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Tag Archives: church on the beach

The Parable of the Talents, Matthew 25:14-30

Mar

28

2021

thebeachfellowship

Jesus declared about Himself in John 14:6, “I am the way, the truth, and the life, no one comes to the Father except by Me.” What He is saying is that through Him is the way of life, real life, abundant life, spiritual life. He said in John 10:10 “I have come that they might have life, and have it more abundantly.” He isn’t talking about having a good life, or living the good life, receiving material blessings from God. When He speaks about abundant life He is talking about spiritual life. And to have spiritual life Jesus said you must be born again, in the spirit, by the Spirit.

Now that point was made in the parable we looked at last week, the parable of the 10 virgins. Five were foolish, five were wise. Five had oil for their lamps, five did not have oil. And we said last week that the oil represented the indwelling of the Spirit of Christ. Those virgins that did not have the Spirit did not enter into the marriage supper. Those that did have the Spirit entered into the celebration of the bridegroom. And that was illustrative of the fact that if you do not have the Spirit of Christ you are not His. Paul said in Romans 8:9 “However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.” So he makes it plain that having or not having the Spirit of Christ is the qualifying factor for entry into the fullness of life in the kingdom of heaven.

In the next section of the Olivet Discourse, directly following the parable of the 10 virgins, Jesus gave another parable. He makes this next parable contingent upon the statement at the end of the parable of the 10 virgins which is vs 13, “Be on the alert then, for you do not know the day nor the hour.” I say He makes the next parable contingent upon that statement, because He is emphasizing the sudden appearance of His second coming. At the second coming it will precipitate a judgment upon the life of man, either to be found belonging to Him, or not.

Jesus describes that event in vs 31, directly following this parable. “But when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before Him; and He will separate them from one another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats; and He will put the sheep on His right, and the goats on the left.”

This parable of the talents then is given to illustrate that judgment. It is given to illustrate the fact that Christ’s second appearing will precipitate a judgement of the living and the dead; the truly spiritual life and the natural life. Those that have spiritual life will enter into the joy of the Lord. Those that do not have spiritual life will be cast out into outer darkness.

Now it’s important to realize at the outset that is what Jesus is talking about here. Because the common misconception is that this parable has something to do with being judged by what we have done with whatever natural talents that we might have. And obviously, the word talent that is used in the parable has led to that misunderstanding. It also feeds into our own narcissistic view of Christianity. The view that tends to equate Christianity with what we deem to be physical blessings, which we think is God giving us things such as prosperity or some special giftedness by which we can play the piano, or play guitar, or sing or any number of other things we tend to think of as talents or abilities.

Now I do believe that we are going to be judged to some degree on what we have done with our lives in regards to our stewardship of our money, time, opportunities, responsibilities and abilities. Paul said in Romans 14:12 “ So then each one of us will give an account of himself to God.” And Jesus said the same thing in Matt. 12:36 “But I tell you that every careless word that people speak, they shall give an accounting for it in the day of judgment.”

But even though it is true that we shall give an account for every word and deed, I don’t believe that is what Jesus is referring to specifically here. What I think He is specifically referring to here is the judgement that will determine that have real spiritual life, and those that do not. To use Christ’s own analogies, it is the judgement of the sheep and the goats, the wise virgins and the foolish virgins, the house built on the rock and the house built on sand, the wheat and the tares.

In this sermon, Jesus is illustrating the nature of the kingdom of heaven. It is the kingdom over which Christ rules, but not everyone in it has submitted to Him as Lord. Those that have receive an inheritance in the kingdom. They belong to Christ. They are born of God, sons and daughters of God. Those that have not submitted to Him as Lord and King will at His return be judged by the King, and then they will be cast out of the kingdom into outer darkness.

Jesus gives three parables to illustrate the principle of His coming again in judgment. The first was given in chapter 24, the parable of the fig tree. When you see the branches budding, know that summer is near, and He is near, right at the door. The point being the suddenness of Christ’s appearing.

