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Recent news has seen 3 prominent deaths: Ozzy Osborne, Hulk Hogan, and Dr. John MacArthur. A diverse group, but they do share some commonalities.

The first is that they were all born to Adam’s linage as sinners in the sight of God (Rom. 3:23). However far apart their earthly lives seemed, they were yet essentially the same. The second thing they share in common is they now stand before God and must give an account to the creator of the cosmos (2 Cor. 5:10).

But here commonality diverges. To our knowledge, Ozzy, whose songs often glorified the occult and the devil, did not possess faith in Christ. So when he stands before the judgment, he has nothing but his sinful deeds to present to God.

Hulk Hogan, known for his WWE career, professed Christ when young, wandered from the faith, but returned later in life. He had many scandals during the wandering, including sex tapes and racist remarks. Yet before God, he stands justified (Rom. 5). When he gives account, he points to Jesus’ work on the cross, where his sins have been atoned for (Heb. 9, Rev. 5, etc.)

Dr. MacArthur finished his race well. He never compromised and he was used by God for the proclamation of the gospel and the care of the sheep. Yet, just like Hulk Hogan, he stands before God (2 Cor. 5:8), not based on his works, but by the grace of Jesus Christ (Ephesians 2). Were he still here, he would no doubt rejoice greatly in the testimony of Hulk Hogan, and lament for Ozzy.

Saints, your faith is a great gift of God. Give thanks that on your judgement day, you stand, not upon your own righteousness like Ozzy, righteousness which does not exist, but upon the righteousness and grace of your great Savior and King, Jesus Christ, just like Hulk Hogan and John MacArthur. The miracle of Jesus atonement for sins is the reason Hulk Hogan and John MacArthur can share space in the same article, and even eternity together in the presence of God. So rejoice in the mercy of Jesus!

Some Christians might be tempted to think that the details Pastor Joe covered from Exodus 37 last Sunday are unnecessary for Christians today. After all, we don’t have Levites carrying around the ark and other furniture. Yet those articles are steeped in symbolism vital to our understanding of our faith and of Jesus.

For example, the ark had two hammered cherubim on top of it, looking down at the top, which was the mercy seat, or covering, or pure gold. From each end the cherubim are guarding the mercy seat between them, which was also Yahweh’s footstool. It’s where heaven and earth meet, and Yahweh rules from there.

When you get to Solomon’s temple, there are four cherubim in the Holy of Holies: the two on the ark, and two more with their wings spread across the whole room, over the ark. But why four guardian angels? Well, “thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” so when John goes into heaven in Revelation 4, how many guardian angels does he see around God’s throne? That’s right: four!

But it gets better! When Mary shows up at the tomb on Resurrection morning, what she sees (John 20:11ff) is two angels, “sitting where the body of Jesus had lain, one at the head and one at the feet.” So here’s a table/burial ledge, with angels on either end of where Jesus had lain. What’s that mean? Well, the two angels were guarding the mercy seat between them, with the tomb being a new “holy of holies.” Additionally, the mercy seat was now Jesus, the covering for our sins. Since the mercy seat is where Yahweh’s feet are set on earth, Jesus is now pictured as Yahweh in the flesh, the now resurrected ruler of the world! Heaven and earth meet in and through him!

Hopefully, our time in Revelation 11 last Sunday made things a little clearer to you. It’s a long chapter, but a great story of faithfulness and resurrection and victory. But to see it that way, we must interpret the book within itself and with the Scriptures. So let’s finish our interpretive keys started last week.

The fifth key is: Revelation is about the “tribulation times” and immediately afterwards, the last 3-3.5 years of the generation that Jesus mentions in Matthew 24, that runs from 30 to 70 AD (40 years).

Revelation picks up where Acts leaves off, and begins when the disciples see the “Abomination of Desolation” standing where he shouldn’t be (Matthew 24:15).

The sixth key is: The whole book is a worship service, a Lord’s Day, that gives you a front row seat on how worship is done in heaven. John tells you in 1:10 that he was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day, worshipping Jesus,

This service starts on earth, chapters 1-3.

It then goes into heaven, chapters 4-22:6

Then it is back on earth in 22:7ff, where people can wash their robes and enter the city that is the church and eat of the tree of life for healing. That’s our worship service! It starts on earth, goes into heaven, and then ends up on earth!

