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Whatever Became of Sin?

The well-known psychiatrist Karl Menninger wrote a book years ago that was quoted by many preachers (including me). Its title was surprising, Whatever Became of Sin? Menninger correctly predicted a time when the concepts of sin and moral accountability would be replaced with therapeutic language.

He described how what was once called “sin” would be thought of as dysfunction. It would be attributed to environmental factors, tragic events, illness, heredity, and psychological disorders, instead of personal responsibility and deliberate choice. The time would come when society would recognize no moral absolutes, and there would be no objective standard of right and wrong.

Are we there yet? I think the answer is obvious.

Sin has been defined as the seeking of our own will instead of the will of God. This distorts everything, including our relationship with God, with other people and with all creation. This is the story of the human race. From the beginning, humans have misused their God-given freedom and made wrong choices. When we rebel against God and his holy law, we put ourselves in God’s place. This is sin.

I was thinking about this recently as I was reading the book of Romans. The apostle Paul quotes from the Old Testament to describe humanity apart from God: no morality (“no one righteous”), no understanding, no value in their way of life (“worthless”), no goodness, no truth, no life (“their throat is an open grave”), no health, no peace (“the way of peace they do not know”), no reverence (“there is no fear of God before their eyes”). This passage says that all of humanity is infected by the tendency toward, and the practice of sin (Romans 3:10-18).

This is the human predicament, apart from divine grace. The whole Bible teaches this. “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8). “The Lord our God is merciful and forgiving, even though we have rebelled against him; we have not obeyed the Lord our God or kept the laws he gave us through his servants the prophets” (Daniel 9:9-10). “There is not a righteous man on earth who does what is right and never sins” (Ecclesiastes 7:20).

Scripture teaches us to confess our sins to God. This is beautifully expressed in the Book of Common Prayer. “Almighty and most merciful Father, we have erred and strayed from thy ways like lost sheep, we have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts, we have offended against thy holy laws, we have left undone those things which we ought to have done, and we have done those things which we ought not to have done.

“But thou, O Lord, have mercy upon us, spare thou those who confess their faults, restore thou those who are penitent, according to thy promises declared unto mankind in Christ Jesus our Lord; and grant, O most merciful Father, for his sake, that we may hereafter live a godly, righteous, and sober life, to the glory of thy holy name. Amen.”

Such a prayer is effective, and forgiveness is possible because the divine-human Jesus gave himself to be nailed to the hard wood of the cross. His death paid the price of redemption for all who believe in him. “The blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. . . If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:7, 9).

In my years of pastoral ministry, I have had the privilege of sharing life with many people who have joyfully received God’s forgiveness of their sins through Christ. They learned through scripture, and by experience, the liberating practice of daily confession. They learned that by relying on the Spirit of Christ, they are raised from spiritual death to life.

“Offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness. For sin shall not be your master” (Romans 6:13-14).

Pastor Randy Faulkner

 

 

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All Hallows Eve

Tomorrow is Halloween. Its traditions come down to us out of ancient England and Ireland. These included the belief that on the Celtic new year the souls of the dead were supposed to revisit their homes. That night was thought to be the most favorable night for witchcraft, fortune-telling, and the activities of evil spirits.

This influenced the Medieval Catholic Church to replace these pagan superstitions with the observance of All Hallows Day (All Saints Day), a day for commemorating the spiritual heroes of the church. Halloween, then, is the eve of All Saints Day.

Of course, the contemporary popular observance of Halloween, for most people, is thoroughly secular. Costumes, trick or treating, parties, and neighborhood decorations with pumpkins and black cats, have little or nothing to do with the supernatural. Kids are thinking of candy, not demons.

But that does not mean the supernatural does not exist.

Biblical Christians believe that an invisible world of the supernatural is very real. We believe in angels (Hebrews 1:14) and demons (Ephesians 6:12). The invisible, supernatural realm is no less real than the visible, natural realm which we inhabit. The church is concerned about both realms.

The church offers transcendence, community, and fellowship with our Creator Himself. Through Jesus Christ, it offers access to the supernatural realm of Heaven. It is a tragedy that so many are looking for transcendence in science fiction, radical environmentalism (pantheism), sex, drugs, and occult mysticism, instead of in the worship of a loving God.

