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This Sunday Podcast
19 Plays18 days ago
S1: E10
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Transcript
Introduction and Theme Overview
00:00:01
Speaker
Greetings and welcome to this week's episode of This Sunday Podcast. I am Pastor Matthew Hardaway. Alongside me, as always, Pastor and Dr. Phil Brandt. We are in the season of Pentecost, and this podcast will be looking at the third Sunday after Pentecost readings, specifically continuing in Romans chapter 5.
00:00:24
Speaker
As always, I'll start with the collect of the day, and then we'll let Dr. Brandt get us started on our discussion. We pray. Almighty eternal word, in the word of your apostles and prophets, you have proclaimed to us your saving will.
Faith and Eternal Salvation
00:00:40
Speaker
Grant us faith to believe your promises that we may receive eternal salvation through Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
00:00:53
Speaker
Amen. man
00:00:58
Speaker
So in chapter four, we talked about that faith that we asked for here, but now it is that that prayer just talked to us that through faith, we receive this eternal salvation.
00:01:13
Speaker
And ah in chapter five, Paul, having made his, his illustration, if you will, or his, his argument from the Torah is now going to really pick that whole piece apart. He's going to, he's going to lay out the core of Romans argument.
00:01:41
Speaker
Um, and we we, we pick it up again, just as we did, ah last week in the middle of the chapter because those first verses, chapter 5 verses 1 through 5, show up in several other places in the three-year lectionary.
00:02:01
Speaker
And so you may want to, if if you're thinking about these, go back and read them because in them, Paul does something really amazing. He starts off with this, you know, ah this really weird...
00:02:17
Speaker
statement, says, we rejoice in our suffering.
00:02:21
Speaker
And you just go, Paul, you know, there's medication for people. You know, we we can get you help. There's therapy. We can do something. um you know And that's really the way our world would would almost, that's the only thing our world can do for something or when Paul says something like
Suffering and the Symbol of the Cross
00:02:38
Speaker
that.
00:02:38
Speaker
But what what Paul does with that is is that he he's really turning the whole world upside down. um that that his argumentation is really asking us to recast and rethink about everything, particularly, you know, you know i mean we we don't get it today because it's so common for us, you know, that when when ah when an early Christian, a first-generation Christian, you know, maybe wore a cross, or they they put a cross on their wall, or they they they said, this is the Christian symbol, a cross.
00:03:20
Speaker
um that was just shocking for the ancient world. Because, you know, Romans crucified people. look And educated and and thoughtful Romans really thought that was a bad, dumb policy for the Roman Empire to do.
00:03:40
Speaker
And now here is this group of people, a lot of them slaves, people who would be subject to crucifixion, you adopting the sign of their torture as the symbol of their Christianity the symbol of their faith though their hope that I believe in the crucified one um and and and and And what Paul does in that first part of Romans 5 is he he says, you know, I rejoice in my sufferings. He takes it all the way up through suffering, produces hope and endurance and all of these things. And that doesn't disappoint because the Holy Spirit is poured out into us. um He really takes suffering and and and the human and and this human condition of our suffering And and connects it to to say that it is through suffering God saved the world.
00:04:39
Speaker
And it is through this amazing gift of himself upon the cross that God that god saves us that god That God redeemed this this
Romans Chapter 5: Weakness, Reconciliation, and Salvation
00:04:52
Speaker
whole world. And that's really kind of where we pick it up here in in in chapter 5. So let's let's start here in chapter 5, verse 6.
00:05:00
Speaker
um We read, While we were still weak, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly.
00:05:13
Speaker
For one will scarcely die for a righteous person, though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die. But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
00:05:30
Speaker
Since therefore we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.
00:05:50
Speaker
More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we now have received reconciliation. Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned, for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law.
00:06:16
Speaker
Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come.
00:06:27
Speaker
But the free gift is not like the trespass, For if many died through the one man's trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man, Jesus Christ, abounded to many.
00:06:45
Speaker
There is so much in this penance. I find really interesting. i mean, I really think that that if last week, if if if chapter four was about helping us understand and and articulate what faith is, this week is really focused on on what faith conveys to us. And and that that is the grace of God.
