2 Samuel 22:31-37; Philippians 3:10-11
In the Christian life, it is easy to get sidetracked.  We need to be clear and focused at all times on what it is we are after.  What is the goal of the Christian life?  If we forget it, we’re not likely to achieve it.  In our text, the apostle Paul nicely sums up what we’re supposed to be aiming at.  Paul says that the goal of the Christian life is to know Christ and to be like Him.
 
That’s it!  Christianity is definitely not a religion of rules and rituals that we must work at keeping in order to climb the ladder to heaven.  Rather, it is a personal, growing relationship with the risen, living Lord Jesus Christ that results in our growing conformity to Him.  Our goal is to know Him and to become like Him.  As our post Easter series, today and next week, we will be looking at Philippians 3:10-11.  What is the goal of the Christian life?
 
In Philippians 3:10-11, we read, “I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead.”
 
First: The Goal of the Christian Life is to Know ChristOur primary call is to know Christ.  ““I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings,” says Paul in Philippians 3:10.  Christianity is primarily a growing relationship with the infinite God who has revealed Himself through the Lord Jesus Christ.
 
As with all relationships, it begins with an initial meeting or introduction.  In Paul’s case, it was not a planned introduction.  Paul wasn’t seeking after Christ, inquiring as to how he could become a Christian.  Far from it!  “Breathing threats and murder,” he was on his way to Damascus to arrest men and women who were followers of Jesus, when suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him.  He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?”  He answered, “Who are You, Lord?” The Lord said, “I am Jesus whom you are persecuting” Acts 9:1-6.  So Paul met the risen Lord Jesus Christ.
 
If we go around the room this morning and ask how did you meet Christ.  We would hear many different stories.  Some may have met Christ as young children, reared in Christian homes; others may have met Him later in life.  It may have been a traumatic situation, where in a moment of crisis you called out to God and were saved.  It may have been less dramatic, so that you can’t even recall the exact time or place.  Some were looking for God; others weren’t looking at all.  Some met God when things were going well; others met God when they were broken.  But one thing is certain: If you are truly a Christian, you know Jesus Christ personally.  You don’t just know about Him; you know Him.  You can say with Paul that He is “Christ Jesus my Lord.”
 
That relationship with Jesus Christ begins at the moment we recognize that our sins have separated us from God and that we need a Savior.  We also realize that we cannot save ourselves from God’s judgment through our efforts or good works.  Letting go of all human merit, you call upon the Lord to be merciful to you based on the merits of the death of His Son Jesus.  Your object of trust for commending yourself to God shifts from self to Christ.  You are saved. You have met Jesus Christ personally.
 
Cultivating that Relationship
Like any relationship, once you’ve met, you must cultivate that relationship.  Our personal relationship with Christ requires cultivation and that requires time.  Do you often make time to spend with the Lord?  It’s sure easy for that first love to cool off, and the quiet time between you and the Lord gets squeezed out with other things.  Are we seeking to know Christ in a more intimate way?  Are we opening our heart to Him, so that He could confront us, cleanse us, and make us more like Himself? 
 
Friends, our Triune God is infinite and altogether apart from us.  We can never come to know Him through philosophy or speculation.  We can’t know Him through our own imagination or feelings.  We can’t know Him through the ideas or experiences of others.  We can only know Him as He has chosen to reveal Himself.  That revelation comes through His written Word which tells us of the eternal living Word, the Lord Jesus Christ – Hebrews 1:1-3.  “To know Him …” it won’t happen if you aren’t committed to becoming a man or woman of the Word.
 
Knowledge and Obedience
But, there’s a word of caution here.  It’s possible to gain knowledge about Christ through studying His Word, and yet not grow to know Christ Himself through His Word.  In fact, you can read and study your Bible all your life and never get to know Jesus in an intimate way!  The goal of Bible study is always growing obedience so that we can get to know the Lord Jesus better.  In Matthew 5:19 Jesus said, “But anyone who obeys God’s laws and teaches them will be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven.”
 
“I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection.”  Paul's use of the term “knowledge” doesn't derive from the Greek mystery religions or philosophical schools that abounded in his day, but from the Hebrew Scriptures. 
 
In the Old Testament, knowledge in Hebrew is “yāda”.  “Yāda” denotes living in a close relationship with somebody; such a relationship would result in what we may call communion or deep fellowship with Christ.  The prophets look forward to that day of intimately knowing God, intimately communing and fellowshipping with Him.  “No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, 'Know (yāda`) the Lord,' because they will all know (yāda`) me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the Lord.  “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more” Jeremiah 31:34.  This longing to know God has found fulfillment under the New Covenant, the Covenant of Grace, because of God the Holy Spirit who can reveal to us the very mind of Christ as we see in 1 Corinthians 2:16.
 
We will not know, we won’t experience, the power of Christ’s resurrection until we have the time and the desire to know Him, to commune with him, to fellowship with Him. But Philippians 3:11 puts “becoming like Him” as the ultimate goal of following Christ.  Does this desire consume you?  How can we develop this passion?  I will say more about this next Sunday, Lord willing.  In the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Amen!
First Presbyterian Church of Blackwood                          
21 E. Church Street
Blackwood, NJ 08012                                                                              
Sermon Notes (Sunday April 28, 2019)
Rev. Dr. Mouris A. Yousef, Pastor

                                                              Luke 24:1-12

It is rightly said that the resurrection of the Lord Jesus is not the epilogue, not the end to the story.  It is not the epilogue to the life of Christ.  It is the goal of His life; it is the purpose of His life.  The church has always understood that.  In fact, the church understood it right from the day of the resurrection on.  For since that time, the church has chosen to meet on Sunday, the first day of the week, the day that Jesus rose from the dead, to commemorate the most important event in His life, and the most important event in human history ~ His resurrection from the dead.  
 
