Wednesday, November 25, 2015

Going Home


(Audio version; Music: "When God Ran" by: Phillips, Craig & Dean and "Prodigal" by: Sidewalk Prophets)










Introduction

            My daughters conspired together last week to arrange for my daughter Meagan, who lives in California, to surprise us by coming home for a week. We do much better as a family when we’re all together. I had a number of long talks with Meagan while she was home and she said something that I think all parents would love to hear. She said she used to think that it wouldn’t be a big deal if we ever decided to sell the house and move or downsize. However, she said that she would now be disappointed if we ever sold our house and moved. She said she feels a sense of peace and comfort whenever she plans on Going Home. I’m sure the physical house plays some role in what she senses but most of all what she senses is the memories of a home filled with laughter, love, and grace. And isn’t that what we are all hoping for when we are planning on Going Home? I told her that I never had that experience growing up in a home with an abusive alcoholic father. I hated home. When my parents got older and it came time to sell the house I grew up in, I couldn’t wait for them to get rid of it. My childhood home was a reminder of anger, strife, and dysfunction. There was certainly not a sense of love or grace in my home growing up so when I got older and moved out, I dreaded Going Home. But I found a new home; a better home; a home in relationship with my heavenly Father and finally I experienced the joy of Going Home.

Kids leave home for a myriad of reasons—some reasons are good some are not so good. My girls left home to go to college at a university they believed God was calling them to attend. They were being obedient to God’s calling for their lives—it had nothing to do with home per se. So for them, Going Home has been easy because Going Home for my girls means going to a place where love and grace abound. That’s not how it is for all kids. And maybe that describes you. You left home because you believed life would be more fun away from home. Maybe there no abuse and maybe there was an abundance of love and grace, but there were also so many rules—rules your friends didn’t have. Suddenly, life looked so much better away from home. So in a fit of selfishness, you packed up all your stuff and set off on your own. At first, not having anyone telling you what to do was like heaven, you could do whatever you wanted to do whenever you wanted to do it. You could drink whatever you wanted, you could experiment with drugs if you wanted and you could have sex with anyone you wanted. You kept telling yourself, “I knew it! I knew life would be better away from home!” But all the “friends” that loved being around you quickly faded away when your money ran out. You had a job but you couldn’t make enough money to maintain your carefree, party-all-night, lifestyle. You considered Going Home but you just couldn’t admit that you were wrong. But then your life went from bad to worse and you finally hit rock bottom with no job, no money, no place to live, and nothing to eat. Suddenly, all you could think about was Going Home. You tried to talk yourself out of it by reminding yourself about all the things you hated about home—all the rules. But no matter how hard you tried, you couldn’t remember even one of the rules that you thought were so terrible at the time. All you could think about was the laughter coming from downstairs while you were lying in your warm bed on those snowy Saturday mornings. You remembered the smell of mom’s cooking coming from the kitchen. You closed your eyes and remembered your dad walk up behind you and for no reason kiss you on the head and say, “I love you” and then walk away as though saying, “I didn’t want you to forget.” And right there, that’s when you decide, you’re Going Home. And there waiting for you were the parents who never gave up on you; never stopped loving you. There waiting for you was the love and grace you so desperately longed for after you first rejected it.

Honestly, absolutely nothing compares to the stories of personal redemption that people have shared with me. People lost in their substance abuse, lost in their sex addictions, lost in their abusive relationships, lost in selfishness as they turned their back on God. Stories of how God never stopped waiting for them and looking for them and when they were at their lowest point and they cried out to God for help, how God came running to take them back and love them back to wholeness. This is the essence of Jesus’ story of the Prodigal Son. Do you know why I love this story? Because it’s my story! It’s probably everyone’s story to a certain degree—it applies to those who don’t know God, yet eventually call out to Him when all else has failed them and it applies to those who have known and loved God yet have been entice by sin to turn away from Him. This week I want to take a close look at the story of the Prodigal Son and maybe you’ll see yourself in the story as I see myself in the story.

Subject Text

Luke 15:11-32

            11 Jesus continued: “There was a man who had two sons. 12 The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them. 13 “Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. 14 After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. 15 So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. 16 He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything. 17 “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! 18 I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’ 20 So he got up and went to his father. “But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him. 21 “The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ 22 “But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23 Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. 24 For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate. 25 “Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. 26 So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. 27 ‘Your brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’ 28 “The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. 29 But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. 30 But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’ 31 “‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. 32 But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’”

Context

            It’s hard to keep track of what’s going on in these chapters of Luke’s gospel because Jesus tells story after story after story. So let me remind you of the setting within which Jesus is giving us this teaching. We learn in chapter 14 that it is the Sabbath and Jesus has been invited to eat at the house of a prominent Pharisee. But wherever there’s one Pharisee, there’s bound to be more along with other teachers of the law, and this occasion was no different. But try and picture this, large crowds were traveling with Jesus and among them were tax collectors and “sinners” who gathered around Jesus to hear him speak. The fact that there were uninvited guests in the house was not necessarily unexpected. It was customary at high-profile gatherings such as this to leave the door open so that the public could enter or stand outside the door if there was no room inside so the discussions inside the house could be heard. Unfortunately for the Pharisees, those who usually followed Jesus lived unpopular, and usually very messy, lives—I guess some things don’t change regardless of how much time passes because those are the same kind of people who follow Him around today as well. But it’s the perfect setting for the story of the Prodigal Son so let’s take a look at Jesus’ teaching.

