|
|
 The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, who bore witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw. Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near. –Revelation 1:1-3
If you haven’t had your head in a hole, you’ve seen at least one prediction of the end of the world. The most recently famous was Harold Camping’s. He spent millions of dollars buying billboard ads to read, “The Bible Guarantees it.” And here we are a year after his supposed end of the world staring our series on Revelation. We’ve outlived predictions from Hal Lindsay and Pat Robertson to Jerry Falwell and Jack Van Impe. Here’s a newsflash for you: they’ve all been wrong.
As you can correctly deduce, people’s attempts to use the writings found in The Revelation as some sort of crystal ball result in damaging the trustworthiness of the Church. Those who promulgate these teachings reveal themselves to be thoughtless, wreckless, and selfish in handling the Word of God. Certainly many have embarrassed and damaged the Church, so that’s not the main issue. My deepest concern stems from the fact that once these forecasters have pronounced their extraordinary interpretation of the book, they have succeeded in only one thing: separating you from the Holy Spirit-intended, gracious message of the book. By doing this, they’ve left many wallowing in a Gnostic muck where they sit about wishing Revelation weren’t such a mysterious, mystical thing.
The tragic part of this trend is that God intended Revelation to be for our benefit like the rest of Scripture. It is just as important to us as Genesis, Luke, or Ephesians. There is no secret code. Of course, it requires some careful study, but what doesn’t? As the name hints, God did not give us this book to confuse or mystify us. In verse one it states that this book is, “the revelation of Jesus Christ.” Revelation comes from the Greek: apocolypsis which means to lay bare, make naked, or to disclose truth. Does that sound hidden or mysterious to you? God doesn’t call it an apocryphon (something hidden or mystical that only the elite can decipher). No, Revelation is the apocolypsis, the removal of the veil.
Now consider the rest of that first sentence, “The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place.” Wait, wait, wait! Soon take place? Note this because it’s an essential interpretive key. You don’t have to rely on my ingenuity or buy a book on the rapture to tell you the purpose of the Letter of Revelation. God states it point blank in the first sentence! The purpose is to reveal the truth and to bless those who read it and take it to heart.
Revelation, like all stories, has a plot with a cast of characters. Too many people just know a certain verse or chapter and cherry pick their way through it. They miss the beloved bride and the beast that tries to destroy her. They neglect to see the hero who vanquishes the enemy for the sake of his beloved. And, of course, if they miss that, they certainly don’t get the happily ever after ending. Get ready because Revelation will engulf you in the imaginative revealing of the eternal truth that starts, “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”
And that’s the gospel! Come hear it preached and enacted in the supper with Jesus this Sunday.
The related hymns we’ll sing are:
Rejoice, the Lord is King
It is Well with My Soul
Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah
COMMUNITY LUNCH THIS SUNDAY
Our lunch is this Sunday, May 20, following worship downstairs next to the adult Sunday school room in the Tuscan Café. We will have a special recognition time for our organist, Susan Johnson, since it is her final Sunday after graduating from OU with a Master of Music degree in Organ. She is moving to Oregon. Please plan to attend.
SUNDAY SCHOOL
The adult Sunday school class will continues on Biblical Church Government with qualifications for elders. Audio of the Sunday school lessons is now being posted each week on the audio page of the church website.
The children’s Sunday school classes meet on the top floor (you can use the elevator by the chapel if necessary). The adult class is on the basement level (again, the elevator is available) in what is labeled the “Disciples Class.” Coffee and treats begin at 9:15 and class beings at 9:30 (or so).
Visitors are always welcome!
Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered him, saying, “Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.” But he answered them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here. –Matthew 12:38-41
The Scribes and Pharisees are such easy targets. No sooner had Jesus finished telling them that men speak out of their hearts then they, as if by some horrible cue, open their mouths and ask Him for a miracle. If you had been watching it play out in a movie, you’d wince involuntarily.
Narratives are interesting because, like it or not, we take sides. Sometimes we find ourselves siding with the underdog. Sometimes we can almost feel the movie producer or the author trying to get us to like a character, to identify with them. Sometimes we step back on the sidelines, unsure of which side to choose.
