It’s All In the Spin

I’m sure that the anti-gun crowd will try to argue that the recent carnage on the campus of Virginia Tech is evidence that we need more gun control laws. But I'd like to make a quick counter argument.

Imagine that even just 10% of the populace on campus that day had been carrying a sidearm. (No, I don't know what percentage of VT students are 21 years old or older.) Still, assume 10% of them were carrying their sidearm of choice. I'm betting there would have been at least a dozen people in the building who could have taken effective action to stop the slaughter. And let's be honest. It would have only taken one or two people who could stay calm and respond to the gunfire.

How many lives might have been spared? How many people would be alive right now if someone could have put down that rabid animal?

We'll never know, of course. And that's the problem. People see how many lives were lost and they scream for gun control. What they fail to see is the potential for saved lives if our society had encouraged more people to exercise their Second Amendment rights.

Remember, an armed society is a polite society.

Now, where's my application for a concealed carry permit?

Maundy Thursday (posted on Saturday)

Last night, I took part in my first Maundy Thursday worship service. Maundy Thursday services have been part of the Christian calendar since the earliest days of the Church, but I'd never participated in one. It was very moving and I am more and more inclined to incorporate the Church calendar into our schedule of services. Here is the order of worship we used.

Introduction to Worship

CALL

“Jesus Prepares for Passover”

Matthew 26:17-19

¹⁷Now on the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread the disciples came to Jesus, saying to Him, “Where do You want us to prepare for You to eat the Passover?” ¹⁸And He said, “Go into the city to a certain man, and say to him, ‘The Teacher says, “My time is at hand; I will keep the Passover at your house with My disciples.” ’ ” ¹⁹So the disciples did as Jesus had directed them; and they prepared the Passover.

Exodus 12:3, 6b-7, 13

³Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying: ‘On the tenth of this month every man shall take for himself a lamb, according to the house of his father, a lamb for a household.

⁶Now you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month. Then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it at twilight. ⁷And they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses where they eat it.

¹³Now the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you; and the plague shall not be on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.

Opening Hymn: Beneath the Blood-Stained Lintel

Invocation

CONFESSION

“Jesus Teaches During Holy Week, Convicting of Sin”

Mark 12:1-12

¹Then He began to speak to them in parables:  “A man planted a vineyard and set a hedge around it, dug a place for the wine vat and built a tower. And he leased it to vinedressers and went into a far country. ²Now at vintage-time he sent a servant to the vinedressers, that he might receive some of the fruit of the vineyard from the vinedressers. ³And they took him and beat him and sent him away empty-handed. ⁴Again he sent them another servant, and at him they threw stones, wounded him in the head, and sent him away shamefully treated. ⁵And again he sent another, and him they killed; and many others, beating some and killing some. ⁶Therefore still having one son, his beloved, he also sent him to them last, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ ⁷But those vinedressers said among themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ ⁸So they took him and killed him and cast him out of the vineyard.

⁹“Therefore what will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the vinedressers, and give the vineyard to others. ¹⁰Have you not even read this Scripture:

‘The stone which the builders rejected

Has become the chief cornerstone.

¹¹This was the Lord’s doing,

And it is marvelous in our eyes’?”

¹²And they sought to lay hands on Him, but feared the multitude, for they knew He had spoken the parable against them. So they left Him and went away.

Matthew 26:20-25

²⁰When evening had come, He sat down with the twelve. ²¹Now as they were eating, He said, “Assuredly, I say to you, one of you will betray Me.” ²²And they were exceedingly sorrowful, and each of them began to say to Him, “Lord, is it I?” ²³He answered and said, “He who dipped his hand with Me in the dish will betray Me. ²⁴The Son of Man indeed goes just as it is written of Him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been good for that man if he had not been born.” ²⁵Then Judas, who was betraying Him, answered and said, “Rabbi, is it I?” He said to him, “You have said it.”

Corporate Prayer of Confession

Loving God, we know that we have betrayed You in many ways. We have treated Your vineyard, which You have given us to manage, as our own. We have not cultivated for Your glory the abilities, people and resources which You have given us. Forgive us for taking advantage of people, instead of shining Christ’s light upon them. We consider the blood of the Lamb, smeared on the doorposts. Your blood was shed to cover our sin. Forgive us, good Lord, in Christ’s name. Amen.

Hymn of Thanksgiving: Man of Sorrows, What A Name!

CONSECRATION

“Jesus in the Upper Room”

John 13:1-9

¹Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour had come that He should depart from this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end. ²And supper being ended, the devil having already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray Him, ³Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come from God and was going to God, ⁴rose from supper and laid aside His garments, took a towel and girded Himself. ⁵After that, He poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded. ⁶Then He came to Simon Peter. And Peter said to Him, “Lord, are You washing my feet?” ⁷Jesus answered and said to him, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but you will know after this.” ⁸Peter said to Him, “You shall never wash my feet!” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me.”

⁹Simon Peter said to Him, “Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head!”

Luke 22:14-20

¹⁴When the hour had come, He sat down, and the twelve apostles with Him. ¹⁵Then He said to them, “With fervent desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer; ¹⁶for I say to you, I will no longer eat of it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.” ¹⁷Then He took the cup, and gave thanks, and said, “Take this and divide it among yourselves; ¹⁸for I say to you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.” ¹⁹And He took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” ²⁰Likewise He also took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is shed for you.

“Jesus Speaks with His disciples”

John 14:1-4, 15-21

¹“Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. ²In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. ³And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. ⁴And where I go you know, and the way you know.”

