Category: Sermons

Introduction

The Importance of Gathered Worship

As we enter into worship again we are reminded that the Church has always held this “time of gathered worship” to be “sacred” or a uniquely “set apart” time. It is as if we have stepped out of one reckoning of Time that is itself, by God’s sanctification of it, “Holy” into another reckoning of Time that is doubly sanctified by God as “Holy of Holies.” Apart from this Holy of Holy time of worship other time cannot find its own proper set apartness. In entering into Worship we have thus entered into a different kind of time. Oh, to be sure, the second and minute hand on the clock moves in the same way, and the cares and concerns of that other time are still with us, but in this sacred worship time we are reoriented ourselves to the things that matter most. In this Time meaning for all other time finds its meaning and so we find our meaning. The sacredness of Worship time is not found in the Minister — except as he serves as God’s spokesman, nor in the Church pews or building itself but the sacredness of Worship time is found in the fact that the Sovereign of the Universe has gathered His people to meet with them during this time around Word and Sacrament.

We might likewise speak of the sacredness of this space. All space is Holy as set apart unto God but this space at this time we might carefully and judiciously speak of as Holy of Holy space. Made sacred by the fact that God has condescended to meet with us in this space at this time via Word and Sacrament. It is not the building itself nor the sanctuary itself that makes the space sacred as if the building and sanctuary in and of themselves carried this quality but the building and sanctuary have sacredness to them as the place where God meets with man around God’s appointed means of Grace.

This idea then is extended to the Church calendar. We are a unique people who, because of our being named and owned by Christ are oriented to the world differently. We find that different orientation contained in the way we mark time. As we come week by week we are reminded that it is because we belong to the God of the Bible and His Christ we think differently even about the way we mark or time. Our Church calendar reminds us we are to relate to time and seasons as a uniquely Christian people. The Church calendar  lifts us out of the naked presentism that this present wicked age would press upon our minds, thus insisting that the “now” is all there is, and reminds us again that we are a people, who, because of our connection to our Christian past and our Christian Fathers, are future oriented. The Church calendar reminds us that in belonging to God and His Christ we belong to a people who though being dead still speak.

Thus Worship is set apart time in set apart space reorienting us to the past, present and future in such a way that we can spend all our time as living in the presence of God, to God’s glory.

None of this is magic or superstition. It is God who is doing all the doing not us.

I.) Miraculous Feedings as OT Anticipation

Well, as we come to the text this week

As we consider the text this week we once again come up against the idea of Miracle. The Scripture’s concept of “miracle” we note again is characterized by those happenings not explicable by solely natural processes and so can be thought of only as being done by the finger of God. In John’s Gospel particularly Miracles are seen as sign gifts providing some revelation of who the Lord Christ is as very God of very God.

We should note here, briefly, that because miracles are so carefully defined in Scripture we should be careful in using that word to describe events today. In the proliferation of the usage of the word “miracle” miracles become less and less miraculous. It is like our usage of the word “awesome.” If everything is “awesome” then awesome loses its punch.

So we come to John’s text and we note at the outset that John himself gives us the theme or purpose of this passage at the end of the first miracle recorded here,

John 6:14 — “This is indeed the Prophet who is to come into the world!”

Obviously, the purpose of the miracle here confirms Christ as the greater Prophet that God promised would one day come. Way back in Dt. 18 God had said to Israel,

Dt. 18:15 — “The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen—

And earlier then that this great Prophet had been spoken of,

In the Miracles here in John 6 , Jesus is giving His credentials as that Prophet that is a greater Prophet then Moses … indeed a Prophet who is very God of very God yet remaining very Man of very man.

The Miracle here preformed by our Lord Christ has Old Testament legs and so is just the kind of Miracle that the people might expect that one greater than Moses is in their midst. That is to say that the record of Scripture as it pertains to God’s prophet feeding God’s people suggest to us that the promised King who would bring in His Kingdom would be someone who supernaturally feeds His people.

In the creation account we find God creating a world where God tells His people how He has provided food for them,

^{Genesis 1:29} And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food.

So from the beginning we see God as the God who provides His people food to eat.

This theme is articulated in Psalm 145

The eyes of all look to you,
    and you give them their food in due season.
¹⁶ You open your hand;
    you satisfy the desire of every living thing.

This theme crops up  in the age of the Prophets where the two greatest Prophets of that age demonstrate their role as “men of God” by feeding God’s people miraculously.

Elijah and the Widow from Zarephath

^{I Kings 17:11} And as she was going to bring it, he called to her and said, “Bring me a morsel of bread in your hand.” ¹² And she said, “As the Lord your God lives, I have nothing baked, only a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in a jug. And now I am gathering a couple of sticks that I may go in and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it and die.” ¹³ And Elijah said to her, “Do not fear; go and do as you have said. But first make me a little cake of it and bring it to me, and afterward make something for yourself and your son. ¹⁴ For thus says theLord, the God of Israel, ‘The jar of flour shall not be spent, and the jug of oil shall not be empty, until the day that the Lord sends rain upon the earth.’”¹⁵ And she went and did as Elijah said. And she and he and her household ate for many days. ¹⁶ The jar of flour was not spent, neither did the jug of oil become empty, according to the word of the Lord that he spoke by Elijah.

Elisha & the 100 men

II Kings 4

⁴² A man came from Baal-shalishah, bringing the man of God bread of the firstfruits, twenty loaves of barley and fresh ears of grain in his sack. And Elisha said, “Give to the men, that they may eat.” ⁴³ But his servant said, “How can I set this before a hundred men?” So he repeated, “Give them to the men, that they may eat, for thus says the Lord, ‘They shall eat and have some left.’”⁴⁴ So he set it before them. And they ate and had some left, according to the word of the Lord.

But the account that this feeding here is likely hearkening back to in the clearest manner is How God fed His people under the leadership of the Great Moses.

