily descent, but by the power of an indestructible life.

So we see that our Christ is both King, and our High Priest forever, made all the more glorious that no-one could have ever taken his life from him, but that he gave it up for our sake, rebuilding the temple of his body after three days, and living forevermore to make intercession for our sins!

v.14 And the crown shall be in the temple of the LORD as a reminder to Helem, Tobijah, Jedaiah, and Hen the son of Zephaniah.

This prophecy is pretty wild, not so much for us because we’ve seen it fulfilled perfectly, but for Zechariah’s original readers, so he tells them to hang up these crowns as a reminder of the coming Priestly King, and according to history, that they did. These crowns were probably lost in AD70 when the temple was destroyed, though we don’t have record of where these crowns have gone; however, we do know that they are fulfilled. Remember this point, we’ll come back to it in just a moment, first let’s make sure this prophecy is genuine.

v.15 "And those who are far off shall come and help to build the temple of the LORD. And you shall know that the LORD of hosts has sent me to you. And this shall come to pass, if you will diligently obey the voice of the LORD your God."

Here we have a temporal check to see if Zechariah is genuinely being talked to by God or if he’s making it up, or if he had some bad pizza the night before. This last check will be for the people of Jerusalem to see if Zechariah is truly a prophet. If you want to find out if he really is, read Chapter 7 before next week, and that’s what we’ll look at. For our sake in the future though, we see that many peoples who are far off will come to our High Priest King, not just Jews, but someone from every tribe and nation.

So now, how do we know that this passage is talking about Jesus Christ? The New Testament tells us that it is, let’s read Christ’s Second Advent:

Revelation 19:11-13 Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems, and he has a name written that no one knows but himself. He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is The Word of God.

Christ is wearing these crowns, diadems, many of them, representing his royalty, omnipotence, and his exalted state. The first time he came he wore a crown of thorns, representing shame, sin, impotence, and rejection, but because of his submission to his Father, he has received honor upon honor, and is crowned as the supreme King of the universe; read the next part,

Revelation 19:15-16 From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords.

I really want to read two Psalms, I hope we have time. The first is a coronation Psalm which would be sung as the king of Israel is brought to power. Old Testament kings are given such grace as to be called sons of God, but we see that this beautiful Psalm is actually speaking of the true Son, the true King, so let’s read Psalm 2,

Psalm 2 Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD and against his Anointed, saying, “Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us." He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision. Then he will speak to them in his wrath, and terrify them in his fury, saying, “As for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill.” I will tell of the decree: The LORD said to me, "You are my Son; today I have begotten you. Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel." Now therefore, O kings, be wise; be warned, O rulers of the earth. Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him.

The second Psalm is Psalm 85, it speaks of Christ being the Branch, and him reconciling us to God through his work. For you see, we have a righteous God, and those who are unrighteousness cannot stand in his presence. But our God is also a merciful God, and he does not delight in the destruction of the wicked, and he has grace upon grace upon grace. But these two descriptions are utterly contradictory, a judge who lets a criminal go is not a good judge, and a father who crushes his children for their sins is not a loving person. So we have a conundrum; since we have sin, either God is a good judge, or a loving Father, but beloved, he cannot be both…unless something radical happens.

Psalm 85 LORD, you were favorable to your land; you restored the fortunes of Jacob. You forgave the iniquity of your people; you covered all their sin. Selah You withdrew all your wrath; you turned from your hot anger. Restore us again, O God of our salvation, and put away your indignation toward us! Will you be angry with us forever? Will you prolong your anger to all generations? Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you? Show us your steadfast love, O LORD, and grant us your salvation. Let me hear what God the LORD will speak, for he will speak peace to his people, to his saints; but let them not turn back to folly. Surely his salvation is near to those who fear him, that glory may dwell in our land.

Steadfast love and faithfulness meet; righteousness and peace kiss each other. Faithfulness springs up from the ground, and righteousness looks down from the sky. Yes, the LORD will give what is good, and our land will yield its increase. Righteousness will go before him and make his footsteps a way.

Here is where the two reconcile, Faithfulness springs up from the ground, even we may say, as a BRANCH, this is Christ, born of a woman, growing in stature and knowledge before God and man. Righteousness looks down from Heaven, this is the Father seeing his Son on a cross, one whom he has declared to be, “My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” Only now, beloved, God has made Christ to be sin for us, Christ bears our sin in his body, and God looking down does not see his beloved Son, but he sees the object of all of his wrath and anger; he sees the sewage of sin, the disgustingness of transgression; every lie, every covetous and lustfilled glance, every bit of malice, every curse word, every idle word, every bit of glory stolen, and beloved, the Father lets loose with his fury. It pleases him beyond measure to utterly crush his Son there on the cross, pouring out his full wrath against sin on the only Person who never deserved it, but who stood as a Faithful propitiation for those who trust in him, loving us long before we would ever love him, and us only loving him because he first loved us.

Faithfulness on the ground, Righteousness in Heaven, and beloved, there on that cross, justice and mercy met, righteousness and peace kissed each other. The contradictory ideas of God’s judgment and love came together in Jesus Christ, the wrath of God against Sin absorbed by the God of Love, so that he is now both the Just and the Justifier of those who believe.

For though that Temple of Christ’s body was destroyed, in three days it was rebuilt, and our great High Priest, having offered himself once for sin, SAT down at the right hand of his Father, waiting for a day in which to return when he will wear many crowns, and receive all of the glory, as every knee bows and every tongue confesses him as Lord to the glory of God the Father.

All hail the power of Jesus’ Name! Let angels prostrate fall;
Bring forth the royal diadem, and crown Him Lord of all.
Bring forth the royal diadem, and crown Him Lord of all. – Edward Peronnet

September 12th - God our Saviour

Prayer Requests
Pastor Aaron - Ephesians 2
Taste of Kennesaw Witnessing
Hannah's Parents - Safe Travel
Kyle's first lecross game
James' camping with scouts
Jennifer
PB&J Results
David's car
Alex's homecoming

Text – Zechariah 3

Imagine yesterday we went to the zoo and they had a big sign that said, "Free Elephant to a Good Home!" And we went and looked at it was a big giant one and we said we wanted it and they asked if we had a place to keep it. We told them we had a big barn with several acres of field and forest and a pond, and a whole new soccer field for him to eat, so they let us have him. It took us all day to ride him back to Summit and when we got here the gate to the barn was locked so we put him in the sanctuary and intended to come first thing in the morning and move him to the barn.

Well, we slept in and got here right when everyone else was getting here...and we sort of forgot to ask permission if we could keep an elephant at Summit. So we sat down and looked at this big giant elephant sitting in the corner by the piano. For some reason people aren't talking about him, but we all know he's there. So we start the service and sing, and pray, and Pastor Aaron stands up to give the sermon and preaches for a while on his selected text...then pauses and says, "Can someone tell me what is the deal with this elephant?"

