The Acts of the Apostles 35

Subtitle: The Gospel Goes to Ethiopia?  Part 1

Acts 8:26-33.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on February 12, 2023.

We have seen how God used Philip, Peter, and John to take the Gospel into Samaria, north of Jerusalem.  It appears that the main impetus that made Philip go to Samaria was persecution in Jerusalem.  Of course, we can preach the Gospel in jail, but Philip gets out of town and preaches in Samaria.  Clearly, the Holy Spirit was leading him.

In our passage today, Philip is going to travel southwest of Jerusalem on the road to Gaza in order to help the Gospel on its way to the continent of Africa!  That's right.  It is most likely that the Gospel went into Africa before it ever made it to Europe.

What happened in Jerusalem is now spreading to the ends of the earth.  Hmm...it is interesting that we are here, hearing the Gospel at the ends of the earth.  You are an answer to the Lord's prayer, his purpose, and even prophecy.

Amen.  Let's look at our passage.

God causes a divine appointment (vs. 26-29)

God has a divine appointment for Philip on the road to Gaza with an Ethiopian eunuch. 

You may have heard that phrase before now.  There is a sense where a parent has a divine appointment every day, even every minute, with their children.  God wants you to train them in His Word and in His ways.  However, in a case like this, you know it, and it is on your "appointment calendar."

There are times that God has something out of our normal routine, or schedule.  It is not on our calendar, not on our radar, but it is on God's calendar.

It is important to recognize it when God is bringing us to something that we were not expecting.  When it happens, we need to learn to quickly shift gears, and focus on what God is doing.  A good prayer to pray is, "Help me, Lord, to be used of You in this situation!"

In this case, Philip is told by an angel of the lord some of what he is to do.

The term angel simply means a messenger, and this is what an angel does, but this was a heavenly messenger.  We are not told exactly how this meeting happened.  Was Philip in prayer alone?  Was he back in Jerusalem?  Regardless, Philip has an angelic visitation and now the divine appointment is on his calendar.

In reading the Bible, we may come under the impression that angels should be showing up every day in our lives.  This is not an accurate reading.  Sometimes it was hundreds of years between a clear visitation of an angel in the Bible.  In fact, Hebrews 13:2 tells us that some people have entertained angels without knowing it.  Have you ever had something happen that later you thought to yourself that the person who helped you may have been an angel?

One of the men in our church, Joe Pyott, was driving at night outside of Spokane.  As he was going through a snowy pass, he slid off the road in a remote area.  He was a bit worried because it was late at night, and he did not figure anyone would be driving by for a long time.  However, in short order, three different people showed up and helped him in different ways.  One guy had a shovel and dug out the snow around his vehicle.  Another man had a truck and a chain.  He was able to pull Joe back on the road.  Even better, Joe was able to drive the car all the way home.  Praise the Lord! 

We might wonder if one of those people were an angel, or even all of them.  But, ask yourself this.  Does it really matter if you were pulled out of the ditch by an angel, or by a human being who was quick to do God's will in the situation?

Scripture details increased angelic visits during periods in which God is doing something critical for His plan of salvation.  We see this around the birth of Christ, and then later around the death of Christ, even the beginning of the Church in this passage.  The situation is so critical that God gives heavenly assistance so that the moment is not lost.  Now, notice that this doesn't seem to be how God led Philip to Samaria.  So, why now?

There seems to be something about this man.  He was a critical man, at a critical juncture of God's plan of salvation, with a desire to know God.  He needed to hear the Gospel, and God could see that he would go back to Ethiopia never having heard the Gospel.  That is, unless God did something out of the ordinary.

Just know this.  God can lead us through supernatural methods, but we should not be stuck on only being led by angels.  God is a big God, and creative too.  It is up to Him how we are to be led, and we need to be aware of those ways.

Philip's instructions from the angel are to head down the road from Jerusalem to Gaza through the Judean wilderness, i.e., no one is out there.  There is no indication that Philip is told what will happen.  Of course, since it was an angel, he has a pretty good idea that it has something to do with spreading the Gospel.  Is he going to preach in Gaza?  What will he find?  He doesn't know.

God doesn't always give us all the instructions up front.  He is wanting to see if we will trust Him and step forward.  At the right time, He will give you the next instruction.  Just be faithful.  Thus, we are told that Philip "arose and went."