00:07:13
Speaker
ah Paul is is really focusing on on the on the fact that this is not a quid pro quo. This is not a, a you this is not God buying something, nor are we buying something from god God. God is not some vending machine who is responsive to anything that we have done.
00:07:42
Speaker
In fact, he says, we were enemies. we we were We were just hostile to God by our very nature. and And that that that didn't stop God from loving us.
00:07:58
Speaker
You know, that that our rejection of him was was not grounds for God to stop loving. And so so this this seems to me to be the the very definition of of grace on God's part.
00:08:13
Speaker
that That he gives us himself without without this, you know,
00:08:22
Speaker
you know this looking at all to whether we are worthy of that. just gives. That is just God. He just gives. Right. And it's still, he still has wrath.
00:08:36
Speaker
Oh, yeah. And that is something I see all over the place for whatever reason, whether yeah church bodies want to reduce the teaching of the law.
00:08:49
Speaker
but But verse 9, we were saved by him from the wrath of God. But the God who has wrath against us because of our denying of him and our sinful nature still loves us. <unk> and And I know...
God's Grace and Human Worthiness
00:09:05
Speaker
I can see where some people might want to avoid talking about the wrath of God. and yeah Yeah. But i don't know, maybe our Baptist friends that have a hellfire and brimstone sermons. that I mean, well, and im I say that halfway teasingly or tongue-in-cheek, but they do understand something, that a lot of the the popular Christian church has just totally turned their back on and almost erased Well, and and i I would really commend you to you know just read through Luther's postals.
00:09:40
Speaker
um those are Those are his sermon notes that that he wrote in the 16th century for for the for the new graduates of of you know the University of Wittenberg. They're seminary graduates heading out into these parishes that they were trying to reshape. Luther wrote preaching notes for them.
00:10:00
Speaker
And ah Yeah, Luther's not, Luther's not thought on sin. but He's got, he's got, ah there's very much this idea that, that, that, that our default position with God is one of hostility and wrath. And that, that God is, that God is, that God has a serious, ah we have a serious God problem.
00:10:31
Speaker
God has a problem with sin, and that creates that means we have a God problem. And that that that that God problem needs to be resolved, or we are without hope. We are without without any any future.
00:10:46
Speaker
But that in Christ, God has resolved our God problem. that That this is God's solution to this problem we were incapable of solving.
00:11:01
Speaker
and And And that's what I mean by saying this is this is God's graciousness. He's solving a problem ah ultimately that he doesn't have. Because God doesn't need me.
00:11:16
Speaker
fact, God doesn't need this entire cosmos. The entire universe is not necessary for God to be God.
00:11:30
Speaker
You know, for for God to be complete. For God to be to be, you know, serene. All right. In all of that that perfection that is God.
00:11:42
Speaker
doesn't need any of this.
Resurrection and the Value of Human Life
00:11:47
Speaker
And yet, he came into this
00:11:53
Speaker
and gave me himself.
00:11:59
Speaker
um Yeah, I mean, you know, that and that and that ultimately the the rebellion of the cosmos under human direction um means that that the holiness of God is not going to tolerate that.
00:12:19
Speaker
um I find really interesting in this text this kind of threefold progression that Paul makes in this. he does ah He does a three-stepper on us here.
00:12:30
Speaker
Okay? God shows his love through these through this progression of through of through three. this is in This is in verse 8.
00:12:44
Speaker
While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Okay? that's that This is the groundwork. we were We were sinners.
00:12:56
Speaker
We didn't deserve. Christ died for us.
00:13:04
Speaker
First thing, we have now been justified by his blood. How much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God? so So the first thing is that that the that the blood of Jesus Christ has made us right with God.
00:13:24
Speaker
i always think that, you know, we we talked last week about that, that, that, that the antenna metaphor for faith. For me, the the justification metaphor is always, you know, if you have right-hand justification on a document, okay, the right-hand margin is just straight.
00:13:45
Speaker
And justification is when you are straight with God. Okay, you're even. And and now, Christ's blood has evened, has rendered um righteous the yeah the the human being.
00:14:04
Speaker
So God's wrath has been turned aside. Pause for a second there. It took me a second. I've got that our document pulled up and you said right justification and I was thinking like two kinds of justification. My my brain's going like this. then um But you said right justification on a document.
