1 Chronicles 25:8 - "And they cast lots for their duties, small and great, teacher and pupil alike."

Romans 2:20 - "a corrector of the foolish, a teacher of children, having in the law of the embodiment of knowledge and truth"

The profession of teaching dates back to the third millenium B.C., and school texts dating from 2500 B.C. have been unearthed in the Euphrates River area. These texts included such topics as botany, geology, and mathematics. Classes were held from sunrise to sunset, and the discipline in these schools was extremely strict. For example, in one long lament of his school day tribulations, one student wrote, in part:

"The fellow in charge of Sumerian said:

‘Why didn’t you speak Sumerian?’ He caned me.

My teacher said:

‘Your handwriting is unsatisfactory!’ He caned me.

I began to hate school!"

Perhaps, though, at first at least, schooling wasn’t quite so bad for Hebrew children, since the early Hebrews taught their children at home. This was a strict injunction given to parents. Again, this was a logical development for a nomadic people.

Then, as times became more settled, prophets followed the parents as teachers, gathering around themselves small groups of disciples whom they instructed. It wasn’t until the Jews returned from Exile that organized schools appeared.

These schools were the synagogue schools, which replaced the Temple in becoming a place for instruction in things holy, which for the Jew were the only things worth knowing in life. These synagogues became common throughout Palestine, and were used even after the rebuilding of the Temple. In these schools the students learned Deuteronomy, Psalm, and Proverbs, and memorized other parts of the writings as well.

By New Testament times, parents were required to enroll their children in school at the age of six or seven. Here the Torah was the basic text on the elementary level, and the children learned their lessons by the process of constant repetition. In addition to Torah, they received instructions in reading, writing, and arithmetic. For adolescents and young people of ability - and those who could be spared from the household - there were higher level schools.

The teacher, who was always a male, sat on a raised platform, and his students sat on the ground around him in a semi-circle. In Talmudic times, the student-teacher ratio was 25:1, which would be an enviable one for most teachers of today.

In some other ways, there were distinct differences between ancient and modern teachers. For example, teachers in the elementary schools were paid by the parents of the pupils, while teachers of the higher level students were unpaid and had to earn their livings at a second vocation! Moon-lighting, too, is an ancient practice, it seems!

Also, teachers were exempt from paying taxes. And, one for which many teachers long today, teachers in the past could discipline their students in any way they liked; one favorite method was the use of a strap of reeds on unattentive students! Imagine trying to get away with that today!

And too, we shouldn’t forget the great respect in which the teacher was held. The word "teacher" is frequently used as a term of respect, and is found coupled with "lord" and "king."

In Ephesians 4:11, teachers are listed among those who have received divine gifts, and there is no apparent distinction between "apostles" and "teachers." This would seem to indicate that St. Paul gives equal standing to those who are able to instruct in Christian doctrine, and considers them as leaders in the young church.

The question is asked: how can justification take place without the works of the law, even though James says: "Faith without works is dead"? In answer, the apostle distinguishes between the law and faith, the letter and grace. The 'works of the law' are works done without faith and grace, by the law, which forces them to be done through fear or the enticing promise of temporal advantages. But 'works of faith' are those done in the spirit of liberty, purely out of love to God. And they can be done only by those who are justified by faith.

An ape can cleverly imitate the actions of humans. But he is not therefore a human. If he became a human, it would undoubtedly be not by vurtue of the works by which he imitated man but by virtue of something else; namely, by an act of God. Then, having been made a human, he would perform the works of humans in proper fashion.

Paul does not say that faith is without its characteristic works, but that it justifies without the works of the law. Therefore justification does not require the works of the law; but it does require a living faith, which performs its works.

In a large attractive office in a major city, a man worked for several months next to a small attractive woman. He had been there only a few days when he thought he'd ask her to lunch, which he did. The following day he asked her for dinner and they began a long dating relationship. They went to craft fairs together, since he liked to do that. They went to the ocean, which he also liked to do. They used to take long walks along the river.

He liked this relationship. He had lived for many years with his mother. In fact, it was only a few months after she died that he began dating his co-worker. Little by little, however, she began to dislike both the relationship and this man. She felt like she really wasn't herself when she was with him. She couldn't speak what she really felt. She rarely asserted where she wanted to go or what she wanted to do. She later said, "I just wasn't Sandra with him."

So she terminated her social, dating relationship with this man. Once she did, she began to feel like herself again. Her friends told her, "You're more like the old Sandra now."

Across the same town, in another office, a young man sat at his desk for eight years, struggling to manage his office work force. Outside he was a friendly, generous person. In the office he was the same way and his workers flattened him out, like steamrollers over an asphalt road. He worked long, long hours; he holed himself up behind his desk to keep all the records accurate; he just about wore himself out. Finally his friends told him, "Steve, you'd better get out of that job. You're not yourself anymore. Those people are eating you alive and you're not getting anywhere."

He protested, "But it's a good job. I make good money. And besides, it is what I do best. How can I even look for anything else?"

Then the company was sold. New management came in. All the supervisors were replaced and Steve found himself on the street. He was terrified. "To dig I am unable, to beg I am ashamed," he said. "What can I do?"

His friends told him they were glad he was fired. "At least you are your old self," they said. "And you'll find something. Just go for it." He did, and now he's doing better than he ever could have in the position he once felt he could never leave.

The steward in today's gospel lesson is like both Sandra and Steve. Sandra was not herself in that relationship. Steve was not himself in that job. Both were wasting away, losing that which was most precious to them both: their proper identities. Both felt they could not survive if they gave up something so close and precious as a relationship or a job.

In today's gospel lesson the steward's master calls him on the carpet. In Luke's mind, this Lord and Master is God. God always calls his stewards into question when they are wasteful of who and what they are. This steward is not just wasting his master's goods. The steward is wasting himself. Nothing is more precious in God's household than his steward's proper identity. This is God's gift to this steward, and he is wasting it. No wonder God calls him to account.

God does this to us all the time. He checks our relationships and he checks our jobs -- to help us make sure we are not wasting our identities where we are. This steward was. So God dismissed him. He had to get a new job and a new relationship. God does not tolerate our wasting who we are.

This dismissal turned the light on for the steward. "What shall I do? To dig I am unable, to beg I am ashamed." Finally he came to an assessment of who he was and what he could do. He came to value his own identity, one of his master's most precious goods.

He called in his master's creditors. "How much do you owe? One hundred barrels of oil? Take your bill and write 50." Did he cheat his master? Not at all. The commercial documents from that time indicate that 50 percent was the normal commission. He renounced what he thought he had to have to live on -- and he won friends for himself in so doing.

"How much do you owe? One hundred bushels of wheat? Take your bill and write 80." He did not cheat his master. He simply renounced his own commission. He gave up what he thought he needed to survive, and he survived much better without it. He zeroed in on his own identity, rather than on the commission he thought he had to have to survive.

Bruno Bettelheim, who has studied the survivors of the concentration camps in World War II, writes that those who survived were able to give up everything they thought they needed and, in so giving, they survived. Those who thought they would die if they had no clothing, no jewelry, no regular food, no books -- they did not make it.

Sometimes God will do to us what he did to this steward. He will strip us down to the very core of our existence to make us discover who we really are. He will bring us to a crossroad in life where we will be forced to say, "To dig I am not able, to beg I am ashamed." There God will reveal to us who we are. As we reach to him for help we will find ourselves renouncing our commissions -- whatever we think we need to survive but we really don't. God knows that.

Luther found himself in this position many times in his life. Once, as he began his study of law, he was struck down in a thunderstorm. Terrified, he cried out, "Dear Saint Ann, help me. I will become a monk." He quit his study of law and became a theologian instead -- the identity God wanted for him in the first place. He was wasting himself in law.

Later on, as a monk, he studied Paul's Epistle to the Romans. At that time in his life he felt he could not be Martin Luther unless he ended each day with a tray full of good works to present to God. In praying over Paul, he learned the difference between works righteousness and faith. He learned he was wasting God's gift of Martin Luther's identity in that daily tray full of good works.

He wrote: "Night and day I pondered until I saw the connection between the justice of God and the statement that the just shall live by faith. Then I grasped that the justice of God is that righteousness by which through mercy and sheer grace God justified us through faith. Thereupon I felt myself to be reborn and to have gone through open doors into paradise." Martin Luther the Do-Gooder was reborn Martin Luther the Believer.

Today's gospel lesson introduces that curious term, "mammon," an Aramaic word which means: "that in which I put my trust." We are like Sandra, Steve, and this steward. How easy to put all our trust in relationships or commissions or a job. God will not let us do that forever. He will force us to give up those people and those things we feel are absolutely critical. In God's eyes they are roadblocks to the truth. He will take them away. Then we will discover our real identities as God's stewards, and him alone shall we serve. "

Richard Foster in Celebration of Discipline outlines the difference between self-righteous service and selfless service. It can be hard sometimes to see the difference in others so let this be a means to examine our own motives: 

• Self-righteous service comes through human effort. True service comes from a relationship with the divine Other deep inside.
• Self-righteous service is impressed with the "big deal." True service finds it almost impossible to distinguish the small from the large service.
• Self-righteous service requires external rewards. True service rests contented in hiddenness.
• Self-righteous service is highly concerned about results. True service is free of the need to calculate results.
• Self-righteous service picks and chooses whom to serve. True service is indiscriminate in its ministry.
• Self-righteous service is affected by moods and whims. True service ministers simply and faithfully because there is a need.
• Self-righteous service is temporary. True service is a life-style.
• Self-righteous service is without sensitivity. It insists on meeting the need even when to do so would be destructive. True service can withhold the service as freely as perform it.
• Self-righteous service fractures community. True service, on the other hand, builds community.

We need our laws. Laws tell us what is acceptable behavior and what is unacceptable behavior. To be sure, society will fail if it's people reject law. But law can only go so far. It can dictate to us what we can and cannot do but it is powerless to dictate to us what we think and what we feel. When Jesus says, "A new commandment I give to you," I want you to hear those words within the context of community law. When the disciples, or the Jews, talked about Commandments they were discussing laws for acceptable behavior in society. Now, I want you to hear how utterly strange these words really are, "A new COMMANDMENT I give to you: LOVE one another."