¹⁵“If you love Me, keep My commandments. ¹⁶And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever— ¹⁷the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. ¹⁸I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you. ¹⁹“A little while longer and the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me. Because I live, you will live also. ²⁰At that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you. ²¹He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.”

John 15:1-4

¹“I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. ²Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. ³You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. ⁴Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.

John 16:33

³³These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”

“Jesus Speaks with His Father and Prays for the Church”

John 17

¹“Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You, ²as You have given Him authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him. ³And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. ⁴I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work which You have given Me to do. ⁵And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.

⁶“I have manifested Your name to the men whom You have given Me out of the world. They were Yours, You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word. ⁷Now they have known that all things which You have given Me are from You. ⁸For I have given to them the words which You have given Me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came forth from You; and they have believed that You sent Me.

⁹“I pray for them. I do not pray for the world but for those whom You have given Me, for they are Yours. ¹⁰And all Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine, and I am glorified in them. ¹¹Now I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep through Your name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We are. ¹²While I was with them in the world, I kept them in Your name. Those whom You gave Me I have kept; and none of them is lost except the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. ¹³But now I come to You, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have My joy fulfilled in themselves. ¹⁴I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. ¹⁵I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one. ¹⁶They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. ¹⁷Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth. ¹⁸As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. ¹⁹And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth.

²⁰“I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; ²¹that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. ²²And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: ²³I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.

²⁴“Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me; for You loved Me before the foundation of the world. ²⁵O righteous Father! The world has not known You, but I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me. ²⁶And I have declared to them Your name, and will declare it, that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.”

“Jesus’ Prayer, Arrest and Trial”

Luke 22:39-71

³⁹Coming out, He went to the Mount of Olives, as He was accustomed, and His disciples also followed Him. ⁴⁰When He came to the place, He said to them, “Pray that you may not enter into temptation.” ⁴¹And He was withdrawn from them about a stone’s throw, and He knelt down and prayed, ⁴²saying, “Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done.” ⁴³Then an angel appeared to Him from heaven, strengthening Him. ⁴⁴And being in agony, He prayed more earnestly. Then His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground. ⁴⁵When He rose up from prayer, and had come to His disciples, He found them sleeping from sorrow. ⁴⁶Then He said to them, “Why do you sleep? Rise and pray, lest you enter into temptation.”

⁴⁷And while He was still speaking, behold, a multitude; and he who was called Judas, one of the twelve, went before them and drew near to Jesus to kiss Him. ⁴⁸But Jesus said to him, “Judas, are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss?” ⁴⁹When those around Him saw what was going to happen, they said to Him, “Lord, shall we strike with the sword?” ⁵⁰And one of them struck the servant of the high priest and cut off his right ear. ⁵¹But Jesus answered and said, “Permit even this.” And He touched his ear and healed him. ⁵²Then Jesus said to the chief priests, captains of the temple, and the elders who had come to Him, “Have you come out, as against a robber, with swords and clubs? ⁵³When I was with you daily in the temple, you did not try to seize Me. But this is your hour, and the power of darkness.”

⁵⁴Having arrested Him, they led Him and brought Him into the high priest’s house. But Peter followed at a distance. ⁵⁵Now when they had kindled a fire in the midst of the courtyard and sat down together, Peter sat among them. ⁵⁶And a certain servant girl, seeing him as he sat by the fire, looked intently at him and said, “This man was also with Him.” ⁵⁷But he denied Him, saying, “Woman, I do not know Him.” ⁵⁸And after a little while another saw him and said, “You also are of them.” But Peter said, “Man, I am not!” ⁵⁹Then after about an hour had passed, another confidently affirmed, saying, “Surely this fellow also was with Him, for he is a Galilean.” ⁶⁰But Peter said, “Man, I do not know what you are saying!” Immediately, while he was still speaking, the rooster crowed. ⁶¹And the Lord turned and looked at Peter. Then Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how He had said to him, “Before the rooster crows, you will deny Me three times.” ⁶²So Peter went out and wept bitterly.

⁶³Now the men who held Jesus mocked Him and beat Him. ⁶⁴And having blindfolded Him, they struck Him on the face and asked Him, saying, “Prophesy! Who is the one who struck You?” ⁶⁵And many other things they blasphemously spoke against Him.

⁶⁶As soon as it was day, the elders of the people, both chief priests and scribes, came together and led Him into their council, saying, ⁶⁷“If You are the Christ, tell us.” But He said to them, “If I tell you, you will by no means believe. ⁶⁸And if I also ask you, you will by no means answer Me or let Me go. ⁶⁹Hereafter the Son of Man will sit on the right hand of the power of God.” ⁷⁰Then they all said, “Are You then the Son of God?” So He said to them, “You rightly say that I am.” ⁷¹And they said, “What further testimony do we need? For we have heard it ourselves from His own mouth.”

Meditation: Gethsemane

Jesus born in a cave a short way from Jerusalem, and now finds Himself in a cave a short way from Jerusalem at the end of His earthly ministry. The reason He came to earth was for the next few hours. There was no room in Bethlehem’s inn for the son of David, and now during Passover there is no room in Jerusalem for the King of the Jews. He must lodge in a cave on the mountainside. But He waits patiently outside the city for His hour to come.

At His birth, God spares Him from Herod seeking to kill Him. Joseph and Mary flee to Egypt. But this time, Jesus does not flee. The same Jewish leaders who collaborate with Herod and tell Him where to find the baby, now find out from Judas where the man is, and deliver Him up to Pilate.