Christians engage in prayer, which is a form of spiritual warfare against the powers of evil. At the end of his letter to the Ephesians, the apostle Paul reminds us of the invisible war going on all around us in the spiritual realm. He writes, without embarrassment, of a personal devil, of ranks of demonic powers, and of their relentless opposition to all that is holy.

I respect those who have engaged in direct power encounters with demonic spirits. I know that the devil has a variety of strategies in his arsenal to use against the Lord’s people. He is a supernatural enemy with supernatural power. But we do not need to fear him. We are not alone in the battle. We are told to “be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power” (Ephesians 6:10).

I have been in the company of godly pastors in Haiti who have had confrontations with practitioners of voodoo and witchcraft. They have been called upon to help victims of demonism find deliverance. I have seen evidence of demonic opposition to the church in Ethiopia. I believe spiritual powers are at work in America. We see this in teenage suicide, mob violence, drug-induced crime, mass murder, the breakdown of the family, false religions (doctrines of demons, 1 Timothy 4:1), practical atheism, and nihilistic despair.

Behind all this are the powers of darkness. That is why Paul warned the Christians at Corinth against “the serpent’s cunning” (2 Corinthians 11:3), and Jesus saw the spiritual reality behind Peter’s denial. “Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift all of you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail” (Luke 22:31-32).

We are told in Ephesians 6 that God has provided protective armor for us to use to defeat the devil and his minions (Ephesians 6:13-17). It has been pointed out that each of these implements of spiritual warfare represents Jesus himself who is our truth, righteousness, peace, and salvation (Romans 13:12-14).

If we feel oppressed by spiritual darkness, if we are overwhelmed by difficult circumstances, if we feel discouraged by our limited strength, it is then that we may rely on the word of God (“the sword of the Spirit,” Ephesians 6:17), and prayer (“in the Spirit,” Ephesians 6:18). This is spiritual warfare. William Cowper was correct when he wrote: “Satan trembles when he sees the weakest saint upon his knees.”

“The weapons we fight with,” wrote Paul, “are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds” (2 Corinthians 10:4).

Let’s give thanks for these truths as we give out candy to kids tomorrow night.

Pastor Randy Faulkner

 

 

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Learning from History

Historian Will Durant asked, “Is it possible that history has no sense and that the immense past was only a weary rehearsal of mistakes that the future is destined to make on a larger stage and scale?”

In the Bible we are told to learn from history. God’s dealings with his ancient people Israel provide lessons to teach us. “These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us” ( 1 Corinthians 10:11). In this text the apostle Paul is reminding us not to repeat the mistakes of the Old Testament Israelites.

In 1 Corinthians 10 Paul refers to a pivotal event in biblical history, the exodus. God’s covenant people were liberated from slavery in Egypt. Some of Paul’s readers (the Jews) would have been familiar with this. Others (Gentiles), would have needed to learn about it. So in 1 Corinthians 10:1-10, he outlined the story, and some of the lessons Christians should draw from it.

He wrote about how, despite the Lord’s goodness in delivering them from slavery and providing for them on their journey to the Promised Land, they disobeyed God. They put God to the test. They complained about the leadership of Moses. They were ungrateful. They were tempted by idolatry.

The Hebrew people had all kinds of special advantages and supernatural blessings from God, yet they fell into sin. The books of Exodus and Numbers tell us about their experiences on the way to their new homeland. Their forty-year pilgrimage in the wilderness of Sinai was one long funeral procession, the consequence of their disobedience.

Paul is writing about this as a warning to the Corinthian church, and to believers today. Do not put God to the test and face his corrective punishment. ! Corinthians 10:11 says we are living in “the fulfillment of the ages.” This is the culmination of God’s plan for history, beginning with Christ’s death and resurrection and continuing through his second coming. We live in the period of time when God’s grace is in operation, the age of the Holy Spirit, the church age.

With these greater advantages comes greater responsibility. Sinning against God’s grace is even more serious than sinning against his law. He expects us to live in the power of his Holy Spirit. He has given us the guidance of his word. We are to learn the lessons of biblical history and link them to our lives as guardrails.

Failure is not inevitable. The warnings and threats in this scripture are meant to protect us and keep us from falling into sin. Paul gives us these words of encouragement: “No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it” (1 Corinthians 10:13).

I read that 26% of all U.S. bachelor’s degree recipients graduate from college without having earned one single undergraduate credit in history. William Willimon lamented what he called “an a-historical culture in which ignorance of the past hinders our ability to move forward into the future.”

