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The Persistent Philadelphians – Revelation 3:7-13

A serious earthquake like the one in Ridgecrest, California the other day is a stark reminder that we are not, ultimately, in control. The church of Philadelphia knew how this went – the city had been destroyed by an earthquake, about 80 years earlier. The congregation there lived in an unstable world in more ways than one.

Jesus opens again with a description of himself, though this time he does not refer explicitly back to the earlier description. Instead, it is a direct reference to Isaiah 22:22, when Isaiah condemns Shebna, the steward of king Hezekiah. It is a clear reference to the deity of Christ, but also an introduction to the concept of the door, which Jesus goes on to expand upon.

He has given them an open door “which no one can shut.” This picture of a door is used across the New Testament as both the door to the Kingdom of Heaven and as a door of opportunity for good works.

The Philadelphians were struggling with the local synagogues, who were expelling the Christians, shutting the doors on them. But Jesus opens a more important door, the door to God’s kingdom.

Like the church at Smyrna, this church receives no censure. Both of these churches were explicitly weak and powerless in the secular world. Like Paul, their weakness kept them from becoming conceited. Paul asked three times for his weakness to be taken away, but once he accepted it, he thanked God for his weakness, because it was a way for Christ to demonstrate His strength.

This is what the Church in Philadelphia was living. The large, strong, growing churches among the seven churches were those with the most spiritual failures.

But Christ promises that the persecutors would ultimately see the truth of His love, and that He would protect the church in the midst of the coming adversity.

Jesus then promises that He is “coming soon.” It has not felt soon, but as Peter noted, “a thousand years is like a day” to the Lord. Regardless of how or when or in what form that eventually takes, we are called to be ready: to endure and to hold fast.

And in this city of earthquakes and instability, Christ will make them a pillar, with the names of the Father, the Son and the City of God engraved on it. What names are carved on us now?

If you go to Philadelphia today, all that is left of the city, appropriately, are three pillars of the Basilica of St. John. The region around the city was a site of wars and conquest for centuries. Eventually, it was all conquered by Islamic forces, but the church of Philadelphia, with “but little power,” lasted longest, into the 12th century as a formal body.

The endurance and persistence of the Philadelphian church is something for us to aspire to, and something we have seen in our history.

Jesus wants faith, not strength.

– Sermon Notes, Mahlon Friesen, Seed Church, Lynnwood, WA, July 7, 2019

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Thyatira Has a Lot Going On

Thyatira is a church with a lot going on. It’s a reminder that Jesus is at work in all things, using all the things that happen in our lives to prepare us for our ministry in the future.

Thyatira was the smallest town of the seven to receive a letter, but the letter itself is the longest – a reminder that the size of a church is not the highest priority of Jesus. It was the hometown of Lydia, and was known for its purple dyes, in which she was a dealer.

The church receives the longest list of accolades of any of the churches. Like the church of Thyatira, we should always be seeking to grow in love and faith. Everything we do, in fact, should be helping us grow in faith and love.

Jesus goes on to say that their growth in these areas resulted in higher, better works than this that came before. Can we say the same? Are we further ahead now than we were then? In the last year, we have had many opportunities to love and trust more. What have we done with them? Are we growing as believers? What about us as a church?

If the letter had ended here, it would have been great. But there is more.

If the church in Thyatira was around today, it would fit in well. Toleration is a key virtue now, and the combination of good works on one hand and the toleration of sexual sin on the other would make them look very good in the eyes of many today.

Jezebel was not the real name of this woman, but a reference to the historical figure who led the northern kingdom of Israel astray, ending in its destruction.

The issues described here come directly from the decision made by the early Church, described in Acts, to make circumcision optional, but to require that gentile believers avoid meat sacrificed to idols and sexual immorality. Jezebel was directly opposing this instruction.

The situation was that many of the trade guilds would hold official banquets involving sacrifices to pagan gods, eating the meat sacrificed, and often then becoming an orgy. These were cultural, economic and social events, and it seems like this Jezebel may have taught that, because of grace, we are covered and can participate in these activities of the culture around us, even if they are sinful.

Jesus clearly has a different, supreme perspective. And the warning that he gives makes it clear that we will be held accountable for how we live. The specifics of the judgment are not necessarily clear, though it seems to center around illness, but either way, it seems clear that we would rather be in the group Jesus encourages.