Notice how the text starts,

After this Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias.

God providentially ordains events so that there is a kind of recapitulation going on here. This idea of recapitulation, you will recall, is the idea that an OT story is being told again in some way but only with time with the Lord Christ as He who is the fulfillment of all that was anticipatory or shadowed in the Old covenant.

II.) The Lord Christ As the Greater Moses

This real historical event is happening in such a way that a previous historical event is paralleled.  This is set in a kind of wilderness area just as Moses was with the children of Israel in the Wilderness when they were hungry. There is language of Jesus going up a Mountain which draws our memories back to Moses’ Mountain ascent to be in God’s presence. As Moses will announce God’s intent to feed His people with the Bread of Heaven, the Lord Christ feeds the people with supernaturally multiplied bread and fish. The Lord Christ is the greater and long anticipated prophet that Moses spoke of.

There is an interesting contrast here though.

Like Moses, Jesus does feed the multitude in the wilderness. Moses asked God, “Where am I to get meat to give to all this people? For they come weeping to me and say, ‘Give us meat to eat!’” (Numbers 11:13).  Jesus asks a similar question of Philip (5) thus joining the two accounts more firmly together,

“Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?”

but the difference between the two questions is found in the fact that while Moses needed God to provide Jesus already knew that He, as God, would provide (vs. 6)

“he himself knew what he was going to do”

Now combine all this that John tell us that all this is happening in the context of Passover soon to be celebrated and the idea that Jesus is a greater Moses is being screamed at us from the text.

So there is recapitulation all over this text. We have mentioned some of those points. Others would include how the supernatural feeding and the salvation from the threats of the sea are combined together. This parallels the Exodus account of being delivered from the Sea and the manna being provided in the wilderness. In both accounts instructions are given to gather up the remains (6:12, Ex. 16:19). In both story accounts you have complaining from people (cmp. vs. 41 w/ Ex. 16:2)

III.) Excursus … Miracles associated w/ Food and Drink
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As an aside here isn’t it fascinating to note all the Miracles that are associated with food and drink? The first Miracle was in Cana of Galilee at a Marriage feast where water was turned into the finest of wines. Feeding of the 5000. Feeding of the 4000. Cursing of the Fig tree because it did not provide food.
Then there is the establishment of the Eucharist in the context of the eating and drinking of the Passover. The promise of Christ to the Disciples, “But I say to you, I will not drink from now on of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom,” reminds us that there will be this table fellowship in Heaven. Finally, in Revelation, the promises to those who overcome are to eat the tree of life (2:7), to enjoy the hidden manna (2:17), and to dine with the Lord (3:20). All of this is suggestive of a sermon that could stand by itself.

IV.) Christ; The Bread Come Down From Heaven — Cross speak

We would not have done this text justice though if we were to have stopped here. The fact that the Lord Christ is a greater Moses is only penultimate to the thrust of the Miracle. As we learn later in this chapter the ultimate purpose of the Miracle is to point to Christ as He who is the Bread from Heaven. The Lord Christ is the bread of God who comes down from heaven and gives His life for the World (John 6:33).

This passage reminds us again that there is no life apart from Christ who was broken by God on the Cross as God’s Bread for God’s people. Those who refuse this bread of heaven remain dead from their spiritual malnutrition. Christ was broken that we might be made whole and there is no wholeness for those who remain apart from Christ crucified, risen and ascended.

Again we are reminded that there is no life outside of Christ. All adherents of other religions must repent before Christ and His work on the Cross. If men remain outside of Christ they remain outside of God’s favor. Because we are pro-Christ we are anti all other religions and proclaim that they are death. Because we are pro-rege we must tell adherents, out of a compassionate love for them, that they are dead men walking apart from Christ.

Conclusion

Re-cap

Redemptive History
Brief refutation — Higher Critical methodology
Harmony of Scriptures — Read Scripture as one book

From the very Beginning of Scripture we have imagery of the creational Spirit of God moving in a setting of a chaotic water existence bringing order into being by God’s Sovereign Word.

The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.”   (Genesis 1:2)

This theme of water being associated with the dark forces of chaos as chief enemy to man and in opposition to God is a theme that is traced all the way through Scripture. As is the theme that God has sovereign control over these forces of chaos.

As said, we find it first in Genesis 1:2 but notice the theme played out throughout Scripture.

“The seas have lifted up, O LORD, the seas have lifted up their voice; the seas have lifted up their pounding waves” (v.3). Yet, as mighty as the waves seem, Yahweh is sovereign over them: “Mightier than the thunder of the great waters, mightier than the breakers of the sea– the LORD on high is mighty” (v.4).

Again we see here the combination of the mighty power of the chaotic seas but the even mightier power of God.

God is so sovereign that the chaotic seas are under his command so that He can churn up the seas

^{Job 26:12a} He stirs up the sea with His power,

And He stills the seas by that same power

Job 26:12b — And by His understanding He breaks up the storm.

Again,

^{Psalm 89:9} You rule the raging of the sea;
When its waves rise, You still them.

In Psalm 107:23-30 God toys with these great forces as His own so that those who ply their trade on the Seas is dependent upon God.

²³ Those who go down to the sea in ships,
Who do business on great waters,
²⁴ They see the works of the Lord,
And His wonders in the deep.
²⁵ For He commands and raises the stormy wind,
Which lifts up the waves of the sea.
²⁶ They mount up to the heavens,
They go down again to the depths;
Their soul melts because of trouble.
²⁷ They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man,
And are at their wits’ end.
²⁸ Then they cry out to the Lord in their trouble,
And He brings them out of their distresses.
²⁹ He calms the storm,
So that its waves are still.

Over and over again this triumphing of God over the watery forces of chaos is seen throughout the Scripture.

