Harmony #77: Parable of the Ten Minas (Luke 19:11-28)

While the people were listening to these things (“For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost”), Jesus proceeded to tell a parable, because he was near to Jerusalem, and because they thought that the kingdom of God was going to appear immediately.

Note that he told a parable because a) he was near Jerusalem and b) the people had some thoughts about the Kingdom of God appearing. We will come back to that.

Therefore he said, “A nobleman went to a distant country to receive for himself a kingdom and then return. And he summoned ten of his slaves, gave them ten minas, and said to them, ‘Do business with these until I come back.’ But his citizens hated him and sent a delegation after him, saying, ‘We do not want this man to be king over us!’

When he returned after receiving the kingdom, he summoned these slaves to whom he had given the money. He wanted to know how much they had earned by trading. So the first one came before him and said, ‘Sir, your mina has made ten minas more.’ And the king said to him, ‘Well done, good slave! Because you have been faithful in a very small matter, you will have authority over ten cities.’

Then the second one came and said, ‘Sir, your mina has made five minas.’  So the king said to him, ‘And you are to be over five cities.’ Then another slave came and said, ‘Sir, here is your mina that I put away for safekeeping in a piece of cloth. For I was afraid of you, because you are a severe man. You withdraw what you did not deposit and reap what you did not sow.’

The king said to him, ‘I will judge you by your own words, you wicked slave! So you knew, did you, that I was a severe man, withdrawing what I didn’t deposit and reaping what I didn’t sow? Why then didn’t you put my money in the bank, so that when I returned I could have collected it with interest?’ And he said to his attendants, ‘Take the mina from him, and give it to the one who has ten.’

But they said to him, ‘Sir, he has ten minas already!” He replied, ‘I tell you that everyone who has will be given more, but from the one who does not have, even what he has will be taken away. But as for these enemies of mine who did not want me to be their king, bring them here and slaughter them in front of me!’ “ After Jesus had said this, he continued on ahead, going up to Jerusalem.

This parable just sits there between the calling of Nicodemus and the entrance to Jerusalem starting the final week of Jesus’ life. It feels awkward and disjointed. But, since Luke committed to writing “an orderly account,” there must be something here that’s an important part of an ongoing bigger story.

On the one hand, there’s a practical reading that looks at stewardship: If God gives you provision and talents, use them to multiply the kingdom. That’s a common teaching taken from this parable. I agree with the principle of that teaching, though I’’m not sure I would take it from this parable.

First, though it’s popular to see Jesus as the king figure in this parable, it is hard for me to conceive that Jesus would be the ruler who has left and then returns. His character and nature are not like the third servant describes (“a severe man, withdrawing what I didn’t deposit and reaping what I didn’t sow).

Second, if that ruler is Jesus, the parable suggests that when God gives the gifts of the Kingdom to his children, if they don't double what he gives them, God gets so angry that he destroys them. If Jesus is God in the flesh – so, God is like Jesus - that doesn't track with anything we have seen about Jesus so far.  We just read Jesus saying to Zacchaeus, “The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost,” not punish the fearful. 

Third, I'm not sure what to think about the teaching of those having much getting more and those having little losing what they have. Didn’t we just hear about the lost sheep, and lost coin, and the two lost sons, and God pursues and loves them? If the ruler is Jesus, this is joltingly the opposite. He has kept calling his disciples “you of little faith,” and he didn’t throw them away. He discipled them.

The best explanation I have found involves a historical event that happened around the time of Jesus. When Herod the Great died (this is the Herod the Sadducees convinced to be the “King of the Jews” and who controlled the Temple priests), he willed his kingdom to his three sons. The three sons sailed to Rome on three different ships to bring gifts to Caesar and ask him to honor their father’s will. The Jewish Pharisees sent a delegation on a fourth ship to plead with Caesar not to make Antipas king. 

As a result, Caesar decided to name Anitpas a “tetrarch” (just lower than a king).  Antipas blamed the Jews for the decision; when he got back, he made an example of the Jews who were left at home and slaughtered them by the thousands. When Jesus stands in front of Herod in the final week of his life, he is standing in front of (drumroll) Herod Antipas.

I am leaning heavily toward the notion that Jesus is challenging how those who “thought that the kingdom of God was going to appear immediately” expected the kingdom of God to appear. I think they wanted him to take it like a Herod would take it, and Jesus is having none of it.

Jesus is traveling to Jerusalem for Passover. He has a huge crowd of disciples, and they lead the adoring crowds in welcoming him into Jerusalem as a king. All the kingly symbols are there:

• the cloaks on the ground (what the people did for Jehu in 2 Kings 9:13–14)

• palm branches (1 Maccabees 13:51 records the use of palm branches in a celebration of Judas the Hammer, a Zealot who led the Maccabean Revolt)

• crying Hosanna (“Help us!”)

• saying, “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord” (also what they said of Jehu)

• Jesus riding donkey (Zechariah 9:9)

They thought they might finally be getting a King, a deliverer who would set up an earthy kingdom by copying Rome’s pax romana (“peace by the sword”). They didn’t like Rome, but they had no problem with THEIR guy using the tools and method of Rome to bring about THEIR own kingdom. But…this is the thing about Rome.

• Rome destroyed those would not help them expand their empire and the Hellenism of the Greeks. #parablereference

• Rome was violent and merciless to those who betrayed them. #parablereference

• Rome was all about the winners getting more winny and the losers getting more losery. #parablereference

When Jesus sees his people welcome him with a not so subtle reference to take out Rome with Rome’s methods, here is how he responds:

Now when Jesus approached and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, “If you had only known on this day, even you, the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and surround you and close in on you from every side. They will demolish you—you and your children within your walls—and they will not leave within you one stone on top of another, because you did not recognize the time of your visitation from God.” (Luke 19:41-44)

Why is this going to happen? They have the wrong idea about what will bring peace because “they did not recognize the time of their visitation from God.” The visitation of God is Jesus; Jesus is telling them what will bring peace, and they are not picking up what he is laying down.

History had shown that, at the end of the day, the Jewish people kept defaulting to the path of the Zealots. When Jesus read from Isaiah in his hometown and declared the year of the Lord’s favor but left off the line about God’s vengeance,[1] his hometown tried to kill him because they knew what he was saying. God’s favor was going to become available to all, and they were not okay with that. God was going to bring peace by reconciling everyone first to Himself and then to each other, and that meant nobody was going to pay for the crimes done against them. 

For many of them (the Zealots for sure), the kingdom of God would arrive by taking the sword to those who hurt them. And that's what a Caesar or a Nero would do. That’s what happened in Jesus’ parable. That’s what Antipas did to those who displeased him. And this is the approach the Jewish people kept revisiting over and over. Even the non-Zealots seemed to keep rallying around the sword to solve their problems and usher in the Kingdom of God.

We've got good biblical reason to believe that this Zealot thread kept running through Jesus’ disciples no matter how often he taught and lived differently.

I’ve noted before that that Judas and Simon were both zealots. Judas had a nickname “Iscariot,” a nickname that seems to place him among the sicarii, one of the "dagger-men" of the Zealots who had committed to killing Roman soldiers whenever he could with his dagger that shared his nickname. I'm leaning more and more toward the idea that when we get to the last week in the life of Jesus, Judas was intending to be the spark that started the revolution.

Judas knew that if he went to the high priests, they would come for Jesus. Remember, the high priests are the Sadducees. They love Rome, and they have been trying to kill Jesus because Jesus is putting their status with Rome in jeopardy. At one point Caiaphas tells the Sanhedrin that it’s better to kill one person, Jesus, than to have them all killed.[2] Judas knows that the Sadducees’ private army of bodyguards will have no problem pulling a sword on Jesus. They had a reputation for doing that kind of thing to those who crossed the Sadducees.

It’s an odd collaboration. The Zealots hated the Sadducees because they were such compromisers. Clearly, Judas is just using them. The text doesn't say this, but I wouldn't be surprised if there were Zealots hiding nearby, waiting for the fight to begin. What a shock it must have been when Peter - who brought a sword to a garden prayer time? - starts the fight and Jesus promptly stops it.

Let's fast forward to the trial where Herod does what Herod always did at Passover, which was to offer a released prisoner to the Jewish people. He gives them the option of Jesus the Christ or Jesus Barabbas. The crowd chooses Barabbas, who had been arrested because he had already engaged in violent insurrection.  They want their Zealot who knows how to fight on their terms.

I suspect part of the reason Jesus wept was because he knew what would happen when God’s people try to bring about the Kingdom of God at the edge of a sword. He warned Peter: “You live by it, you die by it.” Why are the Jewish people slaughtered and the Temple destroyed in AD 70? The Zealots keep pushing and pushing and pushing until Rome snapped.

So, full circle back to the parable. I think Jesus knew what was in their hearts, and he reminded them of what Herod was like, and how empires work. He will never be that kind of King, and his kingdom should never be that kind of Kingdom.

* * * * *

I've been thinking a lot this week about what principles we take away from this. If you recall, the Jewish people wrestled with three responses to the question, “What do we do with Rome?”

• Compromise, embrace it, learn to love it (Sadducees and Herodians)

• Retreated and just focus on being holy (Essenes and Pharisees)

• Fight Rome with the weapons of Rome (Zealots)

Jesus has challenged all of these approaches throughout the course of his ministry. He doesn't retreat from the culture around him; instead he goes to the Gentiles (Samaritans and Romans). He doesn't embrace the culture; he embraces the people in the culture as individuals and calls them to follow him. He doesn't pick up a sword – unless it’s the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God, which he seem him wielding in Revelation. Let’s go back to what characterized Rome and Herod Antipas.

• Rome destroyed those would not help them expand their empire and the Hellenism of the Greeks.

• Rome was violent and merciless to those who betrayed them.

• Rome was all about the winners getting more winny and the losers getting more losery.

  How is Jesus a different kind of King?

·Those outside the kingdom were not destroyed in the process of expanding the kingdom. They were literally still alive to have access to the Kingdom. Jesus just kept inviting himself to the home of the sinner, the Samaritan, the tax collector. He kept inviting people. The banquet table has enough seats for everybody.

On the cross, he asks God to forgive those who crucified him rather than asking him to smite them. He will restore Peter, who might have betrayed him more than Judas when he called down curses and said, “I don’t know my own rabbi.” Okay, important trivia (?) When Jesus rose, the women at the grave were told to take the news “to the disciples and Peter.”[3] It’s only been three days. Why isn’t Peter just assumed to still be a disciple? Because he denied and cursed his rabbi. He was done. There was no coming back from that. When Jesus sees him again, where is he? Back to fishing. He was done. AND JESUS RESTORES HIM. This is not an earthly kingdom; this is a heavenly kingdom.

Jesus was not about rewarding the competent and punishing the incompetent #peteronceagain. Remember the Parable of the Two Brothers (Prodigal Son). Remember the Parable of Workers working all day vs. one hour. Jesus is excited about giving everyone the spiritual spoils of the Kingdom, whether they are crushing it or floundering or lost like that sheep. Everybody sits at the banquet table. Surely there is reward in walking in the Path of Life as we harvest what we have planted, but God is not a stingy and petty God, turning his nose up at the Samaritan and tax collector and prodigal. He came to seek and to save the lost, after all. That’s what he loves to do.

Let's see if we can make this practical for our situation today.

We are not living in a nation that brings a sword against followers of Jesus like Herod Antipas. We do, however, live in a culture that will at times challenge us on aspects of what we believe or how we believe we should live our faith. How do we respond to living in spiritually occupied territory of Babylon/Rome (to use Revelation’s imagery)?

I'm hearing rumbles in some circles that we might be looking at a time that is ripe for a second Civil War. It's often accompanied with the stated desire to get America back to Judeo/Christian roots even if it requires violence, as if we can spread or solidify the Kingdom of God at the point of a sword. That just doesn't sound like Jesus. That sounds like Judas.

