Trinity Fellowship

(No video is available for this week's sermon.) When God first created the world, He spoke light to come forth out of the darkness. When He re-creates the world, He does it through the cross of His Son. The world is remade when God the Son enters into the darkness, suffers in the darkness, passes through the chaos of de-creation, and triumphs over it again. Being in union with Christ means that Jesus calls us to share in His cross. This means that we share in the darkness. When God gives us a cross to bear, our instinct is to try to get down. We want to remake our own personal world by leaving the cross, but this is impossible. So, Christian, your charge is to remember that the world is remade by those who have the Spirit, who bear their crosses after Jesus, who stay focused on the mission, who are willing to enter the darkness, and cry out to the Father from there. We are not wiser than God. Resurrection comes through death, and light comes through darkness.

Study in the 1689 Second London Baptist Confession of Faith

Putting Jesus to death is the human project. That is what we do. And this means that we are far, far worse than we let ourselves imagine. Left to ourselves, this would be our last word. But God has a different project, and He will not let us get away with ours. The cross of Jesus is the crux of history, but that means the cross of Jesus not only reveals the radical disorder of fallen humanity, but also that it discloses the meaning of the world, the point of creation, the damage done by sin, the hope of glory. The path of redemption does not bypass blasphemy and destruction, but faces it squarely, endures it, and remakes it from the inside. God does not avoid mockery. He accepts our mockery and turns it to truth. God is not mocked precisely because the mockers have served their purpose.

Study in the 1689 Second London Baptist Confession of Faith

The nation of Israel turned from her King, her husband, at precisely the moment He came to rescue her. She has chosen Barabbas over Jesus, the way of the sword over the way of reconciliation. She has accepted the innocent blood of Jesus on her own head, and on her children. If Israel is going to be saved, there will need to be a new and perfect Israel. Jesus Christ is that Israel of God. He is the perfect priest from this priestly nation, the sin-bearer for the sin-bearing people. The accumulated sin of the world was heaped upon Israel, but the sins of Israel are heaped onto King Jesus. He can bear it all away. By faith we are grafted into this new people of God, and by that same faith, we can declare the goodness of God to ourselves, to our children, and to all the peoples of the earth.

Study in the 1689 Second London Baptist Confession of Faith

Pentecost is a great reminder of many things – a new harvest, God's law being written on our hearts, and the fact that we are now altars of living sacrifices, wholly consecrated to the Lord. Pentecost is the day that the church is born and given power from above to complete her mission. The Holy Spirit has given gifts to His people for the building up of His church. The Spirit keeps us on mission, directs our efforts, and energizes our work. He is committed to our maturity, so that we are no longer tossed around by the waves and the spirit of the age. As we rely on His power, let us all be diligent to grow up in every way into Christ.

Study in the 1689 Second London Baptist Confession of Faith

"Jesus Christ was crucified and died. His body was buried, and his soul descended to Sheol, not to languish but to liberate the resting saints, not to suffer but to subdue Satan, not to preach but to proclaim just victory over the spirits in prison. In his resurrection and ascension Jesus Christ carried his bride home to heaven., presenting himself as a sacrifice in the holy of holies not made with hands." (Renihan) When you may be tempted to go to Sinai for salvation, or to give up in despair, the Ascension reminds us that through the gospel, our empty hand of faith receives the One who is far above all the heavens; who is filling all things.

The tragic case of Judas captures the psychology of unbelief and unanswered guilt. The guilt of our sin cannot be tamed. It cannot be forgotten. It cannot be pushed aside. It cannot be managed. It must be answered. The difference between Judas and Peter is not the fact of their guilt, but what they did with it. Judas turned in on himself in morbid introspection and found only layer after layer of despair and chaos. Peter turned to the Saviour in genuine repentance and found peace, courage, and new life. The ancient saying remains as true today as it always has been – "For whoever finds me finds life and obtains favor from the Lord, but he who fails to find me injures himself; all who hate me love death." (Proverbs 8:35, 36). Christian, do not wallow in guilt and unbelief. Looking inside ourselves is not a solution, but the root of the problem. The charge is to look outside yourself, to the Saviour. He has the answer to your guilt, and offers you life forevermore.