Psalm 65:5-7 5 You answer us with awesome deeds of righteousness, O God our Savior, the hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest seas, 6 who formed the mountains by your power, having armed yourself with strength, 7 who stilled the roaring of the seas, the roaring of their waves, and the turmoil of the nations.

Psalm 66:5-7 5 Come and see what God has done, how awesome his works in man’s behalf! 6 He turned the sea into dry land, they passed through the waters on foot– come, let us rejoice in him. 7 He rules forever by his power, his eyes watch the nations– let not the rebellious rise up against him. Selah

Isaiah 23:11 11 The LORD has stretched out his hand over the sea and made its kingdoms tremble. He has given an order concerning Phoenicia that her fortresses be destroyed.

Then of course there is the flood account of how God unleashed the watery chaos upon the earth in order to be judgment to those who opposed Him and salvation to those who found grace in His sight. Neither can we forget the Exodus stories how God tamed the river Nile and the gods associated with it to do His bidding. Or how God made a ally of the Red Sea by making it serve His ends of deliverance for His people.

In all of this God is like the one who masters the wild bronco to make it serve his ends. The beast is wild but God is greater than the beast.

Indeed so great is God’s power that when we get to the book of Revelation we see the sea their again but this time with a meek and tamed presence.

Revelation 4:6says, “Before the throne there was as it were a sea of glass, like crystal.”

Revelation 15:2says, “I saw what appeared to be a sea of glass mingled with fire.”

The fact that it is a “sea of glass” in my estimation speaks to its calmness. It is so tamed it is as glass.

When I was a boy we’d wake early in the morning to go fishing and with a lake less than 100 yards from our back door we would look out the windows and and on still days often say, “the water is like glass.”

Now with all this as backdrop let us turn to the account in Mark as read this morning and without me even taking a second to explain any of this you already get it. You see what this demonstration of our Lord Christ over the winds and the waves is all about. It is a proclamation that the Lord Christ as Creator has the authority that God has always had over the elements. This account my Mark is placed here to demonstrate that the Lord Christ is very God of very God.

Psalm 107:23-30 is being played out before them in real time.

When we consider the particulars in this account in Mark 4 we should remind ourselves that the “Sea” of Galilee is a large, shallow body of water. Being shallow it is comparatively prone to be easily whipped up when the wind hits it.  Pigeon Pass in the mountains west of the lake forms a funnel for the prevailing winds blowing in from the Mediterranean over the lake, as many fishers and boaters have learned to their dismay over the centuries. So the wind rises and the geographic features make for an accentuated affect. This may well be what happened when this storm suddenly descended upon them. Now there they were … these seasoned and salty Fisherman and they are suddenly in a panic.

And like Psalm 107 they ²⁸ Then they cry out to the Lord in their trouble, and He brings them out of their distresses. 2⁹ He calms the storm, So that its waves are still.

What Mark is communicating here is just what he has labored so assiduously to demonstrate in other ways thus far. He is communicating to those who have eyes to see that the long promised King and Kingdom have come.  Previously Mark has communicated that via the casting out of Demons, the healing of the sick, the cleansing of the unclean.  The Chaos in the Hebrew mindset would have been associated with demon possession, sickness, and in the natural world the violence on the waters. At the command of Christ all are stilled and relieved.

Subsequent to this account Jesus will continue with this ministry even to the point of raising the dead (Mark 5:21f). Calming of Waters is commensurate with casting out of Demons, healing the sick,the forgiving of sins, and raising the dead. All manifest chaos in the lives of people which is the descriptor of those who live in and belong to this present evil age. They are the chaotic ones. The Kingdom as come with Christ the King and so Chaos is being rolled back at every turn.

As an aside here we should note then that this is a classical Miracle. This miraculous work of Christ is a sign pointing to the reality of who Jesus is as the Divine Messiah. This was always the purpose of Miracles and when we speak of something being a Miracle today we cheapen the idea of Miracle as demonstrating Christ’s person and work in the Scriptures. Better to speak of God’s inexplicable care today in terms of “remarkable providence” then downgrading the word Miracle.

The mastery of Christ over the sea by way of Miracle is taken up again by Mark in chapter 6, where Christ walks on the water thus emphasizing again that the Lord Christ has all the authoritative virtue of the Father.

Note also for Mark that the ministry of the Lord Christ is a word and deed ministry. This miracles comes immediately upon the word ministry of the Lord Christ where He teaches His disciples on the nature of the Kingdom.   The Gospel writers routinely link the mighty deeds of Christ with his teachings so that the mighty deeds legitimate the teaching ministry.

This combination of ministry of Word and Deed is also a theme we see in Scripture. St. Paul can tell the Thessalonians, “as it pertains to our gospel came to you not simply with words but also with power.”

To the Corinthians St. Paul could say,

my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God.

Christ who is the Word demonstrates not only the wisdom as Word in His teaching but then also the power of the Word in Miracle.

Let us consider something of this control of God and His Christ over chaos as it applies to us today. This metaphor of the waters standing in for the powers of chaos end up being applied in other ways in Scripture. One example that we don’t have time to consider in any depth this morning is how the pagan nations are characterized by the chaos that is conjoined to the violent sea.

Psalm 65 equates the “roaring of the seas” with the “turmoil of the nations” (v.7). Daniel sees, in his vision at night, “the great winds of heaven, churning up the seas” out of which four beasts emerge (Dan. 7:2-3). These beasts are later identified as four nations (Dan. 7:17). Egypt is also depicted as the great monster of the deep: Rahab (Ps. 87:4; Is. 30:6-7; Is. 51:9-10).

Another example I do want to spend a wee bit of time looking at is how the life of unbelief is characterized by the same chaos that is conjoined to the violent sea.

Isaiah 57:20 20 But the wicked are like the tossing sea, which cannot rest, whose waves cast up mire and mud.

