Prepare

[The following is a manuscript of my sermon delivered on Sunday morning, the 27th of November, 2016, the first Sunday in Advent.  Look for the video on our Vimeo channel:  http://vimeo.com/pilgrimreformedchurch.]

Today is the first Sunday in Advent, which is our time to get ready for Christmas.  I’m not talking about doing our shopping and getting everything set out for Santa, the way the world goes about it all this time of year.  I mean this is the time for us to ready ourselves for the holy birth and the coming of our Savior into the world.

Of course we know all about the birth of Jesus and how He grew up and began His ministry, how He was tried and beaten and hung on a cross to die, how He was buried and then rose again from the grave and ascended into heaven.  But the people long ago didn’t know any of that, because it hadn’t happened yet.

Fortunately, they had prophets, speaking for God, who told them what would happen someday.  One of the greatest of these was Isaiah, who told of Jesus’ coming over 700 years before it happened, even if he didn’t call Him by name.  Listen and follow along to one of the first passages where we can see Jesus clearly described by Isaiah,  in chapter 40 of his book of prophecy, verses 1 through 5 and 10 and 11, and I’ll be reading from the New King James Version of our Bible…

1 “Comfort, yes, comfort My people!”
Says your God.
2 “Speak comfort to Jerusalem, and cry out to her,
That her warfare is ended,
That her iniquity is pardoned;
For she has received from the Lord’s hand
Double for all her sins.”
3 The voice of one crying in the wilderness:
“Prepare the way of the Lord;
Make straight in the desert
A highway for our God.
4 Every valley shall be exalted
And every mountain and hill brought low;
The crooked places shall be made straight
And the rough places smooth;
5 The glory of the Lord shall be revealed,
And all flesh shall see it together;
For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

10 Behold, the Lord God shall come with a strong hand,
And His arm shall rule for Him;
Behold, His reward is with Him,
And His work before Him.
11 He will feed His flock like a shepherd;
He will gather the lambs with His arm,
And carry them in His bosom,
And gently lead those who are with young.

--Isaiah 40:1-5, 10-11 (NKJV)

Let us pray…  Father God, we have come together this morning to worship You, and to listen for Your voice.  We anticipate the coming of our Savior, who You promised so long ago.  Help us prepare for His advent, Father.  Speak Your message into our hearts and our lives.  In the blessed name of Jesus we pray.  Amen.


A professional football coach was hired to manage a team that had been experiencing a bad season.  As with all football teams, if they didn't win, the coach is replaced.  To succeed in football you must win.

On his first day after accepting the team offer, the new coach was given two sealed envelopes.  He was told that if he got into difficulty he should open the first envelope.  If things didn't get better later on, he should open the second envelope.

Sure enough, the team continued to struggle, so he opened the first envelope.  Inside was a note of encouragement from the previous coach that ended by saying the new coach should blame everything on him.  So at the post-game press conference, he did just that.  When asked why the team still did so poorly, he stated that their present failures were all due to the former coach and his policies.

As the season progressed and the team still failed to win, the coach went ahead and opened the second sealed envelope.  Inside was a terse note that merely read: "Prepare two envelopes."


The new coach had to quickly prepare for the worst.  I think we do that a lot - preparing for the worst, even while hoping for the best.  Well, Isaiah wanted us to prepare for the best right off the bat.  “Prepare the way of the Lord!”  “The glory of the Lord shall be revealed.”  “And all flesh shall see it together.”  Prepare yourself, for the very best is about to come!


The prophet Isaiah was born into an influential, upper-class family.  He rubbed shoulders with royalty and gave advice regarding foreign affairs.  He was usually scoffed at, though, because he often counseled that the nation of Judah should avoid foreign alliances and instead turn to and trust in the Lord.  But Judah failed to listen and ultimately followed the same path of idolatry and apostasy as did the ten northern tribes of Israel.

Eventually, Babylon conquered Judah, and carried her off into slavery.  But that was not until around 150 years after Isaiah tried to warn Hezekiah, King of Judah.  Here is a short conversation between Isaiah and Hezekiah, from chapter 39 of the prophet’s book, verses 5 through 8…

5 Then Isaiah said to him, “Listen to this message from the Lord Almighty:
6 “The time is coming when everything you have—all the treasures stored up by your fathers—will be carried off to Babylon. Nothing will be left. 7 And some of your own sons will become slaves, yes, eunuchs, in the palace of the king of Babylon.”
8 “All right,” Hezekiah replied. “Whatever the Lord says is good. At least there will be peace during my lifetime!”

--Isaiah 39:5-8 (TLB)

I love what Hezekiah says there, in response to all the gloom and doom Isaiah foresaw:  “Whatever the Lord says is good.”  That is the attitude we all need to share.  Whatever the Lord says is good.  Why?  The Apostle Paul explains it best, in chapter 8 verse 28 of his letter to the Romans…

28 And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.

--Romans 8:28 (NKJV)

Whatever the Lord says is good because He works all things together for good to those who love Him and follow His voice.  And we can see by simply reading our Bible that whatever the Lord promises, He fulfills.  He promised us a Messiah, a Savior, and He fulfilled that promise in the person of His Son Jesus, made flesh and given to us to live among us, and then to offer us eternal salvation.  He has also promised that Jesus will come again, to take His church home to be with Him forever.  We have no reason to believe that Jesus will not return, for whatever the Lord says is good.


