The Character of God- Part 5

Subtitle:  God is Slow to Anger

Exodus 34:6-7.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on January 5, 2025.

Today, we move to the third aspect of God’s character.  He is slow to anger.  That thought is worth a hallelujah, perhaps a couple of hallelujah’s.  In fact, it is worth a whole Hallelujah Chorus, however many hallelujahs that would entail!

It is ironic that the “God of the Old Testament” is usually spoke of as being to angry and mean.  Yet, this is part of a great irony concerning complaints about the God.  On one hand, people complain that God was too angry and too judgmental.  On the other hand, they will complain by saying this.  “If God is good, then why is there so much evil in the world?”  Though these people have generally given up believing in a God, they use this two-pronged attack to justify their rejection.

However, these complaints are quite contradictory.  We want God to get rid of evil, and yet, in the cases where He has stepped in to judge evil, we don’t like it.  What they really mean is that God should use their definition of evil.  He should get rid of all “those kind of people.”  However, there are millions who think this way.  If God chose to operate by yours, all the others would still be complaining because they have a different definition of who is evil.  We want God to remove evil, but we don’t want Him to remove us.

Let’s look at this virtue of God’s patience, slowness to anger.  I mentioned back in the first sermon in this series that verse 6 centers on this character trait of God.  It is then put in tension with the central part of verse 7, looking like this.  God is slow to anger; yet, He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished.  It goes from joy, “yay!”, to sobriety, “oh!”  God forgives iniquity (i.e., guilty people) and yet He won’t let the guilty go unpunished.  He is not provoking us to question His character, but to question how those go together.

Ultimately, God is all of these characteristics: Compassionate, Gracious, Patient, Lovingkindness, and faithful truth.  Yet, you can’t game God.  Those who give lip service to Him, and yet, reject His perfect character, imaging the serpent, will be punished in the end along with those who outwardly rejected Him.  Thus, God is slow to anger, but He will eventually get there, if I don’t turn away from sin and towards Him.

These characteristics can be thought of as different facets of the goodness, or love of God.  However, in the end, they are simply facets of the unitary, underlying being of God.  It gives rise to these concepts that are all flavored somewhat differently.

God is slow to anger in the Old Testament

Slowness to anger probably doesn’t need to be defined, but the Hebrews had an interesting way of talking about anger.  In Exodus 34:6, God literally says that He is “long of nose.”  This is a metaphor that comes from anger language within Hebrew.  An angry person is often described as “their nose burned hot.”  It is descriptive of how a person’s face will turn red and become hot when they are angry.  I like to picture a tea kettle that heats up until the steam shooting forth causes the whistle to blow.  The anger builds up until it reaches the end of a person’s nose.  Of course, it is a metaphor and is generally translated without the metaphor, i.e., they became angry.  Let’s look at some examples in the Old Testament.

There is a scene in Genesis 39:19 where Joseph is being accused before his master, Potiphar.  Joseph had been sold into slavery by his brothers and ended up in Egypt.  There he was purchased by Potiphar and proved to be very good at managing things.  Joseph was soon put in charge of all of Potiphar’s holdings.  It was doing so well that Potiphar didn’t even ask how it was going.  He had full faith in Joseph’s ability to increase his wealth.  This drew the eye of Potiphar’s wife.  She tried to draw Joseph into a sexual relationship, but he ran out of the room.  Her response was to cry out and accuse him of trying to force himself upon her.  When she tells Potiphar, we are told “his anger burned.”  Literally it says that his “nose burned hot.” Potiphar had a very visible, angry response.

This helps us to understand how a patient person might be called long of nose.  It would take longer for their heated anger to reach the end of their nose.  We might say a long nose is similar to a long fuse.  The connection is not about actual long noses, but about being more patient and slow to explode in heated anger.

Let’s look at Proverbs 19:11 to further illustrate.  It reads, “A person’s discretion makes him slow to anger.” (NASB)  It literally reads, “The discretion of a man lengthens his nose.”  So, a person is not limited to what there personality is in the present.  We cannot plead innocence because we were “born with a very short nose.”  We can’t be absolved of fault because of a genetic predisposition.  Through gaining wisdom, we can lengthen our nose, lengthen our fuse, become more patient and less volatile.

Though a man can gain patience through the insight gained from a careful sifting of the facts, God does not gain patience or insight.  He is absolute discretion, or wisdom.  Thus, His patience is absolute.  God already knows absolutely everything about the universe.  He has the “longest nose” in the universe.  It takes quite a long time and a lot of evil to cause His anger to reach its fullness.

This leads us back to the context of God’s deliverance of Israel from Pharaoh.  God had been quite patient with Pharaoh.  He even gave him 10 different warnings, chastisements, to encourage him to back down.  Yet, when Pharaoh saw the Israelites leaving Egypt, he pursued after them.  Yet, God stood between Israel and his army as a pillar of fire.  Meanwhile, Pharaoh watched as the Red Sea was transformed into a roadway for Israel to escape. Pharaoh should have gotten the message.  Yet, when the pillar of fire moved out of the way, Pharaoh commanded his armies to follow the path through the sea after the Israelites.  God’s anger finally reached its peak.  The Egyptians are drowned as the sea walls collapse upon the path, erasing any trace that it existed.  This brings us to Exodus 15.  Israel is on the shores of the sea and have witnessed a miraculous delivery, but also a judgment.  A song quickly arises, and all Israel break forth in a worshipful singing about God’s great deliverance.  Look at verses 7 and 8.