The life of the wicked is a going from chaotic unto chaotic. Instability is pursued with abandon. Passions and lusts like wind and waves are storms set loose unto the destruction of themselves and potentially all those around them. Anyone living in contradiction to God’s authority and God’s Law Word is a tossing sea which cannot rest. Like the sea they are unstable in all their ways.

Typically, especially in our culture, the chaotic tossing sea character is demonstrated by the wicked in their inability to control their lusts. Scripture speaks of these chaotic people as being

¹⁸  darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. ¹⁹ They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.

As your Pastor I plead with you to keep yourself from the chaos of lusts that can mark people as being like the tossing sea.  Do not give into your wicked lusts that might push you towards porn on the web or which might push you towards illicit affairs. Check your entertainment habits for the stirring up of mud and mire. Your lusts lie and can not provide for you what they promise. I beg of you to turn to Christ who alone can still the chaos of your lusts just as he stilled the chaos of winds and the waves.

We live in a culture that is as chaotic as the Sea of Galilee in Mark 4. Only God in Christ as Sovereign can deliver us from our lusts which make us like the tossing sea casting up mire and mud. Everything in our culture screams at you to live dissolute lives, from our education centers which teach “safe sex” to children, to our Jewish media outlets, to our Churches who speak nary a word on modesty or chivalry the winds blow that would toss us like the Sea. Only the Lord Christ can calm those lusts.

Now, in rounding off we look at the “faith and fear” mentioned in the text (4:40-41).  Six times in Mark, the disciples are said to be seized by a “fear” that blends terror and awe (phobos, or the verb phobeomai).

Two are in the stories of the storms at sea (4:41; 6:50). Two others accompany predictions  of the death of our Lord Christ (9:32; 10:32). The others are at the Transfiguration (9:6) and the empty tomb (16:8).

Four out of the 6 of these find the disciples in the presence of God in the context of epiphanies.

This teaches us that the fear mentioned is not sinful. This is not the fear of the wicked in rightly being destroyed. This is a fear that bespeaks being in the presence of God.  This is the fear of Isaiah crying out in the presence of God. This is the fear of John in his apocalypse falling as dead before Christ.

Would to God that we might have more of this reverential awe as we walk before God.

Conclusion

The liberal voice

I’ve tried to warn you about the Higher Criticism school. You will recall that this is the School of thought that presupposes the supernatural can’t be true and so reinterprets all scripture in light of that presupposition. I found some of that in my study this week.

Here is an example and notice the subtlety and the not so subtle.

Did Jesus perform a miracle, controlling the forces of nature by a simple word? Or is this a simple story of a stormy day on the lake that the gospel writer inflated into a “fish tale” about Jesus’ power? In either case, what difference could it make to believers living in the twenty first century?

Note how the supernatural is irrelevant. This theologians says “in either case…” Whether it be supernatural or not is unimportant, what we need to look for is what difference this true or false story could make to us today.

Well … if it is not true, the only difference it might make is the necessity to not be fooled by BS 1st century fairy tales.

Another quote,

Perhaps that is what happened one day when Jesus was napping in the boat with some disciples, who woke him because it was getting dangerous. He reassured them, and the storm stopped. Coincidence of time was interpreted as cause, seen in the light of faith.

This one is fairly obvious.

There is a great deal of this about. Until a couple years ago this approach was taken by a prominent church in Lansing. One sees it frequently.

I.) The Characters

Herod Antipas (ca. 21 B.C. — post-A.D. 39): tetrarch of Galilee and Perea, answerable to the Emperor Tiberius.

Herodias was a daughter to one of the sons of Herod the Great (A chap named Aristobulus). This Aristobulus had half brothers who would have been Uncles to the she wolf Herodias. Their names were Uncle Herod Philip and Uncle Herod Antipas. Herodias had been married to her half uncle Herod Philip. Herodias then left him for an adulterous relationship with his brother and another half Uncle, Herod Antipas.

This lends new meaning to “keeping it all in the family.”

We should be reminded by this that the more things change the more they stay the same. I suppose we should be pleased that Herod Antipas took his brother’s wife and not his brother’s husband. It would seem that the household of Herod was less twisted then many households in our own culture.

Herodias’ Daughter — Thought by some to be named “Salome.” She is thought to be the daughter of Herodias by Herod Philip and so not the blood daughter of Herod Antipas. Herod Antipas would have been to her both her step-dad and her great-uncle. Obviously, though the text does not state it she has an interest in shutting John the Baptist up as well.

John the Baptist as Herald for Christ — John was the one who came preparing the way for Christ. He was the one who was a model of OT prophet desert dwellers. He was known as a rough man wearing camel hair for clothing and dining on locust and honey. He was the one who came saying “Repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand.” He said of Jesus “Behold the lamb of God who taketh away the sins of the World,” thus emphasizing from the beginning the redemptive work that would end in a sacrificial death as substitute for our sins.

II The Background

A.) But when Herod’s birthday was kept,…. The birthdays of princes, both of their coming into the world, and accession to the throne of government, were kept by the Gentiles; as by the Egyptians, Genesis 40:20 and by the (n) Persians, and Romans (o), and other nations, but not by the Jews; who reckoned these among the feasts of idolaters.  So, the very fact that this birthday extravaganza was being held is testimony of how afar Herod was from really being concerned with Jewish protocol. Herod was a pretender to the throne.

B.) The Background of the role of Prophet

John the prophet …. long line of prophets

Some thought John the Baptist to be Elijah (6:15a). This might make some sense since Elijah was another prophet who collided with another weak king named Ahab as manipulated by another murderous wife named Jezebel (1 Kings 18–21). So, John’s actions here calling out Herod would have looked familiar to those who knew their History.

