Category: Sermons

 Luke 24:44 He said to them, “This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.”

45 Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. 46 He told them, “This is what is written: The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, 47 and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. 48 You are witnesses of these things. 49 I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.”

Acts 1:1 In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach 2 until the day he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen. 3 After his suffering, he presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God. 4 On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. 5 For John baptized with[a] water, but in a few days you will be baptized with[b] the Holy Spirit.”
6 Then they gathered around him and asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”

7 He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

This morning as we consider the Resurrection of our magnificent Lord Jesus Christ I want to fix in your minds the relationship between the Resurrection of Christ and the Kingdom of God as well as the relationship of our resurrection in Christ and the Kingdom of God. The point I am laboring to sustain is that the Resurrection itself had a teleos … a purpose, and the purpose of the Resurrection was to provide the beginning point of the extension of the long anticipated Kingdom of God.

In getting started we want to define our terms.

When we talk about Resurrection we mean here;

“God’s act to raise, first Christ, and then his people from the dead to a bodily and glorified eternal life in the new creation.”

When we talk about the Kingdom of God here we mean;

“The total reign of God in the hearts and lives of men.”

What we will be laboring to demonstrate from the Scriptures is that there is the tightest and most intimate relationship between the idea of resurrection and the idea of the Kingdom of God. God’s people had for millennia been looking for the Kingdom of God and with the Resurrection of Jesus Christ the Kingdom has arrived as inaugurated.

This is so true that there is no understanding resurrection apart from its foundation for the presence of God’s Kingdom and there is no understanding of the present Kingdom of God that does not begin with Christ’s resurrection.

The manner in which we will accomplish this is by first noting the tight relationship between these two as seen by a top down overview the preaching of the disciples in the book of Acts. We will see there that in the book of Acts the two main themes of their preaching was the Resurrection and the Kingdom of God and further how that preaching was greeted by the opposing Kingdoms that it had arisen to challenge.

(((From there next week we will begin with Genesis and we will demonstrate, block upon block, how resurrection and the Kingdom of God were present as a motif in the OT – often as typologically presented and perhaps along the way we will learn somewhat of what this Kingdom was to look like.)))

So, having mapped out what we are doing and how we will be doing it we turn to the book of Luke-Acts.

 Lk. 24:45-47

45 Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. 46 He told them, “This is what is written: The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, 47 and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.

Here we find the resurrected Jesus describing Himself as the Messiah. By doing so He has identified Himself as a King. This great King opens the minds of the apostles to understand the Scriptures about the suffering, resurrection and proclamation of forgiveness of sins in His name. The Resurrected King intends to bring people into a Kingdom through the preaching of the Disciples whom Jesus declares “are his witnesses.”

The fact that this Kingship of Jesus – proven as it is by His resurrection – is global is seen in his command to the disciples that “the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. “

As we move to Acts we find the Kingdom of God once again being emphasized by the Resurrected King;

“He (Jesus) presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God. (Acts 1:3)

These verses together reveal that the resurrected savior centered his post-resurrection appearances on the Kingdom of God and that this Kingdom of God is not merely a provincial affair but is global in its outreach. The Kingdom of God led by His Mediatorial King covers the globe.

On this Resurrection Sunday we have again to realize that the Resurrected Christ is intent on the Christian faith being a global affair. This Global reach of the Christian faith is emphasized in Matt. 28 in the great commission where the disciples are commanded to disciple the nations and it will be emphasized again by the Resurrected Jesus when after being asked if he were now at that time going to restore the Kingdom to Israel tells His disciples in Acts 1:6;

7  “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

I submit to you that the Great King Jesus never intended for the Church to be on its heels in a defensive posture. The King of Kings and Lord of Lords upon being resurrected inaugurated a present Kingdom that was intended to be a reality that would cover the globe. To be sure resistance would be met – and the book of Acts tells of that resistance but the resistance to the ever present Kingdom, in the end, is always overcome.

This is a truth we need to be reminded of. The Resurrection means the Kingdom of God has been inaugurated. We are not waiting for the Kingdom of God to yet come in the some future time. In the resurrection of Christ the Kingdom has come. Now, that present Kingdom has also has a future component so that we are await the full bloom of that bud already present, but the Kingdom has come and is present about us.

We see the advance of that Kingdom throughout the books of Acts. The Church is formed as what we might call the armory of the Kingdom. It is in the Church that we come learn of the character of the King, of what the Kingdom looks like, and of what it means to disciple the nations but the Church is not the whole Kingdom of God but only its armory. In and with the Church we learn to put on the whole armor of God. In the Church we learn what it means to take every thought to make them obedient to the great King. In the Church we take every thought captive to make them obedient to Christ. In the Church we learn from the Scriptures that we have been translated from the Kingdom of darkness to the Kingdom of God’s dear Son whom He loves. So, the Church is instrumental to the Kingdom but it is not the whole of the Kingdom. The Kingdom extends beyond the walls of the Church so that eventually, over the course of time, the present Kingdom that the Resurrected Jesus brought out of the grave with Him covers the nations as the waters cover the sea.

The resurrected Jesus brings in the inaugurated Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of God finds its armory in the Church and from that armory the Kingdom expands into every area of life. Jesus is a great King who brings all domains under His sway and rule – and that more and more explicitly so as His Kingdom advances over time and in the context of the obedience of His people walking in terms of the King’s Law-Word.

We see the effect of that Kingdom that Jesus brings in affecting more and more areas. In the family realm we find in the NT that whole households are Baptized coming in as Households into the Kingdom of God. In Acts 17 the Resurrected Jesus and the Kingdom of God is such a threat to Thessalonica we read (and note the explicit relationship between Resurrection and Kingdom here;) In Thessalonica Paul

explains and demonstrates that the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead, saying, “This Jesus whom I preach to you is the Christ.”

This message is getting traction until Jews using evil men stir up resistance and go looking for Paul and Silas;

6But when they could not find Paul and Silas, they dragged Jason and some other brothers before the city officials, shouting, “These men who have turned the world upside down have now come here, 7and Jason has welcomed them into his home. They are all defying Caesar’s decrees, saying that there is another king, named Jesus!”

Did you catch that? They come preaching the Resurrected Christ and everyone understands them to be preaching another King besides Caesar … the great resurrected King Jesus.

In the social-order realm there in Athens in Acts 17 we find Paul as the Resurrected King’s ambassador speaking to the Athenians about their Idols that are governing their social-order and culture and we see Paul by use of Scripture and Holy Logic tearing down those Idols that the Kingdom of God may advance over the social-order of the Athenians. In Acts 19 we find the Kingdom of God being a threat to the Economic order of the Ephesians as the presence of the witness of Christ seeks to over turn the Economic foundation of the city pinned, as it was in the making of idols; As I read this note the economic overtones in the passage;

23 About that time there arose a great disturbance about the Way. 24 A silversmith named Demetrius, who made silver shrines of Artemis, brought in a lot of business for the craftsmen there. 25 He called them together, along with the workers in related trades, and said: “You know, my friends, that we receive a good income from this business. 26 And you see and hear how this fellow Paul has convinced and led astray large numbers of people here in Ephesus and in practically the whole province of Asia. He says that gods made by human hands are no gods at all. 27 There is danger not only that our trade will lose its good name, but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis will be discredited; and the goddess herself, who is worshiped throughout the province of Asia and the world, will be robbed of her divine majesty.”

