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We all showed up last Sunday for worship somewhat stunned: an assassination attempt on former President Trump? That doesn’t happen here in America (at least not very much: I personally remember JFK and President Reagan being shot)!

So, how do we think about this event? Here are some thoughts.

First, remember that Jesus is on the throne as King. So he’s moving history and the Great Commission forward with this event. We believe that by faith!

Secondly, don’t be angry about this and say or act foolishly. Your anger does not achieve the righteousness of God, James 1.19-20.

Thirdly, don’t be anxious about this event or what may follow; it is in God’s hands. Your job is to trust him and put off anxiousness, Matthew 6.25-34.

Fourthly, pray for our leaders that we, as Christians, may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way, 1 Timothy 2.1-4.

Finally, a sample prayer to use written by Al Stout, co- pastor in Pensacola:

“And now for all those in authority over us we pray that you would surround them with godly counselors and that you would use them to preserve our nation in righteousness and true honor. Grant us blessings as a people and may we lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. Father, watch over and protect President Trump. Keep the forces and individuals at bay who seek to take his life. Expose all those who had a hand in [the] attempt on his life and bring them to justice. Give us grace in our next election and lead this nation to repentance over our sins of violence, murder, hatred of the created order and image of God and lusts unbounded, lest judgment fall on us terribly fierce and devastating.”

The conclusion of each letter to the churches in Revelation chapters 2 and 3 ends with a similar phrase: “To the one who conquers, I [Jesus] will…” and then you have a promise of Jesus to that church. They range from eating of the tree of life, not being hurt by the second death, being given hidden manna, authority over the nations and ruling them with a rod of iron, white garments and confession of the conqueror’s name before His father, being made a pillar in the temple of God, to sitting on the throne with Christ. All worthy gifts to those who remain faithful to Jesus during times of tribulation.

Have you ever wondered what that looks life in real time, in real life? Well, this week is the 100 year anniversary of the Flying Scotsman, Eric Liddell, winning the gold in the 400 meter race at the Olympics in Paris, France. His athletic life and running was made famous in the movie “Chariots of Fire.” If you’ve seen the movie, you know that after his fame as a runner, he went back to his birth land, China, to continue the missionary work of his parents. While being caught in the midst of a devastating civil war and WWII, he chose to stay and carry on the ministry, and was finally interned by the Japanese after they invaded China. He died in 1945 of a brain tumor, just two months before the camp was liberated.

His friend and fellow missionary Annie Buchan was with him at the end. She told the makers of Eric Liddell: The Flying Scotsman: “Suddenly he said, ‘Annie, it’s complete surrender’ and that was his last breath. He went into a coma and never recovered.” Liddell never wavered in his Christian faith. “He had been a man who was surrendering to God all his life through, and I don’t believe that it cost him much to say ‘complete surrender’ because he knew where he was going.” — BBC, July 8, 2024, article, “It’s Complete Surrender”

Certainly, he was a conqueror in Jesus Christ! Certainly he believed his Savior.

This past Thursday, one way or another, you celebrated the birth of our nation. Either you blew off fireworks or took the day off and watched patriotic movies and cooked out with the family and friends, or you did nothing and tried not to notice.

Celebrating on July 4 is often a conflicting exercise for Christians. Why? Because while we want to celebrate what our nation has done in the past and is today, we realize that is a mixed blessing. We are one of the freer nations in the world and have many rights, and it seems like the rest of the world is beating down our doors to get here one way or another. But on the other hand, which of the Ten Commandments do we not violate in spades! We worship others gods, we don’t acknowledge Jesus Christ as Lord, we murder our babies and throw those who protest into jail, we protect and encourage and support with tax dollars every perversion from fornication to adultery to homosexuality to trying to change whether we are male and female. On top of that, we steal and lie and bear false witness and covet what everyone else has. And we aren’t a happy people!

