Jesus of Nazareth: Atonement

Good morning!  Today, we will have a time of communion where we take the bread and the cup and remember our Lord Jesus.  But, before we do, we are going to continue in our current series, Sound Doctrine.   We have a very fitting subject for today as we continue to talk about Jesus our Savior.  We are going to talk about the Atonement.  It is through the Atonement that we are reconciled to God, so it is a pretty cool thing and a very big deal and one of the main things to reflect on when we take communion.  We don’t have so much time today, so let’s pray and jump right in to the topic.

Lord Jesus, we thank You that you came and lived a sinless life, that You sacrificed Yourself and allowed Yourself to be killed on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins.  Please help us right now to reflect on the amazing work that You accomplished to make things right between us and God.  Teach us we pray.  Amen.

Let’s start at the top.  What is atonement?

Jesus of Nazareth: Incarnation

Jesus said in the book of Revelation, “Behold! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.” –Revelation 3:20

Today, we have reached the last Sunday before Christmas.  I feel like in a lot of ways Christmas comes rushing upon me each year.  I know this familiar visitor.  I know it comes but once a year, and I know it comes the same time.  And yet, I don’t think I’m ever quite ready in one way or another. 

So, this last Sunday comes sort of like that verse from Revelation, “Behold!  Christmas stands on the door and knocks.”  Are you ready to open the door and let Christmas in?

Part of the struggle is trying to figure out what is Christmas anyway?  Christmas is supposed to be the celebration of Jesus’ birth.  In our culture, it has become just a teensy weensy bit about some other stuff than Jesus.

Jesus of Nazareth: The Object of Foreshadowing

Welcome! When I was a kid, my Mom would often take me to the library. I would check out as many books as they would let me and read like crazy. Mostly I picked fiction. Most of the books were forgettable, nothing special, although I would also read some of the classics. Once, though, when I was around age 10, I checked out The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis, the first of seven books about an alternate world called Narnia where a mysterious but good talking lion named Aslan ruled. I had read many other fantasy works, but with Narnia I was enraptured. I soon checked out and read the rest of the series, all 7 books, and they became my very favorite works of fiction. I would check them out of the library again and again and read them about once a year. I think the only other books I read more than twice were the Lord of the Rings books by Tolkien, which I read maybe three times. I kept rereading Narnia yearly through high school, and even in college, on summer and other breaks, I would read some of them again. During this time my own religious beliefs moved from Judaism (in which I had been raised) to full-blown atheism, but during all this time, my love of Narnia never waned.

Years later, in Graduate School, after reading through most of the Bible I became convinced that the Bible was true, and after an internal struggle, finally put my faith in Christ. Some months after this, something (I don’t remember what) made me think about the Narnia books again. And then it suddenly hit me – these books weren’t really, ultimately about a lion; the lion was written to be a picture of Christ. Upon making this realization, I was amazed. How could I have missed it? It was all so obvious now. I read them again and was shocked to see how they were filled with veiled references to Biblical truth on page after page after page. I was actually embarrassed that I hadn’t made the connection earlier, and I only told a few people about my discovery.

I tell this story because the Old Testament is like Narnia in a lot of ways – it too tells the story of Christ, but you need to know where to look. Unlike Narnia, which is fiction and also symbolic of Christ, the Bible is literal history but also symbolic of Christ. C.S. Lewis and others have said that the Bible is “true myth.” I would say it is true foreshadowing. But where do we look?

Jesus: The Focus of Prophecy

 

Welcome! Today we continue our series on Sound Doctrine, continuing our “mini series” on Jesus. Our drama had the surprise character “Holy,” that is, the Holy Spirit, who helped Riley to begin to live a life of grace and peace and, yes, joy, as she allowed Him to lead her life. Galatians 5:16 tells us to walk by the Spirit, and we will not gratify the desires of the flesh. A little later in Galatians 5 we are told of the fruit, or results, of the Holy Spirit: love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. A life yielded to God, a life seeking Him, wanting to know Him and follow Him, will be a life that demonstrates this fruit in increasing measure over time. I think of 2 Peter 1:3-4 –

His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness. Through these He has given us His very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. – 2 Peter 1:3-4

Do you believe this? I have heard one of the longest serving pastors in our association of churches, Herschel Martindale, speak on this passage multiple times, so much so that I can no longer read verse 3 without hearing his voice saying the words! He would ask you, do you really believe this? His divine power has given us everything we need (not a few things only but everything) for a godly life (not just an average life, or even a better-than-average life, but a godly life) through what? Knowing Him. He has called you by name. He knows you, and you are precious to Him. He has called you by His own glory (that’s a lot of glory!) and His own goodness. A life truly yielded to God, truly seeking to know God, a life led by “Holy,” is a life that over time you yourself will know is a life displaying the miraculous power of God. This power of complete transformation is available to you, to every believer.