The Kingdom of the Resurrected King is chronicled in the book of Acts and wherever the preaching of the Kingdom goes the Resurrected King and His law-Word is preached and wherever the Resurrected King and His Kingdom is Preached there you find conflict and conversion.

On this resurrection Sunday we continue to preach the Resurrected King who inaugurates the Kingdom of God and we continue to receive the same kind of reward that those who preached the resurrection and the Kingdom received in the 1^st century.

But we have gotten ahead of ourselves haven’t we? Back to the earlier book of Acts and its testimony that the preaching of the Resurrection of Christ and the Kingdom of God go together like peas and carrots.

In Acts 3 where the Apostles heal the lame man they heal the long lame beggar in the name of the resurrected Christ;

 “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.” 7 Taking him by the right hand, he helped him up, and instantly the man’s feet and ankles became strong. 8 He jumped to his feet and began to walk. Then he went with them into the temple courts, walking and jumping, and praising God

This miracle is present in the Acts text to demonstrate the presence of the Kingdom. The thing we need to keep in mind here is that the OT itself connected healing and wholeness with the Kingdom of God;

In Isaiah 35:5-6, for example, it says:

And when he (Messiah) comes, he will open the eyes of the blind
and unplug the ears of the deaf.
The lame will leap like a deer,
and those who cannot speak will sing for joy!
Springs will gush forth in the wilderness,
and streams will water the wasteland.

By this healing ministry in the name of the resurrected Jesus, the Apostles demonstrate that the Kingdom of God has arrived and the expectation is that people will bow to the resurrected King in whose name and by whose authority these miracles are being done.

The thing we want to emphasize though is the Resurrected Christ means the presence of the Kingdom and the presence of the Kingdom means that God is ruling now through His and our great mediatorial King. That same King who resurrected from the grave and who inaugurated the Kingdom of God remains the great King in 2025 and that Kingdom He inaugurated remains a present Kingdom now.

Even before we get to this healing in Acts 3 the same connection between Resurrection and Kingdom is spoken up in Acts 2. There we learn that because the King of God’s Kingdom – Jesus – is alive He now reigns as the Father’s mediatorial King.

Peter proves this conclusion for us in his very first post resurrection sermon in Acts 2

In that Pentecost sermon, Peter declares that when David wrote Psalm 16:27 he was prophesying about Jesus’ resurrection as the true king of God’s kingdom,

“he (David) foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption. This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses”

(Acts 2:31–32).

Peter reaches his crescendo a few versus later when he exclaims,

Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified (Acts 2:36).

The idea that God has made Jesus Christ includes the idea of King and God has confirmed Jesus to be Lord and Christ by the resurrection.

Jesus’ resurrection proves he is the rightful mediatorial king of God’s kingdom. And if the king is here, the kingdom of God is here. King Jesus conquered death and lives forever. And because he lives forever, he reigns forever. And because he reigns forever, his kingdom, God’s kingdom, will never end. As the king goes, so goes the kingdom.

So, we see that from the book of Acts that the resurrection of Jesus is fused together with the message of the Kingdom? Not enough evidence yet for y’all? Well we turn to Acts 13 where once again we see these twin motifs of Resurrection and Kingdom walking together. There Paul says that “those of Jerusalem put Jesus to death, (26-29)” and goes on to say “But God raised Him from the dead (vs. 30).

Paul continues on in that passage speaking of the Resurrection citing Psalm 2:7 and Isaiah 55:3 and then again from David’s 16^th Psalm; “You will not allow your Holy One to see corruption.” But in that Sermon from Acts 13 we also read about the Kingship of the Resurrected one

23 From this David’s seed, according to the promise, God raised up for Israel a Savior—Jesus

The mentioning of David’s seed reminds us of God’s promise that David would always have his descendant upon the throne. The reference to Jesus as “Savior” also points to a deliverer – that is a King who would rescue His people.

Then in vs. 38-39 in this sermon of Paul from Acts 13 the Holy Spirit fuses the idea of resurrection and Kingship together by preaching;

“Therefore let it be known to you, brethren, that through Him forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you, and through Him everyone who believes is freed from all things from which you could not be freed through the Law of Moses” (vs. 38-39).

The resurrected Savior and Kingly seed of David brings freedom from sin and brings in the inaugurated Kingdom.

These are only a few places in Acts where we see the marriage of Resurrection and the Kingdom of God. If one goes to Acts 5 we hear these words of Peter upon being told to shut up about the message. Listen for the combination of Christ as Prince and the Resurrection;

29 But Peter and the other apostles answered and said: “We ought to obey God rather than men. 30 The God of our fathers raised up Jesus whom you murdered by hanging on a tree. 31 Him God has exalted to His right hand to be Prince and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. 32 And we are His witnesses to these things, and so also is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey Him.”

We have only hit the highlights this morning of the theme of the preaching of the early Church. That preaching was that the Resurrected Christ was the great King of the Line of David whose resurrection confirmed the presence of the Kingdom of God. The Resurrection of Christ means the Kingdom has come.

This present Kingdom has come has inaugurated and by that we mean that there is a fullness of the Kingdom that remains yet to arrive. But the Kingdom inaugurated means there is a immediacy … a nowness to the Kingdom of God. A nowness that could not be a reality if it were not for the resurrection of Jesus the Christ.

Because the Kingdom of God is inaugurated by Christ it is not something that we are still waiting for to arrive at some yet future point. Christ has brought in the Kingdom and we have been, as Paul says, translated from the Kingdom of Darkness to the Kingdom of Gods’ dear Son whom He loves. We are in this Kingdom now. We have been united with the Resurrected one as Paul teaches in Romans 6 and being united with the Resurrected one we too are now living resurrected lives in the newness of the Father’s Kingdom. Unlike those who know not Christ we are not dead men walking but we are the resurrected saints who put off the old man and put on the new man created in Christ.

This Kingdom of Christ is an expansive Kingdom that is not limited to the confines of the Church. As a mustard seed the inaugurated Kingdom of God expands and expands. Like the cut out Rock in Daniel the Kingdom of God smashes all other Kingdoms that resist it.

