Where Are You Going?

Thank you very much, Kerr and Corbin. Appreciate that special music. And good afternoon to everyone. Good afternoon from where I am. For some of you, probably good morning, or at another time watching this on a delayed basis. But it's good to be able to speak with all of you that are tuning into our service here from Cincinnati today on the Sabbath day during the Days of Unleavened Bread. It's been obviously an unusual period for us all as we have kept the Passover and the night to be in more or less a lockdown quarantine situation. It's given us a lot of opportunities to think about the original Passover in Exodus 12. And someone had written to me, one of our pastors wrote to me and said that as we were about to take the Passover, he said, this year it'll be just me alone without a congregation. And he said, it's like a personal appointment with our Savior. And I had to think about that. What a great deal. That really did bring it another depth of meaning to the Passover service as it was. The night to be observed for us was also unique, special. My wife, Debbie, and I kept it alone in our home. And we had not been at a night to be observed in our own home for probably eight or nine years. It seems like recent years, we've just been traveling during that time and in other locations. And so we had another night to be in our home after nearly a decade. And so Debbie pulled out an interesting notebook that she has kept. And it really added to the meaning of the evening for both of us. For a number of years, my wife has kept a kind of a hospitality notebook of people who have come into our home for various meals. She writes down all the what she served and what they had and then who comes and what we did. And she had all the night to be observed in our home going back to 1984. And so we had a really enjoyable time just before we had our meal and just paging through her diary and remembering people who had been in our home for the night to be much observed. And the meals that we had, the great meals, very nice. But the names of people that in many cases we just have not seen in many, many years as we've gone our separate ways, but brought back a lot of memories, which is what in part the Holy Days do and the night to be observed is a very special occasion like that. And that was a kind of a very thoughtful and reflective occasion that Debbie and I had as we kept the night to be. And I hope that as you kept yours, the same was for you. And you're having a very good festival of Unleavened Bread at this time. Back in the 1970s and I think into the 1980s on American television, there was a kind of a crime detective drama called Columbo. Some of us will remember that show.

Of course, it's been in reruns for a number of years and you can see that as well.

Peter Falk was the actor who played Columbo, Inspector Columbo, who was a detective and kind of a disheveled, bumbling persona that he developed in that character. But he was really sharp up here. He used that, the character kind of disarmed people, but he knew exactly what he was doing. And he had one feature that was kind of his trademark, as he would be interrogating people, investigating a crime, whatever. He would kind of pretend to leave, walk away, then he would turn and he would say, I just have one more question, one more question. And it was usually that question that would begin to solve the mystery and unravel everybody's alibis, etc., and would lead to the conclusion of the story. One more question. You have to ask the right question. And Columbo, as they wrote that script, knew how to get to the right question to get to the answer that was really important. You know, when you stop and think about that, it is important in our lives to ask the right question. We can ask a lot of questions. My eldest grandson for years, in his earlier years, he would ask about 100 questions a day. His parents had to ration his questions after a while and limit them to maybe 40. And at 40, he got it cut off. But just questions, questions, questions. A lot of children do that. But the key to a lot of life is to ask the right question. Think about that for a moment.

There's a lot of famous questions from history, probably the one that came to my mind. I wrote it down. I'll share it with you. Some of us will remember. Again, it kind of dates us, me and a few of us here. But back in 1973, going back a few years, the Watergate hearings were taking place in the United States. The investigation into this crime that had been a break-in at the Watergate apartment complex in Washington, D.C., that ultimately led to the indictment and a lot of people very close to the president, then Richard Nixon, and eventually an entire congressional investigation into everything. And the Watergate hearings and the impeachment trial and everything that took place. There was one moment that stands out in that, and I remembered it to this day, there was a senator, his name was Howard Baker, from the great state of Tennessee, that at one point in one of the questionings of people who were close to President Nixon, he asked this question, what did the president know, President Nixon, and when did he know it?

What did he know, and when did he know it? Now, Senator Baker asked the question, in his mind, to kind of protect the president because they were both Republicans. But that one question actually opened up the cans of information that led to the ultimate resignation of President Richard Nixon, the first setting president in American history, and the only one to resign while in office. What did the president know, and when did he know it, about the Watergate break-in and the subsequent efforts to cover it all up? So it was the right question because it led to the answers that, in that case, people wanted to know about that entire drama and scandal that was taking place. So again, you have to get to the right question. You know, when you look in the Bible, there are a number of interesting questions that are extremely important.

