Luke 9:51-56 comments: the Son of man is not come to destroy but to save

    9:51 ¶  And it came to pass, when the time was come that he should be received up, he stedfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem, 52  And sent messengers before his face: and they went, and entered into a village of the Samaritans, to make ready for him. 53  And they did not receive him, because his face was as though he would go to Jerusalem. 54  And when his disciples James and John saw this, they said, Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven, and consume them, even as Elias did? 55  But he turned, and rebuked them, and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of. 56  For the Son of man is not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them. And they went to another village.

The disciples expressed their all too human ambition for status in the previous passage. They wanted to hold back others, not of their group, who were preaching in Christ’s name. Now, they want to kill those who do not welcome Christ. These Samaritans and the Jews were in conflict over where they were to worship which resulted in them refusing to receive Christ after He diplomatically sent messengers to alert them of His coming thereby invoking the wrath of His followers. They knew He was headed to Jerusalem. Note the following when Jesus came to Sychar, a city of Samaria and the woman at the well was speaking to Him. Another village will be blessed instead with the Saviour’s presence.

John 4:20  Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.

Reminds me of the history of political Christianity throughout Europe and the Middle East for two thousand years. Supposed Christians lobbied for power and privilege using the faith as an excuse or platform for power and murder. They closed ranks and persecuted other Christians who did not do things exactly their way or acknowledge their authority. They killed, to the tune of millions, other non-conforming believers and non-Christians.

Christ condemned all of that.

The reference to Elias, Elijah from the Hebrew, can be found in 2Kings, chapter 1.

Luke 9:37-50 comments: he that is least among you all, the same shall be great

9:37 ¶  And it came to pass, that on the next day, when they were come down from the hill, much people met him. 38  And, behold, a man of the company cried out, saying, Master, I beseech thee, look upon my son: for he is mine only child. 39  And, lo, a spirit taketh him, and he suddenly crieth out; and it teareth him that he foameth again, and bruising him hardly departeth from him. 40  And I besought thy disciples to cast him out; and they could not. 41  And Jesus answering said, O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you, and suffer you? Bring thy son hither. 42  And as he was yet a coming, the devil threw him down, and tare him. And Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit, and healed the child, and delivered him again to his father.

    9:43 ¶  And they were all amazed at the mighty power of God. But while they wondered every one at all things which Jesus did, he said unto his disciples, 44  Let these sayings sink down into your ears: for the Son of man shall be delivered into the hands of men. 45  But they understood not this saying, and it was hid from them, that they perceived it not: and they feared to ask him of that saying. 46  Then there arose a reasoning among them, which of them should be greatest. 47  And Jesus, perceiving the thought of their heart, took a child, and set him by him, 48  And said unto them, Whosoever shall receive this child in my name receiveth me: and whosoever shall receive me receiveth him that sent me: for he that is least among you all, the same shall be great. 49  And John answered and said, Master, we saw one casting out devils in thy name; and we forbad him, because he followeth not with us. 50  And Jesus said unto him, Forbid him not: for he that is not against us is for us.

The day after they came down from the mountain where they saw Jesus transfigured, glorified, a man cried out to Jesus to deliver his only child from an evil spirit. We have a hard time today believing that there is an evil spirit or mind behind some of the most self-destructive behavior people express seeing that we have reduced everything to a purely physical process. Whatever is wrong must be some disease and, of course, our not being able to treat it successfully is handled by a careful display of statistics; a third will be cured by a psychiatrist, a third will be helped, and a third will never recover or something along those lines. We do not accept nor realize that in some cases there may be something behind the behavior that is a conscious, living entity. Movies are made and stories are written about such things but they overplay and dramatize the suffering to a point where it is so unreal as to be easily dismissed once the credits roll.

The people here are amazed at God’s power because they recognize that these possessions and oppressions are not all that uncommon. They were amazed at the things Jesus was doing, pretty remarkable stuff in alleviating suffering. Then, Jesus declares again that He must be delivered into the hands of His executioners but the disciples do not understand it. This underscores the fact that, unlike what many preachers says, the Jews were not looking forward to the Cross. They repeatedly did not understand what was in store for their Messiah. They could not understand it. The gospel writers all repeat the ignorance of the disciples of Jesus in understanding His coming murder at the hands of men.

