Grace OPC Sewickley PA

Sermon Book: Matthew

  • Blessing Before Judgment

    Blessing Before Judgment

    This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “What is the Gospel?” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, August 21, 1994.

    About this sermon

    John the Baptist expected Christ to bring immediate judgment along with blessing. As J. Gresham Machen’s defense of the true gospel helps show, Christ’s blessings exceed even Isaiah’s prophecy, and they come before judgment.

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    Sermon transcript

    Give your attention now to the reading of God’s word. When John was in prison, he heard about the works of Christ, and he sent two of his disciples to ask him, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another?” Jesus answered and said to them, “Go and tell John again what you hear and see: The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear. The dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them. And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.”

    As they departed, Jesus began to speak to the crowds about John: “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind? But what did you go out to see? A man dressed in soft clothing? Look, those who wear soft clothing are in kings’ houses. But what did you go out to see? A prophet?

    Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. For this is the one about whom it is written: ‘Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who shall prepare your way before you.’ Truly I say to you, among those born of women, there has not risen a greater than John the Baptist. Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force. For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John. And if you are willing to accept it, this is Elijah, who was to come. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

    In 1927, J. Gresham Machen wrote an article entitled What is the Gospel? He wrote this article in response to a survey that had been conducted and a report of that survey that had appeared in the Union Seminary Review the previous year. Dr. Machen was not so much disappointed in the responses that had come forth as a result of that survey as he was with the writer of the article that had written the summary report on that survey. The writer had missed the point regarding the gospel, for that writer had focused all attention in that question on the issue of individual response and personal reaction, so that the gospel amounted to feelings or actions that someone might hold or perform.

    J. Gresham Machen objected strenuously to this approach to what the gospel was.

    He called his readers’ attention to 1 Corinthians 15, especially verses 3 and 4, where Paul says that he delivered to the Corinthians that which was of greatest importance: namely, that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures and was raised the third day according to the scriptures.

    On the basis of that text, Nathan pointed out to his readers that the gospel is firmly founded upon historical fact, not personal feelings, nor upon personal response, even in our behavior or in matters of ethics. The meaning of the gospel is found in historical events—something that has taken place, something that God has done. He made this clear by appealing to the passage in 1 Corinthians 15. He called his readers’ attention to the fact that Paul is commenting on Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection. To be sure, it is not bare fact, nor naked fact, that interests Nathan or the Apostle Paul at this point. Paul goes on to interpret the fact when he says that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures. Therefore, when we ask the question, What is the Gospel?, we must be clear in our own minds that we are not speaking first of all about our own personal response—whether in terms of feelings or behavior.

    What we are talking about is what God has done in and through Jesus Christ. There is a further dimension, and an essential dimension, to this gospel, which Machen only alluded to in his articles. I am endeavoring to set before you this morning, and I am doing so by appealing to the Gospels themselves and to this account in Matthew 11, regarding the interview that Jesus had with the disciples of John the Baptist. John the Baptist originally had no difficulty recognizing Jesus as the Promised One.

    The God of Israel, no, the God of all the earth, had trained the eyes of this prophet in the desert and trained his gaze away from the world, where men looked for other things than those which he, John, by revelation saw in Jesus. Coming out of Galilee to the waters of the Jordan and being addressed by John, Jesus said, “I have need of baptism from you, and do you come to me?” Further revelation followed at that time of Jesus’ baptism, as you well know. A voice from heaven, from the Father himself, came after the descent of the Spirit, like a dove, upon Jesus as he came up out of the waters. What a confirmation! Who could ask for more? And indeed, at that point, John did not ask for more. This is he, he said. Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.

    So he testified to his own disciples some forty days later, when Jesus came out of the Judean wilderness following his temptation. A few months later, John did not begrudge Jesus the disciples who had left him to follow Jesus. In fact, that summer, as Jesus’ disciples—some of whom had been followers of John—carried on their own ministry of baptism in the regions of the Jordan, John was questioned by those who were still with him. They worried that Jesus’ popularity might mean the end of their own ministry.

    John, on that occasion, however, saw things clearly. This testimony from the end of John 3: “He must increase, but I must decrease.” I am only the friend of the bridegroom, he said. My joy is that the bridegroom’s voice is now being heard. And he went further. He says, “He who comes from above, which I did not, he who comes from above is above all, above everyone. He is above me.” And then, as if the Spirit at that time had grasped this greatest of the prophets and given him the most mature voice equal to any to be heard in the entirety of the history of salvation.

    John said, “The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hands. He who believes in the Son has eternal life. He who does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.” John the Baptist therefore recognized Jesus as the Promised One.

    In fact, it is difficult to imagine anyone expressing a more mature recognition, even when compared to the later understandings of the apostles. Jesus had been baptized by John in the winter, but now the winter returns. Approximately one year after Jesus’ baptism, John was arrested by Herod Antipas for condemning Herod’s marriage to his brother Philip’s wife. Now John sits imprisoned in Machaerus, Herod’s fortress east of the Dead Sea. It is there that he receives reports, carried by his own disciples and possibly others, about Jesus’ ministry. Over the months of his imprisonment, it seems his uneasiness grew as these reports reached him.

    He heard nothing in these reports about Jesus condemning Herod. Even more, as John listened to the reports, he found nothing of the fire that John had proclaimed in his own ministry before baptizing Jesus. There was nothing in the reports about Jesus’ ministry concerning the axe being laid at the root of the tree, as John had used when preaching to the crowds gathered by the Jordan. There was nothing about the chaff being separated from the wheat and burned with unquenchable fire. At the same time, conviction remained, and the memories from those days by the Jordan—the power of that revelation—continued to endure.

    How could he, John, have been wrong? But surely, as I have understood the Old Testament and the message of the law and the prophets, surely the Messiah, when he comes, brings recompense, does he not? Surely the Messiah brings wrath to the wicked in Israel and to a wicked world. The corrupt and usurping establishment, religious and governmental, in Jerusalem will be destroyed, will it not? The morally vile will be exterminated, the indifferent will be removed, and the nations will be judged. Only those prepared for the coming conflagration by baptism and by faith in the Messiah will come through these fires to the enjoyment of the rich blessings of God’s eternal kingdom.

    This is what John believes. So then, John in prison wonders at the reports that have come to him about Jesus, and he asks the question: Where is the fire? Sensing his bond with Jesus and possibly being quite sensitive to the precariousness and danger of his own situation, he realizes that death is certainly a possibility here. He dispatches a band of his disciples to Jesus, who is presently in Galilee, with this question: Are you the one, or should we look for another? It is Jesus’ response that will build toward our understanding of the precise nature of what the gospel is. And I might say, that Jesus’ response to that question from John will register upon that great man and work in him a ministry of clarification and even new life.

    Go tell John. I do not know whether we can capture in these words all the emotion in Jesus’ heart. Go tell John. It is deeply moving. The things you hear and see, so as to emphasize the Savior’s patience and love. Go tell John again the things you hear and see. But you will notice that Jesus is not content to leave John’s disciples on their own with regard to what they hear and see. He speaks further, and although they have ears and eyes, he continues to explain to them what it is they are hearing and seeing. He provides interpretation for what they are witnessing and beholding.

    As we have already noted, in Nathan’s defense of the Apostle Paul, these are not bare, naked facts. They come with interpretation, and they are rich in doctrine. So it is now with Jesus—there will be no mere repetition of bare facts. Instead, he interprets them, expressing his description in familiar terms to these disciples of John, who certainly recognize in his words quotations from the promises given by the prophets concerning the great coming day of redemption.

    Jesus, in his response, virtually weaves together two passages from the Old Testament, two remarkable passages that John and these disciples of John surely knew by heart. Passages from Isaiah 35, verse 5 and following, and from Isaiah 61, verse 1. Texts that speak with great joy about God’s visitation to the world for the purpose of redeeming his people. Jesus does two significant things with these quotations.

    First, he adds two categories to his list, not mentioned by Isaiah in either chapter 35 or 61. These two categories are the cleansing of lepers and the raising of the dead. By making these additions, Jesus not only emphasizes his own authority, which is greater than that of Isaiah, and the authority of his revelation, which surpasses that given to Isaiah, but he also intensifies the sense of blessing now belonging to God’s marvelous visitation.

    If you thought it was great to have read Isaiah, let me tell you, it is even greater than you ever imagined. Leprosy removed, a disease that destroys the flesh. But not only the disease, but also the moral pollution and depravity symbolized by that disease. And death itself defeated through resurrection, not merely in the sense of its tragedy, but in the sense of its root cause. The soul that sins shall die.

    Let me underscore this again: the now that Jesus is focusing upon and enumerating is the long-awaited visitation of God, and it is even greater than Isaiah imagined, let alone John the Baptist. If you look at the passages in Isaiah 35, 5, and 61, 1, Jesus begins his citation of Isaiah 35 precisely at the point where the prophecy ceases to mention God’s vengeance and recompense. Verse 4 of Isaiah 35 says, “Say to those who are of fearful heart, ‘Be strong, fear not! Your God will come with vengeance. Even God with recompense, he will come and save you.’” Verse 5 continues, “Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped.”

    Now, we might not think anything of this if Jesus had not gone on to Isaiah 61, verse 1, in such a way as to end his quotation of that text before the mention of vengeance in verse 2. The fact that Jesus begins in Isaiah 35 where the mention of vengeance ceases, and concludes his reference to Isaiah 61 where the mention of vengeance begins, does not mean that Jesus does not believe that God’s judgment is certain. You cannot read the Gospels and come to a conclusion that removes from Jesus’ ministry the message of hellfire and damnation.

    That is impossible. Jesus believes in hellfire as much as John did. He believes in it even more than John did. He knows it. And it is not beyond his power. But by not mentioning judgment in response to John, Jesus is drawing attention to the way things are currently unfolding because of the present administration of the Kingdom of Heaven, which is God. This is a day of opportunity and gladness.

    You see, John believed, despite the maturity he expressed on certain occasions, that judgment precedes blessing. That is how things must be, if baptism is a preparation for judgment, so that one may move beyond judgment to blessing. Judgment precedes blessing. But now Jesus, in response to John, says, No, no. Rather, blessing precedes judgment. And within the message of blessing is the supreme truth that the blessing you are presently receiving is eternal. It comes from heaven, and it will never end. John: judgment before blessing. Jesus: blessing, eternal blessing, heavenly blessing, kingdom blessing before judgment.

    It is this message, then, that explains the content of the gospel to which Jesus refers in verse 5—that the poor have the gospel preached to them. For here is the good news, not just news, but the good news. The good news is this: the future eternal heavenly blessings of God’s King above have arrived and are ours. The good news is that the marvels and wonders of glory are being communicated now. We are not merely anticipating heaven; we are enjoying heaven. The blessings of heaven are not reserved for a time beyond judgment. These marvels and wonders are present as gracious evidences that the age of the fulfillment of God’s promises has begun, and you are privileged to participate in it. And most remarkably, these marvels and wonders become evident as the gospel progresses. They are brought to us by God in God’s Son, whose procurement of them has been through the root of His own death for our sins, bearing our judgment in His own body upon the cross.

    What a gospel! What good news! How full, how complete, how perfect! The day for the fulfillment of God’s promises has come. An adequate provision has been made for my sin. Eternal blessing, eternal life itself, the very reality of that life, is given to me now.

    So the message from Jesus that day is taken to John, that he might hear and see afresh. And with this message from Jesus, this good news, he might endure, despite the injustice of Herod and of governments, despite the horrid conditions in his stinking cell, through every trial and ordeal, that he might bear up under the threat of the loss of his own life, that he might even persevere while in God’s providence and in keeping with His perfect plan, He delays His judgment, that blessing might be bestowed. Surely John’s confession, upon the report that came to him, was: Yes, I see it. I understand. And now I am able even more to affirm what I said previously: That this one is He.

    The one who was to come, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. And by that means has made it possible for us now to enjoy the blessings and securities of eternal life through trust in our Savior. Although we can be certain, at least in my judgment, that John understood the message that came back to him that day. And that he died in peace, full of the gospel that Jesus preached.

    How sad it is that many Christians today stand, it seems, where John stood before his disciples returned to him. Troubled by doubt, questioning the appropriateness of Jesus’ ministry, even to the point of adopting a state of spiritual inertia, where it seems as if you are incapable of movement in relation to God and to his Christ. Still not grasping what is so good about the good news. And therefore, living in a state of semi-misery and profound uncertainty.

    Be done with your doubts. Put yourself in John’s cell. Stand in his place as he receives the message from the disciples returning. And in the reception of that message, throw off the shackles of your gloomy thoughts and fears, and know for certain that this One who has come is indeed the One, and we look for none other.

    The Church of Jesus Christ stands and falls on the gospel. At the foundation of the gospel event, God has done something. He has worked. But more than that, the gospel includes interpretation. Those events mean something, and the meaning of them is communicated to us in the words of the scriptures. Not only that, but you press on to grasp what is good about the good news.

    Not merely a message concerning your guilt, so that you can cope with your conscience all the days of your life. That is not the purpose. The good in the good news has to do with the bestowal of eternal truths and realities upon you in your present circumstance, and this gift is wholly and completely of God’s grace. You did not earn it, you cannot.

    It is bestowed on you freely, through Christ—His death, burial, resurrection, and ascension. I am not ashamed of the gospel. Our Father in Heaven, the Apostle Paul was determined to preach nothing but the gospel—Christ crucified and raised.

    May it please You, O Father, to grant Your Church many who have like determination. And may this congregation be exemplary in that regard. And may the full message of the Good News be heard in this church. Yes, to our benefit, and also to the benefit of all who would come in and worship with us, who would hear our message, and of all those to whom we would take that message. May there be a great chorus of celebration and gladness, since we have been introduced into the kingdom of Your beloved Son.

    Here is for the sake of our Savior, in whose name we pray, 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.

  • Peddling the Gospel

    Peddling the Gospel

    This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Considering the Church” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, May 15, 1994.

    About this sermon

    Even within the OPC, the church can quietly subordinate Paul’s eternal gospel to something more marketable, the earthly practicality that makes a peddler successful. Christ’s clearing of the temple in Matthew 21 gives a verdict on that kind of selling. The true gospel refuses to master the art of the pitch.

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    Sermon transcript

    Our scripture reading this evening begins in Matthew 21, verse 1. Listen carefully to the word of God. And when they had approached Jerusalem and had come to Bethphagia, to the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, Go into the village opposite you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied there and a colt with her, and tie them and bring them to me. And if anyone says something to you, you shall say, The Lord has need of them.

    And immediately he sent them. Now, this took place that what was spoken through the prophet might be fulfilled, saying to the daughter of Zion, Behold, your king is coming to you, gentle and mounted upon a donkey, even upon a colt, the foal of a beast of burden. And the disciples went and did just as Jesus had directed them, and brought the donkey and the colt, and laid on them their garments, on which he sat.

    And most of the multitude spread their garments in the road, and others were cutting branches from the trees and spreading them in the road. And the multitudes going before him and those who followed after were crying out, saying, Hosanna to the Son of David, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, Hosanna in the highest.

    And when he had entered Jerusalem, all the city was stirred, saying, Who is this? And the multitudes were saying, this is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee. And Jesus entered the temple and cast out all those who were buying and selling in the temple and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who were selling dogs. And he said to them, it is written, my house shall be called a house of prayer, but you are making it a robber’s den. And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple and he healed them. But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he had done, and the children who were crying out in the temple and saying, Hosanna to the Son of David, they became indignant and said to him, Do you hear what these are saying? And Jesus said to them, Yes, have you never read out of the mouth of infants and nursing babes, Thou hast prepared praise for thyself? And he left them and went out of the city to Bethany and lodged there.

    Then turning to 2 Corinthians 2, verse 17, for we are not like many, peddling the word of God, but as from sincerity, but as from God, we speak in Christ in the sight of God. Our Father, we do acknowledge that your word is without error. We thank you for this sure anchor for our Christian lives. We pray, Father, for that proper respect and reverence for your word. Give us, therefore, attentive hearts and souls as we would concentrate upon the word which you have given to us. And pray these things in Jesus’ name. Amen.

