Led By the Spirit

Romans 8:1-30.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on May 19, 2024, Pentecost Sunday.

Our passage today does not focus on the gifts of the Spirit, but on the leading and help of the Holy Spirit.

As we were walking through the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5 to 7, we recognized that it begs certain questions.  How can a person do these things?  How can I love my enemies?  How can I be perfect even as my Father in heaven is perfect?

The short answer to these questions is that it will take a miracle of God.  Similar to Abram and Sarah wondering how they were going to have a child, we wonder how God will do the impossible things that He says He will do in us.  Like Abram and Sarah did, we can try to accomplish it in our flesh, but this is not God’s way.  In the end, it would be Isaac who would receive the promises of God to Abraham and carry them into the next generation.  Thus, we must not look at ourselves, our abilities, and our strength to find hope.  Rather, we look to Jesus, the one who is doing this powerful work within us.

We are told that God gives His Holy Spirit to those who put their faith in Jesus so that we can then do the impossible.  I do not mean things like jumping over a tall building in a single bound.  These are the kinds of things our flesh dreams up when it thinks of doing the impossible.  No, I mean those impossible things that God has promised to do in us and through us.

So, let’s look at our passage today and see the hope that we have in the help of the Holy Spirit for us.

The Spirit helps us to fulfill the righteousness of the Law (v. 1-4)

This first point is one of the main points that Jesus teaches in the Sermon on the Mount.  Those who follow him will be enabled to fulfill the righteousness of the Law.  Paul sees this as the result of walking with the Holy Spirit.

The preposition that is translated as “with” has an added sense of something else that is in opposition.  We walk with the Holy Spirit as opposed to what we were walking with before.  In this case, Paul sees our flesh as the problem.  This shows the choice that is before everyone who hears the Gospel of Jesus and then responds in faith.  It is a choice between continuing to follow our flesh, or turning away from it in order to walk with the Holy Spirit.

This was always the weak point in the Law of Moses.  When verse three talks about the weakness of the Law, it is not pointing to a problem in the words themselves.  It is our tendency to follow our flesh.  The Law was perfect, but we are not.  Thus, we end up only condemned by those words.

Jesus boiled the whole purpose of the Law down to loving God with our whole being and loving our neighbor as ourself (even when that neighbor is our enemy).  When our flesh leads, we fail this all the time, but when the Spirit leads us, then we are enabled to accomplish what God was wanting.  Now remember, we wouldn’t have the Holy Spirit if Jesus hadn’t gone to the cross for us and won the authority and right to pour out this Holy Spirit upon his followers.

So, let’s delve a little deeper into walking with the Holy Spirit.  Walking has to do with how we live our life, the directions we go in, and the purpose behind what we do.  We are not intended to do this alone, but instead, to do it with the Spirit of Christ in us.  It is not up to my wisdom and my strength.  Like Adam and Eve talking with God in the cool of the day in the Garden of Eden, so too, we can pray and receive the wisdom, the leading, of the Holy Spirit for what we face.

It is the Holy Spirit that teaches us to fulfill the purpose of God.  It is the Holy Spirit that teaches us how to love God and other humans in the way that Christ has loved us.  These things are not in contention.  To love God is to be helped by Him to know how to love others.  The world may try to put them in contention.  However, you do not help (love) people by bending God’s word or twisting it.

The Spirit helps us to focus on the things of God (v. 5-8)

When we follow the flesh, we are generally doing stupid things that we will need to repent over later.  Just like parents teach their kids to focus on a task, or teachers help students to focus while in class, we too are enabled to focus on the right things by the Spirit of God.

The power of technology is not helping us in this area of focus.  People may focus on a screen for long periods of time, but we are almost completely disabled in our ability to get our heads out of it and into what God is trying to accomplish.  Of course, focus has always been a problem, even before such technology.  It has been a problem because the flesh in in competition with the Spirit of God.  When a person is saved, they are given the Spirit of God; He dwells within them.  Yet, they still have a mind of the flesh that is hostile to the things of God.  If left to our own devices, each of us would become focused on the things of the flesh, not the things of God.

In this area of God’s things, i.e., things of the Spirit, versus things of my flesh, there are things that I need to get rid of, and there are things that I need to start doing.  Maybe, I didn’t read the Bible before, or I didn’t pray and gather together with Christians, but now I start doing those things.  Maybe, I used to be involved in sexual immorality in certain ways, but now I stop doing those things that are contrary to God’s design in my life.

However, sometimes it is not about the thing I am doing so much as it is about the reasons why I do it.  Helping poor people is a good thing.  However, I can do it for fleshly reasons.  I can do it because it makes me feel good about myself.  Perhaps, I do it because it makes me feel like I am better than others.  I might do it because I want to use it as leverage for manipulating them.  The Holy Spirit teaches us how to take those impure, fleshly motivations, and cleanse them from our heart.  Then, we can be enabled to do a good thing for the right reasons, reasons that are made clean by the Holy Spirit.  Jesus addressed this in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 6:1-4.  Sometimes, we simply want people to think that we are better than we really are, image control, branding. 

