Into What Then Were You Baptized?

“John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit” – Jesus (Acts 1:5)

May 19, 2013 on the church calendar is Pentecost, which is the name Greek-speaking Jews gave for the Feast of Weeks or Shavuot in Hebrew. It marks the end of the seven week holiday between Passover and Shavuot, and was the first day on which the faithful could bring the first fruits to the Temple in Jerusalem. Shavuot/Pentecost also commemorates the giving of the Law by God to the people of Israel on Mount Sinai.

Keep in mind that the Old Testament Law was given to provide hints that would point God’s people to Christ. So went we look at the account of Pentecost in Acts 2, we see the first fruits of the kingdom in the form of about three thousand souls being baptized. And as Pentecost commemorated the giving of the Law in the Old Testament, we also see in Acts 2 something much greater was given by God to His people, namely the outpouring, or baptism of the Holy Spirit.

That is what I want us to briefly look at. The baptism of the Holy Spirit does not get much press in traditional Southern Baptist churches today, largely because we don’t understand it, and we are afraid we might go off the “Charismatic” deep end. This is a shame, because in dismissing it we miss out on the incredible power and freedom that the baptism of the Holy Spirit brings.

In fact, if you ask the typical church member what comes to their mind when they hear the word “baptism”, most often it will be act of immersion in water. But water baptism is only a symbol of the reality of spiritual baptism. We tend to overemphasize the rite of water baptism at the expense of true baptism in the Holy Spirit.

Let me try to explain: Both Mark and Luke record that, in preparing the way for Jesus’ ministry, John the Baptist preached a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. (Mk 1:4; Lk 3:3) But John himself said, “As for me, I baptize you with water for repentance, but He who is coming after me [Jesus]…will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” (Matt 3:11) And just before He ascended into heaven, Jesus instructed His disciples to remain in Jerusalem until they received what the Father promised, “for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit…” (Acts 1:5)

Both John and Jesus mark a distinct difference between the two baptisms – John’s was one of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, and Jesus’ was one of the Holy Spirit. So what does that mean to be baptized in the Holy Spirit?

If we look further in the book of Acts, we come across a man named Apollos. According to Luke, he was a Jew who was eloquent and “mighty in the Scriptures. This man had been instructed in the way of the Lord; and…was speaking and teaching accurately the things concerning Jesus, being acquainted only with the baptism of John… But when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately.” (Acts 18:24-26)

So Apollos’ teachings about Jesus were accurate, but they were incomplete until Priscilla and Aquila explained to him the way of God more accurately. I think this is a good reminder for us that our doctrine about Jesus may be accurate, but it does not necessarily mean that it is complete. So what was it that Apollos’ teaching was missing? The first indication we get was that, although he was teaching accurately the things concerning Jesus, he was acquainted only with the baptism of John – one of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

It is no coincidence that Luke follows up Apollos’ story immediately with another that deals with John’s baptism. Acts 19 begins, “It happened that while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul…came to Ephesus, and found some disciples. He said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” [Note that Luke refers to them as “disciples”, and Paul indicates that they were believers, not just God-fearing Jews] And they said to him, “No, we have not even heard whether there is a Holy Spirit.” And he said, “Into what then were you baptized?” And they said, “Into John’s baptism.” Paul said, “John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in Him who was coming after him, that is, in Jesus.” When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they began speaking with tongues and prophesying.”

To be frank, I think that is where at least some, if not many of us are today. We are still in John’s baptism. Sure, we are taught that there is the Holy Spirit who is given to everyone who comes to Christ, but we are caught in the endless cycle where we sin, we repent, we acknowledge God’s forgiveness. We sin again, we repent again, we are forgiven. But just as the writer of Hebrews said, “Therefore leaving the elementary teaching about the Christ, let us press on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works…,” (Hebrews 6:1) But that is where many of us are, laying foundation on foundation of repentance from dead works; we remain in John’s baptism.

Clearly, Scripture does not teach, nor is the writer of Hebrews saying that becoming mature means that you will no longer sin or have to repent from dead works. Repentance is a defining mark of every true believer throughout their entire journey with Christ. As long as we are in this physical body we will succumb to sins. The Apostle John makes it abundantly clear: “If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us.” (1 John 1:8-10)

However, as we are being sanctified, as we are pressing on to maturity in Christ, we begin to grow beyond the seemingly endless spiral where our lives are focused on sin and repentance. We begin to move toward a deeper intimacy with Christ and a powerful outworking of the Spirit through love and good deeds. We move from the “wretched man” in Romans 7 to the  freed man in Romans 8 who walks according to the Spirit.

Paul writes in Romans 6, “Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death…” That, I believe, correlates to John’s baptism – repentance for the forgiveness of sins. But Paul does not stop there; he says “so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life… For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.”

I believe the death correlates to John’s baptism, while the newness of life is the baptism of the Holy Spirit. The problem is that many of us acknowledge that we have died with Christ, but we have yet to leave the tomb with Him. We have yet to experience the newness of life, the new creation, the truth that “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.” (Gal 2:20) Christ in us is the baptism of the Holy Spirit, it is Christ living in us through the indwelling and power of the Holy Spirit. It is a new life; not an improvement on the old, but an “exchanged life”, as Hudson Taylor put it.

As I was studying, I came across this statement: “The baptism of the Holy Spirit is not an experience to be sought, but a truth to be believed.” That is a tragic statement. To be baptized in the Holy Spirit is to experience a new life. When Paul asked the disciples at Ephesus if they had received the Holy Spirit when they believed, his assumption was that they would know whether or not they had based on experience. Yet preachers tell us to be careful with experiencing things. We are not Stoics! God has given us emotions, feeling, senses so that we can experience Him. The baptism of the Holy Spirit is a truth that must be experienced!

