March 31, 2024, Message by P. Kevin Clancey
We give you praise and honor tonight, our risen King and Savior, Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you because you are rich in mercy. You are abiding in grace and love, and you have forgiven our sins, and you have brought us into the presence of our Heavenly Father, where we find grace and mercy for this and every time of need.
Thank you for going to the cross. Thank you for defeating our three enemies, sin, Satan, and death. They are defeated foes. And Lord, we have a glorious hope.
And so, in the midst of this troubled world, in the midst of pain, in the midst of struggle, still we have hope because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and His great mercy. He has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
Thank you, Lord. Thank you for the great hope of Easter. In Jesus’ Name we pray, Amen..
All right, crew.
As I was looking through the scriptures, you know, on the one hand, it’s easy to preach on Easter. You know, it’s a big theme. It’s easy. You know, I always tell people, if you can’t preach the resurrection, get out of the business. You know, this is the biggie.
On the other hand, you know, there’s four gospels. They tell the story. And, you know, you just don’t want to circle around those every year. And Paul’s got some.
But I realized the last time I went through the book of Acts, that in all of this, in almost all the sermons in the book of Acts, what do I mean by the sermons? The time Peter gets up and makes a speech, the time Paul gets up someplace and makes a speech. Most of those sermons are probably edited. They’re probably not the full sermon. I mean, you read them in 30:40 seconds. And so, Luke is probably condensing those.
But in almost all of them, the author, or the preacher, does not preach primarily about the cross, which is very much what evangelical preaching is. Very much, we preach about the cross. And please, I’m not even making a judgment about this. This is just an observation, all right?
I’m not saying you shouldn’t preach about the cross. I’m not saying the cross isn’t important. I don’t want to be, you know, listen, I don’t want to be, go out there and have, you know, the heresy hunters, you know, jumping down my throat because I didn’t preach about the cross.
We need the cross, of course. But it’s interesting to me, anyway, in the book of – this is just an observation. It’s interesting to me in the book of Acts that in every sermon, they highlight the resurrection. They highlight the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
And so, one of the things I thought I’d do tonight, and I’m not going to do, by the way, maybe I’ll do this next year, is go through every sermon in the book of Acts. Not read them all to you, but look at every sermon in the book of Acts where they highlight the resurrection, and then see what they said about it. Because they always say something about it, and see what the resurrection, what message they were giving from the resurrection to the early Christian movement.
Tonight, I’m gonna do just one, and the one I’m gonna do is from Acts 13, where Paul is in Pisidian Antioch. He preaches first to Jews and Gentile God-fearers, and they reject his message. Then, he preaches to the Gentiles. It’s a big part of the transition of the gospel moving from primarily Jews to moving to the Gentiles.
That’s not the point I’m gonna make tonight. In fact, the point I’m gonna make tonight is just these two words that Paul uses in Acts 13, and the Bible uses a lot.
This would be another good study to do, another good sermon series. If you ever want to do a sermon series, Peter, here you go. All right, this would be a good sermon. Look up every place the Bible says, “But God.” “But God.” It’s all over the place. There’s got to be at least 50 of them. There was a British preacher, and you know, in Britain, they call your rear end your bum. All right, it’s your bum. And here, we call it a butt.
And so, there was an exchange between an American preacher and a British preacher, and the British preacher came over and he wanted to preach a sermon on the “but” gods in the Bible. The title of his sermon was “God Has a Butt.” Some of you have “buts,” too. Some of your “buts” are bigger than others, but God has the biggest “but.” you’ve got to know your culture. “But” God.
And so, I’m going to read to you first a fairly long section of scripture, and the “but God” is going to come right in the middle of it. Don’t worry, you don’t even have to catch it. I’ll highlight it for you.
Then, I’m going to look at a few other scriptures just to illustrate that this really is a thing in the Bible. We’re going to talk about this tonight, and especially talk about it in light of the resurrection.
So, Acts 13:16.
So Paul stood, lifted his hand to quiet them, and started speaking. Men of Israel, he said, and you, God-fearing Gentiles, listen to me. The God of this nation of Israel chose our ancestors and made them multiply and grow strong during their stay in Egypt. Then with a powerful arm, he led them out of their slavery. He put up with them for 40 years of wandering in the wilderness. Then he destroyed seven nations in Cana and gave their land to Israel as an inheritance.