Did you catch it? A law telling us, no, commanding us to love. Rev. Richard Daggett says, this law invades the very depths of our beings; this law presumes to have jurisdiction over the way we think, the way we feel, over our opinions, our prejudices and biases, our concepts of superiority, over the way every fiber of our being, both inward and outward, responds to the world around us.

And then Richard says this: This law clarifies to us that while religion and law may exercise lordship over our actions, over the way we live, Christ wants lordship over everything we are. It is the law of the spirit and not simply the law of the letter.

And to whom does this new law apply? My brothers and sisters in Christ. It is to us.

Luke 5:17 - "On one of these days, as he was teaching, there were Pharisees and teachers of the law sitting by, who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem;"

Acts 5:34 - "But a Pharisee in the council, named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law, held in honor by all the people, stood up and ordered the men to be put outside for a while."

Later we will speak of the role of the lawyer in Jewish life, but here we are speaking of persons whom we might consider as being advanced beyond that specified role; men who specialized in the sacred statutes. These men concerned themselves with teaching rather than with the giving of written opinions. This is a strictly New Testament term, and the men themselves were of a type unique in history.

These men belonged to God, but not in a priestly way. They had nothing to do with worship; their dress was the same as that of the other Hebrews; they did not eat of the sacrificial meat; and, although they did make up a caste, they made no claim to belonging to the blood of Aaron nor the tribe of Levi. In the beginning they were simply the "scribes," but as they devoted themselves more and more to the study of religious questions, they began to be differentiated from the scribes; they felt themselves, and perhaps, with reason, to be an aristocracy of intellect and piety.

Although they traced their claim back to the time of Ezra, they became most prominent after the Maccabean wars, the national struggle against the Greeks. They had "built a hedge around the Law," and, by doing so, had preserved the essence of Judaism. They provided true intellectual life of the nation, and guided its thought; they controlled education, and particularly the higher education; they named the judges and fixed the jurisprudence; they uttered the commentaries on the Law in the synagogues; they had made the Great Sanhedrin not only a governing body and a supreme court; but also a theological college - in other words, they had the say in every phase of national life.

Today, we don’t have men who have powers of such broad scope and far-reaching potential, but we can perhaps compare these doctors of the law to the professors or heads of departments of our colleges and universities. And they became doctors of the law in much the same way that professors become professors. Any Hebrew at all could aspire to this position, no matter what his economic or sociological status. If a man left the vocation to devote himself to one of the most famous doctors, under whom he might study. After however long a period of time was necessary for him to have achieved a sense of readiness to teach, he was on his own, with students following him.

They more than studied the Law; they scrutinized every part of it and analyzed its application to the every day life of the Jews. To this degree, they went far beyond the modern professor, who seldom works with material of his own. Of course, these men weren’t working with extraneous material, either, but they were making individual judgments and applications that affected almost all of the people.

It was through the work of these men that was built up the Talmud - "the Instruction," or, "the Recitation." This is an extraordinary work, made up of two divisions. The first is the Mishnah, which is written in classical Hebrew; it is the basic canonical legal code, and its 63 tractates cover the whole field of human activity. The second is the Gemara, an immense commentary of the Mishnah; it was written in Aramaic, and there are two recensions, the Jerusalem and the Babylonian.

The greatest doctor of the Law of whom we know was Gamaliel, who might have been a teacher of St. Paul. We must tread warily when judging these men; there is a tendency to confuse them with the Pharisees of the worst kind which Jesus often criticized. But a doctor of the Law was not necessarily a Pharisee. They taught what they felt to be the truth, as our best professors do today, sometimes at risk.

And, as many professors have left works of inestimable value, so too the doctors of the Law left behind the Talmud, to which the expatriated Jews could cling as a symbol that the destruction of the Temple did not mean the end of their religion. We may not always agree with the opinions of our professors, but we must acknowledge the debt of their works, just as we must acknowledge the works of the doctors of the Law.

Mark 1:14 - "Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the Gospel of God,"

Preaching, the proclamation of a divine message, and the regular instruction of the converted in the doctrines and duties of the faith, is as old as the human family. Noah is referred to as "a preacher of righteousness" (2 Peter 2:5). This is not a distinctly Judaistic or Christian concept; the Mohammedans practice it freely, and it is not unknown among the Buddhists. It has its roots in the activity of the Hebrew prophets and scribes, the former representing the broader appeal, the latter the edification of the faithful, and in the ministry of Jesus Christ and his apostles, where again we have both the evangelical invitation and the teaching of truth and duty. Whichever is emphasized in preaching, the preacher is one who believes himself to be the ambassador of God, charged with a message which it is his duty to deliver.

From the Acts of the Apostles we gather something of the methods adopted by St. Peter and St. Paul, and these we may believe were more or less general for the preachers of the Primitive Church. The Apostles who had known the Lord would naturally recall the facts of his life, and the story of his words and works would form a great deal of their preaching. It is not until we come to Origen (d. 254) that we find preaching as an explanation and application of definite texts, a usage that Christianity adopted from Greek rhetoricians.

The New Testament writers drew a definite distinction between preaching and teaching. Preaching is the proclamation of the gospel to men who have not yet heard it. Teaching is an instruction or exhortation on various aspects of Chrisitan life and thought addressed to a community already established in the faith.

Today, of course, the preacher or minister or pastor of a congregation is usually called upon to perform both functions. But the preaching mission of the church is still its prime function and should be considered so.

See HERALD

Let your actions praise the Lord. Praise is something you do more than something you say. It is an act of kindness which demonstrates that you are a child of God. You can worship God better with your life than with your words. The New Testament book of James says we will be judged at the end of time on whether or not we are doing what Christ wants us to do.

Faith without works is dead. Sure we are saved by faith in Jesus Christ, but true faith produces good works. To say, "Jesus, I love you," and then go through life without showing it, helps absolutely no one. When we stand before the Lord on Judgment Day, he’ll ask us, "What have you done? What do you have to show for your life? How have you served me and my church?" And if we respond, "Well Lord, I was planning on it, but you know how busy I was all week, and the weekend was about the only time I had for myself. I enjoyed church when I went, and I tried to lead a good life. Lord, I didn’t ask for the heart attack ... I really didn’t expect to die so soon." Then the Lord is going to say, "I’m sorry. You didn’t have time for me and my work in your life now I don’t have time for you in death."

Albert Schweitzer once said, "If there is something you own that you can’t give away, then you don’t own it, it owns you." What owns you? What makes you tick? What is important enough in life to keep us awake at night thinking about it? If we call Jesus Christ our Lord and really mean it, he must be number one in our life. God’s revealed truth in Christ must be the one thing that owns us. We must constantly desire to get really close to Jesus. And in our quest, our Bible must wind up with fingerprints all over it. Our presence in church must be weekly, and our contribution to God’s work must be felt and known because it’s so evident.

Let us begin each day with the words, "Lord what will you have me do today? Fill my mind with your mind." Only then can we go about our day giving praise to him, especially in our doing.

Instant cake mix at first was a big flop. The instructions said all you had to do was add water and bake. The company couldn't understand why it didn't sell until their research discovered that the buying public felt uneasy about a mix that required only water. Apparently people thought it was too easy. So the company altered the formula and changed the directions to call for adding an egg to the mix in addition to the water. The idea worked and sales jumped dramatically.

That's how some people react to the plan of salvation. To them it sounds too easy and simple to be true, even though the Bible says, "By grace you have been saved through faith...; it is the gift of God, not of works" (Eph. 2:8-9). They feel that there is something more they must do, something they must add to God's "recipe" for salvation. They think they must perform good works to gain God's favor and earn eternal life. But the Bible is clear we are saved, "not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy" (Titus 3:5).  Unlike the cake-mix manufacturer, God has not changed His "formula" to make salvation more marketable. The gospel we proclaim must be free of works, even though it may sound too easy.

Shakespeare, in King John, correctly said, "to guild refined gold, to paint the lily, to throw a perfume on the violet, to smooth the ice, or add another hue onto the rainbow ... is wasteful and ridiculous excess." So it is today, if we wish to improve upon God's plan of salvation by our own good deeds, our own righteousness, our own goodness. Then we are trying to add purity to the pearl, luster to its moonlight whiteness. Then we are trying to polish it with our clumsy, uneven, and rough grinding stone. With St. Paul we need to say, "By grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast." (Ephesians 2:8-9)

Acts 5:21 - "Now the high priest came and those who were with him and called together the council and all the senate of Israel, and sent to the prison to have them brought."

Psalm 105:22 - "To bind his princes at his pleasure; and teach his senators wisdom" (KJV).

The quotation from the Psalms is the only place in the Old Testament where we find the use of the term "senator;" generally the Hebrew uses the word "elder." It may have been this use of the term which made Luke think that there was a separate branch of the Great Sanhedrin which was composed of "senators." However, although some have thought that the Sanhedrin was in fact composed of three bodies - senators, scribes, and priests - it was, in fact, an entity, always considered as a whole, not separate factions.

However, again the apocryphal writings do use it rather more frequently; according to II Macc 6:1, Antiochus Epiphanes sent an "Athenian senator" to the Jews to force their acceptance of the worship of Olympian Zeus. The earliest historical writings to use the term in referring to members of the Great Sanhedrin come from Josephus, that fount of ancient knowledge - in Antiq. XII. iii. 3, again it is Antiochus the Great who uses the term.

We can, then, by gathering together all these divergent uses, conclude that the term was at least one of respect, indicating a person of rank within the legal and judicial system of the Jews. We can easily bridge the time gap and consider the "senator" today as a member, perhaps, of a supreme court or other law-making and law-enforcing body. Just as the term implies a person of wisdom, experience, and sound judgment, so we think of the officials whom we elect to be the arbiters and maintainers of our way of life. We, of course, still use the term in connection with the members of our state and federal governmental systems. And, hopefully, the men that we elect to fill these positions are also men of wisdom and judgment.

The primary purpose of the Law is, like a mirror, to teach man the true knowledge of his sin. We see this in the example of the publican. The publicans were tax-collectors for the Roman imperialists. They were Jews, but were not respected by their people. They were considered traitors and thieves, with some justification.

So the publican did not approach God with pride, demanding what was owed him. On the contrary, he approached the Lord with maximum humility and true repentance. Repentance is essential to receive the forgiveness of sins in Christ. That is why the Law should be preached to unrepentant sinners, but the Gospel to those who are troubled by their sins and terrified of damnation.

