Who are we?

Good Morning!

It is good to be in the house of the Lord! I’m the new pastor here at Cedar Grove UMC in Parkersburg. My name is Brian Boley. For those of you watching at home, continue to stay safe – if you don’t feel safe meeting with us, please continue watching at home until you feel safe. Folks, this virus is still deadly to the old and to the young. Wood County’s number of total positive cases has jumped from about 50 to 80 just in the last week. We need to wear masks here and in the shops and stores of world – not for our protection, but for the protection of the vulnerable among us. For loving our neighbors is central to Christian living.

I want to thank you for continuing to support Cedar Grove during our time of Covid. Your donations continued strong until just recently – I ask that if you are watching at home you might take a moment to put a donation in the mail to us hear at 168 Old Turnpike Rd in Parkersburg, WV 26104. Or stop by the church or the parsonage and drop it off. I’d love to meet you – we can sit outside if you like.

I also want to thank the entire team of people who helped get the parsonage in shape and unload our stuff. The place is now beautiful and most of the boxes have been banished to the recycle bins by Donna Elliott. My wife Saundra sends along her thanks.

One of the hardest things to preach is the first sermon at a given church. The reason is we pastors care deeply about each of you – in particular, what your relationship is with God, the viability of your church, and whether or not we will see you one day in New Jerusalem in our new, glorified bodies. Scripture tells us that those of us who lead and teach have responsibility for your souls. And so we care about the condition of your soul. While acknowledging that God working through Jesus and the Holy Spirit, speaking to us through Scripture does the most remarkable work, we pastors also recognize that we must listen to God’s Scripture and Holy Spirit and help connect you to God through Jesus.

For my role is not to be your Holy Spirit, telling you what is right and what is wrong. My role is not to be your Sunday morning entertainment. My role is not to give you an emotional service that makes you laugh, cry, and walk away saying, “The preacher really brought us the Spirit today!”

No, my role is to help people connect with Jesus, first and foremost. And then, after I have introduced you to Jesus, to help you learn to follow Jesus more and more fully by teaching each of you how to read and interpret Scripture, to learn two-way prayer – asking God what to do and then listening to the Holy Spirit’s soft, quiet, whispered response. My role is to encourage you that that Voice you hear is truly the voice of God speaking to you through the Holy Spirit, and therefore you’ll need to be about your Heavenly Father’s business, just as Jesus was.

For the Apostle Peter in his old age wrote to a vast number of disciples: 2 Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. 2 Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, 3 now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.

4 As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him— 5 you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house] to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ…

This is what Peter said. And remember that Peter had followed Jesus closely, so closely. Peter, you will remember, declared on the night of Jesus’ arrest that Peter would never desert Jesus, that he would never deny Jesus, but before the rooster crowed three times that night Peter denied Jesus three times. When Jesus was on the cross, dying, Peter was nowhere to be found. He had deserted the leader he had sworn to follow. Can you imagine Peter’s joy – and fear – when Jesus rose from the dead and appeared to the assembled disciples and then assured them that if they – and we – continued to follow Jesus, that they would be able to follow Him into eternal life? And Peter must have wondered if that promise applied to Peter, the one who had deserted Jesus.

But Peter, you will recall, was restored, not only in his discipleship, but also in his leadership role by Jesus as they later walked alongside the beach at Galilee after Jesus’ resurrection. And Peter led the other Apostles on the day of Pentecost and led them to accept non-Jews as Christians after his experience at the home of the Roman Centurion Cornelius. So when Peter wrote, he wrote with authority and reminded the followers of Jesus who they were – and so I remind you today who you are in Peter’s words:

9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
Over the next few weeks, we are going to explore who the people of God are called to be – what the purpose of you, the chosen people, the royal priesthood, God’s special possession, is.

But first, let me tell you a bit about myself. I’ll tell you a bit today, and I hope that you will come to know me over the next few months as we meet in twos and fours.

I’m originally from St. Marys. My mother still lives in the same house her and my father moved into a month before I was born, on the hill above St. Marys. I rode a school bus like all the other kids did. I graduated from St Marys High School. Frankly, I was a nerd. I was into science and math and music – but I did not attend church. I think we attended church a couple times before I started school, and then our family attended six weeks straight when the cooling towers fell at Willow Island.

I went to WVU and majored in physics, actually astrophysics, the study of stars and planets, but I also took several courses in philosophy and history. And when I graduated, the economy was so bad I went back to get a master’s degree from WVU in business – marketing and finance. That got me a job in Texas Instrument’s Industrial Automation division in Johnson City, TN.

A few years later, I became an insurance agent for a year, met and married my wife Saundra who was an agent for another company, and then I promptly took a job near Buffalo NY as marketing manager with a high tech company. Soon we moved to NJ where I worked for a subsidiary of the company you know as Panasonic, once again in factory automation. It wasn’t until we moved to Atlanta that I began to attend church – an independent evangelical church that sent out a person or a family every year to the foreign missions field, or founded a daughter church with a group of 10 or 12 families. It was intense; we soon discovered that if you are not growing as a Christian you might as well be dead.

We eventually started our own Internet-based company, and finally moved it to Lowell, OH in 2003. I planted an orchard, 80 fruit trees and 50 grapevines. Then, I took a bunch of graduate education classes and got a job teaching at Parkersburg Catholic and taught part-time at WVUP and OVU. And during this time we got involved at FUMC Williamstown, as well as operated a ministry to the international students at Marietta College. Many Friday evenings, it was not unusual to walk into our home and find a dozen or so students from China, as well as students from Korea, Japan, India, Saudi Arabia, and Brazil eating dinner with us and listening to an explanation of, for example, why Christians adopt orphan Chinese girls from Chinese orphanages or why the Christian Trinity is like the egg.

And, by the way, we’ve raised five children. Daughter Heather and husband David have four children and live in Myrtle Beach where she is advertising sales manager for the Sun newspaper. Daughter Hollie and husband Chris are in Atlanta where he is an Army captain and she raises their three children. Chris has Covid, by the way. Please pray for them. Son Ian will be married next weekend to Clara in a Zoom ceremony – he is finishing up his Ph.d. in military history and they have to move from Austin TX to Washington DC by July 20 for her new job with the Foreign Service. Daughter Jessie is asset protection manager at a huge supermarket in Fairbanks, AK. She also has her welding certification. At age 22, youngest son Andrew is a full-time Methodist pastor at Meadow Bridge between Rainelle and Hinton with three churches.

Back in Williamstown, I taught Sunday school, and then became a lay speaker and then lay leader and worship leader, began seminary, and then became a part-time pastor in Pleasants County, graduated from seminary and then we moved to Clarksburg where I became a full-time pastor, Saundra was a part-time, then full-time pastor, and now we are back in Parkersburg, where I preach her and Saundra preaches at 7th Street UMC.

I’m telling you all this because I want you to know that this all took time. From the time I began to attend church to the time I was saved was about a year, and from then it took another 7 years before I taught Sunday School, and then it took another 7 years before I began seminary. It has been 7 years since I graduated from seminary. A life spent with Christ should be a life of continual growth. It is not supposed to be like flipping a switch – one day you are a heathern, and the next day a fully mature Christian leader. It is a process that takes time.

And one other thing. Between us, my wife, my son, and I have attended or led about 40 churches of many denominations – Church of Christ, Southern Baptist, Lutheran, evangelical, Reformed, Bible Missionary, Free-Will Baptist, Missionary Baptist, even Catholic and yes, Methodist. We have also had the honor of being invited and attending Jewish and Islamic services because of our friendships we’ve made over the years. We’ve attended regular services at churches as small as a half-dozen people and as large as 800 worshipers. So do not assume that anything I do is “catholic” or “Baptist” or whatever, because I’ve seen enough to know what the full spectrum is of Christian worship services, what makes a church successful and what leads to failure. And I have learned from each of these churches – but what I will teach is solidly, conservative, evangelical Methodist.

