Blog |  Ryan Callihan

Here is something that a lot of people seemingly don’t know about me. I am a huge nerd. It surprises me when people are taken aback when I can recite the entire script of The Empire Strikes Back or when I reference minute plot details of Harry Potter (by the way Duane, a Muggle is not a half-breed. It’s a person without magic ability. You were thinking of Mudblood. No hard feelings). It’s never been something that I try to hide– it’s kind of a part of me.

During my childhood, when all the other kids were out doing “sports things” and trading baseball cards, I would be watching Star Trek or pretending I was a Power Ranger. Different worlds, magic, and the epic struggle between the powers of light and darkness have resonated with me do as long as I can remember. I would create my own worlds in my head where I discovered that I had some sort of mystical ability or power that made me something more than what I am, something special. I would use my awesome magical training (and usually ability to fly) to fight the bad guys and amaze everyone.

Oh, and save the world of course.

Sure it was all imagination and games, but they came from a deep-seated desire to be someone special and someone who could control and affect the world around them.

That’s why stories like the one in Acts 8 stick out to me so much. In the story there’s an evil wizard named Simon (the Bible doesn’t call him a wizard, but I want to. So I will.) Simon uses his knowledge of the arcane to control and manipulate the people of Samaria, thus bringing him power. Then Philip comes and shares the Gospel, casts out demons, performs some awesome God-glorifying miracles, and tons of people put their faith and trust in the message of Jesus. After this Peter and John arrive, lay their hands on the people and those people receive the Holy Spirit. Now, the evil wizard Simon sees the apostles and the power of God that is being worked through them and wants the power for himself. He feigns belief in Christ and offers the apostles money in exchange for their arcane knowledge. Peter gets angry and sends him away, saying he missed the whole point and that he is evil.

This story resonates with me, not only because of the cool supernatural showdown between the Holy and the Demonic but because I can relate a lot with the evil wizard Simon.

Don’t be alarmed– I don’t relate with his desire to learn spells or sacrifice black cats (or however he came across his power). You won’t see me carving pentagrams into my hand or anything, but I can identify with the sin behind it. As I mentioned earlier I often long to be something more than I am, someone with power and influence. I want to be somehow better than those around me and I want to control the world around me. These longings in me manifest as pride and I find myself looking to my own image like an idol. I may not be calling upon the powers of Satan, but my want for power and control makes me just as evil as the dark wizard Simon. It is easy to point to people like that and say they are somehow worse than we are because we don’t cast spells on people. But the truth is the heart issues behind them are dangerously similar to the issues many of us feel every day. I am just as bad as the dark wizard Simon.

That’s why I am grateful for Jesus. Not only could he effortlessly annihilate vast hordes of evil creatures and upstart wizards (Sauron would have nothing on Jesus. The dark forces of Mordor against 12 legions of angels? It wouldn’t even be a contest…), but He, through his work on the cross and resurrection from the dead, provides for a means to combat the influence of evil in the world and in our hearts.

The power that Christ possesses and subsequently passes to us is far more valuable and far greater than any magic out there. When my mind wanders, I may like to imagine myself warding off an assault from some monstrous force of evil– but the truth is that I have more than enough darkness to contend with in my own heart. If you’ve met me you might be able to name a handful or more of the sins that I struggle with (Editor’s Note: Like admitting to like Power Rangers?). Every day there is a war going on in me– a war against the flesh of my Old Self and the spirit of the New. I am in desperate need of some sort of hero to win that battle in my heart, and lucky (Editor’s Note: Magic exists, luck does not…) for me, Jesus claimed that victory for his own.

And, Jesus isn’t some pansy, dress-wearing hippy with long flowing hair. He’s fierce with eyes like flame and his robe is drenched in the blood of His enemies. Double-edged swords shoot out of his mouth, his voice roars louder than the ocean, and his face shines like the sun in full strength. In his hands he holds the keys to death and Hades.

I wanted to be special and This Guy died for me. And that makes me feel pretty darn special. Lightsabers, wands, staffs, or legendary magical swords are cool– but they don’t hold a candle to the glory of Jesus. The power of the Gospel cuts through us, cleanses us, and overturns the power of sin and death. Now, if I ever run into anyone like Simon, or the idolatrous wand-waving image of my own Sin, I can rest easy knowing I have the almighty God on my side.

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Mission and Magic | The Book of Acts | 8:4-25 | Pastor Duane Smets

This an exegetical and expository sermon on Acts 8:4-25. It covers two main topics: (1) The spreading out of the Gospel and the Church to reach other people groups. (2) How the Gospel is radically different and opposed to magic and motives which seek God’s gifts and power rather than God himself. Each of these topics are then looked at in comparison to how acceptance works in the Gospel. This sermon was originally preached on May 13th, 2012 at The Resolved Church in San Diego,CA.

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The Resolved Church
Pastor Duane Smets
May 13th, 2012

Mission and Magic | Acts 8:4-25
I. Muggles: Half-breeds Accepted
II. Magia: Divination Not Accepted
III. Messiah: Gospel Acceptance

Introduction

Good morning Resolved Church. It’s great to see you this morning on the Lord’s Day when we all worship and learn from him together. If you are new to our church or just visiting my name is Duane. I am one among three pastors here and we all serve under our great head pastor Jesus, the risen savior.

I want to give a special welcome to all the mothers here today. A lot of you that weren’t mothers last year and you are this year…and there’s a few more who will be jumping on the mommie train soon. Being a mom is a special gift and calling of God that takes a lot of wisdom, hard work and unending amounts of sacrificial love.

Everyone here is either a mom or has a mom. One of the great things about our God is that he always cares for his children with perfect love. Psalm 36:7 in praise to God says, “How precious is your steadfast love, O God! The children of mankind take refuge in the shadow of your wings.” The picture here is of a mother bird protecting her chicks under her wings in the safety of her nest.

Some of you may not have had the best moms or maybe sometimes you as a mom have felt like a failure…but the beauty and wonder of the gospel is that Jesus came into the world to save us and that he longs to as he says in Matthew 13:37 to gather his “children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings.” Jesus unconditional love is like the unconditional love a good mother or the mother you always longed to have.

So happy mother’s day to all the moms. We love you and appreciate you deeply!

Well, as most of you know we are studying through the book of Acts as a church this year. Last week we bit off a big chunk and with that turned a corner in the direction of the book. We’re thirteen sermons in and we ended last week with the story of Stephen the deacon being stoned to death for preaching about Jesus.

Stephen was the first person to die for the Christian faith and after his death Christianity basically becomes illegal and thus the Church, who had up to that point only been in Jerusalem, lost it’s meeting place in the Jewish temple there. As a result tons, literally thousands of Christians…flee Jerusalem and move. And from this point on, the book of Acts takes a sharp turn and begins to focus outward.

For seven full chapters, likely covering at least a few years…the disciples and the church had just been hunkered down in and around Jerusalem. But in chapter 8 of Acts everything changes. Some have said that it is almost as if the Holy Spirit had to thrust them out of Jerusalem and Judea in order to fulfill Jesus’ command to also go and take the Gospel to Samaria and the ends of the earth.

What we’re going to see today is a man named Philip be the one to take the first step out to Samaria who receives the Gospel and subsequently the church authorities cruise down to verify and validate their reception as a key turning point in the church. They’ll do this a couple of other times later in the book in order to consistently protect and preserve the unity and integrity of the church and her mission. So mission to a new place and people group is a big theme in today’s text.

The other thing which is really intriguing about this story is what Philip and later Peter encounter there in Samaria….magic and a magician named Simon. We’ll get to know this Simon fellow pretty well and see how Christianity is fiercely different and opposed to practice of and trust in magic. So the defeat of magic and those entrapped by it is also a big theme in today’s text.

So, to capture these two main themes I simply titled the sermon, “Mission and Magic.” Let’s go ahead and read the text, declare it as God’s Word and then as his blessing over our time together in it.

• Read Acts 8:4-25
• Pastoral Declaration: This is the Word of the Lord.
• Congregational Response: Thanks Be To God.
• Prayer

Alright. The three things we’re gonna talk about today are Muggles, Magia and the Messiah. So our first point is: “Muggles: Half-breeds Accepted.”

I. Muggles: Half-breeds Accepted

If you’ve ever read any of the Harry Potter books or seen any of the movies than you know that a muggle is a half-breed. In the Harry Potter world you have people who are born into magic families, who know about magic and can do magic and you have people who are just normal humans who normally don’t know anything about magic or the magical world and they are called “muggles” or sometimes half-breeds.

That’s sort of the thing we have going on here in Acts 8 with the Samaritans.

If you remember and think back to the beginning of the book of Acts when Jesus gives the gospel commission to the disciples he says in Acts 1:8 “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the ends of the earth.” This really is the theme and purpose statement for the whole book of Acts.

As I mentioned earlier up to this point in the book of Acts the disciples and all those who were becoming Christians since the church got started are staying in Jerusalem or around it in Judea. Judea is sort of like the state that the city Jerusalem existed in.

So here in our text in verse 5 when it says that “Philip went down to (a) city of Samaria and proclaimed to them the Christ” that was a big deal. It’s the first time anyone from the church has gone into Samaria and preached the gospel as a witness of the resurrected Jesus.

We’ll talk about what happened once he got there but before we do I want to give you a little background on the Samaritans and who they were…they were sort of half Jews. Their history goes all the way back to the time of Joshua.

If you somewhat know the Biblical story you’ve heard of how Moses, who wrote the first five books of the Bible, led the people of Israel out of slavery in Egypt in the great Exodus…and there’s all the fantastic stories of the feats of God he did in that deliverance culminating with them crossing the sea on dry land. After that they end up wandering in the wilderness for 40 years until Moses dies and Joshua finally brings them into the promised land with the defeat of Jericho.

Fast forward a number of years until Joshua’s death. After Joshua’s death there was not a singular key leader like Moses or Joshua who took on that role of leadership. Instead the Levite priests took on the leadership roles and from time to time God would raise up a judge or a prophet to help corral or defend Israel.

When Joshua died the Samaritans say that there was a big dispute between the priests over the sacrifices and how they were to be done. The result was that a bunch of people from the Israelite tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh broke off from the larger group and went their own way.

They went on to build their own temple on top of Mount Gerizim where they held their own worship services only following and recognizing those first five books of the Bible written by Moses known as the Torah. As a result they did not recognize the prophets or the kings of Israel and ended up sort of living in peaceful friction with the nation of Israel.

As you might guess Samaritans and Jews did not like each other because of this. They would not marry, eat or even talk with each other unless it was calling each other names. You actually get a sense of this when Jesus goes into Samaria and talks with a Samaritan woman at the well in John 4.

She’s double shocked that Jesus is speaking to her, not only because she’s a woman but because Jesus is a Jew and she was a Samaritan. Her words are telling. She says, “Sir, I perceive you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship (Jn 4:19-20).” You hear and feel the tension between the two groups in her words.

So Jews saw Samaritans as half-breeds. Sort of half Jews. They had part of the Bible but not all of it. They had a temple but on the wrong mountain. They practiced circumcision but were not seen as part of the covenant family.

But Jesus loved the Samaritans. He gave the gospel to the woman at the well and then later on in his ministry Jesus pulls the carpet out from under everyone when he tells the story of a guy who got mugged and left for dead on the side of the road. A couple different Jews pass him by and don’t stop to help out until finally a Samaritan guy comes along and ends up administering first aid and taking him into a hotel and pays the bill. After he finishes the story he tells his Jewish listeners to go and do likewise (Lk 10:25-37).

Then after he rises from the dead he specifically tells the disciples to make sure they go to Samaria and tell them about his death and resurrection for sin…to be his witnesses concerning the gospel. After Stephen is killed and the church in Jerusalem scatters, someone finally goes and it’s Philip.

Now there’s two Philips in the Bible. One is one of the original twelve disciples and the other is Philip who is selected as a deacon in Acts 6 who now emerges as an evangelist here in Acts 8. So Philip goes down to Samaria and preaches Christ. Great crowds come out and listen to him preach as well as have him pray for people with all kinds of ailments who end up being healed. We’ll come back to the healings in few minutes when we talk about Simon.

The main thing about these Samaritans is what verse 12 says, “They believed Philip as he preached good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women.” This is huge news! An amazing report!

If you remember back to the conversation of Jesus with the Samaritan woman at the well and you know the story then you’ll remember she spoke of the Samaritan longing and expectation of the messiah coming. She says to Jesus, “In know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things (Jn 4:25).” One of the things that the Samaritans were also known for was their expectation of the Messiah to come.

They were known to quote the prophecy of Moses in Deuteronomy 18:15 where Moses says, “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen.” Remember the Samaritans didn’t recognize or accept any of the Jewish kings like David or Solomon or any of the prophets like Isaiah or Jeremiah…just Moses and they were expecting another Moses like leader to save them and redeem them.

So in a way, because of Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well…he had probably already churned up the soil preparing them for Philip’s preaching, which is probably one of the reasons why so many crowds came out to hear him. When Philip says Jesus is that man…the man they had been looking for for so long…the new, true and better Moses…they are overjoyed and convinced of it. There’s mass conversions and they hold a huge baptism service.

Then something seemingly odd at first glance happens. Look at verses 14-16 with me. In verse 14 we’re told that the apostles at Jerusalem hear that “Samaria had received the word of God.” So in response they send church officials Peter and John down to Samaria. Why?

Well, verse 15 says it was that “they might receive the Holy Spirit” and verse 16 says they had “only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.” So in verse 17 they lay their official hands on them and they receive the Holy Spirit, which is somehow visibly detectable according to Simon’s response in verse 18.

Okay, at this point we’ve got to jump into some somewhat hot water because there are a number of peculiar ideas that have come out of these verses.

Roman Catholics look at these verses and say there must be a gestation or incubation period after someone comes to faith and that after that time is over an official from the church must recognize and affirm the legitimacy of their faith in a ceremony called “confirmation.”

Pentecostals look at these verses and say that all Christians are meant to have two baptisms, one in water and one with the Spirit (a personal Pentecost experience) and the way you know you’ve received the baptism is you speak in tongues.

So which is it? Well…I don’t think either.

First, we have to remember Acts is describing what took place at certain place in time not prescribing what must take place for everyone.

Two, in just a few verses later in the chapter Philip next week will baptize an Ethiopian dude and there’s no mention of the apostles or anyone else needing to follow it up with a baptism in the Spirit.

Three, there’s no indication of any kind that what Philip did was somehow ineffective and both Peter, John and Paul all clearly say in each of their respective letters that you get the Spirit when you believe (1 Pet 1:2; 1 Cor 12:13; 1 John 4:2).

So what’s going on then? I think the church was being strategic. They had received specific orders from Jesus about Samaria. It was no small deal that the Samaritans had received the word of the Lord. This was a huge significant step in the mission of the gospel! And they recognized that.

The Spirit had already been at work there. But when they came with the official acknowledgement and recognition of the church now in Samaria, the Spirit manifested himself in special way to demonstrate Samaritan legitimacy as part of the kingdom of God…belonging to the one true God, no longer held captive by magic and Satan.

The text doesn’t say how the Spirit manifested himself. Supposing tongues is pure conjecture. It could have even been just as likely that it was great joy and passionate singing. My guess is in light of Simon’s response which we’ll talk about in a minute is that it was fire like on Pentecost. That would have interested Simon. But who knows?

Whenever a text doesn’t speak super clear, we ought to be careful and move from the clear to the less clear. And what’s clear about this whole scene is that Samaritans were formerly considered half-breeds, less than, outsiders…and now through faith in Jesus Christ they are accepted.

We’re going to move on to our second main point in a second but there’s a lesson in here for us. Half-breeds are welcome in the kingdom. And that is great news for us…because guess what? Unless you are here and you are a full-blood Jew…you’re a half breed muggle. And this text tells us that us half-breeds are welcome into Jesus’ kingdom.

I had a meeting this week with one of our own members who said that sometimes they feel so different and out of place from the rest of the people at our church and that they have a hard time with that. That broke my heart…because no matter who we are we share the unity of the Spirit, we are all sinners whom Jesus has had grace on and we are all continually being changed by him.

We’ve got to work hard as a church to let people of all different backgrounds, ethnicities, age, and stage of life know they are welcome here.

Have you ever felt like you were on the outside? Maybe when you moved to a new town or a new school or started a new job. A time when everyone else seemed to know each other and have things in common and you felt like you didn’t fit?

That’s the Samaritan sentiment. And what Jesus does is comes over as a friend and says why don’t you come in with me…I’ll show you around…sit with me…eat with me…work with me. He brings you in and then you realize he’s the owner of the entire company.

Some of you today need to be brought in. You need to hear the words that you are welcome and have Jesus bring you into his kingdom. Others of you today need to reach out and bring some others in…to let them know that they are accepted and welcome.

May God work in and among us in that way.

Alright. Let’s move on to our second main point, the other big theme of this section of Scripture: “Magia: Divination Not Accepted.”

II. Magia: Divination Not Accepted

Magia is just the Greek word for Magic. I was just trying to find a way to have three “M’s” in my outline and not repeat the word “magic” from the title. Clever eh? Now it fits and works nicely and I’m happy.

So it’s time to talk about Simon Magus or Simon the Sorcerer. Let’s re-read verse 9-11 to get him fresh in our heads. “9 But there was a man named Simon, who had previously practiced magic in the city and amazed the people of Samaria, saying that he himself was somebody great. 10 They all paid attention to him, from the least to the greatest, saying, “This man is the power of God that is called Great.” 11 And they paid attention to him because for a long time he had amazed them with his magic.”

These verses reflect backward in time and tell us what the situation was like in Samaria before Philip got there. Verse 11 says it was a “long time” that the whole city had been under Simon’s work and power. They esteemed him as someone great treating him as if he were a god. And everyone from “least to the greatest” were under his power.

Simon is a bad dude. This isn’t David Copperfield or Chris Angel pulling stunts. This is someone who was using his magical abilities to exercise power over the people. Notice verse 9 says he was “saying that he himself was somebody great.” Susan Garrett in her book, “The Demise of the Devil” which analyzes ancient worldviews concerning magic, particularly in the book of Acts writes, “Simon was no mere con artist or cheap charlatan but someone far more sinister, endowed with the power of Satan and disguising himself as the great power of God.” Think Voldermort. That’s who Simon is.

Thus when Philip preaches the gospel and casts out demons and heals the sick it is a sign that Simon’s evil power that had held sway over the city was being broken because Jesus Christ the Son of God was proclaimed. It’s the in-breaking of Jesus’ kingdom, of his rule and reign over sin, darkness and the work of Satan.

Simon has two responses to the preaching of the gospel and this in-breaking power of God.

The first response is in verse 13 where it says he believed and was baptized…though the second half of the verse is careful to qualify that his belief was merely an amazement at the miracles Philip performed. Just as Jesus did not trust those who “believed” in him only because of his miracles (Jn 2:23-25) so too Acts here notes that Simon’s belief or faith only reached the level of amazement not saving faith in a savior.

The second response is in verses 18-19. After Peter and John come down and pray for the Samaritans and the Holy Spirit manifests…almost as if looking in from the outside verse 18 says, “when Simon saw that the Holy Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money saying, ‘Give me this power also, so that anyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.”

In this second response Simon shows his true colors. He is not interested in God nor his messiah Jesus…only power. He’s only interested in a power which he could use to continue and exercise control over the people. He almost sounds blood thirsty in verse 19. “Give me this power.” I hear it with this snake like hiss.

Simon will do anything to get it. He’ll pay whatever it takes. One commentator remarks, “If he was willing to pay money for the power of conferring the Spirit…he would certainly intend to charge for the commodity when he passed it on.”

In fact this was the normal way of magic in the ancient word and often still is today. You can come about power of magic by one of two ways: either by a person transferring their knowledge and energy to you or by obtaining a special spell book with secret incantations. Often individuals would either pay to be apprenticed by a sorcerer or pay for magical books.

But Simon has no idea what he’s really dealing with and Peter vehemently rebukes him. He says, “May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money!” J.B. Philips paraphrases it, “To hell with you and your money.”

Then in verse 21 Peter goes to the root of the issue…Simon never truly believed in his heart. Look at what he says, “Your heart is not right before God.” Simon’s heart has not been regenerated. He’s still seeking the same thing he has been seeking after his whole life and career…power and the praise of men…not God. Simon was looking at Christianity as a form of magic and he missed the message entirely.

Yet, Peter, who was once called Simon himself gives Simon Magus an opportunity to truly respond to the gospel and be changed. In verse 22 he tells him to repent of his wickedness and to pray that the Lord would change his heart and be forgiven.

But Simon refuses. Instead he rebuts Peter and tells Peter to pray. Some, including my boy Calvin have thought his response to Peter was a subtle form of repentance. But I just don’t see it. Simon’s use and of and desire for magic, his self-deification, his want of people’s praise, his attempt to gain divine authority doesn’t change…and his story ends with him refusing to do what Peter asked. He’s still rebelling with no sign of repentance and no contrition…he’s only concerned now about how he’ll escape and get away without punishment.

What’s really interesting is that nearly all of the early church fathers: Justin Martyr, Iranaeus, Origen, Tertullian and Eusebius all mention Simon in their writings and say that after this he went on continuing in his pursuit of secret magic and he gets called the Father of all sorts of heresies and leads many astray. He’s also mentioned in a number of heretical books…one of them in a fanciful story describes the end of his life in a bitter a showdown between him and Peter where he levitates and challenges Peter before a crowd and Peter simply prays and he falls down to the concrete dead.

The real issue with Simon is the same issue the Bible as a whole has with magic…even from its beginning books. Genesis says those who practice divination do evil (Gen 44:5) and Deuteronomy 18:10-12 makes it very clear. Listen, “There shall not be found among you anyone who…practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens, or a sorcerer or a charmer or a medium or a necromancer or one who inquires of the dead, for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord.”

So why is it an abomination to God? Why is divination or magic not accepted by God? Why does Peter say it’s wicked, a gall of bitterness, and a bond of iniquity? What is so heinous and evil about it?

The answer simply is that it is a blatant rejection of God. It’s an attempt to harness the power of God or know things apart from what God has chosen to make known in His Word. The motive in the pursuit of magic may vary from seeking control or comfort but every motive is akin to the same desire Satan first flouted in the garden…to be like God knowing good and evil.

The Bible never denies reality of magic or miracles. It simply condemns them as works of Satan intended to lead people astray when they are not done for the glory of God. Here’s what 2 Thessalonians 2:9-10 says, “the activity of Satan (is) with all power and false signs and wonders, and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved.”

Seeking magic requires a refusal to love the truth that God has given. And it is alive and well today. I’m not talking about the pop culture interest in Harry Potter and magical superheroes…but in the subversive idea that we are spiritual beings who live in a spiritual world and we just need to spiritually connect with it in whatever path might be for us. It’s a rejection of God for spiritual insight and power.

I wanted to get a little insight into current ideas and practices of magic in our city. I wasn’t going to go pay for a psychic or palm reading so I went into the “Controversial Bookstore” to speak with a witch…she called herself a reverend. She actually wasn’t too helpful…probably knew I was a pastor or something.

I told her I was doing some research on ancient magic and modern conceptions. She tried to sell me several books and crystals so that I might tap into the spiritual energy I was seeking. When I pressed her with questions about the source of power and how it was transferred she referenced Mother Earth and said I needed to be discipled and invited me to a meeting.

When I rejected her meeting she started casting spells on me and I just threw Bible verses back at her and as we faced off all the books started falling off the shelves and light started beaming in through the ceiling. Just kidding. That part didn’t happen. But she was super uneasy the whole time and I could tell she was glad when I left.

Anyway…there’s a clear lesson in this that we as Christians are not to seek knowledge or power apart from what God has made known in his Word, the Bible. As Christians the answers we need are not found in astrology, psychics, palm readers, crystals, tarot cards or anything of the sort…the answers are all found in the Lord Jesus Christ.

But I think there’s also a more subtle lesson here too. The major failure of Simon’s heart was his desire for power. And we may not be seeking power through magical means but can often long after it and pursue it in many other ways.

Often we desire power because we fear being powerless…so we seek ways to reassure ourselves that we have power over our own lives and destinies. It comes out in our strivings toward better jobs, more money or a better quality of life. So we try and try and try to get more power….and when we don’t we get frustrated, depressed and angry.

The funny thing is that we as human beings actually have very little power. We have no power over where or when we are born, who we are born to and with what physical traits or talents we have. And often no matter how hard we work at it very little changes our situations.

The truth is we are actually small, powerless, dependent creatures and our fear of powerlessness comes from our detachment from God. But Jesus gives us a way out. The gospel of Jesus says that he had all the power since he was God but rather than using his power to dominate and control people…he uses his power to serve people and to give up his life on the cross for them.

When we come to truly believe in our hearts that he died for me…then at long last we are freed to let go of our desire for control and are able to entrust ourselves to him. Because then we know that he loves us and will truly take care of us no matter what.

And that brings us to our final and shortest point for this morning, “Messiah: Gospel Acceptance.”

III. Messiah: Gospel Acceptance

Our text for today doesn’t just spell out the gospel for us line by line. What it does say is that Philip proclaimed that Jesus was the Christ, the Messiah…that the Samaritans were baptized in his name. And in the final scene with Simon we learn that to truly believe in Jesus requires a change of heart where in we repent, pray to the Lord and receive forgiveness.

What’s wonderful about the gospel as it’s declared here in the first half of Acts 8 is that it doesn’t matter if your a half-breed or a power hungry sorcerer…that there is help, hope and healing in Jesus for you.

The truth is we’re all half-breeds…either physically because we’re not Jews and/or spiritually because we’ve all denied God as our Father…we’re sinners, meant to love and serve God but we’ve all turned away from him and served the devil as our Father. At least that’s what Jesus said in John 8:44.

The truth is we’re all sorcerers like Simon. People who have either been fascinated by knowledge and power apart from God or who have sought success and control of our lives in a vain disillusion that we we’re not created to be wholly dependent on him. The truth of our hearts is that we desire to be our own god like Simon declared himself to be.

And our only hope is the Gospel. You see, here’s how acceptance works in the Gospel. God sees us and knows us…all of us. Just like how Jesus could see straight through the heart of the Samaritan woman at the well and just like how Peter could see straight through the heart of the Simon the sorcerer. God see us and sees the worst of us.

Yet, he sent his son Jesus to die on the cross for our sin in our place to pay the price of our rejection of God and profaning his gifts. As Romans 5:8 says…while we were yet sinners Christ died for us! So God sees the worst of us and yet accepts us on the basis of Jesus’ person and work. We get accepted because Jesus got dejected instead of us.

No other person’s acceptance could ever compare to the one God gives to us who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. For every single other person we constantly have to make ourselves desirable and likable so that they won’t reject us. But not with God. He takes us as we are and transfers us into his kingdom on the basis of Jesus’ name.

That’s actually how the phrase “in the name of ….” is normally used. It’s a business phrase. When a piece of property was sold a document with transfer of ownership would be made “in the name of ….” On the basis of Jesus the Samaritans transferred into God’s kingdom forever to belong to him as his children.

Some of you today need to be transferred in. Some of you today need to repent of some things. Some of you today need your heart to change. Some of you need forgiveness. And we have a God and a gospel which is able to do all of those things for us.

Conclusion

As we conclude the sermon today and prepare for the Lord’s Supper I want to appeal to you in two primary ways:

One, if today you feel like a half-breed…like you’ve been on the outside looking in, wanting to be a part but not feeling you belong. If you’ve been in a season of loneliness and isolation. Hear the message of the gospel today…Jesus is the Christ! You are welcomed in because He is the one who was to come and He invites you in to be with him and his people today.

Two, if you’ve been working and laboring and striving in your own effort, power and might to get approval or acceptance from God…hear the words of Jesus from Matthew 11:28-30 “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” You cannot buy power or security from God but he freely gives rest to all who venture on him.

Today when you come to the table to eat the bread of Jesus’ body and drink the cup of the covenant in his blood meet with him. If you’ve got caught up into magic or the pursuit of power confess it as sin. If you simply need give up laboring and need rest bring to him your plea. If you need to know the warmth of his love and welcome cast your cares on him because he cares for you.

All we could ever need Jesus has richly provided for us. So let us go to him.

Let’s pray.

Come join us for our 2012 Summer Kickoff Service and Luncheon!

On Sunday, June 3^rd we’ll be joining as ONE for service and a luncheon. This is our 7^th year as The Resolved Church. We have seen a lot of Jesus’ work and he has blessed us with a growing church family. Since going to two services in September we have wanted to bring the services together every once in a while to keep the community united. On June 3^rd we have a chance to do just that and celebrate 7 years as a church, the summer season, and most importantly Jesus, all together.

What: Church worship and service together in one place at one time. Luncheon after.
Where: Crill Hall in Cooper Music Center @ Point Loma Nazarene University.
When: 10am
Why: To celebrate Jesus together as one in the Summer time.

Upcoming Event | Changed By Grace Conference

Don’t miss this great week of training at IBCD – June 28-30, 2012 in Escondido, CA. The Summer Institute consists of the and two pre-conferences: 
• Main Conference on June 28-30.
• The Basics of Biblical Counseling Course from June 25-30th.
• Women’s Pre-Conference the morning of June 28th.

Check out this promo video on the whole week of training: Changed By Grace

The main conference is Thursday-Saturday, June 28-30. Tim Lane from the Christian Counseling and Education Foundation (CCEF) is the keynote speaker. Julius Kim, Jim Newheiser, and John Sale will be the other general session speakers. Workshop selections will give invaluable information for everyone interested in helping others by the power of the gospel, through the Word of God.

The pre-conference on the Basics of Biblical Counseling is with Dr. Jim Newheiser and will include an overview of the basic principles of biblically consistent counseling as well as instruction on how to apply those principles to typical problems such as depression, fear, worry, and anger. The distinctions between psychotherapy, Christian psychology, and biblical counseling will also be discussed. This course is applicable to fulfill the 30-hour NANC certification requirement.

The pre-conference for women only on the morning of June 28th from 9:30-1:30pm is with Elyse Fitzpatrick and Jessica Thompson who will be speaking on the topic of “Who Do You Think You Are?” So many of us struggle with our identity…We wonder, Who am I? What does my Christianity tell me about myself and how that truth impacts the way I live my life? Join Elyse and her daughter Jessica for three hours as they unpack what the Bible says about who we are in Christ and what that identity means about how we should live.

Cost varies depending on what you register for. To view registration options go to: REGISTRATION

Blog | Robert Knox | A Genuine Confession: A Reflection After Two Years in Law School

I am not very good at public confessions. I know that is because pride is an idol for me. I care too much that other people respect me. But holding onto sin is worse. Not only is sin something that results in bad for me, but sin also separates me from the One I love.

I am the Prodigal Son’s Older Brother

“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And [Jesus] said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” Matthew 22:36-40.

My first confession is that I have been a mercenary with God like the Prodigal Son’s older brother; I have traded God my good actions in exchange for His bestowal of success on all I do in law school. Instead of wholeheartedly loving God for who He is, I have loved Him out of a self-ambition. I have felt and acted as if God was indebted to me for what I have done, as if I could demand success in return for obedience. And you see, that’s the problem; I’ve wanted to be successful in law school very much. But in the end, I was just trying to manipulate God.

Two things helped me realize this sin.

First, I began reading Timothy Keller’s The Prodigal God. In the book, Keller recasts the focus of the parable of the Prodigal’s Son on the older brother, who hides the same selfish desire to exploit his Father’s wealth, only the other brother does it under the guise of moral rectitude. The older brother’s heart, Keller reminds us, is just has far from loving the Father as the younger brother who ran away and spent his inheritance on prostitutes. But the older brother’s problem is worse, because his sin is veiled in self-righteous obedience.

Keller compares the situation to the bargain that the young Salieri makes with God in Peter Shaffer’s play Amadeus. Salieri, a contemporary of Mozart who was quickly surpassed by Mozart thought, “I would offer up secretly the proudest prayer a boy could think of. ‘Lord, make me a great composer! Let me celebrate your glory through music–and be celebrated myself! Make me famous through the world, dear God! Make me immortal! After I die let people speak my name forever with love for what I wrote! In return I vow I will give you my chastity, my industry, my deepest humility, every hour of my life. And I will help my fellow man all I can. Amen and amen!’” It was only when Salieri saw Mozart, who lived a scandalous life, surpass Salieri in talent and fame that Salieri became jealous and angry at God.

Second, I began to feel these same two feelings, jealousy and anger. As Peter ran away horrified and crying after denying he ever knew Christ three times on the night before Christ’s death, so too did I catch myself appalled at my sin. Let me be more specific, lest I avoid speaking of my own sin or lose you, my audience, in abstraction. For a bare instant, I came out of the first final I think I actually failed and experienced a flash of anger toward God. In that moment I registered that somewhere in my heart a part of me felt unfairly treated, like God had somehow owed me success.

I had tried so hard to be a good Christian, mostly out of good heart, but as with all motives sometimes my own were mixed. I am writing this note, because if I am honest with myself, a part of me, however small, actually felt like the older brother did toward his Father. But thank God that I realized it now, for I shouldn’t think I’d have survived if I had continued to deceive myself. That’s the thing about it, I am close to God. I know Him, share company with Him, walk with Him. But, somehow beneath my good intentions, there lurked and still lurks two feelings I should never want to experience again. In a sense, I am like Salieri, I have asked God to make me excellent at what I do, mostly because I desire to glorify Him, but if I am honest with myself, partially because I want to use God’s power for my purposes.

And that’s where I get to the second sin I must confess…

My Heart is not Where it Should Be

“For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Mathew 6:21.

My second confession is that I have treasured law school and success in it above God, if not in intent then at least in action. Coming from a sheltered upbringing, it has always been easy for me to make my educational status my identity and my educational success my worth. And psychology tells me that I am a perfectionist, a person who’d rather start over if he can’t have it perfectly how he thinks it should be. I am a man who lusts after education as if it were the means to lasting satisfaction. Worse still, in the words I am guilty of being a “second-hander,” someone who lives and acts, not for the sake of the thing itself but for how other people will perceive it. In the most carnal sense, I enjoy feeling respected in the eyes of my peers, and achieving success can be a way of gaining that. But you see, there is where that line of thinking logically unravels, success is relative and I can never please everyone; I would be chasing a moving target.

Beyond that, I would be forsaking the majesty of God and the immensity of eternity all for a shot at some fleeting satisfaction. I might become a god in my own eyes, but I would alienate myself from both God and man. I must admit that the world is beyond my ability to control and that education is not anyone’s salvation. I cannot let my actions betray a love I do not feel or ultimately desire. My treasure should not and cannot be in the things of this world, or else my heart would be there also. I must love God wholeheartedly, for this is what I truly desire and I have lost sight of it.

I realized this sin as I was driving home tonight from my last final and this epiphany triggered my confession. As I drove home through the city lights and the darkness surrounding, I could not help but remember what I felt like last year after being done. Last year, I felt freed from slavery and I couldn’t wait to get away from law school for awhile. This year, tonight, about two hours ago, I could not but feel like I wish I could go back and do better. I should admit now that law school has changed me, as much as I’ve tried to keep it from doing so. A part of me has fallen in love with the mystique of hard work, success, and the admiration of my peers.

But that is why I have Jesus Christ, that is why the one I call Lord suffered death on a cross. Because I can’t change myself, I can’t but helplessly admit my sin and pray to the Holy Spirit to empower me to be the new man. Rightly you should disdain me for what I have just admitted to you, I have wronged both my law school classmates and God who alone is worthy. But that’s why Jesus died, that’s why grace is so amazing.

So as Jesus begins to heal me, I hear Him say, “Go and sin no more.” Yes Lord, and it will start with this confession.

Guest Blog | J.I. Packer from The Economy of the Covenants between God and Man

God’s covenant of grace in Scripture is one of those things that are too big to be easily seen, particularly when one’s mind is programmed to look at something smaller. If you are hunting on a map of the Pacific for a particular Polynesian island, your eye will catch dozens of island names, however small they are printed, but the chances are you will never notice the large letters spelling PACIFIC OCEAN that straddle the map completely.

Similarly, we may, and I think often do, study such realities as God’s promises; faith: the plan of salvation; Jesus Christ the God-man, our prophet, priest and king; the church in both testaments, along with circumcision, passover, baptism, the Lord’s Supper, the intricacies of Old Testament worship and the simplicities of its New Testament counterpart; the work of the Holy Spirit in believers; the nature and standards of Christian obedience in holiness and neighbour-love; prayer and communion with God: and many more such themes, without noticing that these relational realities are all covenantal in their very essence.

As each Polynesian island is anchored in the Pacific, so each of the matters just mentioned is anchored in God’s resolve to relate to his human creatures, and have us relate to him, in covenant. Biblical doctrine, first to last, has to do with covenantal relationships between God and man; biblical ethics has to do with expressing God’s covenantal relationship to us in covenantal relationships between ourselves and others; and Christian religion has the nature of covenant life, in which God is the direct object of our faith, hope, love, worship, and service, all animated by gratitude for grace.

Our theme is the life-embracing bedrock reality of the covenant relationship between the Creator and Christians, and it is high time we defined exactly what we are talking about. A covenant relationship is a voluntary mutual commitment that binds each party to the other.

Whether it is negotiated, like a modern business deal or a marriage contract, or unilaterally imposed, as all God’s covenants are, is irrelevant to the commitment itself; the reality of the relationship depends simply on the fact that mutual obligations have been accepted and pledged on both sides. Luther is held to have said that Christianity is a matter of personal pronouns, in the sense that everything depends on knowing that Jesus died for me, to be my Savior, and that his Father is my God and Father, personally committed to love, nurture, uphold, and glorify me.

This already is covenant thinking, for this is the essential substance of the covenant relationship: God’s covenant is precisely a matter of these personal pronouns, used in this way, as a basis for a life with God of friendship, peace and communicated love. Thus, when God tells Abraham, “I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you . . . to be your God . . . I will be their God” (Gen. 17:6-8), the personal pronouns are the key words: God is committing himself to Abraham and Abraham’s seed in a way in which he does not commit himself to others. God’s covenant commitment expresses eternal election; his covenant love to individuals sinners flows from his choice of them to be his for ever in the peace of justification and the joy of glorification.

3 Things Are Essential to To Understanding Covenant Theology…

The Gospel Is A Covenant

Jesus Christ, whose saving ministry is the sum and substance of the gospel, is announced in Hebrews the mediator and guarantor of the covenant relationship (Heb. 7:22, 8:6). The gospel promises, offering Christ and his benefits to sinner, are therefore invitations to enter and enjoy a covenant relationship with God.

Faith in Jesus Christ is accordingly the embracing of the covenant, and the Christian life of glorifying God by one’s words and works for the greatness of his goodness and grace has at its heart covenant communion between the Savior and the sinner.

The church, the fellowship of believers that the gospel creates, is the community of the covenant, and the preaching of the Word, the practice of pastoral care and discipline, the manifold exercises of worship together, and the administration of baptism and the Lord’s supper (corresponding to circumcision and Passover in former days) are all signs, tokens, expressions, and instruments of the covenant, through which covenantal enrichments from God constantly flow to those who believe.

The whole Bible is, as it were, presented by Jesus Christ to the whole church and to each Christian as the book of the covenant, and the whole record of the wars of the Word with the church as well as the world in the post-biblical Christian centuries, the record that is ordinarily called church history, is precisely the story of the covenant going on in space and time.

As artists and decorators know, the frame is important for setting off the picture, and you do in fact see the picture better when it is appropriately framed. So with the riches of the gospel; the covenant is their proper frame, and you only see them in their full glory when this frame surrounds them, as in Scripture it actually does, and as in theology it always should.

The Word of God is a Covenant Word

Covenant theology offers a total view, which it is ready to validate from Scripture itself if challenged, as to how the various parts of the Bible stand related to each other. The essence of the view is as follows. The biblical revelation, which is the written Word of God, centers upon a God-given narrative of how successive and cumulative revelations of God’s covenant purpose and provision were given and responded to at key points in history.

The backbone of the Bible, to which all the expository, homiletical, moral, liturgical, and devotional material relates, is the unfolding in space and time of God’s unchanging intention of having a people on earth to whom he would relate covenantally for his and their joy. The contents of Scripture cohere into a single consistent body of truth about God and mankind, by which every Christian — indeed, every human being — in every generation is called to live. The Bible in one sense, like Jesus Christ in another, is God’s word to the world.

The story that forms this backbone of the Bible has to do with man’s covenant relationship with God first ruined and then restored. The original covenantal arrangement, usually called the Covenant of Works, was one whereby God undertook to prolong and augment for all subsequent humanity the happy state in which he had made the first human pair — provided that the man observed, as part of the humble obedience that was then natural to him, one prohibition, specified in the narrative as not eating a forbidden fruit. The devil, presented as a serpent, seduced Adam and Eve into disobeying, so that they fell under the penal sanctions of the Covenant of Works (loss of good, and corruption of nature). But God at once revealed to them in embryo a redemptive economy that had in it both the covering of sin, and a prospective victory for the woman’s seed (a human Savior) over the serpent and his malice.

The redemptive purpose of this new arrangement became clearer as God called Abraham, made a nation from his descendants, saved them from slavery, named himself not only their God but also their King and Father, taught them his law (the family code), drilled them in sacrificial liturgies, disciplined their disobedience, and sent messengers to hold up before them his holiness and his promise of a SaviorKing and a saving kingdom; which in due course became reality.

So the unifying strands that bind together the books of the Bible are:

First, the one covenant promise, sloganized as “I will be your God, and you shall be my people,” which God was fulfilling to his elect all through his successive orderings of covenant faith and life;

Second, the one messenger and mediator of the covenant, Jesus Christ the God-man, prophet and king, priest and sacrifice, the Messiah of Old Testament prophecy and New Testament proclamation;

Third, the one people of God, the covenant community, the company of the elect, whom God brings to faith and keeps in faith, from Abel, Noah and Abraham through the remnant of Israel to the worldwide New Testament church of believing Jews and Gentiles; and fourth, the one pattern of covenant piety, consisting of faith, repentance, love, joy, praise, hope, hatred of sin, desire for sanctity, a spirit of prayer, and readiness to battle the world, the flesh, and the devil in order to glorify God.

Covenant theologians insist that every book of the Bible in effect asks to be read in terms of these unities, and as contributing to the exposition of them, and is actually misunderstood if it is not so read.

God is a Covenantal God

Who is God? God is the triune Creator, who purposes to have a covenant people whom in love he will exalt for his glory. “Glory” there means both God’s demonstration of his praiseworthiness and the actual praising that results.

Why does God so purpose? — why, that is, does he desire covenantal fellowship with rational beings? The most we can say (for the question is not one to which God has given us a direct answer) is that the nature of such fellowship observably corresponds to the relationships of mutual honor and love between Father, Son and Holy Spirit within the unity of the divine being, so that the divine purpose appears to be, so to speak, an enlarging of this circle of eternal love and joy. In highlighting the thought that covenantal communion is the inner life of God, covenant theology makes the truth of the Trinity more meaningful than it can otherwise be.

Nor is this all. Scripture is explicit on the fact that from eternity, in light of human sin foreseen, a specific agreement existed between the Father and the Son that they would exalt each other in the following way: the Father would honor the Son by sending him to save lost sinners through a penal self-sacrifice leading to a cosmic reign in which the central activity would be the imparting to sinners through the Holy Spirit of the redemption he won for them; and the Son would honor the Father by becoming the Father’s love-gift to sinners and by leading them through the Spirit to trust, love and glorify the Father on the model of his own obedience to the Father’s will. This covenant of Redemption, as it is commonly called, which underlies the Covenant of Grace, clarifies these three truths at least:

(1) The love of the Father and the Son, with the Holy Spirit, to lost sinners is shared, unanimous love. The tritheistic fantasy of a loving Son placating an unloving Father and commandeering an apathetic Holy Spirit in or save us is a distressing nonsense.

(2) As our salvation derives from God’s free and gracious initiative and is carried through, first to last, according to God’s eternal plan by God’s own sovereign power, so its ultimate purpose is to exalt and glorify the Father and the Son together. The man-centered distortion that pictures God as saving us more for our sake than for his is also a distressing nonsense.

(3) Jesus Christ is the focal figure, the proper center of our faith-full attention, throughout the redemptive economy. He, as Mediator of the Covenant of Grace and of the grace of that covenant, is as truly an object of divine predestination as are we whom he saves.

With him as our sponsor and representative, the last Adam, the second “public person” through whom the Father deals with our race, the Covenant of Grace is archetypally and fundamentally made, in order that it may now be established and ratified with us in him.

From the vital union that we have with Christ through the Holy Spirit’s action flows all the aliveness to God, all the faith, hope and love God-ward, all the desire for him and urges to worship him and willingness to work for him, of which we ever were, are, or will be conscious; apart from Christ we should still be spiritually dead (objectively, lifeless; subjectively, unresponsive) in our trespasses and sins.

Christ is therefore to be acknowledged, now and for ever, as our all in all, our Alpha and Omega, so far as our salvation is concerned — and that goes for salvation subjectively brought home to us, no less than for salvation objectively obtained for us. The legalistic, sub-spiritual Roman Catholic theology of Mass and merit, whereby Christians are required by the Father, and enabled by the Son, to take part in the achieving of their own salvation, is a further distressing nonsense.

These three truths together shape the authentic biblical and Reformed mentality, whereby God the Father through Christ, and Christ himself in his saving ministry, are given all the glory and all the praise for having quickened us the dead, helped us the helpless, and saved us the lost.

Conclusion

The full reality of God and God’s work are not adequately grasped till the Covenant of Redemption — the specific covenantal agreement between Father and Son on which the Covenant of Grace rests — occupies its proper place in our minds. It appears that, confessionally and doxologically, convenant theology brings needed enrichment of insight to our hearts; and devotionally the same is true. Older evangelicals wrote hymns celebrating the covenant of grace in which they voiced fortissimos of the triumphant assurance of a kind that we rarely hear today. In the words of the hymn from eighteenth-century leader, Philip Doddridge:

‘Tis mine, the covenant of his grace,
And every promise mine;
All sprung from everlasting love,
And sealed by blood divine. On my unworthy favored head
Its blessings all unite;
Blessings more numerous than the stars, More lasting, and more bright.

The Church and the Story of God | The Book of Acts | 6:9-8:3 | Pastor Duane Smets

This an expository sermon on Acts 6:9-8:3. It covers the challenges of dealing with numerical and ethnic growth in the church as well as the importance of preaching and having deacons. This sermon was originally preached on May 6th, 2012 at The Resolved Church in San Diego,CA.

Listen

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The Resolved Church
Pastor Duane Smets
May 6th, 2012

The Church and the Story of God | Acts 6:8-8:3
I. The Wonder of God: An Everlasting Covenant
II. The War of Man: An Ongoing Rebellion
III. The Work of Jesus: An Undeniable Gospel

Introduction

If you’re new to The Resolved Church or you’re visiting with us my name is Duane and I’m one of the pastors here under our head Pastor Jesus. We constantly try to remind ourselves that everything is about Jesus all the time. One of the many ways that we do that is by calling him what Ephesians 4 calls him when he calls him the head of his body which is the church. So Jesus is the head pastor.

One of the things that we highly value here at The Resolved Church is the preaching of the Word of God. We talked about this two weeks ago when we were last in the book of Acts and we saw that it was very important to the early church to not neglect the preaching of the Word.

By preaching the Word we mean the public declaration and proclamation of the good news of the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ…from the Bible…primarily on His Day.

By preaching we don’t mean just sharing or talking about the Gospel. We don’t believe that discipleship conversations or community groups just talking about the Gospel constitutes the preaching of the Word. We don’t believe you even actually have a church or healthy church unless you have someone who was called, equipped and commissioned by God and his leaders to preach the Word from the pulpit and administer sacraments.

We get a phenomenal example of preaching in the passage of Scripture we are looking at today in the sermon of one of the early church leaders named Stephen. Immediately after he is identified and commissioned as one the church leaders…one of the deacons…the book of Acts gives this account of an occasion when Stephen stands up and preaches the Gospel and it is an incredible sermon.

It is masterful really in how he recites and weaves together major events and epochs of history and shows how everything points to and is fulfilled in Jesus…whom all men and women need for salvation. It’s actually the 2nd longest sermon in the New Testament, second only to Jesus’ “Sermon on the Mount.” It has 22 different Old Testament references or quotations. And…it functions as a major turning point in the book of Acts because after Stephen gives this sermon and is put to death for it…the church in Jerusalem loses their meeting place and is scattered all across the world, which Acts notes helps the Gospel spread in a huge way.

So since Stephen’s sermon is long and since we’re going to honor the Bible and read through the whole thing and preach from it, we should probably end this introduction get with it. If you need a Bible, they are at the back or if you can do it on your phone I’d love to have you follow along with me. We’re reading and working from Acts 6:8 all the way through to Acts 8:3 today. Big chunk. Here we go…

• Read Acts 6:8-8:3
• Pastoral Declaration: This is the Word of the Lord.
• Congregational Response: Thanks Be To God.
• Prayer for Preaching of the Word important to the early church to not neglect the preaching of the Word.

Aright. Just by reading and hearing this sermon of Stephen’s there’s probably a number of things you just inuitively pick up on where you can tell this is a masterful sermon…it’s got highs and lows, arguments and examples with stories and a climactical ending.

Now there’s no way we could go through in detail all of it and look into every nook and cranny of what he says…so we’re going to focus on why Stephen gave this sermon, the sermon’s big themes and what happened as a result. So my sermon title is “The Church and the Story of God” and our first point is, “The The Wonder of God: An Everlasting Covenant.”

I. The Wonder of God: An Everlasting Covenant

What kicks off this whole incident is Stephen just being Stephen. He was selected to be a deacon because he was known to be full of the Spirit and of wisdom and verse 8 remarks that he is just dishing that stuff out…grace, power, wonders and signs.

Now a lot of times when we see words like wonder and signs we immediately start thinking miracles, that a bunch of supernatural stuff was going down. And that very well might have been the case. But what gets Stephen in trouble is not doing miracles. Everyone always likes miracles, they don’t get people in trouble…speaking about Jesus does.

Check it out. Verse 10, there’s this collective group of five different ethnicities or classes…some ex-slaves (the Freedmen), some Cyrenians, some Alexandrians, some Cilicians, and some Asians are verbally disputing with Stephen and what kind of Spirit and wisdom is he dishing out? One of speech, “they could not withstand the wisdom and the Spirit with which he was speaking.”

Specifically two things really torqued them about what Stephen was saying. It’s in verse 13. Look at it, “This man never ceases to speak words against this holy place and the law.” And in what way do they hear him speaking against it? Well verse 14, he said “Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and will change the customs that Moses delivered to us.”

We’ll talk more about their specific charges later but what they are chiefly upset about is Stephen speaking about Jesus particularly in regards to two things: the temple (this holy place) and the law (the Torah or what we call the Old Testament). Now they’ve actually put Stephen up on trial here…he’s brought before a council of elders, scribes and the high priest and these formal charges are laid against him.

These are no small charges. The temple is God’s holy place and the law is God’s holy book. If you’re against them then you’re against God. That’s why they accuse him in verse 11 of blasphemy.

How Stephen responds is masterful. There’s a lot we can learn from it. Maybe you’ve had a conversation with someone recently that went something like this…Sean, our music worship leader had one this week at his work. I didn’t ask him if I could share this, so hopefully he doesn’t quit today after me outing him. I never said I wouldn’t tell anyone…

So anyway, Sean not only works here for The Resolved part time but also works at a guitar tech shop that repairs guitars. Apparently a customer came in to pick up a piece they had been working on and was talking to the owner and it came up that he was a music worship leader at a church and the guy apparently just start laying in to him…”You’re a worship leader eh? So you’re a Christian huh? Well then, if you’re God is so loving then why would he ever send anyone to hell?!!! Hell is a bunch of nonesense. How can you believe that. That is so ridiculous! And on and on.”

I really do feel a little bad in sharing this. Sorry Sean. I think Sean was confessing this to me as sin and here I am outing him. I could never be one of those confessional booth pastors. Oh well.

Anyway, Sean got a little upset and dropped what he was doing and started going at it with the guy and quoting verses and getting into this heated shouting match…ending by saying to the dude…”you just need to go read your Bible!” I’m so sorry man. I really am making this sound a lot worse than it really was, I’m sure.

Anyway…here’s the point. If you’ve ever been attacked by someone for your faith in Jesus then you know this feeling. What is your knee-jerk, gut reaction feeling? It’s to get on the defensive right. You immediately want to start rebutting, refuting and proving yourself innocent and right? Right?

So here’s the thing. You know Stephen had to feel like this. But something came over him…they see it in his face and instead of being hot with anger he starts in with an inviting endearing appeal, “Brothers and fathers, hear me.” And here is the really amazing thing. Rather than citing their attacks and immediately moving to explain and defend himself he goes behind the accusations.

Their accusations are that Stephen has spoken against the temple and the law…rather than addressing the temple and the law Stephen begins by talking about the God of the temple and the God of the law. Looks at his first words, mid verse 2, “The God of glory appeared.” Whooooooo!

This is masterful. It’s like what a lawyer does in a courtroom…getting to the question behind the question. Right away by beginning with God, Stephen rather than whirling back on his heels takes the offensive position and begins to speak about who God is.

God here…like in every single text, passage, story, or book of the Bible is the hero. If you walk away from this chunk of Acts thinking Stephen is the hero you missed the point of his entire sermon. God is mentioned 26 different times in various ways and each time either an attribute or an action of his is appealed to or noted.

The way that Stephen starts out here sets the tone for his entire message. The God of glory appeared…just that phrase, “the God of glory” is enough to make your heart sink to the floor. The word “glory” in the Hebrew is the word “weight”…that God is weighty, God is full of weight. When the glory of God appears one is overwhelmed and huge stuff takes place. We could easily preach a whole sermon just on that title of God. I had a friend who did his masters thesis on it. The God of glory. The God of weight. It huge.

And there are number of choice phrases about God in this sermon of Stephen’s. Like “God spoke” “God was with him” “God was giving them salvation” “I AM the God” “God will raise up” and so on. And we could spend a bunch of time on each of them. But thematically, what establishes and carries the story of the history of God’s people that Stephen recounts is that this God is the God of covenant.

He begins with the establishment of the covenant with Abraham and then moves through three other major time periods or epochs where God keeps the covenant. You see the word “covenant” here in verse 8 where God gives Abraham a physical sign or reminder of the covenant in circumcision. Which is crazy that God picks something so um…personal and attached, that every time you’d go to the bathroom you’d be reminded of his promise…the covenant of circumcision.

The word “covenant” isn’t a super common word used today in English. Lawyers use it I know. It means a serious promise, pact or legal agreement. In old, old old Bible times two parties would set the terms of whatever the covenant was, cut an animal in half and then walk between the pieces to say if you break this covenant may you be cut in half like this animal. So covenants are a serious promise.

Now, yes God had made a covenant with Adam, the first man. The Adamic covenant was to one day have one of Adam’s seed come and deliver man from the curse of death Adam earned for the human race. And yes, God had made a covenant with Noah, the Noahic covenant to never destroy the earth with water again. But Stephen doesn’t begin with the Adamic or Noahic covenant he begins with the Abrahamic covenant.

Two reasons. One, Abraham was considered by the Jews who were putting him on trial as being the very first Jew. Two, it’s with Abraham that God’s covenant to save a people for himself from eternal death gets personal. From Abraham on, the covenant gets passed through Abraham’s physical family blood line. It gets personal.

So let’s back up and supplement this heavy theology with some story. Abraham and his wife are old…really old and with no kids and God promises them offspring and a land and that God will be their God. And God tells Abraham to circumcise himself…which if you don’t known means cutting part of the skin of your penis off…and this circumcision would be Abraham’s covenant sign or seal from God that God would surely do it. So glad we just get to baptize these days when dudes come to faith rather than circumcise them.

Well, Abraham has Isaac and he has sons and three generations from Abraham go by and Joseph comes on the scene. And through Joseph’s God keeps the covenant promise. With Joseph we see another significant figure up against the odds just like Abraham was…all the land is in famine and all those of Abraham’s family line are threatened to perish from it but God through Joseph God keeps his covenant and his people are spared and actually prosper.

They prosper in multiplying so much so that it becomes a problem in Egypt to the point they are forced into slavery for over 400 years. This is when the third major covenant promise figure that Stephen cites comes on the scene. Moses. And Stephen has a lot to say about Moses. More than any of the other guys he brings up.

Here’s why…Moses is the one who wrote the Torah, the law. Which remember was one of the main charges against Stephen. And with Moses God’s persistence to keep the covenant in the face of great opposition and unlikelihood persists. With each case Stephen brings up it gets gnarlier. Abraham was just old without kids. Joseph just deals with famine and prison. Moses has to deal with 400 years of slavery and one of the most powerful and cruel rulers the world has ever known.

The way that Stephen tells Moses’ story is that he was blessed by God or beautiful from the start, always meant to be the one to bring and carry on the covenant promise. In verse 17, it becomes “near” with Moses. Moses attempts to bring it nearer but it’s not the right time yet, he faces more opposition and pretty much gives up on it.

Then the God of glory appears to him. Just a phenomenal story. I’ll re-read it here in verse 31-34, “…there came the voice of the Lord: ‘I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac and of Jacob.’ And Moses trembled and did not dare to look. Then the Lord said to him, ‘Take off the sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.’ I have surely seen the affliction of my people…and I have come to deliver them.”

The God of glory shows up and weight! Same God who started this whole thing off from the beginning with Abraham. He’s holy, He’s powerful, when he manifests his presence…you tremble.

From there God uses Moses to lead the people out of Egypt in the great Exodus but it’s not long before more opposition ensues and Moses fights for the promise of a people of God in a land of the worship of God. Notice verse 38 when Moses receives the law of God, look how he describes the law…”living oracles.” Why are they living? Why does he speak of them that way? It is because they were given by the living God and reflect him. Stephen is strategically point to the living God not just the practices or places or parchments given by him.

Stephen’s account of Moses and the time or era of Moses ends with him talking about the “tent of witness” which was the place of worship they set-up and tore down each week for forty years. So all along, Stephen maintains this God-centered view and perspective of history. He’s not looking at it as the history of the law or the history of the temple but the history or the story of God and his people.

There’s two last major figures Stephen mentions…. David and Solomon. They are often mentioned together for their tandem work in making Israel a great world power, especially by building the temple. It was the era or epoch of David and Solomon. To this day, looked upon by orthodox Jews as the prime years of Israel as a country that they long to return to.

But as Stephen once again points out, it isn’t the circumstance, the law or in this case the temple which was God’s primary focus of concern but rather Himself. That God was chiefly concerned about being God and having a people who worshipped and delighted in Him as God.

Stephen quotes Isaiah 66:1-2 here in verse 49-50. “Heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool.” God is too big and too weighty for earth to contain him…the whole earth is only a big enough place just rest his feet. “What kind of house will you build for me?” You couldn’t build one big enough. What’s God really care about? Why did he allow and instruct them to build a temple? So that they would see him as the God of the covenant who made all things. “Did not my hands make all these things.” He is the creator and forever to be blessed by his people. The law…the temple…they’re about God!

Okay, this has been a long sermon point. My sermon point that is. I know it’s not good public speaking form…but it’s fitting, because God is supposed to take up the most space. What you’re meant to walk away from after reading or hearing Stephen’s sermon is that God is a big deal.

Men and ages come and go but God is great and glorious and to be praised and through all the generations he keeps his covenant…it’s everlasting. God initiates the covenant and maintains the covenant throughout all the ages because God will not be cut in half…and He will keep the promise he has given to men.

Now I’ve tried to be careful and just focus on God and the positive force of his covenant…because with each epoch or age Stephen introduces he almost does so with this sense like…”maybe this time.” Each time a new figure comes on the scene the hope is that with them the promise of the covenant…a permanent people of worship and place of worship…that as the promise gets nearer and nearer it will finally be fulfilled. But it’s not Joseph. Not Moses. Not David or Solomon. None of them. Not until Jesus does the covenant promise no longer draw nearer but actually dawns.

What I haven’t said is how amazing it is that God keeps pressing on with the covenant. Because man breaks his half, his side of the deal…yet God keeps up his side of the bargain anyway. And when we see this it almost makes the covenant that much more amazing and wonderful.

So let’s look at that and talk about, “The War of Man: An Ongoing Rebellion” as our second main point today.

II. The War of Man: An Ongoing Rebellion

We’re not going to spend a ton of time on this but it’s a huge part of Stephen’s defense to the charges being made against him and it’s crucial for us in order to see the greatness of what Jesus has done for us.

Okay. Remember Stephen starts off nice. When he introduces things with Abraham, everyone is surely on board with him at that point. God gives the covenant to Abraham. That’s good. Everyone is happy. He concludes the section on Abraham in verse 8 saying, “Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob of the twelve patriarchs.” Then in the very next verse he introduces Joseph, through whom God carries out the covenant promise. But look what it says about the patriarch’s attitude toward God’s man Joseph. Right away, at the beginning of verse 9, “And the patriarchs, jealous of Joseph, sold him into Egypt.” Patriarchs receive the promise but don’t like God’s man to fulfill it.

Next up, God’s man Moses. Moses’ first attempt at delivering the people of Israel is rejected. Look at verse 25. “He (that’s Moses) supposed that his brothers would understand that God was giving them salvation by his hand, but they did not understand.” And look at what they actually say to him. Verse 27, “Who made you a ruler and judge over us.” They don’t want God’s salvation…at least through Moses’ hand.

So Moses peaces out..for forty years until God shows up in a burning bush and commands him to go back and this time he does lead them out in salvation from Egypt. But Stephen reminds everyone in verse 35 once again that this is the same Moses…the one “whom they rejected, saying ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge?” He was in fact was the “man God sent both as ruler and redeemer.”

But the people don’t listen to and follow him for very long. Only a few years later in the wilderness at the very point when Moses goes up on the mountain to get the law…the one Stephen’s accusers are concerned about and Stephen says, verse 39…”Our fathers refused to obey him…thrust him aside.” You starting to notice a theme? Our fathers refuse. The brothers reject. The patriarchs are jealous. Every time God sends a man to actually bless his people so the covenant is kept…the fathers and the brothers…the leaders are not happy.

Then when God blesses them anyway with wealth and respect from the nations and allows them to build a temple, they make the temple about the temple rather than being about the God who could never be contained by the temple.

At this point Stephen gets really pointed. Up until he quotes Isaiah about the house of the Lord…Stephen is pretty much just telling stories, making some decisive comments no doubt. But then in verse 51 his tone changes and he makes it real personal…personal application time!

Look at verses 51-52 with me, “You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in hearts and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you. Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute.”

Up until now he had been using inclusive language…throughout the sermon he referred to “our fathers” and now it’s “your fathers” and he uses this strong aversive “you.” You stiff-necked. You resist. You. Stephen had been charged with blasphemy. Now the tables are turned and Stephen charges them and not just with blasphemy but with war and treason against God!

He says, “you stiff-necked people” – a picture of an ox with a yoke on it who will not turn his head with the pull of the reigns…he’s unteachable which is actually one the things Moses called the people when they sinned. You “uncircumcised in heart and ears” – a picture of their lack of spiritual affection and receptivity to God. And then this potent statement, “you always resist the Holy Spirit.” I think the English word translated as resist is to soft actually…the Greek is more like “oppose” or “run against.”

Stephen just recounted over a thousand years of history where there was consistent opposition to God. And then there’s the clincher which gets Stephen lynched…

He groups his current audience, who is upset over him preaching Jesus…he groups them in as being responsible for killing the ones who prophesied of the messiah…like Isaiah, Jeremiah Ezekiel and Micah who all told of a Christ who was to come and who were all murdered. Because of their necks, hearts and ears of opposition Stephen accuses them of being complicit in the deaths of those prophets and not only them but now Jesus, the Righteous One whom they betrayed and murdered.

Some personal application point eh? You just preach this really nice sermon and then you turn on your audience and you’re like…”and you’re all murderers!” It’s just like how Peter preached on the first day of the church on Pentecost and then later at Solomon’s Portico when he said, “and you killed him (Acts 2:23; 3:15)!”

In response they don’t even let him get to the point in his sermon where he offers them Gospel forgiveness and repentance…so he has to do it in his prayer while they are stoning him. We’ll look at that in a second. But before we do I want us to really think about this for a second. How can Stephen, like Peter did earlier say, “you killed him…you betrayed and murdered him”? How can he say that?

I think it is because of this…whoever and whenever we reject and resist God, his leaders, and deny God the worship he deserves…we show that we really are of the same heart and mind. We share a commonality and comradare with them. In hundreds and thousands of small ways we do the same thing over and over toward God…our hearts are telling that if we were in their positions in history would have done the exact same things.

And this really is the view of all Scripture…that ever since Adam on down man has sinned and rebelled against God. James 1:14 says each is lured and enticed away from God. Romans 3:11-12 says, “No one seeks God. All have turned aside.” Isaiah 53:6 says, “All we like sheep have gone astray.” We dismiss God and fight against him and are guilty of war and treason.

It’s stark and it’s dark. We’re meant to hear the words in Stephen’s sermon…”I’m stiff-necked. I’m uncircumcised in my heart and ears. I resist the Holy Spirit.” I don’t know about you but I know those things are true of me. Apart from God’s softening by stubbornness, opening my heart and ears and overcoming my resistance…I just keep rebelling.

And this really is the true beauty and wonder of the covenant…that even though man has and continues to rebel against God, God doesn’t abandon the covenant. He keeps it! He upholds it for us! There is no covenant like that on earth! Every other covenant has a contractual out if one party doesn’t keep up their end of the bargain. No body makes a covenant and says here’s the deal…if you do this, I’ll do this but if you don’t keep do you side of things…I’ll still always do mine no matter what. This is why the covenant is so astounding!

It’s amazing. But there’s a danger. The danger is that we can miss the scandal of it. Romans 3:25 brings this issue up….How can God be just then? How can God still be a good and just and right God and keep giving the goodness of the covenant away if people are murdering his men, stiff-necked against them, who don’t listen or respond to him.

This really is the best part of the whole Stephen story. It doesn’t really even come so much from his sermon but from what happens afterward when his sermon is interrupted with people being enraged and grinding their teeth. This best part is how the Gospel gets declared in this story.

So for our final point today, “The Work of Jesus: An Undeniable Gospel.”

III. The Work of Jesus: An Undeniable Gospel

After Stephen makes this personal charge against his accusers, he’s apparently interrupted by shouts of anger and what not…then the way the text reads in verse 55 is that Stephen has a vision and sees something no one else sees. He’s “full of the Holy Spirit” which indicates God enables him to gaze into heaven and what’s he see? The glory of God! Verse 55. He “gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God!” How did the sermon start out? With the glory of God appearing! And where’s Jesus? Right there!

This tells us three things. One, that Stephen is claiming Jesus is God. Two, that Jesus rose from the dead. They murdered him on the cross but he’s alive and well and ruling from heaven on high! Three, that he was in fact the promised one of the covenant! All the men whom God sent were small temporary messengers meant to point to him…the coming Righteous One, who once and for all would fulfill the covenant promise of God.

Basically, Stephen’s response to the charge of blasphemy toward God in regards to the law and the temple is to say Jesus fulfilled the law and he is the temple. Since Jesus rose the permanent place of worship is in him and the temple is no longer necessary.

So it doesn’t matter if the physical temple is destroyed because Jesus is the real temple of God and he can’t be destroyed. They tried and it didn’t work. He rose! John Calvin says this, “No harm can be done to the temple and the law when Christ is openly established as the end and truth of both.” Jesus fulfills it all.

Upon hearing Stephen describe what he sees, their shouts of rages literally turn into screams. They cover their ears and start screaming and gang rush him and in a haste stone him to death under the official condoning of Saul.

Then two last things happen…two powerful things.

While Stephen is being stoned, he calls out to God just as Jesus did while dying on the cross and says, “receive my spirit.” So Stephen addresses Jesus as God and surrenders his life to the Lord for the sake of the Gospel.

Then…his legs shaking from being pummeled by rocks, his once shining face now likely a bloody mess…he falls to the ground and he lets everyone know that forgiveness can be found in Jesus. Using Jesus same words spoken to the Father on the cross, Stephen now speaks directly to Jesus and says, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.”

It’s a way of praying to God and asking him to save them. Overcome their resistance, open their hearts and ears. Soften their necks. And bring them to saving faith in the righteous one so that they may one day stand with you in glory!

What’s utterly mind blowing about these words is why Jesus could say them and why Stephen could pray this prayer. Listen. When Jesus said, “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.” He could say so because he knew he was paying the price and penalty of death in that very moment, for them, in their place! And that is the heart of the gospel and Stephen knew it so he prayed that Jesus’ atoning work on the cross might be applied to the hearts of the very people who were stoning him in that moment! It’s incredible.

After this incident takes place…widespread persecution against Christianity erupts. Now it’s clear…this isn’t just a new branch of Judaism it’s a whole other thing. Christians truly believe Jesus is God, the fulfillment of the covenant and that he rose again and because of that the law and the temple are deemed obsolete.

If you remember the church had grown to upwards of potentially 25,000 people and they were meeting in the temple at Solomon’s Portico. Now they can’t meet there anymore. When the persecution breaks out people go everywhere into a great dispersion…which God uses to fuel and spread the Gospel. From the sound of it in chapter 8 verse 1, most people are gone and the apostles are left reeling.

The work of Jesus here in fulfilling all of the history of God’s plan of salvation, in Him giving His life up on the cross, in His rising from the dead and ascending into heaven…all so that men and women might no have their sin of rebellion held against them…it’s breathtaking. The Gospel is undeniably the most beautiful thing ever dreamed.

I think where it hits us is in recognizing that our God is glorious…he truly is. And us, we’re truly rebels who reject him. We don’t like to be told that we’re wrong. We like to focus on our own efforts and activities and not God and his provision in the covenant of Christ.

So I don’t think this text is so much about how to suffer well as a Christian or how to be bold in your faith even when persecuted for it. I think it’s foremost about a great and glorious God who has given us his Son. And he is our only hope.

Conclusion

We’re going to conclude and prepare to receive the Lord’s Supper.

My guess is there is probably two main different responses today and you might actually be in both camps. One is recognizing that you’ve been rebellious toward God. Stiff-necked, hard hearted, not listening and resisting him. If that’s you…don’t pick up stones and throw rocks at God…instead repent, be forgiven and run into the arms of the savior.

It’s funny how easy it is to become stiff and hard and resistant. Are you? May God make us soft.

The other response I think may be for you to recognize the goodness of our God and his covenant. You see I think sometimes we recognize our sinfulness and need for Jesus and that’s as far as it goes and we fail to see that what Jesus does for us opens up the freedom and pleasures of heaven.

It’s funny now easy it is to miss that God means for us to delight in his glory. Jesus purchased it for us so we don’t have to wallow in our guilt any longer. He has freed and forgiven us. Do you need joy and rest today?

Then for all of us what we probably need is a good healthy dose of the savior’s face. We need to gaze into heaven and see the glory of God where Jesus is risen and at the right hand of the Father.

Sometimes it’s hard to know what’s going on in your heart and in your life…sometimes it can just seem like a convoluted mess. When I find myself in that place…I just pray, help me to see you Jesus and your glory.

So when you come to the table today. Confess you’re a rebel sinner and repent of any stiffness toward God. Then thank God for His covenant and joyfully walk away knowing that because of Jesus nothing is held against you! And then lastly just pray and ask God to help you see Jesus more…ask for more Jesus in your life.

Let’s pray.

Blog | J.D. Bale | Black White and Red: Jesus, The True and Better Rick Grimes

You might be arriving almost a decade late to the party, but if you own a TV in America right now, you probably know about The Walking Dead—“a continuing story of survival horror.” At the center of the epic is Rick Grimes, the perspicacious revolver-wielding moral compass of the zombie apocalypse. Rick is painted as the White knight who leads a small group of survivors through the Black night of human history. Moral crisis is a key theme throughout, and is much more obvious in the comics which are intentionally illustrated in Black and White and every shade of Grey.

At a pivotal and defining moment in the story, Rick finally cracks and is forced to compromise his moral values in a very public way. When he sees the horror in the eyes of his friends and family, he begins to preach, saying, “You people don’t know what we are. We’re surrounded by the dead. We’re among them—and when we finally give up, we become them! We’re living on borrowed time here. Every minute of our life is a minute we steal from them! You see them out there… You think we hide behind walls to protect us from the walking dead… Don’t you get it? We ARE the walking dead!”

In that moment it becomes clear that The Walking Dead is not about moral compromise— it’s about moral failure. Rick Grimes’ epiphany amounts to this: There is White, and there is Black, but nothing in between. What we know as “Grey” is just an optical illusion—a much more fashionable shade of Black. Compromise is not a means of survival but an evidence of death.

It’s hard not to read this and be reminded of a similar sermon that Jesus once preached to the Jewish leadership in Matthew 23. The scribes and Pharisees, keepers of The Law, the moral compass of God’s chosen people, had become very good at pretending that they were pure and righteous—White. Over and over again these leaders challenged Jesus with hypothetical legal questions, exploring all the Grey areas in between what The Law required and what the Jews could claim to observe. But Jesus would have none of it, and he calls them out, saying,

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness. So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness… You build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous, saying, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’ Thus you witness against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers. You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to Hell?”

Jesus was all Black and White. Like The Walking Dead, the story of The Gospel is not the good news about moral compromise. The Gospel is a story about absolute moral failure.

Within the context of The Gospel we know what White is because it has been revealed to us—we know that the Godly character of all that is Good, Righteousness, and Perfect is revealed in The Law. But we are also confronted on a daily basis of our inability to live up to the Righteousness of The Law.

Facing this Truth and being convicted of it every day should kill us. But it doesn’t because we never really face it. We hole ourselves up in our comfort zones—those little Grey areas in between conviction and repentance. Sometimes we convince ourselves that we are “mostly good,” but we still screw up “every once in a while” because we are only human, after all. Other times we admit that we are Black to the core, and confess the ongoing nature of our sin almost to the point of embracing it. We know that God has promised redemption, and think that a little bit of religion here and there goes a long way toward tinting our Blackness with a little White, towards Grey.

In both cases we forget that Jesus himself had no love for Grey areas, and was never satisfied with anything less than perfect obedience. We love Grey areas because they allow us to externalize our sin and make it something hypothetical. Just as the Pharisees pointed to ancient history and said, “At least we are not as bad as them!” so we point to make believe zombies and say, “It could be worse!” Other times we present ourselves as being a little more thoughtful, “Yes, hypothetically I should be doing better, and maybe some day I will be able to, but for now I’m just doing the best I can!”

But in every case, Jesus dismisses the hypothetical. Yes, you are as bad as them. No it couldn’t really get any worse. No, your best for now is not good enough, ever. Comfort and complacency with the ever-encroaching presence of Sin and Death has never been nor ever will be acceptable. Your clever compromise is evidence of Death. Repent or go to Hell.

Thankfully The Gospel is also about the Dead come to Life. The Gospel is about the irresistibly miraculous gift of redemption. John Owen, acting as a kind of “zombie elder” to The Resolved Church through the texts that have survived him, has this to say about how Jesus performs the miraculous feat of turning Black into White by way of Red:

“Set faith at work on Christ for the killing of your sin. His BLOOD is the great sovereign remedy for sin-sick souls. Live in this, and you will die a conqueror; yea, you will, through the good providence of God, live to see your [flesh] dead at your feet.”

While we were still so Black and dead that we couldn’t tell White from Grey, Christ gave up his flesh and blood preaching, “Watch this and live.” Jesus doesn’t want you to you convince him that your Black is the best shade of Grey possible. Jesus wants to paint it Red, baptizing you in the infinite shades of REDemption. Trying to escape judgment by presenting yourself as something called “Off-White” just pisses him off.

We love Grey area fictions like The Walking Dead because they support the fiction that our present condition is any different—they allow us to avoid the reality that Life really is Black and White, and that we are never going to escape the reality of Death. But when we use compromise to escape the very real call to Perfection, or look to and follow anybody who is content to do the same, we give up on Life itself, and every walking minute is one that we borrow from the grave.

If you’re looking for a moral compass, don’t rely on your own wisdom and power, or that of any other man that is living. You might as well rely on a comic book for salvation. Look to Jesus, the True and Better Rick Grimes, who daily slaughters Sin and Death with his own Perfect blood. And, as John Owen would say, do it diligently and with the urgency appropriate for the zombie apocalypse:

“Be killing sin or it will be killing you.”

This is an exegetical and topical sermon looking at Jesus’ words to James and John concerning service as a means of greatness. This sermon was originally preached on April 29th, 2012 at The Resolved Church in San Diego, CA.

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Starting A New Ministry at The Resolved Church
By Pastor Duane Smets

At The Resolved Church one of our chief goals is to help our members identify their gifting and calling and help them fulfill that. Ephesians 4:12 says that the church leaders are to “equip the saints for the work of the ministry” and then three verses later says when people are using their gifts in tandem with others that “each part is working properly” and it “makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.”

What is clear from these passages is that both elder (pastoral) oversight and member contribution is integral to church health and growth. With that in mind we want help provide clear, easy routes of how The Resolved Church seeks to fulfill this calling and mandate from Scripture.

Step One

Be a member. Are you a member of The Resolved Church and in good standing? This means you have been through the church membership class, publicly covenanted as a member, are regular on Sunday, part of a community group and have served in other areas of ministry in The Resolved Church already. It is important that you get a feeling for how The Resolved Church functions for a period of time before you launch something new. This ensures that any new ministry will have the same basic DNA as all the other ministries of the church.

Step Two

Assess. Ask lots of questions. Is this something that The Resolved Church really may need which would progress its vision and values (WORSHIP – A Pursuit of God’s Glory | GOSPEL – Centered in the Jesus Story | SAN DIEGO – Giving New Life to our City). Have you tried serving in other ministries first? Sometimes discovering your place involves trial and error in order to discover who you are and how your spiritual gifts fit. Some suggest taking a spiritual gifts or an entrepreneurial test. These may be helpful at times…but even if your test results suggest one thing, it may not fit with the time and season of the church or your current level of maturity or experience.
Spiritual Gifts Test
Entrepeneur Test

Step Three

Pray and get counsel. Pray about it for an extended period of time. Share the idea with those who you are in discipleship relationships with and in community group with…get their honest feedback. Ask one of the elders or deacons in verbal conversation if they think your idea may fit and ask their advice on if you should pursue it and how. Make sure this is something you are wanting to take on and lead yourself and not something you are looking for other people in the church to do simply because you think it needs to be done.

Step Four

Write down a vision, theology and plan proposal to submit to the elders. This 1-2 page proposal ought to contain the reason, purpose and goal of the ministry (vision), Scriptural and a gospel centered motive and result (theology) and some practical steps in how you intend for the ministry to be accomplished (plan). Having a written out piece for your ministry not only helps you consolidate and clarify many things and gives the elders something tangible by which to oversee the ministry but it also provides some guardrails and tools for future evaluation and effectiveness. The elders are looking for clear leadership, responsibility, sound theology, and good practical planning.

Step Five

Be happy with whatever response comes from the elders. If the response is a “no” or “not at this time” then humbly, “obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you (Hebrews 13:17).” Trust that the elders are not only looking out for you but the entire church, which includes many other factors. If the response is a “yes” then take on the responsibility with great passion, care and seriousness so that you are sure to, “fulfill the ministry that you have received in the Lord (Col 4:17).”

Conclusion

Our vision for The Resolved Church is to worship our great God, make much of Jesus and what he has done, and spread that to the entire city of San Diego. There are many many many ministries we would like to see birthed in and through The Resolved Church in order to fulfill this mammoth sized vision. We simply want to come alongside those whom Jesus has uniquely designed, called and empowered to do this through our church and assist them in making it happen in a way that brings much glory to God, his Son and his church.

May God use The Resolved Church as a base and a platform for ministry in our church, city state, country and world far beyond our wildest dreams.

If you are new to The Resolved Church we would love to get to know you!

*Please notice that the original posting had this event happening on the Saturday of the appropriate weekend. Take note that May 6th is, in fact, a Sunday.

On Sunday, May 6th at 6pm, Pastor James and his wife would like to invite you to come and spend an evening at their house. We’ll have dessert, coffee and fellowship together. If you would like to come get directions either by emailing welcome@theresolved.com or by leaving a voicemail on the church phone 619-393-1990.

Seven years ago this April we started The Resolved Church in an apartment my wife and I lived in at the time in Pacific Beach. We started with eight people. We met on Sunday nights. We didn’t sing. We’d just have someone pray and then I’d preach and we would receive the Lord’s Supper. After our service we’d throw a BBQ party each week that we’d invite friends from work and the neighborhood to come to and it would often go late into the night.

Many things have changed since those early days and some have not…

What’s Changed

When we started the church I was only 26 years old. I had long hair and worked at an independent record store as a manager full-time. We didn’t have any children, no house mortgage, I was freshly out of grad school and spent most my time listening to rock ‘n’ roll, studying for my sermons and going on dates with my wife.

The church didn’t have any staff because there was no money…any money people gave we just used to buy food for the BBQ. Only a couple of the people coming were Christians and the rest didn’t really know what to think…they’d never seen church like this before. Slowly people who were coming to the BBQ started coming earlier…to church. It was just a little weird to see them bringing a case of beer in one hand and a Bible in the other. There was a rawness to what we were doing then that I miss. What I don’t miss is having people drunk, falling off my roof and having to take them home all bruised up.

About six months later we were cramming 20-30 people into my apartment and we knew we needed to find a new space to meet. So I started driving all around San Diego praying and looking at nearly every building I saw wondering if it potentially had a room inside where we could hold service for cheap. That’s when we found the Local 325 AFM musician union building that we’ve been meeting in ever since.

Now we’re over 200 people on a Sunday, have two services, a bunch of amazing musicians, three kids classes with terrific family ministry workers, a hospitality team, a building transformation team, an audio visual team and a prayer team. We have three pastors, three deacons, three people on staff, nine community groups, eighteen dudes in leadership development, maintain a $12,000 a month church budget and are now in pursuit of our own building. It’s crazy to think of all that God has done in the last seven years. A lot has changed for sure, but a lot hasn’t…

What Has Not Changed

Even though I’m 7 years older now, with two children, a house mortgage, some wrinkles and a few gray hairs…I still love rock ‘n’ roll and love my wife more than ever. And the same passions and convictions which led us to start The Resolved Church are the ones which continue to drive it and grow it with divine force.

We began the church by being passionate about mission and seeing lost people come to know, love and embrace Jesus as savior. We don’t have drunk people falling off the roof anymore but drunks are still coming and continue to fall into the merciful arms of Jesus. The Gospel is and always will be front and center.

We began the church by preaching the Gospel and going through books of the Bible word for word and we’re still doing that. In the last 7 years we’ve been able to preach through the entire books of Romans, Nehemiah, Matthew, Jonah, Titus, and this year we’ll finish the book of Acts. The Bible is and always will be the Word which we proclaim.

We began the church by always receiving the Lord’s Supper and having that be a special and intimate time for us to confess our sin and gratitude to God for what he has done for us in his death and resurrection. Today the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper or “communion” is still the culminating part of our service where we respond to the Gospel in humble adoration and worship to our great God and savior. The bread and the wine, Jesus’ body and blood will always be the theme of our song for only through faith in his work do we stand justified before God.

Conclusion

In the Bible the seventh year is the year of completion. Interestingly a study done by LifeWay Research states that only 65% of church plants make it past their sixth year and after the seventh year, most churches stay around for good.

We’re grateful to Jesus our head pastor for leading us this far and pray for many more years to come. It is our prayer and vision that The Resolved Church would continue to grow healthy and strong and increasingly become a base for the ministry of the Gospel both here in San Diego and beyond. We plan to be here for a long long time unless our Lord returns!

May God continue to get his glory as we proclaim the fame of his Son Jesus!

The Church and Leadership Structures | The Book of Acts | 6:1-7 | Pastor Duane Smets

This an expository sermon on Acts 6:1-7. It covers the challenges of dealing with numerical and ethnic growth in the church as well as the importance of preaching and having deacons. This sermon was originally preached on April 22nd, 2012 at The Resolved Church in San Diego,CA.

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The Resolved Church
Pastor Duane Smets
April 22nd, 2012

The Church and Leadership Structures | Acts 6:1-7
I. Church Growth: The Need For Servants & Systems (vs.1-3)
A. Numbers – Numerolatry versus Numeraphobia
B. Nations – Difficulties with Diversity
C. Needs – Time for Tables
II. Church Roles: The Need For Special Ministers (vs.4-7)
A. Ministers of the Word – The Primacy of Preaching
B. Ministers of Mercy – The Signs of the Kingdom

Introduction

Good morning Resolved Church. It’s super good to see everyone today. If you’re new, we are especially glad you are here. We try to be a very welcoming and hospitable church, so we hope you are comfortable, get to know some people and enjoy worshipping our great God and savior with us today.

My name is Duane. I’m one of a group of pastors here who serve under our head pastor Jesus…but none of the other pastors really like getting up in front of people so they make me do the preaching most the time. It works out well because I actually really, really enjoy preaching! And it’s for that reason that I’m super excited about today’s sermon because we we’ll be working through a passage of Scripture which specifically highlights the role and importance of preaching.

I remember the first time I ever preached a sermon. I was 19 at the time. I had only been a Christian for about a year. My parents were friends with this guy who was the pastor of a little church in a little podunk town in Oregon and he had heard about my story and asked me to come share my testimony and preach. I had no idea what I was doing but I jumped at the opportunity to be able to get up on a stage and talk about the goodness of Jesus.

It was probably the worst sermon anyone has ever heard in their life. My whole method of preparation was simply to pray a lot, get up front and then “let God fill my mouth.” Problem was I remember getting lost, stuck, freaked out and there would be these long pauses where I just sort of looked out at the people and froze. I remember praying in my head while I was preaching, “please God, help me get to the end of this sermon and I promise I’ll never touch a microphone for the rest of my life.”

That was almost fifteen years ago now. Since then I’ve now prepared and preached around 500 sermons. And I still have no idea what I’m doing. But I’m just as passionate about the opportunity to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ as I was that first day when that podunk pastor gave me a shot at giving out the Word.

So with that, let’s open up in our Bibles to the book of Acts, Acts chapter 6, verses 1-7 today. If you’re just joining us we are in a season as a church where we are working in and studying through the book of Acts together during the time when we hear the Word of God preached. So follow along with me as a I read, then we’ll declare it as God’s Word and pray over it.

• Read Acts 6:1-7
• Pastoral Declaration: This is the Word of the Lord.
• Congregational Response: Thanks Be To God.
• Prayer for Preaching of the Word

Alright. So there’s really two main things going on here. The Church is still within her first few years of existence but has grown rapidly which has caused some leadership and structural challenges. First we’ll look at this growth and what’s going on and then we’ll talk about Apostles’ solution and what of this whole section is really relevant for us. So our first point for today, “Church Growth: The Need For Servants & Systems.”

I. Church Growth: The Need For Servants & Systems (vs.1-3)

One of the challenging things about reading and understanding a passage like this is that it clearly refers to people and practices which were apparently very common when this was written, nearly two-thousand years ago. But since so much time has passed and our culture is so completely different it makes it hard to know what in the heck they are talking about! Like who are the Hellenists…they sound like a motorcycle gang. What’s going on with these widows and why are the apostles working at Olive Garden waiting on tables?

Let me kind of unpack for you what was happening. First, the church had grown like mad. This is the fifth time in the book of Acts, since the church started that Luke, the human author of Acts, has told us that the church, or the disciples, or the people who believed in Jesus…however you want to say it…this is the fifth time he’s given a church growth report.
• Acts 2:41, three-thousand men, not counting women and children received the word and were added.
• Acts 2:47, “the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.”
• Acts 4:4, another five thousand men, again not counting women and children “believed.” Then last week in our study,
• Acts 5:14, “multitudes of both men and women” were believing and being added to the Lord.

Then, once again here in Acts 6:1 they are increasing in number. Estimates are that the Church, there in Jerusalem, at this point was somewhere between 20-25,000 people. The first church in the New Testament, the church at Jerusalem was a megachurch. People from all different backgrounds and places were coming to believe in Jesus as savior and Lord.

Now there’s a couple things going on here. One with the widows. The Old Testament Law had commanded that widows be cared for…part of what the tithe money or goods was to go to. For example, Deuteronomy 14:29 “You shall bring out all the tithe…and the widow(s), who are within your towns, shall come and eat and be filled.” So normally they would have a basket of food they would dole out to widows daily if they needed it.

Whether or not the Jewish authorities were doing at time we don’t know…what we do know from here in Acts 6 is that the church had taken up this responsibility, particularly the Apostles, the twelve…and that they were using tables in some way to distribute the food.

We also know that there was what sounds like a lot of widows and that for some reason the native widows were being taken care of and the foreigner ones were somehow being overlooked and not getting food. The Hellenists here are the foreigners, they are Jews who were not from Jerusalem but from some other part of the country or world…they primarily spoke Greek and had recently moved to Jerusalem as many older people did toward the end of their lives. The Hebrews here, were Jews from Jerusalem and primarily spoke Aramaic.

Some some jump to start crying racism here or that the unity of the church we read about just two chapters ago had already fizzled away. But we actually don’t really get a sense of that. The only reason the text gives us a numerical one and a language one. That they were increasing in number…so maybe there was not enough food. And a language one…that some spoke Greek (the Hellenists) and some Aramaic (the Hebrews)…so maybe they were having a problem communicating. Overall, basically, it’s just growing pain due to numerical growth and ethnic growth…the problem really is that there is not enough leaders and the right kind of leaders addressing the problem.

I think sometimes we have this sort of rosy colored view of the early church. Some even call it “the golden age” as if everything was perfect back then and if we could just get back to the way things were during the early church then things would be good. But in actuality, from passages like ours today, what we see is it was a lot messier. The church is just scrambling, trying to do the best it can with all the growth God was giving it.

When you look at it there’s three contributing factors here and I want to say some things about each of them: numbers, nations and needs.

A. Numbers – Numerolatry versus Numeraphobia

We haven’t talked yet about numbers in our study of Acts so this seems like a good place to. No matter how you slice it, the book of Acts likes numbers. Whenever it mentions more numbers added to the church, it’s a good thing. Sometimes you get specific numbers like 3,000 then 5,000. And guess what, it was the same thing in Jesus’ ministry. There’s the feeding of the 5,000 then the 7,000.

The Old Testament is no different. In Exodus, 6,000 men (always men just counted) are counted leaving Egypt. And when they get into wars the number of thousands they loose are mentioned and when Israel becomes a nation the number of men was 1,100,000. There’s even a whole book of the Bible called “Numbers” because the rise and fall of the numbers of God’s people is what drives the story.

So here’s the thing. When it comes to numbers and church I see two errors. One is numerolatry and the other is numeraphobia. I don’t know if they are words, I just made them up because I think they sound cool.

Numerolatry is the idolatry of numbers. It’s when all you care about is the numbers and will do whatever it takes as a church to get numbers and you end up making you’re god numbers. Numbers are what you worship and serve. I’ll give you a few examples.

I remember one Easter I read an ad about a church who was encouraging people to come to their church on Easter Sunday because they were going to have an In-N-Out truck giving away free hamburgers for all who came. We decided to one up them and said we were going to give away free $100 dollar bills to all who came. Just kidding.

It can also play out in specific strategies church have came up with to take out anything potentially offensive or uncomfortable in the sermon. You know, like don’t say anything about things like “sin,” “death” and the really really bad one, “hell.” You don’t want to talk about those things because then people won’t want to come and want to stay. I’m kind of the opposite…I try to make sure I work in sin death and hell in every sermon just to make sure we’re always preaching the gospel and not something else.

Another way it can play out in is financially. We were talking about this at our last elders meeting how you can worry so much about the financial numbers that you can manipulate and pressure people financially to give in the church to the point where the giving is no longer really giving it is an exaction or a tax you demand.

So numerolatry is bad. We should not worship numbers and do whatever it takes to get numbers. However, with that some go to the opposite extreme. They see the abuse of numbers and assume that numbers themselves are bad and what make things bad and because of that they should be avoided. This is numeraphobia, the fear of numbers. I’ll give a couple examples.

One is megachurch bashing. It comes out in sentiments like, “I hate megachurches…you can never get to know anyone there…the pastors are always fake and act like rock stars…megachurches are religion for the consumerist.” Some seem to think or shall we say fear that if a church grows numerically then it will inevitably become corrupt.

Another one is simply bad planning. It’s where you don’t want to focus on the numbers so you don’t give them any consideration at all and you’ve got no vision, no budget, no plan and no attention to how many numbers you have and what specific needs arise because of that. Both Moses and the Apostles here in Acts 6 fell into this problem. The numbers came and they didn’t have a plan to deal with them…so they had to develop some systems and structures on the fly.

Both numerolatry and numeraphobia are unhealthy and unbiblical. Sometimes it can be so easy to forget is that numbers are people and we want to see as many people as possible come to truly know Jesus through believe in the Gospel. As many as possible.

We’ve been experiencing numerical growth here at The Resolved Church. We moved to two services last September to make more room and here we are again with our family ministry rooms for the kids full and both are worship services heading toward full. So we’ve launched this building campaign looking for a new and bigger facility. We want to plan well!

We’re not changing anything about what our church believes or our primary principles of ministry, we’re simply seeking to be good stewards of the growth he gives us. And that changes some things.

One thing…It’s impossible for everyone to know everyone anymore…so community groups are even more important and we’re going to have let go of our love for a “small church feel.” We’re not going to sell our soul to get numbers but we’re not going to make decisions that would keep numbers out either.

Another thing…I myself, as one of the pastors can’t connect with and pastor everyone anymore. Your community group leaders and Pastor Ron and Pastor James are more than equipped and able to work through whatever things may be going on in your life where you feel you need to meet with a pastor. As we go on my job is going to increasingly shift and focus more and more on mainly preaching and teaching and writing.

What we have to keep in mind is that it is about the Gospel. We want more and more people to come to believe in the Gospel and join the church. As many as possible…that is joyous, good and worthy goal. With that goal, we also want different kinds of people. So let’s talk about, “Nations” and the difficulties that can come with diversity.

B. Nations – Difficulties with Diversity

I mentioned earlier that what we have here in Acts 6 is basically two different ethnicities. Two different people groups or nations. I’ve got a friend who is Mexican but he speaks perfect English, has lived in the states his entire life and recently got his Masters degree. None of his family speaks English and none has ever been to college and he says because of that there is a sort of cultural difference between them even though they are the same ethnicity.

That’s sort of like what is going on here in Acts 6. Now what’s interesting about it is that before coming to believe in Jesus these two groups would have had separate synagogues, which were separate gatherings for worship, with different languages, and reading the Bible in each of their respective native languages. But now, here they are both in the church…together!

What this speaks to is the consistent call in the Bible that the Gospel is for all different types of people and that we are all meant to be the church together. In Romans 1:17 it is for the Jew and the Greek…for all who believe. In Revelation 5:9 the church is composed of people from every tribe and tongue.

It’s for that reason that we, The Resolved Church, have never picked a specific demographic of people we are trying to reach and then tailored everything after that. We’re after every tribe and tongue…every kind of person who lives in San Diego. Now, I’m sure there’s some things that in time we’ll learn to do better to accomplish that vision but that’s what we want.

What it reflects is this principle, I’ve shared it before…listen carefully…it’s the people who are most unlike you that often have the most impact upon you. You see so often we gravitate to and only want to be around people who are just like us…who are similar in age as us, or at a similar life stage as us (single, married, kids etc.), or have the same interests or hobbies as us, or have the same ethnicity as us.

When often what we really need is to be around people who are not like us, who are different. We need older people hanging out with younger people. We need people who are not married hanging out with marrieds and people without kids hanging out with marrieds with kids. We need people who like indie music hanging out with people who like country music, or people who like classical music hanging out with people who like hip hop. We need blacks, whites, mexicans, asians and all kinds of other ethnicities hanging out with each other and growing in Jesus together!

And here’s the thing…that is not easy. It’s not. Sometimes it is messy and hard because we see things differently due to our backgrounds and interests. It just is. Sometimes we just don’t make sense to each other. And that’s why we need each other. That’s the beauty of the Gospel that it can unite us because despite all our differences we are all sinners and if we believe on the Lord Jesus we share a unity closer than age, stage, race or interest!

This is the reason we do not have single’s ministry, men’s ministry, women’s ministry, young married’s ministry or whatever…we just have community groups because we want you all together. Yeah, sometimes you’re going to feel weird and out of place. That’s cause people are weird and so are you, so get over it.

Whenever I hear this…”I’m just not connecting with people.” My immediate response is are you making yourself connectable? How much effort are you making to build relationships with people and sharing who you are and getting to know them? How much are you sharing your junk…your sin and your struggles? How consistent are you? Are you just in and out? Because I guarantee, if you gave someone even just three months of your life, 90 days and you were consistent, open, and honest that you’d probably end up having one of the closest relationships you’ve ever had.

So be diverse and work through it with the Gospel. Okay, enough of that digression…I’m just saying, the fact that the early church was having this problem was a good sign that they were doing their job in getting Hellenists and Hebrews together.

Okay, real quick let me say a couple things about needs, “Needs – Time For Tables.”

C. Needs – Time for Tables

The tables here in Acts 6 were apparently used for distributing the food to the widows. This was a ministry the church had decided and determined to take on. They were not outsourcing it but were committed to it.

One thing you face and especially in our world today where there are needs everywhere you look and with the internet we are more aware of needs around the world than ever…with that we face an abundance of needs. And we can’t do everything. So you pick one thing, or a few things and attempt to do them well. The problem the early church was running into here was time…they were juggling holding worship services, prayer and preaching and distributing food to the widows and it was too much.

They could have axed the widows ministry or figured out a way to do it better. And they chose the second route. We’ll talk about the primacy of preaching in a minute but it’s a good reminder to us that there are things the church ought to do with a gospel heart, motive and intention…and we need to take time to do them.

There may be some things God would put on your heart to do, some ministry of some kind to help a certain group of people out…and we can figure out how to do that as a church…not outsourcing or sending money to some parachurch ministry to do it for us, but us as the church taking care of those needs and making sure the gospel gets declared with words while doing it.