As we have seen in the book of Acts the declaration of the Resurrected Christ and the presence of the Kingdom challenged political alignments, social-order climates, family life, and economic arrangements. The Resurrected Christ inaugurated a Kingdom that was totalistic in its expanse. This Kingdom of Christ that the Resurrected Christ inaugurates finds the Church as its armory for the equipping of the saints, finds the church as the Kingdom hospital for the saints where the cure of the Gospel can be found for those who know they are sinners, and finds the church as a gymnasium of the Kingdom where the Saints are built up in Christ. The Church is all this in the Kingdom but the Church can not be identified solely with the Kingdom. The Kingdom of God impacts every area of life where God’s people are called to be salt and light. The Church is the advance guard of the Kingdom and it knows that the gates of Hell cannot prevail against it. Because the inaugurated Church is present with the Resurrected Christ we can confidently pray;

Thy Kingdom come
Thy will be done
On earth
As it is in heaven

The resurrection of the King has reached us… has caught us up in its tornado force gales. We now have been resurrected with Christ as Ephesians 2 teaches:

Eph. 2:4But because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in our trespasses. It is by grace you have been saved! 6And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus,

So not only has Christ been resurrected and is the mediatorial King of the Kingdom of God but it is also the case that by the power of the Holy Spirit those who have been irresistably called by Christ and who own Christ likewise have been resurrected with Christ so as to now live the inaugurated resurrected life.

And we are now prophets, priests, and kings under sovereign God. We are those who herald Christ and command all men everywhere to repent and kiss the King lest he be angry and they perish in the way.

This is the preaching of the book of Acts and the Scriptures and this is what Resurrection Day means. As you can see it is both comfort and summons. Comfort because nothing can undo what God has done in the Resurrection of Christ. Comfort because Christ has named us and owned us and thus nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.

But it also is a summons… a summons of all God’s people to contend for the Crown Rights of Jesus Christ in every area of life. This is no area … no academic discipline … no career calling .. where this resurrected King does not point to saying … MINE. Will we live in terms of the Resurrected King’s Kingdom?

There are any number of people in the Christian Church who will not agree with this message. They will insist that I have what they call “a over-realized eschatology.” In other words they will accuse me of seeing that the Kingdom is too present now while not appreciating enough the not-yetness of the Kingdom. To such people I can only say that I think the real problem is that your eschatology is too under-realized. You do not appreciate the transformative effects of Biblical Christianity once it takes hold of people. You do not understand the intent of what it means for the Resurrected Christ to rule until all things are brought under His feet. You are not mindful of the expansive power of the Kingdom – of how big that mustard tree will become .. of how a little leaven leavens through the whole loaf. You have not plumbed the meaning of “the gates of Hell shall not prevail.” You have underestimated the desire of the Resurrected King that the Nations should be discipled. To those who say my eschatology is over-realized all I can urge you to ruminate upon the meaning of our praying…

“Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

Luke 19:28 When He had said this, He went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. 29 And it came to pass, when He drew near to [a]Bethphage and Bethany, at the mountain called Olivet, that He sent two of His disciples, 30 saying, “Go into the village opposite you, where as you enter you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever sat. Loose it and bring it here. 31 And if anyone asks you, ‘Why are you loosing it?’ thus you shall say to him, ‘Because the Lord has need of it.’ ”

32 So those who were sent went their way and found it just as He had said to them. 33 But as they were loosing the colt, the owners of it said to them, “Why are you loosing the colt?”

34 And they said, “The Lord has need of him.” 35 Then they brought him to Jesus. And they threw their own clothes on the colt, and they set Jesus on him. 36 And as He went, many spread their clothes on the road.

37 Then, as He was now drawing near the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works they had seen, 38 saying:

“ ‘Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord!’
Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”

39 And some of the Pharisees called to Him from the crowd, “Teacher, rebuke Your disciples.”
40 But He answered and said to them, “I tell you that if these should keep silent, the stones would immediately cry out.”

John 12:12-19
Mark 11:1-11
Matthew 21:1-11
Luke 19:28-44

As we consider this account we remember the earlier words of John the Baptist announcing Jesus as the Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world. With His entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday Jesus is in the chute, so to speak, of going to the Cross where He will take away the sins of His people. This marks the beginning of Holy Week and we call it Holy week because the events of this week all lead our Lord to the Cross.

The Palm Sunday account is unique in Scripture inasmuch as it is mentioned in all four of the Gospels. It is not common for one event to reported in all four of the Gospels. The fact that Palm Sunday is recorded in all four communicates its centrality to the Gospel account. With this action Jesus the Christ is purposely fulfilling one of the prophecies of the OT.

“Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King is coming to you; He is just and having salvation, Lowly and riding on a donkey, A colt, the foal of a donkey.

Zechariah 9

Jesus rides in on a donkey because in this ancient culture Kings would ride horses during times of war but during times of peace Kings would ride donkeys. The Messiah Jesus comes to His people in humility to offer peace and His ride into town would have been understood in just that way.

Consider I Kings 1:33 where Solomon @ David’s direction rides to his anointing as King on a donkey;

33 And the king said to them, “Take with you the servants of your lord and have Solomon my son ride on my own mule, and bring him down to Gihon.

So, while this entering into Jerusalem on a foal of a donkey might well seem strange to us it was pregnant with meaning to the folks of that culture. The King has come and His terms are peace.

As the Lord Christ descends to enter the Holy City the crowd spreads their garments on the road just as the disciples had used their garments to cover the back of the foal of the donkey that Jesus rides in upon. There is a symbolism going on here. Jesus is being given what we would call a red carpet treatment. The Jewish officials of the city have refused to greet Christ with honor and so in a kind of populist uprising the rank and file of the city provide for Jesus their own royal entry. They do this because they do recognize that their Messiah King is in their midst. This greeting is a royal greeting. The kind of greeting one would expect a King to receive from His people.

And this royal greeting is proper because Jesus Himself is self-consciously entering as a King. In this pericope not only is the Zechariah 9 passage in play but less obviously so is the fact that Jesus is fulfilling King Jehu’s anointing as King in II Kings 9. There we read;

13 Then each man hastened to take his garment and put it under him (Jehu) on the top of the steps; and they blew trumpets, saying, “Jehu is king!” II Kings 9:13

In this entry, planned by Jesus to announce His Kingship, Jesus is the greater Jehu. Jehu rode to his kingship over his followers clothes to destroy the temple of the enemy Baal (II Kings 9:11-13; 10:18-28) the entry of Jesus upon the garments of those hailing Him will end with the making obsolete the vaunted Jewish Temple in Jerusalem.

The antithesis seems to be clear in this passage. We will either be those laying down our cloaks in the honor of the King or we will be those who in opposition to the King try to silence His praises.

When it comes to the life of Jesus theologians talk about how in His incarnation Jesus’ life goes from humiliation to exaltation. That is to say, that as you track the live of Jesus you see all humiliation reaching crescendo in the Cross. After the Cross then we talk about His exaltation beginning with His Resurrection, followed by His ascension and then His session at the Right hand of the Father. Phil. 2:5-11 traces this humiliation to exaltation.

