Letting Our Spirits Heal

Posted by David on August 11, 2002 under Sermons

Many of us, if not most of us, spent much of this week in shock and grief. Many of us knew George and Hazel Hastings. Some of you knew them well for many years. He served as an elder in one of the congregations that merged to form West-Ark. Many of us held cherished personal relationships with them. They were an honored, active part of this congregation. Even though they were elderly [88 and 84], they were actively involved in visiting and encouraging others.

Some of you were actively involved in encouraging them. Last Sunday they were not with us, and that was very unusual for them. Some of you called them Sunday afternoon and Sunday evening to see if they were okay. They explained to at least some of their callers that George was not feeling well. That coupled with Hazel’s struggle with the pain of her “shingles” kept them at home.

1. One of the questions that haunted our thoughts this week: “What could I have done to prevent this tragedy?”
   1. All of us have been in a state of shock.
      1. A lot of tears have been shed the last few days.
      2. Many have struggled with “dazed” feelings.
      3. I am sure that neither George nor Hazel had even a small idea of how distressful their deaths would be to so many people.
   2. What occurred was so out of character.
      1. George and Hazel were gentle, kind, helpful people.
      2. They were married for 62 years, and were extremely close and independent.
         1. They depended on each other, and only on each other.
         2. Hazel grew up as a orphan.
         3. For years her greatest fear was being left alone; in fact, years ago she formed an agreement with George that he would never leave her alone.
         4. They were very open about the fact that they wanted to die at the same time–neither of them could consider continuing life without the other, and being a burden on their family was not an option.
      3. Hazel was suffering from Alzheimer’s disease; they did a good job of disguising how advanced her condition was.
      4. Quite recently George was informed an aggressive form of cancer would end his life soon.
         1. His death would mean that he could no longer be Hazel’s caretaker.
         2. It also would mean her worst fear would happen: she would have to continue life without him.
         3. Even with all the assurances from their children, that was unacceptable to both of them.
   3. So that leads us back to our question: “What could I have done to prevent this tragedy?”
      1. When I answer from my perspective, listen to all of my explanation.
      2. “What could I have done to prevent this tragedy?” Nothing.
      3. All her life Hazel’s worst fear was being left without George.
         1. That fear was founded in her experiences of living as an orphan as a child.
            1. That fear intensified when a grown son died of cancer.
            2. That fear intensified as her Alzheimer’s progressed.
         2. That fear had been a part of her married life for many, many years.
         3. That is why long ago she had George promise her that he would never leave her to live alone.
      4. Their children made special efforts to assure each of them that they would never be a burden and would never be abandoned.
         1. Years ago they actually got them to agree to move closer.
         2. When the time of moving neared, George and Hazel refused to move.
      5. They wanted to be independent, and they refused to consider any other arrangement.
         1. They made it very clear long ago that nursing homes were not an option.
         2. They made it very clear long ago that moving was not an option.
         3. They made it very clear long ago the there was only one acceptable situation: depending on each other as they took care of each other in their own home.
      6. These were not their decisions that were made in the past few weeks or few months.
         1. These were their decisions made years ago.
         2. These were their options and the way they lived for years.

2. George and Hazel’s deaths offer unusual spiritual challenges: their tragic deaths almost demand that we examine our basic concepts of Christian existence.
   [Transition: An 88 year old man married to an 84 year old woman for 62 years chose to die this week. They made their choice after a lifetime of devotion to Christ and the church. Their choices demand that we think about three common concepts most Christians accept without thought.]
   1. The first consideration: our basic understanding of Christian existence needs honest re-examination.
      1. We have seriously oversimplified the nature of Christianity.
         1. Some of you say, “That is crazy! In no way have we oversimplified Christianity!”
         2. Some of you say, “I am terribly confused. This whole event does not make sense. I have no idea what to think.”
         3. Some of you say, “Obviously we need to do some serious thinking.”
      2. If you think that Christianity is simple and we have all the answers, I challenge you to consider two examples as I ask you some basic questions.
         1. Example one: how could king David be a man after God’s own heart and (a) commit adultery with Bathsheba and (b) have Uriah killed in an attempt to hide his adultery?
            1. If the answers are so simple why did God allow David to keep Bathsheba as a wife?
            2. How could God allow the next king of Israel be Solomon, the son of David and Bathsheba?
         2. Example two: how could an apostle be guilty of hypocrisy and influence other Christians to indulge in hypocrisy?
            1. In Acts 10 God used a variety of methods [including visions, the voice of the Holy Spirit, and the falling of the Holy Spirit] to convince the apostle Peter that people who were not Jews or Jewish converts were not to be rejected by Jewish Christians as “unclean” people, and the apostle Peter finally understood and did just as God directed.
            2. In Acts 11 Christians in the Jerusalem congregation were upset with the apostle Peter for associating with people who were not Jews or Jewish converts.
            3. In Acts 15 some of these upset Christians traveled to the first non-Jewish congregation, rejected their salvation, and caused serious confusion.
            4. Later, in that very same congregation (Galatians 2:11-13), the apostle Peter did the exact opposite of what God commanded.
            5. The apostle Peter did this because he was afraid of some Jewish Christians who came from the Jerusalem church.
            6. Paul said what the apostle Peter did was an act of hypocrisy that influenced others to be hypocrites.
         3. We have oversimplified the basic nature of Christianity, and that oversimplification produces confusion and consequences.
   2. The second consideration: every single Christian–without exception–totally depends on the mercy of God’s forgiveness.
      1. Every one of us who are God’s sons or God’s daughters have relationship with God because of God’s major forgiveness every single day of our lives.
      2. If God’s merciful forgiveness were withdrawn from any of us, none of us could be God’s son or daughter.
      3. I am not God’s son because I am good; I am God’s son because I am forgiven.
      4. We urgently need to spiritually mature to the point that we stop placing our faith in our goodness and start placing our faith in God’s mercy.
   3. The third consideration: we need to define correctly God’s core concern.
      1. When I talk about God’s core concern, this is the issue:
         1. What is God’s core concern?
         2. Not, what is our core concern?
         3. By “core concern” I mean the heart of God’s basic concern.
      2. The answer we gave for almost 100 years is this: God’s core concern is proper worship procedures.
         1. We have created the impression among ourselves that God’s greatest single concern is how we do worship.
         2. We have created this conviction: as long as we do worship right, God is pleased.
            1. If you have a horrible marriage, that is okay; just do not miss communion on Sunday.
            2. If you neglect your children, that is okay; just sing a cappella in worship on Sunday.
            3. If you commit adultery, that is not the end of the world; just stay through the invitation song on Sunday morning.
            4. You and I could illustrate this truth in many ways.
         3. We have said that to God, the core of Christianity is worship procedures, not relationship realities.
      3. God’s core concern has never changed: it always has had a double emphasis, relationship with God and relationship with people. Briefly consider five examples.
         1. Consider the ten commandments God gave Israel in Exodus 20.
            1. My understanding: those commandments were God’s basic expectations and were the foundation of everything else God commanded Israel.
            2. Four of those commands declared Israel must have profound respect for God.
            3. Six of those commands declared Israel must treat others properly.
            4. None of those commands dealt with what we regard to be worship procedures.
         2. Consider Isaiah 1:10-17.
            1. Every single worship act that God found offensive was commanded.
            2. To me the emphasis is very clear. Listen to Isaiah 1:16,17.
               “Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from My sight. Cease to do evil, Learn to do good; Seek justice, Reprove the ruthless, Defend the orphan, Plead for the widow.
            3. “You place your emphasis on worship, and your worship makes me sick.”
            4. “First, learn to treat people as I want them treated.”
         3. Consider Matthew 12:1-7. The Pharisees verbally attacked Jesus over what they regarded as violations of the Sabbath day.
            1. In Jesus’ response, he made this statement:
               Matthew 12:7 But if you had known what this means, “I desire compassion, and not a sacrifice,” you would not have condemned the innocent.
            2. Compassion was about the way people were treated.
            3. Sacrifice was about worship.
            4. Number one with God is the way people were treated.
         4. Consider Matthew 22:36-40. Often we refer to Jesus’ response to God’s greatest commandment.
            1. Love God with all your being.
            2. Love your neighbor like yourself.
            3. Jesus never separated these two commands.
         5. Consider Romans 13:8,10. Paul stressed the same truth. When writing to the Christians in Rome, he said:
            Romans 13:8 he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law.
            Romans 13:10 Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.

“Are you saying that what we do in worship is unimportant?” No, that is not what I am saying. God’s core of relationship with Him is how we treat people. That is what Christianity is about. Worship honors God when we first treat other people right.

Our failure to understand that is destroying us.

God’s Sovereignty

Posted by David on July 28, 2002 under Sermons

Genesis 1:1,2 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters.

Before this creation existed, before physical life existed, there was absolute chaos. God chose to bring order out of chaos. Nothing, absolutely nothing, that was part of the chaos defied God. God was sovereign. What He willed even in chaos happened because He was sovereign.

God said, “Let there be light, and let light and darkness separate.” And, it happened. It happened because God was sovereign. Neither light nor darkness rebelled against His sovereignty.

God said, “Separate the waters so the heavens may appear.” And it happened. It happened because God was sovereign. Nothing rebelled against God’s separation.

God said, “Let dry land appear in the separated waters that are below.” And it happened. It happened because God is sovereign. Neither the waters nor the land rebelled against God’s declaration.

God said, “Let there be lights in the heavens, and among them let there be the sun and moon for the earth.” And it happened. It happened because God is sovereign. Nether the darkness nor the lights defied God.

God said, “Let the waters on the earth and the skies above the earth be filled with living creatures.” And it happened. It happened because God is sovereign. Neither the creatures nor the voids they filled defied God.

God said, “Let the dry land the filled with living creatures, and among them let there be human life to exercise dominion.” And it happened. It happened because God is sovereign. And neither the land nor the creatures God made defied God.