16 So Paul stood, lifted his hand to quiet them, and started speaking. “Men of Israel,” he said, “and you God-fearing Gentiles, listen to me. 17 “The God of this nation of Israel chose our ancestors and made them multiply and grow strong during their stay in Egypt. Then with a powerful arm he led them out of their slavery. 18 He put up with them through forty years of wandering in the wilderness. 19 Then he destroyed seven nations in Canaan and gave their land to Israel as an inheritance. (Acts 13:16-19, NLT)
All this took about 450 years.
And if you’ve been staying up with our Bible reading, that’s all pretty fresh to you. That’s all the stuff we’ve been reading.
After that, God gave them judges to rule until the time of Samuel the prophet. Then the people begged for a king, and God gave them Saul, son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, who reigned for 40 years.
But God removed Saul and replaced him with David, a man about whom God said, “I have found David.”
David, son of Jesse, a man after my own heart, and he will do everything I want him to do.” And it is one of King David’s descendants, Jesus, who is God’s promised Savior of Israel.
Before he came, John the Baptist preached that all people of Israel needed to repent of their sins and turn to God and be baptized. As John was finishing his ministry, he asked, “Do you think I am the Messiah? No, I’m not. But he is coming soon.
And I’m not even worthy to be his slave and to untie the sandals on his feet. Brothers, you sons of Abraham, and also you God-fearing Gentiles, this message of salvation has been sent to us.
The people in Jerusalem and their leaders did not recognize Jesus as the one the prophets had spoken about. Instead, they condemned him, and in doing this, they fulfilled the prophets’ words that are read every Sabbath.
They found no legal reason to execute him, but they asked Pilate to have him killed anyway.
When they had done all that the prophecies said about him, they took him down from the cross and placed him in a tomb. But God raised him from the dead. And over a period of many days, he appeared to those who had gone with him from Galilee to Jerusalem. They are now his witnesses to the people of Israel. And now we are here to bring this good news. The promise was made to our ancestors, and God is now fulfilling it for us, their descendants, by raising Jesus.
This is what the second psalm says about Jesus: “you are my son, today I have become your father.”
20 All this took about 450 years. “After that, God gave them judges to rule until the time of Samuel the prophet. 21 Then the people begged for a king, and God gave them Saul son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, who reigned for forty years.
22 But God removed Saul and replaced him with David, a man about whom God said, ‘I have found David son of Jesse, a man after my own heart. He will do everything I want him to do.’ 23 “And it is one of King David’s descendants, Jesus, who is God’s promised Savior of Israel! 24 Before he came, John the Baptist preached that all the people of Israel needed to repent of their sins and turn to God and be baptized. 25 As John was finishing his ministry he asked, ‘Do you think I am the Messiah? No, I am not! But he is coming soon—and I’m not even worthy to be his slave and untie the sandals on his feet.’ 26 “Brothers—you sons of Abraham, and also you God-fearing Gentiles—this message of salvation has been sent to us!
29 “When they had done all that the prophecies said about him, they took him down from the cross and placed him in a tomb. 30 But God raised him from the dead! 31 And over a period of many days he appeared to those who had gone with him from Galilee to Jerusalem. They are now his witnesses to the people of Israel. 32 “And now we are here to bring you this Good News. The promise was made to our ancestors, 33 and God has now fulfilled it for us, their descendants, by raising Jesus. This is what the second psalm says about Jesus: ‘You are my Son. Today I have become your Father. ’ (Acts 13:20-33, NLT)
For God had promised to raise him from the dead, not leaving him to rot in the grave. He said, “I will give you the sacred blessings I promised to David.” Another psalm explains it more fully: “you will not allow your Holy One to rot in the grave.” This is not a reference to David, for after David had done the will of God in his own generation, he died and was buried with his body.
Ancestors, and his body decayed. Know it as a reference to someone else, someone whom God raised, whose body did not decay.
Brothers, listen, we are here to proclaim that through this man Jesus there is the forgiveness for your sins. Everyone who believes in him is made right in God’s sight, something the law of Moses could never do.
But be careful. Don’t let the prophet’s words apply to you, for they said, “Look, you mockers, be amazed and die. For I am doing something in your day, something you wouldn’t believe, even if someone told you about it.”
34 For God had promised to raise him from the dead, not leaving him to rot in the grave. He said, ‘I will give you the sacred blessings I promised to David.’ 35 Another psalm explains it more fully: ‘You will not allow your Holy One to rot in the grave.’ 36 This is not a reference to David, for after David had done the will of God in his own generation, he died and was buried with his ancestors, and his body decayed. 37 No, it was a reference to someone else—someone whom God raised and whose body did not decay. 38 “Brothers, listen! We are here to proclaim that through this man Jesus there is forgiveness for your sins. 39 Everyone who believes in him is made right in God’s sight—something the law of Moses could never do.