Tables represent the practical needs and ministries of the church and we’ve got to take the time to do them and figure out how to do them well. To be able to do all the things God has called and designed his church to do requires good leadership. So let’s move on and talk about “Church Roles: The Need For Special Ministers.”

II. Church Roles: The Need For Special Ministers (vs.4-7)

The church here in Acts 6 had grown exponentially, at an extremely rapid rate and it appears the only staff members for this church of 20-25,000 people were the twelve apostles and they were overwhelmed with their duties and responsibilities of leadership.

Since Jesus had ascended, they were apparently manning everything themselves. So they have a member meeting, the full number show up and two main leadership roles in the church get established, ministers of the word and ministers of mercy…which would later become known as the “pastors” or “elders “and the deacons. Let’s look at each, first “Ministers of Mercy – The Signs of the Kingdom.”

A. Ministers of Mercy – The Signs of the Kingdom

Now neither the apostles who are doing the preaching or the ones here who are called upon to serve tables are called by the terms elder or deacon yet. That’s an important thing to keep in mind. What we’re witnessing here in Acts is the church scrambling to figure things out.

You see if you look at verse 2 where it says “serve tables.” The word there for serve is in the Greek verb “deacon”, so really it’s to “deacon tables.” Likewise in verse 4 where it calls preaching the “ministry of the word” the word for “ministry” in Greek again is the word “deacon”, to “deacon the word.”

What’s going on is that the word “deacon” was a general word for service or ministry. Which is part of the reason that makes this confusing. It wasn’t for 30 or 40 years until you have Paul in 1 Timothy 3 and in Titus 1 differentiating the term “deacon” solely as an official title for those who oversee care for the practical needs and ministry of the church and those who minister the word are called “elders” or “pastors.”

Acts 6 here is just the beginning of that. They lay hands on these 7 men appointing them for this task which is an official commissioning of them to their position. What’s said about them here is that there were three qualifications: good repute (they had a good reputation), we’re full of the Spirit (are godly and Jesus-like, exuding his Spirit) and we’re full of wisdom (smart at figuring out practical solutions).

For example, in 1 Timothy 5 we find out what the deacons figured out for the widows was a program that they could enroll in if they were sixty years of age or more. The church would care them financially and the widows would help teach the younger women how to care for children and a home.

That’s awesome. Deacons using their wisdom, care and reputation to handle a challenge and do it well. I called the deacons here in Acts 6 ministers of mercy. Some like to think of doing practical needs like providing food etc. as doing social justice. But we probably don’t want justice because that’s us getting what we deserve, which is judgment…so really they’re extending and administering the mercy of God.

What they are doing is making sure that the church is bearing the marks of the kingdom where Jesus rules and reigns. Romans 14:17 says the kingdom of God is a matter of “righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” So when those things are tangibly being felt and expressed then that’s a sign of Christ’s rule and reign as king.

God has called some of you to be deacons and we need you here at The Resolved Church. There is so much more going on than we can handle and the more hands we have on deck the more we can do and do well. Sometimes tables get a bad wrap. Serving tables is a high and honorable calling…it helps create the platform for the preaching of the word of God which saves soul, which is of utmost importance.

The Apostles tapped into something very important…the dangers of giving out food without giving out spiritual food…the danger of giving out bread without the bread of heaven. You see if we just dig wells and give out water to people without verbally preaching the gospel then all we are doing is cooling people’s tongues while one a hot road to hell. Wells, water and food alone does absolutely no good. The Apostles understood this and thus recognized the primacy of preaching. So let’s look at these “Ministers of the Word.”

B. Ministers of the Word – The Primacy of Preaching

Let me re-read verse 2 and verse 4 because they are key verses here. First, they say verse 2, “It is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables.” So they present their solution and then state verse 4, “We will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.”

What clearly gets announced here is that that preaching the word of God, the ministry of the word is meant to be central and of first importance. Jesus’ commission given to the disciples was for them to witness…to verbally declare who Jesus is and what he had done in his death and resurrection. Preaching about him is of primary importance.

Have you ever wondered what the deal is with preaching? Why churches have guys get up in front of people and talk? Why preaching and preachers?

The word, “preach” or “preaching” has a rich history. Long before Jesus came on the scene the “Kerux” or the “Preacher” was an official position in the king’s court. He was an authorized herald of the monarchy and then later the state. Originally there were even four different classes or types of Preachers in Greco-Roman culture: a Preacher of Mysteries, a Preacher of The Games, a Preacher of Festivals and a Preacher of The Market. In order to become a preacher, one had to have a loud and resonant voice that was powerful and authoritative (Pollux, Onomasticon, IV, 94).

In the Bible “preaching” (kerygma – noun, kerusso – verb) becomes one of the chief words used to describe the presentation of the gospel by Jesus and his apostles. The word occurs in various forms 76 times in the New Testament alone and is used uniquely to describe the proclaiming the gospel with an authority that calls its listeners to respond and follow.

When Jesus begins his ministry, preaching is primary. It’s the very first thing he does and he continues preaching everywhere he went. Matthew 4:17 says, “Jesus began to preach saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” In Luke 4:43 Jesus says he “must preach” for it was integral to the purpose for which he came into the world.

D. Martin Lloyd Jones, whose story I’ll share with you in a few minutes says this, “Our Lord performed miracles, but the interesting thing is miracles were not his primary work, they were secondary…He did not come into the world to heal the sick and the lam and the blind or to quell storms on the sea. He could do such things and did so frequently; but these were all secondary, not primary…Indeed we find many times when He had worked some striking and notable miracles and the people were trying to hold him, hoping he would work still more, he deliberately left them and would go on to another place…(so he could) preach.”

For Jesus preaching was primary and then he taught the disciples the importance of preaching. In Mark 3:14 “He (Jesus) appointed twelve [whom he also named apostles] so that they might be with him and he might send them out to preach (Mk 3:14).”

And as we have been seeing in our study through the book of Acts, preaching was the central drive and forming principle of the early church. The Church begins with apostles preaching. The last chapter we just last week ended by saying, “every day, in the temple and from house to house, they did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ (Acts 5:42).” All throughout the book of Acts, in nearly every chapter in connection with nearly every major movement of God, we consistently see preaching present (Acts 5:42; 6:12; 8:4, 12, 25, 40; 9:27, 28; 10:36, 42; 11:20; 14:7, 21; 15:35; 16:16; 17:18).

So what does it mean to preach? To preach is to have someone who is called by God authoritatively declare the good news of Jesus life, death and resurrection for sinners who put faith in him and is the thing upon which the church centers herself on. Without Jesus in it, there is no sermon. Do you know what a sermon is without Jesus in it, it is not preaching it is just babbling. Meaningless nonsense.

For most of Christian history, preaching has been emphasized in Jesus’ church. The word “gospel” itself is an amalgamation from a popular description of what happens to people who listened to authoritative preaching of the good news of Jesus. It was said it seemed they came under a “God-spell.” Their reactions to sermons were spell bound like and resulted in lives devoted to God, so preaching the good news became a “God-spell” sermon, which over time changed to “gospel.”

From what we can gather among the writings of the Church Fathers, preaching remained a central focus and charge of The Church. Augustine says we “must absolutely preach, so that he who has ears to hear, may hear (Anti-Pelagian Writings).” But during the medieval age the Church began to focus more on the Eucharist (the Lord’s Supper), where the bulk of time in worship services was devoted no longer to the exposition of Scripture but a lengthy administration of the Lord’s Supper. So the minister would actually have his back to the congregation most of the time.

One of the major changes of The Reformation, of which Martin Luther expended much energy towards, was bringing the preaching of the gospel back into the central place of church worship. He turned the pulpit around and began to preach and spoke of the importance of preaching. He writes, “Truth and doctrine, are to be preached always (The Bondage of the Will).” And “The chief office of a preacher is to teach uprightly, and diligently to look to the chief points and grounds whereon he stands, and so instruct and teach the hearers that they understand aright (Table Talk On The Church Fathers).”

During the Great Awakening in America the impetus driving revival was preaching…the passionate preaching of Jonathan Edwards and the booming voice of George Whitfield. Throughout church history one is hard-pressed not to recognize that regardless of tradition, preaching is central to the life and worship of any true church.

And the Bible has some strong stuff to say about preaching. If you would, turn in your Bibles a few pages over to 2 Timothy 4:1-4. Here is what the apostle Paul has to say to Timothy a young minister, “I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.”

The implication of this passage is: if a church does not make preaching central, then false teaching will eventually come in and corrupt the church. The preaching of pastors is one of the chief ways Jesus has given his leaders a way to exercise their authority, which enables them to protect the church from moral and doctrinal heresy.

Preaching and true preaching, preaching sin and the savior’s death on the cross and resurrection to deal with sin has fallen on hard ground lately. Many are now saying that people have tend to have shorter attention spans, are more visual learners and thus traditional preaching is counter-productive, irrelevant, and no longer helpful for the mission of spreading the gospel.

They suggest something called “dialogical preaching,” where the preacher is merely a facilitator for the group’s “conversation.” The problem is 2 Timothy 4:2 doesn’t say, “Dialogue the word.” It says, “Preach the Word!”

Others are highly sensitive to what is perceived as the church’s neglect of injustices and the need for community. Duplicities among churches are noted where individuals will show up on Sundays for a worship service but have no other interaction with other believers during the week much less any real Christian lifestyle and/or love tangibly expressed to their neighbors and cities. So some say we just need to preach the gospel by loving people and doing good deeds, if necessary use words. The problem is if you don’t use words that’s not preaching!

Others think we should just get together in community groups or what they like to call “missional communities” because they say, we really just need to hear from one another rather than one person preaching. Don’t get me wrong, I think we ought to get together in the week and process the gospel with each other…but really what I need to hear isn’t your story but the story of Jesus preached with power and conviction and authority from a preacher!

Interestingly, the Apostle Paul called down a curse on himself and others for not preaching. In 1 Corinthians 9:16 he declares, “Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!” And in Galatians 1:8 he says “If we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed.” A woe is a death wish and to be accursed is to be damned. These passages quite literally tell us Paul believed a neglect of preaching the gospel was ground for being eternally damned.

Preaching is so important. I told you I would tell you the story of D. Martin Lloyd Jones. He was born in Wales in 1899. His dad was a successful businessman. But when he was 10 a fire swept through his home and his family lost everything barely escaping with their lives. From that point he said he felt a call on his life to help others.

So he grew up and went to school to become a medical doctor. But Jones had a conversion during that time…he came to a point where he writes, “For many years I thought I was a Christian when in fact I was not…I came to see that I had never been a Christian and became one.” And he became convicted of his own personal sinfulness for the first time and saw the goodness of Jesus who paid the price for his sin on the cross and from that point on made the decision to leave the field of medicine in order become a minister of the true medicine which alone could heal and save the soul. And he went on to become a great preacher.

Years later he delivered a set of lectures on preaching at Westminster Seminary which are now collected in a book of his called “Preaching and Preachers” which I’ve been reading lately. In it he writes, “The most urgent need in the Christian Church today is true preaching…(The Church) is not a social organization or institution, not a political society, not a cultural society but the pillar and ground of the truth…The primary task of the Church (and) the primary task of the leaders of the church…is to preach the Word…and we must not allow anything to deflect us from this.”

I guess you can tell…I’m pretty passionate about the importance of preaching. I don’t understand everything about it. But there is something significant about having to sit quietly for an extended period of time and listen to a man expound on what God has said in the Bible that is unique in how effects the human heart and mind. As Romans 10:17 puts it, “Faith comes from hearing and hearing through the Word of Christ.” We must hear the word of Christ preached!

Jeremiah 23:29 says God’s Word is like a hammer which breaks the rock. So easily and so often our hearts get hard and we need the word of Christ to break our hearts and shine light on the glory of who Jesus is and what he has done for us!

The early church leaders got this…that preaching the Word was central and of utmost importance. They were and continued to be prayerfully devoted to it. Praying for the people and that the Word of God would accomplish its work.

Conclusion

Alright. Let’s wrap things up here. Look at verse 7 with me. As a result of delegating the role of preaching and pastoral care to a specific group of men and the role of practical matters and mercy ministry to a different group of men…the result is verse 7 that “the word of God continued to increase, and the number of disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith.”

The result is a bunch more people become Christians! Even priests. That’s huge because priests often times were the legalists who were opposed to Jesus. Which may be why their conversion is called becoming “obedient to the faith.” What it implies is that there was former disobedience and rebellion to the faith, the truths of who Jesus is and what he accomplished.

And this really is a picture of the gospel…this is why we need preaching. We need to be told we’re sinners and that we need a savior. You become a Christian when you lay down your arms and give up the fight against God…you give up trying to save yourself and cast yourself into God’s merciful arms.

The good news of the gospel is that though we have been rebellious, ran away from God, done our own thing, defied him, done what we know is wrong…he has not treated us according to our due but instead poured out the full brunt of his judgment on Jesus hanging on the cross for us. Jesus, dies for sinners in their place to receive the eternal wrath they deserve. And then he rises again and offers new life to all who turn to obey him.

You see the good news is that where we have been disobedient Jesus was obedient and he gives his obedience to us as our very own. Then following him, listening to him, serving him, being obedient to him becomes our joy to where we delight to obey.

We’re going to receive the Lord’s Supper now. As you come to the table today to receive Jesus body and blood in the bread and wine ask God where you in your heart have been disobedient…
• Maybe it’s in regards to numbers either not caring or caring too much….
• Maybe it’s in regards to nations…only liking people who are like you…
• Maybe it’s in regards to needs that you never do anything for anyone but yourself…
• Maybe it’s in regards to preaching and the word where you’ve been resistant to listen…maybe because you’ve been listening to some bad teaching…

Whatever God may be addressing in you…remember Jesus gave himself for you that you might know his love and forgiveness and receive all of his obedience as your very own. Have him work in you, change you and make you his servant in this world.

Let’s pray.

Blog | Carrie Sandys

Call me crazy, but isn’t it sometimes difficult to read about the early church in Acts Chapter 2: 37-42. Were they all just glowing with the fresh love of Christ? Meeting together daily, sharing everything, preaching boldly in the face of imprisonment and physical consequences, giving as anyone had need…this church seemed so healthy and so perfect, so full of super-Christians.

What was it about their Jesus that shaped them to behave with one mind and purpose that the rest of us attempting to follow two thousand years later are still lacking?

I recently returned home and discovered that my father has temporarily stopped attending church because he does not feel like he fits in. And it broke my heart. I have always admired my father in part because he has embraced his nerdiness, but also because his stories of having a hard time fitting in as a smaller than average non-athletic late-bloomer with coke-bottle glasses as a youth helped me to really understand the power of the Gospel. It was stories of my father’s young-adulthood that made tales of Jesus with lepers and prostitutes so beautiful and powerful. And this Jesus is the one I have always wanted to follow. This Jesus I have wanted to emulate. This Jesus that has given me the special place in my heart to seek out those who are ostracized from society and attempt to give them a home with Him.

I have been there too, though. I have felt so frustrated that Jesus’ home is not as welcoming as I would like it to be. His church is often a place where I have such high expectations of amazing fellowship, but am bitterly disappointed. I can vividly remember reading Acts in high school and being floored at the community described. It looked nothing like any church I had ever experienced. Meeting together daily, sharing everything, giving as anyone had need…this church seemed so healthy and so perfect.

What was it about their Jesus that shaped them to behave with one mind and purpose that the rest of us attempting to follow two thousand years later were still lacking? In the past, I have sought to find this “perfect church”, but I know now it does not exist. Not at mega-churches, or house churches. Not in liturgy, not in denomination, not in doctrine, not the healthiest of churches. Maybe not even back in Acts.

In the five years I have attended the Resolved I have seen many beautiful glimpses of the Church being what it is supposed to. Cars, money, and babysitting services offered freely to those in need. Food delivered to those who are ill or hungry. Homes opened. Some friends even took care of our new whiny puppy for a whole month when we realized we needed to move to keep him.

But as great as our time at the Resolved has been, my pessimistic analytic mind wants to focus on what is wrong instead of right. And, ultimately, Christ’s bride is made of sinners, and it is still being redeemed. There will be times when we are still offended and wronged by other Christians. I know this because several friends (all at different churches, ironically) have recently vocalized their similar feelings of frustration at how difficult it is to be in community with God’s people sometimes.

Personally, I often sensitively perceive others’ rejection of me that does not exist. And I have a harder time vocalizing my frustrations in a loving way than I care to admit. I try to shove it under the rug at the church door (cause that ever works…), and pretend it did not happen, while secretly letting bitterness grow in my heart. I justify that this putting on a façade of friendship and nicety is the Christianly thing to do—I am loving my brothers and sisters! It is not really, and I am not really (For those of you who just freaked out because I was ever nice to you don’t worry…I am not very good at faking it, and have learned a little more about this whole loving confrontation thing).

Oh Jesus! Why do I continually focus on others’ sawdust before having you remove my personal planks? Why do I continue to attempt to answer my own insecurities in relationships with anything other than the security of your love? Even your bride could never be my salvation. It is in you we find out identity, our security of heart and mind. In you we realize that we are not only the offended and ostracized, but also the offender, the ostracizer, the one who pushes others away to protect ourselves. It was my sin too that held you to the cross, Lord.

If only we could flaunt our weaknesses more; admit to others when we are foolishly offended because we have judged them from a place of personal insecurity, then we would be able to find our value and our whole being in You and You alone. May we learn to see ourselves and others through the lenses of Your love and sacrifice.

Blog | Resolved Video

For those of you who missed it, here is the short video that was shown during both Easter Sunday Services. Say hello to Nicholas (“Not Todd”) Todd and Jennifer Agajanian.

The Church Authenticated | The Book of Acts | 5:1-42 | Pastor Duane Smets

This an expository sermon on Acts 5:1-42. It covers the season in the life of the early church when its existence became recognized as a permanent and powerful force. The sermon focuses on the holiness of God, the spiritual healing from the Lord, the help of angels, the honor of suffering, and the power of the Gospel. This sermon was originally preached on April 15th, 2012 at The Resolved Church in San Diego,CA.

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The Resolved Church
Pastor Duane Smets
April 15th, 2012

The Church Authenticated | Acts 5:1-42
I. A Death Curse: The Holiness of God (v.1-11)
II. A Healing Cure: The Hope of the Lord (v.12-16)
III. A Prison Break: The Help of Angels (v.17-26)
IV. A Joyous Beating: The Honor of Suffering (v.27-41)
V. An Unstoppable Jesus: THE POWER OF THE GOSPEL

Introduction

Good morning. It is good to see you all today. For those of you who are here after coming last week on Easter for the first time, we’re glad you came back and if today is your first time visiting we’re really glad you’re here and hope you enjoy worshipping our great God today with us. And if you one of the people that come here all the time then I guess we’re glad you’re here too.

My name is Duane and I’m one of three pastors here and my main job is preaching and teaching. Right now, as most of you know, during this season in the life of our church we are studying through the book of Acts. We took a week off of it last week for Easter but we’re picking it right back up today and we’ve got a big chunk to work through. By God’s grace we’re going to hammer through all of chapter five.

I’ll read it in a second but before I do let me kind of set it up for us. Jesus came into the world. When he was 30 he started teaching and preaching. Three years later he is crucified on a cross. Three days later he rises from the dead. He appears to a ton of people for a period of forty days. Then he tells his disciples he’s cruising to heaven but he’ll send his Spirit and when the Spirit comes they’re to start the church and be his witnesses. A few weeks go by and that’s exactly what happened and ever since the church got started it was a whirlwind.

Thousands became Christians on its first day. There’s a ton of joy and excitement. People are learning who Jesus is and caring for each other. One day Peter and John heal a crippled dude…it draws a crowd Peter ends up preaching to which in turn gets he and John thrown in jail. After that the church is focusing on prayer and taking care of some financial needs and then comes chapter five. The church is most likely still within her first year of existence at this point…maybe just beyond.

Now in here in chapter five, which we’re about to read, there’s a bunch of crazy stuff that goes down and we’ll talk about it. But overall, if we’re look at the chapter as a whole, with an arch from its beginning to its end what we see is the church’s now permanent existence being trumpeted.

The supernatural stuff that takes place in the chapter is God’s stamp of authenticity that the church is here and here to stay. In verse 11, we actually have the very first time that the church is called the “church” in the book of Acts. The word church simply means “gathering” or “assembly” not “called out ones” like some have tried to say, that’s actually a translation error called “root fallacy.”

But what’s significant about this first usage of the word “church” here in verse 11 of chapter 5 is it is not talking about a gathering of believers. It talking about an entity of people which now exists as a “whole church.”

So we’ve got God’s authenticating mark. The writer of Acts’ (Luke) authenticating mark by calling the church the church. And then we’ll see towards the end of the chapter that the Jewish leaders finally acknowledge the existence of the church and their official council decides to allow it to continue. So that’s a third authenticating mark here given by the ruling authorities.

The big theme of Acts 5 really is the validation of the church, so I titled by sermon today “The Church Authenticated.” With that let me go ahead and read the text, declare it as God’s word and pray over our time in it today.

• Read Acts 5:1-42
• Pastoral Declaration: This is the Word of the Lord.
• Congregational Response: Thanks Be To God.
• Prayer for Preaching of the Word

Alright, so there’s basically four main scenes in this chapter: a death curse, a bunch of healings, a prison break, and a council meeting which results in the apostles being beaten and with each one we’re confronted with truth and reality that Jesus is risen, the church is here, and it simply will not be stopped. We’ll look at each of these points.

We’ll start out with what for many is the hardest part of this chapter, my first point “A Death Curse: The Holiness of God.”

I. A Death Curse: The Holiness of God (v.1-11)

Okay, so this is the crazy story of Ananais and Sapphira. If you remember back a couple weeks we finished off Acts 4 by seeing church care for it’s own and take care of financial costs by being a giving church and we saw an example of one person, a guy named Barnabas who sold a field he owned and donated all the money from it to the church…like the equivalent of $15k today.

Chapter five here starts out with the story of a married couple who do something similar except when they give the money to the church they only give a portion of the money and lie saying it was the total sum. Now I was going to and meant to include this story when we we’re talking about money but as it turns out it actually fits better with everything else in chapter five because the story of Ananias and Sapphira really isn’t about money but hypocrisy and lying and how seriously God takes that.

Let’s work through what happened. First, as we saw with how chapter four ended…everyone heard about what Barnabas did and was greatly encouraged by it. Ananais and Sapphira decide together to do the same thing…sell some property and give the money to the church.

But when Ananais brings the money in, somehow Peter senses he is lying. And he actually attempts to probe his heart. He asks him a series of questions trying to draw him out…most likely to bring him to repentance. Check ‘em out. Verse 3 & 4, “Why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land?”

So Peter with his first question points out that: (1) it is a heart issue, (2) that Ananais was giving into sinful temptation of Satan, (3) he wasn’t just lying to the church but to God, (4) he had selfish or greedy motivations.

Then in the next two questions Peter points out that neither Peter nor the church really cared about the money…that the money was Ananais’s to do with what he wanted. See he says, “While it remained unsold, did it not remain your OWN? And after it was sold, was it not at YOUR disposal?” So Peter makes it clear that the money was not the issue but the fact that Ananais lied about it. He was attempting to be perceived as being generous and doing this great deed…so he was really seeking the praise of men for his act, praise that belonged to God alone.

Then with the last question Peter reiterates that this sin of Ananais’s came from his heart and that he lied to God. And right after that Ananais drops dead. Now there is nothing here that gives us any hint that Peter was expecting this. If anything, by the tone and content of his questions he is trying to bring him to repentance and restoration.

Then his wife Sapphira comes in. Verse 7 says it’s three hours later, so Peter has had some time to think and reflect on what just happened. And again, with her he attempts to get her to come clean and when she doesn’t Peter either assumes or has some spiritual sense that she is going to drop dead too because he predicts it and right away it happens.

Now, I called this point, “A Death Curse.” But there really isn’t any kind of curse given here. Some have said that perhaps the shock of hearing that their sin was found out made them have a heart attack or something. Probably not but even if so, the sense from the story is that something supernatural was taking place. Peter repeatedly says the lying was done to God, so the impression is that God is the one who struck them down and it causes fear among the people.

So this is the question, why would God do that? If I’m right, I’m guessing this story is somewhat disturbing for several of you. If Peter did it, our knee-jerk response is…that’s jacked up Peter. Funny, I’ve never heard those kind of Christians that pray to be able to do miracles ask to be able to do this kind of miracle. But I’ve passed it off onto God, saying God did it which maybe makes it worse for some of you…to where you’re like, “How could God do that!!! If God is a God of love why would he strike someone down???”

Well, a couple responses to that. One, this isn’t the first time God did something like this.

In the Old Testament one time a couple guys named Nadab and Abihu deliberately disobeyed God in how he had instructed sacrifices to be done…in response God struck them down with fire and said, “I will be glorified (Lev 10:1-3).”

Another time King David basically threw a parade and was having God’s holy ark transported. God had given special specific instructions on how it was to be transported but instead of following his instructions a man named Uzzah put it on a cart instead and when the cart stumbled he tried to steady it with his hand, so God struck him down dead (2 Sam 6:5-7).

From time to time throughout biblical history it seems God has chosen to remind his people of his holiness. That when God gives specific instruction, he means for it to be followed. Now right away I think our reaction is to think, that’s not fair…or isn’t God over-reacting…being capricious? But I think that’s because we fail to see how bad sin really is and how good God and his holiness really are.

Listen to R.C. Sproul here from his book, “The Holiness of God.” He writes, “Sin is a cosmic treason. Sin is treason against a perfectly pure Sovereign. It is an act of supreme ingratitude toward One to whom we owe everything, to the One who has given us life itself…What are we saying to the Creator when we disobey Him at the slightest point? …We are saying, ‘God Your law is not good. My judgment is better than Yours. Your authority does not apply to me. I am above and beyond your jurisdiction. I have the right to do what I want to do, not what You command me.’ The slightest sin is an act of defiance against cosmic authority. It is a revolutionary act, a rebellious act where we are setting ourselves in opposition to the One to whom we owe everything. It is an insult to his holiness.”

I think if we were able to see how good, perfect and pure God’s holiness really is that then when we compared our sin to it…we would see how bad and ugly it truly is and we would cry out for more than an immediate human death, we’d cry out for an eternal one. Hell. Hell is the only just response to sin.

Really, this story here in Acts 5 no matter how you slice it is a reminder of the holiness of the God whom the church was serving and worshipping. It brings everything to a level of seriousness and respect with which it was likely not treated with before…thus verse 11 says, “great fear came upon the whole church and upon all who heard of the these things.”

Interestingly, when the nation of Israel…the Old Testament church…when it was really just getting started a man named Achan stole some money and property and lied about it to Joshua, the leader of the people and when he was found out he too was put to death. And then when the New Testament church is just getting started a similar thing happens serving to authenticate the church as a work of God which would fulfill her destiny.

If there’s a personal application point here for us maybe it’s in that being the church is serious business. We’re not playing games here and putting on a show each week or even just providing some sort of social club. No. This is about God. And he’s holy. And we’re to serve and honor him.

Also, maybe there’s something to be said here about lying. It’s one of the ten commandments, commandment number nine to be exact, “You shall not bear false witness (Ex. 20:16).” In the story of Ananais and Sapphira they we’re trying to get people to perceive them as something they were not. What they cared most was what other people thought about them rather than what God thought.

Some of you just care too much about what other people think about you. Maybe it’s worrying about how many friends you have on Facebook or followers on Instagram or maybe it’s stressing about how you dress, or how much money you make or what job you have, home you live in or car you drive. Or maybe it’s about how spiritual you are and you want others to think of you as really spiritual or having it together. We are supposed to care what God thinks and if that’s straight then it doesn’t really matter what others think.

Or maybe it’s playing out like this with you…maybe you’ve got a whole other life or some stuff going on behind the scenes that nobody who you’re involved with at church knows about. Maybe there’s something you’ve never shared with anyone else that eating you up. Just come clean, get it out in the open, don’t hide and live in shame and deceit any longer.

Our lives ought to be an open book, where anyone could come watch us for 24 hours any day of the week and there is nothing we’d be ashamed of or nothing we wouldn’t mind being asked about. 1 John 1:7 says that as Christians we are to walk in the light and then we have true fellowship with one another. So come out into the light, it’s better. Don’t live a lie. You will not be happy that way. Life in the light is better.

Okay, let’s move on to the next section, “A Healing Cure: The Hope of the Lord.” It’s a much happier section.

II. A Healing Cure: The Hope of the Lord (v.12-16)

This is a short section here in verses 12-16 but it sets the stage for the increasing tension and sense of the work of God among the church. The situation is that ton of people who are sick with diseases or demons are coming out to where the church is gathering at Solomon’s Portico and the apostles and Peter are healing them.

This is nothing new really. We saw it a bunch in Jesus’ life and ministry and just a couple chapters ago in Acts we saw the apostles heal a lame dude. There’s just more of that happening at this stage and the healings are serving to help establish the existence of the church and the authority of her leaders.

Now there’s a couple interesting remarks here comparing the people and the significance of what’s taking place. Notice in verse 13 it says, “none of the rest dared join them, but the people held them in high esteem.” But then in the very next verse, verse 14 it says, “And more than ever believers were added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women.” It kind of sounds like there saying opposite things. None are joining but multitudes are added…?

Here’s what’s going on. After the Ananais and Sapphira incident there’s some fear. People don’t know what’s up. They start thinking Peter is some sort of magician. That’s the clear implication in verse 15 when they think there’s something special about his shadow. No joke this is straight up old school Peter Pan philosophy. In the ancient world, several people thought that one’s shadow was an extension of their person and carried with it part of your spiritual aura or energy.

But the distinction verse 13 makes is that a new respect for the apostles and the church was born. It’s a way of saying many were impressed or maybe even intrigued but not enough to come to faith in Jesus. And that second part is what verse 14 points out, that the real important thing was people coming to believe in Jesus. That was more important than the miracles or anything going on…was that new people were believing and being added to the church’s number despite the critics refusal to join.

And as we have said before any time healings come up in the Bible belief is almost always mentioned because the physical healing are meant to point to the spiritual healing. The hope that belief in Jesus as Lord will heal our hearts and give us the hope of eternity. A life once and for all freed from sickness, sorrow and suffering.

Perhaps, you like some of the people mentioned here in Acts 5 have been hanging around the church. Maybe you come on Sundays sometimes or even most the time, maybe you have gone to a community group or regularly go to one. And maybe there’s a respect and esteem for us and what we do here at The Resolved Church…but you’re still on the outside looking in because you have yet to truly believe and put your faith in Jesus with all of your heart.

If that’s you my encouragement, my invitation is to come on in. We all have sickness and sin and areas where we need healing and change. Our church is meant to be a hospital for the broken and bruised and we believe Jesus is the answer and that he heals and saves. We love you. Come be part of us. Believe and be added to our number.

Well…in our story all this action is happening in and around Solomon’s Portico, which is in the temple, in the middle of the city…and it creates quite the stir and as a result the apostles get thrown in prison. Let’s check it out and move on to, “A Prison Break: The Help of Angels.”

III. A Prison Break: The Help of Angels (v.17-26)

This is such a fun story. I have a secret fantasy and desire to break out of prison. I don’t really want to go to prison but I think breaking out would be fun. And yes, I did watch all four season of Prison Break.

So this story is quite comical. The high priest and the ruling body of the Sadducees are upset for this massive growth and attention the church has received, and specifically upset at their preaching about Jesus. In verse 28 they refer to the last time they arrested Peter and John and say, “We strictly charged you not to teach in this name (the name of Jesus), yet here you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching.”

So they throw the apostles in prison. The text doesn’t tell us which ones or if it was all of them or what…but they are in prison and verse 19 & 20 say this, “During the night an angel of the Lord opened the prison doors and brought them out, and said, ‘Go and stand in the temple and speak to the people all the words of this life.’”

The funny thing is the next day the authorities discover no one is in prison and they are wondering where the apostles are and lo and behold they find them back in the temple teaching and preaching in the name of Jesus…doing the same thing thing they’ve already been thrown in prison twice for!

Verse 24 says the leaders are “perplexed” when they see them there doing this…they are dumbfounded. Probably not only that they got out, but that they went right back to doing what they were doing before! Preaching Jesus!

A few things on this one.

First, it might have helped to mention earlier that you kind of have to get over the miracles or the supernatural hump to really deal with this chapter. Natural explanations are really awkward and forced and they really don’t deal with the intent of the text. If you’re ever going to take the Bible seriously you have to come to terms that it has a God who is the Creator of all things and he is not forced to abide by physical or natural laws of the universe because he made them and can violate them at will whenever he desires.

Second, in the Bible there are angels. They are mentioned nearly 200 times. We don’t have time to do a full study on angels and what they are, what different kinds there are, what they’re capable of and so on. But I’ll say a couple things. They are not human, though some of them look human. They are not bound to physical or natural laws of the universe like we are…so they can appear and disappear out of thin air. They are extremely powerful. And the good angels (bad angels are called “demons”) exist to do God’s bidding…usually bringing a message of some kind, sometimes accompanied with some action.

For example, the last time Luke, the human author of Acts, used this phrase, “an angel of the Lord” was in his Gospel in Luke 2:9 when “an angel of the Lord” appeared to the Shepherds in a field to announce Jesus’ birth.

I’ve never seen an angel, though Psalm 91:11 says that God has commanded his angels to guard his people in all their ways. If that’s true then throughout my life I’ve had some angels at my back at times and there’s some times I think I’ve definitely been hooked up. Like when I’m driving on the I-5 going through that downtown bend and texting when I shouldn’t be!

One thing we do know about angels is they always say not to worship them or focus on them, so I’ll move on..the angel here really isn’t the point. An angel shows up and somehow breaks them out of prison. The text doesn’t say how, if he just transported them out through a wall or what. But the angel gives the apostles a message emphasizing that they need to keep preaching and teaching about the word of Life, who is Jesus.

So really the whole point of the prison break and the help the angel really provides isn’t really the help in getting them out of jail but helping them continue to get the gospel out! Consistently, throughout the New Testament angels are always making much about Jesus and telling humans to make much about him.

Their instruction here echoes the words of Jesus himself at the beginning of Acts for his followers to witness of him or his words at the end of Matthew’s Gospel to “Go therefore and make disciples…teaching them to observe all that (Jesus) commanded (Mt 28:19).”

The angels’ words here are reminder to us of the importance of us continuing to go out of our way to speak the words of life…that Jesus died on the cross and rose again for sin and that by believing in him and his death and resurrection for our sin…we can have life in his name.

Some of you invited friends to Easter…and that’s good. Now you need to go the next step and talk to them about Jesus. Tell them about the life you have in him and the life he offers. Speak words. Without words there is no gospel. The gospel is and always will be a message in words and it must be spoken. Find someone this week to talk to about Jesus.

Okay, cool. Moving on. A lot of ground to cover today. Last main scene and then we’ll look into the gospel itself. So fourth point, “A Joyous Beating: The Honor of Suffering.”

IV. A Joyous Beating: The Honor of Suffering (v.27-41)

In the story, the religious leaders are upset at the apostles. Verse 33 says “they were enraged and wanted to kill them.” So they hold a special council meeting to decide what to do with them and they probably would have put them to death, except that Gamaliel speaks some undoubtedly God given wisdom into the situation.

Gamaliel, was an esteemed Jewish rabbi. In Jewish tradition and writings like the Mishnah, he is quoted a ton. One of the most revered Jewish teachers. It’s said he personally trained and discipled over 1,000 men…including Saul whose story we talked about last week for Easter.

Now, the whole issue is Jesus. The apostles won’t stop teaching in his name. In verse 31, the apostles say Jesus is the Leader and Savior and that all Israel, thus including this religious council, needs to repent and receive forgiveness for their sin. So the whole issue is Jesus.

It appears most the council wants to put the apostles to death. But Gamaliel speaks up and reminds them that there were other men who claimed to be christs…messiahs or saviors…who gained a following for a time but did not last and eventually fizzled out…and he names a couple of them.

Then he reasons like this, verse 38-39. “Keep away from these men and let them alone, for if this plan or this undertaking is of man, it will fail; but if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them. You might even be found opposing God!”

Very insightful reasoning. Sound logic. The Reformer John Knox said, “With God (on his side) man is always the majority.” Even though it was just a small band of men, eleven apostles…they were succeeding. No one is stronger or mightier than God…whatever side he is on, the other can’t win. God cannot be defeated.

It’s interesting…over all the years of history there have been many who have tried to snuff Christianity but with no success. Nero tried. Islam has tried for years. Today, Sam Harris and Richard Dawkins of “The New Athiesm” are calling for the death of Christianity. But no effort ever has or will be successful.

Gamaliel here is wise. He sort of sounds like yoda here to me. “If it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them.” So verse 39 says they take his advice. But they don’t just let ‘em go with no consequence, first verse 40 says “they beat them and charge(d) them not to speak in the name of Jesus.”

Those two words “beat them” comes from the Greek word, “dero” which literally means to “flay the skin.” When they would “dero” they would tie a person to a pole and then take a leather whip and and give them 39 lashes until their skin was flayed open.

Now here is the crazy thing about this. Verse 41, after this beating, when they left the presence of the council, they were “rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name.” That ought to make you double take. They’re happy about getting beat. Joyous! Rejoicing! “Yes, we just got whipped to a bloody pulp!”

What is up with that? Two things.

One, why they felt it was an honor. Later in Galatians 6:17 Paul will say, “I bear on my body the marks of Jesus.” And then again in Colossians 1:24 “I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church.” When Peter was finally put to death and they were going to crucify him, he felt so humbled by it, it’s recorded that he said he felt unworthy to be crucified in the same manner as Jesus, so he asked to be crucified upside-down, and so they did.

You see, the apostles had really come to believe in the Gospel. When they reflected back and remembered Jesus’ mockery, his beating, the trial and him hanging on the cross they looked back on it and thought…”he did it for me…to save me from my sin.” Jesus’ suffering had become precious to them.

Has it become precious to you? Would you feel honored to suffer because of speaking up for Jesus’ name?

This last week, one of our own, Erica Calvert, wrote a blog on our church website reflecting on Good Friday and Easter. In it she writes, “I try to imagine what it would be like…(to) see his injuries up close, maybe not even recognizing Him because it was so brutal? (But then to realize) death and sin lost their power because of Jesus put death in his grave. (To realize that) Jesus paid for my sin. (To know that) now the Father invites me in as a royal princess, perfect because of faith in the Son. (To believe) that Jesus replaced everlasting death with everlasting life when He rose from the grave. What’s more amazing than that?”

You see, I think the more we really believe in the Gospel the more suffering because of Jesus is not a jarring thing but a joyous thing…a privilege and a honor to in some small way, experience in part what he has done for us.

You see, I think we’ve got suffering all backwards a lot of the time. That’s the second thing I wanted to say about what’s up with their rejoicing over getting beaten. We can’t spend a bunch of time on it, but if you look up online our “Suffering and The Glory of God” sermon series (http://www.theresolved.com/category/sermons/sermon-series/suffering-the-glory-of-god/) you’ll find 8 sermons working through the role, place and purpose of suffering from Romans 8:18-39.

But I think we’ve got suffering backwards a lot of the time. So many times in our community groups…the prayer requests are for so and so who is sick or anytime things get hard we automatically just want to pray and ask God to take it away. Don’t get me wrong I’m not saying we shouldn’t ever pray for those things. But listen to some verses.

Romans 5:3 “We rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance.”
2 Corinthians 1:5 “As we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too.”

2 Timothy 1:8 “Share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God.”

1 Peter 4:12-33 “Do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. Rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings.”

In Christianity our Lord and Leader is one who is so because he suffered…so we ought to be be marked by how we suffer as Christians.

So try applying it this way…maybe next time when things really suck…instead of praying for God to take away the pain immediately, spend some time reflecting on all the pain Jesus endured for you to save you from sin…and then rejoice in it!

Alright. Let’s go to our final point for today, “An Unstoppable Jesus: THE POWER OF THE GOSPEL.”

V. An Unstoppable Jesus: THE POWER OF THE GOSPEL

This chapter goes through a ton of stuff…the seriousness of sin and the holiness of God, supernatural healings, angels, the importance of speaking the gospel and suffering for the gospel…just a ton of stuff. The theme that consistently gets hammered is Jesus, Jesus, Jesus.

In the Ananais and Sapphira scene Peter says it is the “Spirit of the Lord (v.9)” they defied. It was the Spirit of the Lord Jesus that they tested and lied to.

In the healings scene, believers were added, “to the Lord.” The Lord Jesus.

In the prison break, it’s “an angel of the Lord” who breaks them out. So an angel was sent by the Lord Jesus.

In the council hearing, it’s “this name,” the name of Jesus they are upset about.

Everything in this chapter is all about Jesus. Look with me just for a minute at verses 30 & 31. “The God of our fathers raised Jesus, whom you killed by hanging him on a tree. God exalted him at his right hand as Leader and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins.”

The message is that Jesus is alive and risen and is at work among his church! He’s leading it. He’s the savior. He can’t be stopped. And the offer is forgiveness of sins for all who repent. That message just breaks through everything!!!

We began the sermon in the first point by talking about the seriousness of sin…it really does deserve a judgement of everlasting death in hell. Anything less would be slight at the holiness and goodness and perfection of God. If you look in on this story and you ask the question, “Where I am in this story, what character am I?” The answer is that every one of us is Ananais and Sapphira.

We’ve all lied to ourselves and lied to God about who we are, what we need, what is true and right and on and on…we all deserve to drop dead just like them. But the good news of the Gospel is that Jesus was put to death for us, in our place. He died the death we deserve, so that we might be repent and be forgiven.

Ananais and Sapphira had the opportunity to come clean, to repent and receive the gift of salvation and forgiveness from Jesus. But they hardened their hearts and tested God and rejected him. Let us not harden our hearts as they did but be changed and embrace Jesus with all that we are.

Jesus is the hero of this chapter! Everything here is about Jesus. As soon as the apostles are released our last verse, verse 42 says they get right back to work, every day, in the temple and in houses teaching and preaching Jesus. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. He is what we need.

Jesus has risen and he is victorious. He and his church, when empowered by the gospel is unstoppable. Today I stand before you fully convinced of Romans 1:16. I believe the gospel is the power of God unto salvation for everyone who believes. I believe every single person here in this room needs Jesus and there is not a person who will turn to him in believe that the power of God will not work in and save.

There is not an issue you are dealing with today where Jesus is not the answer and where the power of the Gospel cannot work in you, change you and save you.

Jesus lived. Jesus died. Jesus rose. All to deal with my sin. And that is why I love him so and why I worship him with all that I am.

We’re going to conclude and receive the Lord’s supper.

Conclusion

I don’t really have anything to add today in conclusion to prepare us for the Lord’s Supper. We’ve hit a bunch of stuff today. We believe that God’s word does God’s Work and trust that by His Spirit he has been addressing some issues in your heart and life today.

So when you come to receive the bread and the wine, the tokens of Jesus’ body and blood…remember that he lived and died so you might be forgiven and restored. Repent of what you need to repent of…leave it at the table and be refreshed and renewed. Worship and thank Jesus for all he has done. Then, go to the back and share what’s going on in your heart and have one of the people from our prayer team pray with you.

Let’s all stand and I’ll pray.

Blog | Pastor Duane

In November of 2005 we began renting from the Local 325 AFM for our current church facility. Over the years it has served us extremely well. However, by God’s grace it is not too difficult to tell that we have outgrown our building. In September of 2011 we moved to two Sunday morning services to house more people and now both those services are nearly full. In addition, our family ministry spaces are maxed out due the blessing of the numerous children God has granted our church.

Thus, at our March 2012 Member Meeting we discussed this issue with the church body and the need for a new space. Our preliminary investigations showed that to lease a different facility, which would be our own, with twice as much space as our current one…would cost about $5000 more a month than we are currently paying. The response to this challenge from the church members was overwhelmingly positive and encouraging. So we are following through with this vision and starting a building campaign.

Our desire is to stay within the same basic geographical region (near the I-8 and I-5 interchange) as this is a central part of the city and therefore provides a good base for our vision be for and to reach the city. Our interest is mainly in industrial style warehouses, since they are not only the most economical but also provide a sort of blank slate with which we could style to our needs.

A building of our own will help and expand nearly every ministry aspect of our church by providing much more space, setup flexibility, and freedom of time to use it as needed. Family ministry, School of Theology, Leadership Development, Worship Team Practice, LampPost Cafe, Audio Visual, Hospitality and Building Transformation are all ministries which would directly be effected and enabled to better accomplish their service with the use of bigger and permanent facility.

So here’s the plan. We’ve connected with a commercial real estate broker who is well versed and experienced in working with churches. What we need is to regularly be bringing in $5,000 dollars more income than our total expenses each month to show that we can handle the financial responsibility of a higher cost facility. If we can do that for three months in a row, then we know we are ready and in a healthy place to make this move.

We are only a few thousand dollars off this mark. What we need are some people who are not regularly giving to start and if anyone is able to increase their regular giving to do so. To give you an example, if twenty more individuals or families gave $50 a week we would accomplish this goal easily. That is doable! Our desire is not to financially strap or needlessly pressure The Resolved Church but only be faithful to the needs and growth God has granted us.

So we’re putting the vision out there and in front of us by starting this Building Campaign and are praying God will provide. We believe with His help we can accomplish this. So please pray and think about how you might be able to contribute and help see this need taken care of and vision fulfilled.

Thank you for your heart and dedication to the gospel and its proclamation through the ministry of The Resolved Church. You’ll be able to check updates on our we’re doing with this project at the Sunday info booth’s “Building Campaign” poster board.

This Month:
• Music from: The Calico Kids
• Music from: Ian Galleger
• Coffee from: Coffee & Tea Collective

Blog | Resolved to Reflect: Easter | Erica Calvert

Growing up, I remember buying compact discs and then listening to the entire recording and reading the words as I let it spin for the first time. Before CDs, albums came with the words printed on the cover, or in an insert, and music fans followed along as they put the needle down on the vinyl and listened to every crackly note. Now we download music, and sometimes the album is released with a digital booklet, but, let’s be honest, nobody really reads it. I’ve thought that it’s nice to have, but there’s something to holding the printed words in my hand. There’s a kind of magic to it that a computer screen just can’t capture.

So now we listen to songs and hope that we can understand the words. Sometimes we make up alternate versions. Or, we just enjoy the sounds of the band and blindly listen to the singer do some cool things with the voice. Recently, I’ve been listening to the new fun. album like it’s going out of style. The title track “Some Nights” is my favorite cut on the album. Fortunately, I did understand the words, and this one line got me thinking about Good Friday and Easter:

Man, you wouldn’t believe the most amazing things that can come from some terrible nights.

The Good Friday service, which I kept calling Black Friday for obvious reasons, is one of my favorites in the entire year. I think it’s because I try to imagine what it would be like to not know the ending to the story, to know only that Jesus was dead. Not just dead, but brutally murdered by my own hands. As the Roman soldiers said, “Truly, this man was the Son of God.”

If I were Jesus’ mother Mary, and I had talked with angels about my immaculate conception, hosted shepherds at the birth of my son, and then accepted expensive gifts from foreign wise men when Jesus was a toddler, how would I feel as I looked on my precious little one all grown up, on a cross, murdered? What would it be like to be Joseph of Arimathea? He asked Pilate for Jesus’ body and, took it down off the cross, wrapped it in linen and spices, and then laid Jesus to rest. Can you imagine seeing his injuries up close, maybe not even recognizing Him because it was so brutal?

That was the worst night in the history of the world. All other wars—between countries, states, families, and people—are so small in comparison to the battle that Jesus fought for us that night on the cross. The war was over on that terrible night.

Although it was so painful for me to be in a hopeless, grieving, mournful spiritual place, it was and is an essential piece to my celebration on Easter and my continual joy in what God accomplishes in seemingly hopeless situations. That anguish made the joy of Christ’s victory so much sweeter on Sunday morning. It was similar to the anticipation of Christmas Eve: I knew what was coming, and I was excited to see it unfold.

The most amazing things came from that terrible night. Jesus conquered death and sin by coming back to life. Just let that sink in for a minute. Death and sin lost their power because of what Jesus did. He put death in his grave. Jesus paid for all sin, my sin, your sin. My shame is taken away, too: “ashamed I hear my mocking voice call out among the scoffers.” Now the Father invites me in as a royal princess, perfect because of faith in the Son. Jesus replaced everlasting death with everlasting life when He rose from the grave.

I’m pretty sure I’ll be thinking about Jesus’ crucifixion, death, and resurrection whenever I listen to fun. sing that song. That dark night turned into one glorious day. What’s more amazing than that?

Blog | Resolved to Reflect: Easter | John Bale

9. Resolved, to think much on all occasions of my own dying, and of the common circumstances which attend death. – Jonathan Edwards’ Resolutions

The legendary comedian Lenny Bruce once joked that, “If Jesus had been killed 20 years ago, Catholic school children would be wearing little electric chairs around their necks instead of crosses.”

The joke is funny because it’s probably true. But it also serves to highlight the fact that we are uncomfortable with The Cross and what it represents, so we try to avoid it. Just look at the Easter holiday we just celebrated— how many people have replaced The Cross with a magic bunny rabbit?

It is easy to appreciate and celebrate the things that Jesus did in life, but his death makes us uncomfortable. So we look for ways to separate the purposeful life he lived from the brutal death that seems like it must have been some sort of tragic accident of cosmic proportions.

But the truth is that the purposeful life of Jesus cannot be separated from his purposeful death.

The Gospel truth of Easter is that God Himself invented death so that Jesus could die.

Theologically, death, and the death of Christ have very specific salvific purposes. The simplified, anecdotal version of it goes like this: God let Sin put all its [Easter] eggs into one basket, Death, and then God had Jesus destroy the basket. Jesus wins.

But that is not what this blog is about. Sorry. If you want to know more about the Reformed Theology of Death, there are plenty of resources available on the church website. Or you could just go to the book table and look for this book http://www.amazon.com/The-Death-Christ-Controversy-Redemption/dp/0851513824.

This blog is about how our Genius God designed death to be something much more than a one-trick pony, and how that all relates to The Cross as a powerful symbol.

Within the human experience, death has this incredible power to force us into moral and existential crisis. The threat of the reality of death forces our perspective in a very specific direction.

Death works kind of like the edge of a mirror. Imagine all of life is like walking along the surface of a giant mirror, lost somewhere in the middle. When you look down, all you see is your own image reflecting back at you from the glass, and that image blocks everything else out. Your own reflection is the center of your universe.

But when you come to the edge of the mirror, and you look over into the dark unknown, you turn around and look back at the mirror from a different perspective. You begin to realize that you are just a speck on the surface of something designed to reflect something much larger. Finally separated from the narcissistic distraction of Self, people usually start looking upward, trying to figure out what the mirror was really aimed at the whole time.

Death, mortality, impotence in the face of oblivion- these things all force us to consider the Living, Immortal, and All-Powerful Being that put the mirror there in the first place. The end of life forces us to contemplate The End (purpose and goal) of Life (existence). Sometimes the end of a story is the easiest place to discover the Author’s sovereign intent.

This is probably why death-bed conversions have been a staple of the Christian religious experience throughout history—which is not a bad thing. The perspective provided by the nearness of death forces the kind of existential crisis that is integral to repentance.

But God is not satisfied to leave the realization of His Glory for the moments before death. Death forces perspective in a very specific direction– toward The Cross.

If the edge of the mirror serves a purpose of directing our attention toward its Creator, how much better an anchor is the center? Many people encounter death at the edge of life, look upward, and are still lost. When, while still alive, Christ calls us to Him, he leads us across the center of the mirror, where The Cross awaits. The specter of death has a way of forcing us to rethink Life, but the spirit of Christ’s death on The Cross explains it. The Cross is Death and Life in one. The Cross is the edge of the mirror and the center at the same time.

God designed death so that it might redirect us all toward life. God invented death so that Jesus could die and give us Life. Every death that has ever been experienced or encountered in life was designed to condition our understanding of the one Death that gives Life purpose. Death has no meaning without Jesus dying on The Cross and Christ crucified fulfills the purpose of death’s first design.

When a confrontation with death forces us to look back at our lives, it is The Cross that we are meant to find. At The Cross the meaning of Life and Death are as inseparable as the center of a circle is from its circumference. And The Cross, no matter what postmodernists and comedians would like, is inseparable from Jesus.

Going full circle, then, we come back to Lenny Bruce’s Catholic schoolchildren. Why do they wear crosses around their necks? Because The Cross anchors us to the eternal perspective that gives all of life its purpose. Revelation 4:6 and 15:2 describe a “sea of glass” before the Throne of God. This is the Life without Death that is promised in eternity as a result of Jesus conquering Death—a mirror with no edge, made to reflect the full glory of God.

The Cross is the eternal symbol because it contains much of the power of the bloody Gospel it represents– because Jesus came, died, and rose again, we are assured a part in eventually witnessing that fullness of God’s glory. But we don’t have to wait for it. In Jesus and His Cross The Kingdom is already at hand.

Easter Sunday 2012 | Selected Texts | Pastor Duane Smets

This year’s Easter sermon follows the experience and eyewitness account of Paul beginning with his reflections on life before believing in Jesus, which included hatred for Jesus and his church, all the way through his conversion and life lived for Jesus until his death. This sermon was originally preached April 8th, 2012 at The Resolved Church in San Diego, CA.

Listen

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The Resolved Church
Pastor Duane Smets
April 8th, 2012

Easter 2012
Paul Sees Jesus
Selected Texts

Introduction

Well good morning Resolved Church! What a happy day is Easter Sunday! As a church we gathered together on Good Friday and experienced a dark, gut-wrenching service reflecting on the death of Jesus. Today, on Easter, the third day…we celebrate Jesus’ defeat of death by his resurrection to life! Such a stark contrast…and such a joyous one.

If you are new and visiting today, I’d like to personally welcome you once again. My name is Duane. I am one of a team of pastors here and together we serve under our great head pastor, Jesus. We hope you enjoy worshipping him with us today.

When it comes to the resurrection of Jesus there are basically three different ideas:
• One, it didn’t happen…it’s a myth, a hoax, or something but Jesus did not rise from the dead…it didn’t happen.
• Idea two, the resurrection is a metaphor for a new realization about life, a new perspective and way of seeing things. Jesus actual body did not actually come back to life to live forever but belief in Jesus’ teachings opens up a whole new resurrected way of thinking.
• Idea three, Jesus really rose from the dead, physically, bodily and he lives today.

If idea, or shall we say belief number three is in fact true then that literally changes everything! If it is in fact true it calls into question our fundamental beliefs about every single aspect of life… What is its purpose? What happens when we die? Why do die? If Jesus beat death and promises it to those who put faith in him, how does that change our lives now and the trajectory of our lives…who and what we’re living for? It literally changes everything…the whole way we see ourselves and the world we live in.

Now, because of that there are a bunch of different directions you can go with the resurrection of Jesus on an Easter Sunday.

One route is to look into detail into all the circumstance and evidence surrounding the death and resurrection of Jesus as if to hold it all up under the scrutiny of reason. Assuming our ability to reason rightly is not contaminated by sin, the hope is we would be judicial, become convinced and then become Christians or at least continue to be.

Another route is to focus on the real troubles of life, the disdain for death and the inherent longing within us for a solution…how we desire new life, an everlasting life without sin, sorrow or suffering and how Jesus resurrection provides that and offers it to us. The hope then is that the experience of our hearts in our feelings might be moved to believe and spurred on to follow Jesus as Lord.

There’s good things about present in those different routes. But a number of years ago now when I was studying the resurrection of Jesus from the Bible something stood out to me about how the apostles and the early church frequently approached the topic of Jesus’ resurrection. And that is the great weight they put on the eyewitness testimonies…those who saw or personally encountered the risen Jesus.

Listen to a few verses here:

In the Gospel of John after recounting how eight days after Jesus rose he appeared to Thomas along with all of the other disciples for a second time. And in John 20:31 after the Apostle John tells the story he says this eyewitness encounter with the risen Jesus was “written (written down in the Bible) that you may believe (that’s us, that we may believe) and that by believing (we) might have life in his name.”

Later in his life John writes a letter to a church of whom many, most likely none, had never seen the risen Jesus and he starts off the letter, 1 John 1:1-12, talking about Jesus saying…”That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the Word of life – the life was made manifest and we have seen it and testify to it and proclaim (it) to you.”

Then in Acts, the book we’ve been studying through as a church, we heard Peter in his second recorded sermon in Acts 4:15 saying, “You killed the author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses.”

Later in Peter’s life…writing a letter to those whom he had directly said, “had not seen [Jesus] (1 Pet 1:8)…Peter says, “We did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty (2 Pet 1:16).”

Lastly, Paul. Likewise, he hangs the whole of Christianity upon the eyewitness accounts of Jesus rising from the dead. Here’s his words from 1 Corinthians 15:3-8 “3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. 6 Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. 8 Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.”

So you see how the Bible consistently puts a ton of weight on the testimonies of those who say they saw, with their eyes…Jesus, risen from the dead on the third day after being crucified.

It got me to thinking…what is it that’s so big about an eyewitness account? I mean I get why Jesus only appeared to a limited number of people during forty, like 519 that are mentioned…to be exact. I understand that because if Jesus had to keep appearing and showing himself risen every few years to the next generation then it would cheapen the significance of what a monumental event it was that he rose. Plus, Jesus said he had stuff to do…that he’s preparing a place (Jn 14:2-3).

Ok. So if you’re God…and you came into the world in Jesus and you died for sin and then you rose again…then why put all your all your stock in these eyewitness accounts? I mean doesn’t it seem kind of risky to entrust the whole message of The Gospel, the good news of who Jesus is and what he accomplished in his death and resurrection…to entrust the whole thing to the testimony of a handful of people? And feeble sinful people at that?

Yet, therein lies the beauty and the wonder of it! Because every single person who encountered the risen Christ was so radically convinced and changed that they essentially turned into different people and went out and turned the world upside-down causing a whole new religion to be born almost overnight. There was no risk for God at all for he knew that after seeing Jesus people would never be the same…and would then be able to take the message to the world.

So the last four years now on Easter, we’ve been digging into to these stories here at The Resolved Church. Thus far we’ve worked through the stories of the Apostle John, Thomas, Mary Magdalene and last year Peter. Today, we’re doing Paul!

Now, there’s a lot to Paul in the Bible. We’ll just look at three quick snapshots of his life: When Paul Was Saul: His Disbelief In Jesus, When Paul Was Converted: The Undeniable Jesus, and When Paul Was Paul: His Mission For Jesus. First, “When Paul Was Saul” and didn’t believe in Jesus.

I. When Paul Was Saul: Disbelief In Jesus

We don’t get any physical descriptions of Paul in the Bible but an early 2nd century description handed down from those who knew him says he was a little man, short, partly bald, with crooked legs but a vigorous physique, eyes close together and a somewhat crooked nose. In my mind I start imagining Danny Devito…except for the vigorous physique part. : )

In the Bible there are a few main places where we hear about Paul before he was a Christian. We’ll look at a couple of them. First in the book of Acts, then the book of Philippians and then in 1 Timothy. We’ll look at ‘em in reverse order.

In 1 Timothy 1:13&15, Paul a much older man who had been a Christian for many many years at that time looks back on his life and says, “I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent…Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.”

A blasphemer is one who speaks evil of another person, a slanderer…to use a modern phrase, “a trash talker.” We’ll learn in a minute just exactly how he was a persecutor…but one who persecutes is one who goes on the offensive to attack. And he was an opponent. Not one who didn’t just not believe, but one who hated Jesus, his followers and his church.

We know ourselves better than anyone else and in this humble honest statement Paul gave us a glimpse into his heart into the man he knew himself to be. There’s almost a shudder to it…”a sinner of whom I am the foremost.”

In the book of Philippians, Paul unpacks some more details about how he saw himself and his former life before becoming a Christian. He writes in Philippians 3:5-6 “(I was) circumcised on the eighth day, of the people 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 righteousness under the law, blameless.”

Here he describes his religious pedigree, which in that day meant a lot. Today coming from a religious family doesn’t really mean much today, sometimes it’s kind of even shunned upon. But back then, it meant a lot. Philippians 3:5-6 has a tone of great pride to it…today it would kind of be like saying you were one of the Kennedys, who graduated from Harvard, got a job right out of college and made a million dollars in the first year.

When you look at the things he says in Philippians 3:5-6, it’s astounding:
• Being “circumcised on the eighth day” is him saying, “I was no Jewish convert. I was born into this.”
• “The people of Israel” marks dedication to his country, his religion, and family.
• “Of the tribe of Benjamin” highlights that he was from one of the most prominent and privileged tribes of Israel…the one kings came from.
• “Hebrew of Hebrews” notes his dedication to the original language of his people…Though the people of the land spoke Greek, Paul knew his Hebrew and likely Aramaic. He is a Jew through and through…purebred!!!
• “As to the law, a Pharisee” notes that he was highly trained, spent a lot of time in school and achieved the highest rank of expertise and honor for his knowledge to the law, which not only included the Bible but all kinds of additional statutes and governmental regulations. The Pharisees were an elite class and according to Acts 22:3 Paul studied under the famous rabbi Gamaliel. Paul is Ph.D status!
• “As to zeal, a persecutor of the church…” we’ll learn more about this one from Acts in a minute but Paul was fast rising within the ranks of the Pharisees, particularly because of his disdain for Christianity and his working effort to snuff it out. In Galatians 3:14 he says he was, “advancing in Judaism beyond many of (his) own age…(being) so extremely zealous for the traditions of (his) fathers.”
• Then lastly he points out his righteousness, his own inner sense of perfection and goodness…”as to righteousness under the law, blameless.” Though he was short in stature he looked down upon everyone else, always seeing himself as better and faultless.

When we come to the book of Acts we discover he was not always called Paul, but the name he was born with in the city of Tarsus was Saul. We first meet him in Acts 7:58 where he authorizes and commands the stoning to death of Stephen, the first Christian to ever die for believing in Jesus. Those who did the stoning are so grateful to Saul for his execution of that sentence it says they take off their coats and give them to Saul as a prize.

In the next two chapters of Acts, chapters 8-9 we learn in depth what Paul meant in 1 Timothy and Philippians when he said he was a persecutor of the church. Acts 8:3 says he “was ravaging the church, and entering house of house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison.” Then in Acts 9:1 it says he was, “breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord (Jesus),”

He HATED Christians! He had received official permission from the High Priest of Israel to arrest any Christians and bring them to Jerusalem to be put in jail, most likely to be put to death.

This is Paul when he was Saul. Passionate. Privileged. Proud of his religious heritage. And perfect in how he saw himself before God. And he not did not believe in Jesus, he detested him and his followers. As Saul, he considered himself as keeping the purity of the Judaism intact and thereby gaining favor with God by protecting Israel from this new evil called Christianity.

Make no mistake, these things to Paul were much more than mere identity marks as some with a so called “new perspective” on Paul like to say. This was a man of religion pursuing favor with God with all his might and his disbelief in Jesus as the messiah savior bred a hostility and disgust for anything having to do with Jesus…he loathed him.

But all that changed once he saw him face to face. “When Paul Converted: Undeniable Jesus.”

II. When Paul Converted: Undeniable Jesus

So here’s the story, it’s told twice in the book of Acts, once in chapter 9 by Luke and once in chapter 22 by Paul himself. Paul, then Saul, is on his way to a place called Damascus. He has heard there are Christians there gathering together as the church. So he takes a band of solider with them to go and either put them to death or arrest them and take them to Jerusalem to be put in jail.

They are on road, assumedly riding horses when all of the sudden there is a bright light coming down out of the sky. Saul falls to the ground, maybe falling off his horse. And then there’s a voice. All the company with him saw the light but only Saul hears the voice. Here’s what it says, “‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?’ And he said to him, ‘Who are you Lord?’ And he said, ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting (Acts 9:4-5; 22:7-8).’”

Jesus continues speaking with him, telling Saul that now he is going to work for Jesus and to go join the church. After Jesus is done talking with him, Saul is temporarily blind and had to be led by the hand to get to Damascus.

It’s kind of a funny scene because when he gets there all the Christians are freaking out, thinking he is trying to trick them or something…they don’t trust him, so Jesus gives one of the church leaders, Ananias, a dream telling him it’s okay. So when Saul gets there Ananias preaches the gospel to him and tells him, Acts 22:16 “Rise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling upon his (Jesus) name.”

Then Saul changes his name to Paul and Acts 9 tells us that right away he starts going into the synagogue in Damascus preaching the gospel and saying Jesus is the Son of God (Acts 9:20).

This is just a crazy story. Only Jesus appearing to the Apostle John when he was on the island of Patmos is even similar. Jesus shows up in a bright light…Paul never even sees his face! But he hears his voice. And he is so radically convicted, convinced and converted that right away he repents of his sin, is baptized and starts telling people to believe in Jesus.

Jesus became undeniable to Paul. Immediately he recognized Jesus was a real person. He knew Jesus was alive. He believed that Jesus was the Son of God. And because of that he knew he was a sinner and needed the cleansing salvation of Jesus. So he repents, is baptized and immediately begins to champion the name of Jesus.

It’s from that point on that Paul becomes the Paul we know most in the Bible, the one who spends the rest of his life on mission for Jesus, on mission to know him and make him known. So our final point, “When Paul Was Paul: Mission For Jesus.”

III. When Paul Was Paul: Mission For Jesus

After Paul’s conversion and initial experience in sharing his new found faith in Jesus, Paul began to realize how his life would never be the same. He had to re-think everything. One of the things Jesus told Ananias to tell Paul was that he was to be a preacher of Jesus especially for the Gentiles, those who were not Jews.

Whether the church leaders instructed him to or whether Paul realized himself that he needed some training for this calling we don’t know, but he does tell us in Galatians 1 that before he became a leader in the church he went down to Arabia and was taught there by Jesus himself for three years (Gal 1:12,17-18).

After that sent out by the church on three major ministry tours, each one taking multiple years wherein he ended up planting 14 different churches that we know of. He gets thrown into prison four different times for preaching about Jesus and spends a total of 5-6 six years in jail. Before he was throwing people in prison, then he becomes the one going to prison. He writes 13 different books of the Bible which end up composing nearly two-thirds of the New Testament. Thousands of people became Christians under his teaching and to this day God continues to use his writings to help enable people to come to know Jesus and to grow in him.

It’s just insane what Jesus did with this man…all from simply showing up in front of him in the middle of a road. Sometimes it seems Jesus liked showed up when he was least expected. And as a principle that’s probably how he works with us a lot of the time…when we least expect it.

I want us to see one last thing about Paul before we start to wrap things up today and that’s what was fueling this mission he undertook for Jesus. I mean he accomplished a massive amount of work in his lifetime until he was beheaded in Rome under the Emperor Nero. What was it that fueled it this mission for Jesus after he was converted?

To answer that question I want to go back to the one of the passages that we started with.

Philippians 3. After stating all those supposedly great things about himself and his religious pedigree and passion…how he’s of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews and on and on here’s what Paul says right after beginning in verse 7… “7 Whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— 10 that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.”

Wow! Whatever gain I had…now it’s a loss, it’s worthless, rubbish compared to knowing Jesus. Righteousness…it cannot be gained or earned through the law…but only be given through faith in Christ Jesus. And the final kicker…resurrection from the dead! Since Jesus rose…even though we may suffer and die, just like he did…if we believe in him, we shall be resurrected too!

These three things he mentions: the worthlessness of any life apart from Christ, the inability to earn salvation or righteousness by doing good things or by being a good person, and the promise of resurrection…these three things are the heart of the Christian gospel message. These three things become the mantra of anyone who truly meets Jesus and is changed by him.

What I’m telling you is true. No life compares to life in Christ. This is my story. I’ve been a real Christian now for 15 years and before Jesus I sought out happiness in anything I could…but all of it is a loss, it’s rubbish compared to knowing Jesus…and knowing Jesus is better and continues to be better with each passing day!

Last week as we were working through the book of Acts we happened to be in a section talking about money and I said something in my sermon to the effect of “money cannot and will not satisfy you only Jesus Christ can.” And afterward a tall man who was visiting in town came back for prayer and told me he is a professional baseball player and he just became a Christian. He said, “I had everything…all the money, women, anything I could want…and none of it made me happy.” He said, “Thank you for preaching the gospel because only Christ can satisfy and I know that now.”

Some of you have been searching and searching for happiness or for the answers to life and it is found in Christ alone. Some of you instead of looking for happiness outside of religion have dove head long into religion…and you’ve thought if you are a good enough person, or if you do enough good things that then you could somehow gain favor from God.

But the truth is you can’t. No amount of good works from you will do. Righteousness cannot be earned by the law…it can’t come from you. Only Christ is righteous and he only gives his righteousness away to those who recognize and admit that they don’t have it.

What we need is Jesus. We need his life. We need the resurrection power of his life to be at work in us. Romans 8:11 says, “If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.”

What everyone of us needs today is Jesus. Him who gave up his life on the cross and rose again with power so that we might have new life in him.

Let’s conclude…

Conclusion

Some of you today need to become Christians…because you’ve been looking for life in all kinds of places besides Jesus. You know all of it’s rubbish, a loss, worthless. If you’re finally tired of searching and ready to give up and fall down and be found. Put your faith in Jesus Christ today!

Some of you today have thought you were a Christian but really what’s that’s meant to you is you working hard and being a good person to get God to like you…trying to earn righteousness on your own and you need to quit striving and you need God to simply give you Jesus’ righteousness.

Some of you today have felt like you’re damaged goods…that either you’re too bad a person or too messed of a person for God to love you and extend the grace of his son to you. It doesn’t matter what you’ve done or how bad it is…Paul as a murderer and God had mercy not only on him but those whom he abused. Jesus died to deal with death in all it’s forms so that you might receive life.

Some of you today know Jesus but you don’t have that resurrection passion to know Christ more and to make him know. And you need God to rejuvenate spiritual life to your soul and empower you to go out on mission for the fame and name of Jesus.

Everyone single one of us today needs Jesus…he is our life, our joy, our song. Jesus lived. Jesus died. And Jesus rose. Paul’s story is just one account but it’s a story which grips us and compels us to meet this Jesus who met him on that road. Jesus lives today. He is the Lord and he calls us to himself.

We’re going to receive the Lord’s Supper in just a minute as we do each week here at The Resolved Church. One of the things which you may not have given much thought to before is that when we eat the bread as Jesus’ body and drink the wine as Jesus’ blood to remember his death on the cross…in that act we are saying we believe Jesus is not dead anymore, that he rose and lives today.

Martin Luther said, Jesus descends out of the heavens to meet us by through His Spirit here at the table. John Calvin said, at the table we are lifted up into the heavens to meet with Jesus. Either way the point is that Jesus is alive and when we respond to the gospel and we come to the table we are saying, “Jesus, I believe that you are real. Jesus I am a sinner. Jesus I believe you died for my sin on the cross. Jesus I believe you rose. And Jesus I believe you right now are here with me and in me.”

When you come to the table today. Remember, Jesus’ resurrection is God’s stamp of approval that the cross work. Sin was dealt with. The debt was paid in full. When you come to the table today remember, Jesus is no longer dead, but he rose and he gives new life to you in his name!

INVITE SOMEONE AND BRING THEM WITH YOU THIS EASTER!

Blog | Robert Knox

Jesus said, “the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.” Luke 10:2. As we celebrate the joy of Christ’s resurrection this Easter, God is calling us to look upon our city and share our excitement. Jesus is asking us to pray earnestly and act boldly by inviting people to His celebration.

On Monday evening a group of people from our church body went out into the neighborhood surrounding our meeting halls and invited our neighbors in Bay Park to celebrate Easter with us. The group handed out hundreds of invitations to people in the neighborhood and left many more invitations for nearby residents. We shared the gospel with residents we encountered and prayed over the invitations we distributed. It was a gratifying experience and everyone should be excited to meet the neighbors who turn out for our Easter services!

As the Apostle Paul put it, “I pray that the sharing of your faith may become effective for the full knowledge of every good thing that is in us for the sake of Christ.” Philemon 1:6. God is calling us to be on mission this Easter and, by inviting our friends and neighbors to join us, God intends that we realize yet more the blessings we have in Christ.

INVITE SOMEONE AND BRING THEM WITH YOU THIS EASTER!

Blog | 2012 Resolved Men’s Retreat | Ryan Calihan

Two weekends ago was the Resolved Church’s Men’s Retreat. It was a perfect chance to take time off from work, romp around in the snow, and do manly things. We ate, we drank, and we fought (All in moderation, mind you); and in general had a really good time just doing stuff together. Some highlights for me were hiking in the snow (I think my hiking shoes are still a little wet from that…) and Derek’s right hook to my jaw that made me see stars for half a minute.

I was also particularly excited for men’s retreat because it was a weekend filled with worship and teaching, and because at least half the guys going were people I had never gotten to know before.

Sandwiching an array of the manly, rowdy, and raucous behavior were 2+ hour long sessions of worship, teaching, discussion, and prayer. During these times we looked into the biblical qualifications and callings of manhood. Duane separated each of these sessions into the following themes: The High Calling of, The Hindrances of, The Head and Heart of, and The Habits of Manhood (notice the clever alliteration). Each session was both deeply convicting and encouraging, giving us some of practical knowledge and skills we need to grow up and man up.

For the sake of this blog, I will limit myself to two different things that I took away from the weekend.

During the final session on the habits of manhood, Duane outlined how men should act and look. As we reviewed portions of 1 Timothy 3 and 4, Psalm 141:5, Matthew 13:1-9, and many other passages, I was convicted that I wasn’t being faithful or consistent with my time. I am prone to squander the time I have in laziness and selfishness– time that should be spent in prayer, meditation, and study. As a dude without a wife or kids, and who only works 30-40 hours a week, I should be pursuing God diligently and faithfully.

As Jesus said when quoting Deuteronomy, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” Duane basically said that we should spend time with God before we even think of putting food in our mouths in the morning. Something Duane pointed out that I had never noticed before was that in the famous “Whole Armor of God” passage that is detailed in Ephesians, the Word of Truth (aka The Bible) is the only offensive weapon given to us. David says in Psalm 119:11 that he has stored up God’s word in his heart so that he might not sin against Him.

In order for me to grow and progress in my knowledge and love of God, I must regularly spend time with Him. For the past year, I really have been starving myself of regular spiritual nutrients, and discussions at the men’s retreat have really stirred up repentance in my heart.

The second aspect of the retreat that was significant for me was every worship and discussion portion of the sessions. The first night Sean Hutchinson and Ryan Leech spent a good chunk of time setting up a mic, pedal board, sound board, and monitor so that 1) we could all hear Sean loud and clear and 2) that we would all be comfortable singing and worshiping out-loud. But after a few songs it was clear that none of those things were needed. No one felt uncomfortable; everyone wanted to worship– not only out-loud, but LOUD. I don’t know if you have ever been in a confined space with 20+ men focused on worshiping God, but it sure is awesome.

After each teaching, we would break off into different groups and talk about how it was applicable to our lives. During these times I got to see a very real and open side to people who I had just met as well as people I had known for the past two years. I got to see a side of my fellow men that I hadn’t seen before, and it was very encouraging. It was really cool to see guys that had never had so much as a conversation with each other spill their guts. After one of the last sessions, our group was really moved to just pray for one another. We laid hands on each other individually and prayed for specific aspects of each others lives.

Out of the past 2 years that I have been at The Resolved, the most bonding and openness I have seen was during the one weekend at the Men’s Retreat.

As it was with the previous blogger (Brad), I have also been on the service end of many a church retreat or camp, and this one was one of the good ones. We didn’t just get pep talks or inspirational speeches, we were yelled at and then given tangible ways to “dress for action like a man.” The teaching and bonding that happened over the weekend will continue to do a lot to strengthen the ties and unity between the men of our church.

Blog | Pastor Duane Smets

I remember my first piggy bank my parents got me as a child and I remember the day I finally cracked it open to get out all those coins. I remember the first big ticket item I saved up and purchased. I was in Junior High in the late 80′s and bought myself a boombox stereo. I remember my first credit card I signed up for as a freshman in college and I remember having to cut that credit card up six years later in order to better care for my new marriage. I remember making a mess of my bank account and spending hours trying to balance an unbalanceable checkbook. I remember having to learn some financial lessons the hard way. And I remember most of all the grace of Godly men who took the time to talk to me about money, how to handle it properly, how it can so easily grab ahold of a person’s heart and how only the gospel is sufficient to save us from serving money.

We live in a world where cash flow is constant. We spend money almost every single day…whether it’s coffee, a meal, gas, groceries, a household necessity…we are constantly using money. Radio, TV, movies, product placement, billboards, brochures, pop-ups, sponsors and all kinds of other mediums are ever pressing in for our attention asking us to spend money on their item or service. Without a view of money and without a plan of how to handle it the likelihood of becoming overly indulgent, overextended or both is quite high. But even worse is how the human heart will either become elated in a sense of power in the wielding money or become covetous and jealous in the desire for money.

The Bible teaches that none of us own anything. All we have is God’s and all the money we ever get comes from him (1 Chr 29:11-12). Money is meant to be a means to glorify God. This is the most important lesson we could learn about money. When we truly view money as something God has entrusted to us it changes our whole outlook of how we handle it, since it’s coming out his bank account.

Many have never have been taught well about money. Many have been foolish and rebellious with money. Many have never learned the superior joy of generosity versus greed. Many have never learned the discipline of first-fruits, the giving of a first portion of one’s income back to God. Most of all many have never seen how the message of the gospel is truly a trade of our personal poverty for the riches of the redeemer.

For information on giving and online giving options go to http://www.theresolved.com/giving to find out more. Below are are articles, books, sermons and interviews from various Godly and trusted resources that will help you learn and apply what God has told us in his book for our good regarding money.

Articles
A Brief Theology Of Finances by Duane Smets
Envelope System by Dave Ramsey
Gospel Giving vs. Guilt Giving by Tim Keller
Have It All or Want It All? by Jamie Munson
How Do You View Money? by Jamie Munson
Leading Your Family In Stewardship by Jamie Munson
Money, Morale and Momentum by Mark Driscoll
Prosperity Theology: The Dirty Little Secret by Mark Driscoll
Steps To Making A Budget by Crown Financial Ministries

Books
Money: God or Gift by Jamie Munson
Money, Possessions and Eternity by Randy Alcorn
Neither Poverty nor Riches: A Biblical Theology of Possessions by Craig Blomberg
Counterfeit Gods: The Empty Promises of Sex, Money, Power by Tim Keller
Business For the Glory of God by Wayne Grudem

Sermons
Money: Currency For Christian Hedonism by John Piper
How To Think About Money by D.A. Carson
Grace & Money by Tim Keller
Generous Series by Mark Driscoll
Finances & The Gospel, by Duane Smets

Video
The Theology of Generosity Mark Driscoll Interviews Randy Alcorn

The Church and Money | The Book of Acts | 4:32-37 | Pastor Duane Smets

This an expository sermon on Acts 4:32-37. It covers the example of the early church in how they were caring for one another and the church financially. The sermon focuses on the importance of a church has a oneness of heart and mind by focusing on Jesus, what needs are, the resources and responsiblity we have to take care of the needs, how we are to trust the church leaders to make wise financial decisions and how only the Gospel can fuel generous giving that is not motivated by either guilt or the desire to control. This sermon was originally preached on April 1st, 2012 at The Resolved Church in San Diego,CA.

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The Resolved Church
Pastor Duane Smets
April 1st, 2012
 
The Church and Money  |  Acts 4:32-37
I.​Unity:  The Oneness of Heart & Soul (v.32)
II.​Needs:  The Hardships We Face  (v.34-35)
III.​Resources:  The Supply We Have (v.32,34,37)
IV.​Leaders:  The Men We Trust (v.35,37)
V.​Gospel:  The Power At Work (v.33)
 
 
Introduction
 
Good morning! It’s good to see you church.  If this is your first time, welcome.  My name is Duane.  I’m one of a group of pastors who lead this church under Jesus, our head pastor and my job most weeks is to preach.
 
Well, today is Palm Sunday in the Christian calendar.  It’s the Sunday that took place one week before Jesus’ death and resurrection.  On that historic Palm Sunday Jesus entered Jerusalem and received a royal treatment as a king…palm branches laid down in front of him as he rode into town on a donkey…then only five days later to be crucified as a criminal.  
 
This coming Friday we will re-enter and re-live the drama of that horrific day by holding a dark, low-light, low-music funeral-esque type service here at 7pm.  If you’ve never been at a Resolved Good Friday service you don’t want to miss it.  Then, just hours later on the third day, next Sunday, we’ll return rejoicing and celebrating the great resurrection of Jesus Christ our Lord on Easter.
 
In our culture here in San Diego, it is one of those Sundays when there is a natural openness to church.  This is a great opportunity.  So we strongly encourage you, invite and bring someone with you this Easter.  Start thinking now, who you are going to call, text or talk to about coming.  It’s going to be a great day for us as a church together and we’ve got some special stuff planned.
 
Alright.  As a church together we are steadily working through the book of Acts, studying it, learning from it and through it having God change us and work in us both individually and as a whole church.  Last week, we looked at a section that focused on prayer and we spent some sweet time in prayer together last week and had every single person among us prayed for.  This week, our section focuses on money…so we figured we’d have some sweet time together and make sure every single person gives some money.  :)  Actually this weekend was a $640 million dollar lottery jackpot and that’s only half the money that was spent on lottery tickets…so that tells you a bit about our culture’s attitude toward money.
 
Money can be a tough topic in church.  Probably because there have been churches who have abused money.  There are pastors who have embezzled money.  You got crazy pastors on TV selling water or handkerchiefs for money.  Plus, money is kind of a private personal thing for the most part.  I mean we use money all the time and many people’s whole goal in life is to get more money…but how much you make and what you do with your money is seemingly supposed to be off limits right?
 
Yet the Bible has a ton to say about money.  There are over 2,350 verses in the Bible which address money.  Some have said that is because money is often an index of a person’s true character and that there is an intimate correlation between the development of a man’s character and how he handles his money.  What we get in our passage today is a picture of how the radical nature of the gospel transformed the heart and attitude of the early church regarding their money and possessions.
 
So let’s go ahead and read it, declare it as God word, pray over it and work through it.  
 
Acts 4:32-37  “32 Now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common. 33 And with great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. 34 There was not a needy person among them, for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold 35 and laid it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need. 36 Thus Joseph, who was also called by the apostles Barnabas (which means son of encouragement), a Levite, a native of Cyprus, 37 sold a field that belonged to him and brought the money and laid it at the apostles’ feet.”
 
Pastoral Declaration: This is the Word of the Lord.
Congregational Response:  Thanks Be To God.
Prayer:  Let’s Pray….
 
Alright so there’s five different things here we’re going to spend time looking at:  Unity, Needs, Resources, Leaders and the Gospel.  Let’s start with our first point: “Unity: The Oneness of Heart and Soul.”
 
I.​Unity:  The Oneness of Heart & Soul (v.32)
 
The passage starts of with this astounding statement about the church’s unity, “Now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul.”  This an astounding remark.  
 
Remember on the church’s opening day on Pentecost, 3,000 people became Christians.  Then after Peter’s preaching when he healed the cripple another 5,000 people became Christians.  Only the men were counted…so we’re talking upwards of 15,000 people or more.  This is already a megachurch.  Undoubtedly not all those people were from Jerusalem and had returned home after Pentecost but we’re still talking in the thousands here as the “full number.”
 
Now what’s general principle we know about people? People are different and the more people you have the more diversity and opinions you have.  Essentially the more the people the less the unity.  But not here, they are of one heart and soul.  There is a unity of passion and conviction among them.
 
It’s actually been a repeated theme since we started the book of Acts.  In the first chapter, 1:14 they were in “one accord.”  On Pentecost before the service started, 2:1 “they were all together in one place.”  Then after that Acts 2:44 said, “All who believed were together and had all things in common.”  Then last week we saw how in Acts 4:24 “they lifted their voices together to God” in prayer.  
 
Unity.  It is so important.  Jesus prayed for unity in his church.  
 
Listen to Jesus in what is called his “High Priestly Prayer.”  John 17:22-23 he says to the Father, “The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. “  Jesus prayed for unity among his people.
 
Likewise Paul directs the church in Ephesians 4:3 to be “eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace.”  And we don’t just have the positive petitions and command for unity, we have warnings against disunity.
 
I talked to two different pastor friends of mine this week, two separate churches.  One in Oregon and one in Missouri.  Both of them are dealing with some tough situations in their churches where there is a group of people who don’t like and disagreed with some things and as a result have been campaigning in the church to get people on board with them and in conjunction saying negative things about the church’s leadership.  Pastors take that hard because they love and care for the people.
 
Here’s a couple of verses I gave to my pastor friends to encourage them.  Listen to how strong the Bible is on disunity.
 
Titus 3:10-11 “As for a person who stirs up division, after warning him once and then twice, have nothing more to do with him, knowing that such a person is warped and sinful; he is self-condemned.”
 
Romans 16:17-18 “Watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught; avoid them. For such persons do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites, and by smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the naive.”
 
Hard words.  Those who are not eager for unity but for division…they are warped and to be avoided.  Unity is so important.  
 
So here’s my question.  What brings about unity in a church?  Verse 32 tells us.  It was those “who believed” who were of one heart and soul.  We’ll come back to this in our last point today but it was their belief or faith in Jesus which brought about this oneness.  
 
Disunity always happens when we get our eyes off of Jesus and his Word.  It’s when we start looking down here at one another that problems often begin to brew.  We are to love Him with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength and together if we are doing that, guess what the result is?  We’re of one heart and soul together.
 
Here’s how it works.  Last week it was such a blessing to pray for you all.  I got the chance to pray for a bunch of people and I was so proud of the level of humility so many of you shared when you came back for prayer.  God’s Spirit was doing some special things among us.  One of the gals I prayed for had a prayer request I want to share with you.  She said with tears streaming down her cheeks, “I’m so critical of people all the time.  I constantly look down on others and am so judgmental.  And I need Jesus to change my heart because I know that’s not how he’s treated me.”   Such a sweet and honest and very real beautiful prayer request.
 
It’s a perfect example of what we’re talking about.  When our eyes are on Jesus: UNITY.  When their on each other: DISUNITY.  J.C. Ryle says this, “Unity without the Gospel is a worthless unity.  It is the very unity of hell.”
 
Alright.  So their spiritual unity through faith in Jesus had some practical play outs.  So let’s move on to our next point and look at that, “Needs: The Hardships We Face.”  
 
II.​Needs:  The Hardships We Face  (v.34-35)
 
Verse 34 says, “There was not a needy person among them…”  and then it tells us why and what the church was doing about that and how they were as verse 35 says taking care of “any who had need.”  
We’ll get to what the church was doing in a minute but before we do I want us first to recognize that in the life of church needs arise.  Stuff happens.  Sometimes unexpected things happen beyond our control and all of a sudden there are needs.
 
For example, sometimes your car unexpectedly blows up and you need a new car…that happened to me once.  This last week two dudes in our church lost their job. One of whom his employer informed him that he would not get his last paycheck, which he needs in order to be able to pay his house mortgage.   Need.
 
At times there are needs because of things which happen that are beyond our control…other times needs arise because of stupid decisions we’ve made.  Times where it’s our own fault from not planning well or whatever and then all of a sudden there is a real need.  Needs happen.
 
On top of that…not all people were created equal.  Some were born into families that had money and some didn’t.  Some have a natural knack for college, business or whatever and others don’t.  Some have physical ailments they are born with and some don’t.  Jesus said, there will regularly be poor among us whom we can do good for (Mk 14:7).  Needs.
 
In the New Testament some of the likely needs they were facing here we read about in church letters that there were widows whose husbands that had provided for them died, there were orphans who didn’t have parents to care for them and there were those with disabilities who couldn’t work to make ends meet.  Needs.  
 
On top of there was and is expense in running a church.  The design Jesus gave was that a few men, who labor in preaching and teaching and those who help them be able to do that ought to be paid for their time and their work (1 Cor 9:8-14; 2 Cor 9:1-15; 1 Tim 5:17-18) .   And there are costs involved with food, tables and buildings. Needs.
 
Needs are real.  It’s part of life.  It’s a part of church life.  We as a church do and will face needs.  The question is how do we do that?  What ought our approach be?
 
Let’s look at what they did here in Acts 4 and see what we can learn from it.  So point three, “Resources:  The Supply We Have.”  
 
III.​Resources:  The Supply We Have (v.32,34,37)
 
Alright.  So here is what is happening.  We’ve got to read carefully because it’s easy to misread this and come up with a false scenario here.  
 
Let’s start at verse 32.  Follow closely with me.
 
Verse 32.  Because of their unity, believing in Jesus and therefore being of one heart soul…”no one said that any of the things that belong to him was his own, but they had everything in common.”
 
Okay, so notice no one SAID the things which belong to him was his own.  They were still his own, still his belongings but he didn’t see them that way and speak of them that way.  You get that?  
 
Instead, he saw them as for the “common.”  The word here for common is a cognate of “koinonia.”  The word for fellowship or community or the church.  So what we are hearing is of a certain attitude toward possessions and money…that whatever they had, their heart and their soul…all of their life was dedicated to Jesus and his church.
 
You see some have looked at this and thought that everyone got rid of all their stuff or brought it all to some central location and they were living in some sort of hippie commune.  Literally a form of communism.  But that isn’t what was happening here.
 
Let’s look a little further.  Verse 34.  “There was not a needy person among them, for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold and laid it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need.”
 
Alright.  At first glance it sort of sounds like anyone who own land or house sold it and brought the money to the church.  So some have ran with that and said, “you should never own a house!”  Well, we know that’s not true because the New Testament repeatedly talks about people’s houses whom the church met in.  So obviously everyone didn’t do this.
 
If we look closely at this, those who owned land or houses sold them when there was need.  There wasn’t a needy person because when a need arose, someone would sell something to take care of it.  The NIV translation tries to get at this sense when it adds (it shouldn’t add words to the Bible) but it’s helpful here when it says, “From time to time” “…those who who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales…”
 
In addition, this word “brought” here may not be just the simple act of bringing.  The Greek word is “phero” which can sometimes be used of a gust of wind or to be moved inwardly and prompted to do something.  If so then people here were moved or prompted by God to sell their property.  Even if that’s not how this word is being used, it’s clear that what is happening here is a voluntary gift where certain individuals, because of their faith in Jesus and oneness in heart and soul with the church decided to sell their property and give it to the church so needs could be taken care of.
 
And what we get in verse 36-37 is one story of an occasion where an individual did just that.  Only 14-17% of the people during the first century actually owned land or a house.  This is the first mention of Barnabas in the Bible but after this he will show up another 21 times and becomes a key figure spurring along the spread of the gospel with his words, first vouching for Paul and then later John Mark and here he is spurring it along with his money.  It’s likely why they called him the “son of encouragement.”
 
A field in that day cost around 120 denarii. Most people back then made about a denarii a day so that is about four months worth of wages, which in an average San Diego income would be about $15,000.  So this is a chunk of change Barnabas gives.  And the early church continued to do this.  Fifteen years later there was a famine that spread through Jerusalem and Judea and the church in Antioch took up an offering for them to help provide relief, we’ll read about when we get to Acts 11 & 12.
 
Okay, I think we get the picture here so here’s the question.  It’s one which is going to come up again and again in our study through the book of Acts.  By the time we finish it you’ll all have it drilled into your heads.  Here’s the question, is this descriptive or prescriptive?  Often Acts is describing something that happened, that took place and not necessarily prescribing, telling us what we ought to do or must do.
 
Well, obviously it’s describing here not prescribing.  Hopefully you can see that.  But is there any where else in the Bible where it does prescribe?  Does it give us instructions on how we are to approach needs?  And the answer is yes!
 
First, in regards to the poor or needy among us.  The Bible’s perspective first of all is for God’s people to care for their own first.  So here’s the call in Deuteronomy 15:7 “If among you, one of your brothers should become poor, in any of your towns within your land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart or shut your hand against your poor brother.”  We may not be able to solve the financial problems and hardships of the whole world but we can care for the spiritual brothers and sisters among us…they are our first priority.
 
But there are some stipulations to who receives this kind of care.  2 Thessalonians 3:10-12 “We give you this command: If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat.  For we hear that some among you walk in idleness…such persons we command and encourage in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and earn their own living.”   If a guy is poor because he is lazy and won’t work or is just sitting around waiting for the perfect job, it’s not the church’s responsibility to take care of him.  He needs to get a job at McDonalds if he has to!
 
So that’s caring for those among us.  Then at times, like Jesus explained in his parable of the Good Samaritan we can financially give to outsiders as a testimony of God’s mercy (Lk 10:35-37).   There are times when we can help those outside our church so that they will see our good deeds and glorify our God (1 Pet 2:12).
 
Here’s the point.  Why do we have money?  We have money because God gives it to us to use either for his glory and honor or for our own.  The Bible teaches, 1 Chronicles 29:11-12, that all our money, all our riches come from God who owns everything.  We are merely stewards or managers of his cash.  Like Doug Martsch from the band Built To Spill says, “It’s barely yours on loan, what you think you own.”
 
Whatever we have comes from God and is meant to be used in such a way that it pleases him or makes him happy.  I told the dudes up at the men’s retreat, you ought to think about every purchase you make and ask, “would Jesus be okay if I spent his money on this?”
 
One of the main ways God is pleased with us is when we use our money to care for his people.  Listen to Ephesians 4:28.  It says, “Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need.”
 
Now there are sort of three different spheres or places for this.
 
One, there is you individual care, help and love for another person.  Such as buying someone’s meal for them…buying a gift for them you know they need, like when they have a new baby…all kinds of stuff.
 
Two, there is your regular giving to the church.  The Bible teaches that it is meant to be a “first-fruits”  that you budget and plan for.  
 
A first-fruits.  Proverbs 3:9 “Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the firstfruits of all your produce.”  A first fruit means off the top.  It’s not a last fruits.  If you only give if you have money left over that’s not biblical giving.  If money gets tight and giving to church is the first thing to go, that’s not biblical giving.  It’s a first fruits.
 
A first-fruits that you budget for.  2 Corinthians 9:5,12 “Arrange in advance the gift you have promised…for the ministry of this service is not only supply the needs of the saints but is also overflowing in many thanksgivings to God.”  So you should promise and commit to giving and arrange your budget in advance so that you regularly get to financially give in thanks to God.
 
Some of you have never learned the consistent discipline of this.  And I’m not trying to manipulate you or pressure you into it.  2 Corinthians 9:5 also says it should not be an “exaction.”  But you are meant to regularly be giving.  It’s good to give.  In our home we do online banking now for everything but church, though the church does have online giving.  But we like putting a check in that box.  So the only check we ever write is to the church and my wife and I fight over who gets to put it in.  It’s a great joy and pleasure to give to the church.
 
Three, the third sphere is specific needs.  Needs arise.  Often they come out in community groups or in one on one relationships and when they do we have a great opportunity to be the church and care for those needs.  This is giving on top of your regular giving. They called ‘em “free-will offerings” in the Old Testament.  And this is likely the type of giving we are reading about here in our Acts passage.
 
So there’s the three spheres of giving.   We have great resources among us.  If everyone regularly gave there would never be any need among us.
 
Statistically a majority of churches have what’s known as the 80/20 principle happening in them.  It’s where 20% of the people give and take care of 80% of the work, need or budget.  I contacted our finance administrator this week to see how we were doing with the 80/20 principle and we are almost exactly there.  It’s better when if we only count the official members but in respect to the amount of people coming on Sundays less than 20% of the people regularly give.  
 
That 80/20 principle needs to die.  If this is your home church and especially if you are a member and you are not regularly giving, please repent.  Do what you got to do to re-arrange your budget.  God will provide and he will honor it.
 
The positive thing about the call to be a giving church is that it puts to death the strong stream of materialism that we so easily buy into.  There’s different ways you can define materialism but I just put it this way: it’s the lie that the more money or the more stuff we have will make us happy.  It is not things we need it’s Jesus and there no happiness or joy like the one that comes from knowing him and making him known!
 
Here’s what John Calvin says on this, “We invent subtle shifts to draw all things unto us by hook and crook…we must have hearts that are harder than iron if we are not moved in reading this narrative (of Acts 4)…they sold their possessions in those days; in our day it is the lust to purchase that reigns supreme.”  The belief that material things or money could ever make us happy has to die.
 
Lastly on resources.  If you are in need don’t be prideful and not share it.  That’s you wanting to handle your own business and prohibiting us from being the church.  I know it’s humbling.  I’ve had to do it.  But if you are part of us then your hardships are our hardships.  If one of us is hurting all of us is hurting.  We care for one another.  We’ve bought plane tickets, given away cars, paid people’s rent, given free child care and on and on…we’re serious about being the church.  We’ve just got to know the need.  When you don’t share the need you can rob the church the opportunity to be the church.
 
Okay, one more short point and then we’ll see how the gospel is actually the only thing which can empower this kind of radical giving mindset.  So, “Leaders: The Men We Trust.”
 
IV.​Leaders:  The Men We Trust (v.35,37)
 
What we distinctly notice in the passage before us today is how twice it is said that they brought the money and came and “laid it at the apostles’ feet.”  Putting something at or under their feet is a euphemism for entrusting it to their authority.  
 
Maybe they actually put the money at their physical feet but what that represents or what more likely took place was a turning over of the money to the church leaders here in order to that they might use it wisely for the sake of the gospel.  Here it is the apostles and after the apostles it was the elders or pastors of the church who then made the decisions on how it would be  distributed.
 
I wanted us to note this because one of the difficulties people often have with giving to church is whether it will really be used rightly.  And I understand that.  You work hard for your money so you don’t just want to give it away to have it squandered and abused.
 
However, two things are at work in this.  One, one of the qualifications for the church leaders is that they are not “lovers of money” or “greedy for gain” as it states in 1 Timothy 3:1 & Titus 1:7.  So first, church leaders are supposed to be men, who before God rightly handle money.
 
Two, part of the thing with giving is a releasing of control and trusting God with all of your life, including your finances.  So the other side of the trusting leaders coin is really about you and whether you trust God.  Even if for some horrible reason church leaders misused your money, your act of giving is still good for you in how it addresses your heart.  
 
You see you have to be careful with this one because if you only give to what you deem appropriate rather than giving just because God says to give…then that’s not giving.  You know what that is?  It’s purchasing.  
 
