Where Are We Headed? Part 3

Subtitle: Ungrateful Resentment

Romans 1:18-22.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on April 03, 2022.

Last week, we looked at the overall endpoint of where we would be headed if God allowed and helped us get there.  Today, we are going to step back to where we are now and show the trap that we have created for ourselves. 

Just as the universe would become a coffin in which we would find ourselves trapped, we are even now entrapped in the mechanism that will take us into what the Bible calls “The Last Things,” or the end times.

Let’s look at our passage.

Facing our true problem

Humanity is much the same as it was 20 centuries ago when the Apostle Paul described the plight of the world.  Yes, our buildings are taller and more sophisticated; our communication methods are more powerful; our weapons are far more devastating, and our wealth is vaster.  However, we are still doing the same things, just with far more powerful technology.  Our great buildings are still full of proud people who are plotting proud plans in the face of God and their fellow man.  Our communications are still used to lie and gossip about one another.  We still use our weapons in order to force our agenda on weaker nations.  We still blow that vast wealth on feeding our flesh rather than glorifying God.  Yes, we are in the same plight because we refuse to face our true problem, which is a spiritual problem that Paul highlights in this passage.

In verse 18, Paul points out that God is going to judge the ungodly for suppressing the truth even though it has been made obvious by God Himself.  We should also notice that the truth that Paul pictures being suppressed is essentially God Himself.  Through the creation, God has made His existence, eternal power, and divinity obvious to all humans. 

The Creator is ultimately something that is other than the stuff of this creation.  The incredibly complex systems that work just perfectly and with little tolerances to allow life on this planet speak of an engineer, a designer.  It speaks of a designer that is powerful enough to create all that we can see and more.  This designer would necessarily be an uncreated one.  Yet, we suppress that great and obvious truth that we call God. 

Friends, you cannot suppress the truth and be headed in a good direction simply because you desire it to be a good direction.  Truth by its very nature is unchangeable.  It simply is what it is.  In fact, it is only truth that can navigate the treacherous waters of this world for today and the future.

Like the young men in the illustration that I used during part 2 of this series, Paul points out the lack of thankfulness and gratitude that people have to God.  We deny His existence, suppress the truth about its necessity and this leads us to a place of not giving Him thanks for the plentiful resources all around us. 

We see this ungratefulness all across our land today.  We are materially blessed more than any society ever, and yet we are full of ungratefulness and still do not have enough.  Like the leech in Proverbs, we cry out, “Give more, and more!”  We are never satisfied.

This ungratefulness may seem perplexing, but you must understand that it is driven by a resentment of the Truth that we are trying to suppress.  This is why we see the purposeful breaking down of the concepts of family, marriage, gender, and even individuality.  All of these were created by God to be immense blessings to us, but our resentment of the Creator drives us to despise anything that could be connected to Him- consequently, we despise even ourselves (at least in our current form).  We despise things that are good gifts and will tear them apart with our own hands in a deluded attempt to be our own benefactor.  Ungrateful people driven by resentment of The Truth cannot hope to build anything that is good, much less a Utopian Paradise.

Verse 22 describes our society perfectly.  We are the apex of all human wisdom, but we have become fools.  We must understand that there are different kinds of fools.  Too often, we only see the moronic fool who is simple and unable to think beyond the moment.  However, there is another kind of fool, the sophisticated fool.  This is a person who is very smart in comparison to most humans, or it can be a group who represent the smartest of a society, even the world.  Yet, because they insist on disregarding the God of Israel, the One True God, they will not be able to navigate the catastrophic choices that are in front of them.

In verse 21, Paul describes how we get to such a state.  The rejection of the Truth about the One True God leads to thinking that becomes futile.  This is the phrase from Ecclesiastes, “Vanity, Vanity, all is vanity!”  Also translated as “meaningless,” futility pictures something that will not be enough no matter how sophisticated it is. 

Secondly, Paul pictures that their hearts become darkened.  Light and darkness are often employed to speak to truth and ignorance, and definitely this darkness comes upon the thinking of the fool.  However, a darkened heart recognizes that our desires, will, and affections take a turn for the worse when we refuse to admit the Truth.  Thus, the fool is not so much a fool because of his or her IQ, but essentially because their mind and heart have attached to futile, darkened things.  The fool is one who persists on a path that will destroy them over the top of all the evidence, that is, the Truth. 

