Thirsty?
Psalms 42-43
John Loftness
January 11, 2009

The Road to Glory
Luke 21:37-22:30
Mike Dickson
January 4, 2009

The Pursuit of Happiness
Psalm 119
John Loftness
December 28, 2008

Let Every Heart Prepare Him Room
Isaiah 9:1-7
John Loftness
December 21, 2008

He’s Coming.  Get Ready.
Luke 21: 5-36
John Loftness
December 14, 2008

Introduction

Humans were created to plan for the future—to pursue good and avoid evil based on what they can discern is coming.

Yet we have no control over the future.

Big Point of the Passage: We can’t control the future, but we can prepare for the coming of the one who does.

Jesus is preparing his disciples for the dramatic events that will follow over the next ten weeks, beginning with his betrayal, arrest, trial and execution.

This chapter follows the pattern of the Old Testament prophets—events near and far are telescoped together.  It can be hard to tell whether the prophet is speaking of a soon-to-happen event or one far off.

This passage speaks of a near event—the destruction of the Temple and Jerusalem and a far event—the return of Jesus.

The Destruction of the Temple and Jerusalem (5-24)

Temple History:
• Begun by Solomon 930 BC
• Destroyed by the Babylonians 586 BC (after 150 years of prophetic warnings that this was coming)
• Rebuilt 515 BC and surviving Persian, Greek and Roman control of Israel.
Herod the Great begins a vast expansion and remodeling program beginning 19 BC and eventually lasting 80 years.  The building was immense, decorated in gold and silver. Roman historian Tacitus called it “immensely opulent.”

Given its central place in Jewish worship, its longevity and magnificence, the disciples must have been shocked by Jesus’ prediction of verse 5.  So their question is natural.

Verses 8-9—what will not be a sign of this destruction.

Verses 10-18—what will precede these apocalyptic events.  Yet this passage seems to telescope both events into one.

Verse 19—for the disciple: endurance is key.

Verses 20-24—instructions for disciples when they see armies begin to lay siege to Jerusalem.  His words find exact fulfillment 40 years later.

• Jewish wars, AD 66-70 end in the leveling of the city and the Temple.
• Josephus, a Pharisee, becomes a Jewish general in the war.  Romans spare him and he lives to write about his experiences.
• Bible scholar DA Carson summarizes the effects of the Roman reduction of the city: “The savagery, slaughter, disease, and famine (mothers eating their own children) were monstrous.  …There have been greater numbers of deaths—six million in the Nazi death camps, mostly Jews, and an estimated twenty million under Stalin—but never so high a percentage of a great city’s population so thoroughly and painfully exterminated and enslaved as during the Fall of Jerusalem.”  (Commentary on Matthew, in Expositor’s Bible Commentary, p. 501)
• Church historian Eusebius records how when the Roman armies were moving to take Jerusalem, the Christians in the city fled to Pella because of Jesus’ prophecy.

What we can learn from these historic events?

1. Jesus knows the future.  His prediction was dead on in its fulfillment.
2. Jesus’ followers will go through the same calamities that the rest of the world has and will, and unlike the rest of the world, we will be persecuted for our belief in Jesus—some even killed for our belief.
3. Yet Jesus promises that if we endure through dark days, “not a hair of our heads will perish.”  For we will be saved from God’s judgment to a resurrected eternal life.

The Coming of the Son of Man (25-28)

You have to ask yourself, if Jesus could predict what happened to Jerusalem in AD 70 accurately, what must I think about the predictions of the events prior to his return?
How to prepare (29-36)

Verses 29-32—know the signs.  Know that just as his words about Jerusalem did not pass away but were completely fulfilled, so will his words about the end.

Verses 34-35—watch yourself—of you will miss the signs and therefore miss benefiting from his return:

• “Hearts weighed down.”  The idea is an insensitive heart.  Your heart is so weighed down with your self that you do not desire his return, nor do you look for it.  You do not live for Jesus, you live for yourself.  And so, as you gaze at your navel, you can’t look up.
• “dissipation”—a word that refers to the effects of intoxication.  It’s what happens to a drunk—both the disorientation and lack of awareness of your surroundings as well as the stupor that comes from a hangover.  You are so buzzed by your pleasures that you are scattered, insensitive to what is going on spiritually—unable to recognize that Jesus is coming.
• “drunkenness”
• “Cares of this life”—you are so caught up in earning money or getting married or buying a house, or your academics or your music and media and sports, that you are distracted from seeing Jesus.

Verse 36—Stay awake (36)  READ

• Look for him.  That’s why you are staying awake.
• Pray for strength.
• The call of a Christian is to live aware of reality.  To live aware that there is a God in control of history, that he is holy and expects his subjects to be like him.  The most important things going on in this world right now are not an unprecedented presidential election, or a worldwide financial meltdown, or wars and threats of war, or global warming.  The most important thing is that Jesus is coming back to the earth.  You’ve got to look for him, to pray for strength to endure the persecution and the events that precede his return.

