The Local Christendom Podcast with Aaron Ventura

Sermon: Render To Caesar (Mark 12:13-17)

Render to CaesarSunday, January 7th, 2024Christ Covenant Church – Centralia, WA
Mark 12:13-17
13 And they send unto him certain of the Pharisees and of the Herodians, to catch him in his words. 14 And when they were come, they say unto him, Master, we know that thou art true, and carest for no man: for thou regardest not the person of men, but teachest the way of God in truth: Is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar, or not? 15 Shall we give, or shall we not give? But he, knowing their hypocrisy, said unto them, Why tempt ye me? bring me a penny, that I may see it. 16 And they brought it. And he saith unto them, Whose is this image and superscription? And they said unto him, Caesar’s. 17 And Jesus answering said unto them, Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s. And they marvelled at him.
Prayer
O Father, we praise You for impressing upon our soul the image of the Holy Trinity. We thank you for creating us in your image and likeness, and for writing upon our foreheads the Name that is above all names. We thank you also for ordaining the governing powers that be, and we ask that you would establish them in righteousness so that instead of groaning your people might rejoice. Teach us to render to each man what is their due, but most of all to give back to you our very selves, whole and entire. We ask for Your Spirit now in Jesus’ name, Amen.
Introduction
It is Tuesday of Passion week in Mark’s gospel, andJesus is continuing to faceoff against the Jewish authorities in the temple. And it is these interactions that will provoke and bring about Jesus’ crucifixion a few days later.
Recall that Jesus has just cleansed the court of the Gentiles, which was to be a place of prayer for all nations. He then masterfully refuted their questioning of where his authority comes from (from God or from man) by standing in solidarity with John the Baptist. Where John’s authority came from, so also Christ’s. And then last week we saw that Jesus prophesied the destruction of the Jewish leaders/husbandmen in the parable of the vineyard.
What was the sin of these husbandmen/tenants in the vineyard? It was twofold, first they were stealing God’s stuff, not giving to God the tribute or fruit He deserved. And second, they were killing the prophets and messengers that God had sent to them. They refused John the Baptist, and now they are refusing God himself in Jesus Christ.
Malachi 3:1-3 prophesies of both John and Jesus’ ministry in these terms: “Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: And the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, Even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: Behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts. But who may abide the day of his coming? And who shall stand when he appeareth? For he is like a refiner’s fire, and like fullers’ soap: And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: And he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, That they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness.”
What is Jesus doing in these arguments with the Jews? He is purifying the sons of Levi (the priests, the scribes, the elders). He is coming like a refiner’s fire so that only gold and silver will remain. And the purpose of all this cleansing is so that God’s people “may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness.”
Israel is God’s vineyard, God still wants the fruit of love and good works and justice from them, and He is going to get that fruit one way or another. So God prunes us to make us more fruitful. God purges us with fire to make us more glorious. What destroys the evil in us, makes us more like God.
Now all of this is important context for understanding the hypocrisy of the question the Pharisees and Herodians pose for Jesus, “Is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar, or not? Shall we give, or shall we not give?” Do you see the hypocrisy?
Here are the husbandman from Jesus’ parable who refuse to give God His tribute, they refuse to give God the fruit that He deserves, and yet here they are now pretending in front of Jesus to be torn on this question of whether it is really lawful to give tribute to Caesar or not, as if there is some tension between paying taxes to Rome and giving God His due.
This is kind of like someone who refuses to pay their tithes to God, but then wants to object to paying their income taxes on religious grounds. They claim “no king but Christ” when it comes to paying their taxes, but then they don’t give to God as king what actually belongs to Him. So this the hypocrisy Jesus is going to expose.
So we’ll consider this text at two levels.
First, we’ll try to understand what Jesus is teaching and how it would apply in the 1st century. And that is going to require a lot of historical background.
And then next week we’ll attempt the more difficult work of applying this to us living in the 21st century, where I’ll give a kind of State of the Church 2024 message.
So this sermon might leave you with some practical questions, and we’ll try to handle those next week.
Verse 13
13 And they send unto him certain of the Pharisees and of the Herodians, to catch him in his words.
Who are the they that are sending the Pharisees and Herodians to Jesus?
These are the same “chief priests, scribes, and elders” he started talking to back in Mark 11:27. They are the highest Jewish authorities in Jerusalem, and together they composed the Sanhedrin, which is kind of like the Jewish Supreme Court. They are also the “husbandmen/tenants” that Jesus just described in his parable of the vineyard.
So the chief priest, scribes, and elders send the Pharisees and Herodians to Jesus.
Why send these two groups to Jesus to ask this specific question about paying tribute to Caesar? The Sanhedrin are clearly setting a trap for Jesus, but what trap are they setting, why send the Pharisees and Herodians?
The reason is because the Pharisees and Herodians were theological enemies on some issues (like who the Messiah was), but they were united in that Jesus was threat to both of their power.
Who were the Herodians?
The Herodians likely believed that Herod and his sons were the rightful heirs of the Davidic monarchy. For them, the Herodian line was the coming of the Messiah, and in proof of this they could point to various exploits and actions of Herod the Great, chief of which was that he rebuilt the temple at Jerusalem.
In 20 BC, Herod leveled the temple that was built by Zerubbabel in Ezra and Nehemiah’s day (Ezra 5), and he expanded and beatified the structure into one of the greatest wonders of the world at that time.
It’s also interesting, especially in the light of Jesus’ parable of the vineyard, that one of the additions Herod made to the temple was the construction of an enormous gold and jeweled grape vine that hung above the entrance to the sanctuary. Ancient writers speak of how beautiful this golden grape vine was and so Herod was in many respects, the one responsible for making Jerusalem and the temple externally glorious again. Jerusalem was a real tourist destination because of the beauty of its temple.
Furthermore, during Herod the Great’s reign there was a time of severe famine in Judea, and Herod generously fed the nation and kept them from starving. He was perhaps in some minds like a new Joseph in this respect. And so despite being born from an Edomite father, Herod had a Jewish mother and claimed to be a Jew, and that was enough for some people to accept his rule.
At the same time, this was the same Herod the Great who tried to kill Jesus as a child. He ordered the slaughter of all the male infants born in Bethlehem, because such a child born according to the Scriptures threatened his claim to be the king of the Jews.
So that was Herod the Great he died around 4/1 BC, and at his death the kingdom was divided amongst three of his sons. Herod Archelaus was made ruler of Judea/Jerusalem but was removed after 9 years by Rome for his incompetence, and from then on Judea/Jerusalem became a Roman province and subject to paying tribute to Caesar (6 AD).
One of Herod the Great’s other sons, Herod Antipas ruled over Galilee in the North and Perea (to the East), and he is the one we met earlier who killed John the Baptist, and he is the Herod that these Herodians represent.
So the Herodians had a complicated relationship with Rome, and the Jews had a complicated relationship with Herod. Herod was a kind of buffer between the Jews and Caesar, and while far from ideal, many Jews preferred to be ruled by an impious quasi-Jew like Herod, instead of being ruled directly by pagan Romans.
This is not unlike our situation today in that most Christians would prefer to have as President or Governor, someone who is a professing Christian even if they are immoral and hypocritical, rather than an avowed atheist or anti-Christian in power. Herod was the lesser of two evils as far as many Jews were concerned.
So the Herodians were pro-Roman in that they derived their power and actual authority from Rome. Herod Antipas could be deposed by Caesar if he got out of line. At the same time, Herod was interested in expanding his power to include Judea/Jerusalem as well, just like his father Herod the Great. This is likely what is behind the comment in Luke 23:12 during Jesus’ trial, that “Pilate and Herod were made friends together: for before they were at enmity between themselves.”
So Herod needed Rome, but he also eyed Jerusalem as a place he would love to govern.
There is a lot of politics happening in the gospels and different parties jockeying for power, and the Herodians were one faction.
The Pharisees on the other hand were the more “orthodox” and “conservative” party in that they rightly believed that the Messiah had to be a real Jew, from the tribe of Judah, born in Bethlehem, and descended from David. And since Herod the Great was an Edomite, and had murdered his wife, and many other family members, and Herod Antipas was not much better, it was clear that he was not the promised Messianic king.
So the Pharisees rightly rejected Herod’s messianic pretensions, they knew better, and their chief concern was to maintain their own power and eventually regain real Jewish sovereignty in Judea. So they did not like paying tribute to Caesar, but they had no choice and so paid it anyways.
Summary: Despite whatever theological disagreements there were between Pharisees and Herodians, they were united in their hatred for Jesus, and thus as it says in verse 13 they want, “to catch him in his words.”
What is the trap they are going to set?
Verse 14-15a
14 And when they were come, they say unto him, Master, we know that thou art true, and carest for no man: for thou regardest not the person of men, but teachest the way of God in truth: Is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar, or not? 15 Shall we give, or shall we not give?
Well as it says in Psalm 12:2, “With flattering lips and with a double heart do they speak.” These Herodians and Pharisees set their trap with flattery and false compliments to Jesus.
They say that Jesus is true. They say that Jesus judges justly, that is without respect of persons (he “carest for no man”). They say that Jesus teaches the way of God in truth.
And in all this flattery there is a double irony. First in that they themselves are doing the opposite of everything they are applauding in Jesus.
And second, while they intend these compliments falsely, in reality they are speaking truer words than they realize.
Because Jesus really is the truth. Jesus really does judge without respect of persons. Jesus really does teach the way of God and is himself the way the truth and the life.
So while the Pharisees and Herodians think they are setting a trap for Jesus, they are really setting a trap for themselves.
As it says in the next verse in Psalm 12:3, “The Lord shall cut off all flattering lips, And the tongue that speaketh proud things.”
Now before we see how Jesus cuts of these flattering lips, let us consider the human cunning behind their question, “Is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar, or not?”
What outcome are the Sanhedrin hoping for? In their minds this is win-win question no matter how Jesus answers.
1. If Jesus says “yes, it is unlawful to give tribute to Caesar,” then they can have him arrested by the Romans for stirring up rebellion. “He claims to be a king, and now he’s telling people not to pay their taxes, that is the definition of treason and sedition, therefore he must die.”
A few days later, when they actually do arrest him and drag him before Pontius Pilate, they are going to run this same play. It says in Luke 23:2, “And they began to accuse Him, saying, ‘We found this fellow perverting the nation, and forbidding to pay taxes to Caesar, saying that He Himself is Christ, a King.’”
Pilate sees through this false accusation and sends him to Herod. But you can see that this is the charge they are trying to make stick to Jesus.
2. The other option is that Jesus says “no, it is lawful to pay tribute to Caesar,” and then he loses the favor of the masses who expect him, as the Messiah, to throw off Roman oppression and restore to the Jews their political and economic freedom.
So as far as the Sanhedrin are concerned, either Jesus alienates his “base,” the Jewish masses who want to enthrone him as king and get some tax relief, OR he incriminates himself by saying tribute to Caesar is unlawful, and they can charge him with sedition. In their minds, this is the perfect question with a win-win outcome. Whatever he answers, Jesus will lose his influence.
How does Jesus respond?   
Verse 15b
But he, knowing their hypocrisy, said unto them, Why tempt ye me? bring me a penny, that I may see it.
So Jesus openly says, “why are you testing me?” He wants them to know that he knows that they are being hypocrites.
This question about the lawfulness of paying tribute is not an actual question, it is merely hypothetical, because if any of them actually refused to pay the tribute, they would lose the very thing they are desperately trying to hold onto, namely their status and authority which Rome gives them.
And so at first he does not answer their question, but rather asks them to bring him a Roman denarius (translated as penny in the KJV).
The denarius was a standard issue Roman silver coin (you can see a picture of it in the bulletin),and it represented about a day’s worth of labor (Matt. 20:2). So if minimum wage is $15 an hour, and you do 8 hours of work, a denarius would be roughly equivalent to $120. So it’s not a lot, but it’s something. And everyone in Judea was required to pay this tribute/head-tax.
Now remember, because Jesus was living in Galilee, he was in Herod’s jurisdiction, not Pontius Pilate’s, and therefore this tribute/tax did not actually apply to Jesus. He did not have to pay it. So the Sanhedrin could appear to be asking Jesus this question because he is an outsider, He’s a Galilean. He is a neutral third-party judge who can settle this “intramural question” among the Jews. Does it violate God’s law to pay tribute to Caesar?
One of the arguments that some zealots used against paying this tax, was that the money itself was idolatrous and blasphemous.
Leviticus 26:1 says, “Ye shall make you no idols nor graven image, neither rear you up a standing image, neither shall ye set up any image of stone in your land…”
And if you look at the coin, you can see that on one side is a graven image of Caesar, and written upon it says, “Tiberius Caesar, Son of the Divine Augustus,” and on the other side, PONTIF MAXIM, “High-Priest.”
So on this coin, was a graven image and Caesar was claiming to be both son of God and high-priest. And so the argument goes that to pay such tribute was to break the first commandment. It was to commit idolatry. And no such images should be allowed in the holy temple.
A generation earlier, in the year 6 AD, a man named Judas the Galilean led a tax revolt against this tribute to Caesar, and he is quoted as saying, “They are cowards who would endure to pay a tax to the Romans, and would after God, submit to mortal men as their lords.” The logic of these zealots was that Israel was a sovereign theocracy ruled by God and God alone, and therefore no foreign power could extract tribute from them.
And while that might sound biblical and pious, it is actually the opposite of what God had commanded after the first temple was destroyed (see Jeremiah, Daniel, etc.).
So these zealots were the more extreme “Jewish nationalists” who wanted to set up God’s kingdom by force, rather than submit to the authorities God had placed over them, and the reward for their zealotry was that Rome violently destroyed them. It would be this same zealotry that would spark the final war between Rome and Jerusalem which Jesus will foretell in the next chapter (Mark 13).
So the Pharisees and Herodians and the Jews are all aware that this tribute to Caesar is a touchy subject. People had died rebelling against it a generation earlier, and there was a diversity of opinion about whether such tribute and revolt was lawful or not.
But Jesus sees through this trap, and calls them on their hypocrisy by telling them, “Bring me a penny, that I may see it.”
What is Jesus doing by asking for this coin? He is making them answer their own question. If they bring him the coin, then they reveal that they believe it is lawful and therefore lose whatever influence they had with the populists. If they don’t bring him the coin, then the charge of sedition and disloyalty to Rome can be leveled at them. Jesus has now put them in a lose-lose dilemma.
