Sunday Morning Greek Blog

August 30, 2026

Unhypocritical Love (Romans 12:9–21)

Filed under: 1 Corinthians,Courage,Ecclesiology,Evangelism,Evil,Faith, Faithfulness,Prayer,Proverbs,Repentance,Righteousness,Romans,Soteriology,Tongues — Scott Stocking @ 4:25 pm
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I preached this message on August 30, 2026, at Mount View Presbyterian Church, Omaha, Nebraska. This is my last Sunday to preach on Romans for this year’s liturgical calendar. Romans 13 and 14 are on the calendar for the next couple weeks when I’m on a short road trip and out of the pulpit, but when I’m in the pulpit again, I’ll either be addressing Philippians 1 or a Gospel passage.

Good morning! The Lord be with you!

At first glance, when you hear or read this passage, I can imagine you have a thousand thoughts going through your mind. On the surface, it sounds like we’ve just read a whole list of commands, by my count 25 in all from verses 9–21. It’s easy to see then, how the pastor at my home church was able to take 12 weeks this summer to work through Romans 12. Each of the would-be commands are great subjects by themselves for sermons. But alas, I do not have 12 straight weeks to do that with you, nor would I want to “borrow” my pastor’s sermons to accomplish such a task. “Twelve on Romans Twelve”; that would make a nice sermon series title.

As I looked at the passage and began to ponder how I might be able to organize my thoughts, it seemed like the paragraph breaks in my version might do for a convenient and simple organizing structure. But as I’m wont to do, especially with a passage that’s a bit challenging, I looked into my Greek text to make sure the paragraph breaks were justified by the text, and I was not disappointed. So, here’s how I’ll approach the text this morning to respect the way Paul wrote it.

The text is divided into three main sections, each beginning with a direct statement that indicates the theme for each section. Beginning in verse 9, we have the statement about love and what that looks like. We might think that could be kind of squishy, but it’s not. We’ll look at the intensity of the concept when we get there.

The next section starts in verse 14, digs a little deeper into our souls, and challenges us to do some things that might be really difficult: “Bless those who persecute you.”[1] Kind of makes you want to squirm a little bit in your seat, right?

Finally, Paul cuts to the heart of the matter directly in verses 17: “Do not repay anyone evil for evil.”[2] Paul gets pretty intense in that last section. So, let’s get started this morning and break this down.

The first three statements in verse 9 are actually summaries of what I’ve just described above, but Paul doesn’t lay them out in the same order. Let’s take a look under the hood here and break down what’s going on.

The lead-statement sets the tone of the rest of the passage. In the original language it is a simple, three-word sentence that makes a statement of fact:[3] “Love is unhypocritical.” This should be a straightforward translation in most cases, but our English translations have interpreted what follows as a series of short commands about things we should or shouldn’t do. [4] So they have transferred that understanding to this first phrase as well: “Let love be genuine” or “Let love be sincere” as some translations have it.

This is completely acceptable when it comes to Bible translation, because the goal is to make it understandable to average English reader. Also, sometimes we have a mindset as Christians that we just want God to tell us what we’re supposed to do and how we’re supposed to live. Then we can just check off the boxes and grade ourselves on how well we think we’re doing. But we also know that living for Christ isn’t just about checking off behavioral boxes and those with a passing grade get into heaven. In fact, it isn’t about checking off boxes at all, really, because we’ve already seen that when we’re “in Christ,” we already have the victory. Christ has checked off all the boxes, so to speak, and has imparted his righteousness to us.

Paul knows this as well, and I think in this case, especially with a mixed group of Jews and Gentiles, I would suggest that instead of giving us a checklist, he’s giving a definition of unhypocritical love. Again, the governing statement is “Love is genuine.” That is an absolute statement of truth. He’s setting a standard, much like he does in 1 Corinthians 13, but customized for the Corinthian culture and church. In fact, what he’s probably doing here in Romans is defining ἀγάπη (agapē) love for both Jews and Gentiles. What follows then is a description of actions that demonstrate what unhypocritical love looks like. So, in some respects it is still a checklist of sorts, but Paul doesn’t want you to see it as a checklist. He wants you to see love as a default setting for your heart and mind.

It is important to note, then, that many of the things that follow this statement are descriptions of other-centered behaviors. Several of the key words in this list are words that are rarely found in the NT, in a few cases only once or twice, so these are worth noting. I won’t go into detail on each one; as the pastor of my home church demonstrated, each one of the concepts is worthy of its own sermon.

I want to save the last two phrases in verse 9 for a little later, so let’s look at verse 10. “Be devoted to one another in love” is how the NIV translates it. Our reading has “love one another with mutual affection.”[5] First of all, the word for “mutual affection” here (“love” in the NIV) is not agapē, but φιλαδελφία (philadelphia)[6], that’s right, “brotherly love.” This of course refers to real love and mutual affection, not the kind of “love” you might get from a Philadelphia Eagles fans, who’ve been known to boo Santa Claus.[7]

The word for “love” in our bulletin reading (“devoted” in the NIV) is a compound of two words that mean two different kinds of love in Greek (φιλόστοργος philostorgos). The first part of the compound is the same as the φιλία (philia) in Philadelphia; the second part of the compound is a word that C.S. Lewis describes as familial love, especially that kind of love a mother and child share.[8] It’s easy to see, then, how the concepts of devotion from the NIV and mutual affection from the NRSV are appropriate for this passage. We’re called to love our brothers and sisters in Christ like we love our own families. If we do that, then the rest of the items in that first paragraph—zeal, spiritual fervor, honor, hope, patience, etc.—fall into place. That’s why “love your neighbor as yourself” is the second greatest command in Scripture.

I want to return to the second phrase in vs. 9, “Hate what is evil.” I must point out that this is first phrase Paul uses to describe unhypocritical love. Love doesn’t overlook evil. Love doesn’t tolerate evil. This verse would seem to tie into verses 17–21, since “evil” seems to be a prominent theme there, although it is a different Greek word [κακός (kakos)] that emphasizes evil deeds and actions specifically. In verse 9, “evil” refers to an evil thing, not an evil person as it does in the Lord’s prayer.[9]

The word for “hate” is another one of those words that only appears once in the New Testament. It is not based on the typical word for “hate” that is used in the New Testament. It derives from the root of our modern English word “stigma.” The Greek word has a prefix added to it that implies your hatred of evil should be so strong that you run away from, much like Paul often warns his audiences to flee sexual immorality, idolatry, and greed.

While physically removing yourselves from situations that could cause you to stumble greatly, the practicality of that may not always be expedient. If you see someone in danger, for example, you might be inclined to help, up to and including self defense if necessary. That would be a noble act as well, especially if you can avoid returning evil for evil as verse 17 says. You may have training in conflict resolution or deescalation of a situation that would prove beneficial for all involved. So, it’s not just about fleeing evil things, but about figuring out how you can do the right thing, the good thing, to overcome evil when it comes your way. Unhypocritical love overcomes evil.

The exhortations here are again positive: Do what is right, live at peace if you can, don’t take revenge. So again, Paul is speaking to our mindset, encouraging us to develop default behaviors. It’s all about practice and training, getting that “muscle memory” firmly ensconced in us. Doing the right thing speaks volumes in our culture that increasingly, as I said last week, sees violence as an acceptable solution. Certain Proverbs come to mind here:

12:25: Anxiety weighs down the heart, but a kind word cheers it up.[10]

15:1: A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.[11]

16:14: A king’s wrath is a messenger of death, but the wise will appease it.[12]

20:3: It is to one’s honor to avoid strife, but every fool is quick to quarrel.[13]

I’ll close by looking at the third phrase in verse 9: “Hold fast to what is good.” The word for “hold fast” there is another rare word in the New Testament. It’s used to describe the sexual relationship between a man and a woman, in the opposite contexts of marriage and prostitution. Peter uses the word in Acts 10 when he speaks of his call to go share the Gospel (and a meal) at the Gentile Cornelius’s home. Like the other descriptions throughout our passage today, the focus is other-centered, even when the “other” is one who is persecuting you.

The word for “persecute” (διώκω diōkō) here is interesting because it is the same Greek word that is translated as “pursue” in the previous verse in reference to hospitality. In other words, the word has the positive meaning of pursuing good things for others but the negative meaning of pursuing someone for whom you intend harm. The latter negative meaning is made obvious in the context when Paul emphasizes blessing the persecutors, not cursing them. In Paul’s context, a curse was a various serious thing, essentially wishing death on the one cursed.

Verses 14–16 also have a strong undertone of humility as well. Know your place; know your limits. Live together in harmony. That may be easier to do when you’re all of the same mindset. But remember Paul is addressing a mixed group here of Jews and Gentile Romans. I’m sure they had to put forth significant effort to make things work in their ethnically diverse house churches.

Romans 12 is certainly a strong contender for the best chapter on love in the New Testament. In some areas, it seems to cover a little more ground as far as the dos and don’ts of love in the Christian setting. But again, the cultural differences between Rome and Corinth can’t be ignored. Paul had to deal extensively with the speaking in tongues issue in Corinth, but there wasn’t a word about that in Paul’s gift list in the first part of Romans 12. On the other hand, Paul doesn’t deal very much with evil in 1 Corinthians 12–14, while in Romans 12, we see a great deal about that. Corinthians deals more with church order and practice, while Romans seems to focus on some larger cultural and societal issues that impacted the Roman churches.

We won’t settle the “best chapter on love” debate here, but I think we can all agree that, when we practice loving our neighbor as ourselves and loving God with all our heart, soul, strength, and mind, we are doing our part to advance the kingdom of God and bring about that great day of redemption and reward, when sin finally will be defeated. May the peace of God go with today and the rest of the week. Amen.

My opinions are my own.

Pastor Scott Stocking, M.Div.

To read and hear the previous week’s message on the first half of Romans 12: Life as a “Living Sacrifice”: Finding Your Gifts (Romans 12:1–8) | Sunday Morning Greek Blog.

[1] The New International Version. 2011. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

[2] The New International Version. 2011. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

[3] Formally known as indicative voice; in this case the “to be” copulative verb “is” is implied, as is often the case with simple Greek copulative sentences.

