I thought we just started this conference,
it seems. And here we are. Well I'd like to end the conference by reading
from the Gospel according to St Luke, from the last chapter of Luke chapter 24 beginning
in at verse 46. It reads as follows. 46 Then He said to them, "Thus it is written,
and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third
day, 47 "and that repentance and remission of sins
should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. 48 "And you are witnesses of these things. 49 "Behold, I send the Promise of My Father
upon you; but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high." And Luke's Gospel ends with these words
50 And He led them out as far as Bethany, and He lifted up His hands and blessed them. 51 Now it came to pass, while He blessed them,
that He was parted from them and carried up into heaven. 52 And they worshiped Him, and returned to
Jerusalem with great joy, 53 and were continually in the temple praising
and blessing God. Amen. Let’s pray. Shall we? Our Father and our God, now, we consider why
it is that we may not ever surrender or compromise those precious things that you've given to
us in your word. We ask that the same Holy Spirit who inspired
the text that I just read may illumine its meaning to our understanding and take the
force of those words and pierce our souls with them that we may be emboldened, that
we may be encouraged, that way may be empowered to stand fast for the truth of your word. For we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. Before I get to this text specifically, I
like to take a few moments of historical reconnaissance to look at some events that took place in
the early period of church history, specifically, one of most poignant moments in the early
church that took place in Asia Minor at Smyrna in the year 155 AD. On that occasion, the Bishop of Smyrna who
had been appointed according to tradition by a man that he met when he was a young man
himself living in Ephesus, a man who tutored him, taught him and later appointed him as
Bishop of Smyrna, the apostle John. I'm referring now to that disciple of John
who was a disciple of Jesus who was the Bishop of Smyrna, the venerable saintly Polycarp. In the year 155 during the reign of the Roman
Emperor Marcus Aurelius, the Bishop of Smyrna Polycarp was arrested in his hometown and
was brought before the Proconsul Quadratus representing the emperor. And he was facing prosecution for the charge
of being a Christian and stirring up people to Christianity and therefore against in the
vision of the Empire, the religion of Rome and particularly the religion of the cult
of the Emperor. And Polycarp waited patiently in his home
for his impending arrest knowing that it was about to take place and he had the vision
of himself in flames. And he testified that he heard a word from
heaven saying unto him “Polycarp, play the man”. Some of you who are students of church history
can fast forward to the 16th century to a spot on the street in Oxford, England where
two Reformed bishops, Latimer and Ridley were arrested and were to be executed by being
burned at the stake there in Oxford. And as they were tied to the tree and the
brackets of wood were placed at their feet. Before the torch ignited that wood, Bishop
Latimer turned to his calling and said the famous words “Play the man, Mr. Ridley”. The same words, of course, that Polycarp had
heard in the second century. “Play the man, Mr. Ridley and by the grace
of God, this flame will light a candle that will bring light to the whole of England that
can never be extinguished”. And what followed immediately was the burning
of the stake of these two men. Now, we go back to where we were, to Smyrna
when Polycarp was placed under arrest. He had brought by his captives to his hearing
before the Proconsul Quadratus and then to the arena therein where the stands were packed
with a hostile crowd against Polycarp including local Jews who resented Polycarp’s teaching
of Christianity as well as Pagans who hated him for the same cost. Now, the proconsul on the one hand did not
want to make this elderly man a martyr, making him more beloved by the people but also it
didn’t feel exactly right in executing a man so old. We don't know how old Polycarp was. We know that he was at least 86. Some people say that was exactly his age but
his response to the proconsul would indicate that he was even older than 86 years old. So he was told by the representative of the
emperor to deny Christ, to recant his Christianity and Polycarp politely refused at which point
Quadratus has said ‘you don't understand. I have wild beast here to which I can feed
you if you don't change your tone. This is by the way was after Rome had banished