Isaiah tells us to prepare the way of the Lord.  We are to make straight a highway in the dessert, a highway for our Lord to come in on.  Isaiah was referring to that first coming of our Messiah, Jesus, whose birth we will soon celebrate again.  But God through Isaiah was also telling us to prepare for Jesus to come again.  We need to clear off and straighten out the highway that leads through the dessert of our lives so our Lord will once again have a direct path to our hearts.

Just as Isaiah told King Hezekiah, we can read in the Apostle John’s book of Revelation that the time is coming when we may lose everything we’ve ever owned, everything we may have inherited.  We and our children may be carried off into slavery in some far off land, serving the whims of some other nation’s masters.

But in one interpretation of end-times scriptures, and the one I personally believe in, Jesus will call His church home before these events happen.  Those who He claims as His own will be called up from the clouds to be with Him when He returns.  The Lord has said this, and His word is good.  He has promised it, and His promise will be fulfilled.

But we have our part to fulfill also.  We must prepare for Jesus’ return.  We must get our hearts in order.  We must make sure of exactly where our faith lies, of who or what we truly serve as Master.  If Jesus is not the most important thing in our lives, then we need to make straight that particular highway.  If we do not obey His commands with every thought and every deed, then that is another highway needing repair work.

When John the Baptist echoed Isaiah’s call to “prepare the way of the Lord”, he added, “Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand.”  Repent.  Family, we must turn from our sins and disobedience, turn back to God and seek His forgiveness.  For the Kingdom of heaven is indeed near at hand.

So much happening today can be clearly seen described in our Bible, the things that will occur just before Jesus returns.  We must be prepared for His second coming, even as we recognize and celebrate the first time He came to us, as a mere babe.  This time He will ride in from the clouds as a conquering hero, and we do not want to be on the wrong side of that final battle.

Get ready for it.  Clear out the cobwebs, sweep off the trash, pick up the litter that clutters our lives.  Prepare the way.  Make straight a highway in the dessert, for our Lord Jesus is coming soon.  Amen.


Let us pray…  Father God, You directed Your prophet Isaiah to warn Your children that they would be punished if they did not repent of their sinful ways and come back to You.  But You also offered them words of comfort and hope, with the promise that the Messiah they had waited so long for would soon come and walk among them.  You promised their hard times would cease and their sins would be pardoned and forgiven.  You said they had already been punished enough, that their prayers would be answered.  But You also gave them a role to play, in that they needed to make straight a highway through the dessert for their Lord.  They had to straighten out their lives, repent of their disobedience, and return to You as obedient servants.  The Messiah was coming, and they had to get ready in their hearts and in their lives.  The Messiah was coming, and all of Your glory would be revealed, and every person would witness it together.  And Father God, You also gave us this message so we could understand it’s implication today.  For our Messiah is about to return, and we need to get our house in order just as did Your children so long ago.  Help us, please Father, to understand the full impact of Isaiah’s words.

Hear us now, Father, as we come to You in the silence, crying out from our hearts for forgiveness, promising our repentance and submission to our Lord Jesus, seeking Your help with our preparations…

Lord Jesus, Isaiah tells us You will come with a strong hand, and Your arm will rule.  You will bring Your rewards for those You have chosen, and You will mete out judgment over those who deny Your sovereignty.  We are nothing more than Your flock, sheep in Your hands.  Carry us in those strong arms, Lord Jesus.  Help us prepare for Your return.  Strengthen us when the world would set itself against us, trying to take us from You.  Forgive us the times we fail to obey You, when we disrespect Your supreme authority.  Have mercy upon us, Lord Jesus.

This we pray in Your glorious name, Christ Jesus, our Lord and Master, the one true Son of God, in whom we place all our hope, all our trust, all our faith.  Amen.

Truly Thankful

[The following is a manuscript of my sermon delivered on Wednesday evening, the 23rd of November, 2016, Thanksgiving Eve, on the occasion of a joint service between Emanuel Reformed, Paul's Chapel, and Pilgrim Reformed Churches, held at Paul's Chapel Church.]

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, a day set aside for feasting and football.  Some people even take a few minutes to give thanks to God.  But we know we should give God thanks for more than just a couple minutes, and definitely more often than one day a year.  After all, we owe God so much, don’t we?  Or do we take too much for granted?

As He so often did, Jesus used an incident that occurred During one of His healings as a teaching moment for us, to provide us with a lesson in gratitude.  It began a few days earlier while in conversation with His disciples.  Listen and follow along as I read from the Gospel account of the Apostle Luke, chapter 17, verses 7 through 19, from the New King James Version of our Bible…

7 “And which of you, having a servant plowing or tending sheep, will say to him when he has come in from the field, ‘Come at once and sit down to eat’? 8 But will he not rather say to him, ‘Prepare something for my supper, and gird yourself and serve me till I have eaten and drunk, and afterward you will eat and drink’? 9 Does he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I think not. 10 So likewise you, when you have done all those things which you are commanded, say, ‘We are unprofitable servants. We have done what was our duty to do.’” 

11 Now it happened as He went to Jerusalem that He passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. 12 Then as He entered a certain village, there met Him ten men who were lepers, who stood afar off. 13 And they lifted up their voices and said, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” 

14 So when He saw them, He said to them, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And so it was that as they went, they were cleansed. 

15 And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, returned, and with a loud voice glorified God, 16 and fell down on his face at His feet, giving Him thanks. And he was a Samaritan. 

17 So Jesus answered and said, “Were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine? 18 Were there not any found who returned to give glory to God except this foreigner?” 19 And He said to him, “Arise, go your way. Your faith has made you well.”