What do they do?
Verses 16a
16 And they brought it.
So they could have said, “we don’t have any, we have the courage of our convictions and refuse to pay such idolatrous (or oppressive) tribute to Caesar.” But by the very fact of them having and bringing to him such a coin, within the Temple complex, they are revealing where they stand on this question. They cannot pretend to be sympathetic with the zealots or Jewish masses.
Jesus goes further and makes them acknowledge what is on the coin.
Verse 16b
And he saith unto them, Whose is this image and superscription? And they said unto him, Caesar’s.
Whatever arguments they pretend to have against paying this tribute, whether theological, political, or otherwise, Jesus is exposing as hypocrisy.
The fact that they have a denarius, and know what is on it, and all of them pay it, proves that their question about its lawfulness is hypocritical.
Nevertheless, Jesus gives them an answer to their question that makes them marvel.
Verse 17
17 And Jesus answering said unto them, Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s. And they marvelled at him.
What is Jesus saying in answer to their question? Is it lawful or not?
The crucial word in Jesus’ answer is this word “render” (Ἀπόδοτε), which means to give back to someone. And since you can only give back to someone what was first given to you from them, the question becomes, what is it that Caesar had given to the Jews?
For starters, the denarius that bears his image and inscription was only in circulation because Caesar made it so. And what that coin and tribute represented was the many other blessings that Caesar had provided for them, like safety and protection from foreign invaders.
Before Rome had authority over Jerusalem, the region was fraught with civil wars and constant threats from other nations and empires. Jerusalem was geographically located at the crossroads of many trade routes, and so it was a very strategic city that any empire would want to occupy.
So humanly speaking, Caesar and the Roman Empire provided the security, stability, and peaceful conditions for the Jews to worship God and even prosper.
And for those who knew the prophets well, especially the book of Daniel, God had revealed that the Jews would be governed by four subsequent foreign empires until the coming of the Messiah (Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and then Rome). This is what Nebuchadnezzar’s dream in Daniel 2 foretold (the great statue), it is what God revealed to Daniel in Daniel 7 with the four beast empires, and so the Jews should have known that if they kept covenant with God, He would take care of them just like he had in Esther’s day, just like he had preserved them under the Assyrians, preserved them under the Babylonians, preserved them under the Persians, and so forth.
If they obeyed God and were faithful to Him, these beast empires would eventually either convert or God would replace them. Which is exactly what happened in those 400 years between Old and New Testament.
And so when we read in Romans 13, “Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God,” we have restated for us what the policy had always been: Bear witness, be faithful, worship God alone, keep the commandments, and unless the government is requiring you to sin (bowing down to the image), submit to their authority, pay the tribute. Maybe its theft, maybe its unjust, maybe its tyrannical, but it is not a sin to be stolen from. It is not a sin to give back to Caesar what Caesar has made.
Paul says more explicitly in Romans 13:6, “for this cause pay ye tribute also: for they are God’s ministers, attending continually upon this very thing. Render therefore to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honour to whom honour.”
Now it is this second part of Jesus’ answer that really makes the crowd marvel, “Render to God the things that are God’s.”
If the coin belongs to Caesar because it bears his image, what bears God’s image? Caesar. You. Everyone. Everything belongs to God, and therefore we can trust that when we give back to Caesar what God commands, namely tribute/taxes, we are giving to God what belongs to God. Because all things come from Him and the powers that be are ordained by Him.
And so Jesus is calling all of his hearers to not only give to Caesar his due, but to give back to God what God has first given to them, and that means giving to God our everything, our heart, our soul, our mind, our strength, our breath, our time, our talent, our treasure.
And when you truly belong to God and offer yourself to Him, and you know that God is the power behind all earthly powers, including the evil ones, you can live in the midst of a wicked world with “a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith” (1 Tim. 1:5).
Or as it says in 1 Peter 2:16-17, we can live “as free, and not using your liberty for a cloke of maliciousness, but as the servants of God. 17 Honour all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honour the king.”
The Jews wanted to use God as a cloke for their envy, and greed, and maliciousness. The Jewish zealots tried to use God as their justification for rebellion, and murders, and civil wars.
And in a similar way Christians, especially those living under oppressive and wicked regimes (as we are) will be tempted to use God and the Scriptures as a cloke for all kinds of things that are actually disobedience to Him.
So we need to get really clear in our minds what belongs to Caesar, and what does not, and we will work on that next week. But you cannot actually answer that question unless you know first and foremost what belongs to God, and whose image you bear.
Conclusion
Jesus Christ suffered and died and rose again, so that the image of God in you, could be renewed and transformed into the image of Christ. As Paul says in Romans 8:28-29, “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. 29 For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son…”
The life of a Christian, whether under Caesar or under any other authority, is one in which if you love God, He will make all things conspire for your good. And what is that good? That you are conformed into the image of Christ.
There is no higher good or higher reward than to know God and be made more like Him. So render to your Creator the life He has given, and He will give it back to you immortal and resurrected and far more glorious than before.
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Sermon: Lord of the Vineyard (Mark 12:1-12)

Lord of the VineyardSunday, December 31st, 2023Christ Covenant Church – Centralia, WA
Mark 12:1–12
1And he began to speak unto them by parables. A certain man planted a vineyard, and set an hedge about it, and digged a place for the winevat, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen, and went into a far country. 2And at the season he sent to the husbandmen a servant, that he might receive from the husbandmen of the fruit of the vineyard. 3And they caught him, and beat him, and sent him away empty. 4And again he sent unto them another servant; and at him they cast stones, and wounded him in the head, and sent him away shamefully handled. 5And again he sent another; and him they killed, and many others; beating some, and killing some. 6Having yet therefore one son, his wellbeloved, he sent him also last unto them, saying, They will reverence my son. 7But those husbandmen said among themselves, This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and the inheritance shall be ours. 8And they took him, and killed him, and cast him out of the vineyard. 9What shall therefore the lord of the vineyard do? he will come and destroy the husbandmen, and will give the vineyard unto others. 10And have ye not read this scripture; The stone which the builders rejected is become the head of the corner: 11This was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes? 12And they sought to lay hold on him, but feared the people: for they knew that he had spoken the parable against them: and they left him, and went their way.
Prayer
Father, we praise You who are Lord of the Vineyard. We thank you for sending your beloved son, to suffer and die on our behalf, so that we might become heirs of your kingdom. Make us to abide in Christ who is the vine, for we ask this in Jesus’ name, Amen.
Introduction
When God created the first man, it says in Genesis 2:15 that, “the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.” The very first job that mankind was given, was to be a guardian and servant in God’s Garden. God had already planted the garden, it was already bearing fruit, and Adam’s job was to be a faithful steward and cultivator of what God had given him. Moreover, when Adam and Eve were married, God commanded them to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. Together they were to extend the fruitfulness of God’s Garden to wherever the four rivers from Eden flowed.
Later in Israel’s history, we learn that the priests were given this same task of guarding and keeping the Tabernacle. In Solomon’s Temple there were cherubim and palm trees and flowers and pomegranates carved into the walls, so that to enter the Temple was like entering the Garden of Eden again. To worship at the temple was to return to Paradise.
Likewise in Ezekiel’s Visionary Temple there was a river of healing waters that flowed from the sanctuary. It says in Ezekiel 47:12, “Along the bank of the river, on this side and that, will grow all kinds of trees used for food; their leaves will not wither, and their fruit will not fail. They will bear fruit every month, because their water flows from the sanctuary. Their fruit will be for food, and their leaves for medicine.”
So from the very beginning, God gave to man the task of tending God’s garden sanctuary. Adam, like a priest, was to cultivate God’s vineyard and give Him the produce from it. This was instituted in the law by the various harvest festivals wherein the Israelites would bring their first fruits, their tithes and offerings, and offer them to God at His sanctuary.
Of course, these literal fruits were themselves symbolic of the person offering them. We are made out of earth, we cultivate the earth, the earth feeds us, and so to give God the fruit of the earth is to give Him a portion of ourselves.
We offer to God our first and our best produce as a sign that He owns us. We give Him tribute and a tithe to remind ourselves that we are stewards, we are servants, and God is in charge, He is Lord, He is master, and to Him belongs all things.
If we were to survey the entirety of Scripture, we would learn that human beings are signified by different kinds of plants and trees. Perhaps most famously in Psalm 1, we read that the person who meditates upon the law of God day and night is, “like a tree planted by the rivers of water, That bringeth forth his fruit in his season; His leaf also shall not wither; And whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. The ungodly are not so: But are like the chaff which the wind driveth away.”
So in the Bible, there are wicked men who are thorns and thistles, chaff and bramble bushes. And then there are the godly, the saints, who are as cedars of Lebanon, as pillars in the house of God, as Jachin and Boaz at the entrance of the temple. Or they are as Esther, whose name is Hadassah which refers to the humble and fair myrtle tree. Or they are as children who grow up like olive trees around the table. Or as Psalm 144:12 prays, “That our sons may be as plants grown up in their youth; That our daughters may be as pillars, Sculptured in palace style.”
So from Genesis to Revelation, human beings are portrayed as different kinds of plants and trees. And the nation of Israel itself is identified among other things as the vineyard of God.
We heard in Isaiah 5:7 that God says, “For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, And the men of Judah are His pleasant plant. He looked for justice, but behold, oppression; For righteousness, but behold, a cry for help.”
So people are trees, the vineyard is the nation of Israel, and what is the fruit that God desires? In Isaiah 5 it is justice and righteousness.
In Galatians 5 Paul expands this saying that “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.” This is what means to bear fruit for God.
When God placed Adam in the Garden to tend and keep it, he put him there to bear spiritual fruit. And the test for Adam was to obey God, by not stealing fruit from one forbidden tree. This test, Adam and Eve failed, and the history of Israel in the Old Testament is the story of many sons and daughters of Adam failing again and again.
So when Jesus comes along and tells this parable of the vineyard, we find that unlike some of Jesus’ other parables, this one is pretty easy to understand. So easy that even the scribes and Pharisees and elders can interpret it.
So this morning I want to consider this parable from two different perspectives:
First, we’ll consider it in its original historical setting as a judgment from Jesus upon the leaders in Jerusalem.
Second, we’ll apply this parable to the church today because we are now the vineyard of the Lord.
So we’ll look at this parable first as it applies to Jesus audience, and then as it applies to us.
#1 – Exposition of the Text
Verse 1
1And he began to speak unto them by parables. A certain man planted a vineyard, and set an hedge about it, and digged a place for the winevat, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen, and went into a far country.
So let’s identify the different characters and figures in this allegory.
Who is the “certain man” who planted the vineyard? This is God, and specifically God the Father. He is later called the Lord of the Vineyard who sends his well-beloved son.
What is the “hedge” around the vineyard? Most likely this refers to the law of God which separated Israel from the nations, or perhaps the angels who were ordained to administer that covenant. Paul says in Galatians 3:19, “What purpose then does the law serve? It was added because of transgressions, till the Seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was appointed through angels by the hand of a mediator.”
So this hedge around the vineyard might be the law, it might be the angels, whatever the case, there is a hedge of protection around this vineyard.
What about the winevat? A winevat is a place where grapes are treaded and crushed into liquid. The winevat holds the blood of the grapes. In Isaiah 63:2-3 we read of God trampling his enemies “like a man treadeth in the winevat.” Since this is the place where the blood of the grapes is poured out, this is almost certainly a reference to the altar of sacrifice in the temple court.
As for the “tower” in the vineyard, this likely refers to the temple and sanctuary, which was the center of the nation and the high place to which all of Israel looked.In the parable,this tower would have functioned as a place to oversee what is happening in the vineyard.
What about the “husbandmen (γεωργοῖς)”? Who are they? A husbandman is a farmer, specifically a vine dresser in this case, and they are contract workers or tenants who lease the land from the owner in exchange for giving the owner a certain amount of fruit as rent.
By the end of this parable, the scribes, pharisees, and elders recognize that Jesus is talking about them. They are husbandmen, they are the God-ordained authority figures in Jerusalem who have been entrusted to guard and keep the people. They are the shepherds, they are the farmers, they are the overseers of God’s property. But they are renters/tenants who have contractual obligations to the owner while he is away in a far country.
So that’s the basic setup. Let us see now how this plays out.
Verses 2-5
2And at the season he sent to the husbandmen a servant, that he might receive from the husbandmen of the fruit of the vineyard. 3And they caught him, and beat him, and sent him away empty. 4And again he sent unto them another servant; and at him they cast stones, and wounded him in the head, and sent him away shamefully handled. 5And again he sent another; and him they killed, and many others; beating some, and killing some.
Who are these servants that the Lord of the Vineyard sends? They are the prophets. Prophets are the ones who enforce the law of the covenant when it is not being kept.
Ordinarily, the husbandmen would be doing this (this is their job). But when the priests, and scribes and elders are failing in this duty, God raises up a prophet, sometimes from among them, sometimes from outside their ranks, and he sends that prophet to “enforce the contract,” to call them to repent and obey what they swore to do.
It says in Amos 3:7, “Surely the Lord God does nothing, Unless He reveals His secret to His servants the prophets.”
So God sends Elijah, Elisha, Amos, Joel, Isaiah, Hosea, Micah, Jonah, Nahum, Jeremiah, Zephaniah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Habakkuk, Obadiah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi, and most recently, John the Baptist. And the message of all of these prophets could be summarized as, “repent and keep covenant with the Lord.” Listen to how John the Baptist preached this message, and note all the references to trees and fruit:
He says in Matthew 3:8-10, “Bring forth fruits keeping with repentance: 9 And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham. 10 And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.”
So John is the last of old covenant prophets, he is the last of the servants sent by the Lord of the Vineyard to receive fruit from Israel. And John’s message is that if you do not bear fruit, the axe is laid at the root of the trees, ready to cut you down and cast you into the fire.
How did the husbandmen respond to such a message? The scribes and pharisees refused John’s baptism, they refused to repent, and they are delighted when Herod cuts off his head.
Remember the context of this parable is that Jesus has just asked the leaders of Jerusalem, whether the baptism of John was from heaven, or from men. And they could not answer. And so Jesus gives them this parable as a final warning about where they are in the timeline of the story.