40 Be careful! Don’t let the prophets’ words apply to you. For they said,41 ‘Look, you mockers, be amazed and die! For I am doing something in your own day, something you wouldn’t believe even if someone told you about it.’ ” (Acts 13:34-41, NLT)
And God, may the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, Lord, our rock, our strength, and our redeemer, amen.
14 May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing to you, O Lord , my rock and my redeemer. (Psalms 19:14, NLT)
So here it is. But God. It’s throughout the Bible. Let me give you an example here, Genesis 50. So Joseph’s brothers, after Jacob died, were afraid that Joseph was going to take vengeance on them for selling him into slavery, since Jacob was no longer there to protect their sorry selves.
But Joseph said this, “Don’t be afraid of me. Am I God that I can punish you?” You intended to harm me, but God intended it all for good.
19 But Joseph replied, “Don’t be afraid of me. Am I God, that I can punish you? 20 You intended to harm me, but God intended it all for good. He brought me to this position so I could save the lives of many people. (Genesis 50:19-20, NLT)
The scripture I read to you, or I actually recite to you often, is a “but God” scripture. One of my key life verses, Psalm 75:25-26, “Whom do I have in heaven but you? And besides you, I desire nothing on earth. My heart and my flesh may fail, but God is the strength of my life and my portion forever.”
25 Whom have I in heaven but you? I desire you more than anything on earth. 26 My health may fail, and my spirit may grow weak, but God remains the strength of my heart; he is mine forever. (Psalm 73:25-26, NLT)
Romans 5 has it.
In Romans 5:6-7, when we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for sinners. Now, most people would not be willing to die for an upright person, though someone might perhaps be willing to die for a person who is especially good. But God is the strength of my life and my portion forever. God showed His great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.
6 When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners. 7 Now, most people would not be willing to die for an upright person, though someone might perhaps be willing to die for a person who is especially good. 8 But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. (Romans 5:6-8, NLT)
And the final one I want to look at, though there’s many, many more, is in Ephesians 2, talking about the sinfulness of human beings. All of us used to live that way, following the passionate desires and inclinations of our sinful nature. By our very nature, we were subject to God’s anger like everyone else. But God is so rich in mercy, and He loved us so much that even though we were dead because of our sins, He gave us life when He raised Christ from the dead.
For He raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus.
3 All of us used to live that way, following the passionate desires and inclinations of our sinful nature. By our very nature we were subject to God’s anger, just like everyone else. 4 But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, 5 that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!) 6 For he raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus. (Ephesians 2:3-6, NLT)
So, what does “but God” mean? “But God” means turnaround. “But God” means breakthrough. It means we’re not left to our own devices. God is going to do something to change things.
The world was struggling and the world was sinful, but God sent His Son, Jesus, and all history was changed. One day there’s going to be a “but God” on planet Earth.
We thought we were going to be around for another day, but God came back in Jesus Christ. In our lives, there are many instances of “but Gods.” I was angry, the child of parents who loved me, but still a broken home. Not broken in that there was divorce, but broken in that there was alcoholism, codependence, and a lot of dysfunction.
I was a sinful little guy. I was angry. I didn’t know what I was living for. I was sarcastic. I was lazy.
And I was just coming to the point where I was starting to mask all that pain with drugs. And that was my life. And that’s where I was headed. But God. But God. And you have your own “but God” story. Alright?
Now, listen, I love dramatic “but God” stories. I really do. I love hearing, you know, these stories and these testimonies, “man, I was a drug addict” or “I was a prostitute” or “I was in a gang” or “I was in the mob, but God reached down and got me.”
I was in a prison cell all alone. I love those stories. But as a parent and a grandparent, I don’t want those stories for my kids. I don’t want those stories for my kids. I want my kids to have a very early “but God” story. And I want them to cross the river at the narrowest possible place.
Those of you young people in the room, so, you know, just be grateful that your moms and dads raised you in a church and raised you to know and love Jesus.
So, you don’t have to, you didn’t have to go through the whole, you know, you didn’t have to get really dark before you embrace the light. But don’t ever let that stop you from being incredibly grateful for what God has done for you. Because Jesus had a saying, he said, “Those who’ve been forgiven much, love much.” So, love much, love much, even if you cross the river at the narrowest possible place.