The church did not choose to meet on Friday.  The church chose to meet on Sunday, because Sunday is the interpretation of Friday.  Easter is the interpretation of Good Friday.  Resurrection is the divine interpretation of the death of Christ.  Resurrection is the divine vindication of the work that He did on the cross.  Without the resurrection, the cross means nothing, for it has no validation, it has no vindication, it has no affirmation.  But when God raised Jesus from the dead, He was affirming, and validating, and vindicating the fact that He had indeed borne our sins in His own body on the cross, and had satisfied the justice of God with His sin-bearing.  Without the resurrection, the cross is meaningless, just another death.
 
The Easter Story: The Old and New Truth
While the Easter story may be new to some of us today, most of you have heard it many times.  Yet, we have been looking forward all year to hearing it again.  Jesus having died back on Friday, and the Sabbath not being an appropriate day for final burial preparations, the women arrive at the tomb early Sunday morning to get to work.  Arms full of spices, sleeves rolled up, for the sad task of embalming their dear friend and teacher.
 
When they get there, instead of a dead body, they find an empty tomb, and men in dazzling clothes offering them these strange, but encouraging words: “Why do you seek the living among the dead? Don’t you remember what he told you?  He is risen!”  The women run back to relay the joyful tidings to “the eleven” (that’s the 12 disciples, minus Judas) and to the rest.
 
As adults we can get caught up sometimes in analyzing stories, in debating this or that detail, or wondering why it was told in such and such a way.  But think about how children respond to a well-told story.  Those of you who are parents or grandparents, those of you who are teachers, you know.  The minute you finish their favorite book, what’s a child most likely to say?  “Again!  Again!  Tell it again!”  No matter that they’ve heard it a hundred times.  No matter that they’ve got the whole story memorized by now.  The hearing of it – again – brings them such joy.  So we flip back to page 1, and we tell their favorite story again.  The very best stories are well worth hearing again and again.  So back to today’s story.
The Disciples of Jesus and the Resurrection
The eleven disciples had trouble believing the women who had just come from the empty tomb.  For any of them, it would have been one thing to hear Jesus talk about His resurrection ahead of time, and quite another to believe it had actually happened.  “He is risen!” the women said to the apostles.  “But these words,” says Luke 24:11, “seemed to them an idle tale.  “But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense.”  The disciples are not as receptive to this news as we might have hoped.  In fact, they are less than supportive.  The Greek word translated “nonsense” is leiros, which means “nonsense,” “drivel,” “trash,” “garbage.”  The Easter story defies logic and explanation.  It sounds too good to be true.  If it weren’t these things, it wouldn’t be Easter. 
 
I just love that the unlikeliness of their story doesn’t deter the women at the tomb.  They could have huddled just outside the walls of the graveyard, weighed the pros and cons of actually blurting out this bizarre thing they had seen, and opted instead to let someone else stumble upon the empty tomb and take it from there.  Yet, they couldn’t help but spread the word.  They had witnessed something that needed to be told.
 
There’s also something marvelous that happens in our text between verses 11 and 12.  I’m not sure if you caught it?  In verse 11 – the women’s words seem to the eleven disciples a load of nonsense.  In verse 12 we see Peter, being one of those eleven “got up and ran to the tomb.”  Peter gets to the tomb.  He finds out the resurrection story is true.  His hope is renewed.  He becomes the Peter that we know now.  Friends, we cannot sit on the fence all the time.  When the moment of truth comes, we should take a side.  When God reveals the truth to us, we should make up our mind, we should decide for ourselves.
 
The Resurrection Story and our World Today
It’s quite a story we tell today, and it contains the best news we could possibly hear.  God wins.  Love wins.  Life conquers death.  No wonder we look forward to telling it again every year.  I don’t need to tell you how badly we need to hear this news today.  We need the resurrection story.  We need to hear – again – that goodness is stronger than evil, that love is stronger than hate, that light is stronger than darkness, that truth is stronger than lies.
 
So as we sing, pray, shout, cheer, and wave our Alleluias this Easter Sunday, let’s us remember the resurrection truth.  And once we “find our place in the history of God’s grace, once we’ve had those experiences of new life, of despair-turned-into-hope, we too are called to share what we know.
 
Let us put that “Teller” sign around our necks and get to work: Tell it! And then – again! And again, and again!  I beg you to tell it again.  Because we desperately need the resurrection story right now.  Tell the world that goodness is stronger than evil, love is stronger than hate, truth is stronger than lies… and what’s more, life can even triumph over death.  Even today the God of resurrection is still on the loose in the world, inspiring His children and reminding us not to give up hope.  We are Easter people.  And we mustn’t be afraid to tell, and tell, and tell again what we believe to be possible, because the God of resurrection is on the loose: Alleluia!  Christ is risen!  He is risen indeed!  Alleluia!

First Presbyterian Church of Blackwood
21 E. Church Street
Blackwood, NJ 08012
Meditation Notes (Easter Sunday 11:00 a.m. ~ 04.21.2019)
Rev. Dr. Mouris A. Yousef, Pastor

                                                             Luke 24:1-12
According to the gospel reading, the disciples were in an upper room following Christ’s crucifixion.  They were saddened by Christ’s death and afraid that they, too, would be arrested and crucified like their master.  When suddenly, Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and several other women burst into the room, telling a strange tale.  
 