Jesus is giving them in story form what he will later make explicit in his “Woe’s” against these husbandmen. Jesus says in Matthew 23,“Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous, 30 And say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets. 31 Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets. 32 Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers. 33 Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell? 34 Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city: 35 That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar. 36 Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation. 37 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chicks under her wings, and ye would not! 38 Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.”
This is the judgment that these husbandmen are going to receive if they do not repent and keep the covenant. And so in verses 6-9, Jesus describes that immanent destruction in these terms…
Verses 6-9
6Having yet therefore one son, his wellbeloved, he sent him also last unto them, saying, They will reverence my son.
7But those husbandmen said among themselves, This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and the inheritance shall be ours.
8And they took him, and killed him, and cast him out of the vineyard.
9What shall therefore the lord of the vineyard do? he will come and destroy the husbandmen, and will give the vineyard unto others.
In Matthew’s version of this same parable, Jesus says, “The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof.”
So this a prophecy about a transfer of power from the leaders in Jerusalem, to Christ and the apostles.The husbandmen will be deposed, they will be fired, andthe Lord of the Vineyard will give to the Son all authority in heaven and on earth, and then the Son delegates that authority to the Apostles as they lay the foundation for the church.
The church is the new vineyard that God plants in Jesus Christ. Christ’s body is composed of both Jew and Gentile, and together, we are as it says in 1 Peter 2:9-10, “a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light: Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God…”
Paul says explicitly in 1 Corinthians 3:9, “For we are labourers together with God: ye are God’s husbandry (γεώργιον, cultivated land), ye are God’s building.”
The church is God’s vineyard, we are now that holy nation who is to bring forth the fruit that the Lord of the Vineyard desires.
Jesus then concludes his parable by asking these husbandmen, the Sanhedrin, if they know their own song book. He says…
Verses 10-12
10And have ye not read this scripture; The stone which the builders rejected is become the head of the corner: 11This was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes? [that is a quote from Psalm 118:22-23]
12And they sought to lay hold on him, but feared the people: for they knew that he had spoken the parable against them: and they left him, and went their way.
So Jesus uses Psalm 118 to sum up the point of his parable. Which is that God himself is going to come to His vineyard in the form of a servant, he will be rejected, he will be murdered by the husbandmen, but somehow, miraculously, he will become the cornerstone for a new temple and a new nation. This is what the murder of the well-beloved son ironically brings about.For “this was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes.”
Well that’s our exposition, let us turn now to apply this parable to us as the church.
#2 – Application to the Church
Just as the nation of Israel had husbandmen/tenants to watch over and tend the vineyard for God, so also the church has elders and deacons and at times civil rulers to watch over her.
One of the major differences between Jesus’ parable of the vineyard, and the parable of the vineyard in Isaiah 5, is that in Isaiah the vineyard was destroyed and laid waste, whereas in Jesus’ parable, the wicked tenants are destroyed, and new tenants are installed, so the vineyard survives. Jesus says, “he will come and destroy the husbandmen, and will give the vineyard unto others.”
So we see in the book of Acts, the remnant of faithful Jews was preserved, they became Christians. Gentiles were joined together with them as the gospel went forth. And the apostles ordained elders and deacons throughout the church to be the new tenants over God’s vineyard.
There is warning then in this parable for all who are in authority, but especially for us who have authority in God’s vineyard. And the warning is that if we are unfaithful tenants, if we do not keep and enforce the law of Christ, if we do not give the master his fruit in its season, then we also shall be destroyed.
How does the Apostle Paul refer to himself in so many of his letters? As “Paul a servant of Christ.” Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, Pastors, Elders, Deacons, we are all servants and stewards who tend to God’s property. The saints are God’s vineyard, God wants the fruit of the Spirit, justice and righteousness must be growing among us, and our job as husbandmen, as servants, is to help make that happen.
Of course, we cannot in ourselves make anything grow, that is God’s job, but as Paul says, one man plants, another waters, but it is God who gives the growth.
So our job among you is to till the soil, to pull the weeds, to prune the branches, and keep our the little foxes that soil the vines. Our job is to make you sure get plenty of sunlight and nourishment (which can be hard to do in the PNW).
How do we do this? This is why we have Reformation Roundtable and Ladies Fellowship and Mid-Week Service and Psalm Sings and Feast days and do counseling meetings and elder visits. But most importantly this is what Lord’s Day Worship is, this is what our liturgy seeks to accomplish.
We confess our sins; we ask God to take away our bad fruit. We profess our faith; the creed is like a trellis for the vine to shows us how to grow up into Christ. We sing the psalms to teach us to how to pray, to teach us how to worship, how to feel and how to govern our feelings by the Holy Spirit.
We hear the word of God read. We fellowship together before and after service. We partake of communion. We play. We eat snacks. This is all light and fresh air that our souls desperately need.
And perhaps most importantly, we hear the word of God preached. Scripture tells us that preaching is like the scattering of seed upon the soil. James 1:21 says, “receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.”
Paul says, “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase.” (1 Cor. 3:6).
So God through his servants, through his ministers, through the liturgy, through His Word, tends to his beloved vineyard, which is you.
Our job is to make sure that you are abiding in Christ and bearing fruit for God. And your job, is to bear fruit that remains.
So we each have our job. And all of us are going to have to give an account for what we did with what God entrusted to us. Were you a faithful member? Are you bearing fruit? Are you turning a profit on the trials and challenges that God has given you? Are you serving the Lord with joy, or do you have a bad attitude?
We have a great and high calling as the people of God. And so look to your branches. What are you producing? Paul says in Galatians 6:8-9, “For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life. And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.”
Conclusion
When you read this parable and see how the wicked tenants treated the Lord’s servants, it is almost unbelievable that after all those deaths and beatings and mistreatment of his servants, that the Lord would think to send his most-beloved son and say, “they will reverence him” (vs. 6).
Imagine you owned a property on the other side of the country. And you hired someone to manage it for you, and had not received a single dollar of rent money in 15 years. You had sent letters, you had sent employees to go and collect what was owed to you. But instead the manager you hired killed those employees of yours and is now claiming your property as his own. How would you feel? What would you do?
First of all, none of us is that patient. None of us would allow 15 years to go by without getting paid from our property. Our patience would have been spent after the first year we were not paid and after the first servant got killed. And the last thing we would do is send what is most precious to us, our own child, to go and collect what is owed from such a wicked manager.
And yet, this is what God has done for the human race. He has been exceedingly and painfully patient with us and our sins. When he tells us his name, He calls himself “slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love” (Ps.103:8).
How many years have you not given to God the fruit that He deserves? How long will you go on sowing to your flesh and reaping corruption?
God sent Christ to give you a fresh start. So take it! Receive forgiveness. Repent and keep covenant. If you do this, you will be saved.
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Sermon: The Fourfold Advent of Our Lord (Christmas Eve Evening Homily)

The Fourfold Advent of Our LordSunday, December 24th, 2023Christ Covenant Church – Centralia, WA
Psalm 50:2-32 Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God hath shined.3 Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence…
Prayer
O Father, we praise you for your infinite wisdom. We thank you for making good on your promise to send a savior to crush the serpent’s head, to save the world from sin and death, and to renew all creation, so that your will is done on earth as it is in heaven. Come unto us now, by the power of your Holy Spirit, for we ask this in Jesus’ name, and Amen.
Introduction
Tonight, we celebrate the fourth and final Sunday of Advent. Advent simply means “coming” or “arrival,” and traditionally, the first Sunday of Advent marks the beginning of the new church year, and then the final Sunday of Advent marks the beginning of Christmastide, or the twelve days of Christmas. It was also customary in the church to preach a sermon on each Sunday of Advent that focused on one of the different comings/advents of our Lord. In Holy Scripture, Jesus is said to come to us in many ways, and so this is a season not only of remembering his first coming to earth as a baby, born of the virgin Mary, but also to remember the other ways he has promised to come to us. And so this evening I want to consider the fourfold coming/advent of our Lord. You can consider this four different advent sermons all condensed into one.
So what are the four ways in which Jesus is said to come to us in Holy Scripture?
#1 – The First Advent: Incarnation
The first, as I mentioned before, is Christ’s coming to us in the Incarnation.
This coming of God in the flesh, was prophesied in manifold ways in the Old Testament.
For example, Micah 5:2 speaks of a ruler who will come from Bethlehem, “Whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.”
Whoever this ruler is that will come from Bethlehem, is someone who also has existed from time everlasting, from ancient of days. Who else but God can be said to “go forth from everlasting?”
Likewise, Isaiah 9:6 speaks of a child who will be born, “And the government shall be upon his shoulder, And his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.”
Jesus is called Wonderful because a single name cannot suffice to describe all his excellency. As the angel of the Lord said to Samson’s father in Judges 13:18, “Why do you ask My name, seeing it is wonderful?”
Jesus is also called Counselor because he possesses the fullness of all wisdom.
He is called the Mighty God because His power is infinite.
He is called the everlasting Father, not referring to God the Father, but to the Son as the one who begets many sons to glory (Heb. 2:10), and as it says in Isaiah 22:21, “he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, And to the house of Judah.”
Jesus is also called The Prince of Peace because he is the one mediator between God and man, and as it says in Ephesians 2:14, “He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation.”
Who else but God could be this child born and given to rule forever? His goings forth were of old, even from everlasting, and yet this eternal Word from the Father was made flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:14).
So Christ comes to us in the fullness of time, born of a woman, born under the law, born to save us from our sins. The God who cannot change, the God who cannot die, took to himself a human nature, so that in our nature, he could die and in so doing conquer death (and our fear of death) once and for all. As Jesus says in John 10:18, “No one takes my life from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again.” Who else can say this but God?
It is this first coming of Christ that establishes all the rest. And during his first advent and ministry on earth, Jesus promised also to come into us. And so we’ll call this second advent, “the coming of Christ into our soul.”
#2 – The Second Advent: Christ Comes into Our Soul
Jesus says in John 14:23, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.”
How does Christ and the Father, come to dwell in us?
Well, first we must consider who we are as human beings, what are the “places” inside of us that God could possibly come and dwell in?
Because God is immaterial, it should be obvious that He cannot dwell in us like food dwells in our bodies.And of course, Jesus says in Matthew 15:17, “whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and is eliminated.” So (transubstantiation notwithstanding) God does not come and dwell in our bodies in any corporeal or material fashion, nor could He, because God is a spirit (John 4:24).
So if it’s not our body that God comes into, well there is only one other place God could come and dwell, and that is in our soul.
In order to understand how God comes into our soul, we need to know what our soul is.
The soul is that which gives life to the body. In technical terms, we say the soul is the substantial form of the body, it is what gives us our shape. So the essence of human nature is to have soul and body joined together, and when they are separated, we call that death.
And yet within the soul, we can distinguish different powers. The highest of our powers are what we call rational/intellectual powers, in biblical terms this is the image of God in us, and is sometimes called the spirit, or the mind, or the heart (1 Thess. 5:23, Heb. 4:12, Mark 12:28). This refers to the strictly immaterial aspect of our soul which we can further distinguish into two powers or “places.”
1. Intellect/Reason, which is ordered towards the universal truth. Our intellect is where we apprehend, judge, and reason. It’s also where we abstract species from our physical senses and retain them in our memory.
2. Will/Rational Appetite, which is ordered towards the universal good. It is where we enjoy, delight, intend, deliberate, take counsel, and choose.
Put another way, the intellect is where we judge what is true, and the will is where we love what is good. And together these two rational powers are given to us by God to order everything beneath them (our appetites, our passions, emotions, etc.).
And it is in these two highest “places” of our soul that God comes and indwells us by grace. Christ dwells in us as the truth that we apprehend and hold onto (we call this faith), and Christ dwells in us as the object of our love, as the beloved is in the lover (we call this charity). When we tell our spouse or our children that they are “inside of our hearts,” this is basically what we mean. In a similar way Christ comes into us, and we are in Him.
Let give me you some examples of this from the New Testament.
Paul says Ephesians 3:17-19, I pray, “that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height—19 to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”
Likewise in 1 John 4:12-16 it says, “No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us. 13 By this we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. 14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world. 15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. 16 And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.”
Notice that in both these texts (and there are many others), God is said to come and dwell inside of us when we have true knowledge of Him by faith, and when we love God and love one another.
So if you want Christ to come and live within you, you must first know who He is in his first coming, and then adore Him. Jesus says, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.”
That is the coming of Christ into our soul. So Christ comes first in the incarnation, He then comes by grace into our soul, and then the third advent/coming of Christ is when He comes to us at death.
#3 – Third Advent: Christ Coming to Us at Death
Jesus says in John 14:3, “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.”
The context of this statement is the immanent death of Christ, and the fear the disciples have about Jesus dying and leaving them. And so to give them comfort, Jesus tells them that although he is indeed going away, he is going to prepare a place for them, and afterwards he will come and receive them to himself, so that they will be together always.
The place that Jesus is going is to the Father. Just before this in verse 2, he says, “In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.”
According to the Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthian 5, our life in this mortal body is like living in a house that wears out, and breaks down, and has issues, and is eventually demolished. We are all fixer-uppers that eventually get bulldozed. And Paul says that while we are in this earthly house, “we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven.”
The promise that Jesus gives his disciples, is that there is a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens, that awaits us when we die. It is the Father’s house, and there are many mansions inside of it. That is, there are many ways in which we will enjoy the infinite happiness of God.
And so for the Christian, who has Christ dwelling in them by knowledge and by love, death is when Christ comes to us with an inseparable fullness. Death is when Christ brings us to the Father’s house, and we behold God face to face. For as Jesus promises in the Sermon on the Mount, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” (Matt. 5:8).
If God is your refuge and strength in this life, then when you die, He will become your home and dwelling place forever. This is how Christ comes to us at death, to receive us into everlasting life.
Finally, Jesus promises to come again at the final judgment.
#4 – Fourth Advent: The Final Judgment
After Jesus ascended into heaven in Acts 1, the angels say to the disciples, “Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.”
So just as Jesus ascended bodily into heaven, so also He shall come bodily back to earth.
This final coming in judgment is described in Revelation 20 as follows. John says, “Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. And there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books. The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works. Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.”
This present life is passing away. We are only here a for a little while, and then judgment. And how you feel about the final coming of Christ, will depend upon how you respond to the first coming of Christ.
Do you believe that Jesus Christ is God? Do you receive from Him forgiveness for your sins? Do you love Him and embrace Him as your ruler, king, and master?