The flesh will do religious and virtuous things for fleshly reasons, but the Spirit of God is given to teach us to say no to our flesh.  The Spirit is the grace of God helping us to break free from the hold that the flesh has upon our mind and life.  The flesh will be hostile to losing its grip on your life.  It is used to getting its way.  Paul points to this hostility in verse seven.  The flesh cannot be submitted to the Holy Spirit.  We can only quit listening to it and start listening to the Holy Spirit.

Even now, we see this fleshly hostility surfacing within our society.  People will complain about the “horrible, vengeful God of the Old Testament.”  Yet, at the same time, they will complain about the evil in the world as if it is God’s fault.  What they refuse to see is the tension between the love of God, that withholds judgment for a time so that we may take hold of the solution He has given us in Jesus, and the justice of God, which will (even must) judge wickedness eventually.  In its hostility, the flesh makes many self-serving arguments as to why it should lead in your life.  To cooperate with it is to cooperate with what is destroying your life, but to cooperate with the Spirit of God is to cooperate with that which is giving you Life.

The Spirit gives life to us in these mortal bodies (v. 9-11)

This issue of cooperation is key to our spiritual walk.  Though Paul does not emphasize the baptism of the Holy Spirit here, let me simply say this.  When you believe in Jesus, the Spirit comes to live within you.  He comes to help us in all the ways we need help.  Yet, we are also instructed to pray and ask for the baptism, or infilling, of the Holy Spirit.  These are two different pictures of the same thing. 

Being baptized in the Spirit is an external picture of immersion into the Spirit.  Yes, I have the Spirit, but does the Spirit have me?  Being totally surrounded by the Spirit is a powerful picture of a person surrendered to His work in their life. 

Being filled with the Holy Spirit uses an internal image.  You are a container that has the Holy Spirit within.  However, the nature of the Spirit allows Him to increase in measure to the point of filling us up and overflowing our life into the world around us.  This is something that occurs as we cooperate and seek His filling of us.

When you became a Christian, a follower of Jesus, it wasn’t your flesh saying yes on that day.  It was that moment at which you heard the Holy Spirit pointing you towards Jesus, and you began to cooperate with the Holy Spirit’s leading.  The only question now is this.  Will I continue cooperating with, walking with, the Holy Spirit?  The Christian walk is one of daily walking with the Spirit, daily thanking God for His Spirit and inviting Him to fill you to overflowing for the purposes of God for that day.

This is that life which Paul is talking about.  The same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead is able to give life to us in these mortal bodies.  Notice that he uses a different term from the word “flesh” that he has been using up to this point.  The flesh refers to the more sinister aspect of our bodies.  “Mortal” sees our bodies in the fact that they are dying and we will surrender them one day.  These mortal, earthly bodies are impacted by sins that we have done in them and to them.  We can sometimes lose hope in the life of God because of these very weaknesses in our mortal bodies.  Yet, we can have life even now because of the work of the Holy Spirit within us.  My flesh might be slowly wasting away and slipping ever closer to death, but my spirit is growing in relationship and closeness by the Spirit.  I am no longer ruled by the flesh’s fear of death and sickness.  I am more than a conqueror in Jesus Christ who leads me forth into victory, even through the valley of the shadow of death itself! 

Of course, the Spirit of God will give life to our mortal bodies at the resurrection too!  However, I believe Paul’s point here is about the life we can receive and live out now, even while we are in sinful flesh, and sin-impacted, mortal bodies.

The Spirit makes us to be sons of God, and thus, His heirs (v. 12-17)

The phrase “sons of God” is important.  It is sometimes translated as “children of God.”  The point is not that we are not, or cannot become, mature.  There is a certain spiritual maturity that is possible within these mortal bodies.  However, it pales in comparison to the status of the mature sons of God that we will have following the resurrection.  The resurrection is an instantaneous change, but our spiritual maturity in these mortal bodies is progressive.  We come to faith in Christ as spiritual babies, but we are not intended to remain babies.  The Spirit works in us first to be the evidence that we are the “babies” of God, but then to also help us grow up into the adult sons of God (as far as it is attainable in this life).  Spiritually mature believers have learned to fight and win the battle against their flesh in order to follow the Holy Spirit.  That doesn’t mean it is no longer a battle, and they are no longer tested.  However, it does mean that they have experience and spiritual skills that they didn’t have as babies. 

We have been adopted into the family of God, and we have become joint-heirs with Jesus in the eternal life that God is even now giving to those who put their faith in Jesus.  Technically, Jesus inherits it all, but we inherit because of our close relationship with him (his bride, his disciples, his family).

