Not Political, Week 2 - “Craftsman in the Womb”

  Last week we began, what will probably be our most controversial sermon series of my entire tenure as the lead pastor of our church body. I have talked many times on the topics that we’ll cover in this series with our youth, and so, because they are topics that are rooted in our faith, we’re going to talk about them here. 

This series is focused on those topics that the 21st century Church tends side stepped because our society tells us that they are political topics and therefore should not be talked about in a congregational setting. Instead, we’re told that we should just worry ourselves with singing and reading the Bible. But the reality is, God has called us to a holistic faith, which means that we do not just talk about the theology of God, but how that theology works itself out in our lives and society. Jesus states in Matthew 7:24, “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.” And James follows this in the first chapter of his letter, “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. (v.22).”

And so, we are talking about these issues that have been wrongfully regulated to the political sphere, instead of their rightful place as issues to be dealt with, by us as Christians, through our faith.

Last week we laid a foundation for this series by recognizing that every issue we talk about, in fact every conflict we encounter, is rooted in the spiritual war that surrounds us. It’s because of this spiritual reality that we must approach every situation with a desire to stand firm in our faith and face these issues and conflicts with a biblical mindset, putting on, as the Scriptures say in Ephesians 6, the whole armor of God. And we must remember that our goal is to not cause unneeded division, but to deal biblically with the issues, drawing closer to God, and standing stronger and more faithful in our faith.

And so let’s get into our second week of the Not Political series, by talking about our first topic. And let’s start this off with a bang shall we? Let’s talk about abortion. Just the word will probably tune some people out. So I want to say this before we really get into it. The purpose of talking about abortion is not to condemn anyone who has had an abortion. If you have had one, or you have encouraged someone else to have one, I want you to know that I believe what God speaks through his word, Romans 5:8 states, “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” And in Romans 8:1-2 it reads, “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2 because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death.”

So as we speak about abortion, this is not a talk about how people who have gone through it or have helped others attain one, are going to hell for the sin of abortion, because the reality is, all the sin we do condemns us, but when we accept Jesus as our Savior, repenting of our sin and seeking God’s forgiveness, our sin is placed on him, and we can be fully embrace by the love of God. 

But if we shy away from speaking about abortion, then shouldn’t we shy away from talking about all sin? Should we then not speak to the drunkard, or the one who lusts, or to the abuser, or the idolater? We are called to recognize sin and call each other to the ways of God. And so, though we are talking about abortion today, we are not elevating abortion over other sins in an enteral perspective.

With that understanding laid down, let’s talk about the basis of why every Christian needs to reject the act of abortion, and indeed, needs to stand against it in every way. First off, the word abortion does not occur in the Scriptures. But if we take the argument, because it doesn’t use the modern word abortion, therefore it does not prohibit it, this becomes a slippery slope of throwing out other applications of God’s word in the modern world. In fact Jesus’ own application of the ten commandments would have to be thrown out, and if we can can throw out Jesus’ application of God’s Word, then nothing can be kept. 

And so we must understand our topic within the ideas put forth by the Scriptures. In doing this, we must start by asking questions of the Scriptures and see how it would address the issue.

First, how does the Bible look at those in the womb?

Job 31:15 reads, “Did not he who made me in the womb make them?

    Did not the same one form us both within our mothers?”

That is followed by what the Psalmist wrote in Psalm 139:13-16, "For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. 14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. 15 My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. 16 Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.”

This is then followed by what the prophet Jeremiah famously wrote about what God said of him in the fifth verse of his first chapter, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations (1:5).”

And so we can see that from the Scriptures, that God is intimately involved in the making of children within the womb of a woman. 

So then what about the injury to such a child? Let’s look at the famous passage that is most associated with the abortion topic which is Exodus 21:22-24, where it reads, “If people are fighting and hit a pregnant woman and she gives birth prematurely but there is no serious injury, the offender must be fined whatever the woman’s husband demands and the court allows. 23 But if there is serious injury, you are to take life for life, 24 eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot…”

Here, the phrase “gives birth prematurely” can be translated as miscarriage. Meaning the act of causing the child to, at the least be injured and the most to die, would be grounds for punishment. Depending on the injury, whether an early birth or death of the child, the punishment then follows. What is clear though, is the fact that if the child is killed within it’s mother’s womb, the punishment is death for death. The same punishment the Old Testament gave to any other type of murder.

