A Good Friday Reflection

The Trial of Jesus calls for a judgment. - What is your judgment?

How do we evaluate the so-called “Son of God”? When he stands before us, do we take the judgment seat?

Pilate, we are told, “sat in the judgment seat.” He was asked to give a verdict, to give a sentence based on that verdict.

Pilate wasn’t the first to get a chance to sit in judgment over Jesus. The Gospels tell us that Religious leaders, Herod and the crowd also were giving their verdicts. Jesus was a very judged man. And in the end, everyone who sat in judgment over Christ, didn’t get what they wanted from Him.

Before Jesus got to Pilate, the Religious Leaders had judged Jesus guilty! They were tired of Jesus calling them, the most religious people in the whole society, Jesus was calling them: sinners along with everyone else! They not only followed the Law (as they understood it) and even new parts of the law they made up! How offensive is that to be told your piety isn’t good enough!

Before Jesus got to Pilate finally, Herod had judged Jesus guilty…of not being entertaining enough. Herod demanded a sign! He wanted signs and miracles just for him. He wanted a Santa Claus, giving him goodies. And when Jesus was silent to that request, when Jesus didn’t answer his prayer for goodies, Herod was done with Jesus.

Now, Finally, Pilate sat in judgment over Jesus, but didn’t really find a problem with Jesus, so it seemed. But everybody else seemed to. So Pilate says with his lips that he doesn’t find guilt with Jesus, and then Pilate does what to an innocent man? Pilate has Him tortured. Mocks Him, makes Him the center of ridicule. Which lied, his lips or his actions?

When the crowd, when everyone else wants to be rid of Jesus, when the world is found to cry for his death, when it might be costly and hard to declare the truth about Jesus…Pilate asks “What is truth?”

Pilate denies Truth itself, standing in front of him, Pilate has the WAY, the TRUTH and the LIFE in front of him, and sends him down the WAY of the Via Delarosa, he lies about the TRUTH, and he sentences LIFE to death.

The Neutrality and apathy of a Pilate, always finds itself crucifying Christ. The fence sitters, seem always to find themselves right along with the crowd when it comes down to the real choice that was before them. The choice was between the INNOCENCE of Jesus or their own INNOCENCE.

Pilate starts by saying “I see no crime in him! He seems innocent,” but ends with saying, “I am innocent of his blood! I wash my hands!” 

Pilate couldn’t be neutral. And neither can you. In the end: only one can be innocent. The Trial of Jesus calls for judgment. All men, in one way or another, attend the trial of Christ. They are asked, as Jesus did to his disciples: “Who do you say that I am?”

Your verdict on that question, is the most important question you will ever answer. Who do you say Jesus is?

Is He the Son of God? If not, the religious leaders were right to declare him guilty.

Is He supposed to be Santa Claus? If so, Herod is right to dismiss Him when he doesn’t get his every request.

Is He to be the popular King? The cool friend? If so, then Pilate is right to deliver him to the crowd, when the world rejects Christ.

Pilate sat in the judgment seat and made his verdict known. Pilate was more concerned to declare Pilate’s innocence. In fact, everyone there thought they were innocent!

That’s what makes an innocent verdict so hard to pronounce over Jesus. If Jesus is innocent, then what he says is true. When He says He came for sinners, and points to you, either you are a sinner He came for, or He is a lying sinner for saying: you are a sinner.

It comes down to this: Either Jesus was innocent or you are. Which is it?

Are we wrong when we sit in judgment over Jesus for not confirming us, telling us “Good job applying the law to others and not yourself! Good job following your own rules and not God’s!” Are we guilty for dismissing Jesus when he doesn’t do this, or is Jesus guilty?

Are we in the wrong when we sit in judgment over Jesus because he doesn’t give us a all WE want? Are we guilty for treating Jesus like Santa Claus, or is Jesus guilty for not being our personal Santa Claus?

Are we in the wrong for ignoring Christ, for saying we don’t find guilt in him, but in the end, not concerning ourselves with Christ crucified when the world is found to be against him? Are we guilty for going along with the world, or is Jesus guilty for not being what the world wants?

