Sing, O Sing

 

[The following is a manuscript of my short devotional message delivered at Pilgrim Reformed Church on Sunday morning, the 30th of March, 2025, the fourth Sunday in Lent and the fifth Sunday of the month, when we usually do a sing-along service.  A recording of our service should be available on our YouTube streaming channel: 

https://www.youtube.com/@pilgrimreformedchurch1992/streams.]

Please listen and follow along as a now unknown psalmist exhorts us to praise our God, who is coming someday to judge the world.  I’ll be reading Psalm 96 from the New King James Version of our Holy Bible…

1 Oh, sing to the Lord a new song!

Sing to the Lord, all the earth.

2 Sing to the Lord, bless His name;

Proclaim the good news of His salvation from day to day.

3 Declare His glory among the nations,

His wonders among all peoples.

4 For the Lord is great and greatly to be praised;

He is to be feared above all gods.

5 For all the gods of the peoples are idols,

But the Lord made the heavens.

6 Honor and majesty are before Him;

Strength and beauty are in His sanctuary.

7 Give to the Lord, O families of the peoples,

Give to the Lord glory and strength.

8 Give to the Lord the glory due His name;

Bring an offering, and come into His courts.

9 Oh, worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness!

Tremble before Him, all the earth.

10 Say among the nations, “The Lord reigns;

The world also is firmly established,

It shall not be moved;

He shall judge the peoples righteously.”

11 Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad;

Let the sea roar, and all its fullness;

12 Let the field be joyful, and all that is in it.

Then all the trees of the woods will rejoice

13     before the Lord.

For He is coming, for He is coming to judge the earth.

He shall judge the world with righteousness,

And the peoples with His truth.

--Psalm 96 (NKJV)

Family, today we’ll be celebrating the fifth Sunday of the month by singing to our Lord.  But the psalmist encourages us to sing a new song.  I’m not sure we know any new songs, or even any new to us songs.

I wonder if the psalmist meant for us to literally come up with a new song, or rather to sing to the Lord with a new song in our heart, with a new attitude, a renewed spirit.  We are to bless the Lord’s name, to declare His glory and wonders among all the people.  And most importantly, to proclaim the good news of His salvation, the Gospel, from day to day – not just for an hour Sunday mornings.

Sadly, though, I think that too many Christians have been silent for a long time now.  Too many don’t sing the Lord’s praises.  They don’t acknowledge His hand at work in their lives, not in an open, public way.  Are they ashamed of their faith and belief?  Are they afraid of what their friends might think, or of how the non-believers might react?

Our Lord is great, and greatly to be praised.  He created the heavens and the earth and all that dwells herein.  We need to honor Him in all we do, for all the world to see and hear.  And the main thing the world needs to hear is that our Lord is coming to this earth again some day.  The first time He came was to redeem us of our sin and offer us salvation.  The next time He will come to judge, judge us all with righteousness and truth, and all those who have refused Him will pay a horrible price.

So let’s sing to our Lord with a new song, a new heart, a new sense of mission, giving Him all praise and glory.  And right now, right here this morning, let’s start by making a joyful noise to our Lord!  For God is good… all the time.

In the blessed name of Christ Jesus our Lord.  Amen.

Let us pray…  Father God, thank You for choosing us to follow Your Christ, Your Son Jesus.  Thank You for giving us faith that we can be made right in Your sight.  Father, because of our faith and Your promises, we look forward to the day when Jesus returns to set the world right.  We don’t relish the thought of being judged for the bad we have done in our lives, but we know we are saved from eternal damnation by our belief in Jesus as Your Son and our acceptance of Him as Lord.  By His blood, we are redeemed.  Please help us be more merciful and kind, more humble and gentle, more giving and forgiving in our daily walk, so that we might show the world Your love through our love.  May we always sing Your praises, glorifying You in all we do.  This we pray in the blessed name of Your Son, Christ Jesus our Lord and our Savior.  Amen.

The Word of God

 

[The following is a manuscript of my message delivered at Pilgrim Reformed Church on Sunday morning, the 23rd of March, 2025, the third Sunday in Lent.  A recording of our service should be available on our YouTube streaming channel: 

https://www.youtube.com/@pilgrimreformedchurch1992/streams.]

Family, today is our third Sunday in this year’s season of Lent, commemorating the 40 days and 40 nights Jesus spent in the wilderness praying, fasting, and being tempted by the devil.  It is a time for us to also be more prayerful, and to turn our focus inward to see if we are living as God wants us to live.

Jesus gave His all for us.  He even laid down His earthly, mortal life for us, that we could be redeemed and seen as sinless when we stand before God.  What have we given up for Him?  What will we give up?  What can we give up?

If nothing more, I would suggest we give more of our time - in worship, in prayer, and in service.  For many, time is their most precious resource.  For others, time is all they have left to give.  Let’s spend more time this Lenten season in renewing and growing our relationship with our Lord Jesus, spending more time with Him and our Father God.

Time is an interesting commodity.  We’ve developed many “time saving” devices and schemes to give us more time to do other things.  But for some reason there just never seems to be enough time to do all we want or need to do.

If we apply this trend of thinking to Jesus, it may seem that while He had less things to do in a day, He still had less time to do them.  He didn’t have an eight-hour job, nor countless meetings, nor doctor’s or dentist’s appointments, or any of the issues that fill our days.  But then again, anywhere He went He had to walk, which takes more time to get where you’re going.  I bet He spent a lot of time praying to His Father and teaching His followers during those walks.  Oh, and He knew His time to accomplish His Father’s will was short, very short.

And so Jesus walked.  He walked from city to city, village to village, preaching the word of God, accompanied by the twelve and usually some women, including Mary Magdalene.  And everywhere He went, people would gather around Him, some wanting to be healed, some wishing just to hear His word - the word of God.

Please listen and follow as the Apostle Luke reports on one such visit to a city, and the message Jesus gave there about God’s word.  This comes from the 8th chapter of Luke’s Gospel account, verses 4 through 15, and I’ll be reading from the Modern English Version of our Holy Bible this morning…

4 When a large crowd had gathered together and people were coming to Him from every city, He told this parable: 5 "A sower went out to sow his seed. As he sowed, some fell along the path and was trampled down, and the birds of the air devoured it. 6 Some fell on a rock. And as soon as it sprang up, it withered away, because it lacked moisture. 7 Yet some fell among thorns. And the thorns sprang up with it and choked it. 8 And other seed fell on good ground and sprang up and yielded a hundred times the amount sown."

When He had said these things, He cried out, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear."

9 His disciples asked Him, "What might this parable mean?" 10 He said, "To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God, but to others they are in parables, so that

'seeing they may not see,

and hearing they may not understand.'

11 "Now the parable means this: The seed is the word of God. 12 Those along the path are those who hear. Then comes the devil, who takes away the word from their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved. 13 Those on the rock are the ones who, when they hear the word, receive it with joy. But these have no root, for they believe for a while, then in the time of temptation fall away. 14 That which fell among thorns are those who, when they have heard, go out and are choked with the cares and riches and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to maturity. 15 But the seed on the good ground are those who, having heard the word, keep it in an honest and good heart and bear fruit with patience."

--Luke 8:4-15 (MEV)

Let us pray…  Heavenly Father, we thank You for giving us Your word.  Thank You for sharing with us the insights of the men and women You inspired over the ages.  And thank You so much for all the instructions, warnings, and examples You provided through them and that are contained within our Bible.  That all of this has been maintained and alive for thousands of years just so we can have it today is only possible through You and Your hand at work.  Sometimes, Father, we do find it too easy to just try to get by with what the world tells us rather than immerse ourselves in Your word to learn more about You and heaven, and to build a closer relationship with our Lord Jesus.  Please forgive us these times, Father.  Inspire us through Your Spirit to spend more time in Your word.

Speak to us now, Father, that we might hear Your voice through Your Spirit within us and better understand the message You have for us this day.  Please keep us strong in our faith, of one mind and one purpose in our love, our worship, and our service.  And please keep us healthy and safe through these trying time.  This we pray in the precious name of Your Son, Christ Jesus our Lord.   

And now may the words of my mouth and the meditations of each of our hearts be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord our strength and our redeemer.  Amen.

