Where Are We Headed? Part 5

Isaiah 25:1-12.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on April 17, 2022, Resurrection Sunday.

We will finish this series today.  We started off by talking about the fine sounding promises of the elite of this world: creating utopia, everyone learning to get along, science solving every problem, etc.  The problem is that at the end of every one of these promises is a road full of brokenness and being used. 

It is not like science was invented 20 years ago and we just need to give them more time.  The great powers of this world know that people see this, and so they build ever new forms making the same old promises.  They manipulate us to rebel against the old forms, which they created by the way, and put our hopes in the new forms. 

Of course, we should start asking ourselves a couple of questions.  Can they actually deliver such promises?  And even more insidious, do they really intend to deliver these things for every one?  Perhaps, this is their utopia and it requires a seething mass of humanity in shackles everywhere.

Twenty-nine centuries ago, God showed the prophet Isaiah that the capital cities of each nation, even Israel, were full of sin and tyranny over the people.  He promised two things: judgment on the cities and their elite, and salvation for the oppressed.

Let’s begin to look at Isaiah 25.

The world’s false promise of salvation

We should note that chapters 13 to 23 in the book of Isaiah are prophecies of judgment against each nation and its leading city that was around Israel.  Israel is included in this series of dooms (Samaria in Isaiah 17 and Jerusalem in Isaiah 22).  Chapter 24 becomes the climax and template for the book of The Revelation of Jesus Christ, or The Apocalypse.  It is sometimes called Isaiah’s Apocalypse.  It pictures the whole earth devastated under the wrath of God’s judgment.  This is not just a judgment on a particular nation, or city.  This is something that encompasses all of the nations. 

On the heels of this, chapter 25 is essentially a hymn of praise, a rejoicing over God’s saving judgment in chapter 24.  Humanity has been oppressed by other humans who have prostituted themselves to power, money, and even wicked spiritual beings who truly manipulate things on this earth.  The day will come when God will unleash a final salvation of the poor and needy from the oppression of the wicked.

In some ways, nothing has changed today, other than the oppression becoming more sophisticated and deceptive.  However, Resurrection Sunday and the Cross of Jesus the Christ is a reminder from God that He has not forgotten His promise.  The death and resurrection of Jesus shows us that our greatest problem is not billionaires and an elite shadow-government.  Rather, our greatest problem is our own sin and tendency to rebel against trusting God and His promise. In a sense, we are discouraged by the “success” of the wicked, and drawn into their world of compromise to whatever individual degree we choose.  If Christ did not do what he did 20 centuries ago, none would be saved from the wrath of God that even now looms over this world like a dark shadow because we all would be complicit.

Chapter 25 speaks of a particular city, even though the preceding chapters make clear that all the great cities of the earth will be judged.  It is called a “fortified city,” “a palace of foreigners,” and “the city of the terrible nations.  Note that the term terrible has the idea of awe and fear inspiring.  The shock and awe of the great nations of the earth is seated or headquartered in a particular city.  This is parallel with the city Babylon the Great that is destroyed in The Revelation.

This city is the city that rules over the world, and has changed locations throughout the centuries.  In fact, in keeping with Revelation’s harlot imagery, we should see the capital cities of the world as prostituting themselves saying, “Pick me!  Pick me!  I want to be the seat of power and authority in the earth.”  Of course, they do not cry out to God and His Anointed One Jesus.    Instead, they build an Olympus like system of oppression over the common people, and propagate themselves through a dog-eat-dog climbing of the mountain.  Those who are able to raise themselves up out of the sea of humanity and sit atop the pinnacle of earthly power become the modern demi-gods of this world.  Such is the true actions of Satan, always promising godhood to those who serve him and his purposes. 

This “godhood” is not all it is cracked up to be as the “demi-gods” realize that they are simply slaves to the devil and his angels.  The revelation of the One True God is that these beings will all suffer the second death and their greatness will be no more. 

Today, we see this same model and struggle.  The powerful cities of the earth merely struggle with one another for the “privilege” of being the next city that rules the world and oppresses at will, projecting power globally at will.  This final city is the one that Isaiah refers to and John as well.