The trial of Jesus demands a judgment. What is yours? Do you sit in judgment over Jesus? Or does he stand in judgment FOR you?

Just know this: Jesus only stands in judgment for the guilty! The minute you say “I am innocent” is the minute you cry out “Jesus is the guilty one! Crucify Him!”

Is Christ’s rightful place on the cross, or is yours? Before the cross is what Christ took in your place, you must see your rightful place is on the cross.

The story of the trial and death of Jesus is not a tragedy. The story of the passion is not in order to parade before you the man Jesus to pity. It is the story of the God-man Jesus Christ having pity on you. It is the story of Jesus saying to the Father “Forgive them.” The Father saying “Only if I forsake you.” And Jesus saying, “Your Will be done.” It is the story of Jesus then saying to the penalty that hung over us: “It is finished.”

It is the story of what you deserved, and what Jesus took for you. Only then, can you see the good in Good Friday.

I’ll tell you the good I see in this Friday: In the cross of Christ, there is my judgment, as He takes my cross, the cross I earned, the cross I deserved, and He bares it in love for me and His Father.

The Trial of Jesus calls for a judgment. Who is the guilty one? My judgment: I AM guilty. What is your judgment?

Prayer: Father, for the sake of the Pure and Spotless Lamb of God, have mercy on me, a sinner. Amen.

Martyrdom of Stephen

Acts 7:54-8:1 - The Stoning of Stephen

54 Now when they heard these things they were enraged, and they ground their teeth at him. 55 But he, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. 56 And he said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.” 57 But they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears and rushed together at him. 58 Then they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul. 59 And as they were stoning Stephen, whe called out, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” 60 And falling to his knees he cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” And when he had said this, he fell asleep. And Saul approved of his execution.

My Sermon on the Martyrdom of Stephen.

Lawlessness is not Sanctification, but Sin.

"Not under law but under grace" does not mean "we shall sin that grace may abound!"

My Sermon on Romans 6:1-14: Sanctification - The Dominion of Grace

 http://www.providencepres.net/index.php?option=com_sermonspeaker&task=singlesermon&id=10130&Itemid=145

Sinclair Ferguson on Holiness

I've been trying to listen to more of Sinclair Ferguson's sermons lately, as they have been recommended to me by several people. These I found particularly helpful. Doctrinal, serious in their call to holiness (the topic addressed in these sessions) but also gospel-filled. Take a listen to these from a Ligonier Conference:

Titus 2:11-14 - Our Holiness: The Father's Purpose and the Son's Purchase

John 15 - Our Holiness: Abiding in Christ's Love

Sermon text: Tale of Two Kings

The unfortunate thing about preaching a 10-12 minute sermon is that you cannot say everything you want to say but you still try. This was my third sermon with deficiencies that may have been able to be fixed with an extra 20 minutes in the sermon, as well as better organization. Oh well.

A TALE OF TWO KINGS
Daniel 5:26-31 and Jonah 3


Today, I would like to share with you a tale of two kings. The king of Nineveh, and Belshazzar, the King of Chaldeans. Before we get to our main text in Jonah 3, first let us look at how Daniel records the story Belshazzar, king of the Chaldeans. In Daniel 5, we have the son of Nebuchadnezzar who just in Daniel 4 confessed the greatness of the God of Israel, in contrast to Daniel 5, which records Belshazzar's drunken orgy party. In the middle of this party, handwriting appears on the wall. Daniel, the renowned interpreter of God's Word under Nebuchadnezzar was summoned in. Daniel's skill and delivery in other parts of Daniel is described as eloquent and dramatic. Daniel interpreted the words on the wall, as appears in the text in your bulletin. The basic interpretation was this: The days of your kingdom are numbered, you have been weighed and found wanting, your kingdom will surely fall to the Medes and Persians. In response, what did Belshazzar do? He honored the messenger, placed a robe of royalty on Daniel and gave him a high office like his ancestor Nebuchadnezzar did. Then, Dan 5:30, “that very night, Belshazzar the Chaldean King was killed.”

A strange ending to the story, isn't it? Belshazzar certainly honored the messenger. What went wrong?