The source and the date of the article is unknown, but I saw it reported that of the 800,000 words in the English language, 300,000 of them are technical terms.  It went on to say that the average person knows 10,000 words and uses 5,000 in everyday speech and communications, while an average journalist knows 15,000 words and uses 10,000.

Of those 5,000 words we use in our normal conversations, how many help spread the word of God?  How many speak of the wonders of Jesus, of the joy in knowing Him as our friend and Savior?  How many times do we even talk with our friends and other known believers about our Lord and what He has done for us?  How often do we ask Him for help, or praise Him for the help He has given?  How often do we glorify His name, even when we’re all alone?  Let’s use our words more wisely, and spend more of them sharing our Lord with others.

Our scripture reading relates one of the more familiar stories Jesus shared with the people, and one that is sometimes more difficult to understand until He explains it to us.  This is the Parable of the Sower, which we could easily also call the parable of God’s word.

Jesus tells of a farmer sowing his seed.  Some fall by the wayside as he walks and throws them out, some in the rocks, and some among the thorns.  None of these result in a healthy crop.  Only the seed that made it to good, fertile soil sprouted and grew, producing a hundredfold yield.

We’re not told how the people reacted, but we do know His disciples were clearly confused by this parable.  “What do You mean?”, they asked.  “It’s all about the word of God”, He explained.

The seed that fell on the path represents God’s word that everyone can hear, but the devil keeps many from holding it in their hearts so they won’t be saved.  The seed that fell in the rocks are those folks who, when they hear the word, are filled with joy, but the word doesn’t take root, they believe for only a while but then quickly fall prey to temptation and forget what they heard.  And what fell in the thorns are the folks who, after hearing the word, go back into the world and live as the world lives, paying no heed to the word.  In these cases, the word produces no positive results.  But God’s word never returns empty, for the seed that falls on good ground - on those souls who keep the word and hold it in their hearts and cherish the message His word brings - they share it with others, and so the word grows and multiplies and more people hear it.

Let’s hear what God Himself says about His word, as spoken through His prophet Isaiah, in the 55th chapter, verses 10 through 13 of the book of Isaiah…

10 For as the rain comes down,

and the snow from heaven,

and do not return there

but water the earth

and make it bring forth and bud

that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater,

11 so shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth;

it shall not return to Me void,

but it shall accomplish that which I please,

and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.

12 For you shall go out with joy,

and be led out with peace;

the mountains and the hills

shall break forth into singing before you,

and all the trees of the field

shall clap their hands.

13 Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree,

and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree;

and it shall be to the Lord for a memorial,

for an everlasting sign

that shall not be cut off.

--Isaiah 55:10-13 (MEV)

The rain and the snows fall from heaven and don’t return there, but provide nourishment to the earth and its inhabitants.  So it is with God’s word.  It does not return to Him, but instead provides spiritual nourishment for those who will hear and heed it.  God’s word will accomplish what He intends for it and sent it to do.  His word can bring us joy and comfort and peace, if we just hold it in our hearts.  And it can multiply a hundredfold if we share it with others, spreading it around as we go, sowing the seed.

I’d like to leave you with one more note about God’s word, and this comes from the opening of the Apostle John’s Gospel.  From the first 5 verses and verse 14 of the first chapter of John’s account of Jesus’ life and ministry…

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were created through Him, and without Him nothing was created that was created. 4 In Him was life, and the life was the light of mankind. 5 The light shines in darkness, but the darkness has not overcome it.

14 The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, the glory as the only Son of the Father, full of grace and truth.

--John 1:1-5; 14 (MEV)

Jesus is God’s Word.  God spoke and the universe came into being.  Jesus, with God, created order out of chaos.  He gave life to the world; He gave light to the world.  Jesus shines His light into our darkness, showing us the truth and the way.  And the darkness will never overcome it.

Let’s be good earth, Family.  Let’s allow God’s word to take root in our hearts, spout in the light of Jesus, and grow within us.  But let’s not keep it inside, instead sharing it everywhere we go, glorifying God, letting His word multiply and spread.

Jesus is God’s Word!  Share Him with the world.  In the precious name of Christ Jesus our Lord, the Son of God, who will come again to judge us all.  Amen.

Let us pray…  Almighty God, thank You for Your word, and Your Word.  Thank You for preserving Your word for us to read and learn and live by today.  But Father, we struggle to make the time to spend in Your word.  Too often life gets in our way, or at least that’s an excuse we use.  Sometimes we have trouble understanding what we read and don’t want to ask for help.  Please, loving Father, forgive us for not cherishing Your word.  Please help us take full advantage of this wonderful gift.

Strengthen us, Father, to reach out to others and show them Your love by giving of ourselves in their service, in Your service, just as Jesus did.  And please help us share Your Word, our Lord Jesus, with others so that they too may be saved by Your mercy and His sacrifice.  Help us pave the way for Your Spirit to do His work on them.

Father, please shield us from Satan as he attacks our faith, trying to make us his own.  Help us be better servants, glorifying You in all we do so that the world can see You in us, through our deeds, in how we live.  And help us remain strong, faithful, and true to You in all things, no matter what comes our way.

Please hear us now, Father, as we pause for just a moment to speak to You through Your Spirit within us, promising to be more obedient to Your commands, and seeking Your help to do so…

Lord Jesus, You are our Father God’s Word.  You came from heaven and You did not return until You had accomplished His will.  You gave Your all for us, asking only that we believe in You as God’s Son and accept You as our Lord.  But Jesus, we know that we don’t always behave in a way that pleases You.  We don’t always follow Your example or learn from Your teachings.  We can easily let the demands of life get in the way of strengthening our relationship with You.  Please forgive us our failures, Lord.  Keep reminding us to spend more time with You.

Holy Spirit, please help us reach out to the non-believing world, sharing the Gospel message, showing God’s love through our love.  Give us the words to say, show us the deeds to bring more followers to Jesus.

And Jesus, please shield our minds and our hearts from Satan’s lies and the world’s empty promises.  Guide us around all the devil’s traps and snares.  Help us see though his temptations.  Help us keep our focus on the things of heaven and the needs of others rather than on anything this world might offer.  This we pray in Your blessed name, Christ Jesus our Lord and our Savior.  Amen.

Repentance

 

[The following is a manuscript of my message delivered at Pilgrim Reformed Church on Sunday morning, the 16th of March, 2025, the second Sunday in Lent.  A recording of our service should be available on our YouTube streaming channel: 

https://www.youtube.com/@pilgrimreformedchurch1992/streams.]

We are now in the second week of our season of Lent, our time to remember the sacrifice Jesus made for us and to look deep within ourselves to see if we are living the way God wants us to live.  And if we see something we know is not pleasing to God, if the Holy Spirit convicts us of some bad behavior, or even some bad feelings, we need to repent of that sin.  We need to stop dwelling on whatever it is that takes our focus away from God and the things of heaven.

Turning our mindset away from the world and worldly things and solely toward God is not easy.  We live in the world and deal with the world every day.  But we must not let the world mold us into its image, for we were created in the image of God in His three persons.  True repentance allows us to keep that image intact.

Now being stubborn and unrepentant can carry a risk of dire consequences.  Our bible has a number of examples of what might happen if we fail, and especially if we refuse, to repent of our disobedience to God.

I’m sure you remember the story of Jonah.  God told him to go to Nineveh and warn the people there that He – God – would destroy them if they did not turn from their evil ways.  Well, as it turns out, Jonah hated the Ninevites.  He hated them so much that he wanted God to destroy them all.  So rather than go warn them to repent, he went in the opposite direction, trying to get away from doing what God commanded.

We know that God knows all and sees all, and He saw Jonah’s heart.  So to give Jonah time to cool down and think over his rebellious nature, God had him swallowed up by a huge fish, where he sat for three days.

Let’s let Jonah finish the story.  Please listen and follow along to a part we sometimes overlook, the effects of his work in Nineveh, as told by the reluctant prophet himself in the 3rd chapter of the book bearing his name, and I’ll be reading from the Living Bible version of our Holy Bible this morning…

1-2 Then the Lord spoke to Jonah again: “Go to that great city, Nineveh,” he said, “and warn them of their doom, as I told you to before!”

3 So Jonah obeyed and went to Nineveh. Now Nineveh was a very large city with many villages around it — so large that it would take three days to walk through it.

