When is our Pentecost coming?

Jesus answered(Pilate and said), “My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight, so that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now My kingdom is not from here.”

 

I closed on Easter Sunday by claiming that Good Friday, the Lord's Crucifixion, was the end of Creation, marked by a silent, solemn Sabbath, and that the First Lord's Day Easter Morning was the Beginning of a whole New World that had not previously existed, a New World spoken into existence when the Father called His Beloved Son back from the grave that morning.  But, what really changed in our lives?  When I think about my life and the world that we live in, it doesn't seem like a world where the dead rise up.  It doesn't seem like the wrongly convicted and punished are justified by a Resurrecting Power.  If I were to describe how I feel about most of the problems in life I think powerless would be a very good word.  Generally, injustice is all around.  Life in the last days of the American Empire, in the period that history will probably remember as the Kleptocracy, rule by theft, is a rather hopeless affair to a thinking person.  The self-determination of the world's people is at perhaps the lowest ebb ever, and all of the tools that we thought would make us free, and happy and powerful have been turned into chains.  We are surveilled and recorded and tracked at all times by the magic boxes in our pocket that put the world at our fingertips and keep us always chained to the society that preys on us.  We are fed a steady diet of obvious lies, not to try and convince us but only to numb our brains and sap our will to fight.  We have more and more dollars shoved into our hands to distract us from the fact that there is almost nothing left worth buying.  On a more personal note, good deeds are rewarded with being sued, the idle are promoted while the industrious stagnate, and generally speaking every week closes with more problems than there were when it opened.  So, where is the New Creation?  Sacrificing everything to know the Power of His Resurrection doesn't sound so bad but where is it, where is He?  As David complained, "How long Oh Lord, will the wicked prosper and the righteous suffer?  When will you stand up for your people?"

Why are we, why am I, so powerless?  One answer to that question is really quite simple.  We are under God's curse.  As one of the prophets, I forget which one, said of Israel's suffering, "How could these things happen if Our Rock had not sold us?"  The curse is the distinctive feature of human existence.  The imposition of futility on us and on the Creation over which we were given headship, the pointless, the profitless, and the meaningless  are almost the sum total of what we have accomplished as a species.  We have brought death, and confusion, and deception.  While I wouldn't want to be mistaken for an Environmentalist it is a fact that the Lord has smote the earth with fearsome curses, hard and on more than one occasion on account of our sin.  And He's not anything like done yet.  

From Acts 1: And being assembled together with them, He(Jesus) commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father, “which,” He said, “you have heard from Me; for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, “Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” And He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority. But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”  Now when He had spoken these things, while they watched, He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, who also said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven.”

 

After the Lord's Resurrection, He was with the Apostles for 40 days.  And after 40 days the risen Lord,  called the Apostles together, to Mount Olivet, probably to His Mountain Garden, I don't know that but it seems appropriate perhaps that as the first act of Mankind began in Eden the second act begins in Gethsemane.  The bliss of the one garden was lost forever, but the pain of the other is more than a replacement.  It is better to go to the house of mourning than the house of rejoicing.  We were once separated from God because of our sin, the Ascension that took place on the Mount of Olives that day marks a separation,in its own way as piercing, but for very different reasons, and we wait for His Return, His Presence, with more longing than men wish for Eden or any fictional Utopia, we pant and even faint for the return of the Beloved.  Adam and Eve each had fruitless futile labor.  Peter, James, and John were to stay put, to wait for the fulfillment of the Promise, those who toiled brought in no fruit, those who waited reaped a hundredfold.  The ants got nothing, the grasshoppers were the instruments of perhaps the only truly positive change in world history.  They were told that it wouldn't be many days before the Lord's promise was fulfilled, it was in fact 9 days.  Forty days from Easter until the Lord's Ascension 9 more days brings us to the First Day of the Week eight weeks after Passover which as we know fell on Good Friday, seven sabbaths to mark the completion of all old things, and one bright new Sunday morning- the first day of the New Week, brings us to the day when Moses commanded that the Firstfruits of the Spring Harvest, usually barley in ancient Israel I am told, would be brought and offered to the Lord, called in the Books of Moses the Feast of Weeks, but known in Jesus day simply as "The Fiftieth Day"-that day is today.  Today is the Day of Pentecost.

When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.(This is from the beginning of Acts 2) And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.  And there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men, from every nation under heaven. And when this sound occurred, the multitude came together, and were confused, because everyone heard them speak in his own language. Then they were all amazed and marveled, saying to one another, “Look, are not all these who speak Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each in our own language in which we were born? Parthians and Medes and Elamites, those dwelling in Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya adjoining Cyrene, visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs—we hear them speaking in our own tongues the wonderful works of God.” So they were all amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “Whatever could this mean?”  Others mocking said, “They are full of new wine.”  But Peter, standing up with the eleven, raised his voice and said to them, “Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and heed my words. For these are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day. But this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:

‘And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God,
That I will pour out My Spirit(My own breath, the very Divine Life of the Living God) on all flesh;
Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
Your young men shall see visions,
Your old men shall dream dreams.
And on My menservants and on My maidservants
I will pour out My Spirit in those days;
And they shall prophesy.
I will show wonders in heaven above
And signs in the earth beneath:
Blood and fire and vapor of smoke.
The sun shall be turned into darkness,
And the moon into blood,
Before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord.
And it shall come to pass
That whoever calls on the name of the Lord
Shall be saved.’

“Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a Man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs which God did through Him in your midst, as you yourselves also know— Him, being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death; whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that He should be held by it. For David says concerning Him:

‘I foresaw the Lord always before my face,
For He is at my right hand, that I may not be shaken.
Therefore my heart rejoiced, and my tongue was glad;
Moreover my flesh also will rest in hope.
For You will not leave my soul in Hades,
Nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption.
You have made known to me the ways of life;
You will make me full of joy in Your presence.’

“Men and brethren, let me speak freely to you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. Therefore, being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit of his body, according to the flesh, He would raise up the Christ to sit on his throne, he, foreseeing this, spoke concerning the resurrection of the Christ, that His soul was not left in Hades, nor did His flesh see corruption. This Jesus God has raised up, of which we are all witnesses. Therefore being exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He poured out this which you now see and hear.

“For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he says himself:

‘The Lord said to my Lord,
“Sit at My right hand,
Till I make Your enemies Your footstool.” ’

“Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.”  Now when they heard this, they were cut to the quick, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Men and brethren, what shall we do?”  Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized into the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you SHALL receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.”-as many as the Lord our God shall call, the children, the young, the old both men and women SHALL receive the Lord's Promise the Holy Spirit. 

 

So, that's Acts 2, the simplest sermon ever preached.  Peter tells them that the man they killed not quite two months ago was God's Christ, and that they had an unseen coconspirator in this slaying- not some devil sneaking around in the shadows, though he is real and was there too, but the Predestinating God of Heaven and Earth Himself was the driving force behind the Crucifixion.  He tells them that this same Jesus, rose from the dead, because it was not possible for Him to be held by death, and ascended to the right hand of God, and delivered the Spirit of God to men as promised since time began.  The fulfillment of that Promise could be plainly seen that day.  So, it seems rather straightforward.  It seems to me that Peter's message depends entirely on two points, the Lord's resurrection and the unusual events that were happening in Jerusalem that day, although as a note we should mention that weird things had been happening in Jerusalem for the last 50 days, not to say 3 and a half years. 