Let us turn to the second tale, our main text is from the minor prophet Jonah from Israel, in the city of Nineveh, the capital of Assyria. Jonah delivers nearly the same message as Daniel in Jonah 3:4, “Forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown.” Your days are numbered, you have been found wanting, your kingdom will fall. But notice this response. When the king heard of this, he gave no praise to the messenger, nor did he give Jonah high appointment. Bum deal for Jonah. Instead, the king of Nineveh responded to the message with sackcloth and ashes. This image of sackcloth and ashes is meant to demonstrate repentance. Repentance literally is “turning” from one thing to another thing. A changing of mind, will, and heart. Here, it says it is turning from evil ways towards God. The king himself repented, and tells us why in 3:9:

Jon 3:9 “Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish."
Jon 3:10 When God saw what they did, how they turned [or repented] from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it.

The same message came against both kings. A word of judgment, revealing and spotlighting one's sin, along with God's wrath against it. Yet, God gave judgment to one, but to the other one, He gave mercy. Do you see the difference? Both kings responded after the message was delivered. Belshazzar gave honor and titles and praise to the messenger. But the king of Nineveh responded to the message. No titles or honors were given to Jonah. The King of Nineveh repented to receive mercy.

What of Belshazzar's response? He may have thought it was a good response. Kierkegaard, a theologian who lived in the beginnings of our modern era, had a favorite parable he would tell to explain the emerging modern age. The story went: There was a new show about to open in a theater known for its originality and novelty. But just as the show was about to begin, the main actor saw the theater was on fire. He ran out on stage to warn the audience, shouting: “The theater is on fire, run!” The audience, thinking it was part of the show merely clapped at the masterful performance by the actor. Some said it was the best performance they had ever seen. So the actor shouted louder, “I tell you the truth, you will all die if you stay here, it's on fire!” the audience merely clapped and cheered louder, more impressed by the performance. So, Kierkegaard said, will the world go out: to the sound of applause.

This prompts us to ask: what is our response to the Word when it comes and uncovers our sin? It is an important question if you are a member of this church, because in the past few months, you could not have escaped the message and theme of judgment. Often, in the course of this series on the minor prophets, we havecome across this message of judgment. Also, we have seen this in our Sunday sermons on Joshua, where we have met a word of judgment in the book of Joshua that was not retracted against Jericho. How do we react to a declaration of our sin, and God's wrath against it?

In an orthodox church, it is easy to react with a kind of thankfulness in this way: “I'm glad our preacher does not shrink from preaching the truth like other preachers.” We can compliment how skillful or bold the delivery was. We, with our words, can applaud the messenger while ignoring the message.

Now, there is not necessarily anything wrong with thanking God for a faithful preacher or encouraging a preacher, though I suspect for pointing it out, few will approach me after this message. But, what is the proper response to the message of judgment? Repentance. The king of Nineveh repented, and he received mercy. So also, when our sin is brought before us and God’s displeasure against it, we should not merely praise the messenger, we should repent to obtain mercy.

In the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 12, Jesus references our text in Jonah against the Pharisees. He saw their lack of attentiveness to his message, and said “the men of Nineveh will rise up and judge you!” What is Jesus talking about?

If the king of Nineveh repented at Jonah's message, how much more ought we to respond to Christ's message?

If you read the rest of Jonah, you will note that Jonah was a less compelling prophet (he hated the people he preached to, he did no want them to repent!), with no announcement of his coming (he was an outsider to them) and his message was light on details (“forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown!”....that was it.) there was no promise of deliverance. Did you note how the king of Nineveh said, in verse 9, “Who knows, perhaps God may spare us”?

Contrast that to Jesus, Who comes as a compelling prophet, (loving His covenant people), with announcement of his coming (from the prophets, from John the Baptist, and coming within the community as a Jew), with much more detail attaching a promise of deliverance for repentance. Something the king of Nineveh didn't have. The king made no demands based on God owing mercy, even when he repented.

You see: God owes us nothing for our response. We see with Belshazzar, God owed him nothing for sitting under a skillful messenger of the word. Nor did God owe him anything for praising and honoring the messenger of the word. God even owed the king of Nineveh nothing for his repentance.

