Longing to see God break into your life (Luke 2:22-40)

Cornerstone Mission Church, Sunday Sermon December 28, 2008

Luke 2 begins with the birth account of our Lord Jesus in the town of Bethlehem when the time came for the baby to be born (Luke 2:6); as there was no room for Joseph and Mary, Jesus was placed in a manger (Luke 2:7). And about that time, an angel of the Lord appeared to the shepherds out in the fields nearby. In our family, when we do our Advent reading, our children love to emphasize the last word of Luke 2:9, “An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.” It makes it dramatic! The shepherds heard angel announcing to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger” (Luke 2:10-12). And, then there was this glorious appearance of the heavenly host, the army of angels praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests” (Luke 2:13-14). When the angels left, you see the shepherds making their ways to see Jesus. When they saw Jesus they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child.” (Luke 2:17) On returning, they were glorifying and praising God.

This probably is the all time favorite story about Christmas. Then, there is the famous Christmas carol, Angels We Have Heard On High from 1862 we all know and cherish.

Angels we have heard on high / Sweetly singing over the plains

And the mountains in reply, Echoing their joyous strains.

Glo-ori-a In excelsis de-o Glo-ori-a In excelsis de-o

Shepherds, why this Jubilee? Why your joyous strains prolong?

What the gladsome tidings be Which inspire your heavenly song?

Glo-ori-a In excelsis de-o Glo-ori-a In excelsis de-o

Come to Bethlehem and see Him whose birth the angels sing;

Come, adore on bended knee Christ, the Lord, the newborn King

Glo-ori-a In excelsis de-o Glo-ori-a In excelsis de-o

See Him in a manger laid Jesus, Lord of heaven and earth!

Mary, Joseph, lend your aid, With us sing our Savior's birth.

Glo-ori-a In excelsis de-o Glo-ori-a In excelsis de-o

But, rarely do we consider what took place afterward! There is more to the Christmas story after the Shepherds visited Jesus who was just born.

1. The rest of Christmas story…

The story involves Joseph and Mary at the temple after 40 days have passed from Mary giving birth to Jesus. A mother who gave birth was to take part in the rite of purification forty days after giving birth according to Leviticus 12:2-8. We see them taking part in this rite in Luke 2:22. We also see them observing the law to present their firstborn Jesus to God according to Exodus 13:2 as well as dedication of Jesus into the Lord’s service according to 1 Samuel 1 & 2.[1] Joseph and Mary were God fearing people who took God’s prescribed way of life very seriously. Luke 2:24 mentions “a pair of doves or two young pigeons,” which was the offering of the poor. This was Jesus’ family background, a poor family, but a family who took God very seriously.

2. Longing to see God breaking into your life

Luke 2:25, we are introduced to a new character named, Simeon. He is descried as righteous and devout man in old age. He was in line with the Old Testament figures like Job who were called righteous. Darrell Bock thinks that Simeon’s qualities reflect “a wise elder who has walked with God.”[2]

What stands out about Simeon is his deepest longing of his heart to see God break into history. Luke 2:25 describes him as “waiting for the consolation of Israel.” Eugene Peterson in his Message paraphrases this phrase as “a man who lived in the prayerful expectancy of help for Israel.” New Living Translation translates it, “… was eagerly waiting for Messiah to come and rescue Israel.” So, here waiting is not like sitting out on a porch on a clear night hoping to catch a sight of falling star. It is nothing like a person with a lottery ticket in his hand who must wait until the winning combination of numbers is revealed.

No, Simeon waited his whole life for one thing, the relief, the consolation of Israel through the coming of the Promised Messiah. When you wait for your good friend to show up at a restaurant, there is certainty about your waiting because you know your good friend is trustworthy and has track record of keeping his/her promises.

Darrell Bock describes likeness of Simeon as “Saints in touch with God’s heart often await expectantly the completion of God’s promises.”[3]

We must ask, “Do I long to see God break into my life and into those around me?” In a carpool ride down to Chicago to visit House of Prayer, a church serving homeless and served by homeless people, Adelaide asked a question something like this. What was one thing that impacted you the most in your childhood? Well, I had to think about for few minutes. It prompted me to remember a moment when I prayed to God when I was 14 years old still in Korea just few months before I immigrated to the US. I wasn’t a Christian then, but I remember asking God, “God, if you are there, I want you to show me you are there.” It was a callout to God out of desperation from a teenage boy who felt miserable because he was lost, depressed and disillusioned. It was a callout to God to break into my miserable life. And guess what, God answered my callout to him soon after I came to Chicago. Through a series of events, I ended up at a camp retreat out in the camping ground by Indianan Dunes. There I was in a tent surrounded by eight or so others who were praying for me. There, not only did God let me know that he existed and was there. He came near me. He showed me Jesus. I longed to see God and God showed himself to me through Jesus.

God always answers longings of people for God to break into their lives by revealing Jesus. When was last time you callout to God to break into your life? If you are not calling out to God to break into you life, it is because you don’t understand what Simeon understood; he understood that there was more to life in the absence of the consolation of Israel. To cultivate the longing that expresses in callout to God to come and break into our lives, there is got to be this realization that there must be more! There is a song by David Ruis called, “There must be more.” It goes like this.

Lord I groan, Lord I kneel

I am cryin’ out for something real

‘Cause I know deep in my soul

There must be more

Lord I’m tired, yes I’m weak

I need your power to work in me

But I can’t let go, I keep hanging on

There must be more

There must be more; there must be more

River flow, fire burn; river flow, fire burn

Holy Spirit breathe on me; Holy Spirit breathe on me.

Do you know there is more? If you didn’t know I tell you there is more God wants to show you. He wants you to behold Jesus. He is your salvation. He is your consolation, your rescue, comfort. Let the deep longing rise within you and callout to God. What he will give you is his Son Jesus. As Simeon did, you will behold Jesus, your light!

3. Longing fueled by the Holy Spirit

Going back to Luke 2:25, it says that the Holy Spirit was upon him. And, Luke 2:26, it was the Holy Spirit who revealed to him… that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Christ.” His longing, his waiting had already this deep element of trust in God that he was going to do what he said he would do. Now, his longing was fueled even more by certainty when the Holy Spirit revealed to him that he was to see with his eyes how God was going to unfold his rescue plan for Israel. God was going to send his Messiah and he would become the hope of Israel, the consolation, the relief of Israel.

Luke 2:27, we see Simeon going into the temple courts because the Spirit moved him. Just when Joseph and Mary were obediently following the way of God by presenting Jesus at the temple, the Spirit tucks him to go into the temple courts. And, it happened, the divinely appointed moment when Simeon got to behold the salvation, Jesus Christ. If you would consider history as in a shape of hour glass on its side, the moment Jesus was born is the narrow tube part. All the promises from the old days are now distilled into one focal point on Jesus.

What I see here is where there is desperate longing to see God break in, God sends his Holy Spirit to make sure his Son Jesus Christ gets revealed to us.  For us, in a similar way from Simeon, we long for another day when Jesus is going to break into our history once again for good.

4. Longing fueling the lifestyle of worship, fasting and praying

From Luke 2:36, we are introduced to Anna. She was known as a prophetess in the tradition of the Old Testament prophets. She really is a remarkable woman. Only after seven years into her marriage, she lost her husband and became a widow for eighty four. Eighty four years of widowhood plus seven years of marriage equals to ninety one years old. It says she was very old. She was easily more than hundred years old.

Luke 2:38 describes her lifestyle. It says, “She never left the temple but worshipped night and day, fasting and praying.” The temple of Jerusalem built by Herod was large with many little rooms for various purposes. So, she could have been allowed to live in one of these rooms at the temple. Or, she might have centered her life at the temple living nearby. We cannot be certain about her circumstance. But, what we can be certain is about her lifestyle. For her, there were no weekly holy days when she went to the temple. She centered her life around the temple so exclusively that it was like she never left the temple. What was she doing there? Three things: worship night and day, fasting and praying (Luke 2:37).

For Simeon, it was the Holy Spirit who led him into the temple because of his longing to see God break into the history of Israel. For Anna, she met Jesus because she never left the temple. Luke 2:38 says, “Coming up to them at that very moment.” It was the moment when Simeon was talking to Joseph and Mary about the child’s destiny. “The child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sigh that will be spoken against, so the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul too” (Luke 2:34-35). When I hear that Anna came to them at that very moment, I see God at work behind the scene. But, I also see how her lifestyle played into see this happen. She was well over one hundred years old. And, for majority of her life she centered her life on worship, fasting and praying to God.

What I see in Anna is the theme of running the race with consistency in her devotion to God. She reminds me of Jesus’ parable of the persistent widow from Luke 18. It is a story about a widow who asks unjust judge to grant her justice against her adversary. Jesus asks in Luke 18:6-9, “… will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”

Day and night, Anna served faithfully at the temple worship; she fasted and prayed persistently for long time. What do you think motivated her to persistently center her life on worship, fasting and prayer at the temple? It says when she came up to them she gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem. Here “looking forward to” is the same Greek word translated as “waiting for” from Luke 2:25 by Simeon. It is no different with Anna. She too like many along with Simeon had been waiting for, looking forward to the consolation of Israel, the redemption of Jerusalem. It was this longing that fueled her worship, fasting and praying.