When we come to Palm Sunday we might think that we are seeing part of the exaltation of the Lord Jesus. There is all this raucous celebration. Jesus is purposefully arriving as the King of the Jews. He is being received as the King of the Jews by the hoi polloi.

But there is something going on here that Matthew brings to our attention of this event that suggests that what we read of here is not part of Christ’s exaltation but is instead part of his humiliation.

Luke’s account tells us that while all this exuberance is going on Jesus the Christ reveals by His tears that this is not about His exaltation but His humiliation. Listen to the text;

41 Now as He drew near, He saw the city and wept over it, 42 saying, “If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes.

This really is a study on contrast. On the one hand you have the populist uprising, on the other hand you have the city Fathers going around insisting on shushing everybody, and finally you have Jesus weeping.

But why do we say this is part of His humiliation?

Well, first we know, and Jesus knows, where this is all going. Remember, earlier Luke had recorded;

Now it came to pass, when the time had come for Him to be received up, that He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem, Luke 9:11

He set His face like flint to go to Jerusalem because that is where the path to His humiliation apex lies. Jesus knows that the apex of His humiliation lays yet before Him in and at the Cross and this celebratory mood is only a well intended but misplaced enthusiasm. Misplaced because these folks want all the glory but none of the Cross. They want to be delivered, not from their sins, but from Roman tyranny. The delirious crowds have identified His office of King but they have misinterpreted it. He has not come as King to slay the Romans. He has come as King to be slain. The heights of exaltation cannot be reached without going through the depths of humiliation.

With this in mind it is significant that the Palm Sunday texts explicitly identify two of Jesus offices.

In Luke we hear;

“ ‘Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord!’
Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”

In Matthew there is this exchange;

10 And when He had come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved, saying, “Who is this?” 11 So the multitudes said, “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth of Galilee.”

So this delirious crowd understood that Jesus came as King and they identified Him as a prophet but what they couldn’t own that which made them fall away when the tide turned was the fact that Jesus came as a Priest who would offer Himself as a sacrifice. They could go all hyper happy at the idea of King and Prophet but the notion of Christ as Priest who would offer Himself as a sacrifice for sins was something they only understood after the resurrection.

Jesus is coming as Prophet, Priest, and King. The crowds drop the Priest part and misinterprets the prophet and king truths.

So, all of this is humiliation for our Lord Christ. It was like having a party thrown in your honor when all along the people who are throwing the party are completely clueless of why it is you are to be honored.

Next this is humiliation for Jesus to see how they were bending and twisting the royal word of the King – the scriptures. The people use the texts and psalms in the praise they are giving to Jesus but the crowds are willing to accept the prophecy only as it seems to fit with their preconceived notions.

Listen to the way that Reformed theologian Klaus Schilder put this;

“Jesus therefore suffers acutely now…. “

And the “now” here refers to Jesus observing the frenzy of praise.

“the false interpreters of Scriptures are concentrated upon Him. This distortion is an earmark of that basic sin which is leading Jerusalem to its grave. Israel wants to shed its light upon Him, but He must illuminate Israel…. Whoever looks at the Christ in his own light withdraws himself from the influence from Jesus through the Word. Those who do this excludes himself from that influence, though He shout “Hosanna” a thousand times. To see Christ in our own light is to sin terribly, for it is to deny Him the right to minister His threefold office to us.”

We talk about this often here but the humiliation of Jesus here is discovered in the fact that this crowd is reinterpreting Jesus through their own sinful prism. They are making Jesus in their own image. They are shouting Hosannas but the Hosannas they are shouting too is to a Jesus who is not the Jesus who is before them, but a Jesus they have constructed in their heads.

And in that Jesus suffers the humiliation. How long had He been among them and yet they misinterpreted both His person, mission, and the Scriptures that spoke of Him? They could never accept a suffering servant Messiah. In this same vain Peter rebuked Him when Jesus spoke of going to the Cross.

21 From that time forth began Jesus to shew 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. 22 Then Peter took him, and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall not be unto thee.

So, for this crowd there is no room for the Christ and no room for the Cross. Instead, they reinterpret Jesus, twisting the Scripture, thus committing linguistic deception and in that there is humiliation for Jesus the Christ.
As we mentioned just a moment ago, they want the Jesus that brings them all the glory. They are praising Jesus for the carnal good that He is going to do them. None of this praise is about praising God, but it really is about praising of self. Hosanna to God in the highest because of how I or we will be advantaged by the Messiah setting us on high.

You see they want the power but not the justice of God. They want the glory but not the suffering servant. Jesus has come into Jerusalem to satisfy God’s justice. God’s holiness has been set aside and through the centuries God winked at and overlooked man’s wickedness but now in this arrival of Jesus in Jerusalem we have the one who will do the Priestly work of offering up Himself to meet God’s justice against our sin. Yet, all that these crowds are crowing about is how the might of God is going to advantage them. There is not a word of praise for the one who will satisfy God’s justice, fulfill the righteous requirements of the law, and turn away the Father’s wrath. Not one word of praise for the one who will bring them peace with God by reconciling them to God through His bloody redemptive work on the Cross.

All kinds of praise for the might/power of God for what it can do for them but not a word about the rights of God against rebellious man in his sin.

And because of this Jesus weeps and the valley of humiliation continues on to the Cross. This is not exaltation. This is humiliation painted in cheerful colors.

On this score note the fickleness of this populist movement. Here they are frenzied for Jesus because of what He might do for them and yet only in a few days when Jesus is clearly being set forth as the one who satisfies God’s justice all they can scream is “Crucify Him.”

And we have to yet speak of the more wretched in this account. The scribes and the Pharisees are more wretched because they sin against a better knowledge here.

Here again we see the humiliation of Jesus the Christ.

There is humiliation also to be found in the enemies of Christ here. We know from the Scripture that already this crew was planning on Killing Christ and this due to the fact that the rise of the popularity of Jesus the Christ meant the diminishing of their influence. Just prior to this entry Jesus had raised the dead (Lazarus). Because of this the populist movement was in high gear and the Jewish deep state had to do something to erase this threat to their power. The rise of Jesus of Nazareth meant the removal from power of the establishment. So, Palm Sunday was very political;

John records the political side of all this;

“Then the chief priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the Sanhedrin [their supreme court]. ‘What are we accomplishing?’ they asked. ‘Here is this man performing many signs. If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and then the Romans will come and take away both our temple and our nation’ John 11

And so Jesus must bear the humiliation of being resisted by those very people who were supposed to be the shepherds of Israel… supposed to be those people who should’ve been His greatest supporters.

But they were too interested in power and they too, like the crowds, missed the purpose of His coming, even though they ended up being used by God to be chief aids in the accomplishment of the Messiah’s mission.

It may be that the words from the Pharisees came in the context of all this rejoicing being within site of the Roman Citadel Antonia where the Roman garrison was housed in Jerusalem. Rome was always especially on alert during the religious festivals held in Jerusalem. And I can see the Pharisees urging Jesus to hush his disciples while looking with worry that the citadel might empty itself to forcefully disburse this crowd.