Verse 7 says, “You send out Your burning anger, and it consumes them like chaff.”  The burning anger here does not employ the nose metaphor.  It uses a word that means anger, but is only used of God.  However, in the next line of verse 8, it says, “At the blast of Your nostrils the waters were piled up…”  This is an example of poetry.  The burning anger of verse 7 (more literal) parallels the blast of God’s nostrils (metaphorical).  This pictures the anger of God reaching the end of His nose and blasting forth with such power to make a pathway through the sea.  Of course, they did not believe God had a nose and was in the spirit realm using the power of His nostrils to make a path for them.  Rather, Pharaoh had tested God’s patience one too many times.  God has given him every opportunity and motivation to back down and live.

Notice that God’s anger is not whimsical and capricious, like an abusive alcoholic.  It is a response to the evil that we do to one another.  It is based upon His compassion and love.  Israel was in Egypt because of the sin of Joseph’s brothers.  Yet, Joseph was used of God to save Egypt from a horrible famine.  This made him, and by extension his family, heroes in Egypt.  They had most favored people status with Pharaoh.  Of course, over time, this began to wane.  Eventually, the story of Joseph became a story of long ago.  At some point, a Pharaoh looked at the large group of Israelites on his borders and feared that they would join his enemies eventually.  He wickedly subdued them and made slaves of them.  This was a betrayal of the brotherhood that they had experienced previously.  Eventually, a later Pharaoh arose who still feared their large numbers even in slavery.  So, he had all the male babies of the Hebrews drowned in the Nile.

God saw all this evil, and began to lay the groundwork for the rebuke that He would bring to Egypt.  Yet, all along the way, He leaves room for the Egyptians to repent and avoid destruction.

Notice that the anger of God and His judgments are not a fearful thing for those who are suffering under evil.  They are the ones He intends to deliver.  It is a righteous response of compassion and love to the evil that is played out before God.  Yet, God in His wisdom, balances out the reality of a particular evil with the reality of humanity’s slavery to sin.  If He judged all sin and evil in this world, none of us would survive.  We should notice that Pharaoh’s army is actually destroyed by his own hubris.  God didn’t want to destroy him, but He would, if Pharaoh did not back down.

Yet, Israel itself would go on to do evil things among themselves and to others.  In the Old Testament, God uses Israel to demonstrate how and why His patience would put up with humanity over such a long time.  He loves us and doesn’t want us to perish.  He gives us cautionary disciplines over and over again.  We may shape up for a season, and yet turn back to wickedness.  Yet, God’s disciplines will lead up to a final judgment in which a person, or a nation, careens into a destruction event because of their own wickedness.

Jesus is the patience of God

This brings us to Jesus as the Patience of God.  It is interesting that we do see Jesus angry in some passages.  Yet, there is always a righteous reason for it, and the expression of his anger is done in a godly manner.

For example, in Matthew 12:10, the authorities complained about Jesus healing on the sabbath.  Jesus became angry and rebuked the way that they put rules above other people and yet had ways of working around it for themselves.  They were using the rules as a means of keeping themselves above the people, not for helping them.  They couldn’t care less for the people, but God cares deeply for the people.  Still, Jesus doesn’t slay them all.  He simply rebukes them, calling them to repentance.

Of course, a similar thing happens to the disciples in Mark 1014.  They were trying to keep people from bringing their kids to Jesus.  Jesus becomes indignant and rebukes them.  He then challenges them that they won’t make it into the Kingdom of God if they don’t receive it like one of these kids.

Jesus was generally angry at the self-righteous snobbery of the religious leaders, while they were guilty of sin.  Yet, there was one time when the anger of Jesus led to a physical altercation.  He overturned the tables of the money lenders and sellers of sheep, whipping them out of the temple grounds.  Why?  They had turned the Court of Gentiles into a smelly place of commerce, but God wanted it to be a place where Gentiles could approach and pray.  When we use the things of god in a way that is contrary to His purposes, it tries His patience.

In spite of these situations, we see that Jesus is quite patient.  His responses are tempered and always he rebukes them back to the righteousness of God.  The most obvious case for his patience is before his accusers on the day of his crucifixion.  They lied and abused their authority in a sham trial to convict him.  Later on the cross, we see absolute slowness to anger of both Jesus (Father forgive them.  They know not what they do.) and God the Father (the heavens and earth did not melt in fervent heat).  Yet, in the crucifixion of Jesus, God’s patience with the nation of Israel was coming to an end (at least for this part of His work through Israel).  He then gave them forty years of hearing the teaching of His prophets, the Apostles of Jesus, calling them to repentance and times of refreshing from the LORD. You see, God rebukes us so that we may be convicted of our sin and turn back to Him for forgiveness and healing.