God owes us nothing.

The King of Nineveh repented on the mere possibility of mercy. It was God's discretion on whether to grant mercy, out of shear grace, not obligation, for He made no promises to him.

How much more ought the people of God come to God in repentance? We repent with the promise of mercy. After we come to the confession of sin in our worship, we will hear the words of assurance, “If we confess our sin, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins.” Faithful to what? To His promise to you.

God owes you no mercy, YET God has given you His Word in covenant. The king of Ninevah had no such covenant with God. God condescends to bind Himself to His promise to you. The promise of Christ's message is as the apostles presented it:

Acts 3:19 Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out,

(The message: Repent with the promise of obtaining mercy)

It is a message for believers and non-believers alike. To unbelievers, repenting, or turning, is from former idols, the counterfeit gods of sin we have served rather than God in Christ. It is pleading Christ, rather than our former gods, our selves, our sins. It is a repentance of a changing of the mind about Christ.

Know today, if you have never responded the message of Christ, the same promise is extended to you. God has a word of his displeasure with sin, of that evil which as perfectly holy, He can having nothing to do with. But, if you turn from your former self-confidence, to Christ, pleading His work rather than your own, Christ's Holiness rather than your own, you may be certain of God's forgiveness on the basis of faith. He confirms that work and promise first in your baptism, his visible promise to you of mercy, and then will confirm it repeatedly in the Supper.

Yet, it is also a message to believers, having already been pardoned in faith, that faith is a repentant faith that continues to turn from the sin that remains with us in heart and will, and the death and fleeting pleasure they provide in our lives to the true life and true joy in Christ. In repentance, God renovates our affections, turning our hearts from the things we formerly loved more and more to Christ and the works He has prepared for us. If we repent, God is faithful, to His Word of promise, to give us more of Himself in Christ, the greatest gift of mercy and grace. We no longer have to say, “Who knows? Perhaps God will give mercy” like the king of Nineveh. God has bound Himself to His word. He will give mercy to the repentant covenant member.

And if you are a believer, as 1 John reminds us, though pardoned through faith, sin remains throughout life, so then also remains the repentance of the Christian. The whole Christian Life is one of repentance, turning from sin towards God, through a growth of affection for God rather than sin. Repentance is not a one time thing, nor is it something we perfectly achieve in this life. Instead it is the duty of all of life.

Perhaps our hearts sink under that news, that we are perpetually in need of repentance, that we constantly are to hear the message “repent” in all of life. Repentance has a decidedly dower, “unfun” sound to it. Yet it shouldn't. Repentance is literally turning, from the ugliness of evil and destruction to the Beauty and Joy of God in Christ. What is that sin that you seem to love more than Christ? Look on Christ and His message, which is more beautiful to you? The small, momentary pleasure of your sin, or the pleasures He brings, that the 16th Psalm says is “pleasures evermore.” As C.S. Lewis put it, God tells us we are too easily satisfied. We play with mud pies in a puddle, while God has offered us a day at the beach. Repentance is a grand gift, as God exchanges our lesser things, for Himself, the greatest good.

[Invitation to the Table]

Repentance in the New Testament is presented as something that God “grants,” as a good and joyful gift that He enables. That is why our worship involves a rehearsal for a feast. We could be satisfied in smallness of gluttony and drunkenness like Belshazzar. Or we can turn to Christ's feast of true lasting bread and wine. Psalm 104:15 tells reads that God “gave bread to strengthen or sustain the heart of man, and wine to cheer up or gladden the heart of man.” These are the elements Christ used to picture Himself as offered to the believer, as that which we turn to: our sustenance and our joy and gladness. We turn from the bitterness of sin to the sweetness of Christ in the Gospel. We turn from the food that will not ultimately fill us, to the living bread, from abusing wine in drunkenness to the intoxicating wine of Christ's Gospel.

Repent! That you may obtain mercy. Turn from your sin in confession towards the One who gives mercy, and grace and joy. He has bound Himself to His Word. He will do it. Happy is the believer, to Whom repentance is granted, and deliverance is provided. Happy is the believer who feeds, not merely on the passing things of this world, but on Christ in their heart. Amen.