The Law demands, threatens and condemns; the Gospel promises, gives and confirms our forgiveness and salvation. God offers forgiveness of sins only in the Good News that we are saved because Christ fulfilled the Law, suffered, died and rose from the dead for us. So let us draw near to God in humility and repentance, of course, but also in the hope and faith that we are justified through faith, not by works, and that in Christ we are children of God.

After the tomb was found empty and Jesus appeared to the early church on many occasions, doubt disappeared, and the early church had overwhelming confidence in the Lord. The church today must live and be about its ministry with the same Easter confidence. We say we rely on God’s mercy for our salvation; we need to give over all areas of our lives to God’s control. What aspects of ourselves are outside God’s control? Our temper? Our money? Our time? We need join the psalmist and say, "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me." Our trust in the Lord must be complete. We are no longer defeated people but powerful Easter people. Little children in danger or in despair literally run and throw themselves into the arms of their mother. This is confident faith. When was the last time we ran and thrust ourselves onto the Lord? A cautious step in his direction is better than none at all, but believing with abandonment is called forth by an empty tomb. God wants us to fall head over heels in love with him so he can bring the greatest joy and purpose possible into our lives.

God also encourages us to hold fast to hope without wavering. Scripture says, "Where there is no hope, the people perish." Too many of us view too much of our lives and the world as hopeless. Without hope, no great strides will be made in the future; there is no venturesome faith without hope. Without hope we burrow into the ground and live the life of a mole instead of walking freely in God’s sunlight. In a difficult situation, a hopeful people find the challenge and opportunity to do something great with God.

Confident in our faith, with an unwavering hope, the Lord also encourages us to stir up one another to love and good works. We must do something. Faith and hope must move from the abstract to the particular.

Easter people are called upon to celebrate the Festival of the Resurrection each Sunday, for each Sunday is a little Easter. "... Not neglecting to meet together," is how it is written in Hebrews. To break fellowship with the worshiping community is to pursue a weakening faith. It is also a form of denial of all that Christ means. True faith, strong faith, is never faith in isolation but must always be faith shared and strengthened through regular worship. We must encourage one another to be regular in worship and strong in the faith.

The end is drawing near. The Lord will return soon to reclaim his fallen creation. When the Lord of the church comes again, how will he find us? Will we be acting like people who have been touched by the meaning of the cross and the empty tomb? Therefore, let us continue to draw near to the Lord with a true heart and a confident faith. We hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering. We consider how to stir up one another to love and good works. We do not neglect to worship but encourage one another. In sum, we will all be Easter people.

He who would gain righteousness by faith and works is as the dog who runs along a stream with a piece of meat in his mouth, and, deceived by the reflection of the meat in the water, opens his mouth to snap at it, and so loses both the meat and the reflection.

You are because I am. I was there from the beginning. My Father, God, and I fashioned the world that you enjoy. We hung the stars in the sky, scooped out the lakes, formed the mountains. But our genius was no more evident than when we made you. You are so magnificent. Consider yourself - your ability to think and reason. Do you realize how special you are? We had such a great thing going in the garden.

Unfortunately, the devil talked your forebears into trying to be like God, and they both fell for it. My Father and I had no choice but to show them the exit from Eden. Because of their sin, we had to face the decision whether or not to save what we created or to destroy it all. Save it, we decided. Later, in response to a promise made to your father Abraham, I, the son of God, was implanted by the Holy Spirit in a young virgin’s womb. They called me Jesus, for I had come to save you and all humankind from the consequences of your sins.

The plan of salvation was not complicated, although it was generous perhaps to a fault. You had sinned and continue to sin. It is your nature from the time of the Fall. Therefore, you cannot save yourself. Although some of you sin less than others, none of you is perfect. My Father demands perfection - he will not stand for any imperfection in eternity. Fortunately for you, my Father is also compassionate, and his love goes beyond human love. He wanted to reclaim you as his own, therefore, he decided to be inflicted with suffering and death. To accomplish this, he sent me - part of himself - to become a person like you and to receive punishment and death in your place.

Some of you only see me as an Alka Seltzer for an occasional headache, rather than a Savior for a whole new life. You call upon me and my Father for help only when all else seems to fail. Voices we haven’t heard in years make their way heavenward in dying breaths. Others make a puzzle out of our plan for your salvation. You continue to believe that you must add some of your goodness and righteousness (which is really in short supply by heaven’s standards) to my sacrificial death on the cross. Friends, I paid the price - one hundred percent at Calvary.

Can you imagine how I feel as your God, having humbled myself by becoming a human being, giving up heaven for a stinking stable, being misunderstood, mocked, tortured, spit upon, and hung, all because of you and your wretched sinfulness ... and then to have you believe that this was not enough. To have you, in your pride, believe that some goodness of yours would need to be added in order for the Father to receive you into heaven angers and disappoints me. You can do nothing to save yourself; I did it all because I love you. Please get it into your head, once and for all, I am your only way out of the pits of hell. As I said while I was with you on earth, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me!" May the Holy Spirit convince your hearts of my love, and may you understand that believing in me is the only way to be saved; sufficient in itself, needing absolutely no human works, no false pride, no human righteousness, nothing ... nothing ... nothing at all to be added to it. I died to purchase a place for you in heaven which I offer to you as a gift which you must receive totally and exclusively by faith.

In contrast to the two commands of Christ, the Pharisees had developed a system of 613 laws, 365 negative commands and 248 positive laws...By the time Christ came it had produced a heartless, cold, and arrogant brand of righteousness. As such, it contained at least ten tragic flaws:

1. New laws continually need to be invented for new situations.
2. Accountability to God is replaced by accountability to men.
3. It reduces a person's ability to personally discern.
4. It creates a judgmental spirit.
5. The Pharisees confused personal preferences with divine law.
6. It produces inconsistencies.
7. It created a false standard of righteousness.
8. It became a burden to the Jews.
9. It was strictly external.
10. It was rejected by Christ.

Doctrine and doing are like the two chemical ingredients of salt, which is composed of two poisons: sodium and chlorine. If we ingested either of the two poisons, we would die. But if we combine them properly, we have sodium chloride, which is the common table salt that gives flavor to our food and indeed life and health to our bodies. So, too, are faith and works inseparable.

Years ago, Harry Emerson Fosdick, then at the height of his influence as minister of the Riverside Church, New York City, was making a tour of Palestine and other countries of the Near and Middle East. He was invited to give an address at the American University of Beirut, Lebanon, where the student body comprised citizens of many countries and representatives from sixteen different religions. What could one say that would be relevant or of interest to so mixed and varied a group? This is how Fosdick began: "I do not ask anyone here to change his religion; but I do ask all of you to face up to this question: What is your religion doing to your character?"

This was a call to consider one of the great issues of human belief: religion and life, Christianity and character, word and spirit. Emerson once said, "What you are speaks so loudly I cannot hear a word you say." Jesus' discourse in this whole sixth chapter of the Gospel of John had two foci - spirit and life. "The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life." By this he meant that those who appropriated his spirit, i.e., fed upon him as the bread of life, would find, thereby, a fulfillment and satisfaction no other means could give.

The traditions of the world of his time, of course, had a different emphasis. The Greeks were in search of a formula for life, a slogan by which to perform, but such could never claim the commitment of the human will. The Jews had their Law, demanding obedience to every detail as the requisite to the good life, but St. Paul discovered that a set of rules could never provide salvation nor solve the deadly problem of sin and moral failure. Jesus, however, came with a new key to true life: accept his spirit, surrender to the claim of his will, allow him to enter the stream of everyday living; and, in this commitment, all we say and do will reflect the influence of his life within us.

What does this do for and with those who resolve to do it? How has it worked in the Christian story?  The world saw this effect in the spirit of the early church, the spirit of human conduct, and in the power to realize what the Christian story promises.

1. The New Spirit's Effect on the Early Church.
2. The New Spirit's Effect upon Human Conduct.
3. The Power to Realize the Christian Story's Promises.

This statement (Matt 12:32, par Mk. 3:29, Luke 12:10) has been the subject of much questioning. Obviously the reference here is not to the naming of the Holy Spirit in a blasphemous utterance, for in Matt. 12:32 even blasphemy against the Son of man can be forgiven. Among the many attempts at exegesis, the most convincing is the suggestion that the man who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit is he who has recognized that God is working through the Holy Spirit in the actions of Jesus, and who quite consciously "misrepresent faith in God as faith in the devil.  This saying is an extremely serious warning against the demonic and scarcely conceivable potential in man: To declare war on God.  This is not done in weakness and doubt, but by one who has been overcome by the Holy Spirit and who knows very well on whom he is declaring war" (E. Schweizer, The Good News according to Mark, 1971, 87; cf. H.W. Beyer, TDNT I:624; O.E. Evans, "The Unforgivable Sin", ExpT 68, 1956-57, 240-44). This is the blasphemer who does it deliberately, after encounter with the God of grace, as the context shows. For Jesus has just been accused of casting out demons by Beelzebul, the prince of demons. "Therefore he who blasphemes the Spirit is no longer speaking against a God who is distant, about whom he entertains mere foolish thoughts, but against the one who makes evident to him his gracious work, and confirms it with his manifest, divine seal. He is a man who ought to give thanks, not to blaspheme" (A. Schlatter, on Matt. 12:32).

W.L. Lane draws attention to Sifre on Deut. 32:38 (end): "The Holy One, blessed be he, pardons everything else, but on profanation of the Name [i.e. blasphemy] he takes vengeance immediately" (The Gospel of Mark, NLC, 1974, 145) Lane goes on to comment: "This is the danger to which the scribes exposed themselves when they attributed to the agency of Satan the redemption brought by Jesus. The expulsion of demons was a sign of the intrusion of the Kingdom of God. Yet the scribal accusations against Jesus amount to a denial of the power and greatness of the Spirit of God. By assigning the action of Jesus to a demonic origin the scribes betray a perversion of spirit which, in defiance of the truth, chooses to call light darkness. In this historical context, blasphemy against the Holy Spirit denotes the conscious and deliberate rejection of the saving power and grace of God released through Jesus' work and act" (ibid). Thus blasphemy here is much more serious than the taking of the divine name in vain which a believer may have done before coming to repentance and faith.

