Sermon Luke 24:1–12 “Wondering About This”

Rev. Jeffrey T. Howard
New Covenant Presbyterian Church
Sermon Luke 24:1–12 “Wondering About This”
April 21, 2019

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I have always loved reading mystery novels.   My favorite mystery author is Agatha Christie.   I have read most of her books.  I also really love Sherlock Holmes.  In most mysteries, someone has been murdered and a great detective is brought it to determine “who done it”.   Today we are looking at a biblical mystery.   There is a missing dead body, and we have to figure out what happened.    We will get to this, but first, let’s pray.

“Grant unto us, O Lord, to be occupied in the mysteries of thy Heavenly wisdom, with true progress in piety, to thy glory and our own edification. Amen.” (John Calvin)

Our story begins three days ago when this happened.

Luke 23:55 The women who had come with Jesus from Galilee followed Joseph and saw the tomb and how his body was laid in it. 56 Then they went home and prepared spices and perfumes. But they rested on the Sabbath in obedience to the commandment.

Jesus died on a cross.  His body was removed and placed in a tomb.   A large stone was rolled in front of the tomb to seal it.  As the sun was setting the women went to where they were staying and prepared for a Sabbath rest.  From sunset Friday to sunset Saturday they did no work.   They enjoyed the company of each other, shared stories about Jesus and prayed.   And they experienced the grief we have all felt at the death of a loved one. 

The sabbath ended with sunset on Saturday.   It was too dark to go to the tomb to anoint Jesus’ body with spices and perfumes.  So they went to sleep.   But very early the next morning, the third day, they went back to Jesus’ tomb and this happened. 

Luke 24:1 On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. 2 They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, 3 but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. 4 While they were wondering about this …

We have some clues in our mystery.   The large stone has been rolled away.   Who did it?   Why did they do it?   And Jesus’ body is not inside.  Why not?   Where is it?  Who took it?  All of these questions had to be spinning around in the minds of the women as they pondered what they were seeing.   It was at this moment that God dispatched two angels with an important message for the women.

3… suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. 5 In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? 6 He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: 7 ‘The Son of Man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.’ ” 8 Then they remembered his words.

So the angels came from God with a most important message.   First, they asked the women a question.   “Why do you look for the living among the dead?”  The women are in a cemetery, the place of the dead.   They are looking for Jesus.   So the implication of the question is that Jesus must be alive.   The women are to look for a living Jesus.

Then the angels told them what happened, “He is not here; he has risen!”  So Jesus was raised from the dead and somehow left the tomb.  Now, if we were in a cemetery looking at an empty grave where a loved one’s body should be the last explanation that we would believe is our loved one had come back to life.   In all our experience, dead people never come back to life.  So the women would not be able to accept this explanation.   Saying that Jesus had been resurrected from the dead would be crazy.

The angels knew that they had to persuade the women that Jesus truly was raised from the dead.     So they made the following argument.

6 … Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: 7 ‘The Son of Man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.’

The crux of the angel’s argument was that Jesus had predicted his own resurrection.    In fact, Jesus had made this prediction three times in Luke’s gospel.  So, did this argument cause the women to believe that Jesus was brought back to life?  Well, no.   All it did was to remind the women what Jesus had said,  “8 Then they remembered his words.”   But the Bible does not say that they believed those words. 

The angels, having done what they were instructed to do when back to heaven.   And the women went back to where they were staying in Jerusalem.   There they met the men and told them about their extraordinary experience at the tomb.

9 When they came back from the tomb, they told all these things to the Eleven and to all the others. 10 It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the others with them who told this to the apostles.

The eleven apostles of Jesus heard the women’s story.   They heard about the stone being rolled away.   They heard about the angels and the proclamation that Jesus had been raised from the dead.   And the women reminded the men of Jesus’ own prediction of his resurrection.   So, did the apostles believe the women?

11 But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense.

Testimony about an empty tomb, a missing body, an angelic proclamation, and Jesus’ own words did not bring the apostles to belief that Jesus was raised from the dead.  Peter went to the tomb himself to find out what is going on.

12 Peter, however, got up and ran to the tomb. Bending over, he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves,

Peter had seen an additional clue.  The strips of linen that had covered Jesus’s body in the tomb had been discarded.  Now, did all of this convince Peter that Jesus had been resurrected?   Well, no. 

12 … and he went away, wondering to himself what had happened.”

