THE BATTLE OF COVID-19

The Battle of COVID-19

As the moon waxes and wanes, so does COVID-19 – apparently. At the height of its attack, these little heat-seeking missiles homed in on their primary targets, the elderly and the frail. The coronas caused carnage especially in nursing homes and the likes. However, the good news is that the pandemic is waning. Even in those deep pockets of resistance, the corona madness seems to be very much in retreat.

As in the aftermath of every war, world economies are often left in tatters through the expenditure of blood and treasure fighting the enemy. However, the tactics used in this coronavirus war have been unusual. Instead of factories running 24/7 producing munitions, the worker, i.e., the “non-essential” workers were ordered by governments to stay at home. Most reasonable people were happy to comply voluntarily. Some were even able to work from home. However, this was unfeasible for others.

As moons waxed and waned people began to observe certain inconsistencies in some of their authorities. The lunacy of being arrested for sitting alone on a park bench, for example. People began to notice that their freedoms were being ignored and, in some places, even eroded. Constitutions were wantonly ignored by some authorities, as if somehow a pandemic nullifies certain basic human rights.

There was pushback. There were protests. There were narks. There even were threats from authorities. There was turmoil in every nation as they tried to get a handle on how best to fight this insidious enemy. Herd-immunity, self-isolation, or both? If you are infected, then stay at home. Do not visit the most vulnerable, especially the sick, the frail, and the elderly. Close national borders? Close state borders?

It didn’t seem to matter what was done to try to combat it, wave after wave of the attackers landed on practically every shore. But then the tide began to turn. And, as the beachcombers began raking through the flotsam and jetsam, it became clear that the coronavirus infection rate was far higher than had been anticipated, but the casualties were far lower than first prophesied. Many people had had the disease without ever even knowing it.

Two things can be surmised from the after action review:

1.      The experts got it so completely wrong with their extravagant predictions. Hospitals were emptied of patients, non-elective surgeries were cancelled, ongoing medical treatments were put on hold, many people were afraid to go for check-ups lest they catch the dreaded plague at these places. All of this in anticipation of monumental influx of COVID-19 casualties that never transpired. To be sure, this is a good thing, but too many hospital facilities lay dormant when they could have been looking after people with other ailments and afflictions.

2.      God hears prayer. Christians were praying that the triune God would stay the hand of the angel of death. World leaders were prayed for. Families, friends, and even enemies were prayed for. Thanks be to God, though one death is one too many, the countless millions of deaths predicted by the “experts” did not materialise.

As depicted in the movie “Dunkirk", the kind hand of Providence calmed the wind and the waves, as we launched our rescue boats on the outgoing tide. Yes, sadly, there were still too many casualties, and may God comfort those who are grieving the loss of loved ones, but the vast majority have been saved.

May God be pleased to help us to rebuild our economies as we begin to open up for business once more. May laughter ring once again from the pubs and restaurants. May the crowds roar once more in the sports stadiums (stadia). May the ma and pa businesses get their employees back intact. May the big companies and corporations have learned their lesson, that charity begins at home.

But may we never forget the lesson that we have learned from this COVID-19 war, that “‘You shall love the LORD your God with all our heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind’, and ‘your neighbour as yourself’” Luke 10:27.

Therefore, you can have a rant about how the so-called experts got it all so wrong during this war. Or you can give thanks to God for sparing us from their predicted numbers. I know which one I’ll be doing.        

TIME FLIES

Time Flies

What comes to mind when you consider the words “Time Flies”? The comedic clock with wings perhaps? Or something more sci-fi, say, flies aboard the ‘Time Lord’ Doctor Who’s T.A.R.D.I.S.? Or the mundane, “Time flies when you’re having fun”? There’s a 1944 movie called “Time Flies” that united the comedic with the sci-fi. It’s about a minor music hall star who uses a time machine to travel back to Elizabethan England.