5. Questions to reflect…

In closing here are some questions we need to reflect:

• What do you long after? As we have seen in Simeon and Anna’s life, the kind of longing you have is very important. Longing to see God break into your life, to believe that there is got to be more with God, longing to behold Jesus as your salvation… when this longing is not there, it is like loosing heart. I am sure you all have all kinds of longings, to graduate from school, to be successful, to gain back grounds you lost over the holidays tables, to be a good person, to be good to others… It’s all good, you got to have this stream of deep longing after God that can drive the rest of longings. And, you got to fuel your longing for God to break into your life and others through worship and through fasting and through prayer as Anna did. When you set your heart on seeing God break into your life, you see the Holy Spirit moving in you. Remember, there must be more!

• What gives you peace? Simeon felt peace having seen Jesus. He told God, “Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you now dismiss your servant in peace.” Beholding Jesus, he experienced peace, true contentment, knowing that he would soon die. Doesn’t this put things to perspective for us? We all assume that we could live longer than the number of years we’ve lived so far. And, there is no sense of impending death approaching because of aging. And, for Simeon to have experienced peace facing death, how should our encounter with Jesus affect you and me?

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[1] Bock, Darrell L. “Original Meaning” In NIV Application Commentary, New Testament: Luke. By Darrell L. Bock, 92. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, © 1996.

[2] Bock, Darrell L. “Original Meaning” In NIV Application Commentary, New Testament: Luke. By Darrell L. Bock, 93. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, © 1996.

[3] Bock, Darrell L. “Original Meaning” In NIV Application Commentary, New Testament: Luke. By Darrell L. Bock, 93. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, © 1996.

Coming of Christ (Isaiah 52.7-12; John 1:1-14)

Cornerstone Mission Church - Christmas Message on 12/25/2008

My sister’s family treated us to few days up in Wisconsin Dells to one of the indoor water theme parks. We made it there on Monday evening. And, I took my kids and my sister kids to water raft rides. I don’t know if you’ve been to one of those indoor water rides, but it is quite amazing. You go up what must be endless stairs for few minutes and finally get to the top where you get to descend on a round shaped raft down through a tube; well it is all over in 10’s of seconds. The tube begins inside the building, winds down outside the building, and finally enters back into the building. And, the raft simply winds down inside and through the tube and dumps you on the lower pool.

I’ve never been on these things at night, not alone on one of the coldest winter days thus far. As soon as raft takes off in splash, it quickly descends down inside a tube and in a matter of a second or so you are in this complete pitch darkness that blinds you and disorients you. And because you are in this pitch darkness, you cannot anticipate turns. And, you end up feeling dizzy… Well, I tried to be tough and I am sure none of the kids knew how I felt. But, I tell you, all I wanted after few twists and turns in pitch darkness inside the tube was a glimmer of light. That’s all I needed to get myself together, just a flicker of light at the end of the tube.

The absolute worse was when I sat down with my back facing downward. Something about going downward with quick twists and turns in complete darkness made me feel dizzy and nauseated. In complete darkness, I just couldn’t get my sense of direction. Man, did I want that light or what? Just to think about it gives me headache and makes me all dizzy. Kids were just fine. Perhaps, this is a sign of my aging. Now, don’t go around thinking that I was afraid of the ride, because I wasn’t, all right? Uh hum! I just didn’t like how riding down in pitch darkness made me feel all disoriented, dizzy and even nauseated. What made it all better was when there was light; it helped me regain my sense of direction.

Today’s world feels like descending down inside a pitch dark tube in a raft with your back facing downward. No one ever imagined just a year ago, or even six months ago, we will be where we are today with economic downturn. Some think that we haven’t hit the bottom yet. Other words, expect more bad news ahead of us well into the year 2009, perhaps stock market hitting 6000 level, rising unemployment rate at all time high, credit woes, businesses suffering. Then, there are two wars that our nation has been fighting. Although scaling down the military deployment is a possibility in Iraq, situations in Afghanistan are getting worse; it demands more troops and fear of repeating Russia’s unsuccessful occupation in Afghanistan is real. And, if you didn’t know already the long time dictator president Lansana Conte of Guinea died last Monday prompting unrest and another military coup. It is potentially explosive situation. Our Sarah and others who planned to take off for a Vision Trip with Teachus Mission to Guinea cannot leave any more. The world we live in today feels like dizzy, disoriented and discouraging downward descent inside a pitch dark tube with unexpected twists and turns. And, it is now more than any other time in recent history when people are looking for the real source of hope, the glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel.

For the Israelites, they felt like they were in this pitch dark and dizzying and discouraging descent when they were deported from the Promised Land as captives into the exile. There in the foreign land, Isaiah 52:7 lets us know that they yearned for good news who would proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, “Your God reigns!” Down the pitch dark tube of descent under the rules of foreign kings of Babylon, what else could be constituted as good news, then to hear, “Your God reigns!” So, they yearned for the Lord to return (8), to comfort his people (9b), to redeem Jerusalem (9c); they yearned to see the salvation of… God (10). And, they heard good news, “you will not leave in haste or go in flight; for the LORD will go before you, the God of Israel will be you rear guard.” Thus, they saw the light at the end of the tunnel. No longer were they confounded and disheartened in the pitch dark tube of descent for the Lord returned. So, there was this great celebration of God’s coming, God breaking into their wasted places of Jerusalem.

This coming of the Lord, breaking into the world of the exiles foreshadowed the coming of God in Christ Jesus. John puts it this way in 1:9, “The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world,” the world wrapped up in the pitch dark tube of descent. It came about when the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us (John 1:14), the Word, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth, his name is Immanuel, “God with us,” Jesus Christ! As it was when the LORD went before the Israelites and was their rear guard, it is Jesus who lights the way for us. Jesus is the light that stops the pitch dark tube of descent.

When apostle Paul asks this question in Romans 8:35, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?” he doesn’t assume that we Christians would be shielded from the pitch dark tube of descent. But, what he says is although we may be considered as sheep to be slaughtered… we are more than conquerors through him who loved us, namely Jesus Christ (36-37). His conviction is this, “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38-39).

So, this morning, be encouraged, be strengthened in Christ’s advent. He came because he loves you. God’s plan is not to take away every problem and pain you are facing today as so many of us falsely hope for. No, he has better plan than zapping away our problems and pains. His plan is to make us warriors, conquerors, overcomers in the love of Jesus Christ. That is what Advent of Christ means today!

Count on God! (Psalm 89)

Cornerstone Mission Church, Sunday Sermon December 21, 2008

I’ve been thinking a lot about keeping promises this past week and this led me to think about my childhood. Growing up I never really knew what my dad did for living. All I knew was that he worked for different companies and he also traveled a lot. That was good enough for me. But, there was something I felt very strongly about. Maybe it was being a youngest child thing; I thought that it would be really cool if my dad would bring home something special just for me. So, before he left for his work in the morning, or before he left for his business travels, I would stop him and ask him if he would get something for me; I can’t remember what I asked from him… perhaps toys like transformers kits, battle ships, microscope, things that boys would enjoy. But, most of the time, it didn’t have to be anything specific; I just wanted him to remember me and bring home something special for me. That’s what I really wanted, special gifts from dad.

Whenever I asked him to remember me and bring home something special, he never failed to promise to do so. But the problem was that my dad too easily forgot his promises to me. I kept asking him thinking that if I asked him enough, he would eventually remember me and get me something special. But, at some point, I stopped asking him because I stopped expecting, stopped hoping… because I stopped trusting his promises.

As I thought about my dad’s broken promises, I began thinking about my own promises to my kids. And, God highlighted a very specific promise I’ve made to Mikayla. I’ve always thought that it would be really cool if I could have daddy and daughter date, nothing special, but just a time alone with each of my girls. Few months back I took Abby out for a breakfast at Egg Factory and it was fabulous. Well, the next in line was Mikayla. But, things got busy and I keep postponing it. And, Mikayla kept on asking when I was going to taker her out for daddy and daughter date. I would say to her something like, “Soon, I will take you out soon.” But, I didn’t keep my promise. And, guess what? Just like how I stopped asking my dad for something special from him, Mikayla stopped asking me about our date. Man, the very thing that I didn’t like about my dad, here I was doing exactly the same thing. I asked her on Friday during dinner about how she used to ask about our daddy daughter date, but she stopped asking me about it. I asked her why she stopped asking me about it. Her response was, “Well, I didn’t think it was going to happen.” Man! It hurt! She gave up on me because I didn’t keep my promise to her, because I kept on forgetting.

Think of your relationship with your dads. Have you stopped asking him because you’ve stopped expecting from him, you’ve given up on him to keep his promises to you? Perhaps, you internalized it by saying to yourself that it is your fault. Or, you are really angry and bitter about it. How about your relationships with others? Have others stopped asking you because they’ve stopped expecting from you because your tendency to forget and not carry through your promises to them?

Now, when we make promises to others and others make promises to us, I would like to think that our intention is to keep our promises. But, what I realize is that all the good intention in the world does no good if it is not carried out. Intention with no action is nothing but an empty promise that does nothing but hurts people.

Now, think about your relationship with God. Have you stopped asking him earnestly? Have you stopped expecting from him? Do you think of God as a faulty bow who doesn’t deliver what he has promised? Perhaps, self-loathingly you ask yourself, “Why should he pay attention to me? Why should he care for me? Well, I am nobody.”