This is what Paul pictures and it completely describes us today.  Even the Church has been closing its eyes and ears to the things that the Lord Jesus made absolutely clear in his word.  Thus, we can become the most sophisticated, the most religious, of fools of all time, quite literally, sophomores.

Falling into a trap of our own making

In Luke 21:34-35, Jesus warns us that Judgment Day will come upon the world like a trap.  The world cannot escape the trap of Judgment Day because it is already trapped by its own refusal to face the Truth of God.  This becomes a trap of our own making.  We can resent God for holding us accountable to Truth and Reality, or we can repent and be thankful that He loves us too much to abandon us to folly.

We are essentially trading our God-given freedom for a “scientific” dictatorship.  It matters not whether it is ran by one, a few, 545 (100 senators, 435 representatives, 9 justices, 1 president), or more.  Ultimately, we surrender our minds and hearts to an elite class that hold us in their sway.  By the way, this is even true within my life as an individual.  I can surrender my mind and heart to an elite idea (science=knowledge) that holds me in its sway.  Keep this individual aspect in mind as we move forward.

These elites are the pinnacle of society and power on this planet.  They have scratched and clawed their way to the top of the pyramid of humanity; they are the capstone.  They see themselves as having the evolutionary right to exercise dominion over all of humanity, and those who are not a part of the elite can come to admire them and vicariously lift them up.  Yet, even the elite are merely the base and slaves of the dark powers of Satan himself, many knowingly and a few unknowingly.

In rejecting God, Who is The Truth, they (I) become unaccountable to all but themselves.  There is no concept of the prophet who has stood in the presence of the Creator and can call all both small and great to repentance.  There is no true freedom of speech because, if you are not one of them, you have nothing to say that they want to hear.  Who do you think you are?  In evolutionary terms, the prophet is a nobody, and they don’t listen to nobodies.  Yet, what if God became a nobody?

Because they represent the smartest, strongest, and most beautiful of humanity (per an ungodly definition), we like sheep are led astray into a path of folly.  Is it not folly to pit all of society against itself into a seething cauldron of identities, all struggling against one another for power and ascendancy?  Who will hold them accountable for such atrocities?

The world’s vision of a utopia is not even its own vision.  It is a remnant of the Heavenly Vision of God.  The world has cast God aside, but then it has plagiarized God’s vision of a world in which there is no evil.  Of course, they have changed all of the definitions of the terms.  Thus, it will be no true utopia, and no true evil will ever be banished from its lands.  They will build a hell full of every wickedness and slap a utopia sticker on it when in truth it is only Pandemonium.

In this way, they abuse true utopia.  Any real thing of this world will fall short of the ideal.  A real parent falls short of the ideal parent.  A real government falls short of the ideal government.  In this life, nothing real can ever compete with the ideal.  Thus, it becomes an eternal mechanism of never being thankful for the enough that we have, and always trying to wring another drop out of water out of the cloth.

Ultimately, we are reduced to a slave-class under those who have crawled and scratched their way into the capstone.  Just as marketing campaigns use all manner of psychology to get you to buy their goods, so too, those in the capstone employ psychological programming against the lowly masses.  We the masses are too dumb to know what is good for us, and so they justify themselves in their deceptions.  This creates a sinister triad of resentment, arrogance, and deceit.  This is the trap that we have made for ourselves.

“Follow the science,” “Protect American interests abroad,” and “Save the planet,” have all become trite sayings that manipulate the masses, but never actually save anything.  Never fear!  They are working on new rallying cries, so that we can create a “Great Reset,” and “Build Back Better!”

This is where we are at, where we are headed without God.  We are moving full steam into a global trap.  However, I have good news for you!  The one who puts their faith in Jesus is never trapped because God is on their side, and they are on His side.  In the midst of the most manipulated generation ever, there is the True Church of Jesus of Nazareth that listens to his teaching and follow his instructions. 

Friend, God knew where this was all headed long ago.  He has pre-positioned the answer for us in this age through the work of His Son Jesus.  Embrace Jesus today, before you get so far down the trap that you no longer want escape.

Part 3 Ungrateful audio

Where Are We Headed? Part 2

Subtitle: Stuck in a Fallen World

Colossians 1:16-17; 1 Peter 5:8; Exodus 34:6. This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on March 20, 2022.

Last week, we talked about the delusion that humanity has embraced that we do not need God, or a god, to accomplish what the Bible says God has promised.  So, we talked about how we double down on intervention, treating society like a social experiment.  The biblical framework does not have a problem with intervention so long as it is surrendered to the sovereignty of God.

