In the second century, Celsus, a critic of Christianity, labeled God a “cosmic cook.”[1] Celsus was referring to the Christian doctrine of hell.  He mocked Christianity because it portrayed God as a “cosmic cook” who was going to roast unbelievers in a fiery hell.  And for this reason, and others, Celsus could not embrace the Christian faith.

On Sunday mornings we are exploring this problem of hell.  For many the doctrine of hell is troubling.  It keeps some from even considering Christianity.  Specifically, we are exploring four concerns that people have about the traditional doctrine of hell.

• Last Sunday we looked at the reality of hell.  The problem is put this way: Hell is fabricated.  Some believe hell is just made up by preachers and churches.
• We’ll look at the capacity of hell.  For many, the traditional Christian teaching means there’s just going to be too many people in hell who do not deserve to go there.  The problem is put this way: Hell is overcrowded.
• We’ll look at the eternality of hell.  For many, the thought of people suffering forever seems cruel.  The problem is put this way: Hell is unrelenting.
• And we’ll look at the severity of hell.

That’s where we begin this morning.  Many people have a problem with the severity of hell. Hell seems too unloving.  It seems too barbaric.  It comes down to this question: How could a loving God treat people in such an unloving way?

What I want to say at the outset is this: Some problematic pieces of hell’s severity are not found in the Bible. When the average person thinks of hell, she may think of images that do not come from the Bible.  Instead, they come from movies, art, philosophy or non-biblical literature.  Before we can truly understand the severity of hell, and attempt to reconcile it with the notion of a loving God, we need to first empty our minds of many of these others images.

I’ll illustrate some of the non-biblical images that have endured for centuries.[2] From the second to the fourth centuries, Christians created descriptions of hell that were unbelievably gruesome.  For example, in Christian literature from this time period we find blasphemers in hell hanging by their tongues.  There are adulterous women in hell who hang by their hair over a boiling pit.  There are slanderers who have hot irons burning out their eyes.  Idolaters are driven up cliffs by demons and then they plunge to the rocks below, only to be driven up again.  These were some of the images used to describe hell in the second through fourth centuries.

In the fourteenth century, Italian poet Dante Alighieri published his Divine Comedy.  He imagined a hell as a place filled with the loud wails of sinners boiling in blood and people running from hordes of biting snakes. In Dante’s hell, some remain forever trapped in encasements made of lead.

We must recognize those descriptions are man-made and cannot be found in the Bible. What many people think of when they think of hell comes from works like these.  It doesn’t come from the Bible.  When someone says “I don’t believe in God/the Bible because I don’t believe in hell,” we might say, “Tell me about the hell you don’t believe in, because it may not be the hell found in the Bible.”  When people object to the severity of hell, they may be objecting to images like the ones I’ve just described.  That doesn’t necessarily mean the Bible’s portrayal of hell is not severe.  It is severe.  But we need to be sure that the severity in mind is the one the Bible discusses.

What then, does the Bible actually say?  And how do we reconcile its severe images with the love of God?  The Bible describes hell’s severity in three images: fire, weeping, and darkness. The two dominant images are fire and darkness.  When the Bible portrays the actual punishment of hell, it is framed in these two images: fire and darkness.  Weeping is the result of the fire and darkness.

The Jews in Jesus’ day used these three images when describing hell.  Jesus affirmed their usefulness in his own teaching.[3] Here are a couple of examples from Matthew 13. As Jesus tells a parable about “wheat” and “weeds,” He says: “³⁰ Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.’” (v. 30) Jesus goes on to explain: “⁴⁰ Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. ⁴¹The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers, ⁴² and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. .”   Jesus describes hell as fire and weeping.

Jesus also uses the image of darkness.  In Matthew 8, He says: ¹¹ I tell you, many will come from east and west and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, ¹² while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness.  In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” (vv. 11–12).

Thus, for Jesus, hell could be described as a place filled with fire.  It could also be described as place filled with darkness.  Both the fire and the darkness lead to weeping and gnashing of teeth.  These are the three most common images used in the Bible to describe the severity of hell.

Oddly, the two main images are contradictory.  If a place is filled with fire, that means it is filled with the light of that fire.  There can be no darkness.  But if a place is filled with darkness, that means no light is present.  Thus there can be no fire.  If these images are literal, they describe something that cannot exist.  This is our first hint that there’s more to these images than we might have imagined.

The Bible uses these images symbolically.  Many of us already recognize the Bible’s use of symbolism when it comes to the opposite of hell—heaven.[4] For example, in Revelation 21 heaven is described as having “a great, high wall with twelve gates” (21:12).  Today we would never describe a great city—like Paris, for example—as having walls and gates. But in the ancient world, every major city had walls.  Until the time of gunpowder, cities were surrounded with thick walls and sturdy gates.  Thus Jesus and John used that language to help the earliest Christians get a sense of what heaven is like.  This description doesn’t necessarily mean heaven literally has walls and gates.  These are symbols used to help us see that heaven is going to be secure and protected.

The same is true regarding the images of fire and darkness used to describe hell.  As I mentioned earlier, these two images are somewhat contradictory.  Fire and darkness are mutually exclusive.  And Jesus is not the only one to hold these two images in tension.  Jude describes hell as “eternal fire” in verse 7, and then depicts it as the “blackest darkness” in verse 13.  The writers of the Bible aren’t necessarily telling us that hell is literally filled with fire and that it’s also literally filled with darkness.  That would be impossible.  They are using these images to help us see something about the severity of hell.

Consider, for example, the third image: weeping and gnashing of teeth.  Mark Goodacre is a professor of New Testament at Duke.[5] He tells of Irish comedian Dave Allen.  Allen had a well-known piece about preachers: “In Ireland you get the fire and brimstone preaching.  ‘I will tell you about the great judgment day!’  ‘I will tell you on that day the great book will be opened and all your sins will be on that book!’  ‘And the Lord will banish the wicked and there will be a great weeping and gnashing of teeth.’  At that point in the sermon, an old woman on the front says, ‘I don’t have any teeth.’  The preacher screams:  ‘Teeth will be provided!’” It’s a funny attempt to be very literal with Jesus’ description of hell.  In fact, Princeton professor Paul Coleman-Norton once published a scholarly paper professing to find a previously unknown fragment of the Bible.  With tongue in cheek, Coleman-Norton said he found a fragment from Matt. 24 which contained a previously undiscovered dialogue with Jesus.  It occurs just after Jesus has described hell as a place of weeping and gnashing of teeth.  A disciple asks, “How can these things be if they be toothless?” Jesus replies, “Thou of little faith, trouble not thyself.  If happily they will be lacking any, teeth will be provided.”  It is, again, a humorous way of pointing out that Jesus’ language was less than literal.  He did not mean that people would literally gnash their teeth in hell.  It is a symbol for immense grief and regret.  Likewise, the images of hell and darkness are images of something else.  To explain, I’m going to build off of last Sunday’s message.

The darkness of hell points to relationship and role being removed. Last Sunday I mentioned that hell as banishment is the elimination of relationship with God.  Hell as destruction was the elimination of our purpose or role in the cosmos.  And the darkness of hell points to both of these.  Darkness is us being totally removed from relationship with God and never truly in relationship with another human again.  In other words, hell is that place where relationship with God and others is fully severed.  Darkness symbolizes this.  It is the darkness of being profoundly alone.

And darkness is also us having no purpose, no role, never being able to fulfill the reason for which we were created.  It is that excruciatingly sad circumstance in which we are no longer given the chance to fulfill any higher purpose or pursue any grander scheme in life.  Darkness symbolizes that we’ve lost our usefulness and we’ve been discarded.

C. S. Lewis wrote, ““There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, “Thy will be done,” and those to whom God says, in the end, “Thy will be done.“  If, during our life, our will has been to live without relationship with God and without genuine relationships with others, then God will finally say, “Thy will be done.”  He will banish us.  And hell will be the dark absence of any life-giving relationship with him or others.  It will be the darkness of being forever isolated and abandoned.  And if, during our life, our will has been to not fulfill our greater purpose, to not play our kingdom role on earth, God will finally say, “Thy will be done.”  And hell will be the dark absence of any larger purpose or role in life.  It will be the darkness of having no meaning at all to your existence.

This darkness is not the result of a blood-thirsty and vindictive God.  It is the result of a God who finally gives us what we’ve already chosen.  We’ve already chosen darkness in this life.  Hell will be an extension of that choice—but to a degree we can hardly even imagine.

Thus the darkness of hell points to two of the three points I made at the end of last Sunday’s sermon: hell as banishment and hell as destruction.  The fire of hell also points to the third element: hell as punishment.  The fire of hell points to justice being released. The fire of hell signifies God’s delivering of justice.  All the wrongs that have gone unpunished are finally punished in hell.

In his book Simply Christian, N. T. Wright says that there is a fundamental human longing for justice.^[6] This hunger for justice is found in every culture and in every generation.  It exists because there is so often a lack of justice in our world.

And the fire of hell points to that justice finally being released.  It is the fulfillment of what humans have dreamed of for millennia.  Rob Bell points to this in his book Love Wins.[7] He shows that the Old Testament prophets dreamed of this time of justice.  Bell writes, “Their description of life in the age to come is both thrilling and unnerving at the same time. For the earth to be free of anything destructive or damaging, certain things have to be banished. Decisions have to be made. Judgments have to be rendered. And so they spoke of a cleansing, purging, decisive day when God would make those judgments. They called this day the “day of the LORD.” The day when God says “ENOUGH!” to anything that threatens the peace (shalom is the Hebrew word), harmony, and health that God intends for the world. God says no to injustice. God says, “Never again” to the oppressors who prey on the weak and vulnerable… And that’s what the fire of hell points.  It is God finally saying “Enough!”  It’s God finally releasing that justice longed for by so many.

And while it might be hard to reconcile the images at the beginning of this sermon with the love of God, it is not that way with these images of fire, darkness, and weeping.  The severity of hell does not disprove but rather proves the love of God. Miroslav Volf, a Christian theologian from Croatia, used to reject the concept of God’s wrath.[8] He thought that the idea of an angry God was barbaric, completely unworthy of a God of love. But then his country experienced a brutal war. People committed terrible atrocities.  And suddenly, he realized that the wrath of God was necessary.  He writes this in his book Free of Charge: My last resistance to the idea of God’s wrath was a casualty of the war in the former Yugoslavia, the region from which I come. According to some estimates, 200,000 people were killed and over 3,000,000 were displaced. My villages and cities were destroyed, my people shelled day in and day out, some of them brutalized beyond imagination, and I could not imagine God not being angry.  Or think of Rwanda in the last decade of the past century, where 800,000 people were hacked to death in one hundred days! How did God react to the carnage? By doting on the perpetrators in a grandfatherly fashion? By refusing to condemn the bloodbath but instead affirming the perpetrators’ basic goodness? Wasn’t God fiercely angry with them?  Though I used to complain about the indecency of the idea of God’s wrath, I came to think that I would have to rebel against a God who wasn’t wrathful at the sight of the world’s evil. God isn’t wrathful in spite of being love. God is wrathful because God is love. Only an unloving God would refuse to release justice.  Thus, rather than disproving God’s love, the fire of hell actually proves his love.  It’s God finally delivering what so many so desperately need.

Timothy Keller refers to author Becky Pippert:[9] “Becky Pippert writes, ‘Think how we feel when we see someone we love ravaged by unwise actions or relationships. Do we respond with benign tolerance as we might toward strangers? Far from it…. Anger isn’t the opposite of love. Hate is, and the final form of hate is indifference.’ Pippert then quotes E. H. Gifford, ‘Human love here offers a true analogy: the more a father loves his son, the more he hates in him the drunkard, the liar, the traitor.’ She concludes: ‘If I, a flawed, narcissistic, sinful woman, can feel this much pain and anger over someone’s condition, how much more a morally perfect God who made them? God’s wrath is not a cranky explosion, but his settled opposition to the cancer of sin which is eating out the insides of the human race he loves with his whole being.’”  God’s love necessitates the darkness and fire of hell.  Because God loves us, he will not force us to choose relationship with him or force us to choose his role for our lives.  He wants us to freely choose those things.  Thus, in the end, his love necessitates letting us have what we’ve chosen.  And God’s love will not stand by forever while injustice overwhelms the human race.  His love demands that eventually this injustice be dealt with.  His love requires finally dealing with the cancer of sin. The darkness and fire both bring us back to the love of God.

I want to close each of these lessons with three brief words of application.  Here they are: Hell stirs our mission, spurs our maturity, but does not summarize our message.

First, hell does not summarize our message.  Last month Kendra and I ate dinner with parents of a girl on Jordan’s volleyball team.  When the father learned I was a preacher, he told me a religious story (that happens a lot).  He said that one day when his son was about ten years old, the son came home weeping.  “What’s wrong?” the father asked.  Through tears the son said he had been talking to a neighbor.  The neighbor was a very devout Christian.  And the neighbor said this to the ten-year old boy: “You’re going to hell.”  Because the boy was not a devout Christian, the neighbor felt it critical to warn the boy of hell.  Hell is very important.  But it’s not what we lead with.  It’s doesn’t summarize our message.  The word gospel means “good news.”  Our message and our faith is primarily about good news, the love of God.

But second, because hell is a severe reality, it ought to stir our mission. There are millions of people in danger of the darkness and fire of hell.  We must do all we can to help them experience a different future in Christ.  Hell stirs our mission.

And finally, because hell is a severe reality, it ought to spur us toward greater spiritual maturity. There should be no greater priority in our own lives than to grow in our relationship with God, in fulfilling our role in his kingdom, and in praising him for the one who went through hell so that we never would.

[2] Ibid., 46-48.

[3] Francis Chan and Preston Sprinkle, Erasing Hell (David C Cook, 2011), 50-74.

[4] Crockett, 54-61.

[5] http://podacre.blogspot.com/2010/08/nt-pod-40-teeth-will-be-provided-joke.html

[6] N. T. Wright Simply Christianity (Harper One, 2006).

[7] Rob Bell, Love Wins (HarperCollins, 2011), 32-38.

[8] Miroslav Volf, Free of Charge (Zondervan, 2006), 138-139.

[9] Timothy Kellerin Christopher W. Morgan and Robert A. Peterson, editors, Is Hell Real or Does Everyone Go to Heaven? (Zondervan, 2011) Kindle Edition, 1201-1212.

Last year preacher and author Rob Bell wrote a book about hell.  The book was called Love Wins.[1] It sparked a firestorm within the larger Christian community because it challenged traditional teaching about hell.  It also fueled serious discussion within the larger non-Christian culture.  For example, Time magazine followed the book’s release with an edition with these words splashed across the cover: “What if there’s no hell?”[2] A few months from now a movie will be released entitled “Hell and Mr. Fudge.”  The movie tells the true story of a Church of Christ minister who rebelled against traditional views of hell.  There’s a lot of discussion in our churches and in our culture about hell.

In his book, Rob Bell points out why hell is such a provocative issue: “A staggering number of people have been taught that a select few Christians will spend forever in a peaceful, joyous place called heaven, while the rest of humanity spends forever in torment and punishment in hell with no chance for anything better. It’s been clearly communicated to many that this belief is a central truth of the Christian faith and to reject it is, in essence, to reject Jesus. This is misguided and toxic and ultimately subverts the contagious spread of Jesus’s message of love, peace, forgiveness, and joy that our world desperately needs to hear…Of all the billions of people who have ever lived, will only a select number “make it to a better place” and every single other person suffer in torment and punishment forever? Is this acceptable to God? Has God created millions of people over tens of thousands of years who are going to spend eternity in anguish? Can God do this, or even allow this, and still claim to be a loving God? Does God punish people for thousands of years with infinite, eternal torment for things they did in their few finite years of life?”  As Bell reveals, there are many difficult questions when it comes to hell.

This morning we begin a 4-part series on the problem of hell.  We’ll be exploring four concerns that many have about the traditional doctrine of hell. 

• We’ll look at the capacity of hell.  For many, the traditional Christian teaching means there’s going to be too many people in hell—too many who do not deserve to be there.  The problem is put this way: Hell is overcrowded.
• We’ll look at the severity of hell.  For many, the traditional Christian teaching means that hell is too severe.  A loving God wouldn’t treat people this way.  The problem is put this way: Hell us unloving.
• We’ll also look at the eternality of hell.  For many, the traditional Christian teaching about hell being eternal is sickening.  It might be one thing for God to punish the ungodly in a severe way.  But to punish them for all eternity?  The problem is put this way: Hell is unrelenting.
• We’ll look also at the reality of hell.  That’s where we begin this morning.  The problem is put this way: Hell is fabricated.