Luke 18:31 ¶  Then he took unto him the twelve, and said unto them, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of man shall be accomplished. 32  For he shall be delivered unto the Gentiles, and shall be mocked, and spitefully entreated, and spitted on: 33  And they shall scourge him, and put him to death: and the third day he shall rise again. 34  And they understood none of these things: and this saying was hid from them, neither knew they the things which were spoken.

Matthew 16:21 ¶  From that time forth began Jesus to shew unto his disciples, how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day.22  Then Peter took him, and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall not be unto thee.23  But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men.

Mark 9:10  And they kept that saying with themselves, questioning one with another what the rising from the dead should mean.

Even at the empty tomb they still did not understand.

John 20:1 ¶  The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulchre, and seeth the stone taken away from the sepulchre. 2  Then she runneth, and cometh to Simon Peter, and to the other disciple, whom Jesus loved, and saith unto them,

They have taken away the Lord out of the sepulchre, and we know not where they have laid him. 3  Peter therefore went forth, and that other disciple, and came to the sepulchre. 4  So they ran both together: and the other disciple did outrun Peter, and came first to the sepulchre. 5  And he stooping down, and looking in, saw the linen clothes lying; yet went he not in. 6  Then cometh Simon Peter following him, and went into the sepulchre, and seeth the linen clothes lie, 7  And the napkin, that was about his head, not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped together in a place by itself. 8  Then went in also that other disciple, which came first to the sepulchre, and he saw, and believed. 9  For as yet they knew not the scripture, that he must rise again from the dead. 10  Then the disciples went away again unto their own home.

Apparently, the death, burial, and resurrection of the Messiah was not taught or understood.

Read Psalm 22, the Psalm whose first line Jesus quoted from the Cross to direct us to it. Then, notice;

Psalm 16:10  For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.

Then, see this verse on a physical resurrection from Job, written between 1500 to 2000BC.

Job 19:25  For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: 26  And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: 27  Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me.

And a thousand years later see this verse on a physical resurrection from Isaiah.

Isaiah 26:19  Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead.

And then, a few hundred years later, as Daniel writes under the reigns of the last Babylonian emperors and the first Persian.

Daniel 12:2  And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.

Keeping this understanding of the ancient Jew and Gentile before the Jew came into being (Job) read the “dry bones” prophesy in Ezekiel 37.

Ezekiel 37:12  Therefore prophesy and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel.

Then, in this context read about the Messiah again in Isaiah 52:13 through 53:12 and notice this verse;

Isaiah 53:10 ¶  Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.

(Modern Jews claim that the suffering servant in Isaiah is the Jewish people rather than the Messiah but that interpretation didn’t become popular until the rabbi, Rashi, in the 11^th century. The passage is clearly about an individual.)

The Messiah after His execution will see his seed. Go back to Psalm 22 and see His seed mentioned, those who become born again.

Psalm 22:30  A seed shall serve him; it shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation.

Could this ignorance the disciples had have been the cause of the false teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees whom John the Baptist called vipers? A viper isn’t just a snake, but it is a snake that injects venom into its victim. False teachers are condemned in 2Peter 2 and Jeremiah 23. Jesus Himself condemns them. Look at the link with dogs and swine between the following and 2Peter2. The following verse might just be referring to new converts being destroyed with bad doctrine.

Matthew 7:6  Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you.

Jesus is often critical about false teaching of the religious elite. He likened their doctrine to leaven.

Matthew 16:5 ¶  And when his disciples were come to the other side, they had forgotten to take bread. 6  Then Jesus said unto them, Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees. 7  And they reasoned among themselves, saying, It is because we have taken

no bread. 8  Which when Jesus perceived, he said unto them, O ye of little faith, why reason ye among yourselves, because ye have brought no bread? 9  Do ye not yet understand, neither remember the five loaves of the five thousand, and how many baskets ye took up? 10  Neither the seven loaves of the four thousand, and how many baskets ye took up? 11  How is it that ye do not understand that I spake it not to you concerning bread, that ye should beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees? 12  Then understood they how that he bade them not beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.

He condemned them for their teachings.