Today, we can see that the world as a whole is moving towards either thinking there is no God, or gods even.  Yet, we will posit that, if there are “gods,” they are merely a part of the universe and only more advanced than us.

Regardless of this, we are refusing to listen to God’s King, Jesus, who has revealed truth to us personally and through his apostles.  In a sense, we want there to be no God, or at least for Him to leave us alone and cede the universe.

Problems with God ceding the universe

There are some big problems with this idea that God could abdicate His authority over the universe, that is, for Him to act as if He doesn’t exist and let us do what we want.  Look at Colossians 1:16-17.

When we read this, we run first into the fact that everything was made through Jesus, and it was made for him.  The whole purpose of the universe was to be for Jesus, so Christ would have to be giving it up even after having died for it.  It seems that this is not an option, since He went through such great lengths to redeem it.

Yet, we run into another problem at the end of verse 17.  It says that “in Him all things consist.”  The word “consist” has the idea of being set, or established, together.  It is a picture of the many complex systems that exist and are even inter-related.  It is not entirely clear that all things would continue to stay together if God completely ceded His authority.  Thus, we would need God to keep everything in the universe running for us, and yet stay out of our affairs.

There is another problem with God ceding the universe that we can see in 1 Peter 5:8. Even if God agreed to keep the universe running, and give up His claim on it, we are not alone in this universe.  There are interdimensional beings who have already shown a penchant for enslaving and abusing humanity.  They are light-years beyond us in abilities and knowledge, and they have the character of a hungry lion towards us.  The devil and his angels want to devour us, metaphorically speaking, and perhaps literally for that matter.

The only way that we can win against them is to resist them “steadfast in the faith.”  This is the same faith that Jude spoke of in his letter, verse 3.  “…[C]ontend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.”  To stand against them, one needs to do so with complete confidence in the God that we don’t want to believe in.  This is a big problem.

Now, we would need God to keep everything running, and we would need Him to keep any higher powers from messing with us, all while acting as if He doesn’t exist.

Finally, let’s look at Exodus 34:6. Several times, we see God proclaiming to Moses His own character, specifically, that He is gracious and has a steadfast love- this includes the notion of mercy.  If God really is gracious and loves steadfastly, could He agree to what we are asking Him to do?

Let us explore an illustration from the family.  Let’s say that your adult son loves to game with his buddies all of the time.  Sometimes they even come over and eat a bunch of food while networking their systems together to play.  Let’s say that your son comes to you and asks you to provide for the house to be used by him and his buddies, as well as keep it fully stocked with food, water, power, etc.  Similarly, they ask you to provide 24/7 security so that they can be safe.  And, they want to pretend that you don’t exist.  In fact, you should just move out and expect no more communication from them ever.

I’ve taken some time to put the picture on the table.  Now, put aside the fact that all parents would be highly offended at such a plan.  Could a good parent go along with such demands?  And, if they did, would this be good for their son and his buddies?  What kind of people would they become under such circumstances?  Perhaps, we should recognize that God is often the counter-balance to our wickedness.  A good God could not go along with this idea and still remain good.

Where would we end up if God allowed us to have it to ourselves?

If there was some way that God could agree to all of the above, where would we end up?  There are several possibilities of which I do not believe any of them end well.

First, we could destroy ourselves, which is most likely.  Even secular prognosticators of the future warn that we are most likely going to destroy the whole human race before we develop the technology to spread out.  This is what drives guys like Elon Musk.  We have to get some humans off of this rock before we destroy the whole planet and the humans on it.  Yes, many governments have continuity of government bunkers and seed vaults, etc.  However, that is a big risk to gamble that you can ride out any storm that humanity will be able to devise in 50, 100, or 1000 years.

Whether through war, or some other mechanism, our technology is at a level that such things are not so far-fetched.  If by some grace of God- irony intended- we were able to keep from annihilating all humanity, then we could only succeed to a degree far short of what we will want.

Do you remember the statements made as we entered the 1800s with the discovery of a small pox vaccine?  It was projected that science would vanquish all sickness and disease by the end of the century.  Needless to say, our gusto is somewhat tempered today.  In fact, we are seeing old “conquered” diseases come back as super strains due to the pressures that antibiotics have put on their reduplication over the years.  However, let’s say that we were able to fix our DNA, and genetically conquer all disease?  Well, we would need to fix the problem of aging.  What if we were able to fix that?  Eventually, our physical bodies would be the weak link.  Our quest to become ever more god-like in our powers would lead us to leave our biology behind and become machine, or we could attempt to go the Eastern Mysticism route and try to become pure spiritual beings.  Regardless, no matter how high we “ascended,” we could never be God, who is beyond this universe by definition and by logic.

