|
I WON’T BACK DOWN
Luke 20:1-8 Dr. Chuck DeVane, Pastor Lake Hamilton Baptist Church Hot Springs, Arkansas February 17, 2019 1 One day, as Jesus was teaching the people in the temple and preaching the gospel, the chief priests and the scribes with the elders came up 2 and said to him, “Tell us by what authority you do these things, or who it is that gave you this authority.” 3 He answered them, “I also will ask you a question. Now tell me, 4 was the baptism of John from heaven or from man?” 5 And they discussed it with one another, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say, Why did you not believe him?’ 6 But if we say, ‘From man,’ all the people will stone us to death, for they are convinced that John was a prophet.” 7 So they answered that they did not know where it came from. 8 And Jesus said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.” — Luke 20:1-8, ESV There are no songs in the Baptist Hymnal written by the late, great Tom Petty. We ought to consider including at least one in the next revision, however. It is a simple southern rock song built around three chords and these four words: “I won't back down.” The inspiration for the song was a court battle between Petty and a record company over ownership of the songs he wrote. To oversimplify Petty’s case against his petty producers, he believed since he was the author of the songs, he ought to have authority over them. It proved to be a winning argument, one that has benefitted musicians ever since. Authorship implies authority. If you made it, shouldn’t you have the right to decide what to do with it? Who made you? God, your parents, or are you a self-made man or woman? Who should decide what you do? God, your parents, your teachers, your boss, your government, or your own free will and independence? These are crucial and complex questions. They are questions that descended upon Jesus during the final week of His public ministry. He had come to Jerusalem and grasped the authority of the Messiah, the King of Israel, by riding through the eastern gate on a donkey in fulfillment of Zechariah 9:9. That was Sunday. On Monday the Lord cleansed the temple. Then, on Tuesday, Jesus began to teach and preach, with great authority, in preparation for the ultimate Passover. Those who perceived they had the authority wanted to know where He got the authority to contradict their authority. Jesus, when challenged by those authorities, bravely declared “I won’t back down.” The Authority of the Chief Priests, Scribes, and Elders While Rome ruled the world in Jesus’ day, Caesar often allowed local magistrates to have jurisdiction over the cares and affairs of everyday life, as long as there was peace and the tax money rolled in. In Israel, this authority was grasped by a religious ruling body knows as the Sanhedrin. It consisted mainly of the three kind of characters who approached Jesus during Holy Week. The “chief priests” were mostly Sadducees, the “scribes” were mostly Pharisees, and politically connected “elders,” many of whom were Herodians, rounded out the membership of about seventy men. A big beef had been brewing between the boys and Jesus for three years. Now, they wanted to ridicule and discredit Him publicly, at the temple, in front of God and everybody. Perhaps they could shame Jesus into backing down and going back to Galilee. When that plan did not work, they plotted to kill Him, which would require Roman collusion since the Sanhedrin did not have the authority to impose the death penalty. The men of power in the Sanhedrin had derived their authority from education, wealth, and popularity. Like the Pharisee Saul of Tarsus whom we meet after the Gospels, they had graduated from the finest schools. Like the rich young ruler, they had access to great wealth. Politically working your way into the Sanhedrin almost assuredly gave you power and money for the rest of life, and enabled you to run other people’s lives to boot. Such a group could never control our country, could it? Did you know how many of our Supreme Court justices are graduates of just two schools, Harvard and Yale? Nine out of nine. Did you know how often someone named “Bush” or “Clinton” has been on the presidential ticket in our most recent elections? Eight out of the last ten. Did you know that the top 2% of Americans have over 50% of the wealth in our country? And these people call the shots, like the old Sanhedrin, because they have the right education, come from the right families, get