John Piper spoke of the experiential reality of the Spirit, saying, “When you read the New Testament honestly, you can’t help but get the impression of a big difference from a lot of contemporary Christian experience. For them [the believers in the New Testament] the Holy Spirit was a fact of experience. For many Christians today it is a fact of doctrine… In Protestant evangelicalism [the gift of the Holy Spirit] is equated with a subconscious work of God in regeneration which you only know you have because the Bible says you do if you believe. It is easy to imagine a spiritual counselor saying to a new convert today, ‘Don’t expect to notice any difference: just believe you have received the Spirit.’ But that is far from what we see in the New Testament.”[1]

Aspiring pastors, worship leaders, and teachers, as part of your training, one of the best things you can do is to get out of your Southern Baptist (or Presbyterian, or Methodist, or…) context. I’m not saying that you need to renounce being a Southern Baptist or your Southern Baptist heritage. But I do believe it is healthy and good to experience how other godly, gospel-saturated followers of Jesus Christ worship, pray, and pursue fellowship with one another. If you go as a learner and not a critic you will find that it will broaden your view of the Holy Spirit, the church, and worship, and will increase the effectiveness of your ministry.

We too often discredit as “fringe” things we don’t understand or have never personally experienced. We are too busy being “correct.” Meanwhile, people on the “fringe” are doing mighty things for Christ and His kingdom. Scholars may wrangle over differences between terms like “baptized with the Holy Spirit”, “filled with the Holy Spirit”, “second work of grace,” and “receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit.” Regardless, pursue the experiential reality of the Holy Spirit in your life that is firmly based on the truth of the gospel. And through the power of the Holy Spirit, do mighty things for Christ and His kingdom.

So let me ask you the same question Paul asked those disciples, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” Or are you still living in John’s baptism?

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[1] By John Piper. ©2013 Desiring God Foundation. Website: desiringGod.org http://www.desiringgod.org/resource-library/sermons/how-to-receive-the-gift-of-the-holy-spirit

Mary and the Resurrection

“Our Lord has written the promise of the resurrection, not in books alone, but in every leaf in spring-time.” – Martin Luther

It should have been just a normal Sunday. As a child, Mary Magdalene had always loved this time of year – the rebirth of the earth at spring, the warmer days, but most of all the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. She enjoyed helping her mother prepare the Passover meal, the family ceremonially cleaning out all of the leaven from the house, and especially sitting in her father’s lap as he told her how God had delivered the children of Israel from slavery in Egypt. She never tired of hearing that story.

And this Passover held so much promise. It seemed as though Jesus’ words had become more urgent, more intense, as if – like spring – something was about to be birthed. Jesus had shown Himself to be a prophet, but so much more than a prophet; a priest, and not just a priest, but a king; yes, a king. After all, a week earlier He had made a triumphant entry into Jerusalem on a donkey, just as the prophet Zechariah had foretold. Mary’s mind replayed the conversations with the others about that day. “He is the One,” they exclaimed, “who will restore Israel! The Messiah really has come!”

But that week leading up to the Passover had taken some strange turns. Jesus had been telling His closest friends that He had come to Jerusalem to die. That was certainly not the talk of a triumphant king. Yet Mary heard purpose in Jesus’ words. She would remain with this prophet regardless of the outcome. After all, the one who had delivered her from the torment of seven demons deserved her devotion.

And remain with Him she did. It still made her feel faint when she thought of Him on the cross, bloodied and gasping for air. “Tetelestai!” she heard Him shout. But what did He mean, “It has been fulfilled”?

Yes, it should have been just a normal Sunday. Instead she found herself walking in the cold of the predawn darkness to the tomb of the One who was supposed to restore Israel to the glory of King David’s reign. She was carrying the spices they had prepared on Friday, because they were commanded to rest on the Sabbath. Rest…yesterday was anything but rest. Her eyes still swollen from the tears, Mary made her way to the tomb, still unsure how she was going to remove the stone to get to the body. Consumed with grief, Mary had not noticed that the dawn had just begun to break.

When she arrived she saw that the stone had already been removed from the entrance. “So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!” So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb.” When they arrived, they saw the stone removed just as Mary told them. And in the tomb lay only the strips of linen “as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus’ head. The cloth was still lying in its place, separate from the linen.” The disciples “still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.” So they “went back to where they were staying.” (John 20:1-10)

But Mary remained.

As she stood weeping outside the tomb, “she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot. They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?” [At this point, nothing seemed to faze Mary, not even the presence of angels] “They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.” At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus. He asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?” Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.” Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”). Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” (John 20:11-18)

St. Augustine rightly calls Mary Magdalene “the apostle to the apostles.” (Greek: apostolos: a messenger, one sent on a mission) After all, she was the one chosen to be sent with the fullness of the good news to the “sent ones.” Jesus said, “My sheep recognize my voice, and they follow me.” (John 10:27) The redeeming love that Mary recognized in Jesus’ voice is a love that preceded that moment. It was a love that had resounded throughout redemptive history; a love that extends to you and to me.

When we take communion, we are proclaiming the Lord’s death until He returns. But Jesus’ death without His resurrection would be meaningless. As Paul writes, “if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain…your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins…If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied. But now Christ has been raised from the dead.” (1 Cor 15:14, 17, 19-20)

On this depends the only hope of humanity. It is your only hope.

As we eat the bread that represents the body of the Lord Jesus that was broken for our wholeness, we eat in hope.

When we drink the cup that represents Jesus’ blood spilled for the cleansing of sins and the ushering in of a New Covenant, we drink in hope.

But our hope is not one of blind, wishful thinking. Instead, it is a resurrected Hope; a hope that is set resolutely on the only sovereign God of creation who’s Word has never and will never fail.

Jesus Christ has risen.

The Exchanged Life

 “Now I saw in my dream, that the highway up which Christian was to go, was fenced on either side with a wall, and that wall was called Salvation. (Isaiah 26:1). Up this way, therefore, did burdened Christian run, but not without great difficulty, because of the load on his back.

“He ran thus till he came at a place somewhat ascending; and upon that place stood a cross, and a little below, in the bottom, a sepulcher [grave; tomb]. So I saw in my dream, that just as Christian came up with the cross, his burden loosed from off his shoulders, and fell from off his back, and began to tumble, and so continued to do till it came to the mouth of the sepulchre, where it fell in, and I saw it no more.” (John Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress)

John Bunyan paints a beautiful picture in The Pilgrim’s Progress of when the burden on Christian’s back fell off at the Cross. It is important to note that this happened well into Christian’s travels to the Celestial City. He had already encountered Evangelist who pointed him to the wicket-gate. He had run from his City of Destruction with his fingers in his ears, crying, “Life! Life! Eternal Life!”  He had begun his journey along the King’s Highway. Yet all of this still under the load of his heavy burden on his back.