So check your heart on whether you are giving or purchasing and then know, at least for our church, we have very strict policies on money meant to protect our pastors and those who have access to church funds.  Receipts for everything, approval for purchases over $100, double counters and signers on all income.  We take it seriously…but ultimately remember your trust needs to be in God.
 
Okay, let’s go on to our last and best point, the “Gospel: The Power At Work.”
 
V.​Gospel:  The Power At Work (v.33)
 
So the verse we have thus far skipped and not paid any attention to is verse 33.  Sandwiched right in the middle of all this talk about money and how it was functioning in the early church is this line: “And with great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all.”
 
Note a few things here.  With “great power” they were giving testimony of Jesus.  This great power is God’s power, so God is at work among them.  Then, what is the result of the testimony of Jesus?  “Great grace was upon the all” which the text here is describing as being played out in their radical giving.
 
So clearly here, it is the message of Jesus’ death and resurrection from the dead for sins, what we call the gospel, which is producing this kind of giving.  This is the question then, how does the gospel do that?  What is it about the message of the Jesus’ death and resurrection which turns the heart this way?  Because it’s not natural, at least according to our sinful nature…our natural tendency is to focus on ourselves and our own needs.
 
I think 2 Corinthians 8:1-9 will be extremely helpful for us.  2 Corinthians 8 and 9 are both chapters dealing with giving in church.  I encourage you to read all of them.  But let me just read this little chunk out of 2 Corinthians 8 because it not only gives us another picture of the church and money but directly connects it to the gospel for us.  So here we go, follow along with me.
 
2 Corinthians 8:1-9  “1 We want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia, 2 for in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. 3 For they gave according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means, of their own accord, 4 begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints— 5 and this, not as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then by the will of God to us. 6 Accordingly, we urged Titus that as he had started, so he should complete among you this act of grace. 7 But as you excel in everything—in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in all earnestness, and in our love for you – see that you excel in this act of grace also (the grace of giving).  8 I say this not as a command, but to prove by the earnestness of others that your love also is genuine. 9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.”
 
There it is.  Jesus, though he was rich.  The LORD of heaven and earth, humbled himself by taking on human nature and was born among a poor family and worked a poor job as a carpenter and not only that but then he took on the sins of his people, though he had never sinned and died a sinners death on a cross…so that, so that we might receive the riches of heaven!  Jesus gave up everything for us so we might have true riches, the riches of knowing God and entering his kingdom.
 
That’s why Paul could say in Philippians 3, I count all things as loss for the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus (Phil 3:8)!  Our money, our stuff…it’s a loss compared to riches of knowing Jesus and being found in him, redeemed, restored, forgiven and chosen.  
 
You see when you realize what a miserable wretch you are and that God has extended grace toward you in Jesus…nothing else matters.  Everything comes into clear focus.  You see the truth is we are all thieves.  We have robbed God of his glory.  We have stolen the money he entrusts us with and have spent it on our pleasures.  
 
As the master owner he is fully within his rights to throw us into the prison of hell for eternity for our crime.   Yet, the good news of the Gospel is he sent Jesus, to take our place and pay the price of hell on the cross so that our debt might be cancelled and then he calls us sons and daughters and just gives us all of the riches of his household.
 
Oh my friends…when the Gospel gets a hold of your heart how that changes the bondage to money.  Then nothing I have is my own.  It’s all for the service of the King.  Just mere tokens I get to use to express my love and gratitude toward him and means through which I get to express his love toward others in need.
 
Do you see how the gospel is to work in us?  If you are feeling financial pressure today, what you really need is the gospel.  Not some external solution to get you more money.  If you are feeling financial confidence today, what you need is the gospel.   Money is not our security, Christ is!  So let us rest and rejoice in him and him alone.
 
This is what we need most.  We’ve hit a ton of practical stuff today.  But the bottom line is Jesus.  We are sinners. He is the savior.  What we need is him.  With our eyes focused and fixed on Jesus the root of our issue money deep in our hearts gets dealt with and then the fruit is what follows as we are freed to be the church and to bless those in need.
 
Well, let’s conclude and prepare for the Lord’s Supper.
 
Conclusion
 
The picture we got to look at in today’s text is beautiful.  A church in unity, taking care of needs with the resources they had, entrusting it to the leaders and all of it happening because of the gospel’s work among them.  
 
I think it ought to both prick us and inspire us.  We want and need unity. Jesus prayed for it and we are commanded to have it.  
 
Needs are real.  I mentioned a couple real immediate needs of some of our members right now who just lost their jobs.  Another huge need of our church is a new building.  We talked about this last Sunday night at our member meeting.  Our family ministry rooms are busting at the seams and we have had a number of weeks where both our Sunday services have been full.  We’ve met with a commercial real estate broker and a new building will likely cost us five times what we are paying now for this place.  But the resources are here.  If everyone here regularly gave we could handle that easily.  
 
Myself, the other pastors and our deacons care deeply for you and for this church.  We are committed to leading well and honorably before our Lord and we want to see this church grow and flourish.  I won’t say trust us, but trust the God who is at work in us.

And most importantly the Gospel.  The Gospel is what gives us life and truly empowers this whole thing.  Everything flows from the Gospel.
 
My sense is some of you have some repenting to do today before God in how you’ve seen and handled his money.  Maybe it’s because you’ve pursued happiness in it.  Maybe it’s because you’ve been begrudging and not giving.  Maybe it’s because you give and give regularly but don’t give joyfully out of a heart of gratitude.  Maybe it’s because you’ve been overconfident in your money and not the God who has given it to you.
 
When you come to the table today to receive Jesus body and blood in the bread and wine remember there is forgiveness in Jesus.  He died for all our faults and failures with money…so that we might receive the true riches.  The riches of knowing him.
 
Under the Gospel, we are all thieves whom God has had great grace on in Jesus.  He takes us in and changes us from being thieves to being his children.  What a good God we serve.
 
Let’s pray.
 

Blog | 2012 Resolved Men’s Retreat | Brad Hutchison

My weekend at camp…

I used to work at camp- for a long time… It’s where I met my wife. I’m a huge believer in camp ministry. The night before a number of us left for The Resolved Retreat, I realized that I had been on the service end of like, a hundred Men’s retreats, but this was ging to be my first as an attendee. With all my camp experience, I had some expectations. Foremost among them: I was expecting a camp.

What I was not expecting was a giant house.

We rented a house in Big Bear.

When we pulled up, I was surprised to see a house and not a camp (or so it seemed), but a house it was, undeniably so. And it was a huge house (it sleeps more than 20 men- I can tell you that with certainty): 4 bathrooms, jacuzzi, sauna, beds everywhere, giant dining table, pool table… you get the picture. Despite its undeniable status as a house, though, the place is oddly and frequently (I discovered on exploration) referred to as “Camp Run-A-Muk.” I kept finding the name attached to the strangest things, like a set of mounted steer horns with a brass plaque that just had that strange little name (is it cuter to spell it “A-Muk”?), as if the last rag-tag group of guests had won a roping contest against the odds and decided as a group that, rather than have their names inscribed on the plaque, they’d let it all be for the honor of “Run-A-Muk”!

The name was proudly placed everywhere, certainly on the 3000 page instruction book.

I quickly decided it must’ve been my mistake. House or not- this was definitely camp. And I think it would be fair to say that we all, in our own ways, ran amok (I’m so sorry, had to squeeze it in somewhere).

This conclusion was confirmed time and again as the weekend progressed: beer flowed like wine, cards were played, hikes were hiked, men jumped out of the jacuzzi to roll down a snow covered hill (because they knew it was the right thing to do…)

Oh, and there were boxing matches (you’ve probably heard about this from someone by now).

I don’t think there was a distinct highlight to the boxing- it was all fun to watch. I can say, though, that I had never before seen my pastor get punched in the face (he got his own shots in too).

Also, there was this meal. Holy crap- the meal…

Nick and crew cooked about 400 pounds of shrimp and onions and garlic and potatoes all mixed together. Then, they dumped all of it out, steam billowing, onto a newspaper covered table surrounded by standing gentlemen (we all had one shoulder in, one shoulder out, like some perverse, finger-snapping a capella group), who at precisely that moment stopped being gentlemen, in order to consume their food straight off the newspaper with bare hands.

I don’t think there was a distinct highlight to the southern style shrimp boil, but I can say that I had never before seen my pastor cram an entire handful of mixed food into his mouth like a caveman.

Really, though, there’s something true and valid to be said for getting people away from their normal distractions, to focus on God and the Gospel. A retreat from our normal environments is sometimes exactly what we need to view our lives, almost from afar.

The whole weekend was way fun- which was one of the primary goals- but there was incredible learning, fellowship, and discussion as well.

Duane taught us from Job 40:7- “Dress for action like a man; I will question you, and you make it known to me”- and many other places in scripture. The Spirit used him to remind and instruct us on Biblical Manhood, and he did an undeniably fantastic job at it.

Protect, Pastor, Provide, Procreate. We were all reminded of biblical mandates- callings on us from the God who made and knows us- to be men. We were reminded of the possibility of real repentance and encouraged to let the Spirit work in us in so many ways.

I’m sure there were as many personal lessons as there were men there listening and learning. Mine was simple and yet profound.

I was shown how, in many ways, I’ve just been doing good enough, as a man, taking too many situations as they come instead of pastoring my family toward something. The teaching was practical and useful, but tough to take at times- like the Gospel. The whole thing, though, was laced with a call to repentance and redemption- also like the Gospel.

In my mind, the Men’s retreat got an A. It would’ve been an A+ if the sauna had worked the whole time…

Blog | Pastor Duane

I grew up in a home where we were in church every Sunday as a family. We had a plaque with the ten commandments hanging on our wall, prayed before every meal and were taught the Bible as the Word of God.

In my teenage years I rebelled against God and tried to one up the prodigal son the best I could. After nearly four years of eating the pig stie-food of the world my restless heart came to rest in the gracious arms of the Savior.

It was my freshman year of college. I had never read the Bible before, didn’t know anything about God other than what I had heard growing up and I literally cut out cussing, smoking, drinking, and drugs over night. It was as if Holden Caulfield got saved.

I’ll never forget that first year as a new Christian. Everything about Jesus seemed easy back then. The Bible was new and exciting to me, filled with a ton of stories and every one of them seem full of life and immediately relevant to me. I found deep and close friendships with other Christians, many of whom I’m still close with today.

The next year wasn’t quite the spiritual joy ride, though the college years are nevertheless still the easy ride in comparison to the responsibilities of “real life.” As my new found faith began to mature I soon discovered there were a lot of different types of Christians out there and not every one of them believed the same thing.

In regards to the topic of this blog I remember one pointed conversation I had with a surfing buddy of mine. It was after a Bible study from a ministry called “surf ‘n’ serve” I was a part of. I don’t remember how we got talking about it but he brought up the doctrine of predestination and was showing me some verses in the Bible about it. I had never heard of predestination before in my entire life and the mere idea of it just made me angry.

My buddy and I ended up in a shouting match and I remember yelling at him and saying, “I don’t care what you say or what you think the Bible says, but I know that I CHOSE TO PUT FAITH IN CHRIST!” And then I went back to my dorm room, got a hold of a concordance and looked up every verse I could that talked about making choices to live for God. Verses like Joshua 24:15 “Choose this day whom you will serve” and Deuteronomy 30:19 “I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life…”

From that point on whenever predestination came up my answer was that I didn’t know how it could be true, that I knew that it was in the Bible, and that the most important thing was that we had to choose Christ.

Nearly three years went by for me and it wasn’t until I ended up at a Foursquare Bible college working on a graduate degree and taking a class on the book of Romans that things changed for me. They taught predestination was God looking into the future to see who would choose him, which fit well with my emphasis on us choosing.

Those who know the book of Romans are probably guessing it was Romans 9 that did it for me but it wasn’t (which by the way is one of the best chapters in the Bible to read on predestination). Funny enough the Bible college I was at only covered chapters 1-8 in their Romans class and there was no part II that covered the rest of the book (chapters 9-16).

We had worked through Romans 1-3, chapter three stating with daunting clarity, “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one (Rom 3:10-12).” I didn’t know quite what to do with that…I knew I had turned aside in those rebellious years but somehow I had thought I had turned around myself.

Then we came to Romans 4. The chapter starts out addressing the insufficiency of “works” or one’s own effort in trying to save themselves and then it drops this blow, “Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness.” Hearing that all of my righteousness was the pure gift of God not due to any of my own efforts took my legs out from under me.

I walked out of class that day, went outside and stood at the upstairs railing and looked out toward the mountains and tears began to roll down my cheeks…and I said to God, “I didn’t have anything to do with this did I? It was all You and has been all You all along hasn’t it?” And from that point on I’ve wholeheartedly accepted the doctrine of predestination.

I’d never read any Reformed theology much less the Reformers, since most the circles I ran in compared Calvin with the devil. But I began to read them for the first time and was astounded at what I found. Not only were their Scriptural assertions rigorous and thorough but they wrote with a passion for God and compassion for the lost I didn’t know existed.

What’s funny is it wasn’t really wrestling with the doctrine of predestination that brought me to the place where I embraced it. It was realizing that my sinful heart would never and never did choose Christ, it was God drawing me in, changing me, giving me faith and giving me Christ’s righteousness. When I looked back on my life I realized I could no longer take an ounce of credit for anything good I had ever done. It was all God. For the first time I understood the full meaning of Jesus’ words, “You did not choose me, but I chose you (Jn 15:16).”

It’s been years and years since I experienced that huge theological paradigm shift. Since then I’ve studied the Bible and learned more than I ever thought possible. I’ve experienced immense pain and suffering in my own life and in those I love. I heard more arguments and rebuttals against predestination than I’ve ever wanted. Yet I am firmly convinced, more than ever, that the God of the Bible does in fact declare “the end from the beginning” and accomplishes it all according to his purpose (Is 46:9-10). I believe this is the only kind of God whom we can truly count on and who is truly sufficient to save us.

I recognize there is great need to have grace and patience with those who have trouble with the doctrine of predestination. Rorty’s pragmatism has ruled the day in the school systems which teach us to value our “free will” and what we can accomplish as the highest of virtues. Yet the old educators used to teach a more sound logic, one which recognized the limits of human ability, demanded definitions of terms and was humbled rather than enraged at the notion of an entirely and intentionally caused universe.

Perhaps my story will help enable a fresh look at Scripture and a fresh look at one’s own heart. The truth is we need Christ and apart from his predestining power we will be lost without him. What joy and what hope there is in knowing God chose some before the foundation of the world whom he predestined according to the purpose of his will (Eph 1:4-5)! To him be the glory, now and forevermore.

The Church In Prayer | The Book of Acts | 4:23-31 | Pastor Duane Smets

This an expository sermon on Acts 4:23-31. It covers the prayer meeting of the early church followed by Peter and John’s release from prison. The sermon focuses on the importance of a church united in prayer, the significance of God being sovereign and predestining all things in accordance with our prayers, the relationship between good deeds and prayer and praying for God to empower us to speak the Gospel. This sermon was originally preached on March 25th, 2012 at The Resolved Church in San Diego, CA.

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The Resolved Church
Pastor Duane Smets
March 25th, 2012

The Church In Prayer | Acts 4:23-31
I. The House of Prayer: Lifted Voices Together (v.23-24)
II. The Sovereign Lord: Predestination and Prayer (v.24-29)
III. The Hand of Power: God’s Work and Prayer (v.29-30)
IV. The Spirit’s Mission: God’s Word and Prayer (v.29 & 31)

Introduction

In this season of our church we are going through a study of the book of Acts. If you’re somewhat new to the Bible, Acts is a fairly decent sized book in the New Testament…it comes right after the Gospel of John and right before the book of Romans.

So we’ve been following the story of Acts and the text we’re looking at today picks up in sequence the very next event of the church which took place as a direct result of what happened in Acts chapter 3 and 4.

Basically, a forty year old dude who was crippled from birth was healed both physically so he could walk and spiritually by coming to faith in Christ. After this happened a huge crowd gathered and Peter, one of the apostles of Jesus and church leaders, he preached a sermon and five thousand people converted and became Christians.

All this went down inside the Jewish temple courts. It created quite a ruckus and because Peter and John and the people from the church were preaching Jesus, the Jewish leaders were not happy. They thought they had got rid of Jesus just a number of weeks prior by having him crucified. They were not happy so they threw Peter and John in jail for night and then put them on trial before a court the next day. They would have put them to death and threatened to do so but because this huge crowd was in support of the gospel and praising God, they end up letting Peter and John go.

After they released, they immediately go back to the church and have this phenomenal time of prayer with the church. And that is what our text for today covers. So the title of my sermon is “The Church In Prayer.” So let’s read the text, declare it as God’s Word and ask for his blessing on our time in it today. (read text and pray).

Four things we’re going to look at in this text this morning and then we’re going to have a special time of response today to follow it up, which I’ll talk about once we work through these four things. So, we’re looking at:
• The House of Prayer: Lifted Voices Together (v.23-24)
• The Sovereign Lord: Predestination and Prayer (v.24-29)
• The Hand of Power: God’s Work and Prayer (v.29-30)
• The Spirit’s Mission: God’s Word and Prayer (v.29 & 31)

Let’s get started with the first one, “The House of Prayer.”

I. The House of Prayer: Lifted Voices Together (v.23-24)

Now, it starts off saying when they were released they went to their friends and reports what they said. And we got to hear that report, it’s recorded right here in verses 18-22. The trial probably took place behind closed doors and verses 18-22 tell us how the council told them not to preach in the name of Jesus any more and in response Peter says, “Sorry, no can do…we must obey God rather than men.”

So they are released and it says they go to their friends. If you can’t tell simply from what takes place with these “friends” afterward, the friends are the people of the church. In John 15:13 Jesus said he lays down his life for his “friends,” so friends is a proper term for Jesus church…the people whom he laid his life down on the cross for. There’s actually a whole denomination of churches called the “Friends Church” which was born out of the Quaker movement and emphasizes this aspect of being the church.

We are called to be friends. Not just friendly…but those who live in close community and faith together. We are meant to have a bond with one another and be there for one another when we’re hurting…we’re meant to spur one another on when we’re doing well…and we’re meant to call one another out on stuff when we’re blowing it. Friends, together as Philippians 1:27 says, “striving side by side for the faith of the gospel.”

And we get to see a picture of that here in our text today. Look at verse 24 with me…”THEY lifted up THEIR voices TOGETHER to God” and prayed and we get one of the prayers written down and preserved for us right here.

What is striking to me here is the strong sense of unity and the spiritual pursuit of God the church was having together. Their hearts and minds are all together, on the same page, seeking God and calling out to him. God means for his church to be united. Ephesians 4:3 calls it “the unity of the Spirit.” A real quick way to test, get and experience spiritual unity is to pray together.

We get this prayer recorded here and maybe they were all praying it in unison together but more likely there were multiple prayers being made and offered to God. Probably no unlike how we did here at the Sunday morning guided prayer service we did at the beginning of the year.

Now, what we have here is simply a description of something that did happen in the life of the early church…we don’t necessarily have a line in here in our Acts passage saying this is what we should do. It doesn’t prescribe this.

However, Jesus does. Each of the Gospels (Mt. 21:13; Mk 11:17; Lk 19:46) distinctly point out Jesus’ impassioned crying out at the temple, the place where God’s people of old gathered…he cries out, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer.’” When he says “it is written” here he’s quoting Isaiah 56:6-7 in the Bible. Here’s what God says in his Word there, “…everyone who keeps the Sabbath and does not profane it, and holds fast my covenant – these I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer.”

So God’s house, his covenant people, his church…when they gather on the day of worship together, the Sabbath they shall be a “house of prayer.”

We’ve been talking about this in our elder meetings with myself and the two other pastors of our church here and we’ve been asking the question, “What does it mean for us, The Resolved Church to be a house of prayer?” For people coming into our fold would our prayer mark us? Are we known as a praying people? In our worship services, in our community groups, in our personal homes and family life…is prayer happening and is it real and genuine?

Jesus’ words are quite serious. Right after he says his house shall be called a house of prayer, right after that he says if it is not, we make it into a den of thieves. Now, yes there was some specific things he was directly addressing…namely the use of the church as a place for buying and selling stuff. But the principle stands. We’re either a house of prayer or we rob God’s house from what He calls us to be.

We are called to be a praying people. A people united together, who prays together. A people who lifts up our voices to God and seeks him. So at the conclusion of our sermon study time today we are going to do some special time of prayer today.

But before we do there are some other things here in our text to look at that are important…not only for our understanding of the text but some things that are important for every prayer we ever pray! Namely who we’re praying to! So let’s look at our next point, “The Sovereign Lord: Predestination and Prayer.”

II. The Sovereign Lord: Predestination and Prayer (v.24-29)

Okay, so first let’s deal with some words here. They start out their prayer by identifying who they are talking to. A lot of people say they pray to “God.” But what God? Who is this God you are praying to? What is he like?

As a general principle, when you pray it’s a good idea to start out by reminding yourself who you’re talking to. For example, a lot of time when I begin to pray I’ll say things like, “God, I thank you that you know all things…God, I thank you that you are real and true and a living God and that I am not just speaking words to the air…I thank you that you hear me.” In doing so you are really recounting the attributes of God and it puts you in a position to rightly interact with Him.

So, how’s the prayer in our passage start out? “Sovereign Lord.” It calls God by a specific name. The Bible has all kinds of various names for God and each one emphasizes different aspects of his character. So this one, “Sovereign Lord” points out God’s rule over all things.

“Sov” is the French word for super or “over all” and “reign” is what kings do, they rule and reign according to their might. So to be sov-reign is to have rule and reign over all. Over all things. Well, what kind of things? Our verse tells us. Over “the heavens and the earth and the sea and everything in them.” Over all things.

Well, why and how can he do that? Look at what it says. Because he made them. He is the Creator. Because God made all things he has the right to rule over all things and he does so according to his wisdom, purpose and plan.

You see the reasoning is sound. If you have the power to make all things as the chief Creator then you also have the power to wield them and direct them to do what you want them to do. You see the Bible does not have a view of God like he is a watchmaker…like he just made everything and then it all just runs on it’s own. That is the belief of deism and God is not a deist.

The view of God in the Bible is that he is ever at work in all the events of history and in the actions and decisions of men and women to guide it and determine it according to his plan. That’s what it means for him to have a sovereign rule or it. He’s ruling it…over all of it.

And this is where the prayer here in Acts goes next. It’s cites a passage of Scripture from Psalm 2 about how other human figures, “kings of the earth” attempt to be the sovereign. But they can’t be. You can’t have more than one person ruling over all and determining all things. Only one. So when people do not follow, worship and serve God they are setting themselves up against him…trying to be sovereigns in themselves when they are not and cannot be.

Now after this passage from Psalm 2 gets quoted in the prayer. Which by the way is a great way to pray. Probably more than half the stuff I ever pray is just stuff straight from Scripture. So Psalm 2 is quoted in this prayer and then the prayer references the death of Jesus on the cross.

Look at verse 27. In “this city.” They’re still in Jerusalem…Herod (the Jewish King), Pontius Pilate (the Roman Governor), the Gentiles (the Roman soldiers) and the peoples of Israel (the Jews and their leaders)…all of them “gathered together against…(God’s) holy servant Jesus.”

“Gathered together against” is a nice way of saying crucified. Herod allowed it. Pilate gave the order. The soldiers followed through. The Jewish priests handed him over. And the crowd of Israel shouted, “crucify him, crucify him!”

So human people here made decisions and took actions against Jesus…why and how? Look closely at verse 28. Ultimately, “to do whatever your hand (God’s hand) and your plan had predestined to take place.”

So a collective group of people together killed Jesus and the reason why they made those decisions and actions is because ultimately God was ordering it to take place with his sovereign hand of rulership. Somehow, some way God’s hand which is able to turn and work the decisions and events of the world and people he made directed things in such a way that his anointed son was put to death.

If you got an ESV translation like we use here then you see this word, “predestined.” And that’s the Greek word that’s behind the English here that is being translated. Predestined is the only possible translation. If you’ve got an NASB translation it has the same thing…simply “predestined.”

But if you’ve got an NIV translation you’ve got something far different. The NIV adds a bunch of words and actually changes the meaning. It has instead just the one simple word “predestined” it has “decided beforehand should happen.” It not only adds three words but it also changes the meaning from God deciding beforehand what will happen to what “should happen” which is something totally different…what should happen or what one would like to happen is a totally different thing than most assuredly making something happen…which is predestination.

Predestination means what it sounds like it means…”pre” that is before, “destine” destination. A pre decision on what the destination will be…predestined.

Now let me say a couple things about this word, “predestination.” It comes up a number of times in the Bible when Scripture is referencing God’s sovereign plan and rule over all things. Some call it “the doctrine of predestination.” And there is just no way around it. The word is in the Bible, so you have to deal with it.

All throughout Scripture God’s predestining all things is seen as one of the primary things that makes him God. And Scripture uses a bunch of different words to attempt to convey this truth.

God is called the “Alpha and the Omega” (Rev 1:8; 21:6; 22:13) which is the beginning and the end because he determined everything that would happen from the beginning to the end.

Psalm 139:3 says before a word is on our tongue God knows what it will be because he determines all thing. Hebrews 9:27 says God has appointed for every man the day he will die. Ephesians 1:4 says he determined everything that would happen with Jesus and who would embrace him as their savior “before the foundation of the world.” So before God even got to creation is was already conceiving of, planning and determining salvation. Just two chapters earlier in Acts, Acts 2:23 says Jesus was “delivered up (on the cross) according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God.”

Isaiah 46:9-10 says, “I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand,
and I will accomplish all my purpose.” Everything is predestined according to God’s will. There is no way around it. This is the view of God in the Bible and we have to deal with it.

Now, I know…I know that sometimes when the topic of predestination comes up a couple things can happen. One thing is because some people have had disagreements over it some people see it as controversial and so they don’t really want to deal with it. The other thing is some people when they start thinking about predestination it can be hard to wrap your mind around it. Due to faulty notions of logic many have been taught…it make this concept difficult to understand.

So I get it. I know it can be hard. And I’m not going to take the time to try and unpack all of what’s involved with predestination today. Take our Theo 101 church membership class, we spend a whole week on it in there.

What I do want to do with in regards to predestination today is why it is important for prayer…because that is the main reason it gets brought up in our text. So let’s see it there first and then I’ll deal with the practical implications for us.

Okay, so look at verse 29. Verse 28 has just said God predestined the death of Jesus and verse 24 said God is sovereign over all. Now in verse 29 the reasoning goes like this…if God is sovereign over all things and planned the death of Jesus then there is nothing to fear of what will happen to us in the future! See, look at it. Verse 28, you predestined. Verse 29 “Now Lord, look upon their threats (death threats) and grant your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness.”

Do you see it? Do you get it? If God has predestined their death just like God predestined Jesus death through his sovereign rule over all things…THEN the death threats don’t really matter because ultimately they will die when God says it’s time not when the Jewish ruling authorities say so. And if that’s true…then we can just speak the Word with boldness! Do you get the logic?

Predestination takes the pressure off…it’s take the fear away because the future is not open as some so called “open theists” would say. No, the future is closed and set. Every word, every tongue, every day, every hour.

Alright. So here’s the response I hear sometimes. “Okay Duane. If everything is predestined by God, why pray about anything at all?” It’s a really good question. Some people who say they are Christians sometimes say they don’t believe in or accept predestination or God’s sovereign rule over the decisions, actions and wills of men…and yet they regularly pray for things, asking God for things or praying for other people…and my question what are you praying for?

If you don’t believe God rules over or predestines all things why are you asking him to act in a way contrary to your belief. Some will say, “Predestination can’t be true because we have free will.” If that’s true then what are you praying for when you pray that another person will become a Christian? Are you not asking God to override and change someone’s will which is set against him?

So you see, rather than being an irrelevant and impractical doctrine, the doctrine of predestination and God’s sovereignty is extremely practical and helpful…especially in prayer because then we know that God not only has the power to act because he is sovereign but also the will to act because he has determined all things for his glory.

Really, we are meant to be a people of prayer because through it our hearts get aligned to what he has already predestined to take place. God has determined not only everything that will happen but also the way it will happen and he has determined to do it through having his people pray and ask him to do what he is going to do anyway. It’s really a very gracious thing…that we get to experience through prayer the working out of God’s predestined plan! What a privilege!

I’ll say it this way. Believing in predestination gives power to your prayer…it gives confidence and weight and assurance and boldness!

For some of you…hearing this is probably really new to you. But we believe everything God has revealed to us in His Word is meant for our good or he wouldn’t have put it in there. So we believe that knowing and embracing the doctrine of predestination is good for us.

But hear this from me…we know it’s hard. It’s a hard thing to get your head around and it’s a super humbling thing to embrace because in it you’re saying you have a lot less control over things than you thought you did. That’s humbling. And humility is so good for our souls.

And the other thing I’ll say is for those who are already on board with predestination…have grace for those who are not quite there yet. If you actually believe in it, you didn’t really have a whole lot to do with coming to believe it so don’t beat up the people whom God in his predestined plan hasn’t seen fit for them to embrace it just yet.

Above all. For all of us…regardless of you are at on this…let’s be a people of prayer. Let us be a church who prays just as much as we preach. Don’t preach predestination and be pathetic in prayer. Let us go to God in confidence that he hears our prayers and that he is the God who does all things well!

Alright, let’s move on here. Next point, “The Hand of Power: God’s Work and Prayer (v.29-30).”

III. The Hand of Power: God’s Work and Prayer (v.29-30)

So here in verse 30, for the second time we have a reference to God’s “hand” being at work. In verse 30 his hand is being stretched out and what’s it doing? Healing and doing signs and wonders for the glory and fame of the name of Jesus.

Now, God is a Spirit. He doesn’t have a physical literal hand. The decisions of kings were known as the actions of their ruling hand. Thus the hand here is a reference to God’s ruling power. It’s a reference once again to his sovereignty. That God’s hand can do whatever he wants to…so he can heal and do signs and wonders…and what the church’s prayer emphasizes is that God’s hand is chiefly interested in doing things which are going to bring glory to the name of Jesus.

This brings up a somewhat important question for us. We have an example in this verse of the early church praying and asking God to do miracles so that people will come to believe in Jesus…so should we do that too? Should we be praying that God does supernatural miracles?

A few responses to that. One, remember the text is describing, not prescribing…it doesn’t tell Christians or churches to pray for miracles it’s simply describing that at one gathering after this crazy thing took place…they did.

Second, the purpose of miracles all throughout the Bible and especially according to Jesus is belief in him as savior. The purpose of miracles are never just for one’s physical benefit. We even saw it with the cripple man who was healed. In Peter’s sermon and explanation that spring from it in Acts 3 he emphasizes that it was a bigger deal that the cripple put faith in Jesus who died and rose again for sin. That is always the bigger miracle…when a hard against God dead heart comes to life and believes in Jesus. Regeneration is a huge miracle.

Third thing, the Bible never says not to pray for miracles. So I don’t think we can go as far as some do and say that isn’t possible or God doesn’t do that anymore. Remember, he is sovereign and full of power to do whatever he wants whenever he wants. If experiencing some physical miracle is going to help someone come to faith in Christ then at times that could be a good thing.

But here’s the fourth thing. In our culture and age…it usually doesn’t. Usually in cases when there seems to have been real supernatural physical healing we want to dive deeper into a scientific, medical or social explanation for it…it usually doesn’t promote faith in Christ. In other places in the world it does…especially in animistic cultures, but not in the western world.

And here is the last thing on miracles. It’s not so much about a miracle…it’s about a good deed that’s done to others so that the name of Jesus gets glorified. 1 Peter 2:12 talks about us doing good deeds for those who don’t yet believe so that they will “see your good deeds and glorify God.”

Maybe we can’t perform a supernatural miracle on someone so that they are healed and then we tell them about Jesus…but we can do tons of other things like make a meal for them, or help them out in some way, or do something kind and needed so that we will have an opportunity to tell them about the name of Jesus and what he done for us.

And really that is the goal…telling others about Jesus. And that brings us to the last thing I want us to look at today in our text, “The Spirit’s Mission: God’s Word and Prayer.”

IV. The Spirit’s Mission: God’s Word and Prayer (v.29 & 31)

Twice in our passage we have a reference to speaking the word of God with boldness. In verse 29 they ask for it and in verse 31 God grants it. Verse 31 says they were filled with the Spirit and they continued to speak the word of God with boldness.

They recognized that words concerning the good news of what God did in Jesus had to be spoken. Jesus had told them they would be his witnesses. And that isn’t easy.

What’s really interesting here about verse 31 is how it is a direct fulfillment of the mission or purpose statement of the entire book of Acts. It comes up again and again. Acts 1:8 Jesus said, “you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in Judea, in Samaria and to the ends of the earth.”

The book of Acts is the story unfolding of them doing exactly that. Again and again the Spirit coming and filling and empowering with the result that Jesus is proclaimed. Verse 31 ends with them continuing to speak the word, which most assuredly means after they went out from that place…they continued to speak the word boldly to others.

Now just a couple things here. Why is it hard for us to speak the Word? Why don’t we want to speak up? I think it boils down to fear doesn’t it? Isn’t that why the prayer is to be bold, not to be afraid?

So what are we afraid of? Well…I think we’re afraid of what people’s reactions might be, afraid we might not say the right thing, afraid we’ll look and sound stupid, afraid we’ll be asked a question we can’t answer, afraid that a friend won’t want to be friends any more if we do, and on and on and on… There are all kinds of fears huh?

And many of these are real fears. Like the people praying in our text, there is no guarantee it is going to go well when you do speak. For them, death was likely. And sometimes it just doesn’t go well.

Last week when I was out in Florida for the Ligonier conference with Josh Feil, our pastoral intern…we got back to our hotel somewhat late after the last session and we had not eaten dinner yet so we went down to the hotel bar there where they served food.

While we were there eating there was a group of three dudes vacationing from Austrailia. We got talking with them and I mentioned something about Jesus…trying to live out the challenge I gave to all of you to speak the name of Jesus to some who may not yet know him. So I said something about Jesus and they were all like….”Wait, you believe in God?! How can you believe there’s really a God?” So I started breaking things down for them and explaining who I believed God was but at the very point it became clear to them that I was saying they were sinners and needed a savior they got really angry, almost out of no where. One of the dudes took the ketchup bottle and threw it and started cussing at me and Josh told him to calm down and then all of the sudden these three guys were yelling at us and wanting to fight us. It was insane. The whole bar cleared out and the bar tender called security. And I was just glad we didn’t end up jail that night because I was tired and wanted a nice bed to sleep in.

But here was the funny thing. I still had like half my food to eat, so after security got called and they left…I was finishing my food and the bartender, who was this girl probably in her late twenties says to me, “So why were they so upset at you, what were you talking to them about.” So I was just honest and said, “Well, I’m a Christian and I was telling them about Jesus.” And she says…”You know I grew up Christian living with my grandparents but I got pregnant and had an abortion and ever since they disowned me, so I pretty much left Christianity when that happened. But I never stopped believing there was a God. I’m just not sure what to think about Jesus” and she has tears in her eyes.

So you see…sometimes it’s not going to go good and sometimes it will but God will accomplish his purposes. We just need to be bold. It’s our part to speak it. It’s God’s part to do what he means to do through it. We’re just the vessels…the word has come to us so that it might go through us. We just got to speak the word.

Here is the promise God has given us. Isaiah 55:11 “So shall my word be…it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose.” The Word of God will accomplish the work of God. We simply need God’s Spirit to give us the boldness to give the Word away. The Word will work!

God would you make us bold to speak your Word.

Conclusion

Well, we don’t just want to talk about prayer and being a house of prayer and not praying. So here’s the plan. We’re going to do a couple things different today for the response time to the Word. First, we’re going to pray a corporate prayer from the Reformation all out loud lifting our voices together to God and then we’re going to receive the Lord’s Supper and all receive personal prayer.

One of the things we’ve talked about at our pastors meeting is that we are responsible before God to teach you all, the people of The Resolved Church, how to be a people of prayer…we want to lead you well in that. So first let’s pray this great prayer together and then I’ll prepare us for the Lord’s Supper.

From Thomas Cramner’s “The Book of Common Prayer”

Almighty and everliving God, source of all wisdom and understanding,
be present with us for the renewal and mission of your Church.
Teach us in all things to seek first your honor and glory.
Guide us to perceive what is right, and grant us both the courage to
pursue it and the grace to accomplish it; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Almighty and everliving God, ruler of all things in heaven
and earth, hear our prayers for this church family.
Strengthen the faithful, arouse the careless, and restore the penitent.
Grant us all things necessary for our common life, and bring
us all to be of one heart and mind within your holy Church;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

O God, by your grace you have called us.
Grant that your Word may be truly preached and truly heard, your Sacraments
faithfully administered and faithfully received. By your
Spirit, fashion our lives according to the example of your
Son, and grant that we may show the power of your love to
all among whom we live; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen

Each and every week we receive the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper here at The Resolved Church. Because we believe God’s Word does not return to him empty, we believe that through the preaching of the Word God is doing work and addressing things in our hearts and minds…so we receive the Lord’s Supper in response. We examine ourselves and then we go to Christ.

We talked about four different aspects to being a Church in Prayer today. That we are to be a people who lift our voices in prayer. That we are to pray with confidence to a Sovereign God who has planned and ordered everything from the beginning to the end. That we can pray our good deeds will bring glory to Jesus. And that we need to pray for boldness to speak the word of the Gospel.

But here is the thing. We know these things are good and true and of God and that we ought to do them. But we also know we have already failed in all of the these areas.

We don’t pray. When we do we don’t remember who we’re talking to. We don’t do much good deeds for others. And we don’t speak the word to others.

But here is the beauty of the gospel. None of these things are the ground of God’s acceptance of us. In fact it’s the opposite. The reason God had Jesus die and ensured that it took place is so we would have to pray just right or pray enough or do enough to have him love and accept us.

We fail. We are sinners. We turn rob our houses of prayer. We doubt whether God is in control. We only work for ourselves so easily. And we don’t really want to tell anyone about Jesus. That’s bad. That’s ugly. And yet Christ died for us. And he prays perfectly for us…ever interceding, praying for us before the throne of God.

Jesus did what we have failed at doing so that we might be received into God’s fellowship and when we get that it changes us and makes us want to be a people of prayer, it makes us confident because we know that since he changed us he can change others to, it makes us want to do things that will bring glory to Jesus name and it makes us want other people to become Christians so much so that we’ll speak up!

So today when we respond and come to the table we want to live that out. So here’s what were going to do. Each week we have a team of guys and gals at the back available to pray for people. But something that really concerns us is not very many of you utilize it. Just a few people each service.

We know God is doing work in our heart and mind and you need to go share that with someone and pray with them about it. That should be packed in the back each week…receiving communion and then going to the back for prayer. And we want to teach you that.

So here’s what we’re doing today. After you come and receive the elements, go back for prayer. Every one of us is going to do it today. Go to the back, find someone with one of the prayer badges on…tell them what God’s doing in you and have them pray for you. If you don’t know what’s going on in you tell them that and they’ll pray for you. Okay?

Let me pray for this time of prayer together.

Blog | Josh Feil

Last weekend Pastor Duane and I got a chance to attend the Ligonier National Conference in Orlando, Florida. Ligonier is a ministry of Dr. R.C. Sproul that exists to help Christians grow in their knowledge of God and his holiness. This was the 25th year of their national conference.

We wanted to share some highlights of the conference and show how God has been working in some of your leaders, especially the one who preaches the Word week in and week out.

The theme of the conference was “The Christian Mind.” The line-up was stacked with professors and pastors from all over the country who spoke on the importance of having a mature, disciplined and renewed mind.

One of the points that every speaker touched on in some way or another was that without the Holy Spirit renewing our mind to think rightly about God, we can never worship God rightly. They fleshed this out by touching on the connection between the heart and the mind, the effects of sin on the mind and how important it is to fill our minds with Scripture so that we can understand more and more of who God is.

Pastor Duane and I had a number of opportunities to process through the lectures together and after having a few days back in San Diego, he gave me three points to share with the church that really stuck out to him from the conference:

1. As a pastor, there aren’t many opportunities to get challenged at a high intellectual level, so having three days to sit under and learn from some of the brightest theologians and preachers in the country was a real privilege.

2. Most of the people attending the conference were well into their later years. Seeing the legacy and seriousness with which these men were taking their roles as ministers gave great perspective on leaving a legacy and being a mature man.

3. The importance of and the connection between the head and the heart. Nothing worshipful can happen in our hearts unless our minds are filled with the knowledge of God and his holiness. We really sensed a renewed spirit of vigor and hunger for sound theology, especially in understanding the impact of theology on life and daily decisions.

The elders of the church recently asked Duane to attend two conferences a year for his personal and pastoral growth. It is vital for those who are pouring out so much energy and time to have a chance to be filled and poured into by men who have spent a lifetime digging into and exploring the things of God. So thank you for allowing your pastor to have a break from teaching so that he can be taught and enjoy sitting under the Word, which alone contains the words of living water.

To find out more about Ligonier and the great resources they offer, visit http://www.ligonier.org

Blog | Recommended Reading

“Sinful acts always have their origin in some form of unbelief. Behind every sin is a lie. The root of all our behaviour and emotions is the heart: what it trusts and what it treasures. People are given over to sinful desires because ‘they exchanged the truth of God for a lie’.“ – Tim Chester from You Can Change

God is Great… so I don’t have to be in control.
God is Glorious… so I don’t have to fear others.
God is Good… so I don’t have to look elsewhere.
God is Gracious… so I don’t have to prove myself.

The idea that Chris Swan brought up in his sermon this last Sunday is an old idea that was more recently popularized in Tim Chester’s book, You Can Change. You can Amazondotcom it if you want to read the whole thing, but here is a great section from a free online chapter that you can find here: http://timchester.files.wordpress.com/2008/06/youcanchangech5.pdf .

“Humanity’s problem is futile thinking, darkened understanding and ignorant hearts. This is the cause of indulgence, impurity and lust. We sin because we believe the lie that we are better off without God, that his rule is oppressive, that we will be free without him, that sin offers more than God. This is true of every sin and every negative emotion.

Often we can identify specific lies behind specific sinful acts and emotions. I may envy, steal or be anxious about money because I believe the lie that consumer goods give meaning to my life or because I believe that God doesn’t care for me. I may commit adultery or get depressed about my singleness because I believe the lie that intimacy with another person will give me more than God can give me.

Not many people think of themselves as someone who believes lies! But every time we don’t trust God’s word we’re believing something else, and that something is always a lie. If I get angry when I’m struck in traffic it’s because I don’t trust God. I believe the lie that God isn’t in control or that his purposes for me are not good. If I overwork it’s because I don’t trust God, perhaps because I believe the lie that I need to prove or justify myself. This is a radical view of sin. It means many of our negative emotions are sinful because they’re symptoms of unbelief – the greatest sin and the root sin. Whenever we’re depressed or bitter, it’s because we believe God isn’t being good to us or that he’s not in control. ‘Everything that does not come from faith is sin’ (Romans 14:23).

Not many Christians think of themselves as unbelievers. After all, we normally use the term to describe people who aren’t Christians at all. Most of us can happily sign up to the creeds of our church. But our problems rarely arise from a lack of belief in a confessional or theoretical sense, though this may be the case. More often they arise from functional or practical disbelief. The problems lie in the gap between what we believe in theory and what we believe in practice.

On Sunday morning I sing of my belief in justification by faith (confessional faith), but on Monday morning I still feel the need to prove myself (functional disbelief). Or I may believe I’ll be acquitted on the day of judgment, but still want to justify myself in an argument tomorrow. I may affirm that is sovereign (confessional faith), but still get anxious when I can’t control my life (functional disbelief). Sanctification is the progressive narrowing of the gap between confessional faith and functional faith.” (pages 81-83)

When: 9 & 11AM on April 8th, 2012
Where: 1717 W.Morena Blvd. SD, CA 92110
What: The Resolved Church EASTER Services

Easter celebrates the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. It’s a day to re-enter the drama of all that Jesus accomplished by defeating sin, death, hell and the grave! It’s a joyful day for God’s people to reflect on the truth of our faith and the new life Jesus secured.

Jesus rose on the third day, Sunday and in doing so changed the course of history forever. Ever since God’s people have especially gathered on this day to worship Jesus and recount what happened with his resurrection, the greatest core tenant of the Christian faith.

The way we celebrate Easter at The Resolved Church each year is to have a jubilant service with special music, a special sermon, special decor, and baptisms followed by great feasting in our homes.

Come and rejoice with us and invite someone to come with you!

When: 7:00PM on April 6th, 2012
Where: 1717 W.Morena Blvd. SD, CA 92110
What: The Resolved Church Good Friday Service

Good Friday remembers the dark difficult day when Jesus died on the cross for our sin. It’s a day to re-enter the drama of all Jesus went through in order to take thousands of people’s sin upon himself and then bear the full brunt of God’s wrath in their place. It’s a painful agonizing day to reflect on the seriousness of our sin which took Jesus there.

While it is a somber day, it is also a good day, because in it we who believe in Jesus as our Savior recognize he suffered the just punishment of God’s eternal wrath in hell…for us. Through Jesus work on Good Friday God demonstrated his love for us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us (Rom 5:8).

The way we remember Good Friday at The Resolved Church each year is to have a quiet, dark, low-light, funeral-esque type of service where we sing a few low-spirited songs, hear a moving reading of The Passion story, receive the Lord’s Supper, pray and then silently dismiss. We mourn and then we wait for that glorious third day that changed everything.

Come and re-live the greatest drama of world along with us…

Guest Speaker | Chris Swan | Deuteronomy 7:6

This a sermon on Deuteronomy 7:6 and various other related verses. It explores the multitude of ways in which God’s chosen and treasured possessions are blessed with and called to a new life in Christ. This sermon was originally preached on March 18th, 2012 at The Resolved Church in San Diego, CA.

Listen

The Resolved Church | www.theresolved.com

(619) 393-1990 | contact@theresolved.com
All Rights Reserved © The Resolved Church

Permissions: you are permitted and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material provided you not alter the wording in any way and you do not charge a fee. For web posting a link to this document is preferred.

The Resolved Church
Guest Speaker – Christopher Swan
March 18th, 2012

A New Life in Christ

Deuteronomy 7:6
“For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.”

Christians say:
1)   High view of God
2)   High view of Scripture
3)   High view of prayer
4)   We should love our neighbors, serve the poor, care for the orphan, the widow, and elderly

Read Ch.6
*V.25 “And it will be righteousness for us, if we are careful to do all this commandment before the Lord our God, as he has commanded us.”

Old Covenant
God’s people – from the line of Abraham
God’s place – the Promised Land would be given to them
God’s blessings – He would love them, multiply them, and use them to bless surrounding nations
*Condition – 6:25, keep the commands and statutes…

How did Israel do at keeping these commands and statutes?
As God’s covenant people, how are you doing with keeping these commands and statutes?
Are you struggling to have enough discipline, thinking, “I just need to ______? Or, “If I can just get through _____?  YOU can’t do it!! The Israelites couldn’t do it, and neither can you!!

*So if Israel couldn’t live up to the requirements of the covenant, and neither can we, then where would that leave them and us if another way weren’t established between God and us? Fortunately…

2 Corinthians 5:21 – “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

Philippians 3:9 – “…not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ.”

At the Cross the Lord instituted a New Covenant
God’s people – from the line of Jesus
God’s place – the whole earth
God’s blessings – are supernatural in their origin (not of this world), and come with an inheritance that lasts forever
*Condition – only Jesus can maintain the new covenant

Read Galatians 3:29-4:9 “Sons and heirs of a new covenant”

Old Self – wants to revert back to a works-based salvation and fails to realize the battle is spiritual
Read Ephesians 6:12
New Self – has the Holy Spirit (supernatural) and has no desire to live unto God through the flesh
A Practical Exercise:

We’re going to look at our sin – how it enslaves us affects others (Old Cov/Old Self)
*Yet, the New Covenant tells us to quit fighting against the power of the cross

We’ll also look at others sin – how it too enslaves us (Old Cov/OldSelf)
*Again, the NC tells us that Jesus died once for all sins, to set us free, and to give us peace with God and each other

REMEMBER A SPIRITUAL BATTLE IS RAGING ALL THE TIME FOR SOULS

Recall Romans 1 and the roads sin leads us down, as we suppress the truth (justification)? Satan and his demons are trying to call us back to slavery through tempting you and I to live in our flesh, to satisfy it’s desires…Watch out for the Old Self trying to sneak back into control!!

Pen and Paper
Take a thought/situation captive in your life right now. It needs to be a sin of yours or one that someone else has committed against you.

Examples:
Something God has told you to do and you haven’t. Or not to do and you haven’t stopped.
Addiction – lust, drinking, drugs, sex outside of marriage, cheating, stealing, etc.
Guilt – how you lived, or how you are living
Maybe you have been sinned against and it’s causing pain or bitterness or hatred
Shame – over what you’ve done in the past or where/what you’ve come from
Pain – Have you been hurt a lot

Key: Behind every sin is a lie about God

Whatever your sin is or the one committed against you, start writing down what the lies about God are that help support you doing those sins or that support you feeling the way you do about the person who has sinned against you.

Sins that still have an affect on you are representative of the Old Covenant or the Old Self and need to be taken to the cross where Jesus has dealt with them. Jesus calls to us saying, “You don’t have to manage your sin anymore. I dealt with it at the cross. Let Me be your strength, your peace, your source of joy!”

New Self Identity:
Galatians 2:20-21, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.”
Ephesians – Jesus is the head of the body. What am I ever thinking?!?!?
Philippians – Jesus-joy is not of this world!

Close:
The gospel is for everyday living.  Keep short accounts of your thoughts and actions and take them back to the cross where Jesus has already dealt with them.

Freedom in Christ will grow into new areas for you once you unlock the reasons you are sinning.

Soon He will have you bring into account things like personal preference, personality, and opinions…all things that are of the Old Self and not of the New life in Christ where Jesus is the head.

Keep asking yourself, “Where, or in Whom, do I find my identity?” If it’s not Jesus, then somehow or for some reason you are reverting back to the Old Self where you are not desirous of being in the body and where Jesus isn’t the head.

The Church Under Attack | The Book of Acts | 4:1-22 | Pastor Duane Smets

This an expository sermon on Acts 4:1-22. It covers the story of Peter and John and their hearing before the ruling council after healing a lame man and then preaching the gospel. The sermon focuses is put on how to be on mission and how to handle criticism and opposition. This sermon was originally preached on March 11th, 2012 at The Resolved Church in San Diego, CA.

Listen

The Resolved Church | www.theresolved.com

(619) 393-1990 | contact@theresolved.com
All Rights Reserved © The Resolved Church

Permissions: you are permitted and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material provided you not alter the wording in any way and you do not charge a fee. For web posting a link to this document is preferred.

The Resolved Church
Pastor Duane Smets
March 11th, 2012

The Church Under Attack | Acts 4:1-22
I. Mission: Spread Jesus
II. Criticism: No Jesus
III. Response: Only Jesus
IV. Resolve: Always Jesus

Introduction

Good morning. It’s good to see everyone. For those of you who are new, my name is Duane. I’m one of the pastors here and one of my many jobs is preaching most weeks here at The Resolved. We sincerely hope you feel welcome today and our prayer is you’d catch a glimpse of how much we really enjoy worshipping our God. We believe he is great and glorious, so we love to sing, we love His Word, we love His Son Jesus in what he has done for us, and we love one another because of it.

Last week as we’re moving through the book of Acts we came to the story of the gimp at the gate. By the hand of Peter, Jesus heals this man who was crippled from birth. It results a crowd gathering around them, so Peter seizes the opportunity and preaches this awesome sermon about who Jesus is and how his death on the cross for sin blots out the written record of judgment against us who believe in him.

This week, we move into the next chapter which is the follow-up story to what happened after Peter preached this sermon…some good stuff and not so good stuff. Basically Peter ends up getting into some hot water with the law, things get pretty nasty, but then God intervenes by filling Peter with his Spirit and Peter ends up dropping some major bombs which not only get him and John out of trouble…but results in a bunch of people becoming Christians.

There’s some great stuff in this chapter and some super relevant and helpful applications for our own lives here and now today. Not every text of the Bible is as easily transferrable to us that way…which is okay but there’s some choice things in here I’m praying God will use to teach us and grow us through them. So let’s go ahead and read the text today and get into it. (read text and pray)

Alright, so chapter three ended with what’s recorded as the conclusion of Peter’s sermon. Chapter four, picks up right where it left off. It’s the same day as chapter three which started off with Peter & John going into the temple at the ninth hour, which is 3 o’clock in the afternoon. They were probably in there for around an hour and then came out and preached this sermon in Solomon’s Portico.

After Peter’s sermon it sounds like they had possibly entered into some sort of response to the message time where they were ministering to people…explaining things in further detail or praying with people…it doesn’t really say. But verse 2 does say “they,” not just Peter were teaching the people and then verse 4 says 5,000 men who heard the word believed and became Christians. The women were counted under the men, so it was likely upwards of 10,000 people or more.

That’s important. Not just because it’s exciting that people believe and embraced Jesus but also to help us realize the setting and picture of what is going on here. There are a lot of people gathered around Peter and John and the cripple. This whole thing had created quite a stir, especially with the authorities. Through it we see and learn some big things about person of Jesus and how he empowers his church.

The way I want to work through these things and the story today is by looking at four movements that we not only see in our text but are also either things we are to believe and practice or will likely experience if we’re believing and practicing the gospel. So we’re going to look at Mission, Criticism, Response, and Resolve.

First Mission…the mission to spread Jesus.

I. Mission: Spread Jesus

So the book of Acts we are studying started out with it’s main theme and call to mission which drives the entire book. Acts 1:8, when Jesus says, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you will be my witnesses.” What we have here in chapter four is a direct fulfillment of what Jesus called his disciples and followers to do.

And they do it! Being witnesses for Jesus, spreading the news of who he is and what he accomplished in his death and resurrection becomes the singular lens through which they see everything. Everything for them is about Jesus. We’ve worked through two of Peter’s sermons so far which are just saturated with talk of Jesus.

I mean even in this story…you would think the healing of the crippled man would be the central topic of discussion but instead Peter quickly and decisively moves to talking about Jesus. In verse 9 he references the crippled man’s healing but he barely says anything about it and instead immediately moves to saying he was healed by Jesus and then connects it in verse 12 says everyone needs to be saved by Jesus.

The central place of Jesus in this chapter is unmistakable. Let me direct your attention to a few things.

First, right away in verse 2…what’s the thing that launches the events of this chapter? It says the Sadducees, who were the ruling authorities as part of the Sanhedrin, were annoyed. Why? Because Peter and John were “teaching and proclaiming” Jesus!

Then in verse 7, they rulers want to know what power or authority they are doing this, whose “name” gave them the right? And what’s Peter’s answer? Verse 10, “the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth.” And he goes further in verse 12 emphasizing the importance of his name…he says there is “no other NAME under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”

In response the rulers decide together in verse 17 that they are going to tell Peter and John not to speak anymore in “this name,” the name of Jesus. And that’s what they do. Verse 18, “”They called them and charged them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus.”

You getting a feel for it? The NAME of Jesus and reference to his name gets brought up ten different times. Over and over again the issue is the “name of Jesus…the name…the name…the name…the name of Jesus.” So what’s the big deal about his name? Why is the name of Jesus so important?

Interestingly the name Jesus, a Hebrew name, means “God saves” but I don’t think it was so much the meaning of Jesus’ name or anything to do with the sound of the word that was the issue. It’s who the name Jesus represented, who it referred to. And that’s what Peter points out…that this is not just any Jesus this is the Jesus who was crucified on a cross and three days later rose from the dead.

Because of that he says in verse 11 that “this Jesus” is the cornerstone. He’s quoting a well known messianic Psalm there…Psalm 118:22, which is important because once again he’s supporting his claim with the authority of Scripture. And he is using it to say something pretty pointed about Jesus in calling him the cornerstone.

The cornerstone was a big deal back in the first century and earlier when the Bible was written because back then they didn’t have levels to do construction like we do today. You know what a level is right? It’s like a long bar with those bubble things in it…so if you’re trying to get something straight you make the bubble line up in the middle. I love my level because I’m a perfectionist and like things straight. Anytime my wife wants me to hang something up I run out to the garage to get my level and she just shakes her head at me laughing because I get such joy out of using my level.

Anyway, they didn’t have levels back then so when they were going to build a building the first and most important thing they would build was the cornerstone. They would make it big and cut it as square as possible. They would test how square it was by putting a pan of water on top of it to see how level it was and once they got it they would then build all of the walls out from it and that assured that the building would end up straight and upright. If the cornerstone was off then the walls on the opposite side would not line up, nor the roof and the whole whole building would be tilted and likely come crashing down. The cornerstone is the most important part of the building from which the whole structure is built.

Peter says, this Jesus…he’s the cornerstone. Everything is built on and from him. Jesus is central. So central and important that all of the disciples’ speech and activity becomes filled with talking about Jesus!

Now I’ve been thinking about this all week…the importance of the name of Jesus. It’s funny how Jesus’ name is the only one that ever gets cursed when people are upset. I went surfing with this dude recently…he’s not a Christian…yet…and it was on a pretty big day and he got pounded pretty good and he kept saying, “Jesus…Jesus Christ…argh!!!” Now I know he wasn’t praying because there were a whole lot of other expletives with that.

And what’s funny to me is you never hear anyone when they hurt themselves or when they’re mad about something say, “Argh…Buddha!” or “Eh! Mohommed.” Jesus is the only person’s name that people curse. It’s funny huh? I’ve actually got a theory on that…I figure it’s because deep down people know he’s the only one who’s actually alive to hear their prayer since he rose from the dead and he’s the only one who can do anything about the situations we face.

It really is true that there is something so significant about the name of Jesus. You see it’s culturally acceptable to talk about God. Because the word “God” is so much more general. When you say the word “God” people can fill in the blank and it can mean many different things…it’s not offensive. But if you say the word “Jesus,” that’s a whole new ballgame. The name Jesus brings with it a distinct claim and message because of who it represents.

Jesus is not just a fill in the blank name. No, Jesus is God who became man, died on the cross and rose again and calls all people to repent and put faith in him alone for salvation. The name Jesus is a direct reference to the good news of the Gospel whom all Jesus’ followers are attempting to spread. The mission is to spread the fame and name of Jesus…of who he is and what he did in hopes that people would believe in him and become his followers.

Like verse 10…”Let it be known to all of you…the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified (and) whom God raised from the dead.” Know that in him there is salvation. I think what we have here in this story, is a prime example of what Jesus calls and commands us to do in being his witnesses. If you’re a Christian…you’re to be on mission for the name of Jesus.

Jesus said…
• Acts 1:8 “…you will be my witnesses.”
• John 20:21 “…as the Father sent me, so I send you.”
• Luke 24:47 “…proclaim in (my) name to all.”
• Mark 16:15 “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel.”
• Matthew 28:19-20 “Go therefore and make disciples of all.”

It’s all over the place. We’re to spread the name of Jesus. So here’ s the question for us…for you and I: Are we doing that? Are you on mission for the name of Jesus? I mean literally, how much do you speak the name of Jesus?

I’ve been checking my own heart and looking at my own life this week and I realized sometimes I just to talk about God with people who are not Christians…and I don’t bring up Jesus. Why not? Well, because that brings the conversation to this whole other level of intensity? So what? Jesus is who people need. He’s the cornerstone. Without Jesus there is no hope for anyone. Just being spiritual about “God” is not enough.

Simon Kistemaker, a Bible commentator I like says this, “The name of Jesus must be heard in all areas of life: in the halls of justice and government, in the classrooms of schools, colleges, and universities, in places of commerces and industry and in all places of today’s work and world. God has put ordinary people in at strategic places and wants them to make Jesus’ name and message known.”

I’ve got a challenge for you all, for all of us this week. Once a day this week, find a way to bring up the name of Jesus to someone who may not be a Christian. I don’t care how you do it or what you say. Well, don’t curse Jesus‘ name…that doesn’t count. Just bring up the name of Jesus. I’ll do it with you and I bet we’ll have some great stories come from it. You guys down?

Okay. I know maybe some of you are thinking…yeah but what if someone says this or that and what if I don’t know what to say or what if I make someone upset or what if…

Well, our next point and the next thing we’re looking at in the text today is criticism…when people don’t like you bringing up the name of Jesus. So let’s look at Criticism: No Jesus Please.

II. Criticism: No Jesus

In our story here’s what happens. Peter and John and probably the cripple to are talking to everyone about Jesus and the Sadducees and the captain of the guard, who is like the chief of police…literally, he was military trained and responsible for keeping the peace…they are, verse 2 says, “greatly annoyed” because of all the talk about Jesus.

In verse five we hear who some of the other rulers and leaders who were there, Annas the high priest and Caiaphas and John and Alexander. Annas and Caiaphas were both involved with Jesus’ trial and crucifixion just a few weeks earlier. They thought they had stomped this whole Jesus thing out by having him killed.

But now, his disciples are doing the same thing Jesus was doing…healing and preaching a message of salvation. And this time in contrast to before when the crowd was chanting crucify him, crucify him…the crowd is turning to Jesus in repentance and faith and becoming Christians by the thousands.

So they arrest Peter and John and throw them in jail until the next day for a trial…probably hoping to end up executing them as well. They know what name Peter and John were talking about. So in verse 7 when they ask what name they’re not really inquiring, they are trying to get them to go on record in order to give them grounds to execute them.

Now, there’s some other things in play here about the Sadducees disbelief in an afterlife and their political deal with Rome which undoubtedly contributes to their dislike of Jesus and this new Christian church movement. However, the real issue is what Peter points out to them when he says in verse 11 that they “rejected” Jesus.

When you reject God or are in rebellion against him then anyone who is talking about him, not only annoys you but you just despise them and wish they’d shut up and go away.

Here in the story, the trial starts out with Peter and John on the stand as it were but Peter flips the tables and puts the leaders here on trial accusing them of crucifying and rejecting Jesus. But rather condemning them he offers them salvation in the name of Jesus.

How it plays out when the leaders adjourn for a verdict they realize they are stuck because of the crowd. They all saw the miracle and were praising God. Verse 21 says they let Peter and John because they could not find a way to punish them because of the people. If the people had not been behind Peter and John the authorities would have undoubtedly sought capital punishment upon them. This was high stakes.

And I’ll just say this one main thing about this point for us. It’s a reality that not everyone is going to be favorable when we speak the name of Jesus. There will be criticism. Some people will be annoyed. Jesus said in Matthew 5:11 “Others (will) revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.”

The disciples here could have been put to death for speaking so much and so loud about the name of Jesus. But that didn’t stop them. When they we’re brought up on trial for it…Peter went after it harder!

For most of us…the worst thing that can happen for us talking about Jesus is some people not liking us or thinking we’re weird or freaks or whatever. So what! Get over it. We are weird and are freaks. We believe Jesus is God, that nearly two-thousand years ago he died on a cross and somehow that did something about my own sin and guilt and eternity, and then he rose again and then ascended up into the air on a cloud and disappeared. That’s pretty weird and freaky.

I’ll press a little bit more because I hear this one a lot. People will say, well I can’t talk about Jesus at my workplace because I could get fired for it. Okay. So what! Peter and John could’ve got killed for it. Before I became a full-time pastor I worked at a group home funded by the state and they were explicit about us not proselytizing…but I just talked to the kids there about Jesus all the time. Sometimes when they were having a hard time, I’d straight up start reading Scripture out loud to them. Take a little risk sometimes. Talk about Jesus and don’t worry so much about what might happen if you do. I hope you don’t get fired…we need your tithe! But oh well if you do.

Okay, I want us to look closer at one particular thing Peter says in response. So let’s move on to our third point, “Response: Only Jesus.”

III. Response: Only Jesus

In verse 12 Peter clearly states the exclusivity of Christianity as being the only one true religion or way of salvation. “There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”

This is in direct accordance with the words of Jesus himself as he said in John 14:6 “I am the way, and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

Now for many, hearing this is like nails on a chalkboard. It sounds so narrow, specific, arrogant and condemning. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been told, “There can’t be just one true faith. To say your religion is better and then try to convert others to it is so wrong. All religions have good things about them and equally valid, different things just work for different people. To insist you have the capital on truth is insane.”

Interestingly, this is not a new objection. In the Old Testament of the Bible it is a consistent issue about whether or not God is the one true God who alone should be worshipped or whether or not Baal, or Asherah or many of the other ancient mesopotamian gods could be valuable, helpful or true. In the New Testament the Greeks had a whole pantheon of gods and various belief systems from stoic philosophy to the worship of Artemis, apollos, Zeus and others.

So the Bible is not a stranger to this sentiment. My responses usually go down a philosophical line of reasoning trying to point out that saying there can’t be one right view in saying so does the very thing it condemns since it assumes it is the right view that there are no one right views.

For example, some say God is like an elephant and we are all blindfolded and each religion is just feeling a different part of the elephant…some a foot, some a tail, some a trunk…but it’s all the same god. And my response, how did you get your blindfold off to know there was this elephant?

Or I’ll try and point out how radically different various religions actually are…how they don’t really teach the same things. Or how we know some things are true, so what is the standard for how we know what is true or not true? How do we know anything at all?

But what I am struck with is how consistently the disciples don’t try to reason that way…though they could and were surely able to. Instead, what they do is simply assert Jesus and his resurrection.

For example
• Peter in one of the books of the Bible he ended up writing simply says, “We did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty (2 Pet 1:16).”
• Or Paul, later in Acts 17 we’ll get to the story later in the year but Paul goes to Athens and points out how they all have different beliefs in different gods and he basically tells them there is only one true God and that they were ignorant and must repent because God came into the world in Jesus who lived, died and rose again.

Basically the Bible’s view is if Jesus was real and really rose from the dead…then all bets are off because the one true God proved himself. Christianity hangs it’s whole hat on Jesus’ resurrection. In 1 Corinthians 15 it says if he didn’t rise from the dead then the whole religion is false and foolish.

Christianity is very unique as a religion.
• It’s the only religion which places it’s claim of truth outside of one’s personal experience…it places it on a historical and scientific claim that Jesus rose from the dead.
• It’s the only religion which says there is not something you can do to earn salvation and become superior to others by doing so. Instead it says Jesus came to save us by dying and rising for our sin. So we can’t take credit for it.
• It’s the only religion which has so persistently tried to bring others in, trying to include as many as possible rather than exclude them.
• It’s the only religion which is so brutally honest to say that all people are sinners who must be saved and which is also so beautifully gracious to say God has provided a way.

The heart of Peter’s bold announcement in our text today that, “there is salvation in no one else” rather than being a statement of condemnation and rejection toward the men who wanted to have him killed is a merciful offer and plea for them to turn to Christ. Peter was sharp and incisive trying to prick their consciences by pointing out that they were murderers who had rejected God and thus needed salvation.

Peter knew they needed salvation because he knew he needed it too for he had done the same thing…denied the Lord and contributed to his crucifixion. Notice in verse 12 he says “by which WE must be saved.” He included himself along with the rulers. Peter had turned to Jesus for salvation and was begging them to follow him in putting faith in name of Jesus.

So I guess what I want to say to you today is if you have a hard time with the idea that Jesus is the only way, then you have no further to look than your own heart and life because you like me and everyone else in this room have rejected God and lived for yourself and you need a savior. You can’t save yourself but there is one who can and Jesus is his name. Turn to him today. There is no other name or hope besides him.

Well, there’s one more thing here for us to look at and that’s the committed determination and resolve for Jesus which not only stands out in a big way in our text but is actually commented on by the rulers who had Peter and John on trial. So let’s look at the “Resolve: Always Jesus.”

IV. Resolve: Always Jesus

Look at verse 13 with me. It says, “Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished. And they recognized that they had been with Jesus.” Two things here.

One, the change in Peter and John. Only weeks earlier, Peter denied even knowing Jesus to a harmless girl for fear the word would get out that he was one of Jesus’ disciples and then be crucified too. Then he and the other disciples went into hiding. John 20:19 says the day Jesus’ rose from the dead, the disciples we’re huddled up in this room with the doors locked because they were afraid. Jesus, their leader was killed and they figured that the rulers would come after them next.

Now, just a few weeks later after seeing the risen Jesus…they now did not fear death. And they are bold! Confident and assured! I mean, you got to put yourself in their shoes. They were just thrown in jail, just like Jesus. Then they were put on trial before the council, just like Jesus. Peter and John undoubtedly figured this was the end of the line for them and that there were about to be executed.

I can just imagine Peter looking the high priest in the eye when he was preaching and saying to him, you rejected Jesus and you killed him but Jesus rose and there is salvation for you if you but call upon his name.

Funny, Jesus, when he was in one of his prophet moods told the disciples this very thing would happen. In Luke 11:11-12 Jesus said to the disciples, “When they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities, do not be anxious about how you should defend yourself or what you should say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.”

And here we have Peter, brought before the rulers and authorities and verse 8 says he was filled with the Holy Spirit and then he spoke boldly. Which brings us to the second thing that the authorities recognize…not only that they are bold but they accredit it to them being with Jesus.

The text is actually kind of funny. Whether it was their dress, or their accent or their simple minded vocabulary the rulers could tell they were “uneducated common men.” Insert redneck joke and you get the idea. The rulers note that Peter and John lacked the polish and the pretense of those who had gone to college.

But they are speaking with authority…like Jesus spoke with authority. They are reasoning with the Scriptures…like Jesus used the Scriptures. They are calling the religious leaders out…like Jesus called them out. And they were exhibiting love and care for others…like Jesus had.

The authorities recognized the voice, heart, attitude and authority of Jesus’ in their words and conduct. It was evident that these men had become like Jesus. That because of the time they spent with Jesus, Jesus had rubbed off on them and now they were talking and acting like he did.

This is a beautiful thing. It’s what God means to happen in us. That as we spend time with Jesus, reading His Word and speaking to him in prayer…God uses that time with Jesus to make us more and more like him.

The two things here from verse 13 have real clear application points for us in the resolve to pursue Jesus.

First, to be bold in sharing Jesus. When the conversations come, Jesus has promised that he will fill you with His Spirit and teach you what you ought to say. So this week when you bring up Jesus and if some conversation opens up, just start praying in your head and asking God’s Holy Spirit to help you know what to say. And he’ll help you, I promise. You don’t have to be super smart and super educated and know apologetics up and down. You just need Jesus’ Spirit to empower you.

The second application point here is to be with Jesus. Spend time with Jesus. The only way to become more like him is to spend time with him. The disciples spent every day with Jesus for three years. Are you spending time with Jesus’ every day? Listening to his teaching in the word. Talking to him in prayer. Be with Jesus. The more time you spend with Jesus the more and more it will be evident to others.

If we spend time with Jesus and are filled with His Spirit then our courage will become like theirs here in our chapter today. In verse 20 when Peter and John are told not to speak the name of Jesus any more. They basically say no. Verse 20, “we cannot but speak” and they say they will not disobey God by not speaking in order to do what the rulers are telling them to do.

It brings up the principle that we are to live and abide by the laws of the land, so long as they don’t tell us to do any that goes against what God has said in the Bible. If the law of the land and the law of God are in opposition, we obey God regardless of what consequences come for it.

Sometimes it seems Christians get scared of what might happen if laws change telling churches and pastors what they can or cannot teach. I don’t care…we’ll always preach and teach the Bible no matter what. Sometimes people don’t want to go be missionaries in countries of the world where Christianity is illegal…so what? Who are you going to obey, those laws or God?

Or what about just cultural influence? Where culture wants to tell you to live life in a way contrary to what the Bible teaches. Like drunkenness, sex before marriage, or men not working…are you going to obey God or listen to man?

The point is simple. Trust and obey God rather than man…always. Don’t be afraid of other people’s perceptions or the consequences which may come…whether it’s lack of money, jail or death. Honor God and make much of Jesus. Care more about what God thinks. Put him first. Always be for Jesus.

Well let’s conclude and prepare for the Lord’s Supper.

Conclusion

Usually I have to kind of pull everything in to help us see how it all relates to Jesus. But our text today just has Jesus all over it. Everything is all about Jesus.

What may help is to ask where you see yourself in this story. I’m guessing most of us here jump into the shoes of Peter…standing up to the opposition and attack and busting out in boldness for Jesus. We wanna be the good guy in the story.

But the truth we’re more like the Sadducees. Our tendency is to reject, resist and rebel against God. We’re more prone to criticize others than confess our own sin. We’re proud, care too much about what people think and rarely proclaim Jesus’ name.

The beauty of the Gospel is that the condition for God’s acceptance of us is not us being the good guy. In the Gospel God saves proud, self-absorbed, rebels like us.

On the surface the story looks like a trial of Peter and John but really it’s the story of us on trial and we’re found guilty…but Jesus paid the price for us so we could go free. He took our place of punishment on the cross and gives us new life as we trust in his name.

So today when you come forward to the table and you receive the elements of Jesus body and blood in the bread and the wine…remember he did it so you could go free in the courtroom of heaven. Allow that truth to seep into your heart and nourish your soul.

There is nothing like the gospel that humbles us, softens us and rejuvenates and encourages us. Ask God to make you more like Jesus and enable you to be a bold witness for Jesus. We need Jesus and Jesus is all we need. When you come to the table today just speak his name. Say it out loud or in a whisper: “Thank you Jesus, my savior.” It’s by his name we are saved.

Let’s pray.

Blog | John Bale

Duane’s sermon on Acts 3 made me feel like it was about time that I addressed my other “deacon” responsibility and write a blog about my experiences in and opinions on service based ministry.

The miraculous healing at the Beautiful Gate is just one of the many places in the Bible where we see a fundamental principle of the Gospel at work- whether it is most visible in the healing our “gimpy” bodies or the mending of our weary hearts, a Sovereign God has ordained that our lives are stored up as vessels of His Glory. They are a means by which an Invisible God reveals Himself in the signs and wonders of Redemption. Seeking out this glory must be the central motivation for our involvement in anything we might call local/global mission, social justice, or “mercy ministry.”

Motion Isn’t Meaning

I should probably admit that I never “figured” any of this out for myself… In fact I only recently learned to really understand it.

Visible acts of mercy were the things that hinted at the Love that lead me to Jesus. Mercy was an unfamiliar and incomprehensible thing to me at the time, but I knew that there was something to it. Providence directed me to the Bible and in its pages I encountered Christ and the Love behind his Gospel. It changed my life. Miraculously.

In response I dedicated myself to obediently following the “new commandment” given by Jesus in John 13:31-35, Matthew 25: 31-46, and reiterated by John the Evangelist in 1 John 4: 7-21. In order to prove my love for Christ I sought out every opportunity to serve “the least of these” among my brothers and my neighbors.

For almost a decade I became something of a “social justice super hero” (“hooded vigilante”). I hung out with and advocated for the rights of the homeless. I participated in a clean needle exchange program and taught anger management classes to kids in the ghetto. I participated in drug rehab groups, getting sympathy and support from heroin addicts when I was trying to wean myself off caffeine (Ha!). I wore duct taped glasses to a top secret battered women’s shelter so that the timid little ladies could make fun of me and feel comfortable letting a giant hairy dude wash their feet, play with their kids, and do their laundry.

I did about as many “good deeds” as time permitted while still being a full time student and active member of my church.

But eventually, I burned out. It started to dawn on me that loving “the least of these” had to be a commandment because it was really, really hard. All the “love” and good deeds I had to offer didn’t make their “leastyness” go away. The homeless didn’t want homes or jobs- just beer and a better burrito (yes please!). Even clean drug addicts were still addicted to destruction. All messed up children eventually become a version of their messed up parents. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. Cleaner needles didn’t cure the disease.

What I came to realize was that my love was not good enough to change a single person. Because I didn’t really Love any of those people. All I could see was brokenness without end. What is there to love about broken things? Even more humbling was the realization that, like Peter in John 21: 15-19, I didn’t really love Jesus as much as I thought I did. And Jesus already knew this. So what was the point of all my work?

For a while, I gave up. I’m not saying this was the correct response to burn out, or the right decision for me to make, but at that it was the honest one.

A New Hope

After a few years of the testing, learning, and growing that comes with being at a Gospel centered church like The Resolved, I had the opportunity to try my hand at service ministry once again, this time with the homeless ex-cons at the “Monday Night Community Group.”

This time I got to do what I had never done before: start with the Word, stay there, and keep going. Warren Duthie and Pepper Lang had already spent a lot of time serving and building relationships until finally, the ex-cons asked US for a Bible study. Knowing my background and my back-burnered passion, Duane asked me to go and get it done.

Immediately I could tell that a more mature understanding of the Gospel, a deeper faith in God’s sovereignty, and an ever-growing love for Christ was making it a completely different kind of service. When I got to teach on the mercy shown to the prostitute in John 8, I saw something that I hadn’t seen before: this wretchedly broken woman might not have ever met Jesus if she hadn’t been a prostitute. It was her sinful life that brought her to Christ, and he forgave her, and when he died on The Cross, he redeemed her. Her brokenness was not in the stead of the Gospel, but in preparation for it. This was a story about a woman’s “leastyness” being integral to the Hope of her salvation.

That was when I finally understood that Jesus didn’t love “the least of these” for their broken “leastyness.” Jesus loved, served, and saved them because their miraculous redemption brought him the most Glory. Whether it is the prostitute walking away from judgment and “sinning no more,” or the “Gimp at the Gate” walking at all, dramatically changed lives are monuments to the power of the Gospel. We are not called to show mercy to these people for the sake of mercy, or serve them for the sake of service, but to do both in order to facilitate the visible working of the Gospel.

So what changed in me? My focus is no longer on myself and my good deeds. It isn’t even on the people I am serving, with all their endless needs. My focus is on God’s Glory- that which is already visible and all that is left to be revealed. Before, when I was focused on my own works, it was like I sought to glorify God by demonstrating His mercy in myself. But I am not a merciful creature and any glory centered in myself will not stand. Now, when I seek out the Glory that He has already stored up for Himself in the lives of His people, whoever and wherever they are, my hope is always satisfied. Because even The Invisible God makes sure that His Glory is revealed. My love and desire is not for the “least of these,” or the best in me, but the Truth of Him.

That Truth is a message that changes lives and a story I get to tell some of the most broken and “leasty” people that I have ever met. Every week.

Buy A Little Mercy

In Acts 2, before the healing, Peter preaches that the brokenness of Israel, and in fact the world, was mercifully allowed to go on, throughout all the length of history, so that Jesus could one day redeem brokenness for the Glory of God. The blood of Jesus was the cost of that mercy, and the glory of redemption is what it purchased.

I truly believe that any other focus or motivation for service is an empty gesture that amounts to nothing. Too often our service to “the least of these” becomes an “Amenities Gospel,” which is just a light-beer shadow of the “Prosperity Gospel.” God never promised a just reward for worldly obedience, and Jesus never said anything about “unalienable rights.” In fact he promised the opposite, saying that the meek, those without a rightful claim to anything in this life, would inherit the Earth.

Yes, the Bible does say to seek Justice (Isaiah 1:17), but if we seek nothing more than justice, we will never arrive at the Gospel. Yet, if we seek out nothing less than the Gospel, not only will we see Justice, we will come to know and understand the end for which it was made. In our service to others we must remember that the world was not created so that justice could be served but so that God would be glorified.

So then what can we do to earnestly and honestly love Jesus and serve “the least of these,” whether it is in our backyards or across the world?

Follow the model of the Bible and invest in the long-term revelation of God’s Glory. God’s greatest glory is not like gilding gold that we can paint onto our favorite good deeds- it’s not the food you gave to a homeless person, the money you donated to a good cause, or even the touchdown you got on Monday Night Football. God’s greatest glory is not the act of a single brief moment that we can “give” to Him or anybody else.

Like the jewels adorning the walls of New Jerusalem in Revelation 21, God’s greatest glory is like diamonds – buried deep beneath the surface in the hearts of God’s people, cooked and crushed until it is ready to be revealed. Seeking out that glory is a hard and sometimes painful task, but it yields the kind of eternal beauty that is worth both living and dying for. At least according to Jesus.

There are many things that contribute to the visible glory of our Invisible God, but all of our human works must begin and end with the revealed Word of God, which does the real work of God. The best and most satisfying way to serve others and enjoy His Glory is to partner in the Gospel that miraculously changes lives.

If you don’t have the opportunity to see that Glory revealed on a regular basis, go and find one. Or better yet, get involved in making one…

Blog | Pastor Duane Smets

In the New Testament there are 30 “one another” commands. Many of them are things which we are unable to do as a church during a Sunday morning worship service. Instead, they require real relationship and real community through real situations. Take a gander through the list and think about some ways and opportunities you have to experience the blessings of putting them into practice.

1. Be at peace with one another (Mk 9:50)
2. Love one another (Jn 13:34)
3. Be joined to one another (Rom 12:5)
4. Be devoted to one another (Rom 12:10)
5. Honor one another (Rom 12:10)
6. Rejoice with one another (Rom 12:15)
7. Weep with one another (Rom 12:15)
8. Live in harmony with one another (Rom 12:16)
9. Accept one another (Rom 15:7)
10. Counsel one another (Rom 15:14)
11. Greet one another (Rom 16:16)
12. Agree with one another (1 Cor 1:10)
13. Wait for one another (1 Cor 11:33)
14. Care for one another (1 Cor 12:25)
15. Serve one another (Gal 5:13)
16. Carry one another’s burdens (Gal 6:2)
17. Be kind to one another (Eph 4:32)
18. Forgive one another (Eph 4:32)
19. Submit to one another (Eph 5:21)
20. Bear with one another (Col 3:13)
21. Teach and admonish one another (Col 3:16)
22. Encourage one another (1 Thess 5:11)
23. Build up one another (1 Thess 5:11)
24. Spur one another on (Heb 10:24)
25. Offer hospitality to one another (1 Pet 4:9)
26. Minister gifts to one another (1 Pet 4:10)
27. Be humble toward one another (1 Pet 5:5)
28. Confess your sins to one another (Jas 5:16)
29. Pray for one another (Jas 5:16)
30. Community with one another (1 Jn 1:7)

Blog | Pastor Duane

Many of you here at The Resolved Church know Josh Feil. Josh has been serving the church in a number of various capacities over the last few years. Since the beginning of this year Josh has become an official pastoral intern here and I’d like to publicly introduce him to you all.

Josh was born in Bakersfield, CA where he grew and moved down to San Diego in 2005 to go to college at SDSU where he graduated with a degree in music. Josh got married to his wife Cynthia in 2009 and shortly after they began attending The Resolved Church together. It was not long before Josh’s heart for God and for ministry began to show itself.

He has been an official member here since 2009 and served in a variety of capacities from Building Transformation, to A/V Ministry, Community Group Leader, preaching and more recently Family Ministry. Josh has been in leadership development here at The Resolved for a couple years now, through which God has used to help him discern a call to vocational ministry. So last year Josh enrolled in Westminster Theological Seminary to get some academic training beyond what The Resolved School of Theology can currently offer.

As time has gone on Josh has discovered his real heart and calling is to be a pastor, either here at The Resolved one day or possibly at another church. We believe part of the responsibility we have before God is train up leaders among us. There is much you can learn in a book, but much you can only learn through on the job experience. So a few months ago I started having Josh shadow me one day a week to see what I do as a Pastor and to sit in on some of my meetings. God has been granting much grace in this way as it has proven to be a prime learning experience for him.

We are increasingly impressed with Josh’s humility, teachability, aptitude, gifting, and love for people. Thus, on behalf of The Resolved Church elders we are happy to officially announce him as a pastoral intern of The Resolved Church. We will continue to work with Josh and give him opportunities to serve and to lead, so that his calling and character might be proven and fostered among us.

The Church At Work | The Book of Acts | 3:1-26 | Pastor Duane Smets

This an expository sermon on Acts 3:1-26. It covers the story of Peter and John healing the lame man who used to sit at the Beautiful Gate and the sermon that sprung from it. Focus is put on how we need the healing of Jesus to live for God in this world and how Jesus’ person and work enables us to repent by turning from sin toward faith in the gospel. This sermon was originally preached on March 4th, 2012 at The Resolved Church in San Diego, CA.

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The Resolved Church
Pastor Duane Smets
March 3rd, 2012

The Church At Work | Acts 3:1-26
I. The Story: A Gate, A Gimp & A Gift
II. The Sermon: Salvation For Sinners
A. The Person & Work of Jesus
B. Human Guilt, Repentance & Cleansing

Introduction

Well, I’m pumped about today’s text because in our current series going through the book of Acts we have come to chapter three, which contains an exciting story and a powerful sermon to accompany it. It’s one of those kind of story’s you read and you wish you could have been there.

There are so many great stories in the Bible. I’d love to see Hollywood take more of ‘em on because they’re fun, exciting and moving. Sometimes the same old movies of a love story or a comedy or a tragedy just seems to get rehashed over and over again. It’s different characters and a slightly adjusted storyline…but it’s the same movie. The Bible is not like that. It is full of amazing things God has done and each one of them is unique and gripping.

The story we’re looking at today doesn’t really need a whole lot of set-up. Basically the picture is of Jerusalem and the temple after the festival of Pentecost is over, so the city has died down somewhat as many returned to their homes in other cities. But the church was started and it is moving forward, worshipping, preaching and caring for people.

In last week’s text chapter 2, verse 43 said that in this season of the church “many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles.” Chapter 3 is a zeroed in look at and example of one of those wonders and signs.

Let’s go ahead and read it, declare it as God’s Word, pray over it and get into studying it together. (read text & pray).

So there’s basically two parts to this chapter. The story of what happened and then Peter’s explanation and sermon that arises from it. And that’s the basic outline we’ll follow today, “The Story” and then “The Sermon.”

So first let’s look at the story in a little more detail, it’s the story of “a gate, a gimp and a gift.”

I. The Story: A Gate, A Gimp & A Gift

It starts off here in verse one with Peter and John going to the temple at the hour of prayer. Basically there were two times in the day people would go to the temple if you lived in Jerusalem, either in the morning or afternoon. Peter and John are going here in the afternoon at the third hour which is 3pm. During the hour of prayer the priest would offer up an animal sacrifice and then lead those who were there in a song accompanied by trumpets. Then everyone would kneel and he would lead them in a public prayer.

Now, all of this would take place in the 3rd most inner part of the temple called the “Court of Israel.” You had to go through four different gates or doors to get there and it depended on who you were for whether or not you could go through the gates. Anyone was allowed through the first gate, including Gentiles (those who were not Jews). The next area in was called the “Court of the Women.” You had to be Jew to go into this part of the temple, women were allowed there as well as those who were physically handicapped.



Then you came to what our text calls “The Beautiful Gate.” You can see it here in this picture of a drawing we have…it’s right there in the middle. There were 15 steps that led up to it and at the top was the gate and it was a magnificent gate. It stood 75 feet high and 60 feet across and was the largest gate in the entire temple and was covered in the most expensive metal to be had at the time, Corinthian bronze. An Alexandrian Jew named Nicanor had donated it so many also called it the Nicanor gate…and it was truly a beautiful piece of craftsmanship.

Beyond the Beautiful Gate going into the Court of Israel only men who were healthy without disease or deformity were allowed. On the steps leading up to it was the common site of beggars who had some physical ailment which prohibited them from working and made them dependent upon the donations of those who gave them money.

Our story today focuses in on one lame man. He’s lame, which means he can’t walk and never has been able to since birth. And verse two says people carried him to the Beautiful Gate daily and put him there so people would give him “alms” which is money.

Now you got to get your head around this scene from a few different angles. First the lame beggar here. He had probably been coming there for years and that was his spot. We don’t know how old he is but he’s a full grown man and has never walked. His legs probably looked like shriveled up tiny sticks.

Second, there’s Peter and John. Just a few verses earlier in 2:46 we were told they were going to the temple every day. So Peter and John had seen this crippled man numerous times already. He was probably known as the gimp at the gate. And like things that you see everyday you become accustomed to it…they’re just a part of daily life which you see all the time. Like the homeless dudes standing with a sign at the end of various freeway off-ramps in our city, there’s always there…it’s common.

This scene is pretty familiar to us. There have always been beggars in big cities. My favorite one is the dude who has the sign, “I won’t lie: Need money for beer.” I always give that guy money.

Interestingly studies show that many are actually able to make a reasonable living by begging. But no matter how you slice it, it’s still a humiliating thing. Beggars being used to rejection, tend not to make eye contact.

So Peter and John are walking up the steps to go to the inner part of the temple for the prayer and worship service and they see this cripple that they’ve seen many times before…while looking down he asks them for alms. And something comes over Peter. Text doesn’t say what, my guess is it’s the Holy Spirit. And verse four says, Peter “directed his gaze at him” and said, “Look at us.”

The cripple looks up. Verse 5 says he thought Peter was going to give him money. But instead Peter gives him something far better. He says, verse “I have no silver or gold, but what I do have I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!”

Now this part seems crazy to me. My mind starts to go wild thinking like…How did Peter know it would work? What if it didn’t? Saying that is totally insulting. Obviously the dude can’t walk…telling him to get up is ridiculous, it’s mocking him.

But verse seven says Peter then reaches out with his “right hand” to help him up and when he does “his feet and ankles were made strong.” Luke, the human author of Acts was a medical doctor, which accounts for his attention to detail like Peter’s “right hand” and the cripples “feet and ankles.” His pointing those things is not only evidence the historical authenticity of the Bible but what he is describing here is his legs literally growing with muscle before their very eyes.

The dude realizes it and leaps up and starts walking, never having walked before in a single day of his life. Then verse 8, now he can go into the temple and runs in for the very first time and is immediately praising God!

This story is just incredible. If you have a tough time with the reality or possibility of miracles, you have to remember that Christianity is a religion based on one big miracle, the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. So you kind of have to get over the miracles hump if you’re going to seriously deal with the Bible. And really, this story isn’t really so much about the miracle that happened.

Let’s look a little closer at this. There’s some significant sub text stuff going on here. It’s in verses 4-5 and verses 8-9. In verses 4-5 the text puts this huge emphasis where the cripple is looking. He starts out looking down. Then Peter “directed his GAZE at him” and says “LOOK at us.” Then the cripple looks up and “fixed his attention on him.” Once Peter has his attention check out where he directs the cripple’s attention next.

Verse 6. First away from money…”I have no silver or gold.” So he tells him money is not what he needs. Instead, what does he say he needs? Jesus. Instead of giving him gold Peter gives him Jesus. He directs the cripple’s attention to Jesus.

Now it’s easy to just gloss over this and think Peter was giving him the ability to walk. But check out verse 16 when Peter is explaining what happened. He says, “faith in his name (Jesus) – has made this man strong.” Then he says it again, “the faith that is through Jesus has given the man this perfect health in the presence of all.”

What verse 16 explicitly points out is that when Peter told the cripple to look to Jesus, in faith the cripple did…and then he was healed. So his faith in Christ preceded his healing. And you see the evidence of this in the cripple’s response. What does he immediately do in verses 8-9? Praise. And praise who? Peter for healing him? No. He praises God.

He recognizes that God is the one who cared about him and loved him and received him, even though he was a cripple. You got to wrap your mind around this. Lame from birth. Very easy to think God doesn’t love you or care about you, that he slighted you. I mean he couldn’t even go into the worship service and sing to God because of it. But Peter tells him of Jesus, the cripple puts his faith in Jesus and is healed and immediately makes the connection that Jesus is God who healed him and not just his legs but his heart…now he’s full of joy!

The story takes a place of physical beauty, the Beautiful Gate and turns it into a place of spiritual beauty when this man is saved and restored. Interestingly, verse 10 points out the crowd’s reaction. They don’t praise God. They wonder and are amazed at what happened…but they don’t look to God. They look for another explanation, which Peter addresses in his sermon.

We’re going to look into Peter’s sermon here in a moment but before we do I want to make a point of personal application for us. We talked about it when we went through The Gospel of Matthew and saw a bunch of miracles Jesus did. Some of them were very much like this one and in the Bible, whenever there is a healing…like someone blind gets healed, or someone who’s deaf gets healed, or when someone mute gets healed, or when someone lame gets healed…it’s picture of what God does for us spiritually through the gospel.

Because of sin, we’re blind and don’t see the glory of God and his goodness…we’re deaf and don’t hear and obey his word…we’re mute and don’t give God the praise he deserves…and we’re lame and don’t walk in the ways God calls us to. But in the gospel God heals us and changes us…he gives us eyes to see how good and great he is, he give ears to hear his word, mouths to sing his praise and enables us to walk in a manner worthy of his calling.

So before we move on to looking at Peter’s explanation and sermon that springs from this story…let me just ask you today, where do you need God to heal you and enable you to see Jesus? What is clouding your vision? What is dulling your receptivity? What makes you hold back? What keeps you from living for God in your walk through this world? Where and how do you need Jesus to heal you?

Are you looking up and putting your faith in Jesus, in his name alone? Or are you looked down, fixed on yourself and the things of this world? Look up. Look to Jesus. Put your faith in him. He is the only answer.

That’s how we apply this scene to our lives. Some see it differently. I had a friend…well, we weren’t that good of friends…but a friend in Bible College who would read stories like this in the Bible and his immediate response was to think we needed to go find the next person we could in a wheel chair and tell them to get up in the name of Jesus.

Well…I’m not going to tell you not to do that…who knows??? But what is really interesting to me here is how Peter deals with the situation. Peter’s response to this miracle and the crowd’s reaction to it is to preach the gospel. And this is a theme we consistently see throughout the book of Acts. Whenever there are signs and wonders in Acts they are always followed by an emphasis on the proclamation of the Gospel.

We need to recognize this because lots of Christian people get excited about doing social work or social justice…like digging wells in Africa or feeding the homeless or any number of good things people do to help others, but often those efforts are not followed by a proclamation of the Gospel and that’s unbiblical.

It is the same thing with healing ministry of Jesus when you read about his life. The purpose of his miracles were not the healings in and of themselves but what happened afterward. In one story Jesus healed ten lepers but only one responded by coming to Jesus and giving him thanks. Jesus said only that one had faith (Lk 17:11-19).

The purpose of miracles is to inspire faith in Jesus as savior. And this principle is the same for all of the good things that happen in our lives…all the mini miracles we constantly receive…they are meant to inspire faith, gratitude and praise to Jesus.

Okay, let’s get back to our story here in Acts 3. After the cripple is healed together with Peter and John, they all go into the inner part of the temple and when they come out Peter ends up preaching a sermon. So let’s look at, “The Sermon: Salvation For Sinners.”

II. The Sermon: Salvation For Sinners

Word spread pretty fast that the gimp at the Beautiful Gate is healed and when Peter, John and the former gimp come out of the inner part of the temple, a crowd follows them. They end up walks out down the east corridor of the temple in what was known as Solomon’s Portico.

Here’s a scale model picture of it.



It had a ceiling 37.5 feet high, with double rows of pillars made of white marble and ran a length of 300 yards. That’s the length of three football fields. Solomon’s Portico was an area popularly used for commerce business and discussion…sort of a hang out place for various groups.

Akin to what happened on the Pentecost of the first day of the church…something supernatural had taken place, there’s a crowd, a misunderstanding and a sermon from Peter. In verse twelve Peter begins to preach and begins by addressing their wrongly directed wonder and amazement.

Let’s check it out. He says, “Men of Israel, why do you wonder at this, or why do you stare at us, as though by our own power or piety we have made him walk?” This is telling. The crowd thinks that Peter and John are something great…that they either possess some magical power or that special holiness or piety. So they are amazed and at wonder at Peter and John!

Peter immediately moves to correct this false assumption and calls the crowd to give their praise to God who is Jesus, his servant of glory. Peter is emphatic that it is not because he nor John had superior morality in any way or that they had tapped into some sort of supernatural ability but that Jesus had healed the lame man. In verse 16 he says it was Jesus, his name who healed the man. The hand was Peter’s but the power was Jesus…Jesus though ascended into heaven, still at work in and through his disciples and witnesses of his resurrection.

Peter squarely puts the whole focus, attention and credit on God. In fact this sermon is just saturated with talk about who God is and what he accomplished in Jesus. In just this one chapter God is referred to 26 different times in 11 different ways and the character of God who God is chiefly described by what he did in and through Jesus. So let’s look at this and what’s said about, “The Person & Work of Jesus” and then we’ll look at “Human Guilt, Repentance & Cleansing.”

A. The Person & Work of Jesus

One of the things that can become a disadvantage for Christians is our familiarity with certain Christian terminology. Some of said it’s almost like Christians have their own language with all these special terms and titles that don’t make much sense to those on the outside…that we speak Christianese. Also, because of our familiarity we can miss the significance and weight of what is said with terms and titles that become common to us.

So for example. Back in verse six, Peter referred to Jesus as “Jesus Christ of Nazareth.” Christ is not Jesus last name but rather a title meaning the Messiah or the Savior. So by referring to Jesus that way he is saying Jesus is a human man from the town of Nazareth and he is the Christ, the Messiah or Savior.

Then in verse 14 he refers to him as the “Holy and Righteous One.” To be holy means to be set apart and to be righteous is totally and always right or without sin. Jesus alone from the beginning was set apart and wholly without sin.

In verse 13 and verse 26 he refers to Jesus as God’s servant. This echoes Jesus own words concerning himself that he came “not to be served but to serve and give his life as a ransom for many (Mk 10:45).” Jesus came to serve and to give his life away.

In verses 22-25 Jesus is the prophet like Moses who is greater than Moses and who all the prophets said would come. Jesus came to speak the Word of the Gopsel as God in the flesh.

In verse 25, he is the singular offspring or seed of Abraham through who God promised to bless all the families or peoples of the earth. Jesus the prophet came to be the only and single savior through whose name alone man can be saved.

And then perhaps the most chilling of all is in verse 15 when Peter says Jesus is the Author of life. It’s a breathtaking title and description…the Author of Life. This is a phrase which would normally only be applied to God the Father who created all living things. But here Peter refers to Jesus as being the creator of life and breath and not just that but life everlasting that death cannot touch. Life, physical life and spiritual life comes from Jesus…he is its author and prince.

You see, these terms are filled and loaded with rich meaning and significance. They say so much about what kind of person Peter was saying Jesus is. And they are terms which would have made a person standing there in the first century be shocked to hear. These were radical claims and still are today.

