John 19:30, Luke 23:46, Isaiah 53:6

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Our devotion today is on the last words of Jesus when he says “it is finished,” (John 19:30) and then also when he says, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” (Luke 23:46) So this is the last words of a man being executed. Sometimes the last words of people on death row or who are executed aren’t so great. Marie Antoinette is said to have stepped on the executioner’s foot right before they were going to take her head off, and her last words were, “excuse me, monsieur, I beg your pardon.”

There was a murderer a number of years ago here in the United States who was going to die by lethal injection. And his last words were simply complaining about the food he had for his final meal. But when it comes to Jesus’ last words before he’s executed, they’re not trivial and they’re not irrelevant or ironic or anything, but they actually are serving us, not himself, but us. When he says “it is finished” and “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.”

There’s a strange irony here that God, God himself, must die for us. Back in the 1980s, some doctors looked at what you might call kind of an autopsy of someone who was crucified and trying to figure out what would happen to the human body. And everything we see in the gospel accounts matches that perfectly. And it’s interesting that here’s the very one who determined the grain on the cross in which he’s dying. Who created the metallic makeup of the stakes that are now stinging through his wrists, that determined the geography of the hill of Golgotha. And here he is now, hanging as a despised criminal. And why did it have to take this very real execution? Well, the reason is my sins and your sins are very real. They’re not phantoms. Our offenses against God have really happened in real time, and they’re very significant. And they must be taken seriously by the court of heaven.

Our culture likes to have us think of sin as something that’s not that big of a deal. And sometimes, because we’re in a world where there are so many large amounts of sin going on, maybe we can falsely think we can hide inside of all of that. Kind of like someone at a vicious protest that is looting buildings and burning them down. If they’re in a large crowd, they might feel like they’re not as guilty. And yet each individual involved certainly is. There’s a verse in a hymn that says it so beautifully

you who think of sin but lightly. Nor suppose the evil great here may view its nature rightly. Here its guilt may estimate. Mark the sacrifice appointed. See who bears the awful load. Tis the word. The Lord’s anointed son of man and Son of God.

So in Christ and in his final words, we see how seriously God has taken our sin that God Himself must die for us.

Somebody once wrote that God unzipped the heavens of his wrath and poured it out against our sin. And we think of that passage in Isaiah.

The Lord laid on him, [on Jesus] the iniquity of us all. (Isaiah 53:6)

And his work is now all done taking care of this for us. He says, it is finished. And that word means that nothing more can be added, just like a cup of water. If you put one more drop in, it would go over the side. Nothing else needs to be added for the payment for you and me to get to go to heaven. So as we hear those words of Jesus every Lenten season, let’s be reminded of how seriously God has taken our sin, but also how extremely valuable you are and your future eternal life is to God. Amen.

Romans 13:8

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Does love save? Will love get me to heaven? Back in the 60s, there was a popular song entitled All You Need Is Love. It’s an idea that still is around today. It’s very popular. You know it’s all about love. Follow your heart. If you love those around you, that is the ultimate good. And so it makes sense that love saves. Love gets us to heaven. That’s the standard by which God judges us. Even Romans 13, verse eight, it says,

Do not owe anyone anything except to love one another, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. (Romans 13:8)

So will my love save me?

Well, Jesus told an interesting parable about this. (Luke 10:25-37) It’s well known as the account of the Good Samaritan. There was a man, he was traveling on a wilderness road in Israel, and he was attacked by robbers, and they stripped him and beat him and left him half dead. There were a couple of religious leaders that passed by separately, but they each passed by, didn’t pay him any attention. And then there was a Samaritan who passed by. And Samaritans and Jews were arch enemies. They hated each other. But the Samaritan, he did tend to the man. He poured oil and wine on the man’s wounds. He put the man on his own animal, took him to an inn. He offered to pay for him for that night and beyond, and any care that had to be given, he was going to provide for it. And that’s the love that Jesus holds up and says, this is true love, love even for your enemies.

Now, there are a lot of things we can learn from that account, but the one I want to focus on is that God wants us to love our enemies and love all those around us.

Will love save us?

Unfortunately, we haven’t reached that standard of perfection that God requires. We have not loved God with our heart, soul, and mind, much less our neighbor, those around us, our friends, our enemies. Not perfectly. So, no my love won’t save me. Your love won’t save you.

But Jesus’ love does and will.

Jesus saw the mess that we made of the world. He saw that we are beaten down and broken by sin. And left half dead. We’re dead in sin. And even while we were still his enemies. Even while we were still sinners. He came to this world. And he lived a perfect life of love toward all those around him. And then he especially showed his love as he died on the cross for the sins of the world, for your sins, for my sins, for all sins. By his love we are saved.