Christian writers have used various terms to describe this experience of deliverance: E.M. Bounds used the term “secret of full consecration” (Essentials of Prayer); A. W. Tozer refers to the “blessedness of possessing nothing” (The Pursuit of God). Jesus himself said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit…”

But if we are really honest with ourselves, I think many (most?) of us still feel the burden on our backs. We strive and strain under our load. We live divided lives, tiptoeing across the line between sacred and secular. We say we belong to Christ, and we truly believe that in our hearts, but in truth we still live like hired hands; clocking in and clocking out – now on God’s time, now on our own. We have begun in the Spirit, but we are fighting to be perfected in the flesh.

Please do not hear words of condemnation in this. Condemning words would only bring more burden, and along with it more striving and struggling under the load to try harder and do more to find that place of peace in our hearts that seems to evade us so easily. There is a better – much better – way.

I recently read a book entitled Hudson Taylor’s Spiritual Secret. It is a biography of Hudson Taylor written by his son and daughter-in-law, Dr. and Mrs. Howard Taylor, which tells of his life and work as a missionary in China in the latter half of the 19^th century—amazing, God-wrought, Spirit-filled work.

And yet, in 1869 – some fifteen years into this remarkable work in China – Hudson Taylor had written to his mother, “I have continually to mourn that I follow at such a distance and learn so slowly to imitate my precious Master.” The weight of the burden on his back can be felt in those words.

And then, six months later, Taylor received a letter from a fellow worker named John McCarthy:

I do wish I could have a talk with you now [he wrote], about the way of holiness. At the time you were speaking to me about it, it was the subject of all others occupying my thoughts, not from anything I had read…so much as from a consciousness of failure—a constant falling short of that which I felt should be aimed at; an unrest; a perpetual striving to find some way by which one might continually enjoy that communion, that fellowship, at times so real but more often so visionary, so far off!

Do you know, I now think that this striving, longing, hoping for better days to come is not the true way to holiness, happiness, or usefulness. It is better, no doubt, far better than being satisfied with poor attainments, but not the best way after all. I have been struck with a passage from a book…entitled Christ is All. It says, “The Lord Jesus received is holiness begun; the Lord Jesus cherished is holiness advancing; the Lord Jesus counted upon as never absent would be holiness complete…He is most holy who has most of Christ within, and joys most fully in the finished work. It is defective faith which clogs the feet and caused many to fall.”

This last sentence, I think I now fully endorse. To let my loving Savior work in me his will, my sanctification, is what I would live for by his grace. Abiding, not striving nor struggling: looking off unto him; trusting him for present power; …resting in the love of an almighty Savior, in the joy of a complete salvation. “from all sin”—this is not new, and yet ‘tis new to me. I feel as though the dawning of a glorious day had risen upon me. I hail it with trembling, yet with trust. I seem to have got to the edge only, but of a boundless sea; to have sipped only, but of that which fully satisfies. Christ literally all seems to me, now, the power, the only power for service, the only ground for unchanging joy…

How then to have our faith increased? Only by thinking of all that Jesus is and all he is for us: his life, his death, his work, he himself as revealed to us in the Word, to be the subject of our constant thoughts. Not a striving to have faith…but a looking off to the Faithful One seems all we need; a resting in the Loved One entirely, for time and for eternity.” (Hudson Taylor’s Spiritual Secret)

“As I read, I saw it all,” Mr. Taylor wrote. “I looked to Jesus, and when I saw—oh, how the joy flowed!” (Hudson Taylor’s Spiritual Secret)

Taylor referred to this as the exchanged life. In the truest sense, it is no longer “I who live, but Christ lives in me.” Galatians 2:20

Paul writes in Colossians 3:2-4 “Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.”

It is in this release, this tumbling of our burdens off of our backs into the grave never to be seen again, where our very lives are exchanged at the cross; we are no longer hired-hands but bond-servants. Our entire life is freely given to the will of our Master. Our ears are pierced, as it were, and we become lifelong servants of love to Christ (see Deuteronomy 15:12-18). The sum of our thoughts and actions are no longer for ourselves, but for the One who purchased us with His very own blood. Therein lies all joy.

“Thus far did I come laden with my sin,
Nor could aught ease the grief that I was in,
Till I came hither. What a place is this!
Must here be the beginning of my bliss?
Must here the burden fall from off my back?
Must here the strings that bound it to me crack?
Blest cross! Blest sepulchre! Blest rather be
The Man that there was put to shame for me!”
(John Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress)

Holy Spirit, may You initiate the glorious release in Jesus’ words, “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30

A Soothing Aroma

Michelle and I had the opportunity to visit our daughter, Grace, who is serving on staff with the mission organization YWAM (Youth With A Mission). It was amazing to spend a week at their training base and to be surrounded by a thousand missionaries. We learned a phrase there that the students were using “being wrecked by God.” This is actually a good thing. And by the end of the week, God had wrecked Michelle and me.

One of the things that was so encouraging was to see so many college-age students in white-hot blaze of passion for the glory of Jesus Christ among all the nations. It had the excitement of a youth camp, except they were being trained to go immediately into the harvest fields. Michelle commented to Grace, “Wow, why would you ever want to leave here?” Her response was, “Mom, we are not being trained to stay, but to go!” The hand of the Lord has been on Loren Cunningham (founder of YWAM) and his work; he understands what it means to disciple.

One of the things that the Holy Spirit clearly spoke to me while at the YWAM base was that my prayers were too small. So it has been no coincidence that my Bible reading has recently led me through Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers. One of the phrases that continued to stand out to me was that the offerings presented by the priests were “soothing aromas” to the Lord (17 times in Leviticus alone). It always perplexed me why God would phrase it that way. Why would the aroma matter to Him?

Aromas were clearly important in the worship in the tabernacle. Exodus 30 describes the altar of incense that was to be placed in front of the veil that was near the ark of the testimony, where God met with the high priest. Every day, the priest was required to burn fragrant incense on it every morning and every evening at twilight. Verse 8 states, “There shall be perpetual incense before the Lord throughout your generations.”

