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).

We Believe, and Therefore Speak

May 22, 2022 in Bible - NT - 2 Corinthians, Easter, Meditations, Resurrection

2 Corinthians 4:13–15 

13And since we have the same spirit of faith, according to what is written [in Psalm 116], “I believed and therefore I spoke,” we also believe and therefore speak, 14knowing that He who raised up the Lord Jesus will also raise us up with Jesus, and will present us with you. 15For all things are for your sakes, that grace, having spread through the many, may cause thanksgiving to abound to the glory of God. 

What is the significance of Jesus’ resurrection from the dead? This is the question we have asked during this time of Eastertide. As we anticipate Ascension Sunday and Pentecost Sunday in the weeks to come, I would like to close our observations on the resurrection today. In our text Paul helps us understand the significance of the resurrection. Why did Jesus rise from the dead? Jesus rose from the dead so that we might be thankful and praise our God.

To make his point, Paul quotes from Psalm 116, a psalm of thanksgiving. In this psalm, the psalmist cried out to God in the face of death: “The pains of death surrounded me, and the pangs of Sheol laid hold of me; I found trouble and sorrow” (116:3). But the psalmist trusted God. He knew that God was capable of delivering him from death and so he cried out to God with the words that Paul quotes: “I believed, therefore I spoke, ‘I am greatly afflicted’” (116:10). The psalmist trusted God and so asked God to deliver him. And glory be to God, the Lord answered his prayer: “For you have delivered my soul from death, My eyes from tears, and my feet from falling. I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living” (116:8-9). God delivered him, so he does the only thing he can rightly do: he praises and thanks the Lord for His mercy: “I will offer to You the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and will call upon the name of the Lord” (116:18).

The faith and thanksgiving manifested by Psalm 116 are a pattern for us. Just as the psalmist believed and therefore spoke, trusting God to deliver him from death, so we believe and therefore speak, trusting God to deliver us. Why? Because Christ Himself has alreay risen from the dead and guarantees our resurrection. “He who raised up the Lord Jesus will also raise us up with Jesus.” Jesus’ resurrection is the firstfruits, the guarantee of ours. Death is now a defeated foe; Christ is Risen and we too shall rise.

So how ought we to respond to the assurance that God will deliver us from death? Just as the psalmist did: with praise and thanksgiving. You see, the goal of Christ’s resurrection is that thanksgiving and praise might abound in all the world to Yahweh, the living God. Jesus took on human flesh in order to restore rightful worship; Jesus ministered and suffered and died in order to restore rightful worship; Jesus rose from the dead in order to restore rightful worship. In other words, Jesus took on human flesh, ministered, suffered, died, and rose from the dead so that you would be here this morning, joining your voice with the voices of all God’s people and thanking God for his mercies, thanking God that He has delivered you from death.

So, beloved, how eager are you to be here? God raised up Jesus so that you would be here this morning; so that you would lift up your voice in company with the voices of your brothers and sisters; so that you would worship him. So how ought we to approach this morning? With sloth? With mere formality? With mumbling and inattention? May it never be! Let us join our voices week by week in thankful acknowledgement of God’s mercies toward us in Christ – Alleluia! Christ is risen! (Christ is risen indeed! Alleluia!) So let us worship the Lord!

Reminded that Jesus rose from the dead in order that we might worship Him together, we are also reminded how we often approach worship with insufficient joy and delight. So let us kneel and confess our sin to the Lord. We will have a time of private confession followed by the public confession found in your bulletin.

The Promise of Resurrection

May 15, 2022 in Bible - NT - Romans, Easter, Meditations

Romans 8:31–35, 37 

31What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? 33Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. 35Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?… 37Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. 

We have been emphasizing in our worship that the celebration of Easter continues in this period known as Eastertide. We continue giving the liturgical greeting, Christ is Risen! And we have devoted our exhortations to the topic of the resurrection: Why did Christ rise from the dead and what does this mean for us?

As we continue this theme, let me remind you that it is the hope of the resurrection that has invigorated Christian witness throughout the ages. In the verses just prior to the ones we have read, Paul reminds us that all those whom God has predestined to life, he will call to faith in himself; and all those whom he calls to faith, he will justify; and all those whom he justifies, he will glorify. The culmination of God’s work in us, in other words, is glorification: God will raise us from the dead and present us before Himself spotless and blameless.

It is in response to this promise, this promise of glorification and resurrection, that the words of our text are written. “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?”