Because the ultimate goal is that on that great and decisive day you will be able to stand before him as verse 36 says.  You will only be able to stand if your sins are forgiven and you stand clothed in his righteousness and not your own.  And you can only have your sins forgiven if you believe that the death that he died, he died in your place—the undeserving dying for the judgment you deserve.  That’s the only way you will stand on that great day.

He’s Coming.  Get Ready. 

Who Do You Think You Are?
Luke 19:45-20:44
John Loftness
December 7, 2008

The setting—19:45-49

Jesus has entered into the heart of Jewish secular and religious power.  And he walks in like he owns the place.  In fact he quotes the book of Isaiah saying, “My house shall be a house of prayer.” 

Jesus’ actions basically announce that this is his house and it’s being used for the wrong purposes and he justifies his actions by quoting Isaiah 56:7.  The first eight verses of this chapter are devoted to an announcement of God’s salvation extended to foreigners—to Gentiles.  “This is to be a house of prayer and you have turned the only place where Gentiles can come near to God’s presence to pray into a place to rip off God’s people.”

1. Confrontation #1.  “You have no authority over worship.”

20:1-7

Jesus takes control of this challenge to his authority by asking them a question about the very popular John the Baptist who was recently beheaded by one of the Herods.

Why bring up John?  Because John announced Jesus to be the Messiah.  And the people loved John.  So if, to get their answer from Jesus, these questioners had said that John’s baptism was from God, the question is: why didn’t you believe what he said about Jesus?

But if they denied John’s baptism as an act of godliness done for God and instituted by God, they feared that the crowd would kill them on the spot.

Then Jesus turns to the crowd to tell a story. 

20: 8-17

The chief priests and their people are clearly the tenants who increasingly abused the prophets whom God sent them to inspect whether they were using his vineyard as he intended.  But the owner—in this case God—is very patient.  And very humble: he sends his son.  And in an effort to gain title and right to the land, they kill the son.

Then comes the warning with a switch in metaphor: Jesus switches from being he beloved son of the owner of the vineyard to being a “corner stone.”

• This is the first stone laid for a building.  It had to be perfectly aligned with the foundation of the building and perfectly aligned with the right angles of a corner so that each wall would be true to the foundation and to the other walls.  It was the stone that builders would choose most carefully.
• But if you reject this stone, the stone will someone destroy you.

What does this passage tell us about Jesus?

• He has authority over worship.
• Worship is very important to him.
• Worship should not be used to enrich people—to serve their needs.  Worship is for God.
• He is zealous that no hindrances be placed in the way of unbelievers who desire to worship.
• Jesus is willing to die for people to accomplish his mission.  He’s willing to die at the hands of the people who are in charge of his Father’s vineyard.
• Jesus will bring a terrible judgment on those who reject his authority and fail to put their faith in his death. 

What does this passage say to you and to me?

• Is my worship to declare God’s worth, to honor him and to invite others to honor him?  Or am I in this for what I get out of it—to get rich, to get friends, to fulfill my selfish desires?
• Have I put any stumbling blocks before people who want to come to know God through Jesus?
• I must not resist Jesus’ authority.  I must give him my worship.  I must trust him to count his death for the one I deserve.
• If I reject him as the cornerstone of my life, he will turn from being the Son who died to save me to the judge who will crush me in his justice.

2. Confrontation #2.  A Political Trap.

Read verses 19-26

This tribute is the tax that every individual had to pay to the Romans.  And given that part of it went to pay for their Roman oppressors, it was hated.

The question is a trap.  If Jesus says, “pay it,” he’s going to sound like a supporter of Rome and the crowd will turn on him.

If he says, as the high priests may have expected, that the tax is wrong and not to pay it, Jesus could be arrested for insurrection.

Jesus first dismantles the sincerity of these spies by asking them to produce a coin.  They already have Roman coins in their pockets.  They are already a part of the Roman system.

Verse 25 is significant.  “Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s.”

Though Jesus does not say it directly.  We are left with the question: whose image do we carry?  The Bible describes human beings as “made in the image of God.” 

Like the Roman coin stamped with the emperor’s image, we are stamped with the image of God.  Hence we belong to him.

What does this passage tell me about Jesus?

• Jesus has answers to the most complex and challenging questions that I will face as I live in this world as his follower.
• Like me, Jesus became a man and bore the image of God.  He’s the perfect human being.  He knows how to live in this world rendering the human image to God.

What does this passage say to you and to me?

• We can trust Jesus for answers to the challenging questions we will face when living in this world challenges living for Jesus.
• If I bear God’s image, I must render my entire life to the one who made me and owns me.