Whether John the Baptist or Elijah part of the prophetic function throughout God’s revelation has been to hold up God’s standard before those think themselves above God’s standard. Whether it is Moses with Pharaoh or whether it was Nathan with King David or whether it was Micaiah with Ahab or whether it was Amos as speaking before the rich and powerful women who he styled “Cows of Bashan,” God’s mouthpieces have almost universally courted trouble by speaking God’s standard to those who have forgotten themselves to be but mortals.

So John is a flashback of what once was but He is also promissory of Christ who is to come. Christ Himself would speak God’s standard to those in Power and the same resentment that killed John would be part of the mix in the murder of the Lord Christ.

We should especially note here the work of the Prophet in what has been styled by some as “the common realm.” John the Baptist, in this rebuke of Herod is poking his nose in political business …. a business that many Reformed clergy and Seminary professors argue today is none of our business. Many modern Reformed clergy argue that John the Baptist belonged to a different age then the one ushered in by Christ. John the Baptist, they argue, belongs to the Old Testament but we live in a new age where men of God are not to speak to the common realm. These modern Reformed Seminary professors and clergy argue this way with only the slimmest of evidence and by conjecture built upon conjecture. They insist that men of God today should not speak to the common realm because with the arrival of Jesus we have the hyphenization of reality as between the Church realm and the common realm. With the new and better covenant, as brought in by the Lord Christ, the explicit Lordship of God is split in twain so that God in Christ only rules in the common realm via Natural Law. So part of the new and better covenant is the reality that God’s singular revelatory hegemony over all of life, as found in the old and worse covenant, is eclipsed so that now God’s revelatory word and rule is now only for the Church realm in the new and better covenant. All common realm issues are not to receive a “thus saith the Lord,” from God’s spokesman or God’s Church.

Of course all this is balderdash and a completely unique and innovative way of reading the Scripture. Repeatedly in the New Testament we find Paul disagreeing with the powers that be. From his refusal of the proper authority’s demand to skulk away quietly after wrongly being beaten, to his defense against the powers that be on Mars Hills, to his work in Ephesus that led to common realm riots and book burning St. Paul was repeatedly involved in the common realm.

What we see in the work of God’s spokesman, John the Baptist, is that Christianity applies to all of life. The Christian, as prophet, priest, and king, under sovereign God, brings all of God’s word to bear on all of God’s world. There is no area cordoned off area where a “thus saith the Lord” as given by God’s spokesman from God’s Holy desk, is not potentially applicable.

C.) The Dance

Very possibly a lascivious and sexually suggestive dance.

Salome’s dance was a particularly popular subject during the Renaissance and Baroque periods and her popularity continued well into the 19th century. I don’t know how old Salome was when she danced before Herod, but artists tend to portray her as a sultry, confident (young) woman. To most of art history, Salome is the sole, conniving figure behind John’s death.

III.) The Occasion

The occasion for this is John’s work in upholding God’s law. Torah in Leviticus clearly taught against Herod’s behavior,

^{Lev. 18:16} You shall not uncover the nakedness of your brother’s wife; it is your brother’s nakedness.

^{Lev. 20:21} If a man takes his brother’s wife, it is an unclean thing. He has uncovered his brother’s nakedness. They shall be childless.

Obviously John’s preaching hit home (6:17). Herodias was exposed as the trollop she was and her memory required the silence of the one who was making known what she preferred to be unknown.

Interesting, that regardless the century, speaking out against improper sleeping arrangements always seems to be a flash point. There is something about upholding God’s standards in terms of sleeping arrangements that will  earn enmity in an accelerated fashion. Pagans want to sleep with who they want to sleep with … God’s standards be damned and pagans will damn whoever stands for God’s standards on sleeping arrangements.

We should note here before we move on that while we can admire John for championing God’s truth before Herod and Herodias we must concede that speaking God’s standard to the rich and powerful often does not end well from a merely temporal perspective. John is another example of one who obeyed God and was persecuted for obeying God. Not all who obey God end up with what we would style as temporal blessings hunting them down. Many who obey God, by holding up God’s standards are, as Hebrews tells,  “tortured, and have chains and imprisonment. Many have been sawn in two and were slain with the sword. If it were true for Apostles

God has exhibited us apostles last of all, as men condemned to death; because we have become a spectacle to the world, both to angels and to men.

How much more true might it be for we who are far far less than Apostles?

IV.) The Purpose

The purpose is hinted at in the way Mark arranges his material. Mark, known for his pithy and straight to the point story-telling ability gives us his longest narrative of his Gospel. I believe this is so not only because it is giving us John the Baptist as one who stands as the apogee (climax) of OT prophets in his role of holding up God’s standard but I think Mark also spends time here because in John’s story we find the foreshadowing of the story of the Lord Christ.

Scratch the surface of this narrative of John the Baptist and you will find the narrative of the Lord Christ.

Right out of the gate Mark tells us in this account of John the Baptist’s death that there is confusion over just who Jesus is. Indeed, that confusion over who Jesus might be sets the table for telling the account of the death of John the Baptist. Interestingly enough Mark will use this same confusion over who Jesus might be in chapter 8:27-29 as the table setter for Christ’s words about His coming death and resurrection.

In Herod’s work with John, we see foreshadowed the coming work of Pilate with Jesus (1:1-15; 9:9-13; 11:27-33). So, Herod here is to Pilate as John is to Jesus later.

1.) Both Herod and later Pilate are nominally in charge but in the end their authority is eclipsed by events.  Yet, of course, both remain responsible.

2.) Like Herod here with John, Pilate will later be “amazed” (6:20; 15:5) by circumstances surrounding an innocent prisoner (6:17, 20; 15:1, 14a).

3.) Both Herod here and Pilate later are swept up in events that fast spin out of their control (6:21-25; 15:6-13).

4.) Both Herod here and Pilate later are unable to back down after being publicly outmaneuvered (6:26-27; 15:15).

