Here’s chapter 2 of Jonah and the second message in the series called, “The Jonah Code.”

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Yet, Jesus said, if you want to understand me, look to him. 

Welcome to the sermons that inspired me to write a book.

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Talk about “besetting” sins.  You would think Abraham would be over the, “pretend you’re my sister” routine with Sarah, but he isn’t.  Genesis 20 reads like a re-run of Genesis 12:10-20.

So, why is this repeat performance in the Bible?  Well, since it happened that’s a good reason to leave it in.  But lots of things happened to Abraham that aren’t in the Bible.  This is here for a reason.  There is something to this re-run that repeats something we’re supposed to know.

I hope you enjoy this message as much as I enjoyed preparing and preaching it.

Blessings!

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Episode Text:

The resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth is hard to swallow for many folks.  Some believe that is used to be easier to believe – especially for those living in the first century.  But anyone who knows the New Testament – or ancient pagan literature – knows that isn’t true.  People back then found it hard to accept too, and for many of the same reasons we do.

Common sense says it just isn’t possible.  The reanimation of dead matter seems like a Frankenstein fantasy.  Even those ancient people could see that the process of decay begins almost immediately after death.

Further, science has confirmed that death is a necessary part of the natural order.  Death nourishes the life of successive generations.  Without it nature would quickly exhaust the resources needed to sustain life. 

Resurrection seems impossible in such a world.  Not only that – it seems positively dangerous.

That’s it then – open and shut case – nothing more to say, right? 

Well no, I have two things to say. 

First, those who reject the bodily resurrection of Jesus because they think nature as we have known it is all there is, or ever will be, should come clean and admit that they think death will finally swallow everything in the end. 

If they are right the universe will eventually wink out.  Everything will wind down and nothing more than rocks and gas will exist drifting ever farther apart in the cold and dark of an eternal night.

Consequently meaning itself will also die, for in a godless universe meaning can only live on in the minds of those who are alive to see and know and remember. 

You may protest – but that won’t be for ages and ages! 

But what is an age when compared to eternity?  Finite time – whether ten thousand years or ten trillion in length – will disappear in the end.  Whether it is this generation or another, there will be a last generation.   

How about happiness, surely that’s worth something? 

Who is it being added up for?  Whether this is the last generation or another – it matters not at all – for those yet unborn have nothing to lose.

But I haven’t made a positive case for the resurrection, have I?  I’ve just identified the necessary end of the material universe if there is no resurrection. Although it may be unpleasant, that doesn’t mean it isn’t true.

Well, the arguments for the resurrection generally don’t fall into the province of philosophy.  They tend to be either religious, in the form of prophesy, or legal, in the form of eye witness accounts. 

Reason can help to work these out but reason isn’t the starting point for either.

What reason can tell us is that our universe cannot explain itself on its own terms. 

For a universe to have an end it must have a beginning – and that is what the scientific evidence asserts.  Unless we concede that the beginning of our universe is an absurdity – something outside the universe is responsible for getting it started.   

If there is something outside this universe that brought it into being – why should we protest to the possibility that this something may recreate it, with different laws that exclude death, and even in the process resurrect the dead? 

Such a being would have to be immensely powerful and intelligent, just the sort of being who could make the universe in which we currently reside. 

While that is not a guarantee that such a being would do such a thing, I, for the life of me, cannot see why he could not do so if he chose to.

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How much is a righteous man worth?  What’s his market value?

That’s a crude way of putting it, but Genesis 18 does seem to treat the subject in that way.

In the haggle Abraham conducts with the Lord, the Lord states that ten righteous people are worth more to him than a city of sin.  He promises that if only ten righteous people can be found in Sodom, a whole city will be spared.

Well, anyone who believes in imputation sees where this is pointing.  The righteousness of Christ spares all who believe in him from the punishment for sin they rightly deserve.

That’s only one small treasure to be dug out of this field of scripture. I hope you find more.  Enjoy.

An A-Pod is a short mp3 file of 2 to 4 minutes in length that you can attach to an email.  It is a low-profile communication utility that can be used like an emoticon or a hyperlink at the end of an email.  It only starts to play when the recipient clicks on it. 

A-Pods are apologetic in content and manner of presentation.  Now you know why they’re called apologeti-pods.  Because of their sympathetic and intelligent nature they are appropriate for sending to both Christians and those considering the faith.

This page is dedicated to collecting and making A-Pods available for you to download. 

Stay tuned!  The first A-Pod will be available by the end of the week.  It will be entitled: The Tyranny of the Urgent.

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God’s grace is bigger than we are.  The confines of our lives — their span, their capacity — are too tight. 

Grace has a way of spilling over the edges and going into the lives of other people.

This, of course, is a good thing.  But we Americans have a hard time with it.  We want everything reduced to the scale we can take into ourselves.

Genesis chapter 17 really shows how little of what God is doing has to do with us.  But that’s not a bad thing — that is the best thing that could possibly be.  As the old hymn says, God’s grace extends as far as the curse is found.   And that can seem almost too good to be true.

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Well now, here is an interesting episode in the life of Abram.  Definitely not one of Abram’s better days.

If only he had said no to Sarai’s offer — what a different world this would be.  But Abram is guilty of thinking God’s needs a little help getting the job done.  And the result?  The child of the flesh — the product of human will — not the child of promise.

But this product of human will cannot overcome the will of God and in the manifold wisdom of God even our sins are unfolded into a grand plan serving higher ends than we can imagine.  Hence the name of this sermon from Genesis 16 — Wheels within Wheels.

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Is saving faith something you’re born with and then grow out of when you become worldly-wise, or is it something unnatural that needs to be worked in to us?

How you answer that determines your whole outlook on the Christian faith. 

It is not a matter of mere opinion though — the biblical data definitely leans one way.  There is no ambiguity in Genesis 15. 

Which way does it lean?  Well, listen to this podcast and find out.

Here’s a sermon I preached at PCM in May of 2008 entitled, Covenant Assurance.  I hope you enjoy it.

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Now here is a scripture that military historians will love –  Genesis 14.  If you don’t enjoy military history — too bad, this is God’s Word.

The story brings to the surface the importance of alliances.  It also gives us a little peek at the nature of covenant — something we’ll explore in far greater depth in chapter 15.

We’re still experimenting with bumper-music.  There is a technical glitch near the end of the podcast.  Please forgive it.  And since no one sent a flaming e-mail or post about it, we’re sticking with Saint Saen’s “Aquarium” until we find something better.  In the near future we also hope to included some commentary and some audio intros and sign-offs.  One step at a time.  Enjoy!