COME TO THE CORNERSTONE
by Chris Benjamin
1 Peter 2:2-10
Rockwall Recollections –
As a child on the farmland in Brentwood, weekends and summers were spent building the houses and other structures on the land. I recall the genesis of the old barn from its time as nothing more than a wooden framework rich with the smell of sawdust and construction materials. We used the resources available to us on the land. For a time we even had our own sawmill and made planks from the trees on our land. Using the resources from our 400 acres meant using rocks and stones. Stonework is a common feature of the structures my family built. It is a part of every building – the well house, the garage, the chimneys of houses and the patio walls.
I remember our old rusted metal trailer wagon. We hitched it to the back of the Massey Ferguson and chugged out to a clearing in the woods or to a place near the little canyons that cut through our land. The men would fan out and begin gathering rocks of all sizes and shapes. My father told me that as he would walk along scanning for rocks he would look at all sorts of rocks – some of them moss-covered, some of them rough, some of them slick and smooth, some of them light-colored and others black as coal, some buried deep in the earth and others just standing free as if they had just tumbled off the slide of a cliff. He said that as they gathered the rocks he could begin to see the entire wall formed in his mind. After filling the trailer, they would bring the haul of stones and spread them out at the building site. Like the pieces of the puzzle the rocks are combed through to find the rock that is destined to fit. Nothing is forced to fit. There’s a rock for every part of the wall. And every rock will find its place in the wall – some rocks are . My father has a rock shaped like the state of Arkansas in his rock pile at home. One day it will be a part of a wall. Not right now. But one day he will place it into a wall, or chimney, or walkway – in his own time, in his way.
My father tells me that during the gathering of the stones and in the sorting of the stones there is a subconscious search for the stone. The builder knows it when he sees it. It has the right shape and size; just the right height and width. This stone becomes the cornerstone of the wall or chimney. Dad says that when he finds this stone he can see the whole structure projecting from it. Just by looking at that one stone he can see how every other stone fits and stacks to build the whole structure. You can search for rocks all weekend, but only when you find this one rock can the construction begin. It is the key to the whole project.
Because of God’s mercy and kindness, we have been gathered. He has a vision for us. He has a project in mind and we are the materials for that project. It’s a work of restoration – a new house built on ancient foundations.
God had the entire project in mind when he placed the cornerstone.
What is this project God visualizes? For what purpose and for what project is he gathering us and building us?
One way to express this project/purpose might be – "Making Disciples for Jesus who are Eager to Serve Others."
- Yesterday the elders of the West-Ark congregation spent time in prayer, study and conversation. Their aim was to discern how we might communicate the mission of this congregation. They affirmed the statement above.
- They also spent time discerning how we can go about making disciples for Jesus eager to serve others. What sort of values and goals ought to be at the forefront of who we are and what we do?
- The statement of goals and strategies to put the mission statement into action is ongoing – you will be hearing more about this through the next six months, but today I think we can take a look at some of the encouragement Peter gives us …
- Come to Christ … (v. 4)
Christ is the cornerstone of our fellowship and community. We are oriented and supported by him.
We are being built into a spiritual house by the master builder – God.
Every member and every ministry of West Ark must be oriented and supported by Jesus Christ. If Christ isn’t cornerstone to all that we do here, then why are we doing it?
- Crave pure spiritual milk so that you can grow into the fullness of your salvation (v. 2)
Christ is the source of our growth and nurture as a church. We don’t just rely on ourselves or one another. We’ve tasted the Lord’s kindness and we recognize that God in Christ is the source we need for spiritual nutrition. "Making disciples" means more than just initiating people into salvation – it also means growing into and living out our salvation. We need the gospel not only at our spiritual birth, but throughout our life.
- Offer the spiritual sacrifices that please him because of Jesus Christ. (v. 5)
We show our appreciation and thanks by offering all that we are to the kind, merciful God whose loves endures forever. Every stone fits into the project. Every piece is important to the building of the spiritual house.
Everyone here has a gift as part of the body. That gift is for the encouragement of the body and is for serving others. We need to recognize one another’s gifts and encourage one another to use them.
- Proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. (v. 9)
We have a message – not about ourselves, but about God who has done so much for us. We have a message about Christ, our Lord, God has chosen him and has done and is doing something wonderful through Christ.
We have an identity – We know who we are because we know whose we are. We are a chosen people, a holy nation, a royal priesthood. We are chosen and called out – but not for our sake but for the sake of the world.
Why do we do all this? Why does God do it? Because his mercy endures forever! He’s kind and good.
1 Peter 1:3 – Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
- Out of gratitude to God for what he has made us in Christ, make disciples for Jesus and be eager to serve others.
- If the first disciple you need to make is yourself, then come to Christ, the living stone. Don’t reject him.
Posted by David on under Bulletin Articles
I often wonder, “Why do I always have to learn so many things the hard way?” What does that mean? For most of us, it means “I have to make a huge mistake before ‘it gets my attention’ and causes me to realize ‘uh-oh! That was dumb!'” I find neither comfort nor delight in realizing that “the hard way” is the precise formula many, many others follow in “learning life’s difficult lessons.”
So, why do so many of us learn “the hard way”? Allow me to suggest some responses to that “why.”
Reason # 1: we are humans, not God. As humans, we prefer falling prey to imagined deceit rather than learning from truth. As humans, we like to pretend we are god. As humans, we like to believe we are “the masters of our own fate” [when we are, commonly it is bad, not good!]. For those who prefer deception, for those who consider themselves god, for those who think they “know best” about most things, the only way to learn (and remember!) is by learning the “hard way”! Others’ mistakes mean nothing! Our hard experiences mean everything!
Reason # 2: we remember what we live through and survive. It is almost like we have internal juvenile arguments with ourselves: “Is too! Is not! Is too! Is not!” The fact that someone we know already learned the “hard way” means nothing to most of us. “We” are different! That experience would not produce the same outcome and results in us! We are [take your pick] wiser, more alert, more gifted, more intelligent, more discriminating, have better judgment, etc., than “they”! Only when we repeat their failure do we “own” the consequence! What a crash when we finally realize we really are not different!
Reason # 3: some of our richest, most appreciated blessings rise from the ashes of our failures. It is true that “we do not know how to appreciate what we lost until we lose it.” Learning the “hard way” teaches us to appreciate what we take for granted. In fact, blessings we consider curses suddenly become invaluable treasures. We know how to appreciate what we lost–if we get it back!
Reason # 4: learning “hard lessons” from horrible experiences equips us to (1) use those experiences to teach the few who will listen [if we are willing to share our failures] and (2) be an invaluable source of encouragement to those who need to rise above their mistakes.
The downsides of learning the “hard way”: (1) the mistake may destroy us before we learn the lesson; (2) the education hurts others as well as ourselves; (3) it is a wasteful way to learn; and (4) it leaves God’s wisdom and guidance out of our learning process.
Fortunately, the Christian belongs to the God who produces blessings from mistakes–even big ones! His biggest blessings are discovered in allowing Him to guide us away from the “hard way”! Unmade mistakes are invaluable!
Posted by David on February 8, 2004 under Sermons
In last week’s lesson, we read over thirty scriptures in understanding that God first acts, then calls for our response. A primary form of our response is worship. Christians worship and serve God in response to what God had done in acting in human history.
Tonight I want to make application of last week’s reading by noting three distinctions between God and idols that are evident in the contrast of worship of Jehovah God and worship of idols.
There is a distinction! Christians must realize there is a distinction! A failure to understand that distinction can [and often does!] misdirect our worship and our the way we live our lives.
First, you must understand the contrast throughout the entire Bible is the contrast between Jehovah God and idolatrous gods. The worlds of the Old Testament were worlds of idolatry. Israel often was attracted to and caught up in the focus of those worlds. Every time Israel was caught up in idolatry, they forgot the contrast and they lost memory of Who God is. We as Christians must never forget the basic contrast in the Old Testament is the contrast between the living God and the gods idols represented.
