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

A Christmas 2016 variation can be found here: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.ca/2016/12/luke-21-with-christ-or-augustus.html 

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair”: this is the famous opening line of A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens; it is about Paris and it is about London. Today’s story from Scripture is a real life tale of two kings by Luke the physician; it is about Augustus Caesar and it is about Jesus Christ and in Luke’s Gospel, like in Dickens’ story, it is the best of times and it is the worst of times.[1]

The second chapter of Luke’s Gospel opens with, “And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed.” Caesar Augustus is the first king of our two kings, chronologically speaking, that we will address today.[2] What do we know of this king and of this world that he has ordered taxed?

Caesar Augustus was the Roman king and the world was certainly a Roman world that he ordered to be taxed. Prominent New Testament scholar and historian N.T. Wright, writes:

In the Mediterranean world …the fastest growing religion was the Imperial cult, the worship of [the king, Augustus] Caesar.

In Rome itself, …being hailed as the son of the newly deified Julius was an important part of [Caesar] Augustus’ profile, and that of his successors, at home as well as abroad.  But in the East [including Judea] …the provinces saw no need for restraint. With a long tradition of ruler-cults going back at least to Alexander the Great, local cities and provinces were in many cases only too happy to demonstrate their loyalty to the emperor by establishing a cult in his honour, and in need by vying for the privilege of looking after his shrine.[3]

In our tale of two kings today, the first king here mentioned, Augustus Caesar, leader of Rome, the paramount Superpower in the first Century, when Jesus lived; he is worshipped as a god. Augustus Caesar, this alleged god-king, who rules the most powerful country in the world; this alleged god-king is seen as a son of god, in that his deceased adopted father Julius Caesar is also revered as a god; this ‘god-king’, ‘son of god’ has an interesting biography. This is the tale of Caesar Augustus. [4]

Augustus Caesar

Caesar Augustus is born Gaius Octavius on September 23, 63 BCE. He takes the name Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus (Octavian) in 44 BCE after the murder of his great uncle, Julius Caesar, who was the Roman ruler at the time. In his will, Julius Caesar had adopted Octavian thus making him his heir to the helm of the Roman world.

Octavian is a shrewd, brilliant and astute politician; he is able to achieve ultimate power in Rome. At the time of his uncle’s assassination, Octavian /Augustus – like Deng Xiaoping, centuries later in China, during the Tiananmen Square incident –held no official position. However, shortly afterwards, he, with his armies, march on Rome, forcing the senate to name him consul, thus showing to the world that indeed he is a power to be reckoned with.

Augustus, then, along with Marc Antony and another Roman General (Marcus Lepidus) begins to rule the Roman world. After taking power, they slaughter thousands of political enemies. Antony later marries Cleopatra and wages war against Augustus.  The Roman Navy under Herod Agrippa defeats Antony and Cleopatra in 31 BCE and within a year they both famously commit suicide.

Following this Rome officially bestowed upon Octavian/Augustus the name ‘Augustus’, which means ‘the exalted.’ The politicians also gave him the legal power to rule every aspect of the whole Roman Empire all to himself. Through wars, murder and intrigue, Caesar Augustus becomes Rome’s ultimate Emperor, bringing stability to the realm.

Rome achieves its glory under Augustus. After 100 years of civil war, he becomes the prince of peace; no one dares challenge Caesar Augustus. His empire expands as his armies conquer Spain, Gaul (now France), Panonia and Dalmatia (now parts of Hungary and Croatia), Egypt and most of southwestern Europe.

Caesar Augustus rules with an iron-fist. He is worshipped as a god and as a son of a god; by destroying his enemies in war he even ironically becomes known as the prince of the ‘Pax Romana’, the Roman peace. When the Gospel of Luke that we read from today was recorded, Augustus was known as a god, a son of god and a prince of peace. Luke then tells of our other king, the real king.

Jesus Christ

Jesus truly is God, the Son of God, and the Prince of Peace. Notice how different the real King of Kings is from Caesar Augustus or any other king or any leader of any superpower either past or present. Luke, in invoking Caesar Augustus’ name and this taxation is drawing this parallel and making this contrast for all of us to see.

Luke and all his readers know very much what we have just said about Augustus Caesar. They know his story. That is their life and times. In our passage today Luke is intentionally showing us that Jesus, Jesus’ mother and adoptive father are very different from Augustus Caesar and his adoptive father. Rather than conquering an Empire by force, Joseph and Mary travel by foot to another city in order to pay their taxes to this aforementioned Caesar Augustus.  In so doing it is ironic that Augustus Caesar is pretending to be what their child, who is about to come into the world, really is: the Son of God and the Prince of Peace (Luke 2:4).[5]

When Mary and Joseph arrive in Bethlehem to pay their taxes, the city is full. Imagine the buzz of activity with people everywhere coming to be registered. The buzz of activity: with everyone going to a specific location to register, it reminds me sort of hamper day. It is not feasible for us to deliver hampers to everyone’s home in the community so they need to come to us. It is not feasible for the Romans to go to every house in their empire to register them for the census; so the people needed to come to central locations.[6] On hamper day we have people everywhere: between volunteers, staff, and those in need coming to pick up their hampers. I imagine this buzz of activity of hundreds of people around here on hamper day to be a microcosm of what it was like in Bethlehem two centuries ago. As busy as it was here it was even busier there as the busyness filled the whole city.

I can’t quite remember what the situation was like here when we had the women’s world curling championships last year but I do know what it was like in Vancouver during the 2010 Olympics. I had friends of mine tell me repeatedly how landlords would evict tenants so they could rent out their rooms at much higher rates than they would ordinarily get. Hotel rooms were filled during the Olympics. People who lived in Vancouver were even going on vacation somewhere else during the Olympics and renting out their homes for enough money to pay for their entire vacation. The city was full. There was no room anywhere. If you didn’t have relatives or reservations and you wanted to stay in Vancouver during the Olympics you would have to be resourceful – even the shelters were full.

It is the same in Bethlehem. Anyone and everyone descended from the iconic figure King David of Judah, was descending upon this small city.[7] There was no room in the inns. This was the environment when this other king of the Jews, the real king of the Jews, the real Son of God, and the real God incarnate comes into the world – a little different from the life of Caesar Augustus, who is mentioned at the beginning of our text today and of whom the same claims of kingship and god’s sonship are made.

Jesus’ mother, Mary, gives birth in the only room available and makes her baby as comfortable as possible, wrapping him snugly in pieces of cloth and placing him in a feeding trough, in a manger packed with straw.

It is at this point in the narrative then that Luke begins to draw a real distinction between our two kings in our tale today: Augustus Caesar, who some uphold to be a god, a son of a god, and the Prince of the Roman Peace and Christ Jesus who really is God, the Son of God, and the Prince of Peace. Whereas the king Augustus Caesar had his power acknowledged by the powerful politicians of his day through war, murder, and intrigue. Christ Jesus’ kingship is heralded through angels to working class shepherds who were working the night shift.[8]

Luke 2: 8-14:

And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, “Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.  For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.