    I have thought that it was important for me to strike while the iron is hot. I felt that it was important that I complete the thoughts from the morning message, so we are continuing on with our reflections upon 2 Corinthians 2 verse 17. As we have said about this text, Paul’s words here at the end of 2 Corinthians 2 are not only direct and deliberately confrontational, they are complex.

    By his choice of words, Paul has charged his opponents with being dishonest, comparable to hucksters, shysters, These, says the Apostle, corrupt the word of God by mixing the gospel with other things, by mixing the gospel even with such a formidable figure as Moses, as is proved in the third chapter of this epistle. and that in such a way that Moses is appropriated at a level that destroys his true worth, his true value for the gospel of Jesus Christ.

    For Moses, according to this scheme proposed by the false teachers, Moses is appropriated at an earthly level. at the level purely of the earth. And that makes him and his ministry servants of the external world, the world of appearances, the earthly. But by mixing such a perspective on Moses with the gospel has meant a subordination for the gospel itself. a subordination of the gospel to the same external level, the same level as that which is now held onto in this particular vision with respect to the ministry of Moses. The level at which we are now operating is the level of the temporary, the temporary world of appearances. so that not just Moses is viewed at this level, but Jesus Christ and his gospel as well. This means, then, that the gospel has been subordinated, and that the eternal, heavenly gospel of glory is now subjected to the transitory, the temporary order of things.

    Despite the claims of his opponents to Moses, to a world of practical, useful principles and laws for religious living, Paul could not be more adamant or more bold in his opposition to these men. But having said all this, we are compelled to go even further, to probe deeply and to to probe more deeply into the mind of the Apostle. Yes, Paul’s words do operate at the pejorative level, that level which we have already suggested.

    We properly read in these words in 2 Corinthians 2.17 reference to the unscrupulous character of Paul’s enemies. These people are, in fact, religious, theological, doctrinal shysters. That is what they are. As we said this morning, there is that level at which these words can be read quite innocently. Paul here, as we noted this morning, is using commercial language.

    Stripping away the pejorative character of his terminology, he is speaking here about salesmen. He’s talking about salesmen. Certainly there’s nothing wrong, per se, with salesmen, is there? The world, after all, needs salesmen, does it not? Salesmen are a necessity to the order of things, are they not? Christians can pursue a living in sales, and that is an honorable pursuit, is it not?

    Paul, at the most fundamental level of his use of words here, says of the many in 2 Corinthians 2.17 that they are salesmen of the Word of God. But as we’ve indicated, selling is an honorable profession. What could be wrong with seeing the ministry along the lines of, in terms of, this honorable profession?

    Aren’t there general principles and laws that pertain to communication, to the presentation of a product by which selling and preaching the gospel might in fact be linked? Aren’t we who are involved in the ministry of the gospel much like salesmen? Don’t we find an appropriate analogy, an illustration here?

    Aren’t we concerned to get our audience interested in our product? Indeed, we can say it’s the greatest product of all, the greatest product the world has ever seen. Are we not concerned to make a good impression? Should we not dress to make such an impression? Are we not concerned to close a deal, to have the customer buy our wares?

    In 1924, Bruce Barton published a book entitled The Man Nobody Knows, subtitled a discovery of the real Jesus. Now, he built his book off of that text from Luke 2, where the child Jesus says to his parents, Know ye not that I must be about my father’s business? According to Barton, the word business in that context referred to the world of commerce. or was an appropriate image lifted out of the world of commerce, the world of buying and selling. The discovery Barton had made about the real Jesus was that Jesus was a businessman. Here is the real Jesus, the prototype for the modern salesman. Barton then goes on to identify Jesus as the true executive. and the founder of modern business.

    Now there is something in us, even if we are salespeople ourselves, that recoils at this description. It sounds like a trivializing of the person and the ministry of Jesus Christ. But there’s something even more deeply wrong with it. Is it because there is something wrong with the job of selling? Because there is something dishonorable about being a businessman? No. The reason why we recoil from this description is because we sense an incongruity between the two things in view. an incongruity between selling something and presenting the gospel. 1987 was an important year in Orthodox Presbyterian history. In June of that year, prior to the General Assembly, the Committee on Home Missions for the Orthodox Presbyterian Church ran a full-page ad in Eternity Magazine.

    That ad was entitled, She Wants It All, and pictured a not unattractive female showing a lot of leg, working out on an exercise machine. To say the least, she was a real attention grabber. The copy for the ad identified yuppies, of which obviously this young lady was one, as one of the newer lost people groups in the United States.

    The copy also went on to tell the reader that the OTC was now presently pumping spiritual iron, that the OTC was using street smart techniques The Church had targeted Southern California with a phoning campaign that had reached 14,000 households and had led to 165 attending a worship service in San Marcos and 130 attending a worship service in Miramese. The ads then assured the reader that he or she could not go wrong giving money to the evangelistic effort of the OPC. After all, the OPC had fifty years’ experience in, quote, successful church planting, unquote. And for a minimum gift of fifty dollars, you could receive, as a bonus, a free gift of R.C. Sproul’s latest book.

    It’s all available to you also through a toll-free number. Now, this ad did not escape the attention of many a commissioner to the General Assembly. And many of those commissioners were quite distressed about all of the items, each one of them, that I have listed for you here this evening.

    But the one thing most offensive about the ad is the very thing Paul is dealing with in 2 Corinthians 2.17.

    You see, our whole missions committee had moved in such a direction that it now thought it appropriate to mix evangelism with business, and that doing evangelism is actually just doing business, that doing evangelism is merely another exercise in salesmanship. The resulting incongruity was testimony not only to the fact that this was an improper approach to the whole matter of the Church and its ministry, but even more tragically, you see, it was a testimony to the fact that our Church had given way to what was now a wicked approach. An approach that commercialized the Church and her efforts. The repositioning of the Church and her life in a business setting, with the Church now the retailer, the Gospel as the product, Church members and Others outside the Church, prospective consumers, customers.

    All this amounted to a very corrupt perspective upon the Church. Truly, a low ebb in the life of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. A low point in her history. When the dust cleared after the assembly, conclusion of the controversy, the whole mission’s committee had been appropriately chided, letters of apology were extracted from the committee and its leadership, and the general secretary who was responsible for all of this had moved on, had left the denomination. But not that the entire episode I have just reviewed for you didn’t raise the narrower issues that dog the steps of those who treat the church as a business.

    There is the issue of the interchangeability of products. Do you feel the weight of that as you look at the marriage of business and ecclesiology? The interchangeability of products. Does it really matter whether you’re selling Christ or soap? Is not the technique the same? Does it really matter whether you’re selling the church, or cornflakes, or a car?

    Aren’t you amazed sometimes when you listen to some of these people who are masters at selling the gospel? If you close your eyes, you filter out the religious language, doesn’t it sound as if you’re listening to a used car ad? the interchangeability of products.

    There are the techniques of salesmanship. There are the methods that salesmen learn. Preachers, evangelists, missionaries are no different, are they? They would do well to master the techniques of salesmanship so that they can close the deal. the interchangeability of products. There is also the interconnected issue of truth in advertising. What temptations now come to the Church as she marries with the business model? The whole question of truth in advertising becomes a pitfall, does it not?

    Let’s take the OP ad that we reviewed here earlier. Do you realize that that ad, even in the information that I supplied you, contained deliberately deceptive statements? It contained, I’m telling you, deliberately deceptive statements. By this I’m not saying that good salesmen deliberately deceive their customers.

    But, you see, there is the pitfall there. There is the pitfall that always bogs the steps of those who are involved in the business world. This issue impinges upon the Church in a very real way when she adopts the business model. Truth in advertising.

    What the ad failed to tell the reader when it spoke about the 14,000 phone calls and all those people that showed up at those two sites was the fact that most of those people came from OT congregations in other parts of California. Those people showed up because they wanted to be an encouragement to those two fledgling groups that were taking shape. As to the claim made in the ad with respect to 50 years of successful church planning, let’s look at the record, folks. The OPC has watched as many congregations follow and desert the denomination as have remained in it over those 50 years. Now, I don’t know how you measure success. If I’m a businessman and I’m reading this ad along the lines that a businessman would expect to read it, that certainly isn’t registering to me success. I’m just turning my own, I think.

    Well, selling is an honorable profession, but the business world hardly provides a just and adequate model for the gospel ministry in that the two, the gospel ministry and the world of business, are standing in an incongruous relationship. But beyond this incongruity is the liability, as I’ve indicated to you, the temptation that comes when the Church resorts to the business model. it becomes increasingly easy for the Church to slide over into the darker side of the model that it adopts, all the time claiming, of course, that it is pursuing the very best of causes, and that the ends justify the means.

    But Paul will have none of this. And I might add, neither would Jesus Christ, who had driven the businessmen out of the temple courts because of the incongruity in the mixing of those two spheres. And I might remind you of the prophet Zechariah, Zechariah was just as exacting. According to one translation of the last verse of his prophecy, chapter 14, verse 21, the final state of God’s new and final administration will bring about a state of affairs in which there is no longer a merchant in the house of the Lord of Hosts.

    As I said at the beginning of this message, as I have presented my case throughout the day, the thought that the Apostle presents to us here in 2 Corinthians 2.17 is complex.

    My encouragement to you is to plumb its depths and to talk from it. lest the Church be tempted and succumb. Lord, give us strength, and give us that right and proper vision with respect to the Church of Jesus Christ and its ministry, and the integrity that is to characterize the proclamation of the Gospel.

    Our Father, the latter half of this century has been devastating to the Church of Jesus Christ in this country. And that’s not unrelated to the fact that many who have professed the gospel, who have claimed to have calling to preach the gospel, are nothing short of shysters. O Father, we are not stranger to these things within our own denomination, for there have been those who have risen, who have embraced a business model for the church and imposed that model upon the people of God. But Lord, we know that to do this means to cause your gospel to live at the level of the temporary, the transitory, the earthly.

    Bless us, O God, in contrast to such an effort, with the fullness of that gospel that Paul proclaimed. May we see then the purity of your church, the purity of the ministry, and the exalted nature of our Christ, who reigns in glory now. May it please you, Lord, to give to your church those who will proclaim your word with integrity. May we who are to listen and receive that word, O God, may we have discernment, lest some merchant come among us. We ask, O God, that we would be preserved and checked. And this through Christ, the very one who drove the merchants out of the temple. We pray it in his name.

    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 Mountain in Galilee

    The Mountain in Galilee

    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 10, 1994.

    About this sermon

    The chief priests pay the soldiers to deny the resurrection, as the parable of the wicked husbandmen in Matthew 21:38-44 foretold. The disciples go to the mountain in Galilee in 28:16, and it is a heavenly mountain. Christ resides eternally in the heavenly city he has prepared for us.

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    Sermon transcript

    Tonight we are rounding out our messages on Matthew’s declaration of the resurrection, and we are in Matthew 28. We are beginning our reading tonight with verse 11. This is Matthew 28, and we are beginning at verse 11. I’ll give your careful attention to the reading of God’s word.

    Now, while they were on their way, behold, some of the guard came into the city and reported to the chief priests all that had happened. And when they had assembled with the elders and counseled together, they gave a large sum of money to the soldiers and said, His disciples came by night and stole him away while we were asleep, and if this should come to the governor’s ears, we will win him over and keep you out of trouble. And they took the money and did as they had been instructed, and this story was widely spread among the Jews as it is to this day. But the eleven disciples proceeded to Galilee, to the mouth in which Jesus had designated, and when they saw him, they worshipped him, but some were doubtful.

    And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you.

    And, lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Pray together. Help us, Lord, young and old, when it comes to your word. Help us, especially we who are young, that we might develop those very good patterns and habits with respect to your word now. Teach us patience O Lord, with your word, that we would read your word for understanding, that we would give our attention to your word that we might understand. And do, Lord, help us in our prayers, for Lord, it is important that we approach your word with prayer. And Father, we ask that we who are older might also demonstrate patience. And if we have not learned good habits when we were young, we pray, Lord, that you might break bad habits now and instruct us so that we would learn better. O God, we who confess that your word is infallible that it is the only infallible rule of faith and practice. May we match our confession with our lives. We pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.

    In Matthew 28, verses 11-15, we have the commissioning of the temple guard, while in Matthew 28, verses 16-20, we have the commissioning of Jesus to the disciples. The first commissioning, that of the temple guard, presents us with the order and the orders of the city of man. The second commissioning, that of the disciples, presents us with the order and the orders pertaining to the city of God. The guards come to the city in verse 11. The disciples come to the mountain of the Lord’s choice in verse 16.

    For is this city to which the gods have come not the hope of Israel? Is it not even the hope of the whole world, according to Jewish doctrine? Will it not be the site of the coming reign of the Messiah. Haven’t the Scriptures themselves engendered this very expectation?

    Take, for instance, Psalm 87, verses 2 and 3. The Lord loves the gates of Zion more than all the other dwelling places of Jacob. Glorious things are spoken of you, O city of God.” Was this not understood by the Jews as a reference to their holy city? Was it not understood as a reference to Jerusalem itself, where God had promised His name would dwell forever? And what of Isaiah? He speaks very explicitly. in his sixty-sixth chapter, verses eighteen and verse twenty.

    The time is coming to gather all nations and tongues, and they shall come and see my glory. Then shall they bring all their brethren from all the nations to my holy mountain, Jerusalem.” The guards come into this city, the city of Jerusalem, not just any city, but the city of promise, the city of expectation, the city of glory, the city we would imagine to be poised for the reception of its king.

    The guards come into this particular city to report the events that had transpired during the early morning watch. But the leaders, the priests, and the elders assembled in Jerusalem do not receive the God’s message with either reverential awe or joy. Instead, they blister and burn at the news that comes to their ears. Here is the city of promise. Here, assembled in this city of promise, are those who profess to understand the nature of that very promise. To them, news comes about a resurrection, specifically about the resurrection of Jesus, an event, we would imagine, that would have some connection to the promise as they have conceived of it.

    Yet they do not receive the word that is given them in reverence or with joy. Why is it that they do not so receive this message? From the way in which Matthew tells the story, it would seem that the reason they don’t receive the message in a proper way is not because they don’t believe it. It is not because they do not believe it. In fact, it seems as if they do believe it. They don’t question the gods with regard to their veracity at all. They don’t question them with respect to the story that they tell.

    But if they don’t discount the story communicated to them then, why do they not fall on their faces in acknowledgement of their sin, and then seek out Jesus’ disciples for the purpose of coming to terms with this One who has been raised? Instead, they bribe the guards, they promise to cover for them, and they give them, they supply them, a lie to spread.

    But again, we ask, why? Why do they do this? When faced with the testimony, which seemingly they don’t doubt, about Jesus’ resurrection, why is it that they fail in this situation to demonstrate a proper humility before this momentous event? It goes without saying, as we look at this text a little bit more carefully, and scrutinize it, and even scrutinize these who are here portrayed for us, it is evident to us, is it not, that we are here face-to-face, not only with the enormity, but with the mystery of evil.

    It is possible, you see, knowing the truth, to suppress the truth. It is possible to subvert the truth none better, to co-opt evil even under doctrine, using doctrine to your advantage. It is possible, you see, to perpetrate evil at the same time you’re speaking very glowingly about God and his ways. It is possible to be the agents of evil even though you are meticulous with respect to religious observance and even respectability.

    We are then here face-to-face, as I said, not only with the enormity but with the mystery of evil. What might be the motivation of such evil? Such evil is motivated by things that lay beneath the surface, things for the sake of which the truth itself, the truth itself, will be sacrificed. You begin to come to grips with the incredible power of this evil with which we are here dealing. But what, we may ask, do these men of Jerusalem accomplish by their deliberate, now their calculated, denial.