If so, then the final coming of Christ, will be your victory. It will be the day of your resurrection unto glory, it will be a day of crowning, and entrance into an ever-increasing enjoyment of His kingdom.
But if you refuse this Christ, if you do not repent of your sins. Then this life is as close to heaven as you’ll ever get. And that’s pretty sad. So do not choose the lake of fire, do not choose the second death. Choose Christ today, and know that this time when he comes, he will not keep silent.
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Sermon: The Christ of Christmas (John 1:1-5, 14)

The Christ of ChristmasSunday, December 24th, 2023Christ Covenant Church – Centralia, WA
John 1:1-5, 14
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 The same was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life; and the life was the light of men. 5 And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not…And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.
Prayer
Father your Word says in Jeremiah 17, “Cursed be the man that trusteth in man…[but] Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is.” O God, we believe that Jesus Christ is no mere man, and therefore we put our trust in him, as one is who is very God of very God, begotten not made, of one substance with You O Holy Father. We also confess on behalf of our nation that we are rightly cursed for trusting in men, in flesh, in mammon, rather than in God who raises the dead. We ask that you would dispel such misplaced trust in our own hearts, and establish us firmly in the faith once received. We ask this in Christ’s name, and Amen.
Introduction
Merry Christmas to you all. This morning I want to do something a little different than what I normally offer you in the sermon. As most of you know we have been preaching verse by verse through the Gospel of Mark, we started back in April, and have made it through chapter 11. So we will still have a little ways to go. And while verse by verse exposition is typically my preferred method for preaching (because it is easier), it is equally or perhaps even more important to teach the word of God topically, that is where we gather what all of Scripture has to say about one doctrine, and then expound the truth of that doctrine rather than just a single text. Both methods are legitimate, each has its own virtue according to the preacher’s intended end, but this morning I want to give you one of those topical sermons. And the sermon this morning is going to focus on a single question and that is, “Who is Jesus Christ?”
On the surface, that may sound like a rather easy or simple question to answer, and yet history testifies to how difficult this question actually is. Moreover, Scripture itself warns us that there will be false versions of Christ and false prophets and false doctrines about Christ that we must be on guard against.
The Apostle Paul says in Galatians 1:8-9, “But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed (anathema). As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.”
There is one gospel, there is one Christ, and God reserves the strongest words of condemnation (anathema) for those who preach a different gospel or a different Christ than what was already preached to them.
Moreover, He commands the church in Jude 3, to “earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.”
Why? Verse 4, “Because certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ.”
As soon as the truth of who Christ is came into this world, wicked men governed by evil spirits and impure thoughts attacked the truth and began to mix it with many errors. And so the first 700 years of church history, wherein six ecumenical councils were convened, were marked by the church defining the truth, clarifying the truth, explaining the truth, and at times dying for the truth.
That is how our forefathers contended for the faith, and without their efforts, and without their sufferings, and exiles, and martyrdoms, perhaps none of us in this room would be Christians today.
The Nicene creed that we recite every Lord’s Day is the result of a world in crisis over the identity of Jesus Christ. The questions that we ask before someone is baptized, are questions about the identity of Jesus Christ. Your very salvation, your eternal destiny hangs upon how you answer this question, “Who is Jesus Christ?”
And so this morning I want to answer that question according to the Holy Scriptures, and then survey how this truth has been defended against various heresies and competing interpretations of who Jesus is. So the outline of the sermon is as follows:
1. A basic explanation of who Christ is.
2. A summary defense of that explanation from our passage (John 1:1-5, 14).
3. Heresy Parade wherein we will look at and then refute each heresy the church has faced.
#1 – A Basic Explanation of Who Christ Is
According to the Apostle’s Creed, the Nicene Creed, the Athanasian Creed, and the Definition of Chalcedon, there are three basic truths that Scripture gives us about Christ.
1. Jesus Christ is fully God.
2. Jesus Christ is fully man.
3. Jesus Christ is one divine person.
Put another way, Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God who has taken to himself a fully human nature. In theological terms we call this joining of the human nature with the divine, the hypostatic union. The two natures are united in the hypostasis/person who is the Son.
So Jesus is God in the flesh, He is one divine person with two distinct natures, and the divine nature and human nature do not mix, they do not mingle, they do not morph into some third thing, they are joined together hypostatically, in the Son of God.
If that seems hard to understand well it is, but it is in no way a contradiction in terms or in reality. The mystery of the incarnation is not saying that there are square circles, or circular squares, or that 2+2=5. No. There is a real, genuine, and harmonious truth that Scripture gives us about Christ, and the creeds summarize for us what that truth is.
To give you just one imperfect analogy for how Jesus can be one person with two natures, consider that you are one person and you have two natures. Every person has a body and a soul, and those two natures come together and form a human person.
Jesus however, is not a human person. He is a divine person with a divine nature, and then he joins to himself the fullness of human nature, which includes the nature of body and the nature of soul (together we call those two things human nature). And so while Jesus has a divine mind and a human mind, a divine will and a human will, this is only possible because he is a divine person, not a human person.
We can kind of understand this a little bit when we feel tension between our two natures. The alarm goes off in the morning, our body is tired, but our mind says, gotta get up. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. And while we have that tension in ourselves because of sin, Jesus had no sin, and therefore even his human mind could perfectly rule his human body (as we have seen in Mark’s gospel).
So these analogies help us to see that while we cannot fully understand the hypostatic union, there is nothing contradictory about it. We are one person; we have two natures. Jesus is one divine person, and he has two natures.
And what you will find in the history of the church, is that just about every heresy about Christ is a denial of one of those three basic truths. That Jesus is fully God, Jesus is fully man, and Jesus is one divine person. And we’ll see this more clearly when we get to our heresy parade.
Well let us move now to our text and see how the church arrived at these three basic truths.
It has been said that in these opening two verses of John’s gospel, together with verse 14, are contained all the truths necessary to refute every heresy about Christ. If we consider well what is contained in these verses, we will arrive at the true doctrine of Christ.
#2 – Exposition of John 1:1-5, 14
Verses 1-2
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 The same was in the beginning with God.
John does four things in these opening lines of His gospel.
First, he tells us when the Word was, “in the beginning.”
Second, he tells us where the Word was, “the Word was with God.”
Third, he tells us what the Word was, “the Word was God.”
Fourth, he tells us in what mode the Word was, he “was in the beginning with God.”
Together these four statements establish that the Word who became flesh (in verse 14) is wholly divine. So let us examine each phrase in greater detail.
“In the beginning was the Word.” (Ἐν ἀρχῇ ἦν ὁ λόγος)
Our English word Word translates the Greek logos. But what is a logos/word? We need to think about this deeply.
A spoken word is vocal sound that is a sign of an affection in our soul. Before we make any noise with our mouth to communicate to others, first we form in ourselves or conceive some notion or intention of what we want to express. And it is that interior idea or understanding that we call an interior word/logos/verbum. And then when we make sounds with our mouth to communicate that concept in our mind, we call that spoken sound an exterior word/logos/verbum.
So with us and among creatures, a Word is something that is first intellectual, interior to us, and immaterial, it is something that proceeds from within ourselves as we understand something, and yet this Word/logos is distinct from us. It is in us, but not identical to us. There is a lot more we could say about this but for now let that suffice. A Word/logos is first a concept/notion of understanding in our mind.
John says, “In the beginning was the Word.”
Why does John say, “in the beginning?”
This word beginning translates the Greek word arche, (in Latin it is principium). And arche/principium/beginning can have a diversity of meanings.
It of course can refer naturally to the beginning of time. But it can also refer to the first principle/cause in certain hierarchy or order. It can refer to the point at which two surfaces or lines meet (ie. a corner or an arch). It can refer to the beginning or first principle from which we gain further understanding (Heb. 5:12). It can even refer to a person, like a ruler or authority figure, Paul speaks of Jesus spoiling the principalities (τὰς ἀρχὰς).
And yet whatever meaning of arche is intended here, John makes known to us that in the beginning the Word already was, whether of time, or order, or anything created, when those things were, already the Word was.
As it says of wisdom in Proverbs 8:22-23, “The Lord possessed me at the beginning of His way, Before His works of old. I have been established from everlasting, From the beginning, before there was ever an earth.”
So pick your beginning, pick your arche, whatever and whenever it is, John tells us the Word already was. And thus we have established that this intellectual, interior, and immaterial Word is what we call “eternal.”
Next we are told…
“and the Word was with God,” (καὶ ὁ λόγος ἦν πρὸς τὸν Θεόν,)
So when was the Word? Always. In the beginning he was. And now where was the Word in his eternity? The Word was with God.
So here we now have two subjects, God and the Word. They are both distinct and yet together, they are “with” one another before the beginning.
This “with” signifies as we will discover in the next phrase, a union of nature between God and the Word. The Word was with God in that they share the divine nature (they are both God). And yet this “with” also signifies that they are distinct from one another. There is a genuine relation of otherness between the Word and God such that they can be said to be with one another.
So the Word was with God as sharing the divine nature, and with God as somehow distinct from Him.
Next we are told…
“and the Word was God.” (καὶ Θεὸς ἦν ὁ λόγος.)
So when was the Word? Always, eternally. Where was the Word? With God as together and yet distinct from Him. And now what is the Word? The Word was God.
By this identity of Word and God, we are forced to further adjust our concept of Word so that it matches up with everything else we know about God.
So whereas a Word that proceeds from our intellect is both in us and distinct from us, it is not of the same nature as us. Put another way, our conception or understanding of ourself is not identical to who we are as real beings. It is real in our mind, but it is not real outside of our mind.
But when it comes to the Word in God, this interior procession in the Divine Intellect, God’s own self-understanding, is of the same nature as God. John is telling us God and God’s Word are both God.
We can also add that this Divine Word is unchanging and immoveable. Whereas our thoughts and words change and develop over time or are forgotten altogether, the Divine Word comprehends everything, eternally, in Himself, and knows everything through His own essence. God’s Word and God’s Essence are One.
We should also note that however we account for this Word being with God, in God, and God, it does not and cannot equal out to two gods, that would be a genuine contradiction of John’s statement. There is one singular God all the way through.
So here is the beginning of the mystery of the Trinity. There is one God. And yet there is a real procession in the Divine Mind that John calls the Word. And this Word adds nothing new to the Divine Essence, it just is the Divine Essence, the Word was God.
Finally, in verse 2 we have our fourth phrase which is a kind of epilogue and summary of these three statements that ties it all together.
Verse 2
2 The same was in the beginning with God. (οὗτος ἦν ἐν ἀρχῇ πρὸς τὸν Θεόν.)
Just in case there was any misunderstanding about the previous three statements, John clarifies here that this same Word was with God in the beginning. So contrary to Arius, there was never a time when the Word was not. When God was, the Word was also. The Word is what we call coeternal and consubstantial (of the same nature) with God.
And then in case you still did not believe that this Word is really God, John says in verse 3…
Verse 3
3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
So according to Genesis 1, who created the world? God. And here John is telling us that this Word is the one God who made everything, “without him was not any thing made that was made.”
John is really clear that this Word is God. You cannot say that the Word is a lower created being, because the Word is the one who created everything. If it has being, the Word gave that thing its being, “all things were made by him.”
Furthermore, in verses 4 and 5, John tells us that this Divine Word has life in Himself.
Verses 4-5
4 In him was life; and the life was the light of men. 5 And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.
So whatever life, whatever knowledge and light that men possess, it comes from the Word who is God. And the darkness cannot encompass it. The Word is the light that is impossible to extinguish. He is the light and life of men.
And so take all of what John says about the Word here in these 5 verses, and see what John does with it in verse 14, “And the word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.”
Who is Jesus Christ?
According to John 1, he is the Divine Word who was in the beginning with God, eternally begotten from the Father, who was made flesh and dwelt among us.
Jesus is the one divine person we call the Son of God. He has the fullness of divinity from the Father, and a real human nature like you and I, except without sin. For he is full of grace and truth.
So there’s a brief exposition of our text. Let us turn now to consider how this biblical doctrine of Christ was challenged by a parade of heresies. And these are printed for you in the bulletin.
And I remind you that every heresy boils down to a rejection of one of three truths.
1. Jesus is fully God.
2. Jesus is fully man.
3. Jesus is one divine person.
So as we go through these different heresies, you can try figure out which truth they are rejecting.
#3 – Heresy Parade
The first heresy in our parade is Docetism (which is a form of Gnosticism), which taught that Jesus only seemed/appeared to have a real human body, but in reality he was a pure spirit.
Which truth does this deny? That Jesus is fully human, Docetism denies that God came in real human flesh.
Against this heresy, it says in 2 John 6, “For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist.”
Likewise in 1 John 4:3 it says, “every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.”
So contrary to many of the reformers and even the original Westminster Divines, Pope Francis is not The Antichrist. The Antichrist is not a future incarnation of the devil. An antichrist is anyone who denies that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh. It says in 1 John 2:22, “He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son.”
So there were many antichrists in the apostolic era (1 John 2:18), and that spirit of antichrist continues down to the present day in all who reject the Father and the Son, and the full humanity of Jesus Christ. This includes Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Muslims, Atheists, etc.
Simultaneous with various Gnostic heresies, there were also some uniquely Jewish heresies like Ebionism that taught that Jesus was the supreme prophet, he perfectly kept the law of God, and was adopted as God’s Son at his baptism.
Which truth does this deny? That Jesus is fully God. You can imagine how this would be a temptation for many Jews who could not square their Old Testament monotheism, with the belief that Jesus is God in the flesh. And so they tried to split the difference, by acknowledging that Jesus was the greatest of men and inspired by God, but not identical to the One Supreme and Invisible God.
Against this heresy you have the witness of all four gospels where Jesus does what only God can do, like forgiving sin.
So in the apostolic and early church era there were all kinds of fringe belief systems, gnostic and Jewish heresies, but the first real great doctrinal crisis came from within the church, amongst its own leaders, and this became known as the Arian crisis.
Arius (256-336 AD) was a presbyter who taught that “there was a time when the Son was not.” He believed that if Jesus is God, then that makes two Gods, the Son and the Father, and this would of course violate monotheism. So by trying to protect the Father as the one God, he taught that Jesus was an exalted but created being.
