I’ve been haunted — nagged, almost — by this idea of “Gospel Transformation” lately. The idea that the Gospel — the Good News that Christ, through his death, burial, resurrection, and reign, is bringing Kingdom of God to fruition — is not just news to be heard, and not even just news to be believed, but news that actually transforms. Instead of waiting to be acted upon, this news acts upon us (and everything around us).

Crazy.

I tweeted some thoughts on this (in 140-character-or-less bites, of course) a little while ago. Some “highlights” . . .

The church — the LOCAL church — is to be an agent of Gospel transformation in the lives of individuals, in the city, and in the world. (#)

“Gospel transformation” is that change that takes place when the Good News of Christ’s Kingdom comes to bear on whatever it will. (#)

“Gospel transformation” is not a one-time change, but a God-initiated, God-advanced, God-achieved process. (#)

“Gospel transformation” is not limited to individual lives & souls, but extends to families, neighborhoods, cities, and the whole world. (#)

“Gospel transformation” (generally) flows, however, from individuals out to further & larger spheres (family->neighborhood->city->world). (#)

As Jesus takes his royal throne in his peoples’ hearts, transforming them, they are then released for mission as his Kingdom agents. (#)

“Gospel transformation” will find its completion in the victory of Christ over his enemies and the full renewal of his people and world. (#)

Until then — the Second Advent of Christ — we work, wait, and say “Come, Lord Jesus!” (#)

At our church, we often say “Grace Changes Everything”. That phrase has become something of a rallying cry for us. Grace — the unmerited, undeserved, unwarranted love and favor that God gives through the Gospel — really does change everything. Not just “us”, though it certainly does change us. It’s only through believing the Gospel that anyone is taken from spiritual death to spiritual life. It’s only through believing the Gospel that anyone is freed from the bondage of sin and freed to LIVE. It’s only through believing the Gospel that anyone will ever be reconciled to God. Grace truly does change us.

I once thought that was the end of the story. Repent of sin, believe the Gospel, Jesus saves you, and now you go on and do the best you can, asking Jesus to forgive you when you mess up along the way until you die and “go to Heaven.”

Wrong. Grace changes everything.

The Good News isn’t just the news that God’s Son died on a cross for our sins and rose for our salvation (though that’s certainly a BIG part of it). The Good News is this — the King and his Kingdom are here. The King and his Kingdom are coming. Jesus wins. Jesus is setting and will set all things right. He is bringing his reign of eternal shalom to bear on all of Creation. And as if this News wasn’t enough, he calls his people to participate in the bringing of this Kingdom to bear! Not that we somehow “partner” with God, as if we’re his equals, but that we — as individuals and as we gather in local congregations — are his agents, affecting this transformation. Through his regenerated people, God is establishing his Kingdom.

Think about it. You, Christian, are working to bring the Kingdom of God when you . . .
- worship with God’s people
- pray
- call an unbelieving friend to repent and believe
- show hospitality
- teach someone viable job skills
- buy a homeless guy a meal
- create something beautiful
- work with integrity
- et cetera and so on

These are ways in which God is making our neighborhoods, cities, and the world look a little bit more and more like the coming Kingdom every day, and he’s elected to use broken, jacked-up imbeciles like us to do it. Crazy.

The Gospel is news that transforms. If Grace has changed you, then heed God’s call to change things.

I’ve never seen someone so excited to have imperfect vision.

Greg, our pastor at Grace Central, has been on a much-needed and well-earned sabbatical for the last couple of months, so preaching duties have fallen to myself and our super-fantastic church planting intern (and new dad), Joe Haack. (This is not a joke. He really is super-fantastic.)

Anyway, this last three weeks of the sabbatical, I’ve taken on a series focusing on Christ’s work as our Prophet, Priest, and King.  Naturally, I’ve bungled the recording of the first two sermons — the first one (“Prophet”), I just forgot to start recording before I stepped up to the pulpit, and the second (“Priest”), I forgot that the MacBook we usually use to record wouldn’t be at the church, so I neglected to bring mine.