4-5 But the very first day when Jonah entered the city and began to preach, the people repented. Jonah shouted to the crowds that gathered around him, “Forty days from now Nineveh will be destroyed!” And they believed him and declared a fast; from the king on down, everyone put on sackcloth — the rough, coarse garments worn at times of mourning.

6 For when the king of Nineveh heard what Jonah was saying, he stepped down from his throne, laid aside his royal robes, put on sackcloth, and sat in ashes. 7 And the king and his nobles sent this message throughout the city: “Let no one, not even the animals, eat anything at all, nor even drink any water. 8 Everyone must wear sackcloth and cry mightily to God, and let everyone turn from his evil ways, from his violence and robbing. 9 Who can tell? Perhaps even yet God will decide to let us live and will hold back His fierce anger from destroying us.”

10 And when God saw that they had put a stop to their evil ways, He abandoned His plan to destroy them and didn’t carry it through.

--Jonah 3 (TLB)

Let us pray…  Heavenly Father, we thank You for giving us the time and opportunity to consider our disobedient ways and turn from them, giving You our focus.  Thank You for the many opportunities You give us to repent.  And thank You so much for all the examples warning us if we become too set in our ways, to comfortable in our sin to repent.  Sometimes, Father, we do find it too easy to just do what the world wants us to do, ignoring Your many blessings, depending more on ourselves than on You and the guidance of Your Spirit within us.  Please forgive us these times, Father.  Strengthen us to turn away from the ways of the world and back fully to You.

Speak to us now, Father, that we might hear Your voice through Your Spirit within us and better understand the message You have for us this day.  Please keep us strong in our faith, of one mind and one purpose in our love, our worship, and our service.  And please keep us healthy and safe through these trying time.  This we pray in the precious name of Your Son, Christ Jesus our Lord.   

And now may the words of my mouth and the meditations of each of our hearts be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord our strength and our redeemer.  Amen.

Someone once stated that, "If we put off repentance another day, we have a day more to repent of, and a day less to repent in."  This makes sense when we consider that all of us are sinners, all of us have something to repent of.  And some sins are easier to turn from than others.  A gentleman by the name of Josh Billings wisely noted that, "It is much easier to repent of sins that we have committed than to repent of those we intend to commit."  And then there's the unknown wit who remarked that, "Many people use mighty thin thread when mending their ways."  Thread can be easily broken, just as our resolve to be a better person can be easily broken.

This is why we need this season of Lent, to reflect on what we are doing wrong in God’s eyes, and to strengthen our resolve to do better.  We don’t have to put on sackcloth and sit in ashes.  We just need to stop doing whatever the Spirit convicts us of, and start doing more of what God commands.

In our scripture reading, Jonah finally relented and carried out God’s will, for himself and the Ninevites.  I bet being in the belly of a fish for three days would help cure any of us of our stubbornness.  You might even say that he was resurrected after his time in the fish, his three day period of reflection.  So he set about carrying God’s warning to the people, that in forty days they would be utterly destroyed.

Now, pay attention to those numbers.  Jonah was released from the fish on the third day, just as Jesus left the tomb on the third day.  In numerology, three is the number of God – God in His three persons.  When we see three mentioned, we know it is a divine event, something done according to God’s will.  Four is the number associated with man – the physical creation of God.  God gave Nineveh forty days – ten times four – to get their act together.  Nineveh was a large city, so large it would take three days to walk all around it.  Three and four again.

But as it turns our, the people of Nineveh didn’t need God’s three days to heed His servant’s message.  They began repenting on the very first day of Jonah shouting out God’s warning.  Even the king humbled himself before God and repented of his disobedience.  So God stayed His hand and the people of Nineveh were spared.

But the story of Jonah didn’t end there in the Old Testament pages of history.  Jesus reminded the people of His day of the miraculous event causing Jonah to repent, and of the prophet’s impact on the people of Nineveh.

On one of those occasions after ridding a man possessed of an evil spirit, a mute demon, some in the crowd accused Him of working under the power and authority of the devil while some praised Him.  Listen to the response Jesus gave them, as reported by the Apostle Luke in the 11th chapter of his Gospel account, verses 29 through 32…

29-30 As the crowd pressed in upon Him, He preached them this sermon: "These are evil times, with evil people. They keep asking for some strange happening in the skies to prove I am the Messiah, but the only proof I will give them is a miracle like that of Jonah, whose experiences proved to the people of Nineveh that God had sent him. My similar experience will prove that God has sent Me to these people.

31 "And at the Judgment Day the queen of Sheba shall arise and point her finger at this generation, condemning it, for she went on a long, hard journey to listen to the wisdom of Solomon; but one far greater than Solomon is here and few pay any attention.

32 "The men of Nineveh, too, shall arise and condemn this nation, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and someone far greater than Jonah is here, but this nation won’t listen."

--Luke 11:29-32 (TLB)

Just as God showed He had sent Jonah as His messenger by first having him swallowed up and then released from the big fish, so God showed He had sent Jesus as His Messiah by all the signs and wonders He did, including freeing this man from a demon’s grasp.  Those who condemned Jesus for this will themselves be condemned by the people Jonah helped save – the Ninevites.

The Ninevites were spared destruction because they repented.  And we will be spared destruction – eternal destruction – if we too turn from our sin and turn fully to God.  This is the power of repentance, and the reward for turning from our evil ways and disobedience.  This is the warning of Jonah and the promise of Jesus.  Oh, and this is also the warning Jesus gave, echoing the words of John the Baptist when He commanded us to, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!”

Family, the kingdom of heaven is at hand, and the earth’s day of reckoning is nearing closer and closer.  Lent is the perfect and appropriate time for us to repent, to turn from our sinful ways, to stop disobeying God and Jesus, to rid ourselves of hateful thoughts and cruel deeds, and turn our full attention to pleasing God.  Let us repent now, while there is still time, before we have a day more to repent of, and a day less to do it in.  In the precious name of Christ Jesus our Lord, the Son of God, who will come again to judge us all.  Amen.

Let us pray…  Almighty God, thank You for forgiving us of our sin through the sacrifice of Your Son Jesus.  Thank You for this great and wholly undeserved gift.  But Father, we struggle to completely turn from our sinful, worldly ways.  We have those sins that we’re just too comfortable with, that we can’t seem to shake loose.  Too often we let the world tell us what to do, dictate to us how we should live.  Please, loving Father, forgive us for our unrepentant, stubborn attitude.  Please help us set the worldly ways aside and turn fully toward You and the things of heaven.

Strengthen us, Father, to reach out to others and show them Your love by giving of ourselves in their service, in Your service, just as Jesus did.  And please help us share our Lord Jesus with others so that they too may be saved by Your mercy and His sacrifice.  Help us pave the way for Your Spirit to do His work on them.

Father, please shield us from Satan as he attacks our faith, trying to make us his own.  Help us be better servants, glorifying You in all we do so that the world can see You in us, through our deeds, in how we live.  And help us remain strong, faithful, and true to You in all things, no matter what comes our way.

Please hear us now, Father, as we pause for just a moment to speak to You through Your Spirit within us, promising to be more obedient to Your commands, and seeking Your help to do so…

Lord Jesus, You reminded us of how the stubborn, disobedient Ninevites repented of their evil ways and were spared God’s destruction.  And You warned us to follow their example, and not that of those who refuse to listen and repent.  But Jesus, we know that we don’t always behave in a way that pleases God.  We know we too can be stubborn.  We can easily get too hung up on how the world acts and reacts, not living as God wills us to live.  Please forgive us our failures, Lord.  Keep reminding us that we need repentance to freshen our spirits and our souls.  Help us please our heavenly Father.

Holy Spirit, please help us reach out to the non-believing world, sharing the Gospel message, showing God’s love through our love.  Give us the words to say, show us the deeds to bring more followers to Jesus.

And Jesus, please shield our minds and our hearts from Satan’s lies and the world’s empty promises.  Guide us around all the devil’s traps and snares.  Help us see though his temptations.  Help us keep our focus on the things of heaven and the needs of others rather than on anything this world might offer.  This we pray in Your blessed name, Christ Jesus our Lord and our Savior.  Amen.

Reconciled

 

[The following is a manuscript of my message delivered at Pilgrim Reformed Church on Sunday morning, the 9th of March, 2025, the first Sunday in Lent.  A recording of our service should be available on our YouTube streaming channel: 

https://www.youtube.com/@pilgrimreformedchurch1992/streams.]