Jesus of Nazareth: God and Man

A couple of weeks ago, Carl was asked during his teaching on man and woman to define Gnosticism. Unfortunately Carl’s teaching on the doctrine of man and woman went longer than expected and with the baptism scheduled directly afterwards he did not have time to give a clear definition.  So for completeness I will state the definition here before I start since it fits rather well with today’s topic of Jesus being fully God and fully man.

Gnosticism was a second century heresy claiming that salvation could be gained through secret knowledge. Gnosticism is derived from the Greek word gnosis, meaning "to know." Gnostics also believed that the material world (matter) was evil and that only the spirit is good. They constructed an evil God and the Old Testament to explain the creation of the world (matter), and they considered Jesus Christ a wholly spiritual God.

Gnostics were divided on Jesus. One view held that Jesus only appeared to have human form but that He was actually spirit only. The other view contended that Jesus’ divine spirit came upon His human body at baptism and departed before the crucifixion. Christianity, on the other hand, holds that Jesus was fully man and fully God and that His human and divine natures were both present and necessary to provide a suitable sacrifice for humanity's sin.

Humanity: Male and Female

 

Welcome! Today we continue our series on Sound Doctrine, this time is the second of three messages on humanity. Last week, John talked about the nature of man, “Soul and Spirit, Flesh and Bone.” This week we venture into an area that is controversial in the sense that our society has changed dramatically in what it believes to be true and right – the area of humanity as male and female. Now, I am the pastor among the three of us that generally develops sermon series and assigns teaching assignments. Fred has pointed out that in the past that I tend to give him the most controversial or difficult assignments. Fred is, by and large, right about this, although I have some good excuses – Fred is the one among us with significant training and experience as a counselor, and a lot of these difficult topics fall along these lines. This week’s topic is one I would consider controversial, so I would like to ask Fred to come up here and finish today’s message. Just kidding! Fred, this is an early Christmas present to you – stay in your seat! 

Humanity: Soul and Spirit, Flesh and Bone

We enter a new chapter today on this series on doctrine.  We began the series talking about the Bible: how it is unique, and how it is the basis of our understanding about God and the things of God (and really everything).  Then, we spent a couple of weeks talking about God and what He is like.  Most recently, we have been talking about God’s creation including last week’s topic, the spiritual creatures God made: angels.  Both the audio and transcripts for those messages are posted on the church website.  Just go to clemsoncc.org and look for the “Message Archive” on the left side.  Click there, and you can find whichever message you are interested in.  If you have trouble, let us know, and we will help you get what you need.

This week, we are beginning a three-week chapter about another spiritual creature God made.  We are going to talk about us.  … Humanity … Humankind … Man.

I started thinking about humanity and whence man came.  As is usual, when I wax philosophical, my mind usually wanders not to deep and hidden things but rather to the simple, so I naturally ended up at the familiar nursery rhyme.

“What are little boys made of? Slugs [or snips] and snails and puppy-dog tails; that's what little boys are made of.  What are little girls made of?  Sugar and spice and everything nice; that's what little girls are made of.”

God's Creation: A Little Higher than Us

This summer, Stephen Hawking, the wheelchair-bound physicist, helped launch a major new effort to search for signs of intelligent alien life. “The new initiative is scheduled to operate for 10 years and will search for signs of non-naturally occurring communications in both radio frequencies and laser transmissions. The initiative will scan the 1 million stars closest to earth in the Milky Way, as well as the 100 closest galaxies.”  At a media event for this project, explaining why he thought it was important and why he was personally supporting it, Hawking said, “We are alive. We are intelligent. We must know.”

