Trinity Presbyterian Church North Bay — Sermons & Sunday School

Sermon preached on Luke 22:63-23:25 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Worship Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 01/01/2023 in Petaluma, CA.

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Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div.

We pick up the story in Luke’s gospel following Jesus’s arrest. Today’s passage records Luke’s records of the trials that Jesus suffered before he is finally crucified. I would note that this is only an excerpt of the various trials that Jesus went through. You have to study all four gospels in parallel for this night and day to get the full picture of all he went through in terms of trials. As we study Luke’s account, one aspect that really stands out is all the injustice that was leveled against Jesus here. As Jesus had said earlier in this chapter, that he was going to be treated like a criminal, even though he was not a criminal. Indeed, we see that both before Jewish and Gentile courts he suffered so many injustices here. Yet, he suffered these things as our savior, as part of how he was saving us from our sins. God is a fully just God, and our God in his wisdom satisfied all justice even through making use of all these evil injustices leveled against Jesus our Lord.

Our passage can be broken up between chapter 22 and chapter 23. Up through chapter 22, it is the Jewish religious leaders who have overseen Jesus’ arrest and have been putting him through various Jewish trials, one of which we learn about starting in verse 66. Then in chapter 22, we see the Jewish religious leaders bring Jesus over to the Roman courts where the Gentile judges Pilate and Herod become his judge. As we consider all the injustices that Jesus faced here, we’ll look first at those experienced under the Jewish leadership and then secondly at those experienced under the Roman leadership.

So then, let us begin then by looking at the Jewish injustices that Jesus faced here. Let’s start with verses 63-65. There we find that Jesus is being mocked and beaten by those who were holding him. It also says they blasphemed him, in order words, they were verbally reviling him. Remember the setting here. The Jewish religious leaders had come and arrested Jesus in the middle of the night. We learn from John’s gospel that the Jews brought him first to Annas, the former high priest, to have him question Jesus. Then they brought him to Caiaphas the high priest who also put him on an initial trial. All this is happening in the middle of the night in a rather secretive fashion. It is there at the high priest’s house that they are holding him. In the morning, they would really put him on trial before the Jewish high court of the Sanhedrin.

So then, under their watch at the high priest’s house, while they hold him in the middle of the night, this happens to Jesus, that he is mocked and beaten and verbally attacked. Realize how this is an injustice in a couple ways. First, as we see here, they are clearly still in the middle of the due process, as his formal assembly before the Jewish high court of the Sanhedrin doesn’t happen until daybreak starting in verse 66. To be punishing someone when he his case is still being tried, is clearly an injustice. Second, Jesus is innocent of the charges against him, and even if they falsely declare him to be guilty, that doesn’t change the fact that he is actually innocent. So, for an innocent man to be beaten like this is another clear injustice.

So then starting in verse 66 we see them when day comes they take Jesus before the official Jewish high court of the Sanhedrin. One injustice that stands out here is that they really don’t have any case to make against him, so that ultimately they have to make their case based solely on h...

Sunday School class led by Rev. W. Reid Hankins at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 01/01/2023 in Petaluma, CA concerning discrimination matters regarding sexuality.

Sermon preached on John 1:1-18 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Worship Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 12/25/2022 in Petaluma, CA.

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Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div.

Although we are not told in the Bible the date of when Jesus was born, since antiquity, many Christians have been remembering the birth of Jesus on December 25, and it is a joy to do so again today with this passage from John. These verses remind us that the birth of Christ is God coming to man in the person of Jesus. Now, I’ve preached several Christmas sermons from this part of John over the years. But, I wanted to return again to it in light of our current Sunday sermon series through Luke. You see, we’ve been studying in Luke all the trials and tribulations that Jesus had been going through when he was here on earth. Luke has helped us to see how Jesus especially experienced such things in his humanity. From the very start of Luke, we’ve seen Jesus with the humble beginnings of a birth in a manger. In his humanity, he grew up through childhood, even advancing in wisdom along the way. He endured different temptations, faced various adversaries who rejected him, demons who opposed him, and friends who even betrayed or denied him. And he took his ministry to its intended end, when he was revealed as the Messiah, only to be rejected and tortured, and put to death on the cross. While throughout, he was always the God-man, yet he especially suffered these things in his humanity, so he could save us humans. So, while Luke also teaches Jesus’ divinity, there is a lot that has drawn our attention to his humanity. So, I thought these verses from John would be a good complement, for while they also teach us about Jesus’ humanity, they especially draw us to consider his divinity.

