Podcasts about because paul

Columbus Baptist Church's Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 24, 2026 Transcription Available

Full Text of Readings Feast of Saint Mark, evangelist Lectionary: 555 The Saint of the day is Saint Mark Saint Mark's Story Most of what we know about Saint Mark comes directly from the New Testament. He is usually identified with the Mark of Acts 12:12. When Saint Peter escaped from prison, he went to the home of Mark's mother. Paul and Barnabas took him along on the first missionary journey, but for some reason Mark returned alone to Jerusalem. It is evident, from Paul's refusal to let Mark accompany him on the second journey despite Barnabas's insistence, that Mark had displeased Paul. Because Paul later asks Mark to visit him in prison, we may assume the trouble did not last long. The oldest and the shortest of the four Gospels, the Gospel of Mark emphasizes Jesus' rejection by humanity while being God's triumphant envoy. Probably written for gentile converts in Rome—after the death of Peter and Paul sometime between A.D. 60 and 70—Mark's Gospel is the gradual manifestation of a “scandal”: a crucified Messiah. Evidently a friend of Saint Mark—calling him “my son”—Peter is only one of this Gospel's sources, others being the Church in Jerusalem (Jewish roots), and the Church at Antioch (largely Gentile). Like another Gospel writer Luke, Saint Mark was not one of the 12 apostles. We cannot be certain whether he knew Jesus personally. Some scholars feel that the evangelist is speaking of himself when describing the arrest of Jesus in Gethsemane: “Now a young man followed him wearing nothing but a linen cloth about his body. They seized him, but he left the cloth behind and ran off naked” (Mark 14:51-52). Others hold Mark to be the first bishop of Alexandria, Egypt. Venice, famous for the Piazza San Marco, claims Mark as its patron saint; the large basilica there is believed to contain his remains. A winged lion is Mark's symbol. The lion derives from Mark's description of John the Baptist as a “voice of one crying out in the desert” (Mark 1:3), which artists compared to a roaring lion. The wings come from the application of Ezekiel's vision of four winged creatures to the evangelists. Reflection Mark fulfilled in his life what every Christian is called to do: proclaim to all people the Good News that is the source of salvation. In particular, Mark's way was by writing. Others may proclaim the Good News by music, drama, poetry, or by teaching children around a family table.Saint of the Day, Copyright Franciscan Media

19 I Thessalonians 5:23-28 Abandoned, But Not Alone

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 12, 2026 55:09

Title: Abandoned, But Not Alone Text: 1 Thessalonians 5:23-28 FCF: We often struggle feeling alone while we strive for wholeness. Prop: Because God gives all we need to make us whole, we must grow in holiness. Scripture Intro: LSB [Slide 1] Turn in your bible to 1 Thessalonians chapter 5. In a moment we'll read from the Legacy Standard Bible starting in verse 23 and going to the end of the book. You can follow along in the pew bible or in whatever version you prefer. Today we will wrap up the book of 1 Thessalonians. Paul has, essentially, finished what he desired to say to the fledgling church in Thessalonica. He has encouraged them. He has rebuked them. He has corrected them. He has instructed them. We'll save our final overview of the book until after we complete 2 Thessalonians. There are so many themes that overlap that it is wiser to just wait until we have completed both letters to draw final conclusions. Now, he finishes his letter to them with the second wish-prayer to God for them. He concludes with a benediction. So, what does Paul pray for? Let's find out. Please stand with me to give honor to and focus on the Word of God as it is read. Invocation: God of peace. You are our everything. In You we have life and hope. In You alone we have wholeness and holiness. In some ways You have already made us holy by setting us apart as Your people. In other ways You are still making us holy by continually pressing us into the mold of Christ and conforming us to His standard. And yet in other ways You must and will make us perfectly holy and blameless when we shed this body and are given new, glorified bodies for Your eternal kingdom. But what is clear to us Father… is that without You we are without hope. I pray that you would refine us with Your word today and teach us the helps we have in this life to be holy and blameless. May we see the promises of Your word and take comfort and assurance to press on toward the prize of our Savior. We pray this in His name… Amen. Transition: [Slide 2] “When our holiness is perfect, our happiness shall be perfect; and if this were attainable on earth, there would be but little reason for men to long to be in heaven.” Thomas Brooks “Many of us would pursue holiness with far greater zeal and eagerness if we were convinced that the way of holiness is the way of life ad peace. And that is precisely what it is; there is life and peace no other way.” J.I. Packer [Slide 3] “The ethical demand for holy living is inseparable from what is freely given in the gospel.” Geoffrey B. Wilson “Christ comes with a blessing in each hand: forgiveness in one, holiness in the other.” A.W. Pink “There is no holiness without a warfare.” J.C. Ryle “The beauty of holiness needs no paint.” Matthew Henry Let these words prepare your mind for the exposition of the text this morning. I.) God, who called us, will completely sanctify us at Christ's return, so we must grow in holiness. (23-24) a. [Slide 4] 23 - Now may the God of peace Himself i. Paul now hastens on to the end of his letter to the Thessalonian believers. ii. But far from being a throw away goodbye, let me just take you through the richness of this benediction. iii. First, let's start with the title Paul gives to God. 1. As he does in three other benedictions, Paul uses the title “God of Peace” to govern this benediction to the Thessalonians. 2. This title is exclusively used by Paul and the writer of Hebrews a total of 8 times in the New Testament. It is always used in a context where the writer addresses a group of believers who are being persecuted or afflicted for their faith or experiencing trouble or disorder. 3. Since Paul was Jewish, and the writer of Hebrews obviously has strong roots to Judaism, we might expect there to be an Old Testament connection. 4. Curiously, the title “God of Peace” is not found in the Old Testament. 5. The closest we might find is “The Lord is Peace” or “The Lord is our Peace” which is the name Yahweh Shalom. 6. Now the word Shalom is a rather theologically rich word. a. It is used over 350 times in the Old Testament and is often translated peace. b. However, the semantic range of this word – and its theological implications do not merely mean the cessation of hostility. c. Rather, this word in the Old Testament means… wholeness or completeness. d. Shalom means, to be restored to proper order, to be perfectly put back together, and to be reconciled to a right relationship. e. In fact, it might be entirely appropriate for us to say that Shalom… means salvation, restoration, and redemption. f. God, The Lord, is the bringer of… Shalom. He is the God of… Shalom. g. He alone brings order, He alone makes someone complete or whole, and He alone reconciles relationships. 7. Let's keep the theological significance of Shalom in mind as we proceed in this context. 8. May this God of peace… b. [Slide 5] sanctify you entirely, and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. i. What is clear here, is that God being a God of peace is not simply God stopping people from afflicting the Thessalonian church. ii. That is certainly part of it. iii. Actually, as we get to 2 Thessalonians, Paul will assure them that those who are persecuting them and rejecting God will be destroyed by being cast away from the grace and mercy of God. iv. But the focal point of God being a God of peace, is not actually toward those who are afflicting these believers. v. It is toward the Thessalonian church. vi. They are not complete. They are not whole. They are not put together. They are not fully sanctified or holy. They are not perfectly blameless. vii. But the God of Shalom… The God of wholeness. The God of completeness. The God of order… viii. Paul prays that that God would sanctify them entirely or make them complete in their holiness. ix. That their whole person might be kept or preserved completely or entirely blameless at the Lord Jesus' coming. x. Most likely the triad body, soul, spirit, is an idiom to express the complete person rather than to try to make a doctrinal point about the composition of the being of man. xi. God's peace is always about the putting down of His enemies. But the first enemy on that list, is the ordering of His people who have been disordered. The completing of His people who are not whole. xii. God being a God of peace… is first… reconciling us into a right relationship with Himself. Which is far more than simply forgiving our sin. xiii. It is making us… holy. Blameless. Righteous. xiv. Paul prayed for this in chapter 3 and he told them it was God's will for them in chapter 4. xv. And it is God's will for all His children. xvi. God does NOT save us simply to populate His Kingdom with people who are forgiven sinners. xvii. God saves us to populate His Kingdom with Christ-like, Righteous Lawkeepers. xviii. God doesn't just calm the storm in us… He brings us to shelter. xix. God takes what is broken, incomplete, and chaotic. And He not only stops it from breaking, losing pieces, and being chaotic. He also fixes, completes, and orders us. xx. Because, make no mistake, to be what God created us to be, and to not be a broken image bearer, we must be holy and blameless. xxi. And just in case we wonder if this is up to us or if there is any possibility that this may not happen for those who are His elect… Paul continues. c. [Slide 6] 24 - Faithful is He who calls you, who also will do it. i. The call to which Paul refers here is the effectual call of the Holy Spirit. It is the call that convicts us of our sin, enlightens our minds to know of Christ and His work, it renews our wills, and persuades us and enables us to embrace Jesus Christ freely offered to us in the gospel. ii. The same God who calls His people to salvation in the first place… is faithful and will make sure that the work of renewal, ordering, and completing… is finished. iii. Paul is about to write the letter of Romans. He is a few years away from writing it. iv. But in Romans he says that the God who calls us, justifies us, and the God who justifies us, glorifies us. v. This is essentially saying the same thing. vi. In Philippians, which he will write about a decade from when he wrote this, he says that the same God who began the work of salvation in us by calling us… will eventually finish the work of salvation in us by glorifying us. vii. As Jude says… He will present us faultless before the throne of God. viii. It is upon these teachings that we arrive upon the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints. That since it is God who saves us and not ourselves – God is faithful to keep us and preserve us. ix. This doesn't deny that we have a responsibility to live holy and blameless lives. x. Nor does it deny that there are some who might appear to be genuine believers who eventually fall away. xi. But it certainly does eliminate anyone on that day standing before the throne and claiming that they were holy because of their own efforts. xii. God forbid! xiii. All who stand before that throne, on that day, who are presented holy before God – they will all throw their crowns at Jesus' feet… why? Because they know He… and He alone… completed them. He reconciled them to God. He, the Prince of Peace, brought them to the God of Peace. d. [Slide 7] Summary of the Point: The church in Thessalonica was the poster child of what the gospel could do. It took a bunch of pagans who were worshipping idols and caused them to abandon them all to follow Jesus and live very different and holy lives. But the cultic superstition and city loyalty that permeated the Roman Empire at the time led their friends, families, and their community to abandon them because of their allegiance to Jesus. Paul's words in 1 Thessalonians are largely encouragement. He expresses His thankfulness to God that they are continuing to walk in a way that pleases God. But he also calls them to continue in this life. To pursue holiness and blamelessness. Something they knew would be quite difficult. And so, in this final wish-prayer that Paul offers for them, he pleads with the God of Shalom… The God of Wholeness to make them whole. The God of Order to order them. And he reminds them that because God is faithful… and has called them… He will surely do this. Though abandoned by men… they are not alone. God will make them complete in holiness and blamelessness at Christ's return. This does not encourage complacency or laziness though. Instead, it encourages them to do what Paul has said and continue to live holy and blameless lives, knowing that God will do this in them. Transition: [Slide 8 (blank)] But God is often so difficult to see in these matters. When we are feeling alone and desperate, sometimes it is difficult to feel His watch care over us. What a comfort to know that although He is all we truly need, He has also supplied the church to help us… II.) Believers are used of God to disciple one another, so we must grow in holiness. (25-28) a. [Slide 9] 25 - Brothers, pray for us. i. Paul up to this point has had his eye on the future kingdom. ii. He prays that God would get them ready for the return of Christ. iii. This is a theme that features heavily in this letter, literally occurring, in some form, in every single chapter. iv. But as any good pastor should do, and as Paul has done throughout this letter, he also needs to leave them with some practical and specific applications for the here and now. v. He begins by exhorting them to pray for them. For the evangelists. For Paul, Silas, and Timothy. vi. If you remember, Paul began the letter letting the Thessalonians know that they were always praying for their church and their faith. vii. Now Paul seeks that the Thessalonian church continue to follow their example and pray for their ministry as it continues in Corinth. viii. For the next 18 months or so, Paul will continue in Corinth with many challenges and ultimately the Lord will bless and establish a thriving church in one of the largest cities in the Roman Empire. ix. They need prayer. x. Indeed, all God's people need prayer in every context that they continue to walk in His ways and bear witness to the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ. xi. If we are to endure in this life, with all the trials and troubles we face, we must pray for one another and seek the Lord to sustain us. b. [Slide 10] 26 - Greet all the brothers with a holy kiss. i. Now we come to one of the best pick up lines in scripture for single Christian men. ii. You know… the bible says to greet all the brothers with a holy kiss

But God!

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 15, 2026

But God! Ephesians 2:1-10 by William Klock Earlier this week Veronica and I watched an episode of the X Files that unintentionally had some pretty sound theology embedded in the story. Agents Mulder and Scully were called to investigate some strange goings-on in a small town—as usual. As it turned out, a guy cleaning out an abandoned storage locker found a genie. And the genie gave him three wishes. As you would expect, it didn't go well. He wished to be able to make himself invisible so that he could spy on people. And not being terribly bright, he prompted got killed crossing the street, because he was…invisible. His brother claimed the genie and didn't fare any better. His wish ended up blowing up his house with him in it. And so Mulder ended up, unexpectedly, with the genie and three wishes. And he asked the genie why the wishing thing always ends in disaster and the genie told him that it's because people are stupid and selfish. So Mulder thought long and hard and in his best effort at altruism, he wished for world peace. St. Paul would call it shalom. And he went outside to discover that he was the only person left on earth. Because the genie knew fallen human nature and getting rid of all of us was the only way to bring world peace. Thankfully, Mulder had two more wishes so he could undo the first and set the genie free with the third. And I thought that St. Paul would probably have a bit of a chuckle at that. Because Paul knew the same thing the genie knew: we are all sinners, idolaters who worship anything and everything but the God who created us and loves us. And, like Agent Mulder, but unlike the genie, Paul also knew that there is no shalom without human beings in our rightful place. Creation groans in eager longing for the day God will finally set us to rights, he says in Romans, Creation waits for the day when God restores us to our position as his stewards, to rule creation and to serve him in his temple. That, Brothers and Sisters, is shalom, peace. Creation can never be complete without us in our proper place—filling the vocation God created us for in the first place. That's why God doesn't just “Deal with evil” like so many people want him to. Like the genie, he'd just have to remove us all from creation—and that's not how creation is supposed to be. This is why Paul practically shouts out ho de Theos, at the beginning of Ephesians 2:4: “But God!” Because he knew that in setting creation to rights, God can and will, first, set us and our fallen, sinful hearts to rights—something no genie could ever do. And so far, in Ephesians 1, Paul has begun with a great shout of praise for what God has done in Jesus the Messiah and then he's told the Ephesians how he prays for them—that they would know, that they would understand this great story of redemption, the power behind it to renew creation, so that they can be part of this story that ends with the knowledge of the glory of God filling the earth. Remember at the end of chapter one, closing his prayer for them, he wrote about the church, united with Jesus and full of the Spirit being the “fullness of the one who fills all in all.” It's a prayer that God, that Jesus, that the Spirit, that the scriptures would form and shape them and truly make them the church. And while we might miss the significance of Paul's language of filling and fullness and being all in all, it was not lost on the Ephesians. This was temple language. It's the language of God coming to dwell with his people. The way he did with Adam and Eve in the garden. The story ever since has pointing in that direction. The restoration of God's temple, the return of his presence, and God dwelling with his people forever. This is what the Exodus was all about. God rescued and created a people, he gave them a law to make and to keep them pure and holy, so that he could take up his residence in their midst—so that he could tabernacle with them. It wasn't perfect. The people needed to offer sacrifices repeatedly so that they could be purified by that blood. A veil separated them from the direct presence of the Almighty. But this model of new creation pointed forward to the day when God would set his people and his creation fully to rights. The long exile, first from the promised land and the temple, then from the presence of God, primed Israel with hope for that coming day. And now Paul's ready to explain to the church that they—that we—are the beginning of that fulfilment. In us, God has established a new temple. By the blood of Jesus he has purified us. Through the gift of his Spirit he has taken up his dwelling in us. He has begun the work of setting our hearts to rights. And in that, he has made us the working model of his new creation and stewards of his good news—that we might, to use the language he used with Adam and Eve, that we might be fruitful and multiply, spreading the gospel, until the earth is filled with the knowledge of his glory. Brothers and Sisters, this is the story we need to inhabit. Too often Christians have got it backwards. We think the gospel story is a story of escape from creation—that in Jesus, God forgives our sins, so that someday he can take us away from earth and up to heaven to live with him. But it's really just the opposite. Through the blood of Jesus he has purified us and made us fit to be his holy temple, so that he can dwell with us. Jesus is the model, Immanuel, God with us. This is the story Paul wants to get across in Ephesians 2. Ideally we'd cover the whole chapter all at once, but we'll have to break it into two halves. This temple story will jump out at us in the second half. The first half begins with our sin problem. How did these mostly Gentile Christians in Ephesus find themselves in this oh so Jewish story? He writes beginning at verse 1, “Well, you were dead because of your offenses and sins in which you used to walk, keeping in step with the world's ‘present age'; in step, too, with the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit who is, even now, amongst the children of disobedience.” “You”—he's addressing them as Gentiles. In verse 3 he'll link them with “us”—the Jews. You were dead. Because you walked—there's that great word peripateo again—you walked, you lived a life of offense and sin against God. And we can't hear these two words sin and death together without it taking us back to Genesis. And if we go back to Genesis 3 and Adam and Eve's choice to listen to the serpent's lie, not just to disobey God, but to reject their vocation as priests of God's temple and to try to become gods themselves, if go way back to the beginning of the story there, we should understand that sin and death aren't about God just setting up a bunch of rules and then condemning the people who disobey them. Sin, and especially “offence”, are what we call it when human beings, created to bear God's image—that means to be his priests and his representatives in the temple, in creation—sin and offence are what we call it when we reject that vocation. When we try to take the temple for ourselves. And death is not an arbitrary punishment, but the natural result of turning away from the God who is the source of life. That's why the wages of sin is death. And, of course, once humanity chose that path of disobedience and death it just snowballed. Human culture and even those unseen powers that God had put in place to oversee the nations went horribly wrong. The Jews called it the present evil age, because they lived in hope of the age to come when God would set creation to rights. But the Gentiles had no hope. They just went with the sinful flow. We see it today as the world rejects Christianity. Jeffrey Epstein and his cabal of degenerate, paedophile friends would have been right at home in pagan Greece or Rome and they're exactly what you get when a people rejects God. The devil didn't just tempt the man and woman to reject God. He and his cronies continue to steer and influence fallen humanity. Paul will have more to say about this later when he writes about “principalities and powers”. In our baptismal rite, we put this in terms of the temptations of the world, the flesh, and the devil. All these forces work together to keep humanity lost in idolatry and sin. And so far as this goes, Paul is just restating the standard Jewish analysis of the Gentiles. But then in verse 3 Paul goes on and writes, “We all used to live this way, in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of flesh and mind. We, too—he means he and his fellow Jews—were by nature children of wrath, just like everyone else.” Paul recognised that even though his own people had the torah, God's law, and were trying to live by it, they were suffering the same problem as the Gentiles. The corrupt desires of flesh and mind had just as much a grip on Israel as they did the peoples of the nations. The whole world, all of humanity was mired in darkness, Jew and gentile alike. And this where, at the beginning of verse 4 Paul interjects this powerful, earth shattering: “But God!” Into the darkness, into the hopelessness, into the condemnation, into the death, God intervenes to bring light, to bring hope, to bring deliverance, to bring life. “But God,” Paul writes, who is rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, he took us at the very point where we were dead through our offenses, and made us alive together with the Messiah. Yes, by grace you are saved!” Israel knew about God's mercy and love. The story they told of their history with God was full of mercy and grace. And occasionally some gentile would hear that story and be drawn to it, because the God of Israel was unlike any of the other gods. Zeus and Poseidon and Hades, Aphrodite and Artemis, people might believe all sorts of things about them, but no one ever believed that the gods loved them. The gods served themselves. If they sometimes showed favour to this person or to that city, it wasn't because of love; it was to further their own schemes and ambitions. No Greek or Roman—no Egyptian or Persian, for that matter—would have ever said of their gods anything even remotely like what Paul says here of the God of Israel: that he is rich in mercy, that he loves us with a great love, or that he has shown us kindness. Zeus and Hera, Osiris and Isis, they were all purely transactional. If you did something good for them and you were lucky, they might do something nice for you. We need to be careful, because Christians can fall into the same pagan way of thinking about God—making deals with him or treating him like a divine vending machine. But Paul makes it clear that the God of Israel isn't like that. Instead, he's full of mercy and love and kindness. Yes, his purpose is to fill the earth with his glory, but he is glorious precisely because he is unlike the gods humans dream up. He is full of mercy and love. And Paul reminds the Ephesians: By his grace, God has taken what he did for Jesus when he raised him from death, and has made it true of us. If we are “in the Messiah”, then we are alive together with him. He goes on in verse 6: “He raised us up with him and made us sit with him, in the heavenly places in Messiah Jesus. This was so that in the ages to come he could show just how unbelievably rich his grace is, the kindness he has shown us in Messiah Jesus.” This is how God reveals his glory. Not merely with a show of strength or power, but by showing his grace. Again, what is true of Jesus is true of the church—of the Ephesians Christians, and of us. And it's not just Jesus' resurrection, his being made alive again. Paul has said that before. But here he also stresses that Jesus' ascension is somehow true of us too. God didn't just make us alive with Jesus the King; he's made us alive in order to sit us with the Messiah, with the King in the heavenly places. So Jesus ascended to sit at the right hand of his Father. He's the King and that's what kings do: they take their thrones and they rule. But Paul is saying that if we are “in the Messiah”, then we're right there with him. The resurrection part of that, the being made alive with Jesus probably isn't too hard for us to wrap our heads around. In Jesus, God has made us a promise. Even though we'll die, because we are in the Messiah, he will raise us to life again just as he did with Jesus. If we have any doubts, Paul would remind us that God has filled us with his Spirit to give us a taste of and downpayment on resurrection life with him. That part I think we can pretty well wrap our heads around. But what does it mean to be seated with him in the heavenlies? This is where we need to make sure we've got the story right. Because if we understand the climax of the story as someday escaping from earth, as escaping our bodies, to live a sort of disembodied spiritual life forever in heaven, we're going to miss Paul's point. Again, the story isn't about us going up; it's about God making us fit, through the death and resurrection of Jesus, to be his temple—so that he can come down—to us. Consider: Jesus has already done this. Remember the end of Chapter 1, where Paul said that Jesus is the one in whom heaven and earth—all of creation—are summed up, are brought together, are unified, the way it was in the beginning: heaven and earth overlapping, God and human beings dwelling together. That's how it began and that's the ending towards which God is taking history—to set his broken, sin-sundered creation to rights. Jesus is the prototype, the signpost who points us to, who shows us what God's future will be like. In him, God has joined our nature to his own. In him, heaven and earth have been brought back together. Think of that great Ascension Day hymns, “See the Conqueror Mounts in Triumph”: He has raised our human nature, on the clouds to God's right hand; there we sit in heavenly places, there with him in glory stand.” Brothers and Sisters, Jesus is the temple in person. And Jesus is the whole of creation—heaven and earth—in miniature. And what is true of him is equally true of those who are united with him by God's grace. As we'll see in the second half of the chapter, the church—the Ephesian Christians and you and me—we are also that temple and if we have any doubts, all we need to remember is that God has come to dwell in us in the person of his Spirit. And remember the goal, the one promised by the prophets so long before, the goal is for the knowledge of the glory of God to fill the earth. The church is his means of making that happen. He didn't just send his son to be the on-earth-as-in-heaven man, through his son and through his Spirit he has created a whole community of on-earth-as-in-heaven people to do just that: to live out in our lives, in our relationships, in our community heaven on earth—to be a people who show the world God's love and mercy and grace and kindness. To be a working model of his new creation and to give the world a taste of that future right now. To reveal the glory and the beauty and goodness of God in our lives and in our own proclamation so that everyone around us will know his glory and be drawn to him. This is then what Paul gets at in verses 8-10. He writes, “For you have been saved by grace, through faith. This is not of your own doing; it is God's gift. It isn't on the basis of works, so no one is able to boast. You see, we are his workmanship, created in Messiah Jesus for the good works that he prepared, ahead of time, so that we should walk in them.” What does he mean? Well, Paul's reminding them that there was a time when Jews and gentiles were separated by the law, by torah. God poured out his grace on Israel, set them apart with his law as a way to teach them how to love him and to love their neighbours, so that they could be a light to the gentiles—so they could make his glory known in the earth. Israel failed in that mission, but God acted in grace again. He gave his son to be the faithful Israelite and in Jesus, Israel's mission to witness the grace and glory of God was fulfilled. And now these gentile Ephesians who have encountered the risen Jesus, who have heard the gospel, and been filled with God's Spirit—they've been united together with faithful Jews in Messiah Jesus. In them, God's promises—all the way back to Abraham and even to Adam—are being fulfilled. In them, God's glory is on display before the nations. And there is no longer a need for the division that had been given by torah. Now the Spirit is teaching them and enabling them to love God and to love each other for all the world to see. In Jesus and the Spirit, God has made them a people who are fulfilling the very thing that torah was meant to do, not just because we keep a set of rules or live according to a certain moral code—there's a sense in which we actually do do that—but because, through Jesus and the Spirit we actually live out and put on display the new creation, God's future that is breaking into the world in the midst of the old. Paul puts it beautifully, but in a way we might miss in English translation, when he says that we—the church—are God's “workmanship”. The Greek word is poiema. We get our word “poem” from it. The Greek word doesn't mean “poem”—maybe we could almost say it means “artwork”. In the Old Testament it's often used to describe the creative work of God. In other places it's used to describe things that are carefully and meticulously crafted for his use, like the garments of the priests or the vessels of the tabernacle. Brothers and Sisters, we—the church—are God's carefully, purposefully, and wonderfully created masterpiece. He's given his son and he's given his Spirit to craft, to create, to work us into something good—to restore his broken creation in us. And, Paul sums up, God has done this work in us so that in our own lives and in the life of the church together, we can do such good work too. Not doing good works to please him or to earn his favour. That would be like going back to the pagan world of people doing things to manipulate the gods. God is pleased by our good works, but he's created and enabled us to do good works as a way of showing his new creation to the world, a way of fulfilling the law he had given to Israel, as a way of loving him and loving each other—ultimately as a way to restore us to that vocation as his image bearers, to be the priests of his temple who steward his goodness and his good rule for the sake of creation. Brothers and Sisters, this is the story that God has written for us. The story of our priesthood, reject and lost, but now restored through Jesus and the Spirit, a story of renewal and a story of hope—as it points us toward the day when God finishes his great work of bringing heaven and earth back together, of the day when he will return to dwell with us as he did in the beginning. This the story that reminds what Jesus and the Spirit have made us. It's the story that reminds us of our vocation as the church—that we're not just the people who long for things to be on earth as they are in heaven; we're the people who find our very identity in Jesus, the heaven-and-earth Messiah, and who are, ourselves, called to be the heaven-on-earth people—a people who reflect back to the world God's love and grace, his justice and goodness, who are by our very redemption witnesses of his faithfulness and, above all, his glory. We are his workmanship. May the world, by God's grace, see his glory in us and in our life together. Let's pray: Heavenly Father, our Collect today reminded us that without love, nothing we do is worth anything. Fill us with your grace, that we might truly love. Love you. Love our neighbours. Making us the heaven-on-earth people you intend for us to be, so that the world may see your glory on display in your church. Through Jesus we pray. Amen.