What is wrong with our generations? Why are we so jaded about anyone keeping their promises, not alone keep our own promises? What does our current historical economic meltdown say about our generations? It speaks to deeply cowardly, deceptive, and defective human hearts that cannot think and feel beyond themselves. It speaks to the lack of promise keepers, who take their own words very seriously because they take God seriously. Are you a promise keeper? Do you stand out as dependable, trustworthy, promise fulfilling person when everyone else falter around you? Are you a countercultural promise keeper no matter how hard it gets?

Psalm 89 speaks powerfully to the jaded generations who cannot fathom people who keep their promises. The psalm is going to show you how you can stand out as counterculturally dependable and trustworthy people when you count on God!

1. Count on God because he is loving, faithful, powerful as our King

When you read through Psalm 89 over and over again, you cannot fail to notice how deeply the psalmist known as Ethan the Ezrahite counts on God.

Right off the bat, I am blown away by the way the psalmist counts on God. Listen to his declaration from verse 1 and 2; to say, “I will,” speaks to Ethan’s determination. This is what he is going to do and nothing’s going to stop him. Verse 1, “I will sing of the Lord’s great love forever; with my mouth I will make your faithfulness known through all generations.” Why sing of the Lord’s love? Why make his faithfulness known? Why should you count on God at all? Verse 2 tells why. It is because God’s love stands firm forever and he established his faithfulness in heaven itself.” God’s love is never fickle, but is constant and rock-solidly dependable. His faithfulness isn’t the stuff of earthly qualities, but of heavenly quality that you can always count on.

V.5 -8, he asks a question repeatedly, “Who is like the Lord? Who is like you?” The heaves praise him (v. 5), the council of the holy ones (v. 7), the who’s who of the saints fear him, for he is incomparable (v. 6), he is most awesome (v. 7), he is mighty (v. 8).

Talking about power, he peppers v. 9-13 with image of his great power. Surging sea with waves mounting up which symbolizes crazy chaos beyond control like the economic meltdown domino has nothing on God; God rules and he calms it (v. 9). Rahab, the mythical monster of the deep is crushed and slayed by God (v. 10). As the Creator, he claims the heavens, the earth and all that is in it, the north and the south as his possession, his creation; even the inanimate mountains tall and short alike sing for you at his name (v. 11-12). His arm, his hand, his right hand, powerful, strong, and exalted (v. 13)! Righteousness and justice define his authority, his throne (v. 14). But, he dispenses righteousness and justice by carrying them out in love and faithfulness. Verse 18 tells us to count on God because he is our shield and our king!

2. Count on God because of his promise to David

Verse 19 through verse 37 speaks to God’s covenant with David, his promise to David. For the psalmist this was one of the greatest sources of his confidence in God.

God calls David his warrior with God given strength (V. 19), my servant and his anointed one (v. 20). God’s going to sustain him and strengthen him. And, for this reason, the anointed David will subject his enemy (v. 22). God’s going to crush and strike down David’s foes (v. 22). God’s faithful love will be with David and God’s going to give him strength… that is what the image of exalting horn means in v. 24. God affirms his eternal love and his unfailing covenant, his promise with David (v. 28). God’s everlasting promise to David is that he is going to establish David’s throne as long as the heavens endure (v. 29).

V. 30-37, God reaffirms his commitment to ensure, to establish David’s throne firmly, his line of posterity and kingship to continue forever even in the cases of David’s sons forsaking God and all that God stood for. God promised to decisively to deal with the sins of the bad kings after David. You read Kings and Chronicles and you realize the depth of apostasy and rebellion by the sons of David. Yet, God says in v. 33, “but I will not take my love from him nor will I ever betray my faithfulness.” There it is again, God’s enduring love and his everlasting faithfulness. If there was ever question about what God was going to do with the line of David, God says in v. 36-38, “his line will continue forever and his throne endure before me like the sun; it will be established forever like the moon, the faithful witness in the sky.”

To count on God meant trusting God’s intention, his promise to carry out his plan to continue the line of David.

3. Count on God through lament

To count on God’s intention to carry out his promise is all good except when things don’t look like God is doing what he said he would do. It’s like when the promises by us and by others taste like rotten fruits.

When your reality seems to betray the promises from God what do you do? V. 39 to 51 speak to the reality that doesn’t match with what God had promised in the past. The reality as the palmist perceived was dark and gloomy and destructive. Where did the confidence that Ethan count on God? How can you keep counting on God when the realty casts doubts on God’s promises?

The test of faith is in those crucible moments that shake the core of what you thought was your secure trust in God.

It is not possible to pinpoint the exact circumstance that the psalmist was in, but it was pretty bad. Perhaps, it was during the time of last two kings of Judah in the awake of Babylonian exile. Or, perhaps it was during the time of exile. Whatever was the circumstance that the psalmist was in it was bad enough to shake his faith in God.

All that was said about God’s eternal love, his faithfulness, his power, his covenant promise to continue the line of David, it all felt irrelevant to the psalmist because the current realty seemed to betray God’s promise. God promised for enduring line of David, but the kingdom of Judah collapsed and the king of Judah was no longer, but an exile among many. What was the psalmist to do?

Let me tell you what the psalmist did. Ethan chose to lament. To lament is to express grief, pain. It is about being honest. It is opposite of stuffing it in, pretending everything is fine when it is not, putting smiles on your face when your heart is stricken with disappointments and hurts. To lament is to admit your pain, your disappointment, your confusion to God. And, this is what Ethan chose to do.

God said he would establish the line of David forever but now it was as though God was rejecting, spurning, getting angry with David and his posterity (v. 38). It was as though God was renouncing his covenant with David when psalmist witnessed how David’s throne got defiled by the invasion, how the walls of Jerusalem and the strongholds crumbled to ruins in the hands of the enemies, how the kingdom of David was plundered away. No longer commanding any respect, the line of David was scorned by the neighbors. Ethan is grief; he is hurt! And, he is letting God know he is hurting! ‘God, it appears as though you are exalting the right hand of David’s foes and make them rejoice over the demise of David’s line. It is as though you render the sword of David powerless and you withdraw your support for him in battle. You promised to establish his throne forever, but now it appears as though you are putting an end to it. You set David upon his throne, now it looks like you cast it to the ground. I don’t get it! Why does it feel like you are hiding yourself forever? Why is that all I feel now is your wrath burning like fire?’

Do you know what it is like to be honest with God like this? Why is that do we put on a smile on our face when pain is deep? Is it because we think that God cannot take the heat from us, that somehow we might hurt God? Is it because somehow we got this idea that being brutally honest with God is not what Christians do?

It is so important to you know that God can take your lament, he can handle your grief, pain, anger. He says bring it on whatever is that you have in you that has been eating inside of you. Don’t play nice Christian! God isn’t impressed when you put up fake smiles when it is time to express your hurts! Don’t stuff it in, but express to God! God wants you to know that he wants to hear you.

If you don’t choose to lament, whatever is inside of you will get rotten and it is going to poison your thinking, your relationship with people, but most importantly it is going to position your relationship with God. Instead of drawing near to God, you are going to stray away from him if you don’t choose to express your feeling honestly to him.

4. Count on God through lament that acts on truth

Now, to think lament as simply dumping your bad feelings on God and nothing more is not accurate. If lament was simply unloading your toxic feelings to God and nothing more, it won’t help you to deal with the real issues that have caused such feelings in the first place.

Ethan began and carried his psalm with his heartfelt trust, his deep confidence in God’s love, faithfulness, his power, righteousness and justice. But, v. 38, the tone changes completely from joyful confidence to the tone of doubts, pain, confusion… But, the thing about this psalm is there is no relief to the miserable circumstances. Ethan’s lament created this incredible tension between God’s promises and apparent reality of God’s unfulfilled promises. And, there is no resolution. There is no easy answer to the crisis of faith! The tension continues on.

So, from circumstantial point of view, nothing has changed. The line of David appears to have ended; the throne of David no more. No more kings in Judah, no more nation of Israel. Exile continues. Jerusalem remains in ruin. Nothing changed in the course of this psalm when you look at from circumstantial point of view.

But, look how Ethan ends his psalm in v. 52, “Praise be to the Lord forever! Amen and Amen.” Tension remains between God’s promises and his unfulfilled promises, problems remain. But, what Ethan chose to do is to praise God.

Again, I remind you that Ethan did not skip the lament part. He honestly expressed how he felt about the situation. And, God heard him. Nothing changed circumstantially, but radical adjustment took place in his heart when he took his heart to God and wrestle with him. God renewed his faith in him.

What I see is here how lamenting empowered Ethan to trust God again. He moved from being overwhelmed by feelings ungrounded in truth to now being centered, being grounded in the truth of who God is. It happened because he became honest with
God. It happened because he recounted God’s promises.

When you put together the truth about God and being honest before God what you get is faith that is purified through fire.

Conclusion

It has past months since I promised to Mikayla to have a daddy and daughter breakfast with her. This week God’s has convicted me about this. I don’t want to follow the footsteps of my dad who was terrible at keeping his end up. When my children grow old and when it is time for me to say goodbye, I want them to remember me as a father who loved them, who was faithful, who kept his word. It is not good enough to have mere good intention. All the good intention in the world would do no good if it is not back up by action. All my good intention to spend time with my girls as their daddy will not mean anything if I don’t follow through. I can blame it on forgetfulness. But, forgetfulness only shows that I don’t care enough. Caring enough is remembering!

