079: David Levin - Exhortation: Resurrection as Exhortation

Automatically transcribed. Accuracy is good but not perfect, and words are sometimes wrong. Trust the audio over the text.

1. 0:00

   Welcome to the Good Christadelphian Talks podcast. I'm Levi. And I'm Chris. Thank you so much for joining us this week. On this podcast, we select one talk a week to help each one of us get the Bible in our daily news feed. We post at the start of each week for you to listen with a short intro beforehand to kind of set the stage for the talk you're about to hear. And now let's hear more about this week's talk. This week's class is by Brother David Levin on the title is Resurrection as an Exhortation. This is the exhortation in a study weekend that he gave in 2017 at the Saanich Peninsula meeting. And I really enjoyed it. He goes into the just some very clear specifics about how the act of resurrection itself is a very powerful exhortation. I think Brother David has an amazing, really great speaking style and organization. And I think this class was very encouraging for me.

2. 1:18

   This was a suggestion by a listener. So thank you very much for sending that to us and sharing this now with everybody. There's a couple points on this one is he clear Brother David is clearly having some laryngitis or vocal issue. And he we had to do some editing to remove a lot of kind of throat clearing that he does. You can still hear some so hopefully that's not too much of a bother.

3. 1:44

   But to me, it almost adds the idea talking about the idea of resurrection kind of having him having his voice compromised at the time definitely to me kind of added an interesting emotional reactive layer to for me. So I kind of enjoyed it. And for that reason, he asks the presiding brother to do all the readings. And that brother, I don't know who he is, but he has an excellent voice. So this there's kind of some interesting things that happen audio wise here in this class. So and yeah, we are posting this the day after we posted yesterday's and by happenstance, both of these are exhortations, we kind of figure that this is a time in our community with with more people meeting remotely, and more of us having more free time that Chris and I can kind of double up our efforts here and get a couple classes out one on Saturday for people to use for their exhortations. And then our traditional release time of Sunday evening now. So because of that, we do still need help. We really do live off these suggestions.

4. 2:53

   They are incredibly helpful. And this class was, again, one of those and very enjoyable. I also do want to point out one of my favorite things that because we do listen to a lot of texts, and this is just a funny point, but Brother David makes a joke. It's clearly a joke right at the beginning, you'll catch it. And there's no laughter and he does it with no vocal inflection like he's delivering it dry.

5. 3:18

   And it's just very, to me, it's very funny when that happens. When, when, hey, he was trying for a dry joke, and then either nobody got it or it's not that, or it's not that funny. Anyways, it's just a funny moment right at the top of the class I wanted to prepare you for so you, so you listen to it.

6. 3:37

   Thanks again for listening and all your support. Let us know if two classes a week is a good idea or a bad idea. Frankly, if you're someone who listens weekly, we really just want the feedback if you say, you know, I was good with the pace we were at or thank you so much for going to two a week for this time.

7. 3:57

   We, again, really live off the feedback and involvement of everybody. Hope everybody is staying safe and have a great week. Open, please, your Bibles to Luke, chapter 15, Luke 15. And if you're very familiar with scripture, you probably know what's in Luke 15. You're thinking, yeah, I know what's there. And I'm going to ask you a question about Luke 15.

8. 4:29

   If you skim through it, if you're not familiar, as soon as you get there, you'll be familiar. And unlike the question with which I started yesterday, I'm actually going to ask you for your answer this time. Remember yesterday we started by asking you to write down a list of your Bible heroes. And this time I can ask you another question.

9. 4:57

   And there's five possible answers. And I'll ask you to raise your hand. One through five. Which one you think? And here's the question. Once you allocate your focus to Luke 15. Oh, yeah, yeah. That chapter, it's got some parables in it. Now, here's the question. How many parables are in Luke 15? How many do you see?

10. 5:32

    So go through there. And here's the possible answers. One, two, three, four, or more than four. Five or more. There's no conversion, so it's the same U.S. or Canadian. So your answer will be the same as mine if we're thinking the same way. But go through there and kind of skim through what you see in Luke 15 and determine how many parables do you see in Luke 15?

11. 6:12

    Okay. Let's take a moment there. It's not a trick question. It's just, I just want to see what, okay. So here's how many people are going to, I'll start with number one. How many people say there's one parable in Luke 15? Any takers for one? None. How about two? One taker for two.

12. 6:41

    Three parables. Quite a few people see three. Four? A couple, one and a half, maybe. Some people verging on four. How about greater than four? You see that it's five or more parables. Okay. Okay. Well, let's look and see the, let's look and see what the justification might be for each answer. Okay.