Wednesday afternoon we entered the season of Lent with our Ash Wednesday service, and we noted this is our time to remember the sacrifice Jesus made for us and to look deep within ourselves to see if we are living the way God wants us to live.  I said that Lent is the 40-day period that recognizes the 40 days and 40 nights that Jesus spent in the wilderness fasting, praying, and being tempted by the devil.

Our season of Lent is actually 46 days long, but the six Sundays before Easter Sunday are not included in the count, and so we have the 40 day period.  Today is the first of those Sundays, and I’d like to look at one of the many things Jesus did for us through His life and His mortal death, by His great sacrifice.

First though, let me remind you of Saul, who we also know as Paul.  Saul was a Pharisee who did everything he could to stop Christianity before it could get a foothold.  He traveled far and wide to hunt down believers and bring them back to Jerusalem for trial.  It was on one of these trips that Jesus struck him blind with a light from heaven for three days.  After the three days, Jesus sent a follower named Ananias to restore Saul’s sight.

During those three days, Jesus must have given the man we now call the Apostle Paul special insight into Himself and God’s heaven, because even though Paul never knew Jesus nor followed Him while He walked this earth, he had a profound knowledge of Jesus and the things He had taught.  Paul went on to form many new churches in the known world and to write letters that form a goodly portion of our New Testament.

Sometimes Jesus gives someone a special insight, giving them knowledge they have no reason to know, so that they can carry out the work He gives them.  Paul was one such person, assigned the task of apostle to the Gentiles, to us.  Please listen and follow along as the Apostle shares with us a little of that special insight as regards God’s love for us, as he wrote in verses 15 through 23 of the 1st chapter of his letter to the Colossians, and I’ll be reading from the New Living Translation of our Holy Bible this morning…

15 Christ is the visible image of the invisible God.

He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation,

16 for through Him God created everything

in the heavenly realms and on earth.

He made the things we can see

and the things we can’t see —

such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world.

Everything was created through Him and for Him.

17 He existed before anything else,

and He holds all creation together.

18 Christ is also the head of the church,

which is His body.

He is the beginning,

supreme over all who rise from the dead.

So He is first in everything.

19 For God in all His fullness

was pleased to live in Christ,

20 and through Him God reconciled

everything to Himself.

He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth

by means of Christ’s blood on the cross.

21 This includes you who were once far away from God. You were His enemies, separated from Him by your evil thoughts and actions. 22 Yet now He has reconciled you to Himself through the death of Christ in His physical body. As a result, He has brought you into His own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before Him without a single fault.

23 But you must continue to believe this truth and stand firmly in it. Don’t drift away from the assurance you received when you heard the Good News. The Good News has been preached all over the world, and I, Paul, have been appointed as God’s servant to proclaim it.

--Colossians 1:15-23 (NLT)

Let us pray…  Heavenly Father, we thank You for giving us a physical, visible representation of Yourself and Your Holy Spirit, who are both invisible, spiritual.  Jesus is the visible manifestation of Your love for mankind.  Thank You for sending Him to walk among us, to teach us, to show us how we should live by how He lived.  And thank You so much for inspiring Paul to tell us so much about Jesus and what He has done for us.  Sometimes, Father, this world and our modern society pound on us and wear us down to the point that our spirits weaken and our faith waivers.  Please forgive us these times, Father.  Strengthen us to face whatever the world sends our way.

Speak to us now, Father, that we might hear Your voice through Your Spirit within us and better understand the message You have for us this day.  Please keep us strong in our faith, of one mind and one purpose in our love, our worship, and our service.  And please keep us healthy and safe through these trying time.  This we pray in the precious name of Your Son, Christ Jesus our Lord.   

And now may the words of my mouth and the meditations of each of our hearts be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord our strength and our redeemer.  Amen.

One New Year's Eve long ago at London's Garrick Club, British dramatist Frederick Lonsdale was asked by Seymour Hicks to reconcile with a fellow member.  The two had quarreled in the past and never restored their friendship.  “You must,” Hicks said to Lonsdale.  “It is very unkind to be unfriendly at such a time.  Go over now and wish him a happy New Year.”  So Lonsdale crossed the room and spoke to his enemy. “I wish you a happy New Year,” he said, “but only one.”

That’s not much of a reconciliation, is it.  But this is what God asks of us, that we be reconciled with those we consider our enemy.  After all, we were reconciled to Him by the blood of His own Son.  God lived in Christ Jesus and through Him, this physical manifestation, God reconciled us to Himself.

And Family, this is all about love.  God loves us and doesn’t want us to die without being born again and saved, so He reconciled us to Himself through Jesus.  Jesus commands us to love others, all others, including our enemies.  We can show our love to any and all, and especially those who we have issues with, by reconciling our differences with them.

In our scripture reading, Paul begins by kind of echoing the opening to the Apostle John’s Gospel account.  Christ Jesus, in His own invisible, spiritual form, existed before anything was created.  It was through Him that God created all there is, in the heavenly realms and on earth.  He made the things we can see, and the things we can’t see – He made everything.

And through Him, God reconciled everything to Himself, including us, who were once far away from God.  In our rebellious, sinful ways, we distanced ourselves from our heavenly Father.  We turned our backs on Him, but He never abandoned us, He never left our side.  Instead, He sent His Son Jesus, in His physical form, to die on the cross to reconcile us to God.  And by our faith and belief and this reconciliation, we can stand before God when our time on earth is finished, and He will see us as faultless, blameless, and holy.  But we must continue to believe the truth and stand firm in our faith.  We must not waiver, not loose grip of the assurance we are given by the Gospel message of salvation through Christ Jesus.

Staying with Paul’s special insight as revealed in his letters, I’d also like to look at the second epistle he sent to the church in Corinth.  Paul wrote two letters to this gathering of believers, and this second one addressed some doubts and misinformation that had crept into the church.  In the opening to this 2nd letter, Paul says it is from himself and Timothy, his young protege.  We have no idea if Timothy was an actual co-author, or if he simply accompanied Paul at the time of its writing, but I don’t think it really matters.

Please listen to what Paul wrote in verses 13 through 21 of the 5th chapter of his 2nd letter to the Corinthians…

13 If it seems we are crazy, it is to bring glory to God. And if we are in our right minds, it is for your benefit. 14 Either way, Christ’s love urges us on. Since we believe that Christ died for all, we also believe that we have all died to our old life. 15 He died for everyone so that those who receive His new life will no longer live for themselves. Instead, they will live for Christ, who died and was raised for them.

16 So we have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view. At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view. How differently we know Him now! 17 This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!

18 And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to Himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to Him. 19 For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And He gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. 20 So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making His appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!” 21 For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.

--2 Corinthians 5:13-21 (NLT)

I love that opening: “If it seems we are crazy…”.  A lot of people think we Christians are crazy.  First we believe in the existence of some invisible, unprovable God who supposedly created everything there is.  And then, we believe that this man named Jesus who lived 2000 years ago is the Son of God, who is also God, and who died but walked out of the grave and still lives to this day.  That’s just crazy, right?

Well, if it seems we’re crazy, it’s all to bring glory to God.  But we are indeed in our right minds, and because of our belief, we know that we have been reborn into a new creation, a new person.  And we now live for Christ who gave us this new life.

But now comes the hard part.  Paul affirms that he and Timothy have stopped evaluating other people from a human point of view.  From what we can read in our bible, this is how Jesus looked at folks, not from a human point of view but looking more at their spiritual self, at their heart.  Paul and Timothy adopted this practice, and Family, so should we.

But it’s hard, I know.  It’s tough to let go of our old, judgmental ways, to look deeper than the skin when evaluating a person.  Paul did it, Timothy did it, and so can we.  We just need to make a concentrated effort to try to find some spark of goodness in everyone, to maybe find some common ground.  For this will allow us to be reconciled with them.

God has given us the task of reconciling people to Him, bringing them to Him, showing them His love and mercy, sharing the Good News of salvation.  We can’t do that if we judge someone from a human point of view rather than looking into their heart.  We can’t carry out our mission if we aren’t willing to forgive someone who has wronged us, just as God forgives us.

