August 2021 – Tri-Valley Baptist Church

“More Star-like Than a Star”

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Aug 292021

By: Ron Woodrum

This past week Bob Dylan was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for Literature, citing the reason being his masterful talent of writing lyrical poetry like no one else in history. Most who are familiar with Dylan’s music, would admit that his vocal abilities are sometimes hard to endure, but his lyrics indeed are masterful. One of the songs/lyrics that have been chosen to illustrate his lyrical-poetic talent is his song It’s Not Dark Yet. Here are some of the words:

Shadows Are Falling

I’ve Been Here All Day

It’s too hot to sleep,

Time is Running Away

Feel Like My Soul is Turning to Steel

I’ve Got Scars that the Sun Didn’t Heal

There’s Not Even Room Enough

To Be Anywhere

It’s Not Dark Yet,

But It’s Getting There!

Well My Sense of Humanity

Has Gone Down the Drain

Behind Every Beautiful Thing,

There’s Some Kind of Pain…

Sometimes my burden,

Seems more than I can bear

It’s Not Dark Yet,

But It’s Getting There!

I was born here, and I’ll die here

Against My Will

I Know It Looks Like I’m Moving,

But I’m Standing Still

Every Nerve In My Body

Is Vacant and Numb

I can’t even Remember,

What I came here to Get Away From

Don’t even hear a Murmur of A Prayer

It’s Not Dark Yet, But It’s Getting There!

Darkness. Darkness seems to be falling all around us. Even the most optimistic seem to agree with Dylan. “It’s Not Dark Yet…But It’s Getting There”. Darkness has always been something I have avoided. Thanks to my older brother, who loved to frighten me during early childhood, I was afraid of the dark early on. I used to fall asleep in bright light, having protested so vehemently that my parents left my bedroom lights on at night! I lived in Hannibal, Mo., during college years. Visitors often requested that we take them to Mark Twain Cave. Every trip included the tour guide taking us deep into the cave, recounting the story of Tom Sawyer and Becky Thatcher being in there, when their candle went out! Then as he turned the lights out-he illustrated that fact by introducing us to darkness so dark you could not see your hand in front of your face, though you were touching your nose with it! That is darkness. There would be no way out of that cave without light in the darkness. Years later, with a youth group spelunking in a cave in the Ozarks, it dawned on me that even though we had two or three flashlights among us, all it would take is for the batteries to burn out; another get dropped; and get separated from the leader with the last light, then it could end in disaster. It was time to head back to the entrance of the cave…back into the safety of the light!

As Christians we are watching with worried eyes as our world’s days become darker. The question we must ask and answer is what role do we play in these dimming days? Jesus said, “I am the light of the world”( John 8:12). He also said, “You all are the light of the world” (Matt. 5:14). Paul, in writing to the Philippians, told them to “shine as lights in a crooked and perverse world…hold forth the Word of Life”(Phil. 2:15). The Bible makes it clear that we who know the Lord, who are a part of His Church, have a role to play in the darkening of our days. We are the ones who have a role to play in the “not dark yet!”. Adlai Stevenson, in paying tribute to Eleanor Roosevelt, in a speech before the United Nations, in November of 1962, spoke these words, “She would rather light a candle, than to curse the darkness! Her glow has warmed the world!”. Proper example for Christians to emulate in these last darkening days. I recently came across a poem, in my mind also fitting for a Nobel Peace Prize for Literature for its author, though he never got one-It is called Love’s Lantern, by Alfred Joyce Kilmer. Here is his masterpiece.

Love’s Lantern

Because the road was steep and long

And through a dark and lonely land,

God set upon my lips a song,

And put a Lantern in my hand.

Through miles on weary miles of night

That stretch relentless in my way

My lantern burns serene and white,

An exhausted cup of day.

O golden lights and lights like wine,

How dim your boasted splendors are

Behold this little lamp of mine,

Is more star-like than a star!

In Matthew 13:43 Jesus prophesies, by quoting Daniel 12:3, of those who are Wise believers who “will shine as stars, (though Jesus says, ‘as the Sun'”. But then remember, our sun is a star! One of the smaller ones in the universe. But what a powerful one. One that daily overcomes the darkness of the night with its sunrise. So is our daily assignment in these darkening days. We are the reason it is “Not Dark Yet!”. Don’t spend your time “cursing the darkness” but “light and lift your lantern!” Voltaire, the famous French Atheist and Philosopher, told his generation that he was seeing the “twilight of Christianity”. Charles Spurgeon responded that Voltaire did not know the difference between a sunset and sunrise. He said, “It might be twilight…but it is the twilight just before the dawn!” Christians-“let’s hear the song on your lips, and the Lantern in your hands”. You are the reason “it’s not dark yet!” Christian-“get your shine on!”

