Pastor Marty Tuesday, September 15, 2020 at 5:24PM This Sunday, we were blessed to have Evangelist Ernie Salinas with us. We will not post an article for his words of encouragement, but we are making the audio available for those who missed it.
Blessings!
Pastor Marty Tuesday, September 8, 2020 at 12:27PM Ephesians 2:1-3; 6:10-13. This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on September 6, 2020.
We have reached Mark chapter 13, which is a big transition in the book. We will also have a visiting evangelist next Sunday. Therefore, I have decided to go a different direction today and talk about the Spirit of this Age.
Throughout history, it has been noticed that people groups can be infected by an idea that seizes them to such a degree that they are caught up into something that is bigger than themselves. The group energy often pulls the individuals that comprise it beyond where they would go on their own.
Fyodor Dostoevsky, among others, saw this happening in his country of Russia, and, at the end of the 1860’s, published his novel The Possessed (depending on how it is translated it could also be called The Demonized). At one point in the book, some revolutionaries have started a poorer part of town on fire. During the pandemonium of trying to put the fire out, one character that has been a bit of a goof, even borderline mental, shouts one of the best lines of the book. “You can’t put out the fire; the fire is in the minds of men!”
We similar activity in our own country today, and must ask ourselves the question. Just what has seized the minds of not just 21st century Americans, but people all over the world? The Bible refers to it by many names, but we are going to use “The Spirit of the Age.”
In the opening verses of Ephesians 2, the Apostle Paul points out the reality of a spirit that is influencing this world. Satan loves to mimic God. If there is something that God has done then he will mock it with a false version of his own. Just as there are true prophets of God so, he sends false prophets. Those who pretend to speak on behalf of God, but delude the people. Just as there is a true Christ so, he sends all manner of antichrists, or false Christs, in order to deceive the people. The Bible warns of a coming, ultimate Antichrist who will deceive the whole world with the help of the ultimate False Prophet. It should be no shock that there would also be the work of an unholy spirit, which represents the whole force of spiritual wickedness led by Satan.
Notice how Paul portrays those who do not follow Christ. Yes, they are walking in their sins, but they are also under the influence of the “prince of the power of the air.” In fact, he says more pointedly that this unholy spirit is presently “working in the sons of disobedience.” They are those who refuse to follow the Holy Spirit of God and believe upon Jesus Christ.
There are some who disobey the Holy Spirit knowingly. They believe that the God of the Bible and Jesus of the cross have misled the world. They work directly against the Truth of God. However, the great majority of people in this world participate in disobedience unknowingly. They are simply following the course of this world that was laid out in front of them, and going with the overall flow of this Age.
Paul explains that this spirit uses the lusts of our flesh and the desires of our mind to influence and direct us. Like a harness on a horse, we can be pulled around away from truth and towards the destructive ends of our own desires.
Satan didn’t make Eve want the fruit of The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. He only influenced her towards the idea of rebellion against God’s command. The Bible tells us, “when the woman saw [who saw?] that the tree was good for food [good for whom?], that it was pleasant to the eyes [whose eyes], and a tree desirable to make one wise [which one?], she took of its fruit and ate.” The strong desires and appetites of our flesh do not want to be limited by the Truth of God. The willfulness of our mind wants to go in particular directions that God warns against. On top of all of this, there is a spiritual realm with beings who are working overtime to influence and manipulate us towards rebellion against God, whether knowingly or unknowingly. This is the Spirit of the Age.
You should go ahead and read all of Ephesians 2. When reading verses 1-3, it seems a rather dark image with little hope. However, verse four says,
“But God, rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us to sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come, He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness towards us in Christ Jesus.”
Christians are no longer a part of the “walking dead.” Instead, we have been delivered and made alive. The biblical picture is not one of Zombie movies, or games, in which we are trying to slaughter all the zombies created by the evil spirit of this world. Rather, we are the hand of Christ to touch the minds and hearts of the zombies so that they may have a renewed mind. Everywhere he went, Jesus touched people and healed them. He has given us the antidote to the greatest wound, the direst disease, that this world has. We have compassion because, “we too were zombies once.”
