The word “fellowship” is translated from the Greek word “koinonia.” It is used 20 times in the New Testament. And all of the instances have some form of its original meaning, which is the word “common.” In other words, it’s the coming together to share what is common together. Now you might think that seems to substantiate the bowling fellowship idea. But we see in the other uses of this word in the NT, most of them carry with it the idea of fellowship we see in 1 John 1:3: “That which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.” So the biblical fellowship with one another is dependent on our fellowship with the Triune God, Father, Son, and Spirit. Paul uses the word in the same way in 1 Corinthians 1:9: “God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.” So what Paul and John and Luke here in Acts 2 is describing by fellowship is that these 3000 people and multitudes more after this event have come to so delight in their Savior and what He has done and who He is as He reigns eternally and this desire is given to us by His Holy Spirit, that they want nothing more than to meet with one another to enjoy His presence together.

And this desire is only a foretaste of what is to come. The fellowship we have now falters with our waywardness and our distractions and our sinfulness. Think of a sports season like football. There is so much hype that leads up to the Super Bowl. When that game is played there are all sorts of talk and media and people who are fighting to pay large amounts of money to get tickets. Companies vie for multimillion dollar 30 second commercial spots. Then the game is played and one team wins and another loses. And then it’s all gone. Nothing’s left. Those athletes who spent their whole life playing a game might retire to now go work at some retail chain wondering where their life is. No matter how wonderful the camaraderie is between athletes in the greatest of arenas, it always ends. But the fellowship we have through Christ by His Spirit will far outlast even our own lives. It will never end. And so shouldn’t it make sense that this should be your life’s pursuit?

This is why Luke tells us in Acts 2 that the new church persistently “devoted themselves to fellowship.” You can’t give up on God’s people. One of the identifying marks of a Christian is our fellowship together. This is at the root of the church. We need each other. And according to this text, Christians want to be together. Martyn Lloyd-Jones explains the significance of Christians devoting themselves to fellowship:

All who believed these things [devoting themselves to meeting together in fellowship], all who were Christians, were constantly found together…One of the first tests you must apply to yourself, or to anybody else, in order to discover whether or not you are a Christian is to ask the question, “Do you want to come together with other Christians?” If you do not feel this desire, there is only one explanation: You are not a Christian. (Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Authentic Christianity, 91)

So much is at stake when Christians do not desire to come together, do not long to worship together. It undermines the very work of the Spirit of God in us. If He has genuinely cut us to the heart, we will not give up meeting together. And so, if you have grown weary joining in meeting, if you have been inconsistent because of all sorts of reasons, you might want to ask yourself, “Have you lost sight of your precious Savior and Lord and what He has done for you? Have you failed to see Him as exalted?”

Acts 1:1-11

Introduction

We’re beginning a new series called The Messy but Marvelous Church from the book of Acts and 1 Corinthians. I can’t tell you how excited I am for this series. The more I consider the church, the more I am blessed by it. And so when I refer to the church, what am I referring to, Foothill High School? The Worship Band? Axis? Gospel Train? The Men or Women of the church? No. Not at all. I’m talking about God’s people. And the more I live my life, the more I am so thankful for God’s people. And this past weekend’s retreat was just a wonderful example of this affection. To be able to walk down the hill to meet and greet and talk to and share and pray with some of you was a treasure to me and my family. It’s what I believe families do. They enjoy being together. They enjoy life together. But they also struggle together as well.

And like any family, the church family is a messy family. It can go through seasons of tension, rivalries, and conflict. Sometimes people are not so easy to love in the church. Mix in people of different levels of faith, different personalities and quirks, different backgrounds and lifestages, and the church can get, well messy. But in Christ by the power of His Holy Spirit, as we process such times through the lens of the gospel, not only is there forgiveness and healing because of such incidents, there is also growth and maturity and even joy when we persevere to the end. And in this way, we can look back and marvel at what God has done through us during such messy times.

This is exactly why we need to explore Acts and 1 Corinthians and see what we can learn that applies to us. So today we’ll explore three emphases of this church in Acts 1:1-11: 1) The Continuing Work (vv. 1-3), 2) The End of Stargazing (v. 6, 9-11), and 3) The Beginning Mission (v. 4-8, 11).

The Continuing Work (v. 1-3)

So first, let’s look at the continuing work of Jesus in verses 1-3: “In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach, 2 until the day when he was taken up, after he had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. 3 He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God.”

It’s very clear from these verses that the book of Acts is a continuation of Luke’s Gospel. It’s written to the same person (Theophilus). And it has the purpose of presenting the second part of the life of Jesus’ ministry. Now you might be wondering, “How could Acts be a second part of Jesus’ ministry when Jesus is only mentioned in ch. 1 (and chapter 9)? But this is exactly what Luke infers in these verses. He tells Theophilus that the first book (the gospel of Luke) has dealt with “all that Jesus began to do and teach, until the day he was taken up.” But following this event, Luke implies that the rest of this book (Acts) will present Jesus’ continued work amongst His apostles and His people. And clearly, the means by which this will all take place will be “through the Holy Spirit.”
So what does this mean for us? It means that Jesus’ ministry does not end when He ascended to heaven as we shall explore later. He doesn’t leave His disciples to fend for themselves to somehow finish what He started. After all, how could this pitiful band of ragamuffins accomplish what we have today, over 1 billion people (currently) who profess to believe and proclaim Christ as King? How could 11 men, a few women who had just lost their founder by crucifixion, who had lost one of the original 12 through betrayal, who had no formal education, no training in organizational management and logistics, create a delivery system called the church that would outlast the intense persecution of the Roman government, fascism, communism, and everything else that has been against it throughout history? No my friends, this was not a manmade creation. And this is exactly why Luke wrote Acts. Acts is Luke’s way of showing us that Jesus Christ, by His Holy Spirit, is still leading His church. Jesus says as much in John 16:13-14: “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. 14 He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you.”

So the book of Acts could very well have been entitled, “The Book of Acts of Jesus Christ by His Holy Spirit to the Praise of His Father through the Means of His Messy But Marvelous Church,” but I figured Luke probably thought that was too long of a title. The point is this: you must see Acts as a continuation of the work of Jesus, not a new work of Jesus, and not a work without Him. This will help you to understand this text and the church with the right perspective.

The End of Stargazing (v. 6, 9-11)

Luke also emphasizes from this text the end of stargazing in verses 6, 9-11: “So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?”…9 And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. 10 And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, 11 and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”

I feel sorry for the apostles. They’re still in the same place they were prior to Jesus’ death. Can you imagine that they are staring at Jesus after He has risen from the dead after a brutal execution? Every moment they look at Him, they are staring into the eyes of the most startling miracle the world has ever known, and yet, they still don’t get it.

Look at the question they ask him in verse 6. They were still stuck on their idea of salvation through political means. John Calvin notes that their question has as many errors as there are words. (Stott, 41) The word “restore” assumes they believed there would still be a restoration of the state of Israel overthrowing the Roman government, a common misunderstanding the disciples had throughout Luke’s gospel. And of course, they assumed that it would be “at this time,” now, despite the fact that Jesus had clearly taught that no one knows the day or hour, except for the Father (Matt 24:36).

For the disciples, they still had hopes of political dominion. I know this might seem a bit abstract for us. But it really shouldn’t be. Think of today’s political climate. Every time we have a presidential election, there is always elation for the victorious party and depression for the defeated party. If you listen to the political commentary of today, there’s a longing by people from every part of the political spectrum to see salvation come in the form of their candidate on their party’s platform. And sadly, Christians today have so quickly fallen into the same trap of the disciples here in verse 6.

The idea that getting the right Christian politicians into seats of power to take over the government is certainly not a new one. The disciples wrongly believed that government can change the world and Jesus needed to take up His rightful throne now as an earthly King. It’s not that there is no place for Christians to step into the political arena. But we must not fool ourselves into believing that human governmental rule produces true change. The reality is that laws do not change hearts. Human hearts are far too hardened to be changed by mere rules and laws.

To understand this, all you need to do is look at children. You can always threaten your children to obey rules. And give enough fear of punishment, they will obey them. But that doesn’t necessarily mean their hearts will obey them. A mom can scream at her teenage daughter, “You will not leave the house dressed like that.” She can threaten all sorts of punishments. But when that daughter changes wearing a sweatshirt and then leaves the home only to take off the sweatshirt to wear what she was originally wearing, you begin to realize that rules cannot regulate the heart. No law or governing authority can force people to love someone and desire to obey the law with a joyful heart.

And no government or law or even fear of reprisal will ever get people to truly love Jesus. The other day, Shua and I were driving down the 680 when we saw this white van littered with all sorts of Christian slogans. It had huge words all over the van telling people to repent, warning them of the dangers of hell. It also listed all of the sins that people commit. It’s possible that van could scare someone to come to trust in Jesus. But one thing that van will never do is to give a person delight and joy in knowing Jesus.

And so Jesus doesn’t answer their question about restoring Israel with what they want to hear. Instead, if you look at Jesus’ answer in verses 7-8, you might think Jesus sidesteps their question. But He really doesn’t. Instead, He’s telling them, “If you think being the Roman emperor who can change laws and force people to live the way he wants them to do is powerful, you ain’t seen nothing yet. When the Holy Spirit comes, He will show you what real power is. Government might be able to force people to do things temporarily, but the Spirit will bring about real change and transformation, and they will do it with joy.” Only Jesus by His Spirit can cause someone who has no love for Him to not only love Him, but give such a person so much delight in Jesus, that he or she would be willing to do whatever it takes for others to have that same type of joy. We explore this reality in the last emphasis.

But let me add one more thing, and it’s the very reason why I am calling the second point the end of stargazing in verses 9-11. The disciples had this view that Jesus was going to restore a political kingdom. And so, when Jesus actually leaves them and the two angels tell them to stop stargazing, I can only imagine what the scene must have been like. Their mouths are probably open in utter shock because they not only saw Jesus floating up to heaven on a cloud, but for the second (third, fourth, twentieth) time, their understanding of His mission had been completely overturned. They were standing stargazing not knowing what to do, and so the angels responded to them: “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”

The angels’ words are not just for the disciples, but for all disciples of Christ. We can’t merely stand around stargazing, waiting for Jesus to return. Christians are not called to a life of comfort, of remaining stagnant. The church must never be a church that is simply satisfied with being saved. The gospel is not sedentary. No, the gospel by its very nature must be proclaimed and shared and declared to others. The disciples, up to this point, had simply gathered together. But Jesus’ whole post-resurrection mission was to prepare them for something far greater, a sharing of the news of Jesus. And He knows full well how weak and timid they are, which is why this last scene of Jesus’ earthly mission is a reminder of his continuing work by his Spirit. Jesus doesn’t leave the church, us, to fend for ourselves. No. He is with us in our homegroups, during Sunday worship, in our retreats. And He doesn’t want us to merely enjoy His presence, to be looking to heaven for Jesus.

This past retreat was special. It was important. It reminded me that we’re a church, God’s people. But we can’t merely be satisfied with ourselves. And the retreat can’t merely be about being “fired up for God” or spiritually refreshed. If so, then we’re merely looking up to the heavens. No, it has to lead to our desire to tell people about Jesus. It has to empower us to say that we will not only live differently, but we will delight to tell others about Him. I am more convinced than ever before that building Christian community is absolutely essential to our faith. I also believe it’s essential to our witness. We need to be so drawn together in order to feel supported to share our faith and possibly even receive persecution for such proclamations. And to that end, let us do all that we can to grow in community. Let us not give up meeting together as some are in the habit of doing. Let’s grow in God’s Word. Let’s pray for one another. Let’s disciple one another. Let’s be God’s family so that you can always run home when you’re in trouble. But we must go out again and tell the world that they need Jesus Christ. We must not merely gaze at the sky, bask in our fellowship, be happy home groupers who are so excited about our small group that visitors and non-believers are not welcome. We must not merely gaze at the sky believing that our fellowship on Sundays is good enough as it is and that we don’t want “that kind of people” to ruin the good thing we have. These, my friends, are the deadly pitfalls of stargazing.

The Beginning Mission (v. 4-8, 11)

Therefore, Jesus makes it clear that knowing who He is and what He has done for you should and must lead to a mission, which Jesus tells us is the beginning of the church’s mission in Acts 1:4-8, 11:

4 And while staying with them he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, “you heard from me; 5 for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” The Ascension 6 So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” 7 He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

And then verse 11 again: “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”

As we saw, the disciples could have been very content standing there waxing nostalgia. They could have simply sat around the campfire sharing Jesus stories. They could have had disciple reunions where they reminisced about all the miracles they saw. They could have sought comfort and a life of ease. Or maybe they could have formed their own little Jesus’ disciples religion. But the whole point of this chapter, of Jesus’ words in Acts 1:8, and of the angels words in verse 11, is to tell them Jesus is with them always by His Holy Spirit. And to simply stand there enjoying Jesus and what He had done for them without proclaiming to others of what He had done, would be no different than starting a Christianity without Christ. You see, it wasn’t “For God so loved the 12 disciples that He gave His only Son.” It was, “For God so loved the WORLD that He gave His only Son.”

When Jesus tells the disciples that when the Spirit comes, they will be His witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and to the ends of earth, He’s telling them that this is how it must be. The Holy Spirit will make this happen. They can’t simply settle for anything less or else it really undermines whether their faith really is in Christ, and it questions whether the Holy Spirit truly is with them. The Spirit empowers believers to be WITNESSES. Again, as Jesus said in John 16:14: “He [the Holy Spirit] will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. 15 All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.”

So what does this mean for us my brothers and sisters? It means that Jesus didn’t merely die for Wellspring Church so that we can enjoy each other’s presence while keeping outsiders out because they ruin our friendship dynamics. No, the gospel proclaimed and lived out by Jesus and empowered by His Holy Spirit is inherently a good news that by definition is proclaimed. It means that in our homegroups we MUST be ready to be uncomfortable. Yes, we need to grow in community and faith. But may I say that unless we reach the lost, we will be missing a key component of our growth as Christians? Jesus makes the witness an integral part of the apostles’ mission. This wasn’t a side thing to their growth. This was essential to it. And so, I believe that the Lord is calling us to a new place when we think of homegroups. He’s asking us to consider making these groups a place where we can invite neighbors, non-believing family, co-workers so they can see the gospel lived out. We need to create new groups for the purpose of growing in community AND so that we can invite others to join a group that is not so insular. So many families in our society are broken. In my neighborhood, there are very few families that have a marriage intact. My friends, you would be surprised how much of a witness it is simply for people to see your family, as sinful as it is, to still be together in a broken world. The world will know we are His disciples when we love one another. But Jesus never said that it would be flawless love. They need to see our messiness. And they also need to see that that is exactly why we savor Christ, because He makes us whole through His work in the midst of our messiness. And so my dear friends, please consider inviting the lost to HGs, maybe as an entry point to church, and of course, to the gospel.