So, here’s another sermon manuscript for you, this time on Christ as our Priest. This was preached this morning.

“Jesus our Priest”

I want to start off today by talking about mercy and baseball.  Now, when most folks think of “mercy” in the context of the game of baseball, they think of this Little League rule that says once a team has scored so many runs in one inning, then they just move on to the next and give the other team a chance.  That’s not what I’m talking about here, though.

The first few years of my athletic life as a child were spent playing soccer.  I neither enjoyed it, nor was I any good, so eventually my parents decided to sign me up for Little League Baseball, and I loved it. I became a student of the game, learning not just the rules of play and strategy, but about the teams, legends, and great players of the day (which would’ve been the late 1980s).

That’s why I felt my age a little bit last Monday. I was watching ESPN SportsCenter, and they were running a special report on the 20-year anniversary of Pete Rose’s banishment from baseball.  On August 24, 1989, Rose, the legendary Cincinnati Reds player, the greatest hitter of all time (and one of the game’s greatest managers), was permanently banned from baseball.  He had committed what some baseball purists would consider the “unforgivable sin” – betting on Major League games (a charge which he vehemently denied until finally admitting it in 2004).

Ever since Pete Rose’s ban, there has been a clamor around baseball that swells around late July or early August of every year.  That’s when the Hall of Fame induction ceremony takes place, and the question every year is “should Pete Rose be allowed in the Hall of Fame?” — “Will baseball continue to deny its ultimate honor to of its greatest players?”  In 1995, Mike Schmidt, the legendary Phillies third baseman took the opportunity during his own Hall of Fame induction speech to lobby for Rose’s reinstatement to baseball and induction into the Hall.  Many of Rose’s former teammates and players, while not denying his wrongdoing, have spoken out for baseball to again open the door to him.  Even Rose himself, after admitting his transgression, has applied for reinstatement multiple times, yet has been denied at every turn.

It’s plain to see that Pete Rose really wants back in.  He longs to return “back home” to the game. He longs to receive (or at least receive consideration for) the honor that so many feel he deserves.  He once said this:

People have to understand I wish this would have never happened. But I can’t change it. It’s happened. And sitting here in my position, you’re just looking for a second chance.

For all of his sincerity, work, and apparent contrition, however . . . he can’t get that second chance. Those doors are forever closed to him.  Forever closed unless and until the Commissioner of Baseball decides to have mercy on him and open that door again.  Whether or not Pete Rose will ever be (officially) reconciled with the game that he loves is in the Commissioner’s hands.

We’ve all been in similar circumstances, haven’t we?  Perhaps not to the degree of being banned for life from baseball, but we’ve all seen an important relationship disintegrate, lost a satisfying job, or been in some other situation where we longed to return to someone or something, but it was utterly out of our own power to do so.  We’ve been trapped in consequences we didn’t intend, but that we did set in motion, and are powerless to stop.  It’s the same with sin and how it alienates us from God.

Without an advocate to work on our behalf, any effort to come near to God, no matter how sincere, fails.  When we examine scripture, we see that because Jesus is our Great High Priest, we can know God.

Now, when we think of “priests”, we probably think of them as guys (or gals) in clerical collars who work in a Roman Catholic church. They’re called “priests” because their role is seen as a continuation or a succession of the God-appointed priests of the Old Testament.  Those priests served God’s people in many ways. They heard confessions of sin and prayed for the people.  They brought the prayers of the people — their hopes, dreams, and fears — before God as their intercessor.  Central to the role of priest, however, was the offering of sacrifices to visibly show that sin was very real and deserving of death, while asking God for his gracious forgiveness.  Afterwards, he would proclaim God’s words of undeserved blessing and forgiveness upon them.

The first thing we’re going to examine from the Scriptures is that . . .