Well, we do know. We are not the only intelligent beings in Creation. Apart from God Himself, there are also angelic beings. And so today we are going to look at what Scripture tells us about these beings.  

There is a lot we don’t know about angels. We do know that they are spiritual beings, whose purposes include helping us:

Are not all angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation? – Heb. 1:14

God's Creation: God's Works

Praise the Lord. I will extol the Lord with all my heart in the council of the upright and in the assembly. Great are the works of the Lord; they are pondered by all who delight in them. Glorious and majestic are His deeds, and His righteousness endures forever. He has caused His wonders to be remembered; the Lord is gracious and compassionate. He provides food for those who fear Him; He remembers His covenant forever. – Psalm 111:1-5

He has shown His people the power of His works, giving them the lands of other nations. The works of His hands are faithful and just; all His precepts are trustworthy. They are established for ever and ever, enacted in faithfulness and uprightness. He provided redemption for His people; he ordained His covenant forever—holy and awesome is His name. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; all who follow His precepts have good understanding. To Him belongs eternal praise. – Psalm 111:6-10

Welcome! Today we continue our series called Sound Doctrine and look at God’s works. Obviously this is quite a huge topic. I think we can broadly classify God’s works into three categories: God’s works of creation, God’s work of upholding His creation, and God’s works in dealing with man and creation, most notably His work of redemption accomplished through Jesus’ death and resurrection. We could spend forever on these topics, and we will talk about redemption in detail later in this series. For this reason, I am going to primarily focus on the first of these topics, God’s works of creation.  I will also touch on the second topic, God’s work of upholding His creation, although we will really deal with it more next week when we talk about God’s sovereignty.

God's Nature: Threeness in Oneness

Aloneness.  I can’t imagine anyone who’s never dealt with aloneness.  It doesn’t matter if you’re rich or poor, married or single, a teenager or elderly.  It’s one of the things we all have in common.

When I was a teenager I felt really alone.  I went to school, worked each week at an assisted living facility, ran a small lawn care business, worked around our family’s farm, spent time with my family, and went fishing, hunting, and camping, mostly by myself.  As I did all these things I had a nagging feeling, just wishing some guy from the church would just call me and spend some time with me.  

After a while, I did invite myself into a friendship with a couple guys in the church. We began to spend time with each other outside of the Thursday night men’s prayer meeting.  On Monday nights we spent time building unity through a very time honored tradition in the mountains of North Carolina. We watched the completely real sport of professional wrestling.  Some of you might call it “wrestling” but it is more accurately pronounced “wrastling.”  It may have seem silly from the outside looking in but it was important to me.

Throughout the whole Bible we see that God has provided solutions to this need that all of us have.  He’s provided a relationship with Him, a relationship with others in the church, marriage, and friendships in general.  But a friendship with God is foundational to all the other relationships.  In 1 John 1:3-4 it says, “We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. We write this to make our joy complete.”  God is giving us an invitation to be in fellowship with Himself and with the other believers.

God's Nature: Like Us

 

How many of you were excited when you saw that we would be doing a series on doctrine? To some people, doctrine sounds like a boring and impractical subject – the kind of thing that theologians sit around and debate academically. However, as Carl said at the beginning, it ought to be intensely practical and indeed vital to our Christian life: What do we actually believe and why? And what difference should it make to the way we live our lives day by day? How do we apply what the Bible teaches us? And how do we answer people who question our core beliefs?

So I actually love talking about doctrine. It can be a controversial subject, as you probably know. Devout and well-meaning believers have disagreed over several points of doctrine that are not clearly explained in the Bible. But these are not central to our understanding of who God is, what salvation means, and how we should live as followers of Jesus. We don’t need to be afraid of the areas where true Christians disagree. I really like the quote from Mark Twain: “It ain’t the parts of the Bible that I can’t understand that bother me, it’s the parts that I do understand.” 

The Bible: Living By God's Word

Welcome! Today we look at a tremendously important topic: what it means to live by God’s Word, the Bible. Because this is part of our series called Sound Doctrine, I want to start by talking about what theologians call the necessity and sufficiency of Scripture, and then we will talk about some practical principles and steps towards growing in the process of living by God’s Word.