Obviously, we will be covering a lot of ground in this series.  It will demand more of your mind and heart than normal.  And, I can’t answer every question fully.  Thus this series may just be the beginning of your own study of hell.  In this morning’s Link you’ll find some of the books I’ll refer to in this series.

We’ll begin with the last problem I mentioned: many people have a problem with the reality of hell.  There are Christians and non-Christians who feel that hell is a fabrication, one big lie, which preachers and churches have created to manipulate others.  They feel that Jesus never talked about hell, and the authors of the Bible, at least the New Testament authors, have no real interest in hell.  As I read in the quote a few seconds ago, some feel that belief in hell is misguided and toxic.  They believe Christians have made a mountain out of a molehill.  If you really took the time to read the Bible, you’d find that hell is not a very big deal. 

But this isn’t just a contemporary concern.  It’s a concern that’s existed for a long time.  Seminary president R. Albert Mohler Jr. writes about the history of people’s struggle with the doctrine of hell.[3] The first major challenge to the traditional view of hell came from a theologian named Origen.  Origen believed everyone would ultimately be reconciled to God.  He taught that if anyone did go to hell, it would only be temporary.  But Origen’s teaching was rejected in AD 553.  The church’s consensus on hell continued to be widely held for another thousand years.

During the seventeenth century and eighteenth century in Europe, some religious thinkers and philosophers began to raise serious questions about hell.  One group named the Socinians taught that hell would not be eternal but that the ungodly would be destroyed completely in hell.  Philosophers began arguing that hell should be viewed metaphorically, not literally.

In the nineteenth century, British Prime Minister William Gladstone stated that hell had been “relegated … to the far-off corners of the Christian mind … there to sleep in the deep shadow as a thing needless in our enlightened and progressive age.”  He and others believed it was time to rid the Christian faith of the old-fashioned notion of hell.

Certain preachers and theologians in America agreed.  Influential Brooklyn preacher Henry Ward Beecher called the doctrine of an eternal hell a “hideous” doctrine and “spiritual barbarism.”  And in the 1970s and 1980s, challenges to the traditional doctrine of hell finally moved into evangelical Christianity.  The point is simply that Christians and non-Christians have long wrestled with the notion of hell.  If you’ve ever struggled, you are not alone.  The doctrine of hell is one that raises very serious questions.

I want to address these doubts by surveying what the Bible actually says about hell.  We don’t have time to look at every text, or to go into much depth with any one text.  I don’t normally cover this many texts in a sermon.  But this survey is essential to addressing the question at hand in this morning’s sermon.  I encourage you to write these texts down and study them later on your own.

The New Testament leaves no doubt about the reality of hell. You cannot read the New Testament and believe that hell is a molehill.  You cannot read the New Testament and believe that hell is a marginal and unimportant matter.

Let’s look at Paul’s writings.  Surprisingly, the word “hell” does not occur in Paul’s writings. But Paul does teach about hell. We’ll look at Romans and 2 Thessalonians.  In his letter to the Roman church, Paul relates some important truths about the future punishment of the ungodly.

• Paul writes that the wicked are objects of God’s wrath (9:22) and they continually store up wrath for the day of wrath (2:5–8; 3:5).
• Paul writes that the future punishment of the ungodly consists of “death” and “destruction.” Sinners, Paul states, deserve death (1:32), the wages of sin is death (6:16–23), and those who live according to the flesh should expect death (8:13). Also, Paul writes that sinners are vessels of wrath “prepared for destruction” (9:22).
• He writes of future punishment as being “accursed and cut off from Christ” (9:3 ESV).

Paul teaches most directly about hell in 2 Thessalonians.  Hell, Paul writes is “vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.  They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord…” (1:8-9).

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Two passages in Hebrews talk about future judgment:

• Hebrews 6:1–3 refers to the future punishment of the wicked as “eternal judgment” (6:2), which the author says is an “elementary doctrine” of the faith (cf. 6:1).
• Hebrews 10:27–30 depicts this judgment as fearful and dreadful, a “fury of fire that will consume the adversaries.”

Peter and Jude write about hell.

• Peter and Jude both depict hell as “destruction” (2 Peter 2:1, 3, 12; Jude 5, 10, 11).
• Both describe hell is like a gloomy dungeon, where rebellious angels are held for judgment (2 Peter 2:4; Jude 6 is similar).
• Peter likens hell to Sodom and Gomorrah’s burning to ashes (2 Peter 2:6)
• Peter also writes that hell is a place of retribution (2:13) and “utter darkness” (2:17)
• Jude describes hell both as a punishment of “eternal fire” (Jude 7) and “gloomy darkness (Jude 6).

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Revelation contains some of the most noteworthy passages on hell.  Consider Revelation 14:9–11:  “⁹ And another angel, a third, followed them, saying with a loud voice, “If anyone worships the beast and its image and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand, ¹⁰ he also will drink the wine of God’s wrath, poured full strength into the cup of his anger, and he will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb.¹¹ And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, and they have no rest, day or night, these worshipers of the beast and its image, and whoever receives the mark of its name.” In Rev. 20:15 John writes, “And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.”

Perhaps most importantly, Jesus speaks of hell.  Jesus gives a central place to hell in his best-known sermon, the Sermon on the Mount, recorded in Matt. 5–7. There, Jesus warns against hateful anger, because “whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire.” (Matt. 5:22 ESV).  In this same sermon, Jesus urges us to gouge out a sinful eye or cut off a sinful hand because, “it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell.” (Matt. 5:30 ESV)  Top of FormBottom of Form

Later, when LaTop of Form

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Jesus sends out the Twelve, he realizes they will be harassed, hated, and persecuted.  So he gives them a speech to deepen their courage and conviction.  Jesus tells them, “And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul.  Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.”  (Matt. 10:28 ESV).

Jesus accused his opponents of turning people away from God, producing a convert who is “twice as much a child of hell” as they themselves (Matt. 23:15 ESV).

There is no doubt.  The Bible is very clear.  Hell does exist.  Hell is a critical matter in the Christian faith.  It is not a creation of preachers or churches.  It was taught by the most central figures in the Christian faith, including Jesus.  Jesus believed in hell.  He warned us against hell.  It is not a thing needless in our enlightened and progressive age.  I would suggest that hell has never been a more needed doctrine than it is in this age.  I believe it’s critical for Christians to recapture a healthy and biblical view of hell.  It is not something we can afford to dismiss or ignore.

Kathy Chapman writes about something her child once said.[4] “One morning, my 4-year-old son, Kevin, and his grandpa went out to buy donuts. On the way, Grandpa turned to Kevin and asked, ‘Which way is heaven?’ Kevin pointed to the sky. ‘Which way is hell?’ Kevin pointed towards the floor of the truck. Grandpa continued, ‘And where are you going?’ ‘Dunkin’ Donuts,’ Kevin replied. For many of us, not much has changed since we were four.  We’d much rather think about Dunkin Donuts than about heaven and hell.  But the New Testament is clear.  Hell is a reality.  And it is a reality that must be addressed.

How do we make sense of all of these passages?  That’s what the rest of this series will do.  We’ll unpack some of these texts and look more deeply into them.  But for this morning, I want to share three broad points.  Author Christopher Morgan argues that passages like these point to three realities.[5] These points serve as a beginning place in our discussion about the reality of hell.  Morgan writes that hell represents the reality of God’s punishment, God’s destruction, and God’s banishment.

First, hell represents the reality of God’s punishment.  In Matthew 25, Jesus describes hell as “eternal punishment.”  In 2 Thessalonians 1, Paul discusses hell as God punishing those who disobey him.  Hell represents the reality that God will punish sin.  Hell is simply God finally punishing the sin that remains in the world.

Second, hell represents the reality of God’s destruction.  In 2 Peter 2, Peter writes of hell as “destruction.”  In 2 Thess. 1 Paul describes hell as a place of “destruction.”   New Testament scholars point out that when biblical authors speak of destruction, they are referring to something that loses the essence of its nature or loses its function.  One writes, “[in the Bible when God destroys things or people] they cease to be useful or to exist in their original, intended state.”  Thus hell is the state we exist in when we cease to be useful to God or when we cease to function in our intended way.  Hell is not just God punishing sin.  It is God destroying creations who have chosen not to function in the way they were intended to function; not to pursue the purpose for which they were created.

Finally, hell represents the reality of God’s banishment.  This idea of hell as a banishment from God is prominent in the teachings of Jesus.  In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus proclaims that he will judge the world and declare to unbelievers, “depart from me!” (Matt. 7:23).   Jesus later portrays the wicked as being excluded from the kingdom: “Depart from me … into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matt. 25:41). Hell is banishment.  Hell is not just God punishing sin.  It’s not just God destroying creations who have chosen not to function the way they were intended to function.  It’s also God banishing those who’ve chosen in their lives to live apart from him anyway.  It’s them being removed from his goodness and grace.

We can put it this way.  Hell is a real place where justice is finally served–punishment, relationships are fully severed–banishment, and our life’s purpose is fatally stopped—destruction. That’s the reality of hell.

Why is all of this so important?  Because without this reality, we could not truly understand the cross.  The reality of Hell sheds light on the reality of the cross. [6] On the cross, Jesus takes on himself the punishment that is ours because of our sin.  Justice is finally served—but on Jesus not on us.  And, on the cross, Jesus faces complete destruction.  From the pre-crucifixion torture to the cross itself, Jesus is completely destroyed.  Even though we were the ones who refused to serve the purpose for which we were created, on the cross, Jesus was fatally stopped.  And, on the cross, Jesus is banished from God.  That’s why he cries out “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”  That divine relationship is fully severed.  Bell wants to argue that to accept the reality of hell is to subvert the contagious spread of Jesus’ message of love.  I would argue just the opposite.  It’s only when we accept the reality of hell that we can truly understand Jesus’ message of love and Jesus ultimate act of love on the cross.  Because on the cross, Jesus went through hell for us.  Jesus experienced hell so we would never have to.

I want to close each of these lessons with three brief words of application.  Here they are: Hell stirs our mission, spurs our maturity, but does not summarize our message. First, hell does not summarize our message.  There are too many who assume that Christianity is solely about escaping hell.  It’s fire-insurance.  Rob Bell writes this sad story: …Several years ago we had an art show at our church. I had been giving a series of teachings on peacemaking, and we invited artists to display their paintings, poems, and sculptures that reflected their understanding of what it means to be a peacemaker. One woman included in her work a quote from Mahatma Gandhi, which a number of people found quite compelling. But not everyone. Someone attached a piece of paper to it. On the piece of paper was written: “Reality check: He’s in hell.” Hell is a reality.  But it’s not what we lead with when we engage others.  It’s not the center of our faith.  And too often we turn people away because we make hell our first conversation.

But second, the reality of hell ought to stir us to greater mission.  Because hell is real, we’ve got to reach out to people who don’t know God or Jesus and try to persuade them to become followers of Jesus.  Charlie Peace, a criminal in England, on the day he was being taken to his execution, listened to a minister reading from the Word.[7] And when he found out he was reading about heaven and hell, he looked at the preacher and said, “Sir, if I believed what you and the church of God say, and even if England were covered with broken glass from coast to coast, I would walk over it on hands and knees and think it worthwhile living just to save one soul from an eternal hell like that.”  The reality of hell ought to stir us to greater mission.

Finally, the reality of hell ought to spur us to greater personal maturity.  Because hell is real, not only do we not want people around us to go there, we don’t want ourselves to go there.  We should therefore be doing all that is within our power to live the kind of holy life that keep us from the possibility of hell.  We should repent of anything that might lead us down that broad way that leads to destruction.

[2] “What if there’s no hell?” Time (April 25, 2011).

[3] R. Albert Mohler Jr., Chapter One, “Is Hell for Real?” in Christopher W. Morgan and Robert A. Peterson, editors, Is Hell Real or Does Everyone Go to Heaven? Zondervan, 2011 Kindle Edition, pages 11-21.

[4] Kathy Chapman, North Lauderdale, FL. Today’s Christian Woman, “Heart to Heart.

[5] Christopher Morgan, Chapter Three, “Four Pictures of Hell” In Morgan and Peterson, Is Hell Real, pages 37-47.

[6] Ibid.

[7] Ravi Zacharias, “The Lostness of Humankind,” Preaching Today, Tape No. 118.

In the wake of the sexual abuse scandal at Penn State University, New York Times writer David Brooks wrote an article entitled, “Let’s All Feel Superior.” [1] Brooks commented on our tendency to ignore our own sins but notice the sins of others. Brooks writes that many commentators have contemptuously asked of the Penn State scandal: “How could they have let this happen?” “How could officials have just stood by when this abuse was going on?”  We assume that we would have done better than Penn State officials.  But Brooks notes that history shows that ordinary people often don’t get involved in correcting an injustice.  This happens so often that psychologists have a term for it—”the Bystander Effect.”  Brooks writes, “In centuries past, people built moral systems that acknowledged this weakness. These systems emphasized our sinfulness. They reminded people of the evil within themselves.” Unfortunately, according to Brooks, today when something terrible happens, we try to blame it on someone else.  Brooks warns that it’s easy to vilify others from “the island of our own innocence.” It’s easy to ask, “How could they have let this happen?” But Brooks writes:  “The proper question is: How can we ourselves overcome our natural tendency to evade and self-deceive? …. [Sadly], it’s a question this society has a hard time asking because the most seductive evasion is the one that leads us to deny the underside of our own nature.”

We are quick to see the dark underside of others.  But there is something within us that denies the dark underside of ourselves.  We are quick to ask, “How could they let this happen?” but very slow to ask “Why did I let this happen?”

This may be especially true for Christians.  Rebecca Pippert once attended two very different events: a graduate-level psychology class at Harvard University and a Christian Bible study adjacent to Harvard.[2] Pippert offered the following observations on how the two groups addressed their own faults: First, the students [in the graduate-level psychology class] were extraordinarily open and candid about their problems. It wasn’t uncommon to hear them say, “I’m angry,” “I’m afraid,” “I’m jealous” …. Their admission of their problems was the opposite of denial. Second, their openness about their problems was matched only by their uncertainty about where to find resources to overcome them. Having confessed, for example, their inability to forgive someone who had hurt them, [they had no idea how to] resolve the problem by forgiving and being kind and generous instead of petty and vindictive.  [But the contrast with the Bible Study group] was striking. No one spoke openly about his or her problems. There was a lot of talk about God’s answers and promises, but very little about the participants and the problems they faced. The closest thing to an admission [of sin or a personal problem] was a reference to someone who was “struggling and needs prayer.”  “The first group [the psychology class] seemed to have all the problems and no answers; the second group [the Bible Study] had all the answers and no problems.”

Too often that’s how we Christians come across.  We have all the answers to all the sin that’s out there in the world.  But we don’t seem to have any personal problem with sin in our own lives.  We’re quick to see the dark underside of others, but not of ourselves.  And as we’ll see this morning, overcoming this is critical to experiencing renewal.

This is our third Sunday in Col. 3:1-17.  I’ve chosen this text because it focuses on something which is close to the heart of many of us this time of year: renewal.  Near the center of this text, in vs. 10, Paul writes of how we are being “renewed.”  This text summarizes what God does to bring renewal into our lives and how we can join God in that work.

On the first Sunday of the year, we looked at the first of four steps Paul urges us to take to experience renewal.  The first step is “rethink.”  Renewal begins with our thinking.  You change living by first changing thinking.  I called you to adopt some habits by which you could fill your mind with Christ and the things of Christ.  Last Sunday, the focus was on vs. 17 and its call to “do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus.”  Renewal happens when we realize that we don’t have to pack our bags and become a missionary to serve Jesus.  We can serve and honor Jesus with every single word and every single deed.  The second step is “redo.”

This morning we move to Col. 3:5-11: ⁵ Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. ⁶ On account of these the wrath of God is coming. ⁷ In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. ⁸But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. ⁹ Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices ¹⁰and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. ¹¹ Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all. (Col. 3:5-11 ESV)

Paul begins by literally urging us to put to death our “earthly members” or our “earthly parts.”  He states in vs. 7 that these parts used to characterize the way we once lived.  And they are still influencing the way we live today.  In other words, even though we are Christians, there are still parts or sections of ourselves which are still earthly or sinful.  This is very significant.  Paul is saying that even though we’ve been cleansed by the blood of Jesus and made into heavenly people, there are still parts of us that are very earthly.  The transformation from sinner to saint does not happen quickly.  Though we are Christians, we still have sinful elements in our lives. The very first thing Paul wants us to do is to acknowledge that we still struggle with these sinful parts.  We must acknowledge our sinful sections. If we want to experience renewal, we must confess that we are in need of it.  We must admit to ourselves, to one another, and to our God that there are still sections of our hearts, pieces of our mind, slices of our soul which are still oriented toward earthly things and not heavenly things.  We can’t be quick to see the underside of others and ignore our own.  One of the keys to renewal is to admit that we too have sinful aspects to ourselves.