into the right political offices, and corner the right markets. Jesus did not have this kind of worldly authority. He had no formal education. He was from a poor family in Nazareth. He had no money or means of which to boast. So the Sanhedrin wondered out loud how Jesus dare come into Jerusalem and publicly teach the word of God and preach the gospel! But when confronted by their authority to question His own, Jesus did not back down. The Authority of John the Baptist Jesus answered their question with a question, a wise way to win an argument. People respected the Sanhedrin but did not love them. People loved Jesus, but the jury was still out on whether or not they respected Him as Lord. One figure who was universally loved and respected by the Jewish people at that time was a man named John Bar-Zechariah, also called John Ba-Harim (John of the Hills), best known as John the Baptist. Everyone loved John the Baptist because John the Baptist was dead. Martyrdom often works in this mysterious way. Abraham Lincoln’s own cabinet members despised him until after he was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth, then they made him America’s patron saint. John F. Kennedy was viewed as a marginal president with little certainty of reelection until Lee Harvey Oswald (and others?) shot him down in Dallas and made him the king of Camelot. More powerful than John the Baptist’s posthumous popularity, however, was his past tense preaching. He had preached the gospel, stressing repentance towards God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. In fulfillment of the Old Covenant and in preparation for the New, John had pointed people to Jesus and identified Him as “the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world” (ref. John 1:29). John the Baptist never backed down. But where did John get his authority? Was it from God, or was he a self-made man? Was he telling the truth, or was he another power hungry political figure who got himself killed? Was his a heavenly, spiritual authority, or a worldly, temporary popularity? The answer to Jesus’ question about John is the same answer to the Sanhedrin’s question about Jesus. The Authority of Jesus Christ Jesus told them the source of His authority without telling them, leaving us with this tantalizing text in three Gospels. We’ve had two thousand years to study it and figure it out. If Jesus’ authority, like John’s, came from God, then everything John said about Jesus is true, and everything Jesus teaches and preaches is true, too. If Jesus’s authority, like John’s, was man-made or self-proclaimed, then the world is better off without Him (and doesn’t the world today seem bent on getting rid of Him). I believe Jesus’ authority came from God because Jesus was, is, and always will be God. I believe He had the right to teach the word of God in the temple because He is the Word of God. I believe He had the right to preach the gospel to the world because He is the gospel for the world. Jesus is Lord, and He would not back down, not on Palm Sunday, not on the manic Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, not on Maundy Thursday, not on Good Friday, not on Silent Saturday, and not on Resurrection Sunday. The chief priests and the scribes and the elders tried to stop Jesus by questioning His authority, but Jesus did not back down. They tried to stop Him with crucifixion, but Jesus did not back down. They try to stop Him still, with persecution or secularization or religion, but Jesus and His followers do not back down. Let us sing it together, “You can stand me up at the gates of Hell, but I won’t back down!” I conclude with my original question. The dictionary defines authority as “the power or right to give orders, make decisions, and enforce obedience.” Where does this authority come from in your life, your family’s life, your church’s life, “From heaven (God) or from man?” Let God be your final authority. He is our Author. He made us. He is the “author and finisher our faith” (ref. Hebrews 12:2). God made us. I pray Jesus has saved us. If so, we have His Spirit and His word. Let us follow Him, obey Him, and worship Him. And if someone should challenge the authority by which we live and worship, tell them, “I won’t back down.” P.S. I gladly donate all royalties from this sermon to the Tom Petty Foundation. Copyright © 2019 Lake Hamilton Baptist Church, All rights reserved. Check out the weekly happenings at Lake Hamilton Baptist Church in Hot Springs, Arkansas.