But there's also a level to this that stops short of violence physical violence. I'm thinking now of emotional, verbal and maybe even spiritual violence. When we talk about the culture wars, we can mean one of two things.

• We can mean that there is a clash anytime Christians live in spaces with non-Christians simply because we are going to value different things for different reasons,  and we are going to offer our worship and allegiance to different gods or idols. In that sense, yeah, there's going to be a war in the sense that there is conflict and tension. Legit. This has always been true.

• We can also use Culture Wars to mean it is time for us to get out there and fight fight fight – but…. it's not usually accompanied with language asking what it looks to fight like Jesus. It's usually much more pragmatic Zealotry, with a physical or symbolic peace by the sword in that the ends will justify the means if we aren’t careful. A public figure who aligns with Christians noted recently, in reference to the aforementioned culture wars, “We’ve turned the other cheek, and I understand, sort of, the biblical reference — I understand the mentality — but it’s gotten us nothing. Okay? It’s gotten us nothing…”

But here's the reality. The means determine who we are in the end. If we fight like Rome to further the Kingdom of God, the society we usher in will just be Rome by another name. And if this is our hope, we will constantly be searching for peace and not finding peace because we didn't fight like Jesus as we pointed toward Jesus. The apostle Paul – who knew a thing or two about fighting battles in the wrong way - reminded us how to fight like Jesus, for Jesus.

Finally, brothers and sisters, draw your strength and might from God. Put on the full armor of God to protect yourselves from the devil and his evil schemes. We’re not waging war against enemies of flesh and blood alone.   No, this fight is against tyrants, against authorities, against supernatural powers and demon princes that slither in the darkness of this world, and against wicked spiritual armies that lurk about in heavenly places. And this is why you need to be head-to-toe in the full armor of God: so you can resist during these evil days and be fully prepared to hold your ground. Yes, stand—truth banded around your waist, righteousness as your chest plate, and feet protected in preparation to proclaim the good news of peace. Don’t forget to raise the shield of faith above all else, so you will be able to extinguish flaming spears hurled at you from the wicked one. Take also the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. Pray always. Pray in the Spirit. Pray about everything in every way you know how! And keeping all this in mind, prayon behalf of God’s people. Keep on praying feverishly, and be on the lookout until evil has been stayed.  (Ephesians 6:10-18)

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[1] Luke 4

[2] John 11:45-57

[3] Mark 16:7

Advent: Peace

When we read of the Genesis account of God’s creation of the world, a Hebrew word, shalom, is used to describe the state of peace Adam and Eve were in. The root word means "to be complete" or "to be sound." They were at peace: with God, within, and with others. We often use the phrase, “It’s all good.” Well, it was. It’s a word that implies wholeness, completeness, unbrokenness.[1]

So, it’s a good start for the world. And then they lost it. #sin. Now, to quote Kenny Wayne Shepherd, “everything is broken.” Look what happens in the first few chapters of Genesis after the Fall: sin crouching at our door, inner turmoil, murder, a world in which everything is “evil continuously” (Genesis 6).

And here we are, thousands of years later, and we still feel the ripple effect of this. We live in a broken, sin-ravaged world. We see it in the news: the scandals surrounding World Cup Soccer; the turmoil in Ukraine; the exposure of sin in the church; the trials covering the sins of Hollywood. We see it in our marriages, families, work, friendships, and even church. We see it in the ways in which we deal with depression, anxiety, guilt, shame… The nursery rhyme was right: this world is Humpty Dumpty, and no kings or people will put it back together again.

When the angels appeared to the shepherds to announce the birth of Jesus, they proclaimed a message of peace:

“Glory to God in the Highest; and on earth, peace to those on whom His favor rests.”  (Luke 2:14)

So what is this favor? And what is this peace?

The shepherds were probably watching a temple flock destined for sacrifice as they watched them from a tower called the Midgal Eder, the 'watchtower of the flock,' a lookout and a place of refuge close to Bethlehem for their flocks in case of attack. Shepherds brought ewes there to give birth. The priests maintained ceremonially clean stalls, and they carefully oversaw the birth of each lamb, many of which would be used in sacrifices.

So in one sense the thought that these shepherds were favored made sense. They were God’s people whose lives were being used to further God’s purposes in the world. But being ‘favored’ had not brought them the peace they were expecting. There was hardly a more obvious reminder than the palace that cast a shadow over their tower.

Herod’s mountain fortress, the Herodian,[2] overlooked the town of Bethlehem. The Herodian was built on top of an artificial mountain that Herod had created specifically for him. According to Josephus, there were originally two hills standing next to each other. Herod paid thousands of workers for years to demolish one of the hills and level off the other. He built his massive palace-fortress into the top of the remaining hill. This seven stories high palace contained a garden, reception hall, Roman baths, countless apartments, an enormous pool, a colonnaded garden, a 600-foot-long terrace. The buildings alone covered forty-five acres. The Herodion’s circular upper palace could be seen for miles and literally overshadowed surrounding villages.

• Herod made his name when he smoked out refugees hiding in cliff side caves, pulled them out with long, hooked poles and dropped them down the sheer cliff.

• Herod once laid siege to Jerusalem. The soldiers raped and slaughtered the women and children, and the Jewish soldiers were tortured and chopped to pieces.

• Hundreds of friends and family members and political rivals were tortured or slaughtered on the slightest of accusations. 

• Herod went to Jericho to die in agony, hated by everyone. Fearing that no one would mourn his death, he commanded his troops to arrest important people from across the land and execute them after he died. If people would not mourn him, at least they would mourn.

 It’s in this context that the angels said they were there to proclaim peace on earth to those on whom God’s favor rests. So what is this favor? Where is the promised peace? 

The Romans were still in control when Jesus died, and for a long while after. In the first century alone there was massive slaughter of the Jewish people during a rebellion put down by the Roman army.

Look at the life of the disciples. When you are run out of towns and sawn in half and crucified upside down, we wouldn't normally think about that as peaceful, and yet Jesus promised them, “Peace I give and leave to you – just not the kind the world gives.” (John 14:27) He follows that up with an encouragement not to be troubled or afraid – which suggests that troubling and fearful things would happen around them.

The angels and Jesus had a view of peace that is different from how we tend to think of it by wordly measures or standards (which just means that it’s how the empires train us to think about peace in distinction to the Kingdom).

Kingdom peace won’t be self-help techniques. I keep seeing the idea in Christian articles that psychological practices will bring the peace God promised. I just don’t see that in Scripture. I have nothing against different things we can do to focus our mind or calm our body – I’m not opposed at all to medication helping us when used properly - but let’s not confuse that kind of calm with the peace that passes understanding, the peace that only the Kingdom can offer.

Kingdom peace won’t be merely circumstantial. The Bible constantly talks about finding peace in the midst of the storm.  David is sent to the battlefield to check on his brothers’ shalom.[3] Jesus tells his followers that they will have trouble in this life, but they will have peace because God loves them.[4] This peace won’t be dependent upon what happens around but within those who have God’s favor. Though peacemakers as salt and light will bring a peacemaking presence into the world, it’s different from having the peace of the presence of Jesus of which the angels sang.

  Kingdom peace won’t necessarily be emotional. It may be, and it is indeed lovely when we feel it strongly. However, neither the biblical testimony nor 2,000 years of the church history has shown that followers of Jesus are guaranteed unrelenting mental and emotional health in the sense of feeling calm and collected all the time. I think biblically it’s possible to be at peace without feeling peaceful. And if that caught your attention….let’s go!

Here is my summary of what I think the Bible is revealing about the kind of shalom the angels announced: Kingdom peace arrives when whose I am clarifies who I am and reveals who you are. 

Let’s start with whose I am.

“God was pleased . . . through [Christ] to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through [Christ’s] blood, shed on the cross.” (Colossians 1:19–20).  

“ If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.” (2 Corinthians 5:17-18) 

“To all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.” (John 1:12-13) 

“See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are.” (1 John 1:3)

What is the foundation of peace? Reconciliation with God through Christ.[5] Peace begins in us when we are in right relationship with Christ.[6] The biblical analogy is that of being drawn into his family. Thanks to the work of Jesus, we are given the status of righteous children, which we could never earn on our own. This is whose I am. Peace, then is something much deeper and greater than the feeling of being at peace. Being at peace is a state, a status, a standing of righteousness before God and within His family.[7] No matter what happens or how we feel, we stand in a reconciled space. The foundation of my peace never shifts. The peace that Jesus has provided for us with God never leaves me.

* * * * * 

Peace arrives when whose I am clarifies who I am and reveals who you are.

How does knowing whose I am clarify who I am? Well, I now have a primary way of thinking about myself. I am a child of God, adopted into the family of the King, an heir of the spiritual riches of the Kingdom.

The fact that we as human beings are image bearers of God already means we have an inherent value, worth and dignity, but this is something more. This is a reminder that God gave himself in Jesus to save us broken, sinful image bearers, mend our broken peace, and proudly claim us as His own. 

No matter how I feel about myself, it doesn’t change the status I have. To use another biblical analogy, I am a temple in which God dwells. His Spirit lives in me, transforming, empowering, changing. I am not simply the sum total of my successes and failures, as if doing the math of my life = value. Something far greater is at work, and it is a far greater thing than any earthly things that are part of who I am.

There are lots of things that fight for the right to characterize us (another way of thinking about identity). There are the things that make us go, “Ah, so this is who I am.” We may or may not want to be known for them, but they feel so overwhelmingly a part of us that this is what it means to be Anthony (substitute your name here). You might think, “Thank you God for me! This is amazing!” or, “What is happening? Why is this me?” And when we arrive at conclusions about “who I am” in this way, we are in trouble.  

• It becomes easy to excuse our failures; we say, “That’s not who I am!” when everybody around us knows it’s exactly who we are because #experience.

• It becomes easy to magnify our successes; we say, “That’s who I am!” when everybody around us knows that’s not our usual self because #experience

• It becomes easy to identify with our failures; we say, “That’s who I am- a failure!” as if we are failures rather than being a person who sometimes fails.

But when we really grasp whose we are, we realize that none of those things are the starting point of who we are. We start with whose we are. We begin with, “God has claimed me as His own. How does God see me? How would God define me?” And when we are part of the family of God, that answer to who we are is simple: “A loved child of the King, an heir of the Kingdom.”

I think we all struggle, at least at some point in our life, with the question of identity. In our world we usually here these terms associated that with sexual or gender identity, but that’s just one way people work through questions about who they are or try to establish something in or around them which to orient their life.  But it all swirls around the questions of, “What matters in me, what characterizes me, and why do I matter? What is the True North in the compass of m life???” We do it with all kinds of things:

• Money (I am rich/poor, and thus I matter/I am a failure)

• I am a good looking human being (or an ugly one) and I add value to the world (or detract from it)

• People respect and like me (or don’t) so I must be a good person (or bad person).

• Look at my job! Only smart and talented can do this (or I’m dumb, and anybody could do this.)

• I have multiple degrees/ I can fix anything/ I am unusually strong and relentlessly healthy/ I am a great musician/I run a household that should be featured in magazines…

Please hear me. Success in these areas are not bad things, but they are foundations of shifting sand. They are part of you, but they are accessories. They may be wonderful, but they are not the core of who you are.

If you are a human being - rich, poor, beautiful, ugly, smart, dumb, strong, weak, sick, healthy, popular, lonely, depressed, happy - you are an image bearer of God. And if you are a follower of Jesus - rich, poor, beautiful, ugly, smart, dumb, strong, weak, sick, healthy, popular, lonely, depressed, happy - you are at reconciled peace with God because of the person and work of Jesus. You. Are. A. Child. Of. God.  This is whose you are. This is who you are above all else. [8]

* * * * *

Peace arrives when whose I am clarifies who I am and reveals who you are.