“SLOWLY GROWING WISE ABOUT THE FUTURE”

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Aug 222021

By: Ron Woodrum

Tri Valley Baptist Church has completed its first twenty five years of ministry. Over the years we have had many men of God lead us in the ministry of winning our community to Christ. I believe it has been the measure of every Pastor to lead this congregation in MAKING DISCIPLES (Winning the Lost); MARKING DISCIPLES (Getting them to join the Church and giving public testimony to being a new creation, dying to the old man, rising to walk in newness of life, and by the baptism of the Spirit being placed in the body of Christ the Church);MATURING DISCIPLES (the goal of all the preaching and teaching ministries of the Church) and probably the number one sign of maturity in Christ is following in the next step of MULTIPLYING DISCIPLES (every mature believer should be involved in sharing his faith and winning others to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, and teaching their converts to do the same). It all seems so simple when summarized that way…but somewhere-somehow-the process has broken down. We are losing ground-FAST! There must be some changes made in our methods. They tell us that to keep doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results is the definition of INSANITY! Somehow we need to grow wiser about ministry to our ever-changing world.

Having said that I feel like Parsifal, a young lad in Richard Wagner’s play of the same name. It seems that Parsifal’s father had been an honorable knight who joined other knights in the mission of finding the Holy Grail. He had been killed in the pursuit. His mother kept the fate of Parsifal’s father from him, and forbid him to even own or use a sword. The drama is the story about how Parsifal discovers who he is; who his father was; what his father’s mission was; and he finally, and successfully follows in his father’s dream. Wagner’s characterization of Parsifal is “a good man growing slowly wise”. That was his key to success. Perhaps it is our key too. We need wisdom from on high to understand and love our community. Our world has changed. Old techniques. Old cliches. Old methods that used to work are quickly rejected by today’s post-Christian culture. What are we to do? One of my favorite authors, even still today, is Francis Schaeffer. His book True Spirituality is one of the most important books ever written on the Christian life. Another of his books, The Church At the End of the Twentieth Century, is extremely pertinent today as well. Two conclusions of his book that we need to understand are: (1) We live in a post-Christian world that neither understands nor wants what we have to offer in the Gospel of Christ. (2) Most of the world is desperately seeking love, as Johnny Lee said, “in all the wrong places”. Schaeffer stated that even though the world will change, (and he hit the nail on the head speaking very prophetically) the key to reaching them will not change. It is still the “love of Christ” fleshed out in his disciples that will be the magnet that will continue to draw the lost to the Christ and His Cross. Jesus words, “If I be lifted up I will draw all men unto myself” (John 121:32) is still true today. How long will it take us to learn that truth?

Leaving the winning of the world in the hands of an imperfect Church was a risk. C.S. Lewis wrote, “God seems to do nothing of Himself which He can possibly delegate to His creatures. He commands us to do slowly and blunderingly (is that a word?) what He could do perfectly and in the twinkling of an eye”. There is no greater illustration of that principle than fact that Jesus has delegated to His Church the task of winning the world before He comes back. How do we do it? Jesus is our PATTERN. We are to emulate Him. Helmut Thielicke describes the ministry of Jesus in these words, “What tremendous pressures there must have been within Him to drive Him to hectic, nervous, explosive activity! He sees…as no one else sees, with an infinite and awful nearness, the agony of dying man, the anguish of the wounded conscience, injustice, dread, terror and beastliness. He sees and hears all of this with the heart of a Savior…must not this fill his every waking hour and rob Him of sleep at night? Must He not begin to set the fire burning, to win people, to work out strategic plans to evangelize the world, to work, work, furiously work, unceasingly, unrestingly, before the night comes when no man can work? That’s what we would imagine the earthly life of the Son of God to be like, if we were to think of Him in human terms. But how utterly different was the actual life of Jesus! Though the burden of the whole world lay heavy on His shoulders-though Corinth, Ephesus, Athens, and whole continents, with all their desperate need, were desperately near to His heart, though suffering and sinning were going on in chamber, street corner, castle, and slums, seen only by the Son of God-though this immeasurable misery and wretchedness cried out aloud for a physician, he has time to stop and talk to the individual…By being obedient in His little corner of the highly provincial precincts of Nazareth and Bethlehem he allows Himself to be fitted into the great mosaic whose master is God. And that is why He has time for persons; (to love them individually) for all time is in the hands of the Father. That is why peace and not unrest go out from Him. For God’s faithfulness already spans the world like a rainbow: He does not need to build it; He only needs to walk beneath it” (The Waiting Father). So, do we. Jesus encountered people individually. He loved them. Sometimes they responded to that love and choose to invite Him into their life, and ended up following Him. Other times they walked away-though the Bible says grieved, for rejecting Him who the depths of our souls desire, creates a greater vacuum inside than before we encounter Him. We must follow His pattern.

