Jude: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.

Presented to Swift Current Corps of The Salvation Army, 22 April 2012 and Warehouse Mission 614 Toronto, 17 June 2018 by Captain Michael Ramsay

Name the movie (or series of movies) with these famous quotes [answers below]:[1]
.

1. “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a d…[darn].”
2. “May the force be with you.”
3. “Life is like a box of chocolates.”

4.      “Here’s looking at you, kid.”

5. “E.T. phone home”
6. “Elementary my dear Watson”
7. Person 1: “Can you fly this plane, and land it?” Person 2: “Surely you can't be serious.” Person 1: “I am serious...and don’t call me Shirley.”
8. “A martini. Shaken, not stirred.”
9. “Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore.”
10. “Go ahead, make my day.”

Today’s sermon title is based on another Clint Eastwood film, “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.” Jude in this very short letter that we are looking at today is telling us how to be good in the face of the bad and the ugly.

The Book of Jude has been called the most neglected book in the New Testament.[2] Thus there are a couple of things we should probably know about Jude: Do we know who in all probability wrote the letter Jude? (Jude) Jude is a nickname. Do we know what Jude is short for? (Jude is short for ‘Judah’ in Hebrew and ‘Judas’ in Greek; they are the same name). The author of this letter is probably either the disciple named Judas (not Judas Iscariot because, among other reasons, he was dead when this letter was written: Matthew 27:3-8, Acts 1:18-19) or more likely this Jude is Jesus’ biological brother, Judas (cf. Jude 1:1; cf. also Matthew 13:55, John 7:3-10, Acts 1:14, 1 Corinthians 9:5, Galatians 1:19). In Verse 1 the author identifies himself as James’ brother. James was another one of Jesus’ brothers and a very prominent figure in the early Christian Church in Jerusalem.

This letter was written pretty early on in the history of the Church: probably not more than forty years after Jesus’ death and resurrection. The Church is still really quite small at this point. It is not worldwide like today. It is still really new when this letter is written. Judas, Jude is writing this letter to faithful and earnest Christians who are in the early Church.

What is going on in the background here? Why was this letter written? Judas, Jude tells us that there are a few things that need addressing – even when the Church is brand new. Jude tells us that he has to write this letter to encourage them (and us) “to contend for the faith that was once entrusted to the saints (Christians)” because godless, bad, ugly people –without the good people noticing- have appeared among them in the Church (vv. 3,4; cf. also Matthew 7:15-20, 24:11; Mark 13:22; Acts 20:29-30; 1 Timothy 4:3-4; 2 Timothy 3:1, 4:3-4; 2 Peter 3:3). These godless men:

q       Are immoral: they figure that since they are ‘once saved, they are always saved’ (but cf. TSA docs. 8&9); they figure that since they are saved, they can commit whatever sins they want and they do just that (Vs. 4);

q       They pollute their bodies (this phrase is probably a further reference to homosexuality, vv. 4,7; cf. Genesis 19, 1 Corinthians 6:9);[3]

q       They reject authority and slander celestial beings (v. 8);

q       They speak abusively about what they do not understand (v. 10; Have you ever heard anyone get really worked up about something they don’t really know anything about? It is sort of that idea.)

q       These people are selfish, ambitious (looking out for # 1), and greedy (vv. 11, 16) – and they are even leaders in the local churches: How many leaders in both the world and the churches today does this describe? …Selfish, ambitious, and greedy? Too many, I fear.

q       These people are faultfinders, scoffers, and grumblers about others and at the same time they are boastful about their own perceived accomplishments (vv. 16, 17). They might say “I would never do things that way; what’s wrong with that guy? I’m way better than that.” Has anyone ever met anyone like this?

These people, as bad and ugly as they are, have snuck in and are a part of the early churches; they eat at their feasts (v. 12); they come out to all their events; they are one of them. In today’s world they would be at Bible study, they would be at church service, they would be at food drives, they would be at Home League (they would be at women’s group), they would be at coffee time and they would be at lunch today right after the service. These selfish people are a rotten part of even the very earliest churches (vv. 3,4,12). And not only that, they even assume some leadership roles in these churches (v. 12 – they may be missionaries as well). These are not just sheep. They are shepherds. They are not good shepherds; they are the bad and the ugly shepherds.

Do you know who these bad and ugly, greedy, corrupt, puffed up leaders in the early churches remind me of? …Bad and ugly, greedy, corrupt, puffed up leaders in today’s church. Edwin A. Blum reminds us that, “the church today is plagued by false teachers claiming superior knowledge and experience; yet their lives are often worse than those of the average pagan.”[4] The press in recent years has been concentrating on the evil acts of people who had snuck into Christian residential schools in this country in the 20^th Century. I read an article this week about the growth of the prosperity heresy in the United States: what is that if not extolling the contemporary western virtues of greed, corruption, and puffed up leaders? I remember the 1980’s and the televangelists who seemed to get into as sorts of trouble. Jimmy Bakker went to prison. (He later repented and even renounced the prosperity heresy he had previously promoted, praise the Lord). There was also Oral Roberts. Do we remember Oral Roberts and how he entered a tower, then told people that God said to give him money or he would die – he got his money but it seems as if God later struck Oral Roberts’ precious tower with a lighting bolt regardless. Do you remember that? There are all kinds of people in the world today using God’s name to ask for money or to make themselves famous. Some U.S. Presidents have even invoked God’s name in an attempt to justify their own self-serving wars. There is even more than this here though.