Text Analysis

            11 Jesus continued: “There was a man who had two sons. 12 The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them.

            Jesus begins his story in vv. 11-12 by introducing us to a man with two sons. The young son insists that his father give him his share of his father’s estate. The younger son would customarily receive half as much as the older son. However, the father had the right to do whatever he wanted with his wealth. It was generally understood that inheritance would have been distributed upon the father’s death. However, exceptions to this practice could also be determined by the father. Nevertheless, Judaism frowned on the practice of inheritance distribution prior to death stating: “‘To son or wife, to brother or friend, give no power over yourself while you live; and give not your goods to another so as to have to ask for them again.’”[1] But don’t miss something very crucial in this exchange. The son is not just saying that he wants his inheritance, he’s in essence telling his father that he wishes he was dead! “The son clearly looks to sever his relationship to his father and go away.”[2] Think about the pain and insult the father must have felt. Nevertheless, the father honors his request and lets him go.

13 “Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. 14 After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. 15 So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. 16 He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.

            The story begins to unfold in vv. 13-16 with the young son reveling in his new-found freedom apart from his father. Come on! This isn’t too hard to imagine is it? Most experts believe that the young son is just a teenager. So now we have a teenager with a wad of money in his pocket and without the constraint of rules from his father’s house…what could possibly go wrong? Well we soon find out that a carefree life without rules is not always what it’s cut out to be. Nevertheless, the son leaves behind the familiarity of home for the adventure of a distant country. “‘A distant country’ already suggests the non-Jewish world, and this identification is helped along by the prominence of pigs, abhorrent to Jewish sensibilities, in the story.”[3] The text tells us that he squandered his wealth on wild living. The Greek word used for squander paints a picture of “Tossing one’s possessions into the wind.”[4] No sooner had he run out of money when a famine envelops the entire country where he is currently living. That’s when things go from bad to awful.

“Had he possessed his initial, relative wealth he might have been able to ride out the ensuing period of depressed economy. Having spent all he had, however, he had little recourse but to locate himself in a situation wherein he has not only shamed his father, but has plummeted from his status as the son of a large landowner to that of the ‘unclean and degraded,’ for whom even the life of a day laborer would be preferable.”[5]

            In our culture, it is difficult to see the gravity of the son’s situation. He was left with the choice of dying or herding pigs—as though one would be better than the other for a Jew. Pigs were an unclean animal. This represents the absolute bottom for him. He is so low that even the despised pigs are eating while he is starving. He would gladly eat with the pigs at this point if someone would allow it. Let me try and paint a picture of what his life looks like: He insulted his father, he has no money left, he’s starving, he has committed countless sins, he is working in and among unclean animals and no one will help him—he is all alone, he is at the end of the line, he has hit bottom.

17 “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! 18 I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’ 20a So he got up and went to his father. “But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him;

            We find the son at the low-point of his life in vv. 17-20a were he begins to realize that something has to change. He recognizes the irony in his situation that his father’s slaves are better off than he is. They have more than enough food while he is starving to death. At this point he devises a plan to return home to his father—but after what he’d said and done, is Going Home realistic?

“The struggling son decides to acknowledge his folly before God and to his father. This combination is a merism to indicate that he sinned against God and his father…The son will act quickly and humbly. He knows he has forfeited all rights to sonship and inheritance, but it is better to cast himself on his father’s mercy than remain in a distant land, living a life lower than the unclean beasts and suffering hunger. The confession pictures his repentance, coming to the father bearing nothing but his need…He accepts the consequences of his choices. There are no excuses, only confession and a humble request. The picture shows what repentance looks like: no claims, just reliance on God’s mercy and provision.”[6]

            The son acknowledges to himself that the “something” his father’s servants has is better than the “nothing” he has so he sets out on his way home.

20bhe ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him. 21 “The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ 22 “But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23 Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. 24 For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.

            My favorite part of the entire story is in vv. 20b-24. The text says that while the son was still a long way from home, his father saw him and started running to him, when he reached him, he took him in his arms and kissed him. This scene touches my heart at the deepest level. As a father, I can recognize my girls from a long way off. I know how they look from the back, from the side and from the front even at a great distance. But that’s not what I want to bring to your attention. The text leaves us with the distinct impression that the father was watching for him. Maybe he happened to be in the right place at the right time or maybe he was regularly watching for him. Don’t forget, this is a parable, it is a story with a deeper meaning. I believe it paints a picture that the father is waiting, watching, always anticipating and hoping for the son’s return. I want you to notice something else in the text that we generally breeze right over—the father “ran” to his son. This may not seem unusual to you and me but in that culture, it would be quite rare to see a wealthy, respected and elderly man running anywhere! Add to this the public display of affection of the very son that had shamed him publicly and we see a beautiful picture of the father’s merciful and compassionate heart.

            The son, however, is not deterred from his plan. No doubt he recognizes the warmth and acceptance from his father but he, nevertheless, confesses his sins to his father with the deepest humility and no expectation to be treated as a son. I envision the scene in my mind as the father is holding his son’s face in his hands and looking at him intently as his son is speaking but acts as though he hears nothing his son says. Instead, even before his son is finished speaking, he directs his servants to drape the son with a robe, place a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. “The embrace, the kiss, and gifts of robe, ring and sandals—these are all emblematic of the son’s honorable restoration to the family he had snubbed and abandoned.”[7] Thereafter the father orders the celebration to begin and the party is on! But why? Why did the father make such a big deal out his son’s return? Well because the son’s shame and abandonment meant that he was dead to his father and family. He was lost, his father had lost a son. I can’t even imagine the anguish of losing a child spiritually or physically. Sadly, some of you have so you know very well what the father must have been going through when his son returned. What had been lost was now found and the only response was joy and celebration.