How important it is for us to be quick to obey when God leads us to do something.  Philip isn't asking why.  He simply gets up and goes.  Better to muse in your mind as you are obeying, then to sit at home wondering what could happen.

Yet, it doesn't have to be just about obedience.  There is a higher level to all that God gives us to do.  Anything that God asks us to do will be a chance to participate in something live changing.  If we really understood that, then we would jump at the chance to do anything for Him.  "Alright, I get to see God do something great!  Let's get started!"  More than that, we get to participate with Him by faith!

Remember that all responsibilities require doing duties, but when we understand the heart of God, we will jump with joy at doing what He wants done.  If God is in it, then we can have joy in it because He transforms lives!

If we look at the story from the Ethiopian's view point, then it is quite different.  God is leading him too, but it is unknowingly.  Of course, we could say that he is not a Christian yet.  True, but he is a believer in Yahweh, a convert to Judaism, a God-worshiper.  Just as God can put something on our heart by His Holy Spirit, or lead us by an angelic visitation, so God can lead us without us even knowing it.  Sometimes God just likes to surprise us with a divine appointment.

So, Philip is traveling along the road, sees the chariot, and the Spirit tells him to overtake the chariot.

The man in the chariot is a eunuch from Ethiopia.  He was a eunuch because that was common practice for palace slaves and palace servants in much of the world throughout history.  It may not seem to be important, but by the end of this sermon, you will see that it is very important that he is a eunuch.

He is also an "Ethiopian."  This term was created by the Greeks to refer to Africans who lived anywhere south of Egypt.  This is a very general term.  However, the reference to the Candace, Queen of Ethiopia, gives us a bead on exactly where he was from.  If you look at a map, you will see Egypt.  As you travel south you will run into the country called Sudan today.  Southeast of Sudan is the modern country of Ethiopia.  Candace is not the name of this Queen.  It was actually a term like "Pharaoh, or Caesar."  In Greek, it is phonetically Cahn-'dah-kay, or better, The Kandake.  These African Queens ruled in what we would call northern Sudan today.  In the Old Testament, this kingdom is always referred to as the kingdom of Cush.

The Kandake ruled in a co-regency with her son as king.  They both had their own armies, treasuries, and palaces.  However, they co-ruled over the Cushites.  In fact, the king's son would not be the next king.  The Kandake's eldest son was king, but the first son of her eldest daughter (who would take her place upon death) would be the next king.

How had this man heard about the God of Israel?  The capital of the Cushite kingdom was over 1,500 miles from Jerusalem.  Notice that he had gone to Jerusalem to worship.  Perhaps, he heard about Yahweh through a servant.  Regardless, he believed in the God of Israel, and went to worship.

The fact that The Kandake would let him travel that far, either means that she values him very highly, or that she is interested in this religion of his, or both.  God was leading this man, whether he knew it or not.

Whether you know it or not, God is leading you.  That doesn't mean that we never make mistakes.  In fact, we can be resisting God like Saul of Tarsus was doing.  God will always be faithful to lead us into opportunity for repentance.  This man had repented and believed, and so God put him on a path to hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ!

A man is puzzled by the Scriptures (vs. 30-33)

As Philip approaches the chariot, he hears the man is reading the prophet Isaiah.  This scroll may be a gift to The Kandake, or it may have been purchased by him.  Philip asks him a clear question that is not insulting, but also opens the door for discussion.  "Do you understand what you are reading?" 

Let's not jump past this simple point.  God wants you to understand the Scriptures, and they have been written in such a way that they can be understood.  Of course, our spiritual state will make a big difference whether or not we can understand the Scriptures.  Only a person who approaches the Word with faith can begin to understand.  Yet, anyone who is really looking for Truth will find it in the Scriptures.

Yes, there are parts of the Scripture that are not as clear to us.  The Bible itself speaks of some parts being "milk" as opposed to other parts that are "meat."    The picture has to do with development.  A baby only digests milk at first.  However, as it grows on that milk, it will be able to digest more and more complex food.  If I read something today, and I don't know what it means, then I should just pray this simple prayer.  "Lord, I love you, and I want to know what this means.  Please help me to understand at the level that I can for now."  In fact, it doesn't matter if you have been a Christian for 70 years.  There is always stuff to learn about God's Word.  He is the God of the universe.  Anything that He has written is bound to keep us busy for a life time of understanding.  However, that is the beauty of God's Word.  You don't have to understand everything in order to understand the most important things.