Stuart & Neil, Police Box, Glasgow

If it were possible to travel back to the beginning of time, we would see the heavens and the earth just starting to appear. ‘In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth’ Genesis 1:1. Therefore, time was created at the beginning, but flies, incidentally, had to wait until the fifth day for God to create them. Therefore, because He is their creator, God sovereignly controls both time and flies. E.g., the fourth of the ‘Ten Plagues’ was the plague of flies. Notice the detail in the final sentence of the following, ‘And the LORD did according to the word of Moses; He removed the swarms of flies from Pharaoh, from his servants, and from his people. Not one remained’ Exodus 8:31. The Egyptians worshipped a god they called Uatchit, the god of flies.

We are more familiar with Baal-Zebub. (1 Kings 1:1-8). Baal-Zebub translates as ‘baal of the fly’, or, the more familiar ‘Lord of the Flies’. Therefore, the fictitious Doctor Who may be a ‘Time Lord’, and the fictitious Baal-Zebub and Uatchit may be the ‘Lord of the Flies’, but it is the living and true God who is the true Lord both of time and of flies!

Time may fly when you’re having fun, but time stood still for Joshua. ‘Then Joshua spoke to the LORD in the day when the LORD delivered up the Amorites … and he said in the sight of Israel, “Sun, stand still over Gibeon: and Moon, in the Valley of Aijalon.” So the sun stood still, and the moon stopped, till the people had revenge on their enemies’ Joshua 10:12-13. (Apparently, time is on record of having stood still around this time in different parts of the world, such as in Greek, Maori, and Mexican cultural legends.)

Dorothy, Glasgow

By the way, do you see a pattern forming here? The Israelites were fighting the Amorites, who were sun and moon worshippers. Therefore, God is the true Lord of time, flies, the Sun, and the Moon. We just call Him ‘Creator’ for short. ‘For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them’ Exodus 20:11a.

It is because we are having fun that time seems to fly. But not so when you’re in pain. Time drags then. Consider the six long hours, (one hour for each day of creation?) that Jesus hung on the cross before He died, i.e., from 9:AM till 3:PM. Who tempted Adam through Eve to sin, and then also Jesus? The Devil, the Father of Lies, Beelzebub (or Beelzebul) is the god of this present age (Matt. 4:1; 10:25; 2 Cor. 4:4).

By Satan’s evil influence, we ‘exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator’ Romans 1:25. By the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, God showed us that He is the Lord of creation and everything in it, even death. For Jesus came ‘that he might destroy the works of the devil’ 1 John 3:8b.

Yes, time flies when you’re having fun, but in Heaven we’ll have eternity.          

GOVERNMENT AUTHORITARIANISM

The following is my two-cents worth on the subject of government authoritarianism during COVID-19.

As you know, once you start talking about these things, you are immediately branded as some sort of “conspiracy theorist”, you know, like the one where creepy George Soros is up to no good again in the shadows, invisibly manipulating his puppet governments and their economies and all of that. Be that as it may.

Commando Memorial, Lochaber, Scotland

In the West, as in Australia, we live in a free society. Our freedoms are outlined in our constitutions upon which our laws are based, (Common Law, set precedents, etc.) Therefore, our freedoms lie within those guidelines upon which the people of our nation are agreed, i.e., the law of the land.

Whereas Conservatives, (please notice that I did not say “Tories”), believe that, perhaps a little paradoxically, it is the law of the land that gives us our freedoms, Socialists want an ever expanding government to control the nation. The former lets us breathe free, while the latter wants to strangle us – but only with red tape to start with.

Law-abiding citizens tend to take the law into their own hands during times of government overreach, such as things are today. Exhibit “A” is the State of Michigan, where the Governor told the folks that they could buy alcohol, but were forbidden from buying seeds for their gardens, among other bizarre rules – based on nothing but her Leftist authoritarianism. She ignored the Constitution. Therefore, the people exercised their 1^st Amendment rights and protested outdoors. Thus, the Governor unnecessarily agitated the free people and instigated a protest by her unwise and un-Constitutional actions.

Again, what we do in the West is voluntary. We had good common sense reasons from our rulers for self-isolating and social-distancing, it is scientific, it makes medical sense, etc. “Do you wish to catch this plague? Then keep on shaking hands and sneezing on each other.” That was enough for me to comply with their requests. However, when the authoritarians cannot give us a good reason for their restrictions, we freedom lovers push back. Then the government reacts by clamping down on our freedoms and our nation turns into a Socialist Utopia, or what we freedom loving Conservatives call a “Police State”. “Papers? You have no papers!”