In verse 4, we are shown that the poor and needy are under great distress.  The terrible ones of the earth blast against them like a storm against a wall, and like a hot desert wind serving as the furnace of their affliction.  They need refuge from the storm and shelter from the heat.  The elite have never cared for the average person of this world, the poor and needy.  No matter how much they may give lip service to it, they only care about themselves in the end.

Verse 7 mentions a covering of evil that has been cast over the nations.  This covering can also be seen as a veil.  It has several layers that are spiritually connected.  Ultimately, there is a veil of spiritual deception that has been instigated by the devil and his angels and cast over all the world.  Second Corinthians 4:3-4 says,

“…even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.…” 

Also, those powerful men and women of the earth, who have learned to also operate behind veils of intentions and actions in order to manipulate the masses for their ends, create evil covers.  Of course, at our current stage there are often competing veils.  However, even this competition is a kind of a veil.  In the end, they are all on the same team working towards the same ends.  Things are never as they seem with these people, and with these spiritual beings.  There is always enough truth to sell the poison and lies mixed into it.  This is their mode of operating.

Lastly, in verse 11, Isaiah prophesies that God will bring down their great pride and the trickery in their hands.  Their tricks are similar to the veils.  The tricks represent the plans they operate behind the veils.  Their cunning craftiness seems to work to their great gain, but God will eventually bring it down on their heads.  “What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?”  Matthew 8:36 (NKJV).  This judgment day is true for the individual powers as each empire replaces another one, and it is true globally as God promises an end to this dog-eat-dog wrestling of the terrible ones on the earth, and the oppression is puts on humanity.  In fact, it is time to admit that even Washington D.C. has taken its place as a city of the terrible nations oppressing the poor as they vie for power over the world.  Like little children, our state capitols are in her tresses scooping up what little tidbits they can from their mother’s industry, i.e., prostitution.

Enough about the wickedness of this world and its judgment.  This is a chapter about celebrating God’s final judgment!  Hallelujah!

Rejoice for Yahweh really saves!

Yahweh is the name given to Moses at the burning bush.  It speaks to God’s eternal being.  He is not only the always existing one, but also, He is what He always will be.  This word has historically been transliterated into English as Jehovah.  Regardless, it is not important to get hung up on the change of language and misunderstanding of scholars.  In the end, the One True God knows when we are faithfully referring to Him.  Many people knew the proper spelling and pronunciation of God’s name in the first century, but they perished because their hearts were far from Him. 

As I said earlier, this chapter is a hymn or psalm of praise as the dust settles from chapter 24. The righteous are seen rejoicing that God’s counsels of old have proven to be faithful and true.  Imagine it.  In Isaiah’s time (700s BC), the counsels of God were already ancient, starting with Adam and then to Noah, to Abraham, to Moses, to David, to Isaiah and lastly to Jesus.  In all of these, God has counseled us to trust in Him and His plan to save us.  If we do, we will not be put to shame, but all of those who cast Him aside and join the terrible ones will be put to shame.  Yes, it doesn’t look like that here on earth, but what we see today is not the whole sum of reality, nor of our existence.  Even now, those same counsels are a strength for the needy.  It gives us faith and purpose.  It gives us understanding and wisdom. 

We understand that Christ came to deal with our greatest enemy first, and it is our job to go to war against that great enemy within that seeks us to join the prostitution of the earth.  My sin and the desire of my flesh for it is the Goliath that I must slay!  Before we can deal with the tyrants of the world, we must all deal with our own inner tyrant screaming to get out.  This is why all revolutions ultimately fail.  Without facing truth, we only replace the old system with a new system destined to be corrupted and prostituted.  Praise God that He has revealed the things behind the curtains of today in the days of old, and we have these counsels faithfully preserved by His grace.

The salvation of Yahweh of course involves His judgment of those terrible ones.  You can picture the 2^nd Coming of Christ and his judgment against the kings of the earth along with the spiritual interlopers operating on the earth.  That day is coming as sure as the dawn.  We can even rejoice today as the Spirit of God opens our hearts to the truth that only He can deliver.

The great corruption across the world is part of the deception of the devil.  When his man the Antichrist comes forward, it will be a mockery, a trick, that pretends to put down the “wicked of the earth” for the sake of humanity.  Yet, his true intentions will quickly become seen.  By his fruits you will know him.  I don’t plan on being around to have to figure it out, but the counsels of God have warned the world of an arch-deceiver that will stand over all the earth at the end of time with an iron fist over religion, politics, and the economy.