When Paul was writing letters to the start-up churches helping them to better understand the true message of the gospel, he wrote to the church in Ephesus, which was having trouble forming a church community with both Jewish and Gentile converts. Here we begin to see an explanation of peace that ripples out from us and into the world: 

“Remember that at that time you (Gentiles) were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ.  For he himself is our peace…. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near.  For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.“ (Ephesians 2:12-17)

The reconciling peace Jesus offers expands the family, reconciling us with those who feel “far away.”[9] God calls out the human barriers (the ‘isms’[10]) that divide us (Ephesians 2:11–22), dissolving the antagonism across those lines and giving us the resources to reconcile with others in unity and love through continual forgiveness and patience (Colossians 3:13–15).

We live in peace with others when we relationally enter into the “ministry of reconciliation” that God began in us (2 Corinthians 5:17-18)[11] And that peace happens when we are committed to paying forward the reconciliation God has given to us through Jesus.

Blessed are the peacemakers; they will be called children of God.[12]This is what it looks like when the favor of God rests on us, and the peace He offers to the earth changes the world for our good and God’s glory.

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[1] The Greek word for peace in the New Testament comes from a verb (eiro) which means to join or bind together that which has been broken, divided or separated. It’s where we get the word “serene” (free of storms or disturbance, marked by calm. https://www.biblestudytools.com/dictionary/peace/

[2] Picture from Eitan Ya'aran.

[3] 1 Samuel 17:18

[4] John 16:33 – read the whole chapter for context.

[5] In both the Old and the New Testament, spiritual peace is realized in being rightly related—rightly related to God and rightly related to one another. From the Holman Bible Dictionary. “Peace, Spiritual.” www.studylight.org

[6] God, "Yahweh Shalom" (Judges 6:24 ). The Lord came to sinful humankind, historically first to the Jews and then to the Gentiles, desiring to enter into a relationship with them. He established with them a covenant of peace, which was sealed with his presence (see  Num 6:24-26 ). Participants were given perfect peace (shalom shalom [l'vl'v]) so long as they maintained a right relationship with the Lord (see Isa 26:3; 2 Thess 3:16). https://www.biblestudytools.com/dictionary/peace/

[7] “The kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” (Ro 14:17-note)

[8] I wonder if this is the “perfect peace” (or shalom-shalom) that brings “quietness and confidence forever” (Isaiah 32:17) to those who steadfastly set their minds on God (Isaiah 26:3). (As noted by Tim Keller in “The Meaning of Shalom In the Bible”)

[9] There is a cultural/societal implication to this, but I don’t have time to talk about it today. “An end to physical violence. Shalom can include the end of hostilities and war (Deuteronomy 20:12; Judges 21:13),” but at least once in the Old Testament it’s peace when at war,[9] so it has to be more than that. “An end to oppressive injustice.  Peacemakers help to establish socially just relationships between individuals and classes. Jeremiah insisted that unless there was an end to oppression, greed, and violence, there can be no shalom, even though false prophets insisted there was (Jeremiah 6:1–9,14; compare Jeremiah 8:11)” Read more in Tim Keller, “The Meaning of Shalom In The Bible.”

[10] Racism, sexism, classism, etc. Differences that people use as an excuse to judge, divide, and oppress.

[11] Shalom experienced is multidimensional, complete well-being — physical, psychological, social, and spiritual; it flows from all of one’s relationships being put right — with God, with(in) oneself, and with others. (Not an exact quote, but from Tim Keller)

[12] Matthew 5:9

Harmony #7: Out With The Old, In With The New (John 2:13-22)

If we are like Jesus, zeal that our lives and our church become a holy space, “set aside” for God’s purposes, will consume us. So, what tangible Kingdom attributes should we be zealous to put in the courtyard of our church and our lives so that the church flourishes as God’s transforming presence is made manifest in our transformed lives? 

Sweep out Fear and replace it with Love – (agape) loving people sacrificially and freely  

• “Perfect love casts out fear (phobos, fleeing to avoid because of dread: involves the dread of punishment).” 1 John 4:18 This in reference to understanding God’s love for us and not fearing eternal judgment. But the very next verse says, “We love, because He first loved us.”

• “God has not given us a spirit of timidity or cowardice, but a spirit of miraculous power through God’s strength, agape love, and acting out God’s will through sound reasoning.” 2 Timothy 1:7

God’s love removes our fear; a different way of saying it is that the more we as children of God experience and understand God’s love – free; unearned; lavish in spite of being known; characterized by sacrifice; and in every way for us[1] – the more we can rest in the love of God. 

In the same way, the church is intended to be a community of people through whom God’s love is passed on to others. The more we experience and understand God’s love through God’s people – free; unearned; lavish in spite of being known; characterized by sacrifice; and in every way for us– the more we can rest in the love of those around us.

Sweep out Discord and replace it with Peace – bringing righteous order to sinful chaos

• “He is the embodiment of our peace, sent once and for all to take down the great barrier of hatred and hostility that has divided us so that we can be one. He offered His body on the sacrificial altar to bring an end to the law’s ordinances and dictations that separated Jews from the outside nations. His desire was to create in His body one new humanity from the two opposing groups, thus creating peace.  Effectively the cross becomes God’s means to kill off the hostility once and for all so that He is able to reconcile them both to God in this one new body. The Great Preacher of peace and love came for you, and His voice found those of you who were near and those who were far away.  By Him both have access to the Father in one Spirit. And so you are no longer called outcasts and wanderers but citizens with God’s people, members of God’s holy family, and residents of His household. You are being built on a solid foundation: the message of the prophets and the voices of God’s chosen emissaries with Jesus, the Anointed Himself, the precious cornerstone. The building is joined together stone by stone—all of us chosen and sealed in Him, rising up to become a holy temple in the Lord. In Him you are being built together, creating a sacred dwelling place among you where God can live in the Spirit. (Ephesians 2:14-22)[2]

I love this image.  A building is being created out of each one of us who are residents of God holy household. We are being joined together to be a sacred place where it’s obvious we live together in peace with the Spirit of God as the mortar that holds us together. To the outcast and wanderer, welcome. Join the family of God. No hatred and hostility should divide us, since the Great Preacher of peace and love came for us. 

Sweep out Merit and replace it with Mercy – giving grace (unmerited favor) wherever possible

•  Luke 6:36  “Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.”

•  Matthew 5:7 “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.”

•  Matthew 23:23  “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others.”

“The world will give you that once in awhile, a brief timeout; the boxing bell rings and you go to your corner, where somebody dabs mercy on your beat-up life.”   Sue Monk Kidd, The Secret Life of Bees

That image makes me happy; it’s an oasis of goodness in a world that is so broken. But we serve a savior who didn’t just dab mercy on us; he poured it out on us, covered us in it – and we are expected to be in the corner’s of the lives of those around us, ready to shower them with mercy when the fight is going the worst.  

I like this as an image to organize our time with others. What if we thought of everyone you talk with after this service as someone in need of a brief timeout from a life that’s beating them up, and what then need from you is for you to be in their corner dumping a Gatoraide cooler of mercy over them.

Sweep out Callousness and replace it with Kindness – treating others with goodness

• “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.” (Ephesians 4:32)

• “Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult. On the contrary, repay evil with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing.” (1 Peter 3:9)[3]

• “Love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked.” (Luke 6:35) 

I don’t know about you, but I find myself getting jaded and hardened if I’m not careful. There are so many things that make me want to develop a “thick skin” so life doesn’t hurt anymore. Callouses on our hands are a blessing when you do manual labor that rubs our skin raw; why wouldn’t callouses on our hearts be a blessing when we work with people who rub our souls raw? 

 Why not? Because we are called to be kind (combine some of the others in this list to get the idea: merciful, loving, gentle, and nurturing). The harder our hearts get, the harder it is to do those things. 

• I don’t want to merciful, loving, gentle, and nurturing to the person who passed me in the roundabout, or who constantly poses in front of the mirror at the gym, or the person next to me on the plane who can’t seem to stop saying the name of Jesus loudly, or…. But I must. 

•  I don’t want to be merciful, loving, gentle, and nurturing to the online troll who blows up what were meant to be thought-provoking conversations. But I must. 

• I don’t want to be merciful, loving, gentle, and nurturing to that person who unfairly judges my motivations or never gives me the benefit of the doubt. But I am told that I must pass on to others what Jesus gave to me.

I must pass on what Jesus did for me.  See the previous point about mercy.

Sweep out Fickelness and replace it with Faithfulness – having a consistently righteous character others can count on[4]

• “Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works, and in your teaching show integrity and dignity…” (Titus 2:7)  

• “Pray for us, for we are sure that we have a clear conscience, desiring to act honorably in all things.” (Hebrews 13:18) 

• “Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.” (1 Peter 2:12)  

We often think of faithfulness in terms of actions, and that’s clearly not wrong as you see here. In Revelation, we talked about faithful endurance that had to do with living a godly life; in friendships, a faithful friend “sticks closer than a brother.”[5] I want to look at a different aspect: having a consistently righteous character others can count on. This is the” clear conscience, desiring to act honorably in all things.”

This is not a demand for perfection. This is about the consistent presence of our lives. Maybe another word is integrity: our words, actions and attitudes are integrated so that they work together, and the testimony of our lives tells the same story over and over.   

A couple months ago, a person who has been a consistently righteous presence in my life had a noticeably inconsistent moment with me. But as I thought about it, I realized it was notable precisely because it was not the norm, and that I was blessed to have someone in my life whose presence is so consistent that inconsistencies stand out. This person apologized the next day, by the way – which did not surprise me at all. They have a consistently righteous character others can count on; they desire to act honorably in all things. 

Sweep our Error and replace it with Truth-telling – speaking honestly about…everything.

•  Ephesians 4:25   “Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.”

There are lots of ways to talk about the devastation of falsehood. Today, let’s look at the practical trouble with the lack of honest truth-telling.

1.  When you consistently practice dishonesty, you eventually will lose touch with what’s true, and you will become an ‘unreliable narrator’ about the world. I have had several friend who, it became clear to me, just lied all the time, almost without thinking. It had just become part of who he was. He did it in the most ordinary of things even when it made no sense. At some point, I just stopped taking you seriously. I had no idea if anything they said was true. 

2.  If you are comfortable lying to others, you are almost certainly comfortable lying to yourself. “That was a good 1 hour workout!” No it wasn’t. It was 45 minutes of mediocre effort. “I got fired because my boss is a jerk!” Or – hear me out – you were late every day, did as little as possible, and undermined the boss around the other employees. Eventually you will become an “unreliable narrator” in your own life. You construct an image of yourself (for better or worse) that is totally at odds with reality. I read a book a while ago called I Wear The Black Hat (an image for bad guys). The author was challenging our image of ourselves. He asked a sobering question: What if we wear the black hat in our lives? We like to think we are the heroes in our own story, but….what if we are the villain (or at least more villainous than we think), and heroic people around us are picking up the slack?  “As each individual reads Scripture…they are Esther, never Xerxes or Haman. They are Peter, never Judas, never a Pharisee. They are Jews escaping slavery, never Egypt… [they have] no lens for locating themselves rightly  in Scripture or society.”[6] Truth about ourselves, not just others, matters.

3.  Finally, I think we tend to assume people are like us in a lot of ways. I found out a couple years ago that some people carry on conversations with voices in your head. Like, they go after it.  I had assumed everyone was like me: it’s quiet in there. They assumed everyone was like them. I am conscious of my weight (this goes back to my childhood), so I assume everyone else is conscious of their weight too. We often tend to project our interior life into the interior of others. And if you are a liar, the world becomes a very unsafe place because as far as you know, you are surrounded by liars.