We’ve discussed how many times biblical narrative calls us out. Remember, we talked about the Good Samaritan and our secret thoughts of, “Oh, I would have stopped! I would have been the Good Samaritan!” We completely missed the point that we were the one beaten up and left on the side of the road to die, and that Christ is the only Good Samaritan. We learned how the story of Ruth was not to teach us to be loyal like Ruth but to help us to understand that Christ is the Boaz to our alien, hopeless life.
In this passage Jesus posits two sides. In one corner we have the pagan worshipping, corrupt and proud-of-it, and prosperous folks. In the other corner, we have law-abiding, Scripture-reading church goers. Which side do you identify with? Which are your people?
While you think about which side to dress in black and which side to dress in white, let me assign some names so we don’t have to call them by Group 1 and Group 2. Let’s call Group 1: Ninevites. Let’s call Group 2: Jews.
Now let’s consider what Jesus says to the Jews (the Scribes and Pharisees who’d just unwisely opened their mouths to beg for a miracle!). He tells them that the Christian Ninevites will join with the Christians of this generation to condemn “this evil and adulterous generation”. Did He just misspeak? He did just say that the Ninevites would be in heaven sitting as judges against the Scribes and Pharisees, didn’t He?
Those men who’d studied and made a life of the Holy Writings had completely missed the point of Jonah. Like Jonah, they failed to worship the glory of God; that He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, abundant in loving kindness, and relenting from doing harm. Did they miss it because the object of God’s loving kindness was a conclave of evil Gentiles? Jesus flips it on them and shows them, they’ve been on the wrong side. He tells them that even those Ninevites repented when Jonah preached, but they, the evil and adulterous generation, have refused to repent and acknowledge the glory of God.
And then He lets loose with the greatest mystery of all: that His own descent, death, and resurrection in three days and three nights was typified by Jonah’s. In other words, the “sign of Jonah” that pointed to the substitutionary atonement of Christ is now right in front of them.
May we be found in the same group as the Ninevites and not the ones who were fuming under the tree or clamoring for a miracle. For the only difference between a believer and an unbeliever can’t be found by running a DNA test or tracing the genealogy. The only reason those Gentile Ninevites are saved is because of Jesus, the one who grants repentance and righteousness to the undeserving.
And that’s the gospel! Come hear it preached and enacted in the supper with Jesus this Sunday.
The related hymns we’ll sing are:
O Worship the King
When I Survey the Wondrous Cross
Be Thou My Vision
MEN’S PRAYER BREAKFAST/GODLY MANHOOD AND HUSBANDRY
The final meeting is the this Saturday (May 12). In our last men’s meeting of the “2011-12 season,” we will discuss Chapter 9 and recap some of the highlights of the earlier chapters. Possible questions for discussion: What brings Christian couples to the point of divorce? Is it possible to divorce-proof a marriage? Is it possible to divorce-proof our children? What does being a godly husband have to do with the gospel? Where do we go from here?” Audrey Hampton’s violin recital will follow in the chapel at 10:00 (see below).
AUDREY HAMPTON VIOLIN RECITAL
Joe and Lisa Hampton invite Redeemer to attend their daughter, Audrey’s, violin recital celebrating her high school graduation. It will take place Saturday, May 12 at 10:00 (following the Men’s Prayer Breakfast).
NEXT COMMUNITY LUNCH
Our next lunch is May 20 following worship. We will have a special recognition time for our organist, Susan Johnson, since it is her final Sunday after graduating from OU with a Master of Music degree in Organ. She is moving to Oregon. More details will follow on the lunch.
SUNDAY SCHOOL
The adult Sunday school class will continues on Biblical Church Government with qualifications for elders. Audio of the Sunday school lessons is now being posted each week on the audio page of the church website.
The children’s Sunday school classes meet on the top floor (you can use the elevator by the chapel if necessary). The adult class is on the basement level (again, the elevator is available) in what is labeled the “Disciples Class.” Coffee and treats begin at 9:15 and class beings at 9:30 (or so).