[4] In the Greek text, what follows is a series of participial phrases through the end of verse 13. Participles typically take on the aspect of the main verb, which in this case would be the implied copulative. If the translators think the implied copulative is imperative, then translators would interpret all the participles linked to that main verb as imperative, as seems to be the case in modern translations. As you will see, I am taking a different approach.

[5] The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version. 1989. Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers.

[6] Swanson, James. 1997. In Dictionary of Biblical Languages with Semantic Domains: Greek (New Testament), electronic ed. Oak Harbor: Logos Research Systems, Inc.

[7] Ranking the Nicest (to the Nastiest) NFL Fanbases – The Quick Report

[8] C.S. Lewis: Four Loves – 1. Storge (Affection)

[9] In the Lord’s Prayer, the adjective πονηρός (ponēros) is masculine. Here in Romans 12, it is neuter.

[10] The New International Version. 2011. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

[11] The New International Version. 2011. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

[12] The New International Version. 2011. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

[13] The New International Version. 2011. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

July 26, 2026

The Holy Spirit’s Groaning (Romans 8:22–39)

Filed under: Christology,Ecclesiology,Genesis,Immersion/Baptism,Pneumatology,Prayer,Romans,Spiritual Warfare — Scott Stocking @ 5:07 pm
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I preached this message July 26, 2026, at Mount View Presbyterian Church, Omaha, Nebraska. It follows up on my previous message two weeks’ prior on the first third of Romans 8 (Life in the Spirit (Romans 8:1–11) | Sunday Morning Greek Blog). I also video recorded the message for my Rumble and Instagram accounts. I will post those links when they are available.

Good morning! The Lord be with you!

A couple weeks ago we looked at the first part of Romans 8 and talked about the life that we have in the Holy Spirit. Today, we’re going to close out this second major section of Romans, chapters 5 through 8, by walking through Paul’s “deeper dive” into the role of the Holy Spirit in our lives in the last third of Romans 8.

I’m scratching my head a bit at why the editors of the Lectionary chose to break the text between last week’s Romans 8 passage and this week’s. The most obvious clue we have that this break may not have come at a natural stopping point is the fact that our passage begins with “Likewise” in the version we read, or “In the same way” in the NIV.

Seeing this word or phrase in the biblical text should give us cause to pause for a moment and ask, as we do with “therefore,” what is it there for? Likewise compared to what? In the same way as…? Well, the obvious place to look is the paragraph just before our text, beginning in verse 22, because there are some obvious verbal parallels we can’t ignore.

22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 23 Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? 25 But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.[1]

Did you hear the connection to today’s passage in the first couple verses? It’s the idea that not only is the earth itself groaning right along with us. I want to come back to that in a minute, but it’s important to drill down a bit into the implications of the Greek word translated “likewise” (ὡσαύτως hōsautōs).

In our English translations, we probably don’t even give much of a second thought to such a word. For some of us, it probably carries about the same weight as the word “whatever.” But this word appears to have a specialized use in the New Testament, one that implies a deeper or more profound connection to the situations or persons being compared. That’s important because as the body of Christ, we live in fellowship not only with Christ but with one another as well. This simple little word is shorthand for letting Paul’s readers (at least in the original language) know that something special is going on here.

The word is typically found in lists or narratives of repeated action. For example, it’s used in the parable Jesus tells about Levirate marriage, where the next youngest brother is responsible for marrying his older brother’s widow to continue the family line. It’s used a couple times in 1 Timothy 2 and 3—once to say that men and women should worship God similarly but with instructions specific to each gender. Then in chapter 3 he uses it in reference to the three leadership groups mentioned: elders have their qualifications; just like the elders, deacons have their own qualifications specific to their ministry; and just like the deacons and elders, “the women” in leadership have their own qualifications specific to their ministry.

Recognizing that this connection exists between the entities compared helps give us a deeper appreciation of what it means when Paul says, “Likewise…the Spirit intercedes for us through wordless groans.” Creation itself has been groaning for redemption ever since Adam and Eve at the forbidden fruit. From Genesis 3, you may remember God told Adam:

“Cursed is the ground because of you;

through painful toil you will eat food from it

all the days of your life.

18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you,

and you will eat the plants of the field.

19 By the sweat of your brow

you will eat your food

until you return to the ground,

since from it you were taken;

for dust you are

and to dust you will return.”[2]

That’s a long time to groan.

When Paul first mentions groaning in vs. 22, he uses a special form of the word translated “groan” that adds a prefix meaning “together with.” We see that prefix in modern English in words like sympathy and symphony. It supplements the implications of the word “likewise.” It wasn’t just the ground itself, but the greenhouse-like paradise God had created for his creation to dwell in was disrupted very shortly after that by a flood that literally reshaped the world and created the weather patterns we see today: tornado season, monsoon season, hurricane season, the four seasons, earthquakes, etc. I believe those are all manifestations of the curse God spoke upon the land in Genesis 3. Those things will not exist when God establishes the new heaven and new earth.

Paul says in verse 23 that you and I are groaning right along with creation as we await our own redemption. We’re all keenly aware of that kind of “groaning.” When we’ve been hurt deeply by someone who loved us, or even when we, intentionally or not, hurt or severely disappoint those closest to us. We feel when we get fired or “downsized” from a good job that has been a source of security for us. We feel it when a child is ill and all we can do is hold them closely to help them get through the sickness. We especially feel it with the loss of a loved one, of course. We mourn with those who mourn, and somehow that brings some small comfort or a sense of security even when we don’t have the words to express our sorrow.

We see this groaning in our world in other ways as well. Poverty, political aggression, and religious oppression, to name a few are evils that haunt us. War, mental illness, and substance use disorders often arise from undesirable or unhealthy ways to address those evils and compel us to lift our cries for redemption, even when we cannot find our words to express it.

So, when we come to our passage today and see that, “in the same way” we groan for the things troubling our hearts, the Holy “Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.” This isn’t some supernatural spiritual language, then. If you’re in Christ, the Spirit knows your heart and mind intimately, so he feels the pain and the sorrow that causes us to groan. The mystery of the Trinity is that the Spirit is the presence of Jesus in your life, and therefore the presence of Jesus’s deep love for you. Additionally, God the Father knows precisely what the Spirit is conveying to him on your behalf, so God knows your pain as well and begins to work through his Spirit and his Word (Jesus) to comfort us and provide for our spiritual and emotional needs in our time of distress (vs. 27).

When we understand the groaning of the Holy Spirit and what it is accomplishing for us, we can begin “to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge”[3] as Paul says in Ephesians 3. If his love surpasses knowledge, then it kind of sounds like there are no words to describe it. That’s pretty deep, extremely profound. It’s heavy, but in a good way, because, as Paul continues in Ephesians 3, we’re “filled to the measure of all the fulness of God.” This is how great his love is for us, and this is the taste of the eternal life that awaits us as believers.

What we’ve just covered here is Paul’s response to what he calls “our present sufferings” in Romans 8:18 and begins the process of revealing God’s glory in our lives. That is the context for vs. 28, then, “We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.”[4] Now if you’re following along in a printed Bible with this passage, you may notice a footnote here that suggests a couple alternate translations, but the version we read from (New Revised Standard Version) has the most straightforward translation. The issue has to do with grammar, and you didn’t come here this morning for a grammar lesson. But if you want an explanation, ask me after the service.[5]

The “all things” refers to what Paul was talking about in chapter 8 that we already mentioned: the present sufferings, the groaning for redemption, and so on. Whatever has happened to us and whatever is currently happening to us is all part of God’s design for our lives if we love him and walk with him. The phrase “Those whom he foreknew” most likely does not refer to individuals but rather to a group. In Romans 11, the same word refers to the Jews. In 1 Peter 1:20, it refers to Jesus being chosen before the creation of the world to be savior, so by extension, the implication in Romans 8 here is that it refers to Jews specifically and everyone else who would follow Christ in history. He describes those Christ-followers as called, justified, and glorified.

This brings us to the grand conclusion of chapter 8 specifically, and chapters 5 through 8 as significant subset of Paul’s larger treatise. Paul hearkens back to the opening verse of chapter (“There is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus”) by asking in verse 34, “Who then is the one who condemns? No one.”[6] We have assurance that with God on our side, no one and nothing can stand against us. Nothing can bring us down. Nothing can or should raise questions about our standing or relationship with God.

All of that is possible because of Jesus’s sacrifice and what that accomplished as Paul explains especially in chapter 6. If we are in Christ, God has justified us. If we are in Christ, God has guaranteed us eternal life through the resurrection of Jesus. Baptism is the outward expression of that security. And along with the Holy Spirit, who dwells in us, Jesus is at the right hand of God interceding for us as well. We can’t lose!

Paul puts it this way in 2 Corinthians 4:16–18:

16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. 17 For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.[7]

None of the troubles that Paul mentioned earlier in chapter 8 can separate us from God’s love. The worries of chapter 7 and “doing what I don’t want to do” are banished when we realize that we are no longer slaves of sin but “slaves” of Christ. Our participation in the death and resurrection of Christ in baptism assures us of the eternal life we have in Christ.

This is why Paul says in 8:37 that we are more than conquerors! Amen? We have assurance and confidence that we are fully secure in the body of Christ and in God’s kingdom for eternity when we walk with and in him. We have victory in Jesus! Let us go forth today and share the good news of that victory with those who need to know the assurance of his hope. Amen!

Peace!

Pastor Scott Stocking, M.Div.

Life in the Spirit (Romans 8:1–11) | Sunday Morning Greek Blog

[1] Romans 8:22–25. The New International Version. 2011. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

[2] Genesis 3:17–19. The New International Version. 2011. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

[3] Ephesians 3:18–19. The New International Version. 2011. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

[4] Romans 8:28. The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version. 1989. Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers.

[5] The underlying text is vague, but the theological significance among the options is minimal in my opinion. The issue is with the word πάντα panta (“all things”), which, as a neuter form, can either be the subject of the sentence (nominative case) or the direct object of the sentence (accusative case). The NRSV (here), KJV, and ESV have the most straightforward translation: “All things work together….” The NIV confuses the issue by putting panta in the dative case (“in all things”). The more recent Common English Bible (CEB) has “God works all things together…,” which requires the translator to infer God is the subject of the verb. However, “God” as a nominative case noun does not occur in the eclectic text.