When the high priest entered the Holy of Holies once a year, he was required to carry incense. Leviticus 16:12-13 says, “[The priest] shall take a firepan full of coals of fire from upon the altar before the Lord and two handfuls of finely ground sweet incense, and bring it inside the veil. He shall put the incense on the fire before the Lord, that the cloud of incense may cover the mercy seat that is on the ark of the testimony, otherwise he will die.”

The theme of aromas and incense was continued into the New Testament. The magi brought frankincense and myrrh (both aromatic resins used as incense) as gifts to the newborn king Jesus (Matthew 2:11). Mary anointed Jesus’ feet with costly perfume (John 12:3). Paul says that God “manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place.” (2 Corinthians 2:14), and that Christ “gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.” (Ephesians 5:2)

As I have said many times, the writer of Hebrews tells us that the earthly tabernacle in the Old Testament was a shadow and type of the true heavenly one. So what is the reality that the earthly incense was to point to?

Revelation gives us an explanation. Revelation 5:8 states, “…the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders…Each had a harp and they were holding golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of God’s people.”

Revelation 8:3-5 “Another angel came and stood at the altar, holding a golden censer; and much incense was given to him, so that he might add it to the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar which was before the throne. And the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, went up before God out of the angel’s hand. Then the angel took the censer and filled it with the fire of the altar, and threw it to the earth; and there followed peals of thunder and sounds and flashes of lightning and an earthquake.”

As I had been meditating on these things, I saw the connection and thought it interesting that our prayers are somehow stored in golden bowls in heaven. But the immense weight of it had not hit me.

And then at 4:30 in the morning the Holy Spirit woke me up, and I began thinking on these things. I pictured myself beside the altar of incense with the sweet aroma of the countless prayers of the saints – your prayers; my prayers. And then I entered into the very Holy of Holies, the throne room of God, because the veil was torn in two from top to bottom, heaven to earth, signifying that the tearing was initiated by God Himself, not man. And the smoke of the incense filled the room. Only in heaven the cloud of incense does not obscure the sight. And who do you think is there in the middle of the throne? A Lamb standing, as if slain. Our High Priest, Jesus Christ, has made a way through the torn veil (that is His body) so that we could enter into the very council of God Almighty.

Hebrews 7:24-25 says that “because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood. Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.” Our High Priest is right now in the Holy of Holies before the Father unceasingly offering up the incense of intercession for us! (Could this be the smoke that Isaiah saw in his vision? (Isaiah 6:4))

And Hebrews 4:14-16 says, “Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. Therefore let us draw near with confidence (KJV says to come boldly) to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”

With confidence. Boldly. Is that how you pray? The Father wants us to pray that way. He loves to smell the sweet aroma of our prayers before Him so that He can answer them. Remember Revelation 8:5 where the angel takes the censer and throws it to earth? I take that to mean that all of the prayers that had been stored in the bowls will be answered according to God’s will and in His time. Not one prayer that is for the glory of God will be wasted.

John G. Paton (Missionary to the New Hebrides Islands of the South Pacific during the 1800’s) wrote,

Did ever mother run more quickly to protect her crying child in danger’s hour than the Lord Jesus hastens to answer believing prayer and send help to His servants in His own good time and way, so far as it shall be for their good and His glory.

And the Father loves hearing us pray His Word to Him. I hope when you pray, you have your Bible open before you, or that you use the scriptures you have memorized as points of prayer. Because the Father loves hearing His children humbly but boldly say, “You said, Lord; You said!”

You said, Lord, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.” You said, Lord; You said!

You said, Lord, that You “will not allow [me] to be tempted beyond what [I am] able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that [I] will be able to endure it.” You said, Lord; You said!

You said, “the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Therefore, pray earnestly the Lord of the harvest to send laborers into His harvest.” You said, Lord! You said!

So as we take communion, let us enter through the veil, that is, by way of the spilled blood and the torn body of our Savior Jesus Christ, and offer up sacrifices of prayers and praise as a sweet aroma before our Father.

When I See the Blood

Recently, my Bible reading plan led me to the book of Exodus, which records the account of the Israelites being rescued from Egyptian bondage by the hand of God through ten incredible plagues as He executed judgments “against all the gods of Egypt.” (Exodus 12:12)

I don’t know how many times I have read through the story of the exodus, and yet this time a single phrase jumped off the page and pierced my heart.

The context is during the tenth and final plague when God instructs the Israelites to sacrifice an unblemished lamb at twilight. They were then to take some of the blood and put it on the two doorpost and lintel of their front door. This was to mark their homes so that those inside would be spared from God’s judgment He was executing throughout all of Egypt.

And the Lord said, “…when I see the blood I will pass over you.”

When I see the blood I will pass over you.

And then it hit me – everything that I am physically, emotionally, and spiritually, is riding on the truth of that one phrase: “when I see the blood I will pass over you.” If that is not true, then my life is completely worthless and all would be for nothing.

What’s important to note is that God who is the omniscient Creator of the universe who knows the heart and mind of every person did not actually need to see the blood on the lintels and doorposts in order to keep things straight in His mind as to who was His and who wasn’t. He knew the heart of every person with the blood smeared on the doorpost as well as the heart of every person who did not have it. So the blood served as a reminder, not for God but for those inside the house. It was to show them that it was out of their hands; their salvation depended wholly on God alone. The Lord told them, “I am about to release a judgment on the land of Egypt so fierce and terrifying that there will be a great cry throughout the land such as there has not been before and such as shall never be again. And this judgment will be so encompassing that it will strike every single household in Egypt. But I have made a way of escape for you. Just do what I tell you and trust Me.” This is the theme throughout redemptive history that would point not just to a symbol or a shadow of things to come, but the reality of Christ being the source of salvation for all who trust in God alone.

Picture in your mind an Israelite family by faith sacrificing the lamb, by faith preparing the unleavened bread, by faith spreading the blood on the doorposts, and by faith eating the Passover meal. Their hope was beyond themselves; it rested in the One who said “when I see the blood I will pass over you.”