According to the women, they had visited Jesus’ grave and found it empty.  But more than this, they had been met by two men in dazzling clothes, angels they supposed, who said, “Why do you look for the living among the dead?  He is not here but has risen.  Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again” Luke 24:5-7.  “He is risen!” they told the apostles.  “But these words,” says the gospel of Luke 24:11, “seemed to them an idle tale.  “But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense.”
 
Jesus Christ is Alive.  What? How?
The resurrection seemed like nonsense or an idle tale to those who first heard of it.  And who is to blame them?  After all, people just don’t rise from the dead.  I’ve presided over many funerals, and guess what.  None have risen from the dead – not a single one!  And I can tell by your expression that you’re not surprised by that – not at all.  
 
In fact, if I told you that the man I buried last week was seen walking about just yesterday then you would probably question my sanity.  And with good reason.  Dead is dead!  And the dead don’t rise!  Dead people stay down.  And that would have been true of Jesus had He been nothing but a man.  But we believe Jesus was more than a man.  He was God incarnate – fully God and fully man.  Like a man, He tasted death.  As our God, He rose again.  It’s a remarkable truth!  So remarkable, in fact, that many don’t believe it at all.  They treat Christ’s resurrection as nonsense or idle tale and try to argue it away.
 
Some still say Jesus didn’t live at all.  They deny His very existence.  For them, the whole story is nonsense and an idle tale.  He never lived, they argue.  Doubtless you’ve heard some of the arguments against the resurrection.  Some say Jesus didn’t die; He simply fainted on the cross and was mistaken for dead but, revived in the tomb and His appearances were mistaken for a real resurrection. But really, are we to believe that a man who was badly beaten, then crucified, then stabbed in the side with a spear, and then sealed in a tomb guarded by soldiers, was able to roll the stone away, push His way through the guard, and convince everyone who saw Him that He was alive and well and risen from the dead?  It takes more faith to believe that than it does to believe the resurrection.
 
Others argue that Jesus’ body was stolen by the disciples who invented the story of the resurrection to keep His movement alive.  But we’ve got to remember that most of the disciples were persecuted, even martyred for their faith. Who would die for a lie?  Still others argue that the resurrection appearances of Jesus were nothing more than hallucinations induced by grief or hysteria. Well there certainly were a lot of appearances and they don’t seem to be hallucinations. According to the New Testament, Jesus appeared numerous times in different settings. He appeared to individuals, to small groups, to large groups, to one group numbering as many as five hundred!  That doesn’t seem to fit the pattern of hallucinations.  Again, it takes more faith to believe this theory than it does to believe in the resurrection.
 
Falling Into the Same Trap
Yet, believers can fall into the same trap.  Yes, there is a way that believers can treat the resurrection as if it’s nothing more than nonsense or an idle tale.  It happens when the story of the resurrection, and the presence of the risen Savior, hits the head but not the heart and doesn’t change the life at all.  When we fail to live in hope, we treat the resurrection story as nonsense or an idle tale.  When we fail to see God working in mysterious ways, we treat the resurrection story as nonsense or an idle tale.
 
I hope and pray that you and I are not among those who treat the risen Christ and the story of His resurrection as nothing more than nonsense or an idle tale. Rather, I hope we treat the resurrection and the risen Christ as Peter did.  The gospel lesson says, “These words (the words about the resurrection) seemed to (the apostles) an idle tale, and they did not believe them. But Peter got up and ran! Peter got up and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; then he went home, amazed at what had happened” See Luke 24:11-12.
 
You see, Peter got up and ran to the empty tomb.  And somewhere between the empty tomb and the upper room, he met the risen Savior!  See Luke 24:34. And it wasn’t long before he ran from the empty tomb and the upper room into the world carrying the message of resurrection and testifying to the fact that he had seen the risen Lord!
 
Peter got up and ran to the empty tomb then ran from the tomb into the world telling everyone about the risen Savior!  You see the whole course of his life was shaped thereafter by the risen Christ.  The resurrection was no longer nonsense; rather, it actually helped Peter to make sense of everything.  Meantime, the risen Lord became the driving presence behind all Peter’s living.
 
I believe God is calling us today to see our lives, our ups and downs, our successes and failures, our gains and losses, our joys and sorrows through the resurrection eyes.  The risen Christ wants to become the driving presence that shapes all of your living.  Let the resurrection of Jesus Christ become the defining event of your life – the event that makes sense and lends purpose to all our days.  Friends, which is it for you?  Nonsense or the greatest sense imaginable?  An idle tale or the greatest story ever told?  Look at how you live and you will have the answer. Happy Easter everyone! Christ is risen!  He is risen indeed!  Alleluia!

First Presbyterian Church of Blackwood
21 E. Church Street
Blackwood, NJ 08012
Meditation Notes (Easter Sunday 8:00 a.m. ~ 04.21.2019)
Rev. Dr. Mouris A. Yousef, Pastor

At noon, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon.  And at three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”)  Mark 15:33-34.
 
It is Friday morning in Jerusalem.  Another hot April day.  A crowd gathers on the north end of town; just outside the Damascus Gate is a place called Skull Hill.  Yes, it is crucifixion day.  The word has spread to every corner of the city.  The Romans like the Skull Hill because the hill is beside a main road.  That way lots of people can watch the crucifixion. 
 