So, I remembered and Saturday morning I took Mikayla to Panera. We had a fabulous time. Lyn was gracious to make it possible for me to keep my promise to Mikayla. If I as a mere human dad can remember my promise to my child and get my acts together to keep my promise to my girl, how much better would our heavenly Father be at keeping his promises?

Although Psalm 89 gives no resolution to the tension between God’s promise and delay in his fulfillment, we as a reading who lives now knows that God has fulfilled his promise to David. The throne of David, the line of David didn’t end in exile. Just in four days, we will celebrate the birthday of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, a descendant of David, who carries the line of David now as the exalted King, Savior.

Zeal that consumes! (John 2:12-25)

Cornerstone Mission Church, Sunday Sermon December 14, 2008

10 am, May 26, 1997, little over a decade ago, this was a defining moment in my life. If you are thinking of my wedding day, you are right. Although Lyn and I have attended many weddings and I have officiated even some, we agree that hands down our wedding was the best. Wedding ceremony, photography, reception, and honeymoon, everything cost us less than eight thousand dollars. So, when I say it was the best wedding I ever attended, I don’t mean it in the sense of elaborate décor for the ceremony and banquet with the coolest honeymoon destination. No, it was the best wedding for me and my wife because it was our wedding; it was our beginning as husband and wife and people were there to celebrate with us, pray for us. And, I am sure every married couple feels that way about their beginnings.

I do remember though a moment that was quite distressing to me during the ceremony. During the sermon, Lyn and I, we were sitting on chairs in the front and there it was cell phone ringtone right behind us; it was the most annoying ringtone I’ve ever heard. Then, it happened again just few minutes later, the same annoying ringtone; it was for my dad. And, the sad thing is he actually answered the call second time around. The whole moment was captured on video tape. I was angry; I was in pain. I looked like I just swallowed a glass full of vinegar or something. Not a stranger, but my own dad answered his cell phone at my wedding, during the message. I was in pain guys. Well, I forgave him longtime ago for what happened. But, I tell you whenever I play the video tape and come to the moments when the cell phone rang once and my dad answering it the second time, I still recoil in pain and shake my head.

Can you think of moments when you felt so strongly about something being so wrong that it still pains you just to think about it? Jesus had a moment like this when he walked into the temple just before the Passover.

1. Context

Prior to our text, John wrote how Jesus revealed his glory when he performed a miracle of turning water into wine at Cana in Galilee. Only select few people knew what actually happened at the time. John called this miracle as a miraculous sign. It was sign because the miracle itself pointed to something about Jesus. By this miraculous sign, you recognize something about Jesus; the wedding banquet that ran out of wine represented Judaism that was a broken religious system; and by using the purification stone jars to turn their water into wine, Jesus rendered the stone jars useless for purification.[1] And, it was he who brought about the change.

So, the glory that Jesus revealed about himself is that he is the person who makes purity possible, not the waters in the purification jars.

It also reveals that Jesus does care about what might be considered trivial and insignificant. In the grand scheme of thing, what would have happened if Jesus didn’t do what he did? It would have embarrassed the banquet host. Although what Jesus did was loaded with sign, it also shows Jesus cares about small things in our lives as well.

2. What made Jesus angry?

Now, to the main story for today… Can’t tell from verse 12 how much time has passed from the scene at Cana to the scene at the temple except that the temple scene came after the wedding scene.

If you are familiar with the synaptic gospels, you remember that Jesus also went into the temple and cleansed it of the merchants and declared, “My house will be a house of prayer; but you have made it ‘a den of robbers’( Luke 19:45-46) during the latter days of his ministry. The story in John chapter 2 about Jesus cleansing the temple is a separate incident that happened early on in Jesus’ ministry.

The Passover was a major feast that drew Jewish people from all over the world. Many travel great distances to be at the temple by the Passover. There, they participated in sacrifice and a symbolic meal that commemorated how God delivered the Jews from Egypt. God passed over the Jewish households that had their doorposts stained with the blood of lambs.

God told the Jews, “The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are; and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plaque will touch you when I strike Egypt” Exodus 12:13. And, to celebrate the Passover, and to participate in the temple sacrifice, the Jews needed animals as it did back in the days in Egypt before the Passover.

Instead of trying to journey back to Jerusalem with their animals, they simply brought enough money or other goods to buy what they needed in Jerusalem. And, since they came from all different places, they also brought in different foreign currencies. And, it was the moneychangers who exchange their foreign currencies to what was acceptable in Jerusalem. Apparently, Jewish men over twenty were required to pay a half-shekel annual tax at the temple. And the temple required Tyrian coinage because of its exceptional purity of silver content.[2]

It was a rather convenient system that worked well for the Jews who journeyed long distance to participate in the Passover feast. It wasn’t this particular convenient set up that angered Jesus. The problem was not that there were money changers or there were people who sold animals for sacrifice. The problem was that this convenient trade was taking place inside the temple, inside the confines of the Court of the Gentile. The only place where the Gentiles were allowed inside the temple, where they could worship, pray, listen to teachings and give their sacrifices, this place of worship was turned into a trading floor, a marketplace, preventing the Gentiles from experiencing God.

There in the temple were cattle, sheep, and doves for sacrifices along with the dealers at tables. With a whip made on the spot, he chased out, drove out the sheep and cattle. He scattered the money changers’ coins over the floor, and turned over their tables effectively stopping the busy trading in the Court of the Gentiles. You can imagine these money changers bending down and frantically gathering the scattered coins while cursing Jesus. You can hear the sounds of bleating sheep, cows lowing, calves bawling, and bulls bellowing. And, when Jesus came to the guys who were selling doves, he told them, “Get these out of here! How dare you turn my Father’s house into a market!”

And, it was the Jewish religious leaders who allowed this to take place inside the temple. And, Jesus having this direct confrontation with the whole trading setup in the temple was making a statement against the religious establishment that allowed the temple to be defined, robbing its intended purpose to provide a place of worship.

3. Why did Jesus take it so personally?

Jesus took the offense personally because he considered the temple as his Father’s house as you can see from what he says in verse 16, “How dare you turn my Father’s house into a market!” How the Jews defiled the intended purpose of the temple was personal offense to Jesus because his relationship with the Father. What offends the Father offends the Son.

Jesus was conscious was this of when he was young already. He told his parents in Luke 2:49 when they thought they lost Jesus, "Didn't you know that I had to be in my Father's house?"

And, when the disciples later understood what was going on, they remembered what the Old Testament scripture, Psalm 69:9 said about this. As known as the psalm of the Righteous Sufferer,^[3] Psalm 69:9 prophesized sinless and righteous Christ’s suffering and his death. It says, “for zeal for your house consumes me, and the insults of those who insult you fall on me.” It is this same psalm that also prophesized what would happen when Jesus hung on the cross. 69:21 reads “They put gall in my food and gave me vinegar for my thirst.” Jesus’ zeal for the temple, the house of God, his Father angered him when it was being defiled.

And, the ultimate consummation of his zeal for God’s house would be his sacrificial death on the cross. Jesus knew that cleaning the temple with the whip and rebuke would not last. He did it again shortly before he went to the cross. The only lasting way to ensure the purity of the Father’s house, to ensure its intended purpose is by going to the cross himself and purifying it with his blood.

In this way the temple signified a greater reality about Jesus himself, namely his death and resurrection. When confronted by Jesus’ rebuke over their practice that defiled God’s purpose of his house, they questioned Jesus’ authority to rebuke them and demanded miraculous sign. To this Jesus replied, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days” in 2:19. The temple had been underway for forty six years and it still remained unfinished until A. D. 64. How could this temple be destroyed and rebuilt in just three days? Ludicrous ideas, I am sure the Jews thought. But, as readers, we know that Jesus was not talking about the physical temple, but himself, his body; he himself would replace this physical temple and restore true worship in spirit and in truth. And, that through his death and resurrection!

4. How did people respond?

The most of the Jewish leaders as you know responded to Jesus with skepticism and even hatred that led them to devise plans to rid of Jesus.

But, then there were people who saw the miraculous sings he was doing and believed in his name as stated in John 2:23. But, their believing was in suspect by Jesus. 2:24, “But Jesus would not entrust himself to them, for he knew all men.” The people liked what they saw the sensational display of power by Jesus. They were fascinated by what he could do. And, I am sure they wanted to see more of it. They were spectators, audiences who were wowed by the display of power of Jesus; they were like great fans of a sports hero who loved to have their hats signed by him.

There is nothing hidden before Jesus. Jesus sees right through the veneer of niceness and perceives human ugliness, deception, pretension. Jesus knew right then their believing would be as reliable as a solid rock floating in water.

2 Chronicles 16:9 says this about God. “For the eyes of the LORD range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him.”

5. How do we apply?

We must understand the picture here. Jesus is claiming the temple as his Father’s house. And, in the logic of the book of John, what belongs to God belongs to the Son. As such, you see Jesus’ fierce attitude to claim what belongs to him, to his Father.

Apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, Do you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.” He was referring to the commitment that Christians must make to flee from sexual immorality. Why? By the virtue of Jesus paying with his blood, his death, he bought us at great cost. And, there is this transaction that takes place, namely we cannot any more claim our own bodies as our own, but belong to the Lord. Peter puts it this way in 1 Peter 1:18-19, “For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.” So, the commitment to keep ourselves pure rises from this fundamental truth in Christ that we belong to him; Jesus bought us with his precious blood, by his death. Going back to Paul he says in 1 Corinthians 7:22-23, “…he who was a free man when he was called is Christ’s slave. You were bought at a price…”

To our Lord who fiercely claims what belongs to him, we can either miserably fight against him or yield to his ownership.

We must also be very careful at being sucked into worries about money. Worries about future or money have way of obscuring our vision from seeing God at work; not only does it blind you from God, it blinds you from yourself as well. Case in point, consider the governor of our State who would gladly give up governorship to get a job that pays better, who would abuse his authority to appoint a senate seat to earn money and power. Here is a man whose zeal is to make more money, gain more power and status. He is sensual man who desires lust for money and power. Instead, we need to realign our prayer according to Proverbs 30:8, “give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread.”

We need to be different. Jesus was consumed by his zeal for the Father’s house. He didn’t come into our world and pitch tent to dwell with us in order to be happy. If Jesus sought happiness in the way people today understands happiness, he should have cashed in on his ability to change water into wine. But, again his zeal was for the Father’s house.

Let’s ask God to mold us, shape us into the framework of our Lord Jesus. Let’s ask God to transform our zeal.

And, next time when some greets you, “Happy Holiday!” don’t you dare reply in the same fashion. When the public demands pc and seeks to erase the memory of Christmas or adulterate it as though it is about Santa Claus, you give them Jesus correctness. You make sure with clear voice you greet that person back, “Merry Christmas!” Let the people know you are about Jesus, you belong to Jesus, you are zealous for the Father’s house!

Something is not quite right if there aren’t too many things that get you angry these days. When you yield to Jesus who purchased you with his life, when you let his zeal for the Father’s house infects you and let it also consumes you, you begin to look at sins in your life foremost an become really angry because you realize that your let the Father’s house be defiled.

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[1] Burge, Gary M. “Contemporary Significance” In NIV Application Commentary, New Testament: John. By Gary M. Burge, 103. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, © 2000.

[2] F. F. Bruce, The Gospel and Epistles of John, Eerdmans, p. 74.

^[3]Beasley-Murray, G. R. (1998). Vol. 36: Word Biblical Commentary : John (electronic ed.). Logos Library System; Word Biblical Commentary (39). Dallas: Word, Incorporated.

The gospel of Jesus Christ (Mark 1:1-8)

Cornerstone Mission Church, Sunday Sermon December 7, 2008

Listen to these headline news from Google News on business just last night.

Guardian News’ headline reads, “Bleak prospect for Detroit Three despite bail-out” It reports how a leading auto-industry think-tank believes that “America’s Big Three car makers will struggle to stay afloat until 2015- even if they win a $34bn government bail-out.”

Chicago Tribune’s headline reads, “Workers at Republic Windows continue sit-in after company closes.” Apparently Bank of America due to sharp downturn in business canceled company’s line of credit causing the company to shut its doors on three day’s notice.

The Wall Street Journal’s headline reads, “Job Losses Worst Since ’74: 533,000 shed in November.” And, The Economic Times’ headline reads, “Job losses reflect economy in recession: Bush.” The rise in the US unemployment rate to 6.7 percent “reflects the fact that our economy is in recession,” the president Bush said. And, the recession really began back December of 2007. The Seattle Times headline reads, “2009 outlook: It’s gloomy for our region.” “Economists rarely agree on anything, but this time is different: 2009 will offer little, if any, relief from a recession that is already officially a year old.”

Well, we don’t have to read business news to hear how hard things are these days. Unless your parents work as professionals in health care industry, I know how difficult it’s been for some of your parents and for you as well. As you drove into the parking lot, you probably notice that parking lot is not completely cleared of snow and ice. It is because Korean congregation instead of hiring snow removers, they decided to do it themselves to save money.

Car breaks down; you get lower grade than you expected; you dread the cold air and gloomy; there are conflicts in your families, with your friends, with your spouses, with your co-workers; you dread long hours at work, at school, long hours at home with your kids; you are not sure what’s going to happen to your job next year; you are still waiting for that elusive job. My sister was recently diagnosed with Thyroid cancer and had to get surgery and radiation treatment. I was with her for the initial meeting with her surgeon and when she went in for surgery. She was discouraged; few years ago, her doctor told her that her blood sugar was high and she needed to regularly exercise to loose weight. She started to eat healthy and exercise regularly and she had a phenomenal result. But, then to be hit by this news of thyroid cancer, it was discouraging to her.

When I was young from the age of 10 to age of 15, my mom raised me, my sister and brother alone in Korea without my dad; he was living in the U.S. during this time; they were divorced. My mom worked really hard to take care of us, but it was grinding her down. Somehow it got into her mind that things could get better if she attended church. So, she did for few weeks. But, she stopped going to church one day. I remember asking her why she stopped going to church. She replied something in the line of, “Well, things are not getting any better.” I wasn’t Christian then and I didn’t know any better; my mom wasn’t Christian and she didn’t know any better either. She thought going to church would magically make things better for her. Well, it didn’t.

Do you ever ask yourself, “Dang, why does life have be so hard? Why can life be easier?” Do you get tired of bad news in the world and in your little world? Do you get tired of feeling out of source, having to deal with people, issues in life that are beyond your control? Do you ever get disappointed with God because he doesn’t seem to act to change your circumstances to make things better and easier for you? What do you do when your emotion takes you to discouragement, disorientation, confusion, feelings of hopeless and despair, even bitterness, resentment towards God?

The answer is we must look to Jesus by freshly hearing the gospel about him, the Son of God. That is the answer from Mark 1:1-8. Life can get dizzyingly disorientating and confusing, discouraging and out of control, sin infested unless we freshly hear the gospel, the good news about Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Christ means anointed. Christ is not Jesus’ last name, but refers to his title. Christ, the anointed refers to Jesus’ kingly status. Jesus is the Christ, the King who can take your disorientation and confusion and speak clear purpose to you. Jesus is Christ, the King who can take your out of control life and ground you in him, on the rock solid Cornerstone, to journey with him with self control. Jesus is the Christ, the King who takes your bitterness and resentment towards God and then shows you God’s goodness and kindness for you through his scars.

Mark 1:1-3, “The beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God. It is written in Isaiah the prophet: “I (God) will send my messenger (John) ahead of you (Jesus Christ), who will prepare your way (Jesus)- a voice of one calling in the desert, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.’”

In verse 2 & 3, Mark used three passages from the Old Testament to speak to the gospel about Jesus Christ, Exodus 23:20a, Malachi 3:1 and Isaiah 40:3, although he only highlighted Isaiah.

1. Looking back to Exodus

There was time when the Israelites felt life was nothing but misery. Everyday they woke up, they woke up not as free people, but enslaved to work like animals. Slave masters watched them with disgust as though they were inhuman, easily disposable; the Israelites were oppressed into forced labor. Exodus 1:14 recorded their predicament, “They made their lives bitter with hard labor in bring and mortar and with all kinds of work in the fields; in all their hard labor the Egyptians used them ruthlessly.” The Egyptians were so disgusted by the Israelites in their land, they devised devilish plan to rid of them; you can call it genocide or ethnic cleansing; the preferred method was systematic infanticide; the king of Egypt ordered all male Jewish new born to be thrown into the Nile and only to allow girls to live.

Life was hard, unimaginably unbearable; harsh reality grinded them down, worn them out; they were damaged goods who could only groan in pain.

And, it was during this time that God saved Moses from being killed as a newborn and raised him up to be his servant to lead the Israelites out of Egypt. When things were dark, hopeless, tiresome, when each day only brought bad news after bad news and piercing pain; when only groaning could be heard, that is when God entered into their midst and led them out of Egypt through Moses by demonstrating his power in his miracles.

He led them through the desert and to the Mount Sinai, and there he told them in Exodus 23:20, “See, I am sending an angel ahead of you to guard you along the way and to bring you to place I have prepared. Pay attention to him and listen to what he says. Do not rebel against him; he will not forgive your rebellion, since my Name is in him.”
This was the good news. Coming out of the slavery now in Exodus to the Promised Land, God personally stepped in to lead them through an angel, a messenger. Mark uses the portion from this Exodus passage in Septuagint, which was Greek translation of Hebrew scripture to speak about the gospel of Jesus Christ. “I am sending an angel, my messenger ahead of you.” God was going to send his messenger John ahead of Jesus who would point people to Jesus, to turn to God by repenting, turning away from sins.

Exodus was all about God coming, breaking into the sin infested, oppressed, enslaved people’s lives to lead them to the Promised Land. That is what God wants to do with you through his Son Jesus.

God broke into your world by sending his Son into the world, to die for, to be raised from the dead. The Israelites must trust God for leading in the desert. And, you must trust God to lead you in the desert through Jesus who is near you.