Metzger’s Textual Commentary (p. 458) on the variant reading where it does occur in some copies of the text is helpful, but not necessarily conclusive ([B] rating):

“Although the reading συνεργεῖ ὁ θεός (𝔓46 A B 81 copsa (eth) Origengr2/5) is both ancient and noteworthy, a majority of the Committee deemed it too narrowly supported to be admitted into the text, particularly in view of the diversified support for the shorter reading (א C D G K P Ψ 33 614 1739 Byz Lect itd, ,  vg syrp,  copbo arm Clement Origengr3/5,  Eusebius Lucifer Cyril-Jerusalem Chrysostom Augustine al). Since συνεργεῖ may be taken to imply a personal subject, ὁ θεός seems to have been a natural explanatory addition made by an Alexandrian editor.”

[6] Romans 8:34. The New International Version. 2011. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan. Contextually, since the chapter begins with, “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,” the answers to the questions in this section (vv. 33–35) about who is bringing charges, who is condemning, and who is separating us from Christ’s love are all “No one” by implication. The “No one” in vs. 34 (NIV) and the “No” at the beginning of vs. 37 (NIV) are glosses to indicate this, that is, they are not translated from Greek words in the text, and consequently some translations do not include those glosses.

[7] 2 Corinthians 4:16–18. The New International Version. 2011. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

April 21, 2026

Call on the Name of the Lord (Psalm 116)

Filed under: Christology,Communion/Eucharist,Easter,Ecclesiology,Life of Christ,Luke Gospel of,Passion,Prayer,Psalms,Resurrection,Romans,Theophany — Scott Stocking @ 5:33 am
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I preached this message on the third Sunday of Easter, April 19, 2026, at Mount View Presbyterian Church.

Psalms 111 through 119 make up a unique subsection of what your English Bibles call “Book V” of the psalms. They are called the “Egyptian Hallel” because each chapter begins or ends with the shout “Hallelujah.” We know that means “Praise God!” Psalms 111–112 are introductions to the Hallel, each being an acrostic psalm, that is, each “half-verse” of the psalm begins with successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet. The last chapter of this Hallel, 119, is of course an acrostic as well, and most English Bibles will indicate that. Chapter 119 has 22 sets of 8 verses that are in alphabetical order according to the first letters of each of the verses in the respective sections. Psalm 119, the longest chapter in the Bible, is also famous for its exaltation of God’s words and decrees, with all but three verses mentioning God’s word or decrees using a variety of terms.

The central psalms in the Hallel are 113–118. These are the psalms that were sung before and after the Passover seder meal, with Psalms 113–114 sung prior to the meal, and psalms 115–118 sung after the meal. This context “sets the table” (allusion intended) for taking a deeper dive into Psalm 116 this morning. Psalm 116 is reads like two psalms in one, because the second half of the psalm parallels the first half. As such, I want us to compare the two halves and see what gems we can discover. It’s also possible that the Emmaus disciples sang this psalm after their “surprise” dinner with Jesus since they were not too far out from Passover.

First of all, you may have noticed from our reading that there is a pervasive theme across the whole psalm of “calling on the name of the Lord.” In fact, it seems intentional that those who decided to pick and choose a few verses from Psalm 116 for the Lectionary reading were intentional about focusing on that theme. So let’s run with that.

You’ll notice that in the first half of the psalm, the author is calling on the name of the Lord in the midst of trouble and sorrow in vv. 1–4. The author speaks of crying out for mercy, being entangled in the cords of death, and overcome by grief, anguish, and distress. I think we can all relate to that at certain times in our lives. As we switch back and forth between having the air conditioning and furnace running in our not-so-stable Nebraska spring weather pattern, we ask the Lord that neither system fails us, right?

On a more serious note, we feel the sense of dependence when we lose a loved one or a loved one is facing serious medical issues. Even some of those who don’t attend church regularly will cry out to God for help in those situations. We feel the need for something beyond us to step in and bring hope or healing.

On the flip side of that, in the second half of this psalm, we see the author calling on God in the midst of good times as well. When he speaks of “lifting up the cup of salvation,” he’s referring to the last cup of the seder dinner, the same cup that Christ used when he said it was the new covenant in his blood for the forgivenss of tins. (see Luke 22:20, Matthew 26:28).

The good times, ironically, are also the times we can forget about calling on the Lord. Everything is going great, yet we forget that God is the one who had a hand in making things great for us. We forget to ask (and answer) the question in verse 12: “What shall I return to the Lord for all his goodness to me?” Since the context here is the Passover seder, the author is saying he will participate with joy in the celebration of escaping the slavery of Egypt. In other words, he sees the big picture of God’s plan from the earliest days of their nation. He also takes the opportunity to renew his pledge to live righteously in the world.

Allow me for a moment to switch to a related sidebar here: As Christians, we keep the Passover, so to speak, by taking communion together. Jesus essentially redefined the Passover seder to focus on his pending sacrifice on the cross. I know you know this, but it bears repeating: Communion is the time we come into the presence of the Savior and sit at the table he’s invited us to. Not only is it a time of remembrance for us, but also a time of recommitment to follow him. When the Bible says, “God remembered his promise,” that always means God is ready to act on the fulfillment of that promise. When we do communion “in remembrance of him,” we’re pledging ourselves to continue to walk in his ways.

Now let us look at the two halves of this Psalm side-by-side. In verse 1, the author says “I love the Lord,” while in verse 11, that love for the Lord prompts him to say “I trusted in the Lord” when he poured out his heart about his troubles. In verse 1, he also has the confidence to say that the Lord has heard his voice and turned his ear toward him.

The imagery in that last statement is key to God’s love for us: God doesn’t just sit on his throne and process prayer requests all day long. He leans into it. You and I might lean in to a conversation because our hearing is getting bad, but God doesn’t have a problem with hearing. He wants to hear what you have to say, and he never tires or gets weary of listening to us when we come to him in faith and humility. God wants to know our complaint or concern, even if it’s a broad generalization like in verse 12: “Everyone is a liar!” He knows what we mean. He knows what’s on our heart at the moment. Let’s not forget the promise of Romans 8:26 either:

 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.[1]

The promise that follows in Romans here is why we can have confidence and trust in calling on the name of the Lord:

God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.[2]

The cry in vs. 4 after the author pours out his heart is “Lord, save me!” Verses 13–14 parallel this by the author providing his own solution: “I will lift up the cup of salvation.” He knows the seder ritual is more than just a ritual, but a powerful promise of God’s presence, just as I spoke of when I compared this our own communion service.

Hear the words of vv. 5–6, since they weren’t included in our reading this morning:

5 The Lord is gracious and righteous; our God is full of compassion.

6 The Lord protects the unwary; when I was brought low, he saved me.[3]

The author follows through here on his cry in vs. 4 by affirming that the Lord did indeed save him at his lowest point. The author’s desperation at the beginning of the psalm may have put him in a frame of mind where he thought he was going to die. In verse 15, he has the confidence to say that the death of a faithful servant is “precious” in the Lord’s sight, so it would seem he had come to terms with his own mortality. This could also be a messianic prophecy about Jesus and the martyrdom in the early days of the church. We saw in verse 14 that he committed himself to live faithfully, and he does so again here in verse 16: “Truly I am your servant, Lord,” and compares it to the history of his own mother’s servant heart.

Verse 7 is a turning point in the first half of the psalm. The author feels complete, made whole because of the Lord’s goodness to him. This parallels the question of vs. 12 I spoke of earlier. In verses 8 and 9, he reaffirms that God has rescued him from sorrow and calamity. In verses 17–19, the author basically repeats verses 14–15, just like a singer might do with the chorus when they come to the end of their song. That’s the clue to us, the readers and worshipers, that this was the intended point of the whole psalm, and it sums up the psalm’s main points succinctly:

First, let us never fail to give thanks for the salvation we have through Jesus Christ. Whether we do that with words or worship, we can have the confidence to speak boldly and not hold back on those things that concern us. We can absolutely be certain that the Lord is trustworthy.

Second, call on the Lord. This is an essential part of our salvation experience. Romans 10:9 says:

 If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.[4]

Additionally, Paul addresses the church at Corinth in terms of both their calling and whom they call upon:

To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be his holy people, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ—their Lord and ours.[5]

Third, but not necessarily finally, commit or reaffirm your commitment regularly, and do so publicly. That doesn’t mean you need to make an alter call every Sunday morning; “publicly” just means you’re not hiding it. If you have an accountability partner or good friend that can keep you honest, that’s a good place to start. If you want to proclaim it more broadly, do that too. After all, the author says in the closing verse he will fulfill his vows in the temple as well as in the heart of the city of Jerusalem for all to see.

May God bless you this week as you continue to spread the gospel in word and in deed. Amen.

[1] The New International Version. 2011. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

[2] The New International Version. 2011. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

[3] The New International Version. 2011. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

[4] The New International Version. 2011. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

[5] The New International Version. 2011. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

February 15, 2026

Lectionary Help (Matthew 4:1–11 First Sunday of Lent)

Filed under: Biblical People,Christology,Evil,Faith, Faithfulness,Lent,Matthew Gospel of,Prayer,Righteousness,Romans,Spiritual Warfare,Temptation — Scott Stocking @ 8:20 pm
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Welcome to Lectionary Help for the first Sunday of Lent, February 22, 2026, the temptation of Christ in the wilderness. The celebration of Easter/Resurrection of the Lord is on April 5 this year.

For my full treatment of the Gospel passage today (Matthew 4:1–11), see my message that I preached last year on the parallel passage in Luke: Temptations Lose Their Power (Luke 4:1‒13) | Sunday Morning Greek Blog.

I’ll just pull a relevant quote from the sermon linked above, as I think it’s succinct enough to give you the sense of the words used for “temptation” and “testing.”

Word Study (from the sermon linked above)

Tempt, test (πειράζω peirazō)

Temptation, testing (πειρασμός peirasmos)

So why do three of the versions I mentioned use “test” instead of “temptation” for the same Greek or Hebrew word? Well, as I tell my students when they ask me questions like that, the answer is “context, context, context.” If you follow the use of the words in their respective story settings, you find that “testing” has to do with the relationship between God and humans. The general thrust of the verses in question goes one of three ways: either God is testing his people to see how they respond, or the people are testing God by NOT doing what he’s commanded them to do, or one person is testing another’s character. And consistent with the concept of testing, sometimes there’s a judgment or “grade” on how we responded to the test.

