Tim V. Chapel Service
Timothy von Kroge
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A Gospel for the Unworthy
A Gospel for the Unworthy
Opening
To who was the Old Testament written?
For the past two hundred years or so, questions concerning the proper audience of the Old testament have been increasing asked and answered.
Some would say the primary audience of the Old Testament was the Old Covenant Jewish people, the physical descendants of Abraham who found themselves born into the Old Covenant community.
As such , the church living in the New Testament may only benefit from the Old Testament indirectly.
That is to say, it might derive principles and examples useful for Christian living, but stop short of grasping the Old Testament promises made predominantly to the Jewish people.
The Bible , after all, tells us that the Israelites are those quote to whom pertain the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service of god, and the promises.
Who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises;
God tells us Israel is my son, my first born.
And thou shalt say unto Pharaoh, Thus saith the Lord, Israel is my son, even my firstborn:
It may seem then the Old Testament was intended predominantly , if not exclusively for the Jewish people rather than the church, which is understood to be a predominantly Gentile institution.
But what if the church is a continuation of the Jewish covenant people of God?
What if while it includes Gentiles, both Jew and Gentile are made one people through adoption in Jesus Christ?
And what if Christ is the new Israel, the proper first born son of the Father?
Look at this
For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.
This verse calls Jesus the first born among many brethren.
Now look at this
Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:
We read that He is the image of the invisible God, the first born over all creation.
Now again let us look at this
And again, when he bringeth in the firstbegotten into the world, he saith, And let all the angels of God worship him.
We read and again he brings the first born into the world, he says, let all the angels of God worship him.
This of course is speaking of Christ, furthermore, we read of the unification of both Jew and Gentile in Christ.
For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one and has broken down the middle wall of separation.
For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us;
And there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female, or you are all one in Christ Jesus.
There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.
If this is the case, if both Jew and Gentile are indeed brought together in one body through Jesus Christ our Lord, it would have come as a surprise to the religious leaders of Jesus’ day, who had done their very best to make their religion exclusively Jewish in spite of Old Testament prophecy.
In fact, the Gentiles in Jesus’ day were looked down upon as unworthy thought no more valuable than a common stray dog.
and this brings us to our Scripture for our service today.
In our Scripture today, this tension comes to life in our Lord’s interaction with the woman of Canaan.
Let us read
Then Jesus went thence, and departed into the coasts of Tyre and Sidon. And, behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts, and cried unto him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou Son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil. But he answered her not a word. And his disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away; for she crieth after us. But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Then came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me. But he answered and said, It is not meet to take the children’s bread, and to cast it to dogs. And she said, Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table. Then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour.
Prayer for guidance
Welcome everyone to another installment of a Chapel Service at CBC
I am very much looking forward towards having another conversation concerning the doctrines of the faith, looking here at a very important Scripture. Matthew 15:21-28 which I just read. This is the passages we will be looking at today. I would like to get into some discussion that will get you into some deep thought and you might leave this discussion with some questions. However, my hope is you will put some study into this to find your answers.
We just come from the plight of the Pharisees.
They trust in themselves and in their own wisdom that they are righteous and well off before God.
But our Lord exposed just how wrong this is, and I would like to add how fatally wrong that is.
And now we come to a Gentile “woman” of Canaan in the region of Tyre and Sidon, which is predominantly a Gentile region.
And this woman understands what the Pharisees could not.
This message will be divided into four parts.
(1) the mouth of the gentiles professing the truth
(2) the response of the disciples
(3) the response of Jesus
(4) the response of the woman of Canaan.
I would like to look at this from the angle of Biblical theology.
Biblical theology is not just the art and science of Bible interpretation.
Now Biblical theology includes things like exegetical theology where you do get into the science and art of biblical interpretation.
Biblical theology is a little more expansive than that because biblical theology tends to ask the question, how does all of this fit together?
How does one part of Scripture relate to another part of Scripture?
How does the New Testament interact and relate to the Old Testament?
How does the Old Testament interact and relate to the New Testament?
The Holy Scripture is the only sufficient, certain, and infallible rule of all saving knowledge and faith. Although the works of creation do so far manifest the goodness, wisdom and power of God , as to leave man inexcusable, yet they are not sufficient to give that knowledge of God and His will, which is necessary unto salvation.
