“Victory In Jesus”

Scripture: Zephaniah 3:14-17; 1 Corinthians 15:51-57; 1 John 5:1-5

What is there about sports victories that everyone gets so excited over? When our favorite team wins the Super Bowl, or the World Series, or the Stanley Cup, or any Championship for that matter, what’s in it for us? Do we get a share of the winning team’s prize money? Do we get a Super Bowl ring or World Series ring? Do we get a parade in our honor, or a visit to the White House to be congratulated by the President?

None of this – we get nothing of worth, and probably only get bragging rights over our friends who routed for the other team, and since bragging is closely related to pride, we shouldn’t be bragging, either! So the victory that others achieve in this world hold no benefit whatsoever to us. (And don’t anyone tell me that you won money betting on those games either – we don’t even want to go there!)

There is only one victory that any of us should ever rejoice over, and that is the victory over sin and death that comes to us by faith in Jesus Christ. He took on the hatred that reigned throughout the world, he took on the sin that holds everyone in its death grip, and he took the finality of physical death and changed it into a step toward eternal life. There is nothing that can ever defeat the person who believes in the “way, truth and life” of Christ, and claims the way to salvation that only exists through faith and trust in Jesus.

Today, our Lenten hymn is “Victory in Jesus”.

Read Zephaniah 3:14-17

The prophet is trying his hardest to awaken the people from their spiritual slumber. And rightly so – I believe that the only thing worse than our sin of denial is our sin of complacency. I know people who hold some very strange ideas of what sin is, and why forgiveness isn’t really needed. Many believe that on the Day of Judgment, the Lord Judge is going to give complete forgiveness to the entire world, since the beginning of time, regardless of whether they have any relationship with Christ Jesus or not. I’m not sure where they read that in scripture, but I’ve only found the direct opposite to be true. (Mark 1:4-8; Acts 10:43; Acts 26:15-18; etc.)

In these divergent beliefs, as well as in all the rest of them, the Lord’s victory loses all of its power and all of its glory. Jesus went to Calvary to suffer, to bleed, and to die to free us from the power that sin holds in our life, and he rose again to new life, in a divine victory over the sentence of death – a death penalty that we all absolutely deserve.

And the prophet tells us that because of the victory God brings to us, we should be singing at the top of our lungs, that we should be celebrating with our entire being, no longer allowing our hands to hang limp by our side, but raising them in praise for the freedom that Jesus has gained on our behalf. But to deny that Jesus’ victory holds any significance or importance for us only says that we denounce his sacrifice as ridiculous and insignificant.
The truth is that he has taken away all fear of rejection; he has given us a path to avoid condemnation for our failure to follow his way; he has filled our lives with joyful reverence; and God Himself will sing songs of joy when we surrender our dependency on our own worldly abilities and accept the hope that only comes to those who have given themselves in faith to the one and only Son of God.

And if that isn’t cause to rejoice and lift our hands in celebration, I don’t know what is!

“I heard an old, old story, how a Savior came from glory,
How he gave his life on Calvary to save a wretch like me;
I heard about his groaning, of his precious blood’s atoning,
Then I repented of my sins and won the victory”

It’s the only way.

Read 1 Corinthians 15:51-57

Eternity requires a complete change in our lives. The problem is that we have been immersed in the ways of earth for too many years, and we have been contaminated by not only the world’s failure to proclaim Godly righteousness, but also in our acceptance of the overt lie that whatever life we choose to live is perfectly acceptable.

Paul is telling the church in Corinth that we are perishable beings, and that if we don’t find a way to become imperishable, we will succumb to the judgment of condemnation. But what can we do to achieve that change? It can never be through living the best life that we can – because no matter what we do, we can never be good enough! It can never be through the faith that our family and friends have – because our individual sinfulness must be changed through personal faith, not by observed faith.

We need to receive worthiness if we wish to be cleansed and healed from our condemnation. We are subject to our own mortality, and when we claim the immortality of Jesus Christ, when we look to his divine way instead of the world’s easy way, it is then, and only then, that we will be released from the hopeless authority that earth binds us with.

The power that sin holds is contained in our inadequate and feeble attempts to live a good life – our goodness will always fall far short of the righteousness that Jesus offers to all who have faith in him.