Mark 7:1 ¶  Then came together unto him the Pharisees, and certain of the scribes, which came from Jerusalem. 2  And when they saw some of his disciples eat bread with defiled, that is to say, with unwashen, hands, they found fault. 3  For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, except they wash their hands oft, eat not, holding the tradition of the elders. 4  And when they come from the market, except they wash, they eat not. And many other things there be, which they have received to hold, as the washing of cups, and pots, brasen vessels, and of tables. 5  Then the Pharisees and scribes asked him, Why walk not thy disciples according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashen hands? 6  He answered and said unto them, Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. 7  Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. 8  For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups: and many other such like things ye do. 9  And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition. 10  For Moses said, Honour thy father and thy mother; and, Whoso curseth father or mother, let him die the death: 11  But ye say, If a man shall say to his father or mother, It is Corban, that is to say, a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me; he shall be free. 12  And ye suffer him no more to do ought for his father or his mother; 13  Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered: and many such like things do ye.

He regarded the way the elite created proselytes or new converts, what some sources say they referred to as, “new creatures,” as unconscionable.

Matthew 23:15  Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves.

So it is with American Protestant fundamentalism today. Twisting the Bible to support an agenda is as common today as it was then. Clearly, the elite was not teaching the truth about the Messiah to come because the people did not know what was to happen. They were more concerned with Israel regaining preeminence in that part of the world than scriptural truth. They would have achieved their desire if they had emphasized doctrinal truth. God could have honored Israel for their faithfulness to the mysteries of God (1Corinthians 4:1). But, they would reject their Messiah.

Humans are always about status and who is number one. The disciples are no different. They argue among themselves about who shall be the greatest among them. This will be an issue again later in Luke 22. Jesus presents a child to them as an example of who is the greatest for who receives the child in His name receives Him and the least of them shall be the greatest. Those people with the lowest status or perceived value, like a child, are regarded in God’s kingdom as the highest. It is virtually the opposite of human-centered importance. In God’s view children, women, slaves, and the poor have a higher value placed on them than those who are in power, in control, on earth. We would do better to live our lives in simple humility and obedience to Christ rather than in restless ambition and a quest for status from which flows temptations that harm our faith. I am not saying not to be the best you can be but to set your affections on things above, not on things of this earth. And, remember, the Jews were thinking of an earthly and very political kingdom of God, a recreation of Israel’s ancient glory. It is sort of like a fundamentalist musing about which celebrity pastor will be in charge of America during the millennial reign of Christ or, as I heard one celebrity preacher/television personality say once, that God would need qualified technicians to run water treatment facilities in the millennium.

Finally, in this passage we have a similar scene to one during Moses’ time.

Numbers 11:27  And there ran a young man, and told Moses, and said, Eldad and Medad do prophesy in the camp. 28  And Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of Moses, one of his young men, answered and said, My lord Moses, forbid them. 29  And Moses said unto him, Enviest thou for my sake? would God that all the LORD’S people were prophets, and that the LORD would put his spirit upon them!

We must remember that there are many who do not worship as we do but who do exalt the name of Christ. I once heard a great sermon on the authority of Christ from a so-called faith-healer whom I regarded as a fake. That is, until I heard that sermon I didn’t realize he was capable of sound doctrine. God used him in that moment, in that sermon, and who am I to condemn someone preaching the truth?

Luke 9:28-36: disciples see Christ's glory

9:28 ¶  And it came to pass about an eight days after these sayings, he took Peter and John and James, and went up into a mountain to pray. 29  And as he prayed, the fashion of his countenance was altered, and his raiment was white and glistering. 30  And, behold, there talked with him two men, which were Moses and Elias: 31  Who appeared in glory, and spake of his decease which he should accomplish at Jerusalem. 32  But Peter and they that were with him were heavy with sleep: and when they were awake, they saw his glory, and the two men that stood with him. 33  And it came to pass, as they departed from him, Peter said unto Jesus, Master, it is good for us to be here: and let us make three tabernacles; one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias: not knowing what he said. 34  While he thus spake, there came a cloud, and overshadowed them: and they feared as they entered into the cloud. 35  And there came a voice out of the cloud, saying, This is my beloved Son: hear him. 36  And when the voice was past, Jesus was found alone. And they kept it close, and told no man in those days any of those things which they had seen.

Jesus takes three of His disciples with Him to pray and they saw an amazing thing. Christ was glorified and they saw Him talking to Moses and Elijah.

Moses’ appearance was altered after he met with God.