But Jesus is also our PRESENCE AND POWER. Trying to do our mandate and mission in our own power will only end in frustration and failure. Frederick Buechner describes how he learned this lesson in Telling Secrets: “Love you neighbor as yourself is part of the great commandment. The other way to say it is, Love yourself as your neighbor. Love yourself not in some ego-centric, self-serving sense but love yourself the way you would love your neighbor, nourishing yourself, trying to understand yourself, comfort and strengthen yourself. Ministers in particular, people in the caring professions in general, are famous for neglecting themselves with the result that they are apt to become in their own way as helpless and crippled as the people they are trying to care for and thus are no longer selves who can be of much use to anybody. If your daughter is struggling for life in a raging torrent, you do not save her by jumping into the torrent with her, which only leads to the both of you drowning together. Instead you keep your feet on the dry bank-you maintain as best you can your own inner peace, the best and strongest of who you are-and from that solid ground reach out your rescuing hand…Take care of yourself so you can take care of them. A bleeding heart is of no help to anybody if it bleeds to death!” Beuchner was speaking autobiographically here. His own daughter was drowning in the torrent of anorexia. He tried to help her but was losing the battle because her battle consumed him. She finally got help in a clinic three thousand miles away from him. He was not present at all to protect her by manipulating events on her behalf. The people who were there-the Doctors, nurses, social workers, and even a judge who hospitalized her against her will. They all loved her with a love that held her accountable for choosing her own healing-something her father could not do. Buechner concluded, “Those men and women were not haggard, dithering, lovesick as I was. They were realistic, tough, conscientious, and in those ways, though they would never have put it in such terms themselves, loved her in a sense that I believe was closer to what Jesus meant by love than what I had been doing”.

Philip Yancey says, “Jesus healed everyone who asked Him too, but not everyone He met. He had the amazing rare capacity to let people choose their own pain. He exposed Judas to love, but did not try to prevent his evil deed; He denounced the Pharisees without trying to coerce them to His point of view. He answered a wealthy man’s question with uncompromising words and let him walk away. Mark adds the words about that incident “Jesus looked on him and loved Him” (Mk. 10:21). But he still walked away! And Jesus let him! In short, Jesus showed incredible respect for human freedom. He had no compulsion to convert the entire world in His lifetime or cure people unready to be cured. He encountered them and called them to Himself in love. If they did not have the desire to respond love to love, He let them turn away”. That will still work today. Jesus is still the epitome of relevance. So is His cross. Charles Swindoll, in Come Before Winter, quotes George Mcloud with words still very relevant to us-“It is we who have hauled the cross out of sight. It is we who have left the impression it belongs in the cloistered halls of a seminary, or beneath the soft shadows of stained glass between marble statues. I am simply arguing that the cross be raised again in the center of the marketplace, as well as on top of the Church steeple. Jesus was not crucified in a cathedral between two candles, but on a cross between two thieves; on a town garbage heap; at a cross road so cosmopolitan that they had to write His title in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek…and at the kind of place where cynics talk smut, and thieves curse, and soldiers gamble, BECAUSE THAT IS WHERE HE DIED, AND THAT IS WHAT HE DIED ABOUT. THAT IS WHERE THE CHURCH OUGHT TO BE, AND WHAT THE CHURCH PEOPLE OUGHT TO BE ABOUT!” His way still works…even twenty years later. But it has to be fleshed-out by real-life Christians. Any takers?

