Only spiritual?

I had the opportunity to preach this past Sunday. In one part of my message I briefly touched on the phrase, obeying the truth through the Spirit, and said that baptism is a vital part of our response to the Gospel (repentance, faith, baptism). At the close of my message we celebrated the Lord’s Supper. I believe the Bible is very clear: both of these physical acts are means of spiritual grace; that is, when I am baptized in water and when I eat the bread and drink the fruit of the vine, I receive a spiritual benefit.

I got to thinking about this. Christianity is a spiritual faith. The Law dealt with meats and drinks, and divers washings, and carnal ordinances. By carnal he means physical, external. The people, the temple, the priesthood, the sacrifices, the worship were all carnal - they all dealt with physical things. The gospel tells us there has been a great change - we are a spiritual people; the temple, the priesthood, the sacrifices, the worship are all spiritual. And yet . . .

And yet what? How in the world can water baptism impart anything spiritual? How can eating bread and drinking the fruit of the vine be a means of receiving Christ and his grace? Because even though the gospel deals with spiritual realities, God has not abandoned the physical part of life.

Think about it. One of the pillars of the New Testament, one of the foundations of the Gospel itself is a physical act, the Incarnation, And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us. Further, He was born of a Jewish woman, of the family of David, in the city of Bethlehem. If any one of these fleshly things are not true, He is not the Messiah and we are yet in our sins! The other pillar of the Gospel is also fleshly – this Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of man, was crucified, died and was buried, then God raised that body from the dead! This resurrection was not a spiritual event, it was a carnal event - His flesh was brought back to life and glorified. Again, if it did not happen this way we have no hope, no certainty that death has been defeated and we can have eternal life.

God made us spirit, soul, and body. And He saves us spirit, soul, and body. Much of Christendom has reduced our blessed hope down to “die and go to heaven”, yet Jesus promises to raise our fleshly bodies from the grave and give us, the whole us, eternal life: because I live, ye shall live also; For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead; For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.  And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. Amen!

Salvation is not only a future resurrection of the flesh, but we live for Christ in this body. With our bodies we pray and worship, with our bodies we fast, with our bodies we suffer for Him. He sanctifies us so that our physical acts, what we do in the body, can become spiritual acts and a means of glorifying Him – eating, sleeping, working, marrying, making love to your spouse, bearing children, all of these physical or fleshly activities can become spiritual. The problem with the flesh (body), is not it’s desires, the problem is when the fulfillment of these desires rule us and are fulfilled outside of his will. Putting it plainly: eating is not unspiritual, gluttony is; sleeping is not unspiritual, laziness is (what the Bible calls being a “sluggard”); sex is not unspiritual, sex outside of marriage is (fornication, adultery, uncleanness), Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.

The salvation of Christ is forgiveness of sins, but it is also deliverance from the tyranny of the flesh. Whereas I once lived according to philosophy (human wisdom, what my soul thought was reasonable), and according to the flesh (living to satisfy the desires of the flesh, “if it feels good, do it”), now my mind and my flesh are ruled by the Word of God, and the Holy Spirit enables me to bring my desires and passions under His control.

Amen! But haven’t I gone far afield from my original question about baptism and the Lord’s Supper? Not at all. Christ sanctifies us spirit, soul, and body, and he uses physical activities to minister His grace to us. What exactly happens when I am baptized and partake of the Lord’s Supper is beyond the scope of this post, my point is simply that something happens; they are not merely symbols of something else, grace is offered and received through these physical acts. And this is not unusual. In my message I also pointed out when a brother or sister is hungry, we should feed them, if they are thirsty we are to give them something to drink, if they are naked, clothe them, if they have nowhere to live, provide housing, if they are sick or in prison we should visit them. Each of these is a physical need, and the spiritual response is to meet that need.

As I said at the beginning, I got to thinking about that. And I say in my email signature, “I think more thoughts than will fit in my head, so I write them down.” And that’s what happened here!

Challenge and Comfort in Psalm 10

The church we are attending has a Scripture reading each Sunday. We are currently reading through the Psalms: the reader will read a verse, the congregation reads the next and so on through the selected portion. The pastor must have decided to limit the readings to ten or eleven verses or else that is what will fit in the bulletin because that is about the length of each reading. The only downside to this is many Psalms have to be divided, even a short psalm like Psalm 10. So we read the first eleven verses and have to wait until next week for the rest of the story.

Psalm 10 opens with a bang, Why standest thou afar off, O Lord? why hidest thou thyself in times of trouble? And the next ten verses present a lament, a complaint even. In the second half of the Psalm David finds comfort in the Lord, but we didn’t see that! I was struck by that and commented on the first verse and then mentioned the resolution in the last few verses as I began my sermon. Let’s take a quick look at the whole Psalm and see the challenge and the comfort.

