Presented to TSA Alberni Valley Ministries, 15 January 2022 by Major Michael Ramsay. Based on the sermon presented to Swift Current Corps, 11 April 2010
I can remember when I was in my late teens: I
was a janitor. I worked in a lot of high security buildings and so I needed a
high security rating. One of the reasons I needed the extra special RCMP clearance
was because one of the buildings I was asked to cover when regular janitor was
away was the CSIS building
When I first had my RCMP clearance done, it was
quite something. I was just a teenager and in my interview they asked me what I
did twenty years ago, I responded ‘nothing’ – ‘I’m only 18. I thought it was
funny – the police officer interviewing me didn’t. They asked me how come I
haven’t held a job for 5 years or more – I reminded them that I am only 18 and
smiled – they didn’t. This interview went on for an hour or so and then they fingerprinted
me and also interviewed two of my friends for character references, one by
telephone and one in person. In speaking with them afterwards, it was really
quite an in-depth interview and because of this I really began to have some faith
in the RCMP and CSIS’s security measures and how seriously they take their
jobs. I was beginning to have a lot of faith in the Canadian spy agency’s
thoroughness and ability, especially when they reviewed this information they
collected on me for up to six months before they finally got back to me with my
security clearance.
Just out of curiosity, when I finally did get
my clearance back, I asked why it took so long. They said it took so long to
notify me because they – Canada’s spy agency - couldn’t find me. I pointed out
that my address and phone number were on the application form and that I hadn’t
moved during that time. I laughed; they didn’t. I was assuming that they were
joking when CSIS said they couldn’t find me. I was wrong. I laughed – they
didn’t. Shortly afterwards I worked my first shift at the CSIS building and as
I was emptying one garbage can at a desk, the person there told me that if I
looked at anything in it he’d have to kill me, I laughed – he didn’t. The next
week, my boss told me to cover another shift at the CSIS building because I was
the only one with clearance. I said no. She laughed – I didn’t.
John the Baptist, to some here in our story
today, must seem about as humourless as the CSIS agent I encountered, Matthew
3:7-10:
7But when he saw many
of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptizing, he said to
them: "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?
8Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. 9And do not think you can say to
yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.' I tell you that out of these
stones God can raise up children for Abraham. 10The axe is already at the root
of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down
and thrown into the fire.
This is interesting because if we just read
this pericope it can look like an uncalled-for attack on the religious leaders
of the day. It could be like if I or a priest or pastor or even the ministerial
executive all go to a Christian concert in the park and the singer puts down
his guitar mid-song and says to us, “you snakes…who told you about this event;
you think you’re so good, well, you’re not! You say you have Christ as your Saviour, I tell you he can make followers out of this dirt here, if he wants
to!”[1] You can see how that might not go over so well.
Biblical Scholar Eugene Boring draws our
attention to the fact that, “in Matthew’s view they [the Pharisees and
Sadducees] represent the Jewish opposition who come to inspect him rather than
to be baptised by him” [3]. It would be like Conservatives showing up at a
Liberal Party convention or vice versa. For the people present, their presence
might have the same emotional effect as a venomous snake being spotted in the
grass; or even a whole a brood of vipers being reported very nearby. This
latter phrase is the one Matthew reports John used. He called the religious
authorities a ‘brood of vipers’ (cf. Matthew 12:34, 24:33). Even more than this
being an insult, John could very likely be comparing the religious leaders of
his day to the snake in the Garden of Eden. The phrase ‘brood of vipers’ translated
literally means ‘sons of snakes’ and could be interpreted to mean ‘sons of the
deceiver’, whose teaching is like venomous poison (cf. Genesis 3; Jeremiah
46:22).[5]
So this is quite a greeting for the religious
leaders. Verses 8 and 9, John then tells not just the religious leaders, but the
whole crowd there to “Produce fruit in
keeping with repentance. And do not think you can say to yourselves, ‘We have
Abraham as our father.’ I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up
children for Abraham” (Matthew 3:8,9).
Alongside John the Baptist, The Salvation Army
in our ninth doctrine proclaims ‘that a continuance in a state of salvation
depends upon continued obedient faith in Christ.’ We can’t just say that we
have Abraham as our father, Jesus as our Saviour; we need to bear fruit keeping
with repentance.
John is telling the people that salvation isn’t
dependent on who you are or who you claim to be, who your ancestors are, or
anything like that. John is telling the crowds that our continuance in a state
of salvation is evidenced by a continued obedient faith in God.[6] Produce
fruit in keeping with repentance John says because If He wanted to, God could
simply create, ‘sons of Abraham’, from rocks, or anything else nearby, I would
presume, for that matter.
It is the same for us today, if we are saved we
will produce fruit in keeping with repentance, a continuance in a state of
salvation is evidenced by our continued obedient faith in Christ.[7] We weren’t
chosen for a state salvation because we are Canadians or because we are from Vancouver
Island. God doesn’t need us; we need God. He can raise Salvationists from the plants
over there if he wants to do so. He can raise Churchgoers from that chair over
there and God can raise nice people from the cement floor if He wants to.