These bad and ugly leaders, these complaining, these whining, these boastful, these proud, puffed up people that Jude is talking about; they aren’t the political or necessarily the mega-church leaders. These are people who have snuck into the local little churches, which were probably not any bigger than the 40 or 50 people we have gathered here today. It says that these leaders, Verses 12 & 13:

 These men are blemishes at your love feasts, eating with you without the slightest qualm – shepherds [leaders] who feed only themselves. They are clouds without rain blown along by the wind: [I love this analogy: picture drought ravaged land and the farmer eagerly looking at the clouds coming towards his land but they never drop a single drop of rain. These leaders, Jude says are] autumn trees, without fruit and uprooted – twice dead. They are wild waves of the sea, foaming up their shame; wandering stars, for whom the blackest darkness has been reserved forever.

Sadly, I think that most of us good Christians who have grown up in the Church have probably come across many bad and ugly leaders in our churches like this. Hopefully not, but maybe some of us can even identify with this. Have you ever run across local leaders: pastors, Officers, or lay people in past times or previous places who are always whining and complaining about others or who are always seemingly boasting about how good or smart they are? Have any of us ever fallen into the trap of thinking that we are something more than we are? Have any of us ever fallen into the trap of thinking that we are holier than our neighbour? Have any of us ever fallen into the trap of thinking that we are smarter than our neighbour? Have any of us ever fallen into the trap of thinking that we are more skilled than our neighbour? Have any of us ever fallen into the trap of thinking that we work harder than our neighbour? Do we ever get puffed up like these people who Jude is warning the early church about? Do we ever get to complaining and grumbling about other people in the Church? The bad and the ugly teachers in Jude, Scholar Simon J. Kistemaker says, do even worse than this: they not only grumble about people in authority but they also complain about God.[5] Do we ever act like this? I hope not but if we do, I would encourage any and all of us who may be guilty of false teaching or of grumbling about our Christian brothers and sisters or even of grumbling about our Lord and Saviour Himself, to repent, just like Jimmy Bakker, to whom we referred earlier, of the prosperity heresy.

But this isn’t Jude’s main point: to warn us off acting like this. Jude’s main point is to tell us how to act when people - who may even be our bosses or our pastors or our Officers or our Sunday school teachers or the person sitting right next to us right now – Jude’s main point is to tell us how to act when people are acting bad and ugly like this. Jude says that when we run across stubborn and/or greedy people sitting in church with us, which we will in our lives, we should do the following.^[6]  The good should, when dealing with those under the spell of the bad and ugly (cf. 1 John 2:18-26, 5:13-20, 2 John 1:7-11; cf. Matthew 10:14, 12:31-32; Mark 3:29-30, 6:11; Luke 9:5, 12:10; Acts 13:50-52; 2 Peter 2:17-22),[7] we should, for a number of reasons:[8]

q       Build ourselves up in our faith (v. 20);

q       Pray in, with and to the Holy Spirit of God (v. 20; cf. Romans 8:26-27, Galatians 4:6, Colossians 2:7, 1 Thessalonians 5:11, Ephesians 6:18);

q       Keep ourselves in God’s love (v. 21; don’t in your hatred or fear be tempted to stray from His love)

q       And eagerly await God’s mercy for ourselves;

q       Be merciful to those in our midst who doubt because they do not know what is good or bad or ugly (v. 22);

q       Be snatching people from the fire (v. 23, cf. Zechariah 3:2-4);

q       And showing people mercy, even mercy mixed with fear so we don’t become accepting of their sin and become tempted into that or another sin ourselves (v. 23).

This is important. Easter is about new beginnings. Two weeks ago we spoke about the new beginnings with the resurrection; last week spoke about fulfilling the great commission and inviting everyone we know to join us in eternal Salvation. Today we are encouraging the faithful, as we are standing on the eternal parade float with our Lord and with our friends,[9] to be wary not so much of the world but of the worldly (Greek: Phychic: without Spirit, Pneuma, v. 19) who are even in our churches.[10]

When faced with the bad and the ugly; we, the good, especially those who are new to the faith, I encourage you to always persevere and never give up, no matter what others say and do. God, Jesus, will never leave you nor forsake you no matter what happens (Deuteronomy 31:6,8; Joshua 1:5; 1 Kings 8:57; Hebrews 13:5). But people, even people in the churches, and even people in authority in the churches will let you down. Some because of horrible sin like Jude mentions in his letter here, some because they are under their spell, and some just because they are people. When this happens, Jude in the first century and I today want to encourage you to persevere, to not give up on the Lord or on the Church but instead to: pray earnestly in and to the Holy Spirit, Verse 20; building yourself up in the faith and keeping yourself in God’s love, Verse 21; by being merciful towards others as you encourage them out of their sin and towards holiness, Verse 23; and at the same time I would encourage all of us to be careful not to use their sin as an excuse to fall into like or other sins ourselves, Verse 23.

When people let you down, and they will, please keep holding them up in prayer. Who knows maybe as we do continue to pray for, love and show mercy to others, we may even be used by God to snatch some from the very fires of hell itself and in the process we may even experience Salvation alongside them for eternity in Christ Jesus our Lord. Let us pray…

Lord, please help us to serve You and to not be distracted by false teaching, adiaphorons, our own pride, people trying to lead others astray or people who are presently being led astray. Lord, we know that others – even others in the churches - will do bad and ugly things either by accident or even by design. Please help us to reflect Your good in response. Please help us to continue to be loving and merciful in our dealings with others; so that You may use even us to draw people away from selfishness, away from sin, away from error and towards eternal life in Your Kingdom instead. In Jesus’ Name, we pray. Amen.

Let us finish our time here today the same way that Jude completes his letter, with a doxology (from the AV):

Now unto Him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His Glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen.