A man named Jesus of Nazareth is being crucified.  The word spreads like wildfire.  The crowd is growing.  Jesus’ reputation has preceded Him.  No one is neutral.  Some believed His message; many doubted Him; a few hate the man for various reasons.  The crucifixion begins at nine o’clock sharp.
 
It appears that the man in the middle, Jesus of Nazareth, will not last long.  He has already been severely beaten.  In fact, it looks like four or five soldiers have taken turns working Him over.  His skin hangs from His back in tatters, His face is bruised and swollen, His eyes nearly shut.  Blood trickles from a dozen open wounds.  He is an awful sight to behold for sure
 
There are voices from all three crosses, a kind of hoarse conversation shouted above the din.  Little pieces float through the air.  Something that sounds like “Father, forgive them” something else about “If you are the Son of God,” then a promise of paradise.  Finally Jesus spots His mother and speaks to her. 

Then it happened.  “At noon, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon.”  It happened so suddenly that no one expected it.  One moment the sun was right overhead; the next moment it had disappeared.  And at three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
The Fourth Word On The Cross
of Jesus, British Bible scholar, F.F. Bruce discusses 70 of the hard-to-understand sayings of our Lord.  The last one he discusses is this statement.  Of these words of Jesus, Bruce comments, “This is the hardest of all the hard statements” (p. 248).  All the commentators agree with him.  No statement of Jesus is more mysterious than this one.  The problem is not with the words.  The words (in Aramaic or Greek or English) are simple.  But what do they mean?
 
The story is told that the great Martin Luther was studying this text one day.  For hours he sat and stared at the text.  He said nothing, he wrote nothing, but silently pondered these words of Jesus.  Suddenly, he stood up and exclaimed, “God forsaken by God.  How can it be?”  Indeed, how can it be?  How can God be forsaken by God?  How can the Father forsake His own Son? 

What Do These Words Mean?
  It has been suggested that this is a cry stemming from Jesus’ physical suffering. Without a doubt, those sufferings were enormous.  By the time He uttered these words, He had hung on the cross for six hours—exposed to the hot Palestinian sun and exposed to the taunts of the crowd.  But the cry of Jesus was more than a physical suffering.
 
Others have suggested it was a cry of faith.  The words “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” is actually a quotation from Psalm 22:1.  Although Psalm 22 begins with a description of intense suffering, it ends on a note of confident trust in God. 
 
Others have seen the fourth Word of Jesus on the Cross as a cry of disillusionment.  Skeptics read this as proof that Jesus ultimately failed in His mission.  He came to be the Messiah but His mission is a failure.  They are words of a defeated man.
 
The words of Jesus were neither due to His physical suffering nor His disillusionment.  What, then, do these words mean?  It was the weight of the sins of the whole world that caused Jesus to cry.  It is the intensity of God’s wrath.  It was the Father’s judgment on the sins of the world being borne on Christ's shoulders as he hangs on the cross.  The Lamb of God was bearing in himself the sins of the world!

Two Great Implications
truth two great implications.  First: We must never minimize the horror of human sin.  It was our sin that Jesus bore that day.  It was our sin that caused the Father to turn away from the Son.  He became a curse and we were part of the reason.  We must never minimize the awful cost of our salvation.  
 
Second: we must never forget that even in the worst situations o life, we are to cling to God with both hands as Jesus did.  In 1872 the great British preacher Charles Spurgeon wrote “In Jesus’ darkest hour with darkness all around him and within him, Jesus still clung to God with both hands.  His left hand said, “My God.”  His right hand said, “My God.”  Eloi. Eloi. My God, my God, was Jesus clinging to God with both hands in the midst of this horrific situation.  Jesus clung to God with all His might during the darkest hour of His life. 
 
Sometimes, life can be incredibly hard.  In the worst and darkest day of human history, Jesus still clung to God with both hands and held onto God.  We are to cling to God in our darkest days.  This cry from the cross is for all the lonely people of the world.  Jesus was forsaken that you might never be forsaken.  He was abandoned that you might never be abandoned.  He was deserted that you might never be deserted.  He was forgotten that you might never be forgotten.  Amen!

First Presbyterian Church of Blackwood                          
21 E. Church Street
Blackwood, NJ 08012                                                                              
Meditation Notes (Good Friday ~ April 19, 2019)
Rev. Dr. Mouris A. Yousef, Pastor

You may be interested to know that the most common question I get asked during Holy Week is about this night, the Thursday before Easter.  People get Palm Sunday; they get Good Friday; they get Easter Sunday, but tonight, Maundy Thursday, is unclear.  And the one thing people want to know the most, is this: what does “Maundy” mean? 
It’s a very good question.  Who uses the term “maundy” in their daily life anyway?  For those on the outside of the church, and even for those of us inside, it might just sound like a church service where we know we should want to go to it, but we have no idea why. 
But before I talk about what the word “maundy” means and its implications on our lives today, I want to go back to that story we read from the gospel of John.  In it, Jesus has gone to Jerusalem for the Passover.  He’s gathered His twelve disciples there at the table.  He knows what is going to happen.  He knows that by the end of the night one of them will betray Him to the authorities.  One will deny Him three times.  And all of them will leave Him alone in His hour of greatest pain.
 