In fact, the Christians Paul writes to here were still wrestling with very significant sins.  First, Paul lists their five sinful sections of intimacy: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness.  These words all have to do with sexually intimate sins and they move from the most egregious outward expression to the most private inward expression.  At the end of the list we find covetousness—desiring something which cannot be ours.  This was the tenth of the Ten Commandments.  This morphs into evil desire—the longing for something which is evil or contrary to God’s wishes.  This in turn transforms into passion, a sexual hunger and longing.  This becomes impurity and then sexual immorality.  “Sexual immorality” refers to any sexual act outside of marriage.  And Paul knows the Christians in Colossae used to let these sins run rampant and that there are still sections of their lives struggling with them.

Second, Paul lists their six sinful sections of irritability: anger, wrath, malice, slander, obscene talk, and lying.  These words all have to do with sins of irritability.  Anger—smoldering hatred of someone.  Wrath—what happens when that hatred turns to action.  Malice—a desire to cause harm.  Slander—words that do cause harm.  Obscene talk and lying—speech intended to abuse and confuse others.  Paul knows the Christians in Colossae used major in these sins of irritability and there are still sections of their lives which wrestle even now with them.

A first step to renewal is to admit that we too have sections of our hearts, pieces of our minds, and slices of our souls that wrestle with sins of intimacy and sins of irritability.  We are not perfect.  We do fail.  We do have problems.  That’s the first step toward renewal in this text.

In just a moment Paul’s going to call us to deal aggressively with these sins.  But first let’s look at the motive Paul supplies.  In vs. 6 Paul writes, On account of these the wrath of God is coming. In other words Paul says that God reprimands us for this sin. Simply put, God hates this type of behavior.  And if we allow it to rule our life, he will direct his wrath toward us.  He will reprimand us severely.  He sees these actions and attitudes as idolatry, as Paul writes in vs. 5.  When we let these sins into our lives, we remove God from the throne of our hearts and place either the object or our lust or the object of our hatred  on that throne there.  And God simply will not put up with it.  We should make no mistake.  God will hold us accountable for these things.

But Paul writes not only of this negative motivation.  He writes also of a positive motivation.  In vs. 10 Paul urges us to take action because we “have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.”  In other words God renews us from this sin. God not only reprimands us for this sin.  He also renews us from this sin.  God is working to make us into brand new people.  And we should therefore take action against these sinful sections of our lives because we want to partner with God in that renewal.  I think what Paul is saying here is this: “Be who you are.”  To continue to live in these sinful ways is inconsistent with who God has made you and is making you.  Be the renewed person you are.  Be the dead now alive person you are.  Participate and partner with God in his work to bring transformation into your heart and mind.

And the way we partner with God in this renewal is by practicing the two strong commands in this text: ⁵Put to death therefore what is earthly in you…⁸But now you must put them all away.  Paul is saying that if you want to experience real renewal in your life this year, it’s going to take aggressive action.  You can’t play around.  You can’t be half-hearted about it.  Not only must you admit the sinful sections of your life.  You must also become ruthless and intense about them.

The words translated “put them all away” literally mean “take off” or “lay aside.”  Paul imagines these sinful parts of ourselves as clothes.  And the only way to truly deal with them is to take them off—all the way off.  In other words we must fully shed this sin. Whatever is standing in between you and the person God is renewing you to be, you must fully shed it.

Too often, when it comes to sin in our lives, we treat it like we treat our summer clothes.  When it’s winter, some of us put away our summer clothes.  They go in the back of the closet, or in a box in the attic, or in a drawer.  But when summer comes again, we pull them back out.  We never really get rid of them.  We just put them aside for a season.  The same is true with so many of the sins we struggle with.  We enter a season in which we get really serious about holiness.  So we take off that sin, fold it up, and put it away.  But we don’t throw it away.  We don’t toss it out.  We put it someplace where, when the time is right and we’re no longer so focused on holiness, we can pull it back out.  We can wear that sin once more.

But Paul’s saying that if you want to experience real renewal, you’ve got to fully shed that sin.  You’ve got to take it off and throw it away never to be worn again.  You’ve got to rip it off and remove it so far from you that you could never find it even if you wanted to.

And this morning, that’s exactly what some of us need to do.  You’ve been playing around with some sin.  You’ve been toying with stopping it.  But you’ve not really gotten serious about it.  Your short temper.  Your filthy language.  Your pornography.  Your selfishness.  Your verbal abuse.  Your gossiping.  Your backbiting.  And this morning Paul is calling you to shed that sin like a pair of clothes you never want to see again.  He’s calling you to get serious about this and get rid once and for all.

But Paul uses even stronger language in vs. 5: ⁵ Put to death therefore what is earthly in you… There is no uncertainty in this language.  Paul’s saying “Don’t play with sin.  Don’t just fight sin.  Kill it.  Murder it.  Beat the life out of it.”  In other words Paul calls us to to fully slay this sin.

But the problem is that we too often are unwilling to slay the sin in our lives.  In his book The Great Divorce C. S. Lewis writes about this.[3] He describes a human who finds himself in heaven.  The man was called a Ghost.  On his shoulder sat a red lizard, symbolizing the sin in his life.  Lewis writes:  “What sat on his shoulder was a little red lizard, and it was twitching its tail like a whip and whispering things in his ear. As we caught sight of him he turned his head to the reptile with a snarl of impatience. “Shut up, I tell you!” he said. It wagged its tail and continued to whisper to him. He ceased snarling, and presently began to smile. Then he turned and started to limp westward, away from the mountains.  “Off so soon?” said a voice.  The speaker was more or less human in shape but larger than a man, and so bright that I could hardly look at him. His presence smote on my eyes and on my body too (for there was heat coming from him as well as light) like the morning sun at the beginning of a tyrannous summer day.  “Yes. I’m off,” said the Ghost. “Thanks for all your hospitality. But it’s no good, you see. I told this little chap,” (here he indicated the lizard), “that he’d have to be quiet if he came—which he insisted on doing. Of course his stuff won’t do here: I realize that. But he won’t stop. I shall just have to go home.”  ‘Would you like me to make him quiet?” said the flaming Spirit—an angel, as I now understood.  “Of course I would,” said the Ghost.  “Then I will kill him,” said the Angel, taking a step forward.  “Oh-ah-look out! You’re burning me. Keep away,” said the Ghost, retreating.  “Don’t you want him killed?”  “You didn’t say anything about killing him at first. I hardly meant to bother you with anything so drastic as that.”  “It’s the only way,” said the Angel, whose burning hands were now very close to the lizard. “Shall I kill it?”  “Well, that’s a further question. I’m quite open to consider it, but it’s a new point, isn’t it? I mean, for the moment I was only thinking about silencing it because up here—well, it’s so…embarrassing.”  “May I kill it?”  “Well, there’s time to discuss that later.”  “There is no time. May I kill it?”  “Please, I never meant to be such a nuisance. Please—really—don’t bother. Look! It’s gone to sleep of its own accord. I’m sure it’ll be all right now. Thanks ever so much.”  “May I kill it?”  “Honestly, I don’t think there’s the slightest necessity for that. I’m sure I shall be able to keep it in order now. I think the gradual process would be far better than killing it.”  “The gradual process is of no use at all.”  “Don’t you think so? Well, I’ll think over what you’ve said very carefully. I honestly will. In fact I’d let you kill it now, but as a matter of fact I’m not feeling frightfully well today. It would be silly to do it now. I’d need to be in good health for the operation. Some other day, perhaps.”  “There is no other day. All days are present now.”  “Get back! You’re burning me. How can I tell you to kill it? You’d kill me if you did.”  “It is not so.”  “Why, you’re hurting me now.”  “I never said it wouldn’t hurt you. I said it wouldn’t kill you.”  “Oh, I know. You think I’m a coward. But it isn’t that. Really it isn’t. I say! Let me run back by tonight’s bus and get an opinion from my own doctor. I’ll come again the first moment I can.”

Can’t we hear ourselves in this man?  We try to keep our sin quiet so it won’t disturb the people around us.  We punish the sin by taking him home because he’s not behaving.  But when it comes to killing it, well, that’s too drastic.  We’ll think about that later.  We’re sure we can keep it in check.  No need for violence.  And we just can’t bring ourselves to do whatever it takes to deal a death blow to our red lizard of sin.

But Paul is telling you this morning that if you truly wish to experience renewal, there’s only one thing that works: death.  You’ve got to do whatever it’s going to take to kill your sin.  If it means quitting your job, do it.  If it means changing schools, do it.  If it means ending a relationship, do it.  If it means losing sleep or losing money, do it.  If it means never getting on the Internet again, do it.  If it means never watching TV again, do it.  If it means cutting yourself completely and totally off from the wrong crowd, do it.  Nothing is too drastic.  Nothing is too radical.  Nothing is too costly.  Paul is asking you to identify a sin that is getting in between you and God.  And he’s telling you to kill it.  Murder it.  Slay it.  Don’t just hurt it.  Don’t just punish it.  Don’t just battle it.  Kill it.  Slay it.  Fully and completely.

So ask yourself, What sin is keeping you from God, keeping you from being the person God is renewing you to be?  And what would it take to kill that sin?  Not maim it.  But kill it.  What do you need to do to deal with this sin in a deadly way?

What I want to urge you to do today is to make a decision to kill that sin.  Make a decision this morning that you are going to put that sin to death.  As this year begins, decide this morning that you’re going to do whatever it takes to slay that sin.  [Life Center - And as a way of helping you visualize that commitment, I want to encourage you to do something this morning.  Grab one of the blank sheets from the back of the chair in front of you.  Write on it some sin you are struggling with.  And while we are singing, come up and drop that paper into this casket as a way of demonstrating your desire to kill that sin.]

Each Sunday our elders are available for prayer and counsel at the Shepherd’s Corner.  If you’re struggling to put a sin to death, I urge you to visit with some of our shepherds after this service is over.

[2] Rebecca Pippert, Hope Has Its Reasons (InterVarsity Press, 2001), 31-32.

[3] C. S. Lewis, The Great Divorce (HarperOne, 1946), 106-111.

New Year’s Day falls on a Sunday this year.  It’s one of those rare times on which we find ourselves in a church building instead of on a couch or in a bed at 10:15 AM after staying up to welcome in the New Year.  Being New Year’s Day, many of us may be thinking about resolutions.  According to CCN, about 100 million Americans are making New Year’s resolutions this morning.[1]

I believe our tradition of New Year’s resolutions ultimately stems from a God-given hunger.  God created us to grow, to mature, and to develop.  The New Year in our culture reminds us of this.  We hunger for transformation and renewal.  And most of us are not content with just superficial renewal.  We’re interested in significant renewal.  We long for significant rather than just superficial renewal.

Earlier this year The New York Times reported on Hany Farid, a professor at Dartmouth.[2] Farid noticed that many of the pictures of celebrities which show up in magazines are altered.  He’s found that the retouching can be slight — colors brightened, a stray hair erased, or a pimple healed. Or it can be drastic — carving 10 or 20 pounds off the celebrity, adding a few inches in height, or erasing all wrinkles and blemishes.  Farid has thus proposed a tool which can detect how much a photo has been altered.  He proposes a scale of 1-5 which would then be labeled onto every photo in every magazine.  Slightly altered photos would be labeled with a 1.  Drastically altered photos would be labeled with a 5.

Renewal in the form of digital alteration is fairly easy with today’s technology.  But I don’t think any of us would be satisfied with that kind of renewal when it came to our lives.  It’s too superficial.  What good is it to photoshop twenty pounds off a photograph when you’ve not actually lost a single pound?  Most of us are interested in significant renewal.

What most of us are looking for is the kind of renewal pictured by C. S. Lewis.  Lewis’ book The Voyage of the Dawn Treader was made into a movie in 2010.  The book and the movie tell of Lucy and Edmund Pevensie returning to Narnia, this time with their cousin Eustace.  Eustace is easy to dislike.  He’s rude.  He’s self-centered.  He’s a know-it-all.  He’s greedy.  And he looks down on everyone.  At one point in the movie Eustace stumbles upon some treasure on an island.  He hoards it all for himself.  And after this horrendous display of avarice Eustace transforms into a dragon.  He becomes on the outside what he is on the inside.  He morphs from a boy to a dragon, because he has acted like such an animal.  In despair, Eustace eventually turns to Lucy and Edmund and begs for their help.  But they can do nothing for him.  It’s only when Eustace lands on another island and meets Aslan the lion that he finds the help he seeks.  Aslan, representing Jesus, is able to scratch away the dragon skin and renew Eustace into a human.  The transformation is painful.  But when it’s done, not only is Eustace changed outwardly, he is changed inwardly as well.  He becomes humble, brave, caring, and giving.  That, I believe, is the kind of renewal most of us long for: deep, significant renewal.

This is the kind of renewal Paul describes in Colossians 3.  Colossians is part of a group of letters from Paul called the “prison epistles” or “prison letters.”  They were all written by Paul during one of his imprisonments.  They include Colossians, Philippians, Ephesians, and Philemon.  In Colossians Paul is writing to a relatively young church.  He’s writing to help them experience spiritual renewal. ^[3] We could, in fact, call Chapter 1 “The Plea for Renewal.”  Paul shares in chapter 1 that he’s been praying that they would “be filled with the knowledge of [God’s] will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding” and that they would be “bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.”  He finishes chapter 1 by telling them that he’s writing so that they can become “mature in Christ.”  Paul wants to see these young Christians experience the kind of deep and significant renewal only God can bring.

But if Chapter 1 is “The Plea for Renewal,” then Chapter 2 is “The Path to Superficial Renewal.”   In Chapter 2, Paul reveals that some of the Colossians have embraced a spirituality that’s only going to lead to superficial renewal.  There’s a great deal of debate about what this alternate spirituality is.  Some scholars argue that teachers of pagan philosophy or pagan religions are influencing these Christians.  Others argue that fundamentalist Jewish teachers are influencing these Christians.  Either way, some “experts” in renewal are leading these Christians astray.

As Paul reveals in Chapter 2, these so-called experts are telling these Christians that they’d experience renewal if they eat certain things and drink certain things and observe certain holy days.  It is a growth plan that centers on keeping an endless list of rules.  Paul mentions some of them in chapter 2: “Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch.”  And Paul writes in vs. 23 “These have indeed an appearance of wisdom and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.”  All of these external rules, Paul says, will only lead to superficial growth.  They have no real value in bringing about any kind of deep transformation.

If Chapter 1 is “The Plea for Renewal” and Chapter 2 is “The Path to Superficial Renewal” then Chapter 3 is “The Plan for Significant Renewal.”  Finally in Chapter 3 reveals a plan for Christians to experience real renewal.  This is the chapter where Paul shows how Jesus can change us from dragons into humans.  If you look back at 2011 and see ways in which you’ve acted like an animal and you long to have that dragon skin removed in 2012, this is the chapter for you.  This chapter, especially Col. 3:1-17 will be our focus in this four-part Sunday morning series called “Renew You.”  We’ll look at four things that lead to significant renewal.

This morning we focus on the first four verses: ¹ If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. ² Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. ³For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. ⁴When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory (Col. 3:1-4 ESV).  One point Paul makes throughout Colossians is that Christians and Christ are tied up together.  Here, Paul reminds us that “you have died” [with Christ], “you have been raised with Christ,” and “you also will appear with [Christ].”  Just as Jesus died on the cross, was raised from the dead, and will appear at the Second Coming, so we have died with him, been raised with him, and will appear with him.  The link between us and Jesus is so strong that Paul actually says “your life is hidden with Christ” and “When Christ who is your life.”  Jesus is now the source of our life.  When Paul writes that our life is “hidden with Christ” he means that Jesus is the hidden source of our life. [4] That is, when other people look at me, they only see Chris Altrock.  What they don’t see, what is hidden from them, is the fact that Jesus is the source of my life.  Jesus is the hidden battery, the hidden power plant, that makes “me” possible.  Paul’s point is that renewal can only come from Christ.  As you look into 2012 and you dream about renewal at work, at home, in your marriage, with your parents or your children, or renewal with God, it can only come through Christ.  Your life is now hidden with Christ.  He is the only source of deep and lasting renewal.  Everything else you may turn to in 2012—books, magazines, DVD’s, programs, and preachers—can only bring superficial renewal.  Only Jesus can bring deep and lasting renewal.