13. 7:18

    Nobody raised their hand for one, but that is actually a good choice. The reason being in verse three, it says, so he told them this parable. And that's the only time the word parable occurs in the chapter. He told them the parable. And then in verse eight and verse 11, where the other two narratives start, it doesn't say those are different parables.

14. 7:43

    So you could say there's really only one parable there, but it's told in three different ways. So that would be the justification. If you want to say there's really only one parable. How about two? Who wants to argue for two parables? Nobody wants to take that one up. Well, you could say two because you could say, well, there's really just two versions of the one about the coin and the sheep.

15. 8:13

    They have the same format, but the one about the lost, the prodigal son is different. So you could say there's really two parables and one is given in two forms. That would be, I think, an argument there. How about three? That seems to be the most obvious answer. There's a story about the lost sheep, the story about lost coin, and the story about the prodigal son.

16. 8:37

    So three would be the prima facie answer, I think. But some people saw more than three. So where does a fourth one come from? Yeah, the parable of the prodigal son is really, it's two parables in one. The involvement of the older son is just as much as the prodigal son, too. So there would be a good argument for saying there's four stories, four parables here.

17. 9:08

    How about more than four? Where does the fifth come from? The concerned father and the third law of the older brother and the father. Okay, so if you want to say there's really a parable about the father's concern, then you've got five. Great. Okay. Well, the point is that there's no point. It's how we read these things.

18. 9:31

    But I do want to show a way of, however you see a one through five, is there's a cohesiveness here that ties these together in an unusual way and makes a significant point at the end. And for sake of vocal continuity, I'm just going to skip a lot of the details of this rich, rich, rich stuff here.

19. 10:01

    But I want you to notice that the first two, I'll just say episodes, the first two narratives, have a moral ending. That is, what, even so, there's more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than in 99, who need a repenting her. Okay. And the question is, how does that moral connect to the nature of the parable?

20. 10:40

    In other words, how does the parable illustrate repentance? Jesus says that these are about repentance. But how does a sheep or a coin repent? There is no illustration of repentance in these two, well, let's say parables. Even if a sheep could repent, is the sheep, does this say that a sheep strayed away and then the sheep realized, oh my goodness, I'm lost.

21. 11:23

    I need to come back to the fold. That's not what happens. That's not what happens. What happens? The shepherd goes and finds the sheep, picks it up and drags it back. The sheep is passive. The sheep does nothing. The sheep does not illustrate repentance. And a coin, well, that's not going to happen.

22. 11:44

    No matter, coins don't crawl out of the corner and say, here I am. You know, I should have rolled away. So there's a disconnect between what Jesus says is the moral of the story and what the story is actually about. The stories are about, if anything, they're about God going out to find lost people and bring them back.

23. 12:10

    They're not about repentance. Yeah, Jennifer's looking and saying, hmm, interesting. Interesting. No. Now, keep that kind of in suspense. So, you know, we're left up in the air here. He's telling these episodes and then he's saying just so. It's like, and if you're listening to these, you're going to say, but Lord, I don't understand.

24. 12:36

    How is repentance illustrate these stories? And he says, okay, just keep listening. So then he tells the third story. The man has two sons. And what happens here? The son goes away. He takes the money. He squanders it. He comes to his right mind. He does what? Does he repent? Exactly. He repents.

25. 13:04

    He comes back. Now, what's the moral of the third story? You have to go down to verse, uh, Siri, read 22 through 24. But the father said to his servants, bring forth quickly the best robe and put it on him. And put a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet. And bring the fatted calf and kill it.

26. 13:24

    And let us eat and make merry. For this, my son was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found. And they began to make merry. So, here, at the end of the story, where you would expect the father to say, for this, my son repented and came home. He says he was lost and is found.

27. 13:50

    In other words, there's a mismatch here. This is the moral that should have been on the first two. This sheep was lost and is now found. The coin is lost and is now found. But there he had the morals about repentance, which should have been here. So, you see, they're intertwined in a way that you have to hear all three of them and figure out what's Jesus getting at.

28. 14:21

    And, you know, he seems like he's got the ending, the moral of the story switched up. But what he's saying is, when we put all these together, is that repentance and God searching are going on concurrently. People are not coins or sheep. People have to repent. But God is always directing. God is looking.

29. 14:49

    God is searching. God is bringing people back. When people repent, God finds the way to bring them into the fold. God is coming. So, he interconnects these stories that way. One more feature of this we want to look at. Read again. Look at verse 24 and also 32. If you could read those two, please.