Visitors are always welcome!
Pastor Mark announces that the Revelation Sermon Series begins May 20. This Sunday, May 6, Rev. John Singleton will be preaching as Pastor Mark is away on a vacation, but here’s a meditation on Jonah:
But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry. And he prayed to the LORD and said, “O LORD, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster. Therefore now, O LORD, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.” And the LORD said, “Do you do well to be angry?” –Jonah 4:1-4
Our man Jonah is out to show us his bad side. It’s not like with David, and we get a portrayal of some good and some bad. With Jonah, we get bad, really bad, and oh no! I can’t look bad. Here we see that Jonah is ticked. And I don’t mean a little. We translate the Hebrew too kindly because the original gives us the distinct impression that Jonah firmly believed that God’s actions in saving the Gentiles in Ninevah were nothing short of evil.
Whoa! That’s pretty bold, don’t you agree? You’d never go that far, would you? You’d never be so sure you were right that you’d actually think God was wrong, would you?
Well, I don’t think that we ever hold to our opinions because we think they’re wrong. We’re not wired that way. David Koresh probably didn’t go about thinking, “I’m teaching false doctrine. Look at those lemmings buying into this!” No, of course not. He thought he was right. Busybodies in the church don’t think they are busybodies. In their minds there exists a completely logical and defensible reason for spreading this rumor. I’m even convinced that when church folks get mad at something in the church and start calling people up to invite them on the bandwagon, they are 100% sure that they’re being more righteous by doing so than by ignoring Scripture’s clear and repeated warnings against bringing division and dissension. Let this be a lesson to you: wolves in sheeps’ clothing, don’t think they’re wolves; they think they’re sheep!
And that completely explains why Jonah is so furious at God. Jonah is 100% confident that God is wrong. If God had allowed him, he would have organized a public forum to debate and proof text His Creator on the priority of the Jews.
Crazy, right? We’d never do that. We’d never go that far!
Really? How does your compassion for sinners measure up to God’s? Are you willing to extend not just the benefit of the doubt, but your kindness and forgiveness even after the doubt is proved true?
God does, and there’s no doubt in His mind about our guilt. And yet Jesus Christ that other prophet from Nazareth came preaching the pity, the compassion of God for sinners, Gentiles included. Jonah hated that God is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster when it concerned people he thought were less acceptable than he was. And we are Jonah not extending nearly as much grace as God does.
You see, God’s love for rank sinners far exceeds Jonah’s ability to stand in the way. And that’s good news because you are a rank sinner, too. The devil and plenty of people in this world would love to stand in the way of God’s compassion to you. But God has guaranteed that we do get it by the death and resurrection of his Son slain by Jews and Gentiles together.
And that’s the gospel! Come hear it preached and enacted in the supper with Jesus this Sunday.
The related hymns we’ll sing are:
All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name!
May the Mind of Christ My Savior
Amazing Grace, How Sweet the Sound
AUDREY HAMPTON VIOLIN RECITAL
Joe and Lisa Hampton invite Redeemer to attend their daughter, Audrey’s, violin recital celebrating her high school graduation. It will take place Saturday, May 12 at 10:00 (following the Men’s Prayer Breakfast). RSVP by May 5 at 396-8221.
SUNDAY SCHOOL
The adult Sunday school class will be taught this Sunday by Rev. John Singleton as Pastor Mark will be on vacation. Audio of the Sunday school lessons is now being posted each week on the audio page of the church website.
The children’s Sunday school classes meet on the top floor (you can use the elevator by the chapel if necessary). The adult class is on the basement level (again, the elevator is available) in what is labeled the “Disciples Class.” Coffee and treats begin at 9:15 and class beings at 9:30 (or so).
Visitors are always welcome!
