God’s Greatest Investment

Posted by David on November 24, 1996 under Bulletin Articles

You are God’s greatest investment. In nothing has God investedmore than He has invested in you. He brought you into being byplacing a part of Himself in you. When our original ancestorsdecided to allow evil to become a permanent condition of the humanexperience, He committed to His most costly investment, thecreation of perfect forgiveness.

To grasp the magnitude of God’s investment (in time, frustration,sorrow, and personal cost), consider the known things required ofGod. Consider the decision to work patiently with humanity’sstubborn free wills. Consider the difficulty of forming the Nation ofIsrael. Consider Israel’s challenges to God’s purposes and patiencein Israel’s wilderness experiences. Consider the disappointmentsand setbacks God tolerated in Israel’s stubborn, hard-heartedrebelliousness generation after generation. Consider the agony ofGod’s distress when Israel’s failures necessitated exiles andcaptivities. But Israel had to exist for God to send Jesus. No Israel,no Jesus, no perfect forgiveness.

The most costly part of God’s investment was Jesus. He permitted apart of Himself, the active agent in creation, to become a humanpart of that creation. He permitted him, as a human, to endure theworst that evil could conspire. He permitted him, in true purity andinnocence, to suffer the most agonizing execution a human couldexperience. He allowed Jesus in death to wear in his body the totalsin of humanity. He allowed Jesus fully to experience an evilperson’s death.

God invested all of this in you. No one wants you to have and enjoysalvation as much as God does. God did not invest all of this todestroy you. He could have destroyed you with no investment.

God’s love was determined to save you. Having made this enormousinvestment, He will not hesitate to do anything needful to make yoursalvation certain reality. Your salvation is a daily reality and aneternal reality if you do three things. Place your confidence in theatonement of Jesus’ death. Place your trust in God’s power toresurrect. Learn to love God as He loves you.

Jesus came to save you. The patient, loving God wants no one to perish. If you chose to accept salvation through Jesus and, in love, commit yourself to God’s will, you can be certain that God will not neglect His investment. You can be assured that the same love which invested Jesus in your forgiveness will sustain you through forgiveness. In that assurance is the peace that passes all understanding.

Jesus’ Description of a Righteous Man

Posted by David on November 17, 1996 under Sermons

Jesus Christ stands at the heart and center of everything we are spiritually and everything we do religiously. We belong to Jesus. Jesus is our Lord as well as being our Savior. We are saved because of Jesus. We are forgiven because of Jesus. We can be children of God because of Jesus. Nothing is more important than understanding Jesus. All proper Christian knowledge begins with a proper understanding of Jesus. A proper knowledge of the epistles begins with an accurate understanding of Jesus. Paul urged Christians to develop the mind of Christ.

I want to begin my Sunday evening studies with you by reaffirming and advancing our understanding of Jesus. I want to begin our focus on Jesus by developing an overview of the longest recorded sermon of Jesus in the gospels, the Sermon on the Mount.

This evening I want us to examine Jesus’ description of a righteous person by looking at what we call the beatitudes in Matthew 5:1-12.

