“Excellence Withstands Tribulation"
November 18, 2012
The 25th Sunday of Ordinary Tine
A.K.A.
Kingdomtide
and
Time of the Church
1 Kings 17: 8 – 16/Psalm 146: 5 – 10/Hebrews 9: 24 – 28/Mark 12: 38 – 44
His Eminence
The Most Reverend Archbishop Loren Thomas Hines D.D.
Archbishop of Manila
and
Primate
of the
National Church in the Philippines
and
the Territorial Church of Asia
International Communion of the Charismatic Episcopal Church
Today marks the Twenty-fifth Sunday of Ordinary Time. Next Sunday marks the Feast of Christ the King, which is the Twenty-sixth Sunday of the calendar year. It is fifty-percent of the year that God gives to us; fifty-percent of the year He then expects us to perfect what He has given and to prepare ourselves to crown Christ as King over all.
It is amazing how that the calendar year literally gives to us a model of life itself as God has created it to be. We live through this year, time and time again, and yet many of us don’t really grasp what the Church is saying to us. God has a plan; God has a direction. He knows what is happening.
Today, Christ tells us in the gospel, “I have told you everything ahead of time.” Yet how many times we are shock, fearful and anxious because of the many things happening in our lives because we don’t listen to God speak to us. We don’t put in our lives a pattern, a standard, a discipline that shows the character of Christ in us. We live almost in anarchy – doing our own thing, whatever we want whenever we want to do it. We do it to the extent that we feel comfortable with it rather than following a pattern that God gives to us. Anything in excess will destroy – even things which are good because all things created were good. They can bring destruction into our lives if we don’t use them properly with discipline.
As we look at these lessons today, they speak and tell us what is ahead of us. Going through the year, it begins with Advent – a time of preparation, a time of expectation because the promise of a Messiah coming has been given. Therefore, there is a preparation for the arrival, the coming. We prepare ourselves to receive Christ.
Christmas is the manifestation of God becoming flesh. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Christ, the Messiah, is born. God fulfills His promise. He told ahead of time that this would be. He sends His Son to take upon flesh that His promise maybe fulfilled because He is a God who fulfills His promises.
The third Season of the Church is Epiphany. This is the period of time wherein we recognize Christ with us, God with us. It demonstrates to us the very character of God. It shows to us so many things that are in the heart and the provision of God. The most important message that Epiphany brings is the presence of God with us.
Over and over again we repeat that revelation every Sunday and many times during the week, “The Lord is with you.” Yet how many times do we feel that we are alone? We feel that we have been deserted. We feel like nobody cares when in reality, God made His promise. He fulfilled His promise, and yet as His people, we don’t accept and believe. We walk alone and deserted.
The fourth Season of the year is Lent. It is a preparation that takes place and gives us an understanding of what Christ was here for. How that He was going to take upon Himself the problems of flesh. He was going to take sin and the iniquity upon Himself. He was going to confront the forces of evil and the power of the devil. He was going to put them to rest permanently, and yet we look at Lent as a time of suffering and sorrow. We don’t see the excitement of Lent. It is almost like Advent which is a time of preparation for something great that is about to take place.
The greatness comes in the Season of Easter. In Easter, Christ takes the sin and the iniquity of man. He who knew no sin became sin that we might become the righteousness of God. He goes to the cross in our behalf – carrying our burden of darkness; rebellion and sin upon His shoulders. As His punishment and humiliation has come to its fullness, the words from His mouth comes, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” He had come to set man free. He had come to destroy the darkness. He had come to destroy the power of the devil and yet men had turned against Him and destroyed His life.
Easter brought to us new life. The condemnations are gone. The disarming of the forces of evil and Satan’s power has been brought to nothing. The curse is nailed to the tree. This was the work of Christ at Easter. This was the hope that He gave to us – new life; restoring our relationship with the Father; taking care of all that we need. Easter was the high point of our Christianity. No longer the condemnation; no longer the judgments; no longer the pain and the sorrow but instead the joy that should feel our heart, the joy that should bring joy and confidence to us.
Then follows Pentecost which is God’s mercy to us and God’s grace toward us. Having taken all the evil, having given gifts to us, now He empowers us to live victoriously. He empowers us to come against the forces of evil that might remain the deceptions of evil. He gives to us the assurance and the confidence that greater is He who is with us than he who is against us. God gives the Church empowerment. He gives the Church the authority to forgive sin or to maintain sin.
After Pentecost, God then commands us, “Go ye into the whole world and preach the gospel baptizing them in the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.” The next months, weeks are meant for us to prepare ourselves, training ourselves to live out what God has given to us, to live out what the first twenty-six weeks of the calendar year had done for us – having been given to us the grace of heaven, the power of God’s love, the compassion of His commitment and the fulfillment of His covenant. God has given everything to the Church. He has held back nothing. We are blessed because of God.
Ordinary Time was given so that we would put it into practice. Learn how to live out that life that He has given to us, having taken away the power of the enemy, having taken away the forces of the evil so literally nothing can come against us successfully because He is with us. His power is empowering us. It gives to us that assurance, that confidence that sin, darkness has no authority over God’s people.
