Luke 2:1-20: A Tale of Two Kings

Presented to Swift Current Corps and community on Christmas Day, Sunday, December 25, 2011&12 by Captain Michael Ramsay

Click here to read the message: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.ca/2011/12/luke-21-20-tale-of-two-kings.html

Matthew 1:18-25: Do You Believe in Dreams?

 Presented to Swift Current Corps of The Salvation Army, 24 Dec 2012.[1]

By Captain Michael Ramsay

Click here to read a 2008 version: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.ca/2008/12/matthew-118-25-do-you-believe.html

Today, on this Christmas Eve, we look forward to the joy of tomorrow: Christmas Day. This is the celebration of the birth, the incarnation and the advent and of the Christ. Let us for a moment focus on from our passage today, Joseph, the man, the fiancé and the husband of Mary. Oh how it must have been for him. Pretend with me for a moment that you are he.

Joseph is a carpenter; Joseph is a stone mason. He is from the tribe of Judah and – of course –King David is among his most famous ancestors. Matthew records for us a few things about Joseph. We are told in our text today that Joseph, Verse 19, is righteous. In our world these days when we think of a righteous person… if someone were to tell you that this person that they know is righteous… if someone were to say this visitor that we have here with us today is a righteous woman or man, what would we think that they would be like? We would probably think that they would pray, read the Bible, love God and love their neighbour (cf. Luke 10:27)? All of the above would probably be true of someone described as a righteous person today and more. This was very much what it would have meant for Joseph too. Joseph was a first century Judean who served God and to the average first century Jews, to be righteous meant that one was very good at keeping the religious law of their time.[2]

Matthew tells us also, Verse 18, that Joseph is pledged to be married to a girl named Mary.[3] Now, betrothal in first century is not like it is today. When you are engaged then you are already bound. You are already considered as husband and wife and the union can only be dissolved through death or divorce.[4] And before Mary and Joseph ever ‘know each other’ in the Biblical sense, before they ever come together in THAT way, Mary becomes pregnant. Imagine this scenario with me, if you will – men in particular: you are engaged, you have not had relations with your fiancée and all of a sudden you find out that she is pregnant. What would you do? What would you say? What would you feel? What would you think? What would you think and what would you do if your girlfriend to whom you are engaged becomes pregnant – and not by you? Would you still get married? Joseph, when he finds out that Mary is pregnant, is planning to call off the wedding altogether. Now in those days Mary could receive up to even the death penalty for this; so as Verse 19 records, Joseph wants to do this quietly so as to not bring any disgrace upon Mary. He is a righteous man.

Then something happens. Joseph has a dream. He dreams about an angel and in the dream this angel tells Joseph that he should ‘take Mary home as his wife’, Verse 20, ‘because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit’. He then dreams about what to name this child and how this son will save people from even their sins. It is now that Joseph has a number of decisions to make.

1)      Does Joseph believe in visions and does he believe in this vision in particular?

2)      Does Joseph, when we awakens, still believe that an angel actually has spoken to him and does he believe that what this angel has said to him is true?

3)      And how will Joseph respond to this belief? Will he ignore his conviction that this vision is from God and press on with the separation/divorce anyway or will he accept the commission given to him from God through a messenger in a dream? What would you do? Do you believe in your dreams?

Joseph does. Joseph is a righteous man. When Joseph awakes from his sleep, Verse 24, he does everything the angel from the Lord tells him to do, including taking Mary home as his wife and not having any sexual relations with her until this child is born. This is Joseph. Joseph is a righteous man. He follows his dream. He follows God.

This was Joseph prior to the eve of the Messiah’s birth. The questions still stand for us on the celebration of that eve, on this Christmas Eve, now 2000 years or so later.

1)      Do we believe in visions from God and do we believe in this vision?

2)      Do we believe that angels actually speak to people and do we believe that an angel actually spoke to Joseph that what this angel has told him is true?

      3)    And, if we do believe, how do we respond to this belief? Do we ignore the conviction that this vision is from God and press on with our own lives the way we want to lead them or do we accept the commission given to us from the Lord to share the Good News of the birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus with the whole world so that we all may be saved? On this Christmas Eve, 2000 or so years later, what will we do? What will you do? Do you believe in your dreams?

www.sheepspeak.com
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[1] cf. Captain Michael Ramsay, 'Luke 1:26-37: Do You Believe?' Presented to the Nipawin Corps 14 December 2008. Available on-line: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2008/12/luke-126-37-do-you-believe.html and Captain Michael Ramsay, 'Matthew 1:18-25: Do you believe?' Presented to each Nipawin and Tisdale Corps, 24 December 2007 and the CFOT chapel in Winnipeg, December 2006. Available on-line: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2008/12/matthew-118-25-do-you-believe.html

[2] Walter W. Wessel and Ralph Earle, ‘Matthew’ in NIV Study Bible (Grand Rapids, Mi : Zondervan, 2002), note on Matthew 1:19, p. 1467.

[3] cf. R. Alan Culpepper, Luke (NIB 8: Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon, 1995), 51 and E. Earle Ellis, 71. Betrothal is not quite like engagements of today. In those days a man and his wife were committed to each other at the engagement ceremony. They did have a public ceremony with witnesses and the more. They did each gain a marital status, complete with rights and responsibilities and if Joseph had died after their engagement ceremony but prior to their marriage ceremony, Mary would still be considered a widow with all the responsibilities and rights (or lack thereof) of a widow. The betrothal was very different then anything we have today and even though Mary would be Joseph’s legal wife, after this engagement ceremony rather than going off to live with one’s husband, the wife usually returned to her father’s household for a period of up to a year.

[4] M. Eugene Boring, ‘Matthew’ (NIB VIII: Nashville, Tennessee: Abingdon Press, 1995), 134.

Luke 1:68-79: Next Year in Jerusalem

Presented to Swift Current Corps, 09 December 2012. Based on Luke 1:68-79: Next Year in Regina: The Waiting Game.[1] Presented to Swift Current Corps, 06 December 2009. By Captain Michael Ramsay

Advent. Last week was the first week of Advent. Does anyone know what Advent is? Advent is waiting. Who here likes to wait? Our Saskatchewan Roughriders are the most popular team in the CFL and fans have become somewhat accustomed to waiting. Football fans here have been referred to as living in ‘next year country’. Next year will be the year we bring the cup home to Saskatchewan. Next year would be a great year to do it to, because next year the game is in Regina. Next year in Regina: this rallying cry is not entirely dissimilar from the rallying cry of the early Christians. The early Christians could greet each other with the phrase, ‘Next year in Jerusalem’. The idea being that Christ will return next year and the Christians will all celebrate the victory that he won between the cross and the empty tomb next year in Jerusalem.