In his sacrifice he paid for the sins, he bought his membership in his royal family. He won us heaven, eternal life in heaven. So are we saved by love? Yes, by Jesus’ love. And as those who know Jesus’ love as shown on the cross, we want to live in that love as baptized believers we’re rooted in that love. And we want to show a love to all those around us friends, enemies, everyone, because Jesus died for them as well.

We want them to know the love of our Lord. Praise be to our Lord of love. Praise be to our Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Luke 13:6-9

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I hope your year is full of manure.

That’s not something you’re going around wishing people as New Year comes up, or maybe has just past. You might even expect a more colloquial version to be something enemies lob at each other. But this is what we find in God’s Word. There’s a tree that has unrealized potential and what’s prescribed to it? Stinking, smearing, filthy manure with flies buzzing around it. This is what’s going to make the tree grow. Here’s what our Lord says in Luke chapter 13.

And he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. And he said to the vinedresser, ‘Look, for three years now I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and I find none. Cut it down. Why should it use up the ground?’ And he answered him, ‘Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and put on manure. Then if it should bear fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.’” (Luke 13:6-9)

In this parable, the tree is the human individual, you or I. And the question is, have you lived up to your potential? No matter how bold or confident you are, the fact that you have nagging regrets and insecurity, says you have not lived up to the standards you set for yourself, the standards the world sets for you. And God puts a sharper point on this. He says that there is a more basic fatal flaw that has impacted every aspect of our human nature. This is sin that keeps us from attaining the level of holiness, perfection that God demands in line with his will, but also from attaining this level of wholeness, right relationship with other people, and a flourishing life in the world as we were intended to.

Now the owner and the gardener, I would say, represent these two characteristics of God. The owner represents God’s justice, and this is communicated to us in what we call God’s law, his commands, his standards for us, and his threats that there are going to be consequences and punishments if we don’t measure up. Here’s what the owner said. For three years now I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree. There’s the standard. And I have found none. It’s failed to measure up. Cut it down. There’s the consequence. Why even let it use up the soil? But there is another impulse in God the gardener who shows patience. And you could even say mercy toward the tree. Sir, leave it alone this year also until I dig around it and put manure on it. If it produces fruit next year, fine. But if not, then cut it down. The owner agrees with the gardener’s plan, at least implicitly.

The gardeners plan is borne by what resources they’ve committed to the tree already. So what do they do? They commit even more to make it bear fruit. God has given his Son to offer up his life, to shed his blood, to give his human righteousness to us so that we could be his beloved children, cleansed of our sins by his blood, covered in his righteousness. We could say that we are in this vineyard of God’s church. I don’t believe the vineyard is the world, throughout Scripture almost exclusively, the vineyard is representative of God’s people, people in God’s kingdom. Here we have the rain of God’s Word that does declare us forgiven of all of our sins. Here we have the sunshine of Jesus’ righteousness, always there to bring new life where we have lived in defiance of God’s will.

But what about the manure? Well, Scripture is also very clear that God allows afflictions and sufferings, sometimes even persecution, to discipline and train us. Now like manure, this stuff is not pleasant. Sometimes it’s repulsive to us and to the world, but it might be just what we need. Keep in mind those regrets and insecurities from the past, and connect them to the challenges and suffering you may face in this new year. That suffering and challenge may be, in part, God’s answer to the regrets and unrealized potential of the past. That these afflictions, as difficult as they are, are fertilizing our compassion, our empathy, our wisdom, our insight, our humility, the fervency of our prayer.

Finally, I don’t want you to be afraid when you hear the owner threatening to chop down the tree after a year, it’s not as if you don’t get your act together in your Christian life in this year, God’s going to cut you off from his grace. No. The entire time of our lives in this perpetual patient year. And I pray that this year would be not only laden with grace, but with all the manure that you need to grow.

Luke 2:21

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We’re now in the warm glow of Christmas, having celebrated rightly, the birth of our dear Savior, Jesus Christ. And now we come to another holiday very soon. And that, of course, has to do with the changing of the calendar year celebrated on New Year’s Eve and the next day also on New Year’s Day. The world, of course, seems fascinated to observe the holiday with parties and meals and other events.