The world of the New Testament was a world of idolatry. The call of the New Testament is to see the living God in His distinctiveness, to see Him in contrast to the gods represented by idols. If we fail to see that contrast, if we lose memory of Who God is, just like Israel we will lose contact with God. The contrast did not change when God gave the gift of Jesus in his incarnation, his death, and his resurrection.
Second, you must understand that it is very easy for us to lose sight of the contrast because the common idols of 21st century America are quite different to the idols of the Bible worlds. Our idols exist in secular institutions and pursuits, not in religious temples dedicated to nonexistent deities. While their idols represented those nonexistent gods they worshipped, our idols usually exist in secular forms that encourage us to worship ourselves. Our idols are greed, jealousy, self-indulgence, selfishness, pleasure, addictions, pride, arrogance, injustice, hate, anger, and such like. Our symbols of nonexistent gods take forms like money, controlling power, drugs used for pleasure, alcohol, abusive speech or acts, exploiting the weak, and such like. Because we see our idols only in a secular context, we too often do not recognize them as spiritual forces.
In the worlds of the Bible, people commonly associated the same attitudes with idolatrous forces. Commonly the characteristics of our secular gods were the characteristics of their religious gods. Where we make artificial distinctions between what we declare secular and spiritual, they did not make such distinctions. For them, the secular was merely an extension of the spiritual.
This evening I want you to consider three basic contrasts between the living God and idols. It is in seeing these contrast that we can understand another basic truth about the concept of biblical worship of the living God.
- Contrast # 1: the living God acts in human history before He calls for a response from people.
- Let me challenge you to consider two illustrations:
- The first is found in Exodus 19, 20 with Israel.
Exodus 19:3-6 Moses went up to God, and the Lord called to him from the mountain, saying, “Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob and tell the sons of Israel: You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings, and brought you to Myself. Now then, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be My own possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is Mine; and you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you shall speak to the sons of Israel.”
- This statement occurs just before God spoke from Mount Sinai and gave Israel the ten commandments.
- Why? Why did God make this Exodus 19 statement first and then give the ten commandments to Israel in Exodus 20?
- Remember the exodus from Egypt was history–God delivered Israel.
- Remember the crossing of the Red Sea was history–God delivered Israel.
- Remember all the nurturing/preservation deeds in the wilderness were history–God delivered Israel.
- God declared Exodus 19:3-6 to remind them that Israel had reason to respond to Him.
- Please note it is their choice to see and respond to what God did.
- Please note they had reason to respond positively to God.
- He already had acted in delivering them from Egypt.
- He asked them to respond to Him on the basis of what He did for them.
- The same emphasis is seen in the New Testament.
- In explaining the concepts of righteousness and justification through faith in Jesus Christ, Paul wrote these words in Romans 5:6-8.
For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
- Before we were righteous, God acted on our behalf.
- While we were helpless, God acted on our behalf.
- While we were sinners, God acted on our behalf.
- God intervened in human history for our benefit.
- How? He sent Jesus. He permitted Jesus’ death for our sins. He raised Jesus from the dead.
- Our worship and our service is in response to what God already has done.
- God acted for our benefit; we respond to His action.
- The first contrast between the living God and idols is that God acted in history for our benefit before He asked us to respond to Him.
- Contrast # 2: the living God cares and expresses His caring; idolatry commonly was based on fate.
- The concept of fate in regard to the action of idolatry’s gods is a concept of inattentiveness and unconcern–a general disinterest.
- It is the basic view of “what is going to happen will happen”–good or bad.
- Thus if something good happened to you, the gods smiled on you for whatever reason.
- If something bad happened to you, it was going to happen and you could not prevent it.
- Your behavior or decisions had nothing to do with the outcome.
- Fate determined the outcome.
- To me, one of the best revealing of the attitudes common to the Baal gods in the region of Canaan is declared in Elijah’s contest with the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel in 1 Kings 18:25-29.
So Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, “Choose one ox for yourselves and prepare it first for you are many, and call on the name of your god, but put no fire under it.” Then they took the ox which was given them and they prepared it and called on the name of Baal from morning until noon saying, “O Baal, answer us.” But there was no voice and no one answered. And they leaped about the altar which they made. It came about at noon, that Elijah mocked them and said, “Call out with a loud voice, for he is a god; either he is occupied or gone aside, or is on a journey, or perhaps he is asleep and needs to be awakened.” So they cried with a loud voice and cut themselves according to their custom with swords and lances until the blood gushed out on them. When midday was past, they raved until the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice; but there was no voice, no one answered, and no one paid attention.
- Context:
- The ten tribes of northern Israel rarely worshipped God but frequently worshipped Baal.
- Elijah wanted them to return to God and abandon completely Baal.
- He proposed a contest of sacrificial worship.
- Listen to the words of Elijah when the prophets of Baal received no response from their god.
- “He is a god” (gods are disinterested).
- “Use a louder voice” (you do not have his attention).
- “He is occupied” (you are not his priority).
- “He is gone somewhere” (he is too removed from you to hear you).
- “He is asleep and you need to wake him up” (he has no consciousness of you).
- Gods are inattentive to human concerns even if humans seek to worship them.
- Compare those statements to what is declared about God.
- David, Psalm 139:7-12: Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend to heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there. If I take the wings of the dawn, If I dwell in the remotest part of the sea, Even there Your hand will lead me, And Your right hand will lay hold of me. If I say, “Surely the darkness will overwhelm me, And the light around me will be night,” Even the darkness is not dark to You, And the night is as bright as the day. Darkness and light are alike to You.
- Jeremiah, Jeremiah 23:23,24 “Am I a God who is near,” declares the Lord, “And not a God far off? “Can a man hide himself in hiding places So I do not see him?” declares the Lord. “Do I not fill the heavens and the earth?” declares the Lord.
- Jesus, Matthew 6:25-32 For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they? And who of you by being worried can add a single hour to his life? And why are you worried about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow; they do not toil nor do they spin, yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you? You of little faith! Do not worry then, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear for clothing?’ For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.
- Paul, 2 Corinthians 9:8 And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that always having all sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance for every good deed;
- The gods functioned on impersonal fate, but Jehovah God functions on constant awareness.
- Contrast # 3: Jehovah God is compassionate; the gods of idolatry are indifferent.
- My term for worship objectives in idolatry would be manipulation.
- “The gods do not care what happens to you.”
- “First, you must get their attention.”
- “Second, you must get them concerned about your problem.”
- “Third, you must convince them to act in your behalf.”
- Thus commonly the idol worshipper tried to do those three things:
- Get the gods attention.
- Get the gods concerned.
- Get the gods to act in their behalf.
- In contrast with the idolatrous gods indifference, Jehovah God is compassionate.
- Consider two examples:
- Example one:
- The story of Jonah, ending in this statement: Jonah 4:9-11 Then God said to Jonah, “Do you have good reason to be angry about the plant?” And he said, “I have good reason to be angry, even to death.” Then the Lord said, “You had compassion on the plant for which you did not work and which you did not cause to grow, which came up overnight and perished overnight. Should I not have compassion on Nineveh, the great city in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know the difference between their right and left hand, as well as many animals?” [God is compassionate even when His people are not.]
- 2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance. [God does not wish to destroy people.]
- Example two: Jesus Christ.
- The coming of Jesus shows how compassionate God is.
- The death of Jesus shows how compassionate God is.
- The resurrection of Jesus shows how compassionate God is.
- The role of mediator and intercessor that Jesus Christ serves shows how compassionate God is.
Romans 8:31-34 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies; who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.
We as Christians worship God as a response to His acts which rescued us. He acted in Jesus Christ, and we in worship respond to His actions. We worship Him because He is the God of involvement, not a god of fate. We worship Him because He is the God of compassion, not a god of indifference.
