"We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life. Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us, as you help us by your prayers." (2 Cor. 1:8b-11a)
I work well under pressure. During my doctoral work days I had to have several thirty page papers due as well as two thousand pages of reading finished - before the actual class took place. I like deadlines because they force me to stay focused. The death of me is being bored. I say this because we all have different pressure points mentally and different ways of dealing with them.
During this time of pandemic, I scratch my head in bewilderment but also grieve at stories like the medical doctor on the frontlines who contracted the virus, recovered, but then took her own life. It was a pressure "far beyond [her] ability to endure, so that she despaired even of life."
At this time I have to be careful to not fall into a spiritual depression myself. The feeling of hopelessness when there is hope all around. It tends to be an inward focus that is provoked by my inability to focus on others as I would and should.
I am reminded of the solution that the Apostle Paul gives to us today in his own words.
First, recognize that God has allowed this pandemic into our lives. He is not the cause of it. Humans are. Our parents, Adam and Eve, set in motion a broken world full of violence, sickness, selfishness, and rebellion through their willful disobedience to God. And yet, in God's mercy, we can still find traces of love and grace and goodness.
Second, recognize that their is a divine purpose for allowing it. It was meant to bring us back to a place where we rely on God and not on ourselves. This is a key point for me. When I start realizing that there is a purpose in this, to draw me closer to Him, my eyes begin to lift and my heart begins to be lighter.
Third, realize that God has the power to raise the dead. Lifting one out of a depression or a sense of hopelessness is nothing for the Creator of all things.
Fourth, God has promised to deliver us. It is a fact. How He chooses to do so is up to him. But this gives me hope that things will change. Tomorrow always holds out hope.
Lastly, God uses others in the process. People are praying for me. I am praying for them. It is the divine mystery of how God has chosen to lift us up. He could certainly do it Himself but He chose to use you and me - to partner with us in bringing hope to others.
More than ever, the words, "I am praying for you," bring the much needed spiritual medicine to my soul. My hope is that I am dispensing the cure to others as well.
Little know fact: RX is an abbreviation for the Latin word, Radix. It means "root," or "recipe," as in "to take a root prescribed for medicinal purposes."
"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times..." Wait a minute, Pastor Dan, you started out with this last week. Yes, I know, but I want to look at this in our present context and with a word that Jesus gave to his disciples in speaking about his second coming.
I am asked repeatedly, "Pastor Dan, will things ever get back to normal?" My answer is "Yes," and "No." I don't think we will ever go back to life as we knew it. This virus has changed how we do life and how we will be gathering (or not), how we get groceries (or not).
Let me give you two examples of encouragement from Jesus.
"Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man (his second coming). People were eating, drinking, marrying and being given in marriage up to the day Noah entered the ark." (Luke 17:26-27a)
"It was the same in the days of Lot. People were eating and drinking, buying, and selling, planting and building." (Luke 17:28)
Life will get back to normal. It must. Because it is the precursor to Jesus' coming. The rhythms of life will find there way again. But I struggle in my heart to know if I should rejoice or be grieved. I'm certainly more motivated to follow Jesus and to make him known to others. I want out of this evil, wicked world, but my heart pleads for more time for those I know that are lost.
When the virus hit, people were open to talking about the Lord, about end time issues, about how to change their lives to please God. The crisis provided opportunities. Our little church website that had maybe twenty hits on it has been getting two to three...thousand.
Is this the Fourth Great Awakening (or Fifth; depending on if you count the 1960's Calvary Chapel movement)? Time and history will tell. But given the huge turn that people have had toward the things of God, I happen to think, "yes." However, I firmly believe, evidenced by recent conversations, and my spirit confirming it, that this will be short lived. I believe that this time will produce a multitude of new believers in Jesus but it will be the last before the coming of Jesus for his Church. As quick as people's hearts were open toward the Lord, I am now finding that the door of the heart is quickly closing.
In honesty, I must admit that both of the above scripture passages were incomplete (per my own purpose). May I finish?
"Then the flood came and destroyed them all." (Luke 17:27b)
"But the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all." (Luke 17:29).