To the Praise of his Glory

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 25, 2026

To the Praise of his Glory Ephesians 1:3-14 by William Klock We'll be looking this morning at Ephesians 1:3-14. It never ceases to amaze me the riches that come from simply slowing down as I read the Bible. Over the last several months I've taken multiple occasions to just sit down with Ephesians, to read it slowly, to pay attention, and to be immersed in it. To pay specific attention to Paul's choice of words and his grammar. To notice how his choices of words and phrases bring echoes of the Old Testament into his letter and to meditate on how what Paul says here fits into the great biblical story of Israel's God and his people. As I said last week, in Ephesians Paul gives us the view from the mountaintop. He shows the whole panorama of the great story of redemption. Verses 3-14 are an invitation into that story. I think a lot of us—especially if you're a theology nerd—a lot of us reading these verses easily lose the forest for the trees. We see words like “election” and “predestined” and they stir up modern controversies over whether or not God chooses us or we choose him; over whether God elects specific people for eternal life or if he also positive elects others for damnation. This is the fuel for heated arguments. And, I suspect, were Paul to hear these arguments he'd ask something like, “Wait? That's what you got from what I wrote?” Because I think the thing that Paul wants us to notice here, what he wants to centre us on, is the praise of God in light of that great story. In fact, I'd never noticed before, but in Paul's Greek, this whole section is one long sentence proclaiming the mighty and saving deeds of God. It's like Paul wanted us to hear one, beautiful, heart-stirring musical chord, or get a single amazing impression from a beautifully painted image, but since words and language don't work like that, since you have to express them one at a time, Paul composed this as one, single rush of words meant to move us to praise. Consider how be begins in verse 3, “Blessed be God, the Father of our Lord Jesus, the Messiah.” Blessed be God. It's not meant to just be a factual statement that God is blessed. To really get the sense of it in English it might be better to say, “Let us bless God.” Because, Brothers and Sisters, that's Paul's real point here. Pagans praised their gods. But Jews did something more: they blessed the God of Israel. In fact, the word that Paul uses is one that for the Greeks simply meant to speak good of someone, but the Jews gave it a much fuller and deeper meaning to translate their Hebrew words for bless and blessing. To understand this takes us all the way back to the beginning of the story. When God created the world and filled it with life, he blessed that life that it might be fruitful, that it might multiply, and that it might fill the earth. The fish, the birds, and eventually the man and the woman. God blessed them. And in the Hebrew worldview, it was God's blessing that brought human flourishing and that provided all that is good in creation. And so, in return, the Jews blessed God. Obviously, human beings don't have the ability to grant the goodness and flourishing with our blessings that God can with his, and so to bless God took the form of praise and thanksgiving for his goodness, for his faithfulness, and most of all for his mighty and saving deeds in history. And all that is summed up in those words, “blessed be God”. To this day, Jewish prayer begins with the words Barukh Attah Adonai Eloheinu Melekh ha-Olam, Blessed art thou, O Lord our God, King of the universe. But then when we unpack it, what we find is that at the heart of blessing God is telling his story, not just to rehearse for ourselves his greatness, but to proclaim it to everyone else. Read through the Old Testament and you see God's people praising him first and foremost by telling the story of his mighty deeds: sometimes what he'd done for the person giving the praise, but more often for his creation and his providence, and most of all for his recuse of Israel from their Egyptian slavery. The Exodus was the great act of God in history that showed his blessing and for which his people blessed him in return. When the people of Israel gathered together, they rehearsed what God had done, whether it was Israelites in the days of David, sitting around campfires and hearing those stories faithfully passed down from generation to generation, or the people of Paul's day reading the scriptures in the synagogue, they told the mighty deeds of God as an act of praise. Brothers and Sisters, the same goes for us. I suspect a lot of us hardly ever think of it this way. We read the Bible for knowledge. We read the Bible to win arguments. We read the Bible because we know it's a good thing to do or because we hope God will speak to us. But, first and foremost, we read the Bible—in public worship and in private worship—to rehearse the mighty and saving deeds of God as an act of praise and as a call to praise. Just read the psalms and see how they proclaim the great story as an act of praise and a means of blessing God. The modern trend in worship, I think, gets this precisely backward. We begin our services with praise—I often hear people say it's to get us in the right frame of mind—and then we hear scripture, then we receive the Lord's Supper. The biblical model is the other way round: To read and to hear scripture is the first act of praise, everything else follows in response. Thomas Cranmer, the architect of our liturgy, understood this. In Morning and Evening Prayer, we first hear the scriptures, and then we sing the canticles (which are themselves mostly scripture). At the Communion, we hear the scriptures, we receive the Lord's Supper, and after all that, we sing the Gloria in praise and thanksgiving. So this is what Paul's getting at in verse 3: “Blessed be God, the Father of our Lord Jesus the Messiah! He has blessed us in the Messiah with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms.” But why? Because, in Jesus, God has already blessed us. With what? With every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms. That means, with the life of the Spirit, that foretaste of the age to come and the day when we, ourselves, will be resurrected to life with God just as Jesus has been. Because, in Jesus and the Spirit, God has blessed us by making us heaven-on-earth people. Through Jesus and the Spirit, God has begun the work of bringing heaven and earth, God and man, separated by sin, back together—in us. But Paul doesn't just leave it at that. He tells the Jesus story, the church story, but he does it in a way that echoes the bigger story all the way back to creation. He never mentions Adam or Abraham, the Exodus or the Exile. Instead, he describes what God has done for us in the Messiah using the words and phrases that Israel typically used to tell those stories. Now, because this whole passage is one long sentence and because it's clear Paul wants us to hear it sort of like a music chord, let me read through the whole thing in one go starting with verse 4. Here's what he writes: “He chose us in him before the world was made, so as to be holy and without blemish before him. In love, he foreordained us for himself, to be adopted as sons [and daughters] through Jesus the Messiah, according to the purpose of his will. So that the glory of his grace, the grace he poured out on us in his beloved one, might receive its due praise. In [the Messiah], through his blood, we have deliverance—the forgiveness of sins, through the riches of his grace, which he has lavished on us. With all wisdom and insight he has made known to us the mystery of his purpose, just he wanted it to be and set it forward in him as a blueprint for when the time was ripe. His plan was to sum up the whole cosmos in the Messiah, everything in heaven and on earth in him. In him we have received the inheritance. We were foreordained to this, according to the intention of the one who does all things in accordance with the counsel of his purpose. This was so that we, we who first hoped in the Messiah, might live for the praise of his glory. In him you too, who heard the word of truth, the good news of your salvation, and believed it—in him you were marked out with the Spirit of promise, the Holy One. The Spirit is the guarantee of our inheritance, until the time when the people who are God's special possession are finally reclaimed and freed. This, too, is for the praise of his glory.” So Paul begins with the language of having been chosen. It's almost like he's rehearsing the Passover story. Being chosen resonated with the Jews. Their father, Abraha, had been chosen and called from the paganism of Ur. In the Exodus, the Lord had declared Israel to be his chosen. Paul wants that mighty act of God's goodness and mercy to echo into our story—to hear the Lord declare to Pharaoh that Israel was his beloved, his firstborn son. Paul writes in verse 5 that we've been marked out as sons and daughters of the Father because of his love for us—love poured out in Jesus, love poured out at the cross as he shed his blood—blood that has marked us out as holy and washed us clean of sin. Blood that has united us with Jesus, his son, and made us his children by adoption. And the language of deliverance and redemption in verse 7. This is what Paul's getting at. Again, his choice of words is important. The word he uses is the one used most often in the Greek translation of the Old Testament to refer to the deliverance, the redemption of his people from Egypt. It's a word that often carries the idea of buying a slave so that he can be set free and in the Bible it very often and more specifically recalls the image of Israel being redeemed from Pharaoh's slave market and being set free by God—a freedom through which Israel was meant to proclaim and to live out God's amazing and redeeming grace. But there's also an echo of Israel's long-hoped for deliverance from exile—an exile the people were still living out when Jesus was born. And, unlike the Exodus, the exile was the result of Israel's sins. And so the prophets, like Isaiah, had spoken of a new exodus, a deliverance from exile, but this time round it would be an exodus that had to address, that had to deal with Israel's sins. And that's why Paul writes of blood. The blood of the Passover lamb was for the purification of the people. Somehow blood would have to be shed to purify Israel and to and the long exile, so they could once again live in his holy presence and so that they could once again be fit to serve his purpose as priests and stewards of his temple. This is why Jesus so often did things that echoed the Passover theme. He was calling to mind this doubled tradition: The first exodus, deliverance from slavery, but also the promised and hoped-for second exodus in which God would somehow redeem his people from their sins and from the effects of that sin. So when Paul, in verses 7 and 8, writes of the blood through which we have deliverance and the forgiveness of sins, when he writes of the riches of God's grace and how it's been lavished so richly on us, he wants us to see these layers of the great story: of creation, of exodus, of exile, of forgiveness, of redemption. He wants us to see the glorious cross of Jesus, but he also wants us to see how the whole story has been one act after another, one great drama unfolding through history that shows us who God is, that reveals his grace and mercy, his goodness and faithfulness that then find their full fruit, that explode in one great act of glory in the events of the new exodus. All these notes coming together a beautiful, harmonious chord. Why? Because Paul knew that without this, we're prone to forgetting our vocation, just as Israel had. That's why Paul goes on to talk about God making known the secret of his purpose—the great mystery—with all wisdom and insight. In Paul's day the Jews—many of them at any rate—associated the idea of torah—of Gods' law—with the idea of God's divine wisdom. This fusion of torah and wisdom was God's great design for life and for flourishing and not just that, but for life and flourishing that would cause his people to give him glory. Brothers and Sisters, the gospel isn't just the good news that we've been forgiven and promised eternal life. The gospel is also about vocation—a vocation that goes all the way back to Israel—even to Adam and Eve. It's about being freed from our bondage to sin and death so that we might live to the glory of God as heaven-on-earth people, as the firstfruits of his new creation, as pockets of the age to come in the here and now. And Paul reminds us in verse 10 that this was God's plan, his blueprint all along, one that would be fulfilled in the “fullness of time”—when the time was right. None of it was an accident. What we so often take in as disconnected Bible stories, was all along one great drama, setting the scene, establishing the plot, so that at the cross and the empty tomb, God could reveal his glory by leading his people in a new exodus. As Paul puts it here, the plan was to sum up the whole cosmos in the Messiah—everything in heaven and on earth in him. Restoring the creation we see in Genesis, where heaven and earth and God and man were one. Bringing to fruition the image evoked by the tabernacle at the end of Exodus: of God once gain dwelling in the midst of his redeemed people. That image at the end of Exodus in which the people complete the construction of the tabernacle and the shekinah, the great cloud of God's glory, descends to fill it is one of the most powerful images in all of scripture—looking back to how things are supposed to be and looking forward to a day when human beings really are fully restored to live in God's presence—no veil, no sacrifices, just life in his awesome presence. This is what Paul describes as an act of praise, the climax of the great story, a new exodus, a Jesus-shaped Passover—all now to be at the heart of Christian praise. But God's presence entering the tabernacle wasn't the end of the story. Remember, once God had set apart his people and made them holy and taken up his presence in their midst, they were ready for him to lead them into the promised land—to receive the inheritance that he had promised to Abraham. And in verses 11-14 Paul shows us how life in Jesus and the Spirit is the realisation of what that was pointing to all along. Psalm 2, for example, was pointing this way all along. That's the psalm where God says, “You are my son and today I have begotten you. Ask of me and I will make the nations your heritage and the ends of the earth your inheritance.” The promise land and the promise of it was always pointing to something greater—to God's claim on all of creation, on all the nations, on all the peoples. The story proclaims: someday the entire earth will be God's holy land. And here in Ephesians, Paul is saying that in Jesus and the Spirit, God has now given us—given those who are in the Messiah—this inheritance. “Everything belongs to you,” he says in First Corinthians. And here he says that the gift of the Holy Spirit, the indwelling, the tabernacling presence of God in us is the earnest, the down payment, the guarantee of the full promised inheritance. Sometimes it seems like we think of the Holy Spirit in every way except for the very thing Paul tells us over and over that he represents. Brothers and Sisters, the gift of the Spirit is the guarantee that what Jesus began when he rose from the grave, he will surely one day finish. It's the guarantee that God's work of renewal and new creation in Jesus will, without a doubt, put a final end to sin, to sorrow, to corruption, to decay, and even to death itself. It is the guarantee that the reunion of God and man that began when God took up his residence in the tabernacle, and that went a step further at Pentecost when he took up his residence in his people, will be fulfilled in the ultimate tabernacle of a new heaven and earth. It's the guarantee that that the fellowship between God and human beings in the garden at the very beginning of the story will also be the end. It's easy to forget. As Paul writes in Romans, the whole world is groaning under the weight of our mismanagement. We still live with the effects of sin and corruption, of decay and death. Like the Israelites when the spies returned from Canaan and warned that there were giants in the land and heavily fortified cities. They gave up. They became overwhelmed. They forgot the promise. They begged Moses to take them back to Egypt. The things they feared were no joke. But they forgot that the God who was with them is the God will one day dill the whole earth with his glory. The tabernacle—God's presence with them—was meant to remind them of that truth and that inheritance. And, Brothers and Sisters, the Spirit in us serves the same function. In him we have the full title deed, even if we don't yet have the whole earth. But that title deed, that earnest, that guarantee has been given to us by the Father to empower us to go out as his gospel people—to be heaven on earth, to bring his presence into the darkness, to challenge the corrupted principalities and powers of the old age, and to bring the light and life of new creation into the old. And all, Paul finishes, the final notes in the chord, “is for the praise of his glory”. Brothers and Sisters, to live in assurance and hope of God's promise of life is to live a life of praise. It's to live a life that blesses God and that makes his glory known in the earth. That means that if we want to know what the life of the Christian and what he life of the church should look like, maybe we should work backward from that goal. We should be asking ourselves what it is that we can do that makes God's glory known. Asking ourselves what we can do that shows the world our sure and certain hope in the inheritance—the new creation—in which we live. Not running back to Egypt in fear, but ready to march around Jericho and to blow our gospel trumpets and trust God to do what he's promised. I think if we work backwards from the goal of filling the earth with the knowledge of the glory of God, it becomes a lot easier to ask whether what we do, what we value, what we invest in, how we treat others displays our hope in God's kingdom to the world around us. So, Brothers and Sisters, let us bless God, the Father of our Lord Jesus, the Messiah. Let our lives be one great shout of praise. Rehearse and proclaim the great story of redemption that proclaims his glory. And let this Passover-shaped, this cross-shaped, story of redemption and renewal transform you so that you—that we all—might live for the purpose of filling the earth with the knowledge of the glory of God—to the praise of his glory. Let's pray: Almighty God, Father of our Lord Jesus, the Messiah, through whose blood you have forgiven our sins, made us sons and daughters by adoption, and brought us into the great drama of your people, shape us, we pray, with your story. Fill us with faith and assurance in the knowledge that, having plunged us into your Spirit, you have given us assurance of the promised inheritance that we might live faithfully in hope and to the praise of your glory. Amen.

To the Saints and Faithful Ones in Messiah Jesus

Sermons - Mill City Church

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 18, 2026

To the Saints and Faithful Ones in Messiah Jesus Ephesians 1:1-2 by William Klock Last week I was on my gravel bike, riding the logging roads through the foothills to Campbell River and back while pondering St. Paul's letter to the Christians at Ephesus. As I passed the turn for Rossiter Mainline I was remembering the first time I made that gruelling climb. It goes up to the top of the north shoulder of Mount Washington, so it's not just a big climb; it's a steep climb. And it's a commitment. Round trip is over a 100km. I'd been looking at topographic maps and it looked to me that if you got up to the top, there ought to be a really spectacular view of the inland mountains you can't see from down here: Alberta Edward, Alexandra Peak, Golden Hinde. Maybe, I thought, you might even be able to see down to Buttle Lake. So off I went. In mid-March. And at about 600m of elevation, after the worst of the climbing, I hit snow. But I'd committed too much already so I kept pushing on. I rode in the ruts left by a lone truck that had been there recently. Then those ended and I pushed my bike through shin-deep snow. And the whole time I was looking up in expectation. And finally I got to the top. And what a let down. All I found was a huge gravel clearing in the trees where the logging trucks turn around to go back down the mountain. And the trees were tall and thick. There was zero view. Absolutely nothing to see. At all. I was not a happy camper. I was cold. My toes were wet and frozen. I was tired. It was about 60km home. At least a lot of it was downhill. So back down I went, through the trees, across the clear cuts, and then I rounded a corner and the view took my breath away. It wasn't the view I expected. I was so focused on the view I expected at the top, I never thought to look behind me at the view of where I'd been. The real view was looking down over the Comox Valley and the Strait and over the coast range on the Mainland. And it was all snowy and green and blue. And as I stood there looking around, I noticed I was also looking down on at least half a dozen of my favourite gravel rides. I noticed, not only how different everything looked from above, but how those trails and logging roads weren't really how I imagined. I had a map of the mountain in my head that I'd got from ground level, but that bird's eye view changed a lot. It was really neat. It was worth the exhaustion and the wet, frozen toes. I say this to introduce St. Paul's letter to the Ephesians. Lord willing, we'll be making our way through this six-chapter epistle over the next several months. And I think the best way to describe it is that it's the unexpected view from the mountain top. Emphasis on unexpected, because too often too many of us read Ephesians with the wrong expectations. Like me looking for one view and finding the real gem was an entirely different one. We've got Paul's other letters and he was always writing to a church in crisis. In Rome the Jewish and Gentile believers were splitting the church into factions. In Corinth they thought Christian liberty meant tolerating sin, engaging in chaotic worship, and abusing the Lord's Supper. In Galatia, fear of persecution and false teachers were temping the people to retreat back into the Jewish law. But Paul didn't write to the Ephesians to address any particular crisis or problem they were having. He was in prison when he wrote. Maybe in Rome, in the early 60s, waiting to appeal his case to Caesar, but possibly right there in Ephesus in the early or mid 50s. It's hard to be sure. But he was in prison and he wrote this letter to the Christians in Ephesus and the surrounding cities to encourage and exhort them. The church there had been established by Apollos, but Paul had been their pastor for about three years. He loved these people. He couldn't be with them. So he wrote to them. And what he wrote to them was about how to be the church. All this makes Ephesians the perfect place to get a view of what the church is supposed to be. It's easy to get lopsided views if we put all the emphasis on, say, Romans or Galatians. This happened at the Protestant Reformation and the end result was that a lot of modern scholars decided that Ephesians probably wasn't written by Paul at all—because it doesn't fit with Romans and Galatians. But, if we let Ephesians take us up to the lookout on the mountain and look down on Romans and Galatians and Paul's other epistles from there, if we let that view shape how we read Paul's letters as a whole, everything starts to harmonise and make sense and it's easy to see that it really was Paul all along. The structure of Ephesians is really pretty simple. In the first three chapters Paul writes about our calling as the church, as the people of God. And then, in Chapters 4 to 6 he writes about living that calling out. 4:1 is the pivot between the two. A lot of you probably know that verse by heart: “I appeal to you as a prisoner in the Lord, to walk in a way worthy of your calling.” To walk. Some translations say “live”. It's this wonderful Greek word paripateo that literally means “to walk around”. It's a great image of life as we go our way, as we make our journey together as the church. Paul writes that as we embark on this journey of life as the Messiah's people it's essential that how we do it in a way worthy of our calling. But what does “worthy” mean. Here's another Greek word, axios. It's the idea of bringing a scale into balance. Picture an old-fashioned scale. You've got A on one side and to get it to balance out you've got to add just the right amount of B to the other until they're both hanging at an equal height. Or, in modern terms, you might think of adjusting a crescent wrench, dialing it in, so that it perfectly fits the nut you need to unscrew. Or finding that pair of shoes or that dress or those pants that just fit perfectly. Not sort of fit. But perfectly fit. Like the balanced scale. That's axios. The calling we've been given by Jesus and the Spirit is hanging on one side of the scale. Now we've got to walk in such that we match it. That's a big ask. But Paul's also clear: We've got God's word to show us what and how and we've got God's Spirit to make it possible. Brother and Sisters, that's Ephesians. Let your walk be worthy of your calling. And the emphasis isn't on “you” singular, but on “y'all” plural. He's talking to us as the church, as the people of God. Of course, that's going to have implications for us as individuals, but Paul's emphasis here is on our life together in Jesus and the Spirit. So…we're ready to jump into it…Chapter 1, verses 1 and 2. Paul writes: “Paul, an apostle of Messiah Jesus through God's purpose to the saints in Ephesus who are also faithful in Messiah Jesus: Grace and peace to you from God, our Father, and the Lord Jesus, the Messiah.” This is Paul's salutation, but even here he gets to the church's calling. He introduces himself as an apostle of Jesus the Messiah. In this case he doesn't dwell on his authority. He could have. He'd met the risen Jesus and had been given his calling to take the gospel to the gentiles, he could speak with authority as one of the eye-witnesses and as someone specially equipped for this apostolic ministry, but Paul doesn't need to do that here. He might do that, for example, writing to the Corinthians. He had to remind them of his credentials, because they'd sort of kicked him to the curb. But here he's writing to friends. I think Paul's main emphasis here is, instead, on the purposes or the will of God. He'll come back to this idea of God's purposes in the verses that follow and especially in Chapter 3. But I think this is his real reason for bringing up the fact that he's an apostle. Because Paul knew that there was no way he ever would have found himself in this position if it hadn't been for God—and the same is true for the Ephesian Christians in their own ways. Remember, Paul was a Pharisee, he was a member of the governing council of the Jews, and he hated Christians with a passion. As far as he was concerned, Christians—at that point they were almost all Jewish—were traitors to their people and their God. They were following a man who had been crucified as a false messiah and Paul didn't believe for one second the reports that Jesus had been raised from the dead. When they stoned Stephen for preaching about Jesus, Paul held everyone's coats so that they'd be less encumbered throwing their stones. He was the last person who would ever become a follower of Jesus. And then it happened. On the way to Damascus to round up more Christians, Paul met the risen Jesus. Not a ghost, not an apparition, not a dream, but the real and actual Jesus. And everything changed. It took Paul a good long while to sort out what it meant, but he knew from the beginning that if Jesus was really alive, then he really was the Messiah—the anointed King of Israel and the world's true Lord. It meant God's new age, his new creation had begun. Somehow. Some way. So Paul went off to Arabia by himself to think it all through in light of the scriptures and the story of Israel that he knew so well. And when he'd done that and came back, he knew: God had a plan all along. Jesus wasn't some fluke. He was the plan. Everything in history had been working towards Jesus and everything from now on would be working from Jesus. And just as God had had a purpose in calling Israel and making them his people to be a light to the nations, so it meant that everyone who believed and found themselves part of this new Israel, part of this new people of God centred in Jesus the Messiah, they were part of God's continuing plan. Paul had been called and set apart as a messenger of this plan, but the Ephesian Christians were called and set apart in their own way as well, to live and to proclaim and to witness it. So, remember that Ephesians is about what it means to be the church. Paul starts out reminding us that none of this is random. God had a purpose and that's why he's called us. Again, think of 4:1 right in the middle of Ephesians, where Paul reminds them (and us) to walk worthy of our calling—to walk according to the plan God has for us. Christianity isn't just some therapeutic thing that provides forgiveness of sins, a feel-good life, and heaven when you die. It's about being born again in Jesus the Messiah and then credibly living that new life, God's new creation, in the midst of the old, proclaiming the good news of the king and growing his kingdom until it fills the earth. The church, empowered by the Spirit of God, is Jesus means fulfilling the mission of renewal he began at the cross. So that's Paul's introduction of himself. Next he addresses them. He calls them the saints who are also faithful in Messiah Jesus. First, saints. Paul's literally addressing the “holy ones”. He's not singling anyone out, as if there were some especially holy people in the Ephesian church and he's writing to them and not to the rest of the ordinary Christians. He's talking about all of them. Brothers and Sisters, understand, holiness or sainthood isn't some status to be achieved that sets us apart from ordinary Christians. The Christian who struggles with sin every minute of the day is just as much a saint as the most mature of believers. It's not a status we earn. Holiness, sainthood is conferred on each of us by Jesus and the Spirit. To be holy is to be set apart. That's what Israel was: a people set apart to fulfil God's purposes in the world. To be light in the darkness. He set them apart by giving them his law—a way of life that was different from everyone else in the world. And he gave them the visible mark of circumcision. He made them a holy people. Saints. And now, in Jesus the Messiah, God has done the same for us, for the church. But before I get ahead of myself, there's the second thing Paul addresses them as. He calls them “faithful” or the “faithful ones”. And it's important to understand what “faith” or “faithfulness” means, because we've often reduced it to just believing the right thing. We've got this idea that to be a Christian means believing the right thing about Jesus and about the good news of his death and resurrection. Jesus died for our sins and if we believe that, if we give our intellectual assent to it, well then, that's that. When I was a kid, our family was involved for a few years with an organisation with the mission to evangelise children. It was a popular programme, because the kids that signed up got to leave school early once a week. We'd walk over to a nearby church and we'd hear Bible stories and sing gospel songs and we'd hear about Jesus. And every week the leaders would close by inviting everyone to say a prayer with them to acknowledge Jesus as their Saviour. When they asked who prayed the prayer and kids raised their hands, they marked them down as successes. They were good to go. They'd said the prayer. They were Christians now. Except there was no discipleship. There was no church. There was no Christian community. Never mind, what all us Christian kids seemed to understand that the adult leaders didn't: Those non-Christians kids were just coming and were just raising their hands because they liked getting out of school early. Saying a prayer, even giving our intellectual assent to Jesus as Saviour, isn't being “faithful”. For that matter, baptism alone isn't “faithful” either. It's God's covenant sign that marks us out as his people—externally—but Paul is clear elsewhere that—as has always been the case for God's people in the old covenant and the new—it's faithfulness that truly marks us out. And faithfulness, yes, means belief, but it also means trust and loyalty and allegiance. As St. James writes in his epistle: faith without works is dead—it's not faith at all. Faith means walking worthy of our calling. Admire Jesus, confess Jesus all day long. Great. But until you've actually committed to him and faithfully start walking with him according to his plan, not yours, friend, you're not a Christian. But then the key thing about all this. Paul doesn't just address them as the faithful saints. He addresses them—and us—as the faithful saints in Messiah Jesus. “In the Messiah”. Paul uses that phrase a lot. He uses it in Ephesians more than he does anywhere else. And for Paul “in the Messiah” is shorthand for “belonging to the Messiah”. Brothers and Sisters, you can't make yourself a saint. And if you're going to be faithful, you've got to be faithful to something. Jesus. Without him, we're wretched sinners, enemies of God, faithless and committed to idols to self and to sin and doing all the things that make this broken world broken. We serve ourselves and we worship idols. We hurt others, we abuse others, we use others for our own purposes. We break our relationships. We break our promises. We build unjust and unfaith systems and institutions. We exploit creation itself in unsustainable ways. We take no thought for the wellbeing of others or for generations to come, whether it's polluting the world they'll have to live in or running up obscene levels of debt that will leave them encumbered. Even Israel, called and set apart by God and given his law to make them a light in the darkness, even thy ended up being all but swallowed by all this brokenness and darkness. Enter Jesus. If you're following along in a Bible, you may have noticed that when I read our text and read the word “Messiah”, your Bible probably reads “Christ”. About ten years ago I made the decision to start using “Messiah” instead of “Christ” in my translations of the New Testament. I did that as I realised way too many people have no idea what “Christ” means and an awful lot of people think it's Jesus' last name. It's not. Christos is just the Greek word for the Jewish title, “Messiah”. And “Messiah” refers to the anointed king that God had promised to his people through David and through the Prophets. The anointed king—meaning the king called and set apart as holy in order to fulfil God's purposes. That's who Jesus is. That's what the title “Christ” or “Messiah” means. Jesus is the one set apart by God to set this broken world to rights, to inaugurate God's new creation and the age to come and to rule it through his Spirit-renewed people until all his enemies have been put under his feet. And Jesus did this first by dying the death his people deserved. He didn't deserve it. They did. But he paid the wages of their sin. And then God raised him from the dead, defeating sin and death, and began the work of fulfilling God's promise to bring life back to a world mired in death. Jesus' resurrection was the beginning of God's new creation. And here's why Paul stresses that we are saints and faithful in the Messiah: because it is when we let go and turn away—that's “repentance”—when we turn away from sin and self, from our idols and false gods, rejecting the corrupted principalities and powers of this world, and instead believe the good news of Jesus' death and resurrection, trusting him and giving him our loyalty and allegiance—our faithfulness—we find ourselves united with him. He forgives our sins and makes us holy. And—this is important for Ephesians and the whole question of what the church is and is to be. Brothers and Sisters, Jesus' calling becomes our calling. And that brings us back to the whole “walking worthy of our calling” thing. It brings us back to the fact that faith is more than just believing the right thing. Because if we believe that Jesus, when he rose from the dead has inaugurated God's new creation, that he's begun the process of setting this fallen world—and fallen humanity—to rights, that he's begun the process of wiping away the tears and making all the sad things of the world come untrue. That he has, as Paul highlights here, poured out his grace on us and given us peace—the Hebrew idea of shalom, of wholeness and of well-being rooted in our fellowship with God. Brothers and Sisters, it means that he's called us into that same messianic mission. He's made us heaven-on-earth people. In forgiving us and lifting the weight of our sins from us and in pouring his Spirit into us to give us a foretaste of the life to come, Jesus has given us a vision of this world set free from sin and death and a vision of life lived in God's presence and fellowship. Jesus has given us hope. And that's more than mere belief, it's more than intellectual assent to a creed. It's not less than that. But it's also so much more. It's life and it's hope. And not just for us. It's life and hope that, once we've known and experienced it, should become our passion. With the foretaste we've been given, with that hope before us, we ought to be a transformed people doing everything we can, with the help of the Spirit and following the scriptures, to be a people who forsake the sins and the selfishness that have made the world such a dark place; it ought to make us a people full of light and life, a people eager to bring God's grace and God's peace to everyone around us. To lift the veil on God's new world, to give them a glimpse of redemption and new creation, to share with them the hope we have. Brothers and Sisters, remember that hope when you come to the Lord's Table this morning. Here he reminds us that Jesus changes everything. Here he reminds us that it is Jesus body and blood, shed on the cross, that purify us from sin. Here he reminds us that it is Jesus who makes us his people. And here he reminds us of the hope—the great feast of new life and fellowship with God—that is our hope. Come and remember that you are his saints. The ones made holy and set apart by Jesus to fulfil his purposes. And then go out into the world as the faithful ones, filled with grace and peace, equipped to walk worthy of your calling. Let's pray: Almighty God, through Jesus your son, the Messiah, you have poured out your grace and your peace on us, you have forgiven our sins, you have welcomed us into your fellowship, you have given us hope; remind us, we pray, that you have also given us a calling, a purpose: to proclaim that Jesus is Lord to the ends of the earth, and be living, walking, breathing pockets of your new creation in the midst of the old. Make us faithful to that calling. Give us the grace necessary to turn aside from sin and from self and walk worthy of that calling; through Jesus the Messiah, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