The Different Message of Jesus
And yet, there He is.  Breaking the bread and pouring the cup.  Eating with them.  Blessing them.  Getting down on His knees and washing their feet, showing them His love and grace and compassion, in a time when we might have better understood His wrath or anger. 
In a world where we are often surrounded by messages of retaliation, or vengeance, or an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth cries for justice, it’s a different message.  Jesus had done nothing wrong.  He’d healed the sick, raised the dead, and freed the captives.  He’d brought hope and life to those who needed it the most. 
And in the end, He knew that He was not about to be thanked.  He was about to be killed. Because in the end, the goodness, and the kindness, and the compassion He had brought were more of a threat to the Roman authorities, and clergy of His day, than any weapon or any army.  He so radically upset the status quo that they decided their only choice was to kill Him.
 
Jesus with the Disciples
The night before Jesus was crucified, He wasn’t running away.  He wasn’t preparing for a battle.  He wasn’t plotting His revenge.  Instead He was with the ones He loved most.  The ones who loved Him, but who weren’t perfect.  The ones who knew who He was, and what He had done, and who would be the witnesses to His life after He was gone.
 
And that’s where that word “maundy” comes in.  What do you do if you’re Jesus?  What do you do if you know you are not going to be around much longer, and you have to tell the people you love the most, the ones who followed you, the ones who sometimes make big mistakes, how to keep moving in the right direction after you’re gone?
 
The word “maundy” comes from a Latin word: mandatum. And mandatum means “mandate” or a “commandment.”  Therefore, when we talk about “Maundy Thursday”, we’re talking about “mandate Thursday.”  We’re talking about the night that Christ told His disciples EXACTLEY what He expected of them. 
And if you read a book or watch a movie about a leader who has gone through a similar situation, you might think that leader right about now would be saying something like “avenge my death”, or “make sure there’s payback”, or “don’t let them get away with this…strike back”.  But the Jesus story isn’t like any other story.  This is a story that turns everything on its head.  The mandate, the mandatory thing Jesus tells us to do in this passage is this: “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another.  Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.  By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
 
It’s not my job to rename Christian holy days.  But if it were, I might change the name of Maundy Thursday.  I might change it from this word that none of us really know anymore to something we would all understand.  Something like “Love One Another Thursday”, or “The Last Thing Christ Wanted Us to Know Thursday” or something similar.
 
A Message We All Desperately Need
Friends, this is a message we Christians all need to hear.  We don’t need to hide it behind fancy terms.  We don’t need to just check this night off as another night in holy week.  We need to allow this “mandate” to shape who we are.  By Christ’s love genuinely lived amongst us, everyone will know that we are Christ’s disciples.
 
The world wouldn’t know us as Christ’s disciples by the fact we put a Christian fish sticker on our car.  The world wouldn’t know us as Christ’s disciples because we wear a cross around our necks.  The world wouldn’t know us as Christ’s disciples by voting for this or against that.  We would just be known by the one thing Christ wanted us to be known for: by how we love.
 
This year, let’s not forget.  Between this Maundy Thursday and the one next year, let’s not forget what the mandate is. It’s so simple, and yet it demands our whole lives and our whole attentions. But the true disciple of Jesus should not give Christ nothing less.  Tonight as we eat this bread and drink this cup, as simple as it seems on the outside, know that we are choosing no less than to feast upon Christ’s love for us, and to bring that feast out to others.  If every Christian would do that, no one would ever have to ask us who we follow.  By our love, by following the example of our Lord, they would already know.  Amen.
First Presbyterian Church of Blackwood                          
21 E. Church Street
Blackwood, NJ 08012                                                                              
Meditation Notes (Maundy Thursday ~ April 18, 2019)
Rev. Dr. Mouris A. Yousef, Pastor

Psalm 119:33-40; Luke 14:25-35
 
This is shocking, to say the least!  Did you hear what was just read for us?  My first reaction when I read this passage from Luke chapter 14, is that I can’t help but think that Jesus was a poor marketer.  When you try to attract people to a new idea or concept; when you want to grow the number of people on your team, you would think you would present all the benefits of your plan.  When marketers try to sell us a new product or idea, they talk about how it can save us time, how it works faster; how it is less cheap; how it exceeds consumer expectations more than the other products already on the market.
 
The Christian community at the time Jesus is speaking is a small, often persecuted, minority.  You would think that Jesus, in order to grow the number of His followers, would talk about love and community and all the benefits of following. Instead, He turns toward the crowd following Him and talks about the cost of discipleship.  What He says sounds very harsh.  He talks about hate and cross bearing.  Why would He do that?  This is going to make people run away instead of following, I think. 
 
The life of faith is not easy.  We have been spoiled in the United States so often because our culture has matched up fairly close with our faith.  But we are seeing things move farther and farther away from Christ and His Word.  And as our culture does this, we are going to be faced more and more with the radical nature of what it means to be a disciple and a follower of Jesus.   
 
And so Jesus tells these crowds who follow Him, both then and now, what this life entails.  Here, Jesus speaks of three things in regard to discipleship that we are going focus upon this morning: putting God first, carrying the cross, and leaving possessions.
 
First: Putting God First
In Luke 14:25-26 Jesus said, “Now large crowds were traveling with him; and he turned and said to them, “Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple.”  The use of the word hate is not a call to NOT love our father, mother, wife and children; it is not a call to harm our family, or wish them ill; it is a call to heed the 1st Commandment.  We should honor, love, and trust in God above all things – and that includes our families.  Simply Jesus was saying that your relationship with God comes first above all other relationships. 
 
It is important here to look at the Greek word “misei” (μισεί) translated as “hate”.  The word suggests that a true disciple should value his/her relationship with Christ over the relationship with family members.  We are not to despise our relatives, but we are not to worship them either.  In this case “hate” can be a synonym for “love less.”  With statements like these, I find it amazing that the Christian movement grew and is still growing today.
 