However, in the Christian church we observe also another very, very important event. And that’s something that Saint Luke describes for us in his second chapter of his gospel, where at verse 21 he writes

On the eighth day, when it was time to circumcise him, he was named Jesus, the name the angel had given him before he had been conceived. (Luke 2:21)

My wife and I are now experiencing the joy of being grandparents in our family. When we learned that a baby is on the way, we begin almost immediately to burden the parents with our own ideas for names that they should give their child. Will the name that is selected fit nicely with the last name? Will that name that selected be popular, or is it maybe too popular? Will it honor a brave grandfather, or will it give honor to an especially lovable aunt? However strongly we might make our case for a particular name, we understand that finally, it’s the parent’s decision, and they alone are the ones who decide which choice for a name prevails over all of the others.

That wasn’t the case, though, for Mary and for Joseph when they learned of the coming of the Lord. In getting the announcement of her conception from the angel, Mary was told, you will call his name Jesus. And that’s a very appropriate name. The name Jesus comes from actually two Hebrew names which together give a very important message “the Lord saves.” That’s what Jesus means. How appropriate that is for us, who are troubled by our sins and worried that we can’t earn salvation, no matter how hard we might try for ourselves. We hear and trust the name Jesus the Lord saves.

In fact, when the angel appeared to Joseph with the same message of the conception, he told him he will save his people from their sins. That’s the best news we could hear. And that’s the name that we trust. When later on, the Apostle Peter was seized and put in jail over the healing of a man at the temple gate in Jerusalem, and when he was asked under what name or authority he was doing this work of healing and preaching the name of Christ, he told those who questioned him, salvation is found in no one else. It’s under the name of Jesus Christ. There’s no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.

So we who follow Jesus have that very powerful name to trust in for our own salvation from sin. We have that powerful name to share with the world, as they too are in desperate need of a Savior and knowing who that Savior is. For Jesus has fulfilled the meaning of that name for each one of us the Lord saves. Amen.

[This devotion is part of our series on The Apostles’ Creed, you can find all the videos in there series on our Apostles’ Creed Page. The devotions will be added as they are posted.]

Luke 14:15-24, Hebrews 11, 12, Revelation 21:2-23, Luke 23:43, Isaiah 11:6, 65:25, Revelation 7:14-17

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I believe in the life everlasting. How do we know that heaven is real? Well, I love to use the example C.S. Lewis once used where he said that where there’s a desire or a yearning for something, there is a real tangible fulfillment for that desire, or their yearning. People experience hunger. Therefore there is such a thing as food. People experience thirst. Therefore, there is such a thing as water. We experience sorrow. Therefore there must be a perfect joy. We experience brokenness. Therefore, there must be a perfect wholeness.

As Christians, we believe that all of that is fulfilled when God brings us safely into heaven. And though we can use logic to support or defend our idea of heaven, what better place to turn to than the Holy Scriptures? The Bible is full of beautiful pictures that it paints about eternal life and what that will look like for you.

For instance, in some of his parables, Jesus describes it as a banquet. (Luke 14:15-24) In our terms today, we’d say that’s a party. Why do I love parties? Because I’m together with my friends, my family, the people I love the most. When you look forward to eternal life in heaven, yes, there will be relationships. You’ll have your relationships with your family and loved ones who all believed in Jesus in this life.

Another picture of heaven is given in the book of Hebrews, where he describes heaven as the city of God. (Hebrews 11, 12) The Book of Revelation also describes this city. (Revelation 21:2-23) If you think of all the things that you love about a city, the busy life, the arts, theater, music, sports, all the things that you love about a city without all the things that you fear about a city. The darkness, the crime, the danger. Here heaven is described as a perfectly safe place where we can dwell forever.

Another picture of heaven Jesus gives when he’s dying on the cross. To the thief on his right, he promises him today you’ll be with me in Paradise. (Luke 23:43) The word Paradise refers to a garden. You might think of the garden that God created in the first creation. Well, the Bible tells us that after the resurrection of the dead, there will be a new heaven and a new earth, a new creation. And part of that new creation is a new garden. The prophet Isaiah describes it as a place where the lamb and the lion, the wolf and the ox and the small child can all live together in harmony. They will not harm nor destroy on his holy mountain. (Isaiah 11:6, 65:25)

Jesus will also describe heaven as a wedding. When I think to my own wedding, it’s one day, not only do I remember it so vividly, but it’s one day that I can always look back at and say, I wish that day never ended. When the Bible describes the church, it calls us the Bride of Christ, and it paints the picture of us wearing white robes that picture the purity that you have, because through faith you have washed your robes in the blood of the Lamb, in the forgiveness of sins given through Jesus.

Heaven is a picture of perfect purity, a joy that will last forever and ever without end. The best picture of that joy is in Revelation chapter seven. John describes a ten fold blessedness of those who have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb, and he ends with the phrase, the Lord will wipe every tear from your eye. (Revelation 7:14-17) Those ten fold blessings all revolve around one figure Jesus, the Lamb who was slain. That’s where you and I find our perfect fulfillment in heaven is the perfect relationship with Jesus, your Savior and the Triune God you were created for.