 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.” And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us.

These working class shepherds, who are working that night, are invited by God’s messengers to come and see His new born Son, born to parents who are here to pay their taxes to the leader of the temporal superpower of their day: who is ironically enough an impostor pretending to be the son of a god.  These shepherds listen to God and go to Bethlehem and are blessed to see the birth of God’s truly only begotten son who will grow up to save the whole world.

Luke 2:19-20: “…Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart. And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told unto them.”

Thus our tale of two kings concludes with the same question before us today as was before the shepherds and the readers of Luke’s gospel in the first century. Which of the two kings will we serve? Will we serve Caesar or Christ? Will we serve the rulers of our current time and place in history – Presidents, Prime Ministers, Kings, … – and their empires and systems – the English-speaking empire, capitalism, democracy, consumerism, imperialism, or whatever else… - or will we serve the only real Son of God who lived and died and rose again so that we can all rise again and live forever in His Kingdom to come if we so choose. On this Christmas Day two centuries closer to the return of our King, the choice is ours and I encourage us all to serve our Lord, who is returning anytime now. I invite us all today, in recognition and in a pledge of allegiance to Jesus who truly is the King of Kings; I invite us all to sing alongside the angels of two centuries ago, as it is recorded in Luke 2:14 where they sing: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men!” Please stand with me and sing “Gloria in Execelis Deo” which, of course, in English means, “Glory to God in the highest.”

Let us pray[9]:

Glory to God in the highest,
and peace to His people on earth.
Lord God, heavenly King,
Almighty God and Father,
we worship You, we give You thanks,
we praise You for Your glory.
Lord Jesus Christ,
only Son of the Father,
Lord God, Lamb of God,
You take away the sin of the world:
have mercy on us;
You are seated at the right hand of the Father:
receive our prayer.
For You alone are the Holy One,
You alone are the Lord,
You alone are the Most High,
Jesus Christ, with the Holy Spirit,
in the glory of the Father.
Amen.

Benediction: Let us go forth on this Christmas Day forever serving the Lord of Lords and the King of Kings, Christ Jesus our Saviour. Amen.

---

---

[1] Cf. R. Alan Culpepper, Luke (NIB 8: Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon, 1995), 63 for a good discussion of the comparison made here by Luke.

[2] Cf. 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)/3. The birth of Jesus (2:1-7), Book Version: 4.0.2

[3]N.T. Wright, 'Paul and Caesar: A New Reading of Romans', originally published in A Royal Priesthood: The Use of the Bible Ethically and Politically, ed. C. Bartholemew, 2002, Carlisle: Paternoster, 173–193. Reproduced by permission of the author. Available on-line at http://www.ntwrightpage.com/Wright_Paul_Caesar_Romans.htm

[4] For more information on Augustus, cf. Will Durant, The Story of Civilisation III: Caesar and Christ. New York, NY: Simon and Schuster, 1944. See also Lucid Café Library On-line: http://www.lucidcafe.com/library/95sep/augustus.html

[5] Cf. R. Alan Culpepper, Luke (NIB 8: Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon, 1995), 63

[6] Cf. Leon Morris, Luke: An Introduction and Commentary. Downers Grove, Il.: InterVarsity Press, 1988 (Tyndale New Testament Commentaries 3), S. 99. See also A. Deissmann, Light from the Ancient East (Hodder and Stoughton, 1927), p. 271. Deissmann says that Luke uses official ‘departmental language’ in reporting the order (ibid., p. 270, n. 5).

[7] But cf. Cf. R. Alan Culpepper, Luke (NIB 8: Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon, 1995), 63

[8] Cf. Fred B. Craddock, Luke (Interpretation: Louisville, Kentucky: John Knox, 1990), 35. Re: the comparison between royal heralds of good news.

[9] ‘A Catholic Prayer: Glory to God’, available on-line: http://www.catholic.org/prayers/prayer.php?p=785

Luke 1:26-37: Do You Believe?

Presented to the Nipawin Corps 24 December 2008
and the Swift Current Care Centre (abridged), 17 December 2011
and the Swift Current Corps, 24 December 2011
by Captain Michael Ramsay

 
Click HERE to read the sermon: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2008/12/luke-126-37-do-you-believe.html

1 Thessalonians 5:16-24: The 7 P’s and the Pi of Holiness

Presented to Swift Current Corps of The Salvation Army, 11 Dec 2011
and to the Nipawin Corps 14 Dec. 2008
By Captain Michael Ramsay
  
To read the 2008 version chick here: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2008/12/1-thessalonians-516-22-23-7-ps-and-pi.html

    

I don’t know if you have ever seen those motivational speakers on TV or in person. I’ve had some jobs in the past where they send someone in to rally the troops. They usually have – in the old days flip charts – these days PPT or DVD, lots of props and some way that they want you to remember what it is they are trying to motivate you to do. Sometimes it is just repetition.

One thing that people often use is an acronym – you spell out a word and every letter stands for something else. Here I’ll give you some famous acronyms and you tell me if you know what they mean:

1)      ASAP     2) NATO   3) NHL    4) MYOB    5) TSA[1]

Sometimes they just have an alliterative list with each item in the cue staring with the same letter or the same sound, like Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, or here’s another little quiz for you can you tell me:

1)      In Four H, what are the 4 H’s?[2]

2)      What are the 3 R’s from school?

a.      How many of these words actually start with R?

b.      Who can tell me which word that is?[3]

Paul in our scripture passage uses some of these very techniques and in this pericope that we are looking at today Paul gives us the 7 Ps (Pi’s) of being holy or blameless in preparation for Christ’s return (1 Thessalonians 5:23).[4] In Greek, the language in which Paul writes this letter to the Thessalonians, each of these phrases begins with the Greek letter ‘Pi’, which is roughly the equivalent of the English letter ‘P’. Now Paul knows that Jesus may come back at any moment and so he comes up with this way for us to remember how to be blameless, how to be holy in preparation for this event.

The First P is ‘Rejoice Always’ – In Greek it starts with a P – or a Pi anyway (the Greek equivalent of our P). So the first P, or piece of Pi, is ‘Rejoice Always’.

P 1 = Rejoice Always

Rejoice Always (Thessalonians 5:16, 18; cf. Deuteronomy12: 7,18; 1 Chronicles 16:10, 31; Psalm 40:16; Luke 10:20; John 16:22; Romans 5:1-5; Philippians 4:4; Colossians 1:24; 1 Peter 1:26, 4:13). Not about everything but in all circumstances, Paul says. This is important. This is because of the faith that we have that with God all things are possible (Matthew 19:26; Mark 10:27). We know that the war is already won (1 Corinthians 15; 1 John 5:4). Nothing that happens here on earth, in our lives, can change the Salvation that has already been provided through our Lord. Nothing: the only question is whether we will take advantage of it, whether we will experience it or not!

