Grace OPC Sewickley PA

Sermon Book: Luke

  • The First Day of the New Creation

    The First Day of the New Creation

    This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Easter” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, April 15, 1990.

    About this sermon

    Jewish women from Galilee are the first to see the empty tomb. The law and the prophets find their fulfillment in Christ. His resurrection is the first day of the new creation.

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    Sermon transcript

    I have to tell you, I don’t think I was made for this age of electronic wizardry. I can’t quite work out the choreography of the thing. This morning we are in Luke’s Gospel, the 23rd chapter, and we will begin at verse 55. and read through the tenth verse of chapter 24. This is the word of God.

    And the women also which came with him from Galilee followed after and beheld the sepulcher and how his body was laid. And they returned and prepared spices and ointments and rested the Sabbath day, according to the commandment. Now, upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulcher, bringing the spices which they had prepared and certain others with them. And they found the stone rolled away from the sepulcher. and they entered in, and found not the body of the Lord Jesus. And it came to pass, as they were much perplexed thereabout, behold, two men stood by them in shining garments, and as they were afraid and bowed down their faces to the earth, they said unto them, Why seek ye the living among the dead?

    He is not here, but is risen. Remember how he spake unto you when he was yet in Galilee, saying, The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified, and the third day rise again. And they remembered his words and returned from the sepulcher and told all these things unto the eleven and to all the rest. It was Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James and other women that were with them which told these things unto the apostles. Pray together.

    Lord, your word is prepared and that from before the foundation of the world, it is spoken in time, it brings to pass those things which you have ordained. And Lord, in light of those things you have performed, your word now inscripturated gives us the sense of the thing, the meaning, the right and proper interpretation as we observe how all things you have revealed hold together, indeed hold together in and through Christ. We know too, Lord, that you have prepared us, that we have been begotten again by your Word but also brought to this point in time where we might receive from you your Word’s intention. So, Lord, we pray that we may not run in place, stand still in our faith and not move forward or increase in our sanctification. Rather, Lord, may your Word work well within us perform that which pleases you, and we, Lord, being sanctified, may we be a delight to our God. We pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen. The women. The women. First, the women.

    Why the women? Why the women? their sex, setting them apart, the company of them, coming as they do, coming now to this tomb to give their attention to, to attend the consequences of corruption. They come then to the grave, and there they face the harsh truth of their ancient mother’s seduction. They are all Eve’s daughters, testifying now, en masse, to the tragedy of Eden. Why the women? It must be the women. It has to be the women. Two Marys are among them. Verse 10, chapter 24. The name means tear. Teardrop. Sorrow. Not one tear, but two.

    One shed for those dying and those who have died, and especially now this one who has died, Jesus of Nazareth. And the other tier, it falls for the sake of the grievous state that all now find themselves in. The fall of man, the bonds of iniquity, and the horrifying consequences, the wages of sin, is death. So the tears flow. And that not without the weight of a stricken conscience born through the ages, through the centuries, through the millennia. The weight of a stricken conscience and the knowledge that woman is not only so utterly vulnerable, but so very much responsible.

    So another death. One more child born of woman succumbs, dying to another casualty as we all are casualties of the fall. Even this one who seemed so promising, this one in whom there had been placed such hope, Even this one, greatly revered, is now dead, as all die. And day passes into night. Another Sabbath comes and it is bound to go, and thus it continues. unendingly.

    Why the women? Who else but the women? But these women are not any women. These are Jewish women. And if there is to be hope grasped, kept in sight, if there is to be devotion and love demonstrated, it would be in these women. These are Jewish women, but more, these are Galilean women.

    Galilee lies to the north, but sets its sights southward upon the great city And the eyes of the faithful in Galilee look unto the hills from whence cometh their help. And these women in Galilee are as expectant women as those pregnant, awaiting deliverance. Thus these women have joined themselves to Jesus in hope, as all Israel, in the entirety of that older administration from the Old Testament, has joined herself to her prophets in hope, looking for salvation. So while there are in the group of women those who bear names reminding us of grief and sorrow, there are also those women who bear testimony to God’s greatness and his grace and his power as he has demonstrated these things to Israel.

    One of the women’s names is Joanna. Her name means gift or grace of God. Her name speaks for this company of Galilean women who are not strangers to God’s grace or His gift. And though these events have transpired in the week gone by, Yes, hopes have been raised, but now Jesus is dead. These women will continue to be Jewish women, Galilean women, filled with hope, expressive of grace. And one of the Marys is Magdalene. out of whom Jesus had cast seven demons. You can read of that in Luke 8, verse 2. Jesus healed her.

    And even though he is now gone, even though he is dead, we will expect of this Jewish woman, this Galilean woman, healed, that she will continue to demonstrate her devotion to him in keeping with that activity in which she is presently engaged, namely anointing his body with the spices and the ointments. These women then, though they remind us of things in the garden, circumstances there and Eve herself, also remind us of Israel, faithful Israel, upon whom has been visited God’s grace, those who have been privileged to see the miraculous activities of God. And these then remain expectant of deliverance, a deliverance which will come at last when God will act to fulfill all his promises. But obviously, so it seems to them presently as they march out to the tomb, God has not yet acted nor will he so act soon. As high as they may reach in their grasp of hope, as great as their expectation may be, as marvelous as their devotion may seem to be, they now will work the dead Jesus within the fabric of their theology and doctrine.

    And day passes into night, another Sabbath comes and it will go, and thus it continues unendingly. Nothing changes. Nothing changes. These women, one more thing needs to be said about them. We can see their devotion and we’ve spoken passingly about that devotion, but there is something more to be said about their devotion. Their devotion is focused, is it not?

    Verse 56 of chapter 23, and on the Sabbath they rested according to the commandment. resilient in hope, none better, even though they are surrounded by the testimony of humanity’s dire condition, even though they might be crushed, resilient in hope and persevering, determined in their devotion, obeying the law, obeying what God has revealed. Through the ordeal, then, of Jesus’ death beyond his burial, these women will not abandon their expectant posture, nor will they abandon the law, the commandments. They will prove to be faithful Old Testament Israel, indeed, observing the law and maintaining that hope as best as they can. So this is the end of the matter. The cursed weight of conscience for sin and its consequences afflicts and abuses these daughters of Eve. And as daughters of Zion, They will continue to be expectant and hopeful in their circumstances and obedient as much as their strength will allow them to God’s commandments.

    But so it is and so it will continue. For Jesus, even though he was an astounding and exceptional servant of God, has himself come and gone as all others before him. and everything is the same. Day passes into night, another Sabbath comes and goes. And thus it continues. But does it? But does it?

    It is now the first day of the week. It is now the first day of the week. And on this day of days, unlike any day since the world’s first week, A rising light of the spreading dawn breaks forth and is now enhanced by the dazzling apparel of two men. They are called men. Verse 4 of chapter 24. They are called men, not angels. We’ve asked, why the women? Why not? Why the men?

    You know, every other account has the angels, and you might note in verse 23 of the 24th chapter that the men there turn into angels. So Luke knows about the angels, but here he calls them men. Why the men? so that you might link these two men here with two others that appear earlier in Luke’s gospel.

    Can you go back in your mind through the gospel, the last of the greatest events in Galilee before Jesus sets his face towards Jerusalem, sets it as flint. Do you remember the Mount in Galilee where Jesus took a select group of his disciples and there was transfigured before them? And we are told that two men, two men appeared.

    Verse 30 of chapter 9, Who were the two men, Moses and Elijah? The reason why now Luke wants you to see here two men is in order to link these two men with those two men mentioned previously, Moses and Elijah. What was Moses and Elijah’s purpose on the Mount of Transfiguration? Yes, to give encouragement to Jesus with respect to his task which he would accomplish at Jerusalem, but also, also, to give this joint testimony that the law, Moses, and the prophets, Elijah, are unto Christ.

    And the fulfillment of all that was said by Moses and all that is embodied in Elijah comes to its realization and fulfillment in this world. So these two men then, or angels, represent the law and the prophets to the women. Let both the law and the prophets find their fulfillment, not in the dead Christ, not even in the crucified Christ, not even Christ as sacrificed, but in Christ risen. resurrected.

    A different stroke has now been struck. The change has come. The chains have been broken. The die-cast has been shattered. And that Old Testament Sabbath and all that was contained in it, exemplary of that way of life, though it is fine, it gives way now to a better day, the day of resurrection and power, for the law would leave you impotent. It couldn’t save you.

    And that Old Testament expectation It is not that which asserts itself within the daughters of Zion as something yet to be realized. For the fulfillment has come. And what of that sad story for humanity rising out of Eden and the unbearable burden borne by Eve and her daughters.

    You see, it is the first day of the week in the new creation of God. And the light comes When the resurrected Christ, the stone is rolled away, the body slain by sin is not there, the living is not found among the dead, he is risen. He is alive. Right now, he is alive.

    Tuesday will be utterly different for these Galilean women. Monday, excuse me, will be different for these Galilean women. Tomorrow will not be the same for them for the wheel, the wheel that has gone round and round through the ages and crushed all in its path, lies in pieces. Tomorrow cannot be the same for you if you in faith pass with these Galilean women into the wonderful new world of life from the dead through Jesus Christ the risen Lord.

    It is truly a new day. The world has begun again. Life has started over. And this new day does not pass into night. The old Sabbath and former devotion to the law has come and gone. That oppressive cycle has indeed been broken. And you are walking testimonies to that fact.

    Have you not been born again? Have you not been raised up with Jesus? Is not the former life of sin and despair a thing of the past? Even if you had hope as radiant as these Galilean women, or demonstrated devotion as wonderful as theirs, Even that has passed! For Christ, who is dead, is alive. He has been raised. And now you are alive, you who believe and trust in Him. Fill us, Lord, with the light that shines from Christ the risen Lord, that we might be illuminated throughout, understanding the greatness of our God, understanding how precious our Savior is, for He is not like all others. who are born and live and then die but he has been raised he is alive and by him Lord we live not only today but forever we bless your name for we are not deserving Yet you in your mercy have kindly dealt with us for the sake of your Son whom we love. Amen.

    The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

  • The Four Songs of Christmas

    The Four Songs of Christmas

    This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Christmas” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, January 14, 1990.

    About this sermon

    Christ’s coming is God’s last and new work. Luke 1-2 gives four songs, from Mary, Zacharias, the angels, and Simeon. Salvation, covenant, finality, and humility run through all four.

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    Sermon transcript

    the songs that have been sung in connection with the birth of Christ. We have read all four of those songs this morning once more. With the coming of Christ, with the coming of the Son of God, there has been an explosion of revelation of God revealing himself again.

    Short of the end of the world, this is, in fact, God’s last great work. Short of the conclusion of everything, the consummation of all things, this is God’s last great work, the sending of his Son. In fact, we can say the end of the world, the consummation of all things, is but the conclusion of what God has begun to do here in this marvelous work.

    Therefore, this is not just another great work. This is the greatest of God’s mighty deeds. This is the great work to which all his previous works pointed. It is as if those previous works, those former great deeds done by God were but a laying of a foundation set beneath the surface of the ground so that now a beautiful house, the house of this His crowning work might rest upon. that foundation in full brightness of the day. But this is not just God’s last great work, nor his greatest work. For as these songs make claim, this is specifically a new work.

    It’s as if the long night is over, as if only the words of God were but stars, as if the former words of God were but the moon. And now the dawn has come. And as the dawn causes the lights of the night to fade, and chases the darkness before it, so this work of God brings light as if the dawn had never been seen before. There were shepherds in the night, but their night is chased by the effulgence, the radiance of that glory that shined upon them. God’s new work. The old ways former manners of revealing himself. His previous works, they have run their course. The wait has ended. The old passes the new comes. The old itself had announced such a day.

    Psalm 98 speaks specifically of this day in terms of a new song being sung. And in that psalm, the psalmist calls upon all to join in the song. O sing a new song to the Lord, for he hath done wondrous things. His right arm and his holy His right hand and His holy arm have gotten Him the victory. He has made known His salvation to the animals of the earth. He has revealed His salvation. Most specifically, psalmists in that psalm have imbued the new day of God’s work in which only the new psalm will be appropriate.

    And in order to get us all singing on the same key, the Lord himself gives us a few bars in Luke 1 and 2. We have looked at the songs here in turn, Mary’s Magnificat, Zacharias, Benedictus, the Angels, Gloria, Simeon’s Note, Demetrius. Four songs. And each of these songs, in its own way, summing up the events that surround the events that go before the events that will come after. These songs appropriately sung in terms of this mighty and wonderful new work which God is doing. Luke 1 and Mary’s song, beginning at verse 46.

    A song that is sung after Mary has been greeted by Elizabeth, her cousin. Significant thing about this song is the fact that not only two women here are meeting and greeting one another, but the children that they carry are, as it were, meeting and greeting one another.

    We are told that the child in Elizabeth’s womb leaps at Mary’s greeting. That child in Elizabeth’s womb is John. He is the embodiment of the Old Order and the greatest of all of those who are of the Old Order. And he now greets the child in Mary’s womb, that child signaling the commencement of a new order, the child in Mary’s womb being the embodiment of the new, the new order that comes within.

    As Mary sings her song then in response to The grieving of Elizabeth, it’s as if she takes up all of the psalms of the old order and sews them together into a marvelous tapestry of hymnody. A testimony to the fact that the old, in all of its sentiment, the old in all that it sang about, the old in all that it sang, period, was pointing to that one who is in fact now in the womb of man. We cannot then stop short of this day in which there is an explosion of revelation in which the new has come, we cannot content ourselves with merely singing the songs of the old order, for the new order has come. And all of the songs and sentiments of the old order now are captured, as it were, and placed in the service of the new. Mary’s song is a masterpiece, a praise, appropriate for the dawning of the new day. So the new order is greeted by the Lord. And the new order sums up the old and gives expression to all that that old order intended. And it sings.

    Then there’s Zacharias, verse 67 and following. His benediction. specifically here in you is what Zacharias brings before our eyes. Zacharias was a priest. He was faithful in the house of Levi. He served in the temple and in the performance of the temple rites. His interest was in the holiness of the people and the forgiveness of sin through the administration of the sacrifices in that temple.

    And as you read down through his psalm, what you are given here is a summing up of the institutions in the old order that were appointed for the promotion of holiness and piety and the providing for the forgiveness of sins in the life of the people. The Zacharias’s hymn tells us that the Levitical order and all of those ministrations in the temple have reached their appointed end in what now is transpiring for him, for his wife, for Mary, for Joseph, and for humanity.