Hymn of Response: Stricken, Smitten, and Afflicted

“Jesus Before Pilate”

John 18:28-19:16

²⁸Then they led Jesus from Caiaphas to the Praetorium, and it was early morning. But they themselves did not go into the Praetorium, lest they should be defiled, but that they might eat the Passover. ²⁹Pilate then went out to them and said, “What accusation do you bring against this Man?”

³⁰They answered and said to him, “If He were not an evildoer, we would not have delivered Him up to you.” ³¹Then Pilate said to them, “You take Him and judge Him according to your law.” Therefore the Jews said to him, “It is not lawful for us to put anyone to death,” ³²that the saying of Jesus might be fulfilled which He spoke, signifying by what death He would die.

³³Then Pilate entered the Praetorium again, called Jesus, and said to Him, “Are You the King of the Jews?” ³⁴Jesus answered him, “Are you speaking for yourself about this, or did others tell you this concerning Me?” ³⁵Pilate answered, “Am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests have delivered You to me. What have You done?” ³⁶Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight, so that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now My kingdom is not from here.” ³⁷Pilate therefore said to Him, “Are You a king then?” Jesus answered, “You say rightly that I am a king. For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.” ³⁸Pilate said to Him, “What is truth?”

And when he had said this, he went out again to the Jews, and said to them, “I find no fault in Him at all. ³⁹But you have a custom that I should release someone to you at the Passover. Do you therefore want me to release to you the King of the Jews?” ⁴⁰Then they all cried again, saying, “Not this Man, but Barabbas!” Now Barabbas was a robber.

19  So then Pilate took Jesus and scourged Him. ²And the soldiers twisted a crown of thorns and put it on His head, and they put on Him a purple robe. ³Then they said, “Hail, King of the Jews!” And they struck Him with their hands. ⁴Pilate then went out again, and said to them, “Behold, I am bringing Him out to you, that you may know that I find no fault in Him.”

⁵Then Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. And Pilate said to them, “Behold the Man!” ⁶Therefore, when the chief priests and officers saw Him, they cried out, saying, “Crucify Him, crucify Him!” Pilate said to them, “You take Him and crucify Him, for I find no fault in Him.” ⁷The Jews answered him, “We have a law, and according to our law He ought to die, because He made Himself the Son of God.”

⁸Therefore, when Pilate heard that saying, he was the more afraid, ⁹and went again into the Praetorium, and said to Jesus, “Where are You from?” But Jesus gave him no answer. ¹⁰Then Pilate said to Him, “Are You not speaking to me? Do You not know that I have power to crucify You, and power to release You?” ¹¹Jesus answered, “You could have no power at all against Me unless it had been given you from above. Therefore the one who delivered Me to you has the greater sin.”

¹²From then on Pilate sought to release Him, but the Jews cried out, saying, “If you let this Man go, you are not Caesar’s friend. Whoever makes himself a king speaks against Caesar.” ¹³When Pilate therefore heard that saying, he brought Jesus out and sat down in the judgment seat in a place that is called The Pavement, but in Hebrew, Gabbatha. ¹⁴Now it was the Preparation Day of the Passover, and about the sixth hour. And he said to the Jews, “Behold your King!” ¹⁵But they cried out, “Away with Him, away with Him! Crucify Him!” Pilate said to them, “Shall I crucify your King?” The chief priests answered, “We have no king but Caesar!” ¹⁶Then he delivered Him to them to be crucified. Then they took Jesus and led Him away.

“Jesus Goes to the Cross”

Luke 23:26-43

²⁶Now as they led Him away, they laid hold of a certain man, Simon a Cyrenian, who was coming from the country, and on him they laid the cross that he might bear it after Jesus. ²⁷And a great multitude of the people followed Him, and women who also mourned and lamented Him. ²⁸But Jesus, turning to them, said, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for Me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. ²⁹For indeed the days are coming in which they will say, ‘Blessed are the barren, wombs that never bore, and breasts which never nursed!’ ³⁰Then they will begin ‘to say to the mountains, “Fall on us!” and to the hills, “Cover us!”’ ³¹For if they do these things in the green wood, what will be done in the dry?”

³²There were also two others, criminals, led with Him to be put to death. ³³And when they had come to the place called Calvary, there they crucified Him, and the criminals, one on the right hand and the other on the left. ³⁴Then Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.” And they divided His garments and cast lots. ³⁵And the people stood looking on. But even the rulers with them sneered, saying, “He saved others; let Him save Himself if He is the Christ, the chosen of God.” ³⁶The soldiers also mocked Him, coming and offering Him sour wine, ³⁷and saying, “If You are the King of the Jews, save Yourself.” ³⁸And an inscription also was written over Him in letters of Greek, Latin, and Hebrew: THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS.

³⁹Then one of the criminals who were hanged blasphemed Him, saying, “If You are the Christ, save Yourself and us.” ⁴⁰But the other, answering, rebuked him, saying, “Do you not even fear God, seeing you are under the same condemnation? ⁴¹And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds; but this Man has done nothing wrong.” ⁴²Then he said to Jesus, “Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom.” ⁴³And Jesus said to him, “Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.”

Psalm 22:7-18

⁷All those who see Me ridicule Me;

      They shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying,

⁸“He trusted in the Lord, let Him rescue Him;

      Let Him deliver Him, since He delights in Him!”

⁹But You are He who took Me out of the womb;

      You made Me trust while on My mother’s breasts.

¹⁰I was cast upon You from birth.

      From My mother’s womb

      You have been My God.

¹¹Be not far from Me,

      For trouble is near;

      For there is none to help.