Thus, our calling is not that of slaves, but that of His family.  In this passage, Paul is focused upon the motivation and hop that the believer will need to fight the flesh and follow the Spirit.  You are His family in Christ.  He is not going to jerk the rug out from underneath of you.  You were made to inherit the Kingdom of Heaven, even the New Heavens and the New Earth. You will be glorified with Christ one of these days.  It is the Spirit of God that witnesses with your spirit that these things are true.

Yet, in other places (Romans 1:1, Philippians 1:1), Paul calls himself a slave of Jesus Christ.  He is not contradicting this point.  Rather, Paul is referencing the fact that he volunteers to be a slave serving the purposes of Christ precisely because he is so convinced of the call of God for us as His children.  Now is the day of battle for the souls of men trapped in darkness.  Now is the time of laboring in the field of humanity in order to draw all men into faith in Christ, and therefore, adoption into the family of God.  We can be sons working long hours (the hours that a slave would work) because it is the work of our Father, our Savior, our LORD!  This is not a contradiction, but a powerful understanding of what it means to be adopted into the family of God and how that frees us to completely offer our mortal lives to His glorious work of redemption. 

We will share in his glory.  We share in the glory of his humanity right now, but after the resurrection, we will share in his glory as the Highest One, the Anointed of God, the King of Kings and the Lord of lords.

The Spirit helps us in our weakness (v. 25-30)

In verses 18-24, Paul talks about how the creation was subjected to the futility, the emptiness, of the curse because of the hope of its undoing in Christ.  We are a part of that great restoring of all things back to a condition of being very good (Genesis 1:31).  When God’s earthly imagers have been restored, then too, the curse shall be lifted off of the earth.

In our weak, mortal flesh, it may seem hard to believe that these things shall be true.  To follow the Spirit is not to walk by sight (what you see), but to walk by faith.  Ask yourself, when you look at the world today, are you filled with a great hope that we are on the cusp of 1,000 years of peace, and the corrupt governments of the world being removed?  No.  Our hope is place upon Jesus himself.  The Apostle Paul even warned in 1 Thessalonians 5:3, “For when they say, ‘Peace and safety!’ then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape.”  Similarly, if it one day looks like this world will create peace on earth, then don’t believe it!  It will be short-lived because they mean to do it without the One-True, Anointed Son of God at its helm.

The weakness we have in these mortal frames to put faith in what we see is helped by the Holy Spirit.  He helps us to keep our hope in Christ when all is failing around us, or when the wicked pretend that they have fixed all things.

We trust that God is working all things to our good (vs. 28) because we have put our faith in Jesus Christ and are being led by His Spirit.  We have too many testimonies from the Bible to doubt that He is doing such.

Ultimately, Paul describes God’s will for each of us, for all of us together: predestined, called, justified and glorified (vs. 30).  “Glorified” is put in the past tense, but it is a verb that technically has no tense.  The emphasis is not on when these things happen, but that they are the sure purpose of God for us.  He has predestined (put a destiny before us) those who follow the Spirit of God to be conformed into the image of His Son, Jesus.  To do that, He is faithful to call out to those trapped in darkness.  “Look upon Jesus and be healed!”  “Come, follow me, and I will make you fishers of men!”  Those who answer this call by faith are justified by God (made to be right before Him).  This grace is made available because of the free-will offering of Christ upon the cross.  Those He has justified, He will glorify.  Though there is a certain glory that we have in following Christ in his humility, this points to the resurrection and our coming with Jesus when He returns to earth in His glory!  This glorification though future is yet guaranteed because of Jesus himself.  God will not deny His Son.  All who have put their faith in Jesus and have become his will be made to be like Him completely at the resurrection.  This is God’s purpose in you, and this is why we follow the Spirit of God rather than our flesh.  All who follow the flesh are destined to miss out on all of those good things that God has planned (those things we know about, and those things that we don’t know about). 

You have too much to lose to give up now.  Yes, the devil, the world, and even your flesh will tell you to quit believing in Jesus and start putting your faith in the ability of man to save himself.  Right now we are given the choice.  What will I do with Jesus?  However, one day we will stand before Jesus and the choice will be his.  What will he do with me?  Choose Life today! (John 14:6).

Led by the Spirit Audio

The Most Excellent Way

Romans 12:9-10.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on February 7, 2021.

In Mark 12:29-31, Jesus gave us the two greatest commandments, which are really two sides of the same coin.  We are to love God with all of our being (heart, soul, mind, and strength), and we are to love our neighbor as ourselves.  Later, Jesus modified this second command among his disciples.  “Love one another, as I have loved you.”  That is quite the qualifier.  It is one thing to love one another as we think we should, but to love in the way Jesus did would be to love sacrificially and selflessly.

I say that these two commands are two sides of the same coin because the Apostle John challenges us in his first letter with this.  How can you say you love God, whom you haven’t seen, when you can’t even love your brother, whom you have?  Yes, it is easy to give lip service to loving God because he is not physically on this earth.  It is more difficult to test.  In fact, shouldn’t we see the second command as the litmus test of whether or not we truly love God?  I think so.