Jesus responds by saying … Look, if these should be silent a stone choir would raise their voice in praise. Even the stones would cry out … inanimate creation would burst forth in praise. It may be here that Christ is recalling the prophecy of Habakkuk.

“The stone shall cry out of the wall, and the beam out of the timber shall answer it”

Despicable men and yet how often have we been mute about the glories of Christ when we should be signing His praises. How often have we been silent when we should have sang like stones?

And so again we see humiliation. He is the great King. He is worthy of all this praise and more and yet He has to deal with the leadership who should be leading the praises and yet are doing all they can to shut this down.

This humiliation is an ironic thing. God uses these very men who are committed to doing all they can to grind Jesus into utter humiliation and yet it is by their work of opposing Jesus and by ushering Him into His crescendo of humiliation in the Cross that His exaltation is arrived at.

This is the eucatastrophe of the humiliation. In God’s providence the catastrophic visits the Messiah and yet out of this catastrophic the victory of God is achieved. Covering Christ with this humiliation the enemy aims at victory but through and because of this humiliation the catastrophe of the Cross is overcome in the exaltation of Christ – an exaltation that means that God’s justice is upheld, God’s people are delivered, and the age to come continues to overcome this present wicked age.

All this humiliation and yet at the end of it, it serves the purposes of exalting Christ.
The humiliation around Palm Sunday reminds me of the hymn we sang yesterday at Ross’s funeral;

Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take;
The clouds ye so much dread
Are big with mercy and shall break
In blessings on your head.

1. Judge not the Lord by feeble sense,
   But trust Him for His grace;
   Behind a frowning providence
   He hides a smiling face.

    

2. His purposes will ripen fast,
   Unfolding every hour;
   The bud may have a bitter taste,
   But sweet will be the flow’r.

    

3. Blind unbelief is sure to err
   And scan His work in vain;
   God is His own interpreter,
   And He will make it plain.

¹⁷ Command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty, nor to trust in uncertain riches but in the living God, who gives us richly all things to enjoy. ¹⁸ Let them do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to give, willing to share, ¹⁹ storing up for themselves a good foundation for the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life. 

²⁰ O Timothy! Guard what was committed to your trust, avoiding the profane and ^[f]idle babblings and contradictions of what is falsely called knowledge— ²¹ by professing it some have strayed concerning the faith.

After the brief excursus (a digression in a narrative) we examined last week Paul returns to the issue of wealth. When reading St. Paul we need to be aware of these inspired bunny trails that St. Paul will go on. It is a habit of his. Some people call this habit “a flight of ideas,” and such a habit often is characteristic to highly intelligent people. They will be going along on a particular point and they will say something that reminds them of another subject and off they go pursuing that subject for a while before returning to where they left. It’s the whole “squirrel” thing. Paul does that here.

He was talking about the problems of money earlier and the urgent necessity for Timothy to flee this inordinate love of money led him into a digression in the narrative outburst, first concerning what Timothy should be pursuing and then concerning the greatest of God.

Now, however having expressed himself on that brief tangent Paul returns to the issue of money.

I hope you have noticed how often this issue of money has come up in our walk through 1st Timothy. Sometimes it is explicit as we have twice in chapter 6 but more often it has been implicit. Remember;

^{I Tim. 2:9} in like manner also, that the women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with propriety and ^[e]moderation, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or costly clothing, ¹⁰ but, which is proper for women professing godliness, with good works

There the problem with wealth was poking through in the uppity way women were dressing.

And then there was the I Tim. 5

⁸ But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.

In that context the problem with wealth was that it was being hoarded to the neglect of providing for extended members of the family.

So, this issue of money is a repeated theme in I Timothy, along with the theme of the miscreant false teachers upsetting the Church. Even with that though there is overlap as we saw last week. These miscreant false teachers were seeking to grift off the church in order to line their pockets.

With that all as background St. Paul tees up the issue of wealth, money, and responsibility once again.

The Holy Spirit begins with the attitude that wealth can often work in those who have wealth. Paul starts with a negative by saying if you have wealth “do not be haughty.” We today might say “don’t act snooty,” or “don’t act condescendingly.”

ὑψηλοφρονεῖν (hypsēlophronein)
Verb – Present Infinitive Active
Strong’s 5309: To be high-minded, proud. From a compound of hupselos and phren; to be lofty in mind, i.e. Arrogant.

Clearly, if this disposition were not a problem in the Ephesus Church St. Paul would not have warned against it.

We should note here that the fact that Paul can raise this issue, suggests if we read between the lines, that this was a have and have not congregation. There were the rich who are being told “do not be haughty,” and likewise there must have been the not rich who were being visited with the rich folks “haughtiness.”

In light of this it is interesting that while the Holy Spirit calls for humility among the Rich he does not inveigh against them simply because they have wealth. Their problem is not their wealth. Their problem is that they think wealth allows them to look down on those without wealth. Paul does not call for a forced wealth redistribution program within the Church as headed up by Timothy. Rather the Holy Spirit calls the wealthy Christians to become familiar with the Christian under-estimated and seldom practiced virtue of humility. He doesn’t browbeat them for having wealth … something that has been present too often in church history. He corrects them by telling them “do not be haughty.”

This problem of haughtiness is a product of pride and remember pride along w/ unbelief is the motherlode of all sin. We, as fallen humans, have a predisposition to be haughty about any combination of things.

O Spirit of Christ grant us all grace to recognize how we each are haughty in our lives towards others. Grant each of us the humility to have this mind in us with was also in Christ Jesus whose whole life was one of humble service. Thanks be to God that Christ paid for the sin of our haughtiness and gave us the Spirit of Christ to put off the old man of pretend superiority and put on the new man of humility towards others.

The first negative word on this disposition was “do not be haughty.” A second negative word is given when St. Paul says that rich folks ought not to trust in uncertain riches. Here Paul is echoing God’s Word;

Proverbs 23:5 When you glance at wealth, it disappears, for it makes wings for itself and flies like an eagle to the sky.

Psalm 62:10 If your riches increase, do not set your heart upon them.

So, God’s Word does not condemn being rich but it does instruct the rich how to be rich. Hold on to your wealth with a open hand. Understand that your riches are always going to be uncertain.

We all should hear well here. Understanding that here in America there exists different levels of wealth, it is still the case that all Americans are, as compared to world history, and compared to the world today we are all wealthy and being wealthy we ought not to trust in uncertain riches.

Instead we are to richly enjoy all things that God has given us.

Notice the play on words here … “riches are uncertain,” but “God gives us richly all things to enjoy. 

Note here that there is no evil found in enjoying the rich things that God gives us, and that includes wealth. Everything is to be received w/ thanksgiving.