Then there is the Fake News (useful idiots?), which reported, for example, that some of those Michigan protestors had swastikas. Stupidly, these were meant to show that the Governor of Michigan was being a Nazi with her totalitarian edicts. However, give the spin-doctoring Fake Media an inch, and they will take a mile and give you back a lie – wider than mile. As they say, truth is the first casualty of war, apparently even in a war against COVID-19.

Whether the Marxists are using Hegelian Dialectical Materialism at the moment to try to collapse the Western economy et al, i.e., cause a Socialist revolution, I do not know. However, it has crossed my mind, that the non-Conservative Rahm Emanuel (alluding to M.F. Weiner) has said, “You never let a serious crisis go to waste. And what I mean by that it’s an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before.”

Good and evil are ever at each other’s throats. As a Conservative I see a lot of good in the midst of, and, coming out of, this coronavirus crisis. However, government authoritarianism is not one of them. 

FROM THE WINE BOX

My paperback version is now out on Amazon. (Kindle version also available.).

This booklet grew out of a challenge from my sister-in-law, Elizabeth, for me to present some Gospel messages in video form. I had been complaining that people, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic over Easter 2020, were asking for bread, but some preachers seemed to be feeding them stones. I had to put my money where my mouth was. Balancing my iPad on a cardboard wine box, I used it to film some sermonettes. Hence, the use of Wine Box in the title. Simply running with an idea, all were virtually extempore. However, I have since transcribed those “gospelettes”, and have accompanied them with other uplifting messages. Therefore, throw away the stones, and feed on Jesus, the Bread of Life. 


“From the Wine Box to having a Bede in you: Here to hand I have a book capturing the essence of life on many levels, a snapshot of our times. Its arrival is evocative of another measure of moments, conjuring as it does the swift sparrow of the pensive old Venerable Bede. Rather than the venerable quill poised over precious vellum though, here we have in parallel lives the action of a man and a woman speaking first on WhatsApp and then pressing buttons to produce a paperback book available throughout the world. From scriptorium to screen, the same constancy of message, from Bede chewing his quill to Neil punching his computer, from Bede to Liz to Neil even, from parchment to paperback; we may be reduced again to the boundaries of our dusty villages, but the Truth will out. Venerable even in vulnerablity. “Unfurl the sails” wrote Bede a mere 1300 years ago, “and let God steer us where He will.” Stuart McKinlay

Amazon: https://tinyurl.com/yc9pdlnm

Part 4 of 4: THOMAS NAILS IT!

Thomas Nails It!

As is usually done at Easter, in the following we’ll be looking at the resurrection of Jesus.

Everyone knows about Thomas. We call him “Doubting Thomas”.

“Now Thomas, called the Twin, one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples therefore said to him, “We have seen the Lord.” So he said to them, “Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.” And after eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, “Peace to you!” Then He said to Thomas, “Reach your finger here, and look at My hands; and reach your hand here, and put it into My side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing.” And Thomas answered and said to Him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him, “Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” John 20:24-29.

The Resurrection is the big, nay, the major, thing in Christianity. Without the Resurrection we Christians are just a bunch of fools. We’re just a bunch of “nutters” and nutcases. A lot of my friends think that I’m a nutcase believing in all this stuff. But, if this Man, Jesus Christ, who claimed to be God, really, really did rise from the dead, then I’m listening! He has got my ear. God has got my ear! So, Jesus is proving to His disciples that it is Him. That He is truly risen.

We’ve looked at already, why Jesus was hanging on that cross. It was because of our sins, i.e., our transgressions of God’s Law, the Ten Commandments, in thought, and word, and deed, in all their applications. Those Ten Commandments, honouring your father and your mother, and not committing adultery, not stealing, not telling lies, not coveting, worshipping other gods, and all the rest of it, even ignoring God, making false images of God, a God who wouldn’t send anyone into Hell type of god, breaking His Sabbath Commandment, murdering and so forth. But that is why Jesus is on the cross. It’s because God’s Law, God’s Ten Commandments prove every last one of us to be a sinner. Jesus is the Saviour of sinners. For those who are trusting in Him, He is taking away our sins.