I think of a particular Salvation Army funeral a couple of years ago: when Major Neil Voice received his promotion to glory I heard that indeed his memorial service was a real celebration with a full brass band and everything! His funeral was a celebration of the fact that he served God well in his life and now he gets to continue doing so for eternity with the Lord. This celebration did not take away at all from the legitimate grief and appropriate laments from those who love him but this kind of celebration is a great example of the hope that we all have in Christ (1 Thessalonians 1:3; 2 Thessalonians 2:16). In The Salvation Army we do refer to one’s passing as a ‘promotion to Glory’ and promotions are good things, aren’t they?  Christ died and rose again so that we all can live for now and forever, if we so choose to accept his invitation; indeed this is something to be joyful about (John 10:10; John 15:15).

 I think of my cousin who was also promoted to glory a couple of years ago now – she was my age. She left many loving friends and family members behind, including two very young children but I understand that neither her faith nor the faith of her husband wavered at all. Difficult things happen[5] but we know that in the end everything will be okay for those who love the Lord; so indeed we can always celebrate that joy of our salvation, even as we lament, even as we mourn, even as we are sad, we can still rejoice (2 Corinthians 6:10) because God is good and God has provided our salvation for us all. It is there for whomever of us wishes to accept it. So the first P, the first Pi is Rejoice always.

P2 = Pray without ceasing:

The second P (or Pi) is Pray without ceasing: Unlike Pi #1, ‘Pray without ceasing’ actually starts with a ‘p’ in English, Now we know that our salvation comes from the Lord. We know that He is indeed looking out for us and so we pray continuously and we do give thanks in all circumstances for this is God’s will for us (1 Thessalonians 5:17; cf. Acts 12:7; Romans 1:9, 2 Timothy 1:3).

We know that we are in a spiritual battle. We know that we fight not as much against flesh and blood as we do against powers and principalities (Ephesians 6:12ff; cf. Romans 8:38; 1 Peter 3:22). We know that there is opposition to the gospel. We know that even though the gospel is good news, we know that there are people who hate the truth and we know that there are people who hate the tellers of the truth. John refers to many of these people as antichrists (1 John 2:18, 22; 4:3; 2 John 2:1-7; cf. 1 Corinthians 6:22). There are people who have left the faith; there are people who ignore what is obvious and there are people who will attack us instead. Because the devil, antichrists, and more and more people, and more and more things in this world seem to attack us, our beliefs, and our God – because we are constantly under attack, we need to keep in constant communications with God and that is what prayer is – communication with God.

When soldiers are in the heat of battle: when bombs are going off, when planes are coming in from a distance, and they cannot tell friend from foe and they cannot see what is even coming at them – what do they need? They need good communication with the base. They need good communication with one who can see the battlefield and this is what prayer is – it is keeping in touch with God; it is following Jesus into battle. If we fail to pray, if we forget to pray, we are like the soldier who stumbles blindly out of the trenches knowing neither at whom he is shooting nor who is shooting at him. This soldier cannot survive for long and – even though the war is already won – people are still perishing and we cannot survive for long without the Lord (2 Corinthians 6:2, 1 Corinthians 15:2, Ephesians 2:8, 1 Peter 1).[6] We need the Lord’s guidance, we need the Lord’s strength, and the Lord’s sacrifice so that indeed we can all live – and for this, we should be constantly giving thanks.

P3 = Give thanks in all circumstances

That brings us to the third piece of our holiness pi, our third P = Give Thanks in all circumstances (Thessalonians 5:16, 18; cf. Deuteronomy 12:7,18; 1 Chronicles 16:10, 31; Psalm 40:16; Luke 10:20; John 16:22; Romans 5:1-5; Philippians 4:4; Colossians 1:24; 1 Peter 1:26, 4:13).

This attitude of thanksgiving is so important. The Lord loves us. Now, like we said about our saved loved ones who pass on, we are not thankful by any means that they are gone but we do know that they have moved on to something better – no more sickness, no more death, no more tears (Revelation 21:4) and we do know that even though we miss our loved ones – God will never leave us nor forsake us (Deuteronomy 31:6; Hebrews 13:5). He will not give us more than we can bear. God loves us (John 3:16-17; 5; 15; 1 John 4). He loves all of us and He manages to work together even the most unpleasant situations somehow, someway for His Kingdom purposes, and because of this we can indeed be thankful in all circumstances.

To review the holiness Ps, the pi’s we have so far, are:

P1 = Rejoice always

P2 = Pray without ceasing

P3 = Give thanks in all circumstances

This brings us to our next pi:

P4 = Do not quench the Spirit (1 Thessalonians 5:19; cf.1 Thessalonians 1:5,6,7)

Now, apparently when Paul was writing this letter, there were some ‘wakkos’ predicting the time and the day of the end of the world (cf. Mark 13:32-33) and there were ‘weirdos’ who would perform faked healings, false prophecies, etc. There were these snake-oil salesmen of sorts.[7] And some of these folks were leading people astray and some of these people with their false predictions just plain looked plain silly and they did so for no easily discernable heavenly purpose. Some things never change! There is a difference between being a fool for the gospel and just plain being a fool.[8] Now Paul knew this and Paul knew that in reaction to these people, some people could go too far in the other direction.

I was raised in the Canadian Baptist tradition – the Lord taught me a lot and I have a great respect for the many Christians who earnestly serve the Lord there. It has been said that the only time a Canadian Baptist raises his hand in church is to ask permission to go to the bathroom. (This joke probably represents the extreme!) I went to a church service once and I remember someone who was visiting asking if it had charismatic style worship at all; the response was, “The Holy Spirit showed up just the other night in an evening service but - don’t worry – the pastor asked him to leave.” I have certainly been in more than one service like this (in churches of different denominations) that indeed when the Spirit does show up, people don’t know what to do – and this is what Paul is telling us about with the fourth P. He is saying don’t quench the Spirit. So what are the Ps and our Pi’s so far?

P1 = Rejoice always

P2 = Pray without ceasing

P3 = Give thanks in all circumstances

P4 = Do not quench the Spirit

That brings us to our fifth holiness Pi of preparation, P5, which builds on P4 very nicely. We have to be careful not to quench the spirit and we have to make sure that we do not despise the words of the prophets.

P5 = Do not despise the words of the prophets

Like we said: there are many false prophets out there. We spoke two weeks ago about these people who are endlessly predicting the time and date for the end of times even when the Bible tells us not to do so (Mark 13:32-33).[9] There are all these false prophets out there and prophets who make mistakes as well – and, as shown by the fellow from California who predicted a couple of end of the world dates for this year (2011) that have already come and gone - the media loves these guys because they can use them to make Christians, to make us all, look like a bunch of liars and a bunch of fools. The truth is, that yes, as John says, there are many antichrists pretending to know what they do not know. There are many false prophets tickling our ears for the purpose of financial gain or to lead us astray but indeed Paul says, there are real prophets – and we should not despise their words. And this brings us to our next holiness point of preparation for Christ’s return.