 

http://www.sheepspeak.com/

 

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[1] Gone with the Wind (Rhett Butler), 2. Star Wars, 3. Forrest Gump, 4. Casablanca (Humphrey Bogart as Rick Blaine), 5. ET, 6. Sherlock Holmes, 7. Airplane (Leslie Neilsen as Dr. Rumnack), 8. James Bond, 9. Wizard of Oz (Dorothy), 10. Dirty Harry (Clint Eastwood)

[2] Douglas J. Rowston, “The Most Neglected Book in the New Testament,” NTS, 21 (July 1975), pp. 554-63; quoted by Edwin A. Blum in The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM:Jude/Introduction to Jude/Purpose of Jude, Book Version: 4.0.2.

[3] Donald W. Burdick and John H. Skilton, ‘Pollute their own bodies', Note on Jude 1:8 in NIV Study Bible (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, 2002), 1960.

[4] Edwin A. Blum, The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM:Jude/Exposition of Jude/IV. The Exhortations to the Believers (17-23), Book Version: 4.0.2:

[5] Simon J. Kistemaker, Exposition of the Epistle of Jude (NTC: Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Academic, 2007), 399.

^[6] Michael Green, 2 Peter and Jude: An Introduction and Commentary. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1987 (Tyndale New Testament Commentaries 18), S. 214: “Salvation is not merely to be defined in the terms already given: faith, prayer, love, and hope. It involves service, and to this Jude now turns (as does 2 Pet. 3:11–15). Men are indeed saved to serve, and one of the best ways of discovering the true value of any new theology is to test it in active Christian evangelism and pastoral care.”

[7] Pheme Perkins, First and Second Peter, James, and Jude, (Interpretation: Louisville, Kentucky, USA: John Knox Press, 1995), 156: “Jude’s sharp condemnations do not suggest that the opponents can be turned away from their behaviour. Those with whom they have been associating may be uncertain about whose account of faith to believe. Such persons can be treated with mercy, not the sharp rejection reserved for false teachers.” Simon Kistemaker, 404, “They have no part in the church for they lack the Spirit of God”; Cf. also Duane F. Watson, The Letter of Jude (NIB XII: Nashville, Tennessee: Abingdon Press, 1962), 497.

[8] Duane F. Watson, The Letter of Jude (NIB XII: Nashville, Tennessee: Abingdon Press, 1962), 497 breaks these 7 items into two groups: the first 4 are to keep the faithful strong, the last 3 are “to aid those who have fallen prey to the false teachers (vv. 22-23).”

[9] Cf. Captain Michael Ramsay, 'Join Us Aboard The Salvation Float! (Matthew 28:16-20)' Presented to Swift Current Corps of The Salvation Army, 15 April 2012. Available on-line: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.ca/2012/04/matthew-2816-20-join-us-aboard.html

[10] Cf. Pheme Perkins, First and Second Peter, James, and Jude, (Interpretation: Louisville, Kentucky, USA: John Knox Press, 1995),143.

Matthew 28:16-20: Join Us Aboard The Salvation Float!

Presented to Swift Current Corps of The Salvation Army, 15 April 2012

By Captain Michael Ramsay

 

Since all authority has been given to Christ, as evidenced by His resurrection, there is one thing now that He commands His followers to do. Jesus not only commands this of His followers who were present at the resurrection, He also commissions each and all of us to do this, even now. Matthew concludes his gospel account with these, his last recorded words by Jesus. Thus, I think it is very important and a very good place to begin in the Scriptures on the first week after Easter, Resurrection Sunday. Matthew 28:18-20:

Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

  

 Jesus commissions us to go and make disciples of all the nations (Verse 19), through the following means (and this is not an exhaustive list by any means):

-         Baptizing (initiating) people in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit (Verse 19)

-         Teaching people to obey everything that I have commanded you (Verse 20)

-         And knowing that I am with you always until the end of the age (Verse 20)

 

 The imperative command here is this: Go and make disciples of all the nations.[1] This is something for all of Jesus’ followers to do.[2] This isn’t optional. This is what Christians do. All of us who call ourselves Christians will indeed tell others about Christ. This is His Great Commission for us. As the Scriptures record, you will know a tree by its fruit, Luke 6:44: “Each tree is recognized by its own fruit. People do not pick figs from thorn bushes, or grapes from briers.” As good Christians we are commissioned to produce more good Christians – and, like with a tree, it’s only natural to produce like fruit; it won’t be an onerous chore to bear good fruit.

 

It is like being in a parade with a group of children – especially in a small town. We, as Salvation Army Officers, have been in a number of parades and if you are following along in a parade on a float with a group of children and you go past friends or cousins or other relatives of those young children, what do the little children on the sideline want to do when they see their friend or their brother or sister marching in the parade?  They want to join, right?

 

 I remember one parade in Nipawin, which is a community of between 4000 and 5000 people. We have a number of young children in our junior youth group. They are great. They are our friends and as we continue along the parade route, we have many more of our friends coming to join us –some of whom we have never met before: more and more small children all pile onto the float. I don’t know if we could even all fit by the end of the route. This is what serving our Lord and fulfilling our Great Commission to make disciples of all nations, is like. As we Christians follow the Lord along the parade route that is our life, it should be so much fun that all of our friends watching from the sidelines will naturally want to jump on float, celebrate, and enjoy the ride with us; so we should invite them to do just that.

  

 Last week, Donna jumped onto the Salvation float with us here in the Jesus parade. It was exciting. She made a decision on Thursday, I believe; she prayed with us just before the Son-rise service and she testified on Sunday morning in front of the whole congregation gathered about the experience of welcoming Christ into her life, of her experience of jumping onto the metaphorical Salvation float. This is wonderful; this is transformational and this is what we are all supposed to do: jump on the Salvation float and invite others to join us there.[3] As we all jump on the Salvation float, we are to extend our arms and invite all our friends to join us. This, in Matthew’s gospel, is so important that it is Jesus’ very last recorded words.