Those who did not buy into this statement are called to continue standing firm, but with no additional pressure or instructions.

And if they do, he promises that this small group within a small group will have “authority over the nations”. The specifics of this are hazy, but the upshot is that we will somehow be involved with Jesus’ ultimate kingdom. Everything this church was going through was preparing them for what Jesus has for them in the future. The same is true for us, both in the cosmic, eternal sense and in the practical, day-to-day sense. Everything we do is preparing us for what comes next.

One of the problems the Christian church has gotten into is that we fail to really about what comes next. As an old Puritan sermon says, “a believer’s last day is his best day.”

Something else we can learn from Thyatira is the nature of church conflicts. There are some issues, clearly, that are foundational and where toleration is not appropriate. Discerning these issues from the much more common, secondary issues that divide churches is vital.

The key takeaway is that all the struggles that we go through, all the conflicts, all the difficulties, as well as all the victories and successes, are preparing us for something much, much greater. “Only hold fast what you have until I come.”

– Sermon Notes, Mahlon Friesen, Seed Church, Lynnwood, WA, June 23, 2019

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Compromising Pergamum – Revelation 2:12-17″

All seven of the churches written to in Revelation were unaware of something that Jesus was aware of, and Pergamum was no exception. In this case, there were problems. Something we should consider in all these cases is, if we were at this church, would we be part of the problem or part of the solution?

Pergamum was a cultural center, home to a major library, and major temples to a number of gods including Asclepius, the god of healing. Pergamum was also the home of Galen, the preeminent medical expert of the Roman Era.

There was also a temple to Zeus high above the city on the acropolis, which may be what Jesus is referring to when he mentions “Satan’s throne”. It certainly would have been a reminder to the Christians of the city that they were a tiny minority at the mercy of the surrounding culture and government.

But Jesus tells them that he knows all about what they are undergoing, that he knows their faith and perseverance. He knows by name those who suffered and even died, such as Antipas. Today, while we in general are safe and comfortable, there are numbers that indicate that more Christians are being martyred globally today than in all history previous. Crises like this are certainly tests of where our relationship with Christ ranks in our lives, but the ranking itself happens long before a crisis. But the church at Pergamum is commended for doing this well.

But it’s not all positive. They are falling prey to a teaching that Jesus relates to the story of Balaam, who encouraged the Israelites to participate in pagan festivals and rituals. This is much the same as what the Nicolaitans were encouraging, in the context of loosening moral boundaries especially in regards to pagan rituals and their sexual components.

This is particularly relevant to us. We and the church at Pergamum both live in a culture that devalue the sanctity of marriage, and where sexual immorality is easy and available. Jesus warns them and us that if they do not stop this, he will “war against them” – and we should consider if some of the scandals and problems coming up in various churches today are not in fact Jesus going to war. We know that God’s love means discipline, just as the love of a parent means discipline.

So we should consider what in our lives Jesus may be unhappy with. How have we been compromising? What do we need to change and repent of?

But if we do repent and persevere, Christ here promises manna – the heavenly feast to replace the pagan festivals – and a white stone, privileged access to the throne of God, high above the throne of Satan.

– Sermon Notes, Mahlon Friesen, Seed Church, Lynnwood, WA, June 16, 2019

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Leading & Following – Numbers 11:1-15

This passage raises two important questions: what does it mean to be a good leader? And what does it mean to be a good follower? All of us play both roles in different parts of our lives, and this passage gives us a look at both sides of the equation.

At this point in the story of the Exodus, the Israelites are in the desert, the wilderness of Paran in what is now Saudi Arabia, dependent on manna for food.

They have come out of slavery, but have forgotten the bad parts of that life and now only remember the food. They have received miraculous sustenance but now it has become mundane and they are tired of it. They complain to Moses and Moses in turn complains to God. He is in over his head and wants to give up entirely.

The Bible is an honest book. It does not present “10 Easy Rules for Being a Leader” or even a follower. Instead, we get this story of a bunch of sinful people flailing around in the desert. But even then, there are important lessons we can take.

All of us are leaders in one form or another, whether in our family, work, community or other circumstance. All of it comes with similar challenges that can make our leadership ineffective.

First, the temptation of power is always present, and even the smallest amount of power can be abused.

