Photobombing Jesus

Berean Baptist on November 12, 2018

Last year, I read an interesting article with the title, Photobombing Jesus. The article began with a definition of photobomb. It means, “to spoil a photograph by appearing in the camera’s field of view as a picture is taken.” If you still don’t understand the meaning, ask any teenager with a cell phone. They will be happy to demonstrate for your education.

The article was about a pastor who lamented the beginning of his ministry. He attempted to outshine Jesus. It started with his testimony. God saved him out of a life of drugs, parties, gambling, and women. Everyone knows this testimony is much more interesting than one like mine. I was a preacher’s kid who grew up in church and saved at an early age. No wild parties for me. A testimony like this man’s will help catapult a person to the top 40 on the evangelistic circuit. In his words, the author was ushered on the stage of churches and campus ministries to tell what Jesus had done for him.

With this experience, he thought a good place for God to use him was in a large campus ministry, and soon he was involved in one. To his dismay, he wasn’t put up front. Instead, his job was to raise and lower the curtain for people who were on stage. He was upset at the turn of events because he thought his ministry was more valuable to God than being a backstage hand. It was then the Lord convicted him. He recognized this as his attempt to photobomb Jesus.

From this point, he ended the article with “six glory-stealing confessions.” The first one caught my eye relating to this evening’s sermon. He confessed, “I want Jesus to be glorified, but I want glory too.” Nothing better describes a photobombing pastor. He seeks applause as a way of getting into the picture with Jesus. It is fine if Jesus is in the picture too, but he must be sure he isn’t left out and gets the recognition he needs. His bio will read about how the church has grown since he became the pastor. The numbers in attendance are noted, the value of the buildings is announced, and don’t forget how many books he’s authored. He is a jack of all trades but master of none. He expects the congregation to applaud as he enters the sanctuary with his entourage in tow.

In a similar way, there are preachers such as I who pastor smaller less prominent ministries. We do not expect applause for good reason. If you have heard our attempts, they are too weak to be anything but embarrassing. We seek recognition in other ways. Ours is to photobomb Jesus by seeking compliments. We love to hear someone at the door tell us how great the sermon was that day. We need at least one of these to remind us who is the most important around here. If we get two, there is no doubt Spurgeon was in the building. If there are no compliments, we are grossly under appreciated.

Do we need this affirmation to be successful preaching God’s word? If it bothers us, we need to step back and remember who should receive glory. This author said, “A servant who seeks affirmation steals something that does not belong to them…A preacher who preaches to gain glory for himself is flirting with Christ’s bride for whom he died to have for His own.” This quote works for either the morning or evening message. Let Christ be the only one framed in the picture. This is His church not mine.

Pastor V. Mark Smith

 

 

Doxology and Benediction

Berean Baptist on June 11, 2018

Psalm 134

Psalm 134 is both a doxology and a benediction concerning the priests and Levites who served the Lord at the temple. The first two verses of the psalm are spoken by the people as encouragement for their intercessory leaders as they labor on the behalf of God’s chosen people. In this psalm, worshipers recognize that God is to be praised for all the gracious benefits He richly bestows. I especially like this part of the psalm because I like the way the people held their leaders to a standard. They desired for the Lord to be magnified and would accept nothing less or expect nothing less from their leaders than uncompromising devotion.

I like this part because there is nothing that warms the heart of a godly pastor than to know the people appreciate the word of God declared plainly, without mixture, without compromise—without restraint even though it can be painfully convicting. Psalm 120-134 are known as Pilgrim Psalms. You will notice as you read through them there is continual recognition of God’s power and His providence. The people recognize where they stand in relation to Him. They are fully dependent which always puts them at God’s mercy where they should be.

I believe these are people that had no problems with instruction on man’s depravity. They had no problems with God’s sovereignty. They were not resistant to teachings that God’s will is not dependent on the whims of fallen, fallible man. A pastor loves to preach when there are no subjects like these that make the church uncomfortable. He does not answer to the people for acceptance of his sermons. His allegiance is to God alone and he fears to leave out anything God says to His people. The priests did not fear to teach the whole counsel of God, for it appears the people demanded it of them.

The last verse of the psalm speaks of the power of God. Why should praises be lifted to the Lord in the sanctuary? It is because He is Lord that made heaven and earth. This is the priests’ benediction upon the people. It is the last words they spoke in this grouping of psalms for pilgrims.

The priests pronounced a blessing on them in the name of the Lord. His omnipotence grants to them all spiritual blessings in Christ. The blessings come from Zion which means they originate where God dwells in His holy temple. Although the church is not Old Testament, I believe an application can be made that all blessings for the world come through the work the Lord does through His church. The church is the authorized place for His work. This work is given to no others for Christ loved the church and gave Himself for it.

The Lord dwells in the church as the temple of His praise. The people themselves are His temple. The Holy Spirit lives in each of us. Corporately we do His work, but individually we are responsible for its holiness so that all work will have God’s approval on it. We are reminded of this holiness in our study of the New Jerusalem, the home of the bride of Christ. The church is His bride, and He intends for it to be spotless, holy, and without blame (Eph. 5:26-27).

These three verses show pastor and people working together with the same sense of duty. This is what church is—a place for the glory of God and for thankfulness and appreciation that the mighty omnipotent God should consider lowly creatures for His service. “What is man, that thou are mindful of him? (Psalm 8:4a).

This benediction and word of thanks comes from the Pastor. Thank you for standing on and appreciating the word of God. Blessings on you from the Lord that made heaven and earth.

