Extending Easter

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ, based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the Apostle Paul said, But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.

In short, if you like smooth, watered-down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn't for you. By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we're called by the divine trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King.

Here's our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth.

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry. Mike Abendroth here with my friend and co-host on Tuesdays, Pastor Steve B. Cooley. Pastor Steve, welcome back. Thank you very much. Thank you. You almost got it right.

It's Stephen B. Oh, that's right. That's what it says on all the signs. Has anybody ever called you Stevie? Not since I got big enough. That's good. Nobody really has called me Mikey, I don't think, ever.

Maybe if my dad was named Mike, they'd call me Mikey or something. Nobody ever did? No. Except with that commercial.

Give it to Mikey. You know, he won't like it. I remember when I was really little, my grandmother and my mom called me that. I don't remember if anybody else did, but probably not my dad. He was like, what are you calling him that for?

Teach him to be a sissy or something. I think your dad, my dad would have gotten along. I think so, probably, yeah. If your dad told you to clean your plate, what would you do? I'd probably clean my plate.

I mean, I might have to employ all my tricks, like holding my breath and all that stuff.

This is not on topic today, but just thinking about parenting. I've been noticing these days, I watch people and sometimes children will say to their parents just directly, no. Would you ever do that to your dad?

Maybe on the inside you wouldn't want to, but I did what I was told or else.

Law, Parenting, and the Uses of the Law

Yeah, we had one rule when I was growing up and it was do this and live.

That is a perfect transition to our talk today. Well yeah, it's law. It was law and we didn't know if it was first use or third use.

I can't imagine telling my dad no. I mean, even when he was old and not feeling well and everything else, I can't imagine me just looking at him and going, no dad. I mean, if I said no dad, it was always kind of like joking and then with an explanation, like if he tried to make some theological point or something like that.

Right, right.

Well, lots of times I think, Mr. Dad, you are 200 pounds. The kid that's telling you no, the child that's telling you no is 30 pounds. You can't get them to obey. Somebody needs to write a book on parenting, like common parenting mistakes or something like that.

I think that might be a good book.

See, at first I thought, you know, control holds and other, you know, parental advice. I did things with my kids and I go, let me show you some things and I'm going, no, I'm not going to do this to you, but if I were, this is how much it would hurt.

There used to be someone at the church, excuse me, I think before your time and he was 6 '6", probably 270 and he worked with special needs children and a lot of these children were out of control and then they grew up to be, you know, adolescents and in their teens and strong.

And he had certain holes that he would show me that he would have to put them in, right? He wasn't allowed to hit them, but he could restrain them if they were hitting others. And so we could use some of those holes from Darren these days.

It's an excellent book. Everywhere you look, Steve, we see examples of theology, right? So you said do this and live with your father. When we tell people, oh, do this. It's a command. It's law. It's an imperative, right?

So we see there's lots of law in the world. Anything wrong with law?

There's nothing wrong with law because I mean, like civil law basically keeps us from clobbering each other, right? I mean, it keeps us, it protects property, it protects persons, that's what it's supposed to do.

Perfect. So we would call that normally the second use of the law, civil law restraints. First use of the law is when, and by the way, that restrains both the sin of believers and unbelievers. Right. First use of the law, don't look at a woman with lust.

God wants us to see in our own hearts, the law being like a mirror that in fact we do break the law so that we look for a savior. First use is like a mirror. It exposes, it condemns, it reveals, would that be fair to say?

I think that'd be fair to say. Okay. So that's first and second. And then third use is for believers only. God instead of saying, do this and live, he says, well, you're my son and this is the best way to live, I'm going to guide you and tell you this is what you should do for your own good and for my glory.

Third use. Okay. All right. Well, once you get that down, it's easy to look at things like the Ten Commandments and say, oh, that's law. It doesn't mean it's wrong, it doesn't mean it's bad, it's just law.

It tells you to do something. And what's the opposite of law, Pastor Steve? Grace. There you go. And so we see the grace of God and we call it regularly the gospel, right? When I say the gospel, most people think good news, the evangel, they think about Jesus.

But when we think about Jesus, we should always think about the Father and the Holy Spirit, right? Shouldn't we be thinking more triunally when it comes to the gospel than maybe we normally do?