Let us never forget the battle that is going on all around us. If we merely go through life trying “to get ours,” or trying to change the world according to the philosophies of this world, then we will find ourselves part of a fire that may promise a better future by which to warm ourselves, but in the end only leaves mankind in cinders and shackles.
Later in the letter, Paul touches on this spiritual dimension again.
In Ephesians 6:10-13, we are reminded of our real enemy. Jesus has given us a clear directive, but it is easy for us to lose sight of the one we should be fighting. Paul reminds us that our battle is with the spiritual powers that are enslaving people by their own lusts and self-will.
An important part of any battle is one’s protective gear. Paul tells us to put on the armor of God. The things that he lists involve the very things that often make us afraid. The Spirit of the Age (SotA) warns us not to tell the truth because it will cause us trouble. The SotA tells us that doing the “right thing” will only get us into trouble. The SotA tells us not to share the Gospel because we will look stupid; don’t trust God because He doesn’t exist; don’t trust Jesus to save you, take your salvation into your own hands. And, the antibiblical messages never stop. Through fear, the Spirit of this Age convinces people to lay aside the only things that can protect them from it.
Christians, we cannot put our faith in Jesus without also trusting his armor. Too many Christians are wearing the armor of Saul, the armor of this world. However, Christ calls us to wear the armor that the world can’t see and it can’t understand. It is an armor that protects our hearts and minds from the lies of a deceptive enemy. Now is the day to stand on the Truth of God’s Word even when the world says it isn’t true. Now is the time to do what God says is right rather than what the world says is right. We need to be a people of the Gospel, walking in faith, and holding onto the salvation of Jesus through prayer. This is the only protection we have against an enemy that is to us much more than Goliath was to little David. However, always remember that is sufficient for the task.
Paul does list one offensive weapon, the sword of the Spirit. He makes it clear that he is talking about the Word of God, the Bible itself. It is powerful and able to cut to the hearts and minds of people. It is the Good News of Jesus, which is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. Becoming a student of God’s Word, and a follower of the Holy Spirit of God, will enable us to both stop attacks against ourselves, and rescue others from the grip of the spirit of this world.
Jesus said that you will know the truth and the truth will set you free. This world tells us that our problem is that we don’t have stuff that other people have. But, the truth of God tells us not to covet anything that belongs to our neighbor, much less steal or destroy it. It tells us to love our neighbor like we love ourselves. Yet, the spirit of this age stirs up envy, jealously, resentment, and then anger and rage. It seeks to light a fire of passions in you that can be used to destroy you and your neighbor (and our communities, nations, world).
The spirit of this age tells us that our problem is all the differences that we have: gender, race, economic status, etc… But, the truth of God tells us that there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. It is not that these distinctions and affect on our lives aren’t real, but that they are used to manipulate us. Men and women fighting against each other, blacks and whites, the have-nots against the haves, these are the things that only destroy us further. In Christ, believers are to cease living for their distinctions. They are to lay down the bloody flag of earthly revolutions in the flesh, and join God’s revolution against the spirit of this age. If we will do this then we will truly find life.
Email Article | Print Article | Share Article | tagged Armor, Holy Spirit, Jesus, Lust, Protection, Satan, Spirit, Will, Word of God Pastor Marty Tuesday, September 1, 2020 at 12:03PM Mark 12:35-44. This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on August 30, 2020.
Our passage today is broken up into three teachings that are connected. Here, Jesus puts the scribes themselves under the microscope of judgment as they have done to him. Jesus is not doing this out of spite. Rather, it warns others not to follow the life of these men, and it gives opportunity for the Holy Spirit to convict some of the scribes so that they can be saved. Truth opens the door for salvation and freedom from our sins. This is exactly what the scribe in Mark 12:34 needed to hear.
We will all one day come under the judgment of Jesus. If we listen to God’s Word and the Holy Spirit then we will have nothing to fear about that day. However, if we follow the desires of our flesh then we will not be prepared for that day. God loves us too much to leave us without a warning, or to leave us without the help that we need in order to follow Jesus.