Thus Christian worship is inherently a declaration of gratitude.
Posted by Chris on under Sermons
Songs
#121 – “Come Let Us All Unite to Sing”
#122 – “The Love of God”
#123 – “The Steadfast Love of the Lord”
GOD’S GIFT TO US IN JESUS’ DEATH
A Permanent Solution
by David Chadwell
We all have pet peeves. I want to share one of mine this morning. I reallydislike having to do the same thing twice. It really bothers me to think that a situation issolved only to discover that what I thought was a solved problem was never solved.
One of the biggest disasters we could experience is this: to be convinced thatJesus solved our problems before God, and find out on the day of judgment that Jesusdid not solve those problems. Scripture repeatedly declares that because of what Goddid in Jesus, through Jesus you and I can have relationship with God. What a disasterit would be to find out in judgment that is not true.
- Some of us who are Christians do not believe we are inrelationship with Godright now.
- There are a lot of reasons for having those feelings.
- Some of us carry around this huge burden of guilt.
- Because we will not forgive self, we are certain God cannot forgive us.
- No matter what God did for us in the resurrected Jesus Christ, we live ourlives with an enormous burden of guilt that we carry around every day.
- Some of us carry around a huge sense of meaninglessness or unworthiness.
- We feel “good for nothing.”
- We are certain we are “good for nothing.”
- We have such contempt and disrespect for self that we are absolutelyconvinced God could not love us.
- Some of us carry around this huge sense of failure.
- We know the truth about ourselves.
- We know the horrible mistakes we made in our past.
- We are convinced that God saves only good people, and we are sure weare not one of those–we are just a sorry excuse of a person.
- Read with me Roman 8:31-35.
What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who isagainst us? He who didnot spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Himfreely give us all things? Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? God is the onewho justifies; who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, ratherwho was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. Who willseparate us from the love of Christ?
- Let me share with you my understanding of this statement that was written toChristians who were really suffering through hard times.
- Paul said there are three reasons that Jesus Christ is our permanentsolution.
- First, we represent the greatest investment God ever made.
- Second, God’s use of Jesus Christ to justify us means Satan cannotaccuse us.
- Third, the resurrected Jesus is right next to God interceding for us.
- The result: nothing external of ourselves can separate us from Christ’s love.
- What does that mean?
- It means nothing is bigger than God, and God will protect his investment.
- It means Satan cannot do to us what he did to Job–God will not listen toSatan’s accusations against us because in Christ God Himself justifies us.
- It means that no matter what we endure or go through, Jesus Christconstantly represents us to God–there is absolutely no way that we canbe misunderstood.
- It means that the only person who can remove me from Christ’s love is me.
- There are all kinds of things in life that can make our lives miserable.
- But if my heart belongs to the resurrected Jesus, not one of those thingscan remove me from his love.
- Think about these words in Hebrews 10:11-14.
Every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after timethe same sacrifices,which can never take away sins; but He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for alltime, sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time onward until His enemiesbe made a footstool for His feet. For by one offering He has perfected for all time thosewho are sanctified.
- The priests’ work was never over because the solution of animal sacrifices wasatemporary solution.
- The resurrected Jesus sat down at God’s right hand because his solution waspermanent.
- By God’s sacrifice of Jesus on the cross there are two things given to everyonein Christ:
- Sanctification
- A permanent solution.
- What God did in Jesus’ death and resurrection is a permanent solution.
Communion
Thanksgiving for Bread
[Bread served.]
Thanksgiving for Cup
[Fruit of the vine served.]
David Chadwell
West-Ark Church of Christ, Fort Smith, AR
Morning Sermon, 8 February 2004
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Our Response
Song
#68 – “Give Thanks”
Offering
Songs
#691 – “Make Me New”
#429 – “Oh, To Be Like Thee”
YOUR SINS ARE FORGIVEN!
by Chris Benjamin
Sanctification –
Read Mark 2:1-12
Jesus has a curious response to the man’s condition: He doesn’t spend much time diagnosing the illness.
- Perhaps the need of this man is obvious as he lowered on his mattress with his withered limbs tucked in closely. It should be obvious, but that makes Jesus’ response all the more curious. He forgives the man’s sins.
Forgiveness of sins? Did the man even want to be healed? Or did he want to be saved? Why does Jesus offer forgiveness of sins right off the start? Usually we offer benevolence or healing then proceed to deal with other’s sin problems.
- What’s being said here about sin? It’s crippling. Condemnation paralyzes and numbs. Unable to walk righteously. Unable to speak to others truthfully and lovingly. Unable to move, to worship, to serve.
But, the Scribes have a point don’t though? Isn’t it God’s prerogative to forgive sins? We do not want to be too presumptuous. If we start handing out forgiveness like candy, no one will want to be holy. Let’s not talk forgiveness to the point that we forget responsibility. Maybe it’s best we leave forgiveness to God – and so that means we will just have to hope for the best in the judgment, right?
"Wait!" says Jesus to the scribes, "Why all this discussion? Why are you thinking these things? Why do you doubt my authority to forgive?"
There are two different views of forgiveness in conflict: We see it in the way the scribes question Jesus’ bold proclamation of forgiveness. We know it in the way Jesus bold proclamation of forgiveness is too often doubted by our own condemning hearts.
I John 3:19-20.
- The way our condemning hearts view forgiveness: God’s work of forgiveness is much more active and transforming than simply passing a sentence. We cannot equate God’s forgiveness with the pardon given by presidents and governors. Presidents issue pardons upon leaving office and they are usually the stuff of scandals. Why? Perhaps it is because we sense that nothing has changed. The label has changed, but the contents are the same – and they are spoiled. Yet, God’s forgiveness works much deeper than that. It has to! "Our forgiveness is not some judicial fiction, but a reality being worked out in our lives by the Holy Spirit."
- Jesus and the Apostles’ view: a transforming reality within and without, sanctification! Assurance of God’s grace and the power to change our hearts. [John – "So that you may know!"] – God’s forgiveness is good news for us when we feel the burden of condemnation and guilt because it allows us to be defined by God’s righteousness and not our guilt. We may even accept the fact that God forgives us, but we remain so guilt-ridden that we are spiritually paralyzed.
- Even if we do not assume that death is the only outcome, our guilt may condemn us to a spiritual paralysis. Rather than risk the possibility of doing anything wrong we do nothing. As long as Jesus forgives us, we should just sit down, shut up and be still. We quietly accept the forgiveness and keep our head bowed low. However, Jesus did not become sin so that we might become mediocre. We are God’s workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works (Ephesians 2:10). We were not created to stay out of the way and be unobtrusive.
- Jesus: "Which is easier to say?" Either way the result is the same – a soul with the ability to walk! And Jesus wants us to walk – spiritually. This man who may have never walked in his life – Jesus instructs him not only to walk home, but to carry his bed with him too. Jesus did not forgive us so we would stay out of the way. [2 Corinthians 5:21 – "God made him who had no sin to become sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God."] Christ became sin – why? So that we might become righteousness! God’s forgiveness is not just a change in verdict – it contains the power to actually enable us to live differently! And that can be just as astounding as a paralyzed man walking!
We may think that without God’s forgiveness we will die, but the fact is that without God’s transforming forgiveness we will never truly live!
- We may choose to respond to God’s forgiveness like the scribes – with doubt and hesitation. We are our own worse scribes. Our hearts condemn us. And then we may, if it gets really bad, condemn others. So we need to hear and see an amazing authority. We need to confront a reality that is much greater than even our own hearts
- This greater reality is God. In the face of this greater reality, there can be no flippant forgiveness. We confront this reality through the cross of Jesus. Baptism and the Lord’s Supper participate in the crucifixion and resurrection – When we are baptized, when we share the common meal with Jesus we see how Christ becomes sin so that we might become righteousness (2 Corinthians 5:21). God’s forgiveness creates a new reality. The word sometimes used to describe it is sanctification. God forgives in such a way that sinners might become holy and righteous.