And the place where Jesus wants to begin is with our mind.  The place where this hidden power source begins to make a deep difference is in our thinking.  Listen once more to the first two verses: ¹If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. ² Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. Renewal begins when we “set our minds on things that are above.”  Renewal begins when we concentrate our thinking on Christ.  His character, his deeds, and his words.  We are to “set our minds on” these things.  Later in vs. 10 Paul will write about our being “renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.”  Renewal begins with knowledge.  It beings with the mind.  It begins by focusing the mind on Christ and his way of life.

The verb “set your mind on” occurs 26 times in the New Testament.  Twenty-three of those occurrences come in Paul’s letters.  Paul wrote more about the Christian mind than anyone else in the New Testament.  Paul specifically used this verb to indicate that the way a Christian thinks is intimately tied to the way a Christian lives.[5] Paul believed you change living by first changing thinking.  For example, Paul writes in Rom. 12:2 “let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think” (NLT).  Paul uses the same verb here in Colossians 3.  Paul wants us to set our minds on things above because that’s where renewal begins.  God will transform us into a new person by first changing the way we think.

Paul’s saying that the first step toward renewal is not doing better.  It’s thinking better.  Here’s another way of putting it: Renewal is rooted in orthodoxy not just orthopraxy. Orthopraxy is literally “right practice” or “right actions.”  It refers to doing the right things.  But orthodoxy is literally “right thinking” or “right believing.”  It refers to thinking the right things.  For most of us, there is a tendency to focus on orthopraxy.  When it comes to renewal most of us give very little thought to changing our thinking and instead we just try to change our doing.  But Paul believes that what we set our minds on will have a radical impact on our doing.  You get to orthopraxy by attending to orthodoxy.

In 2005, Ron Sider wrote a widely read book called The Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience.   Sider showed study after study which revealed that when it came to our doing, most Christians were behaving just like non-Christians.  The rates of divorce, premarital sex, domestic violence and use of pornography were about the same among Christians as they were among non-Christians.  Sider thus called for renewal.  He said the Christian church in America needed deep and significant renewal.   And what he meant by that was orthopraxy.  Evangelical Christians needed to start acting in better ways.  Renewal would come by doing things better.

But ten years earlier, Mark Noll wrote a similar book called The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind.  Like Sider would, Noll found that there was a great need for renewal among Christians.  Unlike Sider, Noll said the key was not getting Christians to start acting right.  They key was to get them to start thinking right.  What Christians most needed to focus on was not actions but thinking.  The mind was the frontline of the battle for renewal.  And that’s exactly what Paul is telling us.  Significant renewal begins when you set your mind on the things of Christ.

John Ortberg shows how a difference in mindset can impact the way two individuals experience the same day.[6] Here is an excerpt from a Dog’s Diary:

8:00 AM – Dog food!  My favorite thing!

9:30 AM – A car ride! My favorite thing!

9:40 AM – A walk in the park!  My favorite thing!

10:30 AM – Got rubbed and petted!  My favorite thing!

12:00 PM – Lunch!  My favorite thing!

1:00 PM – Played in the yard! My favorite thing!

3:00 PM – Wagged my tail!  My favorite thing!

5:00 PM – Milk bones!  My favorite thing!

7:00 PM – Got to play ball!  My favorite thing!

8:00 PM – Wow! Watched TV with the people! My favorite thing!

11:00 PM – Sleeping on the bed!  My favorite thing!

And here is an excerpt from a cat’s diary regarding the very same day: Day 983 of my captivity.  My captors continue to taunt me with bizarre, little dangling objects.  The only thing that keeps me going is my dream of escape. Our mind-set has a tremendous bearing on how we experience life.  One individual’s mind-set allows him to experience everything during the day as “my favorite thing.”  The other individual’s mind-set allows him to experience the same day as “captivity.”  Renewal begins by changing our mindset.

Michael Hyatt writes: When I was twenty-nine years old, I became vice president of marketing for Thomas Nelson. It was a huge step up in my career. At the time, I thought I had arrived at the pinnacle of success. But I was in over my head. Or at least that’s the way it felt. I was just waiting for other people to come to the same conclusion.  I struggled constantly with anxiety and fear—anxiety was the daytime version; fear was the nighttime version.  This manifest itself in my body in two embarrassing ways: First, I sweat profusely. Second, my hands were always cold—ice cold.  Before attending important meetings, I would wear two t-shirts, hoping that I wouldn’t sweat through both. I strategically selected my clothing, based on which colors would show the least amount of perspiration.  I would also step into the bathroom right before the meeting began, and frantically run hot water over my hands. I would then dry them vigorously, praying that they would warm up. I dreaded having to shake hands with anyone.  At some point, I realized that the problem was not in my body, but in my head. I was telling myself a bad story. Mine went like this:  You are too young for this job. Worse, you don’t have the experience. Who do you think you are fooling? It’s just a matter of time before everyone in the company sees it. When that happens, you will be out on the street—right where you should have been all along.  I would never say this out loud, of course. It was just the sound-track that was playing inside my head.  Things didn’t change until I became aware of the story and took control of the narrative. I started telling myself a different story… Mine went like this: Yes, you are young. That gives you tremendous energy. You also don’t have a lot of experience, which is why it is easier for you to think outside the box. God has provided everything you need to be successful in this situation. Even if you fail, you will learn something from it. You can’t lose; you can only quit. And you most certainly are not a quitter! Hyatt didn’t change his actions.  He changed his mind.  He focused his mind on something far more heavenly.  And that led to radical renewal in the way he experienced life.

Paul’s text points to this truth.  Paul is saying that life renewal begins with specific habits of mind renewal. Paul is urging us to adopt specific habits of setting our minds on things above, of filling our minds with Christ and the things of Christ.  Why?  Because the more we fill our minds with Christ, who is our life, the more we will begin to live like Christ.  The first things you need to set in place to make 2012 better than 2011 are specific habits by which you can focus on and keep your mind filled with Christ.

Let me offer four possible habits:.

1. First, memorizing Scripture can be a powerful way to begin renewing your mind.  The key is to memorize something short and to repeat it to yourself during the day at stoplights, when you drink from your water bottle, or every time you Tweet, text, or post a Facebook update.  The memorized Scripture becomes a booster rocket that lifts your mind toward heavenly things.  You could choose a statement from Jesus, a line from one of the Psalms, or an especially encouraging line from one of Paul’s letters.
2. Second, the Jesus Prayer is one way to keep your mind focused on Christ.  Practiced for centuries by Christians, the Jesus Prayer is a short prayer meant to be said as you breath.  In its shortest form, it’s simply this: “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me.”  As you breath in, you say silently or think to yourself: “Lord Jesus Christ.”  As you exhale, you say silently or think to yourself: “have mercy on me.”  I often practice this on Fridays when I am doing work at home and have some time alone.  I find that it keeps my mind focused on Christ.
3. Third, reading the Bible daily is a powerful way to keep your mind focused on Jesus’ story, God’s story, instead of some inferior story you are telling yourself or which others are telling you.  You don’t have to read long.  In as little as 5 minutes a day you can give your mind something heavenly to chew on.  If you have a smartphone or tablet, I encourage you to use the YouVersion Bible which has numerous reading plans.  Some take you through the whole Bible in a year.  Others take you through the New Testament in 30 days.  Some let you survey key texts in the Bible.  Others focus only on the Gospels.  Pick a plan and stick with it.  YouVersion will even keep track of the readings for you and give you reminders when you miss.
4. Fourth, use inspiring art, jewelry, music, graphic designs, or objects to keep your mind focused on Christ.  I often wear a cross.  Each time I see it or feel it, I think about Christ.  I have a replica of the Cristo Redentor statue  on my office table which reminds me of Christ.  Carl McKelvey, an acquaintance in Nashville, keeps a large print of Rembrandt’s Return of the Prodigal hanging in his office to compel him to think of Christ.  Earl Lavender, a friend at Lipscomb University, has visual representations of the 7 Deadly Sins on a wall in his office.  These force him to think of Christ when he sees them.  All of these are just different ways of setting your mind on Christ.

Ultimately, Paul reveals in Col. 2:11-12, renewal begins with baptism.  Paul writes that in baptism we are buried with Jesus and raised with Jesus.  We undergo a circumcision of sorts—having the bad and evil aspects of our lives cut off by the power of God.  Part of the new life God gives us through baptism is a new mind.  The renewal of our thinking begins in baptism as God pours his Holy Spirit in us who is able to correct our thinking and help set our minds on things above.  If you’ve never taken that step, today is a great day to do just that.  Begin this New Year by getting baptized.  Begin personal renewal in the most powerful way—by being immersed in water in the name of Jesus so that God can wash away your sins and fill you with his Holy Spirit.

[2] http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/29/technology/software-to-rate-how-drastically-photos-are-retouched.html?_r=1

^[3] Wright, N. T. (1986). Vol. 12: Colossians and Philemon: An introduction and commentary. Tyndale New Testament Commentaries (22–23). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.

[4] James D. G. Dunn, The Epistles to the Colossians and to Philemon The New International Greek Testament Commentary (Eerdmans, 1996), 207.

[5] Peter T. O’Brien Colossians, Philemon Word Biblical Commentary (Word, 1982), 163.

[6] John Ortberg, The Me I Want to Be (Zondervan, 2010), 95.

I’ve read a lot of articles and heard a lot of reports in the past few weeks about the holiday blues.  This time of year is a tough time for many.  In that light, I want to point us this morning to a blues song.

A band called Casting Crowns sings a tune called “Every Man.”  The first part of the song is a lament.  Casting Crowns moans about how every man and every woman experiences hopelessness in life.  It doesn’t matter our race, our gender, our age, our income, our political affiliation, our religion, or our nationality.  We all have this in common.  Every man and every woman experiences hopelessness.  Here’s how Casting Crowns puts it:

I’m the man with all I’ve ever wanted

All the toys and playing games

I am the one who pours your coffee, corner booth each Saturday

I am your daughter’s favorite teacher

I am the leader of the band

I sit behind you in the bleachers

I am every man

I’m the coach of every winning team and still a loser in my mind

I am the soldier in the airport facing giants one more time

I am the woman shamed and haunted by the cry of unborn life

I’m every broken man, nervous child, lonely wife

Is there hope for every man

A solid place where we can stand

In this dry and weary land

Is there hope for every man

Is there love that never dies

Is there peace in troubled times

Someone help me understand

Is there hope for every man

Seems there’s just so many roads to travel, it’s hard to tell where they will lead

My life is scarred and my dreams unraveled

Now I’m scared to take the leap

If I could find someone to follow who knows my pain and feels the weight

The uncertainty of my tomorrow, the guilt and pain of yesterday

The man with all the toys.  The one who pours your coffee.  Your daughter’s favorite teacher.  The leader of the band.  The one behind you in the bleachers.  The coach of the winning team.  The soldier in the airport.  The broken man, nervous child, and lonely wife.  Everyone, at some point in life, experiences hopelessness.  Everyone experiences hopelessness.

A late 15^th century morality play takes this one step further.[1] The play is called “The Summoning of Everyman.”  It explores the hopeless which is common among us when it comes to spiritual matters.  The central character in this centuries-old play is called “Everyman.”  He is represents every man and every woman.  What he experiences spiritually in the play is what the author of the play believes everyone experiences.  And here’s the point of the play: Everyone experiences hopelessness before God.

The play opens with God.  And God is singing the blues.  Why?  Because humans have turned away from him.  They no longer seek to please Him.  They are no longer grateful for all God has given them.  So God sends Death to the character called Everyman.  God tells Death to bring Everyman to Him so that Everyman can give an accounting for his life.  The point is that God is calling every man and every woman to give an accounting for their lives.  God will call you to given an accounting for your life.

Death finds Everyman and tells him that it is time to die, and go to God, and explain why he’s done what he’s done with his life.  Everyman protests.  He says that he needs more time to gather what is necessary to give an appropriate accounting of his life.  Everyman even tries to bribe Death.  But Death denies his request.  Still, Death does tell Everyman that he can bring a companion with him to testify on his behalf before God.

So, one by one, Everyman visits a number of companions, asking each one to consider joining him on this journey to God.  Asking each one to consider putting in a good word with God for him.  First, Everyman approaches an individual called Fellowship.  Fellowship stands for Everyman’s friends.  Fellowship explains that he’s happy to eat, drink, and be merry with Everyman in this life.  But he does not wish to follow Everyman into the next life.

Next, Everyman approaches individuals called Kindred and Cousin.  They represent the family members of Everyman.  Everyman begs them to stand by his side when he meets God.  But they refuse.

Third, Everyman asks an individual named Goods.  Goods represents all the wealth and resources which Everyman accumulated during life.  Goods replies that he will not accompany Everyman before God.  Why?  Because, he explains, his presence would only infuriate God.  Everyman never shared Goods with others.  So Goods actually has nothing good to say about Everyman

Fourth, Everyman approaches an individual named Good Deeds.  This is the incarnation of all the good acts Everyman did during his life.  Unfortunately, Good Deeds is not strong enough to even make the trip, because Everyman did not do enough good deeds.  Still, Good Deeds is sympathetic with Everyman.  He wants to help.  So, they shore up the weaknesses of Good Deeds and eventually Good Deeds is able to join Everyman on the journey to God.  Everyman dies and ascends to God with Good Deeds by his side.

As the play closes, the Doctor, representing a scholar, enters and provides an epilogue.  He explains to the audience the moral of the story: In the end we will only have Good Deeds to accompany us beyond the grave.

I’m not certain of the original author’s intention.  But I do know how this production plays today—it’s a tragedy.  The play is suggesting that our only hope before the holy God is our good deeds.  The play is stating that the only witness to testify on behalf of every man and every woman is Good Deeds.  And I don’t know about you, but my Good Deeds are not strong enough to make that journey.  My Good Deeds offer little in the way of a heaven-earning testimony before God.  If Good Deeds are our only companion, then everyone is facing hopelessness before God.

That’s the context in which we must listen to the genealogy of Jesus found in Luke’s Gospel.  On Sunday mornings we’ve been listening to the genealogies, the family trees, of Jesus found in Matthew’s Gospel and Luke’s Gospel.  We’ve heard several times that Luke and Matthew are not just interested in chronology.  They are interested in theology.  There are not just trying to explain something about grandmothers and great grandfathers.  They are trying to explain something about who God is and how God works.  The genealogies are windows into the heart of God.

There are significant differences between Matthew’s genealogy, which was the focus of our first two Sundays, and Luke’s genealogy, which is our focus this morning.  The one difference I want to draw your attention to is how far back these genealogies go.  Matthew, like a good Jewish writer would, begins his genealogy at the end—in his case with Abraham and King David—and works forward toward Jesus.  Luke, however, like a good non-Jewish writer would, begins with Jesus and works backward.

And Matthew’s genealogy traces the lineage only as far as Abraham and David.  Matthew only traces Jesus’ family tree back to the two heroes of the Jewish faith—Abraham and King David.  He stops there.  Why?  Because what Matthew most wants us to know about Jesus is that he descended from Abraham—the father of the Jewish faith, and from David—the great warrior, poet, and King of the Jewish faith.

But that might cause some problems.  After all, how many of us are Jewish?  If Matthew’s genealogy is the only one we had, those of us with no Jewish roots might feel left out.  We might think, “Oh, so Jesus is for the Jews.  Jesus descended from the heroes of the Jewish faith.  He stands with the Jews.  But that makes Jesus sound exclusive.  He belongs to one nation.  He belongs to one ethnicity.  He belongs to one religion.  What about the rest of us?  Does Jesus stand with us?”

This may be why Luke offers a complementary genealogy.  Luke’s family tree keeps going way beyond where Matthew’s stops.  The last branch in Matthew’s Christmas Family Tree is Abraham.  But notice how many more branches Luke provides: ³⁴ the son of Jacob, the son of Isaac, the son of Abraham, the son of Terah, the son of Nahor, ³⁵the son of Serug, the son of Reu, the son of Peleg, the son of Eber, the son of Shelah, ³⁶the son of Cainan, the son of Arphaxad, the son of Shem, the son of Noah, the son of Lamech, ³⁷the son of Methuselah, the son of Enoch, the son of Jared, the son of Mahalaleel, the son of Cainan, ³⁸the son of Enos, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God. (Luke 3:34-38 ESV).  Matthew traces Jesus’ genealogy only back to Abraham and David.  But Luke traces Jesus’ genealogy all the way back to Adam, the very first human being.