This then also means that we need to continue to see the church as a whole take every step necessary to see this gospel spread. I love Jesus’ promise in verse 8, “BUT you will receive power when the HS has come upon you.” Remember, this is in response to the disciples strategies and vision for the advancement of God’s Kingdom, which was a completely weak and false hope. Power will never come from earthly power. BUT there is a true alternative, the power of the Holy Spirit and that comes through the advancement of the gospel. There has to be a witness. But as we learned in Luke, witness always has a cost. Jesus’ witness, His desire to see us trust in the Father and come to be received as sons and daughters, cost His life and therefore, Jesus told His disciples in Matthew 10:24: “A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master.” If He suffered for His witness to God’s goodness and glory, how could we avoid such a thing? So perhaps our suffering might come in the form of persecution, rejection by peers in the workplace or being labeled by neighbors as the “weird Christian family” or fellow parents of your son’s basketball team. Perhaps it might come in the form of discomfort, joining a new homegroup or being part of homegroup launch that is filled with people you don’t “connect with” or who aren’t in your life stage. Maybe it might mean one day if we should plant another church, you might leave the comfort of this church to join a new church making new friends and fellowship that is quite different. Maybe it means going overseas to share the gospel to the unreached, or starting a ministry to the poor in our neighborhood, etc. But know this, witness though it always comes at a cost, some cost, also always comes with POWER. You will never be left alone. NO, quite the contrary, you will have the power of the Holy Spirit with you. And Jesus paid a costly price not only for you to have power, but to be freed to live with what Peter calls a “living hope” (1 Peter 1:3). I love how he describes life in Christ in 1 Peter 1:8-9: “Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, 9 obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.” This is His promise!

Conclusion

So my friends, get ready to examine the church through the lens of Luke in Acts 1-2 and 18 and through the lens of Paul in 1 Corinthians. I hope you’re challenged. I hope you wrestle with the mission. I hope you’re able to empathize with the messiness of it all. But I hope you marvel that God by His great Son’s work through His powerful Spirit should use even this messy church, sinful and broken as we are, for His fame. And by doing so, you will find your joy ever increasing forever more.

34 And Jesus said to them, “The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage, 35 but those who are considered worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage, 36 for they cannot die anymore, because they are equal to angels and are sons of God, being sons [7] of the resurrection. 37 But that the dead are raised, even Moses showed, in the passage about the bush, where he calls the Lord the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. 38 Now he is not God of the dead, but of the living, for all live to him.” 39 Then some of the scribes answered, “Teacher, you have spoken well.” 40 For they no longer dared to ask him any question.
Luke 20:27-40

Introduction

One night when I was a teen, I had difficulty sleeping. I had only recently become a Christian and so I didn’t really have a firm grasp of what I believed. As I lay there, I began to imagine what my life would be like if there was no ME. In other words, could I consciously imagine the world without me in it because in my existence there was no life after death? (ah the imaginations of youth) What if there was no God, no Christ, no heaven, no eternity, only dirt? What if I was completely wiped away forever? The thought became so horrifying that I quickly decided to go back to counting sheep.

And it is a horrifying thought for so many of us. Even noted atheist Christopher Hitchens has pronounced a “prebuttal” against any death-bed conversions. He writes:

As a terrified, half-aware imbecile, I might even scream for a priest at the close of business, though I hereby state while I am still lucid that the entity thus humiliating itself would not in fact be ‘me.’” Why does Mr. Hitchens write this prebuttal? Because even he realizes that when faced with the actual horror of death itself, where death and God and faith is no mere abstraction any more, it is quite possible for even a zealous atheist to recognize that there is a God.

Anyone who has faced tragedy, suffering, death always wrestles with death’s reality, “Is death the end or is there more?” Perhaps you don’t think about life after death because you simply do not think of death that often or you don’t want to think about death. Everyone will face death. But for Christians because of this day, Easter Sunday, we believe that death is never to be feared because there is not just life after death, but a wondrous, breathtaking life that this world cannot compare with.

So I am very thankful for this question from the religious elites regardless of their motives because their question teaches us 1) life in view of death (v. 27), 2) marriage in view of death (vv. 28-35), 3) death in view of eternal life (vv. 34-40), and that there truly is a day when there will be no more death.

Life In View of Death (v. 27)

So first let’s look at life in view of death in verse 27: “There came to him some Sadducees, those who deny that there is a resurrection.” This is the first time we are introduced to the Sadducees in Luke. The Sadducees were part of the Sanhedrin, the Jewish religious ruling body. However, unlike the Pharisees, the Sadducees were an aristocratic body, a people of wealth, power, and influence. In other words, they had everything going for them in this life. And so they were very pro-Roman government (or at the very least, pro-status quo)(ISBE, Vol. 4, 280-281). And so they argued for appeasement and accommodation with the Roman government, which of course riled up the Pharisees. They didn’t have the ambitions for a king coming to throw off the oppressive Romans. They also lived very comfortably. They enjoyed the world they lived in. They had no real physical needs. They were comfortable. And so, why should someone who is enjoying life, who has all that they want, even consider life after death? It makes sense why Sadducees didn’t want to think about death at all. And it makes sense why many people in the world don’t like thinking of death at all. Easter is nice as long as it is about Spring, Easter bunnies, fluorescent colors and a gravesite in the morning where flowers are blooming and it doesn’t look like a gravesite.

No one likes thinking about death when everything in life is going so well. But then tsunamis happen. I watched a special on Japan’s earthquake and tsunami and it was terrifying. You could see people hanging from tree limbs as water rushed by. The saddest part of all, you got the sense that no one was going to come and rescue them off that tree. Either they hung on for hours or they would be washed away. Also dreaded diseases happen or car accidents or falls down a ladder or heart attacks happen. Life goes so well for us until something happens.

And for these Sadducees, everything was going well until a 33-year old carpenter in raggedy clothing showed up. This man knew more about life even as he approached his death than any of these men ever could imagine. And this man was a continual threat to their way of life because He always spoke of the world in the context of eternity. You see, the Sadducees denied a resurrection because they liked what they had but also because they failed to see that one day, they would have nothing at all and even that thought would have terrified them. Leo Tolstoy’s The Confession, the Russian novelist considered this idea and asked this question at age 50 which brought him to the verge of suicide:

What will come of what I am doing today or tomorrow? What will come of my whole life? Why should I live, why wish for anything, or do anything?” It can also be expressed thus: Is there any meaning in my life that the inevitable death awaiting me does not destroy? (Quoted from Tim Keller, Reason for God, 201.)

There are many things in this world that attempt to inoculate us from thinking these thoughts that Tolstoy considered. The more we buy or drink or acquire or shoot up with or play or travel, the less we will have to consider the inevitable death that awaits us. And for the Sadducees, the more they acquired and attempted to follow the law they saw fit, the less they felt the need to consider what was to come. What about you, are your pursuits and goals and pleasures possibly diversions in order to avoid thinking about the inevitable?

Marriage in View of Death (vv. 28-35)

Second, Jesus leads us to consider marriage in view of death in verses 28-35: “…and they asked him a question, saying, “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies, having a wife but no children, the man must take the widow and raise up offspring for his brother. 29 Now there were seven brothers. The first took a wife, and died without children. 30 And the second 31 and the third took her, and likewise all seven left no children and died. 32 Afterward the woman also died. 33 In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had her as wife.” 34 And Jesus said to them, “The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage, 35 but those who are considered worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage.” The Sadducees question is intended to trap Jesus through the absurdity of the idea of life after death. And what an unlucky woman or truly a black widow who essentially eats men for lunch! It’s actually quite comical and it’s meant to be, a caricature of the resurrection.

But once again, Jesus stymies the questioner with a counterattack that undermines the very premise of the questioner. He first reminds us that there is a stark difference between “this age” and the age to come. In this age (in our world), marriage is a reality. And so the Sadducees make the assumption that since marriage is a regular practice in our age, in fact, one that was created by God and to be looked upon as a blessing, then marriage must also take place in life after death. However, Jesus makes it clear that people who have risen from the dead “neither marry nor are given in marriage.”

You might wonder why there won’t be marriage? And wouldn’t such a thought seem to be contradictory to the promise that life with God eternally is “pleasures evermore”? For those of you who are married, hopefully you think marriage to your spouse is truly the best thing that ever happened to you. When times are good, you cherish him/her and you think nothing could beat what you have together and you couldn’t imagine life apart from one another. But even the sweetest marriage in the world does not satisfy us so deeply that we have endless joy. This is because marriage itself is meant to be a shadow of something far greater. And this is Paul’s point in Ephesians 5:32 when the apostle compares marriage as a type that points to a greater reality, Christ’s love for the church.

Thus, while marriage is a wonderful expression of God’s grace and love, even marriage pales in comparison to the love God has for His people through His Son Jesus Christ. In other words, husbands and wives, or future husbands and wives, think of every great feeling, every expression of love, every delight and desire, every special moment you have had or can think of with your spouse, and Paul reminds us here in Ephesians 5:32 that that is only a foretaste of what is to come. It isn’t that marriage is bad. No, on the contrary, marriage is wonderful. But there is still so much more than even marriage. To long for marriage more than Christ is similar to a husband being satisfied with his wife’s scent on a pillow and carrying that pillow around throughout the house thinking he need not need his wife’s presence anymore. Only in heaven will we begin to see that marriage has prepared us for a joy with the Savior that even marriage could only replicate faintly.

So it doesn’t make sense when we make marriage the end goal of our lives. Does it reflect God’s joy for us? Yes, it absolutely does. But even marriage can become an idol for our hearts, and in this way we worship the created thing (marriage) rather than the Creator.

Death in View of Eternal Life (vv. 34-40)

And so Jesus’ ultimate point is not about the state of marriage in life after death, but rather that life does continue far beyond death which leads us to finally consider death in view of eternal life in verses 34-40: “And Jesus said to them, “The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage, 35 but those who are considered worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage, 36 for they cannot die anymore, because they are equal to angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection. 37 But that the dead are raised, even Moses showed, in the passage about the bush, where he calls the Lord the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. 38 Now he is not God of the dead, but of the living, for all live to him.” 39 Then some of the scribes answered, “Teacher, you have spoken well.” 40 For they no longer dared to ask him any question.”

Verses 34-40 remind us that our worthiness comes solely from Christ alone. We must not overlook His words in verse 35, “…those who are considered worthy to attain to that age.” The word “are considered worthy” is actually in the passive voice, meaning that Jesus is not saying that we gain our worthiness through our own actions, but rather, our worthiness for the next age, for life after death, is given to us. We are counted worthy by another. And the whole Bible speaks to this one reality that we remembered on Good Friday, Christ Jesus, God’s own beloved Son, died for those who are not worthy of His love. And those who trust and believe in Christ are counted worthy to enter the next age not by our own righteousness and good works and success, or even counted unworthy by our sins and failures, but solely on the perfect righteousness of God’s Son. Jesus died sinless and worthy of God’s love and exaltation so that those who were full of sin and unworthy of God’s love at all, would be made worthy and accepted and loved forever and ever. This, my friends, is called grace, God’s love for those who are undeserving of that love. And if you are living your life based on your own worthiness and therefore have ever felt unworthy because of your failures in relationships with others or lack of success in your careers or desiring so much to be accepted by the in-crowd or the popular, then know that Christ has died and rose again take tell you that you are worthy, more than worthy, because of His blood which was shed for you. Or if you believe you are worthy because you look at your life and like the Sadducees everything is going well for you, please know that there will come a day when everything won’t be well, and may you come to see that only Christ will give you a worth and joy that not only exceed anything you have experienced thus far, but it will last for the next age to come, eternity. This is good news and dear friend, it is meant for you and for me!

Verses 34-40 also remind us that death must be viewed through the lens of eternity. The Sadducees had missed the point. Though we learned something about marriage in heaven, we learn something even more grand in verse 36, “They cannot die anymore.” Death is forever vanquished. Can you imagine life without death and its consequences? Think of all of the businesses that would be out of business and the unnecessary items: hospitals, medical insurance, funeral homes, doctors, nurses, needles, pharm, life insurance policies, actuaries, military, etc. In many ways, virtually everything we do is based on life expectancy. We’re in a social security funding crisis because people are only living a couple of decades longer than they used to. Imagine if people lived eternally. How would the government ever pay for social security? To be in a place where people cannot die anymore, that is the greatest treasure of all. This past week, I noticed an unusually long gray hair. Actually, I have been noticing more dark circles, wrinkles, age spots, and gray hair in this year alone than in all of my years combined. Maybe it just shows I’m getting wiser, but it also shows that I am getting older and that eternally speaking, I won’t be here much longer. But that’s not morbid thinking. For the Christian, it’s another reminder that all the joy that I have here on earth is an inkling of what is to come, which not only makes me long for what is to come, but also makes me deeply satisfied and content with what I have.

The promise Jesus gives here on the basis of His work on the cross is that we are sons and daughters of God. We don’t merely get to live forever. We get to be in the family of the Creator of the universe forever. We are not only counted worthy, we are counted as eternal royalty. If you think Prince William and Kate Middleton will have a grand wedding, you haven’t even begun to imagine how grand your entrance as a prince or princess of the Living God will be when you enter into the throneroom of the King of Kings.

Conclusion

I had trouble sleeping that night as a teen because it dawned on me that there might not be life after death. But on this day, we are reminded that there is no more death because a tomb was empty on the outskirts of Jerusalem. This isn’t simply wishful thinking. It’s a historical fact and it should be the greatest news for all the world. If Jesus only died on a cross, he would be nothing more than a cause, a common criminal, or a con. But it is the resurrection that exclaims not only that He is alive but as the Roman centurion exclaimed at the cross, “Truly this man was the Son of God!” Author Greg Gilbert reminds us of what the resurrection of Christ from the dead has accomplished:

If Christ had remained dead like any other ‘savior’ or ‘teacher’ or ‘prophet,’ his death would have meant nothing more than yours and mine. Death’s waves would have closed over him just as they do every other human life, every claim he made would have sunk into nothingness, and humanity would still be without hope of being saved from sin.

But when breath entered his resurrected lungs again, when resurrection life electrified his glorified body, everything Jesus claimed was fully, finally, unquestionably, and irrevocably vindicated.
And Jesus told the Sadducees, “They cannot die.” When you trust in Him, there is no more death ever!

But even if there were no explicit instances of civil disobedience in the Bible we would have to ask some tough questions: Is it morally right to jay walk to stop a rape? Is it morally right to break the speed limit to rush a dying wife to the hospital? Is it right to break into a neighbor’s house to put out a fire—or save a child?

Under what conditions, then, might civil disobedience be morally called for? One could say with the apostle Peter: Obey God rather than man (Acts 5:29). In other words, if the law commands what God forbids or forbids what God commands then you must break the law. But the problem with that simple guideline is that much of the civil disobedience in history has involved doing things that are not clearly commanded by God. Sitting down on the sidewalk in front an abortion clinic in 1989 was not explicitly commanded by God in the Bible. Eating in a white-only restaurant in St. Augustine, Florida in 1964, and marching and praying in Montgomery, Alabama in 1965 were not commanded explicitly in the Bible.

