The Kingdom of God- 6

Subtitle:  Serving a Crucified King

1 Corinthians 1:18-31.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Resurrection Sunday, April 20, 2025.

We have been talking about the Kingdom of God.  It is important to see the events of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus as foundational to all that we believe as Christians, but particularly about the Kingdom of God.

There would be no Kingdom without the appearance of King Messiah.  Yet, when he comes, his foundational act to set up his kingdom is dying and rising again.  This would have been very perplexing to a Jew of the first century.  This strange kingdom that is now, but not yet fully, was always God’s plan A.  It is not a plan B.  God is trying to teach us something through the way that Messiah Jesus fulfills the Kingdom of God.

Therefore, we are citizens of a kingdom created by a crucified Lord.  It is not easy serving a crucified king because you are misjudged, maligned, and rejected by a world that is not looking for a crucified savior.

If you are going to serve Jesus, then you will have to swallow your pride, let go of the accolades of this world, and pick up your cross and follow him.

Let’s look at our passage.

The message of the cross (v. 18-24)

We need to keep in mind as we go through this that Paul is writing to Christians in Corinth about their penchant to operate with the wisdom and power of this world.  They had grown up in a world of Greek wisdom and Greek power.  Of course, it doesn’t matter what nation or part of the earth people are from.  All of these things are worldly wisdom and worldly power.  Essentially he is trying to convince them to embrace the wisdom and power of God.  Jesus is the very Wisdom and Power of God.

Of course, the believers of Corinth had believed in Jesus.  They were Christians.  However, their choices and actions were contradicting their professed faith in Jesus.  They were mixing God’s word with their own culture, and not in a good way.  Paul goes back to the fundamental issue of how God had provided salvation through Jesus, and why He did it that way.  He is also making it clear that you cannot follow a crucified Lord with the thinking of this world.  They are antithetical to one another.

Verse 18 talks about the “word of the cross.”  This is similar to the way we might say that we want to “have a word with someone.”  It is more than one word.  It refers to a main message that the cross is intended to represent to us.  It speaks volumes about the purpose and intent of God’s plan of salvation.

The cross was necessary to remove sins and provide a covering for them.  We should pay attention to this.  Why did it have to be this way?  Essentially, the cross shows us just how bad sin is.  It is so bad that it requires God to become a man and die on our behalf.  It also shows us what it takes to please God.  A person who believes God will not retreat in the face of laying down their mortal life.  A person who retreats from faith under threat to their life cannot please God.  Jesus was pleasing to God.  Not because of his horrible suffering, but because of his unflinching faith in the face of the horrible persecution of the wicked.  Like Noah (much greater than Noah), Jesus found grace in the eyes of God the Father.  He offers up his sinless life as an offering for humanity, and God the Father puts him in authority over the universe, heaven and earth.

The devil counts on you balking on following Jesus because you are so afraid of losing something, even your life.  Yet, if the Christian dies, God has not failed us because the resurrection of the righteous was always His plan.  He is fulfilling His promises, not just to you, but to all humanity.

When we look at the message of the cross, Paul says that it is foolishness to those who are perishing, but the power of God to those who are being saved.  Of course, those who are being saved used to be those who were perishing.  The message of Jesus and the cross is part of God’s way to break through to a person’s heart and mind.

We can understand why the cross would be a shock to people who were from other nations and followed other religions.  Yet, the cross was a shock even to Israel.  Yet, in that shock, they would have to embrace the message of a crucified lord (savior) over the top of their impression that it was weak and foolish.  Of course, we could not do this without the help of the Holy Spirit.  Yet, a person must make a real choice.  This was hard for religious Jews, just as it was for Gentiles (religious or otherwise).  No one has it easy.

To believe in Jesus and to live as he commanded us is simultaneously to become a fool to the world around you.  No one likes being labeled a fool by others.  However, God didn’t desire only to save us.  He has a purpose in this.

Verse 19 goes to the heart of why God requires us to embrace a crucified savior.  God doesn’t only want to save us, but He also wants to destroy the wisdom of the wise in the way that He saves us.  Paul quotes from Isaiah 29.  This passage is not written about Gentiles.  Rather, God is chastising Israel for her unbelief.  They had given lip-service to God, but had developed a system by their own wisdom that was contrary to God.  What God intended for good, they had turned into a system of harm.  Doing God’s things with our wisdom is a common tendency for humanity.

Their wisdom had so perverted the things of God that He was intent on destroying their wisdom and cleverness.  He would save humanity in such a way that it would make a spectacle of their wisdom.

The same mechanism works in the political realm.  No matter how good t he principles of a society are, if we only give lip-service to God (as we use our own wisdom), then we will pervert that system and use it for our own gain, for our own ends.  This is the basis of all human wisdom and power.  It takes the things of God (He created all things), and it twists those things to the “satisfaction” of ourselves, regardless of God’s purpose in it.

In verse 20, Paul tells them that this is what they were seeing in their day.  The great wise men of Israel and the great wise men of the Gentile world, the scribes and debaters of the world, were not used by God to save humanity.  They were woefully ignorant of what was happening.  And, they were even used by God in their ignorance to bring about salvation by crucifying Jesus.  They don’t get credit for it because Christ’s death saves in spite of what they were trying to accomplish.  I mean, they weren’t trying to cooperate with God.  They were trying to do the opposite.