And we’ve looked at the wheelie bin, taking it out to the kerb, and God taking our sins and applying them to Jesus, imputing them to Jesus, accrediting our sins to Jesus, and then incinerating all of our sins. That’s it! It’s as if we’ve never sinned. God has given us a new nature, a new record, and a new heart.[1] And then He has imputed, accredited Christ’s righteousness, Christ’s perfect law-keeping as our Representative to us, i.e., each one of us who believe.[2]

And then we asked the question, What Was Jesus Doing While in the Tomb? What was He doing between the cross and the Resurrection? What was He doing on the Saturday Sabbath, i.e., the Old Testament Sabbath, which is now the New Testament Christian Sabbath, the Sunday on account of the Resurrection?[3] What was He doing? We remembered that verse where Jesus said to the repentant thief on the cross, “Today, you shall be with Me in Paradise.”[4] So Jesus and the thief on the cross both went to Paradise on that day when they died.

Jesus is going to return again. He is going to return bodily.[5] How do we know that? Because He was resurrected bodily. He went to great lengths to show that He was not a spirit.[6] You can read in Luke’s Gospel, where Jesus said to His disciples, “Have you any food here?”[7] So they give Him a bit of fish, and the New King James Version says, “and some honeycomb”.[8] And he ate it in front of them, just to prove that He is as solid as He was proving to Thomas. “Thomas, touch Me. Here’s where the nails went through. Here’s where they stuck a spear in My side.

You can believe the “swoon theory” if you like, where Jesus was only pretending to be dead on the cross. But these efficient Romans new, really, really knew how to kill people, and torture them. It was a torturous death that Christ went through there. And even more torturous than the pain He felt physically, was that spiritual pain where he cried out, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”[9]

Now, one of the things that comes from Jesus’s resurrection, is our resurrection. What will we be like? If you talk to Christians nowadays, yes, even Christians! Ask them about Heaven. What’s it like? “Oh, we sit on a cloud or something with a halo and we strum harps. We’re just wispy pieces of smoke or something. Who knows?” Well, because Jesus was resurrected, it means that we are going to be resurrected, physically, bodily. You will be able to touch us. Like Jesus, we shall be solid.

Remember the termites in the fence, the white ants that ate it from the inside out? And then there is nothing left but an empty shell? Well, we are going to be solid, when we are in Glory, i.e., the new Heavens and on the New Earth[10] with our renewed bodies.

It is these bodies, (i.e., our present bodies) that will be renewed. Jesus went to great lengths to show that it was self-same body that was nailed to the cross, put in the tomb, that was resurrected again on the third day, just as he had promised. And it is going to be the same for us – these self-same bodies.

Look after your body. Yes, you will get a renewed body, but it is your body, the self-same body you’ve got, only without the deformities and all the rest of it. I don’t know if my hair will be as long as it was during the isolation from the coronavirus. The barber’s shop is only a hundred metres away from where I live. Not that I would, but I could throw a stone from my place and hit the barber!

We are going to get physical bodies. Why? Because Jesus had a physical body. And we are going to live on this physical planet. Why? Because it is this physical planet, this earth (albeit renewed) that Jesus is returning to.[11] And He will physically resurrect us from our grave.

What is the conclusion of the whole matter? What did Thomas say to Jesus? This is what we all should be saying to Jesus: “My Lord and my God!”

Don’t be an unbeliever. Be a believer. Believe in the Resurrection because it is the truth.[12]

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[1] Ezekiel 11:19-20; 2 Corinthians 5:17.

[2] Romans 4:22-25.

[3] Revelation 1:10.

[4] Luke 23:43.

[5] Acts 1:11.

[6] Luke 24:39.

[7] Luke 24:41b.

[8] Luke 24:42.

[9] Psalm 22:1a; Matthew 27:46; Mark 15:34.

[10] Revelation 21:1.

[11] Revelation 21:2.

[12] 1 John 1:1-4.

Part 3 of 4: THE TERMITES OF SIN

The Termites of Sin

In the following, I’d like to talk to you about termites. Termites had been eating up a wooden fence that runs along the side of my house in sunny Queensland. So, we got the guy to come out to install a new fence (a colour-bond, i.e., an aluminium one). These little creatures are also known as white ants. They sneak in. They are subterranean. Inside your house, you could be leaning on a doorpost and your hand will go right through it if the termites have been at work.