You mean like together instead of separate?

Like monotheism, not triune. Yes. Well, if I baptize someone in the name of Jesus, well, I'm...

Oh, let's not talk about baptism, shall we?

You can admit that if you want to, but I won't admit it for you. Thank you. If you baptize someone in the name of Jesus, well, if when I think of Jesus, I'm thinking about the uncreated unbegotten Father who sends Jesus, the begotten Son, who's begotten not made, and Jesus, by the power of the Spirit, obeys on earth, is raised from the dead, and now the Holy Spirit applies the benefits of Christ to our life.

So when I say one, I have to think of the other two right away, right? If you think of the Holy Spirit, you think to yourself, well, from whom does he proceed? The Father and the Son. The Father and the Son, yeah.

Okay, so we've got law and gospel, right? Law and grace. So we have something in front of us today, and it's kind of an Easter thing. And so, you know, maybe you don't want to call it Easter, you can call it Resurrection Sunday, right?

That's fine. Which we much prefer, and shout out to Russ Rice for getting, posting that on Facebook and then getting blasted by a lot of believers. Oh, is that what he did? Yeah. Well, I mean, he just kind of struggles with the idea of... Astare.

Yeah. Yeah.

I get it. So I probably say Easter more now than I used to, because in my mind, oh, every Sunday is Resurrection Sunday. We talk about the risen Savior every single week. And there's one particular week where it's, we have a breakfast and we want you to invite your unbelieving friends.

I call that Easter.

Because it makes it easier for the unbelievers to get their arms around.

Let's see, how many syllables in Resurrection again? Yeah. What does it even mean? And there's a college around here near Worcester, Mass, Central Massachusetts, and they have an update on Easter. And it said, this is the word I'm after, Steve.

On the right-hand side, you have a copy of this second little paragraph there. In case you didn't know, Easter lasts for 50 days. To keep the celebration going, here are 10 ways to be an Easter people.

So today on No Compromise Radio, we've already celebrated Resurrection Sunday, right? When this plays, it'll be in May sometime. In real time and in NoCo time, this show is after Easter. But we want our listeners to still experience the joy of Easter for many days.

Can I just be a little picky here for a moment? Oh, sure. It says 10 ways to be an Easter people. Shouldn't it be Easter person? And I'm going to suggest that the reason, I mean, you could say people because they're addressing a group, maybe, or maybe they just want to be, you know, politically.

But an.

It shouldn't say an. It should be 10 ways to be Easter people. Yes. Not an Easter person. I mean, it should be an Easter person. Yeah. Well, one of the things that we have going here for us is Easter people.

We talked earlier about your dad and my dad. Before they blasted somebody, they'd say, they're good people. Yeah, always. Always. They were talking about the singular. Yeah. They're talking about a guy.

Oh, he's good people. Yeah, he's good people. So maybe this is a throwback to the Korean war. Who knows? So what we want to do, we're going to give you these ways, dear listeners, to be Easter people and continue the celebration for 50 days.

And we want you to kind of say to yourself, what's the common theme to these 10 special blessings from this campus ministry? Okay. Do you want to give the quote in the bottom left before we start? Sure.

Do not abandon yourselves to despair. We are the Easter people and hallelujah is our song.

Now before you say who said it, let's see, who would say such a thing? We are the Easter people.

We are the children. Yeah. It sounds like Lionel Richie and Michael Jackson. I was thinking about Bono or something. We are the world. We are the world. Well, yeah, but they wrote the song. Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie.

I did not know that. You didn't know that, really?

No. And you're... I kind of know some of that stuff, but I don't know that. Wow. I was just looking for the rockers who were in that group. We are the world. It kind of sounded like Bruce Springsteen.

I know. That was the point. Okay. Number one, if you, dear listeners, would like to keep the celebration of Easter going, practice one act of kindness a day.

Okay. Nothing wrong with practicing kindness. Yeah, but why limit yourself to 50 days? That's my first...

And why only be kind once a day? Yeah. You know, get up in the morning, be kind to your wife, and then the rest of the day, I could just be a brute.

