A gospel which is only about the moment of conversion but does not extend to every moment of life in Christ is too small. A gospel that gets your sins forgiven but offers to power for transformation is too small. A gospel that isolates one of the benefits of union with Christ and ignores all the others is too small. A gospel that must be measured by your own moral conduct, social conscience, or religious experience is too small. A gospel that rearranges the components of your life but does not put you personally in the presence of God is too small.Emphasis added for the contemporary American churchgoer.
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
QOTD: Examples of a "Too Small" Gospel
From the terrific book The Deep Things of God: How the Trinity Changes Everything:
Matthew 03: The Two Responses to Jesus
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| The Magi in the House of Herod - James Tissot, 1936-1902 |
Introductory Comments
It was Christmas in July last week as we preached on the birth of Jesus. Several points really stuck out from that text. First, we discovered that the birth of Jesus inside of Mary, or anyone else for that matter, is work of God the Holy Spirit. God chooses those whom he will for salvation. The Holy Spirit then gives birth to Christ inside of that chosen person, so that, in the words of Dale Bruner, “every conversion is a virgin birth.” If you have been born again and given the gift of faith in Jesus Christ, that gift was entirely the operation of God, not you. Second, if Christ does in fact live in you, then you are not your own person any more. Jesus Christ is Lord and your life is then on lived entirely for Jesus and His glory. We asked the question, “Does you life show forth the glory of the Christ who has saved you this way?” Finally, we saw in the text that this saving work of God most perfectly declares God’s awesomeness. What kind of God would willingly set aside his own glory for the sake of his children? We cannot overlook how God left the infinite to enter into our finite, fallen world. That’s is true magnificence – to be able to assume a place amongst the fallen without falling himself.
If God indeed do this great thing in Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit has come upon us, and the kingdom of God has been inaugurated on earth, then this presents a clear decision for those who are confronted with this new reality. What the story of the Magi and Herod shows is the two responses to the arrival of the king of kings. If Jesus is the new king who sits upon his throne forever, as David was promised by God in the Old Testament, then there can only be two responses to this news. The first response is illustrated for us by the Magi. The second response is illutrated by Herod. One response is the result of humans live under the power of grace. The other response is the driven when humans live under the power of sin. These two responses have implications for us as we consider our future together as proclamers of Jesus Christ our Lord and King.
The Arrival of Gentile, Pagan, Astrologers – The Power of Grace
[2:1] Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, [2] saying, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”In almost all popular contemporary portrayals of this story, the Magi (or “wise men”) are presented to us as fundamentaly good people. In an earlier message, I mentioned the recent movie “The Nativity.” The portrayal of the Magi was very interesting. They are very collegial, friendly, funny, able to joke around with one another. However, my guess is that this is not how Matthew’s early readers, especially early Jewish readers, would have viewed the Magi. Such individuals were considered idolaters, those who confused the created order with the Creator. For example, here is Isaiah preaching about Babylon’s astrologers in Isaiah (47:13ff)
[13] … let them stand forth and save you, those who divide the heavens, who gaze at the stars, who at the new moons make known what shall come upon you.That’s an example from the Old Testament. The book of Acts tells of two other men who are given the same title as the Magi here in Matthew 2. The first is Simon, in Acts 8:9-24:
[9] But there was a man named Simon, who had previously practiced magic in the city and amazed the people of Samaria, saying that he himself was somebody great. [10] They all paid attention to him, from the least to the greatest, saying, “This man is the power of God that is called Great.”The other is a man named Elymas Bar-Jesus, mentioned in Acts 13:6-11, who sought to obstruct Paul’s preaching in Salamis:
[6] When they had gone through the whole island as far as Paphos, they came upon a certain magician, a Jewish false prophet named Bar-Jesus.So these Magi were probably not viewed very favorably by early readers. And yet, just as Gentiles are found in Jesus’ genealogy, so are Gentiles in the Christmas story.
What has happened to bring the Magi to Jerusalem? They have, by God’s grace, been shown something in nature - a star. And it has been revealed to them that they are seeking one who has been “born king of the Jews.” This has taken them to the court of the one designated by the world as “king” of the Jews, a man named Herod.
King Herod – Humanity Under Slavery to Sin
What do we know about Herod? He was known for his extravagance, and for his jealous guarding of his power and privilege. His lust for power was so great that he killed not one, not two, but three of his own sons to maintain his control and authority. He was also a Jew by religious practice, and so it seems very likely that he knew his Old Testament and the promise of the prophets for a Messiah. The reason we know this this is because the announcement by the Magi freaks him out:
[3] When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him;The reason Herod is troubled is because the Magi have come to ask the whereabouts of the King of the Jews, when Herod already considered himself the King of the Jews. Therefore, this new King was a threat. Herod immediately calls for his advisers:
[4] and assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born.In other words, Herod calls together all of the big time bible teachers and authorities, and asks them if they know where to find this new king. Being skilled biblical scholars, they know the answer to Herod’s inquiry without missing a beat:
[5] They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet [quoting Micah 5:2]:Let's review where we are in the story: The Gentile, pagan, Magi have come to Jerusalem, to the court of Herod, having been drawn by God’s grace through a visible sign in nature. Both the Magi and the King have now heard preached the word of God regarding the place where the Messiah shall come, Bethlehem. What then happens? Herod convenes a secret meeting with the Magi. He doesn’t want anyone else to know that this new King may have actually been born. And rather than send a contingent of his own to check out what is happening in Bethlehem, he tells the Magi to go there and then report what they find:
[6] “‘And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.’”
[7] Then Herod summoned the wise men secretly and ascertained from them what time the star had appeared. [8] And he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, “Go and search diligently for the child, and when you have found him, bring me word, that I too may come and worship him.” [9] After listening to the king, they went on their way. And behold, the star that they had seen when it rose went before them until it came to rest over the place where the child was.Compare the responses to the scriptures by the pagan Magi and the religious Herod. In the hearing of the Word regarding the messiah, the Gentile, pagan, idolatrous Magi respond to the scriptures by going to the place identified in the scriptures, to the place where they will ultimately encounter the living Word, the very Son of God who is God. Herod, on the other had, having heard the exact same word, refuses to go see for himself. The Gentile outsiders hear and believe the scriptures. The insiders hears and refuse to believe and respond. Oh, what love God has for the outsider, the Gentile sinner, who can start out oblivious to the existence of the creator, confusion the creation for the creator, and can, through the Word of God, be brought into fellowship with God and with the people of God.