The second parable is the parable of the ten virgins. And we saw that the criteria for being ready when He appears is that you have the Spirit of Christ indwelling in you. Now the third parable of the talents illustrates that same principle from another perspective. This parable illustrates the criteria for being ready when He appears is that you have spiritual life. If you are truly born again of the Spirit then you will have life in the spirit, and that spiritual life will be evidenced by the fruit of the Spirit.

Now let’s consider the parable to see how Jesus presents this truth and this warning to be ready for His appearing. Jesus says, “For [it is] just like a man [about] to go on a journey, who called his own slaves and entrusted his possessions to them.” The word “it” refers to the kingdom of heaven. He is making an analogy to the kingdom of heaven. Jesus isn’t trying to say everything that can be said about the kingdom of heaven. This is not going to be an all inclusive statement here that will answer every question concerning the kingdom. But He is presenting really just a couple of principle aspects of it here.

What He is presenting is the certainty of the Lord’s return, the judgment that will happen at His return, and the fruit that will be evident in the life of the Christian. So Jesus says it is like a man who is about to go on a journey. He is obviously wealthy, and he has a lot of slaves. And he entrusts his possessions to his slaves. This idea of entrusting his possessions is something that we have trouble understanding what it’s analogous to. I would suggest that “his possessions” indicates something of great value.

Look at vs 15; “To one he gave five talents, to another, two, and to another, one, each according to his own ability; and he went on his journey.” Now this word translated as “talent” is the source of a lot of misunderstanding. What a talent refers to is the highest standard of money that was known to the Jews. A talent was worth about fifteen years’ wages of a laborer. Today a talent might represent as much as a million dollars. So it’s a very considerable amount of money that the man entrusts to his slaves. We should recognize that in that day, a slave was often much more than a field hand. They could include any kind of work. In this case, these slaves were some sort of managers of the man’s estate.

What the talent represents then is not an ability, it’s not prosperity or wealth, it’s not what we might call a talent like playing an instrument or being able to perform in some way, but it represents an immense spiritual treasure. And we learned in previous parables of the pearl of great price, or the parable of the treasure hidden in the field, that the greatest spiritual treasure is spiritual life, the abundant life, eternal life. So the talent entrusted to each slave represents being given exposure to the light of the gospel which when received by faith, brings about spiritual life.

Now there are a number of elements about the story that if you try to find a direct correlation to from a spiritual point of view, you’re going to run into trouble. No matter what your template is for interpreting the parable, there are some elements that are going to cause difficulty in finding a direct parallel to the Christian life. We have seen this same difficulty in previously studied parables. So as we have said in our previous studies, we should look for the major point that is being taught, and avoid trying to draw allegorical applications from every dramatic detail.

That’s especially true in this case, as Jesus says one was given five talents, one was given two, and another one. To add even further confusion, Jesus says that they were given according to their own abilities.

The best way that I think we need to see this is that Jesus is the parallel of the master of the estate. Jesus is the King of the kingdom, the Lord who then gives the truth of the gospel, the light of the gospel, to man. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father except through Him. So the saving truth, the gospel of Jesus Christ is given to men. And some people are given more exposure to the truth than others.

In other words, He is speaking of the privilege and responsibility of being exposed to the truth of God, to the gospel of Christ. And some people are fives, they’ve been given tremendous privilege. Most of us would have to be considered at least a five on this particular scale, because we have been given great privilege in hearing the Gospel and having been taught the gospel.

On the other hand, there are some people who would be on the level of the one who received one talent. Their exposure to the gospel was more limited. But they still received enough light to believe and to be held accountable for what they knew. Romans 1 teaches that even those who only had the witness of creation had enough light so that they are without excuse. So the talent represents exposure to the light of the gospel.

And so you have a person’s exposure, and their faith, and their responsibility to respond to the light they have recieved, and you can find a parallel there with the number of talents that God gives to each. We have differing privileges spiritually in being exposed to the Gospel. Some have heard it simply and perhaps infrequently. Others have heard it in fully and completely many times and are the more privileged ones. And that privilege results in a corresponding degree of our responsibility.