2. Looking to God’s refinement and the final judgment

Then, there was the life in exile, where Jerusalem, the temple, and the presence of God were just a distant memory. God intervened and brought them back to the Promised Land as he did with them in Exodus, but the Jewish remnants gave into the sins of disbelief. Looking at the broken walls of Jerusalem and the broken temple, discouragement set in, questioning if God really loved them, if God really cared for them, “How have you loved us?” Malachi 1:2. From the leadership of the priests down to people they all remained faithless. “Judah has broken faith,” says the Lord in 2:11. And, they basically had given up on God and became cynical and corrupted as they questioned, “Where is the God of justice?” in 2:17.

When the Jewish remnants tried to marginalize God to irrelevant corners of their lives, God promised to come down upon them. Malachi 3:1-3, “See, I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant whom you desire will come, says the LORD Almighty.” He warned them that the day of his coming and he would be like a refiner’s fire or a launderer’s soap. He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver.” With his purifying work, the Lord will have then people who will bring offerings in righteousness, and the offerings of Judah and Jerusalem will be acceptable to the Lord…” says, verse 4. And, he announced the final days of accounting. Verse 5, “So I will come near to you for judgment. I will be quick to testify against sorcerers, adulterers, and perjurers, against those who defraud laborers of their wages, who oppress the widows, and the fatherless, and deprive of aliens of justice, but do not fear me,” says the LORD Almighty.” God will refined his people, purified them, to be ready for his judgment.

“I will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way,” Mark quoted from Malachi. When God broke into our massed up world through his Son Jesus Christ, he suffered, died, and was raised from the dead, but more than that. Jesus now sits at the right hand of God ready to come to judge the world when the time is right. And, until then, now is the time of purification, time of refinement for you and me.

That means we must be brutally honest with our sins before God. Sugar coating sins and explain it away with excuses will not do.

Jesus in his parable of tenants in Luke 20:9-19 speaks about what God did. “What shall I do? I will send my son, whom I love; perhaps they will respect him.” But, the tenants not only recognized the owner’s son with respect, but killed him.” And, the judgment against those who show contempt and disrespect toward the son will be, “He will come and kill those tenants and give the vineyard to others.”

We must not take these warnings lightly. The humble King who hung on the cross as blameless lamb will return in his second advent as the lion of Judah. We will need to give account of our lives to him. So, it is now when we must deal with our sins before merciful Jesus who seeks to purify us, to present us blameless on the day of his coming.

3. Looking to the second Exodus

Mark quoted from Isaiah 40:3-5, which speaks to the reality of the second exodus. “A voice of one calling: “In the desert prepare the way for the LORD; make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God. Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain. And, the glory of the LORD will be revealed, and all mankind together will see it. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.” Mark quoted this verse and now it is about Jesus. It is about preparing the way for the Lord Jesus, it is about making straight in the wilderness a highway for Jesus.

No one’s going to stop God from paving the way for the second Exodus. God is fully in control and Jesus is obedient to the will of the Father; Jesus submitted to his grand salvation plan by going to the cross and laying down his life and to die.

Our response must be gratitude. God is committed to paving the way for Jesus to the salvation plan. God is committed to save you and to bring you home through his Son. You are now in the second Exodus with Jesus leading the way for you.

Meditate on God’s unmovable commitment to give you salvation through his Son. Meditate on Jesus’ resolute commitment to die for you your sins. The spiritual truth is that you cannot prepare the way. The way is prepare for you. Your call is to walk in the way of the second Exodus God the Father prepared for you through his Son Jesus. And, when you learn to be thankful in God’s salvation for you in Jesus, you will have sure footing and fall in your journey of the second Exodus.

Conclusion

The gospel about Jesus Christ spelled out for us by Mark is to look to the first Exodus and remember God broke into your world by sending his Son Jesus. It is to look to the final judgment that is sure to come and live in sober humility before God by dealing with sins honestly. It is also to look to the second Exodus Jesus leading the way through his death and resurrection; and you do this with thankfulness.

Then, our journey will be no longer about what’s happening around us, but it will be about what’s happening in us and how we can be used to be the witness to the gospel. It is not about getting more comfortable in life. It is not about wishing there will be no more bad news. But, our journey will be about living the gospel of Jesus Christ. It will be about spreading the good news of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The life of chosen (Acts 21:27-22)

The life of chosen (Acts 21:27-22)

Cornerstone Mission Church, Sunday Sermon November 30, 2008

My older two girls are in Girl Scouts.  And, they were invited to attend the lighting of the trees for Prospect Heights yesterday evening at 5 pm.  While Lyn was making dinner for us, I took all the girls to the event.  There was a fire pit on the pavement with sticks ready to grill some marshmallows for the girls, there were cookies of all shapes and tastes and there was hot chocolate ready to warm us up.

After the count of ten, the trees were lit and the Girl Scouts began their part, singing Christmas Carols.  I was too busy taking pictures and trying to hold on to Katherine in my arms, I could hardly pay attention to what they were singing, but I knew one thing.  They didn’t sing any Christmas carols about Jesus.  It was a super fun evening.  It marked the beginning of a new season.  But, really what were we celebrating there?  We were there to celebrate the lighting of the trees, singing Rudolph’s the Reindeers, and Santa Claus is coming to town.  But, no mention of Jesus who came and who will come again!  Well, I was disappointed.

Then, there was as story of Wal-Mart temp worker getting killed by the mad dashed of shoppers on Black Friday morning that swelled to thousands.  If we don’t watch out, we too are going to be swept away by the current of commercialism, secularism, and forget that Christmas is all about Jesus who came and who is to come.

So, this morning, I will like to take you back to the book of Acts and consider a story of Paul and see what coming of Jesus Christ meant for him.

1.      Overview of Acts

This past year, we’ve been exploring the life of the early Christians through study of the book of Acts.  Life of the early church began with just a handful of disciples who feared for their lives after the death of Jesus.  But, Jesus rose from the dead defying the logic of men.  And, before he was taken up to heaven, Jesus promised to send them the Holy Spirit to come upon them and to baptize them and to equip them with power to be his witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

We saw how the Holy Spirit indeed came upon those who obediently waited as Jesus instructed them.  The Spirit’s coming upon them was evidenced by the a sound like the blowing of a violent wind and a sight of what appeared to be tongues of fire separating and coming to rest on each of those who waited and by their speaking in tongues of unlearned languages.  Followed by Peter’s preaching to repent and be baptized… in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins… to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.  And, thousands accepted Peter’s message, thus the Jerusalem church began.  As number of people accepting Jesus Christ as the promised Messiah rapidly increased, the Jewish religious establishment, the leaders of the Judaism became increasingly alarmed and they stepped up their earnest effort to curtail the growth of the church.  So, the persecution increased as the church grew.

And, as you know it was Paul, also known as Saul, who was at the forefront of the persecution against the followers of the Way, Christians.  It was under his careful watch, Stephen was stoned to death.  Paul wasn’t satisfied with the progress against Christians in Jerusalem and in Judea.  When Christians scattered due to increasing persecutions, Paul chased after them, down to Damascus with one goal in his mind, to round up as many Christians as possible whether men and women and to bring them as prisoners to Jerusalem in order to prosecute them.  It was there on the road to Damascus, his life changed forever.

And for the last couple months, our focus has been on the life of this man, Paul, once a zealous persecutor of Christians now a bonafide Christian who considered his life worth nothing to him if only he might finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus gave him- the task of testifying to the gospel of God’s grace (Acts 20:24).

2.      Paul arrested

He already made three missionary journeys over thousands of miles across the lands and over the seas.  He came back to Jerusalem even though he knew through the revelation from the Holy Spirit that he would be imprisoned.  In the spirit of becoming like a Jew to win the Jews (1 Corinthians 9:20), he went to the temple to fulfill his vow by undergoing purification ritual and offering.  But, this didn’t help him to win any favor from the Jews.  When the Jews spotted Paul in the temple, they accused him of brining Greeks into the temple area and defiling the holy place.  Because they saw Paul with a gentile Trophimus the Ephesian in the city earlier, they assumed falsely that Paul brought the gentiles into the temple.

Here is a layout of the Herod’s temple.  Around the outer walls of the temple was what was called the Court of Gentiles, which is leveled as #12 in this picture.  And, in this model of the temple, the wide open area surrounding the temple is the Court of Gentiles.  This is where the Gentiles were allowed.

But beyond this court, the Gentiles were not allowed into the temple.  So, on the walls of the outer walls of the temple had this sign posted warning, “No foreigner is to enter within the balustrade and embankment around the sanctuary.  Whoever is caught will have himself to blame for his death which follows.”  If Paul indeed brought gentiles into the temple as they accused, he would have broken a law punishable by death.  The Jews long ago convinced themselves that this Paul who preached Jesus as the long waited Messiah, the fulfillment of the promise from God for the Savior, the Christ, for the nation of Israel and for the whole world this Paul had to be rid of, to be killed.  They had no proof that Paul violated the temple order against the Gentiles from entering the temple, only that they saw Paul earlier with a gentile in the city.  But, they didn’t need any kind of solid proof to charge him.  All they needed was an assumption.

Imagine the scene.  Acts 21:30 says the whole city was aroused and the people came running from all directions. There was this mad dash to seize Paul and he was dragged from the temple.  They had one thing in mind, to kill him.  Their prefer method to end Paul’s life was beating him up.