So let’s start with the necessity of Scripture. In what sense is Scripture “necessary”? What does this mean? Well, one sense is in knowledge of the gospel, the good news that Christ died to save sinners, and that by believing in Him, in trusting Him, we can be forgiven and reconciled to God and experience eternal life with Him. I think of what Paul writes in Romans 10:

If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved. As Scripture says, “Anyone who believes in him will never be put to shame.” For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” – Romans 10:9-13 

The Bible: The Nature of God's Word

Last week, Carl launched us into a new series entitled Sound Doctrine.  Our foundation verse for this series is Titus 2:1, 

You, however, must teach what is appropriate to sound doctrine. 

He explained that doctrine is teaching, and, Biblical teaching or doctrine is both practical, applicable, and includes the theology behind it.

The basis of what we teach is critical.  If we have the wrong foundation behind what we teach, it is worthless.

Jesus quoted the book Isaiah, saying, 

“… you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition.  You hypocrites!  Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you: “‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings [doctrines] are but rules taught by men.’”

Jesus called the crowd to him and said, “Listen and understand. What goes into a man’s mouth does not make him ‘unclean,’ but what comes out of his mouth, that is what makes him ‘unclean.’”  --Matthew 15:6-11 

According to Jesus, wrong teaching or teaching things contradictory to what the Bible says makes our worship vain, without purpose, worthless.

The Bible: Introduction

Welcome to our new series, Sound Doctrine! What is a doctrine? In English, the word “doctrine” comes from the Latin word docere, which means “to teach,” and this word leads to doctor, which means “teacher,” and this word in turn leads to doctrina, which means “teaching.” In the context of Christianity, a doctrine is a teaching of what the Bible has to say about a particular topic. 

The title of our series alludes to Titus 2:1, which says,

You, however, must teach what is appropriate to sound doctrine. – Titus 2:1

To understand the “however” in this verse we need to look back in chapter 1. Here we find the following:

For there are many rebellious people, full of meaningless talk and deception, especially those of the circumcision group. They must be silenced, because they are disrupting whole households by teaching things they ought not to teach—and that for the sake of dishonest gain. – Titus 1:10-11

Living Expectantly

Matthew 24:32- 25:13

A Message from Jesus to the church:

“Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. Even so, when you see all these things, you know that it is near, right at the door. I tell you the truth, this generation* will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.”—Matthew 24:32-35 *Greek translated race

What thing is Jesus saying they will see?  The fourteen things that he had just prophesied about:

Responding to the Invitation

Matthew 21:28-44, 22:1-14

Good morning and welcome.  We are closing in on the end of this summer’s series on the parables of Jesus.  Today’s message is next to last.  Fred will close out the series next Sunday.

Somewhere back when Carl was putting the series together, he mentioned that we would be grouping the parables more topically rather than reading them chronologically which is exactly what we’ve done.  That’s one advantage of the series.  Each message stands on its own.  You should be able to pick up in any message without feeling lost.

It could just be a figment of my imaginative memory, but I also thought he mentioned back in those early discussions, we would not or might not cover all the parables.

How many parables did Jesus tell?  I’ve seen estimates between 40 and 46.  You might object, “How can you not know how many parables there are!”  Well, Jesus told parables more than once.  And, there are clearly parables that are similar but not the same.  The two parables last week were like that.  So, do you count those two as being the same or different?  There are other parables which are the same parable told at the same time, but recorded in more than one gospel.  If you count in order to get the maximum number of parables recorded including duplicates, you’ll end up with more than 60 in total.

Rewarding Faithfulness

Luke 19:11-27, Matthew 25:14-30

I love the word faithfulness. It’s not a very exciting or flashy word. A faithful person doesn’t really stand out from the crowd. Maybe faithful makes you think of an old dog that maybe isn’t too smart but always wants to be with you. But to be fair to dogs, their faithfulness is one of the things that makes them so appealing as pets and leads people to become so bonded with them. They are always glad to see you when you have been away. Their love (if you can really call it that) seems so simple and unconditional. They act like their lives revolve around you – which, I guess, they do.

I’m not sure that I want to use a dog as the best example of faithfulness. I wonder if they are guided more by instinct than by a conscious decision to love. But in any case, faithfulness is a wonderful quality in any relationship. We appreciate having faithful friends that we can count on to help us and support us in any circumstance. Of course, God, with his completely trustworthiness and unfailing love is our ultimate example of faithfulness, and faithfulness is what He calls us to in our relationship with Him.