This brings us to the wrath of God in Romans 1:18-19.  Paul states that God’s wrath is revealed from heaven upon those who reject and suppress the truth.  This chapter shows how the Gentiles had become so bad.  God had called them to repentance and had revealed His judgment from time to time in things like the Flood, the Tower of Babel and the confusion of the languages, even Sodom and Gomorrah.  Yet, they willfully forget these things (2 Peter 3:5).  Still, God in His anger doesn’t simply stomp them out.  Rather, Paul describes it in verses 24, 26 and 28. In each verse, he refers to God handing them over to the lusts of their heart, to degrading passions, and to a depraved mind.  As we continue to sin, God hands us over to the destroying effects of those sins.  Like Nimrod trying to connect with the fallen spiritual powers that had led the pre-flood world into gross sin, we can persist in things that are not good.  Thus, God gave the Tower-of-Babel generation over to those fallen spirits.  They would reap the harvest of what they were pursuing all along.

Yet, God still cared for the Gentiles.  Just as He still cares for the nation of Israel today.  Sin has bad consequences.  They are bad for the one doing the sin, and they are bad for the people around them.  Those consequences have a snowballing effect.  They build up and gain momentum over time.  At each turn of the rolling monstrosity, God is trying to get our attention, calling us to repentance.  Yet, we eventually reach a final judgment event, if we persist in sin. 

For an individual, that final judgment event begins with our death.  For a nation, it is comes when the government is destroyed and the people subdued by others.  Nations are allowed to rise, and nations are put down in judgment. In fact, there is not one nation that exists today in the same form from 2,000 years ago.  God’s wheels of judgment have brought many nations to an end, and allowed many others to arise.  However, there is an ultimate judgment for all the nations of the earth at the end of this age.

Israel was supposed to be God’s servant to the nations, but they had failed.  God sent Jesus, not to push Israel down and leave them in the dust, but to take their place in judgment so that they could be saved.  In fact, he was doing this for the Gentiles as well, even for you and me. 

God loves humanity too much to let us continue to do evil to one another.  That love will eventually be expressed in justice, but He gives us time to change.

Jesus could have thrown up his hands and said, “Enough, I’m done!  Get me out of here!”  Yet, he patiently endured death on a cross, a horrible way to die.  He stepped up with compassion and took our punishment upon himself, so that we can be forgiven.

This brings us back to the tension in Exodus 34:6-7.  Yes, Jesus died for our sins so that we can be forgiven.  But, he did not die so that we can now sin with impunity.  You cannot game God.  No one can say that they can now sin since they are forgiven.  However, no one can say, I’m forgiven because I have never sinned.  This is the wonderful God that we belong to, and the impossible mystery of why people choose sin over Him.

God’s goodness has been poured out upon humanity is so many particular ways, not because He owes it to us, but because that is who He is.  Let’s present that to a lost and fallen world, even if it chooses to crucify us. 

God is Slow to Anger audio

Pursue What Is Good

1 Thessalonians 5:12-15.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Mother's Day Sunday, May 7, 2023.

Believers are instructed in a multitude of ways to do what is right and good, but as the Lord defines, not as we define it.  Therein is the rub.  Many people think that they are doing what is right, but they are not using the mind of Christ.  Instead, they have a different way of thinking, a different "wisdom."

Today, we have become so messed up on what is good that some in our government think that it is good to subvert the duty of parents to raise their kids, and seek to scam them into things like transgender surgeries.

It has never been easy to be a girl who is facing the reality of becoming a woman, or a boy who is facing the reality of becoming a man.  However, this is far more perilous in a society that is losing its moorings on the shores of truth.  Such young people need to be encouraged to have faith and trust God in this transition because God has good things for them that happen precisely because it is tough.  In fact, we should recognize that it is a kind of signature of God to create things in such a way that we will need to give ourselves to a it with a faith in Him.  It is not a blind leap of faith, but it is faith nonetheless.  I walk forward bravely trusting that God will use the hard situations in order to lead me to good things.

We can be frozen by fear.  Of course, no one stands still in life physically.  You will become a woman, but you can be stuck at the emotional level of a child in an adult body.  This tragedy is all too common, but it is not what God has planned for us.

Let's look at our passage.

Honor Mothers (v. 12-13)

Paul is writing to the Thessalonians, and he is not so much writing about mothers as he is writing about those who perform functions within the greater body of the Church of Jesus.

I want to remind us of the 5th Commandment in Exodus 20.  "Honor your father and your mother that your days may be long upon the land which the LORD your God is giving you."

I will note two things about this command.  First, the command is addressed to the individual "you."  God is speaking directly to us as individuals and not just to society.  It is not "society's job" to honor mothers.  It is mine.  Yes, if we have a whole society of individuals who are honoring mothers, then we will see that society reflecting that honor.  This doesn't change my primary point.