"It must be just like this [this return to normal] on the day the Son of Man is revealed." (Luke 17:30).
Praying for a return to normal? Be careful and understand what you're praying for.
Maranatha! (1 Corinthians 13:22b) And, Father, bring in those of our family and friends who still need to know your Son, Jesus, as Savior.
"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was a season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way - in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only."
Describes the time we live in perfectly, doesn't it? I guess that's what makes good literature - transcendence. Very seldom is the full paragraph quoted. Many are satisfied with the first two phrases. But how powerful those two phrases are in describing the times that people often lived in - our own as well. How much more the remaining paragraph. It truly is a degree of comparisons.
This, of course, is the beginning of A Tale of Two Cities written by Charles Dickens in 1859. Written as if one were in the year 1777 prior to the French Revolution (1789) and the potential English uprising, the cities were London and Paris. How different the outcomes would be. But why?
British historian, Thomas Carlyle, described this time in England as "Stomach well alive; soul extinct." Sir William Blackstone visited numerous Christian churches in the area at that time and said that it was hard to tell if the preacher was a follower of Confucius, Mohammed, or Jesus. Drunkenness was rampant. Gambling was so bad, so prolific, one historian wrote that England was "one giant casino." Unwanted babies were left in the streets to die. A 97% child mortality rate was found among the working poor. The common man found himself in a hopeless situation watching the social rumblings and turmoil of neighboring France and wondering if that would be the solution/course for themselves.
Then why did France fall into a bloody revolution for 10 years and England not? Three names: George Whitefield and John and Charles Wesley.
People prayed and the Lord brought three men to begin a great revival. They preached in the open fields to those hungering and thirsting for righteousness. They preached Christ, repentance from sin, faith, holiness, and good works that flowed out from a personal relationship with Jesus. And the masses responded. They needed hope. They needed change. They had two choices: Do it themselves (France) or seek the Lord's intervention (England).
As a result antislavery organizations took hold, prison reform happened, relief agencies for the poor opened, orphanages were created (spurring on future men like George Muëller), literacy programs began. God heard the cries of the English people and he gave them Jesus in the form of men and women who were willing to turn people's heart's away from fear and hatred, toward a living, loving God. Cited: 4-15-20; https://www.christianity.com/church/church-history/timeline/1701-1800/evangelical-revival-in-england-11630228.html
O Church, it is the best of times, it is the worst of times... It truly is a degree of comparisons. Let us choose rightly which path our nation should take, our churches should take, our personal lives should take. Let us be people of prayer who repent, who desire holiness, who humbly seek our Savior's face and his return.
From Charles Wesley, Lamb of God Whose Bleeding Love, verse 3.
"Let thy blood by faith applied
The sinners pardon seal;
Speak us freely justified,
And all our sickness heal;
By they passion on the tree,
Let our griefs and sorrows cease,
O remember Calvary,
And bid us go in peace."
I will be married to my beloved wife for thirty-eight years this year. Thirty-eight years ago in August I said a bunch of "I wills" and "I do's." I'm pretty sure it was the standard, "Will you have this woman to be your wife, to live together in holy matrimony? Will you love her, honor her, keep her in sickness and in health, and forsaking all others, be faithful to her as long you both shall live?"
I don't remember much of it, but I do remember that we added, "or until our Lord and Savior comes back." We knew that God hated divorce, so I am sure there were times in those thirty-seven plus years we were praying fervently for the last phrase to come to pass.
To be honest, although I've tried, I am certain that I have not lived up to those vows like I desired. Life happens. Sin happens. Grace happens. And we're still here - together - no social distancing.
Vows are more than contractual agreements between parties. They come out of a place of integrity and a place of relationship. They are sacred covenants. This is the essence of Passover and the great "I wills" of Exodus 6 which is celebrated tonight. It is here that the traditional four cups of the Seder Supper are derived.
5 "Moreover, I have heard the groaning of the Israelites, whom the Egyptians are enslaving, and I have remembered my covenant.