The practical blessing of truth:

1.  You become more discerning about truth and become an increasingly reliable narrator of the world. This brings clarity, true knowledge, honest insight, etc. People increasingly give weight to your voice because they see your commitment to seeing the world as it is. Even when people disagree, if both parties know the other person is really committed to an objective view of the world, each voice has weight. (Quick note: if you change your mind on issues at times after studying and talking, that’s probably a good sign.)

2.  You are likely becoming an increasingly reliable narrator about yourself. You are able to look honestly at instead of away from the hat you are wearing.  Odds are good that you will become so committed to honest assessment that you ask others to weigh in on what they see in your life. This is both personal and relational gold.

3.  You won’t assume others are like you – because you have an honest view of the world.  And then you are at a much healthier place internally (not projecting onto others) and relationally (able to relate with a view of the actual reality of what people are like). 

Sweep out Pride and replace it with Humility – having a modest/honest estimate of ourselves[7]

• “Clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, “God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.”  (1 Peter 5:5)”

•  “Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you.”  (Romans 12:3)

• But [God] said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”  (2 Corinthians 12:9-10)

When is it most obvious that God is at work in our lives? When our strength and skills fail – when what we bring to the table is inept at best and disastrous at worst -  and yet God brings something good from it. 

When is it most obvious that God is at work in our church? When our strength and skills fail – when what we bring to the table is inept at best and disastrous at worst -  and yet God brings something good from it. Unless the Lord builds the house, we labor in vain, right?[8]

If I can be transparent about pastoring for a moment. Most Sunday, something goes wrong here on a Sunday morning, from mechanical issues to computer breakdowns to awkward sermons (and sermon topics) to lack of smooth transitions to the worship team having to scramble with last minute sicknesses to nursery workers not being able to make it to somebody sticking their foot in their mouth in a conversation, and that someone is often me. And more often than not, it seems like someone is here really looking for be ministered to through whichever area is “weak” that particular morning.  And it feels like, “Well, we blew it.”

This used to eat me up. God has been working with me: “Let it go. My power is made perfect in these moments.” In other words, CLG is not going to flourish – really Kingdom flourish - because the preacher or the band or the Kid’s Ministry leaders or any of us navigating relationships are  knocking it out of the park; it will Kingdom flourish when the power of God builds this house. And that is comforting indeed.

__________________________________________________________________________________

[1] Romans 8:31

[2]  “There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers.” Proverbs 6:16-19 

 “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God (sharing in the same nature their Father).” Matthew 5:9

 “So then we pursue the things which make for peace (wholeness, unity) and the building up of one another.” Romans 14:19  

[3] 1 Corinthians 13:4 “Love is patient, love is kind.” 

“Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you." Colossians 3:12-13  

[4] Verses about faithfulness to God: 1 Samuel 12:24  “Fear the Lord and serve him faithfully with all your heart. For consider what great things he has done for you.”

Revelation 2:10  “Do not fear what you are about to suffer….Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.”

1 Corinthians 4:2  “It is required of stewards that they be found trustworthy.

[5] Proverbs 18:24

[6] From Christiana Collins. I don’t know who that is, but it’s pretty good stuff.

[7]  “Wisdom’s instruction is to fear the LORD, and humility comes before honor.”  Proverbs 15:33 

“When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom.”  Proverbs 11:2

 “Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited.” Romans 12:16 

[8] Psalm 127:1

Practice The Fruits (Not The Counterfeit Or the Opposite)

Children, don’t let anyone deceive you. The one practicing (poeio) righteousness is just imitating Jesus, the Righteous One.  The one who practices (poeio) sin belongs to the diabolical one, who has been all about sin from the beginning. That is why the Son of God came into our world: to destroy the plague of destruction inflicted on the world by the diabolical one.

No one who has been born into God’s family practices sin as a lifestyle because the God’s children are the spiritually generated offspring of God Himself. Therefore, a child of God has the power to reject a life of persistent sin.  So it is not hard to figure out who are the children of God and who are the children of the diabolical one: those who do not practice righteousness and those who don’t practice agape love for one another do not belong to God.

‘Practice’[1] in this passage is poeio: to make or make ready, to prepare, to acquire, to produce, to do a thing well. 

As I noted last week, practicing is not in opposition to the reality that God’s gifts are, well, gifts.Something can be given to us freely, and we still have to practice, like the recorder my parents got me one Christmas and then quickly regretted. 

I think that’s true also of the gifts from God the Bible calls the ‘fruits of the Spirit.’ Here are a few places the Bible talks about the idea that we invest sweat equity into the gifts of the fruit:

·      Seek and pursue the fruit of peace  (Psalm 34:14) as much as it depends on you (Romans 12:18).

·      Consider it the fruit of joy when you face trials (James 1:2), or when we share in Christ’s suffering (1 Peter 4:13)

·      Choose the fruit of love (Luke 6:27 “But to you who are willing to listen…”)

·      Be patient (James 5:7-8) like a farmer waiting for crops, imitating the saints before us (Hebrews 6:12)

·      Make every effort to add to your faith goodness and self-control (2 Peter 1:5-7)  

·      Clothe yourself with gentleness and kindness (Colossians 3:12)

So these things are all gifts from God; they are all part of the fruit our lives bear when the Holy Spirit is the sap in these people trees. In that sense, they are not something we demand or we earn or we are even responsible for having. But…we are responsible for poeio. For practicing, cultivating, looking for opportunities, do the things that someone like us is made and empowered to do. 

This morning I want us to begin looking at how to do this. Paul wrote to the church in Ephesus:

“At one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord.” (Ephesians 5:8)

I’d like to offer something to help us discern whether or not we are a walking in the light in a way that pleases the Lord. Think of it as a Self-Assessment Fruit Test. We are going to get better at what we practice. Are we practicing righteous fruit like we think we are? 

Love (agape). I like Ken Boa’s definition: “a love not of emotions or feelings but of the will and of choice. This type of love can be defined as the steady intention of the will to another’s highest good. It is an ongoing benevolence—willing (-volence) what’s good or best (bene-) for another.”[2]

Agape love is is serving people for their intrinsic worth, not for how they make us feel or what they give us in return. It is a love that seeks first to give rather than be given. It’s what one popular song calls “reckless”[3] love. I don’t know that I like that word to describe the kind of love that originates in God,[4] but I think it’s meant to reflect what God’s love looks like to us. Extravagant. 

·      It’s a bottle of tears or a ridiculously expensive jar of perfume poured on feet as an act of love[5]

·      it’s leaving the 99 to get the 1[6]

·      it’s an innocent man paying the penalty on behalf of the world’s guilt.[7]

·       It’s the physical body of Jesus[8] and then the spiritual body of Christ (the church) being spiritually broken and spilled out for even the mockers and haters. 

 Poeio. Practice that. 

The counterfeit of agape love is selfish love or lust, where you care for others because of how they make you feel about yourself or because it benefits you. Instead of willing the best for the other even at cost to yourself, it’s willing the best for yourself at the expense of the other. It’s an easy love, really, a love that is all about you and what makes your life easier, and that’s not love. It’s actually a “love” that has no problem harming others for the sake of “love.” 

I call this Twilight love. “I love you, but in order for us to be together I am going to need to kill you and turn you into one of the undead.” Yeah, not love.  

The opposite is hate or indifference. That’s why we can murder people with our hands and in our hearts.[9] It’s the same spirit behind them both. Someone’s life is not worth caring about at best, and at worst is worth hating. “I hope terrible things happen to them” is not that far apart from  “I don’t care if terrible things happen to them.”  You’re on the same page.   

·      “I don’t want to have to care about you” is practice. 

·      “I don’t care about you,” means your practice is working. 

·      “I hope nobody cares about you.” It just keeps going. 

·      “I wish someone would harm you.”

·      “I wonder if there is some way I can harm you?”

The fruit of the Spirit is love. 

“This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.  This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.” (I John 4:9-11)

  Poeio. Practice it. Watch the love from Jesus in you to others do a miracle in this broken world.

 Joy is a delight focused on God for the sheer beauty and worth of who He is. It is independent of our circumstances.  

·      Joy does not come from personal comfort or emotional highs. “Sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing everything.” (2 Corinthians 6:10)

·      Joy is not us-centered; it’s God centered. It only comes from a focus on Christ. “Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.” (1 Peter 1:8-9) 

·      Joy looks to the future in spite of the present. “The prospect of the righteous is joy, but the hopes of the wicked come to nothing.” (Proverbs 10:28) For the joy set before him Jesus endured the cross.[10]

·      Joy happens when we set our eyes on things above, and not on things of this world. Habakkuk 3:17-19, “Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Savior. The joy of the Lord is the thing that gives us strength.[11]

Because joy is dependent not on you but on the source of your joy, it is always available.

 The counterfeit of joy is happiness. You feel good as long as you have money, health, affirmation, success, and a schedule that’s just like you want it. Happiness is fine, but it’s fleeting. Happiness is a terrible task master.  It will drive you and the people around you into the ground. You cannot sustain happiness. Every vacation picture on FB shows you happy people (maybe). Do you know how many of them came home miserable? Happiness ain’t joy. 

A song we sang as kids made this confusing: “I’ve got joy down in my heart…and I am so happy.”  Sometimes that’s true. But you can be happy and not joyful, and joyful and not happy. In fact, happiness is not a biblical word. Seriously. If your translation has the word “happy” in it, it’s a bad translation. It should read “blessed,”[12] which comes from a root word meaning to walk in a straight path, which is an apt depiction of righteousness.

 “Some glad morning when this life is over…just a few more weary days and then…to that home on God’s celestial shore.” Whoever wrote that song[13] was not happy, but they were loaded with joy. 

The opposite of happiness is probably depression; the opposite of joy is despair. Despair happens when there is no hope. There seems to be nothing to set our eyes upon. Not only do we find our situation terrible, but we don’t see a future where it is not, and we certainly don’t believe anyone can save us. 

 So how do we practice joy?

7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.8 We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; 9 persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. 

10 We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.11 For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may also be revealed in our mortal body. 12 So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.

13 It is written: “I believed; therefore I have spoken.” Since we have that same spirit of  faith, we also believe and therefore speak, 14 because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you to himself. 15 All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God. 

16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. 17 For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. (2 Corinthians 4)

 Peace is an internal groundedness that comes from a right relationship with a God whose sovereignty we trust. This, peace, as a fruit of the Spirit, seems to be something different than the peace that Jesus made possible between us and God through his death and resurrection like we read about in Romans 5. This has more to do with the John 14 kind of peace, which addresses Jesus’ gift of peace to address times of trouble and fear in our lives.[14] 

Peace is not controlling the storm; it’s offering our situation to Christ in the midst of it. We often seek peace through power or control. If I can just control the storm; if I can get my way; if everybody else could just understand how smart my ideas are; if you do that and this goes there, I can finally relax because I have properly ordered the world. Then I will have peace. 

Now, I’m not talking to ya’ll who are wired to be organized. I don’t understand what that’s like, but it’s a gift to be able to bring order from chaos. I’m also not talking to those with OCD-type tendencies. That’s just a thing. Carry on. I’m talking about the idolatry of order and control, the kind of thing that reflects a heart that does not trust the sovereignty and Lordship of Christ. 

I’m talking about how we respond to the storms in our lives. Do we have to walk on the water – do we have to have the power to control cultural, relational and spiritual elements around us - to find peace, or is it enough to know that Jesus is reaching his hand toward us? The peace that comes from controlling the world around us is like happiness: it’s fleeting. Peter didn’t walk on the water for long.[15] The world is never ours to control. If it was, we wouldn’t need Jesus. And if we think it must be, the inability to control it will eat away at us like a cancer. 

Here is one way the peace of God passes understanding: We remember that God is sovereign, and that He wins in the end, and that focus on the source of our hope-filled joy sustains us through the times when we don’t feel peace in the midst of chaos that we cannot control.