“I heard about his healing, of his cleansing power revealing,
How he made the lame to walk again and caused the blind to see;
And then I cried “Dear Jesus, come and heal my broken spirit,
And somehow Jesus came and brought to me the victory.”

Read 1 John 5:1-5

There’s an old saying that when we arrive at the gates of heaven, we’ll be surprised at who we see there, and even more surprised over those who we don’t see!
And John’s letter tells us that we are called to love them all – not just the ones who we expect to greet on the “other side”, not just the ones who have similar beliefs to ours – we must love them all. Have you ever tried to love someone who doesn’t want anything to do with your love? It’s nearly impossible to make them accept it, but then, we aren’t told that we have to make them appreciate our efforts to treat them in a Godly way! We are only to love them - never repaying arrogance with conceit, or hatred with disgust, or persecution with retribution, or anything else that mimics the attitudes that they are showing toward us. Just love them, right where they are.

And how about loving the Lord? Verse 3 tells us that we are to love God, too! And how do we do that? By obedience to his commands, and his teaching, and his example. But that is even more difficult than loving the unlovable! And in the extent of Godly ways, it is nearly impossible. But that doesn’t give us permission to quit trying – if we freely and intentionally accept the Lord’s love on a daily basis, if we strive every day to see the new ways that his love is working for our good, if we seek an understanding of how and why we are loved so perfectly, we will begin to discover an appreciation for Godly love, and will begin to understand how to show it to both the Lord and to the people of this world.

Love your neighbor, and love the Lord your God, both with the same purpose and intensity and commitment. (Luke 10:25-37) And this is the way, the only way, that the ways of earth can be overcome - by loving in the way that our God has first loved us – and them. And when the world is overcome, the only thing left for us is the highest heaven.

“I heard about a mansion he has built for me in glory,
And I heard about the streets of gold beyond the crystal sea;
About the angels singing and the old redemption story,
And some sweet day I’ll sing up there the song of victory."

And that song will be one of glory and praise, forever and ever!

“Victory in Jesus, my Savior forever!
He sought me and bought me with his redeeming blood;
He loved me ere I knew him, and all my love is due him’
He plunged me to victory beneath [his] cleansing flood.”


Are you ready for his love?
Are you ready to share that love?
Are you ready to sing your joy-felt praises for all that the Lord has done for you?
Have you received his burning desire that all should be saved through his glorious and mighty victory?

The time is now!

“Are Ye Able”

Scripture: Deuteronomy 5:28-33, Mark 10:35-40, John 12:23-26

As we continue in our Lenten series with the hymns of Easter, in our hymn for today, “Are Ye Able”, we will consider the depth and commitment of our faith, and whether we are fully prepared to enter eternity with our Lord. Some may think that the test is whether we have made all of our preparations or not, while the truth is that Jesus has already done all that is necessary for us, and our responsibility is to accept “the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6-7, John 8:31-36) that is only found in him.

The hymn asks us if we are able to follow the Lord to our own Calvary; if we are able to remember and live in all that forgiveness can bring to us and others; if we are able to accept the fact that earthly death must never be the final answer to our life; if we are able to trust in the glory that was made available to the earliest disciples - the same glory that is also offered to each and every one of us by faith in Jesus.

The response in the hymn is, of course, “Lord, we are able, our spirits are thine.” It continues in asking for God’s remolding, his guidance, and that he might bathe us in his glorious light. But what does this mean for the life we live?

Read Deuteronomy 5:28-33

Moses has just presented the 10 Commandments to the people, and Israel has boldly proclaimed that not only do they accept the word that God has handed down, but that they now know that they can actually hear the voice of God without fear of being struck down dead. And in our text, we read that the Lord is pleased with the people’s words of commitment to his way, but there seems to be some doubt that they will actually follow through on their words. The people were considering the implication that the word – God’s laws – would have on their lives, and they thought that they could follow those rules. However, that was never what the Lord was asking of them – he wanted to know if the people would love the way he had laid out for them, whether they would put their heart and soul, not just their minds, into living the kind of life that he was describing. The Lord doesn’t desire rigid obedience to his commandments – he wants a heartfelt love for the way they create, and from that, to follow him into the glory of Almighty God.