Jesus our priest bore our sins as our sacrifice.

Let’s look at the book of Isaiah, chapter 53, verses 3-6

Isaiah 53:3-6
Surely he has borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
smitten by God, and afflicted.
But he was wounded for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with his stripes we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have turned—every one—to his own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.

Isaiah 52:13 through the end of 53 is commonly called one of Isaiah’s “Servant Songs”. He sprinkles references to “the Servant of the Lord” through chapters 40-55, fulfilled in Jesus Christ. Now often, the title “the Servant of the Lord” in Hebrew literature and lore referred to Israel as a whole, but sometimes the servant is a distinct person within Israel with a calling to serve Israel and beyond.

Here, Isaiah describes this servant as a “man of sorrows”, but not his own sorrows. They weren’t his and he didn’t deserve them. No, these sorrows belonged to us. Isaiah says that the Servant of the Lord has borne “our griefs and carried our sorrows”. This is our junk to deal with, but God shifted the blame to Jesus Christ as he died for the guilty. “The LORD”, it later says, “has laid on him the iniquity of us all”.

There’s a big theological word for this: “imputation” — it literally means to charge to someone else’s account. Guilt has to be paid for somehow.

Let’s say you’re in a car accident — even if it’s just a fender-bender, someone has to pay the cost if it’s going to be made right. Now, it might not be those at fault who end up paying for it. Sometimes the victim has to eat the cost, but either way, if it’s going to be made right, someone’s account is getting charged.

It’s the same with our Father God. He hates sin. HATES it. He is a forgiving God, but he does not simply turn a blind eye to the sin and evil — our sin and evil — that fills and damages his world.

How can God deal with this? Look at verses 4-6 again. Folks, that was our punishment to bear. WE deserved that. But God, out of love for us, charged that debt to a substitute. Our Great High Priest, Jesus Christ, put himself in our place. The weight of our guilt was imputed to him.

We say here at Grace Central that “Grace Changes Everything”, and this is what we’re talking about — the love and mercy of God, undeserved and apart from ANYTHING we could ever do, given freely to those who believe. This is grace.

Some of us here this morning are longing for this grace. What does Jesus say? He says “come”.

“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”
“Come, for everything is now ready.”
“Come to me, and I will make with you an everlasting covenant.”

Won’t you come? We are all like sheep, wandering away from God aimlessly after our own attempts at self-righteousness. Our Great High Priest says “come”.

Jesus our priest reconciles us to the Father.

Jesus’ priestly work on earth wasn’t limited to bearing our sin, but he also reconciles us to the Father.

Turn to Romans 5:6-11. Let’s read.

Romans 5:6-11
For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.  For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die — but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.  For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

Romans is a letter written by the Apostle Paul, and the purpose of this letter is really two-fold: first, he wants the people of the church at Rome to understand the content of the Gospel of Jesus — the message that he lived the life we couldn’t live and died the death we should have died so that we can be accepted and loved by God — and second, to experience the power of that Gospel in their lives.

So here we have Paul, explaining to the Romans just how good they have it and how gracious Jesus really is, and he does it by talking about who we might find worth dying for.  He says that someone might, on very rare occasions, die for a “righteous” person (that is, one who is morally upright) or a “good” person (that is, one who has done much good), but that Jesus’ love is so insane and unbelievable that he went ahead and died for sinners.  That might go over our heads for a minute — many of us have heard this passage, or even if not, we’ve heard that “Jesus died for sinners”.  Let’s slow down for a minute and really think about what Paul’s saying here, though.

Think of the most vile, despicable human being you can.  Maybe someone like Charles Manson.  Osama Bin-Laden. Maybe, if you saw the film Inglourious Basterds this past week (like I did) and all you can think of is Adolf Hitler.  Well, Paul, the writer of this letter, was just as bad.  Here’s a man who murdered Christians, because they were Christians, and who Jesus saw fit to save!  Paul is saying “Jesus died, not for the righteous and the good, but for sinners.  Not only sinners, but sinners as bad as I am!”