the execution by feeding people to the Lions. Now they were more civilized by burning them
at the stake. But in any case, I've often wondered if these
pend up lions had a conversation among themselves of a feline nature. I hear the alpha saying to the others “I
hope this recants or that the proconsul chooses another form of execution. Do you remember our forefather lion who had
a face of fellow like this in ancient days whose name was Daniel.” And so I'm sure that those beast that were
being caged at the moment did not want to have to confront Polycarp because nothing
would be more formidable than the man of that strength of character and faith. Can you imagine a lion in a den full Polycarps. The Lion would have no chance. But without that threat then by Quadritus
and Polycarp refused to acquiesce, he said “Okay, then I will burn you at the stake
with fire. And Polycarp responded by saying “Be that
as it may. Your fire will last no more than an hour and
will then be quenched but the fires that you face right now under God's judgment will never
go up”. Well, Quadratus didn't like that and he said
again, “You can spare yourself if you would just do this. If you will say with respect to the Christians
‘away with the atheists’ ”. Because Christians were considered atheists in as
much as they didn't believe in the religion of the empire and so Polycarp said “I’m
happy to comply and he pointed to the pagans in the stand and he said “away with the
Atheists “ pointing to them. Well, this really infuriated Quadratus so
he ordered the execution of Polycarp by having him burned at the take and so they took him
to the center of the arena and they came out with nails to drive his hands to the stake
to keep him from fleeing from the fire. And he said “you don't need nails. I will stand here and take what comes”. And so instead of nails, they bound him with
ropes and tied him to the stake and set the fire going. Now, the witness of history, the testimony
is when they ignited the fire in the stakes, the flames were blown by a strong wind in
such a way as they swell up around Polycarp but didn’t touch, didn’t burn or singes
even a hair on his head. And so out of frustration, the executioner
took a dagger and plunged it into the chest of Polycarp and killed him. And again the tradition says that so much
blood came from his chest that It quenched the fire at his feet. Now, as remarkable as that event was, it could
have been easily avoided. When Polycarp was arrested as he was being
taken to his hearing before Quadratus, he was told ‘All you have to do to escape all
of this is say two words and if you will say those two words, your life, your ministry
and all that you remain will survive”. I wonder how many of you know what those two
words he needed to say to save his life. All he had to say was “Kaiser Kurious”. Kaiser Kurios – Caesar is Lord. But Polycarp would choke to death before his
lips could utter those words. And when he stood before Quadratus and Quadratus
asked him to deny Christ, he said “Look, for 86 years, I have served Christ and in
all of those 86 years, He has never forsaken me. So how can I forsake Him?”. Two words “Kaiser Kurios”, Caesar is Lord
and his life would be spared. But instead he kept the earliest years creed
of Christendom, before the Apostles’ Creed was written, before the Westminster confession
or the Helvetic confession or the Belgic confession or any creed was written before NIcea . The
earliest creed of Christendom is found in the New Testament and it’s a very simple
creed that says: Iesuos Kyrios – Jesus is Lord. To say Kaiser Kurios is to repudiate the first
Christian creed –Iesuos Kyrios, Jesus is Lord. And so what the issue was that day in 155
AD was the issue of who is the Lord, who is the king. Paul says in 1 Corinthians that no one under
the influence of God the Holy Spirit can ever say that Jesus is a curse. And then he goes on to say no one can say
that Jesus is Lord except in the Holy Spirit. Now, let me comment on that just for a moment. No one can say Jesus is Lord except in the
Holy Spirit. From time to time, the writers of Scripture
use the device, a literary device, called the “ellipses” where a word or an idea
is omitted from being said explicitly but is passively understood and I believe that
this statement from the Apostle Paul was elliptical when he said no one could say that Jesus is
the Lord except in the Holy Spirit and what is left out is no one can say that Jesus is
the Lord and mean it except by the Holy Ghost because our Lord Himself said that there will
be many people who will make the public profession and say Jesus is Lord and they will the last