We are being called to “Walk in all the way …” that God has described - without hesitation, without contradiction, without fear of what that way may entail! Back to our hymn – this may bring hatred and condemnation and conflict to our lives by those who oppose God’s ways. It will require that we give up some precious attitudes and life styles that have always been an enjoyable and special part of our existence. It will demand that our faith never waiver – not in times of adversity, not in times of denial, not in times of death and darkness. And it most certainly will require the Lord’s remaking of our lives – to destroy the image that the world has imposed upon us, and to restore us to the image and glory of God that was inherit in our creation.

And the instructions conclude with the thought that this is the way that we must take, if we fully desire to live and prosper, through all time, in the presence and life of our Lord and Savior.

Read Mark 10:35-40

James and John, two of Jesus’ foremost disciples, ask that Jesus allow them to sit on either side him in eternity, that he would grant them divine authority at the coming Judgment. The question is beyond bold – it borders on indecency, on rudeness! But Jesus tells them that to grant them Godly authority, is not his decision to make. And quite honestly, that position should never be our goal – that faithful service is what we should be focused on. That is what Jesus is telling them when he asks them “Can you drink the cup I drink or be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with?”

The cup that Jesus would drink was the mission that would lead him to Calvary – a mission that was centered in his love for the lost people of earth, a mission that would break the bonds of sin that hold us in its death grip, a mission that he had to live and suffer through - alone.
The baptism that was demanded was not only one of water, but also one of fire. His baptism, when accepted, was a deep and abiding commitment to stay true to the mission, regardless of what might come against him, regardless of what will come to interrupt and distract him from its completion. It sustained him during his wilderness days when Satan offered him the easy, but un-Godly way, that would let him sidestep his Father’s “Cup”; when others denied his divinity; when others expressed hatred for the words he spoke; when others offered false testimony against him; when he was flogged within an inch of his life; when he was subjected to the most cruel death that man has ever devised.

And even though the two brothers didn’t fully understand what they had just asked for, Jesus tells them that while he couldn’t promise them the seats of glory, he could promise that his Cup of mission, and his Baptism of conflict, would indeed be theirs in the days and years to come. James would be put to death by King Herod (Acts 12:1-2), and John would be exiled for life to the Island of Patmos (Revelation 1:9), both because of the Cup and the Baptism they had accepted as disciples of Jesus Christ.

And the truth is that every follower of Jesus is invited to receive his baptism, and to drink of his cup, and to receive it is a decision that each and every one of us must make – no one is forced to accept them! Will we accept the call to mission that God places on our lives, and will we drink deeply within that mission, regardless of all that may come? Will we claim the baptism of commitment that must be a vital part of showing our love and dedication to Jesus, in a way that the world can never miss?

Read John 12:23-26

Jesus tells us that human death is inevitable, even for him, but that his will be part of the mission, the “Cup”, that he has accepted. Christ’s death on the cross is the very act that will free humanity from the bonds of sin – the bond that demands allegiance to the ways of earth, the sin that demands denial of Godly ways. Christ, the sinless Man, had to die as a man in sacrifice for the wayward ways of sinful men and women. Humanity has lived in sin, therefore a Man has to die as a penalty for that sin. But only God can forgive sin, therefore the Fully Man must also be Fully God.

The sinlessness of Jesus also demands that even his humanity can never be held in the throes of death. His human, his bodily resurrection, also a vital part of his “Cup”, is the great guarantee that in him and in his way, life that overcomes death is a possibility for even the likes of me and you.

Jesus had to die, and to be raised to new life, so that others would believe that they, too, could be healed and forgiven for their sin, and could be led to faith in the First Fruit of Salvation – the source and way of eternal life. Of course there is a caveat – if we love the life we live here, this life that is based in the world, eternal life will be beyond our reach, but if we reject the ways of this life, and give our focus to the life that Jesus offers, eternity will be ours.