But is that all the only verse in connection to the death of a child? No, in 2 Kings 15:16, we get this insight into the Israelite king Menahem. It says that, “He sacked Tiphsah and ripped open all the pregnant women.” He does this specifically to kill the children. And we’re told what God thinks of this king two verses later, “And he did what was evil in the sight of the LORD…”

There is a very specific trend within the Scriptures that place a heavy emphasis on children from the womb on up in age, being very dear to God, and acts against children of all ages being condemned, in most circumstances. In fact Jesus states this in Matthew 19:14, “…Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”

Why? Because they are innocent in the eyes of God. In fact, commenting on the idea of abortion the Zohar, a Jewish writing from the 12th century AD, states, “…a person who kills the fetus in his wife's womb desecrates that which was built by the Holy One and His craftsmanship (https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/abortion-in-judaism).”

Therefore abortion is a sin because it destroys that which God creates. In fact, this destroying of what God creates is the basis of the sixth commandment in Exodus 20:13, “You shall not murder.” And which is expanded on by passages like Proverbs 6:16-19, where it states there are seven things that are detestable to the Lord, and the third thing that is detestable are “…hands that shed innocent blood…”

Okay, but maybe we are looking into the Scriptures from a modern view, and trying to justify a position against abortion that the Bible doesn’t actually take. It’s to avoid this modern day incursion into the Scriptures, that we are looking to the early Church writers to help us see that the issues we are covering are not modern political ones read into the text, but ones the Church has talked about and has taken position over from it’s beginning.

 

In the writing called the Didache, which if you are familiar with a prayer book or a catechism, this would be an early version of those, it has two statements on this issue, “…thou shalt not procure abortion, nor commit infanticide…(2:2h)”, and the way of death includes “…murders of children, corrupters of God’s creatures…(5:2)”

Now what’s interesting is that another early writing titled, the “Epistle of Barnabas”, makes the exact same two statements. It’s statements read like this, “… Thou shalt not procure abortion, thou shalt not commit infanticide…(19:5d)”, and “But the Way of the Black One…murders of children, corrupters of God’s creation…(20:2)”

This is interesting, because in translating the “Epistle of Barnabas” Jackson Snyder, in the footnotes of his translation, makes the observation that the Greek word phthoreus (f-th-or-e-us) translated as corrupters, is as he states a “vulgar title referring to a promiscuous person seeking casual relations with the intention of aborting if necessary (“The Epistle of Barnabas: Revised Greek with Hebraic-English Translation,”) (https://books.google.com/books?id=Rt48AgAAQBAJ&pg=PA54&lpg=PA54&dq=phthoreus&source=bl&ots=ChmnypX-Sa&sig=ACfU3U1pCGfmzrBqWC7FoyTk5WdgDCBHyw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwit-p6c6fPtAhXRqZ4KHbRMDAsQ6AEwBHoECAEQAg#v=onepage&q=phthoreus&f=false).” Meaning, a person who seeks out sexual encounters, and uses abortion to kill the child, corrupts God’s creatures.

In addition, the word procure, has two parts to it. The first part is the person who seeks out the procedure, and the second is a person who helps to connect someone else with that procedure. Meaning, both writings make it clear that we as Christians are not to be the one who seeks the abortion, nor the one that helps with getting an abortion.

In other words, both the Didache and the Epistle of Barnabas come against those that would seek out or help with an abortion, and both use a word to call the act, a corruption of God’s creation. Which we have already seen is in line with both a biblical and Jewish understanding of the harming of the child in the womb. 

But that’s not all, quote after quote from many different early Church fathers write on this subject. One of these writers is Tertullian, who wrote two statements on abortion in the first ten years of the 200s AD. He first writes of who Christians are, “In our case, a murder being once for all forbidden, we may not destroy even the fetus in the womb, while as yet the human being derives blood from the other parts of the body for its sustenance. To hinder a birth is merely a speedier man-killing; nor does it matter whether you take away a life that is born, or destroy one that is coming to birth. That is a man which is going to be one; you have the fruit already in its seed (Apology 9:8, AD 200).”

Ten years later Tertullian writes, “Among surgeons’ tools there is a certain instrument, which is formed with a nicely-adjusted flexible frame for opening the uterus first of all and keeping it open; it is further furnished with an annular blade, by means of which the limbs [of the child] within the womb are dissected with anxious but unfaltering care; its last appendage being a blunted or covered hook, wherewith the entire fetus is extracted by a violent delivery… There is also a copper needle or spike, by which the actual death is managed in this furtive robbery of life: they give it, from its infanticide function, the name of…‘the slayer of the infant,’ which of course was alive…They all knew well enough that a living being had been conceived, and pitied this most luckless infant state, which had first to be put to death, to escape being tortured alive… Now we allow that life begins with conception because we contend that the soul also begins from conception; life taking its commencement at the same moment and place that the soul does (On the Soul 25, 27; ca. AD 210).”