This doctrinal division was tearing the Roman Empire apart, and so in 325 AD, the emperor Constantine called for the first ecumenical council at Nicaea (modern day Turkey) to settle this dispute.
The result of this church council was the original version of the Nicene Creed, which stated against Arius’ position that the Lord Jesus Christ is “God from God, light from light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of the same essence (homoousias) as the Father…”
It then pronounced anathemas against anyone who taught otherwise: “As for those who say, ‘there was a time when He [the Logos] was not,’ and ‘He was not before He was created,’ and ‘He was created out of nothing, or out of another essence or thing,’ and ‘the Son of God is created, or changeable, or can alter,’ the holy catholic and apostolic Church anathematizes those who say such things.”
Arius refused to sign the Creed of Nicaea, and so Constantine sent him and two other bishops who refused to sign, into exile.
This defense of the truth and its victory over error marks the beginnings of what would eventually become Christendom. For here in Constantine was the most powerful man on the face of the earth, and he was defending and enforcing the orthodox faith, the true religion.
Constantine knew what many Christians now overtly reject, namely that an empire cannot stand unless the truth of Christianity prevails. If there is a division and schism in the church, there will be even greater division and war in society. And only the true Jesus Christ can be the glue that holds everything together.
This is also just what the first commandment teaches. “You shall have no other gods beside me.” The Christianity that Arius proclaimed was a different God and a different Christ than what Scripture teachers, and therefore it was rightly condemned as heretical.
By the way, do you know what happened to Arius? Eleven years after the Council of Nicaea, Arian Christianity was on the rise, the great Athanasius was in exile, and the church in Constantinople was preparing to formally bring Arius back into the church. But on the day before the ceremony in 336, he was in a public restroom, where he suffered a hemorrhage in his intestines and died.
Christ is the king of his church. And he will defend her from wicked heretics.
Summary: So Arianism denied that Jesus was fully God, and at the next ecumenical council in 381 AD, the church would have to refute a new and opposite error, called Apollinarianism.
Apollinarianism taught that Jesus was God but denied that Jesus had a human mind/soul. In Apollinarianism, the divine mind replaced Jesus’ human mind, and therefore, which truth do they deny? That Jesus is fully man.
This was rejected at the First Council of Constantinople in 381, and out of this controversy, Gregory of Nazianzus established an important principle in Christology that is, “What has not been assumed [by the Son of God] has not been healed.” In other words, if the fullness of our humanity (our mind/soul especially), has not been united to God, then that part of our nature has not been redeemed.
Therefore, in order to secure our complete salvation, Jesus Christ had to have a complete human nature joined to His Divine Person.
Against this idea that Jesus had no human mind/soul, we can point to texts such as Hebrews 4:15 which says, that Jesus “was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.” Or the many places where Jesus does something that only someone with a human mind can do, like marvel (Matt. 8:10), or lay down one’s life/soul (John 10:17) or increase in wisdom (Luke 2:52).
So as much as we must defend that Jesus Christ is a fully divine person, we also must defend that Jesus Christ has a fully human nature, that is our real humanity minus sin and its effects.
The next great heresy that arose was Nestorianism, which taught that Christ is two persons, a divine person and a human person. This was rejected at the council of Ephesus in 431.
One of the creedal affirmations that came out of this controversy and was included 20 years later in the Definition of Chalcedon (which our church holds to), was that Mary was the mother of God (theotokos in Greek).
I’ll read you the relevant line from the Definition of Chalcedon, “He was begotten before the ages from the Father according to his deity, but in the last days for us and our salvation, the same one was born of the Virgin Mary, the bearer of God (Theotokos), according to his humanity.”
So this is not saying that Mary is divine or that she somehow gave divinity to Jesus, but what it does force you to say is that Mary gave birth to a divine person (the Son of God) according to his humanity.
If you think about it, to reject Mary as theotokos, as God-bearer, is to divide Jesus into two persons, as if the baby Jesus who comes out of her is not the Son of God, but rather some other individual. The theotokos title for Mary ensures that Jesus Christ is one divine person, not two persons, and not a human person with a divine nature. This is the genius of the Definition of Chalcedon which goes on to say, “He is one and the same Christ, Son, Lord, and Only Begotten, who is made known in two natures (physeis) united unconfusedly, unchangeably, indivisibly, inseparably. The distinction between the natures (physeis) is not at all destroyed because of the union, but rather the property of each nature (physis) is preserved and concurs together into one person (prosopon) and subsistence (hypostasis). He is not separated or divided into two persons (prosopa), but he is one and the same Son, the Only Begotten, God the Logos, the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the way the prophets spoke of him from the beginning, and Jesus Christ himself instructed us, and the Council of the fathers has handed the faith down to us.”
If you want the best creedal formula for who Christ is, read the Definition of Chalcedon.
After Chalcedon there were two other errors that had to be refuted. One was Monophysitism, which taught that Christ had only one divine nature, so Jesus was not fully man. And then there was a lighter form of Apollinarianism called Monotheletism, which affirmed two natures in Christ, but denied that Jesus had a human will. Both of these heresies were soundly rejected on Chalcedonian principles, and thus ends our heresy parade.
Conclusion
Peter says in Acts 4:12, that there is no other name under heaven but Jesus Christ of Nazareth by which we must be saved. And what we learn from John’s gospel, what we learn from church history, is that it really matters what you mean by the name Jesus Christ.
Even Arius said that “Jesus Christ is Lord,” but he meant something false by it, and so it is who do you say that Jesus Christ is? Confess He is God, Confess He is fully man, and confess that He is one divine person. For there is no other Christ but this, than can save you.
In the name of the Father, and the Word, and the Holy Ghost, Amen.

Lesson 4: Humaniform Structures (The Architecture of Reality: Sacred Time & Sacred Place in Holy Scripture)

Review of Lesson 3
We are in the middle of giving a theological account for how the Bible makes us to say that “God is present.” And the reason we are doing this is because we are trying to understand the significance and meaning of the Tabernacle and Temple.
And because both of these physical structures are symbols of God’s presence, we want to make sure we understand the ways in which God can actually be present, so that we tie our symbols to a concrete reality. The whole point of a symbol/sign is to lead us to the actual thing signified, and in this case, it is the reality of God’s Presence.
There are three ways that Scripture makes us to say that God is present. Does anyone remember those three kinds of presence?
1. Common Presence: God is present in every reality as giving them to be (efficient cause).2. Special Presence: God is present in a special way by grace in believers.3. Hypostatic Presence: God is wholly present in Christ.
We ended Lesson 3 by comparing and contrasting God’s Omnipresence (Common Presence) with various heretical beliefs such as pantheism and monism.
Pantheism teaches that God is the soul of the world, or that God fills the world like the soul fills the body. This is ultimately a form of monism that posits no real distinction between God and creatures.
Both pantheism and monism commit the cardinal sin of making God a creature, either by attributing to him some vast spiritual body that fills the world like air fills a balloon, or by making us all a part of God and one with him in essence.
The crucial distinction we have to make when we talk about God’s relationship to the world is that God is present everywhere as the efficient cause, not as the material cause.
God is present to creation like C.S. Lewis is present to Narnia, in that He gives it being. This is an analogy for God’s efficient causation.
God is not present to creation as the material substance (atoms, molecules, etc.) that everything is made out of. God gives things to be (efficient cause), God is not the material out of which things are made (material cause).
Summary: Acts 17:28 says, “For in Him we live and move and have our being.” From this we arrive at the true judgment that: God is present in every reality, not as being contained within creation, but as containing all creation as giving them existence.
To use the balloon analogy again, God is in creation, not like air is inside a balloon, but as the one blowing air into the balloon from outside.
So that is God’s Common Presence, any questions before we talk about God’s special and hypostatic presence?
Lesson 4 – Humaniform Structures
The New Testament explicitly tells us that the Tabernacle/Temple are figures of Christ and the Church. That is, these architectural structures symbolize the Divine Person of the Son who became incarnate, and the body and bride of Christ that is you and I, the church.
Christ as Tabernacle & Temple:
John 1:14 says, “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt (ἐσκήνωσεν, σκηνόω, lit. tented/tabernacled) among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.”
John 2:19-21 says, “Jesus answered and said to them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” Then the Jews said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?” 21 But He was speaking of the temple of His body.”
The Church/Christians as Tabernacle & Temple”
2 Peter 1:13-14 says, “Yes, I think it is right, as long as I am in this tent (σκηνώματι, σκήνωμα, lit. habitation, see Acts 7:46 and Psalm 132:5), to stir you up by reminding you, knowing that shortly I must put off my tent, just as our Lord Jesus Christ showed me.
2 Corinthians 5:1-5 says, “For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven, if indeed, having been clothed, we shall not be found naked. For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life. Now He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.”
St. Thomas says, “Man is called a mind, since that is the most important thing in man. Now this mind is to the body as a man is to a house. For just as the man living in a house is not destroyed, when the house is destroyed, but he continues to exist, so when the body is destroyed, the mind, i.e., the rational soul, is not destroyed, but continues to exist.” (https://aquinas.cc/la/en/~2Cor.C5.L1.n153.2)
1 Corinthians 3:16-17 says, “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.
Summary: So both Christ and the Church are called Tabernacles/Temples in the New Testament, but where is this idea coming from? Well the idea that these structures signified a person can be found in the very letters of the Old Testament. I will give you just a few examples of this from 1 Kings 6.
Old Testament Hints of a Humaniform Structure
1 Kings 6 describes the construction of Solomon’s Temple. And there we find a variety of anatomical terms for this building.
1 Kings 6:1-5And it came to pass in the four hundred and eightieth year after the children of Israel were come out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign over Israel, in the month Zif, which is the second month, that he began to build the house of the Lord. 2 And the house which king Solomon built for the Lord, the length thereof was threescore cubits, and the breadth thereof twenty cubits, and the height thereof thirty cubits.
Note first that the dimensions are derived from the human body. A cubit (אַמָּה) is about 1.5 feet and is derived from measuring the elbow to the tip of your middle finger.
The original Tabernacle was 30 cubits long (about 45 feet). The Temple was double that at 60 cubits in length.
Smaller items like the table of showbread included dimensions such as the hand breadth (Ex. 25:25). The breastplate for the high priest was measured as a span in length and breadth (Ex. 28:16).
3 And the porch before the temple of the house, twenty cubits was the length thereof, according to the breadth of the house; and ten cubits was the breadth thereof before the house.
Now this is obscured in English, but in Hebrew, where we read “and the porch before the temple” or some translation have “in front of the temple,” it says in Hebrew, עַל־פְּנֵי֙ הֵיכַ֣ל “upon the face of the temple.”
So the imagery is that the entrance to the holy place is an entrance into the face/mind/head of the temple.
Next time, we will look at a few more examples of this and then explore the implications.

Sermon: By What Authority (Mark 11:27-33)

By What Authority?Sunday, December 10th, 2023Christ Covenant Church – Centralia, WA
Mark 11:27-33
27 And they come again to Jerusalem: and as he was walking in the temple, there come to him the chief priests, and the scribes, and the elders, 28 And say unto him, By what authority doest thou these things? and who gave thee this authority to do these things? 29 And Jesus answered and said unto them, I will also ask of you one question, and answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things. 30 The baptism of John, was it from heaven, or of men? answer me. 31 And they reasoned with themselves, saying, If we shall say, From heaven; he will say, Why then did ye not believe him? 32 But if we shall say, Of men; they feared the people: for all men counted John, that he was a prophet indeed. 33 And they answered and said unto Jesus, We cannot tell. And Jesus answering saith unto them, Neither do I tell you by what authority I do these things.
Prayer
Father, we thank you for giving to Christ all authority in heaven and on earth. We thank you Lord Jesus for commissioning the apostles to proclaim your death and resurrection to all creation. We thank you also for the faithful transmission of that message to us living in 2023, the Year of Our Lord’s Everlasting Dominion. We ask now for your Holy Spirit to descend upon us and give us fresh faith and courage, for we ask this in Jesus’ name, Amen.
Introduction
It is Tuesday of Passion Week in Mark’s Gospel.
On Palm Sunday, Jesus entered Jerusalem riding upon a donkey.
On Monday, Jesus cursed a fig tree and enacted judgment on the temple.
And now here on Tuesday, Jesus again comes to Jerusalem, but this time is confronted by “the chief priests, scribes, and elders.”
The charge against Jesus is that he has no jurisdiction in the temple. The Jewish authorities want to know by what authority Jesus is teaching and healing and rearranging things. They want to see his “license and registration please.” “By what authority do you do these things?” They ask.
And what follows in this brief interchange is Jesus exposing the Jewish leadership for the frauds they are. Jesus knows they are hypocrites and blind guides, who are seeking to murder him, and therefore as the king who is wiser and greater than Solomon, Jesus brings the true proverb to pass that “Whoever digs a pit will fall into it, and he who rolls a stone will have it roll back on him.”
The question that the Jews are using to trap Jesus to discount his authority, will end up rolling back on them and discounting their authority.
What wicked men employ for the destruction of our Lord, will become the instrument of their own destruction. This is the wisdom and justice of God, so let us watch as our Master go to work against the corruption in His House.
Outline of the Text
Our text divides neatly into four sections.
In verses 27-28, the Jewish leaders ask Jesus by what authority he does what he does.
In verses 29-30, Jesus responds with a counter-question.
In verses 31-33a, the Jewish leaders deliberate and give no answer.
In verse 33b, Jesus likewise refuses to answer.
This passage is a kind of Q&A session between two adversaries. On one hand we have Jesus, prophet, messiah, populist, and God, and on the other hand we have the Jewish elite and aristocracy. And the scene that plays out here in the public square, is a scene that will be replayed a few days later, but in private, when Jesus is secretly captured, tried, and condemned in the middle of the night. So this scene anticipates the charges that will lead to Christ’s crucifixion. “Who are you and by what authority do you come?” So let us expound our text.
Verses 27-28
27 And they come again to Jerusalem: and as he was walking in the temple, there come to him the chief priests, and the scribes, and the elders, 28 And say unto him, By what authority doest thou these things? and who gave thee this authority to do these things?
This reference to the “chief priests, scribes, and elders” should remind us of what Jesus predicted back Mark 8:31, where it says, “He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.”
So this is the beginning of that rejection that Jesus foretold. Who were these three groups?
The chief priests were the highest ecclesiastical/church authority.
The scribes were the highest legal authority being experts in the law.