New Testament Prayers: Week 3

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 18, 2026

Group Guide Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week. TranscriptMy name is Spencer, I'm one of the pastors here. We are in week three of a four week series on New Testament prayers. So we are looking at some prayers that are in the New Testament and trying to capture some of the truth that is bound up in them so that it might encourage us in our prayers but also help us grow in the discipline of prayer which is vital for the life of the Christian. So we'll finish this, we have one next week and then we'll jump back into Second Samuel. So we're gonna be in Ephesians chapter three today, verses 14 through 21. It's on page 568 in the blue Bibles. If you don't have a Bible at home, please take that blue Bible. That's a, that's a gift we want. You have a Bible that you can read, but you can follow along with us. The text will also be on the screen.There are some things in life that you learn kind of on your own through reasoning and all types of things. And then there are things that happen to you that just change you. Some external forces that just absolutely change your life. So this can happen in a variety of ways. One of the clear ones that happened for me was when we had our first child. So, you know, heard for years that we have a child, it'll change you. Have a child, it will change you. And kind of do that at some experiential level. That was going to happen before we had a kid. We had a, we had a dog. So we got a little bit of a jump start on taking care of some type of creature. And we loved that dog. I didn't like that dog. You've been here long enough, you've heard enough stories about that dog. That dog was the worst. But we loved it, took care of it. And then like lady and the Tramp, that story that plays out over and over again, we had a child and that child, like when you first hold your child in the hospital or if you adopt a child and the agency places that child with you either, and you're in the room with that child for the first time, like there's just something that happens within you. External force just comes in and it just, you, you thought you, you, you knew this category of love and that just gets deepened in ways that are just so profound and wonderful. And when I held my daughter for the first time, it was just powerful. Then went home and I saw that dog and I was like, I hate you. Like, I love, I love this child so much. With the Love that I had this child. I just is a disdain by comparison. But there's just something happens. There's external forces that work in you. That's not just limited to children. Sometimes experiences happen to you and it changes you. And none of those hold, hold a. Hold a flame to. When the Lord determines to work in our lives in powerful ways, the external force of who our Lord is is working in our hearts. It changes us in ways that are profound. And that's what this prayer is today. It's capturing that. It's a prayer for God to. To work powerfully within us. So we're going to see this prayer and see the encouragement that comes with a prayer like this and then also see the fruit that comes from these types of prayers. So let me pray for us and then we'll walk through this piece by piece.Heavenly Father, I thank you that you do work in mighty ways. And I pray that this would be a morning in which you do that you would work in our inner being, in our hearts, in profound ways that help us not just hear your word, but do it. But that comes not from ourselves. It comes from you. And we ask that you do that in Jesus name. Amen.All right, so this prayer begins in the middle of. Towards the end of chapter three with for this reason. Okay, we're going to stop there. So this happens in Ephesians. You see this phrase for this reason over and over again. And what's happening is that Paul is drawing to mind what he said previously. He's building on truth that he's already established for this reason. And we saw this a little bit in week one. Chet, in week one of this series went to a prayer in Ephesians chapter one. And that was built upon the truth that came before that, which is the first few verses of Ephesians is this. This declaration of how God plans to redeem his people, that he chooses us and he redeems his people. And then Chet walked us through this prayer of wanting to know God and experience his glory in profound ways. Then when you get to chapter two, those first 10 verses one through 10 and chapter two are some of the most, I would argue, one of the most important passages in all the Scriptures. It is a beautiful summary of the gospel. That we were once dead in sin. We were sons of disobedience, children of disobedience, that we were wayward and that God, in his mercy, he saves us by grace through faith, not of our own doing. So if you're looking to grow in some scripture memory this year, and you have no place to start. I can't think of a better place to start than that passage right there. Builds upon that talks about how Jews and Gentiles are both a part of the same household of God, of how God dwells in his church. So really, for this reason, builds upon the gospel that he's articulated with such beauty and specificity. And those first three chapters, because the gospel is good news.> For this reason I bow my knees before the Father,> from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named,> that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being,> so that 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.> Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us,> to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named. Stop there. As I bow my knees, which just for a moment, we should consider our posture when we pray. Now, I'm not being dogmatic on this. I'm not saying that every time you pray you have to bow on your faith, bow on your knees, that every time you pray you need to be on your face before the Lord. I think you can drive and pray. I think you can sit in a chair and pray. But if the only posture by which we pray is a comfortable posture, I think we're missing something. In prayer, there's something about the physical body and how God has made us in the position of bowing before the Father, laying prostrate on your face before the Father. And if that's not an aspect of your prayer life, it should be because it brings humility within us. There's a physical humility displayed when we bow before the Father in prayer. That's what he's doing here. I bow before the Father, which also should be noted. This prayer is very trinitarian in its language, very explicitly. So going to see Father, Son and Holy Spirit in this prayer. And as most prayer in the New Testament that we see, all the prayers that we see written, some of the teachings that we see on prayer, normative patterns of prayer are to the Father, but we also think of our triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. So this begins with I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and earth is named. Throughout every family, every creature comes from, from his creation that we're named, that God's sovereignty and all of this is implied here.And then we have verses 16 through 19, which is very dense, very rich, and it is a lot. So we got to kind of take it component by component. Because Paul's breaking down one kind of overarching truth for us piece by piece. My wife and I, we were trying to teach our kids some life skills and try to teach them to make a sandwich. You could just say, get on in there and make it. Make yourself a PB and J. It's like, no, it's like, this is how it works. Step one, get the bread out. Step two, get the jar of peanut butter. Put the knife in the jar, get the peanut butter out, smear it over this one piece, then take the a paper towel and wipe that peanut butter off. Because only psychopaths put that straight in the jelly. You know who you are. Leaving peanut butter remnants in the jelly like a. And then get the jelly smear in the bread, and then we piece it together and then you've got the sandwich. Right? So Paul's component by component here, there's one overarching sandwich, one big truth he's trying to give us, but he's got to break this down. So we're going to have to take this piece by piece to see what he's getting at here.In this prayer, he says that according to the riches of his glory, he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his spirit in your inner being. Okay, sit there. That first part, according to the riches of his glory, Chet helped us see in week one of this. He was quoting Herman Babnik, a theologian from a century ago, and describing glory and defining it. He said, the glory of God is the infinite, indescribable perfection and beauty of all the other attributes that all the good and wonderful attributes of God, his goodness, his faithfulness, his power, his might, and on and on, shine brightly in a way that displays glory. And he says, according to the riches of that glory, this indescribable, infinite, marvelous glory says, according to the riches of his glory, he may grant you to be strengthened with the power through his spirit in your inner being, to be strengthened with the power of spirit through his spirit, the Holy Spirit in your inner being. Okay, let's pause there for a moment.There is an American lie that is told repeatedly over and over again that if you look inside yourself, inherit to who you are, you'll discover power, you'll discover greatness. And that greatness will help you win and overcome and be great. And y', all, that story is told over and over again, from Moana looking inside herself to, I mean, most recently, Stranger Things, the stories that we tell over and over again. There's something inherent inside of you that you just got to tap into. To overcome, to do great gets told over and over and over again. And that sometimes actually even funnels into some American churches, not even the majority, but some of them, certainly some with big platforms, and there are even some pastors, at least those who claim to be, that will parrot that lie. Over and over again. There's something you just gotta tap into. The power that's deep, that's wonderful within you. But that's not what the gospel teaches at all. It's not what the gospel teaches. The gospel teaches that if you look deep inside yourself, what you will discover is frailty, weakness, sin, brokenness, depravity. That's what's inherent in each of us. And that's what makes the gospel such good news. That's why that's wonderful that it's not in ourselves to arrive at greatness. It's on ourselves to overcome that. It comes from God working within us, the external power of God coming to work inside of us in powerful ways. May he strengthen by the power through his spirit in your inner being. This power comes from God.In verse 17, he says, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through. Through faith. That Jesus Christ and faith in him brings the power of God, Father, Son, Holy Spirit, to dwell richly in his people. And then he continues. That you, being rooted and grounded in love. Here we go. May have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and. 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, goodness. When I was a kid, we got to go to the Grand Canyon. My stepdad and I, we went. And I remember getting out of the car, walking through this clearing and seeing the Grand Canyon and having a very normal experience that many people have when they see the Grand Canyon. You just feel small. Now, the reasons that you feel small, because the Grand Canyon is massive. The Grand Canyon is 277 miles long. It is 4 to 18 miles wide. various points. It is over a mile deep. Totals at 1,904 square miles. You could take the entire state of Rhode island and put it in the Grand Canyon. I want to help you picture this for a moment. You may not find this helpful. I found this helpful and I'm talking. So theoretically, if you filled up the Grand Canyon with water, okay, it would take 4.17 quadrillion liters of water to fill the Grand Canyon. Now, if you're like me and you failed math as a kid, you might ask, what's a quadrillion? Had that same question. Quadrillion is 1 million billions, right? Take a billion. Now you have a million of those billions. And now you have a quadrillion four of them. That's how many liters of water it takes to fill the Grand Canyon. Now stay with Me further, the average adult human being, the capacity and the adult human being is about 42 liters. So if you were to take a human and fill it up with water. 42 liters. Okay. I in the eighth grade, well after my second eighth grade because I failed math. Stay with me. After my second eighth grade when I was there witnessing how big the Grand Canyon was, I was very small, very had not broken £100 yet. So half an adult human being. So think 20 liters capacity human being beholding 4.17 quadrillion capacity Grand Canyon. That's why I felt small. That's why anyone feels small. You might be. That's the most crazy confusing way to explain how to behold the Grand Canyon. I could keep going. I could tell you that if you took all the people in the world and put them in the Grand Canyon you wouldn't come close to filling it up. But it takes 60 to 70 trillion trillion human beings to fill up the Grand Canyon. I could do this with all kinds of things. With AI, I can do jello, I can do VW beetles, I can go all day pounds of sand. And every time I try to explain to you how big the Grand Canyon is by our understanding, you still can't grasp it because you can't understand 4.17 quadrillion liters of Wallers. Even if I switch it to gallons, which would be more helpful, I couldn't understand that. 67 trillion people. There's no quite way we could possibly picture and understand how big the Grand Canyon is. And when we in ourselves try to understand the bigness of the God who made that Grand Canyon, who holds that in the palm of his hand like it's nothing, the scale of comparison doesn't work. To try to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth of and length and height and depth and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge. It's not an 8th grade kid trying to stack up against the Grand Canyon. We don't have categories for that. The discrepancy between us and the size and the majesty and the wonder and the glory and the weight of glory of who our God is, is infinite. Yet God and his graciousness, this is what he does. Knowing that we and ourselves have no ability to begin to comprehend how great and how wide and how wonderful the love of his love of God. Him understanding this, He Himself dwells in us. He goes to work in our inner being to strengthen us, to empower us so that we can begin to understand the infinite capacity of love. That God has for us. That's. I mean, that's more than having your first child and having this love grow and understanding of what really love is, it's much, much, much, much, much bigger than that. When God goes to work in us to give us eyes to see and understand just the beginning of how great his love is. That's why, y'. All. I don't. When people who don't believe in Jesus and are skeptical when they take shots at the character of God. Your God is loving. Let me tell you how your God's not loving. Your God is not righteous. Not just. Let me tell you why your God isn't just. This is why. I don't. I don't get all offended. I'm not. Of course you would not begin to. How possibly could you begin to understand the depths and the riches of the love of God if He's not working in you to help you understand that in the first place? You have no capacity to understand how great he is. You have capacity to understand his great love. You have no capacity to understand his justice. You have no capacity to understand the riches of his glory and his majesty and his wonder and his all. So of course you would not get this. But when the Spirit goes to work in us and begins to open up our eyes to see and we. We begin to. To start to grasp how. How grotesque our sin is and how wretched our rebellion is against God and how we just joyfully choose sin over him repeatedly, over and over and over and over and over and over again to the point of ad nauseam. When we begin to understand with new spiritual eyes to understand how much our sin is heinous against a holy and perfect God who made us. Once we start to understand that, we can begin to partially understand how rich his love is that he would not injustice bring down his full wrath upon us. But he would send His Son to be crushed for us. He would send His Son to be crucified for us. He would send His Son to take the place that we deserve in judgment. And the more you stare at the cross by the power of the Holy Spirit working in us, you begin to see how deep his love is. You cannot discover God without Him first working in you. You cannot know him without him first working in you. You cannot understand his glory, his goodness, or any aspect. And especially you cannot understand his love without him first working in us. We need God to work in us. That's why Paul's praying this. That's why he's praying this over them, because they're not going to reason their way to this. They're not going to logic their way to this. No, they need God. He's praying. May God work in your inner being to see this and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge.And here's the sandwich, y'. All. Here's where it all comes in. That you may be filled with all the fullness of God. It all leads into that. He's praying you don't have it in you, but may God work in you, strengthen you, work in your inner being, so you might understand the depths of. Of the love of God, that the fullness of God may dwell in you. He's praying the fullness of God may dwell in you. Which begs the question, what is that? What is the fullness of God? I can both tell you what that is and can also admit I don't fully understand what that means. I can tell you biblically what that means. Biblically, it means that God dwells in you and his glorious attributes begin to work through you in mighty wonderful ways that display who he is. That's what that means. But how to fully understand that? I don't know. I don't know how you pictured that. I mean, you can tap a 4.17 quadrillion liter water tank and take your eighth grader and say, get to drinking, but I don't. So how do. How do you understand the fullness of God? And as I thought through this, the best way that my finite mind could try to picture this is that if you have a light bulb on a dimmer switch that you can slowly turn up, which I do in my. In my dining room, I've got this dimmer switch and turn it on, and I still have the Edison bulbs that haven't got out of stock yet. And you can turn it up a little bit and then you'll see the. The inner components of the light begin to light up. Light bulb begin to light up. But if you have a powerful enough light switch and enough light source, the more that you turn up that switch, the less you're going to see of the components of that light bulb. And eventually, if you turn up a light bulb to its maximum capacity, that you're not going to be able to see anything but light itself, you're not going to be able to see the inner workings of this at all, that the only observable substance will be light. And the best I can picture of what the fullness of God is is that God and His glory and the perfection of his attributes dwell so richly in his people that the only observable reality is God himself. And that's a beautiful thing to pray for that when people see you, the only observable reality that shines through you is the fullness of God. And that is a glorious thing to pray for. As he prays this on behalf of this Ephesian church. And you can't reason your way to that reality. You can't discover that our only hope is praying for it is praying for God to work in us in mighty wonderful ways. That at the fullness of God, God and all of his glory and his bright shining love working in us would just be the only observable thing about you.So that reality makes this final part of the prayer that we're about to read so beautiful. Because that's true now.To him who is able to do far more abundantly than all we ask or think according to the power at work within us to him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen, man. The end of this prayer is an opportunity to dream, to dream a bit. Any all ever dream about winning the lottery? I know a Baptist would never do that. I think most of you have. I've dreamed about it and all the silly material things that you could purchase if I won the lottery. Now let's just disclaimer. I don't buy lottery tickets because I'm a Baptist. I really don't. Let's put that aside. If I won the lottery right now, there's no limit on money. There are some material things that my heart would go after. No doubt. Probably not the same as you, but I would try to find. There are some big land tracks between like Cayce Lexington. So if you took Cayce Lexington, Red Bank. There's an area right there where there's still some big old land tracks. It's getting developed, but not all. And I scoop up one of those land tracks, 100 acres. And then I put a giant fence, we're talking like 20 foot fence all the way around it. And then I'd stock it with as many deer as possible. Just load it up. It'd be a reserve. I wouldn't be selfish. I'd invite some of you. Some of you that don't shoot things you shouldn't shoot. You know who I'm talking about. Some of you know how I'm talking about. This isn't pointing anybody specifically. It just annoys me when people shoot smaller bucks. But that's not the point of this dream. If I I would. I would get this big land track and then I build pretty much the same size house I have now, a little nicer and there'd be a pond because my son has gotten into fishing. We stock it with fish and we just invite people to this to be. So we just have people coming over enjoying it. And I'm sure you've done some version of that, probably different. I don't think your lottery dreams are based in that area of town. But we've done this if we're honest, many of us. And what makes some of those dreams about things that do not matter at all, that have no really tangible, eternal significance, the reason you could do that is because money is the limit, right? That's the point of those lottery dreams, is that money is the limit. And if you didn't have money, here are the things you could really do. But it's all about things that don't matter. It's all about things that don't last. It's all about things that will be here and gone.When is the last time we took that type of creativity and dreaming about things that do matter, things that have eternal significance, that if there were no limits and God was at work in us in mighty wonderful ways, beginning to help us comprehend the limitless love of God and the fullness of him dwelling in us in rich and powerful ways. If that's true, then man, what are the things that we could be dreaming about that we could pray for now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all we ask or think? And I want you to dream for a bit about things that actually have significance. If God and His infinite power is at work within us, what are the things that we should be praying for, things we should be dreaming about? I want to give you some categories. Last week we talked about holiness. We talked about. We read a prayer of sanctification, of us becoming more like Christ by repenting of sin and obeying him. And the hope is, is that you didn't just hear that, but you responded to be a doer of the word. And this week at group, you began to talk about sin and not in shallow ways, but in real ways. That's my hope. And if you haven't done it yet, please do. But what if in this past week you started to take sin really seriously and then leaving today, you started to pray big prayers of just like God, this area of my life that I so deeply want you to change, this sin that just keeps plaguing me, God, would you so remove its Influence in my life that a year from now, just walking with you and all of a sudden temptation comes and I'm like, neo from the Matrix, just. And you're just. No, it's just an annoyance. I'm just. Would you work so powerfully within me that I wouldn't feel the destructive influence of the sin? I just have so much fullness of you dwelling within me. That's a thing to pray for.Let's talk about reconciliation as a category. Some of you have relationships with people that have been marred by the effects of sin. And maybe you're not talking to them anymore. Maybe there is relational weirdness. And it just. Every time you see them, it just. You. Every time you see something online, you just. What if you started praying in a way to our limitless God that he would work in a mighty way in you and in them, so that when you saw them, all you felt was actually love, the love of God. That brightness just shines through you in a way. It's like I. I just love that person so much because he can. He can work in mighty ways.Give you a different category, personal evangelism. Some of y' all have that lost coworker or that friend that you've been building with for quite some time. What if you began to pray with dream and imagination? God? Would you. Would you use me to declare the gospel of Jesus Christ to this person? Would you save them? And what if God, in a few months, orchestrated you and her? Or you and him standing right in front of me in a pool baptizing them, celebrating that Jesus saved them, and then you disciple them? You say, come, follow me as I follow Christ. Here's how you study the Word. Here's how you pray. Here's how you live in community. Follow me as I follow Christ. And then in a few years, they're actually a group leader. Because you prayed for boldness and zeal, the death of apathy and self interest, and God worked in you and you declared the gospel of Jesus Christ.Give you another category about planting a church. It's about time we did that. It's about time we planted a church. What if 50 of you weren't in this room a few years from now? What if you, because God, working in your inner being, gave you faith to take a step of obedience and go and take the gospel somewhere else? I'll give you one couple more categories. What if some of you considered the call to ministry, serving the local church? What if some of you prayed some dangerous prayers and God began to work in your inner being in wonderful, mighty ways. And you said, I, I'll make less money. I'll serve the church, I'll be obedient. And for, for the men in this room, some of you, that means considering the call to be a pastor and, and aspiring to the office of overseer and desiring that noble task 1 Timothy 3:1, in a way that you would give your life away to loving and shepherding and leading and preaching God's people. And I'll give you one last category to dream on. What if some of you became international missionaries, you began to pray those kind of dangerous prayers that when you think about it, you want to put it to the side because you don't want to go there. But God began to work in you and broke your heart for a people group that doesn't know the gospel, for a country that needs solid theological enrichment in the local churches. And you, in a few years packed up your bags and sold everything and you left. And you're obedient to the call to go, to make disciples of all the nations. Those are the things worth dreaming about and those are the things worth praying for.Now, to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen, y'. All. He's able. He's able to do more than we could ever dream or imagine. Why aren't we praying? The type of dangerous, wonderful, glorious Christ exalting prayers that make us uncomfortable. We have access to limitless power to go to work in us, to do unimaginable work that he set apart for us. And the question is, is what are we waiting for? I think some of us are holding back. I think even as we think in those type of categories for a moment, there's already the counter that said, I just, I don't know, I'm not ready. I don't know if I'm ready for that yet. That seems scary. What if I fail? What if it doesn't work? What if? What if? What if? What if? And I want to tell you, you let God be the limit on what he's going to do in you and through you and get out of the way. We pray and we dream like this because of where this ultimately ends. Because to him belongs all glory and the church and in Jesus Christ throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen. This ends in doxology. This ends in glorious praise to Him. Did we get to experience him in indescribable ways that we would get to be used by him to do unimaginable things to Him. Be the glory forever and ever. Amen.Brothers and sisters, God wants to strengthen us, to help us comprehend the depths of his love in profound, wonderful ways. And as we experience his love in infinite, wonderful ways, we'd be obedient to the things that he calls us to with no limit style Dreaming it's time for us to pray for the fullness of God to dwell in us. It's time to start praying bold, audacious, big dream prayers. And that's what we're going to do for the next few minutes. Daniel's going to come up here and he's just going to play and we're going to sit and we're going to pray and we're going to pray for two things. We're first going to pray for God and His fullness to dwell in us that would shine so brightly that when people see us, they see Christ. And the second thing we're going to pray for is going to pray for God to do far more abundantly than all we ask or think. And we get to dream a little bit and we get to be dangerous a little bit. And we get to be silent for a little bit. And we get to let the Lord go to work in our hearts. So that's what we're going to do. For a few minutes we're going to sit in silence and then I will close this in prayer. But let me, let me make this clear. Some of you need to encounter, maybe for the first time, this power of God. Some of you. This won't make sense until God first begins a work in you, which means some of you need to place your full faith in Jesus that you've been putting faith in other things yourself. And now is the time for you to actually respond to the lordship of God so that he might begin to dwell in you fully. And I would encourage you to do that as well. But we're going to sit for a few minutes. Maybe you need to get a posture of prayer. Maybe you need to be open handed a little bit. Maybe you need to get on your knees. We don't have a traditional altar, but you might need to come up here, you might need to stand up and walk out, but prepare yourself to be in a posture of prayer. And for a few minutes we're going to sit in silence and we're going to pray for the fullness of God to dwell richly in us in mighty ways. And then we're going to pray for God to do far more abundantly than we could ever ask or think. Let's pray.Lord, we pray that we'd be filled with the fullness of you, God. May you work in our inner being that we might be begin to comprehend how profound and wonderful our love is and a world way that you would dwell so richly within us and shine so brightly through us. Oh lord, would you fill us, God, to you who are able to do far more abundantly than all we ask or think. God, would you remove the limits that we place on you in our lives? Would you make us uncomfortable? Would you give us faith? God, we ask for faith to pray like this. May you work mightily in us to do the things that you desire for us. To you be glory and your church and our Savior Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.We're going to stand, we're going to praise our glorious God and we're going to worship.

Faithful Without The Finish

Community Christian Church

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 28, 2025

Some conversations don't end in a breakthrough. But that doesn't mean they're wasted. In Acts 25–26, Paul finds himself standing before King Agrippa. Surrounded by power, politics, and skepticism, Paul doesn't flinch. He doesn't pull back. He shares the gospel with clarity and compassion, even though Agrippa walks away unmoved. Why? Because Paul understood that the outcome is God's job. Ours is to speak, invite, and obey. This message reminds us of the power of a persistent invitation. Whether you're sharing your faith, inviting someone to church, or planting a seed of hope in someone's heart, you never know what God is setting up on the other side of your ask. Don't take someone's first “no” as final. God writes long stories, and sometimes your faithfulness is the chapter that sets up their breakthrough.

god faithful finish surrounded in acts king agrippa agrippa because paul

The Case of Jacob and Esau

From the MLJ Archive on Oneplace.com

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 22, 2025 48:01

Romans 9:10-13 — Although everyone is under God's sovereign control, His special purpose and promises are only for His children, those who are born of the Spirit. As Paul argues this case in Romans 9:10–13, he gives examples in the Old Testament including that of Isaac and Ishmael. Because Paul understands that there may be some arguments or disputes against this example, he then goes on to give the example of Esau and Jacob. In this sermon on Romans 9:10–13 titled “God's Purpose Made Sure,” Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones points out that Paul always refutes any arguments with facts first, and later provides doctrine to prove his point. The example of Esau and Jacob proves that God intervened in their situation because Rebecca was barren. Before the twins were even born, God said that he would choose Jacob to fulfill his promise and not Esau. This shows that the Lord draws distinctions among people, proving the doctrine of election. God did this because it was part of his holy plan. God's purpose is always worked out by means of election. Dr. Lloyd-Jones reminds that God's plan is never based on works and it is all through those whom he calls. Therefore, only those who are born of the Spirit are truly part of God's plan. To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/603/29?v=20251111

god lord spirit romans old testament esau ishmael jacob and esau martyn lloyd jones lloyd jones because paul

Finding Joy Right Now #RTTBROS #Nightlight

RTTBROS

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 13, 2025 2:48

Finding Joy Right Now #RTTBROS #Nightlight"This is the day which the LORD hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it." Psalm 118:24You know, I've noticed something about human nature, and I'm as guilty of this as anyone. We spend Monday wishing it was Friday. We spend winter dreaming of summer, and come July, we're already longing for fall. We're always living in the next season, as if joy is just around the corner, waiting for us to arrive.Here's what I've learned, and I'm too soon old and too late smart on this: joy isn't a destination we reach when circumstances align perfectly. Joy is a choice we make right now, in the middle of whatever we're facing.There's a simple formula that really changed how I think about this. Joy equals your current circumstances minus your expectations. When we load up our today with expectations about how things should be, we rob ourselves of the joy that's available in how things actually are.The Apostle Paul understood this. Sitting in a Roman prison, chained to a guard, he wrote these words: "Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice" (Philippians 4:4). How could a man in chains write about constant rejoicing? Because Paul had discovered that joy isn't found in perfect circumstances. It's found in the presence of a perfect God, right here, right now.Most of us are standing in the middle of blessings we prayed for last year, but we can't see them because we're too busy looking ahead to next year's wishes. We're so focused on where we're going that we miss where we are.Jesus said, "Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself" (Matthew 6:34). Today has enough in it to concern ourselves with, and hidden in that truth is this: today also has enough joy in it if we'll stop demanding it look different than it does.So here's my challenge to you. What if we stopped waiting for Friday and found something to be grateful for on Tuesday? What if we stopped postponing joy until retirement, or until the kids are grown, or until we get that promotion? What if we looked at our current circumstances, released our grip on how we think things should be, and asked God to show us the joy that's available right now?God made this day. Not yesterday, not tomorrow, but this one right here. Don't wait for someday to be joyful. Someday has a way of never quite arriving.Let's pray: Father, forgive us for postponing joy. Help us release our expectations and open our eyes to the blessings You've placed in this very moment. Teach us to rejoice in the day You've made, just as it is. In Jesus' name, Amen.#Faith #Joy #ChristianLiving #DailyDevotion #TrustGod #BiblicalWisdom #SpiritualGrowth #RTTBROS #NightlightBe sure to Like, Share, Follow and subscribe it helps get the word out.https://linktr.ee/rttbros

god jesus christ father lord psalm teach philippians sitting rejoice amen apostle paul finding joy someday in jesus nightlight because paul

A Sermon for the Second Sunday in Advent

Harvest Bible Chapel Pittsburgh North Sermons - Harvest Bible Chapel Pittsburgh North

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 7, 2025

A Sermon for the Second Sunday in Advent Romans 15:4-13 by William Klock In our Epistle, in Romans 15:4, St. Paul writes, “Whatever was written ahead of time, you see, was written for us to learn from, so that through patience and through the encouragement of the scriptures, we might have hope.” Maybe more than any of our other Advent scripture lessons, that verse sums up what Advent is about. There's a big story. The story of God and his people and the world. And the Christmas story is just one part of it. A very importantly part, without a doubt, but still just one part. Pull it out, try to make it stand on all on its own, and it ends up becoming something else. And that's what secular culture has done. Contrast how the world prepares us for Christmas and how the church prepares us. Our commercialistic, materialistic, entertainment focused culture just starts shoving Christmas at us as soon as Halloween is over. How do you get ready for Christmas? You buy Christmas stuff. You start listening to Christmas music. You start watching all the Christmas movies on TV. Our culture prepares for Christmas by doing Christmas. And then Christmas comes and then it's suddenly over in a day…or maybe two, if you count Boxing Day. And I hear it all the time: people are left wondering what happened, feeling like they missed something. It occurred to me that this is like trying to explain to someone that Die Hard is a Christmas movie by making them watch the scene of Hans Gruber falling from Nakatomi Plaza…over and over and over. It's an iconic scene. It says Christmas almost as much as Baby Jesus in the manger. But your friend will still have no idea what Die Hard is about, let alone why it's a Christmas movie. He just knows it ends with a bad guy falling off a building into a big explosion. If you want him to understand, you've got to start at the beginning. He has to know the story all the way back to the opening with John McClane on the airplane. Then your friend will get it…and maybe he'll even understand why it's the best Christmas movie ever. And when the time comes for that scene, the grand crescendo of the movie, and Hans Gruber falls from Nakatomi Tower, he's gonna cheer, because it's not just a cool scene. It's not just iconic. It's the denouement of the story. And that is what the church does with Advent, Brothers and Sisters. It takes us back into the story of Israel and Israel's God, it shows us the darkness of the world and the fallenness of humanity, it reminds us God's plan and his promises to set it all to rights, to make everything new again. That's why our daily readings through Advent are taken from Isaiah. And so, when Christmas comes, it's more than just an orgy of consumerism and it's more than just sentimental feelings about Baby Jesus in a manger, it's more than vague good thoughts about God. No, when Christmas comes and we've been reading the promises in the scripture and singing the promises and songs of longing during Advent, we recognise the light and life that have been born into the midst of darkness and sin, we see God's saving Messiah, and most of all we're moved to give him glory because Christmas shows that he is faithful to his promises. And for Paul, that was kind of everything. Because when you know what the story is all about and when you know where it's going, you realise that following Jesus isn't just about sentimental feelings, or about being good until you die so you can go to heaven, it's about the fact that in Jesus, God has sent his king to bring new creation into the midst of the old and to make us a part of it. In fact, to make us the agents of that new creation and his saving work. To be the stewards of his good news and his Spirit who carry his light and life into the darkness and death of the world in preparation for the day when Jesus' work is consummated. When people don't know the story, they too often reduce Christianity to fire insurance, to a “Get out of hell free” card. Christmas becomes a sentimental holiday about a baby. But when you know the story, you that Christianity is all about is a vocation—to be the people of God for the sake of the world—and the baby in the manger shows us what our vocation looks like. And this is precisely why Paul writes what he does here in Romans 15. Because when you forget the story, or when you forget where it's going, and especially when you stop living in hope of God's future, it becomes very, very easy to just go with the flow. To take the path of least resistance. To let the world and its values and ideas carry you away back into the darkness. To give up on the vocation that the gospel and the Spirit have given us. The big problem Paul saw in the Roman churches was that the Jewish believers in Jesus and the Gentile believers in Jesus were splitting up. They were letting ethnicity define them instead of Jesus and because of that they were losing their gospel witness and letting the darkness and division of the world define who they were. And Brothers and Sisters, the same thing happens to us. It still happens with churches dividing up over ethnicity and language and things like that, but it happens all sorts of other ways too. We lose sight of our hope. We lose sight of God's future. And when we do, we lose our vocation and instead of being gospel people of light and life swimming upstream, we end up just going with the worldly flow. Sometimes it happens without us even realising it. Other times we knowingly give up because it seems like there's no other option. I was talking with someone this week about politics in my country and he said, “Well, you have to be a Democrat or a Republican! There's no other choice!” And I kept saying, there is another choice. You commit to doing the right thing, the kingdom thing, to following Jesus and being light and life. These days that means saying no to the options that everyone else is making. It means making a deliberate choice to lose, but you do so knowing that God's justice will win in the end—because the story shows us that God is always faithful to do what he's promised and to finish what he starts. If you understand the cross, this shouldn't be a difficult concept. This is why Paul starts out with some of that scripture that was written in the past, some “Old Testament” as we call it. In verse 3 he writes, “The Messiah, you see, didn't please himself. Instead, as it was written, ‘The reproaches of those who reproached you are fallen on me.'” In other words, Jesus took on himself a punishment he didn't deserve. When David wrote that psalm he was thinking of his own situation. It's Psalm 69. He cries out to God because the flood waters are rising around him. Because he feels like he's sinking in the mud with no footing to be found. His enemies were surrounding him and kicking him when he was down. But he knew the Lord and he knew his promises and he knew the Lord is faithful, so he cried out for justice and salvation. And as he closes the psalm, he cries out with hope-filled praise. God hadn't delivered him yet, but David still praises the Lord for his salvation—what he knows God will do. And this wasn't just David's story and vocation, it was the story and vocation of Israel and that meant that when Jesus came as the faithful Israelite to represent his people, it became his story and his vocation. David knew, Israel knew, Jesus knew because it had been written, because they had God's word and because of that they had Gods' promises. The way of God's people is the way of the servant who suffers. It's the way of unjust suffering for the sake of others and for the sake of the whole world. But through that suffering God has brought redemption and kingdom and new life. As the Mandalorian says, “This is the way.” Looking to the good of others instead of our own good is the way of the cross. Just as it was for Jesus the way to his throne, it is for us the way to his kingdom. Jesus could have given in to the devil's temptation in the wilderness. He could have bowed down to him and received his throne. And he'd be king, but he'd be king of a people still enslaved to sin and death. The world would still be dark and broken and fallen. Think of our Gospel last week. Jesus could have let the Palm Sunday crowd carry him into Jerusalem and seat him on a throne. But again, he'd have his throne, but the primary mission would have failed. He'd be king over a dead people. Instead, he had to come as a humble servant, he had to face the rejection of his people, he had to face their jeers and their mocking, and he had to go to his death in a way so humiliating that polite people wouldn't even discuss it. But through the cross, by letting all the forces of evil come together to do their worst in one place, Jesus defeated them and brought light and life back to God's good world. And now, as Jesus said, he calls us to take up our cross and to follow him. Not when it's expedient. Not when the cross is light. The point of a cross is that it's heavy! It's our calling, no matter what. But it's a joyful calling in the end, because we know the story and we have the promises of a God who faithful. The lowly birth, the constant antagonism, the humiliating and painful death make possible the glory and the joy of the resurrection and new creation. So, Paul goes on writing in Romans 15:5, “May the God of patience and encouragement grant you to come to a common mind among yourselves, in accordance with Jesus the Messiah, so that, with one mind and one mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus the Messiah.” That's the mission, Brothers and Sisters: to glorify God. And not just when we come to church and pray and praise and give thanks. That's certainly one way we give him glory, but one of the things the story teaches us is that God is glorified when we respond to his faithfulness with faithfulness of our own—and especially when the watching world sees it, especially when it involves humility and even suffering. God was glorified as the world watched Jesus go to the cross, trusting his Father's promises. And God is glorified today as, trusting our Father's promises, we take up our crosses and follow him. As we walk in faith, as we do good, as we live in hope, and as we do it without compromise, even it means trouble or loss. Think of the apostles. Think of all the Christians in the first centuries after Jesus who lived in hope of God's future and who trusted in his promises and refused to compromise their gospel life and witness and gave their lives for it. At first it seemed like a pointless failure, but as the world watched, their gospel witness made a difference and eventually—not in a single generation, but eventually—their witness brought an entire empire to Jesus and taught it grace and mercy and lifted it up out of barbarism and sexual immorality the likes of which—even in light of the world today—we'd be hard-pressed to imagine. And it happened because Jesus' people were united in him and faithful in hope and witness. That unity part is a major theme of Paul's letter to the Romans, because the unity of the church across the Jew-gentile divide was one of the most significant ways the early church broke with both Jewish and Greco-Roman culture and swam against the current. We don't think about that nearly as often as we should. Unity is essential to our Christian vocation. It reveals that our identity is Jesus the Messiah. Those early Christians showed the world what it looks like to find your identity, not in your ethnicity or language, not in your customs or biological kin, not in your social class, but in Jesus. Jews and gentiles, rich and poor, slave and free came together as brothers and sisters in those churches and it shocked the world, Jews and Greeks alike. It became a powerful witness to God's new creation. It was that witness coupled with the proclamation that Jesus, crucified and risen, is the world's true lord, that brought the nations—a few at first, but eventually a whole empire—that's what moved them to give glory to the God of Israel. Something absolutely unthinkable. Romans giving glory to a loser God of a loser people. But Jesus changes everything and the faithful witness of a servant church backed that truth up. So, going on in our Epistle, Paul says in verse 7: “Welcome one another!” Don't let the values, identities, and prejudices of the world divide the church. Paul says, instead, “Welcome one another as the Messiah has welcomed you, to God's glory. Let me tell you why: the Messiah became a servant of the circumcised people in order to demonstrate the truthfulness of God—that is, to confirm the promises to the patriarchs, and to bring the nations to praise God for his mercy.” That was the plan all along. This is the big story. God called Abraham and through him created a people, a holy nation through whom he would eventually save the whole world. Jesus was the culmination of that chapter of the story: the perfect, faithful Israelite, the humble Davidic king, who died the death his people deserved in order to deliver them. In doing that, God fulfilled what he'd promised the patriarchs, what he'd promised Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, what he'd promised to David. The unity of the church, the bringing in of the gentiles into the covenant family, is a witness to the faithfulness of God, so Paul keeps hammering away at it. These are the things, the scriptures, that were written in the past and that tell us the story. And so Psalm 18:49. It's the Psalmist celebrating the victory that the God of Israel has given him as he declares that he will praise him not just in Israel, but in the midst of the nations so that they hear of the glory of God, too. He sings: “That is why I will praise you among the nations, and will sing to your name.” And then, in verse 10 Paul quotes Deuteronomy 32:43: “Rejoice, you nations, with his people!” This was the song of Moses celebrating God's victory over and just judgement on both rebellious Israel and the gentile nations and Moses calls those pagan nations, having seen the victory of Israel's God, to join in his praises. And then, verse 11, Paul is back to the Psalms, to Psalm 117:1: “Praise the Lord, all nations, and let all the peoples sing his praise.” Again, the Psalmist calls to the nations to come and praise the God of Israel with him. And then, finally, the Prophet Isaiah: “There shall be the root of Jesse, the one who rises up to rule the nations; the nations shall hope in him.” The bit from Isaiah is important. Because Paul's showing the Roman Christians (and he's showing us), that it was God's plan all along for the nations to join Israel in praising and glorifying Israel's God. And in the days of Moses and the days of David, that was crazy talk. People didn't glorify other people's gods. The gods were the strength of their respective nations, so not only was it unpatriotic to give glory to a foreign god, it was sort of like inviting the defeat of your nation and your king. But this was God's plan all along. To bring the nations to him in faith. And Paul's reminding the Roman Christians that this is exactly what's happened to them. Pagan Romans heard the gospel and they saw the uncompromising witness of the believers there—probably mostly Jews—who believed Jesus was truly the Messiah. And those pagans were moved to faith. And in the early days of the church there, Jewish and Gentile believers were doing the unthinkable: they were worshipping the God of Israel side by side. And that only served to witness the power of the gospel even more powerfully. But things happened and those Christians started to go with the flow and the unity began to fall apart: Jews worshipping in that house and Gentiles in this one over here. And so Paul reminds them how God has fulfilled his promises in Jesus. The root of Jesse promised by Isaiah has come and he was raised up on the cross to the glory of God, and the nations have begun to come to him. And Paul's saying: don't lose that that or you risk losing the whole gospel. I know it's hard. The gentile believers will be mocked by their friends and family for worshipping the God of the weirdo Jews, with weirdo Jews at their side, no less. And the Jewish believers, they were going to be hassled by their Jewish family and friends for worshipping beside those unclean gentiles. And Paul's saying, “Don't give in to the pressure from the world. Keep witnessing the power of the gospel. Remember that you worship the God who was born in humility as one of us and who went humble to a cross for our sake. Live humbly for the sake of each other—and live humbly for the sake of the world. Romans, you show your people that the God of Israel is faithful and full of mercy and grace and unlike any god your people have ever known. And Jews, you show your people that in Jesus, your God has purified the gentiles and is fulfilling his promises. And he wraps it up exhorting them, “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” Paul knew that persecution was coming and the temptation to fragment would be even strong, but the hope-filled joy that began with the birth of Jesus and that carries through the story to the cross, burst out of the tomb with joy on Easter—and that resurrection hope, that light and life, would keep them faithful to their calling. Will keep us faithful to our calling. A people overflowing with hope. Hope in the fulfilment of what God has promised and what he's revealed in Jesus: hope for a world where the darkness is gone, hope for a final end to sin and death, hope for the day when heaven and earth are brough back together and men and women live and serve in the presence of God as he created us in the beginning. And here's the thing, Brothers and Sisters, it's that gospel- and Spirit-filled hope that will make us the gospel force Jesus calls us to be. It's that hope that makes us heaven-on-earth people even when it means swimming upstream, even when it means choosing the option that no one else will choose, even when it means that the world is angry with us, even when it means rejection—and in some cases even martyrdom. It's that hope that will drive us to proclaim the good news of Jesus' death and resurrection; it's that hope that will give us the hearts of servants ready to humbly teach the world mercy and grace; it's that hope that will move us to love our enemies and even to die for them; it's that hope that will move us to take uncompromising stands against what is wrong and for what is right, even if it means losing in the short term. Because our hope is sure and certain—that what God began in humility at the manger, he will surely one day bring to completion in an all-consuming burst of glory. Let's close with our collect. Think on that prayer and how it calls us, not just to read the scriptures, but to so immerse ourselves in them that they become a part of us. Blessed Lord, who caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning: help us so to hear them, to read, mark, learn and inwardly digest them that, through patience, and the comfort of your holy word, we may embrace and for ever hold fast the hope of everlasting life, which you have given us in our Saviour Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Think Like Jesus

