Dr. Bingham’s Lesson for May 6, 2012
Guest speaker: Kevin Dodge
“Being a Christian in a Cultural Christian World — Part I” – Judges 6:1-24
The author of the book of Judges is thought to be Samuel.
The second generation of Israelites after the Exodus invaded the land of Canaan.
God’s plan was for Israel to be a light to the rest of the nations. But in Judges, we see that they fell far short of that goal by assimilating idolatry into their religious life. From time to time, God allowed them to be taken over or oppressed by neighboring nations and then eventually, when they had repented, providing them a deliverer who would restore their independence.
Judges 6:1-6
Israel did evil in the sight of God and the Midianites, primarily, and the Amalikites invaded the land and left the Israelites impoverished.
Judges 6:7-10
Israel cried out to God and god sent a (man) prophet to tell them where they went wrong.
Judges 6:11-12
The angel of the Lord appears to Gideon. The angel of the Lord is generally taken to be the pre-incarnate Christ, “Yahweh is with you, mighty warrior.” Gideon is a leading man in his community.
Judges 6:13-18
Gideon disputes what the Lord has said to him. But God tells him that He is sending him.
Gideon evidently does not recognize that he is talking to God. But Gideon asks for a sign.
Judges 6:19-24
Gideon prepares an offering to the Lord and the angel of the Lord touches the offering with his staff and fire consumes the offering. Gideon now believes.
It is hard to live as a true Christian in a nominally Christian culture.
Romans 12:1-2
We need to live with Christian distinctives in a cultural Christian world. Be all-in as a Christian. Allow yourself to stand out. Be in the world but not of the world.
Dr. Bingham’s Lesson for April 29, 2012
Series in Mark
“Let not your Hearts be Troubled” – John 14:1-16:7
“Something is Missing from our World — continued” – Mark 14:1-9
John 14:1-3
The stark reality pervading much of the New Testament is the physical absence of Jesus.
“Let not your heart be troubled” is a preparatory statement to all that Jesus will subsequently say.
The first reason that we should not be troubled is that Jesus has left to prepare a place for us to spend eternity.
The second reason is that we have His promise to return.
John 14:12
The third reason we shouldn’t be troubled in His absence is that we, particularly the apostles, will be doing greater things than what Jesus has been doing.
John 16:5
A quick look around at the world should be enough for you to grieve that Jesus is not here with us.
In John, Jesus is giving us reasons why our sorrow and grief should be mitigated.
John 14:15-16
Jesus recognizes that while He was with the disciples His presence and guidance was a comfort to His followers; He was available to answer all their questions. But in going away, Jesus is sending another in His place to be a comforter to us, and in particular, the apostles. The Greek word used to describe the Comforter is paraclete, which means more than comforter; it carries also the idea of one called along side, a counselor, and an advocate. He is called the Spirit of Truth, God the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is identical to Jesus in nature and in what He can do, though not identical as to person.
In the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit was not present with anyone permanently. We find David in Psalm 51:11, after his great sin of adultery, pleading with God not to take from him the Holy Spirit. But He is with us forever, to comfort and advise.
John 14:25-26
Let not your hearts be troubled. We have the writings of the New Testament because Jesus left and the Holy Spirit came.
John 14:17
The Holy Spirit will minister internally. That part that we cannot touch or do anything about is where He will minister.
John 14:18
The first way Jesus will come to you is at the end of the age when He returns.
The second way Jesus will come to you is by the Holy Spirit, so that when He comes He will be conveying the presence of Jesus Christ to you.
John 15:26-27
The Holy Spirit empowers us to be witnesses of Jesus.
John 16:6-7
It is for our good that Jesus went away. The Holy Spirit had to come within us so He could have a ministry to the world. We worship a trinitarian God. We are not just Jesus-worshipers. As Christians, we are also worshipers of the third person of the Trinity.
Dr. Bingham’s Lesson for April 22, 2012
Series in Mark
“Something is Missing from our World” – Mark 14:1-9
One of the themes in Mark is that most people respond to Jesus in inappropriate ways. Those who have responded to Jesus appropriately we call the church. So most of the people in the house of Simon the Leper respond to the woman’s act of pouring perfume on Jesus’ head by saying that it was a great waste. They don’t realize that Jesus is leaving. The only one who understands this is the woman.