Challenge to faith 1-11
1 Why standest thou afar off, O Lord? why hidest thou thyself in times of trouble?
This is a haunting verse. And if we’re honest, we have uttered this question. Spurgeon commented, “It is not the trouble, but the hiding of our Father's face, which cuts us to the quick."

Then, in verses 2-11, he describes the wicked man and it is enlightening to see what God highlights as wickedness. “There is not, in my judgment, a Psalm which describes the mind, the manners, the works, the words, the feelings, and the fate of the ungodly with so much propriety, fulness, and light, as this Psalm.” (Luther)

2 The wicked in his pride doth persecute the poor: let them be taken in the devices that they have imagined.
3 For the wicked boasteth of his heart's desire, and blesseth the covetous, whom the Lord abhorreth.
4 The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts.
5 His ways are always grievous; thy judgments are far above out of his sight: as for all his enemies, he puffeth at them.
6 He hath said in his heart, I shall not be moved: for I shall never be in adversity.
7 His mouth is full of cursing and deceit and fraud: under his tongue is mischief and vanity.
8 He sitteth in the lurking places of the villages: in the secret places doth he murder the innocent: his eyes are privily set against the poor.
9 He lieth in wait secretly as a lion in his den: he lieth in wait to catch the poor: he doth catch the poor, when he draweth him into his net.
10 He croucheth, and humbleth himself, that the poor may fall by his strong ones.
11 He hath said in his heart, God hath forgotten: he hideth his face; he will never see it.

What are the sins of the wicked? Pride. Persecuting and oppressing the poor. Boasting. Blessing the covetous. (And notice, the Lord abhors the covetous.)  He does not seek God or think about Him. Cursing, deceit, fraud, mischief, and vanity. God is not in his thoughts, but when he does think of God he says, God hath forgotten; he will never see it.

There are times when men like this prevail and oppress the poor and innocent. The righteous cry and nothing happens. No wonder David asks, Why standest thou afar off, O Lord? why hidest thou thyself in times of trouble?

The comfort of faith 12-18
12 Arise, O Lord; O God, lift up thine hand: forget not the humble.
13 Wherefore doth the wicked contemn God? he hath said in his heart, Thou wilt not require it.
14 Thou hast seen it; for thou beholdest mischief and spite, to requite it with thy hand: the poor committeth himself unto thee; thou art the helper of the fatherless.
15 Break thou the arm of the wicked and the evil man: seek out his wickedness till thou find none.
Here is the prayer of the righteous, "Arise and forget not."

Wherefore doth the wicked contemn God? Contemn is an old word, it means to scorn or despise. The wicked do not think about God often, yet when they do it is to despise and scorn him, he hath said in his heart, Thou wilt not require it. "I can do what I want, He won’t do a thing about it."

Thou hast seen it; for thou beholdest mischief and spite, to requite it with thy hand: the poor committeth himself unto thee; thou art the helper of the fatherless.
Break thou the arm of the wicked and the evil man: seek out his wickedness till thou find none.
But the righteous knows in his heart, God has seen it and will take up the cause of the poor and defenseless. Break the arm of the wicked. Break his strength and power; bring an end to his oppression.

16 The Lord is King for ever and ever: the heathen are perished out of his land.
17 Lord, thou hast heard the desire of the humble: thou wilt prepare their heart, thou wilt cause thine ear to hear:
18 To judge the fatherless and the oppressed, that the man of the earth may no more oppress.
Amen! The Lord is King for ever. I may not see his outstretched arm right now, the wicked may say, God has forgotten, but it is not true. He is King. He is Lord. He is God. He sits on the throne. The end of the wicked is sure. The King has heard the desire of the humble, he will judge the fatherless and the oppressed.

David began with the heavy notes of despair and ends with joyful confidence in the Lord who is King for ever. My King hath not forgotten! He will hear our prayer! He will rescue us! Justice and righteousness will be seen on the earth.

The importance of warming up

We picked up my grandson Ryan so he could spend a week with us. That was last Friday and we’ve been busy.

Monday morning we went to a local park with baseball fields so we could play catch. To our dismay we found all four fields padlocked and inaccessible, but then we discovered the batting cages. And they were unlocked! We availed ourselves of this boon – I pitched while he practiced batting left handed. Lot of fun. Then in the afternoon we tossed the ball for a while. Good day.