“That Incredible Christian or That Incredible Shrinking Christian”

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Aug 152021

By: Ron Woodrum

Back in 1964 A.W. Tozer wrote a book called That Incredible Christian. In his book he enumerated the characteristics of a true Christian that often made him an enigma to the rest of the world, and yet that enigma was an unexplainable difference that often had a magnetic draw of curiosity that caused non-Christians to investigate the genuineness of our faith, and often would lead them to choose that fascinating relationship with God, through Christ for themselves. Listen to a brief description that Tozer shares-“The Christian believes that in Christ he has died, (to his old self), yet he is more alive than ever…and he fully expects to live forever! He walks on earth, but is seated in heaven! He is like the Nighthawk, which is so graceful in flight in the air, but is so awkward and ugly on the ground…to be a victorious son of heaven he must not follow the pattern of earth. To be safe-he must put himself in jeopardy! He loses his life-to save it. When he tries to preserve it, he is in danger of losing it! He goes down-to go up! If he refuses to go down, he is already down! He is strong when he is weakest…and weakest when he sees himself strong. He has the most when he has given the most away! He is most sinless when he is most conscious of his sin! Most sinful when he feels he has little or no sin! He is wisest when he knows that he knows little! Knows least when he thinks he knows much! Sometimes he does the most, by doing nothing! -Goes furthest when he is standing still! He fears God-yet is not afraid of Him. When he is in God’s presence, he feels overwhelmed and undone! Yet there is no other place he desires to be more! He loves supremely One he has never seen! He fully expects to go and see Him one day soon, but is in no hurry to get there! In this world he is a confirmed pessimist, but expecting Christ soon, he is a restful optimist! THAT INCREDIBLE CHRISTIAN!” That kind of incredible Christian lived with a conviction that God had brought something into their lives through Christ that was an enigma to the world, but something they desperately needed to share. That led them to pray for their non-Christian friends; be there for them in the difficult days of their lives; and always ready to share the Gospel with them and encourage them to give their lives to Christ. Always it seemed that the Incredible Christian had a burden to see their friends and loved ones share in this Incredible Christian life!

But those days seem like a mirage in the cold hard reality of this New Millennium! I am not sure why but most Christians do not even seem to be familiar with all the Incredibility they have in Christ Jesus. Losing the wonder of it all has evaporated the ever-present desire to share that incredible faith with those who have never met or known our Lord. It seems that many Christians are not even sure how incredible the Christian life is-why would it be something you would want to convince others to embrace it! IT SEEMS THAT INCREDIBLE CHRISTIAN HAS BECOME THAT INCREDIBLE SHRINKING CHRISTIAN! Eight years before Tozer wrote his book, That Incredible Christian, another author, a science fiction author, Richard Matheson, wrote a novel called The Incredible Shrinking Man. It was made into a movie in 1957. In the book/movie Scott Carey is exposed to a cloud of radioactive spray. This radioactivity causes him to shrink 1/7 of an inch per day. As he shrinks, he is detrimentally affected in his success on his job; with his family; and in all of his relationships! As he shrinks to 7 inches he engages in battles with sparrows and spiders who would normally run away from him. This fiction was fantastically entertaining for an earlier generation. Truth be known-it speaks to our generation-to the Christians in our generation. For the last several decades Christians have been shrinking in stature. It used to be that we had a strong influence on our culture and in our community. But as we have grown less and less in being Incredible Christians-we have become as Martin Lloyd Jones has said-“irrelevant”. Instead of the world looking to the Church and the Christian for direction, they have chosen to ignore us. The tragedy of it all is we have become comfortable with that! We seldom take a stand on the issues of our day. We seldom hold up the Cross and the Christ as the only answer to the problems that confront our society today. We have embraced the philosophy “I’m Ok-Your Ok!” and from a Biblical point of view-“That is Not Ok!” Instead of being “That Incredible Christian” we have become “That Incredible Shrinking Christian!” That is the tragedy for the Gospel in this new millennium!

