Tag: Redemption

MARY, DID YOU KNOW?

“Mary, Did You Know?” is the title of a famous Christmas song, and the following is a stanza from this beautiful song:  

Mary, did you know that your baby boy is Lord of all creation? Mary, did you know that your baby boy would one day rule the nations? Did you know that your baby boy is heaven’s perfect Lamb? That sleeping child you’re holding is the great I Am…

Of course, the biblical answer to the question “Mary, did you know?” is a resounding Yes and No. By the angelic decree from the Archangel Gabriel, by the miraculous testimony of Mary’s cousin Elizabeth, and by the power of the Holy Spirit within her, as well as by the report of the Bethlehem shepherds, Mary the Mother of our Lord did know that the infant Jesus in her arms would be the Messiah and Savior of Israel. However, she could not have known at that early point the full extent of the meaning of her firstborn baby boy. In fact, it wasn’t until forty days later that Mary started to get a greater awareness of the cosmic significance of Jesus’ conception, birth and life.

After Yeshua (Jesus) had been circumcised and incorporated into the Abrahamic Covenant at eight days old, Joseph and Mary later took the forty-day-old Jesus to the Temple in Jerusalem “to present him to the Lord” as it says in Luke 2:22. For it was there in the Jerusalem Temple that the Prophets Simeon and Anna gave to Mary and Joseph the first prophetic glimpse of Jesus’ universal mission and ministry for all humanity. As Simeon and Anna beheld the infant Messiah, it was revealed through them that Jesus would be the salvation and redemption of “all peoples” (Luke 2:31), including both the Nation of Israel and the Gentile Nations. Moreover, it was revealed that day in the Temple that Jesus would be opposed by many, and that this opposition to Jesus would be “a sword” that would pierce Mary’s soul as well (Luke 2:35).

Many years later, with the events of Holy Week and Pentecost, all these prophecies came to pass. For Mary’s heart was pierced as she witnessed Jesus’ crucifixion as Heaven’s Perfect Lamb every agonizing step of the way to the Hill of Golgotha. Then she witnessed his post-resurrection appearances, and she was there at Pentecost when the Universal Church of Jesus Christ was born.

This year during the Season of Advent leading up to the Twelve Days of Christmastime, we will ponder Mary’s experience with Heaven’s Perfect Lamb at our midweek “Holden Evening Prayer” worship services at 7pm on the Wednesdays of December 4th, 11th, and 18th.

Good Advent & Merry Christmas!!! Pastor Tim

THE AUTHORITY OF JESUS

This year, St. Valentine’s Day falls on Ash Wednesday. So in 2024, we essentially have an annual celebration of love wrapped up together with an annual commemoration of mortality. Consequently, this strange juxtaposition of the romance of Valentine’s Day with the solemnity of Ash Wednesday highlights the fact that this world is often a mixed bag of the joyous and the sorrowful, the wholesome and the broken. In fact, we’ve seen this mixed-bag reality on stark display within current events, both nationally and internationally. Moreover, the Bible readings for our Sunday worship services recently have been focused on Jesus’ spiritual warfare against evil spiritual forces. Therefore, we’re reminded by everything I just mentioned above that our world’s physical conflicts, both locally and globally, are actually reflections of immense spiritual conflicts.

Throughout the Four Gospels of the New Testament, we see our Lord Jesus on the march against the demonic forces that oppress and bedevil humanity. From town to town, and from synagogue to synagogue, we see Jesus in the Gospels continually on the move to cast out demons and bring us healing. And it’s not insignificant that Jesus often used the setting of a synagogue as the arena of his spiritual combat. For even the meaning of the word synagogue has something to say about this.

Although the word synagogue describes a Jewish congregation of faith, it’s actually a word of Greek origin due to the widespread Greco-Roman influence on the ancient Mediterranean world. So, synagogue literally means “together bring” or “together gather.” And this is like other such words with the “syn“ prefix: words like synthesis (meaning “together stated” or “together put forth”) and synod (meaning “together path” or “together journey”). So, over and over in the New Testament, we see Jesus moving ever onward to synagogue with us (to “gather together” with us) and to synod with us (to “journey together” with us) in order to engage with the demonic forces of the spiritual realm, and to heal us with the good news of mercy and redemptive love freely granted to us in faith by his sacrificial death and resurrection life.