Is that any different than our day?  Can we not see that the wisdom of this world, whether religious or not, is still dismissive of what God is doing?  The cross begs the question, “Whose side are you on?”  Even some within the Church today have continued down the same path that these Corinthians were following in the first century, and the same path that the Sanhedrin was following back then.

We can say that we believe in Jesus as the Christ, but are we following him with the wisdom of our modern age?  Are we “following him” by employing his things with the power of man?

In verses 22-23, Paul recognizes that the false wisdom of Jewish people was for different reasons than the false wisdom of the Gentiles.  Jews want a powerful sign from God.  Whereas, the Gentiles want something that sounds wise to them.  Yet, God gave them both a crucified Messiah, which was a stumbling block to those who want powerful signs and foolishness to those who want something that sounds wise to them.

In order to embrace the cross, a person has to die to their own wisdom and power, and the wisdom and power of this world.  This is the only way to salvation.  You can ignore it and walk on by Jesus because it looks foolish and weak.  However, he is the wisdom and power of God displayed for all to see.

The wisdom of God versus the “wisdom” of men (v. 25-31)

Paul then takes some time to explain the wisdom of God compared to the wisdom of man.  Another way to look at this is the wisdom that comes from God (from above) versus the wisdom that is not from God (within us, down here, even from hell).

James 3:14-15 says it this way.  “But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, do not be arrogant and so lie against the truth.  This wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but is earthly, natural, demonic.”  Notice those last descriptions of the false wisdom.  It is of this world, of our own flesh, even of the devil.  This is the same enemies that I pointed out several sermons ago.  It is a wisdom that comes from our enemies to separate us from God.

We must always ask ourselves, “What is the source of my wisdom?”  If it is not sourced in God, then know this.  God is determined to destroy any wisdom that is not rooted in Jesus, and him crucified.  However, the good news is that you don’t have to be destroyed with your bad “wisdom.”  You can let go of it.  You can let go of the world’s wisdom, the devil’s wisdom, and even your own self-made wisdom, in order to receive Jesus, the wisdom of God that comes from above..

In verse 25, Paul is not saying that God sometimes actually does foolish things and other times actually does wise things.  The same is true of the “weakness of God.”  Everything that God does is absolutely wise and powerful.  However, Paul is talking about our impression of what God does.  Our judgment of what God is doing is sometimes impressed with what God does, and other times it is not impressed.  We declare it to be foolish and weak. 

Yet, the way that Paul states this slams the point home powerfully.  The things that God does that seem foolish to us are actually greater than our greatest “wisdom”- remember it is we who call our thoughts wise.  Also, the things that God does that seem weak to us are actually stronger than our greatest “strength.”  If we reject His wisdom and power for something else that we think is wiser and stronger, then we will be just like the Corinthians: worthy of rebuke from our Lord!

In verse 26, Paul reminds them of how they believed in Jesus and the kinds of people who were being saved in Corinth.  What kind of person let’s go of the wisdom and power of this world in order to embrace God’s “foolish and weak” salvation?  In general, it wasn’t the wise, powerful, and nobles who were believing.  It is easier for me to let go of the wisdom of Plato than it is for Plato to let go of the wisdom of Plato.  It is easier for me to let go of the power of the United States of America than it is for the powerful people in our Republic.  In truth, it is hard for us all, but not impossible.

If God asks you to give something up, it is so that He can give you something better.  However, sometimes, He asks us to give something so that He can teach us how to receive it back in the right way.  God is concerned with dethroning the idols of our heart that are revealed in this way of salvation.

Of course, there is nothing wrong with being educated and having power in this life.  But, we can let those things divert us from the wisdom and power of God.  We must submit all things that we have to God and let them take their proper place in our life submitted to the wisdom and power of God.

In verse 27, Paul talks about God choosing the “foolish” to shame the “wise”, choosing the “weak” to shame the “strong.”  Everyone who puts their faith in Jesus steps out of the “wise and powerful” class and steps into the “foolish and weak” class (that is, according to the world). 

God knew that this would be the case.  In eternity past, He saw this and chose to help those who would become foolish and weak in order to shame the wise and powerful.  Of course, shame is not the end of the world.  In our shame, we can see our need of Christ and His wisdom.  The grace of God is present when sinful things are brought to the surface.  In our shame, we can finally die to the things that are pulling us down into destruction.   It is in truly seeing our shame that we are enabled to embrace the message of the cross.  God does not call us to stay in our shame, but following Him will cause you to carry the stigma of shame because of the world’s judgment of you.

Paul then ends this section with an anthem to Jesus.  Jesus is the wisdom of God, the righteousness of God, the Holiness of God, and the Redemption of God (v. 30).  There is no hope for these things outside of Jesus and his “foolish and weak” way.

We should boast in no man, but the LORD Jesus!  This is not to put anyone down, but rather, to put Jesus up above in the place that he deserves.  Yet, today, the Church has become full of men and women that we boast in.  We are like the foolish Corinthians and in need of deep repentance.

