Robert Woodyard
Jesus’ March to Bondage, Death, Liberation
Passage: Matthew 21:1-11
In 1914 just after the beginning of WWI the famous British author H.G. Wells wrote a book, The War That Will End All Wars.
Many thought at the time it would be, but of course that bubble was soon burst. Just 25 years later the world was at war again and we are again tMattoday.
On the same day the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor they also carried out a major attack on the Philippines. We had a large military presence there under the command of General MacArthur. That became the first major land battle for American troops. For five months the poorly equipped and poorly supplied US and Filipino troops fought against superior numbers.
In March of 1942 General MacArthur went to Australia to get help with his famous promise, “I shall return.” A month later we suffered one of the most devastating military defeats in American history, and the largest surrender of US armed forces in history when on April 9, 1942, Major General King surrendered to the Japanese army. All of a sudden the Japanese had more POWs than they could deal with.
Today, April 10, 2022, marks the 80th anniversary of the beginning of the Bataan Death March. The Japanese force marched 76,000 prisoners of war, 66,000 Filipino and 10,000 Americans, 70 miles over 7 days, to a prison camp.
Of those 75,000 emaciated, malnourished, physically weak soldiers who started the march with little or no sleep, food or water, 54,000 reached the prison camp in the middle of Luzon. Anyone who fell or straggled behind was shot. The Bataan Death March was one of the most brutal war crimes ever committed by the Japanese.
To this day it is remembered in the Philippines where April 9 is a national holiday, called the Day of Valor. The heroism, sacrifices and suffering are not forgotten.
Over the next two and a half years another 30,000 would die while in prison. But General MacArthur made good his promise and returned to liberate the Philippines. On one amazing day in January 1945, 121 U.S. Rangers emerged from the jungle and after a brief fight, liberated the prison and rescued the 513 remaining American and Allied survivors of the Bataan Death March.
Hampton Sides describes it this way in his book Ghost Soldiers:
“Slowly, the awareness that this was a jailbreak was beginning to sink in among the rest of the prisoners. They were reacting with a kind of catatonic ecstasy, numb and inarticulate. One prisoner wrapped his arms around the neck of the first Ranger he saw and kissed him on the forehead. All he could he say was “Oh, boy! Oh, boy! Oh, boy!” Alvie Robbins found one prisoner muttering in a darkened corner of one of the barracks, tears coursing down his face. “I thought we’d been forgotten,” the prisoner said. “No, you’re not forgotten,” Robbins said. “We’ve come for you.”…”I was glad it was dark so he couldn’t see my tears,” Tommie Thomas remembered years later. With the help of many heroic Filipinos, the liberated prisoners, sick, weak, frail, made their way back to the Allied lines. Finally they saw an American flag, the first Stars and Stripes he’d seen since the surrender three years earlier. “We wept openly, and we wept without shame” (Hampton Sides, Ghost Soldiers, pp. 238, 317).
I wonder if in all of human experience there is any experience quite as powerful, quite as joyful as being liberated from some bondage.
Who of us can come close to that kind of experience, the liberating joy of a great release from a great bondage?
A prisoner who has been let out of prison.
A hostage released from his captors.
A slave set free like in the movie 12 Years a Slave.
Someone in bondage to some sin or addiction, porn, alcohol, finally gaining victory.
Getting free from a great financial debt. Getting a diagnosis of being cancer free.
A child let free after being grounded.
Right after Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness He went to Nazareth, His hometown and on the Sabbath went into the synagogue and read Isaiah 61 and preached from it.
In Isaiah’s prophecy liberation and incredible joy go hand in hand: “He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound;… to comfort all who mourn;… the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit” (Isaiah 61:1-3).
After He preached, He astonished everyone there by saying, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing” (Luke 4:21).
Three years later, on this day, on the beginning of Holy Week on Palm Sunday, we remember another day of valor, another death march and the beginning of another great liberation.
While the crowds are singing and praising hosanna in the highest, Jesus is intentionally making His final death march, surrendering to enemy forces, submitting to horrific torture and injustice, yielding to sin and death. Jesus’ march was truly a march to the war to end all wars, the cosmic battle against the spiritual forces of darkness, of sin, Satan and death.
This is that day, when Jesus begins fulfilling the prophecies of Zachariah and Isaiah. He wants us to know three things, which I take from three phrases in our text.
Living by Faith, Giving by Faith
Passage: Exodus 35:4-8; 20-22; 36:3-7
The Phase III building the future proposal that has been presented to us is no doubt one of the biggest things we have done in the lifetime of anyone in this flock. This is bigger than Phase I and Phase II put together.