In other words, some Christians have come to the point in history where they believed laws were so unjust and so evil, and political means of change had been frustrated so long, that peaceful, non-violent, civil disobedience seemed right. What factors should we take into consideration to decide if we should do that kind of civil disobedience? It seems to me that it would be a combination of at least these four things:

1. The grievousness of the action sanctioned by law. How atrocious is it? Is it a traffic pattern that you think is dumb? Or is the law sanctioning killing?

2. The extent of the unjust law’s effect. Is it a person affected here or there? Or is it millions? Does the law have an incidental inconsistency? Or is it putting a whole group of people into bondage because of their ethnic origin?

3. The potential of civil disobedience for clear and effective witness to the truth. This is the question of strategy, and there will certainly be room here for differing judgments about whether a particular act of civil disobedience will be a clear and effective statement of what is just.

4. The movement of the spirit of courage and conviction in God in people’s lives that indicates the time is right. Historically, there appears to be a flash point of moral indignation. An evil exists for years, or perhaps generations, and then something strange happens. One person, and then tens of thousands of people, can no longer just get up and go to work and say, “I wish it weren’t this way.” A flash point is reached, and what had hung in the air for years as tolerable evil explodes with an overwhelming sense that this state of affairs simply can no longer be!

So if and when that time comes, how should civil disobedience be carried out? What should it look like?

Non-Resistance and Active Love for Your Enemy

Let’s look at the demands of love in Matthew 5:38-48. These are tough paragraphs about non-resistance and active love for your enemy. First, Jesus says:

You have heard that it was said, “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.” But I say to you, Do not resist one who is evil. But if any one strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also; and if any one forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to him who asks from you, and do not refuse him who would borrow from you. (vv. 38-42)

All of those verses are intended to show compliance to one who mistreats you or asks you for something. This looks like the opposite of resistance. Now here comes something a little different in verses 43-48: active love rather than non-resistance.

You have heard that it was said, “You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.” But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. . . .You, therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. (vv. 43-48)

Here a different note is struck. The emphasis falls on seeking the good of the enemy. Love your enemy. Pray for your enemy—presumably that he would be saved and find hope and life in Christ. Do good to your enemy the way God does with rain and sunshine.

So in verses 38-42 the note of compliance is struck (don’t resist, turn the other cheek, go the extra mile). But in verses 43-48 Jesus strikes the note of positive actions for the good of your enemies with a view to their blessing.

Now this raises the question whether the non-resistance and compliance of verses 38-42 is always the best way to love others and do them good as in verses 43-48. One focuses on passivity—don’t retaliate, be willing to suffer unjustly. The other focuses on activity—seek to do good for your enemy. Is passivity always the best way to do good?

The answer becomes more clear when we realize that in most situations of injustice or persecution we are not the only person being hurt. For example, how do you love two other people if one the criminal and the other is the victim—if one is hurting and the other is being hurt? Is love passive when it is not just your cheek that is being smacked but someone else’s—and repeatedly?

Or what about the command to give to the one who asks. Is it love to give your coat to a person who will use it to strangle an infant? And how do you go the extra mile (lovingly!) with a person who is taking you along to support his bloodshed? Do you go the extra mile with a person who is making you an active accomplice to his evil?

The point of these questions is this: In these verses Jesus is giving us a description of love that cuts to the depth of our selfishness and fear. If selfishness and fear keep us from giving and going the extra mile, then we need to be broken by these words. But Jesus is not saying that passive compliance in situations of injustice is the only form of love. It can be a form of cowardice.

When love weighs the claims of justice and mercy among all the people involved, there can come a moment, a flash point, when love may go beyond passive, compliant non-resistance and drive the money changers from the Temple (Mark 11:15).

Guidelines for How Christians Should Engage in Civil Disobedience

What guidelines are there, then, for how a Christian will perform civil disobedience?

The words of Jesus rule out all vindictiveness and all action based on the mere expediency of personal safety. The Lord cuts away our love for possessions, and our love for convenience. That’s the point of Matthew 5:38-42. Don’t act merely out of concern for your own private benefit, your clothes, your convenience, your possessions, your safety.

Instead, by trusting Christ, become the kind of person who is utterly free from these things to live for others (both the oppressed and the oppressors; both the persecuted and the persecutors; both the dying children and the killing abortionists). The tone and demeanor of this Christian civil disobedience will be the opposite of strident, belligerent, rock-throwing, screaming, swearing, violent demonstrations.

We are people of the cross. Our Lord submitted to crucifixion willingly to save his enemies. We owe our eternal life to him. We are forgiven sinners. This takes the swagger out of our protest. It takes the arrogance out of our resistance. And if, after every other means has failed, we must disobey for the sake of love and justice, we will first remove the log from our own eye, which will cause enough pain and tears to soften our indignation into a humble, quiet, but unshakeable, NO. The greatest battle we face is not overcoming unjust laws, but becoming this kind of people.

The reality with civil disobedience is that there will almost always be a cost.  Jesus said that we are to take up the cross daily and follow Him (Luke 9:23).  And the cross is certainly a great cost to bear.  So when we decide to disobey the law because we are more concerned about God’s law, we could face economic, social, and even physical reprisal.  You can go to Voice of the Martyrs or read Randy Alcorn’s website, both of which tell stories of the great cost of following God over the state.

Introduction
People are often prone to exaggeration, especially when they do not have historical perspective. For example, far too many people in the U.S. believe Christians have endured more suffering here from respective presidents, policies, and government (regardless of which party one belongs to) they bring in, than those of previous generations. But of course, this certainly is not the case.

Since Jesus uttered these words in John 15:18: “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you,” there has been no letup in persecution for Christians. Christians have suffered horribly for the gospel in many different times and places. Under the crazed Roman Emperor Diocletian, Peter Leithart in his book Defending Constantine, gives this account of his persecution of Christians (this will be graphic):

After the palace fire, Christians in Nicomedia “perished wholesale and in heaps, some butchered with the sword, other fulfilled by fire.” Some Christians were so eager to share in martyrdom that they leaped into the flames. Some were tied up, placed in boats, and thrust out from the beach. A Christian named Peter refused to comply with the order to sacrifice. Soldiers stripped him, hoisted him naked, and whipped him until his body was a bloody pulp, his bones sticking through the flesh and skin. Still he refused to sacrifice. The soldiers brought vinegar and salt from the mess and poured it over his wounds. Finding raw meat unappetizing, even when spiced up they decided to cook him, slowly roasting parts of his body while trying to keep him alive. He was still refusing to sacrifice when he died.

Such persecution has continued throughout history, often as a means of cruel government oppression. So how should Christians respond to a situation when a repressive government attacks people who want to worship Christ? How should Christians living in the US respond to public policies that seem to contradict what we believe is the morality of Scripture? Is there ever a place for Christian involvement in the public square? What about Christian forms of protests, non-violent or even violent? Do these have any standing before the test of the Bible?

I don’t believe one message can answer all of these questions comprehensively. But I do believe Jesus’ response to the question, “Is it lawful for us to give tribute to Caesar, or not?” in Luke 20:22 does provide a critical framework to answer these questions. Therefore, I’d like to look at two aspects of this text: 1) The context in the form of the trap set out for Jesus in verses 19-22 and Jesus’ statement of rendering to Caesar what is Caesar’s and God what is God’s in verses 23-25.

Context: The Trap (vv. 19-22)

So first, let’s look at the context in verses 19-20: “The scribes and the chief priests sought to lay hands on him at that very hour, for they perceived that he had told this parable against them, but they feared the people. 20 So they watched him and sent spies, who pretended to be sincere, that they might catch him in something he said, so as to deliver him up to the authority and jurisdiction of the governor.” Remember, Jesus had just completed his parable of the tenants, where the religious leadership clearly knew that he was speaking about them and condemning their hypocrisy. And if you have been with us, you know that this was not the first time Jesus was confronting the Pharisees. It wasn’t only that the Pharisees hated Jesus, they also wanted to do whatever it took to get rid of him.

In fact, they hated him so much that they plotted with the Herodians to dispose of him. Who were the Herodians? They were those Jews who supported the dynasty of Herod, and believed Herod’s mediation between the Romans and the Jewish state was a sufficient recourse for the Jews at this time. The Pharisees saw the Herodians as compromisers and traitors. They couldn’t stand the fact that these people were essentially collaborating with the hated Romans. And yet, listen to Matthew’s account of this event regarding the taxes in Matthew 22:16: “And they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians…” This should tell you how much the Pharisees despised Jesus. They were willing to even work with the dreaded Herodians in order to get rid of the even more hated Jesus.

They were also watching Jesus like a paparazzi photographer staking out a celebrity’s home, waiting for any slipup. The word ‘watched’ is used three other times in the gospels (Mark 3:2); Luke 6:7; 14:1) and each time it refers to this watching for the sake of entrapment. But unlike other times where the Pharisees were in the forefront, they decide to use a new tactic and get “spies” to do their dirty work because “they feared the people.” As usual, they wanted the dirty deed done, but they wanted to make sure they didn’t look like the bad guy in the process because they knew Jesus was popular.

So they sent spies who begin their questioning in verses 21-22: “Teacher, we know that you speak and teach rightly, and show no partiality, but truly teach the way of God. 22 Is it lawful for us to give tribute to Caesar, or not?” Their words are completely true and yet, they don’t mean one word of it. And so the trap is set and the snare was the dreaded tribute collected by the Roman government. Every man living under the Romans was required to pay this tax, not only as a means of supporting the infrastructure of the government, but also as a symbol of the mere fact that the Romans could do this, that they were in power and sovereign even over land that every Jew believed was rightfully theirs.

Jesus was cornered into a situation where he would be damned if he did and damned if he didn’t. If Jesus stated that the tax needed to be paid, then the Jewish leadership could argue that Jesus was nothing more than a collaborator and surely not the Messiah. If he stated that it need not be paid, then it would put him in hot water with the Roman government and could even cost him his life. But as verse 18 reminds us, Jesus knew their hearts far better than they realized when Luke says: “But Jesus, aware of their malice….”

Render to Caesar and to God (vv. 23-29)

Which leads us to Jesus’ response to their question in verses 24-25: “Show me a denarius. Whose likeness and inscription does it have?” They said, “Caesar’s.” 25 He said to them, “Then render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s.” The people who were around Jesus knew that He was a teacher who taught with an authority they had never heard before. I am sure everyone was wondering how this master teacher would respond, and sure enough, he did not disappoint. He first asked for a denarius which would have been used to pay the tax. The coin itself undermined the Pharisees argument. On the coin was the image of Caesar with the inscription, “Tiberius Caesar, son of the divine Augustus, Augustus.” On the reverse side would have been an image of his mother Livia portrayed as a goddess. Clearly, this image would have been detestable for the Jews not only because it was a regular reminder of Roman rule over their daily lives, but it also lifted up Caesar as not only king, but a god in violation of the second commandment regarding graven images.

And yet, despite their supposed disgust with this image, it was the religious leadership who not only regularly traded in this silver (the denarius was about 3.8 grams of silver), but loved it so very much. Luke observed this reality in Luke 16:14: “The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all these things, and they ridiculed him.” The word for money in this verse is actually silver. They loved the silver coin even though they hated the inscription. Do you see the hypocrisy? Remember Luke 12:42, “But woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and every herb, and neglect justice and the love of God. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others.” Hypocrites have a selective view in their obedience to God. They pick and choose what they want to obey when it best suits them. This should be every reason why grace is infused in our lives, because it is so easy to accuse someone of something when we ourselves can easily be guilty of the same wrong. Being upset when a person is late for an appointment doesn’t work to our advantage when we’re late and need a little grace. Anger over someone who accidentally bumps his shopping cart into you at Safeway won’t help us when we do the same at Costco and demand forgiveness. And for the Pharisees and their cronies, their attempt to “get Jesus” with the very things they themselves struggle with (a love of money and their zealous righteousness over Caesar’s rule) is the hypocrisy of hypocrisy’s.

So Jesus, knowing full well their hypocritical, malicious hearts, deftly asks for the denarius to condemn them with their own words, asking whose inscription is on the coin. And then He responds with the first phrase, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s.” Now what does Jesus mean by this? The word “render” is really the word “pay pack what you owe.” In other words, Jesus tells the Pharisees and all around that since the inscription bears Caesar’s likeness, they must pay him what is already his, this money. This is an important statement for Christians regarding our view of government. Jesus assumes that governmental authority has its place, even in the collection and utilization of taxes. There are some outlier Christian groups who do not believe it is biblical for the government to collect taxes. But I don’t see how anyone can come to that conclusion after reading this text.

Furthermore, submission to the government (regarding taxes or other things) is not dependent on a government’s justice or morality. When Jesus says render to Caesar what Is Caesar’s, he doesn’t give the qualification, “Unless Caesar enacts unbiblical or ungodly laws.” And Rome was in no way a moral, upright government. Paul essentially exposited Jesus’ words here in writing Romans 13:1-2: “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. 2 Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment.” Christians are not anacharists and we are not libertarians, at least in its purist form. We believe there is a place for government. And we believe this to be grounded on the second part of Romans 13:1: “For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.” Every government is under the sovereign hand of God. And though sometimes it seems as though evil reigns more than God’s goodness under certain regimes, we must never forget that God’s purposes and plans not just for individual people, but for nations is always enacted.

I almost wanted to name this message, “God’s Laughter” because of Psalm 2:1-6 which says: “Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? 2 The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and against his Anointed, saying, 3 “Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.” 4 He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision. 5 Then he will speak to them in his wrath, and terrify them in his fury, saying, 6 “As for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill.” How many dictators and emperors and despots and comrades have severely persecuted God’s people, reigning with a sense of evil invulnerability, only to eventually hear God’s scoffing laughter? Every evil ruler will eventually be terrified by God’s King, Christ as Judge, and no military or Praetorian Guard or secret service will be able to protect him from this judgment.

Therefore, Jesus and Paul remind us that Christians can and should submit to rulers because ultimately rulers will submit to God. For example, while I believe abortion is murder and a sin against God, I also believe shooting an abortion doctor is also a sin against God not just because of murder, but because of Luke 20 and Romans 13. This is not to say that we shouldn’t be actively involved in caring for women who are considering abortion (like VPC) and perhaps even engaging in peaceful protests of abortion clinics or at the National Mall in DC. But to take matters into our own hands assumes that governmental authority (even evil governmental authority) will not be held in account before God and in this way, we have usurped God’s role as Judge and Vindicator.