Furthermore, Jesus does this healing and restoring of our souls through three principle ways: 1) through his teachings, 2) through his forgiveness, and 3) through his rebuking of evil spiritual forces. That is, Jesus synagogues with us and synods with us in order to provide us with the deep personal healing of his Divine Guidance (his teachings), of his Divine Absolution (his forgiveness of sins), and of his Divine Authority (his absolute sovereignty over all spiritual powers). So just as Yahweh-God in the Old Testament rebuked the waves of the Red Sea to lead the Israelites into freedom, our Lord Jesus Christ also rebukes the demonic disorder and chaos of our world in order to restore us to the right-guidance and wholeness of God’s goodness. For example, when Jesus was confronted with someone who had an impure spirit in Mark 1, he immediately silenced this corrupt spirit and cast it out. And he did so with no magical incantation; no wizarding spell or potion; no sorcerer’s abracadabra. It’s simply because of his Divine Authority as the Son of God through his Word of Command.

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, we all know that the year ahead is going to be a conflicted one because of a very contentious US Presidential election and a very unstable global system. But as Christians, we also know that all of these things are physical manifestations of the much larger spiritual warfare that is being fought. Yet we have a Commander and Champion who has absolute authority, always provoking and exposing any and all unclean spirits that vie for our hearts and minds — any and all impure philosophies or theologies or spiritualities we might have.

Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, constantly challenges any and all bad ideologies so that we might be healed from these demonic spirits. For Jesus wants us to be rightly-guided by the good order and original blessing that God intended for us and his whole creation from the very beginning of it all. He wants us to synagogue together and to synod together (“gather together” and “journey together”) according to his Word, knowing that whenever we begin speaking and sharing Jesus’ good news of his grace and truth to seek and save the lost ones of our world then that’s when the unclean spirits can be provoked and stirred-up. But our Lord Jesus Christ himself commands these unclean spirits to “Be silent!” and to “Come out!” By the Divine Authority of his Holy Word and the Divine Power of his Holy Spirit, our Lord Jesus frees us from the disorder and chaos of the various demonic forces we encounter within this fallen and sinful world, and he restores us by his grace (over and over again) unto his original blessing — unto the good order, wholeness and true fulfillment of God’s uncorrupted intention for his creation.

Together in Christ, Pastor Tim

OUR BLESSED ASSURANCE

Our human sinfulness alienates us from God our Creator, but the wonderful and amazing good news is that Jesus Christ gives us everlasting salvation from this self-imposed alienation, granting us reconciliation with God and eternal heavenly life. This is our blessed assurance in Christ! Thanks be to God!

This blessed assurance of God’s grace through Jesus Christ is not merely some broad, uncertain appeal to the generic mercy of God. Rather, through the compassionate life, sacrificial death and redemptive resurrection of Jesus our Lord, we have absolute assurance of our atonement and salvation with God. What good news indeed! What amazing grace this is!

Fully acknowledging and confessing that we are sinners who have alienated ourselves from God, we believe and trust that Jesus Christ died for our sins and was raised for our redemption. Therefore, by the power of his Holy Spirit, we profess him as our Savior who gives us renewal of life here and heavenly life hereafter. So now, in thanksgiving and praise for Christ’s gospel of salvation and eternal life, I would like to simply bless you with the following Bible quotations:

ROMANS 10:9-13

For if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For one believes with the heart and so is justified, and one confesses with the mouth and so is saved. The scripture says, “No one who believes in him will be put to shame.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; the same Lord is Lord of all and is generous to all who call on him. For, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

SECOND CORINTHIANS 4:16-17

So we do not lose heart. Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. For this slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure…

Brothers and sisters, this life is so brief, and, compared to a heavenly eternity with God, this life is really a fleeting bubble in a stream or flash of lightning in a cloud. And in response to the faith and hope and eternal salvation we have received through Jesus Christ our Lord, we seek to live this present mortal life in light of these great gifts, looking forward to the ultimate fulfillment of God’s Kingdom at the great Second Advent of Christ. With that in mind, I conclude this brief article with the words of the timeless hymn, Blessed Assurance:

Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine!
Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine!
Heir of salvation, purchase of God,
Born of His Spirit, washed in His blood.

Happy & Blessed Eastertide!!!  Pastor Tim

SIGNAL BEACONS FOR CHRIST

It’s the Third Day of Christmastime as I write this article and New Year’s Eve is several days away. Many people still have most of their Christmas decorations out in observance of the Twelve Days, and I recently noticed a front yard Nativity display with an illuminated set of Holy Family figurines. And, interestingly, the light coming from the Baby Jesus was flashing on and off. So I had a quick chuckle about it, but the image of that flashing-light Baby Jesus has stayed with me.