And the elders are the highest non-priestly authorities.
Together these groups composed the high council in Jerusalem, which is sometimes called the Sanhedrin.
So these are the heads of the most influential families in Jerusalem.
A modern equivalent would be something like if all three branches of our civil government got together (the president, the supreme court, and congress), and also all the highest religious leaders, the bishops, the denominational heads, the CEO’s of the big publishing houses, and together they sent a delegation to Jesus and asked him, “who do you think you are?”
That is what the high council in Jerusalem functioned like. As far as they are concerned, with the exception of Caesar, they are the highest authority in Jerusalem.
So they are in the temple (likely in the outer court), and it is Jesus and his disciples one on side, and this Jerusalem council on the other. And undoubtedly a large crowd gathers to see this showdown.
They ask Jesus, “By what authority doest thou these things? and who gave thee this authority to do these things?”
Now before we see how Jesus answers. Think about how Jesus could have answered.
Jesus is God, and He could have just said right then and there, I am God. I am the Creator. I am the Word made flesh. I am that I AM.
But Jesus chooses not to do this.
He could have also said, I am Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Mary, and if you look up my family lineage, I am the promised son of David who would be born in Bethlehem. I am the Messiah from the tribe of Judah you all have been waiting for.
But again, Jesus chooses not to say this either.
Why is that?
Think about why Jesus came in the first place. He came to offer his life as a sacrifice for sinners. Jesus says in John 10:17-18,“Therefore My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again.”
So in this great conflict between good and evil, between Jesus and Jerusalem, there is this deep irony that both sides want Jesus dead; just for very different reasons.
Jesus wants to die to save the world. And the chief priests want him dead because he is a threat to their power.
But despite this apparent unity of purpose, the time has not yet come for Jesus to offer up his life. Before he lays it down of his own accord, at his own will, he comes to give these authorities another chance to repent. And should they refuse, he will expose them for the wicked shepherds and frauds that they are.
In a very real sense, Jesus has come as a judge, to gather evidence, to hear testimony, and to see with his own eyes how the chief priests, scribes, and elders are doing. Are they obeying God’s law? Are they doing justice and mercy? Are they teaching true doctrine?
Jesus is kind of like the owner of a company, who dresses up as a customer to see how the supervisors and management are treating those they are called to serve.
As God, Jesus is the owner of the Temple (it’s his house). As God, Jesus is the authority from which the chief priests, scribes, and elders, derive their authority.
And when we get to chapter 12, immediately following this scene, Jesus will give them the parable of the vineyard owner, which essentially makes this same point.
God is the owner of the vineyard, and these leaders are the wicked tenants who murder the owner’s son.
Jesus is like that undercover boss who goes to see how management is doing. And behold, they are all going to get fired.
So they want to know where Jesus authority comes from, and Jesus answers with a counter-question.
Verses 29-30
29 And Jesus answered and said unto them, I will also ask of you one question, and answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things. 30 The baptism of John, was it from heaven, or of men? answer me.
This is one of those great trick questions that makes you marvel at Christ’s wisdom. As Paul says in 1 Corinthians 3:19, “He catches the wise in their own craftiness.” He beats them at their own game.
In a certain respect, by posing this counter-question, Jesus is indirectly giving them the answer to theirs.
Where did Jesus’ authority come from?
Well humanly speaking, who ordained Jesus to the ministry? John the Baptist. Jesus’ baptism by John, at 30 years of age, was his ordination ceremony, after which his public ministry began.
Moreover, who was John the Baptist? He was the son of Zacharias the priest. John was of priestly lineage, just like the chief priests were. He was the miracle son of Zacharias and Elizabeth, who was filled with the Holy Spirit, even from the womb (Luke 1:15).
And so John the Baptist had all the right credentials for a priest and prophet. Remember it was in the temple, where Zacharias had ministered 33 years earlier, that an angel appeared to him to announce John’s heavenly calling.
But despite all these signs and wonders, it says in Luke 7:30, “But the Pharisees and lawyers rejected the will of God for themselves, not having been baptized by him.”
So apart from Jesus’ divine authority as being the very person of the Word, the eternal Son of God, he also hadthis publicly known ordination from a publicly recognized prophet who was descended from the priestly line.
And so in a certain sense, Jesus counter-question is a statement that his authority (humanly speaking) comes from John. And so what you think about John’s authority, is what you should think about Christ’s. If John’s authority was from heaven, so also is Christ’s.
So how do these chief priests, scribes, and elders answer?
Verses 31-33a
31 And they reasoned with themselves, saying, If we shall say, From heaven; he will say, Why then did ye not believe him? 32 But if we shall say, Of men; they feared the people: for all men counted John, that he was a prophet indeed. 33 And they answered and said unto Jesus, We cannot tell.
This Jerusalem council recognizes that if they say that John’s authority was from heaven, they condemn themselves as having rejected God’s authority. They would have to admit that they were wrong, which nobody ever wants to do.
And so they would like to say that John’s authority was from men. They would like to claim that John was a false prophet, or self-ordained, and discredit his whole ministry. And this they would do except that the masses believed John was a prophet and many had been baptized by him. If they say John’s authority was from men, or was false, they would be endangering their own lives.
For as the parallel passage in Luke 20:6 says, “But if we say, ‘From men,’ all the people will stone us, for they are persuaded that John was a prophet.”
So Jesus has cornered them. Either they acknowledge that John’s authority and therefore Jesus’ authority are heavenly, or if they say it was from men, the people will stone them. And therefore, they choose the best of their bad options, which is to plead ignorance. They tap out and concede the question saying, “we cannot tell.”
And then in 33b, it says…
Verse 33b
And Jesus answering saith unto them, Neither do I tell you by what authority I do these things.
Jesus has just publicly humiliated the highest authorities in Jerusalem. They tried to double down on their rejection of Christ by questioning his authority, and Jesus makes them pay, now their authority is in question.
It is this showdown that precipitates and accelerates their desire to murder him. What do proud men fear the most? They fear losing their power, their reputation, their authority, they fear losing the basis of their pride. And with one question, Jesus has threatened all of that.
What was this council’s whole job after all? It was to judge and discern the will of God. And if they cannot do this, they show themselves to be disqualified and unfit for office.
The chief priests were in charge of maintaining God’s worship at the Temple.
The scribes were in charge of interpreting and applying God’s law.
And the elders were in charge of judging and enforcing God’s law.
And so if they are unable to discern that John was a true prophet (as he was), they show themselves to be false judges who have no real interest in the truth.
And so Jesus gives them just enough rope to hang themselves.
Well that is the exposition of our text. Let us make a few applications now from it.
Application #1
The longer you reject Christ’s authority, the more miserable your life becomes.
Take this Jerusalem council as a cautionary tale for what happens when you reject Christ as Lord.
These men were given countless opportunities to repent. They had heard John preach; they had heard Jesus teach. They were eyewitnesses of the invisible God coming in the flesh. And yet because they did not love the truth, they were blind to His arrival, so blind that they murdered him.
For many people, the obstacle to salvation is not a lack of data, it is not a lack of knowledge, instead it is their own unwillingness to admit they are wrong, that keeps them from heaven. Hell is locked from the inside, and it is the pride of man that prevents him from being truly happy.
Do you think the chief priests, scribes, and elders, were happy, joyful, contented men? Is anyone happy who has to constantly keep up appearances, and justify themselves to themselves, and spin lies and believe those lies to soothe their conscience? No. Living in sin is miserable, and one of the first signs of God’s grace in our lives, is that we recognize just how miserable we are without God.
Repentance happens when you are willing to say, “I am wrong. God is right. I am not the highest authority, Christ is, and I will submit myself to his judgment. Whatever he says, goes.”
The Jerusalem authorities were unwilling to undergo a temporary humiliation so that they might be eternally exalted with Christ. And when you refuse God’s will for your salvation, the harder it gets to repent, and the more blind and miserable you become.
The person is self-deceived who thinks he can sin now and repent later. Which is why the Apostle Paul says in 2 Corinthians 6:1-2, “We then, as workers together with Christ also plead with you not to receive the grace of God in vain. For He says: “In an acceptable time I have heard you, And in the day of salvation I have helped you.” Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.”
It is dangerous to presume upon the grace of God. For no man knows when his last day might be, or when God shall require of him his soul.
And therefore, “If today you hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.” Lest you become like Esau of whom it says in Hebrews 12:17, that “when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought it diligently with tears.”
If you refuse to repent now, what makes you think you will choose any differently later? Esau rejected God’s blessing, he sold it to Jacob, and later when he wanted that blessing, his repentance was not genuine, but rather it was a worldly sorrow that leads to death. And we know this because the next thing Esau did was try to kill Jacob. Just as the Sanhedrin will try to kill Christ.
Remember that sin is a liar. Sin is a deceiver. Sin is not your friend. Sin promises life but leads to death. And the longer you persist in sin, and reject Christ’s authority, the more miserable you will become. So make confession. Come clean. Do not do as the scribes and Pharisees, and reject God’s will for your life.
Application #2
If Christ is Lord, then his authority has no bounds. And therefore, your submission to Him must be absolute.
The sin that many professing Christians commit, is that of thinking they can pick and choose which areas of their life they will surrender to God, and which areas will remain under their own authority. They live as if, “Jesus can be Lord of Sunday morning, but the rest of the week belongs to me.”
And what is this but the same sin as the Sanhedrin. They let Christ clear out some portion of the temple, but anything more and they’ll murder him.
If you are a temple, as the Bible says you are, then where is Christ not allowed to go?
If your life is a house, which rooms are “off limits” to Jesus?
Is there a closet or an attic that is too messy to let him into?
Is there a “man cave” where you keep your secret vices that no one knows about. No one except God.
Whatever you have deemed “off-limits,” wherever you are still holding on to your authority, Jesus has come to take over.
Why did Jesus suffer and die? Because he wants all of you.
Why does he call us to repent of our sins? Because he wants you to be truly happy and at peace with Him.
The absolute authority of Jesus Christ is the greatest news in the world. Because in Christ, perfect love and perfect goodness is married with perfect power. And that means, God’s authority in your life is unbreakably and infallibly good for you. There is no room that if you let Him into, that he will not renovate and cleanse and make better than before. It might be embarrassing to let him see what’s inside, but He is the one who already knows.
So drop the front. Stop lying. Don’t double down like the Pharisees did. Open the door, and let Christ in. Let him rule everywhere.
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Amen.

Sermon: The Parable of the Fig Tree (Mark 11:12-26)

The Parable of the Fig TreeSunday, December 3rd, 2023Christ Covenant Church – Centralia, WA
Mark 11:12-26
12 And on the morrow, when they were come from Bethany, he was hungry: 13 And seeing a fig tree afar off having leaves, he came, if haply he might find any thing thereon: and when he came to it, he found nothing but leaves; for the time of figs was not yet. 14 And Jesus answered and said unto it, No man eat fruit of thee hereafter for ever. And his disciples heard it.
15 And they come to Jerusalem: and Jesus went into the temple, and began to cast out them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves; 16 And would not suffer that any man should carry any vessel through the temple. 17 And he taught, saying unto them, Is it not written, My house shall be called of all nations the house of prayer? but ye have made it a den of thieves. 18 And the scribes and chief priests heard it, and sought how they might destroy him: for they feared him, because all the people was astonished at his doctrine. 19 And when even was come, he went out of the city.
20 And in the morning, as they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots. 21 And Peter calling to remembrance saith unto him, Master, behold, the fig tree which thou cursedst is withered away. 22 And Jesus answering saith unto them, Have faith in God. 23 For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith. 24 Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them. 25 And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses. 26 But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses.
Prayer
Father, we confess that there are times when we are as stubborn and immoveable as mountains in our unwillingness to forgive others. And so we ask now that you would cast us into a sea of grace and mercy as we behold Christ entering the temple and exercising judgment upon it. Make us to be fruitful in love and good works, so that we might be assured of our salvation and look with greater hope and joy to your final judgment. We ask this in Jesus’ name, Amen.
Introduction
It is Monday of Passion week in Mark’s Gospel. In just a few days, Jesus will be captured, crucified, and buried, and then the third day rise from the dead. And as Jesus approaches the ultimate end for which He came to this earth, that is, to die and rise for you, we see also that his warnings of judgment intensify.
You see, it is one thing to reject Jesus when he has not yet fully revealed Himself to be the eternal Son of God. You could be forgiven at this point for not recognizing that Jesus is a Divine Person who created the world and created you. You could be forgiven for rejecting someone that appears to be a mere man, and you would be right to not worship him if that is all that he is. But with every new miracle Jesus performs, and every new sign and wonder and teaching that Jesus gives, the more your culpability increases.
That is to say, the more you know about Jesus, and who He is, and what He has done, the more dangerous it is to not obey Jesus as Lord.
It is this rejection of Jesus as God that will eventually burn the city of Jerusalem to the ground 40 years later. In AD 70, during the Jewish/Roman War, the words of Christ were fulfilled that “not one stone of the temple shall be left upon another” (Mark 13:2).
And so what we have in our text this morning, is actually the final miracle Mark records before the resurrection. And as with all of Jesus’ actions and miracles, this one also has great symbolic import.
What is the miracle? It is the accelerated destruction of a fig tree. Jesus curses a fig tree, and the next day it is all dried up. We have to admit that this is kind of an odd miracle to go out with. If the resurrection is the grand finale, cursing and killing a fig tree is an odd setup. So what does Jesus want to teach us by it? That is the question we will be answering in our sermon.
Division of the Text
Our passage divides neatly into three sections:
In verses 12-14, Jesus curses the fig tree.
In verses 15-19, Jesus casts out the buyers and sellers in the temple.
In verses 20-26, The disciples see the fig tree is dead, and Jesus teaches about prayer.
So you will notice that in between the cursing of the fig tree and its apparent death is the judgment on the temple, and Mark has placed these two actions together because they are mutually interpreting, one explains the other. So with that in mind, let us walk through our text.
Verse 12
12 And on the morrow, when they were come from Bethany, he was hungry:
We recall that Jesus is likely staying with Mary, Martha, and Lazarus at their home in Bethany. Bethany is situated on the Mount of Olives and is just a few miles outside the walls of Jerusalem.
We remember also that Jesus just visited the temple and surveyed what was going on there the night before. So Jesus and his disciples arise and set off to go back to Jerusalem, and on the way we are told, Jesus was hungry.