Joshua 5: Preparation for Battle

Neil Nielson, President of Covenant College, preached on Joshua 5 at PCPC last week. I have nothing to post right now, so enjoy:

audio mp3

Joshua 5

Circumcising the Nation
5:1 As soon as all the kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan to the west, and all the kings of the Canaanites who were by the sea, heard that the Lord had dried up the waters of the Jordan for the people of Israel until they had crossed over, their hearts melted and there was no longer any spirit in them because of the people of Israel.

2 At that time the Lord said to Joshua, “Make flint knives and circumcise the sons of Israel a second time.” 3 So Joshua made flint knives and circumcised the sons of Israel at Gibeath-haaraloth. 4 And this is the reason why Joshua circumcised them: all the males of the people who came out of Egypt, all the men of war, had died in the wilderness on the way after they had come out of Egypt. 5 Though all the people who came out had been circumcised, yet all the people who were born on the way in the wilderness after they had come out of Egypt had not been circumcised. 6 For the people of Israel walked forty years in the wilderness, until all the nation, the men of war who came out of Egypt, perished, because they did not obey the voice of the Lord; the Lord swore to them that he would not let them see the land that the Lord had sworn to their fathers to give to us, a land flowing with milk and honey. 7 So it was their children, whom he raised up in their place, that Joshua circumcised. For they were uncircumcised, because they had not been circumcised on the way.

8 When the circumcising of the whole nation was finished, they remained in their places in the camp until they were healed. 9 And the Lord said to Joshua, “Today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you.” And so the name of that place is called Gilgal to this day.

First Passover in Canaan
10 While the people of Israel were encamped at Gilgal, they kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the month in the evening on the plains of Jericho. 11 And the day after the Passover, on that very day, they ate of the produce of the land, unleavened cakes and parched grain. 12 And the manna ceased the day after they ate of the produce of the land. And there was no longer manna for the people of Israel, but they ate of the fruit of the land of Canaan that year.

The Commander of the Lord's Army
13 When Joshua was by Jericho, he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, a man was standing before him with his drawn sword in his hand. And Joshua went to him and said to him, “Are you for us, or for our adversaries?” 14 And he said, “No; but I am the commander of the army of the Lord. Now I have come.” And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped and said to him, “What does my lord say to his servant?” 15 And the commander of the Lord's army said to Joshua, “Take off your sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy.” And Joshua did so.

Sermon text: Habakkuk's Two Complaints

Two Complaints or The Gospel according to Habakkuk.

(BTW - Thanks to Jay Bennett for some revision help)

[TEXT: Habakkuk 2:4]

We just sang:

Thy justice, like mountains, high soaring above
Thy clouds, which are fountains of goodness and love.

Open your pew Bibles to the book of Habakkuk and let us see see how Habakkuk responds to such grand thoughts of God's justice:

Hab 1:2 O LORD, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not hear? Or cry to you "Violence!" and you will not save? Hab 1:3 Why do you make me see iniquity, and why do you idly look at wrong? Destruction and violence are before me; strife and contention arise. Hab 1:4 So the law is paralyzed, and justice never goes forth.

You may have read our text from Habakkuk 2:4 on the front cover, one of the most quoted OT verses in the New Testament. But Habakkuk, believe it or not, does not start in chapter two, but begins with Habakkuk, registering a complaint with God. In fact, Habakkuk has two complaints before we get to 2:4. We are looking at these two complaints together tonight, as we take a quick journey through the whole book of Habakkuk.

Habakkuk begins his prayer, skipping any formalities, naming of grand attributes of God, or praising of God's name and goes straight to “Why are you not listening?!” I cry “violence” and why will you not save. Habakkuk lives near the end of the time of the kingdom of Judah. Israel has been conquered and taken into exile, and Judah alone remains. Judah had been known as the good kingdom compared to Northern Israel, but at this time Judah is worshiping Baal and Mannassah, King of Judah, had even sacrificed his own son by fire to foreign gods! It's a horrible situation in Judah. Habakkuk cries out to God, if you are Holy and Just, why do you not save us from this evil?!