Read this article by Eric Betz that was published on September 10, 2020, and is called The Big Freeze: How The Universe Will Die. 

“The comos may never end.  But if you were immortal, you’d probably wish it would.  Our comos’ final fate is a long and frigid affair that astronomers call the Big Freeze, or Big Chill.

“It’s a fitting description for the day when all heat and energy is evenly spread over incomprehensibly vast distances.  At this point, the universe’s final temperature will hover just above absolute zero…

“No normal matter will remain in this final “Dark Era” of the universe, which will last far longer than everything that came before it.  And the second law of thermodynamics tells us that in this time frame, all energy will ultimately be evenly distributed.  The cosmos will settle at its final resting temperature, just above absolute zero, the coldest temperature possible.”

We would always fall short, and we would turn ourselves into an unrecognizable, freakish shadow of what we once were.  What would we do when we hit the limits of the universe?  Would there be more than one of us?  Is this universe big enough for so many little gods?

Ultimately, our greatest problem is unsolvable by science.  The moral problem of man has its roots in a spiritual problem.  We are not in right relationship with God, and we are wicked.  Jeremiah 13:23 says, “Can an Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots?  Then you could do good who are accustomed to doing evil.”  God is not being bitter here.  He is putting His finger on the problem.

1 Corinthians 15:50 says, “Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.”  Truth cannot be redefined to our liking.  Only truth can fix our moral problem, and without God, we are woefully short in that department.

If we do not have God, then the best we can do is become stuck in a material universe as fallen beings with no way out, that is, a prison universe, and waiting for an inevitable end of all things.  Who wants to be an immortal sinner who has ceased to enjoy life a 1,000 years ago, or a billion?  Who wants to be in the vice of the Big Freeze, unable to do anything but exist?

God loves us, God loves you, too much to leave us to ourselves.  He has promised to bring us to immortality and a perfect society in the way that is best for us, and in a way that works.  Perhaps, hell is best thought of as what this universe will become when God takes whosoever believes in Him into the Final State of the New Heavens and New Earth.  Or, perhaps, that is only wishful thinking.  Perhaps, we should turn back now and take His hand, and His offer to become a part of His family.

Part 2 Stuck audio

Where Are We Headed? Part 1

Subtitle: When Intervention Goes Too Far 

2 Kings 20:1-7 (Also, Isaiah 38/39).  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on March 13, 2022.

We are going to start a new series that asks a question about this world and humanity as a whole.  Just where are we headed as a world and as humanity?  Of course, there is what the Bible says about this.  However, I want to focus first on the things that the world is saying, so that we can then turn to the Bible and see what it says.

This approach is important because it pulls back the curtain on some big issues and prepares us for the debates that are happening now and looming on the horizon.  It also helps to protect us form becoming a lemming that blindly follows the herd.  Though it is now known that they do not commit mass suicide by running off of cliffs, lemmings will migrate outside of their proper habitat and die off in large numbers due to social stresses.  Of course, we have a lot of stresses on our world today, both real and made-up, which makes this question more important than ever.

Let’s get into our passage.

King Hezekiah is told God’s will

In this chapter, we find King Hezekiah who was the king of Judah, reigning roughly 716 BC to 687 BC.  He becomes king right after the destruction of the northern kingdom of Israel by Assyria in 722 BC, just six years prior.  Though the timing is a bit unclear, our passage today is related directly after a siege against Jerusalem by the Assyrian leader Sennacherib.

Before we look at that siege, let me remind us of 2 Kings 18:5-7.  It tells us Hezekiah’s character and faithfulness to God. 

“5 He trusted in the Lord God of Israel, so that after him was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor who were before him. 6 For he held fast to the Lord; he did not depart from following Him, but kept His commandments, which the Lord had commanded Moses. 7 The Lord was with him; he prospered wherever he went. And he rebelled against the king of Assyria and did not serve him.”

Hezekiah had lived a faithful life that was comparable to David.  Then, the Assyrians surround Jerusalem (see 2 Kings 19) and threaten it.  In short, God protected Jerusalem when one angel in one night destroyed 185,000 Assyrian troops, ruining Assyria’s plans of extending their dominion.  On the heels of this great victory, tragedy strikes when Hezekiah become deathly sick.