I think the apostle Paul would agree. Ignorance of biblical history puts us at risk of falling into the same pattern of failure as ancient Israel. Let’s read our Bibles and learn the lessons of history.

Pastor Randy Faulkner

 

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No Excuses

Someone collected a list of excuses offered to insurance companies by people involved in car crashes. These illustrate the lengths to which some folks will go to avoid accepting responsibility for their actions.

“In my attempt to kill a fly I drove into a telephone pole.”

“Coming home, I drove into the wrong driveway and hit a tree I don’t have.”

“I pulled away from the side of the road. glanced at my mother-in-law and headed over the embankment.”

“I was on my way to the doctor’s office with rear-end trouble when my universal joint gave way, causing me to have an accident.”

“I had been driving my car for forty years when I fell asleep at the wheel and had an accident.”

“The telephone pole was approaching fast. I attempted to swerve out of its path when it struck my front end.”

“The pedestrian had no idea which direction to go, so I ran over him.”

These actual excuses are humorous, even silly-sounding. But probably so are some of the excuses we make to ourselves and others. Benjamin Franklin observed, “The person who is good at excuse-making is seldom good at anything else.”

It does no good to try to make excuses to God. He knows the truth about us all. He created us and the universe in which we live. The majesty of creation is evidence of his power and wisdom. “His eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen, being understood by what has been made, so that people are without excuse” (Romans 1:20).

His creation testifies to his existence. Those who deny him and refuse to worship him will be without an excuse when they have to face him in judgment.

Then there are those who claim to believe in God and the scriptures but they do not live by what they profess to believe. They excuse this by comparing themselves with others. They make moral judgments about the behavior of others. The pious pronouncements they have made to judge others will be enough to condemn them before God. They, too, are without excuse (Romans 2:1).

God’s holy law is the standard by which all will be judged. And there will be no room for excuses, “so that every mouth may be silenced, and the whole world held accountable to God” (Romans 3:19). Silenced. No excuses.

Instead of making excuses, and trying to justify ourselves, the best thing to do is get honest with ourselves about our sins and shortcomings, and come to Jesus Christ for forgiveness. He died for us so that we could be redeemed.

“This righteousness comes from God through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement through faith in his blood” (Romans 3:22-25).

Warren Wiersbe told a story set in a frontier town. A horse bolted and ran away with a wagon carrying a little boy. Seeing the child in danger, a young man risked his life to catch the horse and stop the wagon.

That child grew up to become a lawless man.. One day he stood before a judge to be sentenced for a serious crime. The prisoner recognized the judge as the same young man who had saved his life years earlier. He pled for mercy on the basis of that experience. But the words from the bench silenced him.

“Young man, then I was your savior; today I am your judge, and I must sentence you to be hanged.”

One day Jesus Christ will say to unbelievers who stand before him in the judgment, “During the long day of grace, I was the savior, and I would have forgiven you. But today I am your judge. Depart from me, I never knew you.”

It is a dangerous thing to presume upon God’s present tolerance, restraint and patience. His kindness is intended to lead us to repentance (Romans 2:4). Come to him now and receive his grace. Stop making excuses.

Pastor Randy Faulkner

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What Happens After We Die?

Dallas Willard wrote about a lady he knew who refused to talk about life beyond death with her children. She claimed she did this because she didn’t want them to be disappointed if it turned out not to be there. “Well now,” Willard wrote, “if there is no afterlife they certainly won’t be disappointed. If there is, they may find themselves badly prepared. The only possible way they could be disappointed is if they do continue to exist.”

Will there be an afterlife? What does the Bible say about those who have died? Where are they now? What are they doing? Would a loving God create us only to consign us to extinction? Did God create us for himself?

I intend to weave together several biblical references which I hope will encourage you and strengthen your faith. They refer to what happens to believers who die.