And verse 26 is an especially poignant addition for me. About 15 years ago, I was invited to join a group called Kairos. Kairos is an international and highly successful prison ministry, and a new program was being developed for the Pennsylvania State Prison in Waymart, PA. Now please understand that I had spent my entire life trying to stay out of prison, and now I was being asked to voluntarily go in for 3 ½ days to share the love of Christ with men who had done despicable things. Not in my plans, to say the least!
I asked Ed if I could have a couple weeks to pray about it, which he agreed to. So for about 10 days, I prayed – but the prayer was more like “Lord, how do I get out of this?” As you might imagine, I never got an answer. But on a Tuesday morning, following a meeting with my prayer group in which we were discussing the call of our discipleship, as well as those times we had denied Christ’s call to discipleship. I was on my way to work, when I heard the Lord tell me “If you want to be my disciple, you have to be where I am.” Not exactly the answer that I was looking for!

But I called Ed that night, and told him that I would join the team, and that I would go to prison with him and the others. And in my obedience to the Lord’s call, I discovered that anywhere Jesus and his Holy Spirit are, is the best place that I, or any of us for that matter, can ever be. What a blessing those next ten years were, and on one of the weekends, I accepted the Lord’s call into pastoral ministry! Go Figure!

“Are Ye Able” to follow me, to serve me, to glorify me, to suffer for me, to give up the world for me, to put your whole trust in me, to know me, to truly and fully love me?

Our answer must always be “Yes, Lord, by your grace!”

“Nothing But the Blood”

Scripture: Psalm 51:1-7, 1 John 1:5-10, Romans 3:21-26

For our Lenten evening services, the pastors have decided to use hymns of Easter as our theme each week. Each of us have selected a favorite hymn, and will preaching on the concepts that our selection upholds. And our worship committee liked that idea so much, that they suggested that our Sunday morning message follow those same themes each week.

Last Sunday evening, Pastor Alan Bill preached on the hymn “Nothing but the Blood”, discussing the importance and significance of Christ’s blood in Christian theology. He talked about atonement, our being restored to God’s goodness, as being based in the Blood of Calvary, that without faith in the divine Blood of sacrifice, we have no hope for eternity.

Today, we consider some other aspects of Christ’s sacrifice, and of the blood that he shed on our behalf.

Read Psalm 51:1-7

This Psalm is attributed to David upon being challenged by the prophet Nathan, that his taking of Bathsheba, and his subsequent ordering the death of her husband Uriah, was a great sin on his part. He had sinned in exercising his power over the faithful, but helpless woman. He had sinned in ordering her husband home to cover up the fact that she was pregnant by her king. He had sinned in arranging for Uriah’s being posted to the front of the army, and then ordering that the army should pull back, leaving the man to die at the hands of an enemy. (2 Samuel 11:1-26)

The Lord sends Nathan to the king to lead him to the realization of just what he has done against his own people, and he understands, and he confesses, and he repents, and he is forgiven. But the Lord proclaims that his descendants will suffer, and the son who would be born of the rape would die, but that David would not. It appears that sin will always hold consequences, forgiven or not – it’s just that if confession and repentance are offered in the name of God, the effects will not impact eternal life. (2 Samuel 11:27-12:25)

In his Psalm of repentance, David asks for mercy, and in seeking God’s cleansing for his sin, he asks that the Lord “wash” him clean. He proclaims the fact that he has violated God’s way and the call that has been placed on his life, and he freely says that the Lord’s way is the only true and holy and right way.

David, who has been described as a man after God’s own heart, has failed Jehovah God once again, and yet, by seeking the Lord’s cleansing, and by confessing his own failure to be faithful, the sinner, regardless of the magnitude of his sin, can have a second chance to know the Lord’s grace and mercy.

And so can we – if we confess our sin, if we admit our understanding of our sin, if we repent, if we are determined to shut that sin completely out of our life – it is then that all of the Lord’s goodness can be ours again. That is God’s greatest desire for each and every one of us.

Read 1 John 1:5-10

There was no way for David to be washed clean, except by a blood sacrifice from creation, and by obedience to the Law of Moses. But as we all know, neither is sufficient without God being involved! But John’s epistle gives us insight into the Lord’s truth, and how God has turned the entire process of forgiveness on its ear. We read that God is Light, and that every other way is darkness; light is holiness, while darkness is sinfulness; light is goodness, while darkness is evil; light is of God, while darkness is founded in Satan. In light, we can see and understand, but in darkness, we are blind to the reality of God’s word.