The counterfeit of peace is indifference or apathy. People think you are calm; really, you have just stopped caring.  You have become numb and it feels like a win. “Dude, nothing rattles me.” Yeah, because you’ve checked out. You don’t have the heart of Jesus for the world because you barely have a heartbeat. That’s not a mark in your favor.   

·      “Whoever is slack in his work is a brother to him who destroys.” (Proverbs 18:9) 

·      “Because of the violence done to your brother Jacob, shame shall cover you, and you shall be cut off forever. On the day that you stood aloof, on the day that strangers carried off his wealth and foreigners entered his gates and cast lots for Jerusalem, you were like one of them.” (Obadiah 1:10-11)

It’s a small step from apathy to complicity. At some point, doing nothing makes us partners with those who do something. Sometimes, “I just don’t get worked up about things” is a terrible sign. If you lived in the antebellum South during the time of slavery, or during Jim Crow, or read about the shooting of Ahmad Arbury, or saw this past week the story of this Snapchat group in town that had set up a slave market on line for black students in TCAPS, and someone asked, “How are you so chill about these issues of racial hatred?” and you said, “Guys, I know about these things, but it’s just not something I care about,” that would not be a mark in your favor. 

In fact, that’s how evil flourishes: when good people do nothing. And good people tend not to do something about evil either because they don’t know about it, they don’t realize it’s evil, or they just don’t care enough to get involved. It doesn’t mean we all respond in the same way, of course. But to shrug it off so that our peace is not disturbed – that’s not biblical peace. 

The opposites are worry, greed, or dissention. 

·      Worry links with lack of control (Take no thought for tomorrow…”[16]) 

·      Greed is what takes root in us when we must have what we do not have. That’s not just boats and lovers; that’s power and control. “Like ravenous dogs, they are never satisfied.They are shepherds with no discernment; they all turn to their own way, each one seeking his own gain.” (Isaiah 56:11)

·      Dissention is what we sow that robs those around us of peace. You’ve heard the phrase, “Hurt people hurt people?” Well, unsettled people unsettle people. If one my chickens panics, they all panic. It’s that idea. If even just one of them stays chill, the others will calm down. 

So how do we practice peace?

4 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!5 Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near.6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. 

 8 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. 9 Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you. (Philippians 4:4-9)

 Patience is persistently enduring without blowing up, giving up or lashing out. You can face insults, for example, without lashing out. You can watch your kids screw up without blowing up. You can navigate hard seasons in relationships without giving up. This is sometimes translated as “longsuffering.” Yep, suffering for a loooong time. 

This isn’t encouraging enablement of passivity in harmful situations (see previous point about passivity). I mean, Jesus was patient and confrontational, patient and in-your-face as the situation required; patient and still comfortable with telling his disciples there are some places you will have to leave when they attack you.[17] You find your stability in knowing that God is sovereign in both circumstances and timing. 

I think this has to do with what we would call not ‘flying off the handle’, not jumping to conclusions, not giving in to immediate emotional outbursts, not rushing God’s timing in our lives and the lives of others. And if we must shake the dust off our feet and move on from a situation in life, it’s not a poorly thought out, emotional, knee-jerk reaction because someone pushed our buttons. It is a thoughtful, prayerful decision, likely after we have received counsel, following Matthew 18’s recommendation. 

 The counterfeit of patience is cynicism. You don’t blow up, lash out, or quit, so you look like a patient person, but really you expected the worst anyway and you are kind of watching things fall apart because it proves you right. You're the one in heated arguments that is cool, calm and collected not because you have peace, but because you think all of them are fools, and you figure time will prove that you were indeed the smartest one in the room because you knew this was all a fruitless joke.  

The opposite is impatience/resentment. 

  Impatience:

·      “I do not have time for this. How many times have I told you to stop pulling the cat’s tale! Twice? You’re 1 ½ now. Grow up!“ 

·      “I have to show you this again? How do you not know how to tie your shoe/change your oil/pack your own lunch?” 

·      “You said God was working with you about your impatience and it’s been what, a week already, and yet here you still are with your impatient self!” 

·      “This COVID stuff is dragging on forever! AAAAAGGGGHHHH!!!” 

·      “How have we not started fixing the fire damage yet!!!” 

   If our timetable is shorter than God’s, he’s not the one who needs to realign his outlook.

Resentment: “How dare you…

·      make me wait

·      disrupt my vegging in front of the TV

·      take so long to become just who I want you to be

·      not show up on my terms yet again

·      still not agree with me!  

So how do we practice patience?

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace,forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.  Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. (Galatians 2: 22-25)

Up next week…the rest of the fruitJ

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[1] Philippians 4:9 has a word for ‘practice’ similar to poeio that more directly means doing something over and over. John uses a word that referred to individual acts, but in his context he makes clear these should be done over and over.

[2] https://kenboa.org/living-out-your-faith/five-loves-greatest-agape/

[3] Cory Asbury, “Reckless Love”

[4] Precise doxology, ya’ll J

[5] Luke 7

[6] Matthew 18; Luke 15

[7] All the gospel narratives of the crucifixion of Jesus

[8] 1 Corinthians 11:24

[9] 1 John 3:15; 1 John 4:20; Matthew 5:21-22

[10] Hebrews 12:2

[11] Nehemiah 8:10

[12] At least two translations use the word “happy” in the Beatitudes. Nope. It’s “blessed.”

[13] Turns out it was written in 1929 by Albert E. Brumley J

[14] https://biblehub.com/commentaries/john/14-27.htm

[15] Matthew 14

[16] Matthew 6:34

[17] Matthew 10:14

Roots and Fruits: 2 Timothy 3 (Part 2)

ADVENT: PEACE 

“...the angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.’ Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace (eirene) to those on whom his favor rests.’” (Luke 2:10-14). 

·      “peace, peace of mind… the health (welfare) of an individual.”  - Strong’s Concordance

·      eirḗnē –wholeness, i.e. when all essential parts are joined together; peace (God's gift of wholeness).  - HELPS Word-studies

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Roots and Fruits (Part 2)

 We are going to start in the book of Romans. 

 “ …to condemn the sin that was ruling in the flesh, God sent His own Son, bearing the likeness of sinful flesh, as a sin offering. 4 Now we are able to live up to the justice demanded by the law. But that ability has not come from living by our fallen human nature; it has come because we walk according to the movement of the Spirit in our lives. 

5 If you live your life animated by the flesh—namely, your fallen, corrupt nature—then your mind is focused on the matters of the flesh. But if you live your life animated by the Spirit—namely, God’s indwelling presence—then your focus is on the work of the Spirit. 6 A mind focused on the flesh is doomed to death, but a mind focused on the Spirit will find full life and complete peace (eirene)…. 

The power of sin and death has been eclipsed by the power of the Spirit. The Spirit breathes life into our mortal, sin-infested bodies… You live in the Spirit, assuming, of course, that the Spirit of God lives inside of you…. If the Anointed One lives within you, even though the body is as good as dead because of the effects of sin, the Spirit is infusing you with life now that you are right with God. 

 11 If the Spirit of the One who resurrected Jesus from the dead lives inside of you, then you can be sure that He who raised Him will cast the light of life into your mortal bodies through the life-giving power of the Spirit residing in you. (Romans 8:3-11, excerpted)

 “A mind focused on the Spirit will find full life and complete peace.” Why? Because the peace won by Jesus between unholy us and a holy God is perfect peace, a reality that goes much deeper than our feelings of peacefulness. 

We then live in that peace  - we “work out” our salvation into every corner of our lives (Philippians 2:12), like a baker kneading dough so that the yeast gets everywhere – as we walk in the path that the Spirit of God leads us. Fortunately, God’s Word clarifies that path for us.

We’ve been studying Paul’s second letter to Timothy. In it, he presents a pretty grim picture of what it looks like when people walk in the path of the flesh (which leads to chaos), and we are moving by implication to what it looks like to walk in the Spirit (which leads to peace).[1]

In the previous sermon we looked at 6 traits on the outermost bookends of this section. Today we are moving in a step to look at 6 more traits closer to the center. If I had to summarize all six, I would say they paint a picture of people who rebel against any kind of authority, restraint, or expectation that comes from outside themselves. Our contrast will be what it looks like to live by honoring the God-given authorities and boundaries in our lives.

1. rebels against parents 

This was a deeply serious offense in all ancient Mediterranean and Middle Eastern cultures (see Deuteronomy 21:20 – 21).[2] While this was clearly about parents, for the Israelites, it was often broadened to mean those in authority in every aspect, specifically spiritual authority (I’m leaning toward this purpose here because another category is those who have no love for their family). How they responded to God-ordained spiritual authority had implications for they responded to God’s authority. HELPS Word studies puts it this way:

’Unwilling to be persuaded (by God), which shows itself in outward disobedience (outward spiritual rebellion).” – HELPS Word Studies

We often think of the foundation of spiritual authority in our lives as ourselves. “It’s just me and Jesus. Everybody else move away and let me figure out how to read this passage of Scripture, or apply it to my life.” That concept would have been unthinkable to the ancient Israelites and dare I say to the early church. There are spiritual authorities God has placed in the world, and God intends them to have weight in our lives. 

Now, are they flawed? You bet. Are we following mindlessly? That’s a cult, so no. But there is the Bible; there are the creeds; there is the weight of tradition; there is denominational or local church authority. In the Jewish culture in the NT, parents were also responsible for being sure the Law and the Prophets were taught to their kids. 

At the end of the day, we must own our spiritual decisions, but those decisions must be informed by the spiritual ‘weight’ God has ordained in the structure of spiritual authority. None of us think we are the ones who say, “Did God really say?” That’s what serpents whisper. But too often, our version is, “Eh, does anybody else really get to have a say in how I understand God, and His Word, and His world?” Because the answer is yes, they do. This has always been the case in biblical history.

So the opposite is the honoring parents/spiritual authority.

Meanings for honor in Scripture include the imagery of  “adding wealth” or “giving weight.” This is such a tricky topic, because no human being other than Jesus deserves the full weight of anyone’s trust. We could probably do a series on what honoring spiritual authority looks like, but I’m going to try to summarize it: God intends for us to be formed by the weight of the God-ordained spiritual authorities in our lives.

Are you familiar with 3-D presses? They take blobs of material and make something functional of them. Those blobs of material don’t form themselves. They achieve their form because something forms them. 

Unless we have been raised by wolves, we are inescapably spiritually formed by some sort of spiritual 3-D press. 

·      Paul told the Corinthians that he planted and Apollos watered (1 Corinthians 3:6-7). I would assume that means we all need planters and waterers in our lives. 

·      In fact, Hebrews 5:12 says, "you need someone to teach you". 

·      God created the offices and gives the gifts of teacher or elder or pastor to teach and shepherd. 

·      Leaders are expected to guide/protect/rebuke, which implies that people are to listen for their benefit and because God said to.

We go through a spiritual press. Sometimes it’s not of our choosing; sometimes it is. When you come to this church or any other church, when you fill yourself with a teacher online, when you join a small group, you are submitting yourself to the pressing process. Something will be formed on the other side. 

This is God’s plan. Embrace it with wisdom and proper discernment.

Choose your spiritual formation wisely, and then let it do its work. 