  

 Jesus, while commissioning us to invite everyone to join us on this Salvation float, encourages us to help people climb up onto the float. He says was can help others aboard by:

-         Baptizing (meaning initiating) them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit (Verse 19),

-         Teaching them to obey everything that Jesus has commanded us (Verse 20),

-         And knowing that He is with us always until the end of the age (Verse 20).

 

1) Baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

 

 BAPTISM BY FIRE:

 

Now, given our Salvationist context, we should take a little bit of time to talk about what this phrase does not mean: This passage does NOT refer to baptism by fire; Baptism by fire, for those of us here who aren’t familiar with the term, is simply euphemism for baptism by the Holy Spirit.[4]

 

 This passage is not talking about baptism by fire. The words ‘To baptize’ form a command to all believers: we are told to baptize others in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. We, believers, actually cannot baptize with people with fire – so don’t try it at home. Neither you nor I cannot baptize anyone with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is not some genie in a lamp awaiting our command to do our bidding. Far from it! That is actually the very opposite of what this phrase is trying to communicate: The Holy Spirit is God Himself and God is not our foot soldier; we are His. Jesus would never commission us to rub some mystical vase and to order around the God of the Universe, as if He were simply some ancient genie, awaiting our command to come and wash off our friends for us. Quite the contrary, the Scriptures record that we should fear the Lord (Proverbs 1:7, 9:10; cf. Job 28:28, Psalm 111:10, Ecclesiastes 12:13); we should show respect for and deference to the Lord and we should never under any circumstances put the Lord our God to the test (Deuteronomy 6:16, Matthew 4:7, Luke 4:12).[5] This passage is certainly not telling us that we can manipulate God, by conjuring up His Spirit to do our will.

 

 BAPTISM BY WATER:

  

This passage is not referring to fire baptism; this passage is referring to water baptism but – lest someone erroneously reports me as a rebellious, denominational heretic – it is important that you understand me when I say this: Jesus here is NOT saying that if we take someone for a swim in the pool full of water or if we have them take a shower after the Sunday service then they’ll be saved for eternity.[6] Even if the shower that one takes has holy water blessed by the clergy of your choice pouring out of its nozzle, it will not save anyone. This passage isn’t saying that we have to sprinkle or immerse people in water for them to be saved. This passage is actually making no comment about sprinkling, immersion or whether we even need water to baptize people. When we speak of baptism in this passage, we have to understand exactly what baptism is today and what baptism was in the first century. When Jesus and John the Baptist were walking the earth together baptism was an initiation ceremony.[7] Baptism is, even now, a very important initiation ceremony for much of Christendom.[8] Much like our soldier swearing-in ceremony or even like Donna’s testimony and proclamation of faith for us all here last week.

 

BAPTISM INTO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY:

  

What this pericope is saying is that we, as Christians, who are fulfilling the Great Commission; we, as Christians, who are going and making disciples of all nations; we, as Christians, who are inviting all of our friends to come and join us aboard the Christ float in the eternal parade; we, as Christians, need to make sure that we are initiating them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. [9]

  

 What I and what the text is saying here (and indeed what the Spiritual Life Commission articulates quite well)[10] is that you are supposed to tell people about Jesus and when you do baptize people, when you do lead people in the Sinners’ Prayer, when you do kneel down beside people at the penitent form, when you do swear them in as soldiers, as members, or as adherents to Christ through whatever means is deemed appropriate; when you do lead people to the Lord, when you obey the commandment we are talking about today to make disciples of all nations, when you do invite all of your friends aboard the Christ float, you need to make sure that they are initiated in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit (cf. Ephesians 4:6, 1 Corinthians 12:12,13).[11] We need to actually initiate our friends as Christians.

  

 When we lead someone to Christ, we should make sure that they know that indeed Jesus is God and God is the Holy Spirit. As the third doctrine of The Salvation Army articulates, “ We believe that there are three persons in the Godhead - the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost - undivided in essence and co-equal in power and glory.” This I think is what I think Tip # 1 for inviting people aboard the Salvation float in the eternal God parade is all about. This is saying that we should make sure that we initiate them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit (Verse 19). In other words make sure that you actually initiate them into Christianity - not just into some nebulous belief in a vague god-type being. Does that make sense?

  

 When we fulfill our God-given responsibility to tell the world about Jesus, we need to make sure that we are actually telling them about the Christian God and initiating them into the Christian religion. It does no eternal good if you show up at someone’s door and pray with them on Wednesday and then when Sunday rolls around, they show up at the Mormon, JW, or Unitarian church; a synagogue, or a mosque. If that happens, that’s a big waste. That is like someone winning a cake at the fair and immediately dropping it face down in the parking lot. Sure she won the cake, but it didn’t benefit anyone.

   

 I had two separate business associates of mine in the old days -before I was an Officer- to whom I would speak about the Lord all of the time. One was a Taoist, the other a Secularist. We spoke about Christianity all the time because that is just what I do and what I always have done. Well, at the end of the day both of them converted – to Judaism. If that isn’t a hollow, pyrite victory I don’t know what is? They, as far as I can tell, aren’t any closer to Salvation now then they were when I first met them. I think this is what Tip #1 is helping us out with. Yes we need to share the gospel but let us make sure that at the end of the day that our friends are actually signing on the dotted line or it doesn’t do them any good whatsoever. Again, it’s like them winning the cake at the fair and then dropping it in the parking lot before they ever taste any of it. So Tip #1 is that we should make sure we close the deal: initiate our friends, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. This brings us to Tip # 2 for fulfilling the great commission and helping people aboard the Salvation float.

  

 2) Teach them to obey everything that Jesus has commanded us.