You know, get it out of the way, right? I mean, that's kind of like, if I just had to eat one vegetable in a day, I'd go, honey, let's just have it for breakfast and I'll get it done.

How does the resurrection of the Lord Jesus continue to last by us being kind to people? I mean, we have to just say it now from the get-go. This whole list pretty much is all law, and the gospel, the risen Savior is just, in fact, that, to be...

I mean, it's good news. And to be doing something like this...

Well, I mean, what it does really is obscure what Jesus did. You know, he's saying, be Easter people, and I'm like, well, okay, if I want to be an Easter person, maybe I should proclaim the resurrection, right?

Isn't that what we ought to be doing? Telling people about the one who defeated the grave, who lived the perfect life, died the substitutionary death and rose from the dead so that they will believe also, rather than...

You know, I mean, I don't know what this is. This is just...

Yeah, and warn people that he's coming back to judge, as they say in the older language of English, to the quick and the dead. And that's exactly right. Okay, make sure you continue to tell people about the good news of the risen Savior.

He's conquered death, sin, hell, Satan, and you can have hope to have all your sins forgiven or something like that. But to practice one act of kindness a day... By the way, false religions love this kind of stuff, and liberals love it, right?

When you think about liberalism, Steve, or when I think about it at least, I think to myself, okay, they've got the Bible. They know that the Bible's true, but they don't want to teach it to their people.

So let's try to find characters in the Bible that we can emulate. Let's try to find things that we can do. Like be kind, because that's universal. Buddhists like that, Mormons like that, Christians like that, be kind.

What's easier to say, be a better person, or you're a bad person?

That's kind of like what Jesus said. Which one is easier to say? Well, they're both as easy to say, in terms of just saying it out loud, but to be receptive. But the reception? Yeah, absolutely.

You know what? You're a bad person. Oh, well, that's a great way to start a conversation, right?

Sacramental Religion and Moral Self-Improvement

Well, number two, this is going to give it away, and I think they should have led with this because I don't think they should be ashamed of who they are, and they probably aren't. Number two, how to be an Easter people.

Attend Mass or receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation in gratitude for Jesus' gift.

Well, now you can tell us who the quotes from. Did you ever say who it was?

Oh, Pope St. John Paul II were Easter people.

Now, see, I'm kind of confused because which is the more important title, Pope or Saint? Which should come first? Or should it be St. Pope John Paul? Or when you become a saint, should they drop the Pope?

I don't know. I mean, that just seems odd. But anyway.

Saint John. John was a saint, right? He wanted to be married to Mary, and they were betrothed, and he had high hopes of all kinds of life together, children together, and everything else. And then the Catholic version of Mary is, he wasn't allowed to have children with her.

John or Joseph. Oh, I stand corrected. I'm thinking, I'm conflating the two. Well, actually, you sit corrected. Yes. I'm glad you're here to correct me. What am I talking about? John. Well, what's the difference?

What'd John do? Which John is this? This is John Paul II. Oh, you mean John the Beloved? All right. Now you're really confuzzling me. What is the Sacrament of Reconciliation? Is that the Mass?

I have absolutely no idea. You know, if now, here, I'm going to sound like a Biblicist for a moment, what verse would we go to to get the Sacrament of Reconciliation?

I'm so confused. Well, we could look at Reconciliation in 2 Corinthians 5 .20, but that wouldn't have anything to do as a sacrament.

No. I mean, how many sacraments are there? How many biblical, what's the word I'm looking for here? I don't want to say rituals, but how many rites, how many... Ordinances. Ordinances. There's the word.

Okay. Well, it's interesting to me, Steve, that attend Mass or receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation in gratitude for Jesus' gift, I don't know what that has to do with Easter, Reconciliation, we're estranged, we're back together, now we have the Mass, I don't get it.

But going back to what you were saying earlier, why do liberals like this? Why do cults like this? Because this is what we do. If you give us a checkbox, then we can feel better about ourselves. And if you tell us that checkbox, a list of items that I need to do, if you can tell me that list brings me closer to God, and I'm checking them off, I'm actually feeling better about myself, right?

And this is the goal of the world's religion, to feel better about yourself.

