Redeemer Church of Oklahoma City

July 25: The Ninth Sunday after Pentecost

markb — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 02:39:55 +0000

And Jacob lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, Esau was coming, and four hundred men with him. So he divided the children among Leah and Rachel and the two female servants. And he put the servants with their children in front, then Leah with her children, and Rachel and Joseph last of all. He himself went on before them, bowing himself to the ground seven times, until he came near to his brother.

But Esau ran to meet him and embraced him and fell on his neck and kissed him, and they wept. –Genesis 33:1-4

Jacob had had quite a night. He wrestled with God and was permanently maimed from the experience. Without sleep he did not have the strength to fight with Esau nor was his apparently peak physical condition peak anymore. Esau had his 400-man militia there too. Jacob moved the shield of his family out of the way and bowed down to his brother seven times from whom he stole the blessing 20 years before. Interestingly this is quite a reversal from the blessing Isaac gave Jacob (thinking it was Esau): Let peoples serve you, and nations bow down to you. Be lord over your brothers, and may your mother’s sons bow down to you (Gen. 27:29).

Jacob was promised just a few hours before that he would win (his new name Israel), but this looks rough. Maybe, just maybe, Esau would spare the women and children.

But Esau ran, met, embraced, fell, kissed, and wept.

When we are at the end of ourselves, when we have nothing but the gospel promises, when our strength and self-justification is gone, and we know that we would justly be obliterated because of our sin, well, that’s such a great to be. That’s the place where the one who has every right to judge us for our sin meets us the way the father met the prodigal son. But while he was still far off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion; he ran and put his arms around him and kissed him. (Luke 15:20).

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:
Come, Christians, Join to Sing
Alas! And Did My Savior Bleed
Take My Life

LADIES’ FELLOWSHIP
The Redeemer ladies will enjoy seeing The Jerusalem Collection exhibit Saturday, July 24, 10:00 am at the Oklahoma Heritage Museum. Lunch will follow afterwards at the Prairie Thunder Baking Company. RSVP here. All ladies are invited.

SUNDAY SCHOOL
Sunday school for children (in Genesis) and adults (in Galatians) is continues. Coffee and other treats are served at 9:15, teaching begins at 9:30, and we break to get ready for worship at 10:15.

Visitors are always welcome!

July 18: The Eighth Sunday after Pentecost

markb — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 00:51:37 +0000

And the messengers returned to Jacob, saying, “We came to your brother Esau, and he is coming to meet you, and there are four hundred men with him.” ⁷ Then Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed. He divided the people who were with him, and the flocks and herds and camels, into two camps, ⁸ thinking, “If Esau comes to the one camp and attacks it, then the camp that is left will escape.” ⁹ ¶ And Jacob said, “O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, O LORD who said to me, ‘Return to your country and to your kindred, that I may do you good,’ ¹⁰ I am not worthy of the least of all the deeds of steadfast love and all the faithfulness that you have shown to your servant, for with only my staff I crossed this Jordan, and now I have become two camps. ¹¹ Please deliver me from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I fear him, that he may come and attack me, the mothers with the children. ¹² But you said, ‘I will surely do you good, and make your offspring as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude.’” –Genesis 32:6-12

Finally, no more scheming, no more deception; just recounting and praying the gospel, the promises of God! Jacob repents: he acknowledges his unworthiness, confesses his weakness, and recalls the gospel promises. “Repent” means something like “a change of mind.” Your mind is changed about how what you believe and consequently what you’ve done. That’s a huge part of repentance.

Non-biblical repentance is deadly. Jacob has the real thing in this passage. For the religious, non-biblical repenter, repentance usually means something like turning away from doing the wrong thing and turning to doing the right thing. That is a kind of repentance, but you don’t need Christ for it. Plus, we don’t have the willpower to do it anyway and come up with petty righteousness to feel that we are, well, righteous. Then we surround ourselves with others who are “righteous” like we are, feeling safe and warm in our little community—a constant danger for all Christians.

Repentance for the gospel-believer is not turning from doing the wrong thing to doing the right thing; repentance for the gospel-believer is turning from doing the wrong thing and turning to Christ to receive and believe what he says about you. That’s biblical repentance; that’s what Jacob is doing here. Jacob falls into the everlasting arms of God, entrusting himself fully to God’s infinite wisdom in the revealed promises.