  

 This is very important. Jesus says, “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations.” He doesn’t say just baptize them. Jesus doesn’t say just lead them in the sinners’ prayer and everything will be okay. We can’t just collect confessions of faith as if they are notches upon a belt. It is very important that each and every one of us as a Christian leads people to Christ – like Tip # 1 says - but that is not the end of it. We are also to help make disciples for Christ out of each of them. And how can we do that?

   

 We can do that by -Tip #2- teaching them to obey everything that Jesus has commanded us. We do this by praying with people and reading our Bible with them. Friends – I know that those of us here who are Christians, we all want to do what Christ has commissioned us here to do. I know that none of us wants to disappoint our Lord, to let the Lord down. So then I will ask us this: how many of us here this morning actually read the Scriptures eagerly and religiously? How many of us pick up our Bibles daily? Friends, how can we know what we do not learn and how can we learn what we do not study and how can we teach what we do not know? We can’t! I encourage us all to pick up our Bibles and read them every day. Doctrine #1 of The Salvation Army reads, “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.” If anyone here is not involved in a Bible study, we have one on Tuesday evenings for anyone who is interested and we have a women’s Bible study on Tuesday afternoon. If you would like to join one of these or another at a different time or place, just let me know.

   

 Now too, we should point out that these aspects of leading people to Christ, these tips –as we are calling them today- they aren’t chronological steps. We don’t have to initiate people before we start to study with them. We don’t have to teach them the Bible inside and out before we baptize them or lead them in a confession of faith. These things are all intertwined. This brings us nicely to the third point that is also intertwined in helping our friends to climb aboard the Salvation float with us.

  

 3) Know that Jesus is with us always until the end of the age.

 

 Jesus will never leave us nor forsake us (Deuteronomy 31:6,8; Joshua 1:5; 1 Kings 8:57; Hebrews 13:5). “We believe that we are justified by grace, through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ; and that he that believeth hath the witness in himself (TSA doctrine 8)”. Jesus is with us; we have the witness within ourselves; therefore, we can confidently invite all of our friends aboard the Salvation float: it is not going to blow a tire, it is not going to veer off the parade route, it is not going to crash into another vehicle or into the crowd. Jesus – who is in the driver’s seat – is not going to turn around and all of a sudden kick us all off the float because we are making too much noise or because we are having too much fun. On the contrary Jesus encourages us to:

  

 1) Initiate (baptize) everyone:  invite everyone we see in the crowd to jump on this, the Salvation float with us.

  

 2) Teach everyone: teach everyone all about being on the float as they hop on. Teach them the songs we are singing, teach them the scriptures we are memorizing and reciting out loud at the top of our lungs, teach them the timbral routines we are doing, and teach them the lifestyle we are living. And,

  

 3) Know that Jesus is always with us.

  

 This is important. As we already said, God is not going to turn around and all of a sudden kick us off the float because we are making too much noise or because we are having too much fun. He is not going to kick us off because we mix up the words of a song or a memory verse. He is not going to kick us off the float because we can’t figure out how to work the timbrals. He won’t kick us off because we slip up and give into our addiction. He won’t kick us out of the parade if we fall off the wagon. On the contrary He will be with us always, trying to help us back up. If we slip and fall, if we get tripped up by sin or self-indulgence, Christ, and all the rest of us on the float, will still be there singing our anthems of Salvation and calling us all to be at home on the Salvation float as we continue with our Lord, who is driving this joyful parade route homeward until the very end of the age (cf. Romans 3:2,4).[12]

 

 So to quote our risen Lord and Saviour, this is your mission, if you choose to accept salvation, Matthew 28:19-20, “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

  

 In that vein, I would encourage us all here to accept Christ’s Salvation and His commission and in so doing, it is my hope that all of us will leave here today:

-         Inviting and initiating, baptizing everyone we meet in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit,

-         teaching all who will listen to us to obey everything that Jesus has command us,

-         and knowing that He is with us always even until the end of the age

 

If there are any here who have never led a friend to Christ, I invite you to look for opportunities this very week and if you need any help in this regard just come and ask us: God has used us to teach others to lead their friend’s to Him before. We can help!

   

And if there is anyone here today who simply hasn’t jumped on the Salvation float yet, I invite you to join us on board. I guarantee you it will be the ride of your life. If you are not already on board and would like to join the eternal parade by hopping upon the Salvation float with us, come on up now. In The Salvation Army we have the Mercy Seat up front here, where you can come and meet God; so, if you want to join us, I invite you today to come forward and do just that. Join us aboard the Salvation Float.

 

Let us pray.

www.sheepspeak.com

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[1] D. A. Carson, The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM: Matthew/Exposition of Matthew/VII. The Passion and Resurrection of Jesus (26:6-28:20)/C. The Risen Messiah and His Disciples (28:16-20)/2. The Great Commission (28:18-20), Book Version: 4.0.2: In the Greek, "go"—like "baptizing" and "teaching"—is a participle. Only the verb "make disciples" (see below) is imperative. Some have deduced from this that Jesus' commission is simply to make disciples "as we go" (i.e., wherever we are) and constitutes no basis for going somewhere special in order to serve as missionaries (e.g., Gaechter, Matthaus; R.D. Culver, "What Is the Church's Commission?" BS 125 [1968]: 243-53)

[2] Cf. Douglas R.A. Hare, Matthew (Interpretation: Louisville, Kentucky: John Knox Press, 1993), 335. This is NOT just for missionaries or clergy – this is for all of us to do!

[3] D. A. Carson, The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM:Matthew/Exposition of Matthew/VII. The Passion and Resurrection of Jesus (26:6-28:20)/C. The Risen Messiah and His Disciples (28:16-20)/2. The Great Commission (28:18-20), Book Version: 4.0.2: "it is binding on all Jesus' disciples to make others what they themselves are—disciples of Jesus Christ."

[4] Captain Michael Ramsay, 'A Salvationist in the Protestant Reformation?' in The Officer (MARCH/APRIL 2010), p. 4.