There was another Carey. His name was William Carey. He and some fellow Baptist pastors in England began to pray for the lost, in their country, and in the world as a whole. They began to discuss the destiny of those who had not received Christ. They prayed that God would bring the good news of the gospel to them. They became the answer to their own prayers. Carey came to the conviction “Expect Great Things from God-Attempt Great Things for God!” That lead to the birth of modern missions. William Carey gave his life to taking the good news of the Gospel to Burma. He embraced all the challenges of learning the languages and customs-of loving the unlovable…Of patiently giving all his possessions, energy and life in winning them to Christ. He even engaged his 8-year-old son Felix in the work. Felix excelled in learning the language and translating the Bible into the language of the Burmese people. Felix was a co-laborer with his father William in a “Great work for God”. When he was 21 Felix married. He and his wife had a son. The hardships of the missionary life took the life of his wife and son. In his weariness he grew discouraged. Felix not only was gifted in language translation but had medical abilities as well. The King of Burma offered Felix a position as Ambassador to the governor-general in Calcutta. The weary Felix accepted, resigning his mission activities in 1814, Felix lived in affluence as a Burmese Government official now. His father William was crushed. He wrote to fellow Christians back in England-“pray for Felix-he is shriveled from a missionary to an ambassador!” Felix’s wealth and position in the world led him to overspending and alcoholism. He had to resign in disgrace. He disappeared into the province of Assam, wandering and homeless for three years! The good news is he recovered. He returned to being a missionary. He finished well and had an impact for the gospel. Perhaps we need to write a letter to ourselves. “Pray for the 21st century Christian. He has shriveled from being a witness to a wanderer! From that Incredible Christian to that Incredible Shrinking Christian!” Unless we draw near unto our Lord; Unless we get our credible stature back in the eyes of the world-our Gospel will fall on deaf ears in these last days! Today’s message is about Understanding the Gospel in a Nutshell and striving together in applying the essentials needed for Impacting the World with the Gospel of Christ…and stop the shrinking!

The Bible: Relic or Relevant?

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Aug 082021

By: Ron Woodrum

The Bible continues to be the perennial best seller of all books! That being said, there is a legitimate question about the impact that it is currently having on lives in this 21st century. Just before he gave up hosting the Tonight Show, Jay Leno did an on the street interview of people, and asked them Bible questions, and aired it on his show. What was the results? It was hilarious and horrific at the same time! The questions were not tricky or hard. They were intended to be easy. That’s what made it so funny…and frightening! Leno asked one person, “Did Adam and Eve have any children?” After a few seconds of deep thought, a woman responded, “No, no, they never had kids!’ He then asked, “Can you name the two brothers…Cain…and———” Absolute blank stare. Had no idea. They were probably thinking Cain and Hurricane! No… she had no answer. Okay—“What happened to Lot’s wife?” Zero response! Someone blurted out, “Who is Lot?’ A little hint-“She turned into________” The person blurted out her guess—“An Angel?” Leno then asked someone-“can you name one of the Apostles?” No reply. “How about one of the Beatles” Immediate response-“John, Paul, George, and Ringo!” The crowd cheered! “How many commandments are there?” One guy replied boldly-“Three! There are three commandments!” Another corrected him-“No, everybody knows there are twenty…twenty commandments!” Another in the crowd heard that and answered “no, it’s like the Apostles…there are twelve!” Leno, assuming someone in the know asked, “can you name four of them?” No one could name four. “How about one?” The man replied, “Something about not coveting your neighbor’s wife!” (Leno said, “Interesting that is the only one he can remember!”). Leno said, “You mean if she’s pretty?” He said, “yea, I think that’s it!” “Is your neighbor’s wife pretty?” The man replied, “No!” Leno told him, “I hope she is not watching tonight!” “Who was swallowed by a whale?” Leno asked. The man responded, “A whale? Is this a trick question?” Let me give you a hint, Leno replied—“Jo….” “Joan of Arc” was the quick response! “No… Jo……..?” “Joe DiMaggio?” “No” Jay told them. Someone in the crowd asked…”Pinocchio?” “Which two cities were destroyed in the Book of Genesis?” “Let me give you a hint—Sodom________?” “Saddam Hussein?” This brief episode revealed that we live in a whole new world, and nothing has been more adversely affected by postmodernism than the Church and its relationship to God’s Word-The Holy Scriptures! The sad thing may be that the Church may not have fared much better! Bible Illiteracy is rampant. But it hasn’t always been that way. The Bible has impacted civilization all through out man’s history. Some of the greatest thinkers of all time have been those who were literate of the Bible, and let it have an impact on their thinking and therefore their lives!