Genesis 1:31 God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

1. God asserted His sovereignty and brought into being everything we know.
   1. In doing this, He brought us into being and made us unique from all other life forms.
      1. God made us unique by placing a part of Himself in us, something that scripture calls His likeness and His image.
      2. Since God is not a physical being, we should understand God’s likeness or image does not refer to our physical form.
      3. In specific ways it relates to God making us free, making us beings that never cease to exist, not even when there is physical death.
      4. God gave us independence even if we use that independence to defy God’s sovereignty and rebel against Him.
   2. Unfortunately, that is precisely what humanity did after creation.
      1. Nothing God made in this creation defied His sovereignty–but us.
      2. Because of human defiance and rebellion, God’s “very good” creation that pleased Him became a perverted creation that rejected His sovereignty.
      3. That which existed through the will and acts of the sovereign God now dared to defy God’s sovereignty.
         1. Genesis 6:5, 6 says,
            Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. The Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.
         2. In incredible arrogance, humanity not only defied God’s sovereignty, but people totally turned to evil.
         3. God found the rejection of His sovereignty was so painful that He regretted bringing people into existence.
   3. From the moment humanity rejected His sovereignty, God began working seeking to reestablish His sovereignty over a defiant human creation.

2. God’s sovereignty is used throughout scripture to declare God’s feelings and explain God’s actions. Our failure to understand God’s sovereignty results in our inability to relate to God.
   1. Moses used God’s sovereignty to urge God not to destroy Israel. (Exodus 32:7-14).
      1. After God spoke the ten commandments to Israel (Exodus 20:1-17) at Mount Sinai, Moses went up the mount to receive those commandments in writing.
      2. While Moses was gone, the people grew impatient and decided Moses would not be back.
      3. They urged Moses’ brother, Aaron, to make them an idol to worship, and Aaron took their gold jewelry and made a golden calf which they worshipped.
         Exodus 32:7-14 Then the Lord spoke to Moses, “Go down at once, for your people, whom you brought up from the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. They have quickly turned aside from the way which I commanded them. They have made for themselves a molten calf, and have worshipped it and have sacrificed to it and said, ‘This is your god, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt!’ ” The Lord said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and behold, they are an obstinate people. Now then let Me alone, that My anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them; and I will make of you a great nation.” 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.’ ” So the Lord changed His mind about the harm which He said He would do to His people.
         1. God said to Moses, “I have had it with these people.”
            1. “In Egypt they did not trust Me.
            2. “At the Red Sea they did not trust Me.
            3. “In the wilderness they did not trust Me.
               1. “Now they worship an idol they made saying it is the god who brought them out of Egypt.
            4. “They are a stubborn, hardhearted people. Moses I intend to kill all of them and start over with you.”
         2. Moses said, “God, please do not do that.”
            1. “Consider Your sovereignty.
            2. “If you destroy them, the Egyptians will say You took these people to the mountains to kill them
         3. Moses realized the importance of people knowing God’s sovereignty, and his appeal to God to consider God’s sovereignty changed God’s mind.
   2. Several times in Ezekiel God explained His actions by focusing attention on His sovereignty.
      1. Concerning His promise to return captive Israelites to their homeland, God said this in Ezekiel 20:39-44:
         As for you, O house of Israel,” thus says the Lord God, “Go, serve everyone his idols; but later you will surely listen to Me, and My holy name you will profane no longer with your gifts and with your idols. For on My holy mountain, on the high mountain of Israel,” declares the Lord God, “there the whole house of Israel, all of them, will serve Me in the land; there I will accept them and there I will seek your contributions and the choicest of your gifts, with all your holy things. As a soothing aroma I will accept you when I bring you out from the peoples and gather you from the lands where you are scattered; and I will prove Myself holy among you in the sight of the nations. And you will know that I am the Lord, when I bring you into the land of Israel, into the land which I swore to give to your forefathers. There you will remember your ways and all your deeds with which you have defiled yourselves; and you will loathe yourselves in your own sight for all the evil things that you have done. Then you will know that I am the Lord when I have dealt with you for My name’s sake, not according to your evil ways or according to your corrupt deeds, O house of Israel,” declares the Lord God.’ “
         1. God said, “I will demonstrate my sovereignty in my deeds.”
         2. Concerning an explanation of why God acted as He acted, we read in Ezekiel 36:22, 23:
            Therefore say to the house of Israel, ‘Thus says the Lord God, “It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for My holy name, which you have profaned among the nations where you went. I will vindicate the holiness of My great name which has been profaned among the nations, which you have profaned in their midst. Then the nations will know that I am the Lord,” declares the Lord God, “when I prove Myself holy among you in their sight.”
            1. God said, “I will demonstrate my sovereignty to the nations.”
         3. Concerning the consequences Israel endured in their captivity, Ezekiel 39:21-24 says:
            And I will set My glory among the nations; and all the nations will see My judgment which I have executed and My hand which I have laid on them. And the house of Israel will know that I am the Lord their God from that day onward. The nations will know that the house of Israel went into exile for their iniquity because they acted treacherously against Me, and I hid My face from them; so I gave them into the hand of their adversaries, and all of them fell by the sword. According to their uncleanness and according to their transgressions I dealt with them, and I hid My face from them.” ‘ “
            1. God said, “Israel’s wickedness produced their consequences and demonstrated my sovereignty.”
   3. God’s sovereignty is extremely important in the gospel’s message.
      1. When the gospel was presented in Athens among people who worshipped idols, Paul centered his lesson on God’s sovereignty.
         Acts 17:24-31 The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands; nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things; and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, that they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we also are His children.’ Being then the children of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and thought of man. Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent, because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead.”
         1. You must not think of God in the same way you thought about other gods.
         2. Other gods were not sovereign; God is.
         3. Why should all people repent? Because the sovereign God has revealed Himself in Jesus’ resurrection.
      2. Paul spoke of the significance of Jesus in Philippians 2:9-11:
         For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
         1. How will bowing knees and confessing Jesus Christ’s Lordship give glory to God the Father?
      3. Paul explained in 1 Corinthians 15:23-28
         But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, after that those who are Christ’s at His coming, then comes the end, when He hands over the kingdom to the God and Father, when He has abolished all rule and all authority and power. For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet. The last enemy that will be abolished is death. For He has put all things in subjection under His feet. But when He says, “All things are put in subjection,” it is evident that He is excepted who put all things in subjection to Him. When all things are subjected to Him, then the Son Himself also will be subjected to the One who subjected all things to Him, so that God may be all in all.
         1. God the Father gave Jesus Christ his position of Lordship and made him ruler.
         2. When Jesus has subdued everything in rebellion to God’s sovereignty, then Jesus Christ will submit himself to God so that God again will be the all in all.
   4. With good intentions we have made Christianity about people, but in doing that we have produced a horrible form of human arrogance.
      1. The primary objective of Christianity is not about people; it is about God.
      2. Surely people in Christ receive all the wonderful promises and benefits to be found in Jesus Christ.
      3. But the primary of objective of Jesus Christ is reestablishing God’s sovereignty.
         1. For that to happen, we rebellious people must surrender to God’s sovereignty.
         2. With all His being, God’s wants us to surrender as our choice.

Everyone of us should know that one day we will acknowledge God’s sovereignty. We will use our knees and our voices to declare God is the all in all. Will that happen now by our choice, or will that happen in judgment because we are a conquered enemy?

If you say your life declares God’s sovereignty, I ask, “How do you show God is in control of your life?”

Acts: Understanding Our Origin (part 3)

Posted by David on July 21, 2002 under Sermons

Let’s begin with a brief review of last Sunday night’s study. I called your attention to two basic points. Point one: when Christianity began in early Acts, all Christians were Jewish. When the church began, it was completely Jewish. No, all Christians were not descendants of Abraham because some baptized believers were Jewish proselytes. But, all baptized believers were followers of Judaism.

Point two: all these first Christians who accepted Jesus as God’s promised Messiah understood God was keeping His promise to Israel by sending and resurrecting Jesus. That was the apostle Peter’s understanding. These Jewish Christians understood in Christ God gave them the opportunity to be the people God always intended them to be. The only distinction between the lives of the Jew and the Jewish Christian was the Jewish Christians’ faith in Jesus as God’s promised Messiah, promised Christ. There was no sense of God beginning a new religious movement. There was the understanding that God was keeping His promise to Israel.