5.) Like Jesus, John is passive in his final hours (6:14-19; 15:1-39).

6.) Both John and Jesus face with integrity their moment of truth (6:21: hemeras eukairou, “an opportunity came”; 12:2: to kairo, “the season came”).

7.) Both Jesus and John are executed by hideous capital punishment (6:27-28; 15:24-27), dying to placate those they offended (6:19, 25; 15:10-14).

8.) Both Jesus and John will die a shameful death. John’s shameful death is found in it coming at the instigation of a woman. In ancient history to be executed or to die by a woman’s design was a mark of shame. Jesus shameful death is being pinned on a Cross.

So, you take all these parallels in the story telling of Mark’s account of John’s death, and you place this death tale as sandwiched (intercalation) between accounts that are placarding the power and victory of the Kingdom of God in Mark’s Gospel and what you have is a theology of the Cross sandwiched between a theology of glory. The Kingdom is rolling forward. Preceding this account we are looking at many demons being cast out. Many are healed (Mark 6:13). Subsequent to this account of John’s death there is there is the feeding of 5000 and Jesus mastering the elements by waling on the sea. The Kingdom has come.

And yet Mark sticks this account in between the outrageous success of the coming Kingdom of God in order to remind us that there is about the Kingdom of God not only exaltation but also humiliation. The Cross awaits the Lord Christ.

Consequently there is an ability to preach the Cross from this passage. John the Baptist’s death adumbrates the death of Christ in many ways. Or course John the Baptist’s death is not redemptive, but it does point us to the death of Christ which is redemptive. John the Baptist’s death points to the death of Christ which is propitiatory, and reconciles. John the Baptist death points to the death of Christ which is substitutionary and works the work of reconciliation of God to man.

Everywhere through the Gospels there is the shadow of the Cross and that is no less true here in this account of John the Baptist’s death.

When Thomas Jefferson heard about the compromise of 1820 he responded by saying,

“this momentous question, like a fire bell in the night, awakened and filled me with terror. I considered it at once as the knell of the Union.”

Knell — The sound of a bell, especially when rung solemnly for a death or funeral.

Jefferson, in 1820, realized the far reaching implications of the decision, and could already see, as now an old man, the trajectory to division and bloodshed that the compromise promised. Jefferson understood that the compromise of 1820 was a sewing of the wind that would lead to later a reaping of the whirlwind.

This morning what we want to do is spend just a few minutes tracing out the implications for the Church and Christians of what it means when the public square legalizes and codifies what God says is illegal and immoral.

We do this in keeping with what we’ve been doing in Sunday School where we have been noting that God’s word, as a guide to life, is not merely a private or personal Word but also is a Word for our public civil social institutions and for our culture. In Sunday School we’ve noted that when we allow the Word of other gods to be our guide to life in our civil social and cultural institutions the consequence is that we, as a people, end up being shaped and fashioned in our personal lives by that public law with the result that we find ourselves being conformed to the character of the gods who are dictating the arrangement for the public realm. In brief, if we, as Biblical Christians do not insist upon God’s Word in the public square and culture as a guide to life for our laws then the result will be that some other god’s word will shape our identity and provide the meaning and definition of who we are. No neutrality.

This inclination to realize that Christianity is not a faith that can be cordoned off into some private personal realm is consistent with Scriptures requirement that we take every thought captive to make it obedient to Christ.

⁵ casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ,

When we examine matters like this it is for the purpose that we would,

not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of our minds, that we may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

Christianity, is a faith that does indeed provide the Spirit generated power for each of as individuals

^{Ephesians 4:22} to put off your old self,[a] which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, ²³ and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, ²⁴ and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

But while a private and personal faith Christianity is also a public faith that has vast and profound implications for the public square. If these implications for the public square are amputated from the faith that consequence is the sure and certain threat of the dying off of the individual and personal faith that is so rightly cherished just as a species will diminish if you destroy the public habitat where it naturally flourishes.

The public square can never create Christianity. Only the Spirit of God can do that. However the public square can reinforce the normalcy of the Christ faith and ethos. Alternatively, the public square can work to make Christianity look to be a loathsome and vile thing.

What I’m saying here was captured by a couple of our Dutch Theologians,

“The Church is related to life as a whole. It is not a drop of oil on troubled waters. It has a mission in this world and *in the entire structure* of the world. This statement does not arise from cultural optimism. This is the confession of the kingship of Christ. For this reason, too, the Church is the Church of the Kingdom.”

~ Herman Ridderbos

“To be sure, the Kingdom of God is not of the world, but it is nevertheless in the world. The Kingdom does not exist within the narrow confines of the inner closet, restricted to church and monastery. The Kingdom is not entirely “other worldly” but has been established by Christ upon earth and stands in a most intimate—yet for us in many
respects inexplicable—relationship with this earthly life and is prepared by this life. Nevertheless, it is just as true that the Kingdom is not exhaustively present in this life, it is not merely “this worldly.” The Kingdom ‘is’ and ‘becomes.’ ”

~ Herman Bavinck, “The Kingdom of God, The Highest Good”,
The Bavinck Review (2011, v.2), p. 152, trans

So, having tried to lay some of the groundwork of what we will be looking at, allow me just a few more minutes to give the reason why we are looking at this, this morning.

And the answer is LOVE.

First Love for God. If God gives us a clear word about the rightness or wrongness of some aspect of human relationships then we are duty bound out of love to our Father in heaven to embrace His precepts both personally and individually but also to embrace that law Word of God for the public square. And God has given us that clear word for human relationships when it comes to Marriage, family, and human coupling.

4.) The denial of God’s property rights in us in favor of the State as God’s property rights over us.

Scripture teaches that “the earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof.” God is the one who has property rights over all of creation. As such God sets the parameters of reality. When the State operates to define reality vis-a-vis God the State is operating to seize God’s property rights and seeks to ascend to the most high to be God walking upon the earth.

