NAMES AND TITLES OF CHRIST
THE HOLY ONE – PART II
COMMUNION SUNDAY
DR. JIM DIXON
LUKE 1:30-35
JUNE 8, 1997
In the year 167 BC, the nation of Israel was a conquered nation, and the people of Israel were an oppressed people. They had been conquered by the Seleucid Empire and they were oppressed by the tyranny of the Seleucid King Antiochus IV who was called Epiphanes. Jewish men, women and children had been slaughtered in the streets of Jerusalem and the Seleucids were seeking to Hellenize the Jews, forcing Greek culture and Greek customs and Greek philosophies upon them. The Seleucids were desecrating the holy places. Antiochus Epiphanes had actually placed a statue of a pagan deity in the Holy of Holies of the Jerusalem Temple on the Mount of Assembly.
The Jews had had enough. They weren’t going to take it anymore. God raised up a leader whose name was Judah Maccabees, sometimes called Judas Maccabaeus. With the support of the Hasidim, the most powerful religious group in Israel, Judas Maccabaeus, Judah Maccabee was able to recruit men from throughout Israel. They formed a great army, and they went to war with the Seleucids, and they drove the Seleucids out of Israel, and they began to purify the holy places and they cleansed the temple from its desecrations. Today the Jewish people remember these things in a celebration and festival called Hanukkah.
Now, it is a historical fact that immediately after the Maccabean revolt, immediately after the purifying and the cleansing of the temple, there was with the Hasidim, within the largest religious group in Israel, there was a split. To this day, historians do not know what caused the split, but they know that there were a group of people with the Hasidim shortly after the cleansing of the temple in 163 BC, a group of people, a group of Jewish people, who broke away and they called themselves the Pharisaios, a word meaning the separated ones. They separated themselves from the Hasidim. They separated themselves from the Maccabees. They separated themselves from the Hasmonaeans. They sought to separate themselves from the world. They sought to separate themselves from all evil. They sought to separate themselves from all sin. The Pharisaios, the separated ones. Above all else, they sought holiness. They longed to be holy.
The years and the decades passed, and the Pharisees became the most powerful religious group in Israel. More powerful than the Hasidim. By the time of Christ, there were more than 6,000 full members of the Pharisaios, the separated ones, and 20,000 additional adherents in the city of Jerusalem alone. The Pharisees controlled much of the religious thinking and life in Israel. They controlled much of the social and political life in Israel.
Today, of course, we refer to the Pharisaios as the Pharisees and we remember how Jesus did not like the works of the Pharisees. We remember how Jesus, in His time, saved some of His most harsh words and His harsh rebukes for these people who were called Pharisaios, these people we now call Pharisees. We might well ask, “Well, why is this? If Jesus is The Holy One and if the Pharisaios sought holiness, why didn’t Jesus embrace them and why didn’t they embrace Jesus? What was the problem? Was it because they had converted the law to a kind of legalistic burden? Was it because they understood obedience to the law as a matter of simple external action rather than thought in heart? Certainly, these things were involved but, you see, the primary problem was this. In the sight of The Holy One, in the sight of the Son of God, the Pharisaios, the separated ones, just didn’t understand the meaning of the word holy. They didn’t understand the meaning of the word holy and perhaps some of us here today in this worship center do not understand the meaning of the word holy.
In the Bible, God says to His people, “You shall be holy for I am holy.” We saw last week that the word holy in the Bible, in the New Testament, is the Greek word “hagios.” We saw that this word had two meanings. It means “set apart from” and it means “set apart for.” It means set apart from evil and it also means set apart for good.
Last week we examined the first meaning of the word holy—set apart from evil, set apart from sin. You see, the Pharisees understood that meaning of holy. They understood that meaning of holy at least in some measure but they had no concept of this second meaning of the word holy, set apart for good, set apart as a vessel for God’s use.
You know, this is Communion Sunday. At a time like this we remember Christ’s body broken and His blood shed. We remember how our Lord Jesus Christ took the cup and blessed it. We remember how He said, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood shed for the remission of sin.”
Have you ever wondered what happened to the cup? Have you ever wondered what happened to the communion cup that Christ held in His hand in the Upper Room the night before He went to the cross? Well to this day historians are not sure, but many historians believe that the cup was given to Joseph of Arimathea, the rich man who provided the tomb, the grave, in which Christ’s body was placed and from which Christ’s body rose from the dead. There was a strong tradition in the first century that the cup was given to him, to Joseph of Arimathea. It’s believed that in the year 70 AD, Joseph of Arimathea became a missionary. He traveled from Israel to England, to Britain, with the gospel. It’s believed that in the First century AD, Joseph of Arimathea established the church at Glastonbury in England.