Until that Day comes, we must be careful how we live our lives, and what purpose we pursue. Our own judgments can be fraught with error and self-deception. Only coming into a relationship with the Truth himself can truly set us free from our self-wisdom and the so-called wisdom of this world.
Verses 35-37 come on the heels of a particular scribe whom Jesus stated was not far from the Kingdom of God. Though the following lessons can be helpful to the rest of us, it is more than likely that Jesus is throwing a lifeline to this scribe through this first lesson. The scribe was close, but close is not good enough. To close the remaining distance, he would need to recognize the errors of his group and fully embrace the wisdom of Jesus. Otherwise, he would just be led astray. You can’t hold onto Jesus and the wisdom of the group that were in when you came to him. You will eventually hold onto one and despise the other.
The scribes were teachers of Israel and masters of the Law of Moses. They taught the people that God had an anointed man that He would send, Messiah. This Messiah would be the son of David. Everything about this teaching is correct. Psalm 2 is the classic passage that promises an Anointed One or Messiah sent by God to be King over Israel and all the earth. This promise of a righteous king from God was supplemented by more prophecies through the years. God promises David that one of his descendants would have an everlasting throne. The phrase “son of David” can mean an immediate offspring, but it can also refer to later descendants by extension.
The Old Testament does reveal these teachings, but it is best summed up by the angel who spoke to Mary the Mother of Jesus in Luke 1:32-33. “He [Jesus] will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David. And he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”
Jesus then highlights the problem. In Psalm 110:1, David is clearly talking about the promised Messianic Kingdom. However, he refers to the Messiah as his lord, and he does so “by the Holy Spirit,” that is under the inspiration of God. We are not told what the typical scribe taught about this verse and the identity of David’s lord. Today, if you go to Jewish commentaries or online articles, you will find that they give several possible answers that can point to David talking about Abraham, or someone else. Ultimately, they will deny that it can ever refer to Jesus. However, these are not views that were established by the scribes in those days. Those modern views were developed in response to Christian teachings.
Basically, Jesus is showing that these who claim to be masters of the Law had a problem in perfectly explaining it. They were correct in some things that they taught because they were using the Scriptures. However, they did not know everything, or not nearly as much as they thought they did. They promoted the concept of an oral tradition handed down from Moses that explained the written tradition. It is clear that some of these traditions were not actually from Moses. If they had taught what they knew was true, but then humbly admitted areas of ignorance, then they would have been able to hear the Spirit of God speaking through Jesus. Pride and arrogance, declaring that you have all truth, is not what any prophet of the Lord ever claimed.
So, how can the Messiah be David’s descendant and simultaneously be his lord? To be his son, the Messiah would have to be a descendant of David, which Jesus was. However, in those cultures, the elder is always higher than the younger. This is not a mere mistake either because Jesus establishes that David was a prophet and was writing this psalm as a prophecy, which is what the scribes believed.
Though God is faithful to give us revelation, that is, things we cannot know without Him telling us, He doesn’t tell us everything. Through Jesus, the world has received a greater revelation of the Truth of God. However, even we must not be arrogant. We must humbly teach what is clear and be honest about what is not. The scribes pretended to be able to identify the Messiah, and yet could not explain this puzzler. This should have been a red flag that there was something about Messiah unexplained.
The answer is in the reality of who Messiah is. There was something hidden about the true identity of Messiah. In his Gospel, the apostle John describes the reality that Jesus was a man born of the woman Mary. Yet, he was more than a man. He was the eternal Word of God by whom the whole creation was brought into existence. John purposefully uses the language of Genesis 1 to reveal to us that when the Father spoke, it was Jesus who went forth to make His will happen. Thus, the Messiah would be both human and divine, man and God.
As a human, he would qualify to pay the price for humanity’s rebellion, but as God He would have the power to pull it off. In Jesus, God has stepped into our world and put His back under the crushing weight of sin that lies upon us. He has lifted it up and offers us to be rescued out from underneath of it by his grace.
So, the scribes lacked humility in their teachings. Next, Jesus moves to their lives and how they lived. He starts out by telling people to beware of them. They are not innocent and will lead people into the ditch. Those who are supposed to be their teachers were not worthy to be listened to. Even today, we must beware of the many teachers in this society. We can be led astray by people who look good, but are not. Humility will do us in good stead.