When the State sets itself up as God then we also lose our property rights even in our own children and property. We exist for the State and are naught but agents of the State. In the state we love and move and have our being. With these kind of property rights over us the State begins to control all. What we now get is social justice in our courts, social gospel in our Churches, and even a social engineering that creates a kind of social predestination where the state assigns all from its suffocating web of diktats. In the States redefinition of marriage there is the work of god who, speaking by divine fiat, is speaking reality into existence.

Christians are to champion God’s reality and insist that they are to be ruled by God’s law,

“Then let us not think that this Law is a special Law for the Jews; but let us understand that God intended to deliver us a general rule, to which we must yield ourselves … Since, it is so, it is to be concluded, not only that it is lawful for all kings and magistrates, to punish heretics and such as have perverted the pure truth; but also that they be bound to do it, and that they misbehave themselves towards God, if they suffer errors to rest without redress, and employ not their whole power to shew greater zeal in their behalf than in all other things.”

John Calvin, Sermon on Deuteronomy, sermon 87 on Deuteronomy13:5

Conclusion

“When principles that run against your deepest convictions begin to win the day, then battle is your calling, and peace has become sin; you must, at the price of dearest peace, lay your convictions bare before friend and enemy, with all the fire of your faith.”

― Abraham Kuyper

Out of love for the Gospel — a Gospel that begins with the Holiness of God and His opposition to sin — we must resist. Out of love for Christ and His Work — a work that makes no sense if we are not allowed to label sin as sin — we must resist. Out of love for the Spirit who leads us in a sanctification that requires us to have nothing to do with the works of darkness we must resist.

 

In 1965, a CRC mission work in Charlotte, Michigan — a city so named after the wife of settler Edmond Bostwick –had been sponsored by Plymouth Heights CRC and Shawnee Park CRC  arrived at the point where it could begin a building project to house those who had been meeting in the parsonage for Sunday services prior to this time. CRC Evangelist Rev. Al Bytwork had been the Church planter and had been diligent and faithful in his calling. Mr. Gary Douma was the Building chairman for the facility and provided the leadership to see the project to completion. As I  understand it costs were kept at a minimum by men of the Church volunteering their time and abilities.

Of course it was a far different world then.

1965 — Petrol 30.9 cents per gallon — 2.33 per gallon adjusted for inflation 2015

1965 average New home — 13,600 — $102,150.68 adjusted for inflation 2015

1965 average loaf of bread — .21 cents — 1,58 adjusted for inflation 2015

1965 average new car —  $2,650.00  — 19,904.36 adjusted for inflation 2015

The nation was just getting knee deep in Vietnam.

The Mary Quant designed Mini Skirt appears in London and will become  the fashion statement of the 60’s while the infamous Connecticut vs. Griswold decision was handed down. Each of these presaged and confirmed the burgeoning sexual revolution.

The British Rock -n- Roll invasion was not very old and Rev. Bytwork, citing author David Nobel, wrote about the effects of Rock -n- Roll on thinking in one of his newsletters.

President Lyndon Johnson declared a war on poverty and expanded Medicare.

In June of 1965 The Gemini IV mission launches and carries astronauts Edward White and James McDivitt.

In 1965 the Hart-Cellar act was passed … a act which eventually ended up radically and forever changing the Demographics of the country forever.

In the context of all this something even more enduring and with greater potential impact was happening in Charlotte Michigan. An outpost of God’s Kingdom was being given a place to gather for Word and Sacrament, for catechism and fellowship, for worldview training and for discipleship. This was a place where God’s army would be trained and equipped for battle.

The Kingdom outpost planted had a humble start, numerically speaking, and in God’s providence, numerically speaking, this church has always been modest in its numbers over its 50 years.  This is something that was shared with that Hebrews congregation and all of the congregations of the New Testament. The letter to the Hebrews was sent to a congregation that was small and struggling against the zeitgeist of their times. This small group of Hebrew Christians were in a place of having to decide whether or not they were going to return to cultural Judaism or whether they were going to remain Christians.  The writer tries to show the readers that the right choice was to continue to trust in Jesus. He does so by demonstrating how the Lord Christ is superior to the Old Covenant.

This plea upon a small group of people, by the writer of this Epistle, to not give into to the prevailing Spirit of the age … to not disavow their confession is a point that we should consider ourselves. Our danger in the Church today is the danger of those Hebrews written to in this Epistle. However our danger is more often to give up on Christianity by reinterpreting it as consistent with the prevailing opposition than it is to just leave Christianity to go back to ways that are more acceptable to the culture as these Hebrews were on the cusp of doing.

We, like they, are feeling the pressure to give up on Christianity. We, unlike they, tend to respond to this pressure by just reinterpreting, or re-adjusting the Christian faith in order to fit in to the culture as opposed to just leaving Christianity behind as the Hebrews were tempted to do.

When we consider this passage proper we see three components. Realities that were true for that Charlotte CRC Church in 1965 and realities that remain true for us today.

I.)  We see in this passage the Church’s Confidence. (19-23)

The confidence we speak of here is the Church’s foundation and cornerstone of every generation. Our confidence is the person and work of our Elder Brother the Lord Christ for His people.

In 1965 when they built this place it was to the end of, corporately, having the boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus. And of course this is why Church’s are built and why people assemble for Church. It is for the opportunity to corporately come into God’s presence by the blood of Christ. Why build churches or attend services if not to enter into this privilege of unique worship of the thrice Holy God?

Of course the whole idea of entering the Holiest is the idea to come into God’s presence. In the OT culture, which the Hebrews are tempted to return to, there was no ability for them to individually and corporately enter into the Holiest. Only the High Priest could do that.  This passage reminds us of the intimacy God’s people may have with God. Other passages remind us that Christ is at the right hand of the Father on our behalf, but this passage reminds us that we ourselves may enter God’s heavenly sanctuary by trusting in Christ alone.