Directed by God, the prophet Isaiah comes to Hezekiah and gives him a Word from God.  He tells him that he will not recover from the sickness, and he should get his affairs in order.  Let us recognize that this is not a doctor telling Hezekiah that he has no hope.  This is God telling him that his time is up.  There is a big difference between turning to God in prayer when the doctor says that you are going to die and turning to prayer when God directly tells you that it is your time to die.  This would hit anybody quite hard, especially coming from a prophet like Isaiah.  This is no crackpot who is guessing.  He has proven himself to be a true prophet of God.

Next, we are told that Hezekiah weeps before God in prayer, asking Him to remember his life of faithfulness and grant a reprieve.  One good thing about Hezekiah is that this is the second time in Scripture that we see him on his face before God weeping in prayer.  He did this when the Assyrians surrounded the city and now when he is told his life on earth is ending.  Would that we had much more of this in our churches, people on their face weeping over the condition of our communities, States, and The Republic.  Hezekiah was a righteous man who knew that God was his main hope.

At this point, God relents and listens to Hezekiah’s appeal.  Even as Isaiah is leaving through the courtyard, God tells him to go back to Hezekiah with a message.  God would grant him to recover and live for 15 more years.  Of course, this comes true and Hezekiah goes on to reign 29 years instead of 14.

On the surface, this appears to be another witness to the miraculous power of God and the power of prayer to turn the heart of God.  However, this event becomes a turning point in the way that the Bible describes Hezekiah and begs this question.  Were those extra 15 years a blessing or not?  Even the phrase “wept bitterly,” used to describe Hezekiah’s praying, seems to speak of one who is struggling with accepting God’s will.  He clearly had not reached the point that the apostle Paul had reached when he said, “I am hard-pressed between the two, having a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better.”  (Philippians 1:23 NKJV).  However, the apostle Paul had dealt with tortures and much grief, whereas Hezekiah has had a comparably comfortable life.

The Bible gives us a glimpse of what happened in those 15 years. 2 Chronicles 32:25 says of Hezekiah, “But Hezekiah did not repay according to the favor shown him, for his heart was lifted up; therefore wrath was looming over him and over Judah and Jerusalem.”  Following a miraculous destruction of the Assyrian army and a miraculous recovery from a deathly sickness, Hezekiah’s “heart was lifted up.”  This is a Hebrew expression meaning that he had become proud.  Is it possible that the blessing of God can make us proud?  Oh yes, it is not only possible, but it is also the true test of blessing.  Will I become proud and arrogant in the face of God and my fellow man, or will I humble myself and recognize that it is His undeserved grace?  God was not please with Hezekiah’s heart, which demonstrated its pride in all manner of small and large incidents.

2 Kings 20:12-19 describes such an incident.  Having heard of his “good fortune,” Babylon sends some ambassadors to congratulate King Hezekiah on his recovery with a gift.  Hezekiah’s pride leads him to show them all the treasure, goods, and the armory that he had “in all his dominion.”  His pride set him up for a great fall.  Babylon would remember the great treasures in the nation of Judea.  Such a prize would later come to be too desirous to resist.

Hezekiah will die and 2 Kings 21 opens with Hezekiah’s son Manasseh beginning to reign at 12 years old.  If we do the math, we come to realize that Manasseh was born during those 15 extra-years in Hezekiah’s life.  This is how the Bible describes Manasseh in that chapter.  He, “seduced Israel to do more evil than the nations whom the Lord had destroyed before the children of Israel.”  It goes on to describe him raising up the high places and worship of Baal.  He raised altars to all the host of heaven within the Temple courtyard, and built an altar to Molech where caused his son to “pass through the fire,” a reference to child sacrifice.

This casts a shadow over Hezekiah’s recovery and grant of 15 years.  Manasseh holds the title of the most wicked king that Judah ever had.  This brings us back to the difference between being told by a doctor that you are going to die, and being told by a proven prophet.  We are told to pray for recovery when we are sick.  However, Hezekiah becomes a cautionary tale that reminds us that we don’t always know what is best for us, and others around us.

Can we create a world that erases all tragedies, and should we try?

I share this story about Hezekiah because there is an impetus in our modern world to try and erase all tragedies, as if we could get to the number zero.  Imagine a world where nothing bad ever happens.  Shouldn’t we try to create it?  Wouldn’t it be our moral duty?