Our Lord Jesus taught us, “Let your light so shine before others, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 5:16). And in the context of Matthew chapter 5, Jesus was talking about shining the light of gospel mercy and gospel faithfulness for the sake of all people, including for the sake of our adversaries and enemies. So, considering the blinking-light Baby Jesus I saw, I wonder if we need to shine his gospel light more like a signal beacon these days, rather than like an oil lamp.

A signal beacon is an intentionally conspicuous light that is designed to attract attention to a specific location or for a specific purpose. For example, signal fires were lit in ancient times to call for aid. Lighthouse beacons (both ancient and modern) are used to alert ships. And electric signal lights are used within all the various modes of transportation: automotive, locomotive, nautical, aerial and astronautical. Therefore, similar to the flashing-light Baby Jesus figurine I saw, we Christians sometimes (maybe even oftentimes) need to shine our light for Christ like an attention-getting signal beacon. Maybe more often than not, we should be conspicuous about our Christian faith and hope in order to draw attention to the good news of Jesus Christ that has the power to change lives. For the Apostle Paul states in Romans chapter 1, “I am not ashamed of the gospel; it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed through faith for our life of faith” (Romans 1:16-17).

As Christians, we profess that the grace and truth of Jesus Christ is the answer to all of our spiritual and relational ills. When hearts are changed by the love of God revealed in Christ, then the elderly are respected more, children are cared for more, racial bigotry is reduced within people of all ethnicities, the hungry are fed, and so on. This is the reign of God among us. Hearts and minds are changed, lovingkindness flourishes, society is improved, and there’s a multiplication of the people of faith. And this, in fact, is how Christianity first expanded out into our world, and it’s how it best grows even today.

Block by block, person by person, neighbor by neighbor, relative by relative, the signal beacon Light of Jesus Christ shining through our gospel testimony and good works (imperfect though we be at this) will guide people home to the salvation, peace and joy of Christ. And this also has the wonderful side effect of benefitting all of society as well. When people have their hearts changed by the grace of God in Christ, they tend to take more personal responsibility for their lives, while, at the same time, they tend to be drawn together to take more social responsibility for the sake of others.

So throughout 2022, may we become signal beacons for Christ more and more. May we let the light of the gospel shine (and even blink and flash) before others, for the glory of God and for the redemption of our world.

Happy New Year!!! Pastor Tim

LENTEN PLOWING & SEEDING

The good news of Jesus Christ is for the desperate. Those who recognize their sinful condition and their desperate need for God’s grace are the target audience of his gospel. And recognizing our basic spiritual desperation is the very thing that readies us to receive the all-surpassing consolation and salvation that can only come through the Living Word of God, Christ Jesus our Lord.

Due to the fall of humanity, allegorized in the Garden of Eden narrative, the fallen condition of the spiritual soil of the human soul is nothing but rocks, hardpan, weeds and thistles. Consequently, “good soil” within the human heart is not so much found as it is created. Just like it is with farming, soil suitable for planting must first be prepared by clearing, weeding and plowing.

Therefore, our hearts need repentance to be prepared to receive the seed of the gospel of Christ. When we sinners have the soil of our hearts broken up by the sharp plow blade of God’s biblical law, then our hearts are made repentantly soft and joyfully able to receive God’s gospel of grace. And the Season of Lent is a very useful time of year to get spiritually plowed up by God’s biblical law and prepared again to be planted anew with God’s saving grace in Christ.

Technically speaking, farmers do not plow to make the soil productive, but rather for the purpose of making the planted seed productive. That’s what God does with us, and that’s what he wants to do anew this Lenten Season. He wants to soften us up for an effective implantation of the grace of the gospel. Through the dying and rising of Jesus the Son of God, it is God’s righteousness alone that grants us this renewal, not our own righteousness. For indeed our human righteousness is so flawed and inadequate that God (who is totally good and holy and pure) regards it as something that is soiled and foul smelling at best, because our human righteousness is compromised by sinful pride and selfish gain. 

“All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteousness is like filthy rags; we all wither like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.”

Isaiah 64:6

Jesus comes to transform the curse of the soil of the human heart. He comes to give us an honest and contrite heart that appreciates its own sinful condition and desperately longs to be renewed by him through his saving gospel. For only a contrite heart can genuinely appreciate its need for the atonement and redemption that cannot be produced by our own merit, but must be first planted within us by our loving God.

“You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.”