If you ever travel to Glastonbury and you see the Cathedral there, as Barb and I did some years ago, and you read their literature and you hear their testimony, you know they believe that church was founded by Joseph of Arimathea, and they believe he brought the cup of Christ with him. Of course, that’s what ultimately led to all the legends in England concerning King Arthur and the Knights of the Round table and the quest for the Holy Grail. I mean that’s where it all began. Most historians believe there really was a King Arthur although they rightly doubt the legend of the Holy GraiI.
According to that legend, shortly after the year 500 on the Day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit fell upon King Arthur and 150 of his knights. The Holy Spirit called King Arthur and his knights to a quest, a sacred quest for the Holy Grail, the Cup of Christ. Ultimately only three of the knights were deemed worthy and those three were Sir Galahad, Sir Perceval and Sir Boars. They found the Cup of Christ, the communion cup, it is said, in a mysterious castle called Corbenic, sometimes called the Castle of the Fisher Kings. It is said that Christ appeared to those three there and they celebrated communion together as Christ had done more than 500 years earlier with His disciples in the Upper Room.
It is said that Sir Galahad was so enraptured by the experience that he was translated immediately into heaven and left this world much as Enid did in the Old Testament era. It is said that Sir Perceval who was allegedly descended from Joseph of Arimathea, Sir Perceval was given charge over the cup and remained there at the Castle of the Fisher Kings to guard it all the days of his life. It’s said that Sir Boars returned to tell the tale. It is said that when Sir Perceval finally died, he went to heaven, taking the Cup of Christ with him, but of course it’s only a legend. It’s only a legend but why did they call the Cup of Christ the Holy Grail? Why did they call it the Holy Grail? I mean the word grail simply means cup but why did they call it holy? Why was this cup called ho I y?
Well, biblically it was called holy because it was set apart for good. You see, it was a vessel set apart for God’s purposes and God’s use. Christ used that vessel to institute the sacrament of holy communion and Christ used that vessel to represent His blood shed. It was a vessel set apart for God’s use, a vessel set apart for good. The truth is, in the Bible and in Judaism, all the vessels of the tabernacle and the temple were called holy. They were all called holy because they all were considered set apart for good, set apart for God’s use.
The Bible tells us that if we’re Christians, if we really believe in Jesus as our Savior from Sin, and if we received Him as the Lord of Life, that we have become vessels indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God. We have become vessels set apart for good not simply set apart from evil but set apart for good—vessels set apart for God’s use. This is true of you, and it is true of me. We are to wake up every day as Christians if we long to be holy, if we hunger and thirst after righteousness, we are to wake up every day and we are to say, “Lord, make me this day a vessel for your use, set apart for good.” Sometimes we’re not willing to be vessels, not willing to be holy.
I remember 21 years ago, I was at the DMV, the Department of Motor Vehicles in Aurora. Barb and I had moved to Colorado 23 years ago. As of 21 years ago, I still didn’t have my Colorado driver’s license. I had been here two years. A police officer had pulled me over and he didn’t give me a ticket, but he did give me a date upon which I had to have a valid Colorado license, or it would become a ticket and I had come to that date. I had waited until the last minute. There I was at the DMV in Aurora. I think it was a Friday or Saturday. I know it was the day of the UCLA-USC football game. I really wanted to see the game. My father had gone to UCLA, and we had grown up with season tickets. I was a big UCLA fan, still am, and I wanted to get home to see the game.
So, there I was at the DMV. I had to take the written test and I had to take the actual driving test. There were a ton of people when I got there. I took the written test and that was no problem but there was a long wait to take the driving portion of the test. They had all these people sitting in chairs and I knew it was going to be hours and I was going to miss the start of the game. I was really bummed out.
I found a section of about five rows of empty chairs, and I just went and sat there by myself. I wanted to be alone. I just wanted some space. After a while, a young man came, and he came towards the five rows that I was sitting in, and he walked right into my row and decided to sit there right next to me. He was entitled to do that, but it irritated me, and I remember thinking there’s five rows here. Why does he have to sit right next to me? I felt like he was invading my space. He didn’t know me. I didn’t know him, but he was really talkative. He just wanted to talk. He talked about what a crowd there was and all this…I didn’t want to talk. It wasn’t like I said anything mean to him, but I wasn’t very nice. I just kind of sat there.
Finally, he said to me, “Well, what do you do?” I didn’t want to tell him I was a Presbyterian minister because I didn’t want to have to explain the word Presbyterian. I just said to him, “I’m a pastor at a Christian church.” He said “Really?” I said “Yeah.” He said, “This is amazing.” He said “I don’t go to church, but I have a Bible and I’ve been reading my Bible. I’ve decided I’d really like to become a Christian, but I don’t know how. Would you help me?”