And it can slip into evangelicalism as well, and to our own churches where we think we just go to church, right? You don't really go to church, we are the church, but you go to the church building, Lord's Day worship, check, right?

I'm going to be preaching Revelation chapter 2 this Sunday about, hey, they did a lot of good things, Ephesus did, but they left their first love. Yeah, that's just one little problem.

One slight, you know, omission here.

I'll let you in on my title. I just got done preaching through Ephesians, it ends in chapter 6. So I've entitled Revelation 2, 1 to 7, that first letter from Jesus to the church at Ephesus 30, 40 years later, I've entitled the sermon Ephesians 7, question mark.

And it's fascinating too, Steve, Paul gets saved on the Damascus Road, 30-ish years later he writes the book of Ephesians with praise and adoration and grace and honor, and Jesus is the risen Savior in this great praise opening.

And then about the same time from when Paul was there, Timothy was there. Can you imagine some of these pastors that they had at Ephesus? It'd be like having, you know, Martyn Lloyd-Jones, then S. Lewis Johnson, then Boyce.

You know, those are your last three pastors. And then 30 years after Paul was there, then they've lost their first love. Not good. Not good at all. All right, number three, buy a few extra items on your next trip to the grocery store and donate them.

That would, that makes Easter last. That means a historical event with the bodily resurrection of Jesus, it extends it out because you are Jesus. I do this all the time. I donate them to my pantry. Well, with the new cost of food and some of the warnings people are giving, maybe you should donate them to yourself.

That's what I'm saying.

I mean, it's, yeah. I mean, when you've even got government people talking about, well, there may be food shortages next year. Great.

Awesome. That's going to be bad. And what do you do if you're somebody like gluten-free or something? There might be gluten-free food shortages. Might have to gluten up. Okay, number four, do some spring cleaning and donate the clothes that you no longer wear or that no longer fit.

End of the year recollection, end of the year collection coming next week.

I thought this was spring cleaning.

Well, if you really wanted to feel good about yourself for doing some law, why don't you just go buy some brand new clothes at Nordstrom's and then give them to some people?

Yeah. Find somebody on the street and go, hey, what size are you?

It's kind of like, well, the missionaries are coming to town. Let's donate stuff for the missionaries. What's my old sweatshirt I don't use?

You know, I've had this thing for 12 years and never worn it. It's got to go.

See, I still am keeping my Fuller Seminary sweatshirt that I bought. Well, I can understand that. That's near and dear to your heart. Okay, how to keep Christmas and Easter or any other holiday you want.

Here we go. Number five, practice forgiveness and let go of anger.

Well, you know, in isolation, I like that one. As a command to keep Easter going, not so much. I mean, this is what... If I walk up to a Christian and I say, hey, how about this? Practice forgiveness.

Is there a Bible verse that says that? I think there is. I think it's in Ephesians 4. I think it's Ephesians 4 .32, and it says, you know, to forgive one another, even as God in Christ Jesus has forgiven you.

So I think that's great. And then let go of anger. You know, do we have any verses that tell, yes. You know, so as an individual practice, are those good things for us to do? Yes, because they're commanded in scripture.

Are they attached to keeping that resurrection flame alive?

How about just with a simple guilt, grace, gratitude, because Jesus is alive, I'd like to live a life worthy of that calling. And I know I won't measure up perfectly, but it is my desire. I think that's where some of my friends, and I disagree when they're saying, well, you know what?

There's sin in somebody's life, and how could they call themselves a Christian? And I say, I'm sad and mad there's sin in their life or my life, but they desire to have that sin no longer in their life.

It's a struggle and they don't want that. And so to me, that's a sign of a Christian. Well, how about this?

How about if I go this way? You know, somebody says, well, I don't know how they could be a Christian. They have all that sin in their lives. And I'd say, well, do you have any sin in your life? So that's number 11 here.

So then the question is, how much sin in your life do you have to have before you're disqualified? Right? How much of your sin did Jesus die for?

I mean, that's the ultimate question. Right. Did Jesus die for the sins of Christians too? Poor Paul, Romans 7. Somebody should have come alongside of him. You know, Paul had, he had confronted Peter to his face, and maybe Peter should have confronted Paul in Romans 7 and said, the way you're acting now, I don't think you can call yourself a Christian.