As often as you confess these words, I believe in the life everlasting. May God fill your heart with joy and hope and yearning for eternal life with him. Amen.

Luke 15:4

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Have you ever found yourself to be lost? Going along down the road, you’re watching your app on your phone to where you’re supposed to go. And then you realize that you’ve lost signal on your phone. You’ve missed your turn, and now you don’t know really where you’re at. You really feel lost. There’s this, this pit in your stomach, realizing that feeling of being lost.

Jesus talks about being lost and he calls us sheep in this lesson, talking with the Pharisees who were there, and the Pharisees were criticizing Jesus because he ate with sinners and tax collectors. And how horrible it was for them to see Jesus talking with sinners and tax collectors. And he gives them this parable. He says,

Which one of you, if you had one hundred sheep and lost one of them, would not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that was lost until he finds it? (Luke 15:4)

You see, we go through this life and we deal with the challenges of life, the struggles, the task, the temptations and everything that comes at us. We all deal with sin. There’s not one of us that is innocent of this. We all have this challenge and we kind of can feel lost, like we’re going down the road, we don’t know where to go. We don’t know where to turn with all of that sin. But see, Jesus says that he promises, he goes out and finds that one.

So perhaps you’re a person right now that’s struggling with the challenges of life, the things that are coming at you. You realize and recognize that some of the things that you’ve done are not quite right, even in the world’s eyes. And you think, well, I could never go into a church because if I go in there, God’s going to strike me down. But see, the thing is, God loves us. The promise and the hope of salvation is for each one of us. And Jesus goes out and he looks for you and see the reason why the sinners and the tax collectors were there with Jesus, because they were dealing with their sin. It wasn’t because they were such great people. They knew and they realized their sin. And so Jesus says he sends people out to look for them.

Pastors come out looking for you to share the hope and the promise of Christ that is yours. Because of what Jesus has done. He suffered and died on the cross for us to make sure that each one of us who is lost, troubled, struggling with the sins of the world know the love and forgiveness that’s ours. Christ took all of our sins into himself on the cross, and I love the section because he comes back and he gives us a second parable of a lost coin, the ten coins the woman has. And she loses one, and she goes through her house searching for that one. And it’s the promise that God will look for you, part of his family of believers. Not one person will be left out of the kingdom of heaven in the end.

We have the hope and the promise of salvation that is for you and it is for me because of what Jesus has done on the cross. So the next time you feel as if you are a little bit lost in your way, just remember that Christ has already paid the way for you. He has found you. He has, hopefully through this video, you realize and see the love that God has for you, and salvation and hope are yours in Christ Jesus.

[This devotion is part of our series on The Apostles’ Creed, you can find all the videos in there series on our Apostles’ Creed Page. The devotions will be added as they are posted.]

Luke 23:46, Psalm 31:5

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I believe he died. At the moment of Jesus’ death he said these beautiful words. “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.” (Luke 23:46, Psalm 31:5) Those words were a bedtime prayer for Jewish children. And what a beautiful, appropriate way for Jesus body to surrender his Spirit into heaven and into His Father’s keeping at his own death.

When we think about the death of Jesus, we say that so often it’s easy for us to be desensitized to how important that moment is for our salvation. In fact, like every important moment of Jesus life for our salvation, even Jesus’ death is a moment that is under attack. You see, because there’s so much evidence for Jesus’ resurrection from the dead, many skeptics will go back and say, well, then perhaps Jesus didn’t really die on the cross. And what they posit is what’s called the swoon theory. That Jesus, because of his physical suffering on the cross just passed out or fainted. And this deceived the people into thinking he was dead. So they took him, place him in a tomb, and later he revived and everyone thought that he had come back to life. And so they were convinced that somehow he was also their Lord of life.

So whenever we come up to speculation, we have to compare it to real history. Here’s some real history about three men that we know of who are taken down from a cross while still alive. This happened in 70 A.D. the historian Josephus had a number of friends that were captured and later crucified after the fall of Jerusalem to General Titus. And so Josephus goes to General Titus, the Roman general, and ask him to take his three friends down from the crosses. Titus immediately complied. He sent men to bring Josephus his friends off the crosses, and they were given the best medical treatment available in the Roman Empire at that time. And despite that, despite even their short time on the cross, two of his friends still died just from the physical trauma of having been crucified. The last friend of Josephus did manage to survive, but he remained a cripple for the rest of his life.