Second: Carrying the Cross
And there’s more.  Jesus continues in Luke 4:27 by saying “Whoever does not bear his own cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.”  He then goes on to speak a couple of parables concerning this and counting such a cost – of a man building a tower and a king going off to war. Jesus is saying there is a cost involved in following Him.  Through Baptism, God brings us into His family and a new life with Him.  Baptized, we are crucified to the world and the world to us.  Here and now, the disciple of Jesus loses the world and gains only a cross. 
 
I wonder if anybody ever knows the full cost of following Jesus before actually starting to follow Him.  If we knew the full cost, would we really be willing to follow?  I think this is where the love of God and trust in God’s leading are crucial.  And I believe that these do grow as we follow the best we can and realize that God is here with us and that He is always faithful.  
 
Third: Renouncing Possessions
Lastly, Jesus warns us against attachment to material things.  In Luke 14:33 Jesus said, “So therefore, none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions.”  This is a common theme throughout the gospel of Luke because possessions are one of the greatest threats to discipleship.  Things can all too easily become a god. Being a disciple of Christ means the readiness to give up anything and everything if duty to God calls for it.  All that we have belongs to Him already anyway.
 
Jesus then leaves His hearers with one final image of salt. There is no in-between with salt.  Salt is either salty or it isn’t.  There is no “sort of” salty.  If it isn’t salty, it isn’t really salt, and it should be thrown away.
 
Friends, as baptized children of God, we have been baptized into His way, and are kept in His Way by His Word and Sacrament.  We are called to be Christ’s disciples.  We are called to teach our children what a life of a disciple, a follower, of Jesus looks like.  Today Niko Anthony Pontano is baptized into the body of Christ.  We, as a congregation, share the responsibility with his family to raise him in the instructions of our Lord. When we do so, discipleship becomes a lifelong adventure not a single event.
 
Friends, God has created us, equipped us, molded us, energized us and purposed us for divine use – to be His instruments for changing the world.  Today and everyday we have great opportunities to show in practical, concrete ways that we are followers of Jesus.  Let us show our community and the world what the power of Jesus Christ can do.  Amen!
First Presbyterian Church of Blackwood                          
21 E. Church Street
Blackwood, NJ 08012                                                                              
Sermon Notes (Sunday April 7, 2019)
Rev. Dr. Mouris A. Yousef, Pastor

What is Christianity all about?  What is the essence of the Christian faith?  I believe the Christian faith can be summarized in two words: “Follow Me.”  These two words echo the heart-defining call of our Lord Jesus Christ to His disciples.  Yet, in this time and age, I do not think people understand the depth and the implications of Christ’s call.  Today and next Sunday I would like to revisit our understanding of Christ’s call “Follow me.”
 
Following Jesus is NOT the same as following People on Social Media
For those of us who use Social Media, we know that following people on Twitter or Instagram or Facebook is easy.  You set up an account, hit a few buttons and you are instantly connected to what people are thinking, saying and doing around the world; now you are “a follower.”
 
You not only get to see what they are saying and doing but you can also share all of this by sharing or re-tweeting their thoughts and comments with your followers.  Following people on twitter or Instagram or Facebook is easy which is why you can follow hundreds of people all at the same time.  We make “following” easy – but following Jesus is not.
 
The truth is that there is nothing easy about following Jesus and as we look at some of the stories of people who did follow Jesus, we see that it called for a radical change.  It was indeed “life under new management” as I called it last Sunday.
 
The First Followers of Jesus
The first followers of Jesus were four fishermen: Simon, Andrew, James and John.  Simon (who became Peter) and Andrew were brothers and James and John were brothers and as fishermen in Capernaum they all worked along the same stretch of shoreline, fished the same waters and maybe even partnered together in their fishing business. 
 
As Jesus walked along the Sea of Galilee, He called out for them to follow Him and in Matthew chapter four it says that Peter and Andrew “immediately they left their nets and followed him” and then James and John, “immediately left the boat and their father and followed him.”  While it seems like following Jesus was easy for them, it was not.  Think about what they had to do to follow Jesus.
 
Peter and Andrew left their nets to follow Jesus.  As fishermen, their nets were everything.  Their nets were their livelihood.  It was how they provided for their families.  Following Jesus meant that Peter and Andrew were leaving behind “a way of life” that had been comfortable and secure for them and a livelihood that not only provided for them but for their family and others.  They sacrificed a lot to follow Jesus – they gave up almost everything that brought them identity, security and a greater sense of purpose and they gave it all up for something that was completely unknown.  
 
 
Trust is at the Heart of Following Jesus
The same is true for James and John.  It says they left behind their boats which, like the nets of Peter and Andrew, meant their livelihood and business, but it also says they left behind their father.  Here the sacrifice included family.  These first followers of Jesus left behind significant relationships that defined them.  They left behind families and friendships they treasured.  Following Jesus could not have been easy for them and again, they had no idea where they were going or what they were getting themselves into.  They didn’t know what the future held for Jesus or for them so at the heart of this following was TRUST.  Jesus didn’t tell them how He was going to provide for them or their families or what their future would be like, but there was trust.
 