Let’s remind ourselves today to strengthen this duty that we have to love one another, the duty to love.

We are to love without hypocrisy

The command to love one anther is simple enough, but throughout Scripture, we are given qualifiers from time to time.  In Romans 12:9, it is qualified with a negative phrase, “without hypocrisy.”  Some translations have chosen to emphasize the positive implication of this phrase.  NIV says, “Love must be sincere.”  ESV says, “Let love be genuine.”  The NLT attempts to put both the negative phrase and its positive implication together.  “Don’t just pretend to love others.  Really love them.”

The reason that we need these qualifiers is because the actions of people do not always match up with their words.  There is an irony in our country today that, while we talk more and more of loving each other and being united, we are seeing more and more anger and hatred.  This is not a new thing.  There have always been those who said they were loving, but in the end they were not.  They weren’t sincere, or genuine.  In short, they were hypocrites.

The word hypocrisy, that we are not supposed to mix in with our loving of one another, was a word that came from acting in plays.  The New Testament writers took the word and used it to refer the moral evil of a person merely acting as if they are doing good.  Such people were wearing the acting mask of love, but behind that external mask, there were unloving motivations.

Acting is a powerful medium for getting a message across when people know that it is an act.  It helps us to think about the same situation as a group.  Of course, it can be manipulated to try and pressure the group to think certain things, which is itself a form of hypocrisy.  It pretends to open up discussion on a situation, but in truth is trying to force all to think the same. 

Let’s just say the obvious.  Christians are not called to make an amazing movie about love, whether on a screen or in our lives.  We are to be doing it, for real.  In other words, we are to live a life of love that is worthy of a movie, not to give a performance that people are willing to watch.  It is the difference between being an actor and being the real thing.  If Hollywood stars are any measure of actors, we know that actors are often empty of the good things that they portray, or at least fall very short of it.

Wearing masks with one another and having a superficial love is not God’s plan, and we need the help of the Holy Spirit to be brave enough to take them off.  Warning- when you try to take of masks, those who are still wearing them will be uncomfortable with it (even you will be uncomfortable with it).

Paul then describes what hypocrisy-free love looks like with two verbal phrases.  The first is “abhor that which is bad.”  While we love one another, we should be abhorring, or detesting, that which is evil.  Paul chooses a strong word here.  Christians are not to treat moral evil lightly.  In 1 Corinthians 13, Paul also writes, “love does not delight in evil, but rejoices in the truth.”

Moral evil is defined throughout Scriptures, and it is all those negative vices and activities that God warns against, of which hypocrisy is just one.  This is not just an instruction for me about the other person and their sin.  Rather, it starts with me.  I must detest and shrink back from the tendency to be insincere, or any other moral evil, in my “love.”  I must fight the internal battle of keeping my heart pure towards God and my fellow man.

Of course, when loving others, we will have to face their imperfections and sinful tendencies (and they ours).  Love never means coddling that which is evil.  Our society likes to pick and choose who it loves and what evil is protected.  This must never be among Christians, those who say that they are following Christ, rather than our culture. 

An example of this has to do with public advice that is often given to people in difficult situations.  A case in point is a letter that was written to Dear Abbey.  A mother’s adult daughter, who had been raised to be a Christian, had embraced homosexuality.  The mom was struggling with what it means to continue to love her daughter when she was embracing something that was morally evil (by Christ’s definition).  Dear Abbey’s advice was a surrender to cultural influence in which she was counselled to embrace her daughter and the homosexual lifestyle she was living.  Ultimately, our hearts can be pulled into evil even out of a misguided love.  Loving someone in this situation is something Christians should do, but not in a way that embraces the harmful choices of the individual.  I know that this is 180 degrees the opposite of today’s “wisdom,” but we are followers of Jesus, not today’s culture (or are we?).

The second verbal phrase is the positive implication of the previous.  We must love while holding fast, or clinging, to that which is good.  Most people tend to one side or the other.  We can focus only on detesting evil, and it becomes an excuse to disregard and ignore people who God loves.  On the other hand, we can focus only on clinging to what is good, and ignore the moral evil that is piling up around us.  Christians are called to the hard road of truly loving others, as Jesus loved us.  It is hypocrisy to say that we love someone, but then not really face sin in our life or theirs.  It is hypocrisy to call this love, or to pretend that love calls us to overlook sin, or at least redefine it.  It is also hypocrisy to write someone off because of their sins and failures, and not try to lift that which is good.

This tension is mentioned by Paul in Galatians 6:1, “Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently.  But watch yourselves, or you may also be tempted.”  Jude mentions this tension in verses 22 and 23 of his letter.  “Be merciful to those who are doubting; but others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment defiled by flesh.”  Even a person who is so destroyed by sin that they are essentially being thrown into the fire of destruction, we are to attempt to save, yet being careful not to be caught up in their sin.  This is a love that is tough on the person doing it and tough on the person receiving it.  However, it is only truth that can set you free.  Fake love helps no one, period.