As I read this, I continue to be convicted in by my own lack of love for those outside of the faith. Bruner, Luther, and others have preached on how we ought to be the “star” from this story for those in our families and communities who don’t know Jesus. We should be the light that shines upon where Jesus lay and shouts to the world, “Here He is! Come and see the King who takes away the sin of the world.”
Christ the Living Word – The Response
The Magi hear the scriptures and depart for Bethlehem:
[9] After listening to the king, they went on their way. And behold, the star that they had seen when it rose went before them until it came to rest over the place where the child was. [10] When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. [11] And going into the house they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh. [12] And being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed to their own country by another way.The star gives illumination to the place where Jesus is. The Word functions the same way for us today, and the result is often the same. Where the light of the the scriptures show forth in greater clarity the Christ we worship, the proper response is to rejoice exceedingly with a great joy, because then we see and know Jesus for who He is.
And what is the response of those called by grace to hear the Word and encounter Jesus? It says right here: “They fell down and worshiped him.” The Greek word for “worship” means to literally fall down on one’s face. They see this human child and worship him. Who is the only one worthy of worship? The one true God. What we see, then, is the worship of a human who is also God Incarnate. Matthew is showing us the truth about Jesus: Jesus is God-with-us, the Immanuel title shown declared in chapter 1 of the gospel.
Having worshiped, the Magi then present to Jesus several gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. I’m not particularly interested in what these gifts might represent individually, but the gift itself is critical to see. When they worship and see Jesus for who he is, they give forth the best gifts they have. They don’t do it grudgingly, but joyfully, having in grace been shown more than they originally thought they would see when they set out for their journey. What about the gifts we offer each Sunday? What is the condition of our hearts when the plate is passed before us? Is there resentment there at all? Or is there joy and thanksgiving? The condition of our hearts during the offering speaks volumes about what we think of seeing Jesus in the Word read and proclaimed and in the sacraments rightly administered.
Lastly, the Magi depart, having been “warned in a dream not to return to Herod.” They then return to their country by “another way.” Did you know that the early Christians used to refer to their new life as “The Way?” When you encounter the Lord Jesus Christ, you live life differently than you did before. You see the world in a different way. You will walk differently in life if you know the joy of Jesus Christ and His glorious peace.
What, then, was Herod’s response to all of this, when he learns that the Magi go by another way? It’s rage, driven fear of loss of power and control, which results in a catastrophic disaster with the slaughter of the innocents. That is the way sinful rebellion works itself out – there are social ramifications when we reject God’s Word. The sin isn’t just individual, but has corporate effects. We explore those in greater detail next week.
So those are the two ways of responding to the coming of the Lord and King, Jesus. Grace leads to a faithful response to news. Sin leads to rebellion, sin, and in many cases literal harm against our neighbors. The question before you today is this: How will you respond to the news that there is a new King in town? Amen.
Given at First Presbyterian Church in Jackson Minnesota
August 7, 2011
19th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Wednesday, August 03, 2011
Matthew 02: He Shall Be Called Jesus
Sermon Text: Matthew 1:18-25
Introductory Comments
Last week we began a new series in Matthew, a series which is called “Jesus Christ: All of God’s Promises, Fulfilled.” I said at that time that the gospels could be thought of as paintings, with each painting presenting a faithful, true revelation of Jesus. Verse 1 of Matthew could be thought of as the title of the painting – “The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.” Matthew then provides the genealogy that establishes who Jesus is in history. We learned from this that Jesus loves sinners, so much so that he included them in his own family tree. The scope of his grace includes adulterers and heroes, prostitutes, along with sinful men and women. He came to redeem all kinds of sinners, and so we are called to declare God’s message of repentance and forgiveness to all sinners. We are called to get into their lives in order to declare the greatness of God’s salvation.
We’re going to consider the next part of Matthew’s gospel painting. This week, it’s Christmas in July! What do these verses about the birth of Jesus show us about how God works in history and in our human hearts? What we see is that the Holy Spirit is crucial to both miracles, the miracle of the incarnation of the Son of God with the virgin birth, and the spiritual miracle of the new birth, when a Christian responds to God’s grace through faith in Jesus.
The Holy Spirit Births Christ in Mary, and In Anyone Who Is Saved
One significant truth sticks out in these three verses. Here it is: The Holy Spirit is responsible for the conception of Jesus. Verse 18: Mary “was found to be with child from [or by] the Holy Spirit.” Verse 20, when the angel is speaking to Joseph in a dream, “that which is conceived in her [or, more literally perhaps, “brought to life in her”] is from the Holy Spirit.” In fact, in verse 18, the word translated as “birth” is, in fact, the word “genesis” in the Greek. Matthew is showing us that, just at the Holy Spirit brooded over the waters as God created the universe, God is giving birth to a new creation through the incarnation of His Son in history by means of the Holy Spirit.
There are three significant applications from these verses. First, Jesus Christ comes into history and into a believer’s life by the powerful work of the Holy Spirit. Dale Bruner writes, “When Jesus Christ comes to anyone in history, even in his Advent coming to Mary, it is always the word of the Spirit, not of human preparation or enterprise. Every conversion is a virgin birth."1
What does this mean? It means you are saved by God only when the Holy Spirit comes upon you with power and births the Lord Jesus Christ in your heart. This is why the apostle Paul is able to say, in Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” What Paul is describing to the Galatians is the new birth. To be born again means that Christ lives in you by the work of the Holy Spirit. Mary, a virgin, could not conceive the Son of God by herself. Such a miracle required the power of the Holy Spirit to conceive a human child apart from human agency. No less a miracle must take place in the heart of a person if he or she will be saved. You cannot save yourself from your sin, and another human cannot save you from your sin. Only Christ can do that when he takes hold of your heart by the power of the Holy Spirit. Being born again, therefore, is a work of the Trinity. God elects (chooses) those who will be saved by His grace and mercy, and then gives them new, eternal life in Christ by means of the Holy Spirit. It’s not enough to simply try to buy God’s favor by obeying a bunch of rules. Christ was obedient for you. A person can only live in obedience to God when he accepts by faith all that Christ did for him or her on the Cross. That means if you don’t believe that Christ died for your sins, not even your righteous deeds will save you. Apart from Christ, such deeds are for our own sake rather than for God’s glory. The gospel at heart is quite simple: Christ did everything for you. His righteousness is given to you free of charge, to free you from worries about your disobedience so that you can be obedience to His Word for His sake and for His glory. This is what it means to die to yourself. To die to your old self is to die to every single thing that might persuade you, even so slightly, that you can save yourself. That death happens when Christ is made alive in the believer by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Churches are to be employed with the business of making disciples, and part of that is praying for the miracle of conversion for unbelieving men and women in our churches and our communities. Yes, I did say, “in our churches” and that includes even our own church. Every single church has visitors of deep faith and in some cases long-time members who are not yet born again this way. Remember, however, that no one is excluded from the saving invitation of God, not men, not women, or any sinner, or even long-time church attenders.