When Jesus says that they were given talents according to their ability, I think you can draw an analogy from their ability to their degree of faith. Jesus speaks often of a little faith, or of great faith, or according to one’s faith. So there is an element of being given in proportion to faith.

So in the parable, the man given five talents immediately uses that to make five more talents. The man with two talents likewise puts his to work to make two more talents. But the man who has one talent, Jesus says went away, and dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money.

The first two show a 100% return on the investment given to them. That’s an illustration of saving faith. It receives the gift of spiritual life, and that faith results in regeneration. A new life is born and a new life is lived. Being born of the Spirit they now walk in the Spirit. There is a biblical principle of progressive sanctification. As you learn more, you respond more, you grow more, you mature more in your faith. The seed that was planted in good ground springs up and bears fruit. Jesus said in Matthew 7:16, “You shall know them by their fruit.” So there is a response of faith, which proportionally produces spiritual life.

The slave that only received one talent though, he went away and buried it in the ground. Now there’s the mark of a false servant. There is no response of faith on his part. He heard it, but he buried the truth. He pushed it to the back burner of his mind. And consequently there is no fruit. He illustrates the one who given privilege does not return the opportunity given to him, does not take advantage of it, does not use it. When he hears the Gospel, he doesn’t respond to it by faith. But even though he’s heard it on a limited basis, he is still responsible.

Listen, you could hear it on a level of five talents and not respond. You could hear it on a level of two and not respond. And if you wonder why it is the one talent person that doesn’t respond, it is because the Lord wants to illustrate that the person who would be seem to be the most excusable is not excusable.

If the person with the five-level privilege doesn’t respond, someone might think that God condemned him because he was angry that he wasted such privilege, because he was especially guilty, and so we might assume that hell is only for people who having had great privilege waste it. And so to make sure that that isn’t implied, the Lord picks the one who had only a very limited privilege and lets us know that being cast out of the kingdom will happen to people who waste even a limited privilege. Every person exposed to the Gospel, if they have at all been exposed to the saving truth of Jesus Christ, are inexcusable if they waste that opportunity.

Then, in the parable Jesus says that the day of reckoning comes. The master returns and he calls his slaves to give an account of themselves. Vs19 “Now after a long time the master of those slaves came and settled accounts with them.”

The implication there is that the Lord is telling them His coming will be delayed, just like in vs 5 where he said the bridegroom was delayed. Those are veiled ways of telling the disciples that the consummation of the kingdom will not be as soon as they think it is. After a long time, the Lord is going to come. And during the time before he comes, men and women are going to be given the privilege of the gospel, some on a level of five, some on a level of two, some on a level of one. But there will be a day when the Lord comes back to settle accounts.

“The one who had received the five talents came up and brought five more talents, saying, ‘Master, you entrusted five talents to me. See, I have gained five more talents.’ “His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful slave. You were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.’” Notice that Jesus incorporates the idea of faith as the response of the life that bore fruit. It’s faithfulness to the degree of exposure. To the degree that you acted in response to the knowledge you received, then you are regarded as faithful in a few things.

And because you were faithful in a few things, you will be given more. You will be given more light, more opportunity, more responsibility. At the consummation of the kingdom, when we enter into the age of eternity with the Lord, it will not be a just an eternity of blissful nothingness, of no activity, no productiveness, no service. But it will be a time of continued service to the Lord, but on a larger scale. We will rule and reign with Christ. I don’t know what that will look like exactly, but it will be greater than the service that we rendered here. Greater in position, greater in scope, greater in duration. And our responsibility there will be proportionate to what we achieved in this life. It’s hard to understand. The scripture says, “THINGS WHICH EYE HAS NOT SEEN AND EAR HAS NOT HEARD, AND which HAVE NOT ENTERED THE HEART OF MAN, ALL THAT GOD HAS PREPARED FOR THOSE WHO LOVE HIM.”