Even Christian groups have come to promote the idea that, when God prophesies that an evil will occur, He tells us so that we can work to avoid it.  The story of Jonah and Nineveh would be a perfect illustration.  Yet, I would caution us that repentance can never be primarily about avoiding an evil.  Ultimately, repentance has to be about the recognition that I have chosen a wrong path, and turn back to God regardless of how He will respond.  I do it because it is the right thing and I see the error of my way.  God is not required to relent when we repent, and we are not told in Scripture that all prophecies can be overturned.  Yes, in general, God warns of evil so that we will repent and be spared that evil.  However, some things cannot be overturned.  Can the judgment of the nations that happens at the Second Coming of Christ become merely a great earthly welcoming of heaven when Christ breaks the clouds?  I do not believe we can actually avoid the prophecy.  We can only kick it down the road.  The people of Nineveh repented and avoided judgment, but most generations do not repent.  Eventually, judgment fell on Nineveh, just like God said it would.

How about America?  How is our repenting going?  Of all the generations that have been born since 1776, what is our percentage of repenting generations to the total?  I believe it is abysmally low, and that we are in grave danger.  Repentance may grant us a reprieve, but that is not why we should repent.  We should repent because our sin is dragging us to hell, and only God can save us.

Is it our job as Christians to create Utopia?  It is interesting that Christ never told us to focus on fixing the world, but rather, to make disciples of those who respond to our sharing of the Good News.

One of the problems in this area is the law of diminishing returns.  Society has been on a trend of making laws to keep bad things from happening: seat-belts, bicycle helmets, social security, insurance, life-support systems, etc.  However, this has not removed all tragedies.  We are now at a stage where it is becoming vogue to take the right of choice from individuals and put it in the hands of wise, “all-knowing” elite in our society.  Now, the first laws we pass and the first things that we do can make a large difference.  Kid’s wearing a bicycle helmet will drastically impact the numbers of head injuries and deaths.  However, to get that next percentage will take far more drastic laws.  It will take more and more drastic changes in order to get less and less of a difference.

Picture global warming.  The weather and temperature of the earth is a highly complex system.  It is questionable whether humans can actually effectively change the temperature of the planet.  However, cleaning up the emissions of our vehicles and factories has made a huge difference in smog around highly-populated areas.  It will take more and more drastic measures, in dollars and freedom, to make less and less of a difference.  In fact, our attempts to make good things happen in one area of a complex system often have negative effects somewhere else in the system.  You can picture the proverbial plate spinner trying to keep millions of plates spinning at the proper rate all the time.  Humans can’t do this, and so we turn to artificial intelligence, AI.

Part of the problem is the physical frailty of humans.  Think of all the safety engineering that goes into the modern car.  We have lane assist computers with smart cruise control, so you don’t drive into the back of someone when you get distracted.  The car is designed with crumple zones and air bags so that you have a good chance of surviving accidents.  As amazing as all of this technology is, humans are just too frail to get the number of deaths, and even accidents, to zero.  Sure, we could ban all transportation of people, but do you want to live in such a world?  And, are there not other tragedies we should want to avoid, not all of them about mortality alone?  Trying to get tragedies to zero is a no-win game.  Yes, we can make a big difference, but there is a point at which we say that it isn’t worth it to keep beating the dead horse.

We will talk more about this in a later sermon, but we keep bumping up against this reality that we are simply too frail.  Our attempts to counteract the frailty with technology has brought us to the point of desiring to use the technology in order to change ourselves as a species.  As long as we are mortal humans, tragedies will occur and will never be zero.

At this point, we should see that there is an even greater problem that humanity keeps running from.  It is the problem of our moral frailty.  Our penchant for choosing sin is at the heart of this tragic world.  Sin is the source of all tragedy as seen in Genesis chapter three.  No matter how perfect a system we create, humans are always the weak link in it.  We amass great power to help humanity, and then certain humans use that great power to enrich themselves and make slaves of the rest.

This too presents another pressure for humans to take a path of becoming not human.  There is no path back from some decisions and the repercussions cannot be known in advance, though they can be suspected.  Only God can help humanity back from the decision to listen to that ancient serpent, the devil.  We are even now attempting to take hold of our evolution inside of labs all across this world.  Will we survive?