 

And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.  And there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men, from every nation under heaven. And when this sound occurred, the multitude came together, and were confused, because everyone heard them speak in his own language. Then they were all amazed and marveled, saying to one another, “Look, are not all these who speak Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each in our own language in which we were born? ...we hear them speaking in our own tongues the wonderful works of God.” So they were all amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “Whatever could this mean?”

 I hesitate to even explain something that the text makes so crystal clear, but I sorta have to.  The Apostles, were saying perfectly sensible things.  They were describing what God had done.  They knew what they were saying.  They spoke of their own volition in more than likely Aramaic-the only thing that the speakers, or those among the listerners who spoke Aramaic natively found unusual was the content, the announcement of God's Promise as fulfilled, of the Messianic age as fully arrived, of Christ descended into Hell in the words of the Creed, or Hades as David puts it in the passage Peter quoted, risen and wielding the full power and authority of The One God on behalf of His friends, not at an impersonal distance, but very near, intimately close to our troubles, our needs, our doubts, and our griefs.  They weren't "possessed" by the Spirit, I don't think that is the word the Pentecostals use but for simplicity's sake that communicates their idea plainly.  They weren't speaking words that were unknown to them and required some other person to make sense of their gibberish.  

That morning, Something caused them to reflect on the Gospel, on the life, death, resurrection, and recent ascension of their friend and teacher, and to begin to talk about what they had seen Him do, and heard Him say, and primarily about how His ascension, a genuine historical event nine days prior, guaranteed that all of God's Promises were on Full Go.  And everybody understood what they were saying.  Even people that shouldn't.  And by people that shouldn't I mean people that didn't comprehend the language that Galileans spoke.  And people who spoke Aramaic that they learned later in life, heard the Apostles speaking words that they had known since the crib, they didn't speak of some far away God of Philosophy, some abstract Ruler but of Abba, of Dada God.  

 The significance of this obviously is connected to the Tower of Babel, to a time when mankind's Globalist Utopian One World Government's attempt to transcend human nature and the limitations of life on this Earth backfired spectacularly, probably not for the first time and certainly not for the last time as we are living witnesses, some of us in our own bodies, of the incompetence of men driven to grasp after divinity in their false pride,.  The massive and long lasting confusion wrought on that day, at Babel is still with us.  The separation that happened on that day in all probability is the beginning of the divergence of the "races" that today's Globalist Utopian dipshits obsess over so much.  The confusion of Babel melted away on the first Pentecost of the Christian Period, and still melts away in almost as dramatic a fashion when faced with the Gospel of Him for whom it would not be robbery to be equal with God but did not see equality as something to be grasped at, but finding Himself placed in a discriminated against, marginalized group by the Will of God, made Himself of no reputation and humbled Himself to the point of death, even death on a cross.  

The curse of Babel was plainly on holiday that day but seems in our lives to be in full force.  Why? It is easy to contrast our powerlessness with the apostolic potency, our cowardice with their boldness, our silence with their voices like the voice of the Archangel.  I mean, not just the apostles, but compared with any of the heroes of the faith, we are pretty pathetic.  We don't even seem to take the field and our enemies are hardly giants, they aren't even warriors they are predominantly Men in Skirts and the resultant hysterical women enraged because they can't find a good man, which by the way is a perfectly reasonable thing for a woman to be pissed off about, the crazed dykes that afflict our society could be cured in a few minutes if the men of America would put their pants back on and figure out what to do with what's in them.  But as it is, Our enemies are afraid to fight us and so they target our children, and although we wear pants we are just as bad because we let them.  

    It is easy to paint our shortcomings, if anybody has trouble finding mine, see Cheyenne after the service.  She can give you a few pointers.  But what is the root cause of this difference?  I intend today to encourage us to act, to stand up and do battle with the forces of darkness, but what is the thing which divides us from the Men and Women of Faith who stood up and got something done?  I spent a lot of time looking into Peter's sermon for something I was missing, something that made the difference.  And believe it or not, it just isn't there.  There is no secret sauce.  Nothing he said is what we lack.  We can and have said pretty much the same things that he says in Acts 2 with little to no effect. So let's try this another way.  The Curse of Babel isn't the deepest curse, the root curse.  Is there a time when we find the Curse of Eden, the Curse of Death, and the fear of it which makes us slaves to the devil, is there a time when we find THAT curse being rolled back?  The Resurrection is an obvious example, but there is another that might be more actionable for us.  For that we turn to Acts 6 starting in verse 7,

Then the word of God spread, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests were obedient to the faith.  And Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and signs among the people. Then there arose some from what is called the Synagogue of the Freedmen (Cyrenians, Alexandrians, and those from Cilicia and Asia), disputing with Stephen. And they were not able to resist the wisdom and the Spirit by which he spoke. Then they secretly induced men to say, “We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God.” And they stirred up the people, the elders, and the scribes; and they came upon him, seized him, and brought him to the council. They also set up false witnesses who said, “This man does not cease to speak blasphemous words against this holy place and the law; for we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and change the customs which Moses delivered to us.” And all who sat in the council, looking steadfastly at him, saw his face as the face of an angel. 

Then the high priest said, “Are these things so?”  And he said, “Brethren and fathers, listen: The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Haran, and said to him, ‘Get out of your country and from your relatives, and come to a land that I will show you.’ Then he came out of the land of the Chaldeans and dwelt in Haran. And from there, when his father was dead, He moved him to this land in which you now dwell. And God gave him no inheritance in it, not even enough to set his foot on. But even when Abraham had no child, He promised to give it to him for a possession, and to his descendants after him. But God spoke in this way: that his descendants would dwell in a foreign land, and that they would bring them into bondage and oppress them four hundred years. ‘And the nation to whom they will be in bondage I will judge,’ said God, ‘and after that they shall come out and serve Me in this place.’

Stephen's message although he goes more in depth than Peter is not much different.  He is going to show how the people of God have always been a small group opposed by the dominant culture around them.

Then He gave him the covenant of circumcision; and so Abraham begot Isaac and circumcised him on the eighth day; and Isaac begot Jacob, and Jacob begot the twelve patriarchs.  “And the patriarchs, becoming envious, sold Joseph into Egypt. But God was with him and delivered him out of all his troubles, and gave him favor and wisdom in the presence of Pharaoh, king of Egypt; and he made him governor over Egypt and all his house. Now a famine and great trouble came over all the land of Egypt and Canaan, and our fathers found no sustenance. But when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent out our fathers first. And the second time Joseph was made known to his brothers, and Joseph’s family became known to the Pharaoh. Then Joseph sent and called his father Jacob and all his relatives to him, seventy-five people. So Jacob went down to Egypt; and he died, he and our fathers. And they were carried back to Shechem and laid in the tomb that Abraham bought for a sum of money from the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem. 

Abraham suffered much and obtained nothing but a Promise.  Joseph suffered much, at the hands of his brothers, and those same brothers profited from their crimes against him, much like we profit from the murder of Christ.  

“But when the time of the promise drew near which God had sworn to Abraham, the people grew and multiplied in Egypt till another king arose who did not know Joseph. This man dealt treacherously with our people, and oppressed our forefathers, making them expose their babies, so that they might not live. At this time Moses was born, and was well pleasing to God; and he was brought up in his father’s house for three months. But when he was set out, Pharaoh’s daughter took him away and brought him up as her own son. And Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and deeds.