It may be said to those who have been tormented by fear that they have committed the unforgivable sin that their concern is itself a sign that they have not committed the sin envisaged in Jesus' teaching here. Lane's interpretation also helps to explain the distinction drawn between blasphemy against the Son of man and blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. The distinction suggests that "while an attack on Jesus' own person, as son of Man and therefore 'hidden', is pardonable, any speaking against the power by which he works (i.e. the divine endowment for his messianic ministry) will not be pardoned" (D. Hill, The Gospel of Matthew, New Century Bible, 1972, 318). For such an action would be deliberately to attribute to Satan the action of God himself. (NIDNTT, v. 3, pp. 343-344)

What is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit? Though many suggestions have been offered, I think the answer lies in the context here (Luke 12:7-12) and in the context of redemptive history. Remember that the Holy Spirit had not yet been poured out, and it is the Spirit who causes men to recognize who Jesus is. Hebrews 6 and 10 contain discussions of unforgivable sins, but the distinction between blasphemy against Christ and the Spirit has disappeared. Jesus seemed to be saying this: Because the Holy spirit has not yet been poured out in fullness, the Jews will be forgiven for blaspheming the Son of Man. They will be given a second chance to repent, as we see in the book of Acts. If, however, they continue to blaspheme after the Spirit has come, they will not be forgiven. But what is the sin, specifically? Since it is blasphemy, we must see it essentially as a verbal sin. In context it is the sin of saying that Jesus Christ is of the devil. Jesus was willing to excuse this blasphemy before Pentecost; but, in the new covenant era it is not longer excusable. If a person curses Jesus, but does not really know who Jesus is, that sin is forgivable. But if the Holy Spirit has borne witness to a person that Jesus is indeed the Son of God, and that person curses Him, it cannot be forgiven.

We live in an age where incredible scientific advancements take place everyday. Take GRIN, the acronym for (G) genetic engineering, (R) robotics, (I) information technology and (N) nanotechnology. The human genome has been mapped. Nanotechnology is constructing miniscule machines that can deliver inter-cellular messages or make molecular level repairs. Astrophysicists have mapped the curvature of the universe, delved into black holes, listened to the echoes of the Big Bang. Scientific inquiry and experiment have revealed the "hows" and "whys" and "whats" never before known.

We think we're so smart. We think we have a handle on how the universe works.

So why did the builders of the new Yankee Stadium spend five hours and $50,000 digging through two feet of concrete? They did this to extract a David Ortiz Red Sox jersey that had been secretly buried in the concrete floor of the visiting team's dug out. A construction worker, an unrepentant Red Sox fan, had slipped the jersey into the concrete in order to permanently "jinx" the new Yankee stadium. The story of the jersey finally came to light because another construction worker who had seen the shirt go into the slab got worried and confessed: "I don't want to be responsible for sinking the franchise," he said. The stadium, a 1.3 billion dollar project, was brought to a screeching halt; the glowing new future for the Yankees was endangered; immediate, expensive action was taken: why? Because everyone believed in the jinxing power of a piece of cloth submerged down in a concrete floor in a locker room.

That was one high-powered hex!

Or not.

No one can completely escape what has been called "magical thinking" We "knock on wood," throw spilled salt over our shoulders, can't resist reading our horoscopes, always take notice of a "Friday the 13th." 

Little children have that special "blankie" or stuffed animal that magically imparts peace and serenity. But big corporations hire specialists to organize the "feng shui" in their work spaces. Musician George Michael bought the Steinway piano that John Lennon composed his best know work on: "Imagine."  Michael ships this piano off to places that are in need of some kind of spiritual support: to New Orleans after Katrina; to Virginia Tech after the shootings. The piano is put on public display, with its pedigree, open for any and all to sit down and plunk out a few notes, to seek out a bit of solace in its noteworthy presence.

No matter how much scientific knowledge we acquire about the world we live in, physical reality is never enough. The human spirit knows there is always more to be revealed, that there is something more out there if we could only lift the veil.

Paul's speech to the Athenians gathered at the elite Court of the Areopagus was designed to get his audience thinking about that inner yearning for "something more," that "groping" for the "unknown God." But Paul also warned them that there was a difference between religiosity and righteousness. The God who created the universe, who gave life to human beings, "does not live in shrines made by human hands" (v.24) and is not "an image formed by the art and imagination of mortals" (v.29). Idols of gold, silver, or stone will never contain God, and can never move beyond the "magical" to real faithfulness…

The English author, C. S. Lewis, in one of his books, points out that when people become Christians, if they are not careful, their sinning often shifts from the overt, outward, visible sins of lying, cheating, stealing, cursing and swearing, to the more inward, hidden, non-apparent invisible ones ... and among them he lists "a critical spirit" ... a spirit of judgmentalism, a censorious attitude. In fact, he points out that these sins are more commonly committed by church people than by those who are not. So prevalent is it in church circles, that it is sometimes labeled "Christian cruelty."

What is the sin of judging implied in Jesus' Parable of the Tares? What exactly is judging? If we see a man walk out of a bar and stagger down the street, it is not judging to say he is intoxicated. That is a statement of fact. Judging is jumping at unverified conclusions. It is relating as fact that which is only hearsay or conjecture. It is reading evil into another's motives merely because it seems obvious.

Dawn Hetland didn't move a muscle. The worship service was over. The choir had filed out. The pastor was at the back door greeting the worshippers. The pews were quickly becoming empty. But Dawn did not move. She sat silently, her hands folded, her head bowed in prayer. Bridget Glass was a life-long friend of Dawn Hetland. As she was leaving the sanctuary that Sunday morning she happened to see her friend Dawn with her head bowed low. Bridget thought something must be wrong. She went quickly to Dawn's side, tapped her on the shoulder, and asked if everything was all right. "Oh, yeah, sure," Dawn replied, orienting herself once again to her surroundings. "I was just praying. I've got an important decision to make and I need all the help and guidance I can get." "What decision is that?" Bridget asked. "About my future, Bridget. You know that I've just finished medical school. That's been my goal for any number of years now. So I've finished. So what? What do I do now? I never thought this would all seem so hard and complicated. I've got an offer to join a team of physicians in Tampa, Florida. But I've also been invited to do a residency program in Internal Medicine. I'm really torn between these two offers. All I've ever wanted to do was to be a doctor as a way of living out my Christian faith. Both of these offers open up an opportunity for me to serve God. But which one should I take? What does God want me to do with my life? That's the question I can't answer."

"And that's what you've been sitting here praying for?" Bridget asked. "Yes," Dawn answered. "I really don't know what to do. So I pray. I don't think I've ever prayed for anything so much in my whole life. But I'm not getting any answers. God seems to be very silent!" "Have you asked for advice from people you trust?" Bridget asked. Dawn nodded her head in assent. "Have you made a list of all the positives and negatives with these two possibilities?" Bridget inquired further. Dawn nodded for a second time. "I don't know what else you can do then," Bridget said in a comforting voice. "You've just got to make a bold decision now and get on with your life." "That's easy for you to say," Dawn shot back. "How can I make a bold decision when I don't even know what to decide. Why can't I see a flash of light in the sky? Why doesn't a still, small voice speak to me?" "Now you're asking too much," Bridget replied. "Only a handful of people living or dead have received such signs from God. I don't know if you were here a couple of weeks ago when Pastor Hagedorn preached about discerning God's will for our lives. Make a list of the positives and negatives, he said. Talk to people you trust. Take the matter to God in prayer. Then decide with boldness which course to take." "But what if I choose the wrong thing?" Dawn wondered aloud. "The status of your life before God does not depend upon making right decisions," Bridget said firmly. "We live our lives under the canopy of God's forgiving love. Our God of grace will walk with you no matter what path you choose. And remember, 'God works all things together for good with those who love God.' Don't worry, Dawn. God will take your decision, whatever it is, and make the best of it.""

In many towns and villages, Memorial Day is known as "Decoration Day." It sets off the imagery of freedom and democracy.

Yes, Memorial Day--fireworks, high school marching bands decked out in colorful uniforms marching in unison down Main Street playing John Phillip Sousa's musical pieces. There are speakers and politicians everywhere, flowers on graves, flags waving and flapping in the air, family picnics, fried chicken, softball games, joy, laughter, tears. This is the obvious and visible side of Memorial Day.

A gray haired woman with a scarf around her head, old skirt, and worn sneakers is kneeling by a grave side with tears running down her cheeks. She is still mourning the loss of her sons in a war in a foreign land thousands of miles away. She wears the medals on her tattered blouse--the medals given by a thankful nation for the lives of her sons sacrifice. The blouse is tattered, but it was the blouse she had on the day her sons went to Fort Dix. She talks to the crosses herself and slowly walks to the car to go home, where she works in the yard all day with her flowers. These flowers are placed periodically on the graves of her boys. Her husband reads the newspaper all day--he hurts too much to go anywhere that day.

Freedom also can be as quiet as a whisper inside a cabin door in 1863, "Mr. Lincoln said we are free."

Our past is vital. It provides identity and the dreams that have guided us individually as a nation, and as a faith community. 

Matthew 22:35 - "And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question, to test him."

Titus 3:13 - "Do your best to speed Zenas the lawyer and Apollos on their way; see that they lack nothing."

Among the Jews, the biblical lawyer was one who was learned in the Mosaic Law; however, it is also generally supposed to be equivalent to the title "scribe." A man could be both a scribe and a lawyer, but this does not necessarily mean that all lawyers were scribes. It has been said that, perhaps, the scribes were public expounders of the law, while the lawyers were the private expounders and teachers of it.

The Greek term for lawyer signified those absorbed in legalistic discussions. In general, they are viewed negatively in the New Testament: they are described as neglecting justice, rejecting sound knowledge, and burdening their fellow men. There were honored judges, to be sure, but these come under the classes of the "Doctors of the Law," which is an entirely different thing.

Apart from the fact that their interpretations of the law were scripturally based, as was logical in their situation, the lawyers of the past and the lawyers of the present are very much alike in their methods of preparation and presentation of their cases. But - the lawyers of the past received no payment for his services, hut earned a living from another occupation. I doubt that today’s lawyers would care for that kind of set-up.

Ezra 7:6 - "... this Ezra went up from Babylonia. He was a scribe skilled in the law of Moses which the Lord the God of Israel had given; and the king granted him all that he asked, for the hand of the Lord his God was upon him."