1. Important background considerations:
   1. Matthew 5:1 states that Jesus gave these teachings to his disciples.
      1. Though a massive crowd of people continued to follow him, he created a context in which he could address his disciples.
         1. He went up on a hill and sat down.
         2. His disciples gathered around him.
      2. It is particularly important that we understand that he is teaching disciples.
         1. These are people who have already committed themselves to follow Jesus for the purpose of learning anything he wants to teach them.
         2. They have already accepted the fact that he is the teacher, and that nothing is more important than learning from him.
         3. These are people that belong to him, that follow him on a day-by-day basis who are committed to learn anything and everything that he can teach them.
         4. They are not there to question or challenge; they are there to understand.
   2. It is equally important to understand that Jesus is teaching his disciples a totally different concept of religion, of spirituality, of relationship with God, and of relationship with people.
      1. The most influential voice, the most powerful religious teachers in Israel, are the Pharisees.
         1. The concepts and teachings of the Pharisees were accepted as being truth by “the man on the street” in Palestine.
         2. The positions and thoughts of the Pharisees were so commonly accepted and had been so commonly accepted for such a lengthy period of time that they represented what most Jews accepted to be the “way things are.”
      2. In this sermon, and in much of Jesus’ teachings, he is contrasting his teachings and concepts with the thoughts and understandings that the common Jewish population accepted without question or doubt.
      3. This contrast was very evident to those who seriously listened to his teachings.
         1. Jesus is not merely telling them something different.
         2. He is sharing with them thoughts and revelations that radically oppose what they always accepted, always understood to be the truth of the scriptures.
2. Interestingly, Jesus begins this series of contrasts between himself and the Pharisees by presenting his description of the righteous person.
   1. The beatitudes are a composite description of Jesus’ righteous person.
      1. He is not talking about eight different kinds of people who follow God.
      2. He is talking about basic qualities of righteousness that are typical of the person that God acknowledges to be righteous.
   2. Those eight qualities are:
      1. The righteous person is poor in spirit, or, he or she recognizes his or her spiritual poverty and owns that spiritual poverty.
      2. The righteous person mourns, or, because he or she sees and owns his or her spiritual poverty, he or she is grieved because that poverty exists.
      3. The righteous person is meek, or gentle, or under control.
      4. The righteous person is famished for righteousness–he or she has a consuming appetite for righteousness, that is what he or she wants and wants to become.
      5. The righteous person is merciful–the person who abuses them, or offends them, or hurts them, or treats them unjustly will receive mercy, not justice; and the righteous person will extend mercy to those who have failed.
      6. The righteous person is devoted to developing and having a pure heart; he or she does not merely want to look pure in deeds; he or she wants to be pure within.
      7. The righteous person is a peacemaker; he or she is the kind of person who can help those who are alienated find reconciliation.
      8. The righteous person is willing to endure suffering and mistreatment for Jesus’ sake.
3. Jesus’ description of a righteous person stood in total contrast, stark contrast with the Pharisees’ concept of a righteous person–and remember that was the commonly accepted definition of righteous person at that time.
   1. The Pharisees’ description of a righteous person was the exact opposite of Jesus’ description.
      1. The righteous person was a religiously accomplished person (he had no spiritual poverty to own).
         1. By virtue of his accomplishments, he knew he was right, he knew he had God’s truth.
         2. He could say, as the Pharisees did to Jesus, “By what authority do you do these things?”
         3. He could say, “We have Moses on our side, and we are descendants of Abraham.”
         4. He could tell you in detail what was right and what was wrong in any situation.
      2. The righteous person took pride in his religious achievements (he had nothing religiously to mourn).
         1. In the parable of the Pharisee and the publican who were praying at the temple, the Pharisee in his prayer is a superb example (Luke 18:9-14).
            1. God, I thank you that I am not like other people who do not do your will.
            2. I don’t swindle, I am not unjust, I don’t commit adultery, and I don’t take advantage of other people.
            3. I fast two times every week.
            4. I give you ten percent of everything I receive, no matter how big or small it is.
         2. I am proud of what I am not, and I am proud of what I do.
      3. The righteous person was aggressive as he opposed those he declared to be God’s enemies (meekness or gentleness was weakness).
         1. Like the Pharisees did when they came from Jerusalem to Galilee to examine the deeds and teachings of Jesus.
         2. Like the Pharisees as they followed Jesus searching for mistakes as they were doing when they saw his disciples stripping raw grain and eating it on a Sabbath.
         3. Like the Pharisees, who were certain Jesus was evil, and plotted to discredit and destroy him.
      4. The righteous person was knowledgeable (he had no need to hunger for righteousness); he did not seek understanding–he dispersed understanding. He fed those who were starved to understand.
         1. Jesus never taught the Pharisees one thing.
         2. They were always certain they understood and Jesus did not, they were right and Jesus was wrong, and they had the right interpretation of God’s will and Jesus was misrepresenting God’s will.
      5. The righteous person exercised righteous indignation (mercy compromised God’s will).
         1. It was an act of righteousness to trap someone that you declared was teaching error.
         2. It was an act of righteousness to falsely accuse and discredit someone who was doing what you declared to be evil.
         3. It was an act of righteousness to destroy a person who was a religious threat to what you knew was right.
      6. The righteous person was ceremonially pure; he ate the right things, washed his hands the right way, practiced the commands regarding body purity–purity existed in how you used your body, not your emotions, not your motivations, not your inner being.
         1. Purity had nothing to do with the mind and the heart.
         2. Purity concerned only your body.
         3. Is it not easy to see how that reasoning could lead to the mock trials and execution of Jesus?
      7. The righteous person was devoted to justice, to condemning the wrong doers, to destroying those who violated the commandments (not to making peace).
         1. It was perfectly consistent with the Pharisees’ concept of righteousness to bring the woman captured while committing adultery to Jesus and say, “The law says kill her, so what do you say?”
      8. Obviously, from this description of righteousness, a righteous person would not endure suffering in loyalty to Jesus–in this definition the righteous person would inflict suffering on those who were loyal to Jesus.
4. Those who accepted and lived by the Pharisees’ description of a righteous person became hardened, inflexible, judgmental people who did evil things for what they declared to be godly purposes.
   1. They were cold and unsympathetic to the failures and struggles of others.
   2. They became emotional deserts and loveless religious robots who always went through the motions of doing the declared right thing without feeling and without faith as God defines faith.
5. Those who would accept Jesus’ description of a righteous person:
   1. Had citizenship in God’s kingdom.
   2. Would receive comfort for their spiritual grief.
   3. Would endure in this world.
   4. Would have their craving for righteousness satisfied.
   5. Would receive mercy when they made mistakes and failings.
   6. Would see God.
   7. Would be called God’s children.
   8. The kingdom of heaven belongs to them.