3. Confrontation #3.  A theological challenge.

20: 27-40.

Today we would call the Sadducees the back-to-the-Bible crowd.  Unlike the Pharisees who had vast commentaries on the law, the Sadducees said that they referred only to what we call the Old Testament, especially the Law of Moses.  And since they saw no evidence for any resurrection from the dead in their Bible, they denied the doctrine.

They also were from a priestly family and thus tended to be rich and well-connected with the powerful.  And not very popular with the crowds.

In their question they assume that life after the resurrection will be exactly like life before, where marriage and the bearing of children move human history forward.  They can’t imagine God having the power to transform human life in the age to come.

So Jesus gives them the facts about the resurrection—a resurrection which he will under go before a week is out.

Notice in verse 35—this resurrection is not for everyone—only for those “worthy to attain that age.”  Not everyone is worthy.

He then proceeds to prove in verse 37—from the very law of Moses that the Sadducees so revered—that the resurrection is in the Bible.  How can God refer to three dead men—Abraham, Isaac and Jacob—in the present tense, unless there is life beyond the grave?

What does this passage say about Jesus?

• Jesus is the only one who understands theology and can make sense of the Bible.
• Jesus rose from the dead as he said he would.

What does this passage say to you and to me?

• I must study Jesus’ words and works in the context of the whole Bible to know him truly and accurately.
• If I put my faith in him, I can look forward to a resurrection in an amazingly transformed world.

The conventional wisdom was that David was Israel’s greatest king.  The conventional wisdom was that ancestors were always revered as greater than their children.

Conclusion

20:41-44

The conventional wisdom was that David was Israel’s greatest king.  The conventional wisdom was that ancestors were always revered as greater than their children.

But this quotation from Psalm 110 turns that idea on its head.  The Lord—Yahweh—the great and one true God, says to David’s Lord—for David was the author of this Psalm—to sit at God’s right hand—the seat of greatest honor.

If the Messiah is to be a son of David, how can David call him Lord?

Well, he is not only a son of David, but also the Son of God.

And if he is the Son of God, then he has authority—over everything.

Jesus turns the tables on each of these questioners.  He asks them: Who do you think you are…

• To use what is to be true and open worship for your personal profit? 
• To compromise yourself by selling out in your politics?
• To twist my words and create a theology that is not true—one that justifies your life and cravings?

Who is Jesus to you?

• Does he have authority over your life?  What areas of your life do you have a hard time yielding to him?
• Do you treat him as if he were a god to be manipulated to fulfill your desires?  How are you prone to do this?
• Do you see him as the Son of God who came into the world to die even for his enemies so that they could know God’s mercy and forgiveness and worship him in truth and humble service?
• Do you understand that anyone who rejects his authority will one day be crushed by him?

Psalm 90
Growing Old, Growing Wise
Sermon: Robin Boisvert
Solid Rock Church
November 30, 2008

Four Affirmations to help us grow in grace and faith:

1. God is eternal (verses 1-2)

• Verse 2—“From everlasting to everlasting, you are God.”  God is above time.  He sees the beginning the middle and the end all at once.

2. We are mortal (verses 3-6)

• We have a beginning and we end in death.  If we live long enough, the run up to death is called “aging.”
• Life is fleeting
• Verse 4—a four-hour watch in the night
• Verse 5—the life span of grass
• Verse 5—like a dream
• The fleeting nature of life can lead people to conclude that it is meaningless.  Shakespeare’s Macbeth—
Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
• Ecclesiastes 12:1-8 captures the vanity of growing old apart from grace and faith in God.  A wise youth remembers his creator so that when he grows old he will not be overtaken by the despair that can come from aging apart from God.

3. God is angry with us because of our sin (verses 7-11)

• Our biggest problem isn’t aging and death.  God is not mocked.  We reap what we sow.  If we sow to rejecting God’s authority, we will reap his judgment.
• Verse 8—God sees all our sins, even those we think are secret.
• The world would tell you to believe: “I am the master of my soul.”
• Paraphrasing DA Carson—Death is God’s determination to show we are not God.  Death limits our arrogance.
• Aging should humble us so we don’t trust ourselves and live life dependent on God.

4. God is faithful to his covenant promises (verses 12-17)

• The key to understanding this psalm is found in verse 12—If we understand the span of our lives according to God’s perspective, we ca live wisely and not fall into the despair of those who have no hope.
• Verse 13—He cries to “the LORD”—this psalm is written by Moses who encountered the LORD (Hebrew YHWH) at the burning bush in Exodus 3 and on the mountain in Exodus 34: 
o “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty…” (Ex 34:6-7)
o The LORD does not overlook sin, but he does provide a way to escape its penalties.  During the period of the Old Testament, he provided the shadow of substituting an animal sacrifice for the death a sinner deserves.  But the final and permanent deliverance from God’s wrath comes through the death of Jesus.
o We can look death in the eye and see the cross.
• And so we can age with hope.