Novelist, Philosopher, Author, and Literary critic George Steiner wrote, in the New Yorker, some very affirming words on the influence that the Bible has had on civilization…until recent years. He wrote, “One is indeed tempted to define modernism in Western Culture in terms of a recession of common currency recognition of both the Old and New Testaments of the Bible. That recognition was once the sinew of literacy, the shared matter of intellect and sentiment from the sixteenth century onward…not only in the spheres of personal and public piety, but also in those of politics, social institutions, and the life of literary and aesthetic imagination”. Virginia Stem Owens, agreeing with Steiner, went on to say, “All Western literature… is a Midrash, (a commentary) on the Bible”. But she went on-“It has become like an unplayed Stradivarius, this once-Holy Text now inhabits the air-conditioned glass case of DISPASSIONATE DISREGARD!” In other words, this Bible that used to be so revered and relevant…has become a revered but relegated relic! George Herbert, in his book The Temple—1633 wrote, “Bibles laid open…millions of surprises!” We have forgotten that! Not only is it full of surprises…but full of power that we are desperately in need of. John Calvin wrote, “No human writings, however sacredly composed, are at all capable of affecting us in a similar way. Read Demosthenes or Cicero, read Plato or Aristotle, or any other of that class. You will, I admit, feel wonderfully allured, pleased, moved, enchanted; but turn from them to reading the Sacred Volume, and it will so pierce your heart, so work its way into your very marrow that the comparison to that of orators and Philosophers will disappear, making it manifest that in the Sacred Volume there is a Truth Divine, something that makes it superior to all the gifts and graces attainable by man!” C.I. Schofield, (author of the Schofield reference Bible), wrote “I gave much of my earlier life to the study of Homer and Shakespeare, and while my understanding undoubtedly profited from that study, I found keen intellectual delight in it, these books held no rebuke for my sins, nor any power to lift me above them, but, when I came to the Bible and received Him, concerning whom, after all, the whole Book is written, I entered into peace, joy, and power. The Bible led me to Jesus and Jesus transformed my life!”

That truth is expressed so well in a poem by the great Quaker poet John Greenleaf Whittier:

“We searched the world for Truth;

We cull the good, the pure, the beautiful;

From graven tombs and written scroll.

From all old flower fields of the soul;

And weary seekers of the best,

We come laden back from our quest,

And find that all the sages said,

Is in the Book our mothers read!”

We could save ourselves a lot of fruitless search if we understand that the “beginning of wisdom is in God’s Word”. Luther sought for salvation, God, and truth desperately. To no avail. But as he studied Scripture he not only found the Jesus Christ as Savior, but truth for his generation, and just sharing it brought about the Great Protestant Reformation, that is still evidenced today in Evangelical Christianity. Luther spoke about how that happened. He wrote: “Take me for example. I opposed indulgences and all papists; but never by force. I simply taught, preached, and wrote God’s Word. Otherwise I did nothing. And then, while I slept…the Word so greatly weakened the Papacy that never a prince or emperor did such damage to it. I did nothing. The Word did it all! Had I wanted to start trouble…I could have started a little game at Worms that even the emperor wouldn’t have been safe. But what would it have been? A mug’s game. I did nothing. I left it to the Word! The Word did it all!” It still does! If we will embrace the Word and unleash the Word. The greatest quote concerning the Bible comes from The Prince of All Preachers-Charles Haddon Spurgeon. Someone had asked him about whether we should defend the Bible. He gave his answer in an Address to the Annual Meeting of the British and Foreign Bible Society, May 5th, 1875. He spoke-“There seems to me to have been twice as much done in some ages in defending the Bible as in expounding it, but if the whole of our strength shall henceforth go to the exposition and spreading of it, we may leave it pretty much to defend itself. I do not know whether you see that lion-it is very distinctly before my eyes; a number of persons advance to attack him, while a host of us would defend the Lion, with all our strength…pardon me if I might offer a suggestion. Open the door and let the lion out; he will take care of himself. Why, they are gone! He no sooner goes froth in his strength than his assailants flee. The way to meet infidelity is to spread the Bible. The answer to every objection against the Bible is the Bible. Defend the Bible? I would just a well defend a lion!” Good advice! Open the Bible and turn God’s ferocious Word loose. Isaiah said, “Unleash God’s Word…It will not return void!” (Isaiah 55).