Yes, there will be a revolt against the current political world in order to make room for a “grand new age of enlightened global governance.”  However, it will be done by people who are spiritually in chains to their sins, and they will only build a platform for the greatest evil this world has ever known.  Hallelujah that He promises to bring it down and remove it completely!  Here is a quote from Isaiah 24:21-22. 

"It shall come to pass in that day that the LORD will punish on high the host of exalted ones, and on the earth the kings of the earth.  They will be gathered together, as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and will be shut up in the prison; after many days they will be punished.”   

Note that it is referring to heavenly and earthly beings.  The rejoicing is not so much about their fate as it is about God’s relief for our oppression, and His restitution of righteousness.

Verse 8 talks about God swallowing up death forever, and wiping the tears from all faces.  Note that this identical to the language given to John in Revelation chapters 20 and 21.  The death of death and the destruction of the grave is something that seems to be mere poetry.  However, the resurrection of Jesus becomes God’s proof that He is greater than all of the things that oppress and hold us back from the destiny that He has for us.  Even death will flee away before the power of our God! 

The salvation of Yahweh is not just a temporary salvation during my short existence on this earth, but goes forward into eternity.  The shocking salvation of Yahweh is just as awe-inspiring, and even terrifying, as the actions of the terrible ones, but it is different in that it is good and righteous.

The tender picture of the Creator of all things wiping the tears from our eyes is what God wants you to know about Him, and to believe in Him, to trust in Him, to bring you to that precious moment.

Verse 6 pictures God creating a feast for the poor and needy after He has put down the terrible ones.  This is already spiritually true in Jesus.  At the cross, Jesus neutralized the only true weapon Satan could wield against us, our sin and the law.  Even now, we have a spiritual smorgasbord that Christ has given us in His Word, and gives to us daily by His Holy Spirit.  We can walk in these ancient counsels that continue to prove faithful and true.

This leads to verse 9 where the people celebrate by saying, “Behold, this is our God; we have waited for Him, and He is saving us.  This is the Lord; we have waited for Him; we will be glad and rejoice in His salvation!”  Some versions say that He will save us, or in the future.  That is a possible translation.  However, the word simply means that it isn’t done.  In the context of God’s recent judgment here (recent within the prophecy, but still future to the hearers of the prophecy), it is better to translate it as something that is started, but is still continuing.  It’s not completed yet.

Friend, God has loved you with an everlasting love, but He is also truth.  Your sin, my sin, has to be dealt with.  Jesus did his part to pay the price for our sins.  However, can we do our part by repenting of not putting our full trust in him?  Can we begin trusting in Jesus today and start walking a life that is founded upon God’s counsels?  May we realize that without God, this world has nothing for us, but with Him it is an amazing world of God’s grace!  Don’t prostitute yourself by casting off God in order to get more of this world.  It will only bring pain in the end.

Yahweh Saves! audio

Putting Life to Death

Mark 15:33-47.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on March 21, 2021.

In our rush for progress, there are many things that society appears to be trying to jettison.  It is true that there are often obstacles that I need to remove or find away around in order to progress in life.  However, the influence that Jesus Christ has upon many people throughout the world, has been moving to the top of the list.  The argument is being developed that Christians and the Bible are holding back the USA, even the world, from creating a society that is truly Utopia.

Now to be clear, it isn’t Christians and the Bible per se.  The challenge will come against “those kind of Christians” who interpret the Bible “in that kind of way.”  O, how ancient is the human tendency to tell itself that if we just rid ourselves of “those people” then we can be a greater society.  Of course, this is impossible.  The type of person who would think such a thought, and go along with it, is twisted already.  Such people cannot build a true Utopia, no matter how much science they follow.