[5] D. A. Carson, The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM:Matthew/Exposition of Matthew/VII. The Passion and Resurrection of Jesus (26:6-28:20)/C. The Risen Messiah and His Disciples (28:16-20)/2. The Great Commission (28:18-20), Book Version: 4.0.2: "The syntax of the Greek participles for "baptizing" and "teaching" forbids the conclusion that baptizing and teaching are to be construed solely as the means of making disciples (cf. also Allen, Klostermann, Lagrange, Schlatter),"

[6] Cf. The General of The Salvation Army, The Salvation Army in the Body of Christ: An Ecclesiological Statement, 6.

[7] M. Eugene Boring, Matthew (NIB 8: Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon, 1995),504.

[8] Cf. Jaques Courvoisier, Zwingli: A Reformed Theologian, (Richmond, Virginia: John Knox Press, 1963), 63: “to Zwingli, a sacrament is thus a kind of induction or pledge. To receive it is to enlist in Christ’s forces, and to receive in return a token, a reminder, that one must not yield but remain faithful.” cf. also Peter Stephens, “Zwingli’s Sacramental Views,” in Prophet Pastor Protestant: The Work of Huldrych Zwingli After Five Hundred Years, ed. E.J. Furcha and H. Wayne Pipkin (Allison Park, Pennsylvania: Pickwick Publications, 1984), 159.

[9] R. T. France, Matthew: An Introduction and Commentary. Downers Grove, IL : InterVarsity Press, 1985 (Tyndale New Testament Commentaries 1), S. 420: “Baptizing has been mentioned in this Gospel only as the activity of John, though the Gospel of John makes it clear that it was a characteristic also of Jesus’ ministry at least in the early days while John was still active (John 3:22–26; 4:1–3). It was against the background of John’s practice that it would be understood, as an act of repentance and of identification with the purified and prepared people of God (see on 3:6, 9, 13).”

[10] The Salvation Army, The Report of the Spiritual Life Commission, Appendix 4 in Handbook of Doctrine, pp. 296, 299-300.

[11] Cf. William Hendricksen, Matthew (NTC: Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Academic, 2007), p. 1000.

[12] Cf. R.C.H. Lenski, The Interpretation of St. Matthew, (Minneapolis, Minnesota: Augsburg Publishing House, 1964), p. 1180.

Mark 16:1-8: Dead or Alive: What Do You Believe? (2012 version)

Presented to Nipawin and Tisdale Corps on March 23, 2008 (Resurrection Sunday), the Swift Current corps of The Salvation Army on April 08, 2012, and 614 Warehouse Mission in Toronto on April 01, 2018 by Captain Michael Ramsay

This is the 2012 version. To view the 2008 version, click here: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.ca/2008/03/mark-161-8-dead-or-alive-what-do-you.html

Christ has Risen (He has Risen Indeed).

So this is it. This is the most important day in the Christian calendar. This is the day we celebrate the risen Christ. This is exciting indeed. This is how Jesus defeated sin and death by dying and rising again on the third day.

Famous Scholar and Theologian, NT Wright says in his book, Surprised by Hope:

"We should be taking steps to celebrate Easter in creative new ways: in art, literature, children’s games, poetry, music, dance, festivals, bells, special concerts, anything that comes to mind. This is our greatest festival. Take Christmas away, and in biblical terms you lose two chapters at the front of Matthew and Luke, nothing else. Take Easter away, and you don’t have a New Testament; you don’t have a Christianity... This is our greatest day. We should put the flags out."

Today is the celebration. Today, it is exciting. Do you know what these are? (Show R&S-G’s medals) They are medals, right? These are medals that my daughters have been awarded.

Rebecca was going to show you her 4-H award for public speaking. Here I have 2 of Sarah-Grace’s awards: one is for music theory and the other one is for winning a talent show on a cruise ship. Every accomplishment is exciting. Sarah-Grace’s soccer team was in two tournaments one year. In the first tournament her team won bronze. In the second tournament her team won silver: they played really well and we were all so proud. You should have heard some of the dads cheering. It was a lot of fun; we celebrated. Everyone was looking forward to the next tournament when we would go for the gold.

This is what Easter (Resurrection Day) is all about.[1] It is all about celebrating the victory of Jesus through the death and resurrection and more than that: it appears, in Mark Chapter 16, that they were celebrating an unexpected victory[2] – a come from behind win if you will.  Look at 16:1, “When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome brought spices so that they might go to anoint Jesus’ body.”

Luke 23:56 tells us that they prepared these spices before the Sabbath[3] began but waited until after to anoint the body; so what is the purpose of anointing the body? Some have suggested that it has to do with an embalming practice of sorts but, of course, the Jewish people never practiced embalming.[4] Nonetheless it still has to do with a burial rite of the first century Palestinians. The women go to the tomb to see a dead man. They don’t believe He’s alive.

Look at their conversation en route too. On the way to the grave, on the way to the tomb what are they talking about? What’s on their minds? Are they discussing the possibility of the resurrection? Are they wondering if…maybe…could He have risen from the dead? No. The text doesn’t even accord them enough faith to doubt here. What it records that they are concerned with here is the rock in front of tomb. Who’ll roll it away they wonder? Right? Look at Verse 3; it says that the women asked each other, “Who’ll roll away the stone?” They think they are going to see a dead man sealed in a tomb. They don’t know He’s alive. They don’t believe.

Now this is somewhat disappointing, isn’t it? As both our Tuesday afternoon and our Tuesday evening Bible studies have been reading through Mark together these last few weeks, Mark has revealed to his readers on a number of occasions that Jesus repeatedly told his followers that indeed he is going to be raised from the dead (8:31, 9:9, 9:31,10:34,15:29). And as it says in Mark 9:10 and 31 that the disciples anyway heard exactly what Jesus was teaching but they just did not understand and what they should have understood, they just did not believe.[5] After all, how can someone raise from the dead?