Those who are righteous by Jesus’ description become warm, alive, and filled with kindness, love, and compassion just as was Jesus. The righteousness Jesus described will make us Christ-like.

Hope For Those In Despair

Posted by David on under Sermons

In most of the nations of our world, the majority of the population live in open despair. Their despair is no secret–the truth is it cannot be hidden. There is not enough food to feed families, and what they eat we would not consider eating. They exist in crude, inadequate forms of shelter. Every day they face incredible hardships and short life spans–when we observe their hardships we wonder how they survive at all. They endure sickness and disease with little hope for medical treatment.

Despair is no stranger to the people in our society. We have people who live in open despair in our society. We have our homeless, our hungry, our jobless, our people who exist in inhumane conditions. But the majority of people in our society who live in despair live in hidden despair. In daily life they try hard to act as if everything is fine in their lives. But it is anything but fine. Some are trapped in horrible marriages and endure outrageous abuses. Some struggle with deep depression and are filled with anger. Some are trapped in addictive behaviors that they struggle to hide. They often wonder if their lives are worth living, often think that there is no reason for them to go on. But they are determined to keep their despair a well hidden secret.

I want to ask you a serious question. What do all these people need? These people who are living in open despair or hidden despair in any society, what do they need. We answer, “They need the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ!” May I ask a second question. If these people heard the gospel, if they received the gospel, how would this good news about Jesus Christ address their despair?

I am in total agreement that it can address their despair, but it can only if one thing is true. The good news of Jesus will address their despair only if it gives them hope. Not speculative hope, the hope that says, “Well, maybe things can get better.” Not wishful thinking hope, the hope that says, “I wish this could change.” But the hope emphasized in the New Testament, the hope based on solid assurance.

Last weekend we heard the great commission emphasized, and it should be emphasized. But I am convinced that Jesus’ great invitation must always accompany Jesus’ great commission. It is the great invitation that reveals the solid hope of Jesus’ great commission.