The Bible tells us that Jesus is not only the Truth, but the Life of men.  “In him was life and the life was the light of men.  And, the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.”  (John 1:4-5 NKJV).  Think about how all life on this planet eventually dies, while new life rises up to take its place.  This is bad enough.  Humans must die, while others take their place.  However, there are situations in life in which life is purposefully extinguished.  The devil led Adam and Eve into an act that extinguished something of the life in them, that is why Jesus called him a “murderer from the beginning” (John 8:44).  Cain also extinguished something of the life in his brother Abel.  Yet, it is in Jesus that we see the true heart of humanity.  All people murdered by other humans up to that point were imperfect, and we can always tell ourselves that we were justified by their imperfections.  In Jesus, we didn’t just put to death a life.  In Jesus, we were putting to death The Life, the One who gave life to us in the first place (at least we were attempting to do so).  This is our problem.  We want God to go away, disappear, pretend that He doesn’t exist…, even die, so that we can do what we want, but with His stuff.  “God, go away, but leave your stuff for us to play with.”  This is a horrendous definition of Utopia because it believes it can exclude the giver of life and still have life.

When Jesus was put to death on the cross, he was offering us a way back to the Fullness of Life and we tried to snuff that out.  Newsflash: True Life cannot be snuffed out.  Yes, they killed his mortal life, but not his eternal life.  God knew our hearts and had incorporated such evil in His plan of salvation.  Know this; if the life of Christ dwells in you, you too cannot be snuffed out.  Yes, you may be killed, but they cannot snuff out eternal life, and this is the joyful inheritance that God has given to all of humanity who will turn from their sins and believe in what Jesus has done, and what he is telling us to do.

The death of Jesus

In our passage, we come to the point of the death of Jesus.  He will be on the cross from 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM, six hours.

At noon, a darkness comes over the land that lasts until Jesus dies three hours later.  This cannot be an eclipse for two reasons.  First, Passover always occurs during the full moon.  By definition, solar eclipses can only happen during the new moon.  Lunar eclipses can happen at the full moon, but they do not darken the whole land during the day, which leads us to the second point.  Solar eclipses only last minutes for the totality, not hours.

Through the years, many conjectures have been made for what caused this darkness: a sandstorm, a volcanic eruption in the region, storm clouds, etc.  Whatever the cause of this darkness, it is strange enough by itself, but when added to the crucifixion of Jesus, it gives an ominous picture.  The literal event becomes symbolic of a spiritual event.  God had sent them light and they tried to snuff it out.  Therefore, God sends a spiritual darkness upon them.  This is prophesied throughout the Old Testament.  The Apostle Paul refers to it when he says, “But their minds were blinded. For until this day the same veil remains unlifted in the reading of the Old Testament, because the veil is taken away in Christ.  But even to this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart.”  (2 Corinthians 3:14-15 NKJV).

Simultaneously, the darkness becomes symbolic of the dark night of the soul of Jesus, as the Father must abandon his son to a punishment he didn’t deserve.  By the way, it is interesting that Amos 8:9 prophesies of a time when it will be dark at noon by God’s doing.

Mark then tells us that Jesus cried out with a loud voice in the Aramaic language, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”  This statement of Jesus has at least two purposes.  It stands to let us know how he feels in that moment as he approaches his death.  The Father is not stepping in and protecting him from injustice.  The Father is also placing all of humanity’s sins upon him.  The separation of relationship in the moment is something that even the eternal Son of God had never known.  Most likely, this was the most horrible part of his crucifixion.

Secondly, Jesus is actually giving a direct quote of the first verse of Psalm 22.  It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to recognize that he is directing our attention to that passage.  What Scripture verse would you quote when you were being executed unjustly?  It would be one that would fit the situation well enough to highlight the injustice.  When you read Psalm 22 (a great homework assignment by the way), it sounds as if it was written by Jesus on the cross.  For 20 verses, David describes a horrible plight of oppression and torture at the hands of others.  Verse 21 has a clear change.  “Save me from the lion’s mouth and from the horns of the wild oxen!  You have answered me!”  The rest of the psalm then goes on to praise God.  Clearly, Jesus intends for us to make the connection.  He is going to die, and it will look like God has not heard him, but has forsaken him.  However, Psalm 22 promises that the moment will come when God will answer him.  It wouldn’t be the case for Jesus and it won’t be the case for you!  No matter what injustice you suffer, even death, God has not abandoned you and will resurrect you to keep His promises.

Mark then tells us that Jesus gave a loud cry and gave up his last breath.  He doesn’t tell us what that cry was, but from the Gospels of John and Luke, we have at least two sentences Jesus spoke as he came to his death. 