1. Tonight our study needs to begin with an understanding of the events in Matthew 16:13-19.
   Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, He was asking His disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” And they said, “Some say John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; but still others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.” He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.”
   1. Jesus’ ministry caused an enormous amount of Jewish questioning.
      1. Jesus’ teachings and acts simply had to be explained; they could not be ignored; there had to be an explanation for Jesus.
      2. Jesus asked his twelve disciples how people explained him, and they responded.
      3. The disciples had to explain Jesus to themselves as surely as did the multitudes, so Jesus asked his disciples for their explanation.
         1. Peter said he was the Christ.
         2. Jesus said God revealed that to him and gave Peter the keys to the kingdom.
      4. The basic use of a key then was to open a door; Peter would open the doors of God’s kingdom.
   2. I want you to see what a huge issue this was in the first century: must Christian do things Jewishly? Understanding this first century problem tremendously impacts us today.
      1. In Acts 2 Peter was the principle spokesman, and he used a key to open a door to God’s kingdom for all people living by Judaism.
         1. All Jewish people and all proselytes could enter God’s kingdom.
         2. Those who entered by responding to Jesus as God’s promised Christ understood God was keeping His promise to Israel.
         3. I used statements in Acts last week to show you how Jewish the church in Jerusalem was.
      2. In Acts 10 the Lord sent Peter to use the second key to open God’s kingdom to people who were not Jews or proselytes. Turn to Acts 10.
         1. Cornelius was a “God fearer.”
            1. He believed in the God the Jews followed.
            2. He was devout, prayerful, and benevolent.
            3. But he was not a circumcised convert to Judaism [does his falling down before Peter to worship (reverence) Peter sound like something a Jew would do?].
   3. I ask you to note how much convincing the Lord had to do to convince Peter to teach Cornelius about the Jewish Messiah Jesus (10:10-16).
      1. God prepared Peter’s mind to consider “unthinkable” thoughts by the vision repeated to Peter three times.
         1. Each time Peter was commanded by the Lord to kill and eat something that was in violation of the Jew’s dietary code.
         2. Each time Peter rejected the Lord’s command [not even God could change the rules for Peter; God was bound by His own rules.]
         3. Each time Peter affirmed to the Lord that he had never eaten anything common or unclean [no profane food had ever entered his mouth!].
         4. Each time the Lord told Peter the he was not to consider what God had cleansed to be unholy.
         5. To use my terminology, the whole event blew Peter’s mind; he was “greatly perplexed in mind as to what the vision which he had seen might be.”
         6. From his Jewish understanding of God and scripture, the whole event made no sense; it simply confused him.
      2. As Peter came down from the roof and the vision experience, the Spirit (Holy Spirit) told him three men were looking for him (10:19,20).
         1. He was to accompany the men without misgivings because the Spirit had sent them.
         2. They explained to Peter they were there because their master was following the instruction of an angel.
         3. These Jews invited these non-Jews to spend the night.
      3. The next day Peter went with the men to the home of Cornelius.
         1. In Acts 10:34, 35 Peter made this statement:
            “I most certainly understand now that God is not one to show partiality, but in every nation the man who fears Him and does what is right is welcome to Him.”
         2. In our words, Peter said, “I got it! Now I understand! It is not a matter of nationality or heritage! God will welcome any person who reverences Him and does what is right! The restoration of Israel is not exclusively for the Jewish people and proselytes.”
      4. Peter taught Cornelius and the group Cornelius brought to his home.
         1. Peter brought Jewish witnesses to observe everything [does that give you a clue as to how sensitive and serious this matter was?] (10:45).
         2. The witnesses saw the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on these uncircumcised non-Jews (Gentiles) and were totally astounded. What happened was far beyond any thought they ever had.
         3. Why?
            1. For the second time, the restoration of Israel (God’s promise) included matters they had never considered.
            2. Remember I shared with you the six confirming signs of the restoration of Israel (restoring the fortunes of Israel) in my first lesson in this series.
            3. One of those six signs was the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
            4. They witnessed an undeniable sign of the restoration of the fortunes of Israel being poured out on uncircumcised people who were not Jews.
            5. They are absolutely astounded; God was moving the “boundary markers.”
            6. Peter, with his new understanding of what was happening, asked the Jewish witnesses if they could deny these people immersion in water?
            7. They cannot, and Cornelius and those gathered with him were baptized.
      5. Do you understand why at first Peter was confused by the incident?
   4. Now look at chapter 11.
      1. The apostles and the Jewish Christians throughout Judea were very unhappy with Peter for his decision to associate with uncircumcised people (11:1-3).
         1. Note they, including the apostles, did not approve of Peter eating with these people.
         2. There is an issue here more fundamental than the baptism into Christ.
            1. Peter entered the home of an uncircumcised person.
            2. Peter ate with uncircumcised people.
            3. Jewish people, including Jewish Christians, could not do that!
      2. Peter in orderly sequence explains why he did what he did (11:4).
         1. He told them about the vision, and that was not enough.
         2. He told them about the Spirit’s instruction, and that was not enough.
         3. He told them about the six Jewish witnesses, and that was not enough.
         4. He told them about the angel’s instruction to Cornelius, and that was not enough.
         5. He told them about the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on these uncircumcised people, and that was enough (remember the six signs.)

2. We would conclude that settled the question, but it did not.
   1. I want to point out three things to you quickly that we will likely consider in more detail later.
      1. The first thing: in my judgment the fact that Peter associated with the uncircumcised Cornelius and his friends radically changed Peter’s relationship with the Jerusalem church.
         1. Peter was the apostle to the Jews (Galatians 2:7,8)
         2. Consider Peter’s popularity prior to the conversion of Cornelius.
            Acts 5:14,15 And all the more believers in the Lord, multitudes of men and women, were constantly added to their number, to such an extent that they even carried the sick out into the streets and laid them on cots and pallets, so that when Peter came by at least his shadow might fall on any one of them.
         3. After the conversion of Cornelius, Acts never recorded Peter’s popularity again, never spoke of Peter in a leadership role in the Jerusalem church.
            1. My point is not that Peter ceased being a Jewish leader.
            2. My point is that Peter became suspect in the thinking of many Jewish Christians: Peter moved the “boundary markers.”
      2. The second thing: association and conversion of uncircumcised people remained a major issue in the Jerusalem church among Jewish Christians long after Cornelius was baptized.
         1. When Paul and Barnabas returned from their first missionary journey, they returned to Jewish Christians from Judea telling non-Jewish Christians in Antioch that faith in Jesus Christ, repentance, and baptism was not enough for salvation: “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved” (Acts 15:1).
         2. Paul and Barnabas could not resolve the issue even through great dissension and great debate.
         3. This issue had to be referred to the apostles and leaders of the Jerusalem church.
         4. The end result was what is called the Jerusalem conference in Acts 15.
         5. Even that decision did not resolve the question.
      3. The third thing: the pressure was so intense and so great that the apostle Peter “caved in” to the pressure (Galatians 2:11-14).
         1. When the apostle Peter visited the non-Jewish (gentile) church at Antioch, he associated and ate with uncircumcised Christians [non-Jews].
         2. But when Peter heard that a group of Jewish Christians from Judea were coming, he withdrew his association from uncircumcised Christians.
         3. He did so because he was afraid of the Jewish Christians [the part of the circumcision] from Judea.
         4. Peter’s fear made him a hypocrite.
         5. His hypocrisy was so influential that the rest of the Jewish Christians in Antioch withdrew their association from uncircumcised Christians, and even influenced Barnabas to do so.
         6. In a very straightforward manner Paul condemned Peter in a face-to-face confrontation for his hypocrisy–he knew better!

I want you to realize this was an enormous salvation issue in the first century church. Many Jewish Christians were very upset because they concluded that the restoration of Israel excluded people who did not adopt Jewish practices. They were convinced that Paul had no right to move the “boundary markers”! Certainly gentile people could be saved. But the only way that could happen was if they did things the way Jews did things. Faith in and response to Jesus Christ was not enough. It had to be done the Jewish way.

Acts: Understanding Our Origin (part 2)

Posted by David on July 14, 2002 under Sermons

Thank you for bringing your Bibles. I wish to begin with a brief review of our study last Sunday evening. We examined the way the last paragraph of Luke and Acts 1 overlap. We noticed the confusion that characterized Jesus’ eleven disciples after Jesus’ death and resurrection. We stressed the fact that Peter, in Acts 2, emphasized that God was keeping His promise to Israel.

I spent some time showing that for centuries God promised the He would “restore the fortunes of Israel.” When anyone in Israel heard a discussion focusing on the coming of God’s kingdom or the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, that person spoke about something of immediate, great interest to the Jewish people.

There is a significant connection between Jeremiah’s emphasis on God’s promise to restore the fortunes of Israel and the events in Acts 2. Jeremiah’s primary emphasis on God’s promise to restore Israel’s fortunes is found in chapters 29 through 33.

Let’s summarize the first lesson in this manner: God made a promise to the Jewish people, and they looked for God to fulfill that promise for hundreds of years. In Acts 2, God gave life to Israel’s dry bones as He promised in Ezekiel 37.

1. From Acts 2:1 through Acts 9:43, the church is completely Jewish.
   1. What do I mean when I say “the church was completely Jewish”?
      1. Certainly there were converts to Christ as God’s promised Messiah who were not Jewish descendants of Abraham.
         1. Acts 2:10 states clearly that both Jews and proselytes were present when the event of Acts 2 occurred, and I would conclude some proselytes were among the 3000 who repented and were baptized.
         2. Proselytes did not have Jewish ancestors; they were non-Jewish converts to Judaism.
         3. But in Acts’ emphasis, everyone who heard in the beginning of Christianity was devoted to Judaism.
         4. In the earliest days of the church, only men and women who were devoted to Judaism became Christians.
         5. At the earliest stages of Christianity, no non-Jewish idol worshippers were converted to Christ.
      2. In Jewish understanding and thinking, God was keeping His promise to Israel.
         1. God was doing what He promised to do.
         2. That was Peter’s explanation for what was happening (Acts 2:17-21) when he began his sermon with a quote from Joel 2:28-32.
         3. That was the understanding of every Jew who accepted Jesus as God’s promised Christ (Greek) or Messiah (Hebrew), God’s Anointed One.
   2. We need to take a moment to reflect on what that means.
      1. When the church began it was an all Jewish church.
      2. The Christians who were the very first Christians had this clear understanding of what was happening: God was keeping His promise to Israel.
      3. These first Christians did not separate themselves from Israel or from Jewish ways.
         1. The primary distinction between Jews who did not believe in Christ and Jews who did believe in Christ was this: Jews who believed in Christ were Messianic Jews who believed Jesus was the Christ.
         2. They did not separate themselves from Israel.
         3. They did not remove themselves from the Jewish community and build church buildings.
         4. They did not abandon Jewish heritage and Jewish practices.
         5. They did not need to! God was keeping His promise to Israel!
         6. To them there was no conflict between being a Jew and being a Christian.
         7. God was doing what He promised to do!