It's there, it's gotta be talked about, it's a huge subject and one we can't ignore. That is what we're dealing with in Zechariah 3. In Zechariah 1 we see that God has brought the Jews back from their Babylonian captivity and has utterly crushed Babylon. Then in chapter 2 we saw that God is jealous for his people and is not only being extremely gracious to his people, but that he is going to be gracious to the entire world.

Up to this point what has Zechariah been famous for when he doesn't understand something? Asking questions. This whole time I think he has had a question running through his mind, it's bigger than an elephant in the room, it is massive, and when God answers it he doesn't ask a question but knows exactly what is happening. So now we come to the fourth of eight visions.

Zechariah 3:1-10 Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the LORD, and Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him. And the LORD said to Satan, "The LORD rebuke you, O Satan! The LORD who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is not this a brand plucked from the fire?" Now Joshua was standing before the angel, clothed with filthy garments. And the angel said to those who were standing before him, "Remove the filthy garments from him." And to him he said, "Behold, I have taken your iniquity away from you, and I will clothe you with pure vestments." And I said, "Let them put a clean turban on his head." So they put a clean turban on his head and clothed him with garments. And the angel of the LORD was standing by. And the angel of the LORD solemnly assured Joshua, "Thus says the LORD of hosts: If you will walk in my ways and keep my charge, then you shall rule my house and have charge of my courts, and I will give you the right of access among those who are standing here. Hear now, O Joshua the high priest, you and your friends who sit before you, for they are men who are a sign: behold, I will bring my servant the Branch. For behold, on the stone that I have set before Joshua, on a single stone with seven eyes, I will engrave its inscription, declares the LORD of hosts, and I will remove the iniquity of this land in a single day. In that day, declares the LORD of hosts, every one of you will invite his neighbor to come under his vine and under his fig tree."

Our elephant in the room is Israel's sins. They were sold by God into exile for their absolute wickedness. When we see them brought back we see in Zechariah 1 it is because they have repented, but I'm sure that Zechariah was wondering, "Did our exile pay for our sins?" I talked to a girl once who thought she would go to Heaven because her sister died of cancer and it was really hard on the girl to watch her sister suffer. Our suffering is a result of sin, the world is wearing out because of sin, we can't pay for our sin with the result of our sin. So now we dive headlong into what God is going to do with Israel's sins.

v.1 Then he showed me Joshua the high priest

This Joshua is a literal person, he came back from the exile with Zerubbabel the governor. The High Priest is the representative of the people before God, he is the one that is able to enter the presence of God and make atonement for their sins. He did this once a year on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, and he did it in the Holy of Holies in the temple, and he would wear bells on his robe so that if he sinned in God's presence or didn't adequately cleanse himself and he died, then the priests outside would hear the bells stop tinkling and realize that their sins were not paid for. At this point the temple is nearing completion and so the High Priest will be entering into the presence of God soon, and because of his sins and the sins of the people, I don't think there would ever be a more terrifying event for a High Priest, save for Christ going to the cross to offer his own blood as sacrifice. In Chapter 6 we are going to see another Joshua, the Messiah, our King and High Priest.

Isaiah 33:14 The sinners in Zion are afraid; trembling has seized the godless: "Who among us can dwell with the consuming fire? Who among us can dwell with everlasting burnings?"

In the rest of the verse we see that this is a court setting:

v.1 standing before the angel of the LORD, and Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him.

The vision doesn't see fit to describe the courtroom, but Revelation 20:12 does:

Revelation 20:11-12 Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done.

And we see who the prosecutor is, none other than Satan himself. The word for prosecutor or accuser in Hebrew is satan; Zechariah wants us to understand that this isn't just some lawyer, so he calls this, "The Satan", the one and only, the most magnificent thing ever created, the one whom sought to seat himself above God, the one who is called the Father of Lies, the one dressed in an outfit of gold, emeralds, and diamonds, a demon masquerading as an angel of light.

As the prosecutor I am sure that Satan is prepared, he probably has a dossier filled with every sin ever committed in Jerusalem and he is prepared to present it to God, and Joshua the High Priest will not be able to deny any of them. I imagine Zechariah held his breath at this point in preparation to hear Satan's attack. But he never gets to make it:

v.2 And the LORD said to Satan, "The LORD rebuke you, O Satan! The LORD who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is not this a brand plucked from the fire?"

God doesn't even let Satan speak, God has chosen his people and he will not let any one separate us from him, let alone even bring a charge against us in his courts,

Romans 8:33 Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies.

This language for "brand plucked from the fire" is amazingly beautiful. Imagine a big raging fire and you throw a stick into it, how long is it going to last? Not long, it is going to be fully consumed. But God, to great pain to himself, reached into the fire and snatched that stick out before it could be burnt. This is now what we do when we evangelize, the whole world is kindling ready to be consumed, but we have this command:

Jude 1:22-23 And have mercy on those who doubt; save others by snatching them out of the fire; to others show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh.

So we see that God is not going to let Satan accuse Joshua or Israel, but that still doesn't take care of their massive list of sins. But this is the last we'll hear from Satan on this matter.

Jude talked about people whose garments are stained by their sin, this is the same with Joshua.

v.3 Now Joshua was standing before the angel, clothed with filthy garments.

These represent his sins. These garments aren't just sweaty or wrinkled, the Hebrew word for filthy symbolizes that Joshua put this robe on and went and rolled in the pig sty. He is literally FILTHY, and standing in the Holy of Holies in this state would have meant his instant death. But God is gracious.

v.4 And the angel said to those who were standing before him, "Remove the filthy garments from him." And to him he said, "Behold, I have taken your iniquity away from you,

Our sin is taken away, but we can't stand naked in front of God either! Joshua is still in trouble!

2 Corinthians 5:2-3 For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling, if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked.

I witnessed to a little old lady once who was one of the most prideful people I've ever talked to and was sure her good-deeds would impress God and that she had earned her way into Heaven; at the end I asked her if she was really ready to stand naked in her sins before the Throne of God, and that really got to her. Hopefully she got saved and we'll see her dressed in the righteousness of Christ in Heaven.

v.4 and I will clothe you with pure vestments."

My favorite verse in the whole Bible is

Isaiah 61:10 I will greatly rejoice in the LORD; my soul shall exult in my God, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation; he has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.

Symbolically our clean clothes represent a covering of shame, an external covering, and these point to Jesus Christ. In the Bible there is a sort of weird command which is REALLY important:

Deuteronomy 22:11 You shall not wear cloth of wool and linen mixed together.

Why would God care if you wear a cotton/polyester blend? This command really didn't make sense until we see it referring to the righteousness of Jesus Christ, that if you've got 70% Jesus and 30% your own pride, then you're as good as naked before God. You must wear 100% Jesus in order to be counted righteous in the sight of God:

Romans 13:14 Put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.