 But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry. And he prayed to the LORD and said, “O LORD, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster. Therefore now, O LORD, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.” –Jonah 4:1-3
Jonah was a Jew from Gath Hepher, the same area of Nazareth where Jesus came from. Jonah distinguished himself as doing everything to try to keep God from saving the Gentiles in Nineveh. Jesus distinguished Himself as doing everything to insure that God could save Gentiles in Nineveh and the world for all generations. Jonah hated God’s decision so much that he decided he’d rather die than “let” God get his way. Jesus loved God’s way so much that he surrendered his life so that God got his way.
It reminds me of one of Jesus’s first recorded sermons in the synagogue at Nazareth (Luke 4). The hearers received the words from Isaiah 61 happily up until a certain point. And that point was when he dragged those despicable Gentiles into it. He talked about how God had graciously saved the Widow of Zarephath and Naaman the Syrian. Scripture says, “When they heard these things, all in the synagogue were filled with wrath. And they rose up and drove him out of the town and brought him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they could throw him down the cliff,” (vv. 28,29). Do you think it’s safe to say that his popularity rating dropped slightly during that sermon?
What caused their outrage? Given their response, you’d think maybe He denied the sovereignty of God or said that Goliath beat David. Surely it had to be something scandalous or heretical, right? Actually no, Jesus just asserted that God had shown grace to two Gentiles instead of people in Israel. That’s it. And they despised him for it.
Jonah felt a similar wrath when he was given the call to go preach to Nineveh where he knew God would show grace to Gentiles. Does it seem to you that these Jewish people had a strong attachment to their favored status with Yahweh? It should! They hated the mere mention of God’s being gracious to anyone besides themselves!
But that is the salvation of our Triune God. Sinners become saints not by being born into the right family. We who are Jonahs by blood and by nature are not made sons by pleading our bloodline. We are made sons by this God who doesn’t let us run off to Tarshish or drown ourselves in the Mediterranean. We are made sons because He is abounding in steadfast love and slow to anger. His grace and mercy reach down through His only begotten Son and makes sinners into sons.
And that’s the gospel! Come hear it preached and enacted in the supper with Jesus this Sunday.
The related hymns we’ll sing are:
A Mighty Fortress is Our God
The King of Love My Shepherd Is (Psalm 23)
Love Divine, All Loves Excelling
SUSAN JOHNSON ORGAN RECITAL
Our organist and friend, Susan, has been such a gift to Redeemer. She is graduating with her Master’s degree in Organ this May and her last Sunday with us is May 20. Her recital is at OU’s Catlett Music Center, Saturday, April 28 at 4:00.
SUNDAY SCHOOL
The adult Sunday school class continues a series on Church Government and the Bible. Audio of the Sunday school lessons is now being posted each week on the audio page of the church website.
The children’s Sunday school classes meet on the top floor (you can use the elevator by the chapel if necessary). The adult class is on the basement level (again, the elevator is available) in what is labeled the “Disciples Class.” Coffee and treats begin at 9:15 and class beings at 9:30 (or so).
Visitors are always welcome!
 Then the word of the LORD came to Jonah the second time and said, “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it the message that I tell you.” So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD. –Jonah 3:1-2
So, should we string up banners and strike up the band for our boy Jonah? He’s obeying. He’s doing what God told him to! Isn’t that spectacular? See it just goes to show you that if you just give people time, they’ll do the right thing.
Really? Is that what Jonah is about? Is that what your obedience is about?
Let’s keep some perspective on this. Let’s review just what it took to drag Jonah kicking and screaming to obedience. Remember that small matter of the storm? The crew despairing of their lives, the complaining ship, and Jonah’s attempted suicide? Have you forgotten the giant fish, where he lived for three days and three nights? Have you dismissed the vomit? Maybe we should hold off on the parade for just now.
At the conclusion of chapter two we discussed how all of these things were the means God used to deliver Jonah from his bondage to sin and his rebellious pursuit of his own way. God is El Shaddai, the one who always gets what He wants. And that’s why God provides for what He commands. He cares so much about getting what He wants that He insures it by providing us with our obedience.
How does God do that? Are you sure you want to ask that question? The answer doesn’t involve you renting a cabin in Aspen by yourself where you pray on the mountaintops. Nor does Scripture teach us that God gives us obedience by our gutting it out. Look at Jonah and learn. God taught Jonah obedience through suffering.