--Luke 17:7-19 (NKJV)

Let us pray…  Father God, we come into Your presence this evening in the name of Your beloved Son and our Savior Jesus, to worship You, to give You our thanks, to praise You, and to listen for Your voice, for the message You wish us to hear.  Speak to us now, Father, that we might better know Your will for us.  In the holiest name of Jesus we pray.  Amen.


The food editor of a local newspaper received a telephone call a few days before Thanksgiving from a woman asking how long to cook a 12-pound turkey.  “Just a minute…”, the editor muttered, turning in her chair to consult a cooking chart.  “Thank you very much”, replied the novice cook, and hung up!


Well, at least the lady was thankful for the information she thought she’d received.  But I sure would have hated to dine at her house that evening.

She thanked the editor, and seemed genuinely grateful.  And I believe most of us generally thank someone who is doing something for us, even if we’re paying them to do it.  We thank our server in the restaurant.  We thank the cashier at the grocery store.  We thank the folks who deliver our mail and our paper and our packages, even if only once a year.

But sometimes, especially if we’re paying for it, we expect the service we receive, like the master and the servant in the first few verses of our scripture reading.  We expect them to put us first, and take it for granted when they do so.  We don’t worry about any needs that they may have.  Even if we utter the words, “Thank you”, we may not be truly thankful for what they have done.


Jesus cleansed ten lepers, but nine failed to go back and thank Him.  I wonder what kind of excuses they had ready in case they were asked why not.  Maybe they were waiting to see if the cure was real and would last.  Maybe they were in a hurry to get to the priests and thank them instead.  Maybe they just had somewhere they had to get to before they were late.  Maybe they just figured it was no big deal after all.  I wonder if once they realized they had been healed, they were just so thrilled that all they could do was run off to find their families they had left behind long ago and celebrate with them.

For whatever reason, the nine lepers who showed no gratitude took for granted what Jesus did for them.  They never gave Jesus, or His words, another thought.  In a way, it’s like they expected Him to do what He did.  As if He were the servant in the first few verses, that was only expected to do His job with no thanks necessary.  Even though something great had just happened, these nine seemingly ungrateful but now cured lepers did not take the time to go back and give glory to God – or even to simply say “Thank You, Jesus”.

Sometimes, even when everything is going well for us, we can get so wrapped up in those good times that we forget to thank God for all He provides us.  But that doesn’t excuse us, does it?  Shouldn’t we be like the Samaritan leper who returned and glorified God, thanking Jesus for the healing?

The Apostle Paul certainly thought so.  Listen to his words from his 1st letter to the Thessalonians, chapter 5, verses 16 through 18…

16 Rejoice always, 17 pray without ceasing, 18 in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

--1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 (NKJV)

In everything give thanks!  During the good times as well as the bad, in everything give thanks to God.


Thanksgiving Day was first proclaimed by President George Washington in 1789 as a nation-wide day for public thanksgiving and prayer to the Almighty God for His many blessings over this country.  We generally point to an earlier part of our national history that set the precedent for this day of giving thanks.  After a perilous two month Atlantic crossing under miserable, cramped conditions, that group of people from Europe we now call the Pilgrims landed in the New World in November of 1620.  One of their first actions upon arrival  was to be led by William Brewster in the reading of Psalm 100 as a prayer of Thanksgiving.  Let me read that prayer to you now, in what may be the same Bible they read from, the King James Version.  It comes from the 100th Psalm…

1 Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands. 

2 Serve the Lord with gladness: come before His presence with singing. 

3 Know ye that the Lord He is God: it is He that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are His people, and the sheep of His pasture. 

4 Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise: be thankful unto Him, and bless His name. 

5 For the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting; and His truth endureth to all generations.

--Psalm 100 (KJV)

Let me repeat verse 4:  Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise: be thankful unto Him, and bless His name.

The Pilgrims of Plymouth Colony landed in November, too late to even think about planting crops.  That first winter proved nearly disastrous.  By the spring of 1621, only 47 colonists survived – the rest having succumbed to either the harshness of the winter or to disease contracted aboard ship.

But they did survive and that fall they celebrated their first harvest alongside their Native American neighbors, without whose help and the blessings of God they most surely would not have lasted the year.  After reaping a successful crop and with their time of desperation behind them, they rejoiced and gave thanks to the Lord.

In everything give thanks.  Enter into God’s presence with thanksgiving and praise.  Be thankful to Him and bless His holy name.  Be truly thankful, for God is good, all the time.  And all the time, God is good.  So give Him thanks all the time.

Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks - for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.  Give thanks unto God, in the blessed name of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.


Let us pray…  Father God, You give us so much that sometimes we just kind of take your many blessings for granted.  It isn’t that we don’t appreciate all You do for us, Father.  We just get used to everything You provide, and we forget to stop and give You our thanks.  Please forgive us, Father, when we are ungrateful.  Forgive us when we get too wrapped up in our daily lives and fail to thank You for Your great and constant generosity.

Hear us now, Father, as we come to You in the silence, speaking directly from our hearts with thanksgiving and praise, repenting of our disobedience and seeking Your forgiveness…

Lord Jesus, You cured ten men of their leprosy but only one returned to thank You.  The ingratitude of the nine made you sad, Lord, just as we must sadden You during our times of failing to give You and our Father the thanks You so rightly deserve.  Forgive us, please, Lord Jesus.  Help us to see our many blessings in the bad times as well as the good.  Help us to remember to stop and give thanks unto God, for He is so good to us.

This we pray in Your glorious name, Christ Jesus, our Lord and Master, the one true Son of God, in whom we place all our hope, all our trust, all our faith.  Amen.