How then shall we think about this celebration of our beginning? By giving thanks to God for the good we’ve done, and also by repenting of the evils we have pressed in the past and are doing so now. By giving faithful witness to King Jesus, that he rules the world and will bring all wrongs to right. And finally, by remembering that God himself has ordained “nations” to exist, and uses them to advance his kingdom: “And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him…” Acts 17.26-27a

How shocking! “Let your fountain be blessed, and rejoice in the wife of your youth, a lovely deer, a graceful doe. Let her breasts fill you at all times with delight; be intoxicated always in her love” (Proverbs 5:18–19).

Can you believe Pastor Thacker read that verse, publicly, at a wedding? What boldness!

Christians and Christian pastors too often dance around the subject of sexuality, particularly in wedding sermons. What are they afraid of ? We are created sexual beings and we are commanded to be sexual in marriage: be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth… to do so you have to have sexual relations to have kids in order to multiply and fill the earth! We all know that; so let’s talk about it. The scriptures certainly do.

God not only made our bodies, but gave sexual desires for those of the opposite sex. He did so to facilitate sexual relations and the enjoyment of those relations. As Doug Wilson once wrote, “Men are hard and women are soft. Men like that about women and women like that about men.”

So a good wedding sermon should address the elephant in the room and demonstrably show what a blessing that elephant is, and that the enjoyment of sexual relations in marriage is wonderful! Of course, the world gets this wrong and abuses women’s bodies in pornography all over the place. But we don’t take our cue from the world, but from the Lord: “Enjoy life with the wife whom you love, all the days of your vaporous life that he has given you under the sun, because that is your reward in life and in your toil at which you toil under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 9:9).

How shocking! But how wonderful!

In Pastor Joe’s sermon last Sunday, he dealt with Exodus 21:20-21, which is a tightly written passage without a lot of explanation that we moderns would like. Verse 20 seems forthright and Pastor Joe summarized it concisely: the principle is “no excessive brutality” by masters over slaves. Slaves are also made in the image of God, and the master is not allowed to damage that image improperly.

But verse 22 seems odd, in that the “image of God” appears not to be protected, because if the slave survives the beating a day or two, and then dies, then his life is not avenged and the master has to deal “only” with his economic loss. It’s no “life for life,” because the slave hung on for a day or two. But he dies; what about him being the image of God? It appears the slave’s life is not as valuable as an image of God, but only considered as an economic loss.

This doesn’t set well with our modern ears. How could the Lord construe it this way? A slave is just “money,” an “economic loss?” As Pastor Joe said, we are far removed from the practice of these situations. So what do we do?

We meditate! We read the passage over and over, take into its context in the ten words, look for other passages on slave-master relations, think about slavery as a practice in the bible, and what it teaches about ourselves and our responsibilities. As Ecclesiastes says, life is “vaporous” and we may never come up with a great answer. But as God required the Jews to meditate on his word, and to do so for centuries, and come up with wise understandings, so we must do the same, as the “kings” we are. We must “chew” on these passages, realizing that God in his infinite wisdom is holy and just and compassionate. He is Good: we start there.

So put on the thinking hat and chew!

There was a time when the very idea of publicly talking about certain topics was frowned upon. The censorious nature of the television gatekeepers was such that to even use certain words (such as, say, the word “virgin”) would cause major controversy. How far we’ve come.

The topics of sexuality, transgenderism, and all the plusses belonging to the LGBTQ framework are not whispered behind closed doors anymore. This month, major (and minor) corporations are openly celebrating “pride.” The rainbow brigade is taking every opportunity to cram all their pet topics down everyone’s throats with a banner they purloined from us. It is now frowned on to not talk publicly about perversions that would have made most blush ~70 years ago. How did we get here?

The church, broadly, failed to speak to these issues, considering certain topics off-limits. Of course we admit to the caveat that some times and places are not for some topics. Nevertheless, an unwillingness of a more prudish Christian culture to discuss topics frankly has been a stepping stone to our current state. The Bible speaks frankly about sexual perversions, and the good and right use of our sexuality, and so should we. We must be willing to stand as a bulwark against the encroaching hordes at the gates. And that stand includes a willingness to address these topics as appropriate and needed.