The same is said of Jesus in Hebrews 5:8, “Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered.” Suffering rips our anchor of autonomy and rebellion from its place firmly embedded in the earth of this present life. Suffering temporarily unmoors us from what we thought would save us: a ticket to Tarshish, a ship, a suicide, a giant fish. This all to make us learn that there is only One who can save us from ourselves. And contrary to popular opinion, it’s not you. Jonah tried that saving himself routine. He tried the, “I can be all that I want to be,” scene.
No, no one wants to be unmoored, no one wants their life to be uprooted, no one wants to be cast upon the sea, but consider this: Christ was unmoored, uprooted, and cast upon this world for us and learned obedience at the same time. The One better than Jonah is here.
And that’s the gospel! Come hear it preached and enacted in the supper with Jesus this Sunday.
The related hymns we’ll sing are:
Christ the Lord is Risen Today! (Llanfair)
The Church’s One Foundation
‘Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus
SUNDAY SCHOOL
The adult Sunday school class continues a series on Church Government and the Bible. Audio of the Sunday school lessons is now being posted each week on the audio page of the church website.
The children’s Sunday school classes meet on the top floor (you can use the elevator by the chapel if necessary). The adult class is on the basement level (again, the elevator is available) in what is labeled the “Disciples Class.” Coffee and treats begin at 9:15 and class beings at 9:30 (or so).
Visitors are always welcome!
 And the LORD spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah out upon the dry land. –Jonah 2:10
Let your mind wander for a second and imagine what a screenwriter or a movie producer would do to make the story of Jonah “contemporary” and “relevant” to our day and culture. It’s a fun proposition for two reasons. The first is that considering what would need to happen to be relevant to our culture exposes our cultural biases and blind spots. The second is that it allows us to work backwards to deduce something about God as the author of our lives.
If you wade back through the dusty stacks in your mind, you might find some version of the Pinocchio story. The Walt Disney variety contains an interesting tidbit where the carpenter, Geppetto, en route to save his wooden boy, gets swallowed by a whale (Monstro). Pinocchio engineers a plan to get swallowed by the same whale, where he starts a fire that causes a colossal sneeze that gets them out of the whale.
Now there’s a story you can sink your self-reliant teeth into! You and I love stories where, “everything your heart desires will come to you.” We crave stories where the characters pull themselves up by the boot straps and “make it happen.” Yeah for Human Ingenuity! Score for Human Autonomy!
That’s the stuff our unsanctified, pop-culturized minds fantasize about. We see our empty checking account and envision winning a lottery ticket. We would never imagine losing our job as deliverance! Hollywood would rewrite Jonah as some poor guy raised in an oppressive religious sect who’d been commanded by an inflexible God to go to pagan Nineveh. We’d spend an hour commiserating with him as he decided he had to be true to himself, and the music would swell in celebration as he boarded the boat to Tarsus. In this version, Jonah would blow up the whale and live out his days preaching in a megachurch in downtown Tarsus. You’d leave the movie feeling more confident in your ability to fix your life and overcome your circumstances (which incidentally is the main thrust of all of Pastor Jonah’s sermons).
Vomit is not a particularly beautiful literary topic, but it is an apt and beautiful metaphor for the mess we make and the mercy with which God delivers us. He doesn’t always deliver us in a pastel basket of fluffy chicks and cute bunnies; sometimes He has us vomited us out onto a shore.
I know the belly of a fish, where all manner of items in varying stages of decomposition float about, does not look or smell or like deliverance to the one sitting in it. It doesn’t at all resemble what you imagined your answer to prayer would look like. This does not look like the placid providence of God. If it were me, I’d be calling it a disaster. I’d be hoping I’d die soon so my suffering would be over. I’d be texting the local news station from the belly of Monstro to report this catastrophe and to ask for the president to dispatch the Navy Seals to save me.