Thanks Giving

[The following is a manuscript of my sermon delivered on Sunday morning, the 20th of November, 2016, the Sunday before Thanksgiving Day.  Look for the video on our Vimeo channel: http://vimeo.com/pilgrimreformedchurch.]

This Thursday is Thanksgiving, a day originally set aside for giving thanks to God.  Sadly, more folks seem to spend most of the day eating or watching parades and football games.  Or napping in front of the TV after gorging themselves on turkey and mashed potatoes.

But we know we should do more than that.  We know we should give God thanks more than for just a couple minutes, and certainly more often than one day a year.  We know how much we owe God, right?

Or do we?  Have we somehow lost sight of all that God does for us?  If so, then we really need to hear what the Apostle Paul has to tell us.  It’s a short message, but it’s wearing combat boots so it can better stomp on our toes.  Listen and follow along as I read from Paul’s 1st letter to the Thessalonians, chapter 5, verses 14 through 18, from The Living Bible…

14 Dear brothers, warn those who are lazy, comfort those who are frightened, take tender care of those who are weak, and be patient with everyone. 15 See that no one pays back evil for evil, but always try to do good to each other and to everyone else. 16 Always be joyful. 17 Always keep on praying. 18 No matter what happens, always be thankful, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.

--1 Thessalonians 5:14-18 (TLB)

Let us pray…  Father God, we come into Your presence this morning to worship You, to give You our thanks, to praise You, and to listen for Your voice, for the message You wish us to hear.  Speak to us now, Father, that we might better know Your will for us.  In the blessed name of Jesus we pray.  Amen.


A woman who was shopping took a break for some coffee and cookies.  She sat down in the one unoccupied chair across from a man reading a newspaper.  She sipped her coffee and reached for a cookie, only to see the man across from her also taking a cookie.  She glared at him; he just smiled at her and she resumed her reading.

Moments later she reached for another cookie, just as the man also took one.  Now feeling quite angry, she stared at the one remaining cookie - whereupon the man reached over, broke the cookie in half, and offered her a piece.  She grabbed it and stuffed it into her mouth, as the man smiled at her again, rose, and left.  The woman was really steaming as she angrily opened her purse, her coffee break now ruined, and put her magazine away.  And there she saw her bag of cookies.

All along, she'd unknowingly been helping herself to the cookies belonging to the gracious man whose table she'd shared.


How often do we unknowingly and ungratefully help ourselves to what our gracious Father provides?  How often do we get angry when we think we haven't been given anywhere near enough, or when we think someone else is getting more than us?  How often do we take for granted all the many blessings we receive each and every day?  How often do we pause long enough to say, "Thank You, God… Thank You, Father"?


Look at a few things Paul says in those five short verses.  “Warn those who are lazy”.  Are we sometimes too lazy to stop and give thanks, or do we just not realize we have something to be thankful for?

“Comfort those who are frightened”.  Why might we be frightened?  Do we fear we might lose our possessions or our life or that a loved one might suffer for some reason?  Wouldn’t that mean that we have possessions to lose, that we have a life, that we have loved ones?  Just who do all those come from?  Aren’t those very good reasons to give thanks to God?  Paul certainly seems to think so, because he illustrates Jesus’ commandment to love one another when he tells us to “always try to do good to each other”.

In addition to that, he tells us we should always be joyful, always be praying, always be thankful – no matter what happens!  Always!  Why?  Because this is what God wants all those who belong to His Son Jesus to do!

Always!  Not a few minutes a day, one day a year.  Not whenever it happens to dawn on us.  Not just when we sit down to eat dinner.  Not just when the preacher is praying.  Always!


This simple and specific message was very important to Paul, so important that he repeated it often.  Now, we need to realize that the letters Paul wrote to the individual churches were actually read at most or often all of the churches in the region around the Mediterranean Sea.  His letters to the church in Thessalonica were very likely also read in Philippi and Ephesus and Corinth and the other cities in the region, and quite possibly in Rome and Jerusalem, too.  What he told one church family was probably heard by the rest.  So when we see a theme repeated in letters to different churches, we know it was important to Paul.

Listen to what he wrote to the Philippians, in chapter 4, verse 4…

4 Always be full of joy in the Lord; I say it again, rejoice!

--Philippians 4:4 (TLB)

And this comes from his letter to the Ephesians, chapter 5, verse 20…

20 Always give thanks for everything to our God and Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

--Ephesians 5:20 (TLB)

Always rejoice!  Always give thanks for everything!

Give thanks to who?  To God!  Give thanks for what?  Everything!  Give thanks how?  In the name of Jesus Christ our Lord!  Our thanks giving should be to God for everything in the name of His Son Jesus.


One of the things from our message text that Paul told us to do always is to keep on praying.  Always be in prayer.  A little further in his letter to the Ephesians, Paul reaffirms this as well…

18 Pray all the time. Ask God for anything in line with the Holy Spirit’s wishes. Plead with him, reminding him of your needs, and keep praying earnestly for all Christians everywhere.

--Ephesians 6:18 (TLB)

Pray all the time, always.  Notice that Paul says we can ask God for anything that is in line with the Holy Spirit’s wishes.  God’s Holy Spirit is within us, guiding us in the right direction.  We know what is right and good, so we should only ask in prayer for what is right and good.