John 16:5-11, 16
Even though we are saved, forgiven, and redeemed and we have the promise of resurrection from the dead and eternal life in the kingdom of God, there is a big hole in our world — Jesus has left it. This is something for you to grieve about, something to feel pain about. Some people will tell you that you have all you need as a Christian right now. But they just don’t get it.
Mark 13:1-2, 5, 9, 12-13, 17
Things are not right with our world because Jesus is not here. Something is missing from our world and we should be grieved because of it.
Mark 13:26-27
When Jesus returns there won’t be any mistake about it because He will come in the clouds and the dead will be raised from one end of the earth to the other. It will be something you have never seen or imagined before.
We are a people without our Lord. Every day should be a day we cry out for our Lord. We are a people in waiting.
“Even so, come Lord Jesus.”
Dr. Bingham’s Lesson for April 15, 2012
Guest speaker: Kevin Dodge
“Suffering is Mitigated by Confidence in the Resurrecton” – Psalm 16:1-10
We can have confidence in God in the midst of suffering because God’s providence extends beyond the grave.
Psalm 16:1
David uses the term El for God. This term was used in all the surrounding cultures to denote the chief god, but, in Israel, to denote the one and only God.
Psalm 16:2
Here, David uses the term Yahweh for God. This name for God was introduced to Israel by way of Moses at the burning bush. It means “I am that I am” and speaks of the perfection, completeness, and self-existence of God. (Exodus 3:14)
David then refers to God as his Lord, Adonai, meaning master.
David understands that he has no righteousness of his own.
Psalm 16:3
David delights in the saints, the people of God.
Psalm 16:4
David relies on God’s grace and not on appeasement, as the pagans surrounding Israel do.
Psalm 16:5-6
This is an allusion to the book of Joshua, in which the tribes received their promised inheritance. David was of the tribe of Judah (1 Chronicles 2:3-15).
Psalm 16:7
The night is when one meditated on the law, the scriptures.
Psalm 16:8-9
David has confidence that he will dwell securely because he has put God in first place in his life. The right hand has significance in a military setting; a combatant holds a shield in his left hand and holds a sword with his right. The left has protection from his shield but the right is more vulnerable because he can be struck when he has his sword raised. So, with God on his right, he has protection there also.
Psalm 16:10
This psalm was quoted by Peter in the book of acts. It is foundational to the Christian faith.
Luke 24:44-45
Jesus informs His disciples that the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms have written about Him. They must be understood in the context of His coming.
Acts 2:22-32
Here, Psalm 16:8-10 is put in its right context.
We will all experience suffering but we can have confidence that at the end of our days our souls will rest securely in the hope of the resurrection from the dead.
Dr. Bingham’s Lesson for April 8, 2012
Easter Message
“What is the Composition of your Spiritual Parachute?” – Romans 1:18-32
Romans 1:18-20
Creation screams out God’s divine nature and His eternal power. God should never be confused with His creation.
But man suppressed this reality.
Romans 1:21-23
What you think about God determines every other dimension of your existence.
Suppression eventually progresses to exchange.
If you muffle anything the Bible is telling you about God, you will eventually believe something about God that is false.
Romans 1:24-25
Whatever you think about God trickles down into your worship. The most important thought you can have is what you think about God.
Romans 1:26-27
Whatever you think about God also trickles down into your behavior; so that a false belief about God results in natural relationships exchanged for the unnatural.
Romans 1:28-32
Every other imaginable wickedness also follows.
What you think about God will either purify you or corrupt you.
Romans 4:4-8
If you believe that God is a God who gives righteousness to those, who have no righteousness of their own, through His Son Jesus Christ, Paul wants you to know that all of your transgressions have been forgiven and you have been declared utterly, completely, and thoroughly righteous, not on the basis of your righteousness, for you have none of your own, but completely on the basis of the righteousness of Jesus Christ.
Romans 4:17-21
Know also that God is the God who raises the dead.