The Light of God brings us fellowship with each other, and into relationship with Jesus, and without it, hatred and conflict and secular thought will always prevail. And then we get to the main point – that it is the Blood of Jesus, and nothing else, that purifies us from our sin. We sin against God, and only God can cleanse us from it.

Many people are put off by the very thought that it’s the Blood of Christ that which washes us clean! But we have to remember that this Blood represents Christ’s sacrifice at Calvary, and that it is by faith in his sacrifice that we can be made right with God again. To be “washed in the Blood of Jesus” is a spiritual cleansing, and it means that we are made spiritually whole in Christ. It isn’t about taking a physical bath in physical blood – that would never make us clean! It’s about trusting in Jesus and all that he taught, and in all that he did, and in all that he gave, so that we might be saved from our sin.

But the writer doesn’t stop there – we are told that all are sinful, that no one is clean without Jesus. And if we claim that we are already without sin, and have no need of God’s gift of salvation, we are nothing short of being liars. And if we claim that we are not sinning in the things we do, we are denying the truth that is inherent in all that Jesus taught, and we are, in essence, claiming that Jesus is also a liar, and that his word is not true, and that he isn’t worthy of our faith! And denying God and his word is never a good idea!

Read Romans 3:21-26

Righteousness, our path to living in the presence of Almighty God for all time, can only come by faith in the Son of God, Jesus Christ. So what do we have to do to ensure our salvation? The truth? Nothing! The Lord God has done it all. It is no longer about who we are, no longer about who our ancestors were, it is no longer about what we or anyone else does or even can do, it’s not about how much good we do. It’s only about what God has done through our Emmanuel, our God in the flesh. And if we can’t believe in that, we live in darkness.

And Paul writes that Christ’s justification, his validation, his cleansing, his righteous salvation, will cost us nothing! Such a gift is infinitely valuable to us, and yet, we only have to believe that it is true, and that it comes to us by faith and allegiance in Christ!

It’s all about the Blood that was sacrificed for us at Calvary – it’s about our being released from the responsibility of paying the penalty for our own sin; it’s about God taking our sin into his sinless life, and dying to destroy it – it’s about the love of God conquering our sin, the Light of Christ overcoming the darkness that we have immersed ourselves in – it’s about the Lord setting aside our inadequate efforts to become perfect, and replacing our failure with his perfect victory!

We have been reunited with the God of the Universe, through the atoning blood, the cleansing blood, the loving blood of Jesus Christ, the One who came to be our Lord and our Savior. And by simply believing in Jesus and the redeeming power of his blood, that is how we show our love to him in return.

And it is truly as uncomplicated and as straightforward as that.

“Finding God in the Ash Heap”

Scripture: Numbers 19:17-20; Isaiah 59:20-21; Titus 2:11-15

Earlier this week, we celebrated Ash Wednesday – the first day of Lent. As we discussed last week, Lent is the time when we prepare our lives to receive the Lord’s Great Gift of life at Easter. Some may say that salvation comes when we accept Christ as Lord and Savior, whenever that may happen – that that should be our Christian anniversary, so to speak. But Easter, including Maundy Thursday and Good Friday, is the time when salvation became possible – not through our efforts, though, but by God’s. Without Jesus Christ’s surrender to the evil of earth, without his submission to the world’s humiliation, and hatred, and denial, and false judgment, and suffering, and death, we would still be living in condemnation, without any hope whatsoever of eternal life.

The ashes of Ash Wednesday are a sign of our continued repentance from sinful ways, and our looking to Jesus for the destruction of the hold that sin has on our lives. At our Youth Group meeting last week, Bonnie offered a number of questions on Lent. One of them was “Where do the ashes come from?” The answer is, generally, and specifically for us, from burning the left over palms from last year’s Palm Sunday. So a related question might be “What is the significance of Palm Sunday for believers?” And this answer should be “it is the day we celebrate Christ’s victory over evil, his willingness to be our sacrifice for sin, and the honor that all will, one day, bestow on him.”

The signs of his victory are also the signs of our repentance from sin and our desire to join in his victorious life.