“It is finished!” (John 19:30).  The task that Jesus had been sent to do had been accomplished.  He could now die and bring the torture to an end.  However, the word Jesus uses for being finished was also one that would be stamped on a bill to show that the transaction has been finished.  In modern parlance, we would say, “Paid in full!”  Jesus had paid the price for our sins completely, through his suffering of our penalty.  The wrath of God is poured out upon him and he dies.

Luke 23:46 also tells us that Jesus says, “Father, into your hands I commit my Spirit.”  Whether this last part is also cried out or not is immaterial.  Even in a moment of feeling forsaken, Jesus teaches us the wisest thing ever.  When you have nothing left, don’t turn your back on God.  Instead, commit yourself into His hands.  He can be trusted even when it doesn’t look like it.  Much of our problem comes from not speaking these words each day as we approach our own daily crucifixion (metaphorically).  Every day for the Christian is crucifixion day, a day when I will put my own flesh to death.  My flesh won’t like it, but we must commit our spirit into the Father’s hands and trust His way, trust the Savior Jesus that He has given us.

Jesus spoke at least seven things from the cross and they are all worth meditating upon.  You will have to look through all of the Gospels to find them, but take the time this week to do that (Matthew 27, Mark 15, Luke 23, John 19).

As Jesus gives up his last breath, the darkness over the land comes to an end.  In truth, this is the moment of most spiritual light for the earth.  God is dead on a cross.  Jesus has perfectly shown us the love of the Father despite all of our accusations against Him.  Light is about to be sent out to the ends of the earth through the apostles and disciples of Jesus.

Several other things occur at his death that serve to underscore the gravity of what is happening.  Mark mentions that the veil in the temple was torn in half.  Mark leaves out that there was a powerful earthquake, which serves as the mechanism of ripping the large veil (about 4 inches thick).  The veil separated the area called the holy place.  It had the menorah, the table of bread representing the tribes of Israel, and the altar of incense.  Priests came into this area each day.  However, behind the veil was the ark of the covenant, which served as the footstool of the presence of God on earth.  This was the most restricted place in all of Israel.  Only the High Priest, on only one day of the year, and only observing the correct rituals, could enter into this space where God’s presence dwelled.  The ripped veil represents that the way into the presence of God has been opened up by the great High Priest Jesus.  Believers would no longer need an earthly priest to mediate for them every year.  They could go directly to God, and His “throne of grace.”  The next time someone complains to you about the restrictions on foreigners, women, common men, and common priests, remind them of this moment.  We want God to be all-powerful, but not dangerous.  That is because, we want a god that we can control, that is safe.  God is holy and just.  None of us dare approach him without the wisdom of how to do that.  However, in Jesus God opens up the way so that every man, woman and child can approach Him through repentance and faith.

At this point, the centurion, whose job it is to make sure Jesus dies, is overwhelmed by what he sees.  “Surely, this man was the son of God!”  Luke adds, “a righteous man.”  He had seen many rebels and murderers put to death, but the death of Jesus was something altogether different.  The manner of Jesus and the spectacular events surrounding his death convinced this Roman soldier that Jesus was a righteous man who was the Son of God!

Mark tells us that there were also many of the female followers of Jesus watching all of this.  In Luke, we are told that the crowd disperses, beating their breasts in a show of anguish and grief.  They too are shocked by what they have seen.  This was a tragic day, a day when the lights went out in Jerusalem, a day when they crucified an innocent man.

The burial of Jesus

Jesus has expired in his physical frame around 3:00 PM, and the Sabbath quickly approaches.  It is at this point that a rich man named Joseph, from the town of Arimathea- it was northwest of Jerusalem by approximately 8 miles- asks Pilate for permission to bury the body of Jesus.  Joseph was member of the Sanhedrin, the ruling elders of Israel.  He had dissented to the council’s actions earlier that morning.  This is who he is.  We are also given information about Joseph’s spiritual condition.  He lived waiting for the Kingdom of God.  He wasn’t giving it lip service, but actually looked for it to happen.  The Apostle Peter gives a similar exhortation to believers in 2 Peter 3:11-12.  Knowing that all the things of this earth and the universe are going to be dissolved by fervent heat, what sort of people ought we to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the Day of God?  We need to be a people who are waiting and looking (even hastening) the coming of the Day of God, the Second Coming of Jesus.  It was people who had given up on the Kingdom of God that gave themselves to crucifying Jesus.  Don’t give up spiritually on God.  Those who wait on Him will be glad that they did in the end.