Believers need to take the Word of God seriously.  He wants you to understand, and understanding will take devotion to reading, studying, and discussing the text with other believers.  We blow a lot of time with entertainments when we could be reading the words of the Creator of the universe!  Don't squander the wealth of Truth and knowledge that God makes available in order to go after the lusts of the flesh, and the pride of life.

Some may feel like studying the Bible is the pastor's job.  Don't rely upon another person for your understanding.  They won't be there on that day that you stand before God and give account.  He has written this Bible to you as much as to anyone else.  If you really love Jesus, then you will take His Words to you seriously.

The Ethiopian eunuch's response lets us know that he was having trouble understanding.  He needed a guide, a teacher.  Self-study is the bedrock of understanding the Bible.  However, on top of this, God provides guides or teachers.  This man was isolated.  How many years would it take for the Gospel to make it to Cush without some assistance from God?  God saw his desire to understand the Scriptures, and He sent him a good guide.

Of course, there are many "guides" in the world today who want to lead you astray.  They are false guides, even anti-guides, false teachers, and false apostles.  Jesus warned that Israel's leaders had become blind guides leading the people into a ditch.

So, how do I protect myself?  You protect yourself by being a person who is devoted to reading the Word, and praying to God for understanding.  You protect yourself by being a person who is committed to being led by the Holy spirit.  Such a person will always find that God provides exactly what they need.  Thus, the Bereans of Acts 17:11 searched the Scriptures daily to see if these things that Paul was preaching were really so.  Such a person will be very hard to deceive.

This brings us to the passage that the man was reading.  You may have recognized the verses.  They come from Isaiah 53.  This is the most important section of Isaiah, which reveals God's suffering servant who would save Israel, and the Gentiles, from their sins.  Of course, it is talking about the Messiah, Jesus.

During those days in Israel, it was acceptable to see this passage as talking about Messiah, but after the cross and Christians preaching Jesus, the rabbis began developing arguments against the passage speaking of Messiah.  Today, the typical rabbi will say that the passage speaks about Israel saving the world through her suffering.  However, this does not make good sense of the flow of God's arguments from Isaiah 40 to 53.

In fact, the argument is precisely that God made Israel to be a servant to the nations, but Israel had become a blind and deaf servant, i.e., useless.  God himself would rise up and bring forth His perfect servant who would not only save Israel, but also save the nations.  Isaiah 53 shows Jesus carrying the sin, and the curse of sin, of the nation of Israel and the Gentiles upon himself.  He would be punished in our place and provide forgiveness through his wisdom.

I don't think the Ethiopian eunuch was reading this by accident, and Philip is not there by accident either.  However, there is one more "accident," or should we say coincidence that we should give our attention.

No doubt, the eunuch not only knows that Isaiah 53 is talking about Jesus, and what Jesus did for him, for all of us, he will keep reading.  Guess what he will find only three chapters later in Isaiah 56:3-8?  Here is the text.  As you read it, you should weep for joy as that eunuch no doubt did when he read it.

3 Do not let the son of the foreigner Who has joined himself to the Lord Speak, saying, “The Lord has utterly separated me from His people”; Nor let the eunuch say, “Here I am, a dry tree.”

4 For thus says the Lord: “To the eunuchs who keep My Sabbaths, And choose what pleases Me, And hold fast My covenant,

5 Even to them I will give in My house And within My walls a place and a name Better than that of sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name That shall not be cut off.

 6 “Also the sons of the foreigner Who join themselves to the Lord, to serve Him, And to love the name of the Lord, to be His servants—Everyone who keeps from defiling the Sabbath, And holds fast My covenant—

7 Even them I will bring to My holy mountain, And make them joyful in My house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices Will be accepted on My altar; For My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations.”

8 The Lord God, who gathers the outcasts of Israel, says, “Yet I will gather to him Others besides those who are gathered to him.”