In pagan Greek, the word "scribe," had a variety of meanings, including government secretary, recorder, clerk, and notary. In biblical Greek, however, it had a more specialized meaning, being used to translate the Hebrew word "sopher," a term which had undergone a change in meaning between the days of the Israelite kingdoms and the beginning of the Christian era.

In early biblical Hebrew "sopher" usually designated an important court official. During the first two-thirds of the period of the second commonwealth (@400 B.C. to 1 A.D.), where Judea was successively a province of the Persian, Macedonian, and Roman empires, "sopher" meant an interpreter of scripture. It was in this capacity that Ezra (@ 400 B.C.) was called a scribe. In the early part of the second century B.C. Jesus ben Sirach, the head of a school of wisdom in Jerusalem, celebrated the intellectual and moral pre-eminence of the scribes (Ecclesiastes 8:24--39:11).

During the last three centuries before the beginning of the Christian era the scribes were the professional interpreters and teachers of biblical law and ethics. Since the Jewish community enjoyed cultural autonomy under foreign rules it was premitted to govern itself by its own constitution, namely the Pentateuch. However, the Mosaic laws required interpretation and expansion to meet the needs of this later age and the work in interpretation was undertaken by the scholars whom we call the scribes.

The two leading religious-political parties, the Pharisees and Sadducees, both had their professional scholars and scribes, but as the Pharisees enjoyed greater influence among the Jews as a whole, it was the Pharisaic scribes whose interpretation of the law was considered authoritative by later Rabbinic scholars. It is the Pharisaic scribes who are meant in most of the Gospel references. It should not be noted also that the Gospels treat this word "scribe" as synonymous with "jurist" and "teachers of the Law" (i.e., biblical law).

The chief Jewish legislative and judicial body meeting in Jerusalem from about 200 B.C. to A.D. 70, known as the Great Sanhedrin, was made up of scribes of the Pharisaic party as well as the scribes and priests of the Sadducean party. Which party was in the majority throughout this period we do not know, but sources indicate that on certain matters the opinions of the Pharisaic scribes prevailed.

However, there was a difference in the usage of the word "scribes" between the Jewish and Christian writings of the first two centuries A.D. The Rabbinic sources of this period apply the word to the biblical interpreters and jurists of the period between Ezra and their own time, while the Pharisaic rabbis and scholars of their own time are called "sages," although they performed the same function as the scribes. The latter term was usually applied by them to less eminent persons, such as writers of legal documents, copyists, notaries, and teachers of elementary schools.

When the Gospels speak of scribes as contemporaries of Jesus, they meant the jurists and teachers who were called "sages" by the rabbis.

The chief functions of the scribes throughout the greater part of the second commonwealth were: 1. to interpret the biblical law and to provide new legislation by the construction of the written text or on the basis of the tradition of the leders (the oral law); 2. to give instruction in all fields of knowledge relevant to the study of Scripture; 3. to act as legal advisers to judges and those who administered the law.

Although they became preverted in their interpretations, so that eventually the word of the scribe was honored above that of the Law, and it became a greater crime to offend against the scribes than to break the Law, still we are indebted to them for the preservation of the Old Testament canon, which was formulated almost exactly as we have it today, at the. Council of Jamnia in A.D. 90, by these scribes.

To compare these men with their modern-day counterparts is a little difficult, since we are no longer a theocracy. However, I think we could compare their duties with those of legal advisers to heads of government, on whatever level, or to accomplished and efficient legal secretaries. If you will recall what was said about the doctors of law, I think the same would hold true here also for modern man.

Mark 4:37-41 is one of the many passages in the Bible which has been set to music. "Master, the tempest is raging! The billows are tossing high! The sky is o’er shadowed with blackness ..." You recognize it. From childhood, we have sung the words to "Peace Be Still" and have loved to lift the refrain which concludes, "they all shall sweetly obey thy will ..." Two primary elements are underscored in both the scripture and the hymn: the power of Christ and faith in Christ.

The Gospel according to Mark characterizes the ministry of Jesus as being a succession of "mighty works," indicative of his Sonship. Actually, the stilling of the storm is only the beginning of a series of incidents portraying the power of Christ. After the storm experience on the Sea of Galilee, Jesus and the disciples came to the other side of the sea into the country of the Gerasenes. Here they encountered a man who lived among the tombs, crying out in travail both day and night, inflicting injury upon himself and striking fear into the hearts of all who chance to see him. Frequently, he had been subdued and bound with chains, but such was his deranged agony that he tore away the fetters and ran about the tombs as a wild man. In a great display of power, Jesus freed the man from his torment (5:13) and "all marveled. Then, crossing to the other side of the sea, Jesus encountered a certain Janus, a ruler of the synagogue, who prevailed upon him to accompany him to his home and heal his daughter" (5:23). On the way to the home of Janus Jesus was "touched" by a desperate woman who had hemorraged for twelve years and, according to Mark 5:29, so great was the power of Jesus that the woman was immediately healed simply by touching his clothing. Not to be minimized here is Jesus’ statement to the woman; "Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace and be healed from your disease" (5:34). Now the word comes that during the interval, Janus’ daughter has died. Reassuring Janus, Jesus said, "Do not fear, only believe." Approaching the house Jesus observed a gathering of people loudly mourning the death of the girl. Everyone was asked to wait outside the house save the little girl’s parents and the disciples who had been selected to accompany Jesus to the house, Peter, James, and John. "Taking her by the hand, he said to her, ‘Talitha cumi’ which means ‘Little girl, I say to you, arise.’ And immediately the girl got up and walked" (5:41-42).

Power! That is the theme of Mark’s section dealing with three successive miracles of Jesus. Read again the refrain of "Peace, Be Still" and see how it applied to each of the three incidents. See also the summons for faith. The disciples were scolded for their lack of faith, the woman with the issue of blood was rewarded because of her faith, and Janus was encouraged to intensify the faith he already had exhibited by falling at the feet of Jesus. Desperation characterizes all three encounters, and all three contain the enacted teaching that the power of Christ is but half of the whole; the other half, which taps this power, is faith. Ironically, it would appear that we, too, learn the lesson best in times of desperation.

Simply changing outward behavior is not repentance. We at times change our behavior for self-centered reasons. Sometimes we change in an attempt to atone for my sins.  Such change will only make my sinfulness more sinful.

This is the basis for the reference in Hebrews of repenting from ‘dead works'.  A dead work is a work that is not done with the leading and empowerment of the indwelling Holy Spirit.  Hence any good work a non-Christian would attempt is a dead work.  And many types of good works that Christians do could be devoid of the Spirit's leading and empowerment.

• A dead work is giving to charity because it is a good tax break.
• It is going to church because it is good for my business reputation or my resume or my politics.
• It is tithing because I am afraid God will ‘get me' if I don't.
• It is sending my kids to a Christian school, not because I want them to learn the truths of the Christian faith and surrender their lives to the Lordship of Christ, but because there they will run in the right crowd.
• It is the giving up of a sinful habit, not because I want to be controlled by the Spirit of God instead of the habit, but because the habit inhibits my performance at work and is harming my professional reputation.

In all these ways, I have actually changed, but the change has not accomplished what Jeremiah said was impossible:

Can the Ethiopian change his skin
or the leopard his spots?
Then also you can do good
who are accustomed to do evil.

Martin Luther, who had made himself the apostle and champion of faith alone, wrote the following: “Faith is a living, busy, active, powerful thing; it is impossible for it not to do us good continually. It never asks whether good works are to be done, but has done them before there is time to ask the question, and it is always doing them.”

One of the things that most young children fear are monsters. Unlike the imagined monsters of children, the early church had a real monster of its own. It was a most deadly enemy that roamed about. The monster was the notion that Christ alone was not adequate for a person’s salvation. And this monster gave birth to another monster, the monster of uncertainty over our own salvation. Both monsters were real - both were inspired by the devil. Unfortunately, they are still very much with us today. Many of us are puzzled and uncertain as to whether we will be saved. To solve the salvation puzzle we must kill the monster of uncertainty that suggests we trust in something other than Christ alone for our salvation.

Recently, I surveyed a large sample of our congregation. I was amazed to discover that so many were puzzled over the crucial question of their eternal life. Perhaps some of you reading this meditation do not feel certain that if you died tonight that you will be with God in heaven. Many who feel certain that they will go to heaven do not base such certainty on faith in Jesus Christ alone. The devil that roamed freely in the early church is still with us.

Brothers and sisters, our salvation is unreasonable, and this is what causes much of our puzzlement. We have been trained from childhood that we must work out our own problems and map out our own destiny. To think that God’s salvation is a pure gift, won for us by God’s actions and effected without any help or aid from us, militates against our, "pull yourself up by your own bootstraps" philosophy.

Second, it smacks us where we hurt the most, right in our pride. Adults are hesitant about accepting gifts which they know they have not earned or merited. We do not want to feel obligated to anyone. It is not an easy matter for us to come before Almighty God and accept what he wants to give us - the most wonderful gift of eternal life. It takes a humble person to make such a confession from his heart and to stand totally dependent on God.

Third, for most of us, everything that we have has a price tag on it. Then we are confronted with the strange news of a gospel which declares that God’s salvation is a free gift. Our experience with every other valuable gift causes us to stop and think, "Is that reasonable? There must be a hidden cost, a string attached, we must have to do something. How can God really give us something so wonderful for nothing?"

In the survey of our congregation we also asked our people, "If you were to die tonight and stand before God and he were to ask you, ‘Why should I let you into my heaven?’ what would you answer him?" What would you answer him? Take a second, think about it. Let me share with you some answers others gave: "I’ve lived a Christian life, loving and caring for my fellowman." "I am a good person and love to help others." "I’ve tried my best to do what you have expected of me." What is the common element in all these answers? It is "I." Everyone emphasizes what I have done.

The Bible says, "For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not your own doing, it is a gift of God, not because of works, lest any man should boast." Heaven is a most wonderful gift, it is not something earned or deserved, it is only received by faith. Our faith in Jesus Christ is the key that opens heaven to us.