2. I call your attention to three reactions of those who repented and were baptized in Acts 2. I realize there are more than three, but I want you to note these three.
   1. Maybe you have noted these reactions in your study of Acts 2; maybe you have not; maybe you understand these reactions; maybe these reactions confused you.
   2. The first reaction I call to your attention is in verse 43: those who were baptized were filled with a sense of awe.
      1. To me, the verse makes a distinction between the awe these Jewish Christians felt and the miracles performed by the apostles.
      2. They were astounded by what God did in Jesus Christ.
      3. They were astounded at God’s intentions in the Messiah.
      4. God’s actions in Christ did not meet common expectations, but exceeded all expectations.
      5. They had an entirely new understanding of the restoration of Israel, and in this new understanding God astounded them.
   3. The second reaction I call to your attention is seen in verses 44 and 45: believers had all things in common; they even sold possessions to share with those in need. Obviously, taking care of the poor was an immediate, high priority. Why?
      1. To deepen our understanding of this reaction, turn to Deuteronomy 15:1-11 and follow the reading.
         “At the end of every seven years you shall grant a remission of debts. This is the manner of remission: every creditor shall release what he has loaned to his neighbor; he shall not exact it of his neighbor and his brother, because the Lord’s remission has been proclaimed. From a foreigner you may exact it, but your hand shall release whatever of yours is with your brother. However, there will be no poor among you, since the Lord will surely bless you in the land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance to possess, if only you listen obediently to the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all this commandment which I am commanding you today. For the Lord your God will bless you as He has promised you, and you will lend to many nations, but you will not borrow; and you will rule over many nations, but they will not rule over you. If there is a poor man with you, one of your brothers, in any of your towns in your land which the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart, nor close your hand from your poor brother; but you shall freely open your hand to him, and shall generously lend him sufficient for his need in whatever he lacks. Beware that there is no base thought in your heart, saying, ‘The seventh year, the year of remission, is near,’ and your eye is hostile toward your poor brother, and you give him nothing; then he may cry to the Lord against you, and it will be a sin in you. You shall generously give to him, and your heart shall not be grieved when you give to him, because for this thing the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in all your undertakings. For the poor will never cease to be in the land; therefore I command you, saying, ‘You shall freely open your hand to your brother, to your needy and poor in your land.'”
         1. Remember the context: Moses spoke to second generation Israel before they entered the land of Canaan.
         2. Moses explained how God wanted them to treat each other.
            1. They would forgive debts every seven years.
            2. They would help the poor generously and willingly.
            3. They definitely would not be like everyone else, living as other people lived.
      2. The Jewish Christians understood [with the apostles’ approval] what was occurring was God’s promise to restore the fortunes of Israel.
         1. They understood, “This is what God meant for Israel to be from the beginning.”
         2. What God did in Christ restored the fortunes of Israel.
         3. It gave them opportunity to be what God always intended them to be.
         4. They gladly become what God always intended them to be, were thrilled to have a part in the opportunity.
         5. “We are God’s community in which God rules over us showing us how to treat each other; God is restoring the fortunes of Israel!”
         6. These Jewish converts understand what was taking place was the restoration of Israel.
   4. The third thing I call to your attention is seen in verse 46: every day with a common understanding they went to the temple, they ate their meals together in their homes, and they had a clear, joyful understanding of who they were.
      1. These first Christians behaved very Jewishly.
      2. They went to the Jewish temple to pray to God and to worship God there every day.
      3. Note the emphasis on their Christian Jewishness through Acts 9.
         1. 3:1–Peter and John [two apostles] went to the temple to pray.
         2. 4:1-3–Peter and John are arrested by Jewish authorities in charge of the temple.
         3. 4:32-35–Jewish Christians continue to help the poor by selling possessions.
         4. 5:25–the apostles are at the temple teaching people.
         5. 6:7–many priests are converted.
         6. 6:9–Stephen has disputes about Christ in specific synagogues.
         7. 6:11–false witnesses claim that Stephen opposed Moses and God [they were false witnesses–Stephen did not oppose Moses and God].
         8. 9:1,2–Paul wanted permission from the Jewish High Priest to go to Damascus (another country) and arrest Jewish Christians in the synagogues there, bring them back to Jerusalem, and have them tried [obviously Jewish Christians meet with the synagogue].

The earliest conversions of Jewish people was conversion to Christ in the understanding that God was at work keeping His promise to restore Israel. These early Christians did not consider their belief in Jesus Christ to be the beginning of a new religious movement. Their understanding was that God was doing in Israel what He promised to do–restore Israel.

Remembering what you have seen in Acts this evening, consider part of the closing remarks of Peter’s sermon at the temple in Acts 3.

Acts 3:18-21 But the things which God announced beforehand by the mouth of all the prophets, that His Christ would suffer, He has thus fulfilled. [God did what He promised to do.] Therefore repent and return [realize God is at work in Jesus Christ so redirect your lives], so that your sins may be wiped away [immediate result], in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord [long term result]; and that He may send Jesus [the return of the resurrected Jesus], the Christ appointed for you [your Messiah God promised], whom heaven must receive until the period of restoration of all things about which God spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from ancient time [the complete, total restoration of Israel will occur when the resurrected Jesus returns].

1. God through the prophets promised that the Christ would suffer.
2. That has happened, so repent, accept the remission of sins, and allow the refreshing to occur.
3. The complete restoration of all things will not occur until Christ returns from heaven.
4. My summary: let God keep His promise to Israel.

I want you to see in Acts that earliest Christianity was Jewish. It is very important to see that. When we see that, it will open a door to a deeper understanding of ourselves.

The Apostle Paul’s “Body” Illustration

Posted by David on under Sermons

How do you use the Bible? “What do you mean?” Do you use the Bible? “Yes.” How do you personally make use of it? “What do you mean?” Do you limit your use of the Bible to times of high personal distress? Do you use it to study a Bible lesson to prepare for a Bible classes? Do you use it daily, weekly, monthly, yearly?

Does the meaning of a statement in the Bible matter to you, or do you read because you realize the value of reading the Bible? Is meaning determined by personal impressions? When you read something in the Bible, do you let the meaning be determined by what you always have heard?

Do you study the Bible? Are you constantly seeking to deepen your understanding–even if that means thinking about things you never considered before? How do you use the Bible?

The number one reason for abusing the Bible is this: rarely, if ever, reading it in an earnest desire to study the meaning of a statement.

The number two reason for abusing the Bible is this: restricting the meaning of a statement to what you were told to hear instead of letting it speak for itself.

Through the centuries the Bible has been one of the most abused books ever written. Through the centuries people fall to the same temptation when they use the Bible. A situation arises people do not like [it may or may not be an evil situation]. They use the Bible to condemn that situation. If the words say what they want said, they apply the words to the situation they want to condemn. They do not ask, “What was the writer talking about when he wrote those words?” They are not deeply concerned with what the writer meant by the words. The words just say what they want said to condemn what they want to condemn, so they use the words.

1. In three different letters (Romans, 1 Corinthians, and Ephesians) Paul uses his “body” illustration to explain how people in Christ who are very different relate to each other.
   1. When I was growing up, the number one use I heard of Paul’s body illustration was a condemnation of the denominational approach to Christian existence.
      1. The denominational approach to Christianity did not exist in the first century.
      2. In fact, the denominational approach to Christianity would not exist for several hundred years.
      3. That being true, Paul’s point had nothing to do with the denominational concept.
      4. So what was Paul saying? What was his point in his “body” illustration?
   2. In Romans 12:3-8, Paul wrote this to the Christians in Rome:
      For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith. For just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, each of us is to exercise them accordingly: if prophecy, according to the proportion of his faith; if service, in his serving; or he who teaches, in his teaching; or he who exhorts, in his exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.
      1. Book context:
         1. The Jewish Christians had a major struggle with non-Jewish Christians in that congregation.
         2. It was a control issue: it involved who was in charge and who was going to say how things were done.
         3. It was an extremely sensitive situation.
      2. Immediate context:
         1. Christians in Rome must have this understanding if they were to be a living sacrifice: in spite of differences, they were one body in Christ.
         2. They must let God change the way they think.
         3. They must come to an understanding of God’s will from a new way of thinking.
      3. Four points stand out prominently to me in the reading we just shared.
         1. There is no place for arrogance among the people who belong to Christ.
         2. God had no intention for the Christians in Rome to be spiritual clones performing identical functions.
         3. If they were to be one body in Christ, they had to belong to each other.
         4. Do what God gave you the ability to do, and do it well for the benefit of all Christians in Rome.
   3. In 1 Corinthians 12:12-17, Paul wrote to the Christians in Corinth:
      For even as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit. For the body is not one member, but many. If the foot says, “Because I am not a hand, I am not a part of the body,” it is not for this reason any the less a part of the body. And if the ear says, “Because I am not an eye, I am not a part of the body,” it is not for this reason any the less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? But now God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body, just as He desired. If they were all one member, where would the body be? But now there are many members, but one body. And the eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you”; or again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” On the contrary, it is much truer that the members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary; and those members of the body which we deem less honorable, on these we bestow more abundant honor, and our less presentable members become much more presentable, whereas our more presentable members have no need of it. But God has so composed the body, giving more abundant honor to that member which lacked, so that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it. Now you are Christ’s body, and individually members of it.
      1. Book context: this congregation had many Christians with superiority attitudes.
         1. They had four rivaling factions who divided the congregation.
         2. They had a Christian man in an incestuous relationship with his father’s wife who continued fellowship with them as though nothing is wrong.
         3. They had Christians going to pagan courts to settle differences.
         4. They had Christian men visiting prostitutes who said this was a perfectly godly practice.
         5. They had confusion and competition when they had assemblies.
      2. In the immediate context, Paul wrote about their rivalry in their use of spiritual gifts.
         1. God gave them the gifts.
         2. God gave them the gifts to bless the whole congregation, not to use as personal possessions.
         3. They were using the gifts as personal possessions to advance themselves personally at the expense of the congregation.
      3. There are four points that stand out to me in Paul’s statement.
         1. You Christians at Corinth make a single body.
         2. The same Spirit and the same immersion made everyone of you just one body, and it does not make any difference if you are or are not a Jew and if you are or are not a slave–you are just one body.
         3. God deliberately lets you be spiritually different so as one body you can do many different things.
         4. God made you to need and depend on each other, so take care of each other.
   4. In Ephesians 4:11-16, Paul wrote to the Christians in the city of Ephesus.
      And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.
      1. Book context:
         1. The city of Ephesus was a prominent city in the Roman empire located in Asia Minor.
         2. Among the major things this city was known for was the world headquarters for the temple of Artemis.
         3. The temple in Ephesus dedicated to Artemis was the most prominent temple in the world dedicated to that goddess (female).
         4. That religion figured prominently in their economy, their society, the politics, and their every day life.
      2. The immediate context:
         1. Most of the Christians in that city were converted from an idolatrous lifestyle.
         2. The people who became Christians came from diverse backgrounds and ungodly lifestyles.
         3. Producing a congregation dedicated to unity from converts who worshipped idols and lived evil lifestyles before conversion had unique, special problems.
      3. What Paul wrote directly connected with what he said in verses 1-4.
         1. It is connected to urging these Christians to live in a manner worthy of their calling.
         2. It is connected to urging these Christians to be humble, gentle, and patient as they were forbearing with each other in love.
         3. It is connected with his urging them to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
      4. These are the points that stand out to me.
         1. It is obvious in the leadership that God put in place that Christians have different gifts with different responsibilities.
         2. The objective of all these gifts is the same: the equipping Christians to serve–that is the way the body of Christ will be built up in Ephesus.
         3. The specific objectives are these:
            1. Unity of faith [in Christ] which was essential to those who had worshipped numerous gods.
            2. Unity of knowledge of Christ which was essential to those who had worshipped numerous gods.
            3. Spiritual maturity to duplicate the image of Christ.
         4. Why all the emphasis on Christ? He was “the glue” that would allow them to be one body.