30. 15:19

    24 and 32. For this my son was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found. And they began to make merry. But it was meet to make merry and be glad. For this thy brother was dead and is alive again and was lost and is found. So, there's an extra phrase here.

31. 15:42

    It is true the son was lost and is found. But he adds, this my son was dead and is alive. Now, you don't need that to make the point of the story. He could have just said he was lost and is found. He had gone away and has come back. But by adding the overlay of dead and alive, he brings us into what I call the exhortational aspect of resurrection.

32. 16:16

    This is a description of resurrection. Dead and alive. It was as if he was dead. He was gone. He didn't exist anymore. But yet he has life again in the grace of God and his own repentance. The phrase didn't need to be in there. But it's added to show us that when God brings people from whatever circumstance of life, no matter how badly we mess up our lives, waste our inheritance, go away, lose, we might be dead, but you can become alive again.

33. 17:00

    God brings people back. He finds you. We repent. And we become alive again. So that's the power of exhortation of resurrection is exhortation. This young man wasted everything comes back to life again as the father searches for him. And as he repents, he was lost and is found to Romans chapter four. And we'll look at another way in which life and death in life is used as an exhortational manner to show us that no problem is too big for God.

34. 17:49

    No situation is so bad. No situation is so bad. No situation is so bad. And that God overlays his power as resurrection in a metaphorical or a figurative sense. And this episode has to do with Abraham and Sarah having Isaac. So in this section of Roman, Paul is establishing that Abraham was justified by his faith, not his observance to the law, by making the point that Abraham believed God.

35. 18:38

    That's in a quote, verse three, Abraham believed God, his reckoned to his righteousness. That's in Genesis 15. And he makes the point that that occurred before Abraham was circumcised. In other words, Abraham was a Gentile when God accepted his faith. He was an uncircumcised Gentile before he became the father of the Jews.

36. 19:10

    He was the father of the faithful. But at that point, Abraham had no seed. So God could not fulfill his promises of the son of Abraham until Abraham had children. And that came a bit later. But Abraham's faith was reckoned as righteous. And that's in verse 10. But this was before he was circumcised.

37. 19:36

    And then he goes on to exemplify how strong Abraham's faith was, that Abraham believed that God would make of him a great nation, even though he had no children. That Abraham's belief transcended his own reproductive inability. In other words, Abraham was reproductively dead. There was no biological way that Abraham could have an offspring.

38. 20:08

    But he believed that God would still provide this for him. So let's look at that. So let's look at Romans 4 and read verses 16 through 24. 16 to 24. Verse 4. For this cause it is of faith, that it may be according to grace, to the end that the promise may be sure to all the seed, not to that only which is of the law, but that also which is of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all.

39. 20:40

    As it is written, the father of many nations have I made thee before him whom he believed, even God, who giveth life to the dead and calleth the things that are not as though they were. Who in hope believed against hope, to the end that he might become a father of many nations.

40. 20:58

    According to that which had been spoken, so shall I see be. Without being weakened in faith, he considered his own body now as good as dead, he being about a hundred years old, and the deadness of Sarah's womb. Yet looking unto the promise of God, he wavered not through unbelief, but waxed strong through faith, giving glory to God and being fully assured that what he had promised he was able to perform.

41. 21:23

    Wherefore also it was reckoned unto him for righteousness. Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was reckoned unto him, but for our sake also unto whom it shall be reckoned, who believe on him that raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. Let's look at some of the couple of the details here about Abraham's faith.

42. 21:47

    Where God promised him a seed or a child, special descendant through whom he would inherit the earth forever. His promises come through in chapter 12, 13, 15, 17, 22 in Genesis. It's repeated many times and is amplified. But Paul tells us in Galatians, the seed is Jesus, the seed is one which is Christ, we all inherit through Jesus.

43. 22:20

    Abraham was an old man. Sarah was not quite as old, but still old when they left Ur. Abraham was born. However, sometime later, when Abraham was 86, he was still, however, able to impregnate Hagar and give birth to Ishmael. Sarah was barren all of her life. So she had never been able to conceive.

44. 22:53

    But at age 86, Abraham was still reproductively viable. However, by the time he gets to be 100 years old, when Isaac was born, he is no longer, because it's said Abraham was as good as dead. He's considered his own body as good as dead. So sometime between the birth of Ishmael and, well, say a year before the birth of Isaac, Abraham became impotent.

45. 23:24

    Sarah, who was never able to conceive, had become postmenopausal by this point, because it says that it's in Genesis 18, it had ceased to be with her after the manner of women. So she never had to die. Now she's totally out of it. So both of them are really done for. And back in those days, having no fertility clinics and modern drugs, they're not going to have children.