The purpose of repentance is to reenter repeatedly into the reality of your union with Christ so that your passions for the things contrary to God’s will are weakened over time. Don’t make the mistake of believing that the purpose of repentance is to satisfy God so he will bless you and answer your prayers. Christ is the one who has satisfied God ensuring perfect blessing and just the right answer to every prayer.

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
Like a River Glorious
Jesus Shall Reign Where’re the Sun

Visitors are always welcome!

July 11: The Seventh Sunday after Pentecost

webmaster — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 01:48:35 +0000

And Laban overtook Jacob. Now Jacob had pitched his tent in the hill country, and Laban with his kinsmen pitched tents in the hill country of Gilead. And Laban said to Jacob, “What have you done, that you have tricked me and driven away my daughters like captives of the sword? Why did you flee secretly and trick me, and did not tell me, so that I might have sent you away with mirth and songs, with tambourine and lyre? And why did you not permit me to kiss my sons and my daughters farewell? Now you have done foolishly. It is in my power to do you harm. But the God of your father spoke to me last night, saying, ‘Be careful not to say anything to Jacob, either good or bad.’ And now you have gone away because you longed greatly for your father’s house, but why did you steal my gods?” Jacob answered and said to Laban, “Because I was afraid, for I thought that you would take your daughters from me by force. Anyone with whom you find your gods shall not live. In the presence of our kinsmen point out what I have that is yours, and take it.” Now Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen them. –Genesis 31:25-32

Laban exploited Jacob and his daughters for 20 years and still experienced God’s blessing because of Jacob’s favored status with the Lord. Laban must have thought that he was sowing deceit and manipulation, but reaping blessing, i.e., he thought he was getting away with it. But, don’t be deceived, God is not mocked. In the end, usually later than we might like, but in God’s perfect timing the tables are turned. Jacob and his wives depart with riches and triumph majestically over Laban without a violent act. Laban’s greed robs him, leaving him without wealth or daughters and their children.

God warns Laban directly, but Laban does exactly what God told him not to do. Such is the way sin works because Laban wants his household gods much more than his son-in-law, daughters, and grandchildren.

Jacob left the land of his father with nothing and was blessed by God even in terrible hardships, just as Jesus left behind the glories of heaven and for our sakes went out into the wilderness of the sin-stricken world with nothing. Jacob faced temptations and trials (of course, he resorted to deceit and trickery and idols), but Jesus faced temptation and trials and was perfect in them. God rescues Jacob from the “world” and gets him back to the Promised Land in spite of his sin. God raises Jesus from the “world” and gets him back to the Promised Land because he had no sin, but was made sin for all of us who resort to deceit and trickery and idols. Neither one of these lives are the way we would have done it if we were running the world! God alone has the glory.

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:
Our God, Our Help in Ages Past
Breathe On Me, Breath of God
Lead On, O King Eternal

Visitors are always welcome!

July 4: The Sixth Sunday after Pentecost

markb — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 00:52:33 +0000

When Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, she envied her sister. She said to Jacob, “Give me children, or I shall die!” Jacob’s anger was kindled against Rachel, and he said, “Am I in the place of God, who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb? –Genesis 30:1-2

The entire passage from which the two verses above is taken outlines the rank idolatry of the entire family. Jacob’s idol is Rachel, Leah’s idol is Jacob, and Rachel’s idol is having children. Idols are terrible. We all have them and will struggle with them until we die. If only they were as simple as little golden statues or stone figures!

One way to figure out what your idols are is to trace back the source of your most negative emotions. What causes that ridiculous anger you have? What am I so intensely worried about all night that I can’t sleep? What would put me over into total despair? Perhaps most of all: what do I protect with lies and deception?

Rachel reveals her idol without hesitation, “Give me children, or I shall die!” Rachel is jealous of her sister who is having children pretty much back-to-back. Leah has no difficulty doing what barren Rachel cannot. Leah’s idol, however, is not having children. Hers is Jacob’s love. Rachel, at least most of the time, has it. Sadly, Rachel is jealous of a sister who has everything she wants and Leah is jealous of a sister who has everything she wants, and neither holds precious what she has been given.

Jacob is put out with Rachel’s question (idols never satisfy!) and utters a rhetorical question: “Am I in the place of God, who has withhold from you the fruit of the womb?” Yes, it is a theological certitude, but most definitely not an answer of a loving husband. When Isaac found his wife was barren, he prayed for her. Jacob encouraged his wife to blame God rather than pray. Tragically and ironically she gets children and still dies in childbearing (Gen. 35:16-19).