¹²Many bulls have surrounded Me;

      Strong bulls of Bashan have encircled Me.

¹³They gape at Me with their mouths,

      Like a raging and roaring lion.

¹⁴I am poured out like water,

      And all My bones are out of joint;

      My heart is like wax;

      It has melted within Me.

¹⁵My strength is dried up like a potsherd,

      And My tongue clings to My jaws;

      You have brought Me to the dust of death.

¹⁶For dogs have surrounded Me;

      The congregation of the wicked has enclosed Me.

      They pierced My hands and My feet;

¹⁷I can count all My bones.

      They look and stare at Me.

¹⁸They divide My garments among them,

      And for My clothing they cast lots.

John 19:25-27

²⁵Now there stood by the cross of Jesus His mother, and His mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. ²⁶When Jesus therefore saw His mother, and the disciple whom He loved standing by, He said to His mother, “Woman, behold your son!” ²⁷Then He said to the disciple, “Behold your mother!” And from that hour that disciple took her to his own home.

Matthew 27:45-49

⁴⁵Now from the sixth hour until the ninth hour there was darkness over all the land. ⁴⁶And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” that is, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” ⁴⁷Some of those who stood there, when they heard that, said, “This Man is calling for Elijah!” ⁴⁸Immediately one of them ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine and put it on a reed, and offered it to Him to drink. ⁴⁹The rest said, “Let Him alone; let us see if Elijah will come to save Him.”

Psalm 22:1-5

¹My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?

      Why are You so far from helping Me,

      And from the words of My groaning?

²O My God, I cry in the daytime, but You do not hear;

      And in the night season, and am not silent.

³But You are holy,

      Enthroned in the praises of Israel.

⁴Our fathers trusted in You;

      They trusted, and You delivered them.

⁵They cried to You, and were delivered;

      They trusted in You, and were not ashamed.

John 19:28-30

²⁸After this, Jesus, knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, said, “I thirst!” ²⁹Now a vessel full of sour wine was sitting there; and they filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on hyssop, and put it to His mouth. ³⁰So when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished!” [Luke 23:46 - “Father, ‘into Your hands I commit My spirit.’”] And bowing His head, He gave up His spirit.

Matthew 27:51-56

⁵¹Then, behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth quaked, and the rocks were split, ⁵²and the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised; ⁵³and coming out of the graves after His resurrection, they went into the holy city and appeared to many. ⁵⁴So when the centurion and those with him, who were guarding Jesus, saw the earthquake and the things that had happened, they feared greatly, saying, “Truly this was the Son of God!” ⁵⁵And many women who followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering to Him, were there looking on from afar, ⁵⁶among whom were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joses, and the mother of Zebedee’s sons.

John 19:38-42

³⁸After this, Joseph of Arimathea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly, for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus; and Pilate gave him permission. So he came and took the body of Jesus. ³⁹And Nicodemus, who at first came to Jesus by night, also came, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pounds. ⁴⁰Then they took the body of Jesus, and bound it in strips of linen with the spices, as the custom of the Jews is to bury. ⁴¹Now in the place where He was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid. ⁴²So there they laid Jesus, because of the Jews’ Preparation Day, for the tomb was nearby.

Meditation: Gardens, Trees, and Brides

It’s a funny thing, God created this world with a man and a woman in a garden, and He will recreate it at the end with a Groom – Jesus – and a Bride – the Church, in the garden-city of the heavenly Jerusalem. And that New Testament Church has its beginnings right here, with a man and a woman in another garden, close to the cross and the tomb, which God uses to recreate the world, to bring new life. Adam’s sin had brought sin and death, and exile from the garden, lest they take of the tree of life. Angels were stationed at the door of the garden with a sword, to keep them out. Now, Mary sees angels in a garden again, but no sword. The tree of life doubled as the sword. And the stone in front of the door is rolled away. We can go back to the Garden. To make the first woman, God put Adam to sleep, opened up a hole in his side, took out a rib and made Eve out of it. To make the last woman, the Church, God put Jesus to death, opened up a hole in His side, blood and water poured out on the cross, and He made the Church out of it. Are you baptized in that water? Has that blood washed your sins away?

Hymn of Response: When I Survey the Wondrous Cross

COMMUNION

Communion Exhortation

The Lord be with you;

And also with you.

Lift up your hearts!

We lift them up to the Lord!

“The Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread; ²⁴and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” For as often as you eat this bread, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes.”

Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, have mercy on us. We break this bread, pass it among us, and eat, to remember, commemorate, and set before You Your Son’s death on the cross for our sins. May Your Holy Spirit use this bread to nourish our union with Jesus Christ and our faith in Him.

Communion Hymn: At the Lamb’s High Feast

[BREAD]

“This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.”

In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.” ²⁶For as often as you drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes.

Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, have mercy on us. We take this cup, pass it among us, and drink, to remember, commemorate, and set before You Your Son’s blood poured out from the cross for our sins. May Your Holy Spirit use this wine to nourish our union with Jesus Christ and our faith in Him.

Communion Hymn: Let Thy Blood and Mercy Poured

[CUP]

“Drink from it, all of you. ²⁸For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. ²⁹But I say to you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father’s kingdom.”

Prayer of Thanksgiving

Thank You for feeding us at Your Table. For giving us a glimpse of the glory to come, united around the Lamb’s Marriage Banquet Table, as Your bride. Reform our hearts, our speech, our posture toward this week, by what You have done for us here. In the Lamb we pray, Amen.