  1. Believers are with the Lord ( 2 Corinthians 5:6-8). This passage does not elaborate on specific conditions of the intermediate state between death and resurrection. But it is clear enough. It says that for a believer in Jesus to leave the body in death is to be at home with him. Indeed, that is precisely what Jesus told the dying thief who was being crucified next to him: “Today you will be with me in Paradise” ( Luke 23:43).
  2. Believers are alive after they die (Matthew 22:32). Jesus referred to God as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Then he said that he is not the God of the dead but of the living. He was saying that the three patriarchs were more intensely alive than ever. They were enjoying an enhanced life as it was meant to be. A missionary named Chet Bitterman was martyred by guerrillas in Colombia. His father was quoted as saying, “We have eight children, and they are all living. One’s in heaven and seven are on earth.”
  3. Believers are recognizable after they die (Mark 9:14). When Moses and Elijah appeared with Jesus on the holy mount of transfiguration, the disciples knew who they were.  Will we know each other in the next life? Well we certainly won’t be more ignorant than we are here! Our personalities will continue, not in some hazy, dreamlike state. We will know as we are known (1 Corinthians 13:12).
  4. Believers are communicative after they die (Revelation 6:10). That verse refers to the souls of martyrs in heaven who spoke to the Lord and asked how much longer the sufferings of the Lord’s people would be allowed to continue. The spirit of the prophet Samuel appeared and spoke to King Saul to tell him about his future (1 Samuel 28:15-20).
  5. Believers are happy after they die (2 Corinthians 12:1-10). The apostle Paul was caught up to Paradise where he witnessed life in a heavenly dimension. He said he heard inexpressible words. Jesus once told a story that illustrates this. It makes us think of the words we all want to hear from him in heaven: “Well done good and faithful servant . . . come and share your Master’s happiness” (Matthew 25:21). For Paul, the desire to go and be with Christ was far better then life on earth (Philippians 1:23). At death, believers enter into close fellowship with the Lord Jesus. This is a state of unspeakable happiness.
  6. Believers are at rest after they die (Revelation 14:13). “Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord . . . they will rest from their labor.” Think of those who are persecuted for their faith, who suffer incurable illnesses, for whom life here is a burden. They are promised rest. St. Augustine said that this is peace, a perpetual sabbath.
  7. Believers are loved after they die (Romans 8:37-39).Jesus had a special word for his heavenly Father: Abba. It is a term of close relationship. The scriptures tell us to think of God as Abba, an eternally loving Father. Romans 8:39 says nothing, not even death itself, can separate believers from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

There are some things worse than dying. It would be terrible to face death without the assurance of the presence of Jesus. It would be terrible to contemplate a conscious eternity without salvation. “People are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment” (Hebrews 9;27).

The good news is that Jesus took our judgment when he died on the cross. By believing in him as savior, we may have our sin removed and to be made legally righteous in God’s sight. “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21).

There are some things that are better than living in this world. “To go and be with Christ is far better.”

Pastor Randy Faulkner

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A Truth Both Reassuring and Disturbing

Psalm 15 expresses the desire for fellowship with God. In elegant Hebrew poetry the psalmist asks “who?” . . . and “who?” Who may approach God and who may live in his presence? Anyone who cares enough to ask this, will be concerned with what God expects of us if we are to be in a right relation to him.

For the ancient Hebrews, the answer lay in the covenant God established with his people, He provided a way for them to live righteously. Israel was accepted as righteous when they repented of their sins and put their hope and trust in the Lord. Through faith they could receive God’s gracious forgiveness and the gift of righteousness.

This would be lived out in their behavior toward their neighbors. The psalm lists different kinds of conduct that should describe the people of God as they relate to one another in the context of God’s covenant favor.

“He whose walk is blameless, and who does what is righteous, and who speaks the truth from his heart, and has no slander on his tongue, who does his neighbor no wrong and casts no slur on his fellowman, who despises a vile man but honors those who fear the Lord, who keeps his oath even when it hurts, who lends his money without usury and does not accept a bribe against the innocent” (Psalm 15:2-5).

Reading this description of a life of integrity reminds us of the Ten Commandments, of Jesus’ teachings in the Sermon on the Mount, and of the lists of ethical duties in Paul’s letters. In fact, this is not so much a list of requirements for  a relationship with God, as it is an explanation of how he wants his people to live after they have become his people (Exodus 20:1-2). Frankly, I find that reassuring.

But I also find it disturbing. Can I say that my life has always been above reproach, that I have always lived a life of moral integrity? I cannot. I am a sinful man in great need of God’s grace and forgiveness. Indeed, “There is not a righteous man on earth, who does what is right and never sins” (Ecclesiastes 7:20).

The New Testament puts it this way: “For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it” (James 2:10).

If Psalm 15 is a list of requirements for a righteous life, I am doomed. If it is a description of who I am because of God’s grace, there is hope for me. The writer of this psalm was David. We know quite a bit about how he strayed from the life he describes here. We read his desperate cry for forgiveness in Psalm 51. He knew he had not lived up to this standard. Has anyone?