Application:  Those aging should look in two directions

Look back to the generations that follow you. 

• Young people are watching.  Does your faith make a difference to you as you face the trials of old age?
• The perspective of age helps you to focus on what is really important.  Have you achieved this perspective so you can show the younger generation what really counts?
• You have a choice: to serve or to be lazy; to be cheerful or to complain; to be encouraging or to be critical.

Look forward.

• Our hope is with God in heaven.  Not a place of harps and clouds, which is nonsense, but a place of joy and fellowship with God and his people.
• Jonathan Edwards: Our “hearts should be in heaven.”
• We will meet with God if we trust in the gospel.
• Paul: “My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better” (Philippians 1:2

What Do You See?
Sermon: John Loftness
Solid Rock Church
November 23, 2008

When you look at Jesus, what do you see?

Americans have many differing ideas of who Jesus is. 

Here is how Jesus presents himself as recorded in Luke’s gospel.

1. Jesus is the suffering king who rises from the dead (Luke 18:31-34)

2. Jesus is the merciful king who delivers the miserable when they cry out to him (Luke 18:35-43)

3. Jesus is a king who seeks and saves people lost in their sins (Luke 19:1-11)

4. Jesus is the king who rewards faithful servants (Luke 19:11-27)

5. Jesus is king even over his death.  He weeps for those who reject him and invite his royal judgment (Luke 19:28-44)

How should we respond to this passage?

I’ve been challenged by it all week:

• Do I cry out to him for mercy in the miserable state of my sins and in my fallen human weakness?

• Do I respect Jesus as Zacchaeus did and respond with the same extravagant repentance and faith? 

• Do I serve by taking risks for the progress of his kingdom—knowing that he delights in my success and rewards his servants lavishly?

• Am I amazed at how he knew how his death would come and how he willingly embraced dying for me?

I’ve been asking him to make me a person continually amazed at his character and grace.

Another question I need to ask myself: Do I believe in an American Jesus and not the Jesus of the Bible?

• Do I have no anticipation of future judgment?

• Do I see him as a moral teacher, but not the Lord of all?

• Do I accept the center of his life and message—that my sins deserve his punishment and only through his death on my behalf can I escape his wrath—or do I think that my sins are not that big a deal and he’s o.k. with me just as I am?

Sermon: Curt Allen
Solid Rock Church
November 16, 2008

Some thoughts and questions to consider

Humble towards God (versus 9-14)

“WE ARE NEVER CALLED TO MEASURE OURSELVES BY THE ACTIONS OF MEN.
WE ARE CALLED TO MEASURE OURSELVES BY THE STANDARDS OF GOD!”

1. What does it mean to have a tax collector moment? when was the last time you had one? What should you do to cultivate having these moments?
2. How should Isaiah 66:1-2 inform the way we think about ourselves and about God?
3. In what ways do you see that you are not aware of mercy? How does the cross help us be aware of our sin but aware of His grace?

Dependent on God (versus 15-17)

“Not only do children have entrance into the kingdom of God, but children are in fact the pattern for entrance into the kingdom of God.”

1. What does child like faith in the Lord mean?
2. Why is God pleased if we enter the kingdom like a child?
3. What are attributes of a child that you need help growing in?

Willing to sacrifice everything for God (versus 18-30)

It is impossible for self-confident people try to gain entry in the kingdom on their own strength.
But it is possible for those who are willing to sacrifice everything for God.

1. What’s the difference between the coming kingdom of God and the kingdom of God in or hearts?
2. What areas have you been unwilling to sacrifice for God (personality, particular sin issue, relationship etc.)? Who knows about them?
3. What would it take to put God above all else?
4. Are there any areas in your life where Jesus dying on the cross to forgive sin has minimized your responsibility to grow in godliness?

Pray through Isaiah 66:1-2 and memorize

Sermon: Ben Wickner
Solid Rock Church
November 9, 2008

Some questions to evaluate our hearts

Pointed:

1. How should the idea that a life is centered on Christ and not on signs affect you? What should it mean for you and your family to have a life pointed in Christ?
2. When was the last time you had a conversation about the end times? In the sermon where were we instructed that an end times conversation should begin and end?

Prepared:

1. Why is there no need for code breaking or holding our bibles in one hand and newspapers in the other?
2. What, if any, is our motive for being prepared?
3. Why should the cross inform our ambitions?

Judgment:

1. Lot’s wife looked back and was turned into to salt. Why did that happen? What did that reveal about her?
2. If God was to return today, where do you see it being an interruption to your plans?

Prayer:

1. What is the connection between the judge answering the widow’s prayer and God answering ours?
2. what confidence should we have about God’s coming kingdom and how should that spill over to a confidence for prayer?