Rendering to Caesar the things of Caesar should mean we respect our leaders and even pray for them, especially if we don’t agree with them politically or morally. Tim Keller tells the story of his mother who used to say to him, “There was a time when even if the president you voted for lost, he was still your president.” But today there seems to be this idea that when we dislike a president for whatever reason, he is not my president, but someone else’s president. And so we think of all sorts of different ways to demean our leaders with such hateful language, which simply is not what Jesus or Paul tells us in the Bible. I might not agree with a particular president or party’s policies, but that does not mean I have license to disregard Jesus’ call for Christians to even love enemies and pray for those who persecute you. The rest of the bible also has many examples of people who submitted to earthly governments, even when they were unjust. Joseph was unjustly thrown into an Egyptian prison by an unjust system of government. And yet, he never called for rebellion. Jeremiah preached to the exiles of Judah that they should live and pray for and prosper in the incredibly godless empire of Babylon, where they were being brought as slaves and captives after seeing many of their relatives slaughtered before their very eyes. And yet, nowhere does God tell the Israelites to work for the overthrow of their respective evil governments. Quite the contrary, we continually see how God works through even the most evil nations to fulfill His greatest of purposes, to eternally save people from their own rebellion and sin against Him.

In this way, Christians should be the most confident of people, even in the throes of evil governments. Christians should be a prayerful people for government authorities, presidents, leadership, even when they work against God Himself. Last week, I believe Thomas shared about the Chinese house churches. Well, my friend sent this email to me:

After one of the Pastors, Pastor X was released from police custody, he has been under house arrest since 5pm of Wed. While under custody, Pastor X was tortured. The government continues to show its strength through torture, detaining the leadership at their homes and intimidating the church members. Church members have lost their jobs because the police have pressured their bosses, others have been kicked out of their homes by their landlords again due to pressure from the authorities…

I received this latest email: Urgent! Senior pastor T was just brought into the H police station. Pastor L was also brought to his local police. The rest of the elders and pastors are all under house arrest. Situation similar with last Sunday but worse! The church seems to be losing its leadership. Please keep praying! Around 8pm EST tonight is when the confrontation will take place. Last Sunday over 2,800 Beijing police and security agents were mobilized. In a few hours, it will be much worse. From one who just got detained and brought under home arrest: “Our heart inside is peace. May God help us in His mighty power!”

How can these saints have peace facing repressive governmental authority? You can only respond to persecution this way if you believe God is truly sovereign over both those that are good and those that are evil. And Christians should have peace even when things are spinning out of control no matter who we support, no matter what the results are of elections or laws. If we are always fretting about whether this country is going down the tubes, whether our leadership is skillful or incompetent, then we really have failed to understand just who ultimately is in control.

Application

So how should we our lives and government in view of Scripture? May I give three suggestions?

1. Personal Peace

Again, Christians should be at peace no matter who is in power or how bad the circumstances become. Peter wrote to a suffering church in 1 Peter 2:13-16: “Be subject for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, 14 or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good. 15 For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. 16 Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God.” It has been thought that Peter wrote this letter not much earlier than his own execution. What’s startling is that he wrote these words to a church that was being persecuted by Nero, one of the cruelest and most evil emperors of the Roman Empire. He unjustly accused Christians for the burning of Rome, when it is thought that he himself was the cause of the fire. The Roman emperor Tacitus described some of Nero’s persecution:

Before killing the Christians, Nero used them to amuse the people. Some were dressed in furs, to be killed by dogs. Others were crucified. Still others were set on fire early in the night, so that they might illuminate it. Nero opened his own gardens for these shows, and in the circus he himself became a spectacle, for he mingled with the people dressed as a charioteer, or he rode around in his chariot. All of this aroused the mercy of the people, even against these culprits who deserved an exemplary punishment, for it was clear that they were not being destroyed for the common good, but rather to satisfy the cruelty of one person.(Justo L. Gonzalez, The Story of Christianity, Volume I: The Early Church to the Reformation, (New York: HarperCollins, 2010), 45-46.)

How could Peter speak about living free when the church was anything but free? Only if you can so deeply understand that freedom is not founded by the Bill of Rights or a ruler who is fair and just, but instead by a God who gave Himself up for us so that we would be eternally free from our sins forever. Only when this is so real to you, only then can you have peace when there is no peace. But as Peter reminds us, when we do good for an unjust people, or ruler, or government, only then will we live as those of God and only then can the evil of even someone like Nero be overcome.

2. Submission to Authority

We must render to Caesar those things that are Caesars. We owe the government what it alone controls. We must pay taxes, even if those taxes are used for something we don’t believe in (like Planned Parenthood or a war we don’t believe is right). We owe the government our time by taking the time to vote or serve on jury duty (which I know some of you have done). We submit to the government our law-keeping, because as Paul reminds us in Romans 13:1-2: “For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. 2 Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment.” And so we abide by the law because God has appointed our rulers who make the law.

3. Civil Disobedience

We must always remember who is the author of all government, God, not human beings. According to Romans 13:4, government was created for “your good.” And without government (anarchy or radical libertarianism), there would be unleashed evil. So before we go around hating who is in power, we must be thankful to the Lord that He even allows us to have someone in power. Some of you know about Juarez, Mexico now known as the “Murder Capital of the World.” A war against drugs in that border town has unleashed havoc. The town is essentially run by gangs with government playing a minimal role. The military is trying to take back the town but now there is only chaos. Last year there were 3,111 murders which is more than 9/11. 95% of the murders there are not investigated. This is only a small taste of a government-less society. Even Jesus, when standing before Pilate, told him that He was a King but not a King of this world. In other words, Pilate was trying to see if Jesus claiming to be an earthly king to overthrow the current regime. But as he did before the spies regarding taxes, Jesus willingly submits to the rule of the authorities, even if it should lead to cost of his own life.

BUT there are instances where the Bible reminds us of Christians who disobey the government. In Acts 5:27-29, Peter and John are told to stop preaching about Christ, and they respond to the high priest: “We must obey God rather than men.” Daniel 6:6-10 recounts Daniel’s blatant disregard of the king’s law to only pray to the king. And so with his windows wide opened for all to see he continued to pray to God. In Daniel 3:9-18 Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego refused to bow down before the king’s image and was tossed into the furnace. And there are other instances of civil disobedience in the Bible as well. There are times when government and civil laws must be disobeyed or we face disobeying God.

As he drew near to Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging. 36 And hearing a crowd going by, he inquired what this meant. 37 They told him, “Jesus of Nazareth is passing by.” 38 And he cried out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” 39 And those who were in front rebuked him, telling him to be silent. But he cried out all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” 40 And Jesus stopped and commanded him to be brought to him. And when he came near, he asked him, 41 “What do you want me to do for you?” He said, “Lord, let me recover my sight.” 42 And Jesus said to him, “Recover your sight; your faith has made you well.” 43 And immediately he recovered his sight and followed him, glorifying God. And all the people, when they saw it, gave praise to God.
Luke 18:35-43

Introduction

Some of you might know Fanny Crosby, the prolific Christian hymnwriter. She had written over 8000 poems, many of which were put to music. Her songs like “Blessed Assurance” and “I Am Thine O Lord” are still sung in churches around the world. Well, though we know Fanny through her music, her life is just as melodious as her songs. You see, when Fanny was 6 weeks old, she caught a cold in her eyes. The family doctor was out of town so another doctor was called in to see her. He prescribed mustard plaster, or mustard seeded powder, that was often used for medicinal purposes, to spread on her eyes. From that day forward, Fanny would be blind for the rest of her life. But though she was blind, Fanny never believed that her blindness was a disability. At age 8, she wrote her first recorded poem:

O what a happy soul am I!
Although I cannot see,
I am resolved that in this world,
Contented I will be.
How many blessings I enjoy.
That other people don’t
To weep and sigh because I’m blind,
I cannot and I won’t!

Wisdom from the mouths of babes! Fanny would not let self-pity control her life. She trusted God’s good and sovereign will in the midst of her suffering. And what she was most thankful for was that her blindness helped her to see Jesus in a way that she could not with her eyes. She realized that she depended on Christ above all else. And so when she was asked about her blindness and whether she had any regrets or resentment about it, she said:

It seemed intended by the blessed providence of God that I should be blind all my life, and I thank him for the dispensation. If perfect earthly sight were offered me tomorrow I would not accept it. I might not have sung hymns to the praise of God if I had been distracted by the beautiful and interesting things about me.

If I had a choice, I would still choose to remain blind…for when I die, the first face I will ever see will be the face of my blessed Savior.

Fanny’s story is very similar to our story in Luke 18:35-43. Luke also describes a blind person who is absolutely desperate, with no hope. But that hopelessness does not consume the man. Instead, it causes him to cry out, to trust, to look beyond himself for help. And from this blind man’s story, like Fanny’s story, we are able to take away some very important lessons that will help us in our life of faith.

The Need for Mercy (v. 35-38)

The first lesson the blind man teaches us is our need for mercy in verses 35-38. Let’s read this again: “As he drew near to Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging. 36 And hearing a crowd going by, he inquired what this meant. 37 They told him, “Jesus of Nazareth is passing by.” 38 And he cried out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” Once again, to understand the full breadth of this story, we have to go to the context of chapter 18. In 18:1-8, we have the parable of the poor, desperate woman who is persistent in her cries for justice. In 18:9-14, Jesus tells the story of the self-righteous Pharisee’s prayer pitted against the ‘sinful’ tax-collector’s simple prayer for mercy. In 18:15-17, people are bringing infants for Jesus to touch, representing the necessity of our absolute dependency on Christ. And then in 18:18-34, we see the story of the rich young ruler, morally and religiously confident, unwilling to let go of the one thing that was keeping him from truly following Christ. So thus far there is this continual contrast between those who are dependent and those who are independent, those who have need and those who need nothing, those who have nothing to offer God and those who believe they have everything to offer God. In many ways, we are seeing the parable of the Pharisee and tax collector being played out in real time. The rich young ruler’s heart is quite similar to the Pharisee’s heart. And similarly, the tax collector is being lived out by this blind beggar, and as you’ll see next week also by this Zacchaeus, a true to life tax collector.

So the stage has been set by the master story teller, Dr. Luke. As Jesus is making his way towards Jerusalem, he stops in Jericho which is about 18 miles east of the city. Jericho is also a major tax collection center which is why next week he bumps into Zacchaeus and his friends. Jericho is a hustling and bustling place where money is being changed and the markets are filled with transactions. And in the midst of it all is this blind beggar, begging probably on the road from Jericho to Jerusalem since this would have been a well-traveled road, desperately cries out to Jesus.

We don’t know much about the beggar’s background. We don’t know whether he was blinded at birth like Fanny Crosby or blinded recently. But we can infer the man was desperately poor since he is begging on the side of the road. We also can infer that he has no family to care for him or he would not be begging. This would also mean he would be lacking in most physical necessities for life: food, clothing, shelter. And then of course, he was blind. I recently pulled out of strip mall and as I was coming to the street, three blind people along with a helper were crossing the street. I stopped to make sure that the three people with their canes had plenty of leeway to cross, all the while thinking of how hard their lives must be. But as difficult as their lives are, how much more a blind person in Jesus’ day. There was no such thing as braille, or ADA laws, or even many people who had compassion towards the blind. It’s one thing to be a beggar. It’s another thing to be blind and a beggar. This man couldn’t see people’s faces, or the roads he traveled, or the food he ate, or the color of the sky, or the clothing he wore. And no one was there to help him at all. He was as desperate as a poor person could be in Jesus’ day.

He realized he needed the help of another to survive. There was just no other way he could get on with life. And so He cried out to Jesus for mercy. Remember, mercy is granted from one more powerful to one who has no power at all. In other words, only the helpless need mercy. And for this blind beggar, he was in this place, a place without mercy.

Now I know, we don’t like to consider ourselves as people in need of mercy. Sure blind beggars, criminals on death row, the homeless, they need mercy. But not us, we don’t need it. We might think we have much to offer the world. Maybe we might believe we have our moral goodness. Like the Pharisee, we might be saying, “Thank God I’m not like that ____.” Think of how this might be phrased. We might think to ourselves, “Lord, I’m pretty good as a person. At least I’m not like the person on the news who has kidnapped that little girl, the classmate who is high on drugs, the overbearing mother who is outright mean to her kids, the self-absorbed celebrity who is full of himself.” Our moral goodness keeps us from recognizing that we need mercy. Or maybe it’s the pride we have over our superiority in intellect, or social standing, or commandment-keeping. We cannot come to the place to believe we are in as much need of God’s mercy as this blind beggar.

Hymnwriter Isaac Watts wrote the famous hymn, “Alas and Did My Savior Bleed.” In the first verse he wrote:

ALAS! and did my Saviour bleed!
And did my Sov’reign die?
Would he devote that sacred Head
For such a Worm as I?

Do you know that many modern hymnals have changed that last line from “Such a worm as I” to “Such sinners as I”? The reason for this change is that today’s Christian can’t think of himself as a worm. We’re too noble, too righteous. We have too much to offer God. A worm is the lowest of the low. A worm is like the blind beggar or the woman calling out for justice or the crooked tax collectors. They need a Savior. But we’re not worms whom the Savior bled for. Do you see how it works? When we fail to really see the depth of our sin, we will always fail to appreciate how good God is and how loving His Son was at the cross.

The Recognition of the Savior (v. 38)

Thus, when we realize we need mercy, only then does the second lesson we learn from the blind beggar come into view, the need to recognize the Savior. Milton Vincent, in his book A Gospel Primer, describes this reality well for us:

The deeper I go into the gospel, the more I comprehend and confess aloud the depth of my sinfulness. A gruesome death like the one that Christ endured for me would only be required for one who is exceedingly sinful and unable to appease a holy God. Consequently, whenever I consider the necessity and manner of His death, along with the love and selflessness behind it, I am laid bare and utterly exposed for the sinner I am.

Such an awareness of my sinfulness does not drag me down, but actually serves to lift me up by magnifying my appreciation of God’s forgiving grace in my life. And the more I appreciate the magnitude of God’s forgiveness of my sins, the more I love Him and delight to show Him love through heart-felt expressions of worship. (Milton Vincent, A Gospel Primer, (Focus Publishing, 2008), 33)

It is our need for mercy that allows us to come to Christ. Without it, we would be like the blind beggar before he met Christ, still reaching about in the darkness, hopelessly lost. But may we come to recognize Christ like the blind beggar does in verse 38 when he cries out: “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” Notice what the crowd says to the man when he inquires what is happening in verses 36-37, “Jesus of Nazareth is passing by.” Jesus was raised in Nazareth. He was a carpenter’s son. That title is not significant at all. It was a description of his humanness, his ordinariness, which is how the crowd viewed Jesus. He was only the carpenter’s son, the kid raised in Nazareth, a place of no significance. But when the beggar cries out to Jesus, he doesn’t say, “Jesus of Nazareth,” but “Jesus, Son of David.” This title is significant because it’s the biblical title of the Messiah. Jesus’ descendency from king David was a sign of his inheritance as the future King, the anointed One, the Savior, the Messiah. No one referred to his connection to David unless one believed he was the Messiah. Now how would this man have known this? He had probably heard stories about Jesus’ teaching and miracles from passersby. And somewhere along the way, he had come to believe that this man was no ordinary man.