He goes on to say that we’ve been “justified” (that is, declared righteous) by Christ’s blood, saving us from the just wrath of the Father, but he doesn’t stop there.  That would almost be good enough!  But no, he goes on to explain that we have also been reconciled to God through Christ’s death and resurrection.

Let’s say you’re broke.  Utterly penniless and destitute.  You’ve found an abandoned apartment building, and you decide to take up residence there.  You’re a squatter.  Now, imagine that one day the owner of the building shows up, and there you are.  No right to be there.  No standing before him to say “but I live here!”  But . . . he doesn’t kick you out — and he doesn’t let you stay either.  No, he takes you out of that filthy, cold place and moves you into his own home at his own expense, adopting you into his own family.  This is what reconciliation to God is like. What grace!

We can know and walk in the confidence and assurance of being reconciled to our Father God through the priestly work of Jesus.

Jesus our priest intercedes on his peoples’ behalf, and will forever.

Still, Jesus’ work as our priest didn’t end after his death, burial, resurrection, and ascension into Heaven.  No, he is alive today and continues to minister to us by interceding on our behalf.

Let’s look at Hebrews 7:23-25

Hebrews 7:23-25
The former priests were many in number, because they were prevented by death from continuing in office, but he holds his priesthood permanently, because he continues forever. Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.

I don’t know if I can preach that any better or more clearly than it’s stated there in the Scriptures.

Here, the author of this letter is contrasting the “former priests” — the Old Testament priesthood — with the priesthood of Christ.  He says plainly that while the former priests all died (creating the need for multiple priests) Jesus “holds his priesthood permanently, because he continues forever”.

One of the functions of those former priests was to intercede or pray for the people — to take the people’s concerns, needs, questions, doubts, and fears to God.  Jesus now does that for us.  Do you ever wonder why we end our prayers with the words “In Jesus Name”?  It’s not a magic formula or something we need to check off so we know we’ve done it right.  Jesus himself said many times that when we go to God the Father in prayer, that we should “ask in his (that is Jesus’) name”. Why? Because we have no standing to dare come before the Father, but Jesus does.  We pray through him, in his name, according to his will, and he is our Great High Priest who goes before the Father with and for us.

It’s not that we have to say the words “In Jesus Name” at the end of our prayers in order to be heard (though that’s a good practice).  It’s that we need to know and recognize that it’s only through Jesus that the Father will hear us.

Therefore, with Jesus as our Great High Priest, we can boldly ask the Father to line up our hearts with his, meet our needs, forgive our sins, and keep us from temptation.

Back to Pete Rose for a minute.

Time will tell whether or not Major League Baseball will reinstate him.  Even if they do, it might not be until after he dies.  Tell you what I think — I hope they do reinstate him.  I think that he deserves it.  Yeah, he broke the rules, and he shouldn’t have done what he did, but he’s a legend.  He’s not “bigger than the game”, as some might say, but the game is better for having had him.

We can’t say the same for ourselves and how we relate to God.  God is not better for having had us.  We don’t deserve “reinstatement” into his family.  We deserve nothing but his condemnation, but grace changes everything. And Christ’s continual work as our Great High Priest is an outworking of that grace.

LET’S PRAY.

@RaeWhitlock: “The preaching of the Word of God *is* the Word of God.” (#)

After which, I went to the living room to hang out with Amy for a few hours, and then went to bed. What I woke up to this morning on Twitter were a few surprised and surprising responses . . .

@sagethefool: @RaeWhitlock Who in the world said that? In what context could that possibly be true? (#)

@TravisSeitler: @RaeWhitlock That is theologically (and just plain logically) wrong. (#)

@rschmidtberger: @RaeWhitlock do we really want to say that the preacher’s words are Gods words? ideally sermons should be full of biblical truth (#)

Understandable responses, though. A lot of guys (and gals, for that matter) have said some pretty whack stuff under the guise of “preaching”. Surely we don’t want to attribute the words of some of those jokers to God himself, right?