P6 = But test everything, hold onto what is good

This is one of the most important things (cf. 1 Thessalonians 5:21). This is one of the primary reasons that we are given the Bible as it is, I imagine; so that indeed we can and we will test things and see what is right and see what is wrong. We must be like the Bereans (Acts 17:10-15). Paul applauds them – the Christians in the first century town of Berea – for this very thing. They do not accept what the Apostle Paul is telling them simply because he is telling it to them; they put his words to the test. They search the scriptures; we need to search the scriptures. It is very important. Smart people sometimes make mistakes. Good people sometimes make mistakes and when we hear someone utter what we think may be a mistake we need to look it up in the Bible. We need to pray about it. We need to then approach them about it – because if they are wrong, they need to change and if we are wrong, we need to change and either way as we are smart enough to test what is good and what is evil, we will indeed grow – provided we try to, P (Pi) 7, Abstain from every form of evil.

P7 = Abstain from every form of evil.

Doctrine 10 of The Salvation Army reads: "We believe that it is the privilege of all believers to be wholly sanctified, and that their whole spirit and soul and body may be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." Our text today says, abstain from every form of evil: This is holiness (Cf. TSA doc. 10). God tells us to be holy (1 Peter 1:15, Leviticus 11:44,45; 19:2; 20:7). God tells us to be blameless (1 Thessalonians 5:23). God tells us to be perfect (2 Corinthians 13; Colossians 1:28; Hebrews 11,12). John Wesley argued that this involves more than just avoiding vices. He says, quoting an heathen Epicurean poet, in a sermon entitled, ‘The Almost Christian’ that “Good men avoid sin from the love of virtue. Wicked men avoid sin from a fear of punishment.”[10] Avoiding evil and avoiding it because of a legitimate love of God is very important. It is very important and the opposite of what some people suggest: that we all sin all the time. We know that this is not true because if we did sin all the time, God would never tell us to be holy just as He is holy and He would never tell us to be even perfect and he would never tell us to be blameless as Paul records in Verse 23 of our text today – but He does. God doesn’t set people up for failure. He is a loving God. He would never ask from us that which is impossible. After all with God all things are possible, and in Verses 23 and 24, He tells us how it is indeed possible to be perfect even as God is perfect. He says He will do it. God himself will sanctify us through and through, keeping us blameless until the return of Christ. So this is exciting. We don’t need to sin. We don’t need to return to bad habits. We can rely on God, He will lead us through the 7 P’s (Pi’s) of holiness in each one of our lives and indeed He will make us holy, as He is holy.

So then as we prepare to meet Christ very soon, as we celebrate his coming 2000 years ago in a manger and as we look forward to his return anytime now. Let us turn to God and in the process let us make sure that we are prepared. Let us give P’s a chance. Let us not have any Pi missing as we present our lives holy unto God as a living sacrifice, trusting that He will preserve us blameless until the coming of the end of the age.

Let us pray.

 

http://www.sheepspeak.com/

---

---

[1] 1) As soon as possible 2) North Atlantic Treaty Organization 3) National Hockey League 4) Mind your own business 5) The Salvation Army.

[2] Head, heart, hands, and health

[3] Reading, wRiting, aRithmetic: Only ‘Reading’ begins with the letter ‘R’

[4] Beverly Roberts Gaventa, First and Second Thessalonians (Interpretation: Grand Loisville, Kentucky, USA: John Knox Press, 1998), 84.

[5] Rober L. Thomas. The Expositor's Bible Commentary. Pradis CD-ROM:1 3. Responsibilities to oneself (5:16-18), Book Version: 4.0.2: ‘A final member of this triplet for personal development is "Give thanks in all circumstances." No combination of happenings can be termed "bad" for a Christian because of God's constant superintendence (Rom 8:28). We need to recognize that seeming aggravations are but a temporary part of a larger plan for our spiritual well-being. Out of this perspective we can always discern a cause for thanks.’

[6] Cf. Captain Michael Ramsay. “Romans 13:11-14: Victory: The Final Whistle” Available on-line: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2007/12/victory-final-whistle-romans-1311-14.html

[7] Beverly Roberts Gaventa, 84. Cf. Also. Captain Michael Ramsay, Mark 13: 24-37: Hope for a Happy New Year: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2008/11/mark-1332-37-hope-for-happy-new-year.html

[8] But cf. Mark Chapman, “Mark 1:1-8,” The Expository Times, Volume 120, number 2, ed. Paul Foster, John Riches, Karen Wenell, (London: 2008): 79-80.

[9] Captain Michael Ramsay, Mark 13: 24-37: Hope for a Happy New Year: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2008/11/mark-1332-37-hope-for-happy-new-year.html

[10] John Wesley, “The Almost Christian.” Cited from Outler & Heitzenrater 1991,67.

Mark 13:28,29: the First Sprig of Spring.

Presented to The Swift Current Community Advent Lunch Series at St. Olaf’s Lutheran Church, 01 December 2011 and Swift Current Corps of The Salvation Army, 04 December 2011.[1] 
By Captain Michael Ramsay

Mark 13:28,29: “Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. Even so, when you see these things happening, you know that it is near, right at the door.”

Now I grew up in Victoria, BC. There we would always have a green Christmas. Growing up there, we had snow maybe once every four years or so and when we did, it was gone in about a week. Every February, when much of our great country is still covered in snow, Victoria has its annual flower count. I recently found the statistics for 2002. In that year Victoria counted 8,521,514,876 flowers on that day in February.[2]

When I first moved to the Prairies some years ago now – we lived in Winnipeg – I noticed that Februaries in Winnipeg are a little bit different than in Victoria. Instead of + 8 billion flowers, in Winnipeg we had what felt like - 8 billion degree temperatures.

It is great here on the Prairies though. My girls really love sledding. They love skating and curling and whenever the snow is suitable you can see them building snow people. Our girls were 3 and 4 when we moved to Winnipeg and we lived a short walk from a really good sledding hill so we would go quite often and when we did it was a lot of fun. Inevitably, too, on our walk home there was a ‘Subway’ sandwich shop that we would walk past so we would always have to stop for a hot chocolate and a cookie after sledding. The girls and I came to really look forward to that. Winter is great… but you know what? We have been living on the Prairies for a few years now and when the end of May – or the beginning of June (!) – rolls around and there is still snow on the ground – I am ready for it to be over.

By the time the snow starts to melt, by the time the trees start to sprout and we can see for ourselves that summer is near, I am quite happy. As fun as sledding to the Subway for a cookie with the kids in the winter is, it is also good to ride our bikes to the Dairy Queen for an ice-cream cone on a hot summer day! And by the end of May I can tell you that I am much more looking forward an ice-cream cone in the heat than a cookie in the cold.

Mark 13:28,29: “Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. Even so, when you see these things happening, you know that it is near, right at the door.”

This is the same sort of idea that our text today is talking about.[3] We all know that in the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve (Genesis 3; See also Romans 5:14) -instead of watching squirrels and counting blossoms- they decided to listen to a snake and eat forbidden fruit. This probably wouldn’t have been quite so bad except for the problem that their Father in Heaven had just finished telling them not to do this. So when God caught his children disobeying Him and then deliberately trying to deceive Him about it, God was disappointed and He gave them a time-out from Paradise, the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3:23-24, Hosea 6:7, Romans 5:12-14). This is the ‘Fall’; we were separated from God because of this original sin – eating the fruit, disobeying God and then deliberately trying to deceive Him about it.