“FOLLOWING THE LORD IN BAPTISM-KISSING THE SON”

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Aug 012021

By: Ron Woodrum

One of the most controversial rock groups since the 1990’s is the rock group Korn. The Chicago Tribune described the group as “perverts, psychopaths, and paranoiacs”. Their heavy metal music and explicit lyrics had earned them quite a reputation-a bad one! But they made news March 3, 2005 when a close friend gave Korn’s lead guitarist Brian “Head” Welch a Bible. He was addicted to Xanax, and crystal meth, as well as alcohol. He was miserable. After reading portions of the Bible he announced that he had accepted The Lord Jesus Christ as his personal Savior. He told MTV and an audience of 10,000 attendees at Valley Bible Fellowship of Bakersfield, California that this is “not about religion, it is not about this Church, it is not about me. It is about Jesus Christ and the Book Of Life. Everyone needs to be taught this. God went to a rock concert and found a hurting soul on stage. I am the happiest man in the world”. Exactly one week later, Welch left skeptics without any doubt, when he and 20 others flew to Israel to follow the Lord Jesus Christ in baptism in the Jordan River. On March 10, 2005 he and 20 white-robed pilgrims were baptized by the Pastor Ron Vetti, of the Valley Bible Fellowship in the Jordan River, confessing Jesus publically as Savior to the entire world. Welch said, “I am going home a totally different and new man”. He followed up his baptism with a new album and a new autobiography both entitled Save Me from Myself. Welch’s actions raise a lot of questions. Why go to Israel to be baptized in the Jordan River? Why be baptized at all? What does it mean to follow the Lord in baptism? Most people both in and outside the Church today see baptism as much an enigma as John the Baptist did of Jesus’ baptism over 2,000 years ago. As we preach this series on “following Jesus” we need to follow him to the Jordan River. We need to ask and answer why He was baptized by John the Baptist. What did that act that he initiated His public ministry with mean? For Him? For us? What does it mean for us to “follow the Lord in baptism?”

According to two N.T. passages Jesus’ baptism was to be an inauguration of the public ministry He was embarking on. According to Matthew 3:13-17, while John the Baptist was baptizing a steady stream of Jewish converts who were showing repentance and readiness for the coming Messiah, Jesus Himself showed up and requested that John baptize Him. John kept on refusing to do so, declaring his own unworthiness, and need to be baptized by Jesus the Messiah. Jesus convinced him to allow it at this time “to fulfill all righteousness”. John agreed. As he immersed Jesus in the Jordan River, he heard a voice from heaven declaring, “This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased”, and he saw “the Spirit of God descending upon Him in the form of a dove” anointing Him for His mission and ministry as Messiah. Then as you turn to John 1:31-34 we hear John the Baptist saying, “I knew Him not; but so that He might be made manifest to all Israel I came baptizing with water…and I saw the Spirit descending from heaven, in the form of a dove, and abode on Him. I knew Him not…but He who sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, ‘upon whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining on Him, is the same that will baptize with the Holy Spirit’. I saw and bore witness this one is the Son of God”. Those two narratives describe an event that was a fulfillment of two prophecies about the Messiah. One is Psalm 2. In that Psalm we read about the Son of God who will come to rule and judge the rebellious and mutinous nations. God says, “This is my beloved Son, this day I have begotten thee…and I will give you the nations for your inheritance”. (Psalm 2:1). But Jesus’ baptism was fully explained in Isaiah 42:1 “Behold my Servant, whom I uphold, in whom my soul delighteth, (equivalent in Hebrew to the Greek ‘in whom I am well pleased’.), and will give thee to the covenant people, and for a light to the nations, to open blind eyes, to set free prisoners from prison and the darkness of the prison house.” As Jesus began His ministry He submitted Himself to a ceremony that symbolized and pictured what His mission would be as the Suffering Servant Messiah. He would not just be the King, Son of the Most High, come to rule the nations. He would be Suffering Servant come to give His life as predicted of Him in Isaiah 53. All of that was pictured in His baptism. The Spirit would come on Him and empower Him to live a righteous life, and sacrifice Himself as the Lamb of God to take away the sins of the world. Those who would trust Him to be the one to take away their sins, by His sacrifice, would publically declare it by following His example, and submit to water baptism, as He did. By that they would foreshadow what His sacrifice would do for them. His Spirit baptism would put them in union with Him, and His Spirit would enable them to die to sin, self, and the world, and be raised spiritually to walk in newness of life. His baptism prophesied His mission. Their baptism prophesied their deliverance from sin. Psalm 2 ends by giving all the command to “kiss the Son and give evidence to their faith and trust in Him” to be the Savior and King He came to be. Baptism is the public demonstration where we can “kiss the Son” and declare our faith in Him. Through our union with Him we have died to sin and self and risen to walk in Him.