It is clear, from biblical teaching and the application of that teaching by the early Church, that the issue of abortion is not a modern day political one, but something the Church has dealt with since it’s inception. And the Church’s stance has been, that abortion is the murdering of an innocent life. A life that was formed by God in the womb, and that the destruction of that life is a sin because it destroys the creative work of God himself. 

And Jesus says in Matthew 5:19, “Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”

As Christians, we must come and make a stand against abortion, just like we must take a stand against every sin. We must seek to never engage in any activity of sin, and when we do, we must repent of it. Because we should be seeking to not set aside even one of the commands of God.

Now, I want to take several moments and address a few arguments that are usually presented, even by Christians, who allow for abortion. The first is this, “I wouldn’t have one, but I can’t stop someone else from having one.” That’s not true, because we do seek to stop sinful acts that come out in our society. Don’t we seek to stop the physical abuser? Don’t we seek to stop the murder rampager? Don’t we seek to stop the drunk driver? Don’t we seek to stop the molester and rapist? If we seek to stop these others, we must seek to stop the killing of children in the womb. The argument does not hold up in light of the Scriptures and their application in other areas of our life.

The second argument is this, “There are not enough people to adopt all these kids.” Let me share the abortion survivor Josiah Presely’s words with you. Josiah was from South Korea. When his biological mother found out that she was pregnant, she tried to have an abortion. It failed, and she put Josiah up for adoption in the U.S. Josiah still carries the scares of the abortion in a deformed left arm. Josiah writes, “I would like to point out a few things. First, do you think that I would have wanted my mother to have that abortion and try to terminate me? Heck no! In fact, when my parents told me that my mother had had an abortion it built up some malice towards my birth mother in me. But I have since gotten over that and come to a place where I have forgiven her, thanks to the Lord. But it also gave me an appreciation for life. God saved me from dying a horrible death before I was even born…I was adopted by a family living in a completely different country. This is for those of you saying ‘well what will happen to the children if we don’t abort them? Their mothers don’t want them.’ Trust me, they will be adopted. My adopted family has twelve children, ten of which were adopted! They will be adopted! I mean, if we would stop funding the stuff to do abortions and put it towards making adoption fees lower, many would adopt because many who want to adopt can’t afford the high adoption fees and therefore can’t adopt. So those children will be adopted. (https://abortionsurvivors.org/josiahs-story/).”

I agree with Josiah’s point, if our adoption laws were changed to be as open as our abortion laws, there would be thousands upon thousands of homes open for the children lost to abortion. Especially as our rates of infertility rise in the western world. A side note here, though the word abortion is not used in the Bible, the word adoption is used several times and all in connection to what God does with us, through the death and resurrection of Jesus.

The third argument I want to address is this, “What about those that are raped, or get pregnant through incest, or what about the health of the mother?” Let me divide that into two parts. First the rape and incest. In 2018 in Florida, the state released the reasons given by the 70,083 people to why they had an abortion that year in the state. If you combine both the rape and incest reasons, the percentage was .15%. To put that into numbers, out of the 70,083 abortions, only about 105 abortions were from these two categories. That’s very very few in the grand scheme of things. If we allowed for these two reasons, could we then not allow for the rest? But to save even those 105, is it right to condemn someone for the sinful acts of another? Ezekiel 18:20 reads, “The one who sins is the one who will die. The child will not share the guilt of the parent, nor will the parent share the guilt of the child. The righteousness of the righteous will be credited to them, and the wickedness of the wicked will be charged against them.”

So why condemn the innocent child, to a death for the evil acts of another? Yes, it will be hard to look at that child’s face and be reminded of the rapist and that moment in time. But every moment of life that child breathes in, is a moment for them to correct the wrongs that brought them into this world. 

The second part of that argument about the health of the mother. Again in 2018 in Florida, 3.42% of the respondents gave the mothers health as being the reason they went in for an abortion. That means out of 70,083 abortions, 2,396 were connected to the health of the mother. And out of those, only .27% were due to the actual life of the mother being in jeopardy. That means If we allowed abortion for rape, incest, and the life of the mother being in jeopardy, we could have saved 69,789 children from death just in Florida in 2018. And if we took that to a national level, we could have saved approximately 858,698 children from abortion in 2018 out of the approximately 862,320 that died because of abortion (https://abort73.com/abortion_facts/us_abortion_statistics/). 

Now, if you’re in a situation where you have to make a decision between the mother’s life and the child’s, I don’t think anyone can make that decision for you, nor I do not think anyone can look down on you which ever way you go. And there are discussions within the early Church writings concerning this very thing that gives leeway in these decisions. But in those difficult decisions we must seek after God, and trust in him to guide us. I personally have had a talk with my wife and what my decision would be, and that’s between me, her, and God. 