Peter says we are all part of a royal priesthood. The ancient Latin word for priest was “pontifex”, which literally meant “bridge-builder”. As priests, our job is to build bridges between God and the people around us. But that takes time, just as building our own relationship with God takes time as we take a simple rickety swing bridge when we first encounter Christ and work with Jesus and the Holy Spirit to build a firm, solid, multi-lane concrete spiritual bridge between God and ourselves.

John Wesley, the man who began both the Methodist movement and the movement that led to the EUB churches – the Evangelical United Brethern churches – Wesley believed that salvation was a process, not an event. God taps you on the shoulder and puts the Gospel in your face. Eventually one day, you choose to follow Jesus and God declares you are no longer a rebel, that you are welcome in the Kingdom of God. When we choose to follow God’s Son, we are no longer enemies with God, but instead God becomes our biggest coach and cheerleader – but we then spend most of our lives learning by following Jesus so we will be saved from our own foolishness. And we begin to teach others by word and by deed what it means to be a Christian. Mind you – you ARE teaching others what it means to be a Christian, even if you aren’t intending to.

And time and again we make a mess of life, hurting ourselves and hurting others. And God – who understands that we have chosen to be loyal followers of His Son – God looks at us and now says lovingly, “Again? You did it again?” God helps us get on our feet again, whispers words of encouragement through the Holy Spirit and cheers as we try once more. Our goal is to eventually reach Christian perfection, which is when we don’t want to do anything that is outside of God’s will. That takes continually growing as we follow Jesus down the path of holiness.

Some of you will listen carefully to what I teach you. You’ll learn that it is not our position to be each other’s Holy Scripture and Holy Spirit, but it is critical for each of us to regularly read the Holy Scripture, meditate upon it, roll it around in our mind like a wine taster moves the wine around in his mouth, and then to apply that scripture to our lives. You’ll learn that it is important to listen to that gentle whisper of the Holy Spirit in the back of our mind, to react to the Spirit’s voice, and take action as the Spirit directs you. You’ll learn that it is NOT your personal responsibility to invite people to church, - we don’t get off that easily - but we are each to go much further, to responsibly teach people the basics about Jesus Christ, his teachings, his sacrifice, and his resurrection and what this Good News means for people, going to all the people you know with this Gospel first and foremost on your minds.

You’ll learn that giving grace and forgiveness is a core part of the Christian life because we have received grace from God. Instead of pointing out to people how they are breaking the Law of Moses and how these people you meet are not living like a Christian you’ll learn to accept that many of the people around us are not Christians, only people who believe in a vague God. How should they understand how to live unless we love them and gently lead them toward Christ through the advice given us by the Holy Spirit?

You’ll learn that what is comfortable for you is not necessarily what God wants you to do, for there is no reason to grow when you are comfortable, and God wants growth because God wants mature Christian followers rather than spiritual babies.

You’ll learn that God looks at you and sees you as potentially a great spiritual warrior who may need a bit more training, but you’ll also learn that God will lead you along the path of spiritual growth, the path of holiness if you ask God to do this.

You’ll also learn that the best way to walk the path of holiness is to attempt to be the very best you can be at leading other people to the knowledge of Christ, for becoming excellent at leading others to Christ requires us to learn Scripture, to learn two-way prayer, asking God for direction and guidance and then listening to the response of the Holy Spirit, to learn to become grace-filled and forgiving ourselves, we’ll learn to become tolerant of the rough parts of other people, we’ll learn that all we have has come, not from our work and knowledge, but from the gifts of treasure and knowledge given to us by God the Father simply because we’ve made the one decision that is ours to make. We’ve decided to do our best to follow Jesus Christ.

Some of you will learn that following Jesus Christ takes renewed effort every day, but that it is ALWAYS worth that effort. Some of you have already learned most of these lessons. If you have, perhaps you’ll learn how to pass on what you’ve learned to others. Perhaps you’ll learn new ways to explain these things to your friends, neighbors, and family.

And others of you may not listen and learn these lessons, preferring to offer excuses to the Holy Spirit such as “I can’t do that”, “God wouldn’t want me to do that”, “That’s someone else’s job”, “I’m too old”, “I’m too young”, “I’m too busy”, or even, “He can’t make me do that, can he?”

And I feel sad for you, for while you may end up in Heaven, you will miss so much in this life you are living today. For God not only wants us in Heaven, but also wants us to have a joyful, abundant life today. And that is what I hope I can teach over the next few years – to you and to hopefully dozens and even hundreds of other people who join us.

So hang on for the ride! For this church is going to grow in so many ways – numbers, yes, but also we are going to find ourselves stretched and tugged at by God as we move along the steps of our leader, Jesus Christ.

Father, I pray for these people in these churches. I ask that you protect them, to lead them to hear your Good News, to transform each person into people who love you and all the people they meet. Make them a welcoming people to everyone they meet, as people who are not concerned with their comfort as much as the comfort of visitors and people who do not know your love, that they will become a great power for transformation in this part of the world. Teach them many good things, Father, and I thank you for the friends we’ll make while we are here. Pour down your grace and Holy Spirit upon all the people here, that they may do your will. I pray this in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Remember: You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Act accordingly.

Maundy Thursday Thoughts

Thursday Thoughts:

It was Thursday and time for the Passover Meal. This meal had been instituted as a celebration after the escape from Egypt, over a thousand years before the events Matthew describes in Chapter 26.

During the meal, certain foods were required and certain things were required. There were bitter herbs which symbolized the time of slavery for the Israelites, there was a sweet mixture of sweet wine, apples, and nuts that symbolized the sweetness of work, there was an egg dipped in salt water to symbolize the tears we encounter in life, and there was lamb to remind us of the Passover lamb that was sacrificed the evening before the final plague – the death of the firstborn – fell upon the Egyptians. All of Israel used this meal to remember and teach the youngest that God had given them the command to sacrifice a lamb and spread its blood on the doorposts and lintels – and the Angel of Death would pass over that household – while the firstborn died in the other homes. That lamb was sacrificed so that the firstborn of each family would live. But it required that each family follow the command of God – kill the lamb, putting its blood on the door frame of the house.

Four cups of wine were traditionally drunk during the meal. The Cup of Sanctification, the Cup of Plagues, the Cup of Redemption and the Cup of Praise. Unleavened bread – flat, unrisen bread – was eaten during the meal, the Bread of Affliction. Imagine Saltine crackers without salt. Bland, dry, thin. There was no time, you see, when the Israelites left Egypt for the bread to rise. Plus, the yeast had come to symbolize sin. This meal is still observed by most Jews today. It is called the Passover Seder meal.

The meal in that time typically began with everyone washing. Normally, a servant did this, but tonight Jesus stripped to the waist like a servant and washed the dirty, grimy feet of His disciples, which were had followed donkeys and cattle through the streets, to demonstrate that his disciples were to be servants of those they led. If Jesus would stoop to wash the filthy feet of His disciples, they were not to “take on airs” as some people would say. Christians, even today, are to remember that they are not “too good” to serve others in the most menial ways.

The meal began. We call it the Last Supper. Jesus declared that one of them would betray Him. An exchange of words occurred – it was Judas that would betray Jesus. Judas left the meal.

As the meal progressed, Jesus took bread, broke it, and passed it around. “Take and eat. This is my body.” Jesus announced, giving a new symbolism and meaning to the Bread of Affliction. He took the third cup, the Cup of Redemption, “Drink from it, all of you. 28 For this is My blood that establishes the covenant; it is shed for many for the forgiveness of sins. 29 But I tell you, from this moment I will not drink of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it in a new way in My Father’s kingdom with you.” Every time Christians share Communion, we are remembering these moments, two thousand years later. There was no drinking of the fourth cup, the Cup of Praise that evening. That is still to come, when we drink in a new way in the kingdom to come…with Jesus. There is still another Supper to be had with Jesus for His followers.