And this is just the beginning. We the people are not necessarily the best children of God that we should be. Genesis tells us that the people were so bad God felt that He needed to destroy the earth by a flood (Genesis 6-9; see also 2 Peter 2:5). Exodus saw the Hebrews dragged kicking and screaming into the Promised Land. The generation that left Egypt was so bad that God didn’t let any of them - save Joshua and Caleb – even enter the land promised them (Numbers 14:21-24; Deuteronomy 1:31-40; see Hebrews 4:1-13). More than once they voted not to follow God, but – Praise the Lord - God’s Kingdom isn’t a democracy so He saved their children in spite of themselves. Judges tells us that instead of following God the people at that time just did whatever was popular. They did what was right in their own eyes: they did evil in the sight of the Lord and they suffered the natural consequences of that (see Judges 21). Solomon, the wisest man ever to live, even made the serious mistake of turning his back on God and as a result half of his Kingdom was torn from his own children and grandchildren (1 Kings 11). This is all a part of the winter of our sin.

Throughout the times of the kings and the prophets, often Baal worship was more popular than worshipping the Lord (See Joshua 2:11-13; Judges 3:7, 6:25ff., 8:3, 10:10; 1 Samuel 7:4, 12:10, 1 Kings 16- 22; 2 Kings 1-10, 17:16, 21:3; 2 Chronicles 28:2, 33:3; Jeremiah 2, 7, 9, 11, 19, 23, 32; Hosea 2; 9:10, 11:12). If there was something like the TV Show ‘Canadian Idol’ back then - Israelite Idol - the people many times over would have voted for Baal over the Lord. Though there were some exceptions to this: Remember when the prophets of Baal and Elijah, atop Mt. Carmel, when they had a ‘So you think you can dance’ dance-off of sorts (1 Kings 18:16-45)? The prophets of Baal anyway had quite a long and elaborate dance routine but God blessed Elijah by raining down fire and He won the competition (1 Kings 18:38). This was more the exception than the rule though and this is all part of the long cold winter of our consequences of our original and subsequent sins. But we know – like Jesus tells us in our Scriptures today that spring is coming (see also Romans 13:11-12).

Through the Biblical record though this sin, like winter, continued of course. Leviticus tells us that we the people failed to look after the land (Leviticus 25:1-23) and Jeremiah tells us that it was taken away from the Israelites because of this (Jeremiah 15:11, 19:10; 2 Chronicles 36:20-21).[4] Isaiah, Amos and the other prophets tell us that the people cared more about wealth than about taking care of the poor, the widow and the immigrant (Cf. Isaiah 3:14, 15, 10:2, 11:4, 26:6, 32:7, 41:17, 58:7, 61:1; Amos 4:1, 5:11-12, 8:4-6). In Israel of the Old Testament some became rich and some became poor and even though, as Jesus would later tell us, that the whole Law and the prophets were summed up in the command to love God and love your neighbour (Matthew 22:34-40); we the people didn’t do this. We continued to put ourselves first. We continued to do what was right in our own eyes. We continued freezing outside in the winter of our sins when the blossoms of God’s love just wanted to envelope us instead. And now when Jesus is speaking, as recorded in our text today, he tells us to “…learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. Even so, when you see these things happening, you know that it is near, right at the door” (Mark 13:28,29).

In our world today we still see a lot of problems. Crime in Canada is higher than it ever used to be. According to the CCVF, it is so bad now that many people are losing faith in the authorities abilities to stop it that in many cases charges aren’t even being filed anymore.[5] Even economic crime is on the rise in Canada with Reuters reporting that 56 percent of companies surveyed recently (more than half of them) reported falling prey to white-collar crime.[6]  And – of course – in our winter of sin there is pornography, which horribly is North America’s most lucrative pastime. In the United States, pornography revenue is more than all money made from professional football, baseball and basketball combined. The money made by US pornography exceeds the combined revenues of all their major TV networks (6.2 billion) Child pornography alone generates more than $3 billion annually.[7]

We are still in the winter of our sin but summer is coming (See Romans 13:11-12); Jesus is coming back. The metaphorical snow of sin is still on the ground but as Jesus assures us, “Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. Even so, when you see these things happening, you know that it is near, right at the door” (Mark 13:28,29).

There is this good news if we look around. Jesus himself was the first blossom.[8] He is the branch of Jesse (Zechariah 6:11-13; Isaiah 11:1)[9] and he is the first blossom as well. He shows us and teaches us in parables about the Kingdom of God. He tells us again and again as recorded in this the Gospel of Luke that the Kingdom of God is at hand. It is here. It is in His presence. When we are in Jesus’ presence we see the buds coming through on the trees (see also John 14). It is like Matthew 25:31-40 says,

 “‘When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.'

 "Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?'

 "The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'”

 And when we share the Good News of God’s love we too are a part of those blossoms of the spring of Christ’s love. In The Salvation Army alone – and we are only one of many Christians denominations in this country - we are one of the world’s largest social services providers. In this country, we also have the blessing of being on the frontlines in the fight against sex slavery; we run food banks, shelters, serve over 2.5 million meals a year and help more than 10 000 people out of their addictions and –again- we are only one part of the Christian Church in Canada and as you and I, as we all share the love of Christ with our neighbours - through our actions and our words both corporate and individual – when we share the love of Christ with our neighbours as bad as the world may seem today in the winter of our sin, we can all be part of those first blossoms that have been sprouting through Jesus, the Branch of Jesse, ever since His first advent 2000 years ago. This past Sunday was the first Sunday of our Advent season. As the first bud of spring sprouted with Jesus coming to live among us all those many years ago and as we know too that Jesus is coming back and Jesus is coming back soon. When he does that will be when all the trees are in full bloom covered in the blossoms of spring and when he comes what a day of rejoicing that will be. This is something for us all to look forward to in the advent season ahead.

Let us pray.

   http://www.sheepspeak.com/
---

---

[1] Based on 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. Available on-line: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2009/11/luke-2129-31-first-sprigs-of-spring.html

[2] One of many sources for this: Human Flower Project: http://www.humanflowerproject.com/index.php/weblog/comments/whos_counting_we_and_victoria/

[3] Cf. Gerard S. Sloyan, John (Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching: Atlanta, Georgia: John Knox Press, 1988), 5 and Joel B Green, The Gospel of Luke (NICNT 3: Grand Rapids, Michigan / Cambridge, UK: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1997), 25.