What is truth? is one of them, asked by Pontius Pilate of Jesus Christ on the night of his arrest before his death. What is truth? Excellent question. Christ Himself, during his ministry, asked a question to His disciples. He said, Who do you say that I am? Who do you say that I am? And the answer to that question is, again, another tremendous wealth of understanding. Job, in chapter 14, verse 24, asks the well-known question, If a man die, will he live again? So the Bible has a number of very interesting questions as well that are very important. There's one other question that I want to focus on here in my message today. And it was a question that was put out, actually by Christ, again, on the night of the Passover, after He had had the meal, changed the symbols with His disciples, and began there in John to go through a great deal of instruction that we take the time to go through ourselves on the night that we take the New Testament Passover.

He asked a question because He was covering a great deal of information and events there. And it was obvious that the disciples didn't fully understand everything that there was to understand about Christ's life, even at that point in the ministry after three and a half years.

Christ had said quite a bit, He had said to the Jews on one occasion, destroy this temple and I will rebuild it in three days, speaking of His body and the resurrection.

On another occasion, the Jews were wanting a sign of Christ's Messiahship, and He said, there's one sign only, and that'll be the sign of Jonah, who was in the belly of a whale for three days and three nights, so will the Son of Man be in the tomb or in the grave for three days and three nights. That's the only sign you'll get. But His disciples didn't fully understand what He was saying. It had not sunk in, even as late as this night of the Passover. And so, at one point during that meal, after the meal and as Christ was instructing them, Jesus said something that was profound to them, an observation. He told them that they had not asked a critically important question, and so He told them what it was. Turn with me over to John 16. And let's read what that question is that Jesus pointed out to the disciples they had not asked. John 16. Let's begin in verse 1. We'll read a few verses here. These things I've spoken to you that you should not be made to stumble. They will put you out of the synagogues. Yes, the time is coming that whoever kills you will think that He offers God service, and these things they will do to you because they have not known the Father nor me. But these things I have told you that when the time comes you may remember that I told you of them. Now, He told them a great number of things as I pointed out here from this time. And He said that these things I did not say to you at the beginning because I was with you. Verse 5. But now I go away to Him who sent me, and none of you asks me, where are you going?

Christ pointed out to His disciples that they had not asked this question. Where are you going? Where are you going? Why didn't they ask it? He said in verse 6, because I've said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. They knew that this night was a night, a very heavy night. And they had seen a lot building up to it. They knew that as they were in Jerusalem and had been there several days, that this was the Passover and the Holy Day period was coming on. And Christ was quite sorrowful Himself. He had done some dramatic miracles. But they didn't connect all the dots and get it all together. Christ, even earlier that night, beginning in chapter 13, had said that I come from God and I'm going to God.

And Christ had to explain, you haven't asked this important question, where are you going?

So He went on to explain to them and to really give them the answer. And it's in this answer that Christ gave that night to this one question that really begins to open up to us, a dimension of understanding about Christ's role, His purpose today, and why He had to die, and where He was going, and why that was so important to Him to want to see their eagerness and their understanding to unpack and unlock, and actually connect all the dots of all of His years of teaching that they had not yet been able to do. His next statement began to talk about the Holy Spirit and the giving of that Holy Spirit, the very essence of His nature and of the Father, the Spirit essence. The Spirit was the real fabric, if you will, of reality and of the cosmos. And on this darkest of nights, Christ foretold that gift that they would receive because He was going away. Notice in verse 7, I tell you the truth, He says, it is to your advantage that I go away. For if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you, but if I depart, I will send Him to you. So He had to leave, He had to go, and in that going would be His death and His burial. And He knew that His body would be raised up after three days and nights, but that would then enable the sending of the Spirit, the Holy Spirit. And He goes on to talk about that Spirit. When He's come, He'll convict the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment. Of sin because they do not believe in Me. The sin of the world, both the Roman world, the Jewish world, Christ's own people, their sins had just blinded them to understanding who Christ was, His message, and what He was all about. Verse 10, He says, of righteousness because I go to My Father and you see Me no more. And so the righteousness of His own life, the perfection of His life, as the Passover lamb that was a perfectly lived life and the only life that it could be made available as the lamb and a sacrifice for all mankind's sins, He said, I go to the Father and you will see Me no more. Verse 11, of judgment because the ruler of this world is judged. Christ's sacrifice, His death overthrew the realm of Satan and the darkness of the powers of this world, their time was done and they knew it. Alright, with that sacrifice, He drugged them down and He conquered the powers of evil. And so this Passover period and all that was coming to pass had a great deal of teaching and understanding that was important for them to understand, but they were still not able to come to that point. In verse 12, He says, I have many things yet to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all the truth for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears, He will speak and He will tell you things to come.