    This denial which comes in the face of a truth that they have not denied. We make a grave mistake if we do not see in these men a brilliance. genuine genius. You see, these men, and I say it once more, are not denying that Jesus rose. They are merely taking steps now, brilliantly, ingeniously, They are merely taking steps now necessary to assure their assets in light of this remarkable fact. Should I say that one more time for you? As Matthew presents it here, These men are merely taking steps necessary to assure their assets in light of the event that has transpired. They become the real-life outworking of what Jesus has presented in a parable previously.

    The specific parable I have in mind is that of the wicked tenant farmers recorded for you in Matthew 21, verses 33 through 44. Now, I’m not going to review that parable for you tonight, for I believe that you all know it quite well. In that parable, Jesus speaks, however, about an inner motivation. that in the final analysis causes the wicked tenants to rise up against the landowner, and specifically the landowner’s son, and kill, execute, that landowner’s son. But I want you to note what Jesus says in that parable with respect to the objective in view. What, then, these wicked tenants have in mind as they perpetrate this crime.

    Verse 38 of the parable, Matthew 21, the objective is the inheritance. Let’s kill the Son, and then the inheritance will be ours. Now, I suggest to you that Jesus The true genius has exposed the leaders of Jerusalem even before the events transpired here in chapter 28, and that by way of this parable which he is told. You will note that at the end of that parable, the leaders of the Jews who are there listening to Jesus tell the parable recognize that he is speaking this parable about them. But Jesus is getting to the heart of things here as he makes this comment in the thirty-eighth verse of that twenty-first chapter.

    Let’s kill the Son, and then the inheritance will be ours. Nothing less than this is in view as the Jewish leaders now conspire with respect to the truth. They will suppress the truth in the interests of the inheritance. that they believe to be theirs. Who’s ruling in Jerusalem, anyway? The city is the city of Thomas.

    We believe that, do we not? We have the Old Testament to back us up. and who occupies the seats of authority and power presently within this city. Do we not occupy those seats? Do we not rule here? And I will tell you. So may say one of them, I’m not about to give up what I’ve got.

    Indeed, they will wrap themselves in their scriptures while they pursue their wicked ends. For they know full well the bended knee to this One who has been raised means the forfeiture of their dominion. In actual fact, however, Such humiliation before the Ascended One or the Resurrected One means forfeiture to a greater degree than these in their evil genius even imagine.

    For now, Jesus, you see, as we move on to verses 16 through 20, directs his disciples’ attention away from the city of Jerusalem altogether. He directs his disciples’ attention away from the city of Jerusalem altogether, and he directs their attention to an unnamed mountain. an unnamed mountain. Jesus’ intention here is not to tell his disciples that Jerusalem, the holy city, is merely giving way to another holy place, specifically a mountain that belongs to the order of this creation. That’s not his intention at all. You see, his intention, by growing there, eyes away from the holy city is to shatter whatever worldly illusions these disciples have bound up in them. He’s going to give them a lesson in the nature of truth, ultimate truth.

    Now, this mountain is not identified in any other way than as a mountain in Galilee designated by Jesus. It is unnamed, as I have emphasized already. It is unnamed specifically because it must thus be named, since its campus is not to carry our attention away from cities to mountains, but away from this world to another. It is an unnamed mountain, lest you see the disciples of Jesus, the successive generations of the Church might in fact resort to it later on, as if it were a particularly holy place. There is a certain anonymity with regard to this mouth of them, and that of necessity The seat of Jesus’ power and authority, therefore, is neither a city of this creation nor a mountain of this world, but the realm of glory above. Not that there isn’t a city to be perceived even in the pattern of the mountain upon which the disciples gathered with Jesus.

    But that city is of a completely other and different order. It is an invisible city, a heavenly city. As Hall refers to it, it is a Jerusalem to be sure, but it is the Jerusalem that is above. Over against this city, then, which is now to be perceived In the narrative of Jesus’ encounter with his disciples on that mount in Galilee, over against this city stands the earthly Jerusalem, the world in which its citizens live by and for the visible, in which they depend completely upon earthly rewards, and even work for those rewards. It is the city of works. It is the city of worth salvation.

    And in the interests, you see, of the religion that rises out of that city, even the truth itself must be sacrificed. On the surface of things, those who dwell in this city are in fact respectable. even religious, but underneath live the souls driven by an acquisitiveness, controlled by fear, fear of loss, and manipulated by the promise of profit. At the heart, this corrupt city of man, be it called even by the name Jerusalem, knows that suppresses the truth and publishes the lie. The order and the orders of this city are shaded, then, by the darkness of hell. The leaders of the city of man even seem to be the minions of the Prince of Darkness. So insidious, so ominous is this city of man that it envelops even the earthly Jerusalem. the ancient city of promise, hope, expectation, supposed flower of the world.

    Being so insidious and so ominous, then, is it possible for anyone to break free of it, to escape? But there is a king. who was slain, who was slain in the city of man that now is alive, who is himself free from the city of man and all of its evil. A king who came not to grab for himself earthly power or wealth, a king who came not to be served, but to serve, not to take life, but to give his life a ransom for many. This king dwells in his own city now, having been raised from the dead, the very royal city of God, the true city that is above, eternal, yes, as eternal as he is.

    And although this city is in fact invisible to our eyes of the flesh. Although this city is heavenly, this city of God, it is at the same time mysteriously showing itself. For those who have eyes of faith, who have done, because of the workings of the risen Christ in them, the ability to perceive. This city is mysteriously showing itself in an unlikely yet free citizenry, gathered together through baptism and organized under the commandments of the risen Christ.

    They are, from the world’s point of view, powerless. weak, frail, woefully unfit, unfit by the world’s standards. But they are, at the same time, each and every one of them, those who find their strength in this One whom they worship. Far from any promise of profit, any guarantee of empowerment within this world. They serve their king in obedience to his commission, willing even to the end.

    Our king, who presides in the city of God, is the risen Christ. His city, you should know, is the heavenly Jerusalem for which you are destined, that city which already shows itself in the church of Jesus Christ, that edifice which he is at work building, into which he gathers his elect from the nations of the world for an eternal preservation in the presence of God, the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. And that, for a time, when all the cities of this world, even those cities that bear names such as Jerusalem, are exposed to the final judgments of God. and are dissolved, and are no more. Of which city are you a citizen? The city of man, or the city of God? Who is your leader? Religious pretenders? Or the Lord Jesus Christ, the emissary of truth?

    Our Father, we are aware of your judgments and we know of the truth that you have raised your Son from the dead. We pray that we might stand at a distance from those who would know this truth and yet suppress it, even deny it, to their own advantage within this world. Instead, O God, may we sacrifice this world in order that we might be found in the truth. in the judgment that is coming, true and genuine citizens of the city of God. Bless us then, O God, with integrity, and help us with respect to that form of things that we observe, with respect to this city, the city of God. that we might be faithful citizens. We ask this in order that you might be glorified, in order that we might have our proper place and role within the Church of Jesus Christ unto the day of the coming of our God. We pray these things through Christ who has gone before us and even now continues with us by His Spirit. 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.

  • After the Sabbath

    After the Sabbath

    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 3, 1994.

    About this sermon

    Matthew 28:1 begins ‘after the sabbath,’ as the two Marys come to the tomb. The chief priests and Pharisees stand against them, guarding the grave. The two Marys waited for the resurrection, and we wait for the second coming.

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    Sermon transcript

    We are reading this morning from Matthew’s Gospel. We are beginning in the twenty-seventh chapter at verse fifty-seven. This is Matthew, chapter twenty-seven, verse fifty-seven. Give your attention to the Word of God. there came a rich man of Arimathea named Joseph, who also himself was Jesus’ disciple. He went to Pilate and begged the body of Jesus. Then Pilate commanded the body to be delivered.

    When Joseph had taken the body, he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out of the rock. and he rolled a great stone to the door of the sepulchre and departed. And there was Mary Magdalene and the other Mary sitting over against the sepulchre. The next day that followed the day of the preparation, the chief priests and Pharisees came together under Pilate, saying, Sir, we remember that That deceiver said, while he was yet alive, After three days I will rise again. Command, therefore, that the sepulcher be made sure until the third day, lest his disciples come by night and steal him away, and say unto the people, He is risen from the dead, so the last heir shall be worse than the first. Pilate said unto them, Ye have a watch, go your way, make it as sure as ye can. So they went and made the sepulchre, sure sealing the stone and setting a watch. In the end of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre.

    And behold, there was a great earthquake, for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone from the door and sat upon it. His countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow. And for fear of him, the keepers did shake, and became as dead men. And the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye, for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified.

    He is not here, for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay, and go quickly, and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead. And behold, he goeth before you into Galilee. There shall ye see him, lo, I have told you.” And they departed quickly from the sepulcher with fear and great joy, and did run to bring the disciples word. And as they went to tell his disciples, behold, Jesus met them, saying, All hail! And they came and held him by the feet and worshiped him. Then said Jesus unto them, Be not afraid. Go tell my brethren that they go into Galilee, and there shall they see me.”

    Let’s pray together. Our Father, who work by your Spirit and by your Word, your Word and your Spirit agreeing, so, O God, You have worked in us by your word, in the Spirit, we have been made alive. Lord, we are preserved in our life by the ministries of your Spirit through your word. O God, we love you for your word, and we would give our attention to that word. We would fear, and we would obey. this in our love for you, O God. We pray it through Christ, through the one by whom all of these things are possible. Amen.

    After the Sabbath, after the Sabbath. That’s how we should best read that opening line in Matthew’s account of the resurrection. Verse 1, chapter 28. Not late on the Sabbath, as the New American Standard renders it, but after the Sabbath, as the New International Version renders it. That is, when the Jewish Sabbath had ended, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary come to look at the tomb.

    It is Matthew’s purpose that these two women shine brightly, shine brightly in the light of the early morning sun. They rise like the sun itself, as if like the sun keeping an appointment that neither the early hour nor the lingering darkness can hold back. Such is their piety, such is their genuinely true godliness, that its brightness stands out so marvelously over against the darkness in those with whom they are most immediately contrasted. I have in mind the chief priests and the Pharisees. Now, Matthew has set us up for this contrast by mentioning these very same women earlier.

    Did you note verse 61 in chapter 27? There they are, and only they, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary, sitting opposite the grave. So we have the two Marys mentioned. first in that sixty-first verse of chapter twenty-seven, and then once more in verse one, chapter twenty-eight. But in between, we are given this exposé of the chief priests and the Pharisees, verses sixty-two through sixty-six of chapter twenty-seven. But notice now what interests Matthew as he sets these two women over against these Jewish leaders, these chief priests and pharisees. Chapter 27, verse 62, begins Matthew’s description of the exchange between these leaders and Pilate.

    We are told that this exchange takes place on the day after Christ’s crucifixion. Now, as we all know, Jesus was crucified on Friday, making the day on which the priests and the Pharisees conferred with Pilate Saturday. or the Jewish Sabbath, nor is this just any Sabbath. This is the Sabbath of Passover week. This is the Paschal Sabbath, heightened all the more in its sanctity because of its relationship to the High Feast. What do we find these Jews, these Jewish leaders, doing on this high, holy Sabbath? Not only do they convene a council among themselves, for how else would they decide on their course of action? But they gather at Pilate’s palace, the home of a Roman.

    A Gentile, no less. All of this on the Sovereign. But even more, as Matthew states it in the last verse of that twenty-seventh chapter, stating it in such a way so that you do not miss the point, these priests These Pharisees are actually those, then, that go out with the armed guard on the Sabbath for the purpose of sealing the tomb, and it is as if they are involved in the actual sealing of that tomb. Sounds like work to me.

    The picture given us, therefore, is of these leaders, these leaders of the Jews, these teachers of the law, these definers and defenders of the law, these who insist on meticulous observance of that law, who are merciless in their judgments upon others who violate that law, these who have attacked even Jesus and his disciples for their Sabbath-breaking. and attack Jesus himself for blasphemy, violation of the law, and the trials in which Jesus was subjected. These are themselves violators of the law. They are Sabbath breakers.

    But what of the women? As I said, their piety and genuinely true godliness radiates against the dark background of these with whom they are so strikingly contrasted. Note the time in which we first see them. Late on the day, Friday, they are specifically mentioned as the two women following Christ’s death and entombment, who now sit opposite the grave. That’s late Friday afternoon. But then, you see, they are deliberately removed from the narrative.

    Next time we hear of them, it is Sunday morning, specifically after the Sabbath. Today, with respect to them, about which we hear nothing, is the Sabbath. And what might these women be doing on the Sabbath? The clear suggestion of Matthew is that while the priests and the Pharisees are breaking the Sabbath, These women are keeping the Sabbath. Here’s the beautiful irony. The followers of Jesus, the so-called Sabbath breakers, are keeping the Sabbath, while the self-professed Sabbath keepers and Sabbath defenders are actually breaking the Sabbath. at an even more deeper level. These two women, the two Marys, will not even use their magnificent devotion to and love for Jesus as an excuse to break the Sabbath. But the priests and the Pharisees will in fact use their hatred for Jesus as an excuse to disregard the Sabbath and the law to boot.

    Matthew is preaching here. Matthew is preaching to his audience. Matthew is not preaching to unbelievers. He’s preaching to the Church, and he’s saying, yes, those who love and follow Jesus are keepers of law. They are law-abiding. While those who reject Jesus, despite what they might say about themselves, are actually lawbreakers, and in the final analysis, hypocrites, because in fact, these who break the law are themselves broken by the law. Still, Matthew is saying, he is proclaiming, he is preaching more than this.

    And here I call your attention to the subtle communication employed by Matthew with respect to the disposition of the women, their posture that speaks to us of their attitude of soul. I love these women. They are magnificent. These women are remarkable in their persistent patience. These women are remarkable and sublime in their humble faith.

    You see, Matthew presents them as those who wait. Those who wait. In chapter 27, verse 61, once more, They sit opposite the grave, but you must read into that. They sit opposite the grave in expectation. They don’t understand everything about the hope that is even presently bearing witness in their souls that they can’t suppress it, they can’t deny it. They sit opposite the grave in expectation. Then we have their mention again, 28 verse 1, and here they come not just to see the grave as it is stated in the King James, or to look at the grave as it is stated in the New American Standard, but to consider it. to contemplate it, to ponder it.

    Their very posture and behavior communicates hope and speaks, yes, ever so gently, yet persistently, of that faith that is in them. But what is the character of the faith that these women have? And what is its substance? In the most general sense, you see, they are poised, as are the faithful people of God of old, in expectation of the fulfillment of God’s promise with respect to salvation and nothing less, which they at this time cannot disassociate from this Jesus recently laid in the tomb.

    But we can go further. It won’t be merely some general hope with respect to God’s promise of salvation. They are at a tomb, after all. They are sitting in front of a tomb. So the faith that is taking shape in these women is moving on, you see, to grasp hold of what is central to that general promise with respect to salvation. That faith in them is laying hold of nothing less than resurrection, whatever that may mean. For there is something in them born of the by the word itself that has convinced them that death cannot be the end. So here they are. Yes, there’s confusion. They are, to be sure, befuddled, but they are feeling after the resurrection. They are groping for the resurrection.

    In this, the women become those visibly expressing what lies hidden within the disciples, who out of fear have retreated and presently are nowhere to be seen. But again, drawing through our contrast between these women and the Jewish leaders, here once more they strikingly contrast those priests and Pharisees, the reputed defenders and interpreters of the hope of Israel. The Pharisees, being the party of the resurrection, they’re the ones that preached it. distinguishing themselves from the Sadducees, as you well know. This being the case, where might we expect these Jewish leaders to join the women, to see if the prophecies of this prophet from Galilee would in fact come true? But of course, as the events themselves prove, Not only don’t these men believe their doctrine, which they hold in theory, they then go on to positively deny their doctrine and suppress the truth when the truth is facing them.

