The vivacious and vibrant, Andrew Sandlin, ministered to us on Pentecost Sunday. Here is his sermon emphasizing the application of Pentecost to the life of the Christian.
Taming the Bible
From my sermon The Sacred Violence of Judges:
Our evangelical culture has tamed the Bible. They have kept our covenant children away from the sacred violence of Judges. Jesus has become the gentle shepherd holding his sheep, instead of the defender of his sheep who will act violently against those who threaten his sheep. The book of Judges is not just for the experienced Bible student, it is for little children for as such belong the kingdom of heaven. The little children in Israel rejoiced over the stories of how Yahweh defeated their enemies. The little children in the New Israel, the Church, have even greater reason to rejoice because Jesus has indeed defeated His greatest enemy, the devil.
John 18:33-37 The Nature of the Kingdom: Theocracy and Truth, Sermon Audio
Sermon Audio at Providence Church, Last Sunday of the Church Year
 |
Speaker: Pastor Uriesou Tenorio Brito
Date: 11/22/2009
More audio from Providence Church Pensacola
Category: Sermon
Price: FREE
|
Sermon, Uri Brito, “The Nature of the Kingdom: Theocracy and Truth”, John 18:33-37
Sermon Manuscript & Footnotes
Text: 33 So Pilate entered his headquarters again and called Jesus and said to him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” 34 Jesus answered, “Do you say this of your own accord, or did others say it to you about me?” 35 Pilate answered, “Am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests have delivered you over to me. What have you done?” 36 Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.” 37 Then Pilate said to him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.”
Prayer: Our God, thank you for bringing us to this point in our calendar. We thank you for guiding your Church through it and by so doing, structuring our lives around the life of Christ our Messiah. Teach us about your kingdom and teach us to love your kingdom. For this is our Prayer, O Lord. Amen. Continue reading “John 18:33-37 The Nature of the Kingdom: Theocracy and Truth, Sermon Audio”
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Sermon: Isaiah 5:1-7, Wild Grapes
Note: I am in the process of transferring all my sermons to wordmp3.com. This is my first sermon at Providence Church (CREC) in October 5th, 2008.
Isaiah 5:1 Let me sing for my beloved my love song concerning his vineyard: My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill. 2 He dug it and cleared it of stones, and planted it with choice vines; he built a watchtower in the midst of it, and hewed out a wine vat in it; and he looked for it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes. 3 And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard. 4 What more was there to do for my vineyard, that I have not done in it? When I looked for it to yield grapes, why did it yield wild grapes? 5 And now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard. I will remove its hedge, and it shall be devoured; I will break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down. 6 I will make it a waste; it shall not be pruned or hoed, and briers and thorns shall grow up; I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it. 7 For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are his pleasant planting; and he looked for justice, but behold, bloodshed; for righteousness, but behold, an outcry!
Introduction:
“Their foot shall slide in due time.” This was the dreadful text in Deuteronomy heard that day when Jonathan Edwards announced the doom of those who “brought forth bitter and poisonous fruit.”[1] Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God seems to be a prevailing theme in the mouth of the prophets. But the anger of God in the Scriptures does not arise out of nothing; it arises in response to the unfaithfulness of His people. Our text this morning in Isaiah 5 reveals the response of an angry God.
It was the Danish poet and author Hans Christian Anderson who once wrote that “Where words fail, music speaks.” Indeed nothing is more memorable than music. We may not know the complexities of Luther’s theology, but we all know the splendor of his Reformation hymn, A Mighty Fortress is Our God.
When the prophets’ words fail to reach the expected result—which is repentance—God may often use other means to bring about His message. God may make a man marry a prostitute to convey His message; He may lead a man to the middle of a valley filled with dry bones to convey His covenant promises; or He may make a man sing, so that the music may speak to their unrepentant hearts. Continue reading “Sermon: Isaiah 5:1-7, Wild Grapes”
Pentecost Season: Shepherding the Wind; Ecclesiastes 1:12-18
Prayer: Our Lord Christ, in You are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. We pray that the word of Christ would dwell in us richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in our hearts to God. For this is our prayer, O Lord. Amen.
Sermon: People of God, Ecclesiastes is an apologetic against nihilism and fatalism. Ecclesiastes is not about the meaninglessness of life, it’s about trusting God to control what we cannot. The preacher says life is vapor, because we are not called to be in control of our lives, we are called to live faithfully and place our cares on the Faithful One.