All around us are forces at work to distract, delude, and deter us from experiencing God's plan and vision for us as individual believers and as the body of Christ as a whole. We see people shattered on the rocks of delusion and despair. We see a skyrocketing divorce rate, abuse in the home, disease, crime, abortion, gangs, suicide, incest, child abuse, rape, drive-by shootings, drugs, and the inability of government to handle our problems because we are a people who seek man-made solutions and ignore the biblical mandates of Scripture. So, the list of problems grow.

Unfortunately, in the midst of this, we also see churches turned inward rather than outward as lights in the midst of this horrible darkness. Why? Because to a very large degree, the church—though very religious—has ignored the truth of this passage and lost sight of the vision it gives us of what life should be.

Let us not forget as we examine this passage that Christ's conflict was with the religious people. They were experts in the Old Testament Scriptures but they had missed the central truth of the Word of God. And the same can apply to us.

Perhaps you have visited the Upper Room Chapel in Nashville, Tennessee, and had the opportunity to meditate before the marvelous wood carving and its appointments which so dramatically depict the Last Supper. One of the mysterious features of this particular carving is that no matter where you kneel before the figure of Christ, his eyes gaze strangely into yours. So it must have seemed to the disciples gathered around the table in Jerusalem on that fateful evening. How much more intense it must have been for Judas, and we can but wonder where his eyes were fixed when Jesus uttered those terrible words. "He who has dipped his hand in the dish with me, will betray me" (Matthew 26:23).

So far as the disciples were concerned, they had gathered, as they had done since childhood, to partake of the traditional Passover meal. The streets of Jerusalem were crowded with pious Jews who had come into the city for this express purpose. The ritual was always the same: while at the table, the story of the escape from Egypt would be recounted ... there would be special foods on the table and unleavened bread would be eaten as a reminder of the haste in which the Exodus people had been forced to flee Egypt ... it was always the same.

To the disciples’ surprise however, Jesus suddenly departed from the familiar references; "And he took bread, and gave thanks, and broke it, and gave unto them saying, ‘This is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me.’ Likewise also the cup after supper saying, ‘This cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for you.’ " Jesus had dramatically transformed the Passover supper into the Lord’s Supper on the evening of his "last supper" with them (see also Mark 14:22-24 and Matthew 26:26-29).

The Lord’s Supper:

1. Is a sacrament, meaning that it was instituted by Christ and commanded to be continued "till he come." In Paul’s familiar passage, used in the sacrament ritual, he adds, "For as often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup, ye proclaim the Lord’s death till he comes" (1 Corinthians 11:26).

2. Symbolizes the new covenant. The Old Testament covenant of the Law was sealed with the blood of animal sacrifice. However, this covenant had failed. The prophets themselves had said, "Behold, the days will come, saith Jehovah, that I will make a new convenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah." The covenant of Law was being superseded by the new convenant of love, sealed by the blood of Christ.

3. Uses of common elements. In addition to using the traditional elements of the Passover, bread and wine, Jesus realized that each day when his followers partook of their meals, two things were certain to be on the table ... bread and wine. Consequently, even an ordinary meal would include reminders of the new covenant.

4. Was observed anxiously. Devout early Christians met daily to observe the sacrament in the prayerful hope that Jesus would return while they were sharing the sacred meal. In time, the early Church observed the sacrament each Sunday, a practice continued until the Reformation. Oddly enough, in Scotland, during the sixteenth century, it was observed in the country twice and in town four times a year.

5. Is called the eucharist, meaning the "thanksgiving," based on the passage, "He took a cup, and when he had given thanks...."

Perhaps John Calvin spoke for each of us when he admitted that "the matter is too sublime for me to be able to express, or even to comprehend ... I rather experience it, than understand it."

There's a story about a farmer who was visited by a couple of young, energetic evangelists.  They knocked on his door and asked if he ‘was saved.' The farmer left the two at the door and went into his farmhouse for a pencil and a pad of paper. Coming back to the two evangelists, he gave them a list of 10 people. "These are the names of my neighbors. Go talk with them. They will be able to tell you whether what I say I believe is truly how my life is lived."

Talking is not enough. What we claim to believe has to manifest itself through our very life. And this is not just about activity or specific deeds or works that we can do on a weekend. It is about the building of our character. It is about creating a life that is so steered, so controlled by our faith in Jesus Christ that when the rain falls, the floods come and the winds blow we are still the same.

Numbers 25:5 - "And Moses said to the judges of Israel, ‘Every one of you slay his men who have yoked themselves to Baal of Peor.’ "

1 Chronicles 17:10 - "from the time that I appointed judges over my people Israel; and I will subdue all your enemies."

If you will check any good anthropology text, you will find that even in very primitive societies, certain persons serve as judges. In the earliest times, the head of the house was considered judge over his household, even with life and death. With the enlargement of the human family, this power quite naturally passed to the heads of tribes and clans.

Moses, we find, followed Jethro’s advice and appointed judges for every "small matter" while Moses decided the important things. Upon Moses’ death, judges handled all the disputes. During the period known as the time of the Judges (1225-1020 B.C.), military leaders seem to have served as judges. When the monarchy was established, the king and his officers became the highest legal authorities. David appointed 6,000 Levites as judges and officers. Ezra was ordered by the king of Persia to appoint judges.

All Israelites (except women, who were forbidden by the Palestinian Talmud) were deemed qualified to serve as judges in civil matters, but only priests, Levites, and Israelites of spotless character and ancestery could judge a criminal case. Qualifications for a judge were knowledge of the Law and integrity.

Although there were no age limits for judges, as the Sanhedrin became the judicial body for the Jews, it became obvious that a very young man could not qualify. To become a member of this supreme court of the Jews, a man must possess wisdom, a knowledge of foreign languages and of science, to be of good height, and possess an appearance which commanded respect. Among those who were disqualified were eunuchs, childless men, professional gamblers, shepherds, farmers, tax collectors, robbers, extortioners, and all those suspected of dishonesty.

Judges were thought of as performing a sacred duty; deliberating over a decision was described as "inquiring of God." During the period of the Judges, these leaders were charismatic, and did not hold the position indefinitely. In these times, to be a judge was to hold an honorary, voluntary position, for which one was not paid. Later, judges were paid for their services, just as our judges are today.

It was preferred that a case be decided by at least three judges, and we find this custom existing in an expanded form today in our supreme courts.

How much is enough? Most of us have asked this question many times throughout life. When our kids are having a bad day, we wonder how much we can take before we lose our temper. How much is enough? When we are buying something and bickering as to how much we should pay, we wonder, "How much is enough?" At work, when the thrust is to increase our production, we wonder, "How much is enough?" And so it is quite understandable that this question might also creep into our religious life and into our thoughts of salvation. How often must we attend church in order to be a good member? How many times must I forgive that person in order to qualify for God’s forgiveness of me? How good must we be to make it to heaven? How much is enough?

Whereas industry might consider it enough to get six hours of work from an employee in an eight-hour day, God says that only perfection is enough for us to enter into his presence at the end of time. There will be no bickering when Jesus returns. To say to Jesus, "But Lord, I was a good provider for my family; I worked seven days a week; I never willfully hurt anyone," cuts no ice with the Lord in terms of salvation. Only those who are perfect will go to heaven when Christ comes again. So you see, we all fall short when we look at our lives and ask, have I done enough? The most righteous among us cannot do enough to save themselves and qualify for heaven, for only perfection is enough.

Heaven can only be grasped by faith. Our faith, our trust, our belief, our love of the Lord Jesus Christ make heaven a certainty for our future. When the King of Ages returns to earth again, those who put their hope in the Lord will receive the benefits of forgiveness obtained through his punishment at Calvary. They will be gifted with eternal life. Good works do not appropriate eternity, only faith does.

To be ready for his return is to remain strong in the faith. If you have been putting off some aspect of the Christian discipline, put it off no longer - now is the time for change. The King is coming, and we must prepare. Each of us needs to be sure that our personal faith is strong. If we all knew the Lord was coming in one week, what would we do differently? Now is the time to begin. God in Christ has given us the crown of life through faith in his Son. Only when God gave everything was it enough for our salvation. How much will be enough of a commitment from us today? The Lord wants a total commitment of faith. How much is enough? Everything!

The devout of this world perform their rituals without guarantee that anything good will ever come of it. Of course there are plenty of scriptures and plenty of priests who make plenty of promises as to what your good works will yield (or threats as to the punishments awaiting you if you lapse), but to even believe all this is an act of faith, because nobody amongst us is shown the endgame. Devotion is diligence without assurance. Faith is a way of saying, 'Yes, I pre-accept the terms of the universe and I embrace in advance what I am presently incapable of understanding.' There's a reason we refer to 'leaps of faith' because the decision to consent to any notion of divinity is a mighty jump from the rational over to the unknowable, and I don't care how diligently scholars of every religion will try to sit you down with their stacks of books and prove to you through scripture that their faith is indeed rational; it isn't. If faith were rational, it wouldn't be by definition faith. Faith is belief in what you cannot see or prove or touch. Faith is walking face-first and full-speed into the dark. If we truly know all the answers in advance to the meaning of life and the nature of God and the destiny of our souls, our belief would not be a leap of faith and it would not be a courageous act of humanity; it would just be . . . a prudent insurance policy.

In his book, Faith Works, Jim Wallis writes of a personal experience I heard him share in a class several years ago, while I was doing sabbatical study at Harvard Divinity School. Jim Wallis is a leader of the Sojourners community, intentionally located in a poor inner-city neighborhood of Washington, D.C. After living in that neighborhood for more than twenty years, Wallis found himself the victim of a mugging. Preoccupied with an upcoming speaking opportunity, Jim failed to "watch his back" as he turned the corner on a deserted street, and by the time he heard the running feet behind him, it was too late. As he turned around, he was hit by something sharp enough to open a gash over one eye, and he immediately felt the blood running down his face. Several hands pushed him to the ground, and he could hear one of his assailants shout, "Keep him down! Get his wallet! Take his money!"

Popping up quickly to face the muggers, Jim discovered that there were four of them, all young teenagers, no one more than fourteen years of age. The youth circled Jim, and the youngest one, who couldn't have been more than twelve years old, clearly had watched a lot of television, because he began to flail away at Jim with earnest but ineffectual karate kicks. Noting that the youth weren't carrying guns, Jim decided to confront them with what they were doing. "Stop it! Just stop it!" Jim scolded them. "You guys have got to quit terrorizing people like this." The young teens, taken by surprise, dropped their hands, so Jim continued, "I'm a pastor. You boys want to try and beat up a pastor and take his money? Come on ahead. Take your best shot." At that they fled down the street, but the little karate kicker turned back, looking directly in Jim's eyes with a sad expression and saying in a sincere voice, "Pastor, ask God for a blessing for me."