2. In these three illustrations, what was Paul’s basic point?
   1. Christians have the responsibility to function with each other as Christ’s body.
      1. If they are to be Christ’s body, they must respect each other, depend on each other, and accept their differences.
      2. As Christians, they will never be identical [there would be differences between Jewish Christians and non-Jewish Christians].
      3. But as Christians, they would find “oneness” by mutually belonging to each other because they were in Christ.
   2. Understanding Paul’s point in his body illustration would solve a lot of problems among Christians today.
      1. I call your attention to something that is pretty obvious: Paul’s illustration was not based on worship practices.
         1. Our worship practices are far too often based on personal preferences.
         2. Paul’s illustration said Christians must dedicate themselves to something much more important to God than worship practices if they are to be Christ’s body.
      2. Since Paul’s body illustration is not based on worship practices, on what was it based?
         1. It was based on the way Christians treat other Christians who are different.
         2. It was based on Christians respecting differences in Christians.
      3. That was a whole new way of thinking, especially for Jewish Christians.
         1. God works through differences.
         2. God uses differences in Christ to build up the body of Christ.

As Christians, our differences increase God’s opportunities to achieve His purposes.

Acts: Understanding Our Origin

Posted by David on July 7, 2002 under Sermons

For the rest of this summer, primarily Sunday evenings in July and August when I speak, I plan to direct us in an in-depth Bible study of the church. The lessons will be taped so if you miss one and wish to listen to it you can. The lessons will also build on each other. It is very important for you to bring your Bibles for you to read and see for yourself as we study.

My objective is to help us all see what scripture actually says as we deepen and broaden our understandings about the church. Some things you will find very familiar. Some things may challenge you to stretch your minds and understandings. For the bulk of the time we will focus on what the writing we call Acts tells us.

1. The first chapter of Acts and the last chapter of Luke overlap and intertwine.
   1. The gospel of Luke ends with Jesus’ ascension and the book of Acts opens with Jesus’ ascension.
      1. The same writer wrote both writings.
      2. As Luke closes, I want you to see something.
         Luke 24:44-49 Now He said to them, “These are My words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and He said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ would suffer and rise again from the dead the third day, and that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And behold, I am sending forth the promise of My Father upon you; but you are to stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.”
      3. Look at the text and note these things.
         1. Even after Jesus’ resurrection, Jesus’ eleven disciples (who would be apostles) did not understand that Jesus was the actual embodiment, the living fulfillment, of everything God promised in the entire scripture we call the Old Testament (the law of Moses, the Prophets, the Psalms).
         2. Jesus opened their minds so they could understand what the Scripture said about him.
         3. They could understand what had just happened–the betrayal, the arrest, the trials, the mockery, the death the resurrection–only if they understood the scripture.
         4. None of what happened to Jesus fit their past expectations.
         5. They knew the scriptures, but they did not understand God’s meaning in scriptures.
         6. They were to be witnesses (1) to what happened and (2) to the fact that the happenings fulfilled scripture (few if any Israelites understood God’s meaning in Scripture).
         7. “The promise of the Father” Jesus promised would come upon them was the Holy Spirit in Acts 2.
   2. The events of Acts 1 amplify what the close of Luke 24 gave in brief, summary fashion.
      1. Jesus eleven disciples are thoroughly confused.
         1. They never expected the betrayal.
         2. They never expected the arrest.
         3. They never expected the guilty verdict.
         4. They never expected the mockery.
         5. They never expected the crucifixion.
         6. While Jesus’ resurrection gave them joy, they had no idea of what it meant.
         7. Jesus’ appearances to them for 40 days after the resurrection were a time of confusion and bewilderment for these men.
      2. So in their confusion they ask Jesus’ a question.
         1. Though they are dense about what is happening, their question is a very good question.
         2. It is a question that addressed a “hot topic” in Israel and reflects their struggle to understand what is happening.
         3. “Lord is it at this time you are restoring the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 2:6)
            1. Israelites had a lot of interest and many expectations associated with the promised restoration of Israel.
            2. Anything that could connect events with God’s promised restoration of the kingdom drew immediate, intense interest.

2. For hundreds of years Israel was promised the restoration of the kingdom, and the nation yearned for it to happen.
   1. But it had not.
      1. Think with me historically for just a moment.
         1. Just a comparatively few Jews returned from the Babylonian captivity, and they were not free.
         2. Their descendants were not free when Alexander the Great built his empire.
         3. Their descendants were not free when they were controlled by Egyptian rulers.
         4. Their descendants were not free when they were controlled by Syrian rulers, in fact life was horrible and the nation suffered greatly.
         5. Their descendants did have freedom for about a hundred years when they successfully rebelled against the Syrians.
         6. But that period of freedom ended when the Romans took control.
      2. What God had promised Israel had not yet occurred. I want you to see why Israel expected God to do something special and connect that expectation with Acts 2.
         1. First, turn to Jeremiah 33:23-26.
            And the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, saying, Have you not observed what this people have spoken, saying, ‘The two families which the Lord chose, He has rejected them’? Thus they despise My people, no longer are they as a nation in their sight. Thus says the Lord, ‘If My covenant for day and night stand not, and the fixed patterns of heaven and earth I have not established, then I would reject the descendants of Jacob and David My servant, not taking from his descendants rulers over the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. But I will restore their fortunes and will have mercy on them.’
            1. Night and day will cease to exist before I reject the descendants of Jacob and David.
            2. I will restore their fortunes, I will have mercy on them.
         2. Now turn to Ezekiel 39:25-29.
            Therefore thus says the Lord God, “Now I will restore the fortunes of Jacob and have mercy on the whole house of Israel; and I will be jealous for My holy name. They will forget their disgrace and all their treachery which they perpetrated against Me, when they live securely on their own land with no one to make them afraid. When I bring them back from the peoples and gather them from the lands of their enemies, then I shall be sanctified through them in the sight of the many nations. Then they will know that I am the Lord their God because I made them go into exile among the nations, and then gathered them again to their own land; and I will leave none of them there any longer. I will not hide My face from them any longer, for I will have poured out My Spirit on the house of Israel,” declares the Lord God.
            1. I, God, will restore Israel’s fortunes.
            2. I will do it because I am God.
            3. When it happens, I will not hide my face from them, but instead I will pour my Spirit on them.
         3. Now turn to Ezekiel 36:22-32.
            Therefore say to the house of Israel, ‘Thus says the Lord God, “It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for My holy name, which you have profaned among the nations where you went. I will vindicate the holiness of My great name which has been profaned among the nations, which you have profaned in their midst. Then the nations will know that I am the Lord,” declares the Lord God, “when I prove Myself holy among you in their sight. For I will take you from the nations, gather you from all the lands and bring you into your own land. Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances. You will live in the land that I gave to your forefathers; so you will be My people, and I will be your God. Moreover, I will save you from all your uncleanness; and I will call for the grain and multiply it, and I will not bring a famine on you. I will multiply the fruit of the tree and the produce of the field, so that you will not receive again the disgrace of famine among the nations. Then you will remember your evil ways and your deeds that were not good, and you will loathe yourselves in your own sight for your iniquities and your abominations. I am not doing this for your sake,” declares the Lord God, “let it be known to you. Be ashamed and confounded for your ways, O house of Israel!”
            1. I, God, will prove myself because I am God.
            2. I will give you a new heart and a new spirit.
            3. I will remove your heart of stone and give you a real heart.
            4. I will put my Spirit in you.
         4. Now look at Ezekiel 37:1-6
            The hand of the Lord was upon me, and He brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of the valley; and it was full of bones. He caused me to pass among them round about, and behold, there were very many on the surface of the valley; and lo, they were very dry. He said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” And I answered, “O Lord God, You know.” Again He said to me, “Prophesy over these bones and say to them, ‘O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord.’ Thus says the Lord God to these bones, ‘Behold, I will cause breath to enter you that you may come to life. I will put sinews on you, make flesh grow back on you, cover you with skin and put breath in you that you may come alive; and you will know that I am the Lord.’ “
            1. When Judah returned from Babylonian captivity, they were like bones that had been dead so long they were dry.
            2. God had the power to make those bones complete, living beings.
            3. God would restore Israel.
   2. There were six signs taken from a study of scripture that were accepted as evidence that God was keeping His promise to restore the fortunes of Israel.
      1. It had to begin in Jerusalem.
      2. It would include the Jews dispersed among the nations.
      3. It would involve a king who was a descendant of King David.
      4. It would include the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
      5. It would include all Israel.
      6. It would have a sense of mission to all nations, not just to Jewish people.
   3. Look with me now at Acts 2.
      1. This happens in Jerusalem in an assembly of Jews on one of the three most important holy days in Israel (see Deuteronomy 16:16).
      2. Verse 5 says there are Jews living in Jerusalem from every nation.
      3. Verse 9-11 names other Roman provinces from which Jews have come.
      4. Peter’s sermon connects the crucified, resurrected Jesus with David.

3. Acts 2:12 says the audience of Jews were amazed at what was happening, and asked (in our words), “How do you explain this?”
   1. And Peter begins his explanation by citing Joel 2:28-32.
      1. Why?
      2. God was keeping His promise to Israel: the restoration had begun.
      3. Those who heard understood exactly why Peter cited a scripture focusing on God’s outpouring of His Spirit.
      4. Do you?
   2. Peter’s conclusion based on scripture, eye witness experience, and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit: the crucified, resurrected Jesus is Lord and Christ.
      1. Some 3,000 Jews agreed and were baptized in order to receive the remission of sins and the Holy Spirit. (Also see Acts 5:32.)
      2. While we see that as an enormous number, it was a very small number compared to the Jews in Jerusalem at that time.

As we close, I want you to notice an extremely important fact: in all that happened, God was keeping a promise to Israel. It is with that point that we will begin in the next lesson.

Understanding My Salvation

Posted by David on under Sermons

This morning as you entered you received a sheet with four choices. The sheets are totally anonymous–there is no request on those sheets for you to report any information about yourself. You share information with me only if you want to. If you want to share information, you can drop your sheet in a basket after we dismiss. If you do not want to share information, please take the sheet with you.

These are the choices:

1. I have no idea of how salvation occurs in a Christian’s life.
2. I am convinced that salvation is primarily a matter of God’s grace.
3. I am convinced that salvation is primarily a matter of obedience.
4. None of these statements represent my understanding of salvation.

Whether in fact you mark the sheet or not, in your mind make one of those four selections.

“I have to mark number one because I am really confused about God’s salvation. I do not have an overall understanding of salvation. Salvation’s ‘big picture’ completely escapes me. I believe God does it, but I do not know how God does it. Everything I hear just adds to my confusion.”