We are to love as family

Another qualifier is given for our love in verse 10 of Romans 12.  We must love each other with the love that we would have for family members.  Christians are called the “household of faith,” “the children of God,” and we are destined to be the adult Sons and Daughters of God in eternity.  It is not that we pretend that the other is family.  In Christ, we actually are.  Paul uses two words that refer to this family love.  “Brotherly love” is the obvious one.  However, the “kindly affectioned” phrase is actually a word that speaks of the love between parents and children.

Our biological families are a microcosm of the larger family of God that we join when we become followers of Christ.  Even our local church is simply a microcosm of the larger family of God worldwide, and history-wide.  Like Israel coming out of Egypt, we are a part of a large nation of very different people who all will inherit form the same Father, who loves us all.  It is easy to forget that we are family in Christ, and that our Father wants us to learn to get along and love each other.  This is not a suggestion, or something that we can work on when everything else is done.  It is the litmus test of our love for God.  “Do you love me?  Then, feed my sheep,” aka, love my children.

Lastly, Paul speaks of humbly honoring others.  Sibling rivalry, or just family squabbles, are destined to happen because none of us are perfect yet.  Even those who are spiritual elders are not perfected yet.  It is easy to chafe at other believers, like siblings, and it is easy to have tensions between spiritual elders and young believers.  These things are a natural part of being family.  However, we are to work on them with the kind of attitude that takes the lead in honoring the other.  The NKJV translates, “preferring one another.”  This misses the mark in my opinion.  The word being translated has the concept of going ahead of others in this area of honoring.  The clash is that our tendency is to honor ourselves and “go ahead” by pushing ourselves above others.  If we are to “go ahead of others,” it is not to be in honoring ourselves, but in honoring them.

Honor has to do with value and worth.  We love what has value and worth to us, and yet, in our imperfection, we often value things that we shouldn’t and disvalue, dishonor, what we shouldn’t.  Believers have a value to one another that isn’t always understood by us because we get wrapped up in the thinking of our age.  Instead of seeing one another through God’s yes, and through His purposes, we can only see through the world’s eyes and its purposes, or our own selfish purposes.  The challenge to love in today’s atmosphere is only becoming more difficult.  This cannot be used as an excuse.  There are attempts from the culture to polarize and divide God’s people.  May God help us to resist these blatant attacks on God’s Church, and to remain in fellowship with the Spirit of God and His people.

Excellent Way Audio

Your Personal End Times: The Millennium Part II

Zechariah 14:8-11, 16-20; Romans 8:18-25.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on October 14, 2018.

We are taking time to see what the Bible has to say about the period of time that we call the Millennium.  This is the promise throughout the Old Testament that God would deliver Israel and rule over the nations of the world through His righteous, anointed King, who will sit upon the throne of David.  We are given a taste of this righteous King and his righteous kingdom in the Church.  Jesus is our King and we obey his commands.  However, the fulfillment of these Old Testament passages is about more than a metaphor for our current experience in Christ.  It truly is about an earthly kingdom that will occur when Christ returns to earth.  Thus, our current experience simply prepares us for that reality.

Now the Church has preached that Jesus is the coming King of kings for the last 2,000 years.  It is clear that, though many people within the nations of the world have embraced Him, the governments of the world have no interest in Jesus being King over them.  Not even the “Christian” nations in the West show any true desire for Christ to return and rule over them.  Instead we keep doubling down on our own human wisdom and looking for anyone, someone, who will come along with better answers.  In short the governments do not like the Savior that God has given and seek another savior, or an antichrist.  Eventually God will allow them to have their wish.  However, such a hope will be short lived.  Jesus is destined to reign over the earth and His divine wisdom will usher in a new time of peace that the world has never known.  Let’s continue our look at this 1,000 year kingdom and what it will be like.

The nations of the earth will worship the Lord Jesus

Our first passage today will be in Zechariah 14.  You will notice that the millennial passages in the Old Testament have a distinctive, Jewish flavor to them because the Israeli people will be re-gathered, and Christ will reign from Jerusalem over them and the world.  You may remember Jesus speaking to His disciples in Matthew 19:28.  He promised the Twelve, “In the regeneration, when the Son of Man sits on the throne of His glory, you who have followed Me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.” (NKJV)   

However, the Millennium is not just about Israel.  It is also about the nations of the world.  Thus Zechariah speaks about the whole earth worshipping the Lord Jesus.  Now, we should not expect that we will have church services exactly as we do now.  However, neither should we expect that all cultures will have to adopt a Jewish-style service.  This passage is not saying that we will have to follow the Old Testament laws on worship.  Rather, it makes clear that there will be universal aspects of worship that all nations will do.  In this case, all nations will gather once a year to celebrate the Feast of Booths (The last feast of the 7 feasts of the Lord, which is in the Fall).  This is a super-corporate event.  It leaves the question of what worship will be the other days of the year.  I believe this passage leaves room for cultural differences, but also makes clear that Jesus will give some specific directions, much like Moses directed Israel in how God wanted them to worship Him.