25 “Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. 26 So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. 27 ‘Your brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’ 28 “The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. 29 But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. 30 But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’ 31 “‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. 32 But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’”

            The older son re-enters the scene in vv. 25-32. There must have been some party at the house because the older son could hear the music and dancing from the field. When he asks a servant what is going on, he is told that his brother has returned and his father has ordered a celebration. He is incredulous! So much so that he won’t even go into the house. The older son tries to make a case for himself to his father as the faithful son who served him and honored him while his brother did neither. But it appears the older son, even while he stayed behind and fulfilled his proper duties, didn’t know his father very well. How could he not know that his father would react in this way to his brother’s return? The older son is angry—he sees himself as having done everything right while his brother has done everything wrong. Nevertheless, his brother is celebrated and he isn’t. He wants his own celebration, he wants his own fattened calf, he doesn’t want a celebration for his brother, he wants justice! The father addresses the older son gently, in love and understanding—the Greek is translated in our idiom as “my child.” But the father makes it clear that celebrating the younger son’s return in no way negates the value of the older son’s faithfulness.

“He affirms the faithfulness of the elder brother and his special place in his heart. He accepts that his son has always been at his side. He reminds the son that all he owns belongs to him; neither the father’s activity nor the brother’s return in any way diminishes the elder’s status…the elder should not lose sight of the benefits he has always had because of his access to the father. In a sense, he has always had access to the celebration. The animals are his!”[8]

But the younger son relinquished the benefits of being a son by turning his back on his father. He was already suffering the self-inflicted wounds of arrogance, pride, sin and disobedience. What would harsh justice/punishment by the father accomplish? Perhaps the father believed the consequences endured by the younger son were sufficient. In any event, the father’s focus was on reconciliation not on justice/punishment. The father refuses to focus on anything other than the fact that his son was once lost but is now found.

Application

            Although the story is known as the parable of the “Prodigal Son,” it really should be the father’s actions that stand out to us. I mean, many, if not most of us can associate very closely with the prodigal son, lots of us can relate to the older brother. Some of us can even associate our lives with both of them. But few of us can relate to the father. The depth of the father’s love is just so foreign to many of us. We can relate to the prodigal son’s need for reconciliation, we can relate to the older son’s desire for justice, but can we relate to the father’s attitude of grace? We struggle with trying to determine exactly where forgiving sin and condoning sin intersect so that we don’t offend either.

“It was the music and dancing that offended the older son. Of course, let the younger son return home. Judaism and Christianity have clear provisions for the restoration of the penitent returnee, but where does it say that such provisions include a banquet with music and dancing? Yes, let the prodigal return, but to bread and water, not fatted calf; in sackcloth, not a new robe; wearing ashes, not a new ring; in tears, not in merriment; kneeling, not dancing. Has the party canceled the seriousness of sin and repentance?...The father not only had two sons but loved two sons, went out to two sons and was generous to two sons. Perhaps it is because of the competitive rather than cooperative spirit of our society, but the common thought is that there must be losers if there are winners. Hence, even in religion, it is very difficult not to think Jews or Greek, rich or poor, saint or sinner, publican or Pharisee, older son or younger son. But God’s love is both/and not either/or. The embrace of the younger son did not mean the rejection of the older; the love of tax collectors and sinners does not at all negate love of Pharisees and scribes.”[9]

Grace is seeing people from God’s perspective not from ours. God is first and foremost in the business of reconciliation. Justice and punishment for sin is also very important which is why Jesus died on a cross to pay for all the things we did wrong so we could be reconciled to God. You see, God’s plan has always been about relationship and reconciliation that restores relationship. God’s salvation plan is not primarily about justice and punishment even though both will be exacted upon unbelievers and unrepentant sinners one day. Justice and punishment were necessary in order to make reconciliation available. And Jesus paid the price on the cross so the Father comes running to meet us as we turn back toward him. Justice has been served; punishment has been meted out. Repentance (turning away from sin and toward God) leads to forgiveness which leads to a party of reconciliation! A life of unbelief and unrepentant sin is a life that is separated from God; like running away from home. Repentance restores that relationship. It’s like Going Home. I hope you might someday love the story of the Prodigal Son as much as I do. Sometimes we read these stories and we (ok maybe just I do) put a lot of thought into the theology of the story and miss the deep and gentle beauty of the actual story because we know it’s a parable with fictional characters that is intended to convey a deeper spiritual truth. So I wanted to share another story with you from Philip Yancey’s book, What’s So Amazing About Grace, about a teenage runaway. This isn’t a parable so you don’t need to think really hard about some deeper spiritual meaning. It’s simply a story about Going Home.