So we have natural revelation, which produces within us a natural theology. But that is not sufficient for salvation.
The only knowledge that is sufficient for salvation comes from the Scriptures.
We understand that all of the Scripture is addressed to the church.
The angle I wish to take is this, who or what Scripture considers to be the predominant audience of the Scriptures as a whole.
The reason I want to go into this angle of the discussion is because in our Scripture in Matthew 15:21-28, we have Jesus encountering a Canaanite woman or a woman of Canaan who is a Gentile.
She is living in the region of Trye and Sidon.
We understand that Trye and Sidon is a densely Gentile area or region.
And it would seem that if your assumption was that this was supposed to be a predominantly Jewish religion, that it would have been taboo for Jesus to tell this woman what He tells this woman at the end of the passage.
Which is a commendation of her faith and granting her prayerful request as she trusts and leans on Christ and relies on Him.
notwithstanding her Gentile origin, why? it doesn’t matter.
She is as we might say that she is a true Israelite by faith and heir of Abraham.
And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.
This great passage in Galatians really helps us to tie the Bible together.
Why is that? It is because you share the same faith as Abraham himself possessed as it was given to him by God.
And so we come to this wonderful passage. we come to this wonderful thing that happens , this interaction between Jesus and this Gentile woman of Canaan.
So how does the New Testament relate to the Old Testament?
There are those who suggest that the Old Testament is perhaps useful to us in the sense that we can derive little Bible lessons . They would say the Old Testament is kind of moralized to show us good examples of how to live
They would say we can’t really apprehend the promises of God from the Old testament if we are a Gentile Christian.
They would say those promises are not ours so long as we are a Gentile and even if we are Christians in Christ.
So for that reason, there is this kind of undue separation between the New Testament and the Old Testament where the continuity of faith is broken between the Old Testament and the New Testament.
This makes me want to say that for all the differences that exist between the Old Testament and the New Testament, we know this, the great many of these differences are explained by covenant and explained by typology.
Biblical typology refers to the study of how certain events, persons, or institutions in the Old Testament prefigure and foreshadow the life and work of Jesus Christ in the New Testament.
But for all of those differences, one thing remains the same from both the Old Testament to the New Testament is the one faith delivered all for all to the saints, right?
That Faith remains the same.
And when we say that faith remains the same, what we have to mean is that faith had the same object.
And I am going to put it in Old Testament terms,, namely the Messiah, the serpent crusher, and in the New Testament terms, Christ Jesus, kind of the fuller revelation of who the Messiah is in the New Testament.
So there are other words we can use in the New testament to describe the Messiah, that stays the same.
But the other thing that stays the same, this is really important, is what that faith apprehends.
So the object of our faith as Christians is Christ, The object of the Jews faith under the Old Testament if they were true and truly believing Jews was Christ, right?
But that also means because of what we read in both the Old and New Testaments, that such a faith worked by God unites us to Christ, that we have an actual union with Christ wherein all of the blessings and benefits that Christ secured for us on the cross.
For the Old Testament saints, this would have been retroactive, right?
They are looking ahead and receiving these things by faith, though they are not experiencing them in the there and now.
We are looking back and still receiving the same things by faith that we have more than the Old Testament saints did.
And of course, the Old Testament saints and the New Testament saints will be brought up to speed with one another on that glorious day when Christ raises the dead.
But what that means is when we are talking about union with Christ, is that the whole Christ is received even by the Old Testament saints.
The Old Testament saints receive the whole and complete Christ .
They did not receive part of Christ.
maybe in terms of their earthly experience, they didn’t receive or experience as much as we do, but they received it in remotion.
Think of it like this, kind of like the heir to the throne doesn’t sit on the throne while his father yet lives, but he receives his inheritance in remotion.
There is a sense in which he really possesses that inheritance. it is as good as his , but he won’t experience the effect of that inheritance until his father passes away and he rises to the throne.
It is kind of like that for the Old Testament saints and for the New Testament saints.
The Old Testament saints to a greater degree, they didn’t have as much revelation as we do now.
They received everything we do now in remotion, right?