- We may choose to respond to God’s forgiveness like the paralyzed man and his friends who brought him to Jesus – with faith and trust. Trusting in God’s transforming forgiveness is not oppressive, but liberating. In fact, we can only experience true freedom as we rely on the spirit of God.
- In 2 Corinthians 3:17-18, Paul describes the ongoing work of salvation as moment to moment God is transforming us into his likeness. We are never set free just to do anything we want! Removing sin is meant to heal, to empower, to free – to convert! Crippled with sin, we are empowered to walk in righteousness …
So who has the authority? Our condemning hearts? Our guilt? Our scribal tendency to doubt and deliberate while we lie paralyzed on our mattress? Or does the Lord have the final authority? Jesus is greater than our condemning hearts. His view of what’s real and right and greater than the wisest scribe or the most cynical, self-hating critic. How ridiculous then that some of us would still allow our own heart to rule over the word of God …
- Some of us cannot worship because we doubt the authority and grace of God.
- Some of us have wounds that will not heal because we continue to pick at the scab.
- Some of us listen to "the inner-scribe" that keeps condemning us and has fooled us into thinking that it is God!
Once the scribes stopped dissecting the authority of Christ, the people praised God. We can too if we will let go and trust in his power to save. We are paralyzed so long as the focus is on us. But that changes when we focus on Jesus’ authority to heal and forgive. He’s greater than our condemning heart.
- And we ought also to glorify God when we see his amazing grace. When the sick are made well, they want to return to life. Likewise the forgiven need to return to life.
- Can you imagine if the paralytic had allowed his friends to carry him home after he was forgiven and healed? "No thanks Lord, I don’t doubt your power and authority to forgive, but I’m just not sure about myself. You see, I’m no good at the walking thing and to walk and carry my mattress, well, that’s a lot too soon. I probably need a few months in transitionary care to make sure this is for real. Thanks for the forgiveness and healing, but I had better go at this slow."
- But Jesus’ gives a command – without any doubt he said – "Your sins are forgiven!" And without any qualification he said, "Get up! Take up your bed and walk home!"
- Christ forgives us so that we may walk in righteousness. If Christ has forgiven you then why would you let yourself be carried home on your mattress?
Posted by David on under Bulletin Articles
“Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary.” (Galatians 6:9)
The problems in congregations in the Roman province of Galatia were extremely difficult. Two features in Paul’s letter to those congregations reveal how discouraging the problems were. A group of Jewish Christians followed behind Paul when he established congregations in non-Jewish areas. Basically, these Christians (Judaizing teachers) made two points. # 1: Paul was not a genuine apostle; neither this man nor his message were to be trusted. # 2: Since you were converted through a “faulty” message about Christ, your conversion is invalid. Thus, you still need to be saved.
What a discouragement to Paul and to the people he called to Christ! With great personal sacrifices, Paul made his mission trips [2 Corinthians 11:21-33]. With enormous personal patience and kindness, he taught people of idolatrous backgrounds [1 Thessalonians 2:5-12]. Paul cared about the people he taught! Those responding to Christ by redirecting their lives were of great encouragement! For Christians to cause these people to doubt their salvation was an enormous personal discouragement.
When Paul heard what happened in the Galatian congregations, it defied belief! He was so upset that he began his letter in a unique manner. In virtually all his letters to congregations, Paul began by giving thanks for them. He did that even with the deeply troubled Corinthian congregation [1 Corinthians 1:4-9]. Yet, he did not begin Galatians with a statement of thanksgiving! He started with a declaration of disbelief. “I cannot believe you left Christ for a message falsely presenting itself as good news!” [Galatians 1:6-9.] He then (1) defended his spiritual credentials and (2) verified his message.
As discouraging as the situation was to Paul, have you considered how discouraging it was to the few who were not deceived by the Judaizing teachers’ false message? Would that not be reason to give up? Would that not make you feel pointless in your conversion and commitment? Would your mind not constantly declare: “Just quit! Just give up!”
Near the end of the letter he wrote the above statement. “Do not stop doing good! Do not faint! Do not let weariness win! The harvest is certain! Doing good glorifies God!”
Why in the face of discouragement continue to do good? (1) This is the only way those in Christ can say “thank you” to God. (2) Those who know God through Christ need encouragement. (3) Those who do not know God need to see Him in your life.
Posted by Brad on February 5, 2004 under Articles
This past weekend, we spent three days with our teens and families teaching them how to listen to God in various ways. Hopefully, we gave them some tools that will help them develop and improve their daily Christian disciplines like quiet time, prayer, reading Scripture, writing down what they hear, etc.
Sometimes, our daily disciplines, that are designed to help us grow in our relationship with Jesus Christ, take effort and commitment. Other times, our study and prayers seem to flow without much effort at all.
This past week, a friend sent me an article that recently appeared in an Arkansas newspaper. The article mentioned various brothers/congregations in our fellowship and the differences they hold about various issues the church is facing today. Some of the brothers were very aggressive and condemning with the words they used to describe the actions of the brothers with whom they disagreed.
Later that very day, during my personal quiet time and reflection on God’s word, I “accidentally” came across the following passage. Sometimes we need to simply stop our teaching and preaching and let God do the talking. Here is what I found recorded in His word in the book of James:
“Don’t speak evil against each other, my dear brothers and sisters. If you criticize each other and condemn each other, then you are criticizing and condemning God’s law. But you are not a judge who can decide whether the law is right or wrong. Your job is to obey it. God alone, who made the law, can rightly judge among us. He alone has the power to save or to destroy. So what right do you have to condemn your neighbor?”
It was so obvious and so clear: God has a job to do and so do we. God’s job involves many things that He never intended for us to worry about. It is God’s job to create the law, to judge people by that law, to save and to destroy. Our job is simple: obey Him.
May we learn to listen to God. May we be slow to speak and quick to listen. May we be slow to speak out against those who differ from us and quick to listen to God’s Word, Voice and Spirit. May we learn to focus on doing what He wants us to do instead of trying to do His job for Him. Remember, He is ALMIGHTY GOD and He is very capable of being God without our help.
My prayer for each of you this week is that you will spend some time alone with God every day listening to what He wants to say to you. (I Corinthians 2:10-16.)
Posted by David on February 1, 2004 under Sermons
This evening as we consider worship as a concept, I want to do something different. Much of this lesson is reading. There will be two sections devoted to readings. I very much want you to read with me. At the end of each section, I briefly will call your attention to some things we read.
The first section of readings will come from the Old Testament. The second section will come from the New Testament.
- Please read with me from the Old Testament.
- Exodus 10:1,2 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the heart of his servants, that I may perform these signs of Mine among them, and that you may tell in the hearing of your son, and of your grandson, how I made a mockery of the Egyptians and how I performed My signs among them, that you may know that I am the Lord.”
- Exodus 12:21-27 Then Moses called for all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go and take for yourselves lambs according to your families, and slay the Passover lamb. You shall take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood which is in the basin, and apply some of the blood that is in the basin to the lintel and the two doorposts; and none of you shall go outside the door of his house until morning. For the Lord will pass through to smite the Egyptians; and when He sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, the Lord will pass over the door and will not allow the destroyer to come in to your houses to smite you. And you shall observe this event as an ordinance for you and your children forever. When you enter the land which the Lord will give you, as He has promised, you shall observe this rite. And when your children say to you, ‘What does this rite mean to you?’ you shall say, ‘It is a Passover sacrifice to the Lord who passed over the houses of the sons of Israel in Egypt when He smote the Egyptians, but spared our homes.’ ” And the people bowed low and worshiped.