We find ourselves among much evil. The scary part is when it comes from within the people of God, within the church. The recent approval of sexual perversion by multiple denominations in their own clergy. We saw a so-called revival meeting last year in Florida that ended with money stolen from participants and an affair by the main pastor leading it. We see sex abuse scandals involving clergy and children. We think of the middle ages when there was dishonest theft from the poor by the church to build a building in Rome.

Are we not tempted to shout with Habakkuk: “Destruction and violence are before me; strife and contention arise. So the law is paralyzed, and justice never goes forth.” What good is the law with all this evil?!

It may seem impious and irreverent to say such things. We like to critique the attitude of Biblical characters. But that's what makes Old Testament characters like Job and Habakkuk so interesting and relevant is they shock us with their honesty. They haven't learned to hide their doubts and even anger at God as well as we have. The words shock us, but they do not shock God. God is not at a loss for words.

In response to Habakkuk's complaint, crying to be saved from human evil, God assures him that His Justice is coming, in verse 6, he says He is raising up the Chaldeans, a tribe of the Babylonians, to violently seize their nation from them in God's Justice. God's wrath against sin and human evil will be shown in His Justice.

The end. Habakkuk's happy now, right?

Of course not! Habakkuk then files a second complaint and says:

1:13 You who are of purer eyes than to see evil and cannot look at wrong, why do you idly look at traitors and remain silent when the wicked swallows up the man more righteous than he?

Basically he says: “The Chaldeans will judge us?! That's not the answer I wanted! They are worse than we are!” What's the problem now? Habakkuk is realizing he's targeting the very ship he is standing on! Habakkuk is a member of the nation of Judah. And as a part of Judah, how can God allow a less righteous people come to punish a more righteous nation?!

Let's look at this dialog: First Habakkuk cried for salvation from human evil. Then, God's Justice acts and promises swift justice and wrath. Then, Habakkuk needs salvation from God's Justice.

Habakkuk appeals for deliverance. But, on what grounds? What grounds does Habakkuk appeal to God from, that God would spare Judah? “We're better than those guys.” We are more righteousness than them. Sure, I just admitted we are really evil. But we're not THAT BAD.

The guy who killed someone in the paper, he deserves justice. But us? We only kill my boss in my mind everyday when we see that idiot. We're not actually going to do it! The guys in the papers that had a string of bank robberies, they deserve to go to prison. We may just under-report my assets to the IRS. It's different. We are relatively more righteous than those other horrible people! I should live on account of my righteousness! Can't you grade on a curve, God!? It's only fair.

Habakkuk sits back and thinks he has God in a corner (2:1). God answers the second complaint, letting Habakkuk know the Chaldeans will have to answer His justice, but this is where we get the answer of 2:4, our text. This is the problem 2:4 comes to answer. God must explain to more-righteous-than-them Habakkuk what sort of righteousness God is looking for in man. Not a puffed up pride, as better-than-the-next-guy righteousness, but

Hab 2:4 "Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him, but the righteous shall live by his faith.

Notice what God did not say. The righteous do not live by man's righteousness. They do not live by being better than the next guy. He lives by faith.

Jesus has a nack for taking a hard teaching and making it offensive. In the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector going to the Temple to pray, the Pharisee prays: Thank you that I am not like this man, who openly steal from his people. The tax collector merely beat his chest and said, have mercy on me, a sinner. Luke's account tells us that Jesus has the audacity to say the one known to steal from his people openly, the tax collector, "went home justified." But the Pharisee lived better! In comparison, he was more righteous! How can a less righteous acting man be justified? Only the tax collector had pleaded for God's mercy in faith, rather than pleading his own righteousness.

God's Justice does not grade on a curve. You see the man who pleads his own righteousness does have a sort of faith. But where is that faith? In himself and his righteousness. “his soul is puffed up.” The righteousness God speaks of is different. It is marked by the righteousness of the object of faith, not the person believing.