“Now when he was forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren, the children of Israel. And seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended and avenged him who was oppressed, and struck down the Egyptian. For he supposed that his brethren would have understood that God would deliver them by his hand, but they did not understand. And the next day he appeared to two of them as they were fighting, and tried to reconcile them, saying, ‘Men, you are brethren; why do you wrong one another?’ But he who did his neighbor wrong pushed him away, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge over us? Do you want to kill me as you did the Egyptian yesterday?’ Then, at this saying, Moses fled and became a dweller in the land of Midian, where he had two sons.

“And when forty years had passed, an Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire in a bush, in the wilderness of Mount Sinai. When Moses saw it, he marveled at the sight; and as he drew near to observe, the voice of the Lord came to him, saying, ‘I am the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ And Moses trembled and dared not look. ‘Then the Lord said to him, “Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground. I have surely seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt; I have heard their groaning and have come down to deliver them. And now come, I will send you to Egypt.” ’

“This Moses whom they rejected, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge?’ is the one God sent to be a ruler and a deliverer by the hand of the Angel who appeared to him in the bush. He brought them out, after he had shown wonders and signs in the land of Egypt, and in the Red Sea, and in the wilderness forty years.  “This is that Moses who said to the children of Israel, ‘The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your brethren. Him you shall hear.’

“This is he who was in the congregation in the wilderness with the Angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our fathers, the one who received the living oracles to give to us, whom our fathers would not obey, but rejected. And in their hearts they turned back to Egypt, saying to Aaron, ‘Make us gods to go before us; as for this Moses who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.’  And they made a calf in those days, offered sacrifices to the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their own hands. Then God turned and gave them up to worship the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the Prophets:

‘Did you offer Me slaughtered animals and sacrifices during forty years in the wilderness,
O house of Israel?
You also took up the tabernacle of Moloch,
And the star of your god Remphan,
Images which you made to worship;
And I will carry you away beyond Babylon.’ 

“Our fathers had the tabernacle of witness in the wilderness, as He appointed, instructing Moses to make it according to the pattern that he had seen, which our fathers, having received it in turn, also brought with Joshua into the land possessed by the Gentiles, whom God drove out before the face of our fathers until the days of David, who found favor before God and asked to find a dwelling for the God of Jacob. But Solomon built Him a house.

“However, the Most High does not dwell in temples made with hands, as the prophet says:

‘Heaven is My throne,
And earth is My footstool.
What house will you build for Me? says the Lord,
Or what is the place of My rest?
Has My hand not made all these things?’

Having reviewed the history of this group which was currently sitting in judgment over him, their history of rejecting the Word of the Lord, their congenital rage against the people of God, Stephen has effectively foretold His own end.  But he doesn't slow down a beat.

“You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so do you. Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who foretold the coming of the Just One, of whom you now have become the betrayers and murderers, who have received the law by the direction of angels and have not kept it.”  When they heard these things they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed at him with their teeth. But he, being full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God, and said, “Look! I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!”  Then they cried out with a loud voice, stopped their ears, and ran at him with one accord; and they cast him out of the city and stoned him.

 Stephen, the First of the Martyrs, plainly conquered death and the fear of it which binds us.  For him to be raised from the death he so triumphantly entered, would be entirely superfluous.  He, all of those who have sealed the Gospel of Jesus Christ with their blood, have so transformed death that they no longer live in the world of the Curse.  In the early church, the day of a martyr's death was celebrated as that person's birthday.  

And the witnesses laid down their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul. And they stoned Stephen as he was calling on God and saying, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” Then he knelt down and cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not charge them with this sin.” And when he had said this, he fell asleep.  Now Saul was consenting to his death.

And so we see that it is not merely that Stephen in death triumphed over death but over the whole world.  The old saying is that "The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church" and so Stephen's prayed that his killers, including one Saul of Tarsis, would not be charged with their sin was granted, and the voice that said, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?" was not a voice of condemnation, but a voice calling Saul to a new life.  We see and maybe feel inspired by this courage that overcomes death, but we are not at all closer to copying it.  Let's go back to the beginning of Acts 6 though and see, if we can, how Stephen's story starts, because it is really the same way that Peter's story starts, and Abraham's, and Moses', and David's, and even the Lord Jesus Christ's,

 

Now in those days, when the number of the disciples was multiplying, there arose a complaint against the Hebrews by the Hellenists, because their widows were neglected in the daily distribution. Then the twelve summoned the multitude of the disciples and said, “It is not desirable that we should leave the word of God and serve tables. Therefore, brethren, seek out from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business; but we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word.”  And the saying pleased the whole multitude. And they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit, and Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas, a proselyte from Antioch, whom they set before the apostles; and when they had prayed, they laid hands on them.  

Stephen was already full of faith and the Holy Spirit when his story begins.  What is it that set these men, Abraham, and Moses, and David, and Peter, and Stephen, and even Saul of Tarsis in motion?  Not one of them acted on his own initiative, though perhaps I should point out Moses' aborted attempt to act when he slew the Egyptian, or Peter's many false starts before his time is finally come.  They were called.  Stephen was full of faith and the Holy Spirit, maybe he had been for years, but it was only when God called Him that his actions became significant.  And so, I submit, that what is necessary to interrupt the nosedive straight into the pit of Hell in which our society is engaged, is not a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit, plenty of those have tried, it is neither a genius nor a great speaker or writer.  We do not need a man of action or a person with this virtue or that.  What is needed, what is determinant is one thing.  We need God to give someone, anyone, a calling to rescue the church, to call our society to repentance.  Plenty of people have taken it upon themselves to fill this role and they, we, have accomplished nothing.  I promised a call to action, but first let me say that we have been guilty of low expectations, we have been satisfied with a Trump when we need a Luther, or satisfied with Luther when we need Christ, our great sin is that we ask the Lord for too little-expect too little from Him, so the call to action is to the only effective action available to us: to ask the Lord to call for us a Judge, a Prophet, a Shepherd.  I feel like the Jews during the 400 years when the Prophets had ceased to speak and they just waited and waited for the Messiah.  We are the people who walk in darkness.  Pray that we see a great light.  Soon.

Two Silences and Eight Days

 

Mark 15 Immediately, in the morning, the chief priests held a consultation with the elders and scribes and the whole council; and they bound Jesus, led Him away, and delivered Him to Pilate. Then Pilate asked Him, “Are You the King of the Jews?”

He answered and said to him, “It is as you say.”

And the chief priests accused Him of many things, but He answered nothing. Then Pilate asked Him again, saying, “Do You answer nothing? See how many things they testify against You!” But Jesus still answered nothing, so that Pilate marveled.