You see, it’s not good enough simply to know you are in need of a Savior. You must be willing to see Jesus as the Savior and as Lord. And He refuses to be used as a patron god. Ancient peoples, including the Jews, worshipped God AND other gods to hedge their bets. Just in case the God the Bible fails, let’s make sure we have the fertility gods in the dock. And what were fertility gods? They were the gods who provided comfort, provision, prosperity, no different really than anything that provides those things for us today, our money, our careers, our families. In a sense, every person has a savior. Every person is looking for salvation, something that will save them from the challenges of life. For some, salvation comes in money, alcohol, drugs. For others it’s in a growing career, a happy family, a tidy reputation, a healthy and good-looking body. Jesus tells us to let go of such saviors because they will never truly save anyone. But He can and He will.

Relentless Pursuit (v. 39)

The third lesson the blind beggar teaches us is that we must be relentless in our pursuit of the Savior. Again, verse 39 says: “And those who were in front rebuked him, telling him to be silent. But he cried out all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” The people were sick and tired of hearing this man crying out. And they told him to shut up. But he wouldn’t be stopped. He was relentless in his pursuit and no one would stop him from seeing Jesus.

Now I am not saying that it’s all about his efforts that allowed him to see Jesus. No quite the contrary, it would be on Jesus’ initiative as to whether He would meet Him. But this man was not concerned about who met whom. He would do everything he possibly could out of his desperation to see Christ. He would cry out without any concern of how he looked, what he sounded like, whether it was acceptable or not. And yes, Jesus didn’t have to respond to him. But our God is a merciful God. Acts 2:21 reminds us: “And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” God graciously responds to the cries of his people. But we must be pursuers of Christ out of our love for Him.

Are you like this blind beggar? Do you pursue Christ regardless of the hardships? Do you persist after him even if others tell you to give up? Do you persist in prayer even though circumstantially it might seem “prayer isn’t working”? Do you persist in worshipping Him at your workplace by praying as you usually do for meals or reading Scripture during break times or do the rebukes and pressures of the crowd keep you from your pursuit?

Now you might think, “Why?” Why should you be relentless in your pursuit and possibly face the rebuke and ridicule of others? I have been spending this past month reading Hebrews. And every time I get to Hebrews 11, I can’t help but consider the sufferings of so many Christians listed in Hebrews. Even Abraham gave up his home and almost gave up his only son because he trusted God. The reason they were willing to endure the most challenging of trials rests in texts like Hebrews 11:15-16: “If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. 16 But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.” If you they had focused on the land they came from, they would have returned. If they only had a view of the moment without a view of eternity, living the life of faith would not be worth it. We would always turn from God. But they desired a better country. They believed God and the last thing they wanted was for God to be ashamed of them for he has prepared for them a city. And in this place, He would provide the light, the comfort, the pleasure, the joy, the identity not for a moment, or even a lifetime, but for an eternity. They knew it was better than anything they could obtain in this world, far better. And so they trusted and they pursued even though they were mistreated in every way.

The blind man also, he saw something that the people around him could not see. He could see that Jesus offered a better country. Paul notes in 2 Cor 4:4: “In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” The world cannot see what the blind man saw. And my friends, you can be sitting in church for most of your life, but still have the heart of the Pharisee, unable to truly see that you need a relationship with Jesus more than you need what Jesus can give to you. Like the blind man and all of those people in Hebrews, you need to see that you were made for a better country. And when you realize this, nothing will stop you in your pursuit of him, not your own sin, not the sins of others, not the ridicule and rebuke of others, and not the discomfort of pursuing Christ. Nothing.

Glorifying God (v. 42-43)

The final lesson that the blind beggar teaches us is that when we realize this need for mercy, recognize the Savior, and pursue Him relentlessly, we will want to glorify Him AND others will glorify Him. Look what happens in verses 42-43: “And Jesus said to him, ‘Recover your sight; your faith has made you well.’ And immediately he recovered his sight and followed him, glorifying God. And all the people, when they saw it, gave praise to God.” Jesus healed the man because He truly believed He was the Christ. His faith had made him well. It wasn’t his faith that Jesus could heal that made him well. It was faith that Jesus was the Son of David that made him well. And such faith would have still believed even if he was not made well because he trusted in Christ and not just His power. And the natural response of faith in Christ is a desire to follow Him and glorify God. There is probably no one alive who is written more and spoken more about the glory of God than John Piper. And I love what he writes about God’s glory:

“The glory of God” is a way of saying that there is objective, absolute reality to which all human admiration, wonder, awe, veneration, praise, honor, acclaim, and worship is pointing. We were made to find our deepest pleasure in admiring what is infinitely admirable, that is, the glory of God. The glory of God is not the psychological projection of human longing onto reality. On the contrary, inconsolable human longing is the evidence that we were made for God’s glory.

The blind beggar had nothing. He was desperate and hopeless. And yet, out of that despair, Christ came into his life and showed Him a better country. And He believed. He believed that the Savior of his soul had come. Being freed from his blindness was a wonderful and gracious metaphor of his freedom from spiritual blindness. And how does one respond to such freedom? He can’t help but give glory to God. It is an effusive overflow of a thankful heart. It is the deep fulfillment of one’s longing.

But my friends, the reason we don’t experience this delight in God regularly and this joy found in Christ that this man experienced is that we forget that we have truly been freed. We are free, but bondage to sin can be so overwhelming, so deceiving, that we live like we’re not free. Laura Hillenbrand’s book Unbroken recounts this scene when the POWs in Japan finally were set free after years of torture and despair. American planes had been dropping cratefuls of food to the starving prisoners. One soldier wrote of the event in his diary.

‘Tis about 6pm, and I’m lying here in blissful misery just as all POWs have sat around and dreamed about throughout this internment, in short so full of chow that it’s hard to even breath [sic]…As four year prisoners…there is no such thing as being satisfied after eating. You either don’t have enough, or as we are all now so darn full you’re in misery…There’s just one thing left to say as we bunk down for the night an [sic] that it’s wonderful to be Americans and free men, and it’s a might [sic[ hard job even now to realize we’re free men. (L. Hillenbrand, Unbroken, Kindle edition location 5412-24.)

Even when you’re free it’s a mighty hard job to realize you’re free. It’s hard to believe you’re finally free from your spiritual blindness. We should be shouting for joy and others should see our joy. Jesus said in Matthew 5:16 that when others see our good deeds, our delight in the Savior, they will “give glory to your Father who is in heaven.” That’s what happened to the blind man. When he was set free from his blindness, he knew he was free indeed. And others saw and they too gave glory to God. If others do not glorify God, enjoy Him, delight in Him, when they see us, is it perhaps that we are still not living as one who has been set free? And do we live this way because perhaps we do not want relentlessly pursue this freedom? And are we stopping short in our pursuit because perhaps we don’t really have faith in the Savior? And do we lack faith in the Savior because we really don’t think we need His mercy, His love his rescue? Oh, there are many who are much blinder than this blind beggar.

If we are truly free, we will tell our story to the world, and realize that no one is more beggarly than us. I was reading a testimony about a woman who listened to a message and felt convicted to share the gospel with strippers from the local strip club. Amazingly, it was through her own self-examination of her beggarly heart, did she come to have compassion for women she used to hold with disdain. It is so easy to look at transvestites and crack addicts and panhandlers and prostitutes with nothing but scorn. But the heart that truly knows it needs mercy is a heart of mercy and compassion. The most merciful people are the ones who know they have been shown truly been shown mercy. My friends, we have ALL been shown mercy. Once a blind beggar, we are now set free.

Blindness is terrible. It keeps us from the wonderful. Oh do not be blinded to the love of Christ. Cry out to Him every day. Ask Him for mercy. He delights in giving it to you. Imagine if the blind man just sat by the road and didn’t believe at all. He would have missed his opportunity to meet the Lord who can save not only his sight, but much more, His soul. Don’t let him pass you by today. May you come to see and learn these lessons just like this blind man.

And a ruler asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 19 And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. 20 You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery, Do not murder, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honor your father and mother.’” 21 And he said, “All these I have kept from my youth.” 22 When Jesus heard this, he said to him, “One thing you still lack. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” 23 But when he heard these things, he became very sad, for he was extremely rich. 24 Jesus, seeing that he had become sad, said, “How difficult it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God! 25 For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” 26 Those who heard it said, “Then who can be saved?” 27 But he said, “What is impossible with men is possible with God.” 28 And Peter said, “See, we have left our homes and followed you.” 29 And he said to them, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers [1] or parents or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, 30 who will not receive many times more in this time, and in the age to come eternal life.”

31 And taking the twelve, he said to them, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished. 32 For he will be delivered over to the Gentiles and will be mocked and shamefully treated and spit upon. 33 And after flogging him, they will kill him, and on the third day he will rise.” 34 But they understood none of these things. This saying was hidden from them, and they did not grasp what was said.
Luke 18:18-34

Introduction

If you have been with us these past few weeks, you might have noticed a pattern. Two weeks ago, I spoke from Luke 18:9-14 and the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector. Jesus’ point in that story was that one must come to God with empty hands and heart because nothing one does makes one righteous before God. The tax collector went home justified only because he depended solely on the mercy of God. And then last week, Chris spoke from Luke 18:15-17 and the absolute dependency of a child. After all, is there anyone in this world who is more dependent than an infant to a parent?

Well, this is the context of today’s text. You would have thought this man would have gotten the point. Most likely, the man was there listening. Verse 18 says, “AND a ruler asked him…,” as if verses 18-30 continue into the story. But everything Jesus had said prior to the man’s question resounded with the idea that you cannot come to God with your religion, morality, intellectual prowess, material goods, etc. And yet, here he is saying, “What must I DO to inherit eternal life?” How could he have missed the point by so much? How could he have failed to understand what it takes to be saved? What does it take to be saved then? I’d like to answer this question by first looking at the impediments to salvation in verses 18-23, the road to salvation in verses 24-27, and then the means to salvation in verses 28-34. So first, let’s explore a couple of impediments to salvation in verses 18-25.

The Impediments to Salvation

The first impediment to salvation is religion according to verses 18-23: “And a ruler asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 19 And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. 20 You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery, Do not murder, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honor your father and mother.’” 21 And he said, “All these I have kept from my youth.” 22 When Jesus heard this, he said to him, “One thing you still lack. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” We know from the story that a wealthy, young ruler, probably a community leader, approaches Jesus with this all important question. He addresses Jesus as the ‘Good Teacher,’ and Jesus’ first response is to question his motives by asking, ‘WHY do you call me good?’ For this man, the question about eternal life (salvation) was a philosophical question posed to a popular teacher. Salvation was not meant to have real life application. Eternal life and the end goal of religion were for the purpose of intellectual stimulus and abstract philosophy. Or at the very least, for the rich young ruler, eternal life was a nice religious topic to speak about to a religious teacher.

But Jesus goes straight to his heart and questions his motive for the question. WHY call me good? Jesus proclaims that no one is good except God. And therefore, what matters to God and ultimately to the teacher is not the abstraction of goodness, but one’s response to a good God. And this response is found in keeping the commandments. Notice this list in verse 20 only contains 5 of the commandments, the ones that deal with our relationships with one another. But anyone who knows the Ten Commandments knows that you cannot keep the relational commandments unless you love God first. So essentially, Jesus is stating that he must keep all of the commandments to be good. Remember the tax collector? He didn’t see goodness in himself at all. But the Pharisee believed he kept the commandments. And because he believed he kept the commandments, he felt he could come to God with something to offer Him. And this is where we really get to the first impediment of religion.

The rich young ruler realizes that Jesus doesn’t want mere talk about salvation. He wants proof of one’s salvation. And what better proof is there than his commandment-keeping. In fact, confidently he says, “All these I have kept from my youth.” What a bold statement, you might think. But again, think through the list again. Adultery? Forget about Jesus’ definition of adultery. That’s one you could say, “I have never cheated on my wife.” Murder? “I have never killed anyone.” Steal? I think many can conceivably say they have never stolen anything. Bear false witness? Now that’s a hard one. Who hasn’t lied at least once? But maybe, just maybe, you can keep this too (at least in your own mind). Honor your father and mother? This seems keepable as well. You see, all of these commandments might seem very keepable, especially to the zealously religious amongst us. So it isn’t so far-fetched to imagine with sincerity someone saying that they have kept these since their youth.

But remember what I said about keeping the commandments? The relational commandments are founded on the Godward commandments. And to truly keep all the commandments to be righteous before a perfectly righteous God, one must keep them perfectly. And in the sermon on the Mount, Jesus makes it quite clear that perfect commandment-keeping is keeping the commandments in one’s heart as well as with one’s hands and feet. For example, adultery is not merely physical unfaithfulness, but also an unfaithfulness of the heart and mind. A lustful look is as guilty of adultery as a one night stand. A fit of anger is as murderous as a shot with a gun. The fact is, God demands much more than some obedience. James 2:10 tells us: “For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it.” If a perfectly holy God allowed even one tiny blot of sin to exist with Him, He is no longer perfectly holy. And then He is no longer God. God must have perfect obedience to His Law.

So what do you think Jesus wanted from this man? I wonder what Jesus would have said if after Jesus laid out the commandments, the man had fallen to the ground and said, “I am sorry Lord. I have failed all of these at least some time in my life. In fact, I continue to struggle with them. Will you help me? I can’t do it on my own. I need you.” Would Jesus have chewed him out for being such a failure in disappointing him? Would He have said, “All right you lazy idiot. Get up. Here’s a new program I want you to follow to get better at keeping the commandments. Check the boxes when you’re done and get back to me.” NO! Look at the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector. Look at who enters the kingdom of God, infants and babes. Jesus would have lifted him up and embraced him and told him that he could find ‘rest in him.’ He might have still told the man to sell all that he had, but I would have imagined the man would have been willing to. Or Jesus, might have never asked him to do so, as He never asked other wealthy and powerful people He encountered like Nicodemus or the Roman centurion.

But for this man who came with his religious deeds to offer Jesus but was holding back his heart, Jesus pointed to the second impediment to salvation, his earthly treasures. It was the one thing he still lacked. Look at Jesus’ response in verse 22. He could have said simply, “Follow me.” How do you think he would have taken that? Probably, he would have followed passionately until it became hard. He would have found following Jesus adventurous, exciting, new, fresh. After all, he was now with this renowned itinerant teacher, surrounded by the crowds. It would have been another notch on his religious belt. You see, many want to follow Christ because they think He offers miracles or a dynamic life. Jesus doesn’t say, “Follow me,” first because He knows no one will truly follow Him until they are willing to give up their earthly treasures.

I use the phrase ‘earthly treasure’ intentionally because for some it might not be money. It could be a career path. It could be their children. It could be their prospects for marriage. It could be health. Jesus knows that a person will not follow him as long as any of these treasures are of greater import in one’s life.