* * * * * 

2. ungrateful

ungrateful/ungraceful – “properly, without God's grace (favor) which results in unthankfulness (literally, "ungraceful"). – HELPS Word Studies

 In a culture that expected those who were given gifts to repay these gifts with honor, those who were ungrateful were really looked down upon.[3]

To the original writers and readers of Scripture, while gifts (such as grace) could not be earned, they must be responded to. The giver does not function as if there are relational strings attached; however, the receiver does. The recipient of a gift was in the debt of the one who gave them a gift. And the bigger the gift, the bigger the response owed.[4] So if someone gave their life for you….  This is sometimes referred to as Life Debt, a trope that shows up in a LOT of stories, like 3:10 to Yuma.[5]

The grateful respond to a gift with a gift in some fashion. The Roman writer Seneca used an image of throwing a ball. You need a thrower (the giver) and a catcher (the receiver) who then throws and the other catches, etc. The goal is to keep the ball in the air.  Paul seems very comfortable building on this virtuous reciprocal obligation[6] in a gift economy between people. In the NT church, the koinania relationship was one of giving and receiving. It’s a rhythm of life designed to foster relationship based on giving and responding with gratitude, then giving and responding with gratitude... (Philippians 2:30, 4:15; Romans 15:27; 1 Corinthians 9:11). To be clear:

·      If I wait until someone has earned a gift from me, that’s too late. It’s a gift, not a payment for services rendered.  

·      If I give something back to prove I was worthy of a gift in the first place, I have missed the point and insulted the grace of the giver. 

·      If I give something bigger back to show the other gift up, or to coerce an even bigger gift, then I’m a jerk, and the relationship is going to be in trouble. 

The basic idea is this: gratefulness is not just a feeling, it’s an act. It’s how relationship is built. You give me a compliment about my beard, an act of grace to be sure; I compliment you next Sunday on your taste in Michigan football teams, which is also an act of grace. The point is that I remember the gift you have given and I look forward to reciprocating in some fashion.  You were kind; I will be kind. You ‘saw’ me; I will ‘see’ you. It’s how relationships work. This ‘gift economy’ is meant to be the transactional relational language of the church. 

* * * * *

3. unholy

“A lack of reverence for what should be hallowed.” – HELPS WORD STUDIES

 There are verses that warn us not to give that which is holy to the dogs, or the pigs (Matthew 7:6), images in that culture of filth and degradation. So, what ought to be hallowed treated with reverence, or set apart as holy?

·      God, clearly. 

·      People (who are all image bearers (Genesis 1:26-27, 5:1-2); followers of Jesus are temples of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 3 and 6)

I think those two are obvious. But….what should be “set apart” in the lives of believers committed to holiness? What should be viewed or appreciated or used in such a way that it God, people and all of God’s created world are honored and treated with appropriate care and reverence? Everything.[7]

* * * * *

4. without restraint 

“Incontinent.—Having no control over the passions or urges – emotions, words, appetites of all kinds.” (HELPS WORD STUDIES)

 This image is literally that of one who cannot control the kind of bodily functions that expel waste. If you have experienced this, you know it’s embarrassing and frustrating. How odd that we live in a world that often glorifies moral incontinence, the uncontrolled unleashing of passions and urges. It’s the desire to live like a moral animal, a slave to instincts and hungers and lusts (but now I’m ahead of myself). 

The opposite is temperate or restrained. It’s a blessing to be able to restrain when and how our body expels waste. Is it not also a blessing to be able to restrain the potential of our lives to expel moral waste? Sometimes, when it comes to physical incontinence, we can genuinely say, “I couldn’t help myself.” Christian brothers and sisters, with the exception of the kind of damage to our bodies that deeply harms our body’s God-given restrainers (like a TBI or significant developmental disorders) we cannot say “I can’t help myself” when it comes to the words that come out of our mouths, or the attitude we unleash, or any urge to follow our immoral instincts, hungers or lust. We have the Holy Spirit. One of the fruits is self-control. God helps us in those moments we cannot help ourselves. 

When we say, “I shouldn’t have said that or posted that or looked at that, but I just couldn’t help myself,” we are liars. We have a form of godliness but are denying its power. Between the Holy Spirit, the guidelines of God’s Word, and the company of God’s people, there is no temptation to sin that we cannot bear (1 Corinthians 10:13). That is good news, indeed.  God has equipped us to live in a community where were are tempered by the power of God to the glory of God.

* * * * *

5. savage (bestial)

Fierce.—Inhuman, savage, or merciless, harsh, cruel. They are both soft and hard, incontinently indulging themselves and inhuman to others,[8] when they should be hardened to self-indulgence and soft toward others.” (Pulpit Commentary)[9]

This is actually a thread that runs throughout the Bible: will we be molded into the image of beasts, or of God? Will we find more affinity with animals or people? The opposite is hospitable (merciful), or “soft toward others.” 

I know. We live in a culture where “soft” implies “weak” and nobody wants to be weak. Don’t tread on me!

·      Yet God is describes as “abounding in mercy.”[10]

·      Jesus told people to learn what it means that God desires mercy more than sacrifices (Matthew 9:13). 

·      I read blessed are the meek and the peacemakers (Matthew 5). Greater love has no one more than laying down your life (John 15:13). Serve others sacrificially.[11] Turn away wrath with a soft answer (Proverbs 15:1). 

·      Overcome evil with good (Romans 12:21). If someone strikes you or takes your cloak, don’t seek revenge (Luke 6:29). Shame them with kindness (Romans 12:20). Give food and water to your enemy, and the Lord will reward you. (Proverbs 25:21-22)

 May God give us the strength to be weak in the eyes of the world so that the strength of God is highlighted and His mercy is made manifestly clear in His merciful people. 

* * * * *

6. haters of anything good[12]

“Despisers of those that are good; that is, hostile to every good thought and work and person.” – HELPS Word Studies

 This is a terrible summary of what we have covered so far. The opposite, of course, is lovers of Good (good thoughts, actions and persons), the beautiful opposite. The things that are true, honest, just, pure, lovely, and of good report (Philippians 4:8), we not only dwell on them, we celebrate them everywhere we see them. 

* * * * *

So, back to peace.  

 “The fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.” (James 3:18). That’s first of all God to us, then us to others, and God has shown us how to do and empowered us to do it. “So then let us pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding” (Romans 14:19). That’s the goal as we live together in church. 

THREE QUESTIONS

1. What does it look like for you to “work out your salvation” into every corner of your life? (By the way, that’s a way of understanding that passage the a preacher I respect recently introduced to me. It has different implication than ‘figure out and own your faith for yourself when you get saved,” which is how I’ve often understood it.)

2. What would it look like if we in the church really embraced the idea of “gift economy’ as a foundation of relationships? How might church life change, and how might it stay the same?

3. Biblically speaking, what characterizes solid spiritual ‘parents’? What does it look like to ‘give them weight’ in our lives without putting them on a pedestal or moving toward cult-like mindless obedience?

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[1] 2 Timothy 3:1 And know this: in the last days, times will be hard. 2 You see, the world will be filled with narcissistic, money-grubbing, pretentious, arrogant, and abusive people. They will rebel against their parents and will be ungrateful, unholy, 3 uncaring, coldhearted, accusing, without restraint, savage, and haters of anything good. 4 Expect them to be treacherous, reckless, swollen with self-importance, and given to loving pleasure more than they love God. 5 Even though they may look or act like godly people, they’re not. They have the outward form and look of godliness, but by their lives they deny God’ power. I tell you: Stay away from the likes of these. Keep them away from your people. 

[2] NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible

[3] NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible

[4] To whom much is given, much is required. There is a reason why “presenting our bodies as a living sacrifice” is a “reasonable act of service” (Romans 12:1). But since this passage is about life together with those around us, let’s focus there. 

[5] https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/IOweYouMyLife. It’s why Friday serves Robinson Crusoe, it’s all over Harry Potter, it’s in the Chronicles of Narnia and the Silmarillion, Star Wars, Mulan, Toy Story 2….

[6] There is a fascinating chapter called “Strings Attached: Paul and Seneca On The Modern Myth Of The Pure Gift,” by David Briones, in a fascinating book called Paul And The Giants Of Philosophy (IVP Academic). In it, Briones unpacks the idea of the ‘gift economy’ in the ancient world that flourished with virtuous reciprocal obligation and other-oriented self-interest, both of which show up in Paul’s writings and would have been fundamental in the early church’s understanding of how to respond to the grace received from God and others.

[7] “Disobedient to parents… with ‘unthankful, unholy,’ makes another triad: breakers of the fifth commandment (father and mother) go on to be breakers of the tenth (don’t covet); and thus throwing aside the second table go on to throw aside also the first…  The word for ‘unthankful’ occurs elsewhere only Luke 6:35 in the Sermon on the Mount. For ‘unholy’ see notes on 1 Timothy 1:9. – Cambridge Bible For School And Colleges

[8] Jameison-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

[9] “Fierce (from ferns, wild, savage); ἀνήμεροι; only here in the New Testament, and not found in the LXX., but frequent in the Greek tragedians and others, of persons, countries, plants, etc.; e.g., "Beware of the Chalubes, for they are savage (ἀνήμεροι), and cannot be approached by strangers" (AEschylus, 'Prom. Vinct.,' 734, edit. Scholef.). It corresponds with ἀνελεήμονες, unmerciful (Romans 1:31).”

[10] https://www.openbible.info/topics/gods_mercy

[11] https://counselingoneanother.com/2016/06/17/the-joy-of-sacrificial-service/

[12] “Incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good;  vicious or uncontrollable, unapproachable, unkindly to all good, a… triad, in which the characters of the libertine, the churl, the worldling are painted. The three words occur nowhere else in N.T. But the exact opposites are found together in Titus 1:8, ‘temperate, a lover of hospitality, a lover of good.’ – Cambridge Bible For Schools And Commentaries

The Terms Of Peace (Palm Sunday)

You can listen to a podcast here. You can also watch a live stream of most of the service below.

[embed]https://www.facebook.com/clgtc/videos/10155510657580829/[/embed]

This is Matthew’s account of Jesus’ arrival into Jerusalem (as found in Matthew 21, with some details in bold print added from Luke 19.) 

As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage on the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, “Go to the village ahead of you, and at once you will find a donkey tied there, with her colt by her that no one has ever ridden. Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, say that the Lord needs them, and he will send them right away.” 

This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet: “Say to Daughter Zion, ‘See, your king comes to you, gentle and riding on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.’” The disciples went and did as Jesus had instructed them. They brought the donkey and the colt and placed their cloaks on them for Jesus to sit on.

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Worth noting: Riding on a donkey was something a very particular kind of King did.

“In the ancient Middle Eastern world, leaders rode horses if they rode to war, but donkeys if they came in peace. First Kings 1:33 mentions Solomon riding a donkey on the day he was recognized as the new king of Israel… The mention of a donkey in Zechariah 9:9-10 fits the description of a king who would be ‘righteous and having salvation, gentle.’ Rather than riding to conquer, this king would enter in peace.”  (gotquestions.org, “Why would A King Ride A Donkey Instead Of A Warhorse?”

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A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. The crowds (of disciples) that went ahead of him and those that followed shouted, 

“Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest heaven! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”

Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples!”0 “I tell you,” he replied, “if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.”

_____________________________________________________ 

Their chant is probably a reference to Psalm 118, which describes a king entering a city to ascend to the altar and offer sacrifice: “Bind the festal procession with branches, up to the horns of the altar!" (Psalm 118:27). This time, the king is the sacrifice.

______________________________________________________

When Jerusalem came into view, He looked intently at the city and began to weep.

Jesus: Oh, Jerusalem, how I wish you knew today what would bring peace! But you can’t see…”

Jesus used the phrase “what would bring peace” elsewhere.

“What king going to encounter another king in war will not sit down first and take counsel whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends an embassy and asks terms of peace.” (Luke 14:31-32)

"Terms of peace" is the same phrase translated "what would bring peace." The king will bring peace, but it will be the King’s peace, on the King’s terms, and in the King’s way.

• Then Jesus drives out the money lenders in the Temple

• Then Jesus curses a leafy fig tree for not bearing fruit.

• The he tells the chief priests and the elders that tax collectors and the prostitutes would the kingdom of God ahead of them before telling them the parable of a landowner with a vineyard who sent his son to collect the harvest, and the tenents killed him. “ “Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit.”

It’s an interesting way for the Messiah to start his Kingship.