The only answer for their inner emptiness they so desperately try to fill is the Lord with his promises. Jacob bears the blessing with a promise: those who bless Jacob will be blessed and those who dishonor him will be cursed (Gen. 27:29). Jacob has personally encountered the promises of God even seeing the gate of Heaven! Neither he nor his wives believe them for a good deal of their lives and the consequences are horrific.

We don’t just have trouble filling our inner emptiness with Christ instead of the things of the world. We simply can’t. We need help. The church at worship is the place where you should get that help. When you go to a church that worships not as merely seems best to them, but according the scripture, this will cause you to face God’s demands, your failure, and Christ’s provision. We need that in great measure! There is one whose only satisfaction was the promises, love, will, and face of his Heavenly Father. We can never climb the ladder he climbed because we’re too weak to climb up, so he came down to set us free not just from the things that enslave us, but even from the law itself (Gal. 3:23-26). “Give me Christ, or I shall die!”

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:
Sing Praise to God, Who Reigns Above
Fairest Lord Jesus
Let Us Love and Sing and Wonder

MEN’S PRAYER BREAKFAST
We would normally have our Men’s Prayer Breakfast this Saturday (July 3), but we’re taking a month off for the holiday weekend. Please plan on the next one: Saturday, August 7.

Visitors are always welcome!

June 27: The Fifth Sunday after Pentecost

webmaster — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 22:54:19 +0000

Then Jacob said to Laban, “Give me my wife that I may go in to her, for my time is completed.” So Laban gathered together all the people of the place and made a feast. But in the evening he took his daughter Leah and brought her to Jacob, and he went in to her. (Laban gave his female servant Zilpah to his daughter Leah to be her servant.) And in the morning, behold, it was Leah! And Jacob said to Laban, “What is this you have done to me? Did I not serve with you for Rachel? Why then have you deceived me?” Laban said, “It is not so done in our country, to give the younger before the firstborn. –Genesis 29:21-26

Jacob works for Laban seven years so he can marry Rachel. Even their initial meeting is a contrast to what should have been. His mother, Rebecca, met his father’s servant at a well. The servant was wise, prayerful, and acknowledged God’s providential hand. Other than meeting at a well, Jacob has almost nothing in common with Abraham’s servant who was on a similar mission before him. In contrast, Jacob was on the run from his deceit and apparently doesn’t pray one word when he meets Rachel.

He does not claim the gospel promises given to him by his father so Laban could maybe make the right decision. He doesn’t claim the gospel promises given to him by God in the dream of the ladder showing the gate of heaven. He just cuts a deal with Laban, which is mostly financial.

So the seven years are complete and they have a feast, indicated by the Hebrew word to be a “drinking feast.” Jacob having had a bit too much mixed together with the dark of night, and separated by the bridal veil, ends up with Leah, the half-blind rejected girl.

Obviously Jacob was furious and felt betrayed. Are we to feel all that sorry for him? In Genesis 27 two brothers were exchanged by a trick during the dark of night after some eating and drinking and behind the veil of Isaac’s blindness. Jacob’s protest is met by Laban’s cutting remark (paraphrased here): “Where we come from, we don’t let the younger get ahead of the older.” That probably left a mark on Jacob to help him remember that one reaps as he sows.

Is there any gospel in this? It doesn’t look good, but of course there is! This is, after all, “about him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth” (John 1:54). The good news is this: human sin, weakness, foolishness, and all manner of evil cannot thwart the redemptive plan of God.

The girl unwanted by her father, half-blind, and utterly unloved by her husband, Leah, is where we see this. When we read the line above, “And in the morning, behold, it was Leah!” we tend to think of that as Jacob’s profoundest disappointment. Maybe it sounds more like this: “And in the morning—O man—it was the wrong one, Leah, ewww!” But that would be a tragic mistake if we read it that way. Here’s what we should see instead: “And in the morning, behold, it was Leah, the mother of Judah, David, and Jesus Christ the Savior of the world!”

God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong. (1 Cor. 1:27)

And that’s the gospel! Come hear it preached and enacted in the supper with Jesus this Sunday.

This Sunday following the service is our June Community Lunch at the church in the “Tuscan Cafe”. Everyone is welcomed to enjoy.

Sunday school for children (in Genesis) and adults (in Galatians) is continues. Coffee and other treats are served at 9:15, teaching begins at 9:30, and we break to get ready for worship at 10:15.

Visitors are always welcome!