These aren’t the only people who made great sacrifices to follow Jesus.  Matthew made another big sacrifice.  Before he followed Jesus, Matthew was a tax collector which meant he had a lot of financial security.  Working for the Roman government, his job was secure and he made a lot of money.  Matthew would have been comfortable and while he may not have had a lot of friends working for the Romans, he had a lot of connections and status which brought him power.  Now look at what happens when Jesus calls him in Matthew 9:9. “As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him.”
 
The problem in our culture today is we want to follow, but we are not willing to pay the price.  We do not mind a religion that costs us nothing.  We do not mind grace without discipleship; grace without the cross.  This is not how the rest of the world today understand faith and following Jesus.  Think about the Christian community in Nigeria and the horrible scenes we saw this week.  They pay the high price for following Christ for sure.
 
Δεῦτε ὀπίσω μου “Deute opiso mou” – Come follow after me.  Come and follow.  The original Greek “Deute” which means “come follow” is a great word.  It literally means “join me in my path.  Join me in my journey.” Deute from which we take our English “duet” ~ a performance of two people.  In essence, Jesus was saying, “do not play solo.  Let’s do it together.”  Following Jesus is highly relational and communicative.
 
Today, Michael Pontano and Dionna Busch join our Church family.  It is a commitment they are making before God and this congregation today.  Remember, following Jesus is not the same as following someone on Facebook.  Often times, you will have to make some sacrifices to allow Christ to travel this journey we call life with you.  Do not play it solo.  The Christian life is lived in a community of faith.  And for the rest of us, members of this congregation, may we never lose sight of this amazing truth.  We been called to follow Jesus.  Sometimes we focus on ministry, theology, efficiency, programs, and policy – all good things. But we lose Jesus in the busyness and clamor of good things.  “Follow me” Jesus said.  Amen.

What is Christianity all about?  What is the essence of the Christian faith?  I believe the Christian faith can be summarized in two words: “Follow Me.”  These two words echo the heart-defining call of our Lord Jesus Christ to His disciples.  Yet, in this time and age, I do not think people understand the depth and the implications of Christ’s call.  Today and next Sunday I would like to revisit our understanding of Christ’s call “Follow me.”
 
Following Jesus is NOT the same as following People on Social Media
For those of us who use Social Media, we know that following people on Twitter or Instagram or Facebook is easy.  You set up an account, hit a few buttons and you are instantly connected to what people are thinking, saying and doing around the world; now you are “a follower.”
 
You not only get to see what they are saying and doing but you can also share all of this by sharing or re-tweeting their thoughts and comments with your followers.  Following people on twitter or Instagram or Facebook is easy which is why you can follow hundreds of people all at the same time.  We make “following” easy – but following Jesus is not.
 
The truth is that there is nothing easy about following Jesus and as we look at some of the stories of people who did follow Jesus, we see that it called for a radical change.  It was indeed “life under new management” as I called it last Sunday.
 
The First Followers of Jesus
The first followers of Jesus were four fishermen: Simon, Andrew, James and John.  Simon (who became Peter) and Andrew were brothers and James and John were brothers and as fishermen in Capernaum they all worked along the same stretch of shoreline, fished the same waters and maybe even partnered together in their fishing business. 
 
As Jesus walked along the Sea of Galilee, He called out for them to follow Him and in Matthew chapter four it says that Peter and Andrew “immediately they left their nets and followed him” and then James and John, “immediately left the boat and their father and followed him.”  While it seems like following Jesus was easy for them, it was not.  Think about what they had to do to follow Jesus.
 
Peter and Andrew left their nets to follow Jesus.  As fishermen, their nets were everything.  Their nets were their livelihood.  It was how they provided for their families.  Following Jesus meant that Peter and Andrew were leaving behind “a way of life” that had been comfortable and secure for them and a livelihood that not only provided for them but for their family and others.  They sacrificed a lot to follow Jesus – they gave up almost everything that brought them identity, security and a greater sense of purpose and they gave it all up for something that was completely unknown.  
 
 
Trust is at the Heart of Following Jesus
The same is true for James and John.  It says they left behind their boats which, like the nets of Peter and Andrew, meant their livelihood and business, but it also says they left behind their father.  Here the sacrifice included family.  These first followers of Jesus left behind significant relationships that defined them.  They left behind families and friendships they treasured.  Following Jesus could not have been easy for them and again, they had no idea where they were going or what they were getting themselves into.  They didn’t know what the future held for Jesus or for them so at the heart of this following was TRUST.  Jesus didn’t tell them how He was going to provide for them or their families or what their future would be like, but there was trust.
 
These aren’t the only people who made great sacrifices to follow Jesus.  Matthew made another big sacrifice.  Before he followed Jesus, Matthew was a tax collector which meant he had a lot of financial security.  Working for the Roman government, his job was secure and he made a lot of money.  Matthew would have been comfortable and while he may not have had a lot of friends working for the Romans, he had a lot of connections and status which brought him power.  Now look at what happens when Jesus calls him in Matthew 9:9. “As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him.”
 
The problem in our culture today is we want to follow, but we are not willing to pay the price.  We do not mind a religion that costs us nothing.  We do not mind grace without discipleship; grace without the cross.  This is not how the rest of the world today understand faith and following Jesus.  Think about the Christian community in Nigeria and the horrible scenes we saw this week.  They pay the high price for following Christ for sure.
 
Δεῦτε ὀπίσω μου “Deute opiso mou” – Come follow after me.  Come and follow.  The original Greek “Deute” which means “come follow” is a great word.  It literally means “join me in my path.  Join me in my journey.” Deute from which we take our English “duet” ~ a performance of two people.  In essence, Jesus was saying, “do not play solo.  Let’s do it together.”  Following Jesus is highly relational and communicative.
 