As we dig into today’s passage, we remember that John here refers to Jesus before his incarnation as the “Word”. That makes sense because Jesus is given the human name Jesus at his birth. But as we see here, Jesus existed before his human birth. John calls him the Word to refer to him in his divinity as the Son of God. So, we’ll see in our first point that the Word was God. Then in our second point that the Word was with God. Then in our third point that the Word became flesh.

We begin then with seeing that the Word was God. That is one of things asserted about the Word in verse 1. The Word was God. The preincarnate Jesus was God. After the incarnation, he continued to be and always will be God. When you think about God, as in what makes God to be God, we can think of the divine attributes that only God possesses, and the divine work that only God performs. These divine attributes and work we see attributed to the Word here.

Regarding the divine attributes that only God possesses, we classically include that God is eternal, infinite, and unchangeable. These are things we can find here taught about the Word. His eternality is explicitly stated, though his infiniteness and unchangeableness is interestingly inferred here with some rather ironic language that at first glance speaks in opposite terms. Yet, in closer inspection, we see that it teaches that he is indeed these divine attributes.

The Word’s eternality is seen in verse 1 when it says that at the beginning of all creation, he already existed. That’s because he always has existed. That’s what eternal means. To be eternal is to have always existed and to thus have the quality of self-existence, that your existence is not dependent on some being or force outside of yourself. Verse 3 also speaks of this eternal self-existence by distinguishing the Word from all created things.

Sunday School class led by Rev. W. Reid Hankins at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 12/25/2022 in Petaluma, CA concerning the first and second comings of Christ.

Sermon preached on Luke 1:76-79 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Christmas Eve Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 12/24/2022 in Petaluma, CA.

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When it comes to celebrating Christmas, I must admit I usually have a preference to reading many of the classic Christmas Scriptures in the now historic King James Version. For example, I love how Luke’s gospel describes that when the shepherds saw the angels in the field that they were “sore afraid”. So too, in this Song of Zechariah, I love how it describes Jesus as the “Dayspring from on high”. I love that now archaic translation of Dayspring. Modern translations give us the sense from the original Greek in various ways. The English Standard Version translates it to call Jesus the “sunrise”. The NIV has “the rising sun”. The New Living Translation has “morning light”. The RSV speaks of the day that “shall dawn upon us”. But I like the word dayspring. That’s the same language used in the beloved carol, O Come, O Come, Emmanuel which closely follows Luke’s gospel there. That carol sings “O come, thou Dayspring from on high and cheer us by thy drawing night, disperse the gloomy clouds of night and death’s dark shadows put to flight.”

Surely, Zechariah’s song here draws from the prophets of old and their predictions of the coming of the Messiah. Malachi 4:2, for example, spoke of “the sun [“S-U-N”] of righteousness” that “shall rise with healing in its wings.” Isaiah 9:2 foretold how, “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone.” Zechariah announces the impending fulfillment of these and other prophecies with the soon coming of the Dayspring from on high.

So then, let us this Christmas Eve think a little about Jesus being the Dayspring from on high. Zechariah’s song here says that his son John the Baptist would be preparing the way for Jesus to come by giving people knowledge about how Jesus would come from God as the Dayspring from on high. So too, may we all have more knowledge this evening on what it means for Jesus to be such a Dayspring.

So then, in case it is not yet clear, this language of dayspring refers to when the sun rises at the beginning of the dawn of a day. And as the sun rises at dawn, it breaks its light into the world, dispelling the darkness. So, in classic Christmas metaphor, when Jesus is described here as the rising sun, Jesus is being likened to light. And yet here is not just Jesus as the light, but Jesus as the light of a new day. And so Zechariah’s song goes on to describe three benefits of Jesus being such a light. One, to give light to them that sit in darkness. Two, to give light to them that are in the shadow of death. And three, to give light to guide our feet into the way of peace. Think with me on each for a moment.

So, Jesus as the Dayspring gives light to them that sit in darkness. This is the most basic description of the benefit of Jesus bringing light. It’s basic because it gives the contrast with the darkness. Imagine if you are camping and you woke up too early and can’t get back to bed. You are just waiting for the sunrise so you can get up and get your day started. Otherwise, you won’t be able to see until the sunrises. Until then, you just wait in the darkness.

Well, people apart from being saved in Christ Jesus are in darkness. William Hendriksen described such people in the darkness of delusion, depravity, and despondency. They are in the darkness of delusion, where they are spiritually blind, not recognizing the danger of God’s impending judgment that they are under. They live their lives without a sober fear of God and they live for the day, not seeing how they are storing up wrath for themselves on...

Sermon preached on Luke 22:24-38 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Worship Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 12/11/2022 in Petaluma, CA.

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Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div.

Jesus is both our savior and example. He saves us from all our sins and shows us how to live. And often he shows us those two things together at the same time. Jesus saved us in how he served us even to the point of death. And he calls us to in turn serve others in following the example he put forth as he saved us. These things we see here in today’s passage in the context of how to be a great leader in Christ’s kingdom. Let us all aspire to be great in Christ’s kingdom as a servant leader.

So then, let us dig into today’s passage. We’ll divide our sermon up into two halves, following the two main sections here. The first section is verses 24-30 where the disciples argue about who is the greatest. The second section is verses 31-34 where Jesus speaks with Peter words of prophecy, prayer, and admonition.

So then we begin in our first section in verses 24-30. Here we find Jesus’ disciples are arguing with each other. They are trying to decide which of them was to be counted as the greatest. This is sad in general, but we should remember the context to especially think of how sad this is that they are arguing about this. There are actually layers of context here, so I will help us think about that. First, remember, this is not the first time they’ve had this argument. Back in Luke 9 they were arguing like this, and Jesus admonished them that to be least is to be the greatest. Second, remember, as we saw last week, at this point in Luke they are having that Passover meal with Jesus where he had instituted the Lord’s Supper. While it is probably too common, it’s not good to argue as a family during the long-anticipated holiday meal. We just had Thanksgiving, and you know you never want an argument then. In fact, some have suggested that it was the meal itself that sparked the argument. At a formal meal like that, it would be common to be seated according to your rank and importance. You could imagine that they came to this holiday meal and they start arguing about who should be seated where, and that would be a conversation around rank and importance.

Then think of the all context of what happened at that Passover meal. It is not entirely clear here from Luke on the timing of their argument with everything else that happened that night at that meal. But just think of how their arguing about who is the greatest disciple seems especially bad in light of what we know went on that night. At that Passover meal, Jesus is just about to sacrifice his life for them. Literally back in verse 15 Jesus spoke of his impending suffering, and that’s when he institutes the Lord’s Supper. Also at this Passover meal is where according to John’s gospel that Jesus washes their feet, which is a job that servants do for their masters, not the other way around. Some have suggested that Jesus even did that because they were arguing like this. Though depending on how one understands the chronology as Luke presents it here, it is possible that they were arguing about after he had earlier washed their feet that evening. Also, that evening is when Jesus spoke both about how one of them would betray him that night and the others would that night fall away in denial of him. And so, in some close proximity to those warnings they are arguing about who is greatest. They probably should be arguing about who is the worst.

So for all these layers of context, this is a bad and untimely argument for them to be having. Jesus then turns to admonish them about it.

Sunday School class led by Rev. W. Reid Hankins at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 12/11/2022 in Petaluma, CA, assessing matters of discrimination including on sex and sexual orientation.

Sermon preached on Luke 22:1-23 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Worship Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 12/04/2022 in Petaluma, CA.

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Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div.

The action is heating up here in Luke. We are fast approaching that climactic moment where Jesus would die on the cross to save his people from his sins. As we’ve been working our way through Luke, we’ve known that’s where we’d end up. And now the plans are coming together and the final events unfolding that would come together to bring Jesus to the cross.

Let us begin then first by seeing the conspiracy that would result in Jesus’ arrest and ultimately his conviction and crucifixion. Note the background in verses 1 and 2. There we are reminded that the Jewish religious leaders are growing in their opposition to Jesus. We have seen how the religious leaders have objected to his teaching. But most recently, Jesus has boldly allowed his Messianic identity to be revealed at the Triumphal Entry. That they would not accept. In other words, the religious not only reject Jesus’ ministry, they reject his identity. They reject him as the Messiah. And so, they are now at the point where they want him dead. That’s what verse 2 says. They were seeking to put him to death. They were already beginning to make plans for how they could put him to death. But therein lies the problem. They wanted to put him to death, but they feared the people, verse 2. And all the masses were hanging on Jesus’ words, as we read recently in Luke 19:48. Yet, these religious leaders sinfully wanted to kill Jesus.