But we shouldn’t be afraid or ashamed to ask for what we need, and especially when asking for the needs of our brothers and sisters in Christ.  Paul did a lot of both - praying and giving thanks to God.  He often opened and closed his letters doing one or the other.  And it pretty much always had to do with the church family he was writing to.  This is how Paul opened his 2nd letter to the Thessalonians, in chapter 1, verse 3…

3 Dear brothers, giving thanks to God for you is not only the right thing to do, but it is our duty to God because of the really wonderful way your faith has grown and because of your growing love for each other.

--2 Thessalonians 1:3 (TLB)

I can easily relate to what Paul said there.  You’ve heard me say how much I am blessed just being here with you, my Pilgrim family, and how much I thank God for placing me here with you.  It is definitely right that I do so, and Paul says it is also my duty, because of all the truly wonderful things God is doing here.

We’re not perfect – no one is; no church is – but we believe in God and in His Son Jesus.  We study His word and try our best to understand and follow it.  We obey His command to love each other, unconditionally, without expecting anything in return.  We go out into the greater community, helping others as best we can.

Because of you, my faith is growing, and I can see it growing in you, too.  And for all of that, and so much more, my thanks giving is to God, in the name of His Son and our Lord Jesus Christ.  Amen.


Let us pray…  Father God, You pour out Your blessings so abundantly over us that we begin to take them for granted.  It isn’t that we don’t appreciate all that You do for us, Father.  We just get used to everything You provide, and we forget to stop and give You our thanks.  Please forgive us, Father, when we are ungrateful.  Forgive us when we get too caught up in life and fail to thank You for Your great generosity.

Hear us now, Father, as we come to You in the silence, speaking directly from our hearts with thanksgiving and praise…

Lord Jesus, You touched Paul and gave him a special insight into God’s kingdom.  In turn, Paul left us with the benefits of that incredible insight, providing us with instructions we need to live by to remain in Your good stead.  Always be joyful, always be in prayer, and always be thankful truly are words to live by.  Lord, please help us to follow Paul’s inspired message and to live as You would have us live.

This we pray in Your glorious name, Christ Jesus, our Lord and Master, the one true Son of God, in whom we place all our hope, all our trust, all our faith.  Amen.

Burdens

[The following is a manuscript of my sermon delivered on Sunday morning, the 13th of November, 2016.  Look for the video on our Vimeo channel, http://vimeo.com/pilgrimreformedchurch.]

As the early church began to spread across the known world, some men went out from Jerusalem with a message that was not necessarily condoned by the Apostles.  They were telling the new Christians that in order to truly be saved, they had to follow the Laws of Moses and be circumcised like the Jews.  Their thinking seemed to be that since Jesus was a Jew and was circumcised as a babe, that His followers must also be circumcised or they were doomed.  When Paul and Barnabas got wind of this, they went back to tell the others.

The Apostles and the whole congregation of the church in Jerusalem decided to write a letter to be circulated among all the new churches explaining that they did not have to adhere to the Laws of Moses in order to be saved by Jesus.  Listen to what they wrote the churches, from the Apostle Luke’s Book of Acts, chapter 15, verses 22 through 29, as I read from the Modern English Version of our Bible…

22 Then it pleased the apostles and the elders, with the whole church, to send chosen men from among them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas, namely, Judas called Barsabas, and Silas, leading men among the brothers. 23 They wrote this letter by their hand: 

The apostles and the elders and the brothers,
To the brothers who are of the Gentiles in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia: 

Greetings. 

24 Since we have heard that some of us, whom we did not commission, have gone out and have troubled you with words, unsettling your minds, saying, “You must be circumcised and keep the law,” 25 it seemed good to us, being assembled in unity, to send chosen men to you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, 26 men who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. 27 Therefore we have sent Judas and Silas, who will also speak to you, saying the same things. 28 For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to put on you no greater burden than these necessary things: 29 Abstain from food offered to idols, from sexual immorality, from strangled animals, and from blood. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well. 

Farewell.

--Acts 15:22-29 (MEV)

Let us pray…  Father God, we come into Your presence to worship You and to listen for Your voice, for the message You wish us to hear today.  Speak to us now, Father, and give us discernment into Your will for our lives.  In the blessed name of Jesus we pray.  Amen.


A landlubber who could not swim went fishing with a friend and after a while hooked a really big fish.  He was so excited about catching this whopper that as he was reeling it in, trying to get it next to the boat, he leaned too far over and fell into the water.  He was panic stricken and began to yell, “Help!  Save me!  Help!  Save me!”

So his friend just calmly reached out and was going to grab the man by his hair, pull him over a little closer, an get him into the boat.  But as he tugged, the man’s toupee came off and he slipped down under again.  He bobbed back up yelling, “Help!  Save me!”  So the friend reached down again, this time catching hold of an arm.  As he pulled on it, it came off because it was an artificial limb.  The man continued to kick and thrash about in the water, sputtering and splashing and getting more desperate and panicky by the second.  The friend reached out once more and grabbed a leg, and as he pulled on it – you guessed it – the leg came off, too!  It was an artificial leg!

As the man continued splashing and sputtering and crying out for help, his now discouraged friend sputtered, “How can I help you if you won’t stick together?!”


As soon as the man fell out of the boat, his friend was suddenly burdened with a terribly heavy load.  He had invited his friend to go fishing, even though he probably knew the man could not swim.  And then when he tried to help, his friend just kept coming apart, physically and emotionally.  And that only served to add to his burden.


Last week I talked about how one of the disagreements the reformers had with the Roman Catholic Church was that they claimed the church had added to the burdens of believers over the many years.  I read some scripture the reformers often pointed to that showed how Jesus came to free us from our burden of sin and guilt, not add to it.  That scripture comes from the Gospel according to the Apostle Matthew, chapter 11, verses 28 through 30…

28 “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavily burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me. For I am meek and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.”