Now, your first reaction to that may be “So what?  What’s the big deal?  Aren’t we all descended from Adam?  What’s so special about Jesus being a descendant of Adam?  Isn’t every single human being, according the Bible, descended from Adam?  Doesn’t everyone have this one thing in common?”  And Luke would say, “That’s the point.”  Luke would say, “What I want to show you about Jesus is not something that makes him stand out.  What I want to show you about Jesus is something that makes him blend in.  Something that makes him just like every man and every woman who has ever lived.  What I want to show you about Jesus is that according to his family tree, he stands for all of us.  He shares what all of us share.  Just like all of us, his family tree goes all the way back to Adam.“

Scholars are nearly unanimous in their conclusion about why that would be important to Luke.  It was important because Luke, above all other writers, wants to show that Jesus is the hope not just of one racial group, one nation, one gender, one tribe, one ethnic group, or one religion.  Luke wanted to show that Jesus is the hope for every man and every woman.  Luke’s message was this: Jesus is the hope for everyone.

This tune is sounded again and again in Luke’s gospel and in his Volume 2, the Book of Acts:

• And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.  (Luke 2:10 ESV)
• …and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’” (Luke 3:6 ESV)
• and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.  (Luke 24:47 ESV)
• But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” (Acts 1:8 ESV)
• “‘And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh (Acts 2:17 ESV).
• And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.’ (Acts 2:21 ESV)
• To him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.” (Acts 10:43 ESV)
• For so the Lord has commanded us, saying, “‘I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.’” (Acts 13:47 ESV).

What Luke wanted us to know is that Jesus is the hope for everyone.  Not just one nation.  Not just one gender.  Not just one religion.  Not just one ethnicity.  Jesus is the hope for everyone.  Every man and every woman finds hope in Jesus Christ.  Because of him “all the people” can receive great joy on Christmas.  Because of him “all flesh” may see the salvation of God.  Because of him “all nations” can repent and be forgiven.  Because of him, God’s Spirit is poured out on “all flesh.”  Because of him “everyone” who calls upon God will be saved.

And that’s why Luke traces Jesus’ family tree all the way back to Adam, the one ancestor whom we all share, the one from whom  we are all descended.  He wants us to know that Jesus is not just the son of Abraham and the son of David.  Jesus doesn’t just stand with the Jews.  Jesus is also the son of Adam.  Jesus stands with all of us.

And thus the lament sung by Casting Crowns turns on its head and becomes a note of joy.  For they sing:

There is hope for every man

A solid place where we can stand

In this dry and weary land

There is hope for every man

There is Love that never dies

There is peace in troubled times

Will we help them understand?

Jesus is hope for every man

Jesus is the hope for everyone.  That’s Luke’s Gospel.  That’s what he wants you to know about the birth of Jesus and the family tree of Jesus.  Jesus is your hope.  Jesus is your salvation.  Jesus is your joy.  No matter what race you are.  No matter what gender you are.  No matter what religion you are.  No matter what the rest of your family tree looks like.  Jesus is hope for every man.  He is therefore hope for you.

Now, for just a second, let me put the emphasis on the word Jesus: Jesus is the hope for everyone.  There’s something challenging about Luke’s Christmas Family Tree.  Because when he says that Jesus is the hope for everyone, he’s saying that there is no hope but Jesus.  Your family is not your hope.  Your Good Deeds are not your hope.  Lots of presents under the tree are not your hope.  The name on the church building is not your hope.  Your job is not your hope.  Your income is not your hope.  Your racial heritage is not your hope.  The U.S. government is not your hope.  The City Council is not your hope.  Your boyfriend or girlfriend is not your hope.  Buddha is not the hope of the world.  Muhammad is not the hope of the world.  Abraham is not the hope of the world.  David is not the hope of the world.  Your only hope, and the only hope for every person on this planet is Jesus Christ.  To put hope in anything else is to remain hopeless.  That’s the challenge of Luke’s Christmas Family Tree.

But the good news is that Jesus is the hope for everyone. In his book Deserted by God? Sinclair Ferguson shares this story:[2] The first physician to die of the AIDS virus in the United Kingdom was a young Christian. He had contracted it while doing medical research in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. In the last days of his life, his power of communication failed. He struggled with increasing difficulty to express his thoughts to his wife. On one occasion she simply could not understand his message. He wrote on a note pad the letter J. She ran through her medical dictionary, saying various words beginning with J. None was right. Then she said, “Jesus?”  That was the right word. He was with them. That was all either of them needed to know. [And] that is always enough. What Luke wants you to know is that hope is spelled with the letter J.  Even in the worst of situations, hope is spelled with the letter J.  That’s all you’ll ever really need.

National Geographic researchers recently worked to figure out what Everyman looks like.  If you could take the physical qualities and characteristics most common among the most people in the world today, and combine them, what would it look like?  Watch this video:

Some of us may be surprised that Everyman is Chinese, speaks Mandarin, has no car, and is a Christian.  In the same way, we may be surprised about Luke’s claim regarding the hope of Everyman.  What does the hope of Everyman look like?  He’s not a warrior.  He’s not political leader.  He’s not flamboyant.  He’s easy to miss in a crowd.  In fact, he was born in a stable, to an unwed mother, and he died the shameful death of a criminal.  But he is the hope of Everyman.  He is Jesus.

Please stand.  I want to guide us in a few seconds of prayer and reflection.  Close your eyes.  “Father, we struggle with hope.  We so often put our hope in the wrong thing or the wrong person.  This morning Father, we want to admit one wrong thing we’ve put our hope in.  Hear us right now as each of us silently completes this sentence: I have put my hope in ____________.  But God we want to put our hope in Jesus.  No matter who we are, we know he is our true hope.  Hear us right now as each of us silently says this to you: I now put my hope in Jesus.  Thank you Father for filling us with hope.  We pray in Jesus’ name.  Amen.”

[2] Sinclair Ferguson, Deserted by God? (Banner of Truth, 1993), 51.

I’d like to start with two questions.  First, how many of you have a “black sheep” in the family, a misfit in the family, a crazy uncle or a wild brother or a weird sister or an unusual grandparent?  Second, how many of you talked about that black sheep recently at a meal?  In the New York Times Margo Kaufman writes about holiday family meals: “When families gather around the holiday table for the traditional feast, there is traditionally one person who is conspicuous by either absence or presence.  Male or female, rich or poor, married or single, young or old, teetotaler or alcoholic – this person is often the object of ridicule, pity, envy, awe, fear, scorn, embarrassment or secret admiration, for as the proverb goes: ‘There is a black sheep in every fold.‘”[1] Thanksgiving and Christmas may be times when we are especially reminded of our family’s “black sheep.”  Most of us have one or two and when we get together for holiday meals our conversation inevitably turns to them.

Earlier this year the New York Post reported on the upcoming royal wedding between Kate Middleton and Prince William.  The author discussed family members of Kate’s who probably would not be invited to the wedding: a burlesque-dancing cousin named Katrine and an Uncle Gary who was once caught selling cocaine.  These were two, the reporter said, of the “black sheep” of the Middleton family.  And their presence at the wedding would have cast Kate in a negative light.

The 1996 film “Black Sheep” told the fictional story of Al Donnelly.  Donnelly was a candidate for the governor of Washington State.  His bid for the governorship, however, was threatened by his unruly brother Mike.  Eventually Donnelly hired someone to keep his brother under wraps until the election was over.  He didn’t want voters to make assumptions about him based on this “black sheep.”

Black sheep often cast other family members in a negative light. People make assumptions about the whole family because of the behavior one misfit.  And especially if you are in a position of power or influence, you want to keep your black sheep secret.  We don’t want people reaching conclusions about us based on what they see in the most misfit members of our family.

The same thing was true for those who lived in Jesus’ day.  Our current Sunday morning series is focused on the family tree of Jesus, found in Matthew 1 and Luke 3.  And as I briefly noted last Sunday, ancient genealogies were very common.  A good genealogy, a good family tree, could enhance your standing and prove your worth.  A bad genealogy tree could diminish your standing and raise questions about your worth.  In other words, a black sheep in your genealogy could cast you in a negative light.

And this makes Matthew’s genealogy very surprising.  Because he includes some black sheep that he easily could have kept secret.  To appreciate what Matthew’s done, we need to understand that ancient genealogies generally only needed to include male ancestors.[2] You might add the names of women ancestors if their presence added to dignity of the family.[3] But otherwise you’d leave them out.  Breaking custom, Matthew includes four women (besides Jesus’ mother Mary) in the genealogy of Jesus.  And the women he chose to include are questionable.  If Matthew was going to include women in Jesus’ genealogy, it would have made sense for him to include the names of four different women: Sarah, Rebekah, Rachel, and Leah.  These were considered to be the four model matriarchs of Judaism.  There was even a song known from after the time of Jesus which Jews taught their children.  This song went something like this: “Who knows four?  I know four.  Four are the matriarchs; three are the patriarchs; two are the tablets of the covenant; one is our God…”  The four matriarchs were Sarah, Rebekah, Rachel and Leah.[4] These would have been natural for Matthew to include because they could have added to the dignity of Jesus’ family tree.

Yet Matthew decided to highlight four different women, four “black sheep”: Tamar (Matt. 1:3), Rahab (Matt. 1:5), Ruth (Matt. 1:5), and “the wife of Uriah” also known as Basheba (Matt. 1:6).  We would consider these women misfits.  They would have been likely to create some controversy.  In fact, they could have easily cast Jesus in a negative light. Let’s take a brief look at these four women.

First, Tamar.  Tamar was a Canaanite woman (a non-Jewish woman) who became the wife of a man named Er.  Er was the oldest son of a man named Judah (Gen. 38).  Er died and Judah, the father-in-law ordered his second son, Onan, to father a child with Tamar.  Onan refused and died.  Judah then proposed that his daughter-in-law return to her family’s home until Judah’s youngest son matured to the point that he might father a child with Tamar.  She did this very thing.  But Judah forgot about Tamar.  He abandoned his daughter-in-law.  He left her with no husband to provide for her and no child to carry on the family name.  Desperate, Tamar disguised herself as a prostitute and tricked her father-in-law Judah into sleeping with her.  Tamar became pregnant.  And Tamar’s offspring became an ancestor of King David who became an ancestor of Jesus.  Matthew intentionally highlight’s this unusual woman in Jesus’ genealogy.

Second, Rahab.  Rahab was a prostitute in the non-Jewish city of Jericho.  When the Israelites sent in spies to Canaan, they stayed in Rahab’s home which was located in the wall that protected Jericho (Josh. 2).  After hiding the spies on the roof and helping them escape, Rahab asked that she and her family might be spared when the Israelites returned and invaded the city.  Her request was granted and only Rahab and her family survived the conquest of Jericho (Josh 6).  Rahab the pagan prostitute is the mother of a child who is an ancestor of Jesus.  Matthew intentionally highlighted her in this genealogy.

Third, Ruth.  A family of four moved from Bethlehem to the country of Moab during a famine.   The two Jewish sons married two non-Jewish women: Orpah and Ruth.  The father died.  The two sons died.  Naomi, the mother, was left without her husband and her two sons.  She decided to return to Israel because she heard the famine was over.  She persuaded one daughter-in-law, Orpah, to remain in Moab, her home.  But Ruth, the other daughter-in-law refused to stay.  She was determined to go to Israel with Naomi.  And in a famous line, she said to Naomi, “Your people shall be my people, and your God my God.” (Ruth 1:16 ESV).  The line, of course, indicates that Israel was not Ruth’s people and Israel’s God was not her God.  Ruth ends up marrying and giving birth to the grandfather of King David, an ancestor of Jesus.

Finally, “the wife of Uriah.”  Bathsheba is married to a Hittite (a non-Jewish man) named Uriah (2 Sam. 11).  Uriah is one of King David’s top military heroes.  One day, while the army, including Uriah, are at battle, King David spies Bathsheba taking her evening bath.  He sends for Bathsheba and has sexual intercourse with her.  When the king later learns that Bathsheba is pregnant, he orders Uriah back to Jerusalem from the front lines.  He hopes Uriah will sleep with his wife Bathsheba and that everyone will thus conclude that the baby is Uriah’s and not King David’s.  But Uriah refused to go home and sleep with Bathsheba.  Frustrated, David sent him back to the battle and ordered Uriah to be placed on the front lines and then abandoned.  As a result, Uriah was killed.  David then married Bathsheba, but their child died.  Bathsheba had other children by David.  And this lineage eventually led to Jesus.

Matthew chose to highlight these four women.  And the women and their circumstances could have easily cast Jesus in a negative light.  Consider the circumstances of these black sheep.  Tamar is the victim of a father-in-law who is, at best, neglectful, and, at worst, a sexual scoundrel.  Bathsheba is the victim (we’re not sure how willing she was) of a king bent on sexual conquest and willing to commit murder to cover up the act.  Just the circumstances surrounding these women could have raised questions about Jesus.

But consider the women themselves.  It’s not that they are sinful and the others in the family tree are not sinful.  But they do have qualities which, nonetheless, would have made them less than desirable for including in Jesus’ family tree.  Most significantly, all four of these women share a non-Jewish background.[5] Tamar is a Canaanite woman.  Rahab is from Jericho, a Canaanite city.  Ruth is from Moab, a non- Jewish country.  And Bathsheba is married to a Hittite, a non-Jew.  Most writers of Jewish genealogies would have done everything they could to keep any mention of Gentiles out of the genealogy because their presence contaminates the blood line.[6] But Matthew draws attention to these four women with non-Jewish ancestries.

In addition, we can assume that at least Rahab and Ruth actively worshiped a god who was not the true God.  Growing up in Jericho and Moab, both of them would have had faith in and worshiped gods who were not the true God of the Bible.

Further, Tamar is a widow—a person often neglected in ancient societies.  Rahab was a prostitute—definitely someone on the fringe of society.  Bathsheba was an adulteress.

In a word, all four all “outsiders.”  Matthew highlights these women who turn out to be national, racial, societal, spiritual and moral outsiders. They are racial and national outsiders.  They come from or are associated with foreign countries and foreign ethnicities.  In addition, Tamar is an outsider in terms of society—she is an abandoned widow.  Rahab is a moral outsider—a prostitute in a foreign city.  Bathsheba may be a moral outsider–an adulteress, though we do not know how willing or unwilling she was.  And Ruth and Rahab, are at the very least, spiritual outsiders—they worship a different god.  They are all outsiders.

And the question is this: why would Matthew include these outsiders in Jesus’ genealogy?  We might think that their presence casts Jesus in a negative light.  But the opposite is actually true.  Matthew highlights these four outsiders because they cast Jesus in a positive light. Scholar Frederick Dale Bruner writes this: ““God did not begin to stoop into our sordid human story at Christmas only; he was stooping all the way through the Old Testament.”[7] Matthew wants to paint Jesus as the stooping saviror.  He wants to introduce Jesus as one who did not start stooping to our level at the manger.  He stooped through his entire family tree.  He stooped through racial outsiders.  He stooped through national outsiders.  He stooped through societal outsiders.  He stooped through spiritual outsiders.  He stooped through moral outsiders.

And this amazing claim hits home in at least two ways.  First, Jesus’ family tree of outsiders means we should welcome outsiders who are unlike us.

A couple of weeks ago I attended a gathering of Memphis organizations who serve ex-felons.  One man named Duane was introduced and came to the stage.  He shared how several years ago he had served two years in prison.  When released, he returned to his wife and family in Memphis.  He started a cleaning business.  Eventually he won the cleaning contract for a large Memphis hospital.  He and his wife started earning a good living through the business.  But one day he was called into the office of his supervisor at the hospital.  During a routine background check, they had discovered that he was an ex-felon.  When Duane confirmed this, they fired him.  No questions asked.  He had provided excellent service for months.  But once they learned he had spent time in prison, they wanted nothing to do with him.  His business dried up.  Within a few months, he and his wife defaulted on the mortgage of their home in Cordova.  They and their five children became homeless.  Through the kindness of a friend, they found a hotel they could stay in for three weeks.  Then the hotel was sold and they were kicked out.  They had to live in substandard housing for months before Duane was finally able to start generating income again.  After the speech, one of the hosts of the gathering got up and said, “In many ways, people like Duane are the lepers of our society.  Even when they admit they’ve made mistakes, even when they show discipline and determination, even when they become model citizens, they are treated as less than human.  Because of something that happened in their past, they are rejected and outcast.”