days saying “Lord, Lord then we do this in your name, then we do that in your name”
and Jesus said I will say to them “depart from me. I never knew you, you workers of iniquity”. So Jesus said this people honors me with their
lips while their hearts are far from Me. So we can conclude from that that anybody
can actually say Jesus is Lord, Jesus Lord without being in the Holy Spirit. And so it has to be elliptical when Paul says
there in that context nobody can say it and mean it unless the Holy Ghost is in them. Now, there was a period of course in church
history, word could have even been more literal without the ellipses. That is there was a time to even say it publicly
was enough to be killed. And so at that time when Rome required the
loyalty oath to the call of the Emperor “Kaiser Kurios”, one had to be pretty much a true
believer in that light to say “Iesuos o Kyrios”. Well again, before I get to that text, let
me just explain for a moment what is meant by that statement “Iesuous o Kyrios ” – Jesus
is Lord. That word Kurios that we find in the New Testament
that is translated by the English word “Lord” has multiple meanings. In fact, there are three basic meanings of
that Greek word “Kurios’ that we find in Scripture. There's the generic meaning of it where the
term Kurios simply means “Sir”. Sometimes you'll find people coming up to
Jesus that don't know anything about Him and say “Lord, we heard about you” and you
scratch and say how do they know who he is. Well, probably, contextually, all they're
saying is “Sir” but even the word in our own language can have a simple meaning and
general meeting or can have a special meaning. People call me Sir all the time but I've never
been knighted by the Queen of England. So that I’m not known as Sir RC Sproul,
just RC Sproul. So there's that common meaning. The secondary meaning in the New Testament
of the term Lord/ Kurios is the term that was used to describe somebody who was a slave
owner. Paul, for example, identifies himself as Paul,
a slave of Jesus Christ, a Dulos Jesus Christ. You couldn't be a Dulos unless there was a
Kurios who possessed you and owned you or purchased you. And so Christ is called the Kyrios in the
sense that He has rescued us from bondage to sin and Satan and now by His blood has
purchased us and we are His servants. So in that sense, Christ is our Lord. You are not your own. You've been bought with a price, we’re told,
and that price is the price paid by Jesus our Lord. But in the New Testament, there's a third
meaning of that title Kurios which is the Imperial usage, Supreme usage of it and that
is the usage of the term that the New Testament writers and Greek translate the Old Testament
language with respect to God where God is called in the Old Testament “Adonai” and
that Adonai word in Hebrew is translated into the New Testament by the Greek word “Kurios”
and in the old Testament the title Adonai is reserved for God. In your Bibles, you'll read in many occasions
like you do in Isaiah 6 or Psalm 110; Psalm110: The Lord said to my Lord, “sit
thou at my right hand” And though this word, English word Lord is
repeated, that’s two different words in Hebrew, were it says “Yahweh, seth thro
my Adonai ”or the psalmist writes “O Lord, My Lord, how excellent is thy name in all
the earth. Oh Yahweh, our Adonai”. Yahweh is God’s name. Adonai is His supreme title and being translated,
it means “the Sovereign one”. Oh Lord our Sovereign, how majestic is Your
name in all of the earth.” Oh, when the New Testament writers come to
translate Adonai with respect to Jesus, the term Kyrios has this imperial meaning. He heard it many times. The Konoti kim of Philipians 2 where the apostle
Paul writes, (Phil 2:5-9)Have this mind among you which was also in Christ Jesus who being
in the form of God, (Sinclair quoted this in the other day) “counted His equality
with God, not a thing to be tenaciously, jealously held onto out grasp but He emptied Himself
and so and so became obedient and humbled and became in the form of a servant obedient
even under death wherefore God hath highly exalted him and given Him the name that is
above every name. And what is that name? What is the name that is above every name? So many people make a mistake there because
Paul goes on to say that at the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow. So people think “oh, Paul is saying that
the name that is above every name is the name Jesus”. No! But it’s the name of Jesus that every knees
should bow because God has given to Jesus the name that is above every name the title
“Kurios” so that the name of Jesus every knee should bow and every tongue confess,
what, that He is Kurios. He is the sovereign one. He is Lord to the glory of God the Father. We heard already from Sinclair that only once