--Matthew 11:28-30 (MEV)

Jesus promised to lighten our load if we would follow and obey Him, but Martin Luther flatly stated that the church had increased the loads of those who followed Jesus, not lighten them.  In the very scripture Luther pointed to, Jesus rebuked the Pharisees for adding so much to the Laws of Moses that the faithful’s burdens were unbearable.

After last week’s message, the Holy Spirit started prodding me to dig a little deeper into all this.  A bit earlier in Matthew’s account, in chapter 23 verses 1 through 4, Jesus didn’t hold back in His disdain for the Pharisees…

1 Then Jesus spoke to the multitudes and to His disciples, 2 saying: “The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. 3 Therefore whatever they tell you to observe, that observe and do, but do not do according to their works; for they say, and do not do. 4 For they bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers.

--Matthew 23:1-4 (NKJV)

The scribes and Pharisees placed heavy burdens onto the backs of the faithful and yet wouldn’t lift even one little finger to help them.  To me, Luther found the Catholic Church guilty of the very thing Jesus accused the Pharisees of.

To my thinking, the Pharisees represented the established church of their day, just as the Roman Catholics were the established church of Luther’s day.  What Moses brought the people from God, the established religious body embellished and so increased the burdens on the faithful.  Jesus came to fix this, to lighten the loads of believers, to free us from our guilt and sin.  But the established religious body once again began to heap more and more upon the faithful.  So Martin Luther and others of his thinking protested the church and split away in what we now call the Protestant Reformation.


I want you to think about this for a minute.  The church caused additional grief for its members.  The established religious authorities, or those within, added to the burdens the faithful had to endure.  This is effectively persecution of the church by the church, isn’t it?  Where do you think this came from, this attitude of adding burden, this persecution of a sort?

Do you remember a few weeks back when we talked about our real enemy?  Do you remember who that enemy is?  Paul tells us we fight not against flesh and blood in mortal warfare, but against Satan and his minions in spiritual warfare.

Family, Satan has invaded the church, and he first did so long before Jesus came to earth to live among us.  We call the church building a holy place, the house of God, sacrosanct, a sanctuary from the world.  And yes, the devil himself has walked the halls of church buildings the world over ever since there first were buildings called churches.  But I’m not so much worried if he is in this building as I am if he is in our hearts.

Family, we are the church, and Satan has invaded and is corrupting the church, the body of Jesus!  He causes extra burdens to be heaped upon the backs of believers, hoping to break them.  He tempts us, speaks lies to us, tells us what we want to hear without any regard to truth.

We’ve just looked at two examples where Satan added to the burdens of God’s chosen people and of Jesus’ church.  I can’t help but feel that he is very active again, but this time taking away all our burdens rather than adding to them.  By that I mean that he wants us to believe that we have no role or responsibility in following and obeying Jesus.  His agents tell the church what they long to hear, and not what they need to hear.  People don’t want to be told they need to repent, turn from their sins, obey God and His commandments, love all others.  They’d rather go on living life the way they want to, the way that feels good, rather than the way Jesus wants us to live.

Paul warns us of this, in his 2nd letter to his young friend Timothy, chapter 4, verses 3 and 4…

3 [For] the time will come when people will not endure sound doctrine, but they will gather to themselves teachers in accordance with their own desires, having itching ears, 4 and they will turn their ears away from the truth and turn to myths.

--2 Timothy 4:3-4 (MEV)

Jesus also warned us of this happening, as recorded by Matthew in the 24th chapter of his Gospel account, verses 3 through 5 and 11 and 12…

3 Now as He sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?”

4 And Jesus answered and said to them: “Take heed that no one deceives you. 5 For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many.”

11 “And many false prophets will appear and will deceive many people. 12 Sin will be rampant everywhere, and the love of many will grow cold.”

--Matthew 24:3-5, 11-12 (NKJV & NLT, rsp.)

Family, false prophets are at work today in churches all across America and the whole world.  They are doing Satan’s work, whether by adding burdens onto the backs of believers or by removing them completely and just telling the people what they want to hear.  And sadly, the people are deceived.  In those cases, Satan wins.


So if all this turmoil in the church throughout the ages and still today is all the work of Satan, and if we are engaged in spiritual warfare, what can we do about it?   How do we fight?  Do we ease some burdens and increase others?

The Apostle John gives us a clue how to resolve some of our problems with loads and burdens.  And with it a hint at how to fight this spiritual war.  In his first letter to the churches across the known world, chapter 5 verses 1 through 4, John writes…

5 Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves the one born of the Father. 2 By this we know that we love the children of God: when we love God and keep His commandments. 3 For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome, 4 for whoever is born of God overcomes the world, and the victory that overcomes the world is our faith.

--1 John 5:1-4 (MEV)

When we love God and keep His commandments, then we love one another.  And because God loves us, His commandments are not all that burdensome, not at all heavy.

Could love be a key?  In our little story at the start, the friend was so discouraged he lashed out at the drowning man and asked how in the world could he help if the man didn’t stick together.  Not sticking together is a problem plaguing our nation for too many years now.  We’re supposed to be one nation under God, but we are divided neighbor against neighbor, brother against brother.  And we’ve kicked God out of any role of importance.  We just can’t seem to stick together anymore, even among those of us who do try to follow Jesus as our Lord.  If we can’t stick together, how can anyone help us?