It might seem all dark and smell of decay where you are sitting right now, but let me encourage you to not look around you. Look to Jesus. If you look at your surroundings, the events, and the circumstances of your current situation, you’ll be confused and discouraged. You’ll run down your battery trying to get cell reception beneath all that blubber. Forget that. Try this: God has intercepted your message, and He’s replied. One word: Jesus. Jesus is your deliverance. Because of Christ’s sacrifice, God always gets what He wants. God has ordained this command, this whale belly, this shore as a means of delivering you from your bondage to sin and death. He has given you Christ, the Ultimate Guarantee that this God who is writing your life in not an author of tragedy. He is delivering you, Jonah. (contributed by Tami Molyneaux)
And that’s the gospel! Come hear it preached and enacted in the supper with Jesus this Sunday.
The related hymns we’ll sing are:
Thine Be the Glory
It is Well with My Soul
How Firm a Foundation
SUNDAY SCHOOL
The adult Sunday school class continues a series on Church Government and the Bible. Audio of the Sunday school lessons is now being posted each week on the audio page of the church website.
The children’s Sunday school classes meet on the top floor (you can use the elevator by the chapel if necessary). The adult class is on the basement level (again, the elevator is available) in what is labeled the “Disciples Class.” Coffee and treats begin at 9:15 and class beings at 9:30 (or so).
Visitors are always welcome!
 Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour. And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”And some of the bystanders, hearing it, said, “This man is calling Elijah.”And one of them at once ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine, and put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink. But the others said, “Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to save him.”And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit. –Matthew 27:45-50
Imagine taking a highlighter and marking all the promises that God has made you in Scripture in bright yellow. Your Bible would be full of neon yellow rays of encouragement. Ironically though, all of those yellow parts would represent curse to Jesus because His being cursed yields our being blessed. Jesus will not experience the blessing of the covenant of redemption with us until his resurrection, and even then not completely until his return. Until then, it’s all about His being stricken, smitten, afflicted, pierced, crushed, and chastised for all our iniquity.
Nevertheless, we see in this passage that Christ comforts Himself with the joy set before Him. On the cross Jesus quotes from Psalm 22, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me.” I think His mind continued to quote the entirety of the psalm despite the fact that the physical strength to call out these words failed him.
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning?
O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer,
and by night, but I find no rest.
Yet you are holy,
enthroned on the praises of Israel.
In you our fathers trusted;
they trusted, and you delivered them.
To you they cried and were rescued;
in you they trusted and were not put to shame.
But I am a worm and not a man,
scorned by mankind and despised by the people.
All who see me mock me;
they make mouths at me; they wag their heads;
“He trusts in the Lord; let him deliver him;
let him rescue him, for he delights in him!”
Yet you are he who took me from the womb;
you made me trust you at my mother’s breasts.
On you was I cast from my birth,
and from my mother’s womb you have been my God.
Be not far from me,
for trouble is near,
and there is none to help.
(If you just skipped reading that carefully and thoughtfully, go back and do it—for your own good.)
So it is at this time of year that we remember His passion, and that He was forsaken so that you and I never will be.
And that’s the gospel! Come hear it preached and enacted in the supper with Jesus this Sunday.
The related hymns we’ll sing are:
Christ the Lord is Risen Today
Up from the Grave He Arose
Crown Him with Many Crowns
GOOD FRIDAY WORSHIP SERVICE
This Friday, April 6 is our Good Friday service. It will be at 6:30 in the Cory Chapel just outside the elevator door upstairs.
SUNDAY SCHOOL
The adult Sunday school class continues a series on Church Government and the Bible. Audio of the Sunday school lessons is now being posted each week on the audio page of the church website.
The children’s Sunday school classes meet on the top floor (you can use the elevator by the chapel if necessary). The adult class is on the basement level (again, the elevator is available) in what is labeled the “Disciples Class.” Coffee and treats begin at 9:15 and class beings at 9:30 (or so).
Visitors are always welcome!