I suppose that last line describes some of us.  Because of something that’s happened in our past, we often feel rejected and outcast.  But it certainly describes a lot of people around us.  We are surrounded every day by invisible people who feel rejected and outcast.   They don’t talk like us.  They don’t look like us.  They don’t think like us.  They don’t dress like us.  And they don’t smell like us.  And our tendency is to ignore them at best, or to reject them at worst.  But the fact that Jesus comes from a long lineage of outsiders demands that we repent.  It demands that we accept those others will not.  It means that we as individuals, as families, as Reach Groups, as Sunday School classes, and as a church welcome and embrace true outsiders—the ones whom everyone else makes fun of, labels, neglects, or condemns.  As followers of Jesus, his genealogy sets the pattern for our lives.  Jesus’ family tree included many true outsiders.  Ours must as well.

Second, Jesus’ family tree of outsiders means Jesus welcomes outsiders like us.

Julie Fowler is a long-time supporter of HopeWorks and often serves as a faith encourager.  Recently she met with a student at HopeWorks.  And this student was struggling greatly in her spiritual life.  Because of something in her past, she felt judged and rejected by others in the program.  She was a former prostitute.  And as she shared this with Julie, Julie was inspired.  She turned to Matt. 1 and read this genealogy to the student.  Julie gave special emphasis to Matt. 1:5 which mentions Rahab.  Rahab the prostitute.  And Julie showed how this prostitute was actually one of the ancestors of Jesus Christ himself.  When Julie was finished sharing, the student started crying.  She said, “No one ever showed that to me before.”  She couldn’t believe it.  But she now knew without a doubt that Jesus accepted her and loved her.  If Jesus had come from a prostitute, he would certainly welcome a prostitute.

Jesus’ genealogy is Matthew’s attempt to say to people like her and all of us who feel like outsiders with God: Jesus welcomes you and desires to work through you.  Others may treat you as less than human.  But in Jesus God stoops to your level.  While others cast you out, Jesus welcomes you in.  While others reject you, Jesus accepts you.  While others say you’re good for nothing, Jesus says you’re good enough for him.  The presence of these four outsiders in Jesus’ genealogy stand as proof.  Jesus’ family tree of outsiders means he welcomes outsiders just like us.

In our response time this morning, let’s consider both sides of this issue.  First, are we welcoming outsiders?  Second, are we accepting Jesus’ welcome of us?  Our elders host a time of prayer and counseling after each service at The Shepherd’s Corner.  It’s located right by the church office.  And if you’d like to pray with them about one of those two issues, I urge you to stop by The Shepherd’s Corner this morning.  We’d also be happy to pray with you right now.  Are you welcoming outsiders?  Are you accepting Jesus’ welcome of you?  If we can help you answer one of those questions positively, come as we stand and sing.

[2] Ibid., 79-80.

[3] Frederick Dale Bruner Matthew: A Commentary Volume 1 (Word, 1987), 5-6.

[4] Ibid., 6-7.

[5] Ben Witherington III Matthew Smyth & Helwys Bible Commentary (Smyth & Helwys, 2006), 40.

[6] Keener, 40.

[7] Bruner, 6.

The popular sci-fi movie “Star Wars” featured a planet called Tatooine on which Luke Skywalker lived.  This planet orbited around two suns.  And earlier this year astronomers discovered a real Tatooine.  They located a real planet orbiting around two suns.  This video shows a planet named Kepler 16b crusing around a smaller red sun and a larger orange sun.  The planet takes 229 days to make the circuit.  Scientists were thrilled to find this—a two-sun solar system.

In our text this morning Matthew is going to paint the story of the Old Testament as a two-sun solar system.  Matthew is going to provide a way of viewing the Old Testament which has two center-points.  There are over 900 chapters in the Old Testament.  Someone has suggested that there are over 3,000 peopled named in the Old Testament.  And there are over 23,000 verses in the Old Testament.  But Matthew’s going to give us a way to cut through all of that.  Of the hundreds of chapters, and thousands of verses and individuals in the Old Testament, Matthew’s going to tell us that it comes down to just two.  Everything in the Old Testament revolves around these two items.

Matthew’s two-sun solar system portrait of the Old Testament is found in Matt. 1:1-17.  This is a text which even the most avid Bible readers skip.  Most people believe this text is just too boring to pay attention to.  It’s called a genealogy.  We might call it a family tree.  It tells us about Jesus’ ancestors.  These are people whose stories are told in the Old Testament.    And in our three-part series called “A Christmas Family Tree” we’re going to explore the family tree found in Matt. 1 and in Luke 3.

There are five things you need to know about genealogies like these.[1]

1. First, genealogies were common in ancient biographies.  Ancient biographers often began by writing about the birth and ancestors of the one who was the focus of their biography.  Matthew begins his biography of Jesus with this genealogy and then he tells the story of Jesus’ birth.
2. Second, genealogies were common among priest’s families. Some genealogies of Jewish priests were preserved in the Temple.  Those of upper-class priests traced back to the pre-exilic period.  That is, they could trace their family tree back beyond the time when Israel was exiled to Babylon.
3. Third, genealogies were used to determine rights to royalty and inheritance.  A genealogy could qualify or disqualify a son to be the next in line for the throne.  In a similar way, genealogies were used to determine if a member of a family had any inheritance rights.
4. Fourth, genealogies could be used to prove the racial purity of a family or an individual.  This was especially true of Jews.  Their genealogies were used to show that their bloodlines were pure and contained no Gentile blood.
5. Fifth, genealogies were testimonies to God’s providence.  Jewish people believed God was at work bringing these husbands and wives together and blessing them with children.  Thus genealogies served as a testimony of God’s providence in a family’s life.

And this is where Matthew’s genealogy fits.  Matthew’s list of names is actually a testimony of God’s work in the world.  It’s one of the most powerful testimonies of God’s work in the Old Testament.

And Matthew shows this divine work as a kind of two-sun solar system.  His genealogy of Jesus and thus is overview of Old Testament history centers on two individuals.  The first sun in Matthew’s Old Testament solar system is Abraham.  Notice how Matthew begins:  ¹The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. (Matt. 1:1 ESV).

For Matthew, the place to begin thinking about Jesus is Abraham.  The place to begin watching God’s work is Abraham.  The place to begin understanding the Old Testament is Abraham.  Why?

There’s something very fundamental that answers this question.  When my children were younger, Kendra and I read an important book to them.  The book was authored by John Trent.  It was called I’d Choose You.  The book described a young elephant named Norbert who had a pretty tough day.  He had to sit all by himself on the roller coaster to school while all his friends sat with each other.  And the day went downhill from there.  But when Norbert got home from school, his mother and father “blessed” him.  The book is based on the Old Testament concept of blessing.  The author examined Old Testament references to blessing and found that there were five aspects of blessing.  First, there was the giving of meaningful and appropriate touch.  Thus in the story Norbert is hugged by his parents after his hard day.  Second, there was the speaking of words of affirmation.  Thus, in the story Norbert elephant is cheered vocally by his parents.  Third, there is the expressing of high value.  Thus in the story Norbert receives a “You’re Someone Special” medal from his parents.  Fourth, there is the picturing of a special future.  Thus Norbert’s parents help him see that tomorrow will be better.  Finally, there is the commitment to continue to bless.  And by the end of the story we realize Norbert’s parents will bless him the rest of their lives.  The book is really about how we all long for blessing.

As Harold Shank shared with us a few months ago, many of us have never been blessed in this way.  Harold said that as a professor at Oklahoma Christian University he would often devote part of a class to talking about the Old Testament idea of blessing.  Then he would bless the students by telling them how valuable they were to God, what a special future God had for them, and how God would stick with them no matter what.  And students would cry, because they’d never been blessed like that before.

That blessing is what Matthew has in mind by mentioning Abraham as one of the center points of the Old Testament and of Jesus’ family tree.  The story of Abraham is the story of a promise.  It’s a promise of blessing: “I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.  I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” (Gen. 12:2-3 ESV).  For Matthew, the entire story of the Old Testament revolves around a promise of blessing.  God wants to bless every person in every nation.  He wants to demonstrate how valuable we are to him.  He wants to affirm the worth of all of us.  He wants to express what a special future he has for us.  And he promises to do this through Abraham’s descendants.

That’s a sun around which the entire Old Testament revolves.  That’s a sun around which the story of Jesus revolves.  Its message is this: God wants to bless you.  You are valuable to God.  You are worth a great deal to God.  God has a special future for you.

But for Matthew, there is another person who is central in the genealogy and thus central to the Old Testament.  The second sun is David. Matthew traces the lineage from Abraham to David.  And he summarizes the genealogy in verse 1 by saying that this is “the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.”  For Matthew, everything you need to know about Jesus’ family tree and thus the Old Testament is in this one phrase: “the son of David, the son of Abraham.”

Matthew also draws attention to David at the end of the genealogy: ¹⁷So all the generations from Abraham to David were fourteen generations, and from David to the deportation to Babylon fourteen generations, and from the deportation to Babylon to the Christ fourteen generations. (Matt. 1:17 ESV)  Matthew uses the number 14 to point to David.[2] In Hebrew, the language of the Old Testament, it was possible to assign numerical values to letters.  And the numerical value of the letters in David’s Hebrew name is 14.  The number 14 was Matthew’s way of saying that every person in Jesus’ genealogy points to David.  Every event in the Old Testament points to David.  But why?

This can be answered by recent events.  During the second week of November many sports fans were stunned when the Board of Regents of Penn State University fired the University President and famed football coach Joe Paterno.  The cuts came after the arrest of former defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky on molestation charges.  Board members felt that that the University President and football coach did not do enough to stop Sandusky’s misbehavior.  Around the same time we heard news of Greece’s Prime Minister George Papandreou stepping down due to his inability to overcome Greece’s financial turmoil.  Days later Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi promised to resign over similar difficulties.  We are living through a period of leadership failure.  Leaders are falling.  People all over the world are longing for leaders who will put the people first, lead with integrity, and usher in better times.

This longing for leadership is central to the story of David.  Like the story of Abraham, the story of David in the Old Testament is the story of a promise.  It is the promise of leadership.  God swears to David in 2 Sam., ¹² When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom.¹³ He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever (2 Sam. 7:12-13 ESV).  Later Isaiah would say this about David’s heir: Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore (Is. 9:7 ESV).  The story of David is the story of a promise of leadership.  A promise of a leader who has the ability to create peace and righteousness and justice.  A leader who never abuses power and who always thinks of his people.  This promise will be fulfilled through David’s descendants.

The story of the Old Testament is that through David, God promises to bring a leader into your life, into the life of every person, who leads in a right way.  A leader who will bring you justice and righteousness.  A leader who will bring peace to your heart and to our world.

For Matthew, these are the two promises around which the entire Old Testament revolves: a promise of blessing and promise of leadership.

And these two promises, according to Matthew, are fulfilled through Jesus’ birth.  That’s one of the points of Matthew’s genealogy.  Because his family line goes back to David and to Abraham, infant Jesus is the one who fulfills both the promise to Abraham and the promise to David.  Through infant Jesus comes the blessing that every person longs for.  Through infant Jesus comes a leader with the justice and righteous and peace we hope for.  Through Jesus’ birth, God is saying to you, “You are valuable to me.  You have worth to me.  I have a special future for you.”  Through Jesus’ birth, God is saying to you, “My son can lead you.  My son can rule with integrity.  My son can provide what no other ruler can.”

For Matthew, Jesus is now the true sun of the solar system of our lives. Ultimately Abraham and David merely pointed to their great-great-great-great grandchild Jesus.  Jesus is now the sun around which the entire Bible revolves; around which the entire cosmos revolves.

Matthew even uses special language to make this point.  In vs. 1 Matthew literally writes “the book of the genesis of Jesus Christ.”  The word “genesis” ought to swing our minds back to the book of Genesis.  There, a new world began.  Something fresh was started.  A new sun rose bringing with it hope and life.  Matthew is saying that the birth of Jesus is something similar.  It is another genesis.  It is a sun rising bringing with it hope and life.  Bringing blessing and leadership.

But let me point out one more aspect of this genealogy.  The genealogy is made of three blocks of 14 names.  The first 14 names move from Abraham to David.  There’s a kind of upward movement as they climax with King David.  But the next 14 names move downward.  They take us from the golden days of King David to the dark days when the Jewish people were exiled to Babylon.  It was the lowest moment in Jewish history.  The final 14 names then move upward from the exile in Babylon to the birth of Jesus.[3]

Consider this movement.  It means that the people of God suffered years of exile when it appeared that the sun had set on God’s promise to Abraham and to David.  In exile, their spiritual universe no longer had any sun.  When the Babylonians came, they demolished Jerusalem and dragged the people away to a foreign country.  Stranded there in exile, the people felt they no longer had value in God’s eyes.  They no longer mattered to God.  They no longer had a special future with God.  They no longer had a leader in whom they could trust.  A leader who would make the wrong things right.  When the exile began, their hope in the promises to Abraham and David ended.  In the darkness of the exile, it seemed the sun had set on the promise of blessing and leadership.

And aren’t there times when it seems that sun has set in our own world?  Brishan, Candice and I met with Jon Arnett a few weeks ago.  Jon oversees the Sightseer class for those who want to learn more about Highland.  As we sat down to discuss the class, Jon shared that another round of cuts had just gone through the corporation he works for.  Hundreds were being let go.  Hundreds of more cuts were to follow.  And we felt for those affected.  To lose a job, especially during the holidays, is so hard.  I have no doubt that some of them felt a kind of cold blackness, as if the sun had set.

For some of us the holidays are not the most wonderful time of the year.  They are the most difficult time of the year.  Because of death, sickness, loneliness, or financial loss, it feels as if the sun has set on the promises of God.  And we wonder if God is really going to come through.

But notice that in Matthew’s genealogy, while there is downward movement, there is also eventually upward movement.  Eventually the exile ends and Jesus is born.  Eventually God’s promises of blessing and leadership are fulfilled through Jesus’ birth.  And what Matthew wants us to know through that movement is that the sun has not set on God’s promises to us through Jesus.  For Matthew, Christmas is about the fact that eventually, hope always wins.  Eventually, God’s promises are always kept.  Eventually, divine blessing and leadership always arrive.  It may not come in the time we anticipated.  It may not come in the form we imagine.  In fact it may show up as a baby lying in a manger.  But eventually, the sun always rises.  God’s promises are always kept.

So as you celebrate with trees and presents and meals this Christmas, pay special attention to the lights.  Let the lights remind you of the sun.  Let the lights remind you that everything in your life revolves around that sun of Jesus Christ and its certainty.  And though you may have experiences that gnaw at your soul, making you wonder if God is there, if God does care, if you do have worth in his sight, and if there is any leader out there worth following, remember the sun of Jesus Christ.  No matter the darkness, that sun eventually rises.  All the promises and hopes pinned to Jesus Christ will come true.  God will come through for you in the end.

[2] Frederick Dale Bruner Matthew: A Commentary Volume 1 (Word, 1987), 20.

[3] Bruner, 4.

Occupy Wall Street is a series of demonstrations in New York City and elsewhere.[1] The participants are protesting social and economic inequalities which they believe are the result of corporate greed.  Their slogan is “We are the 99%.”   It refers to the claim that the top 1% in America controls about 40% of the wealth.  The rest of the wealth is distributed among the 99%.  Protestors claim that while unemployment is at one of its highest levels since the Depression, corporate profits are also at one of their highest levels.  Protestors believe that Corporate America, the 1%, is mishandling money and thus harming the 99%–the rest of America.

In 1 Tim. 6 Paul engages in his own kind of protest.  Only this one isn’t Occupy Wall Street.  This one is Occupy the Local Church.  And Paul isn’t protesting corporate consumerism or management mishandling of money.  Paul’s protesting Christian consumerism and congregational corruption regarding money.  Paul is protesting the way that the church is handling its own wealth.