“A young girl grows up on a cherry orchard just above Traverse City, Michigan. Her parents, a bit old-fashioned, tend to overreact to her nose ring, the music she listens to, and the length of her skirts. They ground her a few times, and she seethes inside. ‘I hate you!’ she screams at her father when he knocks on the door of her room after an argument, and that night she acts on a plan she has mentally rehearsed scores of times. She runs away.
She has visited Detroit only once before, on a bus trip with her church youth group to watch the Tigers play. Because newspapers in Traverse City report in lurid detail the gangs, the drugs, and the violence in downtown Detroit, she concludes that is probably the last place her parents will look for her. California, maybe, or Florida, but not Detroit.
Her second day there she meets a man who drives the biggest car she’s ever seen. He offers her a ride, buys her lunch, arranges a place for her to stay. He gives her some pills that make her feel better than she’s ever felt before. She was right all along, she decides: her parents were keeping her from all the fun.
The good life continues for a month, two months, a year. The man with the big car—she calls him ‘Boss’—teaches her a few things that men like. Since she’s underage, men pay a premium for her. She lives in a penthouse, and orders room service whenever she wants. Occasionally she thinks about the folks back home, but their lives now seem so boring and provincial that she can hardly believe she grew up there.
She has a brief scare when she sees her picture printed on the back of a milk carton with the headline ‘Have you seen this child?’ But by now she has blond hair, and with all the makeup and body-piercing jewelry she wears, nobody would mistake her for a child. Besides, most of her friends are runaways, and nobody squeals in Detroit.
After a year the first sallow signs of illness appear, and it amazes her how fast the boss turns mean. ‘These days, we can’t mess around,’ he growls, and before she knows it she’s out on the street without a penny to her name. She still turns a couple of tricks a night, but they don’t pay much, and all the money goes to support her habit. When winter blows in she finds herself sleeping on metal grates outside the big department stores. ‘Sleeping’ is the wrong word—a teenage girl at night in downtown Detroit can never relax her guard. Dark bands circle her eyes. Her cough worsens.
One night as she lies awake listening for footsteps, all of a sudden everything about her life looks different. She no longer feels like a woman of the world. She feels like a little girl, lost in a cold and frightening city. She begins to whimper. Her pockets are empty and she’s hungry. She needs a fix. She pulls her legs tight underneath her and shivers under the newspaper she’s piled atop her coat. Something jolts a synapse of memory and a single image fills her mind: of May in Traverse City, when a million cherry trees bloom at once, with her golden retriever dashing through the rows and rows of blossomy trees in chase of a tennis ball.
God, why did I leave, she says to herself, and a pain stabs at her heart. My dog back home eats better than I do now. She’s sobbing, and she knows in a flash that more than anything else in the world she wants to go home.
Three straight phone calls, three straight connections with the answering machine. She hangs up without leaving a message the first two times, but the third time she says, ‘Dad, Mom, it’s me. I was wondering about maybe coming home. I’m catching a bus up your way, and it’ll be there about midnight tomorrow. If you’re not there, well, I guess I’ll just stay on the bus until it hits Canada.’
It takes about seven hours for the bus to make all the stops between Detroit and Traverse City, and during that time she realizes the flaw in her plan. What if her parents are out of town and miss the message? Shouldn’t she have waited another day or so until she could talk to them? And even if they are home, they probably wrote her off as dead long ago. She should have given them some time to overcome the shock.
Her thoughts bounce back and forth between those worries and the speech she is preparing for her father. ‘Dad, I’m sorry. I know I was wrong. It’s not your fault; it’s all mine. Dad, can you forgive me?’ She says the words over and over, her throat tightening even as she rehearses them. She hasn’t apologized to anyone in years.
The bus has been driving with lights on since Bay City. Tiny snowflakes hit the pavement rubbed worn by thousands of tires, and the asphalt steams. She’s forgotten how dark it gets out here. A deer darts across the road and the bus swerves. Every so often, a billboard. A sign posting the mileage to Traverse City. Oh, God.
When the bus finally rolls into the station, its air brakes hissing in protest, the driver announces in a crackly voice over the microphone, ‘Fifteen minutes, folks. That’s all we have here.’ Fifteen minutes to decide her life. She checks herself in a compact mirror, smoothes her hair, and licks the lipstick off her teeth. She looks at the tobacco stains on her fingertips, and wonders if her parents will notice. If they’re there.
She walks into the terminal not knowing what to expect. Not one of the thousand scenes that have played out in her mind prepared her for what she sees. There, in the concrete-walls-and-plastic-chairs bus terminal in Traverse City, Michigan, stands a group of forty brothers and sisters and great-aunts and uncles and cousins and a grandmother and great-grandmother to boot. They’re all wearing goofy party hats and blowing noise-makers, and taped across the entire wall of the terminal is a computer-generated banner that reads ‘Welcome home!’
Out of the crowd of well-wishers breaks her dad. She stares out through the tears quivering in her eyes like hot mercury and begins the memorized speech, ‘Dad, I’m sorry. I know…”
He interrupts her. ‘Hush child. We’ve got no time for that. No time for apologies. You’ll be late for the party. A banquet’s waiting for you at home.’”[10]







[1] Darrell L. Bock, Luke—The NIV Application Commentary, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1996), p. 412.
[2] Darrell L. Bock, Luke 9:51-24:53—Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament, (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1996), p. 1310.
[3] Joel B. Green, The Gospel of Luke—The New International Commentary on the New Testament, (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1997), p. 580.
[4] Bock, Luke—ECNT, p. 1310.
[5] Green, Luke—NICNT, pp. 580-581.
[6] Bock, Luke—ECNT, pp. 1312-1313.
[7] Green, Luke—NICNT, p. 583.
[8] Bock, Luke—ECNT, p. 1319.
[9] Fred B. Craddock, Luke—Interpretation, (Louisville, KY: John Knox Press, 1990), p. 188.
[10] Philip Yancey, What’s So Amazing About Grace, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1997), pp.49-51.



Wednesday, November 18, 2015

The Most Powerful Weapon In The War Against Evil


(Audio version; Music: "Open Heaven" and "Even When It Hurts" by: Hillsong United)










Introduction

            My heart was broken this week by the acts of terrorism suffered by Parisians at the hands, once again, of Islamic terrorists, the most insidious evil of our day. I know that the tragedies have hit close to home for many around the world and I guess I’m no different as I have many regular readers of my weekly lessons in France. For my readers in France who were impacted directly or indirectly by the recent terror attacks in your country, please know that I have and continue to pray that God would grant you peace and comfort during these difficult and frightening days. It can be difficult to know how we should respond to such barbaric evil. On a visceral level, our immediate desire is to lash out at the evil with every fiber of our being. Although that may feel good and even be somewhat effective at a micro level, it will have little if any affect at a macro level to restrain the crashing waves of a pervasive evil like Islam.