COMMISSION

Commission – Romans 6:3-11

Closing Hymn: Were You There? Verses 1-4

Zombies, the Objective Covenant, and a Living Relationship with Christ

WARNING: Long post.

There is an interesting discussion going on these days known as the Federal Vision. It’s way too complicated to get into all the details of this philosophy, but it can be summed up adequately in one phrase—recovering the objectivity of the covenant. And by covenant, they mean the covenant of grace by which all men are saved. I, for one, am glad to see this discussion taking place, although it grieves me that there is much more heat than light being shed by most people. Too many Reformed folk are way too quick to drop the “H” bomb (heresy) in their responses to one another. That having been said, I do have to take issue with one particular point that some FV proponents are making.

FV proponents correctly complain that, for the most part, the modern Reformed community has ignored the reality of an objective covenant between God and man, and has focused its attention on a futile attempt to determine who is actually going to heaven. They effectively disparage the visible church in an attempt to discern the membership of the invisible church. Or to put it another way, they simply ignore the fact that the person in the pew next to them is a baptized, professing Christian. They want to look beyond their brother’s baptism and question his eternal status, saying they’re not sure he’s really a Christian. The modern Reformed community functionally believes that baptism doesn’t do much of anything, and it certainly doesn’t unite a person to Christ. In this, we are more Zwinglian than Calvinist in our thinking. And in response to this, the Federal Vision asks rhetorically, doesn’t baptism count for anything? We understand that it’s important to make your calling and election sure (1 Peter 1:10), but baptism does something, doesn’t it? That’s mainly what the Federal Vision is about. It’s about recovering a healthy respect for our objective standing in Christ, signified and sealed by our baptisms.

But there are dangers involved in any attempt to correct errors and recover the truth. In many cases, people overshoot the mark and end up in opposite errors. One way it may happen in this case is by affirming the Roman Catholic conception of baptism. The RCC teaches that baptism operates ex opere operato. By this, the RCC claims that the water of baptism automatically works to regenerate and cleanse you from the pollution of all your past sins. Pretty nifty, huh? Instead of baptizing because we believe that a person is regenerate, the RCC baptizes in order to make a person regenerate. This illustrates the basic problem. Any time you start messing around with biblical doctrines, it’s easy to get into trouble. One overzealous focus, one wrong turn, one wrong word—heck, one wrong letter (look up Athanasius)—and you’re in trouble. And that’s what concerns me.

I’m concerned that in their zeal to recover the objectivity of the covenant, some FV proponents are taking things just a wee bit too far. In their attempt to restore the dignity of our objective standing in Christ signified and sealed by baptism, some have said that baptism brings us into an objective and living covenant relationship with Christ. Now, I affirm that baptism brings us into an objective covenant relationship with Christ (and the Reformed community doesn’t even want to talk about that). But it does not automatically create a living relationship. This is where I have to differ with the Federal Vision.

FV proponents like to use the analogy of marriage to describe a person’s objective standing in Christ by baptism. They liken baptism to a wedding and say that a man is still married even if he’s unfaithful to the marriage. And that’s true. In the same way, they say that baptism objectively unites a person to Christ even if that person is unfaithful to his baptism. That’s still true. And, just as a divorce does away with the objective union of marriage, excommunication does away with the objective union of baptism.

But the marriage analogy illustrates the problem with their overemphasis. See, a marriage ceremony establishes an objective (legal) relationship regardless of what the two parties intend concerning the establishment of a living relationship. But a marriage ceremony does not automatically establish a living relationship. That is a matter of disposition and desire. So their own analogy contradicts their assertion about an automatic living covenant relationship.

So why do some FV proponents apply this sort of efficacy to baptism? They do so because of Jesus’ statements about the vine in John 15:1-8 combined with Hebrews 6:4-6. They argue that baptism engrafts everyone into the vine (Jesus) and, as a result, every baptized person becomes enlightened, tastes the heavenly gift, and becomes a partaker of the Holy Spirit. To expand upon the vine analogy, they say that everyone who is baptized into Christ becomes a living branch. They say that sap flows to all who are united to Christ in baptism. The only problem is that not everyone abides in the vine. Some eventually are cast out, wither, and are thrown into the fire.

Now I affirm that Hebrews 6:4-5 is God’s holy, infallible word, and is to be accepted as the truth regardless of our ability to understand it. And this passage makes it impossible to say that baptism does nothing for the reprobate. But is this enough to say that everyone who is baptized enters into a living relationship with Christ? The answer is no. All creation partakes of the Holy Spirit in some sense, but we don’t say that all creation is in a living relationship with Christ.

The Holy Spirit works in everyone and everything. Our mere existence is testimony to God's grace in our lives. If God were to completely withdraw his sustaining grace from some aspect of his creation, it would simply cease to be. So when we talk about the work of the Holy Spirit, we have to distinguish between those operations which are efficacious unto eternal salvation and those that aren't. We talk about special grace and common grace (Matthew 5:45). Hebrews 6:4-5 makes it plain that there are certain ways that the Holy Spirit operates in all those who are united to Christ, even those who are ultimately reprobate. But since it isn't a salvific work, we don't call it special grace. And this is what FV proponents are focusing on.

If we accept the idea that there are two methods by which the Holy Spirit operates (common and special), we must conclude that what Hebrews 6:4-5 are still manifestations of common grace because they are given to all who are baptized, even those who are ultimately reprobate. And if we postulate a third type of operation by the Holy Spirit, then we can talk about special grace (which is salvific), common grace (given to all mankind), and uncommon grace (my term - given to the Church). But the bottom line is that whatever we call it, this particular manifestation of the work of the Holy Spirit—this “third type of grace”—is still not salvific. It may not be “common” because it isn’t given to all mankind, but it is not salvific.