Now because Jesus is a Divine person with a human nature (not a human person with a Divine nature), the fact that Jesus is said to be hungry here is not just because he skipped breakfast that morning.
We already know that Jesus went forty days and forty nights without eating while he was tempted in the wilderness, so the purpose of his decision to be hungry here is to teach us something, and what is that lesson? It is to teach us that God is “hungry” for us.
Have you ever wondered why God commanded Israel to offer him all the firstborn of their animals, and the firstfruits of all their harvest, and to appear before him in Jerusalem three times a year. Why does God command that His people give him a tenth of the increase? Why do we tithe?
Well, it is obviously not because God needs animals or fruit or anything from us. God has no body that needs to be fed. God is all-sufficient in Himself, He is absolutely perfect, we can add nothing to Him. Therefore, the reason God commands us to tithe and offer Him our firstfruits, is because we need Him. We need regular and constant reminders that all that we have comes from God and we are utterly dependent on Him.
Moreover, the animals and fruits and offerings themselves are signs of us, they are signs of our works. When you give a gift to someone you love, you are trying to give them a piece of yourself. Our gifts are meaningful because they represent our love, our appreciation, our devotion. And because we cannot literally give ourselves to someone else (except in marriage), gifts are a proxy, they stand in for us.
And so when God commands His people to tithe and give Him the firstfruits, God is actually trying to give us more of Himself. When we give to God, we are the ones who actually get rich. We place something temporal and fleeting on the altar (an animal that God has no need for), and we receive back from Him something spiritual and everlasting (love, joy, peace, salvation). For as Jesus says, “it is more blessed to give than to receive.” And so to give to God, because he is “hungry,” is really to receive from God what our souls are hungry for.
When we give, we are deified, we partake of the divine nature in that we become like God who is the Giver of all things (2 Peter 1:4).
So when Jesus chooses to be hungry here, he is signifying that God is hungry for us. God desires us, and we ought to desire Him.
Verse 13
13 And seeing a fig tree afar off having leaves, he came, if haply he might find any thing thereon: and when he came to it, he found nothing but leaves; for the time of figs was not yet.
So hungry Jesus sees from afar what looks like a healthy fig tree. But when he gets closer, he finds that the tree is all leaves and no fruit. And Mark adds the comment, “for the time of figs was not yet.”
Now we already know that these events took place during Passover week which is early spring, so either the last week of March or the first week of April.
We also know from other places in Scripture, like Song of Solomon 2:13, that in the springtime green figs would begin to grow, and then by late summer they would be ready to harvest.
Jesus Himself will say a couple chapters later in Mark 13:28, “Now learn this parable from the fig tree: When its branch has already become tender, and puts forth leaves, you know that summer is near.”
So this is a fig tree that looks promising from a distance, its leaves are growing, but when Jesus comes to it, he finds there are no green figs. There are no beginnings of what will become a late summer harvest.
And so what does hungry Jesus say to the fig tree?
Verse 14
14 And Jesus answered and said unto it, No man eat fruit of thee hereafter for ever. And his disciples heard it.
Notice that Jesus is not making the tree unfruitful, it is already unfruitful, and therefore his curse is really just telling the honest truth about the health of the tree. Jesus is like a doctor giving the diagnosis that this fig tree, for all its appearances of life, will never produce figs. It is barren, it is sterile, it is all leaves and no fruit.
“No man eat fruit of thee hereafter for ever.” If there are no beginnings, no green figs now, there won’t be any ripe figs later.
So Jesus declares this and the disciples hear it. That’s our first scene. Jesus sees the fig tree from afar, it has the appearance of life, but when he comes near to it, it is fruitless and so he declares its judgment. And now Jesus, having seen Jerusalem from afar, and inspected it the night before, comes to judge the temple.
Verses 15-16
15 And they come to Jerusalem: and Jesus went into the temple, and began to cast out them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves; 16 And would not suffer that any man should carry any vessel through the temple.
Now it is common for interpreters to see in this scene a kind of divine commentary on class warfare, where Jesus is turning over the tables of the capitalists/money changers because their exchange rates are too high. Or Jesus is condemning the price gouging at the temple, kind of like we experience at the airport. They don’t let you bring any liquids through security and then charge you $8 for a bottle of water.
And while there was certainly economic oppression taking place at the temple, that is not the only or even primary reason why Jesus is turning over the tables.
And we know this because Jesus is not just casting out the sellers (for their high prices, etc.), he is also casting out the buyers. Verse 15 says he “cast out them that sold and bought in the temple.”
Selling doves and other sacrificial animals was actually a convenience for those who had no animals of their own or didn’t want to risk traveling with their spotless firstborn lamb all those miles, only for it to get injured and then be unable to sacrifice it at the temple. So the buying and selling in itself is not the problem.
So what is the problem? According to Jesus, the problem is where they are doing it and why.
Verses 17-19
17 And he taught, saying unto them, Is it not written, My house shall be called of all nations the house of prayer? but ye have made it a den of thieves. 18 And the scribes and chief priests heard it, and sought how they might destroy him: for they feared him, because all the people was astonished at his doctrine. 19 And when even was come, he went out of the city.
There are two Old Testament passages that Jesus quotes here. And when you hear them in their full context, it really makes clear why Jesus does what he does. So I am going to read to you couple larger chunks of text so that we can understand the force of his teaching.
When Jesus says, “my house shall be called of all nations the house of prayer,” he is quoting from Isaiah 56:7.
Isaiah 56:1-8 says, Thus says the Lord: “Keep justice, and do righteousness, For My salvation is about to come, And My righteousness to be revealed. Blessed is the man who does this, And the son of man who lays hold on it; Who keeps from defiling the Sabbath, And keeps his hand from doing any evil.” Do not let the son of the foreigner Who has joined himself to the Lord Speak, saying, “The Lord has utterly separated me from His people”; Nor let the eunuch say, “Here I am, a dry tree.” For thus says the Lord: “To the eunuchs who keep My Sabbaths, And choose what pleases Me, And hold fast My covenant, Even to them I will give in My house And within My walls a place and a name Better than that of sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name That shall not be cut off. “Also the sons of the foreigner Who join themselves to the Lord, to serve Him, And to love the name of the Lord, to be His servants— Everyone who keeps from defiling the Sabbath, And holds fast My covenant— Even them I will bring to My holy mountain, And make them joyful in My house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices Will be accepted on My altar; For My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations.” The Lord God, who gathers the outcasts of Israel, says, “Yet I will gather to him Others besides those who are gathered to him.”
The whole point of this section in Isaiah is that God’s house, God’s temple, God’s mountain, is a place of worship for all nations, for foreigners, for eunuchs, for the children of Gentiles who love the Lord, God says “to them I will give in My house and within my walls a place and a name better than sons and daughters.”
And yet, what the Jews had done is take away those places within God’s house. They kicked out the Gentiles, they erected a wall of hostility (Eph. 2:14), and turned their place of worship into a place for trade. And so Jesus comes to set things right.
The second text Jesus quotes is from Jeremiah 7:11, and I’ll read a few portions of the surrounding context.
Jeremiah 7:1-7, 11 says, “The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, “Stand in the gate of the Lord’s house, and proclaim there this word, and say, ‘Hear the word of the Lord, all you of Judah who enter in at these gates to worship the Lord!’ ” Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: “Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place. Do not trust in these lying words, saying, ‘The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord are these.’ “For if you thoroughly amend your ways and your doings, if you thoroughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbor, if you do not oppress the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place, or walk after other gods to your hurt, then I will cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers forever and ever…11 Has this house, which is called by My name, become a den of thieves in your eyes? Behold, I, even I, have seen it,” says the Lord.”
So Jeremiah is sent to the temple to call the Jews to repentance, and the charge against them is that they trust in the physical temple (with its pomp and beauty and external glory, their “leaves”), and they think that they are safe there, despite all their wickedness and injustice and bloodshed.
So the Jews had turned the temple into their mafia hideout space, their robber’s den. They had turned God’s House into a front for their money laundering schemes. And Jeremiah warns them that the temple is not going to protect them if they are disobeying God, and in fact, it’s actually going to be even worse for them if they remain there without repentance.
If you read on in the book of Jeremiah, you will learn that he is one of the prophets who lived through the Babylonian conquest and destruction of Jerusalem.
And so when Jesus comes to the temple, quoting these lines from Isaiah and Jeremiah, he is putting them on notice that if they do not repent, the same thing that happened to the temple in Jeremiah’s day (their house being left desolate), is going to happen to them.
Jerusalem and its temple, the scribes and the pharisees, are the fig tree that you can see from a distance, and it appears beautiful and healthy and full of leaves. But when Jesus comes to it, there is no fruit. They are dead inside.
This is further proved by how the scribes and chief priests react to this teaching. They could have repented and welcomed the Gentiles back. They could have confessed and acknowledge that what they were doing was contrary to God’s law. But instead, they mark Jesus as someone who needs to be taken out. Verse 18 says, “And the scribes and chief priests heard it, and sought how they might destroy him: for they feared him, because all the people was astonished at his doctrine.”
Summary: The fig tree is a parable of Jerusalem and its future. If they do not bear fruit, if they persist in hypocrisy, no man will ever eat fruit from it again. The temple will be destroyed and as Jesus says in Matthew 21:43, “the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation bearing the fruits of it.”
Well after this judgment on the fig tree and the temple, Jesus elaborates on how this transfer of the kingdom will take place.
Verses 20-26
20 And in the morning, as they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots. 21 And Peter calling to remembrance saith unto him, Master, behold, the fig tree which thou cursedst is withered away. 22 And Jesus answering saith unto them, Have faith in God. 23 For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith. 24 Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them. 25 And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses. 26 But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses.
Now this may seem at first like a non-sequitur. Why does Jesus go from foretelling Jerusalem’s destruction to teaching about faith, and mountains, and the power of prayer?
Well first, remember that Jerusalem is the mountain of prayer. The temple also is structured like a mountain laid our horizontally, so that as you go in from the outer court to the inner court to the altar to the sanctuary to the most holy place, you are symbolically ascending from the base of Mount Sinai to the darkness of God’s throne and glory cloud.
So when Jesus tells his disciples that by their faith in God they can move mountains, this is of course literally true, in that God can do whatever He wants, and if we ask according to His will, it will be done. If God can part the Red Sea, and make the sun to stand still, and rain down bread from heaven, he can certainly move a mountain if there is real need to move it.
Now although it is literally true that God can move mountains by our prayers, I believe that Jesus has something more specific in mind that is unique to the apostles and the 1st century. And that is that when Jerusalem and the temple mountain is destroyed, the church is going to become the new place of worship. The church is going to become the house of prayer for all nations. And this is why Jesus then speaks so forcefully about forgiveness.
The reason why Jesus was angry at the Jews for excluding the Gentiles, was because Gentiles need the forgiveness of sins. And under the Old Covenant, that seeking of God’s forgiveness was ritualized by the temple sacrifices. And so the Jews were actually getting in the way of God cleansing the nations. Instead of being like that river of living water that flowed out of Ezekiel’s visionary temple, they had become like the dead sea. They were ingrown, and hostile, and did not want God’s grace going out to the ends of the earth.
And what we find in the book of Acts, and the rest of the New Testament, is the Jewish establishmentdoubling down on this rejection of Christ. And by the prayers of the church in the 1st century, God did indeed cast that mountain into the sea. The sea is a common symbol of the Gentile nations, and Jesus says in Luke 21:24, “Jerusalem will be trampled by Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.”
So Jesus is giving instructions about Jerusalem’s future and the transfer of the kingdom to the church. As it says in Hebrews 12:22, “you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven.”
The Christian Church which is Christ’s body, is the new temple and house of prayer for all nations.
And Jesus wants his apostles, who are going to be the foundation for that church, to not make the same mistake the Jews made. Whereas the Jews were withholding forgiveness from the Gentiles, exchanging their salvation for worldly profit, Jesus commands the apostles to offer forgiveness to the nations freely.
This is why he says to them, “And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.
And then he seals that command to forgive with a solemn warning: 26 But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses.”
Jerusalem was destroyed because they stopped worshipping God. They rejected Christ, they refused forgiveness, and they turned God’s house into a hideout for thieves. And whenever the church becomes like this, God comes to it, Jesus visits his church every Lord’s Day and investigates to see if there is any fruit on our fig tree. And if there is not, curse and judgment will fall.
The first three chapters of the book of Revelation is Jesus sending letters of discipline (and commendation) to the seven churches. So this is not just an Old Covenant reality, it is something that Christ continues to do today.
If we are lukewarm, he will spit us out of his mouth. If we are tolerant of immorality and false teaching and allow the spirit of Jezebel to infect the church, Jesus will come and discipline us.
Jesus says in Revelation 2:18 to the church at Thyatira, “I gave her time to repent of her sexual immorality, and she did not repent. Indeed I will cast her into a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of their deeds. I will kill her children with death, and all the churches shall know that I am He who searches the minds and hearts. And I will give to each one of you according to your works.” This is what the risen and glorified Jesus says to his church.
Conclusion
Jesus is zealous for the purity of his bride. He wants you to be spotless and without blemish. He wants you to be fruitful and to bear fruit that remains. And the only way this can happen is if you seek forgiveness for your sins, and you forgive those who have sinned against you. That is how you become a Christian and that is how you stay a Christian. It’s really that simple.
So don’t be all leaves and no fruit, lest you dry up and whither. Come to Christ, and He will make you alive.
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Sermon: The Sunday Before The World Was Reborn (Mark 11:1-11)

The Sunday Before The World Was RebornSunday, November 26th, 2023Christ Covenant Church – Centralia, WA
Mark 11:1-11
And when they came nigh to Jerusalem, unto Bethphage and Bethany, at the mount of Olives, he sendeth forth two of his disciples, 2 And saith unto them, Go your way into the village over against you: and as soon as ye be entered into it, ye shall find a colt tied, whereon never man sat; loose him, and bring him. 3 And if any man say unto you, Why do ye this? say ye that the Lord hath need of him; and straightway he will send him hither. 4 And they went their way, and found the colt tied by the door without in a place where two ways met; and they loose him. 5 And certain of them that stood there said unto them, What do ye, loosing the colt? 6 And they said unto them even as Jesus had commanded: and they let them go. 7 And they brought the colt to Jesus, and cast their garments on him; and he sat upon him. 8 And many spread their garments in the way: and others cut down branches off the trees, and strawed them in the way. 9 And they that went before, and they that followed, cried, saying, Hosanna; Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord: 10 Blessed be the kingdom of our father David, that cometh in the name of the Lord: Hosanna in the highest. 11 And Jesus entered into Jerusalem, and into the temple: and when he had looked round about upon all things, and now the eventide was come, he went out unto Bethany with the twelve.