June 20: The Fourth Sunday after Pentecost

markb — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 16:38:42 +0000

Jacob left Beersheba and went toward Haran.And he came to a certain place and stayed there that night, because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones of the place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place to sleep.And he dreamed, and behold, there was a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven. And behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it! –Genesis 28:10-12

Jacob was on the run. He had nothing, not even a knapsack to put under his head for a pillow! Perhaps he was ashamed, but he was at least scared and it is seriously doubtful that he was basking the promises, power, and protection of God.

Yet that’s exactly what came to him in his dream. He sees a staircase, the way one would ascend and descend those ancient Near Eastern ziggurats (stepped-pyramid temples). He sees angels, messengers of God going up and down between heaven and earth.

A lot could be said about what this means, but it’s really spelled out for us in John 1:43-51,

The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Follow me.” 44 Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. 45 Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” 46 Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.” 47 Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said of him, “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit!” 48 Nathanael said to him, “How do you know me?” Jesus answered him, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.” 49 Nathanael answered him, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” 50 Jesus answered him, “Because I said to you, ‘I saw you under the fig tree,’ do you believe? You will see greater things than these.” 51 And he said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”

Among many other things, what we see here is that Jacob was viewing Jesus Christ in some form in this dream. Jacob had much to fear, and most of all, God’s righteous judgment. None of us should have any greater trepidation than that “it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment.” (Heb. 9:27) But God came to him in all his fear of not measuring up to God’s holy requirements (and indeed he didn’t and never did his whole life long!), and showed him the true way or “gate of heaven.”

In natural religion, you know, that religion that grows naturally in our hearts and gives rise to all the major religions in the world apart from Christianity, the gate to heaven is a staircase too. This staircase goes from earth to heaven and sounds awfully like the five pillars of Islam, the eightfold path in Buddhism, or even the Ten Commandments. None of the steps of this staircase will get you there even if you had the ability to climb them!

There’s just one step, and it’s not from earth to heaven, but from heaven to earth. It isn’t something you do nor is it a philosophy. It’s the Son of Man, our Lord Jesus Christ. That’s who saved Jacob from his sins and depravity, and that’s who saves us from our sin and depravity. Surely Jesus Christ is the gate of heaven.

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:
How Firm a Foundation
My Faith Looks Up to Thee
Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah

Sunday school for children (in Genesis) and adults (in Galatians) is continues. Coffee and other treats are served at 9:15, teaching begins at 9:30, and we break to get ready for worship at 10:15.

Visitors are always welcome!

June 13: The Third Sunday after Pentecost

markb — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 00:52:27 +0000

Now Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him away to Paddan-aram to take a wife from there, and that as he blessed him he directed him, “You must not take a wife from the Canaanite women,” and that Jacob had obeyed his father and his mother and gone to Paddan-aram. So when Esau saw that the Canaanite women did not please Isaac his father, Esau went to Ishmael and took as his wife, besides the wives he had, Mahalath the daughter of Ishmael, Abraham’s son, the sister of Nebaioth. –Genesis 28:6-9

Rebekah feigns disgust with the Hittite women (any woman at the time not under God’s covenant) to manipulate Isaac to agree for Jacob to leave and go to Paddan Aram. She wanted to keep him safe from Esau after the grand deception. Actually, she probably really didn’t like them, but “what good will my life be to me” if Jacob marries one of them is probably a little melodramatic. Isaac tells Jacob in no uncertain terms that he is not to take a Canaanite wife, and Jacob obeys (this time!).

In the passage above we see something very sad. What a figure of tragic irony that Esau longs to please his father and belong fully in the family. But the poor fellow is so spiritually dull that he doesn’t realize until now that Canaanite wives are not appropriate for this family. So he decides to repent of his badness in pursuing Hittite and Caananite women and to take turn (it makes you wince, doesn’t it?) one of Ishmael’s daughters. An Ishmaelite? You’ve got to be kidding me! Psalm 83 records an alliance of Ishmaelites against Israel, and this is probably where it started.

Repentance is often described as a turning from doing the wrong thing to doing the right thing. There is a real sense in which that is true. But this is not Christian repentance. It’s preached in churches up and down every street in America; nonetheless, it isn’t Christian repentance. Unbelieving Jews or atheists may decide to turn from wrong actions to right actions for a time. Christian repentance is turning NOT from your badness to your goodness; rather, Christian repentance is turning from your badness and turning from your goodness and turning to Christ. Christian repentance is turning from everything, including good works, and resting in the merits of Christ alone. What flows out of this is more sanctified behavior, but it is a result of repentance rather than the goal of repentance.