And here is the consequence of a person whose heart prioritizes his religious works and his earthly treasures, he walks away sad. He’s disappointed. Why? Because this whole time, he has been pursuing a religion, a philosophy, a program, a methodology, a self-help agenda for joy. And this path will eventually disappoint you. For example, if you are a Christian because it gives you a place to raise your children morally, what happens when something immoral happens in the church? What happens when you see Christians who actually sin by becoming angry and defensive? It no longer becomes that place for moral upbringing. And such a person leaves the church and often times, leaves Christianity. In seminary, I took a class where all we did was go over case study and case study of pastors who have committed all sorts of vile and heinous sins in ministry. When a person pursues religion to save, eventually religion will have no answers for a pastor who is caught having an affair with a congregant or two Christian men slandering one another at a leadership meeting or a group of women isolating another group on the basis of external differences. Eventually such a person walks away sad, looking for other solutions to help him feel better about life because at those point it really doesn’t matter whether people are tithing or fasting or having early morning prayer. Religious works on their own cannot save and cannot lead to happiness.

And that’s when he goes back to the old standby, his earthly treasures. But as we all know, these cannot last either. My son Jack has a security blanket that he had when he was a baby. It used to be his crib bumper and so it was very long. That thing has been dragged around from place to place, and in the process, it has been shredded. And slowly, we have taken the disgusting, old parts and cut them away where it is now to a point where it is now a manageable little blanket. Strangely, he’s still satisfied with it even though it no longer snakes around our house. Our hope is to keep cutting until he has none. You know, when I look at Jack with that blanket, he doesn’t look happy, just secure. But when he misplaces that blanket there is a look of terror in his eyes.

And my friends, this is how we view our treasures, treasures which are often true blessings of God. We work hard to build them up, trusting that they will be there for us. We do all sorts of research to make sure we make wise investments, tracking their growth believing that when it is time to retire, we will be able to depend on them for a life of comfort and security. We work hard at our relationships believing that during times of difficulty, our friends will support us. We treasure moments with loved ones believing that those moments are what give us lasting happiness. We work hard to build relationships with people at church, believing that such relationships will stand the test of time. But of course, as with all things there are seasons of sin where investments fail, friends disappoint you, and sinners reveal their sinfulness in the church.
These treasures are gifts from God. But they were never meant to save us. They’re meant to be used for God’s glory, to make Him famous. And when we do that, when we use all of these gifts as a means to make much of God, we find a strange thing happen. We find joy. We find joy in the fame of another. When my in-laws would go to my girls’ softball games with me, they would find so much joy in watching the kids play and seeing their happiness. You know, the funny thing for me was that I always had mixed emotions. I wanted them to succeed sometimes for their fame, but sometimes it was for mine. I wanted to say, “That’s my daughter.” But of course, the flip side was to put way too much of my identity into their struggles at the plate. And when I watched with my value at stake, it robbed me of my joy in simply wanting their success. My in-laws however, they just watched and smiled. They were happy with their fun, their fame and that’s it. And my friends, when we use all of our gifts, all of our treasures ONLY as a means to glorify God, we are happy in Him. We are satisfied.

But if we find our security, our worth, our salvation in our treasures, they slowly begin to lose their satisfaction. Like a drug addict looking for the next fix, we want the next fix of the next earthly treasure that makes us temporarily happy because the current one doesn’t make us happy at all. And when we don’t find it, we walk away sad, like the rich man.

Jesus knows what we need, what will make us ultimately joyous. It’s Him. And that’s what He offers the man. He offers Himself and that is it. Nothing more, nothing less. He offers an unimpeded relationship with God Himself and for some, they have tragically chosen to believe that that is not enough, like the rich man. The man and those who choose their religion and earthly treasures are like a man stumbling in a desert searching desperately for a drink of water, chasing after a mirage of a stream in the far distance, all the while missing the sparkling, pure unending spring of water of the eternal and living Christ that is right at his feet.

The Road to Salvation: God Alone (vv. 24-30)

So if these are the impediments, who then can be saved? That’s what Peter asks in verse 26. After all, this was not only a rich man, but a ruler. He was an upstanding man of the community. And yet he falls so far short because of his love for his wealth. In verses 24-25, Jesus tells everyone how difficult it is to enter the kingdom becomes of one’s possessions. Again, it is not the possessions themselves, but his heart’s priority towards his possessions. They were his security, his salvation, his life.

But for Peter and the disciples, they look at themselves, poor, uneducated, uncouth from the world’s eyes, really people of no significance. So if this man couldn’t be saved, then surely, they would have no hope. But that is exactly the point. They know they have no hope. The wealthy man’s religious works and his earthily treasures could not save him, but he believed they could. But the disciples’ lack of wealth and social standing did not keep them from salvation because salvation does not come from such things. Salvation assumes a need for help from someone outside of us. The man didn’t need saving because he believed he had saved himself. And my friends, if you are like this man who believes your life can find worth and meaning by what you do, whether it is any religious work that you can think of, or by what you can buy, or by who you know, then be prepared to be swamped over. Trying to save yourself in such a manner is like taking swimming floaties that little kids wear when they can’t swim to face an ocean tsunami created by a 10.0 earthquake. It’s utterly foolish. As Jesus said, salvation is impossible with man, but it is possible with God.

Not only is trying to save yourself foolish, but you are leaving behind a vast treasure. When Peter says in verse 28: “See, we have left our homes and followed you,” Jesus responded with this promise: “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, 30 who will not receive many times more in this time, and in the age to come eternal life.” Whatever you might think you are ‘sacrificing’ by following Christ in this world, you and I have no idea how vast and unfathomable it will be when we come to Him eternally. J. C. Ryle describes ‘many times more’ this way:

The believer shall find in Christ a full equivalent for anything he is obliged to give up for Christ’s sake. He shall find such peace, and hope, and joy, and comfort, and rest, and communion with the Father, and the Son, that his losses shall be more than counterbalanced by his gains. In short, the Lord Jesus Christ shall be more to him than property, or relatives, or friends.

The Means to Salvation: The Cross (v 31-34)

So the reward is worth it. But even if you wanted to leave everything behind, even if you realized that religion and earthly treasures could prevent you from salvation, your desire to be saved for eternal life would still not be enough. We need something far more significant and powerful than our humility and our desire to save us. We need the cross of Christ as the means of our salvation. Jesus says in verses 31-34: “See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished. 32 For he will be delivered over to the Gentiles and will be mocked and shamefully treated and spit upon. 33 And after flogging him, they will kill him, and on the third day he will rise.” There was no getting around the reality that Jesus would have to die this type of death to pay the just penalty of our sins. It would be the sole means by which people could be saved. Sinclair Ferguson describes the effect of the cross for us:

When we think of Christ dying on the cross we are shown the lengths to which God’s love goes in order to win us back to Himself. We would almost think that God loved us more than He loves His son. We cannot measure His love by any other standard. He is saying to us, ‘I love you this much.’ The cross is the heart of the gospel; it makes the gospel good news. Christ died for us; He has stood in our place before God’s judgment seat; He has borne our sins. God had done something on the cross which we could never do for ourselves. But God does something to us as well as for us through the cross. He persuades us that He loves us.

And yet, despite all of this, the disciples ‘understood none of these things.’ They ‘did not grasp what was said.’ They weren’t ready to hear that salvation was outside of themselves. They were still stunned that the rich man and his religion and earthly treasures were not enough. And so Jesus Christ, God the Son, died on a cross to free you and me from sin AND credit us with His perfect righteousness. And He is trying to persuade you that He loves you solely through the means of that cross. So don’t come to Him with anything. Don’t come to Him expecting your religion and morality and personal goodness to save you. Come to him with nothing more than your humility in view of God’s means to save you, the wondrous cross.

I want to close with this story that George Snyman, president of Hands at Work told, when he first visited us that exhibits our response to our salvation:

Went to a house. Worst conditions in his life. Grandmother with 7-8 grandchildren lying all over the place. Sole breadwinner for family couldn’t get up to greet him because he was starving. Grandmother wanted to commit suicide, “I cannot cope anymore.” Chaos. Mud hut. No food. Her children, daughters and sons-in-law were all dead. AIDS destroyed the family. Saw a baby lying naked in the sand. All she had was a green piece of rope which meant she went to a witch doctor. She screamed. Picked her up with one hand. Thought, “You’re a goner. You’re dead. You’re as good as dead.” Had certain soap for scabies and sores, because she was covered in sores. Took her to stream of water and washed her with soap. Washing child for funeral. He saw many people die already and he could tell this baby was dying. Grandmother said, “I cannot cope.” Desperate. He said, “I’ll take baby for a week, so you can have a break.” He knew by taking the baby home, he was taking on something very big. But he didn’t know what to do because if he left the baby there, the grandmother was going to commit suicide. He called Carolyn and she said, “We can take the child.”

They took the child to a doctor specializing with AIDS. She said baby won’t last for more than a few weeks. They decided to take the baby and to give the granny a break and to allow the baby to have a joyous few weeks of life. When they brought the baby home, she screamed constantly. They tried everything to calm her. Every few hours her lung would collapse and they would have to wake her up and help her. The child went one week, two weeks, and then a month. One day, her daughter Samantha, held the baby in the air. The baby was covered with sores. And she kissed the baby on the mouth. George said, “That was not good, because the child has AIDS.” George said, “Sammy, we must look after the child but don’t kiss her like that. You’ve taken a huge risk.” She responded, “You don’t have to kiss her,” and she kissed her again and again. And something in her heart broke.

The child survived. And a year and a half later, a doctor gave her a complete clean bill of health. She caught up with every milestone. They called her Nikiwei, which means ‘Grace.’ And today, she is now a member of the Snyman family, adopted as their daughter.

You and I are like Nikwei. What did she do to be saved? She was a sickly, abandoned little baby. She had no hope. She was utterly desperate. Would crying save her? What about the attempt to save her by the granny, going to the witchdoctor. Nothing anyone did could save her. And yet, when the Synman’s came in, cleaned up her wounds, adopted her as their child, she was saved. Simply out of grace. We too are the Nikwei’s. But instead of costing sleepless hours and constant care, it cost our heavenly Father the life of His Son. How then can we merely come to him with holding onto our religious works and earthly treasures? They can’t save us. Only Christ can save. So come to Jesus who is so worthy of our worship, our praise, our adoration. Leave everything behind and follow Him and you will never be disappointed.

And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. 2 He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. 3 And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’ 4 For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor respect man, 5 yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.’” 6 And the Lord said, “Hear what the unrighteous judge says. 7 And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? 8 I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”
Luke 18:1-8

Introduction

Some of you are like me, a man of extremes. If I want to exercise, I will work out hard for one week straight, all day (ok, one day straight). And then, I begin to peter off, especially once I begin to lose motivation. Before I was married, I didn’t eat any meat for essentially a whole year and worked out virtually every day. That’s what finding the person you want to marry does to you. And then once I was married, I went back to my old ways of eating and lethargy. That’s what laziness does. Or take cleaning and organizing your house. Some of us know that the most efficient way to clean a house is to regularly and consistently clean and organize the house. It means doing the dishes after you eat. It means putting away papers into folders instead of putting them into piles. It means cleaning up after yourself [and others] every day, many times, a day, rather than simply waiting until guests arrive. Do you know what happens when you fail to keep the house clean regularly? It begins to look like a pig sty. You begin to feel as though you’ll never be able to do it. You begin to feel despair. You begin to lose heart. And that feeling is a terrible feeling, a deadly feeling.

Well, if that’s how we feel over things that matter, but matter less than our relationship to our Father in heaven, how much more we ought not to lose heart when we pray. But even though as Luke reminds us the purpose of this parable in verse 1, that we ought always to pray and we must not lose heart, the reality is that we do NOT always pray and we quite frequently lose heart when we pray. I believe Jesus gives this parable to his disciples and to us because He knows that this is exactly what we struggle with. And so, I’d like to look together at why we do not pray and lose heart and why and how we can pray and not lose heart according to this parable. So let’s first consider why we do not pray.

Reasons We Do Not Pray

There are three basic reasons that we do not pray. May I say that I believe the most fundamental reason we do not pray is unbelief? Consider what prayer is. It is communication with the God whom we believe has the power and ability to accomplish for us all that we truly need to know Him. Now if we really believed this to be true, don’t you think we would pray more and be more persistent in prayer? How many times have we prayed for a loved one to trust in Christ, have really committed with all of our heart to do so, but then after one sour conversation with him or one encounter that makes us shake our heads and think, “She’ll never change,” we quickly decide in our hearts that prayer ‘doesn’t work.’ How easy it is to view prayer as our work that doesn’t work, no different than fixing a flat tire or cooking a meal or making bank deposits. And when He doesn’t do the work our way, we are resigned to think God wasn’t up to the task or God had no concern for us at all. That my friends is the heart of unbelief, and it is no different than what the Israelites were like in the desert.

Remember the Israelites? They had escaped from one of the most powerful rulers and armies in the world through miraculous means. They also were God’s chosen people, who were given the Law and the Prophets. They were told the Messiah was going to come. They were led by Moses, a man who was cherished by God. But despite all of these obvious advantages, most could not come to trust God in the midst of life’s circumstances. And so they hardened their hearts. How did they harden their hearts? They complained about what they were to eat and drink. They were overwhelmed by their situation and instead of turning to God, they attempted to figure things out for themselves. They felt sorry for themselves and constantly thought about what they were missing rather than remembering the many blessings they were given and the many answered prayers (such as freedom from captivity). And so God kept them from entering the Promised Land, which is essentially what they wanted because they didn’t believe God was sufficient for them in the first place. And listen to what the Hebrews writer tells us is the cause of this perspective in Hebrews 3:19: “So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.” Unbelief is a failure to trust God in His character and work despite the many ways He has provided for us. And my friends, when we do not pray, we express our unbelief. When we are tempted to worry or feel sorry for ourselves or feel overwhelmed by life’s circumstances, if we don’t pray during such times, we express our unbelief.

Another reason we do not pray is laziness. I have put the sluggard checklist in the bulletin to show you the emphasis Proverbs places on laziness. It is a killer for the Christian and one of the key hindrances of prayer. And if you look at this list, you’ll notice how sleep and laziness is linked together. I can tell you that laziness is one of my hindrances to prayer. I would imagine it’s yours too. We have Saturday morning prayer meetings. They’re sparsely attended. May I venture to guess that sleep probably has something to do with it. It’s not that sleep isn’t important. It certainly is. But it should never prevent us from praying. John MacArthur says this about sleep:

Let me tell you something else: don’t go to sleep when you ought to work–Psalm 132. People say sometimes to me, “Oh, John, you look tired.” Well, I’m almost always tired, and that’s the best way to be because I keep saying to myself, “If I’m tired, I must be doing something,” and that’s very satisfying.

Sometimes, being tired is not the worst thing, especially when the reason we are a bit tired is because we woke up from our sleep to pray.