So where’d this audacious and almost-heretical-sounding phrase come from? Glad you asked. It’s from an early Reformed confessional document called the Second Helvetic Confession.

In context . . .

THE PREACHING OF THE WORD OF GOD IS THE WORD OF GOD. Wherefore when this Word of God is now preached in the church by preachers lawfully called, we believe that the very Word of God is proclaimed, and received by the faithful; and that neither any other Word of God is to be invented nor is to be expected from heaven: and that now the Word itself which is preached is to be regarded, not the minister that preaches; for even if he be evil and a sinner, nevertheless the Word of God remains still true and good.

Neither do we think that therefore the outward preaching is to be thought as fruitless because the instruction in true religion depends on the inward illumination of the Spirit, or because it is written “And no longer shall each man teach his neighbor…, for they shall all know me” (Jer. 31:34), And “Neither he who plants nor he that waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth” (I Cor. 3:7). For although “No one can come to Christ unless he be drawn by the Father” (John 6:44), And unless the Holy Spirit inwardly illumines him, yet we know that it is surely the will of God that his Word should be preached outwardly also. God could indeed, by his Holy Spirit, or by the ministry of an angel, without the ministry of St. Peter, have taught Cornelius in the Acts; but, nevertheless, he refers him to Peter, of whom the angel speaking says, “He shall tell you what you ought to do.”

Context makes it more clear. When a preacher preaches Scripture in such a way that is faithful to its true meaning, we can be assured that the Holy Spirit is at work, and that his people are receiving the very Word of God from his mouth. This does not mean that preachers are infallible or incapable of error. By no means. What it does mean, though, is that hearers of that Word can and should be assured that, so long as the Bible is preached faithfully, God himself speaks to them in the preaching event.

Perhaps a way to phrase it that’d be more readily understood by today’s readers would be “The Word of God preached is the Word of God.” I dunno. I like the original phrasing, myself.

Thoughts?

Anyway, I preached at my church again this morning, this time from Psalm 19.  I’d post the audio again, but the recording ended up being very echo-y and practically inaudible.  So, I’m posting the manuscript that I worked from.  Feel free to read, comment, critique, etc.

——————-

Psalm 19

To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David.

The heavens declare the glory of God,
and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.
Day to day pours out speech,
and night to night reveals knowledge.
There is no speech, nor are there words,
whose voice is not heard.
Their voice goes out through all the earth,
and their words to the end of the world.
In them he has set a tent for l the sun,
which comes out like a bridegroom leaving his chamber,
and, like a strong man, runs its course with joy.
Its rising is from the end of the heavens,
and its circuit to the end of them,
and there is nothing hidden from its heat.

The law of the Lord is perfect,
reviving the soul;
the testimony of the Lord is sure,
making wise the simple;
the precepts of the Lord are right,
rejoicing the heart;
the commandment of the Lord is pure,
enlightening the eyes;
the fear of the Lord is clean,
enduring forever;
the rules of the Lord are true,
and righteous altogether.
More to be desired are they than gold,
even much fine gold;
sweeter also than honey
and drippings of the honeycomb.
Moreover, by them is your servant warned;
in keeping them there is great reward.

Who can discern his errors?
Declare me innocent from hidden faults.
Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins;
let them not have dominion over me!
Then I shall be blameless,
and innocent of great transgression.

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart
be acceptable in your sight,
O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.

Consider these scenarios.

• A teenage girl — jaded by years in a legalistic church, she has proclaimed herself an atheist, but still feels the pull some of ultimate reality.
• A criminal serving a long sentence — he flips through a Bible sent to him by his sister, but fails to understand what he’s reading, though he wants to.
• A presbyterian elder — he knows Scripture well and gives his people wise counsel, but still feels far from God himself.