- Exodus 13:3-10 Moses said to the people, “Remember this day in which you went out from Egypt, from the house of slavery; for by a powerful hand the Lord brought you out from this place. And nothing leavened shall be eaten. On this day in the month of Abib, you are about to go forth. It shall be when the Lord brings you to the land of the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Hivite and the Jebusite, which He swore to your fathers to give you, a land flowing with milk and honey, that you shall observe this rite in this month. For seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day there shall be a feast to the Lord. Unleavened bread shall be eaten throughout the seven days; and nothing leavened shall be seen among you, nor shall any leaven be seen among you in all your borders. You shall tell your son on that day, saying, ‘It is because of what the Lord did for me when I came out of Egypt.’ And it shall serve as a sign to you on your hand, and as a reminder on your forehead, that the law of the Lord may be in your mouth; for with a powerful hand the Lord brought you out of Egypt. Therefore, you shall keep this ordinance at its appointed time from year to year.
- Exodus 32:11-13 Then Moses entreated the Lord his God, and said, “O Lord, why does Your anger burn against Your people whom You have brought out from the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? Why should the Egyptians speak, saying, ‘With evil intent He brought them out to kill them in the mountains and to destroy them from the face of the earth’? Turn from Your burning anger and change Your mind about doing harm to Your people. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, Your servants to whom You swore by Yourself, and said to them, ‘I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heavens, and all this land of which I have spoken I will give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever.'”
- Leviticus 11:45 For I am the Lord who brought you up from the land of Egypt to be your God; thus you shall be holy, for I am holy.'”
- Leviticus 22:26-33 Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, When an ox or a sheep or a goat is born, it shall remain seven days with its mother, and from the eighth day on it shall be accepted as a sacrifice of an offering by fire to the Lord. But, whether it is an ox or a sheep, you shall not kill both it and its young in one day. When you sacrifice a sacrifice of thanksgiving to the Lord, you shall sacrifice it so that you may be accepted. It shall be eaten on the same day, you shall leave none of it until morning; I am the Lord. So you shall keep My commandments, and do them; I am the Lord. You shall not profane My holy name, but I will be sanctified among the sons of Israel; I am the Lord who sanctifies you, who brought you out from the land of Egypt, to be your God; I am the Lord.”
- Leviticus 23:39-44 On exactly the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the crops of the land, you shall celebrate the feast of the Lord for seven days, with a rest on the first day and a rest on the eighth day. Now on the first day you shall take for yourselves the foliage of beautiful trees, palm branches and boughs of leafy trees and willows of the brook, and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God for seven days. You shall thus celebrate it as a feast to the Lord for seven days in the year. It shall be a perpetual statute throughout your generations; you shall celebrate it in the seventh month. You shall live in booths for seven days; all the native-born in Israel shall live in booths, so that your generations may know that I had the sons of Israel live in booths when I brought them out from the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.’ ” So Moses declared to the sons of Israel the appointed times of the Lord.
- Leviticus 25:35-38 Now in case a countryman of yours becomes poor and his means with regard to you falter, then you are to sustain him, like a stranger or a sojourner, that he may live with you. Do not take usurious interest from him, but revere your God, that your countryman may live with you. You shall not give him your silver at interest, nor your food for gain. I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan and to be your God.
- Numbers 3:13 For all the firstborn are Mine; on the day that I struck down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, I sanctified to Myself all the firstborn in Israel, from man to beast. They shall be Mine; I am the Lord.”
- Numbers 15:38-41 Speak to the sons of Israel, and tell them that they shall make for themselves tassels on the corners of their garments throughout their generations, and that they shall put on the tassel of each corner a cord of blue. It shall be a tassel for you to look at and remember all the commandments of the Lord, so as to do them and not follow after your own heart and your own eyes, after which you played the harlot, so that you may remember to do all My commandments and be holy to your God. I am the Lord your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt to be your God; I am the Lord your God.”
- Deuteronomy 5:12-21 Observe the sabbath day to keep it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath of the Lord your God; in it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter or your male servant or your female servant or your ox or your donkey or any of your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you, so that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you. You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out of there by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm; therefore the Lord your God commanded you to observe the sabbath day. Honor your father and your mother, as the Lord your God has commanded you, that your days may be prolonged and that it may go well with you on the land which the Lord your God gives you. You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, and you shall not desire your neighbor’s house, his field or his male servant or his female servant, his ox or his donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor.’
- Deuteronomy 6:20-25 When your son asks you in time to come, saying, ‘What do the testimonies and the statutes and the judgments mean which the Lord our God commanded you?’ then you shall say to your son, ‘We were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt, and the Lord brought us from Egypt with a mighty hand. Moreover, the Lord showed great and distressing signs and wonders before our eyes against Egypt, Pharaoh and all his household; He brought us out from there in order to bring us in, to give us the land which He had sworn to our fathers.’ So the Lord commanded us to observe all these statutes, to fear the Lord our God for our good always and for our survival, as it is today. It will be righteousness for us if we are careful to observe all this commandment before the Lord our God, just as He commanded us.
- Deuteronomy 7:6-11 For you are a holy people to the Lord your God; the Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for His own possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. The Lord did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any of the peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but because the Lord loved you and kept the oath which He swore to your forefathers, the Lord brought you out by a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. Know therefore that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God, who keeps His covenant and His lovingkindness to a thousandth generation with those who love Him and keep His commandments; but repays those who hate Him to their faces, to destroy them; He will not delay with him who hates Him, He will repay him to his face. Therefore, you shall keep the commandment and the statutes and the judgments which I am commanding you today, to do them.
- Deuteronomy 7:17-19 If you should say in your heart, ‘These nations are greater than I; how can I dispossess them?’ you shall not be afraid of them; you shall well remember what the Lord your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt: the great trials which your eyes saw and the signs and the wonders and the mighty hand and the outstretched arm by which the Lord your God brought you out. So shall the Lord your God do to all the peoples of whom you are afraid.
- Deuteronomy 11:1-5 “You shall therefore love the Lord your God, and always keep His charge, His statutes, His ordinances, and His commandments. Know this day that I am not speaking with your sons who have not known and who have not seen the discipline of the Lord your God–His greatness, His mighty hand and His outstretched arm, and His signs and His works which He did in the midst of Egypt to Pharaoh the king of Egypt and to all his land; and what He did to Egypt’s army, to its horses and its chariots, when He made the water of the Red Sea to engulf them while they were pursuing you, and the Lord completely destroyed them; and what He did to you in the wilderness until you came to this place.
- Deuteronomy 26:1-11 “Then it shall be, when you enter the land which the Lord your God gives you as an inheritance, and you possess it and live in it, that you shall take some of the first of all the produce of the ground which you bring in from your land that the Lord your God gives you, and you shall put it in a basket and go to the place where the Lord your God chooses to establish His name. You shall go to the priest who is in office at that time and say to him, ‘I declare this day to the Lord my God that I have entered the land which the Lord swore to our fathers to give us.’ Then the priest shall take the basket from your hand and set it down before the altar of the Lord your God. You shall answer and say before the Lord your God, ‘My father was a wandering Aramean, and he went down to Egypt and sojourned there, few in number; but there he became a great, mighty and populous nation. And the Egyptians treated us harshly and afflicted us, and imposed hard labor on us. Then we cried to the Lord, the God of our fathers, and the Lord heard our voice and saw our affliction and our toil and our oppression; and the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm and with great terror and with signs and wonders; and He has brought us to this place and has given us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. Now behold, I have brought the first of the produce of the ground which You, O Lord have given me.’ And you shall set it down before the Lord your God, and worship before the Lord your God; and you and the Levite and the alien who is among you shall rejoice in all the good which the Lord your God has given you and your household.
- Judges 2:11,12 Then the sons of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord and served the Baals, and they forsook the Lord, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods from among the gods of the peoples who were around them, and bowed themselves down to them; thus they provoked the Lord to anger.