The second thing is that the Hebrew word for "honor" has the sense of weight and even value. Now, value for things in this life is transitory.  However, it is often the blurred lines between price and value that cause the trouble.  Price is what I am willing to pay for something.  Value is the thing that is obtained.  No price is too high to pay for something that has great value (proverbs 31).  Thus, we need to recognize that moms (parents) have a heavy, valuable, place in our life.  Being a mom, and doing the things that moms do, is an important, heavy thing in our society, more important that any job you can do for our corporations today. 

Our society has done a great disservice to this Republic by treating moms as if they are nothing.  If we really understood just how incredibly heavy, important, and valuable being a mom was no one would want to do it.  This is similar to the way Jesus talks about how important fidelity in marriage is in Matthew 19:8-10.  The disciples respond that “If such is the case of the man with his wife, it is better not to marry.”  We tend to treat the heavy things of God lightly.  We do so at our own harm, and to the detriment of others.

There is so much dysfunction in our homes these days that it requires us to deal with the question.  What does it mean to honor a mom who doesn't deserve it?  Many have been hurt by parents, and only respond to God's call to honor parents with more hurt.  I do believe that we are meant to wrestle with this.  Just as a parent of an undisciplined adult-child wrestles with what it means to love in the current situation, so too an adult child has to wrestle with what it means to honor in the case of a parent who has been absent, or hurtful.  The honest wrestling before God helps us to become something better than we would have.  In fact, it helps us to become more like God.  The key is not to cast off the value or importance of what they were and are in your life.  You can't pretend they don't exist (i.e., act as if they are nothing) because they do exist.  Your heart and mind know that God wanted something better from them in their dealings with you.  Instead of walling them off with pretense, wrestle with doing what is right as God defines it.  Care for them in their declining years even if they failed to care for you in even minimal ways during your childhood.  By doing so, you witness to them of God's righteousness, and His offer of forgiveness and salvation for those who repent.  Ask God to help you to love them even though they are not lovely.  Ask God to help you to care for them even when they do not care.

In Thessalonians 5, Paul most likely is thinking of Church leaders, but he keeps the wording purposefully general.  Moms fit this category of "those who labor" among us.  The labor of being a mom is particularly close to the heart of God.  Mom's represent that one who labors through sorrow to bring a child into the world and then nurtures their life physically, emotionally, and mentally.  She represents a part of God's heart towards us.  God always intends the labor of our life to be a labor of love.  Yet, love is a very trying virtue, just as labor is a trying virtue.  Labor tries and tests us; it refines us, if we will lean into the purpose that God intends in it.

Think about all of the hard work that goes into being a mom.  It is no wonder that countless young women are fearful and intimidated at becoming a mom.  However, all labor has a way of bringing more out of us than we believed possible because we are capable not only doing more than we think, but also of becoming more than we are.  You can grow in ways that your flesh doesn't want to grow, but God designed for you to do, if you trust Him.

I am connecting the word honor with the word "recognize" in verse 12.  It involves not only seeing the labor that moms do, but also perceiving the value and heavy importance they have in our lives.  We need to see moms as God sees them.  None of them are perfect, but they are all incredibly important!  We only harm ourselves when we act as if it is something light and meaningless.

Moms not only have labor to do, but they also have authority from the Lord.  They are "over" their children "in the Lord" in order to "admonish" them.  Parents are directly authorized by God Himself.  He is the source of all proper authority.  This begins in the inherent ability of a man and a woman to conceive and to birth a child.  This natural ability demonstrates a God-given right that women have to birth a child.  When we act upon our right to have a child, it then activates a duty that we have to that child.  All rights have corresponding duties that go along with them.  If we exercise rights without doing the duties, then we create a mess.  The same God who gives us rights will also hold us accountable to the duties that we have in them.

It is tragic to see the many ways that the State is elevating itself and transgressing this primary authority of parents.  However, we cannot place all of the blame upon the State.  There is a reasons that we are here.  The rise of dysfunction within society overflows the home and comes out into our schools, our streets, and public in general.  If a child is being abused by a parent or parents, then the people in that community should step in to help the child.

However, here is the problem.  What is your definition of abuse?  In short, if you insert yourself in a situation in which another person has authority from God, then you had better be correct, i.e., using God's definition of abuse.  It is a holy ground between that parent and God, and God will hold them accountable.  If you step in, you had better take your shoes off (holy ground), be prayed up, and actually be led by God to intervene. 

When the State intervenes, its definition is not the same as God's.  Yes, there are some situations in which we can say that the State really did stop a horrible situation (their definition somewhat coincided with God's).  Yet, in other ways, the State is only creating another abusive environment in which parents are increasingly unable to protect their children.

It does not good to complain.  Instead, we must focus on doing our duty to the children in our lives, and helping moms to rise up to their labor in the Lord.

Paul then says in verse 13 to "esteem them very highly in love for their work's sake."  Esteem deals with how we think about people.  We are to think highly of them, and to do so "in love."  Love tests us all, as I wrote earlier.  Parents are to lead their kids in what it means to love.

Circling back to the parent who has done hurtful things, we should note that we are more likely to label something as hurtful when we are younger.  We can get angry that our parents ground us, or discipline us in any form.  Generally, people grow up and look back to recognize that their parents were simply trying to love them by teaching them something more important than immediate gratification.  Of course, they are not perfect in their attempts to do what is best for us, but neither are we perfect.