 And they went away and found a colt tied at a door outside in the street, and they untied it. And some of those standing there said to them, “What are you doing, untying the colt?” And they told them what Jesus had said, and they let them go. And they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks on it, and he sat on it. And many spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut from the fields. And those who went before and those who followed were shouting, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David! Hosanna in the highest!” –Mark 11:4-10
We will follow the long-standing church tradition to sing All Glory, Laud, and Honor on Palm Sunday. Every hymnal I have contains the same 4 stanzas. Did you know there’s a fifth? The four stanzas tell the story of Palm Sunday, but the fifth was dropped from usage because, as the translator noted, “Another verse was usually sung until the 17th Century, at the quaintness of which we can scarcely avoid a smile:”
Be Thou, O Lord, the Rider,
And we the little ass,
That to God’s holy city
Together we may pass.
To tell you the truth, I don’t think it’s all that quaint. As a matter of fact, I find it convicting. There is a very real sense in which we need to be ridden by Christ so that we can enter the holy city, not Jerusalem today, but the City of God where the Lamb is its light and temple. It’s the only way in!
God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.
And that’s the gospel! Come hear it preached and enacted in the supper with Jesus this Sunday.
The related hymns we’ll sing are:
All Glory, Laud, and Honor
Man of Sorrows! What a Name
Hosanna, Loud Hosanna
PALM SUNDAY COMMUNITY LUNCH THIS SUNDAY
Our Community Lunch is this Sunday. This has become an annual event for us. It will be held in the Fellowship Hall at the church immediately following worship. Everyone should come!
MEN’S PRAYER BREAKFAST/GODLY MANHOOD AND HUSBANDRY
The next Men’s Prayer Breakfast is this Saturday, March 31 (a week early due to Easter weekend). The reading will be: Chapter 8, Multiplying Fruitfully, pp. 119-130. The final meeting is the second Saturday of May (May 12) due to some planned absences.
GOOD FRIDAY WORSHIP SERVICE
We will have our first Good Friday service as a church this year. It will be April 6 at 6:30 pm.
SUNDAY SCHOOL
The adult Sunday school class continues a series on Church Government and the Bible. Audio of the Sunday school lessons is now being posted each week on the audio page of the church website.
The children’s Sunday school classes meet on the top floor (you can use the elevator by the chapel if necessary). The adult class is on the basement level (again, the elevator is available) in what is labeled the “Disciples Class.” Coffee and treats begin at 9:15 and class beings at 9:30 (or so).
Visitors are always welcome!
 And the LORD appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. –Jonah 1:17
Jonah’s ultimate defiance was not when he bought the ticket to Tarshish, it was when he said to the crew, “I’d rather you throw me overboard and let me drown. I would rather commit suicide than to go preach in Ninevah like I was told.”
I don’t know if you’ve ever been so hell-bent (and I mean that literally) on your sin that you would rather commit suicide than do what God wanted, but I’ve heard stories. I’ve had a friend tell me that they knew she shouldn’t marry this non-Christian guy she was in love with. But she couldn’t obey. She said she prayed every day that God would let her die rather than to have to live without this guy. She contemplated stepping in front of a bus at a busy intersection.
Have you ever wanted to die rather than do what God wanted of you?
Let me tell you that as you suck in that salt water of your bitter defiance and you drown in your own desires, God’s plan has not ever been endangered by your choices. God’s sovereign design for you personally is never thwarted by your action or inaction. If need be, God will stop busses and appoint great fish to come swallow you whole.
God is El Shaddai, the God who gets everything He wants. Always. If that sovereign God of the universe sets His heart on having a people of His own choosing that love Him with their whole heart and who are spotless and blameless before Him, He will get what He wants. Even if it takes sending the flawless Godman to face His Father’s just wrath for sins He didn’t commit. Even if it takes obedience to the point of death. For while all we like Jonah would rather die than obey, Jesus Christ would rather obey than live.
And that’s the gospel! Come hear it preached and enacted in the supper with Jesus this Sunday.
The related hymns we’ll sing are:
Praise, My Soul, the King of Heaven
There Is a Fountain Filled with Blood
Though Troubles Assail Us
GOOD FRIDAY WORSHIP SERVICE
We will have our first Good Friday service as a church this year. It will be April 6 at 6:30 pm.