They were looking forward to it. it was as good as theirs.
And, still for us as New Testament Christians, we look forward to a great many things, namely the glorification, the resurrection of the body, and all of these things.
We receive those things in remotion.
But there is language in the Bible that suggests that those things are as good as ours.
There is language that we are seated with Christ in the heavens although we are not there now, meaning we are not experiencing what it is like to be in heaven right now, yet it is as good as ours.
Now by faith, which is the substance of things hoped for.
And so we can say we possess Christ.
We have Christ even though He is in heaven and He has us even though we are on earth.
This is a very beautiful concept, that we have the concept of true and saving faith when God works it in someone and unites them to Christ and they have all the blessings and benefits of the whole Christ.
That is one thing, as we identify differences and points of continuity between the Old and New Testaments.
One thing we have to make sure is the same is the object of faith is the same.
And if we maintain that the object of faith is the same, we also have to maintain that object right comes to us as a whole Christ and everything He secures for us as our mediator, as our Messiah.
With these points in mind, we are talking about who is the Old Testament written to?
I want to show that the mind of God, God being omniscient, God understanding the big picture much better than we understand it, much better than the prophets understood it, much better than anyone who was involved in writing Scripture under the influence of the Holy Spirit understood it.
God understands it much better than all of us.
God, knowing the end from the beginning from the end is able to intend His word to whomever He wants to intend His word.
I want to back this up with some relevant scripture.
We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Let every one of us please his neighbour for his good to edification. For even Christ pleased not himself; but, as it is written, The reproaches of them that reproached thee fell on me. For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.
That is a quotation from Psalm 69 verse 9 from the Old Testament.
Keep in mind when reading this, Paul is writing to the Gentiles .
He is writing with an eye towards the church.
Paul is writing with a view here whatever things were written, whatever things are inspired of God, they were termed to be Scripture authoritatively.
Now look at this.
Now I say that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers: And that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy; as it is written, For this cause I will confess to thee among the Gentiles, and sing unto thy name.
This is quoted from Psalms 18:49.
These are texts that directly help us in terms of relating the Old Testament with the New Testament.
Now let us get back to our Scripture today
Notice this verse from our passage today
But he answered her not a word. And his disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away; for she crieth after us.
Notice in this verse where the disciples come and urge Jesus saying send her away for she cries out after us.
Now reading this in the English language, it seems to entail or imply that the disciples were wanting Jesus to do what the Pharisees, Sadducees, and scribes would have wanted Him to do.
This was to kind of send her away. She is not worthy of us, right?
That is not what they may have been saying, I believe they saying to set her free, release her, untie her.
And so it is this idea of granting her a request, for her daughter to be healed so she would go away and leave them alone.
So, unloose her daughter for this woman cries out after us.
So, I don’t think their tone is so much, just cancel this woman, send her away. We are annoyed by her.
I think they have been through this bevy of experiences with Jesus and they have seen what he can do.
They have seen Him minister to Gentiles.
I believe this was a humble request to Jesus from the disciples to loose her.
So they have some compassion on this woman, but Jesus challenges them and He pushes back
But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
Jesus is being serious but in a way that tests the vision and the kind of understanding of the disciples.
So He is pushing back on them to test them and to try them.
Now they should have known that Jesus is expanding His ministry, that He is going beyond just the Jewish population.
They have seen Him do it up to this point.
I think Jesus is testing them .
Now He is not lying, because it is true that He was sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
But is that it? Is that all that He was sent to accomplish?
And , the answer of course is “no”.
As we see in both of the Old Testament and the New Testament, we know He was sent to accomplish a bigger purpose, a purpose that expands beyond the House of Israel.
This is Jesus challenging His disciples.
But then this happens
Then came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me.
So she is imploring Him once more, and He answered her with this
But he answered and said, It is not meet to take the children’s bread, and to cast it to dogs.
So He tests His disciples, and now He is testing her.
Her response is staggering because instead of slipping into despair or getting angry, she demonstrates a patience and a persistence that is natural to the kind of faith that God gives to His people.
And she said, Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table.
And so she is continuing to seek the Lord even after receiving this kind of push back.