Let pause here for a moment and wonder about this.  Both the men and women had seen a stone rolled away, an empty tomb and a missing body.   Peter had looked into the tomb and saw the burial cloths.  The women saw and heard angels proclaim Jesus resurrection and remembered Jesus’ own words about his resurrection.  The women shared all this with the men.  But no one believes it.
Every Easter the church proclaims the angelic message that Jesus has been raised from the dead.   Every Easter the church reads scripture predicting Jesus’ resurrection.   But the combination of the angelic message and scripture is not sufficient to bring us to the point where we believe that Jesus was raised from the dead.   We need more to believe this.

The men and women who followed Jesus needed more than an angelic message and a memory of Jesus’ words.  Eventually, they came to belief.    So what happened that caused these people to believe in the resurrection?

36 While they were still talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.”

The men and women who had been accompanying Jesus experienced for themselves the resurrected Jesus.  But before they could believe in his resurrection, they had a question that had to be answered.   Was Jesus a ghost?

37 They were startled and frightened, thinking they saw a ghost. 38 He said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts rise in your minds? 39 Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have.”  40 When he had said this, he showed them his hands and feet.

That should do it, seeing and touching the resurrected Jesus.   Surely that would bring all of them to belief in the resurrection.  Right?  Well, no.

“41 And while they still did not believe it”

What does Jesus have to do to get them to believe in his resurrection?    Jesus decided to have breakfast with them.

41  because of joy and amazement, he asked them, “Do you have anything here to eat?” 42 They gave him a piece of broiled fish, 43 and he took it and ate it in their presence.

Surely this should do it, seeing, touching, listening to and eating with the resurrected Jesus.   This should bring them to faith, but it didn’t.   They still did not believe that Jesus was resurrected from the dead.  But Jesus knew what to do.   He knew exactly how to bring people to faith, and believe in his resurrection.

44 He said to them, “This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms.”  45 Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures.

In order to believe that Jesus was raised from the dead, we must read scripture illuminated by Jesus himself.   That is why every Sunday we pray for insight before we read scripture.   That is why we pray for inspiration before Bible studies.   We want Jesus to open our minds so that through the Bible we come to belief in his resurrection.  So if you want to believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ you must read the Bible under the inspiration of Christ’s Holy Spirit.
There is a great benefit to believing in the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.   We read about this benefit in John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”   The benefit of believing in the resurrection of Jesus is the promise of our own resurrection to eternal life.

If you do not yet believe that Jesus was resurrected from the dead I urge you to get involved with a good, Bible-believing, church like this one.   Pray for the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.   Study the Bible as much as you can.   You will come to belief.   You will receive the promise of eternal life.

If you do believe that Jesus was raised from the dead, congratulations, you are assured of your own resurrection and eternal life.   Now which life is more important, the 80 to 100 years you have in mortal life or the eternity you have in the resurrected life?   I think eternal life is far more important.   If so then we should live our lives not focused on our material mortal lives.   We should focus all our efforts in building up our eternal lives.   So love God will all your heart, soul and mind, and love your neighbor as yourself.

We have solved the mystery.   The reason the tomb was empty was that our Lord Jesus Christ was raised from the dead.   The promise of eternal life is available for all who believe.  Let’s pray.

We give you thanks, great God, for the hope we have in Jesus, who died but is risen and rules over all. We praise you for his presence with us. Because he lives, we look for eternal life, knowing that nothing past, present, or yet to come can separate us from your great love made known in Jesus Christ, our Lord.  Amen. (Worship Sourcebook p. 630.)

Sermon Proverbs 3:3-4 “Faithfulness”

Rev. Jeffrey T. Howard
New Covenant Presbyterian Church
Sermon Proverbs 3:3-4 “Faithfulness”
April 14, 2019

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Today we will continue our look at Christian virtues. We develop virtues as we grow in our faith. Once we know what we believe and engage in spiritual practices we become more like Jesus. So we develop patience, goodness, and kindness. Now, we will look at the virtue of faithfulness. And as I have thought about faithfulness this week, I am convinced that you do not develop this virtue through an understanding of our faith and spiritual practices. Faithfulness comes to you in an entirely different way. We will get to this, but first, let’s pray.

“Grant unto us, O Lord, to be occupied in the mysteries of thy Heavenly wisdom, with true progress in piety, to thy glory and our own edification. Amen.” (John Calvin)

Proverbs 3:3 Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart. 4 Then you will win favor and a good name in the sight of God and man.