The seventh key is: Angels, who are Old Covenant mediators, are all over the book of Revelation and replaced as rulers by the saints in chapter 20:4ff. This tells you the book is about the transition from the Old Covenant to the New Covenant. See Matthew 13 parables and Galatians 3:19.

Since you got a little dose of Revelation last Sunday, and more today, I’m sure you’ll all revved up to read the book again and again until you’re comfortable in it! To get there, let’s review seven key interpretive “must do’s” as you read the book.

The first key is: Believe the text when it says, in chapters 1 and 22, that these “things must soon take place” and that the “time is near” and that it is a “blessing to the one who receives the book and reads and heeds it” back then. Believe Jesus when he says, “I am coming soon.”

The second key is: John sees himself in “the Tribulation” when he receives the revelation. (see 1:9) It is the same “the Tribulation” that Jesus spoke of when talking about the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple in the land of Israel in Matthew 24. John was there and listening at Jesus’ feet!

The third key is: When you see the word “earth” in the book change it to “land” in your mind or when you read it aloud. (try it on 7:1-3)

The fourth key is: Understand that the terms “Sodom” and “Egypt” and particularly “Babylon the Great” or “the great city” refer to and apply to Jerusalem and the people of Israel symbolically, and not those places geographically. Why? Because the Israel and Jerusalem of John’s day resemble those places because of their false worship and their spiritual adultery. An enlightening example is in 11:7-8, where John measures the Temple where the two witnesses prophesy. But they are killed, and their bodies lie in the street of the “great city” called Sodom and Egypt. What city? Jerusalem, “where their Lord was crucified.” (to be continued)

With Iran and Israel in the news lately, there’s been a lot of hoorah on how the U.S. must support Israel, especially amongst us evangelicals. The claim is that Israel, and the Jews specifically, are God’s people, Abraham’s sons, and whoever blesses them will be blessed, etc. So you hear phrases such as “Support Israel” or “pray for the peace of Jerusalem” (not that anybody is against praying for peace).

So the questions are: Who are God’s people today? And is it the Jews of today?

Let’s start with the last question. Jesus Christ was the last true Jew; all genealogies in the New Testament stop with him. Additionally, “for all the promises of God find their Yes in him” (2 Cor 1); Jesus is the fulfillment of all of God’s promises in the Scriptures (see Luke 24 and Hebrews 1:1-4). Also, the Apostle Paul says that beginning in his day, “there is neither Jew nor Greek…for you all are one in Jesus Christ” (Gal. 3:28). How is that? Because the mystery of God was fulfilled in Christ, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body (Eph. 3). Of what body? Of the Christian body, Jew and Gentile united as “one new man in the place of the two…”(Eph 2). So there is no future for the Jews in God’s word, with regards to them being his people, after the coming of Jesus.

So who are God’s people today? Well, Peter says the church is, using language that used to describe Israel in the Old Testament as now applying only to the church: “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession…once you were not God’s people, but now you are God’s people” (1 Peter 2:9-12). Paul does the same in 2 Cor. 6:14-7.1, applying old covenant promises of God to the church (7:1)!

When David exclaims in Psalm 139, “Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord,” some might claim that it could be a “one off” and David is just showing his surly side. Maybe he had just fled from King Saul or something. But the Psalm itself brings out the continuity of loving God AND hating his enemies.

The very first verse demonstrates that David knows God is with him and all around him at all times: “Oh, Lord, you have known me and searched me.” David cannot be seen as someone trying to hide his “bad side” to the Lord. That’s impossible, he says.

Then he exclaims, “Where shall I go from your Spirit, or where shall I flee from your presence?” David can’t hide anything from the Lord.

David then proclaims in verse 14, “Wonderful are your works, my soul knows it well.” And that’s all in the context of God’s intimate creational knowledge of David, even from the womb!

So when David says “how precious to me are your thoughts (17), and then cries out, “Oh that you would slay the wicked” and “Do I not hate those who hate you…I hate them with complete hatred,” David is not exhibiting any guilt or dissonance or bipolar disorder or schizophrenia! No! Loving the Lord and his nearness is quite at home with hating those who hate the wonderful Lord who is always present and makes wonderful creatures! In fact, being so close to such a great and holy Lord SHOULD lead you to hate his enemies! How can you not side with him who is Love against those who hate him?