From the negative proscriptions that the Holy Spirit gives

-Do not be haughty (Violation of 6th Commandment)
-Do not trust in uncertain riches  (Violation of 1st Commandment)

St. Paul, inspired by the Spirit of the living God gives positive proscriptions;

– Let them do good
– That they be rich in good works

God has blessed the wealthy that they in turn may be a blessing to those around them. Of course, we understand this in light of what we have learned elsewhere in I Timothy. This doing good and being rich in good works follows the ordo amoris (order of affections) pattern that we find in I Tim. 5:8. Should it be the case that God blesses us with wealth we need to look around us in our families and local church first to be rich in good works. These are the “neighbors” in our lives that God has placed in our lives that we dare not pass by.

Of course the idea in this passage is that the Christian rich have a responsibility to not hoard. Their wealth ought to be a blessing to others in need in their Christian families or Christian churches or Christian communities, depending on the level of wealth we are talking about.

The Holy Spirit correlates the doing of good now and the being rich in good works now and the readiness to give and share in this present age with realities for them in the time to come.

¹⁸ Let them do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to give, willing to share, ¹⁹ storing up for themselves a good foundation for the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life.

The text clearly communicates that there is continuity in the way we are rich in good works, ready to give, and willing to share here and our future after this life.

Now, the prosperity / health & Wealth preachers have taken this truth and debauched it so as to teach that people need to send in money to them and then they can be sure that God will return their investment. People like Kenneth Copeland and other Word-Faith grifters have turned this idea into a way to get rich. The “Hole you give through is the hole you get through” is the spiel and so if you want to be rich you will send in your money to them and God will bless you with a greater return. May God have mercy on them.

What is clearly being called for here is generosity. Another Christian virtue. It is the widow’s mite given. It is;

⁹ Lay(ing) not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: ²⁰ But lay(ing) up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: ²¹ For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

What is being called for here is seen elsewhere in Paul’s corpus when he says to the Corinthians;

II Cor. 9:3 — For I know your eagerness to help, and I have been boasting to the Macedonians that since last year you in Achaia were prepared to give. And your zeal has stirred most of them to do likewise.

In his Epistles, particularly in 2 Corinthians but also elsewhere, Paul often boasts about the generosity of the churches. Here he is again enjoining the Christian virtue of generosity.

I want to tread lightly here because I have seen that through the years this congregation has been a generous people. Still, we have need, all of us, to examine ourselves on the issue of generosity. Are we storing up for ourselves a good foundation for the time to come via our generosity here and now?

We learn thus that the way we live now has eschatological impact on the life to come. While doing good for others the rich can simultaneously store up or lay up for themselves a good foundation for the future age to come.

What excites me about this passage is to see the continuity that will exist between this life and the life to come. The way we live now will impact the way we live in the eschatological state. This is inspiring to the end of being a generous people.

Before turning to the final charge we want to note how all this is consistent w/ Paul’s teaching throughout his corpus. What Paul says to the rich through Timothy — live with a view of the age to come —   is what he says to Timothy in 11ff

¹² Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses.

This idea of living with a view of the age to come is what Paul has said of himself elsewhere;

^{I Cor. 9:24} Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may ^[a]obtain it.²⁵ And everyone who competes for the prize^[b]is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown.

This idea of living with a view of the time to come is what Paul speaks to others;

^{Gal. 6:7} Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. ⁸ Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.

Good works thus are seen as demonstrative of the reality of faith and salvation and are present when eternal life is received and is to be received. Jesus himself taught about the the godly and generous use of wealth, which stores up treasure in heaven. Similarly our Lord Christ taught that good works show that a person has an indestructible foundation (Mt. 7:25). What Scripture everywhere teaches is that one who has accepted God’s grace in justification must evidence salvation in one’s life. This is not salvation by works. This is works because of the grace of God in forgiveness. It is the cry of the soul unchained from the accusation of the law to walk in gratitude for God’s great grace given in Christ.

Paul now pivots to a final injunction to his young padawan;

²⁰ O Timothy! Guard what was committed to your trust, avoiding the profane and ^[f]idle babblings and contradictions of what is falsely called knowledge— ²¹ by professing it some have strayed concerning the faith.

One reason I love the Scriptures is the earnestness you find throughout. The inspired writers are not blase men. When they write their pens are fire and their thoughts are gasoline and the result is explosive.

Note the earnestness here. The passion. The depth of expression.

This is a plea. This is a command.

The idea of guarding here communicates a diligence that requires work. The need for it suggests that there are those who would abscond with that is to be guarded. What has been committed to Timothy’s trust is the Gospel of Jesus Christ, but it is the Gospel of Jesus Christ considered in its broadest meaning. What has been committed to Timothy we might say today is “Biblical Christianity.” Here Timothy is told to guard. Elsewhere he was told to fight the good fight. We find all these militaristic masculine terms. It’s enough to send a WOKE feminist “Christian” screaming.

Paul is asking of Timothy what he himself spent his life doing and all only for the desire to hear the “well-done thou good and faithful servant.”

And so the Christian life is for the conscientious clergy a matter of being at war. Defending. Fighting. Guarding. Refuting. Correcting. Discipling. All that God’s Word might continue to be seen as glorious as it never ceases to be.

Fellow believers, inasmuch as we have all been called by God to the Christian life, and inasmuch as we are each and all of us Prophets, Priests, and Kings under Sovereign God we likewise are called, along with Timothy, to guard what has been committed to our trust.

Paul makes reference again to the Gnostics who are inside the Church. The counsel is to avoid their teachings, which I take to mean to “not be ensnared by them.” Remember my friends, the effect of what these Gnostics were doing was to empty the Gospel of being the Gospel. Wherever you find men emptying the Gospel of being the Gospel there the battle lines are drawn and there the battle must be engaged.

I personally find the mention of “contradictions” to be fascinating if only because I have been taught and trained that to locate the contradiction is to locate the vain babbling. Vain babbling is always characterized by the presence of contradiction.

Paul reminds Timothy that the worst thing imaginable has occurred because of these vain babblers… and that worst thing imaginable is that some have strayed from the faith.

My friends …. in that final day, I want to meet with you in heaven. To that end may none of us ever stray from our undoubted catholic Christian faith.

May we all together guard the faith.

It needs guardians.

I Tim. 6 Let as many bondservants as are under the yoke count their own masters worthy of all honor, so that the name of God and His doctrine may not be blasphemed. ² And those who have believing masters, let them not despise them because they are brethren, but rather serve them because those who are benefited are believers and beloved. Teach and exhort these things.

The Fact of Slavery in Ephesus

In 1st century Rome, slavery was a deeply ingrained part of society, where slaves were considered property with virtually no legal rights, often subjected to harsh labor conditions, and could be punished severely by their masters, although some skilled slaves could enjoy better treatment and even eventually gain freedom through a process called “manumission.”.

Key points about 1st century slavery in the Roman world
Legal status:

Slaves were considered property under Roman law, meaning their owners had absolute power over them, including the ability to sell, punish, or even kill them without legal repercussions.
Sources of slaves:

Most slaves were captured during military conquests, with prisoners of war often being enslaved. Other sources included debt bondage, abandoned children, or people sold by their families.