There is One. The only human who ever lived whose walk was blameless and perfectly righteous, whose every word was truth, whose example was perfect love for others, was Jesus. He practiced what he preached in the Sermon on the Mount. He transfers his righteousness as a gift of grace (Romans 3:22) to every one who believes in him as savior. This is the message of the gospel. In Christ, believers are accepted into fellowship with a holy God.

“Lord, who may dwell in your sanctuary? Who may live on your holy hill?” The answer is Jesus and all who by faith are in him.

Pastor Randy Faulkner

 

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Faith is Not Unreasonable

“Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” — Hebrews 11:1

The famous skeptic H.L. Mencken has been quoted as saying, “Faith is the illogical belief in the occurrence of the impossible.” The philosopher David Hume said that faith and reason are two different things. To him matters of faith were unsupported by reason.

Anthony Flew once tried to illustrate this with the following parable: Once upon a time two explorers came upon a clearing in the jungle. In the clearing were growing many flowers and many  weeds. One explorer said, “There must be a gardener who tends this plot.” The other explorer answered, “There is no gardener.” So they pitched their tents and decided to watch.

No gardener was ever seen. On the assumption that he might be an invisible gardener, they set up an electrified fence, and patrolled the area with bloodhounds. No movement of the fence or cry of the hounds betrayed the existence of an invisible gardener.

Yet still the believer remained unconvinced. “He is an invisible gardener who is insensible to electric shock, he comes secretly to look after the garden which he loves.”

The skeptic was exasperated. “How does what you call an invisible, intangible, eternally elusive gardener differ from an imaginary gardener, or no gardener at all?” (It is interesting to note that Flew later renounced atheism.)

John W. Montgomery said that Flew’s parable is a damning judgment on all religious truth claims except those of the Christian faith. In Christianity we do not have merely an allegation that the garden of this world is tended by a loving Gardener; we have the actual entrance of the Gardener into the human scene in the person of Christ.

When the Christian talks about faith he/she is not espousing a blind leap into ignorance, or faith in faith, or believing something known to be false. Faith is an intelligent commitment consistent with reason. The Christian faith is based on solid evidence, “being sure of what we hope for,” and “certain of what we do not see.”

This is telling us that the claims of Christianity are dependable and trustworthy, based on evidence. For example, consider Jesus’ claim to be the truth in himself (John 14:6). This is an absolute claim. If it can be disproven, then the whole Christian position comes crashing down. Does Jesus’ character match his claim?

He claimed to be sinless. His followers claimed he was sinless. Even his enemies were unable to produce any proof of his wrongdoing. His followers were not specialists in public relations. They did not invent extravagant stories to burnish Jesus’ image. They could not have made this up. They were uneducated Galilean working men.

Not only that, they were Jews! No Jew would ever ascribe sinlessness to another human being, no matter how much he was revered. But Jesus’ followers believed that Jesus was perfect, the living embodiment of the truth of God.

They faced persecution for preaching this. If this had been a made-up story there were too many people still living who could have refuted it. Nobody did because nobody could produce evidence that Jesus was anything other than  morally perfect.

A professor in a university announced on the first day of class that, “the first thing you have to learn is that there are no absolutes!” A student asked, “Are you sure of that?” Before he thought better of it the professor replied, “Yes, of course, I am absolutely sure.”

The writer of Hebrews is telling us that we can know some things for sure: Faith in Jesus is “being sure of what we hope for.” If Jesus is without moral imperfection, he can be trusted to tell us the truth about salvation, about God, about things beyond the physical world. We can be “certain of what we do not see.”

Those who have knowledge of physics know that there are sounds which are too high pitched for the human ear and there are light waves which are invisible to the human eye. Yet there are scientific instruments which can detect these invisible phenomena for us even though they are beyond our natural comprehension.

Thus it seems perfectly reasonable to me that there is a super-human wisdom and knowledge that are beyond my natural ability to comprehend. A person like the professor who says that there are no absolutes is limiting himself to a very tiny part of the spectrum of knowledge.

Real faith is not blind faith. It is a simple recognition that we must put our confidence in the only one qualified to lead us into that realm beyond human knowledge, and that one is Jesus Christ.