“Temptation” is a subset of testing. That is, all temptations are tests, but not all tests are temptations. The word “temptation” is used by these English translation committees to indicate a situation in which some personified evil power or influence is at work.

Application

In the message above, I offer three ways after the example of Jesus to fight against temptation and weaken their influence in your life:

  • Pray! (Hebrews 4:15–16)
  • Live in the will of God; Live “in Christ” (1 John 2:15–17)
  • Memorize and proclaim God’s word (Psalm 119:11)

Epistles passage (Romans 5:12–19)

If you’re looking for a different angle to approach the theme, consider using Romans 5:12–19 as your starting point. I’ve had Romans on the brain for the past couple months because I gave the kickoff message to our 2026 first semester church-wide small group study in Romans (Romans 1 & 2: Jesus Our Righteous and Faithful Savior (StoneBridge small group kickoff) | Sunday Morning Greek Blog). I side with the subjective genitive approach to Romans when it comes to talking about both righteousness and faithfulness, so Jesus is “the righteous one who lives by [his] faithfulness” and we’re saved through the faithfulness of Jesus, the Righteous One.

Having established my foundation for my understanding of Romans, I’ll give some quick hits here.

The “sin entered the world through one man” concept is countered by Jesus, the Righteousness of God, the “one man” through whom all are made righteous by being “in Christ.” Jesus’s faithfulness secures that for us.

Verse 19 makes the connection to the stated theme of Romans (leading the Gentiles to the “obedience of faithfulness”; 1:5 & 16:26): “Through the obedience [of faithfulness] of the one man the many will be made righteous.” This is the set-up for Paul’s discussion of baptism in chapter 6: If we’re baptized into Christ, we’re baptized into his death. That “death” is how we’re freed from the law (Romans 7), and our subsequent emersion (coming out of the baptismal waters) results in life “in Christ.” Our righteousness is not something separate imparted to us; it’s something we walk in when we walk “in Christ.”

Blessings this week as you enter into the Lenten season. If you’re in a tradition that gives up something for Lent, try giving up those things that keep you from drawing closer to your Savior. I’ve preached the above sermon twice in the last four years, so time for me write something afresh.

Peace,

Pastor Scott Stocking, M.Div.

January 16, 2026

A New Song of Victory

Filed under: Ecclesiology,Ephesians,Evangelism,Faith, Faithfulness,Joy,Prayer,Psalms,Thanksgiving — Scott Stocking @ 8:25 pm
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I’m coming up on the 25th anniversary of my very first full-length article published in Christian Standard, February 4, 2001. When I wrote the article, I had been working with the Paxton (IL) Church of Christ (Instrumental) to help get a new contemporary service going. It was also a time when “worship wars” were prevalent in many denominations as contemporary music was starting to enter the “sacred” Sunday morning service scene. Do we even have worship wars anymore? I’ve been in a large, contemporary church for so long now I’m out of touch with what’s going on in smaller churches that have a mixed demographic.

I’m including a link to the Christian Standard archive site below for the article. If you wish to comment on it, you can do so on this post.

Christian Standard | February 4, 2001 by Christian Standard Media – Issuu Pages 10–12

If you’ve got a story about dealing with worship wars, I’d love to hear it here. Peace.

Pastor Scott Stocking, M.Div.

October 21, 2025

Practicing Persistence (Luke 18:1–8; 2 Timothy 3:14–4:5)

Filed under: 2 Timothy,Courage,Faith, Faithfulness,Luke Gospel of,Prayer,Spiritual Warfare — Scott Stocking @ 6:02 pm
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I preached this message October 19, 2025, one week after Mount View’s 70th Anniversary celebration.

The Lord be with you.

In the late fifth century BC, Athens successfully defended its right to govern itself as a democracy in the Peloponnesian War. In the Funeral Oration of Pericles, its author Thucydides says this about freedom to the Athenians: “For you now it remains to rival what they [Pericles and the soldiers who died in the first year of the Peloponnesian War] have done and, knowing the secret of happiness to be freedom and the secret of freedom a brave heart, not idly to stand aside from the enemy’s onset” (Per Bartlett’s Quotations; alternate translation: “These take as your model, and judging happiness to be the fruit of freedom and freedom of valor, never decline the dangers of war”[1]). In other words, freedom required everyone to defend it as a matter of lifestyle.

About 800 years before that, about 2,000,000 newly freed slaves found themselves at the foot of Mount Sinai ready to receive their document of freedom from Egypt and self-governance: the Ten Commandments. But just before that happened, Moses had a visit from his father-in-law Jethro. Up to that point, Moses had been the sole judge and leader of Israel through the early days of wilderness wandering. Jethro realized what a huge task Moses had before him and suggested he might want to delegate some of the responsibility to capable men to help ease his burden. Jethro gave him this advice in Exodus 18:21–22a:

Select capable men from all the people—men who fear God, trustworthy men who hate dishonest gain—and appoint them as officials over thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens. 22 Have them serve as judges for the people at all times, but have them bring every difficult case to you.”[2]

For our gospel passage this morning, it’s important to note what the qualifications are for the first judges ever appointed for the Hebrews: “Men who fear God, trustworthy men who hate dishonest gain.” Contrast that with the description of the judge in our gospel passage this morning: “A judge who neither feared God nor respected man.”[3]

As we’ve been going through Luke gospel, we’ve seen quite a few parables, and a few of them have featured some rather questionable characters. In the Parable of the Lost Son, we saw the son who wasted his inheritance on riotous. Immediately after that parable, we looked at the parable of the shrewd manager who did some sneaky stuff to make himself and his master look good. Then we saw the rich man who ignored the invalid Lazarus at his gate. So it shouldn’t surprise us to find an unscrupulous judge in this parable who has no regard for the law of God or the human condition.

But we also have a persistent widow in our passage today, and some of these same parables we’ve looked at had a persistence theme in them as well. Just before the Parable of the Lost Son, we have two parables about a woman who swept her whole house to look for a lost coin and a shepherd who left his 99 sheep unattended in the pen while he went off to search for one lost sheep. We also have the story of the ten lepers who cried out to Jesus to heal them, and of course, he did.

And one more thing before we get to our passage this morning: Jesus has just finished answering the pharisees’ question about when the end would come. He addresses them only briefly by telling them “The kingdom of God is in the midst of you.” Jesus turns to his disciples and paints a rather bleak picture of what the end will look like. Not only does he compare the end of days to the fire and brimstone of Sodom and Gomorrah, but he also speaks of separation from their loved ones.

So you can see why Luke introduces the Parable of the Persistent Widow with “He told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart.”

So we come to the high point of the story here: the faithful persistence of a poor widow who had no family, apparently, to help her versus a heartless, uncompassionate, and corrupt judge who only looked out for himself. Who will win this showdown?

Now even though this is a parable, some might think Jesus has a particular judge in mind when he starts this parable. It’s interesting that Jesus begins this parable with the words (according to most English translations) “In a certain city….” What most English translations don’t let you know that the word translated “certain” is also used to describe the judge: “In a certain city there was a certain judge….” Now it gets more intriguing.

Based on Jesus’s final statement in verse 8, he could also be referring to the general state of justice in Israel. It’s like he’s saying to his audience: “You know how it is. Wherever you go, there’s always that one judge. Yeah, you know the type: corrupt as a three drachma coin!” In spite of the judge being a scoundrel, the woman peacefully (that’s important to note) but repeatedly came to the judge to request protection from her “adversary.” It’s not clear who her adversary was or why they were her adversary; that’s not important to the story. And it’s not clear what sort of “attack” the judge feared from the woman. It’s doubtful it would have been a physical attack; more likely an accusation about the judge’s integrity and ability to be a fair judge.

The end result in the parable is that the judge does grant the woman relief. Jesus goes on to give the lesson of the parable: We need to be persistent in prayer. “Pray continually” as Paul puts it in 1 Thessalonians 5:17. Jesus throws in a rhetorical question, however, at the end of the passage: “When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?” The implication here is that the kind of faith that prompts people to pray at all, let alone continually, may be extremely rare in the last days.

I was at my home church’s annual men’s retreat on Friday and Saturday. I think I’m the only one left with perfect attendance at the retreats since they started in 2013. I was encouraged to see a lot of younger men come out this time, many new faces, who were excited about their faith and the opportunity to fellowship and develop that deeper connection to God. God is on the move to bring revival again, especially with the assassination of Charlie Kirk, and I think if Jesus came back today, he could answer the question about finding faith on earth a resounding yes.

But it will take more than just persistent prayer to maintain that faith. The power of prayer is supported by the foundational truths of the faith as written in Scripture. The other New Testament passage in the Lectionary today focuses on that: 2 Timothy 3:14–4:5:

14 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, 15 and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the servant of God p may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

4 In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: 2 Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. 3 For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. 4 They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. 5 But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry. [4]

The last part of chapter 3 we just read emphasizes the need for continuing in and continually learning from God’s word by diligent study. Timothy himself had been steeped in the study of God’s word from early on in his life; he probably knew more about scripture than most of the apostles, and so he had, seemingly, a greater responsibility for taking the lead in spreading the good news.

We also see here the familiar passage about God’s word being fully inspired, that is, “God-breathed.” The original “written” word would most likely have been considered 100% accurate in spite of being first written by the hands of men. While Paul’s statement here primarily refers to the Old Testament scripture, we do get a hint in 2 Peter 3:16 that Paul’s letters seem to be quickly attaining the status of Scripture as well. Scripture is “profitable” (ὠφέλιμος ōphelimos) for “teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness”; dedication to studying Scripture helps solidify it in our hearts and minds.

Paul ordains Timothy in the opening verses of chapter 4, most likely for taking over the leadership of the church at Ephesus. Paul wants Timothy to make sure the church in Ephesus will stay strong in their faith. His primary charge to Timothy is to “Preach the word!” The tradition of the Christian university where I attended seminary referred to a young man sponsored by his home church to go to Bible college as a “Timothy.” The rallying cry of that school when it was founded just after the end of WWII was “The Preachers Are Coming!” Note that this preaching included the very things that chapter three said about the word of God: “Correct, rebuke, and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction.”