Dr. Bingham’s Lesson for April 1, 2012
“The Greatest Commandment” – Mark 12:28-37
Mark 12:28-34
Deuteronomy 6:4-5
There is only one God. Therefore you owe Him all your love. When there is only one of something it requires your all. Obedience always begins with doctrine.
In the West, we don’t have a pantheon of gods, but we, nevertheless, have a multitude of gods. Devotion to anything that takes your attention away from God acts like an idol.
Loving God also involves loving your neighbor. Truly loving your neighbor is always in accordance with God’s commands. Never relate to your neighbor in a way that is against the standards of loving God. In most situations, loving God and loving your neighbor are indivisible.
1 John 4:19-20
The first commandment to love requires the second.
The teacher of the law commends Jesus and Jesus commends the teacher of the law but in a reserved way. The teacher was not far from the kingdom of God but not quite there yet.
Mark 12:35-37
Jesus follows this discussion with a discussion of the identity of Christ.
The teachers of the law were okay with thinking of the Christ as the physical son of David. But Jesus quotes to them Psalm 110:1, in which David calls the Christ Lord. The last time we heard mention of the Lord was in the commandment to love the Lord your God with all your heart. You are to understand that the Christ is the Lord God of Israel made flesh and that Jesus is that one, the Christ, the Lord God of Israel, a descendant of David.
Being Christian means that in our love of Jesus Christ, in our adoration of Him, in our faith that He is the incarnate God of the universe, we are to love Him by keeping His commandments, the first of which is to love our neighbors as ourselves.
Dr. Bingham’s Lesson for March 25, 2012
Series in Mark
“Marriage and the Resurrection” – Mark 12:18-27
Mark 12:18-25
People who do not know the scriptures doubt the power of God, because the scriptures loudly proclaim His power. Many people in the church think that when they die they will continue in a state of existence without a body forever; they aren’t expecting to be resurrected physically. We will, however, always be human. This passage does not teach that we become angels, only that in the resurrection we are like angels in not marrying. When we die, our spirits do go immediately to be with the Lord in heaven, but there will come a day when our spirits are united with a new version of our old bodies that is incorruptible, immortal, and glorious.
Mark 12:26-27
Jesus could have gone to Daniel 12, which clearly talks about the resurrection or He could have gone to Psalm 16 or to other passages, but He chose to go to Exodus 3, in which the Lord appears to Moses from a bush that appears to burn.
Jesus presents the resurrection as an essential component of the Christian faith.
Exodus 3:1-7, 2:23-25
Twice in these passages, Moses reminds everyone that God has made a covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The covenant involved giving something not only to their descendants but to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, themselves.
Genesis 17:8
The land of Canaan is promised as an everlasting possession not only to Abraham’s descendants but to Abraham, personally, forever.
If God is going to give the land of Canaan to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and their descendants forever then God must raise them from the dead. Death ends the marriage covenant but death does not end the covenant God made with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and their descendants.
Dr. Bingham’s Lesson for March 18, 2012
Series in Mark
“The Day of Reversal” – Mark 12:1-11
Psalm 118
1-4 – It begins with thanksgiving.
5-7 – The Lord sets David free from anguish.
8-9 – It is better to trust in the Lord.
10-12 – David’s predicament.
13-18 – Deliverance from the Lord because David prayed.
The two testaments should not be view as being separate. The New Testament is the account of the fulfillment of the Old Testament.
Mark 12:1-11
Jesus tells a parable about a vineyard that is an allegory of the history of Israel’s treatment of the prophets and, lastly, how they will deal with Himself.
Jesus then quotes from Psalm 118:22-23.
Verse 24 is often misunderstood. The “day that the Lord has made” should be applied to a day in which you experience a miraculous reversal from being headed toward disaster to having deliverance, from heading to defeat to having victory. It speaks of a thing previously discounted becoming the center of the universe.
Even in the midst of disastrous circumstances we can “rejoice in the day that the Lord has made” by remembering that Jesus has died for your sins and been resurrected. Jesus is the stone that the builders rejected and God has made Him Lord of heaven and earth.
Dr. Bingham’s Lesson for March 11, 2012
Series in Mark
“Jesus’ Authority is Questioned” – Mark 11:27-33
William Hamilton (03/09/1924 – 02/28/2012), a professor of theology on the east coast, taught that God was dead because He was nothing more than a concept, someone made up to sooth the soul.