Let’s take a closer look at faithfulness. You are faithful when people can rely on what you say and do. Consider the Delaware River. This river is faithful. You can rely on it. Water flows down to the Delaware Bay and the Atlantic Ocean continuously. Sometimes it is higher. Sometimes it is lower. Sometimes the current is fast. Sometimes the current is slow. Sometimes it floods over its banks. But it is always reliable. It always has water and that water is always flowing. You can count on it. The Delaware River is faithful, reliable.

Think of your favorite auto mechanic. You take your car in and he tells you that you need a muffler, it will cost $150. You decide to rely on the advice of the mechanic and leave your car. Later that day you pick it up. You have a new muffler and it cost you $150. The mechanic was faithful. So give him a good online recommendation.

The God we worship is faithful. When God revealed himself to Moses he identified himself this way: Exodus 34:6 And (God) passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness.”

This faithful God calls us to be faithful. Joshua said this when God’s people entered the promised land: Joshua 24:14 “Now fear the Lord and serve him with all faithfulness.

My favorite story in the Bible is in Genesis 24. In this story, Isaac, the son of Abraham and Sarah was still single even though he was over 40 years old. As I went through my 40s I often read this passage and prayed for a wife. It is a story of God’s faithfulness.

Abraham sent his trusted servant to his home country to find a wife for Isaac from among his extended family. The servant did as he was told and found a young woman to marry Isaac. Her name was Rebekah. And Abraham’s servant rejoiced: Genesis 24:27 saying, “Praise be to the Lord, the God of my master Abraham, who has not abandoned his kindness and faithfulness to my master. As for me, the Lord has led me on the journey to the house of my master’s relatives.”

And later, after receiving some gifts, Rebekah agreed to return with the servant and marry Isaac. And the servant again rejoiced: 48 and I bowed down and worshiped the Lord. I praised the Lord, the God of my master Abraham, who had led me on the right road to get the granddaughter of my master’s brother for his son. 49 Now if you will show kindness and faithfulness to my master, tell me; and if not, tell me, so I may know which way to turn.” 50 Laban and Bethuel answered, “This is from the Lord; we can say nothing to you one way or the other. 51 Here is Rebekah; take her and go, and let her become the wife of your master’s son, as the Lord has directed.”

God was faithful in providing a wife for Isaac. Abraham was faithful is caring for his son. The servant was faithful is obeying Abraham and finding a wife for Isaac from the extended family. And Rebekah became a faithful wife for Isaac.

Faithfulness is a Christian virtue. People can rely on what we say and do.

To be faithful means that we remain steady in whatever we are doing. When the Israelites were in battle with the Amalekites, Moses stood on a hill with his staff over his head. As long as he held up the staff the Israelites prevail. But when he got tired and dropped the staff the Amalekites took the advantage. Moses had to be steady, faithful. Here is what happened: Exodus 17:12 When Moses’ hands grew tired, they took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held his hands up—one on one side, one on the other—so that his hands remained steady till sunset. So, Moses, with some help, remained steady and faithful.

To be faithful also means that people believe what we say. After God spoke to Moses out of the burning bush, he and his brother went to speak with the elders of Israel: Exodus 4:29 Moses and Aaron brought together all the elders of the Israelites, 30 and Aaron told them everything the Lord had said to Moses. He also performed the signs before the people, 31 and they believed. And when they heard that the Lord was concerned about them and had seen their misery, they bowed down and worshiped. So, when we are proven to be faithful our words are believed and seen as reliable.

Our faithfulness pleases both God and the people who rely on us. Ruth was a Moabite widow of a Hebrew man. She immigrated to Bethlehem. There she met Boaz, a relative of her late husband. Boaz was faithful to the law requiring him to marry his relative’s widow. He married Ruth and their grandson was none other than the future King David.

Normally I pause here and ask the question, “How do we acquire the virtue of faithfulness? And I usually talk about being grounded in what you believe and doing spiritual practices. This works for the virtues of patience, goodness, and kindness. But for faithfulness, this does not work. We develop faithfulness in a different way. Let me give you an example.

Today is Palm Sunday. We remember Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem and the awful events of the week that followed which included his arrest, trial, death by crucifixion, and burial in a tomb. There were 12 disciples who accompanied Jesus into Jerusalem that day. They had been with Jesus for years, learning directly from him as their rabbi, and engaging in spiritual practices at Jesus’ direction. These disciples should have been Jesus’ most faithful followers. But were they?

One disciple was named Judas. He was in the leadership and served as treasurer. Judas was sitting at the head of the table next to Jesus. He must have been faithful to Jesus. Certainly, Jesus could rely on him. Well, no. Judas betrayed Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. So Judas was not particularly faithful.

