Adapted from my Easter sermon, 2001

It is a difficult world in which we live.  The issues go from absurdity to absurdity.  On any given day, we hear about shootings and attempted shootings at our public schools.  Grade school children write up “hit” lists of people they want to kill.   We know something about the unfairness of life and the self destruction of a society.  We know what it is like to hurt and suffer without understanding.  But we still cling to our hopes in this terrible darkness.  We do so because, even in the terrible shadows of death, we still recognize him. Like a Lighthouse, we can still see him in the storm.

We can understand the confusion and hurt felt by the Disciples.  Some were hiding in fear for their lives. The two disciples in our text, one named Cleopas and the other one unnamed, got up on Sunday morning and headed home to Emmaus.  Emmaus was west of Jerusalem about seven miles.

They were just out of town when a Stranger joined them.  This Stranger approached them while they were still talking about the weekend’s events.  “What are you discussing together as you walk along,” the Stranger asked?  Luke said that they stood there looking sad.  You can feel their pain.  This word “sad” draws a word picture of someone with a sorrowful countenance.  It is a look that reflects a dark, empty place in our soul, a look that cannot be hidden because our hope is gone.

Cleopas finally answered, “Are you such a stranger to Jerusalem that you do not know what has been happening here in the last few days?”  Cleopas was exasperated, how could he not know?  But it was Cleopas who did not know, his eyes could not see that the Stranger was Jesus.

So Cleopas explained it to him.  It was about Jesus of Nazareth.  He was a prophet from God.  He did mighty things like healing the sick and raising the dead.  But the chief priests and the rulers delivered him up and they crucified him.  “We were hoping that he would deliver Israel,” but now he is dead, it has been three days.  All of their hope was gone.

This Stranger who seemed so ignorant began to explain things to them.  “Foolish men and slow of heart to believe,” have you not read the prophets, don’t you know they said that the Messiah must suffer in order to enter his glory?  Jesus, beginning with Moses, explained all the things concerning what the Messiah must experience.  You would have thought that by this time they would have guessed who Jesus was.  But their grief was too deep and the disappointment too great, they had ears but could not hear, they had eyes but could not see.

They arrived at Emmaus and it was late, so they asked him to stay with them.  Jesus went with them.  When it was time to eat, Jesus took the loaf bread and blessed it and broke it into pieces and began to hand it to them.  Suddenly their eyes were opened, it was Jesus!  At that point Luke tells us that Jesus vanished from their sight.

“Were not our hearts burning within us while he was speaking to us on the road, while he was explaining the Scriptures to us?”  Their eyes were opened, they had known something was different about this man but they could not see.

These words, “were not our heats burning,”  are interesting.  The word burning means to glow like an ember.  Their faith was like small embers and as Jesus taught, the Spirit blew across their hearts and the embers became a glowing fire.

This was too great a thing to keep to themselves.  So they returned to Jerusalem to the very room where they knew that the eleven and the other believers would be.  Bursting in, “The Lord has really risen, and has appeared to Simon,” even before they could open their mouths, they found that the others had seen Jesus as well.  So they shared their story, how they recognized Jesus when he broke the bread.

What happened?  What opened their eyes and caused them to run back to Jerusalem?  The answer is, they experienced the resurrection.  But, notice that it took Jesus to open their eyes.  It was only after Jesus broke bread that they could see.  There was something in the act of blessing that revealed to them that the Stranger who walked with them was Jesus raised from the dead.  Maybe for the first time they looked at him.   Maybe they heard his tone of voice.  But it was God who opened their eyes.  And it is the same for every person who comes to Jesus by faith. God opens their eyes and only then can they recognize him.
Do you recognize him?  He is the promised Messiah.  Can you see him?  He is the light of the world. He is the Vine and we are the branches and all who abide him will never die.  Do you know him?

In a world of ugliness he is our Rose of Sharon, the Bright, Morning Star. He is all that is graceful and beautiful and true.  He is the King of Glory, our creator and sustainer and all things are through him. He is the Door and though him we enter the Kingdom of God. He is the bread of life who feeds our souls.  He is the good Shepherd who gives us every good thing. He is the resurrection and the life, the First and the Last, the first of all things.  Do you recognize him?

“In Him all the fulness of Deity dwells in bodily form,  and in Him you have been made complete, and He is the head over all rule and authority.”  “He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power.”  Do you recognize him?

