Trinity Presbyterian Church North Bay — Sermons & Sunday School

Sunday School class led by Rev. W. Reid Hankins at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 04/17/2022 in Novato, CA, considering Article 26 of the Belgic Confession.

Sermon preached on Isaiah 53:5 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Good Friday Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 04/15/2022.

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This chapter is one of the suffering servant prophecies in Isaiah. Those prophecies foretell the suffering that Jesus as the Messiah would undergo to save us. Isaiah 53 especially foretells not only that Jesus would have to suffer and die, but why that was necessary. The chapter as a whole tells us this, but if you had to pick just one verse from it to summarize it, surely verse 5 is it. And so, I’ve selected that verse for us to focus on this evening. Let me read verse 5 again. “But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.” What a treasure of a verse. The late OPC minister and professor EJ Young wrote of this verse, “Because of its clear-cut statement of the substitutionary atonement, it is a verse that is dear to every devout Christian heart.” Indeed, may our hearts be stirred today as we consider Christ’s suffering and why he suffered.

Let us begin first by considering what all Jesus’ suffering involved at the cross and the events immediately leading up to it. Start with how verse 5 describes it. The verse has a four-fold parallel structure to it, so it describes his suffering in four parallel ways. Given the nature of Hebrew poetry and parallelism, I think we should avoid thinking that each of these four descriptions describe four different and distinct sufferings Jesus experienced at Calvary. It’s likely not given as a bullet point list of things he suffered. Rather, each of them is a summary of his suffering and taken together they paint a picture of his passion.

So, verse 5 says that he was pierced. That he was crushed. That there was a chastisement put upon him. That he was wounded. The word for pierced, sometimes translated as wounded, most often carries the sense of a puncture wound. Like something that would happen by a sword, or a spear, or say a nail. The word for crushed is a word about smashing and breaking something into pieces. The word for chastisement refers to discipline, not in a mere punitive sense, but in the corrective sense, in the sense of bringing something good out of it. The word for wounds is actually singular in the Hebrew, though translators like to translate it here as a collective singular, meaning they seem to prefer to translate it as wounds or stripes instead of wound or stripe. The meaning of the word itself is about being struck by some blow. Often people have heard this word and thought of scourging, but as a word it could be used to describe any kind of way someone is struck, whether it be by a whip, or a hand, or a sword, or some other object. I would note that three of four of these descriptions would lend them to think of something fatal. I refer to the language of being pierced, crushed, and struck. The third description of chastisement stands out differently in that it thinks of suffering that results in some good that comes out of it. Taken together, we can see how the poetic language of verse 5 wonderfully brings together a picture of Jesus’ death on the cross that nonetheless results in something wonderful.

Moving from beyond the poetry of verse 5, remember how this came to pass then in Jesus on that Good Friday. He was betrayed, arrested, falsely charged and convicted, reviled, struck, scourged, mocked, exposed, and crucified until he died. Even after his death, they further defiled his body by piercing his side with a spear. More could be mentioned, like the crown of thorns or how they divided his garments or how he thirsted as he hung there. So much suffering. But it was for a purpose.

Sermon preached on Luke 11:37-54 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Worship Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 04/10/2022 in Novato, CA.

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The tensions continue to rise in the Gospel of Luke between Jesus and the religious leaders. Here, we see Jesus faced off against the Pharisees and lawyers again. The setting is that a Pharisee invited him into his home for a meal. Apparently, there were other Pharisees and lawyers there too. Remember that the Pharisees were a religious party among the Jews, somewhat similar to a denomination today. They were the most popular religious group too. As for those here described as lawyers, also known as scribes, this would have referred to their career or profession. These were the educated Bible scholars and Bible preachers and teachers of the day. Most of these lawyers would have been of the Pharisee party. That is why when Jesus begins to critique the Pharisees here, a lawyer objects that Jesus’ words would also speak against the lawyers. Jesus didn’t disagree, but instead turned to further direct words specifically against the lawyers. That will be our general outline for today. We’ll consider Jesus’ various rebukes against the Pharisees in general and then his rebukes against the lawyers more specifically.

So then let’s begin with his words against the Pharisees. These start in verse 39. He begins by rebuking their emphasis on external cleanliness while missing the importance that our hearts be clean. There were many ceremonial laws of cleanliness under the Old Testament, but the Pharisees had added many more on top of them. They cleaned anything and everything in the name of religion. But Jesus teaches here that the real concern of religion is clean hearts. That is in fact what they should have understood as the ultimately significance of those many ceremonial laws. Jesus even calls them fools in verse 40 for how they missed this point. It is easy to get caught up in the externals of religion and outward actions. Jesus’s rebuke of the Pharisees must be a reminder to not miss that the chief aim of godliness is a changed heart. Jesus further makes this point in verse 41 when he says to give as alms those things that are within. The word alms is a fancy word for doing acts of mercy in the name of religion, usually meant in the sense of a gift of food or money given to the poor. Jesus says to have your mercy ministry be things that come from a purified heart. If your religious service to God is coming from that place, everything else will work itself out. But if you are only doing external acts of religion but inside your hearts are wicked, then it doesn’t matter what you do, because you are just a hypocrite at that point.