Having John baptize Him was Jesus’ “Crossing the Rubicon”. On January 10, 49 B.C. Julius Caesar, with all of his troops, was sitting on the banks of the Rubicon River that separated Italy from Gaul. For him to cross into Italy with his troops was to break the law of Imperium, which forbid any unauthorized generals and troops from entering the country as a military unit. To do so was to be penalized by death for the general and the troops. That night Caesar and his troops slept on the banks of the Rubicon. The next morning, stating he had been given a word from god, he uttered these words “alea iacta est” -“the die is cast” and he and his troops “crossed the Rubicon“. That phrase has become an idiom for going to the “point of no return”. It has come to mean “make a choice and face whatever consequences it brings”-no turning back. That is what Jesus did in submitting to John’s baptism. He was committing Himself to all it would be to “fulfill at righteousness” as the Suffering Servant Messiah and as the Lamb of God to take away the sins of the world. All of that mission and ministry would be pictured in His baptism. Entering the water, lying down in the water, being buried totally in the water, and rising up out of the water. There is the vivid panorama of what it would take to “fulfill all righteousness” in obedience to the will of His Father. He would be empowered by the Spirit to live under the law, to redeem those who had broken the law. He would, as Hebrews says, “offer Himself as a sacrifice through the power of the Eternal Spirit, to be the perfect one-time sacrifice, to redeem all those who put their trust in Him. (Heb.9:14).

Jesus then gave His Church the commission to make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever He commanded. (Matt. 28:19-20). That gave all who would hear the good news of the Gospel, illustrated by Jesus Death, Burial, and Resurrection, pictured in His baptism, the opportunity to follow Him in baptism, and thereby trust His redemptive work, which would unite them with Him, in His Death and Resurrection, and Spirit’s filling and anointing, enabling them to die to the old life, and be raised to walk in newness of life. (See Rom. 6:14). Our baptism, picturing the baptism of the Spirit, is our “Crossing the Rubicon”. It is us choosing to “cast the die”. It is the linking of our faith and trust with His redemptive work, resulting in a transforming salvation. C.S. Lewis talked about the miracle of this work of Christ in our lives. He wrote, “The Christian way is different: harder and easier. Christ says, ‘Give me All. I don’t so much want your time and so much your money and so much your work: I want you! I have not come to torment your natural self, but to kill it. No half-measures are any good. I don’t want to cut off a branch here and a branch there, I want to have the whole tree down…Hand over the whole natural self, all the desires which you think innocent as well as the ones you think wicked-the whole outfit. I will give you a new self instead. In fact, I will give you Myself: My own shall become yours’ “That is what happens when we follow the Lord in baptism, and begin living out the actuality of the Sprit’s baptism. That is what God wanted when He commanded in Psalm 2-“kiss the Son, lest He be angry with you!” Paint a picture of Him, by your submission to Him, and display His beauty for all the world to see.

Charles Spurgeon tells the story about an artist who was a contemporary with him, though he had never met him. His name was Gustave Dore. One day when Gustave Dore was working on a painting of Christ, a lady friend came to visit his studio and began gazing intently at the face, almost completed. As she was gazing, the artist retired from the picture to a corner of the room, and looked at the face of his friend, as she looked intently on the face on the canvas. Turning around she asked, “Why do you look at me so anxiously?” “I wanted to watch your face as you looked at His face-I think you like it”, He insisted. “Yes, I do”, she told him. “Do you want to know what I was thinking? -I was thinking that you could never paint the face of Christ like you have unless you loved Him!” “Do I love Him?’ Dore asked in agitation. “I trust I do-and that sincerely; but as I love Him more, I shall paint Him better!” Baptism, and the new life that follows, is the opportunity to show our love for Him by painting His portrait on the canvass of our lives for the world to see how our faith, in His redemptive work, is the only hope we have of fulfilling all righteousness, and restoring the glory God intended for us in the beginning. “Kiss the Son”