With the understanding of how the Greek is structured and the fact that the Spirit is not a third person of a Trinitarian idea of the Godhead and the family of God, we understand that this is speaking of the Spirit of God, the essence, the very nature, the divine nature of God being made available, Christ coming to live within His disciples.

And the Father as well. Jesus spoke to this, even in this night as well, that that would take place. But He begins to talk about the Father and the fact that they had understood that the Father had sent Christ. That was one of the critically important matters for the disciples to come to understand and to believe that Christ had come from the Father. But every statement that Christ made about the work of He and the Father indicated a joint effort through and by the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, the very nature and essence of the Father and of Christ, the glorified Christ.

He told them they would not be alone, that both He and the Father would come and be with the disciples. But He had to go first. Verse 16, He says, And again, a little while you will see me because I go to the Father.

Verse 17, some of the disciples then said, what is this? That He says to us a little while and you will not see me. And again, a little while and you will see me because I go to the Father.

Even at that moment, they still did not understand. They didn't understand the question or the answer. There was still a fog in their mind for a period of time. We're going to see, as we move along here, how Christ lifted that fog and what He did to give them a clarity and a focus on all that He was really saying here and that it did finally come to a point where they had their aha moment and they understood that.

He goes on in verse 20, and He says, He goes on to explain about the analogy, the connection to a woman in labor. And in verse 22, therefore, He says, in that day, you will ask in my name, and I do not say to you that I shall pray the Father for you, for the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came forth from God.

And I have come from the Father and have come into the world. And again, I leave the world and go to the Father. Where was Christ going? He was going to the Father, ultimately. And that was the question that they should have come to ask Him, with an understanding that behind that question was the answer that would make all the difference. As I said, there are some important questions that when they're asked and the truth then comes out, it makes all the difference, all the difference in the world.

And that's what's behind this question, all the difference in the world is there for them to understand. To that question from Scripture, we have the answer. Christ begins to give it here. And as I said, the answer makes all the difference, because Scripture tells us what happened. Jesus went out that night.

We know the story. We rehearsed that on a few nights ago on the Passover. He was arrested. He went through a sham trial. He was mocked. He was scourged and beaten. And then He was crucified. And He died that next afternoon for our sins, the sins of the world. And we understand then that from that point that He was put into a tomb.

His body was taken down off of the cross. Joseph of Arimathea claimed it and put His body into a new, uncut, newly cut, unused tomb. And there is where it went for three days and three nights, at the end of which He was resurrected. We study that as one of our fundamental teachings in the United Church of God as we see that truth in Scripture as to what exactly happened. Christ went from that night to His death and then into the tomb. And after three days and three nights, He was resurrected. But He set up going to the Father.

Now let's look at exactly when that took place and what that tells us. Because when we read on further in the Gospel accounts, after three days and three nights, we understand that there was the hurry to put His body into the tomb. It was because of the Holy Day coming on, which was the first day of Unleavened Bread on that week. It happened to be a Thursday as the sequence again follows this year as we're keeping it.

And the Sabbath was there. Then there was the Friday, the second day that the Gospel accounts tell us the women went and bought and prepared spices and ointments to further finish the job of preparing the body in the tomb. There was then the weekly Sabbath that they could not do that. And then came the first day of the week, Sunday, when they would have the opportunity. And this would have been the fourth day of Unleavened Bread, as we understand the sequencing through that, when they went early that next morning before dark, Mary Magdalene and others, to the tomb to finish the job of preparing the body of Jesus in that burial, which tells you something.

They had gone to buy the spices. Then they went to finish the job. They were expecting that body to remain in the grave, even though He had taught them that after three days and nights in the sign of Jonah, He would come out. But it still wasn't registering in their mind, even the women who devoutly served and helped in the ministry there, and at least in their role that they had there.

We turn over to John 20. This scene in the Gospel, we turn to, to tell us something. Because as we know, Christ then came out, He was resurrected at the end of that third day and night, which would have been just as the day was beginning on what we would call the Saturday evening or a Sunday evening. And in that period of time, at the end of three days and nights, He was resurrected. And then the scene opens with the women coming to the tomb. In John, Chapter 20, in the account here, they came. They found that the stone had rolled back when He put all the accounts together, and it was empty.