 

Pastor V. Mark Smith

Zion

Berean Baptist on May 14, 2018

Psalm 132

Psalm 132 is most interesting as it relates to the temple built by Solomon and the placing of the ark of the covenant in the most holy place. For the previous five hundred years, Israel worshiped at the Tabernacle which at this time was located at Gibeon. When David was anointed king, he vowed to build a house for the Lord God but was prevented because scripture says he was a man of war. Instead, the building of the new magnificent sanctuary that would hold the most holy ark of the covenant was left to David’s son, Solomon.

Solomon’s reign was one of peace as no major wars occurred during his lifetime. At the same time, Israel increased in power and influence throughout the world. Solomon’s days were the most prosperous for Israel leading his reign to be known by successive generations as the Golden Age. In the New Testament, it was Solomon Jesus appealed to for His example of prosperity and notoriety telling the people He was greater than Solomon (Mt. 12:42) and comparing Solomon’s beauty to the loveliest of God’s creation (Mt. 6:29).

In the 13th verse of the psalm, the psalmist speaks of Zion as God’s choice for His holy habitation. Zion is Jerusalem and is synonymous with the city of God. The area was originally the hill on which David built his fortress, but later was expanded to include the temple mount. In the Old Testament when people spoke of going to Zion, they were referring specifically to making the trip to the temple.

Jerusalem is the only place God allowed a temple to be built. In the ancient world, temples for pagan gods were built in various locations such as Paul saw in Athens and Ephesus. However, the one true living God had only one place of worship and one place of sacrifice. In Paul’s time, the ark was long since gone but there was a stone in its place in the Holy of Holies on which the priest put a censor on the Day of Atonement. There were no images allowed and no representation of the ark. Any Israelite that wanted to observe the solemn feast days had only one place to go—he must go to Jerusalem.

Zion’s was further expanded to mean the holy city of the New Jerusalem (Heb. 12:22). This is the brilliant city of light in Revelation 21. It is the home of the bride of Christ, the Lord’s church. The New Jerusalem is a city that comes out of heaven and descends to rest above the new earth, possibly touching it at some point. Although all of heaven belongs to God and His presence fills it all, His special manifestation is in the New Jerusalem whose entirety is His temple. Essentially, God’s people dwell within His temple. We are in Christ so that scripture says Christ Himself is the temple.

The beauty of worship in Solomon’s time was unparalleled by any other period of Israel’s history. It most closely models the worship of heaven. When the Queen of Sheba visited Solomon, she was stunned with the magnificence of what she saw. And yet, Jesus, the one who was a lowly carpenter, said He was greater than Solomon. The real beauty of Jesus is not seen on the outside. It is to be inside Christ to be able to understand how glorious He is. You can see His beauty by faith. Trusting Jesus is to have a glimpse of Zion, the holy city of God.

 

Pastor V. Mark Smith

Book V – The Word of God

Berean Baptist on September 18, 2017

Psalm 107

Chapter 107 begins the last division of the Psalms. At each division, we marked the theme. In Psalms 1-41, the theme is man and these opening chapters correspond to Genesis, the first book of the Pentateuch. The next section (42-72) corresponds to Exodus with the theme of deliverance. Book III (73-89) has sanctuary as its theme and is comparable to Leviticus. Book IV (90-106) is about wandering and matches Numbers. Finally, Book V relates to Deuteronomy with the theme of chapters 107-150 being the word of God.

The pinnacle of this section is Psalm 119 which may be considered The Ode to the Word. This is the longest of the psalms with 176 verses of the psalmist’s exuberance for the importance of the word in his life and that of all believers. Today’s reading of the 107th psalm sets the tone for the section as the author describes the source of all problems—“…they rebelled against the words of God, and contemned the counsel of the most High…” (v.11). Who does not see this as the cause of Adam’s fall? No truer words could be spoken for the causes of evil that have fallen upon our country. As the word of God became less prominent in homes, schools, and government institutions, the influence of righteous morality suffered. Finally, it has come to the place that any candidate for public office that claims guidance from the principles of the Bible, as our founding fathers did, is regarded as a religious buffoon. Political parties distance themselves from the morally upright to garner votes from the godless.

The psalmist catalogs the successes and failures of Israel according to their respect for and obedience to God’s word. When they rebelled against the word, “…he brought down their heart with labour; they fell down, and there was none to help…” (v. 12). When they came back to Him, “…he saved them out of their distresses. He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death, and brake their bands in sunder.” (vv. 13b-14).

While we cannot claim a spiritual revival for America or any promise of preservation for this nation, we can claim God’s promise to the church. Israel is representative of God’s people, and what God’s people need is a revival of the word. In the church, the Bible has gone away just as it has in society in general. Few Christians make it a regular practice to read and study scripture. They would much more readily pick up a fad book of how to with its 7 Steps to God’s Blessings, or 5 Ways to Spiritual Success. Browse the bookstores and see how many formulas there are for peace, happiness, and contentment. Rarely do you see one that says, One Step—Obey God. This is the psalmist’s basic message—“Do not rebel against the words of God.” The command presupposes knowledge of what God’s word says.

In each of our messages with their variety of subjects, each topic always comes back to one issue—what does God’s word say about it? This is always central—what do we know about the word? I must always impress the value of the word. Living for Jesus is nothing more or less than living in His word.

“Whoso is wise, and will observe these things, even they shall understand the lovingkindness of the Lord.” (v. 43).

 

Pastor V. Mark Smith