There are more details in the Gospel of John, chapters 13 and 14 describe Jesus’ words. Please take time to read them. As Chapter 15 begins, they leave the meal. Jesus continues to speak as they walk, through Chapter 16.

Afterwards, they sang Psalms, most likely 113-118, as they walked out of the home, across the Kidron Valley, and up the Mount of Olives. The others would leave Him, Jesus announced. Peter would deny Jesus three times. “Never!” Peter said. “Before the rooster crows,” Jesus confirmed. They entered the area of Olive trees known as Gethsemane. Jesus chose to stop and pray; the disciples fell asleep. Jesus prayed for Himself, but also prayed for the disciples. John spends Chapter 17 repeating the prayers.

In John 18: Soon, Judas arrived with a large mob, as well as priests. They ask for Jesus. Jesus says, “I am He.” This was apparently said with the power of God, for the mob and soldiers step back and fall to the ground. (Notice the usage of the first part of the Holy name, “I am that I am”.) Jesus allowed Himself to be arrested. Peter tried to fight and sliced off a piece of one man’s ear. Jesus healed it immediately. Jesus pointed out to Peter that He could have called upon over 50,000 angels for help, but that would mess up God’s plan. Imagine how things could have been different. The disciples ran for the hills.

Jesus was dragged before the high priest. Peter and John followed, separately. While Jesus was being questioned, Peter was identified and felt he had to deny knowing Jesus three times. Just then, the rooster crowed. Peter left in shame. Will we all be shamed for denying Jesus?

The high priest questioned Jesus. Finally, Jesus said that the high priest would one day see Jesus sitting at the right hand of God and coming on the clouds. The high priest and council declared Jesus guilty of blasphemy, claiming to be a close relative of God. By daybreak, they were handing Him over to Pilate to be given a death sentence.

To Fulfill All Righteousness - A Methodist View of Baptism

Around the year 28, there was a strange man living by the Jordan River in the land of Israel between the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea. He was dressed similar to the old prophet Elijah the Tishbite – wearing a camel’s hair tunic, a leather belt, and eating food off the land. To anyone who would listen, this man John would preach. And John did not mince words. He called the most holy people in the land a “brood of vipers” because they held others to standards of dress and living that were impossible for most people. These Pharisees were experts in the Law – and had no grace, no thought of mercy for men and women who could not afford the right clothing, no thought of charity for men and women who had been forced off their farmland into less honorable professions. From John’s point of view, the Pharisees that John preached against – and the Sadducees who ran the Temple and made money from it – were not following the will of God, but were condemning people, harming them, acting like the Satan-snake in leading people to despise God.

But John offered even these people a way out. John said they needed to rethink what God desired and change their ways. He said that if they would promise to change their ways He would baptize them by washing them in the River Jordan. And through this baptism, their sins would be washed away, giving the sinners a fresh, clean start. And so, the word spread about the man the crowds called John the Baptist a hundred miles in each direction, beyond Jerusalem in the south and beyond Galilee in the north. And the crowds began to grow, as people loved this wild man who spoke boldly against the leaders of the established Jewish order. 

Matthew 3:13-17

One day, John recognized that his cousin Y'eshua had arrived. Y'eshua was just a few months younger than John, and was much more polished. The interesting thing about this meeting is that Y'eshua, the man the Romans called Jesus, asked to be baptized by John – and John said that he, John, needed to be baptized by Jesus, for John always felt that Jesus was the holier of the two men, even though at the time Jesus was just known for being a minor carpenter in the tiny town of Nazareth near the Lake of Galilee, while John had national fame as a preacher.

Jesus answered John, “Allow it for now, because this is the way for us to fulfill all righteousness.” And then John baptized Him.

Why was it necessary for Jesus to be baptized? For that matter, what are the purposes of baptism?

To understand, let’s go back even before Jesus and John were born on this earth.

Around 150 years before Jesus, a document was written. It talked about making pickles. Yes, pickles. The document explains the pickle-making process and is our first known use of the word baptizo, the Greek root of the word baptism. The word refers to the changing of the essential nature of the cucumber by the action of the salt and the vinegar. And there IS a significant change. I can't stand cucumbers, but I love pickles. How many of you as children thought that pickles were something different from cucumbers?

Notice that a cucumber rots quickly, but a pickle can be kept in the pickle juice for months, even at room temperature. Remember the pickle barrel at the old stores? How does this work?

The vinegar washes away and kills the bacteria and mold that would destroy the cucumber. The salt also helps to clean the cucumber and makes it taste better, stronger, and prepares the cucumber to deal with the rot that might infect it.

Later, the word baptizo was used to refer to the cloth dyeing process, and also to the process of purifying objects for worship and general usage. In Mark 7, some translations talk about the Jews baptizing pots and pans and even dining couches. Clearly, you don't immerse a dining couch. So the word does not require immersion, but can also be used for the sprinkling of purifying water or the pouring of water.

This use of water for purification goes back a long time. In the Old Testament, in Exodus 30, we find this passage:

17 The Lord spoke to Moses: 18 “Make a bronze basin for washing and a bronze stand for it. Set it between the tent of meeting and the altar, and put water in it. 19 Aaron and his sons must wash their hands and feet from the basin. 20 Whenever they enter the tent of meeting or approach the altar to minister by burning up an offering to the Lord, they must wash with water so that they will not die. 21 They must wash their hands and feet so that they will not die; this is to be a permanent statute for them, for Aaron and his descendants throughout their generations.”

Washing for cleanliness – and for purification – was required of the high priest and his family before the sacrifices were to be performed. This practice dates back to the time of the escape from Egypt, or about 1600 BC.

By the time of Jesus, the concept of baptizing or washing for purification was well-established. Jesus’ disciples are chewed out for not washing their hands by a group of Pharisees one day. In many Jewish synagogues from the time, we find what we would call a baptistery – a cistern of water with an inlet and an outlet – the Jews of this time felt that what they called “living water” was necessary, water that flowed, however slowly.

But John had taken baptism to a whole new level, declaring that baptism would give anyone who repented a new start in life, a clean slate with God.

Then, the sinless man Jesus walks up to John and asks to be baptized. John recognizes that Jesus is sinless and says that it is Jesus who should be baptizing John. But Jesus says that Jesus must be baptized “to fulfill all righteousness”.

Jesus had walked from Nazareth, tens of miles, to John’s location, and thus He showed us that we often must endure an uncomfortable journey when we want to go nearer to God. If you want to find God, you must go to God rather than expecting God to walk to you. 

Jesus walked 40 or 50 miles – yet we will not walk the distance from our seat to the front of the sanctuary to be baptized. Jesus stood in front of many strangers, knowing that He was the Son of God, the Man who was better than all the people on earth, asking humbly to be baptized. As Matthew Henry pointed out, Jesus knew that those who will rise high must begin low. Yet we will not stand in front of a few friends to be baptized. We want special treatment, a special treatment that Jesus never asked for.

I have a friend who is a strong, testifying Christian, who speaks to others of Jesus, but he has a certain pride and shame, for he has never been baptized and now feels embarrassed to stand in front of his congregation at his age and be baptized. He also feels he has a sin and he is embarrassed about that sin. I did get permission from him to baptize him if he is dying and unable to speak. But I hope that he gets over his embarrassment soon and gets baptized. For I may not be there when he dies. Then, will my friend ask for special treatment at the gates of heaven?