And they wept, and they thought that perhaps somebody had come and stolen the body, and they inquired. There were angelic appearances there that to tell them what had happened. And then in John's account, Mary turns and she then sees this person that she doesn't recognize to be Christ. But then He speaks to her and He tells her, He says, Mary, in verse 16, and then she said, Rebboni, which is to say teacher, her eyes are open and she understands that she is looking at the resurrected Jesus of Nazareth.

And so He said to her, in verse 17, do not cling to Me, which meant don't touch Me. She obviously made a movement to worship Him, and He said, don't do it. And here's why, for I have not yet ascended to My Father, but go to My brethren and say to them, I am ascending to My Father and your Father.

He had revealed the Father to them, they understood that, and to My God and to your God. He had to ascend to the Father. Now, when again, you put the gospel accounts together, we will turn to all of that here. Just a short time later that morning, the women do cling to His feet and actually touch Him and He does not forbid them at that point. And so sometime from what we read here in John 20, verse 17, to an hour, two hours later, it doesn't get too specific, Christ had ascended to the Father and now they could touch Him.

Now, what had happened? Remember, Christ said, I go to My Father. I was going to My Father. What was taking place? Well, Christ had to be accepted by the Father in what is a very important and vital ceremony that we find mentioned back in Leviticus chapter 23, that was to take place during the days of Unleavened Bread on this very day, the day after the morning, after the Sabbath day within the days of Unleavened Bread.

You find in Leviticus chapter 23, verses 10 and 11, the whole chapter there that has the story of the Holy Days in it, that on that morning, during the days of Unleavened Bread, the priest was to take a sheaf of the first fruits of the early harvest and in a special service in the tabernacle in the wilderness and later in the temple according to the law. That sheaf was a cut sheaf of the first fruit of the very earliest part of the harvest in the land at that time was then offered to God in a special ceremony.

It's called the wave sheaf ceremony. And it was offered up before God, and it is from that point, that morning, that Leviticus 23, verse 16, tells us that you begin to count toward Pentecost. That marks the beginning of the countdown toward Pentecost.

The next festival—actually, there's the last day of Unleavened Bread and then the following festival—fifty days later. And that is all shown there, but it begins with that particular wave sheaf offering. Christ was saying to Mary and to the disciples that I have to ascend to the Father, and Christ then was accepted as the final fulfillment of even that part of the offerings. And we know from the entire life and death of Christ that he embodied and filled all of those physical sacrifices that are part of the Old Covenant experience, the animal sacrifices, the grain sacrifices, His body, His life, His sacrifice, accomplish what all of those could not do, and that is the forgiveness of sin.

And on this one as well, there was this very special moment that Christ had to ascend and be accepted by the Father at that particular point, fulfilling this wave sheaf offering, telling Mary not to touch Him until that was done. And then later in that morning, He had been accepted. Now, I always like to kind of when I teach this in fundamentals of doctrine class at Ambassador Bible College, this is one of those scenes that you start to think about. There are several of them in the Bible about how long does it take to get to the throne of God or to the third heaven. And it's not like you just start going out and you hang a left at Jupiter and straight on to the next galaxy or whatever, an infinity and beyond type thing.

It's nothing like that. Christ was just there. Let's just put it that way. He was there in less than a moment, less than an instant. He went to the Father. And I've often thought about what that scene must have been like as He was accepted as the wave sheaf offering.

The Bible in one sense doesn't really give us an explicit reference to it. I have thought about the scene in Revelation 5 where John has this vision of the throne of God and the Lamb who is worthy to open the seals. To think about that as a little bit of an inkling of what that moment must have been like. And you read Revelation 5 and we sang that song, Worthy is the Lamb, and He was slain. And Christ was accepted, and it must have been a moment. Again, it wasn't a moment because it's an eternity, but it was a point when the plan of God had reached a certain point.

The purpose of God had come to that point now. Christ had been crucified for the sins of mankind. He had lain in the grave for three days and three nights. He was resurrected.

And now He was accepted by the Father. This is really the interesting, fascinating part of what is behind that question that Jesus said, you haven't asked me where I'm going.