In reference to the work of Jesus, Peter alludes to the event of Jesus’ death and resurrection. Everyone in Jerusalem had heard of it and knew the details of what happened so Peter doesn’t go into it in depth but rather goes after what it means.

Verse 15 says Jesus was killed, that’s a reference to his crucifixion on Golgotha hill, and then verse 15 says God raised him from the dead, which is a reference to Jesus’ resurrection three days later which the whole city knew about since it was a scandal that the tomb was empty and on top of that many saw Jesus, over 500 one of the time.

Then comes verse 18 which says that God planned this…that it was “foretold” which means to announce beforehand something you will do…it was ”foretold” by God that “his Christ would suffer.” That was the plan and Jesus came to as this verse states, to “fulfill it.” Jesus dying for sin and rising again was the plan all along. It was meant by God to be his ultimate and greatest work in all of human history. Jesus’ death and resurrection is the focal point of everything.

What’s interesting is in the book of Acts and really in all the New Testament letters there ends up being very little discussion concerning the miracles, healings, and exorcisms Jesus performed. Instead all the talk of Jesus becomes saturated with a focus on his death and resurrection and what that means for us.

You could summarize Peter’s preaching and teaching about Jesus here in this way:
• God sent Jesus into the world as his appointed prophet to speak his word.
• Jesus comes as the servant of man to do what man could not do, be righteous and save himself.
• Jesus was fully man, from Nazareth and fully God, the Author of life.
• Jesus never sinned but was holy and righteous in every way.
• God planned for Jesus to be killed so that sins might be blotted out and destruction escaped.
• God raised Jesus from the dead so that life might be restored for all who repent by turning from sin and toward faith in Jesus.

It’s nothing less than the Gospel.

On one hand it’s marvelous. Every religion tells you there is something you must do. But this Gospel speaks of something God has done. There is no new philosophy of life that is presented. No new system of morals. Just Jesus. Jesus death and resurrection for sinners.

On the other hand, though it’s marvelous…there’s some pointed things that are said here to the crowd who was there and by extension to us reading this today. Pointed and and convicting. So for our last point for today let’s look at “Human Guilt, Repentance & Cleansing” which really digs into how this Gospel works…how it effects us and changes us.

B. Human Guilt, Repentance & Cleansing

First the guilt piece. Did anyone catch the jarring tone of verse 15? “You killed the Author of life.” That’s a pretty strict line and serious accusation…murder.

And it’s not just any murder. There’s an oxymoron here. In verse 14, Peter recalls how Pilate, the governor at Jesus’ trial, tried to get Jesus off the hook and said he would release Jesus but instead the crowd chanted for this other guy named “Barsabbas” to be released and he was a guy convicted of murder. Jesus had never hurt anyone…but he claimed to be God…which the crowd saw as blasphemy, a sin worse than murder. So instead sparing the life of an innocent one they take life by murdering God, the author of life.

Now, many of the people who saw Jesus crucified were there…the sense from all the Gospel accounts is that the whole city came out to see the spectacle. And Peter holds everyone accountable for it. You might ask why? Was it because the crowd chanted “crucify him, crucify him”? Or was there a bigger, deeper reason.

In verse 17, he says they acted in ignorance. This is what’s sometimes called a sin of omission. It’s not sin in the way that you knowingly do something you know is wrong but it’s when you do something wrong that you did not even realize how wrong it was at the time. They didn’t realize they were crucifying the Lord of life.

Jesus himself pointed this out while he was dying on the cross. He spoke out and said, “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do (Lk 23:34).” Jesus, on the cross prayed for the people on the day Peter preached at Solomon’s Portico.

But what about us? We were not there or even alive when all this went down. Yet the Bible teaches that we too are all sinners and that God sees all our sin both in our hearts and in our actions. In Matthew 12 Jesus said our hearts are evil and out of our evil hearts comes evil words and deeds and that a day of judgment will come when will have to give an account to God for all of it (Mt 12:33-37). God has an account or a record of all of it, written on paper as it were.

Here’s the thing. God foretold and planned the death and resurrection of Jesus. It did not take him by surprise. God did it for a reason…he had a purpose…to deal with sin.

Sin, is what took Jesus to the cross. And not just sin as in it what was done to Jesus was sinful, though that’s true. But if there were no sin, Jesus would not have gone to the cross. Jesus intentionally went there. In Luke 9 he told the disciples he was going to go to Jerusalem to die and then it says he set his face to it, determined to go there (Lk. 9:44-45; 53).

Sin, all sin, their sin, your sin, my sin is what took Jesus to the cross. It’s what killed him. I killed him. I’m complicit. As the song we sing sometimes says, “It was my sin that held him there.” And there is judgment for sin. Verse 23 here says all who don’t listen to him, meaning receive his offer of salvation, will “be destroyed” which Jesus describes as an unending experience of being destroyed in mind, body and soul in hell (Mt. 5:22-30, 10:28, 18:9).

Maybe this sounds kind of morbid. But it is impossible for us to really come to faith in Jesus unless we first are brought to the knowledge of sin and how serious it is. Sin is ugly. It is dark. It is evil.

Verses 13-14 say there was a delivering over, a denying and a deciding involved in the sin that put Jesus on the cross. And we’ve all done that. We are happy to have someone else take the fall…we deliver him over. We all have willfully made decisions we know violate our conscience and the law of God. And we’ve all denied God in not worshipping and loving him as we ought and as He deserves and we’ve denied that we are actually sinful and need salvation. We’re all guilty.

So what are we to do? The cry of Jesus throughout his ministry and the cry of Peter and the apostles through the book of Acts is to repent. To repent. Verse 19, “Repent therefore and turn again that your sins might be blotted out.”

To repent. What does it actually mean? The word itself means to turn around and change your direction. We actually have a double imperative here. To repent and then it’s spelled out, right away “to turn again.” In true gospel repentance there are always two movements…you turn away from sin and turn to faith in Jesus.

Bible scholar Michael Green explains it well in his description of repentance. He says, “People cannot come to receive God’s gift with dirty hands. They need to drop the mud with which they were playing and come with empty hands to be washed and receive the gift of God.”

Repentance is dropping the mud, walking away from it and coming to Jesus to have him clean us. We need repentance. You can’t clean yourself when you have mud all over your hands. We have to have Jesus do it for us.

Which brings me to my most favorite thing in this whole chapter and that’s the second part of verse 19. “Repent therefore, and turn again, that your SINS may be BLOTTED OUT.” Oh those are great words.

The Greek word here behind our English word “blotted” is the word “exaleipho.” Here’s what it meant. Back in Bible times when they would write on paper the ink they used didn’t have any acid in it like ours does today…so it would not sink into the paper, it sat on top. So if someone made a mistake in writing something they would take a wet cloth and could simply blot the mistake clean by wiping it away.

So what the gospel teaches us here is that when we come to Jesus with our sin, he cleans us and wipes away that record of our sin that we would otherwise have to give an account to God for on the day of judgment. He wipes it clean! And it’s gone, erasing the record forevermore.

This my friends is why the gospel is so good and so sweet. As sinners we’re bad. Far worse than we realize. Yet God in Jesus has not left us to our sin but came into the world and died for it so that he might blot it out and make us clean. The grace of God goes deeper than the depth of our sin.

To repent is often hard and painful but being made clean is full of blessing. Verse 20 calls it a taste of the refreshing that comes from the presence of the Lord. It is good and it’s what we need. We need the renewing and refreshing life that comes from Jesus alone.

Conclusion

We’re going to receive the Lord’s Supper in a moment and I want to conclude my sermon today by simply calling us to repent. Earlier we talked about being blind, deaf, mute and lame. What we often fail to see is that it is our own sin clouding our sight, blocking our ears, holding our tongue and keeping us from moving toward God with our feet. How we’re rejecting the author of life. Life is what we need and what we want and we push the author of life away. Don’t do that today. See, hear, confess, come…repent!

Repenting is never a one time thing…it’s a lifetime thing. As we continually see more and more of the goodness of Jesus as we are ever turning from sin and turning to faith in Christ and having him make us clean.

What do you need to repent of today? Maybe you know exactly what that is…in hearing me say that something immediately comes to mind. Or maybe it’s something of omission…just a lackluster faith, or lack of passion and love for God?

Our hands get dirty easy. What mud do you need to drop? Come with empty hands today to receive the cleansing gift of God.

It’s so easy to believe a different gospel that says…”I know deep down I will still pay for some of the terrible things I’ve felt, said and/or done.” But the good news of the gospel is that through Jesus God wipes away the entire record of our sinful hearts and deeds.

Jesus is good and he’s all we need. So let’s run to him this morning and have him work in us as we receive the Lord’s Supper which tells us his body was broken and his blood was shed for our sin.

When you taste the bread and when the wine touches your lips remember Jesus paid for it all and wipes you clean.

Let’s stand and pray.

Sunday March 11th we will be hosting a Hospitality Ministry training and appreciation meeting!

This is a time to thank those who have faithfully been serving on Sundays to welcome people to The Resolved Church AND for any who are interested in joining one of the teams. Food will be provided.

Learn more about: The Resolved Hospitality Ministry

Sunday March 18th we will be hosting a Family Ministry training and appreciation meeting!

This is a time to thank those who have faithfully been serving on Sundays in teaching and caring for children AND is a time for any who are interested in joining one of the family ministry teams. Food will be provided.

Learn more about: The Resolved Family Ministry

If you’re a member of The Resolved Church, thinking about becoming one, or just want to experience a little of the behind the scenes action of the church…then come to our Member Meeting! For members this is an important time for us to talk together about the in-workings of our church and an opportunity to share reports, ask questions and take care of any needed business.

• Date: Mar 25th
• Time: 6:45-8:00pm
• Food: Dessert
• What: Review & Report

Living in Community @ The Resolved Church

For those of you who missed it, this is the video interview that was shown during the service this past Sunday. Watch it and check out what Brent Baber has to say about moving to San Diego and getting involved in a Resolved Church Community Group (Mission Hillbillies!)

The Church In Community | The Book of Acts | 2:42-47 | Pastor Duane Smets

This an expository sermon on Acts 2:42-47. It covers the devotion, unity, and mission of the first church community. This sermon was originally preached on February 26th, 2012 at The Resolved Church in San Diego, CA.

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The Resolved Church | www.theresolved.com

(619) 393-1990 | contact@theresolved.com
All Rights Reserved © The Resolved Church

Permissions: you are permitted and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material provided you not alter the wording in any way and you do not charge a fee. For web posting a link to this document is preferred.

The Resolved Church
Pastor Duane Smets

February 26^th, 2012

The Church In Community  |  Acts 2:42-47

I.       A Devoted Community  (v.42-43)
      A.     Devoted to The Teaching, The Fellowship, The Bread & The Prayers
      B.     Result: Awe and/or Fear
II.     A United Community  (v.44-45)
      A.     United Beliefs & Practices
      B.     Result: Giving Possessions & Proceeds
III.    A Missional Community  (v.46-47)
      A.     Mission Gathered & Scattered
      B.     Result:  Joy, Praise & Conversions

Introduction

Well, we are now six weeks into our sermon series study through the book of Acts.  We spent the last two Sundays looking at the birthday of the church, when it was first born.  Lots of amazing stuff happened when God’s Spirit descended on the church and then when the apostle Peter stood up to preach, the response to his sermon was thousands becoming Christians and being baptized.

Today what we’ll be looking at is the next little section or paragraph in Acts wherein Luke, the human author of the book, gives us this short summary of what the church ended up looking like days, weeks or months that followed its birth.  A specific time frame isn’t given but the scope seems to describe this beginning, sort of infantile season of the church’s life.  And it’s just an amazing little passage in all that is compacted together.

Community is the main focus.  With words and phrases like “devoted themselves,” “fellowship,” “every soul,” “all who believed,” “were together,” “all things in common,” “their homes” and “adding to their number” you simply cannot escape the community focus of this passage.  The picture of the church here is one who is in community, living a life centered on the gospel together.  So I titled my message this morning, “The Church In Community.”

Before we read the text and get into it today I want to start off by telling you a little bit of Joe’s story.  Joe was 30 years old at the time.  God had been doing a work in his heart in helping him see his need for Jesus and the result was he began to sense the need to get involved in a church.  There was a church just a block away from his house and since Joe didn’t really know where else to go he simply started going there.

Joe wasn’t sure what to expect but he was serious about it.  He went for one month every Sunday and what he experienced he later described as “strange.”  The church had sermons, but they were short, rarely even referenced the Bible and usually focused on how to be a better person.  There were people there, but no one hardly ever talked to him and seemed surprised that he would want to be there.

Joe knew a little about church and expected there would be a time for prayer and meeting with God, but in the month he had been there they didn’t offer the bread and the wine he was looking forward to partaking in and there was no opportunity for him to receive or offer prayer.

Joe, being a fairly new Christian, if he even was one at that point, went to the pastor after one service to ask what they believed and how to learn more about Jesus.  The pastor surprised him when he said the people of the church had a lot of different beliefs and that it really didn’t matter what a person believed as long as they had “faith” and were tolerant of other people’s belief systems.

Joe asked about money and how it worked there and what the expectation was for him and giving and the pastor said that the church was very blessed because their building was already paid for and that as a church they try not to make a big deal about money, but if he wanted to give there was a box he could put his offering in.

Joe asked if they ever did any events outside of their normal church building or if they had small groups he could get involved in during the week and the pastor simply said they didn’t feel it was their place to try and convert other people but rather to provide a stable place for people of faith to come and connect with God in their own way.  He said everyone is busy with work and their own lives so they don’t really do anything during the week.

Joe was baffled by some of this because he expected that in getting involved in a church he would find a group of people who loved to sing, who loved new comers and loved one another.  But the people there seemed disconnected, like they didn’t really even know each other and the only songs they sang were long dirges led by a lady playing the church organ.  The feeling in the air almost felt dead to Joe.

The last question Joe asked the pastor was perhaps the most heartbreaking of all.  He asked the pastor if there were any other new Christians like himself in the church and the pastor said no, that there had not been any new Christians or new babies born in the church in over ten years.

What Joe experienced was a church opposite of the one described here in our passage today.  A church not in community, not devoted to the apostles’ teaching, fellowship, the breaking of bread and prayers…there was no awe, no common belief or practice, no real care for finances or needs, no public outreach or smaller intimate gatherings in homes, no joy and no new Christians.

It was the opposite of the church we’re reading about this morning.  So with that, let’s read our text for this morning and pray over it together.  (read text & pray)

Our passage for today describes a vibrant living church.  And though it’s just descriptive, describing what things were like in the early church…it’s hard not to pick up a sense of Luke’s intent here is to tell us what a good healthy church ought to look like.  In fact, other places in the New Testament do tell us that several of of the things mentioned here are things every church must be about and do.  For example…devotion to the teaching, fellowship, bread, being united, giving, and being on mission are things the church is instructed is called to be like.

So my outline for today assumes that this is the type of community God calls us to.  We’ll look at three main things: “A Devoted Community,” “A United Community,” and a “Missional Community.”

Let’s start with the picture of “A Devoted Community” in verses 42-43.

I.       A Devoted Community  (v.42-43)

This word “devoted” is a pretty descriptive word.  It can mean to adhere and attach oneself to something, to be constant, steadfast and unremitting in giving care to a thing, or to continue and persevere in something without giving up or fainting.  It’s a strong word…to be “devoted.”  Kind of like the word “resolved.”  It’s an all in type of word, to be devoted.  In life you can usually only end up being devoted to a few things.  What are the things you are devoted to?

In our passage today, there’s four things mentioned the church devotes herself to: the teaching, the fellowship, the bread and the prayers.

A.     Devoted to The Teaching, The Fellowship, The Bread & The Prayers

The teaching here of the apostles is that which Jesus commissioned them to do in Acts 1:8 to be his witnesses and is what we just saw Peter do last week when he stood up and in a loud voiced witnessed concerning Jesus’ life, death and resurrection in order to deal with sin and provide salvation.  The teaching here really is the doctrine of the gospel which later gets recorded on paper into books we now call the New Testament portion of the Bible.

So how do we devote ourselves to the Apostles teaching like they did?  Well, we study the Bible, week in and week out when we gather together and every passage we study and preach from always ends up or concludes in the gospel.  We do it just like 1 Timothy 4:13 instructs us to when it says to,  “Devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching.”

Then the fellowship.  They were not only devoted to the teaching but the fellowship.  Now notice that little word “the” in front of fellowship.  In each one of these things that gets listed there is a “the” in front of it and that “the” is important.  In regards to “the” teaching…it’s not just any teaching, it’s the specific teaching of the body of truth that is the gospel.  Here in regards to fellowship, it’s not just any fellowship it’s “the” fellowship, the Christian kind of fellowship which is different than any other.

The Greek word for “fellowship” is “koinonia” which is one of the places we get the word “community” from, koinonia community.  So what is Christian community, what makes it different?  1 John 1, the whole chapter, is actually really helpful in explaining what is different with Christian fellowship or community.  It says that we all have sin and if we say don’t we’re lying to ourselves and to one another.   And sin separates us from God and from each other.

But, in the gospel God sent his son Jesus to shed his blood for our sin.  Those who believe in Jesus are then cleansed and forgiven of sin and we are brought back into fellowship or community with God and as a result of that we are brought into fellowship or community with one another.

So Christian fellowship or community is unique because in it we all share the acknowledgement that we are a messed up people, sinners, but as we have put faith in Jesus He is changing us and because of that we share something deeply powerful and intimate together.  Christian community therefore is meant to be a place where our sin is confessed and the goodness of Jesus is applied.

Sinclair Ferguson, this Scottish preacher and scholar I like says, “The church is a community in which we receive spiritual help, but also one in which deep seated problems will come to the surface and will require treatment…(through) it we often discover things about our own hearts which we never anticipated. “

In Christian community God using different people, with different personalities, and sometimes difficult  people to help change us and learn to receive and apply his grace.  I mean, I don’t want to draw out more than is really here in just this one word in verse 42 but in the very least, we could say they are spending meaningful time together discussing, encouraging and challenging one another with the gospel.

If you’re not experiencing that it might be a sign that you have yet to really enter into community with others in the church.  Community is people truly and deeply caring for one another with the gospel.  Are you in community, and I don’t just mean attending a community group…but are you opening up your heart and life to others and are you looking to and sharing in the gospel as the solution? Do you have people caring for you, for you heart and life?  Are you caring for others?  Are you really in community?

Well, there are two other things here they devoted themselves to, the breaking of bread and the prayers.  Now some look at these two things and think it just means they are eating meals in their homes and having prayer requests.  But there’s a number of problems with that idea.  One is that little word “the” in front of “breaking of bread” …”the breaking of bread” and “the prayers.

The “the” means a specific kind of bread breaking and interestingly enough the only other place this phrase occurs is in Luke’s other book he wrote before this one, “The Gospel of Luke.”  And guess where it shows up?  Luke 24:35 when Jesus had broken the bread and repeated the new covenant ceremony of the Lord’s Supper, which is also the same ceremony 1 Corinthians 11 gives instructions concerning…saying when we gather as the church we are to have a special time where we break bread and drink wine in remembrance of Jesus life and death offered up on the cross.

So the question is were they already doing this publicly in a formal worship service setting here in Acts 2 like at the temple or where they doing it casually in their homes as a special and spiritual part of a normal meal they were eating?

Well, a couple things to think about.  One, the context here is literally thousands that became Christians in verse 41.  Two, some of the homes, referred to in verse 46, could have been large estate houses with halls which could host hundreds of people and some of them could have just been small houses.  So it really could have been both…they were could’ve been doing this at their larger and at their smaller gatherings.  But I don’t really think where it was happening is the issue but how this breaking of bread was seen.  Even if it was part of a meal…it would have been a special part set aside from eating food for the sake of eating.

What we do know is this “the breaking of bread” was seen as something deeply significant.  Not only because in general when you share a meal with someone you invited them into a level of intimacy in your life…but also because Jesus had said in John 6:54, “Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”

When Jesus said that many people left him and quit following him because that sounded like crazy cannibal talk.  But after Jesus died on the cross and rose from the dead…breaking bread as his body and drinking wine as his flesh came to be seen as full of power and meaning.  It became central and integral to the church for in the act of eating the bread and drinking the wine was a confession that Jesus died for sin and a confession that he rose again, was alive, giving his people real spiritual food and life through the gospel.

Communion or the Lord’s Supper really is meant to be a picture of the gospel.  If we divorce its more ceremonial aspect and just assume it was a casual meal we lose the sense that Jesus is actually administers something real to us in a profound way.  Yet, if we completely divorce it from the idea of food we lose the sense that what Jesus gives is a real and true spiritual meal for our souls.

So I think their devotion to the breaking of bread is speaking of their commitment to take part in the ceremony of Lord’s Supper each time they gathered as a response to and confession of belief in the gospel.  And we too are devoted to that here at The Resolved Church.

If you’ve been here any amount of time, what you’ve seen is we do not take The Lord’s Supper lightly.  It’s a high, special and spiritual time of response each week when we come before the Lord’s table to receive the bread and the wine and have our souls nourished by it.

We must keep that always before us.  1 Corinthians 11:27-28 says if we take it in an unworthy manner we incur guilt before God…that we should first examine ourselves.  So it can just be a religious routine.

How do you see it?  Do you feel dependent and devoted to receiving the broken bread…each week reminded that because we are broken sinners Jesus allowed himself to be broken in order to heal and save us?  Or do you just see it as something we always do?  May God help us to always be devoted to it, not just in practice but in our hearts before him.

Well, there one more thing the church was devoted to, “the prayers.”  These were probably special prayers offered in conjunction with the Lord’s Supper or the reciting of the Lord’s prayer or maybe prayers prayed for one another or ones of praise offered up unto God.

Whatever the case “the prayers” underscore how good, healthy churches are meant to be places of prayer.  As Jesus said in Luke 19:46, “My house shall be a house of prayer.”  The church here is seen as calling upon God and praying for one another.  Sometimes you maybe don’t notice it…but we pray after we sing, I always pray over our text, we pray over the Lord’s supper, we pray for people at the back during communion.  We are devoted to prayer.

So, devotion to the apostles teaching, to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to the prayers is taking place.  And there is a result…one of awe or fear.

B.     Result: Awe and/or Fear

Verse 43 says “awe” came upon every soul and that many other wonders and signs were done among them.  The word translated “awe” here can be holy amazement or fear of someone or something.  If every soul means everyone in the Christian community…it’s probably awe, awe of what God was accomplishing among them.  If every soul means all the people in Jerusalem…it’s probably fear, fear of this new movement that was gaining such traction and what effect it would have on Judaism and/or the relationship with Rome.

I’m not sure which it is, awe or fear but it does tell us that there ought to be some kind of reaction to the church.  The existence of the church ought to effect our city…hopefully for the better.  Luke records it here for us to tell us that there was a powerful sense in the air of what was going on in the church…and it was either awe-inspiring for some or possibly frightening for others.

How are you effected by a devoted church?  Does it inspire awe in you?  Does it weird you out?  Our text mentions signs and wonders done by the apostles.  That could have been miracles, could have been conversions, could have been people’s lives changing.  Whatever the case, the church ought to always be a place where God’s Spirit is at work and stuff is happening…there are stories to tell.  Are we sharing those stories and becoming awe-inspired toward God and his work because of them?

I pray our church is always a place where stuff is happening.  That when people ask how things are going at The Resolved, our immediate response isn’t always or only just numbers, which are a blessing, but some of the stories of the amazing things God has been accomplishing among us in the lives of people.

Alright, let’s move on to “A United Community.”

II.     A United Community  (v.44-45)

Two things it says they had unity in…their beliefs, ”all who believed were together” and their practices “had all things in common.”

A.     United Beliefs & Practices

In regards to their beliefs, earlier we saw them devoted to the Apostles’ teaching, so there was a unity in what they were learning and believing together.

One of the cool things we have recently done here at The Resolved Church is begun to have the kids in family ministry studying the same things we are on Sunday.  So they are going through the book of Acts just like us.  In attempting to devote ourselves to Scripture…it means we study it on Sundays both kids & parents and then we’re processing it in our community groups following sermon discussion questions.  It creates unity as we are all learning and growing in the same thing together.

In regards to the practices of the church described here as having all things in common…we’re hearing here how they saw themselves…as one church.  Church wasn’t seen as the thing that the paid staff put on.  Church is the people…many different people and parts, in unity, living and pursuing the same things together.  Namely Jesus and others coming to know and worship him.

Verse 45 tells us some of the results of this unity mindset.  So let’s look at the “Result: Giving Possession & Proceeds.”

B.     Result: Giving Possessions & Proceeds

Verse 45 is a pretty telling verse about what kind of community the church was.  It tells us that certain people who were part of the church had various needs, namely financial ones.  And because the church had such a view of their oneness and unity together, if one person or if the church was in need then the whole church was in need.  So certain ones sold their stuff in order to make some money to give to those who needed it.

We’ve done very similar things in community groups I’ve been a part of.

• Once there was a single mom who was in need, so our group decided to sell some stuff on Craigslist in order to give her some money.  One person sold a surf board, another sold a TV and we were able to pool together to help this mom out.

• Another time a couple needed to go back east for a wedding and couldn’t afford the plane ticket and shared it with the community group as prayer request.  In response a number of people in our group gave away their frequent flyer miles in order to buy the ticket for them.

• Over Christmas our community groups worked together to get presents for a bunch of low income families in an apartment complex here in town.

• Right now, a number of community groups are taking turns pooling their resources to make meals for the homeless guys that get together on Monday nights.

It is so awesome to see our church living out this stuff that we’re reading right here in the Bible.

Now, some have suggested that this verse is saying everyone who was a Christian sold everything and it all became the church’s property…a sort of commune mentality, like you had to sign over the deed to your house in order to become a Christian and get into the church.  They take those words “had all things in common” as meaning everyone had joint ownership of everything.

But that’s not what was happening.  Notice the very next verse says some of them still had “their homes.”  So it was a voluntary thing.  Sometimes God moved on certain individuals to sell large price tag items in order to help advance the church.  For example, a couple chapters later in Acts 4:36-37 Barnabas sells a field he owned and brings it to the Apostles feet.  We had a similar situation about six years ago when someone donated $20K to the church to help get it started.  That was a huge blessing.

What I think we’re seeing pointed out here is that a church whose people are is truly in community with one another takes care of each other.  Because God has given so much to us in Jesus is moves us to be a giving people.  The vertical relationship with God effects the horizontal relationship with others.

In our last point we talked about how people on the outside, who were not yet a part of the church were in awe of what was going on amidst them.  That could have also been because of the radical nature of how these Christians were living in sacrificing their own time and money to care for one another.  There ought to be a sense in which the way we love one another is attractive to others.

And that brings us to our last point for this morning, “A Missional Community.”

III.    A Missional Community  (v.46-47)

In verses 46-47 we see the church in two places, in public meetings at the temple and in the more private meetings in homes.  These two activities then became channels or bridges into the church, where God was granting favor and with people and thereby adding to their number.

I want to say a couple things about the Mission Gathered & Scattered.

A.     Mission Gathered & Scattered

In the temple it appears to be a large gathering with everyone…thousands.  Acts 5:12 tells us they were meeting as the church in the area of temple known as Solomon’s Portico.  Then they would apparently break off scattering into smaller groups in various homes throughout the week.

This is basically our model of ministry here at The Resolved Church.  We gather here together on Sunday mornings as one big group in two services and then we break off into smaller groups during the week.  We see both these meetings as important and as doors into our church.

Sunday tends to focus more on the vertical relationship with God, worshipping him by singing praise, studying his word, receiving the Lord’s Supper…it’s a reverent time where we praise and thank God for who he is and what he has done for us in Jesus.  Mid-week community groups tend to focus more on the horizontal relationships we have with one another, where we listen to each other, encourage one another and attempt to press God’s Word and the gospel into each others lives.

Both are extremely important avenues for us to learn and grow in God’s grace.

This week I sat down with Brent Baber, whom some of you know…he’s a guy who’s fairly knew to our church and has been impacted by his experience of community here at The Resolved Church and thanks to Shane Aguon, we were able to put a little video together.  So take a minute and check this out:  http://vimeo.com/37448269

Super cool huh?  We’re looking forward to doing more videos and what not as tools we can use to help spread the goodness of the gospel in how we are all learning and growing in it together.

Well, in our text today the result of the church in community, devoted, united and on mission is joy, praise to God and conversions.

B.     Result:  Joy, Praise & Conversions

Verse 46 says they had glad and generous hearts.  Verse 47 says they were praising God and he was adding to their number.

What I love about these two verses is it sounds pretty clear that they liked church.  It made them glad.  It made them generous.  They actually enjoyed praising God.  And they actually enjoy giving their money.  And I think that’s telling in relation to why God was granting them favor and people were joining.

Nobody is interested in being a part of something that you don’t really like…like, “Church sucks, so you wanna come?”  Nobody wants to come to something you don’t really think is that good and don’t really want to be in.  That is not compelling to anyone.  They want to be part of something that is going to actually address a real need and desire from deep within.

As we said earlier, we as a people and a race are broken and disconnected from God and from one another.  We are longing for community.  Longing for community with God and with each other.  And Facebook just doesn’t cut it.  We are longing for something real…for God and to be with others who know God.

That’s the kind of church we want to be…to be a people who welcome others into our homes and into our lives and our church and through that we get to introduce them to God, the God who loves us and gave himself for us.

May God add to our number as we strive to be this kind of church described here in Acts 2:42-47.  Let’s start concluding this.

Conclusion

When we look at each of the points we’ve covered today in light of the gospel…the goodness of Jesus comes shining forth in an amazing way.

We talked about being devoted, devoted to the teaching, the fellowship, the bread and the prayers.  But the truth is we have all failed at our devotion.  We’ve believed false teaching.  We’ve disconnected ourselves from fellowship with God and others.  We’ve not fed on spiritual food, but stuffed ourselves with things which cannot satisfy.  And our prayers have often been weak, self-centered or non-existant.

We talked about about unity, united in common belief and practice.  But the truth is we’ve failed to believe what we know is true and we’re rarely generous…when we are we’re usually trying to get something out of it for ourselves.

We talked about being a missional community both in large gatherings and smaller ones in our homes.  But the truth is we’re often reluctant to gather together and sing praise to God.  We’re often resistant to actually meet in a home, share a meal and open up our hearts.

The truth is we all fail and have failed in every one of these ways.  But Jesus hasn’t.  Jesus has been perfectly devoted to us, he gave us his word and he gave us his life so we might be brought into fellowship with God.  He’s given us this tangible expression of his love in the bread and the wine for us to partake in.  And Jesus constantly prays to the father for us, bringing all our needs before his throne.

The truth is we have all cut ourselves off from God and drifted far but Jesus has come out after us and brought us back into the gates, breaking down every barrier that would separates us from God.  And Jesus gives and he gives and he gives…always taking care of all of our needs according to his riches in glory.

The truth is we don’t have the ability to make our Sunday gatherings or gatherings in our home be anything meaningful and joyful but Jesus gathers us to himself and opens up the home of heaven before us and fills our hearts with his gladness.  He is the source for our joy and reason we are here.

You see, the good news of the gospel is that though we have failed in every one of these areas…both individually and corporately as a church.  Though we don’t have what it takes to be this kind of person or this kind of church.  But in Jesus, God who took on human flesh, succeeded where we have failed.  He has been devoted to us and died on the cross so we might be united with the Father and by His Spirit he has gone on mission for us to draw us in to the great joy of praising God.

The good news of the gospel today is Jesus died for our sin, he rose again and he gives us new life.  New life with God and new life with one another.  So let’s all stand and pray and go before the table with great joy and gladness in our hearts and let’s have Jesus work in us in these special moments.

Let’s Pray.

I believe that by my own reason or strength I cannot believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to him, but the Holy Spirit has called me through the Gospel, enlightened me with his gifts, and sanctified and preserved me in the true faith. – Martin Luther

The Holy Spirit, revealing Himself as the Comforter, ought to be especially honored, and when he is not, he is especially sinned against…Let us then, value highly all the comforting works of the Holy Spirit, seeing they are evidences to us of his love and power. – John Owen

When the Holy Spirit is poured out in a day of power the result is bound to affect whole communities and even nations. Conviction of sin, an anxiety to possess the Word of God, and dependence upon those truths which glorify God in man’s salvation, are inevitable consequences. – Ian Murray

When it comes to the topic of the Holy Spirit many Christians often swing in one of two extremes…either toward the hyper sensational extreme fixated on the “supernatural” or toward the hyper reserved extreme which is afraid to even mention the word “Spirit.” Neither approaches are very helpful. We need a good theology of the Holy Spirit for the Spirit is in fact one of the members of the Trinity.

Not long ago an Acts 29 pastor, Winfield Bevins, wrote a really really helpful (FREE) little booklet on the Person and Work of the Holy Spirit. I wholeheartedly recommend it and encourage you to check it out. It is biblically and theologically informed, as well as culturally in tune in the way it works through who the Holy Spirit is, how He works, what His fruits & gifts are, how He has worked in history and how we need Him today.

We cannot do without the Holy Spirit. May God continue to teach us and empower to know, love and be used by The Spirit of God, made known through His Word and for the glory of Jesus.

- Pastor Duane

The Church Is Born (Part II) | The Book of Acts | 2:1-41 | Pastor Duane Smets

This an expository sermon on Acts 2:1-41. It covers the very first sermon that Peter preached during the very first church service. This sermon was originally preached on February 19th, 2012 at The Resolved Church in San Diego, CA.

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The Resolved Church
Pastor Duane Smets

February 19th, 2012

The Church Is Born (Part II)  |  Acts 2:1-41

I.       The Last Days & The Promise:  The Spirit’s Work  (vs.14-21)

II.     Jesus’ Life, Death & Resurrection:  All God’s Doing  (vs.22-24)

III.    First Century Hangups & Ours:  Scripture’s Weight (vs.25-36)

IV.    Cut To The Heart: Gospel Responses & Effects (vs.37-41)

Introduction

Good morning.  It’s good to see you all.  If this is your first time visiting The Resolved Church, I want you to especially know we’re really glad you decided to worship with us this morning and we hope you enjoy worshipping our God with us today.  My name is Duane…I’m one of four pastors here.  Jesus is our head pastor and then there’s three others of us who do our best to oversee and care for Jesus’ flock.

We recently launched into a study through the book of Acts here on Sunday mornings.  Last week we started in on Acts 2 which documents the very first church service in history.  We looked at some of the supernatural events which took place on that special Sunday nearly two-thousand years ago.  This week, we’re going to pay special attention to the sermon the Apostle Peter preached and what the response was.

We’ll read the text in just a minute but before I do I thought I’d start out with a word about why we preach sermons.  It’s not simply because it’s what the church as always done.  There’s more to it than that.  Maybe you’ve never actually thought about…but sermons are actually a pretty odd and unique thing.  We don’t really have anything like it in our culture.

You’ve got comedians who get up in front of people and talk but their whole goal is to entertain and make people laugh.  You’ve got professors who lecture in colleges but their whole goal is to offer their specific expertise and information.  You’ve got motivational speakers but their whole goal is to stir you up to be successful and happy.  You’ve got business conferences and speakers of all kinds but the whole goal is to progress companies and products and make money.

Now obviously there may be some parallels with each of those things but sermons and preachers are unique because the whole goal is to take the Bible and its message and to make it known to a people who need to hear it and be changed.  No other kind of public speaker is meant to be bound by a certain text and message where it’s their job to disseminate it to the people so their hearts might be changed.

The reason for sermons is because Pastors and preachers throughout the ages have been convinced that the only way we can truly come to know God, other than just knowing he exists, is by what he has said about himself through words in a book we call the Bible.  Without it we are left to our imaginations and speculations.

In addition, on top of just coming to know things about God through reading and studying the Bible there is a sense in which through the Bible God reads us…and we need that.  In Hebrews 4:12 one of the things the Bible gets called is a sword and it says that it is able to pierce us down to our hearts…and we need that.

The Bible has a way of showing us how much we need God…even when it’s something we’ve read and heard before and we need that over and over again.  Our hearts easily and quickly get hard and Jeremiah 23:29 says the Word is like a hammer which breaks its rock.  We need to be broken and be made soft.

The bulk of the text we’re looking at today is an old sermon from the Bible.  The sermon ends and those who were there were pierced, that they were “cut to the heart.”  I’ll be really honest and upfront with you today.  It’s my goal and prayer today that we would be pierced by the Word this morning.

I am more convinced than ever that what we need is more of the Word.  We don’t need more money, more stuff.  We don’t need a better job.  We don’t need better relationships.  We don’t need this thing fixed or that thing fixed.  What we really need is the Word.

We are seemingly becoming an increasingly Bible illiterate people driven more by our feelings than the Word and that is not okay.  The goal of my life as a pastor and a preacher is to give you the Word and nothing but the Word.  The Word, the Word, the Word.  We need the Word to pierce us and to work in our hearts showing the greatness of our need and the glory of our savior.  We need the Word.

So with that, let’s go ahead and read our text for today and ask God’s blessing on our time in it together.  (read text and pray)

Alright, so it’s long passage…there’s a lot in there…but as you can see, it all goes together.  Last week we dealt with the sort of crazy supernatural stuff that happened there in the beginning with the wind and the fire and the tongues and the congregational praising of God…this week we get Peter’s interpretation and explanation of it for us.

Some see and hear some of the crazy stuff that went down and suggest they’ve been partying a little too hard and are drunk.  So Peter, stands up and begins by responding to this suggestion, almost seemingly starting things off with a joke.  Verse 15 he says, “These people are not drunk, as you suppose…”  it’s only 9am!

Drunkenness hasn’t changed much in the last two-thousand years.  People normally get drunk at night and are hung over and asleep in the morning.  120 people wouldn’t be getting wild at 9am!  They’re having church!

Now the fact that it’s Peter who stands up and speaks is a pretty big deal.  We can’t spend much time on it…but if you know anything about Peter, he’s the dude who was always sort of putting his foot in his mouth and saying stupid stuff when Jesus was around.  Most recently, just a couple months earlier he had told Jesus he would never leave his side even to the point of death and then Peter ended up denying Jesus three times while Jesus was on his way to the cross.

But one of the things I love about Peter is how God has grace on him.  Jesus had told him in Matthew 16:18 that he had a special role to play in the founding and building of the church and then after Jesus rose he went to Peter personally and restored him three times and then commissioned him as a pastor telling him to feed the sheep.

Peter was a nobody fisherman from Galilee who had made numerous mistakes and yet God had grace on him, made him into a leader and used him mightily.  It’s a good reminder for us…it doesn’t matter who you are or how you’ve blown it, God can use you.

We’ve got a new round of leadership development starting up in March and there are some of you who have been screw-ups in the past, but you’ve got potential and we want you…so think about applying.

So, back to the text Peter stand up and in a LOUD VOICE…remember there’s thousands of people there and no microphones…and he begins to preach.  And he begins his sermon where every sermon ought to begin and that’s with a text from the Bible.  He’ll actually end up preaching from three different passages.  So let’s take a look at this first one and talk about “The Last Days & The Promise:  The Spirit’s Work.”

I.       The Last Days & The Promise:  The Spirit’s Work  (vs.14-21)

The passage he quotes is from the Old Testament book of Joel.  We looked at part of it last week when we talked about this Pentecost being chiefly important because in it the Holy Spirit permanently came to dwell in all believers whereas for all of history up until that time the Spirit only came upon certain individuals temporarily for a specific task.

So what I want to point out today are the book ends of this passage from Joel, what it says in the beginning and what it says at the end…because all of it is the Spirit’s work.  In fact, one of the things that is helpful in understanding the Godhead, the Father Son and Holy Spirit, is to understand their roles…God the Father oversees and rules over all, God the Son provides the work of redemption and God the Spirit is the active agent for all of God’s Work…whenever God does anything he does it in and through His Spirit.

With that, check out this phrase “the last days” here in verse 17 at the very beginning of the passage from Joel.  It’s clear to Peter from what’s happened that the Spirit has come, thus it’s evidence that the “last days” are in effect.  Now what’s that mean and why is it significant, these “last days”?  Did it mean literally like the final hours or week before the end of the world?

No.  We find this phrase “last days” in other places of the Bible like the first chapter of Hebrews, where there was the day and age of creation, the day and age of the Prophets and then the “last days” from the time God sent his Son and on.  So last days is a reference to the final stage or chapter in the history or plan of salvation.

It’s a recognition that God is the one who has determined and ordered all of time and history and that there have been different segments or stages in the unfolding of his plan.  Some call the various stages covenants, others call them dispensations…covenants is probably better since it’s actually a word in the Bible…but the point is there are specific ages of days that God has planned.

After the age of the Prophets, there was over 500 years of silence, no distinct Spirit work or activity until Jesus came and said the Spirit of the Lord is upon me…then here at this Pentecost we’re studying Jesus sends that Spirit on all his believers.  Peter recognizes it and testifies that it is evidence of the last days which began with Jesus coming and end with his return.

Now why is recognizing it’s the last days important?  Namely because of judgment.  If you look at this passage from Joel, notice it starts out kind of nice with happy cool things…things like the Spirit on all, sons and daughters, men and women, visions, dreams and you’re like, “Yes, that’s good!”  But then all the sudden the tone and tenor of it changes…all of sudden it turns real dark and starts talking about blood, fire, smoke and darkness in regards to the coming “day of the Lord.”  Do you guys see that?

We’ve talked about it here at The Resolved on several different occasions that numerous passages in the Bible teach us that Jesus will return to earth one day and that when he does he will not come as a poor carpenter who seems merely human but he will come displaying all of his divine glory and come with all the army of heaven to completely vanquish all evil and the enemies of God.

The “day of Lord” …that phrase shows up all over the prophets and it’s not a good day for most, it’s a dark and scary day.  Jesus himself in Matthew 24:29 that when he comes “the sun will be darkened, and the moon” and he says many will mourn.  The day of the Lord will be a sad day.  We will on one hand be delighted and overjoyed at seeing the Lord and on the other hand we will mourn as the sentence of hell us unleashed upon many.

And this brings us to the promise, the final phrase in this Joel quote that, “everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”   Recognizing it’s the last days is important, mostly because of judgment…it’s a clarion call to get right with God before it’s too late.

Now some think that’s manipulative, scare tactic, unhelpful fire and brimstone preaching…things that shouldn’t be said.  But here’s the thing…the blood and fire and smoke are real…it’s right there in verse 19.  Hell, judgment and the wrath of God is real and the most unloving thing a person could ever do is not warn someone of the real consequence of unrepentant sin before God.  It’s not wrong to run to God because you’re scared!

And that is the whole point of verse 21, to be scared and to call upon the name of the Lord so that you might be saved from judgment.  You ought to be scared of God and the judgment of hell.  That is a good thing.  God is holy, which is both frightening and comforting.  It’s frightening because we all know we deserve it and it’s comforting because we know that in God’s holiness he is good and has provided a way of salvation.

Now I’ve got a bone to pick here.  Look closely at the end of verse 21.  What tense is the word “saved” used in there in that sentence?  Future!  Which is the tense that salvation is spoke of most of the time in the Bible.  The reason is because no one is saved yet!  What are we saved from?  The wrath and judgment of God.  And when does that salvation happen?  In the future.  The wrath hasn’t come yet that we will be saved from.

So when we talk about so and so being saved or not saved it’s kind of silly talk.  No one’s saved yet.  There’s only a couple places the Bible talks about being saved right now and when it does, it’s talking about the promise of salvation.  That we, if we believe in Jesus and have received his Spirit then we now have the hope or the promise that we will be saved one day when the wrath comes.  So we possess the promise of salvation but we’re not saved yet.  It just bugs me when people say they’re saved…in my head I’m always like, “No you’re not!  No one’s saved yet!”

Alright, enough of me being a jerk.  Here’s what I’m really concerned about.  I think there are a number of you who may think you’re a Christian but you’re really not and I’m scared for you.  When it comes down to it you know you’re not right with God.  And I’m afraid that one day it will be too late.

I want to beg you and plead with you…call upon the name of the Lord, call upon the name of the Lord, call upon the name of the Lord before it’s too late.  Because there is a hell and the judgment of God will come and you will not get away with living in sin and rebellion against God.  So call upon the name of the Lord I beg you.  Do it today!

Maybe you’re like, “Well, what does that mean? Who is the Lord really and how can he save me?”  I think Peter anticipated that response as well, which is why his sermon turns from this point on to focus on who Jesus is and what he did in order to save his people.  So let’s move on to our next point, “Jesus’ Life, Death & Resurrection:  All God’s Doing.”

II.     Jesus’ Life, Death & Resurrection:  All God’s Doing  (vs.22-24)

In verse 22 Peter starts his second point by making a strong plea for the consideration of who Jesus really is and what he accomplished.  He says, “hear these words” listen!  And then he unpacks in three distinct, successive moves, exactly who Jesus is.

He starts out by identifying him as “Jesus of Nazareth.”  By beginning there he calls attention to the fact that Jesus was a real human person from a real place.  That title, “Jesus of Nazareth” emphasizes the humanness of Jesus.

But unlike all humans who have ever walked the face of this earth Jesus’ life was not marked by sin and failure and instead was one full of “mighty works and wonders and signs” which Peter here says “attested” or evidenced that he was of God.  These mighty works, wonders and signs surely cover how in Luke’s previous book written before Acts, the Gospel of Luke, how the people were constantly amazed by his teaching, miracles and character.

Then look at this.  Notice right there in the middle of verse 22 he says that “God did (them…the mighty works and signs) through him.”  So ultimately Jesus teaching, miracles and sinlessness was all a product of God’s work in and through him.  It was God doing it.  Jesus life…he lives the perfect life both sinless and selflessly serving God and His people.  It’s the life we’ve all failed at and deserve judgment for…but Jesus did it!

But what happened to Jesus then?  Judgment is for sin…Jesus doesn’t sin.  Yet, verse 23, Jesus is “delivered up…crucified…and killed.”  Sinless Jesus dies a sinners death.  Why?

What is the answer of verse 23?  God did it!  An amazing verse.  Look at what it says…”according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God” he had Jesus crucified and killed.  Who killed Jesus?  It wasn’t ultimately the lawless Roman soldiers, it wasn’t ultimately the Jewish religious leaders, ultimately it was God…God killed Jesus.  God did it!

This verse is explicit about this…God sovereignly rules over and determines the decisions and actions of men.  How?  According to his “definite plan” and “foreknowledge.”  Those two words going together here speak volumes about how God operates.

His definite plan is his decree.  The Bible teaches that God has determined the day every person is born and the day (Acts 17:26) and the day every person will die (Heb 9:27).  It’s why God is called the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end throughout Scripture…because he has determined every single event that ever has or ever will take place from beginning to end.  He has predestined it all.

And because he has determined and decreed everything, he foreknows exactly what will take place.  He can see it.  Just like Psalm 139:4 says, before we even speak a word with our tongue, he knows exactly what it will be.  God doesn’t just know possibilities like some have foolishly taught…he determines and knows all the exact details and decisions of men.  Any other view is merely philosophy, not Scripture.  You have no further to look than our verse right here, Acts 2:23, though it’s all over the Bible.

Some of you really need to re-think your notions of a so called “free-will” and whether that’s Biblical.  But that’s a discussion for another day.  If you want to look into it more check out the article “Pressing Into Predestination” on our website for a bunch of resources (http://www.theresolved.com/301/pressing-into-predestination/).

The main thing here is God killed Jesus.  Which by the way is the universal view of Scripture.  Isaiah 53:10 says it was “the will of the LORD to crush him.”  God crushed him and had him delivered up on the cross.  God did it.

But that was not the end of the story.  Before you start to call God evil and unethical you’ve got to read verse 24.  God raised him up.  God in his sovereign will and power to make sure his desired outcome took place, saw to it that what he hates, murder…happened in order to accomplish his greater purpose of defeating sin and securing eternal life for souls doomed to judgment.

Verse 24 is just as clear as the previous two verse.  Just as surely as it was God enabling Jesus’ sinless, selfless and sign filled life…and just as surely as God had Jesus killed…just as surely, God raised him up!

The point of each of these three things Peter addresses, Jesus’ life, death and resurrection is that God did it all.  It was all God’s doing.  The last days began.  The day of the Lord’s judgment awaits.  But God stepped in to do something about it.  God initiated and put in motion a plan through Jesus so that people might be saved.

The Gospel is a God-centered Gospel.  If you look at the Gospel as something we do to save ourselves…like pray a prayer or be a good person or deciding to become a Christian, you don’t have the right Gospel.  The Gospel is something that God did from beginning to end.  It was all him!  Some of you have never understood the gospel because you’ve thought it is about what we do and you’ve never seen it as all the work of God.

This is integral to Peter’s preaching of the Gospel here.  He goes out of his way to point out that it was God who did it all every step of the way.  Do you have a God-centered Gospel or a you-centered gospel?

We need to move on to our next point…but really ask yourself this morning…do I really believe in the true Gospel?  Do you believe that God did something earth shattering and heart breaking in order to deal with your sin?  Or is your view of the Gospel just something else?

May God help us to truly know, understand and believe the true Gospel…that Jesus died for our sins according to the Scriptures…and was raised the third day (1 Cor 15:3-4).

Well, after Peter points out that God raised Jesus from the dead, he anticipates a second objection from the crowd.  He realizes that hearing about Jesus, a human person dying and rising again from the dead is going to be a big pill to swallow.  So he moves into a third line of reasoning demonstrating the necessity of Jesus rising and the Bible’s affirmation of it.

We won’t go through every detail in verses 25-36 but what I do want to do is for us to talk about why this was a tough and important issue back then and why it still is for us today.  So let’s talk about “First Century Hangups & Ours: Scriptures Weight.”

III.    First Century Hangups & Ours:  Scripture’s Weight (vs.25-36)

What Peter ends up doing here is citing two different passages from the Bible, Psalm 168:8-11 and Psalm 110:1.  And he actually does some fairly complicated and explicit exegesis.  I mean he gets down and dirty in his sermon, not just citing the Bible passages but working through their exact words and reasoning.

In order to try and simplify things for us a bit, what helps is to recognize that there are two main issues Peter is trying to address.  The Puritan preachers were well known for trying to anticipate what their hearers knee-jerk reactions and objections would be…and that’s what we got Peter doing here.  He knows people are going to have issue with both the idea of someone rising from the dead and the concept of an afterlife and he knows people are going to have a hard time with conceiving of and believing that Jesus is in fact God, the Lord.

Not a whole lot has changed has it?  Those are still some of the biggest barriers and obstacles people have with Christianity.  Yet at the same time they are the two things long for…a way to beat death and a divine hero to save us.

If any of you watched the Grammy’s last week? If so maybe you caught Foo Fighter’s performance of their new song “Walk.”  The song starts out expressing a longing and waiting for life and experiencing estrangement and difficulty.  Then mid-way through David Grohl breaks into this explosion saying “I’m on my knees and praying…I never want to die, I never want to die, I never want to die.”

It’s really the cry of our hearts…that God would do something, send someone to give us life that we might escape the pain, sorrow and finality of death.

Now in our culture…most people don’t live under any book of authority or belief.  Everyone kind of has their own belief system and they pick and choose from whoever as their authorities or experts.  Oddly, music artits like David Grohl or other pop figures are the popular prophets of our day.

But back in the first century in the setting of the chapter we are looking at today, everyone there was a Jew.  Notice at the beginning in verse 14 he address them as “men of Judea” and then in verse 22 “Men of Israel.”  Peter is talking to Jews who were a people bound to the Bible…obligated to believe and follow what it said.

So rather than approaching an objection to the resurrection and deity of Jesus like we might today…all he does is go to Scripture to demonstrate that the Scriptures prophecy and prove that God would send a divine messiah to die and rise.  If Scripture did in fact teach it, then it was true.

Let’s just look at what he says real quick.  In verses 25-28 he quotes Psalm 168 and then in verses 29-33 he makes three main points from that text…there’s more than three but the three core points are: (1) It talks about one whose flesh would not see corruption but instead be raised up to life.  (2) That one is not David because David died and was buried and in the tomb.  (3)  The Psalm must be speaking of Jesus, who is not only David’s descendant but actually accomplished exactly what the Psalm prescribes or prophesies.

The second verse Peter quotes is from Psalm 110 which he uses to emphasis the claim that Jesus is in fact Lord, the God of the Bible, who sits on the throne in heaven.  Earlier we talked about God’s sovereign rule over all that happens.  The picture of God throughout biblical history has been one of God as a king who rules on high.  For example, in Isaiah 6, Isaiah the prophet has a vision of God seated on the throne and angels cry out “Holy, Holy, Holy.”

So it is no small thing for Peter to say in verse 34-35 that Jesus ascended into the heavens sitting at the right hand of God, meaning sitting on a throne with his feet resting upon the enemies of the earth as though they were a footstool.

Both passage Peter quotes are hugely significant in showing that Jesus was in fact the promised Messiah, that Jesus is God and that he defeated death by rising God.  And then comes verse 36.  Verse 36 is the kicker.

Up to this point Peter’s argument from Scripture is in the least pretty convincing.  But perhaps somewhat theoretical…but verse 36 brings it home, flips the tables and makes it personal.  Let me re-read it, “Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.”

In one sentence Peter just condemned the entire audience as being guilty of crucifying the Messiah who was God himself.  Don’t get confused by the word “made” there…This isn’t teaching adoptionism, that God adopted Jesus into the Godhead and made him God because of what he did.  “Made” is being used here in the sense of made it known, or declared for all.

The guilt of crucifying Jesus is clear.  Those last three words are gut wrenching, “whom YOU crucified.”  YOU.  Everyone was complicit and guilty.  Why?  Maybe some of the soldiers who did the crucifying were there.  Maybe some where there who had chanted “crucify him, crucify him.”  Maybe some were there who had just watched but not said anything and let it all happen.

But I don’t think any of those things are what Peter means when he says, “whom YOU crucified.”  I don’t think he is trying to point the finger and place blame.  He already put that all on God earlier.  No, I think Peter is getting at something deeper here.  I think what he means it was our sin which took Jesus to the cross.  Colossians 2:14 says that in order to deal with the debt of wrath we owe to God, the judgment we deserve for our sin, that Jesus nailed its record of debt to the cross.

Sometimes we sing that hymn, “How Deep The Father’s Love For Us.”  One of the verses captures this sentiment perfectly.  It says, “Behold the man upon the cross, my sin upon His shoulder…Ashamed I hear my mocking voice, call out among the scoffers.  It was my sin that held Him there, until it was accomplished.”

Have you ever got that personal with the gospel?  To where you know and are able to say…it was my sin.  It was me.  I’m the guilty party.  I crucified him.  Are you able to say that?   Do you realize the depth of your guilt before God?

When the gospel hits you like that what happens next in the story of our text is no surprise.  So let’s look at our final point for this morning, “Cut To The Heart: Gospel Responses & Effects.”

IV.    Cut To The Heart: Gospel Responses & Effects (vs.37-41)

Verse 37, “When they heard this they were cut to the heart.”  It’s a vivid picture and I can’t think of a better way to describe the feeling of realizing your own guilt before God.  “Cut to the heart.”  Literally stabbed with a knife to the soul.

And then those most beautiful thing happens…they cry out for salvation.  Whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved and they call out and respond according to Peter’s instructions.  Peter’s instructions are simple, short and to the point, so we won’t spend a lot of time on them even though we could.

He tells them two ways to express their faith in Jesus.  First, repent.  To repent is literally a turning around and going a whole different direction with your life.  It involves not just feelings of sorrow but follow through in action.  It’s part of the reason why I said earlier some of you may not be Christians…because when you knowingly and willingly break God’s law without repentance that’s sign you don’t really believe.  Repentance is follow through.

Second, he tells them to be baptized.  Baptism sometimes can be made too complicated.  It’s simply a ceremony with water, which has always been seen as a cleansing agent.  Here it used as a physical testimony and confession of belief in Jesus’ person and the work he did to deal with sin, so that people could be forgiven which cleanses them inside.

Receiving forgiveness is to be given something because the other person paid the price, they absorbed the pain and penalty in order to receive you back into fellowship.  That’s forgiveness.  It always costs.  So forgiveness of sins from Jesus is acknowledging he paid the price for sin to God on the cross.

The result is the gift of the Holy Spirit, which is God himself…Jesus, by his Spirit coming to dwell in our hearts through faith.  Then the day of the Lord becomes not a day of judgment but a day of salvation, when we get to see the Lord face to face and be received into his glory.

After he gives them these instructions he states these wonderful words which are probably my favorite in the entire passage, “The promise (the promise of forgiveness for sin through repentance and belief in Jesus) is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.”

Oh, how I love that line!  I love it because we are the far off ones and it tells us that what Jesus did counts for us too who believe…that there is hope for me…and not just for us but for our children.  Which if you have kids, you understand how precious knowing that is…that our kids are part of not just our physical family but the covenant family of faith in Jesus.

This is actually a verse which ought to prompt dads to at least consider baptizing their children regardless of their age.  We leave it up to the head of the house here at The Resolved Church to decide whether they want to baptize or dedicate their kids…but this verse is the reason why I had both my daughters baptized when they were babies.

Without jumping into the debate I’ll just say, no matter what side you land on, neither side believes baptism saves you…baptism is merely an outward sign that you belong and are part of the family of God.  And regardless of when you do it, we need to be faithful and recognize that there is a call here for parents to see to it that their children are to be part of the faith and be baptized.

Now, don’t let that side track you too much because here’s the cool thing that happened on that wonderful Pentecost day.  Verse 41, three-thousand souls, which likely did not count the women and children because the were counted under the male head of the house…so it could have been upwards of 10,000 people who were baptized as Christians that day.

So amazing!  Just incredible.  What a day!  And from this point on in the book of Acts we’ll continue to see more and more people become Christians as the gospel is preached, spread across the land and churches are planted.

I think when we read here what happened, the way it’s put together and written here is meant for us to be wowed by the result of so many people coming to Christ.  When we read of that result it exhilarating and exciting.  It’s the climax of the chapter.  A greater miracle than even the wind, fire and tongues that took place in the beginning.  Thousands came to Christ and were baptized!

And I think there’s a second, perhaps more subtle intent here…because I can’t help but think Luke, the human author here means for us to long to see that happen in our context where we’re at.  It’s the theme of the book of Acts…receiving power from the Spirit to be witnesses for Christ with the result that people become Christians.  And I think we’re meant to want to see people come to Christ too.

I tell you what…I really long to see people become Christians.  If you’re here today and you haven’t become a Christian yet I want you to know I’ve been praying for you, that you would come to know Jesus as your savior.

I think about and pray for souls all the time.  There is so much we do and so much effort we put into so many things.  And many of those things are good and we ought to do them.  But at the end of the day I just want to see people come to know Jesus.  I’m a pastor but I’m an evangelist first.  It’s my heart and prayer that at The Resolved Church we would always regularly be seeing people become Christians and be baptized.

In just seven weeks it will be Easter and we’re planning on having a great service and hopefully we’ll be baptizing a bunch of people.  If you’re a Christian and have never been baptized or you became one recently…this is an awesome opportunity to declare your faith publicly and be baptized.  Just let us know by either filling out one of those slips in your bulletin, or talking to one of us after service or signing up online…but let’s get you baptized.

“Those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.”  May God add many to our number this year as well.

Conclusion

Well, let’s conclude this morning.  We’ve covered quite a bit of ground.  Usually, I’ll kind of go back through each of our main points and give us some ways where we can apply each of them to our own hearts and lives.

But today all I want to do is say is that the gospel is all that matters.  Our sin is real and so is judgment and the coming day of the Lord.  But God made a way.  He sent his son Jesus to live, die and rise for our sin.  Our sin put Jesus on the cross for sure…but he willingly went there and God the Father planned and determined it out of his love for us.

So today as we prepare our hearts to receive the Lord’s Supper where we remember and receive Jesus body and blood shed on the cross for sin, in these elements of bread and wine…as we prepare ourselves there just three simple things I want to call us to.

One, let’s be cut to the heart.  The more you realize your guilt and your need for a savior the more beautiful and sweet the gospel is to your soul.  Today, I stand before you a weak man, I am a sinner and there is nothing good in me.  But Jesus is good and he died for me and that’s why I love him so.  So let’s be cut to the heart and have the love for our savior renewed.

Two, I know there are some of you who are not really Christians or at least you haven’t been.  I’ve been praying that today you would be cut to the heart and realize that and that you would respond.  If that’s you this morning I want to urge you to call upon the Lord, to turn from sin and to repent and to turn to Christ.  The way we express that here is simply by coming forward to Jesus’ table with the rest of us.  And if that’s happening with you today, after you receive communion come to the back and let one of us pray with you.

Three, I want everyone here who is a Christian and receives the elements today to pray and ask our Lord to save souls in our city and in our church.  Verse 39 in our text today affirms that “everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself” will assuredly put their faith in Jesus and become Christians.  So let’s ask our Lord to call ones to himself today.  Make that part of your prayer when you partake today…pray for your friends, your neighbors, your family members, your co-workers and people you don’t even know…pray that they will come to know Jesus.

Are you guys in this with me?  Alright, let’s pray.

* Deadline to apply: March 2nd, 2012

I’m sure there’s some story on how Hallmark has made “Valentines Day” into the bustling bonanza that it is. However, like a lot of Americanized pop-culture holidays (i.e. Christmas, Easter, Halloween, Thanksgiving)…at the root of it all is Jesus and he or some of his people did something worth note to be remembered, celebrated and focused on for a day each year.

Valentines day was started and named after a 3rd century pastor, Valentio who Pastored a church in Interama of Rome (modern Terni, Italiy). Like most history that’s over 1700 years old, details are sketchy and questionable. Yet, the basic story is that the Roman Emperor at the time, Claudius II, didn’t approve of Valentio marrying Christian couples. After being imprisoned for it, the Emperor questioned him and Pastor Valentio shared the gospel of Jesus Christ with him. Instead of converting, the Emperor decided to have him beheaded.

Pastor Valentine believed deeply in the gospel and its call for Jesus centered marriages as described in Ephesians 5:25 “Husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.” Thus, essentially “Valentines Day” is about the opportunity for husbands to express this kind of love for their wives.

Husbands and aspiring husbands tend to one of these two errors ever since the fall of the first husband in the Garden of Eden: they either ABDICATE or ABUSE their God given role and responsibility to sacrificially love and serve their wives as Jesus did for his bride, the church.

When dudes abdicate, they don’t take initiative and instead passively sit on the sidelines just expecting things to happen without much effort on their part. They lazily wait for their woman to just come to them and inform them of what their needs and desires are and assume if that doesn’t happen then they’re off the hook. If anything is going to happen somebody has got to do something and when guys do this they essentially opt out and make their wife the leader by default. When it comes to sex, it doesn’t happen unless his wife initiates and he never does anything to woo her.

When dudes abuse, they are overbearing and act like a ruler giving out orders and get mad if anything is not done just right or the way they want it. Whether it’s physical, verbal, or neglectful abuse, guys do this when they see their woman as someone who merely exists to meet their needs as some sort of at your service slave. Nothing happens unless this guy declares it will happen because he lords his leadership over his home rather than leading as a servant who supports his home. When it comes to sex, he sees it as his right and gets angry when his wife doesn’t pleasure him when he wants.

Dudes need to avoid both of these tendencies. Jesus enables a man to do that. He calls husbands the leaders but says they are to lead like him, who in love, sacrificed himself for his bride the church. Rather than abdicate, the dude initiates. Rather than abuse, the dude serves.

Here’s some helpful advice from C.J. Mahaney in his book to husbands, “Sex, Romance and the Glory of God.” Initiate: Touch her mind and her heart before you touch her body…care for her spiritually. Serve: Study your wife and find out what she likes, needs and desires…ask her a lot of questions.

Dale Burke, author of “A Love That Never Fails” compares marriage to a garden as in Proverbs 24:30-34 and calls men to tend it well. He says it “needs to watched and maintained as a prized possession if it is to be propsperous and fruitful.” (Read his article, Tend Your Marriage Like a Garden)

So husbands take “Valentines Day” and use it as an opportunity to be the kind of man the gospel calls you to. Read Ephesians 5:25-33 for some good Valentines pointers: sacrifice for her, discuss the her growth in the gospel through the Bible (“washing her with Word”), care about her needs and desires before your own, and be one flesh with her.

Last thing, don’t be dumb. TAKE YOUR WIFE ON A DATE FOR VALENTINES! Yes, she wants you to. And so does Jesus.

If you’re a wife, maybe just gently suggest your husband read this. If you’re a dude, who’s not married then get ready, this is the kind of man you need to work on being.

- Pastor Duane

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Here’s some helpful resources:

Online Sermons & Articles

Marriage & The Gospel by Duane Smets
Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood by Wayne Grudem & John Piper
Headship by Mark Driscoll
21 Questions for a Prospective Suitor
21 Questions for a Prospective Wife by Doug Wilson
Tons of Resources from Desiring God by John Piper
Tend Your Marriage Like a Garden by Dale Burke

Good Books

Real Marriage: The Truth About Sex, Friendship, and Life Together by Mark Driscoll
Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood by Wayne Grudem & John Piper
Sex, Romance and The Glory of God: What Every Husband Needs to Know by C. J. Mahney
Federal Husband by Douglas Wilson
Reforming Marriage by Douglas Wilson
Love That Lasts by Gary and Betsy Ruccini

The Church Is Born (Part I) | The Book of Acts | 2:1-41 | Pastor Duane Smets

This an expository sermon on Acts 2:1-41. It covers the importance of Pentecost, why tongues are confusing and why worship matters. Particular attention is given to the theology of Pentecostalism and what kind of tongues the Bible speaks of. Emphasis is put on the God-centeredness of one’s outlook regarding this issue. This sermon was originally preached on February 12th, 2012 at The Resolved Church in San Diego, CA.

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The Resolved Church
Pastor Duane Smets

February 12th, 2012

The Church Is Born (Part I) | Acts 2:1-41
I. Why Pentecost Is Important
II. Why Tongues Are Confusing
III. Why Worship Matters

Introduction

Good morning. Well, we have kind of settled in a little bit now…we’re now a month into our 2012 sermon series going through, “The Book of Acts.” What we’ve covered so far is Jesus’ final meeting with his disciples who become Apostles where he gives them the important task of starting the church and taking the message of the gospel to the world. Jesus says to wait and pray for His Spirit’s coming before they start and then he ascends into heaven floating up in the sky and then disappearing in the clouds. So the disciples are waiting and praying for a period of about 10 days. During that time they select a replacement for Judas, who betrayed Jesus and committed suicide. Then they assumedly return to prayer and waiting until the day of Pentecost when the Spirit finally arrives.

When the Spirit arrives it’s a big deal and that’s the story we’re going to cover both today and next Sunday. It’s another gripping tale. Last week we had a financial scandal, a gory suicide and gambling…this week we’ve got a hurricane, fire, and what’s either drunkenness or something far better. I keep saying it, the Bible is by no means a boring book!

The title of my message is “The Church Is Born” and we’re looking at Acts 2:1-41. So let’s go ahead and read it, declare it as God’s Word and ask for his help to understand it.

Alright, before we really start and get into it I’ve got to tell you some stuff.

First, this is a very difficult passage to interpret for several reasons. Partly because it’s so long. The whole thing really all goes together, but because it’s so long it’s really easy to get lost in the details. Partly because there are a number of two-thousand year old first century cultural elements in play here which make it difficult to re-create and imagine what exactly happened. And partly because there has been a lot of division in church history over this text…not only between scholars and what they say about it but between whole churches and denominations that have split because of what’s here.

Someone was asking me this week how my study for Sunday was going and I told them it kind of felt like I was navigating a bunch of land mines. There’s a number of things related to this passage of Scripture that could very easily upset a number of you if I said one thing or the other. So I’m praying I don’t get blown up today.

That actually leads into the second thing I need to tell you…which is actually something I need to confess as sin and repent before you all about. I am not very good at a lot of things. There are many things in regards to my role as a pastor which do not come naturally for me that I do not particularly excel at and that is okay. Only Jesus is the perfect pastor.

But one of the things I am good at is the Bible. I say this not as a pride or ego thing, but I’m a good exegete. It’s the thing I spent the most time focusing on in my schooling and the thing I’ve excelled the most at in the fifteen years now that I’ve been studying the Bible and preaching…I know how to work with the Biblical text, paying careful attention to the words and letting them drive me to clear understanding of what’s being said.

In my opinion, this passage, rates along with a few other passages in the Bible as one of the top fives most difficult passages to exegete or interpret. It’s a very difficult text. I’ve actually prayed and asked God not to ever have to preach on certain passages of the Bible and this is one of them! I should probably stop praying that…cause he’s just going to make me do it to laugh at me.

It was actually one of my biggest reservations about us going through the book of Acts…I didn’t want to have to preach about Pentecost. So here’s the thing. My original plan was to work through this whole section, all together and just breeze by the tough stuff. But as I was studying this week God really began to convict my heart about that.

2 Timothy 2:15 says this, “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.” The old King James version says, “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” What that verse is saying is that there is a right way and a wrong way to divide, handle or interpret the Bible, the word of truth and that in order to do that correctly you’ve got to work at it and study and you are accountable to God for it. If you don’t do it, then you have reason to be ashamed before God. It is shameful that some “pastors” don’t study the Bible and preach from the Bible.

I take that passage very seriously in my job as a preacher and a pastor. So what I have to say to you at the outset here is, “I’m sorry.” I’m sorry I was going to slight you because of my desire to not want to deal with some challenging things in this passage. Repentance, not only means sorrow but a turning around…so in repentance my plan is to give this text two weeks. So we’re going to “The Church Is Born” part one and then next week part two and this week we’re going to dive into the tough stuff.

With that here’s the plan, this morning we’re mainly only going to work up through verse 13 and part of verse 17. First, we’ll kind of overview the entire passage and talk about “Why Pentecost Is Important” then we’ll look specifically at “Why Tongues Are Confusing” and then conclude by seeing “Why Worship Matters.” So here we go, “Why Pentecost Is Important.”

I. Why Pentecost Is Important

Verse one starts out, “When the day of Pentecost arrived…” Pentecost was a Jewish Festival which happened once a year. Pentecost literally means “fiftieth” because it’s the fiftieth day after the first Sunday after Passover. Pentecost was also called the “Feast of the Harvest” because it happened in the time of year when grain was harvested. It’s May in our calendar year, and in Leviticus and Deuteronomy God instructed his people to go to Jerusalem, the capital city, the city of God and to offer a first-fruits, a tithe to God of the harvest in this Pentecost festival.

So basically, Jews lived all over Israel and many outside of it…but once a year everyone would make a trip to Jerusalem, sort of like how Muslims go to Mecca in the journey of the Hajj. They would go there and they would worship God and give a tenth, a tithe of all their harvest to the priests at the temple. It would sort of be like if you only gave money to the church once a year and you would just give 10% of your entire salary from the year.

When they did this, it was a not only party, a festival but a time of worship to God…a joyous occasion to thank him for his provision during the year. Jerusalem during Pentecost, would swell from a normal population of around one-hundred-thousand to over a million people. People would come from all over…some would stay at friends houses, some at hotels and tons would just camp outside the city.

So Pentecost was a big deal in and of itself annually. What we see in our text for today is that God, in His providence, chose to make one particular Pentecost in the first century after Jesus death, resurrection and ascension not just a celebration over the harvest of grain, but a celebration over the harvest of souls…souls who receive the Spirit, become Christians, are baptized, and join the founding members of Jesus’ Church on it’s first day of existence.

This Pentecost is important for three reasons.

One, because the Spirit came. You may remember from our very first sermon on the book of Acts a few weeks ago when we looked at Jesus’ words that disciples and his people in not many days were going to be “baptized with the Holy Spirit.” When we looked at his words we talked about how in the Old Testament the Holy Spirit temporarily come upon certain specific individuals for a limited time and purpose. But many of the prophets, like Joel, Ezekiel, Jeremiah and Isaiah spoke of time that God would send his Spirit and he would stay and be in all God’s people. The Spirit coming was an age changing movement of God in history.

Since Pentecost, every single believer in Jesus gets the Spirit. 1 Corinthians 12:3 states clearly, “No one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except by the Holy Spirit.” And a few verses later, 1 Corinthians 12:13 says we are all baptized into one body and one Spirit when we believe. So today, if you are a Christian you have God’s Spirit in you. Ephesians 1:13-14 says the Spirit is God’s seal on us that we are his and have the promised guarantee of salvation. So we have no idea what it’s like not to have the Spirit.

But there was a time, prior to Pentecost when no one had the Spirit. The Spirit had not been active for nearly 500 years until Jesus came and said the “Spirit of the Lord” is upon me. Then, Jesus said when he left, when he ascended, he would send his Spirit, the Holy Spirit to be in and among those who believed in him as savior.

The Spirit is a massive gift and blessing of God unto his people. John Stott says concerning the importance of the Spirit coming at Pentecost, “There is no life without the Spirit who gives life, no understanding without the Spirit of truth, no fellowship without the unity of the Spirit and no witness without the Spirit’s power…As a body without breath is a corpse, so a church without the Spirit is dead.”

The second reason Pentecost is important is because the Church was born. Now we can use the word, “church” in a few different ways. The word itself simply means “gathering”, but spiritually it means the people of God. Before Pentecost there was a church in that there was a people of God, who regularly gathered to sing praise to God, to hear the preaching of the Word and to offer sacrifices.

But it wasn’t usually called “church” before Pentecost. The birth of the church here in our text was significant because in it the Apostles officially broke off the religion of Judaism and out from under the authority of its leaders. That was a big deal. You can read early church era historical accounts of families holding full on funerals for Jewish family members who broke off and converted to Christianity. They considered them dead.

Yet this was exactly what Jesus had planned and intended. We’ll look at it more next week but Jesus told Peter about the day of Pentecost before it happened when Jesus said he would start and build his church (Mt. 16:18). In verse 14 when Peter stands up, an official proclamation…he preaches a clear and decisive message announcing a break off of Judaism and the start of something new centered on and gathered around the person and work of Jesus Christ. From that point on, “church” was no longer simply a spiritual gathering of God’s people but the new religious institution over which Jesus Christ ruled as Lord.

Then the third reason why Pentecost is important is because of mission. From the very start, The Church is demonstrated by nature to be a missional movement. In verses 9-12 we see fifteen different people groups and their languages, from all over Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the ends of the earth gathering to hear the gospel preached and after they hear it 3,000 of them (not counting women and children) become Christians and are baptized.

That’s how every church plant ought to start off, with a bunch of baptisms of people who became Christians! The Church is by nature defined by Pentecost to exist for the praise of God and the winning of souls.

Jesus had said, not to go out and start the church yet but to wait until the Spirit came and that when the Spirit came his power would come and enable them to be witnesses to the nations. And that’s exactly what happens. The Spirit comes in power. Then what is the very next thing we see? Peter standing up and witnessing of who Jesus is and what he did.

So the three reasons Pentecost is important are because: (1) the Spirit comes, (2) the Church is born, (3) and the Mission is launched. Thus Pentecost ought to remind us that having the Spirit is a blessing of God, that the Church is central to God’s purpose and work in the world, and that mission is meant to flow in and through the church.

Do you treasure the Holy Spirit, the third person of the trinity? The life He gives, the truth He imparts through his Word, the unity he grants, the power he gives us to live for Jesus and proclaim Him? Do you care about he Spirit?

Do you treasure the Church, the structure and institution through which God calls believers in His Son to commit to and advance? Do you care about the Church?

Do you treasure the Mission, the great task Jesus has asked his followers to fulfill in spreading the message of who He is and what He has done so many might be saved? Do you care about the mission?

When it comes down to I think these are the main reasons Pentecost is important. But there is a reason I do not think it is important for us. So let me address a sticky issue I don’t want to get in trouble with God for ignore it.

There are many individuals, churches, and a couple whole denominations who look at and read this passage about Pentecost and their conclusion is that what happened on that special Pentecost in the first century, when the Spirit came and the church was born need to happen again for each individual person. Thus they call themselves “Pentecostals.”

The idea is that each person, who is or wants to be a Christian needs to have their own personal Pentecost, where in an event separate from belief in Jesus as savior, the Spirit comes upon them, baptizing them or filling them, with the result that they speak in tongues. If you don’t speak in tongues then that’s a sign you haven’t had your Pentecost yet and you don’t have the Spirit and still need this baptism of the Spirit.

We’ll talk about tongues in a minute but we don’t even have to go there to address this. There is nothing in this text, whatsoever that insinuates that this special event on this special Pentecost was ever meant to happen like that again. In fact if it did, it would take away from the significance of the event itself.

Pentecost is the last major act of Jesus before he returns. There are seven major acts of Jesus: when He created everything, when he was born into the word, when he died, when he rose, when he ascended, when he sent his Spirit (Pentecost) and when he will return.

I don’t want to spend a ton of time on this, but I’ll belabor one step further. If we were going to be consistent and say that each person ought to have their own personal Pentecost in a two-step two-stage experience like the disciples here, evidenced with speaking in tongues…then to be consistent with that method of interpretation we would also then need to say that there would need to be supernatural wind, fire and fifteen different nationalities present or it doesn’t count and you don’t have the Spirit.

That just doesn’t work. We have to remember and keep in mind that often, throughout the book of Acts it is describing events that took place and not always prescribing, giving instructions on what ought to take place. Make sense? Description versus prescription.

Alright. I know that may be tough for some of you to hear, especially if you grew up in the Pentecostal tradition. I did and it has been a major journey for me in grappling with the biblical text here to come to grips with that. What we have to decide is whether what we believe is going to be determined by what the Bible says or by what we’ve experienced or been taught. And it’s pretty clear here that it is completely and totally outside of the author’s intent here to make his readers think they need to have their own personal Pentecost.

Okay let’s move on…it’s only gets worse and more messy. So rather than sidestep it let’s actually have a real Elephant Room today in this next point, “Why Tongues Are Confusing.”

II. Why Tongues Are Confusing

It’s tough to know where to begin here. Everybody doing okay? Too bad we don’t have like a bell between rounds or something.

Let’s start with getting the scene in our minds…at least what we know for sure here. Verse 1, they are all together in one accord in one place…probably still in that large upper room in that estate in Jerusalem where 120 of them were staying and praying. Then all of the sudden there is a LOUD mighty wind “phphphph” that rushes in, then it erupts into FIRE swirling about the room until it comes to a stand still, divides into bunch of individual flames and goes and rests upon every person’s head in the room! Then each person spontaneously begins praising God declaring his mighty works in some form of tongues.

What we’ve got here is what’s called a theophany. A theophany is a physical appearance of the presence of God. They happened on several select occasions in the Old Testament and a few times in the life and ministry of Jesus. Here’s a few examples:
• When God first called Moses he appeared to him through the fire of the burning bush.
• After the Exodus when God led his people out into the wilderness to the promised land he did it by having them follow a could and a pillar of fire.
• When Moses went up on the Mount Sinai and God gave him the ten commandments fire consumed the mountain.
• When Elijah had the stand off with the prophets of Baal, fire came down from heaven and consumed his water soaked offering and then later he was taken away on a chariot of fire.
• When Solomon finished building the temple fire blew down from heaven and filled the temple with the glory of God.
• In Ezekiel God shows him a vision of a valley with a bunch of dead bones and God’s Spirit blows in and his breath on the bones brings them to life.
• When Jesus is baptized the Spirit descends down from the winds of heaven in the form of dove.

There are tons of examples in the Bible of fire and wind as physical signs of the presence of God. Right before Jesus started his ministry, when John the Baptist encountered Jesus at that time he spoke some words about him. Luke, same author as Acts, records him saying, “He (Jesus) will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.” And then Jesus later says, “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit (John 3:8).”

So this scene at Pentecost is no less than phenomenal. It’s a major theophany where God fulfills both the prophesies of Jesus, John and the prophets and does so in by overwhelming every one of the physical human sense. The sound of the wind overwhelms their ears. The sight, smell and feel of the fire among them stunned their eyes, nose and skin. And the words erupting from their tongues stimulated their mouths to praise.

This scene is a big deal. Now apparently after this happens the 120 disciples who are gathered in this large estate house must have moved this prayer and worship meeting outside or to the temple because in verse 6 we read that a multitude gathers and we know from verse 41 that this multitude was in the thousands.

It’s tough here to tell exactly what happened…maybe they recognized the Spirit had come, had sensed his empowering presence and intentionally went to the temple to carry on the service there or maybe they just had to eventually go outside because the fire and smoke was too much to take indoors.

Wherever they are, verse 6 says the multitude gathers because of the sound of their praising God in tongues. And here is where the questions start to abound concerning these tongues. So what I’m going to do is present to you both options and then tell you what is most important about the tongues regardless of what position you take.

There’s basically two camps here, what I’m going to call the glossolalia camp and the xenoglossia camp. The Greek word behind tongues here is “glossolalia.” It’s the same word that gets used by the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 12-14 to describe what is universally recognized as ecstatic utterance in unintelligible noises and inarticulate babbling of no known human language.

Like all things, they may be used for the glory of God or not and in the ancient world you had tongues such as these used by demonic cults like the oracle of Delphi and you had them used in the church at Corinth for the edification of the church. Those who “speak in tongues” in this way today have been recorded by experts who have analyzed it and confirmed it’s no intelligible human speech…from a human perspective, just nonsense. But from Paul’s perspective akin to the speech of angels (1 Cor 13:1).

Now, the big question for us here is the tongues spoke in Acts glossolalia like in 1 Corinthians? Because the text puts a huge weight on all these 15 different ethnicities showing up and hearing their own native tongue or language. Which is another phenomena there are various historical accounts of, some good some bad.

This phenomena over time has come to be called xenoglossia to differentiate it from glossolalia and is when a person is able to speak in a known human language they never studied or learned. It has occurred in cases of supposed demon possession, Christian missionary preaching in foreign places and in some seemingly common instances. Explanations range from it being supernatural spiritual thing to reincarnation and the memory of a past life and language one spoke or that it’s just a hoax.

So here you go, I’ve got arguments for both sides. It’s almost even.

Xenoglossia
• Verse 4 is explicit that the miracle of the Holy Spirit here is on the believers, who enables them to speak. Nothing is ever said of a Spirit miracle on the crowd enabling them to hear their own language when in reality it was glossolalia being spoken.
• In 1 Corinthians 14 is explicit that if glossolalia is spoken, there must be an interpreter and we don’t see any interpreter here in Acts.
• Peter’s interpretation of the event begins with a quote from the book of Joel which starts out saying the Spirit enables prophesy, which is speech that imparts the knowledge of God, not unintelligible sounds.
• The focus of verse 11 says people were amazed by the content of the speech declaring “the mighty works of God” not the medium of strange tongues.
• In Genesis 11 men attempt to ascend to heaven building the tower of Babel and in judgment God creates different human languages. Here at Pentecost God descends from heaven and unites the human languages.
• Verse 7 points out an astonishment that Galileans, who were known as uneducated men would be able to speak in their own native language without having studied it.

Glossolalia
• A crowd of that magnitude would not likely have gathered simply because a group of 120 people were all speaking 15 different languages all at the same time. It would just sound like the normal noise of a crowded room. It makes more sense that they were speaking in unison in a strange tongue that their mind was able to translate into their own native language.
• Three times, Luke explicitly references the uniqueness of their “hearing (2:6, 8, 11).” Thus the Spirit could have not only done a miracle enable the disciples to speak but may have performed a miracle on the ears of some in the crowd to hear and understand.
• Those who understood were amazed. Verse 13 says their were “others” who seemingly did not hear their own language and thus thought the disciples were drunk. Hearing glossolalia sounds much more like drunk speech than hearing a person speak a language you don’t know.
• The theophany of fire described in verse 3 as dividing into “tongues of fire” may allude to the tongues spoken in the next verse as being supernatural angelic tongues rather than known natural tongues.
• Peter’s immediate explanation using the passage from Joel points to things of a supernatural character like dreams and vision, to which unknown tongues find more affinity than natural languages.
• If the Holy Spirit was also performing a miracle of hearing on the crowd then the Spirit is acting as the interpreter prescribed in 1 Corinthians 14.
• The feeling or mood of the text lends more to something supernatural like glossolalia that could not be as easily explained as xenoglossia.

So that’s it. That’s the arguments for both sides. And I’ll tell you what, there are strong arguments for both. I honestly don’t know which is correct. I promise to always be honest with you, if I’m not sure on something. And I just don’t know here. I actually kind of lean toward the glossolalia explanation. And I will say this. Last week I said, because of what Scripture teaches about Apostles that you have to be at least a semi-cessationist, believing that some things for the early church were only for them and ceased (like there being no Apostles for today).

But I’ll also say this, there’s nothing I’ve ever found in Scripture that says supernatural things or miracles still can’t take place today…so I don’t think you can be a full cessationist. Instead I think we just need to be careful, because 2 Thessalonians 2:9 says that Satan can do all kinds of miracles too…so just because something miraculous may take place doesn’t necessarily mean its from God. So I’m open with caution. 1 John 4:1 says to test the spirits. That means exercising a level of caution and skepticism but not anti-charismaticism…I think that goes too far.

Mark Driscoll, the president of our Acts 29 network describes himself as a charismatic with a seatbelt on. I describe myself as a charismatic with a five point harness and a helmet on. And yet I do believe we need the Spirit and his work among us and we ought not quench the work of the Spirit among us as 1 Thessalonians 5:19 says. Sometimes some of you are too reserved and you need to loosen up a bit, get a little charismatic you know…sing loud, lift your hands, spontaneously start praying.

So see, I’ve offended everyone now…both the Pentecostals and the anti-charismatic cessationists.

Okay, enough of that. I’ve tried to be really fair and honest with you and as I said earlier in our day and age I would have been doing you a disservice not to talk about this stuff in detail today. I want you to be taught well and when it comes down to your conscience to be held captive to the Bible, not my opinion or interpretation. Sometimes you guys can take what I say is truth too easily when you need to be able to see it from the Bible yourself.

So here’s what is really important when we talk about tongues…what you’re doing with your tongue! The whole point and purpose of the gift of tongues isn’t so much over what kind of miracle it was but what the disciples were doing with their tongues.

Here’s what the book of James says about our tongue. He says, “The tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things…no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless our Lord and Father and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come both blessing and cursing…(this) ought not be so (James 3:5,8-10).”

What we need is God to change us and overtake our tongues so it does not become something used for evil but for the glory of God. I’m afraid too often that the debate over tongues has brought unnecessary division and strife to the body of Christ. With our tongues we debate tongues in a way that bites and devours one another. It ought not be so.

So my plea is for us to exercise grace with one another. If you speak in tongues, like the ones in Corinthians…that’s cool. We love you. Pray away as you speak to God (1 Cor 14:2). But we’re not looking to re-create Pentecost here, so it’s either gotta stay at home or quiet under your breath in our worship services. If you don’t speak in tongues have grace for those who do. Let’s all just have grace for one another.

Alright, let’s move on to our final and shortest point for this morning, “Why Worship Matters.”

III. Why Worship Matters

All I want us to do with this short point is look intently at verse 11. It says “we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty wonders of God.” One of my biggest problems with tongues is that the focus gets turned on that gift rather than the giver…tongues become the big topic rather than God. And whenever that happens, it’s not good.

The weight of the text here is on worship. They are proclaiming the mighty works of God. Now what mighty works do you think they were praising and thanking God for?

We’ll see this in depth next week…but verse 12 gives us a clue. It says they wanted to know what this work of God, they were singing and praying about meant. From verse 22 all the way down to 38 what do we see Peter explaining the meaning of?

Check out verse 22, “Men of Israel, hear these words…” Here’s the answer to your question, “what does this mean?” “Jesus of Nazareth…” And he unpacks the gospel for them. What was everyone singing and praying in tongues about? Jesus. The mighty work of God in sending Jesus into the world and having him die on the cross for sin and rise again! It is the most mighty work God has ever done in all of history! The life, death and resurrection of Jesus!

Now here’s the cool thing. The Spirit comes on Pentecost and some crazy stuff happens. What’s the first reaction of God’s people? Worship! They start praising Jesus…and that is what spawns this whole sermon by Peter on the gospel. And what is the result after his sermon? 3,000 people become Christians and get baptized!

Worship is what begets the mission of the gospel. Worship matters because it keeps us God-centered, keeps us glorying in the gospel and it compels us to bring others into worship with us.

In his book, “Let The Nations Be Glad” John Piper has one of the best explanations of mission I’ve ever come across. He says, “Mission exists because worship doesn’t.” So worship is the starting place, then out of our worship we run out into the highways and byways bringing in all kinds people from different ethnicities and cultures and backgrounds so that they might worship too.

Worship by nature is meant to be missional. Worship matters because in it we declare how great our God is because of what he has done for us in Jesus!

Some of your friends simply need to be here so they can see how much you truly enjoy worshipping God. We’ve got to overcome this view and attitude that church is boring or duty or just a religious routine.

We need to come here and sing our guts out worshipping with all that we are because we love our God so much and so thankful for what he has done. We need to do real business with God repenting of sin and having him work in our hearts. When others see that all of us here are messed up and need Jesus too then they will begin to think that maybe he is what they need too.

Who in your life right now would see you in a totally different way if they saw you worshipping? Maybe they think they know you and understand who you are but there is this whole aspect of your life in being a Christian and a worshipper of Jesus that they have no clue about and what that is like for you.

Worship matters because God means to use it to have the effect that souls are added to the number of the church. So let’s be worshippers and pray those in our city will be drawn in to hear us declaring with our tongues the mighty work of God in Christ for us!

Conclusion

In conclusion today as we prepare to receive the Lord’s Supper I want to ask you how you think God would have you respond to the message of His Word today?

Maybe you’ve thought Pentecost was unimportant…you don’t treasure the Spirit, don’t love the church and don’t really care about mission. Maybe you simply need more of God’s Spirit to be at work in your life? Maybe you’ve had a bad attitude or some bad views about church that you need to repent of and have God change? Maybe you’ve thought missions is just something that supposed to happen only overseas or that you don’t really need to be a part of a local church to do?

Let’s treasure Pentecost and its importance together this morning as we remember and respond to the great move of God on that day.

And tongues. Maybe you speak in tongues and you’ve prided yourself in being a better Christian than others or looked down on others because they don’t. If so, you need to repent of that today. Maybe you don’t speak in tongues and you’ve looked down on those who do as being foolish and wacky for it. If so, you need to repent of that today.

Maybe your tongue is just plainly rotten full of poison, you use it for tearing others down and rarely for building up and you need God to change your heart so that out of your mouth comes praise. Ask him to do that. I need some of that today. Sometimes I’m just quick to speak spite towards others.

And how about worship…the gospel of Jesus Christ is great and glorious. As the old hymn says, “O for a thousand tongues to sing my great Redeemer’s praise!” Do you know why the gospel is so great and such a mighty work of God?

It’s because there was nothing we could do to save ourselves. We’re sinners. We’ve all sinned against God and it’s a great, great offense. Sin is not just a light mistake, it’s an eternal offense against God. We cut him out of our lives when he made us to live for him.

And yet God had grace and took on human nature in Jesus by coming into this world and being born as a little baby…grew up and never sinned against God as we have, but went to the cross to take our place and as God died an eternal death to pay for the eternal death in hell we deserve. And then! Then, Jesus rose again and offers new life to us by His Spirit. Through our faith and belief in him we make a great exchange. He takes our sin and forgives us and we take he life and receive him.

It’s a mighty work. The best and most glorious work God has ever done, even greater than creation itself. We worship because of what he has done. If your soul feels dead to worship you need to catch a glimpse of the gospel anew and the way you do that is realizing what a screw-up you are, how bad it is but how much God has done to save you.

So let’s all stand and prepare to respond in whatever way God would have us today. Let me pray.

The elders of The Resolved Church have asked that I attended at least two conferences a year for my own personal education, growth and development. The first one I will be attending this year is the National Ligonier Conference. The theme this year is “The Christian Mind” and has some great speakers lined up. I would like to invite any gentleman who are interested in going to attend with me. If you are interested in going please contact dan@theresolved.com

Here is the blurb about the conference from their website:
http://www.ligonier.org/events/2012-national-conference/

“One of the things most alarming about today’s culture is the way in which evangelicals are responding to attacks. Gone are the days, it seems at times, when believers devoted themselves to thinking deeply about the world in order to respond humbly to the church’s enemies without ceding any intellectual ground. Many evangelicals have bought into the idea that having one’s heart in the right place is all that matters—that a passion for Jesus and the life of the mind are mutually exclusive. What this view misses is that burning hearts are not nourished by empty heads. We must develop our minds if we are to sustain our passion for the Savior and deal with the bias against us.

At Ligonier Ministries’ 2012 National Conference, we will be addressing this problem as we consider the theme of “The Christian Mind.” From March 15-17, 2012, R.C. Sproul will be joined by Sinclair Ferguson, Robert Godfrey, Michael Horton, Steven J. Lawson, Albert Mohler, Stephen Meyer, R.C. Sproul Jr., and Del Tackett to consider the importance of building a Christian worldview, the role of education in the Christian life, science and God’s natural revelation, defending the faith, and many other topics. It promises to be an exciting time of training and fellowship as we all learn how better to think like Christians in order that we might live like Christians.”

We are a growing church and a church in need of more leaders. In Luke 10:2 Jesus says “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.” There is much work to do and I’m looking for a few good men. If you think you may have a calling from God to serve as a leader in the church some way, please consider joining Leadership Development beginning this March. * Deadline to apply: March 2nd, 2012

If you are interested in the leadership development group: APPLY HERE

- Pastor Duane Smets

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Structure
- Five months on and one month off with four sections meeting every other week (10 weeks a segment). Thus, the entire curriculum will take a total of two years.
- Once all four segments are completed, a third year of apprenticeship under an Elder or Deacon begins in order to work toward ordination and oral examination.
- Leadership development groups will be no more than 12 men.
- Groups will be overseen by a facilitator who has been through all four segments.
- Each meeting will be led by a rotating member of the group who presents the material read and guides a discussion concerning it.
- All those in leadership development must either be leading something in the church or being trained to lead in the future.

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Curriculum (Readings include selections various chapters from an array of books)

Gospel Character
• Christian Hedonism – Desiring God, by John Piper
• Idolatry & God-centrality – Counterfeit gods & Prodigal God by Tim Keller
• Spiritual Disciplines – Spiritual Disciplines For The Christian Life by Donald Whitney
• Teachability & Repentance – Humility by C.J. Mahaney

Manhood, Marriage & Family
• Work, Money & Rest – Masculine Mandate by Richard Philips
• Complementarianism – God, Marriage & Family by Andrew Kosteburger
• Fatherhood – Shepherding A Childs Heart by Paul David Tripp
• Discipleship – Following The Master, by Michael Wilkins

Theology Proper
• Existence of God – Apologetics To The Glory of God by John Frame
• Inerrancy – The Inspiration & Authority of the Bible by B.B. Warfield
• Person & Work of Jesus – The Cross of Christ by John Stott
• Election & Divine Sovereignty – When Grace Comes Home, by Terry Johnson

Ecclesiology
• Counseling – Instruments In The Redeemer’s Hands by Paul David Tripp
• Mission – Radical Reformission, by Mark Driscoll
• Hermeneutics – Theo 211 Materials by Duane Smets
• Eldership or Deaconship – Biblical Eldership or Minister of Mercy by Alexandar Strauch

Recently, Mark Driscoll, the president of the Acts 29 Network was involved in an event called the Elephant Room 2. One of the sessions included an interview with classical modalist and prosperity gospel pastor, T.D. Jakes. For a helpful review of the session, see the review written by D.A. Carson and Tim Keller here: http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/tgc/2012/02/03/carson-and-keller-on-jakes-and-the-elephant-room/

It is my conviction that the doctrine of the Trinity is not to be seen as an unimportant marginalized doctrine of the church which is seen as an irrelevant mystery but is rather essential to the Christian Faith. What this event has highlighted is the importance of knowing and understanding the Trinity and the importance of getting it right. In light of that I thought it would be a good teaching opportunity to have Josh Feil, our pastoral intern here at The Resolved Church and Westminster Seminary student, write a blog for us on the doctrine of the Trinity.

I’ve read through this post and worked with Josh on it and thoroughly recommend it as being healthy for your mind and your soul.

- Pastor Duane Smets

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Three in One: The Trinity by Josh Feil

“Whosoever will be saved, before all things it is necessary that he hold the catholic faith.” (“Catholic” here means “universal” and is not particular to the Roman Catholic Church)

With these words begins the Athanasian Creed, a robust and heartwarming explanation of both Trinitarian theology as well as Christology: who Jesus was and what he did. A sentence like this one should immediately grab our attention:

WHOSOEVER WILL BE SAVED – You need to believe this.

That’s no small claim.

The Athanasian Creed has been used since the sixth century to defend the church against heresies that threaten the purity of Biblical teaching on matters such as the Trinity as well as the person and work of Jesus. Though not as commonly recited as the Nicene or Apostles’ Creed, it does a fantastic job of clearly and exhaustively articulating the Biblical teaching on the Trinity.

There is nothing more central to Christianity than who God is – his character and nature. As one author has said, “If any doctrine makes Christianity Christian, then surely it is the doctrine of the Trinity.” If that’s the case, then there are at least three questions that we should be enthusiastic about answering: What is the trinity? What is the trinity not? Why does it matter?

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What is the Trinity?

The term Trinity has been used by theologians for ages to explain what the Bible teaches concerning God’s existence: one God eternally existing in three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. One God, three persons. Each of them equal, uncreated, incomprehensible, eternal and almighty.

We could also lay it out this way:

There is only one God
The Father is God
The Son is God
The Holy Spirit is God
The Father is not the Son
The Son is the not the Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit is not the Father

The Athanasian Creed says it well:

And the catholic faith is this: That we worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity; neither confounding the persons, nor dividing the substance. For there is one person of the Father, another of the son, and another of the Holy Spirit. But the Godhead of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit is all one, the glory equal, the majesty co-eternal.

The Father, Son and Holy Spirit are different persons, distinct from one another, but they share the same essence, or “God-ness.” The same stuff (theologians used the Latin term “ousias” to describes). One God, three persons.