Another reason we don’t pray is self-reliance. It’s the heart of the first sin and every sin since. Adam and Eve decided in the Garden that they were better off being independent rather than dependent on God. Immediately following their sin of self-sufficiency in Genesis 3:5-6, listen to how they responded in verse 7: “Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.” They could have repented and pleaded with God for mercy. But instead, they took it upon themselves to create their own solution. They sewed fig leaves together which would never cover them physically nor spiritually. Their independence from God would always lead to faulty decisions and eternal consequences. And the rest of the Bible and human history is a continuation of this desire to be sefl-reliant from God and God’s redemption on His people despite their turning from Him. My friends, prayerlessness is a symptom of this self-reliance. It’s the assumption that what we do or think provides more solutions to our problems than depending on God in prayer. We have wrongly thought or believed prayer is inactive saying things like, “Oh, it’s just prayer.” How often we think that when we say, “I’ll pray for you,” we think such a phrase is only a Christian nicety that is no different than saying, “How are you?”

Parable

So if these are the reasons people don’t pray, how do we combat such a heart since so many of us are guilty of this heart? Thankfully, Jesus tells us this parable in Luke 19:1-8 we should always pray and ought not to lose heart in prayer. Let’s look at the story. There is city with an unscrupulous judge who cares nothing for God or people. This judge probably had so much power that he was able to wield his authority without fear or regard of anyone. I remember being in court watching one defendant who was sentenced to a drug charge. The man was so overwhelmed by the power of the judge that he was shaking uncontrollably. Jesus has in mind such a judge. But the point of this description is that the judge had no compassion for the poor or defenseless because he simply didn’t care.

The second character of the story is introduced, a widow. She was most likely poor since widows were often without hope in a society where women were rarely afforded jobs. And so, probably the one thing which would affect the judge’s heart, money, was the one thing the widow did not have. She was also someone who was wronged, most likely unjustly. It was and is not uncommon for the most defenseless to be taken advantage of and so her cry, “Give me justice against my adversary,” was a cry of anguish and pain. The Bible makes it so clear that widows were to be cared for, as Moses writes in Deut 27:19: “Cursed be anyone who perverts the justice due to the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow.’” And yet, this scoundrel of a judge refuses her such justice. And the widow has no recourse, save one, persistence.

She goes to the judge time and time again with the same shout, “Give me justice against my adversary.” Initially, the judge dismissed her cries. Verse 4 tells us, “For a while he refused.” How long was this while? We don’t know. But what we do know was that eventually, the man is talking to himself overwhelmed by the tenacity of this widow. He says to himself, “Though I neither fear God nor respect man.” He doesn’t care about God and he has no concern of this widow regardless of how unjust her situation us. But what causes him to act? “…because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.” The phrase ‘beaten down’ literally means, ‘to give someone a black eye.’ (Darrell Bock, Luke Vol. 2, 1449)  For those of you with young children, you know what persistence can do. It can either drive you bonkers or cause you to give in. Jack is our youngest and when he wants something he will ask with such persistence. He’ll ask for candy a thousand times. He’ll ask if he can play video games so many times that either I have to shut off my brain and let it sound like droning or I’ll quickly give in just to make him stop. Such was the persistence of the widow, the black eye of persistence.

Jesus then says in response to the parable in verses 6-8: “And the Lord said, “Hear what the unrighteous judge says. 7 And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? 8 I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” Jesus’ point is not to state that God is an unjust judge. Rather, it’s to say that if this scoundrel of a judge could be affected by the persistent cries of a widow, how much more would a loving and just God who delights in His people respond to their prayers?

Look at verse 7 again, “And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Who are the elect? They are God’s people, those who trust in Christ. Jesus asks this question almost incredulously as if to say, “Don’t you think the God who is faithful to Himself and His glory would bountifully give to those who He loves who are in need and who are pleading for such help?” Of course He would. Our God loves to give and bless richly. But there is a problem. Verse 8 reminds us of the fundamental reason why people don’t pray, they don’t have faith. They’re prayers are marred by unbelief. And what is the one sure sign of a person’s unbelief in prayer? I think we can infer from this parable in verse 8 that giving up in prayer and prayerlessness is a sign of our unbelief and independence from Him. And it is also a sign of our lack of love for our Father.

Reasons Why We Must Pray and Not Lose Heart in Prayer

So we must pray. We must not lose heart in prayer. And the first reason we must pray and not lose heart in prayer is, and I’d like to draw from the wisdom of John Piper who makes this crucial point regarding the Father and prayer, “God loves to be asked.” Oh how God wants us to call out to Him? Fathers, who amongst you wouldn’t delight to give to give to your child who is in real need, or who is hurting, or who is afraid, or who is lonely? Surely, if we earthly fathers would respond to our children, wouldn’t our Father in heaven who is perfect and loving? The Bible tells us in Proverbs 15:8 that “the prayer of the upright is His delight.” (NASB) In Isaiah 65:6-7, God says, “On your walls, O Jerusalem, I have set watchmen; all the day and all the night they shall never be silent. You who put the LORD in remembrance, take no rest,7 and give him no rest until he establishes Jerusalem and makes it a praise in the earth.” This text is amazing when you see what God tells His people. He says that His people should take no rest in remembering God AND they should ‘give him no rest.’ God delights in His people asking Him for His aid and intervention.

God also delights in responding to us in prayer because He receives glory when He answers us as Psalm 50:15 tells us: “Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me.” You don’t know how critical it is to realize this for yourself in prayer. It battles unbelief. God’s own glory leads him to answer persistent prayer. Has there ever been a time where you were in desperate need and you prayed to the Lord and He answered you? What was your response? I would imagine that you praised Him. Perhaps you let others know about how God delivered you/healed you. Well, don’t you think God wants this glory and desires it? This is God’s nature. He acts for His renown and fame. He also loves to bless His children. And in answering persistent prayer, He does both. In fact, Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 9:7-9 that we are called to give and be a blessing to others because God Himself is such a God to us. God can’t wait for you to pray. He delights in your prayers. He blesses because you pray. He receives glory when you pray. And He is waiting to bless you more than you can ever imagine when and if you pray. And so Paul says in 1 Cor 9:8: “And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.” It is in God’s character to give and bless His children. Only when we believe this and know this deep in our hearts will we pray and not lose heart in prayer.

The second reason we must pray and not lose heart is that Jesus died so that our Father would hear our prayers. Consider Christ. He bore our suffering and shame on the cross so that we would have unimpeded access to the Father in our prayers as Hebrews 10:19 declares: “Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus.” And Paul reminds us in 2 Corinthians 1:20 that in Christ, God’s promises and blessings and answered prayers are ‘Yes’ because of Him: “For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory.” God will not turn you away when you come to Him persistently. If an unjust judge wouldn’t turn away the widow, how much more your heavenly Father wouldn’t turn you away.

Conclusion

So my friends, come to Him in prayer. Persist in prayer because you know He wants to answer you and He has provided every means, in particular His Son’s work on the cross, to answer your prayers. Don’t give up. May I give you some practical helps on prayer as a fellow striver:

Pray in all things at all times

At the end of his section on spiritual warfare in Ephesians 6:18, he says, “…praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints.” Oh how these prayers at all times, when walking down the street into a store, or a car ride where you decide to turn off the radio, or a quiet moment in your cubicle, or as Suzanne Wesley did with her 18 children, with her apron over her head as the kids roamed the kitchen, such regular, small, spontaneous times of prayer and supplications, not just for you, but for the saints, can lead to an outpouring of God’s blessing. I’m not saying this should be the only way we pray. But it is definitely one way we could and should pray.

Pray concentrically

John Piper describes his prayer this way and I thought it was helpful. You begin to pray the inner circle of your own heart with confession and thanksgiving and worship. Then you pray for your family and extended family each by name. Then you pray for the church and its leadership and members. Then you pray for community, world, current events. This list can grow or adapt as people and situations arise.

Pray biblically

Consider praying with your Bible open to the psalms. Use the psalms as a guide to direct your prayers. For example, in Psalm 1:1-2, it says: “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; 2 but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.” You can combine this with the concentric prayers and use them together. Or you can reflect on them from your own heart, seeking to grow in the delight of the law of the Lord, growing in meditation, growing in persistence of prayer and God’s Word.

Pray regularly

The parable rests on this point, God wants to hear our prayers. He delights in your prayers. We have to keep asking again and again. We have to come to Him. Consider setting a time of day to come regularly. Consider having a regular place which can actually help in persistence. Remember, a failure to pray regularly and persistently is a manifestation of our heart of unbelief. Will the Son of Man find such faith on the earth? Will He find such faith in Wellspring?

Pray together

The week of January 24th-28th is our Prayer and Fasting week. Since we began as a church, we devoted one week in January to fasting and prayer, and we are asking again that you consider prayer especially this week. We will be having special morning prayers this week along with evening prayers as well. If you’re interested in hosting a morning or evening prayer this week, please let us know. You can email Jenny at admin@wellspringsg.org. But would you consider joining us in praying together. Luke tells us that the early church was marked by praying together in Luke 4:42-47. Praying together helps us to pray. It reminds us that we’re not alone, that we need a Savior together. It allows other to pray for us and allows us to pray for others. It is in every way a mark of the Body. So would you join us during this week of prayer? Would you consider opening your home for prayer?

Also, would you consider joining us regularly on Saturday morning? I am so thankful to the Lord for Peter and Laura Choi who join us to pray each Sunday. Honestly, they’re faithfulness not only is a blessing to me and Shua, but helps Shua and I to be faithful and regularly in prayer (and there are many days we have been tempted to long for sleep, especially after a long HG evening). But during those times, we have interceded for the sick, for the community, and for the world. And Laura has come to prayer waddling with her soon to come baby. I know in Pleasanton and Richmond they have a few faithful as well who join together in prayer. We don’t need more people to pray. But we want to pray together during such times. And we want regular persistent prayer. We want to be that widow who pleads with the judge until he gives in. We want the Son of Man to find such faith in Wellspring. So please consider joining us regularly in prayer.

Pray with fasting

Lastly, consider prayer and fasting. If you don’t feel strong desires for the manifestations of the glory of God, it is not because you have drunk deeply and are satisfied. It is because you have nibbled so long at the table of the world. Your soul is stuffed with small things, and there is no room for the great. God did not create you for this. There is an appetite for God. And it can be awakened. It creates not merely hunger to food, but hunger for God, a homesickness for where we are meant to be eternally. And so Jesus Himself told all who listened to Him in the plains: “Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you shall be satisfied.” (Luke 6:21) So consider fasting maybe all 5 days, maybe 3 days, maybe dinners. But if you fast, do not simply skip meals. Replace the meals with time spent with God in His Word, in prayer. Fill your mind with Him and you will find your heart afresh with His grace.

Chris F. sent me a question via email regarding verses 24-25 (For as the lightning flashes and lights up the sky from one side to the other, so will the Son of Man be in his day. 25 But first he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation.”) that I thought was insightful.  He observed that the ESV Study Bible notes stated,  ‘as the 2nd coming of Jesus being unmistakably clear to all‘ and asked, ‘it seems to what you were saying was that this clear lightning flash was manifested by Jesus suffering in his first coming through the cross?’”

Here’s my answer to his question: Verses 24-25 refer to both, the work of Christ on the cross as well as His second coming.  I don’t see how one can get away from the context of verse 25.  I realize the ‘but’ in verse 25 seems to give weight to the lightning referring to the second coming.  But the context of the whole text conveys an already-and-not-yet theology (see writers like George Ladd and Sam Storms here and here), which I simply did not cover in this message.  To me, even though verse 25 seems to place the suffering in sequentialorder by using the words ‘but first,’ there is still too much connection between the sign (lightning) and the suffering.  In fact, when Jesus died on the cross, it was followed by an earthquake (Matthew 27:51-54) which pronounced to the world that Jesus was truly the Messiah.

Regarding the ‘Rapture’ in verses 31-37

This is also a topic I did not cover in my message, but felt it would be more appropriate to cover it here for discussion.  Many Christians see verses 31-37 as evidence for a pre-tribulation rapture (Christ sparing the church from the 1000 years of judgment by ‘rapturing’ them up to heaven).  However, there is no reason why verses 31-37 need to refer to a rapture.  In fact, it seems to do so would be unnecessarily reading into the text.  The text reads:

On that day, let the one who is on the housetop, with his goods in the house, not come down to take them away, and likewise let the one who is in the field not turn back. 32 Remember Lot’s wife. 33 Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will keep it. 34 I tell you, in that night there will be two in one bed. One will be taken and the other left.

In these verses, there is no direct reference to Jesus taking one group to heaven and the other left behind for another time of judgment.  Jesus never specifies where each is going.  But given the general context of the text and the examples of Noah and Lot, it is not that one group is saved and the other is left behind to live life, rather, it’s one group saved and the other group immediately judged (like Noah and his family verses the world and Lot and his daughters and the people of Sodom and his wife).  There is no intermediate stage where people are ‘left behind’ to wait for a future judgment.  Hebrews 9:27 reminds us that death leads to immediate judgment and there is no waiting period.  So I would argue that there is no need to view this text as a rapture text.

Being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, he answered them, “The kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed, 21 nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There!’ for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you.”

22 And he said to the disciples, “The days are coming when you will desire to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see it. 23 And they will say to you, ‘Look, there!’ or ‘Look, here!’ Do not go out or follow them. 24 For as the lightning flashes and lights up the sky from one side to the other, so will the Son of Man be in his day. 25 But first he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation. 26 Just as it was in the days of Noah, so will it be in the days of the Son of Man. 27 They were eating and drinking and marrying and being given in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. 28 Likewise, just as it was in the days of Lot—they were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building, 29 but on the day when Lot went out from Sodom, fire and sulfur rained from heaven and destroyed them all— 30 so will it be on the day when the Son of Man is revealed. 31 On that day, let the one who is on the housetop, with his goods in the house, not come down to take them away, and likewise let the one who is in the field not turn back. 32 Remember Lot’s wife. 33 Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will keep it. 34 I tell you, in that night there will be two in one bed. One will be taken and the other left. 35 There will be two women grinding together. One will be taken and the other left.” 37 And they said to him, “Where, Lord?” He said to them, “Where the corpse is, there the vultures will gather.”
Luke 17:20-37

Introduction

Happy New Year! There is no better way to usher in 2011 than to look towards the coming of the King and His Kingdom. I know that the word ‘king’ and ‘kingdom’ might seem anachronistic to us. After all, none of us have been reared in a kingdom. But most of us have read many (children’s) books, seen plenty of TV shows and movies, and have enough of an imagination to understand what a kingdom might be like. A kingdom would have an all-powerful ruler who has the ability to take a life, to enforce totalitarian law, to inherit his throne from his forefathers. And a king would have the power either to wreak havoc or be a blessing to his subjects.

So when the Bible speaks of the kingdom of God, we have to keep in mind that kings and kingdoms rule with an authority far above anything we have ever experienced. And if God were an evil God, then being in God’s kingdom would be nothing but misery and terror. But if God were a perfectly good and loving God, then there would be no system of government and no society better than the one where God is King.

This is what Jesus is addressing in Luke 17:20-32, God’s coming kingdom that would rule the world. The problem, however, was in the type of kingdom. The Pharisees believed this kingdom was one type of kingdom. Jesus believed it was another type of kingdom. And how we view each kingdom is not only crucial to where we will be going, but also, how we can prepare ourselves when we arrive.