Understanding God and Self

Luke 18:1-14

Welcome! How many of you have ever had to judge? If you have ever been on a jury you should raise your hand. If you are a parent you should certainly raise your hand. I think all of us at various times and in various ways are called on to judge, to make a decision about guilt or innocence or to decide what is appropriate going forward in some issue involving people. 

 

Today we look at two parables from Luke 18, and I would argue that both of these involve a judge. In the first parable this is very obvious, but if you think about it, you will see that it is also true in the second. The Old Testament has some powerful advice for judges that I think is as relevant today as it was when it was written, so I thought we would look at this first before going into our main passages today. The passage I want us to consider is from 2 Chronicles 19, and it involves the actions and instructions of Jehoshaphat king of Judah.

Grumbling over Grace

Matthew 20:1-16

Welcome! Today we continue our series on parables, looking at a parable from Matthew that I suspect on some level makes us all uncomfortable. Most translations of the Bible, in order to make things easier to find, add headings or titles to sections of Scripture. It is important to remember that these headings are not part of the Scriptures themselves; they are additions made by the editor of the particular translation. Our passage today is Matthew 20:1-16, and the heading in the NIV is “The Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard,” but I prefer a title more like “The Parable of the Unconventional Landowner.” 

When a landowner, or more generally, a business owner, is unconventional in a good way, especially when it is obvious how much he cares for his workers or clients, we take note, because this is, generally speaking, a rare thing. I think of the classic movie as It’s a Wonderful Life an example. George Bailey, the central character, was the epitome of a generous and selfless man. Although George as a young man had big plans to go to college and build a career away from his home town, a series of circumstances leads George to forgo these and other plans in order to help his brother and to save his father’s business, a bank. Although it is not his desire, George eventually takes over the bank and starts a housing project, and there he is generous, kind, and merciful to his clients and tenants, so much so that when George himself ends up in a severe financial and legal bind as a result of his uncle’s carelessness, the entire town comes together to cover his financial needs. 

Planning Ahead

Luke 16:1-15, 19-31

Our title for today holds a certain irony for me, as I was well on my way toward preparing a message on the Parable of the Talents, until on Friday I realized that my passages for today were supposed to be from Luke 16: the Parables of the Shrewd Manager and of The Rich Man and Lazarus. So my “planning ahead” had gone awry, except that I will be speaking on the Talents passage in August, so my work was not actually wasted. There is also overlap in some of the concepts that Jesus is teaching about, so it has been good to think about those beforehand. So anyway, you can think about today’s message as the first of two that I will do on the teachings of Jesus concerning how to handle money and possessions.

You may be aware that 16 of the 38 parables in the gospels have something to do with money and possessions and that the Bible as a whole has more verses on money and wealth than on prayer, faith, and salvation combined. Jesus recognized the importance of wealth and possessions – but also their potential to lead us away from God. The function of wealth has been corrupted by sin. What God intended as an expression and source of blessing has become a source of pride and security apart from God. People think that money gives them control over their lives and allows them to live autonomously. Money is a source of status and power – just look at our political system. As 1 Timothy 6:10 puts it, the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.

Losing and Finding

Luke 15:3-32

Welcome! Today we continue our series on the parables of Jesus, and we come to some of the most well-known, most discussed parables of all. Lots and lots of people who have never cracked open a Bible to read it for themselves still know something about these parables. And for those of us who have gone to church for many years, it can be hard to look at these parables freshly, attentively, because we think there is nothing else that can be said, nothing new to learn.

 But I challenge you today to fight against this attitude, to believe in faith that God can still stir your heart freshly with these parables. These parables are well-known, oft-discussed for a reason: they are powerful. They are deep. Actually they are amazingly rich, in my opinion the magnum opus (great work) of parable writing for all time.