- 1 Samuel 10:17-19 Thereafter Samuel called the people together to the Lord at Mizpah; and he said to the sons of Israel, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘I brought Israel up from Egypt, and I delivered you from the hand of the Egyptians and from the power of all the kingdoms that were oppressing you.’ But you have today rejected your God, who delivers you from all your calamities and your distresses; yet you have said, ‘No, but set a king over us!’ Now therefore, present yourselves before the Lord by your tribes and by your clans.”
- 2 Samuel 7:5-7 Go and say to My servant David, ‘Thus says the Lord, “Are you the one who should build Me a house to dwell in? For I have not dwelt in a house since the day I brought up the sons of Israel from Egypt, even to this day; but I have been moving about in a tent, even in a tabernacle. Wherever I have gone with all the sons of Israel, did I speak a word with one of the tribes of Israel, which I commanded to shepherd My people Israel, saying, ‘Why have you not built Me a house of cedar?'”‘
- Nehemiah 9:9-11 “You saw the affliction of our fathers in Egypt, And heard their cry by the Red Sea. “Then You performed signs and wonders against Pharaoh, Against all his servants and all the people of his land; For You knew that they acted arrogantly toward them, And made a name for Yourself as it is this day. “You divided the sea before them, So they passed through the midst of the sea on dry ground; And their pursuers You hurled into the depths, Like a stone into raging waters.
- Jeremiah 7:21-26 Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, “Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices and eat flesh. For I did not speak to your fathers, or command them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices. But this is what I commanded them, saying, ‘Obey My voice, and I will be your God, and you will be My people; and you will walk in all the way which I command you, that it may be well with you.’ Yet they did not obey or incline their ear, but walked in their own counsels and in the stubbornness of their evil heart, and went backward and not forward. Since the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt until this day, I have sent you all My servants the prophets, daily rising early and sending them. Yet they did not listen to Me or incline their ear, but stiffened their neck; they did more evil than their fathers.
- Jeremiah 11:1-5 The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, Hear the words of this covenant, and speak to the men of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, “Cursed is the man who does not heed the words of this covenant which I commanded your forefathers in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, from the iron furnace, saying, ‘Listen to My voice, and do according to all which I command you; so you shall be My people, and I will be your God,’ in order to confirm the oath which I swore to your forefathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey, as it is this day.” ‘ ” Then I said, “Amen, O Lord.”
- Hosea 11:1-4 When Israel was a youth I loved him, And out of Egypt I called My son. The more they called them, The more they went from them; They kept sacrificing to the Baals And burning incense to idols. Yet it is I who taught Ephraim to walk, took them in My arms; But they did not know that I healed them. I led them with cords of a man, with bonds of love, And I became to them as one who lifts the yoke from their jaws; And I bent down and fed them.
- Amos 3:1 Hear this word the Lord has spoken against you, O people of Israel–against the whole family I brought up out of Egypt.
- Micah 6:1-4 Listen to what the Lord says: “Stand up, plead your case before the mountains; let the hills hear what you have to say. Hear, O mountains, the LORD’s accusation; listen, you everlasting foundations of the earth. For the LORD has a case against his people; he is lodging a charge against Israel. “My people, what have I done to you? How have I burdened you? Answer me. I brought you up out of Egypt and redeemed you from the land of slavery. I sent Moses to lead you, also Aaron and Miriam.
- After all those readings, I want you to ask one question: “Why?”
- Why keep the Passover?
- Why not destroy Israel when they made the golden calf?
- Why obey God in the laws about what you eat?
- Why offer sacrifices to God?
- Why live in booths on a special festival day?
- Why treat the poor as God instructed?
- Why give the firstborn males to God?
- Why strictly observe the Sabbath?
- Why keep the ten commandments?
- Why obey God?
- Why be God’s people?
- Why did God let Israel live in Canaan?
- Why give the first produce to ripen in the springs harvest to God?
- Why did God become so angry when we worshipped idols?
- Why was God so offended when we wanted a king?
- There was one foundation answer: God acted in our history to rescue us from Egypt, and this is our response to the God Who has already acted to rescue us.
II.Now read with me a few passages from the New Testament.
- 1 Corinthians 1:18-25 For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, And the cleverness of the clever I will set aside.” Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. For indeed Jews ask for signs and Greeks search for wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
- 1 Corinthians 2:1,2 And when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.
- 1 Corinthians 15:1-4 Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.
- Galatians 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.
- Acts 17:16-18 Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was being provoked within him as he was observing the city full of idols. So he was reasoning in the synagogue with the Jews and the God-fearing Gentiles, and in the market place every day with those who happened to be present. And also some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers were conversing with him. Some were saying, “What would this idle babbler wish to say?” Others, “He seems to be a proclaimer of strange deities,”–because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection.
- 1 Peter 1:3-5 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
- May I ask the same question: “Why do we worship God, serve God, let God direct our entire lives?”
- For one foundation reason: God acted in history in Jesus’ death and resurrection to rescue us from the slavery of sin (evil), and this is our response to God who already acted to our benefit.
I ask you to see one point, the single truth that has always served as the foundation of worship among God’s people. God acted in human history before He called us to Him. Worship and service are our response to the God who acted to bless us before we did anything to honor Him.
Posted by Chris on under Sermons
Songs
#162 – “All Hail The Power of Jesus Name”
#250 – “The Great Redeemer”
GOD’S GIFT TO US IN JESUS’ DEATH
Freedom (Redemption)
by David Chadwell
What is the greatest gift you ever received? It may be a thing given to you; it maybe an act that benefitted you; it may be an experience you were allowed to participate into your benefit. In everything you have received, whether it is a thing, a beneficial act, ora beneficial experience, what is the greatest gift you have ever received?
Whether you know it or not, whether you yet understand it or not, the greatest giftever given to you whether a thing, an act, or an experience was given by God Himself.
- For you to understand the greatness of God’s gift, we must go back to the firstcentury world.
- When you hear the word “redemption,” what first comes to your mind?
- In your thinking, is it a “religious word” or an “every day life word”?
- To most of us, it is a religious word.
- But that was not the situation in the first century world.
- It was a very real, very practical, everyday life word.
- In a very specific way, the equivalent of our English word “redemption”meant “freedom.”
- In their language, this word was directly associated with the payment of aransom.
- One of the harsh realities of the first century world [and before] was the status ofpeople who were prisoners of war.
- To be a prisoner of war you might have been living in a city that was captured.
- You might have been a soldier in a defeated army.
- Whatever happened, you were a captive, and captives were sold into slavery.
- Slavery did not follow racial lines, or social lines, or economic lines.
- Any prisoner of war likely would be sold into slavery.
- You may have been free before capture, but after capture you became aslave.
- As a slave, you no longer owned your life or yourself.
- You existed to do as you were told.
- Typically you were not asked if you liked being a slave.
- Typically you were not asked about what you liked and what you felt.
- Typically what you liked and how you felt were of no concern to thosewho owned you.
- The common way to escape the slavery occurring when you were captured wasthe payment of a ransom.
- If someone ransomed you, you could be freed from slavery.
- There are actually a few records of a few prisoners of war who committedsuicide because they knew no one who would ransom them.
- I want you to feel a situation.
- First, think about your circumstances.
- There was a war that involved your city, and you were captured.
- You did not know one single person nor a group of persons who could payyour ransom.
- So you were sold into slavery, and you fully expected to be a slave for yearsand years.
- Everyday you did as you were told with no hope of every being rescued fromyour slavery.
- It was just a dreary, “get up and do what you are told” existence for you everysingle day.
- Then one day, when your hopelessness had almost reached the point of totaldespair, you were informed someone you did not know, someone you owednothing to, someone you could never repay, had paid your ransom in full, and youwere to be freed that day.
- What emotions would you feel?
- How would you express your joy?
- Can you imagine going from hopeless despair to jubilant freedom in one day?
- What would you feel toward the person who made your freedom possible?
- If you are in Jesus Christ, that is what God did for you–He gave you your freedomby paying the ransom that liberated you from evil’s slavery.