The Israelites long before the advent of Jesus, during the exile, actually began using this expression - ‘next year in Jerusalem’ – in their Passover meal to express their hope that next year they will no longer be exiled, next year they will be restored to their homeland. “Next year in Jerusalem” was the rallying cry of the exiled Hebrews just like “Next year in Regina” can become the rallying call for the avid Roughriders fans as they wait and hope to celebrate their next Grey Cup victory here.

Advent – in the Christian calendar – is a time of waiting to celebrate that victory, that restoration achieved between the cross and the empty tomb. Advent recognizes two times of waiting:

1)      A remembrance of that waiting for the penultimate arrival of the Christ, who was born in a manger around 2000 years ago – Advent is waiting for Christmas.

2)      Advent is waiting for Jesus to ultimately return in all of his glory at the eschaton: next year in Jerusalem.

Next week, The Salvation Army is preparing the community Advent luncheon. They’re Thursdays at St. Stephen’s Anglican Church. One year I heard Greg Kiel, one of the Lutheran pastors, speaking. He told this joke about waiting:

A fellow was speaking to God and he said, “Lord, I have two questions for you, I was wondering if you could help me:  1) A Millennium, a thousand years, is a long time to us – how long is that time for an eternal God?”

“It is just a second”

2) “God, on another note, there is a lottery draw coming up next Saturday and I was wondering if and when you could help me win the lottery?”

“Just a second.”

Advent is a time of waiting. We are now waiting for the new Jerusalem to descend from the heavens to earth like it says will happen in Revelation 21 (Revelation 21:1-8; see also Matthew 24:29-31, 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17, 2 Thessalonians 2:1-3, Revelation 1:7). We are awaiting Jesus’ return and the future resurrection of the dead. We are waiting. Maybe next year the earth and the heavens will be made anew (Revelation 21:1-8). Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we spend next year in the new heaven and the new earth with our new bodies in the new Jerusalem with our Lord and Saviour? Next year in the new Jerusalem. That would be even more wonderful than spending next year in Regina watching the Riders hoist the cup: spending next year with Christ at the final victory…but waiting is never easy. And waiting is what Advent is all about.

Today we are looking at a part of Scripture referred to as the Benedictus – it is called this because the first word of this section in Latin is ‘Benedictus’ (meaning ‘blessed’).[2] This pericope in Luke is quite interesting. The person who is speaking here is Zechariah. Zechariah is John the Baptist’s father. We know about Zechariah: He is a Levite and he is a priest and  - I don’t know if you remember the story but he was struck mute and possibly even deaf as well after he was told that he would have a son and who his son would be (Luke 1:5-25, cf. Luke 1:19, 22, 62; Daniel 10:15-16). [3] Zechariah remained mute from the time he found out that his wife was pregnant until eight days after his son was born (Luke 1:59; see Genesis 17:9-14). The Benedictus, this speech, is comprised of Zechariah’s first words not only after the birth of his son but also his first words after he has been cured of not being able to speak for over half a year. As per Elisabeth, can you imagine if your spouse couldn’t speak for almost nine months? What would be their first words? Can you imagine if you couldn’t speak for almost nine months? What would be yours? These were Zechariahs’ (as spoken by the power of the Holy Spirit, Luke 1:67),[4] Luke 1:68-79:

68 Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel,

      because he has come and has redeemed his people.

 69 He has raised up a horn of salvation for us

      in the house of his servant David

 70 (as he said through his holy prophets of long ago),

 71 salvation from our enemies

      and from the hand of all who hate us—

 72 to show mercy to our fathers

      and to remember his holy covenant,

 73 the oath he swore to our father Abraham:

 74 to rescue us from the hand of our enemies,

      and to enable us to serve him without fear

 75 in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.

 76 And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High;

      for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him,

 77 to give his people the knowledge of salvation

      through the forgiveness of their sins,

 78 because of the tender mercy of our God,

      by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven

 79 to shine on those living in darkness

      and in the shadow of death,

   to guide our feet into the path of peace.

This speech really addresses the who, what, why, and how of Salvation. But before we look more at the answers here provided for these questions, we should probably ask ourselves the question, what is Salvation? What does ‘Salvation’ mean? Salvation simply means to be saved. Verses 71 and 74 of our text today refer to Israel being saved from her enemies. This is what was expected of the Christ/ the Messiah when he came: he would save the people from their enemies and then those who were exiled along with everyone else would celebrate this Salvation, ‘next year in Jerusalem’

The people of Israel were waiting for the Messiah to deliver them from Rome at the time of Jesus’ incarnation. They have had many enemies through the years. The Kingdom of Israel fell to invaders in 720 BCE; The Kingdom of Judah fell in 586 BCE. The land of Palestine was conquered by the Assyrians, then by the Babylonians, and then by the Persians.

In many of these conquests more Israelites and more Judeans were deported. Those deported were known as the Diaspora: they were exiled Israelites living abroad. They were longing to have their right to return recognized. They were longing for their conquerors to leave the occupied territories. They were longing to spend next year in Jerusalem.

Many people’s grandchildren did later return as the Hebrews fared well under Persian rule. But the Persians were eventually defeated by the Greeks; the Greeks and the Judeans didn’t get along quite so well. The Greeks (Ptolemys then Seleucids from 198 BCE) saw the Jews revolt (the Hasmoneans a.k.a. the Maccabees). The Greeks weren’t too happy with this and so they (under Antiochus IV) even intentionally defiled the Temple in Jerusalem (The Second Temple, the Herodian Temple; cf. Ezra 6:3-4; 1 Esdras 6:24-25; Antiquities 11.4.6; 99; Apion 1.22,198-99; cf. also 1 Maccabees 4.36-51; Antiquities 12.317-18). In a violent struggle that followed, the people of Palestine eventually obtained independence for a very short time (140-37 BCE). Only to be conquered again this time by General Pompeii and the Roman forces (63 BCE).