We carry the name of our Christ, we are His ambassadors, His representatives.  So let’s share the wonderful message of reconciliation and salvation, pleading “Come back to God” to all who have gone astray, and “Come to God” to those who do not believe.  Let’s help others get right with God.  In the glorious name of Christ Jesus our Lord, the Son of God, our Master and our Savior.  Amen.

Let us pray…  Almighty God, thank You for reconciling us back to You through Your Son Jesus.  You have brought us into harmony with Yourself, a feat we could never accomplish on our own.  Thank You for having mercy on us.  Father, we admit that we sometimes struggle with not evaluating other people from a human point of view.  Too often we judge people on silly things, like skin color or accent.  Please forgive us our lapses, loving Father.  Please help us be more like Jesus in how we look at others and how we react to the world, in living out our love and in giving our love to those who need love the most.

Strengthen us, Father, to reach out to others and show them Your love by giving of ourselves in their service, in Your service, just as Jesus did.  And please help us share our Lord Jesus with others so that they too may be saved by Your mercy and His sacrifice.  Help us pave the way for Your Spirit to do His work on them.

Father, please shield us from Satan as he attacks our faith, trying to make us his own.  Help us be better servants, glorifying You in all we do so that the world can see You in us, through our deeds, in how we live.  And help us remain strong, faithful, and true to You in all things, no matter what comes our way.

Please hear us now, Father, as we pause for just a moment to speak to You through Your Spirit within us, promising to be more obedient to Your commands, and seeking Your help to do so…

Lord Jesus, by Your selfless sacrifice, we have been redeemed and reconciled to God.  We have been washed clean and brought back into harmony and righteousness in our heavenly Father’s eyes.  But Jesus, we know that we don’t always act as we should.  We still judge others rather than trying to see them through Your eyes.  Please forgive us our failures, Lord.  Remind us that we are Your representatives and that we’ve been assigned the task of sharing the message of reconciliation and salvation.  Help us see others as You see them.

Holy Spirit, please help us reach out to the non-believing world, sharing the Gospel message, showing God’s love through our love.  Give us the words to say, show us the deeds to bring more followers to Jesus.

And Jesus, please shield our minds and our hearts from Satan’s lies and the world’s empty promises.  Guide us around all the devil’s traps and snares.  Help us see though his temptations.  Help us keep our focus on the things of heaven and the needs of others rather than on anything this world might offer.  This we pray in Your blessed name, Christ Jesus our Lord and our Savior.  Amen.

In the Wilderness

 

[The following is a manuscript of my meditation delivered at Pilgrim Reformed Church on Wednesday afternoon, the 5th of March, 2025 - Ash Wednesday.  A recording of our service may be available on our YouTube streaming channel: 

https://www.youtube.com/@pilgrimreformedchurch1992/streams.]

Today we enter into the Lenten Season, which commemorates the 40 days and 40 nights that Jesus spent in the wilderness fasting, praying, and being tempted by Satan.  We are challenged to use this time for self-examination and introspection, to see if we are living as God would have us live.  It’s a great time to dig deeper into our Bibles, studying the Gospels, listening to Jesus, witnessing what He did while He walked among us.  And we can read the letters His closest friends and followers wrote to help the early church.  For by watching Jesus and studying the letters, through the eyes and the words of those who walked alongside Him, we can see how we, too, should live and act.  And while we may think we can’t do miracles like He did, and perhaps some are above our pay grade, what to us may seem a simple act of kindness may, to the recipient, be a miracle indeed.

This afternoon, I’d like to step back to the end of Jesus’ 40-day wilderness experience, and listen in on the most enticing temptations Satan held out to our Lord.  Please listen and follow along to what the Apostle Matthew recorded for us in the 4th chapter of his Gospel account, verses 1 through 11, and I’ll be reading from the New King James version of our Holy Bible this afternoon…

1 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2 And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward He was hungry. 3 Now when the tempter came to Him, he said, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.”

4 But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’”

5 Then the devil took Him up into the holy city, set Him on the pinnacle of the temple, 6 and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down. For it is written:

‘He shall give His angels charge over you,’

and,

‘In their hands they shall bear you up,

Lest you dash your foot against a stone.’”

7 Jesus said to him, “It is written again, ‘You shall not test the Lord your God.’”

8 Again, the devil took Him up on an exceedingly high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. 9 And he said to Him, “All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me.”

10 Then Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.’” 

11 Then the devil left Him, and behold, angels came and ministered to Him.

--Matthew 4:1-11 (NKJV)

Let us pray…  Father God, one of the most useful features of our Bible is that it provides us with a view into the life of Jesus.  You inspired four of His apostles to leave records of His life, some very detailed, allowing us to witness important events of His ministry.  Thank You for so wonderful a gift.  Father, please help us follow the examples Jesus set for us.  Help us remember all that He told us, including the warnings, so that we don’t perish in sin.  Please stop us when we begin to wander off into the wilderness, tempted by the devil to disobey You.  Forgive us when we deny Your Son by our actions and reactions that mimic the world rather than show us as separate from the world.  This we pray in the name of Jesus, Your Christ and our Lord.  Amen.

Each year, Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of Lent and is always 46 days before Easter Sunday.  Lent is a 40-day season (not counting the six Sundays) marked by repentance, fasting, reflection, and ultimately celebration.  The 40-day period represents Christ’s time of temptation in the wilderness, where he fasted and where Satan tempted him.

Lent asks believers to set aside a time each year for similar fasting, marking an intentional season of focus on Christ’s life, His ministry, His sacrifice, and His resurrection.  And, of course, the best way to focus on Jesus’ life and ministry is to read and study our Bible.  So let’s look a little closer at our scripture reading.

We join this event immediately after Jesus is baptized in the River Jordan by John, whom we call the Baptist of the Baptizer.  You may recall that when Jesus came up from the water, the Holy Spirit descended upon Him like a dove.  And this was also the first time God declared Jesus to be His “beloved Son”, in whom He is well pleased.  So right there we know that God’s Holy Spirit was with Jesus and in Jesus.  This is important to note.

Now in the Apostle Luke's account of this event, he opens with, "Then Jesus, being filled with the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, being tempted for forty days by the devil.  And in those days He ate nothing, and afterward, when they had ended, He was hungry."  (Luke 4:1-2 (NKJV))  While this sounds a lot like what Matthew recorded, Luke added the reminder that Jesus was filled with the Holy Spirit.

Why am I harping on this?  Because in both reports, we see that Jesus was led into the wilderness by none other than the indwelling Spirit of God, there to be tempted by the devil!  Jesus was led into temptation.  When we pray our Lord’s Prayer, we plead, “Lead us not into temptation”.  Why?  Because we know we cannot resist all of Satan’s charms and deceptions like Jesus did.  We can’t even find our own way out of the wilderness.

The next interesting point is that Matthew noted that Jesus fasted for 40 days and 40 nights.  Now traditional fasting was between sunup and sundown – you could eat before sunrise and after sunset.  But Jesus fasted both day and night.  Even Luke reported that Jesus ate nothing during this time.

And that set up the first temptation:  “I know You’re hungry, so turn some of these rocks into bread and eat.”  And Jesus replied with the line we know so well – “Man does not live by bread alone.”  We need more than bread, more than just physical sustenance.  We need spiritual sustenance, too.

So then the devil counters with a challenge.  “Jump off this pinnacle and we’ll see if the angels swoop in to save You.”  And Jesus simply responded, “You must not test God.”  I wonder just how many times we do test God.  We test Him by our disobedience, by our rebellious nature, by doing whatever it is we want to do without giving any thought to whether it might not please Him.

And then we have the final temptation: “I will give You anything and everything this world has to offer if You will just bow down and worship me.”  Jesus snubbed this offer by saying that we are to worship and serve God, and only God.  How many folks do you know could resist that last temptation?  For that matter, how often have we heard something similar spoken by our fellow man?  “If you’ll just vote for me, I’ll make sure you get everything you ask for.”  Or how about, “This new car is everything you need; just buy it now before they’re all gone.”  Some temptations are very difficult to resist, and they’re not all related to material things.

So in our eyes, these temptations that Jesus faced would be tough to turn our back on.  And we know from reading the Gospel accounts that Jesus had it pretty tough overall during His short ministry, His last three years or so on earth.