- Listen and read with me:
Matthew 20:28 “just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and togive His life a ransom for many.”
Titus 2:14 who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purifyfor Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds.
1 Peter 1:17-19 If you address as Father the One who impartially judges according toeach one’s work, conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your stay on earth;knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from yourfutile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood, as of a lambunblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ.
Ephesians 1:7,8 In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of ourtrespasses, according to the riches of His grace which He lavished on us.
Communion
Would you pray with me as we give thanks for the gift of Jesus’ body?
[Bread served.]
Would you pray with me as we give thanks for the gift of Jesus’ blood?
[Fruit of the vine served.]
David Chadwell
West-Ark Church of Christ, Fort Smith, AR
Morning Sermon, 1 February 2004
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Our Response
Song
#147 – “I Stand Amazed”
Offering
Songs
#781 – “Thank You, Lord!”
#718 – “We Shall Assemble”
THE RANSOM DEMAND
by Chris Benjamin
Baghdad, Iraq – April 9, 2003 –
The cost of the rope –$18
The cost of the M88 Hercules tank –$2 million
The benefits of Freedom in Iraq –priceless |
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The toppling of Hussein’s statue in Baghdad represented freedom from decades of tyranny for Iraq. Even thought conflicts remain, all must agree that Iraq has been freed from oppression and now they have hope and a chance for a new kind of life. That is remarkably true in the case of Jawad Amir …
  20 years ago, Jawad Amir supported a religious leader who opposed Saddam Hussein. Hussein responded by placing an execution order on Amir. Amir went into hiding – not in another country, but in a space in the wall of his parent’s house. Amir lived in this space for 20 years listening to the news on his radio. When he heard that Hussein’s statue was toppled he finally emerged from hiding.
After 20 years hiding for his life, Amir has a new life because of the freedom achieved by others. What he will do now that he has his freedom? Just having freedom isn’t the end of the story, after all. Amir’s story is symbolic of the nation of Iraq – now that they have freedom from the tyrant, how shall they use that freedom? There is real concern that a leadership or government could form even more oppressive than Saddam Hussein. Before he was pulled out of his own hidey-hole, there were those who expressed a desire to return to the rule of Hussein …
- “We feel like we’ve been let out of prison,” Arsalan Adnan says. “We can talk about anything.” But Waffi Mahmoud Aswan, 42, an accountant “At least with Saddam, there was order in the city.”
- About 50 men and boys, mostly from the Tikrit area, piled into pickups and drove around, firing guns into the air to celebrate Hussein’s birthday. The men, mostly farmers, carried an array of modern weapons, including heavy machine guns and assault rifles. “Saddam is all we have known,” Ahmed, 21, said between celebratory bursts of his Kalashnikov. “We will not be apart from Saddam for the rest of our lives, I tell you.”
Second chances are delicate and profound moments. Why? Because something has been paid to redeem a people from destruction. To waste freedom and redemption is incredibly disappointing and anguishing.
- We grieve when we see people around the world trade in their freedom for false security or idle pleasures.
- We are disappointed by those in our country who have opportunities to escape their circumstances but their own foolishness returns them to a life of misery.
- It is tragic when someone is given a new lease on life through costly surgery or treatment but they die soon after only because they refuse to change their habits.
- How often do we consider our freedom in Christ as a precious second chance? The ransom of Christ’s blood on the cross has given us more than just an exemption from condemnation – it has set us free to live a life that demands to be lived well!
Ransomed by Christ – Galatians 5:1 – "It is for freedom that Christ has set us free."
The death of Jesus on the cross is not a payoff to an angry God, nor is it simply payment for a hefty fine. The appearance of the Son of God threatened the powers of darkness and evil.
Christ’s suffering and death was not meaningless nor an accident; it was necessary and inevitable given the conflict that exists in our world between good and evil, between the powers that would enslave us and the God who created us to live free.
But the resurrection changes everything – death is not victorious in this conflict. Christ is exalted over all the living and the dead. Sin’s statue has been toppled. There is a regime change in the world that brings about new freedom because there is now a new, redeemed, free humanity in Christ.
Two Abuses of Christian Freedom
We have been set free! But what do we do with our freedom? There are two extremes, two abuses of freedom in Christ: We’ll call these extremes "lawlessness and legalism." And since both of these extremes ignore the relationship between grace and works, freedom and responsibility, or spirituality and behavior we can characterize them as follows:
- Lawlessness – Trying to Be Spiritual Without Worrying About Behavior
- Legalism – Worrying About Behavior Without Trying to be Spiritual
Lawlessness: Trying to be spiritual without worrying about our behavior.
We are free – but that doesn’t deny that there is a call to purity. Purity and holiness are benefits of freedom. If we lose these we abandon our freedom. How can we strive for the joy of Christ if we are chasing after things that fill our lives with more pain? We cannot serve two masters.
- "Live as free men, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as servants of God." – 1 Peter 2:16
- "For you have been called to live in freedom–not freedom to satisfy your sinful nature, but freedom to serve one another in love." – Galatians 5:13
Legalism: worrying about our behavior without trying to be spiritual.
The message of grace and freedom is threatening to some. And they, like the Iraqis who would rather have the security of law rather than the responsibility of freedom, will put their faith in a religious system, tradition or church institution.
Talking about freedom can be challenging and some get alarmed that there will be abuses. But when we focus on behavior and neglect the spiritual there are other abuses that are just as bad: We may keep all the rules and avoid any sort of conflict or slippery slope, but inwardly we have not changed and we justify rudeness, unkindness, and discord in the name of defending the faith.
Jesus taught us that good behavior is not just about what we do – it also involves who we are.
- "See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ." – Colossians 2:8
[Systems and rules are deceptively secure because we find it easier to control doctrines and rules than to control ourselves.]
- [If we accept legalism as righteousness, then we throw away the cross and, with it, Christian freedom] It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. 4You who are trying to be justified by law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace. 5But by faith we eagerly await through the Spirit the righteousness for which we hope. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.
Lawlessness –
Trying to be Spiritual without Worrying about Behavior
Legalism –
Worrying about Behavior without Trying to be Spiritual
Liberation –
Living Free by Behaving Spiritually |
A Better Way: [Liberation – Living Free by Behaving Spiritually]. Jesus taught us that righteousness isn’t just what we do – it is who we are. It is not just outward, it is inward. We have been set free – God has done this while we were still sinners. He acted, and we can only respond. But we do have a response – ability.
Freedom’s Cost and Freedom’s Response – Ability [The Ransom Demand]
- The ransom demand is not placed on the one who set us free. The demand of the ransom is placed on you and me.
- 1 Peter 1: 13-19
Freedom comes at the cost of spilled blood. To have political freedom is an important and priceless reality, but to have spiritual freedom, release from the tyranny of sin, is greater still. For, one can be a free American citizen but remain an enslaved sinner. Only when one lives as a freeborn child of God is one truly free indeed.
You’ve been redeemed with the precious blood of Christ – How then shall you live? The invitation is to come to Christ. The invitation is to live out your freedom and share its benefits.
Posted by David on under Bulletin Articles
On Sunday mornings during the month of February [beginning this Sunday, February 1], the focus of morning assemblies will be on communion. Basically, the following will be each Sunday’s format for the month. With praying and singing together, we will praise God. I will focus our minds on a specific accomplishment God achieved in Jesus’ death and resurrection. We will take communion together as we focus on the sacrifice of Jesus’ body and blood. After remembering the gift which allows us to exist as God’s family, Chris will challenge us to focus on our response to God’s achievement.
Each Sunday morning in the month of February, we [as a congregation] will focus on a different achievement God accomplished in Jesus’ death and resurrection. Each Sunday morning we will be challenged to respond to God’s accomplishment in Jesus’ death and resurrection.
This Sunday morning we will focus on God’s gift of freedom (redemption).