How must that have hit him.  The Lord is essentially telling this man through Isaiah (written 700 years before this), "Don't say that you are a dry tree!"  In the natural, he was a dry tree.  He was never going to have a family to pass on his love and knowledge.  Yet, he now had a treasure within him that was Jesus, the Lord of Life!

He would take this treasure of God's love through Jesus with him back to Cush as an ambassador of the Lord.  We don't know the rest of the story of this man.  How many people did he share the Gospel with throughout his life?  On the day that he would lay his head down in death, he was leaving behind a spiritual heritage that the God of Israel loves Cushites, and whosoever.  He died so that you can be forgiven and live with him eternally.  It didn't matter that he was a foreigner to Israel, or a "dry tree" in the natural.  He would pass on the faith to spiritual offspring by the power of Jesus. 

And, so will you, if you put your faith in Jesus. If you follow the world, you will be a dry tree.  I don't care how many kids you have.  But, in Christ, the Spirit of God will give you life, and that life will overflow you and impact others!

Ethiopian Eunuch audio

The Acts of the Apostles 3

Subtitle: The Tragedy of Judas

Acts 1:15-26.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on May 15, 2022.

Today, we deal with the sad subject of a person who has ministered with Jesus, and yet, has not really believed in him.  Judas represents those who have had very high positions within the Church of Jesus, but in the end, serve to betray Christ himself.  Of course, this same dynamic existed from the very beginning of Creation.  Judas will forever be known as the betrayer of Jesus.

We can be tempted to read about the destruction of Judas, or others like him, with an attitude that says, “Good riddance!”  However, our attitude should be one of sorrow saying, “We’ve lost another one!”

Let’s look at our passage.

The end of Judas

The tragedy of Judas is inserted by Luke as an aside to the narrative.  It functions like a parenthetical statement to bring readers like the earlier mentioned Theophilus up to speed on why the apostles were doing what this part of the narrative describes.  Judas had betrayed Christ and then committed suicide.

I am going to deal with verses 18 and 19 first, and then circle back to verse 15 and following due to this parenthetical nature.  It will help the narrative flow better for our purposes.

There are several points of contention that some people try to make out to be contradictions.  The first has to do with the statement that Judas had “purchased a field with the wages of iniquity” (30 pieces of silver).  There is no doubt that the phrase in verse 18, “Now this man…” is referring back to Judas.  Some believe that this statement is in contradiction to Matthew 27:3-8.

In Matthew, Judas is remorseful because he did not expect Jesus to be condemned to death (vs. 3).  It is not disclosed what Judas hoped to achieve other than enriching himself with the imprisonment of Jesus.  Judas wants to return the money, but the priests refuse to accept it.  Judas then tosses the coins at them, leaves, and then hangs himself.

The priests are unable to accept the money into the treasury because it was blood money.  Thus, they solve the dilemma by purchasing the potter’s field where foreigners who die in the region can be buried.  So, who bought the field, Judas or the priests?  The key is in understanding that the money cannot be officially accepted by the temple.  The money still belongs to Judas and the field is essentially bought in his name.  A cemetery is all that Judas obtained with the wages of his sin.

The second “contradiction” regards the manner of death.  Did Judas hang himself as Matthew says, or did he fall headlong and split open with his guts pouring out?  Again, there is no real contradiction.  Judas did hang himself as Matthew states.  However, Luke never says that this is the way Judas died, nor is the text actually saying he was walking along, tripped headfirst onto something (rocks?) and was mortally wounded by it.  In fact, it is extremely unlikely that a stumbling person could injure themselves so badly that their entrails all gush out.  Even the word “falling” is an attempt to smooth over the translation.  It literally says that Judas came to be headfirst.  Of course, a common way of understanding that is a fall.  Luke is more focused on showing the gruesome end of Judas than establishing exactly how he died.  It is just as likely that Judas hung in there with his body decaying until the branch broke or the rope broke.  He could have then fallen headfirst and broke open due to the decay of the skin.  Luke is showing the aloneness and indignity of the place that Judas ended up.