Jesus points out several things about the scribes. First, they desire to look good in front of others with their long robes and long prayers. These were the daily trappings of their life in front of others. The second thing is connected to the first. They desire public honor from others, like honored seats at public events. Now, the problem is not that people are honored, or that the scribes were honored. The Bible tells us to honor those who lead well. The problem is that such honor had become their desire. Their desire should have been to know God and to help others to know Him. They should have worked to receive the honor and praise from God and not from the people. Many in this world operate to get the adulation of the crowds and their co-workers. They hope by it to be elevated. The Bible shows us another way. “Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time.” 1 Peter 5:6 (NKJV). And, “Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.” James 4:10 (NKJV).
Their desire for honor wasn’t their only lust. We are told that they devoured widow’s houses. The picture here is of their lust for the religious donations of wealthy widows by which they would benefit. Instead of caring for the plight of the widow, they saw them as a means to an end. It is fitting that the next section is about a widow, so I will save some comments about this situation until then.
Jesus also notes that their long prayers are only for show; they are a pretense. Again, it was about getting people’s honor, not God’s. The length of our prayer has nothing to do with its goodness. It is the target of our prayer that matters more. Am I truly speaking to God and desiring Him in it? Or, am I putting on a show so that people will think more highly of me than they ought? The scribes may have looked good on the outside to those who couldn’t see their hearts, but God had seen through them, and He brings them out into the open through Jesus.
Jesus ends by declaring that they will receive a greater condemnation. The Bible doesn’t explain exactly what a greater condemnation would look like, but it will be greater nonetheless. James says it this way in chapter 3 verse 1. “My brethren, let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment.”
We could say that this makes Jesus look judgmental, but he is speaking the truth. The previous scribe who wasn’t far from the kingdom of God was also in jeopardy of being influenced by his peer group. He would need to change; he would need to reject that mindset that he was mixed up in. Only embracing the Truth could set him free. The Bible warns us of our condemnation so that we can flee to Jesus and be saved from it. That is why it says that He is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance and believe in Jesus. They would receive a greater condemnation, if they didn’t change their hearts and minds about Jesus.
So, their teachings and their lives were not the light that they pretended to be.
Just as wealthy widows were the hunger and target of the scribes, Jesus uses a poor widow who could offer the scribes nothing. In their eyes, she is practically worthless and can bring no honor to them or God. This is a powerful contrast that Jesus reveals.
They were in the temple compound and people would be coming and going. Some would be bringing sacrifices and others financial offerings to put in the offering box. Many rich men had come and put in large bags of money, but then a poor widow comes to the box and puts in two small coins. Several times up to now, we have mentioned that a denarius was one day’s wage for a common laborer. Two mites would have been equivalent to 1% of a day’s wage. Let’s say about $1.50.
Jesus asks who has given more. When the honor of people is your desire, large amounts of money are more important. Yet, God does not judge like humans judge. We tend to honor those who give the most, and despise those who give the least or nothing at all. However, God sees the heart. This widow was giving all that she had. Perhaps, she was desperate and was down to her last dollar. She could buy her last meal with that dollar and then starve, or she could take it to the temple and offer it up as a prayer to God. Please, God, see me; help me! Oh, did God ever see her that day. He just happened to be in the temple in human form that day.
We don’t know the rest of her story, but we do know that God saw her. I think, somehow, she was taken care of from that day on.
There are two sides to religious donations. Those in charge of receiving are not always rotten. It can be done righteously, and God expects it to be done so. Also, those who give are not always pure as the driven snow. It can be done wickedly. The key to receiving is to recognize that it is a holy thing devoted to God. He will hold any financial trustees accountable to the holy gifts of His people. The key to giving is to give it to the Lord and not remain attached to the gift. We can be overly controlling over how funds are spent. Even in the area of charity to others, we must recognize that how they spend it is between them and God because you were giving it in the name of the Lord. It is a holy gift. If you receive such “holy” funds then you should fear God enough to put it to good use and not be spending it upon your lusts.