Tuesday morning we headed back to the batting cages. We went straight to work. I threw the first pitch. And it hurt! My shoulder that is. I tossed another one. Man! (I should take a moment to explain – my left shoulder hurt last year and I came oh so close to having surgery to repair a torn rotator cuff. Insurance denied the surgery and I took steroid pills which seemed to work wonders, the pain in my left shoulder is almost non-existent. Now my right shoulder is giving me trouble and this was the shoulder that was hurting.) Ryan noticed my pain and said, “We can go back home.” Very thoughtful, but I replied, “No way!” Then he suggested we warm up first.

What a novel idea and great suggestion! (You see, in my head I’m still 25-30 years old and undamaged.) We got closer together and began to toss the ball back a forth. At first it hurt, but as we continued to toss the ball the pain went away. I backed up a few steps and continued to toss the ball. A couple more steps back and so on until I was at the spot where I would be pitching. Arm limbered up, no pain, ready to go. Which we did.

This shows the importance of warming up. Of course, I’m having to take a non-steroid anti-inflammatory to alleviate the pain in my shoulder, but I can still pitch if I warm up properly!!

Why did you ever leave?

Mary invited a friend to go with her to see The King and I in Charlotte. When she and her daughter got here, they came in the front door, then they all headed out the back door for Mary’s car. They saw my banana trees and the daughter said, “Look, Mom, banana trees!” I said, “Yeah, I used to live in Hawai’i.” She asked, “Why did you ever leave?”

Why did I ever leave Hawai’i? That’s a good question and I actually have a good answer. As I told her, “I was in high school and my mom decided to leave.”

Now for the rest of the story.

We moved to Hawai’i when I was in the 3rd grade. Our first residence was The Round Hotel (the official name is The Circle Hotel), located right on Prince Kuhio Beach in Waikiki.

We moved into a little apartment in Honolulu and I finished 3rd grade at Queen Liliuokalani Elementary School.

After the school year we moved to Kahaluu and I went to 4th grade there. At the end of the school year we moved again, this time to Kaneohe. We lived here the rest of our time in Hawai’i. I went to elementary and intermediate school (5th-8th grade) in Kaneohe, then 9th through 11th grade in Kailua. My junior year in high school my Dad got really sick and eventually took his life.

I remember the day the landlord came and explained to my Mother that he would be raising the rent. Mother told us we could not afford this increase so we would be moving back to the mainland. I was stunned. Devastated. And determined not to move. I left home.

I found a job that offered housing and moved out. I can’t recall what the job entailed. I worked that first day and then we all returned to this guy’s house. There were maybe three or four other men there. Here I was, fresh out of my junior year in high school, working and living with grown men. Strange grown men. That first night, oh my! Next morning I decided it would be better to go back home and move to the mainland.

We held a yard sale, sold as much of our stuff as we could, and boarded a plane bound for Nashville, TN. And that’s why I left Hawai’i.

But think about it:

The Round Hotel
Prince Kuhio Beach
Waikiki
Queen Liliuokalani Elementary School
Kahaluu
Kaneohe
Kapunahala Elementary School
Kailua

Pretty cool stuff! That’s what I think about when I look at my banana trees.

I missed the night

My normal routine when Mary works is to sit outside till about 9 pm and then, once it’s dark, go back inside and watch an hour or so of TV. Last night, however, it was so pleasant I decided to have a fire.

Been a while since I had a night fire.

As I sat by the fire, in the dark, I realized I had missed the night.

I was out in the back, under the trees. The moon was in its first quarter. The crickets were cricketing. Off in the distance I could hear a train. Even though there was the occasional sounds of traffic, it was still and quiet. This is a quiet neighborhood, but night quiet is different.

I truly had missed the night. It is so peaceful. Calming. Beautiful.

The Fellowship of the Used to Be

Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.     (1 Corinthians 6:9-11)

I started thinking about this passage the other day. Now, I know that some of you think you know where I’m going with this and are either beginning to get angry or are thinking, “Yeah, yeah, heard this before.” But stick with me, I believe you will be surprised and find a blessing.

I see three things in these verses:

1) We get an insight into the message Paul preached.
“Oh yeah, what is that?” The kingdom of God. We tend to overlook the kingdom of God. I mean, John the Baptist and Jesus talked about it but it seems to have gone away. Yet here is Paul preaching the kingdom in Corinth. And this is very common in the Book of Acts:

 As Clement, Bishop of Rome, wrote in his epistle to the Corinthians (AD 96), “the apostles went forth proclaiming that the kingdom of God was at hand.”

And it looks like he also preached repentance, the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God. Maybe something like, The kingdom of God is coming and you are not ready for it. You must turn from your idols and your sins. Now let me tell you about Jesus who will forgive your sins . . .