00:14:27
Speaker
Mm-hmm.
00:14:30
Speaker
Our default is to look at that and think something's wrong. If you go to a Word document or number or whatever you know whatever ah software you're using, we left justify. Right.
00:14:45
Speaker
Well, you can do both. and on And on the right side, the text is doing this. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But right justification, we can't we don't want to do that on our own, on our own. That looks weird. It looks funny. Something's off.
00:15:00
Speaker
It needs to be the other way around. Yet Christ comes in and does what we can't. Right, right. I i mean, i I just think of, okay, there's there's sometimes in a document when you really want the text to just look like a block. You you can do full justification where it's it's both right and left.
00:15:17
Speaker
Right. And and that that that's what that That when we justify, um we we make it straight. that That what Christ is doing in justifying us is making it straight. You can talk about left-hand justification or right-hand justification.
00:15:33
Speaker
it's just It just kind of stands out with right-hand because you're right, a lot of times when we do text, for various reasons, we like to have that that kind of jagged right right column over the the right edge of the margins.
00:15:48
Speaker
um So the first the the first thing is that that that the that the reconciliation of God, ah that that that I'm sorry, that the that the blood of Jesus Christ has turned away the wrath of God.
00:16:01
Speaker
So now we are no longer we're no longer um ah ah in the pathway of that of that divine wrathful freight train running us over.
00:16:14
Speaker
You know, we're not going to be splatted against the cosmological wall and forgotten. Okay, burned to a crisp. We are no longer in that danger.
00:16:27
Speaker
That's what the blood. So that's the first thing that Jesus has done. But that isn't all that Jesus did. Because that so far is simply a negative thing.
00:16:41
Speaker
The wrath of God is not going to do this to you. Well, what is going to happen? Because what's the alternative? And that's the next part here.
00:16:54
Speaker
Is that um how much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God? For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his son. Much more now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life?
00:17:11
Speaker
So the next thing is that, oh, it isn't just that that my life has been spared you know the hammer, but my life has been what Saved.
00:17:29
Speaker
um My life has been given you ah given to me that That now instead of, yeah i mean, the wrath of God is is ultimately expressed as as death, the eternal death of hell.
00:17:45
Speaker
Okay? God hasn't just said, well, we're not going to do that and left me in some neutral non-entity. But instead he said, no, we're not going to do the death thing. We're going to do the life thing.
00:18:03
Speaker
And so that now that Jesus has risen from the dead,
00:18:10
Speaker
okay that Jesus has has has hasn't stayed dead, yeah i mean God has made another declaration to me. I think you know we we are we are sometimes not
00:18:27
Speaker
not not attentive enough to just what it means that Jesus rose from the dead.
00:18:34
Speaker
um and And it really is God affirming my human life.
00:18:41
Speaker
Because jesus didn't didn't you know Jesus didn't lay down his life on the cross and and take up some weird spiritual existence or some ethereal spiritual thing like an angel.
00:18:54
Speaker
Okay? No. He rose, and and the Gospels are really explicit. He rose, and they could touch him. They could eat with him.
00:19:06
Speaker
They could walk on a path with him and and even mistake him just for another guy. mean, like the Emmaus disciples did.
Implications of Jesus' Death and Resurrection
00:19:14
Speaker
He made breakfast for them on the shores of Galilee and presumably ate with them.
00:19:20
Speaker
In fact, that's that's one of the points that Peter makes in his sermon. In Acts, he says, you we ate with him after he rose from the dead.
00:19:32
Speaker
that That what Jesus is doing in those resurrection appearances is really affirming the dignity and the value and the good of being human, of living.
00:19:52
Speaker
and that And that now that that we've been we have been reconciled, okay, that the or that the that the the wrath has been turned aside, we now have been reoriented, reconciled. You know, you do this with a checkbook. You make it all right with God, right? We've been reconciled to God.
00:20:11
Speaker
And so now that that life which God created in a garden long ago, which was always God's plan, has been given back to us. And life itself has become something good.
00:20:27
Speaker
That's the second step. See, the first one is we're going to take away the bad, but now we're going to talk about the good. And then in verse 11, now we get a more than that.