We are told that there will be some big topographical changes to the area surrounding Jerusalem.  Most of the area will be flattened like a plain.  However, Jerusalem will be raised up above the plain.  This topography actually will occur, but it also symbolizes God’s decree.  All who approach the City of Jesus do so from a humble position and should have an attitude of worship.  In verse 4 we are told that the Mount of Olives will be split in half as the Lord stands upon it.  We are also told that water will flow out of the city of Jerusalem, some towards the Mediterranean Sea and some towards the Dead Sea.  This actual water flow is also intended to symbolize what God is doing spiritually.  His truth will flow towards the East and towards the West and fill the world.  He will lift up Jerusalem and dispense the Life of God to the nations.  Ezekiel 47 actually states that the waters that flow from Jerusalem will heal the Dead Sea so that fish swim in it and vegetation grows around it.  It also states that the water will flow all year long.  In the Pacific Northwest this may not sound like an important statement.  In the Middle East this is a powerful statement.  It will not just be a powerful spring river that is completely dry by the end of summer.  Rather, it will flow continuously, making the land a land of milk and honey once again.  Water shortage has been a big problem in the Near East for centuries.  The fact that this land lacks water and would be barren without modern technology, despite clearly being bountiful during the times of Moses, points to the judgments of God.  During the Millennium the land will be blessed and have plentiful water.

In verse 16 we see the worship of the Millennial Kingdom.  The passage uses the term “survivors” for those who remain after the devastations of the Tribulation, and the Second Coming.  Under the Beast and the False Prophet, the kings of the earth had gathered their armies against Jerusalem in order to destroy it, but now the nations will come up to worship rather than to attack.  The Feast of Booths is also called the Feast of Tabernacles.  In Ezekiel 45 we also see that the Feast of Passover will be observed.  However, it does not say that the people of the earth will gather for it. 

Some believers are bothered by the idea that at least some of the Jewish feasts will be reinstated and that sacrifices are described.  Let’s remember that they are not Israel’s feasts.  They were originally described as the Feasts of the Lord.  Clearly, we will not be under the Old Covenant of the Law of Moses.  However, there will be some symbolic rituals and memorial offerings that will function much like Christian Communion does today.  We do not look to the juice and the bread as our salvation, but rather a celebration of what Christ did.  Thus these feasts and their sacrifices will function the same way during the Millennial Kingdom.  They will point to the work of Christ.  We also should remember that there will be mortals as well as immortals on the earth in those days.  Thus the sacrifices will also testify and remind the mortals of where their salvation lies.  It lies in Jesus and His ability to atone for sins and to forgive them.   This snapshot of global worship doesn’t imply that we will worship only once a year, but that there will be an annual global, worshipful, celebration.

The last part of our section brings up a hypothetical situation where the nation of Egypt might choose not to come to the feast.  It describes the “blow” or punishment that Christ will give to any nation that refuses to come.  They will lack rain in their country until they comply.  This strikes me in two ways.  On one hand it is clear that Christ means business and Egypt will have to comply, if they want their country to survive.  However, on the other hand, there is no executing of rebels and military occupations either.  There will be no tactics of the Antichrist, or the empires of this world, in play here.  His response is both extremely powerful and yet extremely gracious.  It reminds us of the punishment of a Father who does not wish to destroy a child, but rather to help them learn righteousness.  This gives a picture of what the Bible means by the phrase ruling with a rod of iron.  His commands will be unyielding and yet they will still be gracious, as is his character.

It is the hope of all creation

This concludes the passages that we are going to look at, which describe the Millennial period.  However, I want to end today’s lesson by making this one last point from Romans 8:18-25.  In this New Testament passage it refers to the time when Jesus returns to earth as the “hope” of all creation.  Paul seems to personalize all of creation, as he describes its eager awaiting of this time.  It is referred to as the revealing of the Sons of God.  This is what the Apostle John spoke of in 1 John 3:2-3.  “Beloved, now we are the children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.  And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.”  You and I presently do not look like “Sons of God,” which was a phrase used in the Old Testament for the angels.  However, when we are resurrected and come with Christ from the clouds at His Second Coming, it will be made clear, or revealed, just who we really are.  We need this personal revelation from time to time.  Don’t forget what your destiny is and trade it for a bowl of beans in this life.  The whole creation is groaning for deliverance and crying for you and I to be revealed for who we really are, the Sons of God.