“Hate” has gotten a bad rap in our culture lately. If you take a principled position on an issue, that’s considered hateful towards those on the opposite. Then there are “hate crimes,” where a person may voice his position against a group that is protected against such opinions. Hate crimes are usually added infractions on top of already evil, wicked, and hateful crimes such as murder or rape.

So Christians shy away from “hate” and try to remain nice and neutral. The only problem with that is our God is one who hates! David says of God in Psalm 5 “…you hate all evildoers…the LORD abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man.” In Amos 5:21 the LORD declares “I hate, I despise your feasts.” Even Jesus says to his church in Rev 2:6, “…you hate the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.”

Should we follow suit after our God? Of course! In that most famous of Psalms, 139, David exclaims, right after declaring God’s thoughts are precious to him, “…do I not hate those who hate you, O LORD?…I hate them with complete hatred; I count them my enemies.” In Psalm 119:113, he says “I hate the double-minded, but I love your law.” Or in Psalm 26:5, “I hate the assembly of evildoers, and I will not sit with the wicked.” Again, even Jesus said you must hate your family, and even your own life, if you want to be his disciple (Luke 14:26).

Quite shocking, I know, but all easily understood: Christians must take positions against the evil and wicked and side with their Lord. After all, Jesus is not afraid to hate the wicked — he’ll be banishing them to hell, forever, soon enough!

So think about this, and humbly, because I would really hate it if you don’t have a biblical notion of hate. And so would Jesus. He wants you clearly on his side.

Christians often exhibit a low self-esteem when talking about their own faithfulness. They don’t want to brag about holiness, which is fine. But often they are too reluctant to give God the glory and acknowledge what they have done by the power of the Spirit working within them. They have a hard time embracing Philippians 2:12 which says “…work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, knowing that God is at work in you…” They’ll praise the Lord but get really squeamy if you praise them for being faithful and conscientious in the salvation that was given to them.

Psalm 26:1 is a tough one: “Vindicate me, O LORD, for I have walked in my integrity, and I have trusted in the LORD without wavering.” We think, “David is being a little pompous here. Nobody trusts in the Lord without wavering.”

Psalm 7:8 is also tough: “…judge me, O LORD, according to my righteousness and according to the integrity that is in me.” My righteousness? My integrity?

Well, yes. If you are baptized in Christ, then you have been washed of your sins and clothed with Jesus, meaning the Holy Spirit also dwells in you to lead you in the ways and teachings and faithfulness of Jesus (Acts 2:38; 1 Cor. 6:11; Romans 6:3-4). That’s who you stand in, and from that standing you move out in obedience and trust and faithfulness in all you do. It’s that simple. It’s like Christian who was given new clothing when his burden rolled down the hill and also given God’s scroll to read and follow on his path to the Celestial City!

I think we always read passages with horror like “Let them be turned back and disappointed who devise evil against me” only to find out that these are David’s covenant friends: “I went about as though I grieved for my friend or my brother, as one who laments his mother” (Psalm 35:4, 14).

Or, “Fear and trembling come upon me, and horror overwhelms me. And I say, “Oh, that I had wings like a dove! I would fly away and be at rest…,” only to find out that it’s not an enemy, but it is “…my companion, my familiar friend. We used to take sweet counsel together, within God’s house we walked in the throng.” Yet David continues, “Let death steal over them; let them go down to Sheol alive; for evil is in their dwelling place and in their heart” (Psalm 55:5-6, 13b-15).

What shocks us is that a brother or sister could fall away from the Lord so much that David is asking pretty heavy judgment upon them: death and Sheol because evil has ensnared them through and through.

While it’s hard for us moderns to sit in any judgment seat, David does not shrink back, and neither should we. People fall away, dearest Christians betray Jesus and others: King Saul, Absalom, Judas, Alexander the Coppersmith.

What are you to do? Remember the cloud of witnesses that surround you, lay aside the sin which clings so closely, and run the faithful race with endurance, all the while looking to Jesus (Hebrews 12:1-2). And, taking care there be no unbelieving heart in yourself that falls away from the living God, while exhorting and being exhorted yourself, such that you are not hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. You want to strive to be firm in Christ till the end! (Hebrews 3:12-14).

When you are reading your bible to yourself, or to your children, or listening to it, keep your eyes and ears perked to listen to repeated phrases and words.