The current revival we’re seeing especially of young people either returning to or for the first time checking out church reveals that we have been in a time that Paul describes in 4:3: people are concocting and promoting crazy ideas about God, Christianity, and faith. We are a family of people who love our brothers and sisters in the faith deeply, yet the world tries to make a caricature of that by projecting their own shortcomings onto believers broadly.

Like Lyle said last week, if we want to have another 70 years of fruitful ministry, we need to trust “the man with the plan,” Jesus. We can certainly pray for more people to come but we also have to be willing to take some action steps as well to get the word out. We have to let people know that we’re here for them by going out and meeting them where they’re at. We can plant and we can water. We can serve and persuade. We can invite and enroll. But ultimately, as Paul says in Corinthians, it is God who causes the growth. He sends just what and who is needed to accomplish his will and purposes for the kingdom, and he does it in his good timing.

I think Paul says it best in Romans 10:14–15: 14 How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? 15 And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”[5] In other words, we need a spiritual pedicure. Now I thought I was the only one with an odd enough sense of humor who could come up with the phrase “spiritual pedicure,” but when I searched the phrase, I found a sermon by Josh Cardwell from Revolution Church in Crossville, Tennessee entitled “Time for a Spiritual Pedicure.” I’m gonna have to meet this guy.

I am proud of this congregation and I am grateful that I got to share in the 70th anniversary celebration last Sunday of your “beautiful feet,” the ministry you’ve sustained during that time. It’s kind of wild for me to realize that I was born within the first 10 years of this congregation. My how time flies. My hope and prayer is that Mount View will continue to be a vital presence in this community and neighborhood. We have a rich tradition and experience to offer those seeking to get reconnected with the kingdom of God. I pray that we continue to be a bright and shining light in a dark world. Amen.

[1] Thucydides. 1910. The Peloponnesian War. Medford, MA: London, J. M. Dent; New York, E. P. Dutton.

[2] The New International Version. 2011. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

[3] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. 2016. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

[4] The New International Version. 2011. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

[5] The New International Version. 2011. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

August 31, 2025

In Defense of “Thoughts and Prayers”: (Psalm 81:10–16; Jeremiah 2:9–13)

Filed under: 1 Corinthians,Courage,Creation,Evangelism,Faith, Faithfulness,Government,Hope,Jeremiah,LGBTQ,Luke Gospel of,Prayer,Psalms,Romans,Spiritual Warfare — Scott Stocking @ 3:48 pm
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I preached this message August 31, 2025, the Sunday after the school shooting in Minneapolis. This was a rough one to preach, as I tried not to get too political. But I’ve also had a long history of interacting with the LGBT community and promoting a compassionate response from Christians even in the face of sometimes harsh disagreements. The congregation received it well.

Jesus says this in Luke 12:8–10:

8 “I tell you, whoever publicly acknowledges me before others, the Son of Man will also acknowledge before the angels of God. 9 But whoever disowns me before others will be disowned before the angels of God. 10 And everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven.[1]

The events of this week compel me to address a completely different subject than what is suggested by the texts we read in the bulletin today. But other passages from today’s Lectionary readings are completely on target for what I’m addressing today, so I will work those in as I go along.

With each school shooting or other mass casualty event perpetrated by those who seem to have lost their moral compass, the common-courtesy sentiment of “Our thoughts and prayers are with you” seems to come under increasing attack by those who rarely, if ever, have expressed any modicum of faith in God. As a Christ-follower, I find this attitude incredibly difficult to understand. When a loved one dies, many of us will say something like, “I’m sorry for your loss” and perhaps follow that up with “My thoughts and prayers are with you.” How long before “I’m sorry for your loss” becomes a target of those who have no faith in God?

Now most of you, I think, can attest to the fact that I have been extremely cautious about addressing politics in my messages. For me to address something that might even come close to a political position, I would need to lay out a clear biblical principle for which I think we have some common ground as Christ-followers. Our salvation does NOT depend on our politics: who we voted for; what platform we support, and so forth. Our salvation depends completely on what Jesus accomplished on the cross and in his resurrection. Period. This morning is one of those mornings where the spiritual and faith issues outweigh whatever political concerns may be.

This issue of people who perceive themselves to have a certain amount of power and influence criticizing our “thoughts and prayers” is insulting to Christ-followers in more ways than one. That sentiment is NOT political, but spiritual, and it’s a spiritual act of warfare against those who may only have thoughts and prayers to offer. First, it calls into question the sincerity of those who express “thoughts and prayers.” It is an act of arrogant judgment against well-meaning people who are in fact more likely to pray and think about those affected than their self-absorbed critics are. Do they really expect that everyone has something more actionable to offer up? It’s almost as if they’re saying, “Just keep your mouth shut about God and let us handle it.

Second, those who have a critical attitude about “thoughts and prayers” have probably crossed over the line of the unforgiveable sin of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit by denying the power of our thoughts and prayers. The cultural, societal, psychological, and political issues raised by tragic events are extremely complicated many times and as such can be overwhelming to the average person. “My thoughts and prayers are with you” is a simple statement that on the one hand represents “I understand the enormity of the situation,” but on the other hand is a desire to reach out to a power greater than themselves and perhaps try to gain some insight into actionable solutions, especially within their own faith communities.

Third, “thoughts and prayers” is an immediate, courteous response to a tragedy. It’s another way of saying “Let me know how I can help” or “Let me know what specific things I can pray about for you.” It’s an invitation to build community, especially in situations where the victims may have been vulnerable or marginalized. It is an offer to drill down deeper and address the root causes of the symptomatic manifestations of the problems and not just the symptoms themselves. It may be true that actions speak louder than words, but thoughtless actions or actions that fly in the face of God’s divine plan or a Judeo-Christian ethical framework may lead to even more disastrous results. I fear that we may be on the brink of the latter if we as Christ-followers do not act upon God’s prompting to give thoughtful consideration to both how we pray and what we pray for. In fact, this seems to be an age-old problem that the psalmists and the prophets wrestled with thousands of years ago.

Hear these words from the prophet Jeremiah 2:4–13 as he warns Judah of the coming exile:

4 Hear the word of the Lord, you descendants of Jacob, all you clans of Israel.

5 This is what the Lord says:

“What fault did your ancestors find in me, that they strayed so far from me?

They followed worthless idols and became worthless themselves.

6 They did not ask, ‘Where is the Lord, who brought us up out of Egypt and led us through the barren wilderness, through a land of deserts and ravines, a land of drought and utter darkness, a land where no one travels and no one lives?’

7 I brought you into a fertile land to eat its fruit and rich produce.

But you came and defiled my land and made my inheritance detestable.[2]

8 The priests did not ask, ‘Where is the Lord?’

Those who deal with the law did not know me; the leaders rebelled against me.

The prophets prophesied by Baal, following worthless idols.[3]

9 “Therefore I bring charges against you again,” declares the Lord. “And I will bring charges against your children’s children.

10 Cross over to the coasts of Cyprus and look, send to Kedar j and observe closely; see if there has ever been anything like this:

11 Has a nation ever changed its gods?

(Yet they are not gods at all.)

But my people have exchanged their glorious God for worthless idols.

12 Be appalled at this, you heavens, and shudder with great horror,” declares the Lord.

13 “My people have committed two sins:

They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.[4]

When we look at a school shooting like what happened in Minneapolis this past week or at a Tennessee Christian school a couple years ago or even the one in Uvalde, Texas, we’re dealing with two primary causes in my mind. The first is a mental health issue. Setting the issue of gender dysphoria aside for the moment, which appears to have been a contributing factor in at least two of these instances based on the shooters’ manifestos, I think most of us agree that something went terribly wrong in the minds of those who think they needed to vent whatever anger or hatred they had on soft, easy targets like a grade school. Somewhere along the way, someone missed or intentionally overlooked important clues about a child’s or young person’s possible predisposition toward violence, if it was even there.

The fact that we’re human and NOT omniscient about everyone’s predispositions is, then, one of the primary reasons why we need “thoughts and prayers.” Our thoughts help us to examine a situation or situations we find ourselves in and make judgments about what is going on around us. “See something; say something” is the typical line we use. I would rather be guilty of misjudging a potential problem than ignoring it all together.

The second thing we’re dealing with is the problem of evil. My experience in interacting with people in the LGBT community goes back to the mid-1980s when my pastor asked me to speak with someone my age who was struggling with overcoming his attraction to men. We met a couple times and he even came to a couple of our college-group Bible studies. This was right before I left for seminary in 1987, so I lost touch with him and never found out where he landed.

When I got to seminary, I had a friend in the college who wanted me to talk to another young man about similar issues. If I remember correctly, he was a former student at the Bible college. But then I also had a college friend in the dorm at seminary who was raped by a male seminary student. He was kicked out of the seminary.

When I started as a campus minister in 1989 at Northern Illinois University, I discovered they had the largest “Gay-Lesbian Student Union” in the nation. Their rhetoric in the student paper was extremely hostile to Christianity and the church. But I was undaunted at the time and walked straight into the lion’s den and said I would like to have a productive, public dialogue with them and give them a more positive view of Christianity. I was invited to several forums to discuss the issues and concerns and had earned the respect of some of the panelists and leaders. I was able to present the conservative Christian view of homosexuality at a diversity conference back before DEI was a thing. I was even interviewed for a grad student’s documentary on gays in the military, and my commentary was included in the final production.

In the past ten years the issue has hit closer to home as I have several friends and extended family members who’ve had to navigate these kinds of issues. I am not without compassion when it comes to these issues, but I have strongly held beliefs based on nearly 40 years’ experience.

I say all this not to pat myself on the back, but to show that I’ve got some street cred when I speak about LGBTQ issues and that I’m not just spouting viewpoints from one particular perspective. I’ve done my homework., and I think that’s an important part of the “thoughts” when I say my thoughts and prayers are with the victims of the latest school shooting.

When I say this is a problem of “evil,” then, it is “evil” in the sense that I have developed a firm conviction that ANY sexual activity outside the bonds of heterosexual matrimony, regardless of the gender of those involved, is deemed to be a violation of God’s divine design for humanity. The author of Hebrews says in 13:4: “Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral.”

