Jan. 16, 2022

The Holy New Year!  (BTS 16 Jan 22) — Pastor John Custer

Intro - This first teaching lesson of the year has in view the lessons of the last few months, in which the Lord has been beckoning to our church to follow His teachings and move ever deeper into a commitment to Him.  Modern Christianity lacks much of the power it could have because it seeks to have the world as its buddy.  Pastors lower the expectations of a commitment to God, trying to make Christianity as painless as possible.  As a result, Christians are taught, in so many words, that it is okay to live out one’s Christian life while being indistinguishably conformed to the world in all of its customs and traditions.  God has a principle which addresses this tendency amongst humans.  It is called holiness. It scares the daylights out of us because of the legalistic manner in which it is taught:  

Hebrews 12:14  Work at living in peace with everyone, and work at living a holy life, for those who are not holy will not see the Lord.  

This ominous-sounding Scripture doesn’t mean that we must all be perfect and that our behavior must be sinless.  This, however is the implied meaning which often comes across, especially when the pastor is trying to get us to do something.  The idea is often coupled with the following idea:  

Matthew 5:48 But you are to be perfect, even as your father in heaven is perfect  

So, we end up concluding that  God has some impossibly high standard for our conduct which no human can ever fulfill.  Furthermore, it negates the work Jesus did on the cross for us, making it possible to receive forgiveness of sin and have our sins removed.  Greek word for perfect in this verse, teleios, means to be complete, like an adult human is fully matured, although not perfect.  It is a relative term, not an absolute.   It is not saying that we must be sinlessly perfect.  No human reaches that condition until we are transformed into a new body.  

Across the Bible, the idea of holiness simply means “set aside.”  You can easily find objects, for example, which are considered holy: 

Exodus 30:25-32  Like a skilled incense maker, blend these ingredients to make a holy anointing oil. 26 Use this sacred oil to anoint the Tabernacle, the Ark of the Covenant, 27 the table and all its utensils, the lampstand and all its accessories, the incense altar, 28 the altar of burnt offering and all its utensils, and the washbasin with its stand. 29 Consecrate them to make them absolutely holy. After this, whatever touches them will also become holy. 30 “Anoint Aaron and his sons also, consecrating them to serve me as priests. 31 And say to the people of Israel, ‘This holy anointing oil is reserved for me from generation to generation. 32 It must never be used to anoint anyone else, and you must never make any blend like it for yourselves. It is holy, and you must treat it as holy. 

On this list are the tools of the temple worship, clothing worn by the priests, furniture used in the tabernacle, even the priests themselves!  The same concept applies to humans and our activities.  It is obvious that the material objects mentioned here do not have any moral accountability.  Holiness, then, simply means something or someone who is “set aside” for God’s purposes.  This definition of holiness is biblical, and it allows us to serve other humans all the while we are still people who are in an ongoing process of being changed from glory to glory. God does not expect you to be perfect, in the sense of sinlessness.   

So how should we apply this biblical expectation for us to be “holy?” We could look to one of the ten commandments for a start:  

Exodus 31:14-15  You must keep the Sabbath day, for it is a holy day for you. Anyone who desecrates it must be put to death; anyone who works on that day will be cut off from the community. 15 You have six days each week for your ordinary work, but the seventh day must be a Sabbath day of complete rest, a holy day dedicated to the LORD . Anyone who works on the Sabbath must be put to death. 16 The people of Israel must keep the Sabbath day by observing it from generation to generation. This is a covenant obligation for all time. 17 It is a permanent sign of my covenant with the people of Israel.

This portion of the Law was not intended to be strictly kept by the Christian.  It was part of a special covenant between God and the Israelites called the Covenant of Moses.  Jesus made it plain by teaching his disciples that the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.  Jesus didn’t stop his disciples from eating grains of corn in a field on the Sabbath because they were hungry, which violated the Pharisees’ interpretation of the Sabbath law.  They had added many burdensome rules over the years which made the Sabbath something it was never intended to be.  Jesus healed 7 times on the Sabbath, doing immeasurable good in each instance.  The goodness and true intents of the 10 commandments are individually repeated throughout the New Testament, except for the Sabbath requirements.  Even there, it is easy to see that God was teaching the Israelites, and us indirectly, that God wants us to remember Him, think about Him, be interested in Him, and rejoice in His goodness, not just one day a week, but all the time.  It is hard to do this isolated by ourselves, especially if our lives are filled completely with worldly concerns.  Even worry, as noble as it may seem, competes with interest in the Lord.  In similar manner to the Sabbath teaching, we should prioritize spending time with Him.  An easy way to do this is to be with His people, because He is there in their midst.  In particular, meeting in homes just the way the early church did is probably the best, most biblical way to fulfill this.  God is not interested in us having perfect behavior.  He wants us to have an interest in Him.  

Acts 2:42. All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, and to fellowship, and to sharing in meals (including the Lord’s Supper ), and to prayer. NLT

There is much more which God has to say on this important topic of us being “set aside.”  Suffice it to say for this Sunday that God has presented us with a new calendar year.  What do you think it will look like? Let’s think about it in the next several weeks.  I think I know what God will call it, anyway:

The Holy New Year!