We can look at this groaning and travailing of creation in a couple of ways.  First the sentient parts of creation, angels and humans, literally groan and travail.  The righteous angels and righteous men long for the Lord to come back and deliver the earth from the bondage of The Rebellion.  However, there is also a symbolic groaning and travailing that we see in the earth itself, which is racked with quakes, tsunamis, and volcanic activity.  As we approach this blessed event, all of creation will groan more and more, louder and louder.

In verse 20 and following, it refers to the fact that the creation was subjected to futility.  This word has the sense of something that has been perverted and lacks truth, or is devoid of the ability for good.  This is the same word in Ecclesiastes used to translate the Hebrew, “Vanity, vanity, all is vanity.”  Some versions also translate it “meaningless.”  I believe that Paul has the curse from the Garden of Eden in mind.  There Adam’s sin causes changes to the ability of the earth to produce.  However, this curse was not intended to be forever.  God’s punishment was given in the “hope” that it would one day be removed.  Thus, we should not let the difficulties that we face today cause us to lose hope in the God who will one day lift this curse and celebrate the creation as it was meant to be with us.  This is His promise to those who trust Him.

The freedom of the Sons of God will bring freedom to creation, just as the bondage of Adam, the son of God, brought bondage to creation.  The Millennium is about Jesus, but it is also about His ability to bring forth the Sons of God.  The righteous of every generation are those who put their faith in God.  These will enjoy the glorious freedom of Christ as they are set free from death and this freedom will release freedom upon all of creation.  Thus the Second Adam brings life where the First Adam brought death.  May the Lord fill our hearts with faith even though we may not see these things now.  It is the same Lord, who rose up from the dead and ascended into heaven to the right hand of the Father, who will set creation free from the bondage that it is currently under.  Amen!  Don’t squander another minute without turning towards Jesus in faith and trust.  Give your life to Him and become a disciple of the greatest Master who ever lived, God Himself.

The Millennium Part II

Our Heavenly Father

Matthew 5:43-48.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Father’s Day, June 18, 2017.

This weekend I entered a new stage of life when my first child was married.  He begins that new stage of life for him in which he creates a new home of his own with the young woman whom he loves.  Whether you have seen either of these stages yet or not, our passage today speaks to us today about looking to our Heavenly Father and asking Him to teach us to be good, earthly fathers.

Father’s have a purpose

Verse 48 of this passage hits all of us like a ton of bricks and we will deal with it more as we go along.  However, I want us to notice that this whole section is about how those who want to follow the wisdom of Jesus will follow him in being like the Heavenly Father.  So, instead of starting with the impossible command to “be perfect,” let’s start with the sense of belonging and purpose that is the foundation of what Jesus has to say.  We have a Heavenly Father and we are meant to choose to be like Him in our actions.  This really is a wonderful thing.

In fact, Jesus points out in verse 43 that they had heard it said, “You shall love your neighbor, and hate your enemy.”  Now the first part of this sentence comes from the Law of Moses.  Though Jesus doesn’t specifically point this out, it is worth recognizing that they heard this because the Heavenly Father had spoken to them through Moses and later through others.  God has not been silent, but has spoken some very clear things to mankind.  The Bible is the collection of those words throughout time.  With that said, you will not find a place in the Old Testament where they were commanded to hate their enemies.  God had not actually said this. They heard this part from those who thought they were safely speaking what God intends.  Perhaps the logic could go like this.  God is going to judge his enemies who hate him, so we should hate them.  So within this one statement Jesus reminds us of that mix of instructions that come to people, some from God and some from religious leaders that goes beyond God’s Word and even contrary to it.  There is only one Son of God that perfectly represents the Heavenly Father and speaks only what the Father told him to say, and that is Jesus.  Thus we can read the Word, but even more, we can hear what the One and Only Son of God, Jesus, who can help us perfectly understand what our Father is saying.  Now I would point out here that earthly fathers who want to be like the Heavenly Father should be faithful to speak to their kids in appropriate ways at appropriate times.  Be a good representative of our Heavenly Father to your children and properly point them to Him.  Be careful of inserting your own ideas without prefacing them with the fact that they are just that.  Kids need to know that as you speak to them, so has God.

In verse 45, Jesus goes beyond speaking.  He reminds us that God has given us examples.  We can look at all the goodness and provision of creation and recognize that it is given to the righteous and the unrighteous alike, without distinction.  Even those who make themselves enemies of God receive massive amounts of kindness from Him.  Thus Jesus points us to learn from the example of God.  Fathers, let’s not forget that our life and the way it is lived must be a good example for our kids.  Yes, they need to hear our words, but our actions often speak louder than words.  So pay attention to the example you are setting.

