Pastor’s Blog

As I’ve been studying in the book of Revelation and preparing for these Easter messages, the central truth of Christ’s death and resurrection begins to show up in every chapter. For example, in Revelation chapter 1 John sees one ‘like a son of man’, dressed as a priest and walking among seven lampstands:

“His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire. ¹⁵His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters. ¹⁶In his right hand he held seven stars, and out of his mouth came a sharp double-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance.”

What a fantastic description – especially a voice like the sound of rushing waters. John responds as every sane person would, in awe and fear: “When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. Then he placed his right hand on me and said: “Do not be afraid.”

And as Jesus goes on to reassure John, it is on the basis of his death and resurrection: “ I am the First and the Last. ¹⁸ I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.”

“I was dead and now I am alive for ever and ever.” That’s the foundational truth that makes eternity possible. Someday we will all be able to say that. But for now it is only our risen, victorious Lord who can make that paradoxical statement in truth.

I got a little busy yesterday (with car repairs, among other things) and didn’t get to post. But I did to another ‘music video’ for today’s sermon and thought it would be good to share it

I love the text and I love Michael Card’s setting of it.

Photo credits, by the way, go mostly to Pat Marvenko Smith who sells Revelation artwork at www.revelationillustrated.com.

Sorry I missed a day

Naturally as this Sunday approaches I’m personally focusing on the Palm Sunday stories (and on Revelation 7:9-17, which I’m preaching as ‘Palm Sunday in Heaven’). But as I read the accounts of the triumphal entry in all four Gospels, I was reminded of a Max Lucado essay in which he thought about ‘The Guy with the Donkey’.

Mark 11:1-6 (NIV)
^{Mk 11:1} As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage and Bethany at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two of his disciples, ² saying to them, “Go to the village ahead of you, and just as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, which no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. ³ If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ tell him, ‘The Lord needs it and will send it back here shortly.’” ⁴ They went and found a colt outside in the street, tied at a doorway. As they untied it, ⁵ some people standing there asked, “What are you doing, untying that colt?” ⁶ They answered as Jesus had told them to, and the people let them go.

Lucado says that he’d like to ask that guy with the donkey a few dozen questions: Why did you do it? How did you know that giving it to Jesus would be OK? Did you think you’d ever get your little donkey back? Did you ever think that Jesus would put your little animal to such a noble purpose that it would be remembered for centuries? How did you have the courage to give?

It’s that last question that impacts us. Throughout Scripture there are people like the guy with the donkey and the boy with the five loaves and two fish who give from their little, and then the Lord does a lot with it. Do we ever do the same? What we can give may not seem to make a lot of difference, but God can use even our smallest self sacrifices to glorify himself.

I’m reading a science fiction / fantasy book at the moment in which an old king creates an intricate plot to try to trap a deadly dangerous enemy. The plot requires the king to allow great damage to his own land in order to lure the enemy into the open, rather than allowing the enemy to conquer the two neighboring kingdoms and attack from a position of strength.

When this plot is revealed to one of the king’s oldest allies, he cries out “Oh brilliant! Destroy your friends to save your enemies! Just brilliant”

But of course, that is exactly what God did at the cross: He sent his one and only Son.

God and Jesus had been one in a way we can’t even imagine from before the creation of time. God the Father loved Jesus the Son more than we can imagine. And yet he sent this closest friend to be destroyed (and raised) so that he could save his enemies.

Romans 5:6-10 (NIV) You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. ⁷ Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. ⁸ But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. ⁹ Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! ¹⁰ For if, when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!