So now in the time of our Scripture today, as we well know from the Christmas story, Palestine is under the authority of Caesar Augustus (AKA Octavius, Julius Caesar’s adopted son) as Palestine is still an occupied Roman territory (Luke 2:1). Palestine, Israel, Judea by this time – except for a very few years – has been conquered and militarily occupied for four to five hundred years – this is much longer than its entire existence of Israel as a united kingdom many years prior to this  – that only lasted about 100 years (1050 or 1010 to 931).[5] The United Kingdom of Israel was only ever a country for less time than Canada has already been a nation!

Israel up to the point in history where our story today is taking place has been waiting for a leader known as the Messiah or the Christ to save them from their enemies.[6]  It is in the midst of this long list of successive occupations that Luke here speaks about Salvation –surprisingly to some maybe- by not a warrior king but by a Prince of Peace (Luke 1:79; see Isaiah 9:6).[7] Luke is telling us in his story that this Messiah is Jesus and he has not come to merely free Israel from her earthly enemies – as indeed her military occupation carried on for millennia after Christ – Jesus came to save Israel and the whole world (including the Romans) from Sin and Death (Genesis 12:1-3, 13:2; Romans 1, 2). That is our real enemy. Our struggle is not with flesh and blood but with principalities and powers (Ephesians 6). This passage today contains a glimpse of the history of the expectation of Salvation.

God, as recorded in our text before us today, through Luke and through Zechariah tells us even more. He tells us what Salvation really looks like.[8] At the first coming of Christ, Jesus’ incarnation (birth), death, and resurrection it was the beginning of the Kingdom of God; it was the first blossoms of the Spring of Salvation about which we spoke last week (Luke 21:25-26).[9] We are in the proleptic Kingdom of God when we are in the presence of Christ. And when we experience His Salvation, this is what it will look like: God tells us through Luke who tells us through Zechariah that when we are saved we will show mercy to our fathers (Are you listening girls? You should be nice to your dad it says…). When we are saved and the Kingdom is fully realized we will be freed from our enemies (Luke 1:71,74) SO THAT we can show mercy to our spiritual and covenantal fathers (Luke 1:72; cf. Malachi 3:3); when we are saved and the Kingdom is fully realized we will be freed from our enemies SO THAT we can serve God without fear (Luke 1:74); when we are saved and the Kingdom is fully realized we will be freed from our enemies SO THAT we can serve God in holiness and righteousness all the days of our lives (Luke 1:75). This is what Salvation is (in part) and this is what we are waiting for in Advent – the eschaton, the ultimate coming of Christ: next year in the Jerusalem. As we annually await the celebration of the birth of the baby Jesus, we remember too this second coming for which we are ultimately waiting.

When Christ came the first time to a Galilean working class family paying their taxes in Bethlehem, we saw the first glimpse of this Salvation that was definitively won between the cross and the empty tomb. When Jesus returns we will see its culmination and all this is what Zechariah is proclaiming with the birth of his son (Luke 1:68-75). This is what Zechariah has to say after not being able to say or maybe even hear anything for months. He tells us of the glory of Salvation! This is exciting! And God has planned all of this since before the creation of the world. Zechariah’s son – that little eight day old baby who is no doubt crying as he is being circumcised in our passage today (Luke 1:59) – this little eight day old baby is being given the privilege to tell the world about Jesus. Little Johnny here, Baby John is to be the Herald of the Good News that goes before the Christ. He is to be the voice from the wilderness proclaiming the Word of the Lord (Luke 3:4; see Isaiah 40:3; Malachi 3:1, 4:5; Matthew 3:3; Mark 1:3; John 1:23). Zechariah knows – at least in part – that his baby boy will go in the spirit of Elijah pointing everyone to our Messiah, Jesus, who is the Christ (Luke 1:17; see Matthew 11:14, 17:10-12; Mark 9:11-13). Zechariah is obviously both a proud and humbled papa today as he proclaims the Good News of Salvation to all who will hear him.

He tells us what he knows of this baby being circumcised today: John will be a prophet of the Most High (Luke 1:76). John will let people know of the Salvation that they will receive through the forgiveness of our sins (Luke 1:77). John will tell the people of God’s tender mercy by which God sends his own Son to shine as a light in the darkness; a light even in the very shadow of death (see Luke 1:78-79; Isaiah 60:13). Zechariah is honoured to announce that his son John will declare the arrival of the Lord for whom everyone is waiting. This little baby, John, will announce the impending arrival of the King of Kings, who is indeed the Prince of Peace.

This is not unlike our calling today, 2000 years later. As we await Christmas this Advent season and as we celebrate the arrival of Jesus as a baby in a manger, we must not forget our great commission to tell the whole world the glorious news that Jesus lived, died and rose again so that we can all have eternal life if we simply follow Him. Just like the prophet John, we are to proclaim the Good News of the arrival of our Lord and Saviour; and just like the apostles twelve, we are to let everyone know the rest of the Good News of Advent and that is that Jesus is coming back and Jesus is coming back soon (Matthew 28:16-20).

Let us this Advent season succeed in this task. While we are waiting for Christ’s return, may we all be as bold as John (and his father Zechariah) to tell anyone who will listen to us that indeed Jesus is coming back and he is coming soon and we all can be saved if we so choose (TSA doc. 6). And who knows? Maybe we’ll all meet again at the eschaton, next year in Jerusalem.

Let us pray.

 

www.sheepspeak.com

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[1] http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.ca/2009/12/luke-168-79-next-year-in-edmonton.html

[2] Fred B. Craddock, Luke (Interpretation: Louisville, Kentucky: John Knox, 1990) p.  32.

[3] Walter L. Leifeld, The Expositor's Bible Commentary. Pradis CD-ROM:Luke/Exposition of Luke/II. Birth and Childhood Narratives (1:5-2:52)/B. Birth Narratives (1:57-2:20)/1. The birth of John the Baptist (1:57-66), Book Version: 4.0.2: The Greek word for unable to hear (kophos) can also mean "deaf". Cf. R. Alan Culpepper, The Gospel of Luke (NIB IX: Nashville, Tenn., Abingdon, 1995), p. 58 and Wayne Grudem and Thomas R. Schreiner, ESV Study Bible notes (Crossway Bibles: Wheaton, Ill., 2008) p. 1946.