Second implication: I want to say a few words about Joseph. I love Joseph so much. He is describe here as a “just man.” Joseph would have been justified in publicly divorcing his betrothed for what appeared in the eyes of humans to be a shocking discretion. But note that before Joseph learns in his dream that Jesus is from the Holy Spirit, he resolves to “divorce her [Mary] quietly.” By quietly dissolving the relationship, Joseph would have, in effect, taken the blame for an indiscretion for which he was not responsible. He was willing to take the shame of Mary upon himself in order to preserve Mary from shame. What we see in Joseph, who incidentally has no speaking part in any of the gospels, is a man who exemplifies the gospel by his life. What was it Christ did for us? Christ died to take our shame upon himself, in order to preserve us from the shame and guilt of our sins. He lives in obedience to a gospel that has not yet been fully revealed. We will have more to say about that in the coming weeks, but I wanted to point it out to you know. Matthew is a masterful painter. Joseph is a man of obedience. He doesn’t complain. He doesn’t hesitate. Hey simply obeys God’s Word. In seeking to do what he thinks is the right thing, he will do what God tells him to do, which is to take Mary as his wife and not divorce her.
Joseph’s obedience puts the question before us? Are we being obedient to God’s Word in our own lives? Or do we hesitate, obfuscate, or outright refuse to obey his Word? Do you consult God’s Word, when considering your finances, or the health of your marriage, or how you run your business, or how you raise you children? Do you think the bible lacks insight into these things? On the contrary, God’s Word contains principles and commands for our good in all of these areas and more. Neglect God’s word, and you run the very high chance of living in disobedience to his divinely appointed commands. As children you live by grace, our lives should show forth the fruit of God’s saving power. If we live contrary to God’s Word, that suggests that we really aren’t living by grace at all, but are still bound to worldly rules and laws.
Another third implication in this text, one that can be glossed over to easily, is that Jesus’ life is described as beginning at conception. Mary is “found to be with child” when the Holy Spirit “conceived” that which lived in her (which can be literally translated “brought to life in her”). One of the unavoidable conclusions from our text and from science is that human life begins at conception.
Joseph’s Dream – Concluded
Joseph’s dream continues. He is told:
This shows us just how great God is. But it takes eyes of faith to see the greatness. Our God is so great that he can set His greatness aside for our sake. That is love, loved ones! The one who loves you most is the one who sets everything aside for you. How can anyone love you more than God loves you in that he willingly decided to be like us? The pattern is not unlike that of the great judge, Gideon, whom the Lord raised up to save the Israelites from Midian army. Do you remember the story? God commanded Gideon to pare down his army from 32,000 to 300 men. Why? Here’s what God said, “The people with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hand, lest Israel boast over me, saying ‘My own hand has saved me’” (Judges 7:2)
Loved ones, what the scriptures show us is that God’s power is made most glorious and apparent in weakness. That’s the lesson from Gideon. And that’s the lesson here. God’s power is shown to be glorious when he freely and willingly sets it aside for the sake of his sinful, rebellious children. This is apparent first of all in the story of Jesus’ birth, and it’s fully revealed in the Cross, when the innocent Son of God is betrayed, beaten, and crucified as a common criminal. Jesus is our perfect Gideon. He saves the people from their sins first by becoming nothing for our sake, and again by becoming a byword on the Cross. Why? In order to show forth the glory and power and might of God by being raised from the dead, the firstfruits of a new creation into which you are invited to become a part. Do you believe in a God that great? A God who would become nothing for you, and not just for your sake, but for the sake of His perfect glory? When I think of my own sins, of my own rebellion, I cannot help but be astonished at his overwhelming grace. He saved me? And will glorify me? And make much of me for his own glory? Has he done that for you? I pray that He will.
Joseph Wakes Up
Today, the question before us now is this: Who will Jesus Christ be born into today? Into you? In the heart of beloved friend? A neighbor? A relative? If he has been birthed into you by the Holy Spirit, is Christ’s indwelling presence in your life showing forth at all in obedient, spiritually fruitful living? Doesn’t such a great God, who gave so much for us, deserve every part of the lives He so mercifully bought with His blood? Amen.
1Bruner, Frederick Dale. Matthew: A Commentary. Vol 1. Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Eerdmans Pub., 2007. 24.
Given at First Presbyterian Church in Jackson, Minnesota
July 31, 2011
18th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Introductory Comments
Last week we began a new series in Matthew, a series which is called “Jesus Christ: All of God’s Promises, Fulfilled.” I said at that time that the gospels could be thought of as paintings, with each painting presenting a faithful, true revelation of Jesus. Verse 1 of Matthew could be thought of as the title of the painting – “The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.” Matthew then provides the genealogy that establishes who Jesus is in history. We learned from this that Jesus loves sinners, so much so that he included them in his own family tree. The scope of his grace includes adulterers and heroes, prostitutes, along with sinful men and women. He came to redeem all kinds of sinners, and so we are called to declare God’s message of repentance and forgiveness to all sinners. We are called to get into their lives in order to declare the greatness of God’s salvation.
We’re going to consider the next part of Matthew’s gospel painting. This week, it’s Christmas in July! What do these verses about the birth of Jesus show us about how God works in history and in our human hearts? What we see is that the Holy Spirit is crucial to both miracles, the miracle of the incarnation of the Son of God with the virgin birth, and the spiritual miracle of the new birth, when a Christian responds to God’s grace through faith in Jesus.
The Holy Spirit Births Christ in Mary, and In Anyone Who Is Saved
[18] Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. [19] And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. [20] But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.The birth of Jesus was preceded by a betrothal, a binding promise of marriage to a man named Joseph. Such promises were considered of such seriousness that to break off such a betrothal actually required someone to get a divorce. That’s why Joseph, thought he is not yet married to Mary, resolves to divorce her quietly.