We’re talking about corruption, decay, and the things that cause decay[1].

In the verge of the coronavirus pandemic, the coronavirus is a hidden little creature.[2] The virus is shaped like little crowns which gets into your system, causing havoc and decay. And many people sadly die from this.

I want to address something that is relevant, to do with the day between when Jesus died on the cross and the day when Jesus was raised from the tomb, raised from the dead. We are going to look at Jesus. What was He doing between His death and His resurrection?

We have already looked at the fact that the Ten Commandments show you up as a sinner. We all break God’s Law.[3] That’s why God is going to judge you. Because you’re rebelling against Him. How do you know you’re rebelling? You’re breaking His Commandments in thought, word, and in deed. There’re still Ten Commandments and they still apply to human beings today.[4]

The wonderful thing is that God sent a Saviour of sinners, i.e., a people that realise they are sinful by nature.[5] We need a new nature. We need a new heart. We need a new record. God gives us all of those things through Jesus Christ.[6]

We’re going to look at a couple of verses from Acts 2 that speak of Jesus. Peter, when he was giving his sermon before the men of Israel, said:

“Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a Man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs which God did through Him in your midst, as you yourselves also know-- Him, being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death … Men and brethren, let me speak freely to you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. Therefore, being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit of his body, according to the flesh, He would raise up the Christ to sit on his throne, he, foreseeing this, spoke concerning the resurrection of the Christ, that His soul was not left in Hades, nor did His flesh see corruption.” Acts 2:22-23; 29-31.

There’s that word corruption or decay. It’s what happened to my wooden fence. It has been corrupted. Something has got in there and has eaten it from the inside out, leaving only the form of a fence. It looks like a fence until a gust of wind comes along and it disappears. Then you wonder what’s wrong. That’s what is wrong with us.

We’ve talked about wheelie bins, where I compared us to wheelie bins. We need to be wheeled out to the street for God to pick up our sin, load it onto the back of Jesus Christ on the cross, and incinerate it, cleansing us of all our iniquities, all our sins.[7] So that’s what Jesus is doing on the cross. Now we want to know what He is doing in the grave.

His body, His flesh did not see corruption is what the Scripture says.[8] It did not get decayed. It’s not like when you put me in the grave when I’m dead and the worms and everything will eat me,[9] and I’ll just dissolve into bones. Corruption. Putrefaction!

In the Apostles’ Creed it says, “I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth … Born of the Virgin Mary … was crucified, dead, and buried, He descended into hell, the third day He rose again…” “He descended into hell.” We already read the verse of Scripture that says the same thing. “His soul was not left in…” If you read ye old King James Version instead of the New Kings James Version, it would say, “His soul was not left in hell…” Here, in the New King James Version it says, “hades”, which is the Greek word left untranslated. If the Apostles’ Creed is saying that He descended into the grave, and the New King James Version is saying the same thing, then that is exactly what happened.

What was He doing in the grave? Well, some argue the He was preaching to these sinners in Hell, about which there is a big dispute among theologians.[10] But, remember Jesus on the cross? What did He say to the repentant thief that was hanging there next to Him, i.e., the one that was repenting? The other thief didn’t. He was still hurling insults. What did He say to the repentant thief? “Assuredly, I say to you, today [i.e., that day] you shall be with Me in Paradise.”[11]

So, as His body lay in the tomb, Jesus went to Paradise. If you were to look though the Book of Hebrews you would see that He went through the Holy of Holies.[12] Remember the curtain, the veil in the Temple was rent?[13] It was torn top to bottom to show that it was a supernatural event. Well, Jesus went in there as the great High Priest after the order of Melchizedek[14] and sprinkled His blood, the blood of atonement, to atone, to cover our sins.[15]

Now when God looks at us, He sees the blood of Christ and leaves us alone. Just like the blood on the doorposts at the Passover,[16] the blood on the cross.[17] God sees that blood on the Mercy Seat or Seat of Atonement in the Holy of Holies, and He leaves us alone on account of Christ. So, we’re covered by the blood of Christ. That’s what that means, we’re cleansed by the blood of Christ.[18]