When Habakkuk gets his third time to speak, well, the third time's a charm. Habakkuk first wanted God to save them from human evil because God is Holy. When God's Holy Justice answers with wrath against sin, Habakkuk needs salvation from God's wrath. But when God takes away the ground of Habakkuk's righteousness, Habakkuk finally gets it in chapter 3. In 3:2. He asks the Lord in fear:

Hab 3:2 in wrath, remember mercy.

Finally, Habakkuk asks for salvation from God's wrathful justice against human sin by appealing to God's mercy, rather than Habakkuk's righteousness. What that faith ultimately looks like is that faith does not plead one's own righteousness, but faith pleads the righteousness of Another, which Habakkuk is going to do. Isaac Watts wrote in a hymn: “The best obedience of my hands, dares not appear before Thy Throne, but Faith can answer Thy Demands, by pleading what my Lord has done.” Is it our obedience or Christ's we trust? Is it what we have done or Christ has done?

I argue that Habakkuk had faith in Christ's work. How can I say that, since Habakkuk lived before Christ? Indeed, but the God had covenanted with his people in order that mercy and grace might be shown, from Genesis 3:15 on, where the seed of the woman would “crush the head of the serpent,” the source of evil. This is what Habakkuk is appeals to in 3:13 where he expectantly says

Hab 3:13 You went out for the salvation of your people, for the salvation of your anointed. You crushed the head of the house of the wicked, laying him bare from thigh to neck.

Habakkuk has turned from himself to God's promise. As God has done before with defeating Pharaoh and will do with the Chaldeans and again definitively in the Promised Messiah. The ground of appeal had to be moved from a false righteousness to the promise of the seed crushing the head of evil. The ground of faith is the Righteous One and His promises. Habakkuk ends his prayer in 3:18, appealing to “the God of my salvation, The Lord is my strength” or the word can also be translated resources or wealth, or treasure. The grounds of Habakkuk's appeal have fully moved from his own power and treasure of righteousness to God's righteousness and mercy.

The Ancient Jew had to rest on God and His promises in faith alone, that He would save him. We are no different in essence on this side of the coming of Jesus. Where is Habakkuk's ultimate hope? “The God of my salvation” (3:18)

Where is our hope? In Jesus. In Yeshua. In the name that literally means: “The Lord saves.” Habakkuk trusts the “God of my salvation” just as we trust Jesus “The Lord saves.” Will God answer the problem of evil? Yes in Holy Justice. How can we be saved then from God's wrath in justice? How can God “in wrath, remember mercy?” being both Just and merciful? By God Himself taking on the wrath of God. Only by God Himself being the one that fulfills all righteousness under the law. Only in the God of our salvation. Only in Yeshua, the Lord saves.

From human sin, from the wrath of God's Justice, we fly to no other source when we come to the table. We do not trust our flesh to fulfill all righteousness under the law, but trust Christ's truly righteous flesh. We do not pay our penalty with our tainted blood, but plead Christ' truly righteous blood as payment. We come to exchange. Our righteousness, which at best is filthy rages, for true righteousness.

Come to the table to plead with our God with the words of the prophet: “in wrath, remember mercy, oh God of my salvation.” Amen.

Meditation: Rev 21:5

My friend Jay has posted his sermons before, so I will take his lead that doing so is not bad form. I was asked on somewhat short notice to give this meditation, and I wan't able to work on it as long as I'd like. So here is the somewhat hurried text from my first ecclessial sermon/meditation. It is not what I think may be a typical sermon for me. It is not DTS-approved, for it does not have 3 points and a conclusion. It is not puritan-like, for I did not hone down a propositional truth to expound. It was just a mediation on the text and answering two simple questions:

1) Why is Revelation 21:5 worth memorizing?
2) How does it invite us to the table?


SERMON TEXT

Today, we are continuing our series: “Texts you should memorize,” with one from a book you may not have many verses memorized from, and so perhaps, you are not as familiar with. Revelation 21:5.

Rev 21:5 And He who was seated on the throne said, "Behold, I am making all
things new."

So often, by the text of Scripture itself, by other Christians and by our own encounter with nature, we are prompted to look on nature and praise the workmanship of God. We see the complexity of ecosystems working together in nature, and we marvel at the harmony of Creation. We see the vastness of Space and galaxies thousands of light-years away through Hubble telescope, and are baffled at the vastness of Creation. We see micro-organisms and are blown away by the micro-world that thrives around us unseen.