A month ago I called us to begin praying in earnest for God’s wisdom, will and leading. This morning we enter into the next step, the pledge process. For the next five weeks I encourage all of us to continue to pray and ask God to show us what He wants to do and how He will provide for this.
You have seen the concept drawings, you have read or heard the vision behind them. A great team of people in our flock have been working on this for over five years. From the input received at the townhall meeting adjustments and improvements will be made. And based on the pledges we will see what God will enable us to do.
Exodus 35-36.
Our texts this morning give us Israel’s first building project, their Phase I was build a tabernacle. Five hundred years later they would build Phase II, the temple. You could say that as church building projects go we are moving at lightning speed. We are up to Phase III in only 20 years.
There are some differences between their building project and ours.
First, God gave directly to Moses the detailed architect drawings. God gave precise instructions and measurements for how to make everything that would go in the tabernacle, even down to the clothes the priests should wear. Eight chapters of Exodus are devoted to how to build it.
Then, God became the project manager and got all His own sub-contractors. He gave specific Spirit-anointed gifts, abilities and talents to specific people to do each task.
Finally, God stirred the hearts of the people to supply all the building materials, to raise all the funds for the project. God was the architect, the project manager and the fundraiser.
Living on the Road to Suffering
Passage: Romans 5:3-5; James 1:2-4; I Peter 4:12-14; Hebrews 12:2
Let me share with you the three roads of suffering the Holy Spirit used to lead me to preach this morning on suffering and joy.
First, there is the road called the season of Lent, a season when people often reflect on Jesus as He walked on that path called the Via Dolorosa, the way of suffering that led to the cross.
This led me to reflect on how paths of suffering are another means of grace in our lives like baptism and the Lord’s Supper. We have already considered living under the water of baptism and living at the table of our Lord. How can we live on the road of suffering as another one of God’s means of grace, when He show us the glory of His grace in our afflictions.
Second, there is the horrendous suffering going on in Ukraine. I am burdened by the images pouring out of Ukraine. The media bombardment is not good for our souls. Our souls are not meant to carry the weight of that much evil, pain and suffering.
The third path of suffering the Spirit used is the many people in our flock who are suffering from various trials, physical, mental or emotional. Our prayer list seems longer than usual and the needs seem greater. We buried two of our members this week. I made two trips to the hospital. We are praying for at least seven we know about, I am praying for a few others I know about, and then there are those who’s suffering is known only to them.
In the sovereign, mysterious and hard providence of God a number of us are going through some significant trials.
The Vanity of Living Wisely
Passage: Ecclesiastes 2:12-17
Remember who is speaking. Qoheleth, The Preacher, the shepherd king of Israel in Jerusalem, Solomon.
After Solomon’s opening poetic introduction to the vanity of life under the sun in chapter one, which he repeatedly calls a striving after the wind, he makes it the work of his life to exhaustively explore the meaning and purpose of life.
He is conducting a grand experiment. Remember he’s the wisest, richest king who ever lived. He has all the wisdom, time and resources to do the most thorough research ever conducted.
Don’t commit the sin of chronological snobbery that says no one from so long ago could ever have done as good a job of it as we could today. Let us not proudly assume we could do better than those who have gone before us. We are in no way wiser than Solomon or better equipped to find the answers he looked for.
CS Lewis defines chronological snobbery as “the uncritical acceptance of the intellectual climate of our own age and the assumption that whatever has gone out of date is discredited.”
Don’t commit the sin of intellectual snobbery and elitism that says only we in the twenty first century could possibly explore the depths of what he explored.
Here is what he has done so far.
Living at the Table
Passage: John 6:48-58
Last week we considered how to be Christians who live under water, under the water of our baptism. We said as water is essential for physical life so water is essential for spiritual life. We talked about daily living out our baptism by remembering it and by improving it.
This week it is appropriate to consider how to be Christians who live at the table of our Lord. Food and drink are essential for physical life and food and drink are essential for spiritual life.
Some of us don’t really consider how important this meal is and what it signifies. For some of us this may be an empty ritual.
I remember when I was a child and thought like a child, when I would come into church on a Sunday morning with my family and saw the table piled with plates, I would think, “Oh, great, the service is going to be long this morning.”
I didn’t know Jesus, I didn’t understand the things of the spirit. I didn’t know my spiritual need. I was no better than the Jews who didn’t understand what in the world Jesus was talking about.
John 6:48-58, The Bread of Life Discourse of Jesus.
The Gospel of John is the only gospel that does not have an account of the institution of the Lord’s Supper by Jesus in the Upper Room on Passover. But John is the only Gospel writer to give us an account of a major teaching of Jesus about His body and blood as bread and drink.
Jesus makes Himself plain to us by using parables, metaphors, analogies, earthy illustrations of spiritual truth. He often uses things drawn from our life, and not just random things, but things that are very common and important to us.