It's very common in the church, and obviously worthwhile, to spend time looking at the words or actions of Christ.  We can learn a lot from the things He said and even more from the things that He did.  But today I want to look at something a little more elusive.  I want to consider the Silence of Christ, particularly His famous Silence before Pilate.  We know that it was prophesied beforehand that the Christ would not say a word before His accusers, that He would be like a sheep ready to be shorn.  And the Gospel writers document the actual silence and make mention of how unusual and surprising Pilate found this silence.  I think that to kind of set the table, even on this story that we have known all of our lives, it is useful to start by looking at Pilate's surprise.  This is the surprise of a man who was a professional judge.  He had had probably thousands of men accused before him.  And unlike our courts where the judge is usually just a sort of referee, the decision lay solely in Pilate's hands.  I am sure the he had heard everything that a defendant could say.  He had surely heard the cleverest defenses, as well as the stupidest.  I don't doubt that he had had defendants who offered him things for judgment in their favor, he had surely had defendants who were defiant and challenged his authority, particularly among the stubborn and frequently rebellious Jews.  He had heard those who were accused deny the charges, protest their innocence and he had heard them drag out the dirty laundry of the accusers.  He had heard no doubt masterpieces of Greek logic or Roman jurisprudence and he had heard strings of irrelevant non-sequiturs fit only for Judge Judy.  I don't doubt that he had also had defendants who couldn't think of a thing to say, who were silent from fear, or silent from mental incapacity, or silent from guilt, maybe even silent defiantly.  So, what was so unusual about Jesus' silence that it shocked this man?

The first thing to notice is that Jesus and Pilate exchanged quite a few words despite the famous silence.  Let's look at their conversation in John 18 and 19.

Then they led Jesus from Caiaphas to the Praetorium, and it was early morning. But they themselves did not go into the Praetorium, lest they should be defiled, but that they might eat the Passover. Pilate then went out to them and said, “What accusation do you bring against this Man?”  They answered and said to him, “If He were not an evildoer, we would not have delivered Him up to you.”  Then Pilate said to them, “You take Him and judge Him according to your law.”  Therefore the Jews said to him, “It is not lawful for us to put anyone to death,” that the saying of Jesus might be fulfilled which He spoke, signifying by what death He would die.  Then Pilate entered the Praetorium again, called Jesus, and said to Him, “Are You the King of the Jews?”  Jesus answered him, “Are you speaking for yourself about this, or did others tell you this concerning Me?”  Pilate answered, “Am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests have delivered You to me. What have You done?”  Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight, so that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now My kingdom is not from here.”  Pilate therefore said to Him, “Are You a king then?”  Jesus answered, “You say rightly that I am a king. For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.”  Pilate said to Him, “What is truth?”

Whatever else Jesus' words meant to Pilate they certainly convinced him that Jesus was capable of defending himself.  By this point in the conversation it must have been clear to Pilate that Christ understood the situation that He was in, probably more clearly than anyone around Him.  The Jews accuse Jesus of being a king and He leaps into the impossibly subtle position of defending His royalty and yet at the same time showing that His kingship is not harmful to Caesar but rather the only hope of Roman civilization and the last twenty centuries have certainly vindicated Him.  Like His earlier comment about rendering to Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God's, here He vindicates His reign, distinguishing and setting His kingdom not simply apart from all earthly kingdoms but far above, He is not merely a True King but Truth is His Kingdom.   And if we would be His subjects we must in all times of trouble, such as we are now in and see coming quickly, hold fast to this principle that His kingdom cannot be defended by us, that His kingdom does not come with observation and cannot be advanced by our efforts then or now or ever.  Truth needs no defenders but is well able to make His case Himself, and lies are indefensible so in His kingdom there is simply no place for defense and nothing and noone for us to justify.  But all power and authority in this world always finds His light entering their darkness utterly incomprehensible and must say with Pilate, "What is truth?"

 

And when he had said this, he went out again to the Jews, and said to them, “I find no fault in Him at all.“But you have a custom that I should release someone to you at the Passover. Do you therefore want me to release to you the King of the Jews?”Then they all cried again, saying, “Not this Man, but Barabbas!” Now Barabbas was a robber.So then Pilate took Jesus and scourged Him. And the soldiers twisted a crown of thorns and put it on His head, and they put on Him a purple robe. Then they said, “Hail, King of the Jews!” And they struck Him with their hands. Pilate then went out again, and said to them, “Behold, I am bringing Him out to you, that you may know that I find no fault in Him.”  Then Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. And Pilate said to them, “Behold the Man!”  Therefore, when the chief priests and officers saw Him, they cried out, saying, “Crucify Him, crucify Him!”  Pilate said to them, “You take Him and crucify Him, for I find no fault in Him.”  The Jews answered him, “We have a law, and according to our law He ought to die, because He made Himself the Son of God.”  Therefore, when Pilate heard that saying, he was the more afraid, and went again into the Praetorium, and said to Jesus, “Where are You from?” But Jesus gave him no answer.  Then Pilate said to Him, “Are You not speaking to me? Do You not know that I have power to crucify You, and power to release You?”  Jesus answered, “You could have no power at all against Me unless it had been given you from above. Therefore the one who delivered Me to you has the greater sin.”

 Pilate has become convinced of Jesus innocence, but his relationship with the Jews is forcing him into a very unpleasant situation.  From what we know of his history, Pilate has had both problems and successes governing the Jews.  He had brought Roman military items, shields into Jerusalem, probably into the Praetorium, with writing on them declaring Caesar's divinity and caused a huge uproar among the monotheistic Jews that probably resulted in his being rebuked by His superiors, perhaps even the Emperor Tiberius.  There is also evidence that Pilate and the priests had been able to cooperate to complete some fairly significant civic improvement projects.  So Pilate has much to lose if he can't work this out with the Jewish leaders.  The last thing that we know about Pilate's life with any certainty is that some years after this he was called to Rome to explain some of his failures with the Jews, we don't know how it turned out for him but his situation was rather precarious and he certainly knew it.  And yet..and yet, they say that Jesus claims divine origins and the strange demeanor of the man makes this claim very unsettling to Pilate.  Blasphemy was an incredibly serious charge for the Jews, deadly serious not just for the accused but depending on how he handles it possibly deadly serious for Pilate and his entire command, the entire jewish world on that day was gathered within Jerusalem if they rose up against him and this charge of blasphemy certainly carried that potential, Pilate and his men would be swarmed and dead before any other Roman ever heard.  On the other hand, Pilate clearly finds the claim to be...somewhat believable.  And this is a hard point for me to enter into imaginatively.  I can't really imagine encountering a man who claims to be God and taking his claim seriously.  It would be easier for me to entertain a claim to be Elvis, or Napoleon, or a space alien.  Because the only kinds of people that I can imagine making that claim are not serious people.  They make claims that they don't understand, they are madmen and megalomaniacs.  Pilate, the veteran soldier, the experienced judge and governor and politician, this man deeply steeped in the wisdom of this world, saw a serious man before him and could not dismiss the possibility that this man was God.  And this is the crucial moment.  The charge against Jesus in the last analysis is about His alleged claim to be divine, a claim that Pilate has not heard him make and that the Jews I suspect found it hard to substantiate.  Pilate's question, "Where are you from?" is perhaps the greatest off ramp ever offered.  All Jesus has to do to be found innocent is to claim Nazareth as His origin.  There is certainly plenty of ambiguity to take advantage of in the question.  All He needs to do is claim a normal, non-divine origin and this charge will be impossible to press against Him.  And it is at this point, that the shocking silence kicks in.  Since the jews made the charge out of Jesus’ hearing, remember their lawkeeping wouldn't let them enter the Roman judgment hall, since Jesus didn’t hear the charge Pilate may have hoped that this rather nonspecific question might elicit a nonincriminating answer from Jesus, how often do we answer the question “Where are you from?” With little or no thought?  Pilate doesn't confront Him directly with a question such as "Are you the Son of God?" like he did earlier with the question about being a king, possibly because he has learned that Jesus will witness to the truth if asked directly, and yet there is something subtle and elusive almost evasive about Jesus that makes Pilate think, hope even, that if given sufficient cover, sufficient ambiguity He might be willing to let the whole thing slide until another day.  He might let them all off the hook.  And it is here that Jesus is supremely stubborn.  He doesn't make the smart play, but He doesn't give Pilate anything to substantiate the charge either.  To Pilate this must have seemed supremely defiant, to be offered this olive branch that might save them all, perhaps in Pilate's mind just keeping things from coming to a head today might be sufficient for Jesus and the Jewish leaders and the Romans to accommodate one another.  If the crisis will just pass with no fireworks and no crosses then maybe the whole lot of them can work this out to everyone's advantage.  And when Pilate tries to press Jesus into taking some sort of accomodative solution, to giving him something to work with by reminding him that His life depends on Pilate's decision, Jesus rather than defending Himself makes a very obscure comment about the sources of Pilate's authority and their own liability in this matter, which is still rather mysterious and must have been utterly unhelpful to Pilate.  Even when He speaks it is as if He is silent because His answers seem to be only tangentially connected to the question and are barely comprehensible at all.  There is nothing that pisses a judge off like mystery.  The Law is the place for everything to be plain and unambiguous and impersonal, but now the defendant is judging not merely the judge but the whole state that stands behind Pilate and ultimately the whole world order on which he stands.