One significant truth sticks out in these three verses. Here it is: The Holy Spirit is responsible for the conception of Jesus. Verse 18: Mary “was found to be with child from [or by] the Holy Spirit.” Verse 20, when the angel is speaking to Joseph in a dream, “that which is conceived in her [or, more literally perhaps, “brought to life in her”] is from the Holy Spirit.” In fact, in verse 18, the word translated as “birth” is, in fact, the word “genesis” in the Greek. Matthew is showing us that, just at the Holy Spirit brooded over the waters as God created the universe, God is giving birth to a new creation through the incarnation of His Son in history by means of the Holy Spirit.
There are three significant applications from these verses. First, Jesus Christ comes into history and into a believer’s life by the powerful work of the Holy Spirit. Dale Bruner writes, “When Jesus Christ comes to anyone in history, even in his Advent coming to Mary, it is always the word of the Spirit, not of human preparation or enterprise. Every conversion is a virgin birth."1
What does this mean? It means you are saved by God only when the Holy Spirit comes upon you with power and births the Lord Jesus Christ in your heart. This is why the apostle Paul is able to say, in Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” What Paul is describing to the Galatians is the new birth. To be born again means that Christ lives in you by the work of the Holy Spirit. Mary, a virgin, could not conceive the Son of God by herself. Such a miracle required the power of the Holy Spirit to conceive a human child apart from human agency. No less a miracle must take place in the heart of a person if he or she will be saved. You cannot save yourself from your sin, and another human cannot save you from your sin. Only Christ can do that when he takes hold of your heart by the power of the Holy Spirit. Being born again, therefore, is a work of the Trinity. God elects (chooses) those who will be saved by His grace and mercy, and then gives them new, eternal life in Christ by means of the Holy Spirit. It’s not enough to simply try to buy God’s favor by obeying a bunch of rules. Christ was obedient for you. A person can only live in obedience to God when he accepts by faith all that Christ did for him or her on the Cross. That means if you don’t believe that Christ died for your sins, not even your righteous deeds will save you. Apart from Christ, such deeds are for our own sake rather than for God’s glory. The gospel at heart is quite simple: Christ did everything for you. His righteousness is given to you free of charge, to free you from worries about your disobedience so that you can be obedience to His Word for His sake and for His glory. This is what it means to die to yourself. To die to your old self is to die to every single thing that might persuade you, even so slightly, that you can save yourself. That death happens when Christ is made alive in the believer by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Churches are to be employed with the business of making disciples, and part of that is praying for the miracle of conversion for unbelieving men and women in our churches and our communities. Yes, I did say, “in our churches” and that includes even our own church. Every single church has visitors of deep faith and in some cases long-time members who are not yet born again this way. Remember, however, that no one is excluded from the saving invitation of God, not men, not women, or any sinner, or even long-time church attenders.
Second implication: I want to say a few words about Joseph. I love Joseph so much. He is describe here as a “just man.” Joseph would have been justified in publicly divorcing his betrothed for what appeared in the eyes of humans to be a shocking discretion. But note that before Joseph learns in his dream that Jesus is from the Holy Spirit, he resolves to “divorce her [Mary] quietly.” By quietly dissolving the relationship, Joseph would have, in effect, taken the blame for an indiscretion for which he was not responsible. He was willing to take the shame of Mary upon himself in order to preserve Mary from shame. What we see in Joseph, who incidentally has no speaking part in any of the gospels, is a man who exemplifies the gospel by his life. What was it Christ did for us? Christ died to take our shame upon himself, in order to preserve us from the shame and guilt of our sins. He lives in obedience to a gospel that has not yet been fully revealed. We will have more to say about that in the coming weeks, but I wanted to point it out to you know. Matthew is a masterful painter. Joseph is a man of obedience. He doesn’t complain. He doesn’t hesitate. Hey simply obeys God’s Word. In seeking to do what he thinks is the right thing, he will do what God tells him to do, which is to take Mary as his wife and not divorce her.
Joseph’s obedience puts the question before us? Are we being obedient to God’s Word in our own lives? Or do we hesitate, obfuscate, or outright refuse to obey his Word? Do you consult God’s Word, when considering your finances, or the health of your marriage, or how you run your business, or how you raise you children? Do you think the bible lacks insight into these things? On the contrary, God’s Word contains principles and commands for our good in all of these areas and more. Neglect God’s word, and you run the very high chance of living in disobedience to his divinely appointed commands. As children you live by grace, our lives should show forth the fruit of God’s saving power. If we live contrary to God’s Word, that suggests that we really aren’t living by grace at all, but are still bound to worldly rules and laws.
Another third implication in this text, one that can be glossed over to easily, is that Jesus’ life is described as beginning at conception. Mary is “found to be with child” when the Holy Spirit “conceived” that which lived in her (which can be literally translated “brought to life in her”). One of the unavoidable conclusions from our text and from science is that human life begins at conception.
Joseph’s Dream – Concluded
Joseph’s dream continues. He is told:
[21] She [Mary] will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” [22] All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: [23] “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us).He is to be called Jesus, which is a Greek Hellenist pronunciation of the Hebrew name “Joshua,” which can be translated from the Hebrew as “Yahweh saves.” Yahweh is the proper name “I Am” given to Moses in the book of Exodus. Matthew continues by doing something he will repeat throughout this gospel, which is showing how Jesus fulfills everything in the Old Testament. He quotes from the prophet Isaiah, “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us).” This unborn child, then, will be the one who will save the people from their sins. Sin is their biggest problem, then. God did not send his only begotten Son, conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit, to died on the cross for higher income. Or better social status. He died for sin. Think carefully about the cross, because that is where announcement in a dream is headed. Jesus’ death on the cross was for your sin. He could only accomplished that death by becoming like us in our frailty. And so Jesus, Joshua, “Yahweh saves” actually saves us by condescending to be “God with us.”