Slavery was very important in the ancient city of Ephesus during the Roman period. Whether in the countryside or the city, slaves bore the economic burden of society. In Ephesus, as in the whole Roman Empire, slaves were acquired primarily by selling prisoners of war. The slave trade became a very large volume of trade, especially in the 1st and 2nd centuries BC. The Cilician pirates were the ones who were engaged in stealing and selling people in the broadest sense.

It has also been seen that those who could not pay their debts in the city or the countryside sold their wives and children as slaves in return for debt.

Work roles:

Slaves were employed in a wide range of jobs, including agriculture (fields, vineyards), mining, construction, domestic service, manufacturing, transportation, and even skilled professions like medicine or accounting depending on their abilities.

Treatment variations:

While many slaves experienced harsh conditions, including poor food, inadequate housing, and brutal punishments, skilled slaves could sometimes live relatively comfortable lives and even gain some autonomy.

Manumission:

Slaves could be freed by their masters through a process called manumission, which could happen through a formal legal act or informally. Freed slaves (freedmen) often maintained ties with their former masters.

Social impact:

Slavery was so prevalent in Roman society that it significantly impacted the economy and social structure, with a large portion of the population being enslaved

Slaves always paid for their master’s displeasure with punishment. The forms and methods of punishment were very different. The greatest danger to the master was that the slave thought of running away and taking revenge on his master. But the law made escape virtually impossible. Anyone who helped the slave escape or hid the slave was punished.

If the slave managed to escape and was later captured, he was often driven into the arena in front of wild animals. If the slave tried to take revenge on his master, the penalty was death with his entire family. The customary death penalty was executed by crucifixion.

The Fact of Slavery in the Bible

Slavery is regulated in the Bible and so can be Biblical. Biblical slavery is Biblical.

God gave Abraham slaves.
God gave Job slaves.

God’s 10 Commandments prohibit coveting a neighbor’s male or female bondservant.

Onesimus was owned by Philemon and Paul returned Onesimus to Philemon begging for clemency for the slave. Paul never tells Philemon that slavery is sin.

Here are just a few Scriptures on slavery besides the one we have before us this morning;

Exodus 21:16 And he that stealeth a man, and selleth him, or if he be found in his hand, he shall surely be put to death.

Here we see that man stealing or slave trading is a crime punishable by death. However, having slaves was not punishable by death. That slave trading remained a sin in the NT is seen by Paul’s condemnation in I Tim. 1:9-10

9 knowing this: that the law is not made for a righteous person, but for the lawless … for slave traders

That the Scripture does not teach that all slavery is sin is seen from;

Your male and female slaves are to come from the nations around you; from them you may buy slaves. You may also buy some of the temporary residents living among you and members of their clans born in your country, and they will become your property.” – Leviticus 25:44

“Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything; and do it, not only when their eye is on you and to curry their favor, but with sincerity of heart and reverence for the Lord.” – Colossians 3:22

“Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ. Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not people.” – Ephesians 6:5-7

“Teach slaves to be subject to their masters in everything, to try to please them, not to talk back to them.” – Titus 2:9

“Slaves, in reverent fear of God submit yourselves to your masters, not only to those who are good and considerate, but also to those who are harsh.” – 1 Peter 2:18

“Masters, provide your slaves with what is right and fair, because you know that you also have a Master in heaven.” – Colossians 4:1

There are at least seven passages in the Bible where God is depicted as directly permitting or endorsing slavery. Two of these are in the Law of Moses: God permitted the Israelites to take slaves from conquered peoples permanently, and the Israelites could sell themselves into slavery temporarily to pay off debts (Exod 21:2-11; Lev 25:44-46).

The other five passages are in the New Testament, where slavery as a social institution is endorsed and slaves are called to obey their masters “in everything” (Eph 6:5-9; Col 3:22-4:1; 1 Tim 6:1-2; Tit 2:9-10; 1 Pet 2:18-20).

But slavery is viewed positively in Scripture well beyond these commands. Owning slaves was seen as a sign of God’s blessing (Gen 12:16; 24:35; Isa 14:1-2), and there are literally dozens of passages in the Bible that speak of slavery in passing, without comment. Slavery was simply part of life, and most people saw it as just the way things always were, even the divinely ordained order of things.

And yes, in case there is any doubt, this was real slavery: “the slave is the owner’s property” (Exod 21:21). Both Old and New Testaments called for better treatment of slaves than many of the peoples around them, and the Law of Moses in particular called for better treatment of fellow Israelites as slaves.

These passages are all pretty straightforward. One could even say that the Bible is clear on this: the institution of slavery is permitted by God, endorsed by God, and owning slaves can even be a sign of God’s blessing. This has in fact been the Christian view through history: it’s only in the last 150-200 years that the tide of Christian opinion has shifted on slavery.

So why do Christians today believe slavery is wrong? Why don’t most Christians today believe that “slavery is permitted by God, endorsed by God, and owning slaves can even be a sign of God’s blessing,” even though the Bible is pretty clear on this?

This points to the second main reason Christians today believe slavery is wrong in spite of the clear biblical passages that permit or endorse slavery: we have developed a different hermeneutic, a different way of reading the biblical texts on slavery.

The early Christian abolitionists paved the way. Rather than emphasizing the specific Bible passages that directly approve of slavery, they looked at other biblical texts and themes that they saw as more big-picture, more transcultural and timeless: the creation of humanity in the “image of God,” the “liberation” and “redemption” themes of the Exodus, the love teachings of Jesus, and the salvation vision of Paul. That is, they set the stage for a way of reading the Bible that was not grounded in specific texts of Scripture, but in a trajectory of “Exodus to New Exodus centred on Christ,” or “Creation to New Creation centred on Christ”—a larger biblical narrative with Jesus at its heart.

And so when some “Christians” today read the slavery passages in the Bible, this is what they say;

“Sure,  the Bible says this here—but we know from Genesis 1 that all people are created in God’s image, and we know from Galatians 3 that there is no longer slave or free in Christ, and don’t forget about God redeeming Israel from slavery and Jesus’ teaching to love our neighbour as ourselves.”

In other words, we no longer take the slavery-approval passages as direct and straightforward teaching for all times and places. Rather we take these as instances of the way things were done in the past but not the way God really wants things to be. They are descriptive of what once was; they are not prescriptive of what is to be.

So, this type of reasoning goes, “the next time we hear someone talk about the ‘clear teaching of Scripture’ on women’s roles, or saying that ‘the Bible is clear’ on homosexuality, or whatever the topic might be, think about this: the Bible is at least as clear on slavery, yet thank God we no longer believe that slavery is God’s will. We’ve read the Bible, and we’re following Jesus.”