The challenge to worship God as a response to His achievement in giving Jesus’ life for us is an extension of our focus on Sunday evenings. Beginning in January, each Sunday evening we focused on worship as a concept. In January, we noted from scripture in a study of Genesis 4 and Isaiah 1 the first concept: worship must arise from the person’s heart. We also noted the inadequacy of the conviction that we worship because we physically are at a place.
Concept two: worship is a declaration of dependence on God. We stressed this fact: it is possible for a person to be surrounded by those who are worshipping while he/she is not worshipping.
On Sunday evenings in February, we will stress the difference between worshipping God and worshipping idols, the importance of God’s creative power, and the moods of worship. Most of the Life Groups focus on these same lessons about worship concerns in their Sunday evening meetings.
The objective is simple. We want each person to worship God. We deeply appreciate everyone’s presence. In no way would we discourage anyone from attending. Yet, we seek for more to happen than people being present. We want each person’s presence to honor God as he/she glorifies God in his/her mind and heart.
Glorify God in your every word and action all week! Join with us in praising God Sunday! May each of us care about the God Who cares so much about us!
Posted by Chris on January 25, 2004 under Sermons
If we really want to know Jesus, then we will want to know the end of his story. However, Jesus’ story never ends …
- Read Mark 16:1-8
- Debate over the longer ending.
- Mark and the Story – He is intentionally leaving it hanging. Why does Mark do this?
- Resurrection is not the end of the story – Jesus is raised and his life and story continue to this very moment.
- What will these women do? What about those sad and disappointed disciples who are going back to fishing?
- The story does not end – it has just begun!
- Going ahead of us to meet us in Galilee
- Galilee – (Jesus is already there)
- For the disciples, Galilee is worse than death. They are returning to their old life with broken dreams and dashed hopes. They are going back to mark time until the final ends comes.
- They are ending it, Jesus is just beginning it
- They’ve gone back to the past, Jesus meets them with a new future
- What about these disciples who suddenly find that the end is just a new beginning? (Luke continues their story in Acts and the message of the resurrected Jesus fills every sermon and mighty act).
- What about us?
Death is certain, but Not Final …
- The question is not “will we die?”, the question is “will death be the end?” (Not just for eternity, but even the metaphorical "deaths" and losses we experience even now)
- When death (loss) is the end then it will lock us into the past with no hope for the future
- That may lead to bitterness,
- That may lead to a 3-D view of reality: depression, despair, and denial.
- That may lead to nostalgia (a very subtle trap of the past).
- When the disciples lost hope, they returned to their past (Galilee). They are in survival mode. They return to the life they know – even if that life is just the end awaiting death …
- We see a very picture in Paul’s words in Galatians. For Paul death is not the end, but a door to a new beginning. He let’s go of self and the world he thought secure to gain a new life. Dying to self is living with Christ (Galatians 2:20) –
- Paul realizes that he has already died – to self. His life is now a new life in Christ that is filled with a hopeful future.
- Paul is expressing a theme that becomes real when we know Jesus – that resurrection follows death, and before resurrection there must be a death.
Before there is a resurrection there is first a death …
- The caterpillars, the gray husks, the cecropia moths. This is a theme God has woven into the fabric of the universe.
Thursday’s Resurrection
by Chris Benjamin
Thursday, April 13, 2000
Ten days before Easter Sunday
This morning I witnessed a miracle. I stepped out into the gray morning to see how my plants and bushes were doing and I noticed the faintest, quietest motion inside one of the bushes. Two large fiery colored Cecropia moths were stretching their wings. Their wings had a velvety cat’s eye pattern and their scarlet, feathery antennae were stroked back on their heads majestically. Their bodies were colored with beautiful, white and fire-red furry stripes. My first thought was not, "Where did these come from?"; rather it was "They’re here! They’re finally here!" I rushed back into the house to tell Karen and the boys that the caterpillars had hatched.
Last spring, we were visited by two unusual guests. They didn’t ask if they could stay. They just showed up one day – two funny-looking little fat green caterpillars. The red and blue knobs gave them the appearance of having a face – a clown face. They showed up on our red-tip bushes and just began eating. I wasn’t very fond of those bushes and had thought about pulling them up, so I gave the caterpillars permission to eat all they wanted. They took me up on my offer and they swelled to four times their original size. They did contribute to the entertainment of my family. Wyatt, my son, thought they looked just like Heimlich the caterpillar in the movie A Bug’s Life – and I must admit they did! So almost everyday we came to see what they were doing, how they were growing, and just wondering if the bushes were still there and if any of their friends had moved in.
Then came the day they made their cocoons. We really didn’t know what to suspect, but we noticed that they were getting less active. Then they started spinning their silk for the cocoon and pulled the leaves up around them. It was fascinating to watch them form the cocoon until they were finally encased in a brownish grayish shell that perfectly matched the color of the tree bark. From that time on, we began to wonder how long they would remain in the cocoon. As the months rolled on, we were certain it be through the winter. We slowly began to forget about the caterpillars. Every once in awhile when I was trimming a bush or mowing, I would look to see if perhaps the cocoon was split or if something was moving. No change. Never. We just got used to the two cocoons being in the bushes.
Then yesterday, Wyatt brought home a reading book about Gus. Gus is a caterpillar and he becomes a butterfly. Of course this made us think about the Heimlich’s. Wyatt asked about them and Karen glanced at me. I told her in parental semaphore that they were likely "d-e-a-d." After all, those gray husks had gotten weathered and who knows how much pesticide they had been exposed to as I was killing chinch bugs, fire-ants, mosquitoes and every other pest. I would expect that if they were alive there would be some sort of sign, at least maintenance of good color. Karen said, "Let’s give them a while longer and then we can cut down the branches." I really didn’t care one way or another. After all, I had gotten used to the gray husks.
This morning [April 13, 2000] was a symbol of God’s power to make life. The gray dead-looking husks that we had almost given up on were now the center of vibrant beautiful life. We had waited and grew impatient rather quickly. We just expect things so soon. The lovely creature stretching its wings was a reminder of God’s power and promises. Some may think it only coincidence or romanticism on our part to believe that the metamorphosis of a caterpillar has any sort of connection with the Resurrection. The cynic may say that the Resurrection of Christ is just a myth inspired by the scientific processes of nature. It seems more likely to me that God, the cosmic Artist, has inserted an important theme, a motif, into all of His creation.
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- In Jesus we see that theme in a person … and by knowing him we can display that theme in our life and church …
- Some ministries end, only to begin new ones – that’s resurrection hope and power at work
- LJCC – I had to leave so that a new ministry can begin there and so a new ministry can begin here. In Christ, endings are never just the end, they are the beginning.
- Lions For Christ – they leave behind the youth group but this isn’t the end, it is just a new beginning
Tired, worn out servants can be filled with new life and power (Ezekiel 37)
- Marriage – broken, dead marriages can be revived. [So the classes we teach are an extension of this principle that God can bring life and hope where we only see death and hopelessness.] Don’t pronounce the time of death until you pray! But even then, there can still be a resurrection.
- Knowing Jesus we can experience resurrection in Personal Life – Career, finance, purpose …
- But we have to submit to death (dying to self) so that there can be new life (baptism) – Romans 6. We need to let go of that which we are going to lose anyway (our mortal life) to receive the life that God gives as an eternal gift – now and forever
New Creation even Now – Eternal Life begins now! 2 Corinthians 5:17 – I Corinthians 15:57-58 (the connection between the resurrection and discipleship) – Jesus after his resurrection did not just float up to heaven like a ghost. In fact he had a hefty agenda and was quite busy for over a month …
Invitation: Before there is a resurrection there is first a death.
Philippians 3:10 – I want to Know Christ and the power of his RISING share in his suffering and conform to his DEATH
Will your death be the final end, or will dying to self be a new beginning? Would you like to know the power of resurrection that can change the gray husk of suffering, pain, and loss into new creation even now (not just in that great getting up morning)? Then meet Jesus. Know him!
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