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 2, 2025

Introduction: Matthew 11:25 – At that time Jesus declared, "I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children..." John 16:13 – When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. How Do I Know if I Have the Mind of Christ? (Philippians 2:5–8) When I don't insist on my RIGHTS. (Phil 2:6) When I act like a SERVANT. (Phil 2:7) When I OBEY God All the Way. (Phil 2:8) Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANKHint: Highlight blanks above for answers! Small Group DiscussionRead 1 Corinthians 2:6-16 and Philippians 2:5-8What was your big take-away from this passage / message?Why do you think the world is so interested in the “wisdom” of celebrities and politicians, the “rulers of this age” (1 Cor 2:6)? What does God say about them?What is this passage saying about how the Bible was written (1 Cor 2:10-13)? Why is this important for unity in the church?According to Philippians 2:5-8, what does it mean to have “the mind of Christ”? Give specific examples of what that looks like.BreakoutPray for one another. AUDIO TRANSCRIPT Open up to 1 Corinthians in chapter 2.Let's just pause for a moment.Please pray for me to be faithful to clearly communicate God's Word,and I will pray for you to have a heart open to receive it.This is a complicated passage.But I think that's one of the great things about expository preaching.It allows us to slow down and see what exactly it is that God actually said in His Word.Sometimes it's a passage that we have read through quickly so many times.I'm not quite sure what's going on there, but next.And there's so much here that the Lord wants to teach us.So please pray for me to be clear and accurate,and I'll pray for you to receive it.All right? Let's just take a moment.Father in heaven, we need Your Spirit, and we always do.I guess sometimes we feel it, that we're more aware of it than others.This is one of those times for a lot of reasons.Father, I pray that Your Spirit and Your Word would do what only You can do.glorify Your name as we spend some time in Your Word today, Father, in Jesus' name.All of God's people said, "Amen."Amen. You know, I try.But it gets harder and harder to keep up with the language that these kids are using these days.Since I'm working with the youth group, I really want to speak their language,but I'll be honest with you, I don't get it.I don't get it. I'm not sure, Justin, you still get it anymore.Mid? See? He gets it.I just find myself so awful. I don't get it. I don't get what you're saying.Like Pastor Taylor a couple of weeks ago dropped the 6-7 thing.Do you know like dictionary.com or something made that the word of the year?Did you know that?Do you know where that's from?It's from some basketball player that's 6-7. Aren't they all?I don't get it. I don't get it when the kids say words like "Skibbity toilet riz."Have you heard this one?I had to have somebody explain it to me. I still didn't quite understand it.But that is a thing and I don't get it. I just don't get it.I remember many years ago when the nieces on my wife's side were younger,probably teenagers-ish. But one family gatherer, I was Thanksgiving, Christmas, whatever.I just remember the three girls were just walking around going,"I just bought a new alligator purse at Walmart for $4.99."And then they would laugh hysterically.So I'm like, "Well, I went in on the hilarity."So I'm like, "Well, I just bought a new alligator purse at Walmart for $4.99."And everybody laughed hysterically. I don't get it.I don't get "dolulu" and "juzh it up."And by the time this is on our website, somebody's going to listen to this and be like,"Oh, those are old words. We don't say that anymore."I try.I don't get it.And see, that is the point of the passage that we're looking at today.Here's the whole sermon.When it comes to the Word of God, unsaved people don't get it.But those who are born again, who have the Spirit of God residing in them,we come to the Word of God and we get it.This whole section that we're in in 1 Corinthians is contrasting man's wisdom and God's wisdom.And last week we focused specifically on the show.Why? Because Paul says he came in weakness.He wasn't like one of the lofty speaking philosophers putting on a show.Paul says, "I didn't come to you like that."So last week we talked about the show. This week we're going to talk about the content.The content of wisdom.Look at verse 6.He says, "Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom,although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age who are doomed to pass away."So there's two kinds of wisdom.We talked about this many times in the past.I've gone through the Proverbs, I've gone through the book of James.There's two kinds of wisdom.There's man's wisdom, worldly wisdom, earthly wisdom, and there's God's wisdom.And that's what Paul's talking about here.Paul's like, "Don't throw out anything called wisdom because there's different kinds."We didn't come with man's wisdom, we came with God's wisdom.Now listen, when we talk about man's wisdom, we are not saying that man is incapable of doing anything with earthly wisdom.Man has done so much with medical advances, engineering, art, obviously.But man's wisdom cannot do anything about spiritual matters.When you try to apply man's wisdom to spiritual matters, do you know what you get?You get one of two things.You get heresy, or you get nonsense, or maybe you get both.Paul here talks about the rulers of this age.It's not a wisdom of the rulers of this age.Like, who are the rulers of this age?Well, in Paul's day, right, scribes, Pharisees, Roman officials.It's the important people, right?And who are the rulers of our age?It's pretty obvious.Politicians, celebrities.The loud, anti-God actors, musicians, athletes.You know, church, if I live to be a billion, I will never understand why we take so much stock in the opinions of celebrities.I don't understand that.You know, like somebody is paid millions of dollars because they're able to catch a ball.Which is a talent.Don't get me wrong.It's a talent.All of a sudden, we're like, well, I got to hear what his political views are.Why?Or you got some young lady who, she writes songs for a living.She writes really catchy pop songs about bad relationships.And we're like, man, I wonder what she thinks about immigration.Why do we care?Right?An actor whose very job is to pretend to be someone else.And they are fantastic at pretending to be someone else.And the world is just waiting to hear, what do you think about God?Paul says, I'll tell you what to think about them.They're doomed to pass away.Alright?God's word will stand forever, but a celebrity's opinion will be forgotten.Alright?So look at verse 7.He says, "But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before theages for our glory."None of the rulers of this age understood this.For if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.See here, Paul's talking about the secret wisdom.These are spiritual truths that man cannot know unless God reveals them.God has revealed knowledge about Himself.Paul says, "For the glory of His people," and he says, "Those who are not born again,they don't get it."They don't get it.That's why he says, "None understood."None of the rulers of this age understood.They don't get it.They can't get it.Paul says in verse 8, "Here's an obvious point that they don't get it.God showed up in the flesh and they nailed them to a cross."Do you think for a second if they really understood who Jesus is that they would have crucifiedHim?Do you think for a second if they're like, "Well, this is the God who created me.This is the God who's ultimately going to judge me, and He's here right now.What should we do with Him?"Do you think they would have killed Him if they got that?Obviously not.So look at verse 9.He says, "But as it is written, what no eye has seen nor ear heard, nor the heart of manimagined, what God has prepared for those who love Him."So here Paul is paraphrasing concepts from the book of Isaiah, specifically Isaiah 64in verse 4.Now listen, when people read this verse, people immediately want to interpret this as, "Youcan't believe how awesome heaven is.You can't believe the things that God has prepared for us."And that's really not what this verse is about at all.Listen, this verse is about unbelievers not being able to understand salvation.Believers don't get it.That's what this verse is about.Look at it again.He's saying that spiritual truths about salvation can't be obtained through natural processes.Look at it again.He says, "What no eye has seen nor ear heard."He's saying, "Unsaved people can't understand spiritual truths by external means."He's saying you can't look at a sunset or the stars in the sky and understand salvation.You can understand some things about the power and beauty of God.Yes.But you can't look at a sunset and understand salvation.You can't perceive with your eyes or your ears.Then he goes on to say, "Nor the heart of man imagined."What's he saying?That's internal.That you can't come up with truth about God from your mind.You can't just sit around and say, "I wonder what God's like."And you imagine truths about salvation.Can't happen.You'll try though.You hear people say things like, "Well, you know, I think that we're all God's children.I believe love is the only thing that matters.I don't believe God condemns anybody.And with all due respect, it doesn't really matter what your opinion of God is."It's like a fruit fly trying to figure out how an iPhone works.It's not going to happen.And you trying to figure out on your own how God works, it's not going to happen.You can't do it.Truth about God must be revealed by God.That's Paul's whole point here.Human perception or wisdom can't contribute to this.People have no idea externally or internally what God has prepared.Everything for those who love it.They're like, "All right, I have a question.How exactly did God reveal His truth to man?How did He do that?"Well, that's what he goes on to answer.Look at verse 10.He says, "These things..."What things?"The things that God has prepared, the content of the gospel message.These things God has revealed to us through the Spirit.Through the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God."So Paul says, "God revealed the content of the salvation message."He said he revealed it to us.And us in the Greek is emphatic.They're like, "Well, who is us?"Well, go back to verse 10.Paul's refers to those who love Him.Right?Like, what is he talking about here?Well, really, he's talking about something Jesus already gave us the heads up on backin Matthew 11 when Jesus said, "I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that youhave..."Look at this."Hidden these things..."What things?Matters of salvation, revelation from God.Truth about God.You have hidden these things from the wise and understanding, the important people, therulers of this age is what Paul calls them.Jesus says you've hidden them from the wise and understanding and revealed them to littlechildren.That's the point of this passage.You think you're so wise.No, no, no, no.God has to reveal truth if you're going to know anything about God.And God didn't reveal it to the important people.He revealed it to the children, people who love Him.That's his point.He gives an easy analogy.Look at verse 11.He says, "For who knows a person's thoughts except the spirit of that person which isin him?"So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the spirit of God.That's an easy analogy.No one knows a man's thoughts except that man.I mean, I can wonder all the live long day what Bob Brown thinks.I'm never going to know.His thoughts, his opinions, his hopes, his dreams, his fears.That's all within him.Nobody knows that about Bob Brown the way Bob Brown knows that about Bob Brown, right?And the only way I'm going to get a clue on any of that is if he tells me, right?And that's what Paul's saying here.Only God's spirit knows God.No one knows what God thinks but God.And God's spirit has to reveal God's thoughts to us.You're like, "What is that?"He's talking about the Bible.This book is the Holy Spirit revealing things that are known only to God.Like, "Wait, wait, okay."So you're saying that this book is the book of God's thoughts.Yes, that's what the passage is saying.Well how in the world could an infinite, holy, awesome God reveal his thoughts in a way thatwe could understand them?Because he's way above us.How in the world could he reveal his thoughts?So we could understand them.Verses 12 and 13, Paul answers that.He says, "Now we have received not the Spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God,that we might understand the things freely given us by God.And we impart this in words."Look at this."And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom, but taught by the Spirit."Here it is interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.He's talking about how we got the Bible.When he says "we" here in verse 12, he's talking about the apostles.It's obvious from the context.God didn't give you books of the Bible to write down.You might have some blank pages at the end of your Bible like in the book.That's not for you to write your own book.That's not what those are for.You're like, "Well, what are they for?""I don't know what those are for."But they're not for writing your own parts of the Bible.That was for the apostles.The apostles, Paul's saying here, "received the Spirit to put God's thoughts into humanwords."Again, this is something that Jesus promised would happen.Look at John 16.Yeah, Jesus said, "When the Spirit of truth comes," the Holy Spirit, "he will guide youinto all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears,he will speak and he will declare to you the things that are to come."This is how you got your Bible.God's Spirit gave God's thoughts to these apostles and he enabled them to write God'sthoughts down in a book, an objective source of God's truth.And you're like, "Okay, all right, all right."So if that is what the Bible actually is, the thoughts of God written in human words,why doesn't everyone accept the Bible as the Word of God?Why doesn't everybody just get on board with that?Why doesn't everybody just understand it?All that Paul has said is to drive us to this point.Are you still with me?All right?There's no sermon today.It's like Sunday school.There's a little sermon at the end.This is like Sunday school class.Everything he's saying here is to drive us to this one point.Understanding the thoughts of God revealed by the Spirit of God put in this book.Understanding this book also requires the work of the Holy Spirit.This is what he is driving us to.Look at verse 14.He says, "The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for theyare folly to Him, foolishness to Him, and He is not able to understand them because theyare spiritually discerned."You see Paul saying the Holy Spirit gave God's Word to the apostles and He makes known themeaning of God's words to those who love God.Non-spiritual people.Listen.They're like, "Why do we theology?"Because right now there's a whole lot of light bulbs that are going to go off.Non-spiritual people cannot accept the Word of God, and they do not understand the Wordof God.That's what he says in verse 14.Non-spiritual people cannot accept it.People who hate the Bible are just acting naturally.Why do you hate the Bible so much?Well, I'll give you a reason.He tells us right here in verse 14, "They don't understand it."They don't understand it.It makes no sense to them.And listen.Listen.If you refuse to believe in the Word of God, you will never understand it.Never going to happen.This is interesting, but like what does this mean in real world application, Pastor Jeff?Well let me tell you a lesson that I had to learn some time ago.I had to learn that you cannot put biblical standards on non-Christians for this veryreason.They're like, "Can you be specific?"Yeah, how uncomfortable do you want this to get?All right, let's talk about people that are living together, but they're not married.They live as if they're married, but they never got married.Cohabitation.I've dealt with this a lot, especially at my old church.It was a downtown church.It was a big, old, beautiful building.And we would have complete strangers coming off the street.They're like, "I want to get married here."Why?Not because they knew me or anybody else in the church.It's just pretty architecture."I want to get married here."But they were living together.We've had people like, "I want to join harvest and I want to actively serve at harvest."And they're living together, but they're not married.And in all of these cases, people are outraged that we would say, "Well, that's sin."It's sin.People were like shocked and outraged that you would even hold such an opinion.What do you mean it's sin?And this is tying into Paul's point here, my friends.When a couple was in that situation and understand their biggest issue is not cohabitation, thebiggest issue is they have no regard for God's work.That's the issue.And it's a scary thing because this is evidence that they don't have the Holy Spirit.And it's evidence, if all this is true, it's evidence that they're not born again.So you see, cohabitation isn't the biggest issue.Non-spiritual people don't get it.They can't accept that they don't understand.Light bulb should be going off.I hear this all the time.I hear this all the time and my heart breaks.But I hear people say, "People have adult children."I raised my kid in the church and now he absolutely refuses to go to church.He doesn't want anything to do with church or Bible study.My teenager hates going to youth group, refuses to go.And they won't listen to any biblical instruction.And I don't understand why.I'll tell you why.If this passage is right and I certainly believe that it is, the Bible makes no senseto them.They don't believe it.They don't get it.And when they come to church, they don't believe it.They don't accept it.They don't understand it.They don't get it.They come to church and I get up here or Pastor Taylor gets up here or Justin gets up hereand we're talking and people don't get it.All they hear is us standing up here going, "I bought a new alligator purses at Wal-Martfor $4.99."They're like, "What's that all about?"They don't get it because it has to be spiritually discerned.You're like, "Oh, so you're saying I shouldn't drag my kids to church?You're saying I shouldn't teach my kids the Bible?"Of course I am not saying that.Come on.But they aren't really going to get it if they don't personally make a decision toreceive Jesus.That's what you need to drive them to.Look at verse 15.He says, "The spiritual person judges all things."Stop right there.This is a statement.We who are spiritual, we who have the Holy Spirit can judge all things.What's He talking about?He's just simply talking about this.The Bible, when rightly understood, makes sense of everything.It makes sense of the world.It makes sense of man.It makes sense of God.It makes sense of the way sin works.Understanding the world through the lens of God's Word when we understand it makes everythingmake total sense to us.We get it.We get why lost people act like lost people.We get it.You're spiritually dead.We get it.Bless you.We get people get old and die.We get it.Why does that happen?We get it.We get it when we have a loved one that's stuck in an addiction.Like I get it, it's a worship disorder.They're worshiping something and it's not Jesus.It's an addiction.We get it.We get it when a believer still struggles with sin.Like why is he still struggling with sin?We get it.Because he's a spiritual person that lives in fallen flesh.So there's going to be a war going on until he's removed from the fallen flesh.We get it.It all makes sense.We get it, church.We're rightly able to judge these things and we're rightly able to judge what's happeningout there.We can watch the news.We can rightly judge all of that stuff if you really understand the Bible.Like for example, what was the big news story last week?The snap benefits getting cut off, right?We can understand that through the lens of God's Word.Anybody not offended yet because you might be here in a second?Understand that through the lens of God's Word?Look, the government doesn't need involved in that.In feeding people at all.Whose job is that?It's the church's job.Here's what should happen.The church should be providing for those in need who are unable to provide for themselves.But someone who can work and refuses to work doesn't get to eat.That's what the Bible says.We can rightly judge all things, right?We rightly judge all things.Things like racism is idiotic.It's just stupid.We're able to judge that.We realize we all came from the same parents.We all come from Adam and Eve.So if your skin's a different color, your eyes are a different shape, who cares?It's stupid, but people make that an issue because they don't get it.We get it.Why has Israel survived for thousands of years even though everybody's constantly tryingto exterminate them?Why are they front and center in the world stage all the time?We get it.We get it.That's what Paul's saying.We judge all things.Like, yeah, we get it.But look at the back of verse 15.He says, "But is himself judged by no one."But is himself judged by no one.So Christian, don't worry about how the world judges you.Don't worry about how the world looks at you.You close-minded, anti-science, misguided, uneducated, unintelligent, fairy tale believing,homophobic, transphobic, xenophobic jerk.Don't worry about what the world calls you.They don't understand the word.They don't value the word.So they're not going to understand you, and they're not going to value you either.You judge by no one.Right?Now look at verse 16."For who has understood the mind of the Lord as to instruct Him?"That's Isaiah 40, verse 13.He says, "But we have the mind of Christ."That last line, that's the punchline here.Meaning he's saying, gets to this one sentence, "But we have the mind of Christ."And if Paul would have just come out and said that first without any explanation, we wouldhave been like, "What in the world are you talking about?"Well, who's the we here?Why is he saying we?Why doesn't he say, "You have the mind of Christ?"He could have.Why does he say, "We have the mind of Christ?"Why we here?Well, what's Paul talking about throughout the first several chapters of 1 Corinthians?What's he talking about?Unity.Right?Here's the point.Unification can really only happen if we are all thinking the same way.If we have the mind of Christ, if we think like Jesus, that is what will unify.We, that is what will unify us.This unity comes when I walk around here saying, "You all need to think like Jeff."You need to think like Jeff.That's the problem with this church.You all don't think like Jeff.That causes disunity.Right?And then, like, Laura gets up and she goes, "No, the problem is you need to think likeLaura."That's the problem with this church.Everybody think like Laura will be good.And then Brian gets up.Brian's like, "No, no, the problem is everybody needs to think like Brian.You think like Brian will be in good shape.That will unify us."No, no, no.That just causes division.We need to think like Jesus.And with a statement like this, I couldn't just be like, "Okay, we have the mind of Christ.You're loved.See you next week.Let's sing a song."Like, that's such a statement that I figured we have to take a couple of minutes to unpackthat.You have the mind of...Not...You should have the mind of Jesus.You have the mind of Jesus.You do.And until you think like Jesus, church, we're never going to have unity here.We're always going to be fighting over something.So I do want to leave you with this.Just a couple more minutes here.So just grab your neighbor's sleeve right now and give him a shake and say, "Okay, theSunday School Lessons over, now we're getting to the sermon.Take a minute and do that."Some of you aren't shaking hard enough.We're just going to close with this.We have the mind of Christ.And you're like, "Well, how do I know?How do I know if I have the mind of Christ?"Well, Paul tells us.Under inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Paul tells us in Philippians.Turn over in your Bible to Philippians chapter 2.I know usually we like camp in one passage, but we can't just end with that statement.We have the mind of Christ.What's that mean?Turn to Philippians chapter 2.Just over a few pages.Look at verses 5 through 8.Paul says, "Have this mind among yourselves."And you look at the context.He's talking about unity here again, right?Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus.You have the mind of Christ?Well, how do I know?How do I know if I have the mind of Christ?Write these three things down very quickly.Number one, you know you have the mind of Christ when I don't insist on my rights.I know I have the mind of Christ when I don't insist on my rights.Look at verse 6.He says, talking about Jesus, "Who, though He was in the form of God, did not countequality with God a thing to be grasped."I know I have the mind of Christ when I don't insist on my rights.In Jesus' mind, He didn't feel the need to tightly cling to the privilege that comeswith being God.And oh, Jesus would have had every right to demand everyone treat Him as God, becauseHe is.Jesus could have walked around on the earth and said, "Serve me.Get me this.Fetch me that.Now chop chop.I'm God.Serve me."He could have gotten away with that.He's the only person in history that could have.He let go of that.That was His right and He let go of it.And you have to get to the place where you made up your mind that you don't have to insiston your rights.I deserve more.I deserve better.I can't believe you asked me to do that.Do you know how important I am?I'm not thinking like Jesus.See, the world says, "Hey, you go out and you demand your rights."But when you think like Jesus, you say, "Yeah, I let go of my rights."When you do that, you get it.You get it.How do I know if I have the mind of Christ, number two, when I act like a servant?Verse 7.Verse 7.He says, "But made Himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likenessof men."We've done sermons on this in the past.This one phrase really stands out to me more than anything in this whole passage, really.It says that Jesus took the form of a servant.And you know, you have the mind of Christ.You know you're thinking like Jesus when you act like a servant.By the way, God's wisdom is opposite of the world's wisdom.If I said who's the greatest person in the world, you would say, "Well, it's whoeverhas the most people serving him, right?"That's how we determine greatness.Who has the most people serving them?Jesus said the greatest among you will be the servant of all.And His life was an example of such greatness.You know you have the mind of Christ when you act like a servant.Like, well, how do I do that?Well, you won't know.You won't know if you're a servant until somebody treats you like one.Then you find out.If you walked in here today and I had one of them stickers that said, "Hello, my nameis," and I wrote on there, "My name is slave.Tell me what to do."And I slapped that on your chest.How would that make you feel if that's how everybody regards you?"Hey, they're slave.I'm going to tell them what to do."You won't know if you're a servant until somebody treats you like one.But God took the form of a servant.And when you're like, "I'm here to serve," then you think like Jesus.Then number three, how do I know I have the mind of Christ when I obey God all the way?All the way.Unconditionally, no limits.Look at verse 8.He says, "And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient."How far did you take that, Jesus?Abedient to the point of death.Even death on a cross.You see, Jesus' way of thinking determined what He did.He humbled himself and became obedient to His Father all the way to death.And not just death.All the way to the worst way to die.Death on a cross.All the way, and everything else, along the way, all the way, everything Jesus did wasan obedience to the Father.So how far are you willing to take your service to God and to others?How far are you willing to go?How much is too much?If you say, "Okay, all right, all right.I'll serve in the church.All right, I'll serve, but only when it's convenient."Or you're not thinking like Jesus.If you're like, "Okay, all right.I know I'm supposed to give to the church.And the Bible says that.We've walked through that.I'll give, but listen, I'm only going to give a little bit.I'm only going to give like what I won't miss."You're not thinking like Jesus.And if you're like, "You know what?That person wronged me."And yes, they reached out.They apologized."I will never forgive her.I will never forgive her for what she did to me.No matter how many times she says she's sorry, I will never forgive her."You're not thinking like Jesus.The world says be true to yourself.You think like Jesus.You say, "I'm obedient to God, no matter what."We'll take it all the way.You get it.You get it.Our worship team will make their way back up front.You know, we could go on and on and on about the mind of Christ.But really, it can be summed up in one word.If you really say that Philippians 2 passage, the word is selfless.Are you a selfless person?You will be if you think like Jesus.But when you have God's Spirit within you, enabling you to discern and understand andapply God's Word, you will think like Jesus.You'll get it.You will get it.Let's pray.Father in heaven.That's such an interesting thing, the way your Spirit works with your Word.Somebody can stand up here and preach the most Biblically accurate message and it'sgoing to go right over the head of people that don't have your Spirit.Father, when your Spirit moves in the hearts of people and your Word is proclaimed, youdo something.And God, that's what I'm asking, is that you would soften the hearts of those maybewho are sitting here and are heart-hearted and haven't been getting it for a long time.Those who are closed-minded towards your Word, they don't get it.Maybe they think they do.And I just pray, Father, for your Spirit, for all of us, you draw us just one step closerto you today.We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.

Jacob and the Ugly Wife

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 26, 2025

The Bible never hides the mess that happens when sinful people collide. It doesnt take much to recognize that since Adam and Eve were promised a descendant who would crush the head of the serpent, the story of Gods people is one of dysfunction. All who make up Jesus family tree include broken and messy people. When we come to Genesis 29, we meet Jacoba deceiverand Leah, the woman no one wanted. But their story began long before this moment. God had promised Abraham that through his descendants would come a child who would bless all nations. That promise passed to Isaac, and before his twins were born, God declared,The older shall serve the younger (Gen. 25:23). Jacob deceived his aging father, stole his brothers blessing, and fled for his life. Alone in the wilderness, with only a stone for a pillow, God met him in a dream.I am the LORD, the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac. The land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go (Gen. 28:1315). God didnt appear to Jacob because he finally got his act togetherHe showed up in Jacobs mess. Thats the beauty of grace: God steps into our brokenness, keeps His promises, and accomplishes His plan through imperfect people. Later, God gave him the name Israel, but for the purpose of this sermon, we will continue to refer to him as Jacob (Gen. 35:9-21). Outside of Eden We Want Rachel (Gen. 29:1-20) When Laban heard his nephew had arrived, heran to meet him, and embraced him and kissed him, and brought him to his house(Gen. 29:13). Jacob stayed with his uncle for a month, and during that time he fell in love with Labans younger daughter, Rachel (v. 18). Why did Jacob love Rachel? The text tells us:Now Laban had two daughters; the name of the older was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel. And Leahs eyes were weak, but Rachel was beautiful in figure and appearance(vv. 1617). Were not told exactly what it means that Leahs eyes were weak. Some think she was cross-eyed or simply lacked the beauty that her younger sister possessed. Whatever the case, the contrast is clearLeah was plain, but Rachel was striking. Even their names hint at the difference:Leahmay mean wild cow or gazelle, whileRachelmeans ewe or lamba softer, more affectionate name. Rachel was beautiful, and Jacob was captivated. When Laban offered to pay Jacob for his work, Jacob didnt ask for wageshe offered seven years of labor for Rachels hand. Laban agreed.So Jacob worked seven years to pay for Rachel. But his love for her was so strong that it seemed to him but a few days(Gen. 29:20, NLT). Rachel was the apple of his eyethe treasure of his heart. To Jacob, life with Rachel promised the happiness he had always longed for. And isnt that what we all want? On this side of Eden, every heart searches for a Rachelsomeone or something we believe will complete us. We might not call it Rachel, but we chase it in our stories, our dreams, and our longings. We dont want Leah. We want Rachel. If the Bible repeats something, we need to pay attention to it. But, if the Bible repeats something three times, it elevates it to the superlative degree as something super important. Three times we are told of Jacobs love for Rachel: Now Jacob loved Rachel, so he said, I will serve you seven years for your younger daughter Rachel. (Gen. 29:18) So Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and they seemed to him like only a few days because of his love for her. (Gen. 29:20) So Jacob had relations with Rachel also, and indeed he loved Rachel more than Leah, and he served with Laban for another seven years. (Gen. 29:30) Guess how many times we are told that Jacob loved Leah. Zero. In fact, when it comes to love, here is what we are told: Now the Lord saw that Leah was unloved, and He opened her womb, but Rachel was unable to have children (v. 31). Outside of Eden We Get Leah (Gen. 29:21-30) After Jacob completed the seven years he had promised his uncle, he was ready to receive what his heart had longed for.Then Jacob said to Laban, Give me my wife, for my time is completed, that I may have relations with her. So Laban gathered all the people of the place and held a feast(Gen. 29:2122). Finally, Jacob believed life was about to become sweet. The wedding celebration began, the food was served, and the wine flowed freely. When the bride was brought to himveiled and under cover of nightJacob, likely feeling content and confident, welcomed her.Now in the evening he took his daughter Leah and brought her to him; and Jacob had relations with her.... So it came about in the morning that, behold, it was Leah!(Gen. 29:23, 25a). Morning light brought a brutal truth. The woman beside him was not Rachelthe love of his lifebut Leah, the weak-eyed daughter whose very name meant wild cow. Jacob was furious. He had been deceivedjust as he had once deceived his brother Esau. His dream of happiness, shattered.And he said to Laban, What is this that you have done to me? Was it not for Rachel that I served you? Why then have you deceived me?(v. 25). But Laban, the master manipulator, calmly replied,It is not the practice in our place to marry off the younger before the firstborn. Complete the week of this one, and we will give you the other also for the service which you shall serve with me for another seven years(vv. 2627). Jacob was trappedused for free labor once again. He was tricked into taking the daughter he hadnt chosen, and bartered into another seven years for the one he loved. Unfortunately for Leah, she was stuck in the middle of all the drama. Outside of Eden There is Still Hope The marriage that Jacob was tricked into began with a week-long celebration. Laban insisted Jacob complete the festivities with Leah, giving enough time for her to become pregnant. Yet Jacob was eager for the days to end, and as soon as the week was over, he immediately married Rachel. Driven by the selfish motives of both Jacob and Laban, Leah found herself trappedcaught between their desires and loved by no one. Leah was rejected, while Rachel was cherished. The striking irony in Leahs story is that, while she was overlooked by everyone else, God loved her: Now the Lord saw that Leah was unloved, and He opened her womb, but Rachel was unable to have children (v. 31). Despite Gods blessings with each child, Leahs deepest longing, which was for her husbands love, remained out of reach. After every birth, Leah hoped that her husband would finally love her, yet that hope was continually unfulfilled. Consider how Leah responded after each of her first four child were born: Leah conceived and gave birth to a son, and named him Reuben, for she said, Because the Lord has seen my affliction; surely now my husband will love me. (v. 32) Then she conceived again and gave birth to a son, and said, Because the Lord has heard that I am unloved, He has therefore given me this son also. So she named him Simeon. (v. 33) And she conceived again and gave birth to a son, and said, Now this time my husband will become attached to me, because I have borne him three sons. Therefore he was named Levi. (v. 34) And she conceived again and gave birth to a son, and said, This time I will praise the Lord. Therefore she named him Judah. Then she stopped having children. (v. 35) I wish Leahs story ended with her praising theLORD, but it didnt. She continued to seek Jacobs affection by giving him what Rachel could notchildren. Just as Sarah gave Hagar to Jacob, Rachel followed the same pattern when she could not conceive, unwilling to trust Gods timing. What followed was a rivalry between Leah and Rachel, each striving to win Jacobs love by giving him more sons. Both even gave their servants to Jacob, and through them, four more sons were born. In time, God blessed Leah with two additional sons and a daughter, yet her longing for her husbands love was never fulfilled (seeGen. 30:1921). Rachel, meanwhile, bore only two sonsJosephand, finally,Benjamin, the only son Jacob named. Then they journeyed on from Bethel; but when there was still some distance to go to Ephrath, Rachel began to give birth and she suffered severe difficulties in her labor. And when she was suffering severe difficulties in her labor, the midwife said to her, Do not fear, for you have another son! And it came about, as her soul was departing (for she died), that she named him Ben-oni; but his father called him Benjamin(Gen. 35:1618). Application The irony in Leahs story is striking: although she was overlooked by her father, unloved by her husband, and scorned by her younger sister, she was shown favor by God. Leah became the mother of seven children, including Levi and Judah. Through Levi, the priestly lineage was established, and through Judah, the royal line was formeda line that ultimately led to the birth of Jesus Christ! The promise God made to Adam and Eve, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob... was Leahs promise. Listen to the prophetic blessing pronounced upon Judah by Jacob in Genesis 49:8-10, As for you, Judah, your brothers shall praise you;your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies;your fathers sons shall bow down to you. Judah is a lions cub;from the prey, my son, you have gone up.He crouches, he lies down as a lion,and as a lion, who dares to stir him up? The scepter will not depart from Judah,nor the rulers staff from between his feet,until Shiloh comes;and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples. The ugly wife was loved by God! Leah couldnt have seen it then, but the beauty God would bring through her lineage is staggering. Her name may meanweary,exhausted,gazelle, or evenwild cowyet through her would come the Deliverer promised to Adam and Eve, to Noah, to Abraham and Sarah, to Isaac, and now to Jacob. She was the wife no one loved or treasured, except God Himself. From Leahs sons came the tribe ofLevi, the tribe set apart to oversee the worship and sacrificial life of Israel. From the Levites, God appointed theHigh Priest, chosen from Aarons line, to mediate between God and His people. Upon his chest he wore a sacred breastplate adorned with twelve precious stones, each set in gold and engraved with the name of one of Israels tribes. Thefirst stone,sardiusa deep red rubyrepresentedReuben, whose name meansBehold, a son!Thelast stone,jasper, representedBenjamin, meaningson of my right hand. Leahs legacy was not measured by Jacobs affection but by Gods covenantal love. Through the unloved wife, God brought forth the priesthood that pointed to the Great High PriestJesus Christ. Conclusion Now, permit me to show you something from Revelation 4-5. In Revelation 4, John is invited to see the heavenly throne room of God. Notice what it is that John sees: After these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven, and the first voice which I had heard, like the sound of a trumpet speaking with me, said, Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after these things. Immediately I was in the Spirit; and behold, a throne was standing in heaven, and someone was sitting on the throne. And He who was sitting was like a jasper stone and a sardius in appearance; and there was a rainbow around the throne, like an emerald in appearance. John is ushered into heavens throne room, and what captures his attention is that the One seated on the throne radiates with the colors of jasper and sardiusthe first and last stones on the High Priests breastplate. This is not accidental imagery. It is intentional revelation. What shines from the throne is He who is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. When you pair the meanings of those names Behold, a Son and Son of My right handyou hear the gospel proclaimed from the very throne of God. Who is this Son at the right hand of the Father? Revelation 1:1718 gives the answer: Do not be afraid; I am the first and the last, and the living One; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and Hades. The One radiant like sardius and jasper is none other than Jesus Christ. And how do we know He sits at the right hand of the Father? Because Paul who himself was from the tribe represented by the jasper stonedeclares in Romans 8:3134: What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? Who will bring charges against Gods elect? God is the one who justifies; who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, but rather, was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. This is the One who is worthy to open the scroll in the Fathers hand. Revelation 5:5 tells us, ...behold, the Lion that is from the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has overcome so as to be able to open the scroll and its seven seals. The elder tells John to look at the Lion of Judah. But when John turns, he doesnt see a lion. He sees a Lamb. A Lamb standing, as if slaughtered... (Rev. 5:6). Jacob chased after a beautiful woman whose name meant sheep, but through Leahthe unloved, weary wifewould come the Lamb of God. The Lamb who stands before the throne as the triumphant Redeemer. And all of heaven erupts in worship: Worthy is the Lamb that was slaughtered to receive power, wealth, wisdom, might, honor, glory, and blessing (Rev. 5:12). What is the point of Leahs story? God redeems what is ugly, weary, and rejected. He takes what the world despises and uses it to accomplish His glorious plan of redemption. This is why the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders sing a new song to Leahs descendant: Worthy are You to take the scroll and to break its seals; for You were slaughtered, and You purchased people for God with Your blood from every tribe, language, people, and nation (Rev. 5:9). And here is where the story turns deeply personal. We are Leah. We are the unlovely bride. We are the weary, broken, and undeserving. But instead of being repulsed by us, Jesus loves us. He makes us His Bride. Paul writes, For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Rom. 8:3839). Leahs story ends not in sorrow, but in the songs of heaven. The woman who was unloved became the vessel through whom the Lamb of God would come. The tribe she bore would point to the Great High Priest, and the Son of her bodys lineage would one day stand at the right hand of the Father. Worthy is the Lamb who was slain. That is our story too. If you belong to Christ, then your shame, your weariness, and your rejection are not the end of the story. The throne is. The Lamb is. His love is.