As humans, we might gain some satisfaction over the death of a betrayer.  However, I don’t see this in Jesus.  He knew who and what Judas was from the beginning.  In John 6:70, right after everyone was tempted to leave him, Jesus challenged the Twelve.  “Do you also want to go away?”  Peter answered for the group, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.  Also, we have come to believe and know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”  Jesus then states, “Did I not choose you, the twelve, and one of you is a devil?”  Peter’s answer is an answer of faith that is based on Jesus.  Judas had no such faith.  I don’t believe Jesus is saying that Judas wasn’t human, but was a devil masquerading as one.  Rather, I believe he is stating that Judas has given himself over to spiritual forces, devils, that were using him, and he was doing their bidding.

We should also notice some other passages.  Ezekiel 18:23 tells us that God doesn’t take pleasure in the death of the wicked.  He would rather they turned in repentance.  This is the same thing that Peter states in 2 Peter 3:9. “The Lord…is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.  Whether Judas ever believed, Jesus clearly loved him and gave him a clear choice.  The end of Judas was the result of a series of selfish and wicked choices.

The field purchased by the priests in the name of Judas is also where Judas died.  Its name became Akel Dama, “Field of Blood.”  It would have been seen as a cursed place to avoid.  There is a sinister shade to the idea that the fruit of his betrayal was suicide in what would then become a cemetery for foreigners.

Judas is not the only betrayer of Jesus.  Jesus warned that many would betray him.  On the day that the Kingdom of Heaven is brought down to earth, Jesus describes the scene in Matthew 7:23. “I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!”  In John 6, Jesus made it clear that the problem for Judas was that he didn’t believe in Jesus.  There are many today who are betraying the cause and purpose of Jesus the Christ.  They do so all the while wearing a cloak of righteousness, but in the end, they are pursuing lawlessness. 

Do not focus on other to the detriment of your own soul.  If we believe in Jesus, then we will do what he commands.  Jesus held out a hand of redemption to judas to the bitter end, and so should we.

The position of Judas is filled by Matthias

In verse 15, the disciples are in Jerusalem waiting and praying for the Holy Spirit to be poured out, but someone needs to fill the position left vacant by Judas.  We are told that there are about 120 of them.  This could be broken down into The Eleven, The Seventy, and 39 others plus.

Peter broaches the subject of the vacant position by pointing to Scripture.  The Scriptures are quoted in verse 20 and they come from Psalm 69:25 and Psalm 109:8. Both of these Psalms are written by David.  He is complaining in prayer to God that he has been hated by those close to him without a cause.  In fact, Psalm 109:5 states, “They have rewarded me evil for good, and hatred for my love.”

If you read these Psalms of David in their entirety, you can see David calling out to God for vindication.  David, who has been reproached like a cursed man, must endure those who have hated him seemingly being blessed.  They are entrenched in their inheritance in Israel all the while he is being pushed out of the inheritance that God has given him.  David asks God to give judgment and reverse the positions.

This idea of a portion, a lot, and an inheritance connects the story of David and his betrayers with that of Jesus and his.  It also connects back to the inheritance of the tribes of Israel.

In verse 17, it states that Judas had “obtained a part in this ministry.”  The word for “part” is connected to the Hebrew word for a Lot, A Portion, an Inheritance.  More on this later.

Scripture tells us that David was a prophet, and Peter declares that the Holy Spirit spoke by the mouth of David.  Though he was focused on his situation, the Spirit of God spoke through him regarding the ultimate Son of David who would also be betrayed.  Those with whom God made covenants all lived lives that became prophetic enactments of future events connected to Messiah.  David’s initial rejection and betrayal was prophetic of the rejection and betrayal that the Messiah Son of David would experience.  Thus, Peter sees David prophesying that another should take the place of his betrayer.

A final point of how Peter saw this connection necessitating a person to replace Judas has to do with the number 12.  Why did Jesus pick twelve disciples to become his apostles?  We intuitively know it is connected to the 12 tribes of Israel.  I’ve already stated that the concept of a portion, or lot, grammatically ties these together.  However, Jesus promised the 12 that they would sit on 12 thrones ruling over the 12 tribes of Israel in his kingdom (Matthew 29:28; Luke 22:30).  Just as the tribes of Israel became the foundation of the nation of Israel and drew their inheritance by Lot, so the 12 Apostles would inherit the 12 tribes.  They are not each from the different tribes.  This points to a new order that Messiah would set up that was not simply based on natural blood lines.