We don't have time to look at it now, but check out the story of the Prodigal Son in Luke 15 and check out that the Father puts a robe on the son when he returns. This is a major theme throughout the Bible.

As Zechariah is standing there knowing EXACTLY what is going on, he doesn't need to ask questions, but he can't hold in any longer he's so excited to see that Israel's sins are put off, they were red like scarlet but they've been made white as snow, and he notices that Joshua has lost his Mitre, his hat when God removed it from the head of the High Priest in Ezekiel 21:26, and he calls out!

v.5 And I said, "Let them put a clean turban on his head." So they put a clean turban on his head and clothed him with garments. And the angel of the LORD was standing by.

The angel of the Lord is who? Jesus Christ. He is standing by watching this priest be sanctified because of work that Jesus would do as the final High Priest 500 years in the future.

Hebrews 7:26-28 For it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens. He has no need, like those high priests, to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins and then for those of the people, since he did this once for all when he offered up himself. For the law appoints men in their weakness as high priests, but the word of the oath, which came later than the law, appoints a Son who has been made perfect forever.

But at the time that Zechariah is seeing this vision, Christ has not yet died, he has not yet risen, so they do not yet have assurance of a full forgiveness of sins, they are still under a conditional covenant. This point is really going to be made well in chapter 5, but until we get there, check out

v.6-7 And the angel of the LORD solemnly assured Joshua, "Thus says the LORD of hosts: If you will walk in my ways and keep my charge, then you shall rule my house and have charge of my courts, and I will give you the right of access among those who are standing here.

They will never make it on their own, which is why it is so important that we look to Jesus Christ, our great High Priest, who did keep God's commands perfectly and is now in charge of the kingdom. We're not spending too much time on this topic because it is really the main point of chapter 5.

At this point I imagine both Zechariah and Joshua's countenance fell, they knew they couldn't keep the law, not even a little. But again we get a promise of this coming High Priest:

v.8 Hear now, O Joshua the high priest, you and your friends who sit before you, for they are men who are a sign: behold, I will bring my servant the Branch.

The word for Branch here is not Nazar, like it is in Isaiah, that Christ would be called a Nazarene. A Nazar is a branch on a tree, this word is Tsemach which is a sprout of a tree. It represents hope, and new life, and new growth. It is very Messianic and again this topic will be covered later in Zechariah. This is just the taste of something great to come.

v.9 For behold, on the stone that I have set before Joshua, on a single stone with seven eyes, I will engrave its inscription, declares the LORD of hosts

This stone refers to the freshly laid cornerstone of the temple. The reason it has eyes has been largely lost to us, the original audience would have understood, but I think it means that this stone is not literally the rock but is speaking of a living and seeing and knowing stone. God is not going to build his kingdom on a piece of granite, but on a Person. The engraved description refers to the engraving on the mitre of the High Priest, stating that this stone would also be a High Priest, and the engraving would say, "Holiness Belongs to the Lord"

v.9 and I will remove the iniquity of this land in a single day.

What day was this? The day Christ poured out his blood for the forgiveness of sins of many on Calvary's cross. And finally in this chapter is something that Zechariah would have understood a bit, but I don't think he would have understood it as well as we can now understand it,

v.10 In that day, declares the LORD of hosts, every one of you will invite his neighbor to come under his vine and under his fig tree."

This is reminiscent of when Israel was ridiculously rich and well fed and well protected (1 Kings 4:25); it was a great time in Israel's history. Now we know that Christ has secured our place in Heaven, were all of these things will be eternal; Zechariah would have understood it as the coming of a new king and new age of prosperity, which happened a bit under the Maccabees, but we see it perfected in our Messiah and King, Jesus Christ, when we get to Heaven.

So, your application is that Christ is your great High Priest, we could not stand in the presence of God for our sinfulness. In our current state we would have less chance of survival in the presense of God than an ice cube on the surface of the sun, but Christ entered once, not having to cleanse himself because he was perfect, but he offered his sacrifice, himself, for our sins, which God readily accepted. So now we know because Christ kept the commandments perfectly, we are clothed in his righteousness, if indeed we have put on Christ, making no provision for the flesh to satisfy its desires.

November 29th - The Importance of Doctrine

Prayer Requests
Communion Service
Pastor Aaron Surgery

William's Surgery

Hannah's Grandma Mission Trip

James' Finger and Friend

Black Friday Preaching

-Jenna 17y/o first time hearing the gospel

-A Few Thousand Gospel Tracts
Students Still Traveling

Text – Hebrews 5:10-6:9

This will be our last major lesson on the theme of the importance of being a priest and evangelist of God. Last week we talked about what happens to a nation if the priesthood fails, and that God’s contention is with the priest who has forgotten knowledge. The passage we are going to look at today talks about this, but more so from the angle of how to fix it.

We’ve stepped out of Peter’s Epistle again, but the topic is totally keeping with 1 Peter 2:2-11, even using many of the same words. I’m fairly certain Peter was a co-author with Paul of Hebrews, so we’re still in one of Peter’s Epistles. I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised to learn in Heaven that Hebrews and First Peter were written on the same desk with the same pen, since their themes are so close to one another. Both were written about AD65 in Rome, Paul was detained, but in a house,

Acts 28:16,30-31 And when we came into Rome, Paul was allowed to stay by himself, with the soldier that guarded him. He lived there two whole years at his own expense, and welcomed all who came to him, proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance.

The “we” there is Luke with Paul among others.

The reason I chose today’s passage to look at is because it starts off talking about Melchizedek, then the authors realize that this topic is over the heads of their readers, and I think they actually get mad that their readers don’t even understand the basics of their faith, so they stop talking about Melchizedek momentarily to give an exhortation against light preaching, to tell the congregation to dig deep into the Bible and not settle for basic doctrines.

Real quick, who remembers why Melchizedek is important?

Hebrews 5:5-6 So also Christ did not exalt himself to be made a high priest, but was appointed by him who said to him, "You are my Son, today I have begotten you"; as he says also in another place, "You are a priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek."

The way this will relate to us is both as hearers and as teachers, and so we need to pay attention to it from both directions. Pretend, on one hand, you’re standing there with Paul and Peter as they dictate while Luke writes, and on the other hand, actually be the audience who is receiving this letter.

Hebrews 5:10-6:9 [Jesus] being designated by God a high priest after the order of Melchizedek. About this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil. Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, and of instruction about washings, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. And this we will do if God permits. For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt. For land that has drunk the rain that often falls on it, and produces a crop useful to those for whose sake it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God. But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to being cursed, and its end is to be burned. Though we speak in this way, yet in your case, beloved, we feel sure of better things—things that belong to salvation.

Part of this passage has been used to say that Christians can lose their salvation, this is absolutely ridiculous, you didn’t earn your salvation, you can’t lose your salvation.