Then, there comes the time to prepare to make Christ the King of all. Before that can happen, there are some things that must take place, and Scriptures tells us about this. The anti-Christ has raised his ugly head in the midst of all of these. The Church has grown; the Church has been empowered but deception has come upon the earth. Deception has come upon the face of mankind. An anti-Christ has risen. An anti-Christ promises to take care of the needs of mankind. The anti-Christ says, “I can give you what you need. I can make your life filled with joy. I can bring to you the comforts and the provisions that will make you happy and take away the sorrow and the pain. It will bring into your life peace and rest and joy.”
Scriptures tells us that just before Christ takes over, the whole system of man will be destroyed. The merchants will lose all their products – the gold, the silver, the linens, the incense – that had made life so beautiful, which the world has provided. They will be destroyed. They will be taken away. Revelation 18 tells us that the merchants will stand back and they will cry and moan because all their profits are gone. All that they had used to make manifest the things that they enjoyed in life destroyed because it became a god – an anti-Christ. People put their faith and their trust in these things. Not that these things are wrong, but man, instead of using them begin to serve them instead of serving the Almighty God.
It is at that time that God wants us to understand that there is a period of desolation. There is a period of horror because things are going to be taken away – things that were crutches for humanity; things that were seemingly there to make life so comfortable and so easy. These times are going to come – a time of distress like never before in history – because all these things will be destroyed.
Revelation 18 talks about Babylon being destroyed. It is not a city but a system. The system of man, the commercialism, being totally wiped away; but God says, “My saints will be rescued. They will not be affected by this as far as being destroyed is concerned. They will be taken care of.” God will take care of His own, but He will take away those things that have been a contradiction to His kingdom and to His provision. Daniel 12:2 says, “And many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake, these to everlasting life, but the others to disgrace and everlasting contempt.” All are going to be resurrected; some will enjoy the beauty of life as God intended. Some will have everlasting contempt, disgrace, dishonor and shame.
I have a question in the midst of this which I can’t answer. Scriptures says, “To those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake.” Our society, our Babylon, has come up with a system whereby we don’t allow our bodies to rest in the dust of the ground. We embalm them; we put them in coffins. We put them in vaults, but we don’t allow them to decay into the dust of the earth. I don’t know what that means and I am not trying to plant fear because God is greater.
In the past history, man was buried in the dust. There was no coffin; there was no embalming; there was no vault. This was the creation of commercialism – to make money off of that place of life. God will destroy that and I hope and believe that He will cause even those whose dust was not in the ground to be brought forth. Scriptures says, “All who fall asleep will be raised.”
An abomination of desolation is something that should not cause us anxiety. We should not learn to depend on all these things that commercialism is bringing to us because they are going to be taken away. When we lose them, we should not think it is the end of life but the beginning of God’s eternal life. This is the beauty of that which He gives to us.
Hebrews adds to this and gives to us an understanding that God has given to us so much. As we have accepted Christ and had persecutions or tribulation, if we cannot handle that simple tribulation that comes our way, now, can we handle the great tribulation that will come when all these things are destroyed and taken away from mankind? All that the anti-Christ has brought to make life so comfortable so that we don’t think about God? That we don’t need God anymore?
We are going to control things ourselves. Our government is trying to put an RH Bill so that we can control our ability to prosper. We will get rid of the children so that we don’t have this burden on our shoulders. This is the anti-Christ at work. It is taking away the very principle that God gave to man: be fruitful and multiply. Man doesn’t want the responsibility so the anti-Christ comes in with a system to make it easier for us, more pleasant and more joyful so that we don’t have responsibilities that will be destroyed. This is not the plan of God. It is not the work of God.
“Don’t throw away your confidence. It has a great reward.” Just because there is a conflict, just because there is something that is not pleasing to you and agreeable to you, don’t give up. Hold firm. Know that God is with you. You need to have courage at that time. You need endurance. Don’t throw up because if you give up now, how are you going to handle this great situation that is going to come later?
How easily we are offended today. How easily we turn away from our responsibilities. How easily we give up and say, “Well, I am not going to handle that anymore. They offended me. They did this to me and I am going to just give up.” Divorce is higher than it has ever been in history. Abortions are taking over the whole world. We don’t want responsibilities; we want pleasure. We want comfort and recreation. This is the anti-Christ.
God has given to us abilities, power. He has empowered us with the Holy Spirit to be able to overcome, to conquer, and to move on. Yet, there will be this test that will come. It is not intended to be a test for the saints but it will test us because it will prove where our confidence is. It will show that we have faith in God.
Scriptures says, “If the righteous ones live by faith and if they shrink back, their souls does not have pleasure in this one who cannot handle these problems.” God doesn’t have pleasure in them because they back out in their relationships; they pulled back in their obligations and responsibilities. They give up taking an easier way when God has given us the power to overcome. They shrink back to destruction, but faith moves ahead in preserving the soul.