0 Comments
GOD HAS FEELINGS, TOO
Luke 19:41-48 Dr. Chuck DeVane, Pastor Lake Hamilton Baptist Church Hot Springs, Arkansas February 10, 2019 41 And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, 42 saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. 43 For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side 44 and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.” 45 And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold, 46 saying to them, “It is written, My house shall be a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a den of robbers.” 47 And he was teaching daily in the temple. The chief priests and the scribes and the principal men of the people were seeking to destroy him, 48 but they did not find anything they could do, for all the people were hanging on his words. — Luke 19:41-48, ESV The Old Testament Prophet Isaiah refers to God as, “The One who is high and lifted up” (ref. Isaiah 57:15). Indeed He is. But is it possible to sing, “Lord I lift Your name too high,” or otherwise exalt Him so far into the heavens that we can no longer see Him, hear Him, or feel Him? Many people fear God without the enjoyment of loving Him, think of Him without the comprehension of knowing Him, and refrain from speaking to Him because they do not know how to listen and learn from Him. False religions and pop culture have combined to turn God into an impersonal being. Even contemporary church members think of God as a mere force, like the one in Star Wars, or at best an intelligent, calculating, unemotional creature, somewhat like Star Trek’s Mr. Spock. But God is a real person, three persons actually, in one. And God has feelings, too. God the Father has deep feelings of pain and regret. When He looked upon the utter sinfulness of the early human race, “It grieved him to his heart” (ref. Genesis 6:6). The same can be said of God the Holy Spirit, about whom Paul warned us, “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God” (ref. Ephesians 4:30). Of course, “The whole fullness of deity dwells bodily” (ref. Colossians 2:9) in the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. He fulfilled prophecy when He came to earth as “a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief” (ref. Isaiah 53:3). Jesus let His feelings show, too. You can see them before, during, and after the cross. Take the Monday after the original Palm Sunday, for example. Jesus Wept, Again The shortest verse in the Bible is John 11:35. It succinctly says, “Jesus wept.” I do not believe it was the first time and I know it was not the last. I think the baby Jesus wept when He thought of the other baby boys his age in Bethlehem being slaughtered by the evil King Herod. I think the youthful Jesus wept when He heard the bumble-headed priests in Jerusalem twist Scripture like televangelists (and I think He still weeps at the later). I know the Lord shed a few tears at the grave of Lazarus, and I suspect more than a few tears mingled with sweat drops of blood on His face at Gethsemane. Jesus wept, this is true, again and again and again. Tears reveal the deepest emotions, the most intense feelings. Weeping can be a sign of great love and joy. More often, however, weeping represents great sadness and loss. Yes, God has feelings, too, and we need to understand what makes God cry. Jesus wept over the pain of rejection, over the lack of love and faith among the Jewish people. “He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him” (ref. John 1:11). Save for eleven of the original dozen and a few dozen others, nobody on this day believed that Jesus was and is the promised Messiah who came to offer Himself as “the way, the truth, and the life” (ref. John 14:6). Jesus wept over the catastrophic consequences of unbelief, too. Jesus knew that since the Jews rejected and denied their Prince of Peace in Israel, nothing was left for them but holy war with Rome. Just as Jesus predicted, Romans invaded Jerusalem in AD 70 and utterly destroyed the city and the temple, leaving devastation and death in their wake. God weeps, still, over unbelief and its consequences. It grieves the Lord, Father and Son and Holy Spirit, when people disbelieve the gospel and prove it by disobeying the word of God. He delights not one iota when a person perished outside faith in Jesus Christ. God said through Ezekiel, “Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, declares the Lord God, and not rather that he should turn from his way and live?” (ref. Ezekiel 18:23). If God is our God, if these are God’s feelings, how should we feel? What should we do? Perhaps we should make a greater effort to evangelize and fill up our churches with true worshipers. Perhaps some of our churches need to be put in order first, after looking further at the feelings of God. Jesus Got Angry, Again John’s Gospel records Jesus cleaning out the temple at the beginning of His public