1. In Matthew 11:28-30 Jesus issued his great invitation:
   Come to me, all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart; and you shall find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my load is light.
   1. There are several striking things to note and to accept in Jesus’ great invitation.
      1. Jesus wants struggling people to come to him.
         1. He did not call those who are confident that they have their lives together.
         2. He did not call those who would have us believe that they have no problems.
         3. He called the people who are so distressed in their lives that they can hardly struggle on.
            1. The word weary here literally means “those who have worked to exhaustion.”
            2. These folks have struggled with life until they are exhausted.
            3. Their burdens are so heavy that they are being crushed under them.
      2. He wants the struggling and the burdened to put themselves in his hands, to place themselves under his control, and to allow him to teach them. He assures the struggling and the burdened that:
         1. He is gentle.
         2. He is humble in heart.
         3. Jesus is not some egomaniac that exploits people to advance his self-importance.
         4. Instead, Jesus is totally devoted to helping the weary, struggling person who is being crushed by his or her life.
      3. This great invitation includes a promise, a promise that is stressed twice: “I will give you rest; you will find rest for your souls.”
         1. When we are distressed, we can’t rest.
         2. When we are struggling and so burdened with life that it is crushing us, we can’t rest.
         3. But Jesus promised that if we come to him, he will extend a rest to us that we can receive and experience.
2. One of the rich blessings that has touched my life has been the joy of witnessing the hope of the good news at work.
   1. In West Africa:
      1. I gave a Bible to a woman who had never touched a Bible before.
         1. Even though she could not read, you could see the joy in her face and her eyes.
         2. She had a child who was going to school who could read her Bible to her in the evenings.
      2. I listened as a converted witch doctor implored me to return to America and tell the people who supported my mission work how much he appreciated being a Christian.
         1. His conversion had cost him his wife, his property, and his prestige.
         2. But he regarded those to be acceptable sacrifices when he compared them to what he found in Christ.
   2. In Kaliningrad, Russia, I was the first American invited by the Institute to speak in English about Christianity to their students.
      1. For four days the lecture hall was packed with students who listened with total attentiveness–no one left the lecture hall for any reason even when I spoke for over an hour.
      2. The first day a few professors came.
      3. By the last day, professors took over the first row of seats in the lecture hall.
      4. The first day, a lady professor told me that she had never entered a church.
         1. The second day she told me, “You are sharing things that can be useful to our people.”
         2. The next day she said, “I see that I need to give serious consideration to the things that you are saying.”
         3. The last day she said, “I am ready to go to a church.”
3. But here in our own country equally moving experiences have touched me.
   1. A few years ago I met a young woman whose life was about as messed up as a life can get.
      1. Though she was an accomplished, capable professional, she was struggling to find a reason to live.
         1. She was close to recovery from anorexia.
         2. She was a recovering alcoholic.
         3. She was as depressed as a person can be and still be alive.
         4. She lived every day of her life terrified by fears that she could not identify.
      2. Years prior, at the lowest point of her life, she was converted to Christ and became a member of a very controlling religious group.
         1. When she could not instantly overcome her problems, when she could not meet their demands, the group was ordered to withdraw their support and association and she was told that she was possessed by demons.
         2. When I met her, she knew that she needed God, but the thought of seeking God terrified her.
      3. She was so filled with fear that she literally could not enter a church building to study or to worship–church buildings were places that hurt struggling people.
         1. At that time we were conducting some group work one night a week for struggling people.
         2. She came, but she stood outside the door trembling; when she could come in, she might be so overwhelmed with fear that she would have to get up and leave.
   2. She was rooming with another young lady who was an agnostic.
      1. This lady’s father delighted in getting her drunk when she was six because he thought it was funny to watch a drunk child stagger around.
      2. She was an alcoholic before she was 10.
      3. Though her family never worshipped, they forced her to attend Bible classes and worship.
      4. In Bible class, as a child, she became friends with the teacher’s daughter.
         1. After a class, the teacher caught them together.
         2. The teacher told her daughter, “This is the kind of person that you must not associate with.”
      5. She detested the church and God from that day forward.
   3. Listen to what happened.
      1. The agnostic lady said to the fear-filled lady, “This class is obviously helping you. I will go with you so you will be able to walk in the building.”
      2. That is the only reason the agonistic came.
      3. But the agnostic could not believe how the group and the discussion was building hope.
      4. By the third class the agnostic was coming because she wanted to be there.
      5. That led to personal studies and, in time, to baptism into Christ.
      6. I have never seen a person in any country any happier than was this lady on the day she was baptized.
         1. She said, “For the first time in my life I understand what love is. For the first time in my life I know what a friend is.”
4. The hunger, the burning desire that I have for us as a congregation focuses on three great needs.
   1. I want us to grow as we expand our mission outreach into the world.
      1. I want our commitment to reach out to other peoples in other nations to capture our imaginations.
      2. I want us to bring the good news of the hope of assurance to other people.
   2. But I also want us to grow as we develop and expand our outreach to the Fort Smith area.
      1. I want that commitment to also capture our imaginations.
      2. I want to bring the good news of the hope of assurance to those who know despair all around us.
   3. And I want each of us as a part God’s family to grow and develop spiritually as never before.
      1. I want each of us to understand and to trust the hope of the gospel as we never have before.
      2. I want the assurance of our hope to draw us closer together than we have ever been, to make us more respectful and forbearing with one another than we have ever been.