The message is the same to us as it is to the world.  Humble yourself.  Divest yourself of the wisdom of the world and worldly Christians.  Refuse to follow the path of power developed by the strong.  Pick up your cross and follow Jesus, regardless of what others say.  And, may the Holy Spirit show us all the ways we must die to ourselves, die to the world, and die to the devil, in order to bring forth the power and salvation of God!  This is what it means to serve a crucified Lord.  It means being a crucified servant.

Serving a Crucified King audio

The Lifting up of Jesus

Mark 15:21-32.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on March 14, 2021.

During the last week before the crucifixion, Jesus had said, “If I be lifted up from the earth, I will draw all people to myself.”  He uses a verb that literally describes the crucifixion, but also has a metaphorical use that meant exaltation to a place of honor.  The people of Israel would lift Jesus up, one way or another.  We typically take this verse in the sense of exaltation.  However, we are told that Jesus was speaking of the way in which he would be executed.

The world was going to crucify Jesus, but it would ironically be his exaltation.  It would set in motion his power to draw all manner of people unto himself.  They would be drawn to him spiritually, but not forcefully.  The world will soon drag mankind into worship of a system and a god-man that will employ force.  However, this is not the way of the omnipotent God of the universe.

If we are to exalt Jesus before the world, we must be careful of separating him from the cross in people’s minds.  Yes, Jesus is coming back in power and great might, but he broke the might of our enemy at the cross.  We live in the face of a backlash against Jesus and his people that is growing every day.  It is a backlash against his word, the Bible.  It has already been happening in people’s hearts, even some who profess to be Christians.  This is being drawn to the surface through the events and social issues of our day.  Satan will seek to cancel the truth about who God is, who Jesus is.  Who will you stand with in this testing time?  I pray that you will stand with the one true Jesus faithfully revealed to us in God’s Word.

Jesus is taken to the place of crucifixion

In verse 21, it is time for Jesus to be crucified, and thus, they begin to lead him to the place of execution.  Jesus is a “dead man walking,” as they say.  It was typical for the victim to carry the crossbeam of the cross with the vertical member generally left standing in the same place between executions.    The physical condition of Jesus is so bad that he is unable to carry his crossbeam all the way to the place of death.  It is at this point that a man who happened upon the scene is forced into service.  Simon of Cyrene is force to help carry the cross of Jesus.

Cyrene was a city in Africa, what we would call the coast of eastern Libya today.  With a name like Simon, he is clearly a Jew who has made the long journey to participate in the Passover proceedings.  The mention of his sons, Alexander and Rufus, seems to indicate that the original readers would recognize the names.  They had most likely become a part of the early Christian community.

It is interesting that sometimes we are compelled to do things that we do not want to do, but they end up marking our life for good, and for God.  Where Simon Peter had failed to stand beside Jesus, the Father supplied another Simon to help His Son to complete the mission.  May God help us to do less complaining about the lot that we have received, and to do more praying about how we should respond to those difficult times. We must seek to discover what He is saying to us through it.  Simon of Cyrene had a close encounter with Jesus as he went to the cross.  This would mark him forever.

The execution site is named Golgotha, an Aramaic term meaning “place of a skull.”  There are two sites that are contenders today for this location.  The idea that it was a small hill that was shaped like a skull cannot be traced back to the first century, so it is unclear how dependable it is.  However, all of Jerusalem in those days would know exactly where Golgotha was.  It was the place that was just outside of the walls of Jerusalem, either to the west of the temple mount, or to the northwest of it.

Upon arrival at the execution site, Jesus is offered a mixed drink to help numb the pain.  Proverbs 31:6-7 tells us to give strong drink to him who is perishing, and wine to those who are bitter of heart.  It was common for the Jews to offer such to those being executed.  However, Jesus refuses this, not so much because he loves pain and suffering, but because he must fully identify with our suffering in order to serve as a merciful High Priest, as the book of Hebrews details (Hebrews 2:17). 

There is a certain amount of suffering that we must embrace in this life, not because of some masochistic desire, but because it helps us to identify with Jesus.  It helps us to understand that his sufferings brought us life that our sufferings cannot neutralize.  We should not seek to make ourselves suffer on purpose, but neither should we run from it when it comes knocking.  Weep with those who weep, and know that, this too, Jesus shall overcome in the resurrection.

Jesus is crucified

At last, Jesus is nailed to the crossbeam and lifted into place.  Mark tells us that this happens at the third hour.  The Jews divided the day as hours counting from what we would call 6:00 AM.  Thus, the third hour would be the hour beginning at 9:00 AM.  Later in this chapter, we will be told that Jesus dies just after the ninth hour, or 3:00 PM.  This would put him on the cross for six hours total.  The Roman reckoning of time was as ours.  John’s Gospel must have been using this when it refers to Jesus being before Pilate at the sixth hour, or 6:00 AM.

Mark tells us that an inscription, or sign, is put above Jesus.  Typically, this would be the charge for which the person is being executed.  However, Pilate words it in such a way as to slight the Jews, or at least their leaders.  “King of the Jews,” is what it says.  John’s Gospel adds that it also said “Jesus of Nazareth.”  It was in Greek, Hebrew, and in Latin.  Though the Jewish leaders complained that the sign made it look like Jesus actually was the king of the Jews, it was fitting that the Savior of all peoples, of every language, should be declared in the main languages of the day.  Here is Jesus of Nazareth, the king of the Jews.  Of course, Jesus is much more than this.  What Pilate does out of spite, God allows to drive home the point to the Jewish onlookers.  We have crucified the king that God has finally sent us.