    Learn the lesson from this, dear friends. in Christ. Belief that God has made promises with respect to salvation, belief that he can raise the dead, belief in the resurrection itself, is not inherently commendable. Simply because you have some confidence that God has made promise and will keep his promise Simply because you say that God raises the dead, this is not especially commendable in God’s sight.

    Even the chief priests and Pharisees believed in a resurrection. What is blessed by God is evident in His treatment of the women. What is blessed by God is patient, humble faith. Yes, object faith. that confidently waits for him, that is God and the salvation that he shall accomplish. This faith is poised and ready to receive that salvation when it is revealed. And it is no different for us at this critical point than it was for these women. For there are the common operations of true faith.

    Faith is the assurance of things hoped for. It is the evidence of things not seen. For these women know less than for Abraham, or Noah, or Moses, or any of the Old Testament saints. Know less than for us, who live presently. Without this kind of faith, it is impossible, impossible, to please God.

    Their faith is of the same stripe as ours. And our circumstances, you see, despite the distance between us time-wise, the similarity between them and us, despite the time difference, is striking in its own regard. For as these women wait in faith, this kind of faith which we have spoken about, before the tomb in the face of death for the sign of life, for the vindication of Christ, this One in whom they have placed their confidence. So we now wait for His appearance in the clouds of glory, and consider the character of His coming.

    He will come bringing a final shaking to the earth and to the heavens and to all things. more than merely a local earthquake as took place on that first Easter morn. And on his coming, there will not be merely one angel who comes descending out of heaven, but the entirety of the angelic host. And it won’t be a few men standing around a sealed grave. But to come as dead man, no, his coming again will mean the undoing of all his enemies, that is, all who have not had a stating faith in him.

    And most positively and gloriously, the story moving on, we who wait for him in faith, faith like unto that faith. in these two women. We’ll, in fact, meet Him. We will cross-pray ourselves before Him. Will we not? We will take hold of Him. He will allow us to touch Him, and we will worship Him. Don’t let the future aspect of what is laid within that ninth verse of chapter 28 to allude you.

    But consider this also just as the priests and Pharisees in all of their power contrast these women in their weakness. The world and its religious power-mongers contrast the true Church of Jesus Christ in that Church’s weakness and apparent powerlessness. And this is as it must be. For those of the world, even though they claim God on their side, have a power that is of the world and of the world alone. It is of their own making. It is devoid of any genuine faith. It is filled with self-righteousness.

    But our power comes without. It comes from heaven, it is found in the risen Christ, who abides with us as the very presence of God. In this gospel he is identified as Immanuel, God with us, unseen but present, perfecting his reign in us by a righteousness that is by faith in him, that expresses itself by way of humble imitation of him, and conformity to his image. Such power then as we have, though we have it in earthen vessels, though we are seen as those who are weak and powerless, knows enough not to boast in its keeping of the law. And these women did not do that. But neither will such power as we possess boast of its patient, humble faithfulness.

    But rather, such power as we possess is, in fact, of God, from whom our salvation has come to light in the resurrection of his Son. The Church which the living, risen Christ presently builds, could not do better than live in quiet, expectant, patient faith.

    In other words, with the faith evidenced in these two women, the two Marys, even to the close of the age. Is this your faith? Is this your faith? Are you tried, even here, by these two women and the marvel of their devotion? Isn’t your faith being proved presently, even as you sit in this congregation today, listening once more to the story of the resurrection?

    If you believe it, do you not know that such faith as you possess is presently preparing you to greet the risen Christ upon his return. With that very faith of the same kind with which these women greeted him on that day near the tomb. O God, may we be ready. Help us, O God, in our believing, if we draw back, if we are overcome with doubt, if we are terrorized by fear. Lord, draw us through these things in faith, that we, with patient expectation and humble faith, might await the appearing of our Savior. and the fullness of our salvation. In that day, O Lord, we shall see him, and we shall be like him. And he will welcome us to touch him, and we, Lord, will worship before him. Bring that day, O God. Bring it. We know it shall come as certainly as we know that you have raised him from the dead on the third day.

    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 Marys

    The Two Marys

    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 3, 1994.

    About this sermon

    Matthew names the two Marys at the tomb, and their name, their gender, and their number all carry meaning. We stand with them in the history of salvation, as the first witnesses of the risen Lord.

    More sermons from Matthew · Browse all sermons

    Sermon transcript

    Tonight we are reading from Matthew’s Gospel, chapter 28, and we are beginning with verse 1. Give your attention to the Word of God. Now, after the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to look at the grave.

    And behold, a severe earthquake had occurred, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled away the stone and sat upon it. And his appearance was like lightning, and his garment as white as snow. And the guards shook for fear of him and became like dead men.

    And the angel answered and said to the women, Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for he is risen. just as he said, Come, see the place where he was lying. And go quickly and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead, and behold, he is going before you into Galilee, for there will you see him. Behold, I have told you.’ And they departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, and ran to report it to his disciples. And behold, Jesus met them and greeted them, and they came up and took hold of his feet and worshiped him. And Jesus said to them, Do not be afraid, go and take word to my brethren to leave for Galilee, and there they will see me.

    Now while they were on their way, behold, some of the guard came into the city and reported to the chief priests all that had happened. And when they had assembled with the elders and counseled together, they gave a large sum of money to the soldiers and said, You are to say his disciples came by night and stole him away while we were asleep. And if this should come to the governor’s ears, we will win him over and keep you out of trouble.’ And they took the money and did as they had been instructed, and this story was widely spread among the Jews and is to this day.” in relationship to your word.

    Bless us, our God, as we would be benefited by all that you say. May we receive, O God, your commandments with fear, and in love, O God, prompted by your Spirit, may we obey. Help us also, our Father, to give to your word that proper respect, that we might honor you by honoring it, realizing that that word has come forth from you, that it is inspired, that it is infallible in all that it teaches, and our faith is to grasp hold of it submissively in every respect. Now, Father, may we profit from your word as we hear it. We ask, Lord, that this may be the same for your children throughout the world. We ask it in Jesus name.

    It is important that we complete our thoughts on these two women that we considered in our morning message. This evening, we want to reflect specifically on their name, their gender, and their number. their name, their gender, and their number. Now, each of these considerations has implications for the other two, which makes any systematic analysis of any one of them quite complex. We are not going to be able to avoid these complexities all together. However, my hope is to be direct this evening and as simple as possible. First of all, then, with respect to the name.

    Both women bear the same name, Mary. We have them mentioned for us as was set before us this morning. We have them mentioned, first of all, in verse 61 of chapter 27. Spoken of there as Mary Magdalene and the other Mary. Now mentioned again for us in the opening of chapter 28, verse 1. there once more Mary Magdalene and the other Mary. Both women bear the same name. This common name does two things.

    One, it lends to this gospel a sense of completion. It lends to this gospel a sense of wholeness, as we are brought back through the name to the gospel’s beginning. The name Mary ties, then, the conclusion of this gospel to the gospel’s opening. The Mary who gives birth to Jesus at the beginning of the gospel now is complemented by these Marys in whom the gospel closes. The Mary who gave birth to Jesus gives way to these Marys who become witnesses to his rebirth, if you will, in the resurrection. Now, interestingly, there are corollary features that link beginning and conclusion in this gospel.

    For instance, in each story, beginning and conclusion we have a Joseph. At the beginning, of course, the Joseph to whom Mary is betrothed. At the end, we have another Joseph, specifically Joseph of Arimathea. Taking things even a step further, and I don’t want you to laugh at this, For I have such authorities on my side as Ambrose and Augustine and Jerome.

    There is a drawing together of the strands of the gospel’s beginning and conclusion as the new tomb. The Virgin too, if you will, of Matthew 27 parallels the Virgin’s womb in Matthew 1. Now, lest you think this is too far-fetched, there is the common thread that moves through both considerations. a constant theme, that theme being human impossibility. The theme of human impossibility and of divine supernatural power, punctuating then the gospel from beginning to end.

    The birth of Jesus, then, linked decidedly with the resurrection of Jesus, even to such an extent that in later reflection by biblical writers, the resurrection of Christ can be described as a birth—in fact, as his birth. Do you remember the New Testament commentaries on those wonderful words out of Psalm 2, Thou art my Son, this day I have begotten thee. Do you remember to what specifically those words are applied by the New Testament writers? No, not the incarnation of Christ, not his birth by the Virgin Mary, but rather to his resurrection. Do you remember our exposition of Revelation chapter 12, verse 5, and the birth of the child in that passage, in which we said it could not simply be linked to the birth of Christ in Bethlehem, but had to be linked to the resurrection of Christ from that tomb outside of Jerusalem.

    And nothing less than this is in view when Paul preaches his sermon, his great sermon, at Antioch of Pisidia, Acts 13, verse 33, where Paul takes those lines out of Psalm 2 and specifically applies them to the resurrection of Christ. The resurrection, then, is seen specifically in light of birth, a birth for the Christ.

    Also emphasized in this regard, joining the tomb with the womb. Emphasized also in this regard is the utter uniqueness of Jesus. No other child is so generated from Mary’s womb, with whom Jesus then might be confused. And no one, you see, has as yet been laying in Joseph’s tomb. It is a new tomb, freshly cut. Jesus is the first to be laid there. So the first thing the name does, this common name, Mary, is to bring the beginning and the ending of the gospel together into a common testimony.

    From beginning to end, then, we are assured, are we not? We are confronted by the facts, are we not? Declared to us, is it not? This gospel is about supernatural generation. Beyond human capability, supernatural generation and even resurrection, the resurrection of the Lord’s Messiah, the unique Son of God.

    But the second thing the name does is that it sets before us a particular mood in which this gospel is set. a mood which we dare not miss, for it is instructive concerning our own deportment, the way in which we conduct ourselves, even see our lives as the people of God.

    You see, the name Mary means tear. The name Mary means tear. And this name, especially then, is associated with pathos and with sorrow. Now, one may want to think about tears of joy, and even relate those tears of joy to the birth of the Messiah or his resurrection.

    However, these tears that are specifically in view are related to the sorrows of the people of God, to which they, even though visited by the gospel, even though drawn to faith in the gospel, even though regenerated by the gospel are subjected. Specifically in you, then, are the many sorrows, even the many afflictions of the righteous. Do you recall that famous line in Psalm 34? Verse 19, many are the afflictions of the righteous, out of all of which the Lord delivers them. In the name Mary, the sorrows of the people of God are particularly set before these sorrows, especially defined by Christ’s cross, to which they, as God’s people, are called. According to Jesus himself, we, believers in the gospel, we who have received gospel continue to be defined as those that mourn. The second beatitude, Matthew 5 verse 4, we continue to be defined, described as those that mourn.

    And that’s specifically because of the evil to which we, as the people of God, are subjected in a hostile world. Now, mention of this hostile world and its evil leads us even deeper into our considerations and takes us to our next. consideration, namely the issue of gender. We move now from the name to the gender. Obviously, the Marys are women.

    But consider now how appropriate they are as vehicles for the revelation of Christ They are particularly appropriate because of their inherent weakness, because of their inherent powerlessness. They are of service to the Lord even in, and specifically because of, their frailty. They speak then to us once more of a native human inability. Lack of strength. You see how this is communicated as in the scene at the tomb, they must sit before the seal upon that tomb. In Mark’s gospel, you may recall, they specifically are asking the question, who will move the stone for us? this weakness, this powerlessness, even this native human inability. They speak to us about the general condition, do they not? By their own words, humanity represented in these women cannot bring about humanity’s redemption. It is impossible for them. That’s the appropriateness of the vehicle of the women.

    So it is also that these women, from the vantage point of their gender, take us back beyond Mary, the virgin mother of Jesus at the gospel’s beginning, to the mother of us all, to Eve, and the collapse of the covenant of works. These women then offer to us a window through which we see the entirety of the plan of redemption That plan tied together, not just then a matter of us bringing together the opening and the conclusion of Matthew’s gospel, but the opening of the human story and its conclusion.

    The meaning of their name is not extraneous to this consideration, as the people of God’s sorrow over their sins and lostness apart from the gracious supernatural intervention of God. Humanity’s condition as reflected in these women, however, is answered in our story by the appearance of two other figures, these supernatural figures. The first, the angel of the Lord, who comes and then the risen Lord himself, the angel serving as messenger to the final solution, that solution being the Savior himself who brings with him the power of an indestructible life, that his life in glory to which humanity would have been brought in the first place had Eve, the mother of us all, with her husband, not father. The angel of this story stands in contrast to the angel from the other story, specifically the angel with the flaming sword. the angel here in the resurrection’s story directing us to that one who is in himself the tree of life.

    So much then for the gender. What about the women’s number? We have here two women presented to us. If you are reading along in Mark, parallel text, chapter 16, verse 1, there you will see that another woman is mentioned as being a part of the company, Salome. Mark says three, Matthew says two. Why does Matthew set in front of us simply the two? Is there an answer to that question?

    Well, here things become unavoidably complex. These two women, sat before us by Matthew, having the same name, the same gender, are speaking to us about a continuity. A continuity. However, the doubling now, woman to woman, the two, the doubling serves the purpose. At the same time there being this affirmation of continuity, this doubling serves the purpose of representing the people of God under a double aspect. Now hang with me, don’t give up.

    Matthew’s intention with the two women will be to circumscribe the entirety of the history of God’s people. There will be this doubling for the women, useful to Matthew in declaring the resurrection as it serves the purpose of representing the entirety of God’s people under a double aspect.

    That double aspect has to do with the transition that is taking place in the story. As you are moving from one situation to another, as the people of God are moving from one to another, as we see them under one Mary moving to consideration under a second Mary. A transition that is taking place now, climatically, in the history of redemption. specifically as we move from the pre-resurrection world to the post-resurrection world. Thus we see in these women the embodiment of God’s people as they, in faith, move toward resurrection, and the embodiment of God’s people as they, with faith in what God has done, move past that resurrection even unto consummation. The entirety of God’s people are wrapped up in these two women, set before you here at the transition of the agents.

    Now, Matthew communicates this to you. He communicates this to you with the opening line of chapter 28. The line of demarcation that he sets before you there is that which separates two periods of time. those periods of time then spoken of in such a way as to be reflective of or representative of two administrations. They are here considered under two successive days. After the Sabbath, that’s the one administration, you see.

    That’s reflecting the law and the prophets which were unto the appearance of the Christ in the flesh, and the realization of the kingdom of heaven in him. But then that day, the Sabbath, which is over, and in a sense completed finally, with respect to its intention, is complemented by the next day, the first day of the week. as that day is indicative of the dawning, not just of a new day or a new week, but of a new creation.

    The women then, in their doubling, the two Marys are representative, are comprehensive figures in whom we see the whole of God’s people, old and new, faithful. in their devotion. With a common piety, with a faith that binds them, together saved, yet at the same time distinct with respect to their positionings in the plan of God, their intersection being the resurrection. The resurrection of Christ.

    Now, this being the case, Do you understand just how thoroughly comprehensive these women are? You see, they can speak to us in their actions, in their demeanor, in their posture, of that faithful piety that characterized those who lived before the resurrection occurred. back through the exile, back through the days of the kingdom, back through all those who heard the songs of David and responded with genuine faith, back through the days of the judges, back through the conquest of the land, back through the wanderings in the wilderness through Moses, the Patriarchs, Abraham himself, Noah, all who truly believe. They’re all in the women.

    But not just those who preceded the resurrection, of all who come after, is your piety to be any different than theirs? They waiting for the coming of the resurrection, you waiting for the return of Jesus. Is your piety to be any different than theirs?

    We too, then, are found in them. We too respond with fear at the greatness of the resurrection. We, too, respond with great joy at the triumph of God’s Messiah. We, too, move in obedience to Heaven’s command. We, too, bear the message about the risen Lord. We, too, worship Him and move toward a rendezvous with Him, which He has told us will surely take place. just as surely as he rendezvoused with his disciples in Galilee shortly after the resurrection.