Well, Jesus says that the man who had received two talents produced two more talents, and he received the same commendation and reward as the man who had received five. But then the time came for the man who had received one to give an account. He said, ‘Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow and gathering where you scattered no seed. And I was afraid, and went away and hid your talent in the ground. See, you have what is yours.’”

So this man produces nothing. He buried that which the Lord had given him. He bore no fruit in keeping with the measure of what had been entrusted to him. He did not enjoin that light given him with faith. He recognized enough to be culpable for doing nothing with the knowledge that he had.

Notice also that its not bad enough that he did nothing, but he also impugns the character of his master. He finds fault with God’s justice. We see that often in our culture today. “I can’t believe in a God that allows such and such to happen in the world.” Rather than seeing in themselves the problem of unbelief, they want to blame their unbelief on God’s character and try to say that He is the problem, not them. He says, “you’re a hard man.” You are too judgmental. You are not loving enough. You are not merciful enough. You expect too much.”

vs 26 “But his master answered and said to him, ‘You wicked, lazy slave, you knew that I reap where I did not sow and gather where I scattered no [seed.] Then you ought to have put my money in the bank, and on my arrival I would have received my [money] back with interest. ‘Therefore take away the talent from him, and give it to the one who has the ten talents.’”

He says, “You wicked and lazy servant. You recognized enough of the truth concerning Me to have done something. But instead you pursued your evil pursuits. You just took the talent and stuck it in the ground. You blocked it out. You made no use of the gospel because it got in your way, the way of your wickedness and the way of your own lifestyle.

Jesus said the master said to the slave, “If you really believed these things about me, reaping where I have not sown, then why didn’t you put that talent in the bank so you could have at least made interest on it?” In other words, even a little faith would have resulted in some degree of return. But this guy didn’t respond at all. He did nothing.

So Jesus concludes this teaching with a summary principle. He says in vs29 “For to everyone who has, [more] shall be given, and he will have an abundance; but from the one who does not have, even what he does have shall be taken away.” If you respond in faith, you believe what you have been shown, then God gives you more knowledge, more privilege, more life. But if you do not have, even what you have shall be taken away. That speaks of the judgment. If you do not have spiritual life, then the life which you do have, the temporal, natural life, will be taken away.

That life which will be taken away is our physical life. And Jesus relates that judgment in the parable to the man who had one talent, saying, “Throw out the worthless slave into the outer darkness; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” That is death, spiritual and physical death, separated by outer darkness from the kingdom of heaven, separated forever from spiritual life in Christ.

The warning should be clear. Jesus has stated it again and again, and illustrated it three times in parables. “Be on the alert then, for you do not know the day nor the hour when the Lord will come. But He is coming, and on that day He will settle accounts. and to everyone who has, [more] shall be given, and he will have an abundance; but from the one who does not have, even what he does have shall be taken away. … 31 “When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before Him; and He will separate them from one another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats; and He will put the sheep on His right, and the goats on the left. “Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. … “Then He will also say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels; … “These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

I pray that you have responded to the light of the gospel by faith, and evidence the fruit of righteousness in your life so that you will be found faithful when He comes.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tags: church on the beach, worship at the beach |

The Parable of the Lost Son, Luke 15:11-32

Mar

14

2021

thebeachfellowship

Today we are looking at possibly the best known and the best loved parable that we have been given in the scriptures.  It is popularly known as the Parable of the Prodigal Son. Prodigal is a word that means wastefully extravagant, to spend or use resources recklessly.  It’s interesting that the word prodigal is not used in the Biblical account of Jesus’s words.  He never used that word.

Just to be contrary, I guess, I came up with what I think is a better title.  I am calling it The Parable of the Lost Son. I’ve heard many other possible titles over the years, but I feel that I have good reason to call it the Parable of the Lost Son because if you notice it is part of a trilogy of parables that Jesus gave on the same occasion, in response to the criticism of the Pharisees and scribes who were grumbling about Him, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.”

So if you notice the first two parables that Jesus gives, you will see that in the first parable it’s a parable of the lost sheep.  The shepherd leaves the 99 sheep and goes after the one that was lost.  And the second parable is the parable of the lost coin.  The woman has 10 coins, loses one, and looks for that one until she finds it.