Christians should not be fatalistic and refrain from making the world a better place.  Yet, notice that it is not our goal, but a side-effect of discipling people to be like Jesus.  This will never make the world a zero-tragedy place, and it is not even our focus.  However, the lepers of India are sure thankful that Christians came to the shores of India and were moved by Christ to have compassion upon them.  In this, we must have all our hope in God and not in the technology of man taking His place.  Such interventions can go too far and open Pandora’s box.

Where are we headed audio

What Does God Really Want from Me? Part 8

Matthew 28:16-20.

This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday March 6, 2022.

We will finish our series today talking about sharing Jesus passionately with those who do not know him.

Everything that we do as a Christian should revolve around the worship of God.  It is a whole-life worship that demonstrates the worth and value of God when we CONNECT to Jesus and his people through an authentic relationship.  We also demonstrate His worth and value when we GROW spiritually through intentionally becoming like Jesus.  Again, we demonstrate His worth and value when we SERVE selflessly through the natural and spiritual gifts that God has given us.  Lastly, we demonstrate His worth when we SHARE Jesus passionately with those who do not know him.

Last week, we saw the passion side of sharing Jesus with others.  How could I not share Jesus, and who could keep me silent when he has set me free from a life of begging and being spiritually lame, like the man at the Beautiful Gate in Acts 3.  No one was going to shut that man up short of putting him in prison and executing him, and then his death would witness even more loudly!

Today, we will look at the command and duty side of sharing Jesus.  Passion is not always enough to keep us sharing Christ.  We can get angry, wounded, or hurt.  In those moments when passion is low, the command of Christ is there to challenge our flesh.  I may not feel like it, but the Lord has given me a command, and I do not want to disappoint my Lord.

Let’s look at our passage.

Jesus uses his authority to give us a command

We talked about this last week, but we should always keep in mind the Daniel 7 passage where God judges the empires of the world, and yet, he then gives the kingdoms of the world to a Son of Man character who represents Jesus.  This Son of Man receives comes to the Ancient of Days riding on the clouds of heaven.  This imagery helps us see why Jesus purposefully used this title of himself.  Yes, it is a phrase that can essentially mean a human.  However, this phrase also had a connotation that reflected a mystery human who can ride the clouds like Yahweh, and will rule over the nations.  Many of the Jews understood this character as the Messiah.  We must never let this pompous, bloviating world take our eyes off of the fact that Jesus is the King of heaven and earth, and we will be judged on whether or not we were faithful to him.

All of that is to say that Jesus has left us with a purpose and a Great Mission, which is also called the Great Commission.  As we connect, grow, and serve, we are enabled to reach those who do not know Jesus with the Good News.

He could rapture us up to heaven the second that we believe, but that is not how God operates.  There is a spiritual battle for the souls of people happening on this earth.  Jesus shows us that God is not standing by silent.  We never become more like him than when we rise up to fight those principalities that hold humans in bondage through their own sinfulness (how sick the evil one is!).

It is easy to make the focus in this passage to be on the word “go,” but to do so is to miss the main point.  The main verb is “make disciples,” and it is modified by a phrase that explains just who we are to disciple, “all nations.”  Just so we are not confused, ask yourself who the subject of this command is.  Yes, it is his disciples, but not just those back then.  Jesus was to be with us to the end of the age, and therefore the mission is ongoing to the end of the age.  Since those original disciples are no longer with us, it is clear that Jesus intends this mission to be passed down from one generation of disciples to the next.

So, what does it mean to make disciples?  To make a disciple starts with being a disciple yourself.  We must become students of Jesus who are being transformed by the life and word of Christ.  This is the foundation of sharing the bad news and the Good News with others.  God’s Word is our powerful weapon because it is truth, and it is spiritual power energized by God’s Holy Spirit.  In essence, becoming a disciple of Jesus is another way of saying that we have connected to him as our Teacher and to his other disciples.  This means that we are a community of people who study and learn of Jesus.  Be must not become something other than that.

Jesus did not tell them to only reach other Jews, or any particular race, culture, etc.  The Gospel is to be taken to every nation as the Holy Spirit leads us.  We disciple those who respond to the drawing of the Holy Spirit no matter what their background, their sin, or their culture.  Not everyone fulfills the same task however.  There is a Sending, Giving, and Going aspect to this Mission.  Those who Go need a group behind them that are Sending them by continually praying and providing a support system.  Yet, we should be careful of drawing to strong of a distinction between those three aspects.  Technically, we are all called to go, but not always to go across the world to a completely different culture.  We should all be a prayer support for other Christians who are sharing Christ even if a person is a missionary. Can a missionary support another missionary in prayer and funds as needed?  Of course, they can!  So, we need to keep our eye on making disciples whether that is around the world or across the street.  All of us are working together in order to make disciples around the world.