All times in history have witnessed their own variation of evil. In the Old Testament era, civilizations witnessed the rise of the Egyptians who enslaved and persecuted the Israelites for 400 years. After that time, God sent Moses to deliver them from their bondage and they eventually settled in the land of Canaan that was promised to them by God. There the people established the nation of Israel. Nevertheless, Israel would be conquered in the 8th century BC by a new evil empire—The Assyrians. Pictorial engravings recovered by archaeologists depict Assyrian warriors creating piles made from the heads of those they conquered. The Assyrians were well known for the fierce cruelty. Nevertheless, the Assyrians would bow in defeat to the Babylonians. There would be a succession of evil empires from the 8th century BC all the way into the New Testament era. The Babylonian empire would give way to the Persian empire and the Persians and other smaller empires would eventually be defeated by the mighty Roman empire. It can be safely assumed that each succeeding empire needed to not only match the brutality of the people they conquered but needed to exceed it on some level. The history of the Roman empire would certainly support this assumption. Don’t forget, they were the ones who perfected the use of the cross as a means of intimidation, torture and execution. They were also the ones who, for entertainment, sewed Christians into animal skins and then set hungry lions on them in the arena in front of cheering Roman crowds. In the succession of these empires, evil was always present. However, evil did not exist in a vacuum. Instead, evil had a trajectory that sought to extinguish anything that was good in society. As societies expanded and grew, evil was always present; always expanding; always growing. If you will open your mind’s eye to it, you will see that evil has always had its sights set on subverting and destroying God’s salvation plan—initially by seeking to destroy Israel according to the Old Testament and then by seeking to destroy Christianity according to the New Testament. There are those who naively insist that this evil was contained in an era where people didn’t know any better and that advancements in science, technology, and human behavioral understanding changed all that in the modern and post-modern era. This thinking is the result of a belief that we are constantly evolving and growing and given enough time, humanity will manage to rid society of evil. In the wise words of my daughter Meagan, these people believe that in time we will live in a world filled with rainbows, butterflies and unicorns. But I live in the real world where evil continues to wage war against all that is good so let’s take a look at how people, Jews and Christians in particular, have been treated by just three well-known evil ideologies: Nazism, Communism, and Islam:

A Great Evil

            When we hear the word “Nazi,” most of us think about the atrocities of the Holocaust where more than six million Jews were exterminated in an attempt by Hitler to wipe out Judaism. However, Freya Petersen, in an article for the Global Post reveals that researchers for the US Holocaust Memorial Museum have catalogued more than 42,500 ghettos and labor camps operated by Hitler’s regime. I can attest to this because my mother and her family, who were Catholic Christians, were interned in one of those camps as she fled from her birthplace of Romania ahead of the communist invasion advancing from the North. Many non-Jews, many of whom were Christians, died from disease and hunger in these lesser-known camps including some of my mother’s younger siblings. Some of these camps were known as killing centers where pregnant mothers were forced to have abortions and new-born babies were killed. Although the six million Jews who were exterminated is not in any way in dispute, researchers are finding that Nazism is responsible for as many as twenty million deaths from Russia to France.[1] However, the United States and its allies eventually put an end to Hitler’s plan for world domination and liberated Europe from the scourge of Nazism. But would this be the end of evil? Not even close.

A Greater Evil

            As shocking as the atrocities of the Nazi’s may have been, the rise of Communism would quickly overshadow the brutality of the Nazi’s. One of the core tenets of Communism is its atheistic worldview. Consequently, people of faith immediately became enemies of Communism. Author, Robin Shepherd, in an article published by TheCommentator provides a rough estimate of those who have died at the hands of Communism. Shepherd concedes that it is difficult to ascertain the true number of deaths because, “Communist regimes went to great lengths to conceal their crimes, and one of the most oppressive of all, North Korea, still exists to this day.” Nevertheless, it is conservatively estimated that Communism is responsible for nearly 100 million deaths![2] Pastor Richard Wurmbrand is from my mother’s home country of Romania. Wurmbrand is a Christian pastor born into a Jewish family. Wurmbrand is referred to as the “St. Paul of the Iron Curtain.” In 1959 he was arrested for preaching ideas contrary to Communist doctrine. Wurmbrand recounts some of his experiences while in prison in his book Tortured for Christ:

“The tortures and brutality continued without interruption. When I lost consciousness or became too dazed to give the torturers any further hopes of confession, I would be returned to my cell. There I would lie, untended and half dead, to regain a little strength so they could work on me again. Many died at this stage, but somehow my strength always managed to return. In the ensuing years, in several different prisons, they broke four vertebrae in my back, and many other bones. They carved me in a dozen places. They burned and cut eighteen holes in my body. When my family and I were ransomed out of Romania and brought to Norway, doctors in Oslo, seeing all this and the scars in my lungs from tuberculosis, declared that my being alive today is a pure miracle! According to their medical books, I should have been dead for years.”[3]