46. 23:54

    I mean, they're 100 years old, 9 years old. She's postmenopausal. He's impotent. What are they going to do? He still believes. So there's a biological background here. Abraham's saying, we're dead. We are reproductively dead. But I still believe that God is going to somehow make this happen. Well, because of his faith, they did have the miraculous birth of Isaac.

47. 24:24

    Abraham's saying, verse 20, again, or verse 19, he did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead, because he was about 100 years old. It was not true, even as an old man at the birth of Ishmael, but now it was true. Or when he considered the bareness of Sarah's womb, she was as good as dead.

48. 24:54

    But no distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God. But he grew strong in his faith, gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he promised. That's amazing. It's absolutely amazing faith that he had. But the point we want to see here is those additions of how Paul inflects this episode as an instance of resurrection.

49. 25:25

    His body as good as dead. Sarah's body as good as dead. And then, at the very end of the chapter, that Abraham's faith being reckoned as righteousness is not just for him, but for all of those who believe in what? It will be reckoned to us who believe in him that raised from the dead, Jesus our Lord, who was put to death for our trespasses and raised for our justification.

50. 26:02

    So, Paul concludes this episode, which starts off with God being greater than any human biological problem. That is, he can make life out of death there. But also, God can forgive any sin, who is put to death for our sins and raised for our justification. So, he segues or he shifts the emphasis from Abraham's faith in God's physical to God's moral power.

51. 26:39

    Put to death for our trespasses and raised for our justification. So, the exhortational message here is that resurrection is used as exhortation to say that there's no problem too big for God. There's no problem too big for God. Good as dead, not an issue. God makes life out of death. God makes life out of death.

52. 27:10

    It's exhortation to trust in God in all things. So, with that, let's look to the reading we had and go to the resurrection of Lazarus to see our last example of the exhortational value of resurrection. God makes life out of death. God makes life out of death. Because here, we're not going to be talking about a man who was as good as dead.

53. 27:39

    We're going to be talking about a man who was dead. There's no metaphor here. This is not like the prodigal son who was dead and now is alive. This is Lazarus. This is dead. This is not reproductively dead. This is not morally dead. This is not lost in sin. This is dead. Dead.

54. 28:07

    Gone. It's a wonderful narrative here, of which I'm only going to touch on a few relevant highlights. There in Bethany, or John 11, there is a family of two brothers and two sisters, Mary and Martha, Lazarus and Judas Iscariot, who was undoubtedly the brother. Also, I'm not going to go into the demonstration of that.

55. 28:41

    Lazarus is probably a young man. Certainly not older than Jesus, maybe a lot younger. His death was tragic. He had some illness. This is like a very young person suddenly dying of something. This is a devastating tragedy for the family and all the friends of Lazarus. They sinned for Jesus while he is yet sick.

56. 29:08

    They know Jesus can heal him. Jesus purposely delays because while it would have been quite a miracle to heal Lazarus while he was sick, it would be an even bigger miracle to heal him while he was dead. They didn't know that. They didn't know that. Jesus knew that. So Jesus delays. By the time he shows up, Lazarus is dead, buried, embalmed, cold, and quite gone.

57. 29:47

    Mary and Martha are so horribly distressed that Jesus delayed. They both say the same thing to him. Why did you take so long if you would come? Our brother would not have died. Jesus says, watch this. Just watch this. So it builds up to be a huge emotional setting. Jesus cries. He finally comes up to the tomb.

58. 30:14

    Has the stone moved away? And does the most absurd thing, if you were anybody but Jesus that is, absurd thing you can imagine, which is to yell into a tomb to somebody who's dead and tell them to come out. It says, he said with a loud voice, which I obviously can't do today, but Lazarus come out.

59. 30:52

    He's a dead man. You know what? This doesn't happen. But the dead man came out. And the value of belief in that miracle for Jesus' own resurrection to come shortly, as you can see how close this was to Jesus. You know, man actually in the tomb and cold and dead for three days.

60. 31:19

    That Jesus knew that it would be God's angels telling him to come out within, I don't know, a year or so whenever this happened. There's that. And for all who saw this. But there's a few more details here that really amplify this even greater story. This is just the way this text is constructed is absolutely amazing.

61. 31:46

    I want to show a few things to you. The name Lazarus occurs, excuse me, in chapter 11 and 12, there's 11 occurrences of the name Lazarus. If you look at verse 14, where Jesus told them plainly, Lazarus is dead. From verse 14 until verse 43, however, the name Lazarus does not occur. There's a space in which he is only referred to as a pronoun or your brother or the dead man.