One more argument and this one I have heard several times over the years directed at me personally, “You’re a guy and wouldn’t understand.” There are three problems with this argument. First, it’s sexist. To say that a man cannot understand the moral imperative of not aborting a child, speaks to a dismissive attitude that does not want to deal with the sin that abortion is. Secondly, if abortion is wrong, which the Word of God shows it to be, then whether a person is male or female does not matter. Because God’s truth is true whether we want to believe it or not. And thirdly, all I would actually need to counter that argument is to ask a woman to come before us and share that abortion is wrong. Which there are many out there that would, both those that have survived abortion and those that have gone through with an abortion. So all four of these arguments do not hold up in the light of the Scriptures, and the reality of the world around.

But what can we do right now as believers in Christ? What are some real life applications? 

First, on an individual level, we must point others away from abortion. We must talk to our kids and grandkids, both boys and girls, about God’s desire for sex within marriage alone, where the children will grow in the best environment they can. If we want to talk about a pandemic, let’s talk about the 85% of abortions happening by unmarried women and 87.9% of those happening by women between the ages of 20 to 39. 

Then if these women do get pregnant, and cannot raise a child, we must direct these mothers to adoption agencies. We must support these mothers when others do not. And if they decide to keep the child, we must give support for these mother’s needs, and help them deal with the strains of children. We should be helping each other like this anyway, but it is more needed in situations like this. We must get rid of the stigma within our Christian community of unwed mothers. We must encourage men, who are the fathers, to take ownership and support these mothers. We must be a community open to single mothers, single fathers, adoptive families, and grandparents raising their grandchildren. Was the child most likely conceived in a sinful act, probably, but we must extend grace. We must love them as Christ does, because we want every child to be born and every person to know Jesus as their Savior.

Secondly, as Christians we must apply our biblical calling to our vote. We must vote in those representatives that will hold to a biblical view of the sanctity of life. Now if you just got mad because I said that, do you think I am asking you to vote for a particular political party? If you heard that, which one? Because that might automatically tell you which candidates and which parties you shouldn’t vote for. But hear what I am not saying. I am not saying vote Republican, or Democrat, or Libertarian, or Green Party. In fact, in the decision of Roe v. Wade, which basically allowed for abortions in the U.S., six of the justices were appointed by Republican presidents. The decision was made seven for the legalization to two opposing it. Five of the six Republican appointed justices voted in favor (http://nelsoncountygazette.com/?p=45590). I am not saying we need to vote for Republicans, or any other party, instead, we need to vote for representatives that believe in the biblical understanding of the sanctity of life and will hold to it. That means we need to do our research. We need to know where a representative stands on this issue and reject them if they stand against what God calls us to. This is where the rubber meets the road; this is what we meant when we talked last week about being first a citizen of Heaven.

And so my challenge for you this week, is to first, repent. If you have ever had an abortion, or have ever encouraged someone to have an abortion, or have voted for someone that sought to write laws promoting abortion, or you have condemned a person who has had an abortion dismissing them as not being worthy of Christ’s love, we need to repent of such actions. I say we, because I once held a pro-abortion stance before I came to Christ and I have had to repent of it. But when we repent, we must believe what the Scriptures say. 1st John 1:5-10 states, “This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. 6 If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. 8 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us.”

All but one sin is forgiven by God when we confess it to him, because they were dealt with on the cross by Jesus. The repenting and confessing act, simply brings it to the forefront of our relationship with him so that it can be dealt with, which will move us closer into fellowship with him. So we must first repent of the things that God says are sin.

The next part of the challenge is this, pray for the women that are considering an abortion this week. Pray for God’s intercession, that they would be pointed to godly outlets and not sinful ones. And if you can, find a Christian pregnancy clinic and support them prayerfully and/or financially. I did a quick Google search, and found more than 20 just in the Phoenix area.

Being a follower of Jesus, means having our faith work itself out in the world around us. We cannot downplay sinful acts, nor can we simply tell people something is wrong. We must provide for their needs and a righteous pathway that includes pointing them to Jesus as their Savior. 

I want to end with this quote from an abortion survivor. In the article “Victim to Victor”, Melissa Ohden writes, "I’ve chosen to find peace with both what I know and what I may never know about all of the circumstances surrounding my survival and adoption. I’ve chosen to find joy amidst the winding, twisting turns of my life that have not always been easy or without suffering. I’ve chosen to love and forgive those who attempted to harm me, regardless of how they feel about me in return. I’ve chosen to walk out purpose from the pain that I have endured. I’ve chosen to be brutally transparent with the world about who I am and what I’ve experienced. I’ve chosen to embrace who God made me to be (https://melissaohden.com/victim-to-victor/).”