ministry. Mark and Luke record this episode at the end, on the manic Monday before Good Friday. Like the emotions that bring forth tears, this is not the first nor the last time Jesus got, a few words come to mind here, angry. This episode should serve to correct the caricature of God as some old, grandfatherly character in the likeness of Santa Claus, Mr. Rogers, or Oprah Winfrey. On this day, God incarnate spoke loudly and carried a big stick. The Lord laid hands on people, and not to heal them, either. What in the world, or in the church, could make Jesus so mad? No faith makes Jesus weep but bad faith makes the Lord mad. Faith is bad when people use it as a means of making money, like the money-changers in the temple or the word-of-faith preachers of today. Faith is bad when people think they can buy off God with scant religious rituals or occasional observances, like nominal Jews at Passover or superficial Christians at Easter. Faith is bad when it is not viewed as a gift from God that transforms a life and creates a hunger and thirst for the word of God and good worship. Bad faith makes for bad worship. It angered Jesus to see how worship was being conducted during His last Passover. It angers Him still, in our day, when churches are turned into markets for merchandise, venues for entertainment, and halls of amusement. It makes the Lord mad when churches resemble malls, mimic modern music and light shows, and pop off canons and confetti when unconverted children are baptized. If God is our God, if these are God’s feelings, how should we feel? What should we do? We should make sure we worship in spirit and truth, with word and sacrament, with faith and hope and love. If we do, some will learn to love Jesus the way we do. Most, unfortunately, will not. Jesus felt Love and Hatred, Again You can see where Jesus puts sorrow and anger on the map. However, the polar extremes on the planet of emotions are love and hate. God is on record as experiencing both in great measures. He loves, because “God is love” (ref. 1 John 4:8,16). He reserves the right to hate, and not just people’s actions, but the people themselves (ref. Psalm 5:5; Proverbs 6:16ff; Malachi 1:3; Revelation 2:6). All of the prerogatives of God are not our own. The Supreme Being may love and hate, but He has commanded His children to always embrace the former and forever shun the latter. What God does we may not always do, but what God feels we should always feel. Jesus felt love and hate, in the highest, during Holy Week. What do you call it when people are “seeking to destroy” you? You call it hate and enmity. What do you call it when people are “hanging on” to every word you say? You call it love and devotion. Jesus felt them both, again and again, in His ministry. Remember that all of these things and all of these feelings were experienced as a response to the public ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ. He offered Himself, publicly and triumphantly, to Jerusalem. The people responded, lovingly and hatefully, to the Lord. God was hurt, and cried. God was angry, and cleaned out the temple. God was loved and hated, but responded with only love. If God is our God, if these are the feelings God engenders, how should we feel? What should we do? Make sure you feel real love, not hate, towards the Lord Jesus Christ. Lovers of God repent of the sins that separate us from Him and believe totally in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Lovers of God love God and God’s people through active involvement in Christ’s body, the church. Lovers of God love others outside the church by seeking to bring them into God’s kingdom through prayer, witness, and above all, love. Anything and everything else, for with Christ there is no middle ground, is hate. Hating God does not require violent actions or denunciations. Hate is not reserved for the atheists and adherents of false religions. Hate, today like it was in Jesus’ day, lives in the hearts of those who claim to be God’s own people, like in the Jews of Jesus’ day and too many professing Christians in our day. All you have to do to hate is ignore, disobey, or otherwise fail to love and obey the word of God. Now, like then, those who do not hang on to His words are in various ways and means trying to destroy Him. I have preached sermons and offered leadership to churches where some members hung on every word while others tried to destroy me. It is amazing how the same person and the same words can create such extremely opposite feelings among people. I must tell you, it does not always feel good to be a follower of Jesus Christ. It may not feel good, but it is good, very good to be an outspoken follower of Jesus, herald of the gospel, and purveyor of God’s word, the Bible. So follow Christ, and be prepared to share His feelings. So let people know where you stand on the word of God and the gospel of Jesus Christ. Let it make you sad when people do not believe. Let it anger you when professing believers engage in hypocrisy and blatant disobedience. Let it perplex you when people love you and hate you. Then keep on following the Lord Jesus Christ, who understands, because God has feelings, too. Copyright © 2019 Lake Hamilton Baptist Church, All rights reserved. Check out the weekly happenings at Lake Hamilton Baptist Church in Hot Springs, Arkansas. THE BEGINNING OF THE BEGINNING