The Greatest Evil Yet

            And just when we think that evil couldn’t get any worse, we come to the greatest evil yet—Islam. Often referred to by the foolish among us as a “Religion of Peace.” Really? Let’s take a look shall we? Islam was birthed by Mohammed (born 570 A. D.; died 632 A. D.) who claimed the Koran was revealed to him in the early 7th century A. D. by God. Without getting into the complexities of the history of Islam along with its theological and ideological intricacies, let me just give you an idea of the two basic tenets that build the foundation of Islam: Allah (Arabic for God) is the one and only God and Islam is the only true religion. Islam wouldn’t be the first world religion to make this claim except for one particular distinction—those who don’t agree with Islam’s claims deserve harsh punishment and death. That’s definitely an important distinction don’t you think? One of the chapters of the Koran, the chapter Sura, is quite revealing about this “Religion of Peace.” “Sura 9:5 says, ‘Fight and slay the idolaters wherever you find them, and seize them, and besiege them, and lie in wait for them.’ What may be considered crimes against the state [the only valid state according the Islam being an Islamic Caliphate] and crimes against God are dealt with in Sura 5:33. ‘The punishment of those who wage war against God and His Apostle [Muhammed], and strive with might and main for mischief through the land is: execution, or crucifixion, or cutting off of hands and feet from opposite sides, or exile from the land.’ Jews and Christians are ‘People of the Book’ (Sura 5:5; 5:19), but that does not mean that Muhammed had the highest regard for them; in Sura 5:41 Jews are called people “who will listen to any lie’ and Christians are enemies (Sura 5:14), and Muslims were not to have Christians and Jews as friends (Sura 5:51).”[4] So how do these verses translate into real life? Columnist Mike Konrad, in an article written for American Thinker chronicles the historic brutality of Islam where he writes, “The enormity of the slaughters of the ‘religion of peace’ are so far beyond comprehension that even honest historians overlook the scale. When one looks beyond our myopic focus, Islam is the greatest killing machine in the history of mankind, bar none.” In his article, Konrad follows the bloody trail and dead bodies of Islam through the ages and concludes that Islam is responsible for the deaths of at least 250 million people.[5] And this profound evil continues in our own time as daily we once received reports from the Middle East of the Islamic terrorist organization Hamas in Palestine firing thousands of rockets aimed at the populated cities of Israel seeking to fulfill its charter of driving the Jews into the sea. Daily we receive reports of the terrorist group “ISIS” (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) sweeping across the countries of the Middle East leaving the dead bodies of Christians in their path. Some have been given the option of converting to Islam, pay a tax they cannot afford, flee to another country, or be killed. Others have only been given the option to convert or die. There are some areas of the Middle East where Christianity has existed since the time of Christ where it has now all but been eradicated by Islam. I can’t even begin to tell you how heartbroken I have been at the reports that Christians are being slaughtered in some cases by crucifixion. The brutality reached new lows when it was reported that children of Christians were being buried alive or beheaded in front of their parents. Andrew White, an Anglican minister in Baghdad, Iraq reported, “‘I’m almost in tears. I’ve just had somebody in my room whose little child was cut in half,’ he said ‘I baptized his child in my church in Baghdad. This little boy, they named him after me—he was called Andrew.”[6]

            Hitler’s reign came to an end at the hands of America and her allies’ superior military might. However, the reign of evil did not end, it only changed hands. Where Nazi brutality left off, Communism picked up. Although President Reagan dealt a severe blow to Communism when America emerged victorious over the Soviet Union at the end of the Cold War, Communism is alive and well in places like China and North Korea. And more recently Communism has found a kind of renaissance in Russia, the former Soviet Union. Led by Russian President Putin, a former KGB intelligence agent of the Soviet Union, Russia has undertaken a campaign to try and take back, by force if necessary, some of the surrounding regions it once controlled, like the sovereign country of Ukraine. So again, evil did not end and now it has grown by unimaginable proportions to include the evils of Islam. So how can we put an end to this evil once and for all? Our current President has authorized limited military intervention in response to the Islamic barbarism. Is this the right response? Will this solve the problem; the problem of evil? Honestly, I’m a pastor and know next to nothing about the complexities of geo-politics around the world. What I do know is that military force can change the course of nations but military force cannot change the hearts and minds of people even if it can destroy their physical bodies. What I do know is that the evil perpetrated by people will not end unless people change and people won’t change until they are transformed; until their hearts and minds are transformed. What does all this evil share in common? Unbelief or wrong-belief. The Nazi’s suffered from both, Communists suffer from unbelief, and Islam suffers from wrong-belief, but the result in each case is life ruled by evil to protect their unbelief or wrong-belief. I may not know anything about geo-politics, but I do know something about the way God operates in the lives of people. God is not primarily interested in geo-politics even though He is sovereign over all nations. Instead, God is primarily interested in people and He is especially interested in being in relationship with people. It was for this very reason that He sent Jesus.

Subject Text

Acts 9:1-20

1Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples. He went to the high priest 2and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem. 3As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. 4He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” 5“Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked.” I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” he replied. 6“Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.” 7The men traveling with Saul stood there speechless; they heard the sound but did not see anyone. 8Saul got up from the ground, but when he opened his eyes he could see nothing. So they led him by the hand into Damascus. 9For three days he was blind, and did not eat or drink anything. 10In Damascus there was a disciple named Ananias. The Lord called to him in a vision, “Ananias!” “Yes, Lord,” he answered. 11The Lord told him, “Go to the house of Judas on Straight Street and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying. 12In a vision he has seen a man named Ananias come and place his hands on him to restore his sight.” 13“Lord,” Ananias answered, “I have heard many reports about this man and all the harm he has done to your saints in Jerusalem. 14And he has come here with authority from the chief priests to arrest all who call on your name.” 15But the Lord said to Ananias, “Go! This man is my chosen instrument to carry my name before the Gentiles and their kings and before the people of Israel. 16I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.” 17Then Ananias went to the house and entered it. Placing his hands on
Saul, he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord—Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here—has sent me so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” 18Immediately, something like scales fell from Saul’s eyes, and he could see again. He got up and was baptized, 19and after taking some food, he regained his strength. Saul spent several days with the disciples in Damascus. 20At once he began to preach in the synagogues that Jesus is the Son of God.

Context

            Paul (Saul) is such a great illustration of the power of Jesus to transform even the most devout ideologue. Chapter 7 of the Book of Acts (“Acts” is short for “Acts of the Apostles”), we have a record of the first martyred Christian, Stephen. When Stephen is brought before the religious leaders, he does a masterful job or communicating the Gospel message from the time of Abraham to the time of Jesus’ advent. Nevertheless, the religious leaders were purposely ignorant and unwilling to listen to Stephen’s witness. Instead, they had him forcibly removed from the trial proceedings and had him stoned to death. And who was right there cheering on the murderous crowd? That’s right, it was Saul. A zealous Saul stood by holding the cloaks of those who participated in the stoning—how thoughtful of young Saul. But the blood of Stephen didn’t satisfy Saul. Saul saw himself as one who would uphold and perpetuate the purity of Judaism even if it meant murdering everyone he believed was a threat to that purity. Saul made it his personal mission to defend God’s honor from all those who might pervert his idea of God by perpetuating the message of Jesus Christ. Consequently, Saul launched a campaign of persecution against the Church in Jerusalem where he went door to door in search of Christians who he then imprisoned. Thereafter, he sought and received permission from the religious leaders to travel to Damascus to confront and hopefully destroy the young Christian community there. However, God had another plan for Saul on the road to Damascus.