in the Gospels do we hear the word “church”. The action and Jesus preaching is of the coming
of the kingdom. This starts till we get to the Epistles that
we have all this language about the church. And so I asked this morning, where does the
word church come from? Well, the Greek word that is translated “church”
is the word ‘Ecclesia” meaning those who are called out. But Ademalogically, the English word “church”
comes from a different Greek word. The same word that is used to give us the
Dutch word for church which is “Kerk”, you have the Scottish “Kerk”, the German
“Krechia” and so on. You see this that you have the same “K”
sound or “CH” sound. It went with a different vowel and then the
“R” in the middle. They’re all are derivations from the Greek
word “Kuriokey” and the Greek word “Kuriokey” means those who belong to the Kurios, the
ones who are possessed by the Kurios, the people of the Lord. So at the very heart of the testimony in the
New Testament to the church has to do with those who belong to the Lord. Well, Sinclair told us the reason why in the
Gospels the people of aren’t called the church because something hasn’t taken place
yet, something of extraordinary significance. That I read to you a few moments ago in the
last verses of Luke's Gospel which give us this very brief description of the ascension
of Jesus to heaven. And Luke who also wrote the book of Acts begins
the book of Acts with the same account of Jesus being taken up out of their midst by
this Shekinah cloud of glory and the disciples standing there and looking up following the
ascent of Jesus on this cloud and the Angels' coming and saying to them “Men of Galilee,
why are you standing here gazing into heaven? This same Jesus who had been taken away from
you will come in like manner.” and so on. But the verse in this text at the end of Luke,
the reason I chose Luke well in Acts, because of these words: Luke 24:50 And he led them out as far as Bethany
and he lifted up his hands and blessed them Luke 24:51 And it came to pass that while
he blessed them that he was parted from them and carried into heaven
Luke 24:52 And they worshipped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy
Luke 24:53 And were continuing in the temple praising and blessing God. They were breaking out in doxology. They were a giving a song of praise. At funerals today when somebody dies, we asked
people to give a testimony and then we ask them give a eulogy to say a good word about
the person who has departed. But in the New Testament, the ultimate eulogy
is not given to dead people but the ultimate eulogy is given to God not because God has
died but because He is supremely to be blessed. You can say nothing higher of any creature
than what we say about God. And after the ascension, the disciples come
back and they’re praising God and blessing God in the spirit of great joy. Now, here's the question. Why? The first time Jesus told them that He was
leaving. They were plunged to the edge of despair. They were overcome with sorrow. Oh Jesus, don’t talk about leaving. We can’t stand the thought of not having
You in our midst. Please don't leave. And as Sinclair also told us that when Jesus
told them He was going to Jerusalem to suffer and die, Peter rebuked Him. Far be it. The idea of Jesus humiliation and his departure
was the worst of all possible concepts. Shakespeare talked about “Departing is such
sweet sorrow”. What? I can remember as far back as 1942 when I
was a three year-old boy and that my father was ready to ship out for Europe for the European
Theater. And today he was departing. He had to be picked up by a bus that was about
a block away from our house. And after he kissed my mother goodbye and
my sister, he let me have the unspeakable privilege of walking with him holding his
hand as he had his (what do you call that thing?) duffel bag over his shoulder and me
on the other hand and together we walked to the bus stop. And I’ll never forget it. The doors open, my dad turned around and kissed
me and he said to me “be a good soldier”. And he turned around and he picked up his
duffel bag and he got on the bus. The folding door’s close and I stood there
as a three year-old boy and I saluted my father. And the bus took him away. And there was no sweetness to it. There were some pride but I watched that bus
leave until I couldn't see it anymore and even as a three year-old child, I had some
sense that this was a crisis moment and I might never see him again. Vesta and I, we've been married in over fifty
two-and-a-half years and we went together for eight years before that. So we’ve been together for over sixty years. She said to me this morning “That's enough. I’ve had it”. When we we're going together in those eight
