God's Kingdom and Not Postmortem Destiny

""God's Kingdom" in the preaching of Jesus refers not to postmortem destiny, not to our escape from this world into another one, but to God's sovereign rule coming "on earth as it is in heaven."  The roots of the misunderstanding go very deep, not least into the residual Platonism that has infected whole swaths of Christian thinking and has misled people into supposing that Christians are meant to devalue this present world and our present bodies and regard them as shabby or shameful." - Wright, SBH, p18.

Satan's Sly Speech

On Sennacherib's speech:

"The speech is so persuasive precisely because it contains so much that is true.  But its basic premise is false:  namely, that the LORD has forsaken Judah, and therefore that trust in him is futile.  It is always Satan's way to make us think that God has abandoned us, and to use logic woven from half-truths to convince us of it.  This speech is so subtly devilish in character that it might have been written by Satan himself.  The truth is that the LORD had brought Judah to the end of her own resources so that she might learn again what it meant to trust him utterly.  But he had not abandoned and would not abandon her." - Webb, p149.

The Wrath of Sennacherib

The scriptures quickly bring us to Sennacherib's stand at the city-walls of Jerusalem.  Ancient documents, including a sculpture from Sennacherib's palace in Nineveh, now in the British Museum, portrays his siege and capture of Lachish.  Other documents describe Sennacherib boasting to have conquered forty-six of Judah's strong cities, walled forts and countless small villages in their vicinity.

When Sennacherib arrives at Jerusalem, Hezekiah truly is shut up like a bird in a cage.

Armed with Hope for Tomorrow

The stark contrast of the glorious vision of victory in chapter 35 and the frightening world of chapter 36 displays something of what we experience living in today's world with God's promises.  It gives us a sense of what we have to stand on when Monday comes after a glorious covenant renewal service on the Lord's Day.

"It leads us not away from reality, but more deeply into it.  It arms us with the knowledge of what will be, so that we can confront what is...with renewed courage and steadiness of purpose." - Webb, p147.

A Time to Protest - A Time to Worship

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 says, 1 To everything there is a season, A time for every purpose under heaven: 2 A time to be born, And a time to die; A time to plant, And a time to pluck what is planted; 3 A time to kill, And a time to heal; A time to break down, And a time to build up; 4 A time to weep, And a time to laugh; A time to mourn, And a time to dance; 5 A time to cast away stones, And a time to gather stones; A time to embrace, And a time to refrain from embracing; 6 A time to gain, And a time to lose; A time to keep, And a time to throw away; 7 A time to tear, And a time to sew; A time to keep silence, And a time to speak; 8 A time to love, And a time to hate; A time of war, And a time of peace.

Yesterday was a time to speak.  It was a time to hate and a time of war.  It was a time to break down; a time to pluck the horrors that have been planted.  Yesterday, across the nation in over 300 cities at different sites it was a time to say to this nation – no more – stop killing babies – stop chopping them up – stop selling them like they were not human – for it has made you, America – unhuman.  It has made you anti-human.  It has enslaved you, America, in a culture of death.

It was exhilarating and exciting to be a part of the protests yesterday and well done to all who prayed and or participated in these events.  May God be merciful and hear the prayers of the saints across this land.

Yesterday was a particular time.  But now is another time – just as specific, called and labelled by God Himself.  This is a holy day.  This is the Lord’s day – and this is the time to gather in the heavenlies with all of God’s people across this world and with the saints who have gone before us in heaven itself.  We do so by faith and in the work of covenant renewal.

It honestly doesn’t feel quite as exhilarating and exciting, maybe, to some, as the protests yesterday – or watching films later, of protest after protest across the nation.  But what we must understand, listening carefully to the Lord, is that we have been called even now to something far more potent, far more world changing.  We are now going to come before the Lord in concert, all across this land and world, and we are going to ask Him, because He told us to ask Him, to make this world look like and imitate heaven itself.  And He is in the business of answering that prayer.  That will have a profound impact on your heart and soul and life first – and then that will have a profound impact on the world around you – around us.  Come into the worship of God the Father in the name of Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

From the Inside Out

In the ancient church, these “holy things” of the Lord’s Table were deemed to be too holy for ordinary people, ordinary Christians to touch.  That was reserved for the clerics and priests – the real Christians.

But no one, in and of himself or herself, is ever holy enough to approach this Table – unless they are in Christ – and the only way to be in Christ is to believe.  That faith is a powerful leaven in one’s life.  It makes one’s functional faith come into line with one’s confessional faith.

What this means, simply, is that all you have to do to come to the Table is believe in Jesus – and you are holy.  But if you come to the Table, know this:  God is declaring something as well:  He is changing you, remaking you, and He is going to do so from the inside out.  Come and welcome to Jesus Christ.

A Memorial to Action

When we come to the Table, it is our Table of Fellowship and Peace with the King of kings, with and for Jesus Christ Himself.

But this is not only a time of peace.  It is a memorials – and memorials were always understood to be times where Israel called upon God to remember them, to bare His arm and fight for them.  In one sense, each Passover meal was a cry for a new Exodus.

When Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper, He called it “His memorial” (Luke 22:19), and so while this meal is in place to remind us of what Jesus has done, it really is also essentially a cry to direct the Father.

What He has done is called on us to call on Him here, in this meal, to see the once-for-all blood shed by His Son for us, to see our situation now, and to act on behalf of His children.  Seeing the blood of the true Lamb, the Father passes over His redeemed children and carries out His judgments against Egypt – against those who would harm His children and the work of His kingdom.  This is another memorial of God’s active sovereignty and His active love.