These opening verses tell us an additional complicating factor to their plans to kill Jesus. The Feast of Unleavened Bread was drawing near. It says how that was also called the Passover. To clarify, the Passover feast was technically one day before the week-long Feast of Unleavened Bread and together these celebrations were all commemorating God’s exodus of his people from Egypt. So, consequently, sometimes the Feast of Unleavened Bread is referenced under the name of Passover, which is what happens in verse 1. And so, the context of the Passover celebrations presents a problem for the religious leaders trying to kill Jesus. That’s because Passover was one of the annual pilgrimage feasts where people all over Israel came to Jerusalem to celebrate the holiday. So, the population would greatly swell and it would be hard to be able to arrest and execute Jesus without drawing the attention of the crowds that loved Jesus and which they feared. This fact made them come to the conclusion according to Matthew 26:5 that they would wait to kill Jesus until after all of the Passover festivities.

But then we come to verses 3-6 and a new opportunity presents itself to these religious leaders who were conspiring against Jesus. Enter Judas Iscariot. Actually, enter Satan into Judas. Satan had put it into the heart of Judas to betray Jesus. And so Judas proceeded to betray Jesus. He conspired against his teacher and friend, as we see in verse 4 that he takes the initiative to go to the religious leaders. He confers with them about how he might betray Jesus to them.

Notice how verse 3 brings out this betrayal aspect by noting that he was one of the twelve disciples of Jesus. One of Jesus’ inner circle of disciples whom Jesus had mentored and invested in for years now has turned against Jesus. We don’t know for sure exactly why Judas would betray Jesus. Since they agree to give him a reward here, certainly money is a big candidate. In John 12, we learn that already Judas had been a thief as he had been placed in charge of the group’s moneybag but had been secretly s...

Sunday School class led by Rev. W. Reid Hankins at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 12/04/2022 in Petaluma, CA, assessing matters of discrimination including economic discrimination.

Sermon preached on Luke 21:5-38 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Worship Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 11/27/2022 in Petaluma, CA.

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Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div.

Today we come to a passage about the end times – what is called “eschatology,” the study of the last things. Jesus is giving us prophecy here about the end times and the things that will lead up to it. Some Christians get really excited about studying the end times. Holding a Bible study on Revelation is a sure way to increase attendance. But some Christians also find the study of the end times as daunting or just too difficult or mysterious to understand. Many Christians feel quite a bit of both of those two things when they study prophecies about the end times: that it is both intriguing and intimidating. So then, hopefully our study today can both feed our interest about the end while also shine more clarity on our understanding of it.

As we tackle this passage, I will approach it in three points. First, we’ll see what Jesus says about the things to expect as we near the end of this age. Second, we’ll consider what happens at the end of this age when Christ returns. Third, we’ll see the application and exhortation that Jesus brings us about how to live here and now in light of the impending end of this age.

So then, we begin first with considering what Jesus said would be occurring as we approach the end at his return. There are quite a few things he told them that would happen before the final end of this age when he would usher in the glorious messianic kingdom and the new creation. What should become clear was that when he told them these things, he was setting the expectation that there were still several things that would have to happen before the end came. While Jesus did also preach an urgency and imminency of the coming of the kingdom, that was balanced with teaching like this that said there were yet things that would happen before the end.

So that’s related to the first thing he tells them to expect before the end. In verse 8 he warns them to expect false Messiah’s coming in his name. There will be people who rise up claiming that he is the Messiah coming at the end of the age and calling people to follow him. As we saw in similar warning back in chapter 17, and again here when he talks about his return coming in the clouds, it will be abundantly clear when he does return. If there is any doubt that it is him, then it must not be him. Because Jesus is telling us here that there won’t be any doubt when he returns, but prior to that there will be a lot of impostors. So, that is the first thing he told them and us to expect before the end: false Christs.

The next thing he tells us to expect is what we might call general troubles and tribulations that are common to all mankind. Verse 9, speaks of wars and tumults. Those wars are described in verse 10 as the ways nations and kingdom will fight against each other. And tumults is a fancy word in the Greek referring to unrest in society: think of things like riots and protests, whether they are mostly-peaceful or not. Similarly, he speaks of what we call natural disasters when he mentions big earthquakes and famines and pestilences. Verse 11 also speaks of great terrors and signs from heaven, likely having in mind things like eclipses, asteroids, comets, which are certainly things that have scared humans and at times caused even damage to the earth; even recently think of the movies that have pictured the end coming by way of a huge asteroid hitting earth. So then, a couple observations about such general troubles. One,