Read Numbers 19:17-20

This is ancient Israel’s approach to cleansing their lives of their failure to follow God’s commandments, and is, as we can see, quite detailed and very specific in its methods. And, of course, this isn’t all of the ritual that they were saddled with! But while Christians don’t subscribe to these concepts directly, there are several points that are important for us today.

First, the ashes come from a burned and joyful offering. Our Palm Sunday palms aren’t exactly “purification offerings”, but they do symbolize our allegiance and celebration of Christ’s entry into our lives. In that aspect, ashes symbolize our continued repentance from sin, and our desire to be one with our Almighty God.

Second, a person who is faithful to Christ and his teachings is to help those who have yet to come to the realization that our Lord Jesus is also our Lord Victor, if we will only follow him. For Israel, this faithful person was to help administer the sign of regret, not to actually encourage them in shedding the condemnation. Today’s Christians are called to carry the gospel message, near and far, to those who have yet to give their lives to Christ and have yet to begin following his ways.

Third, the passage speaks of the person’s washing their clothes and bathing their body to complete the purification process. For the ancients, the removal of dirt from clothing or from the body was a sign of confession, repentance, and spiritual cleansing - dirt represented evil.
(Isaiah 64:6 & Zechariah 3:1-5)
But for Christians, it is believing in the word of God and following in the example of Jesus Christ that cleanses us from the filth (the sin) of worldly ways – and it can never be our physical washing that restores us, it is our spiritual renewal that comes by faith (Matthew 15:10-20 & Mark 6:10-12).

Ash Wednesday is one of those “outward signs of an inward grace” that tell the world that we are committed to an authority that is far higher than anything the world can ever conceive of.

Read Isaiah 59:20-21

The prophet has been challenging the people to consider the impact that sinfulness has on their spiritual lives, and that repentance and rejection of sin is their only hope of experiencing God’s grace again. And he gets very specific when he tells them that Messiah, the one who will redeem Israel, is coming, but that he will only come into the hearts of those who are prepared to receive him, and into the lives of those who repent of their sin. And through the prophet, the Lord reaffirms the covenant that was made with the people hundreds of years before – that the covenant is given for the faithful and repentant hearts, not for all of the nation in general!

And when the faithful are obedient to the Lord’s call for renewal, his Spirit will be upon them, and his word - his covenant, his promise – will never leave them. But the prophet tells us that when we are truly faithful, his word will not only be ours, but it will carry on through our children, and their children, and on and on. Notice that it doesn’t say salvation will be carried on, but that God’s word will not depart. The implication is that the faithful life will share the truth of God with their children, and they with theirs, for all time, and that in the things they learn from their parents, they, too, will discover that salvation can be theirs by faith.

President Ronald Reagan once said “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same.” The same must be said about the Church – that the Church is also only one generation away from extinction! We can never leave the faith of our children solely up to chance, or up to their personal discovery, or to the instruction of others. We must teach them, show them, encourage them, and fight for their faith, just as we must do for our own, or else the truth of our Lord will very quickly disintegrate and vanish from our lives.

Read Titus 2:11-15

Titus was a young convert to Christianity who has been sent by Paul as a missionary to the people of Crete. Paul would never send a new pastor out with the instruction to just “do whatever you believe is right”! This letter is his coaching, his preparation for this young friend, so that he will be the most faithful pastor that he can possibly be, and this book should very possibly be the instruction manual for all pastors – new, as well as experienced.

The problem today is that our seminaries spend so much time teaching new pastors how to lead Sunday School, and about the styles of worship that they should institute, and how to counsel their parishioners in whatever problems they may be going through, and what the functions of various committees are and how they all interact, and how to institute new mission programs, and how to be tolerate and welcoming of all people – they get so involved in teaching how to be administrators and governors, that there is no time left to teach them how to be a pastor!