    The Angels, chapter 2, verses 13 and 14. Here are heavenly heralds of the new order who in their coming and in their song revealed the nature of the kingdom in view over against the kingdom whose emissaries they are is a kingdom over which sits Caesar Augustus and over against the decree The messengers of which they are is the decree that Caesar Augustus has sent out. And over against shepherds that they greet now in hills in Judea are shepherds that are contacted by emissaries sent out from the throne in Rome. It is one kingdom against another, and the angels are heralding the new. the manifestation, the unveiling of the kingdom that is from above, with the testimony that in the end, in the conclusion of all things, glory will be given alone to God.

    What glory is there in the world and for those who are of the world? In the end, all glory will be given to God. And in the end, peace is not a matter of governments getting together and mapping out their strategies and coming to their conclusions with regard to treaties that they may construct. Peace is a matter of divine grace.

    It is given to those whom God chooses. Those who are, in fact, of his good will, the subject of his good will, the choices of his good will, his sovereign good pleasure. Such a kingdom is announced, declared, its days have begun, and the beginning of its is worthy of a song, out of heaven. And finally, Simeon, verses 29 and following, Luke 2, Simeon, seemingly the inconspicuous one, faithful, devout, godly, one who is dutiful, faithful in his attendance to the things of God, to the means of grace, but above all, one who is dutiful with respect to an expectation that God will in fact save his people. The center of this man’s life is the Lord’s salvation. But in this, though he is inconspicuous, Simeon speaks on behalf of all faithful Israel, as faithful Israel awaits the coming of the great day, the arrival of the Lord’s salvation. For faithful Israel recognizes that it has its end in the coming of the new day, which God now as inaugurating.

    There are then these four songs, these beautiful summons up, these wonderful welcomings of the new, by those who seemingly straddle the time, between the old and the new. And what wonderful notes are heard in the songs themselves. What wonderful features stand out, blending together now into a marvelous harmony, as if productive of a grand chorus. Magnificent. Above all else, the eye of each one of these singers is focused upon the salvation that is coming, the salvation that was promised, the salvation that has now arrived.

    We make a mistake with regard to piety. We make a mistake with regard to our faith. We think our faith is useful for 101 things, but salvation is 102. These people may have been excited about the prospect of salvation, but it’s something that bores us terribly. if it doesn’t put us to sleep. We’re not interested. Because there are 101 other things that are more important to us.

    We may cry ourselves that we are in the company of Mary or the company of Zacharias or maybe even especially spoken to by the angels or friends of sin. We are not the friends of any of these people if salvation isn’t as important to us as it was to them. Is salvation the center of your life? Is what these people anticipated and hoped for the center of your life? Did I marry the vision of Zachariah? the glory of the angels the deep deep satisfaction of sin all because of their preoccupation with their devotion to salvation well you have to know about not being saved before you can know about being saved.

    Throughout the song there is a concentration upon covenant. These people read their Bibles. At the end of Mary’s song, she makes reference to Abraham and the covenant promise that has been made to Abraham. She sees what’s happening here as the fulfillment of the promise given to Abraham 2,000 years previous. Is the history of Abraham of significance to you? Do you understand yourself not as blessed because of the promise made to Abraham 4,000 years ago? that you are in fact a child of Abraham, it’s in fact you believe as he believed and he embraced the promise that he embraced Zacharias makes mention of the same thing, the promise given to Abraham and as the song progresses it intensifies and widens in its application because you see it wasn’t merely a blessing expected with respect to the Jews, it was a blessing with respect to the nation It was a universal vision, and such was the conviction. This covenant is not merely for us, it is for all mankind. This blessing is meant to be universal, so that our vision shall never be chopped short. Our vision extends to the ends of the earth. It includes all races, all nations, all tongues.

    I focused on salvation, a concentration on covenant and knowledge of scripture and the promises that have been made by God in ages past, but now also an unprecedented realization of joy. Each one of these songs is filled with joy. Each one of these psalms glories in God’s righteousness and the provisions made by Him for righteousness, and each one of these psalms is testimony to God’s provision of peace. Later on, the Apostle Paul would speak himself, him like As he talks about that which is of the essence of the kingdom, the kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. That already being evident in the songs that are being sung here, people that are overflowing with joy because of what God has done. It may have been, you don’t know the circumstances of these people, it may have been that they had all kinds of personal problems. But still, the joy overflows, the glory in the righteousness that is now revealing itself, and an assimilation of that peace that passes all understanding and is part and parcel of the kingdom that God alone can bring. Focus on salvation, covenant, knowledge of the word, the promises, unprecedented realization of joy, righteousness and peace, but also a testimony to the cross and the resurrection.

    Mary speaks about humiliation, of humbleness, of those who are high in mind and exalted, and the exaltation of those who are low. She speaks about that on the background of what is coming, certainly, in the death and resurrection of Christ, that one who made himself low and then was exalted to the position of prior preeminence by God. The same way, this one is set for the falling and the rising again of many in Israel. It’s death, resurrection, for Amnesty.

    It speaks to Mary directly about a sword that she pierced her own soul with, when in fact this one in your very will die. The death, resurrection, this then being the focus of Zachariah’s own hope with respect to the realization of holiness and righteousness, with respect to the realization of the forgiveness of sin, No other way than through the sacrifice of Christ and through His resurrection. And as we’ve already interpreted, each one of these songs gives rise to a sense that there’s nothing yet outstanding. Each singer is satisfied in their song. They’re not looking for something more. They don’t want something else. They’re not walking away from God and saying, well, you tried, Lord, you made a good stab at it, but it doesn’t quite make it. You left me with a big hole inside. Obviously, what you can do will never fill that hole, so… I guess I have to either look elsewhere or just learn how to live with my dissatisfaction.

    The wonderful sense of peace and satisfaction with what God has done. And finally, Do you notice that every one of these individuals is less than a headline? I mean, we think that the world is actually being run by Bush and Gorbachev. Let me tell you. There is more going on here this morning with regard to God and His Kingdom than is going on with our service in Moscow, in the Congress of Moscow, or some of you.

    The important people to God are not the important people to the world. But even less, the important people to God are not the important people to themselves. the hundred, the inconspicuous, the unnoticed, the poor, those who trust in God and wait for Him. These are the ones who are precious to Him.

    These are the ones who say as Mary, Zacharias, angels, and sinners. Our Lord, These songs have been sung, and they are sung for us. Lord, we would sing them to you. But their words, Lord, would come forth from our hearts as surely as they came forth from those who sang them.

    May the very spirit that compelled them compel us. with great love for you with a great devotion to that which you have accomplished now in sending your son commencing the new day and bringing us into the unprecedented day of joy and righteousness and peace all of this so as to keep your cover all of us, through Jesus Christ, who died for our sins, that we would bear them no longer, who rose again, that we might be justified in more sin.

    The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

  • Simeon’s Song

    Simeon’s Song

    This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Christmas” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, December 31, 1989.

    About this sermon

    Simeon waits in the temple for the consolation of Israel, and his background shows why he matters. Some read his hope as purely personal and others as purely universal, and his song in 2:29-32 holds both together. ‘Mine eyes have seen thy salvation.’

    More sermons from Luke · Browse all sermons

    Sermon transcript

    from the beginning readings at verse 21 and we will read through verse 40. But with eight days to accomplish for the circumcision of the child whose name is called Jesus. With the two names of the angels and four different trees in the world. And when the days of the purest faith and accordance of the law of Moses were accomplished, they brought him to which was presented to the Lord. As it is written in the law of the Lord, every nail that openeth the wound shall be felled wholly to the Lord. Under offering sacrifice, according to which baptism is said in the law of the Lord, a pair of fiddle-wells were two young kitchens.

    And behold, There was a man in Jerusalem, his name was Phineas. And the same man was just underground, waiting for the consolation of Israel. And he went again to the promised land. And it was revealed unto him by the one ghost that he should not see death, before he had seen the Lord Christ.

    And he came by the spirit of the And when the parents brought in the child, Jesus, the gift of their master, the custodian of the law, then proceed to him, the offspring of his own, and let God stand. Will you now let us bow thy head in comparison to Jesus, according to thy will? For mine eyes have seen thy salvation, which God hath prepared before the face of all people. Be one, be one in the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel. And don’t pretend there’s never love in advance change which was spoken of.

    And say, and bless them, and said unto Mary his mother, Behold, this child is set to the throne of Isaac again, mother of Israel, before a time which shall be spoken again. Mary, of course, shall hear through thine own foremost that the facts of many lives may be revealed. And there was one Anna, a prostitute, the daughter of Samuel, of the tribe of Asher.

    She was of great age and had lived with her husband seven years of their virginity, and was a widow of about four to four and four years, which the prophet Joshua the prophet would serve God with fasting and praying night and day. And she coming in, wrapped in sweet green silk, likewise unto the Lord, and stated him to all men that looked for redemption in Jerusalem. And when they had performed all things according to the law of the Lord, they returned into Galilee, to their own city, Galilee. And the child grew, and wrapped strong and sweet, filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon him.

    Father, we do hope that with us, we may be able to have us to put your word away and shelve it and not think about it for periods of time. We ask, Lord, that in the coming year, we might keep the word and so on. The word and the prayers are to us and the prayers are unto us in the church. And also as we Our evil opportunity is placed before us and as that responsibility is ours to rehearse your word this day. May we do that. The Lord will help to defend you, taking up his picture day by day and reading it. We pray our God that this word which is given to us for life may come to us As wife and baby, may we feel His presence and tremble, may we receive the comfort and be delighted. And Lord, may we be conformed to the image of Christ which is the end surface of that Word which is given to us. Bless us with this hour, God. And may our resolutions with regard to the Lord be blessed. the aspect of Jesus Christ.

    It is not a novel name. It is not a new name to us. It is certainly a name long standard of a great tradition in Israel itself. a name for one of the tribes, in fact. One of the sons of Jacob. The second son of Leah. You can read about that second son, his birth, in Genesis chapter 29. The name a play on the Hebrew word, which means to heal. And Leah gives her second child, the name Simeon, because she confesses, the Lord has heard that I am unloved. The Lord has And the name Simeon is to play upon the idea of hearing, the Lord himself hearing.

    So it is Leah’s individual condition. not the choice of Jacob. She is, in fact, the unloved wife. And in her unloved condition, she is spurned, and she suffers severely. Yet God has an eye for her. While she is unloved by her husband, she is loved of God. and cared for by him. And what is denied then, the wife that is love, is granted to her. Rachel is barren, Leah is perfect. The Lord indeed has her then, Leah. He has taken into account her condition and has responded to her by giving her children, alleviating her affliction.

    Now it could be that there were circumstances in Simeon’s family that were comparable, maybe that the affliction was barren this time, to which the Lord responded, and the child is memorialized with a name, a name that also speaks for the fact that the Lord has responded, the Lord has heard.

    But whether or not there were circumstances attached to the birth of Simeon from Luke 2, it is clear that his name now has special significance in his adult life. His name speaks to us of more than just an individual condition. It may well be that we see the individual plight of Leah taking center stage in the stories in the book of Genesis. It may well be there was an individual circumstance that gave rise to the naming of Simeon in this New Testament setting.

    But that individual consideration gives way to something greater now, in light of what God is doing specifically in relationship to this man. God does indeed hear us in our individual plight. There is affliction known by each of us, a private affliction carried by each of us. There are reasons why we particularly cry out to God and ask him to hear us, to consider us, to consider our circumstance. But Simeon finds his place in the account of Luke not because he’s just one more person with an individual problem. And don’t misunderstand My intention is not to minimize the individual problem or the personal affliction that we bear.

    Any of this. But here we are dealing with those things that are of the most supreme importance. The greater and weightier things. Things that carry us beyond ourselves to greater considerations yet. Considerations in which the fate of entire peoples are in the balance.

    Sinion’s name then has significance in this context not because of some individual incident in the life of his parents or in his personal life, but because of the condition of the people of God as a whole. His name will in fact memorialize the activity and the action of God. God hears. Not just for the benefit of one of us, not in terms of the parameters that are dealt out to us in our individual circumstances, but with respect to the circumstances of all of God’s own. With respect to the condition of God’s people as a whole. In Simeon, then, we are going to see that responsiveness to God, that is testimony to the fact that God does hear. And he brings resolution to the long-standing dilemma for his people as a whole. But I’m not interested. But I’m not interested in that. All I’m interested in are my own personal problems. That’s all I care about. and religion has value only so far as it deals with my own personal difficulties.

    If simian is to be useful to me then, He must be translated for me, interpreted for me, in those terms. And if he’s not, then he’s useless. And utterly unimportant. And truly, I can’t be bothered. practical for me. Making relevant to my own personal problems. Making relevant to the problems I experience on the job or the problems I’m having in my marriage or the difficulties I’m having at home or the crushing financial questions that I’m dealing Make him relevant to my health. Do something to make him meaningful to me, particularly. Because if you don’t, he’s of no value. Really, he’s of no value to me. Sinion stands out then on the pages of the New Testament. He is here for us.

    For the greater, the weightier consideration, the fate of an entire people, not just one individual, the problems of mankind, humanity as a whole, the severity of that problem, Man separated from God, more at a distance from God and His glory. Man in need of reconciliation, man in desperation crying out to the heavens to be heard.

    Will God respond? Is salvation merely a matter of me learning how to cope? Is salvation merely a matter of mental health? Is salvation merely a matter of getting my checkbook balanced? Or getting through the day? We’re just learning how to survive. We’re surviving one more illness. You see, simian is a concentration killer. for the entirety of a nation, of a people, whose purpose it has been to wait for and to prepare for the coming of God, the coming of God.

    Now we are told that this man is righteous and devout. I delight in the righteousness and devotion spoken of him, attributed to him. He is found in the temple, not because the Spirit just happened to move him at that particular time. Nor are Mary and Joseph in the temple because the Spirit happened to hold them at that particular time. These people, simian and virgin, are righteous and devout, not giving excuse as to why they may not go and appear in the temple. They submit themselves to the institution. They comply with the law. They are dutiful. That, in fact, is true. It is obvious.

    But that is the least. That is the least qualification in the description of devotion and righteousness. There are many who claim to be more devout and have more righteousness, who don’t even perform that service, or those services to the Lord. wonderful, righteous, and dutiful foe. Yes, Joseph, Mary, Simeon, also Anna, mentioned later in this text. We’ve read about her also. But here is the least of the considerations with respect to that righteousness and devotion. While least, it cannot be dismissed But we are here dealing with something much more.