The promise of the resurrection assures us that every promise that God has issued to His people will be fulfilled. For example, God promises children, “honor your father and mother that it may go well with you and that you may live long on the earth” (Eph 6:2-3). So what are we to think when a child loves and serves the Lord by honoring his parents and then suddenly dies? Will God’s promise fail? No – for in the flesh that child will serve God and with his own eyes and not those of another he shall see his Redeemer and worship Him (cf. Job 19:27).

Likewise, Jesus promised, “there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for My sake and the gospel’s, who shall not receive a hundredfold now in this age…” (Mk 10:29-30). So what are we to think of this promise and its application to the martyrs who lost life in the service of God? Will Jesus’ promise fail? No – for in the flesh those martyrs will serve God and with their own eyes and not those of another they shall see their Redeemer and worship Him.

The resurrection assures that “all the promises of God are yes and amen in Jesus” (2 Cor 1:20). Because Jesus has risen and by His resurrection has overcome sin and death, because through Him and the power of His Spirit all creation will one day be renewed and resurrected, all the promises of God will reach their fulfillment. Not one promise will fall to the ground. So we can cry out with confidence: “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? …Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.”

This is our privilege and right as children of God – to live in hope of the resurrection. Too often, however, we live in fear – pressed down by the cares of this world, overwhelmed with the needs of the moment, forgetful of the promise of resurrection. We stand in need of the mercy of God and the empowering grace of God’s Spirit to enable us to live resurrection lives in the here and now. So let us kneel and confess our sins to the Lord, seeking His mercy.

Heirs of All Things

May 8, 2022 in Bible - NT - 2 Corinthians, Easter, Meditations

2 Corinthians 4:14–15 

14… He who raised up the Lord Jesus will also raise us up with Jesus, and will present us with you. 15For all things are for your sakes, that grace, having spread through the many, may cause thanksgiving to abound to the glory of God. 

As we continue celebrating the season of Eastertide, it is fitting to continue to meditate on the significance of Jesus’ resurrection. In our passage today, Paul repeats one of his frequent maxims: He who raised up the Lord Jesus will also raise us up with Jesus… The resurrection of the dead is our hope – not that we will die and be spirits in the sky; not that we will perish and lose all consciousness; but that even as Jesus rose from the dead, we too shall rise. In Paul’s words to the Philippians, Jesus will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body… (Phil 3:20). We live in sure and certain hope of the resurrection. This mortal body shall put on immortality; this corruptible body shall put on incorruption; this weak body shall put on strength. Alleluia!

What this means is that the trajectory of all history is to the resurrection. The resurrection is the consummation of history: the day when Christ shall return again in glory to judge both the living and the dead; the day when the dead shall arise from their graves – those who have done good in the fear of God and faith in Jesus Christ to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil in continuing to ignore or rebel against God to the resurrection of death. This will be the consummation of history as we know it, the gateway into glory.

Consequently, it is the resurrection of the dead and the glorification of God’s children that creation itself awaits. Even as all creation was plunged into death and decay through the rebellion of our first father Adam, so all creation will be renewed into life and glory through the obedience of the last Adam, our Lord Jesus. When we rise from the dead, when our bodies are made new, all creation will be liberated from its bondage to decay and share in our glorification.

What this means, therefore, is that all creation is ours. We shall inherit all things. The sun, moon, stars, and planets are ours; the oceans, seas, lakes, rivers, and streams are ours; the mountains and plains are ours; the forests, grassland, and deserts are ours; all creation is ours. “Blessed are the meek,” our Lord Jesus promises, “for they shall inherit the earth” (Mt 5:5). If you are in Christ, then you are heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ (Rom 8:17). Christ possesses all and promises to share it with His people. It is this hope that lies behind our text today. Listen again:

… He who raised up the Lord Jesus will also raise us up with Jesus, and will present us with you. For all things are for your sakes…

All things are for your sakes – all things: birds, beasts, fruit trees and all cedars, the honey bee and the crocus, the lily and the rose. All things are for your sakes. This is the promise of God to all those who believe in Jesus. We shall inherit the earth.

Now if all this is true – and through Christ’s resurrection it is – then what kind of people ought we to be? Ought we not to be the most content, the most thankful, the most grateful of all people? Ought we not to do all things without complaining or grumbling? Ought we not to be patient, knowing that the sufferings of this present life are not worthy to be compared with the glories that shall be revealed in us? So Paul writes, “For all things are for your sakes, that grace, having spread through the many, may cause thanksgiving to abound to the glory of God.” The fruit of the resurrection hope is abounding thankfulness.

So reminded that God has made us heirs of all things in order that we might abound in thanksgiving to His glory, let us confess that we are often unthankful, grumbling, and impatient. And, as you are able, let us kneel together as we confess our sin. We will have a time of silent confession followed by the corporate confession found in your bulletin.