We are not sufficiently shocked when Jesus asked to be baptized. The closest we can come is imagining our favorite nationally known preacher, a Charles Stanley, a Joel Osteen, a T.D. Jakes, or a Franklin Graham comes into town, goes to a tiny local church and asks the pastor to baptize him. Why would Jesus, the Son of God, need to be baptized? “To fulfill all righteousness” He tells John. It was the right thing to do. Of course, Did you ever think that perhaps Jesus was baptized not so He would be able to become holy, but instead Jesus was baptized so all water used for baptisms might become holy?

In our area, we are influenced strongly by Baptist culture. To most Baptists, baptism is simply the declaration of who’s side you’re on, it is an ordinance, something commanded by the Bible, something we do because it is something Christians do. According to most Baptists, there is nothing deeper here than putting on a T-shirt which says, “I’m now a Christian!” Yet, amazingly enough, most Baptists have a couple of very detailed rules about baptism – you must be immersed, you must be of a certain “age of accountability”. Some Baptist groups also argue you must wear a white robe, you must be immersed in a creek, and you must be baptized by that particular church. They argue that baptisms don’t count unless you fully understand what it means to be a Christian believer, and so they will have you re-baptized if you want, and insist upon it if you were baptized at a young age.

But before the 1520’s, the concept of believer’s baptism, of re-baptism, of immersion being the only “right” way of baptism, did not exist. That was when the first group of people who would become the Mennonites and Amish were re-baptized. And everyone else, Catholic and Protestant alike  considered it a heresy at the time.

What about all the Christians in the 1500 years from the time of Christ to that point? Were they all lost because they had been baptized as infants?

In the older churches, the Catholics, the Eastern Churches, the Ethiopian Church, even in the new Protestant churches like the Lutherans, the Presbyterians, the Episcopal, the Congregationalists, the Puritans, and then later in the Methodist and the Evangelical Churches, the United Brethren churches, baptism was considered holy, a sacrament similar to Communion, a place where God stepped in and interfered directly in the life of the one baptized. God did all the important work in baptism – the pastor simply applied the water and said some prayers, the person receiving baptism simply agreed to received the baptism, while God did the work.

We have a document known as “The Teaching of the Apostles” (or The Didarche), which was written sometime around the year 70. It talks of how sprinkling, pouring, or immersion may all be used. It also talks of how warm water may be used if cold water is not available. And we know from other early documents that in many cases the one baptized was stripped naked, with water poured over them, and then a cup of that water was given to them to drink, that they might be cleansed inside as well as outside. In the Eastern Churches today, those that look to Antioch - the town where Paul, Silas, and Barnabas taught, and to Alexandria in Egypt for their heritage, the early centers of Christian teaching, a week-old child is baptized by sitting them in a font, naked, and then cold water is poured over them from a pitcher. Even today.

Why so young?

Because accidents and illness happen, and we want our children to join us with God one day. Children and even infants are not free of sin – an infant is completely selfish, demanding everything, and has inherited the sin-rot that has been passed down from Adam and Eve, through Cain the murderer of his brother, through countless generations of people who have passed the sin-rot to each other, to their children, like a basket of peaches will pass a bit of rot from one peach to another throughout history.

There is no “age of accountability” mentioned in the Bible around baptism. But in Acts 16, we see this story:

25 About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. 26 Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everyone’s chains came loose. 27 The jailer woke up, and when he saw the prison doors open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself because he thought the prisoners had escaped. 28 But Paul shouted, “Don’t harm yourself! We are all here!”

29 The jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas. 30 He then brought them out and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”

31 They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.” 32 Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house. 33 At that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; then immediately he and all his household were baptized. 34 The jailer brought them into his house and set a meal before them; he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God—he and his whole household. (NIV)

Notice that this passage talks about the baptism of the jailor and all his household. In that day, that meant Dad, Mom, children, the hired hands, the maid, their children, maybe Grandma. In a time before birth control, there were always infants around! John Wesley considered this passage as a critical passage to understanding that the churches had baptized children and infants from the beginning. And notice that the passage mentions the household repeatedly.

After all, would we deny baptism to someone who was deaf, unable to hear or to speak clearly? Of course not, we’d provide a translator, right?

Would we deny baptism to someone who was mentally unable to answer, a young man or woman, perhaps, who had a mental deficiency. Would we require them to understand, in detail, and be able to explain the Holy Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit? Would we require them to be able to explain the Apostle’s Creed before we would baptize them? Would we deny baptism to an older man or woman with advance Alzheimer’s? Of course not – we would baptize any of these on the say-so of a parent or guardian.

So why is it that we think it is appropriate to deny baptism to young children and infants? You probably would vaccinate them against polio, against whooping cough, against typhoid. You may vaccinate them against the measles, against the flu, even against chicken pox. Did you ask your child if they wanted those vaccines? Did you wait until they were old enough to understand how a vaccine worked? Of course not. You knew those vaccinations were important and necessary.

Baptism is a vaccination against eternal death – why will you not have your children vaccinated by baptizing them? Do you plan to wait and give them the choice to be baptized one day – which is also the choice to walk away from God, as many of our young people have done over the last thirty years? This choice may have made sense back in the day when the "choice" was actually between which Christian church they would belong to, Catholic, Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian. But today that choice is between baptism - and no baptism in most cases. What does passing on this decision to your children this say about your faith in God’s ability to keep His promises? And how much do you believe that following Jesus is the right thing to do? Which other choice to you want to give your beloved children? In twenty years, do you want to be begging your son or daughter to be baptized? Or would you like to do it now? 

In the Methodist churches, we also believe that the near-adult needs to make a decision - but that is the decision made during confirmation, as series of classes taught to allow the teenager to understand the faith. At that time, they can re-affirm their commitment to the church, taking on the vows for themselves that their parents made and followed through with for them when they were very young.

Why don’t we baptize repeatedly? Why don’t we re-baptize someone? Because I, for one, am not going to tell the perfect God of the Universe that God made a mistake once before when you were baptized. I hear adults say all the time – When I was baptized, I didn’t know what I was doing. Of course not. But God knew. God knew what He was doing and that’s all that is important.

But what do we believe that baptism does for us?

The Catholics believe that salvation only comes from within the church and baptism is the way you join that church. The Baptists believe we are baptized because we are ordered to be baptized, but it is nothing more than putting a sign on you that you have joined Jesus’ team. But we Methodists have a deeper understanding of baptism...

When we are baptized, God reaches into our heart and flips a spiritual switch. Now, instead of trying to do good for the wrong reasons, like avoiding hellfire, we can do good simply because it is good. Our hearts have been regenerated. In addition, during the baptism ceremony, just after the water has been applied, hands are laid onto us and the pastor prays for the Holy Spirit to come into the person. And it is God, acting as God the Holy Spirit, who completely changes our life from that point onward.

Now, we can listen and hear the Holy Spirit.

Now, we can receive guidance from the Holy Spirit.

Now, we can live forever because our natural spirit has been replaced with the eternal Holy Spirit.

At this point, we are now able to begin the walk down the path of holiness, reading the Word of God and listening to the Holy Spirit, as we follow Jesus and become more and more like Him.

But do I need the Holy Spirit? Isn't that a "Pentecostal" thing?

In Acts 8, beginning in verse 14, we see this story:

14 When the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John to Samaria. When they arrived, they prayed for the new believers there that they might receive the Holy Spirit, because the Holy Spirit had not yet come on any of them; they had simply been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then Peter and John placed their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.
The people of Samaria needed the Holy Spirit for guidance. And the usual way that the Holy Spirit arrives is for a believer with the Holy Spirit to lay on hands. 

What can keep us from being baptized? Which sins are too bad and prevent us from being baptized?