Because it begins to unpack all of the reason why He had to not only live, come in the flesh, live a perfect life, die, be resurrected, and then be accepted to then inaugurate, to begin this great plan of God. Because that did represent a moment when the plan of God came to a point where then it could accelerate, if you will, into the fullness of what the Father and the Word had planned from eternity before the foundation of this world. It was why Christ prayed and wanted that glory that He had had with the Father from before time began, before the foundation of the world. And He looked forward to that as He prayed that night before His death, to receive that glory back, the glory that He had given up willingly to come and live in the flesh and to die for the sins of all mankind. And so there was that moment of Christ ascending to the Father. Turn over to Hebrews 9. Perhaps this is the closest we might get to at least getting a glimpse of that scene, that moment, but what is described here in Hebrews 9 says it all, Hebrews 9, beginning in verse 11.

But Christ came as high priest of the good things to come with a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is, not of this creation, not with the blood of goats and calves, all of the sacrificial structure of the Old Covenant or that first covenant made with Israel at Sinai and subsequently, as we know from other places here in Hebrews, that those animal sacrifices were not capable of being an expiation for sin or providing atonement, forgiveness of sin.

He didn't go into the Father. He didn't go to the Father with the blood of any animal. It says, but with His own blood, He entered the most holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. He went through that veil. He went into that holy of holies in heaven, not in a physical temple in heaven. And that's why, of course, when He died, that veil of that temple was literally rent in two in the temple in Jerusalem at the moment of His death. But He went into that temple in heaven, if you will, that most holy place that it is called, once for all, having obtained eternal redemption as the Lamb. That's why that scene in Revelation 5 gives us a scene of or in eternity. It's an ever-present sacrifice. It's an ever-present scene in what eternity is. It's kind of fun to try to imagine eternity. I always follow up short. Most of us probably do to understand that. We're temporal, time and space, God isn't. And those scenes of heaven really give us more than we sometimes stop to think about. But verse 13, for if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit, offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

Christ offered Himself through the eternal spirit without spot, no blemish, a perfect sacrifice.

Verse 15, and for this reason, He is the mediator of a new covenant by means of death for the redemption of the transgression under the first covenant. For those that are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance. And so this passage here in Hebrews 9, I think, can give us a little bit of an understanding of, again, the importance of that question. You don't ask where I'm going, Jesus said. And the answer to the question makes all the difference.

This is part of that answer to that question. He had to go to the Father so that we might have, then, that sacrifice accepted and completely available for us and for all mankind for all time.

The acceptance of Christ as this offering was a critical moment in the plan of God.

His purpose had been there from the beginning of time to gather, as Paul writes in Ephesians 1, to gather all things together in one, all things in Christ that are both in heaven and which are on earth, all gathered in Him, in that sacrifice. That was the purpose. And it had to be done, and He was accepted. And now, at this moment, the life, the death, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ was complete as it was accepted. Christ was triumphant over, and He cast down the dark powers and the forces of evil of this world. He went to the Father, and He was accepted as that offering. And now, from that moment, if you will, from at least as we're concerned, as we think about that moment when it happened for us and within the plan of God, could begin a new covenant relationship with all of mankind through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. And therefore, then, the work of the church could begin. Think about that. The work of the church then could begin. And that is part of that answer. That is part of what Christ wanted His disciples to know.

Again, the question, where are you going? To the presence of God He was going, as King of kings, Lord of lords, and that made all the difference. Christ was going to the Father to begin the next phase of the purpose, the harvest of the first fruits, which is why that count toward Pentecost begins with that wave-sheaf offering on that morning when Christ Himself then fulfilled all of that. As we begin that count to that time, then the church could begin. And the work of the church, which is really Christ's body, He is the head of the church, the church is to do the same work that Christ did and began here. He now does it through the church, but that could begin.

That's why the connection to Pentecost is so important with first fruits. But the disciples, they had many things to learn in order to take their place along with the prophets as the foundation of the church, as Paul would later write in Ephesians 2.

They had a lot of things to learn because they had not even asked the most important question, where are you going? And they had not yet fully grasped all that was involved in the sacrifice of Christ. They were shattered with His death. They were fearful and they were doubting.

They had to learn more about the Scriptures more fully.

They had to be, in a sense, restored and brought back together in a relationship with each other, with Jesus, and more finely tuned in unity for the greater work that they had to do.

Christ had to go to the Father to inaugurate all of this and more, all of this and more.