Now let’s apply what we know to the swoon theory. The idea that somehow, after being crucified, Jesus was able to revive by himself with no medical treatment at all. That after his arms and legs have been pulled out of joint, he somehow, crippled and maimed, though he would have been, would be able to roll that heavy stone from the inside, be able to roll that stone away, and somehow escape the tomb. And if we grant all those other things, can you imagine this broken, crippled person trying to convince his disciples that he is the Lord of life, the way, the truth, and the life?

That would be nonsense. You see, we have eyewitnesses that were there at Jesus crucifixion who saw that he was crucified and that he died. And the Roman soldiers in charge of the crucifixion, they had one job. They were not allowed to leave their post until they knew that their charges were truly dead. In most cases, they would break the legs. Other cases, they would light a fire at the base of a cross to speed up asphyxiation. But in Jesus’ case, he found he was already dead. But just to make sure, they took their spear and thrust it through his side, bringing a flow of blood and water, proof that Jesus heart had been pierced, that he was truly dead.

Jesus’ death on the cross is one of the foundational truths of the Bible. It means that by his death, he has truly redeemed us from death. And because of Jesus’ tender moment prayer before his death, giving his soul safely into his Father’s keeping, now every Christian on their deathbed can approach death, being no more afraid than we are to fall asleep. We too can say that same prayer. Father, into your hands I commend my spirit, because Jesus truly died. Amen.

[This devotion is part of our series on The Apostles’ Creed, you can find all the videos in there series on our Apostles’ Creed Page. The devotions will be added as they are posted.]

Luke 1:46-55, Luke 1:41, Romans 10:17, Luke 7:11-17, Hebrews 4:12

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I believe Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit. One common phrase we use as Christians is don’t put God in a box. What we mean by that is when you look around your home, you probably have boxes everywhere. Right? We put things, store things in boxes, but a box can only hold so much before it overflows. And so by saying don’t put God in a box. What we’re really saying is, is don’t put limitations on God. Don’t tell God what he can and can’t do.

This is really, really important. But it’s equally important that we also accept and appreciate the boxes God does choose to be placed in. And of all those boxes, the one that is probably the most mind blowing for me is that Jesus, God’s Son, would begin his life in the womb of Mary as nothing more than a fertilized egg.

Why would Jesus do this? Why wouldn’t Jesus begin his life as a full grown adult, or at least a full term child ready to be born? Why go through all those months in the dark womb? One early church, Father Gregory of Nazianzus, used to say “all that he did not assume, he did not save.” In other words, if Jesus did it, it has something important to do with his job of salvation. And we see this testified very clearly by Mary herself. When Mary, after she finds out she’s carrying the Christ child, professes in the Magnificat, my soul rejoices in God my Savior. (Luke 1:46-55) And here he is, just a little egg in her womb. Or when John the Baptist, a six month old baby in his mother’s womb, moved by the Holy Spirit, leaps for joy because he recognizes he is in the presence of his Savior. (Luke 1:41)

Now, as we talk about putting God in boxes, one of the most common ways for us to limit God’s power to work has to do with how we understand faith. So often we want to limit faith to just be about our understanding. In order to believe, you have to be able to understand. However, that’s not what the Bible teaches us. In Romans 10:17, the apostle Paul says,

So then, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message comes through the word of Christ. (Romans 10:17)

Did you catch that? Faith comes. Faith is a creation of the Holy Spirit, not by understanding, but by hearing the word, by hearing the message. And this is remarkable because you look at Jesus in his ministry, and oftentimes his miracles work exactly the same way. Think of it. Jesus walks up to a dead person and he says, “get up.” (Luke 7:11-17) That dead person’s ears have no power to hear, and that dead person’s mind has no power to understand. And yet the word of the Lord, the gospel proclamation, Jesus’ command, creates the hearing and creates the understanding so that the dead person rises.

This is how God’s Word always works. The Scripture assures us that the Word of God is living and active, sharper than any double-edged sword, able to pierce through flesh and bone, even to the dividing of soul and spirit. (Hebrews 4:12) So when God’s Word commands us, believe on the Lord Jesus, our God’s Word commands us be of good cheer, your sins are forgiven. God’s word creates the faith to receive, the ears to hear.

As often as we confess these words in the creed, I believe Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit, we can rejoice in all the unborn children that leapt for joy in their mother’s wombs as they were brought to church to hear the word of the Lord. Amen.

Christian Freedom – What Is It?