years, six of those eight years we were going to different schools. And of course she went to a different college
from the one I went to and so the only time I would see her would be during vacation times. And when it came time to go back to her college,
I would drive her to the Greyhound station in downtown Pittsburgh, help her with her
luggage put the luggage on the bus and then I would stand back and watch her, my beloved,
get on the bus and I would watch her and that bus leave the station and stand there until
I couldn’t see the bus anymore. And I would think parting is such sweet sorrow. Where’s the sweetness? This is what's astonishing about this text
that when Jesus left, the disciples stood there gazing into heaven, watching the Shekinah
glory, watching his departure. And you would think that the next line that
Luke would write was in then they return to Jerusalem weeping and crying, convulsed with
sorrow. No. they went back clicking their heels, leaping
over fire hydrants if they had them, rejoicing. Why were they rejoicing? They weren’t rejoicing because Jesus was
leaving. They were rejoicing because of where He was
going and they understood what Jesus had told them “it is better for you if I leave than
if I stay”. Because he wasn’t just ascending in the
sense of going up to heaven because He Himself said no one ascends into heaven except He
who has descended from heaven so that the term ascension in the in the New testament
mean so much more than simply going up and it even means more like going up to happen. It means going to His coronation, going to
His investiture, going to receive the Kingdom that is not of this world but that is over
this world. We went through this recent election in people
and we’re all concerned about who was going to be in the White House when in the final
analysis what matters is whose over the White House. Not who's in the White House. And on that day, Jesus ascended to the right
hand of God where he was by God’s, the Father’s, authority consecrated, coronated as the King
of the King and the Lord of the Lords. It doesn’t get any better that that than
to know that Jesus, how Kurios that Jesus is Lord by the authority of God the Father,
elevated to the right hand ruling over all creation. Well, we read in Luke and we read in Acts
about this side of the ascension. But they read it from the perspective of the
other side. We have to go to the book of Revelation where
we read in the 5th chapter and I’m not going to go through the whole 5th chapter where
John on the (00:35:51 inaudible) Moses given this insight to the inner chambers of heaven. The very presence of the throne of God where
first they look for a lion and then comes the Lamb who was slain who tears open the
books that had hid all the secrets. This is the ascended Christ coming into heaven,
the other end of the journey. And what's the response? Verse 11, chapter 5: Rev 5:11 I looked and heard the voice of many
angels around the throne, the living creatures, the elders: the number of them was ten thousand
times ten thousands and thousands of thousands Rev 5:12 saying with a loud voice “Worthy
is the Lamb who was slain. Worthy to receive power, riches, wisdom, strength,
honor, glory and blessing! Rev 5: 13 And every creature which is in heaven
and on earth and under the earth and such as are in the sea and all that are in them,
I heard saying “ Blessing and honor, glory and power be to Him who sits upon the throne
and to the lamb forever and ever Rev 5:14 and a four living creature said “Amen!”. And the twenty-four elders fell down and worshiped
him who lives forever and ever. Don’t you see? The song of the Angels, the song of the martyrs,
the song of the church is always the same. Iesuos o Kurios! There is no other Lord. There is no other Sovereign. There is no other King and it is our duty
to bear witness to our King. You shall receive power, He said, so that
you shall be my witnesses – Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, the outer most parts of the earth. No Christian may ever negotiate the Lordship
of Christ. Let’s pray. Father, give us the courage, the faith Polycarp,
the courage and faith Ridley and Latimer, courage and faith the disciples who followed
their Lord and martyrdom rather than to bow the knee to the emperor. Forgive us, Oh God, for those times when we
have compromise our king for the luxury and safety of the things of this world. And help us to grow into the fullness, of
maturity in Christ being conformed to his image so that out meat and our drink will
be to serve Him, to bless Him and to praise Him without surrender. Amen.