What about Peter? Peter was also in leadership. Peter also sat at the head of the table with Jesus. He vowed to follow Jesus wherever he went. He must have been faithful. Well, no. On the night Jesus was arrested Peter denied, three times, that he ever followed Jesus.

What about the other ten? They had followed Jesus for years. They had a strong foundation in the faith. They had engaged in spiritual practices. Surely they must have remained faithful to Jesus. Well, no. When Jesus was arrested they ran away and went back to the upper room to hide behind locked doors.

So the disciples of Jesus did not develop the Christian virtue of faithfulness. But later they did become faithful. They became the people who without regard for their own safety were witnesses of the resurrection of Jesus and started the church. So what happened? What made the disciples faithful?

When Jesus was with the disciples he made a promise: Matthew 16:21 From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life. So, Jesus told them that he would go to Jerusalem, suffer and die. And he promised them that on the third day he would be resurrected from the dead. Was Jesus faithful to his promises? Could the disciples rely on what Jesus said and did? Well, yes. As we will find out next Sunday, everything that Jesus said would happen did happen. Jesus was faithful. Jesus did exactly what he said he would do. The disciples could rely on what Jesus said and did.

Only after the disciples experienced the faithfulness of Jesus could they become faithful themselves. So faithfulness is a virtue we develop after we experience God’s faithfulness in our lives. And this is why we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. His rising from the dead was proof of his faithfulness. He has faithfully promised us the resurrection of our own bodies. We can trust Jesus. We can rely on Jesus. Jesus is faithful, and we can be faithful too. Let’s pray.

Father in heaven, we thank you for your faithfulness. We can rely on you and believe what you tell us. You are steady and reliable. We believe what you say. And we pledge to always be faithful. Amen.

Sermon 1 Thessalonians 5:15 “Kindness and Goodness”

Rev. Jeffrey T. Howard
New Covenant Presbyterian Church
Sermon 1 Thessalonians 5:15  “Kindness and Goodness”
April 7, 2019

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We are continuing our look at Christian virtues.   We become virtuous as we become like Jesus.   Christian virtues are all based on faith in our triune God.  And we develop them through spiritual practices.   Last winter, during Avent, we talked about the Christian virtues of Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love.   Two weeks ago we looked at the Christian virtue of Patience.   And today we will look at the Christian virtues of Goodness and Kindness.   We will get to this, but first, let’s pray.

“Grant unto us, O Lord, to be occupied in the mysteries of thy Heavenly wisdom, with true progress in piety, to thy glory and our own edification. Amen.” (John Calvin)

When someone does something bad to us our response is usually to do something bad to them.   We exact revenge.  When we were kids and someone punched us in the face on the playground we punched back.   This led to an all-out fight followed by detention and a stern lecture from our parents. 

We see this all the time in sports.   A pitcher beans a batter with the ball.  The batter, infuriated, storms the mound throwing punches.   The situation escalates as the dugouts empty.   The umpires throw out the pitcher and batter.   And coaches try to restore order. 

The general principle is that if you respond to evil with evil the situation escalates into a vicious cycle that is hard to end.   Think of the Hatfields and the McCoys and a cycle of revenge going on for generations.

But the Bible teaches us to respond to bad with good thus breaking the cycle.  We see this is Paul’s letter to the church at Thessalonica.

1 Thessalonians 5:15 Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always strive to do what is good for each other and for everyone else.

The Bibles we use are in English.   The Old Testament was written in Hebrew.   The New Testament was written in Greek   The New International Version, I just read from, is a very good translation.  But sometimes meaning gets lost in translation.  Sometimes you have to look at the original language.

The word that Paul used and is translated for us as “wrong” is “kakos”.   Don’t return “kakos” for “kakos”.   The Greek word for “good” is “kalos”.  Bad is “kakos”.   Good is “kalos”.   So we would expect Paul to say,  “Make sure that nobody pays back “kakos” for “kakos”, but always strive to do what is “kalos” for each other and for everyone else.  Surprisingly, this is not what Paul said.   He did not use the word “kalos” meaning “good”.

So, what did he use?  Well, Paul used the word “agathos”.  Like “kalos”, “agathos” is translated into English as “good”.   But is has an additional meaning.  “Agathos”  means that when you do something good for another person you are motivated by an internal moral sense. 

This is the Christian virtue of Goodness:   We do good motivated by an inner moral sense. 

In the scripture from Luke read earlier we heard the story of a great banquet.    Jesus observed people acting selfishly by sitting in places of honor.  So Jesus told them a story about inviting the poor to dinner.  Jesus was exhibiting the Christian virtue of Goodness.   He acted on an inner moral sense to benefit the marginalized in society.    Christian Goodness requires us to do the same.