Jesus then turns to issue three woes against the Pharisees. A woe is a denunciation. It laments the state of someone, usually with the sense of impending doom that will come to them because of it. Back in chapter 6 we saw Jesus speaks woes in contrast to beatitudes. One’s situation could be something of blessedness or of woe. So then, the first woe against the Pharisees here is in verse 38 where he contrasts their diligence in tithing versus their neglect in justice and love of God. Consider the details here. Jesus speaks of how they tithe even things as small as herbs. That fastidiousness is arguably above and beyond the duty even required by the law of God. But Jesus says their problem is that while they are putting so much attention to the one narrow duty of tithing, yet they’ve neglected other more larger duties of the law. When he references their neglect of justice and love of God, we can remember how the law of God can be summarized as love your neighbor as yourself and love God with all your heart, soul, and strength. This neglect of justice is a rather broad word about n...

Sunday School class led by Rev. W. Reid Hankins at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 04/10/2022 in Novato, CA, considering Article 25 of the Belgic Confession.

Sermon preached on Luke 11:29-36 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Worship Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 04/3/2022 in Novato, CA.

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Last week’s passage drew our attention to Jesus’ power over Satan. The hope was given that Jesus would ultimately conquer Satan, that ancient accuser of the saints. It is good news to think of Jesus finally conquering that age old accuser. Yet, in that context, even while we see a growing crowd around Jesus, he tells them that they might not yet escape accusation before God. In a surprising twist, he speaks of how some unlikely Gentiles of history might be those who accuse those of that generation that supposed themselves to be God’s people. So then, today we’ll think first about this present generation to which Jesus was ministering, then on these historical examples of Gentiles who would accuse them, and then lastly on what we learn about Jesus here. I will focus primarily on verses 29-32, but I will discuss the parable of the lamp and eye from verses 33-36 briefly at the end.

Let us begin then by discussing the generation that Jesus was ministering to. This is fitting because no less than five times in these few verses is the word generation used to reference that people he was ministering unto. To clarify, this generation would have most specifically referred to the Jewish people unto whom Jesus at that time was focusing his preaching ministry. He has strong words of condemnation here to that generation. It is true that these words could be more broadly applied to all of fallen humanity. Yes, the world in general was sinful and not seeking the Lord. But I think it is important to recognize that Jesus was most specifically addressing this to the one group of people in the world that should have known better. The Jews at that time were supposed to be the holy people of God. Yet Jesus declares here that so many of them were spiritually blind with darkened hearts, and they were under God’s condemnation because of it.

So then, in verse 29 we see the first thing that Jesus tells us about that generation. He says the were an evil generation. The word here for evil is the typical word for evil in the Greek. It is as broad of sounding description for wickedness and badness and depravity as it sounds like in English. Again, in context, one might remember Satan and his unclean spirits. They are evil. But so is this generation that Jesus is addressing, broadly speaking. They are sinners. “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” (Romans 3:10-11). That generation was an evil generation, and generally speaking, they had not repented of their sin.

Verse 29 then goes on to further describe this evil generation by saying that they are seeking a sign. This is relating them to Jesus and his ministry. When Jesus says they are evil, we can think of all the things they are doing that they aren’t supposed to be doing, all their sins of commission. But here, when we think of how they are coming to Jesus, we might at first think they are coming for a good reason. We might think that it shows they are beginning to turn around from their evil by coming to Jesus. Yet, instead, Jesus says that they are largely flocking to him as sign-seekers. This growing crowd that is referenced in verse 29 had come to Jesus for the wrong reason.

There can be different kinds of sign-seekers. We remember the kind we saw last week in verse 16 were people doubted Jesus and demanded more signs in order for Jesus to prove himself. That was after he had just done a sign in casting out a demon, yet such sign-seekers weren’t satisfied with that!

Sunday School class led by Rev. W. Reid Hankins at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 04/03/2022 in Novato, CA, considering Article 25 of the Belgic Confession.

Sermon preached on Luke 11:14-28 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Worship Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 03/27/2022 in Novato, CA.

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There is much mystery associated with demons in the Bible and the full nature of how they afflict humans. Yet, despite such mystery, there is also great clarity in the Bible that they exist and that spiritual warfare is a reality for the Christian. Today’s passage draws our attention again to some of the light that Scripture sheds on this subject. And let us be reminded again that ultimately victory belongs to the Lord.

Let us in our first point consider the casting out of demons that we see described here. This is something we’ve been seeing Jesus doing in Luke’s gospel. From the very start of his public ministry in Luke chapter 4 we see Jesus beginning to cast out demons. Luke’s gospel portrays the casting out of such unclean spirits as typical of Jesus, alongside his other works of power when he regularly heals people. Apparently, it was not just Jesus who labored to cast out demons at that time, because in verse 19 he references how his critics have “sons”, probably a reference to their own disciples, who also try to cast out demons. I would note that we should not equate how Jesus cast out demons identically with whatever his critics’ disciples were doing when they tried to cast out demons. How effective or even legitimate was the efforts that their disciples did in casting out demons is not here stated. Rather, Jesus simply recognizes that they had their own disciples who labored to exorcise demons. Whatever those disciples tried to accomplish, they surely did not cast out demons in the same measure and authority that Jesus did, given how much notoriety Jesus gained by his exorcisms. Otherwise, you wouldn’t see all the repeated marvel by the people when he did nor all the jealousy by his critics. But the point is that all the accounts of casting out demons speaks to the need of Jesus’ ministry in doing battle with Satan and his demonic forces.

In today’s passage, we see a specific example of casting out a demon in verse 14. There the demon is identified as a mute demon, which at a minimum referred to the effect that demon brought on the person he inhabited. The man was mute until Jesus cast out the unclean spirit, and then the man was able to speak. The result was that the people marveled at that power exercised by Jesus over that demon. One thing we see here is that such demonic oppression in many cases caused observable afflictions in people. Here it was to cause muteness. Or like we saw back in chapter 8 with that Legion of demons in that man, it caused the man to be out of his mind, taking off his clothes and wandering about in the desert. So, such demonic affliction could leave people physically or mentally afflicted. That is a horrible state to be in.

Near the end of today’s passage, Jesus also speaks of how someone could have a demon leave them and then later return. I refer to verses 24-26. There Jesus speaks of a demon leaving someone and wandering around in some waterless place. We can appreciate the imagery there – if we might tend to imagine angels inhabiting some paradise with God, we can appreciate that a demon might find itself wandering lonely in some desert-like place. But Jesus then imagines that demon deciding to return to the person it previously inhabited, only to come back and find the person’s life seemingly in order. But then Jesus envisions how that demon will go and bring seven more demons to then go and reinhabit that person. Jesus says the end result is that the person is worse off than before. So, just the casting out of a demon alone is not a sufficient solution since Jesus describes the possibility that one could be reinhabited. Again,

Sunday School class led by Rev. W. Reid Hankins at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 03/27/2022 in Novato, CA, considering Article 24 of the Belgic Confession.

Sermon preached on Luke 11:1-13 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Worship Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 03/20/2022 in Novato, CA.

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Today we come to the topic of prayer. Jesus teaches us several things about prayer here. By way of introduction, let me note what is not taught about prayer here. Prayer is not about us trying to listen or hear from God. Last chapter ended by Jesus saying that Mary’s listening to him and his teachings was of chief importance. That’s true. But the way you will hear from God is in his Word. The way you will listen to Jesus’ teachings is by reading the Bible. Prayer is about listening, but amazingly it’s not about us listening to God but about God listening to us! Let us then dig into our passage today to learn more about prayer.

We’ll begin in our first point by considering the setting for this instruction on prayer. It’s there in verse 1. Jesus himself had been praying and that sparked one of his disciples to ask Jesus to teach them about prayer. The disciple notes how John the Baptist taught his disciples how to pray, and so he petitions Jesus to do the same. This is a petition Jesus gladly answers right away and we then have this whole section teaching on prayer. Right away we see that prayer is something to be taught. It is something you have to learn how to do. Pastors and elders certainly teach the church members how to pray, not only by specific instruction, but also by the example of their prayers. So too, parents teach their children to pray in the same ways. Christians have to be taught how to pray and hopefully our prayer life matures over time. So, there is great value in having passages like this to direct us in our prayers.

Let me also note that the setting here in verse 1 suggests that this is a different occasion than when Jesus taught what we call the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6. I point that out because clearly the prayer Jesus teaches here in verses 2-4 is very similar, though much shorter, than the Lord’s Prayer found in Matthew. Well, the setting there in Matthew’s version of the Lord’s Prayer is during the Sermon on the Mount during the early period of Jesus’ ministry. At that time, he had just recently called his disciples and had been conducting his ministry primarily in the region of Galilee. That sermon then began with the Beatitudes and eventually turned to the topic of prayer. In comparison, this setting here in Luke is much later in Jesus’ ministry, during his period of ministry “on the way” to Jerusalem, and the teaching time was sparked by a question from a disciple. So then, the different setting here suggests that this was a different occasion where Jesus again taught on prayer and made use of some material he had taught on previously. As someone who just reused a series on biblical decision making at our presbyter Snow Rally, I know it is not uncommon to reuse some material and that inevitably the teaching sessions are not going to be identical.

So then, apparently Jesus taught this slightly shorter version of his Lord’s Prayer here on this occasion in verses 2-4. That would help to remind us that Jesus’s purpose in teaching the Lord’s Prayer was not to give us a liturgical form. I’m not saying it is wrong to use the Lord’s Prayer liturgically. We do here and many congregations have down through the centuries. But to use it as a liturgical form does not mean that was the primary purpose that Jesus gave it. If it was, you’d expect that Matthew and Luke’s accounts would be identical. Rather, Jesus gave this as an example of how to pray in order to illustrate some of the kinds of things we might be praying for in our prayers. While we are on this subject, I would note that there are actually a number of ancient manuscripts that do have Luke’s versi...

Sunday School class led by Rev. W. Reid Hankins at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 03/20/2022 in Novato, CA, considering Article 24 of the Belgic Confession.