Yet, almost as if to jolt us down from our cloud, nature shocks us with its horror. A friend of mine just last week sat next to the bed of his godly sister in her 30s, as she constantly felt the pain in her body of an aggressive form of cancer. 10 years ago, to the day she was diagnosed, my friend's father had died from the same form of cancer. Last week, he also lost his sister, as genetics and nature destroyed her body, and she passed away. In moments like that, we do not look at the harmony, or wonder of Creation and marvel. No, we look at how the world functions and instead of praise, we cry out at the pain and disappointment of creation, of a world that is not as it ought to be.

We have sympathy in those secret times, that we believe we are not supposed to have, with another man who died young, in his 20s. Stephen Crane penned a short poem we had to study in high school. It reads:

A man said to the universe:
"Sir I exist!"
"However," replied the universe,
"That fact has not created in me
A sense of obligation”

A wonder at the universe can quickly turn to the recognition of a harsh coldness present in it.

We don't think we should have such feeling. But such feelings are not unChristian. It is a recognition of the reality of this world. Though creation can instill a sense of wonder, it can also produce unease, anger, and pain, and fear as we understand that something is deeply wrong with this world. This is a fact not lost to the same Scriptures that laud the workmanship of nature. Paul writes “the whole creation has been groaning together in pain.” And we know, too, from Scripture that our own sin did this to creation, but we long to be out from under it. We long to be free of this decay.

So why this verse from Revelation 21? We need this verse close to our hearts because of the world we now live in. Here, we are told in verse 4 of another time, when,

Rev 21:4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no
more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the
former things have passed away."

These words do not come cheaply, but from Christ, Who Himself knows tears, for he wept, Who knows mourning for he mourned for those who died and for their souls, and Who knows pain from the small pains of hunger, to the greater pains of injury and death.

In verse 5 we are told, The one who has the power to create this world, has the power to do an even greater work. He has the power to re-create this world. John saw “a new heaven and a new earth.” And it was not the same as the current creation. It was not a world plagued with the realities of this world, of mourning, or pain or death. It is a new world in which the crooked things are straightened. Where deformities are healed. A new world where we no longer inflict sin and pain on others, and where sin and pain is not inflicted on us. Where cancer and no evil design can enter to disturb the enjoyment of God by His people.

This is the world where Christ Himself declares in four simple words in the original Greek:
1) Behold or Look, gaze upon this, keep this in front of you.
2) I am making, in the present. This is my current project.
3) All things – the whole of creation, you and all things.
4) New – begun again, not as they were before.

Though we may have reservations with some particulars of it, many of us saw a few years ago, the movie “The Passion.” The director made an interesting choice in including these words from Revelation 21:5 in the story of the death and resurrection of Christ. Christ tells his mother as He goes to the cross: “Behold, I am making all things new.”

It was an appropriate choice to include these words here, for the work of new creation was begun with the resurrection of Christ, with His resurrection, new creation body. The Heidelberg Catechism states His resurrection is a pledge and surety that we will receive resurrected bodies. [Q45 & Q49] The payment for sin is complete, yet the work of new creation is just begun. Paul, after telling us creation groans under the weight of sin, tells us in Romans 8:23:

Rom 8:23 And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits
of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the
redemption of our bodies.

To we who are in this world, and find ourselves groaning inwardly, Christ invites us to the table. Scripture calls the Supper a “communion” or “partaking” with Christ's flesh and blood. This is Christ inviting believers, His people, to the table to receive again the pledge of new creation. In coming, we commune with Him, and he assures our souls that indeed, what He has started in us, He is faithful to complete. That the tears and pain, that man has inflicted on himself, will not be healed by man, but by Christ, by the God-man, the sure pledge of the redemption of our redeemed bodies by the Renewer of all things.

Christ in the end declares “Behold, I am making all things new.” Today, we trust in the truth of our Redeemer's word, that He indeed will make all things new. Come, and feast on Christ's sure word, made visible in the Supper: that He is making all things new. Amen.