Matthew 26:17-30, Mark 14:12-26, Luke 22:7-20, Exodus 12:1-28

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You have been set free in Jesus. But what is that freedom about? What does that freedom mean for your life? To help us think about that, it’s good for us to think about when Jesus chose to go to Jerusalem and when, according to God’s plan, he was handed over and betrayed and died. This all happened at the Passover feast. (Matthew 26:17-30, Luke 22:7-20, Mark 14:12-26) That’s not an accident. The Passover, and actually, when did Jesus institute the Lord’s Supper? It’s when he was celebrating the Passover. This is all on purpose. Which means, then, that the Passover can help us understand the significance of Jesus’s death and resurrection.

So let’s think back to the Passover. The people of God were slaves in Egypt underneath the power of Pharaoh. And when God calls Moses to go to them, he wants Moses to go to Pharaoh so that God’s people can be free to go and worship him and really become the people of God. All the things that Mount Sinai where the covenants established, and all of that can’t really happen until they are set free from slavery, from this power that was holding them back from going forward and being the people of God. And then the Passover comes because it’s at that 10th plague where after all of these plagues, with Pharaoh. And Pharaoh is adamant, no, you can’t go. And then he decides, yes, you can go. But then he change his mind, changes his mind. Finally, you have that that Passover where you have where God has him kill the lamb and have the blood over the doorposts. And then the angel of death would pass over so that no one would die in that house, but in other houses the firstborn would die. (Exodus 12:1-28)

It was that, the Passover celebrates that moment, remembers that moment, how God then had it, where they were finally sent out of Egypt to go and to be free, and to be the people of God.

Your freedom today is about the fact that you and I, we were all slaves to sin and death. We were held back from being what God created us to be, full of guilt and shame on a path towards death and eternity separated from God. But Jesus died to take away what separated you from God to free you from what held you back. Your sin is removed. Death is overcome. Jesus rose again to give you freedom to step forward now and to know that you are forgiven. You are loved. You are right with God. You are a child of God. You are part of the people of God. You have eternity ahead of you with God and you get to take hold of worshiping that God now.

You were held back as a slave, but you are free to be part of the people of God. That’s what your freedom is all about.

Psalm 51:17, 2 Corinthians 12:9, Matthew 26:36-46, Luke 22:42, Matthew 7:9-11

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If I asked you for something, if I asked you to do something for me, I suppose you could answer in at least one of three different ways.

You could answer yes. You could do exactly as I’ve asked you to do. Or give me exactly what I’ve asked you to give me.

You could answer no. You could simply not be able to or not be willing to do what I’ve asked, or give me what I’ve asked for.

Or you could answer differently. The answer might be yes, but not on the timetable, the time frame, that I’ve asked for. Or maybe your answer is yes, but you end up doing something very different, or a lot more than anything I’ve even asked for.

Well when we pray to God, when we come to him in prayer and ask him for things, God answers in those three ways as well. In Psalm 51, verse 17. God promises

A broken and a contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. (Psalm 51:17)

If I come to God in prayer or in church confessing my sin, and I ask him to forgive me, his answer there is an absolute yes. God doesn’t say, maybe, maybe next week. I’ll think about it. God doesn’t answer no. God’s answer is an unequivocal yes.

There are other times when I pray, when I ask God for something, and maybe his answer is no. For example, as he answered, when the Apostle Paul prayed to him concerning a what he called a thorn in his side, some kind of impediment, maybe it was a handicap, an illness which Paul was convinced would, if it were removed, would make him a better servant of the gospel. God’s answer was no. No, my grace is sufficient for you. My strength is made perfect, is perfected, in your weakness. (2 Corinthians 12:9) Sometimes God answers no.

There’s comfort, I think, there. In the company of Saint Paul and of our Savior Jesus. He prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane to have that cup pass from him. To not have to suffer for the sin of the world. If there was another way to save and redeem the world, and God the Father answered his own Son, his only begotten Son. No. (Matthew 26:36-46) So there is comfort in that company of our Savior and of Saint Paul.

There are other times when God’s answer might be different. Different from what we’ve asked. Not my will, but yours be done. (Luke 22:42) Sometimes God’s will is very different than what we’ve asked. In Matthew seven verses nine through 11, Jesus says,

Who among you, if his son asks him for bread, would give him a stone? Or who, if his son asks for a fish, would give him a snake? Then if you know how to give good gifts to your children, even though you are evil, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! (Matthew 7:9-11)

What a gift, what a privilege we have in Christian prayer to come to God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, knowing that through the Son, God loves us. God has our eternal welfare in mind and that we can ask him for anything and that he will answer. Sometimes yes, maybe. Sometimes no, maybe sometimes differently, but that he will answer in the absolute best and most loving way that there can be.

So my friends, keep up with your own prayers. Pray to God for whatever it is that you need, whatever worries and concerns are on your hearts and know that in Christ God will answer you.