Only our own choice keeps us from baptism. No sin is too ugly when we want to follow Christ. Later in the same chapter, Philip has been talking with a eunuch from Ethiopia about the arrival of the Christ. The Old Testament specifically forbids mutilation of this sort. Eunuchs were forbidden in the Temple. But beginning in verse 36, it says:

36 As they traveled along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, “Look, here is water. What can stand in the way of my being baptized?”... And he gave orders to stop the chariot. Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and Philip baptized him. 

In the United Methodist Hymnal, page 33, we have a baptismal ceremony. It has a series of vows for a person to take, and provision that parents or guardians will answer for those who are not able to answer for themselves, such as young children or infants or the disabled.

About ten days ago, I was at the hospital with a young man who could not speak clearly because of a brain injury many years ago. We all knew that his hours on earth were limited because he had severe pneumonia. Although he had attended church and loved it when he was younger, he had not been to church in a while, so I asked if he had been baptized. He had not. 

I asked if he wanted to be baptized, to squeeze his father’s hand if he wanted to be baptized. He gripped his father’s hand tightly. So I took a cup of water, a simple cup of water, water, that substance that is absolutely necessary for life - and baptized him in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. I laid hands upon him and prayed that he would receive the Holy Spirit. The next morning, he went to be with Jesus and I preached his funeral yesterday.

Friends, do not wait until the end. If you are baptized today or next week, you will hopefully have years to grow closer to Jesus, learning new joys all the time, learning the feeling of love as the Holy Spirit speaks to you, learning how to enjoy life on this earth, that enjoyment that comes with the knowledge that you are going to be with God. Do not waste your life away from God's love.

If you have not been baptized today, if your children have not been baptized today, step forward, come up front and ask to be baptized. We will say the prayers, put the water on your head, and God will baptize you. You will belong to God and no one, no disease, no injury will be able to take you away from God. Your eternal life will be secure as long as you try to follow that path of holiness. For no sin is too great to keep you away from God except the sin of turning your back to God, of choosing to walk away one day. Yet even then, God will take you back if you but ask. Come forward to be baptized today.

About three years ago, my earthly father came to the VA for an Friday appointment. Afib was discovered and treated overnight. We drove him home the next day. I knew my father had never been baptized, so I asked him – Dad, would you like to be baptized? He said, “I don’t think I’m healthy enough to go down to the river.” I said, “we can just sprinkle water on you…it works too.” He said, “I’ll think about it.”

On Tuesday, he went to see his local doctor, double-checking his medicines, then walked across the street to the restaurant where his graduating class were planning their class reunion. He sat down at the table and collapsed with a major heart attack. He never regained consciousness and had irreversible brain damage. So a week later, a couple of hours before we pulled the plug, I baptized him with the assistance of two other pastors.

We don’t know how much time we have. If you believe that Jesus Christ was and is the Son of God, with the power and the love to give you eternal life, if you truly want to follow Him… then take the next step today and get baptized. Have your children baptized so you will all be together again in heaven. Get baptized "to fulfill all righteousness."

Listening to God

As most of you know, Saundra and I went on a cruise from Jacksonville to the Bahamas recently. It was an enlightening trip – we had some very nice times and some very rough times. Saundra found out that she easily gets seasick – I found that I don’t like 48 mph winds and 20 foot waves hitting the side of the ship I’m traveling on.

One of the nicest times happened the very first evening of the cruise. We were scheduled for dinner in the stern dining room at 6 pm. So, at 5:45, we navigated our way to the lobby in front of the dining room, which required us to travel to deck 9 and then come down the stairs to deck 8, since the ship’s kitchen occupies the entire width of the ship in front of the dining room.

Well, we discovered that about 50 other people had the same idea. We found ourselves in line with a couple from western KY, and we began talking to them – mainly to the husband. It didn’t take much effort – “Looks like a lot of people had the idea to come early to dinner.” That’s all it took.

Very soon, he was talking about his mother passing away a couple of years ago, we gave him some advice, he teared up in thanks, and we told him we were pastors. We’re still not sure what we said to him that affected him so much, but he told us that we had been a great blessing to him and helped him more than anyone else had since his mother died. And we were joyful. We never saw him again. But I think we will one day see him in New Jerusalem. And we will all be joyful.

But that’s what happens when you try to listen to God and pass onto others what you have been told by God. Lives are changed. Joy happens.

You see, each time we speak, every time we act, whenever we don’t speak, we are teaching others how to live or die.

If we have harsh words for someone, we kill their soul just a little bit like removing a bit of bark from a tree’s trunk. If we harm another, their soul dies back just a little bit. If we fill their minds with meaningless drivel, their soul starves.

However, if we point them toward God, we give their soul new life. If we teach them a bit about how much God loves them, we give their soul food to grow. If we do something that helps them see God’s love clearer, their soul will grow like a plant that is watered and sitting in the sunlight.

And furthermore, there is a two-way effect here.

If we have harsh words for someone, our soul is killed just a little bit. If we harm another, our soul shrivels just a little bit. If we fill another’s mind with meaningless drivel, our soul begins to believe that drivel and starves also.

But if we point another toward God, our soul gains new life. If we teach another a bit about how much God loves them, our soul grows faster. If we do something to help another see God’s love clearer, our soul will grow joyfully like a tree that sits beside a river in the tropical sunlight.

And so it is important, critically important to our own souls that we listen to God’s Holy Spirit, that we follow what the Holy Spirit asks us to do, and that we do what God would ask in everything we do.

Before we left for the cruise, many of you said I’d absolutely love the cruise. When I got onto the cruise, I began to wonder – what did you think I’d enjoy about the cruise, as a pastor? Was it losing money at the onboard casino? Was it losing money at the expensive bingo? Perhaps you thought I’d enjoy the 15 bars on board – I admit the coffee bar made a good vanilla milkshake. How about shopping at the onboard jewelry and duty-free shops for expensive watches and gallons of bourbon? Maybe you thought I’d enjoy laying in the sun by the onboard pool with rap music blaring at me for hours. Did you expect me to continually cover my face with a book as the parade of bikinis walked by – Or did you expect me to gawk? Or maybe you thought I’d enjoy the Dr Seuss breakfast? Or perhaps it was the entertainment shows led by the guy who must have had a job on a Disney children’s tv show before he came to Carnival cruise – HELLO, EVERYBODY! WE’RE GOING TO HAVE FUN, FUN, FUN TO-NIGHHHHHHT! I wanted to slap him!

No, I came to the cruise hoping for two things. First, to hang out with my daughter, her husband, and their three boys. Second, to find a quiet, comfortable place to read a book, which I finally found in a couple hidden corners of the ship.

And so on this cruise, I began to think about a couple of things. First of all, I wondered – what do these people in my congregation love about cruises??? Should we open up a casino, open up gambling at the church, play rap music in our services as loudly as possible, set up open bars around the church – you pay once a year when we send you your bill – I’ve noticed attendance at church dinners is always higher than at church services, so maybe we need a free buffet each Sunday. Trustees, we could raise money for the building repairs by selling $300 diamond watches each week. And, of course, some of you have told me you’d like me to be more animated in my sermons – GOOD MORNING EVERYBODY! LET’S FIND OUT TODAY HOW JESUS HAS FUN, FUN, FUN!

Of course, the problem with cruise ships is that sometimes they have accidents, like this week when two ships very similar to the one we traveled on ran into each other. When everyone is trying to have FUN for ourselves, we often ignore the outside world.

But I asked a couple of you when I got back last week what you had liked about the cruises you’d gone on. And I found that you liked the service from the staff – rooms cleaned up, food made, a chance for a few days to be worked for instead of working. Naps. And I understood. You’re tired, and so you assume that I’d be tired and want to be served instead of serve.

It is the way men and women in this world mostly feel. We look upon serving others as drudgery, as heavy work, as unfair.

But this is not what we see with Jesus Christ. He did not come to earth for a relaxing vacation. He came to serve us deeply.