“Well, I have to mark # 2 because of Paul’s statement in Ephesians 2:4-10.
But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.

“My understanding is the salvation is all God’s work because it is His gift to us.”

“Well, I would have to mark # 3 because of what Jesus and Paul said. Jesus said,
Matthew 16:27 For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and will then repay every man according to his deeds.

Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5:5-10:
Now He who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave to us the Spirit as a pledge. Therefore, being always of good courage, and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord–for we walk by faith, not by sight–we are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord. Therefore we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.

“I am convinced that salvation is primarily a matter of obedience.”

“Well I would have to mark # 4. Unlike # 1, I definitely have an overall understanding of salvation. But # 2 and # 3 do not represent my understanding.”

Let us ask the obvious question: how can salvation be a gift and at the same time be based on our deeds? Or, how can God give us a gift and we be judged on the basis of what we do and say?

1. As we attempt to sort this out, we must begin with some critical observations.
   1. Every writing or “book” in the New Testament is an occasional writing.
      1. “What does that mean?”
      2. It means that each writing in the New Testament was written by a specific person to a specific group or person regarding specific needs or problems.
         1. Are all those writings inspired of God? Yes.
         2. Are all those writings scripture, writing whose original source is God? Yes.
         3. This understanding is essential: the primary meaning of any verse or chapter or point must begin by understanding the problem or need the writer addressed.
      3. We cannot merely string a group of verses from different writings together to support a position.
         1. When we make a point from a verse the writer did not make, we easily can misrepresent what the writer wrote.
         2. When we do that, we easily substitute our own conviction for the writer’s point.
   2. When we use scripture, we must be careful and conscientious to understand the situation and the point of the person speaking or writing.
      1. If we are not careful, we declare a person in scripture said something he did not say or wrote something he did not write.
      2. What is at stake is misrepresenting God and misrepresenting the people God inspired to write scripture.
   3. Let me use Jesus’ statement in Matthew 16:27 as an example.
      For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and will then repay every man according to his deeds.
      1. The context of this statement made by Jesus:
         1. Jesus is the speaker and Matthew is the writer.
         2. Jewish men who are Jesus’ disciples are the people to whom Jesus made the statement.
         3. This statement is made in the gospel written to Jewish people.
      2. This statement occurs as part of a whole group of statements:
         1. Jesus told Peter that he was acting as Satan’s agent because his mind was concerned with human interests instead of God’s interests.
         2. He told his disciples that they must take up their crosses and follow him.
         3. He told them that if they died because of him they would gain life.
         4. He warned them that if they preserved physical life by neglecting their souls, they lost everything.
         5. Then he made the statement concerning judgment by deeds.
      3. I want to call the obvious to your attention.
         1. Jesus was not talking about all mankind being judged when he made this statement.
         2. He was talking to his disciples about being judged.
         3. “As disciples, do not conclude that God’s partiality will save you.”
            1. “Even you need to have a clear understanding that it is not who you are but how you live that will determine your judgment.”
            2. “Do not expect to be saved because God is partial to you as Israelites.”
            3. “Do not expect to be saved because God is partial to you as disciples.”
            4. “Being my disciple gives you the privilege of serving God’s purposes.”
            5. “So, as my disciple, use your life to do God’s will.”
            6. “Being my disciple provides you the privilege of opportunity–God will evaluate the way you use your life in honoring the privilege of that opportunity.”

2. Is salvation God’s gift? Yes. Will Christians be judged by their deeds? Yes. How can that be?
   1. The statement made in Ephesians 2:4-10 was made to Christians who were not Jews, who were converted from idolatry and its lifestyle.
      1. Paul said before they entered Christ they were spiritually dead.
         1. At that time they were ruled by forces that opposed God.
         2. At that time the desires of their physical bodies controlled their behavior.
      2. They were not God’s chosen people.
         1. Abraham was not their forefather.
         2. God did not deliver them from Egypt.
         3. God did not give them Canaan.
         4. God did not send the Israelite prophets to them.
      3. They are now in Christ because of the goodness of God, not because they had Israel’s promises.
         1. It is not their worth that gave them salvation.
         2. It was God’s goodness and kindness.
         3. They had no right to human arrogance.
         4. There was only place for service to God in the good works God wanted done.
   2. In New Testament language, we are Gentiles and we are a Gentile congregation.
      1. It is highly probable that 99% to 100% of us as Gentiles have only attended a Gentile worship.
      2. Our salvation is God’s gift to us in Christ.
         1. We do not deserve all the gifts God gives us in Christ.
         2. For us to arrogantly think that God will be partial to us for any reason is totally unfounded.
      3. As people whom God recreated in Jesus Christ, we have the privilege of devoting our existence to serving God by doing His good works.
   3. No one deserves God’s gracious acts in Jesus’ death.
      1. No one deserves God’s atonement in Christ.
      2. No one deserves God’s redemption in Christ.
      3. No one deserves God’s propitiation in Christ.
      4. No one deserves God’s justification in Christ.
      5. No one deserves God’s sanctification in Christ.
      6. No one deserves God’s reconciliation in Christ.
      7. The only way anyone can have these things is by God giving them to us.
   4. The statement made in 2 Corinthians 5:10 about appearing before Christ’s judgment seat to be evaluated on the basis of the deeds done in the body was made to Christians in the city of Corinth.
      1. This congregation was primarily composed of non-Jewish Christians, though it had some Jewish Christians in it.
      2. These Christians were living as they pleased, doing “their own thing.”
      3. The congregation was divided; they had a horrible, open case of incest they ignored; they were taking each other to pagan courts to settle differences; they were visiting prostitutes; and they were arrogantly competing with each other in worship assemblies.
      4. When Paul tried to redirect their understanding, some verbally attacked Paul and claimed they were superior to anything Paul said or did.
      5. Because they were Christians, they thought they could live as they pleased and God would not be concerned.
         1. Paul said they were horribly mistaken.
         2. God would evaluate them on the basis of how they lived for Him.

3. Our salvation is a gift that we do not deserve, but we receive the gift to live for God, to serve God, to dedicate ourselves to doing good.
   1. Salvation is God’s gift; that is the only way we can receive it.
   2. But we are saved to serve, and Christ will judge our appreciation of our gift on the basis of how we live and use our lives.
   3. From the beginning of Christianity, Christians have struggled with their understanding of salvation.
      1. Some Christians at Corinth basically said, “God’s grace saves us and places us in Christ, and how we live and act really doesn’t matter.”
      2. Some Jewish Christians said, “We are Abraham’s descendants who believe Jesus is the Messiah God promised us, so God show us partiality.”
      3. Some Gentile Christians, like some in Rome, said, “Ha, ha, ha to all you Jews! Look at what God does for us in Christ! We have what you don’t have!”
      4. Some Christians in the last of the first century said, “Jesus Christ is not all that important, and God does not care how people live.”
   4. And the message of the New Testament epistles is consistent: “You Christians have a serious misunderstanding of God, of Jesus Christ, and of salvation.

And 2000 years later we struggle with the same misunderstandings. And 2000 years later we seriously misunderstand God, Jesus Christ, and salvation.

The Basic Issue: Who Reigns?

Posted by David on June 30, 2002 under Sermons

The person who belongs to and follows God learns from the mistakes and misunderstandings of others.

1. In 49 A.D., Claudius, who was the Roman emperor, issued an edict that made it necessary for all Jews to leave the city of Rome.
   1. At the time of the edict, there was a significant Jewish population in Rome.
      1. The Jews formed close communities within Rome.
      2. Claudius expelled the Jews because their communities had intense internal confrontations, perhaps even riots, over a person the historian Suetonius called “Chrestus.”
         1. Many think this is a reference to clashes in Jewish communities in Rome between the Jews who believed in Christ and the Jews who rejected Christ.
         2. That certainly is consistent with what occurred at other places.
         3. Before he became a Christian, Paul went to synagogues arresting Jews who believed in Christ (Acts 9:1,2).
         4. After he became a Christian, it was not unusual for Paul’s preaching for Christ to cause intense disturbances, even riots in Jewish communities (Acts 13:44,45,50; 14:1-6).
         5. It seems Jewish disagreements in Rome were so intense that Claudius forced them to leave to promote order in that city.
      3. We know almost nothing about the beginning of Christianity in Rome.
         1. We know that Paul did not begin that work.
         2. We also know that almost every congregation of Christians began with Jews who believed in Jesus Christ.
         3. We know in the book of Romans that there were Jewish Christians.
   2. This seems to be what happened.
      1. Claudius made no distinction between Jews who did not believe in Christ and Jews who did believe in Christ.
      2. He just ordered all Jews out of Rome.
      3. This had a profound impact on the Christian community in Rome.
         1. For many reasons, including knowledge of the scriptures, Jewish Christians provided the bulk of leadership and teaching in many of the early congregations.
         2. Many early congregations had a distinctly Jewish character.
         3. Many things were done in distinctively Jewish ways.
      4. Evidently this was the time Aquilla and Priscilla were forced to leave Rome (Acts 18:2).
         1. Quickly the church in Rome lost much of its leadership and many of its teachers.
         2. Converted non-Jews took over the vacated roles, and the basic character of the church in Rome changed from the ways Jewish Christians did things to the way Gentile Christians did things.
      5. Claudius died in 54 A.D.
         1. The kind of order that he made which forced the Jews to leave Rome automatically ended at his death.
         2. After Claudius died, many Jews returned to Rome, including many Jewish Christians.
            1. They returned with two basic expectations.
            2. First, they expected to assume roles in the church they had before leaving Rome.
            3. Second, they expected the church to do things the way they were done before they left.
         3. A major conflict developed between the Jewish Christians and the non-Jewish Christians in Rome.
            1. One of the basic things Paul does in his letter to the Romans is discuss that conflict.
            2. The conflict in that church was very much a control issue.
            3. Who would control: would the church do things the way Jewish Christians wanted them done, or would the church do things the way non-Jewish Christians wanted them done?