 

From then on Pilate sought to release Him, but the Jews cried out, saying, “If you let this Man go, you are not Caesar’s friend. Whoever makes himself a king speaks against Caesar.”  When Pilate therefore heard that saying, he brought Jesus out and sat down in the judgment seat in a place that is called The Pavement, but in Hebrew, Gabbatha. Now it was the Preparation Day of the Passover, and about the sixth hour. And he said to the Jews, “Behold your King!”  But they cried out, “Away with Him, away with Him! Crucify Him!”Pilate said to them, “Shall I crucify your King?”  The chief priests answered, “We have no king but Caesar!”  Then he delivered Him to them to be crucified. Then they took Jesus and led Him away.  And He, bearing His cross, went out to a place called the Place of a Skull, which is called in Hebrew, Golgotha, where they crucified Him, and two others with Him, one on either side, and Jesus in the center. Now Pilate wrote a title and put it on the cross. And the writing was:

JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS.

Then many of the Jews read this title, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city; and it was written in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin.  Therefore the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, “Do not write, ‘The King of the Jews,’ but, ‘He said, “I am the King of the Jews.” ’ ”  Pilate answered, “What I have written, I have written.”

 

And so, Jesus silence brought about His death.  At the moment when He was arrested His crucifixion must have seemed like the most unlikely outcome.  When I wrote about Judas a few Easters ago I said that I don't think he believed it would go the way that it actually did and I still hold to that.  The affairs of men just don't usually turn out with great and famous men, with Messiahs, dying on crosses.  All of Jesus actions throughout that Friday morning, especially His silence at the critical moment, sovereignly overruled the normal course of events to break the cycle of the Old World and bring an end to it so that a New Creation could be born.  So we have looked into His silence a fair bit but still haven't really explained it.  But there is another silence here that I think is significant.  The Silence of the Evangelists.  We know what everyone said and did on Good Friday, almost minute by minute at a level of detail that can barely be matched for current events in the age of the ubiquitous cellphone camera.  We know quite abit about the events of Easter Sunday.  But between them is the Day of Rest, the only day fully spent in the tomb, a day about which we know nothing.  We can confess with faith that, "He descended into Hell." but we don't know what He did that day.  We don't know where the disciples were, what Peter did after he went out and wept bitterly, we don't know what Mary and John did after the Lord declared them Mother and Son, we have no idea what Pilate did, or what the Jews did.  One thing that we can see is the rush to complete all things before the Sabbath, before silence and rest covers all.  And we can only comment on the Silence of the Evangelists indirectly, precisely because it is not in the texts.  Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John can't comment on their own silence, and where those four must remain silent who is sufficient to speak?  But if God Himself has commented by the way the world changed that day then we can stop and look and take notice.

In a certain sense, that was the last Sabbath.  The last Sabbath of the Old Creation, the last Jewish Sabbath and though Judaism survived for another 40 years, approximately, after that day it was a ghost walking in the daylight.  Those of you who know our friend, Ken Fogarty or any Seventh Day Adventist, may have heard them say that the 7th day is still the Sabbath because God never changed it.  I believe those are the words that they use, though it has been awhile.  And I want to say this to the Seventh Day Adventists and to all who do not go that far but erroneously believe that Sunday is The Christian Sabbath.  Immediately after the Lord rose, in Acts and all of the Epistles, we find this new thing, the Lord's Day and we find no trace of the Church paying the least attention to the Sabbath.  It is on The Lord's Day that we are told they meet.  It is on The Lord's Day that John has his visions on Patmos.  And the first great doctrinal controversy after the apostolic age centers on the Great question of whether Easter should be celebrated based on the timing of Passover or should always be celebrated on the Lord's Day.  The resolution of this question, the creation of the unique "movable feast" fixed to no date but that wanders from month to month always seeking its Sunday is the best answer the early church can give.  There is symbolism in the Lord's Resurrection which goes even more to its heart than its connections to Passover, its connections to Creation.  The silence about the seventh day of Passion Week speaks the greatest of volumes.  The only thing we can say about it is that on the Seventh Day, He the Lord Jesus Christ, rested.  And the mystery hidden in Genesis 1, became plain.  Because after the seventh day, after the Sabbath, comes an eighth day completely unheralded, a new week, for God new works, for us new freedom, the release from the chains of causality with which our pasts bind us.  The Old things are done, the Old Covenant fulfilled, the Old World obsolete, Judaism and the Law left behind.  Thus is why we are here on Sunday, because it is NOT the Sabbath.  We are not here to rest.  We are here because our old lives are over, our old works, old righteousness and old sins, are all left behind.  The Sabbath, the conclusion of Christ's work on the sixth day and His rest on the seventh, makes us separate from our old lives, makes us Holy from our righteousness, works, sin, by faith apart from our Law.  And we are free, and we are called to begin New Things.  To live in a New World, a New Creation on this Eighth Day of the week.