When our hopes go beyond this world, and are not desperately seated only in the material plane, then we are spared the desperate acts that, in trying to grasp at life, actually put true life to death.  Jesus warned us.  “Whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel's will save it.” (Mark 8:35 NKJV). 

Pilate then confirms that Jesus has truly died and gives Joseph permission to remove the body and bury it.  We are told that Joseph wraps the body in a new, expensive linen and lays it in a new, rock tomb that is sealed against intruders by a large stone.  No doubt, this tomb had been intended by Joseph to be for his family, but now was given in service to the Lord.

All of this is observed by the women mentioned earlier.  They witness where Jesus is buried, and eventually go home for the Sabbath, preparing spices for his body, to bring when the Sabbath is over.

It is good that we pause in this valley of death, at the moment when all seems lost, and life seems dead.  Part of what Jesus is showing us is that the Life of God cannot truly be extinguished.  I’m not saying that Jesus didn’t actually die, but that this cannot be the final word.  We are more than bodies, and Jesus is more than a human spirit.  In Christ, we are given assurance that our exit from this world is not the final word on our life.  Those who put their faith in God will rise again as Jesus will soon show us in the next chapter.  The life of God will cause us to shine like the stars.  However, no amount of “following the science” can do anything but lead us into dead ends.  Only God can give us what we seek.  Put your faith in Him today!

Putting Life to Death audio

Trapping Jesus-Theology

Mark 12:18-27.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on August 16, 2020.

We continue looking at the various teachings that Jesus gave within the temple compound during the week leading up to his crucifixion.  Some of these teachings are initiated by Jesus, but some of them are initiated by the various groups that did not like Jesus.  The antagonists today are a group called the Sadducees, more on them in a bit.

The trap today has to do with theology.  What does the Bible actually teach?  As the Sadducees try to trap Jesus with his own words, we are given a proof once again that Jesus cannot be trapped by mankind.  He doesn’t just know the truth; he is the truth.  As you listen to this passage today, I pray that you will come to understand that the modern world is not any better at “trapping God” than the ancient world was.

We may have greater technology, and we may have furthered the discussion of philosophy to a finer point, but we are still fallen creatures trying to prosecute the one who is not fallen.  It won’t work.  In the end, Jesus will be proven true and all who stand against him will be proven to be liars, lying to ourselves internally, and lying to the world externally.  Trying to trap Jesus is to trap ourselves in the end.

Our only hope is to surrender to Jesus and ask him to save us because we cannot save ourselves.  Let’s look at this passage.

A question about the resurrection

Our question today has to do with whether or not there is such a thing as a bodily resurrection of those who have died.  Although it is not precisely stated that way, Mark makes it clear up front that the Sadducees do not believe that a resurrection day was promised by God, and this is the source of their question.

So, who are these Sadducees?  Let’s take about 6 minutes to look at the history that has led up to this point.  During the 500’s BC, Israel was defeated by the Babylonians (modern day Iraq).   Many of the Israelites were taken back to Babylon as captives.  Then, the Persians defeated the Babylonians (they were from modern day Iran).  The Persians allowed the Jews to return to Israel in order to rebuild their country, Jerusalem, and the temple.  This was going on from the end of the 500’s through the 400’s BC.

The next change happens as the Greek empire under Alexander the Great rises up and defeats the Persians.  From 330 BC to 167 BC, the Greeks dominate Israel and the apex of their control comes under Antiochus IV (Epiphanes) who ruled from Antioch, Syria.  Over the course of these 160 years, Israel was heavily influenced by the Greek culture, which called itself Hellas and its peoples the Helenes.  By the end of this period, many Jews had adopted Greek ways, using Greek names, refusing to circumcise their young, and adopting a Greek calendar, which changed the days on which the feasts of the Lord landed.

It is in this context that Antiochus Epiphanes lights the fuse of Israel by outlawing Jewish rituals, mandating the worship of Zeus, and slaughtering a pig to Zeus on the temple altar in Jerusalem.  The next 50 years (167 BC to 110 BC) would be a tug-of-war between the Greeks and the rebel Israelites.  It would also be a fight between Hellenized Jews who wanted a Greek government and those who wanted to stay faithful to the Old Testament and Yahweh.