2. I want to encourage you to look at Romans 6 in this context.
   1. Often Romans 6 has been our “go to” chapter to emphasize the nature of baptism.
      1. The first thing I ask you to remember is this: there were not different “modes” of baptism in the first century: sprinkling, dipping, and immersing.
         1. At this time the word baptism had one meaning: immersion.
         2. At this time baptism played a key role in a person’s acceptance of forgiveness of sins in Jesus Christ.
         3. Since Paul is writing to Christians, and since baptism meant immersion, Paul’s basic lesson could not be the mode of baptism.
         4. The mode of baptism is a “today issue” not a “then issue.”
      2. Then what was Paul’s point? What was his basic lesson to the Christians in Rome? Let’s allow Paul’s emphasis in Romans 6 to speak for itself.
         1. Everything he wrote in the chapter is important, but focus on his emphasis.
         2. To make the emphasis obvious, I will share in blocks.
            Romans 6:3 Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?
            Romans 6:5-7 For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin.
            Romans 6:8-11 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
            Romans 6:12-14 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace.
            Romans 6:15-19 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be! Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness? But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed, and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification.
            Romans 6:20-23 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. Therefore what benefit were you then deriving from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the outcome of those things is death. But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.
      3. If my counting is correct (New American Standard translation):
         1. The words “death” or “His death” occurs nine times.
         2. The word “die” occurs five times.
         3. The word “dead” occurs twice.
         4. The words “life,” “live,” “newness of life,” “alive,” and “eternal life” occur nine times.
      4. To me there are two over-all obvious emphases.
         1. Christians die to sin.
         2. The life God makes possible in Christ is available to those who die to sin.
   2. Paul’s basic point is straightforward.
      1. “The issue is not are you a Jewish Christian.”
      2. “The issue is not are you a non-Jewish Christian.”
      3. “The issue is not who is in control.”
      4. “The issue is not do you do things as Jewish Christians want them done or the way non-Jewish Christians want them done.”
      5. “The basic issue for all of you as Christians is the same issue: are you dead to sin?”
   3. There were a lot of ways they could not participate in Jesus’ death.
      1. Jesus did a lot of things in his death they could not do.
      2. His death produced atonement–they could not duplicate his atonement
      3. His death produced propitiation–they could not duplicate his propitiation.
      4. His death produced redemption–they could not duplicate his redemption.
      5. His blood produced forgiveness–they could not duplicate his forgiveness.
   4. But there is one thing he did in death they could duplicate.
      1. He died to sin.
      2. They, too, could die to sin.
      3. Was Jesus temptable? Yes! And they would continue to be temptable.
      4. Did Jesus know struggle and agony? Yes! And they would continue to know struggle and agony.
      5. But Jesus firmly established God as the sovereign ruler of his life, and that meant that he said, “No!” to sin.
      6. As Christians, they also established God as the sovereign ruler of their lives, and that meant they would say, “No!” to sin.
      7. This was not their choice: to never fail, to never make a mistake, to never sin.
      8. It was their choice to never give control of their lives to sin.
      9. Evil must not rule them!
      10. They never gave control of their lives to evil!
          Romans 6:12,13 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.
      11. In their arguments among themselves, in their struggles for control in the church at Rome, they missed the basic issue.
          1. It was not, “Who is in control?”
          2. It was, “As a Christian, are you dead to sin?
      12. Baptism is about dying to sin to live the new life.
      13. Baptism is not about gaining control over other Christians.

There are some thoughts concerning Paul’s point that deserve your consideration. It has been said the Paul is not presenting sin here in the sense of a defect in a person’s life (a flaw), but in the sense of a defection.

Evil is presented as a very real force, a force that will control you as your master.

Baptism into Christ is the conscious choice of which force will control my life: evil or God? There may be times when a Christian falls prey to temptation, but a Christian will never, never enthrone any form of evil as the force that rules his or her life.

There is one way we cannot die to sin as did Jesus. Jesus is dead to sin forever. As Christians, we die to sin every day. Every day we resist temptation, every day we refuse to put evil in charge of our lives.

Is that your focus every day? Does God rule your life?

The Way God Works — Always!

Posted by David on June 23, 2002 under Sermons

All of us understand the importance of “catching on” or “getting it.” So most of you are to talking to yourself right now saying, “No, we do not all understand ‘catching on’ or ‘getting it.’ We do not have a clue of what you are talking about!”

Your will understand quickly. Help me build your understanding. Everyone here who works outside the home for financial payment, hold up your hand. Thanks! Everyone who at some point in your past life worked outside the home for financial payment, hold up your hand. Thanks!

When you are employed on a job, how important is it to understand how things are done? When you begin the job, you have a learning period, a grace period. In that period you are expected to learn “how things are done.” You are expected to “catch on” and “get it.” If you do not, your job is in serious jeopardy.

It is essential to “catch on” and “get it” in every important responsibility in life. Each one of us have to “catch on” and “get it” in successful marriages, in quality child and parent relationships, or even in meaningful friendships. Any serious involvement or interaction with people involves “catching on” and “getting it.”

God, like people, has His way of functioning. If we are serious about belonging to God, we must “catch on” to God’s ways and “get” what God expects of His people. From the first part of the Bible until today, God’s basic way of functioning in His interaction with people has not changed.

1. I want to begin with incidents and information that should be familiar to many of you. [If what I share is new to you, that is okay; just focus on the way God has always functioned.]
   1. In the first book of the Bible God promised Abraham that through his descendants would come a blessing that would benefit all people.
      Genesis 12:1-3 Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go forth from your country, And from your relatives And from your father’s house, To the land which I will show you; And I will make you a great nation, And I will bless you, And make your name great; And so you shall be a blessing; And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”
   2. Abraham died. His son Isaac died. Jacob and his sons went to Egypt and died. For years Abraham’s descendants through Isaac are in Egypt existing as slaves to the Egyptians.
      1. They have been slaves for a long time (most of 400 years).
      2. They think like slaves.
      3. They act like slaves.
      4. Their lifestyles are the lifestyles of slaves.
      5. Their morals and ethics are the morals and ethics of pagan slaves.
   3. God commissioned Moses to go to Egypt and do two things: (1) confront the Pharaoh [the king] and (2) to lead Israelite slaves out of Egypt to become God’s people.
      1. “Did these Israelite slaves deserve God’s deliverance?”
         1. No. They were not righteous, or godly, or of great value, or more worthy than other people.
         2. “Then why did God deliver them from Egypt and eventually give them Canaan as their own land?”
         3. For two reasons.
            1. First, to keep His promise to Abraham.
            2. Second, to punish the incredible wickedness of the people in Canaan.
      2. If you internal reaction is, “That simply is not true,” listen to what the Bible says.
         1. First is God’s assessment of these people after He brought them out of Egypt and they turned back to idolatry.
            Exodus 32:8,9 “They have quickly turned aside from the way which I commanded them. They have made for themselves a molten calf, and have worshipped it and have sacrificed to it and said, ‘This is your god, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt!’ ” The Lord said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and behold, they are an obstinate people.”
         2. Second is God’s statement to Israel just before they enter Canaan about forty years later.
            Deuteronomy 9:4-6 Do not say in your heart when the Lord your God has driven them out before you, ‘Because of my righteousness the Lord has brought me in to possess this land,’ but it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is dispossessing them before you. It is not for your righteousness or for the uprightness of your heart that you are going to possess their land, but it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord your God is driving them out before you, in order to confirm the oath which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Know, then, it is not because of your righteousness that the Lord your God is giving you this good land to possess, for you are a stubborn people.”
         3. While there are many things to consider in this, I want you to see one obvious, simple point: God did not redeem these people from slavery because they deserved it–they did not deserve God’s kindness nor God’s deliverance.
   4. I want you to see something very clearly.
      1. First, God released them from their slavery.
         1. That happened because if was 100% God’s kindness and graciousness, and 0% their deservedness.
         2. They had been slaves who thought like slaves, lived like slaves, and acted like slaves.
         3. God redeemed them; God separated them from slavery; God did for them what they never, never could do for themselves.
      2. Second, God redeemed them from slavery so they could be totally different.
         1. They had been slaves.
         2. Now they would be God’s people.
         3. As God’s people they would not think like the slaves they were, they would not live like the slaves they were, they would not act like the slaves they were.
         4. Slavery was a thing of the past when they had no choice but to be slaves.
         5. “You are not slaves any more, so don’t function like slaves.”
         6. “Your are now God’s people, so function like God’s people.”
      3. Third, God redeemed them from slavery before God gave them the law [responsibility].
         1. The act of redemption was God’s act.
         2. The act of obedience to their new existence was their expression of appreciation for God’s ending their slavery.
         3. Redemption came first, but redemption was supposed to be followed by a changed existence.

2. The sad thing is this: Israel never “caught on,” never “got it.”
   1. When they built the golden calf and called it the god who brought them out of Egypt, they were acting like slaves, not like God’s people.
   2. In the book of judges when they rebelled over and over, they were acting like slaves, not like God’s people.
   3. In the last of Saul’s rule and the last of Solomon’s rule, they were acting like slaves, not like God’s people.
   4. When ten of the twelve tribes separated themselves from God to worship idols, they were acting like slaves, not like God’s people.
   5. The written prophets repeatedly sought to awaken Israel to what they were doing, but Israel continued to act like slaves to be destroyed rather than God’s people to be redeemed.
   6. They deceived themselves because they put absolute trust in the fact God redeemed them, and they accepted no responsibility to be God’s people.

   Transition: Do you see this? Do you understand it? First came deliverance from God, then came the responsibility to be and live like people who belong to God.

3. Nothing has changed. We were slaves to sin, and God in His kindness and love delivered us from slavery to sin through what God did in Jesus’ death.
   1. God did not redeem us because we deserved it, because we are such extraordinary, valuable people.
      1. Just as with Israel, we did not and do not deserve it.
      2. Just as with Israel, it is God’s faithfulness, not our worth.
         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.
   2. God did not redeem us for us to continue to live and act like the people we were before we were redeemed. He redeemed us so we could be His people instead of “those people.”
      1. I literally could take hours to show you again and again the emphasis in New Testament books that said, “You must not live like you lived before you were redeemed by God in Christ. You must live like God’s people, not like people enslaved to sin.”
      2. That was an important message in the book of Romans spelled out very clearly from chapters 12 on–when you belong to God in Jesus Christ you do not have the morals and ethics of people who do not belong to God.
      3. That was an important message in the Corinthian letters–you are behaving like people who do not belong to God.
      4. That was an important message in Galatians–you do not live in the desires of the flesh; you live in the fruit of the Spirit.
      5. That was an important message in Ephesians–that is what you were before redemption, this is what you are as God’s new creation.
      6. Over and over this point is made: those who are redeemed in Christ do not live as do people enslaved to sin.
      7. Just like Israel, we were redeemed from slavery to live as God’s people.
         1. That life, that existence cannot be reduced to a set of rules and regulations.
         2. There is much more involved than “going to church” and “plugging into the institution and organization.”
   3. It has never been more important for Christians to “catch on” and to “get it” than it is right this very moment.
      1. That is the way God functions.
      2. That is the way God has always functioned.
      3. God redeems people to accept the responsibility to be His people.
      4. When they accept God’s redemption in Christ, everything changes.