Why then was Jesus silent before Pilate?  He had already said everything that needed to be said.  His words are powerful to accomplish His purposes and He does not speak except to accomplish those purposes.  He had assured His crucifixion and had no more to say.  He would speak again on the Cross, but no more to the powers of this old world.  It is significant than from the Cross He spoke to Mary and John and the thief beside Him and His Father but not to the Jews not to the Roman soldiers.  And after His resurrection there is no record of Him interacting with the Old World.  He spoke no more of works or of any righteousness except the righteousness He gives to us.  Of the world and the life that came before we can only agree with Him that It is finished. R

Root Cause Analysis-Self-Justification

 Most of my life, I don't really pay much attention to current events or politics.  I like it that way.  I'm uncomfortable as a part of a group, Conservatives, Americans, Conspiracy Theorists, Anti-vaxxers, hell even Christians.  I prefer to just be Jon and whenever I get interested in "The News" I find myself pulled into some grouping or other so I prefer to avoid the whole situation.  So I was going along minding my business, ignoring the drama of the world around me until November 4th 2020, when I looked up and saw the world around me had changed dramatically.  I think a lot of people, people who were paying attention, saw it less because it was a gradual thing to them.  But I had been ignoring the COVID, except to occasionally mock people who were making a big deal out of it, which the virus doesn't really seem to justify.  I had been ignoring the electoral process, didn't bother to vote, partly because I had doubts about both of the candidates, but mostly because I knew that without massive fraud the result was a foregone conclusion, particularly in the state of Georgia...  So, the morning after the election I hopped online just to confirm my expectations and found that the world around me had changed.  And as I looked it was clear that it wasn't just on this single issue, although it is still the biggest one.  Since then I have been watching and in 15 months of watching what have I seen?  I have seen an election "saved" by conspiracy and corruption of public officials, I have seen the debate and objection to that "saved" election in Congress derailed by the "Justice" Department's false flag operation against the American people.  I have seen a very sensible restriction on Gain of Function research, along with basic protocols for handling dangerous pathogens blatantly disregarded and then papered over by a bought media and a scientific establishment addicted to NIH and Big Pharma money.  I have seen "noble lies" told by The Science, and by "the adults".  The "noble lies" are piled so high that truth has become a needle in a haystack.  And I have seen the ones who claim to be opposed to all of this betray the principals at the critical moment enough times to no longer be surprised when it happens.

 

By simply remaining individuals, rather than being melted down into the collective and drinking the Kool-Aid we become radicals.  So be it.  Let's really be radicals.  What is a real radical?  Well, radical comes from the latin "ratix", literally a root.  It is where we get the word "radish", which is of course the root of a plant.  A radical then, is someone who doesn't want to deal with problems at a superficial level, they want to get to the root causes.  A radical doesn't simply rearrange deck chairs on the Titanic, he repairs the boat.  The best example of a radical is probably John the Baptist who when speaking of the corruption of the political and religious establishment said, "The ax is laid to the root."  I only wish that we could get to the root of our society’s problems.  So, what are the root causes of the present darkness?  Well the election was stolen, the laws were circumvented, public officials were corrupted, the truth was hidden, the legitimate debate of Congress was forestalled by a contrived insurrection, the likes of which hasn't been seen since the Reichstag fire which thrust the Nazis into power, all of this was done to "save democracy from an autocratic demagogue", by a group which proceeded to rule entirely by executive order and administrative rulings by appointed officials most blatantly illegal and only in place until judges get around to saying so, the “Saviors of our Democracy” believe that democracy means being able to pass any law with 50 senators, which by the way isn't even a majority.  All of this to save democracy.  The public was lied to about the source of the virus, because the truth that it was manipulated, probably at the behest of DARPA for use as a bioweapon and then released into the wild is "harmful to science".  The same reason we must pretend cloth masks prevent the spread of viral aerosols, can't give somebody a reason not to "trust the science", we are told by a man who confounds himself with Science.  A highly experimental, and empirically rather dubious, gene therapy treatment must be taken by everyone, everywhere, over and over and the test results not released for I believe the number was 55 years, to "save humanity".  The common thread in all of this is justification.  Things that seem in themselves horrible are actually great because of some external circumstance.

This is how all evil things happen.  The Holocaust was justified as a "final solution" to the "jewish problem".  All of the things that truly wreck our world begin their lives as solutions.  Our damnation begins as a salvation from some problem.  So, what is the alternative?

^{From Romans 7 starting at verse 7} What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law. For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, “You shall not covet.”  But sin, taking opportunity by the commandment, produced in me all manner of evil desire. For apart from the law sin was dead.  I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died.  And the commandment, which was to bring life, I found to bring death.  For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it killed me.  Therefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good.

 

There are two sides to this.  We justify, in ourselves and to a lesser extent those in our group, things that are deserving of condemnation.  Our actions are excused, or at the extreme that we have now come to our corruption is even laudable, because it accomplishes some end.  The ends have justified our corrupt means.  We continue to say, in general in the abstract, "Thou shalt not kill" but we have various reasons why it is a good thing for our rich uncle to have an accident.  And in all of our justifications perhaps the best way to see through them is with the lawyer’s old question, "Qui bono?", who benefits?  Our self-justification is always done in our own interest at the cost of some other.  The other side is that we condemn those things which expose us.  We condemn the misinformation, and disinformation, of God’s Law which contradicts our narrative.  It's a bit tone deaf.  It, the Law, gives support to extremists.  But Paul does neither of those things here.  He justifies the Law, it is holy and just and good.  But he, himself, is carnal, sold under sin, a wretched man in need of deliverance from his own deadly self.  We have to stop defining our circumstances, the world, the life that God has placed us in as the problem, which by the way means that He is the problem.  And confess that we, ourselves, our free made choices are the problem.

 Has then what is good become death to me? Certainly not! But sin, that it might appear sin, was producing death in me through what is good, so that sin through the commandment might become exceedingly sinful. For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do. If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good. But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.

I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!

So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.

 

That our circumstances cause us unpleasant outcomes is actually a benefit.  It's a feature not a bug and we need to stop trying to avoid all of these unpleasant outcomes with our schemes.  The Law reveals to us our sinfulness, at least it will if we will stop trying to manipulate everything so that we don't have to see the truth about ourselves.  Our justifying ourselves is the problem.  We have to stop pretending that we are ok stop pretending that circumstances made our actions necessary.  We have to stop blaming everyone and everything except ourselves and admit that we have done the things that we chose to do because we wanted to do them.  That choice gives Paul the power to see something else in himself and be transformed.  But why doesn't this happen in us, in our lives?  It seems clear that we should confess, we should recognize ourselves as sinners, the benefits in Paul's life are so clear, so why don't we do it?  The problem is that our self-justification is not a rational response, I don't mean just that it isn't a sensible response but that our justifying ourselves doesn't begin in our reasoning mind at all.  It begins deep, with a primal instinct for our own survival, an instinct which we find irresistible.

 

The thing is our justifying ourselves is not some disinterested choice.  Like the architects of the current global situation we recognize, on an instinctive level, even when we will not admit the situation to ourselves, that we have committed crimes against humanity, crimes against nature, and crimes against nature's God.  That is why they, and we, do not confess.  The penalty for our crimes is destruction, destruction of reputation when the truth comes out, destruction of self-determination as our future will be in the hands of our judges, destruction of life as death, never ending death, is the only reasonable punishment for such crimes.

 

From Romans 8 beginning at 33: Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.

 

As human beings our most fundamental need is to be justified.  We cannot live even a moment without something making us right with the world and with God.  I said earlier that we have to justify ourselves to survive because the punishment is destruction, but really the need to be, and believe we are, a meaningful, useful, contributing part of creation is something that we cannot live without even if there were no punishment attached to its lack.  Hence our desperation to see ourselves as something other than a sinner, a drain on the universe.  But our justification of ourselves always remains conditional and temporary, overlooking for the moment the falsity of our self-justification, even if we suppose our defenses of ourselves are true, they are circumstantial.  We can never prove ourselves intrinsically, essentially just.  We can never look on ourselves, the whole of our selves and our lives and say, “It is good.”  The only thing that can do that is a verdict, a true word, from the Judge who is Always Right.  If He justifies us, then nothing else matters.  It doesn't matter what crimes or sins we have committed.  He had the first word in Creation and the Final Word of His judgment is superior to mere facts.  The judgment that we have run from for so long is actually our only hope.  Despite our justifications of ourselves our sinfulness is a fact that we cannot escape.  It can't be undone, can't be fixed, can't be made up for, but He can declare us worthwhile creatures even while we are sinners.  If He pronounces us good then evidence and conscience and facts be damned.  If our hearts condemn us then God, Christ the One and Only Judge who holds all authority, is greater than our hearts.  So any condemnation runs into the immovable wall of Christ's death and resurrection.  All judgment, all condemnation has to go through Him.  All authority in Heaven and Earth has been given Him.  Unless the One who gave His life for you says that you are worthless and condemned then no one else can.  What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?