These diverse folks all share something in common: they feel a longing for God, but sense nothing from him but distance. Absence.

Often, even if we’re believers in Christ, there are times that God seems far off. Unknown and unknowable. As we come to the 19th Psalm, I want us to see that because God graciously reveals himself to humankind, we can know and worship him.

Here’s David, worshiping God in song, praising him for his self-disclosure. This man, who once asked God “how long will you hide your face from me”, is here not only worshiping, but leading God’s people in praise for his presence and nearness. Like us, David’s congregation (Israel) gathered weekly for the worship of God, and like us, there were certainly those among their number who sensed nothing of God but absence. Yet they lifted their voices and sang these words, despite their heartache, and I want us to be encouraged to do the same. The three ways God has revealed himself that we’re going to look at this morning are creation, Scripture, and Christ.

Creation

First, because God graciously reveals himself to humankind in creation, we can know and worship him.

Take a look at verses 1-6. David is painting a vivid picture for us of the created order itself declaring the works of God. In verse 2, he writes “day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge”. Now, to the original audience, the language of creation’s speech being “poured out” day to day would have evoked images of the continual bubbling up of a spring. It’s saying that creation, by its very existence, is constantly and continually testifying of the greatness of its Creator. Then, in verse 3, he says that “there is no speech, nor are there words whose voice is not heard”. What’s he saying? He’s saying that nature speaks of God in such a way that everyone “hears” it.

This is also seen in the New Testament. Turn with me to Romans 1, verses 18-20.

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.

Well, that’s a downer, isn’t it? Here we are, talking about God’s glory revealed in creation, and suddenly all this talk of wrath and ungodliness and unrighteousness rears its ugly head. But what does it say? Here we have not the glory of God being revealed from heaven, as it is in Psalm 19, but the wrath of God. Why? Because, as our earlier text says, creation constantly testifies of God’s goodness and power, and though everyone “hears” it, not all “listen”.

We all know the difference between “hearing” and “listening”, don’t we? I’m certain that all of you parents can testify to this. I have a daughter. Her name is Zoë. She has (in the past) been a perfect example of how one can “hear” without “listening”. On more than one occasion, she’s been wrapped up in some enthralling activity . . . usually watching SpongeBob Squarepants, when Amy or I have told her to do something.

“Pick up your toys, please, Zoë”
“Z, it’s time for bed. You need to change into your night clothes.”

No reaction.

A little louder, we say “Zoë! Pick up, please!”

Nothing.

“ZOË!”

At that point, she turns to us and says (with a little annoyance in her voice), “I heard you!” Yeah, she heard our voices, but didn’t listen and obey. Though her ears were open, her heart was hard . . . and soon the wrath of her parents was upon her. Had she listened to our voices in the first place and obeyed, things would’ve gone much better.

It’s the same with how God has revealed himself to us through creation.

Now, what are we supposed to do with that? Honestly, I struggled a little bit with this part. God has revealed himself to us through creation. Good. Now what? How can we apply that to our lives? Well, now we reflect on his goodness in providing this world for us. Now we appreciate and worship God for giving us the sun, the skies, the rain, and all that he’s created. 1 Timothy 6:17 says that God has “richly provide[d] us with everything to enjoy”, and that includes all of creation. Read the other creation Psalms (8, 29, 33, 65, 104). See how God’s people have praised him for creation for thousands of years, and join your voices with theirs. Creation is one of God’s self-revelations to us.

Scripture

God also has graciously revealed himself to us in Scripture, and because of that, we can know and worship him.

Let’s go back to Psalm 19 and look at verses 7-11.

David continues this song by moving from God’s general revelation to all of humanity through creation, to his specific revelation to his people through his Word. The language here is beautifully parallel:

“The law of the LORD…”
“The testimony of the LORD…”
“The precepts of the LORD…”
“The commandment of the LORD…”

Together, these terms refer to one thing: God’s Word as he has revealed it to his people, and David is extolling its virtues. For all of its splendor and beauty, not even creation has the effect that God’s Word has on us.