Romans 11:29 The gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.

We’ll look at why a passage which seemingly says you can lose your salvation is in the Bible, and why it doesn’t teach that you can lose your salvation, but rather something much more glorious and useful.

So, the author starts out by saying he has much to say about Melchizedek, but that the readers don’t have the foggiest idea of the basics and so going into such a deep subject as Melchizedek is going to be over their heads. Then he yells at them, saying “You’re still students! You ought to be teachers by now! You’re still on milk, on baby food, when you should be eating steak by now!”

v. 14 But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.

The church that is being written to had grown lazy, they weren’t reading their Bibles, they weren’t constantly testing doctrines to see if they were from God or not, they were basically sitting around listening to the same old thing all the time. Chapter 6:1-3 is going to tell what those things were, telling us to get them right, then to move on.

v.1 Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity,

The doctrine of Christ is who he is, that he is one Person of the Trinity, greater than angels, eternal, the Creator, he put on flesh and died for sins, then defeated death and reigns forevermore. It is great to know who he is, but once we understand who he is, then we move onto other things.

v.1 not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God,

By which we receive salvation, turning from our sins and selves, and turning towards righteousness and God.

v.2 and of instruction about washings,

Washings, or baptisms here, is definitely the spiritual one by which you are washed of your sins, and maybe also the symbolic one of being immersed in water representing you having died with Christ and being raised to walk in newness of life. It relates directly to the laying on of hands onto the scapegoat, as the person who did this would have to wash their hands to symbolize that the goat had taken all of their sins.

v.2 the laying on of hands,

Here some will think this is when we pray and lay our hands on someone, which is a viable doctrine, but the doctrine being spoken here of is the imputation of sins by laying on of hands, such as the scapegoat would have the sins of people laid on him, then he would be sent out of the camp.

Leviticus 16:21-22 And Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat, and confess over it all the iniquities of the people of Israel, and all their transgressions, all their sins. And he shall put them on the head of the goat and send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a man who is in readiness. The goat shall bear all their iniquities on itself to a remote area, and he shall let the goat go free in the wilderness.

v.2 the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment.

The idea a resurrection, in which those who are righteous will go on to eternal life, and those who are wicked will go on to eternal death. The end of this life is not the end of life, but rather for the Christian, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

These are the foundations of our faith, we have to know these seven things, they are vitally important. But if we only know these seven things and no other things, then we are not going to be effective Christians.

Take the thief on the cross for example, a sinner to beat all sinners, thoroughly wicked and condemned to die for his crimes. He did these seven things, he looked to Christ recognizing that he was the Son of God, the thief repented of blaspheming Christ’s name, he put his faith in Jesus, he was washed of his sins as they were imputed to Christ’s sake, and Jesus told him, “Today you will be with me in paradise.” He was assured of resurrection and that he would be judged as Jesus Christ, perfect sinless and undefiled.

What would you think if on the cross Jesus started to give him a lesson on evangelism, or stewardship, or the Lord’s Supper, or the phenomenology of prayer? It is superfluous to salvation; what the thief needed right there was forgiveness. That leads into verse 3.

v.3 this we will do if God permits.

If we have time, if we’re not dying on a Roman cross, if we’re not going to stand in eternity before the sun goes down, then we ought to leave the foundation to teach on bigger things. What would you think if everytime you came to class, I gave you a lesson on John 3:16 and it said exactly the same thing everytime, that God loved the world in this way: he sent his Son so that whosoever should believe in him will not perish but have ever lasting life.

Every week I told you to repent and be saved and be baptized and that you would see Heaven, and that is all I would ever tell you. How deep would your faith be? You’d know about John 3:16, but then what happens when something bad happens and you don’t know why God allows evil, or you don’t know about prophecy, or you don’t know that at the end God wins, or you don’t know how to evangelize or how to pray, then all I have done is laid a foundation and have continued to relay the same foundation without ever building on it.

Can you build a house without a foundation? You can, but it will fall over soon enough. Can you live on a foundation without a house? As long as the weather is nice, but the first time it rains or snows or gets cold or hot, the foundation is going to fail to be sufficient for you. So this is why we look at doctrine, we lay that foundation of Christ and what he’s done, then we build a house on top of that foundation teaching on prayer and suffering and evangelism and ordinances and angels and all manner of things, so now when it rains, when say something bad happens to you, you know that we suffer with Jesus, just as he went out of the gate bearing our reproach, we go to him knowing that the current afflictions we are facing are nothing in comparison to the eternal weight of glory waiting for us in Heaven.

Here, beloved, we have no lasting city, we are ambassadors, aliens, sojourners, pilgrims, and missionaries, and we seek the city that is to come.

But the church that Hebrews is written to was all about John 3:16 and nothing else, every week you would show up and the preacher would try to get you saved, no matter that you’ve been saved already. So here is our great admonition, that we need to move on,

v.4-6 For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt.

The paraphrase of this verse so that it is put more into our language is, “It is impossible for someone to get unsaved, so since you last met together and preached, not a single person in your congregation got unsaved, and even if they did get unsaved, it would be impossible for your preaching to get them resaved, because a person can only get saved once because Christ only died once, and he’s not going to die again, so quit trying to get your saved congregation saved!” In a bit he is going to tell us to preach on something else, starting with hope. But first he drives the point home.

v.7-8 For land that has drunk the rain that often falls on it, and produces a crop useful to those for whose sake it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God. But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to being cursed, and its end is to be burned.

If a person were to get saved, then lose their salvation, God would not want them back, nor would he be able to bring them back, he would rather curse them and cast them into eternal fire. The author is making a hugely hyperbolic statement from both sides to say that there is no reason to try to get a saved person resaved, both because they cannot lose their salvation, and second if they did lose their salvation, they could not be resaved, so therefore the last thing we want to do is try to get saved people saved, because it’s totally impossible. Make sense?

Deuteronomy 31:8 It is the LORD who goes before you. He will be with you; he will not leave you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed.

Part of that verse is quoted in Hebrews 13, but I like the whole verse so that’s why we read Deuteronomy. God sought us and bought us, he keeps us, he will never leave us nor forsake us, we cannot lose our salvation. Now, if you do walk away from Christ, then it’s not backsliding, it’s that you’ve never slid forward in the first place, and John tells us the reason that people walk away is so that it can be apparent to us that they were never with us.

v.9 Though we speak in this way, yet in your case, beloved, we feel sure of better things—things that belong to salvation.

So, the author of Hebrews is saying that this congregation he is writing to is saved, they haven’t lost their salvation, and so now they need to start looking at things that belong to salvation. From here the author picks back up on the Melchizedek story and really makes a masterful exposition of it, writing dozens of verses on a story that in the Old Testament takes up all of three verses.