    For you see, it isn’t merely then a submissiveness to the law or a devotion to morality that sets Simeon apart in his righteousness and his devotion. He is regular in his temple service. He is dutiful in his performance because of his love for God. But even more than that, as you read the text, we are told that his righteousness and his devotion are attached to the fact that he is looking for the consolation of his people. If your hope is taken away from you, all you have left is bare morality. And bare morality will not save you even if you keep the love of God. It won’t work. What drove this man was his hope. And that informed his righteousness and his devotion. That’s why he was in the temple. And that’s why he kept the law. And that’s why he served God as he did.

    What is the prospect of your own piety, your own devotion? That others will then not have occasion to speak ill of me, that I will keep my nose clean spiritually speaking, that I will perform those things that are expected of me, that I will be dutiful, that I will be moral, that I will be above reproach in some sense. Those who have this hope purify themselves. He was looking for the consolation of Israel. He was a man of hope, and that informed his godliness, his piety, his devotion, his subservience to the law, and his temple worship.

    We are told also that the Spirit the spirit that is holy. The Holy Spirit was upon him. In this he is set apart from Israel generally. He is a prophet with whom resides the spirit of revelation that has been given A revelation specifically now has been communicated to him. He will not see death until he has seen the Lord Christ. The composite picture of this man then, we see in him an embodiment of Israel that has waited Yet there is within it and upon it the testimony that the Lord shall hear and now has heard.

    Israel has arrived at her end point. And in so much as this man is a prophet, he speaks as it were for all the prophets, the prophetic ministry in its entirety summed up in him. For now the coming of that promised deliverance has been achieved, its arrival, is at hand. What of this Israel then, drawing back in its own self-importance, insisting upon itself and its prerogatives? Not at all.

    This Israel takes up the Christ and embraces the Christ. Simeon takes the child in his arms, and in this action sets a seal upon Israel and her purpose, namely that she would be that nation through which the Savior would come. Israel, in herself, expecting the prophetic ministry in its service, these things then converging in this man, as this man embraces the child, he embraces the Christ, and when he embraces the Christ, it is as if true Israel were herself embracing that child. So Simeon blesses God and saints. His song recorded for us in verses 29 through 32. And note the particular aspects of the song. A song of true Israel. A song of the proper prophetic ministry. Now reaching its culmination point. It is a song of satisfaction.

    The child doesn’t offend. What were you looking for? What did you expect? But in this one Simeon, otherwise obscure himself, with this one Simeon, otherwise obscure himself, there is the embracing of this small, this insignificant, this apparently weak and helpless child, and the child doesn’t offend true Israel. The child doesn’t offend the spirit of true prophecy.

    Rather true wisdom, true prophecy recognizes in the child the fulfillment of God’s purpose. It is a song, therefore, of satisfaction. And what of us who may well be so dissatisfied? Here is one who is satisfied with a child and with the unveiling of God’s purpose and His intention.

    Because salvation and the coming of God are at the center of his life. Nothing else will satisfy him. And nothing else should satisfy you. Nothing else will in fact satisfy you. But having that salvation, are you not satisfied? Are you not content? Having that, do you not have all things? If he has given you his salvation, if he has given you his Christ, has not God given you everything that you need? And will you not be satisfied with that? Why do you look for something else?

    Let me tell you this, God has nothing more to give you than Christ. He can’t give you anything greater. There’s a song of faith. Now Lord, let thy servant depart in peace. I don’t even fear death now. Such is my faith and confidence with my new dress. is a threat. It is a song of piety, not of some sort of senseless mysticism. It is contempt to concentrate upon religious swoons of some form or the other.

    For Simeon has seen the salvation of the Lord and that salvation has an historical outworking God’s activity in space and time and what religious devotion there is, is to be directed towards Him and towards that historical outworking of His purpose not religion for religion’s sake not some sort of spirituality for the sake of spirituality but a religious soul that is concentrated upon, focused upon that child and upon the redemption that he brings for only that is adequate and finally in addition to being a song of satisfaction, a song of faith, a song of true piety is the song of Catholic vision, that is universal vision.

    Here is true Israel recognizing the intention of God. The salvation which God has now reviewed, placed, set before the eyes of this man, before Israel itself, is the salvation that He has prepared in the presence of all people, a light of revelation to the ten times who are magical Jews, say. And the glory of my people is here. The end of provincialism.

    The end of nationalism. even seemingly the end of ethnicity all of them brought down to the dust by the vision of true and proper catholicity for the people of God There’s just one final word here with respect to Simeon. Of course you hear what he says to Mary directly in the verses that follow. Verses 34 and 35. Bring into view the cross, the suffering to which this child is destined as well as the suffering to which Mary herself is destined.

    But you see, it is a full-ranged testimony, witness, that Simeon bears. Israel is in fact witness to the nations. Witness of what? Sinai? The Exodus? Moses? Even one of the prophets? No! Israel is witness of Christ! witness of the law, witness of some sort of temporal administration? No!

    Israel is witness of Christ and of the administration of the Church, into which now Jew and Gentile have grown, in which they commonly serve the one true God, through Jesus Christ the Savior. And part and parcel of that testimony is not just some hope with respect to oneness as it concerns peoples and nations and tribes and tongues. It is a witness with respect to the cross of Christ and the price by which that glorious end is achieved. That’s Israel’s testimony to the world.

    Simeon was not a Zionist, and he had no expectations with regard to Tel Aviv today. The center of that man was an expectation that culminated in Christ, His cross, His resurrection, and the church into which Gentile and Jew would be brought. in which they would be one under the banner of salvation forever. Our God, we are asking you that as Simeon memorializes the truth that you have heard your people and given them salvation we would delight with joy no less exuberant and free and full than the joy that he expressed and may the commitments that he had and commitments that we share in that our hearts too are set upon the salvation of our God the beauty and the perfection of your purpose in the world and with these things that you have brought may we be satisfied and in them may we delight

    The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

  • The Oath God Swore

    The Oath God Swore

    This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Christmas” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, December 10, 1989.

    About this sermon

    Elizabeth’s barrenness ends in conception, and the ‘oath’ God swore to Abraham stands behind it. Zacharias, the priest, shows the law blessing the new order that comes in Christ. Luke 1:80 closes on the child growing strong in spirit, and God’s people rejoice in his work.

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    Sermon transcript

    Benedictus, found in verses 68-79 of the first chapter of Luke. The song of the angel of the Lord, verse 14, chapter 2. And then Simeon’s song, the moot, committed. Now Lord, the translation of the Latin. Verses 29-32 of that second chapter of Luke. This morning we take up the second of these four Christmas songs. The song of Zechariah, a prophecy, the so-called benediction, the blessing.

    Now the entire. Empire. Gospel in which this song of Zachariah appears in the section that we read this morning versus fifty seven through eighty. Which divides for us into four parts. First of all. Verses fifty seven and fifty eight Elizabeth deliverance to the birth of the sun. And the subsequent celebration. Secondly the naming of the child.

    The healing of Zachariah. And the astonishment of the people versus fifty nine three sixty four. Thirdly. verses 65 through 79, which includes, then, the Benedictine or Zacharias song. This section speaks to us of the fear and the question in the hearts of the people, both of which are addressed by Zacharias’ words.

    And finally, verse eighty, and alone in conclusion to the section, the child life maturing. Prior to. First of all. This is fifty seven and fifty eight. Elizabeth deliverance to the birth of her son and the subsequent celebration. Elizabeth. An old woman. Not only old, but barren. Without a child.

    She and her husband, Zechariah, unable to generate a child. And this condition, it seems, somewhat accentuated because of her piety and the piety of her husband. You read in the 6th verse of the 1st chapter about their devotion to the Lord. Both of them are righteous in the sight of God, walking blameless in all the commandments and requirements of the Lord. Yet, they are deprived. They are without. Her condition, Elizabeth’s condition, speaks. of a barrenness, of even a futility, a fruitlessness. It speaks also of shame, of reproach. For the woman in Israel that could not bear was a special object of pity. There was a certain embarrassment that accompanied that condition. What was the woman without children? What was the woman especially without a son? Her condition then.

    Speaking of a certain futility, shame, reproach, and a lack of power an inability, even an impossibility. Remembering her obedience to the law, her piety, not even this then remedies the situation, not even her righteousness turns things around. Not even a compliance to, an obedience to the law rescues her from her condition. She hasn’t power to deliver herself. Compounding the situation now, she is well beyond the age of barony. So that yes, the impossibility is compounded and her condition is utterly hopeless. Irremediable. Humanly speaking, impossible of reversal. Speaking of her in these terms, we see how Elizabeth is more than just a solitary soul. More than just one more barren Israelite woman. For in Elizabeth now there is revealed the situation of God’s Satan in his Elizabeth is a daughter of Aaron, of the tribe of Levi.

    She is under the authority of all that arises out of, and is peculiar to, that tribe. She is under the law. And in her, we see the condition of God’s own. He is faithful within Israel, for they, like her, are under the law. They are under the Levitical order. But Elizabeth is not only a daughter of Aaron of the tribe of Levi, speaking to us of the law, she lives in Judah. She lives within the boundaries of the tribe of Judah, to which has been given the promise of glory. God’s faithful men seen in the woman, under the law, yet living within the boundaries of that territory to which glory has been promised.

    And the people, no less than she, be they ever so righteous ever so meticulous in their submission to the law. Neither they nor she can affect a deliverance, can bring salvation. in and of themselves, left to themselves, they cannot reverse their circumstances, they cannot remedy their situation, they cannot remove their shame. Their fruitlessness and futility are confirmed and seemingly stamped upon their condition as a state of permanence. Their situation, despite everything positive that might be said about them, is utterly hopeless. But as in the case of the woman, so also in the case of the people.

    God God works. And the act and the work of God is the only remedy. It alone affects deliverance. Her name means oath of God. And that name comes to have special significance in light of the fact that God keeps His oath sworn to His people. And that which He promised He now begins to fulfill. The barren woman conceives.

    The shame of this daughter of Aaron, this resident in Judah, lifts. The hopelessness is answered by the direct, miraculous intervention of God Himself, who is about to deliver His people, who wait for Him. The situation is utterly hopeless, except for God, who is now at work to keep His oath. The child is not just then another Jewish child who comes in answer to ordinary usual prayers uttered perpetually in families where barrenness is a fact.

    This child is rather a sign of God’s new day when he shall deliver his people as surely as he has delivered Elizabeth and the rejoicing that you hear the rejoicing of neighbors in the territory of Judah and relatives as well from the tribe of Levi this rejoicing reflects the grander more glorious thanksgiving that of true and faithful Israel as she begins to celebrate God’s miraculous marvelous deliverance Elizabeth’s deliverance through the birth of a son and the subsequent celebration. The faithful children of Abraham, despite their adherence to the law, cannot bring forth the promise of deliverance.

    God himself must work. Part two. The naming of the child, the healing of Zechariah, and the astonishment of the people. In order to understand this section, one must understand Zachariah, the priest, the son of Levi, the Lord. If Elizabeth is the faithful remnant of God’s people waiting for deliverance, Zachariah embodies the Lord.

    But now the child is to be named. And this child is veined in keeping with the revelation that has been given through Gabriel, the angel. Verse 13 of chapter 1, Gabriel had instructed Zechariah, you are to call the child John. So when Elizabeth and Zachariah insist upon this name for their child, it is in obedience to this recent revelation that has come.

    They are obeying God in light of the new work that He is performing. To name the child Zachariah would be disobedience to that revelation, but also it would be symbolically the maintenance of that condition under the old order, the perpetuation of it, when in fact the new order has gone. The name Zachariah means remembered by the Lord, but now the Lord has remembered. And as a result, He has, by His abundant and inexplicable grace, given this child, whose name is to be John, whose name means gift. After the law, grace. Even in the law and through the law, the Lord remembers and brings about the fullness of His purpose. A gift. Grace. Abundance.

    Zachariah has been especially attached to that older order, and he has exhibited that older order’s weakness. As a priest and a servant of the legal order of Israel and its ritual form, His eye has been trained by the external, so he stands before Gabriel, the angel. He hears the message given him by the angel, and seeing this marvel and this wonder and hearing the promise, he is unsatisfied and demands further external confirmation. That is the attitude. of Israel under the dominion of the law. And such an attitude brings judgment, especially in lieu of God’s new and great work of salvation. The very weakness of the older order is exposed through this reliance upon things visible and confirmations that can be given. Above and beyond that which has been extended by God himself.

    In time they won’t even be satisfied with the unveiling of the Son of God before them. They will demand further signs, further confirmation. Give us a sign! Give us a confirmation! They will cry out. there is a failure of faith then attended to the older order and it must give place to the new for the new order perfects God’s grace seen specifically in John the child who bears the main gift but now In light of this marvelous work which God is doing in establishing His new order, there is the calling forth of a superlative thing.

    And Elizabeth and Zachariah, in faith, tell all the child’s name is John. The child’s name is John. We believe. We believe. And it is only when this superlative quality of faith is exhibited by Zacharias, But once more, his lips are open, his tongue is moved, and he speaks to the glory of God. It is only from that vantage point of faith and the work of that superlative faith then that the law again is given utterance, and that utterance is always in light of this new and wonderful work of God which He is performing for His people. the amazement of the people themselves their astonishment is before the evident tokens that something supernatural has taken place something miraculous has transpired before them and that which is truly miraculous and supernatural in the case of Elizabeth and Zachariah is outdone in the case of Mary and Joseph something greater still shepherds then will marvel, be astounded Mary and they will keep things in their hearts wondering as to the meaning of the things that have taken place. God’s new work. A new work in which the law itself recognizes the new order which God has inaugurated.

    Part 3, verses 65-79. The people fear in their wonder, they have questions that they store up in their hearts. What manner of child is this they are asking? And though these questions are stored in the heart, there is honorable response given to them by the Lord through Zacharias, who now prophesies. The people are face to face with the supernatural intervention of God. Truly they are disturbed and troubled by these things. They do not know what to make of them.

    But now, out of that one who embodies the law, the testimony arises. This one in whom the law is resident speaks by prophecy and is given the voice, the voice of heaven, the voice of the Spirit as he is filled by the Spirit to explain the significance of these events that are taking place, the significance of this child that has been born. And in this, It is not just the law recognizing the new order that has come, it is the law blessing the new order that has come.