When we read the story of Jesus Christ, we find that He left heaven, a place where He was served by the angels, a place where He had the power to create anything in the Universe – want a mint-chocolate milkshake with a touch of pineapple juice? No problem! Here it is! Not even a five minute wait!

Christ left the place where He was in charge and had anything He wanted, to come to earth, powerless, to work in carpenter’s shop for His stepfather, to be attacked by other children, to grow into a teenager, to turn His face from attractive women, to grow into an adult, endure questions about why He wasn’t yet married by age 30, and then endured attempted stonings, hatred, and eventually arrest, whipping, and crucifixion. Why?

Because of the joy of rescuing all people from death. And we’ve seen that ourselves. Nothing beats leading someone to turning their life over to Christ. Can you imagine the joy of rescuing someone from certain death? And of course, that’s where everyone is headed. Certain death. For all people. And Jesus rescued them all from death. All people, that is, who were willing to walk Jesus’ path of holiness. Remember that Jesus told people to believe in Him three or four times, but He told people to follow Him about eighty times. That’s more than asking Jesus into your heart. That’s the first step. Baptism is step two. But there are thousands of more steps along the path, including helping others take the first step. How many adults have you led this decade to the saving love of Christ? Even one?

About ten years after Jesus’ resurrection, people made fun of the people who were following Him in a town called Antioch. They began calling these people “Christians”, which, in the original Greek meant “little Christs”. What a badge of honor to be seen as men and women who imitate Jesus so well people attach the name of Christ to them! For Christ was the Greek version of the word Messiah, which may better be translated as “Savior”. Christians are the “little saviors” of the world. Forgetting false modesty – are you trying to save your portion of the world?

Listen to what the Apostle Paul wrote to the Christians in Rome, the capital of the entire empire:

1 Paul, a slave of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle^[a] and singled out for God’s good news— ² which He promised long ago through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures— ³ concerning His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who was a descendant of David^[b] according to the flesh ⁴ and who has been declared to be the powerful Son of God by the resurrection from the dead according to the Spirit of holiness.^[c] 5 We have received grace and apostleship through Him to bring about^[d] the obedience of faith^[e] among all the nations,^[f] on behalf of His name, ⁶ including yourselves who also belong to Jesus Christ by calling:

⁷ To all who are in Rome, loved by God, called as saints.

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

He has been declared to be the powerful Son of God because of his resurrection from the dead. THIS IS HOW WE KNOW JESUS is God, as He claimed.

Paul tells us that We, the Christians, have received grace and apostleship through Jesus  - WHY? – to bring about the obedience of faith among all the nations on behalf of His name – including yourselves who also belong to Jesus Christ by calling.

Now folks, it is my practice to have a large amount of scripture read in our services. Why? Because it is the Word of God. What God says is more important than any jokes I tell, than any stories I tell, than whether I move my hands in entertaining ways. Do you believe that God’s words are more important than my words?

“But pastor,” you say, “I can’t understand what the Bible says.”

Of course not. You need to learn the language first. You don’t understand the Bible because you have not lived with the language. You don’t understand the Bible because you have been trying to learn the language with a paragraph a week.

My Chinese friends could read English, but they didn’t understand our English because of the idioms. “He drove me up a wall.” “It’s raining cats and dogs”. It confused them. In the same way, when Mary pours scented perfume on Jesus, we miss the meaning because we don’t know the idiom, that this is how the kings of Israel were crowned. We don’t understand why Bethlehem is so important to Jesus unless we understand that King David was from Bethlehem. We don’t understand the importance when Jesus calls Himself the Son of Man unless we have read Ezekiel and Daniel. We don’t know the idiom because we have not lived with the language.

When I was in high school, I took three years of Spanish. Five days a week, we’d study the language. When I went to college, I took two years of German. In particular, the second year, we’d have class two days a week, and have to translate five pages of scientific German from German language technical papers for each class.

It is said that Queen Elizabeth I – the Queen of England just before the Bible was translated into English – she practiced writing letters in English, then translating the letter the next day into French, then the next day she translated the French into Spanish, then the next day the Spanish into Italian, then the Italian into Dutch, then the Dutch back into English. And so she learned those languages – French, Spanish, Italian, Dutch.

Do you want to learn the language of the Bible? Read the Bible every day – study it with friends weekly. For the song we sang earlier, “O Come, O Come Emmanuel” makes little sense unless we know that Emmanuel was the name given in prophecy to the child of the virgin who was to conceive, a name that means “God is with us”. We don’t know the idiom. And with that knowledge, things begin to make sense. And we develop our faith just a little bit deeper because we have listened to God’s Word and understand a bit more today than yesterday because of that connection between the prophecy of Isaiah and the Christmas story.

But instead, we have a deep desire to have FUN, FUN, FUN! Deep down, our natural desire is to run from God. Instead of singing “O Come, O Come Emmanuel” and teaching this and its meaning to our children, we’d rather sing “Jingle Bells” and go play in the snow.

This, my friends, is the difficult part about following Jesus. Jesus walks up a steep spiritual path – will you follow Him up the mountain? Or will you run across the flat and level to be with the world’s toys.

C.S. Lewis pointed out, even back in the 1950’s, that there are two holidays celebrated at this time of the year. And he was ignoring Hanukah, which is a third holiday celebrated at this time of year.

Lewis spoke that there is a loud holiday, with sleigh bells and snow and presents and popular music and family celebrations and honey-baked ham and hustle and bustle and car horns honking in the streets. Jingle Bells, Frosty the Snowman, Grandma got run over by a reindeer, I’ll be home for Christmas. It is listening to the radio, watching the television special, cooking the ham and opening the wrapping paper.

And he spoke of a quiet holiday – a holy day – with a sleeping mother and child, a quiet like the quiet before a thunderstorm bursts across the land, a quiet of preparation, a time of listening to God and pondering, yes, pondering why God cared enough about us to send His Son to earth, knowing that one day that Son would face the shame and agony of the cross. It is the holiday of What Child is This? In the Bleak Midwinter, Silent Night. It is sitting quietly, listening to the wind and the fire, reading the first few chapters of the Gospel of Luke to yourself and your family, discussing it – and asking God what we can do in the coming year to somehow show our gratitude for that child – and then LISTENING for God’s gentle whispered response.

Christian, this is the time of year that Satan is most likely to take us away from God’s Son, to lead us to the path that leads to the world and the loss of our birthright, this is the time when the serpent talks to us and tells us that the most important thing is to have FUN!

But seeking FUN takes us away from joy.

And so, let us return to Chapter 8 of Isaiah, verses 11-15 to hear what God told Isaiah.

Isaiah 8

¹¹ For this is what the Lord said to me with great power, to keep^[h] me from going the way of this people:

¹² Do not call everything an alliance
these people say is an alliance.
Do not fear what they fear;
do not be terrified.
¹³ You are to regard only the Lord of Hosts as holy.
Only He should be feared;
only He should be held in awe.
¹⁴ He will be a sanctuary;
but for the two houses of Israel,
He will be a stone to stumble over
and a rock to trip over,
and a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
¹⁵ Many will stumble over these;
they will fall and be broken;
they will be snared and captured.

The Apostle Paul later referred to Jesus as the Stumbling Block. If we are to follow what God told Isaiah, we must consider only God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit as holy. We are not to fear anyone or anything else. We are not to be overawed by anyone or anything else. For that little baby in the manger is the mighty Lion of Judah, the one through which all things that were created were made. This tiny baby is the one who would grow up and go to the cross to defeat death forever.

Remember this. Behind every manger lies the shadow of the cross – and the joy of eternal life!

And so, let this year be the year where your family moves from the FUN, FUN, FUN celebration of the loud holiday – to the quiet celebration of the quiet holy day, regarding only the LORD of Hosts as holy.