Two Kingdoms (v. 20-25)

So first, let’s examine the two kingdoms: the kingdom of God as the Pharisees depicted it to be and the kingdom of God in Christ. The Pharisees’ kingdom of God was an earthly kingdom. Luke records for us the conversation about the Kingdom in verses 20-21: “Being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, he answered them, “The kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed, 21 nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There!’ for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you.”

This kingdom was a kingdom built on political systems and earthly deliverance. You have to understand the day to appreciate what Jesus meant by this statement and why it was so confusing to the disciples. Remember that Jesus lived at a time in Palestine when the Romans ruled the land. The Jews pined for the days of David and Solomon, when the powerful political rulers were also the godly spiritual rulers. But when the heathen Romans had taken over jurisdiction of the land, the people believed a Messiah would come and overthrow the Romans and institute a new theocracy, a new Davidic Kingdom. The Pharisees simply didn’t believe Jesus was the one who would undertake this task. They could imagine him being a prophet looking forward to a Messiah, but Jesus simply didn’t fit the bill of the Messiah. This is why they asked Jesus when the kingdom of God would come, because they couldn’t believe Jesus certainly was it.

The disciples were probably not much different in their views of the kingdom than the Pharisees. Yes, they believed Jesus was the Messiah. But their views of the Messiah were still limited. They believed Jesus would usher in a political system by overthrowing the Romans at best. In other words, they had a preconceived idea of what the kingdom of God should be, when it was going to be enacted, and how it was going to change individuals and the world.

When you think about Christian culture today, you can still see this same idea. Christians still believe that God’s Kingdom is going to be instituted by earthly systems. There is always this push to get as many Christians in political office as possible or to endorse certain candidates. Or when certain laws are passed with Christian values, then Christ’s Kingdom will be inaugurated. But this has never worked. As long as sin taints the world, including the Christian world, there will never be enough laws that will perfectly restrain sin. And laws and governments, while it might change behavior temporarily and outwardly, it cannot change the heart. This is and always will be the problem with seeking Messianic solutions in earthly kingdoms,

Another mistaken earthly kingdom is the kingdom of the self. It’s the idea that the individual has within himself the power to overcome all obstacles and institute final goodness. And so quality education and self-help books and talk shows and eastern mysticism and meditation and exercise and healthy eating grow this kingdom of the self. And so life is a constant striving for more, the belief that we can find fulfillment in something we do that will make our kingdom that much more enjoyable. But this tactic again falls far short. Paul Tripp insightfully comments:

There is woven inside each of us a desire for something more—a craving to be part of something bigger, greater, and more profound than our relatively meaningless day-by-day existence…Perhaps that’s why we get hooked on politics, sports, or a myriad of causes that give us something to fight for. We simply weren’t constructed to live only for ourselves. We were placed on earth to be a part of something bigger than the narrow borders of our own survival and our own little definition of happiness. (Paul Tripp, A Quest for More, 14)

This is one kingdom, the earthly kingdom of human beings and their structures as gods themselves. It’s the kingdom of Pharisees and disciples and every human who has ever lived. And this is why Jesus warns his disciples in verses 22-24: “And he said to the disciples, “The days are coming when you will desire to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see it. 23 And they will say to you, ‘Look, there!’ or ‘Look, here!’ Do not go out or follow them. 24 For as the lightning flashes and lights up the sky from one side to the other, so will the Son of Man be in his day.”

The problem with earthly kingdoms is that there is a longing to find answers apart from Christ Himself. It makes sense because if we acknowledge Christ as our ultimate answer, then it means we are not part of the solution. We can’t fix things. We are helpless. In other words, we actually need a Savior. But there will be so many temptations to follow something or someone other than Christ. In fact, they will sound noble, holy, perhaps Christlike. Some will say, ‘Look, there!’ or ‘Look, here!’ There can even be signs and wonders and healings and miracles and new programs and events, but even these can lead us astray.

If you’ve been a Christian long enough, I am sure you have tried many things to try to kickstart your spiritual life. Think about all of the camps, retreats, revival meetings, crusades that Christians have attended. For those who are from charismatic backgrounds, there are prayer vigils, healings (outer and inner), tongue speaking, being slain in the Spirit. There was also Promise Keepers for men, Experiencing God groups, WWJD bracelets, Purpose Driven Life churches, Willow Creek models, Prayers of Jabez. There are all sorts of Bible reading programs, fasting chains, prayer models. Then there are all of the outreach programs such as 4 spiritual laws, Evangelism Explosion, Urbana Missions conferences, STMs. These days, the are social justice issues, Christian environmentalism, the emergent church, open theism, And then of course, there are all the preachers and teachers who are ushering in new messages (Piper, Keller, Francis Chan, Driscoll, MacArthur, Sproul) and new bands and music leading us in new songs with new movements). Some of these can be good things, wonderful things, if they are always pointing us to the Christ and the glory of God. But if these are nothing more than a ‘look, there’ ‘look, here’ mentality, then even good things can become hindrances and distractions to the gospel.

We must never be more enamored by a person, program, church, ministry, event, methodology than we are of Christ. Even the apostle Paul stated over and over that he is nothing and Jesus is everything, and if there was anyone who would have had Christian celebrity status, it would have been him. He even had opportunities. In Acts 14, Barnabas and Paul had healed a crippled man from birth. The crowds began to call them gods and wanted to worship them. And they shouted in response: “Men, why are you doing these things? We also are men, of like nature with you, and we bring you good news, that you should turn from these vain things to a living God, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them.” (Acts 14:15). Paul and Barnabas realized that people are far too easily caught up by the lesser (the messenger), that they ignore the greater (Christ and the gospel).

This is why Jesus warns us, ‘Do not go out to follow them.’ Instead, we must follow the second Kingdom, the Kingdom of God as ushered in by Jesus Christ. We don’t need anything to know Christ other than His Spirit as revealed to us in His Word. And Jesus is perfectly visible to all of us. In fact, Jesus is so visible that He describes His visibility this way in verse 24: “For as the lightning flashes and lights up the sky from one side to the other, so will the Son of Man be in his day.” If you’ve ever watched a lightning storm, you know you cannot avoid seeing the lightning. It’s awesome and terrifying and it completely lights up the sky. Well, no one can say they haven’t seen Christ. And how do we know this? Verse 25 shows us what this lightning looks like: “But first he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation.”

Thus, there will be no more sure sign of who Jesus and His true Kingdom than the cross and its abject humility. Paul explains this well in 1 Cor 1:22-24: “For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, 24 but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.” For the Pharisees and the rest of the unbelieving world, signs and knowledge are their Messiahs. But for Christians, there is nothing more concrete than Christ crucified. It is the revelation of God’s full power against sin and death and evil. And we must not look at other places to find our salvation and our spiritual growth, especially when people continually tell us to look here and there. We must only look to Christ, His person and His work.

It’s for this reason that Charles Wesley, the great hymnwriter and brother of evangelist John wrote the hymn, “And Can It Be.” Did you know that far before he wrote that hymn, he was a clergyman in the Church of England? He and his brother John had also formed the Holy Club at Oxford in 1729, a group for young men interested in spiritual growth. In 1735, he and his brother John left for Georgia in the New World as missionaries. But it wasn’t until 1738 that Charles came to finally understand that his faith was not found in his strivings to be holy in holiness clubs and missions. It was only found in Christ alone. He wrote about his conversion on May 21st:

The Spirit of God strove with my own and the evil spirit, till by degrees He chased away the darkness of my unbelief. I found myself convinced, I knew not how nor when, and immediately fell to intercession… I now found myself at peace with God, and rejoiced in hope of loving Christ. My temper for the rest of the day was mistrust of my own great, but before unknown weakness. I saw that by faith I stood; by the continual support of faith, which kept me from falling, though of myself I was ever sinking in sin. I went to bed, still sensible of my own weakness, yet confident of Christ’s protection.

And it’s from his own experience of the freedom found in Christ that he wrote these words from “And Can It Be”:

Long my imprisoned spirit lay,
Fast bound in sin and nature’s night;
Thine eye diffused a quickening ray—
I woke, the dungeon flamed with light;
My chains fell off, my heart was free,
I rose, went forth, and followed Thee.

For Wesley, his life was a life of full pursuit of God even as a pastor without truly knowing the joy and freedom of knowing Christ. Nothing stopped him in this pursuit. He was absolutely zealous and passionate to know Christ, and yet, did not know Him. But once he came to find his confidence in Christ’s protection alone and in nothing that he had done, only then did his chains fall off and his heart set free. My friends, this is how we must pursue Christ and His Kingdom. This is the lightning in the sky so many of us miss despite its awesome wonder because we’re so caught up in our own efforts. Instead, we must base our faith upon what Jesus has already accomplished for our sake.

Preparing for the Kingdom

So if you believe this to be true, that the Kingdom is coming then how must we prepare for this Kingdom then? First, we must WATCH for the coming judgment. We see this in Noah’s example in verses 26-27: “Just as it was in the days of Noah, so will it be in the days of the Son of Man. 27 They were eating and drinking and marrying and being given in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all.” The recounting of the story of Noah and the flood is a warning against the lackadaisical attitude and unbelief of those who believed there was no flood. And so they went on with life, eating, drinking, marriage, without a thought regarding the oncoming flood. But Noah, he built this ludicrous ark in the middle of dry land. He gathered animals while people logically snickered and laughed. But once that door closed and the rains began to pour day after day without let up, Noah must have had many begging him to open his door. But it was too late.

Friends, Jesus uses the story of Noah to remind us as well that if we do not keep watch for the coming Kingdom and the judgment that comes alongside it, we will meet terrible consequences. And so we must first believe there will be a judgment and then we must act as if the judgment is coming. But far too many still act as though judgment is not a reality. We see semblances of this in our day today.

National Geographic reported on the Hurricane Ivan. Just after midnight on September 16, 2004, residents of Grande Lagoon, FL, chose to ignore evacuation warnings and ride out the storm in the upscale, waterfront homes of Pensacola. They passed their time reading, playing cards with their children, while the storm wreaked havoc outside.

The loud wind that swirled around them was not the problem. It was what the wind covered up, the dome of seawater that was heading toward them in the dark. This was the storm surge, the deadliest part of a hurricane for those living near water. Two men who survived the sudden flooding related this same sequence of events: They looked down first at a wet floor, then at a few inches of water around their feet. Each then opened the front door to a waist-deep onslaught of dirty seawater. Three others who refused to evacuate the area died when the sea invaded their homes. The search for bodies delayed the return of residents who evacuated and then came back wanting to know what they had lost.

Just like Noah built an ark under sunny skies in the midst of dry land when there was no hint of rains, so too must we build arks when there is no hint of rain or we will face disastrous consequences far worse than even ignoring hurricane warnings. And so we must believe that the judgment is real. Only fools ignore warnings that could cost them their lives. What good is it to try to save your photos, important documents, jewelry, art collections in a fire if that flood would cost you your life? And so we must take Jesus at His Word. We must heed and believe the warnings. Watching out for the Kingdom means believing the consequences of that Kingdom are real. And so we must prepare for the judgment. And the way we do this leads us to the second means of preparation.

We must FORSAKE all to gain all. Jesus illustrates this point through the example of Lot and his wife in verses 28-37: “Likewise, just as it was in the days of Lot—they were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building, 29 but on the day when Lot went out from Sodom, fire and sulfur rained from heaven and destroyed them all— 30 so will it be on the day when the Son of Man is revealed. 31 On that day, let the one who is on the housetop, with his goods in the house, not come down to take them away, and likewise let the one who is in the field not turn back. 32 Remember Lot’s wife. 33 Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will keep it. 34 I tell you, in that night there will be two in one bed. One will be taken and the other left. 35 There will be two women grinding together. One will be taken and the other left.” 37 And they said to him, “Where, Lord?” He said to them, “Where the corpse is, there the vultures will gather.” Lot has a similar story as Noah. Judgment again came. No one believed it was coming. And so they lived life, they partied, worked, married, bore children, enjoyed pleasures. But the difference between the story of Noah and Lot is the response of the families. Noah’s family went into the ark. They didn’t linger. They didn’t consider what they left behind so precious that they attempted to jump off the ark to save their home. But Lot’s story is different. The angel had told Lot in Genesis 19:17: “Escape for your life. Do not look back or stop anywhere in the valley. Escape to the hills, lest you be swept away.” The judgment against the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah would be great. And yet, as Lot and his wife and daughters fled, Genesis 19:26 tells us: “But Lot’s wife, behind him, looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.”

Lot’s wife loved what she had and her desire for her comforts in Sodom outweighed her trust in God. There was something about her life, perhaps security, perhaps certain relationships, perhaps her memories in her home, perhaps the prestige and affluence she had in town, perhaps all of her education and possessions that she had worked so hard in achieving, all of this was better than her trust in God. Phil Ryken puts it this way, “Her story is one of the saddest in the whole Bible. She was ‘almost saved,’ said Charles Spurgeon, ‘but not quite.’” (Phil Ryken, Luke Vol.2, 240.)

Jesus warns us that those who seek to preserve their lives will lose it and whoever seeks to lose their lives (unto Christ) will keep it. Again, it is foolish to try to hold onto things if those things cost us our lives. This reminds me of a story I heard about Sarah Winchester, the wife of the man who made a fortune inventing and making the Winchester rifle. After he died of influenza in 1918, she moved to San Jose, California. Because of her grief and her long time interest in spiritism, Sarah sought out a medium to contact her dead husband. The medium told her, “As long as you keep building your home, you will never face death.”

Sarah believed the spiritist, so she bought an unfinished 17-room mansion and started to expand it. The project continued until she died at the age of 85. It cost 5 million dollars at a time when workmen earned 50 cents a day. The mansion had 150 rooms, 13 bathrooms, 2,000 doors, 47 fireplaces, and 10,000 windows. And Mrs. Winchester left enough materials so that they could have continued building for another 80 years.

But are we living like Sarah Winchester? Maybe not in building mansions, but placing our hopes for life in something else? Our education and degrees? Our careers? Our children and their achievements and success? The knowledge we project to others to make us appear intelligent? Our physical appearance? We are good at building shrines worshipping ourselves thinking that if they just last, we will finally be happy and fulfilled. But clinging to such things is as dangerous as ignoring hurricane warnings or the warnings of angels as we flee from oncoming judgment. Christ and His Kingdom offers so much more.

Conclusion

My friends, the King and His Kingdom have come and will come. As we usher in this new year, may we prepare for this King and Kingdom by first believing that judgment with this Kingdom will also come. If you have not asked Christ to be Savior, please do so before it is too late. Consider Christ and all that He is. See that He has given His life so that you will have perfect peace. And because we believe, we act. We prepare ourselves by every day trusting in the gracious work of God’s Son, by recognizing that He has paid it all and set us free. And like Charles Wesley who strove so hard to obey God, the greatest realization in one’s faith is to recognize that when we were in the dungeon of our sins, a light broke through from the rays of the cross and our chains fell off and were forever freed from judgment, from sin, and from death. May this good news fill you with much joy and peace throughout 2011.