[4] Cf. Alyce M. McKenzie, ‘Between Text and Sermon: Luke 1:68-79’, Interpretation 55 no. 4 (October, 2001): 413

[5] ESV Study Bible on-line. Old Testament Timeline: United Monarchy. Available on-line: http://www.esvstudybible.org/articles/chart-ot-timeline

[6] Cf. Loveday Alexander, ‘Luke's Political Vision’, Interpretation 66 no. 3 (June 2012): 283-293.

[7] Cf. R. Alan Culpepper, 60.

[8] Eduard Schweizer, The Good News According to Luke, trans. David E, Green (Atlanta: John Knos, 1984) 43: “The ultimate purpose of God’s salvation presupposes deliverance from the enemy but is in fact undisturbed worship.”

[9] Captain Michael Ramsay, Luke 21:29-31: the First Sprigs of Spring. Presented to St. Stephen the Martyr Anglican Church Swift Current, Saskatchewan, 29 November 2009 and Swift Current TSA Corps 02 December 2012. Avail. on-line: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.ca/2009/11/luke-2129-31-first-sprigs-of-spring.html

Luke 21:29-31: the First Sprigs of Spring

Presented to St. Stephen the Martyr Anglican Church
Swift Current, Saskatchewan, 29 November 2009  
and Swift Current TSA Corps 02 December 2012
By Captain Michael Ramsay

Click here to see the sermon:
http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.ca/2009/11/luke-2129-31-first-sprigs-of-spring.html

1 Kings 13: Lion for Prophet

Presented to Swift Current Corps of The Salvation Army , 25 Nov. 2012

By Captain Michael Ramsay

 

Harvey told a joke at the Army this week:

There is a fellow who is big game hunting somewhere in Africa along with his wife and her parents. One afternoon, his mother-in-law is missing so, of course, they all franticly search for her. The wife spies her mother and grabs her husband. She points to a clearing where they see her mother who is face to face with a lion. “Do something!” she exclaims to her husband.

“No” he replies, “the lion got himself into this mess, he can very well get himself out of it.” (I imagine that the point of this story is simply pointing out the superior big game hunting skills of his wife’s mother)

The pericope that we are looking at today contains a lion and a person but the person who comes face-to-face with the lion doesn’t fare quite as well as the fellow’s mother-in-law in our opening anecdote presumably does. This scriptural episode with the lion is just one aspect of the story that we read today and this passage has so many fascinating parts to it.

We read in 1 Kings 13 how the LORD uses one of His prophets to give this powerful message to King Jeroboam of Israel. As recorded in 1 Kings 13:2-3, the prophet relays the message from the LORD that the LORD will punish the king for his sins: for the golden calves and high places that the king had set up (cf. 1 Kings 12:2-5-33). When King Jeroboam responds to this news by stretching out his hand to command the prophet’s capture, his hand is shriveled up and he cannot withdraw it. So the king pleads with the prophet to intercede with the LORD on his behalf so that his hand may be restored. The prophet intercedes: the hand is restored by God. The king then invites the prophet to have dinner with him reportedly in order to present him with a gift of some kind: probably a thank you gift.[1] Declining, the prophet declares in Verses 8 and 9 that “even if you were to give me half of your possessions, I would not go with you, nor would I eat bread or drink water here. For I was commanded by the Word of the LORD: ‘You must not eat bread or drink water or return by the way you came.’ So he took a different route home.”

If the story ended here it would be interesting enough. At the beginning of the episode, we have two characters going head to head here: the prophet [He is named ‘Yadon’ by Josephus (Antiquites viii.9.1; cf. Iddo, 2 Chr. 13:2)] – and the king, Yadon and King Jeroboam.[2] The roles seem to be pretty well defined here too. The prophet is a ‘man of God’. He is the good guy and the king in this scene is the bad guy.[3] If this was an old west film, Yadon would be wearing the white hat and Jeroboam, the black hat. If this was a classic western movie, when Jeroboam reached out his hand he would have had a six shooter in it but Yadon would be quicker, paralyzing Jeroboam as he shoots the gun from his hand. You can almost picture this dramatic scene.

In our scriptures today it is this dramatic of a scene but, of course, this actually takes place a long time before western movies existed and it seems as if all that is in the king’s hand is his full royal authority, which of course is more powerful than any six-shooter possibly could be. It is this authority with which the king is reaching out in order to order the prophet’s arrest. The prophet Yadon by condemning the king’s idolatry has just challenged the king’s authority to set up independent places and modes of worship in his own country. The king takes this sort of challenge seriously and he responds as the powerful often do when challenged, even in our world today. The prophet however (as do we all) has access to the power and the mercy of God. The power of God is manifest through this prophet in that when the king stretches out his hand to command the arrest of the prophet, the Lord arrests his hand. God then shows His power and His mercy through the prophet by restoring the king’s hand and then Yadon further shows his strength of conviction and his character by obeying the Lord in refusing to delay returning home by refusing to dine with the king.

Now there is even more to this apparent strength of conviction and character of Yadon the prophet. Some background information: King Jeroboam, the bad guy, in the first part of our story today is the king of the newly created Kingdom of Israel. God has just torn Israel (with the exception of the tribe of Judah) away from Solomon’s son Rehoboam and God has given it to King Jeroboam (1 Kings 11-12). King Rehoboam of Judah, in the previous chapter of the book of Kings here, sent his officer in charge of forced labour to go get Israel back but God and King Jeroboam’s Israel didn’t take so kindly to this and the Israelites stoned him (1 Kings 12:18). King Rehoboam of Judah then sent an army against Israel, which God, through the prophet Shemaiah, turned back and now God sends this young prophet from Judah to condemn Israel’s King Jeroboam (1 Kings 12:21-24). You can see why Israel and King Jeroboam might not trust this prophet from Judah and you can see why this young prophet from Judah might doubt his assignment from God but he doesn’t; on the contrary he displays this apparent strength of conviction and character in his obedience to the LORD.

Putting the Israel of our pericope today in its proper historical context: Israel is in the process of seceding from its union with Judah. There has been talk this week about some of the American states in the south seceding from their union; how would they feel if someone from the north then came down to the south to tell them what is wrong with their lives and the way they worship God? They might not like that too much. Closer to home Quebec just this year elected a separatist government again. If Quebec finally does separate from Canada, how would we here react to a Québécois prophet coming to Saskatchewan to tell our premier that we are worshipping God in the wrong way? This is what it is like for King Jeroboam and this is what is like for Yadon, the man of God.[4]

Can you imagine if you were a prophet from the west here, after a separation, and you were sent to tell the Québécois how to worship God? How bold would you be? That would be what it must have been like for the prophet Yadon but he stands strong. He never wavers. He obeys God: he gives the king God’s message, he restores the king’s arm, and he heads straight for home refusing to tarry with the king. This prophet seems like he is doing great, right? Wouldn't we all like to be as bold as he is? Now this is where the story gets interesting...