Jesus is our Passover.  He is the Lamb that takes away our sins.   He is our redemption, our propitiation, our substitute, our sacrifice, our ram caught in the thicket. He is our justifier who makes us right before the Father.  He is our sanctification who makes us holy. He is our glory and he causes eternity to flow through our veins.  Do yo recognize him?

The Historians have tried to eradicate him and the theologians have tried to explain him away.  The skeptics have twitched at his memory and the atheists have sneered at his name.  But, the soldiers could not destroy him, the grave could keep him. And he rules in the lives of literally millions who believe in him.  He storms the enemy’s gates and sets us free. He is the dragon slayer who destroyed Satan’s rule.  He plunged onto the bowels of hades and plowed open a hole so that his children can follow him into eternity.  Do you recognize him?

He is our eternal King at whose name every knee will bow.  John said:
And I saw heaven opened; and behold, a white horse, and He who sat upon it is called Faithful and True; and in righteousness He judges and wages war.  And His eyes are a flame of fire, and upon His head are many diadems; and He has a name written upon Him which no one knows except Himself.  And He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood; and His name is called The Word of God . . .   And on His robe and on His thigh He has a name written, “KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.”

He is the Sovereign King.   One day he will come, not as Savior, but as Judge and will judge the quick and the dead. He will separate the sheep from the goats, the holy ones from the dammed. And those who love his coming will reign with him in eternity.  And those who are his enemy will be cast into outer darkness, separated from him forever.

Do you recognize him? Have your eyes been open? Do you have eyes that see and ears that hear?  He is your Savior, your Lord and your King.

Worship is Trinitarian.  We fellowship with the Father, in the Son, through the Holy Spirit.  God is the only one worthy of our adoration, fellowship, prayers, and honor. The Father calls us to himself through the advocacy (an advocacy that includes the cross, the grave and  resurrection) of the Son and by the instrumentation of the Holy Spirit.

Because we are in the Son and when the Father sees us, he is seeing the Son in whom we are in union, and the Holy Spirit who maintains that relationship.  Therefore as the Father and the Son and The Holy Spirit fellowship, we participate in that fellowship as well.  In fact, since the Holy Spirit resides with the Church until the end of time, we need to see the profound nature of that work He works in us when the Body assembles to worship. It is he who maintains our fellowship.  He is the one who calls us out of sin, enables us to come to faith and then maintains that faith forever.  In the last chapter of the book of Revelation it is the Bride (the church) and the Spirit who call unto Christ to return.  So, for now, then and until the end of time, the Holy Spirit empowers the church to do all of its functions.

Considering the depth of the nature of this relation, then what kind of worship is worthy of the Creator of the universe who has condescended to man and allowed us into his holy abode for fellowship?  Do we not offer our best to him? The best of our income, the best of our time, the best of our voice and heart and mind?  Do we sing meaningless jingles or words of depth?  Do we prepare our hearts for worship or do we carouse all night, come in late, come to the  assembled Body of Christ unprepared to be in his presence?  I think the answers are obvious.

If we want to take worship seriously we must forever be aware of who God is and who we are.  That means that we live our lives in anticipation of meeting God in worship.  But since worship is also an eschatological event anticipating the return of Christ, we must live as those prepared to meet our returning Savior.  In Church we are living proleptically (that means we are living future promises in the present) thus we assemble and worship with the same solemn (meaning the with the awe that comes from being in the presence of the living God–the word awe used in its proper way)  and depth as those who are worshiping in the Book of Revelation, as if the church were already sitting at the banquet of the Lord’s Table as he lifts the cup for the first time since the night of his betrayal.

When we enter to worship, for those few minutes we are no longer those whose portfolios lost over half its value this week, we are not those whose bodies aches with the pain of age, we are not those riddled with anxiety about what we will do for a living or whose lives are troubled by the brokenness of their family.  When we enter to worship, we are the People of God, the Sons and Daughters of the Father, the Siblings of the Son, the saints of God those who reside in heaven, we are the future in the this very present moment.  When we worship, we are in the presence of the Father and we gather around his Word as the tree of life.  We gather at his table for fellowship with the one who died for us and we find our strength renewed as we drink the cup and take the bread.  And our prayers, the prayers of many as one man, are intense and deep words to our Father.  And when we sing, we are in chorus with the heavenly angels as we proclaim our collective praise to our King.  And for that moment are in a bubble of the future intruding into the present, a bubble that is a new heaven and a new earth.  For that short time we are straining to apprehend that which has apprehended us.  And when we leave that worship, we should be thirsty for more, a thirst that cannot quenched, a hunger that is cannot be satiated until we stand in his presence forever

That is how we should worship!