Let us truly be lights in this dark world, loving as Christ loves, no matter the decision of people that we meet, for we were once lost in ourselves, and so we must do all the more to point people back to Jesus, the only Savior and Comforter of the world who calls dead things to life, and people out of darkness into his light. Amen. 

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Some more statistics:

Statistics - 2018, 85% of all abortions came from unmarried women. Girls 19 years and younger accounted for 9%. Women 20-29 years old accounted for 57.9% of all abortions. With Women ages 30-39 accounting for 29.5% of abortions.

In 2018 in Florida, which is some of the most up-to-date numbers for reasons given for having an abortion: .01% resulted from incest, .14% happened due to rape, .27% was due to mother’s life endangered, 1% was due to fetal abnormality, 1.48% was due to the health of the mother’s health being threatened, 1.67% the mother’s psychological health being threatened, 20% due to social or economic reasons, 75.4% no reason given.

In other words, .15% were due to either rape or incest, 1% due to the baby not being healthy, 3.42% because of some health problem associated with the mother, 20% due to some social/economic reason most likely not mature/not ready, education, not wanting children, can’t afford, which is the reasons given in other surveys. But then 75.4% no reason given. 

Not Political, Week 1 - “The Battle”

  A few years ago someone gave me a collection of different writings throughout the history of the Church. This past summer I began to read through the early Church Fathers, a collection of writings written by the disciples that followed after the first disciples of Jesus. And it was the topics and issues that those early Church writers brought up through which God led me to speak to you today and for the next few weeks. 

If the last year has done nothing else, it has put an exclamation point on how easily it can be for us to set ourselves into camps. Since the beginning of this country Americans have been divided into at least two political parties, and at times, even more. For the last hundred plus years, the two major parties have been Republicans and Democrats. Since roughly the 1960s, the ideas of being a liberal or conservative, began to dived as well. Then in the beginning of the 2000s, progressivism began in full swing. And today, we have things such as inter-sectionalism, masker vs non-maskers, locker-downers vs non-lock-downers, and more.

In fact, this last year has put a point on how quickly we are willing to divide on issues. Now, I believe that there are points on which we should divide. In Matthew 10:34, Jesus gives these very harsh words when he said, “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.”

When we follow Jesus, there will be an automatic division between those that do, and those that do not. If the world is truly lost in sin as the Bible states, then those who accept Jesus as their Savior and move away from sin into his righteousness, there will a division with those who do not. In fact, in the first chapter of John’s Gospel, it says this of Jesus, “11 He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. 12 Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God…(John 1:11-12)”

And so, for the next few weeks we’re going to take a look at a few issues that we as Christians should be divided from the world on, and not from each other. In doing this we will make people mad, that is inevitable, but my desire in doing this is to walk the same road Paul did in 1st Corinthians. This past summer our church went through Paul’s first letter to the Corinthian Church, where he dealt with the tough issues the church was dealing with. The purpose of his letter was to bring about unity in the body of Christ, and it is that same purpose that we are moving forward in. True unity is not conformity by sweeping the hard issues under the table, rather it is dealing with those tough issues together and seeing where God wants us to be.

In doing this, we will be talking about the issues facing the Church today, mostly our western cultural. Some of these issues have become seen as political and therefore shouldn’t be spoken about from the pulpit in the church. And so, we will be looking at these issues both from a biblical perspective and from a historical Church perspective. Because, even though our modern society believes some of these issues to be political and should not be spoken of in the Church, they are really beliefs that the Church has dealt with for centuries, because they speak to deeper issues of humanity’s lostness. And wherever you find yourself politically, as Christians, we must seek to do what Paul calls us to in Romans 12:2, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”

If we divide on the world’s divisions, we are being conformed to the world, instead, since we are going to have divisions, we must have divisions that are following God, against that which is not.

As we begin this series we must first lay a foundation. Most of you know that love shooting. I love developing the skills of shooting, and for the last few years my family has made a week long trip to do just that. We skipped this year, because the place we go to is closed, but we’re already looking forward to making that time up this coming summer. 

Being in the world of shooting, support of the Second Amendment is high. I follow several news outlets that follow gun laws throughout the US. Many of which have talked about the what-if of a full-blown civil war. On one of our drives, Marika and I were talking about this very thing, and she asked what I would do. I told her that in our area, we would probably end up being a place for refugees, as people would flee from the cities, whether that be Phoenix or the L.A. area. 

