GCPC Devotional

10:45 -- SERMON: Matthew 27:45 - 28:10 ("He has Risen just as He said"). We will also celebrate the Lord's Supper, take up our Quarterly Mercy Fund Offering, and be led in worship by the choir during the offertory. Please note that the A/C unit in the sanctuary is still not working. The deacons will do what we can to make air flow in the sanctuary, but please be patient as we work through this.

We had a lovely time last night worshiping with our brothers and sisters from The River (Anglican Church) in commemoration of our Lord's betrayal and death on our behalf. How good it is when brothers and sisters dwell together in unity (Psalm 133). We also look forward to celebrating our Lord's resurrection this coming Sunday with song, offerings and the Lord's Supper once more. For the first time in my pastoral ministry, I am actually going to preach on one of the four actual resurrection accounts. Nothing fancy, just a simple recounting of the story which forever rended history in two, even as the rocks were split asunder. It is a simple story, but if you pardon the pun, a story which rocks our lives.

So, in order for us to see this great shift, we will begin with the death and burial of Christ, and Matthew's straight forward account of some of the details surrounding these events, some quite pedestrian, and others extraordinary. There are the faithful Marys, and Joseph of Aramathea, making sure Jesus' body gets proper attention, right alongside earthquakes and the dead being raised and wandering around Jerusalem. There is the bright, terrifying angel right along side a simple, empty tomb, and Jesus finally making his appearance to the Marys simply by saying, "hi." How can the most remarkable event of all history, with its earthquakes and angels and wonder be clothed in such ordinary encounters with such ordinary people? That is what the Resurrection is all about. Come and look at it once again with me.

On a much different note, many of you have probably heard that a cult-like group out of Kansas is advertizing that they are coming to Blacksburg a week from today, Friday, April 9th to protest against VT, against Blacksburg High School, and against Hillel Jewish center. It's too convoluted to explain their logic, but by their "reasoning," all are guilty and deserve tragedy for tolerating homosexuality and/or for just being Jewish. This is the same group which has protested at the funerals of American military personnel killed in Iraq, saying that these soldiers deserved to die since they were serving a godless nation.

So what to do? We could pray that God prevent them from coming to Blacksburg, and often, they do not actually show up where they threaten to; but I wonder if that is like asking for God to send a hurricane to hit some other country and not our own. Rather, let us pray for God to somehow use this event to turn people towards the true Gospel. As you can imagine, the more liberal christian groups are alligning themselves with pro-gay groups and calling it "love." Well, love does not let people perish in their sin, so we cannot go that route.

Instead, several of the evangelical pastors in the area decided it would be best if we simply sent a letter to the Roanoke Times, and then otherwise ignored them. We do not want to get caught up in a shouting war with them, nor fight ugly protests with another ugly protest of our own. The real spiritual battle is always more hidden than that. On the other hand, we did not want to be completely silent, so we are sending this simple letter to the Roanoke Times to state our position:

Letter to the Editor, Roanoke Times (requested to appear in the NRV Current Section)

April 2, 2010

Aware that members of the “Westboro Baptist Church” are planning to come to Blacksburg on April 9th, we the undersigned pastors of local churches and campus ministers at Virginia Tech want to categorically state that we do not welcome this group to our community to stage their ugly protests. They seriously distort the message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and bring shame to His name. They have already shown that they are insensitive to the needs of grieving people and, in general, act contrary to His character:

Perhaps no other words capture the essence of the Gospel than these from Jesus himself: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him” (John 3:16-17). We affirm that “…the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere” (James 3:17). We are deeply disturbed that this group displays neither love nor wisdom.

Over the last several years, our community has grieved greatly over the very tragic deaths of many precious lives. May God bring true comfort and resurrection hope to us all.

What does the Christian life look like? How do we know if we are growing? Well, consider this very helpful paragraph from the Westminster Confession of Faith. It is from Chapter 14.2, which is on "Saving Faith," remembering that "saving" here means not just justification, but also sanctification; the whole of what Christ brings us by the Gospel. Here it is:

By this faith, a Christian believeth to be true whatsoever is revealed in the Word, for the authority of God himself speaking therein; and acteth differently upon that which each particular passage thereof containeth; yielding obedience to the commands, trembling at the threatenings, and embracing the promises of God for this life, and that which is to come. But the principal acts of saving faith are accepting, receiving, and resting upon Christ alone for justification, sanctification, and eternal life, by virtue of the covenant of grace.

Now, just two brief notes I want to make about this very helpful guide. First, that justifying faith(which rests on Christ alone; see Larger Catechism Q. 72), results in good works. That is, if you have trusted Christ, than you will to some degree do what this paragraph describes: you will believe God's Word and act accordingly, even if that means changing things; you will obey God's commands, tremble at His warnings and embrace His promises. In other words, teh Christian life looks like something. It acts, it does, it performs, all to God's glory.

But having said all that, those things are still not the primary acts of saving faith. They are not hte primary descriptor of the Christian life. What is? What the paragraph goes on to say: the principal acts of saving faith are "accepting, receiving, and resting upon Christ alone for justification, sanctification, and eternal life." It could not be clearer. Both actions and resting in Christ are necessary and important for the Christian life. But the resting is principal. It is primary. It is more important.

And so how are we to evaluate Christian ministries? Well, at least in the PCA, and other Westminster-subscribing denominations we can say this: if a ministry makes the actions principle and the resting secondary, then they are out of accord with the Reformed faith. Now, is that easy to prove or to show? No, of course not. But this paragraph is still our guide as to what we shoud look for from a Reformed pulpit.

And even more to the point, it is what we should look for from our own lifes. How is your obedience going? Your trembling? Your believing and changing every aspect of your life in accordance with God's Word? Not so well? Well then, do what this paragraph says is primary: accept, receive, and rest upon Christ alone for all of your salvation. And as you do that, He will work in you more and more, and indeed, you will yield more obedience and act differently and live to God's glory. You will not be able to do any other as you get ahold of Christ and He gets ahold of you. That is what this Sunday is for. See you then! ~ Pastor H