So what about Esau? His repentance was from the bad to the bad. He thought it was from the bad to the good. I suspect we are duped this way all the time. What should his repentance have been? It should have been to turn from his self-justifying efforts and turn to Jacob in full submission, seeking to bless Jacob in every way possible. Why is that? Because Jacob is the bearer of blessing. As Isaac had prophesied, “Let peoples serve you, and nations bow down to you. Be lord over your brothers, and may your mother’s sons bow down to you. Cursed be everyone who curses you, and blessed be everyone who blesses you!” (27:29). Esau needed to rest in the bearer of blessing, Jacob, who represented the blessing bearer of all, Jesus Christ. We must be careful about repentance. Christ alone!

By the way, when the great Blessing Bearer went for a bride, he got the church. That was the perfect choice because he does all things well. Let God be true and every man a liar!

And that’s the gospel! Come hear it preached and enacted in the supper with Jesus this Sunday.

Sunday school for children (in Genesis) and adults (in Galatians) is continues. Coffee and other treats are served at 9:15, teaching begins at 9:30, and we break to get ready for worship at 10:15.

Visitors are always welcome!

June 6: The Second Sunday after Pentecost

webmaster — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 16:46:20 +0000

Now Rebekah was listening when Isaac spoke to his son Esau. So when Esau went to the field to hunt for game and bring it,Rebekah said to her son Jacob, “I heard your father speak to your brother Esau, ‘Bring me game and prepare for me delicious food, that I may eat it and bless you before the LORD before I die.’Now therefore, my son, obey my voice as I command you.Go to the flock and bring me two good young goats, so that I may prepare from them delicious food for your father, such as he loves.And you shall bring it to your father to eat, so that he may bless you before he dies.”But Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, “Behold, my brother Esau is a hairy man, and I am a smooth man.Perhaps my father will feel me, and I shall seem to be mocking him and bring a curse upon myself and not a blessing.”His mother said to him, “Let your curse be on me, my son; only obey my voice, and go, bring them to me.” –Genesis 26:5-13

Jacob protests his mother’s plan. That’s good, except the protest was not that God had promised so they should wait on the Lord or even that it was simply immoral. He protests because he isn’t sure the scheme is plausible. He is worried it won’t work and he’d get caught. Getting caught may well involve getting cursed by his father rather than blessed.

Rebekah’s answer to this problem is that she would take the curse upon herself. If we were going to be very generous with her, we might think that she had received the oracle from God while still pregnant with Esau (the older) who would serve Jacob (the younger), and she was choosing to believe it. She could risk accepting the curse because she didn’t think she could be cursed because of God’s promise. Maybe, but no one in this group is exactly on the up-and-up.

Something about which we do not have to speculate is that this passage is about blessing and curse. They wanted blessing, but curse was a real threat. What a picture of the cross! Jesus was like Rebekah in that he was cursed (Paul writes in Galatians 3, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us.”) He took the curse we deserved thus the firstborn of all creation lost his firstborn rights. He dressed up like us and got what we deserved.

In exchange we are dressed up like him. Our aroma is that of another. Animals died for Jacob to be covered the way he was, in the same way for us without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness, no covering, for sins. We go in to the Father with the covering made for us by the shedding of his blood, then clothed in his righteous robes. And when he draws you near, he smells the goodness of the firstborn son. See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God!

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
Baptized in Water
Thy Works, Not Mine, O Christ

The monthly Men’s Prayer Breakfast is this Saturday, June 5, at 8:30 at the church. All men are welcomed.

Sunday school for children (in Genesis) and adults (in Galatians) is continues. Coffee and other treats are served at 9:15, teaching begins at 9:30, and we break to get ready for worship at 10:15.

Visitors are always welcome!

May 30: Trinity Sunday

markb — Thu, 27 May 2010 15:17:48 +0000

Jacob said to his father, “I am Esau your firstborn. I have done as you told me; now sit up and eat of my game, that your soul may bless me.”But Isaac said to his son, “How is it that you have found it so quickly, my son?” He answered, “Because the LORD your God granted me success.”Then Isaac said to Jacob, “Please come near, that I may feel you, my son, to know whether you are really my son Esau or not.”So Jacob went near to Isaac his father, who felt him and said, “The voice is Jacob’s voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau.”And he did not recognize him, because his hands were hairy like his brother Esau’s hands. So he blessed him.He said, “Are you really my son Esau?” He answered, “I am.”Then he said, “Bring it near to me, that I may eat of my son’s game and bless you.” So he brought it near to him, and he ate; and he brought him wine, and he drank. –Genesis 27:19-25

The firstborn gets it all: the wealth, yes, but better yet, the approval and blessing of the father. The blessing of the father is what Jacob wants most of all. It is an immaterial thing with more power than all the material things in the world. After all, sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can make (or break) my heart. Isaac knew it; Rebekah knew it; Jacob knew it. Rebekah and Jacob go to great lengths to get the words of the approving father on Jacob.