In our passage this morning, Solomon speaks much about wisdom and knowledge. He has gained wisdom both by prudent men and foolish men; the slothful and the diligent.[1] Solomon devotes himself[2] to search and explore wisely all things done under heaven. If there is anyone who can search things out, it is Solomon. He has received wisdom not only from man, but as a gift from God. This is a kingly wisdom. He searches out the earth. He seeks all things that are under heaven and he concludes that it is an unhappy business that God has given to keep us occupied. Continue reading “Pentecost Season: Shepherding the Wind; Ecclesiastes 1:12-18”
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Pentecost Season: Ecclesiastes 1:1-11, Vapor of Vapors!
Prayer: O Most Holy and Wise God, all authority and power in heaven and earth belong to You. May we see Your wisdom as You order the world according to Your divine purposes. Amen.
Sermon: People of God, William Ernest Henley once said: “I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul.”[1] Henley embraced the idea that man is in charge. He is the pilot when it comes to his destiny. He is controlling every step of his life. He is unhindered by outside forces. Man is the great I AM.
If man is the master of his fate and the captain of his soul, then there is no need for the triune God. He has mastered his ways, he leans on his own understanding and he believes that he can construct his future on the basis of his past.
However, the book of Ecclesiastes tells a different story. In fact, it tells an exactly opposite story. It says that the idea of being in control of your life is a myth. It simply does not exist. It is true we can prepare for life, we can study with the hopes of knowing certain things better than others, we can save money in the bank, make intelligent investments, but according to Solomon, it is all vapor.
The reality of the words of Solomon in Ecclesiastes is that no matter how much we try to get a good grasp of our lives, we are only grasping at vapor.
Before we elaborate further on Ecclesiastes 1, it is important to understand this linguistic question right at the beginning. We know that the son of David is Solomon. Solomon’s perspective of life is a very mature one. He has gone through various stages. II Kings 11 gives us a tour of Solomon’s apostasy, which can be summarized in two words: Immorality and Idolatry.
Though Ecclesiastes begins dark, it has a bright future. The words of Solomon are a “repentant rejection of his previous apostasy.”[2] We understand Solomon’s repentance when we read his words in verse 2. Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity.
Traditionally, the Hebrew word “hebel” has been translated as “vanity” or “meaninglessness.” But Solomon does not have that in mind. If life is completely meaningless or if all we do is vanity, then this undermines the beautiful redemptive history of the church. It undermines the celebratory nature of our gathering on this Lord’s Day, it undermines our feasting, and it undermines the fruit of the labor that we bring in our tithing. If our labor is vanity and meaningless, then why does God take pleasure in our gifts to Him? Continue reading “Pentecost Season: Ecclesiastes 1:1-11, Vapor of Vapors!”
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Pentecost Season: Yahweh Saves! Psalm 20
Sermon: People of God, the third commandment tells us that we are not to take the Name of the Lord our God in vain. The third commandment is another way of saying: You shall have no others gods but Me, which is the first commandment. When Yahweh says we are not to take His Name in vain, He is saying that we are to carry His Name with honor. We are to bear that Name on our foreheads day and night. We are to carry the Name of our Lord to our workplace, to our schools, in our homes, in our relationships, in our activities and in all that we do Yahweh’s Name is to be permanently a part of who we are.
We are image-bearers of Yahweh. The Lord has placed His seal upon us; He has elected us before the foundation of the world that we should be imitators of Him.
But why are we to hold, bear, and carry Yahweh’s Name with us; because as Psalm 20 declares: God saves, sustains us, upholds and answers us. We need not be afraid if Yahweh is with us. As the Psalmist says, “Thy Rod and Thy Staff, they comfort Me.” These are all divine acts. God is the initiator of all good things. He defends us because we are His people and His sheep.
Psalm 20 is a model prayer for Yahweh’s Covenant people to follow in times of trouble and distress. The Psalm tells us that if we trust in Yahweh alone, if we worship Yahweh alone and if we bear Yahweh’s Name alone in all our doings, He will remember us. Calvin writes that this prayer was given to the church “whenever she was threatened with any danger.”[1]
This prayer is a prayer for God to intercede on behalf of civil authorities. Verse 9 tells us that it is a prayer for a King. This prayer is designed for us to call on Yahweh to direct the steps of those who are leading us. God’s chosen people counted a privilege to live under a leader that was appointed by God. This King was God’s appointed defender of His people. The King defended the innocent.