00:20:41
Speaker
We also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
00:20:51
Speaker
See, it would be one thing If God had said, okay, we're not going to squash them all like a bug. Okay. Another thing to say, all right, go ahead and live.
00:21:04
Speaker
We're going to give you life.
00:21:08
Speaker
But God goes one step farther than that.
00:21:12
Speaker
We rejoice in God. Through our Lord Jesus Christ. That now we, you know, that,
00:21:23
Speaker
At the end of every service, you know, I stand there and I say, the Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you. The Lord look upon you with favor. The Lord give you peace. um that That God's face shines upon us.
00:21:41
Speaker
And we, in turn, rejoice in God. That whereas we started off as enemies, The consequence of being an enemy has been taken away.
00:21:56
Speaker
We've been restored to life. But now it's not just any life we've been given. Now we have the life of the one who is in relationship with God that is a relationship in which we rejoice in God.
00:22:16
Speaker
I just think that's really cool that Paul unpacked as unpacked in in in that, the these short little verses, he's unpacked the three huge implications of death and resurrection of Jesus.
00:22:35
Speaker
And I think too often we focus just on the first one. yeah Oh, this means God's not going to, so you know, is not going to send you to hell.
00:22:48
Speaker
You know, and and and you you talked earlier about the you know You're right. the The only way into the second and the third step is to go through the first one. If you don't have the wrath to be turned aside, then the second and third one don't make any sense.
00:23:05
Speaker
But if you only stay in the first one, the wrath, turning aside the wrath, and you don't get to the life and the life that is lived now joyfully toward God, i think I think it's sterile in a sense.
Rejoicing in Suffering and the Good Life in Faith
00:23:21
Speaker
It is. and And there, there if you if you will, is my critique of the of the fire and brimstone preacher who who leaves you relieved that you're not going to get fried,
00:23:37
Speaker
but that's where it ends. and and And I think too often, you know, i I have struggled with that, is how do you define That life, how do you talk about that life today that is lived, that rejoices in God?
00:23:56
Speaker
What does that look like?
00:24:02
Speaker
There's, what was it?
00:24:07
Speaker
but Oh, mental blank, mental blank always happens right when I have a new thought. and don't know how that coincides with each other, but it does. ah Rich Mullins, contemporary Christian music artist the and 90s. Yeah, so hardly contemporary anymore. It's 50 years old. Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. It's contemporary to me. ah has a Has a line in one of his songs.
00:24:39
Speaker
It's about as useless as a screen door on a submarine. yeah but Faith without works, it just ain't happening. And this is a huge part of the Reformation and and ah an aspect of where the the Roman Catholic Church was at odds with Luther. You can't just tell people that they're saved.
00:25:00
Speaker
Then they're not going to give alms. They're not going to pay the church. They're not going to do anything. They're just going to be lazy boy refiners or go willy-nilly into the world. And and it's that...
00:25:12
Speaker
We've talked to on on previous podcasts, and and all even yeah a lot, seems like, where faith is isn't just the intellect. and Because just the intellect is that, oh yeah, you need a door on a submarine.
00:25:28
Speaker
Yeah. Okay, cool. and and get so And without full or without fuller understanding, though, you know you're you're stuck. And then if you have just the the the the faith part without the the intellect, then you're missing. Sure, you've got that first paragraph or that first the first part of it, but you don't have the other two and you're missing. So it's got ultimately, it's got to be all everything all together, wrapped up. Mm-hmm.
00:25:53
Speaker
Mm-hmm. but And i I think it's it's for me, it's really helpful to imagine, OK, Adam and Eve sinned in the garden. You know, i think there is this all that that just invites an imagination of what what what would have happened if they hadn't.
00:26:10
Speaker
What would have what would have creation been without sin? Now, that isn't what happened. We don't know. um We can't make that into into the Bible or into the revealed Word of God. um And yet, um and yet that that very narrative really invites us to imagine what that looks like. And I think you go to Revelation, you see some of those images that John gives of of the new Jerusalem, the new the new heaven and the new earth coming coming down. um
00:26:43
Speaker
that he talks about streets of gold and the river of life and the tree of life growing on, or the river that flows and the tree of life growing on either side of it with with fruit in every season, yeah ah ah that that that God doesn't just save us from death, but God gives us this abundant life.