This understanding that we should esteem and honor people for the sake of the work that they do is important.  Like an arm-chair quarterback, we can look back and still be too harsh in our judgment.  In this sense, most people just need to have kids for themselves so that they will understand that it is a tough job helping a young person transition into adulthood.  We should respect and esteem that they had a difficult job, and that we ourselves had an impact on how difficult it was.  This should never excuse abuse, but it puts the labor of parenting in perspective.

The last phrase of verse 13 says, "be at peace among yourselves," in the NKJV.  That first part is actually a verb that is active.  It is not focused on merely resisting the urge to make waves, or be frantic.  Rather, it is calling us to actively be working for peace, a peacemaker, with others.  This is a big part of a mom's job, especially if there are multiple kids in the home.

Some people are not interested in peace, or they just don't know how to come to terms with peace.  In such cases, the best that a person can do is to put the offer on the table, and then to be open for change down the road.  You may have to give them some space.  However, always be praying for change, and ready to forgive when true repentance comes around.

I think peace is a minimum that God desires between us.  Even more, we should walk in love with one another.  Yet, we could say that peace is simply one facet of the virtue of love.  It is the best basis for peace with someone.  Absence of turbulence is nice, but we are called to active peacemaking.

Pursue what is good (v. 14-15)

Families really do need to hold on to what Paul says in verse 14.  Pursue what is good both for yourselves and for all.  Our flesh will always bend things towards ourselves, even if just a little bit.  As I said earlier, we can also bend the definition of what is "good" too much towards ourselves.  We really need a relationship with Jesus through the Holy Spirit in order to hear the Word of God, and sense the conviction of the Holy Spirit in regards to what the "good" is that needs to happen in each situation.   This should be our prayer.  "Lord, please show me what will make for the good both for myself and for everyone involved."

Part of pursuing what God says is good will involve warning the "unruly."  This word pictures a soldier who is out of ranks and may even be AWOL.  This is similar to the biblical concept of submission.  It has the idea of taking your proper place within the ranks and performing the proper duty.  Thus, the unruly person  is refusing to embrace their proper place and duty.    This can be a child who refuses to listen to their parents, or a government who oversteps its bounds of authority. 

Those who castigate the whole biblical idea that God created young girls to grow up and become adult human females who are able to conceive, give birth, and raise a next generation to worship God and bless others, should slow down and think through what they are doing.  They are destroying the very foundation and fabric of what it means to be a woman- and a man for that matter.  They may rejoice in that because they want to replace it.  However, when you fight against the nature that God hard-wired into humans, you never come out on top.  Any society we try to create to replace one built upon a biblical world-view will end up being sub-par.  They will find themselves working directly against God, and they will have to give answer for that to Him.

Thus, a warning from a parent to a child involves cautioning against certain behaviors.  We do this socially when we warn people at a wedding that what God is putting together no one should take apart, those in the marriage included.  God will hold you accountable for working at odds to His purpose.

Yet, admonition, or warning, also involves teaching the good that a person should embrace.  We need to understand and promote God's good purpose in becoming a mom, for her, for the children, for the husband, and for society.  

All of us come into the world in a weak position.  If someone doesn't help us, we will die.  God's design makes it clear that the most likely people to take care of that child are the people who came together in love and produced that child.  Yes, the child will affect society and can be an asset or liability to it.  However, that does not put society in the best position to control the raising of that child.  The best scenario for any child is a male and female committed to a life-time, loving relationship, preparing them for life.

Next, Paul tells us to comfort the faint-hearted.  It pictures those who have lost heart and are discouraged.  The word "comfort" here is often used in the context of someone who has had a loved one die.  Mary and Martha were comforted by their neighbors when their brother Lazarus died.  The most common way that we comfort the bereaved is through stories about the deceased.  A young mother metaphorically is wrestling with the "death" of a past youthful life with little responsibility.  She needs us to comfort her, rather than to berate her.  Young moms need to hear the stories of older moms' and their own transitions.  It isn't easy, but it isn't as impossible as your heart and mind are telling you at the moment.  There is joy on the other side of the hard work of today, all along the way.

Paul then tells us to support the weak.  This deals with people who are in a weak position, whether through broken relationships, financial troubles, past trauma, etc.  This is similar to the faint-hearted.  We are told to support them.  Instead of looking down on young mothers, we should come along side of them and help, be a support.  What is it they need?  Experienced moms are in the best position to know how to come alongside of a young mom and support her.  In fact, mothering itself could be defined by helping the weak out of compassion and love.

We are also to be patient with all.  Patience here is the long-fuse term.  Yes, we need to hang in there and not quit easily, but we also need to restrain ourselves from "blowing up" to easily.  All relationships are made worse when we have a short fuse with one another.

Patience does not mean being silent and never dealing with issues.  Often, when a person blows up, it is because they have not talked about things that they should have.  Thus, patience ties in with peacemaking.  Whether communication isn't happening, or a person just doesn't change, we easily become weary with other people.  Understanding that moms who are actively raising kids are under a lot of stress all of the time should be in the back of our minds at all times.  No, they are not the only ones who deal with stress, but that does not undercut the point.  It only makes it more important for us all to work for peace and be patient with one another.