Some common charges often leveled against the doctrine of the Trinity are that:

1) It can’t be found in the Bible

2) God is a mystery and we shouldn’t try to peek behind the curtain

Concerning the latter, we would mostly agree. There is much about God that man is not privileged to understand. As Moses instructed Israel, “The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law” (Deut. 29:29). Instead of trying to pull back the curtain and get direct access to the throne room, we look to the things that God has revealed in his Word for answers about who He is and what He is like. There is mystery, but we must draw the line of mystery around where the Bible does. And what has revealed to us is necessary for our life and salvation.

Concerning the former, we ought to ask, “What does the Bible have to say about the Trinity?” Though the word Trinity never appears explicitly in the Bible, the idea of “three-in-one-ness” is taught consistently through the Bible.

Trinity in the Old Testament

• Genesis 1:26 “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.”

• Genesis 3:22 “Behold the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil.”

• Isaiah 6:8 “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” (note distinction “I” and unity “us”).

• Psalm 110:1 “The LORD says to my lord: ‘Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool.” (God the Father says to God the Son)

Trinity in the New Testament

In Matthew 3:16-17, “the heavens were opened and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; and behold a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”

Jesus tells the disciples to baptize “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” Matthew 28:19

Jesus shares God’s essence (was God) yet also is distinct from the Father (was with God).1 “In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God (John 1:1-2).”

Jesus invokes the divine title. “Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM (John 8:58).”
Furthermore in the epistles, the authors consistently refer to each person of the trinity together – one God, three persons.

“The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all (2 Corinthians 13:14).”

“There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of us all, who is above all and through all and in all (Ephesians 4:4-6).”

So while the understanding of the Trinity progresses throughout the Bible and becomes clearer in the New Testament, we can see that even in the Old Testament, God was revealing himself as a Trinitarian God.

B.B. Warfield explains it this way: “The Old Testament may be likened to a chamber richly furnished but dimly lighted; the introduction of light brings into it nothing which was not in it before; but it brings out into clearer view much of what is in it but was only dimly or even not at all perceived before.”

If Scripture attests to God being all-knowing, all-powerful, everywhere-present, majestic, uncreated and the maker of heaven and earth as one God in three persons, maybe seeing what the Trinity is not would help to clarify what it is.

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What the Trinity is NOT

Each of the following is an example of heretical, unbiblical teaching on the Trinity:

Modalism: teaches that God is not three distinct persons, but only appears in different manifestations or “modes” throughout the Bible. He sometimes manifests as the Father, sometimes he manifests as the Son and sometimes he manifests as the Spirit. According to modalism, God appeared as the Father in the Old Testament, as the Son in the gospels, and as the Holy Spirit after Pentecost. The danger of modalism is that it denies the relationships within the Godhead. God handing over the elect to his Son for redemption, Jesus praying to the Father in Gethsemane, the Son or the Spirit interceding to the Father for us and the very nature of a truly human Christ as the human substitute for sin and object of God’s wrath are all lost.

Arianism: claims that the Son and the Spirit are created beings, not eternal and not divine. They do not share the same “God-ness” or substance. It is really the opposite error of modalism. One form of Arianism says that the Son, though eternal and divine, was inferior or subordinate to the Father (subordinationism). Another form says Jesus was a normal man until his baptism when the Father showed up and bestowed supernatural power on him (adoptionism). Arianism was condemned at the Council of Constantinople in 381, which reaffirmed the Nicene Creed.

I believe… in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds; God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God; begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made. (excerpt of the Nicene Creed)

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Why Does It Matter?

So what are the implications of all of this? Why does holding to Biblical Trinitarian theology matter for you and me?

Four reasons:

Good Theology – We are talking about the very core of who God is. This is not a topic on which we are allowed to waver or bend, but one on which we must stand firm and committed. The God of the Bible is a Trinitarian God, and if you don’t believe in that God, then have broken the 1st commandment and are worshipping a different god. Here’s the rub: Christianity is not less than trusting Jesus, but it is certainly more. Often the question is asked, “What is the least I must believe to be a Christian?” That is the wrong question. The better question to ask is, “what is the fullness of what I should believe as a Christian?” Part of that fullness is coming to love not only Jesus, but to love all the persons of the Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Redemption – Everything that God does in the Bible is from the Father, in the Son, by the Holy Spirit.3 Especially our redemption. The Father decrees or elects to choose some for salvation, he gives them to the son, who is our perfect righteousness, substitute for sin and resurrected life and the Spirit works as the regenerating agent in giving us faith, new life and sustaining us through the gospel. If you give up the Trinity, you no longer have a divine Jesus who is able to offer full substitution, or a Spirit who has the power to regenerate and sustain. Our only hope is in the Trinitarian God who saves.

Relationships – Anytime we experience love, joy, pleasure, peace, trust or satisfaction, we are only getting a taste of the perfect and pure relationships shared by the Father, Son and Spirit. The Son who did the will of the Father, even to the point of death, the Spirit who intercedes to the Father on behalf of his people and the Father who does not let a hair fall from your head without knowing; God is our example and paradigm for what true love and peace is like. Like the Psalmist says, “As for me, it is good to be near God;” Psalm 73:28. Our greatest joy is in the Trinitarian God who loves.

The Christian Life – As we grow in our sanctification, having a more full understanding of the Trinity can only aid us in our maturity and growth as Christians. Whether it’s in community, the church, our jobs, opportunities to serve, school or family, we learn to repent of sin and idolatry, turning to God because we have been so overwhelmed by His grace. What we learn about our Trinitarian God and how glorious he is changes us from prideful people seeking worship to humble servants seeking to worship their God. Our lives depend on the Trinitarian God who is faithful.

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Conclusion

The well-known hymn, Holy Holy Holy seems to be an appropriate conclusion. Give it a spin if you know the tune. Worthy is our God of all praise, for he has done great things.

Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty!

Early in the morning our song shall rise to Thee;

Holy, holy, holy, merciful and mighty!

God in three Persons, blessed Trinity!

Holy, holy, holy! All the saints adore Thee,

Casting down their golden crowns around the glassy sea;

Cherubim and seraphim falling down before Thee,

Who was, and is, and evermore shall be.

Holy, holy, holy! Though the darkness hide Thee,

Though the eye of sinful man Thy glory may not see;

Only Thou art holy; there is none beside Thee,

Perfect in power, in love, and purity.

Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty!

All Thy works shall praise Thy Name, in earth, and sky, and sea;

Holy, holy, holy; merciful and mighty!

God in three Persons, blessed Trinity!

Jesus Consecrates The Apostles | The Book of Acts | 1:12-26 | Pastor Duane Smets

This an expository sermon on Acts 1:12-26. It covers the attitude God desires in his church, how the church is protected from adversaries and the authority roles God has instated for the church. This sermon was originally preached on February 5th, 2012 at The Resolved Church in San Diego, CA.

Listen

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The Resolved Church
Pastor Duane Smets
February 5th, 2012

Jesus Consecrates The Apostles
The Book of Acts | Acts 1:12-26

I. The Attitude of the Church (vs.12-14)
A. Obedience & Prayer
B. Unity & Family
II. The Adversaries of the Church (vs.15-20)
A. The Protection & Power of Scripture
B. Wolves & the Reward of their Wickedness
III. The Authority of the Church (vs.20-26)
A. Offices & Leadership Structures
B. Lots & Leadership Development

Introduction

Well, today we’ve got quite an exciting text ahead of us. It’s got prayer, suicide, blood and guts, church leadership and gambling all thrown together in one package. So beware, the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) rating system declares this sermon R-rated.

It’s actually an extremely insightful and practical text for us since we are a church and we are seeing the beginnings here of The Church being born. If we had read through the Gospel of Luke, like Luke the human author here assumes we have…then we would see today’s passage as a huge step because it’s the first time we see the original disciples of Jesus step out and take on leadership themselves.

Have you ever been watching a movie or reading a book and it just seems like it takes forever for the story to get going? But then once things sort of get set up, you’re on the edge of your seat anticipating and wondering…okay so what’s going to happen now? That’s where we’re at right now in Acts. After the scene we’re going to work through today, the book is just action packed with one crazy thing after another happening as the mission unfolds in taking the gospel to the world.

So let’s read our text for today, declare it as God’s Word, pray over it and begin studying it together. (read text and pray). The title of my sermon today is “Jesus Consecrates The Apostles” and the first thing we’re going to look at here is “The Attitude of the Church.”

I. The Attitude of the Church (vs.12-14)

Okay, let’s get our bearings first. What we’ve covered so far is Jesus rising from the dead, giving the disciples a mission to take the message of the gospel out, but not to go just yet but wait for the Holy Spirit to come on them first. After he makes all of that abundantly clear he floats up into the sky and disappears in a cloud. And that’s where we left off last week.

Now if you do a little math here we can kind of fill in some gaps. We know that in the Jewish calendar there are 52 days between the Passover and Pentecost festivals. So if we take into account Jesus’ time in the tomb and the 40 days Luke said Jesus’ was making appearances after he rose…then we’re looking at a 10 day period here that our passage this morning covers.

But what’s more important than the time frame here is what happens during it. And what is so striking right off the bat is the major attitude change of the disciples here. If you remember from last week, they were wanting to take up weapons and storm the capital and overthrow the government because Jesus’ defeated death, rose and proved he was the son of God and king of heaven and earth! But Jesus’ corrected them and commissioned them to go on mission for people’s hearts and lives with the gospel first before he would one day return and set up his physical kingdom here on earth.

So one minute there is rowdy anticipation and excitement and here in the next is serious, spiritual turning to God together in obedience, prayer, unity and as a family. Their attitude here will set the tone for how The Church conducts herself throughout the book of Acts. And it’s that attitude which has marked every true church God has exercised his grace in and through, throughout all of history. So there’s a big lesson in here for us in the kind of attitude God commends here in his book.

A. Obedience & Prayer

First let’s look at “Obedience & Prayer.” Right away, after Jesus ascends, verse 12 says they go back to Jerusalem, about 3/4 a mile away and they go to an “upper room” and verse 13 says they were staying there. Apparently, this upper room was a pretty big place because not only were the original disciples there, but some of the women disciples, Jesus’ family members, and then in verse 15 we learn there was about 120 people in all gathering there.

Excavations of archeologists have discovered that in ancient Jerusalem there was a part of the city called the “upper city” where wealthy citizens lived who had homes with rooms upwards of 36-21 feet in size. It’s one of the big mistakes people have made in reading the book of Acts when it talks about the church gathering in homes. They import the size of most American houses onto that word “house” in the Bible and conclude that church meetings were just casual small gatherings like our community groups, not formal worship services. But that idea and the house church movement couldn’t be more mistaken.

Anyway, what is striking to me here is what we see here is them taking seriously Jesus’ instructions, obeying his commands and setting out to do what he asked to wait for the Holy Spirit. So they don’t do anything else or go anywhere else but just wait and pray.

When it comes to Christian obedience it is directly connected to the person of Christ. It’s not obeying to be better or to try to win favor. Christian obedience flows out of love, respect and trusting Jesus. Obedience really is the fruit of faith. If we truly believe then we obey. Jesus said in John 14:15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”

The church and churches do not have the freedom just to do whatever we want. We stand under the authority and instruction of Christ recorded for us in God’s Word! And we will either obey or disobey. What I love about this passage is we see the disciples humbly retreat, take seriously Christ’s command and they obey by waiting and praying.

Check out their prayer. It says they were all “devoting themselves to prayer.” That word devoting means steadfastly, attaching oneself to, continuing and persevering in. It’s a total contrast to how they were only a month before when in the Garden of Gethsemane when Jesus asked them to stay, wait and pray and they couldn’t…they kept giving up and falling asleep. Now, they are devoted to it.

And they stay devoted to it throughout the book of Acts. In Acts 2:42 we’ll hear them again “devoted to prayer.” In Acts 6:4 that phrase will appear again, them “devoted to prayer.” In fact, prayer is mentioned 31 times in the book of Acts in 20 of its 28 chapters. A church that is not a praying church is really no church at all.

We’ve been talking about this a bit at our elder meetings…the need for our church to be prayer soaked. And we think we need to grow in this area. We had a bunch of good feedback at the prayer service we did a few weeks back and we’re looking at what it would look like to have a more official prayer ministry of the church.

At the Metropolitan Tabernacle in London where Charles Spurgeon spent his life as a pastor, they had a room beneath the pulpit and auditorium where services were held where a team of people would gather each week to pray for souls and the preaching of the gospel during the service. So we’re trying to see if our landlords will let us dig out a cave beneath the floor here.

One of the things we’d like to see happen more is you all utilizing the people we make available to go to for prayer at the back during communion. I know each week God is dealing with stuff in our hearts. And we are right to take it to him first at his table and receive his grace. But we also need to take those things to others and receive prayer. There is something about speaking it out verbally and then hear audible words of someone praying for you. I think we need to learn and grow more in humbling ourselves to be a people who are regularly praying for one another here.

That’s us as a church. How about if we talk about it individually?

How is your obedience? When you think about Jesus, his commands and obeying…are you living a life of obedience? Or is there something you know he would disapprove of and you’re doing it anyway? If you love him, you’ll gladly obey him.

How about prayer? Do you spend time in prayer seeking the Lord? I mean really praying, not just having thoughts about God or spirituality in your head…but actually talking to God?

May God help us to be a people of prayer and obedience.

B. Unity & Family

Well, let’s look at the other thing here, “Unity & Family.” Like prayer, the unity of a church is so important. In fact, prayer often breeds unity. It’s hard to stay mad at person or have division with them after you both spend time in prayer together.

Let’s look at our text, verse 14 says they were all in “one accord.” Later in Acts 2:44 we’ll see them being together and having “all things in common.” This phrase here in our passage “one accord” literally means to all be of the same mind. They were all on the same page together.

Unity is so important in a church. We commanded to have unity. Ephesians 4:3 instructs us to be “eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” Unity is so important in a church. That’s why we take gossip so seriously in the church. If you find yourself talking badly or critically of other people in the church or the way the church does things that’s sin, it breeds disunity and it’s something you need to repent of.

If you’ve got a real concern about someone or something then there is a right way to go about addressing that. Jesus spells it out real clearly in Matthew 18:15-20 about when to go to a person, how and then at what point you take it to the church leadership.

Unity, we want a united church of one heart and one mind. And actually it’s one of the sweet things about our church. After our elder meeting this week, later that evening when I got home I told my wife…”The other pastors of our church are a blessing because when we talk through stuff, it’s like all of us truly are on the same page and feel the same way about things, with the same concerns and the same passions.” I feel so privileged to be part of a pastoral team where we have such unity.

The other thing related to unity here is family. I don’t think it’s a just a small side note detail that the women and Jesus’ mom and brothers get mentioned here. Two verses later, Peter will address the disciples and the church as “brothers” for the first time calling Christians by this family term of unity and endearment.

Everyone is an important member of the church…it’s a family, brothers and sisters in Christ, adopted in through Jesus. Women are mentioned here…women are not secondary, but we’ll see several women contributing to the work of the ministry throughout the book of Acts just like we see in the life and ministry of Jesus.

Jesus personal family…side note, notice he had brothers here so the Roman Catholic belief in the perpetual virginity of Mary is unbiblical. That really has nothing to do with my sermon. But the point about Jesus’ family is big because it shows that Jesus’ own mother and brothers, who had seen him grow up as a kid and knew him well become believers in him as their savior from sin. That’s a big deal.

What it teaches us is that being the church together as one family of God in some ways is more important than our own personal bloodline families. For some of you you’re closer with those in our church than your own family…which is a call to be on mission for them. For others of you, you’re so close with your family that it hinders you from getting close to anyone at church. We need both, and the ideal here is together…blood family all becoming Christians and being in the family God together.

So unity and family. Let’s be united and let’s love one another as brothers and sisters in Christ. Okay, moving on…let’s talk about Judas and “The Adversaries of the Church.”

II. The Adversaries of the Church (vs.15-20)

When it comes to Judas here there’s sort of two pieces to it. There’s the story of what happened to him and why it’s important for the church and what it means for his official role and the leadership structure Jesus set up. What happened to Judas and why Peter addresses it the way he does is meant to both address the enemies or adversaries of Jesus and his church and the authority of Jesus church concerning the office of apostleship Judas left vacant.

There’s a few other connected topics to Judas like suicide, depression and demon possession, of which this would be a relevant text to look at if we were talking about those issues…but that is really outside of the scope of what this passage is attempting to address in context, so I’m not going to go there today.

So two things stand out here when looking at Judas and other enemies of the church, the use of Scripture and the explicit bloody account that’s here.

First, let’s look at “The Protection & Power of Scripture” against adversaries.

A. The Protection & Power of Scripture

One thing we will come to see and notice about the disciples throughout the book of Acts is that they, like the master, become obsessed with quoting and talking about Scripture. The Bible becomes the lens through with they see and support everything.

The Bible is seen as the true word of God, authored by the Holy Spirit but written through the mouths and hands of men. Look at verse 16. Peter says, the “Holy Spirit spoke.” How? “By the mouth of David” and then he quotes two of David’s Psalms in verse 20.

So Peter here affirms what the Bible does in tons of other places and what we affirm here at The Resolved Church that the Bible is the Word of God and has two authors…the human author writer and the divine author behind him guiding and superintending his words so that the result is God’s Word.

Now that’s important, because if Jesus promised power through the Spirit and if the Bible is the Spirit’s book, then that means there is much empowerment by God through knowing and using the Scriptures. Which is in fact what the Bible itself teaches. 2 Timothy 3:16 says, “All Scriptures is breathed out by God and is profitable for teaching, reproof, correction and training in righteousness.”

It’s also important because if the Bible is God’s book, then since God is perfect and holy and good…so must his book be. As Peter says here in verse 16, it “had to be fulfilled.” It can’t be wrong. It means his book, if it is actually divine cannot have any errors or mistakes in it. It must be fulfilled. And some have questioned whether that’s true.

Maybe you’ve heard people say before, “The Bible is just full of a bunch of contradictions…so there’s no way you can trust it or believe it came from God.” When people say that to me, my first response is always, “Oh, like which one are you thinking about…which contradiction?” Usually I get a blank stare at that point, because it’s usually more of a smoke screen to just not talk about the Bible.

But every once in awhile someone will have an actual apparent contradiction. And this is one of them in this passage. So here’s the deal. If you’re new to the story and you don’t know who Judas is, he was one of the original 12 disciples Jesus chose at the beginning of his ministry. But at the end, when Jesus was in Jerusalem Judas betrayed Jesus to the chief priests by telling them where they could find him and arrest him for 30 pieces of silver, which led to his crucifixion.

Now verse 18 here in Acts 1 says Judas acquired a field with this reward and there he fell headfirst and something about what he landed on ripped open his stomach and his guts spilled out. Here’s the problem or the question. In Matthew 27:3-10 it says after the chief priests arrested Jesus, Judas changed his mind and tried to take the 30 pieces of silver back. But the chief priests wouldn’t take it back. So Judas throws the money on the floor runs out and goes and hangs himself.

Do you guys get the question then? Did Judas hang himself to death or did he fall and get impaled? And did Judas buy the field or did the priests? Some people have read both the Matthew passage and this Acts passage and then said, “Oh!!! See! The Bible contradicts itself. Someone is lying and making it up! See, the Bible is not true, it can’t be trusted!”

Here’s the thing. Good hermeneutics dispels alleged errors. Hermeneutics is a fancy way of saying, interpretation or right reading. I have yet to come across any supposed contradiction in the Bible that a little investigation into what is actually said comes to show there is no discrepancies at all. So what about this one and the questions about it?

First, did Judas hang himself to death or did he fall and get impaled? Both. Notice in our text it says he fell. He was falling. It doesn’t say he tripped or stumbled but that he fell. From what? He had to have been on some sort of height he fell from. What likely happened is he hung himself and while he was hanging either the branch broke and he fell on some rocks or something or after hanging dead for who knows how long someone finally came along and cut him down and when he fell his decomposing body split open easily when he hit the ground.

Why his guts spilling out was important for Luke to include was because of what the Psalms said about the betrayer, that he made a piece of land desolate so no one could live there. That’s because blood contaminates the sanctity of the ground in the Jewish religion. You see, all you have to do is read the text and it’s there.

What about the second question? Who bought the field Judas or the priests? With that one we’ve got clues from both Acts here and Matthew. First here in Acts. Notice here in Acts the emphasis is on the field being acquired with the reward, the money Judas got. Now let’s go to Matthew. In Matthew 27 we clearly read the priests won’t take back the money as their own because they say it’s “blood money.”

So instead, on Judas’ behalf, even though he through the money on the floor it was still his money, so on his behalf the priests go purchase the field he hung himself in because the money belonged to Judas. Thus, the answer really here, like with the first question is both. Judas acquired the field with his money through the agency of the priests. See, good hermeneutics dispels alleged errors!

I love this stuff. I just think the Bible is so cool. I’ll throw out one other nerd thing and then we’ll move on. What we see here in how Peter handles or interprets the Bible is that he treats it both as real history and yet all pointing to Jesus. So here the Psalms he quotes were written during the time of David by David and yet were pointing to fulfillment in Jesus. It’s what we call a historical and christological hermeneutic…and if you want to learn more about that take my hermeneutics class beginning next month on Sunday nights.

Alright, let’s move on and talk about “Wolves & the Reward of their Wickedness.”

B. Wolves & the Reward of their Wickedness

What I am getting at with this point is that there seems to be subtle warning here about the danger of falling away or betraying the Lord. I think verse 18 is meant to be shocking! When we read that “he burst open in the middle and all his bowels gushed out” it’s meant to cause an emotive reaction. Like “ugh!”

Then add this to it. In verse 16 Peter notes that Scripture prophesied it…that Judas would betray Jesus but not only that but also his judgment, that he’d end up having a desolate camp and no one would dwell there. So the tone, attitude or focus here is the judgment of God on Judas for his sin. It’s almost meant to serve as a warning, “Don’t betray Jesus or what happened to Judas could happen to you.”

And it also reminds us to watch out for Judases. Which is part of the reason for the need of leadership which we’ll talk about in a minute when we look at verses 20-26. But Judases are real. Here’s what Paul will say later in Acts 20, “Fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock, and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things.”

Peter and the other apostles not only see every Bible passage that spoke of a messiah and savior as fulfilled in Jesus but also every enemy as fulfilled by Judas and wolves like him who would follow in his footsteps.

So this is going to be weird but it seems appropriate to ask…”Are you a Judas?” Are you among us, maybe even a official member but you don’t really believe any of this stuff about Jesus? Are you here not because God is drawing you and working in your heart but for some other reason? Is money the only thing you really care about? Are you a dissenter who likes to cause division and stir up strife? Are you a wolf? A Judas? If so repent and if you won’t repent get out and if you don’t get out, we’ll eventually find you out and show you the door.

Ok. I’ve never heard any pastor question whether people in his congregation were Judases and I’ve never done it before. But I mean it. We take seriously this whole church thing. I’m a shepherd and I care for this flock. I love you and I will shed my blood to protect this church from lying wolves who would come in to steal, kill and destroy God’s work among us.

With that, I guess it’s time to talk about “The Authority of the Church.” How about that segue?

III. The Authority of the Church (vs.20-26)

So there’s a leadership gap with Judas gone, so let’s see what they did about it and why it’s important for us. Two aspects here, “Offices & Leadership Structures” and “Lots & Leadership Development.”

A. Offices & Leadership Structures

When we talk about “offices” we’re talking about official positions and roles God intends and means for the church. You can see the word “office” real clearly there in verse 20, Judas held an office or official role designed by Jesus for the leadership of his church which he spent 3 years preparing them all for.

There were many other disciples…like we read up in verse 15 there was like 120 present there. But the 12 had a special official leadership role appointed by Jesus. Now we’ll talk about that role more here in a minute, but first notice there were certain qualifications to be able to hold this office. Verse 22 says they had to have been with Jesus since the beginning of his ministry for the entire three years then of the training. And they had to be witnesses of Jesus’ resurrection. Which means they had to be one of the people Jesus appeared to and as a result were witnessing or testifying to others about it.

So some pretty strict qualifications. No one since the first century has ever been able to meet those qualifications. That’s one of the reasons why we don’t believe in having Apostles as an official role in the church today. The other reason reason is Ephesians 2:20-3:11 is really clear that the foundation of the church is built on apostles and prophets which it defines as writers of Scripture. So unless you’re like 2,000 years old, saw the risen Jesus during that 40 day period and have the authority to write new books of the Bible…then you can’t be an apostle. Thus according to the Bible, no matter how you slice it you have to at least be a semi-cessationist or a soft-cessationist.

However, I don’t think that means that apostleship and what takes place here is completely irrelevant to us either. What we see first of all is that church leadership and structure is intended by Jesus for his church.

Second, though the apostles didn’t teach churches after them to establish apostles, they did teach them to establish the church office of elders or pastors (same thing). So the apostles, with their official authority instated or instituted an office for each local church, which likewise had a list of qualifications you can read about 1 Timothy 3:1-13 or Titus 1:5-9.

Once things really get going in Acts with planting churches…we’ll see them work to the point where they can get and establish these official local elders in each church. Now I’m not going to get all into a digression on church leadership and church government…but I do want to address the importance of it.

God means for a church to have structure and clear leadership and processes for how it does things. We spent a few months as a church going through that in detail last year when we went through the book of Titus to see what God said about it. That’s important because we live in this sort of anti-institution, anti-authority culture which resists leadership and thinks it’s bad. The idea is everybody just ought to be able to do what they want. Like parents who don’t have any rules and never say no to their kids so they end up running around in their underwear all day eating lollypops for every meal. That’s crazy!

We just don’t work like that. Now we’re a growing church. And that’s a good thing.

One of the benefits of that is we have new people coming in with all kinds of gifts and passions and ideas for how we can expand the ministry of our church to love one another better and to reach more people for Jesus. That’s awesome.

One of the challenges of that is we have new people coming in who have never experienced church leadership in the way we do it here. So when someone has a new idea about something our response is first, “Well, make sure this is your home church…take the membership class and commit.” Then, share your idea with one of the elders to get some initial feedback verbally. Then if it’s something that fits within our church’s vision, values and mission and we want to actually pursue it then normally we’ll ask that person to write up a gospel-centered vision and plan piece and we move slowly from there.

What’s not good is if you have an idea, start having planning meetings with other people about it and the church leadership has no clue it’s happening or oversight of it. If that happens, that looks like disrespect to the offices Jesus calls us to in the Bible and it looks like disunity.

Cool? Just little family business I want to make clear for everyone. We’re in favor of doing anything and everything we can to make our church an awesome center for the gospel and to reach our city for Christ. We just need to work at it together, in one accord, through the leadership structures ordained by God. Alright? Good.

Last little section for today, “Lots & Leadership Development.” The moment you’ve been waiting for. We can finally find out whether it’s okay to go to Vegas and gamble or not!

B. Lots & Leadership Development

Here’s the situation. Judas is out, he’s gone and they need to fill his place. So they do six things: (1) They attempted to follow Scripture’s instruction to get “another to take his office (v.20).” (2) They considered two potential candidates. (3) They prayed to Jesus and ask him to pick which one as he did in the beginning. (4) They opened their hearts and were open to whatever decision. (5) They asked for God’s will. (6) They drew lots.

What’s important I think in going into the discussion about lots is recognizing them in context. The lots were cast in accordance with five other things which happened first, and all of them essentially amounted to Scriptural direction and prayer.

Now maybe you’re wondering what casting lots is? Basically what they would do was take some rocks or sticks and put one guy’s name on each, put ‘em in a bag or a jar and then draw one out. It’s like old school dice or slot machines. And it wasn’t that odd of a thing back then.

Lots were pretty common in ancient times. You had lots cast for good things or bad things. You might remember that lots were cast for Jesus’ clothes. In the Old Testament lots were cast for what portion of land priests would live in. Saul became king by the cast of a lot. Even some of the decorations in the temple were decided by lots. At the same time, sometimes lots were cast in seeking foreign gods or practicing witchcraft and divination. So lots could be either good or bad.

Here’s what the view was on lots. Proverbs 16:33 “ The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord.” The belief and conviction behind lots is that God is sovereign over all and rules or every little thing that happens. So you can cast a lot and whatever the result, you know that God ultimately was the one who made that outcome take place.

Now we believe that God is fully and wholly sovereign over all things. Like Spurgeon once said, “Every particle of dust that dances in the sunbeam does not move an atom more or less than God wishes…every particle of spray that dashes against the steamboat has its orbit, as well as the sun in the heavens…the creeping of an aphid over the rosebud is as much fixed as the march of the devastating pestilence and the fall of leaves from a poplar is as fully ordained as the tumbling of an avalanche.”

In Acts we’ll see a radical affirmation of God’s sovereignty over all things including the most critical and important event of all of history, the death of Jesus Christ on the cross. So that is where the disciples were coming from in the casting of lots. They believed God was real, that Jesus rose from the dead, was truly the king of heaven and earth and would choose the next apostle by his sovereign working through the will and action of their lot casting.

Well, the question here isn’t so much one of whether or not we should gamble. So I’m not really going to deal with it. We’re to work hard for a living, be wise stewards of God’s money, and do all things for his glory. If you’re trying to make a living or to solve a financial problem by casting lots that’s probably bad…but I’m not going to throw the Bible at you for some Godly fellowship tonight over a game of Texas hold ‘em or Go Fish. I said I wouldn’t talk about gambling!

The real question here is how to you find and pick leaders and are there certain decisions in life where it’s okay to cast a lot? I’ll deal with the second one first.

Some would say, look, this took place before the coming of the Spirit and after Pentecost we never see the casting of lots ever again. There may be some merit to that. On the other hand, there may be situations where you have done everything you know to do to try and discern God’s will…you’ve looked at Scripture, you’ve sought counsel in community, you’ve tried to weigh things out, you’ve asked Jesus and prayed about it, in your heart you’re open to whatever decision, and you truly want God’s will…there may be situations like that and you still don’t know the answer. In that case, I don’t think it matters so much what you end up doing, whether you just pick it or cast a lot or whatever.

The second one is leadership development. Should we pick leaders in the church the way the apostles do here to fulfill Judas role here. The answer is “no.” And the reason is because we have other places in Scripture which God revealed to the apostles to record for us us how we are to develop and select leaders.

It happens one of three ways.

One, 1 Timothy 3:1, a person aspires to the office of overseer (or elder). It’s what we call a calling, he wants and desires it because he senses God’s lead in it.

Two, Titus 1:5 elders are to be appointed. So sometimes, a pastor might see that someone may have the gift and calling of an pastor, so he may suggest it to him and then work with him toward having him appointed.

Three, 1 Timothy 3:10 says they are to serve in that capacity if they prove themselves first. How do they prove themselves? Leadership development. 1 Timothy doesn’t say how long, but the disciples were trained and had opportunity to prove themselves with Jesus for three years before he appointed them, so that’s what we do.

Our leadership development program here at The Resolved Church is a three year process and the whole goal is to produce either elders (pastors) or deacons. We’ll be relaunching it in March so if you’re interested in joining please talk to one our church leaders about it. So you can aspire to it and there’s some of you I’ve been talking to and suggesting for you to join us, I’m looking for leaders. We’ve had 12 dudes in it this last year and I’d like us to see 30 guys in leadership development this March.

Now I want to make something clear because one of our deacons let me in on some possible miscommunication on my part. Leadership development is not the men’s ministry of our church. The purpose of leadership development is to produce elders or deacons. Not every man is called by Jesus to be an elder or deacon.

Most men are simply called to be strong Jesus loving men who lead their homes, workplaces and church through being a Godly example, with a servant’s heart contributing in their unique way. Some are leaders others are not and that’s okay. Not everyone is meant to be an official leader. But everyone in Jesus’ church is meant to be lover of Jesus who serves and contributes.

Alright. So that’s the section on the authority of the church. Authority is good, not bad because it’s from God. Today feels more business than usual. Guess that’s okay, we’re just following the Bible here. Let’s wrap things up by looking at the gospel and preparing our hearts for communion.

Conclusion

We’ve kind of covered some diverse stuff today… We talked about the attitude of church needing to be one of obedience, prayer, unity and a family together. We looked at adversaries of the church which the perfect Scriptures protect us from by identifying them and giving leaders the authority to remove them. Then looked at why official church structure is a good thing and how we’re to develop leaders.

How do these things relate to the gospel? Because as Jesus taught the men on the road to Emmaus all Scripture is to point to and be fulfilled in him.

Working backwards…

When it comes to church authority, we recognize Jesus is the only real and true authority. He is the head of his church, the King of kings and the Lord of lords the alpha and the omega who alone defeated death will judge the living and the dead.

When it comes to adversaries in the church, we remember Jesus words in Matthew 16:18 when he said he would build his church and the gates of hell would not prevail against it!

When it comes to the attitude of the church, we receive the heart and the attitude of Jesus in it. Only Jesus perfectly obeyed the father, only Jesus sits at the right hand of the Father ever praying for us, only Jesus prayed in John 17 that we may be united as one with him, and only through Jesus do we get adopted into the family of God.

Everything is about Jesus. So in thinking about how he would have us respond today, where do you need to repent or render praise? Have you taken the seat of authority in your life or is Jesus ruling?

Have you been an adversary of the church instead of an advocate? Have you not been protective and relied on God’s Word when challenges have come to draw you away?

How is your attitude? Are there some things in your life where you have not been obedient and you need to repent today? Has it been a long time since you really talked to God in prayer? Have you bred disunity by gossiping or speaking negatively about others? If so, Jesus says in Matthew 5:24 to go be reconciled to that person first before you come to God’s altar. Have you not been loving others in the church as true brothers and sisters in the family of God?

The truth is none of us have succeeded in all these areas but the good news is that Jesus has and he paid the price for our sin as if it were his own on the cross. The solution then for us is simply to repent, to not only be sorry but to have Jesus work in our hearts and lives to make us more like him…to change.

The truth is everyone of us has a little Judas in us and deserve the reward for our wickedness. We have all denied God as our Lord and maker yet he has had grace on us by sending Jesus pay the price for wickedness on the cross and rose again and now gives us new life. So let’s praise him and thank him for it and have him work in our hearts during these tender moments in whatever way we need him too.

So let’s all stand and I’ll pray. Then when you’re ready respond and come forward to his table. And after that don’t hesitate. If you need prayer today, don’t be reluctant, seize the opportunity and have someone pray for you today. I’ll be back there as well as other men. Come and receive the ministry of Jesus by his Spirit as we pray for one another.

Let’s ask God to work in these moments.

This Month:
• Music from: Not Machines
• Art Display from: The Pushpin Project

REAL MARRIAGE: The Truth About Sex, Friendship & Life Together.

Pastor Mark & Grace Driscoll will be here in San Diego, CA on February 24-25 talking about marriage based on their new book “Real Marriage.” The conference is $35 and will include worship, great teaching and discussion suited for the married and yet to be married alike.

Held at The Rock Church 2277 Rosecrans St. San Diego, CA 92106

February 24, 2012 7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.
February 25, 2012 9:00 a.m. – Noon

REGISTER HERE

We are super excited to announce some new and improved updates for the family ministry of The Resolved Church!

• All the lessons for our children’s classroom will now follow the text and sermon of the worship service! This way families can all be learning the same thing together. As one church we seek to have God’s word do its work in our homes, community groups and now in our family ministry as well!
• We take seriously the care of our children during family ministry time. Thus, we have adjusted some of our set-up to provide increased security so that only family ministry workers with badges or the parents of children are permitted past the entrance check-in gate.
• With some of our new babies and many more to come, we have now set-up a privacy partition at the end of the west hall for nursing mothers. In addition, we will now have a live video and audio feed of the the service set up there.

The Family Ministry of The Resolved Church is a special and important part of who we are. Through serving in it, we not only have the opportunity to minister to new families God brings to us but also learn and grow in our ability to lead and teach our homes about who Jesus is and what he has done.

If you are interested in serving Jesus and His people by working in the Family Ministry please contact Pastor James Martin at: james@theresolved.com

Announcement | Upcoming Class

He set my feet on a rock
and gave me a firm place to stand.
Psalm 40:2

A House On The Rock

A Bible Study For Women

Life can seem so uncertain and full of difficulty. How can we live with hope and
confidence?

Jesus said that everyone who hears His words and puts them into practice is like
a wise man who built his house on a rock. Come join with other women as we
study and discuss the very words He was referring to in a 7-part Bible study.

February 6 – Introduction
February 13 – Salt & Light
February 27 – True Righteousness
March 5 – Imitating Christ
March 12 – Spiritual Discipline
March 19 – God Is Good, All The Time
March 26 – A House On The Rock

Monday evenings at 7:00 pm
Kathy Broersma
Contact kathy@theresolved.com for more info and/or directions.

Sunday March 11th we will be hosting a Hospitality Ministry training and appreciation meeting!

This is a time to thank those who have faithfully been serving on Sundays to welcome people to The Resolved Church AND for any who are interested in joining one of the teams. Food will be provided.

Learn more about: The Resolved Hospitality Ministry

Sunday March 18th we will be hosting a Family Ministry training and appreciation meeting!

This is a time to thank those who have faithfully been serving on Sundays in teaching and caring for children AND is a time for any who are interested in joining one of the family ministry teams. Food will be provided.

Learn more about: The Resolved Family Ministry

What: Men’s Retreat
Where: Big Bear Mountain
When: March 22-24th
Who: Pastor Duane will be providing the teaching this year.
Theme: God’s Call For Men Not To Be Boys
Cost: $75

Be a man and go. The retreat will be a combination of solid biblical teaching on Godly masculinity combined with some solid brotherly bonding. This year we will look at the character of man, how a man leads his wife or prepares for one, how a man is to view work, money and sex. You will be encouraged, sharpened, convicted and challenged as we learn and grow in the gospel together in our study of God’s Word. We’ll also have a lot fun with various activities available or provided such as playing sports, cards and other games together and possibly shooting guns, boxing, or snowboarding.

REGISTER HERE NOW!
.

If you’re a member of The Resolved Church, thinking about becoming one, or just want to experience a little of the behind the scenes action of the church…then come to our Member Meeting! For members this is an important time for us to talk together about the in-workings of our church and an opportunity to share reports, ask questions and take care of any needed business.

• Date: Mar 25th
• Time: 6:45-8:00pm
• Food: Dessert
• What: Review & Report

Jesus Instates The Mission | The Book of Acts | 1:6-11 | Pastor Duane Smets

This an expository sermon on Acts 1:6-11. It covers Jesus’s plan and purpose in regards to the coming of His Kingdom, as well as His ascension to the seat of its power. This sermon was originally preached on January 29th, 2012 at The Resolved Church in San Diego, CA.

Listen

The Resolved Church | www.theresolved.com

(619) 393-1990 | contact@theresolved.com
All Rights Reserved © The Resolved Church

Permissions: you are permitted and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material provided you not alter the wording in any way and you do not charge a fee. For web posting a link to this document is preferred.

The Resolved Church
Pastor Duane Smets
January 29th, 2012

Jesus Instates the Mission | Acts 1:6-11
I. Theocracy: The Character of the Kingdom (vs.6-7)
II. Proclamation: Empowered Witnesses To & For All (vs.8)
III. Ascension: Heaven’s Throne & Earth’s Gift (vs.9)
IV. Parousia: The Return of the King (vs.10-11)

Introduction

Well today is our second Sunday in the book of Acts, our new sermon series study. Last week was a sort of smorgasbord of topics covering a whole range of things introducing us to the book of Acts. Today we get to narrow our focus a bit and look at the next section of Scripture in Acts where Jesus gathers the disciples together and outlines the purpose and plan of the mission and then in a dramatic display of his divinity instates the mission by ascending before their very eyes into heaven. So I titled today’s sermon “Jesus Instates the Mission.”

The story here is pretty gripping so it doesn’t really need any kind of introduction, so I’ll simply read our text and pray over it right off the bat today. (read text & pray)

I. Theocracy: The Character of the Kingdom (vs.6-7)

Alright, we’re just going to dive right into our first point today, “Theocracy: The Character of the Kingdom.” If you were here last week when we looked at the first five verses of Acts one of the things we talked about was how in them we see a Jesus in full control and authority giving commands (verse 2) and orders (verse 4). Now here at the beginning of our verses for today we see him in the same mode calling an important meeting together with the disciples.

There seems to be an unspoken sense of excitement here. They had been waiting like Jesus instructed…then they’re supposed to “come together” and everyone wonders what this special meeting is going to be about, what Jesus is going to do, what he’s going to say. So they once everyone finally arrives one of the disciples, it doesn’t say who, one of them speaks up and asks Jesus, so is it finally time?

The way he asks the question gives us some huge clues to what was being asked…and it’s no small question. I want to draw your attention to two words that tell us what this is all about: “restore” and “Israel.” These are big.

When the disciples here ask if Jesus going to restore the kingdom what they bringing up is how Israel, God’s people had not been a free monarchy for hundreds of years and really had fallen apart as a powerful and spiritual nation since the days of David and Solomon…something like 1,000 years. And those we’re remembered and imprinted upon their minds as “the good years.” They read about them in the Bible, their families talked about it…the good years. The time when everything was good and the way it should be.

Since then though, it had all fallen apart. Israel had gone into captivity in Babylon and then years later after they were finally allowed to return and rebuild, it wasn’t long before they were overtaken by the Greeks first and then the Romans, who had been ruling over Israel for the disciples entire lives.

But they had these prophecies in their Bibles promising a messiah king who would come and restore everything. For example, Isaiah 9:6-7 says a son will be born who will God, who will sit on the throne of David and over his kingdom to restore it.

So here’s Jesus. Disciples were convinced he was the prophesied messiah king. But then he died on the cross and those hope and dreams and beliefs, to them seem to die with him. But then he rose again! And after he rises and appears he’s acting like a king, giving out commands and orders. He tells them they’ll be baptized with the Holy Spirit and then he calls this special meeting.

What do you think they thought Jesus was finally going to do? He laid down his life on the cross to defeat sin. Now he’s risen again in full power and might…what do you think they are hoping and expecting to take place? To go to war! They think it will finally be time to take up arms, march right up to the capital and overthrow the government. Jesus will sit on the throne and all the nations will come and bow at his feet. That’s exactly what they expect and are thinking.

See where it says, restore the kingdom to “Israel.” That’s a big clue. It tells us right out that they were expecting a political, military and national kingdom that would liberate them from the colonial yoke of Rome. What they are imagining would literally be like Jesus marching up the capital steps in Washington DC, walking into the oval office, sitting down, ending democracy and instating his rule. Jesus, by rising from the dead just proved death can kill him, so no amount of spears, spikes or swords can stop him. This is what they expect.

But how does Jesus respond? Well, in verse 7 he basically says “not yet…it’s not time yet.” And then in verse 8 he redefines what kind of power they will be given and for what purpose. He doesn’t say his physical rule will not happen…just that it wasn’t the time and season that the Father has fixed for it to occur in the future.

The disciples were correct that Jesus was the prophesied king. In the Gospel of John when Jesus is before Pilate he acknowledges before him that he’s the king (Jn 18:36-37) and tells Pilate he has no power over him except what Jesus was divinely allowing him to do (Jn 19:11). It’s simply that the physical display of his kingship is yet to come. Here’s what 1 Timothy 6:13-15 says, “Christ Jesus, who in his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession…(will appear and) …display at the proper time…(that he)…is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords.”

So. Jesus is the king, but the time of his physical reign in the land awaits the mission. It’s because of this conviction that throughout the book of Acts the disciples will repeatedly run into trouble with the law…because of their claim that Jesus is Lord and King and not Caesar.

The technical term for it is theocracy. Theos is the word for God and ocracy is government, so theocracy is God government, where God rules as king. It’s why for my political views section on Facebook I have theocrat: Jesus is King.

It’s one thing I’ve never been able to really understand about Christians getting all hyped up about politics and it seems to happen every time its election season. Christians above all are supposed to be the ones whose allegiance is to Jesus the King, not Caesar or any other lords of the land. Our hope and loyalty is not in human governments which are destined to fail but in Jesus.

But the biggest political question we could ask is not who to vote for but why Jesus doesn’t just take his seat yet. Why wasn’t and isn’t it the time or season for that yet?

Why not yet? The answer comes in the next verse and our next point for today, “Proclamation: Empowered Witnesses To & For All.”

II. Proclamation: Empowered Witnesses To & For All (vs.8)

The first thing Jesus does here in verse 8 is re-direct the disciples focus and passion for Jesus’ physical rule of the land by bringing up the issue of power and what the kind of power Jesus is going to give them will be for. Make no mistake, kingship is about power. The greatness of your kingship is only as great as your power to extend your rule and reign.

But here, instead of granting power to take up arms to fight, Jesus says he’s going to give a different kind of power…a power to be witnesses! “My witnesses.” Witnesses of who Jesus is and what he had done in his death for sin and resurrection from the dead.

By telling them (and us) that the power of the kingdom of God is going to be extended through the proclamation of the gospel in a single sweep sets apart the nature of Jesus kingdom from any other kingdom rule ever known on earth. Rather than enforcing rule from the top down, Jesus kingdom would win over allegiance by changing hearts, not with force but the with the message of love and forgiveness provided for in the cross. Jesus’ kingdom is an upside-down kingdom…it works from the bottom up…beginning with the hearts and lives of the people.

The now late John Stott says, “The kingdom is spread by witnesses, not by soldiers, through a gospel of peace, not declaration of war, by the work of the Spirit, not by a force of arms, political intrigue or revolutionary violence…(his kingdom begins with a spiritual rule) transforming the lives and values of its citizens.”

I’m not sure anyone could have expected or detected that Jesus here would split the coming of the kingdom into two stages…but if he didn’t I don’t think we would have as big of sense of the heart and nature of Jesus’ kingdom.

What I mean is everyone expected that the coming of the messiah. After Jesus died and rose again, the disciples assumed what would immediately follow would be his physical rule, which we talked about. But instead, Jesus puts that on pause so that the love of his kingdom might break in through the world first before the political might of his kingdom is installed.

By doing this, we see and experience why Jesus’ kingdom is better than any other king’s rule throughout all of history. No king or kingdom ever has displayed such love and grace. In it Jesus shows why he is the only worthy king of all. Jesus could force his reign, but instead he offers time and by his Spirit wins people over by changing them from the inside first.

Now, there’s something here we need to talk about for a minute. We need to rightly understand the concept of “power” here. Sometimes power here has been conceived by some as the ability to do miracles like Jesus did…that he is granting them supernatural power. But that’s not what this power is about. Yes, it’s a supernatural power to be sure…but it’s a power to be witnesses, to be proclaimers of the message. Every single miracle in Jesus’ ministry and every single miracle in the book of Acts is not about the miracle but about the message. The power is a power attached to the message!

What Jesus is really promising is a commitment to the testimony about him, that the Spirit will come upon us in such a way that when we speak the message of the gospel it will powerfully break through sin and the hardness of hearts that reject and resist God. It’s a power far greater and nobler, a heavenly power which makes the preaching of the gospel effective.

I think we have something to learn here about being courageous in talking to others about Jesus. Too often we think we just have to say the right words or explain things perfectly for others to really hear the gospel and come to know Jesus…when we really just need to speak it and let God’s Spirit do his work in taking our words and pressing them into people’s hearts. The power is attached to the witness. We witnesses and through the words the Spirit regenerates hearts.

Do you guys know what I’m talking about? I mean there are times, specific situations with friends of mine I can call to mind and remember where I should’ve just said, “Man, what you really need to hear is that you’re a sinner and that Jesus died on the cross and rose again for your sin and you need Jesus in your life to change you and save you.” I can think of times when I should’ve said that…but I didn’t, because I didn’t really believe there was power in that message.

It’s easy to start to think there’s no way they’ll see how that’s relevant to their life when what their really concerned about is the need for a job or their girlfriend or boyfriend or marriage or what they’re going to do for fun on their time off. It’s easy to think there is we won’t say the right thing or we’ll sound crazy or it won’t make sense.

But Jesus here has promised the empowerment of his Spirit when we witness. He’s promised it. Think, right now…do you have friends who you need to just share the message of the gospel with and trust that the Spirit will do it’s work? Do it. Pray and ask God for opportunity to share the message and then when you do, remember God has promised the empowerment of his Spirit to go with you in the words you share.

So, just as Jesus at the beginning of his earthly ministry was baptized in the Jordan river and the Spirit descended upon him, empowering him for his mission so too, here the disciples at the beginning of their ministry are promised a baptism of the Spirit to empower them for their mission…which has now become ours.

Now let’s look at the second part of this verse and that’s Jesus plan for mission. Here in Acts 1:8 he not only addresses the passion of his kingdom expansion in spiritual not physical power but he also addresses the plan of his kingdom…to go from Jerusalem, to Judea, Samaria and the ends of the earth.

This verse is a key verse, not only it states the theme of the entire book of Acts, namely mission but it also almost gives a perfect outline to the book. What we’ll see as we work through the book is mission in Acts 1-7 happens in and around Jerusalem, then in chapters 8-10 mission expands out to Judea and Samaria, then from chapters 11-28 mission begins to expand beyond to the ends of the earth, ending with the prospect of going to Spain.

Now there’s a few different ways to look at this missional plan of Jesus. We’ll talk about each.

The first element is recognizing that there is a going out, a taking of the message to the places and peoples of the world. That’s new. There was mission in the Old Testament God’s people were called to. But the mission was to be a shining light the nations would be drawn to come to because of how different and holy they were. It’s what’s called centripetal mission. In this verse, Jesus changes the whole missional model of God’s people and tells them to go out. It’s no longer come to Israel to find God, it’s leave Israel and take God to the world! It’s what’s called centrifugal mission…a going out. So that’s the first element, a going out.

The second element is a literal geographical plan. You start close to home and then increasingly spread outward. You can look at that historically in what happened in the first century documented in Acts or you can look at it as principle…that you either start with people you know then reaching out to others you don’t know. Or we could look at as a principle of church planting that we start planting churches closer to us and then farther and farther away.

The third element is a cultural or racial one. Jerusalem was primarily composed of Jews. Judea and especially Samaria is a whole different deal. Samaritans were sort of like Jews but they were different and Jews did not like Samaritans…they thought they were heretics, dogs and didn’t want anything to do with them. Then people of the ends of the earth were seen as just foreign and so different and impossible that they were kind of a waste of time. One of the unique things about the gospel is that it is universal, for all people…people of every tribe and tongue and here Jesus calls us to that.

So there’s a few different ways we can look at this verse. But rather than just thinking about it like it’s just theory and tactic…how does it play out in our individual lives?

What about the first element? The going out. God has not called us just to sit in our comfort zones but to go out…to go out of our way for mission. Are you going out? What neighbors have you never talked to? What people at work have you never spent time with outside of work? What new things are you trying for the sake of mission?

A buddy of mine up on Rancho Penasquitos is throwing a Super Bowl party for his street next week…getting all kinds of food and drinks and setting up a big screen in his garage and inviting the whole neighborhood to come so he might get to know them in hopes of sharing the gospel. Today, one of our church members is throwing a concert in the courtyard of their condo complex with a raffle, cake walk and all kinds of stuff. Or maybe it’s not some event but just having a meal or coffee with someone you don’t normally hang out with.

Or if we think about it geographically…have you started with the people you do know, have you talked to them about Jesus? Maybe you have and not much is happening there…so you need to get some new friends. A couple years ago when I used to work another job besides being a pastor I used to be able to make friends with people at work to share the gospel with. Now I’ve realized that it’s much harder for me…I mostly meet Christians or people who become Christians who come into the church.

I need some new friends. So I recently joined an MMA gym here in town and have been training in boxing. The few couple weeks no one really talked to me. But this last week, I guess I stuck it out long enough or something that a couple of guys talked me afterward, introduced themselves to me and invited me to hang out. I guess I’ve been through enough punishment now to get in the club. And I’m excited about some new friends and opportunities for mission.

Or what about that third element, the cultural or racial one. Jesus called his disciples to go out after the Samaritans…people they didn’t like who were difficult to love, and to the ends of the earth to people they didn’t understand. What kind of people are hard for you to spend time with? Who do you not like? Who is just weird to you that you don’t get? Are you reaching out to them with the gospel? Are you working to get to know them?

I’ve found that any person, no matter who they are…if you spend any amount of time with them and are able to get beneath the surface with them, there is a real person there dealing with real things, sin and its effects, hurt, pain and anger and they simply need to hear and experience the love of Christ.

Alright. Let’s wrap this point up and move onto the next one. Just real simple…get on mission! Just do something. Don’t just sit on the gospel and do nothing. It’s not going to be smooth or perfect or easy but God has promised to empower us to be witnesses…so let’s follow his lead and be a people who are on mission.

After Jesus lays out this missional calling and plan he ascends into heaven before their very eyes, so let’s talk about this “Ascension: Heaven’s Throne & Earth’s Gift.”

III. Ascension: Heaven’s Throne & Earth’s Gift (vs.9)

This is one of my favorite scenes of Jesus in the Bible. It’s probably because I feel like everyone wants to as John Calvin puts it, to pull him down out of heaven to earth. In our day it just seems to me that most want to look at Jesus as just being merely a human man…not the divine son of God. So I love these scenes where you’re like…what! This Jesus dude is something and someone totally different.

I mean just imagine this scene for a moment. You’re there. One of the disciples. Jesus has just risen from the dead, which is crazy enough in and of itself. You’re probably still having a hard time believing it. Jesus calls this special meeting and he’s acting a little different…more like a military commander giving orders and laying out the mission. Then, right after concluding his speech he just starts levitating, some special cloud envelopes him and he just disappears.

This blows my mind. We’ll talk about it in our next point but verse 10 says the disciples are just standing there awestruck in a daze…probably with their mouths wide open…thinking “what just happened?” Can you imagine it?

Well let’s talk about it, what it means and why it’s important. First, let’s get the crazy out of the way. People don’t levitate and disappear. Chris Angel’s stunts are an illusion…you can buy his video now that tells you how he does it all. This is different.

Last week we already went over how Luke, the human author of Acts is concerned for truth and accuracy in his writing an documenting what actually happened…so we have to take him on his terms. We can’t just cut this part out and say this part was just a fanciful add on. That not the author’s intent. We either have to accept the whole book or none of it.

So here’s what else I’ll say. If Jesus is actually and truly God…then one, not would he be able to do something like this but isn’t it what you’d expect? Wouldn’t you expect something fantastic if Jesus really was God risen from the dead as the king over all and was giving a plan and commission to spread his kingdom over the entire world? I mean ascending before their very eyes like that puts a pretty big exclamation point on the mission right?

Here’s the other thing. Notice where it talks about the cloud here. It says Jesus was, “lifted up and a cloud took him out of their sight.” Now this could have just been a normal cloud. But one thing you learn as you read through the Bible from beginning to end is that things like rocks, trees and clouds are pretty important things. Almost anytime something significant happens there’s a rock, tree or a cloud.

Clouds just so happen to be a big deal. After God floods the earth he puts a rainbow in the sky against a cloud. When God’s people make the Exodus out of Egypt, God leads them with a cloud. When they would have church a cloud would set itself over the tabernacle. When Solomon built the temple and had the first service a cloud came in and filled it with smoke. When Jesus was baptized God the Father spoke out of a cloud. When Jesus led the disciples up on a mountain and pulled back the veil on his divinity with bright shining light, there was a cloud that enveloped them. And now when Jesus ascends into heaven a cloud shows up.

Now maybe it was just a normal cloud but probably not. Some have got all hung up here wondering where he went…especially now since we know what’s actually up…that it goes out of earth’s atmosphere and that there’s a whole universe out there with all kinds of planets.

My oldest daughter has been asking a lot of questions lately about heaven and what’s it like and where it is…so I’ve been thinking about this. Consistently, all throughout the Bible heaven is never conceived of as a physical place in our human realm. It’s not like heaven is on another planet out there in the universe. It’s a whole other place. Angels and Jesus himself after his resurrection…just appear out of thin air. It’s another realm, not limited to the constraints of the physical world.

So likely the cloud is a sign of Jesus, not necessarily going “up” into the atmosphere to get to heaven but going out, out of this world to sit on his throne at the right hand of the Father. Just as in an instant he came into the world in the shadow of the night as a little baby, in an instant he goes out of the world in the bright of the day. Now here’s what’s significant about this.

This was a key event, culminating the initiation of the new age of the Spirit. By leaving in this supernatural way, Jesus lets the disciples and us know that he is really and truly gone and will not be appearing any more. If he had just not shown up anymore, without saying anything or doing something like this then everyone would have wondered what happened to him.

Jesus spoke of this day to the disciples beforehand. In Matthew 19 he told them a day would come when he would return to glory and sit on his throne. Hebrews 8:1 says that Jesus is now, “seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven.” And Romans 8:34 says that there Jesus is “interceding for us” on our behalf praying for us to the Father.

Jesus, right now is seated on his throne in heaven and is fully aware of all that is going on in our world and of all that happens to his people and he talks to God the Father about it for us. And that’s not the only benefit we have of Jesus ascension.

Now as we talked about last week it is the age of His Spirit. When Jesus was here on earth, he was just in Israel, moving about from place to place ministering to certain individuals and groups of people one at a time. Now, because he has ascended and sent his Spirit to us, he can be and is at work in thousands of people all across the world all at the same time.

Without Jesus’ ascension we would not have the same sense of closeness, intimacy and strength that is now ours by His Spirit He has given to us. Do you realize that? Jesus is a real person. We do not see him with out eyes but we who know him and believe in him sense his Spirit at work in us. And he is with us every day. Jesus promised never to take away his Spirit. In Hebrews 13:5 he says, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”

For those of us who believe in Jesus and have received his Spirit, we are never alone. Because Jesus ascended, God is with us in a closer way than ever before. Some of you today may feel lost alone and confused…and that’s either because you have yet to really embrace Jesus as your savior or because you simply need to be reminded that He loves you and is with you by His Spirit.

If you feel that way today, hear and know that Jesus is with us. Matthew 28:20 He says, “Behold I am with always to the end of the age.”

Well, let’s move on to our final point for this morning, “Parousia: The Return of the King.”

IV. Parousia: The Return of the King (vs.10-11)

“Parousia” means appearing and in the Bible refers to the time when Jesus will return, which is what gets unpacked here in our final verses for this morning, verses 10-11. The disciples are standing there looking up into the sky stunned and two persons in white robes appear out of nowhere and put a final weight of force on the mission and plan of God.

“Two men” here is probably a metonym for angels because they appear out of nowhere and are dressed in white robes which is usually one of the Bible’s ways of saying these were angels. So these two angels show up and say, verse 11, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”

Two things are going on here with their words. One, there’s a gentle rebuke to get on with the mission and two, there’s a prophecy about Jesus’ return. Let’s talk about the first one.

The Bible here does not tell us how long they were standing there staring. It could have been a few minutes, a few hours, all day…who knows? Whatever the case, seeing Jesus ascend had mesmerized them and the angels show up to help explain the importance of what just happened and to call their attention back to what Jesus had just told them.

Their words basically say…don’t go looking for him, because you’re not going to find him. Instead of thinking about where he went and when he’ll return get on with the business of taking the message of salvation to the world. Don’t spend your life just staring up into heaven, get to work. That’s the first thing.

The second one is when they tell him he will return and in the same way. Which isn’t new information to the disciples. Jesus himself said this before. Here’s his words. Matthew 24:29-31 “…the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man, and then all the tribes of the earth…will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven (there’s that cloud again) with power and great glory. And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.”

What a scene! Jesus will come again and appear, parousia, and he’ll be coming on a cloud with all of his power, angels, with an earthquake and the blast of a trumpet. What a return!

This coming, his second coming, will not be like his first coming…quiet and humble in the stillness of the night. This one will be loud and with a full display of all his glory and might and there will be no question who is the king over all! Then, at long last the physical reign of Jesus will descend on the earth and all who have rejected him and all who oppose him will be judged and according to Revelation 20:15, thrown into the lake of fire.

The return of the king will be great and glorious. Sorry, but Tolkien’s “Return of the King” doesn’t even compare. When he returns finally all wrongs will be recompensed and all who have repented will be rewarded. And he will set up his kingdom and wipe away every tear from the eyes of his beloved.

What does this do for us? What good is it for us to know and believe the words of Jesus and the angels here? There’s a few things I think.

One, I think we long for justice. The promise of Jesus return tells us there will be a day.

Two, I think we long for a better world than this…one without pain, suffering, sorrow and corruption, both in our own hearts, those around us and in the governments of our lands.

Three, I don’t know about you but I long to see Jesus face to face. I have never seen Jesus with my eyes but I cannot wait to see him who I know and love and to bow down before him and worship.

Until then, we have work to do our king has commissioned us for. In Matthew 24:14 Jesus said, “(The) gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all peoples, and then the end will come.” We are still in the age of proclamation…there are people who have not yet heard of Jesus, who he is and what he is done and we must share it with them. Once the mission is complete, then he will come and we anxiously await that day.

Well, let’s conclude today and prepare for the Lord’s Supper.

Conclusion

Today we talked about the character of Jesus’ kingdom, how it’s an upside-down kingdom. I think we’ve all seen abuses of power either in our workplace or in the larger spheres of our world. But Jesus kingdom is different. In it Jesus shows us why he is the only good and worthy king…because he first goes after our hearts with the message that he died for our sin as if it were his own and then rose again to forgive, renew and restore us.

Today we talked about the call of Jesus to spread the message of his victory over sin to all types of people in all places. Through our various jobs, hobbies and neighborhoods we have the opportunity to spread the gospel into all the nooks and crannies of our city. And he has promised to empower us by His Spirit for the message to be effective when we open our mouth and witness of Him.

Today we talked about Jesus’ ascension to the throne, where He prays for us and by which He has given us the ever abiding presence of His Spirit. A presence which tells us we are not alone, that we belong to Him and that His Word is true.

Then lastly today we talked about Jesus’ return and how great and glorious it will be. It breeds hope, excitement and drive to our mission, propelling us toward that great day when we will see him and receive our reward.

How I’d like us to prepare for the Lord’s Supper is to call to mind the significance of what we do each week here in receiving the bread and the wine. Some would say it’s just symbolic, that the wine just represents Jesus blood shed on the cross and the bread just represents his body which was pierced and bruised. Others would say something magical takes place and the bread and the wine change into literal blood and flesh.

What we believe is that Jesus has committed himself to these elements and this ceremony we call a “sacrament.” A sacred and holy thing wherein we really and truly meet with Jesus and receive his grace.

We believe since Jesus ascended to the throne that he has promised to be uniquely present with us by His Spirit whenever we do this.

We believe this is not just a religious act or right but a special time of grace where we respond to the gospel, confess our need and gratitude and meet with our God.

So today as you respond remember that Jesus was the one who first went on mission for us. He went out, out of heaven and came down to earth and then by his Spirt has pursued us and called us to himself. And on top of that we were and often still are the unlovable ones he has grace and mercy for, forgiving us and welcoming us into his fellowship.

Jesus is our king. He a mighty king and yet he’s a kind and gracious king. So let’s respond to his word now by all standing and then I’ll pray over our time before the Lord’s Table.

Let’s pray.

Acts 2:37 “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.”

EASTER is April 8th!!! Part of our special worship service will include baptisms! We will be planning on baptizing both new Christians and Christians who have not yet been baptized. If you are a Christian and have never been baptized you need to get baptized!

Fill out the form below and get baptized this Easter!

What is baptism? Baptism in Jesus’ time it was a pretty common cultural practice. When people converted to Judaism and wanted to become Jews they would baptize them. And then there were baptisms for all kinds of stuff, whether it was just washing up for meals or for other religious purifications.

The whole thing is all about this…water is a natural cleansing agent. That’s why most of us take showers regularly and wash our hands. Water makes us clean. In the Bible water is a symbol for spiritual cleansing. We don’t just get physically dirty but spiritually dirty. Sin which is our living apart from God, living for ourselves, seeking and enjoying things we know we shouldn’t makes our spirit or our soul dirty.

The message of the gospel is that Jesus cleanses us. He takes all of the dirt onto himself on the cross so that we can be forgiven and wiped clean and renewed into a right relationship with God. When that happens in us Jesus says to get baptized to seal the deal. Not because the physical washing of the water actually does anything for us spiritually, but because it’s an outward picture or demonstration of what he has done for us spiritually.

Believers in Jesus throughout the ages have been baptized as a sign of their love and commitment to him. Being baptized is powerful experience. Here’s a video of a few people being baptized at The Resolved in past years.

Announcement | The Resolved Family (College) Semester Kickoff BBQ

If you have any questions track down Gabe Hagstrom. If you don’t know who Gabe Hagstrom is, look for somebody who looks like they are in college and ask them who Gabe Hagstrom is. 

Blog | Pastor Duane

When looking at the different phases or stages of history from the perspective of God’s creation, governance and rule over them the age of the Holy Spirit highlights an important aspect of the character and being of God…that He is both transcendent and immanent. “Transcendence” and “immanence” are big words, but often big words are some of the most helpful.

Transcendence is the total holy otherness of God…how completely unlike anything or anyone else He is…totally distinct, separate and unique. The idea of transcendence focuses attention on the lofty, supreme, and powerful nature of God over and above all that he has created. Theologians have often called the transcendent nature of God his “incommunicatable attributes” because he doesn’t pass them on to any of his creatures. The angels in Isaiah 6 proclaim God’s transcendence when they cry out, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts (Is 6:3)!”

Immanence is the total nearness and closeness of God. The idea of immanence focuses attention on the evident and tangible perception of God by his creatures, chiefly made known to us in the coming of both Jesus His Son and the Holy Spirit. Theologians have often called the immanent nature of God his “communicatable attributes” because he passes his presence and character to those who put faith in him. The angels in Isaiah 6 likewise proclaim God’s immanence when they cry out, “The whole earth is full of His glory (Is 6:3)!”

The twin truths of God’s transcendence and immanence are precious treasures. Yet they must be simultaneously held together or else one ends up in tragic error. Deism, the belief that God made the world like a watch, wound it up and then stepped back having nothing more to do with it…is the transcendence of God taken too far. Pantheism, the belief that a part of God is in everything and all of the total of all those parts is what makes up God…is the immanence of God taken too far.

What holds God’s transcendence and immanence together in perfect harmony is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. For in the gospel the wholly other God took on the nature of humanity and became a man in Jesus…coming closer than ever before. Then through belief in the gospel, the news that God sacrificed His Son for sin, God promises to come in and reside in every believer through His Holy Spirit. Romans 8:11 “If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.”

If we don’t see God as transcendent it is hard for us to know how truly glorious and mighty He is and if we don’t see God as immanent it is hard for us to know how truly gracious and loving He is. Praise God that through the Gospel he has made Himself known and shown why He is worthy of all our worship!

Jesus Promises The Spirit | The Book of Acts | 1:1-5 | Pastor Duane Smets

This an expository sermon of Acts 1:1-5. It introduces the Book of Acts and its connection to the Gospel of Luke. It follows the brief summary of the life, ministry, and acts of Jesus and sets up for the coming of the era of The Holy Spirit. This sermon was originally preached on January 22nd, 2012 at The Resolved Church in San Diego, CA.

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The Resolved Church
Pastor Duane Smets
January 22nd, 2012

Jesus Promises The Spirit | Acts 1:1-5

I. Jesus in the Gospel of Luke (vs.1-2)
  A. Books of the Bible & Divine Revelation
  B. Word & Deed: The Marks of the Gospel
II. Jesus’ Resurrection Changes Everything (vs.3)
  A. Proofs & Their Power
  B. The Message of the King
III. Jesus Initiates the Age of His Spirit (vs.4-5)
  A. Preparation For Battle
  B. The One From On High

Introduction

Well, after much anticipation we are finally starting our new sermon series where we’ll be working and studying through the book of Acts. What we’ve got planned out are 35 sermons in three different stages. So combined with Easter and other special Sundays, it’ll probably take us not quite a year with us finishing up around November sometime.

That might sound daunting to some of you but it’s not as bad as when we took three years to go through the book of Romans! Actually let me kind of explain our reasoning and thinking through this. You see there are basically three different types of sermons.

One is narrative, where the preacher doesn’t really deal with the Bible at all and his goal is basically to tell an entertaining, engaging and inspiring story. We plain out just don’t do that here.

The other one is topical, where there may be a specific subject to address in the church or it’s advent season, Easter or some other special Sunday. In topical sermons the goal is to address a specific subject matter and work from a passage of the Bible that addresses that. We do that sometimes here.

The third main type of sermon is what we call expository. It comes from the word “exposed.” Expository sermons simply work through books of the Bible, chapter by chapter, verse by verse and word by word and seek to expose what is there. This is what we do 90% of the time here at The Resolved Church. And there’s a reason for that.

One of our main principles of ministry here is that it is the Word of God which does the work of God. So we believe that it’s not so much how we put together our service in terms of music, art, coffee, or even the friendliness and relationships of our community that is going to bring people to Christ and help us grow in Christ. Not that those things are not good or do not assist, but we believe that it is the Bible is the chief tool that God has given and designed for us to come to know him and be changed by him. So for that reason we are committed to expository teaching.

This is what God’s people have done for thousands of years going back all the way to when Ezra the prophet would open the Bible on a wooden platform at the ancient church services and explain the Scriptures were saying. It seems that for most of Jesus’ ministry this is what he was doing was taking his disciples through the Scriptures and explaining them and showing them how they all pointed to him. Then as we’ll see, all the preaching of the disciples who become apostles becomes saturated with preaching the Bible. When the apostle Paul, who wrote two-thirds of the New Testament spent three years with the church in Ephesus, he says while he was there he proclaimed to them “the whole counsel of God (Acts 20:27) and then in 2 Timothy 4:2 with the authority and inspiration of the Holy Spirit he commands preachers to “preach the word.”

It’s our conviction here that as Hebrews 4:12 states that the word of God is a living and active book that pierces through our heart. The Bible teaches that our hearts are often hard and they need to be pierced and broken and it’s only God’s word that can do that.

Some of you today know exactly what I’m talking about…if you feel numbness and apathy toward God, frustration or anger toward God, doubt and distrust toward God, shame and guilt toward God…those are all signs of a hard heart that needs to be pierced and broken.

Isaiah 55:11 states that God’s word when it goes out from mouths will always accomplish it’s purpose. So it’s our prayer that through the preaching of the Word you will be softened and drawn in. For others of you, instead of being softened you’ll harden your heart and will be driven away from hearing the Word, which though painful and sad is another one of it’s functions of God’s word to purify and protect the church.

Okay, back to Acts. Basically what I’m saying is the reason we preach through books of the Bible is because we believe that is what the Bible tells us to do primarily. We just sort of call ‘em series to make it go down a little easier. It’s like in Mary Poppins, a spoon full of sugar makes the medicine go down.

And Acts doesn’t really need a whole lot of sugar because it is simply a super exciting, action packed, heartfelt, drama saturated book. I mean it’s got sci-fi in it with levitation and and people turning to into salt and sick people magically getting better. It’s got blood and guts with dudes getting stoned to death, thrown in jail, city-wide riots and courtroom trials. It’s got shipwrecks, snake attacks and demon possessed getting taken down.

But most of all it’s got these phenomenal stories of characters whose lives radically change after hearing the gospel preached and encountering Jesus. And then we see real love being birthed and played out in real life. Time and time again in the book of Acts we see individuals and groups of people whom God’s Spirit descends on and changes them. People get saved, churches get planted, and the gospel spreads out all across the world like wildfire. So you guys pumped? I am!

Alright, that’s probably enough introduction. Let’s read the first five verses here in the first chapter of Acts, pray over them and work through some stuff together. (Read text and pray)

I. Jesus in the Gospel of Luke (vs.1-2)

Okay, so structurally there’s sort of three main parts to these verses. Verses 1-2 link the Book of Acts to the Gospel of Luke, which I’ll explain in a minute. Verse 3 is all about the resurrection of Jesus. And then verses 4-5 set the stage for the beginning of the story of Acts. These verses cover a ton of ground…the life, death, deeds, preaching, resurrection and ascension of Jesus plus the nature of the kingdom, installation of the apostles, and the coming of the Spirit…which if you put it all together is pretty much everything the Bible ever talks about. Each one of those things could be an entire sermon or sermon series in and of itself.

So I put together this outline to try and simplify some of it. These verses really do serve and function as a great introduction to the book. We’ll work through three main points and say a couple things about each one of them. First, “Jesus in the Gospel of Luke.”

The very first lines start out with, “In the first book.” So this tells us that Acts is the second volume of a two parted work. And what’s the topic? “All Jesus began to do and teach” and then verses two and three outline what he did and taught that was covered in the first book. Acts, then is the second volume of Jesus deeds and teaching, which he now does by His Spirit through his men rather than in person…which is why some have suggested the book should be called Acts of the Spirit rather than Acts of the Apostles. But book titles really were not as big of deal back then as they are today.

So maybe you’re wondering, if Acts is the second book, what’s the first book? Well, I kind of told you in the outline, it’s the Gospel of Luke. Here’s how you can tell. See where it says, “O Theophilus.” That’s a dedication, just like how many people will write books today and at the beginning of the book they dedicate it to someone. It doesn’t mean it’s for their eyes only but that this person especially inspired in the writing of the book.

There’s only one other place in the Bible where the name Theophilus shows up…and guess where it’s at? The beginning of the Gospel of Luke. So let me read you the first few lines of the Gospel of Luke and it would probably be good if you turned there and looked at ‘em with me. The book title, “The Gospel According to Luke” and then this is Luke 1:1-4, “1 Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us, 2 just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word have delivered them to us, 3 it seemed good to me also, having followed all things closely for some time past, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, 4 that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught.”

Now we won’t get into these verses a whole lot but they tell us that Luke and Acts are two books that go together and Luke is the author of them both. Theophilus is a real person, a name which means “dear to God” so it may have even been his Christian name he changed to like many did and he’s “most excellent” meaning he’s likely a prominent and well known Roman official.

Most of that’s irrelevant to the book of Acts as a whole, but I wanted to bring it up because there’s a couple things in these verses and the beginning verses in Acts which tell us some big things about the nature of the Bible and how its books are written. Many people today and perhaps you are one of them…want to know, how can you know the Bible is true? So let’s talk about “Books of the Bible & Divine Revelation.”

A. Books of the Bible & Divine Revelation

There’s a couple things from the beginning of Luke and what it says about how Luke went about writing both Luke and thereby also Acts. Verse 1 tells us he read and studied other documents written about Jesus. So that would definitely include the Gospel of Matthew, Mark and John. Verse 2 says he interviewed eyewitnesses and in Acts sometimes when he’s writing he’ll say “we” went here or there and did this or that…which means at least in Acts, Luke was at times an eyewitness himself. Then verse 4 tells us he was concerned for accuracy and truth…wanting “certainty.” Likewise in our Acts passage he is concerned about “proof.” Luke was a medical doctor in his day so he understood the importance of evidence and reason.

So that brings up a big question, is Luke writing history or theology? Is he writing about his own personal religious opinions or he more like a journalist attempting to accurately report facts? How can we trust that his books in the Bible are actually true? Because you can tell from even these first few verses he’s obviously persuaded and biased already. Right?

Here’s what I’d say. Besides the fact that it is impossible to not have any preconceived biases and be totally objective…simply because Luke may be convinced and even have a theological agenda, does not mean he is doesn’t have integrity and is tweaking facts to fit his opinions! He actually goes out of his way to say he’s not doing that. And if there actually is any merit, or truth to the whole God and Jesus thing…wouldn’t you expect it to actually be true, factual and fantastic?

It’s for that reason several have said Acts is like theo-history. It’s both a historical account and a theological account. It’s true, but make no mistake, the desire and intent of the story is that you too would come to faith in Christ and plant churches like so many people in the book do.

One more thing here. In Luke 1:3 he says, “it seemed to good to me” to write these books. Luke’s being modest here. The Apostle Peter and the Apostle Paul are more pointed and tells us that was actually the Holy Spirit directing and commanding him to write so that what he would write would be the word of God.

Here’s what they say. 1 Peter 1:20-21 says no Scripture “…comes from someone’s own interpretation…(not) produced by the will of man, but men spoke (or wrote) from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. Paul says in 2 Timothy 3:16 “All Scripture (the holy writings by men of God’s Word and works)…All Scripture is breathed (or Spirited) out by God.”

What this tells us is that books like Luke and Acts really have a second, bigger author instructing the human authors to write the books and then directs their words. It’s what we call “Divine Revelation.” Divine, God…revealing himself to us…making himself known. You see, it seems a lot of people want or even pray for revelation, for God to reveal himself. But we believe he already has, through words in a book. So you don’t want to pray for revelation because that’s asking God to have you write a book of the Bible.

Our task is to get to know our God by reading, studying and applying the revelation he has already given to us. So what you have to decide for yourself in our study of the Acts, today in this sermon and in your life during the week is whether or not this book really is God’s book. Because if it is then everything it says is much more significant and much more meaningful and will be much more life-changing then we ever dreamed.

Okay, let’s say goodbye to the beginning of Luke and get back to Acts. There’s one other thing here in the first verse I’ll make some short comments on…where it says ”all Jesus began to do and teach.” This is “Word & Deed: The Marks of the Gospel.”

B. Word & Deed: The Marks of the Gospel

There’s two ways this phrase is functioning. One is what we already talked about…that it’s providing a simply summary and reference to the entire life and ministry of Jesus covered in the first book, the Gospel of Luke. However, there is a second thing and that is the nature of word and deed in and of itself. Word and deed always go hand in hand.

When you read through any of the Gospel accounts…Matthew, Mark, Luke or John…what you consistently see Jesus doing is teaching and preaching and then healing people or feeding crowds or praying to the Father or some other thing. Word and deed. And that is also what we’ll consistently see throughout the book of Acts, Word going out accompanied by great deeds. The gospel is a message, a good news message and when it is embraced it is meant to have practical play outs in our lives. They go hand in hand. You can’t just do good deeds as a Christian, you’ve got to proclaim…and you can’t just proclaim, you need to live it out in front of others.

The Gospel is unique. You see some people or philosophers have these great ideas (like various forms of skepticism, atheism or relativism) but when it comes down to it they are completely unlivable. For example, you can say everyone has the right to their own opinions and beliefs but if I believe stealing is okay and I steal something from you it turns out that idea actually isn’t livable.

Other people seem to be very spiritual and can have a very committed and structured life but there is not a consistent or coherent belief system to support that way of life. For example, you can say like the eastern philosophies that we just need to become one with the world and nature and live a life of harmony and peace that way but I really can never even sit on a chair or on the ground if the chair and I are truly one or I could never eat anything because I would be eating a part of myself. So you may be able to live the life of an ascetic but you’ll never be able to explain it.

It’s actually a really good test to tell if something is actually true…if it’s both is consistent and livable. What is amazing about Jesus and the gospel is that it like no other religion or religious belief offers both a consistent coherent worldview and offers a life that is actually livable.

Those of us who have heard and embraced the gospel know this…we are regularly being changed and compelled to live out the implications of the gospel in deeper and wider ways. We are to hear the Word and then put it to work in action. As the book of James says, faith without works is dead. The go hand in hand.

If you just hear the Word but it’s not changing you then maybe you haven’t quite heard yet. I was having a conversation with someone in my community group this week who was telling me that they had a friend who said each time they came to church it seemed like it was the same message.

That’s true and it makes me proud because we’ve got nothing else to give but the gospel and every word of every page is all about Jesus. So though we come at it in different ways it always boils down to the same thing. The greatness of who Jesus is and what he has done…word and deed.

It reminded me of this old anonymously written poem about God’s word and the gospel that I sometimes recite. I may have quoted it to you once before but if so it’s been a while. It goes like this.

My pail I’m often dropping, deep down into this well
It never touched the bottom however deep it fell
And though I keep on dipping by study, faith and prayer
I have no power to measure the living water there

May God help us to be hearers and doers of his Word. Okay, so let’s move on and talk about “Jesus’ Resurrection (that) Changes Everything.”

II. Jesus’ Resurrection Changes Everything (vs.3)

Verse 3 assumes we know about Jesus’ crucifixion and death on the cross from the Gospel of Luke and then recounts Jesus resurrection adding in the note that he appeared several times for forty days and that these appearances were “proofs.”

If you read through the New Testament it records 10 distinct appearances. He appears to women at the tomb, to Mary Magdelene, to the two men on the road to Emmaus, to Peter in Jerusalem, to ten of the disciples when they’re in hiding, then later to to them again when Thomas is present…He appears to seven of them when they’re fishing and eats a meal with them, then later to all eleven in Galilee, then to over 500 people at one time there and then to his brother James. These are all separate independent accounts with over 500 witnesses…sometimes I wonder if it were today and we put Jesus’ resurrection on trial how many would have to testify before a jury could be convinced.

One thing that’s interesting in the book of Acts is that the preaching is saturated with talk about Jesus’ resurrection BUT nobody contests or argues about whether it really happened, instead the question what it actually means. Which actually really brings up the issue of “Proofs & Their Power.”

A. Proofs & Their Power

This word “proofs” here in verse three is a someone intriguing word. The Greek word behind it that gets translated as “proof” here is “tekmerion.” It’s in part where we get one the derivative English word “technical.” Tekmerion means something that is surely and plainly known, evidence or proof.

Thus the resurrection has been called the “crowing proof of Christianity.” It’s unique because no other single religion in the world says there is proof or evidence for it’s authenticity or truth. Every other religion places it’s test in one’s personal experience…in what you feel. Christianity is the only religion which says, whether you experience or not it’s true and actually happened. And it goes even further. 1 Corinthians 15:14 says if the resurrection of Jesus didn’t happen then Christianity isn’t true and everyone who believed it were fools.

Now here’s the rub. The proof is there. But the proof alone is not enough. A person just being presented with evidence and reasons for the truth of Christianity does not make them a Christian. Proofs are helpful and give us an external and objective claim and worldview…but that does not convert and change the heart. Proofs can only go so far. They lack something. And this verse points out what it is.

When Jesus was appearing after his resurrection and giving these proofs, what does it say he was doing? Look at it. Verse 3, what was Jesus doing when he showed himself? “Speaking about the kingdom of God.” Proofs without proclamation are incomplete! There must be a message explaining the meaning and implications of the proof. And it’s in through that message, in hearing it and embracing that God has chosen to regenerate hearts by his spirit. Romans 10:17 says faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.

And this is what ends up consuming the book of Acts. The announcement that Jesus came into the world, lived and died and rose again and then the message of what that means for our lives here and now.

So I want us to look at what this message is Jesus was speaking about, the kingdom of God. But before we do I want to ask you a question. If Jesus appeared before you, right in your bedroom at home or right here among us before our very eyes do you think we would then believe the message of the Gospel?

The end of Matthew’s gospel said that some didn’t…that even after seeing Jesus some still doubted the meaning and message of it (Mt 29:17). You see sometimes I think we think, oh if I could just see it then I would believe it. And I don’t know if you would? Because ultimately our lack of belief does not come from a lack of proof but from a hardness of heart.

So if you’re here today and you’re sort of on the fence about this whole thing, or if for you the amazement that Jesus rose from the dead has become old news and not good news to you anymore…I want to entreat you and beg you to have God soften and change your heart. I want to appeal to you just to, even if for a moment to consider the message. Hear the gospel out with fresh ears as if for the first time and allow it to pierce your heart.

We all need that. Each week when I prepare my sermons and when I preach my prayer is that God would pierce my heart anew with the gospel. So let’s look at and hear “The Message of the King.”

B. The Message of the King

When Jesus is about thirty years old and he begins his official ministry here on earth, the first thing he does is begin preaching and the very first words we have Jesus recorded saying in the Gospel of Mark are, “The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” Then if you read through any of the gospel accounts what you have Jesus consistently talking about over and over again is the kingdom of God. Then after he dies and rises and appears what is Jesus talking about? The kingdom of God.

From beginning to end, start to finish Jesus’ message is the kingdom of God. So then, what is the kingdom of God? Now that’s a huge question and there are a ton of books written just on that subject. There’s some radical and heretical ideas about it and then there are the more simple biblical answers. Part of the challenge in talking about the kingdom of God is sometimes Jesus says it already had arrived, sometimes he says it is now and then sometimes he says it’s in the future to come.

So without getting bogged down I’ll offer just a couple simple hand holds. One I think we have a hard time with the word kingdom because we don’t live in a kingdom. The idea and experience of living under a ruling king is completely foreign to us here in 21st century america. But when you see and hear the word kingdom, at it’s most basic and fundamental level it’s addressing the rule and reign of a king.

You don’t have a kingdom without a king. In world history what separates the kings is how much land and how many people they ruled over…how far their kingship extended. So when the Bible uses the phrase “kingdom of God” what do you think it’s getting at the most base level?

That God is the king! And how far do you think the rule and reign of God’s kingship extends? All of the heavens and the earth. He’s king over all! Throughout the Old and New Testaments of the Bible this is universally true. It is the most fundamental truth about the kingdom of God…so whenever you hear and see that phrase you can rightly understand and interpret it as the rule and reign of God.

Now let’s think a little deeper…second hand hold. Where does the rule and reign of God seem to not penetrate…but then through belief in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus begins to? In people’s hearts. People are bound by sin and Satan and Jesus the king comes into the world, inaugurating his rule…but he begins at the root of things by going after hearts. What is yet to come of the kingdom is Jesus physical rule of the land which will occur when he bodily returns with his army from heaven.

The message of the Gospel is rightly called the message of the kingdom. The good news is the announcement that Jesus lived, died and rose and therefore is rightly declared the King of kings and the Lord of lords (Rev 19:16).

The truth about our hearts is because we are born in sin, we want to be king and worship all kinds of other things and people as the king of our hearts. But when we hear the gospel, we are convicted of our false worship, pierced, we confess our sin and Jesus our King is a kind king who forgives us and paid the price for our treason on the cross so we might be welcomed into his fellowship. What king who when someone tries to overthrow him and take his seat on the throne, then says “wait, hold on, let me pay the death penalty price for your treason so you can be welcomed into my kingdom”? Who does that!

The message of the kingdom is that sin and Satan have been defeated on the cross and since then there is the in-breaking power of God’s kingdom spreading across hearts in the lands. And God’s kingdom is one of righteousness, love, mercy and peace. The things we all long for but can never find or create on our own.

Some of you today, may have never heard the gospel quite like this or maybe you have but you’re just really hearing it this time. Who is king in your life? You? Your boss, your job or your career? Your spouse, your kids or your friends? What rules you? Everyone has a king, the question is if Jesus is your king.

The truth is we’ve all worshipped false kings and attempted to ascend to the throne ourselves. But Jesus the true king died for us so we might be forgiven and transferred into a family, into a life where we love him and worship him who is the only worthy king of all.

Then for those who become his subjects he then gives us a mission. To spread the news of his kingship. But he does not send us out unequipped but promises and gives us his Spirit. So let’s look at our final point this morning, “Jesus Initiates the Ages of His Spirit.”

III. Jesus Initiates the Age of His Spirit (vs.4-5)

Let me just re-read these verses so we have them fresh in our head. Acts 1:4-5 “4 And while staying with them he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, “you heard from me; 5 for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”

Now, first off what we’re reading here is not just the beginning of a story or a little side note of some cool thing Jesus did in the middle of a bunch of other stuff. This is a huge transitional, epoch, age changing scene Jesus is speaking of.

God created the heavens and the earth and history began. Since then there have been different stages or periods of history. Historians have their own names like ancient age, Golden age, Medeival Age, Renaissance age, Baroque age, Enlightenment Age and so on. The Bible has it’s own ages. Theologians debate what they ought to be called, “dispensations” or “covenants.” I’m on the covenant side but it’s probably not as big of deal as just recognizing that in God scheme and plan of history…which the Bible says he planned out before he ever created anything…in his plan there are different ages or stages of history.

I won’t go through them all now but simply say, what Jesus is addressing here in verses 4-5 is the new age of the Holy Spirit. In the Old Testament the Holy Spirit temporarily come upon certain specific individuals for a limited time and purpose. But many of the prophets, like Joel, Ezekiel, Jeremiah and Isaiah spoke of time that God would send his Spirit and he would stay and be in all God’s people.

Prior to Jesus it had been years, like 500 years plus since there was any prophet or any activity of the Spirit whatsoever. Then at the beginning of Jesus ministry, he goes to the synagogue, stands up, and reads from Isaiah 61 saying “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me” and then sits down and says “this Scripture has now been fulfilled in your hearing (Lk 4:18,21).”

So stay with me. When Jesus starts his ministry, he says…Spirit’s back, and he’s in me. Actually when Jesus is born there is all kinds of Spirit activity, then throughout his ministry the Spirit is active at his baptism, in his preaching, prayers, death and then Romans 1:4 says he was declared with power to be the son of God by the Spirit in his resurrections from the dead. So Jesus has the Spirit of God.

Then Acts. He says things are going to change and that he is going to give his Spirit to all his people. Two quick things I want us to not about this. How Jesus is really “Preparing (them) For Battle” and who this Spirit as “The One From on High.”

A. Preparation For Battle

First, notice Jesus tone in these verses we’ve been looking at today. Back up in verse 2 says he was giving “commands through the Spirit.” Then here in verse 4, he “ordered them.” We’re seeing a Jesus here in full authority and charge over his men.

Next week we’ll look in further detail at the mission Jesus gives. For now we’ll just say he’s about to send them out into the world where Satan has been ruling and wreaking havoc in people hearts and lives. But before he sends them out and before he even equips them for this spiritual warfare, he has something he wants them to do…to wait.

Jesus says, don’t go yet. I want you to wait. I don’t know about you but for me waiting for anything is hard. For example, we got this Blu-ray player for Christmas but I didn’t have the right cables to hook it up. So I got online right away and ordered them and I was so impatient I started checking the mail that day and every few minutes the day after!

Maybe there are some of you who are super good at being patient, but not me. And it seems to me that most people are pretty impetuous. Due to our insecurities and our desires, we either want what we want now or we make fast decisions because we don’t like the uncomfortableness of not knowing what we’re going to actually be doing or where we will be going.

We talked about this a bit last week how we can have a big vision and plans but unless we’re in step with God and his timing then they will all be for not. Psalm 46:10 says to “Be still and know that I am God.” And I think that there is something God would have us to teach about the importance of waiting on him. Sometimes it seems to me like a lost discipline. To really wait, and pray and be quiet in the presence of the Lord.

Now I know that is sort of a side note from our story in Acts but I thought it was important to draw out because I think there are some of you going through some things in life right now, things you’re looking at or considering and you just need to slow down and wait on the Lord a bit. Don’t run ahead of him. Wait.

Well, let’s look at this final thing of what Jesus was wanting the disciples to wait for and what by extension he has promised and given to us, “The One From On High.”

B. The One From On High

So Jesus says after a period of them waitingthe promise of the Father would come and they would be baptized by the Spirit. Now we could get bogged down really easy here with theological questions about whether or not the disciples were regenerate before the Spirit and what is the baptism of the Spirit and what about tongues and gifts of the Spirit and all that stuff. But we’re not going to get into any of that today. We got a lot of weeks coming up where we’ll get to talk about all that stuff.

What I mainly want to do here is focus on “the promise of the Father.” Jesus here in verse 5 cites himself prophesying the the Spirit’s coming and I think what would be most helpful for us is to hear more about that because there are number of places the Bible talks about this age changing empowerment of the Spirit. So just listen to these few passages.

Joel 2:28-29 “And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh…sons and daughters…old…young…male…female.” So Joel says a day would come when all God’s people will get the Spirit.

Isaiah 44:3 “I will pour my Spirit upon your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants.” So Isaiah says God’s Spirit will pass through family members who are of the faith.

John 14:16-17&26 “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth…for he dwells with you and will be in you…the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.” So Jesus says the Spirit will help us, be in us, glorify Jesus’ name and teach us and remind us of all the things Jesus said.

John 16:8 “When he comes, he (the Holy Spirit) will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment.” So Jesus says the Spirit will cause guilt and remorse in our hearts when we break and violate the commandments of God.

Ephesians 1:13-14 says the “promised Spirit” is the “guarantee of our inheritance” so he gives us assurance that we will be saved and be in heaven with Jesus.

Romans 5:5 says God’s love gets “poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit.”

Romans 8:15 says the Spirit enables us to be intimate with God in prayer calling him “abba Father.”

Galatians 5:22 says the Spirit produces love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness in us.

And in Luke 24:49 Jesus says, “I am sending the promise of my Father upon you”….and when he came his people would be “clothed with power from on high.”

I know I just threw a ton of Scripture at you but I wanted you to get a feel for how great the Spirit of God is that Jesus has promised to us. There’s two common misconceptions I think we have when it comes to the Holy Spirit. There’s probably more but these are the ones on my mind today.

Since the we are in the age of the Spirit and the Spirit has been at work in God’s people for nearly two-thousand years now, I think His work too easily become too common to us and we forget what a great and awesome benefit this promise of the Father given to us through Jesus is. That all believers get the Spirit! Even our children! That he teaches us and reminds us of Jesus! That he convicts us of sin! That he makes us loving! That enables us to be close with God. That he gives us joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness and faithfulness! And that he empowers us to live for God and spread the gospel! The gift of God’s Spirit is a massive gift!

The other misconception I think sometimes hinders us from delighting in the great gift of God’s Spirit is because some branches of Christianity have seemingly reduced the work of the Spirit to supernatural things like tongues and miracles. And those things tend to either excite people or freak people out…and both responses really are just sensationalism and should not deter us from glorying in all the marvelous benefits that come from having the Spirit of God at work in our lives.

The Holy Spirit is God, given by the Father and the Son from on High! That is incredible! What a promise! What a gift!

1 Corinthians 10:13 says all people who believe in Jesus have the Spirit, so if you’re a Christian you’ve got God’s Spirit. Yet, I think some of us today need a fresh realization of how wonderful that is. The age of the Spirit was initiated by Jesus but I don’t think that entirely eliminates our need to still have some of the same sentiment Jesus commanded the disciples to have when he said to wait for the Spirit.

I think it’s entirely appropriate for us to wait on God and ask God’s Spirit to changes us and fill us and empower us and to bring to fruition all the promises of God given to us through faith in Jesus Christ our Lord. We’ll see people doing that time and time again in the book of Acts. So today as we respond, ask God for more of his Spirit to be at work in your life.

Conclusion

We’re going to conclude and receive the Lord’s Supper. As John 14:26 says, one of the Spirit’s chief jobs is to glorify the name of Jesus. When we receive the Lord’s Supper each week that’s what we do. We pronounce the name of Jesus…that there is no name given under heaven whereby men can be saved. That Jesus and Jesus alone died for sin and rose again and is king and Lord.

So as you come today respond to the preaching of the Gospel this morning. We’ve hit a lot of stuff. These verses cover a ton…something for everyone. If there is an area you sense God’s Spirit working on in you, pay attention to that and bring it to the table this morning and talk to God about it.

Blog | Pastor Duane

Most statistical studies report that anywhere from 75-95% of people regularly “pray.” Yet prayer in this sense is pretty broad. Nothing is said of who people are praying to, what they are praying for, why or their methods of prayer. In fact, few have thought deeply about prayer.

In Luke 11 the story is told of Jesus’ disciples who were listening to Jesus pray. After he finished they realized that they really had never understood prayer. Something about the way Jesus communicated to God the Father struck them and they realized what they had assumed counted as “prayer” had very little semblance to the real thing. Thus, when he finished they said to Jesus “Lord, teach us to pray (Lk 11:1).” In response, Jesus gave them the now famous “Lord’s Prayer” not necessarily meant to be a mimic-ed mantra but to teach the heart, attitude and reasons for prayer.

The Why of Prayer

Here are some good quotes on prayer by Godly theologians and pastors of old who have gone before us. They help to answer questions like why we pray if God already knows and ordains everything and how God intends to use prayer as a means to accomplish his purposes.

“God has decreed that certain events shall come to pass, but He has also decreed that these events shall come to pass through the means He has appointed for their accomplishment. Prayer is not intended to change God’s purpose, nor is it to move Him to form fresh purposes…the design of prayer is that God’s will be accomplished in a good time and way.”
~ A.W. Pink

“Prayer is not designed to inform God, but to give man a sight of his misery; to humble his heart, to excite his desire, to inflame his faith, to animate his hope, to raise his soul from earth to heaven.”
~ Adam Clarke

“Prayer is not merely expressing our present desires. Its purpose is to exercise and train our desires, so that we want what he is getting ready to give us. His gift is very great, and we are small vessels for receiving it. So prayer involves widening our hearts to God.”
~ St. Augustine

“There is no way that Christians, in a private capacity, can do so much to promote the work of God and advance the Kingdom of Christ as by prayer…When God has something very great to accomplish for his church it is his will that prayer should precede it, the extraordinary prayers of his people. When God is about to accomplish great things for his church, he begins with a remarkable outpouring of his spirit of grace and a desire to pray.”
~ Jonathan Edwards

The What of Prayer

Perhaps the best way to learn what God expects of prayer is to study the prayers in the Bible. Many are recorded. In my own personal prayer life and when I pray for others, often my words are stolen right out of the pages of Scripture.

Moses | Ex 15:1-2 & Ex 33:12-13
Hannah | 1 Sam 2:1-2,5,10
Hezekiah | 2 Kings 19:15-19
Nehemiah | Neh 1:5-11
Job | Job 1:21
David | 2 Sam 22:1-3 & Ps 27 & Ps 42:1-4 & Ps 63 & Ps 139
Solomon | 1 Kings 8:27-30
Jeremiah | Jer 3:23-25
Daniel | Dan 9:4-19
Habbakkuk | Hab 1:2-4; 3:2
Mary | Luke 1:46-55
Jesus | Matt 6:9-13 & Lk 22:42 & Jn 17:1-26
The Early Church | Acts 4:23-30
Stephen | Acts 7:39-60
Paul | Romans 11:33-36; 15:13; & 2 Cor 1:3-4 & Eph 1:3-4; 17-21 & 1 Thess 5:23
Jude | Jd 1:24-25
John | Rev 1:5b-7

The How of Prayer

When it comes to the how of prayer, there are many means through which God has made the exercise of prayer possible. There are several different kinds of prayers and ways of praying.

Us to God
(1) Simple prayers – Short, sweet and to the point. Sometimes repeated and called “breath prayers.”
(2) Suffering prayers – Verbalizing physical or emotional pain to God.
(3) Searching prayers – Seeking wisdom or counsel regarding something or someone.
(4) Releasing prayer – Confessing sin and/or offering up one’s self in surrender to God.
(5) Building prayers – Asking God for spiritual growth and fruit.
(6) Covenanting prayers – Committing to God and promising obedience.
(7) Declarative prayers – Reciting and recounting the attributes and promises of God.
(8) Thanking prayers – Expressing gratitude to God for his great works.