In both of those parables, Jesus emphasizes the fact that they were lost, and they were found.  And so I think it is obvious that this next parable follows the same template, but just as an expanded version.  And as with the previous two parables, this parable concludes with the same type of expression;  Jesus says, “for this brother of yours was dead and has begun to live, and was lost and has been found.”

What being lost indicates is that a person is without salvation. When Christianity first started it was called “the Way.” And so to miss the way to life is to be lost.  And so in this parable we will see how the way of salvation is offered and received.  We also can see from the first two parables that salvation originates from God.  In the first  parable the shepherd goes to seek the lost sheep.  The sheep isn’t looking for the shepherd, but the shepherd is looking for the sheep.  It’s a picture of what Jesus said in Luke 19:10 “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”

That same principle is being emphasized in the second parable of the lost coin.  The woman who owned the coins seeks for the lost coin until she finds it.  Again a picture of the origin of our salvation is God.  As Psalm 3:8 “Salvation belongs to the LORD.”  So we understand that our salvation originates with God seeking us,  quickening us, with Him opening our eyes, and causing us to be convicted of our need for salvation.

But in this third parable of the lost son, the divine origin of our salvation is not emphasized as much, but rather the sinner’s response is emphasized.  Jesus said that the lost son “came to his senses.” He had a spiritual awakening.  We know that salvation originates with God, but nevertheless it necessitates a response from the sinner.  It is necessary for the sinner to respond to the call of salvation. And so in this parable Jesus emphasizes the response of the sinner.

Let’s look at the parable to learn what Jesus is teaching concerning salvation. Jesus said a man had two sons, and the younger son asked the father to give him his inheritance early. This would have been a brash and offensive demand to make.  Basically, the young man was saying that “I can’t wait for you to die to get my inheritance. I want it now.”  The  young man doesn’t want to live under his father’s rule anymore, but he wants to cash out so he can live the way he wants. But nevertheless, the father figured out what part the son should receive and he divided it up and gave him his share.  

The younger son then gathered all that he had, and left home, going to a distant country.  And Jesus said that while there he squandered his estate with loose living.  He wasted his inheritance in riotous living. That’s quite common among young people, to want to leave home and go somewhere that they can live without fear of reprisal by their parents or people that know them. But in pursuing this reckless lifestyle he wasted all the wealth that his father had given him.

We could dramatize this part of the story and add a lot of embellishments in hopes of making this a more relevant, or more exciting story.  But the simplified way that Jesus tells it should suffice to understand that God has given us the blessing of life, but man wants to live according to what he thinks is good and beneficial, and so he seeks to satisfy the lusts of the flesh and the pride of life in the world, according to what the world says is desirable.  But this sinful lifestyle ends in ruin.

After the son spent all his money, a severe famine came upon the land. Without any resources to fall back on, the son was compelled to earn a living by taking care of pigs. The young man was so hungry that he would have gladly eaten the food that he was feeding to the pigs. Pigs were the most unclean of all animals in the eyes of a Jew, so Jesus uses this picture to show the extent of this man’s uncleanness.  To a Jew, he could not be more unclean.  And I think Jesus adds that element to the story to illustrate that we have to come to a point of recognizing our sin for what it is, and the horror of the depravity of our sin.


Finally, the son “came to himself” and realized the severity of his situation. It’s as if he had a great awakening, his eyes were opened, and he saw his situation for what it really was. At certain times, God awakes people to their spiritual predicament.  And it takes an act of God for such a person to come awake out of their blindness. There was an event in this country in the eighteenth century which was called the Great Awakening.  It was a time when God moved to bring this nation to revival.  He used men like George Whitfield, and John Wesley and Jonathan Edwards. 

Jonathan Edwards is known for one sermon in particular; Sinner’s in the Hands of an Angry God. God used this powerful message to break in to the conscience of the people, so that they felt the full weight of their sin, and they turned in repentance to the Lord.  Repentance really is the key to salvation that is expressed in all three parables here in this chapter.