But the tension of a coming war is prevalent. Back in July the Washington Times ran a story that talked about a poll that showed 34% of voters believed a civil war was coming (https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2020/jun/17/civil-war-looms-stats-survey-say/). Keith Mines, an individual who has worked for the U.S. Army, U.N., and U.S. State Department, shared with the New Yorker, that there is a 65% chance that within ten years we could see a civil war in the U.S. (https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/is-america-headed-for-a-new-kind-of-civil-war).

With riots, the political atmosphere, and everything that is linked with COVID-19, tensions are rising higher and higher. But this is nothing new. Jesus said in Matthew 24:4-8, “…Watch out that no one deceives you. 5 For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Messiah,’ and will deceive many. 6 You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. 7 Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. 8 All these are the beginning of birth pains.”

These things are inevitable, because it is the sin condition of this world to be in conflict. It’s the default setting of humanity apart from God. When we seek sin, rebellion is what naturally follows. 

But as followers of Jesus, we must be careful to not be swept away by the world’s desire for conflict, at least not in the way the world sees it. We must put this world into the perspective that God calls us to. In Philippians 3:20 Paul writes, “But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ…”

In Hebrews 13:14 were reminded that, “For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come.”

And in 1st John 2:17 John writes, “15 Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. 16 For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world. 17 The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.”

I am an American. I love my country, I will do everything I can to make sure my country endures, because I believe that it was founded on biblical principles that have shown through even when evil men use it for evil purposes. Yet, as a Christian, it isn’t my home. I was not saved to be an American, I was saved to be a citizen of heaven. Every decision therefore that I make here, has to be inline with that eternal perspective. 

And with that eternal perspective I can begin to see what’s really going on around me. And it’s not like I am having the first epiphany about this, those Christians who followed after the original disciples had this very perspective, and they knew what was really going on. Athenagoras (A-th-en-a-gor-as) writing in the mid 100s, wrote this, “The Maker and Framer of the world distributed and appointed….a multitude of angels and ministers…to occupy themselves about the elements, and the heav­ens, and the world, and the things in it, and the godly ordering of them all…. Just as with men, who have freedom of choice as to both virtue and vice….so is it among the angels. Some, free agents, you will observe, such as they were created by God, continued in those things for which God had made and over which He had ordained them; but some outraged both the constitution of their nature and the government entrusted to them (A Plea for the Christians, pg. 10).”

Origen, about a 100 years later, wrote this, “[A Christian] affirms that even now my Lord Jesus Christ wars against opposing powers and casts out of their cities, that is, out of our souls, those who used to occupy them. And he destroys the kings who were ruling in our souls ‘that sin may no longer reign in us,’ so that, after he abolishes the king of sin from the city of our soul, our soul may become the city of God and God may reign in it, and it may be proclaimed to us, ‘Behold, the kingdom of God is within you.’ (Hom 13.1 [125])”

The early church writers understood what is really going on. This world is seeing the physical repercussions of a spiritual battle. This Scriptures attest to this in Ephesians 6:12, where it reads, “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”

And what is the war? It’s rebellion against God led by Satan. In 2nd Corinthians 4:4 Paul writes, “4 The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.”

This world is dominated by the devil, in fact Jesus speaks these words in Matthew 12:29, “Or again, how can anyone enter a strong man’s house and carry off his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man? Then he can plunder his house.”

In this description, Jesus is the thief, the devil is the strong man, and the house is the world/our souls. It’s because of this, that later on John would write this in his first letter, “The one who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work (3:8).”

And so we must put into perspective what is going on in our world. It’s not just civil war brewing, because of a divide between progressives and conservatives. It’s not riots over the treatment of black Americans, or as an excuse by others to cause destruction. It’s not even one political party over the next. Those are the results of the spiritual war raging around us. But when we see the world’s conflict around us as purely physical, then we are falling right into the trap the devil has designed for us. It’s then that we take our eyes of God and the true reality that is happening all around us, and place them on the things that are passing away.

Does that mean that we do nothing, or that we allow evil things to go unanswered? No! But we must prepare for the war as it really is, and not as we perceive it to be. This is why the Scriptures tell us things like this in Ephesians 6:10-11, “10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.

And in 2nd Corinthians 10:3-6 we’re told, “3 For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. 4 The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”

And so, we must wake up to the reality of the spiritual war who’s effects we see all around us. If we do not, then we will be trying to put out a raging inferno with two gallon water buckets. And we’ll end up swept away by the fires of pure war raging around us.

And so my challenge for you this week is to read through Ephesians 6:13-18 where it reads, “13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. 18 And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.”

So on Monday, read through the text and then speak with God about what it means to put on the full armor and have the belt of truth on. 

On Tuesday, read through the text again and then speak to God about what it means to have the breastplate of righteousness on.