Who among us does not yearn for a blessing from God? Even those we are tempted to write off as too tough, too entrenched in destructive behavior—buried deep beneath the hardened exterior there is a yearning for blessing. Whether a troubled youth, one struggling with addiction, or the "respectable" person fearful of giving voice to his or her own inner struggle—whatever our situation in life, we ache to know God's blessing.

The glory of a good person is the testimony of a good conscience. A good conscience is able to bear very much and is very cheerful in adversities. An evil conscience is always fearful and unquiet. Never rejoice except when you have done well. You shall rest sweetly if your heart does not accuse you. Sinners never have true joy or feel inward peace, because 'there is no peace for the wicked,' says the Lord (Isaiah 57:21). The glory of the good is in their consciences, and not in the tongues of others, The gladness of the just is of God, and in God; and their joy is of the truth.

A person will easily be content and pacified whose conscience is pure. If you consider what you are within, you will not care what others say concerning you. People consider the deeds, but God weighs the intentions. To be always doing well and to esteem little of one's self is the sign of a humble soul. For not he who commends himself is approved, but whom the Lord commends, 'says Paul (2 Corinthians 10:18). To walk inwardly with God, and not to be kept abroad by any outward affection, is the state of a spiritual person. Conscience is that faculty in me which attaches itself to the highest that I know, and tells me what the highest I know demands that I do. It is the eye of the soul which looks out either toward God or toward what it regards as the highest authority. If I am in the habit of steadily facing toward God, my conscience will always introduce God's perfect law and indicate what I should do. The point is, will I obey? I have to make an effort to keep my conscience so sensitive that I walk without offense. I should be living in such perfect sympathy with God's Son that in every circumstance the spirit of my mind is renewed. The one thing that keeps the conscience sensitive to Him is the habit of being open to God on the inside. When there is any debate, quit. There is no debate possible when conscience speaks. 

In the days of Jesus tax collectors deserved the scorn of the people because often they abused their position. Here is how William Barclay describes the business of the tax collector in the Roman world:

'The problem of the Roman government was to devise a system whereby the taxes could be collected as efficiently and as cheaply as possible. They had done so by auctioning the right to collect taxes in a certain area. A man bought the right to collect the taxes within a certain district; he was responsible to the Roman government for an agreed sum; anything he could raise over and above that he was allowed to keep as commission. Obviously this system lent itself to grave abuses. People did not really know how much they ought to pay in the days before newspapers and wireless announcements and the widespread diffusion of news; nor had they any right of appeal against the tax-collector. The consequence was that many a tax-collector became a wealthy man through his illegal extortion...

These tax-gatherers were universally hated. They had entered the service of their country's conquerors, and they amassed their fortunes at the expense of their country's misfortunes...They were notoriously dishonest. Not only did they fleece their own countrymen, but they also did their best to swindle the government, and they made a flourishing income by taking bribes from rich people who wished to avoid taxes which they should have paid. Every country hates its tax-gatherers, but the hatred of the Jews for them was doubly violent. The Jews were fanatical nationalists. But what roused the Jews more than anything else was their religious conviction that God alone was king, and that to pay any taxes to any mortal ruler was an infringement of God's rights and an insult to His majesty. By Jewish law a tax-gatherer was debarred from the synagogue; he was included with things and beasts unclean, and Leviticus 20:5 was applied to him; he was forbidden to be a witness in any case; "robbers, murderers and tax-gatherers" were classed together. When Jesus called Matthew, He called a man whom all men hated.'

"What is this thing, a gun?" said Billy.

"That is a stapler. Don't you know what a stapler is?" said John.

"No, what is it?"

"It holds papers together like this."

"I would like to have one," said Billy.

"You don't need one," said John.

"Well, I like to hold things together," said Billy.

We all need to be held together by certain forces in our lives. Some people go all to pieces when any dividing force works on them.

Religion plays a role similar to that of the staple. It may go unnoticed but supplies a real cohesive force in binding a couple together and in making for family unity.

When people worship together and when they find a common faith the diversities of life do not destroy their stability. We may all expect to come into contact regularly with forces that would divide and destroy us, but in the strength of love, which religion provides, we find mercy to forgive, patience to persevere and faith to follow in the footsteps of our Saviour.

Without sound religious influence society would crumble and safety would disappear. We may not need a stapling machine, but we all need the stable force of Christian faith.

Every Christian will bear spiritual fruit. Somewhere, sometime, somehow. Otherwise that person is not a believer. Every born-again individual will be fruitful. Not to be fruitful is to be faithless, without faith, and therefore without salvation. Having said that, some caveats are in order.

ONE, this does not mean that a believer will always be fruitful. Certainly we can admit that if there can be hours and days when a believer can be unfruitful, then why may there not also be months and even years when he can be in that same condition? Paul exhorted believers to engage in good works so they would not be unfruitful (Titus 3:14). Peter also exhorted believers to add the qualities of Christian character to their faith lest they be unfruitful (2 Peter 1:8). Obviously, both of those passages indicate that a true believer might be unfruitful. And the simple fact that both Paul and Peter exhort believers to be fruitful shows that believers are not always fruitful.

TWO, this does not mean that a certain person's fruit will necessarily be outwardly evident. Even if I know the person and have some regular contact with him, I still may not see his fruit. Indeed, I might even have legitimate grounds for wondering if he is a believer because I have not seen fruit. His fruit may be very private or erratic, but the fact that I do not see it does not mean it is not there.

THREE, my understanding of what fruit is and therefore what I expect others to bear may be faulty and/or incomplete. It is all too easy to have a mental list of spiritual fruits and to conclude if someone does not produce what is on my list that he or she is not a believer. But the reality is that most lists that we humans devise are too short, too selective, too prejudiced, and often extra-biblical. God likely has a much more accurate and longer list than most of us do. Nevertheless, every Christian will bear fruit; otherwise he or she is not a true believer. In speaking about the Judgment Seat of Christ, Paul says unequivocally that every believer will have praise come to him from God (1 Corinthians 4:5).

The size of faith doesn’t matter because God is the one doing the moving.

If it is my faith that moved the mountain, then the bigger the mountain, the more faith I would need to move it.

The bigger the obstacle, the more strength I’d need to climb it.

The more serious the illness, a faith even greater would be required to overcome it.

The more serious the sin, the more faith I would need in order to have it forgiven.

That kind of thinking kind of makes sense, but that’s not how faith works. In fact, faith doesn’t do the work at all. And thank God for that.

God is the one doing the work through faith. Think of faith as the key that opens the door to God acting in our lives. If I have a bigger key ring than you do, does it matter? The size of a key ring doesn’t matter. Key rings don’t open doors, but it’s that little key on the ring that opens doors. Even a little faith opens the door for God to move the mountains and trees and even our hearts.

The present decade may well be termed the Age of Anxiety. Anxiety is nothing new. In the Sermon on the Mount we read (Matthew 6:25, 33-34): "Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you shall eat or what you shall drink, nor about your body, what you shall put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? ... But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things shall be yours as well. Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Let the day’s own trouble be sufficient for the day."

We need not rehearse all the problems with the economy, crime, terrorists, and assassination attempts. The evening news plays the same familiar tune night in and night out. Sometimes we feel that these days we have to take the bad with the worst. Much of the time we feel apprehensive about the future. Feeling uneasy, we sometimes wonder what impending ill will befall us next.

In the light of many troubles, the Sermon on the Mount seems to be a tough saying from Jesus. It states that if our minds were set on God, we would not lack the needful things of this earth. When we are anxious over daily concerns, it often has a paralyzing effect on our religious life. Worrying about items of food and clothing directs our life inward toward ourselves rather than outward toward the Lord.

In his sermon the Lord does not speak out against working, or planning, or saving for the future. But our obsession with having the so-called better things in life and the increased amount of time it now takes to be able to afford them, has, too often, supplanted the art of living. Further, and inexcusable in God’s eyes, work has threatened the worship life of many Christians. Many people are working on Sundays. Others work so long and so hard during the week that they say they do not have time for God on Sundays. Jesus has no understanding of this and says in reply, "Do not be anxious about tomorrow. Seek ye first the kingdom of God, then all else will be added unto you."

Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, "If a man owns land, the land owns him." In some ways he is right. As we begin to own things in life and acquire better things, there are times that it seems that these things own us rather than the other way around. Our increased bills dictate to us that we must work overtime, work on Sunday, or that both husband and wife need to go to work. Maybe if we decided to own less, we could live more.

Jesus concludes his teaching on anxiety by stating that we are not to be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Let today’s troubles be sufficient for the day. In Deuteronomy 33:25 God says, "as thy days, so shall thy strength or we don’t trust in the Lord for strength to meet tomorrow or we don’t." Otherwise, we will constantly ruin the present by worrying about the future.

In Isaiah 41:13 God says, "For I, the Lord your God, hold your right hand; it is I who say to you, ‘Fear not, I will help you.’ Worry is an insult to God. Anxiety demonstrates lack of faith. When we feel anxious, we best kneel before the Lord, confess our sins, and surrender our anxieties to him."

Martin Luther, believed in demons but he believed in God more. In that great Hymn "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God" he writes:

And though this world, with devils filled,
should threaten to undo us,
We will not fear, for God hath willed
His truth to triumph through us:

The Prince of Darkness grim,
we tremble not for him;
His rage we can endure, for lo, his doom is sure,
One little word shall fell him.

That hymn, first published in 1529, has been called "the greatest hymn of the greatest man of the greatest period of German history." It has also been dubbed the "Battle Hymn of the Reformation" and with good reason. The Reformation touched off one of the most influential movements in world history. But before this famous Battle Hymn could be written Luther had to battle his personal demons and exorcize them from his own life. Luther felt utterly worthless and incapable of carrying the burdens of priesthood. On occasion Luther even flogged himself in an attempt to keep himself from sin.

He was often, he felt, pursued and tormented by Satan and his cohorts. Until one day, while reading Paul's letter to the Romans, he suddenly understood the meaning of God's grace and how it is appropriated by faith. In that moment he came to understand that he was justified before God through faith and not by his works.