God to Us
(1) Resting – Waiting on God and being still before him.
(2) Unceasing – Jesus is ever interceding at the throne on our behalf.
(3) Meditating – God filling our minds with his word (not emptying like eastern forms of meditation).

Us for Others
(1) Family – For immeditate family members and then extended relatives.
(2) Friends – Those in our inner circle of relationship.
(3) Church – The brothers and sisters in Christ we are living life with.
(4) Needy – The financially, physically, spiritually, or emotionally downtrodden.
(5) Lost – Those who are not yet Christians.
(6) Authorities – Pastors and political leaders of the land.

The Five Senses of Prayer
(1) Mouth – Out loud with words, closed mouth with silent prayers from your mind, or tongues.
(2) Ears – Tuning out sounds of the world to focus on the Word of God.
(3) Eyes – Open to see the realities of God’s creation, closed to be freed from distractions, or tears.
(4) Feel – Various postures: kneeling, prostrate, open/closed/joined hands, head bowed or looking up.
(5) Nose – Calmed breathing or focus on the design of God’s world.

Blog | John Bale

When T.S. Eliot (finally) converted in 1929, it was a cultural scandal of monumental proportions. This was the equivalent of Steve Jobs coming to Christ and declaring that the iPhone is “really not that big of a deal…” This was David Foster Wallace getting baptized and finishing The Pale King instead of hanging himself. Nobody wanted to, and few were even capable of believing that Eliot had become a Christian. He was the Judas Iscariot of the Lost Generation.

To this day there are doubters who resist the authenticity of his faith because it was often “inglorious” in its earnest betrayal. They argue that, because Eliot’s late work didn’t rehash the pageantry Christmas carols or the somber religion of Easter hymns- because his conversion didn’t turn a 40-year-old man into a saint overnight, it didn’t count.

They fail to recognize that T.S. Eliot wrote about Jesus in January. He concedes December and April to The Lord and His Apostles, because “it [was already] finished.” His work addresses a life of crisis in between the holidays- where Christians are still human and Christ is still honest; we struggle, we suffer, and we sin, but yet we are saved.

The need for Jesus in January has been made clear to me in a particular Eliot poem that I have been rereading this past Advent season. In it we see how he struggles with the mystery of Christmas in times when the Cross is hard to see through all the snow storms (or fog, in San Diego) that come when winter hits mid-stride. The poem is called “The Journey of the Magi,” and if interested you can read the full text [here].

The poem recounts the story of the Magi/Three Wise Men/Three Kings of Orient as reported in Matthew 2:1-12, but from the perspective of a reminiscing magi. It is now somewhere around 30 years after the Nativity (Hint! Hint!), and the curmudgeony old man tells the story more like a rambling drunk at last call than a wizened Eastern astrologer. He goes on for several lines about the misery of their task, all the folly, and pretty much skips the Nativity itself. Been there- Done that. “Finding the place,” he says, “it was (you may say) satisfactory.”

Then, these hauntingly insightful lines make the text worth reading:

Were we led all that way for
Birth or Death? There was Birth, certainly,
We had evidence and no doubt. I had seen birth and death,
But had thought they were different; this Birth was
Hard and bitter agony for us, like Death, our death.
We returned to our places, these Kingdoms,
But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation,
With alien people clutching their gods.
I should be glad of another death.

This is the confession of a man who had spent his entire life figuring out the Universe. He traveled to the opposite end of the known world in search of something New, and found it. But, as we see, he spends the rest of his days unable to figure out exactly what he’d seen.
The paradoxical problem is this: How can something so “simple” as an infant’s birth unravel the connecting relationship between Life and Death (life and death)?

Throughout the whole journey, this man who was a master of asking questions and finding answers, had been asking himself, “What will we see?” When he gets there, he sees something, and it is “satisfactory” as an answer to the simple question, but confounding in the sense that it was an Answer to questions he hadn’t asked. We have to remember that the magi were not looking for Jesus. Historians think that they were Zoroastrian astrologers. They were following a star. It’s what they did. They came upon Birth by accident, following a light through the darkness like a baby out of a womb. Christ, appearing as a lamb, ambushed them like a tiger.

Faced with the prospect of having an Answer to a Question that they didn’t know to ask was stifling, and in Eliot’s interpretation, made wise men feel like fools.

But this is a core tenant of The Gospel: Christ was born into the Earth because all of our work to justify ourselves and glorify God, to have the right answers to the right questions, is all folly. We define ourselves by the things we have done, and seen, and said- but all of this is covered up by the Nativity. An infant can’t do a whole lot more than sit there and “live,” but something about this infant’s Living casts a shadow upon the sum total of human efforts. Our journey through life no matter how arduous, counts for nothing in light of the fact that Christ was born, died, and lived.

Nobody wants to be told that their life’s work counts for nothing. But eventually every person must come to terms with the fact that it might actually be true. This is murder to our Pride. For us, the magi, and T.S. Eliot, the Birth of a Christ who comes without asking for our permission, consent, or agreement awakens us to our inadequacy. And our frailty feels like death.

But it’s even worse than that. The conviction that awakening brings on existential crisis. If a simple birth, no matter how momentous a Birth, discounts all human effort, what toil have we left while living? What are we supposed to do with ourselves? The last line of the poem suggests an impotent kind of nihilism; having been properly confused by the fact that a Birth has made him feel the bitter agony of his own mortality, the magi is unsure what it means to Live, or if he has ever done such a thing.

So he longs for death. But that answer doesn’t stand up to next to the Answer. He can’t find peace because he has started to understand that living and dying (Living and Dying?)- his very existence is outside of his control.

So then the Question is “How do we Live?” and this brings us/Eliot/the magi back to Christ once more: The irresistible glory of the Gospel narrative, from Nativity to Resurrection, is that Christ submitted himself to the two things that a man cannot resist: birth and death. We cannot choose to be born and we cannot chose not to die. Christ, by the power of His Father took salvation out of the hands of man using the same means by which Existence imposes itself upon our souls.

For Eliot, spiritual and existential crises become one and the same- an encounter with Christ’s Birth makes him realize that he had never lived. Yet, there is a hope that lies below the surface when a geriatric magi contemplates the “glad[ness] of another death.” That “other death,” the Death of Christ on the Cross, is subtly foreshadowed in the poem:

Then at dawn we came down to a temperate valley,
Wet, below the snow line, smelling of vegetation;
With a running stream and a water mill beating the darkness,
And three trees on the low sky,
And an old white horse galloped away in the meadow.

Life- literal living creatures surround an image of the Crucifixion. This is how T.S. Eliot (begrudgingly) defers to the sovereignty of God’s saving Grace. He admits to himself that in Christ’s Birth, his own death is sealed. Yet he looks forward to the other half of the most perfect couplet- a knowledge that in Christ’s Death, his own Birth is assured.

Eliot’s conversion, the realization of his Birth, was a long and gradual Journey. But it had integrity. He was a Prophet among prophets in “those Kingdoms… in the old dispensation, with an alien people clutching their gods.” He had a lot to lose in gaining Christ, but once he did, he couldn’t go back. He had resisted Grace before his Baptism, and he struggled with it well afterwards, obsessively and anxiously “working out his salvation with fear and trembling” (and a deadly amount of nicotine.)

Two truths ring true in “Journey’s” Life and Death struggle: Not only does Eliot recognize that, because Christ was born, all his life’s work is meaningless, but also that, because Christ died, all His work in our lives’ has meaning, whether we accept it, or not. A constant refrain in his later work is a prayer for stillness, which is a good prayer because it concedes to the passive nature of man’s role in his own salvation.

In the stillness that comes when we are too tired to resist, those of us who are assured of our salvation can see that all of our sins, doubts, and failures are already conquered- accounted for within the scope of Invincible Grace. We can resist it only so far as the Sunset Cliffs resist the Pacific Ocean; every granular mite of rebellion, over time, and with all measure of certainty, is sculpted into a lasting monument to the sovereignty of the sea. T.S. Eliot’s life and work are baptized in the wake of this Grace.

Eliot binds his moment of crisis to a time that is two thousand years removed, though slightly before the scandalous climax of The Gospel, in order to remind himself that all of his sinful wanderings are nothing more than ancient history. While living in a constant fear of a meaningless moment, he mortifies his doubt by fixing upon one glorious moment that, for him, can never be in doubt. Jesus happened. End of story.

It’s not the kind of miraculous conversion story we all love, but this tale is also worth telling. It still demonstrates the transcendent Hope and Peace, and perhaps even more so, the Glory in The Gospel. Furthermore, it is earnest in its confession, humble in its spirit, and thankGodfully true. Even in January.

This is a New Year’s message given by Pastor Duane Smets that looks back at 2011 and forward towards 2012, with a brief exegetical reading of God’s Word as the central and foundation link between the now, not now, and the not yet. The sermon was originally preached on January 8th, 2012 at The Resolved Church in San Diego, CA.

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The Resolved Church
Pastor Duane Smets
January 1st, 2012

The Resolved in 2012  |  1 Corinthians 15:58  |  Pastor Duane Smets

I.       A Review of Two-Thousand-Eleven
II.     Abounding in the Work of Jesus
III.    Vision For Two-Thousand-Twelve

Introduction

Well, today is my annual New Years address.  One of the things we’ve learned as a church over the years is that since there are so few native San Diegans who own houses or have families here that when it comes to Christmas and New Years the majority of people tend to be out of town.  So we’ve found that it’s better to give a New Years sermon looking at the upcoming year in the life of the church the second week of January rather than the first.

Last Sunday we spent some time considering what God did in each of our lives personally in the last year and then processed how we need to grow in this up and coming year.  Basically that’s what I want to do today for as a whole, as the church.  So last week was personal individual lives, this week is group church life.

It’s been a phenomenal year for us as a church.  We accomplished so much and God did so much among us.  One of the chief philosophies of ministry we have as a church is that Jesus is the head pastor and our job is to try and sense what he is doing and then get on board with that.  And it seems, by God’s grace, that he enabled us to do just that abundantly, as we’ve seen more happen than we could ever manufacture or do in our own wisdom and power.

When we look at this next year coming up, the these are not things we want to fix or change but to continue in and to do with increased passion, growth and success.  So I thought a fitting foundational verse for our time for today and for this year would be 1 Corinthians 15:58.  Let me go ahead and read it and pray to ask for God’s grace in this sermon.

My plan is to spend some time reviewing 2011 and what God did, then look at 1 Corinthians 15:58 as the sort of grounding place for our 2012 vision.

A Review of Two-Thousand-Eleven

So two-thousand-eleven.  It’s been a huge year for us as a church.  Last year this time we kicked off the new year by doing what we called a “Practical Ecclesiology” sermon series where looked at seven different areas that are key to the life and development of a church.  We looked at community, worship, ministry, marriage, family, finances and mission in the Bible and then did an interview each week with a different person in the church living out a godly example of what that week’s topic.  As we set out to accomplish the vision of that series the cool thing is we have seen health and growth in every one of those areas this last year.

Community…not only has our sense and experience of being a church who lives in community grown deeper but we also added three new community groups, which means we now have 8.  In addition we had two different rounds of women’s discipleship, one with Kathy Broersma and another inspired by the girls of the Normal Heights Community Group.  The guys, not to be outdone started up a men’s discipleship breakfast led by Pastor James Martin and did a men’s retreat as well.  Through these mid-week groups we not only have really had the opportunity to get to know one another but they really have proved to be the place where we get to help and support each other in applying the gospel to our daily lives as we walk through the ups and downs of the year together.

Worship…we’ve had several new musicians join, we now have 10 different people serving in the music worship ministry and 5 dudes serving alongside managing the audio and visual support and we were also able to update and expand our sound gear.  By these gifted people working together they’ve enabled us to have some sweet times of singing praise to our God.  Through worship in song we are built up in the Lord and God uses it to fill, sanctify and empower us toward living lives of worship.

Ministry…we talked about how if you’re a Christian God has called you to be a minister and to use your gifts to serve him and his people and this year we have seen so many people get out of the stand and jump into the game and it’s been awesome to see it.

Dan Calvert, one of our deacons, tells me there are now nearly 20 people serving in building transformation ministry, where a different group of people show up early each Sunday and transform this building into a place suited for a worship service.

This last year God put it on the heart of members Jenna Baffoni and Rachel Standart to start a hospitality ministry where each Sunday every person who comes here gets lovingly welcomed in with coffee, a smile and a bulletin.  13 people currently rotate and serve in the hospitality ministry.  There are several people part of the church now who in talking to them about how they ended up here having Resolved become their church home one of the first things they’ve said is, “everyone was so friendly and welcoming.”

On Monday nights we have continued to feed the homeless in the Sports Arena area.  Each week between 15-25 guys show up and this last year John Bale, one of our other deacons started up a Bible study after the feeding where several of the men there have been hearing and learning about Jesus going through the Gospel of John in a community group setting literally in the alley.

This last year we’ve Sean Hutchinson, our music worship leader has continued to lead the charge with LampPost Cafe, our music and coffee house venue meant to be a missional bridge between the city and the church.  We had bands come through, movie nights and all kinds of people come that are not quite ready to come to a church service.

This Christmas Jennifer Agajanian and Eve Tolentino put together the “Resolved To Love” project where we gave 160 wrapped presents away to families who couldn’t afford them, 53 kids in all.  When we delivered the gifts we gave the families cupcakes, Bibles and actually ended up praying with several of them.  Everyone did such an incredible job contributing and carrying it out so that these families would get to experience a tangible expression of the gospel.

In family ministry this last year we went from having just a nursery to adding a 3-5 year old class and a 6-9 year old class.  But more important than just adding classes and more important than just childcare, family ministry has been a prime place to interact with children, teaching them about Jesus and through coming more and more to understand the mind and heart of God who said, “Let the little children come to me (Mt 19:14).”  Currently we now have 28 people serving in family ministry.

It’s simply been a massive year of ministry as we have learned together what it is like to truly be a royal priesthood…priest and priestesses working and serving Jesus and his people.  There’s not words to describe how great that is.

In last year’s “Practical Ecclesiology” series which served as our vision for the year we also took a week to look at marriage in the Bible and discuss the importance and design of God for marriages.  I guess you guys listened because I ended up officiating 9 weddings last year and Pastor James did one as well.  I think I can do wedding in my sleep now!

We also took a week on family last year and similar to all of you who listened about getting married it seems you listened about making a family because this church has turned into a baby factory.  We had 4 babies born among us this last year, including on of my own and I think there are like 8 of you pregnant right now.  I love it.  That’s something the Mormon’s have got right.  God is into families.

The other two things we took a week on in casting vision last year were finances and mission.  We give financially because God is the one who really owns all the money, he has given so much to us and it’s how he’s designed his church to function.  We’ve called you to faithfully and generously give.  Some of you excelled in this.  For others it’s been a learning experience.  And through it all God has blessed us as a church.

We started out the year with a $9,000 a month budget.  As the year went on our expenses increased with things like rent and bulletins and equipment but so has your giving so that could pay our staff better and also beginning this month we’ve been enabled to bring on Deacon Dan Calvert part-time as we’ve discussed at our church member meeting.  Our prayer is this will help the church both progress and be well cared for.  So our new monthly budget this year is just about $12,000 a month.  That’s some good financial growth which we recognize as God’s blessing upon us.

Regarding mission one of the great things to see is that the majority of people who end up here at our church, do so because they knew someone or were invited by a friend.  That’s a result of you living your life on mission.  We had a total of six first time conversions this last year, we baptized four people last Easter, and we had a bunch of people, like 14-15 who’ve said this year that they really came to understand the gospel for the first time…and in my book those count as conversions too.

You don’t realize it when you’re in the middle of it but I could not believe it when I sat down to prepare this sermon and was thinking about all that has happened this year.  We set out from the beginning of the year casting a vision for community, worship, ministry, marriage, family, finances and mission…and we have excelled above and beyond!

And that’s not all we’re able to do.  On Easter we had our Sunday largest gathering ever at the time, with almost every chair we had filled.  Then after Easter we kept growing even more to the point there was standing room only in here so we made the decision to move to two service in September.  In August we put on our first conference, “Leaders: The Conference” in August and had a great turn out.  We added our third Pastor, James Martin and two more deacons, Errin Samuelz and John Bale.  We had nearly 60 people go through our Theo 101, eight week membership class and had 32 of them become actual official committed members.  We’ve gone from four dudes in leadership development to nearly thirteen and counting.

In our study of God’s Word together on Sunday mornings we worked through all of the book of Jonah, the book of Titus and Hebrews chapter 11.  Learning from what God has given us in the Bible has been the backbone and strength of our church.  Another one of our main ministry philosophies here at The Resolved is that it’s God’s Word which does God’s work. We stand on his Word and this might sound kind of funny but it has just been “fun” as we have learned more about our God and seen how all that he has revealed about himself culminates and climaxes in Jesus.  We love the Bible and it really is one of the deepest joys and pleasures of my life to serve you weekly by proclaiming it’s message.

And that’s 2011 and The Resolved.  A ton of stuff huh?  It’s seriously crazy to think about all the stuff we’ve done and accomplished this last year.  I think it’s clear evidence that Jesus, our head pastor and been plunging forward and empowering us because there is no way we could have done even half that stuff without him.

So then, when we start thinking about 2012 after this year where does it put us?  My immediate reaction is, “Let’s do it again and go even bigger!”  More community life together, more community groups, more worship, more ministries, more people serving, more marriages, more babies, more family ministry, more generous giving, more people coming to know Jesus, more baptisms, more leaders, more members and more of God’s Word!

One of the things about me if you haven’t seen it or figured it out yet is that I’m as my wife says, “an extremist.”  To me if you’re not going to do something with all your heart and all your might it’s not worth doing.  So when I do something I wanna go all out!

As far as leading our church in a 2012 vision I think that’s good…because I think it would be easy to look at all we accomplished last year and pat ourselves on the back and say, “Wow!  Aren’t we great!  That’s so cool, what we did.”  And then just coast.  I mean our church has solid leadership, solid community groups, solid finances…we could easily just move into maintenance mode and stay the same church for the next ten years.

But not only would that be just sad and complacent but honestly, I think it would be unbiblical.  So let’s take a few minutes and get into the Bible and look at 1 Corinthians 15:58 and what it means to always be “Abounding in the Work of Jesus.”

Abounding in the Work of Jesus

Our verse for this morning is 1 Corinthians 15:58, so open up your Bibles and lets look at it together.  The book of 1 Corinthians was the first of two letters written by the Apostle Paul to the church in Corinth, who though having a number of problems which he addresses in the letter, also had some very good things going on.  At the beginning of the letter he says he gives thanks to God because “in every way (they) were enriched in (Christ Jesus) in all speech and all knowledge” and that there was great testimony of Christ among them (1 Cor 1:5-6.).

The verse we’re taking a brief look at today comes toward the end of the book after one of the most magnificent passages in all the Bible in how it declares the truth and benefits of Jesus rising from the dead.  So the tenor or the mood in which this verse comes is very exuberant, proclaiming the great work and victory of God.  Verse 57 ends, “Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Then comes verse 58 with the word, “therefore.”  Therefore, because God has defeated sin, death and hell through the victorious resurrection of Jesus Christ…therefore, “my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.”

Just a few things about this verse.  First notice where he addresses them both in the plural and as the “beloved.”  What this hints at is the unity and love of the church all together.  And by the way, brothers here actually includes the women as well…some of your Bibles might even have a footnote pointing that out.

The “beloved” here are the group of people who call themselves brothers and sisters not because of blood lines but because they have been adopted into the family of God through Jesus and now exist as one loving family…the church.  So you, the beloved, the church, all together…and then he gives a charge and a reason for that charge.

Be steadfast…don’t give up, don’t stop, don’t slow down.  Immovable…unflinching, undeterred, undistracted.  Steadfast and immovable in what?  The work of the Lord.  And not just maintaing the work but increasing in it.  Abounding!

Abounding!  Never giving up but always serving Jesus with increasing passion, growth, commitment and courage.  And what is the work of the Lord?  Very simple.  It is the gospel.  1 Corinthians 15:1 at the beginning of the chapter says I remind you “of the gospel I preached to you, which you received in which you stand and by which you are being saved…that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day.”

The work of the Lord is the proclamation and application of the gospel in our own lives, in each other’s lives and in the lives of those who are not yet Christians.  This really is the whole theme and heart of this book, 1 Corinthians.  The beginning of the book starts out the same way…saying that everything is about the testimony of Jesus, 1Corinthians 1:6…and resolving to know and understand nothing else except Jesus Christ and him crucified, 1 Corinthians 2:2.

This is one of the reasons we call ourselves a “gospel-centered church.”  Because it is our resolve to alway and ever abound in the proclamation and application of the gospel.  Everything we are and everything we do flows out of the gospel.  It’s all about Jesus…who he is and what he has done for us in his death and resurrection!

Now here’s the thing.  You can abound in a lot of things.  You can abound in your job or your business, your status…you can abound financially, you can abound in your possessions, you can abound in expanding of your family, you can abound in all kinds of things but if abounding in those things are your goal…you will find that your labor was all in vain.

There is only one thing we can truly work for and seek to abound in which will satisfy and actually last…and that’s the work of the Lord.  I love the phrase, “doing something that counts for eternity.”  I think John Piper was the one who said…but he probably stole it from someone else.

Doing something that counts for eternity…how do you do that?  Look at this verse.  If it’s done “in the Lord.”  That means if you’re doing it for him and because of him…then your labor will not be in vain.  Because guess what?  Most people’s labor…will end up being in vain.  All they work for, all they give their lives to, all they pursue…if ultimately it’s not Jesus it will all end up being for nothing!

The only that matters is living life for Jesus!  Coming to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his suffering.  And this is what we are to abound in and work together for as his beloved…his beloved church, his bride whom loved and gave himself up for.

So I wanted to spend some time with this verse because I couldn’t think of a more fitting way to respond to what God has done in and among us this last year.  The gospel was proclaimed and we saw it lived out and applied among us in so many stunning ways.  So what’s the answer for us this next year?

Slow down?  Relax a little?  Take it easy?  Maintain the ministry?  NO!  Fie on that hell!  Let’s abound!  Let’s double everything.  Let’s do more.  Reach more people.  Bring our God more glory!  Let’s abound in the work of the Lord because it’s a work worth doing.

This is the incredible thing about the church…that what we are doing here together is not foolish or in vain but actually matters and contributes to the great working of God in our world unto the day when he returns.  And then we will see…oh we’ll see the full grandeur and glory of what we have been giving our lives to…guess not preaching for a month got me really bottled up. 

So with that…let’s talk about two-thousand and twelve and how we want to abound as a church.

Vision for Two-Thousand-Twelve

At the top of my wish list for two-thousand-twelve is more people coming to Jesus.  More conversions & more baptisms.  Probably two of the most exciting things in life are births and new births.  When a baby is born and when someone is born again in Christ.

To accomplish that means we need to abound in our mission…mission in our neighborhoods, mission with our friends, mission through our community groups, mission here on Sunday.  We constantly have to work at being outward focus because it’s so easy to start turning inward and when that happens you end up with an ingrown church that eventually dies.  My prayer is that this year God would give the people of The Resolved an increased boldness in our witness.  My prayer is that this would be the year that a lot of fruit might come through the relationships many of you have been investing in missionally.  My prayer is that our confidence would grow in believing that the gospel really is the power of God unto salvation.

Second is growing in our love for one another.  I think the first four years of our church the title of my New Year’s sermon was always, “Resolved to Grow and Build in Love.”  In Ephesians chapter four the method for church growth is laid out super clear.  As we bond and work together as a body to grow up into Jesus the church is built in love.  As we grow upward in our love for Jesus we will grow outward in those who come and experience God’s love among us.  As we grow upward we grow outward.

The chief way that is experienced is through relationships.  You can, very easily, make church just a Sunday morning attendance thing and never actually develop any deep relationships with anyone.  Don’t do that.  Get in community.  The whole reason we have community groups is to try and facilitate living the life of Christ’s love together.  So for the goal of community we want to add a bunch more community groups this year.  I know of at least two more in the works already…in a year’s time I’d like to see us double the number of community groups we have.  We’ve got 8.  If every one of those community groups planted another group this year…that’d be 16.  Let’s abound!

In addition to help foster community and our relationships with one another, we’ve already been talking about doing some retreats this year…a men’s retreat, a women’s retreat and maybe even a family retreat.  The next book we’ll be studying as a church is the book of Acts and it’s my prayer that as we preach through it we will be strengthened as a church community and compelled toward mission like never before.

Third for this year our is in regards to our Sunday morning worship service as a whole.  We moved to two service this last year and it’s my prayer that in these next couple months we’d completely pack out both services consistently.  We came close to it a few weeks this last fall.  In lieu of that happening, expecting it will…one of the things I’m seriously praying for this year is a new building.  Not only so more people can come and worship and hear the Word being taught but in case some of you haven’t thought about it…we’ve created a real problem for ourselves in making all these babies and seeing the family ministry grow…there’s no more space.  We’ve pretty much taken over the building here and there are some weeks back in the kids classroom that it is pretty nuts.  So please, pray that God would provide us a building.  We want to stay right here in Bay Park near the I-8 and I-5 interchange.  Pray for a new building here.

Fourth, we want a plant a church.  We’re super excited about Pastor Chris Swan and his family being here with us.  Many of you met Chris when he preached here during advent.  Chris pastored was one of the first few Acts 29 church up in Washington, has been with Mars Hill the last year and just moved his whole family down here to San Diego to start up a brand new plant in God’s timing.  As you get to know and trust him, we’d love to be able to send him out as a Resolved church plant.

A couple other things include ramping up our leadership development.  As we’re growing our need for more leaders is growing…so we’re going to try and rope as many of you into that as possible and provide a couple different tracks to do that and do another leadership conference.  I met with Sean, this week and this year he’s looking to raise up and develop multiple different leaders and bands as well as putting out our first Resolved Church worship CD.  We actually want to ramp up a bunch of things production-wise.

Errin Samuelz, our AV deacon is working on a smart phone app for the church.  One of our other deacons John Bale is working on putting together all the stuff from our Jonah series to be published in  book form along that would come with an audio CD of all the sermons.  We want to start doing video and having various interviews and testimonies we can use and spread around.   All of these things we pray will help propel the mission of the church.

And those are just the things we’re planning and hoping to do!  That doesn’t even include the things we don’t know about yet that God may put on your heart to do this year…ministries that haven’t even be thought of or started.  There are things God may give you a vision to do in and through this church…just like the hospitality ministry this last year or the Resolved To Love project and we simply want to come alongside and help see you complete the work that the Lord has given to you.

When it comes to vision there’s usually three big questions that come with a healthy vision: (1) Where are we going?  (2) Do I belong?  (3) And if so, what’s in it for me.

Hopefully I’ve answered the first question already for you.  Where are we going?  Heaven!  Amen?  We are headed for abundance in the work of the Lord in all kinds of areas.  Do you belong?  YES! YES! YES!  There is not a person here who cannot be used to accomplish something great for God this year.  Each one of you are unique and each one of you have something to contribute.

There are some of you here that didn’t get really get involved last year and today when you heard me recount all the stuff you started you started thinking about some stuff you’d like to do and how you’d like to get involved.  That’s God’s Spirit prompting you to use your gifts.  And I’ll tell you what, it’s much funner actually getting into the game than just sitting in the stands watching.  So yes, you belong.

As for the third thing, “what’s in it for me?”  Honestly, probably the biggest thing is joy.  I mean yes, there’s the sense of belonging and actually accomplishing something meaningful.  But above and beyond all that is joy.  Joy, because you basically have two options to either labor for yourself or labor for the Lord.  And working for Jesus is a whole lot more satisfying.  There is immense joy that comes from serving Jesus and his people.

In fact, often times when I’m counseling someone who is having a hard time, fighting depression, or just feeling lackluster…one of the things I encourage them to do is to go start serving.  Get your mind off of yourself and start expending its energies on others for the sake of Jesus’ kingdom.  There is no better life than serving Jesus.  I promise you that.  What’s in it for you is all the joys of heaven…which come through Jesus and his church.

Alright, let’s conclude this sermon and prepare to receive the Lord’s Supper.

Conclusion

I want to start things off first of all by pitching conversion.  You may be here, hearing all this today and everything I’ve been talking about just seems completely foreign to you.  But at the same time, what you haven’t been able to stop thinking about is how what you really need is Jesus.  You know he is missing in your life…you know you’re a sinner and that you haven’t been living your life for God and you need him.

Hear the gospel today, Jesus died on the cross and rose again for your sin.  So embrace him and become a Christian today.  The way we express that here is simply responding to the gospel by receiving the Lord’s Supper.  When you come and break a piece of bread off and dip it in the wine, that act is a confession of faith where in and through you are saying Jesus died for you in your place and rose again.  The bread as his body, the wine as his blood and these elements because he isn’t dead anymore but risen and sits on his throne in heaven.

So if you’re becoming a Christian today, when we all come forward for the Lord’s Supper, you come to and then go to one of the men standing at the back and tell them and have them pray for you.

The bulk of today’s sermon has really been a testimony recounting the things God has done among us and calling upon him to do even more this next year.  So as we respond I think it would be fitting for us when we come to the Lord’s table this morning to say thank you.  As receive the elements today say thank you Lord for your victory on the cross and that we got to proclaim it and apply it as a church in so many ways this last year.

Today we’ve also talked a bunch about abounding in the work of the Lord and the ways we’d like to see the power of the gospel unleashed among us in this next year.  The gospel is what fuels that work.  We work for the Lord because of the work he did for us.  His work is finished and complete and all our work is meant to trumpet the great work he did.  We don’t work to pay him back but rather to praise him and proclaim the work he has done.

So the other thing I’d like us to pray when we come forward today is to ask Jesus to help us serve him well this year.  When you receive the elements just ask, say “God would you do great things in and through me and this church this year.”  Cool?

Alright, let’s go to Jesus in prayer.

Blog | Pastor Duane

We are three chapters and seven sermons into our church-wide study of The Book of Acts. It has been such an exciting journey already thus far. I have been so pleased to see so many in our church growing in their love for Jesus, one another and our city as we are learning some great things from this book of God’s Bible.

In one of my sermons I mentioned how I have already laid out the sermons and text breaks we will be using for the entire book of Acts. Many people have asked me if I could post that.
• Some would like to read the text we will be studying ahead of time so they can be reading it their personal devotions. That is a great idea!
• Our family ministry workers also would like to know where we’re going ahead of time, so they can better prepare to teach the kids. It is so great to have the kids learning the same passage of Scripture the adults are!
• Community Group leaders have also said it would be good for them so they can plan their months as a community for what week’s will be especially important for them to do sermon discussion. Each community is different and deals with unique things, so some week’s sermons are often especially important to focus on if it directly addresses things a given community group may be dealing with.

From my perspective all of these requests demonstrate a real love and trust in God’s word and the great unity God has enabled our church to share. It’s my joy to post it for all of you.

The Book of Acts

Jesus Inaugurates the Age & Activity of the Spirit
Jesus Promises The Spirit 1:1-5
Jesus Instates The Mission 1:6-11
Jesus Consecrates The Apostles 1:12-26

The Spirit Establishes the Church
The Church is Born (Part I) 2:1-41
The Church is Born (Part II) 2:1-41
The Church in Community 2:42-47
The Church at Work 3:1-26
The Church Under Attack 4:1-22
The Church in Prayer 4:23-31
The Church and Money 4:32-5:11
The Church Authenticated 5:12-42
The Church and Leadership Structures 6:1-7
The Church and the Story of God 6:8-8:3

The Spirit Propels The Mission of The Church
Mission and Magic 8:4-25
Mission and The Word 8:26-40
Mission and Conversion 9:1-31
Mission and Race 9:32-11:18
Mission and Maturity 11:19-30
Mission Unstoppable 12:1-13:3
Mission and Boldness 13:4-12
Mission and Rejection 13:13-52
Mission and Idolatry 14:1-28
Mission and Spiritual Authorities 15:1-35
Mission and Disagreements 15:36-41
Mission and Divine Appointments 16:1-40
Mission and the Message 17:1-15
Mission and Culture 17:16-34
Mission and the Tools of Scripture & Reason 18:1-28
Mission and the Marks of a Great Church 19:1-20:36
Mission and Martyrdom 21:1-16
Mission and the Masses 22:1-29
Mission and Magistrates (Part I) 22:30-24:27
Mission and Magistrates (Part II) 25:1-26:32
Mission and the Unexpected 27:1-28:10
Mission in Great Cities 28:1-31
The Mission Continued…Acts 29

Blog | Pastor Duane Smets

Every year when New Years comes around thousands and millions of people make “New Year’s Resolutions.” A New Year’s Resolution is defined as “a commitment a person makes at the New Year toward one or more lasting personal goals, projects, or the reforming of a habit.”

It is estimated that around half of Americans make New Year’s Resolutions. Nationwide top resolutions include: drinking less, eating better, exercising more, getting rid of debt and getting a better job. Various studies show that anywhere from 78% to 88% of New Year’s Resolutions fail.

The New Year seems to consistently birth the desire for change. What’s interesting to me about this cultural phenomenon is the subtle acknowledgement that things are not right and need to change. At the same time there is an equally subtle belief that change is possible and people become quite hopeful toward it.

I think these subtle confessions are tells of the heart which betray our moralistic fronts and admit the truth we all know…we are sinners who need salvation, we’ve failed and need forgiveness. They subtly admit we need more than a new year and a new start…that we need newness of life.

New Year’s Resolutions are misdirected. The problem with New Years resolutions isn’t making “resolves.” Having resolve is a good thing. The issue is where it is directed. New Years resolutions typically have two misdirections: focusing on external solutions instead of internal ones and looking toward our own power and ability rather than to God.

In Matthew 15:17-20 Jesus says it is not a person’s diet which corrupts and ruins a person but rather the heart. The implicit assumptions with all popular New Years resolutions is that mere external behavior needs to change and then the person will be happy or happier. But happiness is a heart issue and the solution is not a resolution but heart change.

Then there is the reason why most New Years resolutions fail…because they rely on a faulty source of energy, one’s own self. Built within the motivation of these resolutions is an assumption that if a person just tries hard enough or wants change bad enough, then they will have the power to change. The truth is we simply lack the power to change and save ourselves. We need something, namely someone greater.

Only the Gospel can bring the change we need. The Gospel says that God did for us what we could not do for ourselves. In the Gospel, God becomes a man in Jesus and thus has the power to succeed and never even fall into sin and corruption. Then, God puts to death our defilement by giving up his life on the cross. After burying sin in the grave, God rises to new life three days later and offers new life to all who put faith in him.

Thus through Jesus, real change, change at the deepest level…change in the heart where happiness flows from…there change can and truly does take place. 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” Wanting and needing newness is not bad, it just doesn’t come from the new year, it comes from Christ.

So this year, don’t make any silly New Year’s Resolutions, just look to Jesus and have him change you from the inside out, from the heart on up. Only that kind of resolution can stick and only that kind of resolution can truly satisfy. Praise God for the goodness of the Gospel for in it he is far better than the New Year and far more able to bring us the change we need.

This is a refLectionary message given by Pastor Duane Smets after returning from his month long sabbatical. The sermon was originally preached on January 1st, 2012 at The Resolved Church in San Diego, CA.

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The Resolved Church

Pastor Duane Smets

January 1st, 2012

Sabbatical Reflections & The New Year  |  Selected Texts

Introduction

Well, good morning everyone and Happy New Year!  It is SOO good to be back.  If you’re new and visiting with us today, we’re super glad you’re here.  My name is Duane and I’m one of the pastors here at The Resolved under our Head Pastor Jesus.  I’m the one who usually preaches on Sundays but I’ve been on Sabbatical vacation for the last month.

And it really is good to be back.  Already several of you have been asking us, “So how was it?”  And the first thing that comes to my mind is “weird.”  You all are our life.  Nearly all of our relationships are centered around this church or are people we’re trying to bring into the church.  So it was just weird.  It’s felt like we just lost all our friends and became total losers.  But it was good and I’m glad we did it…it’s just really good to be back.  I love my job as a pastor and we love our life with you Resolved Church.

So what I’m going to do today is just sort of share some personal reflections with you of some things I’ve been learning through this experience and to sort of use that as a spring board to encourage all of you to do some personal reflection this morning over the past year of your life and what’s ahead in this coming year.  I’ll get back to really preaching and yelling at all of you next week…gotta warm my voice up a bit.  I haven’t had this much time off preaching in nearly seven years, so I might have to figure out how to do it again.

What is Sabbatical?

To start with, the word “Sabbatical” is kind of an odd word.  It comes from the Hebrew word Sabbath, which means rest. In the Bible God sabbaths on the 7th day after creation and calls us to sabbath on the seventh day of our week (Ex 20:10-12) which is the fourth of the ten commandments.  In addition, after every seven years God’s ancient people of old were to give the land sabbath from cultivation and yearly there were feasts and festivals which functioned as vacations for God’s people.

In our culture the word “Sabbatical” has come to mean any extended absence in the career of an individual. Many universities, employers, scientists, physicians, and other professions offer the opportunity to qualify for paid sabbatical as an employee benefit, called “sabbatical leave.”  What these secular institutions have come to recognize is that these Sabbatical vacations not only provide overall job satisfaction for the employee but help invest in long-term stability and productivity.

There actually seems to be built in design in all kinds of things throughout creation, where it needs rest and functions better with rest.  You experience this nightly when you have to sleep.  When you get sick, the doctor’s chief medication is always rest.

I don’t know if you’ve heard this before and maybe it’s just a marketing gimmick…but supposedly everyone ought to have at least two pairs of shoes.  The reason they say is because if you only have one pair and where them every day, they will wear out much faster then if you have two pairs of shoes you rotate, so that each can get some rest.  I dunno?  Try it out.

Has anyone ever been bowling lately?  Apparently every couple weeks bowling establishments switch out all their bowling pins to give the bowling pins a chance to rest.  If they don’t rest, they lose their vitality and don’t bounce around as much and their “life” diminishes.

Likewise with farming…if you know anything about farming you know that farmers either rotate or rest their crops after a harvest in order to give the soil rest, so it can recover the nutrients needed to produce a healthy crop.  It seems that everywhere you look the need for rest, for sabbatical is built into the fabric of the universe.

In fact, rest happens to be a huge theme all throughout Scripture.  Not only did God rest on the seventh day, call his people to rest, and to give the crops rest, but Jesus as God himself in Matthew 12:8 calls himself “the Lord of Rest.”  His point being that rest ultimately comes and only comes from God himself.  In Psalm 23, it’s God who “makes (us) lie down in green pastures.”  In Isaiah 40:30-31 God says, “Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength.”  God is a God of rest.

So really, the whole notion of Sabbatical in its truest form is built on and based on God being a God of rest.  That rest comes in God and in him alone.  A sabbatical vacation really is an extended period of time away from work to rest in the goodness and grace of God.

How My Sabbatical Came About

For me, this Sabbatical came about because last summer I was approached by several of the other Acts 29 men of our southwest region who asked me to seriously consider taking a sabbatical leave.  For those of you who may not be aware, we are a church who belongs to the Acts 29 Network…which is a church planting organization who unites together under a strong doctrinal statement, missional goal and relational accountability.  It’s sort of the denomination our church belongs to.

Acts 29 began in the year 2000 with just a handful of churches banding together and now it has expanded to over 500 churches all across the world.  Simply phenomenal.  So many churches being planted in such a short time.  One of the reasons is that guys who tend to be called to church planting tend to be very driven guys.  Hardworking, passionate, dedicated dudes.  Sometimes too much so.

There’s been some sad stories in the last few years as the network has become older.  There have been a handful of dudes who have burnt out in one way or another, either causing them to leave the ministry entirely, commit suicide, fall into adultery or just have to take a forced sabbatical due to failing health or exhaustion.

This April will be the seventh year since we planted The Resolved Church.  So some of the Acts 29 pastors looking at how long we have been going now suggested I take sabbatical while I was healthy, before I wore myself out like many have done and they offered to help pay for it.  I brought the idea before our church elders, James Martin and Ron Broersma and their immediate response was, “Duane when was your last vacation?”

To my shame I realized the last extended vacation I’ve had was in 2004 after completing eight straight years of full-time schooling.  I’ve taken a weekend off here and there or time off when my wife was giving birth.  But no real extended vacation.  So looking at our church calendar we together decided that the month of December made the most sense.

To be honest I didn’t really want to do it.  My initial response was “I don’t need a sabbatical.  I’m not tired.”  Funny, in these last few weeks my wife says she’s never seen me sleep so much in the entire ten years of our marriage!  I guess maybe I was a little more tired than I thought.

I want to say that I’m really grateful to all of you for allowing us to be gone this last month.  I never want to be a burden to anyone and I’m always trying to help others.  So it’s been a growing experience for me to realize that it’s okay to be the recipient sometimes.  I mean, for example…I can’t believe I’m even preaching this sermon today, if you can even call it that.

I can remember going to church services when I was in seminary and the pastor would get off track and start talking a bunch about himself and telling stories and I would get so annoyed.  “Just preach the Word man…don’t talk about yourself.”  For the record, I still believe that and this is just a weird Sunday.  If you’re visiting I promise you…normally we just work through books of the Bible, chapter by chapter, verse by verse, word by word.  That’s why today shouldn’t really count as a sermon…we’ll just call it “sharing.” 

But I’m doing this today for a reason.  Many of you were so encouraging in sending us off before we left, I couldn’t believe it.  I was sort of surprised.  I guess I figured people would be worried about whether something was wrong with me and start thinking the worst or something.  When I told Amy…”people seem really supportive.”  She said something that stuck with me.  She said, “Duane, the people really care about you…they love you.”

So the reason I’m sharing all of this with you today is because I want you to know some of the things about this sabbatical and how, though some aspects were hard, like being away from all of you…it was really good and refreshing to my soul.  It’s good for a church to know and hear about how their pastor is spiritually healthy.  There’s a few things I feel like God has been teaching me through these four weeks off.

I Love My Wife and Kids

There isn’t really any particular order to these but the first thing I’ll mention is realizing that I really love my wife and kids.  You’re probably like, “I hope so!”  But what I mean is this.  Amy and I have been married for like 10.5 years now, we’ve currently got two kids, a 4 year old and an almost 1 year old.  And our lives, like many of yours are very very busy.  Sometimes we just get so used to the busy that you don’t realize how busy.  Normally, we’ve got stuff going on all the time.

When life is like that…marriage can easily kind of slip into this pact, a sort of division of labor where I do these things and she does these other things and we work really well together and keep everything going.

One of the first things we did, the first week of the Sabbatical was go on a 7 day cruise to Mexico and we left our girls behind with Grandma and Grandpa.  And Amy and I had so much fun together.  Whether it was just laying out in the sun reading together, sitting and talking to one another, eating together, then working out together…doing whatever we wanted without any responsibility…really, just being together  I tell you what we love each other.  I love her so much.  I love my wife.  It was kind of like we were on our honeymoon again.

Then coming home to our girls.  We missed them so much.  It’s kind of the same thing being a parent day in and day out when you’re having to constantly help them do…everything…from diapers to discipline to meals and going to bed and getting ready in the morning…it’s a lot.  But being away from them for 7 days…we couldn’t wait to get back and change a diaper or put our oldest down to be five times in one night.

Two days after we got home we took the girls to Disneyland and had a blast together as a family.  Since then I’ve spent a ton of time with the girls just playing whatever…dolls, light brite, legos, blocks, tea…you name it.  For like the first five days Adina kept saying, “Are you going to be here again in the morning?”  And I’d say, “Yeah, Daddy doesn’t have any meetings for the whole month.”  And she’d say, “Cool!  See you in the morning then!”  I got the time to hold my youngest a lot, which I don’t always get to do.  You know I normally work 6-6, six days a week…and she goes down at 7.  That normally doesn’t leave a whole lot of time for playing with Daddy.

So all that to say, it’s been really special just to be able to play with the girls a bunch.  I love my girls.  I love being a dad.  As I wrote in the church blog before I left it is my prayer that during this Sabbatical my wife and kids would really get to see and know that they are the first church I pastor and will always be more important than The Resolved.  I want my children to know how much their father loves them so that they will know how much God the true and better Father loves them.  I want my wife to know how much her husband loves her so she’ll know how much Jesus the true and better groom loves her.  I love my girls.  Seriously, thank you for giving me some extra time to love on them.

The Resolved Belongs To Jesus

The second thing I really experienced was in regards to what has often been a major battle against sin in my heart in making an idol out of this church, The Resolved.  I was trying to think of a better way to say it cause you could take this the wrong way, so please understand me…when it comes down to it, I realized, “The Resolved Church is not everything.”

Now, of course I care about this church, The Resolved.  But what I mean is, what I got to experience for this last month was totally disconnection.  I cut myself off from the phone, texts, email, Twitter, Facebook…everything.  And I was fine without it.  It took me awhile…because my mind starts naturally thinking about church stuff and people all the time.

You see what happens with me is what happens with any good thing and that is we tend to make it a God thing.  The church is good but when I start to think everything hangs on what’s going on in the church and that if it’s doing well I’m happy and if it’s not I’m not happy…when I have to be involved in everything…what’s going on is, in my heart I start to make an idol out of The Resolved and The Resolved becomes the god I worship and serve.

So what I experienced through this sabbatical was really a crushing of that idol in my heart because I had to let go of it all.  And when I did I realized it really wasn’t that important to me.  I don’t have to have to be a pastor at this church to be happy.  This church is not my god.  Because when it comes down to it for me. ..the only things I really care about in this life are Jesus and my family.

Don’t hear me wrong.  I love all of you and it’s my joy to be one of your pastors.  But you don’t belong to me.  You’re not mine.  You belong to Jesus.  And  He’s a far better pastor than I am.  And Jesus is the God that I worship and serve.

There’s No Joy Outside of Jesus

That leads into the third thing I’ll share with you and that’s a fresh realization that there’s no joy outside of Jesus.  I won’t go into any detail on it but one of the places our cruise ship stopped was Cabo San Lucas and I saw some things there I could not believe.  Lewd drunkeness, public sexual acts…just all out debauchery.  And I couldn’t help but think…these people think this is it, that this is the life…and they have no clue that all the things they’re looking for…joy, worth, and satisfaction…is found in Jesus.

We also met a lot of older people on our cruise.  Apparently, they told us we were on the old people cruise…which was fine with us.  I always feel like an old man trapped in a mid-thirties year old body and my wife is in love with the 50’s housewife era, so we fit right in.  But what was surprising to us was that all these older retired folk now simply live to go on cruises.  Most of them had been on 20-30 cruises and after when after 7 days we got off many of them were continuing for another 21 days.

Listen, if all there is to life at the end of the line is simply going on cruises…that’s pretty pathetic.  Without a vision for heaven and what God has prepared in advance for those who love him far exceeds a measly buffet line and a small stateroom cabin!  I don’t want to work to play.  I want to work for Jesus and rest in him instead of looking for the joys of heaven in all kinds of other places.  It’s in and through him alone.

Let me read some Scripture here for us because nothing can say it like the Bible can.

Philippians 3:8  “I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.”

Ephesians 3:17-19 “(May) Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”

Joy, real joy and happiness is found in Jesus alone.  Well, just two more things.

Life is good

Along the lines of joy in Jesus a big thing I’ve been reflecting on is that life is good.  As Christians we spend so much time battling sin in our own hearts or trying to convince others of he reality of sin and the need for Jesus that it can sometimes start to seem like we live under this dark cloud all the time.  But, while it’s true that we are in a spiritual battle and that sin has crept in and contaminated everything one of the beautiful and good things about the gospel is that it renews life to the way it should be…one of peace and joy, in fellowship with God and one another.

What I mean is…the world God has made is beautiful…the ocean, the sunsets, the birds, the trees…human beings.  Living life is good.  A good meal…good drink…sitting down and enjoying a cup of coffee while watching the sun rise…life is good.  Sometimes we’re just go go go so much that we literally just don’t take the time to “stop and smell the roses.”

This has actually been a huge part of this time off for me…just resting in the gospel.  Knowing that God is good and the new life he has given me through Christ actually enables me to enjoy God’s world and life in it the way he intends it to be.  That only comes through the gospel because through the gospel I don’t have to work to earn it, Jesus did it all and then through the gospel everything gets purified and redeemed.

Sometimes I think we stop short at salvation.  Yes, Jesus saves us.  And yes, that’s the core of the gospel.  But what does he save us to?  New life with God in his world.  It’s a return to the garden.  And the new life we experience now through Jesus on this side of heaven is a taste of the good things to come when all sin, suffering and sorrow will be done away with forevermore.

There were times for me, like sitting at the dinner table with my family or eating tacos with my wife on the beach and I I would just sort of stop, look at them, smile and think…”God is so good…life is so good…God has so richly blessed me.”  For me, especially as a pastor I spend a lot of time embroiled in battle and leading the charge, it was so good for me to spend time just enjoying life and realizing how good and great our God is that has given it to us.  Life really is very good.

Clarity On My Role As A Pastor

Well, the last thing I’ll share that I’ve been meditating on is my role  as a pastor here.  As our church has grown over the last couple years there is a lot more going on and one of the things I’ve realized while being away is I think I work too much.  I told you earlier I normally work 6-6 six days a week.  That’s like 72 hours a week.

Here’s the thing…I have no plans or desire to do anything else or pastor anywhere else as long as I live.  I love San Diego and I want to be a pastor here at The Resolved twenty years when I’m in my fifties.  Some of you men out there know what I’m talking about because you work too much too.  My next big birthday is 40 and I know working like I do isn’t really sustainable.

Mostly that’s my fault because I work hard and like to work hard.  I don’t know how people who are rich and don’t have to work live with themselves.  About two weeks into this vacation I started going nuts feeling lazy and useless just sitting around.  We’re made to work.  Work is not a result of sin and the fall.  Adam was to work the garden before sin entered in.  But at the same time we can overwork.

So mostly I think overworking is my fault.  Some of you depend on me too much but that’s mostly my fault.  I like to be on top of everything and when we were a smaller church I kind of had to do everything.  But now there’s so many of you who are extremely gifted and able…you don’t need me as much.  You all were fine for a month without me.  That’s awesome.  Ephesians 4:12 says one of my main jobs is to equip the saints for the work of the ministry.  So it’s great to see you all doing the ministry.

Next week I’ll give a sort of year vision sermon and then in two weeks we’ll start our next book of the Bible and we’re going to preach through the book of Acts.  Which I’m super pumped about.  We’ve got some big plans this year and one of the things I intend to really focus on this year is narrowing down my job description to mainly function in my giftings of teaching and preaching…rather than doing those that and a hundred other things all the time.  In the long run it will be better for you and for me as work at being the church together.  But we’ll talk more about 2012 and The Resolved next week.

Consider What God Has Done

As I kind of wrap up this sermon time this morning I’d like us to look at 1 Samuel 12:24 for a minute.  You can turn there in your Bibles if you want.  I’ve had time to really pause and pray and reflect and think about my life and God, his goodness and the gospel during this last month.  This sermon today has just been sharing some of those things.

For many of you, you’ve likely had some time off work too for the holidays and every new year is a great opportunity for some personal reflection.  So what I’d like to do is encourage you all to do that.  Here’s what 1 Samuel 12:24 says…it’s part of Samuel the prophet’s farewell address, “Fear the LORD and serve him faithfully with all your heart.  For consider what great things he has done for you.”  Fear the LORD.  Serve him faithfully.  Consider what he’s done for you.

We’re going to receive the Lord’s Supper in a minute…this special time when we come forward and receive the elements of God’s grace provided for us in Jesus death on the cross and his resurrection.  Before you come to the table today I’d like you all to sort of sit and wait for a minute and reflect on your life in this last year.

What are the things God has done in your heart and life?

What has changed in this last year for you?

What are some of the big things you learned?

Just spend some time considering what God has done for you.  Most of all how he has given us Jesus, who died on the cross and rose again for our sin.  How has that, the good news of the gospel become more meaningful and special to you this year?

Spend some time considering and then when you’re ready come forward and when you come…come with this resolve, come to the table and say to God, “LORD, I fear you and will serve you faithfully this year with all my heart.”  Maybe even bring some specific things before the Lord concerning what he wants and needs to do in you this next year…tell him how you want to grow and change this year.

Next week we’ll talk about our church as a whole and the new year.  Today, just consider your own personal life and the new year and bring it before the Lord.  God is good, he is gracious and he has given us his son from whom all thing flow.  So let’s go to him in prayer and in response to his word this morning, “Fear the Lord…serve him faithfully with all your heart…consider what great things he has done for you.”

Let’s pray.

Blog | Sean Hutchinson

This past Sunday we celebrated our fourth and final week of Advent: PEACE. Remembering the peace we have in Christ because he entered the world to take away our sin and we eagerly await His return and the City to come, where there will be no more tears, sorrow, nor pain, and endless joy will be ours as we worship and abide with our great and glorious God forever and ever.

To recap Advent at The Resolved, we first had Pastor Chris Swan remind us of the Hope we have in Christ. This hope is not just for our present trials nor for the future promise of Jesus’ return and the City of Heaven, but a hope that gives us strength for today and hope for tomorrow. A hope that gives perseverance to the saints.

Second, Brad Hutchison (the other Hutch) spoke to us of the gravity of the incarnation of Jesus, reminding us of the humility that God exercised in stepping into humanity clothed as a helpless babe. That God, in all his God-ness, in all his splendor, power, and majesty, made himself small in order to save his rebellious and sin-stained people.

Next, Josh Feil spoke of the Joy of Jesus in enduring the cross, redeeming his people, and therefore fulfilling all that was prophesied about the Messiah’s entry into the world.

On Christmas day Pastor James Martin walked us through the peace of Christ that has come through his life, ministry on earth, death and resurrection, and the City of peace that will come when he returns.

Peace is a major theme and thread throughout Scripture, especially in the New Testament epistles. The Apostle Paul uses grace and peace as a common greeting in his epistles; “Grace to you and peace from God our Father…” (Rom 1:7, 1 Cor 1:3, 2 Cor 1:2, Gal 1:3, Eph 1:2, Phil 1:2, Col 1:2, 1 Thess 1:1, 2 Thess 1:2, 1 Tim 1:2, 2 Tim 1:2, Titus 1:4, Philemon 3). Peter prays “May grace and peace be multiplied to you” in his letters (1 Pet 1:2b, 2 Pet 1:2). The author of Hebrews ends his letter with a greeting of peace (v25). Peter ends his first letter with the benediction of “Peace to all of you who are in Christ” (v14b). The Apostle John in his second letter greets “with grace, mercy and peace” (v3). Jude opens his letter with the greeting, “May mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you. And in the book of Revelation the seven churches are greeted with grace and peace (1:4) and the last words of Revelation and the Bible are the benediction “The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all. Amen” (22:21).

Now, hear the words of Jesus as he preaches peace to his disciples:

“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid” (John 14:27). “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).

Two things I see here: First, in this life and in this world we will have many things that will trouble our hearts. Second, we are in need of peace, the kind of peace found and offered only in Jesus.

But life is crazy! A simple statement, but very true. Many of us are faced with big life decisions like where to live, where to work, who to marry, how to tackle the enormous task of raising children, how to pay bills, how to get out of debt, how to deal with broken relationships, how to love God with all of our heart, mind, soul, and strength, and how to deal with the struggle and effects of sin in our world. Daily we have many tribulations and experiences to trouble our desperate hearts.

Yet, Jesus comforts us with the words, “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” To quote Pastor James, “Peace is not about a less busy life…it’s about a less busy heart.” My need is to have a less busy heart in the midst of the trials and tribulations of this life. The Apostle Paul charges us not to be anxious about the cares and responsibilities of daily life, but to turn to prayer, to surrender the cares of our hearts to the Lord.

“Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:4-7).

The God of the Bible is a God of peace who has actively pursued a people who have rebelled and lived in hostility toward his rule and reign in a world he created in perfect righteousness and love. Jesus has brought peace to our souls because he has won the victory over sin and death, the two things that separated us from our God and marred his image in which we’ve been made.

May the peace of Christ rule in our hearts Colossians 3:15). May we increasingly understand and grasp the glory of the gospel, what Jesus has done for us, in us, and now through us. I wholeheartedly pray that the grace and peace that is in Christ would be multiplied to us this Advent season and as we usher in the New Year.

Advent | Hope | Pastor James Martin

This is a short children’s sermon on Peace with brief additional commentary. It focuses on how the Advent of Christ is the source and cause of all Peace in Heaven and on Earth. This sermon was originally preached by Pastor James Martin on December 25th, 2011 at The Resolved Church in San Diego, CA.

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Reminder | December 25th Christmas Service

This is a REMINDER that there will only be one service held this coming Sunday at The Resolved. The Christmas Morning service will be at 9AM.

Blog | Pastor Duane Smets

In the past I’ve written a number of posts on Santa, Jesus and the Bible. Below are links to them you may enjoy and be encouraged by during the Christmas season this year.

Santa Was A Pastor – A blog on the history of Saint Nicholas.
Jesus & Santa – A short, good, fun video comparing the character and activities of Jesus & Santa.
The Bible & Santa – A blog on how the Bible is not make believe like modern Santa fairytales.
What We Tell Our Kids About Santa – An article from Mark Driscoll in the Washington Post.

Blog | Josh Feil

Have you ever talked about Jesus without talking about Jesus?

This past Sunday, we looked at Isaiah 9:2-7, which is a prophecy about who Jesus is and what he came to do. One of the exciting things about these verses is that they are in the Old Testament, yet they are talking about Jesus. At The Resolved we believe the whole Bible is telling one story with Jesus at the center. So it’s fun as a church to look at an Old Testament text, even one that is so clearly about Jesus, and see where it fits into the bigger story.

But there is a danger there as well. It is possible, even common, to read a verse like Isaiah 9:6 “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given” and say it’s about Jesus without actually saying anything.

Two quick points on that:

Don’t Lose the Cross. Getting the big idea that the whole Bible is about Jesus does us no good if we miss the part that changes everything. Isaiah knew this (in part), that’s why he spent the better portion of Isaiah 53 describing what the cross would be like for Jesus. David knew this (in part), that’s why he wrote Psalm 22, which Jesus quotes when he’s on the cross. Do you know this? Do you see the cross as the great climax of redemptive history?

We run the risk of getting so excited about the history and the connections and the story to come that we fail to talk about Jesus in any kind of meaningful way. We forget that Isaiah says in verse 6 that the child was given “unto us.”
We must talk about the cross when we talk about Jesus.

Don’t Lose the Gospel. We have a great advantage over biblical authors like Isaiah and David: Jesus has already come. They could only see in part and shadow what we see in vivid daylight: that Jesus already lived perfectly, died for my sin and rose for my justification. That “in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation” (2Co 5:19).

There is a way to look Isaiah 9, Isaiah 53, Psalm 22 or any Old Testament story and completely miss the connections to the gospel: that God was preparing his people for their savior. We can say something about sin and Jesus without actually talking about how God forgives sin in Jesus.

We must talk about the gospel when we talk about Jesus.

Connecting the Dots

John Piper was asked earlier this year if he thought that people do a good job of finding Christ in the Old Testament. His response was convicting: “I don’t think they do a good job of finding him in the New Testament.”
We should get joy from connecting the dots and seeing the bigger picture. But our deepest joy should come from trusting in Jesus and resting in his finished work. Our joy comes from worshiping him. That’s what we were made for. That’s why the first question of the Westminster shorter catechism asks:

Q: What is the chief end of man?
A: Man’s chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever.

May that be our answer in this season and all others forevermore.

Isaiah 9: 2-7 | Advent | Joy | Josh Feil

This is a topical sermon on Joy, building from an exegetical reading of Isaiah 9:2-7. It focuses on how Christ’s birth, life, and death show what it looks like to have a true and better Joy that takes pleasure in God’s eternal plan no matter what. This sermon was originally preached by Resolved leader in development Josh Feil on December 18th, 2011 at The Resolved Church in San Diego, CA.

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Joy in Jesus

-       2    THE GOD WHO REVEALS

-       3-5 THE GOD WHO SAVES

-       6-7 THE GOD WHO REIGNS

Well good morning Resolved church family.  I am honored to be up here, to preach the word this morning.  This is the 3^rd week of Advent.  Our theme this year for Advent is looking at the first and second comings of Christ through the lenses of hope, humility, joy and peace.  My candle this morning is the joy candle, so joy is going to be a part of the sermon this morning as we compare the two comings of Jesus.

And I ask you all to think about the idea of joy in terms of a question: What gives you joy?  Is it a certain place, a person, a thing?  A hobby?  When was the last time you were joyful?  What were you doing?  What was it like?    In our never-ending search for joy and pleasure, these are important questions to ask.  Not just “what makes you happy?”  But, what is it that reverberates in your bones?  That hits the core of who you are, that pleases you?

To give us a framework for answering these questions, we’re going to be in Isaiah 9 this morning, verses 2-7.  You can turn there in your Bibles.

This passage, Isaiah 9:2-7 is instantly recognizable to many people.  The great composer George Friedric Handel wrote a piece based on Isaiah called The Messiah.  The Hallelujah chorus, one of the movements, is iconic to say the least.  It has been in countless movies, and the other movements are always on the radio around Christmas time.  In fact one of them is titled “For Unto Us a Child is Born”, which is verse 6 of our text this morning.  I’ve been listening to it all week, and fortunately for you, I will be keeping those songs to myself this morning.

I’ll be giving you just a little bit of background information on this text as we go, but before we do that, I want to set the stage here just a little bit.

This passage in Isaiah is very provocative.  Why?  Because it’s talking about Jesus.  And it’s not provocative to us because it talks about Jesus as a baby.  Everyone is cool with baby Jesus, even though if they thought about it they would really that Jesus doesn’t want them to just “be cool” with baby Jesus.  But, culturally, that’s the Jesus that concerns us the least.  However, Isaiah won’t let us off the hook with the child who “is born.”  He immediately describes him in eternal, divine language and announces the type of rule he will have.  Justice and righteousness forevermore.  You cannot sit here this morning, read this text, and not respond in some way.  You can’t get off the hook that easy.  It’s plain as day to Isaiah:  the son is God himself, he is King and will rule forever.  We have to deal with the implications of that statement.

Let Isaiah provoke you this morning.  Let his words move you to respond.

Here’s the summary of this text: Isaiah is prophesying the fulfillment of God’s messianic promises.   In other words he is looking forward in time to the day when God’s promises of a deliverer and savior would be fulfilled.

Here’s my contention: we tend to have a very incomplete and limited understanding of God’s promises.  God’s promises.  They are really the backbone of the Bible: God promising to turn his enemies into his children through a savior, and then living with them forever.  And we rob ourselves of deep joy by not seeing God’s plan of redemption as fully as the Bible does.

So we need to see this text as provocative, but also as expansive.  We need it to expand our view of history and to give us an expectation of what God has yet to do for his people.  What is yet to come for the church, for Christians, for you and me.

This month we are looking at the 2 advents of Christ.  And that is what Isaiah does here.  He has two thrusts, two advents in view.  The advent of Christ as helpless, humble baby, suffering servant, savior and resurrected Lord and the 2^nd advent, where Jesus is the mighty warrior, come once and for all to rescue his people and rule and reign over all creation FOREVER.

That’s where Isaiah is going.

So read it with me, Isaiah 9:2-7.

This is the word of the Lord.

And may God open our minds and soften our hearts so that we might be changed by his word.

1)    9:2 – The God Who Reveals

In order to understand what Isaiah is saying, what it meant to his audience, we have to see an overarching principle in this section.  Sometimes when God spoke through the prophets, like he did with Isaiah, he puts them in the future, and then from that spot they look back in time and forward in time.  That’s what Isaiah does here.  And that makes his statements a lot more clear.  The center of his perspective in this section is verse 6.  That’s the only use of the present tense.  Unto us a child IS given, unto us a son IS born.  He’s standing there, looking back and looking forward, and then summarizing that for the people.

So from that perspective, Isaiah looks back in time and reminds the people of what God is.  He is a light.  He is a light.    The bible has a lot to say about the contrast between light and darkness.

In Genesis 1:3 God says, “Let there be light.”  And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. (Gen 1:4 ESV)

After God rescues Israel from their slavery in Egypt [darkness], he leads them through the desert by the light of a pillar of fire (Ex. 13:21).

The word “light” occurs 39x in the book of Job, used almost exclusively in a spiritual sense, referring to God’s righteousness.  12:22 is very similar to our passage:  “He uncovers the deeps out of darkness and brings deep darkness to light.”  “He has redeemed my soul from going down into the pit, and my life shall look upon the light.’ (Job 33:28 ESV)”

In Isaiah 45:7 God says “I form light and create darkness, I make well-being and create calamity, I am the LORD, who does all these things.” (Isa 45:7 ESV)

John the apostle says that “God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.” (1Jo 1:5 ESV)

Furthermore about Jesus John says that, “In him was life, and the life was the light of men. ⁵ The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” (John 1:4 ESV)

Jesus says about himself that “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” (Joh 8:12 ESV)

And in John’s prophecy about heaven he says this: “And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb.” (Rev 21:23 ESV)

By the end of the story, there is no mention of darkness.  Only the light of God’s glory.

God is in the business of shining light into the dark and rescuing those who cannot see their way out.

And we are a people familiar with darkness, but it wasn’t always that way.

Think back to the garden of Eden.  It was full of light.  Adam and Eve lived with God in perfect harmony.  But because of sin, because they violated God’s law, because they worshipped a part of God’s creation rather than the creator himself, they were cast out of the garden into darkness.

That’s the fracture, that’s where things went wrong for all of us.  And now, instead of being in the light, in Jesus, we are in the darkness in Adam.

Because of Adam’s sin and our own, we are painfully familiar with the presence of disappointment, shame, regret and failure.  All of us know the pain of sin and its broken promises.  And I think if we are honest with ourselves, we are in the same spot as Isaiah’s audience: we are the people who walk in darkness.  And we have no hope apart from someone opening our eyes, removing our blindness and leading us to the light.

Where do you need rescuing today?  Where is there pervasive darkness and shadow in your life?  How do you need your eyes to be opened, where is there longing and hunger for something better?  We need the good news of the gospel; that Jesus took on our death and darkness so that he might give us life and light.

This is God’s nature: in him there is no sin and he is the light of the nations.  And when Jesus comes on the scene, the message doesn’t change.  He is the sunrise breaking over the hills that drives out the darkness of sin and rebellion.  His person and work shines bright.  His is not a kingdom of darkness but a kingdom of radiance.  He is the Lamb who is the lamp of God’s glory.  Revelation calls him the morning star.  In Jesus we find our joy and deepest pleasure.

And here’s why he is our joy: because he descends.

Without Jesus stepping out of heaven where there is no darkness and stepping into our world where there is no light, we have no hope.

But it’s exactly because he does descend to rescue us from our sin and shadow that we love him.  That we find pleasure in him.  If Jesus doesn’t enter into our human experience and live perfectly and then die in our place for our sins and then rise again from the dead, then all we’re still stuck in our sins and subject to judgment.

But this is the gospel, the good news, the proclamation of grace: that God requires a perfect righteousness and obedience that we are incapable of offering.  We cannot meet that requirement.  But Jesus can and did and does for us.  He died as a perfect substitute so that broken sinners might be rescued and raised with him.

The gospel is that God does for us what he requires of us.  God does for us what he requires of us.

So my friends be comforted this morning.  Lift up your eyes!  Your sin has been paid for!  It is finished!  The penalty of sin was paid once and for all by Jesus.  While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.  His obedience and righteousness are yours and to the Father you are just as radiant as his very son because you are God’s child.  Nothing you have done and nothing you will do can ever take you from his grasp, and he will not let you get away.  You cannot thwart his loving grace.

Hebrews 7:25 says that Jesus is able to save to the “uttermost.”  To the ends of the earth, you cannot escape his saving, redeeming and comforting light.  So do not be troubled by the sin that drags you into darkness because you are united to Christ and he has conquered the darkness.  Look to him and find the fulfillment of God’s promise to Eve, that a son would crush the head of the serpent.  He is that son.

2)    9:3-5 The God Who Saves

This theme of darkness and light gets played out in the three verses.  This point is very short as I really want to focus on verses 6 and 7, but a couple things definitely stand out in this section.

Remember, Isaiah is looking back over history and saying “You were in darkness, but be comforted, look at what God has done, he has not abandoned his people, he has not broken his promises to save and redeem.”  And to illustrate this he gives a couple examples.

We could go into the stories behind these illustrations, but the stories aren’t necessarily the point.  Look at the passage for a second.  Maybe you noticed it earlier as we read through it.  There is not a single event that takes place in this passage apart from God’s action.  He causes all things.

-       He shines the light.

-       He multiples the nation.

-       He breaks the burden that had fallen on Israel in Egypt.

-       He burns the boots and bloody garments of his enemies.

-       And he sends his son and sets up his kingdom.

Nothing in all of history happens apart from his guiding, sovereign hand.  That is the point Isaiah is driving in these illustrations.

The reason I called this point “The God Who Saves” is these stories serve to illustrate the way God works with his people.  The first part of verse 4 references Israel’s slavery in Egypt, where God delivered his people when it seemed totally impossible.  And the “Day of Midian” references Gideon, who, in the name of God, led 300 men against 30,000 and came out victorious.

Remember what we said in the beginning: Isaiah is telling the people that God keeps his promises, especially his promise to provide a messiah, a savior.  And he is basically saying: “Egypt happened, that was incredible.  Gideon happened, no one saw that coming.  God is going to destroy his enemies, it’s to be expected.  But now the son is born.”  And that leads us to our next point,

3)    The God Who Reigns

The son in verse 6 is the center, the core of this whole section.  Not only in the sense that Isaiah is looking back and forward from this point, but also in the sense that the whole passage is fixated on this fact: that the son who was prophesied, who the people were longing for has been born.  He is here.

But Isaiah doesn’t stop there does he?  What comes next?  Look at verses 6 and 7.  Isaiah tells us about this son, this child who is given to us, and then immediately launches into these divine, royal titles, and then talks about how the government of the son will never stop increasing in peace, he will sit on the throne of David, he will rule with justice and righteousness “from this time forth and forevermore.”

The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.  Think about that.  The zeal of the Lord will do this.  His very passion and pleasure in himself will accomplish his purpose.

Isaiah is sometimes referred to as the “prophet of holiness” because of his abiding concern for God’s utter power, majesty and righteousness.  That God dwells in unapproachable light.  That he is a God of great zeal.

In Isaiah 42, it says “The LORD goes out like a mighty man, like a man of war he stirs up his zeal; he cries out, he shouts aloud, he shows himself mighty against his foes.” (Isa 42:13 ESV)

In Isaiah 59, “He put on righteousness as a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation on his head; he put on garments of vengeance for clothing, and wrapped himself in zeal as a cloak.” (Isa 59:17 ESV)

And in the gospels, when Jesus drives out all the merchants and tax collectors from the temple, the disciples are just standing there a little bit freaked out because Jesus just made his own whip, and used it for crowd control.  At that point they remember the Psalm that says “zeal for your house has consumed me…”

The God we worship gets great pleasure and joy from accomplishing his purpose.

The zeal of the Lord.  It is his joy to redeem his people, to crush his enemies and to bring about the restoration of all things, where he will wipe away every tear, give us new bodies, new heaven and a new earth, and will reign and rule in grace as great and majestic king forevermore.  Where all we experience is pure pleasure and joy as the subjects and citizens of his heavenly city in his heavenly country.

The pleasure of God in his plan.

And this is where I want to return to my point from the beginning, that we tend to have a trivial understanding of God’s promises.  I’m guessing, I could be wrong, but I’m guessing that for many of you, the gospel, Jesus living, dying and rising again for sin has a lot of implications for the here and now, but not a whole lot for after you’re gone.  You might be thinking, “No, I believe in heaven, I believe I’m going to be with Jesus there.”  That’s not really what I’m talking about.

My question is this: when you think about Jesus and the increase of his kingdom “having no end” and that he will rule from “this time and forevermore”, what is your reaction?  What do you picture?  Remember, this text serves to provoke you and expand your vision: what does it provoke in you, what do you think about when you hear those statements?  Do you think it’s crazy?  Are you comforted?  Are you scared?  Excited?

Until pretty recently, this is where I was at.  I’d heard about heaven for a long time.  I’ve spent a lot of time in church in my life, you can’t really do that without hearing something about heaven every once in a while.  Heaven to me was a bunch of church pews filled with white robed choir member singing amazing grace for. Ever.  That’s it.  Jesus was there and we were singing to him, kind of, but really the main part of my understanding was singing.  I like to sing, but it isn’t my favorite thing in the world, so spending all of eternity singing wasn’t exactly getting me excited to be with Jesus.

But then Duane preached this sermon at the end of our series on Hebrews on the city of God.  And I kid you not, that sermon marked a dramatic shift for me.  He made the point that heaven isn’t boring, it’s actually a city, but God rules the city and it’s his city and there is no sin in the city and the city is filled with the saints, God’s people.  The kingdom of heaven.  No darkness, no sadness, only joy and light and worship in all of life.  That is a much better vision of eternity than what I had before.

My point is this: Isaiah’s vision covers a ton of ground.  It starts with the people in darkness, moves through these historic events where God made his power evident, then hits Jesus birth, but immediately shifts to giving him these titles: wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting father, prince of peace.  And then, goes even further in talking about how he is king and his kingdom, his city will never end and not only will it never end, but it will always in increasing in peace.

We tend to think of eternity as this period on the end of a sentence.  The PS on an email.  Ladies it’s like the lipstick you put on as you run out the door.  It’s kind of there at the end, an afterthought.  I would argue that for many of you, Jesus is boring, the gospel is boring and church is boring because you don’t see yourself as a citizen of heaven.  You don’t see yourself as part of God’s kingdom.

I would argue that the more we see ourselves in light of what we will be, life as what we are will make more sense.  Why?  Because we realize that right now isn’t the goal.  This isn’t the end.  Jesus is called the morning star at the end of Revelation because that’s only the beginning.

That’s where all of this is heading, that’s where Isaiah’s prophecy is focused.  He only points to history to show how it anticipates what is to come.

Do you guys see that?  Do you see that on the page?  Do you see how Israel struggled and suffered under Egypt, bearing the staff on their shoulders?  And how Jesus will carry the government on his shoulders?  Do you see how Gideon destroyed an army of 30,000 with 300 and how Jesus alone was victorious over the powers of Satan, sin and death?  How David was the beloved king of Israel, the warrior who conquered nations, but how Jesus is the true king of all people, the one who conquers Satan, our greatest adversary?  Do you see how he is the expectation of all the stories?

He is the true David, the true son, the one who will reign and rule with his people now and forevermore.  This is our comfort.  This is our joy.  That because of the gospel we will be with him in his kingdom forever, not just singing, but living.

4)    Conclusion

The two advents of Jesus, his first and second coming, serve to show how God is faithful in keeping his promises, and has abundantly provided for our salvation.  He is truly the God who saves.

Now, we talked a lot about joy today.  And this is my concern.  That you would walk away knowing the sermon was about joy, and think that the whole point was that you need to try really hard this week to be more joyful about Jesus.  Have more passion, more zeal, more feelings.  And somehow, you need to muster up those feelings from inside of yourself.

I don’t think that’s the point of this text at all.

Listen to me: the gospel is not about how you respond to Jesus or what you do for him.  It’s really not about your joy.  The gospel is about Jesus and what he has done.  That he died for my sins and rose for my justification.

That in his life he demonstrated perfect joy in the father, took great pleasure in God’s plan, even to the point of death.  And if we look to him in faith, rest in his finished work, his righteousness and obedience belong to us.

So what does that mean for us?

Because Jesus had perfect joy, you are allowed to be angry.

Because Jesus took perfect pleasure in God’s plan, because he had the zeal of the almighty, we are allowed to be pathetic.

Because Jesus was perfectly obedient for us, we aren’t judged according to our sinful pleasures, but according to his righteous perseverance.

See, grace changes everything.  He opens our eyes by grace, gives us new hearts by grace, and saves us by grace.

And that’s why we come to the table.  Because of his grace in Jesus.

Not only does he save, but he also feeds us, he nourishes us.  And that is what we experience here at the table every week.  Not only do we remember what Jesus did, but he meets us and as we eat of the bread his body and drink of the wine his blood, we are sustained by his grace and reminded of his plan for us.

So as you come to take communion, bring your lack of joy, your brokenness, your longing, your hunger and eat and drink deeply.  May the Holy Spirit work in your heart in these moments, fixing your eyes on Jesus who is your king and who is your savior.  May he remind you of the gospel, that all your work and effort to please God is already finished in Jesus and we need only to rest in him, trusting God’s promises to provide and sustain.

Blog | The Bethlehem Candle of Humility

This Christmas season, as we contemplate the advent of Christ’s ministry on Earth, we are constantly reminded that on our best day we can’t even hold a candle to His Glory.

We light the Bethlehem Candle of Humility in acknowledgement of the fact that Christ gracefully humiliated Himself with mortal birth because we could not humble ourselves. Our humility is a response to, and not a condition of His Grace.

Here are a couple responses from humbled and humiliated members of The Resolved, Dan Calvert and Carolyn Sandys.

Deacon Dan Calvert

Humility –

Def: humble: having a feeling of insignificance, inferiority, subservience, etc.

Is feeling small a good thing? Yes! Even though culture would call me crazy, I am truly blessed to have things and people in my life that make me feel tiny and insignificant. Without them, I would not be capable of humbling myself to the point of servant-hood under Jesus Christ.

Since we live in San Diego, it’s only appropriate to talk about the beach in December, right? Good because to me nature is the # 3 thing in my life that helps to keep me in my place. The power of the ocean, the beauty of the water meeting the sky, animals, sunsets, cliffs…I can go on and on. Don’t get me started on mountains. Being in creation reminds me of just how big God is. Nature is God’s art work. Looking out to sea or to the stars and I see proof of God. I receive a reality check that something more powerful than me made this.

The people in my life are the # 2 pride (opposite of humble) breaker. I am truly blessed to have some amazing family and friends who continue to love me even when I do not deserve it. They push me, encourage me, and teach me every day. They show me a piece of what God’s love for us looks like. My wife is, thankfully, the one who shows me God’s love most. I am often overwhelmed by the way she refuses NOT to love me. I am humbled by her and others around me because if they can accept me for the jacked up things they know about, how much more God loves me even though he knows the depth of my jacked upness.

The #1 reason I can have a humble heart is Jesus himself. As Mr. Brad Hutchison taught us last Sunday, we cannot even fathom the distance between God and us. It is incalculable in light years or even how much he downgraded himself to come to earth as a human. When he was here, he led the life I could not. Though tempted, he remained sinless. Though the Son of God, Jesus washed his disciples’ feet, loved outcasts, and ultimately died on a cross for our wretched hearts. His example is powerful beyond measure and I need more of him in my life to lovingly knock me down to size.

To be honest, I am proud to be humbled. That statement is something of an oxymoron, but it expresses the real challenge of being the humble servant that God calls us to be and that Jesus modeled with the foot washing. The world calls us to be proud, Christ asks for humility. Combining the two inevitably involves a deep understanding of God’s providence and of Christ’s willingness to lower Himself to the level of humans. Thankfully God has placed things in each of our lives that remind us of our place and why we should be thankful to be there.

Carolyn Sandys

Philippians 2:5-7
Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being found in the likeness of men.

In preparing for my upcoming role as a parent, I cannot help but impose my newfound knowledge of infants onto the helpless baby Jesus this advent season. When babies are born they can do nothing for themselves. They are completely and utterly dependent on parents to feed them, keep them warm and sheltered, and even wipe their little butts. They cannot walk, sit, or hold up their heads, see further than a few inches in black and white, and their only form of communication is a good loud cry. And this is the form that the Creator of Galaxies, who can fathom the distance of a light year, chose to take.

My neighbor has a one-year-old girl named Ruby who is quite the climber. And even though Ruby now walks, says a few words and phrases, and can make a wide array of facial expressions, it isn’t as though she has figured out the secrets to the universe. Lately Ruby has taken to throwing small tantrums when we remove her from a precarious climbing situation in which she is sure to fall and hurt herself, or take an object from her grasp that is dangerous. She thinks that at the ripe old age of one she can do it all by herself and doesn’t need mom’s help. And while tantrums are not cute, I cannot help but chuckle at how silly it all is.

How, just like Ruby, we as humans think we’ve really got it figured out and don’t need any help. But to God we must look like a one-year-old running around with scissors. Sometimes He just takes them away and lets us scream and complain about how unfair it all is. Sometimes He warns us that running with scissors is bound to get us injured, but often we just keep running anyway.

Ephesians 2:8-9
For it is by grace you have been saved through faith. And this not on your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

The good news of The Gospel is that when we do fall, when we are humbled, we realize just how great and wise our Father is.

2011 has been a humbling year for me personally. As someone who has never struggled to find at least SOME job in the past, this year my own efforts and accolades have never quite proved enough. Despite numerous applications for everything from temporary summer jobs, to a teaching position with my new credential, to positions I have years of experience in such as a nannying and being a barista, I have only landed two job interviews all year—neither of which have resulted in a job.

Even through this season where I have constantly had to swallow my pride God has been consistently teaching me that when I am decreased, there is room for Him to increase. Perhaps I am not as smart, talented or capable of taking care of myself as I had once thought. Maybe I do not know the secrets to the universe or have our incredibly complex and awesome quite God all figured out. In my humility I am learning it is only by God’s grace we are able to keep warm and sheltered, live, breathe, and hold our heads up.

Philippians 2: 8
And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross

Our realization that we really are just as silly as a prideful one-year-old means we have to rely on the wisdom, providence, and power of God in our daily lives. We have to listen to commands. But these are not the commands of an authoritative control-freak parent. This Father knows what humility is: He humbled Himself from the heavenly realms to become a tiny helpless babe.

We have a High Priest who is not unfamiliar with our sin and suffering: during His greatest display of humility He lowered himself to dying the death on a cross that we deserve, and saved us from our sinful pride. How grateful am I for such a humble and mighty God and the best gift of His Son for our Salvation this advent season.

Philippians 2: 9-11
Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

Humility | Luke 1:26-38,46-56 | Pastor Duane Smets

This is an exegetical sermon looking at Luke 1:26-38,46-56 focusing on the character of Mary. This sermon was originally preached by Pastor Duane Smets on December 6th, 2009 at The Resolved Church in San Diego, CA.

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The Resolved Church
Pastor Duane Smets
December 6th, 2009

ADVENT | The Christmas Story Descends
Week 2 – The Bethlehem Candle of Humility: Mary

“Confessions of the First Christian”
Luke 1:26-38,46-56

I. The Faith & Trust of Mary (v.26-34)
II. The Servanthood & Submission of Mary (v.35-38)
III. The Worship & Joy of Mary (v.46-48)
IV. The God & Savior of Mary (v.49-56)

Introduction

Well it’s the second week of Advent. Advent means “coming” or “arrival” and throughout the years Christians have celebrated the coming and arrival of the God-man Jesus, who came into the world as a humble little baby and who will come again as a powerful and glorious warrior. This year for our Advent sermons I’m doing character studies of individuals from the Christmas story. Last week we looked at Zechariah, this week we’re looking at Mary.

I’ve titled today’s message, “Confessions of the First Christian” and we’re going to be working through Luke 1:26-38,46-56 so you can open up your Bibles there and follow along with me. The first thing we’re going to look at today is the faith and trust of Mary.

I. The Faith & Trust of Mary (v.26-34)

We get introduced to Mary in verse 27. And before we even find out her name we find out details about her life at the time, who she is. Check it out. Verse 26-27, “In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary.”

So before we even find out Mary’s name we find out what time it is, the sixth month, Elul in the Hebrew calendar, sometime in August or September. We find out where she lives, the city of Nazareth. We find out her sexual history, she’s a virgin. And we find out her marital status, she’s betrothed to a dude named Joseph. That’s a lot of information.

A couple of things. First a nerd point. The historical time reference. You don’t get that kind of thing with made up myths. There are a ton of ancient myths about various deities and what not, even in other “gospels” not included in the Bible. There’s even one that goes into great detail about the early life of Mary, the Gospel of James. But it wasn’t written until 2-3 hundred years after Jesus and the start of the church and was readily recognized and dismissed as dubious. None of the other ancient records have historical time references. You don’t do that because then it can be proven wrong and spurious.

So anyway, it’s a nerd point. I get excited about little phrases in the Bible like “in the sixth month.” I know the existence of angels is a big pill to swallow but you got that butted up against historical validation. All this goes down in the sixth month of one of the early years of Herod the Great’s reign. It’s kinda like a police report that could be called up in court. The written report has the date, time and location of the incident.

Okay, second thing here is that we’re told Mary is a virgin. Some people, who have trouble with the Bible have seen this and come out and tried to say oh, well this word virgin here, “parthenos” can simply mean young girl. Yes, it is true, sometimes, in some uses “virgin” can mean “young girl.” But apparently these cronies and bandits who like this idea, guys like Rob Bell and friends, apparently they don’t know how to read.

They don’t know how to read because “parthenos” can mean a young girl or more specifically, a girl who has not had sex. And Luke here goes out of his way to show that a girl who has not yet had sex is the kind of virgin he is referring to.

Look at verse 34 with me. The angel tells Mary, the virgin she is going to get pregnant and conceive. Mary has a problem with that. What’s her problem? Verse 34, “How will this be, since I am a virgin.” She’s not married yet and Mary knows there is only one way humans get pregnant. Sexual intercourse. They didn’t have in vitro fertilization yet back then.

Now Mary is a young girl. Our culture is so different then Jewish culture in the first century it makes it hard for us to fully wrap our minds around what is going on here. Mary is a young girl who is betrothed to Joseph.

Betrothal does not simply mean engaged. Here’s what’s going on. Every young girl would get betrothed to a man to be married, sometime between the age of 10 and 13. 10 was the earliest and it would be rare and a cultural shame if you did not marry your daughter off by the time she was 14.

When a betrothal took place it was a deal made by the parents. Yes, sometimes the kids would likely give their input and desires. But a betrothal was a legal deal. A legal deed was drawn up. The parents of the young man would pay a bride price to the girls parents.

So document and money exchange. A betrothal would last about one year, which would usually be celebrated by a week long marriage and festival, concluded by the consummation of the marriage, sex. And the girl then leaving her parents house and going to moved in with the young man and creating a new house together. That’s the Bible’s order.

During the betrothal, it was a legal commitment that could only be broken by death or divorce for infidelity. So this is a big deal. We’ve got it so backwards in our culture. For most of us when we hear this, we’re like what!? This whole thing is crazy right?

It really isn’t though. This is still practiced in many parts of the world. I think our feelings of thinking this is crazy is because we have become inoculated to an idolatrous approach to marriage, where our own personal feelings, desires, and decisions are chief. They are god to us and no one better dare not take that away from me. This is the attitude that says, “No one better tell me who to marry!”

This model here, with Mary and her parents, presents a view of life and marriage that is very communal and very family oriented. The model is that daddy loves her most and knows best…that a young girl’s fleeting emotions are not a good guide to finding a spouse. The model is that kids are capable of marriage when they are capable of being able to have children. The model is that parents prepare their kids for that instead of teaching their kids that they don’t need to grow up and think about that until after college.

Let me give you some history on the current form of dating in our culture. The word “dating” itself was not introduced into American culture as a form of pursuing marriage until the 1930′s. Prior to that it was a slang term used to refer to prostitution. “Dating” was a euphemism for paying for sex.

Until then, the way you got married was through a “calling.” A calling was where a boy would be called into the house of girl’s family to present himself and have dinner. If the boy proved himself of being worthy of his daughter, then a daddy would perhaps consent to a marriage. This ensured the involvement of the entire family, enabled daddy to keep away the wrong kind of men, minimized the opportunity for pre-marital sexual interaction, and kept marriage as the goal rather than co-habitation.

Now I could easily just preach a whole sermon on marriage and dating because it’s something I’m passionate about. I would be delighted to marry my daughter off to a godly and capable man by the time she is 18 or 19 and any “dates” will occur under my supervision in my home. We talk about this every night with her. We pray out loud for her every night that she would love Jesus and that God would give her a good godly husband that loves Jesus and daddy likes. I know that sounds crazy to a lot of you and you might think I’m nuts. But history and the Bible is on my side!

I know most of you are well beyond the stage of life where your parents can hook up a marriage for you. I get that. So I guess mostly I’m talking to the parents and future parents. But for those of you who are single and of marrying age and you are already out of your parent’s house, I would submit that your church family ought to be a good guide and help in finding a mate. The principle of having the godly people in your life that love and care about you most, your family, help you in this area…that principle can be provided through a church family that has good people to trust and turn to.

Well we better get back to Mary or I’ll just keep on raging about this. I remember when Amy and I first started dating back in 1997 and neither one of us believed that the other was a virgin. All the people we had ever dating prior to each other were not…so it as hard for us to believe. It ought not to be that way. And I’m on a mission to do something about it. I love my daughter too much.

Okay, so Luke is a great narrarator. He’s doing some things here literarily that are quite amazing. If you were here last week, you’ll remember the story with Zechariah. An angel comes to him, tells him that he and his old wife are going to have a baby who will prepare the way for Jesus the Messiah. But Zechariah does not believe. He essentially says, no, I’m too old. So the angel strikes his mouth and makes him mute.

Now comes Mary. An angel comes to her, tells her she is going to have a baby who will be Jesus the Messiah. And Mary believes. Right away. Her only question is how. You see when Mary says, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?” She is not saying, “No way, that’s impossible.” She is saying, “Okay God, how are you going to do this, what should I expect?”

I believe Luke here is intentionally contrasting the response of Zechariah and the response of Mary. By this time, Mary knew and had heard what had happened to Zechariah because his wife Elizabeth was her cousin and she goes to visit her when she hears she is pregnant.

Look at verse 29 with me. “She was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be.” Mary’s one of those people who wants to figure everything out. I think most moms must be like that. I’ve never seen my wife read more than when she was pregnant. She got this huge ole’ book bigger than the Bible called “What to Expect When You’re Expecting” and read it from front to cover. “Trying to discern what sort of greeting this might be.”

What I love about Mary’s response versus Zechariah is her immediate trust and faith in God. We’re going to see more of this in Mary’s character in a minute but right away we see an initial readiness and excitement in her for what God is about to do.

There so much we can learn from her, from the faith and trust of a young girl. When God promises us something in his word, is there a trust and an excitement or do we start heaping up the reasons and the difficulties for how it really can’t be true or isn’t going to work?

When God’s word promises things to us like Jeremiah 29:11 ” I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” Do we believe it and trust it or start worrying and doubting…yeah but things are bleak right now and I just don’t see how it’s going to get better. We need to be like Mary and say, okay Lord I believe, I trust you…how are you going to fulfill this in my life…where should I put my focus, energy and effort?

II. The Servanthood & Submission of Mary (v.35-38)

Mary’s humility begins to shine in verses 35-38 in her second response to the angel. Let’s look at the “Servanthood & Submission of Mary.” Mary asks, okay…how’s this all going to go down? And the angel responds, verse 35, “And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God. And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. For nothing will be impossible with God.” And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.”

This is probably my favorite thing ever recorded about Mary in the Bible. This response. I mean the angel doesn’t really answer her question at all. He answers but nothing he says really makes sense. He essentially gives her a bunch of spiritual mumbo jumbo. “Oh yeah Mary, you see, the Holy Spirit’s going to com upon you, the power of the Most High’s going to overshadow you, so your child will be holy, the son of God.” Make sense?

No. Crazy angels. It’s funny. Whenever we pray and ask God “how” he rarely answers the details question does he? Usually the answer is simply, “trust me.” What we learn here from Mary is that submitting to God is not conditional upon everything making sense to us.

Look at what she says. “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” So often we want to understanding and comprehend and know everything before we will bow our knee and submit to God. Mary here shows us that the only condition is his word. If he said it, that’s enough. He is God we are not and he knows best we don’t.

I mean this was a huge deal for Mary. To trust God’s word and the potential consequences it could bring. She was risking a legal right for Joseph to divorce her and leave her alone, if he didn’t believe her. The gospel of Matthew even tells us that he thought about doing that. If he did leave her, it everyone would think she was sexually unfaithful when they saw that she was knocked up, which not only meant embarrassment and shame but in Jewish law it meant she could legally be stoned to death for adultery. This was a huge deal for Mary.

For her to say, okay God, I’m your servant, let it be to me according to your word…takes huge guts. But God’s word was enough. God’s word was sufficient for her submission.

Notice that she calls her self a servant. I think viewing oneself in this way stabs at the heart of our issue with God as fallen humans. We don’t want to be servants. We want to be kings. We want to be the ones who call the shots and have everybody and everything bow down to us. We want everything to go our way and according to our plans and desires. But Mary realizes that God is king and sees herself in a right biblical perspective, a servant…who simply does whatever she is told. “According to your word.”

I remember when I was first thinking about becoming a minister. I was an art major initially my freshman year of college…but then I became a Christian and I was sitting in my art classes and I started having the overwhelming feeling that I was wasting time. All I was interested in was Jesus and the Bible but I didn’t know what to do because I didn’t want to be a preacher. Worked out well for me huh?

I remember asking God over and over what he wanted me to do and how this sense of “calling” I was feeling would be fulfilled. What do you want me to do? What do you want me to be? The answer was simply “trust me.” There’s still a lot of stuff I don’t understand…I find myself a junctures frequently, on this side of being a minister…how to handle sticky situations, how money will work out, what about buying a house, what about this, what about that…and the answer from God is, “Trust me and my word…you are my servant. Be obedient.”

How’s your servanthood and submission before God? Do you see yourself as a servant to God or do you see God as your servant to make things go the way you want? When God clearly states something in his word or when he tells you to do something do you submit? Or do you fight and resist and come up with excuses or justifications? When something that looks like it will be bad for you happens are you able to accept it as being from God?

May God help us to be like Mary and bow our knees and say, “Let it be to me according to your word.”

III. The Worship & Joy of Mary (v.46-48)

Our last two points for this morning look at Mary’s song, what’s called the “Magnificat.” It’s a song or a poem composed of 6 parallelisms. The Bible doesn’t tell us when she composed it. It seems like it would have taken her some time it is so rich. There are 12 distinct Old Testament references and it is rich with messianic fulfillment.

Look back up to verse 31-33. The angel says four distinct things about Mary’s son that she is going to get pregnant with. The first thing, verse 31, his name will be called Jesus. In ancient times, the meaning of your name was symbolic to your character and life. The name “Jesus” means “God saves.”

The second thing, verse 32, he will be called great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Most High is a reference to God, so he will be the great Son of God. This is clearly a reference to Jesus’ deity.

Third thing, end of verse 32, he will be given the throne of David. So this means he will be the king. The royal kingship had long been desecrated and dismantled. Herod, who served as a political vassal to Rome wasn’t even a Jew. The Jewish hope was for a king like and in the line of David to rule and really rule once again. Mary and Joseph were both part of that bloodline…who was secretly waiting and hoping.

Fourth thing, verse 33, he will reign forever. So this son of hers is going to save, he’s going to be God, he’s going to be king, and he will reign forever, with no end, eternally.

No wonder Mary said…”how?” The angel responds by saying that “nothing is impossible with God” and then cites how God enabled Elizabeth to get pregnant in her old age as an example of God being able to do the impossible.

It’s a good clue for us. Often times when we read these fantastic stories with these miracles in them our modern scientific minds have trouble accepting that they really are true and really happened. But listen to the angel’s logic. If there is a God…if there is a being who actually had the power to create everything that exists, is it not possible for him to interrupt things and do as a pleases…isn’t that possible for him? That’s sound logic.

Mary accepts it and bows in servanthood and submission and then she is contemplating all of this. It appears that Mary was a deep thinker. In the next chapter after Jesus is born Luke says Mary, “ponder(ed) all these things in her heart (Lk 2:19).”

This song or poem she writes is the fruit of her pondering. It begins with a declaration of worship and joy. Check out “The Worship and Joy of Mary.” Verse 46-47, “And Mary said, ‘My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.”

She begins in worship. She sees herself as blessed and from the uttermost part of her soul pours herself out to God in joyful worship. Pure unadulterated love of God in worship is one of the most beautiful things a human being can ever do.

Jonathan Edwards is more well known for his sermons on hell, which are phenomenal…but he actually spoke and preached much more about heaven. And no one can quite speak of it like Edwards. Mary’s expression, “my soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices” reminded me of in a sermon Edwards preached titled, “Heaven is a World of Love” where he speaks about the worship and joy of saints in heaven. Here’s an excerpt:

“All shall stand about the God of glory, the fountain of love, as (if) it were (the) opening their bosoms to be filled with those effusions of love which are poured forth from (him) (just) as the flowers on the earth in a pleasant spring day open their bosoms to the sun to be filled with his warmth and light and flourish in beauty and fragrancy by his rays. Every saint is as a flower in the garden of God, and holy love is the fragrancy and sweet odor which they all send forth, and with which they fill that paradise. (In) every saint there is as a note in a concert of music which sweetly harmonizes with every other note, and (it) all together (is) employed wholly in praising God and the Lamb. And so, all helping one another to their utmost to express their love of the whole society to the glorious Father and Head of it, (they) [pour back] love into the fountain of love, (from which) they are supplied and filled with love and with glory.”

Good stuff. Do you know what it is like to utter love God from your gut where you can say, “my soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices within me”? It is the greatest joy we can know and experience…to know the greatness of God and his blessing unto us.

Mary was full. Filled to overflowing of the greatness and love of God because of what he had promised her according to is word. We like Mary stand in the same place. The promise of a savior who died for our sins, the savior who is the Son of the Most High God, who reigns as king over sin and Satan and who will return and physically reign over the earth one day.

Mary’s promise is our promise and it is cause for great soul magnifying and great joy.

IV. The God & Savior of Mary (v.49-56)

Our last point for today looks at who this God is Mary worships and trusts in for her salvation, “The God & Savior of Mary.” Mary refers to God by name or pronoun 16 times in this song of hers and she mentions key attributes of God.