[4] Cf. Michael Ramsay, Leviticus 25 1-23 in the Context of the Holiness Code: The Land Shall Observe a Sabbath. Presented to William and Catherine Booth College (Fall 2006). Available on-line: http://www.sheepspeak.com/OT_Michael_Ramsay.htm#Leviticus 25 1-23

[5] LORRIE GOLDSTEIN, Canadian Crime Victim Foundation (Toronto: Oct 25, 2009), cited November 22, 2009. Available on-line: http://www.ccvf.net/articles.cfm?pageID=articles&subpageID=news&viewID=75 : Every five years, Statistics Canada conducts the General Social Survey. It asks a representative sample of Canadians, among other things, whether they have been crime victims.  From the last survey in 2004 (the next one is being conducted now, with the findings to be released next year) Statistics  Canada reached the following conclusions.  First, progressively fewer Canadians who are crime victims are reporting the crime to police -- only 34% in 2004, compared to 37% in 1999.  Second, based on the GSS, an estimated 92% of sexual assaults were never reported to police, 46% of break-ins, 51% of motor  vehicle/parts thefts, 61% of physical assaults and 54% of robberies.

[6] Economic crime rate rises in Canada, report says (Thu Nov 19, 2009 3:14pm EST) cited November 21, 2009. Available on-line: http://ca.reuters.com/article/businessNews/idCATRE5AI52E20091119 : "Some 56 percent of companies surveyed reported falling prey to white-collar crime during the period, the 2009 PricewaterhouseCoopers' Economic Crime Survey showed. That's a 10 percentage point increase over 2003 and a 4 point increase from two years ago."

[7] Christian Technology Solutions, Pornography Industry Statistics. Cited 21 November, 2009. Available on line: http://christiantechnologysolutions.com/content/view/18/24/

[8] Cf. E. Earle Ellis. The Gospel of Luke (The New Century Bible: Grand Rapids, MI, Eerdmans, 1981), p. 242.

[9] Cf. Mary L. Coloe, “Temple Imagery in the Gospel of John.” Interpretation: a Journal of Bible and Theology 63, no. 4 (October 2009): 368-381.

Luke 1:26-37: Do You Believe?

Presented to the Nipawin Corps 24 December 2008
and the Swift Current Care Centre (abridged), 17 December 2011
and Swift Current Corps of The Salvation Army, 24 December 2011
by Captain Michael Ramsay

Luke 1:26: In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee,

This sixth-month referred to here by Luke is the sixth month of Elisabeth’s pregnancy. Elisabeth, as we know from earlier in this chapter of Luke, is Mary’s relative but Mary was quite young and Elisabeth and her husband Zechariah were old and 3 months from now Elisabeth is about to have a baby. The messenger, the angel who went to speak to Elisabeth’s husband was Gabriel. Here Gabriel is bringing another message from God about a miraculous birth but this time he is bringing the message of a very significant birth to a very insignificant fishing town, in an insignificant region, of insignificant Palestine (John 1:36).

Gabriel, the angel, the messenger of God is bringing this message…

Verse 27: to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant. of David. The virgin’s name was Mary.

Mary was a young woman. Mary was a virgin. Mary was pledged, betrothed, engaged to be married to Joseph. Now Joseph was a descendant of King David. King David was the first king of an hereditary dynasty that lasted for the better part of a millennium. Now Palestine is occupied. It is prophesied that her deliverer will be a member of the southern tribe of Judah and a descendant of King David. And Joseph – and any of his legal children – even though he is living in the north, Joseph is a descendent of David and Joseph is betrothed to be married to Mary (Cf. 1:32, 2:4).

Now 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.[1] 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.[2] It was different than today.

But this was Mary’s situation when…

Verse 28: The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favoured! The Lord is with you.”

There are a few things here that need examining by us – not the least of which is the idea of an angel coming to speak to Mary. We must remember that the word for ‘angel’ (aggelos) simply means messenger. We also know from elsewhere in the scriptures that there are times when people –like Gideon (Judges 6); like Manoah and his wife, Samson’s mother (Judges 13); possibly like Jacob at Jabbok (Gen. 32), and even like Abraham (Gen. 13); did not realize that they were entertaining heavenly messengers. They did know they were dealing with angels as we immediately think of angels. It is possible that Mary did not recognise Gabriel as a heavenly messenger from God yet.

The Pharisees at this time certainly had developed a theology of angels providing a form of mediation between God and human beings but not everyone ascribed to it at this time and indeed angles were indeed rare in the understanding of early Judaism.[3] It is quite possible that she did recognise him as such it would be understandable that…

Luke 1:29: Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be.
 
It is equally likely though that she did recognise Gabriel as an angel, as a spiritual being, and this in and of itself was not necessarily comforting. In our day and age we often think of angels as nice spirit-beings (usually in the form of a woman with wings and a ring or a halo over her head) and just about incapable of deviating from the perfect will of God. This is not how people saw angels in Mary’s time though. Angels were seen as free moral agents who would just as likely appear to do you harm as to do you good.

The Apostle Paul, a later contemporary of Mary, writes about angels a few times in his letters that have been preserved in the New Testament. None of these accounts is very flattering at all (Romans 8:38-39; Galatians 3:19-20; Colossians 2:18-19). At best he portrays angels as these free creatures who can to either uphold or oppose the work of God.[4]

There is also a story of Tobit, in the Apocrypha, with which Mary was more than likely very familiar. This story is about an angel who shows up on a bride’s wedding night and kills her husband.[5] Angels were certainly not always seen as good.

So, there is some reason why at the appearance of Gabriel, that Mary might be troubled…

Luke 1:30: But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favour with God.
 
This reminds us of the earlier story of her relative Elisabeth’s husband who was indeed chosen for a purpose by God and notified through this very same angel only a few short verses before.

And just like the Priest Relative and his wife, Mary is told that…
 
Verse 31: You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus.
 
Like Gabriel told Zechariah exactly what he was to name his son (1:13), he also dictated to Mary, what it was that her son was to be called. Mary was to name her son ‘Jesus’, which is the Greek version of the Hebrew name ‘Yeshua’ or ‘Joshua’ and this name means ‘YHWH is help or salvation’ or ‘the one through whom YHWH brings salvation’[6] (cf. Matt 1:22). And we know that just as Joshua led the people of Israel into the promised land. Jesus leads humankind into the eternal promised land.

Jesus is to be the Messiah…

Verse 32: He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David,

Joseph is of the house of David, in the clan of Judah. Jesus is of the clan of Judah and the house of David. The expected Messiah, the Christ is to be of the house of David, the clan of Judah (Cf. vv.32-33; 2 Sam 7; Isaiah 9:7; Heb 1:5;)…

Verse 33: and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.”
 
We know now that, this side of the cross, after the resurrection, we know that indeed Jesus will reign forever as the wonderful counsellor, mighty God, and Prince of Peace whose government will never stop ruling and being peaceful as the prophet Isaiah (Isaiah 9:6-7) tells us, but Mary did not necessarily know this;

So it is understandable that she questions the angel…

Verse 34, “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”

There are times when the word virgin can be translated simply as young woman. There are other times when the word specifically refers to what we – in our world – would use it to mean: a woman who has not been with a man. Certainly here the author of ‘Luke’ is making it known that May has not known a man in that way[7]…

Verse 35: The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.