Just north of the temple, beyond the Court of the Gentiles was the Fortress of Antonia.  This was where the Romans soldiers were stationed.  The commander over a regiment of 1000 solders, Claudius Lysias was notified the situation involving Paul; he took some of his men and ran down to the crowd who was beating the daylights out of Paul.  Their presence halted the beating and allows the commander and the soldiers to take Paul into their custody.

3.      Paul’s apologia… my story (Acts 21:37-22:21)

Now, I know that none of us have any idea what it is to have mad dashed crowd bent on one thing in their minds, to land their fists and their kicks on you to end your life; if this happened, I could assure you that that last thing on my mind would be to talk to them about the very thing that got me into trouble with them in the first place.  I mean who cares if the people who saved your life didn’t do it for you, but only to maintain the order.  These Romans weren’t looking out for Paul.  Not at all, all they cared about was maintaining order at the temple and in Jerusalem.  But, who cares, right?  They came and they took Paul out of the mad crowd whose fists and shoes were stained with Paul’s blood.  I will be like, “Get me out of this place.  I want nothing to do with these illogical fanatics.”   Come on, won’t you feel this way too?

But, look what Paul did.  He probably sustained bloody nose, swollen eyes, and bruises all over his body, perhaps some broken ribs too.   Verse 37, Paul badly injured from beatings was being escorted into the barracks where he would be safe from the mad crowd thirst for his blood.  But, he stopped to talk to the commander in Greek.

The same way the crowds assumed wrongly about Paul, the commander too assumed falsely that Paul was a terrorist, the Egyptian Jew who unsuccessfully tried to overthrow Jerusalem just few years ago.  Paul replied, “I am not the guy from Egypt.  I am a Jew all right, but I am from Tarsus in Cilicia and a citizen of no ordinary city.  Please let me speak to the people.”

The commander probably thought that by allowing Paul to speak to the crowd, he could figure what caused this ruckus.  Well, his plan to listen in on Paul foiled when Paul started speaking in Aramaic, which was everyday language of the Jews.  But, the commander liked what he saw when people became very quite once Paul started talking to them in Aramaic.

And, from 22:3 to 22:21 Paul gave his apologetic appeal to the Jews.  Paul asked them in 22:1, “Brothers and fathers, listen now to my defense.”  Here the word, “defense” is apologia in Greek.  Paul’s apologia is nothing more than an account of his own life.  Paul’s apologia is built on what his life was like before meeting Jesus Christ, how Jesus Christ changed his life, and what he now lives for.

I want you to pause and grasp the scope of Paul’s response to the crowd who tried to kill him; they still had Paul’s fresh blood stains on their fists and their feet.  Why did Paul even bother trying to reason with them when they remained insolent, unreasonable, violent, full of hatred, and antagonistic to him and his message about Jesus Christ?  How do you explain his tenacious care for the people who didn’t care except trying to kill him?

Paul’s apologia of personal spiritual journey explains why he didn’t give up speaking to the Jews who just tried to kill him merciless and without proper cause.  Formerly when life was about Saul, he was no different than the Jews who tried to kill him.  Being thoroughly trained in the law and zealous for God as they were, he persecuted the followers of this Way to the death, arresting both men and women and throwing them into prison.”  In his zeal steep in religious pharisaic tradition, he followed the Christians all the way to Damascus for one goal, to take them back as prisoners to Jerusalem to punish them.  This was Paul before he met Jesus when life was just about him, what he wanted, what he went after, what he was passionate about.

He summed up his previous way of life in Galatians 1:13- 14, “For you have heard of my previous way of life in Judaism, how intensely I persecuted the church of God and tried to destroy it.  I was advancing in Judaism beyond many Jews of my own age and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers.”  So much passion, so much religious conviction, so much energy expended on advancing Judaism and opposing Jesus and his people.  This was Paul’s way of life in Judaism.  He said in Philippians 3:4, “If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless.”  How do you argue with a man who is so sure of himself, so much pride in who he is, what he stands for, how he lives his life?   You can’t.  No human reasoning could have changed Paul.

Only God could change Paul.  When Jesus got hold of Paul’s heart, that’s when he changed.  He described what happened to him in Galatians 1:15-16, “But when God, who set me apart from birth and called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the gentiles.”

Notice how it was no longer about what Paul did, how he well he did, how passionately he followed his religious convictions; it was no longer about Paul.

Now that he got to know Jesus, his life was no longer about Paul, but it was all about what God was doing in Paul’s life.   Can you say the same thing about yourself?  No, it isn’t about me any more.  It is about what God is doing in my life.  Do you have the sense that God is working in you and that God has been working in you in the past and will work in you continually in the future?   Paul’s apologia, his defense was really about the story of a life of chosen by God, how God ordained, set him apart from birth and how God called him to testify about his Son Jesus Christ.

Do you have the sense as Paul did that God has set you apart from birth for his purpose?  To speak of being set apart from birth is to speak of life of a chosen one.  Life of chosen, set apart from birth, is life of noble birth.  And, the life of noble birth points to the One who gives you identity.  Do you know who gives you identity?  Paul knew it was God who gave him the identity of chosen, set apart from birth.

Paul didn’t know that God set him apart from birth.  This knowledge came when Paul encountered Jesus on the road to Damascus.  That’s when God called Paul by his grace.  Paul didn’t know that he lived in darkness that made it impossible for him to see spiritually.  Paul was spiritually blind because he couldn’t grasp the life of chosen by God, set apart from birth.  He was spiritually blind because he was too busy living his life the way he wanted to live.  It only came to Paul when Jesus entered into Paul’s darkness with his light.   His light blinded him, rendering his eyes useless, rendering his self-sufficiency useless.  When God sealed tight the eyes of self-sufficiency, self-dependence, self-deception, self-promotion, only then Paul was able to know God’s will and to see the Righteous One and to hear words from his mouth.

Isaiah 49:1, “Listen to me, you islands; hear this, you distant nations: Before I was born the LORD called me; from my birth he has made mention of my name.”  Jeremiah 1:5, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”  And, Paul says this about himself, “Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God” in Romans 1:1.

God has chosen Paul to know his will, to see Jesus Christ, and to hear Jesus so that he will be Jesus’ witness to all men of what he had  seen and heard  (Acts 22:15).

Today marks the beginning of Advent four weeks before we celebrate the first coming of Jesus Christ and anticipate his second coming.  Lest, we forget and be swept away by the current of false spirit of Christmas, let’s revisit this week what it means to have the life of chosen, set apart from birth and called by God’s grace to be Jesus’ witness.

Christmas stands for new status of being chosen, set apart, called for God’s purpose.  Christmas stands for asking Jesus, “Who are you?” and hearing Jesus, “I am Jesus of Nazareth…” and asking him, “What, shall I do, Lord?”  Christmas is a season to reaffirm our identity, our calling in Jesus Christ.

When God’s people give advice… (Acts 21-22:29)

Cornerstone Mission Church, Sunday Sermon November 23, 2008

Do you often find yourself in a position of giving advice to people or seeking people’s advices?  There are people who are so full and sure of themselves, they find no reason to seek advises from others.  And, for these people who are so full and sure of themselves and no need for anyone to speak to their lives, I won’t be surprised if no one seeks after them for good advices.   Pity the soul who seeks advice from a person who cannot think beyond himself or herself.  And, pity the souls who are too proud to ask for advice.  Then, there are people who have such shallow friendships or no significant friendship at all that they simply don’t have anyone to turn to for good advice.  Or, they may have been burned by someone giving them stupid advices that got them into trouble.  Perhaps, there are people who have hard time trusting others, not alone to ask for their advices for anything because of some kind of trust breaking events that took place in their lives.  Then, there are people who don’t like being responsible by giving advices to others.  So, they shrug their shoulders and refuse to give any advice besides the typical, “I don’t know.”  Then, there are people who make the whole world know about their problems without any discretion because they feel they are incapable of solving any of their own problems.

Well, more realistic picture is that we all fall some where between these extremes.  We all need some good advices time to time.  And, we also find ourselves in positions to give good advices to others as well.  We all need time to time experts to help us with our problems.  And, some of you are that expert so people seek you out for advice.  And, most often we don’t even need someone with PhD degree.  We just need to talk to our good old buddies, who have proven to be trustworthy and easy to talk to.  We don’t expect that they will give us the perfect and the right solutions to our problems; we simply expect them to tell us honestly what they think, their advice.

Today, we are going to consider how Paul dealt with the advices given to him by God’s people who loved and cared for him.

1.      When people who love you give you advice

In his journey, he had people telling him what he should do and what he should not do.  This makes when you consider how Paul was in the business of networking people spiritually.  He was in the business of helping others be connected to Jesus.  When they got connected to Jesus then they were in the network of the Way, the Christians, the followers, the disciples of Jesus Christ.  He gave tons of godly advices to them; and he was also very much open minded person who welcomed advices from them as well.

His journey took him from Cos, Rhodes, to Patara.  On board a ship, passing Cyprus and sailing to Syria, he and others landed at Tyre.  Verse 4 says, “Finding the disciples there, we stayed with them seven days.”  And, here is that advice we were talking about, verse 4, Luke records, “Through the Spirit they urged Paul not to go on to Jerusalem.”  If you remember from last week, it was Paul who said in Acts 20:22, “And now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem.”  Who was right here?  Is this a contradiction?  How could Paul be compelled by the Spirit to go to Jerusalem while the disciples at Tyre urged Paul not to go on to Jerusalem, through the Spirit?  Well, what did Paul do?  Verse 5-6 tell us when it was time for them to leave perhaps because the ship was ready to leave, Paul and those who were traveling with him, Luke the author of Acts including, left and continued on their way.  From this we can see that Paul didn’t follow their earnest advice for him not to go on to Jerusalem.