Isn’t that amazing? You see, suddenly I realized that, you know, here I was… selfishly just seeking isolation. Here I was just thinking of my own disappointments, my own frustrations, and God had another purpose. God wanted me to reach out and help another person. You see that day, by the grace of God, by His mercy, that young man accepted Jesus Christ as his Lord and as his Savior and I was a vessel. I was a vessel, a reluctant vessel, but I was a vessel that day. There was something holy about that, something holy about being a vessel for God’s use, something holy about being set apart for good, you see.
This was the problem with the Pharisees. They were so concerned with being set apart from evil but what good were they? This is why Jesus told the Parable of the Good Samaritan. The religious leaders just passed right on by the wounded man, the priest, the Levite. The Samaritan, he was moved with compassion. The religious leaders sought to separate themselves from evil but what good were they? True holiness is not simply being set apart from evil. That’s important but it also means to be set apart for good, set apart for God’s use, even reluctantly.
I mean you look in the Bible and you see a reluctant vessel in Jonah, right? I mean Jonah was really a reluctant vessel. This prophet of God who we read about in that little book of Jonah in the Old Testament, called by God to be a vessel, called by God to take a word of mercy to the people of Nineveh—people who were living a life that was debauched in the sight of God and yet God loved those people—so he told Jonah to go to them and to warn them that judgement was coming but to remind them that if they would repent, God would respond with love and mercy and grace. Jonah didn’t want to go because he didn’t like the people of Nineveh. He didn’t want them to repent because he didn’t want them to be spared so Jonah took the wrong boat. You know the story. He left Joppa on the coast of the Mediterranean and he took a boat for Tarshish but there was a great storm at sea and the crew decided that Jonah was to blame. He was a kind of curse. He was a foreigner on the boat. They threw him overboard and he went into the sea, swallowed by a great fish, ultimately cast up on the shore.
Reluctantly, he went to Nineveh, and he told the people that the judgement of God was going to come unless they repented but if they did repent, the mercy of God would follow. They repented and their lives were spared, and Jonah was all bummed out. Do you remember? I mean he was bummed out about that. He actually went and sat down and was melancholy, depressed because the people of Nineveh were spared. And yet, you see, Jonah is called one of the Old Testament saints. Why is Jonah called an Old Testament saint? I mean the word saint etymologically in the Greek language has the same root as the word holy. The word saint literally means holy one. What was holy about Jonah? Simply the fact that he had been a vessel for God’s use, a reluctant vessel but a vessel, nonetheless. A vessel.
Are you willing to be a vessel? Even a reluctant vessel? Hopefully a willing vessel. If you wake up every morning and if you long for holiness and you really want to please God… If you wake up every morning and not only say “How can I set myself apart from sin and evil but how can I set myself apart for good as a vessel for God’s use? How can God’s love and God’s mercy and God’s grace be seen in me today?
We have all kinds of opportunities for you to pursue holiness in this church. We have all kinds of opportunities for you to be a vessel. Perhaps you would be willing to teach Sunday School. I mean do you really believe that this is a tough world to grow up in? Do you really care about the children of this nation and the children of Denver? Would you be willing to be a vessel set apart for God’s use in a Sunday School classroom? There’s something holy about that. Would you be willing to be a vessel to go into the inner city with the love of Christ through our Whiz Kids Program and help other children who are impoverished and less fortunate than us. Would you be willing to go to one of the five inner city churches we’re linked up with and into the public schools in the inner city and help little children learn and show little children the love of Christ. There’s a lot of holiness in that. Set apart for good.
Or would you be willing to work in Manna? Or on the prayer team? Or would you be willing to become part of our network that’s seeking to help the persecuted church around the world. As Gene mentioned in his prayer, Christian men and women are being slaughtered around the world in Communist nations like China and Cuba, in Islamic nations with Islamic governments like the Sudan and Saudi Arabia. Some Christians are being incarcerated simply because they believe in Jesus. Some are being beaten and whipped. Some are being murdered. These things are being reported by Amnesty International and by The Freedom House. The Congress of the United States, the House and the Senate of this nation have acknowledged these atrocities, a kind of global holocaust.
Many of you know these things and yet very little is being done about this and you can help. You can be a vessel for God’s use if you care and you long for holiness. It’s all about holiness. “Blessed are those,” Jesus says, “who hunger and thirst after righteousness.” So, every day we seek to be set apart. That’s what the word holy means and when we say Jesus is set apart, when we say He is The Holy One, we mean He is utterly set apart from sin, utterly set apart from evil and He is utterly set apart FOR good. He is the perfect vessel for the Father.
Before Jesus came into the world He said to His Father, “A body thou hast prepared for Me. Behold, I come to do Thy will.” Having come into the world, Jesus said “I do not seek My own will but the will of Him who sent Me.” Before He went to the cross, when He wept tears of blood in Gethsemane, He said “Not My will but Thy will be done.” A vessel for the Father.
What is holiness? Set apart from evil. Set apart for good for God’s use. Let’s look to the Lord with a word of prayer.