Your application, don’t just hang around the spiritual milk, don’t just lay down on an open foundation, because there is meat available in the Bible, and on the foundation of Christ and salvation we can build mansions of doctrine, so that we hold fast to the hope we have in Christ through every trial and storm.

We need to know who Christ is, what he did, how to be forgiven, and that Heaven awaits, but beloved, if that is all you know, you will not be an effective Christian. You must look into the deep things of God, learning how to minister for Christ, not always being students, but moving on to be teachers, feasting on the beautiful doctrines that attend to salvation, and bringing multitudes into covenant with the Living Christ, who died once for sins, but rose from the dead, and lives forevermore making intercession and equipping his saints.

And how do we come to know these things? Through reading our Bibles, to conclude, let’s check out what David says about this subject,

Psalm 19:7-11 The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple; the precepts of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes; the fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever; the rules of the LORD are true, and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb. Moreover, by them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward.

November 22nd - A Failed Priesthood

Prayer Requests
Pastor Aaron Preaching
Pastor Aaron Surgery Wednesday
Susan Egelhoff Gall Bladder Issue
Zitara's conversion and following
The Family of Pervaiz Masih
Origin of Species Outreach
Ruben's Wedding
Josh's Wedding
Traveling Mercies:
-Geils to Florida
-Costellos to Chicago
-McGullions to Alabama
-Bethany
-Mark

Text – Ezekiel 8-9

We’ve been talking about the priesthood of believers and the importance of evangelism in that role. Peter has quoted Hosea once already, and it got me thinking that we need a good example of why the priesthood needs to be impeccable, because as we’re going to look at, where the priesthood goes, there the people follow.

So today we’re going to step out of First Peter to look at a story in Ezekiel, with support from Hosea. This is not the only story that backs up the importance of an upright priesthood, but it is perhaps the best one. The year is 592BC, the day is September 17th, and a good part of Judah has been taken captive to Babylon about a year earlier in 593BC. The reason nations would take others captive was to utterly destroy their sense of culture and nationality so the people would assimilate into the culture they had been taken captive to. This has never worked for Israel, the Babylonians took them captive twice, the Assyrians once, and after the first century they were scattered to all of the nations of the world, yet still maintain their nationality.

The reason that God allowed this to happen was because the people were very sinful, worshipping money, all manners of false gods, murdering each other, so in chapter 7 God says he will send the most wicked of nations, Babylon, to inherit Jerusalem as punishment for their sins.

Ezekiel was not a prophet when all of this stuff began, he was just a normal guy, probably sinning just as badly as anyone else. And he gets taken to Babylon, specifically Chaldea, which is where Abraham was from over a millennia earlier. While in captivity, God calls Ezekiel to be a prophet.

Here is our first lesson, we have inherited a broken and wrecked world. It is not our fault it is broken, because it got broke long before we showed up, although we are not blameless. God has called us out, and given us a duty to proclaim his word, just like Ezekiel.

So as Ezekiel became a prophet, he was given a house in his captivity, and when we pick up in Ezekiel 8, we see that he is teaching the elders of Judah who are in captivity with him.

Ezekiel 8:1-4 In the sixth year, in the sixth month, on the fifth day of the month, as I sat in my house, with the elders of Judah sitting before me, the hand of the Lord GOD fell upon me there. Then I looked, and behold, a form that had the appearance of a man. Below what appeared to be his waist was fire, and above his waist was something like the appearance of brightness, like gleaming metal. He put out the form of a hand and took me by a lock of my head, and the Spirit lifted me up between earth and heaven and brought me in visions of God to Jerusalem, to the entrance of the gateway of the inner court that faces north, where was the seat of the image of jealousy, which provokes to jealousy. And behold, the glory of the God of Israel was there, like the vision that I saw in the valley.

Ezekiel here becomes the first astronaut, lifted up over the earth and seeing it laid out before him. Pretty neat. Enoch and Elijah went up, but they didn’t come back down.

The reason we’re given the exact date is because Ezekiel wants us to know that this was an actual vision that he had, he didn’t just make it up. Also, it shows that this is his present day, not before the captivity, but what he is going to be shown is happening in Jerusalem at that moment.

The view of Christ we see here is pretty near to how he is described in Revelation 1, he is so bright that he appears to be on fire, his glory is breathtakingly bright.

God picks Ezekiel up by the hair. This shows how furious God is, you’ve gotta be pretty angry to grab someone by the hair to show them something. Ezekiel doesn’t mention pain, because this is a vision, but in God’s action we see that he is outraged. The events that are going to be discussed, because this is a vision, didn’t actually happen, we’re going to see a total wiping out of Jerusalem in this passage, but history doesn’t record that. It is more spiritual than physical what we’re going to see in this passage.

At this point, God’s glory is still in Jerusalem, which means he is still working and hasn’t totally abandoned Israel yet.

Ezekiel 8:5-6 Then he said to me, "Son of man, lift up your eyes now toward the north." So I lifted up my eyes toward the north, and behold, north of the altar gate, in the entrance, was this image of jealousy. And he said to me, "Son of man, do you see what they are doing, the great abominations that the house of Israel are committing here, to drive me far from my sanctuary? But you will see still greater abominations."

God is showing Ezekiel how bad things have gotten not just morally in Israel, Ezekiel would have known that, having lived there until only a few months prior, but God is going to show how bad things are spiritually. The first thing he shows Ezekiel is that at the gate of the temple, the priests have setup an “image of jealously.” What this was would most likely have been an Asherah Pole, which is like a totem pole, to one of the false gods of Babylon, but God chooses to call it an “Image of Jealously.” This is powerful language because it doesn’t restrict the sin to only one false god, but we can see any false religion setup here that makes God jealous. The priests set this up to try to keep God out of the temple.

Second lesson, people are still doing this today. This is the false god “Separation of Church and State”, or “evolution”, or keeping prayer out of school, anything that a people group does to try to keep God out of their business. Do you think that will work, is God restricted from going places because we do something to stand in his way? Of course not.

We’re going to see the sins that they are trying to keep God from seeing are pretty much them pursuing a different religion. Dr. Al Mohler recently wrote an excellent article called, “Are we a nation of Hindus?” http://www.albertmohler.com/2009/08/26/are-we-a-nation-of-hindus/ In it he realizes that a lot of people in the United States, while they wouldn’t call themselves Hindus, believe in reincarnation, karma, universal salvation, and that all paths lead to God. The United States can be read quite easily as having committed many of these same sins as Israel.

God tells Ezekiel that he will be shown greater abominations still, he says this three times. Anytime something is repeated within a chapter of the Bible, you should figure out why. In his repetition, God is showing Ezekiel that the sins are graduated, they get worse and worse, and the nation of Israel has utterly abandoned him.