When it says, “Through the Spirit they urged Paul not to go on to Jerusalem,” it didn’t mean that the Spirit directly told them to tell Paul not to go on to Jerusalem.  The Spirit would have contradicted himself if this was what it meant since he already compelled Paul to go to Jerusalem.  It will become clearer to us as we move forward, but it is suffice to say that they probably heard the Spirit telling them how Paul would face hardships and dangers at Jerusalem.  And, from this they felt surely it wouldn’t be God’s will for Paul to suffer in Jerusalem.  Their emotional response to the revelation of the Spirit was, ‘God doesn’t want you to suffer.’  Now, remember this was well meaning, caring people who were looking out for Paul.  Well, as already mentioned, he didn’t take their advice.

2.      When people who love you give you advice

After leaving Tyre against the advice from the believers in Tyre, Paul and his accompany continued their voyage to Ptolemais.  There again, Paul met a network of brothers in Christ and stayed with them for a day.  Then left next day and got to Caesarea.  There, he stayed at the house of Philip the evangelist.  This was the same Philip back in Acts 6.  He was one of the seven men appointed for daily distribution of food.  He was also the same man in Acts 8 who left Jerusalem to Samaria because of the persecution in Jerusalem and proclaimed Christ in Samaria.  Now, there was also different Philip in the gospel accounts who was an apostle Jesus appointed among the twelve.  Philip the evangelist was a different person.

Whenever I meet someone with four daughters, I find myself connecting with them.  Maybe I should start a Facebook group called, “Father with four daughters.”  Philip had four unmarried daughters who prophesied.  We are not sure what they actually prophesied, but it is just enough for me to know that God used this four unmarried daughters of Philip for his kingdom business.  I like that!  As of now, I just cannot get myself emotionally invested in the thought of marrying my daughters.  I like to think of them as unmarried as long as I can that is until the Lord moves otherwise.  Then, sure pray that my girls would take mommy and daddy’s advices seriously about their future husbands.  Sorry about that I am getting distracted here.

Back to the story, while Paul remained at Philip’s house, a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea.  Although Caesarea was located up further north in relation to Judea, because Jerusalem, Judea was on the higher ground, you often read in the Bible people talking this way, going down from Judea or Jerusalem or going up to Jerusalem.

Anyway, Agabus was the same guy back in Acts 11:27-28 who prophesized about the severe famine that was to strike the entire Roman world.  This time Agabus used the prophetic tradition of using hands on object to demonstrate what the Lord was going to do in the near future.  The prophet Ezekiel was famous for doing this.  Agabus took Paul’s belt and bound his hands and feet and told, “The Holy Spirit says, ‘In this way the Jews of Jerusalem will bind the owner of this belt and will hand him over to the Gentiles.’”  Basically, the prophecy pointed Paul to journey down through the narrow gate, narrow road that leads to life, and only a few find it.

And, it says in verse 12, “When we heard this, we and the people there pleaded with Paul not to go up to Jerusalem.”   There it is again, “go up to Jerusalem.”  Earlier when the believers in Tyre urged Paul not to go on to Jerusalem through the Spirit, Luke and others who accompanied Paul didn’t quite get where they were coming from.  Now they got it with Agabus visual demonstration of what was to happen to Paul.

Now, even Luke joined the believers at Caesarea started to urge them not to go up to Jerusalem.

And, here is Paul’s answer to them in verse 13.  “Why are you weeping and breaking my heart?  I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.”  He spoke in the same determination earlier in Acts 20:24, “I consider my life worth nothing to me if only I may finish the task the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me- the task of testifying to the gospel of God’s grace.”  Well, they must have tried really hard to dissuade him from going up to Jerusalem for Acts 21:14 says, “When he would not be dissuaded, we gave up and said, “The Lord’s will be done.”

In both cases in Caesarea and in Tyre, the believers were reacting emotionally to Paul.  They really cared for their beloved leader, their mentor.  Their attempt to dissuade Paul from going up to Jerusalem was sincere expression of their love for him, genuine care.  And, there is nothing wrong with being emotionally caring.

But, they were forgetting one thing about the gospel.  The mandate of the gospel was heavy on him.  The gospel gives us life of Jesus Christ, but in return it demands our lives.  We cannot have both.  We either live the abundant life of Jesus Christ while putting our flesh, our egos, our agendas, our desire to death or we choose our lives and forfeit the life of Jesus Christ.  Paul was more than willing to choose the life of Jesus Christ over his own life even it meant being imprisoned or worse facing death.  Choosing the life of Jesus Christ meant continuing his journey to Jerusalem to testify about Jesus.  The Holy Spirit revealed to them all how Paul would suffer for the name of Jesus Christ.  But, well meaning believers who really cared for him thought that what the Holy Spirit said would happen unless Paul changed the course and not go up to Jerusalem.  They thought reason for the Holy Spirit to reveal what would happen to Paul was to help Paul avoid being persecuted.  But, Paul knew better.  Jesus who gave it all to save Paul from sins and gave his life to Paul demanded Paul to carry the cross, to deny his life, in order to gain the life of Jesus.  He knew he had to go up to Jerusalem to proclaim the name of Jesus Christ even it meant being bound in chains or worse to be killed.

3.      When people speak to you from what’s in God’s heart (James and all the elders of Jerusalem church)…

Now, let’s look at another case of God’s people speaking into Paul’s life and unlike the way he responded to the believers at Tyre and Caesarea, we see Paul fully talking on the advice by James and the elders of Jerusalem church.

Here is what James and the elders were advising Paul to do in verse 20-25.  There was misunderstanding about what Paul stood for.  The rumor was that he taught the Jews to turn away from Moses, telling them not to circumcise their children or live according to our customs.  When you read Galatians, Acts 15, and 1 Corinthians 7:18-19, you understand that Paul was against circumcision as means to earn a good standing before God.  He said in 1 Corinthians 7:18-19, “Was a man already circumcised when he was called?  He should not become uncircumcised.  Was a man uncircumcised when he was called?  He should not be circumcised.”  He gave this direction because Jews thought that circumcision contributed to their standing before God; they believed circumcision as a merit to earn a good standing before God.  But, the gospel Paul preached was the good news accepted by faith alone.  

But, Paul also understood that the Jewish Christians were zealous for the law meaning that their conscience was wired in such way that it was very important for them to follow the law instead of breaking the law.  Until the temple in Jerusalem crumbled later time in 70 A.D., Paul knew that the Jewish Christians’ conscience would be still bound by the cultural practice of circumcision.  According to David Gooding, God’s program until the fall of temple in Jerusalem was progressively moving the Jewish Christians away from the cultural practice of circumcision.  There was going to be a sort of weaning off process to help the Jewish Christians that circumcision practice was really not necessary any more for those who are in Christ.

Paul said in 1 Corinthians 9:20, “To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews.  To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law.”  James and the elders were concerned for the conscience of the Jewish Christians who still felt strong pull from the way of life as Jews with all the facet of cultural practices.  So, in order to show that Paul was sensitive to this weaning process from the way of life as Jews to way of life in Christ, James and the elders asked Paul to undergo Jewish purification rites including shaving head along with four other Jews in order to fulfill their vows.  Now, from previous sermons, you may remember that one of the reasons Paul wanted to get to Jerusalem during the time of Pentecost was to fulfill his own vow to the Lord as well.

I know that this is little bit confusing, but here is the point I want you to get about giving advice.  The difference between James and the elders from the believers of Tyre and Caesarea who tried to dissuade Paul from going up to Jerusalem is that James and the elders were appealing to Paul from what God was already doing; they were speaking out of truth.  To practice circumcision, to fulfill vows through purification rites and shaving heads, if done because of conscience reason as it was for the Jewish Christians, and not for the purpose of earning a standing before God, it was okay for the time being until things would become very clear to all the Jewish Christians such ritual practices were unnecessary.  Again, the difference was that James and the elders spoke from the truth while the believers of Tyre and Caesarea spoke from their emotion without being grounded in the truth of God’s purpose.

4.      Implications for giving advice and receiving advice

From these two case studies, here is what we can learn about giving advice and receiving advice.

• Even though you mean well and speak out of deep emotional care for the one you are giving advice to, if you are speaking not in line with the biblical truth, your advise is wrong.
• To be able to discern if your advice for someone is biblical based, you need to know your scripture.
• Don’t give advice based on your feelings but based on what is sensible from the truth of God’s word.
• Discern if an action you advice would promote the gospel or discourage it.

Discern if an action will requires faith in God to do what is hard or it simply gives an easy way out to the comfortable journey.

• If you are a recipient of someone’s advice, ultimately you are responsible for taking the right course of action.
• You need to discern if the advice given is biblical or contradicts what God says.  This means you need to know your scripture.
• You need to discern if the course of your action will promote the gospel even though it means taking harder course.
• You need to discern if the course of your action will compromise the gospel because you are taking an easy way out
• Be weary of advices that point you to easy road instead of narrow path that only few travels.