Of course, trauma and past hurts can make any relationship difficult and requires great patience on the part of the other party.  Sometimes both people have past hurts and difficulties.  Let us love one another through patience.

Lastly, Paul calls for pursuing what is good for yourselves and for all.  Another way to say this is to reject a "pay back wrong for wrong" attitude.  It is almost a knee-jerk response for us to give back to others what they are dishing out.  However, this never brings about lasting and good change.

As the culture wars heat up, it is easy to see people as the enemy, and to justify all manner of actions against others.  There are definitely some who have given themselves over to doing evil to others, but Christians are not to respond in kind.

There is a difficult and heavy thing here that we need to carry.  We don't want to do so, but the Lord calls us to it.  It is called a burden.  We need relationship with God as the foundation to a relationship with others, especially when they are being an enemy to us.

When we resist people who are doing unrighteous things, we must do so with an eye to helping them to see the truth.  We don't do them any favors by hiding in our closets or retreating from the public debate.  However, we need the wisdom of God as to how and when to interject the truth.

Our attitude can sour with a sense of hopelessness.  "It doesn't work...It won't do any good!"  Listen, you cannot change society, but you can make a difference in the experience of people in your sphere of influence.  Take time to support the moms in your life regardless of how well they have done in the past because their labor is incredibly important to our families and to our Republic.  If enough moms are encouraged to do a godly job in raising the next generation who knows what is possible in this land.

Pursue Good audio

The Waiting King

Psalm 110:1; Ephesians 1:19-22; Hebrews 2:5-10.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on December 12, 2021.

We know that we are told to be patient and trust that God is waiting for the right time in order to bring this present age to an end, and to bring in the promised Kingdom Age.  Of course, this is not a waiting of inactivity.  Instead, we live our life in order to glorify God, regardless what we face, and we testify to others about the Savior, Jesus Christ.

Yet, we rarely think about the fact that God has not asked us to do anything that He is not doing Himself.  Today, we are going to look at the reality that our Lord Jesus is also patiently waiting, and yet not inactive.

Let’s get into our first passage.

The now, but not yet, kingdom

Psalm 110 is a Messianic Psalm that prophesies about the coming Kingdom of Messiah.  It is quoted three unique times in the New Testament.  The first is by Jesus himself during the week leading up to the crucifixion (Matthew 22:44, and in the other synoptic Gospels).

On one hand, Jesus is pointing out this psalm to the religious leaders to silence their badgering of him.  The rabbis generally saw this psalm as messianic, but there were some cryptic aspects to it.  The Messiah is of the line of David, the ultimate Son of David who would come and restore the kingdom of God.  However, verse one has David calling the Messiah, “my Lord.”  If the Messiah is David’s offspring, in what way can he be David’s Lord?  Before we jump in with some suggestions, we should understand that the culture in the Near East was not like ours.  This would hit the religious teachers as a difficult puzzle.  There is something about this Son of David that would be so unique that David recognized him as greater than himself.  David literally says, “Yahweh [Jehovah] says to my Lord…”

The Apostle Peter also points to this verse during his sermon at the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost (Acts 2:34).  There he points out that this is what has happened with Jesus.  He was victorious over the grave, but the Father has decreed that he is to sit at His right hand.  Of course, Peter also points out that Jesus isn’t just sitting there twiddling his thumbs.  He was directly responsible for the pouring out of the Holy Spirit upon God’s remnant people.

The writer of Hebrews also points to this verse in Hebrews 1:13. The emphasis there is that God does not minister to angels, or serve them.  Rather, angels minister on His behalf to us.

All of these passages, point out the concept of a kingdom that was initiated in the first century after Christ’s resurrection, and yet had an aspect that wasn’t yet.  These verses picture God the Father having the Messiah sit at His right hand until his enemies are made his footstool. 

The ascension of Jesus was clearly preached as a fulfillment of this prophecy.  Where is Jesus?  He is at the right hand of the Father.  This implies a picture of participation in the rule of the Father.

One should not miss the use of the word “until” in this verse.  This sitting and waiting of the Messiah will not last forever.  This makes the phrase following “until” very important.

The phrase is until “I make your enemies your footstool.” (NKJV and ESV).  This almost sounds like Jesus does nothing and it is the Father who “makes” the enemies of Jesus his footstool.  However, there is more going on with this verb than can be seen in the translation.  I would point out that Revelation 19 does not picture Jesus setting still and the Father subduing his enemies.  Jesus clearly participates in this.  So, what about this phrase?

First, the verb is a continuous thing that is future to its writing.  It points to a time when God will be making the enemies of Christ to be under his feet.  Second of all, the verb can also mean to make in the sense of appointing or decreeing.  As we are going to see, there are ways that the enemies of Christ are already under his feet, and ways that they are not.  These can fit nicely with the sense that there is both a decreeing that happens and an enforcing of the decree.  Thus, there are ways in which this is “now, but not yet.”