That was the all-important question that He wanted them to ask because that held the answers of that night. And all of this, then, as we see here, it begins during these very days of unleavened bread that we are in the midst of here at this time. And as we eat unleavened bread, as we have examined ourselves, taken the Passover, put the leaven out, eat the unleavened bread on a daily basis, and think about its spiritual meaning, the impact of that being delivered from sin, but also putting sin out of our life by the unleavened life of Jesus Christ that we put within us through the Spirit. The unleavened bread that we eat gives us a wonderful teaching and symbol of that, all of it, in the ultimate key of overcoming sin and our life.

When we think about that and we go back to that question, we know the answer. Maybe it's not the question for us to ask at this time when we think about this in our own life. Where are you going? As I've just read, we know from the story where He did go and why. But, you know, there's other questions for us to ask. And just as that one question made all the difference, the questions that we ask and we think about in the setting of Unleavened Bread, Days of Unleavened Bread, Christ's Sacrifice, and what He began to do even with His disciples as we look at that. And we relate it to where we are right now. There's a lot for us to consider and to bring into this moment in history that we are living through right now. A pandemic. Unbelievable experience for all of us.

We're living a history that we cannot imagine. We're keeping the holy days that left us into a spiritual story and spiritual history that we understand more and more as we keep those days year by year in our lives. But we've come to a moment, an interesting year, 2020, Passover, Unleavened Bread, and what has happened. It is a moment. You know, we've been teaching Ambassador Bible College online for the last few weeks. We're on a spring break right now. We'll start up here another week and we'll be online. And we hope we can get all the students back together for at least a short time before the graduation period. But we just hope it will happen. But while we were teaching classes online the last few weeks, I teach the World News and Prophecy Bible class. And I'm going through Revelation right now. And I couldn't have a better moment to go through the book of Revelation in ABC. And as one of the students said, typed in a little chat message on Teams, one of the classes, hey, we're living prophecy right now.

And I said, yeah, that's true. That's exactly right. As we look at this pandemic, we should consider a few things. You know, this is not a man. This is a rogue virus that has jumped to humans. And the study of viruses itself is interesting to just understand what they are, how they work, and what has happened. But in this case, it's jumped to humans and it's spread rapidly around the world to more than 180 plus nations, so quickly and so rapidly.

But it's a part of nature, the virus, the disease, and therefore it is of God in the sense that as God has set this world in motion and these things happen, it is a part of God's purpose and plan for life on this earth. God is not off and away from all of this. He knows exactly what has happened. It is part of what He allows by the very nature of the creation and of the cosmos, as much as an earthquake, a volcano, a typhoon, a hurricane. He knows what's happening with this and He's directing its course. I have no doubt of that in my mind. I think for those of us in the Church, we have got to take notice of what is happening. And we in the Church cannot evade this moment that we are living through right now and let it pass and take it for granted and miss, miss the full biblical meaning of what is happening and what we should learn.

I don't think that we should wait this out and just wait and expect everything to return to normal.

But think about that. I know we all want to get back to a normal life.

Jobs with people around. I think in most cases, anyway. Travel.

But everything has been disrupted. Everything has been put on hold.

And I want this suffering to end and I want the deaths to stop and to be minimized and stop. We've had members in the United Church of God to die from this COVID-19.

We have had people afflicted by it even as we speak and we pray for them. We pray for their families. We have not been completely spared in the Church from all of this and that way.

But yeah, I want to get back to normal and to a sense of normalcy and be able to turn on and see a baseball game and other things in that way. But when I say we shouldn't expect a return to normal, what do I mean? What I think we should do in the Church is take this as a moment when God is pausing in amidst the nations, examining the nations and giving us an opportunity in the Church to examine ourselves so that we might come to where we ask the right questions and use this as an opportunity and not be as the disciples that night who didn't ask the one question Christ said that they should have asked. Maybe we should ask ourselves, what is Christ doing in His Church? What should we in the Church learn from this? What is Christ doing in the Church at this moment? Part of the answer is He's doing the same thing that He's always been doing. He's preparing a place for us. This is what He explained again back on that night. He said, I go to prepare a place for you. That job, that role and that preparation has been going on from what He began then after His resurrection and it's being done today.

We're being prepared through this moment with this pandemic in the Church for the marriage to the Lamb. That's part of the answer. But I think we could all come up with more to that as we study the Scriptures. Here's another question perhaps for us to ask. Do we see your calling?

Do we see your calling? It's the same question that the Apostle Paul asked.

What was his answer? Sons of God. We are called not because of greatness but because of God's glory. But we're called to a work. We're called to a job. And we should, I think, fervently want to be about our Father's business when this passes with a greater fervency. We should want to see God's kingdom come and His will be done with a greater passion in the Church than we had just a few weeks ago before all of this began. These two questions, what is Christ doing? Do we see our calling? And we could ask other questions. These are the answers to those questions can make all the difference.