Pastor Randy Faulkner

 

 

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Jesus Before Pilate

Pontius Pilate appears in the gospels as a cowardly vacillator who was willing to sacrifice justice for political convenience. When the religious leaders of Israel brought Jesus to him, they were accusing him of blasphemy on religious grounds. Since they could not carry out a sentence of death, they wanted the Roman procurator to do it for them. So they based their demand for Jesus’ execution on a charge of treason against Rome.

Jesus’ trial before Pilate, as reported in John’s gospel, has Pilate asking Jesus seven questions. These reveal his conflicted mental state, his contempt for the Jews, his uneasy conscience, his fear of being reported to Caesar, and his amazement at the calm demeanor and other-worldly wisdom of Jesus. One gets the sense that for Pilate, this was the great personal crisis of his life. He was on trial before Jesus!

“Are you the king of the Jews?” Pilate asked this, with emphasis on the word “you,” as if to say, “you, a preacher from Galilee, you, a rival to Caesar? Really?” Jesus answered in the affirmative. But he added that his kingdom is not derived from this world or dependent on worldly power (John 18:33-38).

“Am I a Jew?” Pilate’s unabashed sarcasm reveals his hatred for the Jews. Here they were, clamoring for the death of an innocent man while at the same time scrupulously observing a religious rule (John 18:28). The religious authorities wanted Jesus to die by crucifixion. This meant that he would die under the curse of God (Deuteronomy 21:23). In fact, this is what happened. “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree'” (Galatians 3:13).

“What have you done?” Was Pilate asking this so that Jesus would admit to some criminal activity? He was not concerned about the fine points of Jesus’  theology. He was only interested in deeds and their consequences. If only he had pursued an answer to this question! John’s gospel is the record of Jesus’ powerful deeds as signs of his divine authority.

“What is truth?” It has been suggested that this may have been the cry of a tortured soul, that Pilate let slip a brief moment of vulnerability. Or was this question another sarcastic jeer? Or was it offered with a shrug of indifference? He did not know that the very embodiment of truth was standing before him.

“Where do you came from?” There may have been a vague hint of pagan superstition in this question. Jesus had often said that he had come from God, (John 5:37, 8:16-18). Now the religious leaders remind Pilate that Jesus had claimed to be the Son of God (John 19:7). Was there some dim awareness in Pilate that the person standing before him in dignified silence came from another world? Jesus did not answer.

“Do you refuse to speak to me?” Pilate is afraid (John 19:8). He is annoyed. He is offended. Jesus’s silence is his answer now. He has already declared his truth and his kingdom and Pilate has been dismissive. Jesus could see into Pilate’s heart. There was no use in answering.

“Don’t you realize that I have power?” He could say the word and Jesus would be crucified, or set free (John 19:10). He represented the most powerful government on earth. In his mind, there was no greater authority. In Jesus’s mind, however, there is the knowledge of the power of the living God, before whom all nations must bow. Jesus reminds Pilate that human government is a gift from almighty God (John 19:11) and is to be employed in the exercise of justice and righteousness.

Recognizing that Jesus was no threat to Roman civil authority, Pilate wanted to set him free (John 19:12). The fact that he did not is a cautionary tale. His capitulation to religious bigotry and the injustice of mob violence is a warning to us. Pilate killed an innocent man to try to preserve his own position.  Pilate condemned himself.

As for those who turned Jesus over to Pilate, our Lord says they were “guilty of a greater sin” (John 19:11). “‘We have no king but Caesar,’ the chief priests answered” (John 19:15). In saying this, the leaders of Israel renounced their Messiah and turned their back on their national heritage. They condemned themselves.

Pastor Randy Faulkner

 

 

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Where Was God?

I will always remember where I was on this date 25 years ago. I was attending mission board meetings at Glen Eyrie, in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Our morning devotional was interrupted by the news of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City. As the television news reported the unfolding events throughout the day, we became aware of the four hijacked airliners, the thousands of casualties, the attack on the Pentagon, and the heroic intervention of the passengers on United Airlines flight 93.

As a result of these attacks, the military was on high alert and all commercial flights were grounded. I was unable to get a flight home to Oklahoma City for several days. The staff of Glen Eyrie, headquarters of the Navigators, offered me kind hospitality during that time.

I was in Colorado Springs. Where was God on 9/11?

Where was he when hundreds of office workers were burned to death in stairwells and elevators? When civilians and first responders were crushed to death when the towers collapsed? When passengers on the four planes were killed when they crashed into the buildings? When thousands of families were told that their loved ones would not be coming home? When the deadliest terrorist attack in history challenged the mightiest nation in the world?