Today is our third Sunday listening to Paul’s teaching in 1 Tim. 6.  This chapter is part of three letters—1^st and 2^nd Timothy and Titus.  In these three letters Paul writes about “soundness.”  As we’ve learned, the word “sound” literally means “healthy.”  Paul writes so vigorously about Christian soundness and health in these three letters because he fears the churches being led by Timothy and Titus are becoming unsound and unhealthy.  And one of the greatest threats to the health of these churches is their wealth.  Repeatedly in these three letters Paul writes about money and wealth.  Last Sunday we listened as Paul pointed out the painful consequences of a life spent craving cash.  And we listened as Paul illustrated the gainful consequences that come from a life of contentment and the generosity which flows from contentment.  Two Sundays ago we listened as Paul pointed us to a God who is invincible, immortal, inaccessible, and invisible.  And Paul called us to use wealth in ways that bring honor to that God and spread the rule or dominion of that God.  Paul is writing so powerfully about possessions because he finds that too many Christians and churches are behaving like the rest of the culture.  1 Tim. 6 is his protest against Christians who desire dollars, crave cash and are preoccupied with possessions.

I’ve mentioned that Paul’s teaching in 1 Tim. 6 comes in three sections.  We’ve explored section 1 and section 2.  This morning, we move to section 3.  It begins in vs. 17.  And as we listen to vs. 17, we can imagine Paul holding up two charts to illustrate why he’s opposing our preoccupation with possessions.  The first chart Paul holds up measures our perceived self-worth and our actual net-worth.  That is, Paul finds that we often measure self-worth by our net-worth. On the chart, as net-worth increases, so does our sense of self-worth.  And Paul protests this tendency in vs. 17: As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty. Let’s not dismiss this verse because it is addressed to “the rich.”  We may be tempted to think, “That doesn’t apply to me.  I’m not ‘the rich’.”  But, as we saw two Sundays ago, many of us are in the top 1% of the world.  In global terms, most of us are “the rich.”  This verse is directed toward us.  And Paul knows what happens when we have wealth.  We tend to feel better about ourselves.  We tend to think more highly of ourselves.  Paul’s word “haughty” is literally “high minded.”  The more income we have, the more highly we think of ourselves.  After all, what happens to your self-esteem when you get the chance to drive a very nice car, or wear a very fine coat, or get to purchase the latest gadget, or get to wear the most fashionable clothes?  Don’t you feel good about yourself?  Don’t you suddenly hold your head higher?  We tend to measure our self-worth by our net-worth.  In fact, we do this so much that we become haughty—we look down on those who do not have what we have.  Paul protests this.

But Paul has one other gripe against us.  He points to another chart.  The second chart measures perceived security as a function of actual property.  Paul finds that we often measure security by our property. The more property we own, the more secure we feel.  The greater our cash assets, the greater our confidence in our security. Paul puts it this way in vs. 17: nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches. We rich people tend to do just that—we set our hopes on riches.  To set your hope on something is to put your weight on it.  It is to find your security in it.  Those of us who have wealth tend to measure our security by it.  That’s one reason why these current financial times are so stressful.  As many people find their property and possessions decreasing, they also find their hope and security decreasing.  Paul knows that we who have a certain level of resources tend to measure our security by our property.  We set our hopes on riches.  Paul protests this.

But Paul is here not simply to protest.  Paul has a solution for the spiritual disease which is caused by prioritizing money.  Here is the solution: ¹⁷As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. ¹⁸They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, ¹⁹thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life. (1 Tim. 6:17-19 ESV)

Notice what Paul does here.  As he did in section 2, Paul gets our eyes off of our goods and onto our God.  Listen again to what Paul writes about God: God…richly provides us with everything to enjoy. The key word is “richly.”  This whole text is about riches and the rich.  In vs. 17, Paul addresses “the rich.”  He warns against the uncertainty of “riches.”  He describes God as one who “richly provides.”  In vs. 18 he calls us to be “rich” in good works.  The whole text is a commentary on the upside and the downside of riches.  And notice how Paul describes God.  God, Paul writes, is rich.  God could not “richly” provide if he were not first of all “rich.”  And that’s why, as I’ve pointed out repeatedly in this series, Paul does not have a problem with riches.  God is rich.  The issue is what we do with our riches.

And notice what God does with his riches: God richly provides us with everything to enjoy. Here’s another way of saying this: God decreases his possessions in order to increase our pleasure.  When it comes to his riches, God does not think solely of himself.  He thinks of us.  And what he most wants is for us to have joy, to enjoy, to have pleasure.  God richly provides us with everything to enjoy. Consider that.  God richly provides us with everything to enjoy. Too many people think that what God wants is for us to be miserable.  God wants us to be unhappy.  God wants us to be guilt-ridden.  But that’s wrong.  God wants us to enjoy, to have joy, to have pleasure.  And how does God bring that about?  He gives his riches away.  It’s that simple.  God gives his riches away.  He richly provides us with everything so that we can have joy and pleasure.  God decreases his possessions in order to increase our pleasure.  God takes things that belong to him and gives them away to us so that we might have joy and pleasure in life.

Consider how God has done this very thing for you.  Think about all the ways God has richly provided for you and how that rich provision brings you joy and pleasure.  Some of you might think of the rich provision of your children.  Some of you might think of the rich provision of your job.  Some of you might think of the rich provision of your close friends.  Some of you might think of the rich provision of this congregation.  Some of you might think of the rich provision of the talents and abilities God has given you.  The more you think about it, the more you realize just how much God has richly provided and thus how pleasurable your life really is.

In fact, let’s do some quick brainstorming.  How would you finish this sentence? “God has richly provided me _______________.”   Shout your answer out loud…

We could keep this going for several minutes.  The more you think about it, the more God comes across as very generous, doesn’t he?  God’s been more than abundant with his possessions.  He’s gone out of his way to decrease his possessions in order to increase our pleasure.

What Paul’s doing here is inspiring us with the example of someone who, like many of us, possesses a great deal of resources, but who, like few of us, is outrageously generous with them.  Paul’s trying to stir within us a deep conviction by pointing us to someone who lives a fundamentally different kind of life when it comes to riches.  Because the more we see outrageous generosity, the more inspired we are to imitate it.  And no one more generous with his riches than God.

Timothy Keller writes, “Some years ago I was doing a seven-part series of talks on the Seven Deadly Sins at a men’s breakfast. My wife, Kathy, told me, “I’ll bet that the week you deal with greed will be the lowest attendance.” She was right. People packed it out for “Lust” and “Wrath” and even for “Pride.” But nobody thinks they are greedy.  As a pastor I’ve had people come to me and confess that they struggle with almost every kind of sin. Almost. I cannot recall anyone ever coming to me and saying, “I spend too much money on myself. I think my greedy lust for money is harming my family, my soul, and people around me.” Greed hides itself from the victim...”[2] That’s why Paul points to God.  It’s only in the light of God’s outrageous generosity that we can see the darkness of our lack of generosity.  It’s only then that we can own up to the fact that we do measure our self-worth by our net-worth and we do tie our security to our property.  It’s only then that we can truly consider a different way of living and giving—God’s way.

Because, as Paul continues, what God does with his riches, we are to do with ours.  God calls us to decrease our possessions in order to increase others’ pleasure.  Listen again to Paul’s words: ¹⁷As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. ¹⁸They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, ¹⁹thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life. (1 Tim. 6:17-19 ESV)  Paul says one thing in different ways: Do Good; Be Rich in Good Works; Be Generous; Be Ready to Share.  Paul’s pointed us to a God who richly provides, a God who decreases his possessions to increase our pleasure.  And now God’s calling us to do the same: do good, be rich in good works, be generous, and be ready to share.  God calls us to decrease our possessions in order to increase others’ pleasure.

And once we truly realize how generous God has been with his riches, we will want to be generous with ours.  Even if all we have is a little.  In the book God So Loved, He Gave, Justin Borger shares a story about a homeless woman named Tammy.[3] Tammy lived under a bridge in downtown Chattanooga, Tennessee.  After providing Tammy some basic hygiene supplies, Justin didn’t hear from her for a few weeks—until she called and said that she had been raped.  After Justin brought her to the hospital, Tammy started attending the church where he preached.  The church started providing vouchers so Tammy could buy food and other items.  But Justin said that Tammy kept giving the vouchers to other people.  He told her, “Tammy, you need to keep this for yourself. Otherwise you’ll run out of food.” But living under the bridge meant living with other needy people, and she couldn’t fathom keeping these gifts to herself.  So she asked Justin, “Why can’t I give some too?”  He writes: I found myself taken aback. Why shouldn’t Tammy be allowed to give some of what she’d received? Wasn’t that exactly what I was doing?.. When we are touched by generosity, we naturally want to imitate it.  And the more we understand how we’ve been touched by God’s generosity, the more we want to imitate it.  Just like God, we’ll want to decrease our own possessions—even if they are very limited—so that we can bring pleasure to others.

And there’s never been an easier way to do this very thing than there is today.  Today we support 19 ministries through our Special Contribution for World and Urban Missions.  Each of these ministries brings great joy and pleasure to others.  Young professionals in Kiev meet Jesus through the UEC.  Children in Bacolod, Philippines gain an education for life at the Shiloh Christian School led by the Luthers.  Orphan after orphan is nurtured and loved by the ministries of the four children’s homes we support.  Agape, FIT, and the Powerlines network brings help and hope to the poor in Memphis.  HopeWorks transforms the lives of the unemployed.  The joy just goes on and on and on.  And in order for us to bring pleasure to others through those ministries, we’ve got to decrease our possessions.  We’ve got to give $174,000 today.  This is just part of the over $300,000 we’ve pledged to these ministries this year.  We’ll need to dig deep.  We’ll need to richly provide.  But in the end, we’re only doing for others what our Father has already done for us.

We’re going to pass the contribution plates just one time right now.  As God has richly provided, so use this opportunity to richly provide for others.

[2] Timothy Keller, Counterfeit Gods (Dutton, 2009), 5.

[3] Kelly M. Kapic, God So Loved, He Gave (Zondervan, 2010), 147-148.

We live in a culture characterized by craving.  In his book Things Unseen, Mark Buchanan writes about this: I saw this close-up … when my children first got to that age when the essence of Christmas becomes The Day of Getting. There were mounds of gifts beneath our tree, and our son led the way in that favorite childhood (and, more subtly, adult) game, How Many Are for Me? But the telling moment came Christmas morning when the gifts were handed out. The children ripped through them, shredding and scattering the wrappings like jungle plants before a well-wielded machete…When the ransacking was finished, my son, standing amid a tumultuous sea of boxes and bright crumpled paper and exotic trappings, asked plaintively, “Is this all there is?“[1]

Our children, and many of us, are instilled with a craving for more.  A craving that leads us to ask, the face of our great wealth, “Is this all there is?”  Indeed, we live in a culture in which the desire for dollars is dominant and the trend towards consumerism is all-consuming.  For example, a recent hit song by Travie McCoy and Bruno Mars reflects what we might call our “national anthem of affluence”: I wanna be a billionaire…; I wanna be on the cover of Forbes magazine; smiling next to Oprah and the Queen; Oh every time I close my eyes; I see my name in shining lights; A different city every night; I swear the world better prepare; for when I’m a billionaire.”

This craving is something Paul addresses in his first letter to Timothy.  For three Sundays we are exploring Paul’s teaching in 1 Tim. 6.  It is part of three letters called “the pastoral letters.”  In these letters—1 and 2 Timothy and Titus—Paul’s primary concern is the soundness or health of the churches.  A dominant word in all three letters is the word “sound.”  It literally means “healthy.”  Paul writes so much about soundness or health because these churches are in danger of becoming unsound or unhealthy.  And while many things are contributing to their lack of spiritual health, one of the major things is their wealth or at least their craving for wealth.  Paul fears that the wealth of the church has become one of the greatest threats to the health of the church.  Paul’s learned that this craving is not just infecting the culture.  It’s now infecting the church.

Last Sunday we listened to Paul’s words in the middle of 1 Tim. 6.  There Paul taught that the way we glimpse our God radically affects the way we govern our goods.  Paul called us to use our wealth in ways that showed honor to God and in ways that expressed God’s rule or dominion over our lives.

This morning we look at the first section in 1 Tim. 6: ²Teach and urge these things. ³If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness, ⁴ he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words, which produce envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions, ⁵and constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth, imagining that godliness is a means of gain. ⁶Now there is great gain in godliness with contentment, ⁷for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. ⁸But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. ⁹But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. ¹⁰For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs. (1 Tim. 6:2b-11 ESV)

According to vs. 3, Paul finds that there’s an unsound teaching, a diseased dispatch, making its way through this church.  And what is that message?  Part of it has to do with craving.  Paul writes to Christians characterized by craving.

• These sickly teachers, according to v. 5, believe “that godliness is a means of gain.”  They follow Jesus because they hope he will bring them health and wealth.
• They “desire to be rich” according to vs. 9.
• They are filled with a “love of money” according to vs. 10.
• They have been infected, Paul suggests in v. 10, with a “craving” for more.

Paul writes to Christians characterized by craving and preoccupied with possessions.

And notice Paul’s antidote to this craving.  The cure is something Paul calls “contentment.”  He writes, “⁶Now there is great gain in godliness with contentment, ⁷for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. ⁸But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content.”  Paul contrasts the craving running rampant through this church with contentment that is so absent in the church.

And with this demanding text Paul is laying before us challenging choice.  He is saying that the primary choice facing Christians is a choice between craving and contentment. Will we pursue a life of financial craving or a life of financial contentment?  Will we be just like the rest of our culture?  Or will we stand out as different and unique?  Will we be the people who ask “Is this all there is?”  Or will we be the ones who say, “Look at all there is!”  One leads to sickness, the other to satisfaction.

To help us make the right choice between craving and contentment, Paul lays out the consequences of both.  First, Paul shows that craving leads to pain.  Listen again to Paul’s words about financial craving: ⁹But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. ¹⁰For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.

Paul uses three images to illustrate the pain which a life of craving will lead to.  First, he uses the image of a trap: “But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare…” This language reminds me of the snares which hunters would spread in the mountains where I grew up.  An animal would look down a well-travelled path.  The path would appear safe.  But then the animal would take a step.  And its paw would hit the trigger of a snare and the jaws of the trap would snap shut—often breaking the animal’s leg.  Paul says that will happen to us if we pursue our cravings for more and more.  The love of money is a trap.

Second, Paul uses the image of a root: “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.”  Notice, by the way, that Paul does not say, “For money is a root of all kinds of evil.”  Paul does not have a problem with money.  It’s the love of money, the craving for cash, which is so dangerous.  And that can be an issue for the poor and the wealthy.  He calls this love a “root.”  When I was young my mother used to pay me to pick dandelions out of our yard.  She wanted those weeds gone.  I’d get a nickel for each one I picked.  Within a few minutes, I could pick a dozen—but only if I left the roots.  I didn’t really care about the dandelion roots.  They took too much time to dig out.  I just cared about the stem and the flower which I could grab in seconds.  So I’d leave the roots.  And because of that the dandelions would grow right back.  And because I left those tiny roots, eventually the dandelions took over our yard.  Paul says the love of money is like that.  It may appear very small and not worth your time.  But leave it in the soil of your heart and eventually it takes over your life.

Third, Paul uses the image of wandering: “It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.”  I remember a time when my twin brother and I were in elementary school.  One Saturday we got on our dirk bikes and pedaled deep into the forest.  We kept pedaling and pedaling.  We had no particular direction.  We just wandered through the woods.  After about an hour we stopped.  And we realized we were lost.  That harmless winding wandering had led us to a dangerous place.  Paul says craving more does the same thing.  It leads you to a place in life where you are lost.

All three images have some common ground.  They are all objects which have an unassuming appearance.  The trail on which the trap lies appears normal.  The root appears insignificant.  The wandering path appears safe.  They all have an unassuming appearance.  But they are also all objects with unexpected power.  The trap suddenly snaps shut and endangers your life.  The root slowly grows into something that takes over.  And the wandering path can lead you places you never wanted to be.

That, Paul says is what happens with craving.  The desire for dollars and the craving for cash and the preoccupation with possessions have an unassuming appearance.  They seem normal.  They seem insignificant.  But they have an unexpected power.  There will come a time when that craving will snap shut and endanger your life.  There will come a time when that craving will take over your world.  There will come a time when that path leads you to places you never imagined you’d be.  Craving will only lead to pain.

The cure, according to Paul, is contentment.  Craving leads to pain.  But contentment leads to gain. Paul puts it this way: ⁶Now there is great gain in godliness with contentment, ⁷for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. ⁸But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. There is great gain found in learning to be content with what you have and not rashly pursuing more.  What is that gain?  Here, Paul says the gain is that contentment allows you to deal with a fundamental reality.  The reality, Paul says, is that our time in the world is temporary and while we will live beyond this world, our possessions will not.  Contentment is the only posture that allows us to live in peace with that reality.  Our time in this world is temporary and while we will live beyond this world, our possessions will not.  Thus, if we are content with what we have, we can learn to use possessions in good ways in the temporary time we have.  We can use goods and resources to bless others.  We know we can’t take them with us when we’re gone, so we may as well use what we can to help others.