In his letter to the Galatians, chapter 6 verse 2, Paul instructs us…

2 Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.

--Galatians 6:2 (NKJV)

We need to stick together, especially we Christians, and share one another’s load.  By doing so we will be fulfilling the law of Christ - we’ll be doing what Jesus would have us do.  It all comes back to loving one another just as we love ourselves, just as Jesus loves us.  If we truly love our brother or sister, then we will gladly bear their burden, whether physical, spiritual, or emotional.  We’ll share their load, without complaint, and with no conditions placed on them.  That is what Jesus would have us do, how He wants us to love.  And when we bear the burdens of another, He will lighten our own load.

Share each other’s burdens.  In the glorious name of Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.


Let us pray…  Father God, Your faithful have been under attack ever since the serpent first told Eve to take a bite from the forbidden fruit.  Satan is unrelenting in his assault on Your Son’s church, never letting up for a minute.  If one approach doesn’t work, he tries another.  We need Your help, Father, to stay true to Jesus and to Your commands.

Hear us now, Father, as we repent of our disobedience, seek Your help, plead for Your forgiveness…

Lord Jesus, You came to earth not to destroy the law, but to fulfill it.  You gave of Yourself to lighten our loads, to free us from guilt and sin, while Satan has worked overtime in doing just the opposite.  He adds to our burdens hoping to break our wills.  He deceives us into thinking that we can do anything we want to do and still receive Your Father’s wonderful grace.  Help us, Lord Jesus, to see the truth.  Help us to be faithful and true to You, just as You are to us.

This we pray in Your glorious name, Christ Jesus, our Lord and Master, the one true Son of God, in whom we place all our hope, all our trust, all our faith.  Amen.

Reformed

[The following is a manuscript of my sermon delivered on Sunday morning, the 6th of November, 2016.  Look for the video on our Vimeo channel, http://vimeo.com/pilgrimreformedchurch.]

Do you know what this past Monday was, October 31st?  Yes, it was Halloween.  But it was also Reformation Day - a time to remember and reflect on the Protestant Reformation.  The Reformation was a period of theological reform that led to the new Protestant branches of Christianity as they split away from the Roman Catholic Church.

Although the Reformation was not really a single, unified movement, its start is associated with Martin Luther nailing his “Ninety-five Theses” to the door of All Saints’ Church in Wittenberg, Germany on October 31st, 1517.  From that point the Reformation was picked up by men like John Calvin and Ulrich Zwingli who carried it into other countries in Europe.  The reformers were motivated to restore the Bible to a central place in Christian doctrine, and to emphasize the importance of grace in making salvation possible for mankind, rather than works or “good deeds”.

Since we consider Martin Luther to be the father of the Protestant Reformation, I thought it fitting to read to you the passage that opened his eyes and led him to write and post those theses of protest against the Roman Catholic Church of his day.  Listen and follow along as I read to you from the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Romans, chapter 1, verses 14 through 18.  And today, in honor of Martin Luther and the Reformation, I am going to be reading from the Geneva Bible, which was in widespread use during this time.  I’ve asked our secretary Dama to do a split-screen on our slides so you can see the Geneva Bible version alongside something we’re more familiar with, the New Living Translation…

14 I am debtor both to the Grecians, and to the Barbarians, both to the wise men and to the unwise. 

15 Therefore, as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the Gospel to you also that are at Rome. 

16 For I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first, and also to the Grecian. 

17 For by it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith. 

18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness, and unrighteousness of men, which withhold the truth in unrighteousness.

--Romans 1:14-18 (GNV)

Let us pray…  Father God, we come before You this morning as a church family steeped in the history of the Reformed tradition.  Help us, please, to see how that tradition forms our belief and our faith.  Speak to us that we might better understand how much our faith means to You.  Inform us with Your message this morning.  In the holy name of Jesus we pray.  Amen.


A minister's car broke down on his way home one Monday morning.  He walked the rest of the way and then called the town's only mechanic.  The mechanic met the pastor where the stalled car sat and began his repairs.  "I'm going to go easy with you on the cost, Reverend", the mechanic said after a few minutes.  "Thank you so much", the minister replied.  "After all, I'm just a poor preacher."  "I know", the mechanic said.  "I heard your sermon yesterday."


Sounds like they could both use a little “reforming”, doesn’t it.

Professor Steve Brown of the Reformed Seminary, once told of an interesting study…  In the 1940s following India's independence from England, a group of British researchers wanted to study the impact of the end of British rule on the life of the nation.  After six months the social scientists gave up and went home.  Though the British had been present in India since the 1600s, many people in the villages of the country were not even aware that the British had ever been there!

We know that God Himself came down to earth in the person of Jesus.  We live in a world where the King of kings has come.  Yet how many people have lived and died without ever realizing Christ came?  How many millions are totally unaware He is still here?  The Reformation has a long ways to go in reforming the lives of so many souls.


The spirit of the Reformation is alive and well today, as is the Catholic tradition we split off from.  Since I am celebrating the Reformation this morning, and recognizing Martin Luther’s role in that movement that eventually led to us, Pilgrim Reformed Church, I thought it might be interesting to look at some scripture that helps define the Reformation, some Bible verses that hold special significance to our tradition as a church and to our faith as individuals.  Each passage I read will come from the Geneva Bible, so you might want to consider following along in your pew Bible.