There does develop a confusion over just when this “enforced” aspect of the kingdom would occur within the Church.  The early Church understood that they had spiritually joined the Kingdom of God, but that the enforcement of all things under Jesus, would not occur until he returned.  They saw themselves as warning others of a coming kingdom that they could spiritually join ahead of time by faith in Jesus.  It wasn’t until the A.D. 300’s that this began to change.  First of all, the emperor Constantine issued an edict of toleration in A.D. 313.  This gave to Christians the protection of the empire and shut down much of their persecution.  By the time we get to the 390’s, things have changed.  The emperor Theodosius was a Christian and was making paganism and its rituals a capital crime.  Historians often point to this vast change of the Roman empire as a separate kingdom (Byzantine Kingdom).  However, that is somewhat special pleading.

Over the next century, Bishop Augustine and others fueled a reinterpretation of the kingdom to fit with what they saw happening on the ground.  They still held to the believe that Jesus would come back, but now they understood the kingdom to have been handed over to the Church as Christ’s representative.  Jesus would rule over it spiritually from heaven instead of in person on earth.  The Church would march forth and bring all the enemies of Christ under the feet of Jesus in the name of the Father.  We are now at the end of 1600 years of the Church wrestling with how to make that happen. (Note: not all Christian groups adopted this modified view of the Kingdom, nor hold to it today, but it is widely prevalent). 

The patience of our Lord

Just as Christians have been called to be patient, we must see that Christ is being patient too.  We can be guilty of thinking of patience as something only we humans have to do.  God is not just choosing patience.  His nature is patient, where ours is not.  It is God’s patience with a lost world, with sinners, that we must emulate.  Similarly, the Messiah is put in a now, but not yet, situation that calls for patience.  Surely, after Jesus is resurrected, it would be the time to attack and take over the kingdom.  Yet, the Father says, “Sit at my right hand until…”  This is contra our human nature.

Let’s walk through several New Testament passages in order to get a handle on this and perhaps also unravel some of the confusion.

Ephesians 1:19-22 seems to be clear that everything is already under Christ’s feet in the 1^st Century A.D.  Verse 22 says that God “put all things under His feet…”  The Greek word used for “put” is a verb that often means “put” in the sense of appointing.  All things in heaven and on earth have been given a station that is under the feet of Christ.  Clearly not all things are choosing to submit to that “setting,” or appointing by God.

This all makes sense as early Christians were persecuted to the point of being fed to lions for Rome’s pleasure.  They were rejecting the rule of Christ.  Neither Rome nor the majority of the world came under it even in the sense of being forced into that position.  Yet, it is taught and believed in the first century that Jesus has a position that is above all powers and authority.

Now, let’s look at Hebrews 2:5-10.  This passage is a little long, but verse 5 obviously states that the time of subjection to Christ is in the “world to come.”  The Church Age had begun.  Christians were proclaiming this appointment by God the Father of His Son to the place of a cosmic Emperor.  This gave/gives room to people to choose allegiance or not without being forced.  Yet, the “until” would eventually come to an end.  Jesus would not stay in heaven forever.

In fact, verse 8 even recognizes that what is promised, and what we are seeing in this age, are at odds with each other.  “We do not see all things under his feet.”  This reminds us that part of the patience of our Lord begins with the incarnation, his suffering as a man, and now his patient waiting in heaven.  Our Savior Lord ahs not asked us to do anything that he isn’t doing himself.

So, verse 10 ends making the point that it is fitting for a suffering people to have a suffering savior.  No matter how hard you have it, it has always been hard for our Lord Jesus.  He is not absent, but is our fearless captain leading us through the suffering, the waiting, and into the joyful reward that lies on the others side.

Another passage that is important is 1 Corinthians 15:26. All of these passages have Jesus in the heavens waiting.  However, in 1 Corinthians 15:26, we are told that “the last enemy that will be destroyed is death.”  This is actually pictured in Revelation 20:14, “then death and hades were thrown into the Lake of Fire.”  It is not the Church’s job to put death and hades into the Lake of Fire, but that is the path that some have put themselves on.  Notice that at least the completion of the enemies being both appointed and made to be under the feet of Christ is after his second coming.

This brings us back to today.  If God grants repentance to a large number of our society, then our nation will see great political change.  However, there is a tension here.  We can be tempted to see favorable events as a sign from God to “force” the issue of the dominion of Christ.  God help us to become like Him, patient and yet quick to glorify God in what we do and speak, rather than trying to force the world into subjection to Christ.  That day is coming, but it is not this day.

Waiting King audio

Fathers, Don't Quit

James 5:7-11.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Father’s Day, June 21, 2020.

It is always my goal to encourage moms and dads in continuing the hard work of being a parent, whether you have young kids, or adult children who have their own.  So, my message to fathers today is simply, don’t quit.  Your family needs you whether it feels like it or not, and whether it looks like it or not.  Don’t quit!

Don’t quit on the Lord

In James 5:7-11, the section serves as a conclusion to a problem described in the earlier verses of this chapter, an unjust world.  James warns the rich, who are defrauding their workers of their wages, as well as condemning and murdering those who have no power to stand against them.  He tells them, “You have lived on the earth in pleasure and luxury; you have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter.”  (NKJV). 