Jacob dresses up like someone else to try to get the blessing. He wants this approval and is willing to deceive in order to get it. How often do we dress up like someone else to get the approval of people! How often do we deceive even ourselves into thinking we can be someone else to get our heavenly Father’s approval!

This is a sad situation with Isaac’s family. It’s a sad situation with our own families.

But there was one who was truly the Firstborn of All Creation. There was one who had the blessing, the approval, of his heavenly Father. At his baptism, when the Spirit descended, the blessing rang throughout the universe, “This is my Son in whom I am well-pleased.”

This truly firstborn son also dressed up, but in the opposite way Jacob did. This one who genuinely deserved all the blessing and approval of the truest Father dressed up in human flesh and frailties so that the blessing would go to the undeserving children. This is how Jesus made all of his people able to hear the Spirit testifying with our spirit that we are indeed the children of God (Rom. 8:16). We have the approval and blessing of the Father: “Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called children of God!”

And that’s the gospel! Come hear it preached and enacted in the supper with Jesus this Sunday.

Sunday school for children (in Genesis) and adults (in Galatians) is continues. Coffee and other treats are served at 9:15, teaching begins at 9:30, and we break to get ready for worship at 10:15.

Visitors are always welcome!

May 23: Day of Pentecost

markb — Thu, 20 May 2010 04:05:54 +0000

Now there was a famine in the land, besides the former famine that was in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went to Gerar to Abimelech king of the Philistines. And the LORD appeared to him and said, “Do not go down to Egypt; dwell in the land of which I shall tell you. Sojourn in this land, and I will be with you and will bless you, for to you and to your offspring I will give all these lands, and I will establish the oath that I swore to Abraham your father. I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and will give to your offspring all these lands. And in your offspring all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.”

So Isaac settled in Gerar. When the men of the place asked him about his wife, he said, “She is my sister,” for he feared to say, “My wife,” thinking, “lest the men of the place should kill me because of Rebekah,” because she was attractive in appearance. When he had been there a long time, Abimelech king of the Philistines looked out of a window and saw Isaac laughing with Rebekah his wife. So Abimelech called Isaac and said, “Behold, she is your wife. How then could you say, ‘She is my sister’?” Isaac said to him, “Because I thought, ‘Lest I die because of her.’” –Genesis 26:1-9

Here comes another incident involving food. There is a new famine in the land, and presumably Isaac is going to leave the land of blessing (which is a hard place to live) to go down to the land of cursing (which seems like an easier place to live). God simply stops him before his messes up like his dad. Then they have a worship service of covenant renewal. Isaac hears in the sermon that he is the blessing bearer with all the same promises as his father Abraham.

So Isaac doesn’t leave the land of blessing, and trusts the promises of God to provide for and protect him, right? Nope, he still makes the same mistake his father made twice before him. He tells half-truths to protect himself since preserving his life was more important than obeying God. He doesn’t believe the gospel preached to him.

Now remember that this is the same guy who was himself to be the sacrifice on Mt. Moriah’s altar, but God instead provided a lamb. That’s the God who can’t be trusted?

Isaac was not reviled by the Philistines down in Gerar. He suffered not one bit and was not even threatened. Yes, there was some conflict over wells, but even that turned out fine. He had nothing to fear and everything to gain by obeying and entrusting himself to God. He didn’t though, yet was still accepted, protected, and cherished. God kept the covenant even though Isaac did not. That’s grace.

Thanks be to God that there is another Promised Son, the blessing bearer, who did not fear men. He did not fudge the truth to help himself. He did not protect his personal peace and safety. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. Jesus kept the covenant in perfect obedience on behalf of all those covenant breakers who God chose, like Isaac, before the foundation of the world.

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
Come, Holy Spirit, Heavenly Dove
Spirit of the Living God
To God be the Glory

Sunday school for children (in Genesis) and adults (in Galatians) is continues. Coffee and other treats are served at 9:15, teaching begins at 9:30, and we break to get ready for worship at 10:15.

Visitors are always welcome!