20240411: 2nd Thursday of Eastertide

Readings: Psalm 4; Daniel 9:1-19; 1 John 2:18-25.  

Transcript

Good morning. This is Tim. Trouble coming to you from Sacramento, California. Today's readings are Psalm for Daniel, Chapter nine, verses 1 to 19 and first John, Chapter two, verses 18 to 25. 

In today's readings, we have a couple of different things going on in the Psalm. This is called the farmers entitled Answer Me when I call to the choir master. What stringed instrument to Psalm of David. And this is talking about asking God to answer him because he is helping. He's praying. How long shall my honor be turned to shame? How long will your love vain words and seek out How long, How long will you love? Vain words and seek after lies? Well, David's having things said about him, things done to him, and he's asking God to take notice of it and to come and save him. You know, the reading in Daniel is a little bit of history about what is going on at this time. So this is called Daniel's Prayer for His People. And this is said the first year Darius, his son, Hazaras and the descendant by descendant Hamid, he was king of the realm of the Chaldeans. So in the first year, this guy was King Daniel, perceived when what Jacob, the Prophet Jeremiah, said that they would be enslaved for about 70 years. So this is after the fall of Jerusalem. And again, he speaks in here and goes on about how they have not followed the law of Moses. They've turned away from God. They've committed various and sundry sins. And they're they need to repent. And in here and present in verse 15, he speaks about how great the Lord was for taking him out of the land of Egypt and had made a name for himself. But in asking the Lord to come back and let them back into Jerusalem, which he describes here in verses 16 on your big city, on your holy hill, because of the iniquities of their father. And when will you make your faith shine upon your sanctuary, which is desolate? Again, speaking of the temple in Jerusalem, 

and then in first, John's reading today is the end Times a warning concerning the Antichrist is the title of the section. And this is one that gets everybody riled up. And we've had all kinds of in my I'll I'll be 60 in a couple of days and my entire life has been the end times. I have seen all kinds of people being accused of being the Antichrist. It was Russia and China and different people. I'm not going to name the people, but different specific people over the years were the Antichrist. Some of them were politicians, world leaders, cult leaders, different people. We get really, really caught up in this in time and in Armageddon and all that. And somehow that's become our focus, our focus is to love God and to love our neighbors as ourselves. Yes, I'm a broken record. This is my thing. And so we need to bring heaven on the earth. And that's going to get us a lot further than worrying about is this the end times and does the rapture come in Armageddon and all this? But one of the things they talk about in this is how they're talking about what the what an Antichrist is. And in here it talks about in verse 22, they're a liar who denies that Jesus Christ denies the father and the son. And then it goes on in verse 23 to say, no one who denies the son has the father. Whoever confesses the son is the father. Also let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. So over the years, there's been a lot of people who have used the Bible in, quote, Christian faith, unquote, to better themselves. And they have their own agendas and things that they want to accomplish. 

And this is a warning. And how do you know, like I said, in my lifetime, there's been lots of people and nations, you know, that have been you know, there's there's a line in Revelation about God and Magog. And there was a whole thing when, you know, 40 plus years ago that that was China and then communist Russia, the USSR and all this stuff. And it gets really confusing and it gets away from the message and this is in here. It says, Those who deny that Jesus Christ and one of the ways that you can do that and it's not just saying Jesus isn't the Christ, that's a little obvious, but there are more subtle ways that it is done in one of those How to tell someone is a, quote, true believer, unquote, is how they conduct themselves. 

And again, we go back to the Great Commission, the New Covenant. Love God with all your heart, all your mind and all your soul and love your neighbor as yourself. If someone is purporting something out there, they're putting something out and it will fly under a, quote, Christian unquote flag. 

If they are preaching something that is not loving their neighbor as themselves. That's not what Jesus taught. So that would be denying Jesus. You can't say Jesus is God's son and then turn around and do the exact opposite of what Jesus said to do. So love your neighbor as yourself. Love God with all your heart, mind and soul. And again, be more worried about yourself and what you're doing and how you're acting and behaving and not so much about everyone else. And in one of the commentaries that I was reading today in preparation for this and this comes from the NRA's v Cultural Background Study Bible by Zondervan in 2019. They talk about this was something that, you know, they don't even know how long it is in Jewish thinkers. There was a wide range of views like 40 to 400 years that would be Antichrist to be many Antichrist. Even in the Jewish tradition, they highlighted various rulers, oppressive Roman emperors, even oppressive high priest. 

So nobody knows. And it's more important that we look at how we are conducting ourselves and what we're doing in our lives and how we are fulfilling the new covenant of loving God and loving your neighbor as yourself. Amen.