4. I want you to listen carefully to a statement Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 10:1-14. Paul is making a comparison of Christians to physical Israel, and he said very plainly that we need to learn from their example.
   1 Corinthians 10:1-14 For I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea; and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea; and all ate the same spiritual food; and all drank the same spiritual drink, for they were drinking from a spiritual rock which followed them; and the rock was Christ. Nevertheless, with most of them God was not well-pleased; for they were laid low in the wilderness. Now these things happened as examples for us, so that we would not crave evil things as they also craved. Do not be idolaters, as some of them were; as it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink, and stood up to play.” Nor let us act immorally, as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in one day. Nor let us try the Lord, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the serpents. Nor grumble, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the destroyer. Now these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come. Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall. No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it. Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry.

God did not redeem us in Jesus Christ to keep on living the same old lives we lived as the unredeemed. He did not redeem us in Jesus Christ to live and act like people enslaved to sin. He did not redeem us to look, and act, and talk, and live like people do who made no commitment to God.

God redeemed us in Jesus Christ to be His people, to look and act and talk and live like His people. If you say to yourself, “God forgave me because I am special,” you are deceiving yourself. You are doing the same thing Israel did. Do not make their mistake! God is special! We are not! He is our God only if we are His people!

Is It Worth It?

Posted by David on June 9, 2002 under Sermons

All of us make major investments. The greatest investments we make are investments of ourselves. We invest ourselves in two primary ways: through intense interest and through time.

When it comes to the investment of self, we all make basic investment decisions as we live our lives. Some of us make major investments of ourselves in our families. The wife, or the husband, or the children are a major priority in our lives. Nothing is more important than family.

Some of us make major investments of ourselves in our jobs or our careers. Nothing is more important than succeeding in our job or career. We literally define who we are by the level of success we experience in our career.

Some of us make major investments of ourselves in our lifestyles. The house we live in, the car we drive, the circles we move in, the people we know are an extremely important measurement of who we are. If we cannot use these means of defining ourselves, we think we do not amount to much.

Some of us make major investments of ourselves in our pleasures. The form of pleasure differs greatly from person to person. But, having fun, enjoying life is extremely important. Whatever is necessary to reach a pleasurable high is considered reasonable.

No matter how each of us invests life, the moment always comes when we must ask, “Is it worth it?” Because people now live longer than people used to live, more and more people are asking themselves, “Was it worth it?”

A necessary question everyone who seeks to be a Christian must ask: “Is investing my life in Jesus Christ worth the investment?” Is living for God worth it? When my physical life approaches its end, when I look back at my past and I ask that question, what will be my answer?

1. This morning, I would like for us to consider Paul’s answer to that question. [I challenge you to look at Paul’s life and consider his answer.]
   1. The early part of Paul’s childhood was spent in the Roman province of Cilicia a few hundred miles north of Israel.
      1. His childhood was spent in the city of Tarsus, which was the principle city of that area (Acts 22:3).
      2. Tarsus, when Paul lived there, was a very old city–it was an important trade city 2000 years before Paul was born.
         1. During Paul’s lifetime, Tarsus was the capital city of the province.
         2. Tarsus held a position that many cities envied and aspired to: it had autonomy as a free city; it could govern itself.
      3. Tarsus was an important city.
         1. On an earlier occasion, Anthony met Cleopatra there.
         2. Caesar Augustus exempted Tarsus from Roman taxes.
         3. It was a university city whose school devoted itself to the study of liberal arts and philosophy.
         4. It was a wealthy city that had a reputation for its linen and a special material made from goats’ hair.
   2. Childhood in Tarsus probably provided Paul an interesting environment for personal development.
      1. He grew up living in an important place.
      2. The trade that he learned [a trade he used as a Christian adult to support himself as a missionary when circumstances required self-support] was tent-maker which perhaps meant he knew how to use the special cloth made from goats’ hair.
      3. Far more important than those two, he was a Roman citizen by birth (Acts 22:25-29).
         1. That means that at least his father had been awarded citizenship or had been given opportunity to purchase citizenship.
         2. Roman citizenship was a highly prized possession that was not available to everyone.
            1. A citizen was guaranteed a fair public trial.
            2. A citizen was protected against certain forms of punishment.
            3. A citizen could not be executed simply by the wishes or command of a local ruler.
      4. He was a curious mix of influences, because he also referred to himself as being a “Hebrew of Hebrews” (Philippians 3:6).
         1. According to the Jewish law, he was circumcised as a religious ritual when he was eight days old.
         2. He was a member of the Jewish tribe of Benjamin, the tribe which hundreds of years earlier produced the first Jewish king, King Saul.
         3. Though he grew up in a prominent city known for its prosperity and having a university, he grew up as a “Jew’s Jew.”
         4. That indicates he and his family were among the most committed, devout Israelites.
         5. It likely meant that he spoke Aramaic, the spoken language of Palestine (Acts 21:40; 22:2; 26:14).
         6. He grew up in a home that kept the traditions and practices of the homeland.
   3. At some point as a young man he moved to the city of Jerusalem to study as a Pharisee under the influence of the very prestigious Jewish Rabbi Gamaliel.
      1. In his studies he was very strict in his commitment and dedication (Acts 22:3).
      2. He was very zealous for God.
      3. In fact, he wrote of himself (Galatians 1:14), … I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries among my countrymen, being more extremely zealous for my ancestral traditions.
      4. He was a Pharisee, and his father was a Pharisee (Acts 26:5).
      5. Paul was an “up and coming” influence in Israel, and he had all the right credentials and connections.
         1. He served a role in Stephen’s execution, and he was the leader of the first persecution of Christians in Jerusalem (Acts 7:58; 8:1-3).
         2. He was so “connected” that he could ask the high priest for authority to travel to another country and arrest Jews in the Jewish synagogue who believed in Jesus Christ (Acts 9:1,2).

2. Paul (his Greek name) or Saul (his Hebrew name) was absolutely certain of two things: (1) the man Jesus was not Christ; (2) those who believed Jesus was the Christ were a serious threat to the nation of Israel and God.
   1. Then this man met the resurrected Jesus in person (Acts 9).
      1. In an instant, in a quick moment, this man realized he had been completely, totally wrong in vicious, unpardonable ways.
         1. The person he said was not the Christ was in fact the Christ God promised Israel for hundreds of years.
         2. He who claimed to be a devoted servant of God had encouraged the executions of fellow Israelites who knew Jesus was God’s Christ.
         3. He instantly knew that if he received what he truly deserved, God would kill him.
      2. All Jesus instructed him to do was to go on into the city of Damascus where he would be told what he must do.
         1. Years later Paul said Jesus gave him this explanation:
            Acts 26:15-18 And I said, ‘Who are You, Lord?’ And the Lord said, ‘I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. But get up and stand on your feet; for this purpose I have appeared to you, to appoint you a minister and a witness not only to the things which you have seen, but also to the things in which I will appear to you; rescuing you from the Jewish people and from the Gentiles, to whom I am sending you, to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Me.’
         2. In a short time Jesus sent a man named Ananias to talk to Paul and instruct him.
         3. When Ananias hesitated and protested, Jesus made this statement:
            Acts 9:15,16 “Go, for he is a chosen instrument of Mine, to bear My name before the Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel; for I will show him how much he must suffer for My name’s sake.”
         4. Years later this is what Paul explained to Timothy why he received opportunity to serve Jesus Christ:
            1 Timothy 1:12-16 I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because He considered me faithful, putting me into service, even though I was formerly a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent aggressor. Yet I was shown mercy because I acted ignorantly in unbelief; and the grace of our Lord was more than abundant, with the faith and love which are found in Christ Jesus. It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all. Yet for this reason I found mercy, so that in me as the foremost, Jesus Christ might demonstrate His perfect patience as an example for those who would believe in Him for eternal life.
   2. When Paul became a servant of Jesus Christ instead of a persecutor of Jesus Christ, it cost him everything.
      1. Israelites who considered him a promising leader in Israel’s future immediately hated him enough to seek his death.
      2. Jewish Christians in Jerusalem distrusted him, and some of them resented his efforts to teach Christ to people who were not Jews.
      3. Some Christians who were not Jews rejected him, verbally attacked him, and did all they could to discredit him–they did not appreciate his teachings.
      4. The man who had all the right connections and knew all the right people suddenly became the man many people hated–all because he knew Jesus was the Christ.
   3. I want to read to you two statements Paul wrote about his hardships and his decision to follow Christ.
      1. This statement was written because some Jewish Christians were making Paul’s life miserable as they opposed his work and teaching:
         2 Corinthians 11:22-31 Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they descendants of Abraham? So am I. Are they servants of Christ?–I speak as if insane–I more so; in far more labors, in far more imprisonments, beaten times without number, often in danger of death. Five times I received from the Jews thirty-nine lashes. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, a night and a day I have spent in the deep. I have been on frequent journeys, in dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my countrymen, dangers from the Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers on the sea, dangers among false brethren; I have been in labor and hardship, through many sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. Apart from such external things, there is the daily pressure on me of concern for all the churches. Who is weak without my being weak? Who is led into sin without my intense concern? If I have to boast, I will boast of what pertains to my weakness. The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, He who is blessed forever, knows that I am not lying.
      2. He wrote this statement to explain the absolute sufficiency of Jesus Christ.
         Philippians 3:4-1 I myself might have confidence even in the flesh. If anyone else has a mind to put confidence in the flesh, I far more: circumcised the eighth day, of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the Law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to the righteousness which is in the Law, found blameless. But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.
   4. There is one obvious question we must ask Paul.
      1. “Paul, you made phenomenal physical sacrifices to invest your life in Jesus Christ.”
      2. “Was it worth the investment?”
         2 Timothy 4:6-8 For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith; in the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day; and not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing.

“Paul, was it worth the investment?” “Yes! And it will be worth the investment to you, also, if you are willing to trust and love Jesus’ return.”