So with the Word of God and the example of God, it is our purpose to become “sons of our father in heaven.”  I believe that this is key to understanding what Jesus is driving at in verse 48.  It is in the context of being a son of the Heavenly Father that we are called to “be perfect, as your father in heaven is perfect.”  Now the word “perfect” in the original language has the sense of that which is complete, finished, or has come to maturity.  Since we are speaking of humans and their heavenly father, maturity is the concept which fits best.  And, we should note that spiritual maturity is clearly intended.  The emphasis is not a lack of error or sin, as the English may imply.  Rather it is on becoming what you are intended to be.  You were created to be like God, to bear His image in this life.  Of course that is a tall order and yet we are in good company.  The Apostle Paul said in Philippians 3:12-14,

“12 Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. 13 Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, 14 I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.  15 Therefore let us, as many as are mature, have this mind; and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal even this to you.”

The words that I have emboldened and underlined are translated differently but they come from the same Greek word.  Now my point is not to point out that they are translated wrong.  But that they are the same word used in Matthew 5:48 for “perfect.”  In Paul’s passage he uses the word in two different ways.  In verse 12 he is stating that even he, the Apostle Paul, had not been completely finished.  He was still in the flesh, and was not without sin.  Thus this first use is that which sees that he falls short of all that God has for him.  But in verse 15, he uses it to emphasize those who have spiritually grown up and are mature Christians.  He clearly sees himself as a part of this group.  Maturity is a funny thing.  When a child is 1 year old and they are starting to walk and talk, we might speak of them as being perfect.  They are exactly where they should be in their development for their age.  So an 18 year old has a far higher bar to reach in order to be considered mature.  Though Paul had room for improvement, he was a mature Christian, one who understood the Father’s purpose and walked in conformity with it.

Now back to Matthew 5:48.  If we see the word “perfect” in the first sense of which Paul speaks, then the verse is stating that we (in the future) will be perfect, which will mainly be God’s work in our life.  This is true, but doesn’t seem to fit the context well.  But the second sense that Paul uses fits perfectly.    When we look to our Heavenly Father’s example and listen to His words, our lives will grow to be like Him and we will become mature believers in this life (and sinless beings after the resurrection).  May we all press forward each day to be like our Father in Heaven.  Of course this is the joy of any father, to see their child grow up and become a mature adult (and to be like us in our best ways).

Fathers have a Heavenly Father

I have already made this clear.  But I want to push this part a bit further.  Earthly fathers don’t always live out this purpose that God has for them.  Our culture continually pumps a philosophy that promotes living life for yourself, and this contradicts God’s Word.  When we think about God it is important for us to understand that He is not just more mature than us.  He truly is without error and sin.  If there is something that we think He has done wrong, then we are the one in error.  More than likely we are missing information that God has.  However, it is quite possible that our judgment is not as wise and righteous as we think.  Even if you had the worst of earthly fathers, nothing can change the fact that you have a Heavenly Father who is good and perfect.  He has been working, and is even now working in your life just as a good father would do.  In fact, in many ways the best thing a father can do is to help their child to recognize that he and they are both children of the same Heavenly Father.  In that sense we are helping our kids to grow up and take their place side by side with us before God.

As Jesus mentioned in verse 46 and 47, it is not the presence of love that makes us like Him.  It is the prevalence of our love that makes us like Him.  Yes, we are going to mess up and fall down in trying to be like our Heavenly Father.  But He loves us no matter what.  Here is the logic.  If God even loves His enemies enough to provide for them even in their rebellion, how much will He love and provide for us who are His children?  Clearly, He will move Heaven and Earth to love and help us.  Thus, parents, do your best to demonstrate that kind of love and mercy to your children.  And, when you fail be quick to admit it and ask forgiveness.  This will help them to see God in a clearly light.  Yet, children don’t always agree with what a parent thinks is the loving thing to do.  When we talk about tough love, we recognize that sometimes love is difficult.  Even though a kid may think their parents hate them, generally as they mature they recognize that it wasn’t hate.  It was love and concern.  Perhaps we should think of this in regard to our Heavenly Father.  Yes, He may discipline us from time to time and we are often tempted to think that God hates us or has rejected us.  But the truth is that He loves us very much and only has a good goal in mind for us.

So we must learn to rest in His ability to help us.  As a Father, verse 48 is not being put in front of us as some impossible task.  Yes, it is tough, but we have a Heavenly Father that will help us to accomplish it.  We can rest in the fact that HE is not trying to disqualify us.  Rather, He will finish that good work which He has begun in us.  In fact, through our own death and resurrection, He will help us to even be without sin and error.  What a day that will be!

Father’s, don’t let yourself get discouraged to the point that you quit being a father.  Take it one day at a time and engage with your children at whatever stage they are in.  Daily take the time to look to your Heavenly Father for strength, wisdom, and direction.  And, learn to follow the Holy Spirit as He enables you to both overcome your own sin, and become more and more like Jesus.  God hasn’t left you alone to accomplish it all.  He has put His Spirit within you to help you fight the good fight.  So let’s cooperate with Him and, as Paul said in Philippians 3:13, “forgetting those things that are behind, and reaching forward…I press toward the goal.”  Let go of the mistakes and failures and reach forward to what He has for you.

Our Heavenly Father audio