The Word of God revives the soul.
It gives wisdom to the simple.
The Word of God brings joy to the heart and light to the eyes.
God’s Word endures forever.
God’s Word is true, and altogether righteous, and David finishes this section by expressing his heart’s desire for the Word:

“More to be desired than gold! Sweeter than honey! In keeping them there is great reward!”

Do we delight in the Word like that?

Some of you won’t remember these, but there was a piece of technology we used to watch movies before the DVD player. It was called the “VCR”. They usually had digital clocks on them as well, but most that I saw only displayed a blinking “12:00″, meaning that the correct time hadn’t been set.

I remember our first VCR. It was around 1985. I was 6 or 7 years old, and even then, I loved technology. It might’ve been partly due to the fact that my dad was an electrical engineer, but even he couldn’t figure out how to set the clock on that darn VCR. That task fell to me, and I was glad to do it. If it involved pushing buttons, I was all over it. Pretty soon, I was an expert at everything that VCR could do. Not only could I set the time, and thus get rid of the blinking “12:00”, but I could program it to record at certain times. I knew the different recording speeds and the advantages and disadvantages of each. But did I figure it out for myself? No. I read the manual.

Now, the 30-year-old me is more like my dad than the 7-year-old me. Instead of reading manuals, now I’ll give them a cursory glance or refer to them if I “get stuck” with something. Why? It’s probably equal parts arrogance and impatience. Why bother reading a manual when I can probably just figure it out myself, right?

We can often cop the same kind of attitude, though we might not admit it, when it comes to God’s Word.

How many of us only come to the Bible when we need to be reminded of a promise from God, or when we’re facing a crisis? Now, it’s good and right to come to the Bible in those circumstances, but not those only.

Not to overstate the obvious, but this book is the Word of God! He has revealed himself and speaks to us though this book! That’s a big deal! Read it! Study it! Memorize it! Obey it! Believe it! Not only when times get tough, but when times are good. We’re fooling ourselves when we act like the Bible is only useful in difficult times. In bad times, our reaction may be to run to God in our despair, but in good times, we may not even see our need for God in the first place. Which is worse?

Scripture is one of God’s self-revelations to us.

Christ

Finally, God has graciously revealed himself to us in the person of Jesus Christ, and because of that, we can know and worship him.

Turn to Acts 17 with me. We’ll be looking at verses 16-31.

Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols. So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there. Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also conversed with him. And some said, “What does this babbler wish to say?” Others said, “He seems to be a preacher of foreign divinities”—because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection. And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? For you bring some strange things to our ears. We wish to know therefore what these things mean.” Now all the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there would spend their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new.

So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription, ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, for

“‘In him we live and move and have our being’;

as even some of your own poets have said,

“‘For we are indeed his offspring.’

Being then God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man. The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”

Here, we have the Apostle Paul, after Jesus graciously and forcefully converted him, preaching to some Athenians at the Areopagus, which was a place for people to meet and dialogue on various philosophies. He was in Athens, waiting for Silas and Timothy so they could continue their journey, and along the way, he saw this altar inscribed with the words “TO THE UNKNOWN GOD”. Now I can just imagine Paul, being the Gospel preacher that he was, seeing such a wide open door and saying “oh come on, this is too easy.”

He begins speaking to them, using their belief in this “unknown god” as a starting point to launch into the Gospel of Christ. He even goes as far as quoting their own poets to them, taking a verse that was most likely about Zeus and essentially saying “this is true, but not of Zeus”. He finishes with the demands of the Gospel: in order to know this God you worship as unknown, you must repent and believe in the one God has raised from the dead – Jesus Christ.