Books like 1 & 2 Timothy, Titus, and several others should be the reference that all clergy use to become the best possible pastors for their congregations, instead of sending them out to learn what it means and requires through their own personal experience. And in this text, Paul’s advice is not only what pastors need to hear, but it is what they need to teach others – topics like:
- saying “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions
- living self-controlled, upright, and Godly lives
- waiting for the glorious return of Jesus with patience and perseverance
- that Christ gave himself to redeem us from our evil ways
- that the Lord wants to be our God, and that we would be his people

This is the kind of life that Pastor Titus is to lead, and it is also the kind of life that he is to teach to the people. And the bottom line that Paul is sharing with his young friend is that the Christian life must be based in repentance of the world’s way of living, so that we can begin to live in a Christ-like way.

This is what Ash Wednesday and our Lenten disciplines are all about, for in our ashes, we discover that God is right there with us – encouraging us, loving us, making our way perfect in him. So I encourage each and every one of us, including me, to read Titus this week (it’s a short book!), and to let the advice that Paul is passing down become our Lenten goal for the rest of this life.

Will you join me?

“Preparing for the Day”

Scripture: Isaiah 40:3-5, 1 Peter 2:18-21, John 8:21-30

Wednesday is the beginning of Lent, which, of course, is a time for the faithful to prepare to celebrate the Lord’s resurrection, and his promise of new life for all who believe. This time of year is about cleansing our lives from the ways we had always lived, those ways of earth, those ways that take us away from the grace of our Almighty God.

Lent is a time for focusing on the ways of God, through any number of spiritual disciplines, primarily that of self-denial, such as in fasting. But shouldn’t there be more?

Read Isaiah 40:3-5

Through the prophet, the Lord is calling the people of earth to return from the desert wastelands that this life imposes on us and to prepare the way for the Lord to come into our lives - that nothing might get in the way of our welcoming the coming glory of God. No twists, no turns, no false paths, no heights, no depths - that nothing in all of creation might separate us from the love and passion of our Lord (Romans 8:38-39).

And why must this life change within us? We are told that the world isn’t ready to receive Christ – at least, not yet! Preparation for Christ’s return is an ongoing thing! As we read the prophet’s message, it becomes apparent that this preparation isn’t God’s – it is ours. Jesus Christ has already done his part - he opened the way for humanity to come to God by faith. The curtain has been torn, the power of sin has been broken, salvation through the Law of Moses has been overturned, but the problem is that we have yet to do our part. We have yet to claim the atoning power of the Blood that was shed by Jesus Christ.

The ancients knew that life was held in the blood – the power, the intelligence, the breath, the ability, the LIFE! The blood of an animal, the blood of a conquered but previously victorious enemy – their blood was highly cherished, and sacrifice was centered on that fact. But then Jesus arrived on the scene, and true power and authority was finally revealed in the Blood of his sacrifice. The Blood of Jesus was the gift that only had to be given once; the Blood of Jesus far surpassed the power and wisdom of any created being; the Blood of Jesus held more than just life – it now held ETERNAL life. The blood of creation no longer holds any importance for the world. It is by the Blood of Jesus Christ that the glory and the Person of God is revealed for all who have the eyes to see and the “ears to hear”. (Mark 4:21-25)

Read 1 Peter 2:18-21

We are all under some authority in this life, even while we may have some over others. It may be our manager at work, it may be the demands of our job, it could be our financial problems, it could be the needs of our family, it may even be the expectations of service that the Church places upon us. Whatever it may be, the Lord tells us that we are to submit to all of the authority that places demands on our lives. And just because we may not like the way it governs, just because we don’t agree with its demands, we can either accept it and comply, or we can move on and leave its influence behind. The one option that no one has is to remain under that authority while we refuse to follow its demands – or at least we won’t stay for long!

But when it comes to the authority of God, we don’t have those choices – the only ones we have are: 1) to accept and follow the way, the authority, and the commandments of our God, or 2) to accept the consequences of our disobedience. There is no leaving the power of that authority! But Peter isn’t focusing on either our worldly subjugation OR our spiritual servitude – he is looking at them together. And many times, we have to choose which one will take precedence over our lives! Will we follow the lessons of scripture, or will we work to follow the example of our cultural norms? That can be a difficult decision at times, but it is by the example of Jesus Christ that our answer is revealed.