This was to be no ordinary bi rth and even as miraculous as is the birth of John the Baptist to an elderly couple (1:57ff.), the birth of God’s own son to a virgin is even more miraculous. The Holy Spirit, who was there at the creation of the world (Genesis 1:2; John 1; Cf. also Exodus 40:35; 1 Kings 8:10; Ezekiel 26:14; Haggai 2:6-7) is present in the conception of Jesus as it is written.

As a way of verifying all this – which must be quite something for Mary to understand, after all Mary is just a very young women about to be married – as a way of verifying this almost incredible experience to Mary, that all she is seeing, hearing, and experiencing here is true, the angel, Gabriel, tells her about her relative Elisabeth. Mary did not necessarily know that her much older relative was going to have a baby. She does now because Gabriel tells her that…

Verse 36: Even Elisabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be barren is in her sixth month.
 
This is a sign to Mary. Mary should believe. Mary has been chosen of God, not because of anything that it is recorded that she did.[8] She was chosen by grace just like we are chosen by grace and Mary does believe the angel Gabriel…

Verse 37: For nothing is impossible with God.”
 
This is true and so the question for us today is just this. Do we believe in angels? Do we believe in heavenly messages and do we believe in miracles from God? Do we know that nothing is impossible with God? Do we really know and believe?

http://www.sheepspeak.com/

---
[1] E. Earle Ellis, 71.
[2] R. Alan Culpepper, 51.
[3] Craddock, 27.
[4] Craddock, 27.
[5] R. Alan Culpepper, 51.
[6] Lenski, 65; Ellis, 73.
[7] Culpepper, 51. Lenski, 69; Cf. Ellis, 75, for an interesting discussion on the placement of this verse in the text.
[8] Cf. Craddock 27-28.

1 Thessalonians 5:16-22 (23&24): The 7 P’s and the Pi

Presented to The Salvation Army, Nipawin Corps 14 December 2008
Presented to Swift Current Corps, 11 December 2011
and 614 Warehouse Mission in Toronto, 17 December 2017
by Captain Michael Ramsay

This in the 2011 version, to view the 2011 version click HERE: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2011/12/1-thessalonians-516-24-7-ps-and-pi-of.html

I don’t know if you have ever seen those motivational speakers on TV or in person. I have had some jobs in the past where they send someone in to rally the troops. They usually have – in the old days flip charts – these days PPT or DVD, lots of props and some way that they want you to remember what it is they are trying to motivate you to do. Sometimes it is just repetition.[1]

One thing that people often use is acronyms – you spell out a word and every letter stands for something else. Here I’ll give you some famous acronyms and you tell me if you know what they mean:

1) ASAP 2) NATO 3) NHL 4) MYOB 5) TSA

Sometimes they just have a list with each item in the list staring with the same letter or sound like – Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Four H, or can anyone tell me the 3 R’s from school? Notice that only one of them starts with R. Who can tell me what that one is?

Paul here in our scripture passage today uses some of these very techniques and in the section that we are looking at Paul gives us the 7 Ps (Pi) of preparing for Christ’s return.[2] Now Paul knows that Jesus may come back at any moment and so he comes up with this way for us to remember how to be prepared for this event.

The First P is… Rejoice Always – In Greek it starts with a P – or a Pi anyway, the Greek equivalent of our P. So the first P (or piece of Pi) is Rejoice Always.

P #1 = Rejoice Always
Rejoice Always (Thess 5:16, 18; cf. DT. 12:7,18; 1 Chron 16:10, 31; Psalm 40:16; Lk 10:20; John 16:22; Romans 5:1-5; Philip 4:4; Col 1:24; 1 Pet 1:26, 4:13). Not about everything but in all circumstances, Paul says. This is important. This is because of the faith that we have that with God all things are possible (Matt 19:26; Mark 10:27). We know that the war is already won (1 Cor.15; 1 John 5:4). Nothing that happens here on earth, in our lives, can change the Salvation provided from the Lord. Nothing. (The only question is whether we take advantage of it or not!)

I think of Major Neil Voice who recently received his promotion – his promotion to glory. When he passed away, I heard that indeed his memorial service was a celebration (with a full brass band and everything!) of the fact that he served God well while he was on earth and now he gets to spend eternity with the Lord. This should not and indeed does not take away at all from the legitimate grief and appropriate laments from those who love Neil but it is a great example of the hope that we all have in Christ (1 Thess. 1:3; 2 Thess. 2:16). Neil has gone on ahead. After leaving his sickness behind him (Romans 21:4), probably the very next thing he heard was “well done my good and faithful servant” (Matt 25:21-23). Christ died and rose again so that we all could live and indeed this is something to be joyful about (John 10:10; John 15:15).

I think of my cousin who was also promoted to glory earlier this year. She left many loving friends and family members behind, including two very young children but I understand that neither her faith nor the faith of her husband waivered at all. Hard things happen[3] but we know that in the end everything will be okay for those who love the Lord so indeed we can always celebrate that joy of our salvation, even as we lament, even as we mourn, and even if we are sad we can still rejoice (2 Cor. 6:10) because God is good and God has provided our salvation for us.

So the first P is Rejoice always
The second P (or Pi) is Pray without ceasing: It actually starts with a ‘p’ in English (1 Thess. 5:17; Cf. Acts 12:7; Ro. 1:9, 2 Tim 1:3)

Now we know that our salvation comes from the Lord. We know that He is indeed looking out for us and so we pray continuously and we do give thanks in all circumstances for this is God’s will for us.

We know that we are in a spiritual battle. We know that we fight not as much against flesh and blood as against powers and principalities (Eph 6:12ff; cf. Ro. 8:38; 1 Pet 3:22). We know that there is opposition to the gospel. We know that even though this is good news, there are people who hate the truth and people who hate the givers of the truth. John refers to many of these people as antichrists (1 John 2:18, 22; 4:3; 2 John 2:1-7; cf. 1 Cor. 6:22). There are people who have left the faith, ignore what is obvious and attack us instead. Because the devil, antichrists, and more and more people, and more and more things in this world seem to attack us, our beliefs, and our God – because we are constantly under attack, we need to keep in constant communications with God and that is what prayer is – communication with God.

When soldiers are in the heat of battle, bombs are going off, planes are coming in from a distance, and they cannot tell friend from foe and they cannot see what is even coming at them – what do they need? They need good communication with the base. They need good communication with one who can see the battlefield and this is what prayer is – it is keeping in touch with God; it is following Jesus into battle. If we fail to pray, if we forget to pray, we are like the soldier who stumbles blindly out of the trenches knowing neither at whom he is shooting nor who is shooting at him. This soldier cannot survive for long and – even though the war is already won (2 Cor. 6:2, 1 Cor. 15:2, Eph. 2:8, 1 Pet. 1) people are still perishing and we cannot survive for long without the Lord.[4] We need the Lord’s guidance, the Lord’s strength, and the Lord’s sacrifice so that indeed we can all live – and for this, we should be constantly giving thanks.