It would be easy to be overwhelmed in such a case.  Christians typically were not from the rich class and were quite used to dealing with injustice.  Everyone can reach a point where they feel like quitting in any endeavor.  Now, quitting a bad thing is good and conforms to the biblical message of repentance.  However, quitting on the Lord, His commands and plan, only leaves us without hope.  The world talks a good game, but it always delivers injustice.

James is reminding us that the ultimate judge is coming, the Lord Jesus.  2 Timothy 4:1 says, “I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom…”  (NKJV).  Jesus came to earth, suffered and died as a human.  It is God the Father’s decree that the man Jesus is to judge all of humanity and all of the heavenly beings as well.  It is fitting that we be judge by one who has been where we have been, and by one who can identify with all that ails us as humans.  He is the perfect and righteous judge.

Don’t join the scoffers who laugh and deride the idea that Jesus will ever come back.  And, don’t join the scoffers, who mock our faith in Jesus, as a pipe dream that makes us fodder for those who aren’t restrained by God’s Word.  Yes, Jesus turned the other cheek and they killed him for it.  We are not promised justice in this life because this world is the result of the choices of humans and fallen spirits.  What we are promised is a day in which all the righteous of every generation will be vindicated and God will settle all accounts through Jesus.  This is not the time to lose your faith in Jesus.  There is no hope in this world that will actually survive the increasing chaos into which we are plummeting.  Only Jesus can help us.

James then gives us the image of a farmer.  The farmer does a lot of work in order to plant seeds, and then he must be patient.  WE don’t always see an immediate effect from our hard work.  This world is hard work:  making a living, becoming one with a spouse, raising your children, and growing old.  The encouragement is that it takes time for hard work that is good to bear fruit.

There is a proper season for all things.  When your kids are young, it is critical to plant good seeds in their life.  You can’t look at your kid in the terrible two’s and say, “I quit; it’s not working!”  I guess you can, but you really shouldn’t.  You shouldn’t look at that angry teenager and quit parenting, if you really care about them.  Yes, kids often do not listen to their parents, and it is easy for parents to become offended, perhaps retreat from the hard work.  This is called immaturity.  There is a whole world around us suffering and just one of the reasons is this.  People in their lives quit trusting the Lord and that the hard work of doing the right thing would eventually bear fruit.  There are many things that will bear fruit in this life, but ultimately, the greatest fruit of trusting the Lord will be reaped at the Second Coming of Jesus.

In verse 8, James tells us to establish, or strengthen, our hearts.  This speaks of fixing yourself internally upon a certain course.  In Luke 9:51, this same word is used of Jesus.  “Now it came to pass, when the time had come for Him to be received up, that He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem.” (NKJV).

We need to have a firm resolve and we need to maintenance that resolve.  In a way, the whole book of the Psalms is a case study in righteous people maintaining their faith in God’s ways, even though they were tired of the injustice in the world.  We strengthen our hearts when we spend time in the Word of God and praying.  We strengthen our hearts when we encourage one another.  Anytime I talk with someone who has failed in this area, they confess that they were not maintaining their faith like they should have.  God help us to fix our eyes upon the task at hand and to simultaneously see the finish line where our reward truly lies.

The devil’s design is to wear you down in this world until you just surrender to the system.  You either go along in order to get yours, or you fight against the system in your flesh.  Both choices are a choice to surrender to him instead of God.  I would rather live surrendered to the plans and purposes of Jesus than anyone else on this planet, myself included.

It is God’s intention that fathers would have good fathers themselves, role models that would be a source of strength.  In this day, it is becoming scarcer and scarcer.  In verses 10 and 11, James reminds us about the examples we have in God’s Word.  If you didn’t have a good, earthly father then know this.  You have good, fatherly examples in God’s Word because your heavenly Father knew that you would need encouragement and a model to follow.  Whether Jesus himself, or the man Job, we look up to these men because they endured great hardship.  They were faithful to God when it didn’t seem to help them.

The concept of patience is used several times in this passage.  In verse 8, “Be patient,” the word is literally to be long fused, that is not easily angered.  It is the patience of keeping ourselves from exploding in anger.  However, in verse 10, patience is a Greek synonym that means to remain under the load, that is endurance or perseverance under pressure.  Both are important to patience.  The first is the temptation of our emotions to throw everything aside and protect ourselves.  It is a temptation to do something bad rather than the good you are doing.  In the second, patience is focused on continuing to do the good work, which is a long hard work of persevering things.  We can do so more easily because God has promised us good things on the other side of the hard work. 

So, what do you do if you have failed in this area?  Quit quitting!  When Jesus found Peter fishing after the resurrection, he told him, “Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat.  But I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail; and when you have returned to Me, strengthen your brethren.”  (NKJV).  Yes, in this world you will have trouble, but fear not, Jesus has overcome the world!  May God strengthen us to get up each day and do the hard work of being a father to those whom God has placed in our life.

Don't Quit Audio