    You are in the women. They speak to you about your piety. your godliness, your response to the risen Christ. Learn the lesson of the two women. Bless us, our God. Help us, Lord, with the simple things from your word. We would be benefited by them to the full measure. But, Lord, help us also, even with the complicated and complex matters of your word, that we might be benefited by them also to the full. Help us, Lord, in relationship to your word, and draw us into it, that we may see our life there. And seeing our life there, may we benefit, O God, wonderfully, from the warnings that are uttered, but also, O God, from the comforts that are extended. and the assurance that is ministered to us, even in our faith. As we believe. Those things which are true concerning your son. As surely as he has been raised. So surely shall he come again. And Lord, we ask. That in the day of his appearing. May we be prepared. 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.

  • Rachel Weeping

    Rachel Weeping

    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 26, 1993.

    About this sermon

    Liberals and conservatives alike have walked away from the infallibility of Scripture, and Matthew 2 tests that commitment. Herod slaughters the children of Bethlehem, and Rachel weeps and refuses comfort. God ends all dissatisfaction in Christ.

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    Sermon transcript

    Tonight we are reading from Matthew’s Gospel, the second chapter, and we are beginning at verse one. Give your attention to the word of God. After Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, Magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem, saying, Where is he who has been born King of the Jews?

    For we saw his star in the east, and have come to worship him. And when Herod the king heard it, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. And gathering together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he began to inquire of them where the Christ was to be born. And they said to him, In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it has been written by the prophet, And you, Bethlehem, land of Judah, are by no means least among the leaders of Judah, for out of you shall come forth a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.’ Then Herod secretly called the Magi and ascertained from them the time the star appeared. Then he sent them to Bethlehem and said, Go and make careful search for the child, and when you have found him, report to me that I too may come and worship him.

    And having heard the king, they went their way, and lo, the star, which they had seen in the east, went on before them, until it came and stood over where the child was. And when they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy, and they came into the house and saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshipped him, and opening their treasures, they presented to him gifts of gold and frankincense and myrrh. and having been warned by God in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed for their own country by another way.

    Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise and take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is going to seek for the child to destroy him. And he arose and took the child and his mother by night and departed for Egypt, and was there until the death of Herod, that what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet might be fulfilled, saying, Out of Egypt did I call my son. Then when Herod saw that he had been tricked by the Magi, he became very enraged and sent and slew all the male children who were in Bethlehem and in all its environs from two years old and under, according to the time which he had ascertained from the Magi.” Then that which was spoken through Jeremiah the prophet was fulfilled, saying, A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, and she refused to be comforted because they were no more.

    But when Herod was dead, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, saying, Rise and take the child and his mother, and go into the land of Israel, for those who sought the child’s life are dead. and he arose and took the child and his mother and came into the land of Israel. But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there, and being warned by God in a dream, he departed for the regions of Galilee and came and resided in a city called Nazareth, that what was spoken through the prophets might be fulfilled. He shall be called a Nazarene.”

    In light of your great gift, O God, we are drawn to you and even drawn with gifts in our hands. But Lord, we are praying that our gifts would always be those that are an extension of ourselves as you gave yourself to us, we would give ourselves to you. We thank you, our God, for the service of this church in the past year and how you have blessed this congregation in the gifts of those who have assembled here. We pray, our Father, that as we have presented these offerings to you, we might also be assured within ourselves that we have committed our lives to you and that we are concerned to live for you and for your glory. May we be an obedient people, this evidenced in the way we present ourselves to you. Your word being our guide. Indeed, your word being the environment in which we live. For Jesus’ sake. Amen.

    Tonight I want to talk to you about two things as we look at this portion of God’s word, namely the conclusion of Matthew chapter 2. I have in view specifically what we find from the thirteenth verse on to the end of the chapter. I want to talk to you a bit, first of all, about the offense that this portion of scripture has represented in the minds of some. And secondly, I also want to speak to you about this portion of scripture’s deeper meaning.

    With regard to the offense, just how far have we drifted in our consideration of the fullness of God’s Now, we have come to expect that there would be that drift amongst those who no longer have a regard for the Word of God in its entirety, who have already concluded that the Bible is not the Word of God, that it is not the inspired, infallible Word of God. yet at the same time seek to maintain their position within the Church of Jesus Christ. Holding on to the Church, they have forsaken the Word, specifically they have forsaken the Scriptures, and an Orthodox doctrine with regard to the Scriptures. But I am bold to suggest to you that the drift is not simply because of the ravages of what has been called modernism or liberalism. The drift is because of what we observe having taken place within the ranks of the conservative church, even within the ranks of evangelicalism.

    There was a very conservative church, an evangelical congregation, nestled in the hills of western Pennsylvania. This congregation was modestly endowed, faithfully attended by a goodly portion of the membership, a model congregation. Its leaders could claim respectability. They boasted an integrity before the community in which they lived. It was in this congregation a resonance to the gospel.

    Tell them the old, old story. Tell them that story again. They seemed never to tire of hearing it. The love of God, His grace, God sending His Son, the Son’s death upon the cross for sinners, and His resurrection from the dead. This congregation also, it seems, abhorred compromise when it came to the essentials of the faith. They were earnestly and ardently evangelistic. They were devoted to missions. But there was that occasion during the Christmas season when their pastor mounted the pulpit to declare to them what he judged to be the fullness of the Christian and Christmas message.

    But rather than preaching to them about shepherds and magi, this pastor on this particular day spoke to them about the horror of evil, about the horror of evil, as exemplified in Herod, that ancient butcher, so much a butcher that he did not hesitate to butcher children. The pastor also spoke to them that day about the marvelous deliverance which God had worked out according to his plan for this unique child Jesus, the one identified as the Son of God. Now, you might think in the midst of this world overrun by Herods, you might think in this world in which people are day in, day out confronted with the terrors of life, the horrors even of existence. But this congregation would have responded with heartfelt gratitude to the message they heard that day, a message which spoke to them not just of the horror, but also of the hope of the gospel and the certainties clearly presented in it.

    Even though evil raises its cruel and vicious head, Even though it set itself against the Lord and against his anointed, still, God’s purpose of salvation is not overthrown. God triumphs, as is seen in his workings with regard to Joseph, Mary, and the child. But instead of glorying in God, For the wonders of his grace and the marvels of his power, these people expressed themselves in no uncertain terms.

    They went to the elders of the congregation. They complained. The elders, in turn, sat the minister down for a good tongue lashing. The reason? These people were offended by the reading of and the preaching upon the account of Herod’s actions. They said, we don’t want the beauty of the season desecrated by stories about the slaughter of children. We do not find such messages appropriate to the season. Now it seems that these people, conservative, evangelical, Bible-believing, it seems that these people had failed to take notice of the fact that God was not through telling his story until he had reached the conclusion of Matthew 2. One might think, If we are appalled by an account of the slaughter of children, would we not also be appalled by the slaughter of an innocent man upon a cross thirty years later?

    I tell you this horrifying story. because of what it reveals concerning even the good, the conservative, the evangelical attitude towards the Word of God. There is that commitment, in theory, to the doctrine of Scripture’s infallibility. But nevertheless, conservatives, well-intentioned evangelicals, no less than liberals, have proved quite persnickety about what they will accept from God’s Word. There are always other matters, always other considerations of seemingly great importance that overshadow what God is saying, and thus qualify that message.

    In the case of this particular pastor and this particular congregation, it was the congregation’s refined sensitivities, and even sentimentality, which in their mind were to be exalted at that particular time of the year. And even God—think of the audacity of it—even God should have the sense not to smear up with unsightly blood this beautiful season. Well, the offense that registers here, I dare say, when all is stripped away, is the offense that God will bring to light in these very same people with regard to the cross in the Day of Judgment. from the offense to the meaning. And here, as we think about the meaning of this passage, I want you to focus on verses 16 through 18.

    The center of this text happens to be a woman, not Mary, but Rachel. Matthew has quoted a portion in the Old Testament, Jeremiah chapter thirty-one, that makes specific mention of Rachel, and he brings this prophecy of Jeremiah to bear upon what has transpired in Bethlehem at the hands of Herod. But consider Rachel. I dare say that Rachel is one of the most interesting figures in the Old Testament.

    You recall she was the daughter of Laban. You read about her in the middle chapters of the book of Genesis. She was the daughter of Laban, for whom Jacob labored fourteen years. She was the well-beloved wife While Leah, you recall, the one whom Jacob had married previously, was spurned. God took pity on Leah, and granted Leah many children. Rachel was herself quite envious. She was driven by an inner covetousness, and therefore she sought to obtain children for herself through her maid, and presented her maid to Jacob so as to secure children for herself since she was barren.

    When she gains her children, however, She gives them names that memorialize her struggle and her victory over her sister. She proves to be, in the end, a woman who lives for the advantage, but also a woman who lives in a perpetual state of dissatisfaction. When she had no children, she wanted When she got them, she wasn’t satisfied. She had been barren, you recall, and in her condition, she lashed out at her husband.

    Give me children, she said. His response was, My God, but I can give you children. But you recall that as God proved gracious for his own reasons, to Rachel. She conceived and gave birth to a child. But even this marvelous blessing of a child to her, that for which she had longed, wasn’t enough. The name that she confers upon the child is Joseph, which means addition. But she says in regard to her son’s name, may God grant me another son. May God add to me yet one more. It isn’t merely a matter of her dealings with her husbands and her expectations with regard to children, her wish that she might have them.

    There is the relationship that she bears to her family. which she is leaving, marrying, as she does, Jacob and moving south. At the point of their departure, she steals the household gods. This she does again because she seeks the advantage in ancient cultures. The one who possesses the household gods can lay claim to the inheritance. Jacob would bury those gods by an oak at Bethel when he entered into the land of promise, in order to declare that his tribe would seek no inheritance mediated by such gods who were among his wife’s people.

    Such an act by her husband was a severe discipline to Rachel, because now there was no way for her to return to her brother’s house and at the same time claim the advantage in it, gain what she hoped to seek, or secure for herself what she hoped to gain.

    Everything in her, then, compounds her dissatisfaction. Having a son, she asks for another. Now that second son appears. She gives him the name Ben-Ami, calls him the son of my sorrow. The extreme anguish of Rachel is that of one who had hoped to gain the great advantage to secure for herself and even her children a place in the world by actually making the world her own. In the end, you know that the birth of her second child killed her. Her quest destroys her. She dies giving birth to that child in Bethlehem of all places. Her last moments on earth are spent in tears. Rachel weeping. She cannot be comforted. Beneath the incredible realization that all of her efforts to gain the advantage over others and in the world have been worthless. she ends in death, the inheritance she hoped for forfeited.

    She is as good, in the conclusion of the matter, as a woman without children. When Jeremiah says that Rachel’s children are no more, he means that the one who sought in this world her inheritance is left without an inheritance. For Jeremiah, then, Rachel becomes a figure for all Israel. And just as Rachel has been so dissatisfied in her attachment to an earthly inheritance, so also has Israel been. Rachel loses her hope in bitterness, and possibly even her faith in the process.

    Israel, also passing through the great trial of spirit, through the experience of the exile, will do likewise. God’s intention was to train the Israelites to look to him as their one true inheritance, the one who gives the advantage by his grace to those who are totally undeserving, the one who is in himself the great reward for his people, such a reward that he in himself means the end of all dissatisfaction. The people’s restlessness is resolved in God and nowhere else. In Bethlehem during the infancy of Jesus, Those people that observed the tragedy of that time and the horror of the evil perpetrated by Herod were being instructed once more. The children, the male children, represented their claim upon the future, their hold upon the land. You generated male children in order to gain the advantage in the land and to retain your hold upon the inheritance there. It is a severe lesson, a hard lesson, that comes down hard upon the children of Israel and upon these who live in Bethlehem.

    But it is in order that they might understand and see that the inheritance is elsewhere. It is in God himself, the one whom he preserves. The child rescued by him will set about in a ministry to set things straight, so that all who would understand God’s purpose would understand it through him. And that all who would understand God’s purpose would find full and complete contentment in their Savior and His provision.

    Have you looked at the Middle East lately? Has Israel yet got the message? Have we seen the multiplication, the increase of covetousness and envy that proves not merely to be that which destroys Israel spiritually, but that which destroys the Church? Have you looked at the lay of the land in Europe?

    The Church is decimated. Envy and covetousness become the standard. Possession of things here become the hope. And to the degree that the Church itself embraces such a position, she renders herself incapable of delivering any message of meaning to the world. The offense of the text, in which you can even perceive the offense of the cross, the meaning of the text, in which you are face to face with the covetousness and the envy of a woman who in a sense embraces the problem of Israel, and in the end, the problem of all. Who end up short of God’s glory and His Kingdom.

    Deal with us, our Father, in our hearts We can, in fact, present ourselves to the world as those who are respectable, those who are even refined and sensitive. And yet, Lord, internally, our hearts are ravaged by dissatisfaction and grievous lack of contentment. And if the truth were told, O Lord, we would find that the source of this discontentment is our attachment to things, and even to this world, in which we live to gain the advantage, or to have, to possess, and to use. We pray that we would see clearly, in your revelation, your truth and the truth about ourselves. And insofar, Lord, as by your Spirit you cause us to see, even the horror of the evil in our hearts drive us to our knees, that we might repent and find your grace. At this coming year, would be different, and we would live in newness of life as children of the King, those blessed by Jesus Christ himself.

    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.

  • Christ Confronts the Devil at Caesarea-Philippi

    Christ Confronts the Devil at Caesarea-Philippi

    This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Considering the Church” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, July 11, 1993.

    About this sermon

    Caesarea-Philippi’s own history, layered with Danite idolatry and successive Syrian and Roman conquest, made it a fitting stage for humanity’s oldest ambition: to be a god and to own the land. Christ deliberately brings his confrontation with Peter’s confession to that exact place. The location is not incidental background; it is part of the argument.

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    Sermon transcript

    Matthew 20, verse 20, is where we begin our scripture reading this morning. Matthew 20, verse 20. Don’t you listen to the word of God? Then came to him the mother of Zebedee’s children with her sons, worshiping him and desiring a certain thing of him.

    And he said unto her, What wilt thou? She said unto him, Grant that these my two sons may sit, one on thy right hand and the other on the left, in thy kingdom. But Jesus answered and said, Ye know not what ye ask. Are ye able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of? to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with, they say unto him, We are able. And he saith unto them, Ye shall drink indeed of my cup, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with.

    But the sixth on my right hand and on my left is not mine to give, but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared of my Father. And when the ten heard it, removed with indignation against the two brethren that Jesus called them unto him, and said that you know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise demean over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon them. But it is not so among you, that whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister, and whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant. Even as the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give his life a ransom for many. Turning back to Matthew 16, beginning at verse 13.

    When Jesus came into the co-successory of Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Do men say that I, the Son of Man, am? And they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist, some say Elijah, and others Jeremiah, one of the prophets. And he said unto them, But whom say ye that I am?

    And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. And I say also unto thee that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven. and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

    Then charged he his disciples that they should tell no man that he was Jesus Christ. From that time forth began Jesus to show unto his disciples how that he must go unto Jerusalem and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed and be raised again the third day.”

    Lord, perfect the unity for us here, that we would have no divisions among us. Thus seeing the wonderful truth of your Spirit played out before our very eyes and the power of your word. But give us a heart, Lord, for those in every place where you are known in truth and worshiped according to the truth of your gospel. May it please you, Lord, then, to grant here amongst us a great desire expressed in prayer and in other ways, whereby our love for our brothers and sisters in Christ throughout the world would be expressed. Keep before us, Lord, the denominations that we have fellowship with in this land. May we be in prayer for them May we be showing our love for them, and may you work in us patience, may our patience be fruitful in our relationship to them. As indeed, Lord, their patience would be a blessing to us. And Father, throughout the world, not only in this land, but in all of the lands of the where your people are brought together, give us a zeal and a love for your saints.