When Christ is in the tomb it says His body did not see corruption, His body did not see decay. We’ll be in our graves, but there will come a day, just as He was resurrected, we are going to be resurrected, because he was resurrected.[19] This is why we look after graves.[20] Someone asked me what I thought about cremation. In the Bible, when people were burned (i.e., cremated), it was usually a sign of God’s displeasure.[21]

Look at Joseph in Egypt. He wanted them to cart his bones off with them when they were being set free by God, delivered from the Egyptians.[22] It was the same with Abraham. He was buried next to his wife Sarah.[23] That’s what you see all the way through the Bible. Jesus didn’t say, “Oh, that’s great. I’m finished with My body now. Just throw it on the scrapheap. I’m done with it.” No! They looked after His body. They put in a tomb. Why? Because He was going to be raised again. And because He was raised again. We are going to be raised again.

So, Jesus said to the thief upon the cross, “Today, you will be with Me in Paradise.” So the thief and Jesus went to Paradise. And then there’s going to come a day when Jesus is going to come back again. Let’s read about that and see what will happen with us. Watch out for the word corruption, decay.

“Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed— in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.”

“O Death, where is your sting?

O Hades, where is your victory?”

The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” 1 Corinthians 15:51-57.

To summarise: What sin has done to your heart is what termites have done to my fence. Sin has eaten you up in the inside. And, as to the things of God, you have become your own God. You don’t want to trust in God for everything, maybe for this and maybe for that. Or you could be like Richard Dawkins or someone and say, “There is no God!”[24] But sin has eaten away your insides.

So, what God does with you through Jesus Christ is that He gives you a new heart. He spiritually revives you. He enlivens you, just like the guy came and give me a new fence, so God has given you a new heart. He has replaced your heart with a fleshly tablet. He has written His Commandments anew on your heart. You still sin against Him. But you want to be obedient to God. He gives you a new record. It’s as if you’ve never sinned on account of Jesus Christ. And He gives you a new nature.

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[1] Matthew 6:19.

[2] Psalm 91:3.

[3] Romans 3:23.

[4] Matthew 5:17-19; Romans 7:12.

[5] Matthew 9:13.

[6] Ezekiel 36:25-27.

[7] Isaiah 53:6.

[8] Acts 2:31.

[9] Mark 9:44-48.

[10] 1 Peter 3:18-20.

[11] Luke 23:43; cf., Revelation 2:7.

[12] Hebrew 9:12.

[13] Luke 23:44.

[14] Hebrews 5:6, 10, 6:20.

[15] Hebrews 9:12.

[16] Hebrews 11:28.

[17] Colossians 1:20.

[18] 1 Peter 1:19.

[19] 1 Corinthians 15:23.

[20] Matthew 23:27.

[21] Joshua 7:25.

[22] Genesis 50:25.

[23] Genesis 25:10.

[24] Psalm 14:1a.

Part 2 of 4: We're All Wheelie Bins

We’re All Wheelie Bins![1]

Let us talk about wheelie bins. You actually can have someone come and clean out your wheelie bin. I don’t know how they do it. They scrub them clean inside and out, and they smell like roses at the end of it. So, keep in mind wheelie bins as we look at the following portion of Scripture.

On Good Friday we acknowledge Jesus being nailed to the cross. What was Jesus doing on the cross? That is what we’ll be looking at.

“And they asked him, saying, “Why then do you baptize if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?” John answered them, saying, “I baptize with water, but there stands One among you whom you do not know. It is He who, coming after me, is preferred before me, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose.” These things were done in Bethabara beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing. The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” John 1:25-29.

We’ve already talked about the Commandments and what sin is. Sin is the breaking of God’s commandments.[2] There’re ten of them.[3] And we considered a little illustration of the 7^th Commandment, not committing adultery[4] and being on a beach in sunny Queensland when there’re scantily clad females and you’re trying not to look at them with longing, or with lust, as we would call it. You’re sinning in your heart if you are lusting after another human being who is not your husband or wife.[5]

In the following I want to show you what wheelie bins are all about. According to the Bible, and bringing it into modern terms, you and I are essentially wheelie bins.[6] We are wheelie bins full of what? Well, I usually tell people that my head is full of broken bottles and Irish fiddle tunes! But really, I’m full of broken commandments.[7] I’m walking around like a wheelie bin full of broken stuff, rotten fruit, fish and other dead things and what have you. That’s what Jesus came to take away. He came to take away my broken Commandments.[8] Because, on Judgment Day,[9] God is going to judge me against His Commandments.