Mark mentions that Jesus is crucified between two robbers.  Only Luke mentions that one of the robbers ends up putting his faith in Jesus while he was on the cross.  Mark’s gospel implies that both of the robbers mock Jesus at first.   Mark points us to Isaiah 53:12, which tells us that the suffering Messiah would be numbered among those who are transgressors.

Jesus was executed as if he was the same as these two robbers, worthy to be executed and cast out as a dead branch.  Yet, Jesus is eternal life!  Even today, this world will control the narrative by castigating believers as transgressors.  It is not what this world says about you that is most important.  It is what Jesus will say about you when you stand before God the Father.  May we be found as faithful in this generation.

Jesus is blasphemed and mocked

We talked about the mocking of the soldiers last week.  Now, Jesus is opened to further public mocking.  The terms blaspheme and mocking are used.  They can serve as synonyms in this situation, but essentially to blaspheme is to speak a falsehood about someone, especially God.  Whereas, mocking is more about the ridicule of a person and what they stand for.

The common people and the chief priests are all blaspheming and ridiculing Jesus.  It is unclear why these priests would be here when there are clearly duties to be done at the temple.  It can only be chalked up to their vitriol towards Jesus.

The first statement mentioned is blasphemy and mocking.  “You who destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days…”  Jesus never said that he would destroy the temple, but here they ridicule the idea that a man who is powerless to stop his own execution would have the power to rebuild the temple in three days.  What of your wild claim now, Jesus?  Of course, it is they who are destroying the temple of his body, and on the third day, Jesus would raise it up in his own resurrection.  It is not an honor to mock things that you do not understand because you end up being revealed as a fool in the end.

This is followed up with mocking his ability to save.  Save yourself and come down from the cross.  In a sense, they throw down the gauntlet for him to prove himself, but on the other hand, it is not something they expect him to do.  To them, Jesus has been checkmated and there is no way out.  He is proven to be a false prophet in their eyes.  Jesus was famous for saving people from the death sentence of hideous diseases.  Yet, he is powerless in the face of crucifixion.

They even add the twist that if he does come down from the cross then they would believe that he is the Messiah, and the rightful king of Israel.  The sad thing is that Jesus did have the power to save himself, but if he saved himself, he would be damning all mankind.  The logic goes like this.  “God, do this thing and I will believe.” However, if God does that thing my belief would be to late to help me.  I would be trapped forever in guilt, knowing that he was right and I failed to believe when I should have.

This is the great wisdom of the world.  It seems so powerful and wise, but in the end, it is folly.  It foolishly tells God how to run the universe, or ridicules the idea of God because the universe is not running in a particular way.  Imagine God at the beginning of creation, looking ahead and writing down a list of every demand from every human being who ever existed as to what he must do to prove Himself to them.  God is not a dog to jump through all the hoops we demand that He must jump through.  Yet, He does love us and demonstrated it powerfully on the cross.

So, I end with this.  Save yourself from this stubborn and wicked generation, by putting your faith in the crucified Lord who died for your sins, and rose up from the grave to give you eternal life!

Lifting up Jesus audio

The End-Times Battle for Humanity

Mark 13:19-23; John 5:43; Revelation 13:5-8, 11-18.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on December 27, 2020.

Being that this is the last sermon of this year, I felt it appropriate to examine the end-times battle that God has warned us is coming in His word, the Bible.  It is the apex of the battle for the hearts and minds of humanity that has been going on ever since the fall of Satan from perfection into sin and destruction.

We know very little about that initial fall, though there are some hints here and there in Scripture.  By pure logic, he appears to be the first being to fall through self-deception.  All those who came behind him, both heavenly and earthly beings, have been deceived by him to some degree.

The Bible tells us that the critical victory in this battle was won by Jesus through the cross and his resurrection.  However, it will not be completed until Jesus comes back and kicks out the usurpers, again, both heavenly and earthly.  None of them deserve to rule over humanity, but Jesus alone is worthy to receive all power and rule.

If believers in Jesus are to resist the deceptions that are even now being cast before the world, then we will need to heed the warnings of Scripture, and recognize them as they materialize.  Thus, the big-picture in the Bible must be recognized on the ground in our own life, or we will be deceived.  Let’s look at our passages.

Jesus warns of The Great Tribulation

The passage in Mark that I have noted above comes at the end of a prophecy that Jesus gives concerning the period of time between his ascension into heaven and his return to earth.  Towards the end of this period, Jesus warns about the Great Tribulation.  Mark doesn’t use the word great like Matthew does, but the description is clear.  This will be the worst time of trouble that the earth has ever seen in the past and will ever see in the future.  It comes upon the world right before the Second Coming of Jesus.  What makes this troubling time so bad is that God stops restraining Satan’s evil plans, and pours out His wrath upon a world that would choose to follow The Beast and reject the message of the Lamb of God, Jesus.  Of course, I am using terms that the book of Revelation uses.