Martin Luther wrote in his classic Bondage of the Will:

God has surely promised His grace to the humbled: that is, to those who mourn over and despair of themselves. But a man cannot be thoroughly humbled till he realizes that his salvation is utterly beyond his own powers, counsels, efforts, will and works, and depends absolutely on the will, counsel, pleasure and work of Another – God alone. As long as a man is persuaded that he can make even the smallest contribution to his salvation, he remains self-confident and does not utterly despair of himself, and so is not humbled before God. Such a man plans out for himself – or at least hopes and longs for – a position, an occasion, a work, which shall bring him final salvation, but which will not. Conversely, the man who is out of doubt that his destiny depends entirely on the will of God, despairs entirely of himself, chooses nothing for himself, but waits for God to work in him; and such a man is very near to grace for his salvation.

The Feast of Passover is also known as the Feast of Unleavened Bread. God commanded them to remove all of the leaven from their homes and to bake their bread without leaven because they would not have time for their bread to rise before they were rescued. So with that, it is much easier to understand Paul’s words to the Corinthians: “Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened. For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed. Therefore let us celebrate the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” (1 Corinthians 5:7-8)

The bread and the cup of communion before you are to serve as a reminder that Christ is our Passover lamb and we, by faith, consume all that He is, and by faith we place our hope firmly and exclusively on the Person and work of Jesus Christ so that when our heavenly Father sees the blood, He will pass over us.

Epiphany

January 6^th on the Western Church liturgical calendar is the Feast of the Epiphany. Epiphany comes from a Greek word that means “to appear, or to become visible.” Epiphany is among the oldest Christian feasts dating back to the 4^th Century and traditionally commemorates the visitation of the wise men to the baby Jesus. In the broader sense it is the celebration of the “epiphany” or the manifest presence of Jesus Christ – the Son of God in human flesh – to the Gentiles.

The fact that God the Son took on flesh and bone is of supreme importance to us. One of the reasons Jesus became Immanuel – God with us – was so that we could experience Him. Or to use biblical terminology it is so that we could have fellowship with Him. It is what Jesus meant in John 15 when He instructed us to abide in Him. Christ came so that we could experience the manifestation or the epiphany of God in a very real, tangible way. And He returned to the Father so that He could send the Holy Spirit to us so that we would be able to experience the manifest presence of the Spirit in our lives daily.

John Piper spoke of the experiential reality of the Spirit, saying, “When you read the New Testament honestly, you can’t help but get the impression of a big difference from a lot of contemporary Christian experience. For them [the believers in the New Testament] the Holy Spirit was a fact of experience. For many Christians today it is a fact of doctrine… In Protestant evangelicalism [the gift of the Holy Spirit] is equated with a subconscious work of God in regeneration which you only know you have because the Bible says you do if you believe. It is easy to imagine a spiritual counselor saying to a new convert today, ‘Don’t expect to notice any difference: just believe you have received the Spirit.’ But that is far from what we see in the New Testament.”

I’m afraid we fall into that contemporary Christian experience category where the presence of the Holy Spirit is more an academic exercise than an experiential reality. And I hope you realize that. I hope you don’t think that we have arrived. I pray you begin to long to experience the Holy Spirit like they did in the New Testament, even if you are a little uncomfortable and are not quite sure what that would really look like.

Three Rivers, you are approaching a divide in the road. To the left is a well-worn path taken by most because it is easier, neater, more manageable, status quo, indifferent. That path is well-traveled and easier because it can be done on our own strength and with our own wisdom. But straight ahead is a narrow path with steep grades and cliffs on either side, but it is the path that leads to life. That path is impossible to negotiate without the epiphany, the manifest presence of the Holy Spirit at each step.

Can I just be real honest here? I’m tired – not of the ministry or the pastorate – I’m tired of apathy, of indifference…in my own life and the life of this church. I’m tired of 20-25% participation in connect groups. I’m tired of seeing a prayer ministry that only has 2 to 3 college students and has to be led by a college student because no one else is willing. I’m tired of not seeing older men and women not stepping up and teaching the younger men and women.

Have you ever wondered where the Jewish religious leaders were when Christ was born? They knew the prophecies; they saw the star; they knew where the Messiah would be born. (see Matthew 2:4-6) Isn’t it ironic that they were not in the stable worshiping their King? Instead, there were pagan astrologers who had traveled hundreds of miles and uneducated, dirty shepherds who gathered around the newborn God-man in worship. The religious leaders knew the scriptures, had all the knowledge, but they did not act on what they knew. They were indifferent; they were apathetic. Their knowledge had not transformed their hearts. (see http://www.desiringgod.org/blog/posts/the-irony-of-the-epiphany)

A.W. Tozer wrote in The Pursuit of God, “We have been too blind to see, or too timid to speak out, or too self-satisfied to desire anything better than the poor average diet with which others appear satisfied. To put it differently, we have accepted one another’s notions, copied one another’s lives and made one another’s experiences the model for our own…we have made the Word of Truth conform to our experience and accepted this low plane as the very pasture of the blessed.” (Chapter 5)

Frankly, I am growing weary of walking down this worn-down path of dry academic theology here in the Western church lined with cold stone walls that have chiseled in them the oldness of the Law, which can still be full of emotion, but it lacks real spiritual power. I’m tired of persuasive words of wisdom instead of the demonstration of the Spirit and of power (1 Cor 2:4). I want to begin walking in the newness of the Spirit. I want to begin experiencing Isaiah 30:20, that says, “[The Lord], your Teacher will no longer hide Himself, but your eyes will behold your Teacher. Your ears will hear a word behind you, ‘This is the way, walk in it,’ whenever you turn to the right or to the left.”

What if you woke up every morning longing to hear the voice of God? What if the manifest presence of the Holy Spirit was a fact of daily experience in your life? What if you trained yourself to discern the voice of God behind you, telling you, “This is the way, walk in it”? Many of you are uncomfortable with that. Good. I want you to be. I’m not going to explain that away and say, “Well, what Isaiah really meant was…” No, what Isaiah really meant was hearing the voice of God in our daily lives.