If we are not willing to talk about these things, and point out God’s intentions for His creation, you can bet the enemy will step up. If you don’t have timely conversations with your children, the ungodly are eager fill the gap.

Now is the time for courage. We must pray that God would strengthen our resolve as we face of the onslaught. We must provide the scriptural lens for the culture, declaring the evil as evil, and the good as good.

Pastor Joe noted last week that baptismal water and the Holy Spirit always go together (“…unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the KOG…”). That’s something us whole-bible, baby-baptizing people stress to other Christians! We stress it because we believe Jesus has poured out his Spirit on our children (and any person) at baptism, and that covenantally affects how we think and act toward our children: they are Christians filled with the Spirit. So does water and the Spirit go together in the Bible that much?

“And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters” — Genesis 1:2

“I will sprinkle clean water on you,..I will put my Spirit within you.” — Ezekiel 36:25

“The Holy Spirit will come upon you…and overshadow you, therefore the child to be born will be called holy…” — Luke 1:35

“…and when Jesus also had been baptized, the heavens were opened, and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form, like a dove…” — Luke 3:21–22.

“And Peter said to them, Repent and be baptized…and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and your children…” — Acts 2:38–39.

“And when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord carried Phillip away…” — Acts 8:39

“…so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit….then he arose and was baptized; and taking food, he was strengthened.” — Acts 9:17–19

“And while Peter was still saying these things, the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word…and he commanded

them to be baptized ….” —Acts 10:44, 48

“On hearing this, they were baptized..the Holy Spirit came upon them.” — Acts 19:5–6

“He saved us…by the washing of regeneration and renewal by the Holy Spirit.” Titus 3:5

When we think of Pentecost, we rightly think of the Great Commission and the unraveling of the confusion of Babel. Now the gospel can be heard and believed in every language!

But what many Christians miss about Pentecost is that the Apostles spoke in actual known languages: “…and they were bewildered, because each one of them was hearing them speak in his own language” (Acts 2:6b). This was not “glossolalia,” which is a verbal utterance of unknown language/gibberish practiced by religious people all across the globe, usually in moments of ecstasy.

Paul makes this same point in 1 Corinthians 14:10-11 when discussing the usefulness of speaking in tongues versus prophesying: “There are doubtless many different languages in the world…”

So speaking in tongues on the day of Pentecost was not speaking with gibberish, or even the “tongues of angels,” but in the known human languages of the day, particularly those around the Mediterranean basin.

But even as phenomenal as tongues were on Pentecost Day, it was a short-term fix until the scriptures of the New Testament were penned and translated into every known language. While the scriptures are being penned by the Apostles from 30-70 AD, the Spirit speaking through tongues and other “word” gifts was necessary in order to apply the new covenant in each local church situation, because there wasn’t a “new covenant bible” to turn to for answers of how the faith has changed because of Christ’s coming in history. Yet! But when the maturity of the scriptures came, those Spirit “word” gifts would cease: “As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease…” (1 Corinthians 13.8-10).

Today we remember, celebrate, and rejoice in Pentecost, on which we wear red to represent the coming of the Holy Spirit.

Acts 2 (one of our Lectionary readings today) tells us that when the Spirit appeared on God’s people as tongues of fire, that they spoke with other tongues in the presence of men from every nation. What should this remind us of ? Babel, of course!

Genesis 11 tells us, “But Yahweh came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built. And Yahweh said, ‘Indeed the people are one and they all have one language, and this is what they begin to do; now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them. Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.’” The people were of “one lip,” one confession. And that confession was not honoring to Yahweh, but was wicked and perverse. God confounded their evil intent by inhibiting their ability to have “one lip.”

And then in Acts 2, by the working of the Spirit, every man present hears the proclamation of the gospel in his own language. And so it is once again possible for everyone have “one lip,” one confession, despite the judgement of Babel. And this confession is of Christ and His work.

This is Jesus’ great commission in action, “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations.” The Holy Spirit is what makes this commission possible by the reversal of the judgement at Babel.