    The beauty of this song that is sung by Zacharias matches the beauty of the song that was sung by Mary. The day of God’s redemption has come. We are no longer waiting for it, it is arrived. And if in fact at the center of Mary’s song there was testimony to the great reversal, where the poor would be exalted and the proud and rich would be cast down, stamped if you were by the regal character of the day that is dawning in this song from Zachariah there comes the priestly interest namely the piety, the devotion, the holiness, the godliness of those who will in fact be a part of God’s blessed new day note verses 74 and 75.

    God is at work to grant to us that we being delivered from the hand of our enemies might serve Him without fear in holiness, righteousness before Him all our days. And notice verse 77 with respect to the child now, John himself. His ministry will be to give to his people the knowledge of salvation by the forgiveness of their sins because of the tender mercy of our God the obedience then that was foreshadowed by our compliance with the law, our obedience to it The devotion and the piety that was neared in that devotion to the law is brought to its proper focus now and fulfillment through the ministry of the new order which has been inaugurated by God in the birth of this child and subsequently in the one that even he will serve. The ministry of the new order that begins with John is for the moral renovation of God’s people, so that they might stand as priests themselves, as did Zechariah, before the Lord.

    And that all the days of their lives. the child grows strong in spirit but he takes up residence in the desert in the wilderness and this fact in itself confirms his preparatory role for we have been told by the prophets that God himself will make his final entrance out of the wilderness In the wilderness, John is preparing the stage upon which Israel herself will return to her origins, for did she not as well come out of the wilderness? And in the wilderness, John exposes Israel’s moral weakness and failure of faith. For it was in that wildness originally that Israel fell as it were, proving her weakness and the failure of her faith.

    But most specifically now, The wilderness, the desert regions that are in view are not those in the Transjordan. They are not even the regions of the Negev. They are the wilderness regions, the desert regions within the territory of Judea properly. The wilderness is within the land. The wilderness is within the land of promise. The land of promise is itself a wilderness.

    Those who might have boasted of their heritage, their place, of their position, that boast is exposed. So Israel herself is exposed in her weakness and for her failure faith. The people, though established in the land of promise, are in a wilderness and in need of God’s redemptive work, which he will consummate through Christ, the one whose way John forbids. If the law is at work in the son as it was in the father, if John himself has the law within him as he works, the prophets as well, then the law and the prophets are at work as servants for the new order that has come.

    And now has gone. Why do you live as those who still wait? Why do you live as those who are still waiting for the coming day of redemption? Oh, to be sure, there will be the consummation of all things. God will, in fact, wrap everything up in conclusion. But there is an irrepressible joy and gladness that is attendant to the birth of this child and what it sanctifies. And if with this child, how much more with the child who followed Jesus’ Will you not be glad? Will you not bless the Lord? Will you not enter into the song of Zachariah and praise God for the redemption, the deliverance that has come? Here is the remedy to futility. Here is the answer to our hopelessness. Here is the resolution to our weakness, our inability, and the impossibilities of our circumstances.

    God at birth! And it is as certain as the child born of a visitor. as certain as the ministry of Zechariah and the subsequent ministry of John. Let us rejoice in the salvation that is coming. How everything our God works together how it all converges in the events that marked the dawning of a new day and how great the celebration and the joy even by those who lived before everything was made clear Oh Lord, may we celebrate, may we be glad in this the day of your working. May we delight in the salvation which has come. And may we know that all that has preceded the law and the prophets were unto this appointed end. and in this your purpose is made manifest your design plainly set before the face of the nations that many might turn having received forgiveness of sins and live because of your great and wonderful grace

    The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

  • Martha’s House as a Temple

    Martha’s House as a Temple

    This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Sermon on the Mount” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, October 15, 1989.

    About this sermon

    The Transfiguration, just before this in Luke, recalls the Exodus and anticipates the glory to come, and it reframes Martha’s ordinary hospitality in chapter 10. Her house becomes a temple, and her distraction shows the wrong kind of service. Busyness for Christ and right service of Christ are two different things.

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    Sermon transcript

    Our Father, we are hungry men and women. We may not even understand the nature of our need. We may not comprehend the seriousness of our hunger. yet Lord in the midst of those things that may well be turned to to satisfy us we ask that you would push from us all those things that shall in the end prove empty we covet your word to hear the clear sound of your voice May it be, Lord, that with your word you speak to us today. We ask, Lord, that if there be no faith, that in keeping with the promises of your gospel and its power, faith may come. And where faith is weak, may it receive strength. And where faith is strong, May it be joined with deep and abiding humility.

    For Jesus said, Amen. The field on the mountain. startles. It startles because of the description given here of Christ in his transfiguration. Not only they flashed with light, extraordinary. and opening up of the regions of glory. Heaven touches down on a mount in Galilee. But not only is the account extraordinary for that reason, also for what is added here for us by Luke in his accounting of it. For Moses and Elijah have appeared. They are speaking so they are told to Jesus, thus transfigured. about his imminent departure.

    The King James uses the word deceased. But the liberal translation would be exodus. There is a great exodus. An exodus anticipated by that former Exodus spoken of in the Old Testament. The Exodus, in view now with respect to this one Christ, brings into view the goal. There had been a former exodus in which the goal was a plot of ground in a corner of the Mediterranean world.

    But in this latter and greater exodus, the goal, the end, is glory itself. beyond boundaries of territory past the markers that divide property beyond mere milk and honey from this creation something infinitely greater That is where Jesus is going. Here then is the pilgrimage, the sojourn, that has in view the ultimacy of that destination, glory itself. Now with faith face set like flint, Jesus is setting out to Jerusalem, for this new exodus will be accomplished, not from that pagan land south and to the west. This new exodus will be accomplished from Jerusalem itself, as if now, before our eyes, passes a fuller and deeper form of slavery and bondage, a greater purity than that purity bound to flesh, a tyranny of soul, a tyranny due to sin and the terror of death, a tyranny presided over, ironically, by the law itself.

    So then those who boast in the law and their performance with regard to it have become new pharaohs in the scenario set for this new and greater Exodus. Jesus then by his ascent to Jerusalem is descended that he may know there in this latter day Egypt the seriousness the depth of the slavery from which he must deliver us he sends out his ambassadors who go before him, avengers with respect to his cause, keeping in view now, he understands the end, he understands the goal.

    They don’t comprehend. Bring it all to conclusion now, they plead. If there are those that resist you, end it for them. Invoke judgment. Wipe them out. Visit them with your wrath. You don’t know what spirit you are of. You don’t understand the pilgrimage. You don’t comprehend the exodus in you. You lose sight of the goal, the end.

    There are distractions, even from those who would be closest to him. There is one who comes to him and says, I’ll follow you wherever you go. Even now, the control of that end which I have in you dominates my life to the point that I have nowhere to lay my head. The creatures of creation have places to bed down, but not I. And that’s because of the goal, that’s because of the goal and the end in you, that for the sake of the Lord. He will speak to another, follow me he says, I will in a while.

    But please, let me secure things well here at home first. Then I will come. Let me take care of matters on the home front. Let me bury my father so as to ensure my plot around here and my place in the will. That’ll help. I’ll follow you, Lord, but let me go bid farewell to those who are at home.

    Surely etiquette demands, propriety demands, If you’ve seen the kingdom, nothing must detain you. If you understand the goal, no distraction can entrap you. The hand is on the cloud, and you dare not look back. In another setting there was one who looked back. She became a pillar of salt.

    The emissaries, the harbingers, The messengers are sent out, seventy in number, two by two ahead of him to proclaim his entrance, to announce his coming. They are like patriarchs of old who went before, they are like prophets who went before, they are like apostles who go before. But please understand that Jesus would have them keep in mind that end, that goal of glory! The glory that had been unveiled on the mountain previously, the glory that had accompanied the appearance of Moses and Elijah. That glory is our home. That is where we are going. That is why it is appropriate to sing the hymn that we did at the opening of our service today. We are pilgrims here. We are sojourners here.

    But how these messengers and ambassadors rejoiced while we were into the towns, and the spirits, the demons were subjected to us in your name. even religious how even that religious spirit overlaid with conviction about the supernatural is distracted so that it doesn’t see the goal and the end is obscure Jesus says to them, placing things well in perspective again, don’t marvel that spirits were subjected to you, but glory in the fact that your names are written in the regions of glory in heaven above.

    Then there comes one who asks him that most important of questions, verse 25 of the 20th chapter. What must I do to inherit eternal life? Ah, now there’s one who is interested in the goal at the end. How do you read the law? The law is rehearsed for you, Jesus, by this lawyer who has come. Jesus responds, do this and you shall live, for who is my life? So Jesus tells a story, one that will teach things again, well in perspective and in focus. A priest and a Levite legitimately this practice.

    Here is something that will detain them, this man along the side of the road, this unfortunate fellow who fell among the thieves. Our activity is set upon the proper goal and end. We are the servants of the law. We know how to keep our appointments. We know how to keep it scheduled. on time.

    But that which appears to be a distraction to them is actually the way of the pilgrimage according to Jesus. And the things with which they are preoccupied are the distraction by which the end and the goal For this Samaritan, this nobody who stops and cares for the one who has fallen among the thieves, demonstrates that though the world, and even the religious world, can’t afford this sort of distraction, this is the kind of thing of which the King is composed.

    For in his action he is Christ-like, he gives himself. And only in this form of action, with this pattern of behavior, is progress made along the road to glory. Only if you stop do you move ahead. Only if you stop do you move ahead. It is the cross that’s coming to expression here, is it not? At risk to himself, he stops. He gives of who he is, of what he is, for the sake of this other one. Is that not what Christ does himself? Go thou and do like that.

    But then to a certain village, verse 38, to that particular home and house. And here we have moved, as it were, from a survey of controversy between Samaritan and We have moved from an analysis of the way things are in Israel to the way they are in the Church. The house is the house of a friend.

    Martha’s home is transformed. by the presence of Christ into more than just a domestic edifice it’s as if it now is refurbished it’s becoming a temple for the presence of the Christ and in this temple there is a drama worked out for you in which the end and the goal will again be set before you.

    There is, Martha, one very much concerned with detailed There is Martha who is very much concerned with service. In the church there are those who have made a complete life out of the kind of service that is reviewed here. The kind of service that you see in Martha But yet, as you now scrutinize the passage and review Jesus’ response, it becomes plain to you that service in this fashion simply is not adequate. There is a service in the Church that is frenetic. There is a service in the church that is frantic and filled with energy and the expenditure of energy that he’s always doing.

    There is a spirit alive in the church that is overlaid with A heap of activity but beneath the surface it is filled with anxiety and distress. Always worried about how someone will think of them. Always concerned about the details of the service rendered. Always keeping score. Who’s helping? Who isn’t? Who’s doing what? Who isn’t?

    Building, as it were, a network through which then justification will in fact be by work. Martha is distracted. She’s distracted with all of her preparations. But that which is a distraction for her is actually distracting her from the goal, the end. The story is not given to you so as to provide excuse to those who always want to sit around and think about things, want to sit around and talk about things, and never do anything. But the story is given to you so that you would understand what the goal, the end, is all about. The end and the goal is glory. The end and the goal is sitting at Jesus’ feet and receiving the word from Him.

    That’s the place from which you must start. How many churches have now disintegrated with regard to their spiritual life because they’ve given themselves over to a schedule that is more skilled with the propriety of etiquette than it is the principles of holiness. How many churches have turned into community affairs where the activity itself is the God, is the religion, and the word is short shrifted, if not shoved out the door.

    It will be that word that keeps your eye focused. It will be that word that informs you with respect to the end and the goal. Only if you sit at Jesus, only if you are instructed by Him as Mary was, will you choose the best part, the principal part, the indispensable part, the part that will not be taken from you. and I’ve also said it is not without reason that Martha is portrayed as one overcome by anxiety and Mary is portrayed as one at peace at peace If we want peace, even in our holy activities, we must sit at the feet of Jesus, the one who will continually emphasize and re-emphasize the goal, the end. I’m going to Jerusalem, there a greater exodus will be accomplished and beyond mere inheritances of this creation there will be procured the eternal inheritance for those who trust in me and follow me sins forgiven death vanquished The better, greater abiding point.

    Ours. Ours. You’re on a journey. You’re on a journey. Is it going to end well? In glory. How magnificent, Lord, your word, how wonderful Christ is as he gathers us to his seat that we may receive instruction from him with regard to the end, the goal, glory itself and an unbreakable, uninterruptible communion and fellowship with you eternally. May we in this pilgrimage press on and while we would be active for you, serving you diligently may it be true of us as it was of merit that we have chosen the better part that thing that is utterly indispensable absolutely necessary your word from your side as our sustenance Truly Lord, the great things will not be taken from us. We abide with Jesus. And Lord, if our lives are filled with anxiety and worry, if we are overcome by a fretfulness, may we return to the Savior who beckons. And may we receive peace at His feet.

    The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

  • Parables About Discipline, Not Evangelism

    Parables About Discipline, Not Evangelism

    This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Misc. Luke sermons” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, August 27, 1989.

    About this sermon

    The parables of Luke 15, the lost sheep, coin, and son, are read here as being about church discipline rather than evangelism, a reversal of how they’re usually preached. Luke 16’s puzzling ‘mammon of unrighteousness’ gets its own careful treatment alongside that shift. A heavenly orientation, weighing earthly riches against heavenly ones, runs through both chapters together.

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    Sermon transcript

    Alright, let’s respond. Terrible is dead, and then Jesus explained it. With regard to the transition, we move from that 15th to the 16th chapter. It is very important for us to remember the point of the three terribles given up in that 15th chapter. Jesus is addressing himself to the scribes in Pharisee, verse 2, chapter 15.

    He tells them, there is joy in heaven when the locks are sound. And what the Pharisee has scribed lacks is them. is the perspective of heaven with regard to that which is lost. There is joy in heaven when the lost are found, but the Pharisees and scribes cannot enter into that joy because they do not have the perspective of glory. They do not have the perspective of heaven. Joy is lost to them, and as it is made plain in the ministry of Jesus Christ, and asserted by that ministry, they then become very defensive, and react against his ministry and his message, and countermand the joy that is imbued in them.

    It would be very easy for me to slide off here into a footnote on the 15th chapter of the book, but I’ll just make the comment and leave it there. The various beliefs and parables in that chapter are treated as if Jesus in them were dealing with the issue of evangelism. evangelizing rose who have never except heard or are outside of the parameters of the covenant. That’s not the point of the parables. The parables are not about evangelism. The parables are about your discipline. The parables are about those that wandered outside of the folk. They were in the folk. They were part of the family. The coin was in the house. The sheep belonged to the flock.