Second, the responsibility of leadership can feel overwhelming, and it is easy to feel inadequate just like Moses did.

Third, sin can disrupt your leadership. We have seen this all too often in the Christian ministry world. All leaders sin, but there are sins that can entirely undermine your leadership, if they strike at the very foundation of what made you a leader in the first place.

There are also things that can make bring a follower difficult. If we have a lack of trust in our leaders, if we are in the midst of a transition, these and more can make life as a follower difficult.

Fortunately, we have the perfect leader as our example in Christ. First, we are to be servant leaders, willing to do the lowliest task. We are to maintain the highest moral and ethical standards.

We can also learn from Christ how to be a follower. First, we must not follow blindly, but be discerning in who we follow and how we follow. The scriptures are an authority over any Christian leader. Second, we must keep perspective and not lose context the way the Israelites did. And third, we must pray for our leaders, whether in the church, in the workplace, in the government or wherever we find them.

One thing to be careful about as either a leader or a follower is seeing our goal, our Promised Land, as the necessary step before we can really be with God. “Once we get to this point, then we can finally know God.” But in reality, God is with us all throughout the journey.

– Sermon Notes, Dave Lester, Seed Church, Lynnwood, WA, June 9, 2019

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Suffering Smyrna – Revelation 2:8-11

The letter to the church in Smyrna forces us to wrestle with something we may not want to wrestle with: the fact that following Jesus may itself bring suffering. We prefer the verses about Christ being our peace or his burden being light. That’s true, but so is suffering. Especially today, the problem of human suffering is something that often drives people – especially Western people who are themselves not intimate with suffering – away from the church. See Bart Ehrlman for one example.

Smyrna, today called Izmir, was a large port city about 50 miles north of Ephesus, very loyal to Rome. There was a patriotic ritual of loyalty to Rome involving putting incense into fire and declaring “Caesar is Lord”. This presented a challenge to the Christians at Smyrna, and this letter makes it clear that there would be suffering that would ensue.

Christ here introduces himself as “the first and the last,” a title given to God originally in Isaiah. He adds “who died and came to life” – both titles are there to give confidence to the church. Christ is greater than Caesar and greater than death.

Next comes the evaluation. Smyrna gets no criticism. Instead, he acknowledges their tribulation and their poverty. They may have been poor because the converts there originally came from the poorer classes, or as a result of persecution. Either way, the “health and wealth” gospel was not working for them. But to Jesus, their poverty was in fact wealth. Even in their material poverty, in the midst of the material wealth of Smyrna, it was the church that had the eternal advantage.

Next we hear about the “synagogue of Satan” – which can sound antisemitic to our ears. But recall that everyone involved in this conversation is, in fact, Jewish. It seems that there was a wealthy Jewish community that was making life difficult for the Christians in Smyrna, and here Christ is saying that their group is not, in fact, pointed to the living God, but rather Satan the accuser. This is the same way Christ rebuked Peter treats before – anyone who opposes the work of God is, in effect, on the side of Satan.

Next, Jesus gives counsel. He does not tell them that he will rescue them, but he does tell them not to fear what they are about to suffer. Specifically, they are about to suffer, with many of them thrown into prison. Prison was not the penalty, but rather the holding tank until the penalty, whether death or slavery. They are called to be faithful unto death. Smryna itself means “myrrh” – the incense that releases its aroma only when crushed.

This calls to mind Paul’s prayer that Christ remove the thorn in his flesh. Christ answered no: “my grace is sufficient for you.” We love grace, but do we love it when that is all there is?

The letter closes with a promise that they will, ultimately, be rescued from the final suffering.

We aren’t undergoing the same persecution as the Smyrnans, but remember that they were not persecuted because of what they believed, but because of how they lived it out. What would you do if your faith and duty to Christ brought you into conflict with your duty as a patriotic American?

What does it mean to be faithful unto death? First, to be confident in Christ’s sovereignty. You may not have all the answers, but if you have confidence that Christ was what he said he was and did what we are told he did, that is a firm foundation, even in the midst of the suffering that we are promised will come.

Second, being faithful to Christ means being convinced of Christ’s care. Even when it feels like He is silent, or even at against us. Eventually, Jesus will be all any of us have, as we walk through the dark river of death. Seek to make Christ alone enough, because at some point that will be ask we have.