00:27:11
Speaker
And that that life is is really good. Okay? It's something where you rejoice in God.
00:27:22
Speaker
And you go, wow, I'm really glad God's here. mean, one that that, of course, speaks to I'm no longer afraid of him. Right? Right? but But it also is I'm in the presence of this one who is my friend, who is my my the one who loves me.
00:27:41
Speaker
you know and And in the same way that that you know when you're you're you're with people whom you love, that's a good life. and And likewise, being with God is good.
00:27:56
Speaker
And that he has given me a good life. So that now, you know, those things that I once might have heard a burden laid me, as a burden laid on me of you know worship God, serve God, you know do these things, you know take care of your neighbor, all those things, that now that that Christ is has done what he's done, these things become now something completely different. Remember we talked about how suffering got got completely reoriented? Paul is reorent reorienting the whole of life. And a lot of the rest of Romans is going to be explicating
00:28:37
Speaker
you know especially the last several chapters, are going to be explicating what that good life looks like, that rejoicing in God. And and ah i don't want to jump ahead and get into that, but that... Oh, yes, you do. Well, I do.
00:28:57
Speaker
but but that But that right here, what he's connecting this, i think what he's connecting this to is that that that there is There's this threefoldness to the to the to the to the grace of God.
00:29:11
Speaker
It's not only a removal of the punishment and the restoration of life, but it is now also a life which is a really good life, a life which is lived toward God.
00:29:28
Speaker
Even in the midst of suffering. Yeah. Yes. Yes. And this is one, know, speaking of Paul's rhetoric or just rhetoric in general, it's almost like, Paul, you should have flip-flopped paragraph five or chapter five like start with this beginning part and then say because this threefold gift that god has given me now i can rejoice but he starts off with the i rejoice in my suffering what in the world and if you only have the first part of this that that god is not going to punish then why i'm suffering isn't that the age one of the age old questions of right life
00:30:11
Speaker
I get that that God's taken away the punishment for sin, but why am I suffering? Well, there's not necessarily an answer to that unless it was an actual sin you committed that caused the harm. And then, okay, sure, we can pinpoint that. But that's not the ultimate point.
00:30:32
Speaker
Right. Well, and and I think what Paul does in in this whole part is to to say suffering, you know, in this life is remember, this is the way God saved the world.
00:30:43
Speaker
Jesus suffered. And and i so I think rhetorically, this actually works much better that Paul does it the way he does it. course and that and that ah and because Because what he does is he kind of shocks you with this piece. He's saying, we rejoice in our suffering.
00:31:01
Speaker
and And now the rest of this whole chapter is kind of explaining how that how that works. So that even now, I am I am as a Christian, yes, subject to suffering.
00:31:13
Speaker
you whether it's Whether it's the ailments of my body or the relationships that that that are problematic or this you know my society or whatever is causing me to suffer at this point. um
00:31:29
Speaker
I am in a life that is now oriented toward God in a different way, through a different process, through this love and this sacrifice of Jesus. And there is nothing In suffering, that can take that away. In fact, suffering itself becomes simply a reminder. That's how Jesus did it.
00:31:47
Speaker
that's how jesus That's how Jesus gave me this life. And now I get to say to to to you know whatever the world throws at me, whatever Satan throws at me, I can say, but you can't take this away.
00:32:00
Speaker
Jesus loves me. And he has given his life for me. He has been raised. He has called my life worthy and dignity and and with a dignity and ah and a ah and and a holiness. And it is precious to God.
00:32:14
Speaker
and And so that means I don't care what you do. you know I know that that on the day when I die, that's not the end of the story.
00:32:26
Speaker
Because God has taken away the wrath. He has given me a life. And that that life, and I can look forward to it. I think a lot of people, and i mean i don't know about you, but I see a lot of depictions of heaven as, as you know, people sitting on a cloud, harp and halo and wings and I mean, I remember ah a Gary Larson Farside from a number of years ago with this guy sitting there and his harp is laying on the cloud beside him and he's kind of just sitting on the cloud saying, man, I really wish I had brought a magazine.