Notice that in the first parable, even though the sheep showed no signs of seeking God, yet Jesus summarizes it by saying, ““I tell you that in the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.”  Yes, God awakens, and God calls, and God initiates salvation, but it is necessary for sinners to repent.

The same principle is emphasized in the second parable of the lost coin.  When it was found, Jesus said in vs10 “In the same way, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” Once again, repentance is not specifically taught by the story of  the woman who found the coin that was lost, but Jesus adds that in order to show that repentance is a necessary part of salvation.

In the parable of the lost son, Jesus doesn’t say specifically that he repented, but the characteristics of repentance are clearly there.  When he came to his senses, he showed an awareness of the depravity of his sinful condition, and he recognized his need to turn from the path he was on, and return to the father. That’s repentance. It says in vs17-19  “But when he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired men have more than enough bread, but I am dying here with hunger! I will get up and go to my father, and will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in your sight;  I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me as one of your hired men.”’

Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight; I am no longer worthy to be called your son, make me as one of your hired men.”  That is repentance, pure and simple.  He knows that he has sinned against God, and against his father.  And consequently, he is willing to turn away from that and live in service to the father if he would just accept him and forgive him.  Repentance is not just feeling sorry for the situation you find yourself in, feeling sorry for the consequences of your sin.  But true repentance is being willing to do a 180.  True repentance is being willing to die to  your reign over your life, and being willing to live for God under His reign. That is what is meant by Paul when he says in Romans 10:9 “if you confess Jesus as Lord… you shall be saved.  You relinquish the throne, and submit to Jesus as Lord.

Part of this young man’s problem was that he was in rebellion against his father.  He wanted to live as he thought best rather than submit to the father’s rule of the house.  And that is a picture of the sinner’s rebellion, wanting to live as master of their destiny, as the lord of their own house, rather than live under the control and authority of God. But when he realized that his situation was hopeless he decided to seek his father’s forgiveness.  He had a repentant heart. And it should be obvious that without that repentance, he would have remained in the same sinful condition that he was in.  2Cor. 7:10 says, “For the sorrow that is according to [the will of] God produces a repentance without regret, [leading] to salvation, but the sorrow of the world produces death.”

So the repentant son made the return journey to his father’s home, planning to confess his sin to his father. He rehearsed what he would say to his father, whom perhaps he imagined would be unsympathetic to the idea of him coming home.  So he would say he was no longer worthy to be called a son, but that he hoped to be hired as a servant in his father’s household. 

But long before he was even close to the house, the father saw him coming.  Jesus said, “But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion for him, and ran and embraced him and kissed him.”  That is the most beautiful part of the story, isn’t it?  Being a father, and having had a father, I kind of get a lump in my throat every time I read that part.

His father wasn’t sitting there in front of the television, grumbling about that “no good son of mine, that ungrateful, sorry no good you know what.”  No, the indication is that the father was out looking for the son every day.  He would walk out in the middle of the road and stand there looking at the direction his son had left, hoping and praying that one day he might return.  And you can just imagine after such a long time,  how one day, the father spotted a lone figure coming down the road, way off in the distance.  The resemblance seemed faintly familiar.  And then his breath caught in his chest as he began to believe that it was his son walking back down that road. 

Men in those days wore long robes and it was definitely considered undignified for the patriarch of the tribe to be seen running.  But this father couldn’t care less what people might think.  His compassion towards his son was so great that he hiked up his robe around his waist and started running down the dusty road while his son was still way off in the distance.  Remember what we said about compassion last week in the parable of the Good Samaritan?  It’s a love that moves you.  It’s a love that calls for action.  It’s pity, and empathy, and sympathy and love all rolled up into a great big emotional roller coaster that compels you to do whatever you can to help this person in need. Jesus said the father felt compassion for the lost son, and so he started running. 