god jesus christ father lord israel spirit bible romans revelation wife gods rev lion ugly lamb driven fathers worthy root alpha behold omega redeemer high priests jacobs simeon hades esau god himself hagar bethel great high priest deliverer nlt laban levites israels in revelation aarons his bride rachels because paul lord rom leahs thefirst when laban labans

Jacob and the Ugly Wife

god father lord social real expectations teach philippians rejoice amen apostle paul anticipation in jesus nightlight because paul

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 26, 2025

The Bible never hides the mess that happens when sinful people collide. It doesnt take much to recognize that since Adam and Eve were promised a descendant who would crush the head of the serpent, the story of Gods people is one of dysfunction. All who make up Jesus family tree include broken and messy people. When we come to Genesis 29, we meet Jacoba deceiverand Leah, the woman no one wanted. But their story began long before this moment. God had promised Abraham that through his descendants would come a child who would bless all nations. That promise passed to Isaac, and before his twins were born, God declared,The older shall serve the younger (Gen. 25:23). Jacob deceived his aging father, stole his brothers blessing, and fled for his life. Alone in the wilderness, with only a stone for a pillow, God met him in a dream.I am the LORD, the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac. The land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go (Gen. 28:1315). God didnt appear to Jacob because he finally got his act togetherHe showed up in Jacobs mess. Thats the beauty of grace: God steps into our brokenness, keeps His promises, and accomplishes His plan through imperfect people. Later, God gave him the name Israel, but for the purpose of this sermon, we will continue to refer to him as Jacob (Gen. 35:9-21). Outside of Eden We Want Rachel (Gen. 29:1-20) When Laban heard his nephew had arrived, heran to meet him, and embraced him and kissed him, and brought him to his house(Gen. 29:13). Jacob stayed with his uncle for a month, and during that time he fell in love with Labans younger daughter, Rachel (v. 18). Why did Jacob love Rachel? The text tells us:Now Laban had two daughters; the name of the older was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel. And Leahs eyes were weak, but Rachel was beautiful in figure and appearance(vv. 1617). Were not told exactly what it means that Leahs eyes were weak. Some think she was cross-eyed or simply lacked the beauty that her younger sister possessed. Whatever the case, the contrast is clearLeah was plain, but Rachel was striking. Even their names hint at the difference:Leahmay mean wild cow or gazelle, whileRachelmeans ewe or lamba softer, more affectionate name. Rachel was beautiful, and Jacob was captivated. When Laban offered to pay Jacob for his work, Jacob didnt ask for wageshe offered seven years of labor for Rachels hand. Laban agreed.So Jacob worked seven years to pay for Rachel. But his love for her was so strong that it seemed to him but a few days(Gen. 29:20, NLT). Rachel was the apple of his eyethe treasure of his heart. To Jacob, life with Rachel promised the happiness he had always longed for. And isnt that what we all want? On this side of Eden, every heart searches for a Rachelsomeone or something we believe will complete us. We might not call it Rachel, but we chase it in our stories, our dreams, and our longings. We dont want Leah. We want Rachel. If the Bible repeats something, we need to pay attention to it. But, if the Bible repeats something three times, it elevates it to the superlative degree as something super important. Three times we are told of Jacobs love for Rachel: Now Jacob loved Rachel, so he said, I will serve you seven years for your younger daughter Rachel. (Gen. 29:18) So Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and they seemed to him like only a few days because of his love for her. (Gen. 29:20) So Jacob had relations with Rachel also, and indeed he loved Rachel more than Leah, and he served with Laban for another seven years. (Gen. 29:30) Guess how many times we are told that Jacob loved Leah. Zero. In fact, when it comes to love, here is what we are told: Now the Lord saw that Leah was unloved, and He opened her womb, but Rachel was unable to have children (v. 31). Outside of Eden We Get Leah (Gen. 29:21-30) After Jacob completed the seven years he had promised his uncle, he was ready to receive what his heart had longed for.Then Jacob said to Laban, Give me my wife, for my time is completed, that I may have relations with her. So Laban gathered all the people of the place and held a feast(Gen. 29:2122). Finally, Jacob believed life was about to become sweet. The wedding celebration began, the food was served, and the wine flowed freely. When the bride was brought to himveiled and under cover of nightJacob, likely feeling content and confident, welcomed her.Now in the evening he took his daughter Leah and brought her to him; and Jacob had relations with her.... So it came about in the morning that, behold, it was Leah!(Gen. 29:23, 25a). Morning light brought a brutal truth. The woman beside him was not Rachelthe love of his lifebut Leah, the weak-eyed daughter whose very name meant wild cow. Jacob was furious. He had been deceivedjust as he had once deceived his brother Esau. His dream of happiness, shattered.And he said to Laban, What is this that you have done to me? Was it not for Rachel that I served you? Why then have you deceived me?(v. 25). But Laban, the master manipulator, calmly replied,It is not the practice in our place to marry off the younger before the firstborn. Complete the week of this one, and we will give you the other also for the service which you shall serve with me for another seven years(vv. 2627). Jacob was trappedused for free labor once again. He was tricked into taking the daughter he hadnt chosen, and bartered into another seven years for the one he loved. Unfortunately for Leah, she was stuck in the middle of all the drama. Outside of Eden There is Still Hope The marriage that Jacob was tricked into began with a week-long celebration. Laban insisted Jacob complete the festivities with Leah, giving enough time for her to become pregnant. Yet Jacob was eager for the days to end, and as soon as the week was over, he immediately married Rachel. Driven by the selfish motives of both Jacob and Laban, Leah found herself trappedcaught between their desires and loved by no one. Leah was rejected, while Rachel was cherished. The striking irony in Leahs story is that, while she was overlooked by everyone else, God loved her: Now the Lord saw that Leah was unloved, and He opened her womb, but Rachel was unable to have children (v. 31). Despite Gods blessings with each child, Leahs deepest longing, which was for her husbands love, remained out of reach. After every birth, Leah hoped that her husband would finally love her, yet that hope was continually unfulfilled. Consider how Leah responded after each of her first four child were born: Leah conceived and gave birth to a son, and named him Reuben, for she said, Because the Lord has seen my affliction; surely now my husband will love me. (v. 32) Then she conceived again and gave birth to a son, and said, Because the Lord has heard that I am unloved, He has therefore given me this son also. So she named him Simeon. (v. 33) And she conceived again and gave birth to a son, and said, Now this time my husband will become attached to me, because I have borne him three sons. Therefore he was named Levi. (v. 34) And she conceived again and gave birth to a son, and said, This time I will praise the Lord. Therefore she named him Judah. Then she stopped having children. (v. 35) I wish Leahs story ended with her praising theLORD, but it didnt. She continued to seek Jacobs affection by giving him what Rachel could notchildren. Just as Sarah gave Hagar to Jacob, Rachel followed the same pattern when she could not conceive, unwilling to trust Gods timing. What followed was a rivalry between Leah and Rachel, each striving to win Jacobs love by giving him more sons. Both even gave their servants to Jacob, and through them, four more sons were born. In time, God blessed Leah with two additional sons and a daughter, yet her longing for her husbands love was never fulfilled (seeGen. 30:1921). Rachel, meanwhile, bore only two sonsJosephand, finally,Benjamin, the only son Jacob named. Then they journeyed on from Bethel; but when there was still some distance to go to Ephrath, Rachel began to give birth and she suffered severe difficulties in her labor. And when she was suffering severe difficulties in her labor, the midwife said to her, Do not fear, for you have another son! And it came about, as her soul was departing (for she died), that she named him Ben-oni; but his father called him Benjamin(Gen. 35:1618). Application The irony in Leahs story is striking: although she was overlooked by her father, unloved by her husband, and scorned by her younger sister, she was shown favor by God. Leah became the mother of seven children, including Levi and Judah. Through Levi, the priestly lineage was established, and through Judah, the royal line was formeda line that ultimately led to the birth of Jesus Christ! The promise God made to Adam and Eve, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob... was Leahs promise. Listen to the prophetic blessing pronounced upon Judah by Jacob in Genesis 49:8-10, As for you, Judah, your brothers shall praise you;your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies;your fathers sons shall bow down to you. Judah is a lions cub;from the prey, my son, you have gone up.He crouches, he lies down as a lion,and as a lion, who dares to stir him up? The scepter will not depart from Judah,nor the rulers staff from between his feet,until Shiloh comes;and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples. The ugly wife was loved by God! Leah couldnt have seen it then, but the beauty God would bring through her lineage is staggering. Her name may meanweary,exhausted,gazelle, or evenwild cowyet through her would come the Deliverer promised to Adam and Eve, to Noah, to Abraham and Sarah, to Isaac, and now to Jacob. She was the wife no one loved or treasured, except God Himself. From Leahs sons came the tribe ofLevi, the tribe set apart to oversee the worship and sacrificial life of Israel. From the Levites, God appointed theHigh Priest, chosen from Aarons line, to mediate between God and His people. Upon his chest he wore a sacred breastplate adorned with twelve precious stones, each set in gold and engraved with the name of one of Israels tribes. Thefirst stone,sardiusa deep red rubyrepresentedReuben, whose name meansBehold, a son!Thelast stone,jasper, representedBenjamin, meaningson of my right hand. Leahs legacy was not measured by Jacobs affection but by Gods covenantal love. Through the unloved wife, God brought forth the priesthood that pointed to the Great High PriestJesus Christ. Conclusion Now, permit me to show you something from Revelation 4-5. In Revelation 4, John is invited to see the heavenly throne room of God. Notice what it is that John sees: After these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven, and the first voice which I had heard, like the sound of a trumpet speaking with me, said, Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after these things. Immediately I was in the Spirit; and behold, a throne was standing in heaven, and someone was sitting on the throne. And He who was sitting was like a jasper stone and a sardius in appearance; and there was a rainbow around the throne, like an emerald in appearance. John is ushered into heavens throne room, and what captures his attention is that the One seated on the throne radiates with the colors of jasper and sardiusthe first and last stones on the High Priests breastplate. This is not accidental imagery. It is intentional revelation. What shines from the throne is He who is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. When you pair the meanings of those names Behold, a Son and Son of My right handyou hear the gospel proclaimed from the very throne of God. Who is this Son at the right hand of the Father? Revelation 1:1718 gives the answer: Do not be afraid; I am the first and the last, and the living One; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and Hades. The One radiant like sardius and jasper is none other than Jesus Christ. And how do we know He sits at the right hand of the Father? Because Paul who himself was from the tribe represented by the jasper stonedeclares in Romans 8:3134: What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? Who will bring charges against Gods elect? God is the one who justifies; who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, but rather, was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. This is the One who is worthy to open the scroll in the Fathers hand. Revelation 5:5 tells us, ...behold, the Lion that is from the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has overcome so as to be able to open the scroll and its seven seals. The elder tells John to look at the Lion of Judah. But when John turns, he doesnt see a lion. He sees a Lamb. A Lamb standing, as if slaughtered... (Rev. 5:6). Jacob chased after a beautiful woman whose name meant sheep, but through Leahthe unloved, weary wifewould come the Lamb of God. The Lamb who stands before the throne as the triumphant Redeemer. And all of heaven erupts in worship: Worthy is the Lamb that was slaughtered to receive power, wealth, wisdom, might, honor, glory, and blessing (Rev. 5:12). What is the point of Leahs story? God redeems what is ugly, weary, and rejected. He takes what the world despises and uses it to accomplish His glorious plan of redemption. This is why the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders sing a new song to Leahs descendant: Worthy are You to take the scroll and to break its seals; for You were slaughtered, and You purchased people for God with Your blood from every tribe, language, people, and nation (Rev. 5:9). And here is where the story turns deeply personal. We are Leah. We are the unlovely bride. We are the weary, broken, and undeserving. But instead of being repulsed by us, Jesus loves us. He makes us His Bride. Paul writes, For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Rom. 8:3839). Leahs story ends not in sorrow, but in the songs of heaven. The woman who was unloved became the vessel through whom the Lamb of God would come. The tribe she bore would point to the Great High Priest, and the Son of her bodys lineage would one day stand at the right hand of the Father. Worthy is the Lamb who was slain. That is our story too. If you belong to Christ, then your shame, your weariness, and your rejection are not the end of the story. The throne is. The Lamb is. His love is.

god jesus christ father lord israel spirit bible romans revelation wife gods rev lion ugly lamb driven fathers worthy root alpha behold omega redeemer high priests jacobs simeon hades esau god himself hagar bethel great high priest deliverer nlt laban levites israels in revelation aarons his bride rachels because paul lord rom leahs thefirst when laban labans

Joy #RTTBROS #nightlight

RTTBROS

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 21, 2025 2:58

Joy in the Journey #RTTBROS #Nightlight"I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content." — Philippians 4:11You know, I've been thinking a lot lately about something that keeps showing up in my conversations with people. We live in a world that's constantly selling us expectations. Social media shows us everyone's highlight reel, and we start measuring our regular Tuesday against someone else's best moment. Before long, we're running on empty, wondering why we can't seem to find any joy.I came across something recently that really stuck with me: joy is your current situation minus expectation. Now, at first glance, that might sound like I'm saying we should just lower the bar. That's not it at all.There's a world of difference between expectation and anticipation. Expectations are rigid demands we place on life, on God, on other people. They're about control. But anticipation? That's hopeful, flexible, trusting. It's looking forward with open hands instead of clenched fists.Think about the Apostle Paul for a minute. Here's a man sitting in a Roman prison, chained to a guard, uncertain about his future. By all our expectations, he should have been miserable. But listen to what he wrote: "Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice" (Philippians 4:4).How could he say that? Because Paul had learned the secret. He had released his expectations of how his life should look and replaced them with anticipation of what God was doing. He wasn't demanding God work things out his way. He was trusting that God was working, even when he couldn't see the whole picture.Expectations steal our joy because they're focused on what we think should be. Anticipation gives us joy because it's focused on who God is and what He's capable of doing, even in the mess we're in right now.Here's what I've learned, and I'm too soon old and too late smart on this one: most of our disappointment comes from the gap between what we expected and what actually happened. But when we release those expectations and replace them with anticipation of God's goodness, suddenly there's room for joy.Paul goes on to say, "I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content" (Philippians 4:11). That's not resignation. That's a man who's traded his expectations for anticipation of God's faithfulness.So let me ask you: what expectations are you carrying today that are robbing you of joy? Maybe it's time to open your hands and start anticipating with excitement what God might do instead.Because when you subtract your expectations from your current situation, what you're left with is room for joy. Real, lasting joy that doesn't depend on everything going your way, but on knowing that God is good and He's working.Let's pray: Father, help us release the expectations we're clinging to and replace them with anticipation of Your goodness. Teach us to find joy not in getting our way, but in trusting Your way. In Jesus' name, Amen.#Faith #Joy #ChristianLiving #DailyDevotion #TrustGod #BiblicalWisdom #SpiritualGrowth #RTTBROS #NightlightBe sure to Like, Share, Follow and subscribe it helps get the word out.https://linktr.ee/rttbros

A Sermon for the Eleventh Sunday after Trinity

jesus christ church lord spirit single staying scripture corinthians apostle paul 1cor lifehow because paul

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 31, 2025

A Sermon for the Eleventh Sunday after Trinity 1 Corinthians 15:1-11 & St. Luke 18:9-14 by William Klock “Two men went up to the temple to pray,” Jesus said. The temple was the place where heaven and earth met. The place where men and women could go to be in the presence of God. Twice a day the priests would lead the people in prayers, at nine in the morning and at three in the afternoon, but people could go any time to pray. On this day, two men climbed the steps to the temple courts to pray. “One,” Jesus said, “was a Pharisee.” A Jew could pray anywhere—at home, wherever. But if anyone was going to go out of their way to pray at the temple, it was going to be a Pharisee. The temple was everything to them. They weren't priests, but they lived their lives as if they were. So it was natural for a Pharisee to go to the temple to pray. But there were two men this day, Jesus said, who went up to the temple. “The other was a tax collector.” If there was a polar opposite of the Pharisee, it was the tax collector. The Pharisees were devoted to God's covenant and to his law. They kept every last jot and tittle of it. But the tax collectors. When Jesus mentioned a tax collector, his whole audience recoiled. They were the worst of the worst. There were “sinners”—that means Jews who made lifestyle that rejected God's covenant with them—but then there were tax collectors. They were a special kind of sinner. The scum of the earth. They got rich sucking up to the gentile dogs while swindling their own people. I expect that as Jesus described these two men, everyone had a similar mental picture. The Pharisee, dignified, wearing his fine clothes, making his way confidently up the steps to the temple complex, and striding just as confidently through the outer courts. Everyone knew him, everyone he passed greeted him respectfully as he made his way through the various gates and colonnades, further and further into the temple complex. But then the tax collector. Maybe it took him three times to make it up those steps, because twice he turned around, overwhelmed by guilt and shame. And on the far side of the court of the Gentiles, the soreg, the low wall that marked the boundary between the pure and impure, made him pause. He didn't belong on the other side. But he'd already spent weeks tracking down the people he'd fleeced and making restitution to them. There was no going back. So he steeled himself and passed through, head down, trying to look unobtrusive, because he knew—he just knew—that everyone recognised him. And he went to one of the men selling lambs. And he picked one out, paid for it, took it in his arms—he wasn't used to handling animals—and he got in line in the courtyard outside the sanctuary, waiting for a priest as the lamb struggled. And finally, a priest motioned him toward the altar. He presented the lamb, his sin offering, and as the priest held it, the tax collector laid his hands on it and slit its throat. And the priest collected the blood and poured it out at the base of the altar, then butchered the little lamb and burned its fat. Now he was pure. But there was still more to do. The tax collector went back out to the outer court and this time he bought a ram for a guilt offering. And a servant helped him with the ram as he, again, went back to stand in line for a priest. And, again, he placed his hands on the ram as the priest held it. And he killed it, and as with the lamb, the blood was poured out and the fat was burned. And his guilt was expiated. And now he could go and pray. And there he saw the Pharisee. The Pharisee had seen him, too. The Pharisee had seen him all along. As he'd chatted with a friend, the Pharisee had seen the tax collector buy his lamb. And he'd seem him again as he bought his ram. As he stood there praying, he'd seen the sacrifice. God may have forgiven the tax collector, but the Pharisee sure didn't see him that way. He took a smug look back at the tax collector and, Jesus says, “he prayed in this way to himself, ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people: greedy, unjust, immoral, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week. I give tithes of all that I get.'” And the tax collector. Jesus says he “stood a long way off, not even wanting to lift his eyes to heaven. He beat his breast and said, ‘God, be merciful to me, sinner that I am.'” He'd gone through the formal actions of forgiveness, but he knew that mere formalism would never see him reconciled to God. And so, after offering his sacrifices, he knelt humbly and prayed the words of Psalm 51: “Have mercy on me, O God—the psalm goes on—according to your steadfast love, according to your abundant mercy, blot out my transgressions.” He knew. God isn't a vending machine. Offering a lamb isn't like pushing B4 and absolution drops into the slot for you to take. He knew the words of the psalm. David went on to sing, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.” And so the tax collector knelt—and without any presumption—threw himself on the grace of God. And, as Jesus has said elsewhere, all of heaven rejoiced over this repentant sinner—even as the Pharisee scowled at him. And Jesus said to the people, “Let me tell you, he—the tax collector—was the one who went back to his home vindicated by God, not the other.” That had to make some people angry. It was one thing to grant—even if a little grudgingly—that there was something good about a repentant tax collector. Okay, he offered his lamb and his ram and his contrition was obviously real. But dissing the Pharisee? That was too much. But you see, this is exactly why Jesus told this story. Luke introduces this episode saying, “Jesus told this next parable against those who trusted in their own righteous standing and despised others.” And so Jesus explains: “Don't you see? People who exalt themselves will be humbled, and people who humble themselves will be exalted.” Going to the temple, standing before the Lord, and singing out a litany of your own pious greatness—that's not pleasing to the Lord. That's a good way to find yourself humbled on the last day. And having this in mind that makes this bigger than the Pharisees. Maybe they were the worst offenders, but Jesus gets to the heart of Israel's problem and exposes it. They knew they were “in”. They knew that when the Day of the Lord came, judgement would fall on everyone else and that they would be vindicated and go on to live in his presence in the age to come, they knew this because they faithfully bore all the markers of God's covenant. They were circumcised, they kept the sabbath, and they ate the right foods—they kept God's law. That meant they were righteous…or so they thought. But Jesus sort of asks here: “Where is your heart?” This is what the prophets had been asking Israel—and warning her about—for centuries. Reminding the people that formalism doesn't cut it. Yes, God required sacrifices. He'd given them a law. But obedience was supposed flow from a humble heart overflowing with gratitude for God's grace. It was supposed to be rooted in faith—faith in a God who had called a childless pagan named Abram and blessed him beyond anything he deserved; faith in a God who called a sorry and miserable group of slaves out of Egypt and blessed them beyond anything they deserved. But Israel got complacent, and comfortable, and forgot the source of her blessings. Instead of trusting God, she trusted in horses and chariots and kings—and even foreign gods. She thought mere formalism would satisfy God's requirement for holiness. And her heart became hard, idolatrous, and self-righteous. So for all their love of torah, the hearts of the Pharisees were far from God—and in that, they represented most of the people in Israel. They exalted themselves and presumed upon God, when they should have been humble before him, thanking him for his grace. When judgement day came, they were ready to sing that litany of their righteousness: We're not like other people. We fast and we tithe. We're circumcised and we keep the sabbath. And God would high-five them and the invite them along to go smite the sinners and tax collectors and gentiles. Their hearts will filled with pride, not faith. Habakkuk was one of those prophets that had warned Israel in the days before the exile. “Look at the proud!” he said, “His spirit is presumptuous and is not right, but the righteous shall live by faith.” Pride and faith, Brothers and Sisters, are polar opposites. Habakkuk looked around him lamented to the Lord: O Lord, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not hear? Or cry to you “Violence!” and you will not save? Why do you make me see iniquity, and why do you idly look at wrong? Destruction and violence are before me; strife and contention arise. So the law is paralyzed, and justice never goes forth. For the wicked surround the righteous; so justice goes forth perverted. (Habakkuk 1:1-4) Wickedness, idolatry, injustice—pride. Judah no longer trusted in the Lord and it showed. The heart of the people was far from God and those who were humble, who did lean on his grace were trampled under foot. And Habakkuk knew it couldn't go on like this forever. He knew the Lord's judgement on a wicked and faithless and proud people had to come soon. And so he cried out to the Lord and the Lord assured him: “The righteous shall live by faith.” In other words, the righteous will live the way they always do, regardless of circumstances: by faith in the grace and mercy and goodness of God—not in pride, but by faith. Pride is insidious. It can take any form in order to push out faith. The Pharisees were, in most ways, so close—but in them pride twisted faith itself. I wonder what Habakkuk would think of our world. We now have a whole season devoted to pride. At first it was a month, but now it just seems to go on and on: Pridetide, the unholy parody of Trinitytide. At least the Pharisees were prideful for their good works. Today, the wicked and perverted announce their sins with pride and their “ally” lackies signal their virtue as loudly as possible. And the wealthy and the powerful, governments and corporation and businesses big and small join in the litany of pride and woe to anyone who dares to dissent and on whom the scorn and wrath of the Pride Pharisees falls. The more things change, the more they stay the same. The proud are always convinced of their own righteousness and standing before God. And yet Jesus told so many stories in which the proud—so sure of their righteous standing—ended up finding themselves in the outer darkness, weeping and gnashing their teeth, while the tax collectors and sinners—having discovered the mercy and grace of God, having repented in faith—found themselves welcomed into the feast. Again, pride and faith are polar opposites, mutually exclusive. And I think this is why the church, for the Eleventh Sunday after Trinity, has coupled this Gospel about the Pharisee and the tax collector with St. Paul's affirmation of faith at the beginning of 1 Corinthians 15. He begins with the gospel, with the good news about Jesus. He writes: “Let me remind you, Brother [and Sisters], about the good news which I announced to you.” I love the way it works in Greek. Paul talks about the gospel that he gospelled to them. The gospel is the best news ever. It's the news that changes everything. It's the news that dispels—or, at any rate, it should dispel—any ideas we have about being proud of ourselves. Because Paul goes on and says, “You received this good news, and you're standing firm on it, and you are saved through it, if you hold fast the message I announced—I gospelled—to you. Unless it was for nothing that you believed.” These were men and women who had stood on all sorts of things. Some of them were Jews and once they had stood on that: on their circumcision, on their sabbath keeping, on their general keeping of torah. Some of them were Gentiles. They'd stood on their pagan gods, or on the emperor, or on their philosophies. But then Paul came and he gospelled the gospel. He announced the good news and it changed everything. Or, at least it did for a time. And then pride started creeping back in. It's insidious. And as pride crept in, it pushed faith in the good news out. And Paul says of that good news: “What I handed on to you at the beginning, you see, was what I received, namely this: The Messiah died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, he was buried, he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, he was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve, then he was seen by over five hundred brothers and sisters all at once, most of whom are still with us, though some fell asleep, then he was seen by James, then by all the apostles.” The good news is that Jesus died and Jesus was raised and that it happened just as God had promised in the scriptures. Jesus led his people in a new exodus and in that exodus he revealed God's mercy and grace and God's power and might and glory. He revealed God's faithfulness to his promises. In Jesus' death sins are forgiven and in his resurrection the life of God, his new creation began. If the exodus from Egypt and all it revealed about God and its annual remembrance every year in the Passover could dispel Israel's pride and fill the people with faith in their God, how much more should this new exodus from sin and death dispel our pride and bring us humbly in faith to God through Jesus? If we will only believe and trust. That was Paul's problem. He was filled with pride. He refused and refused and refused. He persecuted the church. But as a testimony to the patient grace of God, Paul goes on. He writes, “And last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared even to me.” It's hard to say exactly what he means here when he says “untimely born”. The word in question is only used this one time in the New Testament, but it refers to a premature birth. It could be a miscarriage or premature birth where the baby lives, but it could also refer to a child monstrously deformed by having been born premature. It may be that some people in Corinth who didn't like Paul called him a monster because of his appearance and Paul is humble owning the accusation. But the key thing, what Paul's getting at is the risen Jesus—not just a vision of Jesus but the real, live living Jesus—appeared to him last of all and Paul wants to stress that he didn't deserve it. “I'm the least of the apostles,” he writes. “In fact, I don't really deserve to be called ‘apostle' at all, because I persecuted God's church. But I am what I am because of God's grace, and his grace to me wasn't wasted.” Paul has been the epitome of the proud Pharisee. And then he met Jesus on the road to Damascus and every last bit of his pride came crashing down around him. Seeing Jesus alive was the proof that the gospel was true and if the gospel was true, none of the things in which Paul had prided himself mattered any more. The only thing that mattered was faith—faith in Jesus the Messiah who died and rose again. Paul knew he didn't deserve that vision of Jesus. He didn't deserve the grace of God. But there it was. God had given his son to die, so that Paul, the proud Pharisee could live. And ditto for everyone in the church in Corinth. God gave his son to die so that those other Jews there could live. He gave his son to die so that soldier proud of his devotion to Caesar or the prostitute proud of her devotion Aphrodite or the witch proud of her magic or the philosopher proud of his philosophy could live. Each one of them, confronted with the gospel had their pride dispelled and that same gospel filled them with faith in the living God and his son who died and rose again. And forever after they came to him in humility to fall on his grace and to praise him for his merciful lovingkindness. Even Paul, after all he accomplished as a missionary apostle, writes to them: “I am what I am because of the grace of God, and his grace to me wasn't wasted. On the contrary, I worked harder than all of them—though it wasn't me, but God's grace which was within me. So whether it was me or them, that was the way we announced it, and that was the way you believed.” Paul won't even take credit for what had happened in Corinth as a result of the gospel being preached. It wasn't Paul's skill or his reasoning or his apologetics. It was the grace of God. Brothers and Sisters, be captivated by the grace of God on display at the cross. There God displayed his glory and that glory ought to dispel every last bit of pride we have—whatever it is we take pride in. The gospel shines so brightly, it exposes the things in which we take pride as filthy rags in comparison. And when pride is gone, then the gospel—this good news of God's saving grace, this good news about the God who humbled himself to take our form and to die for us so that we, his enemies can be his friends again, good news of the god who gave his own life to forgive our sins, that good news ought to fill us with faith overflowing. So Brothers and Sisters, hear the good news about Jesus this morning. How he died and rose again for you. Not because you are so great, but because he loves you—his precious creation so much—hear that good news in the scriptures and in the liturgy and when you come to his Table. Let it dispel all pride; be humbled by the gospel, and be filled instead with faith. In the midst of a broken word, faith in the living God will begin to set things to rights, not pride in ourselves. Faith in the living God, not pride in ourselves, is our real and lasting source of hope. Let's pray: Lord God, you declare your almighty power most chiefly in showing mercy and pity: mercifully grant to us such a measure of your grace, that we, running the way of your commandments, may receive your gracious promises, and be made partakers of your heavenly treasure; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Is There a Case for Staying Single. (1 Cor 7: 25-40)

The Bible Project

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 30, 2025 35:19

Send us a text

HOW TO FIND JOY IN EVERY SEASON || Justin Kessler || Philippians

WoodsEdge Student Ministry

Play Episode Listen Later May 29, 2025 45:13

In this episode, we explore Paul's closing words to the Philippians—a letter written from prison, yet overflowing with peace, contentment, and joy. How is that possible? Because Paul's focus wasn't on his circumstances—it was on Christ.We'll talk about how to handle anxiety, conflict, and financial stress with a mindset rooted in prayer, gratitude, and trust in God's provision. You'll hear practical ways to refocus your heart, stay anchored in peace, and discover why joy isn't tied to what's happening around you—but who you're walking with through it.If you've been feeling overwhelmed, restless, or just spiritually dry, this conversation will encourage you to fix your eyes on Jesus and find joy, no matter the season.

jesus christ philippians trust in god kessler find joy because paul

Today's Catholic Mass Readings Friday, April 25, 2025

Personal Development Unplugged

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 25, 2025 Transcription Available

Full Text of ReadingsFriday in the Octave of Easter Lectionary: 265The Saint of the day is Saint MarkSaint Mark's Story Most of what we know about Mark comes directly from the New Testament. He is usually identified with the Mark of Acts 12:12. When Saint Peter escaped from prison, he went to the home of Mark's mother. Paul and Barnabas took him along on the first missionary journey, but for some reason Mark returned alone to Jerusalem. It is evident, from Paul's refusal to let Mark accompany him on the second journey despite Barnabas's insistence, that Mark had displeased Paul. Because Paul later asks Mark to visit him in prison, we may assume the trouble did not last long. The oldest and the shortest of the four Gospels, the Gospel of Mark emphasizes Jesus's rejection by humanity while being God's triumphant envoy. Probably written for gentile converts in Rome—after the death of Peter and Paul sometime between A.D. 60 and 70—Mark's Gospel is the gradual manifestation of a “scandal”: a crucified Messiah. Evidently a friend of Mark—calling him “my son”—Peter is only one of this Gospel's sources, others being the Church in Jerusalem (Jewish roots), and the Church at Antioch (largely Gentile). Like another Gospel writer Luke, Mark was not one of the 12 apostles. We cannot be certain whether he knew Jesus personally. Some scholars feel that the evangelist is speaking of himself when describing the arrest of Jesus in Gethsemane: “Now a young man followed him wearing nothing but a linen cloth about his body. They seized him, but he left the cloth behind and ran off naked” (Mark 14:51-52). Others hold Mark to be the first bishop of Alexandria, Egypt. Venice, famous for the Piazza San Marco, claims Mark as its patron saint; the large basilica there is believed to contain his remains. A winged lion is Mark's symbol. The lion derives from Mark's description of John the Baptist as a “voice of one crying out in the desert” (Mark 1:3), which artists compared to a roaring lion. The wings come from the application of Ezekiel's vision of four winged creatures to the evangelists. Reflection Mark fulfilled in his life what every Christian is called to do: proclaim to all people the Good News that is the source of salvation. In particular, Mark's way was by writing. Others may proclaim the Good News by music, drama, poetry, or by teaching children around a family table. Saint Mark is the Patron Saint of: NotariesVenice Learn more on Saint Mark! Saint of the Day, Copyright Franciscan Media

#431 Taming The Mind -From Anxiety and Worry.