The crowds cheered him as The Messiah – and by that, they meant a zealot warrior who would overthrow Rome.[1] That’s why there were palm branches. It was the sign of the Zealots. They wanted bloodshed from a Messiah with a sword. I have to imagine they weren’t too excited about a King on a donkey instead of a war horse.

The religious leaders were looking for Temple messiah, one who would purify the Temple and restore its reputation and influence in the world.

Well, Jesus purified the Temple, but not in the way they expected. He overthrew the hypocrites in the temple, then demonstrated the uselessness of a tree that does not bear fruit it is meant to, and told the chief priests and elders that that tree was them: fruitless; barren. He goes on to tell them they actually made disciples on behalf of hell (Matthew 23:15).

He refused to start an uprising against Rome. He actually told people to give to Caesar what was Caesar’s, and to repay evil with good. He told them that his Kingdom was not of this world, so his followers shouldn’t use force to spread His kingdom.

To get an idea of just how unsettling this was, think of John the Baptizer, while in jail awaiting his death, sent a message to Jesus: “Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?” This was John the Baptist, who once announced Jesus as, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” He needed to know if Jesus was the real deal.

Jesus replied by quoting Isaiah (35:5 and 61:1): “Go back and report to John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor. And blessed are those who do not take offense in me.” (Luke 7)

That last line seems odd, but remember that the Jews were expecting a Messiah with a sword, not just a healing touch. Jesus is basically saying, ‘Don’t let this trip you up. This is what a real Messiah does.”

“Oh, Jerusalem, how I wish you knew today what would bring peace! But you can’t see…”

So what is the peace the Messiah was bringing, and where do we see it?

It was Jesus, and we see it in Jesus. 

• “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace.” (Ephesians 1:7)

• “For this is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for forgiveness of sins.” (Matthew 26:28)

• “… and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth To Him who loves us and released us from our sins by His blood…” (Revelation 1:5-6) 

• “How much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” (Hebrews 9:14) 

• “Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord, Jesus Christ.” (Romans 5:1)

I don’t know what you expect from Jesus, but let’s look at the life and mission of Jesus.

If you expect that peace will come to the world (and to you) when the King takes care of the things around you, you will be disappointed. He didn’t make the Romans go away; he told the people how He would help them live in the presence of Romans. He didn’t confront others in answer to the hopes and prayer of the Pharisees; he confronted them.

They wanted a Messiah who would set everyone else right, as if the problem was only around them rather in them. This is why they couldn't see it. They assumed that God needed to deal with others.

But the problem was them. They were the source of sin in the world. They were the ones for whom the Messiah had to come.

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=et1vriu29Qk[/embed]

And Jesus did just that, and He set the terms of peace: He came to make things right between sinful, fallen humanity and a holy God, and he would do it by paying the price of reconciliation. He would satisfy the requirements of a just God while showing the heart of a loving God.

“God did not, then, inflict pain on someone else, but rather on the Cross absorbed the pain, violence, and evil of the world into himself… this is a God who becomes human and offers his own lifeblood in order to honor moral justice and merciful love so that someday he can destroy all evil without destroying us.” (Tim Keller)

Justice must be served because God is just; to save just one of us, it would have cost him a crucifixion. This should always humble us, because it reminds us that we are more sinful than we want to admit.

But mercy must be offered because God is merciful. To save just one of us, Jesus was willing to do this. This should always encourage us, because it reminds us that God’s love for us is so much deeper than we can ever imagine.

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrgl9z3grKU[/embed]

[1] A short list of Messianic Kings who had tried and failed:

• Judas (of Galilee), Zealot, led revolt against Romans AD 6 (Acts 5)

• Judas Maccabeus 160's BC, considered on par with David/Gideon. He entered Jerusalem at the head of an army, purified the temple. His reconstitution of the temple is the basis of Hanakuh. He destroyed altars to Ashdod, but was eventually killed in battle.

• Menahem ben Judah, (grand)son of Judas the Galilean led a revolt against Agrippa II.

• Simon bar Kokhba 135), founded a short-lived Jewish state that he ruled for 3 years before being defeated in the Second Jewish-Roman War. 580,000 Jewish people died. He went from Kokhba,“Son of a Star” (Numbers 24:17) to Kozeba, “Son of the Lie.”

• Theudas (mentioned in Acts 5:36) died in AD 46. He claimed to be a Messiah, and led about 400 people to the Jordan River, where he said he would divide it to show his power. He didn't. He was stopped and executed.

• The Anonymous Egyptian (Jew). 55, (an allusion to Moses), with 30,000 unarmed Jews doing The Exodus reenactment. He led them to the Mount of Olives, where he claimed he would command the walls around Jerusalem to fall. His group was massacred by Procurator Antonius Felix, and he was never seen again.

The Days We Celebrate (Easter 2017)

1 Corinthians 15The Voice (VOICE)

 Let me remind you, brothers and sisters, of the good news that I preached to you when we first met. It’s the essential message that you have taken to heart, the central story you now base your life on; 2 and through this gospel, you are liberated…. 3-4 For I passed down to you the crux of it all which I had also received from others, that the Anointed One, the Liberating King, died for our sins and was buried and raised from the dead on the third day. All this happened to fulfill the Scriptures; it was the perfect climax to God’s covenant story. 

5 Afterward He appeared alive to Cephas (you may know him as Simon Peter), then to the rest of the twelve. 6 If that were not amazing enough, on one occasion, He appeared to more than 500 believers at one time. Many of those brothers and sisters are still around to tell the story, though some have fallen asleep in Jesus. 7 Soon He appeared to James, His brother and the leader of the Jerusalem church, and then to all the rest of the emissaries He Himself commissioned.  8 Last of all, He appeared to me…

13 Friends, if there is no resurrection of the dead, then even the Anointed hasn’t been raised; 14 if that is so, then all our preaching has been for nothing and your faith in the message is worthless. 15 And what’s worse, all of us who have been preaching the gospel are now guilty of misrepresenting God because we have been spreading the news that He raised the Anointed One from the dead (which must be a lie if what you are saying about the dead not being raised is the truth)…

Friends, 17 if the Anointed has not been raised from the dead, then your faith is worth less than yesterday’s garbage, you are all doomed in your sins, 18 and all the dearly departed who trusted in His liberation are left decaying in the ground. 19 If what we have hoped for in the Anointed doesn’t take us beyond this life, then we are world-class fools, deserving everyone’s pity.

20 But the Anointed One was raised from death’s slumber and is the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep in death. 21 For since death entered this world by a man, it took another man to make the resurrection of the dead our new reality. 22 Look at it this way: through Adam all of us die, but through the Anointed One all of us can live again. 

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We live in a world in desperate need of peace.

Terrorism, rumors of wars, persecution, genocide, human trafficking, tension between police and citizens, political fighting, social media frenzies of name-calling and insults. It hits closer to home, too: our families, our workplace, our friendships, our church. Then there is the lack of peace deep inside – the depression, anxiety, despair and shame. We live in a world in desperate need of peace.

I want to talk about how Jesus’ death and resurrection makes peace possible.

There is a Hebrew word, Shalom,that refers to peace with God, within, and with others. In many ways it takes us back to the Garden of Eden, at a place and time when everything was good. We have wandered far from that place of peace and rest, and the history of the world shows that we do a terrible job re-creating peace on our own. The prophet Jeremiah lamented the people who say, “’Peace, peace,’ when there is no peace”; Luke records that Jesus wept for Jerusalem: “If you had only known on this day what would bring you peace.”

The prophet Isaiah said that one day there would be a Prince of Peace; Paul wrote that Jesus is our peace; Jesus said he came to bring a peace that was unlike anything the world could give. When he appeared to the disciples after his resurrection, one of the first things he said was, “Be at peace.”

This promise of peace through Jesus Christ is our hope in a fallen and broken world, and that’s our focus today.

Peace With God

We were created to be at peace with God – pure, holy, unstained by sin. Genesis talks about the close communion of God and Adam; it’s that kind of peace that is the goal. Unashamed, guiltless, not covering or hiding our sins or ourselves.

But sin ruined that kind of peace. And lest we blame Adam, we all contribute. We all choose to do that which appalls a righteous and holy God. Everyone is directed by their conscience; Christians are directed by the Bible and empowered by the Holy Spirit – and yet we still at times choose to willfully choose a path of spiritual, emotional, relational and sometimes physical destruction that we know offends  the God who created and loves us and hurts those around us. We don’t just ignore God or make mistakes; we are rebels. Some of us are just more obvious about it than others.

It not that we are totally unaware. If nothing else, our stories betray us. We want a line between good and evil, a really clear demarcation: “There are evil people and things; there are good people and things.” We want Sauron vs. Gandalf; the Lion vs. the Witch; Captain America vs. the Red Skull; Ohio State vs. anyone else, really.

While those stories are instructive and good, it’s not what we experience in real life. Even the writers of Scripture knew this. Look at any primary character in the Old Testament and find one whose life was a pure as snow. They don’t exist. The line between good and evil runs right through the center of our hearts. It’s why we are awesome parents one day and horrible parents the next. It’s why one day I’m the husband my wife dreamed about when she was a kid and the next day I’m not even close. It’s why our friendships struggle, and our families fight, and even church can feel like a battleground.

The whole world is in a war between sin and holiness, and at times the epic heroes arise and defeat the classic villains, and we cheer (as we should), but more often than not we see that murky middle battleground where the Boromirs and the children who visited Narnia and the Tony Starks struggle to embrace the good and reject the evil. And even then that just reminds us that the epicenter of this battle is in our heart.

We see in the Old Testament how God instituted a plan to begin a restoration project that pointed toward Jesus. It starts with Abraham.

God made a covenant, an agreement with Abraham,  that Paul alluded to in the passage we read today (“ the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus was the climax to God’s covenant story”). God promised that he would bless the world through Abraham and his descendants, who would become the children of Israel. Abraham just needed to be obedient and follow God. To seal the covenant, it was typical at that time for the two parties to kill an animal, dismember it, and walk through the middle as a way of saying, “If I break the covenant, may this be done to me.” In a vision, God appeared to Abraham and walked through this dissected animal alone. In other words, God said, “If either one of us breaks the covenant, may this be done to me.”

Eventually, God renewed this covenant relationship through Moses (the 10 Commandments and all the extra details), and gave his people an incredible amount of instruction on the kind of life that pleases God.

So all the Israelites were now in a covenant with God – they occasionally re-read the Law publicly and reaffirmed that yes indeed, this was the plan. This covenant was a little different in that there were some conditions: if they did good, they would be blessed. If they did bad, they would not. This led to trouble, because the Jewish people were terrible at keeping the Law.  

God initiated a temporary substitute through the sacrificial system, but they had to keep repeating this (for good reason.) It didn’t matter how much or how often the rabbis added more and more laws to try to make sure they could live perfectly. They couldn’t. If anything, the more detailed they got, the more it became clear how far they were from holy.

To make it worse, the cause-and-effect penalties of their sin caught up with them. The conditions of the covenant had to be honored and they were. The wages of their sin were conquest and enslavement. One Old Testament prophet recorded that they sat by the rivers of Babylon and wept as they remembered what they have lost – and what they could have.

They longed for a Messiah, a deliverer, and bringer of hope and peace. It appeared that these people - who were supposed to be the means by which God blessed the world -  had sold their spiritual birthright in exchange for their sin. They had failed to live up to God’s standards even when God had made them clear through Moses.

Now they were scattered, dying, convinced God has abandoned them.

But God had not.

God did bless the world through Abraham’s descendants – but not in a nationalistic sense like the Israelites expected. It was through the lineage of the Jewish people  that Jesus was born. That was the plan all along.