Then on Wednesday, read through the text and then speak to God about what it means to have feet ready with the gospel.

Follow that on Thursday, read through the text and then speak to God about what it means to take up the shield of faith.

Then on Friday, read through the text again and speak to God about what it means to have the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit.

And finally on Saturday, go to God and ask, about how praying in the Spirit connects with the armor of God.

We must open our eyes to the spiritual battle that surrounds us that has repercussions in the physical world. This isn’t not political, it’s biblical, and we need to be following what the Word of God says is happening, and not what the world wants us to follow. Amen.

That Night Christmas Series, Week 3 - “Radical Moment”

  My kids have always wanted a cat. I personally have had cats in the past, but I’m not a big cat person, I prefer dogs. But they asked so often, that I finally told them that, when we owned our own home, then we could get a cat. I told them this, because we had always rented, and then when we moved to Quartzsite, we always lived in a church supplied home, and I thought that is how it would be. But, by God’s providence and through the help of family, we were able to purchase a house this past year. Well, the kids brought up getting a cat again, and I remembered my promise. So, being the good dad that I am, we got a kitten yesterday. A little, scrawny, barley anything on him cat, and we named him Skippy, after a series of books called Skippy Jon Jones. And from the time I left Yuma, where I got him, to the time I pulled up to the house, that cat sat in my lap and I petted him. This frail little thing, that was scared, and didn’t look like it would make it through the night. But the kids love him and made a bed for him, my wife loves him, and the dogs, well they’re trying to decided, treat or toy.

And it’s this idea of frailty that brings us into our final week of our Christmas series, where we will once again return to the Christmas story found in Luke chapter 2, starting in verse 1. And as we return to Luke 2:1, let’s recap the series. 

In the first week we talked about how we were going to look at three moments in the Christmas story. The first moment was the angels’ singing the praise of God. In that moment we noticed that throughout the Bible, angels are only recorded singing three times. Once at the creation of the world, once when God becomes man here at the first Christmas, and once when God makes a way for humanity to have their sin forgiven and be gifted eternal life by way of accepting what Jesus did through his death and resurrection, or to sum that up in one word, salvation. Three times the angels sing in the Bible, and all three of them are monumental moments in history. And from that, we talked about how we must be like the angels, singing the praise of God for creating us, coming to us, putting on our flesh, living with us, and dying for us. We must join with the angels in singing the praise of God for that monumental moment.

Then last week, we looked at a second moment of the Christmas story that dealt with the shepherds. These salt of the earth people who worked their ordinary jobs of taking care of sheep. These people who knew of the sacrifice it took to both look after those sheep, because those sheep were very important to the world in which they lived. Not only were the sheep needed for their wool, milk, and meat, but also for the sacrificial system that showed the people of Israel their need for God to save them. These shepherds understood the need for the sacrificing lambs, and it was to the birth of the Lamb of God, Jesus, that they were invited to witness. We walked away last week, with the understanding that we too need to fully understand the sacrifice that Jesus came to do on our behalf. That he was and is our lamb, sacrificed for us.

And it’s with these two moments covered, where we’re now going to look at our last moment in the Christmas story as recorded in Luke chapter 2, starting in verse 1. Let’s read it together.

“In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. 2 (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius [ke-i-re-nee-us] was governor of Syria.) 3 And everyone went to their own town to register. 4 So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. 5 He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. 6 While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, 7 and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them. 8 And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. 9 An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10 But the angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. 11 Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. 12 This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.’ 13 Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, 14 ‘Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.’

“15 When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, ‘Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.’ 16 So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. 17 When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, 18 and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. 19 But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. 20 The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.

Now, we’ve covered the angels, we covered shepherds, now let’s talk about the baby. One thing that stands out to me in the passage is that there are two items that we get told twice about this baby. These two things are first brought up in verse 7, “…and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them.”

The second time these two items are brought up is in verse 12, “This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”

These two items are cloths and manger.

The cloths here are literally a swaddling wrap for a baby. That makes it seem like either Mary had known that the possibility of the baby being born on this trip was going to happen, or someone from the home, who’s stable they were in, furnished the cloth. Either way, the wrapping of the baby in a baby’s swaddling cloth is important and we’ll come back to why in a moment.

The second item we see is the manger. This is literally a feeding trough for the animals. Hopefully I’m sure that they cleaned it out before putting the baby in there. 

Now to understand the importance of what the cloth and the manger mean, we must understand what is being wrapped up and what is being laid down. The baby is not any other baby. Let’s let the Bible describe who he is. 

In the prophet Isaiah’s self-titled book, chapter 9 verse 6 we get this description of the child, “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”

When prophesying about Jesus’ eventual coming to earth, Isaiah describes the child as one who will carry the government on his shoulders. Literally this means that, Jesus will be the one that carries the burden of kingship, and he will eventually rule with all the authority of a king. 