Luke 19:28-40 Dr. Chuck DeVane, Pastor Lake Hamilton Baptist Church Hot Springs, Arkansas February 3, 2019 28 And when he had said these things, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. 29 When he drew near to Bethphage and Bethany, at the mount that is called Olivet, he sent two of the disciples, 30 saying, “Go into the village in front of you, where on entering you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever yet sat. Untie it and bring it here. 31 If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ you shall say this: ‘The Lord has need of it.’” 32 So those who were sent went away and found it just as he had told them. 33 And as they were untying the colt, its owners said to them, “Why are you untying the colt?” 34 And they said, “The Lord has need of it.” 35 And they brought it to Jesus, and throwing their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it. 36 And as he rode along, they spread their cloaks on the road. 37 As he was drawing near—already on the way down the Mount of Olives—the whole multitude of his disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen, 38 saying, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” 39 And some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples.” 40 He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.” — Luke 19:28-40, ESV There are no endings with God, only beginnings. Therefore, it does not seem appropriate to consider this first day of the last week of Jesus’ life as the beginning of the end. For Christ’s life has no end, and neither will yours if you repent and believe the gospel. We have traditional Christian names for this particular day and event. We call it “Palm Sunday,” a commemoration of “The Triumphal Entry” of the Messiah into Jerusalem. Triumphal it was, that first Sunday of “Holy Week.” Triumphal it would be, on the next Sunday, because of an empty tomb. In between, however, there would be controversy, conflict, betrayal, denial, suffering, and death. But today let us focus on the beginning of the beginning, this mostly positive and moving picture of a parade featuring the Lord as He enters into the holy city for the holy week. Let us look to Jesus, as always we should, and catch a glimpse of His glory. While we’re looking, let us cast a glance at the people surrounding him, men prophesied in the previous parable as “good servants,” “wicked servants,” and “enemies.” In this narrative they will be known by different names, “disciples” and “multitude” and “Pharisees.” But a rose or rotten egg by any other name smells as sweet or foul. The Messiah No one smells, looks, or sounds as great at the Rose of Sharon and the Lilly of the Valley, the Lord Jesus Christ. After laying low for most of the last year of His public ministry, He now makes a public spectacle of Himself with this much publicized parade into Jerusalem. Jesus is accompanied by His close disciples and a multitude of Passover pilgrims who embrace His momentary popularity. The way in which Jesus enters the city reveals a great deal about His divinity and humanity. Christ’s deity is plainly seen in His omniscience, His foreordained knowledge of the precise location, owner, and animal that would serve as His float for the Passover parade. Furthermore, He allowed Himself to be the object of worship, as people cushioned His saddle and lined the roadway with the clothes off their backs (and as John’s Gospel tell us, leaves from palm trees). They praised Him and called Him King. Such praise and worship would have been blasphemy, with Jesus as the instigator, if He were not and still is Almighty God. Not to overstate the obvious, but Jesus’ humanity is on display as well. Plainly He was a man, albeit the God-man, with body, soul, and spirit. He could be seen, He could be heard, and like the rest of us He loved a good parade. He was someone you could talk to, someone you could know, someone you could believe in, someone you could love, or hate. He still is today. Do you love Jesus, like His disciples? Do you hate Jesus, like the Pharisees? Or, are you somewhere in the mushy middle with the multitude? The Disciples Most of us would like to think we love the Lord. We confess Him as our Christ and call ourselves Christians. But while “Christian” is a word found only three times in the New Testament, some form of the word “disciple” is used 261 times, including three times in this story. If you want