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 14, 2025 31:40

Taming the Mind: Tools to Stop Worrying Hey there, friend! Do you ever feel like your mind is constantly racing with worries you can't quiet? Well, in this episode of the Personal Development Unplugged Podcast, we're going to take on that noisy “monkey mind” and discover how to transform those endless worries into clarity and peace. I'm going to walk you through what's really going on when that chatter takes over. We'll dig into why worry shows up in the first place and how you can acknowledge it without letting it control you. By the end of this episode, you'll have some super practical tools to break free from overthinking and start creating a mindset that's both calmer and more confident. Picture this: waking up tomorrow with a peaceful mind, ready to take on the day with ease. Sound good? Together, we'll explore how to make that a reality. I'll share simple but powerful techniques like practising gratitude and writing down your worries to help you regain control and move past the cycle of anxious thinking. Anxiety doesn't have to run the show. It's time to shift your perspective, break old patterns, and start finding healthier ways to navigate those swirling thoughts. This episode is packed with helpful insights and exercises to help you reconnect with your best self and truly enjoy the journey ahead. Ready to tame your mind? Let's dive in! I'd love to hear your thoughts—share what you learn and this episode with others https://personaldevelopmentunplugged.com/431-taming-the-mind-from-anxiety-and-worry Shine Brightly

spotify time head earth freedom personal anxiety sound mind drop write worry picture breathing apple music complicated nlp forgot bits taming pixabay libsyn brighter interrupt specificity monkey mind special programs podcast ready because paul wataboi mindtools music credits music nlp hypnosis cloughie dreamheaven paul clough

Prayer to Know

Prairie Oaks Pulpit

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 8, 2024 10:07

The Gideons International Bible Ministry visited us this morning, so this is a short meditation on Paul's prayer for the Ephesian church. Because Paul knew of their faith and love, he thanked God for them and prayed for them to know God's love and power for them as His church. They had much hope and … Continue reading Prayer to Know →

god prayer ephesian because paul

The Gospel of Paul

Revolution Church

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 4, 2024 58:35

This will be a bit of a shock to our viewers and listeners but today Jay will be talking about the Apostle Paul. I know, we can't believe it either. Paul is a bit of a troublesome character these days…or is he? That is what Jay is exploring in today's talk. He'll be re-examining Paul and his writings. Are we reading Paul's letters correctly today? In their correct context? Did Paul know he was writing the Bible at the time? Is everything attributed to Paul actually Paul's writing? These are some of the topics we'll be exploring today. Because Paul gets a lot of hate…and also Paul is the person a lot of Christians quote when using the Bible to justify their bias…but Paul also is quoted at almost every wedding when talking about love—how can someone with a message of love and grace that echoed Jesus's same teachings sit on both sides of the spectrum? Maybe we've been wrong? Maybe the context of Paul's letters is the key to everything! The Bible is so complex with so much nuance, let's not be afraid to take these deep dives so that we can learn more, know more, and so that we can unlock more. And let's do all of that together. This talk was given on Sept 1, 2024 from Seattle, Washington.www.facebook.com/revolutionchurchmnwww.revolutionchurch.com/donatewww.youtube.com/revolutionbroadcasting@jaybakker@revolution1994@revolution94 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

jesus christ bible washington gospel christians seattle acast apostle paul because paul

Thought for September 1st. “HIS GRACE TOWARD ME WAS NOT IN VAIN”

Christadelphians Talk

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 1, 2024 4:33

Paul expresses himself from his heart in the above words. After his astonishing encounter with Christ on the Damascus Rd he was overwhelmed by a sense of utter appreciation – followed by total commitment in the service of Christ for the rest of his life. Our oft quoted chapter 15 in Corinthians today – must be read slowly, meaningfully, letting the emotion of Paul's message sink deeply into our minds. If there is no hope of resurrection then it cannot be true that Christ was raised “and if Christ be not raised your faith is futile.” [v.17] All around them in Corinth, in this vibrant worldly Greek city, people were sure they had ‘immortal souls' and that the body was of no value, many found it impossible to accept the teaching of the resurrection of the body (v.12), – the same had happened in Athens (Acts 17 v.32). Today, all around us most humanly ‘inspired' intellectuals scoff at belief in a Creator! This human message is now being expressed in an ever greater spirit of conviction! Is it affecting us? Is it undermining our convictions? We need to apply our minds, both to the clear facts of the Bible and also the lessons of secular history, seeing the great upheaval in belief and conviction 1950 years ago as testified in secular sources as well as in the Bible – and declare with Paul with all our hearts, “But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by man came death, by man has come also the resurrection of the dead.” [v.20,21] and true faithful believers like Paul will one day “bear the image of the man from heaven.” [v.49]. Indeed, in the final days “we shall not all sleep, but we shall be changed … at the last trumpet. For the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.” [v.51,52] Because Paul is totally concentrating on the reality of the resurrection he does not mention there is also a judgement, but he does elsewhere.( e.g. Romans 2 v.16; 14 v.10) Our chapter concludes with a challenging message beginning with the significant word THEREFORE! “Therefore, my beloved brothers (and sisters), be steadfast, immovable, always abounding the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labour is not in vain.” Paul proved that “his grace toward me was not in vain.” [v.10] Let us do the same.

jesus christ lord bible creator romans greek corinthians corinth vain because paul

God Will Provide

Cities Church Sermons

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 16, 2024

Well today is the last sermon in our series through the Book of Philippians. We started this series the first Sunday of January, and over the last 23 weeks we've been looking closely at this book, verse by verse, line by line, and what we have found here is a vantage into Ultimate Reality. We have encountered God and his truth, which is what we consider to be the penultimate goal of preaching. The reason that we slow down and look at the words and the phrases, and try so hard to understand what Paul meant, is because we want to see and think what he saw and thought. Because Paul has written this letter under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. His words have been breathed out by God — God IS revealing himself through these words — and so we look at the words not to get stuck on the words, but to see through the words to God and his truth (Ultimate Reality!). That's the second-to-last goal of preaching. That's what we've been doing these past six months, and that's what we're gonna do one last time today as part of this series. Today we are looking at Philippians Chapter 4, verses 19–23, and the main thing I want you to know is this: God will provide for you. That's the promise of Philippians 4, verse 19 — God will provide for you — and as you hear me say that, I want you to track what's going on … How are you responding to this promise internally where nobody else but God can see?I'm going to say it again and I want us to just sit in it for a minute. Here it is: God will provide for you. Father in heaven, you know the hearts of every man and woman and boy and girl. You know where we're at in this moment as you confront us with your promise to provide for us. You know what our hearts are doing and why, and this morning, we ask, as humbly as we can, whatever is going on in us that is unbelieving, or whatever is not pleasing to you, would you change us today? Would you work in us now, through your word, by the power of your Spirit, to change us, in Jesus's name, amen. In this passage I want to show you three details about God's provision for you, and then close with application. The first detail is this:1) God will provide every need of yours. Look at verse 19:And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.In the ContextNow it's important that we see this verse in its context, so let's back up to the previous verses and remember what we saw last week: Paul is talking to this church about their true partnership. They've given money to Paul to support his ministry, and in verse 15 Paul calls what they have a partnership in giving and receiving. That was the criterion for a true friendship — there had to be mutual benefits — and we know that Paul received money from this church (physical money for physical sustenance). But what did this church receive from Paul? Remember we looked at verse 17, where Paul says that this church, in return for their giving material money, receive a spiritual credit — spiritual benefits. And last week we focused on that fact — that these benefits are spiritual — but here in verse 19 we see more about where these benefits are coming from. The church gave to Paul; now the church receives from Paul — except they're not receiving from Paul himself, they're receiving from God. (Verse 18 is like a parenthetical; it's a comment to the side.) But we need to look at verse 19 in connection to verse 17. I'm going to try to paraphrase that connection — Paul is saying: We have a true partnership of giving and receiving! … Not that I seek your giving, but I seek your receiving, which has an increasing profit! I'm good. I'm well-supplied. And now my God will supply every need of yours …It's significant here that Paul says “my God.” Because he's not just highlighting his personal relationship with God, but he's saying that God will provide for this church on his behalf! Remember Paul is in prison. He doesn't have anything to ‘give' this church. Paul can't give this church spiritual blessings — but God can. And Paul says my God will. My God will supply every need of yours.Every Need?And we have to ask, “Every need, really?” What does Paul mean here? Again, in light of the context, I think this applies to mainly spiritual needs, but it also includes material needs. On the material side, I think Paul is saying here what he said to the Corinthians about their generosity. In 2 Corinthians 9:10, Pauls says that God will supply seed to the sower. In other words: if you give, God will give you what to give. This is where we get the saying, “You can't out-give God!” — you've probably heard that before. I've always heard that saying (and used it myself) in terms of experience. People have experienced that reality; they've seen it to be the case — but the theological support for that saying comes from places like 2 Corinthians 9 and here in Philippians 4. If you give, God will not let you run out of what to give. That's material provision.But Paul says “every need” here and so he means more than material needs — but like, how much more? This is where we have to think. We need to drill into this …When Paul says “every need” he could simply mean “every” as in both material and spiritual — God provides both categories of needs. Which is true. This could be just an umbrella statement.Or — Paul could mean, not just that God provides both categories, but that God provides for every single need within each category — every single material need you have and every single spiritual need you have, God provides it all. In an absolute, literal way, God will provide for every single one need of yours. Is Paul saying that?Well see, it really has to do with how we understand the meaning of needs — and that's something that Paul has already talked about in this chapter. So we should go back a couple of weeks, back to when we looked at verse 11. In verse 11 Paul says, “Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content”Whatever my need is, I have enough!And we saw that the key to that statement is in the fact that needs are relative to goals. If the goal is to stay alive, then the needs would be things like oxygen (and food and water) … and for your head to stay attached to your neck. That's an important need in order to stay alive (and that need was not provided for Paul about five years after he wrote this letter). So is staying alive the goal?Well see, if this church's goal was like Paul's goal — if they were actually practicing what they had learned and received and heard and seen in Paul (verse 9) — then there goal would not be to stay alive, but their goal would be everlasting joy in Christ that honors Christ for the treasure he is (see 1:20!). Secret Turned PromiseTwo weeks ago we saw that Paul's secret to contentment is Christ-sufficiency. Finish this sentence here: “All that Paul truly needs to be happy in Jesus is … JESUS.”That's Paul's secret, and here in verse 19 he turns that secret into a promise for this church: God will supply every need of yours …Every need that you have in order to be eternally happy in Jesus, God will provide that for you.Whatever you need to have joy in Jesus forever, God will provide. I don't know how to say that so that it lands for you. I don't know how to make you be helped by this truth. But I just want to tell you as best as I can: God sees every single need that you have, big and small, long-standing needs, brand-new needs, pain-inflicting needs, losing-sleep-because-of-them needs, thorn-in-the-flesh needs; God knows more about your needs than you do, and he knows that behind your every need there is your ultimate need to be happy in him, and he will give you what you need for that even if it means withholding from you other things … and even if that withholding hurts.And we don't know why exactly. God doesn't give us all the details here, but he gives us himself and he will always give us whatever we need to have him forever.That's the promise of Philippians 4:19, church. That's the promise in its fullest. Here's the second detail about God's provision.2) God will provide for you according to his riches in glory.Look at those words closely in verse 19: “according to his riches in glory.” This tells us more about the nature and capacity of God's provision. The NatureWhen it comes to the nature of God's provision, it's according to his riches — not according to what we deserve, not according to what he owes us (which is nothing). I want us to get this clear: God's provision here, in context, is a response to this church's generosity, but a response and compensation are not the same. God is not paying this church back. God is never in debt to anyone. But instead, because this church's generosity in an expression of their faith in God — and God from all eternity has an unchangeable disposition of delight in response to the exercise of faith — God provides for this church in accordance with himself. “God takes pleasure in those who fear him, in those who hope in his steadfast love” (Psalm 147:11). That is true about God, and God provides for us in accordance with that truth of who he is! That's what his riches mean. His riches is the resource of himself. And one thing that might help us wrap our heads around this is how we think of tipping. Now, this analogy is gonna break down if you push it too far, okay — I need you to take it easy on me — but in general, at a restaurant, every time you leave a tip you have one of two choices: either you will leave a tip based on the kind of service you received or you will leave a tip based on the kind of person you are. You will either give in accordance with the server's performance or you will give in accordance with your own generosity. Now both are a response, but only one of those is to truly give. If it's according to performance, we call that compensation; but if it's according to your generosity, that's truly giving — and see, God only gives.He only gives in accordance with who he is as the eternal God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible, who is all-sufficient — he does not stand in need of anything that he has made but instead all things are dependent upon him!The nature of God's giving is in accordance with himself, his riches.The CapacityAnd, they are his riches in glory, which tells us even more about the capacity of his provision. “In glory” here means that these riches transcend this world; they come from where God is — from where God dwells in his infinite splendor and majesty, in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see. These riches are not sitting in a J.P. Morgan account. This is not “his riches in Miami real-estate.” It's not “his riches in Tesla stock.” It's his riches in glory — so it doesn't just cover what you need now on this earth, but it will more than abound for what you need for eternity.See, his riches in glory confirm for us that God's provision is not mainly material and current, but it's spiritual and eternal. Because, in the grand scheme of things, material provision here is peanuts. Easy. “His riches in glory” means that we are moving from more to more to more to more — more and better is always yet to come. God gives in accordance with his capacity in glory, and it's bigger than what we can fathom.Practiced in PrayerAnd this is a fact that we bring to God in prayer. This is where we make this truth practical. It's that when we come to God with our petitions — when we are asking God to provide for us — we are not appealing to how good we've been; we're not asking God to give in accordance with the quality of our service; but we are asking him to give, to supply, to provide for us in accordance with his riches in glory. This is why we say: “Is anything to hard for the Lord?” In glory means there is nothing he cannot do; there is no deficit he cannot overcome; there is no amount he cannot make happen!God will provide for every need you have in order to be eternally happy in him according to his riches in glory. Third detail:3) God will provide for you according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.And here is where Paul reminds us that every promise from God to us is fulfilled in Jesus. Paul says this plainly in 2 Corinthians 1:20 — “For all the promises of God find their Yes in him [in Jesus].”This means that all that God is for us, and all the good that God wills to do for us, and all that God has ever said to us, comes to us through Jesus Christ. Jesus is the face of God's revelation and redemption. We cannot know God apart from Jesus, and we cannot have a relationship with God except through Jesus — and keeping this front and center in everything we do is basic to the Christian life. And there are two very simple and clear ways we live this out: in baptism and again in prayer.Clear in BaptismWhen we're baptized as a sign of our faith-union with Jesus, the first question the pastors ask before we bring you under the water is this. We ask: “Are you now trusting in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and for the fulfillment of all God's promises to you?”And the person being baptized will say, “I am!” And what they're saying is that Jesus is not just the way to get their foot in the door — he's not just giving them a clean record — but they're saying that every good thing that God will ever give to them comes through Jesus. Jesus is the “Amen!” to all of God's promises to us!Clear in PrayerAnd also we express that same hope every time we pray, when we end our prayers with “in Jesus's name, amen.” First, we pray “in Jesus's name” because that's how Jesus told us to pray — he told us to petition the Father in his name (see John 15:16; 16:23, 26) — but also, when we're deliberate with our words, from our hearts, to pray in Jesus's name, we are recognizing that Jesus is only way we have any right at all to be speaking to God. We don't receive from God based upon ourselves; and we don't even come to God based upon ourselves. It's all because of Jesus. That is his glory. The Father has highly exalted him to that place. In ChristAnd so we live and move and have our entire being in Christ … And we endure present sufferings in Christ … And we strive side by side for the faith of the gospel in Christ … We follow Christ's example of humility in Christ … We work out our own salvation in Christ … We do all things without grumbling and complaining in Christ … We shine as lights in the world in Christ … We seek to receive and honor one another in Christ … We rejoice in Christ … We worship God in Christ … We boast in Christ … In Christ, we consider everything else as loss compared to his surpassing worth … In Christ, we press on to know him more clearly and fully … In Christ, we will agree together and help one another agree … In Christ, we will not be anxious but we will pray … In Christ, we will think of whatever is true and honorable and just and pure and lovely and commendable … In Christ, whatever the situation, we will be content … In Christ, God will provide everything we need to be eternally happy in him. In Christ! — That is the Book of Philippians. That is our Christian existence. That's this promise.There is no greater security that you could have that God will provide for you than this. So we wanna just live in this promise. Let the reality of God and his truth surround you. Let us see him! (That's the second-to-last goal of preaching.)And then we come to verse 20.The ApplicationSo far we've looked at the details of God's promise in verse 19, and I told you we'd close with some application, and that's what we find in the text here in verse 20. What do we do with everything that we've seen about God and his truth in this book?Eternal WorshipVerse 20 tells us:“To our God and Father be glory forever and ever. Amen.”This is worship, and worship is the ultimate goal of preaching. It's what the seeing is for. We see God and his truth so that we will worship him — and it's worship that will last forever, because eternal worship is what God is worthy of. Infinite worth deserves infinite praise, and that's our ultimate calling. So Paul closes this letter by pointing us to what is vastly bigger than ourselves …And Paul does this not just by calling us to the worship God deserves, but he also does this in final greeting in verse 21. Look at verse 21:“Greet every saint in Christ Jesus. The brothers who are with me greet you. 22 All the saints greet you, especially those of Caesar's household. 23 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.”+ All the SaintsA final greeting like this is a normal way to end a letter. Paul does this in his other letters too, but look at verse 21 together with verse 20. Verse 20 says “to God be the glory” and verse 21 says “greet every saint.” Both of these verses point us to something bigger than ourselves: Worship is our ultimate calling — that's why God made us! — but greeting “all the saints” reminds us that we're not in this alone. “All the saints” are more than us, and “all the saints” are everywhere, even in Caesar's household! There's no place the gospel cannot advance, and it will advance — until the knowledge of God's glory covers this earth as the waters cover the sea! One day all the saints will worship God together, but even today we are connected to what God is doing through the saints scattered all around the world.That little comment in verse 22 is meant to remind this church what they're a part of. The saints are in Caesar's household in part because of how God has used the church at Philippi. This is bigger than you, don't you see? God at work through you, church, has made you part of something vastly bigger than yourself — and that's not only true of this church, but that's true of our church, like right now …Right now, as our church gathers in worship here … all the saints at All Peoples Church in Minneapolis gathers for worship, and all the saints at Westview Church in New Hope gathers for worship, and all the saints at Gospel Joy Church in Mankato gathers for worship. They gather, in part, because our church has sent them out to be a church. We're connected and they greet you — and the same could be said of Exalting Christ Church in Northeast and Redemption City Church in Rochester and Horizon City Church in Orlando — we're part of that.Just like we're part of gospel advance in Turkey and Oman and Cameroon and Ireland and France and Austria and southeast Asia and the Philippines and the Peruvian Amazon — All the saints everywhere, and the worship of God forever. That's what this is all about. And God indeed will provide for you … for you and for our church.That's what brings us to the Table.The TableWe come to this Table to remember Jesus and to rest in God's love for us. God proved his love for us in that while we were sinners, Jesus died for us. And if God did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?All things that we need to be happy in him forever.

The Mask feat. The Evil Deaths

The Flicks & Friends Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 10, 2024 63:36

IT'S PARTY TIME!!!!! P-A-R-T-Y? Because Paul said so. This week, We are covering 1994's The Mask! But we aren't alone! We were joined by Josh and Brett of The Evil Deaths to see if this 90's comedy holds up today! (spoiler.....it does)

evil mask deaths because paul

Acts 28:7

BIBLE IN TEN

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 7, 2024 8:37

Friday, 7 June 2024 In that region there was an estate of the leading citizen of the island, whose name was Publius, who received us and entertained us courteously for three days. Acts 28:7 The Greek more literally reads, “And in the surrounding area [lit: in the around that region], were parcels of the first of the island by name Publius, who having received us three days, lodged us hospitably” (CG). In the previous verse, Paul was seen to have not swollen up or keeled over from the snake bite. Because of this, the fickle islanders of Malta said he was a god. Now, Luke begins a new portion of the narrative, saying, “And in the surrounding area [lit: in the around that region].” By God's providence, they were shipwrecked in a particular place that would bring comfortable times to those who had been cast ashore. Despite the great trials and losses that were suffered by those who were shipwrecked, there would be a season of blessing to come upon them. This is first starting to be realized now because in that surrounding area, there “were parcels of the first of the island.” The meaning of “first” is the principal man of the island. The adjective used to describe the person is protos. It means the first, or chief, and thus he is “the first man.” Ellicott notes – “The term is found both in Greek and Latin inscriptions, at Malta, of the time of Augustus, as an official title.” Score another point for Luke's accuracy. He is the chief ruler or magistrate appointed to oversee the population. Luke then notes, “by name Publius.” This man's name is a Latin one, literally: Poplios. It is known that Malta was rendered under the province of Sicily and so he would have been over the island, but under the Sicilian proconsul. What we see in him then is a person who has received his job through appointment and not through a family line. This is indicated even more poignantly by the fact (as will be seen) that his father is there. He would not be the chief man if the position was based on family. This man is said to have “received us three days.” It is a new word in Scripture, anadechomai. It comes from ana, up or upwards, and dechomai, to receive or welcome. Thus, HELPS Word Studies says it signifies to “receive up to the limit” and thus “to welcome with gladness.” They were whole-heartedly and enthusiastically received up by the chief man of the island. It is agreed that this did not mean the entire host from the ship, but rather a select few. Despite being a prisoner, Paul was a Roman citizen and stood in high favor with Julius. Luke was a physician and, thus, a man of respect. It is probably these three and maybe a limited number of others who were brought in as guests for those three days until other arrangements could be made. During this time, Luke notes that he “lodged us hospitably” The word translated as “hospitably,” philophronós, is an adverb found only here. It literally means, “acting from a mind-set of personal affection” HELPS Word Studies. In other words, this was not a formal thing that was required by custom, but an invitation because of truly having come to like them. It was probably brought on by the words of Julius to Publius about the exceptional character of Paul and Luke. Life application: Luke writes in the first-person plural concerning this visit. Thus, he was there, and it is absolutely certain that Paul, as will be seen, was there as well. Because Paul was there, Julius would have been there also, being the lead soldier and personally responsible for Paul. Nothing is said here, or anywhere else, about Julius being converted to the Christian faith. However, it is unlikely that he was not fully aware of every nuance of what it meant to be a Christian by the time his supervision of Paul was ended. He personally saw prophecies uttered and fulfilled. He will see miracles of healing in the verses ahead. If anyone ever knew it, certain Julius did, that Paul would not have been silenced over his proclamation of the gospel, etc. Because of this, either Julius was converted and that is purposefully left out of the narrative for whatever reason Luke deemed necessary or the heart of Julius was soft towards Paul and hard toward the message Paul proclaimed. The latter is not unusual. There are people who have remained friends for years, even friends of pastors and preachers, who find the faith of their good friend curious and maybe even a bit comical. And yet, they stay fast friends through it. And how many times has there been an effect on the stout unbeliever later in life? We cannot know what effect we will have on others by giving the gospel and then simply sharing our lives together with those we know whether they readily accept our words at the start or wait decades to yield. We don't need to beat our faith into others. We simply need to share it and then let our lives be a testimony to those we know. Let us never tire of living out the gospel that we have received. When the ball drops in the life of others, and it always does, they will know who to turn to if they are willing to once again hear the good news in their time of need. Lord God, may our faith be on display at all times for others to see and remember what we believe. But we need to first let them know what our faith entails. So, Lord, give us boldness to first share the message, and then to live it out from day to day from that point on. Help us in this, O God. Amen.

lord acts scripture greek latin score amen malta lord god o god sicily acts 28 cg sicilian by god publius because paul ellicott

The Book of Philippians (Phil 2:19-30)

Sermons – Oak Hills Church

Play Episode Listen Later May 12, 2024 24:27

Paul says, “have the same attitude as Christ Jesus” or “conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the Gospel.” That can be kind of abstract for me. It can seem impossible and so I feel free to ignore it. But then Paul says look at Timothy. This is what serving Christ, prioritizing Christ's interest means. It means caring for others. That simple. That real. Serving Christ's interest is caring for others, not winning them, not having all the right answers for them. Not fixing anything per say, but genuinely caring about others well-being. How does this orient our vision of next level discipleship like Paul's? Caring, that's the work. Easier said than done, yes, but also doable. We can train to become a person who can listen. Who has the space for others brokenness and isn't overwhelmed by it. Who can see needs and doesn't imagine they are the Savior, but a friend. Who can celebrate another's wins and grieve losses while putting away our own insecurities and our sense of scarcity. Who can speak out for someone who is bullied. Or make a meal when someone's sick. Or the call when someone's scared or grieving. Or speak a word of truth when a friend is lost or stuck. And in it all we can learn how to speak of our Jesus. And won't we also find our own loneliness unraveling. So, Timothy's going to come to Philippi and make a web of connection and relationship between the Philippians and Paul's work that much stronger. It's going to be awesome, but not yet. Because Paul needs him with him in this dark stinking prison.

god jesus christ gospel kingdom transformation savior sermon philippians caring easier philippi renovation serving christ book of philippians because paul lueken

Be Bold, be Daring

In Your Presence

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 29, 2024 29:40

Fr. Eric Nicolai preached this meditation on April 28, 2024, the fifth Sunday of Easter at Lyncroft Centre in Toronto. Acts 9:26-31: Barnabas explained how the Lord had appeared to Saul on his journey. Barnabas convinces the apostles about the newly converted Paul. Why are they convinced? Because Paul had spoken boldly in defence of the Lord. What does it mean for us to be bold, to be daring in defence of the faith? Music: 'Undertow' by Scott Buckley - released under CC-BY 4.0. www.scottbuckley.com Thumbnail: Raphael di Sanzio, Study for St. Paul preaching in Athens, 1515, chalk sketch, in Uffizi Gallery, Florence, Italy Public domain.

music lord toronto study acts athens barnabas daring scott buckley undertow because paul eric nicolai

Today's Catholic Mass Readings Thursday, April 25, 2024

god modern acast gotta serve somebody because paul

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 25, 2024 Transcription Available

Full Text of ReadingsFeast of Saint Mark, evangelist Lectionary: 555The Saint of the day is Saint MarkSaint Mark's Story Most of what we know about Mark comes directly from the New Testament. He is usually identified with the Mark of Acts 12:12. When Saint Peter escaped from prison, he went to the home of Mark's mother. Paul and Barnabas took him along on the first missionary journey, but for some reason Mark returned alone to Jerusalem. It is evident, from Paul's refusal to let Mark accompany him on the second journey despite Barnabas's insistence, that Mark had displeased Paul. Because Paul later asks Mark to visit him in prison, we may assume the trouble did not last long. The oldest and the shortest of the four Gospels, the Gospel of Mark emphasizes Jesus's rejection by humanity while being God's triumphant envoy. Probably written for gentile converts in Rome—after the death of Peter and Paul sometime between A.D. 60 and 70—Mark's Gospel is the gradual manifestation of a “scandal”: a crucified Messiah. Evidently a friend of Mark—calling him “my son”—Peter is only one of this Gospel's sources, others being the Church in Jerusalem (Jewish roots), and the Church at Antioch (largely Gentile). Like another Gospel writer Luke, Mark was not one of the 12 apostles. We cannot be certain whether he knew Jesus personally. Some scholars feel that the evangelist is speaking of himself when describing the arrest of Jesus in Gethsemane: “Now a young man followed him wearing nothing but a linen cloth about his body. They seized him, but he left the cloth behind and ran off naked” (Mark 14:51-52). Others hold Mark to be the first bishop of Alexandria, Egypt. Venice, famous for the Piazza San Marco, claims Mark as its patron saint; the large basilica there is believed to contain his remains. A winged lion is Mark's symbol. The lion derives from Mark's description of John the Baptist as a “voice of one crying out in the desert” (Mark 1:3), which artists compared to a roaring lion. The wings come from the application of Ezekiel's vision of four winged creatures to the evangelists. Reflection Mark fulfilled in his life what every Christian is called to do: proclaim to all people the Good News that is the source of salvation. In particular, Mark's way was by writing. Others may proclaim the Good News by music, drama, poetry, or by teaching children around a family table. Saint Mark is the Patron Saint of: NotariesVenice Learn more on Saint Mark! Saint of the Day, Copyright Franciscan Media

Gotta Serve Somebody

Vista Community Church

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 22, 2024 28:28

Modern people from all over the spectrum have all sorts of problems with Paul. Why? Because Paul was, in many ways, an anti-modern man who didn't share our love of individualism and freedom because he believed true freedom was not doing whatever you want but surrendering to and serving the God who made you. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Honesty of Paul