In verse 49, she says he is mighty. A core attribute of the God of Bible is that he is all-powerful. If you think of all the power of all the automobiles and all the planes and all the nuclear plants and all the power of the sun and all the power at work in all the stars…God is more powerful than all of it. In Jeremiah 32:17, the prophet Jeremiah was contemplating this and said, “Ah Lord God! It is you who have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm! Nothing is too hard for you.”

In the second part of verse 49, she says God is holy. This is another core attribute of the God of the Bible, that he is holy. In the ocean of his existence, in all that he is and does there is not one single ounce or sliver of imperfection or immorality. He is completely pure and righteous and true. It is his very being. All that is good and right flows out of who he is. This is pretty much the major theme of the whole Old Testament, the whole sacrificial system, the architecture of the temple, the journey of the people…everything is to show that God is holy.

Then in verse 49, 50, and 54 Mary repeats that God is a God of mercy. Mercy implies the opposite of holiness. It’s recognition that we as a people and as individuals are not holy. We fall far short of God’s holiness and because of that we deserve judgment. Mercy is not getting the judgment we deserve. God’s withholding of it. In Exodus 34:6 Moses contemplated this and said, ” “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.”

In verses 51-53, Mary counts the justice and the goodness of God. She says he brings down the proud and lifts up the humble and fills the hungry poor with good things and sends the hording rich away empty. Mary knew what it was like to be poor. It could have been the reason there was no room for them in the inn…that all they could afford was a place with the animals to have her baby. She was the one of “humble estate.” That’s how she refers to herself twice.

After Jesus is born they go to the temple to present Jesus and it says the sacrifice they bring two birds, which is a sign that they were really poor. You were only allowed to bring a pair of birds if you couldn’t afford a lamb. And on top of it…Mary was of the royal line that had been smited and removed and left with nothing.

In Mary’s song she reminds us that God keeps the books. She was of humble estate but she knew that God knows our needs and will make all things right in the end.

Lastly, she recognizes and praises God for the fulfillment of the Messiah who is for all generations. Her whole poem is written in past tense…because in the promise of God to her of Jesus she sees all these Old Testament prophesies fulfilled. Nearly every line is from a prophecy of the Old Testament. Mary knew her Bible, well.

In Jesus she saw the promises of God completed. It’s quite interesting reading this and then thinking about the outcome of Mary’s life as an adult. She pops up throughout all the gospel accounts and even once in Acts.

Jesus first miracle, where he turns water to wine at a wedding is prompted by Mary’s confidence in Jesus as the messiah (Jn 2). Then one time in the middle of Jesus ministry, he’s teaching and preaching and apparently Mary and his brothers come and they want to see Jesus. The disciples tell Jesus and his response is for his mother and brothers to follow him as his disciples and hear his word (Lk 8:19-21).

And that’s what we see Mary do. When Jesus gets crucified on the cross and all the disciples are in hiding for fear that they will be next…Mary is there at the foot of the cross watching the whole thing (Jn 19:25). Then Mary is one of the first ones who discovers the resurrection of Jesus from the dead and she goes to tell the disciples (Lk 24:10). Jesus makes appearances for 40 days and then Jesus ascends to heaven and the church gets started and where do we find Mary? Acts 1:14, devoting herself to prayer with the church on the day of Pentecost.

Mary truly was the first Christian. The first true follower and believer in Jesus. That’s what makes her great. You can go overboard with Mary. Many of our friends among the Catholic Church have done that. There is even a push to deem her co-redemptrix or co-salvificator along with Jesus. But that’s beyond the bounds. Jesus is the savior, not Mary.

But in reaction we can go under board with Mary as well and not recognize her character and the grace of God in her life and learn from it. Mary is a great example of a woman who loved God, who loved the Bible and who believed in Jesus who turned to him for her salvation.

Is your God like Mary’s God? Mighty. Holy. Mercificul. Full of justice and goodness. Are you a follower of Jesus like Mary? One who seeks to learn from Jesus, worship Jesus, and seek the kingdom of Jesus with his church? Mary is such a great example for us in these things.

Conclusion

To conclude today’s sermon I simply want to call your thoughts and your hearts to the gospel. The good news of who Jesus is and what God has done in history for us through him. When Mary and Joseph take Jesus to the temple to be presented there when he is still a baby a man named Simeon, came up to Mary and Joseph.

Luke says that Simeon was a righteous and devout man, waiting for the consolation of Israel, and that God had told him he would not see death before seeing God’s prophesied messiah. When Simeon sees baby Jesus he takes him up in his arms and says to God, “according to your word my eyes have seen your salvation (Lk 2:29-30).”

Then he turns to Mary and says these words, Luke 2:34-35 “And Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, “Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel…and a sword will pierce through your own soul also…so that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.”

Simeon tells Mary that Jesus will save yes, hearts will be turned, but that in order for that to happen Jesus will be pierced through with a sword and that when he is, a sword will also pierce Mary’s heart.

I couldn’t help but think of that in concluding the story of Mary today. One of the coolest things about a fresh, newly born baby is seeing and feeling their little hands and toes. Mary held the baby Jesus in her arms, played with his hands and toes…but one day she would kneel in front of a cross and see those hands and toes with nails in them and watch her son be pierced through with a sword. It’s an emotionally gripping scene.

But in that act Jesus reveals, gives, and births new hearts. In that act Jesus saves for all who trust in him and his work to deal with our sin. As we close I invite all of us to join Mary at the foot of the cross this morning. To come to Jesus and worship him and thank him for coming into the world and for dying on a cross for our sin.

We like all, like Mary need Jesus. We need our hearts to be pierced through to see how much God loves us and to what lengths he has gone through to demonstrate and extend his love to us. May Jesus work in us this morning as we go to the table to confess sin and to rejoice in our salvation.

Let’s pray.

Philippians 2:1-11 | Advent | Humility | Brad Hutchison

This is a topical sermon on Humility. It focuses on how the Advent of Christ and the scene of his Nativity is an example of his Humility. This sermon was originally preached by Brad Hutchison on December 11th, 2011 at The Resolved Church in San Diego, CA.

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Blog | Deacon Errin Samuelsz

Many times throughout our lives we are forced to stop and reflect upon our current status. Looking back at the past year and attempting to quantify our productivity we inspect our current relationships, the balances in our bank accounts, and the possessions we have, hoping that the past all adds up to something meaningful.  Inevitably there are goals and expectations from year to year and season to season that we fail to live up to, and we hope to do better next time.  We try visualizing the future and what it holds for us personally, professionally, and socially, leading us to hope for those key items which would make everything better.

This kind of hope is sporadic, momentarily supplying a boost of motivation, but then quickly leaving us on our own. Its foundation is composed of more variables than an algebra expression, and there’s no graphing calculator to plot the path of least resistance. So why is this hope so common?

I look at the world and how hope is little more than an ad campaign strategically placed and methodically rationed.  A quick browse of some of today’s most popular entertainment reveals that hope is a dream, often showcased as the antagonistic counterpart to a failed protagonist.  Political conflict, economic volatility, and social inequality are everywhere we look.  To cope we search for hope in people who claim to have answers, or jobs that promise security, and even relationships that promise comfort.

What we really need is a hope that isn’t full of empty promises;  A hope that is solid, and provides consistency throughout every circumstance.  There is only one hope that can withstand anything life throws at us.  Hope in Christ is the only hope that remains true yesterday, today and tomorrow.

This season of Advent and the Hope of Christ seems to have more significance than ever for me personally, as I’m currently anticipating the birth of my first child.  While his arrival is still a few months away, my wife and I are excited to meet him for the first time (yeah, it’s a boy!), but as we prepare for his arrival we are also preparing to nurture and lead both physically and spiritually.

I look forward to the responsibilities of being a father, but I know that he can’t find his hope in me.

My prayer, as I know many fathers have prayed before me, is that I can point my children to the Hope of Christ. “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”(Hebrews 11:1)  This faith is where I can find hope for the future, both for myself and for my family.

This Christmas season, as gifts are being exchanged, and joyful memories are being created, through carols, and travels, and even in the midst of the chaos of the world, I’ll be remembering the gift of Hope that God has supplied for his people in the life, death and resurrection of his son, Jesus.  There is no greater truth than that of the word of God, and no greater Hope than that of the Son of God.

Psalm 40:1-3 | Advent | Hope | Pastor Chris Swan

This is a topical sermon on Hope. It focuses on how the Advent of Christ gives us Hope by teaching us a new song in praise to our God that we can sing even in times of trial. This sermon was originally preached by guest preacher Chris Swan on December 4th, 2011 at The Resolved Church in San Diego, CA.

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Blog | by Various Resolved Members

I’m sure you’ve seen the title of this blog on a bumper sticker, but it actually comes from The Lord of the Rings. Though there are probably not a lot of people more appropriate for expounding upon Duane’s comments concerning fantasy and imagination this past week, just for today, I am not going to be “That Guy.”

Instead I want to use this opportunity to present some stuff that a couple people at The Resolved have been gracious enough to share with us, tying closely into what Duane preached on in the other 70% of his sermon: What it means to be a sojourner instead of just a plain old wanderer.

There aren’t a lot of people I have run into at the church that are more itchy to travel (“prone to wander”) than Ryan Calihan and Rachael Gwendolyn Standaert. Both recently spent a bit of time outside the civilized world and neither of them are particularly certain that San Diego is the place they are meant to be for the long[ish] hall. In any case, both of them learned a lot, and had a lot to say about the nature of home, community, and direction that speak to the reality of The Gospel.

Ryan

Last year Ryan Calihan spent 3 months in France teaching English, what could be seen as a perfect opportunity for Mission. He describes it differently:

“Earlier this year I was living life as usual, unsure about what I was going to do or how I was going to do it. I was dwelling on the current state of my life… I was unsure about my place in life and what I was going to do with it, and I was feeling a bit bitter at God because of it. I was feeling discontent and lonely. I left for France not expecting it to change anything, but to just delay the inevitable.”

Ryan goes on to describe his experiences being in community with the people he lived with and taught for those few months. He got along fine, but it was immediately clear that he didn’t belong.

“For the 3 months I worked there I didn’t work with or meet one other follower of Christ. This was a new experience for me… When I was working at American Village, I was alone for the first time. I made so many great relationships with the people there and made friends whom I love dearly, but there was no one who could really understand the deepest part of my identity.

There was something different about me that people would notice quickly and ask me about… In one particular conversation I had with someone, he said that if I were the first Christian he had come into contact with, he would have had a very different view of Christ. This broke my heart, but I was grateful that I was used to show the message of The Gospel through my broken life. I was able to share with people that the only thing that made me any different from them was Christ.”

I’m actually pretty sure that your average French citizen is familiar with what it means to be “American.” With Ryan they encountered something truly foreign, while at the same time close to home. He was no more or less broken than any of these people, but the restlessness that moved him toward France in the first place was testament to the fact that, for him, “broken was not good enough.”

Though he may have wandered from The States without the most perfect heart for Mission, he unwittingly (perhaps if only at first) provided a perfect example of what it means to have an assurance of hope for something better. Gracefully, God’s making use of Ryan in even the most unglodly of places (had to do it, sorry guys. Had to…) warmed him to a specific longing for “home.”

“But I was also convicted in my time separated from community. Like I mentioned earlier, I was very discontent in the time before I left with where I was and with my church community. Being separated from everything really showed me where my heart was sinful towards it. I would say that the number one thing I missed the most was going to church. Sure there are a lot of churches in Europe, big and beautiful churches. But they are as empty and desolate as dead bones. On my days off I would hike to 1000 year old churches, sit outside, read the bible, and listen to Duane’s sermons. As much as I liked doing that, it was not the same as being among other believers. God’s love and care for me was extremely evident when I was gone, but he really showed me I held a very low view of community.”

Home was a not San Diego, but a place where Christ was present in community. If we believe in the sovereignty of God, and we believe that He uses wanderers to tell His story, then we can be assured that Ryan’s destination will be the final, lasting testament of his Mission. When some of the people he was in contact with in France start seeking after what it was that made him “foreign,” they will know that it’s not as simple as buying a plane ticket to California; that Ryan’s citizenship is not defined by a place, or even a people, but one Person.

Rachael

Rachael Gwendolyn Standaert tells a story that is the same but different. She fled San Diego going in the opposite direction, pursuing Mission specifically, in the middle of China. In a world more foreign even than France, she found a sense of belonging.

“It hit me as I sipped my Americano at a local coffee shop on my break from teaching Chinese children whom I love to hear laugh: I love my life. I love living here and experiencing what I’m experiencing and engaging with the people I’m engaging with and because life is a journey and an amazing gift from God.

I’m confident that I’m going to love it next month when I haven’t showered for 5 days but am hanging out Bangladeshian girls; and in two months when I’m making coffee for over- paying customers and watching movies with my mom. For the first time in my life I can honestly say that Jesus has taught me to be more than just satisfied but happy with where I am.

The longing that I’m left with at the end of the day is no longer for Texas or California or the future but Heaven…and it’s a good longing cos it reminds me where my affection and devotion should be.”

Some time later she adds,

“This season of my life is beginning to wrap up and I can’t help but look to the future with an expectant grin on my face like that of a child who is being handed presents on his birthday. Feelings of nervousness and apprehension are certainly starting to overwhelm me, though. The Lord has been so good to me here. Too good to me. The relationships, the personal accomplishments, the experiences, the memories… I know that I was brought to China for such a time as this. And when I really think about it all it just makes me plain happy.”

Sounds like an amazing place to be, right? But, there is this strange thing that happens, where it becomes easy to think of “going home” as being a direction opposite of The Gospel. Traveling in search of foreign Mission is not a bad thing, but if we go at it with the wrong heart, we’re just wandering. Because God is good, he more often than not turns our wandering into His own story, ultimately leading us back “Home,” to Him. Rachael goes on to demonstrate this kind of a process.

“I’m nervous because I don’t know what’s next. I’m nervous because I am getting comfortable with the idea of moving back to the states for awhile… maybe too comfortable… I’m wondering what the Lord is trying to tell me and I’m having a hard time listening.

But as I pray about the future- one thing is certain. This world is not my home. Every time I move to a new place I can’t wait to go ‘home’. And every time I go ‘home’ I can’t wait to move again. I’m like a slave and my master is nostalgia. That is why Amy Carmichael’s quote ["If I covet any place on earth but the dust at the foot of the cross than I know nothing of Calvary’s love“] rings so true in my own life…On earth my home should be the foot of The Cross… a place where a longing for my forever home is sure to overcome me.
I’m reminded often of the fact that this world has nothing for me.”

Conclusion

The fact is, we sometimes have to wander explicitly away from “home” in search of The Gospel in order to understand that we are sojourners, bound and conscripted to a citizenship that has come to find us, not one that is yet to be found (Matthew 22:1-14).

In the end we have no real and lasting ability to find a “home” away from Christ than “Strider” (the “wanderer” mentioned in the line quoted atop this blog) had the ability to deny his kingship and make a life drinking beer with hobbits in the Inn of the Prancing Pony (again, had to do it. HAD to…) The story that “The Author” means to tell necessitates it. In due time, it will happen. As long as your life and all its wanderings remain oriented toward “That Time” and “That Place,” you are never lost, just sojourning for a season.

Ryan and Rachael wandered thousands of miles in opposite direction only to be reminded and reassured that Home is no nearer or farer away in France or China than it is in California.

Blog | Pastor Duane

“The word “Advent” comes from the Latin word Adventus, which is a translation of the Biblical Greek word parousia, meaning “coming” “arrival” or “appearing.” Out of the 24 times it occurs in the New Testament, only one of those actually refers to the incarnation or birth of the God-man: Jesus, on earth (2 Pet 1:16). The majority of all the other occurrences refer to the time when Jesus promised he will come once again to earth, a second advent or coming when he will not come as a baby, poor and lowly but as a powerful king full of glory.

Some churches celebrate Advent, others do not.  Traditionally there are 4-5 week of Advent depending on the calendar year and what day Christmas falls on.  As a church, part of our vision and mission is to express the good ole’ gospel in new and fresh ways to reach people today.  We see being a part of the historical Christian faith as important, thus we like to incorporate some of the more formal liturgical traditions of the past.  Advent falls within that camp, so rather than just having one Sunday celebrating Christmas we take four and follow a yearly theme for Advent.  The four main weeks and candles of Advent are Hope, Humility, Joy and Peace.

This year for Advent during the time of worship in the study of God’s word (sermon time) we will be taking each week and comparing the first coming of Jesus with the second.  By looking at the first coming of Jesus we see how Jesus initiates the great coming of God into the world to redeem and rescue his people.  By looking at Jesus second coming we see how Jesus fulfills the great coming of God into the world to finalize all the benefits of his redemption and rescue.  Seeing these two Advents side by side puts the power of the gospel in a perspective for us which not only minister to our hearts and needs now but also breeds great excitement and anticipation for what God has ahead.

May God bless us and work among us greatly by His Spirit this Advent season,
- Pastor Duane

* SPECIAL NOTE *
On Christmas Day, we will only be having ONE SERVICE – 9:00AM (no 11 o’clock).

A Sermon Series From Hebrews 11 – This sermon series works through the eleventh chapter of Hebrews which defines faith as “the assurance of things hoped for (and) the conviction of thing not seen.” The series covers the thirteen major “by faith” examples and looks at the significance of the chapter in the book of Hebrews as a whole and the city to come it announces. Themes include the role of Christian history and heritage, examples of faith in the gospel instead of examples of morality and how Jesus is the fulfillment of all that faith looks to.

Listen   Read    11:1-3   Faith & the Example of Creation
Listen   Read    11:4-6   Faith & the Example of Abel and Enoch
Listen   Read    11:7   Faith & the Example of Noah
Listen   Read    11:8-10,17-19   Faith & the Example of Abraham
Listen   Read    11:11-12   Faith & the Example of Sarah
Listen   Read    11:20-21   Faith & the Example of Isaac and Jacob
Listen   Read    11:22   Faith & the Example of Joseph
Listen   Read    11:23-30   Faith & the Example of Moses & Israel
Listen   Read    11:31   Faith & the Example of Rahab
Listen   Read    11:32-40   Faith & the Example of Valor
Listen   Read    11:13-16; 12:22 & 13:14   Faith & The City To Come

Hebrews 11 | Vintage Faith | 11:13-16; 12:22 & 13:14 | Pastor Duane Smets

This is an exegetical sermon of Hebrews 11:13-16; 12:22 & 13:14. It covers the promise from God of the city to come and what it will be like, as well as the origin, intention and design of God for cities and how we as a church ought to be on mission for them. This sermon was originally preached on November 27th, 2011 at The Resolved Church in San Diego, CA.

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The Resolved Church
Pastor Duane Smets
November 27th, 2011

Faith & The City To Come
Pastor Duane Smets | Hebrews 11:13-16; 12:22; 13:14

I. The Promise: God’s City
A. Hebrews 11 & The Book of Hebrews
B. Zion & What is to Come
II. The Curse: Men’s Cities
A. Origins & The Biblical Story
B. Citizenship & Lackluster Provisions

Introduction

Today is our final sermon in our “Vintage Faith” sermon series this fall. So far we’ve looked at thirteen main examples of faith. Every sermon has been titled, “Faith and the Example of _______________.” But with this last and final week of the series we change things up and look at “Faith and The City To Come.” Back in the middle of our series I skipped a couple verses but promised we’d come back to ‘em, so today we do that and those verses along with a couple other key verses in Hebrews are supplying our main text for this morning. So let’s go ahead and read ‘em, pray over ‘em and then I’ll break down the plan for us all. (read texts and pray)

Alright. We’re really just looking at three points today, I merely provided some sub points for us to help us understand a couple key things involved in each of our main points. So we’re looking at “The Promise: God’s City, The Curse: Men’s Cities and The Mission: Seeking The City.”

I. The Promise: God’s City

To start off in talking about the promise of God’s City I want to remind us of a key thing we have been saying throughout our study of chapter 11 and that is what I’ve repeatedly pointed out in recognizing that all the figures who get brought up in this chapter do not get brought up because of their superior moral quality of life or example. None of the people in Hebrews 11 are really heroes at all. If anything, they are merely one example after another of jacked up people like you and I, sinners, whom God has grace on in granting them faith.

But, I don’t even think that’s really the main reason they get brought up here in Hebrews 11…that they are brought up to be examples of sinners saved by grace. Instead, I think it has more to do with what we touched on it a little bit in the week we looked at Rahab, but nearly every single figure identified in this chapter has some major connection or relationship to the land.

Abel gets killed by his brother Cain who soils the land with his blood. Enoch is taken out of the land. Through Noah the land is cleansed. In Abraham the promise of new land and a people to live in it is given. Through his son and grandon Isaac and Jacob the family grows populating the land. With Joseph, the family of God moves away from the land to Egypt. Under Moses, they leave Egypt on a journey toward the promised land. Through Rahab they actually enter the land. And then after they are there as we looked at last week, things aren’t so great in the land.

And then the chapter ends saying that was because all these people were looking for something better and we learned last week that the better was both more people (all believers throughout more time) and that the better is fulfilled by Jesus. What we didn’t talk about was how Jesus fulfills it for all his people and today I’m gonna argue that what he actually does is procure the better land where he will rule and reign in its great city!

A. Hebrews 11 & The Book of Hebrews

First let’s look at verses 13-16 which give us a great insight into how the chapter is geared this way, “Hebrews 11 & The Book of Hebrews.” These verses are kind of a weird side note in the middle of the chapter. If you’re reading straight through it and you come to these verses they sort of stop the story for a minute and give this great explanation of what he is doing in telling story after story.

So it says, “These all died in faith (all the people of this chapter), not having received the things promised (the better land), but having seen them and greeted them from afar (we’ll come back to that) and having acknowledge that they were strangers and exiles on earth (so they realized the land was not going to be found on earth). For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland (we’re made to have a permanent home and not be journeying forever)….” On down to verse 16, “they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one (the true land comes from heaven and in it)…God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city (there is a great city in this land).”

Okay, starting to feel this? Let’s keep following the story in Hebrews. The book of Hebrews starts out in its very first chapter describing the incarnation, when God came to earth…he came to the land, what we’re about to celebrate this Advent. Then it spends ten chapters talking about what Jesus did in the land to redeem his people there. Then we’ve got chapter 11 which transitions from looking backward at what Jesus did to looking forward to what he has ahead and it’s focus is this better land.

Chapter 12 basically addresses the struggles involved in waiting for this land that’s ahead and to encourage those suffering it gives us this glimpse into what is ahead. Check it out with me, Hebrews 12:22-24 “You have come to Mount Zion (Zion means joy, so mountain of joy) and to the city of the living God (he’s not only it’s designer and builder and founder but he’s at it’s center…it’s) the heavenly Jerusalem (so not earthly Jerusalem but the one built in heaven) and to innumerable angels in festal gathering and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven (that’s Christians) and to God the judge of all and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect (that’s all the Old Testament believers) and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant.

So we’ve got this great mountain of land, with a city of joy on it called “Jerusalem” where there is a great gathering of angels, Old Testament believers and Christians who get to be there because of Jesus. This is to what is to come and then in the final chapter of Hebrews, Hebrews 13, we’re told what to do in the meantime. Hebrews 13:14-15 “We seek the city (this city) that is to come. (and we do that) Through him (Jesus) ….(by) continually offer(ing) up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name.

Okay. So I know I just gave you this big, wide stroke of a paint brush in doing going through Hebrews and out passages that way. Normally, if we had time I’d stop and go slowly through each of these passages making sure we’re interpreting each one of them rightly. However, one of the main principles of interpreting the Bible rightly is whatever is plain and most easy reading is usually correct…that most stuff is pretty self-explanatory. And I think especially with these passages it’s pretty clear. You don’t really need me or need the Greek to be able to see and understand that Hebrews is pretty clear…real faith looks to a land and a city, that’s built by God in heaven and it’s a city of joy and worship and Jesus is the one who gets us there. Is that fair? Okay.

Alright. What I want to do in talking about “Zion & What is to Come” is talk about why this stuff is in the Bible and the role and importance of biblical, faith produced imagination.

B. Zion & What is to Come

In verse 13 of chapter 11 it says of the Old Testament examples that they saw this land and city “from afar” and “greeted” it. That’s a very interesting phrase and concept. Now whether it was through dreams, visions, stories from their family members, or direct communications from God himself…to be able to “see” it since it hadn’t and still hasn’t taken place yet required imagination.

Now, there are a ton of ideas out there about the power of imagination and it’s function in human persons and society. Some say it’s imagination which enables one to be a successful entrepreneur or business man because they can imagine what could be. That’s definitely true of the now late Steve Jobs, he had an imagination for a products that most never dreamed could be reality. J.K. Rowling who wrote the whole Harry Potter series recently said in a speech at Harvard’s graduation ceremony that “Imagination is not only the uniquely human capacity to envision that which is not, and therefore the fount of all invention and innovation…(but is) arguably (the) most transformative…(because it has) power that enables us to empathize with humans whose experiences we have never shared.”

That may be true. What I think is different about biblical imagination is that it goes one step beyond potentiality or idea in the mind and says it is actually true and exists! I think that’s how the word “greeted” is function in Hebrews 11:13, that the people of faith heard (by whatever means) of the promise of God and they believed it was true and would come to pass and thereby they “greeted” it.

Now, I’ll let you in on a little secret. I love fantasy. Don’t tell anyone but I’ve always been a sucker for it, whether it’s the good ole’ classic stuff like Lord of the Rings and Chronicles of Narnia or the new school stuff like Harry Potter, Dresden Files, the Walking Dead, and yes I’m ashamed to admit it, I’ve read them all…”The Twilight Series.” It doesn’t matter to me whether we’re talking wizards, hobbits, zombies or vampires…I love it all. I love fantasy. There is something about reading material which recognizes that there is this whole other world and reality out there that just gets me going. Don’t tell anyone seriously or we’re not friends anymore, especially about Twilight. I think I lose some of my man card by admitting that.

What’s interesting is that from a very early age kids naturally imagine. You don’t have to teach it as a parent. Almost every day my daughter wants me to play with her with her toys in her room. So I’ll sit down with her on the carpet and ask her, “So what are we playing sweetheart?” And she’s ready. She’s got it all planned out. She’s got her dolls out and is telling me their names and how we’re going to play school and then there’s going to be a wedding. She’s got the whole thing imagined out in her head. We told her we’re going on a cruise for during my Sabbatical and lately she’s been telling me how her and Winnie the Pooh went on a cruise together already and she’s been telling us all about what it was like and how fun it is and stuff we should make sure and do while we’re on the boat. So if you need any cruise advice talk to my 4 year old daughter.

Imagination. It’s a powerful thing. And I think God gave us imaginations and put things in the Bible we would have to formulate and picture in our heads because what it does for us is tap into something deep in our psyche and being that he has implanted and all the realities of eternity come to life for us and our hope, excitement, anticipation and conviction is fueled!

So what I want to do for us this morning is to invite you to imagine with me the great city of God. The Bible actually has a ton to say about it describing it. In John 14:2 Jesus told his disciples that after his resurrection he would go be with the Father to prepare a place for his people. In Revelation 21 and 22 God displays the place he has been preparing with vivid detail. Here’s some nuggets straight out of those chapters.

It’s called the “holy city Jerusalem” and once it’s complete it descends down out of heaven and the glory of God shines all about it in a great and radiant light. It has a high protective wall all around it with twelve gates and mighty angels at each gate. It’s huge and every wall is adorned with jewels and the streets are paved with pure gold that is as transparent as glass.

There is no sun or moon anymore because light shines out of the throne of God where Jesus sits in the middle of the city. A river of water flows from under his throne through the middle of the main street in the city and on both sides of the river are multiple trees of life with fruit, like the one that were in the garden of Eden.

In Revelation 18 we see that the city is meant to be a place of music, the arts, trade, manufacturing, advancing technology and family building and in Revelation 19 we see that in the city of God all those things are purified from corruption and there is great joy. There are great feasts everyone gets dressed up to go to called “the marriage supper of the lamb.” And sadness, tears, pain and death are no more.

It’s a phenomenal picture isn’t it? Can you imagine it? Isn’t there something in your heart which leaps at the sound of it? We know this is true, it’s what we long for isn’t it? It’s why every fairytale ever told is loved by all…happily ever after! The victorious hero who makes all things new and rules the land with perfect justice peace and joy!

The beauty and wonder and scandal of the Bible is it claims it’s not a fairytale but is actually true! For all those who know the favor of its king, we shall live in his land and there he will not be shamed but anyone any longer but be honored and praised among us for all of his goodness and greatness. It’s a robust and full life, not only singing songs of praise before our God, but one of creativity, work, play and feasts! Heaven is life like it is now without any sin or darkness but only as it should be with joy and holiness.

Well, let’s shift gears a bit and talk about the cities we have now. How they got the way they are and why they are the way they are, “The Curse: Men’s Cities.”

II. The Curse: Men’s Cities

If the city to come is the promise of God for all who believe, then the cities and land with their faults now are a result of the curse. One of the amazing things about the Bible and something that isn’t so easy to see, unless you just sat down with the Bible and read it from cover to cover is that there is a unifying story and link between every book in its pages…that it all goes together.

A. Origins & The Biblical Story

If we look at the “Origins & Biblical Story” of cities in the Bible it really began in a garden, the garden of Eden in the first book of the Bible, Genesis. In the garden of Eden, God tells Adam and Eve to “fill the earth”, “have dominion”, “work it” and “keep it.” Tons of dudes have done extensive study on this and its pretty well recognized that this is really a call to build a God-honoring, God-centered city. Adam and Eve were called by God to populate, cultivate, organize and rule.

Meredith Kline in his phenomenal book “Kingdom Prologue” writes, “Fulfillment of man’s cultural stewardship (was to) begin with man functioning as (a) princely gardener in Eden. But the goal of his kingdom commission was not some minimal, local life support system. It was rather a maximal, global mastery. The cultural mandate put all the capacity of human brain and brawn to work in a challenging and rewarding world to develop his original paradise home into a universal city.”

In his article “A Biblical Theology of the City” Tim Keller writes that Adam and Eve were “to bring forth the riches that God put into creation by developing science, art, architecture, and human society…City building is an ordinance of God just like work and marriage…God made the city to be a developmental tool, a form of cultural ‘gardening’ designed to draw out the riches he put into the earth, nature and the human soul at creation. Even after the fall, cities are places of ‘common grace’ though each factor also now can be used, and is, for evil purposes.

You probably have never thought of that huh? What the purpose and goal of Adam and Eve procreating and working in the garden was…a call to build a rich city. Well, if you know and have read the story in Genesis, you know what happened. Instead of exercising wise dominion and cultivating the garden Adam and Eve fall into sin and are banished from it and die. Thus one of Adam and Eve’s sons, Cain, is the one who actually ends up building the first city (Gen 4:17).

Cain’s city ends up getting wiped out by the flood and right after that the first city we see being built is Babel. Babel was a prototypical ancient city. They would build what’s called a “ziggurat”, a sort of ancient skyscraper meant to be a staircase for gods to come down to earth. It’s sort of a twisted version of God’s design for a city with him at the center. In Genesis 11 God destroys Babel because the goal of their city was not to have him as the center but instead to “make a name for themselves.” Stealing the worship that is meant for God alone, which is the overarching purpose and goal of cities.

After Babel it’s not until the time of Joshua, Moses’ successor that God’s people start building cities. When they do they are constructed under God’s direction to be what he called “cities of refuge” meant to be protective against animals, criminals and foreign tribes. Once David, the man after God’s own heart becomes king of Israel he decides to make Jerusalem his hometown. After him, in like 41 other kings there’s never quite a God-centered king as David and the longing and prophecies for a David-like messiah king are born.

From David on Jerusalem becomes known as Zion, the city of God. But because of corruption in the people and the city God eventually sends the Babylonians to destroy Jerusalem. After about 130 Nehemiah finally returns and goes to work rebuilding the city of God. And things are good for awhile until by the time of Jesus the city has become corrupt once again merely functioning in subservience to the Romans. In 70 AD Jerusalem is destroyed and in large due to both the words of Jesus in John 4 that he is now the geographical center of worship and of due to the message of the book of Hebrews…physical Jerusalem and Israel in the middle east no longer become a focal point for God’s people since we are awaiting the city to come, the heavenly Jerusalem!

The dispensational branches of Christianity who get all hyped on end times and what’s happening in the middle east with Israel and Jerusalem seem to have missed that or something. If we just stick with the text Hebrews 12:22 says it’s a “heavenly Jerusalem” and Revelation 21:2 says it’s “the holy city, (the) new Jerusalem com(es) down out of heaven from God” when Jesus makes the new heavens and new earth. It’s not a re-make or a re-build of middle east Jerusalem. It’s brand new. There’s some subtle amillenialism for you eschatology nerds.

Okay back to city theology. So basically the story of the Bible is a story which starts out in a garden in the first book of Genesis. Then we see story after story of a broken people in broken cities. Then the Bible ends with Revelation, the last book of the Bible will a redeemed and healed people all gathered together in an all new garden city with Jesus, our God king at the center caring for the people, the city and receiving all worship and praise. The Bible is just cool you guys, isn’t it?!!!

B. Citizenship & Lackluster Provisions

So that’s the story…but before we move on to our final main point this morning I want to point out a few things about the broken cities in-between Genesis and Revelation…so “Citizenship & Lackluster Provisions.”

Because of sin entering into the world we see repeatedly that cities lack the ability to fully function according to their God-given intention. I’ll just point out a few things.

One, cities are meant to be places of refuge of safety for the innocent, hurting, oppressed where minorities, the poor and immigrants can find a home. Instead, because of sin, cities tend to become places of refuge for those seeking deviant lifestyles and those in rebellion who foster crime, classism and racism. Rather than being a refuge under the protection of God they become places of refuge away from God and his laws.

Two, cities are meant to be places density and diversity which put me together with others who think differently and have varied creative talents and skills. The result is that in working together, both image of God in humans and the fingerprint of God in the earth might be mined and used to create an ever progressing society which glorifies the God who gives it life and sustains it. Instead because of sin, competition, pride-full arrogance, materialism, overwork and exhaustion tends to take over our efforts as we seek to become gods ourselves.

Three, cities are meant to be places of worship where we meet God, his truth and his goodness. Instead cities have proven to frequently religiously restless as either havens for cults and false worship or centers for irreligious atheism, thinking they don’t need God and can be great on their own.

We see it time and time and time again here at The Resolved here in our city, San Diego. New ones will move here for one of these reasons: (1) either they needed a new start and are escaping something from some other place; (2) their job moved them here and our city provided a promise of financial benefit and career opportunity; (3) people are spiritually seeking and looking for answers and our city seems spiritually open or there are those who are tying to get away from what they perceive as religious persecution from any one of the major religious groups.

The point that is made in Hebrews with a resounding gong is that the promises our cities offer, they can never actually provide. Let’s go back to our text and I want to point out a couple things to you. Look at verse 14 & 15 of Hebrews chapter 11. Verse 14 says they’re seeking a home. Everyone wants to be loved and wants to be in a place where they feel useful. But verse 15, if there were such a place on earth that could provide that, they would have gone there. There isn’t such a place, verse 16 says it only exists from heaven.

If you’ve ever thought simply changing where you live would fix your problems you’ll find or you’ve already found out…it doesn’t, it’s our hearts that need to change. Hebrews 13:14 is super clear, we’re not supposed to seek an earthly city. “We have no lasting city, but we seek the city to come.”

What it does is put us in a natural tension here and now where we are seeking and awaiting rest in our true homeland and between now and then that tension often creates physical hardship, social ostracism, emotional anguish, and economic deprivation…just as it did for these ancient figures of faith we’ve been studying.

Bible commentator, F.F. Bruce says, “Every earthly institution belongs to “the things which are shaken (Hebrews 12:27)…in none of them can the human heart find permanent rest.” We live in this time between the time where we have promise but await fulfillment.

The proper biblical view of ourselves is as sojourners, travelers here in this world. Look at Hebrews 11:13 and what it says about those with biblical faith…they saw themselves as “strangers and exiles on the earth.” This is the universal view of the Bible, strangers and exiles. Listen to 1 Chronicles 29:15 “We are strangers before you and sojourners, as all our fathers were. Our days on the earth are like a shadow, and there is no abiding.” 1 Peter 2:11-12 “Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.”

We are sojourners. The things of this earth, the things it offers and promises…it cannot provide them apart from the great return of our Lord who will make all things new. We cannot afford to think that this is it. What God has ahead is better and the moment we start thinking this is our home, that this is the life, that this is the long awaited land…we are in trouble. Because then we have come to love weak, frail fractions of the gifts of God as he intends them to be.

It can’t be any clearer than Paul says it in Philippians 3:20, “Our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.” Our citizenship is in heaven. That’s where we belong. If you are a Christian. If you consider yourself one of God’s people…then this world is not your home! You don’t belong. You will always be a foreigner. It should never feel right. There should always be a holy dissatisfaction. A lingering feeling that this all falls far short. We just happen to be here for a short while. But we belong to another kingdom. The kingdom of the one true King who is to come.

I think I told you once before about the old kids song I remember singing in church when I was young. It’s lyrics are so fitting.

“This world is not my home I’m just passing through. My treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue. The angels beckon me from Heaven’s open door, and I can’t feel at home in this world anymore.”

This world is not our home. It’s like it and it’s similar in some ways, but the world to come and the city with it is far better. In C.S. Lewis’s final Narnia book, The Last Battle, Aslan who is the Christ figure in the book, at the end he brings the characters of the series to his eternal homeland and here’s how the book ends…

“Lucy stood with her dear friend, her oldest Narnian friend, the Faun Tumnus, looking down over the wall of that garden and seeing all Narnia spread out below. But when you looked down you found that this hill was much higher than you had thought: it sank down with shining cliffs, thousands of feet below them and trees in that lower world looked no bigger than grains of green salt…’I see’ she said. ‘This is still Narnia, and more real and more beautiful than the Narnia down below…Lucy looked this way and that and soon found that a new and beautiful thing had happened to her.

Whatever way she looked at, however far away it might be, once she had fixed her eyes steadily on it, became quite clear and close as if she were looking through a telescope…then she forgot everything else because Aslan himself was coming, leaping down from cliff to cliff like a living cataract of power and beauty…

Then Aslan turned to them and said, ‘You do not yet look so happy as I mean you to be.’ Lucy said, ‘We’re so afraid of being sent away.’ ‘…No fear of that,’ said Aslan. ‘Have you not guessed? …Your father and mother and all of you are – as you used to call it in the Shadowlands – dead. The term is over: the holidays have begun. The dream is ended: this is the morning.’

As he spoke he no longer looked to them like a lion but the things that began to happen after that were so great and beautiful that I cannot write them. And for us this is the end of all the stories, and we can most truly say that they all lived happily ever after. But for them it was only the beginning of the real story. All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning chapter one of the great story which no one on earth has read: which goes on forever: in which every chapter is better than the one before.” The End.

This world is not our home, our citizenship is in heaven and for it we wait with a great anticipation.

The question for us then becomes, what do we do in the meantime, while we’re waiting? To answer that let’s wrap up and talk about a few things from our last main point, “The Mission: Seeking the City.”

III. The Mission: Seeking the City

Hebrews 13:13 says we’re to “seek the city that is to come.” That word “seek” is an interesting word in the Greek it’s being translated from. It’s the same word that gets translated as “lust” in other places in the Bible. It means to enquire for, search out, diligently long for, wish for, crave and desire. We’re to crave after the city of God.

So how do we do that? Well, there’s some general things about how the gospel transforms our hearts and lives which enables us to transform the cities of the world we find ourselves among and then there’s also some unique things I think for us here in San Diego. I’ll just do them both together here.

A. Gospel Transformation Inside & Out
B. Reaching Beautiful & Broken San Diego

First, the gospel is a new message entrusted to us by Christ himself, that he has won and procured the new city for his people. He did this by being unlike Adam who failed in the mandate given to him by God. Jesus succeed and resists the temptation to garner glory for himself and instead chooses to be humiliated among his brethren even though in reality he is the true Son of heaven.

His whole life and ministry he pretty much stays away from Jerusalem but at the right time he enters into the city riding on a donkey and is hailed the king. The result is he is arrested and tried and dragged outside the city and crucified. Three days later he rises again, shows himself to hundreds of people for forty days and then before their very eyes he ascends into the heavens promising to return one day and bringing the new heavenly city of Jerusalem with him.

I mentioned Tim Keller’s article on the city earlier. He says that for us, the church, between now and that time there are basically four different options or approaches for us. One is to hate and despise the cities we live in, essentially entering into a culture war and calling the church our fortress. Two, is to say that the church is the city and attempt to mirror it and become independent of it…basically creating our own city. Three, is to use the city…like scavengers we live outside the city but make supply runs into it to get what we need. Or four, to actually love the city, be in it, and seek to spread the gospel among it as one does leaven in a lumb of dough.

I like that. I think it’s helpful because that’s really how the gospel functions inside our hearts.

Earlier we said that cities are meant to be places of refuge. We can create an anticipation for the true city to come by being a people of refuge where the innocent, hurting, oppressed minorities and immigrants can find a home through the love and support of the community of God’s people, not running away from God’s laws but running to them. We’re able to do this because of the gospel, because Jesus who had no home, offered up himself so that in him and at the foot of cross any one might be welcomed into his kingdom.

Earlier we said cities are meant to be places density and diversity with people using their varied creative talents and skills. We can create anticipation of the city to come by being a people who are not driven by the desire for our own personal successes but rather to please and glorify our God. We’re able to do this because the gospel, because it teaches us that our achievements do not define or satisfy us. Through Jesus we’ve been accepted and called his own and that frees us to merely delight in making our heavenly Father happy with what he has given because we don’t have to work for his approval with our performance.

Earlier we said cities are meant to be places of worship where we meet God, his truth and his goodness. We can create an anticipation for the city to come by being a people who truly and deply love our God and enjoy praising his name. The human heart cannot not worship…it always worships something but only when it is worshipping the one true God does it fulfill it’s design and is it satisfied. As others see how much we love to worship and live for our God they will be drawn into that because nothing else anyone can ever find is both worthy of worship nor can really receive it.

When it comes to us here in San Diego. I’ve said so many times…we need some people to come with us, stick it out here and love our city. The gospel needs to be kneaded like leaven into our city. I have a vision of our city completely transformed and changed because of the gospel. I believe that on this side of the heavenly Jerusalem people and places can be changed by the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Historian Rodney Starks documents in his book covering the spread of early Christianity that the gospel triumphed in cities…”31 cities of the (Roman) empire having a population of 30,000 (or more) by the year one hundred” had become saturated by the gospel as it spread through community and social networks of family, friends and colleagues.

We need you to be here in San Diego, to live here and spread the goodness and the truth of the gospel amongst your family, friends and workplaces while we work and worship together in community as the people of God. It’s what the third point of our mission statement is all about, being a “city within the city.”

Saint Augustine, one of the early church fathers wrote a monumental book titled “City of God.” In it he gives advice for how we are to live in our cities as we await the city to come. Here’s what he says,

“The city is often divided against itself by litigations, wars, quarrels, and such victories as are either life-destroying or short-lived…it seeks bondage and vice and is inflated with pride…it desires earthly peace for the sake of enjoying earthly goods…(instead) the families which live by faith look for those eternal blessing which are promised and use as pilgrims such advantages of time and of earth as to not fascinate and divert them from God…(until) we are translated into the kingdom of Christ…(where we shall) enjoy that holy and most delightful city of God.”

Essentially what Augustine argues is between now and then, while we are sojourners, we ought to live now in our cities according to the principles of the city of God and as we do the people of our cities will experience the transforming power of the gospel.

San Diego is a beautiful city, America’s Finest City” is our city’s official tagline. But it’s broken because it does not worship God, he is not he center. And we are on mission to have the worship of our great God for who he is and what he has done for us in Jesus transform our city.

Conclusion

Well, let’s conclude. I’ll be really brief here in preparing us for the Lord’s Supper.

Jesus died on the cross for sin outside the city so that he might bring all his people to the true and better city to come. He rose again and ascended to build and prepare the new Jerusalem city. It’s coming. And we his people, anxiously await it. 1 Corinthians 11:26 says every time we receive communion in this holy ceremony we’re about to partake in, that every time we do it we “proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.”

So there’s an aspect of this whole thing in which we are saying each week, Jesus is not dead, he is alive and he is coming again and when he does he’s bringing with him the city of heaven. Communion is a declaration of the reality of that city and longing plea for it to arrive. In light of that, here’s how I’d encourage us to respond today.

Where you’ve been loving this city of world, the world and its pleasure more than you’ve been loving Jesus and longing for the city of God…confess those areas as sin and have Jesus cleanse, change you, forgive you and once again declare over you that Jesus paid the price for your sin and has granted you citizenship in his city no matter what.

The other way I’d encourage us to respond is with some of the very last words of the Bible, how it ends in Revelation 22. It concludes with this triumphant declaration and petition, “Come Lord Jesus!“ So as you come to the table today pray that with me, “Come, Lord Jesus!” Express your longing for our Lord to come again that we might see his face and enter into that great city which will come with him on his coat tails.

Let’s pray.

James 1:17-18 “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.”

Blog | Pastor Duane

The word “Sabbatical” comes from the word Sabbath which means rest. In the Bible God sabbaths on the 7th day after creation and calls us to sabbath on the seventh day of our week (Ex 20:10-12) and after every seven years God’s ancient people of old were to give the land sabbath from cultivation.

In his book “The Origin and Early History of Sabbatical Leave” Walter Eels notes that in our times “sabbatical” has come to mean any extended absence in the career of an individual. Many universities, employers, scientists, physicians, or churches now offer the opportunity to qualify for paid sabbatical as an employee benefit, called “sabbatical leave.”

This last summer I was approached by several of the other Acts 29 men of our southwest region who asked me to seriously consider taking a sabbatical leave. This April will be the seventh year since we planted The Resolved Church. The last extended vacation I’ve had was in 2004 after completing eight straight years of full-time schooling. When I proposed the idea to The Resolved Church elders, they were more than supportive and added their request that I take a month’s worth of vacation every year.

In looking at the church calendar and the season of life our church is in, December this year seemed to be the best month to take this break. In the church calendar year, at least up until this point, December has proved to be one of the slowest month for our church…likely because most head “home” for the holidays and there are only a handful of homeowners or those with extended family in San Diego who are in our church. In the life of our church, this fall has been by far the busiest season yet…we moved to two services, added a third pastor and a couple deacons, added a couple new community groups, doubled those in leadership development and also have a bunch of new members! Praise God for his work among us!

Our church is in a super healthy place, with solid leadership, love and support firmly in place. So many do so much on a weekly basis living and existing as the church it has become vividly clear that The Resolved Church is not about one man, a weekly event or some new innovative strategy. Our church is a real church driven by a passion to glorify God, grow in and spread the gospel and love one another in our city. We are a real community of faith in Christ. It’s astounding to see and I feel so privileged to be just a small part of it. With that said, I have full confidence in Pastor Ron and Pastor James, our deacons, our community group leaders and those in leadership development to be able to carry my load while I’m gone for the month of December. I’ll be out of the pulpit for four Sundays and if anyone needs to speak with a pastor about anything, please contact Pastor Ron or Pastor James. If you have any practical needs please contact Deacon Dan as usual.

During this time away my wife Amy and my daughters are looking forward to this break. Six of our sister Acts 29 churches contributed financially to help enable us to do some special things. This last May was our ten year wedding anniversary and to celebrate Amy and I will be going on a cruise to Mexico. In addition, we plan to take our girls to Disneyland and simply spend some extra time just being together in the comforts of our home without all the normal busyness of our lives. Even though we’ll be in town for part of our vacation we plan to go completely dark and will be unavailable and out of contact (phone, email, text, events, visits etc.) for the entire month to everyone except immediate family.

You can be praying for me while I’m on Sabbatical in these ways:
• Pray I will personally have some sweet times in communion with Jesus. One of the dangers of being a pastor is that you can be around the Bible so much and sharing the gospel with others so much that you can easily start to become numb to it. I’m not, but it is ever my desire to dive deeper into dependence, love and trust in my savior.
• Pray that my wife would experience the great love of her husband and that my children would experience the great love of their father so that they would in some small way know the love of the true and better bridegroom and the love of the Father above. It is the heart and passion my life that my wife and children would always know that they are the first church I pastor and will always be more important than The Resolved. I pray that stepping away from the church for this season will be a sweet testament and reminder of that for them.
• Pray that God will be working in me to prepare me for the next season ahead in the life of our church. There are big things in store for us as a church…we have a big vision with a lot to accomplish in our city and beyond. As I attempt to do my job well in vocally leading the mission of our church, pray that God would not only deposit renewed energy and passion but also clarity in the next things to focus on in the coming year as we seek fulfill the ministry Jesus has given us to do.

Thank you all so much for your love grace and support in this. It’s going to be tough to be away, you all are our life and our family and we will miss you. But we will be back the first of the year and back in full force ready to charge ahead. May our Sovereign God bless you abundantly this Christmas season as we all remember that the greatest gift and the greatest thing we need is Jesus. Glory to his name.

- Pastor Duane

Hebrews 11 | Vintage Faith | 11:32-40 | Pastor Duane Smets

This is an exegetical sermon of Hebrews 11:32-40. It covers the story God’s various champions throughout the Hebrew history. Special attention is given to Jesus in that, while theirs is the valor, His is the Victory. This sermon was originally preached on November 20th, 2011 at The Resolved Church in San Diego, CA.

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Faith & The Example of Valor
Pastor Duane Smets  |  Hebrews 11:32-40

I.       The Foretaste from Faith  (v32-38)
  A.     Victorious Triumph: Judges and Kings
  B.     Victorious Defeat: Suffering Prophets
II.     The Fulfillment of Faith  (v39-40)
  A.     All God’s People
  B.     God With His People

Introduction

This morning for our time of worship in the study of God’s Word we’ll be working through the final verses of Hebrews chapter 11.  It’s this last chunk of characters which get brought up as examples of faith in this series we’ve been calling “Vintage Faith.”  It’s been somewhat of a whirlwind tour through some of the major figures of the Old Testament, who are like the founding fathers and mothers of theism…though it’s really the other way around.  They didn’t create theism but God created them and revealed himself to them.

So far we’ve looked at eleven different character or examples of “faith.”  What we’ve been discovering often is what we frequently think of and understand “faith” to be, very rarely has much to do with what it actually is.  “Faith” these days, in the way it’s popularly used seems to often have this nebulous undefinable quality to it like air or fog.  It’s usually just reduced to spiritual feeling.

In contrast we’ve been learning that faith, at least biblical faith has a very specific quality to it.  Rather than being an unknown, the first verse of the chapter told us it was assurance, “assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things not yet seen.”  And if you’ve been here the last couple months you’ve seen us go through these eleven different examples of that.

Today, in the final section of the chapter we get this rapid fire list of six names and some group generalizations meant to sort of put the nail in the coffin and put the matter to rest.  And in this last section, we get what is easily the most bloody, gut wrenching, and emotional example of all…so I’ve titled my sermon today, “Faith and The Example of Valor.”  It’s sort of the Braveheart section of the chapter.

So we’ll finish up the verses in chapter 11 today looking at this, then next week we’ll go back and pick up the verses we skipped in the middle of the chapter and work with how this whole exercise of citing vintage faith is meant to function in regards to the message of the book of Hebrews as a whole.  And that will be our final fall sermon, the week after it will be December and we’ll start Advent.

Alright, so with that let’s go ahead and read our text for today, thank God for it and pray over it (read text and pray).  So what the way I’ve divided this up to help us is to look at “The Foretaste from Faith” in verses 32-38 and then “The Fulfillment of Faith” in verses 39-40.  I think once we get to verses 39 and 40 you’ll see why I called them that.  So for now, I guess you can just try and trust me.

I.       The Foretaste from Faith  (v32-38)

Okay.  So literally beginning with verse 32, all the way down through 38 functions pretty much like a big run on sentence structurally.  Tons of guys have tried to figure out some sort of rhyme or reason to it but it doesn’t really follow any pattern.  The names here are not chronological time-wise and once he moves on to some of the various feats without names attached to them, it’s hard to imgaine sometimes who the author of Hebrews may have in mind.

It’s weird, because up until now everything has been pretty methodical and orderly but these verses just sort of feel like a faith puke.  Jeremiah 20:9, the prophet says God’s word was like a fire shut up in his bones that he got weary of holding in.  This section kind of feels like that, like all this stuff just sort of came out at once.  Or maybe it was just kind of like one of those experiences where when you first start to get something and it starts to really make sense to you, you start seeing all these connections everywhere and you’re like, “wow, this is amazing!”

I don’t know.  What we do have are three different types of men that get referred to, judges, kings and prophets.  There’s this theme of victory.  You know.  When you read this passage it has this real feeling of success and celebration.  The only difference is that some of the examples are dudes who had very visible victory and triumph here on earth and others seemingly failed before others but are nonetheless recognized as likewise being victorious.  So I figured working through it from that angle makes the most sense.

Now, one other thing before we jump into it with these guys.  Look at the first line here in verse 32, “And what more shall I say?  For time would fail me…”  And then he goes on his rant.  I think we got to pay attention to that.

I think by saying this, the human author of Hebrews, whoever it was (Paul, Apollos or some other dude), is basically assuming that by now we’re starting to get his point, the point he has been making all chapter long.  He assumes that and assumes that we could see that whatever example we brought up, whoever we might mention as someone who really and truly loved and believed in God…we would see that their faith was of this kind.  But he doesn’t really have time to do that, so he just gives us this faith puke.

So what’s the point, the thing we’re supposed to be convinced of by now, now that he’s spent 31 verses, 11 different examples hammering us with?  That faith, real faith, biblical faith…is a confidence and conviction in God and his promises.  Assurance of things hoped for conviction of things not yet seen or we could say received.

Alirght, that’s probably good.  Let’s dive in.  “Victorious Triumph: Judges and Kings.”

A.     Victorious Triumph: Judges and Kings

Just looking at verse 32.  Gideon, Barak, Samson and Jepthah are all judges.  David is the only king mentioned.  And Samuel is the prophet who sets up the first king and basically installs the Israel monarchy…the founder of the kings, though it was really not his desire to do so.

First, let me tell you about the judges and their stories.  If you didn’t know, our Bibles have a whole book of the Bible called “Judges.”  It’s the seventh book of the Bible.  The book covers the story of twelve judges.  Don’t ask me why Hebrews only mentions four of ‘em, I don’t know.  Actually I think it may be each of their unique lack of faith…but we can chew on that later.

As we’ve been following the story of God’s people here in Hebrews we’ve seen how God created man, but man fell and sin entered the world, then God initiated his plan to save.  He first unveils this plan to Abraham that he will have a family of faith and a land of faith for them to live in.  He ends up only having one child near the end of his life but as the years and generations go on, the family multiplies.  They finally reach nation level numbers but they are slaves in Egypt until God goes to war for them against Egypt and delivers them out and brings them into the desert.  They’re there for forty years until  they face Jericho and after God defeats Jericho they finally go into the land God has promised.

The book of Judges covers the time just after the people go into the land.  What happens during this time is this cycle where God’s people keep slipping into sin, not being faithful to God…worshipping, loving and serving him only.  So when they do, God stirs up a nation to come attack them and rule over them but then he also raises up a “judge” to fight for them and deliver them once again.  When he does that they’re reminded of God’s love for them, until it wears off and the whole thing happens all over again.

So that’s Judges.  In super quick form, here’s the story of the judges according to the order they’re listed in our chapter, Gideon, Barak, Samson and Jephthah.

What happens with Gideon is the Medianites end up overtaking Israel and ruling over them for seven years.  God’s people cry out to him to save them and God raises up Gideon.  He’s pretty doubting and distrusting of God constantly asking for signs but finally ends up following through and obeying and tries to round up as big of army as he can to fight and he rallies up 32,000 Israelite soldiers.  But God wasn’t having that.  He says to Gideon, that’s “too many for me…lest Israel boast over me saying, ‘My own hand has saved me.’”  So God forces Gideon to whittle down his army to 300 men and sure enough they defeat 135,000 Medianites (Judges 8:10).

What happens with Barak, Barak of Abinoam, not Barak Obama…is the Canaanites rise up against Israel and oppress them cruelly for twenty years.  God’s people cry out to him to save them.  Barak is the military commander of Israel’s army at the time and he isn’t doing anything about it.  So God calls upon a strong woman named Deborah to go confront him and call him to lead.  Like a panzy he’s afraid and doesn’t want to go unless Deborah will go into battle with him.  Dumb.  So he goes and sure enough God grants him the victory and the Canaanites and their king are defeated.

What happens with Samson is the Philistines rise up against Israel and end up ruling over them for forty years.  This dude named Samson is born and he’s sort of the opposite of Barak, he’s a man’s man.  When he’s born this angel shows up and tells his dad Samson will deliver Israel because God has given him supernatural strength, but as a sign of his being set apart and dependent on God for this, he’s never to cut his hair.  Sure enough, the dude’s an animal and basically starts conducting his own little personal guerilla raids on the Philistines setting fire to their towns and on one occasion fighting them and killing 1,000 men single handedly.  Then Samson does something stupid and one night he decides to hook up with this Philistine prostitute named Delilah and while they’re in bed fooling around she gets him to tell her about his hair.  So she ties him up, then cuts his hair and the Philistines rush in, capture Samson, gouge his eyes out, take him to their temple and chain him to it’s pillars.  Samson then prays to God for strength and pushes down the pillars collapsing the temple and defeating thousands of Philistines and Israel is delivered.

One more judge, Jephthah.  What happens with Jephthah is the Ammonites this time take over Isarel.  God raises up Jephthah, who is super gung ho about taking them over.  In the midst of battle he prays this rash unwise prayer to God basically saying, if you let me win when I get home I’ll sacrifice whatever first comes out of my house when I return…probably thinking it would be an animal of some sort.  God answers and delivers Israel through Jephthah’s hand.  When he returns, his daughter is the first thing to come out of his house and so he follows through with his vow and sinfully sacrifices her.

These stories are just crazy huh.  So that’s the judges and then there’s David and Samuel.  Now unlike the judges who are basically just mentioned one time in the Bible, David and Samuel are huge characters who are mentioned a ton.  And besides there not really being time to tell their stories I don’t think we’re really meant to recall any specifics other than that David is the quintessential king and Samuel is the one who sets up the Israelite kings.

There’s not one defining event of David or Samuel other than that for all of Israel’s ensuing history, throughout all 43 kings of Israel and Judah documented in the Bible…David is remembered as The King, the best one and Samuel is remembered as the king maker or anointer.  Some of the kings were good, some were bad, some were successful, some were not.  In our passage when we look down through the descriptions given in verses 33-38 most of the references seem to be stuff about the prophets, who we’ll talk about…except verse 33 where it says “through faith (they) conquered kingdoms” and verse 34 where it says “became mighty in war, put(ing) foreign armies to flight.”  That’s probably referring to David and the successful kings who resulted from Samuel instituting kingship in Israel.

Okay, let’s pause and talk a bit.  I kind of feel like Bible story man at this point just telling stories but we haven’t really said anything about them yet.  It’s clear that they’re commended here. Looked highly upon.  There’s this tone of triumph.  The key phrase here is at the beginning of verse 33 where it says it was “through faith” that they were able to accomplish these things.  Meaning they were not just mere natural human achievements but rather a result in their conviction in God and assurance of his promises.

What’s interesting about each of the judges that are listed is they really, as individuals made some pretty big blunders, but despite those things they had a hope and assurance in God and he was gracious with them.  Same thing with David and Samuel.  David has an affair and then has his mistress’s husband murdered.  Samuel ends up  being a terrible father and spiritual leader for his sons, who turn out pretty evil.

It seems then, that like all the other characters in Hebrews 11, these men are not marked for their morality but rather the God who works in their lives despite them.  The point then in Hebrews noting their triumphant victory then must be victory of God.  The vintage faith they express is one that turns to and trusts in God even in the midst of spiritual weakness and failure.

John Calvin is good here.  He says, “All that was praiseworthy in them (was) faith, though there was not one of them whose faith did not fault…Thus in all the saints, something reprehensible is ever to be found. Yet faith, though halting and imperfect, is still approved by God.”

What we see again and again and again with the judges and with the kings is their physical victories and battles won was never really the point…that the true victory was in God’s people realizing their need for him, calling upon him and seeing him faithfully delivering.  What’s really going on is that “through faith” of verse 33…God is planting and drawing out faith in and through these stories and situations.  The real story beneath the stories is that God is working.

Now maybe that just sort of sounds good and you’re wondering what the heck this has to do with us and our own lives?  Think of it this way…most of us don’t find ourselves in real military battle so these stories might seem irrelevant.  A few have been in battle but for those who haven’t, think of it this way…  Have you ever prayed for God do something for you?  You know, one of those selfish prayers…like “God give me this job, or give me this house, or give me this relationship.”

What you really want is to win, you want what you want and may even need…but you go through this spiritual battle wrestling with your wants and desires.  And what God is at work in doing really, regardless of the outcome is drawing out your faith…the sense of your need for him and the conviction that only he can do and be what you need.  That what you really need is God.  That’s the story beneath all our stories.

Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David and Samuel are not commended here for the greatness of their feats but for their faith that brought them about.  At the core of their faith was a conviction that God was their God, and that he cared for his people.  God is the one who brought about the attacking nations…so they would feel their need for him.  God is the one who brought about the kingship…so we would know we really need him as king.

I think I’m on pretty safe ground to say that every single situation and challenge you face in your life is about your need for him.  If you’re victorious in what you want to take place happening it will only truly be victorious if it deepens your love, trust, worship and faith in God.

So what is God really doing in your heart and your life right now?  What situation are you currently in this week, this month, this year, with your job, school, marriage, family…whatever, what situation are you in right now where God is wanting to show himself to you?  What does it look like to look at your life and what’s going on in it right now…through the eyes of faith, assurance and conviction in God?  How do you see victories in your life?  Is what’s going on with you about your faith in God or something else?

Well, let’s move on and talk about “Victorious Defeat” and the suffering prophets.

B.     Victorious Defeat: Suffering Prophets

With the exception of a few things I think most the stuff referenced here in verses 33-38 is stuff that happens with the prophets.  A few of them are good, triumphant victories but most of them are defeats that in spite of the defeats they were spiritually victorious.  Let me run us through them…I’ll try and do it quick.

Verse 33.  “Enforcing justice”…is the consistent theme of the prophets that we are to care for the poor and be gracious to them spiritually and physically.

Then we’ve got stopping “the mouth of lions.”  This is most likely the famous story of Daniel in the lion’s den.  Daniel is this prophet of God who won’t bow down and worship king Darius but Daniel won’t do it so they death sentence him by throwing Daniel into this den of hungry lions.  But God shuts the mouth of the lions and spares Daniel and as a result turns the heart of the king to worship God.

Verse 34.  “Quenching the power of fire.”  This is the well known story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego under Daniel the prophet who get thrown into a fiery furnace for not worshipping King Nebudchadnezzar.  But when they throw them in, their bodies don’t burn, Jesus shows up in the furnace as a fourth dude and as a result they are spared and then the king honors God.

Next in verse 34 is “escaped the edge of the sword” which could have been David or Elijah or one of the other prophets.  In verse 35 we’ve got this reference to women who “received back their dead by resurrection.”  The prophet Elijah prays for the son of a widow of Zarephath who gets sick and dies and after he prays  God brings him back to life.  Likewise the prophet Elisha prays for a Shunamite’s son who gets in accident hitting his head and he dies and God brings him back to life.

Verse 36 mentions others who “suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment.”  Several of the Old Testament prophets experienced this, especially Jeremiah who tells of being beaten, chained an thrown into a pit.

In verse 37 it mentions those who were stoned and sawn in two.  The prophet Zechariah was stoned to death and the prophet Isaiah was sawn in half with a wooden saw.

Then lastly, in verse 37 and 38 there’s mention of those who sore skins of sheep and goats and who wandered in dens and caves.  The prophets Elijah and Elisha were well known for their sheep and goat skin clothes.  And both Elijah and David hid in caves on the run from those who were trying to kill them.

We’ve just got this smattering of all kinds of stuff that mostly the prophets became well known for.  And most of it isn’t good stuff.  Ravenous lions, furnaces of fire, swords, flogging, stoning, sawing dudes in two…gnarly stuff.  Most don’t make it out alive.  It doesn’t look too victorious.

But like the ones who were triumphant, these ones who were defeated were able to do what they did  “through faith.”  They are included right along with the triumphant ones as verse 33 says, “through faith.”  If we took the time to go through their stories in detail you’d see that each time they suffer it really is because of their either their devotion to worship and serve God only or their message that all people are to worship and serve God only.

So then, the question is how? Because when you go out like that…beheaded with a sword, stoned to death, sawed in two or when you’re facing a furnace or lions how do you do it with faith?  For most people these days when they face suffering or tough stuff, that often causes doubt or distrust in God.  You know, the whole “how can there be a good God if he lets such evil and suffering happen” question.

I think verse 38 here is helpful on that.  It says of them when they were afflicted and mistreated…that “the world was not worthy of them.”  That’s an interesting phrase.    “The world was not worthy of them.”  What this phrase does is place life and the events of life beyond just the temporal and immediate and it appeals to deep realities.

In general “the world” is this earth and beyond this earth is eternity among the heavens with God forever.  On this Matthew Henry, the old Puritan Pastor says “the righteous are not meant to live in this world.”  They are meant to live beyond it.  What this gets at is the reality that for those who have faith it opens up a whole new dimension, where you realize that there is more than just the immediate, just the now.  There’s a world beyond the world.

Similarly, Jesus himself says in John 12:25 “Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.”  That’s one thing the argument about suffering and the goodness of God does not take into account, that there is more to life than just this world and God will see to it that his justice and goodness will reign over all.

What we learn here in the example of these suffering prophets is that faith does not necessarily imply an immunity from persecution, pain, humiliation, suffering and even a violent death.   Faith through suffering.

No matter which way you look at it faith isn’t easy.  If you’re victoriously triumphant in this world, it’s hard to think that God’s the one who gave the victory and you need him both in and beyond this world.  To be victorious in defeat is hard because it requires you to believe God cares and there is life beyond suffering.  But faith, an assurance and conviction in God, gives you that.

The now late John Stott writes, “In some of life’s situations it is impossible to conquer, escape, become might or victorious.  The powers are too great, the circumstances beyond our control.  In these cases faith is a life-accepting quality, enabling a man or woman to face suffering and adversity with serenity, endurance and trust…(it) turns agonizing distress into triumphant achievement.”

Look, I’ll just say this.  Some of you don’t suffer well and you’re not prepared to.  When things get tough you tend to bail on God.  Or you think that if you have enough faith it means that everything will go well for you all the time and you’ll escape suffering…that faith is what keeps suffering away.

The truth is that’s not true.  We live in a sin stained world where suffering is the reality until Jesus returns and we need a faith that can withstand it.  Life is hard and painful at times.  Suffering will strike.  And when it does we will be tempted to dive into depression, seek comforts other than God to ease our pain, and become bitter and resentful toward God and jealous to others whom we do not see suffering like us.  That will be the temptation.

But the example of these prophets show us something different.  They show us a warrior like faith that can withstand all the afflictions of the righteous.  I think that sometimes we fail to realize we as Christians are in a spiritual battle and I don’t mean politically here in our land over it’s silly laws and presidents.  Ephesians 6:12 says, “We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but….against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.“

Having Biblical faith is signing up for war.  We’re called to have a wartime mentality.  I don’t think it’s an accident the war heroes are listed first in this final example of Hebrews 11.  The war is won when faith in God takes place.  Some of you simply need to learn how to fight better!  And that’s what we’re here for…to train you.

I’ll say one more thing here and then we’ll move on.  Some of you are suffering right now.  I know.  The stuff that comes my way in a week sometimes just breaks me.  Suicide, terminal diseases, the inability to have children, miscarriages, divorce.  I know some of you are hurting.  God knows.  Look to God.  Put your faith in him, he loves you and cares for you.  Fight the temptation to run away, instead run to him.  Psalm 46 says he a refuge and fortress we can run into and be safe.

Others of you, hear me say this.  You don’t know what the person sitting next to you may be going through.  So love one another.  Be sensitive and caring.  Help your brothers and sisters fight the good fight well.

Okay, let’s move on to this second part.  Not really second half, I promise.  “The Fulfillment of Faith” and I’ll do both the subpoints together.

II.     The Fulfillment of Faith  (v39-40)

A.     All God’s People

B.     God With His People

Let me go ahead and re-read verses 39-40 again for us just to get them fresh in our heads.  “And all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had provided something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect.”

Okay, so verse 39 looks backward at all the guys we’ve just talked about, maybe even everyone in the entire chapter and says they were “commended for their faith” but none of them “receive(d) what was promised” yet.

So neither the ones who were victorious here on earth in winning their battles or the ones that lost in suffering received the promise.  That tells us that the physical material victory over the opposition was not the goal for either one.  Instead, what their faith was point them toward was something better.

Do you guys see that?  Is it making sense?  Everyone is commended for their faith here…but the stories and circumstances of their lives really were not about the things that happened to them but were about something in the future they would receive that would be far better than the temporal earthly victories!  The victories whether in triumphant or defeat happen through faith but what happened was really just a foretaste, not the real thing.  So we’re tracking right?  Then the question is what is the better?  What is the fulfillment?

It’s two things and they’re found here in the last part of verse 40 here.  First, notice it says “God provided something better FOR US that apart FROM US they should not be made perfect.”  Did you pick up on the word “us.”  Who is the us?  It’s the people of God throughout all time, us, believers, Christians, those who have put faith in God and his promises, us!

If the victories in the past were the reward or fulfillment of faith in themselves then they would have been incomplete because it wouldn’t have included us, those who believe here and now.  This is huge.  It’s pointing out that faith is not just an individual thing but involves God bringing together all the believers throughout all time.  And he is still working that.  And the more people the better.  Apart from us, who have come way later, the vintage faith of the people of old would not be complete!

Romans 11:25 says there is a full number of believers who must be brought in before the end comes.  Jesus himself says in Matthew 24:14 that the “gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.”

So then maybe you ask…what are the people of Hebrews and throughout all the history of God’s people and us…what are we all waiting for?  We’ll spend the whole week on it next week.  But I’ll give you a hint. Hebrews 13:14, “We seek the the city that is to come.”  But for now, just know the first thing that’s better here in Hebrews 11 is that when all God’s people are together throughout all time, then faith will fully be fulfilled.

Now the second thing.  It’s in this last word of verse 40, “perfect.”  I think this English word “perfect” is a bad translation from the Greek.  The Greek word behind it is the aorist passive subjunctive of “tele-o” where we get the English word telos or teleology.  It means appointed goal, completion, consummation or fulfillment.  I think when we hear the word “perfect” we think more of something that’s done just right, like a perfect brand new car without any dents dings or dirt.

Here’s the cool thing.  Look just two verses down.  The second verse of chapter 12.  We have this same word here again.  Check it out.  12:1, “since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses” …all them and us!  Let us look to, verse 2, “Jesus, the founder and telos of our faith.”  Look to Jesus the completor, fulfiller, cossumator of our faith.

So cool!  So in verse 40 faith is incomplete until it is completed and in two verses later Jesus is the one who completes it!  All the people of old, with vintage faith had an incomplete faith until Jesus came on the scene to fulfill it.  And us?  Our faith is incomplete unless it’s a faith in Christ.

You see just sort of having this airy aloof faith in God is not enough.  It’s got to be faith in Jesus Christ.  He is the one who completes and fulfills the longings of our faith.

Now there’s a couple application points.  First, I’ll just point out the obvious one that comes with recognizing that faith is meant to bring together “All God’s People.”  We live this out in many ways here in now.  It’s part of what it means to be a part of a church.  We are living and worshipping as God’s people together.

What we recognize here is that faith is not just an individual thing, it’s a communal thing.  God is not only in the business of bringing us to him but bringing us toward one another.  The more we grow and mature in our faith together the more we bond in and band together.  I cannot encourage you enough to do that.  Join in with us.  I’m like a broken record.  Get in a community group.  Start opening up.  Eat meals together.  Talk about your lives with one another.  Pray for each other.  Be God’s people together.

The other application point is simply Jesus.  He’s the completion and fulfillment of our faith.  Here’s how and then we’ll prepare for His Supper.

In our passage today we saw mainly two different kinds of people, those who were victorious in triumph and those who were victorious in defeat.  Those who triumphed physically failed spiritually and those who triumphed spiritually failed physically.  Jesus succeeds in both.

Jesus like the judges and kings, is raised up by God to rescue and deliver his people.  But he delivers them from a far greater tyranny and oppression, that of sin and it’s master and he does so without ever failing himself.  The judges and kings all fail miserably.  Jesus doesn’t.  Jesus is the true and better judge and the true and better king who stripped the enemy of all his power and authority by nailing sin to the cross and through it emerged victorious!

Jesus like the suffering prophets spoke the word of God and was tortured, suffered mocking, flogging, imprisonment, affliction, and mistreatment as one whom the world truly was not worthy…and then he was cast away into a cave called a tomb.   But Jesus didn’t just speak the word of God, he was the word of God come down from the heaven above into our world in order to be the God who suffers and dies for his people.

But unlike the prophets, Jesus wasn’t defeated in death because three days later he rose from the dead and he lives today.  Jesus is the true and better prophet of God because through his death and resurrection he speaks a better word, the word of a new covenant in his blood that all who put their faith in him shall be saved.

Jesus is the true and better judge because he was judged for us so we wouldn’t have to receive the judgment of God for our sin.

Jesus is the true and better king because he the king who does haven’t his people fight for him but instead he goes out in front to fight and lay down his life for his people.

Jesus is the true and better prophet because he’s the prophet because he doesn’t just speak words about someone else who we need to look or something else we need to do but he speaks words about himself in how he has done it all for us.

What you and I need most is Jesus.  He does for us what we cannot do.  He fights and wins the battle against sin for us.  He suffers and dies the eternal death we deserve, is raised and gives us his new life.  Jesus truly is the completor of our faith, only he could do it and only he is sufficient.

Let’s conclude and prepare to receive of his body and blood in the Lord’s Supper.

Conclusion

I’ll be real short and just attempt to appeal to your heart this way.  Whatever you think you have or think you need…Jesus is better.  The good news of the gospel is Jesus is better because he lived, died and rose for our sin.  Whatever may be standing in the way between you and Jesus this morning…make an exchange.  Come forward, leave it at his table and receive his good gift of grace.

I’ll say this too.  I’m a sinner.  Some weeks, some days I realize it more than others.  I’ll be honest, I’ve had a tough week.  I so easily try to take the place of God in my life.  I try to sit on his throne as judge.  And that’s damnable.  But I’m so glad our God is a God of mercy and damned his own son on the cross so I might receive grace and be welcomed in.

So just come and be honest with God from your heart before him this morning.  He knows it all already, so just tell him, have him love on you and be freed from the weight and burden of it all.  Jesus bore it and completed it so we wouldn’t have to and because we never could.  So come to him and receive his grace and thank him.

Let’s pray.

From The Marrow of Modern Divinity | Edward Fisher

“Briefly, then, if we would know when the law speaks, and when the gospel speaks, either in reading the word, or in hearing it preached; and if we would skillfully distinguish the voice of the one from the voice of the other, we must consider:—

Law. The law says, “Thou art a sinner, and therefore thou shalt be damned,” (Rom 7:2, 2 Thess 2:12).

Gos. But the gospel says, No; “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners”; and therefore, “believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, (1 Tim 1:15, Acts 16:31).

Law. Again the law says, “Knowest thou not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God; be not deceived,” &c. (1 Cor 6:9). And therefore thou being a sinner, and not righteous, shalt not inherit the kingdom of God.

Gos. But the gospel says, “God has made Christ to be sin for thee who knew no sin; that thou mightest be made the righteousness of God in him, who is the Lord thy righteousness,” (Jer 23:6).

Law. Again the law says, “Pay me what thou owest me, or else I will cast thee into prison,” (Matt 18:28,30).

Gos. But the gospel says, “Christ gave himself a ransom for thee,” (1 Tim 2:6); “and so is made redemption unto thee,” (1 Cor 1:30).

Law. Again the law says, “Thou hast not continued in all that I require of thee, and therefore thou art accursed,” (Deut 27:6).

Gos. But the gospel says, “Christ hath redeemed thee from the curse of the law, being made a curse for thee,” (Gal 3:13).

Law. Again the law says, “Thou are become guilty before God, and therefore shalt not escape the judgment of God,” (Rom 3:19, 2:3).

Gos. But the gospel says, “The Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment to the Son,” (John 5:12).”

Hebrews 11 | Vintage Faith | 11:31 | Pastor Duane Smets

This is an exegetical sermon of Hebrews 11:31. It covers the story of Rahab, her life as a prostitute, and the way in which her faith plays a role in leading the Egyptian Jews to God’s Promised Land. Special attention is given to how Jesus is the means by which we can reach the “Promised Land.” This sermon was originally preached on November 13th, 2011 at The Resolved Church in San Diego, CA.

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The Resolved Church

November 13th, 2011

Faith & The Example of Rahab

Pastor Duane Smets  |  Hebrews 11:31

I.       The Pinnacle of Chapter 11:  Rahab & The History of Faith

II.     The Prostitutes of Scripture:  Rahab & The Obedience of Faith

III.    The Promise of Land:  Rahab & The Commander of Faith

Introduction

Today is the week in this sermon series I have been looking forward to since we started because we’re looking at Rahab.  She’s this seemingly obscure person that’s really part of a side detail of a much bigger story in the Old Testament and she gets picked up and highlighted here in Hebrews 11 as being  a central figure of Christian faith and history.  There’s just some cool stuff today with her…I think.

Have any of you had the experience where there’s been something so common to you, something you’ve seen a hundred times and so you don’t really notice it and then you do and it changes everything for you?  Maybe it’s a restaurant you discover that you walked or driven by a ton of times but never realized it was there…or maybe it’s a landmark and you come to have a whole new appreciation or meaning or what that thing is or represents…or maybe it’s a person like that classic story where the person you fall in love with just happens to be right there under your nose and you didn’t even realize it.  Do you guys know what I’m talking about?  Where something happens and you realize this thing is actually there and it brings this whole new perspective and excitement about it?

I’m a big Chronicles of Narnia fan, maybe you’re familiar with the books.  To me it’s kind of how Narnia is discovered.  They’re in an old house, playing hide and go seek and there’s this old wardrobe in one of the bedrooms.  Just a common, old school wooden closet that no one really ever thought twice about…it’s just there.  Then one day the kids discover that it’s not just any ordinary closet but is a gateway or portal to this whole other world and by going into it brings about these life changing, extraodrinary experiences which change their view of everything.

To me the story of Rahab and Hebrews 11 is kind of like that.  So if you’re down, come with me and let’s jump into the wardrobe, go down the rabbit’s hole and see what’s going on with this amazing figure of faith.  Just one verse today, so I’ll read it for us, we’ll respond with thanks to God for his Word and then I’ll pray over our study in it today.  (Read text and pray).

Alright, so we’re looking at three things today from this text, “The Pinnacle of Chapter 11:  Rahab & The History of Faith”, “The Prostitutes of Scripture:  Rahab & The Obedience of Faith”, “The Promise of Land:  Rahab & The Commander of Faith.”

I.       The Pinnacle of Chapter 11:  Rahab & The History of Faith

This first point is driven by the context of Hebrews chapter 11, what comes before Rahab and what comes after her.   In the chapter, seventeen different individuals are mentioned by name, but only ten of them are specifically highlighted for being ones who “by faith” had the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.  And Rahab is the tenth and final one.

Rahab is surprising in this chapter for several reasons.

One, she’s the only other woman besides Sarah to be listed and Sarah really is brought up in light of her husband Abraham, the famous father of the faith.

Two, the people who have been listed are in Hebrews 11 are spiritual heavy weights.  I mean everyone mentioned thus far are huge Old Testament heroes…Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph and Moses. Huge crucial founding father roles in the history of Judeo Christian belief.

Three, Rahab is not even a Jew.  She’s a pagan, Gentile, false god worshipping outsider and on top of it she’s not only a woman who were looked down upon, especially if they were not married, but she’s a prostitute.  We’ll talk a bunch more about that in our next point.  But as you can see here, really it’s like she just doesn’t belong in this list, in this chapter of Hebrews 11.

The English paragraph breaks here don’t help either because they just sort of include her as being part of the same “by faith” section that we talked last week when we talked about the people’s faith as a group when the walls of Jericho came tumbling down.  But the whole with Rahab happened before the walls fell down and the city was destroyed.

She’s really meant to stand alone, as the final, key, culminating example of faith.  After her she’s mentioned, there is just a rapid fire list of list of six more names and some quick general comments and then the chapter ends.  She’s the last “by faith” figure.

So the question is why?  Why is she here in this list?  I think it would have been clear to any of the original readers of this letter and if you know your Bible pretty well and the major figures of the Old Testament and you’re reading Hebrews 11 I think it clear.  Rahab is a surprise.  You don’t expect her.  She’s shocking.  Why would you include and conclude this hall of heroes who lived “by faith” with her?

To try and figure it out, let me tell you the story of Rahab.  It starts in Joshua, chapter 2. Hebrews 11 kind of moves through Biblical history, chronologically follow its story.  If you remember the story and where things left off last God’s people, Israel was in Egypt where they had multiplied greatly fulfilling God’s command and promise.  But after 430 years there they had become slaves.  They cried out to God for deliverance and God went to war for Israel against Egypt and used Moses as the human figure to lead them out.  After they leave Egypt they wander around in the desert for forty years waiting and looking for this land God had promised them where they would settle and live under God’s blessing.

They finally come to the land and they know it’s the place but there’s this city Jericho standing in the way, blocking the entrance into the land.  God confirms it’s the place and promises to crush Jericho so they may enter in.  He does so but having them perform what seems like a silly act of faith to show they trusted God to fight for them as he did in Egypt.  So he has them march around the city seven times and then the whole place is flattened and supernaturally crumbles to the ground.

Now, before they go march around Jericho, Joshua the successor and leader of Israel after Moses’ time sends some spies into land to look for confirmation that this is God’s place and he also sends them into the city of Jericho to check out what they’re up against.  Joshua 2:1 says when they went into the city they went to the house of a prostitute named Rahab and stay the night there.  That doesn’t sound or look good.

The king of Jericho gets word of it and send a message to Rahab to turn over the men.  When he does she lies and says the men came to her for her services but she didn’t know they were spies and that they had already left.  And the king buys it.  Joshua chapter 2 goes on to tell us what really happened…how she knew they were Israelite spies and that she had heard of the fame of YHWH, the LORD God and what he did to Egypt and confesses belief in him as the LORD God who rules over heaven and earth (Josh 2:11).  When the spies hear this from her they promise to save her, her family and friends.  And that’s what happens.

Okay…so to tell you the truth I don’t really want to tell you just yet why Rahab is here in Hebrews 11 and why she’s such a big deal.  We’ll get to it in few minutes, but I mainly wanted to introduce you to her and set the problem up for you.  However, there is an inherent principle in this for us just at a basic level.  Rahab is a nobody.  And she gets included in this great list of heroes in the history of the faith.  It’s a reminder to us of two things.

First, that God is a God who has chosen to work with men…and women…in human history!  There is a rich history of faith that gets passed down through generations.  Individuals matter, they count and God cares.  It’s more than just history because of that.  It’s not just backward documentation of things that happened.  It’s huge that God, the maker of heaven and earth, who needs nothing and is not required to do anything…chooses to make himself known little tiny insignificant people!  And that there is a purpose to that.  The history of faith is much much more than the mere recording of events it’s the story of God working in and among and with human beings.

God means for you to be a part of what he is doing in history.  We get so wrapped up into our lives and thinking that all about what going on with us right now or this week or whatever and got wants to have a much bigger vision for our lives.  In what he doing through individuals and generations of faith.

The second thing she reminds us of is that unexpected nobodies are can become extremely significant to God.  Have you ever felt like a nobody?  Like you really don’t have that much to offer?  Like there is always someone else or other people who are the ones really gifted or in the know or who always seem to do well…but when it comes to you, there’s nothing really special about you.  Rahab reminds us that as insignificant as we are we are special and important to God who he sees and means for us to be listed in the hall of faith.

Maybe think of it this way…what would your name look like in the chapter?  What would it say about you?  Where are you on the plane of God’s working with men and women in history?  If you were to die today what would you be remember for?  What is he doing and why?  What right now, in this season of your life does it seem like God is wanting to teach you or draw out of you?

Well, let’s move on and I’ll give us one more piece to add to the puzzle of why Rahab is significant, “The  Prostitutes of Scripture: Rahab & The Obedience of Faith.”

II.     The Prostitutes of Scripture:  Rahab & The Obedience of Faith

The very first thing our verse says about Rahab is that she is “Rahab the prostitute.”  Now back in Rahab’s day there were two kinds of prostitutes, common prostitutes and cult prostitutes.  Cult prostitutes were ones people would use to worship fertility gods, like Asherah of Rahab’s day and would normally be employed by the religious temple or place of worship.  Common prostitutes were like the ones we have today, whom men would go to for sexual pleasure.

It appears Rahab’s the latter kind.  She may have even ran a whore house, as some aspects of the story in Joshua allude to.  Now, what is striking besides the mere fact that the Bible talks about Rahab being a prostitute is that she is commended, not dejected and she’s commended for her obedience.  Do see that next line there, “Rahab…the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient.”  So in contrast she was obedient.  The prostitute is obedient.

We’ll talk about this obedience in a second but first of all I’d be failing you as a preacher of the Bible if I didn’t tell you that this actually happens to be a repeated and important theme in Scripture…God’s love or favor on prostitutes.  They’re called either “prostitutes”, “harlots” or “whores” in the Bible.  I’ll give you a brief smattering.  I counted 87 references to prostitutes in Scripture.  It’s seriously surprising how much they come up.

First, it’s not a good thing.  Prostitution, both the offer and use of a person’s body sexually outside of marriage for money is sexual sin.  Real clear, 1 Corinthians 6:15 “Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never!”  Interesting the Greek word in the New Testament that gets translated as prostitute is “pornea” where we get the word pornography.  So yes, looking at porn counts as getting a prostitute.

Second, some crazy stuff goes down with prostitutes in Scripture.  In the Old Testament, Sarah who was mentioned earlier in Hebrews, gets pimped out by Abraham twice.  Tamar dresses up like a prostitute to get Judah, who the name Jew comes from to sleep with her and he does.

In the New Testament, Jesus especially extends his love and forgiveness to prostitutes.  In Matthew 21:16 he says to the religious folk who thought they we’re better than others because they worshipped God, “Truly, I say to you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes go into the kingdom of God before you.”  And then we read of a couple scenes where this gets demonstrated.

In one, Mary Magadelene, a town prostitute comes to a place were Jesus is eating dinner and she pours a whole bottle of oil, a whole years’ worthy of her harlot’s wages on Jesus feet petitioning him for mercy and salvation and he says to her, “Your sins are forgiven…your faith has saved you; go in peace (Lk 7:48,50).”

Now here is the really crazy thing.  No matter what time or era you live in, prostitution has never been looked at a good thing.  In the Bible it becomes one of the chief analogies for spiritual adultery, worshipping and serving other gods than the one true God, YHWH, the maker and ruler of all heaven and earth.  For example, Deuteronomy 31:16 God says to Moses “This people will rise and whore after the foreign gods among them in the land that they are entering, and they will forsake me and break my covenant that I have made with them.”

On top of that, all throughout Scripture one of the main ways that God speaks of and describes his relationship with his people is like that of a groom and his bride.  God is the husband and the people are his wife.  Then comes the book of Hosea.  Maybe you’ve read it, maybe you’ve never heard of it?  It’s one of the Old Testament books of the Bible, it’s right after Daniel and right before Joel.

Here’s the story of Hosea. Hosea is a prophet of God.  God comes to Hosea and he tell him that he wants him to go marry this woman named Gomer. And he tells him ahead of time that Gomer is going to cheat on him, multiple times, have children from other men but each time he does to take her back and take the kids as his own.

Hoeas is obedient to God though. Things start off okay and they have a baby together named Jezreel. But then sure enough Gomer starts sleep around, gets pregnant and gives birth to a daughter. Hosea names her “No Mercy” and takes his wife back. But it’s not long before she cheats on him again and gets pregnant again from another dude. But he takes her back and calls the son “Not My People.” But then she leaves him again and actually ends up being an official whore employed by a pimp. What’s Hosea do? He goes to her pimp and buys back his wife, from the pimp with a bunch of money.

Crazy story right?  Here’s the question, “Why did God want Hosea to do that?” The Bible tells us. It says God told Hosea he wanted him to do this because his people had committed “great whoredom by forsaking [him] (Hos 1:2) but despite their whoring he loved them and was going to buy them back and then they would come and “fear to the LORD “ and know “his goodness” all their days (Hos 3:5). God had Hosea do this because it was a picture of his love for his us!

I went through all of this stuff about prostitutes today so that we could come to this point because I think this is the reason why prostitutes come up so much in Scripture and why they have such a special place in the mind and heart of God and probably even a little bit of why Rahab gets included in Hebrews 11…because it is in the nature and the heart of God to love and extends grace to his people even though they are like prostitutes.

It’s perhaps one of the most vivid pictures of the gospel there is.  Numbers 15:39 says “Remember all the commandments of the Lord, to do them, not to follow after your own heart and your own eyes, which you are inclined to whore after.”  The reality and the truth about us, is we in our nature, in our sinful hearts and condition are like whores.  And the goodness of the gospel is that God loves us anyways and sent his son to die for us.

In Ephesians 5 one of the most well known illustrations of Jesus’ relationship with the church is that of a bride.  Ephesians 5:25 calls husbands to love their wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.  Romans 5:8 says that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.  And even after becoming Christians we’re still prone to and inclined to whore ourselves away.  In fact 1 John 4:8 says if we say we have no sin we’re liars and the truth is not in us.  And we know this, we, on this side of heaven still fail and fall, countless times.  And yet, the gospel is not based upon our performance.  Jesus knew we were whores when he married us and died for us, just like Hosea.

And what makes the difference, is faith.  Embracing the promise and provision of God for us in Christ.  In our verse for today, in Hebrews 11:31 it says that Rahab didn’t perish because she was obedient.  What essentially happens in the story in Joshua chapter 2 and chapter 6 is God, through the spies offers Rahab and anyone who will listen salvation.  If they listened to the word and promise of God, that he was giving Jericho into Israel’s hand and if they obeyed and followed the spies instructions they would be saved.  And Rahab and many alongside her do.

Joshua 6:25 says “Rahab the prostitute and all her father’s household and all who belonged to her, Joshed saved alive.”  What we’re hearing and seeing with Rahab is what the book of Romans calls “the obedience of faith.”  Romans 1:5 says, “We have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations.”

Maybe you’ve never thought about faith like that?  Like it’s a mater of obeying.  But there is almost always an aspect of obedience to faith.  We hear the starkness of our condition…we’re sinners who need salvation, we’re whores.  Then we hear the good news of God’s plan of salvation that he has provided for and offers.  Then there is either obedience in embracing it or disobedience in rejecting it.

In a very real way our response to the gospel and our continual living in and through the gospel is an acknowledging this and embracing all that God has provided for us to save us through Christ.  There’s a song we’re gonna sing today during communion that a Christian folk artist named Derek Webb wrote awhile back called “Wedding Dress.”

It captures exactly what we’re talking about today in this point.  Let me read you the lyrics and then we’ll move on to our final point for today.  So listen for what it looks like for you and I to be those who embrace the gospel like Rahab in the obedience of faith.  “Wedding Dress.”  It starts out from the perspective of God in the fist two lines and the quickly switches over to ours for the rest of the song.

If you could love me as a wife,

and for my wedding gift, your life…

Should that be all I’d ever need?

Or is there more I’m looking for?

Should I read between the lines?

and look for blessings in disguise?

To make me handsome, rich, and wise?

Is that really what you want?

I am a whore I do confess.

But I put you on just like a wedding dress,

and I run down the aisle, and I run down the aisle.

I’m a prodigal with no way home,

but I put you on just like a ring of gold,

and I run down the aisle to you.

So could you love this bastard child?

Though I don’t trust you to provide?

With one hand in a pot of gold

and with the other in your side?

I am so easily satisfied,

by the call of lovers so less wild.

That I would take a little cash,

over your very flesh and blood.

I am a whore I do confess.

But I put you on just like a wedding dress,

and I run down the aisle, and I run down the aisle.

That song just wrecks me every time I hear it or read it.  Look.  I know it’s not politically correct to use the word “whore” in church.  But man, it’s in the Bible.  We got a whole book about it.  And I don’t know of a more piercing and and beautiful picture in all of Scripture that depicts the disgusting reality of my sin and yet at the same time the wonderful glorious grace of God for sinners like us.

It doesn’t matter who you are or where you’ve come from…whatever your story is…the good news of the gospel is that there is forgiveness and salvation in Jesus.  Maybe you’ve felt like this…  Like you’re two steps forward and then two steps back with God.   You love and serve him for awhile but then it drops off as you get caught up into other things.  You are not faithful.  Know the goodness of the gospel today.  God is a God who loves and cares for the cheaters who fail and he invites us in to be welcomed into his graces and to be changed.

May God grant us the humility and the obedience to run down the aisle to be embraced by his loving and forgiving arms…again and again and again.  Well, let’s move on to our final point this morning and I’ll finally tell you what I really think about Rahab and why she’s in this chapter.  “The Promise of Land: Rahab & The Commander of Faith.”

III.    The Promise of Land:  Rahab & The Commander of Faith

Alright.  So, the first character other God, the first human name to be mentioned in Hebrews 11 is Abel.  Abel is one of the sons of Adam and Eve who were driven out of the good land of the garden of Eden because of sin.  The stories of all the individuals mentioned in Hebrews 11 from him on is driven by the need for a people of God who worship him in the place of God.

The place of God with his people gets called “the promised land.”  In our chapter…Abel gets killed by his brother Cain who soils the ground with his blood. Enoch is taken out of the land. Through Noah the land is cleansed.  In Abraham the promise of new land and a people to populate it is given.  Through his son and grandon Isaac and Jacob the family grows.  With Joseph, the family of God moves away from the land to Egypt.  Under Moses, they leave Egypt to go back to the promised land.  Moses dies and who do you expect next, who actually takes them into the land?  Joshua!

They come to the brink of it, to the city of Jericho and if you know the story who is leading Israel?  Joshua.  But no Joshua in Hebrews!  Instead, who do we have?  Rahab, the prostitute.  This is shocking.  Unreal.  It would have sent any Jew who grew up with the Scriptures into a headspin.  Rahab is the punch line of the entire chapter because she’s there instead of Joshua!

Now follow me here, because as we’ll see with rest of the chapter next week and our final week in it, I think Rahab is the key that unlocks the entire meaning of Hebrews 11.  What’s easy to forget when you’re working through just a chapter like this, is that it is part of an entire book.  Hebrews 11 is one chapter among thirteen.  So with that I think there are two other passages we have to look at in Hebrews which pull this whole thing together for us.

The first is Hebrews 12: 1-2.  The very first verses of the next chapter.  What they do is look backward on all of Hebrews 11 and tell us what they’re all about.  So here it is, look at it with me, Hebrews 12:1-2 “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses (all the people just mentioned in Hebrews 11), let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings to us so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith.”

Wow!  So what Hebrews 12:2 tells us is that the forward looking faith of every character was a faith that was looking to Jesus.  True faith is always and only fulfilled in Jesus.  And who is he?  What does he do?  He is a founder of faith.  The word “founder” is a construction term.  Jesus is a builder.  Remember that.

Okay, now the other passage.  Hebrews 13:12-14, in some of the concluding and summarizing marks of the entire book, Hebrews 13:12-14, “Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood.  Therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach that he endured.  For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come.”

This is huge!!!  Stay with me.  So all the cloud of witnesses, the heroes of Hebrews 11 are looking forward to being a people of God in the place of God, a promised land.  All of their future faith is fulfilled in Jesus who is the founder.

But! Rather than taking over the corrupt city of Jerusalem, he allows himself to be crucified outside it’s gates in order to take bring God’s people to the city that is to come.  You with me?  Okay.  One last verse.  Back to Joshua.  Joshua 6:23 again.  I read part of it earlier.  I read it in full now.  Joshua 6:23 “The young men who had been spies went in and brought out Rahab and her father and mother and brothers and all who belong to her.  And they brought all her relatives and put them outside the camp.”

Did you hear that last line?  They bring out her and her family and put them outside the camp!  They can’t be in the camp because she is a dirty Gentile whore.  But she believes in the God of the Bible and his promise to save sinners and thus she becomes the climactical example in Hebrews of what true faith looks like…because it wasn’t Joshua, the commander of the army of the Lord who took God’s people into the land.  It was Jesus…because the true land was the place of worship between God and his people and you only enter into that place through faith in him.

Super interesting…Joshua’s name means “YHWH saves.”  It’s actually the same name as Jesus.  Joshua is just the Hebrew word, Jesus is Greek.  In Joshua’s place stands a prostitute because she didn’t trust in the Joshua of ancient Israel, she trusted in YHWY, the God who saves, who is the true and better Joshua, Jesus Christ, the Lord.

Jesus, the sinless savior comes to earth, never whores himself away and instead always loves God and is devoted to him.  Then he takes on the sins of his people as if they we’re his very own and he’s crucified outside the camp like a pagan prostitute so that all his family and friends might be saved and brought into the great city of God that is to come.

The beauty of this whole story with Rahab is that she is the culminating figure who pulls everything together and directs it all to Christ!  Even in her very bloodline.  Rahab ends up marrying a man named Salmon and together they give birth to Boaz and if you follow their family line on down in Matthew 1, you find that it is is this very family who ends up giving birth to Jesus Christ several generations later.  Rahab ends up being one of Jesus’ great great grandmothers.

This is such a beautiful story and picture of the gospel.  Phenomenal.  I’ve just been astounded by all this.  But here’s the thing.  I was thinking about it all and preparing for today and I realized something that could be a danger for us…

To me, see how carefully crafted this story is and how it is all built and designed to point to Jesus in this incredible way just excites me!  That the Bible is this jewel of a book so cleverly composed and that the Bible writers had this Spirit driven ability to take the great stories of the history of God’s people and show how they were all pointing to Jesus…that just gets me going!  But here’s the danger for us.