This shows us just how great God is. But it takes eyes of faith to see the greatness. Our God is so great that he can set His greatness aside for our sake. That is love, loved ones! The one who loves you most is the one who sets everything aside for you. How can anyone love you more than God loves you in that he willingly decided to be like us? The pattern is not unlike that of the great judge, Gideon, whom the Lord raised up to save the Israelites from Midian army. Do you remember the story? God commanded Gideon to pare down his army from 32,000 to 300 men. Why? Here’s what God said, “The people with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hand, lest Israel boast over me, saying ‘My own hand has saved me’” (Judges 7:2)
Loved ones, what the scriptures show us is that God’s power is made most glorious and apparent in weakness. That’s the lesson from Gideon. And that’s the lesson here. God’s power is shown to be glorious when he freely and willingly sets it aside for the sake of his sinful, rebellious children. This is apparent first of all in the story of Jesus’ birth, and it’s fully revealed in the Cross, when the innocent Son of God is betrayed, beaten, and crucified as a common criminal. Jesus is our perfect Gideon. He saves the people from their sins first by becoming nothing for our sake, and again by becoming a byword on the Cross. Why? In order to show forth the glory and power and might of God by being raised from the dead, the firstfruits of a new creation into which you are invited to become a part. Do you believe in a God that great? A God who would become nothing for you, and not just for your sake, but for the sake of His perfect glory? When I think of my own sins, of my own rebellion, I cannot help but be astonished at his overwhelming grace. He saved me? And will glorify me? And make much of me for his own glory? Has he done that for you? I pray that He will.
Joseph Wakes Up
[24] When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife, [25] but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus.The text ends this week with Joseph’s obedience. Mary gives birth to Jesus. Joseph names the child, and behold, God is here. Incidentally, the scriptures say that Joseph, knew her not until she had given birth to a son.” That “until” tells us a lot about Joseph and Mary. I think it suggest clearly that the couple had more children. Jesus was the firstborn of the couple, and will become the firstborn of the dead.
Today, the question before us now is this: Who will Jesus Christ be born into today? Into you? In the heart of beloved friend? A neighbor? A relative? If he has been birthed into you by the Holy Spirit, is Christ’s indwelling presence in your life showing forth at all in obedient, spiritually fruitful living? Doesn’t such a great God, who gave so much for us, deserve every part of the lives He so mercifully bought with His blood? Amen.
1Bruner, Frederick Dale. Matthew: A Commentary. Vol 1. Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Eerdmans Pub., 2007. 24.
Given at First Presbyterian Church in Jackson, Minnesota
July 31, 2011
18th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Dynamite Eugene Peterson Interview
Bob Abernethy recently did an interview with Eugene Peterson for the PBS program Religion and Ethics Newsweekly.
Abernathy asked Peterson to share his thoughts on the so-called prosperity gospel:
Issues watching the video? Try the source link here.
Abernathy asked Peterson to share his thoughts on the so-called prosperity gospel:
Well, I think it’s a lie. I think it’s just a downright rotten lie. It’s nowhere in Christian tradition, so how does this get going in our culture? It’s greed is what it is. It’s greed given a spiritual name: God will bless you. I want to ask these prosperity gospel people, do your people ever die? Do the people in your church ever die? What do you do when they die? Where’s the prosperity in that? I don’t have much patience with them, to tell you the truth, because I think they’re defrauding people.Peterson was also asked to share his thoughts on the ethos of mega-churches:
The minute the church and pastors start saying what do people want and then giving it to them, we betray our calling. We’re called to have people follow Jesus. We’re called to have people learn how to forgive their enemies. We’re called to show people that there is a way of life which has meaning beyond their salary or beyond how good they look.The interview runs 6:48. You will want to watch the whole thing.
Watch the full episode. See more Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly.
Issues watching the video? Try the source link here.
Prayer Request for Christians in China
Please watch this seven-minute video and pray for our courageous brothers and sisters of the underground church in China:
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Matthew 01: Sin, Scandal, and Salvation
Scripture Text: Matthew 1:1-17
Introductory Comments
This week we begin preaching on all 28 chapters in the gospel of Matthew. I want to start with a few word of introduction to the book, and then we’ll peer into what we can learn from the rather lengthy list of names that opens the book.
The book of Matthew is a gospel. What is a gospel? The word gospel comes from a Greek word that means “good news.” What is the good news? The good news is that the long-anticipated Messiah has come, Jesus Christ, who brings salvation to both Jew and Gentile alike. We have four gospels in the bible: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Each of them presents to us a portrait of Jesus. I think it is wonderful that we have a multifaceted view of Jesus in the bible. If you were to pick, at random, four of your closest companions and have them write some things about you, you would not get the exact same things from each of the four people. All of the accounts would contain truth, but different things would be included. Friend A would have been with you at one event, while Friend B was elsewhere and didn’t include an account of the same event. Friend C would note a particular behavior of yours that makes you distinct, while Friend D would focus on a different aspect of your personality. Each of the four gospels presents the truth about Jesus, but just as painters have their distinct styles and emphases, our gospel writers, present to us nuanced views of Jesus through their respective inspired paintings.
Matthew’s gospel is one of these portraits, and the act of working through a gospel can be thought of as watching a painter at work. What he places on the canvas and the way he places it there is important to see. So I invite you to join with me as we admire the beauty and glory of the subject of Matthew’s gospel, Jesus Christ.
Here is what Matthew writes to open the gospel:
This first verse serves, in a way, as the title of the painting that Matthew is inspired to place on the canvas. The title forms the overarching framework of what is to follow. Jesus is the Christ, the great hope of the Jewish people. He is the son of David, the one who will be king forever. And he is the son of Abraham, the fulfillment of the longing of all people for salvation. I like the way commentator Dale Bruner puts it: “’Son of David’ says, ‘Israel, here is your Messiah!’; ‘Son of Abraham’ says, ‘Nations, here is your hope!’”
Up, Down, and Up Again
Matthew then does what a good Jewish person would do, he goes over the genealogical records to begin showing why everything verse one says is true. The way Matthew does this through the genealogy is very interesting, far more than you might imagine at first reading. The reason it’s interesting is that the genealogy follows a deliberate up/down/up pattern. The “up” is Israel’s ascendancy from the nomadic life Abraham to triumphant kingdom of David.
Then there is the “down” phase, beginning with Solomon (delicately described as having been fathered “by the wife of Uriah”), and continuing down, down, down, through rebellion and sin and national idolatry to the rock bottom place of the “deportation to Babylon” in verse 11. The trajectory then goes back up, culminating in the fulfillment of all of God’s promises in Jesus Christ. Each of these “lines” says something essential about the God we worship.1
First Line of Names – God Shows Divine Mercy
Four of the names in this list are very unusual. First, they are women, and the inclusion of women in a genealogy like this is very unusual. Second, each of the four women have, to put it mildly, awkward backgrounds. Tamar’s story is told in Genesis 28, where she acts like a harlot in order to get her father-in-law, Judah, to fulfill his obligations. Tamar became pregnant as a result, producing one of Jesus’ great-grandfathers. Hmm. Rabah was the prostitute of Jericho who aided the spies sent by Joshua to that city. She becomes a great-grandmother of our Lord. Ruth is notable because she was a Moabite. Moabites are those who descended from Lot, who committed incest with his daughters (are we adequately scandalized yet?). The fourth woman in the list is the source of such awkwardness that Matthew doesn’t mention her directly, but instead as (the wife of Uriah). That would be the wife of Uriah the Hittite, named Bathsheba. She is known as the one who became the object of David’s lust. She is also a great-grandmother to our Lord.