Now, there are some who think, “Well, you know Brad, Hebrews 1 says that in these last days, God has spoken to us in His Son. That’s past tense; He has spoken. Jesus is God’s final word to mankind.” And in one sense that is very true – but it is in the sense that final means ultimate, not finished. Because it is nonsense to think that God, the omnipotent Creator who spoke creation into existence, and who has communicated to mankind since the days of Adam, the One who said that man cannot live on food alone, but by every word that proceeds from His mouth, the One whose very name is The Word, should somehow have ceased to communicate to His people once the last word in scripture was penned. God is not just a God who has communicated; He is a God who communicates.

An integral part to the manifest presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives is the use of spiritual gifts. What if we took Paul at his word and “earnestly desired spiritual gifts.” And then we began using our spiritual gifts in a way that edifies the church? I’m not talking about simply our talents or skills – those are of our own strength and wisdom. We trivialize the importance and uniqueness of spiritual gifts when we lump them in with talents or things we just enjoy doing. I’m talking about biblically-based supernatural Holy Spirit driven gifts for the building up of the church like prophecy, and helps, and administration, and healing, and tongues. See, I think Satan has done an amazing job at making spiritual gifts taboo in otherwise biblically sound churches.

Why are we content on just knowing that the Holy Spirit is with us instead of longing to experience the presence of the Holy Spirit in our church?

So before you take the bread and the cup of communion, I want you to pause – not to rest, but to consider: Are you able to drink the cup that Christ first drank, or to be baptized with the baptism with which He was baptized? (Mark 10:38) In other words, are you willing to pursue the manifest presence of God regardless of what lies ahead? Are you willing to say with Job, “Though He slay me, I will hope in Him.” (Job 13:15) If so, then drink deeply of His cup, and savor the richness of His bread. He died to bring you near to God. And He returned to the Father so that you could experience the manifest presence of the Holy Spirit in your life.

Father, forgive us of our sinful preoccupation with our own pursuits in our own strengths and with our own efforts. Holy Spirit, we want to experience You, we want to fellowship with You, we want to abide in You. We want to grow to discern Your voice telling us “This is the way, walk in it”. Now bless this cup and this bread, I ask, as we honor Christ’s death and eagerly await His return.

Taste and See

Honey. We all know that honey is made by honeybees. The bees collect nectar from flowers and then transform the saccharides in the nectar into honey through a process of repeated regurgitation until it is partially digested. The last regurgitation is still high in water content, so the process continues through evaporation and enzymatic transformation. The enzyme invertase synthesized by the bees and digestive acids hydrolyze the sucrose from the nectar to give the same mixture of glucose and fructose. So, honey gets its sweetness from these monosaccharides, and depending on the variety is slightly sweeter than granulated sugar.

Sweetness is almost universally regarded as a pleasurable experience. Foods rich in simple carbohydrates such as honey are those most commonly associated with sweetness. The tongue uses a different taste receptor pathway for each of the five basic tastes: sour, bitter, savory, salty, and sweet. So, when incoming sweet molecules in the honey bind to their taste receptors, it causes a conformational change in the molecule. This change activates certain proteins, which in turn cause the release of ions that ultimately cause neurotransmitter release, which is then received by a primary afferent neuron. So basically it takes all that for your taste buds to tell your brain that honey is sweet.

Now, I have just described to you more than you probably ever wanted to know about how the human body determines the sweetness of honey. But one thing I did not do, in fact cannot do, is cause you to experience the sweetness of honey.

The following quote comes from Jonathan Edwards’ sermon A Divine and Supernatural Light –

There is a twofold knowledge of good of which God has made the mind of man capable. The first, that which is merely notional…And the other is, that which consists in the sense of the heart; as when the heart is sensible of pleasure and delight in the presence of the idea of it…Thus there is a difference between having an opinion, that God is holy and gracious, and having a sense of the loveliness and beauty of that holiness and grace. There is a difference between having a rational judgment that honey is sweet and having a sense of its sweetness. A man may have the former that knows not how honey tastes; but a man cannot have the latter unless he has an idea of the taste of honey in his mind.

In other words, there is this “head knowledge” of God where you believe certain truths about Him. But then there is a “heart knowledge” where you not only acknowledge these truths about God, but you sense them, you feel them, because you experience the pleasure of His presence with you. It is extremely difficult, if not impossible to accurately describe the taste of honey. That is because honey was not meant to just be described, and analyzed and studied. Honey is meant to be tasted and experienced; its sweetness is to be enjoyed. In the same way, the Holy Spirit is not Someone merely to be described and studied, but He was given to us as a pledge of our inheritance, a deposit, or a taste, if you will, of the sweetness we will experience when we are with the Father for all eternity.

This may be overly simplistic, but it seems there are two extremes in churches today. Some emphasize knowing the truth of God’s Word. Others emphasize experiencing the Holy Spirit. But shouldn’t there be both? Isn’t that what Jesus meant when He said to the Samaritan woman, “the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers.” (John 4:23)

Which extreme do you think Three Rivers leans towards? And if you think we are a good balance, then I would suggest you are guilty of what is called confirmation bias; you have surrounded yourself with people and information that confirms your own beliefs and bias. But how many of you woke up this morning and begged the Holy Spirit to impart to you a supernatural gift so that you could edify the church? How many truly understand what it means to be filled with the Holy Spirit? I don’t mean you can write a paper on it, but you understand it because you have experienced it. It has been real to you. None of us have arrived, not your pastors, not Mitch, not Emmett, and especially not me. The Apostle Paul himself confessed that he hadn’t obtained it, but he longed to gain Christ so he pressed on to make it his own, because Christ Jesus has made him his own (Philippians 3:12-14). He wanted more of Christ.

Many of us stop short of a supernatural encounter with the Holy Spirit because we are satisfied with good theology. Let me be clear, there is nothing wrong with good theology; it is essential and without it we will not come to a saving knowledge of the truth. Just before Jesus explained to the Samaritan woman about worshiping in spirit and in truth, He told her that she worshiped what she did not know; the Jews worshiped what they knew. The Jews knew, but they had not yet experienced Immanuel – God with us. As someone once said, “The word of God is to lead us to the God of the word.” People without experience tend to be overly confident in their beliefs or theories, or good theology. To continue the analogy, they can describe to you down to the molecule the sweetness of honey, but they have rarely if ever tasted it. But people with experience tend to long for more; they crave the frequent and tangible interaction of the Holy Spirit in their lives.