Think about it, the kind of response that Jesus renders in verse 26 is kind of playing off of what would have been the traditional Jewish response to the Gentiles.
The traditional response from the Jewish religious elite to this woman would have been along these lines.
So Jesus is playing on their words as a means of trying this woman’s faith.
And in verse 28, Jesus commends her faith.
Then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour.
So what we have here is a woman who is a Gentile receiving blessing and benefit from Jesus Christ.
Now Jesus is playing on the kind of religious elitism of the Pharisees and scribes of the day to challenge the faith of this woman.
Is this woman going to submit and slip into despair, or is she going to get angry?
Or is she going to humbly, yet persistently and boldly pursue Jesus for His mercies?
That is exactly what she does here.
Now why does the relationship of the Old Testament and the New Testament come into this?
Why does the relationship between Jew and Gentile come into this?
It comes into this because this is a passage that helps us understand that relationship because what Jesus is doing here is He is offering to the woman who is Gentile, what the religious Jews thought themselves only to be worthy of.
And this is a clear picture of Gentile addition within the new covenant.
This is a clear picture of Gentile addition within the people of god, or the household of faith, right?
This is a clear picture of a woman receiving promises and receiving benefits and blessings that were thought only to the Jewish people according to the religious elites.
Of course, if we read the Old Testament, we know that the Gentiles were going to be included in God’s plan of redemption, but we also know how the Jewish religion is being sold to the people under the teachings of the religious elites.
This text tells us a great deal.
It tells us about our Lord’s plan.
One of the things that is fun to think about is how God’s plan is an unified plan from the beginning to end.
One of the things that really helps us to tie the Bible together is to realize that the sin problem began before there was a Jewish nation, right?
The sin problem begins in Genesis chapter 3 with Adam and Eve and the first transgression at the prompting of the serpent.
It begins all the way back then, and actually the first promise that God registers in terms of redemption is issued before there was a Jewish nation.
That promise is in Genesis 3.
And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
That is the Messiah, right?
That is Christ.
All of this happens before there is a Jewish nation.
The Jewish nation comes along in service to those promises that were registered in Scripture before there was a Jewish nation.
What does that mean?
In other words, the Jewish nation is not the point of the redemptive narrative.
The Jewish nation is in service to the broader redemptive narrative, which of course is Christ and Christ’s kingdom, and Christ’s mission, and what Christ accomplishes, which is promised before a Jewish nation is ever a symbol.
The one thing we need to know about the gospel is that Christ has made two groups of people into one body such as we see the Scripture now in Colossians and elsewhere that tell us that there is no longer Jew nor Greek, right?
Let us look at this example
There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.
Paul is not saying there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, there is no distinction between slave and free, there is no distinction between male and female.
We know there are natural distinctions between these things. That is not what Paul is trying to say.
There is obviously natural distinction between male and female.
There is obviously natural economic distinction between slave and free men, and there is obviously ethnic distinction between Jew and Gentile.
What Paul is saying is that ethnic distinction, distinction in class, or even that distinction in gender doesn’t determine your status in the context of this new covenant.
It does not determine who you are or what you are in this new covenant.
Everyone is this new covenant has all of the blessings and benefits that this new covenant has to offer.
If you are in Christ, it does not matter if you are Jew or Greek.
It doesn’t matter if you are slave or free.
It doesn’t matter if you are male or female.
You are heirs according to the promise.
You are Abraham’s seed, you are his descendants if you are in Christ, if you belong to Christ.
That’s it.
That is the only distinguishing factor that matters when it comes to being Abraham’s seed or when kit comes to being heirs to the promise.
And that is for both Jew and Gentile.
Here is the point
Give none offence, neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the church of God:
Notice that Paul is not saying the church of God is a predominantly Gentile institution, nor is he saying it is a predominantly Jewish institution, but it is it’s own entity.
So this means if you were once a Jew and now you are in Christ, you are part of the church, you are a Christian.
And if you were a Gentile and now you are in Christ, you are part of the church, you are a Christian.
This goes along the language of a new creation, right?
It goes along with the language, you are a new man, you have put on a new man.
it is a new creation.
This is a new thing.
Closing prayer for thanks
Thank everyone for their time and invite comments for the service.