    The issue is not evangelism. The issue These parables are about Jesus’ message of church discipline. He is a pursuing pastor. When someone wanders, he goes after them to bring them back, and when that person is restored, there is to be sure in the receiving back of that person. and the judgment now that he’s read out upon the Pharisees is this, when those who have wandered away, who have since turned their back upon the covenant into which they were born, with ease return, the scribes and Pharisees find themselves incapable of joy. Now, I know this is new to me. Surprise!

    One of the most famous parables of all, the parable of the prodigal son, is not about evangelism. It’s about church discipline. Well, that has been said. and really an indictment upon the Church. This is not to speak with regard to the success of the Church in its pursuit, but oftentimes the Church has given up the pursuit. It won’t go after the individual. The Church does send you a letter after the fact. It tells you what it has done. It doesn’t pursue you. like the shepherds of this passage.

    Jesus, after he gives these parables in Luke 15, turns to his disciples after six days. He tells this specific parable, that of the unrighteous stewards, as a warning to them what in those previous parables makes the warning he gives by root of this parable? Now, chapter 16, what in those previous parables makes the warning he now gives? Jesus is saying that what the scribes and Pharisees lack, the disciples are liable to lose. He is saying that what the and scribes lack, his disciples are liable to lose. Having known the perspective of heaven, having known the joy of heaven, the disciples, while yet in this world, are prone to forget their heavenly orientation in order to reap immediate but temporal benefits.

    Think of it! if the disciples were to read themselves into the story of the prodigal son. We’ve returned, and now we are enjoying banquets. The best rose rings for our fingers, and we interpret these signs of prosperity and security as indications of divine favor and as ends in themselves. We, in having been restored, now receive these things that we chalk up as indicators of divine favor and as ends in themselves. The temptation, then, for the disciples is precisely this. They will forget their heavenly orientation in order to reap immediate but temporal benefits.

    Thus, the parable of the unrighteous steward. This parable is for the purpose of illustrating one point. in it, foregoes immediate riches in order to secure later prosperity. He foregoes immediate riches in order to secure later prosperity. You see, when the steward goes out to those who are in debt to his ministry, and tells them, implores them to pay their bills, he’s not robbing his master by his action, and that’s clear from the master’s reaction. Instead, what the unrighteous steward is doing is forfeiting his own profit and commission that Jesus calls him the unrighteous steward in verse 8 is no reflection upon his collection methods, but upon the fact that he was squandering his master’s estate that mentioned in verse 10. The reason, then, why the steward forgoes his rightful prophet, the prophet that he was entitled to, is so that his newly acquired friend, he’s made friends with these people now, his newly acquired friend will be beholden to him and provide him a place to live when he’s out of work. got it see what he’s done he’s a shrewd fellow his master is absolutely right a shrewd fellow yes not strong enough today just too proud today but a very shrewd man Well, here you are. The intent of the parable is to illustrate this single point that the steward forgoes immediate riches in order to secure for himself a future prosperity. or needs a place to live.

    Well, what about, then, the second issue that we raise? Namely, this parable, as Jesus presents it to us, and the fact that he is holding out the actions of this man as a pattern for our own actions. How can the actions of this man, this unrighteous steward, be of benefit to the saints, to the disciples of Jesus? Well, Jesus isn’t telling this parable to suggest that God is pleased with or rewards the shrewdness of the sons of his age, but to commend to his disciples the pattern that is perceived in the activity of this steward, that pattern being one of temporal deprivation. in order that there may be the securing of long-term blessings. That’s the goal. Now we are in position to go ahead and deal with Jesus’ interpretation, verses 9-13.

    We are in position to take up the problem that that interpretation presents to us, namely this, what friends are there to be gained for the saints through the mammon of unrighteousness? You see, it is by our stewardship of the things of this earth that we make friends who will greet us It is by our stewardship of the unrighteous man in this world that we make friends who will greet us in heaven. that is imperative for the disciples of Jesus is maintained here. The joy in heaven that spread out in the fifteenth chapter is again now prominent and prominently placed before the disciples. It is by our stewardship of the unrighteous mammoth of this earth that we make friends who will greet us in heaven. As the angels of God rejoice when the lost are found, so there are those. Angels and saints in glory feel to us as friends when we handle rightly the mammon of unrighteousness, the mammon of this world.

    Now, there is an outstanding question. The remaining question is, how do we use the moment of enlightenment? How do we do it? In such a way that the end that Jesus has in view here in this passage is true for us, certainly for us. Well, first of all, according to Jesus’ own words, the mammon of unrighteousness is rightly used when we understand the It is an old adage.

    You can’t take it with you. It is not what life is all about. The making of money is not what life is all about. We must feel it. whether we are living now or in another day yet future, or in any day past. The mammon of unrighteousness fails. It is not eternal. All that it can ever be, then, is something that is managed within our stewardship before God, a means by which we express our love for Him and those things which are eternal, never an end in itself. Secondly, The mammon of unrighteousness is rightly viewed when we are not slaves.

    This is increasingly difficult for the Christian community. Because, truly, we have come to the point where we measure life in terms of the security of money for the poor. We have been bounced into a hopelessly materialistic world, and we have come to believe that the one thing that is not extendable to us is our wealth, our affluence. the mammon of unrighteousness is rightly used when we are not its slaves for surely we cannot serve God and serve mammon either we are a slave to God or we are a slave to mammon Thirdly, and most importantly, we must realize that famine of this world is rightly used when it is handled according to the pattern illustrated in the parable. When the pattern for our lives corresponds to what we find here, namely, we are going that immediate personal enrichment in order to place ourselves at the disposal of the wealth, the glory, the treasures, and the riches of life. And truly, in the final analysis, as we have said, the success of Matthew 6 is no different here. The route by which this is accomplished in our lives is the root of the process. We give. We give up.

    We expend ourselves because we are certain that there are unfulfilled riches for us. and there is an innumerable host of friends gained for us through our stewardship of the manner of this world. Well, the parable of the unrighteous steward who has held out a tavern for us in our whole lives to forego a profit for the prospect a friend came who could be counted on later.

    We ourselves But unlike him, rather than being welcomed into earthly evolution, we are being welcomed into eternal life. Our lives are totally focused on heaven and its sky, and the glorious creation made up We thank you, our God, for the riches of glory made plain to us. May we have the courage to put heaven and itself above all else. that the way of life, the way we see life, would be in fact the way that we want and the way we embrace. Help us, Father, that we are weak, we tremble at the threat of loss, even at the prospect of insecurities and spoils that may have been too large, we are not irresponsible with regard to the mammon of unrighteousness. To the end, we may be made responsible for the riches of heaven. Lest we pray

    The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

  • The Two Men at the Tomb

    The Two Men at the Tomb

    This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Easter” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, March 26, 1989.

    About this sermon

    The bodily resurrection of Christ is fundamental to the faith. The ‘two men’ at the tomb in 24:4 echo Moses and Elijah at the transfiguration in 9:30-32, as the law and the prophets bear witness to the empty tomb. ‘He is not here, but is risen.’

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    Sermon transcript

    This morning, our scripture is taken from Luke’s gospel, and we will be looking at Luke 23, verse 55, and reading from that verse through chapter 24, verse 12. This is Luke 23, verse 55, through 24, verse 12. hear the word of God. And the women also which came with him from Galilee followed after and beheld the sepulcher and how his body was laid.

    And they returned and prepared spices and ointments and rested the Sabbath day according to the commandment. Now upon the first day of the week very early in the morning. They came unto the sepulcher, bringing the spices which they had prepared, and certain others with them.

    And they found the stone rolled away from the sepulcher, and they entered in, and found it not the body of the Lord Jesus. And it came to pass, as they were much perplexed thereabout, behold, Two men stood by them in shining garments, and as they were afraid and bowed down their faces to the earth, they said unto them, Why seek ye the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen.

    Remember how he spake unto you when he was yet in Galilee, saying, The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified, and the third day rise again.” And they remembered his words, and returned from the sepulcher and told all these things unto the eleven and to the rest, all the rest. And it was Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James, and the other women that were with them, which told these things unto the apostles. And their words seemed to them as idle tales, and they believed them not. Then arose Peter, and he ran unto the sepulcher, and stooping down, he beheld the linen clothes laid by themselves, and departed, wondering in himself at that which had come to pass.”

    Oh Lord we are laid low yet you have raised us up We are taught, we are instructed by you and all of God through your word and that always with your spirit. So it is for your people everywhere. And with your people we have this common bond. The word, your spirit, and that great salvation which you have brought for us. We ask you, our God, as we come now to your word that we might be filled and that you might satisfy us with the very deep things of our faith. We pray this in Christ’s name. Amen. It does us good at times to return to the basics.

    And if the word wasn’t so misused today to the fundamentals of our faith, return to the basics to those quite elementary principles of our faith in order to be refreshed by the clear and uncluttered message of the word. What would you judge are the essential features of the gospel? If someone were to ask you, what are the essential features of the gospel, what would you say?

    Well, naturally, and I hope quite naturally for you, you would speak about Christ’s death. We are here getting down to the basics. here to the fundamentals, rehearsing them one more time. Hopefully, you would speak of Christ’s death. You would talk of his crucifixion.

    You would tell me, if I were that person you were speaking to, that the crucifixion of Jesus Christ is essential, indispensable to the gospel. Can the gospel be the gospel if the crucifixion of Christ is ignored, left out, grossly distorted or denied? No, you would say. No. Why? Why? Why is that the case?

    Because, so you tell me, the cross of Jesus Christ is that appointed means by which God has brought about the forgiveness of our sins. Basic stuff. It should thrill us. It should be readily upon our lips and definitely. We’ll see you on our hearts. This cross, then the appointed means by which God has brought about the forgiveness of my So if I’m to speak about that gospel, I cannot do so without speaking about that cross. I, you, we together then, having deserved God’s wrath and his judgment because of our sins, have been spared. And Jesus Christ, the Son of God, has taken our judgment. He has stood in our place.

    To hear it again, to speak of it again, that our delight, regardless of how basic it is, He is, then, as the Apostle has said, he was delivered up for our transgressions, Romans 4.25.

    And thus it is that this cross of Christ is an indispensable feature to the gospel that we embrace. Without it, the gospel is no longer the gospel. And those then denying this cross, ignoring it or perverting it and its message, though they claim to be followers of Jesus Christ, are nothing of the sort. It was for these basics, then, for something as basic as the cross, that men did take a stand in this century, in our time. You know what was affirmed in 1923, the Auburn Affirmation? It is not essential for a gospel of the ministry, for the minister of the gospel, to hold to the substitutionary death of Christ on the cross that is merely a theory and quite dispensable in affirming the truth. That is why I do not hesitate to say to Those that deny this cross, those that ignore it, those that pervert it and its message, though they claim to be followers of Jesus Christ, are nothing of the sort. There is a sorting out that is taking place in our time. between those who see that cross as indispensable and those who do not.

    But let us press a bit further. Is there any other essential feature to this gospel which we believe Well, think of that passage which I quoted for you this morning, Romans four twenty five. It not only says he was delivered up for our transgressions, it goes on to say he was raised for our justification. Romans four twenty five puts it together. I judge as well as it can be put together. He was delivered up for our transgressions, and he was raised for our justification.

    In this gospel, then, we hear not just about Christ’s death, but likewise of his resurrection. And as essential as is that crucifixion, equally essential is the resurrection. Could we remind ourselves of just how essential that a resurrection is? Listen to the Apostle one more time from another passage, 1 Corinthians 15.

    If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain and your faith is vain also. He goes on to say that if Christ has not been raised, then you are still dead in your sin. Can the resurrection be ignored, denied, grossly distorted, and the gospel remain the gospel? You tell me, no. I ask you, why?

    Because, you go on, the resurrection of Jesus Christ means true life, life of the Spirit, and the achievement of the original goal for mankind, namely, the realization of that unbreakable fellowship with God forever. We then, who were the sentenced to death, for the wages of sin is death, have now been described as victors. Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Isn’t that the point to which 1 Corinthians 15 presses? We are the victors, then, by way of Christ’s resurrection from the dead. Death is denied. Its bands are broken. life, eternal life, is given, and that graciously.

    And as much as the message of Christ’s death should thrill us, even as we recount it and think of it, basic as it is, so Our recounting of our thinking of the resurrection. That, too, should thrill us. Isn’t it interesting what the Apostle Paul says in Romans 10, verse 9? He says, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart, you see, the affection are brought into view, believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you shall be saved. The affection bound to that event. I love the resurrection. I love the resurrection of Jesus Christ. I set my affections upon that. I am bound in my heart to it.

    Those then denying this resurrection, ignoring it or perverting it, turning it into something else, suggesting that it is only metaphorical language, that we have to get beyond and above the mere happenstance of history, ignoring the event itself. Those who suggest such things, though they claim to be followers of Jesus Christ, are nothing of the sort. 1923, once more this century, the Auburn affirmation, 1300 ministers of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America signed that document that said that the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ is unessential. It is merely a theory. It is not essential to be held by those who would minister in this church.

    Now I would judge that for the majority of you here today, you were not raised in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. You’ve come by various routes. But you understand why you are here. You are here for the basics, for the fundamentals. The cross is indispensable. The resurrection is indispensable. And there are those as there were those who have said and do say that they are expendable. But let’s press a little further. We’re not done yet. Is there for this gospel which you have embraced.

    Of which an essential feature is the resurrection. Still further and and essential ingredient of that resurrection without which the resurrection would no longer be. Are we holding to something here in affirming the resurrection? That if we remove it. The resurrection is no longer. Now, if there is any gospel.

    Judged as addressing this particular issue. The gospel of Luke. in the account of the resurrection, and what follows clearly does. Note, if you will, particularly in that twenty-fourth chapter of Luke, those stories that do follow the one that we’ve read this morning. Verses thirty, I’m sorry, verses thirteen through thirty-five. gives us that wonderfully told story of the two on the road to Emmaus. And note what is underscored as you move through that passage. Everything conspires to convince the reader, as well as to convince those two on the road to Emmaus, that the one that they were dealing with there on the road to Emmaus was in fact really present in his body. really present in his body. The risen Christ walks with these two, though they don’t recognize him. He talks with them. He sits down to supper with them. He actually takes bread and he breaks it.

    Everything is conspiring to convince you that you are dealing here with a real body. move on to the next story versus thirty six through forty three. The story tells us of Jesus meeting with his disciples and again we find the same message you’re dealing here. with an account that conspires to convince you that you are dealing with a real body. Jesus invites the disciples to touch him, to observe his hands and his feet. He says, A spirit does not have flesh and bones, as you see that I have.