We can look at a text and take a story like this and sort of look in on it from that outside.  Like, “oh look at that, isn’t that nice, how cool…over there…” like we’re looking at a painting or an artifact at a museum or something.  And if we do that, we would end up missing how God means for this story and his word to reach us.

Really, the goal of the story is that we too might enter into the promised land through faith in Jesus as Rahab did.  For so long the promised land, the place flowing with milk and honey, it was conceived of as a fixed geographical locale in the Middle East, Israel.  In John 4 Jesus encounters another prostitute of sorts at a well, a woman who had been doing a bunch of sleeping around with like 7 different men.  Jesus tells her he is the messiah and the way he does it is real interesting.

She wasn’t a Jew and because she wasn’t she strikes up a conversation with Jesus basically about the promised land asking him where he thought it was.  Jesus answers by saying this.  “The hour is coming and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth.”  She answers by saying she knew one day that would be so when the messiah came and to that Jesus says, “I who speak to you am he (John 4:23,26).”

What Jesus does in that response is take all of the longing and looking for the promised land and centers it upon himself.  It’s in him…no longer fixed to one specific geographical local but is found wherever there is the worship of God through belief and redemption in Jesus the Messiah.

For us today, the way that we don’t keep this story sitting over there as a nice artifact is by entering into the promised land as Rahab did, through looking to Jesus the founder of the true and better city, the place where in Spirit and in truth we worship our God.  This city, this place, is the place of the redeemed, where instead of milk and honey the body and blood of our Lord nourishes us and enables us to live happily before our God.

So what land are you living in?  Do you live in the promised land, where sinners are welcomed into the fellowship of God through Jesus, who lived, died and rose again?  Or are you still seeking something different or something better?  Who or what are you looking to in order to make you happy?  What is the promised land for you?  The good life?  The answer of Hebrews 11:31 is that it is the place of faith, where we love, worship and trust Jesus Christ the Lord.  The danger is thinking anything else but Jesus will satisfy and save.

Conclusion

Well, let’s prepare for the Lord’s Supper.  Each week here at The Resolved we do this.  We sing about our God. We study our God’s Word.  And then we eat our God’s meal.  Each week when we come to this portion of the service, we respond to God’s word by coming down one of these aisles to one of the tables to deal with our hearts and to meet with Jesus.

When we tear a piece of bread off and dip it in the wine it’s really a confession.  We’re saying Jesus you are enough.  Jesus you are what I need.  Jesus you are my savior.  Jesus you died for me.  Jesus I live for you.  Jesus I trust you.  Jesus I thank you.

1 Corinthians 11:26 says every time we do this we proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.  The promised land flowing with milk and honey comes through putting faith in the body and blood of Jesus which flows from his side.

The gospel is always a two edged sword.  Today, some of you feel beat up, broken, filled with shame, guilt and remorse.  Just like a prostitute.  And what you need to hear is that Jesus died for you.  He loves you and took on your sin as if it were his own and no matter what you’ve done or how many times you’ve failed, that doesn’t change.  So if you’re in that place today, look to Jesus and experience the saving power of the gospel.

The other side of the sword is that today, some of you think you’re fine and doing all right but the reality is there isn’t a whole lot of Jesus in your life.  You’re living in a different land.  You don’t like the thought of being called a sinner, being told your a prostitute and a whore and the reason is deep down you think you’re better than that.  And I would just beg and plead of you…if you took an honest look for just one second I’m sure you’d see the duplicity and flippancy of your heart.  You need Jesus.  Humble yourself and embrace the goodness of the gospel.

The gospel is the great equalizer because under it everyone is in the same boat.  We’re all sinners who need a savior and God in his grace has richly provided us with his son who died on the cross and rose again so that we might be forgiven and risen to new life with him.

I asked Sean to play Derek Webb’s song Wedding Dress today for our first song of communion. I know it’s an intense song.  But as we sing it and respond to the gospel remember the intensity of the cross and the beauty of what God does for us.  As a church we’re dirty, stained and unworthy and yet God puts a white wedding dress and a ring of gold on us and has us as his own.  God is a great God who has loved us with a great great love.

Let’s respond to that today as we sing and receive the Lord’s Supper.

Let’s pray.

Blog | John Bale

“O  happiness ! Happiness ! I have seen born life itself, I have seen its first movement.

The blood within my veins throbs so powerfully it can hardly be contained.  I feel a desire to fly, swim, and utter the noise made by every animal. I would have wings, a shell, be as the plants, the odors, water, sound, light, I would take every form, penetrate each atom, descend to the foundation of all matter — be matter itself! …

The day at last appears, and like the curtains of a tabernacle that are lifted, discovers the sky. In the midst of this sky and in the disk of the sun there shines forth the face of Jesus Christ. ”

The Temptation of St. Anthony by Gustave Flaubert

When I was younger, and [maybe just a little] less mature in my faith, I imagined myself to be a sort of monk, capably willful and full of spiritual fortitude enough to renounce The World and dedicate myself in allegiance to Christ alone. This was a silly presumption that I’d like to think I’ve grown out of, and, as much as it pains me to admit it an experimental French novel called The Temptation of St Anthony did a great deal to help me along the way.

The central question of the text is one that mirrors a concern brought up in Duane’s most recent sermon this Sunday: How do we consider the “fleeting pleasures of Sin” while living in The World, in light of the affections that God demands of us? If Moses is justified by faith in rejecting such fleeting pleasures, as Hebrews 11 tells us, how can a man who is believed to have rejected the same pleasures in exchange for the desert wastes of Egypt, still be a sinner, in need of The Cross, as Romans 3 tells us?

Gustave Flaubert, a man notorious for his licentious and self-indulgent lifestyle, even among the French, in Temptation showcases an insight into the human affections, religious or otherwise, that is unrivaled even in the work of such better, English-speaking, authors as Jonathan Edwards, Milton, and Herman Melville. “He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and unrighteous,” indeed.

Flaubert uses the story of St. Anthony for two reasons: First, even he seems uncomfortable questioning the accolades of Christ, Moses, or even the apostles; the legendary representation of a Catholic monk is much safer to humanize according to his own needs. Second, he was inspired when he saw Brueghel’s painting based on the legend in a museum. He spent 30 years working on the text afterward, and died (of complications related to venereal diseases) believing that it was his masterpiece. You might not know the story of St. Anthony, but you have seen one of the paintings. Almost everyone who was anyone has taken a shot at it. You might even know somebody who has a version of St. Anthony tattooed on their abdomen…

The short version of the story is this: Anthony follows the logic of verses like Hebrews 11 and associates the “fleeting pleasures” found in The World with Sin very literally, and in order to avoid Sin, leaves The World behind. While in the desert, various demons tempt him with visions of those same pleasures, and he is reported to have rejected them all.

Yet, if the Bible is true, even St. Anthony was a monstrous sinner in need of a savior. How can this be true? Flaubert seems to begin with the suspicions that are raised by Jesus himself in the Sermon on the Mount. Fantasy and visions still count. Hallucinatory or demonically inspired, Anthony’s visions betray the base motivations and desires of his heart, even if the simple realities of his life bare witness to the fact that he didn’t eat food, drink wine, or sleep with women. In Flaubert’s text, Anthony wants to revel in every last one of all Seven of the Deadly Sins. But, remembering The Cross, he denies them.

How do we know he is still depraved, even as deprived as he is? The story begins with the monk lying in the dirt, starving and alone. Compared to Job, he is immediately made to look like a fool, seeking company from vicious jackals that lurk near by, awaiting his death. When they scamper away Anthony begins to complain and tries to curse the earth, literally, by stomping, jumping up and down upon it like a child, mid-tantrum.

He cries out at the universe, but finds encouragement in a cross shaped shadow in the moonlight, and decides to power through. He goes back into his cave to find inspiration in The Bible.

But his sin is so deep that it corrupts even Scripture. He reads about other figures who had suffered and is constantly bitter and jealous, thinking about how they all got off easy compared to himself: Peter and the disciples got food (“Arise, Peter! Kill and eat!” Acts 10:11-13), the Jews got to slaughter their enemies in revenge (Esther 9: 5ff.), and even Nebuchadnezzar bowed before Daniel, for a time (Daniel 2:46).

Anthony is only able to dwell upon how much more he suffers than all the rest of God’s venerated servants. He is jealous and bitter, not holy or righteous. In this state, the hermit is visited by demons that tempt him with the full power of The Seven Deadly Sins.

It is when the text comes to Wealth that we get the clearest glimpse into what is going on with Anthony. Tempted with gold and silver he says that, “The one who possesses so vast an accumulation of wealth is no longer like other men. While handling his riches he knows that he controls the total result of innumerable human efforts – as it were the life of nations drained by him and stored up, which he can pour forth at will.”

What is appealing to Anthony, then, is not the wealth itself, but the power to be independently satisfied by his own effort, to indulge himself on his own desires by his own power; to serve himself. Anthony rejects “fleeting pleasures” in order to prove that his not a “slave to sin.” But he does not necessarily want to serve Christ as king in the place of pleasure. By seeking first his own justification, he is just as misguided in attempting to willfully reject The World as Moses might have been in accepting it. Moses chooses to serve God instead of using earthly pleasure to serve himself; Anthony finds a way to make the denial of worldly pleasure a self-serving act. You know the sin runs deep when he can even turn God’s Word into something that is self-involved and self-serving.

In this way Flaubert suggests that Anthony is still a sinner, damnable to Hell for his pride and heresy. Anthony doesn’t want to be like other men; he wants to be like Christ. But wanting to be like Christ by will is not the same thing as wanting to serve Him by faith. He wants the power to make pleasures serve himself. He wants to be his own master within The World, even if that means he must reduce “The World” to a cave in the desert.

For the Frenchman, this self-indulgent denial is almost satanic; “The two shadows formed behind him by the arms of the cross, suddenly lengthen and project themselves before him. They assume the form of two great horns.” The text goes on to say that with “his eyes still closed, Anthony yields to the pleasure of inaction; and stretches his limbs upon the mat.” Anthony has not rejected The World in favor of The Cross of his King, but only for another, smaller world, that he can rule with all measure of delight from the comfort of his mattress.

How different a sentiment is this than that of Milton’s Satan who is famous for stating that it is “better to reign in Hell than to serve in Heaven?” Not very much of one at all.

So what is it that we can (and I have) learn from this, the criticism of a heathen?

We can learn that a lack of indulgent affections for The World does not directly translate to a religious affection for The Lord. “The fleeting pleasures of Sin” are not “fleeting” because the pleasures are weak, but because the sinful world that we encounter them within is doomed. Within The World we can rule our own desires like tyrants, indulging them or denying them, but in either case, we are satisfied only within this world.

We cannot choose to reject The World and replace it, by our own power, with The Cross, because The Cross is so much bigger and more satisfying than anything that can be conceived within our tiny caves. In fact, the delight and satisfaction of salvation is so overwhelmingly powerful that when we are exposed to it, we are incapable of denying it; all other delights are lost in the shadow of the sun. The everlasting relief of The Cross divests of our ability to wallow in our self-indulgence. We become slaves once again, serving now a true and better king, according to His good pleasure.

As John Owen has said, “When someone sets his affections upon The Cross and the love of Christ, he crucifies The World as a dead and undesirable thing. The baits of sin lose their attraction and disappear. Fill your affections with The Cross of Christ and you will find no room for sin.”

The Cross must come first. Moses is justified by faith, not because he was better at denying himself the treasures and pleasures of The World, or because he was better at ruling himself than Pharaoh, but because he was given a vision of The Cross, and followed it, even into the desert. Anthony chased a shadow into the desert, but in the end it turned out to be his own.

After 200 pages of trippy narrative, the Frenchman ends his text with Anthony finally seeing the face of Christ, within the sun, looking down on him (yep, still pretty trippy), and is filled with ecstasy and affection, which obliterates all the worldly temptations that had come before. It is not the rejection in the desert, or the trials with the demons that save and justify Anthony, but an inspired affection for Christ, the only man capable of both ruling The World and rejecting it on The Cross.

I don’t know if Flaubert was capable of writing all of this without experiencing or believing in at least part of it; nobody will ever claim that Gustave Flaubert died a Christian. Yet, his examination of a monk’s affections helped me to see that I was living more like Flaubert’s Anthony than I was like God’s own Moses. The maturity of my faith in God’s glory began not with my rejection of The World, but with my affection for The Cross. Flaubert spent more time in brothels than he did in Church, and he rejected Anthony’s rejection of all the “fleeting pleasures of sin,” but in the end our hope is all the same: There is more pleasing glory in a moonlit shadow of The Cross than in every delight of The World by daylight.

Hebrews 11 | Vintage Faith | 11:23-30 | Pastor Duane Smets

This is an exegetical sermon of Hebrews 11:23-30. It covers the story of Moses, his life as a the first leader of God’s chosen people, who lead by faith in the God who was already “vintage” in the days of the ancient Egypt. Special attention is given to Jesus in that Jesus was the true king that Moses served, feared, and followed.  This sermon was originally preached on November 6th, 2011 at The Resolved Church in San Diego, CA.

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The Resolved Church

November 6th, 2011

Faith & The Example of Moses and Israel

Pastor Duane Smets  |  Hebrews 11:23-30

I. Allegiance to the True King (v23,27)

II. Treasuring God and His People (v24-26)

III. Confidence in He Who Delivers (v28-30)

Introduction

Good morning. Today in Hebrews 11 we come upon Moses and the people of Israel, which basically looks at the time frame the whole book of Exodus covers.  Moses ties with Abraham in the whole book Hebrews as being mentioned more than any other person than Jesus and he also ties with Abraham here in chapter 11 in getting six verses that look at his example of faith.

If you were a Jew living in the first century, who a majority of the people who were first reading this book, Hebrews…Moses was a big deal.  He was considered by most as the greatest person of all Jewish history.  Nobody ranked higher.  Jewish culture was formed around the law and Moses was the one through whom God gave the law.  Moses is a big deal.

He sort of like George Washington is to the United States…the dude who really put the country on the map, it’s first president.  In Hebrews 11 the story has been progressing as God has revealed himself to various individuals and with Moses it finally reaches a whole group of people, Israel.  There’s creation, then the first sons of Adam and Eve, then Noah, then the promise of a family nation to Abraham, who has just one kid, but the promise gets passed down through Isaac, then Jacob and then Joseph.  As the promise is being passed on, the family is getting bigger and bigger.

In Hebrews 11, the previous three stories of Isaac, Jacob and Joseph all end in there death but when we come to Moses, the story begins with his birth and the birth of “the people” as we’ll see.  With Moses it’s the first time there is now “a people” and as a group they exercise faith.  So today we are looking at “Faith & The Example of Moses and Israel” in verses 23-30.  There are five “by faith” statements in these seven verses and six different scenes or stories that go with them.  Yet thematically there are really three main issues here, so we’ll work through the faith statements and the stories today by looking at: “Allegiance to the True King”, “Treasuring God and His People” and “Confidence in He Who Delivers.”

We’ll see as with all the other characters who get highlighted in this chapter, that their stories are not so much about them and their examples but the God they believed in.  So first, let’s go ahead and read the text and pray over it together.  We’re in Hebrews 11:23-30 (read text and pray).

I. Allegiance to the True King (v23,27)

Okay, so mainly what we have the writer of Hebrews doing here, is what he has been doing all chapter long and that is, he assumes we know the stories he references and what he is doing is adding theological content and interpretation onto what happened with these ancient figures of faith.  So here with Moses, he begins at his birth.

What happens according to Exodus 12 is about four hundred years go by from the time when Joseph (who we studied last time) is ruling the land of Egypt.  And after four hundred years, several new Egyptian kings come and go and any kind of preferential treatment toward Joseph’s family, the Jews, gets lost.  In fact what happens during this time is God fulfills his ancient promise to Abraham to make a great and numerous nation out of his family.  All the women are popping out babies like mad.  Super fertile.

A new Egyptian king comes along and he sees how the Jews are getting so numerous he worries that they will outnumber the Egyptians and overtake them.  So he does two things.  One he makes the Jews slaves and two, he made a law that any male Jewish baby that gets born is to be put to death.

Then Moses is born, a male Jewish baby.  The text says he was beautiful.  I’ve never seen an ugly baby, but okay.  Like any good parents they don’t want their child to die, so the hide him for three months and then come up with a plan.  They make a baby basket that can float in the water and they send him on down the river so that he ends up down near where the Pharaoh king’s daughter is bathing in the river and when she sees this little baby she does what all women do around little babies and she starts talking baby talk and picks him up and wants to take him home.

And she does, so Moses grows up in the house of the king like one of his own sons instructed in wisdom and trained for leadership and battle.  Historians say this was likely during the height of Egypt’s power and wealth.  Moses literally becomes an adopted in Egyptian prince.  It’s like winning the lottery.  He’s in!

Now, pause for a second and insert Hebrews theological interpretation.  Verse 23, says Moses life is marked by faith from his birth and it cites his parents hiding him and preserving his life as a sign of that.  Then Hebrews here says something else really interesting about it, almost odd.  What’s it say at the end of verse 23? That they were “not afraid of the king’s edict.”  Wait.  Isn’t that why they hide him, because they’re afraid of the king’s edict that all Jewish baby boys must be killed?

So what’s going on here?  Acts 7, is actually helpful here and will be super helpful later on today too.  In Acts 7, Stephen, one of the apostles who helped start the church, he gives a sermon before he is stoned to death becoming the first Christian martyr.  In his sermon he talks about Moses and he says Moses, when he was born was “beautiful in God’s sight (Acts 7:20).”

Now I could be wrong, but I think Hebrews may assume we understand when it says the parents saw he was “beautiful” that it means beautiful in God’s sight and not just that he was a cute little baby.  You gotta remember, Moses was huge, almost like comic book hero status if you were a Jew in the first century.  There were all kinds of legends about him, one even says that when he came out of the womb a brilliant heavenly light filled the room.

Okay.  So I don’t really think that happened and I don’t really think the parents could tell Moses was going to be this great figure one day when they saw him as a little baby.  I think very simply they recognized little babies are a beautiful gift from God.  Like Psalm 127:3 says, “Children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward.”

So when Hebrews 11:23 says they hid him because they saw the child was beautiful and were not afraid of the king I think what it’s pointing out is they worshipped and served and trusted a higher king.  A king who’s edict “to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth” was more important.  Moses parents had an allegiance to the true king, the Lord God Almighty.  They feared God the king more than they feared the Egyptian Pharaoh king.

Then there this.  Fast forward a bit.  Moses grows up in the Pharaoh king’s house and one day he sees two dudes fighting, an Egyptian guy and a Jewish guy and he steps in and kills the Egyptian.  We’ll come back to this story and why he did it in our next point, but for now let’s skip down to verse 27 and look at what it says he did after this happened.

Verse 27 says, “By faith, he left Egypt, not being afraid of the anger of the king.”  Funny.  Again we’ve got a situation where it looks like on the outset that’s the very reason he flees, he just killed a guy, he committed a racially charged murder against his own adopted race.  Common sense would say, he’s afraid of the king’s justice and judgment against him for killing an Egyptian.  This is the very thing the Pharaoh was worried about, Jews rising up and overpowering the Egyptians.

But instead of being afraid of the Pharaoh king, who does the text says he was concerned about?  “Him who is invisible.”  Who do you think that is?  I’ll give you a hint.  It’s God.  Listen to 1 Timothy 1:17 “King of ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever.”

So rather than being afraid of the Pharaoh, Moses, like his parents, feared a greater king, the invisible, immortal King of the ages, the Lord God almighty.  Yes, for sure Pharaoh is livid with him, Exodus 2 says he sought to kill him.  And Acts 7 tells us that his Jewish brothers and sister are angry with him to.  He’s surrounded on all sides, but what he is most concerned about is God, what God thinks.

Now I don’t know here what necessarily is being said here when Hebrews 11:27 says “he endured as seeing” God.  Does that mean he had a vision or something and in it God called him to flee Egypt and he was just being obedient?  Does that mean he knew God would deliver the people but just realized it wasn’t God’s time yet so he endured, not giving up but planned on fighting another day?  Does that mean he felt guilty and knew he had sinned against God by committing murder but he saw God and God let him off the hook so he could endure or continue?

I don’t really now which of these it is and maybe it’s none of them.  And to be honest there isn’t enough here in the text to tell us.  But here is what it does give us.  Any time in Scripture when you see a word or a phrase repeated, especially in close proximity to each other, like only a few verses between them…that’s a huge sign that that word or phrase is really important.  It’s like the text is shouting, hey pay attention to this point, it’s really important.  And here what we have is twice, within five verses, this repeated line about not being afraid of the Pharaoh king.  And each time in contrast the focus and the reason for not fearing him is seeing God or the blessing and promise of God fulfilled.

Remember Hebrews 11:1 at the beginning of the chapter says, “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”  I think what we’re supposed to get from each of these cases is faith in God is meant to birth a higher allegiance in us than to any other king, boss, person or possession.  We’re not meant to fear anything or anyone but God alone!  It’s as Ecclesiastes 12:13 states, here is the end of all matters…”fear God.”  Fear God alone.  Set your sights on him.

And there is a ton of ways we could go with this in terms of application from putting false hope in political rulers of our land, to trusting the will and plan of God for our lives, to obeying God and his word rather than doing our own thing and living by our own rules or the world’s rules, to being literally afraid of God and his just judgment for our sin…there’s a bunch of things we could talk about when it comes to having an allegiance to God,  the true king.

But to make it really personal and attempt to really bring the point of the text and this story home maybe the best way is to ask ourselves where does our allegiance really lie?  Really.  When it comes down to it, is God our King?  Do you really live under his rule and reign?  What about when other voices and situations arise and are seemingly put in conflict with God and his standards or expectations, who wins?  Is what is beautiful to God beautiful to you or are you operating according to a different standard in the things you value and the things you don’t?

Do you fear God?  Does he run and rule your life or do you?  Is he your King?  Does he hold your allegiance?

The heart of this point is recognizing God is king and the question of our hearts today is, is he our king?  This point comes at things from the top down, from God to us.  Our next point comes at things from the bottom up, from us to God by getting into the inner workings and motivations of our hearts.  So let’s look move on to our next point, “Treasuring God and His People.”

II. Treasuring God and His People (v24-26)

In this point, we’re looking at verses 24-26 and to do so we got to go back to when Moses kills the Egyptian and talk about what brought it about.  The story in Exodus 2 almost makes it sound like it was  just in the heat of a moment something came over Moses.  I’ll just read it straight from Exodus 2:11-12 “One day, when Moses had grown up, he went out to his people and looked on their burdens, and he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his people.  He looked this way and that, and seeing no one, he struck down the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.”

Enter Hebrews 11:24,25,& 26 which make it sound like this wasn’t just an accident, a sort of crime of passion but was very intentional.  Verse 24 says Moses intentionally “refused” Pharaoh family.  Verse 25 says he was “choosing” his people.  And verse 26 says the reason why he did it was he “considered the reproach of Christ greater.”

Okay, so the first two seem conceivable.  I’m sure he knew who his biological family were.  But apparently he has not lived among the Jewish people his entire life and Acts 7 tells us he was forty years old at the time this happened.  I can sort of logically in my head make sense of that.  He longs to be reconciled to his true family and finally has enough of it and acts to do something nice for them and try to help them out.

But verse 26 just sounds wild.  It says that what was going through Moses head, what he was considering was “the reproach of Christ.”  How could he?  It was like a thousand years before Christ was even to come on the scene!  This just sounds crazy.

Now, on one hand what we’re seeing here is how all the New Testament writers see all of life and all of history and all of the Bible in terms of who Jesus is and what he has done.  Jesus becomes the filter or the lens through which they see and understand everything.  And we do to.

But there’s a right way and a wrong way to do that.  What I mean is it’s not just like they’re taking this Old Testament story of Moses and adding to it this whole new meaning that it never originally meant or could’ve meant to Moses or anyone else during their day.  So the question is, how did Moses consider the reproach of Christ?

Here’s how.  Again, Stephen’s sermon in Acts 7 is key.  Super helpful.  Why don’t you turn there with me this time and check out verses 23-29.  Acts 7:23-29 “When he was forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brothers, the children of Israel. And seeing one of them being wronged, he defended the oppressed man and avenged him by striking down the Egyptian. He supposed that his brothers would understand that God was giving them salvation by his hand, but they did not understand.  And on the following day he appeared to them as they were quarreling and tried to reconcile them, saying, ‘Men, you are brothers. Why do you wrong each other?’ But the man who was wronging his neighbor thrust him aside, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge over us? Do you want to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?’ At this retort Moses fled and became an exile in the land of Midian, where he became the father of two sons.”

Verse 25 here is the key, it gives us massive insight into what was going on in Moses head and heart, “He supposed that his brothers would understand that God was giving them salvation by his hand, but they did not understand.”

In case you didn’t know, the word “Christ” is not a last name.  My last name is Smets, Duane Smets.  Jesus last name is not Christ.  Christ is a title, like pastor is a title.  The title Christ means “messiah” or “anointed one.”  It’s was an expression used to identify a savior or a deliverer and it gets attached to Jesus name as a title, Jesus the Christ.  So when we say Jesus Christ it’s really a confession that Jesus is in fact the messiah.

Now what we learn from Acts 7 is that Moses realized the people needed a Christ.  They needed a messiah, a deliverer.  And he actually tries to be that man.  He tries to initiate on his own accord, God’s saving plan for his people.  It’s probably the reason why God made him wait another forty years before he would go back and lead the people out of Egypt, because only God is the deliverer.  It’s always him and Moses had to learn that.  When he does return and lead the people out, it’s God who fights the Egyptians and saves them, not Moses.

Okay.  So now we’ve sort of God a fully orbed picture of what was going on in this scene, let’s talk about Hebrews 11’s commentary on it, it’s theological interpretation and application for us.  There’s three parts to it.

One, he recognizes the spiritual family of God is his true family.  God is his true father, not Pharaoh, though it’s clear he was treated well by him his entire life long.  Verse 25 says he chooses the people, the people of God over and against his own household.

Two, he recognizes that all the money, all the power, all the prestige that the house of Pharaoh gave him, could not satisfy his heart.  That last part of verse 25 is such a key line, he chose the people of God rather “than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin.”

Then three, he recognizes that the treasure and reward of the promises of God through Christ were far better than the measly physical wealth and treasure of Egypt.  And he’s willing to suffer for it.  That’s what the word “reproach” means.

Let’s talk about each of these briefly, family, joy and treasure.

Family.  Pharaoh’s house had welcomed him in, physically adopted him as his son.  But Pharaoh’s family did not know God.  And thus Moses knew he needed a greater adoption.  He needed to be transferred into the family of God.  This is one of the key things we believe and proclaim as Christians, that through Christ, we get adopted into God’s family. It’s a wild thing.  I don’t know if some of you have experienced this or not…but if you’ve experienced Christian community in the way it’s meant to be lived out, then the crazy thing is, because you’re living and worshipping together as the people of God and because Jesus pours out his Spirit into the hearts of all who believe in him…sometimes you start to feel closer and more connected to your Christian family then you do your flesh and blood.  I mean I’ll tell you what.  I love my family, my mom, my dad and my sister.  But the truth is (don’t tell them) but I feel much closer to most of you then I do with them much of the time.

Why is that?  It’s because we, here, in and through this church are living and operating as the people of God together.  We share life and God’s Spirit at work among us.  It’s something you can’t get just from hanging out with your family at home during holidays or vacations.  There is something deeply uniting and satisfying about being the community of Christ together.

Moses realized he needed that, that he need to be with God’s people.  Some of you may be Christians but you have yet to really connect with God’s people.  You have yet to really enter into community and begun to live life with others in the church, relying on one another, praying for one another, sharing your heart, sin, struggles and joys with one another.

Some of you are not in community and you need to be so bad.  And I don’t even mean just attending a community group.  That’s only like one part.  It takes time, you’ve got to commit to it and then when you’re there you got to get gutsy and open up your heart and your life, you have to let people in.  If you don’t you’ll never really experience it.  God means for the church to be the place where we experience being the family of God together.

Let’s talk about joy.  This one is big.  I love the phrase here, “the fleeting pleasures of sin.”  I don’t know about you but that phrase feels pretty self-explanatory.  If you’ve lived life for any amount of time I know you’ve experienced this.

Sin always promises pleasure and satisfaction but it never follows through with what it promises!  It’s fleeting.  It provides brief moments of temporary happiness which quickly fade and leave you feeling guilty and worse off than you were before.

I’ll give you a few examples.  Alcohol.  Alcohol is good.  It’s godly.  Jesus made a bunch of it in his first miracle and drank it quite often, so much so that he was even accused of being a drunkard (Lk 7:34) though he never got drunk.  For those of you who have been drunk you know what happens.

You have a little.  It feels good.  You’re like, oh I like this.  So what do you do, you have more and a little more and a little more.  And you feel good for a little while.  But then something happens.  You start to feel sick and before you know it you’re puking your guts out in the toilet.  Fleeting pleasure of sin.

Sex.  Sex is good.  God designed and wrote a whole X-rated book about it in the Bible called Song of Songs.  Sex is pleasure-full and there’s no amount of sex and sexual activity within marriage between a man and woman that will bring guilt or shame before God.

However, sex outside of heterosexual marriage can be very enticing whether it’s in the form of pornography or the idea of being with some other woman or man other than your spouse.  It’s how affairs happen.  So you follow through with the temptation and there’s pleasure…for a moment.  But what always follows afterward is guilt, shame, ruin, strife and misery and often the destruction of relationships.  The fleeting pleasure of sin.

One more example.  Wealth.  This is the one Moses was tempted with but denied.  He could have been the next Pharaoh if he wanted to.  He had all the money and power anyone could ever dream of at his finger tips.  But he saw that it was meaningless.

This is the one that actually probably gets most all of us in this room.  I could be wrong but I think the majority of us think if we just had enough money then life would be better.  We look at the jobs or the houses or the cars or the clothes that other people have and think…man if I just had that.  But money and power are fleeting too.

Have you ever come into a chunk of money all at once?  I’ve had it happen a few times.  And you know what happens is I can’t wait to spend it and I start thinking about what I want to buy with it.  So you go ahead and make whatever purchase and guess what happens…after a few days or weeks it’s not new anymore and it doesn’t seem like that big of deal…then the thought comes later, man I wasted that money.  Fleeting pleasure in wealth or the ability to get wealth.

What we need is a better treasure.  One that doesn’t wear out.  Something that truly satisfies.

Now notice something with me for a second.  Sometimes when we hear things like don’t give into worldliness in loving the things the world loves, or don’t give into the fleeting pleasure of sin I think we start to think that pleasure in and of itself is sin.  But that’s not what the text says.  It doesn’t say don’t have joy.  It just says don’t enjoy sin.  Instead what does it offer?

It’s in verse 27, the “reward” that is found in looking to or trusting the promise of God.  A reward is a great and joyful thing.  Essentially the call here is for us to have God as our ultimate treasure and trust that he will satisfy us.  And this is what we really need.  Because we can try and fight our passions and inclinations to enjoy sinful things.  But we won’t really be that successful if we’re just trying to not feel anything pleasurable and think if we do feel happy, that’s sin.  No we need the right kind of joy, joy that’s in God.

Listen to what Thomas Chalmers says, an old Puritan from the early 1800’s.  He preached a sermon one time titled, “The Expulsive Power of a New Affection” and in it he says this…”You cannot destroy love for the world merely by showing its emptiness. Even if we could do so, that would lead only to despair…it (the fleeting pleasure in sin) can be expelled only by a new love and affection—for God and from God. The love of the world and the love of the Father cannot dwell together in the same heart. But the love of the world can be driven out only by the love of the Father.”

Oh how we need to find our satisfaction in the love the Father has given unto us.  The reward, the treasure found in knowing him exceeds all.  Look I’ll be really straight with you.  Some of you have fallen in love with the world and its pleasures and you need to repent before God today.

I’m sure we’ve got sins of alcohol and drug abuse in this room.  Some of you just enjoy alcohol too much.  I’m sure we’ve sins of sexual lust and desire for money and status here in this room.  Some of you are addicted to porn.  For some of you your job is everything and your whole life revolves around it.  But the problem really isn’t our love and desire after these things…it’s our lack of love for God.  That’s the bigger problem. We don’t treasure him but instead take him for granted.  Do you get what I’m getting after?  We need a love and joy in God to crowd out enjoyment in the fleeting pleasures of sin.

I just want to let that kind of sit for a minute, uncomfortably.  Are you in love with the world and its pleasures?

We need God.  We’re sinners and we need him to save us from ourselves and the consequences of our sin.  And the good thing is, it’s the kind of God he is.  So let’s move on and talk about our gracious God who rescues his people in our last point for today, “Confidence in He Who Delivers.”

III. Confidence in He Who Delivers (v28-30)

Here in verses 28-30 we get three rapid fire events, where Moses really drops out of the picture and God himself comes to the forefront in his rescuing and rewarding.  Three events: the Passover, the Red Sea and Jericho.

First, the Passover.  Passover simply means pass-over.  When God went to war against Pharaoh and Egypt he did a bunch of miracles, each one attacking one of the supposed Egyptian gods.  His final one was a blow to the very heart of Pharaoh who considered himself divine.  Pharaoh began his oppression of the Jews by instituting a law that all male born children were to be killed.

God turns the tables and decides to send one of his angels, called “The Destroyer” here in Hebrews, to sweep through Egypt one night and kill every first born son, including those in Israel.  But anyone who put blood on their door that night would be passed over. And so it was, the Passover. An event and a night that to this day that has vividly branded into the consciences of men both that there is bloody judgment for sinners but a God who is merciful and makes a way so that his judgment might pass over all those who trust in him and his promises.

That’s what gets commended here in Hebrews.  It probably sounded like a crazy thing at the time.  Kill a lamb and sprinkle its blood on the door.  But God said it.  Moses obeyed and the firstborns were spared.

The second event here, is in verse 29 with what happens at the Red Sea.  Basically after Pharaoh’s first born son is killed he finally tells God’s people they can go.  So everybody packs up and starts leaving, traveling out of Egypt, six hundred thousand men, not counting women and children (Ex 12:37-38).  They only get about 12 miles away and come to a dead end at the Red Sea.  And just when they’re trying to figure out what they’re going to do, they hear Pharaoh’s army coming after them because he changed his mind about letting them go and now it looks like it’s going to be a bloodbath.

Instead, God parts the sea and all of Israel starts walking across it on dry land.  Pharaoh’s army tries to follow in after them, but God collapses the sea on them and they all drown.  It’s a phenomenal, riveting scene.  Hebrews looks at the story and says it was the people’s faith in God which enabled them to walk through.

I mean you got to think about his.  However God did it, one minute there’s a sea there and then there’s likely just a wall of water being held up to make a channel between to walk through.  Some have tried to say maybe the sea was low and maybe it was a strong wind that came and blew away a lot of the water so they could walk through in just two or three inches of water.  If so, it’s amazing that the whole Egyptian army was able to drown in two or three inches of water!  No matter how you look at this God had to have done some crazy miracle and to trust this invisible God who has a Destroyer and defies the laws of nature was no easy task.  But God delivers on his promise and rescues them.

The last scene here in Hebrews for today happens forty years later (Ex 16:35).  They’ve left Egypt but it’s been a long journey with all kinds of fiascos and things that have gone wrong because the people are like how we are so often…they’re two steps forward then two steps back.  The trust God and then they don’t.  They trust God and then they don’t.  After forty years of it they finally end up in the land God promised them.  They’re at its doorstep but there a city called Jericho which stands at it’s border preventing them from going in.

So God tells his people he wants them to march around the city of Jericho seven times and then he’ll give them the victory.  Again, God comes up with these crazy plans for the people to trust him about.  This time they do and after the seventh circle the wall come tumbling down and God brings them into the land he promised.

The point of each of these stories is that God always comes through on his promises.  God always does what he says he will do.  There is not a single promise God has ever made that he has broken or changed his mind about fulfilling!  Faith puts confidence in God’s word that it will surely come true.  That God will deliver.

I’ll just ask one simple question for us and then we’ll wrap up and prepare for the Lord’s Supper.  What does it look like for you to put your confidence in God and his promises?  What about believing in and following and trusting God is the hardest for you.

These stories are meant to make whatever that thing is for us seem to pale in comparison.  The people of old, the vintage people had a confident faith in the God who delivers.  And that’s what we need.  That kind of faith which says I know God will do for me what he said he would do.  May he work it in us.

Conclusion

Well, let’s conclude.  I’ll be really honest.  Sometimes all this stuff we believe just sounds crazy to me.  That there’s a God.  That the Bible is true and all this stuff really happened.  Even more than that, this belief that Jesus really lived and never sinned and rose again and that somehow me believing he died on the cross for me, makes me and God okay???  Let’s be honest.  It sounds a little crazy.

But you know…it’s just like God isn’t it.  To do something like that to make a way for us.  In the Exodus and the Passover and the Red Sea and Jericho God did some crazy, amazing stuff in order to rescue and deliver his people and likewise in the cross of Christ God has made a way so not just a few hundred thousand people who lived a long long time ago might experience the blessing and grace of God but for thousands upon thousands throughout all time.

In every part of today’s text God has been the hero.  He’s the true king, the true father, the true joy, the true treasure, the true power, the true judge, the true deliverer and the true victor.  God is the one who is true.  He is better and he can be counted on.

And when we look at it in light of who Jesus is and what he has done…Jesus just lights up the page.  Like Moses, Jesus escaped a death decree from an evil king but unlike Moses he didn’t grow up in a house of riches but in the home of a poor carpenter.

Like Moses, Jesus saw the mistreatment of God’s people but unlike Moses he didn’t kill a man to try and save them instead he allowed himself to be slain so that slavery to sin and death would be done away with once and for all.

Like Moses, Jesus forsook the the wealth and riches of a palace, but unlike Moses he didn’t leave just material wealth and power, Jesus left all his glory in heaven above to come to earth to be with and save his people, taking on a true reproach.

Like Moses, Jesus kept the Passover, but unlike Moses Jesus himself did so by being the Passover lamb himself who shed his blood so that all who put faith in him might have the destroyer of God’s justice pass over their guilty souls.

Jesus is the true and better Moses and he’s the one who leads his people on dry ground and is taking us to the city he has prepared for us in heaven and he has torn down and removed every wall and barriers so that we might enter in.

We’ve covered a ton of ground today. If you’re not yet a Christian or your new to the Bible, you just got a big intake and a sweet exposure to who our God is and what we believe.  I’m not going to take time today to walk back through all the points of the sermon and connect them to the gospel for us.

What I will say is this.  Have God as your King.  Treasure him above all things.  The truth is we haven’t and we know that but he made a way for us in Jesus so that we might be saved and delivered and you can trust that promise.  Whoever believes on the Lord Jesus Christ shall be saved, so cast your soul upon his mercy this morning.

Earlier I addressed some pretty pointed things.  I think there some of you today who have some serious repenting to do.  You need to come clean and get right with God.  He knows it all already and he died for you anyway, so just come into his embrace and be welcome at his table.

Other of us I pray have been inspired with a view of the greatness and majesty of God our King and Savior.  He is the God who cares for his people and he cares for you.  We serve a great, great God.

When we come before the table each week to receive the bread and the wine, the elements of Jesus body and blood, we’re coming into to the table of our Father, as sons and daughters in his family.  He died for us so that we might be his, a praise to his name and there is no better place, no better treasure, no better joy than to dine with him.

So let’s respond to the good news of the gospel today.  We’re sinners and yet he loves us and died for us and welcomes us into his graces.  Come and eat and drink deeply.

Let’s pray.

Blog | John Bale

This week we are reveling in the memory of Reformation Day, which is more than a clever ploy to give those of us who are more “Puritan” something to celebrate on October 31st. It is a day to reflect upon a significant moment in in the life of Christ’s Church. And as it turns out, the holiday is necessary; in the last couple weeks I have had a few conversations with people, new Christians and old, who confessed to having a very limited knowledge of Martin Luther’s famous act within the context of church history.

So, in honor of Reformation Day, I thought it would be appropriate to give a brief timeline of important events leading up to the 95 Theses. The Protestant Reformation changed the world, fixing problems that had stratified over the course of several centuries. But it didn’t happen in a day.

In The Beginning

*1st Century, A.D. – Jesus is born, crucified, and resurrected. After Pentecost the public ministry of the Gospel begins, lead by 12 apostles, commissioned by Jesus Christ. The New Testament is written. Various gatherings (ecclesia) of early Christians become solidified as “churches.” Many are persecuted by the Roman Empire.

*101 A.D. – Ignatius of Antioch, in his Letter to the Smyrnaeans, first uses the term “Catholic Church” to refer to the “universal congregation” of all believers. In Chapter 8 of the letter he insists that all believers “follow the bishop, even as Jesus Christ does the Father… Wherever the bishop shall appear, there let the multitude also be; even as, wherever Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic Church.”

For future reference, the Bishop of Rome is The Pope.

*313 A.D. – Constantine the Great issues the Edict of Milan, which legalizes Christian worship within the Roman Empire. It is debatable as to whether or not Constantine was a believer, but he was baptized shortly before his death.

*325 A.D. – Constantine convenes all the various bishops in Christendom to discuss and develop a centralized document of Christian orthodoxy at the First Ecumenical Council in Nicea. The Nicene Creed is written. Biblical cannon is confirmed.

*380 A.D. Emperor Theodosius I issues the Edict of Thessalonica, which declares Christianity as defined by the Nicene Creed to be the state religion of the Roman Empire.

*529 A.D. – St. Benedict establishes the first Benedictine monastery at Monte Cassino, which represents the first monastic order that is officially recognized and supported by the Catholic Church. Catholic monasteries quickly become sources of income; “prayer factories” where monks are paid to pray for the specific needs of church members.

*1095 A.D. – Pope Urban II issues the first official form of plenary indulgence, which states that all Christians who volunteer to fight in the crusades will be forgiven for all of their sins without having to confess or perform penance. The idea catches on and is abused more and more as time goes on. Indulgences become one of the main sources of income for the Church and the various monasteries. The monasteries themselves quickly become countryside palaces for the clergy.

First Sparks

*1177 A.D. – Peter Waldo begins public preaching and teaching based on a model of Biblical exegesis that contradicts Roman Catholic orthodoxy. Waldo and his followers are excommunicated for rejecting ecclesiastical (Catholic) power. The vast majority of Waldo’s followers go into hiding after being declared heretics in 1215 A.D.

*1328-1384 A.D. – John Wycliffe, a professor of philosophy and theology at Oxford (England) begins speaking out against papal power (the Pope) and the wealth of the monasteries. Wycliffe also begins to distinguish between the “visible” Catholic Church, a political entity ruled by the Pope, and the “invisible” church, made up all people predestined for faith, lead by Christ alone. Before dying Wycliffe had translated all four Gospels and much of the New Testament into English.

Wycliffe is subsequently dismissed from Oxford, tried, and persecuted, though never successfully excommunicated. He dies of a stroke while saying Catholic mass. Thirty years later (1415 A.D.) he is declared a heretic and his body is exhumed and burned to ashes.

*1378-1417 A.D. – After almost a century of the Pope being so closely tied to France that the seat of papal power is temporarily moved to Avignon, a schism develops between the church leaders. When the last French pope dies, the cardinals attempt to recentralize the papacy in Rome and elect a neutral successor, Urban VI. When Urban VI turns out to be mentally and emotionally unstable, many cardinals move back to Avignon and elect a more stable replacement, Clement VII, while Urban VI remains in Rome.

For 39 years the world has two popes, one in Rome with an “Antipope” in Avignon. They spend the vast majority of that time trying to prove that the other one is the “AntiChrist.” Faith in Catholic leadership is eroded worldwide.

*1369-1415 A.D. – Czech priest and scholar, John Huss, becomes a student of John Wycliffe’s work and begins teaching it in Prague. Huss speaks out against the abuses of the Pope, the clergy, and the monks, calls for widespread reform, all dependent on historical Scripture as the source of orthodoxy. Huss also speaks out and fosters resistances against “the fraud” of indulgences.

Huss is excommunicated by Antipope Alexander V for being a follower of Wycliffe, declared a heretic, and eventually burned at the stake.

Fanning the Flames

*1420-1434 A.D. – The teachings of Huss and Wycliffe become increasingly popular in Prague and surrounding cities. Sigismund, The Holy Roman Emperor (not to be confused with the Roman Emperor or The Holy Catholic Church), uses the movement as an excuse to get papal support for his claim to the throne of Bohemia. Pope Martin V declares a crusade against Hussites and Wycliffites, inviting full-scale invasion of the region.

The crusades into Bohemia are a failure. After 14 years a peace agreement is made and the Pope is forced to allow citizens in Bohemia to worship freely, outside the oversight of the Catholic Church.

*1516 A.D. – Inspired by the ideals of the Northern Renaissance in Germany and England, the Dutch monk Desiderius Erasmus produces a comprehensive Greek translation of the entire Bible. Erasmus’s translation, the Textus Receptus becomes the source for all non-Latin translations that are produced during the Reformation (including Luther’s German and Tyndale’s English Bibles).

*1508-1512 A.D. – After spending years in a monastery, the German monk and scholar Martin Luther is released from his vows to study as a Doctor of Theology at the University of Wittenberg.

*1517 A.D. – John Tetzel, a “fundraiser” for various Catholic clergy, is tasked with syphoning the proceeds from Pope Leo X’s most recent plenary indulgence to help Albert the Archbishop of Mainz pay off a lot of debt (debt that Albert had incurred by paying the Catholic Church to appoint him as archbishop).

When members of Martin Luther’s church begin presenting him with plenary indulgences, purchased at great cost from Tetzel, Luther is upset that people are being tricked into buying what Jesus had already paid for. He sets out to write a criticism of the practice, and once he starts, he keeps going…

*October 31st, 1517 A.D. – Martin Luther nails 95 complaints against the Catholic Church and its practices to the door of Castle Church in Wittenberg.

The Protestant Reformation explodes in Germany and spreads across a Europe.

Reformation Sunday 2011 | Galatians 3:10-14 | Josh Feil

This is a topical sermon preached by relief-preacher/seminary-student/Resolved-leader-in-development Josh Feil, as part of The Resolved Church’s Reformation Sunday.  This sermon was originally preached on October 30th, 2011 at The Resolved Church in San Diego, CA.

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The Resolved Church
John Feil
October 30th, 2011

When Strivings Cease: The Law and the Gospel

1) Work and Wages: the Letter that Kills – Gal 3:10-12

2) Redemption and Reformation: Resting in Jesus  Gal 3:13-14

Good morning Resolved church.  It is always a high honor to stand before you with the duty of preaching the word.  And I am especially excited today because tomorrow, October 31, is reformation day.  What is reformation day?  It’s the day we remember and reflect on the reformation.  Kind of like Columbus day or secretary’s day, but a lot more important.  Back in 1517, a German monk named Martin Luther was starting to come up with some pretty radical and controversial observations and criticisms of the church, especially the selling of indulgences, which were basically pieces of paper you could purchase from the church that would get rid of some of the time you were supposed to spend in purgatory after you die.  He had 95 points of criticism or “theses” against the church.  That’s pretty impressive.  95 points.  When we complain about the church, usually we stop before we get to 10.  Luther had a lot of thoughts.  And good ones.

So we pick this date, because, well we have to pick a date.  The Reformation didn’t happen only on this day in 1517, but that’s what we look to as the big catalyst.  This was Luther pushing the big boulder down the cliff.  So what was the reformation?

The protestant reformation was a period during the 1500s in which the great truths of the Bible were recovered, most notably the gospel: that we are sinners saved by grace alone, through faith alone in Christ alone according to Scripture alone to the glory of God alone.  These are the great solas of the reformation.  Sola is a Latin word that means “alone.”  See, the definition of the gospel had slowly deteriorated away from faith in Jesus to essentially faith and faithfulness.  So in Luther’s day, how is someone saved?  By faith and faithfulness.  Jesus did his part, now you do yours.  He was faithful, now you be faithful.  This distortion of the gospel is what Luther thundered against.  That’s why the solas were so important.  They weren’t just saying what we believe, they were saying what we don’t believe.  These were the core principles of the reformation, and have been the core principles of protestant church ever since including here at the Resolved.  We see ourselves not as a new kind of church or trying to reinvent the wheel.  The reformation is simply part of our family history.  These biblical doctrines permeate everything we do here at the Resolved.  If you want to know what we’re about, this is the short version.  Grace, faith, Jesus, Bible, God’s glory.  There’s a lot more than that, but there isn’t less than that.  There cannot be less than that.

In a nutshell the Reformation, based on the solas, overcame 100’s of years of corruption in the church and helped Christians get back to the Bible and the true gospel.  It’s a great story of a fat little german monk who turned the world upside down.  But there was a lot that had to change in him before that infamous date in 1517.

We all experience things that change us pretty dramatically, just like Luther.  Has there ever been anything in your life that has completely and totally changed the way you think or act?  Something that has changed you as a person?  Maybe an event you attended, a book you read, a person who knew you, a crisis, a loss, a great triumph or a great failure that has left lasting impact on you?  Something where if you look back over the last year, 5 years, 10, 20 30 years you can point to it and say “that changed me.”  Not just changed your circumstances, like a decision to move or take a job, but something that deeply and profoundly changed the way you think and act?  In the sense that your heart and mind work differently now?  Something that has reformed you?  Can you think of something?  We all have things that have changed us.  Some big, some small.  But we all have them.

While you’re thinking about what that might be in your history, I want to share a little bit of mine with you.  I was born in a Christian family with Christian parents and grandparents on both sides.  By God’s grace I don’t really remember a time when I wasn’t a Christian.  Growing up I went to Sunday school, home school, private school and public school, basically every type of school there is.  Then I came down to San Diego for college.  I got involved with this Christian group on campus, did leadership there and had a great time.  I was a music major, started to feel a call to the ministry, so I changed my degree so I could graduate faster.  I met my wife and we got engaged our senior year.  Picture perfect, right?  But here’s the thing: My faith had become so much about doing the good moral thing and using rules to stay far away from the bad thing, that the main thing, Jesus, had effectively gotten muscled out of my life.  In my mind, I had Christianity figured out: read your Bible, pray, don’t mess up, and God will be happy.  So I tried really hard to do those things.

But my senior year of college, something happened.  I read a book called Christless Christianity and it blew me apart.  Christless Christianity is basically a critique of the modern American church, pointing out her moralism, legalism, her anemic theology and the prevalent teaching of Jesus as life coach, but not savior.  I couldn’t believe it.  That was me.  He was describing my life.  I was a moralistic, legalistic and anemic Christian.  I was convinced that I was a good person because I had been trying to be good for a really long time.  My theology was that if I perform for God, he will perform for me and Jesus will help me out along the way.  Faith and faithfulness.  Jesus as lifecoach.  That’s it.  I know it’s cliché to say that I felt like the author of the book was speaking to me, but I really did.  I felt like I had been punched in the gut but more than that I felt like I had taken a breath of fresh air after being bed ridden for days.

And here is why I felt that way.  Because I was beginning to understand what I would say is the most important distinction one can understand when reading the Bible, a distinction that will save you from all kinds of errors, set you free from despair, deliver you from guilt, open your eyes to the grace of God.  A distinction that Luther called “the height of all knowledge in Christendom”: the difference between law and gospel.  The difference between law and gospel.

That is the subject and focus of our reformation day sermon this year:  The distinction in scripture between the law and the gospel.  The great reformation, or as I like to say Biblical principle that there are two messages in scripture: a message of law and a message of gospel.  The law tells me what I have to do, the gospel tells me of something that Jesus did.  The law is a command, the gospel is an announcement.  The law requires obedience, the gospel declares Jesus obedience and sacrifice for us.  We’ll flesh this out more as we go.

The text that I will be referencing is Galatians 3:10-14, so you can open your Bibles to it.  If you need a Bible there are some at the table in the back.  If you are new to the Bible, Galatians is in the New Testament, right after the big letter 2 Corinthians and before Ephesians.  The study of Galatians was a milestone in the works of both Luther and John Calvin.  In it they rediscovered the beauty of the gospel.

READ GALATIANS 3:10-14.  This is the word of the Lord.  Thanks be to God.

My main objective today is to convince you that the law condemns but the gospel gives life.

To do that I have just two points this morning:

1) Work and Wages: the Letter that Kills – Gal 3:10-12

2) Redemption and Reformation: Resting in Jesus  Gal 3:13-14

What we are going to talk about first is that the law promises life but only give death.

One of the cool things about the church is that there is so much diversity in the type of gifts we have and the things we do.  I mean in our church we have molecular biologists, financial advisors, school teachers, graphic designers, mothers, web developers, mechanics and many more.  We could probably run our own little city.  Even if you are unemployed right now, there has been a time for all of us when we have worked for payment of some type, usually in the form of dollars. You provide a service, you get paid for it, that’s generally how work works.  And many of you are good at what you do.  Maybe you’ve been promoted at your job because you straight up good.  You do good work.  And that’s a good thing.  We’re supposed to do everything to God’s glory.

But our work, just like everything which was intended for our good, has been affected by our sin.  We tend to take the principle of work, which is a good thing, and apply it to our standing with God, trying either to pay him off or pay him back, which is a bad thing.  In some form, we try to put God in our debt.

What the Reformation would say to us and what Galatians is saying to us is that no matter how hard we work, no matter how hard we try to make God happy, if we are trying to do that through the law, through doing the right thing and not doing the wrong thing, it won’t work.  In fact, it will do just the opposite.  If you look to the law as your advocate, as your friend and helper, it will turn its back on you.  It cannot deliver on its promises of life and happiness, only death and despair.

This was really the whole idea behind Luther’s 95 Theses.  If you can literally pay the church money to remove some of your punishment for sin, what is the implicit message in that transaction?  Try harder next time.  Just put a little more effort into it.

Let’s look at that.  Take the ten commandments for example.  Just 10.  That’s it.  10 laws that God wanted Israel to follow.  Here’s a sample: [1]

“You shall have no other gods before me.

“You shall not murder.

“You shall not commit adultery.

“You shall not steal.

“You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

“You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.”

Let’s pick one from the list and see if we measure up.  How many thieves do we have here today?  How many liars?  Any coveters?  Anybody ever wanted something so bad that you were tripping over yourself to chase it?  Here’s the point: it doesn’t take long for us to realize that we are law breakers.  What’s worse is that after God gives the 10 commandments to Israel, He says to the people, “Do this, and live.”  And what do the people say?  “All these things we will do.”  Worst possible answer!  In over their heads immediately.

If you want an example of how much we love to try and follow the law, just look at the debate that has been raging for some time over the presence of the 10 commandments in schools, courthouses and public places.  People have said that if the 10 commandments were posted in the courts and read in the schools, it would have a positive effect on public morality.  But I think it’s the exact opposite.  The Bible seems to say that the law makes our situation worse, not better.  Paul says in Romans 7 that “The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me.” (Rom 7:9 ESV)

So it’s clear from scripture that we aren’t faithful in keeping the commandments.  But here’s the even worse part: Jesus comes on the scene and says that if you have ever lusted after a man or woman or hated someone in your heart, you are just as guilty as if you actually committed it.  Having the desire in your heart is equal to having the bloody knife in your hand.  It’s worse than we thought.  Not only am I judged based on my actions, but even the intentions of my heart bear witness against me.

The bad news is that we are bad people.  We’re not bad people because we violate God’s law, we violate God’s law because we are bad people.  And we hate to hear that.  We don’t think in those terms.  We think we are good people.  How do I know?  Because when I cut off someone on the road, I never think it’s my fault when they honk at me.  Because when I’m sitting in those chairs I do what most of you just did: you hear someone tell you that you’re bad and you jump to your own defense.

See, the law is like a swift kick to the gut of a sleeping dog that arouses the animal to bark and bite.  The law only creates sin in us.  It does not and cannot create life.

There’s an old comic strip called Calvin and Hobbes.  It’s about a mischievous little boy named Calvin and his tiger doll named Hobbes that comes to life in his adventures.  One of the recurring themes in the strip is a scene where Calvin and Hobbes are racing down a snowy hill on a sled and this is kind of a vehicle for Calvin and Hobbes to have serious conversations about deep philosophical topics.  In this particular scene, Calvin asks Hobbes if he thinks that people are basically good with a few bad tendencies, basically bad with a few good tendencies, or just plain crazy and who knows why they do anything?  Before Hobbes can answer, Calvin crashes his sled into a tree and Hobbes says from under the snow, “I choose crazy.”

I love the strip, but I think that Hobbes is only partly correct.  Listen to what the apostle Paul says in Romans 3:

“None is righteous, no, not one;

no one understands;
no one seeks for God.
All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;
no one does good,
not even one.”
“Their throat is an open grave;
they use their tongues to deceive.”
“The venom of asps is under their lips.”
“Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.”
“Their feet are swift to shed blood;
in their paths are ruin and misery,
and the way of peace they have not known.”
“There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

According to this we are cursing, murderous venom filled dead men.  Not a pretty picture.  But this is the curse we are under, according to Galatians 3.  “Cursed is everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law and do them.”  This is the curse we need saving from.

I think the non-comic strip real Calvin, John Calvin is helpful here.  Calvin says that because of our sin and wickedness of heart and hands, we are “overwhelmed by an unavoidable calamity” and that our nature is “utterly lost.”  What is the unavoidable calamity?  The just judgment of God against sinners like you and me.    That is our curse.

If you are sitting there thinking to yourself, “this guy is a total bummer, I thought he was going to talk about the reformation and something about law and gospel.  This sucks and is depressing.”  I agree.  We’re all bummers, Jesus isn’t.  But I wanted to pause here and say that we are talking about the law.  I’m talking about the results of living under the law.  You might be thinking, ok I get it, it’s the law’s problem.  But it’s not the law’s problem.  It’s ours.  The curse of death is the curse we live under when we try to make ourselves better, fix our flaws and adjust our behavior.  We do so many things, yet we never really address the problem: that at our core we are sinners in need of saving.  We need to be saved from ourselves.

And yet we see in Scripture that God wants us to follow his law.  That it’s good for us.  David says as much in Psalm 19:

The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple;

⁸ the precepts of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes;

⁹ the fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever; the rules of the LORD are true, and righteous altogether.

What is David saying?  That living in God’s world according to his good law is the best thing for us.  It revives the soul and opens our eyes.  We ought to obey God and pay attention to the ways that we need to grow in obedience.  We need to repent of our sin and seek to live under God’s gracious laws.

This is where I think we run into a little bit of a snag.  Because it seems like the law drives us down into the ground, but then David here is telling us that God’s law revives his soul.  If we are honest, the law rarely does this for us, it rarely creates feelings of rejoicing and eagerness.   If we are honest, it seems like the law only exists to be a downer, make us feel bad about being bad and then just leave us to judgment.  But that’s not its only purpose!

Let me be perfectly clear: God’s great purpose for the law is not only to make you look within and see your failure, but to look beyond yourself and see your need for a savior.  The law is meant to be our guide to Jesus.

That’s why Paul says in Galatians 3:24-26 he says that “the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith.  But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith.”

The law was their guide to show them their need for Jesus, and indeed it functions the exact same way for us.  The whole Bible is about Jesus, especially the law.  So why does the law exist?  So that we might look to Jesus and be justified by faith!

What we all need, what we’re all longing for is for someone who keeps the law.  Someone who doesn’t mess up.  Isn’t that the story, the desire in sports, movies and novels?  Someone who perseveres? Someone who crosses the finish line?  Someone who isn’t wandering aimlessly?  Someone who will do what we could not?  Someone to be our advocate.  Someone to grab us, and shake us back to life!  Someone to rescue us from our lawlessness and set us on the path of righteousness.  We need Jesus!

This is what the reformers realized.  I mean just think about it.  If salvation is really just about me doing a pretty good job at life, then I don’t really need Jesus to be anything more than a life coach or counselor. In that medieval system of faith and faithfulness, Jesus eventually becomes little more than the GPS lady, reciting monotone instructions to make sure you don’t take a wrong turn.  The reformers thundered NO!  I don’t need Jesus to make sure I keep the law, I need Jesus because I DON’T KEEP THE LAW!  I rely on the works of the law and I am under a curse, according to Galatians 3.  I need someone to take that curse from me.  I need Jesus to deliver because the law promised life and it didn’t follow through.  And it cannot.

Have you ever felt the sting of the law?  Today?  This week?  Have you ever looked to your morality and good behavior for life and realized that it cannot deliver on its promises of life and hope?  Have you ever built your own system of laws and expectations and felt it collapse in on you?  And have you ever known what it feels like to turn and look to Jesus, who has carries that burdens for you?  It is a sweet feeling and we need to feel it again this morning.

Well that brings us to our second point here on Reformation Sunday.

Redemption and Reformation: Resting in Jesus

Here’s where we are.  We said in that first section that the law promises life but only give death.

The Bible is clear: we are all sinners, the wage for our sin is death, and the law doesn’t make our problem better, it makes it worse.  It doesn’t give us what we need or want.

But here’s the problem with starting there, starting with the law.  It gives you a warped, unbiblical perception of God.

Why is that?  Because it’s not where God starts.

Here’s what I mean.  Remember the law of Moses at Mount Sinai from earlier?  The 10 Commandments?  They are demanding right, when you start to seriously examine your obedience to them?  I might be wrong, but I think that most of the time, when we think of God, we tend to think of him first as lawgiver.  Like a cosmic policeman.  Like a cold-hearted accountant, merciless and frigid.

But if we do that, if we start with God as lawgiver, then this whole law/gospel thing gets thrown off course.  Why?  I’ll show you.

Stick with me here, this might be the most important aspect of understanding this whole idea of law and gospel.  The whole purpose of the law/gospel distinction.

The God of the Bible is a covenant making, covenant keeping God.  Think of a covenant like a blood oath.  It’s a serious promise.

What God did with Moses and Israel after they got out of Egypt, giving them the law, the 10 commandments, that was a covenant.  We can’t get into all the details, but basically God gives the law, makes the covenant and the people promise to obey.  The people are bound under threat of death to keep their end of the deal through obedience to the law.  We call this the covenant of works.  Why?  Because the covenant is predicated on the faithful obedience of the people.

But there is an earlier covenant, one that came before Moses.  It’s the covenant God made with Abraham.  In it, God promised to make Abraham a great nation, that his family would be huge and that through his family line, all the nations would be blessed.  That through Abraham’s line, God would provide a redeemer.  God makes a promise and seals the covenant, but this one is different.  He doesn’t bind Abraham to keep his end of the deal.  God actually binds himself.  God basically says, “I will accomplish all that I have promised.”  We call this the covenant of grace.  Why?  Because the covenant is predicated on the faithful obedience of God alone.

My point is this: if we start with the law, the Bible becomes about us and how we are doing.  But, if we start with a God who is gracious, who makes a covenant to keep his promises, to provide a redeemer for his lost people, that changes everything.

The law is about Jesus just as much as the gospel is about Jesus.  They both direct us to him.  That’s the whole point.

Jesus is our redeemer.  He is our advocate.  He is our representative.   He does for us what we cannot do for ourselves: keep the law perfectly.  And he does it on our behalf.

This is why Galatians 3:13-14 says that Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us.  So that what?  So the blessings of Abraham might come to us, the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.  The blessing of Abraham is God’s grace.

Jesus is the fulfillment of the law.  It points to him.  And the gospel tells us of what he has done in order to fulfill it and provide the salvation that God long ago promised to his people.

This is the gospel:

That Jesus left his heavenly home and came to earth as a human baby

That he grew in wisdom and maturity

That he was perfect, sinless and obedient in every way

That he went to the cross, and on the cross he suffered and paid the penalty we deserved and accomplished salvation for his people.  That he paid for our sin once and for all.

That he died, was buried and rose again 3 days later to give us new life and hope.

That he is our advocate, substitute, representative and savior.

He does not hold the sins of his people against them.  He is quick to forgive and in Jesus he removes our sin and makes us clean.  We are so clean, so united to Christ that God does not see our sin, but only Jesus righteousness in our place.

Paul makes it clear for us in Romans 8:1-4

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. ² For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. ³ For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, ⁴ in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

(Rom 8:1-4 ESV)

And now because of what Jesus has done, we are able to follow the law and obey God’s commandments.  The gospel doesn’t discourage obedience.  It actually allows us to be obedient out of gratitude for what God has done.  Now as Christians, the law becomes our joy and delight, because it please God when we follow him.  Just remember that it cannot give you what Jesus gives.

Say with the psalmist that “As for you, O LORD, you will not restrain your mercy from me; your steadfast love and your faithfulness will ever preserve me! (Psa 40:11 ESV)

My friends, there is no greater distinction to make than the one between the law and the gospel.  In an age that desires to steamroll distinction and difference in the name of unity and tolerance, we cannot afford to lose this one.

This is the distinction:

The law cries out “do this and live.”  The gospel whispers, “Jesus has done it all, and he gives it freely.”

The law reminds me of my imperfection, the gospel proclaims that Jesus was perfect for me.

The law suffocates me with its requirements and demands, the gospel tells me of how Jesus met them all, including death, and was resurrected so that I might have life.

The law magnifies the sin in my flesh, the gospel tells me that Jesus took on flesh to pay for my sin.

The law calls me a criminal, the gospel tells me that Jesus was crucified as a criminal for me.

The law does not let me forget my sins, but the gospel tells me that as far as the east is from the west, so far has God removed my transgressions from me.

The law tells me that I am cursed because of my sin, but the gospel announces that Jesus became a curse in my place.

The law torments my blemished conscience, the gospel tells me I’ve been washed white as snow.

The law tells me of the coming judgment, the gospel tells me that Jesus was already judged in my place.

The law tells me I’m an enemy of God, the gospel tells me I’m his child.

The law tells me I can never get to God, the gospel says that Jesus came to me.

The law is for the proud and confident, the gospel is for the weak and broken.

The law is attractive to the prideful and arrogant, the gospel is water for the parched and weary.

The law is for the upstanding citizens, the gospel is for the repeat offenders.

The law is for those who strive and never stop, the gospel is for those who gave up a long time ago.

My friends, Jesus offers you salvation today.  Not the opportunity to be saved, not the chance to be saved if you believe hard enough, but actual real salvation.  Believe on Jesus, put your faith in him, your great substitute and advocate.  He does not make impossible requests, but comforts us and holds us in our weakness.  He calls us to himself, not with the burden of the law, but with the sweet aroma of grace.  The law says, “Do this and live.”  But Jesus says “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. ²⁹ Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰ For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Mat 11:28 ESV)

We all need the gospel.  We need the gospel just as much as we needed it the day we first believed.  So for believer and unbeliever alike, would today be the day that you look to Jesus.  Let us pray.

Blog | Tracy Martin

By Faith Sarah became a mother and believed the promise that God had given her many years earlier. I feel a sense of kinship with the matriarch of our faith. When I was a young girl, God placed in my heart a desire to be a wife and mother. Not only that, but a particular desire to be with my children daily, to care for them, as well as support and care for my husband and our home. I actually remember the day after school, the crisp autumn air and the peace in my heart at my calling. I spent the next 13 years planning my wedding!

You see, while I do have advanced degrees, various trainings and qualifications in careers outside the home, for me nothing really compares to fulfilling that dream God placed in my heart when I was very young. I don’t see being home with my children, training them in righteousness, and being their primary caregiver as undervaluing me. I see all of this as utilizing the gifts and talents God has given me to His glory.

I recall saying several times as a young girl that I wanted to be the one to raise my children. Reading endless stories, eating pretend meals, pushing swings at the park, and dealing with discipline issues day in and day out is a high calling I don’t take lightly. I don’t see it as ever diminishing me as a person or undervaluing my purpose in life. There really is nothing greater than caring for my family.

When days are hard, diapers are plenty, a good nights sleep is a distant vague memory, and I don’t think I could possibly get caught up on laundry any time this decade, I am reminded of the promise that the One who is faithful put in my heart. Sometimes my sweet husband gently reminds me of the WHY behind the WHAT I am doing.

Really, what it boils down to is this: My worth and value is not derived from my role as a wife or mom. I do find great joy in cooking nutritious meals for my loved ones; however, when I put my focus on joy in daily tasks it always comes up short. Striving to be a loving supportive wife or even an amazingly creative stay-at-home mother is not the goal in and of itself. Loving the Lord with all my heart, my soul, and my mind; that is the greatest commandment! Living my life to fulfill why I was created, that is what will bring enduring satisfaction.

So when I’m discouraged and think life would be better if I changed it up and went to a job that paid more than hugs and kisses, I am pulled back to see that my hope and satisfaction are found in the finished work of Christ alone. When we take our eyes off of our current circumstances, surroundings, or even off of what we’ve been told is truth by societal norms, we are able to find real joy and real satisfaction in life!

Yes I love being a wife and a mom. Unquestionably, I am called to it. It is not the end. Rather, it is the overflowing of my life lived to bring glory to God.

My days are often filled with the same tasks. Day in and day out I cook meals, give baths, change diapers, wash dishes, instruct children, and year by year a home is built. A home that is dedicated to glorifying God. A home that is filled with voices of rejoicing and salvation. (Psalms 118:15)

Blog | Pastor Duane

October 31st is one of my favorite days of the year and not because it’s Halloween. On October 31, 1517, (now known as “Reformation Day”) Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses on the door of Wittenburg which ended up launching what is perhaps the biggest event in the history of Christianity since the resurrection of Jesus. The Reformation represents a significant point in history when Pastors and Christians throughout the world began to believe in and herald the gospel with a renewed passion and conviction that had not been seen since the days of the apostles. Simply put, the Reformation is the biggest revival in Christian History.

So this coming Sunday is Reformation Sunday and the day after is Reformation Day. We’ll have a special Reformation Sunday sermon and then the next day I will be celebrating Reformation Day in my own home by reading some choice selections of one of the Reformers (Luther, Calvin, Knox etc.) followed by watching either the 1953 or 2003 movie “Luther.”

I’ll leave you with one of my favorite Luther quotes to help prepare our hearts for this coming Sunday’s study of God’s Word. At the Diet of Worms, when Luther was put on trial for the gospel and asked to recant upon threat of his life here was his response:

“Unless I am convinced by Scripture and plain reason, my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and I will not recant anything, for to go against conscience would be neither right nor safe. God help me. Here I stand, I can do no other.”

——————————–

For more on the Reformation check out these posts:
What Is Reformed?
The Five Solas
Reformation Day
Revelation and Reformation

Hebrews 11 | Vintage Faith | 11:22 | Pastor Duane Smets

This is an exegetical sermon of Hebrews 11:22. It covers the story of Joseph, his life as a God-centered visionary, and his death. Special attention is given to Jesus in how he is the focus of God’s own God-centered vision for history. This sermon was originally preached on October 23rd, 2011 at The Resolved Church in San Diego, CA.

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The Resolved Church
Pastor Duane Smets
October 23rd, 2011

Faith & The Example of Joseph
Pastor Duane Smets | Hebrews 11:22

I. Having A God-Shaped Identity
II. Having A God-Given Vision
III. Having A God-Centered History
IV. Having A God-Entrusted Mission

Introduction

Well, rather than being a good public speaker and giving you some sort of attention getting hook or story I’m just going to jump right in and get to work with our text today. Just one verse today, Hebrews 11:22. If you’re a new Christian or new to this church or the Bible, the book of Hebrews is actually one of the easier books to find. It’s toward the end of your Bible just before James and right after Titus and Philemon. Or if you’ve got a smartphone you don’t even have to worry about it. Just go and navigate to it on there.

So here we go, Hebrews 11:22 (read text and pray).

Okay, we’ll I’m gonna kinda of tell you my plan right up front. We’ve got this amazing chapter of the Bible with all these amazing men and women of God who are marked for their faith in the promise of God, which it defines at the beginning as “the conviction of things not seen.”

Some of the dudes in the chapter get one verse some get a few more with more details as we’ve been discovering in this series we’re going through. Ours for today is just one simple verse, which could be easy to pass over but it’s got some phenomenal stuff in it. There’s sort of four parts to this verse, so I want to look at each part and then we’ll see how it really does relate to Jesus and the gospel. The four things we’ll look at it is, “Having a God Shaped Identity, Having A God-Given Vision, Having A God-Centered History, Having A God-Entrusted Mission.” Let’s start with the first one, “Having A God-Shaped Identity.”

I. Having A God-Shaped Identity

This first point I’m picking up mainly just from Joseph’s name. As we’ve been working through this chapter we’ve been discovering that these are not just random people pulled out of a hat. Each one of the people in this chapter are well known characters in the Bible. In the Old Testament, the sort of first half of the Bible, multiple chapters are often given to telling the stories of each one of these people. So there’s an assumption from the writer of Hebrews here, when it was originally written, that the people who were first reading it would have known some things about these people.

So for example, today if I say the names “Obama” “George Bush” “John F. Kennedy” George Washington” certain things are going to come to mind when you hear their names right? They might be good, might be bad, but you’re going to know some things about them. Obama is the current president. George Bush went to war with Iraq. JFK got shot. George Washington was the first president.

Same thing with these guys here in Hebrews 11. In fact if you’ve been a Christian for awhile or grew up in the church you probably know some stuff about these guys, some things come to mind when you hear their name.

Now when it comes to our guy for today, Joseph…there’s a lot that’s said about him. He basically gets the last thirteen chapters of Genesis, the first book of the Bible. That’s a big chunk. And a lot happens. And it’s riveting…there’s a murder plot, a sex scandal, an imprisonment, a rise to power and tear jerking family reunion. Not boring Bible stuff at all! And Joseph’s story is a great one indeed.

But here when we come to Hebrews we just get this one little verse which really doesn’t mention any of it. Instead it just throws out his name. There’s a little allusion to the events of his life that we’ll talk about in our next point but for the most part there’s really nothing here. Which leaves me with the question why?

With a lot of the other people in this chapter details about their life and their story are talked about, even people who were given a lot less space and time in Genesis. So what’s up with that? Here’s what I think is going on. I could be wrong but I’ll just throw this out there. I think the lack of any details of Joseph’s story here is intentional because what we’re meant to pick up on is the significance of Joseph’s whole life and identity all together.

Here’s what I mean. In Joseph’s story there are a number of sequential events which are all inter-connected and effect one another. He’s the youngest, so his dad kinda favors him and gives him this jazzy expensive coat. He is kind of weird because he starts having these crazy dreams about the future saying all his brothers will one day bow down to him.

Because of that his brothers get jealous and decide to murder him, they throw him into a pit and are about to put an animal in there to eat him when they change their minds and instead decide to sell him into slavery in Egypt and just tell their dad Joseph’s dead.

While in Egypt Joseph works hard God grants him favor and he gets a job in the house of one of the top officials of the land named Potiphar. When he’s working there, one day Potiphar’s wife traps him in the bedroom and says, “Lie with me” and literally rips his clothes off. But Joseph won’t do it and runs away naked. It’s like something you’d see on HBO. Well you can guess what happened next. Potiphar’s wife says Joseph tried to rape her and Joseph gets thrown in prison.

But guess what happens? While he’s in prison, the Pharaoh, the ruler and king of all of Egypt starts having bad dreams and no one can figure out what they mean. Someone tells the Pharaoh about Joseph who has continued using his gift with dreams thing where he can see and understand the future. So Joseph goes and interprets the Pharaoh’s dream, which is basically saying famine is coming and you better start storing up food. Pharaoh listens and sure enough it comes true, so he makes Joseph his right hand man, second in power and wealth only to the king.

Well, guess what happens? Because there is famine, no one anywhere in the land has food except Egypt, thanks to Joseph’s dream. And this includes Joseph’s family, his dad, mom and brothers. They don’t have any food in the famine. So what do they do, Joseph’s family goes to Egypt to buy food. And guess who they’re bowing down to begging for food? Joseph. Just like in his very first dream.

When they realize it’s him, they’re scared for their lives because they tried to kill him. And even though Joseph could have, he doesn’t. Instead he exercises mercy and forgives them and embraces them. Scripture says he literally collapsed on their necks weeping. Rather than dishing out judgement he gives them a bunch of land and food and they and all their families comes to live in Egypt. And that brings us to the final scene of Joseph’s life which is mentioned in our passage for today in Hebrews 11.

So I wanted to tell you in quick form the story of Joseph’s life so you would know something about him. But I also wanted to tell the story so you might pick up on something. What you might have noticed is there is not one part of the story that stands alone. It’s all interconnected. Every event causes the next event and then births a new event.

Here’s the point. Joseph’s life, from beginning to end, is meant here in Hebrews, I think, to be taken as one whole event. From the very beginning of Joseph’s story, when you first read about him in Genesis, right away we’re told of his dream that his brothers will bow down to him. And Joseph’s story concludes with all of his brothers and family under his rule in Egypt.

Now, what do you think is up with that? I think there’s a verse in Genesis which gives us a good clue. So turn to Genesis chapter 50. The last chapter in the first book of the Bible. It’s in the middle of the scene where Joseph is reuniting with his family and they’re afraid for their lives. Genesis 50:20 “As for you (speaking to his brothers) you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive as they are today.”

I’ll leave questions about theodicy and God’s control and use of evil and suffering for another day. But what I want us to notice is how key this verse is in the memory and understanding of who Joseph is. This is a huge verse on so many levels. For our purpose think about this. How did Joseph see himself? When Joseph thought about himself and who he was, his job, his career, his family, his money…all the events of his life…how did he see himself?

It’s clear isn’t it! From Genesis 50:20 we can see that the chief way Joseph viewed himself was as an instrument of God. Who he was, his identity, his role on earth was solely informed by God’s purpose and plan for his life. You meant it for evil, God meant it for good. I think this is perhaps the chief thing Joseph gets remembered for in biblical history.

So for us today. Do you see yourself and your life as created and determined by God for his purposes? What defines you and your identity? Your job in what you do for work? You husband or wife or kids? Your money or possessions? Your fashion sense or hobbies or music? What makes you you?

For Joseph, he stands for us as an example of a person who saw that the core of their identity, the thing that mattered most, was seeing himself in light of who God was and what God wanted to do through him.

For some of you, the things that you look at which define you need to change. The things that you care so much about and look to for some sense of security and uniqueness need to change. Our culture even seems to encourage us to look for identity in all the wrong places. On Facebook you’re, encouraged…no, actually pressured by Facebook to list all your unique hobbies, interests, music, books and movies as if those were the things which really make you you.

You and I need a bigger and fuller understanding of who we are. You are person, ultimately put here on earth, by God, to glorify and serve him and his purposes. You need a God-shaped identity.

So let me ask you. Have you been looking to something else other God for your sense of identity and security? When you think of who you are do you think of how God uniquely made you, gifted you and has called you? Or do you look to silly peripheral things that don’t really matter a whole lot in the big scheme of things? Or maybe for you, just in me saying that is a huge wake up call and you’re like, “oh man…I totally do that.” If so God is calling you to look to him and see yourself through his eyes.

Well, let’s move on to our next point “Having A God-Given Vision” and see how that works itself out in us.

II. Having A God-Given Vision

This is the next part of our verse in Hebrews. It’s where it says, “at the end of his life.” “Joseph, at the end of his life, made mention of…” So follow me here. I envision an old man by this point. He’s either bald with no hair or has long flowing white hair and a beard like all the Bible pictures you see.

The verse before ours has Jacob, his dad at the end of his life and now we’ve got Joseph at the end of his life. It’s an intriguing thing to me. Sometimes I wonder about it. The older I get the more I find myself forgetting things. I’m only 33 but in talking to my friends who are same age they tell me they forget stuff too.

I just had my birthday a couple months ago and somehow someone found out about in the weeks leading up to it and they asked me how old I was going to be and I had to just sit there and stop and think and trying and remember how old I was. I remembered the year I was born and started to do the math, which frustrated me so I just stopped and yelled out to Amy, “how old am I?”

So I wonder what it’s like to be an old man, looking back over all of your life? When I imagine Joseph here, he’s an old man. It’s natural, he’s forgot a lot of things. Maybe I’m just speculating here but I imagine when you’re old and you’re looking back over your life you tend to realize the stuff that really matters. That doesn’t sound too far fetched does it?

Now here’s striking thing. Let me show you something that blew me away. It’s probably one of the most exciting things about this verse. What does it say here in Hebrews 11:22 Joseph talked about at the end of his life? What did he make mention of? The Exodus! That’s this famous Israelite event. And here’s the kicker. If you know about the Exodus, when did it happen? Before or after Joseph? After!

I’ve read this a million times and never noticed it. You just kind of naturally think he’s looking backward and talking about something that had already happened. But he’s not. Joseph here is doing what he had been doing his entire life. He’s looking forward! He actually prophesying here! It’s amazing. He makes mention of and talks about the Exodus here before it had even happened!

We’ll talk a little bit more about the significance of the Exodus story in our next point but for right now just think about this for a minute with me. One of the constants which we see in Joseph’s life throughout his story is his consistent commitment to use his God-given gift having and interpreting dreams about the future in order to live out his God-given role on the earth. Down to the very last moments of his life, he’s still exercising and using his gift and playing his part because he had a firm grasp on what God’s vision for his life was.

Here’s what I’m getting at. Some of you are just sort of floundering through life and you don’t have a vision or trajectory for where you are or where you are going and you need to figure that out. This plays out in a number of different ways. Here’s a few.

One, in your career. We grow up being told, “You can be whatever you want to be when you grow up.” That’s actually not true. You can’t be whatever you want. The Sea World Shamu message, “Just believe” is wrong. We ask kids or college students, “What do you want to do when you grow up?” That’s actually the wrong question. The more important question is, “What has God called you to do and to be?” That’s one way this thing plays out.

Here’s another. In your family. Some of you just start having kids and that’s great. I’ve been hammering that drum the last couple weeks…get married, make babies. People ask Amy and I how many kids we want to have and our answer is, “as many as we can.” And then we can’t anymore we’ll start adopting.

So having kids is good. But some of you have kids and you have no vision for your family. What your goals are as a dad and a mom. What you want to instill and how your going to instill it. What you want your family to be like in 10, 20 years. You need to get a family mission statement and have a vision for you family.

The background of my computer screen has our family mission statement on it. I’ll read it for you.

Family Mission Statement

My wife & children would see God as the most important treasure of our home.
We love God, live under his rule, and worship him in all we say and do.

My family would be kind & tender-hearted, loving one another as Jesus has loved us.
We believe in the gospel and live out of it with the Holy Spirit’s help.

My wife & children would see that I enjoy them and put them first before others.
We believe our home is the first church Daddy loves and pastors.

My family would witness me loving Jesus & his Word as an example for them to follow.
We believe the Bible is God’s Word & has revealed what we need for life & godliness.

I’ll do one more. Having a God-given vision for your career, for your family and then for ministry. It’s not just the pastor and the church staff who are called into the ministry. That’s everyone who is a Christian. 1 Peter 2:9 says if you’re a Christian then you are a priest or a minister, “a royal priesthood” who has been “called” by God. So everyone of you are called into the ministry and according to Ephesians 4 Jesus has given everyone of you spiritual gifts he means for you to use for his kingdom and glory.

Some of you have no idea what your gifts and calling is and you need to figure that out. Some of you know what they are but you’re not using them. Some of you know what they are and you’re using them but you’re using them for your own glory and not God’s.

I’ll put it another way. God means for you to get involved, to get out of the seat on Sunday and actually do something. He doesn’t want you just to be a consumer he wants you to be a contributer. There are a ton of ministries and things going on here you can get involved in. Or if you’re excited about some new thing we’re not doing that we could do, then let’s figure out how to do it together as a church. So often we have people who come to us wanting our church to support this ministry or that ministry that’s going on out there, outside of our church by some other agency. But we’re not really into that. We don’t want to outsource ministry. We be the church Jesus has called us to be, using our gifts underneath the covering of leadership he sets up and calls us to.

We have such an amazing wealth of resources here in this room. The gifts, talents, passions, ideas…If we work together, there’s little we can’t accomplish. So figure out what you’re passionate about and how you’re gifted and start using it for God’s glory in and through his church.

Career, family, ministry…Get God’s vision for your life and go do it. You’ll be a lot happier serving God and his people than yourself. I promise.

I’ll say one more thing on this point. Having vision is a future thing. In fact faith in general in large part is a future oriented thing, especially in Hebrews 11. Perhaps you’ve heard this story about Walt Disney. After Disneyland was finished the leaders of the company were marveling at how phenomenal it all turned out. One of them then commented, “Isn’t it too bad Walt Disney didn’t live to see it.” To that the director, Mike Vance replied, “He did see it, that’s why it’s here.” He had a picture of it in his head before any of it was ever built.

Having a God-Given Vision is looking ahead and seeing what God might accomplish through you in this world and going after it. Maybe some of you have heard of reverse-engineering. The Christian version is where you imagine where God wants you to be in say 10 years and what he wants you to do and then you work backwards and think of the stuff you need to accomplish to get there.

Some of you need to look into the future and start dreaming and experimenting with what God may have you to do in his world. What is amazing about Joseph is he got ahold of that. He figured out what his place was and then with a firm grasp held to it. He had a God-Given vision, not just in his dreams about the future, but he had a God given vision for his life…to serve God and use his gifts to care for God’s people.

Well, let’s move on and talk about Joseph’s last dream and vision, the Exodus and how it shows the importance of “Having A God-Centered History.”

III. Having A God-Centered History

So Joseph is at the end of his life and he prophesies about the Exodus. Now, the word “exodus” here in Hebrews is another hot-button word. You say “exodus” that’s like saying “holocaust.” Everyone knows what that is and it was a big deal. There are certain events which leave a deep mark on a people’s history and identity. Like Pearl Harbor or 9/11. The Exodus is like that.

If you’ve ever seen the old Charlton Heston movie, “The Ten Commandments” or the Dreamworks film “The Prince of Egypt” or if you we’re ever in a church for more than just one Sunday or ever read the Bible you know what the Exodus is. It’s one of the most well known things about the Bible and it referred to in the Bible a ton. It’s one of the biggest events in all of the Bible and a whole book of the Bible is named after it, “The Book of Exodus.”

The Exodus is when God’s people exited out of Egypt. Basically after Joseph dies, over 400 years go by and in that time lots of Pharaoh kings come and go and after awhile no one really remembers Joseph and Joseph’s family stops getting special treatment and instead they actually end up becoming slaves. They cry out to God and God decides to deliver them and he does all these crazy miracles, basically going to war for them against Egypt and they finally get to go the land God originally promised to their great, great, great, great grandfather Abraham.

Now, I’m not going to go through the details of the Exodus, I just want us to understand how big of an event it was on the plane of history. On scholar writes this, “The Exodus from Egypt is the focal point of ancient Israelite religion. Virtually every kind of religious literature in the Hebrew Bible – prose narrative, liturgical poetry, didactic prose, and prophecy – celebrates the Exodus as a foundational event.” It’s amazing.

In Deuteronomy 6, we’re told that when a son asks why there are commandments in the Bible, the dad is supposed to answer by explaining the Exodus. Listen to Deuteronomy 6:20-21, “When your sons asks you in time to come, What is the meaning of the statutes and the rules the LORD our God has commanded you? Then you shall say to your son, We were Pharaoh’s slaves in Egypt. And the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand.” So we teach our kids about the Exodus. My oldest daughter knows it as the story about the blood on the door.

We’ll come back to each of these points at the end when we talk about the gospel. But I will say this here. I don’t think that the Exodus event was just a central and significant event for the ancient people of Israel but was central and significant for all of human history.

You see, what we pick up on in our Hebrews passage is Joseph looked forward to the Exodus and looked at it as a key event that was going to take place.

But that’s getting ahead of ourselves. Let’s pull it back and bring it a little closer to home. When it comes to history you pretty much have three options. One, it’s uncontrollable and sort of chaotically spinning out of control with no rhyme or reason to it. Or two, it simply and wholly determinable by human decisions and actions, whether they be survival of the fittest or whatever. Or three, history is ultimately and wholly guided and determined by God, the ruler over ALL.

We don’t have time to do a big extensive Bible study on it today. So I’ll just give you a couple references to show you that the Bible opts for the third.

Daniel 4:17; 5:34-35 “The Most High rules the kingdom of men and give it to whom he pleases..his dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom endures from generation to generation; all the inhabitants of the earth are are accounted as nothing and he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand and or say to him, ‘what have you done.’”

Acts 17:28 “(God) made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place.”

What I’m trying to pick up and focus us on from the Bible is the it’s theme and conviction that God rules over all of history and every event and especially every major central event is about him. You see too often I think we buy into one of the other views..that history is not necessarily going anywhere or is meaningless, that there’s no grand story or metanarrative. But the view of the Bible is it is.

And here’s the real thing. I think for most of us, most often our view of history is about this small…just our own lives. We don’t really see much bigger than ourselves and what’s right in front of us. What we need is a God-Centered History. We need to see that history really is “his story.”

That’s what undergirds the first two points we looked at today. You can’t have a God-Shaped Identity or a God-Given Vision if you don’t see history as being guided, determined and purposed for him and his glory. You’ll end up with a “you-centered” history and it’s really not about you…it’s about him.

J.B. Philips was a Bible translator, commentator and Anglican pastor before he died. He wrote a book back in 1961 titled, “Your God Is Too Small” I’ve told you guys about before. I think for some of you today, your God is just too small and you need to get a bigger God. What we see here from Joseph is he had a God who ruled over and planned history. He spent his life learning that and proving that. He had a God-Centered History.

Do you look at yourself as being placed here, on earth, by God, not for you, but to play some small part in a much bigger story that is going on? If you don’t, you need to get a more God-centered view of history and your life.

Well, let’s take a quick look at our final point this morning, “Having A God-Entrusted Mission.”

IV. Having A God-Entrusted Mission

With this last point, we pick up the last words of our verse, “he gave directions concerning his bones.” This is the skull and cross bones part of our text. It’s punk rock Goonies status. His bones. Fitting for Halloween.

In all seriousness, it’s kind of an odd thing at first glance right? This thing about his bones. What’s even weirder is you can follow his bones around in Genesis, Exodus and Joshua. In Genesis he dies and tells them his concern about his bones. Exodus 13 recalls that he made them “solemnly swear” to do it this thing with the bones. In Joshua 24 we learn that later, literally almost 500 years later his bones finally get buried in his homeland in plot of land bought in Shechem.

So here’s the question… Why do you care so much about your bones sicko? Doesn’t it sound kind of morbid? Wierd? There’s two things going on here.

One’s a leadership thing, the other is a love thing. Remember Joseph had vision right? He was a great leader. Here, what you have him doing is giving instructions to those who will lead after them. And what was Joseph’s vision for the future about? Fulfilling God’s promise to made to Abraham to be experiencing God’s blessing in the land he would give ‘em.

So really, what Joseph is doing is trying to ensure that the plan comes to past by making a personal request with his that his family leave Egypt one day and follow through with God’s calling. In a very real way here, Joseph is passing on the faith to his children. He leaves his bones as a final reminder to listen to, obey and follow the will and plan of God.

Here’s the other thing, the love thing. Think about Joseph and his stature and wealth at this point in his life. He’s been Pharaoh’s right hand man of the richest county in the world at the time. He’s been in Egypt since he was 17. He probably doesn’t even remember what Canaan looked like. His homeland is a faint, faint memory. He’s got luxury, riches, and power beyond anything most of us could ever conceive. But he doesn’t care about any of that. All he cares about is loving, serving, obeying and following God.

Both John Owen and John Calvin are good on this. I’ll quote ‘em both.

John Owen says, “This holy man lived and died in faith, being enabled to prefer the promises of God above all earthly enjoyments.”

John Calvin says, “Wealth, luxuries and honor made not the holy man forget the promise…whatever was elevated in this world…(he) esteemed it as (having) nothing precious in it.”

This is huge. Joseph had all the wealth and the power. He probably could have worked a way to become Pharaoh himself or set one of his sons up to be it. But he didn’t. He realized all of that was worthless and he cared more about the mission God had given to his family. Joseph didn’t care about his own kingdom, he cared about the kingdom of God.

So where are you at with mission? Do you have people you are working at passing the faith onto? Who’s kingdom do you care about? Do you look to money and luxury and esteem for security and happiness? Really. What’s the thing you’re really working for in life? To play? For more toys and nicer things? To try and make a better life for yourself? Are you on mission for God or yourself? Do you see yourself as a missionary for God in all of your relationships…looking to spread his kingdom? Or are you trying to build your own kingdom?

Joseph here is at the end of his life and he basically, like the wise Solomon of old says, here is the end of all matter, “fear God and keep his commandments (Eccl 12:13).” Follow through with loving and serving God, that’s all that matters.

Conclusion

Well, I want to conclude with the gospel because here’s the thing. You can try and mimic Joseph or any of these characters in Hebrews 11. That’s the big danger with this chapter and the trap that many follow into with it. There’s a big tendency to look at each of these characters as good moral examples for us to follow and imitate in living a better life.

You see, even in our outline today…you can try and get a “God-Shaped Identity”, a “God-Given Vision”, “A God-Centered History”, and “A God-Entrusted Mission” and you really won’t be able to apart from Jesus. I kind of intentionally left him out in this sermon up to this point.

You see you could take everything I’ve said so far and it could sound good. We’re talking about God and identity and vision and mission and it just sounds all good. But there’s no Jesus. What will happen is you will try and seek these things and two things will happen. One, they’ll end up being centered on you. And two, you won’t be able to really find them or accomplish them, you’ll fail. The reason is because all of those things are only found in Jesus.

Here’s what I mean..

We have no identity apart from Christ. To be a Christian is to bear his name…to be all about him. The truth about my identity is I am a person created by God to serve him and his purposes here on the earth…but I haven’t done that. Instead I’ve served myself and my own purposes. I am a sinner.

Jesus comes, the true and better Joseph, who doesn’t just serve a purpose in one part and place in the story in the Bible to save and forgive just his relatives but he comes to fulfill every story, bring it all together and save many sinners throughout all time and adopt us into his family. Here’s how he does it, he says he came, “not to be served, but to serve and give his life as a ransom for many (Mk 10:45).” When Jesus forgives and saves, our identity as children of God gets reinstated and then we have a truly God-shaped identity.

When it comes to having a God-Given vision. Here’s what we’ll be tempted to do. If you can get on board with the idea of having you’re vision come from God, here’s what we’ll be tempted to think about…the great things we can accomplish for God. And really what we’re excited about is we will do and not what he has already done.

Jesus comes, the true and better Joseph, who didn’t just see parts of the future before it happened but as God sees every single day before it happens, including as Psalm 139 says, every word of our tongue before we speak it. And before the world was even created he looked forward and saw a day he had determined would be the day he would come and give up his life on a cross. Through the vision of the cross our life and gifts get real meaning, purpose and focus because then we take part in something that counts for eternity.

On having a God-centered history…we may, if we’re honest enough, be able to swallow this big idea that God rules over all events that ever happen. But we’ll naturally probably think of it in as though God does that completely detached, like he’s on another planet with a remote control.

Jesus comes, the true and better Joseph, who didn’t just see the Exodus but saw something even greater, so he exited his glory in heaven above and instead of leaving a place of torture and captivity he ran toward it and took on sin itself in his own body so that many might be freed from their bondage and slavery to it once and for all. Having a God-centered history makes our of our lives about one event, the one where we get redeemed.

Mission? We can try to live our lives on mission for God but we will try but lose passion and get frustrated that we can’t make it happen no matter how much we try and so we’ll slip into caring for the things we can control and end up being on mission for ourselves building our own kingdom.

Jesus comes, the true and better Joseph, who didn’t just give some instructions and then die to help those who would come after him. Jesus rose from the dead and ever lives to empower us and direct us, fulfilling his promise to be with us always because as he said, apart from him we can do nothing (Jn 15:5). Through Jesus we can actually accomplish the God-entrusted mission. You see…

Our identity. In the gospel, God knows the worst of us yet he forgives us and accepts us on the basis of Christ.

Our vision. In the gospel, God gives us a greater vision than we could ever come up with on our own, a vision to use all of our time, talents and treasure so that he might be made known.

Our history. In the gospel, history becomes centered on the focal climactical point of Jesus’ cross and we make it our resolve to know nothing except Christ and him crucified.

Our mission. In the gospel, Jesus gives us his Spirit so we might truly become missionaries for him in his world.

The Gospel is the good news that Jesus died on the cross and rose again for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures and was raised on the third day. The gospel is everything. Let’s pray and turn towards its provision.

Blog | Pastor Duane

Catechisis is a form of question and answer teaching used for training the mind to think and understand properly. The word “catechism” literally translated means “to sound down” into the ears, a metaphor for indoctrination.

For hundreds of years Christians have prescribed to and used catechism as a method of learning for both children and adults. Some of the most well known Catechisms are the Belgic Confession, the Canons of Dort, the Heidelberg Catechism, the Westminster Confession and the London Baptist Confession.

Since they were babies fresh out of the womb, I have informally practiced catechisis with my children teaching, them basic things about who God is, the word he has given and the gospel he has provided for our salvation. As time has progressed I discovered the need for a more comprehensive program to assist me in the spiritual leadership of my home. I discovered an old catechism for children written in 1840 by Joseph Engles, but in some parts the language was outdated. So I have updated that catechism and also included at least one Scripture verse (ESV translation) for each answer which can be used for memorization.

Feel free to download it and use as you please: Children Catechism

Joseph Engles word to Fathers in his introduction is one of the most humbling and weighty things I have ever read about the responsibility I have before my God regarding my children. May it inspire you and encourage to lead your children in knowing God’s Word which heralds the Gospel.

You have an awfully responsible office in being entrusted with the training of immortal spirits for the service of God on earth and for glory in heaven.  The temporal welfare and the eternal salvation not only of your own children, but of future generations, may depend upon your faithfulness in the discharge of this duty.  The prosperity, and even the continuance, of the church of God on earth are connected with the religious education of the rising generation. 

Be admonished then to enter on this work of faith and labor of love with diligence, preparation and prayer.  Endeavor to impress the minds of the dear children with the importance of understanding what they learn.  Be not satisfied with the verbal accuracy of their answers.  Encourage them to ask and be ready to answer questions for information, while you gently check a spirit of idle curiosity.  Endeavor to make what most children consider an irksome task a pleasing and profitable study.  Be not discouraged nor chafed in your minds if you find that “ line upon line and precept upon precept” are required to overcome the dullness or heedlessness of your youthful disciples.  Remember the words of the divine Teacher, who, when inviting sinners to become his disciples, said, ‘Learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart (Mt. 11:29).