Ezekiel 8:7-13 And he brought me to the entrance of the court, and when I looked, behold, there was a hole in the wall. Then he said to me, "Son of man, dig in the wall." So I dug in the wall, and behold, there was an entrance. And he said to me, "Go in, and see the vile abominations that they are committing here." So I went in and saw. And there, engraved on the wall all around, was every form of creeping things and loathsome beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel. And before them stood seventy men of the elders of the house of Israel, with Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan standing among them. Each had his censer in his hand, and the smoke of the cloud of incense went up. Then he said to me, "Son of man, have you seen what the elders of the house of Israel are doing in the dark, each in his room of pictures? For they say, 'The LORD does not see us, the LORD has forsaken the land.'" He said also to me, "You will see still greater abominations that they commit."

The priests, the Sanhedrin, have setup this Asherah Pole to keep God out, but we see God has no problem getting in, and getting Ezekiel in. They go through the wall, and once inside Ezekiel sees their idolatry, these are the priests of Israel, and they have begun to worship the creature instead of the Creator, offering up prayers and sacrifices to false gods.

They justify themselves by saying, “The Lord does not see.” They can mean two things here, maybe both, first they are denying God’s sovereignty and that he is omnipresent and omniscient, knowing everything, and second that maybe the God of Israel doesn’t even exist.

Psalm 14:1 The fool says in his heart, "There is no God." They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds, there is none who does good.

We usually ascribe that to atheists, but really it is to anybody who acts like there is not a God who judges the thoughts, words, and deeds. This is certainly these corrupt priests. And we see that God has no problem seeing right to the heart of things.

Hebrews 4:13 no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.

This is the upper echelon of Israel, Ezekiel is careful to call out Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan, because Shaphan was a very godly man who governed Judah, so the priests in this room are sinning in more ways than just meet the eye, they have dishonored their parents, they have abandoned their God, and in chapter 11 it is told to us that they are the cause of Israel’s sin and destruction. Hosea puts it better than anybody though,

Hosea 4:1-6 Hear the word of the LORD, O children of Israel, for the LORD has a controversy with the inhabitants of the land. There is no faithfulness or steadfast love, and no knowledge of God in the land; there is swearing, lying, murder, stealing, and committing adultery; they break all bounds, and bloodshed follows bloodshed. Therefore the land mourns, and all who dwell in it languish, and also the beasts of the field and the birds of the heavens, and even the fish of the sea are taken away. Yet let no one contend, and let none accuse, for with you is my contention, O priest. You shall stumble by day; the prophet also shall stumble with you by night; and I will destroy your mother. My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; because you have rejected knowledge, I reject you from being a priest to me. And since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.

God’s contention is the with the priests, because where the head goes, there goes the body as well. One of the craziest transitions in the Bible is between James 3:1 and the rest of that chapter, James starts out by saying that

James 3:1 Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.

Then he jumps into talking about the tongue, and how it controls the whole body, and just like a little rudder can steer a whole ship, so can a tongue steer you into situations you never intended to get into. But the transition is clear, the teacher is like the tongue, the priest who speaks for God acts as the tongue of the body of believers, and the priest and teacher can get the whole congregation into sin they never intended to get into. A bad priest can cause a whole people to be rejected by God.

Third lesson, future ministers and teachers, your sin will wreck a church, and a wrecked church will wreck a nation. Because we have been made priests of the Most High God, we don’t have any option if we want to speak for God, we are going to whether we want to or not, so we need to do it right. So the priesthood is broken, now we’re going to step outside of the temple and see that the rest of the country isn’t much better.

Ezekiel 8:14-15 Then he brought me to the entrance of the north gate of the house of the LORD, and behold, there sat women weeping for Tammuz. Then he said to me, "Have you seen this, O son of man? You will see still greater abominations than these."

Tammuz was the false god of fertility and agriculture. He died every Fall and was resurrected every Spring. In order to get him to resurrect, you had to mourn for him when he died, and since this was September, he had just died, and this woman is crying for him. It rejects God as the provider and sustainer of Israel, and also places human exertion on the provision of nature.

Ezekiel 8:16-18 And he brought me into the inner court of the house of the LORD. And behold, at the entrance of the temple of the LORD, between the porch and the altar, were about twenty-five men, with their backs to the temple of the LORD, and their faces toward the east, worshiping the sun toward the east. Then he said to me, "Have you seen this, O son of man? Is it too light a thing for the house of Judah to commit the abominations that they commit here, that they should fill the land with violence and provoke me still further to anger? Behold, they put the branch to their nose. Therefore I will act in wrath. My eye will not spare, nor will I have pity. And though they cry in my ears with a loud voice, I will not hear them."

Here we see the people of Israel worshipping the sun instead of God, indeed they’ve turned their backs on God completely. God is furious. He says they have put the branch to their nose; there is dissention on exactly what this means, but I believe it means in reference to burning someone at the stake, you pile wood up around them, but instead of God, in his wrath, piling the wood, they have piled it themselves, so all God has to do is light the pile and Israel will face the wrath. Check out chapter 9, it is going to introduce us to this wrath, but God is merciful and gives opportunity to be saved.

Ezekiel 9:1-2 Then he cried in my ears with a loud voice, saying, "Bring near the executioners of the city, each with his destroying weapon in his hand." And behold, six men came from the direction of the upper gate, which faces north, each with his weapon for slaughter in his hand, and with them was a man clothed in linen, with a writing case at his waist. And they went in and stood beside the bronze altar.

Six angels, and a man clothed in Linen. Likely this is Jesus Christ, not literally because this is a vision, but he represents Jesus Christ, and we’ll see that we can also see ourselves in his role as evangelists. The six angels have weapons for destroying, the man in linen has a writing utensil.

Ezekiel 9:3-4 Now the glory of the God of Israel had gone up from the cherub on which it rested to the threshold of the house. And he called to the man clothed in linen, who had the writing case at his waist. And the LORD said to him, "Pass through the city, through Jerusalem, and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and groan over all the abominations that are committed in it."

God sends the evangelist through the city to mark everyone who will repent and mourn over their sins. He isn’t looking for innocent people, because none are innocent, he is looking for those who will turn back to the Holy One of Israel.

The word “mark” is one letter, the Hebrew letter Tav, which today looks sort of like a backwards Pi, but in Ezekiel’s Hebrew this would have been an X-shaped letter. It is certainly reminiscent of our being marked in the blood of Christ which was poured out on a cross.

Can you imagine being this evangelist? If people will mourn over their sin, then he can mark them and they will live, but without the mark, they will surely die. I imagine it must have been like Noah standing at the door of the Ark, crying out to his friends and relatives, “Get on the boat, if you don’t you will face the wrath of God and perish in your sins!”

Judgment follows close behind our evangelist,

Ezekiel 9:5-7 And to the others he said in my hearing, "Pass through the city after him, and strike. Your eye shall not spare, and you shall show no pity. Kill old men outright, young men and maidens, little children and women, but touch no one on whom is the mark. And begin at my sanctuary." So they began with the elders who were before the house. Then he said to them, "Defile the house, and fill the courts with the slain. Go out." So they went out and struck in the city.