Then Isaiah gives him four names. These four names each carry with them an understanding of who the child is. First off is, Wonderful Counselor, this understanding points to the child being wise and his words carry with them the knowledge that comes from God alone. Then we get, the Mighty God, literally pointing to this understanding of the child being God who has all strength of a valiant warrior. Third is the Everlasting Father, which points to this understanding that the child isn’t made at the conception within Mary on earth, but is eternal, having no beginning nor an end. The final name is Prince of Peace, which points to this understanding of the child being the one who will bring about creation’s complete peaceful existence. 

These names show us just who the child is. This child is the Wise One who contains the Wisdom of God. This child is the God who fights for his creation. This child is the Eternal One, who was before the creation of the world, and through whom the creation happened. And this child is the Shalom, the Peace that the world desperately needs and longs for, but only comes from God himself. 

And it’s this Wonderful Counselor, this Mighty God, this Everlasting Father, and this Prince of Peace, that is wrapped in a baby’s swaddling cloths, and lying in a feeding trough called a manger. 

Do we see the monumental moment that this is? The God of creation, who needs nothing from that creation, because everything is created by him, and in fact it’s us who are in need of him, it’s this God that allows himself to be wrapped up by his creation and laid in a place made to feed animals. 

This is the humility and love of God on full display in this moment. In the first week we talked about the angles singing the entrance music of God coming to earth. In the second week, we talked about the shepherds being the ones who understood the sacrifice that the child was given to provide. Here we see just who this God and sacrifice is, he is the humble one that is wrapped in the flesh humanity, and who allows humanity to wrap him in its cloths. He is the loving one who comes down from his perfect throne, and allows himself to be laid in a dirty feeding trough. 

It is this same child, who Isaiah later speaks about in his 53rd chapter of his writing. When Isaiah describes the purpose of the child, “2 He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. 3 He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem. 4 Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. 5 But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. 6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. 7 He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. 8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away. Yet who of his generation protested? For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was punished. 9 He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth. 10 Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the Lord makes his life an offering for sin,

he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand. 11 After he has suffered, he will see the light of life and be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities. 12 Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong, because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.”

This is what the humble, loving God, who became a child, wrapped in cloths and laid in a manger came for. To save humanity. To break us free from a prison of our own design. To bridge a gulf that we ourselves created. And this is what we celebrate at Christmas, that anyone who would put their trust into Jesus as their Savior, would gain what Jesus has come to offer, eternal life that begins now to deal with the failing world around us and carries into eternity with him apart from any pain or suffering.

No matter if its in our mundane life, or in the pandemic landscape that we find ourselves currently in, it can be really easy to lose sight of what is Christmas. But we must realize what Christmas is, the loving humble God come down to take on human flesh and save us from ourselves. From our sins that lead to broken relationships, wars, hatred, and ultimately to both our bodies dying and an even worse, eternal death. Each of us is on that path to an eternal death apart from the God who came down at Christmas. But our path can change, if we accept what this God has to offer. If we accept Jesus’ work on our behalf that happened on the cross. He took our punishment for our sin, so that we would not have too. He took the ultimate death on our behalf, so that we can have eternal life. And that’s what those cloths and manger point us to. To the God who came for us, and did everything possible to bring us to himself.

As we celebrate Christmas this week, I want to challenge you to recognize three things of Christmas. First, the loving humbleness of God that is found in the cloths and the manger; this perfect God who is need of nothing  came to die for you and me, to bring us out of death and into life, because of his great love for us. 

Then once you recognize what he has done, ask yourself, have I accepted it personally. What is required of each of us, is that we must personally accepted Jesus’ offer of the forgiveness of our sins and his eternal life. A pastor can’t do it for us, our family can’t do it for us, not even our good deeds can do it for us. We must accept the free gift of salvation on our own, relying solely on Jesus for it. 

Finally, we must live for Jesus. We must begin to do his will and not our own. This is done through prayer, through Bible reading, through gathering with other believers as the Church, and most importantly by learning to rely on God’s Holy Spirit to bring us closer to him. 

So, as we walk the last few days towards Christmas, I want to challenge you to take time and focus in on what Christmas really is. God come down, wrapped in human flesh, to save us from ourselves, and an eternity lost in death.

The first Christmas was a moment in time that radically changed the world, and it is that same moment in time that will radically change our lives if we trust in the humble loving God, who allowed himself to be wrapped in cloths and laid in a manger by the creation he came to save. What are you going to do in this moment, in light of all that God has done for you in that first Christmas moment?