    And even though we have never seen their faces, even though we do not know their names, may we be in prayer for them as those who are of the same family as we. We ask this, and now look to you that with your word you might be at work in us so that we would be conformed to the image of your Son perfectly. We pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.

    We have been considering the Church, looking at this passage in Matthew 16, and this morning we want to do a little geographical theology and consider the setting for this familiar story of the confession of Christ in the region of Caesarea Philippi. Now, if you look at Matthew 16, verse 13, and you have before you the King James Version, or if it is your habit to read only the King James Version, you find these words.

    When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, and that word coasts might leave you a bit confused. Since ordinarily we associate coasts with the sea and its shoreline, we may well know that Caesarea Philippi is landlocked and is far distant from the sea coasts of the Mediterranean Sea. That word coast is translated in all modern translations as region or district. It sets before us the fact, then, that it is the region of Caesarea Philippi that is before us.

    We are particularly concerned with the region in which that city was the most prominent. However, we are not to ignore the city, for the city is the concentration point of the region and speaks eloquently about the truth of that region, as does the region itself.

    What about this region? This region in the Middle East, tangential to the territories of Israel at one time, has been incorporated into it. What about this district? This district was Not a part of the original territories, the queens to Israel under the original covenant.

    It was a secluded district surrounded by mountains north of the Sea of Galilee in the regions of the headwaters of the Jordan River. If you have a map in the back of your Bible, you may want to track down this region as you move up beyond the Sea of Galilee and toward the headwaters and just below Mount Hermon. You will find the regions that we are speaking about. lay east of the territories originally allotted to Israel and her tribes. In the days of the conquest of Canaan by Israel under Joshua, this territory and its principal city, Leshem, L-E-S-H-E-M, or Laish, as it was also known, L-A-I-S-H, were occupied by a reclusive people most likely related to the Cydonians.

    Maybe they were Cydonians themselves who had withdrawn from their Phoenician homeland, moved eastward into this region in order to seclude themselves from the intrigues and possibly even the materialism that had overrun Phoenicia. They lived in this region, these people, they are unnamed in the Bible. They lived here quietly and securely, away from the politics of Phoenicia and safe from the insanity of the Canaanite tribes, the Amorites, protected as they were by mountains on all sides. was a tranquil and idyllic life. Maybe they even thought that they had found utopia on earth. But their tranquil and idyllic life was destroyed about 1200 years before the birth of Christ. It was destroyed not by the Phoenicians to their west, nor by the Amorite and Canaanite tribes to the south. It was actually destroyed by the Israelites.

    This world was torn apart by a specific tribe, the tribe of Dan. What about the tribe of Dan? The tribe of Dan had its own peculiar problems when it entered into the land of Canaan under Joshua. Since the days of the conquest, about 200 years before the date that we’ve mentioned, The Danites had been unable to gain control of their patrimony, their inheritance allotted to them under Joshua.

    The territory that lay directly north of Judah, east of Benjamin, bordering on the Mediterranean Sea, so we’re quite a distance to the south. We have a brief account of the Danites’ frustration, and their subsequent journey north and conquest of Leshem, recorded for us in Joshua chapter 19, verse 47. But the account there is so skeletal that we hardly figure out what is going on. This account is actually filled out for us later in the book of Judges, particularly Judges chapter 18. And here we are told about the treachery and religious perversion of the Danites. The Danites, frustrated as they were, maybe because of their religious declension, a failure of faith on their part, a refusal to completely submit to the Lord.

    Then, in their frustration, set out to spy out a territory that they might call their own. They send out five messengers and come upon this territory to the north, in the regions of the headwaters of the Jordan. They love it. They covet it. They take it for themselves. The story is told in Judges 18 of how the Danite army came together and began on its journey northward.

    In the process of that journey, they came to the house of a man named Micah in the hill country of Ephraim. Not Micah the prophet from a later time. At the house of Micah, they enticed a renegade Levite who had come to Micah from the town of Bethlehem, of all places. And this renegade Levite had actually been placed in the employ of Micah to become his officiating over a cult there in Micah’s house, complete with vestments, ordinations, and a god, an idol of silver which Micah himself had made. Well, if Jehovah has let you down, what then might you do? if you are a Danite frustrated with your lot within the territory of Israel. Well, what we do is we take this priest, we take some of the wealth of Micah’s house, including his silver god, and make our way north to the territory we covet We overrun the territory, we conquer it, we set up our own shrine far removed from the center of religious life in Israel, we establish our own priesthood, and we rename the territory after our ancestral father.

    We call it Dan. Here is a story of raw power. Here is a story of militarism. Here is a story not just of political ambition, but of outlaw worship, the two melding. that this story of raw power, militarism and outlaw worship anticipates what the future promises for the northern tribes, once the kingdom of Israel divine, about 250 years later, when civil war breaks out between Rehoboam in the south and Jeroboam in the north. we read about that conflict in First Kings twelve. Jeroboam, the king of the northern tribes, although chosen of the Lord, displays his contempt for Jerusalem and its worship, and in the interest of maintaining the allegiance of his subjects, he doesn’t want them to go down to Jerusalem to worship. And out of his hatred for the throne of David, he sets up two shrines adorned with golden calves at the southern border of his kingdom at Bethel, and in the north, of course, at Dan.” You’ve heard about Dan and Bethel, the shrines of the northern kingdom. The Danites have done well in this civil war. They have traded up. Remember, their first idol was silver. They now have a golden one. The Danites trade up, and all of Israel was traded off to the spirit that had infected the Danites, so that now all of Israel, the northern kingdom, is consumed by the Danite cancer.

    Frustration born of spiritual weakness, breeding a philosophy of might and power, even a philosophy of terror, by which the Lord God himself is spurned for the sake of better gods, who better serve those ends. Frustration born of spiritual weakness, breeding a philosophy of might and power, a philosophy of terror, by which a belief in human sovereignty entails the weak and destroys the helpless. Jehovah’s judgment reverberates through the plush mountain valleys in the regions of Dan, moving southward from there to the capital city of the northern kingdom, Samaria. Words of the prophet Amos echo throughout the streets of that city a number of years Amos says, As for those who say, As your God lives, O Dan, they shall fall and not rise again.”

    Amos 8.14. While these might not rise again, the spirit of the God who is worshiped in Dan does. God judges the place, but the place is now left the haunt of seven demons far worse than the first driven out. It becomes the haunt of apparitions and ghosts. And in time, its beauty attracts overwhelmingly.

    The Greeks invade in the fourth century B.C., and when they come into the regions of Palestine and its environs, they set up in Dan, in the regions of Dan, a sanctuary to one of their own gods, the god Pan. From Dan to Pan. They renamed the city there, the chief city, Tannian, T-A-N-E-A-N, in honor of the beauty of the region, Tan himself being the patron deity of rustic bucolic settings. But not even the mischievousness of Pan prepares the citizens of that region for the panic and the pandemonium that strikes about 200 B.C. When the Syrians in the north and the Egyptians from the south square off in this region, for a major battle in which the Syrians gained the upper hand and claimed control over the entire region to the south, all of the territory of Palestine.

    Syrian power from that victory point now spreads as a plague over all the territory of Israel, finally resting in Jerusalem and residing in the treachery of a Syrian king named Antiochus IV, otherwise known as Epiphanes, a name which he gave himself because he believed himself to be the appearance of the god Zeus walking in the earth.

    Panion, this city, becomes then consistent with the intrigues that had been worked out in its regions previously. A symbol of a bond between religious and political might, such a bond that ultimately is described and defined by God himself as inherently blasphemous. Daniel, the prophet would reflect upon this marriage of religious and political might, and he would call it the abomination of desolation that raises its head against God. After the Syrians came the Romans. and particularly one Roman, Augustus he too embodying the spirit that emanated from Panion and Dan he representative of a marriage of religious and political might but he was in a generous mood and he had a particularly useful individual living in the territories of Israel. So in 20 BC he made a present of Panion and its regions to the infamous Herod the Great. And the blasphemy continues. Herod died in 4 BC. His kingdom was divided among his sons.

    Panion came into the hands of his son Philip, who rebuilt the city of Panion in honor of Augustus. In honor of Augustus, Caesar renamed it Caesarea after Caesar, but Caesarea Philippi in order to distinguish it from the Caesarea on the Mediterranean coast. no region, no city, so represents the profanation of the things of God by the things of men. In fact, it was the coasts or the regions of Caesarea Philippi that stood as monuments to the insatiable quest by man for deification. Oh, to be a god, to walk the earth as a divine figure and to claim it for yourself. When Jesus makes his way to the regions of Caesarea Philippi, he is on a march.

    It is a deliberate excursion. The purpose of it is not as one preacher once said, to forever afterward provide his disciples with an example of how to get away from the crowds and have a real vacation. Just an aside at this point. Do you know why the Church is in trouble? It’s not just because such sermons are preached. It’s because people sit there and listen to them. is quite deliberate. Not just to get away for a while, for a little R&R. Jesus sees at the center of this journey and his arrival at Caesarea Philippi a symbolic confrontation, a confrontation with the history, the historic personages, and the significance of this region. Jesus comes into that territory.

    He, in the Spirit, hears the voices of the Danites, the voice of Jeroboam, the voice of Antiochus Epiphanes, of Augustus, of Herod the Great. from the pit of hell, but he also hears the bold, blasting voice of their master, that one who still boasts, who is busy enlisting the men of the earth into his employ, Satan himself. And for this confrontation, no mere prophet’s voice will do, be it even the voice of Elijah or Jeremiah or the greatest of the prophets, John the Baptist. For this is the climactic cataclysmal confrontation between the Son of God, the Kingdom of Heaven, the regions of glory, God in the flesh. and the vain boast of men who, in the employ of the devil, parade their marriage of religion and politics in order to carve out for themselves a kingdom, build for themselves a temple, and set themselves up in their own sanctuary. As the Danites and as Jeroboam, a Jew, prove, the Jews themselves are not immune to this disease, immune to such wickedness.

    They themselves become purveyors of this ideology, no less than the Gentiles, for whom they have such contempt, thought at the same time. Cut it. The whole world then gathers at Caesarea Philippi, it seems. No more, the very armies of heaven and hell gather there. No one sees it, not even Peter who utters such a marvelous confession. Only Jesus perceives the significance of what is transpiring. It is not his vanity then that extracts from Peter his confession that day.

    Rather it is his zeal and love for his father, for his father’s kingdom, and for his church. These, then, are those and what Jesus serves. his words concerning his church in this context are meant to have incredible, monumental meaning. What is said that day in Caesarea Philippi will be drawn out further by Christ when he must deal with an ambitious mother in whom the spirit of the Danites lives.

    She wants the chief places in the kingdom for her sons. And it is in this context, and in dealing with its aftermath, that Jesus so eloquently sets before us the charter and the constitution for his church, which stands against the arrogance of political and religious blasphemy. Listen to Jesus once more.

    You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lorded over them and their great men exercise authority over them. It is not so among you, but whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave. just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life a ransom. Is there any doubt, O Lord, what awaits your people if they forsake the charter and constitution of the church? and lust after the power of the world, and in order to gain it, become participants in a blasphemous union between religion and politics. O God, though we parade beneath the banner of orthodoxy, it may well be that that is exactly the state of our heart.

    And if it is, Lord, We ask that you will forgive us, that you will work in us your grace so that we would repent of such idolatry. And Father, cure us of this sickening pride that is so destructive to our souls, in order that we might serve and serve well the Lord Jesus, who has given us such a marvelous declaration of the charter and constitution of his church. Those words which we read today help us our father in light of.

    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.

  • Machen’s Church and Christ’s Church

    Machen’s Church and Christ’s Church

    This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Considering the Church” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, July 4, 1993.

    About this sermon

    J. Gresham Machen’s reading of Acts 20:28 and Christ’s own words in Matthew 16 are set side by side, both converging on Peter’s confession as the church’s foundation. A church built on that confession cannot expect to avoid controversy or confusion; it has never had that luxury. What it can do is actually live the gospel it confesses.

    More sermons from Matthew · Browse all sermons

    Sermon transcript

    We read today from Matthew’s Gospel, Chapter 16, and we begin at verse 13. Let us listen to the word of God. When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, He asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I, the Son of Man, am? And they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets. He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.

    And I say unto thee that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

    Then charged he his disciples that they should tell no man that he was Jesus the Christ. From that time forth began Jesus to show unto his disciples how that he must go unto Jerusalem and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed and be raised again the third day. Then Peter took him and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord, this shall not be unto thee. But he turned and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan, thou art an offense unto for thou savest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men. Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.

    For whosoever will save his life shall lose it, and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. For what is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? What shall a man give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of Man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels, and then he shall reward every man according to his works. Verily I say unto you, there be some standing here which shall not taste of death till they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”

    How rich and wonderful your mercy, Lord, even in the temporal affairs of life. How you give us the bread of this creation. How wonderfully, Lord, you give us homes, you grant us peace within our homes. You grant us those about us who love us. And Father, you set us in a land that is most dear to us. If we ask you, Lord, that your mercies may continue with us as we live in this land, that we would be respectful of its laws, that we would also pray for its well-being, and pray for the well-being of those who are in authority over us. O Father, we ask also that we would keep in mind that such things as you give us in this creation, those are things of which we are to be stewards and faithful stewards.

    So Lord, may we have regard to the liberties, the temporal liberties that have been given And Lord, may it please you to continue those liberties, that we might live without harassment, that we might worship you freely, that we might in fact be free to give unto you and to others in the name of Christ. This we ask for the sake of our Savior, the Lord, who surveys all of creation and all of the nations. On June 14, 1936, in the evening as the first General Assembly of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church was being brought to a close, J. Gresham Machen, the Church’s first moderator, rose to preach.

    His text that evening was 20, verse 28, which speaks about the Church of God, which he has purchased with his own blood. In that sermon, Manchin mentioned many of the obstacles and attitudes which the new Church would have to face, especially those rising from the ranks of the old Church. the Presbyterian Church, USA. Machen was quite direct in his remarks.

    He was, after all, speaking out of the background of his own upbringing, having been raised in the lap of fashionable Presbyterianism. But he also spoke against the background of a century in which Presbyterians had spent much time building cathedral-like structures. So it was in June 1936 that very expensive cathedral-like structures dotted the landscape, many of them raised up by Presbyterians.

    And this led nature then to say, in his sermon these words, “‘How often in these days, when men put church buildings on one side and Christ on the other, do they choose the building and let Christ go?’ Nathan’s words that night mark out one dimension of the cataclysmic crisis that has overtaken the American church in this century. Booths, edifices, and real estate are judged more important than the truth of the gospel. In fact, it seems the gospel and its truth are virtually acquainted with buildings and properties as if they mutually bind and define each other. Now, such thinking is an old heresy. An old heresy that has wormed its way into the religious sensibilities, even of those who otherwise are most devout and doctrinally straight.

    Few in this church today remember Ralph Cameron. a godly, elderly Scotsman from Bellevue, who joined this congregation in its early days in the late sixties, and then shortly afterwards passed away. Mr. Cameron, so I am told, had great difficulty initially coming to Grace Church. You see, at that time, Grace Church was meeting in what is now the Switly Country Inn down on the boulevard. Mr. Cameron’s feelings were these.

    Motels are not churches, and people who meet in motels can’t be meeting in the church. One of the things for which Mr. Cameron was grateful before he died was how God used this church for him even in his latter years to correct his thinking at this point. The church is the people of God. who are made by him to be a living temple. It is they who sanctify the place where they meet, not the place that sanctifies them.

    So it doesn’t matter whether it’s a motel, or a storefront, or as was the case in the early days of the OPC, a chinchilla farm, or a hayloft, or someone’s backyard. Shortly after I arrived here to pastor this congregation, a well-meaning friend told me, Swickley and Osborne will never accept Grace Church as a church. Since you are not really a church, just a group of people meeting in a renovated schoolhouse. Sadly, my friend’s words have proved all too prophetic.

    Still, I continue to pray that God will be gracious to the people in this area. by showing them that buildings and property are not the church, and by convincing them through his word and spirit to let such things go for the sake of the gospel and its truth. As much as we might understand As much as we might understand that the building, the property, is not the church, neither is it adequate for us simply to identify the church as the people of God or as that living temple, as electrifying as those truths are when properly grasped. Too often, the notion of the Church remains for us quite indefinite, quite nebulous, and people, even we ourselves, allow our minds to be numbed by talk about the Church.

    Consider Jesus’ statements in Matthew 16. Brief as they are, they are remarkably full and expansive, setting before us in short order a proper definition of the Church. Notice this as well. The context for these statements in Matthew 16 serves to drive home their content.

    That context underscores the significance of Peter’s confession, which stands so central to this section. At first glance, we might not be overly impressed by Peter’s remarks, especially if we are alert to what has happened earlier in this very gospel. For you see, Peter is not blessed because he is the first to confess that Jesus is the Son of God. No, not at all. Turn, for instance, to Matthew 14, verse 33. Here we find the story about Jesus walking on the water, a story, I might add, in which Peter again plays a very important role. But notice that thirty-third verse.

    When Jesus gets back into the boat with his disciples, they worship him and say, surely you are the Son of God. So the importance of Peter’s confession is not that he is the first to make such a confession. Indeed, the disciples as a group have confessed Jesus’ dignity and utter uniqueness prior to what we read in Matthew 16. This being the case, then, what is the importance of Peter’s confession? Why should it elicit such remarks from Jesus, especially such remarks about the Church?

    Because it is precisely at this point that the ministry of Jesus has reached a critical stage, a crucial point. Matthew himself understands this, and shows that he understands this by the way in which he structures his gospel. There are two main divisions for Matthew’s account of Jesus’ ministry. The first division begins at the seventeenth verse of the fourth chapter, where we read these words. From that time, Jesus began thus and so. From that time, Jesus began thus and so. Notice what occurs immediately after the confession of Peter and Christ’s attendant We have there introduced to us the second division of Matthew’s account of Jesus’ ministry.

    That second division begins at the 21st verse of that 16th chapter, a verse which we read this morning, where the very words that we found in Matthew 4.17 are repeated.

    This means, then, that Peter’s confession is climactic. It is strategic. It comes at the critical juncture in the account of the ministry of Christ. Consider its importance. On the one hand, it comes when there is great confusion about Jesus and even widespread rejection of him. read through the opening verses of Matthew 16.

    The disciples themselves are not immune to this confusion, as those verses prove. And as is proved by the exchange between Jesus and Peter after the initial confession, Peter himself is not immune to that confusion. So on the one hand, this confession by Peter comes at this strategic point. It comes when there is great confusion about Jesus and even widespread rejection of him. And that confusion and rejection have reached a crisis point in themselves.

    On the other hand, Peter’s confession comes when Jesus is preparing now from this point on, that’s the point and force of that twenty-first verse, when Jesus is preparing from this point on to make his way to Jerusalem for the express purpose of fulfilling his father’s will, that is, to suffer at the hands of the Jewish leaders, to die and to rise again on the third day.

    It is in this setting then, in this context, that Jesus chooses to draw from Peter’s confession in order to set before his disciples, and I may say by way of extension, set before us as well, the true nature of the Church. You see, Christ’s Church is specifically defined not just by Peter’s confession or anyone else’s confession, but by Peter’s confession in its specific context. That definition of the Church is no different now than it was then.

    The confession standing central to the Church must then be the one that is articulate, bold, and resolute, specifically now, specifically in the face of confusion and in the face of the rejection of others. If your confession, if your confession as part of the Church is not standing over against the confusion of the world and the rejection of the world, yours is not a true confession. If a church’s confession is not standing over against mass confusion with respect to the person of God and His Son, Jesus Christ, and the rejection of God in all of His persons, then if That church is not standing over against such things, it is not itself confessing truly.

    Now one need not go out and look for controversy. But the church of Jesus Christ by definition cannot avoid controversy. And some have made Christianity into a religion of non-controversy. And how odd that the church of this century should not only tolerate but embrace those who are so obviously confused. about who Jesus Christ is. Not only confused, but those who seem, those I might say who are the more intelligent, most articulate when they are rejecting the scriptural testimony to the fullness of Jesus’ personality and identity. Now where do you place Albert Schweitzer in the scale of things? Is he not the patron saint of Protestantism in the twentieth century? If he is for you, let me disabuse you of that attitude and idea. This is Albert Schweitzer’s confession.

    Quote, the names in which men expressed their recognition of Jesus such as Messiah, Son of Man, Son of God, have become for us, modern people that we are, historical parables. We can find no designation which expresses what he is for us. Consider the confession of one of the more popular Roman Catholic theologians of our time, Hans Kuhn. The whole point of what happened in and with Jesus depends on the fact that for believers, God himself, as man’s friend, was present at work, speaking, acting, definitely revealing himself in this Jesus. as my father-in-law would say, weak as water. Both of these statements, one from Schweitzer the Protestant, one from Kuhn the Catholic, are outstanding for their theological dishonesty and cowardice. No less important from Jesus’ point of view as to what constitutes a true confession at the center of his church is the truth about his mission, not just his person, but his mission.

    That mission was to suffer, to die, to rise again, and specifically, as is said elsewhere in Matthew’s gospel, for the purpose of saving his people from their sins, Matthew 1.21, and for the purpose of giving his life a ransom for many, Matthew 20.28. Here, too, is indispensable content for the confession by which the church is to be identified. Yes, with respect to the person of Christ, but also with respect to his mission.

    What do we do then with those efforts in our own time, in our own century, to transform Jesus into the grand humanitarian? the famous writer and one-time missionary of the Presbyterian Church, contended that the notions of redemption and blood sacrifice were but hangovers of superstitious beliefs. What do we do about those who transform Jesus into a symbolic figure of human transcendence? that somehow humanity will make it through and will triumph in the end. That was the position of James I. McCord, former president of Princeton Seminary, for whom neither Jesus’s substitutionary death on the cross nor bodily resurrection were essential for the Christian message.

    The Church then being defined by confession in context, wherein the confession, be it personal or corporate, stands over against the confusion of the world and even the rejection by the same. But of course, Jesus’ Church will not be defined by those who merely say the right things about Jesus’ person and work.

    That is evident also from our text. The lives of those who truly confess and show in their confession and by their lives they understand will be lives then, as Jesus himself describes, lives of self-sacrifice after the image in the likeness of their Savior. If anyone wishes to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life shall lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake shall find it.” Fine words are not enough. Fine words must be joined with fine lives. in a proper definition of the Church. And finally, those who confess, those who then will unite themselves to Christ by way of confession, will be under his both with respect to their doctrine and their lives.

    Such scrutiny comes to bear upon them through the living Christ, who is at work even presently through those to whom he has given the keys of the table. It may well be that you do not understand the full force of that 19th verse where Jesus speaks about the keys of the kingdom. But do not chase, do not automatically get your back up, but realize that if you are going to say that you have place in the true Church of Christ, that you have understanding with respect to a person in ministry, then understand this also, that that church is governed. It is necessarily governed by the living Lord, who exercises his rule in the church through those to whom he has committed the fees of the kingdom. Discipline is an undeniable, essential mark of the true church.

    If you don’t like that, Will you not ask yourself the question whether or not you belong here? If it is your private opinion that verse 19 has no place in your life and that discipline should have no place in the Church, will you please reconsider your position here and save your elders the trouble?

    Because it is truly a grief for us to deal with you. Why don’t you make it easy on us and just ask to be released. I like the confession part though. I enjoy saying nice things about Jesus that make me feel warm and fuzzy. So we move on to this living business and this discipline matter. That you fellows seem to slip into opinions and abandon what I judge to be the true meaning of Christianity. My friend, your living Lord is speaking to you here. Yes, we glory in our Savior, we thank him for the glorious body that is his, the Church. We rejoice in our union with him and in our knowledge that the Church is not a building but a living, confessing group of believers.

    But we also acknowledge the pressure that being in such an assembly brings upon us with respect to the scrutiny and discipline that surveys us, that rightly surveys us, in our speaking and in our living. That scrutiny and that discipline spoil our complacency. They spoil our sham comforts, lest we too prove to mind the things of men and not the things of God.

    Is your confession proper and true? Appropriate to the Church rightly defined as Jesus himself in this marvelous chapter sets before us. I pray to God that it may be so. O Lord, we ask you that as we are mindful of the greatness of your Son, we would consider the extensiveness that pertains to his work, not just to be confessed by men at one point during his earthly stay, not even just to suffer in Jerusalem, to die, to rise again, but to build his church of which we are a part. And if we are bold to confess him, then may we live him also. And if we are living him, may we also welcome the scrutiny and discipline that he has placed in his church for our well-being. We ask, Lord, that you would be pleased to work with us even to bring us to a proper submission so that you, the Lord, may be exalted.

    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.

  • Christ Builds His Assembly

    Christ Builds His Assembly

    This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Considering the Church” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, June 27, 1993.

    About this sermon

    Luther and Calvin both defined the church simply as the people of God, a definition modern experience has quietly made expendable. Against that drift, Christ’s own word in Matthew 16 answers directly: he builds an ‘assembly,’ a dwelling place for God, something no merely personal faith can substitute for. The series opens by putting that assembly back at the center.

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    Sermon transcript

    This morning we are reading from Matthew’s Gospel, Chapter 16, beginning with verse 13. Let us give attention to the word of God. When Jesus came into the co-successory of Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?

    They said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist, some Elijah. and others, Jeremiah, are one of the prophets. He said unto them, But whom say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.

    And I say also unto thee that thou art Peter, And upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

    Then charged be his disciples that they should tell no man that he was Jesus the Christ. From that time forth began Jesus to show unto his disciples how that he must go unto Jerusalem and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed and be raised again the third day. Then Peter took him and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord, this shall not be unto thee. But he turned and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan, thou art an absent son to me, for thou savest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men. Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.

    For whosoever will save his life shall lose it, and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. But what is a man profiting? He gain the whole world, and lose his own soul. What shall a man give in exchange for his soul? The Son of Man shall come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He shall reward every man according to his works. Verily I say unto you, there be some standing here which shall not taste of death till they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom.”

    O God, give us a zeal for your word and for your gospel, even as we ourselves express that May we think long about the need of your people in the world, and also the matter of that calling of your elect from various nations and tribes of the earth. O Father, in this our zeal for your word and your gospel, may we be concerned to pray always that word and its success, knowing, Lord, that you are faithful in calling your own. And as we have evidence of your call at work, may we rejoice, rejoicing as much in these that you have called as we do rejoice in our own calling. We ask this for the sake of Christ, who is at work by his Spirit presently. to draw all your elect unto you. Amen.

    Once he marched, even a child of seven knows what the Church is. Now, his comment had nothing to do with the precociousness or the intelligence of children in the early part of the sixteenth century. But rather, that comment had to do with how much everyone in German society, from the youngest to the oldest, was vitally interested in the Church. A child of seven, no less than a middle-aged former Augustinian monk. in that early part of the 16th century was absorbed with the subject of the Church and the Church’s true identity.

    Now in the high times, we who are the descendants of the Reformation, Get this matter straight. It is high time that we get it straight once and for all. Reformation, which had at its center the work of a monumental figure like Martin Luther, had nothing to do, in Luther’s mind, with what we call modern individualism. Consider Luther’s doctrine of personal justification by faith. Luther pressed that doctrine in the interest of identifying the true evangelical Church, into which a justified person is incorporated. That justified person does not stand alone by himself, autonomous. separated from the assembly of God’s people, rather that justified person is identified specifically as he is incorporated into the Church that preaches truly the doctrine of justification.

    If that is not enough for you and you are not particularly impressed by Luther, let me cite Calvin. Calvin, in writing the preface to his now-famous Institutes of the Christian Religion, said that he had no other goal in writing those volumes and in his ministry as a whole other than his service to the Church. But I didn’t know that you had to require it.

    Now we might judge that these attitudes by Luther and Calvin are a bit too conservative given the mood of our day. We might even judge that the attitudes expressed by Luther and Calvin are too churchy and much too close to Rome to suit us. to have control over the candle blocking on table 15. Indeed, there is a conservative element to the doctrine proclaimed and declared by both of these individuals. But a conservatism that we would do well to hold close.

    Luther and Calvin thought a reformation of the church, not a revolution, nor were they interested in anarchy. Those claimed Luther and Calvin would get it straight. Now given their conservative bent and their interest in the church, We do well to press further and deeper so as to not miss their contribution to the discussion about what the Church is.

    For them, conservative as they were, the Church would not be defined in terms of its hierarchy. This is where they differed from Rome. They had as much zeal for the Church as they had as the church, as those in Rome did. Where they differed was that they refused to define the church in terms of its hierarchy, as if the church existed only where the Roman poppet, the Pope, was represented.

    No. The reformers saw and claimed to see clearly in their Bibles that the church is foremostly defined as the people of God. Rome’s view does not necessitate of itself the people, but only the Roman Pontius and his representative. And this is why, to this day, a priest in the Roman Church can celebrate the Mass regardless of whether there is a congregation present or not. You don’t need the people.

    Luther and Calvin’s insight proves to be that. As conservative as it was, as insistent upon the institution of the church as it was, a recovery of the biblical truth, namely that the church is the people of God. Now while this insight was made an article of faith for the reformers, and became an article of faith among the spiritual descendants of the Reformers, it was retained in the conscience of evangelical Protestantism for a mere three centuries. And then it began to be challenged and even eroded. I mean, you should call more. You have a great voice.

    It was eroded by the rising disgust amongst many Protestants over denominationalism, the fracturing of the Church, the endless division that we observe within the Churches. It was eroded by a flood of suspicion about Church structures per se. I just don’t trust them. And it was also eroded by an out-and-out sinful disregard for personal accountability to the Church and to the Church’s rightful authority. I grew up in the subsequent schizophrenia of modern Protestantism.

    On the one hand, I had a lingering respect for the Church. Even from a very young age, I was concerned to be faithful to the Church. However, now, looking back upon those young days, I can only describe my attitude presently as a desire I had in myself honor and institution upon which I believed, however naively, God had placed his stand.

    I was regular. I went to Sunday school. I went to church. I was dutiful, responsive. I even went to summer camp. I didn’t miss a retreat. I was even enthusiastic. But, I have to admit that I was enthusiastic about the regularity of the whole thing. I was enthusiastic about the form and structure of things. So that is one side of my schizophrenia.

    The other side, as I recall, was this, I was possessed of a spirit, being the modern evangelical that I was, I was possessed of a spirit that saw the church as extendable. I was possessed of a spirit that saw my individual personal Christianity as all that mattered. I had a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, and that was all important. And therefore, as far as my religious identity was concerned, I had an existence That was, by and large, for all intents and purposes, cut off from, independent of, detached from the Church. I couldn’t stand without it. But I don’t want you to miss the precise nature of what was going on in my young mind. I might well pride myself in my personal relationship to Jesus Christ, and I might even take pride in my steadfastness, my faithfulness, my dutifulness with respect to the Church.

    But even at these points, I was laboring under confusion. Even the notion of the Church that I held on to was itself corrupted. That view of the Church which I had embraced as the child of decadent Protestantism was a departure from the Reformation and from the Biblical view. I had no real spiritual or religious interest in the people at all.

    There was a certain social interest. Do you get my drift? I was interested in young ladies, if I have to spell it out. There was a certain social interest. But I like being with a crowd. But I have no real spiritual, religious interest in these people. I have no true sense that these people worry that. The church is gone. I had no real appreciation of their identity or of my own identity with them as the people of God.

    In relationship to whom I and my personal faith in Jesus Christ was intimately bound through whom then I was to be defined. I must say that my awakening to the truth about the Church as the people of God, my awakening to the corporate character of the Church of Jesus Christ, was as astounding to me as my grasping of the grace of the gospel. It was electric. If therefore you have noticed an emphasis in my ministering upon the church and corporate nature, you are indeed picking up on something that is deliberate. Together with my interest to set before you the excellence of Christ as he is presented to us from Genesis to Revelation, it is my concern that you would live fully in your identity as the Church, that is, as the people of God. The excellence of Christ and our identity as the Church are interconnected, intertwined, inseparably bound.

    Jesus says, does he not, I will build my Church. He is his church. He, in that statement, speaking as he does, seeks to distinguish his church from a church not specifically identified as his. What church might there be that stands over against Jesus? which necessitates him now to identify what he is about as his church. Now, in order to understand our Savior’s meaning at this point, we must not allow ourselves to be distracted, at least at first, by the image he uses. I will build my church.”

    It’s a building, Jesus, not its building language. It may be tempted to think his comment then to center on an architectural point of reference, as if Jesus had in mind a literal structure, a literal building. Or, even carrying things a little further, we might I think the image of a building suggests a structure and has in view the organizational structure and order of the Church. But Jesus here has neither a literal building nor the organizational superstructure in mind when he speaks about building his Church.

    He has first in mind an assembly. That is what the church translates to be. He has in mind an assembly, an assembly that is recognizably his, at the center of which is the confession by all who are a part of it that he, Jesus, is the Christ, the son of the living God. This assembly, which Jesus is specifically now identifying as his own and distinguishing from another assembly, is built by him as an answer to and over against the assembly of Israel, which, even though it has a fine pedigree and hails from the hallowed ground of Mount Sinai, both is resistant to and critically confused about Jesus’ identity. Although it is not explicitly stated, the clear implication of what Jesus is saying in Matthew 16, verse 18, is that his church is the new Israel of God. Jesus, then, is about the business of building his assembly. an assembly of people incorporated unto him and through him. This assembly then being the center of God’s activity, the true Israel of God.

    But we must not lose touch with the building language that Jesus uses in the statement, I will build my church. Yes, to be sure, the people there are prominent, they are what has the preeminence, they are what is at issue, not brick or boards or nails or mortar. The building language is instructive. Not only is there the assembly of Israel in the background through Jesus’ statements, over against which now he sets his own assembly, but you will recall that there was a building enterprise associated with the primal assembling of the children of Israel after they had come out of Egypt.

    After they were gathered to Sinai, they set about the task of constructing the tabernacle, a tabernacle that in time gave way to the temple. Jesus’ words, therefore, are not simply intended to set before us the Christian assembly as the replacement for the assembly of Israel. His words are meant to suggest that this Christian assembly, the true people of God, are in actual fact the temple of the Lord.

    Not only the assembly of God, but as the assembly and in their corporate identity the very dwelling place of God. You begin to understand why I personally was electrified by these considerations. You understand why, when I began to see these things, I was so thoroughly excited about the Church. And though there were all of these pressures around me to minimize the Church and its importance, seeing the things that I was seeing in Scripture, I could not do that.

    We are the people of God, the assembly of the Lord. We are the temple of the living God, and he dwells in our midst. None of this is lost on the Apostles, and is evident in their subsequent message. Should I remind you of the Apostle Paul, writing in Ephesians chapter 2, beginning at verse 19?

    So then, you are no longer strangers and aliens, but fellow citizens with the saints in our of God’s household, of God’s building, having been built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone in whom the whole building being fitted together is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit.

    It doesn’t become grander than that, and if that doesn’t thrill you, If that doesn’t cause your blood in the veins to course faster, if it doesn’t cause your heart to beat a little faster, then you’re dead. You’re a loser. And I worry about your spiritual destiny. And then there’s Peter. One of the central figures, if not central disciple. in the story that we read this morning from Matthew. You hear what he later says in his first letter, the second chapter of that first letter, beginning at verse four, and coming unto him, that is, coming unto Christ as to a living stone rejected by men, but choice and precious in the sight of God, you also as living stones are being built up a spiritual house for a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable through Jesus Christ. And skipping down to verse 10, for you once were not a people of God, but now you are the people of God.

    It takes my breath away. And that is what I wish for you. And I know that if it takes your breath away, I will never have to argue with you about how often you have to come here. Never. and that’s what makes me sad because presently I have to argue with some of you about how often you have to come here here is the common and powerful message that moves consistently through the New Testament from Jesus to Paul to Peter.

    The Church. It is the assembly of the Lord. The people of God. The Church. It is the temple of God. The very dwelling place of God. You may well long for former days of Reformation zeal, but I can tell you that there is no way back to that Reformation zeal but through these truths. You may long personally for individual satisfaction in your Christian life, but I can assure you that there is absolutely no route that satisfies and pleases God. There is no route for you to individual satisfaction apart from your realization that your identity is wrapped up in the corporate assembly of the people of God. the veritable temple of the glorified Lord. Let us pray.

    Our Father, You are here with us now. You bless us with Your Son in your Son’s presence by the Spirit that we might know that we are yours that we are your people that we are made to be a living temple made of living stones a dwelling place for our God Lord, strengthen us in our resolve to live like the people of God and to behave as those who are part of the temple of the living Lord. We ask it in Jesus’ name, that one who is the chief cornerstone and even the foundation for this structure which he himself is building.

    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.

  • Peter’s Idolatry on the Mountain

    Peter’s Idolatry on the Mountain

    This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Misc. Matthew sermons” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, March 28, 1993.

    About this sermon

    Some who call themselves Calvinists drift toward liturgicism and Catholic practice, and the Transfiguration speaks to them as a prefiguring of the resurrection. Peter’s impulse to build three tabernacles is idolatry. In 17:5 the Father turns attention from the spectacle to the Word.

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    Sermon transcript

    Scripture reading in Matthew chapter 17. We will be looking at chapter 17 in Matthew this morning. Let me begin reading at the first verse. After six days, Jesus taketh Peter, James and John, his brother, and bringeth them up into a high mountain apart, and was transfigured before them.

    And his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light. And behold, there appeared unto them Moses and Elijah talking with him. Then answered Peter and said unto Jesus, Lord, it is good for us to be here. If thou wilt, let us make here three tabernacles, one for thee and one for Moses and one for Elijah. While he yet spake, behold, A bright cloud overshadowed them, and behold, a voice out of the cloud which said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased, hear ye him.

    And when the disciples heard it, they fell on their face and were sore afraid. And Jesus came and touched them and said, Arise and do not be afraid. And when they had lifted up their eyes, they saw no man save Jesus only.” And as they came down from the mountain, Jesus charged them, saying, Tell the vision to no man until the Son of Man be risen again from the dead.

    And his disciples asked him, saying, Why then say the scribes that Elijah must first come? And Jesus answered and said unto them, Elijah truly shall first come and restore all things. But I say unto you that Elijah is come already. and they knew him not, that had done unto him whatsoever they listeth. Likewise shall also the Son of Man suffer of them.’ Then the disciples understood that he spake unto them of John the Baptist.”

    Lord, we would not neglect to pray to the Lord of the Harvest that those workers which you would set aside would be raised up. Indeed, Lord, we see the answer to our prayers as the Church sees within herself sons raised up to proclaim the word to the ends of the earth. So even this morning, Lord, and upon this day, even from the morning through the evening, the greatness of our God shall be declared, and truly, Lord, your harvest shall be brought in. We pray in gratitude that we ourselves have been gathered, we pray in confidence, knowing that you shall perfect all of your purposes and your word will not return to you void. We ask, Lord, that you would hear us through Jesus Christ, amen.

    My friend of a dozen years or so did not tell me himself about his decision, so I had to learn about it from other people, mutual acquaintances. He had been a devout Calvinist, a convinced Presbyterian. He was even thinking about the ministry he had fought in fact about ministry in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. But now I was informed he had left all of that behind him in order to join the Greek Orthodox Church. The last information I received about him was that he was putting up icons throughout his house and teaching his little daughter to kiss them.

    A few years ago, the Presbytery of Ohio, the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, was rocked by the news that a very capable, talented young man, a youth group leader in our churches in Grove City and Harrisville, had not only left the OPC for the Roman Catholic Church, but had now become an ardent evangelist for Rome’s position against all the claims of Luther and Calvin.

    Stories like these are multiplying They are reported regularly in the religious press, and they seem to know no denominational boundaries. The avalanche began about a decade ago with news that Elizabeth Elliot’s brother, Thomas Howard, had defected to Rome from the evangelical world. More recently, the news comes out of the Lutheran Church that their highly respected conservative theologian, Richard Newhouse, has abandoned his position as a Protestant spokesman for the higher clerical life in Mother Church. And then there is the story about Frankie Schaefer. the rather infamous son of the evangelical luminary Francis Schaeffer, who was now upset his mother, Edith, and many of his close friends, because he has rejected his past for the comforts of Eastern Orthodoxy.

    But bringing matters still closer to this congregation Although it’s not Rome or Constantinople that is in view. But rather Canterbury. This congregation was in fact severely disappointed when two ministerial candidates close to it decided in favor of the liturgicism of the Anglican tradition rather than for the simple, plain-style Puritan worship revered by us.

    I have wanted to address this subject for some time. I could wait no longer. I even had to put off the conclusion of Philippians. My intention is to speak to it more fully at a later time in a future series, a series in which I hope to address as well the perplexing issue now that has arisen within Christendom that of what is called contemporary worship style. For the moment, I want to speak to the narrow issue that of high church liturgicism. This becoming so pressing upon the conscious consciousness of conservative Christianity, evangelical and reform.

    If you don’t see your friends, in fact, you may well see your children. I have chosen the story of the Transfiguration in Matthew 17 because I think that it sets before us this crucial issue. If we are confronted with the disciples and their perspective.

    They move along a track that takes them in a direction just the opposite of where God would have them go. You see, it is possible to have religious experiences and not understand them. It is possible to have religious encounters and completely misinterpret them. Such phenomenon even has biblical backing. Such things do occur, you know.

    The perspective of the disciples in the end proves to be no innocent variation upon a A position infected with certain improprieties, but at base, you know, acceptable. In light of what Scripture is saying here, the position of the disciples ends up being dead wrong. Yes. Yes, you can be dead wrong. and I am bold to suggest that their perspective is a position that matches up well with the high church liturgically dominated traditions of Christendom.

    God on that mount of transfiguration sets before this small group of Jesus’ disciples a manifestation of Christ’s post-resurrection glory, that which is coming. It is as if Jesus in this setting were getting a preview of his promised exaltation, and that as an encouragement for him in the face of his coming crucifixion. But how do the disciples react to this revelation? You have them reacting through their captain, as it were, their spokesman, Peter. He wants to build booths. He wants to build tents. He wants to build what are called in the text tabernacles. is the significance of this suggestion. What are these tabernacles all about? Well, their meaning can hardly be their impressiveness, since what kind of structures are these disciples going to build up there on top of the mountain? No, it’s not their impressiveness that’s important, but if not that, then what?

    Some have suggested that we see in these tabernacles a connection with other tabernacles in Israel’s history. Those that belonged to Israel’s celebration during the Feast of Tabernacles in the fall of the year, that feast marking The events of the wilderness wanderings as the people of God moved throughout the desert, poor and humble, dwelling in tents or tabernacles, until the time they entered into the land of Canaan. But you will note that Peter here is not suggesting tabernacles for him and his friends, James and John, structures that would be appropriate to their humility in light of the revelation that had been given. Rather, he is proposing here tabernacles for the glorified Christ and for the heavenly visitors, Moses and Elijah.

    And what need have they of tabernacles reminiscent of humility and the days of humility in the wilderness wanderings? The truth is that these tabernacles actually have the character of shrines. These tabernacles have the character of shrines, more closely related to, more closely tied to the Old Testament tabernacle, singular, the precursor to the temple than to the booth built by the children of Israel year by year during the Feast of Booths and Tabernacles. Why would the shrines be appropriate?

    Because, you see, Peter and his friends do not envision Moses and Elijah leaving. nor do they envision the glory which they are beholding presently in Christ as fading or disappearing. These tabernacles will serve as religious centers in which these three glorious personages may conceal their glory while commanding the attention of the world. And who knows what lies in the future for these poor, humble shacks on that mountain?

    I can envision them becoming cathedrals. There are, of course, multiple problems with Peter’s suggestion. First, and obviously, it fails to realize that Jesus has not as yet reached his goal. Jesus reminds them of that goal as they come down from the mountain, you will note. That goal is his rendezvous with the cross at Jerusalem. and beyond that, the resurrection into glory that takes him beyond all of the shrines and cathedrals of this world. Secondly, Peter’s suggestion fails to appreciate what the work of Jesus is designed to accomplish.

    Peter is a good Jew. He sees, accented here, some sort of enterprise that will continue what has been. Making it better, of course, but in a sense continuing what has been. But the true objective is no mere perpetuation of the old order with its concentration upon external matters, its concentration upon an earthly administration and things visible.

    The appearance of that cloud that seems so prominent in the narrative testifies to the arrival of something new, a redefinition The cloud, you will recall, in the Old Testament filled that Old Testament tabernacle. Thus, that Old Testament tabernacle had placed upon it the seal of God, testifying of his presence. The cloud here now envelops not buildings, but persons present on the mount. They stand apart from human structures. and it is from that cloud that the father of all glory points out the supremacy of his son and gives command with respect to the commandments of the son.

    This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased here. The focus is upon the It’s plain style, folks. It’s plain style, even from the mount of transfiguration, regardless of your aesthetic sensitivities, regardless of how you want to cultivate your aesthetic character and the dimensions of your personality that are artistically bound and determined. My friends, it is plain style that is set out to you here in the New Age. The focus is upon the Word. Moses and Elijah will leave. Jesus himself in his body will leave.

    Peter will be proscribed from establishing those structures on the mountain, in order that the focus might be elsewhere. The first, therefore, of this revelation is away from the Old Testament administration. A new tabernacle is coming that displaces the old. Neither Peter’s tabernacles nor the Old Testament tabernacle and structures will do. But it is as if the high church liturgicism of Christendom has determined within itself to build those tabernacles that Peter was kept from building. But I want you to note that this tradition within Christendom has done one better than even Peter.

    For they have invested their religious traditions and their structures with those things that no self-respecting Jew would ever invest their structures. To be sure, we see the vestiges of an old testamentalism in the ceremonies of Rome and the tradition of Constantinople as well in Canterbury, and it is a shame. It is a tragic shame that could break our hearts that the Christians bound to these ceremonial traditions and these practices cannot see the anachronism of their priestly parades, their religious garb, their sacramental dramas, their incense and their temples. But there is also the matter of their sinfulness, a sinfulness that blinds them. made all the more apparent when these people, in the absence of the living personages who had gathered together on that mount, made for themselves images of those very persons in order to decorate their shrines. Peter has now been elevated to such a height that he is judged worthy of having a shrine of his own. Can you imagine Jesus saying, No, Peter, I’m not going to let you build a shrine for me, but I’m going to build one for you.

    This is madness! This is madness! At this point, we are no longer dealing with an attempt merely to hold on to Old Testament formalism and ceremony, Old Testament externalism and earthiness. We have actually wandered into the territory of paganism. Do you remember? The Israelites were strictly forbidden not to make images. Much better that we take our cue from a mature Peter, who in the end directs our attention above. Do you hear what he says?

    Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ which, according to his abundant mercy, hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you.” Much better we take our cue from a mature John. who records the story of Jesus’ encounter with the woman of Samaria.

    In that encounter, Jesus says this, that an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth. For such people the Father seeks to be his worshipers. God is a spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

    Amen. Let’s pray. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. and one of those things was the character of worship. And O Lord, as in fact the Mount of Transfiguration and its proper meaning informed them, may it inform us. May our hearts be directed above, may we be concerned about those things which are invisible, May we be determined to listen to your word and to obey, and may we rejoice in that spirit wherein the hidden God communes with the hidden heart through the word and the spirit. For such worship as this, Jesus died. to inaugurate.

    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.