But we all have a “but God” story. It’s just, it’s the way it is.
One day, you’re going to die, but God is going to take you to be with him. And you will be in his presence. And one day, he will judge the earth, but you will not be judged. God will give you a resurrected body. And you will have an eternal life with purpose, pleasure, passion, and meaning. Meaning forever in the new heavens and the new earth.
So, embrace the but-Gods. And if you’re in a downtime right now, if life has hit you hard, a but-God is coming. A but-God is coming. They always do.
And so, the biggest but-God in history is the one we read about tonight. It’s the biggest but-God in history. And Paul says he was in Jerusalem, our leaders, our Jewish leaders didn’t recognize the one whom the prophets were speaking about. They didn’t get it. And though he had done nothing deserving death, out of jealousy and pettiness and spiritual warfare, Paul didn’t say that, I added that, they brought him to Pilate.
And Pilate, out of cowardly political expediency, saw no guilt in Jesus, yet condemned him to death. He died a horrible death on a cross and he was laid in a tomb, but God raised him from the dead. But God raised him from the dead. And dear ones, I want to tell you that “but-God” is the hinge of history.
I was with some brothers last night. I was watching the NCAA basketball game and I met this guy, David, for the first time. And I just told David, I just took a shot, right?
Just take a shot. You know, you don’t know where anybody stands. I said, “Hey, have a great Easter weekend.” He said, “Thank you.” I said, “Rumor has it a dead guy got up.” And he goes, “Hallelujah, brother.” I said, “Well, I’m not going to get David saved. Somebody beat me to it.” He said, “He sure did.”
But, you know, I just started talking to David. And David, David must go to a good church with a good preacher because David said, I said, “Rumor had it a dead guy got up.” He said, “Hallelujah, brother.”
And history’s never been the same. Never been the same. Jesus Christ turned the course of history. Don’t watch old movies and romanticize the past. The past was brutal. The Roman Empire was brutal. The Greek Empire was brutal. The Persians were brutal. The Babylonians were brutal.
As you’re reading through Joshua and Judges, you’re going to read about what life was like back then, and it was brutal. You know, don’t romanticize the past.
If you lived on the British coast in the 3rd or 4th century, you were just waiting until one night the Irish pirates came, killed you, raped your wife, kidnapped your children. This happened to St. Patrick. Well, there’s a great historical but, God. This little English boy was kidnapped by Irish pirates, but God used him to evangelize a whole nation. Jesus Christ changed history.
We live in an incredible time to be alive. I know there are problems. I’m not arguing that there aren’t problems. There are problems. We still got trouble right here in Poulsbo City. All right?
We got problems. We got trouble. But dear ones, the trajectory of history, because Jesus Christ rose from the dead, is moving forward until his glory covers the earth like the waters cover the sea. Of the increase of his government and peace, there will be no end. I was talking to people today, you know, and they were saying, well, church attendance is down. Well, it is in the Pacific Northwest. Probably is after COVID in America. But as we speak, Africa is becoming the Christian continent, and so is Southeast Asia becoming a Christian part of the world.
And Muslims are converting to Christ in record numbers. But God. But God. And join me in this prayer for our region. I’m excited that God’s doing stuff all over the world, but I pray that that old hymn, that old spiritual. While on others thou art calling, do not pass me by. Do not pass us by.
What a story it would be to have an earth-shattering revival, a nation-shattering revival coming out of Kitsap County, Washington. The Pacific Northwest? You gotta be kidding me. You know, and maybe a corresponding revival coming out of someplace like Vermont.
You know, so far removed from the Bible belt? You know, they’re not even the Bible hat. They’re in the Bible clothes hamper. But you know what, it could happen. You know why it could happen? But God. But God.
All right, so what does he say about the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead? Well, in this passage, he hits on a few notes. He says, first of all, there were many witnesses. There were many witnesses to the resurrection. So, Christianity rises and falls upon the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
Not upon the idea of resurrection, not upon, oh, it’s like winter turning into spring, blah, blah, blah, blah. No, a dead man got up, physically. He got up, all right? He was raised from the dead. His body, he could eat. People touched him.
Now, it wasn’t exactly the same as his earthly body. It had some characteristics that the earthly body didn’t. Like, he could walk through walls, and he could appear in one place and then appear in another place.
And so, our heavenly bodies are gonna be very similar. They’re gonna be physical.