And I’d like to begin with the verse that turned on the lightbulb over Martin Luther’s head.  You’ve heard me read it before, three or four weeks ago, and actually just a few minutes ago.  It’s from Paul’s letter to the Romans, chapter 1, verse 17…

17 For by it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.

--Romans 1:17 (GNV)

Luther identified this verse as one of the key inspirations for his work.  He viewed it as a powerful reminder that it is through God’s grace, and not through good works, that we humans are justified before God.

Another meaningful verse that emphasizes salvation as a gift of God’s grace rather than something we could ever earn through our own efforts comes from Paul’s letter to the church in Ephesus, chapter 2, verse 8…

8 For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God...

--Ephesians 2:8 (GNV)

This tenet – that we can never earn salvation on our own, that it can only come from God and His great grace – this was a key belief of the reformers, and it is still central to the Reformed Church today.


We know that the price for our salvation was paid by Jesus through His sacrifice on our behalf, but He also asked His Father God to send the Holy Spirit to be our constant Companion and Guide.  When we accept Jesus as Lord, God’s own Holy Spirit comes and sets up residence within us.  And since God is now living in us, that makes us His temple.

The Apostle Peter takes this one step further, in his 1st letter to the far-flung church, chapter 2 verse 5, when he says…

5 Ye also as lively stones, be made a spiritual house, an holy Priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.

--1 Peter 2:5 (GNV)

We are God’s temple, His spiritual house, where we can offer spiritual sacrifices through Jesus.  Now a spiritual offering would be an offering of the spirit, and if we remember some of the fruits of the Holy Spirit Paul mentions in Galatians chapter 5, our spiritual offerings could include spreading love, joy, and peace, showing forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

Then Peter says we are to be a holy priesthood.  In our Reformed tradition, every one of us here this morning is a member of Christ’s holy priesthood.  One of the most provocative and controversial beliefs among the reformers was that because every Christian is considered part of this holy priesthood Peter describes, there was no Scriptural basis for the office of priesthood the way the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches understood it.  This remains a key distinction between these branches of Christianity to this very day.


There is a Latin term, “sola scriptura”, which means that scripture alone is authoritative for the faith and the practice of a Christian.  Effectively, it affirms that the Bible is complete, authoritative, and true.  We find a biblical basis for sola scriptura in Paul’s 2nd letter to his young protégé Timothy in chapter 3 verse 16, where he says…

16 For the whole Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable to teach, to convince, to correct, and to instruct in righteousness…

--2 Timothy 3:16 (GNV)

The Bible contains everything we need to know for us to be reconciled to God and live righteously in His eyes.  This affirmation was important to the reformers.  It elevates scripture above all other authorities, including the church and Christian tradition.


The last passage I’d like to read that helps illustrate the distinction between the reformers and the Roman Catholic Church is in the 11th chapter of the Gospel according to the Apostle Matthew, verses 29 and 30.  The words are from Jesus, and they are meant to comfort and assure us all…

29 Take My yoke on you, and learn of Me that I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. 

30 For My yoke is easy, and My burden light.

--Matthew 11:29-30 (GNV)

The Protestant reformers claimed that centuries of church tradition had placed a heavy burden on the backs of believers.  This is ironically similar to the burden the Pharisees placed upon the Jewish faithful, after centuries of adding to the Laws of Moses.  Pointing to verses like this one in Matthew, the reformers reminded Christians that the Gospel of Christ is meant to free people from guilt and sin, not pile more on them.


Even though the Protestant Reformation was specifically a criticism of the Catholic church, believers from all branches of Christianity can find value in the reformers’ efforts to keep our focus on Jesus and His saving Gospel.  And as we focus on Christ, we need to also turn our gaze inward, examining ourselves and our own motives.  Are we serving Jesus, obeying His commands, truly accepting Him as our Lord and Master?  Do we put anything else before God or is He our number one priority?

Reformed, reformers, Reformation…  Those words go hand in hand with others, like renew, refresh, revive.  They share more than their first two letters, although those are also telling.  R-E, “re”, as used here denote something like “again”, or once more.  Reformed, renewed, refreshed, revived…  Formed again.  Made new, made fresh, given life again.

All of these words carry a sense of rebirth, being born again, and that is what happens when we accept Jesus, truly accept Him as Lord.  We are born again in the Spirit, reformed into a new person, refreshed and made new again.  Are we still like that inside?  Does the freshness of the breath of the Holy Spirit still course within us?

Focus on Jesus.  Study God’s word and build a closer relationship with our Lord.  Be refreshed, renewed, revived.  In the tradition of our Reformed Church, be reformed into the person Jesus would have us all to be.

In the saving name of Jesus Christ, King of kings and Lord of lords, our only Master.  Amen.


Let us pray…  Father God, we are Your temple.  And we are Your Son’s church, His body left on earth to continue His work.  When our hearts are not aligned with Your will, we tend to ask for Your support for what we want to do, rather than for what You would have us do.  Too many times we have no intention of following Your word even when we manage to hear it through the noise of the world.  Help us, Father, to hear and obey Your word, trusting in You to lead us in righteousness.

Hear us now, Father, as we pray silently from our hearts, repenting of our disobedience to You, seeking Your forgiveness…

Lord Jesus, You established Your church to carry on the work You began.  You left one church, one body.  Sadly, the human hand came into play and Your church splintered along differing lines of belief.  At one point we reformed Your church to again more closely align with its Biblical foundation.  Help us stay focused on You, Lord Jesus.  Fill us anew with God’s Holy Spirit.  Revive us, that we may carry out Your mission across the earth.

This we pray in Your glorious name, Christ Jesus, our Lord and Master, the one true Son of God, in whom we place all our hope, all our trust, all our faith.  Amen.