Well, the Jewish people's experience was not very pleasant either.  But theirs was of their own doing.  Their wilderness was of their own making.  Listen to how Moses described the beginning of their little hike, in verse 13 of the 32nd chapter of his Book of Numbers…

13 So the Lord’s anger was aroused against Israel, and He made them wander in the wilderness forty years, until all the generation that had done evil in the sight of the Lord was gone.

--Numbers 32:13 (NKJV)

The people did evil in the sight of God.  They rebelled, they disobeyed Him and His servant Moses.  They did what Jesus told us not to do – they tested God.  And God punished them until the last had perished in the wilderness.

But even with that, Moses still reminded them - and us - that God never abandoned them.  He took care of them even during their rebellious times, despite their complaining, even though they tested Him.  Hear what Moses added in the 7th verse of the 2nd chapter of his Book of Deuteronomy…

7 “The Lord your God has blessed you in all the work of your hand. He knows your trudging through this great wilderness. These forty years the Lord your God has been with you; you have lacked nothing.”

--Deuteronomy 2:7 (NKJV)

This is how much God loves us, that He still provides for our needs even when we are acting against His will.  He still loves us even when we certainly don’t deserve His love.  He looked down on us as we wandered in a wilderness of sin, had mercy on us, and sent His own Son to lead us out of the darkness and into the light.

We must be careful not to stray off the path of righteousness and back into that wilderness.  We must repent, turn from our sinful ways and turn fully to God.  Jesus, while fully man was also fully God and could resist the devil’s temptations.  We are not God, but we do have God's Holy Spirit living within us, and with His help, we too can resist the devil's temptations.  Trust in God, obey Jesus, let the Holy Spirit guide us, and we can avoid ever stepping back into a wilderness of our own making, the wilderness of our sin.

We begin this holy season of Lent by acknowledging our need for repentance and our need for the love and forgiveness shown to us in Jesus Christ.  I invite you, therefore, in the name of Christ, to observe a Holy Lent, by self-examination and penitence, by prayer and fasting, by practicing works of love, and by reading and reflecting on God's Holy Word.

In the glorious name of Christ Jesus our Lord.  Amen.

Let us pray…  Father God, You sent Your Son Jesus to redeem us of our sin, to save us from ourselves.  He gave everything for us, asking only that we follow Him and love one another.  Thank You, Father, for loving us this much.  Please help us avoid wandering off into the wilderness, through this Lenten season and all the days ahead.  May we never forget or take for granted the sacrifice Jesus made on our behalf.  Please help us share the Good News, the Gospel message, everywhere we go so that non-believers might also be saved.  In the beautiful name of Jesus we pray.  Amen.

Transfigured

 

[The following is a manuscript of my message delivered at Pilgrim Reformed Church on Sunday morning, the 2nd of March, 2025.  A recording of our service should be available on our YouTube streaming channel: 

https://www.youtube.com/@pilgrimreformedchurch1992/streams.]

Family, this coming Wednesday we enter into the Lenten season with our observance of Ash Wednesday.  This commemorates the 40 days Jesus spent in the wilderness fasting, praying, and being tempted by Satan.  Lent is our time for introspection, to look deep within ourselves to uncover the ways we disobey and displease our Father God, and to repent of those sinful ways.  It’s the perfect opportunity for us to revive and renew our faith and strengthen our relationship with Jesus.  It begins this Wednesday and ends on Maundy Thursday, when we join our Lord at the last meal He enjoyed with His twelve disciples before He was arrested and hauled off.

But there is one more event in the mortal life and ministry of Jesus that we celebrate every year on the last Sunday before Lent begins, the last Sunday before Ash Wednesday.  And that just happens to be today.

This is Transfiguration Sunday, when we observe the time Jesus radiated His glory.  Please listen and follow along as the Apostle Mark reports on this remarkable event, as recorded in verses 2 through 10 of the 9th chapter of his Gospel account, and I’ll be reading mostly from the New King James Version of our Holy Bible this morning…

2 Now after six days Jesus took Peter, James, and John, and led them up on a high mountain apart by themselves; and He was transfigured before them. 3 His clothes became shining, exceedingly white, like snow, such as no launderer on earth can whiten them. 4 And Elijah appeared to them with Moses, and they were talking with Jesus. 5 Then Peter answered and said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here; and let us make three tabernacles: one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah”— 6 because he did not know what to say, for they were greatly afraid.

7 And a cloud came and overshadowed them; and a voice came out of the cloud, saying, “This is My beloved Son. Hear Him!” 8 Suddenly, when they had looked around, they saw no one anymore, but only Jesus with themselves.

9 Now as they came down from the mountain, He commanded them that they should tell no one the things they had seen, till the Son of Man had risen from the dead. 10 So they kept this word to themselves, questioning what the rising from the dead meant.

--Mark 9:2-10 (NKJV)

Let us pray…  Heavenly Father, we thank You for showing Peter, James, and John the true glory of Jesus, and for this event being recorded and saved for us so that we too can revel in the light of our Lord.  And thank You so much for once again proclaiming Jesus to be Your Son, just as You did at His baptism.  Sometimes, Father, this world and our popular society beat on us and wear us down to the point when our spirits weaken and our faith waivers.  Please forgive us these times, Father.  These are the moments we need the assurances You give like this, with the transfiguration of Jesus in the sight of men.  Please keep reassuring us when we falter.

Speak to us now, Father, that we might hear Your voice through Your Spirit within us and better understand the message You have for us this day.  Please keep us strong in our faith, of one mind and one purpose in our love, our worship, and our service.  And please keep us healthy and safe through these trying time.  This we pray in the precious name of Your Son, Christ Jesus our Lord.   

And now may the words of my mouth and the meditations of each of our hearts be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord our strength and our redeemer.  Amen.

Teacher, coach, and author David Roher once noted that, "The motor home has allowed us to put all the conveniences of home on wheels.  A camper no longer needs to contend with sleeping in a sleeping bag, cooking over a fire, or hauling water from a stream.  Now he can park a fully equipped home on a cement slab in the midst of a few pine trees and hook up to a water line, a sewer line and electricity.  One motor home I saw recently had a satellite dish attached on top.  No more bother with dirt, no more smoke from the fire, no more drudgery of walking to the stream.  Now it is possible to go camping and never have to go outside.  We buy a motor home with the hope of seeing new places, of getting out into the world.  Yet we deck it out with the same furnishings as in our living room.  Thus nothing really changes.  We may drive to a new place, set ourselves in new surrounding, but the newness goes unnoticed, for we've only carried along our old setting.  The adventure of new life in Christ begins when the comfortable patterns of the old life are left behind."

There’s something to be said in favor of having to endure a few hardships in life.  For instance, those rainy days make us more joyful in seeing the sunshine.  And sleeping in a sleeping bag on the hard ground gives us a far greater appreciation for our nice comfy beds.  But sometimes we need to make a change, to put our comforts aside.

We have to let the Holy Spirit transform us into that new creation, leaving the old way of life behind.  The old life, the old sins, may be more comfortable, but we need to embrace the change and be the person God intended us to be.  Only then can we truly enjoy our new life in Christ.

So in His transfiguration, Jesus’ clothes shone brightly, exceedingly white, like fresh fallen snow.  And Elijah and Moses appeared with Him, and the three held a little conversation together.  The three disciples were probably dumbfounded and speechless at all this, but Peter managed to blurt out a nervous little exclamation.  “Hey, Lord, it’s great You allowed us to witness this!  How about if we make a little tabernacle for each of You three?”

Before he could say anything more, a cloud rolled in overhead, darkening the land around them.  And a voice boomed from the cloud proclaiming Jesus to be the Son of God and commanding us to “Hear Him!”.

Hear Him.  Many versions of our Bible have God saying, “Listen to Him”, and some even add, “and obey Him”.  It isn’t enough that we just hear what Jesus has said and taught, but that we must actually listen to His lessons, paying attention and taking it all in.  And then we should obey what He has told us to do.

Jesus was transfigured in the sight of men so that we can see His true identity.  We need to be transformed into more obedient disciples in order to better serve the Son of God.