So the question I have for the FV proponents is this: who cares? Who cares how “enlightened” we become, how much of the “heavenly gift” we taste, or how fully we “become partakers of the Holy Spirit” if we eventually end up in hell? Do we really want to expend this much effort trying to quantify what the reprobate church member loses when he apostatizes? Do I care if I lose ten thousand dollars, one million dollars, or two hundred billion dollars if I end up broke in each case? No. What counts is that I am broke. And the reprobate are spiritually broke.

One thing the Bible makes clear is the antithesis between the godly and the ungodly. In it’s most basic form, a person is either alive in Christ or dead in his trespasses and sins. A reprobate person who is baptized into the Church is in objective, legal, covenantal union with Christ—he is a branch on the vine. But he is still dead in his trespasses and sins. So using the term "living" to describe a non-salvific relationship with Christ is confusing at best and misleading at worst. A person might go so far as to say it is a "life-like" relationship. You might say that it mimics true life in Christ. But it is definitely not a living relationship.

I'm reminded of the line from "The Princess Bride" where Miracle Max says that Wesley is only mostly dead. What makes the line so funny is that everyone knows there's no such thing as mostly dead. A person is either dead or alive. There are no such things as zombies and vampires, undead horrors caught between life and death.

That is what’s so strange about this one aspect of the Federal Vision teaching. Although it’s only implied, some FV proponents are basically arguing that the baptized reprobate isn’t dead. He’s alive, or at least he’s not completely dead. Maybe he’s only mostly dead. After all, he’s become a partaker of the Holy Spirit, right? There’s sap flowing, right? He has a living relationship with Christ, right? How could he still be dead? Maybe they think, in a creepy sort of way, that the baptized reprobate is undead, like one of those zombies from a cheap horror film. They’ll eventually start to stink up the place and will need to be buried. But since they’re moving right now, they can’t be completely dead. If that’s how they’re looking at this issue, and I can’t see how else they’re looking at it, then all I can say is … WRONG! And it doesn’t do any good to argue that the baptized reprobate is given one sort of spiritual life but not eternal life. We’re still talking about a type of “false life”. I don’t care how much the zombie shambles around, he’s not alive, not even remotely. But that doesn’t mean he can’t fool us into thinking he’s alive.

This is the difference between objective spiritual reality and our perception. We can't judge a person’s heart. So when someone professes faith in Christ and is baptized, we accept that “movement” as evidence of spiritual life. And as long as a professing believer doesn’t start to stink up the place, we continue to trust that what we’re seeing is evidence of spiritual life. But if he does start stinking up the place, we don’t say “well, he was alive for awhile, but now he’s dead again”. No, we say he was never alive at all. He was always dead in his trespasses and sins. And now the stench of his putrification is the proof we use to reject his prior profession of faith.

We assume there is a living relationship already present when we baptize (or possibly the promise of a future relationship in the case of infant baptism), but we can be wrong. John15:1-8 is speaking about covenant membership signified by baptism, but we need to remember a distinction that isn’t obvious in Jesus’ vine analogy. The distinction is this: no one is naturally part of the vine. In a sense, even the Israelites were not naturally part of the vine. [I know Romans 11:17ff contrasts the Jews and Gentiles as those who are natural branches versus wild branches. But even the Jews were grafted in through Abraham.] We are all grafted into the vine. And while a person is baptized (grafted) into Christ, we know that some baptisms (graftings) don't "take". Such situations were never living covenantal relationships, but only legal covenantal relationships. To argue that there was a living relationship for a time which was then taken away comes perilously close to denying (if not actually denying) the biblical doctrine of the preservation of the saints.

Look at it this way. Jesus tells us that we are branches and He is the vine. But we also know that we aren’t naturally united to Christ. It is a supernatural work of God to bring us into union with him. So to combine the biblical images, what we really have is nothing but wild branches grafted into the One, True Vine. But thinking theologically, we also know that every branch was dead before it was grafted in. When they are grafted into the vine, some branches are quickened and live. Others stay dead and are eventually removed again. The miracle is that any of them are brought to life. Pelagius’ mistake was thinking that the wild branch doesn’t need to be grafted into the true vine. It can survive and thrive on its own. The mistake of Arminius (semi-Pelagius) is thinking that the wild branch is sickly and dying, and is rejuvenated by being grafted into the vine.

But the FV mistake in this regard is neither of these. That’s one reason why FV proponents are so perplexed when people charge them with going “home to Rome”. The FV mistake is something completely different …and scarier, in a way. The FV mistake is teaching that a dead, wild branch can be grafted into the One, True Vine, be brought to life for a while, and then die again. This isn’t Arminianism, and that’s why many people who like the Federal Vision don’t see the error. Arminianism is bad. This isn’t Arminianism. Therefore this isn’t bad. Right? Wrong.

Arminianism was founded on the rejection of God’s sovereignty, and developed a comprehensive (but incorrect) understanding of soteriology based on the preeminence of man’s ability to choose. If God’s grace is given in response to man’s decision, then man can save himself. But that same ability to choose salvation can also choose to later reject salvation. That’s how Arminians explain apostasy. According to their teaching, you can be saved for a while and then lose your salvation through your own decision.