An old prophet seeks out this man of God as he is travelling home. He invites him home for dinner. The young prophet originally declines: God told him to go straight home. Our bold man of God who has just faced off against the king of a hostile country, he is bold and he is determined and at first he is not deterred even when he is invited to stop and have dinner with a colleague, a senior colleague. That would be like if I was returning from a mission to Regina or Ottawa and a Major or a Colonel asked me to stop by on the way home. The old prophet asks the young man of God to stop and, 1 Kings 13:16b-17: The man of God says like he did earlier to the king, “I cannot turn back and go with you, nor can I eat bread or drink water with you in this place. I have been told by the word of the Lord: ‘You must not eat bread or drink water there or return by the way you came.’” So far so good…

Now in our story then, this old prophet, this senior prophet, ‘Colonel Old Prophet’, he then lies to the man of God, saying that an angel of the Lord has asked him to invite the young prophet to his home to eat and drink with him. Verses 18-19: “The old prophet answered, ‘I too am a prophet, as you are. And an angel said to me by the word of the Lord: ‘Bring him back with you to your house so that he may eat bread and drink water.’ (But he was lying to him.) So the man of God returned with him and ate and drank in his house.”

This is were the tragedy unfolds: the young man of God accepts this invitation that the older prophet of God tells him comes from God and a then lion sent from God kills the young man of God for disobedience to God. Put yourself in the place of Yadon, the young prophet. What is he supposed to do? Well, we know that he was supposed to go home without stopping but how could he know that ‘Colonel Old Prophet’ was lying to him? This is a young prophet heading home is probably completely drained. You know the feeling when you have just been used by God in an amazing way or have just finished some very important task, how drained you are. One is drained after the Lord uses us for big events like this. I imagine that the young prophet Yadon feels like this. This young prophet is coming home from a successful encounter with the king where the Lord has just spoken through him and he has seen the king’s hand arrested and then he has seen it healed. He is going straight home just like God told him but then another prophet of the Lord comes up to this man; an older, presumably more experienced prophet tells him that the Lord has told him that the young prophet should stop for dinner and so he stops for dinner and is then later killed by a lion for disobedience to the Lord.

There is more here too. Imagine with me now that you are this young prophet who has just been used by God to do so much and imagine with me now that you have had this invitation from a senior prophet that you only accepted because the prophet told you that it was a message from God. Imagine that you have just sat down to dinner. Imagine that you have been recounting the events of your day to the senior prophet. Imagine that you are maybe even listening to some of his stories from the old days. Imagine that you then sit down to dinner. Imagine that somebody is about to ask the blessing, say grace, and then, Verses 20-22: “While they were sitting at the table, the word of the Lord came to the old prophet who had brought him back. He cried out to the man of God who had come from Judah, ‘This is what the Lord says: ‘You have defied the word of the Lord and have not kept the command the Lord your God gave you. You came back and ate bread and drank water in the place where he told you not to eat or drink. Therefore your body will not be buried in the tomb of your ancestors.’”

How would you feel? You have just been used mightily for God’s purposes. You were bold in standing up to the declared bad guy, the king of Israel; you refuse to be distracted from your God-given task but then someone who is supposedly on your side tells you that he has a message from the Lord telling you to stop, so you stop: why would you think he would be lying to you? And then as you are about to eat supper with him he does ironically deliver a message to you that is actually from the Lord, that of your impending death and burial away from your ancestral home for disobeying God by obeying the one speaking to you. How would you feel?

And then it comes to pass, Verse 23 and 24: “When the man of God had finished eating and drinking, the prophet who had brought him back saddled his donkey for him. As he went on his way, a lion met him on the road and killed him, and his body was left lying on the road, with both the donkey and the lion standing beside it.” So, the lion was obliviously from God: he didn’t eat the prophet and he didn’t touch the donkey. He just killed the prophet and stood there beside the donkey watching over the prophet’s body. This is no hungry lion that just happened along by coincidence.[5]

So I have a lot of questions here: Why did the old prophet lie? Why -after the old prophet did lie- did the LORD still use the old prophet to prophecy to the young prophet? Why does the young prophet pay for his sin with his life? But why then is there no punishment recorded here for the elder prophet? Why, more importantly, why is this story even in the Bible? What is God relaying in this scene and this episode to anyone who reads the book of 1 Kings? What is the very important message that we need to learn here today so that we don’t wind up deserving the same fate as Yadon, the young prophet?

What did Yadon do wrong? He disobeyed God. Why did he disobey God? A senior prophet of God (one of the supposed good guys) told him that God wanted him to do something different than God really did want him to do. Are we ever vulnerable and apt to make this same error? Do we ever doubt what God is telling us because someone else tells us differently? How many of us have Christians pastors, preachers, prophets, officers, and others speaking into our lives? I hope most of us do. How many of us read Christian authors? How many of us watch Christian speakers on TV? How many of us listen to Christian preachers on the radio? How many of us search the Internet for Christian teaching? How many of us pass along Christian e-mail messages? These are all good things just like Yadon’s heading to Israel to talk to their king was a good thing. And these Christian preachers and teachers are presumably the good guys like the older prophet was supposed to be one of the good guys; but how many of us bother to check to make sure that these messages that we receive even from the presumed good guys are true before we forward them on or how many of us make sure that our favourite Christian speaker is correct –anyone can make a mistake – before we re-tell his story? How many of us make sure that what our favourite speakers, preachers and teachers are teaching is true before we obey it or tell our friends about it? And how can we verify these things and so avoid falling into the trap that cost the man of God his life?