Now, let’s look at the going component.  Going is necessary as I have already alluded.  We have to become a people who are learning to go to others.  I have to learn to step outside of myself, my comfort zone, in order to share Jesus with others.  Acts 1:8 gives us a picture of concentric circles moving out from Jerusalem.  “You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

All of us go, just like our Lord who left the great halls of heaven in order to go to earth and battle for our souls.  We must be led by the Holy Spirit to go out from a life that is only focused on ourselves.  However, it takes greater sacrifice to reach the opposite side of the world.  Thus, God calls some people to be missionaries.  They will have to travel to areas in which they do not know the customs, and the language.  They will have much to learn.  They will need supporters back home who will pray for them and give money to support them.  Yes, this can become a racket if we let it.  Thus, believers at every part of this must become a people of prayer responding to the Holy Spirit.  We see this in the New Testament as many supported Paul in his evangelistic endeavors so that he could take the Gospel into the area of what we call Turkey today, and onto the European continent through Greece.

Another phrase that Jesus adds is that we are to baptize those who become disciples.  Jesus has them continue this practice as a symbol or sign that a person has joined the community of the disciples of Jesus.

There are some who become overly worked up over what is said when a person is baptized.  This is not a mystical ritual that must be done just right in order to “work.”  Rather, it is the response of a person’s soul to the Spirit of God.  This is what makes it effective.  Jesus emphasizes that disciples are being baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Yet, in other places it doesn’t use this “formula,” as some call it.  As I have said, I do not believe that Jesus is giving us a “formula.”  To connect to the Father is to connect to the Son and the Holy Spirit.  To respond to one is to respond to the others.  Yet, this process of becoming a disciple is operated by each of them in different ways.

Jesus then emphasizes that they are to teach the newer disciples.  This connects to the earlier make disciples, but it is more explicit.  We don’t just hand a bible to new believers and leave them on their own.  The older disciples are to teach the newer disciples, not in a sense of being between them and Jesus.  The Spirit of Christ is the ultimate teacher, but Jesus wants the mature disciples to come alongside of the immature.

One might ask, “Isn’t the Word of God and the Holy Spirit sufficient?”  Sure, they are completely enough for any disciple, but it is not a question of sufficiency.  God has provided a community that new believers enter, and He also gives a command through the Lord Jesus for us to help each other.  Thus, we surrender to the will of God rather than lecture Him on the theoretical sufficiency of the Word and the Spirit.  All disciples need to keep their eyes upon Jesus and learn from him as he uses others to teach us.

Just like God is teaching us to battle the spiritual forces arrayed against His people and those who are lost, so He is teaching us to become spiritual parents that help His new children mature spiritually.  Spiritual maturity can be defined as simply learning to obey the commands of Christ through an intimate relationship with Jesus.  Thus, I can be a follower of Jesus for over 30 years and still be infantile spiritually.  Of course, it is not possible to be the essence of maturity in one day, but some grow into maturity much faster than others.  Of course, we should restrain ourselves from judgments in this area because we cannot see the heart, and some who appear mature may not be what they seem under pressure.

One last thought on this teaching issue is that you don’t need an official title or position to do it.  We are all supposed to become like Christ who was a teacher.  Thus, we are all to teach even while we are students to those whom God brings to us.  No human teacher has ever arrived.  They are still learning themselves.  In fact, I believe that you never learn more about Christ than when you are trying to teach others, that is if your heart is open to the Holy Spirit.

Well, that’s the mission.  It is still the mission of Christians today, whether you have been saved for decades or days.  Yet, Jesus ends this with the encouragement that he will be with us even to the end of the age.  He has not left us alone. This is more than a human saying that they are thinking of us.  Jesus is present with us today as if he was standing here in our church, or sitting there right beside you.  When you are in the most difficult place, remember that Jesus is with you.  He will give you the words; he will give you passion; he will give you wisdom, strength and courage! 

The enemy is raging against God’s people in our society today- all over the world in fact.  Yet, until God calls us home, He is not finished yet, and so, neither are we.  Let’s go forward with our Joshua, who is Jesus, and know that he will be with us no matter what we face.  Then we will connect lost sinners to the abundant life that can only be found in King Jesus!

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