Luke 9:51-56, Ezekiel 33:11

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I’d like to share with you a couple of verses from Luke chapter nine.

When the days were approaching for him to be taken up, Jesus was determined[g] to go to Jerusalem. He sent messengers ahead of him. They went and entered a Samaritan village to make preparations for him. But the people did not welcome him, because he was determined to go to Jerusalem. When his disciples James and John saw this, they said, “Lord, do you want us to call down fire from heaven to consume them?” But he turned and rebuked them. “You don’t know what kind of spirit is influencing you. For the Son of Man did not come to destroy people’s souls, but to save them.” Then they went to another village. (Luke 9:51-56)

The relationship between Jews and Samaritans was stressed. It was very challenged. They were adversaries. And we know that especially from the parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus uses that in that teaching of that parable, how they were at odds with each other, Jews and Samaritans. Part of that was just a religious disagreement. The Samaritans refused to acknowledge that they were supposed to go and worship and go to the Temple in Jerusalem, and they had their own holy site that they worshiped at. And so here they learned that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem. And the Samaritans in this village in our text say, no, we don’t want you here. And so that angers Jesus disciples. They’re angry.

Especially we hear James and John, this poor reception, how dare these people reject Jesus! How dare they insult Jesus and insult us? And so they turn to Jesus and they say, Lord, should we call down fire from heaven to consume these people? So in other words, should we have these people destroyed and wiped out for this insult to you?

When you and I face adversity and when we face hostile people, that might be our first instinct as well. Vengeance. Let’s get even. Let these people be destroyed. Let these people face damnation and even hell. That’s a scary thing to think or to say. And Jesus, he gives a stern rebuke to James and John here, who suggested such a thing. And he points out to them, you’re not being led by the right spirit. Do you think that this is a godly spirit that would lead you to say such a thing, to ask for these people to be destroyed? No, this is essentially demonic. This comes from evil spirits, from the devil himself. God would not want his people to have this kind of heart or attitude in them. God does not have that kind of attitude that seeks the destruction of people. He doesn’t want that at all.

Here and in other places, we learn from Jesus that he does not want people to be destroyed. He came with the mission to rescue and to save people. Even in Ezekiel chapter 33, we hear.

“I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked turn from their way and live.” (Ezekiel 33:11 EHV)

What should our heart and attitude be? Well, Jesus lays it out here for us in our text. And really, there’s honestly a little bit of irony in these words that James and John speak in our text. Lord, should we send fire from heaven to consume them? Now they were intending, should we destroy them? But do you remember what took place on Pentecost? What came from heaven? Tongues of fire that came and rested on the disciples heads as they went out and preached and proclaimed Christ. And elsewhere the work of the Holy Spirit is compared to fire, and faith is referred to as a burning flame inside of a heart. So take those words in kind of an ironic way. Lord, should we call down fire to consume these people? Well, God does, in fact want that. He wants the Holy Spirit and the message of Jesus to come and be kindled in people’s hearts, so that they might have faith, and so that that faith might then spread and be shared.

So in a sense, it’s a good thing to say, Lord, send this fire from heaven, but not to destroy people. This fire from the Holy Spirit comes to rescue people. It proclaims and puts into us Christ Himself and the salvation that he won for us with his life. His perfect life lived for us in our place with his death upon the cross, where he paid for all sins with his resurrection from the dead. The Holy Spirit comes and gives those things that Jesus earned and gives them to us, and that’s the fire that we desire to be consumed with. Lord, please send us this fire of your Holy Spirit among us. Peace be with you.

In part one, I dealt with the reliability of the transmission of the New Testament and the 5500 plus copies we have, have led scholars to conclude, quote,

That we can reconstruct the original words of the New Testament within 99% accuracy.

So, you know, what we have is what was originally written, but that doesn’t mean it was necessarily reliable historically.

For example, if I were to give you, my journal from yesterday and tell you to copy it word for word, and you did that, we’d have a a reliable transmission. But that doesn’t mean that my journal was accurate historically, or the copy was accurate historically. Maybe I exaggerated, or maybe I created a legend. Or maybe I just simply told some lies.

Are the New Testament writings accurate historically or are they myth, or are they legend, or are they fiction? Or are they purposeful lies? Many believe that the Gospels and the book of Acts are not reliable historically, and you might be one of them. Even Christians have doubts about the historical reliability of what’s recorded there, and you might be be one of them.

There are a number of things that we could point to that helps support the historical reliability of the Gospels and the book of aActs, but I’m just going to mention a few. This is not by any means exhaustive.

First of all, the Gospels and the book of Acts have details of various kinds that you normally never find in myths or legends or even fictions from that that time period.