Finally, we should be contented with Christ’s promises. Those promises are relatively simple: life everlasting and immunity from the second death.

One of John’s disciples was Polycarp, who eventually became the bishop of Smyrna. The persecution of the church in Smyrna continued, and Polycarp was eventually captured and given the opportunity to recant. Polycarp replied:

86 years have I have served him, and he has done me no wrong. How can I blaspheme my King and my Savior?

He was then martyred. He would have been a young man when this letter was originally read, and it is likely that these words of Christ in his ears. He knew early on that the plan of Christ includes suffering. We have the same message – are we prepared?

– Sermon Notes, Mahlon Friesen, Seed Church, Lynnwood, WA, June 2, 2019

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Losing Love – Revelation 2:1-7

Jesus sees beyond the superficial and sees the “congenital heart defects” of both people and churches. Here, he specifically looks at the church at Ephesus.

Ephesus was a large city, a quarter million people strong, and a popular site for religious tourism because of the Temple of Diana or Artemis, one of the 7 Wonders of the Ancient World. It was a site of refuge for criminals, vs and once been a port city before the harbor silted in.

The church had a large number of high profile leaders. Paul was there for three years, the longest anywhere, along with Timothy, Aquila, Priscilla, Apollos, Tychicus, John – a “Who’s Who” of the early church. The books of 1 and 2 Timothy were written to Timothy while he was pastoring there.

Ephesus also features prominently in the book of Acts. The teaching of Paul began impacting the sale of silver idols, and so a silversmith named Demetrius stirred up the people to riot against the Apostles. All this to say, it was a prominent, important city and church.

The letter to the Ephesians here has the same format as those that follow. It starts with an introduction, describing Jesus in the context of the vision that John has just had. In this case, Jesus uses the vision of stars and lampstands to explicitly remind the church at Ephesus that, no matter how large, prominent and important it was, that they were a part of something even greater and broader.

Next comes evaluation. It starts with praise for the hard work and perseverance, as well as their discernment. Years before, as described in Acts 20, Paul explicitly warned the elders of the church to care for their flock and to protect them from the false teachers that would emerge, even from within their own body. The seem to have taken the warning seriously based on this praise. They have endured patiently and not grown weary. When considering that this church was essentially founded in the midst of a riot, this endurance is no small thing.

But Jesus goes on. They had abandoned, released, let go, even divorced themselves from the “love they had at first.” Mark Galli, editor of Christianity Today recently described how this sort of thing emerged in his own life:

It may have been as the result of hearing a sermon, or perhaps reading a book. But I distinctly remember thinking that my Christian life was sorely lacking in the love of God. I didn’t have any affection for or yearning to know and love God. I wasn’t angry with him. I didn’t doubt his existence. I wasn’t wrestling with the problem of evil. I was being a faithful Christian as best I knew how. But it occurred to me that I didn’t feel any love for God…

I was living as a practical atheist, meaning my personal relationship with God did not really affect much inside me. I was at the time managing editor of Christianity Today, so naturally I edited and wrote a lot of things that were Christian to the core. But I realized that if I never prayed again, that I could still be a very good editor at a Christian publication, and a very good church member at my local parish. I knew how to get along with others, to manage staff, to work with my superiors, to work with fellow church members, and to write on Christian spirituality. But prayer wasn’t necessary to do all that. These other matters were all learned skills that had more or less become good habits. My personal relationship with God really didn’t make any difference.

This lack of love itself may have been a result of their dogged opposition to heresy. Did they perhaps get so good at hating what was evil that they forgot to love?

Next, Christ offers counsel – repent, turn, change. There is a threat there, too: if they do not change, their lampstand will be removed.

Then an aside – after calling out their lack of love, they get praised for hating properly. The Nicolaitans were a heresy that said that personal behavior and morality were unimportant. To love well, we must know how and what to hate (note that they hate the works, rather than the people themselves). We must hate threats to our children if we are to love and protect them.

Then it closes with the promise that those who conquer, those who reclaim their first love, they will be restored and eat from the tree of life, a restoration of the cosmic story of Eden.

Some lessons we can take from this. First, love discerns. It seeks the best for others but does so thoughtfully and

Love fades. If it is not kept powered from some other source, like entropy in any system, it will decline. We must go back to the source of love.