Notice what’s similar here. In the FV teaching that affirms a living covenantal relationship with Christ based on your baptism, a big deal is made about the work of the Holy Spirit in everyone who is baptized. In fact, some make such a big deal about it that they have difficulty spiritually distinguishing between the person who is a member of the Church and bound for glory, and the reprobate member of the Church whose apostasy hasn’t manifested itself yet. In speaking about what happens when this reprobate church member eventually does apostatize, at least one man has said, “it may not be wise to call this ‘losing one’s salvation’, but it would be unbiblical to say nothing at all was really lost.” [Notice that he doesn’t say it would be wrong, only that it may not be wise to talk about losing your salvation.]

How does this differ from Arminianism? Only in this: instead of elevating man’s will in place of God’s will, with the result being that a person can lose his salvation; in the FV scheme of things, God is still sovereign. But the guy in the pew still “loses his salvation”. To be more precise, he has it taken away from him. God is in control and God doesn’t want this guy to persevere in faith. So God refuses to preserve this guy in faith. And the result is apostasy. Man isn’t in control, so it isn’t Arminianism. But now it seems we have a capricious God who saves some people for all eternity, and others only for a time.  If—and I want to stress the “if”—if this is what the FV proponents mean, then this truly is heresy.

Now, in their defense, these FV proponents seem to be aware of the awkwardness (?) of saying that God saves some people but only for a time. They have gone to great lengths to insist that there is a spiritual difference between the experience of the person who is a member of the Church and bound for glory, and the reprobate member of the Church whose apostasy hasn’t manifested itself yet. They don’t want to say the two situations are identical. The problem is that they have yet to suggest any meaningful distinction between the two.

They attempt to separate the two experiences by saying that one person perseveres and the other one doesn’t. To which we should reply, “well, of course”. That’s still nearly identical with the Arminian view of losing your salvation, and it doesn’t resolve the problem of a capricious God. Other than that, the only distinction I have seen mentioned is one between each person’s initial and final justifications. According to the FV, the elect member of the Church experiences the same initial and final justification. The reprobate member of the Church experiences different initial and final justifications. And this is another problem all by itself. Obviously, the two will differ with regard to their final justifications. Otherwise, one isn’t elect and the other reprobate. Again, we should reply “well, of course”. But what is this about an initial justification?

First, if the distinction between peoples’ experiences is the difference (or lack thereof) between their initial and final justification, then the implication is that their initial justifications are the same. The elect guy’s justification remains while the reprobate guy’s justification (which was identical to the other guy’s) changes. This means that we’re back to the preservation/lack of preservation issue. We still haven’t gotten away from the concept of a capricious God.

Second, what exactly is this “final justification” supposed to be? We know that we will stand before God on Judgment Day. But we also know that we are justified right now in this life as part of the ordo salutis. As individuals, we are predestined to eternal life by God, effectually called, regenerated, given faith to believe in the promise of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and declared righteous on the basis of the double imputation of Christ’s righteousness to the sinner and the sinner’s guilt to Christ. Right now is when we are justified—when we are declared “not guilty” by God. It happens when we come to faith and that’s all there is to it. Justification is not an ongoing process. It is a once-for-all-time declaration by God. God’s declaration on the Last Day is a reiteration of this declaration made in time. If the FV proponents are talking about justification in the traditional Reformed context of the ordo salutis, then there’s no difference between an “initial” justification and a “final” justification. To say that God’s initial justification of a sinner can change and be something different at the Last Day is nothing more than confirmation of what we have come to suspect—that according to their teaching, we’re dealing with a capricious God. This is a God who can declare you “not guilty” right now, but then declare you “guilty” at the Final Judgment. This isn’t our faithful, Triune God. This is a trickster—like the Norse god Loki. Once again, if—and I want to stress the “if”—if this is what they are getting at, then this teaching truly is heresy.

Well, is it possible that this isn’t heresy? There’s only one answer that I can think of. They’re using the word justification with a different meaning. We know that the FV proponents have come up with a whole new category of definitions for words that already have accepted spiritual meanings. Maybe this is more of the same. Maybe they’re talking about justification in its corporate sense. This is the sense that Peter uses when he calls the saints “elect” in 1 Peter 1:1. He doesn’t mean his entire audience is going to heaven. He means they are all objectively united to Christ. In this sense, “elect” is a synonym for “professing Christian”.

If this is what they mean, then it’s easy to translate. Justified = Christian. So in this context, the person whose justification doesn’t change from initial to final is simply a person who is a professing Christian and who is proved to be sincere at the Last Day. The person whose justification does change from initial to final is a person who is a professing Christian but who is proved to be a hypocrite at the Last Day. That isn’t anything remotely heretical. But it also doesn’t mean anything as a spiritual distinction between the elect and reprobate members of the Church, which is why we were talking about it in the first place.

Which means they still haven’t offered any worthwhile distinction between the experience of the person who is a member of the Church and bound for glory, and the reprobate member of the Church whose apostasy hasn’t manifested itself yet. Which means they are still stuck with the rather embarrassing idea that people can lose their salvation. Or rather, that God is not only able, but is willing to take it away from them.

Eye Opening

I recently finished reading Neil Postman’s Amusing Ourselves to Death, and I found it very enlightening. He presents a compelling, and I believe valid, argument that television may spell the death of traditional Western culture in the United States. He argues that this is true specifically of the United States because most of the rest of the world doesn’t have a television culture like we do (at least not 20 years ago when this was written). There are several interrelated reasons for this, but essentially it is because Americans seem to have perfected the natural use of the television—to present psychologically and emotionally appealing images. All other aspects of information transmission on T.V. are subordinate to this. In other words, the natural use of the television is to entertain. According to Postman,

“The single most important fact about television is that people watch it, which is why it is called ‘television.’ And what they watch, and like to watch, are moving pictures—millions of them, of short duration and dynamic variety. It is in the nature of the medium that it must suppress the content of ideas in order to accommodate the requirements of visual interest; that is to say, to accommodate the values of show business.”