Peter mentions some prerequisites to whomever would be picked.  They had to have accompanied the 11 throughout the time of the ministry of Jesus from his baptism by John up to his ascension into heaven.  They thus would be witnesses of his ministry, death, resurrection, and ascension.  Just as the tribes of Israel had witnessed the glorious deliverance from Egypt brought about by the Lord, so these were witnesses of the glory of Messiah.  Along with Jesus, these 12 would become the foundation and lay the foundation of the Called-Out-Ones who belonged to Jesus. They are to be his Church.  They would also be a foundational witness to the earth and to the heavens of the power and love of God shown to the sons of Adam through Jesus. 

You might recall the image of the New Jerusalem coming down out of heaven having 12 foundations, each one named for the 12 disciples.  One of them would have been named Judas, but he lost that glory.

Through this we can see the importance of having a 12^th apostle after Judas was lost.

Two men are chosen from among them, no doubt chosen from out of the 70. They are Joseph Barsabas and Matthias.  There is no electioneering here, and neither should there be.  Several men qualify, but only one can fill the post.  There were most likely others who qualified.  Serving God is not about the exact role or position that we receive.  It is not about the scope and number of people that it impacts.  It is simply about being faithful to whatever God gives you to do.  They would all go forth witnessing to the world of Jesus and the Resurrection, of the Gospel.

Matthias is the one who is chosen.  Two things stick out to me about the making of this decision.  First, the disciples prayed for God to reveal which of the two that He has chosen.  Two often, we can end up controlling who gets positions rather than letting God choose.  Prayer is essential in knowing the will of God.

Second, they cast lots to determine God’s will.  Historically, it was a common thing to cast lots in order to deal with decisions.  It served two purposes.  It was a way to satisfy strong, opinionated men.  They could all see how the lot fell and had a predetermined understanding of what its particular settlings would mean.  Though modern man would say that it is a random thing, the ancients often pointed to God controlling the lots.  We see this throughout the Old Testament, and as stated earlier, particularly with the inheritance of the 12 tribes of Israel.  There choice of casting lots is not by accident.  We never see them doing this again to make a decision (see Acts 15). 

Let us note that just as God had a portion for the 12 disciples, He also has a portion for you and me.  This lot in life involves our place in God’s Church, but also our place in the Age to Come.  Judas lost his place that day because he didn’t believe God.   Someone else ended up with a portion that could have been his.  Yes, this world can be a wilderness, but those who trust in Jesus will be blessed both now and in the Kingdom.  May we all serve in faithfulness in whatever post our Lord should give.

Tragedy of Judas 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

Jesus: The Lord of the Sabbath

Mark 2:23-28.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on April 7, 2019.

Historically, many Christians have developed an odd theology concerning what the Bible calls the Sabbath day.  The word Sabbath is a Hebrew word that means rest.  Under the Law of Moses, Israel was commanded not to work on the last day of the week, which for them was sundown on Friday to sundown on Saturday.

Living in Israel, the first Christians found themselves continuing the Sabbath observance, mostly because it was their culture, yet also celebrating the first day of the week on which Jesus was resurrected.  They called it the Lord’s Day.  By A.D. 70, most Christians had been scattered out of Israel and many Gentiles in other countries had been converted.  They understood from the beginning that they were not under the Law and the necessity to cease work on the Sabbath.  Yet, in some ways Sunday came to replace the Sabbath of the Old Testament, even to the point of being called the Sabbath by many. 

This creates a theologically murky disconnect between what the New Testament is saying and what became the practice of many in the Church.  If we say Sunday has replaced Saturday as the New Sabbath, and true believers will not work on that day, then we are testifying that we are under a law that is similar to that of Israel.  Of course, it is impossible to find a verse in the New Testament that puts believers under such a charge.  In fact, we find quite the opposite.  We find verses which state that the day on which we worship and hold holy is not what is important.

In our passage today, we will see another complaint that the Pharisees had with the disciples of Jesus and how the answer that Jesus gives, teaches us the true meaning the Sabbath was intended to have under both covenants.

Another complaint against the disciples

Our passage opens by telling us that it is the Sabbath, which was a day that Israel would not be working.  Instead, they would go to the Synagogue and then stay at home while focusing upon the worship of God.  It seems most likely that Jesus and his disciples are on their way to the Synagogue, which explains why the Pharisees are there to see what the disciples are doing.