The fact that people really do dismiss Scripture like this on slavery is seen in a quote from the 19th century liberal Theologian Albert Barnes;

“There are great principles in our nature, as God has made us, which can never be set aside by any authority of a professed revelation. If a book claiming to be a revelation from God, by any fair interpretation defended slavery, or placed it on the same basis as the relation of husband and wife, parent and child, guardian and ward, such a book would not and could not be received by the mass of mankind as a Divine Revelation.”

Rev. Albert Barnes
Presbyterian Minister

As long as we will not admit that slavery was Biblical and rightly ordered by God we will never win out on the debates on perverse sexuality. Slavery is the lynch pin. If Scripture can speak so plainly on slavery and still be repudiated as sin then whatever Scripture speaks clearly on in terms of perverse sexuality can likewise easily be repudiated and is being repudiated.

In the words of Dr. Leonard Bacon, a Congregationalist from Connecticut writing in 1864,

“The evidence that there were both slaves and Masters of slaves in the Churches founded by the apostles, cannot be got rid of without resorting to methods of interpretation which will get rid of everything.”

This was made even more clearly evident by R. L. Dabney;

If you will not embrace the perspicuity of Scripture on slavery you will not embrace perspicuity of Scripture on any other subject when it is convenient to disregard it.

The logic is thus… “We know God was wrong on slavery therefore we can come to the point where we see that God was wrong on sodomy, trannie-ism, abortion, and just about anything else. We treated the issue of slavery, as taught in the Scriptures, like a wax nose, and now we are surprised to find that other issues in Scripture are likewise being treated as if we can appeal to some higher or better insight.”

That this is happening is seen in the fact that recently 33 pastors from the Christian Reformed Church bolted the CRC to join another Church because the CRC would not allow them to treat the prohibitions against sexual perversion in Scripture as not being prohibitions. Like the abolitionists long ago, these 33 ministers have putatively found a higher and better way to read Scripture.

So, while we don’t long for a return of slavery, and we ourselves would never want to be enslaved nor enslave others, we do recognize that slavery is not automatically sin if it were to be practiced under God’s regulations.

The Fact Of Slavery As Experienced By All Peoples

Another thing we should be clear about on the subject of slavery is that slavery as well as enslaving has been the lot of every people group you can name. Nobody has the corner on the misery of slavery or of being the victims of slavery. Slavery was not only present in Ephesus but it has been present throughout world history and is still occurring today as seen in the grooming of numerous young white British girls to be sex slaves by foreign interests living in Britain. This kind of slavery is forbidden in the Scripture because if falls under “man-stealing” but it still makes the point that we have slavery today.

Proof of the ubiquitous nature of slavery in nature touching different peoples is observed by from Jordan and Walsh from their book, “White Cargo: The Forgotten History of Britain’s White Slaves in America”

White slaves in the colonies suffered all the horrors, if not more, than the subsequent black slaves suffered, but their story is not part of the educational curriculum. Blacks and their white advocates would never stand for it because white slavery detracts from the racist image that black studies have created, an image that conveys special victim status to blacks just as the Jews have acquired by the holocaust. But the facts are, report Jordan and Walsh, that black slavery emerged out of white slavery and was based upon it. They quote the African-American writer Lerone Bennett Jr:

“When someone removes the cataracts of whiteness from our eyes, and when we look with unclouded vision on the bloody shadows of the American past, we will recognize for the first time that the Afro-American, who was so often second in freedom, was also second in slavery.”

Likewise we have Robert C. Davis, a professor of history at Ohio State University, in his book “Christian Slaves, Muslim Masters: White Slavery in the Mediterranean, the Barbary Coast and Italy, 1500-1800″, put the number of white slave at between 1 and 1.25 million Europeans from 1500-1800

Davis said the vast scope of slavery in North Africa has been ignored and minimized, in large part because it is on no one’s agenda to discuss what happened.

The enslavement of Europeans doesn’t fit the general theme of European world conquest and colonialism that is central to scholarship on the early modern era, he said. Many of the countries that were victims of slavery, such as France and Spain, would later conquer and colonize the areas of North Africa where their citizens were once held as slaves.

Maybe because of this history, Western scholars have thought of the Europeans primarily as “evil colonialists” and not as the victims they sometimes were, Davis said.

Davis said his research into the treatment of these slaves suggests that, for most of them, their lives were every bit as difficult as that of slaves in America.

 

“As far as daily living conditions, the Mediterranean slaves certainly didn’t have it better,” he said.

While African slaves did grueling labor on sugar and cotton plantations in the Americas, European Christian slaves were often worked just as hard and as lethally – in quarries, in heavy construction, and above all rowing the corsair galleys themselves.

So, the Bible talks frankly about slavery. The text this morning speaks frankly about slavery and we see that slavery is not unique to the ancient world nor to any particular people group throughout history.

Now, what Christianity did as it entered the ancient world is that it provided a new ethos for both slave and master as we see in the text this morning;

 Let as many bondservants as are under the yoke count their own masters worthy of all honor, so that the name of God and His doctrine may not be blasphemed. 2 And those who have believing masters, let them not despise them because they are brethren, but rather serve them because those who are benefited are believers and beloved. Teach and exhort these things.

The issue of honor ties much of what Paul has been writing to Timothy in chapter 5 and here. In chapter 5 widows who are widows are to be honored. Next Elders in the Church are to be counted worthy of double-honor. And now finally when dealing with the Master slave relationship Masters are worthy of all honor.

τιμῆς (timēs)
Noun – Genitive Feminine Singular
Strong’s 5092: A price, honor. From tino; a value, i.e. Money paid, or valuables; by analogy, esteem, or the dignity itself.

It may be the case that the Gnosticism that was present in Ephesus was of a nature as to level or flatten all relationships so that everyone is seen as being equal or the same. Paul does not desire the Christian faith to be tainted with that flavor and so he tells the slaves to do what might be a difficult at times and that is to esteem their Masters and this so God’s name might not and His doctrine may not be derided – blasphemed. This was Paul’s governing passion – that God’s name might not be seen as being anything but lofty and glorious and so he tells the Christian slaves

Q. 127. What is the honour that inferiors owe to their superiors?

A. The honour which inferiors owe to their superiors is, all due reverence in heart,658 word, 659 and behaviour;660 prayer and thanksgiving for them;661 imitation of their virtues and graces;662 willing obedience to their lawful commands and counsels;663 due submission to their corrections;664 fidelity to,665 defence,666 and maintenance of their persons and authority, according to their several ranks, and the nature of their places;667 bearing with their infirmities, and covering them in love,668 that so they may be an honour to them and to their government.669

Q. 128. What are the sins of inferiors against their superiors?

A. The sins of inferiors against their superiors are, all neglect of the duties required toward them;670 envying at,671 contempt of,672 and rebellion673 against, their persons674 and places,675 in their lawful counsels,676 commands, and corrections;677 cursing, mocking678 and all such refractory and scandalous carriage, as proves a shame and dishonour to them and their government.679