So now the women are heading to the tomb like many of us head to either a graveside or a memorial service in our day and age. They head out to pay their last respects to a man – to a man that they had so much respect for, to a man that they had so much love for, to a man that they had so much hope for, to a man that they had faith in but now as they walk the road to the tomb, they do so, perfume in hand, worrying about the stone and who will move it from the grave. They do not believe that He has risen. They do not believe.

Do we ever get to a point where we do not believe any longer? Do we ever get to the point where we, by our actions, head out to bury Jesus? The world had told us through Time Magazine in 1966 that ‘God is dead.’[6] John Lennon relieved himself on nuns[7] and the rock group Oasis still not too many years ago, announced to the world, like Lennon before them, that they were even more popular than Jesus.

We have a system of government in this country where we assume that whatever a majority of 50%+1 of the population says is correct at least 50%+1 of time and we are told that is good enough (But it is NOT good enough!) and we have an economic system that says that you deserve more liberties as you gain more money (But that is NOT true!). Many assume that these are the things that we can believe in: sadly many can easily be tempted to rely on the fickle tide of popular opinion or the lure of money for our salvation in the here and now.

The world also tells us that we have to ‘look out for number one’ and to make sure that we are happy before we can even give consideration to our neighbour. ‘We are the master of our own destiny’, we are told; ‘we have to first be true to ourselves’, we are told; ‘we can only rely on ourselves’, we are told:  this thinking, this make believe, this trap, is based on the assumption, the lie that Jesus is not alive and God is not looking out for us. It is based on the fallacy that God is not involved in our world; these belief systems are based on the false assumption that Jesus Christ is dead. This trap that we have to rely on ourselves, this trap of trusting in ourselves rather than trusting in God, this trap of disbelief in the power of the resurrected Christ, this trap is very, very dangerous.

Do we ever fall into this trap? Do we ever act as if we don’t believe that Jesus is alive? How do we do here today at recognising that God, Jesus is actually alive and that it is He who we should be serving rather than ourselves? How do we make our daily decisions: do we base them on our finances and do we base them on our own fleeting whims or do we base them on what God tells us? Do we ignore God as if He is dead or do we serve Him who is alive?

Do we make our decisions through praying and reading the Bible? When we are planning for retirement and have to move money here or there, do we pray about how or if we should invest? Do we look into the scriptures? What about for those of us in school? How do we decide what classes to take or what school to attend? Do we pray and/or do we fast? Do we believe that Jesus will help us? Do we act as though we believe He is alive or do we ignore Him when we are making our decisions, as if He were never raised from the dead?

What about us parents and grandparents? How do we decide to raise our children? Do we consult the Bible when making real every day decisions? Do we pray with our children when they have a serious issue on their mind? Do we help them in this way; do we actually, really believe in Jesus – or do we leave our family (and our own decisions) to their own devices?

In our everyday real, tangible Monday through Friday and Saturday and Sunday lives, do we expect that Jesus is alive and He is there for us? Do we believe that He is real and that He wants and will give us what is best for the Kingdom or do we, by relying on our own devices, act as though He is still dead and sealed in the tomb?

In our Sunday morning church gatherings are we expectantly seeking the risen Lord or are we doing nothing more than visiting the tomb to remember a dead Messiah, hoping that somehow through the service someone will roll away the stone so we can anoint His powerless, lifeless, dead body with songs and sermons? Is Jesus dead or is Jesus alive? Is Jesus just a distant historical figure and a memory or is Jesus risen and active in our lives? Is Jesus dead or is Jesus alive? What do we really believe?

I remember once when I was in my early to mid-twenties. I had a contract at Defence Research at C.F.B. Esquimalt. It was an exciting, yet a stressful time. I had some very skilled people working with me and the work sometimes was very precise and there was a lot that my staff could do and this was good because I personally couldn’t be there every day (I had other contracts to tend to as well) but, even though they could be trusted, there were inevitably aspects of the job that they could and should not do. There were aspects of the job that took my personal attention.

Our contract at Defence Research involved the physical relocation of the lab from the west coast of Canada to the east coast. It was very important that everything was packed up and that everything that was packed up was documented properly. There were things that the scientists were working on that, trust me, you just didn’t want to get loose or mixed up on the trip across the country; so we set up a detailed procedure of inventorying everything and after each box was packed I had to personally clear it before it was put on the truck; so I told my staff, I told them never to load the truck when I wasn’t there. Repeatedly, I told them how important it was never to load the truck when I wasn’t there and it was posted on the doors of the warehouse that they must never load the truck when I wasn’t there.

Well one Thursday the truck arrives when I wasn’t there. Now some of my staff are quite eager workers at this point and they want to get everything done as soon as possible. They think that they know everything that needs to be done. I had told them not to load the truck when I wasn’t there.  I had put it in writing not to load the truck if I wasn’t there. They all told me that they wouldn’t load the truck if I wasn’t there but one Thursday the truck arrived when I wasn’t there and…

I come into work the next day and the warehouse is empty and there is the truck locked up, apparently ready to go and not a single inventory sheet was even sitting on my desk. I was so upset not only because that truck was not supposed to be loaded when I wasn’t there but also because they didn’t keep proper records so that whatever is in the truck and whatever is in every box in the truck now needs to be taken out and re-sorted and inventoried. I am upset. I start to raise my voice as I demand that Troy, the only one of my staff that I can find, I yell and demand to Troy that he open the truck and start taking everything out of there. He opens the truck…

Troy opens the truck: it is empty – except for the rest of my staff who are in there laughing at me because I fell for their rouse. They had played a joke on me; I fell for it. (They had simply moved the cargo to a different part of the warehouse).