This discourse comes after Jesus had miraculously fed the five thousand.
They saw a great miracle and they are fixating on the miracle. It makes them think about another great miracle, a greater one really. The feeding not five thousand, but millions, and not once but every day for 40 years. Show us another miracle.
They weren’t looking at the person who did the miracle. They wanted a useful Jesus, a genie in the bottle Jesus, a Jesus who gives them what they want.
Jesus obviously cares about our physical needs after all He fed the five thousand, but Jesus is much more concerned about our spiritual needs.
From the conversations taking place around Him it is clear the people are seeking earthly and perishable food when what they really need is the imperishable Bread of Life that is standing in front of them. The issue is not bread but Jesus.
They ask for bread and Jesus says, “I am the bread of life.” Jesus didn’t come to give bread, He came to be bread.
Living Under the Water
Passage: Romans 6:1-5
Living under the water.
I want to wade into deep water with you this morning. Baptism is filled with an ocean of meaning and every baptism is a call to remember our own. This morning I want to call us to be a people who live under water.
I want to explore with you two ways to use your baptism, to make it more of a conscious part of your life: by remembering your baptism and by improving your baptism.
I am speaking to those who have been baptized after a profession of faith, or as an infant who has now come to an age to understand baptism or has made a profession of your own faith in Jesus. And to parents who have baptized their babies, these are the things to pass on.
The Vanity of Wisdom
Passage: Ecclesiastes 1:12-18
Ecclesiastes 1:1-11 were a poetic prologue, an introduction. His poetic evaluation of all human endeavors was that they are “hebel,” vapor, fleeting, futile, vanity. Mankind can’t save himself or gain any real advantage in this world for the next.
Now in Eccl. 1:12-18 Solomon rolls up his sleeves and get to work. He begins by showing us the path he followed to come to the conclusions he came to. He shifts from poetry to proses. He shifts from third person to first person. “Come with me,” he says, “and I will show you what I did, what path I followed to try to find the benefit, advantage, profit of all our labors and efforts under the sun.”
He begins by telling us why we should listen to him and trust what he says. He gives us his credentials, and they are truly impressive. He is an expert who is speaking from real experience.
He is the king, he holds the highest rank. He has unlimited authority, power, time, resources, wealth and wisdom. All things are at his fingertips and disposal. If the answer can be found there is no one better suited or situated to find it.
He is king of Israel, not some backwater nation, not some idolatrous, heathen land, but the people of God, the only nation on earth with the true knowledge of God and the righteous standard in the Law. For 40 years Israel dominated the world and there was peace.
He is the king in Jerusalem, the city of God, the city in which the glory of God dwells.
He says (vs. 16) he has surpassed all who have gone before him in experience and knowledge, which is really saying something when you remember who went before him, his father David, a great king with a great heart and love for God.
Is this boasting or is it true? Scripture answers that for us:
The stories of Solomon and his wisdom are well known. When he became king, God appeared to him and said, “Ask what shall I give to you?” (I Kings 3:5).
Talk about your genie in a bottle kind of question. Ask from me whatever you want and I will grant it to you.
Inquiring of the Lord
Passage: I Samuel 23:1-5
It is human nature to want answers to our questions and solutions for our problems. The human mind is incredibly uncomfortable with uncertainty and ambiguity. We don’t like not knowing what’s going on and what to do. We are meaning-seeking creatures. Covid has shown us that.
Scripture gives us two perspectives on this human drive for meaning.
On the one hand, reality tells us life is a complex mystery and God often calls us to walk by faith and not by sight. God has given us the book of Ecclesiastes to help us navigate life under the sun when wisdom seems elusive and answers are not what we expect. For help with this I encourage you to join us on Sunday evenings to dig into this great book.
Scripture also teaches us God is the God of all wisdom who delights to impart wisdom to us through Scripture and prayer. God is a prayer-hearing and prayer-answering God.
Our Search for Meaning in a Fallen World
Passage: Ecclesiastes 1:1-11
The year was 399 AD. The place was the capital of the Roman Empire, Constantinople. We know it today as Istanbul in Turkey. The Emperor was Arcadius who ruled the eastern half of the Roman Empire. Because he was a weak ruler he was easily dominated by strong ministers of state, like Prime Ministers to a king. Sort of like a Joseph to the Pharaoh but without the moral character.
In fact, like Joseph, an ex-slave, Eutropius, ruled Constantinople by controlling the puppet emperor. His trouble started when Eudoxia married Emperor Arcadius and quickly discovered that Arcadius was weak and was being dominated by Eutropius. She wanted to be Empress and gain more power, so she began to plot Eutropius’s downfall. She got her husband to expel him. As a fugitive he fled to the Great Church of Constantinople, St. Sophia, and clung to the altar.