SUNDAY SCHOOL
The adult Sunday school class continues a series on Church Government and the Bible. Audio of the Sunday school lessons is now being posted each week on the audio page of the church website.
The children’s Sunday school classes meet on the top floor (you can use the elevator by the chapel if necessary). The adult class is on the basement level (again, the elevator is available) in what is labeled the “Disciples Class.” Coffee and treats begin at 9:15 and class beings at 9:30 (or so).
Visitors are always welcome!
 And they said to one another, “Come, let us cast lots, that we may know on whose account this evil has come upon us.” So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah. Then they said to him, “Tell us on whose account this evil has come upon us. What is your occupation? And where do you come from? What is your country? And of what people are you?” And he said to them, “I am a Hebrew, and I fear the LORD, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.” –Jonah 1:7-9
At the beginning of the story, God calls the prophet to go preach. Nothing shocking there; that’s what prophets are supposed to do: preach. But instead, Jonah demonstrates the Way of Insanity, the way of sinful man and buys a ticket to sail as far away as possible. Away from Israel. Away from God’s call. Away from that despicable place called Ninevah. A wildly successful course of action, right?
Now aboard an 8th century B.C. sailing vessel, that unavoidable God “hurls a great wind” and a mighty tempest at Jonah. Surprise, surprise, Jonah; even when you hold a blanket in front of your face and croon, “Where’d Jonah go?” God still sees you.
When the captain of the ship finds him snoozing with the baggage and tackle, the crew performs a quick interrogation which Jonah answers only partially. Since a truthful account of his occupation would have to go something like this, “I’m actually a preacher running from my calling to preach,” he omits that. So, he tells them where he’s from, and then he states plainly, “I fear the LORD, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.” Can’t you just imagine him almost groaning as he says this, nearly choking on the words, “made the sea?” He’s gripping the mast to try to keep from being thrown overboard, he’s watching the waves crash on the deck and getting whipped by the wind, and he knows. With every molecule of his being he knows that this storm was ordained and maintained by His God; Yahweh the maker of the sea and the dry land.
God is not mocked. Jonah tried to mock God. He tried to flee, he tried to hide, he tried to disavow, and God mocked and thwarted all his feeble attempts. Many preachers today have been called to preach prophetically of the law and the gospel. Instead they flee and hide by preaching good advice with a wink and a nod toward Jesus. And preachers aren’t the only ones to be fleeing and hiding from what God commands: you do it, too. It doesn’t matter if the ship ticket in your hand reads Tarshish, you, too, have fled and tried to hide from God’s commands and calling.
But there is one who when called by the Father always obeyed. Even though His task was far more onerous than going to despicable Ninevah, Christ shouldered the task. He came and sacrificed His perfect life for our perennially sinful generations. We, just like Jonah, will continually fail at every command and task issued to us by our Sovereign, but as Christ preached, “Something greater than Jonah is here!”
He left His Father’s throne above,
So free, so infinite His grace,
Emptied Himself of all but love,
And bled for Adam’s helpless race:
‘Tis mercy all, immense and free;
For, O my God, it found out me!
And that’s the gospel! Come hear it preached and enacted in the supper with Jesus this Sunday.
The related hymns we’ll sing are:
I Love Thy Kingdom, Lord
Holy, Holy, Holy! Lord God Almighty!
Take My Life and Let It Be
GOOD FRIDAY WORSHIP SERVICE
We will have our first Good Friday service as a church this year. It will be April 6 at 6:30 pm.
SUNDAY SCHOOL
The adult Sunday school class continues a series on Church Government and the Bible. Audio of the Sunday school lessons is now being posted each week on the audio page of the church website.
The children’s Sunday school classes meet on the top floor (you can use the elevator by the chapel if necessary). The adult class is on the basement level (again, the elevator is available) in what is labeled the “Disciples Class.” Coffee and treats begin at 9:15 and class beings at 9:30 (or so).
Visitors are always welcome!
|
|