For example, we all know from Genesis 3:15 that Jesus is going to crush the “head of the serpent.” But then throughout the scriptures, you read about all these evil people, who get crushed heads: Sisera (tent peg to the head), Abimelech (mill stone head-wound), Goliath (rock to the forehead), Absalom (tree fork head crush), and many others. But they are all consummated in Jesus’ death on the cross, where as King, he crushes the serpent on the head, putting death to death. All the while with his feet over the “place of the skull”! His actual death pictured this victory!

Another theme to listen for is “thorns.” That’s part of the curse upon Adam for not faithfully listening to God’s word. He rebelled. Guess what? Throughout the scriptures rebellious people are linked with thorns and the curse. Jotham gave a story to the rebellious who followed Abimelech after killing the sons of Gideon: they would be led by bramble/thorns to their death. Gideon had whipped 77 elders of Succoth after refusing to help him in pursuit of the enemy kings. Throughout the Proverbs the lazy are surrounded by thorns. But in the end? Jesus has a crown of thorns on his head, in his death, signifying he’s taken the curse for us!

Here’s one more: spears. King Saul is always portrayed as carrying a spear. We are told, though, in 1 Samuel 13:22, that most people are without spears. Later on, the first character with a spear is Goliath, a Philistine, who wants to kill David. David, by contrast, never uses a spear. The spear, in this section of the bible, is an oppressive power tool, and it’s linked with the wicked king Saul, acting like the kings of the nations around him, like a Philistine. So how does this “spear” motif point to Jesus? I’ll let you meditate on that!

May Day, or the International Worker’s Day, was celebrated this past week on the 1st. It’s a day in which communists and socialists commemorate the struggle and gains made by workers and the labor movement around the world. That movement holds Karl Marx as its head, and also attributes great gains to Lenin, Stalin, and Mao. Those three men did a lot for workers, putting almost 100 million in the ground, because they did not “work” the way the state wanted them to.

Marx’s ideology/atheology produced the greatest idol of all, the omnipotent state, which made morality relative under the leadership of ambitious men who became gods themselves. With morality relative, the state party could regenerate men and build the paradise to come, with its power absolute and unquestioned. Hence the “workers paradise” of 100 million dead and two billion more sent to hell.

The point of this is to remind us that ideas and false beliefs do have consequences. Either deadly, enslaving ones, or life-giving, freeing ones. Marx is to blame for what came after him, for he saw God’s invisible attributes, eternal power, and divine nature, yet rejected that and became foolish, refusing to honor God or give thanks to him. He exchanged the glory of God for men (Romans 1:19-23).

But thanks be to God that Christ came to set us free, to give us life and to have it abundantly (John 10:10). Through the Father’s great love, Christ’s sacrifice, and the filling of the Holy Spirit, men can love, protect, rule, provide, and give themselves for others, exercising the Dominion Mandate of Genesis 1 to the glory of God and their fellow man. They can work, not to murder and destroy and wither, but to build and worship and love and bring out the glory of nature and man who is made in God’s image. For that end let us rise and worship the Trinity!

He is Risen! He is Risen, Indeed!

There is plenty of joy coming from Easter and the Easter season, and for good reason: our Lord lives, and his word was vindicated, giving great hope, joy, and confidence to all his followers, both then and now.

Not only did his death clear our slate of sins, but by his resurrection, we weren’t left in a “neutral” state as cleansed sinners who have no power to live faithfully. How so? Paul says in Romans 4:25 that Jesus was also “raised for our justification.” Because Jesus is alive, and we are united to him in baptism, we now have and share his resurrected life, and in him, are made right with the Father, even as he is right with the Father: “…just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in the newness of life” (Romans 6:4b).

Is there more to Jesus’ resurrection? Absolutely! One more obvious point is that Jesus was resurrected as a King, as our Lord. Kings and lords not only save their citizens, but they also judge them. In fact, in Israel, the King was the top “elder” in the gate; he helped all the elders judge the people according to God’s law (see Absalom’s rebellious story).

What does that mean for us? It means that we who share his resurrected life must also live faithfully lest we come under his judgment! In our joy and celebration we can’t forget we were raised for a purpose: a faithful life lived under the watchful eye of our Judge. For the Father has fixed a day when he will judge the world by Jesus, and he gave assurance of that by raising Jesus from the dead! (Acts 17:31).