Following God's instructions, Moses oversaw the construction of the Tabernacle which used beautiful veils to separate sections.  The first veil was at the entrance to the outer court, separating the masses, and the outside world, from the outer court of the Tabernacle.  The people could only enter when they brought their sacrifice to God.  The second veil covered the door to the Holy Place, separating the people in the outer court from the Holy Place, where only priests were allowed to enter.  And the third veil separated the Holy Place from the Holy of Holies, where the Ark of the Covenant was kept.  The very presence of God was considered to reside here.  So effectively, the veil was intended to separate the people from God.

All that changed when Jesus gave up His life on the cross for us.  Listen as the Apostle Matthew describes our Lord’s final moments of mortal life, in verses 50 through 53 of the 27th chapter of his Gospel account…

50 And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit.

51 Then, behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth quaked, and the rocks were split, 52 and the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised; 53 and coming out of the graves after His resurrection, they went into the holy city and appeared to many.

--Matthew 27:50-53 (NKJV)

That veil separating God from mankind was ripped in two, torn from top to bottom.  And now, thanks to Jesus and His selfless sacrifice, God is accessible by anyone at any time.  All we have to do is pray.

The veil was torn.  It has been lifted from our eyes and we can see the truth.  In a way, we, like Jesus, have been transfigured, and some people may say that they can see a difference in us, just as Peter, James, and John saw a difference in how Jesus appeared.  But our real difference is inside, where we have changed in spirit.  We have been changed and are being transformed by our belief into a closer image of Christ Jesus.

Switching to the Living Bible, listen to what the Apostle Paul tells us about our new vision leading to our transformation, as he writes in his 2nd letter to the Corinthians, from chapter 3 verse 12 through chapter 4 verse 2…

3:12 Since we know that this new glory will never go away, we can preach with great boldness, 13 and not as Moses did, who put a veil over his face so that the Israelis could not see the glory fade away.

14 Not only Moses’ face was veiled, but his people’s minds and understanding were veiled and blinded too. Even now when the Scripture is read it seems as though Jewish hearts and minds are covered by a thick veil, because they cannot see and understand the real meaning of the Scriptures. For this veil of misunderstanding can be removed only by believing in Christ. 15 Yes, even today when they read Moses’ writings their hearts are blind and they think that obeying the Ten Commandments is the way to be saved.

16 But whenever anyone turns to the Lord from his sins, then the veil is taken away. 17 The Lord is the Spirit who gives them life, and where He is there is freedom from trying to be saved by keeping the laws of God. 18 But we Christians have no veil over our faces; we can be mirrors that brightly reflect the glory of the Lord. And as the Spirit of the Lord works within us, we become more and more like Him.

4:1 It is God himself, in His mercy, who has given us this wonderful work of telling His Good News to others, and so we never give up. 2 We do not try to trick people into believing — we are not interested in fooling anyone. We never try to get anyone to believe that the Bible teaches what it doesn’t. All such shameful methods we forego. We stand in the presence of God as we speak and so we tell the truth, as all who know us will agree.

--2 Corinthians 3:12-4:2 (TLB)

Now when Paul says “we” and “us” in that passage, he is referring directly to himself and his young protégé Timothy.  But he is also referring to all of us, all we believers, for we have all been given the mission of spreading God’s word and the Good News of salvation through Jesus.

The veil has been torn from our eyes and we can see clearly the truth of this great message.  But too many people of this world are still veiled from the truth.  They’re still stumbling around in their blindness.  They cannot see nor understand the real meaning of God’s word because their veil can only be removed by believing in Jesus as Christ and following Him as Lord.

But God, in His tender mercy, has given us the work of reaching out to the non-believing world and sharing the Good News with them.  Paul calls this a wonderful work.  We should not consider this as a chore we must perform, but as an opportunity to serve our Lord.  So we should never give up in our efforts.

Transfiguration, transformation, and change.  Transfiguration is a change in the outward form.  We need to change in our inward form, from the old to the new.  Let’s listen to our transfigured Jesus, the Son of God, and be transformed by His word and His sacrifice.

In the glorious name of Christ Jesus our Lord, the Son of God, our Master and our Savior.  Amen.

Let us pray…  Almighty God, thank You for proclaiming Jesus to be Your Son in the hearing of men who could record it for us to hear today.  You transfigured Him, and through Your Holy Spirit You transform us.  Thank You for making us new.  Father, we admit that we sometimes struggle with keeping our faith strong.  Too often we fail to serve our Lord or even obey His command.  The world hates us for our belief and tries to tear us down.  Please forgive us our lapses, loving Father.  Please help us be more like Jesus in how we react to the world, in living out our love and in giving our love to those who need love the most.

Strengthen us, Father, to reach out to others and show them Your love by giving of ourselves in their service, in Your service, just as Jesus did.  And please help us share our Lord Jesus with others so that they too may be saved by Your mercy and His sacrifice.  Help us pave the way for Your Spirit to do His work on them.

Father, please shield us from Satan as he attacks our faith, trying to make us his own.  Help us be better servants, glorifying You in all we do so that the world can see You in us, through our deeds, in how we live.  And help us remain strong, faithful, and true to You in all things, no matter what comes our way.

Please hear us now, Father, as we pause for just a moment to speak to You through Your Spirit within us, promising to be more obedient to Your commands, and seeking Your help to do so…

Lord Jesus, You were transfigured, but You call us to be transformed by the Spirit into a new person, a more loving, caring, helpful person.  You ordered us to love one another, and God told us to listen to You and obey Your commands.  But Jesus, sometimes we just struggle to love everyone we come into contact with.  We don’t always love like we know we should.  Please forgive us these failures, Lord.  Remind us that all people are God’s creations.  Help us to love even the unlovable, to love as You loved.

Holy Spirit, please help us reach out to the non-believing world, sharing the Gospel message, showing God’s love through our love.  Give us the words to say, show us the deeds to bring more followers to Jesus.

And Jesus, please shield our minds and our hearts from Satan’s lies and the world’s empty promises.  Guide us around all the devil’s traps and snares.  Help us see though his temptations.  Help us keep our focus on the things of heaven and the needs of others rather than on anything this world might offer.  This we pray in Your blessed name, Christ Jesus our Lord and our Savior.  Amen.

Love and Do Good

 

[The following is a manuscript of my message delivered at Pilgrim Reformed Church on Sunday morning, the 23rd of February, 2025.  A recording of our service should be available on our YouTube streaming channel: 

https://www.youtube.com/@pilgrimreformedchurch1992/streams.]

You know, family, it’s usually pretty easy to love someone that loves us, that takes care of us, that sees to our needs and helps fulfill our wants.  But that’s generally a fairly small group that may or may not include family members.  Oh, and there may even be an animal or two in that gathering, for it’s also easy to love a pet.

But what about all the other people we associate with?  Do we love them, or even like all of them, or do we just abide their presence in our lives?  And if we expand outside our normal contacts area, we have the rest of the world’s population to contend with.  How many of them do we love?  How many do we hate?  And how do we feel about all the ones out there who wish us harm, who would cause us great pain if they could get their hands on us, who would kill us without blinking an eye?

Jesus said that we are to love one another.  Now it can be taken that this is a command for Christians to love other Christians, for He followed it up by adding that in this way, people will know that we are indeed Christians, if we love one another.  Even this seems to be difficult to obey for many otherwise good believers.

But Jesus also commanded us to love our neighbor as we love ourself.  Well, our neighbor may or may not be a believer.  And by “neighbor”, He didn’t mean just the folks living beside us, or across the street, or across the back fence – He meant any and all other folks we come in contact with anywhere at any time.

Our Lord clarified and added to this in His “Sermon on the Mount” as recorded by the Apostle Matthew, and in the Apostle Luke’s reporting of the corresponding “Sermon on the Plain” (which may or may not be the same actual sermon).  This message followed the Beatitudes and the “woe unto you” declarations.  Please listen and follow along to what Jesus tells us, as reported in verses 27 through 38 of the 6th chapter of the Apostle Luke’s Gospel account, and I’ll be reading  from the New American Standard Bible this morning…

27 “But I say to you who hear, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28 bless those who curse you, pray for those who are abusive to you. 29 Whoever hits you on the cheek, offer him the other also; and whoever takes away your cloak, do not withhold your tunic from him either. 30 Give to everyone who asks of you, and whoever takes away what is yours, do not demand it back. 31 Treat people the same way you want them to treat you. 32 If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. 33 And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. 34 And if you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners in order to receive back the same amount. 35 But love your enemies and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for He Himself is kind to ungrateful and evil people. 36 Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

37 “Do not judge, and you will not be judged; and do not condemn, and you will not be condemned; pardon, and you will be pardoned. 38 Give, and it will be given to you. They will pour into your lap a good measure — pressed down, shaken together, and running over. For by your standard of measure it will be measured to you in return.” 