I don't even know how you have the capacity, the wherewithal, the gall to say, yes, I'm a Christian.

You know, you can't say gall anymore because that would be against the galls, the goths and all that stuff. You don't have the nerve. Well, you can't even say gyp anymore because it's from, gypsies are from Egypt and you know, you can't say, you know, you gyp somebody.

You have to be very, very careful, Steve. We have to hurry up now and take some time outside and breathe in the gift of fresh spring air. That's like Jesus breathing on the disciples in anticipation of Pentecost.

He breathed and the Holy Spirit came upon him. So let me ask the question.

What happens when I breathe in fresh fall air? Does that rekindle the flame of Easter?

Well, summer air is fresh, but it's mosquito-laden.

So if I go, you know, if I go, what, 90, 100, 110 days later, you know, and I go, hey, what about this fall air?

This is really crisp. Well the word breathe really resonates with me. I'm thankful to breathe. Me too. Okay. Take a trip to a shrine or a holy place. Like a Buddhist shrine? Anything where there's spirituality.

A Muslim's holy place? Anything where there's monotheism. Oh, nice. Okay. What about a Shinto temple? That reminds me of that guy singing the song about the wild wood weed with Jim Stafford and took a trip and never leaved the farm.

Lent, Prayer, and the Treadmill of Self-Improvement

Number eight. Don't forget what you did in Lent. Can you continue to incorporate the lessons into your daily life?

You know, one of the things that gives me the comfort of knowing that I belong to the Lord is what I gave up during Lent. I mean, that's my confidence in my salvation rests on my Lent.

Yeah, but I don't really have any ashes. So what I had to do for Lent is I had to pick up cigarette smoking. So I had to have some butts laying around and I put them out in the ashtray and then put it on my forehead.

And then I picked up a bad habit during Lent.

I think that's like anti-Lent, right? Maybe the 40 days. You know, there's an interesting thought. So like the 40 days before Lent, do you pick up bad habits so that you could kick them during Lent?

Well, yeah. You just pick them up like the week before. Yeah. And then you can give up something you never really cared about. Hope in the Lord by continually praying for those affected by war, illness, or pain.

I mean, is that good? I think it's fine.

I don't think it keeps Easter going, though. No, it doesn't. You know what keeps Easter going? If I could put it this way, Easter should never go out for the Christian, right? Every day we ought to be amazed at the grace of God that he would forgive wretches like us every single day.

And that is why it's important when we, Pastor Steve and I, or any other person dare to stand in the pulpit, we are here to talk about the Lord Jesus. And it's Lord Jesus for your salvation, Lord Jesus for your sanctification.

Lord Jesus for pardon, no more sins to bear ever. Lord Jesus for power. I can actually say no to sin. Everything revolves around him. And so why do I need some kind of list like this? That'll preach. That'll preach.

I was at the Smiths last night and I said to the boys, they have two boys and one girl, I said, hey boys, guess what my sermons are about on Sunday? They're like, I don't know. I said, Jesus. And Andrew said, every sermon's about Jesus.

Some way, shape, or form.

Is there a better topic? And, you know, what should Christians be learning about? I think Jesus.

I know. And Steve, all these things, almost every one of them, you don't even need to be told to do those. Yes. Okay. I'm not an antinomian, but we get that. It's built in our conscience. We understand things, but what's not built into our conscience and things that must be revealed are about the triune God.

Right? So, so I need to go to church, not just, just hear these lists. This is, could be the equivalent of a Ted talk at church where you just, here's 10 more things to do. And if you check off the boxes, just like you said earlier, you'll feel better.

Right. And if you don't, you'll feel worse. But I want to, I want to do bad things first, then give them up for Lent so that I feel better and I could extend Lent on for 50 more days.

I like the name of our church, Church of the Holy Treadmill. You know, you're just.

Chutes and ladders, one guy called it. You're on your way up to glory and then get the bad dice and down you go. Boom.

No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Ebendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life transforming power of God's word through verse by verse exposition of the sacred text.

Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at six. We're right on route 110 in West Boylston. You can check us out online at bbcchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.