Prayer
O Holy God and Most Merciful Father, we thank you for sending Christ to be the King of Righteousness. We thank you for the increase of his government and of peace which shall have no end. We thank you for His dominion which is from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the earth. We ask now Lord Jesus that by your zeal you would accomplish your purpose of making all things new, even us. We ask for Your Holy Spirit now, and Amen.
Introduction
We have come in Mark’s Gospel to the first day of the last week of Jesus’ earthly life.
Christ’s coming to Jerusalem, riding upon a colt, upon the foal of donkey, takes place on the Sunday before Easter Sunday. And so our text this morning is how Passion Week begins. This is Jesus’ last Sunday before he will rise from the dead and bring about a new creation.
Context
We remember the context is that Jesus has just healed blind Bartimaeus. Already there was a large crowd following him on that 18-mile road from Jericho to Jerusalem, and now finally they are approaching their destination. And while this scene may be familiar to many of us, you may know it as Palm Sunday, or The Triumphal Entry, Mark’s version has included some oddly specific details that invite us to consider this scene’s deeper meaning. So much so that we could almost call this passage The Parable of the Donkey. So with that in mind, let us walk through our text and then try to make some deeper applications from it.
Verse 1
And when they came nigh to Jerusalem, unto Bethphage and Bethany, at the mount of Olives, he sendeth forth two of his disciples,
Just to get our geographical bearings, Jerusalem is situated with the Mount of Olives to its east. The ridge of those mountains rises about 100 meters above the city, so from the Mount of Olives you would have a striking view of Jerusalem. If you wanted to take a picture of the city, this would be the place to do it.
Bethphage and Bethany were both villages that were just outside of the city, a couple miles walk from the temple.
Bethphage means “house of figs,” and this is significant because right after our passage, Jesus is going to curse a fig tree.
Bethany likely means “house of God’s hearing” or “house where YHWH has hearkened.” And this was the hometown of Lazarus, Mary, and Martha. It’s also probably where Jesus stayed during this last week of ministry.
So Jesus and the crowd approach these two villages and the city of Jerusalem comes into view.
It was required by the law of the God, that three times a year all Jewish males who were of age, must appear before the Lord to offer sacrifice.
Deuteronomy 16:16-17 says, “Three times a year all your males shall appear before the Lord your God in the place which He chooses: at the Feast of Unleavened Bread [Passover], at the Feast of Weeks [Pentecost], and at the Feast of Tabernacles; and they shall not appear before the Lord empty-handed. Every man shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of the Lord your God which He has given you.”
So three times a year, there were these caravans of Jews traveling up to the Temple. And it was customary for pilgrimsmaking this journey to sing the Psalms as they went, especially the Psalms of Ascent (Psalms 120-134).
For example, we sing in Psalm 121, “I will lift up my eyes to the hills—From whence comes my help?” and it is these hills of Jerusalem, of Zion, and the Mount of Olives that would be in view as these pilgrims sang these psalms.
So as Jesus and the crowds draw nigh to Jerusalem, just a few days before Passover, he sends forth two of his disciples to run an errand for him.
Verses 2-3
2 And saith unto them, Go your way into the village over against you: and as soon as ye be entered into it, ye shall find a colt tied, whereon never man sat; loose him, and bring him. 3 And if any man say unto you, Why do ye this? say ye that the Lord hath need of him; and straightway he will send him hither.
The task of these two unnamed disciples is to go and fetch a young donkey (called a colt in the KJV). And Jesus specifies that this young donkey is one that no man has ever sat upon, and is presently bound.
Why get a donkey?
Well back in Genesis 49:10-11, Jacob before he died, prophesied that, “The scepter shall not depart from Judah, Nor a lawgiver from between his feet, Until Shiloh comes; And to Him shall be the obedience of the people. Binding his donkey to the vine, And his donkey’s colt to the choice vine…” So rather than a horse, the donkey was the vehicle for Judah’s kings, and by it they signified that their trust was not in horses and chariots (as the nations put their hope), but rather in the name of the Lord. To ride upon a donkey, was a sign of faith in God’s power to save.
Moreover, Zechariah 9 prophesied that when the Messiah comes, he would come, “lowly and riding on a donkey, a colt, the foal of donkey.”
So it is this moment in history that Genesis 49 and Zechariah 9 and numerous other passages looked forward to.
We are not told whether Jesus had already made arrangements with the owner to acquire this donkey, but Jesus tells his disciples that if anyone asks you “what are you doing loosing this animal?” tell them, “The Lord hath need of it.” And when the owners hear that, they will send the donkey straightway to Jesus.
So notice that Jesus is explicitly identifying himself here as “the Lord.” The revelation of who Jesus is has been shown forth already by his baptism, by his teaching, by his transfiguration, by his authority over nature, over demons, and over sickness. And here now from his own mouth, Jesus says that what he “needs,” God “needs,” “say ye that the Lord hath need of it.” Jesus is publicly identifying himself as the Lord.
Verse 4
4 And they went their way, and found the colt tied by the door without in a place where two ways met; and they loose him.
So the disciples find this donkey just as Jesus said they would, and for some reason, Mark wants us to know that it was “tied up, outside, in a place where two ways met.” This is not merely a road or a dead end, this is what we would call a crossway where multiple roads come together.
And it is here at this crossway, outside a door, where the donkey is tied up.
Perhaps you are starting to catch some of the parable.
What do these two disciples do? Theyloose/unbind the donkey.
Verses 5-7
5 And certain of them that stood there said unto them, What do ye, loosing the colt? 6 And they said unto them even as Jesus had commanded: and they let them go. 7 And they brought the colt to Jesus, and cast their garments on him; and he sat upon him.
The donkey is fetched, unbound at the crossway, and brought to Jesus. And because there is no saddle, this donkey has never carried a rider, the disciples place their garments upon it, and that is where Jesus the Lord sits down.
Seeing Jesus now mounted upon the donkey we read in verse 8…
Verse 8
8 And many spread their garments in the way: and others cut down branches off the trees, and strawed them in the way.
So just as blind Bartimaeus had cast off his garments to follow Jesus, here now the crowds join in. They place their garments on the road as a carpet for the Lord, and they cut down branches and strew them in the way. What is signified by these actions?
These are the actions of a people coronating a king.
When Solomon was crowned, he rode upon David’s mule, and the people sang and shouted, “Long live King Solomon” (1 Kings 1).
When Jehu was anointed king by Elisha it says, “Then each man hastened to take his garment and put it under him on the top of the steps; and they blew trumpets, saying, “Jehu is king!” (2 Kings 9:12).
By the putting off of their garments, the people are pledging themselves to be loyal servants to this king. Their garments are signs of their own bodies and their works, and by placing them on the ground before him, they are placing themselves beneath his lordship.
By the cutting down of branches, the people portray Christ as riding high above them, even above the trees.
We see in 2 Samuel 5:24-25, that God’s heavenly army is said to march upon the tops of the trees. God says to David, “And it shall be, when you hear the sound of marching in the tops of the mulberry trees, then you shall advance quickly. For then the Lord will go out before you to strike the camp of the Philistines.”
Likewise in the Psalms, God is portrayed as a heavenly warrior who, “rides upon the clouds…[and upon] the heaven of heavens” (Ps. 68:4,33). And what is interesting about Psalm 68 is that it also speaks of God coming to save his people in a great procession towards the temple, just like our scene.
Psalm 68:24-26 says, “They have seen Your procession, O God, The procession of my God, my King, into the sanctuary. The singers went before, the players on instruments followed after; Among them were the maidens playing timbrels. Bless God in the congregations, The Lord, from the fountain of Israel.”
Well what are the people doing as Jesus the Lord rides upon the branches? In verses 9-10we hear them singing Psalms of praise.
Verses 9-10
9 And they that went before, and they that followed, cried, saying, Hosanna; Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord: 10 Blessed be the kingdom of our father David, that cometh in the name of the Lord: Hosanna in the highest.
The crowds are singing a psalm of salvation. Hosanna is a request for God to save right now, and in Jesus, the son of David, they believe that salvation has come.
The words Mark records for us come from Psalm 118:25-26 which says, “Save now, I pray, O Lord; O Lord, I pray, send now prosperity. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! We have blessed you from the house of the Lord.”
So this crowd rightly recognizes that Jesus is the promised son of David who has come to deliver daughter Zion, and so they rejoice. But what they do not yet know is how that salvation is to come.
What is ironic about their singing of Psalm 118, is that this is also the Psalm that says, “The stone which the builders rejected Has become the chief cornerstone,” and the verse immediately following their cries of Hosanna is, “Bind the sacrifice with cords to the horns of the altar.”
So while the crowd thinks they are coronating a new King Solomon, a new Jehu, a new son of David, they are also unknowingly praising the festal sacrifice, they are actually praising the paschal lamb, who in just a few days will be rejected by the builders, bound to the horns of the altar, and nailed to a Roman cross.
This is how the king answers their cries of Hosanna, this is how God brings salvation now.
Finally in verse 11, the king and sacrifice, enters his city.
Verse 11
11 And Jesus entered into Jerusalem, and into the temple: and when he had looked round about upon all things, and now the eventide was come, he went out unto Bethany with the twelve.
Now perhaps you are thinking this is a little anticlimactic. Where is the cleansing of the temple? Where is the showdown with the Pharisees? Why does Jesus just go in, look around, and then leave because it’s late. What is going on here?
Well unlike Matthew and Luke, Mark tells us that the day before Jesus cleanses the temple, he first enters the city and surveys his house. So on Sunday he enters as a king to observe his kingdom, and he enters as a priest to inspect the health of the temple.
In other words, this is the patience of God and the quiet before the storm. Before Jesus turns over the tables, and casts out the den of thieves, he arrives and puts them on notice. He enters and observes and gives them one more day to repent. The king has come, but the king is merciful, but judgment will be enacted tomorrow.
So that is our text. On the Sunday a week before his resurrection, Jesus enters Jerusalem as a humble king and then goes back to Bethany.
And the whole purpose of this passage is to show forth the mercy and humility of God. It is to teach us that before Christ comes riding upon a white horse to judge and destroy his enemies like we see in Revelation 19, first he comes meek and mild and riding upon a donkey.
The way that the kingdom of God is established in this world is “not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit, says the Lord of Hosts” (Zech. 4:6). And that same Spirit is given with all fullness to Jesus, who says at the beginning of his ministry, quoting from Isaiah 61, “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me, Because the Lord has anointed Me To preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives, And the opening of the prison to those who are bound; To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, And the day of vengeance of our God; To comfort all who mourn, To console those who mourn in Zion, To give them beauty for ashes, The oil of joy for mourning, The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; That they may be called trees of righteousness, The planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified.”
And so if we would be a faithful church militant, that seeks first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, then our lives and ministries should look like Christ humble and riding upon a donkey. It should sound like Psalms of praise and thanksgiving and a royal procession as we walk to God’s city to offers ourselves as a living sacrifice before Him.
This is the way of the Lord, and there is no other way of salvation than this.
Application
I want to close with two points of application for us.
#1 – We are like donkeys.
We know from the sacrificial system that animals represent different kinds of people. For example, a young bull signifies the priest, a male goat signifies a ruler, and a female goat or a female lamb signifies a layman, and so forth.
We also know that God gave distinctions between clean and unclean animals as a sign of the difference between clean and unclean nations.
A donkey is an unclean animal, it’s a “Gentile,” and it was used for carrying heavy burdens. And yet God explicitly commands in the law of Moses, in Exodus 13:13, that “every firstborn of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb; and if you will not redeem it, then you shall break its neck.”
So when a donkey gave birth, that firstborn belonged to the Lord, and in order to actually use it, you had to offer unto the Lord a clean animal, a lamb, in its place.
The tradition of the Christian church has been to see in Jesus riding upon this young donkey, a picture of the salvation of the world.
The donkey is “tied up by the door outside at a crossroads,” and by this is signified the nations who are bound up in sin and without direction, they do not know their right hand from their left, they do not know where to go.
Moreover, it is the disciples of Jesus who unbind this donkey and place their garments upon it. So also, after Pentecost, the disciples would go forth into the world preaching the gospel, loosing the nations from their sins, and enthroning Christ above them.
And when that donkey receives the Lord Jesus upon its back, where does Jesus lead it? He leads it to God’s house, to the temple, to the place where no unclean animal was able to go.
Jesus is the lamb that redeems the donkey so that its neck need not be broken. Instead, it can be used in God’s service. It can trade the burdens of sin, for the burden of Christ and his kingdom, and in doing so ride upon the branches high in the heavens.
What this means in very plain terms is that if you don’t want to die in your sins, if you don’t want your neck to be broken as your sins deserve, then you must humble yourself beneath Christ the King. And you must ask him to clothe you, and rule you, and bridle your passions, and steer you straight to His Father’s house.
This is how the humble Christ triumphs over us.
#2 – We are all temples.
Every human being is a place of worship. And inside every person is a place where sacrifices are offered, and some god is magnified. That god might be the self, it might be someone else, but everyone is worshipping and serving someone or something every moment of every day.
When Solomon’s temple was profaned by idolatry, God abandoned the temple, his glory departed, and the place was destroyed.
But here in Jesus’ entrance into the temple, the glory of God returns. And when you receive Christ as king into your self, when Jesus is enthroned in your most holy place, the inner recesses of your spirit, well then Christ can make you glorious.
Paul says in 1 Corinthians 2:10-12, “But God has revealed hidden things to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by Him.”
Conclusion
Every Lord’s Day, we enter God’s House, and in worship He enters us. And when we receive His Spirit, and His Word searches us out, we are convicted, we are comforted, we have our inward thoughts and intents of our heart discerned. And all this King Jesus does so that when he does come in final judgment, we can count that day a day of glory and vindication, and not a day of fear and condemnation.
So cast yourself upon this merciful and humble king, cry Hosanna, and he will answer. In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.