Before we get into the complaint of the Pharisees, we should recognize a pattern that can be seen in Mark 2 and many other places throughout Scripture.  We see the Pharisees complaining to the disciples about Jesus on one hand, and then we see them complaining to Jesus about his disciples on the other.  This is a ploy that the devil loves to employ.  It is really about trying to drive a wedge between Christ and his disciples.  It is safe to say that the weak link in this relationship is us.  This happens all the time in our society today.  May God help us to remain faithful to Christ in the midst of such manipulative questions, which surface in our culture and therefore in our own minds.  We can be assured that Christ will remain faithful to us and not refuse to stand with us, if we will not refuse to stand with him.

The Pharisees see the disciples breaking heads of grain off and eating them as they walk through a field.  They ask Jesus why his disciples are breaking the Sabbath law.  So, are the disciples actually breaking the Sabbath laws?  According to Scripture, we know that they were not stealing.  In their culture it was not considered stealing if a person walking through a field only used their hand to take some food.  It was a command from God that they take care of the poor in this way.  They would have needed to be reaping the field with scythes and packing off bundles for it to be theft.  The issue involves the meaning of the word “work.”  Israel was commanded not to work on the Sabbath.  Over the years, the rabbis had built up a whole tradition around this issue.  What constitutes work had developed a long, intricate, and even head-scratching list of rules.

Jesus knew that his disciples were not working and therefore breaking the Sabbath.  They were only guilty of breaking the rules that the rabbis had built up over the years.  By the way, this does not represent a great meal.  They clearly hadn’t had breakfast and were merely staving off hunger.  They went from feasting in the house of Levi to eating a pittance of small grains in a field.  Sometimes following Jesus doesn’t put a lot of food on the table, but always he will take care of you.

Jesus gives them an answer

Jesus defends his disciples and yet he does it in a way that teaches everyone involved the truth as to why the Pharisees are in error.  He is going to use an example from Scripture that conflicts with their view, and then give the logic behind the Sabbath.

Jesus reminds them of a passage in 1 Samuel 21.  David is one of King Saul’s generals at the time and realizes that Saul is wanting to kill him.  David and some of his men flee town and hide for three days until the dust settles.  He then goes to the tabernacle, which was in the town of Nob at the time.  It had been set up at Shiloh for over 300 years, but the Philistines had recently captured the Ark of the Covenant and destroyed the town where the tabernacle had been.  It is believed that the news of the defeat of Israel’s army had arrived soon enough for the priests to dismantle the tabernacle and remove it before the troops arrived at Shiloh.

In the story David asks the priest to give some bread to him and his men.  However, the priest explains that they only have the holy showbread, and only the priestly families could eat it.  By the way, the showbread refers to the 12 loaves that were made each week.  They would be placed on a table in the tabernacle and remain there until they were replaced a week later.  Once replaced this bread was considered still holy and not to be eaten by a non-priestly family.  It appears that the High Priest then enquires of the Lord and gets permission to let David and his men eat the bread as long as they are ceremonially clean, and they were.  Now, the thing that is amazing about this example is that it qualifies as a real breaking of the commands of the Law of Moses.  Second of all, it seems clear from the passage that God gave His permission for it.

Notice how Jesus sets up the story by saying, “Have you never read…?  Clearly these Pharisees had read the passage, but they hadn’t really taken to heart the ramifications of it.  In fact, their traditions that had been built up over the centuries stood in condemnation of David and this event.  Yet, God did not, who was the one who gave the Law in the first place.  If we are to develop opinions and traditions through our contemplations of the Bible, we must make sure that they account for all of the biblical data and not just some of it.  No matter how satisfying our ideas about Scripture are, they shouldn’t run into logical problems like this one.  If my teaching ends up condemning God Himself then there is something wrong with my teaching, not God.  I am the one who has not understood something critical in the issue.  Now, this doesn’t tell us why it was okay for David to eat the bread, but it does show us that there is something wrong with the way the Pharisees interpret the Law.

