The Hymn #574 Come Ye Thankful
The Order of Vespers p. 41
The Psalmody Psalm 100 p. 144
The First Lection 1 Timothy 2:1-8
The Second Lection Luke 17:11-19
The Sermon Hymn #577 God Bless Our Native Land
God Has Blessed Us
The Prayers and Lord’s Prayer p. 44
The Collect for Peace p. 45
The Benediction p. 45
The Hymn #558 All Praise to Thee - Gounod
- In treatment - Mary Howell, Christina Jackson, Rush Limbaugh.
- Winning the battle - Randy Anderson.
- Pastor and Mrs. Jim Shrader.
- Pastor K and Doc Lito Cruz - dealing with diabetes.
- Our military and police.
- Our media ministries - Alec Satin, Norma Boeckler, Travis and Lauren Cartee, Pastor Jordan Palangyos.
- President Trump, our leaders.
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| The next stage at Bethany Philippine Mission is a permanent roof. They shared rice before they building more. |
KJV 1 Timothy 2:1 I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; 2 For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. 3 For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; 4 Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. 5 For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; 6 Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time. 7 Whereunto I am ordained a preacher, and an apostle, (I speak the truth in Christ, and lie not;) a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and verity. 8 I will therefore that men pray every where, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting.
KJV Luke 17:11 And it came to pass, as he went to Jerusalem, that he passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. 12 And as he entered into a certain village, there met him ten men that were lepers, which stood afar off: 13 And they lifted up their voices, and said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. 14 And when he saw them, he said unto them, Go shew yourselves unto the priests. And it came to pass, that, as they went, they were cleansed. 15 And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, and with a loud voice glorified God, 16 And fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks: and he was a Samaritan. 17 And Jesus answering said, Were there not ten cleansed? but where are the nine? 18 There are not found that returned to give glory to God, save this stranger. 19 And he said unto him, Arise, go thy way: thy faith hath made thee whole.
God Has Blessed Us
KJV 1 Timothy 2:1 I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men;
This passage has been quoted many times in the course of the last three years. We are re-living the final days of the Roman Empire, which continued in the West for another three centuries. Nevertheless, they gave up the Republic in favor of the Empire. They wanted more and more outsiders to bear the burden of military defense. The wealth of the leaders and rulers were so great that we can hardly imagine people in the ancient world living so well and squandering vast sums of money to flaunt their access to it and their slave labor that made it possible.
They made a kind of ice cream with ice from the mountains, and they had a dish made with peacock tongues, which are not very large. That was the point - they enjoyed what most could not have.
The loss of the Republic under Julius Caesar meant that freedom was suppressed in the name of peace, and life could be quite brutal. The Christians were seen as a branch of Judaism, and therefore as quite similar to the Jews who rebelled and lost, who were carried away as slaves.
Paul's best boast in the Empire was his citizenship, but that did not save him from the ignominy of being a Jew, even worse, a Christian. Nevertheless, instead of being bitterly against Rome and allied governments, he urged this attitude as an Apostle. And that is important because the religions identified with a culture or government have all kinds of troubles and conflicts that make a poor amalgamation.
Christianity did not just survive the oppression of the Roman Empire - it flourished and grew. Christians were tortured and killed and put on public display, even in stadiums. The pagan Romans were appalled and stunned by Christians facing death peacefully, and that ultimately began converting - with the Word - the ruling classes. That is a strange combination, the One True Faith starting out among the poorest, the slaves, the converted criminals and prostitutes, and working its way up through society, like good leaven, through preaching the Gospel.
Lenski, p. 538
These persons are Timothy and the congregations; Timothy is to direct them, and the congregations are to follow his directions. Few commentators will entertain the thought that Paul’s directions are intended only for individuals and not for congregations. Timothy should not be regarded as being the pastor of the church in Ephesus; the elders were the pastors, Timothy was Paul’s representative who directed pastors and churches in the entire province; hence Paul also puts these directions into writing in case somebody raised objection.
2 For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. 3 For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour;
Many leaders are repugnant, hostile, pagan, lawless in many ways, then and now. The solution was not theocratic. The Zealot revolt against Rome caused the destruction of the Temple by Rome, starvation and worse, and the enslavement of the survivors. The Apostolic approach - in contrast - led slowly to to Emperor Constantine (313 AD) stopping the persecutions in the Edict of Milan. He made Byzantium (Constantinople aka Istanbul) the capital of the Empire and made it Christian. He modestly called himself Equal-to-the-Apostles.