All four women, then, are at the heart of some scandal or embarrassment, which accompanies the scandal and sin and unkept promises of the men they are associated with. All four women are non-Jews, which is another very astonishing surprise. Why are they there, while notable Jewish matriarchs are absent? How can gentiles be in the mix with the one who would be called “King of the Jews?”
The answer can be summarized this way: In this first genealogical line, Matthew is showing us the gospel already. The great God of history uses repentant sinners, Jews, and Gentiles, women, and men, to work his great purposes of salvation in history. As Bruner puts it, “The genealogy’s first line, then, teaches divine mercy, a mercy extending to both racial and moral ‘outsider.’”
Jesus’ family history, then, is much like the ones many of us have. We each have in our history our share of unmentionable embarrassments, family secrets, outrageous scandal and gross immorality. But in Christ none of those things have the last word. Jesus’ family history is not unlike our own, which his good news because he will be the to redeem us from our past.
Second Series – Divine Judgment
The next series of names begins with Solomon, the king known for his wisdom and whose reign ends in apostasy, and ends with the deportation to Babylon.
This section shows Israel’s descent from the heights of prominence in the Middle East to a byword among the nations, being crushed militarily by Babylon, the kingdom that forced the people into exile, what the ESV translation refers to as “the deportation.”
This second “line” or series of names points to God’s just judgment for sin. Sin and idolatry and apostasy are abominations in God’s kingdom, and to persist in these things brings judgment upon the people. Sin carries with it judgments that are experienced over time in history and even right now. While on vacation, I was reminded of the judgment we experience now while listening to an excellent sermon by a preacher in Baxter, Minnesota. One way we know we live under judgment now is that we all die. With sin, death entered this world.
Matthew was inspired to highlight this fact, that sin brings God’s judgment. How? By deliberately changing a few of the names in this second line of the genealogy. King Asa should appear in verse seven, but his name is changed to the name of the Psalmist Asaph. And where we expect to read King Amon in verse 10, we instead see King Amos, the name of the Old Testament prophet.
When I first saw this, I wondered why Matthew would do this. These lists of Kings were certainly well known, and would have been well-known to the Jewish readers of the gospel. It is impossible to believe that this was simple error. If it was, Matthew would have been called out on it. But this genealogy is not simply about the names, it’s about what God does in and through his chosen people. These names were changed to make a theological point. Together, the psalmist Asaph and the prophet Amos signify something – they signify “all seers and prophets” sent by God to snatch God’s people from either too much or too little engagement with the world.
The other thing to note briefly in this second line is that Matthew skips ahead in a couple of places. This isn’t an unusual facet of many genealogies of this kind. Three kings, Ahaziah, Joash, Amaziah are omitted after Joram; and Jehoiakim is omitted before Jehoiachin. Lots of reasons have been postulated for why these four were omitted, but it seems that the most likely explanation is simply to get a list of 14 names, making the genealogy easy to remember.
Third Line – God’s Faithfulness
The last phase in the genealogy is an “up” phase. The deportation comes to and end and the people are restored to the land, with the names leading up to show us Jesus, who is in fact both the son of David and the son of Abraham. What this third “line” shows us is that God’s judgment is not the last work (thank God!). The third line culminates in the arrival of our Lord and Savior, thus showing that the people faithlessness, our faithlessness, can never outlast God’s faithfulness toward his children. Abraham was promised that from him would come forth a seed for everyone (for all the nations). God promised David a king forever on the throne. God’s faithfulness to his promises, and his fulfillment of them, are all found in Jesus. I like the way Bruner puts it: Jesus Christ shows “God’s good faith in conceiving the seed of Abraham and the Son of David in the womb of Mary.”2 Loved ones, Jesus is the fulfillment of everything promised by God.
In summary, then, the first “line” of the genealogy shows us that God is merciful. He chooses those who are sinners to be His appointed children. The second “line” of the genealogy shows us that sin brings a just judgment, because sin is contrary to God’s will for his people. The third line shines forth with the good news of God’s faithfulness, despite our faithlessness.
Applications
What does this mean for us today? First, the genealogy shows that Jesus is the savor of every kind of person – men, women, adulterers, prostitutes, heroes, and gentile foreigners.
That includes those of us in this room whose own family histories and personal histories are filled to the brim with examples of our sinful depravity: Divorce, lust, abuse, criminal pasts, addictions, promiscuity, abortion, etc. The list of sins is huge, but none of them have the last word of the word of the Almighty God. Just look at one of the names on the list as an example. Rahab was a gentile prostitute who for her faith is ultimately incorporated into the people of God.
No one in the room is qualified to be here except that they have been granted a place in the kingdom by the grace of God shown in the cross of Christ. What gratitude we should have for that grace. And that grace is a call to action.
Martin Luther spoke this way about the questionable sinners who appear in Jesus’ family tree. He said, “Oh, Christ is the kind of person who is not ashamed by sinners – in fact, He even put them in His family tree.”
Notice that? God is sovereign. These sinners are in Jesus’ family tree by design, to show us how God redeems and saves his people.
But Luther didn’t stop there, and neither should we. There are radical implications for us because of the way God saves the unworthy sinner. Luther continued this line of thought: “Now if the Lord does that here, so ought we to despise no one … but put ourselves right in the middle of the fight for sinners and help them."3
Are you putting yourself right in the middle of the fight for sinners and helping them? Am I? Or do we want nothing to do with sinners at all? What many churches seemingly desire today is to have lots and lots of sinners come to church, but to do this by declaring that their sin really isn’t sin. So please join our nice club were sin is an unmentionable and will never be the cause of awkwardness or “exclusion.” Beloved, this text should show us that this kind of thing actually brings into the church a culture of death. It is the height of lovelessness to pretend that sin isn’t what it is, to avoid making mention of it, either from the pulpit or in our daily lives, for fear that someone might take offense. It is loving beyond measure to proclaim to everyone we come in contact with that sin has been defeated forever by a Jesus who himself had sinners in his own family tree. He accomplished the destruction of sin by paying the cost of sin and taking the full measure of God’s wrath upon himself, the wrath that we deserved. Jesus is king, Matthew says, and is worthy of all honor and glory and praise and love and joy. He is the fulfillment of everything God promised in the Old Testament, for Jew and Gentile alike, and also people such as ourselves. How about you? What’s your family tree like? Is it anything like Jesus’? Can you see how God used Jesus’ family history to show us that Jesus is our savior from even the most heinous sin? Come to Him now, if you haven’t already, repent, and believe. Amen.