Americans are masters of the art of entertainment, but we are becoming (have become?) slaves of our desire to be entertained.

I was aware of one basic truth already—that television can be wonderfully entertaining. In fact, it’s been many years since I’ve watched television for anything other than entertainment. But this was only a partial understanding of the issue. It isn’t a problem of presenting entertainment, per se. As Postman also says in his book, “The problem is not that television presents us with entertaining subject matter but that all subject matter is presented as entertaining…”

If you think about it, this is really undeniable. The most basic fact of television is that it is run for profit and profits are generated largely from advertising. In order to generate advertising revenue, television producers must try to guarantee that people will watch the programming. And in order to do that, it must be made appealing, entertaining. It doesn’t matter what the programming is, even the nightly news. Why do you think news shows come up with the most outrageous special investigative reports for “sweeps week”? It’s because that’s when their economic viability is tested. Only the most entertaining programming survives on television.

This is also true of the political process. The claim can be made that the Nixon-Kennedy debates were the transition point from a print-based political process to a television-based process. Stated another way, that was the transition point between a reason-based political process to an emotion-based process. Kennedy didn’t win the televised debates because he was a better debater. He won them because he was more photogenic. He was more appealing to the audience than Nixon. But his appeal wasn’t based on his political platform. It was based on his good looks.

Another aspect of Postman’s warning is tied to the way television treats discourse (or rather, ignores discourse). He argues that television has inherited the tendency first seen in telegraphy and them in photography of presenting information in a disjointed sense. Rather than engaging in a reasoned discourse, as you would in a conversation or even when reading a good book, these modern forms of information transmission present data without a context. In this way, Postman says that they gradually made irrelevance, impotence, and incoherence valid aspects of discourse. (If you have questions about that statement, read the book. Even if you don’t have questions about that statement, read the book. If you haven’t read the book, read the book.) Because of this, television is able to present everything without a context, without a history. And no one seems to care. In many ways, we are becoming numb to the sense of history. We no longer remember. And Postman argues this point in a very scary way. He says, “We do not refuse to remember; neither do we find it exactly useless to remember. Rather, we are being rendered unfit to remember.”

Throughout his book, Postman makes reference to George Orwell’s 1984 and Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World. In essence, he argues that we have been prepared by humanity’s collective history to watch for and oppose the totalitarian oppression of Orwell’s future vision of Big Brother. But in reality, we are quickly sinking into the oppression described by Huxley. He says,

“There are two ways by which the spirit of a culture may be shriveled. In the first—the Orwellian—culture becomes a prison. In the second—the Huxleyan—culture becomes a burlesque….What Huxley teaches is that in the age of advanced technology, spiritual devastation is more likely to come from an enemy with a smiling fact than from one whose countenance exudes suspicion and hate….When a population becomes distracted by trivia, when cultural life is redefined as a perpetual round of entertainments, when serious public conversation becomes a form of baby-talk, when, in short, a people become an audience and their public business a vaudeville act, then a nation finds itself at risk; culture-death is a clear possibility….By ushering in the Age of Television, America has given the world the clearest available glimpse of the Huxleyan future….An Orwellian world is much easier to recognize, and to oppose, than a Huxleyan….Who is prepared to take arms against a sea of amusements?”

So, what do we do? Sadly, we may not be able to do much at all. In his closing chapter, Postman says, “Thus, there are near insurmountable difficulties for anyone who has a written such a book as this, and who wishes to end it with some remedies for the affliction. In the first place, not everyone believes a cure is needed, and in the second, there probably isn’t any.” Although he holds out (slim) hope for our schools as the avenue of salvation from this problem, he does indicate indirectly that the answer lies in each of us as individuals. He says, “The problem, in any case, does not reside in what people watch. The problem is in that we watch. The solution must be found in how we watch.”

We need to understand that it is impossible to find anything on television that isn’t packaged as entertainment. So, regardless of why we believe we are watching television, we are in fact being entertained. We aren’t learning. We aren’t becoming informed about the important matters of the day. We are being entertained. And the biggest problem is that we are being conditioned to expect everything to be entertaining.

(Re) Baptizing

Being an elder in a Reformed Presbyterian church, I hold to a Reformed Protestant view of baptism. This means I affirm that baptism is rightly administered not only to those who profess belief in Jesus as their Lord and Savior, but also to the children of believers (Genesis 17:7; Mark 10:13-16; Acts 2:38, 39; 1 Corinthians 7:14). I also believe that the fundamental image represented in the sacrament is both that of pouring out the Holy Spirit as prophesied in Joel 2:28, 29 (Matthew 3:11) and the blood of Christ by which we are cleansed from the guilt of our sins (John 1:29; Hebrews 9:13-15). That’s why I believe the better mode of performing a baptism is by pouring or sprinkling, rather than immersion. Of course, in accordance with scripture, I believe that a Christian baptism is performed in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19). And as a symbol of our inclusion in the covenant of grace (1 Corinthians 6:11; Titus 3:5), a covenant which is instituted but once for each believer and carried through to its final consummation (Romans 8:30), I believe that baptism is to be administered but once to each believer. Basically, I’m not a re-baptizer. But there’s a problem with this position.

&n