For example, you have many people listed by name and described. A lot of these names are also confirmed by non-biblical sources, or they’re confirmed by archeology. You also have places and cities and mountains and roads mentioned by name, sometimes with the mileage listed in between. You have buildings and structures described in some detail. We have details about traveling by sea. The cargo, the rigging, the names of the seas. You have descriptions of currents, of weather, patterns, of storm patterns. In other words, what we have here in the Gospels and the book of Acts, they’re written not as if they’re myth or legend. They’re written as if they’re real historical events. And so the question is not whether or not they’re myth or legend versus history, but the question is, are they reliable history versus unreliable or inaccurate history?

Second, the author of Luke and the book of Acts, makes a very important statement concerning how he went about his research and his investigations. Here’s what he said.

Many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us, just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word have delivered them to us, it seemed good to me also, having followed all things closely for some time past, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught. (Luke 1:1-4)

And so you know these words, they have the ring of integrity and truthfulness. Let me just give you one example from the book of Acts real quickly here.

You know, Luke was a companion of Saint Paul and some of its missionary trips. And Luke again admits that he he talked with the eyewitnesses many times. And one of the things that Luke records when he’s with Paul is what Paul does in making the case, making the defense for the truth of Christianity before a governor Festus and King Agrippa. And here are the words that that the Luke records of Paul. He says,

“I am not out of my mind, most excellent Festus, but I am speaking true and rational words. For the king knows about these things, and to him I speak boldly. For I am persuaded that none of these things has escaped his notice, for this has not been done in a corner. (Acts 25:25-26)

Again, Luke claims to have talked to the eyewitnesses, and sometimes he was there, as with the case of Paul here. And so if what he recorded was not true, somebody could have easily challenged him, because these were obviously public events that many people took notice on.

Third, we have at least three writers of the New Testament claiming to be eyewitnesses. Peter, for example, says,

For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For when he received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was borne to him by the Majestic Glory, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased,” we ourselves heard this very voice borne from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain. (2 Peter 1:16-18)

Again, integrity. Truthfulness. That’s what we’re confronted with here. Now, just because someone says he is a eyewitness, that doesn’t mean he was. So here’s a fourth and final point I’d like to share with you today that help you know, you might say verify, the truthfulness or the reliability of the history that we find in the New Testament.

We have records of the lives and the deaths of the apostles recorded by early church fathers. They testify that the apostles went out right away for the rest of their earthly lives, preaching and evangelizing in order to convert people to Christianity. Have them come to the Christian faith. And when they’re out there evangelizing, they’re preaching, and they’re teaching as if everything recorded in the Gospels and the book of Acts is absolutely true. And they did this despite the dangers they would be facing, persecution, imprisonment, torture. And even death.

And what’s recorded for us is that all of the apostles, with the exception of John the Apostle, who died a natural death, all of them were said to have been martyred. If the events recorded about Jesus of Nazareth, his life, his suffering, his death, and his resurrection, if these events were not true, it is hard to explain their willingness to suffer and especially to die if these events were not true, because if anyone would have known these events were not true, it would have been the apostles.

Here’s the point. And here’s a good way to put it. People do not willingly submit themselves to persecution and to suffering and to death for something they know to be a lie. You know, a lot of people will die for something, but they’re dying for something they think is the truth. But if they know it’s a lie, then that’s a different story.

You don’t die for something that you know to be a lie. On the other hand, people might be willing to suffer and die for something they are convinced is not a lie, for something they know is is true. Especially if that something determines where they will spend eternity, heaven or hell. And that’s exactly what that something, the recorded events in the life of Christ, that’s exactly what those events determine. The difference between heaven and hell.

So these several things taken together, the many kinds of details that you don’t find in myth or fiction or legend, and the fact that we have people who are saying, I did the careful investigation or who were eyewitnesses, and the willingness of the apostles to suffer and die for something that they knew was not a lie. All this helps confirm the historical reliability of the Gospels and the book of Acts.

In other words, they confirm the virgin birth of Christ. They confirm the deity and the humanity of Christ. They confirm his miracles. They confirm his suffering and death and his resurrection, his ascension to the right hand of his father. And not only do they confirm these events, but they also confirm that these events are the factors that determine where one spends eternity.

So if you are a Christian, be assured that these these records are not only reliable, but they’re true. And therefore because of Christ, you are a forgiven child of God. Your eternal destiny is heaven, all because of Christ alone. And if you are not a Christian, you are invited to become one. Your eternal destiny depends on it.

My name is David Thompson. I’m the director for the center for Apologetics and Worldviews. Thank you for joining us.