6 Therefore, say to the Israelites: 'I am the LORD, and (1) I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. (2) I will free you from being slaves to them, and (3 ) I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment.
7 (4) I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God. Then you will know that I am the LORD your God, who brought you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians.
8 And I will bring you to the land I swore with uplifted hand to give to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob. I will give it to you as a possession. I am the LORD.'" (Exod. 6:5-8 NIV) [Note: Verse 8 is technically a fifth "I will" but is not taken for some unknown reason in the Seder remembrance.]
The first cup is the cup of "sanctification." It is a call to come apart or to come out from among "them" for a divine purpose. It is the recognition that we are all in bondage to sin. Egypt is a place of darkness not light. Come out and into the revealed light of God.
The second cup is the cup of "deliverance." When one recognizes his/her need to come out of sin, the entanglements of this world can be quite difficult. Only the power of God can set you free from its slavery.
The third cup is the cup of "redemption." This cup represents the fact that God must save us. He saved them by divine directive. It was by the blood of the lamb that the Hebrews were saved from the angel of death. It was the mighty hand of God that opened the sea and provided a way of escape for them. It was the mighty hand of God that closed the sea over the pursing Egyptians. God is our redeemer. He is our kinsman redeemer who buys us back for His divine purposes. This is the cup that Jesus gave to his disciples and said, "This is the new covenant that I am making in my blood." God, in the flesh, is redeeming mankind through his own hand.
The fourth cup is the cup of praise. It is the cup of acceptance. God has accepted us through the sacrifice of his Son. We are his people and He is our God. It is also the cup of celebration that anticipates the coming fullness of the kingdom of God. What Jesus begins with his death, he will complete at his second coming. It is the cup that Jesus said, "I will never drink of it again until I drink it anew in the kingdom of God."
There is a fifth cup. It is called the Elijah cup. It is left untouched as a reminder that Elijah will come as an unknown guest initiating the coming of the Messiah.
The four cups are akin to marriage vows. "Jesus, will you have this people, the Church to be your wife, to live together in holy matrimony? Will you love her, honor her, keep her in sickness and in health, and forsaking all others, be faithful to her as long you both shall live?" Jesus says, "I will."
He has. Have we? On this night we remember his vows and ours.
Blessed be the Name of the Lord and our Savior, the Lamb of God slain before the foundations of the world for our salvation. Maranatha!
Our last verse for the Lenten season is Isaiah 53:12. It is a difficult verse. If you compare translations, you'll find that they come up with different ways of trying to get the Hebrew out.
For example, the NIV says, "Therefore I will give him a portion with the great or many." The NLT says, "I will give him the honors of a victorious soldier." The ESV says, "I will divide him a portion with the many." Clear as mud, you say? Agreed. Perhaps that is the point of the whole verse. The divine prize and purpose of the person of Jesus is so unfathomable that it is too difficult for any language to put into words. Let's try our best to "unmuddy" those waters.
Jesus, a child born under suspicious circumstances (at least from the world's perspective), born to poor parents, who lived in a small village of no notable factors ("can anything good come out of Nazareth?"), who was a teacher, but never started a school, who was a great theologian, but never wrote a book, who gathered tax collectors, prostitutes, and common laborers as his followers, and who was murdered in his early thirties...this man shall be given a portion with the great men and women of the world for all history to record and ponder. Clear water yet? I didn't think so.
It wont' be because of his military prowess or political persuasion but for something more notable, more noble, more unique. Quite frankly, unheard of and for many, unbelievable.
"...and he will divide the spoils with the strong, because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors. (Isa. 53:12 NIV)
Many have given their lives for others - a noble self-sacrifice. But no one has been able to be our substitute to satisfy the wrath of God...once for all.
"Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:7-8)
If one truly thinks about it, it's almost too hard to put into words.
Perhaps that's the point. Perhaps that's why he is so great.
I work well under pressure. During my doctoral work days I had to have several thirty page papers due as well as two thousand pages of reading finished - before the actual class took place. I like deadlines because they force me to stay focused. The death of me is being bored. I say this because we all have different pressure points mentally and different ways of dealing with them. 