    Verse thirty nine. And in order to establish his claim, he asks for some food and then he eats it in their presence. verses forty one through forty three. Now you can move back, you can move back to verses one through twelve, and the story, the account of the resurrection, and we find here precisely the same message. Is it not clear to us? That’s why I began with the fifty-fifth verse of the twenty-third and its references to the body of Christ.

    Yes, Jesus body, the crucified body, that one laid in the tomb, came out of the tomb. Is that your doctrine of the resurrection? What went in came out. Now, there are many people who don’t have that doctrine of the resurrection. Jesus’ body, his crucified body, the one laid in the tomb, came out of the tomb.

    So Luke goes on to tell us quite deliberately that when the women come to the tomb and they find it open, they coming in hopes of caring for the body, verse three, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. They did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. Our gospel, our doctrine of the resurrection demands the empty tomb, regardless of what others may say.

    Note what the two messengers from heaven say to the women. Why do you seek the living one among the dead? He is not here. He is risen. The body was gone, and that by the working of God the Father through the spirit of his power. But not everyone, and as I’ve already suggested to you, not everyone, not even all of those who claim to follow Jesus, accept this doctrine of the resurrection. can accept the empty tomb, can accept the fact that the body came out. And there are many, you see, who think that they can have Jesus without the resurrection, without this specific kind of resurrection, if the resurrection is necessary at all. a widow. I understand her grief. It’s not a matter of the cold-hearted doctrinaire Christian surveying the grief of someone without any pain of heart. But there was a woman, a widow, who once told me about her husband, her late husband, an elder in the Presbyterian Church and a medical doctor.

    She said to me that he could not, he could not, to the day of his death, believe in the resurrection of the body. Her husband, she explained, was a man of science. And you couldn’t expect him to believe in such things. Now you know what this woman was doing, she was comforting herself with such excuses for her husband, because you see, if the resurrection is essential to the gospel, her husband did not believe that essential, and thus he did not believe the gospel. And if he did not believe the gospel, he was lost. So this poor widow had to construct a Christianity in which the resurrection was unnecessary and dispensable. And as much as our heart may go out to her, she was wrong. The excuse this widow made for her husband, I might point out, none of the women present on the first resurrection morn would have subsequently made for any man that they ever knew.

    Now it may be judged as you survey that one chapter story resurrection. It may be that as you survey that story. You become impressed as I have with just how much is being said about the resurrection and the essential character of that resurrection the indispensability of it to the faith. for just as the empty tomb is central, so also is this apologetic with regard to the women. It’s not merely an apologetic with regard to the empty tomb, it’s an apologetic with regard to the women themselves.

    For what are people liable to think? These women are just given over to hysterics. It’s a matter of private, subjective opinion. That’s all. And that’s precisely what the disciples to whom they reported. But last you think that survey the passage once more.

    There is that empty room to be sure, but you see, these women are not standing there alone. They are confronted by two others, two messengers. We might expect that these messengers would be called Two angels, they are not called angels, they are called two men. We are struck by that. Why? Why should they be called two men, rather than two angels? They appear in dazzling apparel. Are they not angels? They are not so identified. Well, the answer to the puzzle is found earlier in the Gospel of Luke.

    If, for instance, you were to turn to the ninth chapter, the thirtieth and the thirty-second verses, you would find there verses that appear in the context of the story of the transfiguration. Two men are mentioned there as well, and they are identified for us as Moses and Elijah, giving comfort to Jesus as he sets now his face to his appointed task, his appointed end. Jerusalem and the crucifixion.

    They then representative, Moses and Elijah, of the entirety of the Old Testament revelation, the law and the prophets. The two men in Luke 24 correspond to the two men in Luke 9. It’s not just a group of women who are excited about a robbed tomb, it is the law and the are now bearing testimony to the fact that this was the goal. The law and the prophets then stand in these two men, bearing witness to the resurrection and the empty the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the point to which they were pressing all along. This is where the law and the prophets were going. But note what the two men do. Interestingly, they don’t call attention to themselves.

    Rather, they point the women to the words of Jesus. Once more, You have law and prophets, words of Jesus. They remind these women of the things that Jesus had said while he was yet in Galilee, so that now their witness has added to it the witness of Jesus himself. And when the women then go and tell their stories, To those who think it nonsense, they do so not as a group of women who are emotionally upset and distressed, utterly confused, but as those who come bearing witness not just to what they have seen, but to all that the law and the prophets have said, and more than that, all that Jesus has said.

    And in this. The women become the paradigm, the pattern. For all proper gospel preaching. Not so as to confer ordination on them. They nearly become a picture of the church. In that church’s movement and in her proclamation of this gospel and its indispensable elements. What are those indispensable elements? The cross, the resurrection, the empty tomb. Testified to by the law and the prophets. and seen by the words of Jesus himself. I tell you, it is irrefutable. It is utterly and completely irrefutable. the testimony then, our own, of the gospel which we embrace.

    Truly, we who believe it, not because we’re better than others, but because of the grace of God, we who believe it are the redeemed. And we live with the certainty that as Christ has been raised in his body, so we too will be raised in our bodies on the last day, so that we might be with him in glory forever. Now Lord, we would not forget the basics of our faith, and our heart would be warmed by those basics as they are rehearsed for us and by us, and our spirits would thrill in the knowledge of their truth. Our God, we pray that we might understand the foundations that have been laid for us and those indispensable elements to the proclamation of your word to the ends of the earth. May we truly be those who have embraced Christ’s cross, his resurrection. That we might be, Lord, those whose bodies are raised in glory at the day of his appearance.

    The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

  • Prophet, Priest, and King

    Prophet, Priest, and King

    This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Life of Elisha” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, March 19, 1989.

    About this sermon

    Jesus’ journey ends in Jerusalem, entering as prophet, priest, and king all at once, with an omnipresence and omnipotence the crowd can barely register. Even the ‘lords’ of verse 33 have no choice but to submit to the Lord.

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    Sermon transcript

    Rather than Matthew 6 this morning, we are turning to Luke chapter 19. And we are reading from verse 28 of Luke’s 19th chapter. And when he had thus spoken, he went before, ascending up to Jerusalem. And it came to pass, when he was come nigh to Bethphage and Bethany, at the mount called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples, saying, Go ye into the village over against you, in the which at your entering ye shall find a colt tied, were on yet never man sat loose him and bring him hither and if any man ask you why do you lose him thus shall you say unto him because the Lord hath need of him and they that were sent went their way and found even as he had said unto them and as they were losing the pope the owners thereof said unto them why loose ye the pope and they said the Lord hath need of him. And they brought him to Jesus, and they cast their garments upon the colt, and they set Jesus thereon. And as he went, they spread their clothes in the way. And when he was come nigh, even now at the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen, saying, Blessed be the king that cometh in the name of the Lord, peace in heaven and glory in the highest.”

    And some of the Pharisees from among the multitude said unto him, Master, rebuke thy disciples. And he answered and said unto them, I tell you that if thee should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out. And when he was come near, he beheld the city. and wept over it, saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace, but now they are hid from thine eyes. For the day shall come upon thee that thine enemy shall cast a trench about thee and compass thee round and keep thee in on every side. and shall lay thee even with the ground and thy children within thee, and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another, because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation.’ And he went out into the temple and began to cast out them that sold therein and them that bought. saying unto them, It is written, My house is the house of prayer, but ye have made it a den of thieves. And he taught daily in the temple that the chief priests and the scribes and the chief of the people sought to destroy him and could not find what they might do, for all the people were very attentive to hearing.

    Lord, it is not here alone that your word is proclaimed today. Even, Lord, throughout the earth, your word is proclaimed by servants raised up by you. And, Lord, though we are zealous for the proclamation of your word here, we would likewise be zealous for that proclamation throughout the world. And we are asking, Father, that you may preserve your servants, that they with self-consciousness may reflect upon the truth and proclaim that truth that is in keeping with the Scriptures. So, Father, bless, yes, them and us. And here, Lord, if there be no faith, May faith come, and if faith be weak, may you make it strong. We pray these things through Christ our Savior. Amen.

    The journey is coming to an end. If there is any gospel writer who has concentrated upon that journey, it is Luke. He takes up as many as eleven chapters to describe the journey Jesus makes from the north country, Galilee, southward to Jerusalem, and to his appointed end. You read in the ninth chapter of Luke, 51st verse, that Jesus then set his face to go to Jerusalem. And in keeping with that statement that he should make to others, that once you put your hand to the plow, you don’t look back.

    He didn’t look back. So Jerusalem was in view. So he traveled, so he progressed. to that end. And now he is arriving. And as he does, he is portrayed for us by Luke in a wonderful way. We are given three pictures of our Savior as he comes close and enters into the city.

    They are glances, if you will. They are momentary, they come, they go, but in each, in turn, there is such wonderful content, such grand instruction for us, for our souls, for our benefit. Let’s work through them backwards. Let’s start at the end of the chapter and consider them in reverse. Verses 45 through 48, as the chapter concludes there, Jesus enters the temple.

    He casts out those who are buying and selling. He makes statements there in keeping with fulfillment of prophecy from Isaiah with respect to the fact that this house which belongs to God is a house of prayer, but It seems that God’s people have made it a den of thieves. Then, having cleared them all out, he sort of sets up shop and begins to teach the people.

    The insight here, of course, is of our Savior, our Christ, as He is, the priest. The priest. The temple is, after all, His. the Lord whom you seek shall suddenly come to his temple and when he does there is a purification and now there begins an instruction in the ways of God the likes of which has been never heard before the priest but we also have verses 41 through 44 Jesus has approached the city, he has surveyed it, we know what city is in view, Jerusalem, and as he does so, he weeps over it. He offers his forecast, he sees yet future years, he sees circumstances not as yet accomplished, He knows, in fact, what will happen there. The city is going to be destroyed, not one stone left upon another.

    So he prophesies. And thus we have moved from priest to prophet. But then, of course, we have verses 28 through 40. And as you would expect, in keeping with the pattern that we are establishing here, what comes to the fore is Christ the King. Priest, Prophet, King. Christ all three.

    And there has never been anyone better in those offices. But we are focusing this morning on verses 28 through 40 and the passage that pertains to Christ’s kinship. It is a remarkable passage and one the depths of which we could hardly come this morning. But we’ll give it a try make suggestions as to how we might appropriate better what is here for us in God’s word.

    You can’t miss the royal office. You can’t miss the royal office. Everything is done so deliberately All of the words so carefully chosen, all of the descriptions laid out for you so that you may be impressed with the royal character of this one presented.

    The King. The King. Why he is even ascending to Jerusalem. Verse 28. He is even ascending the hill of the Lord. It’s almost as if you can hear in the background the beat of those measures from the 24th Psalm. Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord? He who has clean hands and pure heart. And when he appears at the city gates, the gates ought to be lifted up, that he might enter in, the very King of Glory. The King. There is the description of him as such, you cannot miss it, throughout the passage as a whole.

    He describes himself as such. He calls himself the Lord in giving instruction to his disciples as they are to go into that village over against them. When they encounter the owners of the colt, they are to tell them, the Lord, this is Jesus speaking, the Lord has need of it. Jesus is speaking here, he is calling himself the Lord. The term is loaded, filled with all of its regal words, and how strange it is to hear so many say that Jesus never once made such claims for himself with his own lips that would then confer upon himself such honor and dignity as those who followed him gave to him. Here he speaks, the Lord has need of it. So he calls himself, and so he is recognized to be by those owners of the pulse when the disciples come. For they are told by the disciples the Lord has need of it, and they give the pulse because the Lord has sequestered it.

    There is also the carriage of the king. We may not be impressed with one riding upon a colt, but the image is in keeping with prophecies of old. You can think of Zechariah, the ninth chapter, the ninth verse. Your king will come to you in such a manner. So they were told, and so he comes in fulfillment of that prophecy. His entrance is a kingly, a royal entrance. The garments are spread, and he is hailed. Hailed is what? The multitude has gathered. They’ve acknowledged his greatness, and they say, Blessed is the king. Verse thirty-eight. So is this one acknowledged to be king and lord.

    Unless we be left with nearly some earthly potentate, just another king who rises for a time and then descends and dies and disappears, this is no common king, this is an uncommon one. This is the most extraordinary king. that is ever walked upon road. As of this road of this world. If his entourage of multitude multitudes, if his disciples themselves are silenced, then the stones themselves will cry out.

    Nature itself will honor this one as the king, as the lord. But recognizing this, we are being pushed along a line that draws us even deeper. for it’s not merely a matter of his own disclosure of his name and power, or the acknowledgement of others, or an affirmation of the fact that creation itself will affirm him king. It is the way in which he literally controls all things around him.

    Jesus is approaching Bethphage and Bethany. He’s near the Mount of Olives. And while staying there, you see, he sends out his two disciples into this unnamed village. They go into the village, and there they find things as he tells them they will find. Now, one may think that all that is being underscored here is the fact that Jesus, in speaking as he does, merely foresees the future. He sees the events that are going to take place in that village when his disciples arrive there.

    But that’s not the depth of it. You see, the full power of the passage is this. Not only does he foresee them, but as king, he controls them. The events themselves are working themselves out by his decree, by his ordination, by his appointment. He is the one who is in control. As king, he is in control of all the circumstances and the affairs surrounding him. and his people.

    What kind of authority has this one who is here so portrayed for us? What kind of lord is he? What kind of king may he be? So great is his kingship, so land is his lordship that there is nothing to compare with it short of the kingship and lordship of God.

    There is marvelous instruction and comfort here extended to you Do you see it? Do you feel it? Do you understand? The one who is Cain is standing in the region of the Mount of Olives as he dispenses his disciples, sends them over into this village. They enter the village. Jesus is back there.

    He is absent from the circumstance, yet he controls the circumstance. He is not present in his body, yet he controls the circumstance at a distance from him. Do you realize the dimensions of this lordship, this kingship, which this one claims? You see, there comes a day when in his body he is absent from his people. He is distant, yet his disciples are still operative in the world. What attitude might they have? What spirit might they exhibit? Will it not be that confidence that though he is absent in his body, he is yet present and controlling all the circumstances that pertain to their life?

    Such is the kingship and the lordship of this One He has presented for us. Though He is absent from us, though you don’t see Him, He is perfectly and absolutely in control of all the circumstances of His people. and that is precisely why you need not despair or fret do you not know he cares for you? do you not know that he loves you? and into whatever village you may enter He has already preceded you and all circumstances are prepared for your sake and your good.