We should not want to return to normal, spiritually speaking, when it comes to our calling and our part in the Church. Think about the disciples. Their life did not go back to normal after that night. It did not. Now, they couldn't even watch and wait and pray with Christ. They fell asleep in the garden while He was praying fervently before His arrest. They couldn't do that. And then, as we know, they were scattered. Peter denied Christ. They were frightened.

That was an event that just demoralized them for the moment. But when it all began to come back together after the resurrection, their lives did not return to normal. Should ours, spiritually? The disciples never had the same life again. Stop and think about it. They began to receive some very intensive teaching from Jesus Christ, and it went on for 40 days, the resurrected Christ. When you put together the scenes and the gospel accounts of what Jesus did with them, after He was accepted, after He had gone to the Father and then began to appear to them and began to work with them for 40 days, we're told. And then the last 10 leading up to Pentecost, He was still working with them, but not in a sense in person or in a bodily form that they could see. But for 40 days, He did. What did He do with them? Well, when you read the accounts, they were fearful. They were doubting. Christ had to deal with that.

They didn't even believe He was resurrected. Women came and reported it. They said, oh, you're crazy. They had to run and see it themselves. And then they still didn't believe it.

And then He appeared before them, and even doubting Thomas had to see the wounds in his hand before He believed. There was a great deal of fear and doubt that it took a while to wash out of their life because of what had happened. And one scene in Mark tells us that they had such unbelief that they had a hardness of heart about them. And Christ said, basically, get yourselves up from the table and get out and preach the gospel because they had a hardened heart of unbelief.

These were the very disciples with whom Christ had lived and taught for three and a half years.

They had to have some of their relationships restored. Remember what I like to call the fish fry on the shore of Galilee that John tells us about? And looking directly at Peter and telling him, do you love me? Do you love me? Do you love me? Feed my sheep. And Peter, who had denied him, was embarrassed in front of everybody, but Christ restored him. And in doing so, He was restoring all of them to a relationship among themselves because they were going to need that unity.

They were going to need that more than ever before with what they were going into. Their lives were not the same again. There was no normal for them to go back to.

This is what happened during that 40-day period with the disciples. Christ took them through a deep, intensive study of the Scriptures to explain what had happened and how He had fulfilled them. You read about that as well. They had a lot of Bible studies. And we only get a very small part of what happened in the Gospel accounts. John says, listen, if I told you everything, we'd need a whole library to write it all down.

But they had some intensive Bible studies there that prepared them in that 40-day period with Christ as He didn't have the Bible to kind of flip through. But He explained Isaiah to them. He explained Amos to them and Jeremiah and the Pentateuch and how that applied to Him.

And that was part of their preparation as well for that time.

Their lives were never the same again. There was no normal to go back to.

I think we should ask ourselves that as well. Do we want to really go back to normal, spiritually, or do we want to have really learned from this life-changing experience of living in a pandemic and seeing what has happened in the United States, in Europe, in Africa, in Asia, and other places?

And should we not want to learn the deepest spiritual lessons that we have?

You know, a few years ago, one of our ministers, Robert Faye, who's now deceased, came up with a very interesting line that has stayed with us. And we still quote it from time to time. Bob Faye once said in a sermon, I've read to the end of the book and we win.

I've read to the end of the book, meaning the Bible, and we win. You know, through all the trials, through all the difficulties, through all the tribulation, personal and historic and prophetic, we win. God wins. That's the end of the book. And that's comforting and that's encouraging. And as we watch what's taking place now, we wonder, where does it all lead? We get questions and is this the fourth horse of the apocalypse of Revelation 6? Is this what, you know, that ride of pestilence? Short answer is no. That's an even bigger time of pandemic. But we're getting a foretaste of it, certainly with what we're taking place right now. But you know, Bob Faye said, I've read to the end of the story. Here's something for us all to consider.

If we're going to read to the end of the story, we need to read through the book of Revelation.

And for some of us, it might not have been students of prophecy or thinking that it's too hard to understand, or it's too speculative, or I'd rather read a nice, comfortable psalm or proverb or sermon on the Mount. Feel good, not hard prophecy. Maybe we need to blow the dust off of those portions of our Bible and read them, and especially the book of Revelation, to dispel our doubt and fear right now, to study deeper into the scriptures, to labor in the Word a little deeper to understand what the Father in Christ wants us to do, and a deeper understanding and relationship with them as we build courage and faith today, and dispel doubt, fear, or whatever measure of unbelief might be within us.