Read Luke Chapter 2 to your family. Explain it. Ask God to show you what you are to do in the coming year – and LISTEN! And join us here with your friends and family at 7/11 pm.

God in the Flesh

As we move into the holiday time, it is good to remember that God has blessings waiting for us. Some people say the way to these blessings is the practice of spiritual disciplines. John Wesley preferred to use the term “means of grace” to describe those practices that bring us closer to God, those actions which we do which result in God granting us grace, blessings in our lives which help us see the reality of God and the presence of God more directly. 

Audio Sermon/Podcast Version

One of those is Holy Communion, which we practiced last week. Another means of grace is generosity with our finances, which is particularly appropriate this time of year. Let me set a goal, a way of allowing God to bless us, a way by which we might learn more deeply what God would have us do with the money God has blessed us with.

As we buy presents this year, we will spend $10 here, $10 there. In some cases, we may spend even a $100 for a present or a set of presents. Let me suggest that when ever we spend a certain amount on presents for loved ones, we set aside half that amount for a donation to help the neediest people in West Virginia. So, for example, if we buy a $100 present for our niece or nephew, we set aside $50 for the needy. And then, when Christmas rolls around, we will collect the money in a special collection which will be sent to the ten Methodist Mission projects around West Virginia in early January to get them off to a good start this year. The money will go to provide food, clothing, budget training, and children’s programs. If we all jump into this, I suspect that we can raise several thousand dollars between our two churches. Remember – Christmas is not our birthday. It is a time for remembering Christ and sharing the gospel. It is a chance to let God show us that giving to the needy helps you come closer to God.

One of the types of people we pastors run into is the person who likes to play word games, who likes to argue just for the sake of arguing, who looks at God’s issues of eternal life and death as just a fun mental game. This is the person who asks you, “If God is all-powerful, can God make a rock so heavy God can’t lift it?” Or “Can God change His mind?” Or, “If God knows everything, can God create a puzzle He can’t solve?”

And, of course, the answer is that God can do all these things – if God wants to, because God created logic, and God can create any form of logic that God wants to – including the ability to resolve paradoxes that are impossible for humans stuck in Aristotelian logic to solve. It’s like playing God a game of checkers – you forgot before you decided to play that God created the board and can rearrange the board if God wants to. God can even win at tik-tac-toe all the time, even though I could play tic-tac-toe in a way that you could never win. If you are a good player, we’d draw most of the time – but God can win, if only because God can outlast us.

Jesus ran into a handful of these jokers one day in our reading from Luke 20:27-38. They were Sadducees. (Audio Gospel) 

There were four major groups of Jews at the time of Jesus – The Pharisees, who were focused upon a strict interpretation of the Law of Moses, acting right and doing right. The Pharisees liked to twist you up, because no matter who good you were, they could always find another way to show you that you’d been sinning. You were always working so very hard to be a good Jew if you listened to the Pharisees. The Pharisees seemed to hate ordinary people because ordinary people sinned so much. Have you ever been in a church with modern day Pharisees?

The second group were the Zealots, to whom begin Jewish was a patriotic issue. The Zealots hated the Romans and people who helped the Romans in any manner. For them, Jewishness was wrapped up in the nation and national symbols. For them, Jewish holidays were first and foremost national holidays. Have you ever been in a church where the American flag and Christianity were too tied up together?

The third group were the Essenes, who were focused upon a personal relationship with God. They had a community by the Dead Sea where the would retreat to and study scripture, withdrawing from the world around them. They hated the other groups because they paid too much attention to the world. Today, we have similar Christians, people  of various denominations who become monk-like or nun-like and go off on retreat every few months, people who withdraw from the world as much as possible.

And then, there were Sadducees. The Sadducees were concerned with proper worship, for they were the group that controlled the Temple. Bring your lamb for sacrifice on the proper days, your wheat and barley for sacrifice. The Sadducees were most upset at people who stayed at home on the festival days, who did not come properly prepared to the sacrifices, who tried to cheapen their sacrifices. We have Christian groups today where proper worship is the most important thing, don’t we? And the Sadducees believed that only the first five books of the Bible were sacred, and because of this, they did not believe in a resurrection. That was why they were sad, you see.

A group of Sadducees began to question Jesus with one of those logical traps like I mentioned at the start of this talk. In this case, following Jewish law, when a man died, his brother married the widow. He died and the next brother married her, etc, etc. until seven brothers had taken turns marrying the woman. Then, they were all dead and were supposedly resurrected, and so the question was “Whose wife was she?” This, according to the Sadducees, proved that there can’t be a resurrection.

You can almost see Jesus looking at them with a grin on his face, as if to say, “You guys don’t give God much credit, do you?”

34 Jesus told them, “The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage.

Marriage, he said, is an earthly custom. You can almost see him thinking, “do I explain to them that it’s only because life is so tough on earth that women need husbands and men need wives?”

But Jesus just goes on and tells them:

35 But those who are counted worthy to take part in that age and in the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage.”

Marriage is not needed in the resurrection. Why?

36 For they cannot die anymore, because they are like angels and are sons of God, since they are sons of the resurrection.

Once you are resurrected, you can’t die! Marriage is a way to keep people living longer on earth because it is so hard to work a farm with wooden tools in a land with poor soils without much water with unimproved seeds. If you can’t die, you don’t worry so much about these things. Modern day people, consider what you would stop doing if you weren’t worrying so much about dying?

What would you stop doing if you knew you live forever?......

But what about love? Jesus asks us to love all people. If we lived in a world where people truly loved each other, there would be no need for a special person to love, because we’d all love each other, feel secure in that love, and wouldn’t need the special relationship with a wife or husband, because all relationships would be special. Marriage would not be necessary because the entire Body of Christ would be part of us all. But Jesus is mainly concerned here with proving the resurrection against those who would play logic games with words and laws.

So Jesus goes back to the Book of Exodus, the second book of the Bible, a book the Sadducees accepted as holy scripture. Jesus said:

Moses even indicated in the passage about the burning bush that the dead are raised, where he calls the Lord the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.
Jesus is focusing here on the tense, which is the present tense. The Lord is the God of Abraham and is the God of Isaac and is the God of Jacob. Moses didn’t say, “The Lord WAS the God of Abraham and then was the God of Isaac and then was the God of Jacob.” No, he speaks as if they are all alive – Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob – at the same time, even the same time as Moses.

And Jesus concludes:

He is not God of the dead but of the living, because all are living to Him.”

God exists outside of time. But what does that mean?

Let me use the example of a modern video game. Many of the better modern video games record every move of the game. Then, at the end of the game, players and friends can go back and watch the game again at any part of the game. Players who were in one region of the game can even watch a totally different region of the game’s action. If the original run of the game is normal time, we can say that the players and friends who watch the re-runs of the game are “outside of time”, for they can watch any part of the game from any different viewing angle.

Perhaps this is how God is situated versus our Universe. Since God can see any part of time or space, God is outside of our normal time and space, able to insert Himself into any location in the Universe, from the moment of Creation to the end of the age. For God, the entire Universe is known, from beginning to end. For God, we are all living to Him constantly. 

How about angels?

There are many people in this world who believe that when we die, our soul floats up to Heaven, where we are given wings and become angels. This, my friends, is a myth, a fairy tale, a lie. It is Hollywood fantasy, a mistaken understanding of death that is part medieval Catholicism, part ancient Jewish myths, and part Christian Science belief modified for the benefit of those who make money off of movies.

No human ever becomes an angel. Angels are the created servants of the House of God. We are God’s children, and while the angels protect us and guide us today, they are the servants. When we reach our maturity, they shall serve us also. It is this future servitude that may explain why Lucifer, the greatest of the angels, fell in rebellion to God and became Satan, the enemy of God and humans.

