Song of the Drunkards

JESUS FACED A CONSIDERABLE AMOUNT OF OPPOSITION FOR HIS HARD WORDS AND UNFLINCHING DEVOTION TO YAHWEH. NO SURPRISE THEN IF WE FIND OUR NAME FESTOONED IN BARROOM BALLADS (CF. PS 69:12).

Humble & Lowly

March 24, 2024 in Bible - OT - Zechariah, Meditations

Zechariah 9:9-10 (NKJV)

9“Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King is coming to you; He is just and having salvation, Lowly and riding on a donkey, A colt, the foal of a donkey. 10I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim And the horse from Jerusalem; The battle bow shall be cut off. He shall speak peace to the nations; His dominion shall be ‘from sea to sea, And from the River to the ends of the earth.’

Have you ever been taught that while Jesus came as Savior in His first coming, He is waiting until His second to arrive as King? He is waiting, so it is said, to establish His kingdom on earth. If you have heard or even, like me, embraced that kind of thinking in the past or perhaps still do, then you may have a hard time understanding Palm Sunday. For Palm Sunday celebrates Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem as our King come to establish His kingdom. As Jesus entered the city, our fathers and mothers laid branches of palm upon the ground and sang psalms in order to fulfill Zechariah’s summons, “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King is coming to you.”

But if Jesus entered Jerusalem as King, why, some ask, didn’t He appear very kingly? Why is He lowly and riding on a donkey? Yet such questions reveal that we often allow the world rather than Jesus to define true kingship. For Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem to establish justice, to deliver His people, and to advance both the glory of God and the good of His people is the preeminent illustration of what it means to be a good king. What is it to be a good king? It is to be just and to bring salvation to your people; it is to be humble and lowly; it is to be a servant, to bring blessing and light to your people. And it was precisely this type of King that our Lord Jesus was and is. 

To our fallen nature this type of kingship can seem utterly ineffective. Among pagan nations, might makes right. Rex lex. The king is law. The king is to be served, not to serve. And the measure of his success is how many cower before him. Pagan nations extol those like Alexander the Great or Julius Caesar who push and prod and pursue their own glory. It is kings like that who accomplish great things.

But the prophet Zechariah extols the glory of our King’s rule. Our just and humble King will so rule as to destroy warfare from Israel and bring peace to all the nations of the earth, “I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim, And the horse from Jerusalem; The battle bow shall be cut off. He shall speak peace to the nations.” On the one hand, He eliminates warfare; on the other, He brings peace. And because He is a King of Peace, God promises to extend His kingdom throughout the earth, “His dominion shall be ‘from sea to sea, And from the River to the ends of the earth.’”

So what of you leaders out there – what type of kingship have you been exercising? Whether you are a husband, a father, a mother, an employer, a foreman, a manager – what type of rule have you practiced? Have you demanded, cajoled, manipulated, and wormed your way to the top? Or have you been just, looking to bless those whom God has entrusted to your care? Are you humble, considering others’ interests more important than your own? Are you living as peacemakers showing all humility in the fear of God? Are you imitating the glory of pagan kings or the glory of our Great King who entered Jerusalem this day?

Reminded that we have been unrighteous kings and queens, demanding our own way rather than imitating our great King and willingly serving others, let us confess our sin to our Lord. As you are able, let us kneel together as we do so.

“Amen!”

March 17, 2024 in Bible - OT - Psalms, Meditations, Worship

Psalm 106:48 (NKJV) 

48Blessed be the Lord God of Israel From everlasting to everlasting! And let all the people say, “Amen!” Praise the Lord! 

For several weeks now we have been exploring why our elders incorporate various traditions in our corporate worship. Today we consider our practice of shouting, “Amen!”, after singing psalms and hymns. Why do we do this?

The declaration, “Amen!”, is a means of affirming what has been said. It is shorthand for, “So be it! That’s right! That’s true! I agree with that!” or even, “May that come to pass!” So, in our text today, the people are to say, “Amen!” upon hearing the declaration, “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel from everlasting to everlasting!” Similarly, the Apostle John closed Revelation by responding, “Amen! Even so, come, Lord Jesus!” to Jesus’ declaration, “Surely I am coming quickly” (Rev 22:20).

Last week we saw this same dynamic at work in the curses of Deuteronomy 27. After Israel entered the Promised Land, the Levites were to speak with a “loud voice and say to all the men of Israel:”

15 ‘Cursed is the one who makes a carved or molded image, an abomination to the Lord, the work of the hands of the craftsman, and sets it up in secret.’ 

“And all the people shall answer and say, ‘Amen!’ 

16 ‘Cursed is the one who treats his father or his mother with contempt.’ 

“And all the people shall say, ‘Amen!’ 

17 ‘Cursed is the one who moves his neighbor’s landmark.’ 