62. 32:44

    The name Lazarus disappears from the text. It occurs five times up to there. And the sixth occurrence is in verse 43 where he says, Lazarus, come out. So the whole time Lazarus is dead, he has no identity. He's just your brother. He's the dead man. He's him. But the name Lazarus is never used in the text during the time he is dead.

63. 33:15

    It's to emphasize he's gone. Even more. Even more. Look at verse 39. Jesus said, take away the stone. Martha is the sister of who? The dead man. Didn't say the sister of Lazarus. Remember, he's dead. He's gone. He's only the dead man. It's the first time that phrase is used. And then that is the phrase that shows up again in verse 44.

64. 33:57

    The dead man came out. Dead men don't come out of graves. But this was different. This was after Jesus called him by name again. So you have the dead man. Then Lazarus come out the first time this actual name is used since way back in verse 13, 14. And now the dead man is alive again.

65. 34:26

    It's just remarkable how the text is emphasizing this. And then for the rest of 11 in chapter 12, he's Lazarus again. He's back to life. Well, that's pretty good. But there's even more. This emphasis on the name. Turn back one page to chapter 10 of John. This is, and look at this. Look at the first four verses.

66. 35:11

    Read John 10, 1 through 4. Okay. Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that entereth not by the door into the fold of the sheep, but climbeth up some other way, the same as a thief and a robber. But he that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the porter openeth, and the sheep hear his voice, and he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out.

67. 35:34

    When he hath put forth all his own, he goeth before them, and his sheep follow him, for they know his voice. This parable or illustration of the sheep is actually what's happening with Jesus and Lazarus. The door that is open. The gatekeeper opens. Remember, Jesus said, move the stone. He calls them by name in verse 3.

68. 36:12

    He calls them by name. Remember, Lazarus, come out. Jesus opens and calls Lazarus. And the text in 11 is so careful about how it uses that name Lazarus. So when he says it calls him by name, it has that extra meaning. He's not the dead man anymore. He's brought to life again by the use of his name.

69. 36:39

    Jesus calling him by name. And he leads them out. Just as it's written in John chapter 11, he came out of the grave. When he has brought them out, all his own, he goes before them. The sheep follow him. So Lazarus is not only brought back to life. He's brought back because of the voice of Jesus calling him by name.

70. 37:08

    By name it's an act of shepherding as well as an act of resurrection. And even one more, one more amplification of this theme. Go back to John chapter 5. John chapter 5. John chapter 5. John chapter 5. When Jesus is discoursing on judgment and how he, the Father, has given to Jesus all judgment.

71. 37:35

    And those who hear the voice of Jesus will live. Look at John 5 and verse 25. Verily, verily, I say unto you, the hour cometh and now is when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live. The hour is coming and now is when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, those who hear will live.

72. 38:08

    He's talking metaphorically about people dead in sins. But he's also talking figuratively about what's going to happen in the resurrection. The dead will hear the voice of the Son of God. This was literally true of Lazarus. So I said, you don't walk up to a tomb and talk to dead people unless you're Jesus.

73. 38:34

    The dead will hear his voice. Dead can't hear your voice unless they're brought back to life. So it's more than a story of people being redeemed from sin. It's about, it doesn't matter where you are in life. Even if you're dead, Jesus will bring you life again. The redemption from sin is given in terms of life and death.

74. 39:08

    Resurrected. The hour is coming and now is when the dead will hear. That is people listening to Jesus. Now is John chapter 5. People listening. The spiritually dead hear Jesus. The hour is coming and will be when Lazarus will literally hear the voice of Jesus. The hour is yet coming in the resurrection when all those who have died in Jesus will hear his voice when he says to them, Come out.

75. 39:36

    They know him by name. So exhortation, the value or the application of resurrection is exhortation is to teach us that there is no problem too big for God. Not life, death, no matter how much we sin, no matter how much we mess up. The prodigal son goes away. Abraham dead in his old age.

76. 40:08

    Lazarus dead in the tomb. And God says the dead shall be alive. This is the power of resurrection that encourages us daily to believe that that's the Jesus we believe in, that God resurrected. Thank you for listening to the Good Christodophian Talks podcast. Please subscribe for new episodes and leave a review on Apple Podcasts or whichever service you are listening from to help people find the show when they search for it.

77. 40:42

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78. 41:06

    If you know of a great talk, we want to know about it too. Send a suggestion to goodchristodophiantalks at gmail.com or message us on any of our social media platforms. Thank you for listening. God bless and talk to you next week.