Psalm 51:16-17

May the Lord of grace and truth make our fallen and sinful hearts to be soft and receptive, may he take hold of us and lead us with him through his sufferings of the Garden of Gethsemane and the Cross of Golgotha, and may he raise us up to new life in him.

“Thanks be to God, who always leads us as captives in Christ’s triumphal procession and uses us to spread everywhere the fragrance of knowing him. For we are the pleasing aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing.”

Second Corinthians 2:14-15

Good Lent & Blessed Holy Week!

Pastor Tim

AN ALL-INCLUSIVE PRAYER FOR 2021

Almighty and wonder-full God, we are thankful for your all-encompassing, all-pervading and eternal Presence.

Our thanks and praise belong to you alone, O God of all, because you are the One Source of all being and goodness. In you we live, move and have our being, and by your sovereign grace we receive salvation, wholeness and renewal.

We thank you for the birth, life, teachings, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ our Lord. We thank you for the redemptive suffering of Jesus, endured by him from the Garden of Gethsemane to the Cross of Golgotha (a suffering which exposed the total depravity of our sinful human condition every step of the way), and we thank you for Jesus’ sacrificial offering of himself for our everlasting atonement and reconciliation. Moreover, we thank and praise you for the empty tomb and ascension of Jesus which declare your Final Word of life, light and love eternal.

Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer — Father, Son and Holy Spirit — you are in charge and you lead the way. You never leave us nor forsake us, and your steadfast love endures forever. Whether we live or die, we are yours. In this life and the next, we are secure in your hands.

By your sovereign grace and divine will, you call us, claim us and draw us to yourself. You lead us on paths we do not yet know. There is a tomorrow we cannot see, and there are bends in the road we cannot know. But we know you will faithfully lead us according to your plan and purpose, because you are the Faithful One.

By your amazing grace, we travel the journey of this life. By your grace, we keep our minds focused on you. By your grace, we live God-conscious lives, a daily relationship of moment-by-moment dialogue with you. By your grace, we trust in you, no matter what happens or doesn’t happen. And by your grace, we follow you and abide in you.

By your grace, what joy and peace you give to us!!!

And in response to your infinite grace and absolute love, we live lives of worship, prayer, Holy Scripture study, tenderheartedness, lovingkindness, faithfulness, justice, hospitality and charity.

O Lord God, we pray for the world, this diverse arena you have created to work out your infinite grace and purposes for us and all things. We know that destruction and rebirth are a part of your creative will for the natural world. We know that you are in all creation and all creation is in you. Help us to use times of crisis as opportunities for serving those in need and sharing your truth.

O God, we know that you establish, disestablish and reestablish your earthly community throughout the ages. Beginnings, endings and new beginnings all flow from your creative and redemptive activity. We pray that in times of adversity you will draw us closer to you all the more.

Help us to see your Unity in the diversity of our world, O God, and help us to see that we are all united in you through your Holy Spirit. Help us to see we are of One Love and One Heart in you.

O God, for your universal glory and for our eternal benefit, help us to see and understand all of this according to the faith, hope and love of your Living Word, Jesus Christ our Lord.

You are Love… You are Sovereign… You are True…

Wonder-full God, the great “I Am” of the Scriptures, we pray all these things in the saving name of Jesus Christ and by the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The grace and peace of Christ be with you all in 2021! Pastor Tim

GOD’S WORKMANSHIP MADE FOR A PURPOSE

I’ve watched a lot of craftsmanship videos on YouTube over the past several weeks, and I find glasswork to be especially interesting. And in a lot of ways, the glasswork craft reminds me of the creative and redeeming work of Almighty God in our lives.

Like glass in the hand of the glass smith (or glass blower), God shapes, molds and fashions us all — including the entire cosmos as well. So in God’s divine work of creation and re-creation, we often undergo a process of shattering, melting and reforming according to the mysterious grand design of the great Master Craftsman of the Universe.

God has an aim and desire for each of his beautiful works of art, and we are here for an appointed time and place, here for a divine purpose that only God fully understands, and then we return to God who is the Source and Foundation of all life. In other words, it’s as the fictional character Hugo says in Hugo the movie:

“I’d imagine the whole world was one big machine. Machines never come with any extra parts, you know. They always come with the exact amount they need. So I figured, if the entire world was one big machine, I couldn’t be an extra part. I had to be here for some reason. And that means you have to be here for some reason, too.”

The amazing truth is that God creates, establishes, destroys, dissolves, renews, re-creates and re-establishes all that is, both seen and unseen. God is the Creator, the Re-Creator and the Sustainer. God is Father, Son and Holy Spirit (our Source, Savior and Sanctifier).