Now the impact of that statement  impacts each of us in relation to our estimation of the character of God. If we have come to appreciate the Holiness and Transcendence of God and have come to know our sin the idea that God has made a way for us to come into His presence is overwhelming.

By this reminder that we can come boldly into God’s presence we are reminded that we as Christians are ourselves now Priests under the authority of the Lord Christ who is our great High Priest. Like the veil of hold that was torn from top to bottom signifying entry into the presence of God so Christ was torn that we might be a Kingdom of Priests ministering in God’s presence speaking to God on behalf of His saints.

This passage with its reference to blood and flesh emphasizes again the work of the Lord Christ for God’s people. The premise is that there was a chasm of hostility between God and man that only could be closed by God and with the arrival and work of Christ the chasm of hostility is closed and God is reconciled to man. The Hebrews were tempted to give up on that for a little relief.

Hebrews 1o:19-25, with its reference to Christ as our High priest, reminds us of the absolute necessity and singularity of Christ as the means of introduction to the Father. In a church culture that has too often given up on the idea of the uniqueness of Christ, Hebrews reminds us that there is no peace with God apart from a Christ who is consistent with God’s revelation.

People who don’t believe this don’t build churches. People who don’t believe this typically don’t attend Biblical Churches. People who don’t believe this don’t celebrate 50th anniversaries.

Before we press on please do not miss that Christ is said here to the High Priest over the house of God.

God’s house throughout Scripture has been his people. The celebration this morning is not primarily a celebration of this facility, as beautiful as it is. The celebration this morning is the celebration that God deigned in 1965 to build a household in this place for the manifestation of His glory.

II.) We see in this passage the Church’s Covenant (vs. 23)

And that is simply put as God’s faithfulness. The idea of God’s faithfulness as deep roots and long tentacles in Scripture.

Alec Motyer has described God’s hesed or covenant love as

combining the warmth of God’s fellowship with the security of God’s faithfulness.

God’s quality of being faithful is everywhere spoken of in Scripture. It is a component of His covenant promise to His people. In the OT that covenant faithfulness is expressed by the Hebrew word “Hesed” which expresses both God’s loyalty to His covenant and His love for His people along with a faithfulness to keep His promises.

God never ceases to be faithful. He is first faithful to Himself but He is also faithful to all those He claims as His own. We are called to hold fast to our confession of our hope here without wavering knowing that God is faithful.

God was faithful to that handful in 1965 and He remains faithful to this handful today. Amidst all the uncertainties of a contemporary Church that is too often unfaithful and a culture increasingly tetched God remains faithful. Regardless of the highs and lows of life … regardless of the disappointments or the joys …. whether in wealth or in poverty God remains faithful. It is the certainty of His faithfulness wherein we can find the stability for our lives. We celebrate then His faithfulness.

It is this faithfulness of God that is to be that which motivates us to hold fast our confession  of hope without wavering. Given the immediate context where there is mention of sprinkling and washing with pure water it is not unreasonable to understand that the “confession of our hope” is a reference to Baptism. If so the confession of our Hope would be anchored in the person and work of Christ that Baptism symbolizes.

We can be unwavering in a hope which promises Christ because God is Faithful.

Some of you are young. You will live to see many years and things that many of us won’t see. Through your life I would have you remember that  God is faithful.

III.) We see in this passage the Church’s Commitment (22-25)

Consider one another to stir up love and good works

The modern church often trips over the idea of what it means to stir up love. We would say that to stir up love is to stir up the demonstration of God’s character towards one another.

Obviously the temptation with all fallen creatures is to be self focused, self centered, and self preoccupied. Here the writer of the Hebrews encourages them to not look only to their own needs but also the needs of others. In the imperative to “consider one another,” we are driven off the instinct to look down on fellow saints as inferior. We are to consider each other.

I think Charlotte CRC has done this well over the years. God’s people here have considered one another. They have looked after one another in illness. They have sought to share the load when there was more month than money. This assembly has helped the widow and  sought to encourage the downcast. In a triage culture Charlotte CRC has been good about considering one another. Over the years I’ve had many many people hand me a envelope of money and say, “Could you give this to so and so.” I’ve seen people bring baskets and bags of food to those who lost their employment. I’ve seen house mortgages paid for consecutive months so that families would not lose their home. I’ve seen numerable hospital visits and the caring for one another’s children when in need. I’ve seen people share their holidays with those unrelated by blood but related by Faith. While there is always room for improvement I must say “well done” Charlotte CRC for the way you have considered one another over the years.

The Heidelberg catechism gives us the standard for the good works. It seems proper to cite the catechism on a CRC’s Church’s 50 anniversary.
91. Q. But what are good works?

A. Only those which are done out of true faith,[1] in accordance with the law of God,[2] and to His glory,[3] and not those based on our own opinion or on precepts of men.[4]

Note here that a good work is in keeping with God’s law. God’s law has fallen on hard times in the Church but one thing the Church should be routinely doing is expositing God’s law so that people can stir up one another to good works.

Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves

Why the importance of assembling of ourselves?

I think that the importance of this is the fact that in the assembling of ourselves we are reoriented again to the vertical. The Church is the one place where we ought to be able to attend and find ourselves reminded that life is not horizontally regulated. When we regularly assemble we are reminded that we live and move and have our being in God. This vertical reorientation is likely not going to happen institutionally anywhere else. It is in the Church, as we assemble, week by week, that we find ourselves reminded that our orientation in life remains vertical. The Liturgy here goes a long way in doing that.

There are many Churches now where the service has been horizontalized and people leave the assembly not being vertically realigned.

Exhorting one Another

Conclusion

Without wavering (vs. 23)