During this time, a number of priests left Jerusalem and developed the Qumran community in the wilderness above the Dead Sea that we know by the Dead Sea Scrolls.  They saw Jerusalem and its priests as corrupt and so they went into the wilderness to wait for Messiah to show up and fix everything.  The priests who stayed in Jerusalem called themselves the Sadducees, which is a Greek form of the Hebrew name Zadok.  The family of Zadok was the High Priest family.  Even though the high priests were starting to compromise, the Zadokites or Sadducees felt that the High Priest should be followed without question.   They were made up of the High Priest, the priests faithful to him, and many of the upper class in Israel.  At some point, a more conservative group who had not gone into the wilderness began to separate themselves from the Sadducees, and that is the Pharisees.

The Sadducees did not believe in human spirits, or angels (see Acts 23:7), and thus they did not believe in a holding place for departed spirits (the grave) or a possible resurrection of these spirits.  They were essentially the liberal “Christians” of their day.

Now that we have established who these Sadducees were, let’s look at their approach to Jesus.  Instead of asking Jesus to prove from Scripture that there is a resurrection, they use a different strategy.  They remind Jesus of the Kinsman Redeemer law mentioned in Deuteronomy 25:5.  They then share a hypothetical story about a man who marries a woman, but dies without a child being born, i.e. no heir.  The Law of Moses required the nearest kin, like a brother, to marry the woman and father a child with her that would legally carry the name of the man who died, and inherit his estate.  This may seem strange in our modern culture, but this was very common throughout the ancient world.  Their cultures were family and tribe oriented.  Everything was done to keep the family and tribe strong, especially things having to do with offspring and inheritance.  A widow had a problem.  Who would take care of her?  However, if she was childless then she had another problem.  Who would take care of her in her old age?  The family also has a problem.  What shall we do with the dead brother’s estate, allow it to be severed and spread among the rest of the tribe, or legally supply an heir for him?  Whether or not you think this is the proper way to deal with these things, the duty of a kin was to protect the name and inheritance of his close relatives.  In fact, the whole story of Ruth centers on this law.

Now, in our hypothetical story, a second brother marries the woman, but dies before an heir is conceived.  The same thing continues happening with all of the seven brothers, until the wife dies in the end having never had a child.  This hypothetical situation sets up the absolute worse-case scenario for this law.  It is similar to what happens in the story of Judah and Tamar.  Tamar marries Judah’s firstborn, but he dies before a child is conceived.  Then, Judah’s second son is married to Tamar, but he refuses to help her become pregnant.  He dies as a judgment from God.  So now, Judah’s third son should marry Tamar, but Judah is gun-shy.  He suspects that his third son will die too, and so he creates a ruse to keep the marriage from happening.  So, most likely this story would never actually happen.  Most people would see the woman as cursed and refuse to marry her at that point.

It is important to see that the Sadducees are employing a debating technique that is called Reduction to Absurdity.  Instead of rejecting your opponents view, you pretend as if it were true and show that it leads to an absurdity.  They feel that their hypothetical creates such an absurd situation that the initial idea of resurrection should then come into question.  The absurdity comes to the surface with the question, “Which of the men will have her as their wife in the Resurrection (that they don’t believe in)?” 

I would point out two things.  First, there is an inheritance problem here that they totally blow by.  The laws of the kinsman redeemer had nothing to do with the resurrection.  They were all about a woman having security and a man’s name not being lost within the tribe.

Second, the problem is not nearly as absurd as they make it.  It would be the same problem if we ask, “Whose wife is Ruth in the Resurrection, Boaz or Mahlon?”  The presence of seven guys doesn’t change the question, but they do make it more absurd.  Ultimately, you could just say that the Bible is silent on this issue and therefore God will make the judgment then.  This would resolve the issue without giving clarity about what exactly would happen.  God is just and He can be trusted to give a wise decision.  However, this is not how Jesus responds.

The answer of Jesus

Before Jesus gives his answer, he explains in verse 24 why the Sadducees are wrong on this issue, but he does so in question form.  The NKJV says that they are “mistaken,” but the idea is that they are being led astray, or off the path of truth.  He is posing a rhetorical question, “Are you not being led astray, or deceived?”  The answer is the obvious, yes, and that they should know it.