1 I'm deeply indebted to Dale Bruner for this and other insights in this amazing gospel. He will be my scholarly, theological partner for this series.
2Bruner, Frederick Dale. Matthew: A Commentary. Vol 1. Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Eerdmans Pub., 2007. 14.
3Bruner, quoting Luther’s “Sermon on the Day of Mary’s Birth” 8 September 1522, W2, 11:2371.
Given at First Presbyterian Church in Jackson, Minnesota
July 24, 2011
17th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Copyright © 2011 by Christopher Donald Drew
Introductory Comments
This week we begin preaching on all 28 chapters in the gospel of Matthew. I want to start with a few word of introduction to the book, and then we’ll peer into what we can learn from the rather lengthy list of names that opens the book.
The book of Matthew is a gospel. What is a gospel? The word gospel comes from a Greek word that means “good news.” What is the good news? The good news is that the long-anticipated Messiah has come, Jesus Christ, who brings salvation to both Jew and Gentile alike. We have four gospels in the bible: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Each of them presents to us a portrait of Jesus. I think it is wonderful that we have a multifaceted view of Jesus in the bible. If you were to pick, at random, four of your closest companions and have them write some things about you, you would not get the exact same things from each of the four people. All of the accounts would contain truth, but different things would be included. Friend A would have been with you at one event, while Friend B was elsewhere and didn’t include an account of the same event. Friend C would note a particular behavior of yours that makes you distinct, while Friend D would focus on a different aspect of your personality. Each of the four gospels presents the truth about Jesus, but just as painters have their distinct styles and emphases, our gospel writers, present to us nuanced views of Jesus through their respective inspired paintings.
Matthew’s gospel is one of these portraits, and the act of working through a gospel can be thought of as watching a painter at work. What he places on the canvas and the way he places it there is important to see. So I invite you to join with me as we admire the beauty and glory of the subject of Matthew’s gospel, Jesus Christ.
Here is what Matthew writes to open the gospel:
The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.Matthew begins with a declaration about Jesus. First, he is the Christ. He is the anointed one, the Messiah, the promised deliver. The word translated in the ESV and NRSV “genealogy” is literally “genesis.” So what we are getting here is a creation account, a new creation “of Jesus Christ.” This Jesus, Matthew states, is the “Son of David.” He is the fulfillment of the promise God made to David that one of David’s progeny would sit forever on the throne of his kingdom. Jesus is also called “the son of Abraham” which is a clear allusion to the promise God made to Abraham, that he would have a seed who would be a blessing for all the nations of the world be blessed.
This first verse serves, in a way, as the title of the painting that Matthew is inspired to place on the canvas. The title forms the overarching framework of what is to follow. Jesus is the Christ, the great hope of the Jewish people. He is the son of David, the one who will be king forever. And he is the son of Abraham, the fulfillment of the longing of all people for salvation. I like the way commentator Dale Bruner puts it: “’Son of David’ says, ‘Israel, here is your Messiah!’; ‘Son of Abraham’ says, ‘Nations, here is your hope!’”
Up, Down, and Up Again
Matthew then does what a good Jewish person would do, he goes over the genealogical records to begin showing why everything verse one says is true. The way Matthew does this through the genealogy is very interesting, far more than you might imagine at first reading. The reason it’s interesting is that the genealogy follows a deliberate up/down/up pattern. The “up” is Israel’s ascendancy from the nomadic life Abraham to triumphant kingdom of David.
Then there is the “down” phase, beginning with Solomon (delicately described as having been fathered “by the wife of Uriah”), and continuing down, down, down, through rebellion and sin and national idolatry to the rock bottom place of the “deportation to Babylon” in verse 11. The trajectory then goes back up, culminating in the fulfillment of all of God’s promises in Jesus Christ. Each of these “lines” says something essential about the God we worship.1
First Line of Names – God Shows Divine Mercy
Four of the names in this list are very unusual. First, they are women, and the inclusion of women in a genealogy like this is very unusual. Second, each of the four women have, to put it mildly, awkward backgrounds. Tamar’s story is told in Genesis 28, where she acts like a harlot in order to get her father-in-law, Judah, to fulfill his obligations. Tamar became pregnant as a result, producing one of Jesus’ great-grandfathers. Hmm. Rabah was the prostitute of Jericho who aided the spies sent by Joshua to that city. She becomes a great-grandmother of our Lord. Ruth is notable because she was a Moabite. Moabites are those who descended from Lot, who committed incest with his daughters (are we adequately scandalized yet?). The fourth woman in the list is the source of such awkwardness that Matthew doesn’t mention her directly, but instead as (the wife of Uriah). That would be the wife of Uriah the Hittite, named Bathsheba. She is known as the one who became the object of David’s lust. She is also a great-grandmother to our Lord.
All four women, then, are at the heart of some scandal or embarrassment, which accompanies the scandal and sin and unkept promises of the men they are associated with. All four women are non-Jews, which is another very astonishing surprise. Why are they there, while notable Jewish matriarchs are absent? How can gentiles be in the mix with the one who would be called “King of the Jews?”
The answer can be summarized this way: In this first genealogical line, Matthew is showing us the gospel already. The great God of history uses repentant sinners, Jews, and Gentiles, women, and men, to work his great purposes of salvation in history. As Bruner puts it, “The genealogy’s first line, then, teaches divine mercy, a mercy extending to both racial and moral ‘outsider.’”
Jesus’ family history, then, is much like the ones many of us have. We each have in our history our share of unmentionable embarrassments, family secrets, outrageous scandal and gross immorality. But in Christ none of those things have the last word. Jesus’ family history is not unlike our own, which his good news because he will be the to redeem us from our past.
Second Series – Divine Judgment
The next series of names begins with Solomon, the king known for his wisdom and whose reign ends in apostasy, and ends with the deportation to Babylon.