These angels of death meant business, they killed everyone that didn’t have the mark. Check out where they start, in the house of God, going after the corrupt priests. Peter alludes to this which we’ll get to in a few months,

1 Peter 4:17 For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God?

I imagine the evangelist was just in front of the angels, marking some people just in the nick of time, the sword raised over their head when they repent and receive the mark of salvation.

Fourth lesson, we don’t have physical angels chasing people, but we are racing against time, seeking to see people saved before they step into eternity. Lest they have the mark of Christ, the seal of the Holy Spirit, imprinted on their souls, they will surely perish.

Ezekiel 9:8-10 And while they were striking, and I was left alone, I fell upon my face, and cried, "Ah, Lord GOD! Will you destroy all the remnant of Israel in the outpouring of your wrath on Jerusalem?" Then he said to me, "The guilt of the house of Israel and Judah is exceedingly great. The land is full of blood, and the city full of injustice. For they say, 'The LORD has forsaken the land, and the LORD does not see.' As for me, my eye will not spare, nor will I have pity; I will bring their deeds upon their heads."

God’s wrath is just, everyone deserves to be under it. But God is merciful, and that leads us to the end of chapter 9.

Ezekiel 9:11 And behold, the man clothed in linen, with the writing case at his waist, brought back word, saying, "I have done as you commanded me."

This is our goal, to be able to say to God, “I have done as you commanded me.”

So fifth lesson, God’s wrath was abiding on us, we are a people unclean lips amidst a nation of unclean lips, God sees to the heart of things, we had stacked the branches to our noses, God’s wrath was ready to be poured out upon us, when an evangelist stepped out of Heaven, perfect, sinless, undefiled, and he went out among the people, that if they would repent, he would put a mark on them, a mark of his blood that he shed on the cross for those sins which are forgiven, so that the person marked will be justified and spared from the wrath to come.

After Christ died, he rose from the dead, and while he came the first time to save, he will come again to judge, chapter 10, which we aren’t going to read, shows us this evangelist, after marking those to be saved, destroys the city of Jerusalem, and the glory of God leaves the temple.

In chapter 11, the priests are indicted for their failure to lead people to God and for their rampant sin. They are promised death, and told that they have turned Jerusalem into a cooking pot in which the people are the meat and their blood is the broth.

Finally, the sixth lesson, you have been made a priest of God, you must be holy, you must rightly represent him to the people, because if you fail, many will perish, and we as teachers of righteousness and representatives of Christ will be judged much more strictly. Our Great High Priest, Jesus Christ, became an evangelist, and so us as his priests must follow in his footsteps and declare salvation available in none other than the Living Christ.

November 8th - Missions Trip: Earth

Prayer Requests
Channing Preaching
Dave Preaching
Brandon Salvation
Disciple Now
Pastor Aaron/Leon/Mike missions trip results
The Persecuted Church (International Day of Prayer)
McGullion's Comfort in the loss of their grandmother
Cindy's Surgery, doing better

Rebekah feeling better

Emily's Recovery from Appendectomy

James' Karate Test

James' friend Aaron in PA

Mark's Godmother

Jamie's mom

Text – 1 Peter 2:11-17



There were a lot of reasons I chose Peter’s Epistles to go through, I wanted something that talked about Baptism, Angels, Evangelism, quoted the Old Testament a lot, and something that had a difficult to interpret and/or often taken out of context verse. Peter’s Epistles have at least three often misinterpreted passages in them, today we’re going to look at the first one.

This verse, if you weren’t reading it in context would mean something completely different. If you read it out of context, it wouldn’t make what can be learned from it unbiblical and wrong, but when read in context, it means something considerably different. When we get to Second Peter there are some verses that get taken out of context that teach very wrong things.

So what have we been talking about? Mainly the priesthood of believers, that we are being built up on Christ’s foundation to proclaim his excellencies. At the beginning of this letter, what did Peter call Christians who aren’t in Heaven? Exiles/Strangers/Aliens or something along that effect, pretty much visitors who are not at home.

So if we’re preaching on earth, which isn’t our home, what does that make us? We’re missionaries, or the word that I like that Paul calls us is ambassadors.

2 Corinthians 5:20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.

Real quick, what is an ambassador? It is someone who represents a country to another country.

Hebrews 13:14 For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come.

So now Peter in the passage we’re about to read is going to tell us how to behave as ambassadors for Christ.

1 Peter 2:11-17 Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation. Be subject for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good. For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God. Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor.

What do you think our main job is as Christians on our missionary journey is? It is to rightly represent Jesus Christ to the world, both so that they might be saved, and also so they might not have an excuse on Judgment Day when they try to say they didn’t know. So let’s go verse by verse:

v.11 Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul.

The first thing Peter tells us is to abstain from the passions of the flesh, stuff like sex outside of marriage, gossip, anger…well lets read scripture’s list:

Galatians 5:19-21 Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Peter says these things wage against our soul, we’re in a battle for the purity of our minds. We have to actively be looking out for these things and fighting against them. So do we beat ourselves up or hit each other to keep from sinning? Is that the warfare we’re talking about?

2 Corinthians 10:3-5 For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ…

So part of our reason for being pure is for our sake, but the reason is bigger than that,

v.12 Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.

This way when we are accused of being wrongdoers, we are still blameless. For example, in the First Century, many Christians were accused of being atheists and were executed because they would not recognize Caesar as god, but held that there was only one Living and True God. Other Christians were greatly persecuted for calling their husbands and wives brothers and sisters, they were accused of being incestuous, and likewise when they took communion, they were accused of being cannibals. Today the big lie is that Christians are the main cause of all wars throughout history.

This is patently false; Christianity, even in the totally messed up Catholic sense, has only at best been involved in about 20% of the world’s wars. Atheism on the other hand has been responsible for most major wars in the last century, in which more people were killed than in every prior war combined. More than half of the wars in history didn’t even have religion at the center of them, and that’s every religion.

As far as I know, no Christian was ever burned at the stake, fed to the lions, or beheaded because they were so nice to the poor and never cursed and always paid their taxes. Rather, the official reasons for their executions were sometimes true, denying that the emperor was God, sometimes misunderstandings, incestuous relationships, and sometimes blatantly made up, like child molesters and anarchists.

If you’ve lived an upright life before the unbelievers that saw you, then your testimony will be used against them on Judgment Day, here called the Day of Visitation, when the sky rips open, Christ is revealed riding on his stallion, and everyone comes to stand before the Judgment Seat of Christ either through rapture or painful death.

They will not be able to say that they didn’t know better, and the fact that there were Christians who lived uprightly amongst them will be just another proof of their deliberate guilt, added to the testimony of nature that proclaims God, their conscience which proclaims the difference between right and wrong, and the written word which reveals God explicitly and what his requirements are.

v.13-14 Be subject for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good.