--Luke 6:27-38 (NASB)

Let us pray…  Heavenly Father, we thank You for all our many blessings, but Father, there are just some things we have an extremely difficult time doing, even though we have been commanded to do them, even though we know it would be pleasing in Your eyes if we did.  It is just so hard for us to love… to truly, unconditionally, sacrificially love someone who wishes us harm and would harm us and our loved ones if they could.  It’s hard to love as Jesus loved, without any expectation of something in return, some reward, even if only being loved in return.  We even have trouble loving other Christians at times.  Please forgive us these struggles, Father.  Forgive us when we don’t love as we should.  Please help us to not only love as Jesus showed us, but to show our love in tangible ways to others, even those who hate us.

Speak to us now, Father, that we might hear Your voice through Your Spirit within us and better understand the message You have for us this day.  Please keep us strong in our faith, of one mind and one purpose in our love, our worship, and our service.  And please keep us healthy and safe through these trying time.  This we pray in the precious name of Your Son, Christ Jesus our Lord.   

And now may the words of my mouth and the meditations of each of our hearts be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord our strength and our redeemer.  Amen.

Have you ever heard the expression, "No good deed goes unpunished"?  Alexander de Seversky, a U.S. aviator and engineer, was once visiting a fellow flyer in the hospital.  The young man had just lost his leg.  De Seversky, who had had an artificial leg for some time, tried to cheer him up.  "The loss of a leg is not so great a calamity," he said.  "If you get hit on a wooden leg, it doesn't hurt a bit!  Try it!"  The patient raised his walking stick and brought it down hard on de Seversky's leg.  "You see," he said cheerfully.  "If you hit an ordinary man like that, he'd be in bed for five days!"  With that he left his friend and limped into the corridor, where he collapsed in excruciating pain.  The young man had struck de Seversky on his good leg!

It seems that old expression too often rings true.  But notice that de Seversky gave no indication of the young man's punishing blow until he was out of sight.  He showed love by leaving a good impression with the young man, by encouraging him, even though there was a personal cost to himself.  This is love – sacrificial love – for a fellow human.

Love is arguably the first and oldest human emotion, whether from a biblical or secular perspective.  And it all starts in the nuclear family, born of dependence on each other, nurtured by close and near constant association, grown by sharing with each other.  And that may also be the beginning of why it is so difficult for we humans to love other people that are different from us, whether different in heritage, different in race, different in thoughts and beliefs.

Too much of our failure to love all others comes from how we judge all others.  Jesus clearly tells us not to judge, not to condemn anyone else, but we do it anyway.  We judge unconsciously, without meaning to or thinking about it, and we judge knowingly, rationally, and often with malice.  And we judge even though we’ve been warned that some day we ourselves will be judged, and in the same way that we judged others.

I think we are quickest to judge those we feel are bad people, doing bad things, not following the Golden Rule.  Well, King David tells us not to worry about what other people might do.  Instead, we should just trust in the Lord and do good to others.  Hear what David tells us in his 37th Psalm, from verse 1 through the first part of verse 3…

1 Do not get upset because of evildoers,

Do not be envious of wrongdoers.

2 For they will wither quickly like the grass,

And decay like the green plants.

3 Trust in the Lord and do good.

--Psalm 37:1-3a (NASB)

We shouldn’t let what other people are doing - or are not doing - bother us.  It’s not our job to judge them or their actions.  That task is above our pay grade.  They will be judged, and there will be a price they will pay for any wrong they have done.  And so will we, for that matter.

Our job is to love, to trust in the Lord and to do good while we walk this earth.  Wise King Solomon, David's son, follows up on this in the 27th verse of his 3rd Proverb when he writes…

27 Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in your power to do it.

--Proverbs 3:27 (NASB)

Sometimes the opportunity to do good presents itself in a straightforward manner, making it easy for us to help another, such as when we pitch in to feed the homeless or join in on a fundraising event.  But there are also opportunities that come along quite unexpectedly, right out of the blue, and maybe at an inopportune time.  What then?

Do we turn around and stop to help the motorist that is very obviously having trouble?  Do we fill up the car of the person at the gas pump who is digging through their purse and under all the seats looking for some change to put in a few dollars worth to get them to work?  Do we show unconditional, sacrificial love when it isn’t convenient to do so, when common sense and social norms would tell us not to?

Family, Jesus made it very clear, in His words and especially in His actions while He walked among us.  He showed us what love really looks like.  He put what He preached into practice.  And He emphasized the importance of all this by commanding us to love.

I referred to this a bit earlier.  It was recorded by the Apostle John in the 13th chapter of his Gospel account, verses 34 and 35, when Jesus said…

34 “I am giving you a new commandment, that you love one another; just as I have loved you, that you also love one another. 35 By this all people will know that you are My disciples: if you have love for one another.”

--John 13:34-35 (NASB)

We call Jesus our Lord.  If we truly accepted Him as our Lord, our Master, we would follow His commands to the letter and without hesitation.

Now I personally don’t believe Jesus was directing this command to Christians just to love other Christians, because in our reading He also said that there is no credit in us loving only those who love us.  Assuming that Christians are only to love other Christians, we’d all be loving each other, so what good would that do?  Would that show the world anything?  Non-believers love other non-believers, right?

So no, we should love all others, and in that way - loving even those who hate us, loving even those who wish us harm – we are showing the world what real love looks like.  And if we follow Jesus' command and truly love others, we will do good out of our love.

Love others, even our enemies.  Give, expecting nothing in return.  Be merciful, just as our heavenly Father is merciful, for He Himself is kind to ungrateful and evil people.  And don’t sit in the judgment seat – that’s not our job.

Love others and do good.  That’s our mission, given to us by the One who showed us how to do it, in His words and in His life.  In the glorious name of Christ Jesus our Lord, the Son of God, our Master and our Savior.  Amen.

Let us pray…  Almighty God, thank You for loving us even when we were Your enemies.  You showed mercy to us in our rebellion.  You saw to our needs when we turned our backs to You.  You love us enough to send Your own Son to redeem us of our sin, to lead us out of the darkness.  Thank You for loving us this much.  Father, we admit that we struggle when it comes to loving others, especially when love isn’t returned in kind.  And too often we judge others based on little things like skin color or the language they speak.  Our judgments and condemnations are almost always irrational.  We just have a hard time unconditionally loving all others.  Please forgive us these times, dear Father.  Please help us be more like Jesus in how we love, in living our love and giving our love.

Strengthen us, Father, to reach out to others and show them Your love by giving of ourselves in their service, in Your service, just as Jesus did.  And please help us share our Lord Jesus with others so that they too may be saved by Your mercy and His sacrifice.  Help us pave the way for Your Spirit to do His work on them.

Father, please shield us from Satan as he attacks our faith, trying to make us his own.  Help us be better servants, glorifying You in all we do so that the world can see You in us, through our deeds, in how we live.  And help us remain strong, faithful, and true to You in all things, no matter what comes our way.

Please hear us now, Father, as we pause for just a moment to speak to You through Your Spirit within us, promising to be more obedient to Your commands, and seeking Your help to do so…

Lord Jesus, You showed us what true love looks like.  You set the standard for us.  But Jesus, it’s just not that easy for us.  We don’t always love like we should.  We let our prejudices and hatreds get in the way of loving all others as You commanded us.  We need your help in carrying out this command.  Remind us that our job is not to judge or condemn others, but to love them and show them Your love.  Help us to live our love and to do good every chance we get.

Holy Spirit, please help us reach out to the non-believing world, sharing the Gospel message, showing God’s love through our love.  Give us the words to say, show us the deeds to bring more followers to Jesus.

And Jesus, please shield our minds and our hearts from Satan’s lies and the world’s empty promises.  Guide us around all the devil’s traps and snares.  Help us see though his temptations.  Help us keep our focus on the things of heaven and the needs of others rather than on anything this world might offer.  This we pray in Your blessed name, Christ Jesus our Lord and our Savior.  Amen.