For her 9th birthday last June, Rachel Beckwith told people that instead of giving her presents, she’d like them to donate to a charity providing clean water to families in developing nations.  On her fundraising page, Rachel explained her goal: “On June 12th 2011, I’m turning 9. I found out that millions of people don’t live to see their 5th birthday. And why? Because they didn’t have access to clean, safe water so I’m celebrating my birthday like never before…I’m asking from everyone I know to donate to my campaign instead of gifts for my birthday.”  Content with what she already had, she asked people to use their goods to help her raise $300 for this charity.  In the end, she raised only $220.  But, she figured she’d try to raise the rest later.  She was only 9 after all.  She had lots of time to raise the rest.  But there would be no more time.  Days after her birthday, Rachel was involved in a car accident that took her life.  Rachel had only 9 years on this planet.  She had such a short time to put resources to work.  But because she was content with what she already had, she was able to start something that soon took on a life of its own.  Listen to what happened next: Several weeks ago Russ Turman, Brishan Hatcher and I were at a conference at which Rachel’s mother was present.  The mother and the conference hosts told Rachel’s story.  And at this conference, they revealed the final amount that had been donated as a result of Rachel’s birthday wish: Because Rachel was content with what she already had, she was able to give her birthday gifts for this charity.  And her example inspired nearly 32,000 people to donate.  Her generosity inspired over $1.2 million in giving.  As a result, over 63,000 people were given access to clean water.  At the conference we attended, the organizers surprised Rachel’s mother by telling her they were going to pay for her to travel to Africa to see every well dug by Rachel’s birthday wish.

Can you see the gain that comes through contentment?  Had Rachel bought into the craving so rampant in our culture, she would have used her short time in this world simply to amass all she could for herself.  And no one but her would have benefited.  But her contentment freed her from this craving.  And it lead to tremendous gain—63,000 people receiving clean water.  Contentment’s gain is that it allows you to leverage the time you have and the possessions you have for the greatest good in the world.

And a little contentment on our part will free our hands next Sunday, December 4, and make great gain possible.  If we’ll just deny the craving of our culture and instead imitate the contentment of this nine-year-old, we too can give generously and see great gain.  Next Sunday we have the opportunity to give $174,000 to our World and Urban Missions.  And just look at the gain that can come through the generosity made possible by our contentment…This is part of the great gain that comes by denying the craving and living in contentment.  Only contentment makes possible the generosity which fuels these ministries.

Let’s stand for a moment.   I want to lead us in a moment of prayer.  “Father, we want to take just a few seconds right now to bring to mind all we have.  We are so rich, Father.  We are so blessed, Father.  Help us right now, in these few seconds, to bring to mind all the immense wealth we have—finances, family, friends, and other goods and resources; all the things for which we’ve given thanks this week…And now Father, we pray that through your Holy Spirit who dwells within us, you will fill us with contentment.  Put to death the craving in our hearts that leads us to look at all you’ve given us and ask, “Is this all there is?”  Instead, bring to life a contentment in our hearts that looks at all you’ve given us and says, “Look at all there is!”  And with contentment filling our hearts, lead us in seven days to give $174,000 towards our World and Urban Missions.  And lead us in weeks and months to come, to grow more and more content and thus more and more generous.  We pray in the name of Jesus, the one in whom our contentment lies.  Amen.”

Under Attack

Israeli intelligence analyst Ronen Bergman writes of a time in 1962.  Egyptian leaders announced the successful test of missiles that gave Egypt the ability to target and destroy Israel.[1] Israeli military intelligence learned of a secret facility in the Egyptian desert—Factory 333.  This factory was staffed by German scientists hired by Egypt.  The scientists were building build 900 missiles—all pointed at Israel.

In response to this threat, the Israeli’s devised a fear campaign.  They hoped to frighten the German scientists at Factory 333 into quitting.  Thus, Israeli assassins were sent to take out a few key scientists.  The assassins, however, were to make it clear that Israel was behind the killing.  Israel wanted everyone to know that they had assassinated the scientists.  The hope was that when the other Factory 333 scientists heard of an assignation of one of their own by Israel, they would conclude that they might be next.  And, Israel hoped, all the scientists would eventually quit out of fear for their lives.

The plan worked.  Factory 333 scientists realized that an attack on just one of them could turn into an attack on all of them.  They rightly concluded that they might be next.  Thus, when West Germany offered the scientists jobs elsewhere, nearly all accepted the offer.  Egypt’s Factory 333 was left without the means to complete its plot against Israel.

Something similar motivates part of Jesus’ prayer in John 17.  Jesus’ prayer, especially in John 17:6-18, is driven by the reality of a threat.  Jesus speaks about the way the world has responded to him and his followers: “…the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world…They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world” (Jn. 17:14,16 ESV).

Jesus’ prayer takes place in the context of hatred and threats.

We see this in the way Jesus begins the prayer in v. 1 with “Father, the hour has come.”  This “hour” refers to the hour of Jesus’ death.  Jesus’ prayer in John 17 is prompted by the reality that there were human enemies who hated Jesus and who were ready to assassinate Jesus.

But Jesus thinks not only of immanent threats from the world.  In v. 15 he talks to God about “the evil one.”  Not only do some hating humans have Jesus in their sights.  The Devil himself has Jesus in his sights.  Jesus knows that he’s the target of a human and demonic assassination plot.

But Jesus also recognizes that the enemy threatening him will also threaten his disciples.  The attack against Jesus by these humans and by the evil one will turn into an attack on all of Jesus’ followers.  No doubt the Enemy hopes to frighten off the Christians with this attack against the Christ.  No doubt these enemies hope Jesus’ followers will conclude that they are next—and then they will run and quit.

And that’s why Jesus does something unusual in this prayer.  Jesus is the one facing the most immanent attack.  He’s the one that will be the first to be assassinated.  Thus, we might expect Jesus’ prayer to focus exclusively on his pain and his need.  Isn’t that what we do when we go through tough times?  When we lose a job, or we have a health issue, or we struggle in a relationship, or we suffer the death of a loved one, our prayers almost always turn inward.  We pray solely for ourselves.  And Jesus does this in other prayers of his.

But in this prayer, Jesus models something different.  Jesus shows us that even when our lives are endangered, we must continue to pray for others.  Because the pain we are experiencing, others are also experiencing or may soon experience.  While none of us would blame Jesus if every word of this prayer was in first person singular (me, my, I), two-thirds of the prayer is third person plural (they, theirs, them). When we come to times of pain we tend to pray mainly for ourselves.  One thing Jesus teaches us in this prayer is to always, always, always pray for others.

“Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.” (John 17:11b-19 ESV)

Jesus prays for the disciples who will remain behind when he ascends to the Father.  He prays for the apprentices he’s invested in and trained.  Jesus begs the Holy Father to move heaven and earth to rescue those who now wear the name of Jesus.  Because just as Jesus is soon to be attacked, so they too will be attacked.  Thus even in the midst of his pain, Jesus turns his thoughts outward and prays for others.

Specifically, Jesus prays three things: “keep them in your name” (Jn. 17:11b ESV); “keep them from the evil one” (Jn. 17:15 ESV); and “Sanctify them” (Jn. 17:17 ESV).  As Jesus considers his followers and the foes they will face, he prays they will be kept in the Father’s presence, kept from the Devil’s power, and kept for their global purpose.

Thus, Jesus’ prayer in John 17 not only nudges us to be less self-absorbed when suffering and to keep praying for others.  It gives us three ways to keep praying for others even when we are the one suffering.  Sometimes it’s hard to pray for others because there is so much going wrong in our own lives.  But even when we are able to focus on others, we don’t always know what to pray.  Jesus gives us the framework for knowing what to pray for others.  Even when we are enduring pain, John 17 calls us to pray for others that that they would be kept in the Father’s presence, kept from the Devil’s power, and kept for their global purpose.

Kept in the Father’s Presence

First, Jesus teaches us to pray that others will be kept in the Father’s presence: “keep them in your name” (Jn. 17:11b ESV). The Father’s name is an important part of this prayer.  Jesus reminds God, “I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world” (Jn. 17:6 ESV).  He states “I kept them in your name” (Jn. 17:12 ESV) and “I made known to them your name” (Jn. 17:26 ESV).

In Scripture someone’s “name” communicates something central about their identity.  Names were chosen in the Bible because they indicated something about the individual.  They revealed a  person’s identity.  Thus to know a name was to know the essence of the person named.

In addition, a person’s name could carry the same authority as the presence of that individual.  To come “in the name” of a ruler or a king was to come with the same authority as if that ruler or king were present himself.  Jesus earlier stated that he came in the Father’s name (Jn. 5:43; 10:25)—that is, he came with the authority of the Father, as if the Father himself were present.

Thus when Jesus asks God to “keep them in your name” he is praying for God to keep others under God’s care and by God’s power.  He’s praying for God to be present with them, and to keep them close by him.  In a word, Jesus prays for God to keep them in his “presence.”  “Don’t let them out of your sight,” Jesus prays.  “Keep them close to your heart and hold them in your hands,” Jesus begs.

Earlier this year an 85 year old Catholic nun got stuck inside a broken elevator.[2] During a power outage the elevator she was in stopped between floors.  She wasn’t found until after spending four nights and three days in the dark.  Her cell phone was of no use—there was no signal available.  All she had was a water bottle, some celery sticks, and some cough drops.  Those nourished her for four nights and three days.

But she had something else.  She had the  presence of God.  A reporter for Time magazine wrote, “At first she said to herself, This can’t happen! But then she decided to turn her elevator into a personal prayer retreat. ‘It was either panic or pray,’ she later told an interviewer…  She started viewing the experience as a ‘gift.’ ‘I believe that God’s presence was my strength and my joy—really,’ she said. ‘I felt God’s presence almost immediately. I felt like he provided the opportunity for a closer relationship.”

Do you hear what she is saying?  Even four nights and three days in a dark elevator can be a glorious experience if you have the presence of God.  As long as you have the presence of God, it doesn’t matter what may be wrong in life.  As long as you have the presence of God, life is good.

That’s the essence of Jesus’ prayer.  Jesus knows that no matter what’s wrong in our lives, if we have the presence of God, we will be all right.  Thus, even though he is in pain, he prays for us—that we would be kept in the Father’s presence.

His example should encourage us to do the same.  No matter what else may be going on in our lives, we should pray for others to have this comforting and fulfilling presence of God.

Kept From the Devil’s Power

Second, Jesus teaches us to pray that others will be kept from the Devil’s power: “keep them from the evil one” (Jn. 17:15 ESV). Jesus’ prayer is guided by a kind of magnetic worldview.  One the one hand, Jesus believes in a Father to whom all should be drawn and in whom all should be kept.  On the other hand, Jesus believes in a Devil from whom all should be repelled and from whom all should be kept.  Jesus’ prayer has a push and a pull.  He asks that others will be pushed closer to the Father and pulled farther from the Devil.

Jesus believes in real evil which emanates from a real Devil.  And his concern now is that others need to be protected from that power—the same power that is now threatening him.  Jesus knows that he is not the lone figure at the center of the Devil’s target.  That bulls-eye is also filled with the name of every person wearing the name of Jesus.  It’s filled with your name.  This leads Jesus to pray passionately that we will all be kept from the Devil.

A few years ago The Atlantic Monthly ran a story about the guidelines followed by writers, editors, and illustrators who prepare textbooks and tests for K-12 students in the United States.[3] Among the words expressly forbidden by the guidelines were “Devil” and “Satan” (along with “God”!).  Children in the United States are fed a worldview which denies that the Devil is real.  Jesus prays from the opposite worldview.  His example calls us to do the same.

Mario Sepulveda, one of the thirty-three Chilean miners trapped underground for two months in 2010, commented to reporters: “I was with God, and I was with the Devil.  They fought, and God won.”[4] That’s the essence of Jesus’ prayer.  Jesus finds himself in a deep pit with God and with the Devil.  He finds himself locked in a supernatural battle.  But he realizes that he is not the only one impacted by the conflict.  All who follow Jesus are impacted as well.  All who follow Jesus are with God and with the Devil.  Thus Jesus prays not only that they will be kept in the Father, but that they will be kept from the Devil.

Jesus’ prayer urges to do the same.  If we are to follow in Jesus’ prayer-steps, we must learn to pray against the Devil for the sake of others.  We must learn to constantly lift up other people, even when we are in pain, and pray for the Holy Father to keep them from the evil one.

Kept for Their Global Purpose

Third, Jesus teaches us to pray that others will be kept for their global purpose: “Sanctify them” (John 17:17 ESV). Listen to the full prayer: “Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.  As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.  And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.”  Jesus is reflecting upon his mission and our mission.  Jesus is pondering how he’s been sent into the world to accomplish a greater purpose and how we are being sent into the world for a greater purpose.

In fact, in John 17 “sanctify” and “sent” are synonymous.  The word “sanctify” is literally “make holy.”  When applied to people and things, “make holy” refers to them being reserved for God and his use.[5] Thus Jesus has been sanctified.  He’s been reserved for God and his use in the world.  He’s been sent into the world for God’s purposes.  Now Jesus prays the same for others.  Just as Jesus was set apart for the purpose of being sent into the world, so now he prays for others to be set apart for the purpose of being sent into the world.  Jesus prays that they might fulfill their purpose in life.

And it is a purpose that is global in nature.  Listen to how much of Jesus’ prayer centers upon the world:

• “And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you (Jn. 17:11 ESV).”
• “But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves (Jn. 17:13 ESV).”
• “I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one (Jn. 17:15 ESV).”
• “As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world (Jn. 17:18 ESV).”
• “…that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me (Jn. 17:21 ESV).”
• “I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me (Jn. 17:23 ESV).”

The reality is that Jesus’ greatest concern in this prayer is not merely for us his followers—it is for the world.  The world does not exist for the sake of his followers.  Instead, Jesus’ followers exist for the sake of the world.

Jesus thus prays for his followers to remain sanctified—set apart for their global purpose of enabling others to know the Father and the Son.  He prays they would remain focused on the bigger picture—their mission to the world.  Jesus prays his followers will see beyond their next test, Friday’s game, their cubicle or classroom, their upcoming vacation or their new vocation.  He prays they will even look past their own pain.  Jesus prays they will be kept in the Father’s presence and from the Devil’s power so they can truly fulfill their global purpose.  He prays the Father will sanctify them.

And Jesus’ prayer encourages us to pray similarly.  One of our most important prayers to pray for others is that they would live out the purpose for which they were created.  It’s a prayer we’ve got to pray for our children—that they would grow and achieve the purpose for which God put them here.  It’s a prayer we’ve got to pray for our friends and neighbors—that they’d discover their part in the story and live it out.  It’s a prayer we’ve got to pray for this church—that we’d remain focused on our purpose in this world and not get distracted from it.

Above all, this prayer in John 17 urges to pray for others even when we are in pain. It demands that intercession be characteristic of our prayer lives even when we are suffering.  It reminds us that the dangers we face are faced by others.  And as much as we long for assistance in dealing with our own demons, Jesus’ prayer leads us to also pray about the demons confronting others.

In his book Traveling the Prayer Paths of Jesus John Indermark writes, “The act of being prayed for by another is an extraordinary gift.”[6] One of the greatest gifts you can give a person is to look him/her in the eye and say, “I am praying for you.”  And it is an even greater gift when it is offered by one who is in pain.  No one was deeper in a pit than Jesus when he prayed this remarkable prayer for us.  In the same way, the greatest give you can offer is to pray this prayer for others even when you are in your own pit.  Pray for others to be kept in the Father’s presence—and keep on praying even when you are in pain.  Pray for others to be kept from the Devi’s power—and keep on praying even when you are in pain.  And pray for others to be kept for their global purpose—and keep on praying even when you are in pain.

[2] Jenny Wilson, “Nun Stuck in Elevator Survives Four Nights on Celery Sticks, Water and Cough Drops,” Time.com (4-28-11)

[3] Diane Ravitch, “The Language Police,” The Atlantic Monthly (March 2003), 82-83.

[4] Perspectives 2010, Newsweek (Dec. 27, 2010/ Jan. 3, 2011), 18.

[5] D. A. Carson The Gospel According to John (IVP, 1991), 565.

[6] John Indermark, Traveling the Prayer Paths of Jesus (Upper Room Books, 2003): 93.