Praise God that when we have a clean heart in this area, both as givers and receivers, then a true blessing can be upon the community in which we live. This widow, who would be despised by the great teachers of the day, gave far more that day than they would ever know. She would receive the pleasure and honor of God in far greater amounts than the trickle that the scribes would receive from others. God is the husband of the widow and the Father of the orphans, and if we want to be like Him, we will be too!
Email Article | Print Article | Share Article | tagged Divinity, Giving, Honor, Jesus, Messiah, Pretense, Receiving Pastor Marty Wednesday, August 26, 2020 at 2:04PM Mark 12:28-34. This sermon was preached on August 23, 2020.
Our story today completes the attempts to trap Jesus with his answers, or debate with him. However, it is worth noting that the man questioning Jesus in this passage does not seem to be trying to trap him. He seems honestly to have an answer to his question from Jesus.
What is the most important command of all the commands given by God through Moses? Another way of putting this is to ask, “Just what is God trying to accomplish through these commands?” Is it just mere domination? Is it perfection? What is it? This question reveals that even people under the Law of Moses understood that there was more to Judaism then the sacrificial system. Jesus makes it clear that God wants relationship with you and with me. He wants a relationship with us that is marked by a reciprocal love. In a world that has little time for “loving God,” I appeal to us to soften our hearts and listen to the heart of God in this passage.
Whether we call it the first commandment of all, or as Matthew 22 describes it, the greatest commandment of all, the heart of this question is to find the unifying principle that ties all the other commands together. It recognizes that sometimes two laws can be at odds with one another. In such cases, a sense of the “spirit of the law” must be understood in deciding which should be obeyed, or at least, how to solve the dilemma. A case in point, the Law stipulated that a newborn male was to be circumcised on the eighth day following its birth, but what if the eighth day was a Sabbath? What should an Israelite who wants to be obedient do? Other such cases existed and had to be dealt by their communities. Of course over time, any legal system becomes a long list of situational decisions. Just imagine the complex maze of laws and regulations that are like a web surrounding each citizen of the United States of America. What is the most important law of our land? What are we trying to accomplish as a people? Clearly, there would be different answers to that question based upon who you ask.
We are told by Mark that the man who poses this question is a scribe. In Matthew 22:35, he is described as a lawyer. This is a man who has spent his life studying the Law of Moses, copying it, and most likely teaching it. What is interesting is the way he is described. The man is impressed with the way Jesus answered the Sadducees in the previous section. He decides to ask Jesus a controversial question in order to see what he will say. He doesn’t seem to be trying to trap Jesus, but rather, he is curious to see what Jesus will say.
The condition of our heart in asking questions of God is important. If I am questioning God with an accusatory heart, or a hardened heart that wants to trap the reasoning of the Bible, then I am unable to hear the truth of what God wants to say to me. However, if I ask questions with a humble heart and with a desire to learn then I will be able to hear the truth of God.
Jesus quotes from Deuteronomy 6:4-5. This is called the Shema Israel, which is Hebrew for, “Hear Israel!” It is interesting that the coming command is prefaced by a statement that, “YHWH our God, YHWH is one.” In light of the polytheism that was going on in those days, this is an important distinction. It emphasizes that their allegiance is to be singular and is therefore much simpler than those whose allegiance is divided among many gods or things. This is going to be important later because the One God is also the One Creator of all people, but more on that later.
The actual command is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. They (we) were to love God with every part of their being. Notice that though these divisions within us tend to be internal concepts, they all beg an external expression. If you love someone with all of your heart then it cannot but create external expressions.
It is interesting that this answer is not one of the 10 commands per se. However, it can be seen as a positive expression of the first commandment, “You shall have no other gods before me.” All negative commands seek to protect or accomplish a positive thing. At the least, this commandment calls for faithfulness to the One True God. Yet, faithfulness is best when it is an expression of an underlying love.
It may seem odd to command love. However, in the context, Israel had not only become physical slaves in Egypt, but in that condition, they had begun to worship the false gods of Egypt. This really is a faithful God calling His people back to faithfulness, and a loving God calling them back to a relationship of love. Our world is steadily casting off any love or faithfulness to our Creator.