Text Analysis

            Paul was a missionary even when he was still Saul. He was just a different kind of missionary according to our Subject Text. Saul was on a mission of destruction. “Saul’s blood is boiling. He’s on a murderous rampage toward Damascus. He charged north out of Jerusalem with the fury of Alexander the Great sweeping across Persia, and the determined resolve of [the American Civil War General] William Tecumseh Sherman in his scorching march across Georgia. Saul was borderline out of control. His fury had intensified almost to the point of no return. Such bloodthirsty determination and blind hatred for the followers of Christ, drove him hard toward his distant destination: Damascus. If you were a follower of Jesus living anywhere near Jerusalem, you wouldn’t want to hear Saul’s knock at your door…Saul had determined to go to the farthest extreme in his mission to apprehend the followers of the Way. Over one hundred miles north of Jerusalem, the journey to Damascus was no small undertaking. To Saul the trip would pay off in spades…

            [Saul] knew many Jewish turncoats had fled Israel’s capital to seek refuge in far-away Damascus. He devised an aggressive plan to storm the city, capture the infidels, and drag them into court. Thankfully, God had a different plan…‘Suddenly, a light from heaven flashed around him; and he fell to the ground’…You can almost hear the screeching of the brakes. At that moment, Saul’s murderous journey was brought to a divine halt.

            Suddenly. Isn’t that just like the Lord? No announcement ahead of time. No heavenly calligraphy scrolled across the skies with the warning, ‘Watch out tomorrow, Saul, God’s gonna getcha.’ God remained silent and restrained as Saul proceeded with his murderous plan to invade Damascus. Surely, he discussed the details with his companions. God didn’t interrupt…until. At the hour it would have its greatest impact, God stepped in. Without warning, the course of Saul’s life changed dramatically…For more than three decades Saul controlled his own life. His record in Judaism ranked second to none. On his way to make an even greater name for himself, the laser of God’s presence stopped him in his tracks, striking him blind…For the first time in his proud, self-sustained life, Saul found himself a desperate dependent…Saul was convinced he had been persecuting people—cultic followers of a false Messiah. Instead, he discovered that the true object of his vile brutality was Christ Himself.”[7]

            The parallels between the actions and attitudes of Saul and the barbarism of Islam can hardly be ignored. However, Saul’s actions and attitudes were not changed by lethal opposition. Even though his death may have stopped him, it clearly would have done nothing to stop all the “Sauls” that came after him. Instead, Saul’s reign ended by The Most Powerful Weapon In The War Against Evil—the Gospel message of Jesus Christ delivered to him personally by Jesus Himself. And this same weapon is the only weapon with the power to defeat the pervasive evil of Islam we face today.

The Most Powerful Weapon In The War Against Evil

            From the start, the mission of this ministry has been to obey Jesus’ command to preach the Gospel and to make disciples of all nations. From my limited perspective, I used to understand this in the context of God wanting to be in a relationship of love with his creation. And while that’s true, it’s only part of the story. The other reason God commands that the Gospel be preached to the nations is that He knows that the Truth of the Gospel has the power to transform the hearts and minds of people set on the path of evil even if those people refuse to admit or are unable to see that that is the path they are traveling. When Jesus was on trial before Pilate, Pilate asked Him if he was the King of the Jews. “Jesus answered, ‘You are right in saying I am a king. In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me (Jn 18:37).’” Why is this important? It’s important because truth has the power to transform lives. When we reach the point of believing that Jesus testifies to truth then we can believe something else Jesus said, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life (Jn 3:16).” Some people have a hard time believing God’s truth can transform evil but I know it can because it transformed the evil in me like it transformed the evil in Paul. Let me also share the story of Zahid with you as further evidence that the Gospel message of Jesus Christ is The Most Powerful Weapon In The War Against Evil.