What is unique about this psalm is that there is no separation between church and state. The reality of the Old Covenant was that church and state worked together to accomplish the same goal: the Lordship of Yahweh in all the land. But though church and state worked together, they did not interfere in each other’s affairs. As we learned from II Chronicles 26 concerning King Uzziah, a King was not to burn incense in the temple; the temple was the responsibility of the priest. In the same manner, a priest was not to be a politician, while serving bread and wine. The priest had a prophetic role to call the civil magistrates to embrace Yahweh as Lord.
This is a psalm of David. It is possible that this is David in an old age, perhaps in the end of his life. It is a mature reflection on the need for the people of God to lift up the civil magistrates in prayer. But this is not just an Old Covenant, Old World principle, this carries on clearly in the New Covenant. In I Timothy 2, Paul urges us to pray for all those in high positions, which for us includes the president, congress, senate and all those in authority in the federal level and in a localized level. So this Psalm of David is a call for God’s chosen people in the Old Testament and in this New Age of the Kingdom.
Let’s examine this prayer a little deeper.
What is the nature of this prayer? We know that Yahweh is the Savior; apart from Him we can do nothing. The prayer is directed to the God of Jacob, but according to verse 2, the petition is that God would bring help from the sanctuary and support from Zion. The Psalmist is placing the worship gathering as a source of help to the king. He is saying that the ruler needs desperate help from the church. In essence, the church, which is the sanctuary, is the fountain of all good mercies and graces. But why is this the case? It is the case because God has ordained praise and adoration to come from his holy sanctuary; He has ordained prayers, supplications, worship, spiritual nurture, maturity and all other graces to be sought within the sanctuary. It is through the gathering of the saints in renewing our covenants with Yahweh and asking Yahweh to remember His covenant with us, to remember His covenant promises to you and to your children. We can say without a doubt that the pages of redemptive history place the church as the center of all activities in the Kingdom. To be sure, the Church is not the kingdom, but it is at its center. God promises to protect His Church from the gates of hell and by necessity He promises to protect individual families and the civil government through the means of the One, Apostolic Church. This is why the early church, the Reformers and we continue to say today “that apart from the Trinitarian-ordained Church, there is no deliverance to be found.”
Psalm 20 serves as an indictment to those who profess the Name of our Lord and yet willingly decide to stay away from the Lord’s Church.
In verse 3, Yahweh will remember the King’s tribute. That is, the King will offer the fruit of his labor to God. God will remember the tribute of the King. God, in fact, delights in the works of the King. They are works of obedience. Far from a robotic relationship between God and man, God covenants with man. It is a true and genuine relationship. God remembers your offerings, that is, He memorializes it. He sees the king’s works as a good thing. In the same manner, we do good works to please our God. We offer Him our tribute offerings. This is clearly a call for the people of God to give their offerings to the sanctuary of God, where the ministry of God is most clearly seen. James tells us that good works is a proof of our living faith.
In the end of verse 3 we read that God accepts the kings’ sacrifice. “In this offering, the worshipper killed an animal and then presented the whole animal to God so that all of the meat is consumed in the fire and turned into smoke which ascends up into God’s presence, mingling with the Glory-Cloud that fills the tabernacle or temple.”[2] God clearly takes joy in the gifts of men.
In verses 4-5, we see the continuation of petitions from the people on behalf of the King. Though there are nine wishes in this Psalm for the king, we see seven “may’s.” We see three may’s in verses 4 and 5. May God grant your heart’s desire; may we shout for joy over your salvation; and may the Lord fulfill your petitions. This is a Psalm of victory. The people are asking Yahweh to give victory to the King, because if the King is victorious, so are the people. The people are asking that the King’s heart be so attuned with the heart of God that the King may be a man after God’s own heart, so that his petitions and requests would be aligned with the will of Yahweh. The Psalmist even prays that we may shout for joy over the salvation of the king. The prayer is that Yahweh would bring victory to His anointed over His enemies; those who oppose the message of the prophets. Continue reading “Pentecost Season: Yahweh Saves! Psalm 20”
Podcast: Play in new window | Download