Flitting around in the sky on angel’s wings is a fun fantasy.

But this ignores the reality of the real resurrection. For the standard belief of Christians since the earliest days is that we are resurrected. It is not just our spirits who come alive again, but our bodies also. For just as there are three parts to God – God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit – there are three parts to every human – our soul, our body, and our spirit.

In baptism, our spirit is taken over by the Holy Spirit, and this gives us the potential for eternal life with God. When we die a natural death, our body decays, our soul sleeps for a time, and the Holy Spirit stays with us, like a pilot light burning, until it is time for the general resurrection. And at that time, the creative power of God the Father, directed by the wisdom of Christ who is God the Son, and pulled together by the Holy Spirit, pulls us together again from all the atoms and molecules of the Universe and we shall walk again in the flesh in front of Jesus Christ, just as Job declared in Job 19:

But I know my living Redeemer,
and He will stand on the dust at last.
Even after my skin has been destroyed,
yet I will see God in my flesh.
I will see Him myself;
my eyes will look at Him, and not as a stranger. (HCSB)

Who was Job? His story is told in the Old Testament Book of Job. He was a man who loved God, who cared what God thought of him and his family, whom God allowed Satan to torment by killing his family and destroying his wealth, all in one day. God even allowed Satan to give Job a skin infection which itched like crazy. For God wanted to teach Satan the lesson that some men will have faith to the end. And so Job’s four friends came to him, asking him how Job had sinned, how he had offended God. But Job maintained that he had not sinned. He held that God must have his reasons, that God must be good, but that Job had also been good. Job held onto the hope, the faith, that in the end,

But I know my living Redeemer,
and He will stand on the dust at last.
Even after my skin has been destroyed,
yet I will see God in my flesh.
I will see Him myself;
my eyes will look at Him, and not as a stranger.

The Book of Job records that God restored Job, with a larger family and even more wealth in the end. And Job faith was rewarded with words directly from God while he was alive.

But when and how will we see God in our flesh? Paul tells us in 2 Thessalonians 2:

Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to Him: We ask you, brothers, not to be easily upset in mind or troubled, either by a spirit or by a message or by a letter as if from us, alleging that the Day of the Lord has come.
In other words, don’t fall for the people who are constantly saying that the end of the world is coming next June 21st or April 10th, or at the next election. (My son points out that the end of the world has been declared five times just in his life!) Paul tells us:

“Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way. For that day will not come unless the apostasy comes first and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction. He opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he sits in God’s sanctuary, publicizing that he himself is God.

A huge percentage of Christians must turn away from God. I know that studies show that the percentage of people in America claiming to be Christian has declined from 90% to 80% to 65% today. But this is mainly the result of people being raised in families who were Christian in name only, people who confused Christianity with politics, people whose parents claimed to be Christian but rarely or never attended church, people whose parents may have attended church but never had time for Bible Studies, people who thought that being a Christian meant you “believed in God” – and then kept God as a nice idea about a nice grandfather who gave you everything you wanted as long as you tried to be good, even if you had some strong issues you needed to work on. 

In other words, these folks that have finally announced they are not Christians are simply telling the truth for once, for many have decided that their political beliefs are stronger than their adherence to standard Christian belief. For deep down, they have felt that Christianity is all about being a good person, whatever society meant by that, and now that society has moved from standard Christian belief, they have too. For they were never truly believers in the death and resurrection of Christ to begin with. They never grasped the central importance of that story.

On the other hand, the "great apostasy" is when people who are dedicated Christian believers will turn away from Christ because they will see a man or demon who claims to be Christ sit in a new Temple and declare that he himself is God, and he will not be Jesus Christ.

Paul tells us more, though:

But we must always thank God for you, brothers loved by the Lord, because from the beginning God has chosen you for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and through belief in the truth. He called you to this through our gospel, so that you might obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, brothers, stand firm and hold to the traditions you were taught, either by our message or by our letter.

Salvation is not a simple belief in a god. Salvation begins with the belief that Jesus Christ is the Son of God Himself, God walking upon the earth in a complex manner. Salvation begins when we understand that Jesus died to pay the penalties for all of our sins, that His death was His choice and sacrifice, that his resurrection proved He was and is God as He claimed. Salvation continues as we receive the Holy Spirit at baptism and that Spirit leads us along the path of holiness to sanctification, our setting aside to holiness.

The Gospel, the good news of the story of Jesus Christ, is how we are called to salvation. And we are saved to obtain the same glory that our Lord Jesus Christ has, a glory where people point to us and say “Christ lives in him” or “Christ lives in her”. 

It has happened throughout the ages to other men and women who chose to follow Christ ever so closely, who sought the means of grace where they could learn about Jesus, where they could receive blessings from God, where they deliberately tried the uncomfortable so they could lean to rely more upon God than upon their employers, their government, even upon their families. They gave away their last money and God restored it to them. They spent valuable time praying instead of doing and God granted their prayers. They sacrificed their spare evenings to visit friends in the hospital and were blessed with the inspiration that comes from watching someone closer to God than themselves.

• The Christianity that Jesus taught calls us to has a standard of behavior more stringent than any Pharisee asked for, for our standard of behavior includes our thoughts, yet Jesus always forgives us when we mess up. 
• The Christianity that Jesus taught calls us to make sacrifices more intense than any Sadducee ever thought about making, for we don't sacrifice lambs or goats or cattle, but sacrifice our lives for others. 
• Jesus’ Christianity calls for a patriotism more intense than any Zealot, for it is the patriotism for God's Kingdom that calls for the defeat of all evil, and the love of all good, no matter the country of origin. 
• And Jesus’ Christianity calls us for a closer walk with God than any Essene had, for it calls for us to accept God’s Holy Spirit inside us, listening to that still small voice every day, indeed, every hour. 

And Jesus loved all people. All people. He asks us to find God and love God – as well as all people. 

To find God, we must leave the world’s ideas of success behind and spend time seeking God through the story of His Son. 

• We must go beyond the front porch of Christianity and follow Jesus into His home made from fine scripture and the gossamer strands of prayers said. 
• We must follow Jesus into the workshed behind the house where He has made you the fine chair made from the tree of life. 
• We must follow Him into His garden where He has set up the special view of the white dove’s nest and the blood-red poppies that only His closest friends are shown. 
• We must try on the crown of thorns and carry the cross to feel the pain and the weight that He felt and carried so we can enjoy his fish cooked over red-hot coals on the lakeshore, and listen to Him talk about the joys of fishing for men and women. 
• We must deeply understand the joy of sacrifice for others that made Him go to the cross, the great sadness of the first garden, and the joy and wonder of the resurrection that He experienced that first Easter morning. 
• We will not learn these things here on the front porch of His home. We must enter His home of our own choice, our desire to learn more of God, our wish to know the deepest secrets of Jesus. 

But this is a choice. Those who choose to follow Jesus completely will find they cannot turn back. As if we would ever want to turn back from the greatest beauty in all creation.

And so, expect Christ one day. Expect the physical resurrection of your body one day. You will walk once again and see God in your flesh. But also expect a great impostor of Christ one day. Learn to listen to the Holy Spirit and read your Holy Scripture, that you may become sanctified and not deceived. 

Practice your Christianity by loving others, doing acts of loving kindness, by giving to others, and most of all, by teaching others the Good News about Jesus Christ.

And you will obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ, oh saint of God. Let the love of Christ and others fill your heart and life, beginning today. Become the Body of Christ, and say once more, as Job did:

But I know my living Redeemer,
and He will stand on the dust at last.
Even after my skin has been destroyed,
yet I will see God in my flesh.
I will see Him myself;
my eyes will look at Him, and not as a stranger.
My heart longs within me.

And you will obtain the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ.