Joy in Christ

Beecher Island Sunday School Sermon

August 5, 2018

Acts 1: 4-11

by Hunter Irvine

+ Open in prayer.

= Acts 1: 4-11 reading by Zach

+   In Sunday school, we learned we can be joyful that Jesus died for our sins.

     We can be joyful that Jesus was resurrected!

     And we learned the apostles were joyful after seeing Jesus ascend into heaven, as is recorded at the conclusion of the book of Luke.

   The ascension of Jesus is a Biblical doctrine preserved in the Nicene Creed.  However, I hardly hear Christians talk about it, and I do not remember ever hearing a sermon on the topic.  For me, the event raises a big question:

If Jesus loves us, why did He leave?

He was only with people for 33 years.

Think of all the time of human history, and yet God was with humanity for only 33 years.  That does not seem very loving.

After Jesus was resurrected, Luke states He remained in the world interacting with people for 40 days.  But then after 40 days came the ascension.

If you love someone, you do not want to leave them.

And if you love someone and they leave, you are sad.

   Five years ago, I started teaching Bible in Appalachia.  I was thinking about this the other day, because I arrived at the small Christian school on August 1st, only a few days before school started.  Leaving Denver was one of the hardest things I have ever done, because there are people in Denver whom I love.  I am like an uncle to two kids, and I was heartbroken I had to leave them.  As much as I wanted to teach Bible, it was one of the hardest times of my life.

Then when I returned to Denver two years later, there was much joy.  The first thing I did with those two kids I love so much was head out on one of those boats you peddle with your feet.  I had never done that before, and it was an ideal day to be outside in Denver, yet it was a truly joyful day for me for the one reason that I was back with my two buddies.

   Why did Jesus leave us alone?  As a follower of Jesus I have always had His word, yet He has not been on earth in the flesh to look in the eyes.

   My Dad is a special man, and he attends a special church in Virginia, where he has been a member ever since he turned to Christ, being influenced for Christ at that church.

One Sunday, he was going down the Sunday school hall, and he saw a group of young children coming towards him.  They were young, around three years old, and they were carrying a blanket which had a baby doll on it.  The teacher for the children was standing a bit behind them.  These cute little kids approached my dad and asked, “Have you seen Jesus?  We are looking for Jesus!”

My dad responded, “Well I have not seen Him today.  What is going on?”

“This person cannot walk.  We need to find Jesus because He can help this person walk!  We want him to walk.”

Dad said, “You are correct; Jesus can make him walk.  You keep looking, and I am sure that you will find Jesus.”

“Yes, we are going to keep looking.  We are not going to stop looking.  We want this person to walk.”

And away the little band of young children went down the hall.

It is not only children looking for Jesus.  There have been times in my life when circumstances were so crummy that I wanted to see Jesus in the flesh.

Yet His ascension into heaven was not a desertion.

+ Carefully reading the text, we learn that Jesus did not leave us alone!

   After Jesus left, He baptized His disciples with the Holy Spirit.

= John 1:33 “I [John the Baptist] would not have known him, except that the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, ‘The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is he who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.’  I have seen and I testify that this is the Son of God.”

   We Christians believe in the triune God, who is three Persons – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  He is three Persons being One.  Thus the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Christ, thus Christ remains with a believer in the most personal of ways.

   When a person believes in Jesus, she or he has been cleansed of sin because of Christ’s atonement, and she or he is justified before God (Romans 5:1).  Thus that person is baptized with the Spirit of Christ, who indwells a person’s heart.

Paul stated in I Corinthians 3:16, “Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you?”

   Thus begins “sanctification,” being made more like Jesus, who is holy.  The Holy Spirit works to improve the heart of a person.

The Holy Spirit enables us to become more like Jesus.

The Holy Spirit is the One who can enable us to live in communion with God every single day!!!

The Holy Spirit indwells every believer at every minute. He is not only with you when in church.  The Holy Spirit is with you every minute of every day!

   The Holy Spirit enables us to continue to seek forgiveness, recognizing our wrong doings and relying on Him to do what is good.

The Holy Spirit enables us to forgive!

My parents are divorced, and one of the toughest things I ever did was forgive my parents.  I was enabled by the Holy Spirit.

   The Holy Spirit helps us to interpret Scripture.

When I served in my first ministry position in Grand Junction, Colorado, many years ago, I read a book where the person emphasized how critical it is to have the Holy Spirit assist you when you are working to interpret Scripture.  Knowing that and living according has been a key to my Bible studying all these years.

   Really and truly, Christianity is a relationship with God.  We cannot see the Holy Spirit, which is the hard part, especially when circumstances are crummy.  Yet He is there for the person who is willing to open up to Him.

God the Holy Spirit is with us!  Joy can result!!

Fellowship with the Holy Spirit brings joy!

   I add we can be joyful Jesus is going to return!!

Sometime after I got started writing the sermon for this passage, I realized it would be too much for me to cover both the Holy Spirit and the Second Coming of Christ in a single sermon.  I will give a teaching on the later another day.

Yet I proclaim here, Jesus is coming back!

One day we will be with our heavenly Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, in full!!!  That is a continued reason to have joy.

+ Invitation:   If you do not know Jesus as your Savior and Lord, you can today.  I invite you to receive Christ now.

He did ascend into heaven.

He is on His throne in heaven.

Jesus will come again!

Jesus died on a cross for the forgiveness of sins of anyone.  He was the substitute for the wages of sins, which is spiritual death.  Then He was resurrected.  If you believe in Jesus, you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit, and you will have eternal life in Christ.

Believe in Jesus!

Beecher Island Sunday School Sermon

July 1, 2018

Acts 16: 22-34

by Hunter Irvine

+ Open in prayer.

= Acts 16: 22-34 reading by Johanna

+   Last month we learned about Peter being put into prison.  Now we have Paul and Silas put into prison.  Different circumstances.  A different place; Paul and Silas were in Philippi.  However, they were all put in for the same reason.  They were all preaching the Gospel and doing ministry work by the power of Jesus Christ.

Here, Paul frees a young lady in the name of Jesus from a bad spirit.  She was a slave, and her owners had been using her to make money.  Her owners became irate they would no longer be able to make money from her, and they come up with accusations against Paul and Silas.

The result is Paul and Silas are beat really bad.
Then they are thrown in prison.
They are even put in stocks.

During my youth, my parents rarely took a family vacation, other than an annual trip to Ocean City, Maryland.  Yet there were a few other trips, including a memorable vacation to Williamsburg, Virginia.  I thought Williamsburg was so cool.  People dressed in colonial attire carry out jobs which were done back in the 1700’s.  For example, there was a woman making candles and man making bricks.  In the governor’s mansion, there was a violin trio, playing music from the 1700’s.  As a kid, Williamsburg increased my interest in history.
Numerous red brick colonial buildings are restored, and that includes the jail.  In front of the jail are the stockades, where people were locked in for a period of time for public humiliation.  You can put yourself in the stocks, without being locked in of course.  There are pieces of wood on a sliding track with holes for a head and hands.  You lift it up and put your head in, and then put it down.  There is no way a person could break out of it if it was locked.  My parents took a picture.  I always like that picture.
   They also had a similar contraption for your feet.
   Paul and Silas were in stocks.  Whatever type of stocks they had there in Philippi, the odds of getting out was probably zero.

   Even though Paul and Silas were beat really bad and are in prison, they are singing hymns to God!
Being in pain, being in a pitch dark jail, they still have hope.
Note other prisoners were listening to them.  They were being a witness of hope to other prisoners.

Then came an earthquake.  Natural disasters are a part of this fallen world.  However, this was a unique earthquake from God I think.  The chains came loose for all of the prisoners, and the stocks were opened.  Normally in an earthquake, a person's fragile flesh would get hurt in an earthquake.  Yet chains fall off.  Also, the doors flew open all at the same time.

Yet Paul, Silas, and the other prisoners did not make a run for it.
The earthquake wakes up the jailer, and when he sees the prison doors open, he thinks the prisoners escaped, so he is going to commit suicide, because he knows he would be executed for allowing the prisoners to get away.
Back a few chapters in the passage of Acts where God freed Peter from prison, the next day an investigation was done regarding how Peter escaped, and of course no one could figure it out.  The result was that Herod had all 16 of the Roman soldiers who were guarding Peter executed.  That is what probably would have happened to the jailer there in Philippi, a Roman colony.
Yet Paul shouts out to the jailer they are all still there.  Paul cares about the jailer!

The jailer seems to recognize God was involved in this whole prison event.  Maybe he had even caught wind of the reason they were in prison in the first place.

The jailer asks the ultimate question: “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”

Paul and Silas respond with the ultimate answer: “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved – you and your household.”

~  +   The message for us is clear: Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved!!!

This verse here in the middle of the church story in Acts, is a pinnacle verse:
“Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved!”

   Do note this passage is not teaching patriarchal salvation or infant baptism.  This passage is teaching salvation is available for all people.  The word of God was told to all the family, and they all believed!

   The first time I ever served here, I told a story about a time my grandma and I went for a drive in the eastern plains.  Grandma was born on a homestead, and raised on that farm.  She was a true farm lady at heart.
   Her family moved to Keenesburg, so she and her sisters could attend Keenesburg High School, and then Grandma went with her Mom on Sundays to the Methodist church in Keenesburg where her mom taught a Sunday school class.  Grandma admired and loved her mom, and Grandma liked going to church with her.  I think a seed was planted at that time.  But Grandma did not enter a personal relationship with Jesus.
   When Grandma was 17, her parents got separated, and she moved with her mom to Denver.  Her mom started running a boarding house, and Grandma got a job at Gates.  She would live in the city of Denver the rest of her life in this world, except for her last year plus when she was in a nursing home in Wheat Ridge.
She married my Grandpa in the late 1930’s.  He was a special guy.  But he had been raised in a denomination he did not agree with, and he veered away from God.  As a result, neither he nor grandma ever went to church, with one exception.  Every Sunday, they would attend the sunrise service on Easter at Red Rocks amphitheater.  But neither had a personal relationship with Jesus.
   After my grandpa died, my grandma was in shock.  She soon moved to Windsor Gardens, a retirement community.  There she was encouraged by a caring woman to attend some clubs, and to attend the community church there.  At that church she heard the preaching of Dr. David Beckman, the best preacher I have ever heard.  At that church, she realized the love and care of the assistant pastor, Dick Chambers.  A man who had never taken a theology class in his life, he was a truly caring man.  With such an influence, at some point, Grandma believed in the Lord Jesus, and she was saved.  She was in her late 70’s!  She still physically died.  Yet she is now in heaven now.

+   Invitation        I give an invitation today, that if you do not know Jesus as your Savior and Lord, all you need to do is believe, and you will be saved.
   To be in an everlasting relationship with Jesus Christ, what you need to do is to truly believe in Jesus, and you will receive the Spirit of Christ in your heart.

Jesus Christ died on a cross for the forgiveness of sins of anyone.  He was the substitute for the consequence of sins, which is h-ll.  If you believe in Jesus, you will be saved, and you will have eternal life in heaven with our Holy God.

Scripture Love Blog

Overjoyed

Beecher Island Sunday School Sermon

Acts 12: 1-17

by Hunter Irvine

= Acts 12: 1-17 reading by Trevor

+ Open in prayer

+   Peter is led out of prison by an angel of the Lord.  Chains fell, the guards remained sound asleep, and gates opened.
It was a miraculous rescue.  Otherwise Herod probably would have had Peter killed just as he had the apostle James killed.

Peter goes straight to the home of John Mark’s mom.
  Peter is still in danger!
    Peter knocks!

A young lady named Rhoda goes to answer the door.  Rhoda possibly came from a broken family or maybe her father died, thus the reason she was working as a servant there in Jerusalem.  She probably did much cooking and cleaning.

Rhoda is a gutsy young lady, because there so late at night, it could have been soldiers at the door.

At night a person surely would only open the door if he or she recognized the person’s voice.  There was no porch light and no street lights.  Houses usually did not have low windows to be able to look out to see who was there.  Windows, which were open spaces normally to allow ventilation, were often high for safety reasons, and to avoid the smell of garbage in the street.  No kidding, in a Humanities class I had at Virginia Tech, one time the professor talked for a long time during a class on the topic of the placement of windows in ancient houses.  How wild I remember that all these years later.

So Rhoda would have said something like, “Who is it?”  She recognized Peter’s voice.  But instead of opening the door, she is so “overjoyed,” she runs back to the gathering room and tells everyone Peter is at the door.

Reading this after the fact, it is funny.  Of course at the time Peter probably did not think it was funny.

I love Rhoda.  She is so enthusiastic she wants to tell everyone!
They state she is crazy.  Yet she keeps insisting!

Meanwhile Peter keeps banging on the door, and they finally let him in.

~   Rhoda is overjoyed that Peter is alive!

+   The message for us:   We can be overjoyed that Jesus is alive!

God did some incredible miracles during the early period of Christianity to preserve Gospel.  This miracle was one of them.

However, Peter still physically died later on.  Around 64 A.D., Peter was ministering in Rome at the time of the evil emperor Nero.  Peter was murdered along with his wife.  One Christian stated Peter was crucified upside down, since Peter requested to be crucified this way since he did not want to be crucified in the same position as Jesus.

Yet Jesus was resurrected!!

And all those who believe in Jesus are resurrected by Jesus!

+   A week ago, I was driving to the store, and I was paying attention driving because a number of people were driving terribly.  A song came on the radio that I had not heard in a long time.  It was “Walking on Sunshine,” by Katrina and the Waves.  I had not heard that song in a long time.  Every time I hear that song, I think of my friend Kathy Kellogg.
Kathy Kellogg was a woman who was a light for Christ for me when I was a new Christian.  Before I turned to Christ, I started attending the singles group of a church in Virginia.  Kathy was the woman who worked at the welcoming table where they gave out name tags.  After I became a Christian, I became friends with Kathy.
   Kathy studied at BIOLA University, and after graduating she got a job working for a senator in Washington, D.C.  She led a Bible study on Capitol Hill on Tuesdays during the lunch hour.  In that Bible study she brought together people who worked on the Hill who were both die-hard Democrats and die-hard Republicans.
Kathy and I even went on a friend’s date once to a baseball game.  She was one of the most fun people I have ever been around.  She loved to dance.  She danced at the baseball game.  She even danced by the car when we were at a long stoplight.  She was utterly full of life.

   One day I was sitting at my desk at work and I received a call from another friend from our single’s group.  He told me a plane had crashed in Croatia, and that Kathy was on that plane.  Turned out, everyone on the plane died.  Kathy was only 29 years old.
   It was horrible!
   I mourned for Kathy.  Yet as a young Christian, I did not slip into depression or despair.  Instead, I began to realize Kathy Kellogg is dancing in heaven.  I became convicted Kathy is overjoyed now in heaven.
   Pain, suffering, and death are a consistent reality in this world.  After all of the Christian education I have had over 28 years, I still do not know why God allows so much suffering in this world.  Yet for believers in Jesus, one day we will be freed of pain and death, in heaven, thanks to Jesus.

Jesus was the atonement for sins.  He died as the substitute for the consequence of sins.
Jesus was resurrected.  He now reigns in heaven.

Because of Jesus, we can have joy!

+   Invitation If you believe in Jesus as your Savior and Lord, then you will have eternal life with him.  Right here today, you can open your heart, and receive Jesus!

Through Closed Doors

Sermon given at Beecher Island Sunday School

by Pastor Hunter Irvine

5/6/18

Luke 24: 36-43

= Luke 24:36-43 read by Garrett

+ Open in prayer.

+ Following the sudden disappearance of Jesus in Emmaus, He suddenly appears to the apostles and other disciples in Jerusalem.

John 20:19 records this same event, showing the doors were locked!

That is why the disciples thought Jesus was a ghost!

The apostles were “frightened!”

Jesus was not a ghost.

Jesus then invites them to touch Him!

And Jesus even eats some broiled fish!

Yet the nature of Jesus was different.  He went through closed doors.

~ The main point of this passage is Jesus was resurrected both spiritually and physically!

+ The message for us is Jesus was resurrected both spiritually and physically!

When Lazarus was raised from the dead, he came out of the tomb looking a little like a mummy.

Jesus was not a mummy.

The grave clothes of Jesus were left in the tomb.  Peter and John saw those linen clothes.

   * Either Jesus took His grave clothes off, or He went through His grave clothes.

Basic Christianity by John Stott is a classic book.  John Stott explains the original Greek text indicates the linen clothes fell off of Jesus as if the body disappeared.  (Keep in mind 75 pounds of spices were in the strips of linen.)  One key was the head cloth being separate from the other linens.

= John Stott states:

“A glance at these grave clothes proved the reality, and indicated the nature, of the resurrection.  They had been neither touched nor folded nor manipulated by any human being.  They were like a discarded chrysalis from which the butterfly has emerged” (Stott 53-54).

= John Stott continues:

“What then should we have seen, had we been there [in the tomb]?  We should suddenly have noticed that the body had disappeared.  It would have ‘vaporized,’ being transmuted into something new and different and wonderful.  It would have passed through the grave clothes, as it was later to pass through closed doors…” (Stott 53).

After the resurrection of Jesus, He was even able to go through closed doors.  His resurrection has a supernatural element to it.

All of this talk of ghosts and mummies leads to the question: Why does God allow death in the first place?

Romans 6:23   For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Jesus Christ died on a cross for the forgiveness of sins of anyone. He was the substitute for the consequence of sins, which is spiritual death.  Yet then He was resurrected!  If you believe in Jesus, you will have everlasting life with Him in heaven!

+   Invitation!   You can believe in Jesus this very day!

Scripture Love Blog

Night Hike

Sermon offered at Beecher Island Sunday School

by Hunter Irvine
4/29/18
Luke 24: 13-35

= Luke 24:13-35 reading by Dax

+ Open in prayer.

+   Distraught - these two disciples walked from Jerusalem to Emmaus, and they were distraught because of the death of Jesus, which is shown when they start talking with Jesus.  They both quit walking as if energy was taken from them, and their faces were “downcast.”

   Neither seemed to know Jesus is the Christ.  Instead they called Him a prophet.  However, they had hoped He was the one who would “redeem” Israel.  What they needed to learn is only the Christ can truly redeem Israel, and only the Christ can truly redeem the souls of people.  Jesus does explain this to them, as we talked about in Sunday school.  And I think their misunderstanding is the reason Jesus waited to reveal Himself to them.

Excited!!  When they finally recognize Jesus, they became excited.
   How do we know?  They walked seven more miles in the dark!

First, they had just walked seven miles.  Yet they turned around and walked seven more.

Second, apparently they did not eat dinner.  Jesus revealed Himself to them at the start of the meal.  They must have been hungry after hiking seven miles, even if they were snacking on fig cakes, yet they did not eat dinner.

Third, and most important, it was dark!
When they reached Emmaus earlier, it was “nearly evening.”  Thus their return was at night.  They could not wait for morning; they started walking “at once.”
  Night was never a safe time to travel back then.  Roads in the Roman Empire were under more protection, yet there was still always a risk.  The two disciples were so excited, they returned immediately.

~   The main point of these verses is the two disciples were determined to tell disciples in Jerusalem that Jesus was alive!

+   The personal message for us is we should be determined to tell people: Jesus is alive!

   The two disciples took a risk.  Honestly, that is what I would expect from two people who truly saw Him risen from the dead.
   And since we know Jesus is alive, and since Jesus is our Redeemer, we should be willing to take a risk to tell people of the love of Christ.

   For one school year in 2014 to 2015, I did college ministry work for Awaken Fellowship, a special interdenominational Christian ministry at Ithaca College, in Ithaca, N.Y.  It was hard for me since it was a raise your own support position, yet I do not like asking people for money, so I almost starved.  Plus I was homesick, even though I am an old guy.  Yet I loved those students with all my heart!
And a blessing, and the reason I was able to do that ministry work for one year, was that I was living in the home of my good friend Walt, who has been a friend ever since we studied together at Virginia Tech.  And I became friends with his wife and his cool daughter.
However, I had another challenge only five days after arriving in Ithaca: my car was pronounced dead by a mechanic.  So there I was without a car.
   Our group had our big worship and fellowship time every Friday evening.  When the weather was cold, the kind wife of my friend would drive me to the college.  And someone would always drive me home.
   Yet when the weather was fine, I would walk from my friend’s home where I was staying.  It was at least a forty minute walk through remote woods between his house and the college.  I like walking, so often the walk was truly enjoyable for me.
   The scenic walk was always in the afternoon, until one spring day.  I attended a special ministry event, of which none of the students who usually gave me a ride home were attending.  I had to walk home at night.  Frankly, it was a bit spooky walking through those isolated woods in the dark.  And there had been flooding because of melting snow.  Several times my feet sunk into cold water.  I was so glad to get home that night.  As spooky as that night was, even if I had to do that night over again, I would, because I love those students.
   It was worth the risk!

   Hopefully none of us will have to take any future risky night hikes.  Yet Jesus wants us to be willing to tell people He is alive!
   Risks may be more subtle in this day and age, but the risks are mounting here in the U.S. as the culture is more hostile to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

   We should not be careless; that is not smart.  And the truth always needs to be told in love.  Yet being obedient to Jesus involves risks, even to the point of risking losing a job or a friend.  May we rely on Jesus to take the risk to tell people He is alive!

   Jesus was dead.  Jesus Christ died on a cross for the forgiveness of sins of anyone. He was the substitute for the consequence of sins, which is spiritual death.  Then he was resurrected!  These two guys who had walked to Emmaus saw Him!
If you believe in Jesus, you will have everlasting life with Him in heaven!

+   Invitation!

Ossuaries in Denver

   As I stood Monday looking intently at a parchment or possibly papyrus fragment containing writing from the book of Isaiah, which is part of the Dead Sea Scrolls Exhibition in Denver, a young lady around twelve years old made a keen observation to me: “The writing is so small.”
   I had just met the intelligent young lady a few minutes earlier since we were next to each other in the line circling the structure where ten Dead Sea Scrolls fragments can be viewed from only a few inches away.  Her astute observation caused us to discuss a possible reason why they wrote in such small letters.  We considered that since writing material was so rare there in Judea thousands of years ago that tiny writing may have been a way of conserving parchment or papyri.  (According to the exhibition guide: "Most are on parchment, with some on papyrus.")  We both liked this hypothesis.  I was impressed with the interest and thought given by the girl.
   This all took place at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science here in Colorado, where there is the visiting display of the Dead Sea Scrolls Exhibition, an extraordinary museum exhibit.  Though I think a few facts presented were wrong, overall the exhibit is extremely professional, it contains artifacts which have never been seen before, and it contains other artifacts which I have never viewed in my life, several of which I was honored to see.  The total is over 600.
   To see fragments over 2,000 years old with the writings of Old Testament Scripture from the books of Isaiah and Palms is something I will always cherish.  Yet there was a surprise highlight for me.  Among the many ancient artifacts included, they have about six ossuaries from two thousand years ago!  Incredible.
   Ossuaries, which have the slang term “bone boxes,” are containers in which Jewish people put the bones of people who were deceased, the final stage of a process called “secondary burial.”  First learning of this subject from an article by Steven Fine from the September/October 2001 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review, I learned the practice took place in Judea from around 20 B.C. to 70 A.D.
   The body of a deceased person was placed in a cave or a tomb cut into a limestone cliff, and stones were put in front of the openings so wild animals would not get in.  Bodies in those tombs would decompose.  Around a year later someone would return to get the bones.  Many bones were piled up with a bunch of other bones in a cavern or tomb.  But for wealthy families, the bones were put in an ossuary.  An ossuary was made out of limestone, and sometimes that limestone box was plain, sometimes it had a design on it, and sometimes it had a name carved into it.  Then the ossuaries were often put in a cavern or a hole.  Over one thousand ossuaries have been discovered.
   In a sermon I gave years ago, I proposed secondary burial resulted from the view by Jewish people that bones were crucial for resurrection based on the vision of resurrected bones in Ezekiel 37.  This vision is a metaphor from God that the people of Israel would be “resurrected” from their doom of being conquered by Babylon.  Yet I think people started advocating bones were key in resurrection, thus the practice of secondary burial developed.
   I have wanted to see an ossuary in person for seventeen years!  In the Dead Sea Scrolls Exhibit, in the same room as the ten fragments, the ossuaries are quite hidden from view from most places in the large room unless you are near the spot, with the exception of one petite ossuary which is in clear view.  Thrilled even to see that, I still did not know of the treasure sitting to my right.  Upon finally seeing the collection of ossuaries, I was in awe.  I wanted to tell everyone in the room ossuaries were there.  I had seen pictures, and I had told others about them in two sermons, yet now I was seeing them with my own eyes in person.  Incredible.
   Secondary burial history gives great insight into context surrounding the burial and resurrection of Jesus.  The practice of secondary burial is the reason Jesus was put in a tomb in which there normally would have been access.  But when Christ was dead, there was not easy access to His tomb since it was “sealed” and Roman guards were posted as stated in Matthew 27:65-66.  Yet Roman fortification did not stop Jesus from leaving, and it did not stop the angel from rolling away the stone as revealed in Matthew 28:2-4, thus there was once again easy access to the tomb.
   And secondary burial is why the women were going to the tomb to put spices on the body early in the morning of the first day of the week.  Yet they did not find the deceased body of Jesus.  In fact, shortly thereafter they saw Jesus alive!  I think Mary Magdalene separated from the other women who saw Jesus as recorded in Matthew 28:8-10, yet of course Mary Magdalene saw Jesus as recorded in John 20:10-18.  He is risen!
Hunter Irvine

Where is Home?

Sermon given at Beecher Island Sunday School

by Hunter Irvine

3/25/18

Luke 23:35-43

+ Open in prayer.

= Luke 23:35-43 reading by Rachel

Being insulted!    As Jesus is suffering on the cross, He is getting insulted by many people.  They are being sarcastic about Him being the Christ.  They do not think He is, or they refuse to consider that He is the Christ.

   The “rulers” are insulting Him, which included priests and teachers of the law.  Roman soldiers are mocking Him.  And a “criminal” is insulting Him.  Other “gospels” show the crime committed by the two criminals was robbery, and at one point, both men were insulting Jesus.  Yet then one of them had a change of heart, which I will get to in a bit.

Christ is the Anointed One!    Christ is from the Greek language, the same word as Messiah which is from the Hebrew, and both mean Anointed One.  So what does being the Anointed One entail?

Christ is the High Priest and King of Kings!!

Who were anointed under the Mosaic Law?  Priests and kings!

As we discussed in Sunday School, priests were anointed with the special “sacred” oil mandated in Exodus 30:22-33, which had an olive oil base with perfumes and such.  And kings were anointed with olive oil.

Being the Anointed One, Jesus is the High Priest of Heaven, and He is the King of Kings.  He is anointed with the Holy Spirit!

As High Priest, Jesus sacrificed Himself.  He was the Lamb of God, dying in our place.  The book of Hebrews explains how Jesus as the High Priest was the One offering the sacrifice, and the Sacrifice, being the Lamb of God.

   Many missed this fact about the Christ.  They expected the Messiah to establish His kingdom at that time in Israel by overthrowing the Roman Empire.  They did not understand the role of the Messiah as High Priest there on the cross, physically and spiritually dying in the place of people.

As King - The sign in four languages!  Above Jesus was a sign.  Luke states it said, “THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS”

   But Matthew, Mark, and John all state what was put on the sign a little differently, though all have "King of the Jews" as part of the phrase.

   If the Bible is accurate, how can all four of the “gospel” writers record something different?  This was a question which bothered me when I studied the issue when living in Grand Junction, Colorado, and it was an issue I handed over to the Lord in trust.  Several years later He answered my question from a chapter in a book I read in a Christian bookstore here in Lakewood, Colorado.

   John 19 gives the answer, since it states the sign was written in Aramaic, Latin, and Greek.  Thus the person who wrote the phrases on the sign surely wrote each phrase a bit differently when writing in the three different languages.  And Mark just wrote an abbreviated part of one of the phrases.  So there is no contradiction!

Change of heart:  The other gospels show both criminals were robbers, and they show that at one point, both criminals were hurling insults at Jesus.  Yet then the one criminal has a change of heart and indirectly asks Jesus for mercy.

~ The main point of this passage is that Jesus offers paradise to the one criminal.

+ The message for us is Jesus offers paradise to us.

None of us are criminals.  But we all have sinned, and we all need forgiveness.  And Jesus offers forgiveness!

+   Here I am today in the great eastern plains of Colorado.  My grandma was born on a homestead outside of Prospect Valley, and she attended Keenesburg High School.

Jumping ahead, after my grandpa died, Grandma soon moved into Windsor Gardens Retirement Community.  She never had a driver’s license, and she became a “shut-in.”  I would take her out on drives, and I would take her out to eat.  This was always her best day of the week.

And Grandma liked football.  We watched much college football, and we watched the Super Bowl together for a number of years.

I rarely watch pro-football, but I consider Super Bowl Sunday to be like an American holiday.  I have only missed a few Super Bowls ever since Super Bowl 11.

One of the few I missed was in 2003.  I was not into the game that year.

When I proposed going out to dinner that night instead, Grandma reluctantly agreed to skip it, but I think she would have rather watched the game.

We drove around the beautiful country that afternoon.  Then that late afternoon we ate a nice dinner in Bennett.

Driving back to Denver, there were few cars on I 70, and it was a reminder we were missing the Super Bowl.  Unusual for me, I felt loneliness, right there driving down the highway.  Yet I considered how the fulfillment found in this world is temporary.  I considered what seems so glamorous and exciting in this world will one day end.

As I continued driving, there was a magnificent orange sunset in the west.  It was a reminder to me that God offers heaven.  It is everlasting!  Heaven is fulfilling and is better than I can even start to imagine.

I know this from Biblical revelations, including this promise recorded in Luke by Jesus on the cross of true paradise.

Jesus Christ died on a cross for the forgiveness of sins of anyone.  He was the atoning sacrifice for the wages of sins.  As High Priest, He sacrificed Himself.  Then He was resurrected.  If you believe in Jesus as your Savior and Lord, you will have everlasting life in paradise with Jesus!  Jesus truly loves you.

Scripture Love Blog