You won’t just be spirits floating around in heaven. When you get your heavenly body, we can shake hands. We’ll be physical, alright? We can be like, you know, we can be like Brett Favre. You know, we can slap each other on the behind. Alright. He used to do that on the football field to his linemen.
I don’t know if any of you are football fans, but he’s a famous quarterback and he was notorious for, you know, male, instead of a high five, his linemen would block for him and he’d come up and he’d give a big slap on the behind. And I remember a sportscaster asked him one time, he said, ‘Are there any rules about that?’ And he says, ‘Yes, no cupping.’ All right. So, I don’t know, I don’t know how much we can slap each other on the behind in heaven. I don’t know.
But Mick, you know, I might give it a try with you. You might come by and say, ‘Hey Mick, how you doing buddy?’ Might do it. All right. And what was my point? Oh, Jesus rose from the dead. He had a body. We’re going to have eternal bodies. There are, and there are many witnesses to this. Listen, if there was only one piece of evidence to the resurrection, and there’s more than one piece of evidence to the resurrection, the fact that the women were the first ones who spoke about the resurrection.
In fact, as a powerful witness to the authenticity of these stories, because these stories were made up, first-century Jews writing to a first-century audience of Jews and Gentiles would not have put that in the story. That makes the story look bad, not good for that audience because women were considered unreliable back then. They weren’t even, they weren’t even allowed to be a witness in a court case because, oh, they’re just, they were, there was such prejudice that, uh, that women and you look at the disciples’ reaction, right?
They just thought it was nonsense. Oh, you just crazy women. All right. That’s evidence, but I’ll tell you what’s evidence. 500 witnesses. I’ll tell you what, if somebody shot somebody and 500 people went to court and said, “Yeah, he did it.” That guy’d go down. He wouldn’t get off. He would not get off. He would not get off.
If there were two or three reliable witnesses and the disciples are reliable. Reliable witnesses. How do we know they’re reliable witnesses?
How do we know they didn’t just make this story up because they had nothing to gain and everything to lose they saw what they did to Jesus and They were hiding Until they encountered him raised from the dead He changed their lives and 11 of the 12 disciples Went to violent deaths Because they bore witness to the resurrection and none of them backed off their story you see people today in Cancel culture and they’ll say something and and the internet will rise up against them and they’re they’re tracking it back They’re they’re walking it back as fast as they can But the disciples were were beheaded hung on crosses stoned And all they had to do to avoid that feat was say, uh, well, maybe he maybe maybe it was a vision or a hallucination We’re not sure.
He really was raised from the dead. We just know his teaching was – he was a good moral teacher. They didn’t say that. That wasn’t the early Christian message. Jesus was a good man and a good moral teacher. No, he was raised from the dead. We’re not stepping down.
Listen, one of the reasons I’m not a big conspiracy theorist is people are really bad about lying together accurately over long periods of time.
I mean, cops catch all sorts of people because they lie poorly. All right, not everybody is a gifted liar. In fact, there’s all sorts of telltale signs when people body language or whatever that, and you know, people say the stupidest thing. Right, people say this, they’ll say, “Oh, kids are so honest.” Like no, they’re not. Why do we think kids are honest? Because we can discern the truth because in their young age, they’re bad liars. They learn how to lie better as they grow up.
And if they learn how to lie really good, now I’m not gonna say it, I can say it. You can ask me afterwards. But the disciples, they never backed off. They were never caught with a duplicitous story, you know, where this didn’t line up with that, and that didn’t line up with this.
Now, I get it, that some of the accounts of the resurrection, there were two angels, there was one angel, it was early in the morning, the sun was risen, the sun was still down.
But that, in fact, actually verifies the story, because that’s exactly how witnesses… We had a tragic, tragic thing happen in Bremerton today. As we were driving to church, out in front of the 7-Eleven, right by the church, there was a body bag. There was a murder last night, or this morning.
But it was very interesting, the reason I point this out, is somebody… The first account I heard was that somebody died at the 7-Eleven. The second account I heard is that somebody was murdered at 7-Eleven.
The third account I heard was that two people were murdered at 7-Eleven. All three were, none of them were eyewitnesses to the event, but all three were eyewitnesses to 7-Eleven, as they were driving to church. And the truth was, the middle one was the closest, that one person was murdered. But it’s interesting that when people are reporting on facts like that, right, the small details kind of just get mumbled. The person had his turn signal on, the person had the right signal on, the person didn’t have a signal.
But what is evident is all the witnesses bear truth to a guy who got killed. All the evidence bears witness to there being an accident. And so, the accounts in the Gospels bear witness to the fact that Jesus rose from the dead.