Why are they being led astray, or better, what is their weakness that has made them susceptible to error on this point? Jesus gives us two reasons.

First, they don’t know the Scriptures.  Of course, they know the Scriptures in the sense of having read them, memorized much of them, and taught them.  However, they don’t intimately know them.  They cruise over passage after passage assuming that they have the truth without recognizing the implications in them that run counter to their philosophy.  Instead, they use Scripture to back up their positions through proof-texts and human reasoning.  If they really understood Scripture then they would not be led astray by people such as themselves who posit absurd hypotheticals, philosophies, and the reasoning of men.  So, their first problem has to do with a real ignorance of the Scriptures and the proper understanding of what God was saying in them.

Second, they don’t know the power of God.  Of course, if you were to ask them if God was all-powerful, they would have said that He was.  However, they wouldn’t apply that power to the resurrection because they have already reasoned that it can’t be.  This same problem happens with those who say that humans don’t have freedom to choose Jesus because that would mean that God is not completely sovereign.  Yet, at the same time that they say that, they are limiting God’s sovereignty by refusing to accept that God could sovereignly choose to give men a free choice.  God has the power and sovereignty to give man a real choice so that he can really choose.  Human reasoning can become a barrier to actually hearing what the Word of God is saying.

When we understand just how powerful God is, the One who created the whole universe, visible and invisible, problems like this dissipate.  Many reject the Bible because of things that sound impossible.  However, if God does exist as the Bible depicts then it is not absurd that He can do that which we cannot conceive being done.

In verse 25, Jesus finally gets to the answer.  Here, he reveals that the Sadducees are assuming something that God never said in His Word.  It doesn’t say anywhere in the Bible that our marriages will continue into the Resurrection in any way.  Now, it is a natural tendency to assume things and not question those assumptions.  Their whole argument hinges on the reality of marriage within the resurrected age.  Jesus reveals that the resurrection will not be a glorified repeat of this world.  Instead, we will be like the angels of heaven.  Angels do not need to propagate their species because God made them immortal. 

Up until now, humans have been a mortal species.  Yet, then we will not be so.  Paul speaks of this in 1 Corinthians chapter 15.  In the parallel passage of Luke 20:34, Jesus adds some more color to the statement. 

“The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage.  But those who are counted worthy to attain that age, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry nor are given in marriage; nor can they die anymore, for they are equal to the angels and are sons of God; being sons of the resurrection.” 

The resurrection not only changes us as individuals, but it also changes us as a species.  We can’t properly imagine the resurrected state because we have precious little understanding of what that means.  We have only known mortality.

It is important to understand that Jesus doesn’t need chapter and verse to support what he is saying because he has come from the Father and knows the whole plan, whether it has been revealed before or not.  Thus, in a way, Jesus is revealing new truth.  He confirms the resurrection and he reveals that there will not be marriage there.  Men and women will stand side by side in glorified bodies that are no longer male and female as we know them here.  We will stand together as the adult children of God.  The image is that we as a whole are the bride of Christ.

Yet, the Old Testament does have many passages that hint at, and even declare a belief in the resurrection.  In Job 19:25-27, he says, “For I know that my redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth.  And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another.  My heart faints within me!”  What kind of kinsman redeemer can redeem a person from the decay of their body?  This is an amazing passage and there are others like it.

However, Jesus knows that the Sadducees do not accept doctrine that is not in the Pentateuch (the first 5 books of the Bible).  Thus, Jesus uses the Burning Bush passage in Exodus 3.  There, God tells Moses that He is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  If the position of the Sadducees was correct then He would have to say that He was the God of Abraham, et al.  Yet, He says that He is, present tense.  In some way, Abraham and the other patriarchs were still very much alive.  Their spirits were held in the paradise side of She’ol, or Hades, and God was not going to leave them there forever.  In chapter 12 of his book, Daniel saw the day when multitudes who “slept in the dust of the earth,” would awake and rise “some to shame and everlasting contempt,” and others “to everlasting life.” 

We must not settle for a cultural acceptance of Christianity, but rather pursue a relationship with the Father through Jesus, and the Scriptures that reveal him.  We can only come to know them intimately by the help of God’s Holy Spirit.  Praise the Lord that we serve a powerful God who has made clear His glorious future for those who believe upon Jesus Christ!

Theology 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