For whatever reason, the apostle Paul in his treatise on “the obedience that comes from faith,” otherwise known as Romans, feels it’s important in the first chapter to address the issue of “unnatural” relations between women and the “shameful acts” between men (Romans 1:24–32). He makes no bones about having the proper relationship with the opposite sex and keeping that relationship pure.

One more thing before I move on. The word translated “homosexual” in 1 Corinthians 6:9 is translated as “fine clothes” in the gospels, and “soft” in reference to an animal’s coat or a grassy field on which horses train in ancient Greek literature. But when the word is applied to persons in ancient Greek literature, it always takes on a negative connotation. In the Iliad, it is used to describe a ship captain, Hector, who is dead because his body was “softened” with many spears. It also applies to a soldier who does not want to fight bravely. But in 1 Corinthians 6:11, Paul assures his readers that, because of their redemption, they no longer bear that shameful title.

I think it’s important as a church then, no matter how uncomfortable we may be, to address the issue of gender dysphoria. At a very high level, what happens is that a young person somehow develops a certain stereotype of what they think it means to be a boy or a girl, or a young man or a young woman and then decides their mindset somehow better aligns with the opposite sex or that they don’t like the stereotype for themselves.

Now I’m not trained in counseling people with gender dysphoria, so I can’t say for sure what happens to a young person at this point, but I think it’s safe to say that influences on them become more intense and come from a number of different angles and perspectives, some of which may not be honorable or based in a Christian compassionate care model. In other words, it can get really confusing for a young person who isn’t even sure if their initial self-analysis of the stereotype is based in reality. It’s easy to see why they feel anxious about what is going on in their lives. They and their families must be under an incredible amount of pressure given the potential backlash they may encounter.

Compassion must be the key here, and often it’s not. Gender dysphoria is, by definition, a psychological or mental health diagnosis. As such, then, the first method of treatment in many people’s minds should be some form of mental health counseling, and many States have already passed such laws to require that prior to any discussion of transitioning. Providing a physical, surgical “fix” to a person’s gender dysphoria issues is far from a perfect fix, and studies show that it creates a whole new set of mental health issues in many cases, and not a few have desired to be detransitioned. In some respects, it’s like soldering an electrical cord to the two ends of the battery contacts in a battery-operated radio. The radio is designed to run on the voltage of a couple batteries. It’s not designed to take 120 volts straight from the outlet! You need an adapter. But God did not design the human body to undergo such a transition. Great Britain, to their credit, has stopped transition surgeries on youth altogether because they have begun to recognize the solution was worse than the original problem.

I started out by saying I wanted to defend those who say “My thoughts and prayers are with you.” What I’ve given you hear is a sampling of the “thoughts” that I bring into the situation, and no one can accuse me of not having any intention of taking action on this subject consistent with Christian compassion and not in defiance of God’s creative order. This isn’t an empty sentiment with me, and I’m sure it’s not with you either. I’m guessing some of you have these experiences in your own families or among your friends and that you’ve already formed your opinions. I’m speaking from my own perspective here and I don’t expect everyone to agree with me. Jesus died for everyone, and that includes trans people or anyone else in the LGBT community. Regardless of where you fall on this issue, always show compassion and the love of Christ to those who need it most.

As for prayers, this is not an empty sentiment either, especially when we consider what the Bible tells us to pray for. Here’s just a sample: [NOTE: The congregation received a separate list of these verses as a help to guide them in their “thoughts and prayers.” I ran out of time when we got to this point, so I picked a few and said a brief prayer based on each one to close out the message.]

2 Chronicles 7:13–14:

13 “When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people, 14 if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.[5]

Nehemiah 6:9, as the Jews are being threatened for rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem:

9 They were all trying to frighten us, thinking, “Their hands will get too weak for the work, and it will not be completed.”

But I prayed, “Now strengthen my hands.” [6]

Acts 2:25–26, 30–31

25 You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our father David:

“ ‘Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?

26 The kings of the earth rise up and the rulers band together against the Lord and against his anointed one.[7]

…

30 Stretch out your hand to heal and perform signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”

31 After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.[8]

Romans 12:9–21, esp. 17–18

17 Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. 18 If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.[9]

Ephesians 3:10–11

His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, 11 according to his eternal purpose that he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord.[10]

Ephesians 6:12

12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.[11]

1 Timothy 2:1–2

I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people—2 for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness.[12]

James 5:16b

The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.[13]

Psalm 81:10–16

10 I am the Lord your God, who brought you up out of Egypt.

Open wide your mouth and I will fill it.

11 “But my people would not listen to me; Israel would not submit to me.

12 So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts to follow their own devices.

13 “If my people would only listen to me, if Israel would only follow my ways, 14 how quickly I would subdue their enemies and turn my hand against their foes!

15 Those who hate the Lord would cringe before him, and their punishment would last forever.

16 But you would be fed with the finest of wheat; with honey from the rock I would satisfy you.” [14]

[1] The New International Version. 2011. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

[2] The New International Version. 2011. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

[3] The New International Version. 2011. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

[4] The New International Version. 2011. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

[5] The New International Version. 2011. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

[6] The New International Version. 2011. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

[7] The New International Version. 2011. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan. (Quote from Psalm 2:1–2)

[8] The New International Version. 2011. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

[9] The New International Version. 2011. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

[10] The New International Version. 2011. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

[11] The New International Version. 2011. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

[12] The New International Version. 2011. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

[13] The New International Version. 2011. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

[14] The New International Version. 2011. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

July 27, 2025

Our Role in God’s Providence (Luke 11:1–13)

Filed under: Acts,Colossians,Giving,James,Luke Gospel of,Prayer,Providence,Psalms — Scott Stocking @ 11:15 pm
Tags: , , , , , ,

I preached this message on July 27, 2025 (Year C, Proper 12), at Mount View Presbyterian Church, Omaha, NE.

The last line of our Declaration of Independence says this:

“And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.”

The Declaration of Independence uses several different terms for our heavenly Father: “Nature’s God,” “Creator,” “Supreme Judge of the world,” and in the last line of the Declaration, “Providence.” Even “Prudence,”[1] might be considered a reference to God because it derives from the same root for “Providence.”

“Providence,” when capitalized, means “God conceived as the power sustaining and guiding human destiny.” The adjective “provident” is relevant to our passage today: “making provision for the future.”

As you listened to the New Testament reading this morning, you may have thought the switch from an abridged version of the Lord’s prayer to teaching about God’s providence seemed a bit “abrupt.” But if you look closely at how the portion of the Lord’s prayer is formatted in most English Bible, you’ll see that the central line is “Give us this day our daily bread.” He then goes on to relate Jesus’s teaching about what a good neighbor might do even though they might feel “put-out” by the expectation in the middle of the night.

To understand the story of the neighbor’s request, I want to remind you about what I talked about a couple weeks ago about what it meant to be a neighbor and part of an in-group. First of all, notice that Jesus puts his listeners in the position of the one needing the bread. To make this easier to follow, I’m going to give the three men in this story names. Since the man in story is played by you in Jesus’s parable, you can insert your own name in there, but I’m going to use Joel for our example, because he’s always willing to play along with me when I ask for audience participation, and Joel is a good biblical name. We’ll call Joel’s neighbor Hosea since that’s the Bible book that comes before Joel, and we’ll call Joel’s visitor Malachi, since that’s the last book of the minor prophets.

Even though Hosea probably doesn’t know Malachi, because both men are friends with Joel, Joel would have a cultural, in-group expectation that Hosea would show the same hospitality and respect to Malachi as he would to him and would not make Joel look bad to Malachi. The other thing to consider here is that Joel seemingly has enough trust in his relationship with Hosea that waking him up at midnight for bread doesn’t seem out of bounds with the cultural norms of the day. Hosea is certainly not happy about being awakened in this manner, but he realizes that his neighbor Joel must really be in a bind if he has the “shameless audacity” to wake him up at midnight. It is that trust in the relationship between Joel and Hosea that compels Hosea to get up and give Joel the bread he needs.[2]

One final note here: Joel’s audacious act would have signaled to Hosea that if Hosea was ever in a similar spot, Joel would be willing to help him as well. This was not so much a matter of tit-for-tat; Hosea would not have had an expectation of any compensation or immediate reciprocation. It was more of a “pay-it-forward” act. Nor was it “charity” or even “welfare” in the way we might typically think of it. It’s a two-way street. It is simply the mindset of those first-century listeners who would have understood the cultural dynamic at work here and who take their cultural obligations seriously.

The important consideration here is that this cultural dynamic was intended for the success and longevity of the community. When those in the in-group and allied with the in-group are supported by the in-group, the in-group becomes stronger and more closely united. This provides a sense of internal security for the in-group. They don’t have to rely on outside sources to support their cultural priorities.

This is the kind of thing we see going on in the early chapters of the book of Acts. We see the believers willingly selling property to help meet the needs of less fortunate believers. We see them sharing meals together. We see them meeting together for prayer, worship, and instruction. We see them resolving conflicts so that all the widows can be cared for. And we even see Paul condemn Ananias and Sapphira to death for lying about what they gave for those needs, even though they had absolutely no obligation to give every last drachma of their proceeds on the sale.

As I said a couple weeks ago, this kind of internal support system is how the community maintained their honor and integrity. This also represents how God works with us, especially when it comes to prayer. Verses 9–10 give us the moral of the story: don’t be afraid to ask—and be persistent when you do!

I wish I understood why our current culture has gotten to the place where we are afraid or embarrassed to ask for help from those we know, especially within the church. Part of it may have to do with the government thinking they need to take over the responsibility of “charity,” and then regulating it to the point where it becomes burdensome for private nonprofit entities to respond to needs. I fear it’s created a mindset that government should be the first place you look for help, not the church.