President George Bush issued a statement which included these words: “Tonight, I ask for your prayers for all those who grieve, for the children whose worlds have been shattered, for all whose sense of safety and security have been threatened. And I pray they will be comforted by a power greater than any of us, spoken through the ages in  Psalm 23: ‘Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for you are with me.'”

“You are with me.”

A pastor was called to the home where a tragedy had occurred. A teenage boy was killed in a car crash. The embittered father snarled at the pastor, “Where was your God when my son was killed?” The minister sat silently for a moment, then replied, “He was where he was when his own boy was being killed.”

That wise pastor was saying that God is not oblivious to our sorrow. In fact he has entered our world of sorrow and is with us when we grieve. He is with us in the person of Jesus Christ his Son who endured the greatest of all suffering when he died for the sins of the world.

Bruce Milne described it this way: “(Jesus) enters into the full reality of death, not merely walking with us right up to the door only to pull back at the final second, leaving us to walk the dark valley on our own. He comes all the way with us right into the grey, after-death world of funeral parlors and the making of arrangements for the disposing of the body, the world of strained faces, hushed voices and tear-stained eyes.”

Of course that is not all. In his triumphant resurrection, our Lord “is alive forever and hence our contemporary. He still comes to transform broken, sorrowing and fearful lives with the sheer, uninhibited gladness of discovering him, alive and with us.”

Where was God on 9/11? President Bush got it right when he quoted the promise that God is with us when tragedy comes. He was with us on 9/11. If our faith is in Jesus, he will be with us whenever and however our end comes. He will be with us on that great day when he restores creation and there will be no more death, sorrow or crying, and no more 9/11s!

Pastor Randy Faulkner

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Read Your Bible

A young graduate student working in a European university was working on a doctoral dissertation. He was looking for some writings by an obscure Spanish thinker of the 18th century named Hierro.

He unearthed a dusty volume and in turning its pages he found what appeared to be a document in Hierro’s own handwriting. It was written in 1741. It was Hierro’s will, bequeathing all his worldly goods to the first person who would study his book which had apparently been ignored during the philosopher’s lifetime.

Spanish courts determined that the will was legal and that the student was entitled to collect nearly $250,000.

The Bible promises us an even more priceless treasure than that. It offers us the title deed to eternal life, purchased by the blood of Jesus through his death on the cross. We would do well to read and believe the Bible.

Peter the apostle wrote, “We have the word of the prophets made more certain, and you will do well to pay attention to it” (2 Peter 1:19). That is Peter’s way of reminding us to read our Bibles.

We should do this, Peter says, because the Bible is truthful and trustworthy. The word Peter uses is “certain.” That means it is sure, reliable, dependable. He refers to prophecy. The Bible is full of predictions that have been fulfilled 100% of the time. For example, if you do a careful study of the prophecies about the coming Messiah, you will discover that they are fulfilled in Jesus of Nazareth.

Another reason Peter gives to encourage us to read our Bibles is that the Bible illuminates our lives. It gives light for our darkness. “Pay attention to it as a light shining in a dark place,” Peter says. In this he repeats a theme found throughout the scripture. “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path” (Psalm 119:105). When we are engulfed in the darkness of discouragement or suffering. the promises of God’s word bring the light and hope of his presence.

Peter gives another reason to read the Bible: it is a living message from the living God. In other words his Spirit inspired its writing. Peter says, “No prophecy of scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation. For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit” (2 Peter 1:20-21).

The Bible did not come into being through the writers’ own personal interpretation of things. The Bible was not the result of human imagining. L.S. Chafer said, “The Bible is not such a book a man would write if he could, or could write if he would.” It is divinely inspired. That is reason enough for us to read it. Its human authors were under the influence of the Spirit of God.

Just as the Lord Jesus was both divine and human, so the Bible is both divine and human. It is amazing in its unity and consistency: 66 books, written over a period of 1600 years, in many different places, by 40 different authors, in three different languages. Yet it all fits together like the pieces of a puzzle with Jesus Christ the savior as its main theme.

In my youth I had a Sunday school teacher who asked the class every week, “Did you read your Bible every day?” That was good advice. He knew the Bible would direct us to Jesus and his promise of eternal life.

What a treasure!

Pastor Randy Faulkner