Exodus 34: 28 ¶  And he was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights; he did neither eat bread, nor drink water. And he wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant, the ten commandments. 29  And it came to pass, when Moses came down from mount Sinai with the two tables of testimony in Moses’ hand, when he came down from the mount, that Moses wist not that the skin of his face shone while he talked with him. 30  And when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone; and they were afraid to come nigh him.

Jesus appeared glorified to John in Revelation.

Revelation 1:10  I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of

a trumpet, 11  Saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last: and, What thou seest, write in a book, and send it unto the seven churches which are in Asia; unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna, and unto Pergamos, and unto Thyatira, and unto Sardis, and unto Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea. 12  And I turned to see the voice that spake with me. And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks; 13  And in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle. 14  His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire; 15  And his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters.

Moses and Elijah will appear again at the end of human-centered history and I think this is a reference to their activity.

Revelation 11:3 ¶  And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth. 4  These are the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth. 5  And if any man will hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth, and devoureth their enemies: and if any man will hurt them, he must in this manner be killed. 6  These have power to shut heaven, that it rain not in the days of their prophecy: and have power over waters to turn them to blood, and to smite the earth with all plagues, as often as they will. 7  And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them. 8  And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified. 9  And they of the people and kindreds and tongues and nations shall see their dead bodies three days and an half, and shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in graves. 10  And they that dwell upon the earth shall rejoice over them, and make merry, and shall send gifts one to another; because these two prophets tormented them that dwelt on the earth. 11  And after three days and an half the Spirit of life from God entered into them, and they stood upon their feet; and great fear fell upon them which saw them. 12  And they heard a great voice from heaven saying unto them, Come up hither. And they ascended up to heaven in a cloud; and their enemies beheld them. 13  And the same hour was there a great earthquake, and the tenth part of the city fell, and in the earthquake were slain of men seven thousand: and the remnant were affrighted, and gave glory to the God of heaven.

Peter, James, and John saw his glory. We, too, will see Him one day, perhaps sooner than you expected.

Psalm 17:15  As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness.

Philippians 3:21  Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.

Colossians 3:1 ¶  If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. 2  Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. 3  For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. 4  When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.

To Love God - sermon notes revised - given at Lake Marburg Baptist Church 1.20.2019

In case you haven’t noticed yet I often preach things that I need to learn.

Jonathan Edwards, a great preacher of the period in American history known as the Great Awakening, said in his sermon entitled, “The Justice of God in the Damnation of Sinners,” that;

There is a great deal of difference between a willingness not to be damned, and a being willing to receive Christ for your Savior. You have the former; there is no doubt of that: nobody supposes that you love misery so as to choose an eternity of it; and so doubtless you are willing to be saved from eternal misery. But that is a very different thing from being willing to come to Christ: persons very commonly mistake the one for the other, but they are quite two things. You may love the deliverance, but hate the deliverer. (1)

(1)   Jonathan Edwards, “The Justice of God in the Damnation of Sinners,” www.jonathan-edwards.org, (accessed 7.16.2014).

So people can love the idea of being saved but really have little regard for their Saviour. I am wondering how many Christians truly love their deliverer.

I need to learn how to truly love my Lord, love my Saviour, love my Creator.

Moses said to the Israelites and had written down for posterity;

Deuteronomy 6:4 ¶  Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD: 5  And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.

And God told Moses to also tell the people;

Leviticus 19:18  Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the LORD.

The Lord Jesus Christ reaffirmed when a lawyer asked Him what the great commandment in the Law was;

Matthew 22:37  Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. 38  This is the first and great commandment. 39  And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. 40  On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

What does it mean to love God with all of your heart, soul, and mind, and as Mark recorded in Mark 12:30 Jesus as adding, with all thy strength?

What does the very first principle of the Christian life entail? Do we have a complete understanding or one that just satisfied our mean-spiritedness in that we’ve done enough by doing what God has said to do and not doing what He has said not to do and condemning other people who fall short? Or is our understanding limited to merely reverence or awe so we can put God on a shelf and take Him down and dust Him off on Sunday to satisfy our desire to justify ourselves and feel holy?

We can find verses to limit ourselves to a definition that makes us feel justified if we want.

But what about a complete understanding of what it means to love God, one that doesn’t violate the spirit and intent of what the Holy Spirit has given us through the men who wrote the Bible?