Jesus has already presented himself and his plan to the world.  Christians are his emissaries continuing to plead with a world that has heard, and to give a hearing to those who have not.  In a spiritual sense, Satan has been presenting his plan to the world as well.  Yet, The Great Tribulation is a time when a particular being called The Beast will rise up with a plan for the world that is satanic in origin.  John 5:43 reminds us that Jesus came representing God the Father and was rejected.  However, another (christ-figure) will come in his own name, and the people will receive him.  This is the overall state of the world.  We will reject that which is good and innocent, and embrace that which is evil and guilty.  Now, let’s go to Revelation 13.

The Beast’s plan

The groundwork for Satan’s final kingdom has been laid down over the millennia.  Every empire up to now has been prologue and perhaps trial runs, or war games that are done in preparation.  Satan knows that God is partially restraining him, but he also knows that the restraint will one day cease.  He is ready with his plan at all times.

However, it is worth taking a few moments to ask this question.  Does his plan really involve helping or saving humanity?  He continually deceives the world with the carrot of a path of salvation, a path of fixing the world, that does not depend upon the One True God.  His plan tells man that there is an alternate way that does not involve following the God who actually created all things that exist.

Satan loves to project himself as the light-bringer who is only seeking to free humans from the tyranny of God.  However, this is either a form of psychosis, or pure deception.  He either really thinks that he can make something better than God, or he knows that he can’t, but wants to “stick it” to God anyway.  It is highly doubtful that Satan actually wants to help mankind.  We are simply a means to an end, useful idiots in a megalomaniacal plan that will destroy all those who participate in it.

Regardless of the true intentions of this being, one thing is absolutely clear from Scripture and from history.  He cannot save humanity; or better, he is unable to save humanity.  He is impotent, and powerless to stop the coming judgment day for himself or humanity.  Thus, his plan is itself a dream world that can never truly be because it refuses to submit to reality, and the God who created it.  Perhaps, this is why we see so many revolting against reality and seeking to make their own imaginations real and consequence-free.

Scripture warns us continually against trusting evil, fallen spirits and their propaganda.  In the Old Testament, people were warned against seeking the wisdom, or the leading, of these spirits instead of God Himself.  Leviticus 19:31 says, “Do not turn to mediums or necromancers; do not seek them out, and so make yourselves unclean by them: I am the LORD your God.”  I could quote many others.  It is generally presented as a loyalty issue in the Old Testament, but it does include a warning against deception.  Deuteronomy 11:16 says, “Take care lest your heart be deceived, and you turn aside and serve other gods and worship them…”

Ultimately, the New Testament makes it abundantly clear that Satan and his spiritual cohorts are deceivers.  In John 8:44, Jesus says, “You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires.  He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him.  When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”

Evolutionists and modernists love to present religions as the attempt of ancient man to explain the cosmos so that he wouldn’t be afraid of the dark, the unknown.  This itself is a propaganda.  Religions all have a spiritual origin.  The false religions of the world and the twisting of true religion are all propaganda from evil spirits who are intent on separating mankind from its Creator.  The doctrines and teachings of demons are more prevalent today than ever before.  They have even infiltrated much of the Church, just as they had infiltrated the religion of Israel in the days of Jesus.  Christians today must wake up to the spiritual deception that comes through secular and religious sources.

The Beast of Revelation is not Satan, but a representative of Satan (see 13:1-4) that comes on the scene with a global kingdom in the last days.  The picture of the beast rising up from the waters is not what he actually looks like.  Rather, it is a symbolic picture of his character, and the attempts at such a global kingdom by Satan.  The origin and identity of this Beast is scattered throughout Revelation.  However, it is in Revelation 17:8 where we are told, “The beast that you saw was, and is not, and is about to rise from the bottomless pit, and go into destruction.  And the dwellers on earth whose names have not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world will marvel to see the beast, because it was and is not and is to come.”  This picture of beings coming out of the bottomless pit happens several times in Scripture.  In Revelation 20, Satan himself is captured, chained, and locked up in the bottomless pit for 1,000 years and then is released at the end of the millennial reign of Christ.  This makes it pretty clear that the bottomless pit is some kind of prison, or holding place, for spirit beings that God determines must be removed from His creation temporarily.

This is all tied to Revelation 9 and the sounding of the fifth trumpet.  An angel with a key to the bottomless pit comes down and releases a locust hoard whose king or ruler is called The Destroyer (Abaddon in Hebrew, Apollyon in Greek).  This is a key point in the end times.  These are not actual locusts.  However, the symbol of locusts describes the kind of voracious beings they are.  They are destroyers by nature and leave everything wasted in their wake.  Also, they are clearly spiritual beings who have been locked up in the bottomless pit for a long time (many connect these to the time before the flood).  The king and leader of these spiritual locusts is The Destroyer, which is another name for The Beast.  The beast is also a spiritual being that apparently tried to rule the earth in the past, and was judged, imprisoned, and will be released at the end of the age.  This evil, spiritual being will come out of this prison with a pent-up rage.  Yes, the world is going to embrace a global leader who is a psychotic prisoner of the spirit realm.