One key way that we have available to us today is the Bible: when someone purports to have a message from God we should make sure that they are right and true. Doctrine 1 of The Salvation Army states that, “We believe that the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments were given by inspiration of God; and that they only constitute the Divine rule of Christian faith and practice.” We need to test what people – even the good guys - say against the Scriptures. Acts 17:10-12 commends the Bereans for doing just that: they would examine the Scriptures every day to see if what even the apostle Paul himself was telling them was true. We need to pray and read our Bibles, for otherwise how can know if what we hear from the pulpit, what we hear on the radio, what we hear the TV, what we read online, or what we read in a book is true or not? For those who come to Bible study on Monday nights, you’ll remember last Monday we looked at, among other passages, 1 Thessalonians 5:20-22, where God through the Apostle Paul reminds us all: “Do not treat prophecies with contempt but test them all; hold on to what is good, reject every kind of evil.”

This is important in our world today. More and more people and more and more churches are spending less and less time in prayer and less and less time in Bible study. And this is a shame because how can we possibly tell what of all the cacophony of voices speaking into our lives is true if we don’t ask the Lord and if we don’t spend time praying and reading our Bibles. Romans 1:16 reminds us that the Gospel itself is the power for Salvation. That is how we can know what God is telling us.

Today we read about a prophet who was used greatly by God but then disobeyed God as another prophet deceived him and it cost him his life. If that happened then and there to a man of God, it can certainly happen to any of us today. So I extol each of us to protect ourselves from that which befell Yadon. I encourage each of us to fervently seek the Lord through prayer and Bible Study because that is our protection. For God promises us that when we seek Him, we will find Him and He promises us that when we find Him we will be saved (from more than just lions) and when we are saved what a day of rejoicing that will be (Matthew 6:33).

Let us pray.

www.sheepspeak.com

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[1] Donald J. Wiseman, 1 and 2 Kings: An Introduction and Commentary. Downers Grove, IL : InterVarsity Press, 1993 (Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries 9), S. 158: If the man of God were to make an agreement or show fellowship (‘eat bread’, vv. 7, 18) with the king, that would have been tantamount to a withdrawal of judgment. The king’s motive could have been ‘to link himself in fellowship with him as a form of insurance’ (Robinson, p. 161; cf. Noth, p. 298), and so to seek for the prophet’s endorsement of his new royal position. The ban on the return route might serve to avoid further contact with a cursed place and people.

[2] R. D. Patterson and Hermann J. Austel, The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM:1 Kings/Notes to First Kings/First Kings 13 Notes/First Kings Note 13:1, Book Version: 4.0.2: If Josephus's suggestion (Antiq. VIII, 240-41 [ix.1]) that the prophet's name was Yadon is accepted, he may perhaps be connected with the Iddo mentioned as a chronicler of the events of Abijah's day (2 Chronicles 13:22).

[3] Mark Leuchter, 'Jeroboam the Ephratite', Journal of Biblical Literature 125 no. 1 (2006): 51:"No other king is so strenuously distanced from the principles of the prophet tradition, the theological standards of Israelite covenantal theology, or the inherent grace of the Davidic house."

[4] Cf. Mark Leuchter, 'Jeroboam the Ephratite', Journal of Biblical Literature 125 no. 1 (2006): 55.

[5] Cf. Choon-Leong Seow. The First and Second Book of Kings, (NIB III: Abigdon Press, Nashville, 1999), 108.

Philippians 1: Be Bold for the Gospel.

Presented to Swift Current Corps of The Salvation Army, 18 Nov. 2012 and to Nipawin and Tisdale Corps on 06 Jan. 2008 by Captain Michael Ramsay.

To read the 2008 version of this sermon click here: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.ca/2008/01/philippians-1-be-bold-be-prepared-are.html

To read a version of this as an article in the Journal of Aggressive Christianity click here: http://www.armybarmy.com/JAC/article6-54.html

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Today, before we get into our text a little bit, I thought that we would look at some background information about Philippians. I have a little quiz for us to see if any of us know anything about the historical context of Philippians (answers below):[1]

1)      Philippians live in what city?

2)      Who is the city of Philippi named after?

3)      Who was Phillip?

4)      What other famous battle took there?

5)      Does anyone remember, where in the Bible – just recently would we have read about Caesar Augustus? [2] 

Very good, so this battle of Philippi that Augustus fought in is less than 100 years before this letter to the Philippians was written; there may even still be some veterans around. We just had Remembrance Day here. Reflecting on the battle of Philippi it would be similar to our reflecting on WWI or WWII. It is still in our general consciousness and just like our world changed after the World Wars of our time, the Greco-Roman world had changed significantly by the Apostle Paul’s time as well.

The world does change very quickly, doesn’t it?  I remember when I was growing up in the 1970s. We lived in a semi-rural area of Victoria. Behind our house were cornfields and beside our house were Farmer Wild’s potato fields and my parents had a very small orchard of our own in our back yard. And the Vantreights, they had Daffodil fields everywhere. Between Farmer Wild and the Vantreights there was no end to seasonal agricultural employment for the neighbourhood teens and pre-teens. In the Spring some of us would even cut school in order to make some money cutting daffodils.

Now, of course, my parents’ former house has been completely swallowed up by the city Victoria, which is now a community of more than 300 000 people. It is Canada’s 13^th largest city.[3] Things change.

But in those days life was different. The area in which we lived was semi-rural and dogs could even roam free without being on a leash or without even their owners. They would often stroll along by themselves or together in pairs or even packs and then they would meet up with another pack of dogs and they would start to investigate each other. Of course, every once and a while there would be an aggressive dog or two and I certainly saw more than one dog fight growing up.

In those days, we had a dog. His name was Tuffy. Now Tuffy, he was a little border collie/sheltie cross and he was a smart dog but every once in a while, of course, he would get into one of these scraps himself.

I remember more than once, Tuffy would see some dog on our block that doesn’t belong there. He would charge them. It wouldn’t matter how big is the dog. It doesn’t matter how fierce is the dog; Tuffy runs at him. He’s not afraid of him. He growls at him. He, completely without any fear, he engages the intruder. He charges him.

Now sometimes, like I said, the dogs are a lot bigger than Tuffy. Still Tuffy charges, teeth bared- no fear – he charges the giant intruder with full confidence. And then when the large dog strikes back, he… runs away.

The other dog inevitably chases him and Tuffy runs right toward home. Tuffy runs faster and faster as he gets closer and closer to home. The pursuing dog inevitably, nonetheless, gets closer and closer to Tuffy. And as the dog gets closer, Tuffy – never afraid – Tuffy runs to… our next-door neighbour’s house. He bounds up the stairs to his deck. The dog comes flying after Tuffy and arrives on the deck where he is trapped and … there is Goldie.[4] Goldie is by far the biggest dog you have ever seen and Goldie and Tuffy are quite a pair. They really are the best of friends.