Cities Church Sermons

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 24, 2024

Something we need to keep in mind as we're working through the Book of Philippians is that this is a very personal letter. It's personal in that the apostle Paul tells us a lot about himself over these four chapters — he tells us how he's doing in his current situation; he tells about how he relates to others and others to him, (good and bad); he tells us about his ministry intentions, he tells us about his past, he tells us about his values and goals — Paul gets personal in this letter, and I don't think we see that any better than we do in our passage today, Chapter 2, verses 25–30. At one level, what Paul says in these verses has nothing to do with us — because he's talking about details for his own day and about what he's got going on. But then at another level — at the level of “This is Holy Scripture” — Paul is modeling something for us here. Paul is an example for us, and I've not been exactly sure on what to call it. I've gone back and forth on this …I think you could call it “Christian realism” — meaning that Paul as a Christian is in touch with reality in this world. He's constantly aware of Ultimate Reality — he knows Jesus is real — and he knows that as he navigates the hardships and setbacks of life in a broken world. You must have both! Paul is not just a realist, he's a “Christian realist.” We could call his example that (but apparently that term is already taken and used for something else, so never mind). Instead, what if we just called Paul's example here, his honesty?In these verses in Philippians 2 we see the honesty of the apostle Paul. Here's what I mean: there's no doubt that Paul kept his eyes on heaven. We see that in this letter — we see that in all his letters. The hope of the gospel was right here for Paul. But although Paul kept his eyes on heaven, his head was not stuck in the clouds. He was honest.And I want to show you that in these verses, because I think what we find here will help us as we navigate our own lives in this broken world. So let's pray again and we'll get started. Father in heaven, by your grace, we trust this morning in your sovereign care for us and we rest in your great love for us in Christ. We remember now, that in this moment, we are here together beneath your smile, and that you are pleased to speak to us through your Word. By your Spirit, would you do that? Help us receive what you have for us, in Jesus's name, amen. Three ways we see the honesty of Paul: 1) Paul made practical ministry decisions.We're going to be talking a lot about Epaphroditus, and if you've never encountered Epaphroditus before… Don't worry, you can't catch it! It's a name. Epaphroditus was the name of man that we read about only in the Book of Philippians. We first read about him here in Chapter 2 and then also in Chapter 4, verse 18. Based upon what Paul says, we can put together a pretty good picture of who he was. First, with a name like “Epaphroditus” he definitely had a Gentile background. The name Epaphroditus was connected to the Greek goddess Aphrodite — and we know Jewish parents didn't give out that name! This guy was a pagan from a pagan family. He was ‘straight outta Philippi' — but at some point this pagan man from a pagan background heard the gospel and believed and he became part of this local church. And he wasn't just part of this church, but this church had chosen him to be their messenger and minister to Paul's need. We see that in verse 25. What exactly does that mean?Remember that Paul is in prison in Rome, and back then, prisoners relied upon the support of friends outside of prison to make sure their needs were met. Paul needed his friends to send him money. That's why in Chapter 4, verse 18, Paul confirms for this church that he received the gift they sent him through Epaphroditus.So Epaphroditus, then, was the one this church had commissioned out to take Paul a gift of money. Which is a big deal. Epaphroditus was the representative of this church, sent from Philippi to Rome, with a stack of cash for Paul. And by now — if we can put ourselves in the shoes of these first readers — by the time the church is reading this letter, Epaphroditus had been gone for months but now he's back. Epaphroditus was most likely the one who brought this church the letter from Paul that they're reading — and Paul wants to tell them why. Paul wants to tell the church why Epaphroditus came back to Philippi and not someone else. Notice the difference between what Paul says about Timothy and what he says about Epaphroditus. In verse 19 — y'all look back at verse 19 — Paul said that he hoped to send Timothy. See the word “hoped”? Now look at verse 25. Paul says there he thought it was necessary to send Epaphroditus. Why did he consider it necessary? Paul gives us four reasons in the passage, and I want to show them to you right away, and then I'll tell you the story. Paul says, “I have sent Epaphroditus back…”#1 — verse 26 — for he has been longing for you#2 — verse 26 — he has been distressed because you heard that he was illLook at verse 28: “I am more eager to send him, therefore …#3 — that you may rejoice at seeing him again#4 — that I may be less anxious (less sorrow)These are the four reasons. Here's the story:His Mission Situation First, we need a little context for what Epaphroditus has done. Today, if you were in the City of Philippi (in Greece), and you wanted to travel west, to Rome, you can get there by car within a day. You'd have to ferry across the Ionian Sea, which would slow you down some, but in theory, you could get there in 20 hours. By car. If you made that same trip by foot, you're looking at 235 hours, according to Google Maps, and it would take you a couple of weeks. That's today.But if we were to go back a couple thousand years ago, to the year 60, traveling from Philippi to Rome — from where this church was to where Paul was in prison — it would have taken you a couple of months. So, from the time that Epaphroditus first left for Rome, to when the church could expect to hear anything back from him, it would have been at least four months. But if you add to that the fact that Epaphroditus got sick, verse 26, it would have been even longer.It was most likely around six months since this church had heard from Epaphroditus. Some commentators suspect six to nine months.Understandably DistressedTime is relative. That's not a super long time. But it probably feels like a long time when you're waiting to hear from somebody and especially when they left with a bunch of cash! There would have been a moment when this church wondered: What happened to Epaphroditus?And Epaphroditus knew that they wondered that. Because Paul tells us in verse 26 that Epaphroditus was distressed that the church heard he was ill. Now why? Why would Epaphroditus have been distressed that the church heard he was sick? I'm sure it's because they cared for one another and he wanted this church to know he was okay, but also remember, there's cash involved. Epaphroditus wanted the church to know that he got that money to Paul! He wanted them to know, not just that he survived, but that he did what they sent him to do! That's at least one reason, in verse 26, that Epaphroditus had been longing to see his church family. This is not just generic homesickness. But he wanted his church to know that: he didn't flake out; he didn't take the money and run; and he didn't die. But he made it to Rome. He gave Paul the gift. He completed the mission. He wants his church to know that. And he knows they wanna know that. We're talking about very basic, understandable desires. It makes sense.Paul's Common SenseSo when Paul is trying to figure out who is gonna get his letter and update back to the Philippians, do you see how these things factored in? Paul thought: Epaphroditus longs to go home; Epaphroditus is distressed because the church knows he was sick; this church would be really happy to see him; and man, I'd be less anxious if I sent Epaphroditus instead of Timothy (because I need Timothy to stay closer by for the meantime) — there are four reasons here why Paul considered it necessary to send back Epaphroditus, and one thing all the reasons have in common is that they're practical.It seems like Paul is just using good old common sense. He's not over-spiritualizing things here — and this is for a man who had encountered the risen Lord Jesus in blinding light. Remember Paul had heard Jesus's voice. He once had a prayer experience when he was caught up to the third heaven. There's no doubt that Paul had his mind set on things above, not on things below — heaven was right here for Paul — and sometimes when it came to decision-making, practical things mattered. Paul made practical ministry decisions. Now this does not give us license to go bonkers and be super-pragmatic to our spiritual detriment — Paul would never do that — but it does mean that in our Christian lives, and in our ministry together, we should take into account practical things. Paul did that and we should too. It's being honest.Here's a second way we see the honesty of Paul …2) Paul knew who truly deserved honor.Skip down to verse 29. Paul concludes everything he says about Epaphroditus with two commands. Verse 29, talking about Epaphroditus, he says: So receive him in the Lord with all joy, and honor such men …Receive him and honor him. But notice the second command about honor. Paul says to hold in honor such men — meaning, he's not only talking about Epaphroditus here. He goes beyond Epaphroditus and he wants us to know something about honor in general. Paul wants us teach us something about the kind of person we honor in the church.And I'll go ahead and say it: the idea of showing honor to certain individuals in our church, it's a little uncomfortable for us. That we would make distinctions by showing honor to some people over others — that feels Victorian and un-democratic. So I wanna try to bring some clarity here. First, when it comes to the topic of honor — of humans showing honor to other humans — that's a universal human reality. You could go anywhere in the world you want, look at any human culture under the sun, and you're gonna find that in every human society, honor exists. One way or another, humans will find a way to distinguish other humans as being more celebrated than others. Showing honor will happen.And I'm not gonna get too deep into this, but I'll just say that our society is very confused with this topic.At one level, we don't want there to be any distinctions. That's why everybody gets a trophy; nobody gets their feelings hurt; everybody is the same. You are all equally good basketball players. But then at another level, our society has created “The Celebrity.” As a society we make valuations and comparisons of other people for the shallowest of reasons. And we esteem our celebrities so highly in America that we actually let these people become a scorecard for how we view others. It's nuts! Our society shows honor like crazy! And it's a mess!Clarifying the ConfusionAnd it's such a mess that we might think: “There should be no showing honor in the church.” “In the church, every single person should be treated the exact same.” “There should be NO holding certain individuals in honor.” We might think that, but remember, it's not just human to show honor, and it's biblical. Because Paul clearly says here in verse 28 to “honor such men.” And that word “honor” means it. It means to treat someone with high esteem, to show special attention to them. It means to give someone deep respect.See, the issue is not that we show honor; it's why we show honor. This topic all comes down to what we could call the honor-metric. What are the things we're looking at to be the reason we show honor?For example, say a man wearing a gold ring and fine clothing comes into our assembly, and then a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in. If you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, “You sit here in a good place,” while you say to the poor man, “You stand over there” — if you do that, the Bible says That is evil — James Chapter 2, 1–4. It's evil because you've made distinctions among yourselves based on worldly reasons. The Bible calls that partiality and it has no place in the church. That's of the world! Don't bring that in here.But showing honor is different, and it's different because of the reason we show honor. Paul says in verse 30. He says to show honor to Epaphroditus and to those like him because — he nearly died for the work of Christ, risking his life to complete what was lacking in your service to me. Do you see how that honor-metric is so different from the world's? It's so counter-cultural.We honor those in the church, not because of their jewelry and jackets, but because of their sacrifice for the sake of the gospel. In the church, we treat as the highest those whom the world would call the lowest. We have a cross-shaped honor-metric.The Cross-Shaped Honor-MetricTo bring this home, pretend for a minute that on a Sunday morning, Taylor Swift visited our church. That would be great! And you know we'd say to Taylor? We'd say: Welcome! You might be able to find a seat over there (that's what our ushers say).But, if Matthew and Kailie visited our church, whose last names I can't tell you, and where they live, I can't tell you — for security reasons — if they come here, we would try to find out days in advance, and we'd get here early and save a place for them to sit, and we'd throw a reception for them after the service so that you can greet them. We want to honor such people! — if we're listening to Paul.If we're listening to Paul, we show the most honor to those who most resemble the example of Jesus in Philippians 2:5–8. Honor Epaphroditus. Honor those like him — because he did not count comfort in the world a thing to be grasped, but he emptied himself by taking the form of a servant and being found as worthless in the eyes of the empire. He humbled himself by risking his life in the work of Christ. He was willing to die for the advance the gospel.The apostle Paul cares nothing about worldly prestige. He burned that scorecard (we're gonna see in Chapter 3). But he knew who truly deserved honor. That's part of his honesty.Okay, here's the last point. Third way we see Paul's honesty:3) Paul understood that death is still terrible.And I want to end on this point because of what our own church is going through in the loss of Kayla Rigney. I can't help but see the providence of God here, in that the topic of death is in today's passage after we just gathered yesterday to grieve in hope because of the death of Kayla.Look back at verse 25. Epaphroditus was not just a member of the church at Philippi who they commissioned out, but he had become dear to Paul. Paul calls him in verse 25, “my brother and fellow worker and fellow solider.” And notice that this is different from what Paul said about Timothy in verse 22. Paul said Timothy was like his son, but he calls Epaphroditus his brother.Now I think this is important, because technically Timothy was Paul's brother too — because all Christians, young and old, are sons and daughters of God and therefore fellow brothers and sisters. But Paul doesn't call Timothy his brother because he's not being technical, he's being personal. Personally, Timothy was like a son to Paul. Personally, Epaphroditus was like a brother. He was a colleague. He was Paul's fellow comrade in arms.And for Paul to say this about someone is a gushing commendation. The apostle Paul considered Epaphroditus to be a vital partner in his missionary work. And so already then, by verse 25, the church at Philippi would have read this, and it would have gotten their attention. Whatever they had been wondering at Epaphroditus, this would have set the record straight. Paul was vouching for him. Paul is saying Hey, Epaphroditus means a lot to me! And then he keeps going. Look at verse 26 again: “for he [Epaphroditus] has been longing for you all and has been distressed because you heard that he was ill. Indeed he was ill, near to death.”Paul confirms that Yes, Epaphroditus was sick — and he was so sick that he almost died. Verse 27 — But God had mercy on him.Does everybody see that in verse 27?What was this mercy? The mercy was that he did not die. Paul says that God had mercy on Epaphroditus by keeping him from death — and that wasn't just mercy on Epaphroditus, but Paul says it was also mercy on him, verse 27, “lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow.” The death of Epaphroditus would have multiplied Paul's sorrow.So get this! Verse 27: Paul is saying that it's a mercy not to die and that death causes sorrow. But wait a minute Paul! Wait a minute! You just told us in Chapter 1, verse 21 that to die is gain! You said that it is far better to depart and to be with Christ! In Chapter 1 it sounds to me like the mercy is dying. But here in Chapter 2 the mercy is not dying! Which is it, Paul? Which is it?It's both. For the Christian, it is true that death is gain, because of where death takes you. Because to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord (2 Corinthians 5:8), and to be in the physical presence of Jesus is better than anything we can imagine. For the Christian, death is never a tragedy in the technical sense because death is never the final ending, because “we are more than conquerors through him who loved us” (Romans 8:37). This means that death has been so overpowered by Jesus that he has actually made death to be our chauffeur into his joy. Because of what Jesus did, death is now the vehicle that carries us into amazing grace bright shining as the sun … Amen!That is now the ultimate result of death for Christians. That's why Paul says what he does in Chapter 1. This is why we grieve in hope. There's hope! Thanks be to God!And church, there's still grief.We can rejoice for where death takes us, but death itself, death as death, it's our worst enemy. Death is the last enemy to be finally destroyed, and until then, until Revelation 20:14, we should hate death. We should hate it. Nothing in this world hurts more than death. It causes sorrow, Paul says. And we know this, if we're being honest like Paul. You know this if you've suffered the death of people you love.Because death is the separation of things that should be united. Death robs us. Death robs us of so much that could be — of so much that should have been — with the people we love in this world. So yes, Jesus has defeated death — thank you, Jesus! — death is a defeated enemy! But it's not yet a destroyed enemy, and it's still an enemy. Paul understood that death is still terrible. And that's what brings us to the Table.The TableToday is Palm Sunday, the beginning of Holy Week — next Sunday is Easter.Easter would not be Easter unless death were terrible.That's what makes the cross of Christ so wonderful, see. The wages of sin is death, and that's precisely what Jesus set out to conquer. Jesus disarmed the worst that death could do to us by dying himself in our place. That's why death does not have the final word. Jesus has won victory. And we're gonna celebrate next Sunday! We have hope!But it's fitting to enter Holy Week grieving in hope. Jesus invites us to bring that heaviness to him.

No One Like Timothy

Cities Church Sermons

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 17, 2024

We are about half way through the book of Philippians, and Paul has already packed a lot in. Over the next two weeks, we are going to look at instructions Paul gives regarding Timothy and Epaphroditus. This isn't just Paul taking a break, and getting some logistics out of the way. Rather than this being a nice bonus for the the Philippians, Paul's sending of these men is more integral to his care for them. This is actually at the heart of Paul ministry to the Philippians. And in the next few moments, I hope with God's help, to show you that in the text. The way our text is structured this morning is fairly straight forward. We see Paul say at the beginning and at the end stating what he wants to do, and he explains why in the middle.Verse 19,“I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon, so that I too may be cheered by news of you”In verses 20-22, he commends Timothy to them, and explains why Timothy is the guy to send.Verses 23-24,“I hope therefore to send him just as soon as I see how it will go with me, and I trust also in the Lord that shortly I myself will come also.”I want to send Timothy to you, why? Because I have no one else like Timothy who cares for you all. Therefore I am excited to send Him to you, and trust Jesus that I will come soon as well.What Paul wants to do is clearly laid out, and we are going to spend the majority of our time developing the why in Paul's mind. Why is Timothy so valuable? And why does Paul see it as important to send him?We are going to do a lot of foundation work, to understand Paul's relationship to Timothy, which helps us in turn understand why he is eager to send him. So there are 3 answers to the “why” question we will cover this morning. Why does Paul want to send Timothy? 1) Because Paul was a father to Timothy.2) Because Timothy, was a son to Paul.3) Because being physically present matters.1) Paul was a father to Timothy (v.22).Verse 22, “But you know Timothy's proven worth, as how as a son with a father he has served with me in the gospel”This is how Paul characterizes his relationship with Timothy.What do fathers aim to do? Ephesians 6:4,“Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.”It's at least that, not exhaustive but a good overall picture of what father's do.A father wants to live out a Godly life.A father wants to live out and pass along a Godly life (a Godly mission and vision).What I mean by mission, is what we are called by God to do or be. What are our lives supposed to be about?What I mean by vision, is what it looks like to actually live it out. This could be summarized as a way of life or a “manner of life.”Put together, it is a singular passion to help your sons have a: “manner of life worthy of the Gospel of Christ” (1:27). That is what Paul is trying to teach to the Philippians, and has taught to Timothy.Paul's goal in life was to live for the glory of God, and to live as an example of Christ, which is to walk worthy of the Gospel of Christ. So Paul having this Godly passion, lives it out for the good of others. And he does this, with a fatherly disposition. Let's look at a three basic pieces of what it looks like to pass along a passion in a fatherly way. Let's look at the fatherliness of Paul to Timothy.A father invites his son to join him in the work.A father invites his son into work that he is doing, he instructs his son in how to enter the work and share in it, and he works along side his son. They may not be doing the same exact thing at every point, but they are working together for a singular purpose. They are working together on something, not two different goals. The father is inviting the son to join him in a worthy passion and purpose. Fathers (& mother's) ought to have meaningful work to invite our children into.And Paul tells us what is most important, we don't need to find it on our own.For example, I was working along side my son, Jude. We were going to do some yard work. So I said to Jude, “I would like you to come outside and work hard to help me clean up the yard. Then if we get everything done and you listen well and are helpful, we can go to the store together and get some ice cream.” I'll help with toys, then leaves together, cut wood together, stack together, etc… (join me in the work).An example from Paul in Acts 16:1-5,“Paul came also to Derbe and to Lystra. A disciple was there, named Timothy, the son of a Jewish woman who was a believer, but his father was a Greek. He was well spoken of by the brothers at Lystra and Iconium. Paul wanted Timothy to accompany him, and he took him and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in those places, for they all knew that his father was a Greek. As they went on their way through the cities, they delivered to them for observance the decisions that had been reached by the apostles and elders who were in Jerusalem. So the churches were strengthened in the faith, and they increased in numbers daily.”Paul is doing worthy work for the Glory of God and the sake of the Gospel, and he invites Timothy to enter into the work with him.A father is deeply invested in accomplishing his task.Paul, in his letter to the Corinthians, contrasts his care for them with that of many others.1 Corinthians 4:15–16,“For though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel. I urge you, then, be imitators of me.”At minimum, there is an investment of care and concern Paul has for the Corinthians. There is a difference between a teacher and a parent. Paul's affections for the Philippians are poured all over his letter to them.Philippians 4:9,“What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me — practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.”They are to practice things that have been displayed for them. They haven't just been taught, they have been modeled certain things.In my example of cutting wood, I did not give Jude the instruction manual, or buy him a book called “Chainsaw-ing for Dummies”. Dummies should probably stay away from chainsaws.I had him watch how I stood and what I did. I cautioned him, I told him how to shut it down, I carefully instructed him where to point it, and how to hold it. And if your stressing at this point, I firmly put my hands over his, so that he couldn't move them even if he tried.Great care is taken when things are important and have real consequences.An example from Paul,1 Timothy 4:15,“Practice these things, immerse yourself in them, so that all may see your progress.”2 Timothy 2:2,“You then my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus, and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.”Paul is working with Timothy, and is passing something along to Timothy.He is deeply invested because he is entrusting something to him. Entrusting the gospel and a manner of live = how to live, not just how to think.He know he won't always be there for Timothy, and I wont always be there to hold the chainsaw for Jude.That is the current case in Philippi, Paul just said “obey much more in my absence” (Phil 2:12).A father desires to reward His Son.It is a fathers delight to not only work with his son, and invest in his son, but to commend his son. To reward him with words of honor, or encouragement, or blessing, and sometimes also with ice cream. This is part of the whole thing. Back to the yard work… I told Jude to join me in the work, to work hard, I will help him and teach him, and if he does well, we will get ice cream. The ice cream wasn't just after the task, but it was part of the task. The father's job is not done yet just because the task is finished.To encourage and reward a son is the privilege and joy of the father. He delights in rewarding the son. And the “well done” from dad, is greater than the ice cream cone.That's what I did. I was a proud father, he worked really hard, and I told him that and there was joy in being able to reward him, and shared in the reward of ice cream as well.An example for Paul: Paul commends Timothy in the letter that Timothy helped him with. Philippians 2:20–23a,“For I have no one like him, who will be genuinely concerned for your welfare. For they all seek their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ. But you know Timothy's proven worth, how as a son with a father he has served with me in the gospel. I hope therefore to send him just as soon…”2) Timothy was a son to Paul (v.20-22).Paul was a good spiritual father to Timothy. We have seen the fatherliness of Paul. But, Paul's focuses in these verses is not mainly on how he was a father to Timothy, but how Timothy was a son to him. We may naturally think, Paul was such a good father to Timothy, but let us not miss what Paul says, that Timothy was such an amazing son to Paul.There is responsibility and blessing on both sides. This is a two sided relationship. Paul can only benefit Timothy as a father in so much as Timothy responds as a faithful son. Paul described himself as a father to the Corinthian church, in Galatians, in Philemon. He was fatherly by nature to many. But with Timothy he praises his sonliness to Paul: “My beloved and faithful child,” “my true child in the faith,” “as a son with a father he has served with me in the gospel.”Timothy was a model son to Paul in the gospel. Lets look at Timothy's life and how this came to be.It started at home with a physical lineage of faith.2 Timothy 1:5,“[Timothy], I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, dwells in you as well.”For all the talk of Paul being a spiritual father, Paul does not overlook his mother, and grandmother from whom he was not only a physical descendant, but a spiritual descendant.There is such a valuable investment of physical father and mothers, and Paul also wants us to have eyes to think of the spiritual family as well, and to consider a meaningful investment there as well.There is good reason to believe Timothy was taught and raised well, which was bearing fruit in his life and was a good foundation for him to remember and draw encouragement from.Timothy had displayed a pattern of faithfulness and was ready to receive instruction.Acts 16:1–5,“Paul came also to Derbe and to Lystra. A disciple was there, named Timothy, the son of a Jewish woman who was a believer, but his father was a Greek. He was well spoken of by the brothers at Lystra and Iconium. Paul wanted Timothy to accompany him, and he took him and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in those places, for they all knew that his father was a Greek. As they went on their way through the cities, they delivered to them for observance the decisions that had been reached by the apostles and elders who were in Jerusalem. So the churches were strengthened in the faith, and they increased in numbers daily.”Timothy took advantage of what was in front of him, he wasn't just sitting around. And when the opportunity came to join Paul in his work he gladly joined him and sacrificed for the work. As a son working with and learning from his father.A faithful father has a Godly passion that he wants to live out and pass on. And a faithful son, responds by embracing and participating in the Godly vision a father has laid out for him. The son responds with a heart that says: “If my father wants to instruct, then I want to learn.”Paul has laid out his heart and life before Timothy, and he is so bold to tell him to imitate him and follow his example. And Timothy does that very thing, He comes under Paul wing to learn the ways of Christ from him.For us: To be invested in by a spiritual mother or father is an immense blessing, and something good to desire. And Timothy didn't just sit around idle waiting for older help. He pursued Christ with the brothers around him. Most of our relationship will be brother to brother, sister to sister. We aren't guaranteed, nor are we entitled to the investment of a spiritual mother or father. May those type of relationships happen more and more, as God sees fit, and may we like Timothy, take whatever God has given us right now and make good use of it. Timothy having learned from Paul, now stands out uniquely as a partner in the gospel. Now Paul mentions three ways in which Timothy serves Paul so well as a son who is of one mind and spirit in Paul's passion.Verse 20, “For I have no one like him, who will be genuinely concerned for your welfare.”Timothy has seen Paul's love and care for the Philippians, and he has the same passion.There is a sincere care and concern for them. This isn't just duty for Timothy, It isn't half-hearted or lip service. Traveling is not an inconvenience for Timothy, it is closer to a no-brainer, of course!Verse 21,“For they all seek their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ.”Paul contrasts Timothy with those around him. I don't think Paul is saying there are no other Christians around him, but that they have not learned, and are not living out the example of Christ, and the example of Paul.But Timothy is looking to the interests of Christ Jesus, which means he: “not only looks to his own interest, but also the interests of others”, and “in humility counts others more significant than himself.” His care for the Philippians is the interest of Christ.Timothy has been able to get his own interests and concerns out of the way, so that he can seek the interest of Christ, and genuinely, sincerely, care about the welfare of the Philippians.He doesn't need to carve out his own little niche of significance. He is content with serving the interest of Christ, by showing genuine concern for the Philippians and serving them in the gospel.Timothy is unique here, but what kind of uniqueness is this?“I have no one like Timothy”“They all seek their own interests”Is it a uniqueness like, “there is no one who can shoot a basketball like Steph Curry? Something that we have no chance of accomplishing even if we devoted our whole lives to it? No, its actually something that any Christian around Paul could be but they are not.1 Cor. 4:17,“That is why I sent you Timothy, my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, to remind you of my ways in Christ, as I teach them everywhere in every church.”Paul is a model for everyone, and he expects that you can and should imitate him.This is a commendation for Timothy and a convicting word for others. Would Paul, or would Jesus, find anyone like Timothy here? How are we doing? Can we get our own interests, and our striving for empty glory out of the way, to serve the interests of Christ by caring for the welfare of one another?Can we follow the example of Timothy, who was imitating Paul and Christ?Can we serve others, when it doesn't align also with our interests, or is inconvenient?Verse 22,“But you know Timothy's proven worth, how as a son with a father he has served with me in the gospel.”Last, Paul appeals to the fact that they already know this about Timothy. They should not need any convincing, because they themselves have witnessed Timothy's proven worth as a son to Paul and as a Godly example to them. Proven: tried and tested as he has spent time with Paul and time in Philippi. Timothy has learned Paul's ways, so that Paul can say if you imitate him you imitate me.To summarize where we are, we have covered two reasons why Paul wants to send Timothy to the saints in Philippi. 1) Because Paul has been a father to him and trained him in the gospel, and 2) because Timothy has been a proven son to Paul in the gospel. Both of these focus on why Timothy, and last here we will focus on why send anyone?3) Being physically present matters (v.19, 23-24).Paul values face to face interaction. It is so much more to him than a luxury, being with them gets at the very heart of his ministry. To see real faces, to shake real hands. Paul not only wants to send Timothy, but he wants to get there soon himself. As I mentioned at the beginning, sending Timothy isn't just icing on the cake, but is part of the completion of Paul's care to them. Paul, with Timothy, in this letter has laid out:His love and thankfulness for themHis singular mission in life “to live is Christ” (and labor for their good)That Christ is our substitute, and is also our exampleHe has commanded them to walk worthy of the gospel of Christ and work out their salvation with fear and tremblingAnd now he seeks to send a visible, tangible example to them (to put it all together)Paul sends Timothy to show them again what it is like to be united in mind and spirit, to in humility count others more significant, and to have the mind of Christ and walk worthy of the gospel of ChristPaul and Timothy want to go to the Philippians because: 1) They love them, he wants to hear good news and he anticipates joy from being with them again. 2) They are confident that the Lord is working in them, he is excited to see what the Lord has done, and he is excited to share about how he was delivered by their prayers. 3) And, because they want to be Christ to them, Paul wants to send more than words, it wasn't enough for Paul to just tell them about unity, and humility, and walking according to the gospel, he wanted to show them.Paul seems to think you can't just mail that, or stream it to one another.Face to face he wants to remind them that “what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel.”The Philippians are starting to suffer for the gospel (1:29), and Paul wants to encourage them that God is working through it to advance the gospel, his life is a testimony of it and he wants to be there in person to further encourage and help them in the suffering that God is allowing among them.Sometimes, all a situation might need is a godly, mature example present. An example to help steady the ship, or right the ship. Paul is confident that through the grace of God, and the work of the Spirit, in tandem with Timothy as a living example of Christ, that the Philippian church will be united and strengthened under the gospel and be of one mind and one Spirit.In all of this, Paul goes to great pains to get there and care for them, because the salvation they have in Christ matters more than anything else. We have spent a bit of time this morning talking about horizontal relationship. Paul and Timothy's relationship. There connection and friendship with the Philippian church. But make no mistake, what animated Paul is the advance of the gospel for the glory and pleasure of His heavenly Father. In the gospel, we have a father that does everything we talked about at the beginning.“God [the father] so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”“[and] to all who did receive [Jesus], who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God,”And as a son or daughter of God, we have a father who has a mission to save and sanctify us. He works for us, and with us, and in us through His Spirit. And! He loves to reward His children. He works in us, so that he may in turn say to us “well done!” It is the joy of a father to be able to commend his son or daughter.It is your fathers good pleasure to give you the kingdom.The TableThis table reminds us that Jesus died for our sins, so that by believing in Him we would become children of God and enjoy the smile of God the Father over us.

Should Christians be Circumcised? ACTS 15 - Dadcast

TimonsPodcast

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 11, 2024 48:47

Welcome back to another dadcast. Audio didnt turn out so well, I did try and make it sound better. For all inquiries reach out to timonspodcast@gmail.com Act 15 The Jerusalem Council 1But some men came down from Judea and were teaching the brothers, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.” 2And after Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and debate with them, Paul and Barnabas and some of the others were appointed to go up to Jerusalem to the apostles and the elders about this question. 3So, being sent on their way by the church, they passed through both Phoenicia and Samaria, describing in detail the conversion of the Gentiles, and brought great joy to all the brothers. 4 When they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and the apostles and the elders, and they declared all that God had done with them. 5But some believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees rose up and said, “It is necessary to circumcise them and to order them to keep the law of Moses.”The demand for salvation through circumcision was from Pharisee converts. This group became known as Judaizers. They taught that Gentiles had to become Jewish proselytes, following all the Mosaic laws, before they could receive salvation. They had a compelling argument because in Genesis chapters 12 and 15 God established an everlasting covenant with Abraham. Later in Genesis 17 God added the rite of circumcision to this earlier covenant. Circumcision was given to Abraham and every male descendant of his house forever. Look at Genesis 17:7 & 13-14: And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you... both he who is born in your house and he who is bought with your money, shall surely be circumcised. So shall my covenant be in your flesh an everlasting covenant. Any uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin shall be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant.” Notice that this sign is given to men only. However, this sign does not correlate with personal salvation. Remember, Abraham was righteous in God's sight before the covenant of circumcision was ever implemented (Galatians 3:6). The sign of circumcision was to accompany a heart that obeyed God. Circumcision was a national sign for the men of Israel, a mark to remind them of their commitment to serve God alone and no other. In the Old Testament, wives and daughters were set apart as unique because they were connected to a family where the men were circumcised – they were set apart along with their fathers and husbands for God's purposes. Circumcision made Israel different than all the nations that surrounded them. And this unique quality is what the Judaizers wanted to preserve. They insisted that circumcision remain obligatory, that all male Gentile believers must be required to keep it. The fact that Gentile believers were bypassing the Mosaic codes was perplexing and odious to the Pharisee converts. They felt that Paul was forsaking the Pentateuch and circumcision altogether. But Paul, who was trained as a Pharisee, disagreed with their position. He had been preaching salvation through faith in Jesus, not through the Mosaic Law. Look at what he proclaimed at Antioch in Acts 13:38-39: Let it be known to you therefore, brothers, that through this man [Jesus] forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you, and by him everyone who believes is freed from everything from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses. And in Galatians 2:16: yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified. And in Romans 2:28-29 For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical. But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not bythe letter... Paul knew that circumcision did not necessarily birth salvation. Consider Israel's sordid history. It produced a myriad of circumcised males who rejected their own God. Salvation had always come to both men and women through a personal relationship and commitment to God. So what was circumcision even for? As I hinted earlier, it was a physical mark that reminded a man that he and his family belonged to a unique faith community. That community was supposed to train it's own populace to know and love the Lord and invite other nations to seek the Lord with them. Each Israelite man and his family had a God-given task to remain faithful to the Lord and their national calling. But it was up to each individual to choose to participate in that calling. Now let's tackle baptism. But why throw baptism into the mix? Because Paul argued that in the New Testament, baptism worked in a similar way that circumcision worked in the Old Testament. Look at Colossians 2:11-12: In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead. First note, that believers are circumcised with a “circumcision made without hands.” This event occurs spiritually, inside a believer's heart. Second note, the circumcision of Christ frees us from our flesh, our sinful nature. It is very important to understand that it is not our commitment to Him; but, it is His commitment to us that brings salvation. He initiated the relationship. Third note, baptism symbolizes the war that Jesus won in Sheol: we are buried with Christ in the grave and we are raised with Christ into the heavenly realm. 1Peter 3:18-22 has much more to say about the connection between spiritual warfare and baptism. To put it another way, baptism is a non-physical sign that proves the “inner circumcision” of our heart. It is the New Testament sign of the Old Testament sign of circumcision. John the Baptist, Jesus and his disciples all baptized people as a sign of an inner working of faith residing in their hearts. Note also that baptism is not gender specific, both male and female believers were baptized. Again, circumcision and baptism do not save you, but they are supposed to be a representation of what you already believe. They are a membership card, so to speak, that you belong to Christ. Recap: 1 – Circumcision in Christ is an inward, spiritual event 2 – Circumcision in Christ brings freedom from the sinful nature 3 – Baptism relates to the burial and resurrection of Jesus from Sheol. 6The apostles and the elders were gathered together to consider this matter. 7And after there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them, “Brothers, you know that in the early days God made a choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe (he is referring to Acts 10 where Cornelius and his household received the Holy Spirit about 10 years earlier). 8And God, who knows the heart, bore witness to them, by giving them the Holy Spirit just as he did to us, 9and he made no distinction between us and them, having cleansed their hearts by faith (their hearts were cleansed by faith, not the law). 10Now, therefore, why are you putting God to the test by placing a yoke on the neck of the disciples that neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear? 11But we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will.”12And all the assembly fell silent, and they listened to Barnabas and Paul as they related what signs and wonders God had done through them among the Gentiles. 13After they finished speaking, James replied, (Notice that James, not Peter, is presiding over the council at Jerusalem. This is one reason, among several, why I object to the teaching that Peter was the first Pope.) “Brothers, listen to me. 14Simeon (his Jewish/Aramaic name) has related how God first visited the Gentiles, to take from them a people for his name. 15And with this the words of the prophets agree, just as it is written, “‘After this I will return, and I will rebuild the tent of David that has fallen; I will rebuild its ruins, and I will restore it, that the remnant of mankind may seek the Lord, and all the Gentiles who are called by my name, says the Lord, who makes these things known from of old.' James is quoting Amos 9:11-12 here. “After this” means that after the exile, God will do three important things. First, God would raise up the Messiah. This correlates to “David's fallen tent” because the kingship lineage of David had fallen into disarray after the exile. Jesus has corrected and fulfilled the ruins of David's kingship. Secondly, God would raise up a remnant of Israelites, who would seek God in truth. These are Messianic Jews; the 1st century Jewish prophets, evangelists and apostles that witnessed to the Gentile nations around them. This remnant of Jewish believers founded the Church and turned the world upside down. Third, God would raise up a new group of people that would follow the Messiah. This new group would consist of both Jew and Gentile believers. By the way, this refutes replacement theology which teaches that God has replaced Israel with the Gentile Church; not so, the “remnant” that became the church was a community of both Jewish and Gentile believers. In contrast, Jews and Gentiles who reject God, unbelievers, are the ones who fail to participate in God's purposes. Recap: 1 After the exile God would raise up the Messiah 2 – God would then raise up a faithful remnant of Jews who would seek the Messiah 3 – God would add to this group of Jewish believers a remnant of Gentiles who would seek the Messiah. 19Therefore (James is still speaking) my judgment is that we should not trouble those of the Gentiles who turn to God, 20but should write to them to abstain from the things polluted by idols, and from sexual immorality, and from what has been strangled, and from blood. 21For from ancient generations Moses has had in every city those who proclaim him, for he is read every Sabbath in the synagogues.” Verse 20 why does James list these four things in particular? Why not list all 613 Old Testament commands? Or why not list the really bad sins like a murder, adultery or stealing? Because James is recalling the “holiness codes” of Leviticus, especially chapters 17 – 23. Like circumcision, these codes were given exclusively to Israel to make them different than the nations around them. But there are three particular places in Leviticus where God includes restrictions on Israelites and Gentiles alike. He prohibits both groups from idol worship (17:8; 20:2); He prohibits both groups from sexual abominations (18:26); and He prohibits both groups from eating meat with the blood and in it (17:10-12). The fourth thing that James points out is avoiding strangled meat. I suspect that strangling an animal is prohibited because that kind of death would retain and congeal the blood of the animal inside of it. Which would be similar to consuming its blood [1] . These horrible practices were all connected to pagan rituals that summoned demons and fallen entities to that worship service. These rituals acted as a portal for the fallen realm to enter and inhabit the bodies and the physical territory of the worshipers. God wanted His people and His land to be a dwelling place for His righteous presence. So James' intention is to reiterate the long-term plans that God had for the remnant Jew/Gentile church long before its existence. A movement that had started after the Tower of Babel event. This was where the nations united against God, and then as a correction, He divided them. The nations were given over to angelic shepherds who ended up seducing them away from God, rather then shepherding them back to God (Deuteronomy 32:8-9). And so God raised up Abraham and his lineage to follow the Lord. Israel's job was to live as an exemplary culture so that the lost and pagan world would be attracted back to God. And the nation of Israel was also to produce the Messiah Who would one day unite and rule over all the nations. The Council's Letter to Gentile Believers 22Then it seemed good to the apostles and the elders, with the whole church, to choose men from among them and send them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas (note that the church didn't vote. Unity was reached by church leadership). They sent Judas called Barsabbas, and Silas, leading men among the brothers, 23with the following letter: “The brothers, both the apostles and the elders, to the brothers who are of the Gentiles in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia, greetings. 24Since we have heard that some persons have gone out from us and troubled you with words, unsettling your minds, although we gave them no instructions,(Although the issue of salvation through circumcision was settled here, this faction of Judaizers will continue to oppose Paul). 25it has seemed good to us, having come to one accord, to choose men and send them to you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, 26men who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. 27We have therefore sent Judas and Silas, who themselves will tell you the same things by word of mouth. (Judas and Silas are sent along with the letter to the Gentiles as non-biased, second witness to the decision of the council). 28For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay on you no greater burden than these requirements: 29that you abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols, and from blood, and from what has been strangled, and from sexual immorality. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well. Farewell.” 30So when they were sent off, they went down to Antioch, and having gathered the congregation together, they delivered the letter. 31And when they had read it, they rejoiced because of its encouragement. 32And Judas and Silas, who were themselves prophets, encouraged and strengthened the brothers with many words. 33And after they had spent some time, they were sent off in peace by the brothers to those who had sent them. 35But Paul and Barnabas remained in Antioch, teaching and preaching the word of the Lord, with many others also. Paul and Barnabas Separate 36And after some days Paul said to Barnabas, “Let us return and visit the brothers in every city where we proclaimed the word of the Lord, and see how they are.” 37Now Barnabas wanted to take with them John called Mark (who wrote the Gospel of Mark). 38But Paul thought best not to take with them one who had withdrawn from them in Pamphylia and had not gone with them to the work (Acts 13:13). 39And there arose a sharp disagreement, so that they separated from each other. Barnabas took Mark with him and sailed away to Cyprus, 40but Paul chose Silas and departed, having been commended by the brothers to the grace of the Lord. 41And he went through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches. The outset of this chapter begins with disagreement: the Judaizers against Paul and Barnabas. This resulted in the first church council to correct faulty doctrine. The chapter ends with disagreement between Paul and Barnabas. Many commentaries side with Paul. But I don't think we need to side with either Paul or Barnabas. I think it's okay to live with disagreement among the saints. This is reality. Notice that Scripture neither condemns nor commends either man. Nor does the Holy Spirit step in and correct either man. Let's wrap this up. In the Old Testament circumcision was the membership card into the Israelite community. The community was supposed to train you and nurture you in the things of God. The Judaizers insisted on continuing circumcision as a rite of entry into the Kingdom of God. Paul and the other apostles realized that God desired Jew and Gentile believers to have a “circumcised heart.” This was the fulfillment of Jeremiah's 600 year old prophecy (Jeremiah 31:31-34). Entrance into the Kingdom was about inward faith, not outward symbols. In letters of Paul he points out that in the New Testament baptism was the membership card, so to speak, for believers. The job of the church was to train and nurture its members in the things of God. But it was also understood that neither circumcision nor baptism could replace one's personal faith in Jesus. Today, our job in this church is to continue the work that God began after the Tower of Babel. God called Israel to be a light to the nations that had gone rogue. We are to be a remnant from every nation that has joined the family of God, grafted into that remnant of Jewish believers. Together we are to summon the nations back to the Lord. JCN 2/24 Lord please reveal to us Your ways. Reveal to us Your ancient paths. Rip open the veil of darkness that has been cast over the nations. Let the fullness of the Gentiles come in so that Your house is filled with every people, tribe, tongue and nation. 1 [1]As a side note, eating steak rare is not consuming blood. The juices of a slice of meat are mostly water and myoglobin. Myoglobin is a protein that turns red when exposed to oxygen.