His plan requires: global political control of the nations (13:7), global religious control through worship (13:8,12), and global economic control through a mark of the beast (13:17).  It will be touted as guaranteed security and peace for the world, but will lead to anything but.  It will be tyranny over the masses of humanity.  It would be a boot in the face of humanity forever, if God allowed it to continue.  Those who reject this pledge of allegiance that is called the mark of the beast will be killed, and the world will buy the idea that it is for the sake of peace (they will be pictured as terrorists that are thwarting peace). 

The plan of Satan and his Beast will end up leading humanity down a path that is away from God’s.  God made mankind to be imagers of Him.  However, Satan plans to deconstruct the mark of God or image of God that is upon us.  The term “mark of the beast” can refer to a mark, but it can also refer to the fact that the taking of this thing marks us as something less than human.  Of course, it will be marketed as a means of becoming something greater than human, breaking free from our human shackles, but this itself is a lie, which I will come back to in a bit.

We see a dehumanizing plan throughout the world today in a variety of ways.  Our schools are wanting to teach our children that they are not bound by biological gender.  Their sexual preference need not be limited, but can be fluid.  We need not be accountable to our decisions because our technology allows us to have remake reality.  We can have abortions or sterilize ourselves in order to embrace sexual immorality.  In the end, we are being propagandized that reality itself is the enemy.  Our biology is the enemy.  We are being led down a path of hating the weakness and frailty of our humanity.  Instead of waiting for the Creator to make us immortal, we will make ourselves gods, which is the original lie that Satan told Eve.  “You will be like God.” 

Why is Satan so bent on teaching us to destroy our humanity and to make ourselves over in an image of our own making?  Is it just pure hatred against God and His Creation?  Or, is something else going on?  Hebrews 2:16 reminds us that God does not give help to angels, but does give help to the offspring of Abraham.  Of course, we are told elsewhere that all who put their faith in Jesus become his, and, by definition, also become the offspring of Abraham.  Redemption is not available for any beings, but humans.  Think about that for a moment.  Why would I make myself something other than human?  That would disqualify me from being redeemable.  It is a mark of a beast because, in taking it, we become something less than human.  Thus, Revelation 14:9 and the following verses warn.  Anyone who takes the mark will be doomed to the Lake of Fire, the second death, no option for redemption.  Yes, the plan of Satan is to dehumanize humanity and thus damn us forever.

The Lamb’s plan

The plan of Christ requires us to be patient, and to embrace our weakness.  We are to embrace our humanity as God created us instead of fighting against it.  We are to live in loyalty to Jesus and die with faith in him and his plan.  A plan in which Jesus will resurrect all who believe upon him to inherit immortality, and a place with him in a New Heavens and a New Earth.

Our weaknesses are not our problem.  Our problem is that we are deceived into thinking that they are the things that hold us back from greatness.  Our weakness is actually the greatest strength that we have.  It is our weakness that allows us to be forgiven, redeemed, and resurrected. 

Contrary to the motives of Satan and The Beast, Jesus has proven his intentions and ability.  At the cross, Jesus shows the depths that he is willing to go to in order to save us, and he does just that.  His resurrection proves to all time that he is the Lord of Life and is able to conquer death.  Even if Satan intended to try and give to humanity what God is offering, he cannot deliver.  Everything he would try would be a cheap imitation that leads to destruction in the end.  Only Jesus is both worthy and able to raise humanity up out of its weak state and put us into a state of strength that is even greater than that of the angels. 

What kind of heart do I have?  One that wants to follow a crushing beast so that I can feel strong and powerful for a brief amount of time?  Or, one that will follow a sacrificed lamb who trusts the plan of the Father, which feels weak and powerless to our flesh?  You see our hearts and the choices we make are demonstrating to God whether he should give us true strength or not.  Only those who can humble themselves and lean upon Him and His strength can receive the strength that He has offered us.

The Beast’s plan gets mankind to trade its freedom for security, but Jesus offers us true freedom, the freedom of the Sons of God.  True freedom cannot be found in fighting creation and its Creator, fighting our nature and nature’s God.  This only leads to self-tyranny, and ultimately to the tyranny of Satan as a useful idiot in his kingdom.  2 Corinthians 3:17 says, “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom!”  This is a true freedom where I am no longer a prisoner to sin and my own fallen flesh.  It is a true freedom where I am no longer manipulable and easily duped through the baser desires of my flesh.  It is a freedom in which I break free from my human condition by trusting in the God who loves us with a steadfast love, and mercies that are new every morning!

The plan of the Lamb does not reject and despise our humanity, but instead it capitalizes on the very reality of our humanity, even embracing it and joining us in our humanity.  If we embrace our weakness and learn to lean upon God’s loving strength that He has promised to use on our behalf then we will rise triumphant in the end.

In the years ahead, depending on how much longer God allows this to go on, we will face a growing case that is being made for us to use technology to free ourselves from these human shackles.  It is a deception and a lie.  Even with our knowledge of DNA, we cannot genetically manipulate ourselves into godhood.  We cannot seize the reins of our evolution and lead ourselves to a place that we’ve never been and by a being who is anything but God.  No.  His plan will make us beasts, irredeemable, and destroyed in the end.  Trust the plan of God.  This may not sound scientific, but it is actually created by the One who created all that we seek to understand through science.  Think about that.