So now this pursuing dog, the dog chasing Tuffy – which until this moment seemed quite large - is all of a sudden dwarfed by the giant Goldie. He is surrounded and trapped on our neighbour’s deck. After a couple of very noisy minutes, the intruding dog finally finds a way out and off of our neighbours deck and runs away as fast as it can never to come back again. And there is little Tuffy standing at the top of the stairs (if dogs could smile) this little collie-sheltie cross is telling the much bigger dog, I’m sure, never to come back – or he’ll have to deal with Goldie.

When Tuffy saw the intruder, he wasn’t worried, he engaged him; he did not avoid a conflict. He was prepared; he was not afraid. He didn’t worry about what could happen to him. His goal was to encourage his opposition toward Goldie and have Goldie take care of the rest.

This is actually the same sort of thing that is happening in Paul’s life as he writes this letter to the Christians in Philippi. Paul has been openly engaging the non- and pre-Christian Roman world of the first century AD/CE. He has met with some strong resistance and it is just like he is Tuffy up against a bigger dog. Paul is even in jail right now as he writes this letter that we are looking at today. Paul is in a jail and jails then, like jails now, really are not the best places in the world to be and not only that, Paul is facing a capital charge[5]. Paul, if convicted, is facing execution. Paul is seemingly cornered by a larger and an aggressive part of the pre- and non-Christian world of his day but he is neither afraid nor is he even apparently concerned for himself.

Look at our text today…well…actually wait a minute…imagine with me first, that you are in prison. I don’t know how many of you have ever seen the inside of a prison. I’ve seen a couple. I can tell you that they themselves can be more than a little intimidating – even when you aren’t confined there.

Now imagine that you aren’t just in any prison. Imagine that you are in an off shores American prison – the Super Power of our day – imagine that you are in Guatanamo Bay or something and that they’ve actually charged you OR even imagine that you are in Afghanistan or Pakistan and in the hands of the Taliban or another such group and imagine that you are facing a capital charge. Imagine that you are facing execution if you are convicted.

What would you write in your letters home? If you could make a video tape or leave a phone message, what would it say? I imagine that we would be more than a little afraid. I imagine that we would ask for everyone to pray for us. We would try to activate a prayer chain on our behalf and we would get everyone that we could to pray for our safe return, right? We would send up the prayer alert and ask everyone to pray for our deliverance.

Now this is interesting because, this isn’t what Paul does here at all. Paul mentions that he is in prison but it is not with his own state that he is concerned (1:18b-26).[6] He is bold and he is concerned with how well the Philippians are doing at standing firm in preparing to meet Christ (cf. 1:11) on the balcony, as it were. Paul is concerned that they not be afraid and Paul is concerned that they are prepared for this Day of the Lord by living in a manner worthy of the Gospel (1:27), by being united in purpose (1:18; 2:1-8; 3:15-16), by staying the course, by fighting the foe, and Paul is even now rejoicing in the Lord’s accomplishments through them (cf. 1:3, 6);[7] Paul is encouraging them to be bold in making preparations for the day of the Lord’s return. Are they ready for Christ’s return? This is Paul’s concern as he is sitting in prison awaiting appeal.

Look at earlier in Chapter One. Instead of ‘Please pray for me’, Paul writes in Verse 3, ‘I thank my God every time I remember you.’ Paul is not concerned about himself. He is thinking about others and he is thinking about their participation in the Gospel and Kingdom of God; and Paul goes on, Verse 6, he tells them how confident he is that God will complete the good work in them that God has already started. Verses 9 and 10: he speaks of his desire that their love may overflow with wisdom and knowledge to help them determine what is best so that they are prepared when the day of the Lord does arrive – and it’s coming soon. When the day of the Lord does arrive, Paul reminds us, that when we are prepared, the righteousness that we will have comes from God.

Paul is not worried about his own self. Paul is concerned about others standing firm, about others being prepared for the Kingdom of God. This is a man in chains writing here. This is a man facing a death sentence. This is a man who has put his life on the line for the Gospel and right now is in jail awaiting appeal.

He is in jail and we don’t read in his letter any “Oh why is this happening to me, Lord”, do we? We don’t read any of the, “What have I done to deserve this?” or “How could this be happening to me?” Talk. Do we? NO, we don’t. Rather he is bold because he is prepared; he says to live or die, both are good. Death is gain (because of the resurrection) and life, life, is Christ!

We don’t hear him whining and complaining (cf. Romans 8:19). We don’t hear him making accusations about his captors. We don’t hear him calling down curses upon Caesar. We don’t read of him complaining about even the food or his fellow inmates. What do we hear? We hear that his captors are hearing the Gospel and we hear Paul encouraging others to be bold and to be prepared to share the Gospel in Philippi.  Paul is in jail and he is concerned about the Philippians and their courage to fully participate in the Messianic Kingdom of Jesus when Jesus returns.

Now Philippi, which was once a predominately Greek city, is a small Roman Colony with special status and many Romans citizens.[8] It is a city of privilege[9]. Paul has visited it before, and now he, imprisoned by the Romans, is writing to encourage them who are in this privileged city and who are free and he is writing encouraging them how to live.[10] Interesting.

The one imprisoned is writing to encourage those who are free. Paul is imprisoned for his defence of Christ. In our world today, people are still imprisoned for defence of the Gospel. Missionaries are still martyred but lest we think ourselves better than we are, let us not forget that there are Canadians who struggle against our own current governments for the Kingdom of God.

Now in this part of Saskatchewan we still have it relatively good. We sang Christian hymns, read Scripture and I briefly spoke about Christ in the public Remembrance Day ceremonies last week. The schools put on Christian plays at Christmas and there has even been reference to Christ in Rebecca’s homework. But let’s not be mistaken about what is happening in this country. Today people are suffering for the Gospel and we do need to stand up for Christ.

In BC, in previous sermons and articles[11] I have mentioned the religious persecution that has already begun in the public school system. In the 80s or early 90s, we were told not even to refer to Christmas in the schools. We were told rather to call it a ‘Winter Festival.’ I heard of Christian student teachers taking a stand at this time and I heard of some of these Christians not successfully completing their degree or suffering even worse consequences.