You might say that after this experience Luther was no longer possessed by his demons, he was sitting upright, dressed, and in his right mind.

Now, more than ever, we need to face the question, "Who is the real Jesus?" Is the Christ of faith the Jesus of history? What is the truth about Jesus? What can we believe? We turn to the Apostles' Creed which has given the church's answer for 2,000 years.

Different Positions

It is not strange that the most popular question of our time is, "Who is Jesus?" Was this question not answered in Matthew 16:16 when Peter said to Jesus at Caesarea Philippi: "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God"? In Jesus' day, too, there were different opinions about Jesus. When on a retreat with his disciples, he asked them what people were saying about him. The public was divided: Jesus was considered to be John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets. What more of an answer do we need than the answer of Peter? Jesus accepted his answer as the truth, for he said, "Blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven" (Matthew 16:17). Yet, after twenty centuries, we do not believe what Peter said about the identity of Jesus. According to a Gallup poll, 42 percent of Americans agreed with the statement: "Jesus is the Son of God." A recent report from Germany indicated that only one out of every four believe in Jesus Christ. Throughout Christian history down to the present, there are different views of Jesus. Now let us look at some of them.

1. The All-Human Jesus

Human

According to this position, Jesus is 100 percent human. It was held as early as the first centuries of Christianity by the Ebionites. They denied that Jesus was divine. He was only a teacher, prophet, miracle-man, and one with an outstanding character. But he was not divine, the Son of God. Today this view is held by many, including atheists, agnostics, Unitarians, Jews, Moslems, and other non-Christian religions.

2. The All-Divine Jesus

Divine

Opposite the Ebionites, Docetists held that Jesus was entirely divine. He was not at all human. This view was originally taught by Eutychus, a monk in a monastery near Constantinople. In the fourth century, Appolonarius, bishop of Laodicea, popularized the teaching. It was known as Docetism, from the Latin word docere meaning "to seem." It just seemed that Jesus was human. It was based on the idea that the physical and material were inherently evil. The human body therefore was sinful. Jesus therefore was not human, for God could not be identified with sin. Docetists held that Jesus' human nature was swallowed up by the divine. This denied the Incarnation, the biblical teaching that "the Word became flesh."

3. The Half And Half Jesus

Human/Divine

Nestorians took the view that Jesus was half human and half divine. It was taught by Nestorius, bishop of Constantinople, in the fifth century. To this day it is a very popular understanding of Jesus. When we see Jesus hungry, thirsty, and tired, we say it was because he was human. When he struggles in prayer and on the cross cries out, "My God, why ...?" we see the human Jesus. On the other hand, Jesus is God when he walks on water, feeds 5,000, raises the dead, heals lepers, and rises from the grave. The problem with this view is that we have a divided Jesus -- two persons in one body.

4. The Adopted Jesus

Divine

Human

This is known as adoptionism. According to this position, Jesus came into the world as a human. Because of his moral excellence, his perfect obedience to God, his wisdom, his compassion for people, and his willing sacrifice of himself on the cross, the Father adopted him as his son at his baptism. This adoption was confirmed by the resurrection and the ascension. Jesus then became a deified man.

5. The Both And Jesus

Human & Divine

The above different positions concerning Jesus caused great concern, for the gospel was at stake. If Jesus were only human, then he was just a martyr on the cross and not the Lamb that took away the sin of the world. If he were only human, the resurrection was a fairy tale. His promises of forgiveness and eternal life were meaningless. His claims to know God and to be one with God would then be the words of a religious fanatic who was deluded into thinking he was the Son of God.

On the other hand, if Jesus were only divine and not human, humanity would be the loser. Because he was human, he became one of us. As a human, he fulfilled the law for us. Through his humanity we could see the nature of God. Above all, he became sin for us so that sin, through him, could go out of the world. As a human Jesus knows our human condition. Like all of us he was tempted and he showed that by the power of God we can overcome temptation to sin.

Consequently, the church had to take a stand on the question of Jesus. Is he only human, only divine, or half and half? In 451 A.D. the church held a council at Chalcedon to decide the issue. The church decided that it was not a matter of Jesus being fully God or fully human, or half and half, but it was a matter of both, both fully human and fully divine. To this day the church holds to this truth stated at Chalcedon:

We confess one and the same Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, perfect in manhood, truly God and truly man, or a rational soul and a body, of one substance with the Father with respect to the Godhead, and of one substance with us in respect of the manhood, like us in everything but sin ...

This is to say that Jesus is fully God and fully man. These two natures are blended into one integrated personality. He is not a split personality, nor does he suffer from schizophrenia. It is like a blender in your kitchen. Suppose you put apples, peaches, and pears in it and pushed the "on" button for a minute. Now what do you have -- apples, peaches, and pears? Yes, you do, but can you tell which is which? They have become one fruit, one substance. Also, it is like homogenized milk. When the raw milk comes from the farm, a dairy runs it through a homogenizer. As the milk runs through the machine, pistons compact the milk so that the cream and skim milk are made one. As a result you cannot take cream off the milk. In the same way, the human and divine natures of Jesus are compacted into one integrated person.

This means that the Father and the Son are one. When Jesus prays, God also prays. When the human Jesus suffers and dies on a cross, God is in Jesus enduring the cross. "God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself" (2 Corinthians 5:19). When the human Jesus speaks, it is also God who speaks. When Jesus weeps, God weeps. This truth makes us realize the seriousness of the cross. It was not only a human on the cross, but God was there in Jesus. Good Friday is the day God died in Jesus. Indeed, the murderers did not know what they were doing; they did not know they were killing God! As the spiritual says, "Sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble."

C.S. Lewis, great author and interpreter of the Christian faith, wrote a fictional series of correspondence between two devils entitled The Screwtape Letters. Screwtape is an older, more experienced devil who writes to the younger, naive Wormwood. Wormwood's job is to thwart the faith of a new Christian, to turn a particular Christian believer away from his faith in God. To accomplish his mission, Wormwood tries to make the young Christian realize the absurdity of his new faith. The devil's apprentice works hard to woo his "patient" away from the Christian camp, pointing out illogical teachings and hypocrisy in the church.

Screwtape and Wormwood speak of some of the absurdities of the Christian faith, as a way to draw the believer away from his belief. Screwtape points out that the followers of Jesus "have all been plainly told by Him that suffering is an essential part of what he calls redemption". Screwtape and Wormwood see Jesus' experience and call to suffering as an Achilles' heel in even the most solid faith of a believer. In the Screwtape Letters, Jesus' suffering is one of those absurdities of faith that the devils try to exploit in their attempts to draw people away from Christ. And these two fictional devils aren't the only ones who see a suffering God as confusing and scandalous.

Ivy Lee (1877–1934) was an American publicity expert and worked as a consultant for a number of businesses. One of those was for Charles Schwab, who was then president of Bethlehem Steel. Schwab was obsessed with efficiency and wanted Bethlehem Steel to become more productive. Ivy Lee was brought in.

Schwab asked: “Show me a way to get more things done.”

Lee: “Give me 15 minutes with each of your executives”

Schwab: “How much will it cost me?”

Lee: “Nothing. Unless it works. After three months, you can send me a check for whatever you feel it’s worth to you.”

Schwab agreed and during those 15 minutes with each executive, Lee laid out the following five step method:

1. At the end of each working day, write down the five most important things you need to accomplish tomorrow. Do not write down more than five tasks.
2. Prioritize those items in order of their true importance.
3. When you arrive tomorrow, concentrate only on the first task. Work until the first task is finished before moving on to the second task.
4. Approach the rest of your list in the same way. Don’t worry if you’ve only finished one or two by the end of the day; the others can wait.
5. Repeat this process every working day.

It’s simple right? Well, Schwab and his team starting using this method. It worked well, very well. After a couple months of outstanding production from his staff Schwab sent a $25,000 check to Lee. Adjusted for inflation that's $400,000 today!

Today this simple approach is called the The Ivy Lee Method. It's a million dollar productivity approach for a lot of companies. If we were to apply the Ivy Lee Method to Christianity what would it look like? I think all of would agree that Love God and Love your neighbor would be #1 on the list. But after that? What would come after that. I think this text is a good candidate for #2: So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' Rather seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

In fact isn't that the Ivy Lee method itself? Let's call it the Jesus Method: Trust in God; pursue what is Good, and don't worry about tomorrow. And today your needs will be met. 

Old age can be a most rewarding period of life. For those who have found the satisfaction of a loving and close relationship with the Heavenly Father through faith in His Son, the "sunset years" can be more appropriately labeled the "golden years".

Henry Durbanville felt that way. In his book The Best Is Yet To Be he wrote, "I feel so sorry for folks who don't like to grow old...I revel in my years. They enrich me...I would not exchange...the abiding rest of soul, the measure of wisdom I have gained from the sweet and bitter and perplexing experiences of life; nor the confirmed faith I now have in the...love of God, for all the bright and uncertain hopes and tumultuous joys of youth. Indeed, I would not! These are the best years of my life...The way grows brighter; the birds sing sweeter; the winds blow softer; the sun shines more radiantly than ever before. I suppose 'my outward man' is perishing, but 'my inward man' is being joyously renewed day by day.

Robertson McQuilkin wrote, "God planned the strength and beauty of youth to be physical. But the strength and beauty of age is spiritual. We gradually lose the strength and beauty that is temporary so we'll be sure to concentrate on the strength and beauty that is forever."

The Jews had a tradition that stated that angels gave the law to Moses. Moses, in turn, passed it onto Joshua; Joshua passed it onto the elders; the elders passed it onto the prophets; and the prophets passed it onto those who led the synagogue, i.e., the Pharisees and the scribes. So, because the law originated with Moses, the position of being a teacher of God's law became known as Moses's eat. In fact in the synagogue, there was a raised platform at the front. On that platform was a special seat, reserved for the most respected teacher in the synagogue. Today, we speak in universities of the chair of philosophy or the chair of history. The chair is reserved for the most esteemed person in any given subject. Well, Moses' seat was, in essence, the chair of philosophy in ancient Israel. So Jesus is attacking the highest symbol of religious authority. Well, that's what the Pharisees and scribes claimed. He actually wasn't attacking the chair; rather, he was attacking those who occupied the chair. He was saying they were unworthy of the chair.