In one aspect God is our parent. As Paul noted in quoting a pagan poet;

Acts 17:27  That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us: 28  For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.

We are His offspring? In the form He took as a man, the Lord Jesus Christ, fully man and fully God the Old Testament also talks about how we are His offspring. Jesus quoted the first line of Psalm 22 from the Cross to direct us to it. In that Psalm it says.

Psalm 22:30  A seed shall serve him; it shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation.

How do you love a parent? How is that love expressed? Well, there are several things that seem to follow the profession of love for someone who gave you life and sustained you in your helplessness. 

The first evidence of a love for God I want to talk about is obedience. Moses said to the Israelites;

Deuternomy 7:9  Know therefore that the LORD thy God, he is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations;

See how and connects two like things; loving God and keeping His commandments?

Jesus confirmed;

John 14:15  If ye love me, keep my commandments.

It is kind of interesting how Jesus defined the essence of the Law given to Moses in those verses in Matthew and then capped it all off with a new commandment that affirmed the essence of the old ones.

John 13:34  A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. 35  By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.

Just think about those verses again in Matthew 22, Mark 12, John 13 and 14. Christ’s commandment for us and our love for our brothers and sisters in Christ is so intertwined as to be indivisible as John also wrote;

1John 4:15  Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God. 16  And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.

    17 ¶  Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world. 18  There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love. 19  We love him, because he first loved us. 20  If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? 21  And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also.

    5:1 ¶  Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: and every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him. 2  By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments. 3  For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous. 4  For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. 5  Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?

 So, let me ask you. Is proof of our love for God, we Gentile Christians, a rote following of the Law given to Moses and our condemnation of everyone else who falls short? Or is the proof of our love for God the love we have for our brothers and sisters in Christ and how faithful we are to the doctrines of Christ; who He is, what He came for, and how we will spend eternity with Him?

 Remember what Paul said about the Law given to Moses?

Galatians 3:23  But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. 24  Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. 25  But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster. 26  For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.

Is Christ talking about obedience to the Law given to Moses or obedience in faith to Him? He told the Jews very clearly;

John 6:28 ¶  Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God? 29  Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.

Now don’t get me wrong. The Law, the Ten Commandments, are very important. They represent God’s standard of righteousness in the sense of the moral laws. That has not changed. But, you aren’t proving you love God, love Christ, by simply saying; I go to church, I tithe, I pray, I read my Bible, I don’t curse, drink, smoke, look at porn or do immoral things, and I vote Republican, and give to the NRA. You could be totally cold to God and do all those things and look pretty good to others who believe like you do. You don’t have to love Him to do those things.

You certainly don’t prove you love God by being mad-as-all-get-out because others on TV do wrong and you think they ought to be exiled to Mars. I’m not saying you’re wrong. I’m just saying you aren’t proving your love for God that way.

No, you prove your love for God, for Christ, loving your brothers and sisters in Christ through Him and believing what He said about Himself.

John 14:6  Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. 7 If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him…9  Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?

The first proof of your love for God is your obedience in loving your brothers and sisters in Christ all over God’s green earth and here in your presence and your belief that He is God, your faith in Him, and trusting in His righteousness and not your own to get to Heaven.

The next evidence I want to talk about in showing that you love God is trust.  When I was a small child I completely trusted my Dad. He could do no wrong and I believed that anything he did for me was for my benefit.

Even though I screamed and cried after being spanked I never once thought my father spanked me because he hated me. When he taught me to Box and would beat the living snot out of me I never thought he was being cruel. I craved his attention. One of the things he used to say to me when I was older about what he loved when I was his little boy was me standing in the car seat next to him (this was before car seats when a stiff arm was the only thing between a kid and eternity in a car crash) one of the things was me saying happily, “We has lots o’ time togedder don’t we Daddy?”

I just wanted to be with him and I trusted him completely. If he said it, it was true in my finite mind even if he was fudging the truth a bit like telling me that I got here when a buzzard dropped me on a flat rock and the sun hatched me.

One of the things I’ve loved about my animals; from the Belgian Shepherd named Rinnie who was my companion as a child to my cats in my old age has been their trust. They want to be with me. They expect kindness and gentleness from my hand. And if I must force them to take medicine they forgive me quickly. It is a precious thing to me for my old cat to rest her head on my arm and throw her paw over it, just feeling safe and secure from all alarm.