Even more recently, it was decided in BC’s lower mainland that Christian parents were not allowed to protect their children from courses –taught by outsiders, not even their regular school teachers, if I remember correctly- that they felt encouraged promiscuity, fornication, homosexuality and adultery. So not only are Christians not allowed to try to protect others from what some consider very dangerous things, but they are even forced to subject their own children to these things.[12]

Persecution for serving Christ is not constrained to the Roman Empire of the 1^st Century or the third world of today; so are we prepared to be bold in defence of the Gospel?

In Nova Scotia, after the Swissair crash, the Christian clergy was told not to mention the name of Jesus and after 9/11, the only world view represented in the official Canadian ceremonies was that of secular-atheism: God was excluded from the ceremonies.

In Saskatchewan, I have heard a local politician, encouraging others to write letter to the editor defending our freedom to proclaim Christ in the public arena. In Ontario, however, people are calling the police to step-in when politicians dare to pray in even small meetings. Persecution for serving Christ is not constrained to the Roman Empire of the 1^st Century or the third world of today. It is happening more and more here in Canada of the 21^st Century. As it comes here, are we prepared to be bold in defence of the Gospel?

We here in Canada and Saskatchewan have it pretty good, just like the citizens of Philippi did. Canada is one of the richest countries of the world and a close ally of the Super Power of our day. Philippi had a privileged status within the Empire of its day; people had it pretty good by comparison but even in Philippi persecution had begun and even now in Canada persecution has begun.

As this is true let us not just lament the acts of our aggressors. Paul didn’t. Let us not run away and hide. Paul didn’t. The Philippians were not to. Let us not cry out, ‘whoa is me.’ Let us not let our predecessors’ preaching have been in vain. Let us not let those who are hauled before the courts in this very country for our faith today do so in vain. Let us rather stand firm in proclaiming the Gospel.

Paul is encouraging us, thousands of years later; Paul is encouraging us, since we have the same struggles that he had (cf. 1:30), Paul is encouraging us to be bold in our proclamation and Paul is encouraging us to be bold in our preparation for the Day of the Lord so that our love may overflow and so that indeed the harvest of holiness, the harvest of righteousness may be produced in our own lives through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God (1:11; cf. 1:27,28).[13]

Let us not be mistaken, in our world today, as we walk along we, like Tuffy, we will run into dogs who will attack us for the truth of the Gospel of Christ. We will run into big, aggressive beasts. We must stand firm in proclaiming the Gospel and we must stand firm living a life worthy of the Gospel (1:27,28) and - who knows? -  in the process we may lead even our aggressors to Jesus Christ so that even they may be saved and so that even we may be saved alongside them because it is only through Christ that our salvation comes. 

Let us pray.

www.sheepspeak.com

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[1] 1) Philippi 2) Philip of Macedon; Macedonia is one of the northern most Greek provinces 3) Alexander the Great’s father; he laid the ground work for the Greek Empire and when he took over Philippi he really encouraged Greek immigration to the Area 4) The Battle of Philippi which was around 300 years later; this was an important battle in the Roman civil war in which Caesar Augustus won. 5) The Christmas story, remember, “In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that the entire Roman world should be taxed (Luke 2:1).”

[2] Octavius, as he was called at this time, was allied with Antonius (Mark Antony) and Lepedus against the republicans, led by Cassius and Brutus. Octavius later defeated Mark Antony as well which led to the famous story of Cleopatra’s suicide by Asp. Octavius / Augustus, after securing power, and thanks to Julius Caesar’s wrestling power from the Senate and placing it instead in the leader’s hands, would turn out to be arguably the most powerful Roman Emperor ever.

[3] 2006 Census. Canadian’s largest urban area:. www.stascan.ca

[4] I can’t remember her real name.

[5] Cf. Fred B. Craddock, Philippians, Interpretation Series, 1985, p. 19He may or may not actually be in a jail as we think of it today. He is still awaiting trial so he could be in a cave, a secured room, a house, or a barracks. Regardless, he is in the hands of the Super Power of his day, the Roman authority (Paul, of course, is himself a Roman citizen) and we should not assume that his imprisonment is necessarily easy. In some of our contemporary Canadian minimum security facilities, which are undoubtedly more comfortable than Paul’s arrangements, outsiders have greatly underestimated the effects of confinement upon people. Imprisonment is not a pleasant experience. Let’s not forget as well that he is awaiting trial for a crime that is punishable by death. This fact itself does not tend to gain oneself favour from one’s captors. See also DW Palmer, “To Die is Gain.” Novum Testamentum 17. 1975. pp. 203-208, re: release from imprisonment via death (and later resurrection, of course).

[6] This segment (1:18b-26) serves to clarify to readers that even if Paul does die, it doesn’t matter and they (we) should still be encouraged. After all if he does die, the next thing he knows will be the resurrection, when the Kingdom to come has indeed been established and gained and if he does live, he can continue to rally the troops to be prepared for the coming ‘Day of the Lord.’

[7] Paul’s reference to “Joy” is repeated numerous times throughout the letter.

[8] This is particularly interesting in the context of this letter because it doesn’t appear that there was much of a Jewish population in the tiny city of 10 000 people at all. This is interesting because Paul usually first evangelised the Jewish communities in the towns. Here there is no such evidence of such a segment even existing.

[9] There was however persecution of the Christians in this city. Cf. Philippians 1:28-29.

[10] Cf. Morna D. Hooker, The Letter to the Philippians, NIB XI, 476. It is interesting that there is some debate as to the theme of the letter itself. One thing, however, that is evident regardless of the primary theme (if there need be one at all) is that Paul is indeed encouraging the readers how to act in accordance in relationship to our theological understanding. Cf., also, R.C.H. Lenski, St. Paul’s Epistles to the Galatians, Ephesians, and Philippians, p. 695.

[11] Full citations for the references in this list are in other sermons and papers of mine, most of which are available on-line at www.sheepspeak.com.

[12] , Cf. StatsCan: http://www12.statcan.ca/english/census01/Products/Analytic/companion/rel/bc.cfmS ince this type of indoctrination has begun in the schools, atheism has become the fastest growing religion in BC

[13] Paul is encouraging us not to fight amongst ourselves (cf. 1:18: How it is that we proclaim the gospel doesn’t matter; what matters is that it is proclaimed).[13]He is encouraging us to proper actions, ethics, and to have