It is important for believers to recognize the power of loving God, not because we have been commanded, but because he first loved us! It was God who delivered Israel from the armies of Pharaoh and led them to Sinai. It was there in the context of His great salvation of them that He calls back to a relationship of love. It is also the Lord Jesus who died on the cross for the sins of the world who calls us into a relationship of love with the Father through him. He has loved us with so great a love, but will we respond with love in return? That is what this is all about.
Now, Jesus refers to a second most important commandment. Although the question doesn’t ask for the second, the connection between the two is so strong that it should not be left off. Jesus tells the man, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” At the heart of sin, there is me loving myself. Loving myself doesn’t always lead to sinning against my neighbor, but it is at the root when I do. This command tells us that we should not only place boundaries on our attempts to love ourselves, but that we should take care to love our neighbor too. Yes, it is noble not to steal from my neighbor, or give false testimony about him, but what does it mean to love him? Instead of stealing, I would be a protector of his things, and instead of lying about him, I would be a protector of his reputation do the degree that aligns with truth, or rather God.
Love is wanting and acting for the well being of another. Malachi 2:10 says, “Have we not all one Father? Has not one God created us? Why do we deal treacherously with one another by profaning the covenant of our fathers?” If I love God then I will recognize that He made other humans (my neighbor) too. He loves them, or at least wants a relationship of love with them, just as much as He loves me. Though I am special to Him, I am not more special than the other person. Each of us is a holy ground, a recipient of God’s love. To transgress this through actions that are not love is to trample the love of God’s heart. You cannot do the greatest commandment when you are transgressing the second. This is another way of stating the Golden Rule. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. However, it is even grander.
It is important to note that in Matthew 22:40, Jesus states that all of the Law “hangs” on these two commands. In some way, each law in the Old Testament is working out what it means to love God or to love your neighbor within the context of their culture. Of course, cultures vary and are not always based upon the recognition of God. We are still called to hear God’s Word and to hear His Holy Spirit teaching us what it means to love people in our culture, and in innumerable ways. Through life, God continually calls us to wrestle with the question, “What does love do now?”
The scribe is duly impressed with the answer that Jesus gives. He even states that these two commands are greater than all the sacrificial system commands. The sacrificial laws and activity were not as important as loving God. They were simply an expression of loving God. In other words, there is nothing particularly good about killing an animal when you sin. However, if God tells you to do it then it becomes an opportunity to demonstrate the true nature of your relationship with Him. Christians are not under the sacrificial commands of the Law of Moses, but these concepts are still important to us. We do not obey God’s Word because it makes sense to us, even though we have received an understanding of it. Rather, our obedience, or lack thereof, expresses the truth of where our relationship with Him is. The prophet Samuel brings this up when he tells King Saul that it is better to obey God than to make sacrifices to Him. Clearly, there is a primary importance to loving God, which leads to obeying Him.
Jesus tells the scribe that he is not far from the Kingdom of God. It was the desire of all Israelites to be able to participate in the Kingdom of God when Messiah arrived. May God help us to have a heart that is open to His Word, to Jesus. If we are to keep a place in the coming Kingdom of God at the Second Coming of Jesus then we must guard our hearts. It is not enough to be only near the Kingdom.
We don’t know if this man was one of the 3,000 saved on the Day of Pentecost in Acts 2. However, in Luke 10:28, Jesus had a similar discussion with a man about the greatest command. There, Jesus told the man, “Do this and you will live.” The “this” refers to the command. When our lives are surrendered to Jesus, we will focus it on loving God and loving our fellow man, but not just as I define it, or as our culture defines it. We love people by working for their well being as God defines it. This is why we tell people about Jesus, even though the world may castigate us for trying to convert people from other religions. Actually, we are not trying to convert people to our religion. We are extending God’s offer of love to them. This is why we warn people about sin, as defined by God, rather than pat them on the back as they embrace it. We cannot kill our unborn children and think that God will approve. We cannot marry people of the same sex and think that God will approve. Only sophistry of the highest level would allow a person to do so. Failure in these areas is not only a lack of true love for the other person, but also a failure in loving God. I pray that you will see the amazing love of God calling us out of a life of faithlessness and into a life of His love.