Christ came to earth to die and be resurrected so that we could experience Him. He left earth so that He could send the Holy Spirit to be with us and in us so that we could proclaim to the world with King David: “O taste and see that the Lord is good!” (Psalm 34:8)

Holy Spirit we confess that we do not know You as we should. We know about You, and we are intrigued with the idea of You, but the realness of You in our lives is sporadic at best. We want to know You in a deeper way. We want to experience You. We want to be continually filled with You. Jesus, You suffered and died to make that possible. You purchased that on the cross. Father, You are seeking worshipers of You in spirit and in truth. Seek us out, Father; make us pleasing to You. Let us taste and see that You are good.

Repentance that Leads to Life

The Church has used catechisms throughout its history to teach people the truths about God and His relationship to His creation. Catechisms are set in the form of questions and answers to aid in the learning of biblical truths.

In The Westminster Shorter Catechism, Question #87 asks: What is repentance unto life?

The answer is:  Repentance unto life is a saving grace, whereby a sinner, out of a true sense of his sin and apprehension of the mercy of God in Christ, doth, with grief and hatred of his sin, turn from it unto God, with full purpose of and endeavor after new obedience.

That is a mouthful, so I want to try to briefly break that answer down for us. First, repentance that leads to life is a “saving grace.” In other words, it is something that is granted by God. Remember, “grace” is God’s unmerited favor. Paul instructs Timothy to correct those who are in opposition “with gentleness…if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth,” (2 Timothy 2:25). The implication is that they will not repent unless God grants it to them.

Secondly, we are motivated toward repentance not only because we grieve over our sin but because we begin to feel the depth of God’s mercy in Christ. Paul tells us that it is “the kindness of God leads you to repentance.” (Romans 2:4) As Pastor Ray Ortlund writes, “We have zero motivation to repent, unless we see the mercy of God awaiting us. Not the slap of God, but the embrace of God. Repentance is not just turning from sin, not even that primarily. Repentance is primarily turning to God, moment by moment, because He has promised His mercy to the penitent.” “For the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation.” (2 Corinthians 7:10)

The Greek word that the New Testament writers used for repentance is metanoia, which means “a change of mind.” So to repent means to change your mind or your way of thinking about something. In other words, “I used to think this was okay, but now I see that it is wrong,” or “I used to believe that this was not worth my time, but now I believe it is of utmost importance.”

But let us not be deceived with our Western mindset that often somehow divorces “belief” from action and think that repentance is merely a logical exercise of the mind. Instead, true repentance is with “full purpose of and endeavor after new obedience.” Pastor Ortlund continues, “the outcome of repentance is not a restored status quo, getting back to ‘normal,’ getting back to where we were before we sinned, evading the consequences of sin. The outcome of true repentance is new obedience, unprecedented obedience, perhaps unheard-of obedience. Newness of life.”

That is why John the Baptist rebuked the crowds coming to be baptized by him by saying, “bear fruits in keeping with repentance, and do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘ We have Abraham for our father,’ for I say to you that from these stones God is able to raise up children to Abraham.” (Luke 3:8) Repentance was to be evidenced by their actions, not by their pedigree.

And that is why Paul told King Agrippa that he “did not prove disobedient to the heavenly vision, but kept declaring…that they should repent and turn to God, performing deeds appropriate to repentance.” So repentance – if it is true – must of necessity result in action that comes from a change in the inner man.

Jesus began His ministry preaching repentance: Matthew records “From that time Jesus began to preach and say, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.’” (Matthew 4:17) After His resurrection Jesus ended His ministry instructing the disciples to preach repentance: Luke records that “He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and He said to them, ‘Thus it is written, that the Christ would suffer and rise again from the dead the third day, and that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His name to all the nations.’” (Luke 24:45-47)

When the crowd at Pentecost asked the apostles what they were to do in response to the gospel message, Peter’s instruction to them was to “Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.” (Acts 2:28)

Repentance is not just a one-time event at the beginning of a Christian’s walk. Instead we are to develop a lifestyle of daily repenting – of changing or renewing our minds – as we grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We must be a people whose lives are marked with repentance through the renewing of our minds and the resulting action that comes from a renewed mind.

Repentance is a blood-bought grace of God where we not only grieve over and hate our sin, but we are embraced by the mercy of God that produces a “full purpose of and endeavor after new obedience.” Repentance leads us to the knowledge of truth (2 Timothy 2:25). Repentance leads us to salvation (2 Corinthians 7:10). Repentance leads us to the foot of the Cross where we look up to the broken body and spilled blood of our Savior so that through His death we might have life.

Saving Us from Ourselves

We often use the phrase that we are “saved.” To be saved implies that we are saved from something, from some imminent danger. Scripture describes a number of things that we are saved from by the work of Jesus Christ on the Cross. For example, we are saved from God’s wrath (Romans 5:9), we are saved from sin (1 John 1:7), and we are saved from eternal, spiritual death (Romans 6:23).

Another aspect I want us to look at is that Christ died to save us from ourselves. Romans 1:18-28 reads, “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.”

Now, let’s stop there for just a second. Clearly, we don’t have time to delve into this too far, but suffice it to say that Scripture is very clear that mankind is without excuse before God. You see, in our twisted self-centeredness we ask the question, “Why do bad things happen to good people?” When the truth is that we have flipped the question on its head. Instead, we should be asking, “Why do good things happen to bad people? Why, O God, have you been so patient, so kind to mankind who is inherently wicked and continually defying You? Why have we not been swept away in a tsunami, or wiped out by civil war, or starved to death through drought?”

See, we must move beyond this idea of equating man’s moralism with God’s righteousness, and we must correctly define “good” the way God defines it. Just like Jesus pointed out in Mark 10… “Why do you call me good?…” Jesus’ point was not that He was not good, but that this man had no clue what ‘good’ really was.