But I digress. The last part of our gospel passage this morning reveals the goodness of God. Some may have the opinion that God only wants to punish us, or that the bad things that happen to us are the result of a cruel God. But God is not cruel in the way he responds to our prayers. James confirms the goodness of God as revealed in the last part of our gospel passage:

James 1:5–8 says:

5 If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. 6 But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. 7 That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. 8 Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do.[3]

And later in 4:1–3, James says almost the same thing, with a different twist:

What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? 2 You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. 3 When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.[4]

Our reading form Psalm 138 this morning also affirms the goodness of God when we ask him for help. Verse 3 says, “When I called, you answered me;

you greatly emboldened me.[5]” There’s that boldness we saw in the man who asked for bread from his neighbor. Verse 6 says, “Though the Lord is exalted, he looks kindly on the lowly; though lofty, he sees them from afar.”[6]

 Your presumed standing with God matters not. In fact, he has a special place in his heart for those of us who think we’re “lowly.”

David is willing to bow down to God and give him unfettered praise for the way he has provided for him. He recognizes God’s protection, God’s preservation, and God’s power. God is there for us when we need him. Even if we don’t get the answer we want, we, like the three men in the fiery furnace, know that God will save us one way or another when we put our trust in him.

Paul affirms this in Colossians 2:6–7 as well: “So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, 7 rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.”[7] We can show the same thankfulness that David did in Psalm 138.

At the beginning of my message this morning, I mentioned how the Declaration of Independence refers to God as “Providence.” He is the provider and we can trust in him. But this also implies a mutual trust as well, just as we have as the body of Christ united. Jefferson closes the Declaration of Independence with a line that sums up nicely the commitment we should have to the body of Christ as we walk faithfully with Jesus: “We mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.”[8] We are God’s witnesses on earth to his great and marvelous deeds. How can we do anything less than give him all our praise for the ways he provides for us. Don’t be afraid to ask God to do some great things for you as you walk with him. Amen.

[1] According to Merriam-Webster, “prudence” is derived from the same root as “providence.” “Prudence” means “the ability to govern and discipline oneself by the use of reason” or “skill and good judgment in the use of resources,” which is perhaps a meaning relevant to this message.

[2] This is known as a “dyadic alliance” or “dyadic contract.” See Malina, Bruce J. The New Testament World: Insights from Cultural Anthropology, revised edition, pp. 99–103, 115. Wesley/John Knox Press, 1993. See also Malina’s Windows on the World of Jesus, pp. 48–49.

[3] The New International Version. 2011. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

[4] The New International Version. 2011. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

[5] The New International Version. 2011. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

[6] The New International Version. 2011. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

[7] The New International Version. 2011. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

[8] Declaration of Independence: A Transcription | National Archives, accessed 07/26/25.

March 23, 2025

Bearing Fruit…and the Cross (Luke 13:1–9; Psalm 63)

Filed under: 1 Corinthians,Courage,Evangelism,Faith, Faithfulness,forgiveness,Isaiah,Lent,Luke Gospel of,Prayer,Psalms,Repentance,Soteriology,Spiritual Warfare — Scott Stocking @ 11:41 pm
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

I preached this message on Sunday, March 23, 2025, at Mount View Presbyterian Church. I dealt with all four passages for the Lectionary for this Sunday.

Bearing Fruit…and the Cross

Lent is typically thought of in the Christian world as a time of sacrifice. Some people give up meat only to crowd into the numerous fish fries around town. Others might give up chocolate or coffee or caffeinated beverages or shopping or any number of other things that we might consider “vices” personally, but most of those things are not innately spiritual and may in fact make us a bit more difficult at times to live with if we haven’t had our morning cup of Joe. I’m teasing you a bit, of course. But if Lent is supposed to bring us some spiritual benefit, then shouldn’t we be giving up things that can damage our relationship with God? Why not give up greed, pride, selfishness, and other such things?

That seems to be the underlying theme behind our passages today. They might be summed up by John’s exhortation when he was preaching in the wilderness in Luke 3:8: “Produce fruit in keeping with repentance.” In other words, bear fruit while you’re bearing the cross. In our passage from Luke 13 this morning, Jesus seems to be addressing the thought that some had that bad things only happened to bad people. But the circumstances of our demise do not determine our eternal destiny. In spite of the untimely and unfortunate deaths of the Galileans and those in the tower of Siloam, Jesus says the important thing is to repent and be ready.

Jesus switches to talking about the fig tree that won’t bear fruit in the next few verses. The owner of the fig tree wants to cut it down because it’s unproductive. But the vineyard manager said “Give me another year and I’ll have it bearing fruit.” But the connection here with the previous verses and John’s statement about producing fruit in keeping with repentance is unmistakable. If we’re not bearing fruit, that could affect our salvation and our relationship with our Savior. Jesus said in Matthew 7:20: “By their fruit you will recognize them.”

Paul talks about the quality of our works in 1 Corinthians 3:12–15, but he doesn’t use the language of “fruit.”

12 If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, 13 their work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s work. 14 If what has been built survives, the builder will receive a reward. 15 If it is burned up, the builder will suffer loss but yet will be saved—even though only as one escaping through the flames.[1]

God, being full of grace and mercy, leaves us a way out when we fall short. That’s what he accomplished through Jesus in his death on the cross and his resurrection from the dead. But instead of focusing on these warnings for the rest of my message this morning, I want to turn the focus around to the theme I mentioned earlier: How do we bear fruit while bearing the cross? That would have been my sermon title in the bulletin if I had remembered to click send on my e-mail to Judy!

I want us then to look at the other three passages from the lectionary today in addition to our gospel passage I touched on at the beginning. In Psalm 63, we’ll look at seeking God in worship. In Isaiah 55, we’ll look at seeking God for our wellbeing. And finally in 1 Corinthians 10, we’ll look at standing firm in our faith to recognize the way out of temptations that can drag us down.

Let’s look at Psalm 63. For a long time our country has been turning away from church attendance and, by implication, from God altogether. A trusted, unbiased Web site called Statista has this summary of church attendance: “According to a 2022 survey, 31 percent of Americans never attend church or synagogue, compared to 20 percent of Americans who attend every week. Despite only about a fifth of Americans attending church or synagogue on a weekly basis, almost 40 percent consider themselves to be very religious.” A 2024 survey by Gallup puts the number of weekly attenders at 20%, with another 9% at “almost every week.” On the flip side, 31% NEVER attend church or other religious service. We could talk about the reasons for this 24/7 for a week, but we’d probably never get anywhere. Psalm 63 tells us why this shouldn’t be, though.

We should be able to come to church to find God. Granted David, who wrote this psalm, had a special relationship with God that enabled and empowered him to be a great leader of his people, but this doesn’t mean that you and I don’t have access to this same relationship in the New Covenant era. David claims to have seen God’s power “in the sanctuary.” It’s not clear exactly what he “saw,” whether it was some physical manifestation of light, a divine presence, or if he’s using the word “see” to describe what he experienced in worship. Regardless, it was clear at least in David’s day, one of the best places to be to encounter God was the sanctuary in the Temple.

In the New Covenant era, God has given his Holy Spirit to each of us who believe. You don’t have to be a king or a prophet any more to have exclusive access to the Holy Spirit. When we come together to worship, to sing praises and hymns, to read God’s word and hear it explained in such a way that it’s relevant to our live and our situations, the Holy Spirit works among us to build and shepherd that unity we have in body of Christ. When we pray together as a congregation, we let God know that we still trust in him to work in our lives and provide for our needs while at the same time letting those whom we’re praying for know that we will support them however we can. When we come together as a worshipping community for projects and collection for the poor, we show and shower God’s love upon those who are truly in need.

But our worship doesn’t just happen in the church building. Verse implies that wherever David is at, he is earnestly seeking God. Later in vs. 6, he say he remembers God in his bed and while he’s keeping watch on the battlefield at night. He sings to God and he clings to God, knowing that God’s presence is always with him through the Holy Spirit. We have that same assurance. Jesus even promised that at his ascension: “I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Seek God and you will find him, and as you draw closer to him, others will come to see him at work in your lives as well.

As we seek God, we can also know he will provide for our basic needs and do so generously. That is the message of Isaiah 55. Verses 1 & 2 go like this:

“Come, all you who are thirsty,

come to the waters;

and you who have no money,

come, buy and eat!

Come, buy wine and milk

without money and without cost.

2 Why spend money on what is not bread,

and your labor on what does not satisfy?

Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good,

and you will delight in the richest of fare. [2]

God wants to richly bless us. God’s goodness is genuine and original. God isn’t giving us yesterday’s leftovers. Jeremiah says “His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness!” (Lamentations 3:22b–23). Sometimes we spend a lot of effort and money pursuing things that don’t bring lasting or eternal satisfaction. God wants us to focus on him and what he provides for us. Later on in Isaiah 55, the prophet says this:

6 Seek the Lord while he may be found;

call on him while he is near.

7 Let the wicked forsake their ways

and the unrighteous their thoughts.

Let them turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on them,

and to our God, for he will freely pardon.[3]

You heard in that passage the idea I suggested earlier about giving up the things that tempt us to turn from God. But Isaiah also says we need to get rid of the “stinkin’ thinkin’” as well. This is complete repentance: not just changing our behavior but changing our minds and our ways of thinking as well. That’s were the worship comes in from Psalm 63: setting our hearts on Christ.

One of my favorite passages occurs a few verses later in Isaiah 55:

My word that goes out from my mouth…

will not return to me empty,

but will accomplish what I desire

and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.

12 You will go out in joy

and be led forth in peace;[4]

I believe this is one of the greatest passages on evangelism. I love that it says God’s word accomplishes the purpose for which he sent it. When I was preaching early in my career, I was never in a church that followed the lectionary or the liturgical calendar. I could preach on what I wanted or I could pick out a theme or a particular book and prepare a sermon series.

But following the lectionary puts these two verses from Isaiah in a new light for me. Now I don’t know who decided on the three cycle of passages to read, but the lectionary is a “reading plan” adopted by many churches and denominations around the world, so it carries a lot of weight and, aside from the denominational differences and nuances that work their way into sermons on these passages, many churches are on the same page when it comes to what their congregations are presented with each Sunday. Because so many churches have agreed to use it, I believe it’s something that God honors. I think there’s something divine about the spiritual foresight those responsible for developing it, so I honor that.