The disciples are the most reliable in any, if there was any other event in history that was as well attested as the resurrection of Jesus, no historian would doubt it. Let me tell you why they doubt this one. There are two profound reasons. One obvious.
In our experience, every dead person we know didn’t rise. Now, actually, that’s not true for me. I know one personally, and I’ve read the accounts of many. But in fact, next year, I’m going to have him come, and he’s going to speak at our Holy Spirit conference.
He’s Dean Braxton, and he died and was at Tacoma Hospital. They were filling out the death certificate. His heart had stopped for an hour and 45 minutes. He visited heaven and came back to life.
So there you go. I actually know one personally. I’ve met Dean. I like Dean.
I’m going to invite him to speak at our church. So, I know one. If you read Craig Keener’s book on miracles, he has a whole chapter on people who have been raised from the dead. So, it happens, but still, it’s very rare.
So, I get the skeptics saying, “This can’t be true because dead people don’t get up.” Actually, they do. Jesus wasn’t even the first. There’s some recorded in the Old Testament. But it’s rare. And what’s even more rare is really dead people getting up.
Most dead people who get up, according to the scale delineated for us in that great scientific movie, The Princess Bride, are barely dead or mostly dead. Jesus, though I don’t think they use this term in The Princess Bride, my term for Jesus was he was good and dead. He’d been dead a long time, days. Rigor mortis would be setting in, would have already set in. He was good and dead.
And 500 witnesses, they touched him. They ate with him. There are people who go to Graceland and say, ‘I’ve seen Elvis.’
But nobody, first of all, we don’t believe them because they’re not credible witnesses. I don’t think anybody who said, I’ve seen Elvis, if you told them we’re going to nail you to a cross unless you back off that story, yeah, it’s just a guy that looked like Elvis. Or it was just my imagination playing tricks on me. None of them would have said, yeah, and I shook his hand. We had lunch together, peanut butter and banana sandwiches, seen Elvis. Nope. So they don’t believe, first of all, because dead people don’t get up.
Second reason they don’t believe is because they don’t want to. If you believe Jesus rose from the dead, that puts a demand on your life. That puts a demand. What are you going to do with that? Here’s a guy who claimed to be God and proved it. Now, are you going to reject him or follow him? It puts a demand on your life.
All right. He fulfilled prophecy. Psalm 2 speaks of the father saying, “Today you have become my son.” And so, Jesus is the son of God. He is the son of God.
What does that mean? That means that he is the answer to all of life’s big questions. It drives me nuts that people don’t ask the best questions in life. All the questions we ask tend to be trivial questions. Some of them are fun. Some of them are entertaining.
Who’s going to win the NCAA tournament? Who’s going to win the World Series? Those are questions I like to ask as a sports fan. You might have your hobbies and ask questions around your hobbies.
Maybe you’re a farmer and you’re asking, what’s the weather going to be like next winter? What’s the growing season going to be like? Maybe you’re going to want to have a herd of pigs like Iko. What’s the price of pork bellies? What’s bacon going to be going for in a few years? You might want to figure that out. Those are all important questions. How much money am I going to make? What’s the real estate market going to do? What’s the stock market going to do? Those are all reasonable questions.
But nobody asks the real big life questions. What’s God like? And when people do ask that question, they tend to come up with a mistaken answer because they tend immediately to jump with, “God is like life.” But if God is like life, then God is not good, because life is hard.
Now, there’s beauty in life. There’s beauty in nature. There’s goodness in life. There are good times. There are exciting times. There’s love. But there’s also cruelty, wickedness, harshness, despair, depression, hopelessness.
And so most people jump to the wrong conclusion.
The Bible never says, “God is like life.” Here’s the simple answer to what God is like, according to the Scriptures: Jesus. “If you’ve seen me, you’ve seen the Father.”
Then there’s another big question. How am I supposed to live? And you’ve heard me say this before, but I’ll say it again. It gets so easy at this point, right? What’s God like? Jesus. How am I supposed to live? Could it be Jesus? Yeah. Jesus. Jesus is how I’m supposed to live.
Not only is God like Jesus, but also, if I want to see God, I need to look at Jesus. If I want to see a model for what my life is to be like, again, I look at Jesus.
And then the third thing is, big question, what’s my purpose in life? Anybody got a clue? Jesus. Sydney went to Sunday school. She knows. When in doubt, go with big J. Jesus. He’s my purpose in life.