When we began this series I explained that a parable literally a “laying alongside,” a telling of a story with common everyday scenes and situations to draw an easily understood picture to tell us something about something else, a spiritual truth, something more abstract, something deeper, something that is otherwise harder to understand. Now there are lots of different reasons spiritual things can be difficult to understand. One that you might first think of is that it is strange, complex, seemingly even self-contradictory, like the twin Biblical truths of predestination and free will, or the nature of God as three-in-one. But another reason a spiritual truth can be hard to grasp is because we just can’t accept it; it goes against a core belief we have that we just can’t seem to abandon. I would argue that today’s parables are really in this latter category.

Being a True Disciple

Luke 14:25-35

… Jesus … said:  “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be my disciple. And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.

“Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it? For if he lays the foundation and is not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule him, saying, ‘This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.’

“Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Will he not first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace. In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.

“Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is fit neither for the soil nor for the manure pile; it is thrown out.

“He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”  Luke 14:25-35

Deferring Honor

Luke 14:7-24

I think we all have some fear that we will go through life unnoticed.  It starts at an early age.  I see it in my children.  I remember it from my own childhood.  What are the two favorite words of a little child?  “Look daddy!” or “Look mommy!”  “Whoa, that’s amazing!” a parent exclaims while trying to hide to hide the fact that they’ve seen it a million times.  “Did you see me?” a child will ask.  And believe me, you’d better be looking or you might have to see it another ten times to make up for the one time you missed it.

Fast forward to the teenage years.  A girl finally gets the boy of her dreams.  She’s felt insecure and things aren’t going well at home for her parents.  She’s looking for love, for someone to notice her.  She’s looking for someone to make her feel worthy.  

A teenage boy will give in to peer-pressure.  He’ll give in to alcohol, drugs or some other illegal activity because he feels respected by other guys for doing those things.  

Later in life there’s jockeying for position and all kinds of politics while moving up the corporate latter.  “The only way I can move up,” the desperate employee thinks, “is to make myself look better than anyone else.  Then I can finally be respected.  I’ve got to look out for me first or I’ll be out of a job.”

Helping and Seeking Help

Luke 10:25-42, Luke 11:5-8

It’s great to be back with you today, after what seemed to be a very long trip for me – 8 weeks since I was last here with you in church. Having missed so many of the messages in this series I am a little worried about repeating what others have said, but I’m confident that you will bear with me if I do. Our topic today, Helping and Seeking Help, is an appropriate one, considering what I recently experienced concerning relief efforts in Nepal in the aftermath of the devastating earthquakes on April 25^th and May 12^th (I was in Nepal for the second one) that killed more than 8000 people and destroyed about half a million homes. One of the encouraging things that I saw was an outpouring of love and compassion by Nepali Christians who wanted to reach out to help the people in the most-affected areas. In many cases, they were the “first responders,” and people did notice that they were generally the most equitable and unselfish in providing food and other necessities. We’ll see today how important this kind of “love in action” is in our response to God’s call on our lives.

Good Servitude

Luke 17:7-10, Matthew 18:23-34

Welcome! Today we talk about what it means to be a good servant. Now, as a culture, as a people, we have a really hard time even understanding or relating to this, let alone living it. The Greek word used for servant is doulos, which really means “slave.” In America we still haven’t recovered from the centuries of cruelty of racially-based slavery that were an important part of our history. To us, any thought of slavery is repugnant, disgusting, so much so that it is difficult for us to really enter into Biblical discussions that involve servants without imposing our modern types of thinking on top of it. This is a form of emotional baggage, and we need to overcome it if we are to understand the two parables that we will look at today.

It may help to discuss a little the nature of slavery in New Testament Bible times. Slavery then was just part of life. The average person probably didn’t have any slaves, but even in a smaller village, one or more of the better-off families probably would have one (most likely) or several slaves.

Good Shepherding

Matthew 18:12-14, John 10:1-18

Good morning!  Today’s parables lead us into familiar territory.  I think both of these parables are some of the best known and most often cited.  In fact, in an email to Carl, I described these as “cush” passages to deliver a message on.

Before we start talking about shepherding, it probably makes sense to take a look at sheep.  Does anyone have experience with sheep or sheep raising?  No?  Neither do I.  I know of one pastor out west who raised a few sheep.  I’m not sure if that was to learn more about them or because that’s just what he had experience with.  

Here’s a picture of a rather unusual sheep.  His name is Shrek, and we’ll come back to him in a minute.