There really isn't anything else to say.  Paul has said it better than I can, so the beginning and then the end of chapter 8.

 

There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

 

And here's the end, Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written:

“For Your sake we are killed all day long;
We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.”

Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

 

Miracles: The Apparent vs. The Real

 From Exodus:16 And they journeyed from Elim, and all the congregation of the children of Israel came to the Wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they departed from the land of Egypt. 2 Then the whole congregation of the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. 3 And the children of Israel said to them, “Oh, that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat and when we ate bread to the full! For you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.”

This story starts right after the Israelites crossed the Red Sea.  They had been brought out of Egypt by the Lord's mighty hand and outstretched arm.  They had been miraculously delivered from the hand of Pharoah at the Red Sea.  But their problems were far from over.  Now they were truly out of inhabited lands.  They were in a real wasteland, dry, barren, and empty.  They were led by God in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night.  And He had brought them to water, Elim where they were camped had plenty of water but the issue of food was becoming serious.  And as soon as problems showed up on the physical level they showed the lack of trust and the willingness to turn on Moses and Aaron and God.  Problems immediately brought forgetfulness, forgetfulness of the road that had brought them here, a road paved with the Lord's Salvation and care for His people.  And forgetfulness of where they had come from, such that they described their Egyptian slavery as sitting around beside stew pots and stuffing their faces with bread all day.

4 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you. And the people shall go out and gather a certain quota every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in My law or not. 5 And it shall be on the sixth day that they shall prepare what they bring in, and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily.”6 Then Moses and Aaron said to all the children of Israel, “At evening you shall know that the Lord has brought you out of the land of Egypt. 7 And in the morning you shall see the glory of the Lord; for He hears your complaints against the Lord. But what are we, that you complain against us?” 8 Also Moses said, “This shall be seen when the Lord gives you meat to eat in the evening, and in the morning bread to the full; for the Lord hears your complaints which you make against Him. And what are we? Your complaints are not against us but against the Lord.”9 Then Moses spoke to Aaron, “Say to all the congregation of the children of Israel, ‘Come near before the Lord, for He has heard your complaints.’ ” 10 Now it came to pass, as Aaron spoke to the whole congregation of the children of Israel, that they looked toward the wilderness, and behold, the glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud.11 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 12 “I have heard the complaints of the children of Israel. Speak to them, saying, ‘At twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall be filled with bread. And you shall know that I am the Lord your God.’ ”13 So it was that quail came up at evening and covered the camp, and in the morning the dew lay all around the camp. 14 And when the layer of dew lifted, there, on the surface of the wilderness, was a small round substance, as fine as frost on the ground. 15 So when the children of Israel saw it, they said to one another, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was.

In the morning, when the dew was gone there was a tiny layer of...well, of something, on the ground.  In a minute we will hear about it's very strange properties.  It seems to have been tiny white balls...of something, that they scooped up into baskets.  Any that didn't get gathered up in the morning melted and was gone when the sun got hot.  Any that got left in the cool darkness of their tents quickly bred worms and was gross, but sometimes more quickly than others.  The Israelites couldn't figure out what it was.  And I can't either.  I have tried to fit something to its described properties, maybe little colonies of bacteria or blooms of fungus, or just protein self-assembling on the ground as the evolutionists are convinced happens, somehow catalyzed in the night by the otherwordly light and radiation from the pillar of fire?  But whatever it was it was truly outside of human experience.  It didn't belong to our ordinary world.  They called it, Manna, which literally means, "Unknown", what is this crap?, and they baked it into wafers that were like flatbread.  They were fed with mysteries, with sacraments.

We are gonna skip down to 19 for now: And Moses said, “Let no one leave any of it(in their tent or basket) till morning.” 20 Notwithstanding they did not heed Moses. But some of them left part of it until morning, and it bred worms and stank. And Moses was angry with them. 21 So they gathered it every morning, every man according to his need. And when the sun became hot, it melted.22 And so it was, on the sixth day, that they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for each one. And all the rulers of the congregation came and told Moses. 23 Then he said to them, “This is what the Lord has said: ‘Tomorrow is a Sabbath rest, a holy Sabbath to the Lord. Bake what you will bake today, and boil what you will boil; and lay up for yourselves all that remains, to be kept until morning.’ ” 24 So they laid it up till morning, as Moses commanded; and it did not stink, nor were there any worms in it. 25 Then Moses said, “Eat that today, for today is a Sabbath to the Lord; today you will not find it in the field. 26 Six days you shall gather it, but on the seventh day, the Sabbath, there will be none.”27 Now it happened that some of the people went out on the seventh day to gather, but they found none. 28 And the Lord said to Moses, “How long do you refuse to keep My commandments and My laws? 29 See! For the Lord has given you the Sabbath; therefore He gives you on the sixth day bread for two days. Let every man remain in his place; let no man go out of his place on the seventh day.” 30 So the people rested on the seventh day.31 And the house of Israel called its name Manna. And it was like white coriander seed, and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey.32 Then Moses said, “This is the thing which the Lord has commanded: ‘Fill an omer with it, to be kept for your generations, that they may see the bread with which I fed you in the wilderness, when I brought you out of the land of Egypt.’ ” 33 And Moses said to Aaron, “Take a pot and put an omer of manna in it, and lay it up before the Lord, to be kept for your generations.” 34 As the Lord commanded Moses, so Aaron laid it up before the Testimony, to be kept. 35 And the children of Israel ate manna forty years, until they came to an inhabited land; they ate manna until they came to the border of the land of Canaan.

The manna was clearly a miracle from outside, a transcendant experience that was contrary to normal experience, maybe contrary to biology, maybe even contrary to terrestrial physics.  The Lord stepped in to provide for His people.  But it was also a Sign, it was intended not merely to feed the people but to educate them about the One who provided it.  It appears to have been, and was certainly gauged to suggest, Creatio de Nihilo, creation from nothing, to illustrate that the provider was in fact the Ultimate Creator, the Beginning.  All of the miracles of the Exodus are otherworldly, they, on their face, illustrate the holiness, the separateness of God not just from sinful men but from all creatures whatsoever.  They proclaim the giant gap between God and man.  They are unambiguous declarations of a truth, that while easily relegated to the back of our minds is not in any way subtle or elusive.

Why don't we have miracles like that?  Although we have been together a long time now, I don't necessarily know the specific miracles that you are looking for.  But I do know that we are a needy people.  God has gathered us together, the broken rejects of society and I know that we all have plenty of pain that we can't find healing for.  As for me, I just want my boy to walk again.  That seems straightforward enough.  Why isn't it like this for us?  Where's the pillar of cloud, the pillar of fire?  Where's the bread from heaven, the food of angels that bears our burdens and takes away our infirmities?  Where's the healer who bears our sicknesses in His own body and says to the lame "Rise up"?