Finally, love revives. When we do go back to that source, we can find ourselves revived. Going back to Mark Galli, his prayer was “Lord, help me to want to love you.”

– Sermon Notes, Mahlon Friesen, Seed Church, Lynnwood, WA, May 26, 2019

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Road Map to the Seven Letters – Revelation 1:17-20

A reason to love these chapters, the letters to the churches, is that they are about the lordship of Christ over his churches. That is where we have to start if we are talking about church vitality or other issues of that sort.

One of the things Jesus is doing here is setting up a vision and understanding of himself that shows that he is greater than Caesar, greater than the Roman governors of military – and in our time greater than the media, the culture or a political power.

John had this vision while exiled to the island of Patmos. The first thing he sees are these seven stars and lampstands, representing seven churches sequentially. They were all along a 300 mile route, about equivalent to driving from Lynnwood to Yakima and then back across the mountains to Chehalis.

The lampstands are easy – these are the churches, as Jesus said. The stars are more confusing. Jesus calls them “the angels of the churches”, which the early church fathers interpreted as the Bishops or the pastors of the churches. Others take it more literally – it says angels and must mean angels, heavenly beings, like in the rest of the book, and be some kind of guardian angel. Whatever it means, it is a representation of the church as a whole, because that is who the letters are addressed to.

Each church gets a specific introduction to Jesus that references a piece of John’s vision of Him. Each church is told “I know you,” and each church gets a review of sorts.

There is a mix of commendation and criticism for the churches. Two get no commendation and two get no criticism, and there are some surprises in terms of which churches get which. What would a letter to Seed Church look like?

After the introduction and evaluation for each church comes advice. For five of the seven, the word is relatively straightforward: repent. You are doing what you should not, and must change. Each piece of advice is tailored to each church.

Also tailor-made is the next part, the promise made to each church.

While all of this is tailored to these churches, we must pay attention to all of it, because we don’t necessarily know what stage or situation we are in.

One lesson we can take from this is about handling conflict. Sometimes in a church or friendship or other relationship, one person, A, has a problem with another, B. Assuming it is not something small enough to move past, there are options. A could go directly to B. Usually, though, A will go to C, often under the guise of a “prayer concern”. Then C goes to D and F goes to E and F and so on and so forth. This is typical of any small community, and social media of course has exacerbated it.

This is called “triangulation” can lead to what Jim Van Up calls “Death by Triangulation”. We must be careful about how we “pray” for people.

What we are called to, instead, is healthy confrontation. We see this in these letters – Jesus does not drag other churches into the letters, but rather addresses each honestly ABC directly.

These letters are to seven specific churches, at a specific moment in history, but there is an eighth church. Ours. So as we go through these letters, consider what we can take away from it as that eighth church.

One thing we can take away from it is that Jesus cares about each Christian – individually and as a church. Jesus cares about congregations. “If you love me, you will love the church.” Where does John find Jesus? In the midst of the churches. The only direct, written communication we have from Jesus is to churches. Salvation is a group project. “Do not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing.”

Second, we can know that Jesus cares about our busyness. He knows and cares about our service. But he also cares about our holiness. No matter how busy these churches were, Jesus looked at their hearts and called them out on their wrong motives or toleration of sin in their midst. If there is an area of your life where you are tolerating sin that you should not, today would be a good day to confess and repent.

Third, these letters tell us that Jesus cares about our trials, and about our triumph. The churches are constantly called to overcome. Jesus does not give up on us.

The same Jesus who walked among those seven lampstands walks among our churches now. Is he encouraged by what he sees?

– Sermon Notes, Revelation 1:17-20, Mahlon Friesen, Seed Church, Lynnwood, WA, May 19, 2019

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You Can’t Overestimate Jesus

Often in our lives we want to “speak to the manager” or whoever is in charge. This passage in Revelation is an opportunity to hear directly from the man (or Son of Man) in charge.

John is writing, as described in this passage, to seven churches in Asia Minor – but he’s it writing to eight churches. The reason each of these “job reviews” are made public is so that that we can learn and apply the lessons in our own church, the eighth church.

John wrote from Patmos, an island off the coast of Asia Minor, and these seven churches are along a major route on the mainland, in order the way they are listed here. John was in some sort of exile here, possibly working in the mines there as a punishment. Tradition holds that he e in a cave when this vision occurred.