Obtaining Treasure

Matthew 13: 44-52

Let’s turn to our passage in Matthew 13:44-52. To put these passages in context we have to back up to verse 36:

Then He left the crowd and went into the house. His disciples came to him and said, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field.”

He answered, “The one who sowed the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world, and the good seed stands for the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one, and the enemy who sows them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels.

“As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear."  --Matthew 13:36-43

Here Jesus jumps from the harvest to the Kingdom.

Godly Growing

Mark 4:26-32, Matthew 13:33-35

Welcome! Today we look at several parables of Jesus that relate to growing. The first parable comes from Mark chapter 4.

He also said, “This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. All by itself the soil produces grain—first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head. As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come.” – Mark 4:26-29

Last summer we planted several tomato plants. There was one variety we planted last year but did not plant again this year. However, at the location where we grew this variety last year, a tomato plant is growing again. What happened? Well, we had at least one tomato that was touching the ground as it grew, and bugs got in it. What we think happened is that seeds from that one fruit found their way to the ground and this year began to grow. We did even less than what the man did in this parable, and the man didn’t do much, did he? 

Unfaithfulness

Luke 12:42-48, 13:6-9

Welcome! Today we continue our series on the parables. Our passages today are both from Luke, chapter 12 verses 42 to 48 and chapter 13 verses 6 to 9. But I want to start one verse earlier, Luke 12:41. This verse occurs right after Jesus teaches another parable, one that we looked at last week about being dressed ready for service and keeping your lamps burning like servants waiting for their master to return from a wedding banquet. It concludes with a statement that you must also be ready because the Son of Man will come at a time when you do not expect Him. Anyway, here is the next verse, Luke 12:41:

Peter asked, “Lord, are you telling this parable to us, or to everyone?” – Luke 12:41

I think this is a great question, not just with regards to this particular parable, but for every parable. And to be even more specific, I think the question we really want to ask is “Lord, is this parable for me? Do I need to worry about this? Or is this for other people, maybe unbelievers, or maybe leaders, or someone else?”

Readiness

Luke 12:15-21, Luke 12:35-40

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XlCcQMRM9E (4:00-7:30)

Aside from the fact that the video is cool, why did I decide to start the message with it?  Well, on Friday, I happened to read this verse (Psalm 10:6):

“… the words of the LORD are flawless, like silver refined in a furnace of clay, purified seven times.”

I underlined it in my Bible because it just brought home to me again how precious the words of Jesus are.  God tells us that we will give an account for every idle word we’ve spoken (Matthew 12:36).  Now, if we are going to give account for our words and Jesus is our perfect example, it is reasonable to conclude that His words are perfect, none of them are spoken idly.

Here we are studying through the parables of Jesus.  Reflect for a moment that each word of Jesus and each word of His parables is flawless.  It is like silver refined in a furnace.

In the video, you saw silver refined once.  The words of the Lord are flawless like silver refined seven times.  We recognize that the number seven in the Bible represents completeness.  Silver refined seven times would then be completely pure.

Receiving

Luke 7:41-47, 8:16-18

“Two men owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he canceled the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?”

Simon replied, “I suppose the one who had the bigger debt canceled.”

You have judged correctly,” Jesus said.

Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little.” –Luke 7:41-47

Loving comes through receiving.  We are a “pull myself up by my own bootstraps” society in America.  Our society takes pride in being able to come back from adversity, to overcome failure, to resuscitate an economy, to fight back our enemies and to invent a greater future.  We are very self-reliant.  

Building

Matthew 9:16-17, 5:14-15; Luke 6:46-49

Good Morning!  Welcome to our ongoing series on the parables of Jesus.  Many of these parables are well-known to us. From the earliest ages, we learn parables.   Perhaps you noticed that the verse on the front of the bulletin: "The wise man built his house upon a rock, and the rains came a tumbling down … The rains came down and the floods came up, and the house on the rock stood firm."  It’s not a direct quote from the Bible, but rather a paraphrase of one of today’s parables taken from the children’s song.  These stories are familiar to many.

And yet, even though we’ve heard some of them times again and again, and even though Jesus explained some of them directly to the disciples in the gospels; there are still passages which hold treasures which we have not grasped totally.  There are also parables that we maybe don’t understand so well.  What was Jesus getting at anyway?