Occasionally I’ll look at the passage for the day and wonder, “How am I going to preach on that?!” But I trust that there’s some component of God’s timing there, that is, some spiritual benefits he has in mind for sending out his word in this way, and I want to be faithful to communicate that in a way that’s relevant to you and my larger audience on the blog. I genuinely believe the lectionary is one way that God’s word gets from his mouth to our ears and that preachers who follow the lectionary are in many and diverse ways fulling the purposes for which God sends it out in that structure.

Finally, I want to look briefly at 1 Corinthians 10. Paul concludes in the first half of chapter 10 that that the written history of God’s people is intended for our encouragement and exhortation to faithfulness. Here’s what vv. 11–13 say:

11 These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the culmination of the ages has come. 12 So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall! 13 No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.[5]

Paul warns us that we shouldn’t rest on our laurels. Faithfulness is an active, ongoing process in the life of the Christian. There is nothing passive about it. Continue seeking God in worship; continue reading his words to hide them in your heart. Continue loving your neighbor as yourself so they too can see the love of God. Continue putting on the armor of God each and every day so you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.

May the power of the Holy Spirit go with you this week as you serve our Lord and Savior. Amen.

[1] The New International Version. 2011. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

[2] The New International Version. 2011. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

[3] The New International Version. 2011. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

[4] The New International Version. 2011. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

[5] The New International Version. 2011. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

March 16, 2025

Approaching the Cross (Psalm 27; Luke 13:31–35)

Filed under: Christology,Courage,Evangelism,Faith, Faithfulness,Hebrews,Hope,Lent,Life of Christ,Luke Gospel of,Passion,Prayer,Psalms,Spiritual Warfare — Scott Stocking @ 5:56 pm
Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

I presented this message on March 16, 2025, at Mount View Presbyterian Church in Omaha, Nebraska. In studying the two passages, I discovered several thematic connections between Psalm 27 and the central part of Luke’s gospel, especially from 9:51 through Christ’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem in Luke 19.

I had attended StoneBridge (my home church) for the worship part of their service before going to preach, and they did a version of St. Patrick’s Breastplate. I started my message with that this morning (the 15 lines toward the end of the longer prayer).

May the Lord be with you.

Have you ever thought about how you read certain types of literature? If you’re reading a fictional novel, or perhaps a true historical account of real event or someone’s life, it’s probably best to start at the beginning and read through to the end. It’s important to have all the details of the story because some of those details will be important throughout or later in the book. If you’re reading a history book or a historical biography, you may want to focus on a certain topic or certain era covered in the book to get the specific information you’re looking for, but you might miss some important background information that gives more context to events of that period. When you read a newspaper, you look for the headlines that interest you. If you’re looking for a specific answer on something like “How do I change a tire,” “Where do the Sandhill Cranes migrate to,” or “How do I calculate the area of a circle,” you typically wouldn’t have to read an entire reference book relevant to the subject. You’d go to the index or table of contents and look up where to find the information you’re looking for.

The Bible is sort of all these types of literature wrapped up in one collection that contains all these things, from the fictional, but true-to-life parables to the priestly “Chronicles” of the kings to the history of the patriarchs and the gospels, right up to the fantastical imagery of Revelation. Because of this, it’s important that we don’t lock ourselves into one way of reading the Bible. While it’s good to sit down and read large sections of the Bible in one sitting from time to time, we can still miss “the big picture” if we don’t understand or know the historical setting in which it was written.

Even when you read the gospels, if you have a Bible with footnotes, you’ll see that there are all sorts of references to passages in both the Old and New Testament where the gospel writer is either quoting the Old Testament or the editor perceives a connection to another New Testament author’s writings. That’s something you don’t typically get in a fictional novel, but would be helpful, I think.

Our two passages today, Psalm 27[1] and Luke 13, have a thematic connection, but it’s important to recognize that this connection compels us to look at the larger context of Luke’s gospel. Luke 13 is a little more than halfway through Luke’s 24-chapter gospel, but more importantly for our purposes, it’s about halfway between Luke 9:51 and Luke 19:28, which is the beginning of the story of Jesus’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem. Why is 9:51 an important marker? Luke says this: “As the time approached for him to be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem.”[2] Luke isn’t even halfway through his gospel and he’s already talking about Jesus getting ready for the cross!

Luke frames the rest of his gospel from 9:51 on in the context of Jesus approaching the cross and preparing himself and his disciples for the implications of that seminal event. In fact, the footnote on this verse in my NIV Bible lists the references to this in the story line along the way: Luke 13:22, 17:11, 18:31, and 19:28.

So let’s take a look at the thematic comparisons between Luke and Psalm 27. Psalm 27:1 is the initial confidence builder for David as he pens this psalm: The Lord is his light, his salvation, and his stronghold, so David has nothing to fear as he leads his people. This confidence is paralleled in Luke 9:51 with his statement that Jesus “resolutely” set out for Jerusalem. The phrase here literally means to “set your face” (or by extension, “set your eyes”) upon Jerusalem. This ties in with Psalm 27:4 as well, when David speaks of dwelling in the house of the Lord and gazing on his beauty in the temple. The temple, of course, was in Jerusalem. In today’s gospel passage, Jesus seems to hint that he’s only three days away from Jerusalem and needs to press on.

In Psalm 27:2–3, David says that in spite of his enemies advancing against him, he will remain confident of the Lord’s help. As Jesus journeys toward Jerusalem in Luke, he encounters his own opposition along the way. In 9:53, the Samaritan village he was near wanted nothing to do with him because he was headed for Jerusalem. In chapter 11, we see opposition from the pharisees and experts in the law as he’s working miracles and teaching about the kingdom. By the end of chapter 11, Luke says this after delivering a list of “woes” to his critics: “53 When Jesus went outside, the Pharisees and the teachers of the law began to oppose him fiercely and to besiege him with questions, 54 waiting to catch him in something he might say.”[3] No love lost there between Jesus and that group of elitists.

Just like David, though, Jesus’s confidence doesn’t wane. He continues on his journey gathering an ever-larger following warning them about the opposition they themselves would face for being his followers and encouraging them to be ready when his time does come. In chapter 13, he faces opposition from a synagogue leader who is upset because Jesus healed someone on the Sabbath! Imagine that! In our passage this morning, the Pharisees seem to think they’re doing Jesus a favor by telling him to leave the region because Herod wants to kill him. But Jesus presses on, even with a bit of sarcasm, or so it seems, when he says in so many words that Jerusalem is the only place for a prophet to die.

The rest of Luke up to the point where he reaches Jerusalem gives us several more examples of this opposition, but we can save that for another time. I mentioned earlier about Psalm 27:4–5 hinting at the importance of temple. For Jesus, the temple was the true home of his family: after all, it was his father’s house. If he knows he’s going to die, he wants to be as close to his family home as possible. His statement in Luke 13:35 about “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord” looks forward to his triumphal entry into Jerusalem. I believe Jesus takes a sense of pride and ownership in the temple, even though it is a structure made by human hands.

We saw after Christmas how Jesus as a boy stayed at the temple and impressed the religious leaders with his knowledge of and wisdom about God’s law. His first order of business after arriving in Jerusalem at the end of Luke 19 is to clear out the corruption in his father’s house. Even as he knew this would be one of his last weeks to experience the earthly temple, he wanted to leave it in better condition than he found it by restoring it to a place of prayer and genuine worship. He knew he would be the sacrificial lamb, and there would be no more need to sell lambs and birds in the temple for the sacrifices. It would be restored to a purer state. In the book of Acts, we see that his followers have been meeting regularly at the temple since his crucifixion, and it is there that the church is born on the day of Pentecost. That was the “Garden of Eden” for Christ followers.

The last half of Psalm 27 is one of David’s most heartfelt prayers for protection against his enemies and for the security of God’s presence with and acceptance of David as his chosen ruler for God’s people. Jesus taught his disciples to pray in Luke 11, the shorter version of the Lord’s prayer. In that prayer, we hear some of the same themes of praise, provision, and forgiveness. He understands the goodness of God’s provision.

But we also hear in that Psalm the foreshadowing of the cross. In verse 12, David asks not to be turned over to his enemies, which sounds very much like Jesus’s plea in the Garden of Gethsemane to have the cup of suffering removed from him. David’s pleas in verse 9 sound very much like Jesus’s words on the cross, “Why have you forsaken me?” Those words come from Psalm 22, where many of the aspects of Jesus’s crucifixion are foretold.

Just as David in the last two verses of Psalm 27 affirms his confidence in the goodness of the Lord and can encourage the worshipers to “be strong and take heart,” so Jesus has confidence in his dying moments to selflessly tell the thief on the cross that he too will join him in paradise when they die. I don’t believe that David intended Psalm 27 to be a messianic psalm, nor do I think Luke intended the central part of his gospel to mirror the themes of Psalm 27, but the parallels are striking and certainly worth noting.

But these parallels are academic. What does all this mean for you and me as we walk with our savior?

First, when we run up against roadblocks or challenges to our faith or we find that doubts are creeping in, we can remain confident that our light, our stronghold, surrounds us with his protection. We need not fear or doubt, but if we wait on the Lord and strengthen our hearts by abiding in God’s word, we can be confident we will see the goodness of the Lord, just as David was. We can walk in the victory of the cross in the overcoming resurrection of our savior.

Second, we can heed the exhortation of Hebrews 10:19–25, which sums up these three themes concisely:

19 Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, 20 by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. 23 Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, 25 not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.[4]

Worshiping together as a church family, whether we’re a family of 20 or 200 or 2,000, provides a powerful sense of belonging to each of us. We know we have a place to call our spiritual home, just as Jesus considered the temple his spiritual home. We can feel safe here with one another.

Finally, the power of praying together as a church family cannot be overstated. Our prayers, whether in our own closets at home or corporately in our liturgy here, keep us connected to and in constant communication with our heavenly father. We can be assured that he hears us and works to respond to our prayers according to his will and his love for us.

As we go through this Lenten season, let us not forget the forgiveness we have from God and not forget to offer forgiveness and grace to those who need to hear that message. Peace to all of you. Amen.

Pastor Scott Stocking, M.Div.

[1] Psalm 27 parallels Psalm 31 with similar themes. Psalm 31 will figure prominently in the Lectionary beginning the Sunday before Palm Sunday next month.

[2] The New International Version. 2011. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

[3] The New International Version. 2011. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

[4] The New International Version. 2011. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

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