You Were Saved to Know Jesus

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 18, 2024

There is a story about a baby eagle who fell out of his nest and into a chicken coop. As the little eagle grew up, he began to cluck like a chicken, strut like a chicken, think like a chicken. But every day he noticed the eagles soaring high in the sky, always sensing that he was meant for something more than the chicken coop, but never realizing who he really was. The difference between the eagles that soared and the one living in the chicken coop was his understanding of who he really was. I think the Christian can go through life in the same way. I said at the beginning of our series in Ephesians that Pauls epistle answers two questions for us: 1) What does it mean to be a Christian, and 2) what does it mean to be the Church. When it comes to your identity as a Christian, some of you may be living like you belong in the chicken coop. Think about what it means to be a Christian according to Ephesians 1:3-14. You, Christian, have all the spiritual blessings listed throughout Pauls magnificent sentence of more than 200 words! You, Christian, have been chosen before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless (v. 4). You, Christian, have been predestined to be the adopted son/daughter of the living God through the redemption of Jesus Christ (vv. 5-7). You, Christian, have been completely pardoned of past, present, and future sins only because of the grace of God that has been lavished upon you as a result of the Fathers wrath that was lavished upon the Son for all of our wrongdoings (Eph. 1:8; 2:1-4). You, Christian, have an inheritance that will not fade with time, cannot be destroyed, and will never be stained by sin (v. 11). You, Christian, have been sealed by Gods Spirit as His guarantee of salvation that will be completed and the full experience of all Gods blessings that you will receive (vv. 13-14). You, Christian, are loved by the God of Isaiah 46:9-11, and you are the beneficiary of all His good pleasure. Christian, you were saved not for the sake of being saved, not for the forgiveness of your sins, not for a pain-free eternity in heaven, not for loved ones who preceded you in death, or for any other reason but for the purpose of knowing Christ, and by knowing Christ, you can know God. I can say this because of the first three words in Ephesians 1:15-23, which state the reason for why Paul prays, what Paul prays, and how Paul can pray for the Christians in Ephesus, and those three words are: For this reason Now, I know that these verses teach us something about how we can structure our prayers. I believe that the way Paul expressed his thanksgiving for the Ephesian Christians and why and how he prayed for them can serve as a model for how we can structure our prayers for one another, but that is not how I want to use our time this morning. What I want to do with our time together is glean what we learn from these verses. Why Paul Prays for the Christians (vv. 15-17) How do you follow one of the most majestic statements about the salvation of lost humanity found in Ephesians 1:1-14? You do it with Ephesians 1:15-23. The apostle Paul begins, For this reason. For what reason, Paul? For the reason contained in the over 200 words that make up Ephesians 1:1-14. For the reason that the Christian has been chosen before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless (v. 4). For the reason that the Christian has been predestined to be the adopted child of God the Father through the redemption of Jesus the Son (vv. 5-7). For the reason that the Christian has been fully pardoned of past, present, and future sins because of Jesus (Eph. 1:8; 2:1-4). For the reason that the Christian has an inheritance that will not fade with time, cannot be destroyed, and will never be stained by sin (v. 11). For the reason that the Christian has been sealed by the Holy Spirit as Gods guarantee of salvation and redemption that will one day be fully complete (vv. 13-14). For all of these reasons is the reason the apostle wrote of the Ephesian Christians that he did, not cease to give thanks for them, while making mention of them in his prayers (v. 16). Notice what the apostle says about these Christians against the backdrop of the first fourteen verses: having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which exists among you and your love for all the saints (v. 15). What did Paul hear about these Christians? He heard about their faith in Jesus and their love for one another while in prison. In other words, the reality of who these Christians were was expressed through the way they lived. Paul specifically and intentionally notes that the faith of these Christians was in more than facts they agreed with, but in the Lord Jesus and the evidence of their faith was seen in the way they treated each other. Because Paul heard of the faith and love of these Christians, he prayed for them, and what He prayed also teaches us something about what it means to be a Christian. Pauls prayer for these Christians is simple: That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him (v. 17). Notice what it is that Paul does not pray for; he does not pray for more power, or success, or easy living, or any other thing but that God would give them, a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him. The wisdom and revelation Paul prayed for can only be given to them by God; this is why many theologians believe that the word, spirit is a reference to the Holy Spirit. Others believe that the word spirit is not a reference to the Holy Spirit but the spiritual part of us that lives on after the physical death of our bodies. Regardless of whose spirit Paul is referring to here, what is clear in light of the sealing of the Holy Spirit and His work in the life of the Christian (vv. 13-14), is that it is the Holy Spirit who enables our growth through the authority of the Word of God (revelation) when it is applied to the way we live our lives (wisdom). What does the Word of God (revelation), and its application (wisdom) to our lives, produce? It produces the kind of knowledge of God that Paul longed for in his own life as he expressed in Philippians 3:10-11, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; if somehow I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. The same word Paul used in Philippians 3 for know (ginōskō), he also used in Ephesians 1:17. The Christian was saved by the grace of God to have a relationship with God and Pauls prayer is that the relationship would only deepen through a faith rooted in Jesus as Lord of their lives. What Paul Prays for the Christians (vv. 18-19a) In verses 15-17, Paul lists four character traits of those who have been saved and redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ; those character traits mark the person who has truly been born again, and they are as follows: A faith that is IN Jesus. A loyalty to the LORDSHIP of Jesus. A LOVE for those who belong to Jesus. A pursuit to KNOW Jesus. It is because of these character traits that Paul prays for a deepening knowledge of God that is intellectual, experiential, and emotional - because it is a knowledge that involves the mind, the will, and the heart. In verses 18-19, Paul unpacks what specifically he is praying for. His prayer is that the eyes of their hearts will be enlightened. What Paul is praying for is that the hearts of these Christians would see and understand what God has done for them. The word Paul uses for heart is kardia; he could have used a word for mind as he did in Philippians 2:5, Have this mind [proneō] in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus. Or Paul could have used a different word for mind that Luke used in his gospel to describe the way Jesus opened the minds of two disciples who were confused over the death and news of his resurrection: Then He opened their minds [nous] to understand the Scriptures (Luke 24:45). However, Paul used the word kardia (heart), and he put an eye on it. What are eyes on a heart good for? They are good for seeing what God has done for you so that you can see the heavenly blessings listed in Ephesians 1:1-14, which are yours, and that you will know that they are yours not only with your mind but with your heart. Permit me to put it in a way you may understand more clearly. At the beginning of this series in Ephesians, I listed several truths that are rooted in the identity of the Christian. I said that if you are a Christian and your faith is in the Lord Jesus, then the following is true of you: You are saved by the will of God. You have the grace and peace of God. You have the blessing of God. You are redeemed to be holy and blameless before God. You are a son/daughter of God. You are favored by God. You are forgiven by God. You are rich in the grace of God. You now know God. You have a future with God. You are secure because of God. You are treasured by God. Listen, if you are a Christian, the reason why Paul does not pray for your adoption as a son/daughter, or for more salvation, or more purpose, or more of the inheritance, or more resurrection power, or more of the Holy Spirit is because they are already yours in Christ.What Paul prays for is the thing that we need, and what we need is to know (ginōskō) that they are ours in Christ (v. 17), and to know that they are ours is that they are ours; as you know it is the word used for when Abraham knew Sarah, but maybe what you have not considered is to have known her was to experienced her fully with a mind, a heart, and will that was bound to her as his wife.Paul uses uses a different word for know in verse 18 (oida) that also is the type of knowing that is tied to a persons experience: I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know [oida].I will say more about this next week, but for now, I want to show you what specifically we are to know as Christians.Paul lists three blessings that he wants his Christian readers to know: 1) What is the hope of His calling, 2) what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance, and 3) what is the boundless greatness of His power.I will revisit these three whats that Paul mentions next week, but I will briefly mention what they mean for you now as a way to whet your appetite to come back next Sunday: The hope of His calling: The calling is the kind of thing Paul described in Ephesians 1:3-6 and 2:1-4. You were not looking for God because not only did you not know God, but you were also dead and unresponsive to God spiritually, and then He called you in the same way Jesus called Lazarus to come out of the tomb even though he had been dead for four days (see John 11:1-46). If you are a Christian, you are only a Christian because God called you by breaking into the tomb of your unbelief to give you life. God called you out of His great mercy to make you alive in Christ! The riches of His inheritance: Oh, this is so good, and I cant wait to unpack this with you next week, but for now, what I want you to know is that the inheritance is you Christian! I know this grammatically, but also because of what we read in verses 13-14, In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvationhaving also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of the promise, who is a first installment of our inheritance, in regard to the redemption of Gods own possession, to the praise of His glory. We are sealed by the Holy Spirit as, Gods own possession and because of what He has done to secure the salvation of wretched sinners through His own Son, we are now His inheritance! If you are a Christian, you are now Gods treasured child and because you are redeemed in Christ, what God sees is not a wretched sinner, but a treasure. The riches of His inheritance are that you are loved and given all the rights that come with being his treasured child. The knowledge of the boundless greatness of His power: The power is what we already have as those who have been called by God and belong to Him as His inheritance. What sort of power is it that we have? It is the power of the risen Christ. Paul tells us that this is the power that is ours in the rest of these verses: These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead (vv. 19b-20). Think about it, who can avoid the power of death? No one can, for death is coming for us all! Yet, there is One who conquered death, and the same power that conquered the grave is at work in you Christian! What Paul wants us to know with all our being is that because of our faith in Jesus as Lord, we are progressively moving from death to life. Because you are called by God and because you are His inheritance, the power of God is at work in and through you just as Paul described in Romans 8:11, But 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. As one person wrote of this amazing promise that is for the Christian: This power is ours to witness, to overcome sin, to pursue holiness, to fight against the schemes of the Devil, and to have great faith for mission.[1] There is a magnet on my filing cabinet in my office with one of my favorite quotes from Jonathan Edwards that says, You contribute nothing to your salvation except the sin that made it necessary. The one who made your salvation possible is the One you were made to know through and in Jesus. If you really know that it is He who called you, that it is you who are now His inheritance and treasure, and that the power that raised Jesus to life is the same resurrection power at work in and through your life then dont you know that you will be with Christ with a resurrected body on a resurrected earth one day and while with Him, with 10 billion years behind us, we will still know only a joy that will increase with every moment we are with Him. Paul prays that we will live our lives in light of a knowledge that not only acknowledges and understands that truth; but with a knowledge that encounters that truth with the eyes of our hearts. [1] Tony Merida, Christ-Centered Exposition: Ephesians (Nashville, TN: Holman; 2014), p. 39.

You Were Saved to Know Jesus

church bible gospel corinthians clear fails 1 corinthians speaking in tongues get connected because paul

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 18, 2024

There is a story about a baby eagle who fell out of his nest and into a chicken coop. As the little eagle grew up, he began to cluck like a chicken, strut like a chicken, think like a chicken. But every day he noticed the eagles soaring high in the sky, always sensing that he was meant for something more than the chicken coop, but never realizing who he really was. The difference between the eagles that soared and the one living in the chicken coop was his understanding of who he really was. I think the Christian can go through life in the same way. I said at the beginning of our series in Ephesians that Pauls epistle answers two questions for us: 1) What does it mean to be a Christian, and 2) what does it mean to be the Church. When it comes to your identity as a Christian, some of you may be living like you belong in the chicken coop. Think about what it means to be a Christian according to Ephesians 1:3-14. You, Christian, have all the spiritual blessings listed throughout Pauls magnificent sentence of more than 200 words! You, Christian, have been chosen before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless (v. 4). You, Christian, have been predestined to be the adopted son/daughter of the living God through the redemption of Jesus Christ (vv. 5-7). You, Christian, have been completely pardoned of past, present, and future sins only because of the grace of God that has been lavished upon you as a result of the Fathers wrath that was lavished upon the Son for all of our wrongdoings (Eph. 1:8; 2:1-4). You, Christian, have an inheritance that will not fade with time, cannot be destroyed, and will never be stained by sin (v. 11). You, Christian, have been sealed by Gods Spirit as His guarantee of salvation that will be completed and the full experience of all Gods blessings that you will receive (vv. 13-14). You, Christian, are loved by the God of Isaiah 46:9-11, and you are the beneficiary of all His good pleasure. Christian, you were saved not for the sake of being saved, not for the forgiveness of your sins, not for a pain-free eternity in heaven, not for loved ones who preceded you in death, or for any other reason but for the purpose of knowing Christ, and by knowing Christ, you can know God. I can say this because of the first three words in Ephesians 1:15-23, which state the reason for why Paul prays, what Paul prays, and how Paul can pray for the Christians in Ephesus, and those three words are: For this reason Now, I know that these verses teach us something about how we can structure our prayers. I believe that the way Paul expressed his thanksgiving for the Ephesian Christians and why and how he prayed for them can serve as a model for how we can structure our prayers for one another, but that is not how I want to use our time this morning. What I want to do with our time together is glean what we learn from these verses. Why Paul Prays for the Christians (vv. 15-17) How do you follow one of the most majestic statements about the salvation of lost humanity found in Ephesians 1:1-14? You do it with Ephesians 1:15-23. The apostle Paul begins, For this reason. For what reason, Paul? For the reason contained in the over 200 words that make up Ephesians 1:1-14. For the reason that the Christian has been chosen before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless (v. 4). For the reason that the Christian has been predestined to be the adopted child of God the Father through the redemption of Jesus the Son (vv. 5-7). For the reason that the Christian has been fully pardoned of past, present, and future sins because of Jesus (Eph. 1:8; 2:1-4). For the reason that the Christian has an inheritance that will not fade with time, cannot be destroyed, and will never be stained by sin (v. 11). For the reason that the Christian has been sealed by the Holy Spirit as Gods guarantee of salvation and redemption that will one day be fully complete (vv. 13-14). For all of these reasons is the reason the apostle wrote of the Ephesian Christians that he did, not cease to give thanks for them, while making mention of them in his prayers (v. 16). Notice what the apostle says about these Christians against the backdrop of the first fourteen verses: having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which exists among you and your love for all the saints (v. 15). What did Paul hear about these Christians? He heard about their faith in Jesus and their love for one another while in prison. In other words, the reality of who these Christians were was expressed through the way they lived. Paul specifically and intentionally notes that the faith of these Christians was in more than facts they agreed with, but in the Lord Jesus and the evidence of their faith was seen in the way they treated each other. Because Paul heard of the faith and love of these Christians, he prayed for them, and what He prayed also teaches us something about what it means to be a Christian. Pauls prayer for these Christians is simple: That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him (v. 17). Notice what it is that Paul does not pray for; he does not pray for more power, or success, or easy living, or any other thing but that God would give them, a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him. The wisdom and revelation Paul prayed for can only be given to them by God; this is why many theologians believe that the word, spirit is a reference to the Holy Spirit. Others believe that the word spirit is not a reference to the Holy Spirit but the spiritual part of us that lives on after the physical death of our bodies. Regardless of whose spirit Paul is referring to here, what is clear in light of the sealing of the Holy Spirit and His work in the life of the Christian (vv. 13-14), is that it is the Holy Spirit who enables our growth through the authority of the Word of God (revelation) when it is applied to the way we live our lives (wisdom). What does the Word of God (revelation), and its application (wisdom) to our lives, produce? It produces the kind of knowledge of God that Paul longed for in his own life as he expressed in Philippians 3:10-11, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; if somehow I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. The same word Paul used in Philippians 3 for know (ginōskō), he also used in Ephesians 1:17. The Christian was saved by the grace of God to have a relationship with God and Pauls prayer is that the relationship would only deepen through a faith rooted in Jesus as Lord of their lives. What Paul Prays for the Christians (vv. 18-19a) In verses 15-17, Paul lists four character traits of those who have been saved and redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ; those character traits mark the person who has truly been born again, and they are as follows: A faith that is IN Jesus. A loyalty to the LORDSHIP of Jesus. A LOVE for those who belong to Jesus. A pursuit to KNOW Jesus. It is because of these character traits that Paul prays for a deepening knowledge of God that is intellectual, experiential, and emotional - because it is a knowledge that involves the mind, the will, and the heart. In verses 18-19, Paul unpacks what specifically he is praying for. His prayer is that the eyes of their hearts will be enlightened. What Paul is praying for is that the hearts of these Christians would see and understand what God has done for them. The word Paul uses for heart is kardia; he could have used a word for mind as he did in Philippians 2:5, Have this mind [proneō] in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus. Or Paul could have used a different word for mind that Luke used in his gospel to describe the way Jesus opened the minds of two disciples who were confused over the death and news of his resurrection: Then He opened their minds [nous] to understand the Scriptures (Luke 24:45). However, Paul used the word kardia (heart), and he put an eye on it. What are eyes on a heart good for? They are good for seeing what God has done for you so that you can see the heavenly blessings listed in Ephesians 1:1-14, which are yours, and that you will know that they are yours not only with your mind but with your heart. Permit me to put it in a way you may understand more clearly. At the beginning of this series in Ephesians, I listed several truths that are rooted in the identity of the Christian. I said that if you are a Christian and your faith is in the Lord Jesus, then the following is true of you: You are saved by the will of God. You have the grace and peace of God. You have the blessing of God. You are redeemed to be holy and blameless before God. You are a son/daughter of God. You are favored by God. You are forgiven by God. You are rich in the grace of God. You now know God. You have a future with God. You are secure because of God. You are treasured by God. Listen, if you are a Christian, the reason why Paul does not pray for your adoption as a son/daughter, or for more salvation, or more purpose, or more of the inheritance, or more resurrection power, or more of the Holy Spirit is because they are already yours in Christ.What Paul prays for is the thing that we need, and what we need is to know (ginōskō) that they are ours in Christ (v. 17), and to know that they are ours is that they are ours; as you know it is the word used for when Abraham knew Sarah, but maybe what you have not considered is to have known her was to experienced her fully with a mind, a heart, and will that was bound to her as his wife.Paul uses uses a different word for know in verse 18 (oida) that also is the type of knowing that is tied to a persons experience: I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know [oida].I will say more about this next week, but for now, I want to show you what specifically we are to know as Christians.Paul lists three blessings that he wants his Christian readers to know: 1) What is the hope of His calling, 2) what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance, and 3) what is the boundless greatness of His power.I will revisit these three whats that Paul mentions next week, but I will briefly mention what they mean for you now as a way to whet your appetite to come back next Sunday: The hope of His calling: The calling is the kind of thing Paul described in Ephesians 1:3-6 and 2:1-4. You were not looking for God because not only did you not know God, but you were also dead and unresponsive to God spiritually, and then He called you in the same way Jesus called Lazarus to come out of the tomb even though he had been dead for four days (see John 11:1-46). If you are a Christian, you are only a Christian because God called you by breaking into the tomb of your unbelief to give you life. God called you out of His great mercy to make you alive in Christ! The riches of His inheritance: Oh, this is so good, and I cant wait to unpack this with you next week, but for now, what I want you to know is that the inheritance is you Christian! I know this grammatically, but also because of what we read in verses 13-14, In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvationhaving also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of the promise, who is a first installment of our inheritance, in regard to the redemption of Gods own possession, to the praise of His glory. We are sealed by the Holy Spirit as, Gods own possession and because of what He has done to secure the salvation of wretched sinners through His own Son, we are now His inheritance! If you are a Christian, you are now Gods treasured child and because you are redeemed in Christ, what God sees is not a wretched sinner, but a treasure. The riches of His inheritance are that you are loved and given all the rights that come with being his treasured child. The knowledge of the boundless greatness of His power: The power is what we already have as those who have been called by God and belong to Him as His inheritance. What sort of power is it that we have? It is the power of the risen Christ. Paul tells us that this is the power that is ours in the rest of these verses: These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead (vv. 19b-20). Think about it, who can avoid the power of death? No one can, for death is coming for us all! Yet, there is One who conquered death, and the same power that conquered the grave is at work in you Christian! What Paul wants us to know with all our being is that because of our faith in Jesus as Lord, we are progressively moving from death to life. Because you are called by God and because you are His inheritance, the power of God is at work in and through you just as Paul described in Romans 8:11, But 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. As one person wrote of this amazing promise that is for the Christian: This power is ours to witness, to overcome sin, to pursue holiness, to fight against the schemes of the Devil, and to have great faith for mission.[1] There is a magnet on my filing cabinet in my office with one of my favorite quotes from Jonathan Edwards that says, You contribute nothing to your salvation except the sin that made it necessary. The one who made your salvation possible is the One you were made to know through and in Jesus. If you really know that it is He who called you, that it is you who are now His inheritance and treasure, and that the power that raised Jesus to life is the same resurrection power at work in and through your life then dont you know that you will be with Christ with a resurrected body on a resurrected earth one day and while with Him, with 10 billion years behind us, we will still know only a joy that will increase with every moment we are with Him. Paul prays that we will live our lives in light of a knowledge that not only acknowledges and understands that truth; but with a knowledge that encounters that truth with the eyes of our hearts. [1] Tony Merida, Christ-Centered Exposition: Ephesians (Nashville, TN: Holman; 2014), p. 39.

Ep. 300 "Church Fails: Making the Gospel Clear" - 1 Corinthians 14:1-19

Reach Sermons Online

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 4, 2024 63:20

What does the Bible say about speaking in tongues? There is so much controversy and disagreement, why didn't Paul just outline exactly what it was and how to do it? Because Paul was not concerned with rules; he was concerned with the Gospel. The real question is this: how are you going to make the Gospel clearer to the world around you? This week, Pastor Taylor Gabbert discusses making the Gospel Clear in 1 Corinthians 4:1-19. Get Connected! https://linktr.ee/reachtulsa

MTB #233: Colossians 1:9-14 -- "This is my prayer for you..."

More Than Bread

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 12, 2024 18:41

I love Paul's prayer. I often pray Paul's prayers. My favorite is Ephesians 3:14-21. An amazing prayer. I've memorized it and pray it often. BUT Colossians 1:9-14 is a pretty good prayer too! It's a prayer that Paul is praying for his friends. He is so proud of them, they are doing so well in Christ and for Christ on mission. In fact, there are doing so well, that Paul develops this deep sense of urgency for them. He says, "For this reason, because what God is doing in you and through you is so good, I can't stop praying for you. I'm continually asking God to fill you up so that you may live a life that is worthy of the Lord and please Him in every way. So why The Urgency? They've got so much faith, love and hope that Paul is thanking God. But still, he can't stop praying for them all the time. Why?Because Paul believes there is absolutely nothing more important than living a life that is worthy of Christ...a life that brings a smile to Christ's face, a life on mission!

god jesus christ lord prayer ephesians urgency colossians 1 because paul

Acts 21:22

BIBLE IN TEN

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 31, 2023 12:14

Tuesday, 31 October 2023 “What then? The assembly must certainly meet, for they will hear that you have come. Acts 21:22 The words of this verse are significantly different based on the source text used – LSV: ...what then is it? Certainly the multitude must come together, for they will hear that you have come. LET: What is it then? Certainly they will hear that you have come. In the previous verse, James and the elders noted that the multitude of believing Jews had heard that Paul was teaching apostasy from Moses and the customs of the people. Now, their words continue, beginning with, “What then?” These words are given as an introduction concerning what is sure to occur and what should be done about it. Today, we might say, “Whadaya think? It is sure to be, and so what to do about it...” These leaders of the church are preparing, in advance, to avoid any problems that may arise from the rumors that had been spread about Paul and his teachings. With that, they next say, “The assembly must certainly meet.” The word “assembly” is better rendered “multitude.” There would be a large gathering of people simply because Paul was such a hot topic. He would have the nonbelieving Jews attacking him because of his faith in Jesus. He would have the Judaizers attacking him because he taught the Gentiles that they were not obligated to Moses. And more, He taught all that Jesus was the fulfillment of the law. Therefore, even if he never told a Jew to not observe Moses and the customs, the inevitable truth was that they were freed from such bondage. What they were doing by continuing to observe the law was as pointless as remaining in prison after one's sentence was complete. His letters to the Gentiles could very easily be twisted to fit any situation they wanted to stir up. And this is exactly what Peter warned about – “Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, without spot and blameless; 15 and consider that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation—as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, has written to you, 16 as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures.” 2 Peter 3:14-16 Any law-observing Jew, whether believer or unbeliever, could read his words, twist them, and use them against him, charging him with apostasy. Because he is now in Jerusalem, there would be little doubt that an angry crowd would be just around the corner. This is exactly what is implied in the next words, which say, “for they will hear that you have come.” It was inevitable that the word would get out. It was the time of the feast. The people who had argued against Paul in Acts 15:1 & 2 would be there. His old associates from the Pharisees before his conversion would be there, etc. It wasn't a question whether it would become known or not. Rather, it was a matter of just how soon until it took place. With a list of enemies a mile long and growing by the day, it would be easy to stir up the multitudes against him. Life application: Peter's words about Paul still resound today. There are those that take the words of this chapter and other parts of Acts and adamantly state that Paul always observed the Law of Moses. They then essentially say, “Because Paul was the apostle to the Gentiles, and because he faithfully observed the law, it then logically follows that his adherents must also follow the Law of Moses.” Rather, Paul explicitly denies this time and again in his writings. But to the unlearned, fear tactics are used to lead them away from the truth and directly into the very bondage that Christ Jesus came to free people from. Take time to read Colossians 2:11-23 today. When he writes about “the handwriting of the requirements” in verse 14, he is writing about the Law of Moses. When he writes about food, drink, festivals, new moons, and sabbaths, he is writing about various things required under the law and within the customs of Israel. Christ has freed us from these things. Don't let anyone steal the prize from you. Jesus offers grace. If you choose law, you reject Jesus. Hold fast to the grace of God which is found in the completed work of Jesus Christ our Lord. Lord God, we are all susceptible to being led astray by those who desire control over us. Please guide us in understanding Your word so that we will be able to spot when such people come against us. May we be clear in our thinking so that we are faithful in our lives and sound in our doctrine. Yes, Lord God, lead us for Your name's sake. Amen.

god jesus christ lord israel law acts jerusalem jews colossians scriptures pharisees amen gentiles faith in jesus lord god acts 21 judaizers because paul lsv

The Apostle Paul's School For Tentmaking: Conference Teaser with Dylan Stinson [The Pugcast]

FLF, LLC

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 22, 2023 9:15

Register for the conference: https://trinityreformedkirk.com/tentmaking/ The Apostle Paul was not only the best-educated apostle, and one of the most influential intellectuals in the history of the world, he was a tradesman. He made tents for a living. It was the perfect trade for a man on the road. In 1 Corinthians 9 he made the case for making a living from the gospel, yet he didn’t take advantage of his right to do so. He even said, “But I have made no use of (my) rights, nor am I writing these things to you to secure any such provision. For I would rather die than have anyone deprive me of my ground for boasting.” (1 Cor. 9:15) Could you say that? Would you like to be able to? Because Paul was able to support himself financially he enjoyed the sort of freedom that many pastors today can only dream of. But not all pastors. There are a few who even today enjoy the sort of freedom Paul boasted of. And they’ve done it while seeing their ministries actually prosper because of it. Would you like to learn how? Join us, October 17th in Huntsville, Alabama to hear more.

school alabama conference corinthians register apostles cor apostle paul huntsville stinson because paul paul's school tentmaking pugcast

The Apostle Paul's School For Tentmaking: Conference Teaser with Dylan Stinson

The Theology Pugcast

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 22, 2023 9:15

Register for the conference: https://trinityreformedkirk.com/tentmaking/ The Apostle Paul was not only the best-educated apostle, and one of the most influential intellectuals in the history of the world, he was a tradesman. He made tents for a living. It was the perfect trade for a man on the road. In 1 Corinthians 9 he made the case for making a living from the gospel, yet he didn't take advantage of his right to do so. He even said, “But I have made no use of (my) rights, nor am I writing these things to you to secure any such provision. For I would rather die than have anyone deprive me of my ground for boasting.” (1 Cor. 9:15) Could you say that? Would you like to be able to? Because Paul was able to support himself financially he enjoyed the sort of freedom that many pastors today can only dream of. But not all pastors. There are a few who even today enjoy the sort of freedom Paul boasted of. And they've done it while seeing their ministries actually prosper because of it. Would you like to learn how? Join us, October 17th in Huntsville, Alabama to hear more.

school alabama conference corinthians register apostles cor apostle paul huntsville stinson because paul paul's school tentmaking

The Apostle Paul's School For Tentmaking: Conference Teaser with Dylan Stinson

The Theology Pugcast

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 22, 2023 9:15

Register for the conference: https://trinityreformedkirk.com/tentmaking/ The Apostle Paul was not only the best-educated apostle, and one of the most influential intellectuals in the history of the world, he was a tradesman. He made tents for a living. It was the perfect trade for a man on the road. In 1 Corinthians 9 he made the case for making a living from the gospel, yet he didn’t take advantage of his right to do so. He even said, “But I have made no use of (my) rights, nor am I writing these things to you to secure any such provision. For I would rather die than have anyone deprive me of my ground for boasting.” (1 Cor. 9:15) Could you say that? Would you like to be able to? Because Paul was able to support himself financially he enjoyed the sort of freedom that many pastors today can only dream of. But not all pastors. There are a few who even today enjoy the sort of freedom Paul boasted of. And they’ve done it while seeing their ministries actually prosper because of it. Would you like to learn how? Join us, October 17th in Huntsville, Alabama to hear more.

school alabama conference corinthians register apostles cor apostle paul huntsville stinson because paul paul's school tentmaking

The Apostle Paul's School For Tentmaking: Conference Teaser with Troy Albee [The Pugcast]

FLF, LLC

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 15, 2023 10:38

Register for the conference: https://trinityreformedkirk.com/tentmaking/ The Apostle Paul was not only the best-educated apostle, and one of the most influential intellectuals in the history of the world, he was a tradesman. He made tents for a living. It was the perfect trade for a man on the road. In 1 Corinthians 9 he made the case for making a living from the gospel, yet he didn’t take advantage of his right to do so. He even said, “But I have made no use of (my) rights, nor am I writing these things to you to secure any such provision. For I would rather die than have anyone deprive me of my ground for boasting.” (1 Cor. 9:15) Could you say that? Would you like to be able to? Because Paul was able to support himself financially he enjoyed the sort of freedom that many pastors today can only dream of. But not all pastors. There are a few who even today enjoy the sort of freedom Paul boasted of. And they’ve done it while seeing their ministries actually prosper because of it. Would you like to learn how? Join us, October 17th in Huntsville, Alabama to hear more.

school alabama conference corinthians register apostles cor apostle paul huntsville albee because paul paul's school tentmaking pugcast

The Apostle Paul's School For Tentmaking: Conference Teaser with Troy Albee

The Theology Pugcast

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 15, 2023 10:38

Register for the conference: https://trinityreformedkirk.com/tentmaking/ The Apostle Paul was not only the best-educated apostle, and one of the most influential intellectuals in the history of the world, he was a tradesman. He made tents for a living. It was the perfect trade for a man on the road. In 1 Corinthians 9 he made the case for making a living from the gospel, yet he didn’t take advantage of his right to do so. He even said, “But I have made no use of (my) rights, nor am I writing these things to you to secure any such provision. For I would rather die than have anyone deprive me of my ground for boasting.” (1 Cor. 9:15) Could you say that? Would you like to be able to? Because Paul was able to support himself financially he enjoyed the sort of freedom that many pastors today can only dream of. But not all pastors. There are a few who even today enjoy the sort of freedom Paul boasted of. And they’ve done it while seeing their ministries actually prosper because of it. Would you like to learn how? Join us, October 17th in Huntsville, Alabama to hear more.

school alabama conference corinthians register apostles cor apostle paul huntsville albee because paul paul's school tentmaking

Today's Catholic Mass Readings Tuesday, April 25, 2023