In life, in death, and in life beyond death, God is the constant Eternal Truth. And this gives us such a great inner peace, hope, and joy, because we are all in the ever-faithful hands of our wonderful, steadfast Lord God Almighty. In sickness or in health, in pleasure or in pain, in plenty or in scarcity, in life or in death, in this world or in the world to come, we are all God’s masterwork. We are God’s beautiful creatures and beloved children under the ultimate care of God’s supreme, everlasting grace — in good times and in bad times, from here to eternity.

So we place our trust in The One who is most trustworthy, and we take to heart the solid, unshakable promises of God’s Word in the Holy Scriptures. For thus says the Lord:

“We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus…”

EPHESIANS 2:10a

“Listen! I am standing at the door, knocking; if you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to you and eat with you, and you with me.”

REVELATION 3:20

God is always knocking at the doorway of our heart. So let us listen to his biblical Word, and let us prayerfully open up the door to him. The Lord is knocking, so let us open the door and feast together on his grace and truth every single day of our life.

Wonderful God, we pray that you would guide us to listen for you and empower us to open our hearts to you all of our days. Help us to grow to trust you more fully. And in this beautifully diverse world that you have placed us for a reason and purpose, make us to see you more clearly, love you more dearly, and walk with you more nearly through lives of praise, thanksgiving, charity and service. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, we pray. Amen.

Grace & Peace! Pastor Tim

LAVISHLY MANAGING GOD’S RICHES OF GRACE

In my sermon on Sunday, September 22nd, I discussed The Parable of the Dishonest Manager from Jesus’ discourse in chapter 16 of the Gospel of Luke. In this sermon, I stated that this is arguably Jesus’ most provocative parable, ranking right up there with The Parable of the Day Laborers.

In his shockingly backwards Parable of the Dishonest Manager, Jesus tells a story about a man who scams his employer and is then commended for it by that same employer. In this parable, we hear about a dishonest financial manager who knew that he was going to be dismissed by his employer, so he began to slash the debts of his employer’s debtors in order to make some friends for himself and secure his future. If it had not been bad enough that the manager had cheated his rich employer for some period of time, the manager then proceeded to cheat him even more by destroying the old bills and writing ones for lesser amounts for the employer’s debtors. The manager reasoned that, when he left the rich employer’s service, he just might secure a position in one or more of the households whose bills he had altered. Then to conclude this parable, Jesus completely throws us a curveball with the most bizarre twist. Very strangely, the manager in this parable is lauded and commended by his employer for being so shrewd and resourceful.

On a fundamental level, this seemingly crazy Parable of the Dishonest Manager simply does not make sense to us at all. It seems to go in stark contradiction to our basic sense of what’s right and just and true. Of course, it really is upside down, unrighteous and unjust if we literally apply this parable to our financial matters and business practices. However, if we understand this parable in a strictly spiritual sense, then it makes abundant sense.

Our Lord Jesus Christ gave the perfect and ultimate offering for our sins, in order to redeem us and restore us to full fellowship with God. Through his perfect compassionate life and his ultimate sacrificial love, our debt to God is completely canceled! PAID IN FULL. No cosmic bills hanging over our heads. No spiritual shut-off notices to worry about.

So the great question is the following: What can we give back to The One who loves us and forgives all our sins, who continually gives new life in Christ, who imbues inner peace and joy, and who grants eternal hope?

On the one hand, we cannot give anything — for anything we could give is as nothing compared to so much infinite divine grace. But on the other hand, we give absolutely everything. In response to the complete self-giving of God to us through Christ our Savior, God wants our whole being (heart and soul) in return.

Very truly, our beloved Lord desires our whole being in return for the infinite-all that he gives to us. And according to his Parable of the Dishonest Manager, God wants us to be as shrewd, clever, resourceful and urgent in spiritual matters as are secular people in financial matters. This is what Jesus means when he says in Luke 16: “For the children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light. And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth so that when it is gone, they may welcome you into the eternal homes” (verses 8-9). In other words, Jesus stresses the urgency to be shrewd and resourceful in our management of the spiritual riches of God’s grace, and to do this by lavishly disseminating and extravagantly disbursing the great riches of his grace.

Almighty God passionately desires us to shrewdly, resourcefully and urgently share the riches of his grace and truth with everyone everywhere! And God promises that we will be commended for it and welcomed into our eternal home through this very same grace and truth that we’ve so lavishly shared with others.

Together in Christ’s Mission! Pastor Tim