Looking back to that era, we can see that God's plan worked far better than the Zealots. Likewise, many Christians were appalled by Trump at first, but the leaven of the Gospel became apparent and the age of Christianity-free government seems to be over, or at least on the wane.
It is God's will and Word that we do not try to create a theocracy, and even now with so many things wrong, we can use our abundant blessings and freedom to correct many abuses. Government and social classes divide, while Christianity unites.
We were at a Yale Alumni dinner when one wife, who attended an elite Seven Sisters college, admitted to being trained as a nurse there. The snooty Smith graduate said, "I didn't know they had blue collar programs at your school."
Lenski, ibid
Prayer is international, cosmopolitan, and yet patriotic in the highest sense. “All men” and “kings and all who are in eminence” rightly go together. All men are divided into national and political groups under governmental heads who have lesser officials beneath them, each of whom has his own eminence. The welfare of each nation is bound up with its government so that Paul means that we are to pray for “all men” as men, as one great mass, and yet also for nations under their rulers and magistrates. We recall Rom. 13:1, etc. To pray for the latter is equally needful. When Paul refers to “kings” he is not endorsing monarchy as being the only rightful form of government. After writing “all men,” “emperors” would have been too narrow a term, for although the Roman Empire was vast in extent it did not include all men and all nations. Some people had had other than royal 540 Interpretation of First Timothy forms of government. “Kings” is the best term to use when supreme rulers in general are referred to. Some rulers, high and low, were evil; yet how many of “all men” were not also evil? The prayers of the church are not limited, in fact, especially evil men need prayers. The church has followed Paul’s directions.
4 Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.
God's gracious will is to have all people saved and believing in the truth of the Scriptures, but man's obstinacy blinds and hardens the soul to the truth, as it has - especially with those who deal with the Scriptures while lacking faith (church officials, religion professors !).
Notice this verse alone damages the double predestination of the Calvinists. The future infinitive means that God's will is to have the Gospel broadcast to all people. This is done with God's blessings and His constant help.
Just as evil has power and energy from below, so the Truth has divine power and energy, far more powerful, from above - to us. The Spirit constantly works through the Word to teach us the truth, so we can - with many decades past - say, "Now I understand this passage." And we see many good effects from the Gospel, too numerous to count.
Lenski:
Believers and the Una Sancta (One Holy Invisible Church) are to be separate from the world, from all other men in many respects, for they have been called out of the world, and the world hates them (John 15:18, 19) ; but in the matter of prayer this holding aloof from the world does not apply for the reasons here stated. Who would pray for the world if the churches did not do so? When Jesus says, “I pray not for the world” (John 17 :9), this refers to what we call his special intercession in which he asks for what can be bestowed only on believers, that God sanctify them in the truth so that they may all be one. This special intercession does not exclude Christ’s general intercession, Isa. 53:12: He “made intercession for the transgressors," even for his murderers (Luke 23:34), his blood speaks better things than that of Abel (Heb. 12:24). [GJ - There is no evidence of Jesus absolving the entire world since the purpose of the Gospel is to convert individuals through the Word.]
5 For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; 6 Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.
εις (One) γαρ θεος εις και (and One also) μεσιτης θεου και ανθρωπων ανθρωπος χριστος ιησους
Jackson Literal - "For One is God - and - One is Mediator-of-God-and-Men, Man-Christ Jesus.
This is a beautiful, concise confession of faith, confessing the Trinity, specifically the Father-Son relationship and the Two Natures of Christ. I have never liked the translations of this passage, but the best translation needs explanation because so much is said in a few words, using very simple words (in any language). This is like the seven One's in Ephesians 4. We are more likely to marvel than to explain completely everything said in one verse. This another "inner testimony" of God's Word, as Henry Eyster Jacobs taught. We confess the perfection and inerrancy of the Word because the Scriptures reveal themselves in those terms.
7 Whereunto I am ordained a preacher, and an apostle, (I speak the truth in Christ, and lie not;) a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and verity. 8 I will therefore that men pray every where, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting.
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| Valley Forge |
On the Delaware River in a Durham boat, Christmas