    Now this for our comfort This for your encouragement. But I said there was comfort and instruction here and let’s hear the instruction too. You want the good. Now let’s listen to the hard stuff. There’s a very interesting literary fact about verse thirty-three. Those of you who have marginal notes in your Bible, you might have that word owner rendered for you there out of the literal Greek. And as they were untying the colt, the owners, that’s what it reads in the King James, that’s what it reads in the New American Standard. Look in the margin. You see what it reads there?

    It’s lords said to them. You see, the Lord has come to the lords. Those who own in this world have now been confronted with the command of that one who owns everything. And all lords, regardless who they are, are addressed through the disciples of this Lord. and called upon to submit and surrender everything for him. The Lord of the Lords has come and he makes his demands. The Lords themselves must now learn how to be servants, how to submit, how to surrender, how to own his allegiance and acknowledge him. But we’re not done. You see, as the Lords have been now commanded to submit, instructed to give up themselves for him, he presents himself, this one the Lord, as their servant.

    What kind of king is this? He comes mounted upon a colt. He comes in the clothes of humility. He comes dressed up as one who is the servant. The Lord makes himself the servant, and thus gives instruction to all lords of the earth, how they might live, how they might behave, how they might think. He does not come as kings ordinarily come. He does not parade himself as they ordinarily would parade themselves. He comes to them in meekness and lowliness. That is his posture. He comes as the servant unto those he would instruct.

    So if it is demanded of them that they become servants, they do so after Him who has become the servant. They are not left then out there all by themselves not knowing what to do or where to go or what to imagine. They are given the pattern and they are given the power that is found only in and through Him. If lords are to become servants, they will do so through Christ, the Lord, who has been made the servant in them.

    And what extent, what extent will there be then for the servanthood of this one who is the Lord? Truly, to what extent will he go to demonstrate his servanthood, this one who is the Lord? Let me tell you, he will die. Here is a Lord who will die. for the sake of those he loves. He’s come to Jerusalem to die. What kind of king is this? Would you do the same? Or do you imagine yourself a Lord who doesn’t need to be served? Who doesn’t need to submit? In the face of Jesus Christ, what excuse do you have? What excuse can you make?

    Well, the priest, we know how that’s going to end the prophet, we know how that’s going to end the king, we know how that is ending and how it is being revealed and manifest for us here. Not just to tell us a nice story about a man who rolled into Jerusalem on a donkey’s back so many years ago, but how you ought to live.

    If in fact you would be identified with this one who is the king. he’s coming back you know and when he does not just the rocks but the hills and the trees and the seas and the streams and every aspect of this creation will acknowledge him and you who have learned how to be servants in his image will receive him gladly and you will be blessed by him to live in his kingdom forever. On a day long ago, our father, you observed your son fulfilling prophecy, ordering, controlling events, affirmed and underscored the fact that he was king. What a marvelous demonstration it was. We, Lord, are not far from those events. for even now we are those who have submitted unto him and are found in the company of his disciples and are learning, Lord, how it is that we, though imagined lords, are servants still trained and taught by him who has become servant for us that we might live and reign with him forever. Glory be to you, our God, through Christ. Glory in the highest, peace in heaven, and upon your people here.

    The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

  • Saved by Faith, Sent to the Priests

    Saved by Faith, Sent to the Priests

    This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Life of Elisha” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, February 19, 1989.

    About this sermon

    Jesus sends the ten lepers to the priests before he heals them, an instruction that shows love for the law. The resurrection language of verse 19 makes clear that faith alone saves the leper, as it saves us.

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    Sermon transcript

    We are still looking at Luke’s Gospel, the seventeenth chapter. We are looking at verses eleven through nineteen. Here is the word of God. And it came about, while he was on the way to Jerusalem, that he was passing through the midst of Samaria and Galilee.

    And as he entered a certain village, there met him ten leprous men who stood at a distance. And they raised their voices, saying, And when he saw them, he said unto them, Go and show yourselves to the priests. And it came about that as they were going, they were cleansed. Now one of them, when he saw that he had been healed, turned back, glorifying God with a loud voice.

    He fell on his face at his feet, giving thanks to him, and he was a Samaritan. And Jesus answered and said, Were there not ten cleansed? But the nine, where are they? Were none found who turned back to give glory to God except this foreigner? And he said to him, Rise, go your way. Your faith has saved you.

    Pray with me now. O Lord, as much as we yearn for those He will serve you in the harvest, and so spread abroad your word. Equally we yearn for those who are given, in order that your church, your people might be ruled aright. And Father, these then will stand as sentinels to your word and its proclamation. Would it please you, Lord, then, to raise up those who rule, those who are elders of the people, who can survey the life of the people in light of the word, who will also survey the one who proclaims the word and gives instruction from it. Lord, we rejoice in those whom you have raised up to give their hearts to their calling and serve with distinction. May it be pleasing to you, Father, to grant to your congregations throughout the world such as will rule wisely, graciously, yet firmly. for your people. Always keeping in mind that gracious yet firm rule which you exercise over your people and for them from heaven.

    We pray these things through Christ now. Amen. Our contention has been that verse 11 sets the tone for the passage as a whole. That the language here in this 11th verse is quite deliberate, as veiled as it might be for us, the language is quite deliberate.

    The story that we have before us is set in the midst of that story told by Luke concerning the journey, the journey of Jesus from Galilee in the north to Jerusalem, the appointed destination for the Messianic King. The destination which spells for him is death. That we have contended all along that this journey is not simply a single journey, it is a double journey. So as Jesus moves toward Jerusalem, eventually, in time, the Church, those who belong to Christ, will in fact move away from Jerusalem on a journey all their own.

    Thus, in the eleventh verse, rather than finding the expected progression of the names moving from Galilee in the north through Samaria to Jerusalem, we find just the opposite. First Jerusalem, then Samaria, then Galilee, as if the order is deliberately couched so as to convey to us that coming journey of the Church in her mission. We have said more with regard to this eleventh verse. We have said this as well.

    Jesus carries the Church’s journey in himself as he journeys towards his goal in Jerusalem. The Church is already in him, bound to him by God’s purpose and ordination. But the Church carries Jesus’ journey with her As she journeys from. So that at the center of the church’s journey will be that journey of Jesus from Galilee to Jerusalem, the end of which is the. So wherever the church goes in her journey, she must carry with her the journey of Jesus.

    That’s what we said thus far about verse eleven, twelve and thirteen stand together. They first of all present us with this anonymous village, a certain village, unnamed, lending to that a certain universality so that we might see it in terms of circumstances and situations that we know in our lives as well. The unnamed village. These verses present us with this anonymous village. They present us as well with the ten lepers who, because of their disease, are kept at a distance from the community, and also stand at a distance from Jesus. We are given, in the thirteenth verse, Jesus’ response.

    The number ten raises two possibilities that are presented before us. On the one hand, There is the suggestion of the law, the ten lepers, the ten commandments. The law seen in relationship to the lepers themselves. That law, good in itself, righteous and holy, we know that, but yet It is the law, is it not, that actually establishes the distance that must be kept by letters from the community, from the camp, even from Jesus. The law indicts. The law judges. The law establishes in its goodness, its righteousness and holiness that distance which must be maintained.

    So leprosy, these men infected with this disease, they with the disease typify sinners and their sin. Leprosy speaks to us of that pollution. That pollution of humanity. Humanity itself, now because of sin, standing at a distance, the law then demanding separation between those who are affected and those who are infected, and the camp of the Lord. In this story then, there is presented to us that universal condition of men through these ten letters, Jew or Gentile, Jew or Samaritan.

    They are kept at bay by the law, and they are without hope of coming near, except they be cured, except there be mercy found. They’ve come to the right place. They’ve come to the right person. For is it not true that only through Jesus will there be a cure, healing?

    Only through Christ will the laws of man be answered and the distance between men and God overcome. that we have said more about this number ten. We have suggested that the ten also signifies something in addition to the law. For this number corresponds. In its proportions. To that number of the last.

    How many tribes were lost? To the north, the northern kingdom, Israel, ten tribes were there, two to the south. That this story takes place in the north, in the territory of the ten northern tribes, adds weight to this interpretation, that a Samaritan is present He being one, a descendant of those who were given to the land to repopulate it after the Assyrians had carried away the ten northern tribes into captivity. In these ten lepers, then, do we not see the ten tribes which, according to those ancient prophecies, a prophecy we read last week from Isaiah chapter eleven, for instance, where there was promised a place for the ten northern tribes in the ultimate realization of the kingdom of God. The ten northern tribes are lost.

    They are reclaimed, according to Isaiah. So that Ephraim with Judah, in the end, serves God. There are no loose ends. God, through the mission of his Church, is reclaiming all those for whom salvation is All of his people are, in fact, being gathered. While moving to Jerusalem, then, does Jesus give us a moving portrayal of the Church’s move from Jerusalem, the effect of it which will be as the Church touches the ends of the earth to gather together all the loose ends of God’s purpose, thus bringing together again the fullness of the promises made to the Fathers. And is it not our confidence, is it not our conviction, that as Jesus has completed his journey, so we, Christ’s Church, will complete ours? Tonight we move on to a new story. This is 14 to the end.

    We are told that Jesus takes notice of the letters. He takes notice of them, surely because he is moved with that divine compassion, but also because he recognizes in these letters the form of faith, a form of faith. He takes notice of the letters then as he does of any who come to him, even these with that form of faith.

    The letters in verse thirteen may be confessing actually by their words, more than they know, more than what they presently comprehend. Their words speaking better of them than they actually realize. For they have a knowledge of Jesus. They recognize him as having authority, isn’t that obvious? to them he is a master they call him master and more they recognize him as a wonder worker a miracle worker capable of exhibiting mercy in such a way as to heal their sickness and disease but of course Beyond this recognition, there is something they don’t presently recognize, despite the words and the suggestion of the words that they use. For do they yet acknowledge Jesus’ absolute authority, an authority that is equal to that of God, no less than that? Truly the ultimate master Do they recognize in him such mercy as flows forth from the very heart of God, so that in its demonstration is the very mercy of God himself at work?

    But even though the Ten Lepers do not yet see these things, Jesus has taken notice of them. There is a form of faith. operative. Jesus has compassion. There is an incongruity, however, in the story itself and its telling. The incongruity between the leper’s faith being but a form yet of faith and being inadequate an incongruity between that faith and Jesus’ response, for Jesus gives them something much greater than they realize. There is a faith operative, then, in the lepers that is at work at a level that is superseded by the level at which Jesus’ response operates. The intent of the story is not to leave us at the level of the letters, but to raise us to the level of Jesus’ response to them. And as there is that movement in the story, there is the suggestion of a transition, a monumental transition that is taking place in the story as it is recorded here.

    The situation and view is not a settled situation. It is not a final situation. It is not the culminating situation. As we observe the lepers in their faith, as they give expression to it, that as we are led through the story and we observe our Christ at work in this story, we are brought to an even higher level. A transition, a monumental transition, is at work in the text to bring us from one circumstance, where one kind of faith seems adequate and appropriate, to another circumstance where it is not, and completely inadequate.

    In this regard, then, the faith of the lepers cannot be ultimately normative. Rather, it is merely suggestive. It can only point to something greater, something fuller, that which is complete. In the end, it will be judged to be wholly inadequate. If it were adequate, the story would end with Jesus sending the lepers away. But that’s not where the story ends. The story moves on from that point where the lepers are sent away and they experience the healing through Christ. into that narrative, which has been the point all along, concerning this foreigner, the Samaritan, his return to Jesus, and Jesus’ response to him. the circumstances at one level, and the faith appropriate to it, standing on one side, and circumstances completely different, and faith appropriate to it, standing on the other side. The transition, you see, the transition in the story, reflective of a monumental transition that is not just happening internally to men with regard to their faith, but with regard to the ages. A whole new administration is being unveiled before this American and through him. And when it comes, the old order simply will not do. It won’t do! It is utterly insufficient. As good and as wonderful as it was, as proper as it was in its place, it will not do.

    So won’t you move, won’t you move with the Ten Lepers as they move away from Jesus in order to fulfill what seems to be his command. Did he not tell them to go and show themselves to the priests? That was his command, in compliance with the commands, the ancient commands that were given in the law. And even the Samaritan recognizes that, because the Samaritan embraced the Torah. So off to the priests they go, but they are going, don’t you see? They’re going away from Jesus. Ah, it’s a mystery. It’s an irony. But how beautiful. How beautiful. You see, on the one hand, Jesus is no enemy of the law. He is the law’s fiercest defender. No one loved the law.

    And he understands the place of these letters in the economy as that place relates to the former administration. So to him, he fell upon God. Show yourself to the priests, just as Moses commanded. But no journey in the literal sense, it happens. They’ve gone in compliance with the command, obviously faith is not repeated in them, they believe what Jesus says, they are going because they believe, they fully expect that as they go they will be healed, and sure enough as they go they are healed. There is a form of faith operative, it is operative even in the older administration. It is not contrary to faith, that older administration. There is a faith that is operative even there, that as they go now, they are healed by the power of this one who comes to them as the agent of the new administration.

    They see what has happened to them. But neither did they. Neither. They continued to move away from Him. They made their place in all the administration. Women leaders. But they never won. And whether he understood it all, I don’t know. But instead of increasing the distance between him and Jesus, he turned around and run back. Now what is that return all about? A new day has come.

    Do you see it? Do you see it? It’s laid between the lines, but there nonetheless. In turning around and coming back and seeing he’s not going to have a priest after the order of Aaron, or Israel, or Samaria. He’s now going to the last place, the final place. Have you seen it? If he goes with the mind, He remains a leper. Do you understand that?

    Because even after showing himself to the priest, he’s just a man. And still an outsider. An outcast. A forerunner. Rehearsing his direction, he comes to Jesus. And now he is gathered in by Christ. The outsider is no longer an outsider. He’s gone. And that’s what he put in the lines too.

    If there is that inadequacy of comprehension by those who are under the old administration in recognizing Jesus for what he is, that’s now remedied. For all of the languages convoluted as you move through the passage, all the pronouns are mixing up, are mixed up. The man comes back praising God, but then in the next verse it says, he praises him, thanks him, because it’s God and the one he glorifies as a saint. God and the one he thanks as his life-saving saint. Jesus is God.

    So in order to be reconciled with God, he doesn’t go to the priest. After the order of men, he goes to Jesus, and Jesus, following the priest, is out of town. I tell you, there’s no greater reconciliation than that. And it is the reconciliation that is effective now for the administration of an entirely new power of God’s healing, so to speak.