End-Times Battle audio

The Cross of Jesus

Happy Resurrection Sunday!

John 12:20-26.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Resurrection Sunday, April 12, 2020.

Today, we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus from the dead as the Lord of Life!  We are going to put the Gospel of Mark on pause for a while, and we are going to turn to the cross of Jesus.  In the weeks ahead, I plan to walk through the purpose that God has for His Church and each individual who makes up that Church.

Now, for the topic at hand, many tyrannical places around the world despise the cross of Jesus.  This week stories came out of China telling how crosses were broken off of churches.  When the Byzantine Empire was taken out by Muslim armies, the churches would have their crosses removed.  The cross is the signature symbol of the Christian faith. 

Yet, even Jesus was troubled by the cross in his humanity.  There is a part in all of us that shrinks back from the cross and says, “Surely that can’t be necessary!”  Or, maybe we say, “Surely that can’t fix anything!”

I would like to present to you the only man who can both save the world, and save you as an individual.  From what, do you ask?  He can save you from everything.  He can save you from hopelessness, failure, physical maladies, the many forms of self-slavery that our cravings bring us, and even death itself.  Let’s look at our passage.

The cross is a demonstration of his glory

Our passage opens with some Greeks, who had come to Jerusalem for the feast of Passover, wanting to see Jesus.  Most likely, they desire some kind of audience where they might ask questions and learn about this Jesus first hand.

Remember that this is the final week before the crucifixion.  Jesus has been teaching in the Temple area while retiring to Bethany in the evenings.  Every day more and more Israelites arrive from around the world in order to participate in the Holy Day of Passover.  This is important because Jesus had made it clear that his focus was on the house of Israel and not the Gentiles up to this point.  This is not because he didn’t care about Gentiles, but rather, because he needed to reveal himself first to Israel.  It would be transformed Israelites who would then show Jesus to the rest of the world.

Before we move on, I would like to point out the interesting parallel here.  At his birth, Gentiles came from the East to worship him, and now at his death Gentiles come from the West to learn from him.  His life was and still is a magnet that draws all kinds of people from everywhere to him.

It doesn’t appear that Jesus granted these men their request.  Instead, he uses the opportunity to make several important points to the people listening to him.  As much as any of us may want to see Jesus, or God, in any particular way, we need to see him on the cross.  These Greeks are fascinated with what they have heard about Jesus.  Perhaps, they want to be wowed with his wisdom like the Queen of Sheba and Solomon.  Or, it is possible that they wanted a demonstration of his power through a miracle of some sort.  We all tend to approach Jesus with something in mind that we want to see, but what we “need” to see is something we would never think. 

Jesus refers to the cross as a time of his glorification.  The hour had come.  Now, things would change.  He would finally be glorified.  Of course, his disciples think they know what that means.  In our flesh, we all think of glory as something where we win and our enemies lose, and no doubt that is what is going to happen.  However, it will not look like winning for Jesus and it will not look like losing for his enemies.  These Greeks do not need to see Jesus as a teacher in Jerusalem who has all the answers.  Rather, they needed to see him in all of his glory. 

Typically, we picture the Second Coming as the glory of Jesus, and it is part of his glory.  However, we must not skip over the cross.  It was the beginning of his time of glory.  Can it be that dying on a cross was not the last part of his humiliation, but rather the beginning of his glory?  Or, perhaps we can describe it as a kind of twilight period of transitioning, where both exist and intermingle. 

Regardless, the world likes the message of a glorious savior to fix its problems.  Even today, it clamors looking for someone with all the answers.  Yet, the world does not see Jesus hanging on a cross as a glorious answer to their problems.

We can shout at God to come down out of the heavens to prove Himself, and yet, even then we want to control just how He does that.  Yes, God has come down out of the heavens, and He has pulled back the curtain of creation so that we can see Him, but not in the way that we are wanting.  To our flesh, the cross and glory are antonyms, but Jesus tells us that they are synonyms.  We need to see him on a cross, pause, and meditate on just why it is so glorious.

We are in a bind, both as a world and as individuals.  I can’t blame all the ills of the world upon society, and other nations.  No, I am guilty of my own sins and faults.  No amount of doing good can make up for the fact of the times that I didn’t do good.  I am continually heaping up more and more offenses against my fellow man and the God of heaven.

Jesus is the perfect Son of God who has come down from heaven, where he was safe and secure.  He made himself vulnerable by taking on flesh, and then he died in your place to pay the price for your sins.  His righteous act of sacrificing himself, outweighs every sin ever committed upon this planet.  It is that glorious and amazing.  The cross is intended to shock us out of our lethargy, and show us the depths of God’s love for each of us.  This is how much he loves us.  This is a glorious love.

Friend, understand just how much God loves you.  Yes, you are loved by your Father in heaven.  Without the cross, we wouldn’t understand just how far He is willing to go to save us.  With such a Father, we are never hopeless, though all the world be darkness.  Amen!

The cross is where he dies that we might live

The disciples had difficulty understanding the attempts of Jesus to tell them that he was going to be killed.  Part of that is because it seems like nothing can be accomplished by letting yourself be killed.  This is the amazing turning of the tables upon the devil and his cohorts.  Because of who he is, Jesus produces life for us through his death.