2) We see the kind of people Paul attracted with the preaching of this Gospel:
fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, effeminate, abusers of themselves with mankind, thieves, covetous, drunkards, revilers, extortioners What a list!

As I mentioned, it seems to me that Paul’s preaching included warnings of judgment and calls to repent of sin. He liked to make lists in his epistles, reminding the readers of behavior that will keep one out of the kingdom:

Paul preached the gospel concerning the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ and people responded. And what a motley crew this gospel drew!

3) We see the transforming power of the Gospel
the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God... And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.

Amen! and such were some of you. That’s what you used to be. The Gospel calls all people, accepts all people, but, and here’s the good news, it doesn’t leave them there! No, Jesus saves us from sin! The Church is The Fellowship Of The Used To Be. You don’t come to Jesus and continue in your sin. And that’s what Paul continuously warns us about, the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God. No, I must repent and turn to God, and do works meet for repentance. But it’s not just me trying my best to be better, no, ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins. Amen! When you get a hold of Jesus, or rather, He gets aholt of you, you will be transformed and you will join The Fellowship Of The Used To Be!

That we being delivered 
out of the hand of our enemies 
might serve him without fear

in holiness and righteousness before him
all the days of our life.

Words used by Jesus for the Second Coming

This past Advent I did a series on my blog I called The Second Coming in 1 & 2 Thessalonians. I looked at the description of the second advent in each chapter and highlighted the particular words used for His return. I summarized my findings this way : His coming is called parousia, apocalypse, epiphany. He will be revealed from heaven with power (apocalypse), he will appear in glory (epiphany), he will come to be present with us (parousia). It is a very good study and I would encourage you to check it out.

A few weeks ago, in a Bible study I am teaching, we were in Mark 8 and concluded with this verse:

38 Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation; of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.

I had a fleeting thought, “I wonder what word He used for ‘coming’?” Then, at church this past Sunday, a reference was made to Revelation 22:20, …Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus. I wondered again about the word used, but this time I had the opportunity to look it up. And was I surprised! It was not one of the words referenced above. It was actually a fairly common word. A plan formed - This week I will look more fully into this. And I did. This was illuminating and exciting!

I looked at every occurrence of come in the Gospels and Revelation (since I was wondering what word Jesus used in connection with the second coming).

First, He does use the word parousia. It occurs four times, all in Matthew 24 – verses 3, 27, 37, and 39. Actually, Jesus used it 3 times, and the disciples once.

But by far the most frequently used word is ἔρχομαι  (erchomai). It occurs 643 times in the New Testament and is translated come 616 times. According to Thayer it means: “to come; to come from one place to another; to appear, make one's appearance, come before the public.” Actually, it is used in the New Testament more often for the second coming than parousia – 22 times compared to 16. I was really surprised by this discovery.

I will simply list the references in the Gospels and Revelation where erchomai is used and hope you are motivated to look them up.

Matthew 16:27, 28; 24:30, 42, 44; 25:13, 31
Mark 8:38; 13:26
Luke 12:40; 18:8; 21:27
John 14:3
Revelation 1:7; 3:11; 16:15; 22:7, 12, 20

This raises a question, Why did Jesus use this word so often?

Because his teaching on the second coming is based on Daniel 7. What? Yes, it’s true. Let’s take a look. Here is Daniel 7:13 from the Septuagint (the Greek Translation of the Old Testament, which is the version most often quoted in the New Testament)

I beheld in the night vision, and, lo, one coming with the clouds of heaven as the Son of man, and he came on to the Ancient of days, and was brought near to him.

The key phrase is, coming with the clouds of heaven as the Son of man. Compare this with Matthew 24:30

And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

The Son of man coming with the clouds of heaven. The word for coming in Daniel is erchomai and since Jesus is quoting Daniel, he uses erchomai as well. We find the same expression in Mark 13:26 and Luke 21:27. And this is even more striking in the Greek.

Here is the full picture painted by Jesus of his second coming, Matthew 24:30-31

And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. 

Why am I presenting this? Because Paul quotes Jesus concerning the angel, the trumpet, and the gathering of the elect

1 Thessalonians 4:16 For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:

John also quotes Jesus when he describes the second coming

Revelation 1:7 Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen.

And he closes the book with, He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.

And every time it’s the word erchomai.

What is the benefit of all this?

1) Well, I learned there is another word used for the second coming, erchomai

2) We see that the teaching of the second coming comes from Daniel 7:13. Jesus quotes Daniel and the Apostles quote Jesus. That is cool.

3) And of course there is this, they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus!