Phoenix Preacher

I hate the division in our culture today.

I especially hate the division that is happening between brothers and sisters in Christ because of politics.

I hate it…until I create some of my own.

A few days ago, I received a text message from my significant other.

I was glad to see her name pop up and quickly opened the message.

After I opened it, I no longer wanted her to be significant and she was going to become wholly other.

It was a picture of her, pretty as always…with a Trump tee shirt on…taken at a Trump rally.

I was outraged…and over the next few hours evolved into a hypocritical beast with the head of an ass.

Trump is the antithesis of everything I hold to be decent and good, a nightmare that speaks when I’m awake.

While I avoid the subject online, those who know me personally know how I truly feel.

My reaction to that picture was swift and angry and stupid.

I was ready to throw away a relationship, a person, and a history because of political differences.

Irreconcilable differences in my braying opinion.

Because she is a better and more godly person than I am, we’re fine today.

I wonder how many other friends and family are close to this kind of senseless division?

No one and nothing outside me is responsible for my sin…and it was sin of the darkest sort.

Be aware however, that as we go through life the same traps we seek to free others from are set for us.

The world, the flesh, and the devil all conspire to reduce us to what we most despise.

I fell and I fell hard…and I’ll be repenting and reminded of my need for repentance for a long time.

My still significant other will see to that…and she approved this message.

Especially the part about the head of an ass…

Make your own application…

1. Today is Memorial Day and we honor the sacrifice of those who died in battle for our country. I wonder if as the WWII generation passes this day will start to fade in importance and reverence…and I wonder if those vets would recognize what they died for. It will be a shame to us all if we fail to honor those who sacrificed post WWII. It is already a shame how we treat those who have survived their service…

2. Evidently, Jan Crouch had a massive stroke and may not survive. I had some one write me and ask if I would pray…and I haven’t yet answered. I’m not sure how to pray for someone like that…

3. The prayer requests on Crouch’s Facebook page look like an “introduction to heresy” handbook…

4. There is little that concerns me more than the lack of prophetic voices in the church…

5. The one thing that does concern me more is that we have such a fear of being a “remnant” instead of a majority. For reasons known only to God the Gospel is more effective when it is utterly counter cultural. We have gone from being the ones who would not offer a pinch of incense to Caesar to being those who desperately want to be Caesar…

6. It is probably more sinful than I think that I have an easier time loving people outside the church than in it. I feel more comfortable with honest sinners…

7. When Jesus announced that one of His disciples would be betray Him, they all asked if they were the one. May God remind me that there is no sin I’m not capable of committing…

8. Patriotism no longer comes naturally to the youngest generations… I do not know what this means, I only know that it is so…

9. I wish I was intelligent and educated enough to have an informed opinion on everything like so many of my Facebook friends…

10. There is an ODM group forming an online church. You can have church online about as well as you can have sex online…it may be momentarily fulfilling, but it ain’t the real thing…

Matthew 4:1-11

The Temptation of Jesus

So much of the world doubts the existence of Satan. Have we lost a sound doctrine of Satan?

When you talk about Satan, you must talk about hell – and since everyone is going to heaven … well that is a fly in the ointment.

So Jesus was baptized – Heaven opened up and a grand declaration is made! What should happen next? Cake – Balloons – A post baptism party?

1 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.

• You would think, Jesus of all people, would be raptures right up to heaven.
• The last verse of ch 3 “my beloved son…”
• And Satan says “oh yay??? Let’s see.
• Why led by the spirit? Deut 8:2
• “And you shall remember the whole way that the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not.”
• This is not accidental – Jesus did not come out of the waters of the Jordan, get confused and make a wrong turn and say “darn, how did I end up here in the wilderness.
• We have seen this with the Israelites in the desert. In a way Jesus is reenacting their wilderness time.
• The Israelites did not succeed at all – in fact only 2 of the original travelers went into the Promised Land.
• Jesus is now Israel reduced down to one – Jesus accomplishes what Israel could not do – the salvation of the world.
• What about us? This is what happens to all the baptized.
• Now you begin to fight against the devil. Now the target is on your back.
• The Christian does not go onto the battlefield – the Christian becomes the battlefield.
• How is this played out in the Holy Baptism liturgy? When the pastor asks, “Do you renounce the devil and all of his works and all of his ways?”
• Is the devil happy to hear an affirmative response?
• After baptism, we & are standing in the wilderness – with the devil prowling around like a roaring lion seeking to devour you – the baptized believer.

2 And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry.

• For any of you fasters – what is your longest fast?
• He fasted 40 days and 40 nights
• If you were a Jew you would fast 40 days but not at night
• See how the Muslims fast at Ramadan.
• 40 days and 40 nights … hmmm, sounds like a flood of hunger. LOL

3 And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.”

• Jesus is almost dead – hungry, thirsty and THEN the devil shows up to tempt him.
• The 1^st temptation was physical – food after 40 days.
• How did the Israelites react when they were hungry and running out of food? Grumbling – whining – complaining
• Jesus could have sat up there with Satan, having a donut and coffee saying “I’m good for now.”
• Note the wording – If you are God??? Just like the Garden of Eden – you can’t trust God’s word.

4 But he answered, “It is written, “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

• How did Jesus respond? – with scripture – “it is written”
• Note that Jesus did not say “well let’s talk about this Satan.”
• You need to look at this first and foremost as a gift from Jesus, not as an example … although that can come later. But the gift is this – we can learn to pray.
• “Lord, when we are in the wilderness, help us to trust the Father’s word.”

5 Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple

• What do you think was going on here?
• Almost seems like a scene out of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol

6 and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, “He will command his angels concerning you,” and “On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.”

• 2nd temptation – testing God.
• How did the Israelites act when they were stuck in the desert?
• Discouraged and started taking things in to their own hands.
• The Golden Calf – idols – looking to surrounding gods.

7 Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.”

• Again Jesus fulfills what Israel could not.
• Look at us today – the marketing that comes to us and says “you can do it yourself – take control!”
• Jesus is Israel reduced to one – what Israel could not do, Jesus did.

8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory.

• 3^rd temptation = Power, Riches and Possessions

9 And he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.”

• Worship another god – even if it is just a little pinch of incense to Caesar.
• All that the Caesars ever asked was that his citizens, people of all religions, once a year offer a pinch of incense and declare him god – once a year.
• You didn’t have to give up your religion, just acknowledge him

10 Then Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written, “you shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.’

• Satan acts only at the will of the true God.
• This is a good Bible verse to memorize to fight off temptation – “away with you Satan – I shall worship the Lord MY God and him only shall I serve.”

11 Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him.

• If Christ was tempted, then we shall surely be tested.
• Temptation is not sin … giving in to temptation could be sin.

Phil and I discuss what it means to follow Jesus…and what it doesn’t mean.

Download the mp3

A pastor friend of mine recently observed that there is a lot of anger in America. Many Americans are deeply aggrieved by many issues, and their anger is palpable in current political discourse. I couldn’t catalogue all the grievances in a single article, but I can identify their root cause: sin.

When someone sins against me or someone I care about, that sin arouses my zeal for justice. If that zeal isn’t quickly satisfied, I get angry. Yes, I’m aware of Paul’s admonitions at the bottom of Romans Chapter 12 (e.g., “leave it to the wrath of God” (v. 19)) and of how God has appointed governing authorities to bear the sword on my behalf (Rom 13:4-5). However, God doesn’t work on my timetable nor does He weigh the scales of justice in accordance with my wishes. So, where can that leave me? Angry and in unbelief.

I’ve experienced my share of time absorbed by anger. Anger is debilitating, especially at night. Have you ever lay awake at night angry, dwelling on something or someone who has hurt you? Replaying grievances in your mind, how things might have played out differently, if…? Imagining revenge or justice on the offender? I’ve been there. My reward was a lot of missed sleep and self-inflicted separation from God.

Anger is a curse of the Law

Anger returns me to the curse of life under the Law, from which Christ died to set me free. In my unbelief, I reason that if God won’t fix the injustices which are vexing me, then I will judge them myself. I will deputize myself as God’s under-judge and vent my judgment in anger. I will usurp God’s role as judge and the role of the governing authorities who God has placed over me, because He or they are not getting the job done. Unchecked anger can lead to full blown rebellion against God.

I can read God’s Word about anger: “Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.” (Eph 4:31) God’s Law is very good at telling me what I ought to do, and pointing out where I am failing to obey Him. The Law itself is spiritual, but I am flesh (Rom 7:14). As a result, the Law is the power of sin (1 Cor 15:56). Reading or memorizing more Law verses about anger will not help me.

Eventually I found freedom from anger in the Gospel. Freedom from anger is the fruit of freedom in Christ, a topic I wrote about in a prior article.

All sins committed by and against other people ultimately are sins committed against God.

God is not disinterested or aloof from injustice. Our sins against one another are sins against God. David illustrates this principle in his Psalm written after being confronted by Nathan for his adultery with Bathsheba and murder of Uriah:

“For I know my transgressions,

and my sin is ever before me.

Against you, you only, have I sinned

and done what is evil in your sight,

so that you may be justified in your words

and blameless in your judgment.” (Ps 51:4-5)

All sins committed by and against one another are going to be dealt with by God, one way or another, temporally and/or eternally.

 “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29)

Jesus took away (i.e., took up on the cross) all the sins ever committed by every human being. “He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.” (1 John 2:2)

Knowing that all sins, even the ones committed against me, are ultimately committed against God and that Jesus suffered and died for all of them, frees me from having to bear them myself. My indignation is no match for God’s, and my suffering does not compare with the suffering of Jesus for the very same sins. Jesus freed me from both the guilt and shame of my own sins and from bearing the sins of others committed against me.

“And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.” (Mark 11:25)

Depending on the nature of the transgression and whether or not the offender is repentant, it is not always possible or advisable to attempt reconciliation with an offender. This is not an article about the complex (and important) topic of reconciliation. My sole motivation here is to shed light on the problem of anger and reflect on how the Gospel has helped me address anger in my life. According to Mark 11:25, if someone sins against us, we can forgive the sin directly to God. This may be all that is possible or advisable under the circumstances. However, this prayer is effective to release that sin into God’s hands for ultimate resolution and frees us from bearing it.

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven.” (Matt 5:43-45a)

All Christians share the vocation of a royal priesthood to the world, including unbelievers and our enemies. Unbelievers do not have access to God and are completely lost and children of wrath. But Christians, on the other hand, have access to God, as Father, and can call on Him in Christ’s name. Therefore, Christians intercede with God for their enemies, praying that God would be merciful to them, bless them with their daily needs, bring them to repentance, and save them through the power of the Gospel.

Perhaps the most vivid illustration of Christian intercession for his enemies was Stephen’s prayer made during his martyrdom: “And falling to his knees he cried out with a loud voice, ‘Lord, do not hold this sin against them.’ And when he had said this, he fell asleep.” (Acts 7:60)

Freedom through Prayer

The Lord’s Prayer includes this petition: “your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” (Matt 6:10) Jesus gave us this petition, so that we can pray to our Father for our fidelity to His will, but also against the many violations of His will that we see around us. For example, if someone attempts to redefine God’s created order regarding sex or marriage, Christians pray for God’s will to prevail. Similarly, if government fails to protect the citizens entrusted to it, Christians pray for God to enlighten our leaders, so His will for good government will prevail. By committing these matters into God’s care through prayer, trusting that He hears our prayers and is sovereign over His creation, we are set free to serve in our vocations in God’s grace free from anger.

“Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.” (Eph 3:20-21)