If we're going to get to the end of the story and see the hope, we've got to read through the story.

And it might be time for us all to rededicate ourselves in so many different ways to the study of God's Word, to the very work itself. We still have day to work.

We still have daylight to do the work of God. I'm convinced of that. We're going to come out of this period. We're going to recover, the nations will, America and Europe and other countries. The Church of God is going to have more time to do its work and to accomplish its mission. I'm convinced of that. And we will have to be sharp in our focus, sharper than we are now and have been before all this started. Firm are in our commitment to rise to the challenges that are ahead of us in the Church to accomplish the work that God has. What kind of world is going to emerge out of this pandemic? It's going to be interesting to see. I read a lot of reports and have even experienced a few. Some say that the trauma of this pandemic is going to bring a sense of community among people. And I can see that in certain ways. My wife is not able, because the YMCA shut down so she can't do her water aerobics at the Y right now. And so she gets out every morning and walks. And in our neighborhood, there's a nice lake as part of the development and a little park area with a bench on it. She usually winds up there at the end of her walk, just sitting on the bench looking out at the water and talking to God and organizing her thoughts for the day. And one of the mornings she was doing this during the pandemic, a young lady sets down beside her on the bench, introduces herself, she starts talking to someone in the neighborhood.

She's a youth minister, youth pastor in one of the local congregations there in Batavia. And she starts talking to my wife about what's going on and then asks, can I pray for something? Is there something in your life that I can pray about or pray for? And my wife gave her something to pray for. They had a very nice moment. And you read of situations where people helping each other.

We're all in this together, all of these things. And in so many different ways, these things are good. And we hope and pray that they will continue this shared experience of suffering that bring people together and bring out the better angels of our nature. We hope and pray that that can, in so many different ways, make an impact. Probably one of the saddest things that I have noticed is I've, and this has happened to some of our own members, where members' families have died. And they cannot be there in the hospital with them or have a proper grieving period through a funeral service. One of our pastors wrote me a note that he had gone to the funeral of a member and it was during this pandemic. And the restrictions that were put upon them just inhibited the time of everybody being together, grieving, and helping the mate of the deceased.

And he was describing to me just how kind of awkward it was, having to deal with the restrictions that were there. And when you hear people, one other member's mother I had read had died in the hospital, and she was not able to be there when her mother died because of the restrictions there. Those are some of the sad situations that we deal with and we look at and recognize are part of what has taken place. When it's over, when all this is behind us, we're going to see a lot of different things. The normal events that have been there, the culture wars, they're going to come right back with a terror, with a vengeance. They're not over. Other events in the world are going to pick up where we left off. I do think in the church that we need to dust off the prophecies and come to a deeper understanding of exactly where we are. And the book of Revelation is a good place to begin, most of all because we do have understanding. We have some answers that can make all the difference. Can we pray that God would revive His work now? Can it begin with us?

A revival, a renewal, a dedication, a resurgence of commitment to the work, a commitment to service, to love? All the things that Christ did in that period with His disciples. If you stop and look at those episodes very carefully, He had to dispel doubt and fear, give them courage. He had to teach them the deeper truths of Scripture that they had missed in the years with Him. He had to get them ready to go out and preach the gospel. He had to restore their relationships and teach them about love and service to one another because that's what they were going to need to deal with, the life they had, the new normal of preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ and the kingdom of God to the world, which we see that they went about to do.

What kind of renewal can we find about ourselves and our seriousness, a renewed dedication to God, to the part that we have to play in His church and in His work?

We need to turn the question, where are you going? To what is He doing? And what will we do? What will we accomplish? Ask yourself, of all that's changed in your routine during these weeks, what can you permanently leave out and not bring back in?

Or what should remain that you've had the time now to do?

Ask yourself those questions. Christ put courage into His disciples and He taught them the deeper truths of Scripture and He taught them that love and strong relationships would be their strongest asset. So, Christ wanted the disciples to ask a question that they didn't come to. He gave them the answer. And as we've seen, the answer to that question and any other question that we might ask makes all the difference. Let's determine to ask the right questions in our relationship with God during this time so that we are more dedicated, more firmly committed to God, to His Word, to His Church, and to the work that He has given to us as His disciples going forward to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and the Kingdom of God.