00:33:01
Speaker
You right you know, that that that we we we haven't filled in and and that's kind of the point. We haven't filled in. Oh, no, that's going to be a lot of fun.
00:33:14
Speaker
That's going to be that's going to be an adventure. to live that life. Right. We want it now. Well, we do. yeah We do. And we we don't want the sufferings. But I'm imaging my head of, you know, a Bruce Lee or Chuck
Joyful Christian Living and Transformation through Christ
00:33:31
Speaker
Norris martial arts film where where the the good guy is in the the epic battle and he puts his arms up in some karate move. He knows he's getting ready to get pummeled.
00:33:42
Speaker
This is not going to feel good. But he turns his hand and takes his two fingers and goes, come on. Yeah, just come on. And I think if if there were ninjas when Paul was writing, he could have said something like, come on, bring it. you know On this side, I'm going to go through this stuff, but I know I'm going to be victorious in Christ. And there's this really awesome party coming.
00:34:06
Speaker
Right. well And and i i think I think too often we have we have just failed as as preachers and as as Christians to to really give people, I mean, I mean think this is what um and and an early Christian critic was a fellow by the name of Celsus or Celsus sometimes. um We don't have a lot of his writing, ah but what we have are quotations, extensive quotations of it in in a book, in an answer to Celsus by origin.
00:34:41
Speaker
And, and Celsus was bringing up this criticism of Christianity that, you know, he he said, you don't want to let, you don't want to have, any ah you know, you don't want one of your slaves to be a Christian.
00:34:57
Speaker
Because what they're going to do is pretty soon they're just going to be talking about this Christ and this Christianity when they're, you know, cutting carrots into their soup and when they're, when they're out working in the fields and when they're doing all of these domestic tasks around your house, they're going to be, they're going to, and you can, they're going to be laughing and smiling and telling you how good it is to be a Christian.
00:35:22
Speaker
and ah And, and, and we, I think we've lost kind of the sight of the fact that, that, that may be what is actually really, really attractive about Christianity in terms of its missional purpose. is that we are calling people to a much better life.
00:35:42
Speaker
Not a life of drudgery and singing long hymns off tune in with a whole bunch of people on hard pews on Sunday morning. That is not Christianity.
00:35:56
Speaker
Christianity is is going to work in the morning. And ah and going to school and and being married and all of these things of life and living them differently because Christ has said, this human life you live is beautiful and good.
00:36:18
Speaker
And I have given it to you now to be lived in joy toward God. And and and and that can change everything mean even i mean
00:36:35
Speaker
I mean, 25% of the Roman population in the first century, roughly, were slaves. And Christianity took off like wildfire in the slave population.
00:36:49
Speaker
And, you know, you think about that. Those people were living miserable lives by every human measure.
00:36:59
Speaker
And yet they said, oh, but this Jesus changes everything. My good friend, um who was a missionary in India, said this about it. You know, in India, they were working primarily among the Dalits, the untouchables.
00:37:20
Speaker
And he said, I can almost walk down the street and point to the Christians as I walk down the street. even though they didn't dress differently, there was no external marker particularly, but I could put, he said, because of the way, because just because of the expression on their face, that that we are we are calling that that that what Jesus' death and resurrection has done has given us an enormous positive for the living of this life. And it is this joy toward God
00:37:56
Speaker
which means ah have a joy everywhere I go. And I don't have to i don't have to worry about the fear of of wrath anymore. I don't have to worry about the fear of losing life anymore.
00:38:10
Speaker
Death no longer terrifies me. And instead, I can now live toward God. And that that that is, in fact, a a a tremendously good thing right now Right now. But I think what we've done is we've we've we've emptied that so often.
00:38:33
Speaker
You know, we we say that, well, if you if you if you if you become a Christian, you get to look forward to going to church eternally. You know? um As if, as if ah you know, going to church and singing and singing hymns is is what you're going to do forever.
00:38:53
Speaker
And, you know, I don't think that was what God had in mind for Adam.