I was so upset because, even though the truck was supposed to be empty, even though we all knew it was supposed to be empty, and even though we were all told repeatedly that it was supposed to be empty, I didn’t think it would be. I didn’t believe what I should have believed. I looked around the warehouse at the way things seemed to be and I didn’t believe that the truck would be empty like it was supposed to be.

This is the same as the empty tomb today in our story and indeed this is the same as the empty tomb today in our world. The women are undoubtedly upset as they are going out to the tomb where – even though Jesus said He would rise again on the third day – the ladies are upset because they expect, like I did with the truck, that the tomb would not be empty.

But, halleluiah, they’re wrong and instead of Jesus’ body in the tomb, and instead of my laughing friends in the back of the empty truck, there is a totally different messenger, who in Luke’s account (Luke 24:5) asks the question, “Why do you look for the living among the dead?” He has risen. He has risen indeed.

Now, of course, there is this beautiful irony that Mark ends off with in his story here as well. As recorded in Verse 7, the angel says to the people, “… Go, tell his disciples and Peter, ‘… you will see Him, just as He told you.’” They are supposed to tell people about this miracle. And in Verse 8 it records that the women say nothing to anyone because they are afraid. Those of us who have been studying Mark, do you notice irony? In almost every story we have read in Mark so far the people are told not to tell anyone – and what do they do? They tell everyone. Here the people are instructed to tell people and what do they do? They tell no one. Go figure. (Good thing Jesus had multiple post-resurrection appearances!) We all can now believe!

Today – on this Easter Sunday – on Resurrection Day, today, we do have a choice to make. We have a very real choice to make. It is this: we can believe that the tomb is empty or we can believe that it is not. This changes everything. We can believe that the tomb is empty or we can believe that it is not. Is Jesus dead or is Jesus alive; what do we really believe?

As Jesus is alive, if we realise that the tomb is empty and if we recognise that Jesus is our Lord and that He is God then whatever difficulties we may have in our lives we can bring to Him. He will work them out for His good and for His Kingdom because He has – through His death and through His resurrection - conquered sin and death so there is no problem that we can have that is too big for Him.

But if we don’t recognise that Jesus is alive then we are forced to rely on just our own strength and our own passing fancy. So today let us look in that empty tomb of history and let us notice that indeed this tomb is empty and today and from now on let us not come here to bury Jesus but to praise him and serve our risen Lord – for he has risen. He has risen indeed.

Christ has Risen (He has Risen Indeed)

Let us pray…

http://www.sheepspeak.com/

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[1] And, like the next tournament, He’s coming again…though we know not when!

[2] REVD M. Percy, Ripon College, Oxford – in ‘Seeing isn’t believing’ in EXT: Vol. 119, No. 5, p. 238-239 compares the event to looking at an ultrasound image. Sure some people can interpret them. Yes, we believe the doctors but can we make heads or tails of it? Some can but others cannot necessarily without help. (Still others I’m sure can choose not to believe the images are real at all. – MR)

[3] CF. RCH Lenski. The Interpretation of St. Mark’s Gospel. P. 737, for a different opinion: he believes that these indeed may be entirely different spices

[4] W. Wessel: The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM:Mark, The Resurrection (16:1-8), Book Version: 4.0.2 : it was a single act of love and devotion probably meant to reduce the stench of the decomposing body. Palestine's hot climate causes corpses to decay rapidly. Thus the action of the women seems strange. Perhaps they thought that the coolness of the tomb would prevent the decomposition process from taking place as rapidly as it otherwise would.

[5] They aren’t alone. NT Wright, The Bishop of Durham, http://www.ntwrightpage.com/Wright_Jesus_Resurrection.htm ‘Jesus’ Resurrection and Christian Origins’ (Originally published in Gregorianum, 2002, 83/4, 615–635) makes this observation about the pagan beliefs in the ancient world:  “whenever the question of bodily resurrection is raised in the ancient world the answer is negative.  Homer does not imagine that there is a way back; Plato does not suppose anyone in their right mind would want one.  There may or may not be various forms of life after death, but the one thing there isn’t is resurrection: the word anastasis refers to something that everybody knows doesn’t happen.  The classic statement is in Aeschylus’s play Eumenides (647-8), in which, during the founding of the Court of the Areopagus, Apollo himself declares that when a man has died, and his blood is spilt on the ground, there is no resurrection.  The language of resurrection, or something like it, was used in Egypt in connection with the very full and developed view of the world beyond death.  But this new life was something that had, it was believed, already begun, and it did not involve actual bodily return to the present world.  Nor was everybody fooled by the idea that the dead were already enjoying a full life beyond the grave.  When the eager Egyptians tried to show their new ruler Augustus their hoard of wonderful mummies, he replied that he wanted to see kings, not corpses”

[6] Time Magazine. Cover: ‘Is God Dead?’ Vol 97., No. 14: April 8, 1966. From the article, Toward a Hidden God: “Even within Christianity, now confidently renewing itself in spirit as well as form, a small band of radical theologians has seriously argued that the churches must accept the fact of God's death, and get along without him. How does the issue differ from the age-old assertion that God does not and never did exist? Nietzsche's thesis was that striving, self-centered man had killed God, and that settled that. The current death-of-God group* believes that God is indeed absolutely dead, but proposes to carry on and write a theology without theos, without God. Less radical Christian thinkers hold that at the very least God in the image of man, God sitting in heaven, is dead, and—in the central task of religion today—they seek to imagine and define a God who can touch men's emotions and engage men's minds.”

[7] On Good Friday 1962, no less, after hanging a sacrileges image from his balcony: http://www.kakool.com/content/john-lennon-good-friday