Mark adds to this and goes on and calls a period of abomination of desolation. It is a time when all of these things will be taken away from us. Are we going to panic? We see the world in the condition that is in today. Do we see what is happening? Do we grasp the picture? Do we see what is coming? Or are we blinded believing over and over, “I will be restored. Everything is going to be fine.” Can we get along without all of these things? Is our faith really in God? Is our confidence in pleasing Him?
As we come to the end of the calendar year, before Christ can become King, the anti-Christ has to be done away with. We cannot put our faith and our trust in other things. Luke 16 says, “You cannot serve the god of mammon and God. You will love one and hate the other. You will be devoted to one and despise the other.” Have you notice how that Christianity today is becoming despised? How the attacks have increased in the Church? How that people are doing everything they can to dishonor the Church and the people of the Church?
Those people are just as human as anyone else. They make the same mistakes that everyone else has made, but it is amazing how that today, we want to destroy the very imagery of Christianity – the forgiveness; the restoration which comes out of the heart of God. Luke says, “You can’t serve God and serve mammon at the same time.” You cannot compromise; you will love one and hate the other. You will be devoted to one and to the other you will despise. Where are we?
Look at our own lives. I believe this is the purpose of this Sunday to really look at ourselves. Do we allow anything to come to the path of our commitment to God? Do we allow anything to steal our attention to God? Our jobs, the Facebook, our computers, the internet? Do these things take the place of our commitment to God? Rather than studying and preparing ourselves, do we just Google what we want and say, “Look at what I found out?” Did it come from the heart? Did it come because of commitment? Did it come because of meditation? Did it come because of prayer? Or did it come because of Google?
These things are stealing our commitments to God – the rest, the lack of commitments to God. Today, people don’t even want to get married. Not long ago, in my day, if a person was 18 years old and not married, people thought they were an old maid or old man. This they had as their life. This was what we were created for. This is what God made us responsible for. Today, this is becoming less important. In many cases, it is not even a part of our interest or our planning.
We have changed the way God intended us to live. We have been deceived by comfort, relaxation, and recreation. The warning comes to us: when these things begin to happen, don’t go back and try to grab them. Let them go! Get out of town and leave. Don’t let these things bother you that they are being taken away because they have taken your commitment away from God. In order for Christ to be King, these things have got to be taken away.
Revelations says in warning, “Come out from her, My people.” This doesn’t mean that we can’t use her, but we don’t serve her. She is not our Lord. She is not our hope. She is not our faith. Our faith and hope is in God. God is our trust and confidence. James 1:12 says, “Blessed is a man who perseveres under trial. He will receive the crown of life.” When these tests come, we should not worry. When we can no longer afford all these conveniences, it doesn’t belittle us because our faith is higher than that. Our confidence is not in material gain; our confidence is in the power of God and His commitment to us.
This is our life. This is where we are. The end is coming and the end is not God tempting man because Scriptures says in James that God does not tempt man. “Let no man say that he is tempted by God.” Man has been carried away by his own lusts. We get into our problems because we make the decisions. We lust after certain things and we think that these things are so important that we allow them to control our thoughts and then they control our actions. They are not that important. They pass away soon. If we put them as our whole life, we are going to be left naked. We are going to be left idle. We are going to be left standing alone because we won’t have anything to rise up to take the void, conquer it, and rule over it.
This is the challenge that comes to us. I share this not to bring anxiety, but I share this so that we will be wise. Jesus says, “I told you this ahead of time so that you can prepare. Take heed. I have told you in advance. Don’t be surprise. Don’t be caught off-guard. It is going to be.” Prepare yourself. Do not put your faith and your confidence in these things; but put your faith and your confidence in God.
The Stock Market may collapse; it will. The business world will fall apart; it will. The government will lose its appeal and its power; it will. All these things are going to be taken away. It looks like if I look at the world today, it is beginning. I am not saying the end is now, but it says that in the end of time, be careful because there will be those who claim that they are the Christ. I know of one who claims that he is the son of God – the Christ. He has a following of hundreds of thousands. Scriptures warns us, “This is the sign of the times.” We should be on our toes. We don’t want to be caught off-guard and sleeping – dulled by deception into rest. We need to be on our toes so that we can be what God intends us to be.
“Take heed, I have told you everything in advance.” I don’t believe it is going to happen today. Relax. I don’t even know that is going to happen in the next year. I don’t know, but we must know that is going to be – what the Scriptures are all about. “Take heed, I told you in advance.”
Let us not be surprised of the things are taking place. You have heard me say this several times. I have never really brought it forth from the Scripture as I have today. This is God speaking to His people. Put your faith and trust in Him and Him alone.
May we not be caught up unaware. May we not be caught off-guard. God is in-charge. He is bringing His kingdom into its fullness. In His kingdom, He will be the Lord. He will be the Master. He will be the Source of all things. This is the greatness of our God!
LET US CONTINUE OUR REFLECTION
WITH
THROUGH
THE WORD EXPOSED
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