The Athenians’ worship of the “Unknown God” was like walking around a somewhat familiar room in pitch black darkness. You know that there’s a couch somewhere, and you’re pretty sure you remember a table and some chairs, but all you can do in the dark is grope around for something to hold onto. Admittedly, this is a better starting point than being in a pitch black room that you think is empty, only to stumble over what’s there, but not as good as having a light turned on.

This is what Paul does for the Athenians here, and it’s what God does for us by ultimately revealing himself to us in the person of Christ. In creation, we’ve been given just enough light to know that there is a God. In scripture, we’re pointed to the light switch. In Jesus, we have light.

So what do we do with this? As verse 30 says, we repent and believe in Christ. We follow him in obedience. Without Jesus, any efforts we can make to know and worship God fall short. We can marvel and appreciate creation all we want. We can read the Bible from cover to cover, but without repentance — turning away from our sin and turning toward Jesus in belief — we only know enough to invoke God’s wrath . . . not receive his forgiveness.

Repent and believe today.

Conclusion

Turn back to Psalm 19 with me one more time. Let’s look at verses 12-14.

Who can discern his errors?
Declare me innocent from hidden faults.

Only through Jesus can we be declared innocent from all of our faults, hidden and seen.

Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins;
let them not have dominion over me!

Only through Jesus can we be freed from the dominion of sin.

Then I shall be blameless,
and innocent of great transgression.

Only through Jesus can we be blameless and innocent of transgression, great or small.

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart
be acceptable in your sight,
O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.

And only through Jesus are the words of our mouths and meditations of our hearts acceptable in the sight of God.

There it is: my first sermon, preached tonight.

Go easy.

I was sitting in my car, waiting to pick Zoë up from school, when a bumper sticker on the car in front of me caught my eye.  On it was a picture of a reverent-looking Martin Luther King, Jr, and above him it said “I HAVE A DREAM”.  Next to that picture was a similarly posed picture of President-elect Barack Obama.  Above him, it said “I AM THAT DREAM”.  Immediately, I wondered “really?!”

Now, I don’t have Dr. King’s speech committed to memory or anything like that, but I’d say his “dream” is best summarized in this famous sentence . . .

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

Keeping in mind that no bumper sticker and no pithy turn of phrase can fully capture a sound argument, I have to wonder . . . as we now sit on the precipice of seeing our great nation’s first black president inaugurated, is it time to be satisfied (as Americans, and especially as African-Americans)?  Is Barack Obama the very Incarnation of “The Dream”?  I’m gonna say “no”, and if we think that it is, then our interpretation of the dream is far too small and our vision limited.

Not only that, but Senator Obama’s election may be a strong attestation to the fact that we’re not there yet.  Dr. King said that he dreamed of an America in which his children (and, by extension, all black people) would be judged according to their character, not their skin color.  Amen!  But what’s do so many black people say today in their jubilation that Mr. Obama was elected?

He looks like us!

Am I saying that every single black person that voted for BHO did so just because he’s black? No, of course not. What I am saying is that his blackness was certainly a huge factor in his garnering of virtually the entire black vote, and the primary factor in the great black emotional outpouring we’ve seen since Election Day.  Isn’t this yet another way that someone can be “judged by the color of [his] skin” instead of by the content of his character?  Or does black skin, like love, “cover a multitude of wrongs”?

Please don’t misunderstand me. I think that it’s pretty cool that our citizens have finally gotten to a point where, after over 200 years, they’re willing to elect something other than a white guy to the Presidency. But I also think that MLK’s dream is more than that.  And while great strides have been made toward the realization of that dream, Barack Obama ain’t it . . . and I’m willing to bet that we won’t truly see “it” anywhere outside of or before the coming Kingdom of Christ.

Resolved: with God’s help, to lose not another moment of this life to vanity, but to work, study, pray, teach, play, and even rest with all vigor, to the glory of God.*

I’m 30 today.

* (No, this is not one of Edwards’ Resolutions, but it’s partially inspired by them.)

I started the recording a little too late, trust me, she was the one who kicked it in. She’s got 15 goals for the season