This section shows Israel’s descent from the heights of prominence in the Middle East to a byword among the nations, being crushed militarily by Babylon, the kingdom that forced the people into exile, what the ESV translation refers to as “the deportation.”
This second “line” or series of names points to God’s just judgment for sin. Sin and idolatry and apostasy are abominations in God’s kingdom, and to persist in these things brings judgment upon the people. Sin carries with it judgments that are experienced over time in history and even right now. While on vacation, I was reminded of the judgment we experience now while listening to an excellent sermon by a preacher in Baxter, Minnesota. One way we know we live under judgment now is that we all die. With sin, death entered this world.
Matthew was inspired to highlight this fact, that sin brings God’s judgment. How? By deliberately changing a few of the names in this second line of the genealogy. King Asa should appear in verse seven, but his name is changed to the name of the Psalmist Asaph. And where we expect to read King Amon in verse 10, we instead see King Amos, the name of the Old Testament prophet.
When I first saw this, I wondered why Matthew would do this. These lists of Kings were certainly well known, and would have been well-known to the Jewish readers of the gospel. It is impossible to believe that this was simple error. If it was, Matthew would have been called out on it. But this genealogy is not simply about the names, it’s about what God does in and through his chosen people. These names were changed to make a theological point. Together, the psalmist Asaph and the prophet Amos signify something – they signify “all seers and prophets” sent by God to snatch God’s people from either too much or too little engagement with the world.
The other thing to note briefly in this second line is that Matthew skips ahead in a couple of places. This isn’t an unusual facet of many genealogies of this kind. Three kings, Ahaziah, Joash, Amaziah are omitted after Joram; and Jehoiakim is omitted before Jehoiachin. Lots of reasons have been postulated for why these four were omitted, but it seems that the most likely explanation is simply to get a list of 14 names, making the genealogy easy to remember.
Third Line – God’s Faithfulness
The last phase in the genealogy is an “up” phase. The deportation comes to and end and the people are restored to the land, with the names leading up to show us Jesus, who is in fact both the son of David and the son of Abraham. What this third “line” shows us is that God’s judgment is not the last work (thank God!). The third line culminates in the arrival of our Lord and Savior, thus showing that the people faithlessness, our faithlessness, can never outlast God’s faithfulness toward his children. Abraham was promised that from him would come forth a seed for everyone (for all the nations). God promised David a king forever on the throne. God’s faithfulness to his promises, and his fulfillment of them, are all found in Jesus. I like the way Bruner puts it: Jesus Christ shows “God’s good faith in conceiving the seed of Abraham and the Son of David in the womb of Mary.”2 Loved ones, Jesus is the fulfillment of everything promised by God.
In summary, then, the first “line” of the genealogy shows us that God is merciful. He chooses those who are sinners to be His appointed children. The second “line” of the genealogy shows us that sin brings a just judgment, because sin is contrary to God’s will for his people. The third line shines forth with the good news of God’s faithfulness, despite our faithlessness.
Applications
What does this mean for us today? First, the genealogy shows that Jesus is the savor of every kind of person – men, women, adulterers, prostitutes, heroes, and gentile foreigners.
That includes those of us in this room whose own family histories and personal histories are filled to the brim with examples of our sinful depravity: Divorce, lust, abuse, criminal pasts, addictions, promiscuity, abortion, etc. The list of sins is huge, but none of them have the last word of the word of the Almighty God. Just look at one of the names on the list as an example. Rahab was a gentile prostitute who for her faith is ultimately incorporated into the people of God.
No one in the room is qualified to be here except that they have been granted a place in the kingdom by the grace of God shown in the cross of Christ. What gratitude we should have for that grace. And that grace is a call to action.
Martin Luther spoke this way about the questionable sinners who appear in Jesus’ family tree. He said, “Oh, Christ is the kind of person who is not ashamed by sinners – in fact, He even put them in His family tree.”
Notice that? God is sovereign. These sinners are in Jesus’ family tree by design, to show us how God redeems and saves his people.
But Luther didn’t stop there, and neither should we. There are radical implications for us because of the way God saves the unworthy sinner. Luther continued this line of thought: “Now if the Lord does that here, so ought we to despise no one … but put ourselves right in the middle of the fight for sinners and help them."3
Are you putting yourself right in the middle of the fight for sinners and helping them? Am I? Or do we want nothing to do with sinners at all? What many churches seemingly desire today is to have lots and lots of sinners come to church, but to do this by declaring that their sin really isn’t sin. So please join our nice club were sin is an unmentionable and will never be the cause of awkwardness or “exclusion.” Beloved, this text should show us that this kind of thing actually brings into the church a culture of death. It is the height of lovelessness to pretend that sin isn’t what it is, to avoid making mention of it, either from the pulpit or in our daily lives, for fear that someone might take offense. It is loving beyond measure to proclaim to everyone we come in contact with that sin has been defeated forever by a Jesus who himself had sinners in his own family tree. He accomplished the destruction of sin by paying the cost of sin and taking the full measure of God’s wrath upon himself, the wrath that we deserved. Jesus is king, Matthew says, and is worthy of all honor and glory and praise and love and joy. He is the fulfillment of everything God promised in the Old Testament, for Jew and Gentile alike, and also people such as ourselves. How about you? What’s your family tree like? Is it anything like Jesus’? Can you see how God used Jesus’ family history to show us that Jesus is our savior from even the most heinous sin? Come to Him now, if you haven’t already, repent, and believe. Amen.
1 I'm deeply indebted to Dale Bruner for this and other insights in this amazing gospel. He will be my scholarly, theological partner for this series.
2Bruner, Frederick Dale. Matthew: A Commentary. Vol 1. Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Eerdmans Pub., 2007. 14.
3Bruner, quoting Luther’s “Sermon on the Day of Mary’s Birth” 8 September 1522, W2, 11:2371.
Given at First Presbyterian Church in Jackson, Minnesota
July 24, 2011
17th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Copyright © 2011 by Christopher Donald Drew
Sunday, July 17, 2011
QOTD - Water and The Word
From N. D. Wilson's little treasure, entitled Notes from the Tilt-a-Whirl:
There is water somewhere in the world that ran down the body of the Word Himself as John, His cousin, baptized Him. No doubt it is water still, uncherished by man, known only by the Author of this story. Drops were chosen to serve as His tears beside Jerusalem, more were chosen to wait in His side for the tip of a Roman spear. They burst forth and completed their poetic calling, a flourish in the story, a picture within a picture."
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