God reveals himself in Jesus, I’m to live like Jesus, and what do I have to offer the world? Nothing but Jesus.
Nothing but Jesus. Well, I’m a brilliant architect. Great. Be Jesus’ missionary in the Society of Brilliant Architects. I’m a brain surgeon. Great. Be Jesus’ missionary amongst the brain surgeons. I’m a construction worker. Great. Be great, be as Jesus is, be His missionary amongst carpenters.
I’m a school teacher, you get the point. I’m a homemaker, you get the point. Whatever you do, do for Jesus. That’s what it means when the Bible says He’s the Son of God. He also says that He is the fulfillment of the prophecy. That’s in Psalm 2:1.
And then in Isaiah 55, He says He is the fulfillment of the covenant that God made with David. And God made several covenants in the Old Testament. He made one with Moses that said, “I’ll not cover the earth with water anymore. There won’t be a flood that will cover the earth.”
The first year I moved out to the Pacific Northwest, my first November here, it rained 21 straight days. I was doubting God’s covenant. I said, “Are we going to make 40?” But it’s just 21, and then we got a day off. And it didn’t flood.
All the Douglas fir drank it all up. They’re good. They love that stuff. So, it was all good. He said to Noah, “I’m not going to flood the earth. I’m not going to destroy the earth this way anymore.”
Then he made a covenant with Abraham, right? He said, “I will give you a child and your descendants, if you will leave and go to the land I show you and then circumcise your children, I will make you a nation, and all the nations of the world will be blessed through you.”
He made a covenant with Moses.
We’re deep into that in our Bible reading right now: Deuteronomy. Listen carefully and obey. If you listen carefully and obey, you will live long and prosperous in a land flowing with milk and honey. If you don’t listen carefully and obey, you will be destroyed. Life and death. Remember, choose life.
Then he made a covenant with David. And he told David this. He said, “One day from your line, there will come a king, and his kingdom will never end.”
It says in the book of Acts that He ascended to the right hand of the Father.
What does the right hand mean? That’s the side of coronation. That’s the throne of power. Daniel 7, the title Jesus took for Himself, the Son of Man. Daniel 7:13-14, “I saw one like the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven before the Ancient of Days, and He was given a kingdom and glory and dominion without end.”
You know why democracy, we were talking about civics earlier tonight, you know why democracy is a great idea?
It’s not because everybody is so good, they deserve a voice in government. It’s because everybody is so bad we have to divide power up into the smallest possible pieces so we all just get a vote. Because too much power in the hands of too few people always leads to disaster in a sinful world. But my father used to say this, and he actually showed great wisdom when he said this. He said, “Kevin, there’s nobody we can trust to do this, but actually the best form of government is a benevolent king.” He’s right. It’s sufficient.
You don’t have any gridlock in Congress with a benevolent king. With a good and loving and kind and all-wise and all-powerful king, that’s the best form of government. David’s descendant is Jesus, and He is now our king. I’m not good at taking orders from people. I’d have struggled in the military. You know, I’d have told my drill sergeant, you know, I might do it if you ask me nicely. Probably wouldn’t have gone well for me at that point. Probably wouldn’t have had a good outcome with that.
You don’t really have to use that tone of voice, sir. No, I wouldn’t have been that stupid. I’d have minded my P’s and Q’s, but I’d have resented it. And even today, if somebody bosses me around, I just don’t like it. I don’t like it. And I tell them. My kids or my grandkids will try to boss me around. Turn the TV to that channel. No, you ain’t getting the TV turned to that channel. Grandpa, would you please turn the TV to that channel? Of course I will. Try it that way.
But when they tell me the first way, you know what I tell them? I look at them and go, “you’re not the boss of me.” I told that to my kids. My kids are trying to, you know, there’s going to come a day when they’re going to try to boss me around in my decrepitude. And if I’m still sharp enough, I’m going to tell them, “you’re not the boss of me.” you know, there’s only two people I don’t tell that to. Jill and Jesus.
The reason I don’t tell it to Jill is not because it’s not true. She is not the boss of me. I just don’t want the trouble that would come if I said that. And I never tell that to Jesus. Because with Jesus, you are the boss of me. And I can be pretty proud. And I’m not proud of the fact that I’m proud.
But one thing I’m sure of, he’s smarter than me. His way is better than my way. He is my king. I once had a friend. And he had a bumper sticker.