The Christian Church today has many different groups that hold to varying teachings that often are at odds with each other.  Sometimes none of the interpretations of a particular issue perfectly fit all of the biblical data.  In such cases, we should hold our interpretations lightly and not use them as a whip against our brothers and sisters in the Lord.

After using the example from Scripture to show the Pharisees that they didn’t completely understand the Law, Jesus gives them the logic behind why David could eat the bread and why his disciples were not even close to breaking the law.  He explains that the Sabbath day, or the day of rest, was given for the benefit of God’s people.  In fact, rest is a large part of the human condition.  If we do not rest 8 hours, plus or minus depending on our age, our bodies quickly begin to fail and shut down.  Yet, we also need rest on longer cycles.  Humans typically worked every day of the week during the days when Israel was coming out of Egypt.  God was promising Israel that if they would refrain from working on the 7^th day and worship Him, then He would bless them so that they didn’t lack for doing it.  In fact, He often blessed them to the point they had more than if they worked all the time.  They were not born to honor a particular day for its sake.  The day was created for them so that they could have rest and enjoy their labor with God.  Yes, it was made into a command, due to our human nature.

For example, if I were to tell you that God was now promising to bless everyone who took a one-week staycation each year, would you do it?  Of course, He hasn’t told me this, but you can take my point.  It is easy to say God will bless you, but then as you approach the week, you look at your bank account and start to waffle in your faith.  There is nothing inherently sinful about working on Saturday.  However, once God makes it a command it becomes a moral issue of loyalty to Him. 

God wanted something better for Israel than working seven days a week.  The Sabbath taught them that they didn’t have to rely solely upon their own work.  They could trust God to bless their work to the point that they didn’t have to drive themselves physically, emotionally, and spiritually into the dirt in order to get ahead.

Now, Christians are not under the Law of Moses and the command not to work on Saturday.  However, we still need rest, and we still need to learn the lessons of the Sabbath from the Old Testament.  The answer is not to create a new, Christian Law which changes the day to Sunday, but to hear God’s heart for us.  He wants you to be blessed, but He doesn’t want you to kill yourself trying to be blessed.  He doesn’t want you deceiving yourself about the true source of your blessing.  That is a life that is anything but peaceful and filled with rest.  You can work hard, and yet take breaks at appropriate intervals because God is not a slave driver, but our flesh is.

The Pharisees had lost sight of the whole purpose of the Sabbath day.  Just like the purpose of the showbread and the prohibitions upon who could eat it, the prohibitions of the Sabbath were not intended to make things harder and worse for Israel.  These men were hungry and had nothing to eat in both cases.  God is not an uncaring legislator.  These laws were symbolic of spiritual truth and not inherently about a moral issue.  Thus, in times of difficulty, the symbol could be put aside for the sake of God’s people.  Yet, all of this misses the further point, that the disciples were merely picking heads of grain.  The Pharisees have lost the heart of God who was behind the law.

So how should Christians view the Sabbath Day?  The New Testament equivalent to the Old Testament Sabbath is not that it has now been moved to Sunday.  I know that historically this is what it seems like.  Christians should not take Sunday off and worship the Lord because they are commanded to do so.  We could meet on any day of the week that we want.  We could meet on multiple days.  It is just that over the years, Sunday became that day, and for many good reasons.  It is now a part of our culture and the easiest day to have Church gatherings.  We need rest and should take a day off, gather with other believers, and worship the Lord.  However, we should do it because it is good and healthy for us in every way, not because we believe we are staving off the anger of God.

Yet, the Old Testament Sabbath law was pointing to something greater than just a change of the day upon which we rest.  It was about believing in Jesus and resting from the work of trying to save ourselves, trying to measure up through our excellent law-keeping.  Technically, everyday for the Christian is the supposed to be the Sabbath Day because in Christ we have entered into that peaceful place, that rest, which God intends for us in Jesus.  Sure, we continue to work for God, but not in order to be saved and measure up.  We work for Him out of joy, not drudgery and fear of breaking a law.  God wants us to have a spiritual peace in our hearts.  Yet, He doesn’t want us to cast off all restraint and walk away from His Holy Spirit.

Are you resting in Jesus today, and every day?  Has He become your peace and joy?  This is what the Father desires for you.  He wants to bless you as you trust Him each day!

Lord of Sabbath Audio