“And all the people shall say, ‘Amen!’ 

18 ‘Cursed is the one who makes the blind to wander off the road.’ 

“And all the people shall say, ‘Amen!’ 

19 ‘Cursed is the one who perverts the justice due the stranger, the fatherless, and widow.’ 

“And all the people shall say, ‘Amen!’ 

Each time the people shouted, “Amen!” they were affirming their agreement with what was said. So when we pray or sing and close by saying, “Amen!”, or when we shout, “Amen!” during the sermon, we are saying, “So be it! I agree with that! May these things truly come to pass!” 

So how ought we to speak this “Amen!”? First, make sure you agree with what has been said or sung. And this of course means that we must pay attention to the words we are singing and make sure we do agree. Don’t say, “Amen!” if you don’t mean it. Part of our elders’ rationale for singing the psalms and other substantive hymns is to protect us from saying, “Amen!”, to things that we ought not affirm. If the lyrics affirm, “Good is evil, and evil is good!” the last thing that you should say is, “Amen!” Say, “God forbid!” or “Certainly not!” but don’t say, “Amen!” Why not? Because to say, “Amen!” is to declare that you agree with what was said or that you truly want it to happen.

Second, issue your, “Amen!” heartily. Either you agree with what has been said or you don’t. If you do, then do it. Don’t mumble or halt between two opinions. You’ll note that the “Amens!” in your Bible are typically printed with an exclamation mark. That’s because they are exclamations. And the word “exclamation” comes from two Latin words: ex, which means “out,” and clamare, which means “to shout.” So you’re supposed to “shout it out”! Say it like you mean it. “Amen!”

Reminded that we often approve of things that we should condemn and that we are often tepid rather than hearty in our approval of what God has said, let us confess our error and complacency to the Lord. And as you are able, let us kneel as we confess our sins.

Baptized into Christ Jesus

March 10, 2024 in Baptism, Bible - NT - Romans, Meditations

Romans 6:3–6 (NKJV) 

3Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? 4Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. 5For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, 6knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. 

In our exhortations, I have been exploring various traditions that appear in our corporate worship services. Since we have the privilege of baptizing Josiah, Rebekah, Matthew, and Daniel Bursese later this morning, I thought it would be beneficial to use our exhortation to explain the meaning of baptism which Paul discusses here in Romans.

In Biblical Theology sacraments are visible words. Even as God communicates to us in His written Word, the Bible, so He communicates to us in visible words, in covenant signs and seals – what we call sacraments or ordinances. One of the earliest covenant signs was the rainbow – God placed the rainbow in the sky as the sign of the covenant that He made with Noah. The rainbow visibly proclaims God’s promise to Noah and to us that He will never again flood the earth. So every time we see the rainbow, God invites us to believe His promise and trust Him. In other words, the rainbow isn’t our word to God but God’s word to us.

What is true of the rainbow is also true of other covenant signs: they are primarily God’s Word to us, not our word to God. Paul emphasizes this by using the passive voice to describe baptism. He writes that the Roman Christians “were baptized” (passive) into Christ and “were baptized” (again, passive) into His death. So why the passive voice? Because, first and foremost, baptism is God’s act, God’s word, not my act, my word. Thus, we do not baptize ourselves; we are baptized by another. 

Paul further declares that as many as have been baptized into Christ have been baptized into His death. Every baptized person has felt God’s word of condemnation for his sin, God’s word of pardon through Christ’s crucifixion, and God’s call to newness of life through Christ’s resurrection. In baptism, God speaks to each of us individually – He claims us as His own and assures us that, so long as we trust Christ, we are cleansed of our sin as surely as water washes our bodies and are anointed with His Spirit for newness of life as surely as the water makes us wet. While the preaching of the Word holds that promise out generically, baptism makes that promise personal. Today, God speaks to Josiah, Rebekah, Matthew, and Daniel and assures each one of them that His promise is reliable for them; even as He spoke to you in your baptism and made the same promises to you.

Baptism, therefore, is an invitation to trust God’s Word; it is a call to faith; a call to believe God’s promise in Christ personally. Paul declares that baptism unites us with Christ’s resurrection such that we also should walk in newness of life. We should walk. Whether we were baptized as an infant, a child, or an adult, God speaks to us through our baptism, unites us to Christ, and calls us to trust Him, to love Him, and to walk in newness of life by the power of Christ’s resurrection. We are to respond to His grace with faith and obedience – thus I will be asking these young folks today to profess their faith in the Lord’s promises.

So reminded that in baptism God has claimed us as His own, has put His Name upon us, and summoned us to walk in newness of life, let us confess that we often respond to His Word with unbelief, that many of us have despised our baptism and forgotten the call that He has issued to us in it, and that we have need of His forgiving and cleansing grace as even our baptism signifies. Let ys kneel as we confess our sins to the Lord.