He writes that he was “in the spirit on the Lord’s day,” which is a challenge for us. Do we prepare ourselves for worship and fellowship? In Judaism, the sabbath begins on Friday night, so the people are well prepared for the synagogue the next day. Are we prepared, or do we stay up to all hours and only try to get into the right mindset once we arrive on Sunday morning?

John’s exile itself raises another question and challenge. Church today can be very focused on comfort and entertainment. How would we handle it if we were threatened with imprisonment or death for showing up on Sundays?

John introduces himself not as a leader, authority or even Apostle. Instead, he calls himself “brother” and “partner”. This itself is another challenge, to avoid the word “they” in favor of “us” when discussing the church. We need each other and are all in this together. Salvation is a group project – we are saved individually, but called to corporate sanctification.

We move on to this vision of churches as lampstands, with Christ going amongst them. This is a vision we can see and imagine of the churches in our area – Jesus is in the midst of them and that’s the opinion that matters.

The description of Jesus is intense and symbolic, calling back to a similar description in Daniel. It’s difficult to picture (and looks weird when someone tries to illustrate it), but it indicates both the deity and humanity of Christ. He is dressed in a way that calls to mind the High Priest, with eyes of flame indicating his penetrating gaze (which we will see more of in the letters to the churches), legs of bronze indicating stability, hair of white indicating wisdom, and a mouth like a sword – words that cleave, which again we will see more of shortly.

Taken as a whole, we are reminded of the lordship of Christ. In the moment, it would be a reminder that Jesus was greater tag Caesar or any of his soldiers. Today it is a reminder that Jesus is greater and has a greater call on our allegiance than any political party or movement. From the lordship of Christ flow all our other roles and allegiances. We seek to be good citizens, employees, parents because we seek to follow Christ in all these these roles.

The true impact of this lordship comes into clearer focus when we see John’s response. Remember, this is the “disciple Jesus loved” who leaned back on him at meals, but his response is not “hey, friend, how have you been?” Instead, he falls at Jesus’ feet in worship.

Jesus, though, lays his hand upon John and tells him not to be afraid. Then he tells him why he needs not fear: Jesus is the first and last, the one who defeated death and hell and holds the keys to it all. Christ-centered Christians recognize his Lordship and submit to it even in the face of persecution.

The overall summary of this chapter is “you can’t overestimate Jesus.” The rest of the book, while confusing and controversial in the specifics, overall points to Jesus. The broad theme of Revelation is simply “Jesus wins”. The details are up for debate, but not the ultimate outcome.

It is easy to make our faith a “Jesus overlay” we put on top of the important things in life. But Jesus wants to be at the center of our world. He is the first and the last.

– Sermon Notes, Mahlon Friesen, Seed Church, Lynnwood, WA, May 12, 2019

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Remember, Ask, Persevere – Psalm 126

This Psalm was part of a series of “songs of ascent” which may have been sung by the priests as they ascended to the temple in procession.

It begins with a memory of what God did for the people of Israel. It probably refers to the return from Babylonian Captivity, but could mean the Exodus or even what has happened in our own lives – or what has happened in the life of our church. It is good to think back on the good things that God has done for us.

But there is a danger that this remembrance does not degrade into nostalgia. In this case, the excitement and exuberance of the people had faded. There was struggle and sin and defeats.

They sought for a return of their fortunes from the Lord, likening it to an out-of-season flood through the dry streambeds and wadis of the Negeb Valley in the south of Israel.

The psalm then shifts again, painting an agricultural picture. Sowing and reaping was a core concept among the people of that age, and the idea that we reap what we sow is a metaphorical sense is a theme that is repeated throughout scripture. We generally get out what we put in.

This reminds us that we cannot just sit around waiting for God’s blessing. We have to go out and do the hard work of sowing and reaping. God can bring miraculous blessings, but God also has processes. The seasons will change, the rains will come and, if it is planted, the harvest will be there.

All this reminds us in our own lives, and the life of this church, of ways that God gives joy. First, we should remember the great works of God that he has done in the past. We do this weekly here through the sacrament of communion, as we remember the greatest thing God has done for us.