And he thought it was all cool. Jesus is my co-pilot. And I thought, well, that’s just a dumb bumper. You know, I like some Jesus bumper stickers. But that one’s dumb. No, Jesus is my pilot. He’s my pilot. I don’t tell him, hey, put the landing gear down. He tells me, watch, I’m going to land without landing gear. Have faith. Whee! He’s my pilot. He’s my king. That’s what it means. And he is king forever. There will be no end to his kingdom.
“Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
10 May your Kingdom come soon. May your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven. (Matthew 6:10, NLT)
Heaven, His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and we are forever His subjects, and it will be good.”
And the final one is, she says, “The Holy One, in Psalm 16, the Holy One will not see decay.” And that is evidence for the resurrection. Jesus did not see decay. And again, “The Holy One, just like the Son of God, is a statement saying Jesus is divine.”
The council, the divine council, at least one place in the Bible, are called Holy Ones.
But the definite article, the Holy One, is never used in the Bible for anybody else but God. God is the Holy One. And Jesus is the Holy One that Psalm 16:10 alludes to. How do we know? His body didn’t see decay. He was raised from the dead.
And so the evidence is that Jesus is God. The resurrection points to the fact that Jesus is exactly who He said He was. And then Acts 13 lists a major benefit and then rephrases it.
Basically, it says, “your sins are forgiven, and you have been justified,” which are kind of the same things. your sins are forgiven. This was the part in Bremerton where somebody went, “Woo.” So your sins are forgiven. All right. I know you shouldn’t try to manufacture revival, but I’m desperate, people. I’m trying to bring it. All right. your sins are forgiven. Yep, come on. It’s all right.
Listen, trust me. I’ll tell you when you go too far. And so that is great news. You are going to stand before God with your sins forgiven. That’s forgiven.
You no longer have to have this perfect report card to stand before a holy God. But the high priest couldn’t do but just was representing. Doing Christ has done for us. He is atoned for our sins. And the New Testament just says time and time again, by faith in Jesus Christ, your sins are forgiven. Yes, your sins are forgiven. You have been justified. It says, what is justified? God declares you not guilty. you’re free, but I did it.
You’re not guilty, but you’re not guilty. You have entered into a new covenant. In the old covenant, you were guilty. You had to go make a guilt offering, a sin offering, a burnt offering, and then the day of atonement. The High Priest had to go through this elaborate ritual because you were guilty and you were not guilty. And it’s powerful imagery, and it helps you live in the presence of a holy God, even though you’re a sinful person. But it’s not perfect.
It has to be repeated time and time again, and they said in the temple, “It was literally a river of blood that would flow. Why? Because a river of blood is not enough to cover all the sins of people on earth. A river of cow’s blood is not enough to cover all the sins of people on earth. Of people on earth, a river of cow’s blood is not enough. A river of lamb’s blood is not enough.”
But I’ll tell you this, dear ones. One millimeter, one drop, one small – the smallest of smallest amount of Jesus’s blood covers your sin past, present, and future. It covers my sin past, present, and future. It covers the sin of eight billion people on planet earth today. It covers the sin of all the people that will live after us and all the people that have lived before us.
The blood of the Son of God was shed. A new covenant was instituted in His blood. And your sins and my sins are forgiven.
We’re justified before God. One day, we’re going to stand before God, and he’s not going to come to us and say, “you know what? I can’t let you into my heaven because you are just so guilty.” He’s going to say, “Welcome into the inheritance that has been prepared for you.” And you’re going to look at the Lord Jesus Christ and you’re going to say, “Thank you, thank you, thank you for doing this for me. Thank you.”
God loved the world in this way: that He gave His Son, that whoever would believe in Him would not perish but have eternal life. But God, who is rich in mercy, abounding in love and grace, died for us, not year after year, not day after day, not like in the temple, once and for all.
And so, dear ones, tonight, as we do every week, we have a simple, very simple, the simplest of all meals, but it’s the meal of the new covenant.
This meal declares to us: you are a sinner, separated from God, an enemy of God. But God raised Jesus Christ from the dead, and He sought and found me and you, and invited us into this new covenant.
And the historicity of the resurrection bears witness to the truth of the new covenant. The same Christ, who said He was God and said He was going to rise from the dead, said that His blood would bring us into the forgiveness of sins and a new covenant.
What can undo that? What can undo that?
One more sin on your part? What can undo that? A lapse? A momentary lapse? All of hell can’t undo that. They can’t take you from this new covenant. So, come and take and eat and be grateful tonight. Because we were lost, but God found us. Amen?
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