From John 6: 26 Jesus answered them and said, “Most assuredly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled.  27 Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His seal on Him.”28 Then they said to Him, “What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?”29 Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent.”

This happens about a day after Jesus fed the 5000 with the loaves and fish.  And here Jesus uses the word that is so characteristic of John's Gospel when it describes miracles.  He calls them signs.  And that is the first point that I really want to look at.  The manna was a sign and Jesus miracles were signs.  But although they were both miracles of healing and provision when you dig into them a little the form was very different and I think maybe that is because they were signs of different things.  When Jesus fed the crowd with just a handful of food, they don't seem to have realised what happened right off the bat.  Each guy sorta saw that he was eating and the people around him were eating, but he didn't know that the food had been multiplied until later.  Even the disciples seem to have had to sorta compare notes when they gathered up the baskets of leftovers which were indisputable more than they started with before they were sort of in on the miracle.  When He turned water into wine, the servants didn't taste the wine, at least not until afterwards.  They went and gave their boss what they knew was water.  The guests didn't fill the jugs.  They just drank wine out of them.  They didn't know the wine used to be water.  Not until later.  With Jesus' miracles there is introduced this element of subtlety, of obscurity.  To see the miracle you kinda have to be in on the whole story.  But to get the miracle you don't have to know nothing.  You are only called to believe and receive.  You just eat the bread when it is handed to you.  Drink the wine when it is offered.

 

30 Therefore they said to Him, “What sign will You perform then, that we may see it and believe You? What work will You do? 31 Our fathers ate the manna in the desert; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’ ”32 Then Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”34 Then they said to Him, “Lord, give us this bread always.”35 And Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst. 36 But I said to you that you have seen Me and yet do not believe. 37 All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out. 38 For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. 39 This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day. 40 And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day.”41 The Jews then complained about Him, because He said, “I am the bread which came down from heaven.” 42 And they said, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How is it then that He says, ‘I have come down from heaven’?”

When The Word of God entered this world as the Man Jesus Christ everything changed.  We look back at antiquity, the BC era and don't realise how different everything is.  More things have changed than we realise and they have changed in ways that are unexpected.  As a general rule that is fairly indisputable.  But specifically, in this case, miracles have changed.  We saw above in a couple instances that their form has changed, but we haven't talked yet about why.  If miracles are signs then they have changed their form to reflect the change in the deity which happened when Christ took on flesh.  They no longer appear as something outside of nature, because God is no longer outside of nature.  Miracles need not appear to be outside of physics or biology, in fact, to picture a God who placed Himself under the Law, all of the Law including physics and biology as well as the moral law, no sign could be more perfect than one that appears to be in accord with normal life.  We hear of miracles quite a bit.  A friend got just what they needed for no apparent cause, most of us have heard Al's story of his mortgage being inexplicably paid off.  Someone was in the hospital and their disease disappeared, without cause, between one scan and the next.  We hear these things and we don't so much doubt that they happened, but we wander if they were really miraculous.  We suspect that they have fairly ordinary causes that are just unknown.  But if you think about the miracles of the New Testament, it seems clear that quite a few of them are just like that, anyone without inside knowledge wouldn't consider them a miracle.  A little girl was thought to be dead and Jesus "discovers" when He tells her to "Get up", Greek word anastasius, literally resurrection, that she was just in a deep sleep.  And I guess the people who had heard she was dead thought something was a little fishy but went their way.  And mom and dad are left there with their jaws hanging open.  "We know she was dead.  He is sent from God but He is still out of His gourd." they say to one another.  Christ has become a part of nature and under the Law but when His people need a miracle Heaven and Earth have to just look the other way and pretend everything is kosher.  An angel breaks Peter out of jail and he thinks it is just a dream and when he knocks on the door the guys inside have all of these normal explanations about him sending a messenger and the servant girl being confused.  And in the morning, when Peter is at the breakfast table, we pretend everything is normal.  But the ordinary explanations that we have been promised for so long are still held up in traffic.  The Jews knew where Jesus was born, they knew Mary and Joseph.  So where did He get off claiming to have come down from Heaven?  Where do I get off hoping that Christ still performs miracles when the ordinary explanations for events will show up any day now?  Maybe more to the point, how can we believe in the Real Presence of Christ, His body and His blood, when we all know that Margaret went to the store and bought the bread and wine and probably still has the receipt?

 

43 Jesus therefore answered and said to them, “Do not murmur among yourselves. 44 No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day. 45 It is written in the prophets, ‘And they shall all be taught by God.’ Therefore everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to Me. 46 Not that anyone has seen the Father, except He who is from God; He has seen the Father. 47 Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me has everlasting life. 48 I am the bread of life. 49 Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and are dead. 50 This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die. 51 I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world.”52 The Jews therefore quarreled among themselves, saying, “How can this Man give us His flesh to eat?”53 Then Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. 54 Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. 55 For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed. 56 He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. 57 As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me. 58 This is the bread which came down from heaven—not as your fathers ate the manna, and are dead. He who eats this bread will live forever.”

The Manna had all the hallmarks of a miracle of the highest order.  No one ever questioned its credentials as a miracle.  Really, it is kinda the standard by which miracles are judged.  At least until the Man who cared only for the Real and ignored the Apparent came into the world.  The people who ate the manna are dead.  In fact, the ones to whom that miracle originally came, were all excluded from the Promise, none of them entered the Promised Land.  But our bread and wine which no one even suspects of being miraculous, carries in it the substance and fulfillment of the Promise, the miracle of miracles, the Body and Blood of Christ.  I am aware that people can and have twisted Christ's words here, He Himself after His full tilt praise of consuming His flesh and drinking His blood, cautioned the disciples at the end of this chapter that the flesh profits nothing but the Spirit is life and His words are Spirit and life.  Mysterious words which fools have used to make the Word which He preached and we have just read ineffective.  Let's not make that same mistake.  We are in little danger of overemphasizing the miraculous at the cost of the rational.  The church at this time seems to err very much in the opposite direction.  The great contrast here is between the Apparent and the Real.  Between the Manna which appears to be miraculous bread yet does not carry with it the Covenant, and the plain bought crackers and juice which are the vehicles of Communion with Christ and the Fellowship of the Saints.  Between the miracles that point to a God outside of nature and the miracles that point to Immanuel, present whenever two or three are gathered.  One last point.

4 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you. And the people shall go out and gather a certain quota every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in My law or not.

Second half of 15 where we skipped earlier: And Moses said to them, “This is the bread which the Lord has given you to eat. 16 This is the thing which the Lord has commanded: ‘Let every man gather it according to each one’s need, one omer for each person, according to the number of persons; let every man take for those who are in his tent.’ ”17 Then the children of Israel did so and gathered, some more, some less. 18 So when they measured it by omers, he who gathered much had nothing left over, and he who gathered little had no lack. Every man had gathered according to each one’s need. 

God announced on His people a test, whether they were worthy of the miracle, whether they would follow instructions and gather the right amount at the right time.  Some gathered too much and some gathered too little.  But God is not Goldilocks.  And everyone who believed enough to receive, that is not some high and exalted faith, not some rarified perfected faith, but just stuck their hand out to take what He handed to them and then ate it received the miracle.