In the second part of verse 20, Peter asks the question - What if you are punished for doing good – what if you follow the commands of God, and still suffer under the world’s authority for not observing their ways? We read that God will commend our actions, even if the earth does not. Think about Jesus for a moment – when his teaching had come to the point of pushing Israel’s authorities over the brink of propriety, he could have backed off a bit on his condemnation of their ideas. He wouldn’t have had to suffer the humiliations, the false judgments, the beatings, the crucifixion, and death, but then he would not have been commendable before his Father. He chose the eternal way of God, in contrast to the limited and temporary way of earth.

And the same must be true for each and every one of us!

Read John 8:21-25

Jesus tells us that if we choose the authority of the world over the authority of God, it will not go well for us at the Judgment. So what do those choices involve? The truth of the matter is that it all hinges on who and what we are prepared to accept as the true authority for our lives! Of course, we have to read down through this entire passage to get to the punch line, that the real test of our choice is if we believe that Jesus is who he has said he is, if we accept his commandments, as they were given and not as we want them to be. And if we don’t want it his way?
The bottom line is in the first verse of our passage - verse 21 – “you will look for me, and you will die in your sin. Where I go, you cannot come.” There’s no half way, no fence straggling, no bargaining – it will be the Lord’s way, either way. Period.

So where should we look for the Lord? We can look with all our effort, with all our intelligence, with all our ingrained abilities, and still, we will never find him on our own. John tells us that our vision is too worldly, that we look only in the lowly places of earth, but then, that is the only place we know! But John’s gospel would encourage us to look in a direction that isn’t all that comfortable, a direction that goes beyond our own understanding. It would seem that we need to trust in the Lord before we ever find him, and that is about as uncomfortable a task as we will ever have. But when we find, or rather discover, that he has been right with us all the time, his joy will finally be ours.

Read John 8:26-30

Jesus offers a dig against nonbelievers – he says you just don’t get it! You don’t understand that faith in God’s Gift is the key, and not your ability to understand per se. But he doesn’t leave us there, foundering in our ignorance. He tells us that he will give us an unmistakable sign, one that we cannot miss, but one that we can still choose to ignore. And the sign will be his crucifixion, and without saying so, his resurrection. And the message that the sign will point toward?

The Lord tells us that it is two-fold. First, that he has been telling us the truth about himself all along, and second, that he has been depending totally on what he has been learning from his Father. During his life among us, these were the major stumbling blocks for the leaders of his day. They not only didn’t believe that he was who he was, they believed that his words were heresy, that they violated all that they taught about God, that they were nothing more than sinful utterances, and therefore could never be the word of God for their lives.

And people of today still have trouble with that second part. If Jesus is God, why did he have to be taught anything? We tend to forget that not only was Jesus fully God, he was also fully human. He learned to trust God and the call that was upon him early in life.
We all remember the story of when Jesus was twelve years old, and his parents had taken him to Jerusalem to celebrate Passover. When the time came for the family to return home, the boy Jesus wasn’t there, and his absence wasn’t noticed until the next day. Mary & Joseph frantically searched for him for three days, and they finally discovered that he had been in the temple all the time, amazing the elders with his pointed questions, as well as the marvelous answers he offered to their questions.
When Mary asked him why he had worried them so much, he replied “Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?” By the age of twelve, he was beginning to understand who he was and what the call on his life was all about. But he also understood that there was a lot that he, the human Jesus, had to learn about his Father God. The story concludes with the thought that he was obedient to his earthly parents, without neglecting his obedience and growth in the ways of his heavenly Father. (Luke 2:41-52)

Obedience to the Father, and his plan for Jesus’ mission to earth, is what brought him joy, while he rejoiced in showing Godly love to the needy of this world. Jesus had to make a very intentional choice between obedience to earth, and obedience to heaven, and his love of both God and the people was, indeed, the choice he made. We are his choice!

Jesus is our example. He chose to love both God and creation, even while he followed the ways of his glorious Father – a difficult balance, to say the least, and yet, that is the very choice that we must make as we enter this time of Lent. We don’t have all of the answers, we don’t always make the right decisions, we find Jesus’ way of perfect love and perfect obedience nearly impossible to attain. And that is why we have this time of preparation – a time of prayer and meditation, a time of personal reflection, a time of self-denial, a time of seeking the Lord in new and spiritual ways.

May this Lenten season be a time of great blessing through great discovery, for each and every one!