    And in that epoch, the forefathers, the saints, and the apostles, they are made to be the household of God. Jesus in conclusion speaks to him of resurrection. The humiliation which the leper now shows as he prostrates himself before Jesus is a death, a death to self. Jesus says, rise! The man is resurrected, the new era, the new era is seen in and through this.

    Rise! Go your way! Live your life! Not the recurring priests of the Order of the Spirit. The new order of faith that’s massive, magnificent faith, bequeathing unto us a righteousness which is unfaithful, a righteousness which the law could not give us. Your faith, that is, has saved you. Your faith has saved you.

    Now, are you not beloved? Are you not beloved? Are you not a sinner? Are you not a sinner? Are you not now participating in good meditation? found only Him. He is your Prince, and He is your God. By Him, you have not only defeated, you have evaded death. You serve Him in all that you do. to the unity of five things which save us. Amen. Oh. Oh. My Savior died for me. Eternal family to be born when morals break. Me, the heart with grief and anguish, for the body left with pain. of God.

    The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

  • A Certain Village of Lepers

    A Certain Village of Lepers

    This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Life of Elisha” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, February 12, 1989.

    About this sermon

    The unnamed village of Luke 17:12 becomes a picture of every sinner: because of the fall, we are the lepers standing at a distance. Christ’s unity with his church in the victory of the cross is what finally saves those who were lost.

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    Sermon transcript

    Scripture reading in Isaiah chapter 11. We are starting with the tenth verse of reading to the conclusion. Hear the word of God. Then it will come about in that day. that the nations will resort to the Ruth of Jessup, who will stand as a signal for the peoples, and his resting place will be glorious.

    Then it will happen on that day that the Lord will again recover the second time with his hand the remnant of his people, who will remain from Assyria, Egypt, Thathros, Cush, Elam, Shinar, and from the islands of the sea. And he will lift up a standard for the nations, and will assemble the banished ones of Israel, and will gather the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth. Then the jealousy of Ephraim will depart, and those who harass Judah will be cut off. Ephraim will not be jealous of Judah, and Judah will not harass Ephraim. and they will swoop down on the slopes of the Philistines on the west. Together they will plunder the sons of the east and will possess Edom and Moab, and the sons of Ammon will be subject to them. And the Lord will utterly destroy the tongue of the sea of Egypt, and he will wave his hand over the river with scorching wind, and he will strike it into seven streams and make men walk over dry shoals. And there will be a highway from Assyria for the remnant of his people who will be left, just as there was for Israel in the day that they came up out of the land of Egypt.” Then turning over to Luke’s Gospel, Chapter 17, beginning with verse 11. And it came about while he was on his way to Jerusalem that he was passing through the midst of Samaria and Galilee.

    As he entered a certain village, there met him ten leprous men who stood at a distance. They raised their voices, saying, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. When he saw them, he said to them, Go and show yourselves to the priests. And it came about that as they were going, they were cleansed. Now, one of them, when he saw that he had been healed, turned back. Glorifying God with a loud voice, he fell on his face at his feet, giving thanks to Him that he was a Samaritan. And Jesus answered and said, Were there not ten cleansed? But the nine, where are they? where none found who turned back to give glory to God except this foreigner.

    And he said to him, Rise. Go your way. Your faith has made you well. Praise God. Our Father, for the strengthening of your people, Your word is sent forth and it is declared. We trust with power. It is declared to your people. As it is. Declared are not those whom you have ordained unto eternal life. Brought near. And father, we know that.

    That word is also given for the structuring of your church. Therefore, while we would pray for those laborers that you raise up for the harvest, we would not forget to intercede on behalf of those that you give to the Church for rule and for the purpose of administrating health. So around the world, Lord, if there are those who are given that office of eldership and those also who are given responsible responsibility as far as the diaconate is concerned. Bless and keep them, Father. May they rise to the occasion of their office and fulfill their responsibilities, and that gladly.

    And in all of this, Lord, may your people be wonderfully blessed, having the word and having right and proper oversight and having that support that comes through help that is always scanning the needs of the people of God in order to be of service. We pray these things through Christ our Lord.

    Last week we dealt with verse 11 of this seventeenth chapter in Luke, and in this verse we observed a double movement. That double movement involves the twofold journey. On the one hand, the journey of Jesus, towards Jerusalem, on the other hand the coming, the eventual journey of the Church from Jerusalem. And that all packed up into this verse.

    We noted the natural order of the sequence of the names mentioned in the passage. But that natural order would have been from the north to the south. As Jesus made his way from Galilee to Jerusalem. So we would have expected Galilee mentioned first, then Samaria, and finally Jerusalem, as he makes his way towards the great city. Now it isn’t that Luke is ignorant of the geography of Palestine, but he does, with deliberate intent, reverse the order of the names in the sequence in the verse. so that we have here Jerusalem mentioned first and then Samaria and finally Galilee and if we translate appropriately and literally the last part of that verse what we have is Jesus passing through the midst of Samaria first of all and then Galilee which makes no sense geographically to us because Jesus is moving north to south.

    Now the intention of Luke is so that we might see the two journeys simultaneously. The journey of Jesus north to south, but then the journey of the Church south to north. It is this way. Jesus carries the Church’s journey in himself. Jesus carries the eventful journey of the church within himself as he moves to his appointed destiny. But the church also carries Jesus’ journey to the cross within herself as she moves towards her appointed destiny.

    Narrative in scripture is never seemingly their narrative, near narrative. For even the telling of the story is meant to instruct, to communicate doctrine. The scene then is set. for the story of Jesus and the Ten Lepers. And in it, in keeping with what we have said so far, we would find, we would expect to find, not just an instance in the life and ministry of Jesus in which he demonstrates his power and his compassion while on his journey to Jerusalem. No. That, to be sure, but more as well. For in this story we will find that anticipation of the Church’s journey as she carries the message of Jesus and his cross from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth. A premonition of the coming fullness of the Church’s mission. in the story of Jesus and the Ten Like Us.

    That’s verse 11 for us, and now we move on to verse 12. This may take us a while. Luke tells us in verse 12, Now it’s going to help if you have your Bible with you and are able to look at these things as we move along through the verses. Luke tells us in verse 12 that Jesus has entered what Luke describes as a certain village. The language of Luke is quite deliberate, and it’s not meant to suggest to us that Luke is ignorant of the Palestinian landscape and its geography and its particular villages and cities.

    But the anonymity of the village serves a purpose, heightening the universal significance of the village and the events that take place here. A certain village. A knowns village. A village which you may well then be likely to rename. A village upon which you can superimpose your own village. your own circumstance, if read properly, with right intent. Unnamed then, anonymous, this village reaches out beyond itself. And by root of this, the ends of the earth are again touched.

    Adding to this anonymity is the fact that we are told that Jesus is passing through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. So as regards the village, we can’t even be sure whether it’s a Jewish village or an American village. That’s not pointed out for us. It’s not delineated for us. We are told that in this certain village, Jesus was met by ten lepers, or their ten lepers met him.

    The construction now places the emphasis upon the actions of the lepers. They seemingly take the initiative. as if they have gone out deliberately to intercept Jesus as he moves towards Jerusalem. And as verse 13 proves, these ten know who Jesus is. They’ve heard of him. They have received information about him, and it appears that they have believed him. So when he approaches the village, they are prepared, they move out to intercept him, they recognize him, they call him by name, and they make their approach to him.

    But the text tells us they had to still end at a distance. They draw near, they recognize Jesus, but nevertheless they stand at a distance. The distance is prescribed. Now as to its exact measurement, just how far distant they had to stand, that was a matter established by circumstance and tradition, the tradition of the elders. But that they had to stand at a distance was prescribed.

    That was in keeping with the law. The leper had to live apart. He was set outside the camp. Outside of the community, he was ostracized from the people. The law so stipulates. Numbers, chapter 5. Leviticus, chapter 13. And how thorough and complete this ostracism was. Not only was the leper ostracized from society generally, but he was ostracized from the temple and its worship specifically. So here is the circumstance.

    The lepers drawing near, but then running into a barrier, a barrier that is established, distance prescribed, and that by the law. Now the introduction of the matter of the law has fired the imaginations of some, for they have seen in relationship then with the letters themselves the number 10 bearing a correspondence to the law itself. As there were ten letters, so there are ten commandments. The ten being representative, then, of the legal administration, the administration of the law. The story, so it is suggested then by some, takes on greater proportion than we would have ordinarily imagined.

    The distance at which the lepers stand, despite their desire to come near, suggests the distance at which the law keeps even those who wish a blessing of God through Christ. But does the law do this because it is possessed of some sort of inherent malevolence? Because it is inherently the product of a mean-spiritedness that takes delight in keeping those desirous of blessing at bay? God forbid! To quote someone else on the law. Quite the contrary.

    Do we not know that the commandments, the law itself, is righteous and good, and that the cause of the distance now, spoken of here, is not found in those who, is not found in the law, but rather is found in those who stand at a distance? In this regard, then, the disease of leprosy stands for the impurity and the deformity of sin. It is our sin that keeps us at a distance. The law, being God’s righteous centering, serving to ensure that we do not trespass, All we can do then, given this circumstance, is what these poor, wretched lepers did, cry out to Jesus, the Lord, for mercy. Of His grace, as the story progresses, so we learn of His grace, of His unmerited love His undeserved favor, of His grace, He responds. Out of His grace, He has pity upon us.

    Now, you have probably noticed that I have progressed from speaking about leprous Jews and Samaritans outside a certain village that lay in the path of Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem speaking about sinful people that virtually lay in the path of the Church’s journey to glory, speaking about sinners such as ourselves. And the reason that I have done that is because leprous Jews within Israel are reminders to Israel of their chronic debilitation due to sin. Her chronic debilitation due to her moral degeneracy, the compromise of her character.

    But the leprous Jew is no better off than leprous Samaritans, isn’t it interesting? And Jews who hate Samaritans are here bound together with a Samaritan in their common uncleanness. What is there to distinguish them, really? So the leprous Jew is no better off than a leprous Samaritan, and together they are no better off than leprous Gentiles. We might even well expect a Gentile to be part of this company. For just as leprous Jews were cut off and kept at a distance, so Samaritans and Gentiles are cut off and cut and kept at a distance.

    Certainly, we ought to see Israel in her sin in this story, as if Israel in her totality is leprous. But similarly, we ought to see the totality of sinful humanity. The whole world accountable before God. The whole world those seeking redemption kept at bay, at a distance, and that by the righteous law of God.

    Profoundly, then, deeply, can we not conclude, beyond the Jew, past the Samaritan, we ourselves are these letters. Should you not learn how to read yourself into the text? Should you not come to understand how the Bible is not just the story of ancient people, but your story? And how you yourselves are participants in the history of redemption. Profoundly then, deeply, past the Jews, beyond this Samaritan, is it not true? You are a leper.

    For though the law kept you at bay, at a distance, God now in the mercy displayed through the gospel has extended to you forgiveness and cleansing. and you have been brought near. There’s another dimension. There’s another dimension to this whole story as suggested to us out of this 12th verse. We have already looked at the suggestion that the number 10, the 10 letters, reminds us of the law as an administration. We kept at a distance as these were by the law. But the fact that there are 10 letters takes us in another direction. Are we only to see in that number ten a reference to the administration of God’s law? Some in dealing with this number have seen its significance in relationship to Israel’s past history. the geography that is peculiar to that past history.

    You see, the territory presently traversed by Jesus is the territory of the northern tribes. And how many tribes were there? in the northern kingdom. As there were ten northern tribes for the kingdom of Israel set up against the two tribes of the south in Judah. So now here we are presented with ten in the territory that was once the territory of the ten northern tribes.

    What do we make of the Samaritan in the midst of these Jews? Is that not also suggestive of Israel’s past history? For we know that the Samaritans were those who were transplanted from Assyria back into the decimated territory of the northern tribe, after the ten northern tribes had been taken away into exile by the Assyrians. So this Samaritan in the midst, together with the proximity of Samaria itself, For this story brings into view the territory of the ten northern tribes and the Samaritans themselves, who were those transplanted peoples from the Assyrians after the ten northern tribes were overrun, their capital destroyed, and they taken into captivity in 721 B.C. Do we then proceed in these ten leopards the Ten Tribes.

    If we do, to what end? I know how we have ordinarily thought of things as regards those Ten Northern Tribes. In fact, entire religious movements have been generated around the destiny of the Ten Northern Tribes. We have been told that they live in England, that they were the American Indians, that they came out of Asia. Whole religious movements have been developed around the Lost Ten Tribes of Israel.

    But what does Isaiah say? That’s why we read the end of Isaiah 11, and that’s not a passage that stands in isolation, but is representative of any number of other passages that you find throughout the Prophets. What of the lost tribes of Israel, Ephraim? As they are described at the end of Isaiah 11, what happens to them? Are they lost? Are they gone? Are they forgotten? Not according to Isaiah.

    For Isaiah in that passage speaks about a restoration of even those tribes and a melding together again of Ephraim and Judah for an incomparable day of conquest and glory under the regency of that one who comes forth from the stem of God. Indeed, then, as the gospel goes forth, remember the twofold movement that’s going on here. As Jesus is descending into Jerusalem, the Church is ascending out of Jerusalem to the ends of the earth. And Jesus is going down from Galilee, so the Church is moving to the ends of the earth.

    All of that compressed now into this passage. Do you see it? As the gospel goes forth, will it be? Will it be into a world in which there is no connection for that gospel, no preparation for it at all? No, you see, as that gospel goes forth, it shall be for the gathering of all of God’s displaced children.

    And as we hear this, we also learn that their displacement was by His design. Certainly they were judged. They were displaced, but by His design. So that when they come and present themselves before Jesus, It may be seemingly by their own initiative as it was for these lepers, but in the final analysis, is it not plain and clear to us that they have been drawn, prepared unto this end, so that the glorious destiny that has been promised them and spoken of by the prophets would be fulfilled?

    There are no loose ends. There are no loose ends to God’s sovereign plan and purpose. None. And though they all be sinners handed over to death through debilitating skin-caused disease, yet all who are appointed for salvation shall come. And when they cry out, Jesus Master have mercy on us. They will be answered. Have you asked an answer? Are you any less reckless than those spoken of here? Are you not a sinner kept at bay by God’s righteous commandments? Have you not received mercy? Well then, respond as an old ignorant Samaritan. He rose to Jesus’ feet, praising Him for so great a salvation. Amen.

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