Enter Jesus, God in the flesh, sent to earth to fulfill the demands that God made on himself in his covenant with Abraham. God did not break the covenant; Abraham did. Yet God would pay the price for that sin by taking upon himself the penalty. He would be killed. He would also offer one sacrifice once and for all to fulfill the obligation of the sacrificial system under the law of Moses. On the cross, Jesus was torn for the sins not just of the Israelites, but of the world. Jesus satisfied the requirements of both those covenants while establishing a new one, one that all of us can be a part of.

Why is this important? Because all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Without Jesus, we are dead in our sins. Our peace with God is broken, and without Jesus there is nothing between us and His wrath. No matter how good we think we are, we have shaken our fist at the heavens and said, “Not your will, but mine be done” over and over again.

But on the cross, the justice and mercy of God meet. God initiates a covenant fulfillment with us even before we are aware of the need for it. Because of the death and resurrection of Jesus, our war with God can end, and we can be at peace with Him. Our sin does not have to condemn us or separate us from God.

We can be forgiven, loved, embraced, even adopted into God’s family so that we are called ‘children of God.’ We are offered forgiveness and hope in this life and an eternity of joy in the presence of God in a New Heaven and New Earth, a reality in which, as Tim Keller says, all that is bad will be undone.

Peace Within

I mentioned a number of things earlier that rob us of peace within: depression, anxiety, shame. We could add anger, bitterness, jealousy, hopelessness, unforgiveness…

Some of those things can be caused by medical issues that a doctor can help (our biology is fallen too). Some of those things we can bring on ourselves because of our sinful choices. Some of things can arise because of sin that has been done to us. I believe the presence of Jesus gives us hope in the midst of all of those things, but there is one primary reason Jesus died and rose again when it comes to peace within. That is to address our guilt and shame for our sin.

Here’s the reality.

On this side of heaven, I will sin because I am not perfect. With the help of the Holy Spirit, the guidance of God’s word and the community of God’s people, I will be remarkably better than I would be without those things. God miraculously frees us from the overwhelming power of sin. Because of Jesus, I am not doomed to be chained by the power of sin. However, the cross and the empty tomb don’t remove the presence of sin. Not yet. I am no longer enslaved to sin, but I can still choose it.

And I do. I’m not perfect. Ask anybody. Neither are you. If you aren’t sure if that’s the case, ask your family. They will fill you in. So what do I do with that?

I could become consumed with perfection and working on my own power – and run myself into the ground trying to achieve the impossible. Then, I will become either insufferably arrogant the more I am successful or sadly self-loathing the more I fail. That’s the kind of righteousness the Bible says is filthy rags. It’s gross. Self-righteousness is not pretty.

Or I can turn to Jesus, the “author and finisher of my faith,” who sees me in my imperfect sinfulness and loves me anyway – and that love includes not letting me stay where I am, but changing and renewing me so that I increasingly become like Jesus. 

Because I have Jesus, I will have a strength I would never have on my own. In my times of doing good, I am driven to worship God, not my own willpower and work, so I avoid arrogance. In my times of failure, I am driven to throw myself at the mercy of a God who is faithful even when I am faithless, and that reminder of the love and tenderness of Jesus moves me out of my self-loathing as I remember that that Jesus knows and loves me, gave His life for me, and is transforming me into His image.

With Others

This changes everything is our relationships. The more we understand how the love of Jesus brought about peace with God, the more determined we will be to pass on that love. And when we see how his death and resurrection show His love – truly see it – we will love Him in return, and it will change us.

What kind of love is that? A radical, self-sacrificing commitment to the good of those around me. It’s what the Bible calls agape love. Jesus died so that I could live; why would I not in some way choose to ‘die’ to myself so that those around me can live? It’s how I honor my Lord. It’s how I pass on the legacy of Jesus.

 In some ways we commemorate this during communion: “This is my body which was broken for you …do this in remembrance.” We can’t die and bring salvation for our sins or the sins of others – we must have Jesus for that. But we can honor what Jesus has done by being broken and spilled out as we show the love of Jesus.

 As followers of Jesus, we ‘die’ to jealousy, envy, anger, pettiness, meanness, pride, selfishness. The Bible insists that we present our bodies as a living sacrifice, that we climb up on the altar and sacrifice everything in us that needs to die. We could never do this on our own power, but we are not alone. We have God’s spirit inside us, his Word in front of us, and His people around us.

 We can do this, because God is with us.

 This is the peace the Resurrected Lord offers to us.

• Through Jesus, our relationship with God can been repaired so that we are no longer rebels. We are servants, friends, children, kings, priests. As a church we are the bride of Christ, and the bride will be made glorious in preparation for the glorious return of Jesus.

• Through Jesus, our peace within can be restored as we surrender and then commit our lives to the love and grace of a Risen Savior who is greater than all of our sins. We do not have to live in shame and fear; we can be transparent, bold and loved.

• Through Jesus, our peace with others flows from this reality. We will want to go into all the world and preach the gospel and make disciples. We will  want everyone so see how the love of a Risen Savior transforms our lives, not for our glory but for the glory of the One who makes this possible.

Walking In War (Ephesians 6:10-20)

"Finally, brothers and sisters, draw your strength and might from God. Put on the full armor of God to protect yourselves from the devil and his evil schemes. We’re not waging war against enemies of flesh and blood. No, this fight is against tyrants, against authorities, against supernatural powers and demon princes that slither in the darkness of this world, and against wicked spiritual armies that lurk about in heavenly places. And this is why you need to be head-to-toe in the full armor of God: so you can resist during these evil days and be fully prepared to hold your ground."

Here we see individual responsibility in the midst of corporate unity. This is not like spiritual gifts or the “Five Fold Office” mentioned earlier in Ephesians where God gave “some” to be apostles, evangelists, etc. This is a clear call to all of us.

"Yes, stand—truth banded around your waist, righteousness as your chest plate, and feet protected so you are steadied by and ready to proclaim the good news of peace with God. Don’t forget to raise the shield of faith above all else, so you will be able to extinguish flaming spears hurled at you from the wicked one. Take also the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. Pray always. Pray in the Spirit. Pray about everything in every way you know how! And keeping all this in mind, pray on behalf of God’s people. Keep on praying feverishly, and be on the lookout until evil has been stayed. And please pray for me. Pray that truth will be with me before I even open my mouth. Ask the Spirit to guide me while I boldly defend the mystery that is the good news— for which I am an ambassador in chains—so pray that I can bravely pronounce the truth, as I should do."

 In Romans 13: 12-14, Paul writes, "Put on the armor of light… clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ." He was expanding on the words of Isaiah:

• “Righteousness will be his belt and faithfulness the sash round his waist.” Isaiah 11:5

• “For he put on righteousness as a breastplate, and an helmet of salvation upon his head” (Isaiah 59:17).

Paul talked other places about the nature of our fight. “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds. We destroy arguments…and take every thought captive.” (2 Corinthians 10:3- 5).

 Let’s be clear: God makes the armor. We ask for it, and He gives it, not because we are awesome, but because He is. Then we have to put it on.  Paul says, “It’s time to move. Put on that which God offers you for your good and His glory.”

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• Put on: The Belt of Truth (aletheia, reality as opposed to illusion).

• Stand For: The truth that God is real; Jesus was God in the Flesh; his life, death and resurrection bring us salvation, forgiveness and hope. If this is not true, “we are of all people most miserable.” (1 Corinthians 15:19)

• Stand Against: The error that Christianity is wishful thinking (“I want it to be true!”), merely human thoughts (“The Bible just shows us how people thought about God”), or only one way of many equally effective ways.

• Put on: The Breastplate of Righteousness    (dikaiosune, right standing with God)

• Stand For: The truth that it is only through Jesus Christ that we are absolved from the penalty of sin, freed from the power of sin, and guarded while in the presence of sin.

• Stand Against: The error that we are born good (“I’m on the right track, baby, I was born this way”), or that we can become righteous through our works .

• Put on: The Shoes of Peace (eirene, peace with God; tranquility in salvation)

• Stand For: The truth there is spiritual peace with God through our commitment to and ongoing life with Jesus Christ. This is not the same as saying that if you are a Christian, there will be peaceful coexistence of others on earth, or that you will always feel interior peace. This is a claim about a truth that is greater than our circumstances or our feelings. Romans 5:1-2: “Therefore, since we have been made right in God's sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us. Because of our faith, Christ has brought us into this place of undeserved privilege where we now stand, and we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God's glory.”

• Stand Against: The error of false saviors (spiritual or material) and fleeting peace, which is usually some form of indulgence or avoidance. If something calms the chaos in our life no matter how little and how temporary, we tend to overindulge. Money? Sex? Being noticed and admired? Food? Vacations? Or if something brings anything unsettling, we avoid. People who annoy us…situations that aren’t just to our liking…a controlled environment (diet, exercise, social groups)

• Put on: The Shield of Faith (pistis; “Trusting, holding to, and acting on what one has good reason to believe is true in the face of difficulties.” – Tim McGrew)

• Stand For: The truth that there is wisdom in an ongoing trust in and response to God. A belief that the Bible matches the world.  We often think of faith as just trust in God. I think we have to include trust in God’s revelation. The Bible tells us that we are to be faithful in little things if we expect to be trusted in big things (Luke 16:10). But if the Bible is wrong, then God has not been faithful in little things. If you don’t understand the little things in the Bible, press in to them. Read. Study. Pray. Ask qualified, godly people for advice. Trusting that the biggest things are true in Christianity will trickle down; trusting that the smallest things in Christianity are true will build up.

• Stand Against: The error that we should trust in Idols (self, hidden knowledge, politicians, the economy, health, pop psychology, etc).

• Put on: The Helmet of salvation (soterios; saving)

• Stand For: The truth of God's promises of eternal salvation and ongoing sanctification in Jesus Christ. “Be transformed by the renewing of your mind… “ (Romans 12:2)   “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus…” (Philippians 2:5) “…be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.” (Ephesians 4:22-24)

• Stand Against: The error of gaining salvation from anything other than Christ, or evolving spiritually by thinking positively

• Put on: The Sword of the Spirit (The Bible) 

• Stand for: The truth of the power, trustworthiness and sufficiency of God's Word to tell us what we need to know about Christ and His plan for the world.     

• Stand Against: The error of giving anything else equal weight in your spiritual formation; trusting outside sources or inner revelation over clear Biblical truth.

Note: In Bible times, there was no stainless steel. A sword unused became rusty, dull, and pitted. Swords were kept clean by frequent use or by honing them against a stone (the Rock of Ages) or another soldier’s sword. “Iron sharpeneth iron” (Proverbs 27:17)

• Put on: Prayer (proseuchomai; literally, to interact with the Lord by switching human wishes (ideas) for His wishes. “They Kingdom come, they will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” (Matthew 6:10)  “Whatsoever you ask in my name…” (John 14:13) Accordingly, praying is closely inter-connected with pístis ("faith") in the NT. – (biblehub.com). In fact ,James 5 talks about the prayer of faith (“

• Stand For: The truth that prayer is powerful and necessary. We are told to constantly pray (1 Thessalonians 5:16) “Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.” (Romans 12:12) “The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.” (James 5:16)

• Stand Against: the error that prayer manipulates God or that prayer is unnecessary. God is not a machine. He’s not programmed in such a way that we can manipulate Him. God will answer prayer how he chooses to answer prayer. The prayers of the righteous are powerful, but not coercive. On the other hand, prayer is clearly not irrelevant. Part of being faithful is praying faithfully, and in the end praying what Jesus prayed: “Not my will, but yours be done.”

A final thought involving shields: We often read this individually: “You, Anthony! Stand!” But this letter was written to the churches in Ephesus. It’s a group command. Everyone then who saw the Roman army knew how this principle worked (see the cover of your bulletin). Now, in order for the group to stand, individuals need to stand to. It doesn’t absolve us. But it reminds us again of the importance of unifying around Christ, then standing against everything that comes against us – together.