00:39:00
Speaker
He said, take care of this garden, take care of this planet, take care of this world, be a steward of it and and interact with it. and and And, you know, Jesus was raised from the grave with, you know, hands and feet and eyes and mouth, the means to interact with this world in which we live. And that that that that in that redemption of this life, he was saying, this is good.
00:39:29
Speaker
And we we confuse that frequently with, you're talking about the reduction reduce reduction materialism, right? That part of the world that we live in. And and where Jesus says, I have come to to give you life and life abundantly in my name. Okay, our sinful self is going to go, oh, yes, life will be simpler, easier. i won't i will be without want or without need.
00:39:56
Speaker
And he's like, no, you're completely missing the point of what Jesus is saying there. we're We're defining it always by what's not there. Right. Instead of defining it by what Christ has given us. And um and and that's hard because because in a large part, the suffering of life makes it hard for us even to see it sometimes, you know? I would never walk into the room of, you know, somebody who's in pain or, you know, suffering from cancer or something like that and say, isn't this good that what Jesus has done? yeah
00:40:29
Speaker
No, I mean, that's that's misery. and And yet at the same time, I have been in those rooms and had those people tell me.
00:40:39
Speaker
How good God is to them. Right.
00:40:46
Speaker
I've said it once, I'll say it a thousand times. People will sometimes ask me as a pastor, like what's what what's your favorite part of the job? And, you know, they they tend to think, you know, preaching or something like that. i'm sure. and i definitely enjoy sharing God's word and teaching. isn't it It's baptisms and funerals. Yeah.
00:41:07
Speaker
And they understand the baptism part. Okay. That one's easy. but then but But do they understand that the baptism is really killing somebody? ah No, no, not frequently. Not frequently.
00:41:18
Speaker
Right, right. But that's that's one of the reasons why I enjoy it. um but Yes, very much so. But the funerals, that that's a, you know, if if I'm just being Matthew and and maybe even somewhat selfish.
00:41:34
Speaker
Funerals, no, they're not fun. there You know, that is misery. Not just the one who's hopefully won their race in faith, but for the family and those that are left behind. But when it's those months and weeks or years prior to when you're getting to see that person when they're in the faith,
00:41:59
Speaker
you Transformation. Yeah. And that that transformation, like it's something, you know, we all are going to struggle with it. None of us want to suffer. Okay. that That's God didn't intend it to be.
Pastoral Reflections and Concluding Blessings
00:42:11
Speaker
So that's not how I'm hardwired necessarily. I don't want to do it.
00:42:16
Speaker
But to to be nourished and fed sometimes by the last possible person you think could be doing that. Yep. you know And that's one just ah you know for sanctity of life type things. we We struggle with how to best approach the passing of life or the end of life and in ways that can maybe are more peaceful, avoid suffering, are aren't as prolonged. and And I do think that comes from inerrant value towards life.
00:42:53
Speaker
o um Even if we don't understand that that's how God did it, I can be completely, i know nothing about God. But the...
00:43:09
Speaker
when people use the phrase, well, you know, they're not doing anything or there's no point to their... Why am I here? but Why am I here? and I'm like, you know what? You've already...
00:43:21
Speaker
You've already strengthened me in the knowledge of my faith. yeah I have got to see Jesus here. And I know that's not what you want to hear. And you're in the middle of all this. But as a pastor, there's there's times where that's, I need to hear that and be reminded of that, just like everybody else.
00:43:38
Speaker
We rejoice in our sufferings. Yes. yeah
00:43:44
Speaker
Matthew, this has been a lot of fun. Thank you very much. Yes, it has. i Thank you, too. and And hopefully this week does not present you with more sufferings than normal. like well And you can still have that prayer. Right. and And as you are able, alleviate the suffering of someone else. you know Because because you know rejoicing in suffering doesn't mean doesn't mean making suffering. I think rejoicing in suffering means that i i'm able to i'm able to I'm able to be there present and help people in their suffering. And that's good.
00:44:20
Speaker
That's good. That's very good. That's very good. Awesome. Well, you have a blessed week, sir. Go preach. really Wonderful sermon. You too. Preach him a good one.
00:44:32
Speaker
Sometimes accidents happen. No, that's right. They're by the grace of God. Go. I. All right. all right Until next week. See you then. God bless. Bye-bye. God bless.