Suppose you are away from home attending a conference.   You are sitting at the hotel bar having a drink with a very attractive member of the opposite sex.   You believe that something good, “kalos” will happen when the two of you go up to your hotel room.   And you convince yourself that your spouse will never find out.  So the two of you go up to your room.

Now suppose you are at that same conference.   You are sitting at the same bar with the same attractive member of the opposite sex.   You believe that something good, “kalos” will happen when the two of you go up to your hotel room.   But you act out of “agathos”.   You have an inner moral sense that adultery is wrong.   So you say “goodnight”  and go to your room alone.   There you call your spouse.

The Christian virtue of Goodness means that we always do good motivated by our inner moral sense.  Where does this inner moral sense come from?  It comes from our spiritual practices, worship, prayer and Bible study.   This is why, one year ago, I took the church through an extended look at the Ten Commandments.   I did this so that you would internalize God’s law.   My hope was that you would develop an inner moral sense that would give you the Christian virtue of Goodness. 

Now, let’s look at the Christian virtue of Kindness. 

Matthew 22:37  Jesus declared, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself. 

“Love your neighbor as yourself.”   This is the essence of the Christian virtue of Kindness.

In our scripture today from 1 Samuel, David and Jonathan reached an agreement.   Jonathan said that he would protect his friend David from his father Saul.   And he asked David out of kindness to protect his life and his family’s lives.   Here is what happened.

2 Samuel 9:1 David asked, “Is there anyone still left of the house of Saul to whom I can show kindness for Jonathan’s sake?”
2 Now there was a servant of Saul’s household named Ziba. They summoned him to appear before David, and the king said to him, “Are you Ziba?”
“At your service,” he replied.
3 The king asked, “Is there no one still alive from the house of Saul to whom I can show God’s kindness?”
Ziba answered the king, “There is still a son of Jonathan; he is lame in both feet.”
4 “Where is he?” the king asked.
Ziba answered, “He is at the house of Makir son of Ammiel in Lo Debar.”
5 So King David had him brought from Lo Debar, from the house of Makir son of Ammiel.
6 When Mephibosheth son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, came to David, he bowed down to pay him honor.
David said, “Mephibosheth!”
“At your service,” he replied.
7 “Don’t be afraid,” David said to him, “for I will surely show you kindness for the sake of your father Jonathan. I will restore to you all the land that belonged to your grandfather Saul, and you will always eat at my table.”
8 Mephibosheth bowed down and said, “What is your servant, that you should notice a dead dog like me?”
9 Then the king summoned Ziba, Saul’s steward, and said to him, “I have given your master’s grandson everything that belonged to Saul and his family. 10 You and your sons and your servants are to farm the land for him and bring in the crops, so that your master’s grandson may be provided for. And Mephibosheth, grandson of your master, will always eat at my table.” (Now Ziba had fifteen sons and twenty servants.)
11 Then Ziba said to the king, “Your servant will do whatever my lord the king commands his servant to do.” So Mephibosheth ate at David’s[a] table like one of the king’s sons.
12 Mephibosheth had a young son named Mika, and all the members of Ziba’s household were servants of Mephibosheth. 13 And Mephibosheth lived in Jerusalem, because he always ate at the king’s table; he was lame in both feet.

It was the practice of ancient kings to kill all the members of the last king’s family.   But David didn’t do that.   He showed kindness to his friend Jonathan by protecting his family, especially Mephibosheth.

Last Thursday I was taking the girls from Korea to school.  One of them told me that she had left her homework in her room.  Normally, I drop them off at school and drive here to begin work.  But on Thursday I drove home, got her homework, went back to school, and gave her homework to the secretary.   Why did I do this?   The selfish thing would have been to forget about her home and go out my day.   But the kind thing was to get her homework to the school.  I was acting out the Christian virtue of Kindness.

So we have looked at two Christian virtues today.   The Christian virtue of Goodness allows you to act based on an inner moral sense.   The Christian virtue of Kindness allows you to act in obedience to the command to love your neighbor.   We develop these virtues by believing in our triune God and engaging in spiritual practices.  Let’s pray.

Father in heaven we ask that you send the Holy Spirit with the gift of the Christian virtues of Goodness and Kindness.   Help us to be good, always acting out of an inner moral self.  Help us to be kind, always loving our neighbor.   This we pray in our good and kind savior, Jesus Christ.   Amen.