This verse would drive a lot of Christians crazy from the last fifty years. James Dobson, Donald Wildmon, Jerry Falwell, even one of my personal heroes, D. James Kennedy, and many others devoted their lives to trying to strive against human institutions to make them legislate morality. James Dobson in the last year announced that their efforts have failed in practically every arena in which they have fought. To be truthful, people that fought the government and did all of that lobbying really wasted their lives. We don't want to do likewise. Our duty is not to fight the government, but to represent Jesus Christ to individuals.

Romans 13:1 Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.

Instead we are to be subject to human institutions, the government is put in place by Jesus Christ to punish evil and praise good. Barack Obama is divine punishment to the United States for abandoning the true gospel and preaching a false gospel of human decision (Compare Romans 10:2-3). But we are told here to be under subjection to every human institution. If the government tells us to do something against God, then we can only answer one way,

Acts 4:19-20 But Peter and John answered them, "Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge, for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard."

v.15 For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people.

There are precious few places in the Bible where it tells us precisely what God's will is. The best is 1 Thessalonians 4:3 that says that the will of God is your sanctification. Here we see another part of God's will, that his saints would be upright citizens to bear the light of Christ into the enemy's camp and put to silence their ignorance.

So this is important, Peter is telling us not to attack the government, but to live in subjection to it; but, with individuals we are to stand against their wrongdoings and with our works silence them. Why will this silence them? Paul will tell us in Romans 3.

Romans 3:19 Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God.

This is cool because Peter is definitely quoting this passage, before this time, about AD65, Jesus has been quoted in the Epistles, but the Epistles haven't quoted each other. Here though, Peter has Romans in front of him and is quoting it as authoritatively as he would the Old Testament, the reason I say that is because the next verse is going to talk about how we are not under the law. Peter also is going to tell us about Paul's great letters in 2 Peter 3.

Before we get to Peter quoting the rest of the verse, we see that under the law, every mouth may be stopped. This is amazing, and ultimately I believe it is speaking of Heaven. Dan Brown, one of the more famous atheists operating in the world today, says if God is real, he is going to stand up to him on Judgment Day and tell him "To go to Hell." Under the law, nobody is gonna say anything, the immeasurable weight of their sin is going to render them speechless.

But this verse also talks about this world. When we do good, and tell people why we are being good, because the love of Christ compels us, they are going to realize that they are not good in the eyes of God. Theresa of Avila, better known as Mother Theresa, will not be in Heaven, but she did a lot of good works under the guise of Christianity. I've heard at least two testimonies of people who were saved out of Hinduism looking at the good that she exhibited in the name of Christ, which convicted them and led them to seek out a pastor who could answer their questions.

Do you remember what my response was to "Preach the gospel at all times, and when necessary use words?" It is "Feed starving children at all times, and when necessary use food." This verse says that people will see their condemnation by our works, but they will not see the chance for forgiveness without our proclamation.

So we are not going to war with the citizens of the United States of America with weapons against the flesh, but with spiritual weapons. We only have two, but they are two awesome weapons, our testimony through our works, and the Bible, namely the law contained there-in. So for some real quick review for the Middle-Schoolers, and High-Schoolers I'll give you some things afterwards to make this make total sense, how do we witness to someone using the law? Martin Luther said to use 90% law in your witness encounters, and only 10% grace.

Basically, would you consider yourself to be a good person? Good people go up, bad people go down. Let me give you a quick test, have you ever told a lie, have you ever stolen anything, have you ever taken God's name in vain, have you ever murdered anyone or called them an idiot or a curse-word? You're in trouble, by your own admission, you're a lying thieving blasphemous murderer at heart, and you have to stand before God on Judgment Day, but God, in his great love by which he loved us sent his Son Jesus Christ to pay for our sins on the cross, so if we will repent and believe that Jesus died for our sins and rose again, then we will be forgiven and go to Heaven on his righteousness.

So according to Paul, the law is for those who are under the law, but Christians are not under the law, we have been redeemed from the curse of the law by Christ becoming a curse for us by hanging on a cross, for as it is written, "Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree." We're above the law, so really we can do anything, as Paul said, "All things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful." So Peter is going to look at the Christians duty being above the law.

v.16 Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God.

You can do anything, because the more you sin, the more grace abounds, but here Peter tells us to live as servants of God, obeying the law not out of compulsion, but out of love, not living as wickedly as possible so that grace will further abound, but using our freedom to love God and love one another. This is how Peter sums up the thought,

v.17 Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor.

It says "Honor everyone." Who is that? Is it just people you like, or people that can do things for you, or people that deserve it? Or is this everyone? It is everyone, and we are to honor them. This is the epitome of what Christ did for us, we had no reason to be honored, but check out how Paul says it,

Philippians 2:3-5 Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus...

As Romans 5 says, for a nice guy we might consider to die, for a jerk we probably wouldn't die, but for the worst of people, us, Christ did die. So we esteem others as worth more than ourselves, caring about other people more than we care for ourselves, and honoring everyone, in hopes that our witness will lead them to repentance and faith in the only source of salvation, Jesus Christ.

Then we are to "Love the brotherhood." This is the whole Christian church, once again in the church we are to love everyone, regardless of what they can do for us.

James 2:1-5 My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. For if a man wearing a gold ring and fine clothing comes into your assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in, and if you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, "You sit here in a good place," while you say to the poor man, "You stand over there," or, "Sit down at my feet," have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him?

Then we "Fear God." Be more afraid of offending him than offending men, for the cross is offensive, it tells people that they are sinners, aren't God, and need to be reconciled to God. Being more afraid of God than men is bound to make you a great evangelist and do the things which you are supposed to do.

And finally, "Honor the Emperor." This is the toughest one for me, because our emperor is an idiot. I regularly pray Psalm 94 for him, which is asking God to squish him into itty bitty pieces, because he is a very evil and incompetent man. The emperor that Peter is talking about here is Nero, Nero would soon kill Peter's wife, crucify Peter upside down, and cut off Paul's head, so as bad as our emperor is, Peter's was worse.

So how do we honor him? We recognize that he was put in place by God, that it is his job to keep the peace and that he will be judged accordingly by God when he died, Nero would commit suicide not much long after this letter was written. So we should honor the emperor by respecting his authority, paying our taxes, and not doing anything to cause problems except for preaching the gospel. Don't protest, don't shoot abortion doctors, don't blow up buildings of communists, rather preach the gospel and live under the government.

In conclusion, we are missionaries to earth, check out the website, I've put up an awesome short video that talks about this, we are ambassadors of Christ, so we live under the authority of the government that is over us, not fighting the government, but preaching the gospel so that many will be saved. If we save them all, then the government will be Christian and good things will happen, but our goal is to rightly represent Christ's name to the world while we are temporarily away from our home, which is Heaven.