Matthew 14: 22-33

[This is, for the most part, the sermon I preached on the morning before the arrival of Hurricane Gustav.]

Jesus, as he often did, went away to be alone and to pray.  He longed for that intimate relationship between Himself and the Father.  He had sent the disciples on ahead of him in their boat while he dismissed the crowd that had been listening to him teach.

During the night, while Jesus prayed and while the disciples rowed, a terrible storm blew up.  It was about three o’clock in the morning.  The storm blew them in the opposite direction that they wanted to go.  Mark says that Jesus could see them out in the storm, rowing hard trying to make it to the shore.  But, the wind was blowing against them, blowing them farther out to sea.  Seeing his disciples in trouble, Matthew says that Jesus came to them, walking on the water.

I can see the twelve in a tiny, rickety boat that the fishermen of that day used.  The waves were swelling and the whitecaps were forming all around them.  The waters that had provided them with a living were now dangerous tongues of water sweeping over their tiny boat, bobbling like a cork in the angry sea.  I hear the rough, desperate voice of Peter issuing commands and the disciples bail water and desperately pull on the oars.

One of them saw a figure moving over the water.  It first it was just a whitecap that did not roll with the wave.  Soon it seemed to move in their direction.  Finally they all saw that it was a person and he was walking on the water through the storm.  Of course they had never seen anything like that before and they cried out in fear, It is a ghost, they said.  They thought that the evil spirits of the deep had risen up to take them.

Jesus was within shouting distance and he cried out, “Take courage, it is I; do not be afraid.”  Don’t you think that it is odd that in the middle of the storm, fighting for their lives, they did not recognize Jesus as he came into their midst?  But, there was the familiar voice of their master.  At the “it is I; do not fear,” a sense of strength and faith stirred up in Peter.

And Peter answered Him and said, “Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water.” And He said, “Come!” And Peter got out of the boat, and walked on the water and came toward Jesus.

Peter actually stepped out of that boat and onto the water and began to walk toward Jesus.    But, he took his eye off Jesus and he began to watch the high waves crashing around him.  He heard the wind howling and remembered that humans aren’t supposed to walk on water.  His faith failed him and he began to sink.  He cried out to Jesus, “Lord, Save me!”  And immediately Jesus reached out and took hold of Peter.  With the wind and the rain around them, Jesus said to him “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?”  Peter had seen Jesus control nature: He had healed the sick and raised the dead and even commanded the tempest to cease.  The weather obeyed him.  But, when it got personal, Peter doubted.

Jesus hauled Peter into the boat.  As he sat there, coughing and straining to catch his breath, water draining out of his hair and beard, the storm ceased.  In that little, tiny boat, the disciples bowed their heads and worshiped Jesus saying, “You are certainly God’s Son.”

It is hard for us to predict when the storms will come.  These were seasoned fishermen.  They knew about the sea.  But this was a terrible thing, a storm caught them off guard and scared these seasoned men to death.  We know how they feel.  We see this monster (Gustav) churning out there in the gulf.  We hear all the talk on the radio and TV.  All to well we remember Katrina and Rita.   It churns us up and we don’t know what to do.  Is it wise to stay or should we leave?  What will happen to my stuff? The disciples would understand our questions.

Even though Jesus was off on the shore, in a lonely place to pray, he knew exactly what was happening to disciples.  His eye was on them.  And he did not leave them alone in the storm.  Instead, Jesus came to them walking on the water.  They did not expect this.  It had not crossed their minds that Jesus was aware of their trouble and was coming to their aid.  They saw him coming toward them and they thought he was a ghost!  Don’t we sometimes interpret God coming to us as something alien and strange?

I like Peter.  I identify with his stumbling, his attempts at faith, his tripping over his own feet in the process.  Peter’s enthusiasm for the things of Jesus pushed him to do things that were beyond his ability.  If it is you, command me to come to you on the water.  “Come!” Jesus said.  Peter gets out of the boat and starts walking to Jesus!  It was surreal. “Look!  I am walking on water!”  I bet he had such a smile on his face.  But then he noticed the wind and the waves.  He became more impressed by the storm than he was of Jesus and he began to sink.  Jesus lifted him up and said, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?”

Most of my life, I have heard these words in my mind as a rebuke, sort of a brief chew out.  But I think that is wrong.  I think these were words of sadness.  Peter started out so well, but he hesitated, he doubted Jesus in the very act of walking on water. It was a disappointment to Jesus because Peter started out so well but then he let his fear overcome his faith. Jesus got into the boat and immediately the storm ceased.  And they understood what that meant.  So they worshiped him.

I do not know why we are threatened by another dangerous storm.  If we wanted to find reasons it would not be hard.  The Southern Decadence Festival, the Gay Mardi Gras, was taking place this weekend.  Many Christians thought that a holiday means a holiday from God.  If you want to play God, you can find many reasons why such a storm comes at such a time as this.   But we don’t know why.

Yet it is a good time to be reminded of who we are and how we are to live.  We are the sons and daughters of God.  And we live by faith in Christ.

Peter had placed his trust in Jesus, so much so, that he stepped out and walked on the water toward Jesus.  But, his faith was unsure.  He knew as well as we do that you can’t walk on water.  He took his eyes off Jesus and he was threatened by the reality of water and wind and waves. With his eyes off of Jesus, he began to sink. The problem was not the circumstances nor was it Jesus, it was Peter.  He took his eyes of Jesus.

Most of the time we talk about faith as a theory.  But faith is only real when it is practiced, when it is put into action.  Faith means that we know God, we have seen his evidence and we place our trust in his Word to us.  If that is so, when these threatening times come, should we not turn to Christ instead of turning to fear?  It is precisely in desperate times when we need to turn our attention to Christ.  It is appropriate both to seek his help and to fall down and worship him.

Perhaps this is what we need to remember this morning.  We are all scared of the storm and it is ok to be scared.  It is ok to go elsewhere while it comes a shore.  It fact, leaving may be the wise thing to do.  But the one thing we should not do, is take our eyes off of Jesus.  If you place your faith in material things like houses and cars, you may very well be disappointed by the end of the week.  If you look at the storm and take your eyes off of Jesus you may find yourself very disappointed, not in the storm but in yourself.

There is always a storm coming.  What should we do?  You do all the reasonable things you are supposed to do.  The disciples rowed their boat, they bailed out water, they did what they are supposed to do.  But there is one other thing that we must to do.  We must place our faith in Christ and not in the storm.  We need to cast our eyes on Jesus and follow him.

Philippians 1:1-11

James Houston says that there are at least 6 aspects to the nature of Christian Spirituality.

1. It is not ascetic. In other words, you do not have to become a hermit or a monk and withdraw from the world to be close to God. Our spirituality must take place in the real world that we live in. That means there are no good excuses for not having a close relationship to God.

2. The biblical revelation of God as personal leaves no place for the deductions of human wisdom. In other words, we must get our information from the Bible. We cannot use our wisdom and intuition as a source

The Bible teaches that God is personal and that He enters into a relationship with us. He initiates that relationship and He maintains it. It becomes our privilege to live in a person to person relationship with God. Such relationships can be found in the Old Testament as well as the New. And it are not based on secret knowledge but upon the common knowledge we all find in the Bible.

3. Christian spirituality is Christocentric, that is, Christ centered. Paul describes our Christian life as a life in Christ. We are in Christ and we are being conformed to him, putting on the mind of Christ, knowing Him and being known by Him.

4. Christianity Spirituality is life in the Trinity. The Christian lives as a son or daughter of God. We know God as Father. We realize our sonship or daughership in Jesus by his saving work of redemption and the forgiveness of sin. We have this relationship actualized by the gift of the Holy Spirit who enables the believer to cry Abba Father (Romans 8:15). For us, worship means to be in fellowship with the Father in the Son through the Holy Spirit.

5. Christian spirituality is the outworking of the grace of God in the soul of man. It begins with our conversion and extends until that day we go to be with Him. The goal of spirituality is our maturity in Christ.

6. Christian spirituality produces fellowship and communion of the saints and deepens our walk with each other. The reality of our spirituality is tested by our public worship. Just as our relationship to God is deepened, so is our relationship to each other as brothers and sisters in Christ. (Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, sv. “Spirituality”, J. Houston, pp. 1046-1047)

Christian spirituality will produce people with a servant’s heart and godly living. There is the inward relation of man to God and the outward relationship of man to man. Spirituality, instead of producing sublime mystics who seem to float above the rest of us, produces mature people with common sense and great love and action toward their fellow man.

Philippians has more deep, positive emotion than any of Paul’s other writings. He expresses great joy in knowing his readers and in knowing his sufferings while he is in prison. Paul gives thanks for the church at Philippi and rejoices in knowing them and knowing that they too share in his suffering. Paul’s spirituality turns suffering into something positive. They understand his suffering. And they share and participate with him in the Gospel with integrity and with honor and with joy.

It is not often that Paul expresses the way he feels about something. But, he expresses his joy in regard to them because he has them in his heart. What a deep, joyful expression this is! They are like treasure hidden in his heart and he remembers them constantly. They, like Paul, have given themselves to the defense and confirmation of the Gospel. They support him both financially and spiritually. They are fellow partakers of the grace of God! The result is that he longs to be with them with the deep affection of Christ Jesus. This word for “affection” is the word for bowels or inward parts. It expresses the deepest, most meaningful emotions of the human soul.

Paul prays for them and has confidence in them that they will remain blameless before Christ and that they will produce righteous fruit. How can he have this kind of confidence in mere men and women? The answer is found in verse 6, “For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.” He is confident because it is the work of Christ. Jesus is the source of our Christian life. He is the source of our spirituality. Not only did He call us to Himself, he sustains us and feeds us and cultivate us so that He may lead us to perfection.

Paul prays that their love will increase in real knowledge and discernment. He does not ask that love by itself be increased. But, that love and knowledge grow together. Love and knowledge balance each other. If we love God will want to know more about him. But if we know more, we will also be able to discern that which is from God and that was is not. I was in a meeting this week and the subject turned briefly to responding to the guys with signs on the interstate. I was asked do I give to them. I said no, those guys are professional beggars and giving to them only enables them to live like that. They don’t want to work they want you money. I hope that is love accompanied by discernment. Sometimes loves says no.

The goal of this love that abounds in knowledge and discernment is so that we may approve of that which is excellent. There is a hierarchy of information here. Love that grows in knowledge and discernment leads to our ability to approve, that is to seek and live and promote what is excellent. Love causes us to do what we do with excellence. Mediocrity should not be a part of the Christian lifestyle. We offer our best to God and to each other.

But, even living a life of excellence has a purpose. We seek a life of excellence so that we may be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ. Each day for the Christian, should be one of joyful excellence as he or she moves toward that day when Christ returns. It is not a threat that you better get going. It is a reminder that our pursuit of Christ is a joyful act. Like children on the way to see their favorite movie, they may dress and talk like their favorite character. We move toward heaven in love that is abounding, in knowledge and discernment. We seek to live in excellence with joy imitating our Lord, thinking like him, putting on the mind of Christ, his attitudes, his love, his desires as we journey with anticipation of seeing him face to face.

So, we are never finished. We are a work in progress. God is not through with any of us yet. We may notice God building and renovating, tearing away old rot and replacing with the what is mature and right before God.

Paul expresses a deep spirituality that draws us in and causes us to walk in excellence because we are conscience that we are God’s children we are a people who strive after Christlikeness, knowing all the while that it is God who is at work in us and will do so until the very end.

If you get a chance to read the book God The Holy Trinity, edited by Timothy George, make sure you read the last essay or sermon, Deep Wisdom by Cornelius Plantinga, Jr. It is about glory and Trinity and it is worth the price of the book. I was deeply moved by it. I imagine that it was final sermon preached at the conference on the Trinity held at Beeson Divinity School. It does not strike me that the president of Calvin Theological Seminary would be such a eloquent preacher. I would expect scholarly and erudite. But I found just reading it breath taking. Maybe I was in the right mood.

I have had an interest in the subject of glory since I first read the Weight of Glory by C. S. Lewis. It intrigues me and yet I don’t understand it. Who can? Yet Paul wrote that we will receive glory. 2 Corinthians 4:17 “For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison.” (NASB) In this sermon, Plantinga focuses on events in the Gospel of John. He shows that contrary to human concepts of glory, God’s glory is found in the most unexpected places. I found the following quote surprising, I hope you can figure out what he referring to by his words. If not, just read the Gospel of John.

“Glory is everywhere in the Gospel, and it has nothing to do with competition or making a splash. The glory is in wine and blood. It is in bread and bathwater. It where we are not looking, but it is certainly where Jesus is, and God is also mixed in the glory because the Son just does what what his Father does. He just says what the Father says. The Son is his Father all over again.” page 152.