Zahid, Pakistan, 1986

            “‘When you catch the infidels, beat them! Allah will be please,’ Zahid encouraged them. The crowd of young men, the youth group of his mosque, waved their sticks and iron bars and cheered in agreement. Zahid’s arrogance and hatred swelled. He felt he was doing well as a young Muslim priest. His parents would be proud. He had rallied a rather large group for this outing and they were nearly ready to go. Within minutes they would be combing the streets of their village looking for Christians to ambush.
            Zahid had a proud heritage in Pakistan. His father and older brother were Muslim priests. As expected, Zahid had followed in their footsteps. Shortly after he was assigned to his first mosque, his hatred for Christians began to show itself as he rallied his followers against them.
            To Zahid, as to many Muslims, Christians are heretics and should be punished. His government is becoming more influenced by Sharia law in some provinces. Sharia law calls for the death of anyone found guilty of blasphemy against the prophet Mohammed or the Koran. To these Muslims, rejecting Mohammed’s teachings by becoming a Christian is the highest form of blasphemy.
            When their fervor peaked. Zahid led his group into the streets. It was not long before they found a group of young Christians to attack. As the mob descended upon them, the young boys ran, one of them dropping his Bible. One in Zahid’s group stopped, picked up the Bible, and opened it to rip out the pages. Zahid had always told his followers to burn all the Bibles they collected, but this time Zahid felt strangely compelled to keep it and study it in order to expose its errors to people of his mosque. He quickly snatched the book from the man, encouraged him to chase the fleeing Christians, and tucked the Bible into his shirt for later.
            Zahid reported in his own words what became of keeping that Bible:
            ‘I was reading the Bible, looking for contradictions I could use against the Christian faith. All of a sudden, a great light appeared in my room and I heard a voice call my name. The light was so bright, it lit the entire room.
            Then the voice asked, “Zahid, why do you persecute Me?”
            I was scared. I didn’t know what to do. I thought I was dreaming. I asked, “Who are you?”
            I heard, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.”
            For the next three nights the light and voice returned. Finally, on the fourth night, I knelt down and accepted Jesus as my Savor.’
            Zahid’s hatred was suddenly gone. All he wanted to do was share Jesus with everyone he knew. He went to his family members and those in the mosque and told them what had happened to him over the last four nights, but they didn’t believe him. His family and friends turned against him. They called the authorities to have him arrested so he would leave them alone about this Jesus. According to Islamic teaching, Zahid was now considered an apostate, a traitor to Islam, a man who had turned from his faith and accepted stupid lies. Thus, he was a criminal.
            Zahid was locked up in prison for two years. The guards repeatedly beat and tortured him. One time, they pulled out his fingernails in an attempt to break his faith. Another time, they tied him to the ceiling fan by his hair and left him hanging there.
            ‘Although I suffered greatly at the hands of my Muslim captors, I held no bitterness towards them. I knew that just a few years before, I had been one of them. I too had hated Christians.
            During my trial, I was found guilty of blasphemy. According to Sharia law, I was to be executed by hanging. They tried to force me to recant my faith in Jesus. They assured me that if I cooperated there would be no more beatings, no more humiliation. I could go free.
            But I could not deny Jesus. Mohammed had never visited me; Jesus had. I knew He was the truth. I just prayed for the guards, hoping that they would also come to know Jesus.’
            On the day Zahid was to be hanged, he was unafraid of death as they came to take him from his cell. Even as they took him to his execution and placed the noose around his neck, Zahid preached about Jesus to his guards and executioners. He wanted his last breaths on earth to be used to tell his countrymen that Jesus was the “the way, the truth, and the life.’ Zahid stood ready to face his Savior.
            Suddenly, loud voices were heard in the outer room. Guards hurried in to tell Zahid’s executioners that the court had unexpectedly issued an order to release Zahid, stating that there was not enough evidence to execute him. To this day, no one knows why Zahid was suddenly allowed to go free.
            Zahid later changed his name to Lazarus, feeling that he too had been raised from death. He traveled in the villages around his home testifying of his narrow escape from death. Many of the Christians did not trust him at first. But soon they saw his sincerity and received him into their family. They now assist him as he travels from village to village preaching Jesus as “the way, the truth, and the life.”
[Zahid writes,] I live in a land ruled by the false teaching of Islam. My people are blinded, and I was chosen by God to be His voice. I count all that I have suffered nothing compared to the endless joy of knowing Jesus, the way, the truth, and the life.”[8]

Application

            For those of you who have followed this ministry, you know that I rarely, if ever, ask you for anything. But I want to ask all of you for something now: Pray with me for those who were devastated by the evil attacks on France by Islamic terrorists. Pray especially for any of our brothers and sisters in France who may have been affected by the attacks. Pray also for all those around the world who lie in the path of Islam’s evil advance. And if you are willing, please pray for this ministry that its message would continue to spread around the world. Share the website with your family, with your friends, and with anyone God places in your path. Print and copy the weekly lessons and share them freely. Share the message of the Gospel with everyone you meet. You don’t have to be a pastor or scholar, you just have to share your personal story of how Jesus transformed your life; how the Gospel message defeated the evil of sin in your life. And finally, pray for persecutors around the world that God moves in their lives to change their hearts and minds. I have no doubt that dropping bombs on our persecutors might change the course of a nation, and may even be necessary at times for a wide variety of reasons, but it will do nothing to change the hearts and minds of people bent on evil. And unless the hearts and minds of people are changed, evil will not be; cannot be defeated. It is only through the preaching of the Gospel message of Jesus Christ that evil will be defeated for it is The Most Powerful Weapon In The War Against Evil.





[1] Freya Petersen, “Nazis may have killed up to 20 million people more in concentration camps than previously thought: study,” Global Post, March 4, 2013; available from http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/war/130303/nazis-concentration-camps-holocaust-death-toll-Hitlerpreviously.html; Internet; accessed August 10, 2014.
[2] Robin Shepherd, “The historical reality of communist oppression is being ignored. But the truth must not be buried,” TheCommentator, October 15, 2013, available from http://www.thecommentator.com/article/4230/so_how_many_did_communism_kill.html; Internet; accessed August 10, 2014.
[3] Richard Wurmbrand, Tortured for Christ, (Bartlesville, OK: Living Sacrifice Book Co., 1998), pp. 38-39.
[4] Walter Martin, The Kingdom of the Cults, (Minneapolis, MN: Bethany House Publishers, 1997), pp. 616-617.
[5] Mike Konrad, “The Greatest Murder Machine In History,” American Thinker, May 31, 2014, available from http://www.americanthinker.com/2014/05/the_greatest_murder_machine_in_history.html; Internet; Accessed August 10, 2014.
[6] ACNS staff, “Anglican Vicar of Baghdad: ‘Child I baptized cut in half by ISIS,’” Episcopal News Service, August 8, 2014, available from http://episcopaldigitalnetwork.com/ens/2014/08/08/anglican-vicar-of-baghdad-child-i-baptized-cut-in-half-by-isis/; Internet; August 10, 2014.
[7] Charles R. Swindoll, Paul: A Man of Grace and Grit, (Nashville, TN: W Publishing Group, 2002), pp. 22-24.
[8] dc Talk and The Voice of the Martyrs, Jesus Freaks, (Tulsa, OK: Albury Publishing, 1999), pp. 52-55.