Trusting God has always been difficult for me. I fear Him. I don’t always think that this or that will turn out okay. I assume that at the end of every struggle or challenge there will be a lot of pain. I am not an optimist. But, God promises things when we trust Him.

First, there is something call perfect peace, something I crave.

Isaiah 26:3  Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.

He promises wisdom and guidance if we trust Him.

Proverbs 3:5  Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. 6  In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.

Trust isn’t just optimism though. It is accepting that sometimes what God causes or allows to happen to you hurts. The word evil is sometimes used for trouble, disaster, pain, suffering, and calamity.

Matthew 6:34  Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.

So, here we have an indication of how painful life can be.

Job 2:10  But he said unto her, Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh. What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? In all this did not Job sin with his lips.

Lamentations 3:37 ¶  Who is he that saith, and it cometh to pass, when the Lord commandeth it not? 38  Out of the mouth of the most High proceedeth not evil and good?

I pray for God’s mercy every day. But, I need to learn to trust Him even when things happen I don’t want to happen.

Job 13:15a  Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him…

Then, there is this scene with the Hebrew young men threatened by Babylonian Emperor Nebuchadnezzar.

Daniel 3:14  Nebuchadnezzar spake and said unto them, Is it true, O Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, do not ye serve my gods, nor worship the golden image which I have set up? 15  Now if ye be ready that at what time ye hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, and dulcimer, and all kinds of musick, ye fall down and worship the image which I have made; well: but if ye worship not, ye shall be cast the same hour into the midst of a burning fiery furnace; and who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hands? 16  Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter. 17  If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. 18  But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.

The idea that you may have to trust Him to your death or that while you know He could deliver you from something horrible, He might not, is a terrifying prospect.

Trusting that God knows what He’s doing and that, in the end, He knows what He’s doing in all issues that He allows to happen even ones that rhyme with cancer, car accidents, and your kid having a drug overdose is a terrifying thought, just terrifying.

And yet, He tells us not to worry about anything, to not be full of care;

Philippians 4:6  Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.

He has blessed us with so much, protected us in so many situations we are not even aware of, and so many times not let us suffer the consequences of what we so richly deserve and yet, in the end we may suffer a great deal. But, we must trust Him. He loves us, He has everything in His power, and we have an eternity with Him waiting on us when we cross death’s threshold.

I obeyed my father, when I obeyed him, because I loved him and feared him. I trusted him because I knew he loved me even when what he did didn’t make me feel very good.

I wanted to spend time with my Dad. How much time do we spend with God? That is another way you show your love for your Creator, by spending as much time in prayer as you can talking to Him and as much time as you can reading His words in his Bible, letting Him speak to your heart of hearts.

History tells us of famous men like John Wesley or George Washington spending as much as two hours per day in prayer. The Bible tells us to be in a constant state of prayer.

1Thessalonians 5:17  Pray without ceasing.

Romans 12:12  Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer;

When I was a kid we were taught little prayer poems, like some kind of magic chant, I suppose we expected would protect us but I don’t remember much meaning or heartfelt emotion behind them.

“God is great. God is good. And we thank Him for this food. Amen.”

Or;

“Now I lay me down to sleep. I pray the Lord my soul to keep. If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take.”

They would have been good prayers if they were heartfelt and earnest, but they seem pretty lame to me now, being repeated mindlessly each day.

I always appreciate a heartfelt prayer, one that comes from deep inside a person, rather than just something to fill the air when they are asked to pray.

Matthew 6: 5 ¶  And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.6  But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. 7  But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.

Jesus gave us two model prayers at different times which show just how direct and concise God wants prayers to be.

Matthew 6:9 ¶  After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. 10  Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. 11  Give us this day our daily bread. 12  And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. 13  And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.

Luke 11:1 ¶  And it came to pass, that, as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples. 2  And he said unto them, When ye pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth. 3  Give us day by day our daily bread. 4  And forgive us our sins; for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil.

Understand that a temptation can be anything that tries or tests your faith, from sickness to your own sin, while evil is trouble or disaster, even just a bad day but here they are synonymous. A temptation is an evil in that it can call your faith into question. For instance, the pagan Roman or fundamentalist Muslims’ demand that a Christian renounce Christ or die. That is a temptation that they faced and many Christians around the world face daily.