Jesus is God’s Law with arms and legs.[10] Jesus kept God’s Commandments perfectly, as my representative.[11] Therefore, I don’t have to represent myself before God, because the sinless Jesus represents me before God.[12] He kept the Ten Commandments perfectly in thought, in word, and in deed, in everything He did[13], unlike me, unlike you.

Let’s take the 9^th Commandment.[14] “Thou shalt not lie” is the way we usually say it. Have you ever told a lie? Be honest now. Have you ever told a lie? You’re going to have to say yes, otherwise you’re telling a lie, you’re lying. Even the least little sin is enough for God to justly throw us onto the dump, the eternal dump, the scrapheap, Hell.[15]

He made us.[16] We rebelled against Him.[17] That’s what sin is. It’s rebellion against God.[18] How do we know we’re rebelling against God? By breaking His Commandments. We tell lies. We lust after each other, and all that kind of thing. So, you’re a wheelie bin full of broken Commandments. What’s Jesus doing on the cross? Well, He’s doing what the wheelie bin cleaner does. He’s taking away your sins.[19]

During the coronavirus, the COVID-19 scare, we we’re all scared of each other, trying not to get too close to people and all of that.[20] For a bit of fun, I mentioned to my friends on a Facebook post that I think I got away with putting my wheelie bin out to the kerb with my pyjamas on! People on social media were saying left, right, and centre, that their wheelie bins were getting out more during the coronavirus than they were!

You put your wheelie bin out to the kerb and what happens? A big contraption comes along, a truck with big arms. The arms grab your wheelie bin and dumps its contents into the back of the truck. Essentially that is what Jesus is doing on the cross with your sin.

God takes your sin, my sin, yeah let’s talk about me, because I’m a sinner. You may not yet admit to being a sinner. So, He takes my sin, my sins, and puts them onto Jesus.[21] And what does God do to Jesus? In the lead up to Easter it is also Passover week for those people who still haven’t recognised Jesus as the Messiah. Well, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” He is like the garbage truck taking away our garbage, taking away our broken Commandments. That’s what Jesus is doing on the cross.

What was happening with John the Baptist, was that all of Israel was going out to the Jordan to be baptised by him.[22] So, he’s basically cleaning their bins, at least on the outside. That’s what baptism is. It is the washing with water that is cleansing you.[23] It’s a picture of what God does to you internally. He cleanses you of your sins.[24] He takes away your sins. And once He does that, you come up smelling like roses before God!

However, you’re still checking in the nooks and crannies of your own heart, and you see that sin is dwelling in there.[25] So, you need to daily confess your sins to Jesus.[26] Because He’s the One who takes away your sins.  

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[1] Galatians 3:22.

[2] Romans 4:15; 1 John 3:4.

[3] Exodus 20:1-17; Deuteronomy 5:6-21.

[4] Exodus 20:14; Deuteronomy 5:18.

[5] Matthew 5:27-28.

[6] Matthew 15:18-20.

[7] Romans 7:22-23.

[8] Romans 4:25.

[9] Psalm 96:13; John 5:28-29.

[10] Acts 17:31.

[11] Romans 8:1.

[12] 2 Corinthians 5:21; 1 John 2:1.

[13] Hebrews 7:26-27.

[14] Exodus 20:15; Deuteronomy 5:19.

[15] Matthew 12:36; Revelation 20:15.

[16] Genesis 1:26-28.

[17] Genesis 3:6; Romans 3:9-19.

[18] 1 John 3:4.

[19] John 1:29.

[20] Psalm 91:6.

[21] Isaiah 53:5-6.

[22] Mark 1:5.

[23] Ezekiel 36:25.

[24] 1 John 1:9.

[25] 1 John 1:8.

[26] Matthew 6:12.