We weren’t chosen to be raised to eternal life because
we belong to group ‘x’ or group ‘y’. we were chosen because God loves us. God
loves everyone in the world so much that He sent His Only Begotten Son that
whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but shall have eternal life (John
3:16).
You see, Salvation isn’t so much a state of
being that you can be born into, as it is the expression of a relationship which
one can continue in for both now and forever.[8] The sinner’s prayer, that is
rightfully so important in many of our lives, is like a police check, a
security clearance. Do you know how long a police security clearance is really
good for? …about 5 minutes. In between getting your criminal record checked and
handing in the piece of paper to your boss you could stop by the bank and rob
it. The paper may say that you have never committed (or at least been convicted
of) a crime but as soon as you leave the station it is no longer necessarily
accurate. That is why people who work with vulnerable people they are supposed
to get criminal record checks done on a regular basis.
The experience of salvation itself is more like
a marriage than a criminal record check. There is the initial event that starts
off the marriage –the wedding ceremony - this is much like the ‘sinner’s
prayer’ in most evangelical churches or baptism in some main-line churches. The
wedding is just the beginning of the marriage relationship. It is not its
culmination. There is a little bit more to marriage than simply standing at the
altar and saying, ‘I do’. Our proclamation of salvation, similarly; our saying
the ‘sinner’s prayer’ is just the beginning of our salvation; it is not the
totality of our salvific relationship with Jesus Christ. And thank the Lord for
that!
Some of the religious leaders of Jesus’ day in
our text are being accused of relying on their position (religion, race) rather
than on their relationship with God for salvation. They are accused of not
producing fruit in keeping with repentance. Doing this is akin to getting married
and then going away, never doing anything with your spouse again: never seeing
your spouse again, never talking to her again, never even calling her on the
phone again from the time you say ‘I do’ until the time they lower you in the
grave. In that case you will have been a part of a wedding ceremony once but
you will have never experienced any blessings of the marriage and as long as
you are estranged from your husband or wife, wearing that potentially important
ring on your finger is pretty useless; and so is the Pharisees’ implied claim
that they are sons of Abraham (Matthew 3:9; cf. Luke 3:8). It is an expired
security clearance. This is, I think, is what Matthew warns us about when he reminds
us to produce fruit in keeping with repentance and when he later tells us to be
perfect as Christ is perfect (Matthew 5:4).
“While trust in Christ’s salvation is a first
requirement, it is not the last.”[9] As Paul reminds the Corinthians, “For we
must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive
what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad” (2
Corinthians 5:10). That is the fruit that comes naturally from our relationship
with Christ.
The eternal covenant with our Lord is the most
wonderful thing in the entire world. Being tied together with Christ in a holy
covenant means that whatever life throws our way, Christ can handle for us. We
no longer need to rely on our own strength (1 Thessalonians 5:22-24). There is
no other name under heaven through which men (and women) will be saved (Acts
4:12). So today, I invite us all to continue to turn to the Lord for, even more
than the most loving and faithful spouse; Christ will always be there for us.
He will never leave us nor forsake us (Romans 3:3,4). As long as we still have
breath in our body, we still have the opportunity to turn and return to God and
be saved for now and for eternity.
Let us pray.
www.sheepspeak.com
---
[1] Cf. Douglas R.A.
Hare, Matthew (Interpretation: Louisville, Kentucky: John Know Press, 1993),
20.
[2] R. T. France :
Matthew: An Introduction and Commentary. Downers Grove, IL : InterVarsity
Press, 1985 (Tyndale New Testament Commentaries 1), CD-ROM Note on Matthew 3:7.
[3] M. Eugene Boring,
Matthew (NIB 8: Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon, 1995), 157,
[4] The Canadian Press
“NDP wants names of Tories involved in taping of private caucus meeting”
Reported by CBC. Last Updated: Sunday, January 4, 2009 7:13 PM ET. Available
on-line at:
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2009/01/04/ndp-caucustape.html#ixzz0kFwSb4w7
[5] M. Eugene Boring,
157. Cf. Also R. T. France : Matthew: An Introduction and Commentary. Downers
Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1985 (Tyndale New Testament Commentaries 1), CD
ROM note on Matthew 3:7, where a parallel is drawn between this event Egypt’s
being referred to as a snake by the prophet Jeremiah (Jeremiah 46:22)
[6] Cf. Captain Michael
Ramsay, ‘Grace and Works: a Look at Doctrines 5-10 of The Salvation Army’.
Available on-line at
http://www.sheepspeak.com/Michael_Ramsay_Theology_TSA.htm#Works
[7] Cf. The General of
the Salvation Army. Salvation Story: A Handbook of Salvationist Doctrine.
(London, England: The Salvation Army International Headquarters, 1998),73-77.
[8] Cf. The General of
the Salvation Army. ‘Salvation Story: A Handbook of Salvationist Doctrine’.
(London, England: The Salvation Army International Headquarters, 1998), p. 59.
[9] Douglas R.A. Hare,
Matthew (Interpretation: Louisville, Kentucky: John Knox Press, 1993), 20.
Posts