As you look around you at the fiery red today, remember the reversal of Babel. Remember that our confession is possible because of the work of the Holy Spirit giving us “one lip” to confess the risen and reigning Christ!

What, is Ascension Day? Well, after Crucifixion and Resurrection Days, it’s the most important day to remember all year.

How is that? Ascension Day is the day Jesus left the visible earthly realm in the presence of his disciples and sat down to rule the universe at the right hand of the Father. See Acts 1. It’s an important day for Christians to remember. With no Ascension, there is no man in heaven. There is no man ruling in heaven. Our future with God is in peril.

If Jesus didn’t ascend into heaven, then Pentecost didn’t happen, and there is no Holy Spirit on earth, filling us, guiding us, leading us, strengthening us, helping us, interceding for us with the Father, etc.

Without the Ascension, Jesus is not at the right hand of the Father, meaning Psalm 110 didn’t happen: “Yahweh says to my Lord: ‘Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.’” The Apostle Paul must have gotten it wrong in 1 Corinthians 15:25, “for he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.”

Without the Ascension, the resurrected Lord Jesus never ascends into heaven in Revelation 5 and takes the book from the hand of the Father. It means that Satan still rules the world and he didn’t get thrown out of heaven in Revelation 12.

Without the Ascension, there is no Jesus in heaven hearing and acting upon our prayers and the psalms we sing.

Without the Ascension, Jesus is not exercising all the authority and power given to him over heaven and earth to bring about the Great Commission.

That’s why Satan wants us to forget Ascension Day. He wants us to forget who rules the world. To that I say, “Just Don’t Do It!”

Some theological reflections on the resurrection of Jesus, as we contemplate his coming Ascension on May 9.

God made his covenant with Adam. When Adam sinned, the curse of the covenant (death) fell upon him, and upon all those in union with him (the whole human race). The covenant is reestablished through death and resurrection, so that the covenant in its new form (the New Covenant) is inextricably tied to the resurrection. Christ passes through death unto resurrection life, and as He does so He takes His people with Him. Christ was born “under the law” (Gal. 4:4), took the Old Adamic Covenant law and curse to Himself, and died under it. Christ embodied the law, so that Colossians 2:14 can say that He “cancelled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.” It was not the law which was nailed to the cross, but our Lord Jesus Christ.

When Jesus arose, the covenant rose with Him, for the covenant is in Him. The covenant is now the New (Resurrection) Covenant, and brings life instead of death.

— James B. Jordan, The Law of the Covenant, p.47

You’ve probably heard it said that “every Sunday is Easter,” or “Every Sunday is Resurrection Sunday,” usually to stress the ongoing blessing of Easter, so as not to limit it to one day a year. And they are correct, of course, because each week we eat the Lord’s Supper and we are confronted with the fact that He is not with us physically, but in heaven at His Father’s right hand. He is the Resurrected Lord. He is absent in body but present to us and in us by His Spirit.

But they are also correct that each Sunday is a resurrection day because as we proceed through the liturgy, every Sunday we are cleansed from our sins by the death of Christ being applied to us once again in the Confession of Sins. We confess our sins which He died and covered with His blood. Our sins killed Him, but when His blood is sprinkled upon us, it shows the Father that a sacrifice has been made, and that our sins are removed in and by His holy blood, and that we are in Christ.

To be cleansed, therefore, is to undergo a resurrection. This is the meaning of the cleansing rituals in Leviticus 11-15, and other places. You’re dead because of touching unclean animals or because you are a walking dead man with leprosy, where your skin has turned to dirt, cursed ground, symbolic of your dead and evil heart issuing forth visibly. But when sprinkled by the blood of the sacrifice, and washed by the blood and/or water, you are made alive, resurrected, and can now go live in the camp of the holy saints. You are raised to new life!

That happens to us every Sunday, as we confess our sins but also Christ’s death and His resurrection for us. As we hear His word and eat His body and blood, we are united to Him in His resurrection. His life becomes ours!