Jesus was the most compassionate, merciful man who ever lived. When you read the gospels, his unselfish compassion is beyond belief. Again and again he astounds you with how much he cared, and who he cared for. He amazes you with the kindness and consideration he extends to the most unlikely people. Constantly he proved that his great invitation was genuine, that it was sincere, and that he meant it.

With all my heart and being, I want us to be a congregation in which we can see Jesus in each other. I want everyone of us to know that we will help each other when we are struggling. I want those who visit with us to see Jesus in us. I want them to know that this is a congregation that helps anyone who struggles and lifts burdens.

“Wow che fede!”

Posted by David on December 31, 1969 under Bulletin Articles

Un ufficiale dell’esercito romano, incontrò Gesù al suo arrivo a Capernaum (Matteo 8:5-13). L’ufficiale aveva un servo paralizzato che soffriva tanto, e chiese a Gesù di guarirlo. Gesù era d’accordo ad andare da lui per sanarlo. L’ufficiale disse: “No” non venire perché sono indegno di farti entrare a casa mia, tutto quello di cui hai bisogno è di dire una parola e il mio servitore sarà guarito. So cosa significa avere autorità, quando io comando ad uno dei miei soldati di far qualcosa egli lo fa.”

Quanto grande è Dio?

Posted by David on under Bulletin Articles

Oh, profondità della ricchezza, della sapienza e della scienza di Dio! Quanto inscrutabili sono i suoi giudizi e ininvestigabili le sue vie! Infatti, chi ha conosciuto il pensiero del Signore? O chi è stato suo consigliere (Isaia 40:13-14)? O chi gli ha dato qualcosa per primo, sì da riceverne il contraccambio (Giobbe 41:11)? Perché da lui, per mezzo di lui e per lui sono tutte le cose. A lui sia la gloria in eterno. Amen.(Romani 11:33-36)

La saggezza umana non può comprendere la profondità della sapienza di Dio, neanche un cristiano può farlo. Gli uomini possono dipendere dalle vie di Dio, ma non possono capirle.

Un uomo o una donna che affermi di comprendere Dio, inganna se stesso/a e di conseguenza gli altri. I farisei erano convinti d’aver capito Dio.

Erano esperti delle scritture (Matteo 23:2,3). Avevano enorme fiducia nella loro intelligenza e conoscenza, e credevano molto nel loro sistema religioso e nelle proprie tradizioni.

Erano così certi d’aver compreso le intenzioni e la volontà di Dio che si permisero di contraddire, castigare, ridicolizzare e cospirare contro Gesù.

Gesù era Dio fatto carne (Giovanni 1:1-5) Se loro erano così esperti nella conoscenza come hanno potuto fallire, nel non riconoscere Dio in carne?

Se erano così conoscitori delle scritture, come hanno potuto fallire nel non riconoscere il Creatore fatto carne?

Se loro avevano conoscenza accurata dei modi di Dio, come hanno potuto fallire nel non riconoscere la mano di Dio, negli insegnamenti e nelle opere di Gesù?

Sorprendentemente, incoraggiarono la morte del figlio di Dio perché erano sicuri di conoscere Dio. Io lo trovo spaventoso e voi? Quanto è grande il Dio che ci ha mandato Gesù?

Grande abbastanza per salvarci con la Sua misericordia, grande abbastanza da sostenerci con la Sua grazia, grande abbastanza da usare il sangue di Gesù per redimerci dai peccati.

Così grande da santificarci nella morte di Gesù, da giustificarci nel sacrificio di Gesù, grande abbastanza da essere sordo di fronte alle accuse mossaci da Satana.

Grande abbastanza per distruggere la nostra colpa. Grande abbastanza da darci la pace in Cristo.

E perché forse comprendiamo la Sua sapienza e conoscenza?

No, è solo perché gli crediamo!