assurance of your salvation, do not ask yourself whether or not you are a Christian, for the name has virtually lost its meaning in modern times, but ask yourself whether or not you are a disciple. Disciples do what the Lord tells them to do, even if it is difficult or risky, like potentially stealing a colt and suffering the wrath of the owner. Disciples are willing to give all that they have for the Lord’s use, even the very shirts on their backs. Disciples are not ashamed to worship and praise the Lord in public, and do so regularly, in good times and bad. Disciples are duplicated or copied, depending on the presence or absence of a changed heart. I think it was the original eleven out of twelve who first gave their clothing for Jesus’ saddle and ride. I think they were the first to praise Him as King and Lord. I think a lot of other people saw them do it and joined in, some for sincere and others for superficial reasons. The Multitude We are not given the exact number of the multitude who joined with the disciples in accompanying Jesus into Jerusalem on that day. Since Jews did not travel on the Sabbath and this Sunday was the first opportunity to get the good lodging and camping spots for Passover, I suspect it was thousands upon thousands of people who packed in with the parade. For the most part, they joined in with the disciples, pulling off their outer garments to cushion Jesus’ ride, shouting praises to the top of their lungs, and waving hands and palm fronds high in the air. I’m sure the scene would have resembled some of today’s modern or so-called celebration worship services (as compared to historical and reflective worship services). Admittedly, a few of those who joined the fury became fully devoted followers of Christ, or true Christians. Most, however, got going when the going got tough. How can I make such a judgement? As many as a million people were packed into Jerusalem for that holy week, a great number of whom would profess faith in Jesus Christ. At the end of the week, however, after the arrest and the cross and the tomb, only 120 could be counted on as true followers. Multitudes today want excitement, entertaining music, motivational speaking and other worldly amusements in their church experience. Disciples just want word and sacrament, love and obedience, the realty of true worship and the responsibility of true service. The Pharisees Finally, there is the last group mentioned in the text, the Pharisees. Boo! You have to hand this to them, however, they did not try to hide their guile. Hypocrites though they were, as labeled by the Lord Himself, they did not put their dark cynicism under a basket. They let it out for all the world to see and hear, and they would not stop until Jesus was crucified in the court of public opinion and Roman injustice. They would not call Jesus King or Lord, only teacher, and they claimed He was a false one at that. They were anti-disciples and anti-Christs. They would not praise Him and worship Him, for they did not believe in Him. They would not give Him their clothing, nor a penny from their prosperous pockets, for they loved themselves far more than they could ever love the Lord. The Pharisees were nothing but a bunch of hound dogs, there to doggedly pursue the Lord Jesus Christ unto His death. Stalk Him they did, all the way to the cross. But hounds, like donkeys, are simply animals the Lord uses to accomplish His work. And on this day, the first Palm Sunday, Jesus triumphantly entered Jerusalem to do His most endearing and enduring endeavor. Remember, the colt that Jesus rode to the cross was not a young horse, but a young donkey. All the Jews knew that a horse would have been a symbol of war, which is what most of them wanted. A donkey, on the other hand, was a symbol of peace. Remember the parable before the parade, that the Messiah enters the holy city not once, but twice. At His second coming, He will be riding a white horse, and He will destroy all of His enemies like the Pharisees, as well as the superficial multitudes who really do not believe in Him. This was the beginning of the end of His first coming. He ended His public ministry by riding on a donkey to make an offer of peace to the world. But it was not the end. It was just the beginning of the beginning. Copyright © 2019 Lake Hamilton Baptist Church, All rights reserved. Check out the weekly happenings at Lake Hamilton Baptist Church in Hot Springs, Arkansas. |
AuthorDr. Charles F. "Chuck" DeVane, Jr., is the Pastor of Lake Hamilton Baptist Church in Hot Springs, Arkansas. His weekly sermon article, "The Gospel Truth," has been published in newspapers in Arkansas and Georgia. Dr. DeVane is a graduate of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and has served in the pastorate for over 20 years. Contact Pastor Chuck at PastorChuck@lakehamiltonbaptistchurch.org
Archives
December 2020
Categories |
RSS Feed