Second, we should ask. We should pray for the good things we need and desire. We should pray for ourselves, for church leadership and volunteers and each other. We should pray for God’s blessing to be poured out onto this body.

And finally, we should persevere. This agricultural metaphor brings to mind Christ’s teaching on evangelism. Much of what we share lands on rocky ground or thorny ground, but we are called to persevere. We are called as a church to persevere through the seasons that we are in, whether winter or summer or somewhere in between. You can’t just skip from one to the other – the only way out is through.

What is God calling you to do in reaction to all this, both as a member of this church and as an individual? James 5:7-8 and Galatians 6:7-10 be remind us that we must do the hard work in order to see the glory that God has for us in the future. That glory will be more than what we have, because we always reap more than we sow – otherwise our economy would collapse and we would all starve to death.

Revelation 18:21 reminds us of the ultimate glory ahead of us – God will dwell with man and we will be his people. The goal isn’t that we go off to heaven, but rather that heaven comes to us.

1 Corinthians 15:15, finally, reminds us that when we labor for the Lord, our labor is not in vain.

– Sermon Notes, Mahlon Friesen, Seed Church, Lynnwood, WA, April 28, 2019

 
Psalm 126

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Perspectives on the Resurrection

Humanity’s greatest foe was conquered by a carpenter from Nazareth.

In Kendrick Lamar’s song “How Much Does a Dollar Cost” he tells the story is meeting a transient asking him for a dollar while he was getting gas. He dismisses the man as a druggie and a bum, but then it turns out to be Jesus Christ. It is so easy to miss Jesus when he appears in our mundane circumstances, in an unexpected place.

Different people have different perspectives on Easter. Even the gospels have different perspectives.

In Matthew, we hear about Mary Magdelene and Mary the mother of James and John visiting the tomb, but not before an earthquake strikes and the stone rolls away. The women are met by an angel sitting on the stone who tells them not to be afraid (despite the guards lying on the ground like dead men) and that Jesus had risen. He sends them off to tell the disciples, and they run off with a comingling of both “fear and great joy.” They meet Jesus himself on the way and worship him as God. They grab his feet – he is not a spirit or a ghost, but a man bodily resurrected.

In Mark, chapter 16, the perspective is similar, but with an additional woman mentioned, Salome. Like in Matthew, they came to bring spices and oils to anoint the body. This wasn’t about mummifucation, but rather to offset the odor, and as an act of respect and piety. As in Matthew, they are met by an angel who tells them what has happened and what to do. Here, the angel is within the tomb rather than on the rock.

In Luke 24, we get a similar story, but in this case with two angels. It may be that there was one on the stone and one in the tomb itself. They ask “why do you seek the living among the dead?” In this recounting, we also hear that a woman named Joanna who had been healed by Jesus was within the group, and possibly other women as well. Here we get the story of what happens when they tell the disciples – they dismiss the story of the angel and Jesus, and, like Kendrick Lamar, almost miss Jesus.

John is written latest, and gives us more of the story. When Mary Magdelene tells the disciples, Peter and John run to the tomb (and John makes it clear that he got there first). They see the empty tomb and the folded linens (!) and believed.

What do we do about these differences? Consider a football game, and different people sitting in different places around the field. They will each tell slightly different stories about the game, and those stories will also be different based on who they are told to. The big picture – the big picture, the teams and the score will be the same, but the perspectives will be very different.

We all have different perspectives on the Resurrection, and those can shift. Does our perspective put us at risk of missing Jesus, like the disciples nearly did?

Christianity is not just fire insurance. We become representatives of Christ and his kingdom today, in the here and now.

We all have access to the power that raised Jesus from the dead. It doesn’t matter what we have done in the past – all we have to do is believe. Without Christ we are dead in our sins, but his power of forgiveness gives us new life, just as Jesus himself rose from the grave.

As Philip Yancey wrote,

There are two ways to look at human history… One way is to focus on the wars and violence… and tragedy and death. From such a point of view, Easter seems a fairy-tale exception… There is another way to look at the world. If I take Easter as the starting point, the one incontrovertible fact about how God treats those whom he loves, then human history becomes the contradiction and Easter a preview of ultimate reality. Hope then flows like lava beneath the crust of daily life.

– Sermon Notes, Dave Lester, Seed Church, Lynnwood, WA, April 21, 2019