Today, Michael Pontano and Dionna Busch join our Church family.  It is a commitment they are making before God and this congregation today.  Remember, following Jesus is not the same as following someone on Facebook.  Often times, you will have to make some sacrifices to allow Christ to travel this journey we call life with you.  Do not play it solo.  The Christian life is lived in a community of faith.  And for the rest of us, members of this congregation, may we never lose sight of this amazing truth.  We been called to follow Jesus.  Sometimes we focus on ministry, theology, efficiency, programs, and policy – all good things. But we lose Jesus in the busyness and clamor of good things.  “Follow me” Jesus said.  Amen.
What is Christianity all about?  What is the essence of the Christian faith?  I believe the Christian faith can be summarized in two words: “Follow Me.”  These two words echo the heart-defining call of our Lord Jesus Christ to His disciples.  Yet, in this time and age, I do not think people understand the depth and the implications of Christ’s call.  Today and next Sunday I would like to revisit our understanding of Christ’s call “Follow me.”
 
Following Jesus is NOT the same as following People on Social Media
For those of us who use Social Media, we know that following people on Twitter or Instagram or Facebook is easy.  You set up an account, hit a few buttons and you are instantly connected to what people are thinking, saying and doing around the world; now you are “a follower.”
 
You not only get to see what they are saying and doing but you can also share all of this by sharing or re-tweeting their thoughts and comments with your followers.  Following people on twitter or Instagram or Facebook is easy which is why you can follow hundreds of people all at the same time.  We make “following” easy – but following Jesus is not.
 
The truth is that there is nothing easy about following Jesus and as we look at some of the stories of people who did follow Jesus, we see that it called for a radical change.  It was indeed “life under new management” as I called it last Sunday.
 
The First Followers of Jesus
The first followers of Jesus were four fishermen: Simon, Andrew, James and John.  Simon (who became Peter) and Andrew were brothers and James and John were brothers and as fishermen in Capernaum they all worked along the same stretch of shoreline, fished the same waters and maybe even partnered together in their fishing business. 
 
As Jesus walked along the Sea of Galilee, He called out for them to follow Him and in Matthew chapter four it says that Peter and Andrew “immediately they left their nets and followed him” and then James and John, “immediately left the boat and their father and followed him.”  While it seems like following Jesus was easy for them, it was not.  Think about what they had to do to follow Jesus.
 
Peter and Andrew left their nets to follow Jesus.  As fishermen, their nets were everything.  Their nets were their livelihood.  It was how they provided for their families.  Following Jesus meant that Peter and Andrew were leaving behind “a way of life” that had been comfortable and secure for them and a livelihood that not only provided for them but for their family and others.  They sacrificed a lot to follow Jesus – they gave up almost everything that brought them identity, security and a greater sense of purpose and they gave it all up for something that was completely unknown.  
 
 
Trust is at the Heart of Following Jesus
The same is true for James and John.  It says they left behind their boats which, like the nets of Peter and Andrew, meant their livelihood and business, but it also says they left behind their father.  Here the sacrifice included family.  These first followers of Jesus left behind significant relationships that defined them.  They left behind families and friendships they treasured.  Following Jesus could not have been easy for them and again, they had no idea where they were going or what they were getting themselves into.  They didn’t know what the future held for Jesus or for them so at the heart of this following was TRUST.  Jesus didn’t tell them how He was going to provide for them or their families or what their future would be like, but there was trust.
 
These aren’t the only people who made great sacrifices to follow Jesus.  Matthew made another big sacrifice.  Before he followed Jesus, Matthew was a tax collector which meant he had a lot of financial security.  Working for the Roman government, his job was secure and he made a lot of money.  Matthew would have been comfortable and while he may not have had a lot of friends working for the Romans, he had a lot of connections and status which brought him power.  Now look at what happens when Jesus calls him in Matthew 9:9. “As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him.”
 
The problem in our culture today is we want to follow, but we are not willing to pay the price.  We do not mind a religion that costs us nothing.  We do not mind grace without discipleship; grace without the cross.  This is not how the rest of the world today understand faith and following Jesus.  Think about the Christian community in Nigeria and the horrible scenes we saw this week.  They pay the high price for following Christ for sure.
 
Δεῦτε ὀπίσω μου “Deute opiso mou” – Come follow after me.  Come and follow.  The original Greek “Deute” which means “come follow” is a great word.  It literally means “join me in my path.  Join me in my journey.” Deute from which we take our English “duet” ~ a performance of two people.  In essence, Jesus was saying, “do not play solo.  Let’s do it together.”  Following Jesus is highly relational and communicative.
 
Today, Michael Pontano and Dionna Busch join our Church family.  It is a commitment they are making before God and this congregation today.  Remember, following Jesus is not the same as following someone on Facebook.  Often times, you will have to make some sacrifices to allow Christ to travel this journey we call life with you.  Do not play it solo.  The Christian life is lived in a community of faith.  And for the rest of us, members of this congregation, may we never lose sight of this amazing truth.  We been called to follow Jesus.  Sometimes we focus on ministry, theology, efficiency, programs, and policy – all good things. But we lose Jesus in the busyness and clamor of good things.  “Follow me” Jesus said.  Amen.

First Presbyterian Church of Blackwood
21 E. Church Street
Blackwood, NJ 08012                                                                              
Sermon Notes (Sunday March 31st, 2019)
Rev. Dr. Mouris A. Yousef, Pastor