In these prayers we see that God wants to be our acknowledged source of life and safety and peace. Centuries ago common people believed that every moment was a miracle and that God’s hand could be seen in virtually every event, every second of every day, in some way. Then, Isaac Newton and his colleagues came a long and reduced God to a sort of benign first cause. They started looking at everything from its smallest part on up rather than looking at the big picture, looking at God and the majesty of His creation on down.

It did not take long for wicked, sinful mankind to simply remove God as the first cause and blame it all on random chance or just the nature of the way things are without intelligence behind it.

We need to spend more time in prayer, talking to God, and we need to spend more time in the Bible, listening to God, and we need to spend some time in silence, contemplating God. This brings me to the next thing I wanted to discuss with you which, as I said, if you only take this alone without the personal dimension of love and joy you, too, will reduce God to a first cause and then push Him out the door entirely.

The next way we show God our love for Him, the next way it is expressed is in our awe of Him, our reverence of Him, and, yes, our fear.

The Bible says;

Psalm 111:10  The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: a good understanding have all they that do his commandments: his praise endureth for ever.

Proverbs 1:7  The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.

What is the fear of the Lord? Shall we spend all our time hiding under a table in the toolshed? The Bible defines itself.

Proverbs 8:13  The fear of the LORD is to hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward mouth, do I hate.

Proverbs 9:10  The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding.

Paul talks about Godly fear as reverence;

Hebrews 12:28  Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear:

Psalm 33:8  Let all the earth fear the LORD: let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him.

His name is holy, not something to be spoken lightly or part of a curse.

Psalm 111:9  He sent redemption unto his people: he hath commanded his covenant for ever: holy and reverend is his name.

What He has done and is doing is beyond the understanding of the finest minds of men.

 Psalm 19:1  « To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. » The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.

In the book of Job, when God answers Job out of a whirlwind, He explains that the reality we know and even that we have no experience of comes directly from Him. I’ll just use one part of His declaration to make a point here.

Job 38:25 ¶  Who hath divided a watercourse for the overflowing of waters, or a way for the lightning of thunder; 26  To cause it to rain on the earth, where no man is; on the wilderness, wherein there is no man; 27  To satisfy the desolate and waste ground; and to cause the bud of the tender herb to spring forth? 28  Hath the rain a father? or who hath begotten the drops of dew? 29  Out of whose womb came the ice? and the hoary frost of heaven, who hath gendered it? 30  The waters are hid as with a stone, and the face of the deep is frozen. 31  Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion? 32  Canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth in his season? or canst thou guide Arcturus with his sons? 33  Knowest thou the ordinances of heaven? canst thou set the dominion thereof in the earth? 34  Canst thou lift up thy voice to the clouds, that abundance of waters may cover thee? 35  Canst thou send lightnings, that they may go, and say unto thee, Here we are? 36  Who hath put wisdom in the inward parts? or who hath given understanding to the heart? 37  Who can number the clouds in wisdom? or who can stay the bottles of heaven, 38  When the dust groweth into hardness, and the clods cleave fast together? 39  Wilt thou hunt the prey for the lion? or fill the appetite of the young lions, 40  When they couch in their dens, and abide in the covert to lie in wait? 41  Who provideth for the raven his food? when his young ones cry unto God, they wander for lack of meat.

In God’s rhetorical interrogation of Job He asks several questions which may seem perplexing to us. In verse 25 a connection is made between lightning and thunder, which we now understand more clearly. Aristotle, as late as the third century BC, attributed thunder to a collision between clouds.  The disturbing, again, implication in verse 25 is that even when there is flooding, God disperses overflowing water as He sees fit. This is a frightening prospect if we consider what the Bible is telling us that even in a seemingly random process God is in control. Did you ever imagine that?

Here, God speaks about how He causes all things, even where man is nowhere around to witness the things. It rains in places where man is not to soak the parched ground and cause plants to grow that man will never see. Think about this. From the dense forests of Borneo to the jungles of Brazil there is life and there are events happening that we will never know about experientially. There are things happening a million light-years from us that we have no knowledge of now or at any time in our lives. Man is not the measure of all things as the Greek philosopher, Protagoras said. The universe God built for Himself. We are a part of His plan. But, we are not the only part.