Let’s continue in Romans 1:21, “For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man …Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, …  For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator…  For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; …  And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper,”

So three times here Paul emphasizes that God “gave them over” to their own desires – the lusts of their hearts, degrading passions, and depraved minds. In other words, God gives them (us) what they want. Mankind says, “I refuse to believe that I have to answer to some Higher Power; I am my own master; I control my own destiny. I am self-determining.”

Just listen to the poem Invictus by the 19^th century English poet William Henley:

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

Mankind reads this poem that reeks of agnostic stoicism and feels inspired and invigorated. But God says, “A man who hardens his neck after much reproof will suddenly be broken beyond remedy.” (Prov 29:1)

And ultimately God says, “Okay, you want to believe that you are the master of your fate, the captain of your soul? You are not, but I will let you believe that. I will give you what you think you want. If separation from Me is what you desire, then that is what you will receive.” And so Paul writes that “For this reason God will send upon them a deluding influence so that they will believe what is false.” (2 Thess 2:11)

And ultimately, that is what hell is. That is why Paul describes “the penalty of eternal destruction” in 2 Thessalonians 1:9 as “away from the presence of the Lord.”

J.I. Packer writes:

“Scripture sees hell as self-chosen…[H]ell appears as God’s gesture of respect for human choice. All receive what they actually chose, either to be with God forever, worshipping him, or without God forever, worshipping themselves.” (J.I. Packer, Concise Theology p.262-263.)

So after our physical death, we end up getting what we truly wanted while we were here on earth – either to be forever in the presence of God or forever away from Him.

The problem is that we are so corrupted by sin that, apart from Christ’s work, we will not, indeed we cannot choose God.

Charles Spurgeon said,

“Free will I have often heard of, but I have never seen it. I have met with will, and plenty of it, but it has either been led captive by sin or held in blessed bonds of grace.” (“Our Change of Masters” sermon delivered on July 6, 1879 at The Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington)

That is why the Person and work of Jesus Christ is of supreme importance. Unless and until we have a true, biblical understanding of “good” and of hell, we will never even begin to understand the extent to which God in Christ Jesus pursued us to save us from ultimate, self-chosen destruction, and therefore our utter and complete dependence on Him to save us.

2 Corinthians 5:15 says, “[Christ] died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf.”

Another way to state that is: Christ died to save us from ourselves so that we can live for Him.

As we take communion together, let us think about how Christ’s death makes His proclamations of grace and love even more astounding, so that we no longer have to be slaves to our own evil desires, and instead stand in awe of Christ’s strength, honor, leadership, and self-sacrificing love.

Yom Kippur

The Jewish holy day Yom Kippur begins this Tuesday at sunset and ends at sunset on Wednesday. It is considered the holiest day of the year for the Jewish people and is marked by fasting and prayers of repentance. Yom means “day” in Hebrew and kippur comes from the root kaphar in Hebrew, which means “to cover or hide”; a secondary meaning is “to appease, propitiate, or to make an atonement.” Thus Yom Kippur means “Day of Atonement.”

On this Day, the priests were instructed in the Law to perform a complex set of special services and sacrifices that were considered to be most sacred because through them the High Priest made atonement for the entire nation of Israel (see Leviticus 16). During the service, the High Priest entered the Holy of Holies in the center of the Temple behind the veil where the Ark of the Covenant was located. This was the only time of the year that the priest was allowed inside the Holy of Holies, and then only by entering with blood, otherwise he would die (Leviticus 16:2; Hebrews 9:1-7). And doing so required special purification and preparation of the High Priest, including five immersions or baptisms in a mikvah (ritual bath), and four changes of clothing. He had to enter the Holy of Holies first with the blood of a bull for his sins and the sins of his household and then with the blood of a goat for the sins of the people. So, it could be seen that on the Day of Atonement, God allowed the blood of bulls and goats to kaphar  or “cover over, hide” the sins of the people.

These sacrifices and baptisms were symbolic gestures; but therein lies the problem – they were only symbolic. They did not truly remove their sins. God did not deal with them fully and finally; He only covered over them. The Day of Atonement was only a shadow of things to come, and those who walked by faith understood that it could not, in the true sense, take away their sin. The Prophet Samuel understood this: “Has the Lord as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams.” (1 Samuel 15:22) King David understood this also: “For You, O Lord, do not delight in sacrifice, otherwise I would give it; You are not pleased with burnt offering.” (Psalm 51:16). The Prophet Micah understood this, as well: “Does the Lord take delight in thousands of rams, in ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I present my firstborn for my rebellious acts, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?” (Micah 6:7)

In fact, the writer of Hebrews says, “For the Law, since it has only a shadow of the good things to come and not the very form of things, can never, by the same sacrifices which they offer continually year by year, make perfect those who draw near. But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins year by year. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.” (Hebrews 10:1,3-4)

The Apostle Paul understood this when he wrote in Romans 3:25, “in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed”. However, later in Romans Paul quotes an Old Testament passage that prophesied, “This is my covenant with them, when I take away their sins.” (Romans 11:27) When Christ came, He came to deal with sin fully and finally. He did not come merely to cover over sins, but He came to take sins away. So you can hear the joy in John the Baptist’s voice when he pointed to Jesus and proclaimed, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29). Imagine what a profound statement that must have been for a first century Jew who had heard all his life that his sins had only been covered or hidden. But now the Apostle John writes, “You know that [Jesus] appeared in order to take away sins…” (1 John 3:5)

The blood of Jesus, our Savior, did not simply cover or hide our sins, but was powerful and effective to take away our sins. What does that mean for those of us who come to Him by faith? It means that Jesus has fully and finally removed our condemnation, completely fulfilled the requirements of the Law in us, and has given us the power to overcome sin that we were once enslaved to. (Romans 8:1-4; 2 Peter 1:3-4)

So the culmination of the Day of Atonement – the reality of that Day, not just a shadow – was presented in the person and work of Jesus Christ on the Cross. “Every priest [stood] daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins; but He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God.” (Hebrews 10:11-12)

As we take part together in the sacraments, we remember Jesus’ death and resurrection; but this is not a reminder of our sins year after year. Instead, it is a reminder of Christ who removed our sins and “by [His] will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” (Hebrews 10:10) And that is why it says that He “will appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin, to those who eagerly await Him.” (Hebrews 9:28)