The pastor of this great church happened to be John Chrysostom, considered the greatest preacher of the early church, one of the great early church fathers. Both the Roman Catholic church and the Eastern Orthodox church consider him a great saint.
When Eutropius fled to the church, armed soldiers entered, demanding that Chrysostom release him but he refused to give up his church’s right to be a place of sanctuary.
The next day was Sunday morning and with Eutropius clinging to the altar for dear life, John Chrysostom preached what may have been one of the most dramatic sermons ever preached. His text was Ecclesiastes 1:2, “Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity,” and he used the decline and fall of Eutropius as the sermon illustration of all sermon illustrations.
God’s In Control, So Be Strong and Courageous
Passage: Joshua 1:7-9
What book in the Bible is your Cadet theme verse from?
Who is Joshua? Tell me what you know about him.
Do you know how old he was when God said these words to him? He was 80 years old. How many of you think that’s really old?
Do you know where he was born? He was born in Egypt, he was born a slave in a foreign country. For the first forty years of his life he had to do hard work making bricks out of mud and clay for the Egyptians to build their buildings. He didn’t get to go to school or play sports.
But when Joshua was 40 years old God sent Moses to deliver His people out of slavery. Joshua followed Moses into the wilderness, into the desert to escape Egypt and the Egyptians. Do you know how long Joshua was in the desert? 40 more years wandering and living in the desert.
For the first 80 years of his life, Joshua knew only suffering, pain, hardship, difficulty. Think of the very worst day of your life, and then think about that lasting not just for a day or a month or a year, but eighty years. If you think these past two years with Covid and facemasks and all that stuff have been bad, think of it lasting for 80 years.
And then just when the Israelites finally got to the edge of the Promised Land God promised to give them, Moses died. Moses was the greatest leader ever and now he was dead and God put Joshua in charge of leading Israel and the armies of Israel. Those were huge shoes to fill.
The job God gave Joshua was to lead these millions of people into the Promised Land which we call Israel. But there was a big problem. Who lives in the Promised Land? All kinds of evil people, six nations, six armies and the Israelites were going to have to fight all of them to take over the land God promised them.
Do you think Joshua was a little nervous, maybe even afraid? How many of you would have been afraid?
So what does God tell him? Be strong and courageous. Well that’s easy to say, but hard to do. So what else does God tell him? I will be with you, just like I was with Moses.
Have you ever been in some dark or scary place where you were afraid? Does it help you if someone else is with you? Then it isn’t so scary is it.
Joshua spent the next twenty years leading the armies of Israel in fighting against all the enemies of God. Until he is 100 years old. How many of you think 100 is old?
The Bible says God is always with you and will never leave you or forsake you. Do you believe that? Do you believe you have the supernatural power and presence of God with you always?
The reason we can be strong and courageous is because God has already promised He will be with us wherever we go, He will never leave us or forsake us.
God doesn’t tell Joshua to grit his teeth, to grin and bear it, to screw up his will power or his courage on his own. God says be strong because I am with you and if I am with you then you don’t have anything to worry about. God is in control.
But that was Joshua, he was a great leader, God called him. What about us, what about ordinary people like you and me? Is what God says to Joshua also true for you and me?
Did God Say … ? Satan’s Attack on Sex II
Passage: Galatians 5:16-24
In Homer’s epic novel, Odyssey, he tells the story of the Greek hero Odysseus (Ulysses), king of Ithaca, and his journey home after the Trojan War. Before his journey Odysseus was warned of some serious dangers that lay ahead. Perhaps most serious of all was beguiling and seductive song of the Sirens, beautiful half women, half bird creatures who’s irresistible singing led sailors to shipwreck in pursuit of them. They had lured countless sailors to their death by their songs.
So Odysseus had all of his sailors plug their ears with beeswax and tie him to the mast. He ordered his men to leave him tied tightly, no matter how much he would beg them to release him. When he heard their beautiful song, he ordered the sailors to untie him but they bound him tighter. When they had passed out of earshot, Odysseus was released and having resisted the temptation made it home to his wife and children. Odysseus was said to become the first mortal to live to tell the tale.
Such is the powerful, seductive lure of sexual immorality, pornography and lust. It took down the strongest judge in Scripture, Samson. It took down the greatest king, a man even after God’s own heart, David. It took down the wisest king, Solomon.
From ancient times to today the seductive power lust has caused the shipwreck of countless souls.
It’s not a new problem. Sexually immorality and lust are as old as the fall. It has continued to be a problem in every human heart ever since. Lust is everywhere all the time. Don’t think you are the only one or worse than everyone else.
I don’t want to get into a bunch of statistics, just know they are all bad and all getting worse.