That brings us to our third piece of pi, our third P = Give Thanks in all circumstances (Thess. 5:16, 18; cf. DT. 12:7,18; 1 Chron. 16:10, 31; Psalm 40:16; Lk. 10:20; John 16:22; Romans 5:1-5; Philip 4:4; Col 1:24; 1 Pet 1:26, 4:13).

This attitude of thanksgiving is so important. The Lord loves us. Now like we said about our saved loved ones who pass on, we are not thankful by any means that they are gone but we do know that they have moved on to something better – no more sickness, no more death, no more tears (Rev 21:4) and we do know that even though we miss our loved ones – God will never leave us nor forsake us (Dt. 31:6; Heb. 13:5). He will not give us more than we can bear. God loves us (John 3:16-17; 5; 15; 1 John 4). He loves all of us and He manages to work together even the most unpleasant situations somehow, someway for His Kingdom purposes, and because of this we can indeed be thankful in all circumstances.

P1 = Rejoice always
P2 = Pray without ceasing
P3 = Give thanks in all circumstances

P4 = Do not quench the Spirit (1 Thess. 5:19; cf.1 Thess.1:5,6,7)
Now apparently when Paul was writing this letter there were some ‘wakkos’ predicting the time and the day of the end of the world (cf. Mark 13:32-33) and there were ‘weirdos’ who would do fake healings, false prophecies, etc. They were snake-oil salesmen as it were.[5] And some of these people were leading people astray and some of these people just plain looked silly and for no easily discernable heavenly purpose. Some things never change! There is a difference between being a fool for the gospel and just plain being a fool.[6] Now Paul knew this and Paul knew that in reaction to these people could go too far in the other direction.

I was raised in the Western Canadian Baptist tradition – the Lord taught me a lot and I have a great respect for the many Christians who earnestly serve the Lord there. It has been said that the only time a Baptist raises his hand in church is to ask permission to go to the bathroom. (This joke probably represents the extreme!) I went to a church service once and I remember someone visiting asking if it had charismatic style worship at all; the response was that the Holy Spirit showed up just the other night in an evening service but - don’t worry – the pastor asked him to leave. I have certainly been in more than one service like this (in churches of different denominations) that indeed when the Spirit does show up, people don’t know what to do – and this is what Paul is telling us about with the fourth P. He is saying don’t quench the Spirit.

So what are our Ps? –
P1 = Rejoice always
P2 = Pray without ceasing
P3 = Give thanks in all circumstances
P4 = Do not quench the Spirit

That brings us to P5, which builds on P4 very nicely. We have to be careful not to quench the spirit and we have to make sure that we, P5 = Do not despise the words of the prophets
Like we said. There are so many false prophets out there. We spoke two weeks ago about these people who are endlessly predicting the time and date for the end of times even when the Bible tells us not to do so (Mark 13:32-33). There are all these false prophets out there and prophets who make mistakes as well – and the media loves these guys because they can use them to make us look like a bunch of liars and fools. But the truth is, that yes, as John says, there are many antichrists pretending to know what they do not know. There are many false prophets tickling our ears for the purpose of financial gain or to lead us astray but indeed Paul says, there are real prophets – and we should not despise their words…

And this brings us to P6 = But test everything, hold onto what is good (1 Thess. 5:21). This is one of the most important things, I think. This is one of the primary reasons that we were given the Bible as it is, I imagine; so that indeed we can and will test things and see what is right and what is not. We must be like the Bereans (Acts 17:10-15). Paul applauded them – the Christians in the town of Berea – for this very thing. They did not accept what he was telling them simply because he was telling it to them; they put him to the test. They searched the scriptures; we need to search the scriptures. It is very important. Smart people sometimes make mistakes. Good people sometimes make mistakes and when we hear someone utter what we think may be a mistake we need to look it up in the Bible. We need to pray about it. We need to then approach them about it – because if they are wrong, they need to change and if we are wrong, we need to change and either way as we are smart enough to test what is good and what is evil we will indeed grow – provided we try to, P7 = Abstain from every form of evil.

P7 = Abstain from every form of evil. This is holiness. God tells us to be holy (1 Peter 1:15, Lev 11:44,45; 19:2; 20:7). God tells us to be perfect (2 Cor. 13; Col. 1:28; Hebrews 11,12). John Wesley argued that this involves more than just avoiding vices. He says, quoting a heathen Epicurean poet, in a sermon entitled, ‘The Almost Christian’ that “Good men avoid sin from the love of virtue. Wicked men avoid sin from a fear of punishment.”[7] Avoiding evil and avoiding it because of a legitimate love of God is very important. It is very important and the opposite of what some people suggest - though it is not true - that we all sin all the time, because if we did, God would never tell us to be holy just as He is holy and He would never tell us to be even perfect – but He does. God doesn’t set people up for failure. He is a loving God. He would never ask from us that which is impossible. After all with God all things are possible, and in verses 23 and 24 He tells us how it is indeed possible to be perfect even as God is perfect. He says He will do it. God himself will sanctify us through and through, keeping us blameless until the return of Christ. So this is exciting. We don’t need to sin. We don’t need to return to bad habits. We can rely on God, He will lead us through the 7 P’s (Pi’s) in each one of our lives and indeed He will make us holy.

So then as we prepare to meet Christ very soon, as we celebrate his coming 2000 years ago in a manger and as we look forward to his return from above anytime now. Let us turn to God and in the process make sure that we are prepared. Let us give P’s a chance. Let us not have any Pi missing as we present our lives holy unto God as a living sacrifice, trusting that He will preserve us blameless until the end of the age.

Let us pray.

---

[1] like the New Conservative Party of Canada re: coalitions, wiretaps, and election fraud – where they repeat something enough times that even though you know its not true you start to believe it anyway.
[2] Beverly Roberts Gaventa, First and Second Thessalonians (Interpretation: Grand Loisville, Kentucky, USA: John Knox Press, 1998), 84.
[3] Rober L. Thomas. The Expositor's Bible Commentary. Pradis CD-ROM:1 3. Responsibilities to oneself (5:16-18), Book Version: 4.0.2: ‘A final member of this triplet for personal development is "Give thanks in all circumstances." No combination of happenings can be termed "bad" for a Christian because of God's constant superintendence (Rom 8:28). We need to recognize that seeming aggravations are but a temporary part of a larger plan for our spiritual well-being. Out of this perspective we can always discern a cause for thanks.’
[4] Cf. Captain Michael Ramsay. “Romans 13:11-14: Victory: The Final Whistle” Available on-line: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2007/12/victory-final-whistle-romans-1311-14.html
[5] Beverly Roberts Gaventa, 84. Cf. Also. Captain Michael Ramsay, Mark 13: 24-37: Hope for a Happy New Year: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2008/11/mark-1332-37-hope-for-happy-new-year.html
[6] But cf. Mark Chapman, “Mark 1:1-8,” The Expository Times, Volume 120, number 2, ed. Paul Foster, John Riches, Karen Wenell, (London: 2008): 79-80.
[7] John Wesley, “The Almost Christian.” Cited from Outler & Heitzenrater 1991,67.