In verse 24, Jesus uses the metaphor of a grain of wheat.  The seed would normally be eaten, but then its life principle would be over.  If the seed is put in the ground instead then it produces much more grain than itself.  God has hardwired this teaching aid into His creation so that we can understand His power.  He has a plan that looks like a waste, but in the end, it produces more life than what you had.

This concept that life can come out of death is intended to give us hope.  The death of Jesus can produce life for you and me because he pays the price for our sins.  It is a legal action.

Yet, it is more than a legal action.  It is also an inspiring thing because he is going to tell us to follow him.  It is one thing for Jesus to die on our behalf, but quite another for him to tell us to follow him.  In a way, every generation of children watch their grandparents and parents marching ahead of them into death.  Why participate in such a macabre process?  Yet, if they have faith in God, they will grow up, create a family, grow old, and die in their own time.  The generation ahead of us marches forward challenging us to follow them.  There is life in this thing if you will just believe. 

In fact, there is life even on the other side of this thing.  The death and resurrection of Jesus gives proof and hope that God really does have a plan to resurrect all who believe in Jesus.  He will then set all things right, both spiritually and physically.  We will enter into new heavens and a new earth in order to receive the reward that only the Creator can give to us.

Ultimately, Jesus says that if he didn’t do this then God would remain alone.  Sure, it would be Father, Son and Holy Spirit, the eternal being who is also a community.  Yet, there would be no human children of God entering into His family.  I don’t think God processes aloneness like we do, but Scripture is clear.  He would rather die on a cross than go into eternity without His human family joining Him.

The cross is where we let go of our life, and serve him

In verse 25, Jesus makes one of his classic statements that is more than a challenge; it is a warning.  If I love my life then I am going to lose it.  It is generally the second part of the statement that causes people to balk.  “He who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.”

Here, Jesus describes a tension between this mortal life that we live and the eternal life that only God can give.  Let me quickly explain the hate part of this verse.  Some versions actually translate the word as “not love.”  Jesus does not want us to have a kind of neurotic hatred of ourselves.  The Semitic mindset used this word for a broad range that went from an extreme disgust and dislike of something, or someone, to simply not choosing something.  One example of this is found in Genesis 29, where it says that the Lord saw that Leah was hated (i.e. not loved like Rachel was).  Jacob had been tricked into marrying her, and then worked 7 more years for Rachel her sister, the one he wanted to marry in the first place.  There is no indication that Jacob mistreated Leah, despised her, or was ever mean to her, but in the end, he would always choose Rachel over the top of her.  That must have hurt a lot for her, but our culture wouldn’t use the word hate for that. 

Jesus is challenging us to choose Him over the top of our lives every time.  He wants us to follow him into his sufferings, not just suffering per se, but the sufferings that are encountered as we do what God wants us to do.  In this sense, we become pilgrims, sojourners, or strangers on this earth.  Yes, we love people and love the life that we are able to live here on the earth.  However, in the end, we are really living for Jesus and the eternal life that only he can give.  That is what he is telling us.

We are familiar with the phrase from Jesus, “Come, and follow me,” but verse 26 adds the word serve to this.  We cannot serve Jesus without actually following him. They are to be inseparably linked.  Many people have tried to serve Jesus without actually following him.  They served as deacons, pastors, archbishops, lay members, and even popes.  Yet, they will never follow Jesus to the cross where their self-will is put to death.  Jesus was dying to the self-life and living out the purposes of His Father in heaven.  In the end, the pretenders may look like they are serving Christ, but they won’t follow him completely.  They actually serve themselves with a thin veneer of service to Jesus to help them fit in.  We can’t serve Jesus and ourselves.  We will hate the one and follow the other eventually.

However, we should neither confuse salvation with service.  We are not saved by our service to Christ.  We are saved for service, among other purposes.  Our service is to flow from a heart of gratitude to the Savior for covering our sins, and turning us from the self-life to the life led by the Holy Spirit.  This situation is difficult and is much like Jacob having two wives.  It created many difficult moments between his wives and their children.  May God help us to choose Jesus over the top of our selfish desires because only he has the words of eternal life.

This passage ends with two promises for those who follow Jesus and serve him.  He promises us that we will be united with him.  Sometimes it may feel like we aren’t getting anywhere, but if our eyes are on Jesus then he is leading us to himself.  When we leave this earth, we will be in his presence and at his side, never to be separated again.  When Jesus comes back to earth, we will be resurrected and come back with him.

This leads to the second promise.  We will be honored by the Father.  The biggest part of that honor is to share in the honor of Jesus as he returns to judge mankind and set things right.  That can be a day of honor for you or a day of dishonor.  It is our choice now that determines which we will experience.

Today, the cross of Jesus has been set before you.  It is not a lovely sight for any to behold.  However, there is life on the other side, and what a life it is.  Don’t let the allure of this life and the promises of this world draw your heart away from the only hope that we have.  Christian, hold fast to Jesus and love him more than life itself.  Sinner, let go of your life and what you want it to be.  Instead, put your faith and hope in Jesus.  He alone knows the way to eternal life and a perfect world.  He alone actually loves you so much that he would die on a cross for you!

The Cross of Jesus audio