Verse 28 places God squarely as the author of every drop of dew. Think of that. Imagine it, if you will. Every snowflake, the ice on a pond, the frost on the ground, all of it, every microscopic piece of it created by God, not just the result of a random process, an, “accident of nature,” but a direct execution of divine will. It staggers the modern mind.

The anthropologist, Susan Friend Harding, wrote, “The membrane between disbelief and belief is thinner than we think.” (2) Most Christians in America seem to believe in a caretaker God, like a gardener, watching over life processes and natural events that He can only affect in a minimal way by exerting Himself from outside of the process, by interrupting the process, like a landlord we call on to fix the plumbing in our apartment when it leaks. American Christians, even fundamentalists, can’t wrap their minds around the God presented in the Bible. They can wrap their minds around the God presented in their culture. That God is a sort of manager, or at times a warrior-king, or at times a big brother, and at times even a benefactor, but He is most certainly not the God presented in the Bible who controls every moment everywhere in His universe. He is neither surprised nor at a disadvantage when a thing happens. He either made it happen or permitted it to happen. Period. And that is just and right and as it should be, your fear, your grief, your pain, your discomfort notwithstanding.

God now moves masterfully in His speech to the farthest reaches of outer space, to the nearby atmosphere of earth, and into the human heart, the spiritual heart of understanding, emotion, and reason, to underscore His sovereign reign over the sum total of reality. He even speaks of causing clods of dirt and providing food for wild animals and birds. He does this, Himself. He is the author of it.

This is a different earth, a different universe, than what we are used to imagining. Be honest with yourself, when the snow piled deep in your yard you didn’t think of it being a direct act of God any more than when you started your car did you think that. 

We have lived for several hundred years in a universe we thought was governed by blind forces. The only difference between many Christians and atheists have been that Christians thought there was a benevolent and powerful entity who wound up those forces and who would intervene occasionally to interrupt those blind forces on the Christian’s behalf. Both are wrong. Dead wrong.

(2) Susan Friend Harding, The Book of Falwell: Fundamentalist Language and Politics (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2000), 58.

Are you in awe of God? Do you bow your head in reverence to the mind, the Spirit, capital S, of such a being? Can you even imagine His thought processes, His reasoning, in the things He is capable of doing and does?

When we think about it we should be stunned. Unbelieving people will tell you that something came from nothing by random chance or rather, a “quantum fluctuation” but common-sense tells you that something does not come from nothing without an intelligent mind involved.

Not only did God create the universe but He holds it together. Unbelievers can not understand why if attraction is based on gravitational pull and that on mass why 99% of the mass of the universe must be missing. What holds it together, they fret? They imagine things they cannot see or experiment on like Dark Matter. But, then they add Dark Energy to the list of things they fantasize about in order to avoid God. And yet, our own Bible tells us what, who rather, holds things together.

Colossians 1:17  And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.

This God who simply is;

Exodus 3:14  And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.

…is unbelievably amazing in every aspect. We should be on our faces in complete and utter astonishment all the time. But, we are finite creatures and like a bug or bird we must go about the task of living in this reality. But we are missing out on the most wonderful thing of all, thinking about His glory and who He is.

Finally we should be in awe for the fact, in wonder, that the God who forms stars in the furthest reaches of space looked down into the earth and picked, “a certain man,” or, “a certain woman,” as the Bible so cleverly labels those anonymous people who performed a certain function as a part of God’s will. He picked you to spend eternity with Him. He offered you His unlimited and undying mercy and you received the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal savior, trusting in His righteousness only and not your own for your salvation and eternal life. But, He loved us first at the Cross, an event so awesome it has boggled men’s minds. The God who created us, this awesome being came to live as one of us, died, paying the penalty for our sins at our own hands, and then rose again for our justification and eternity with Him.

He is simply astounding and there are no words to describe the God of the Bible. If you don’t love Him now I hope you can learn to love Him. It is what He wants from us. Even under the Old Testament Law He wanted to walk with us.

Micah 6:8  He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?

Obedience, trust, spending time, and awe are some ways we show our love for God in our hearts.

I hope you will consider what I’ve said. It is incomplete as I am sure you can think of other things to say. I just want to love my Lord and to keep that in the forefront of my mind. Christians can get so wrapped up on the doing of things that we don’t stop to contemplate and experience a love for our Creator, our Saviour. God bless you all.