He argued that for people to live moral and ethical lives, to behave well toward each other, to serve one another, for society to be stable, we don’t need the idea of a self-existent Creator and Sustainer. However, he wanted to hold onto the ethical teaching of Jesus. Until the day he died, Hamilton called himself a Christian because he was a follower of the ethical and moral teachings of Christ. He believed you can argue for the existence of the religion, Christianity, without the need for a self-existent Creator and Sustainer, because Christianity is essentially a life of well-behaved people. This became known as Radical Theology and the Death of God.
Mark 11:27-33
Jesus challenges this idea.
The chief priests, teachers of the law and elders challenge Jesus’ authority to cleanse the temple and quote the prophets authoritatively.
Jesus responded by asking a question of them – was John’s baptism from heaven or from men? Jesus takes them back to the beginning. Was John’s coming something arranged by heaven or something a human being could dream up? Hamilton thought that Christianity was something that could be produced entirely by natural means.
Christianity is not in its essence about discipline. Christianity is in its essence about a supernatural in-breaking of God into this world and into our lives. So the question to the religious leaders of Israel is: Is it supernatural or is it natural?
Isaiah 40:1-5, with which the Gospel of Mark begins.
Isaiah 40:6-8 tells us that the only thing that is self-sustaining is God. The natural is contrasted with the super-natural in these verses.
Isaiah 40:9-11 tells us the One for whom the way is being prepared is the sovereign Lord, not just for another human being.
Isaiah 40:12-14 describes this sovereign Lord; He is the maker and the sustainer.
Isaiah 40:18 – With whom can you compare God?
The answer to Jesus’ question is, of course, heaven.
But the religious leaders discussed it among themselves, considering that, if they said “heaven,” Jesus would ask why they didn’t believe him; but they feared the people if they said from men because the people held that John really was a prophet. They were wind-testers who relied on polls.
Christianity is at its heart the reality of the supernatural. We are committed to the God who exists outside of time and space but has invaded time and space out of His miraculous goodness to us and because of His wrath and judgment. We are a people who believe that there is a realm outside of the natural; and, therefore, we are not wind-testers. We approach everything with this presupposition that God exists and He intervenes into the natural realm and He did it most wonderfully in the incarnation of His Son.
Editor’s note:
William Hamilton was not the first to use the phrase, “God is Dead.” The German philosopher, Frederick Nietzsche (1844 – 1900), in his work, Thus Spake Zarathustra, used the phrase. Nietzsche was a favorite of the Nazis, who came along in the late 1920’s and 1930’s; and Nietzsche spoke in his writing of man as having made his way from the worm and advanced the idea that a new kind of man could be cultivated, a “superman.” Nietzsche said, in speaking of his ideals found among warrior nations, “One cannot fail to see at the bottom of all these noble races the beast of prey, the splendid blond beast prowling about avidly in search of spoil and victory; this hidden core needs to erupt from time to time, the animal has to get out again and go back to the wilderness.” Nietzsche also blamed Jews and Christians for all the world’s troubles. His ideas led to the killing of the infirm, the practice of genocide, and war.
Dr. Bingham’s Lesson for March 4, 2012
Series in Mark
“Pray in Faith and Forgiveness” – Mark 11:12-25
Jesus withered the fig tree to remind everyone to read Isaiah 56:1-7 and know all who come to the Lord in faith are welcome into His presence and should not consider themselves a dry, withered tree.
The holy mountain in Isaiah 56 is the temple mount.
Mark 11:22-24
Jesus speaks of a mountain casting itself into the sea. This is again the temple mount; not the Mount of Olives.
If you think it is impossible for a foreigner or a eunuch to enter the presence of God, you must believe the impossible, such as telling the temple mount to cast itself into the sea, and know that these can be brought into the temple and become as close to God as a son or daughter.
When you pray in faith (confidence) that God can do something and, if it is according to His will, it will be done.
The corollary to faith in prayer is forgiveness.
Matthew 6:14
Colossians 3:13; Ephesians 4:32; 1 Peter 4:8