What a tremendous picture that is of our God who pursues us, who seeks for us, who finds us, who calls us, who draws us to Himself.  What compassion that caused Him to come to our rescue, to become our sacrifice, our substitute, so that we might be saved. God is not unmoved, but He has moved heaven and earth to be our Savior and Lord.

The lost son started to say the words that he had rehearsed, but the father interrupted him.  He knew that the son was repentant, otherwise he would not be walking home down this road.  But he wanted to restore him, to show his love for him, and to renew him.  So he  said to his servants, ‘Quickly bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet; and bring the fattened calf, kill it, and let us eat and celebrate; for this son of mine was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been found.’ And they began to celebrate.

The father fully forgave and restored his son. He embraced his son and kissed him. Instead of rebuking him, he restores his place in the family.  He summoned the servants to bring him fine clothes that were fit for a son in his house, and a ring for his finger which was a symbol of his place in the family as a son. And he ordered his servants to prepare a great feast to celebrate the return of the lost son.  He was lost, and has been found.  He was dead and has come to life again.  Such a picture of our salvation.

Well, that would be enough of a story for me if Jesus had just stopped there.  I kind of wish that He would have.  Because this last section has among certain theologians overshadowed the first part of the story.  And I think that is a mistake.  I think the first part of this story is the main part of the story.  Its’ the story of salvation; the story of repentance and restoration.

But nevertheless, Jesus added this last section for good reason.  Let’s see if we can find out why.  The older brother heard the noise of the celebration as he was returning from working in the field. And he asks the servants what’s going on.  Their answer angered him.  “Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has received him back safe and sound.”  And because of his anger he would not go in to the celebration.

His father came out of the house and began pleading with him. “But he answered and said to his father, ‘Look! For so many years I have been serving you and I have never neglected a command of yours; and yet you have never given me a young goat, so that I might celebrate with my friends; but when this son of yours came, who has devoured your wealth with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him.’

“And he said to him, ‘Son, you have always been with me, and all that is mine is yours.‘But we had to celebrate and rejoice, for this brother of yours was dead and has begun to live, and was lost and has been found.’”

Now what is Jesus saying in this section? I think the answer is very simple and straightforward.  I think it was a gentle rebuke of the Pharisees. Remember at the beginning of this chapter?  The scribes and Pharisees were grumbling because tax collectors and sinners were coming to Jesus.  They said, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.”

I think the Pharisees were jealous of the fact that grace was being shown to sinners.  They thought they had stayed home, so to speak, and obeyed the Father, while these sinners had been living in the world and doing all kinds of things that were against the commandments.  They wanted to see such people punished and their own behavior rewarded.  But Jesus makes the point that we are saved by grace, not by works.  And only when you realize that you are sinner in need of grace, and are willing to repent of your sins, can you be saved.  And I think he makes the point that if you have been truly saved by grace, you will not begrudge others that come to salvation by grace, and in fact you will rejoice over them, along with all the hosts of heaven.

“As the father said in the parable, ‘But we had to celebrate and rejoice, for this brother of yours was dead and has begun to live, and was lost and has been found.’”  Let’s not lose sight of the primary message of this story, how the lost son was found, how the dead have begun to live.  It’s the story of the compassion of the Father being so great, that his mercy resulted in forgiveness, and his grace resulted in restoration and life.  Let us be sure we have returned to the Father in faith and repentance, confessing our sins, and asking for restoration and new life.  And not be found as the Pharisees, thinking they had no need of repentance because they trusted in their good deeds. Jesus came to seek and to save those that were lost.  Recognizing that you are lost, and in repentance turning to the Lord is the way to life. 

Isaiah 55:6-7 says, “Seek the LORD while He may be found; Call upon Him while He is near.  Let the wicked forsake his way And the unrighteous man his thoughts; And let him return to the LORD, And He will have compassion on him, And to our God, For He will abundantly pardon.”

Posted in Uncategorized | Tags: church on the beach, worship at the beach |

Parable of the Rich Fool, Luke 12: 13-21

Jan

25

2021

thebeachfellowship

Today we are looking at the second in our series on the parables of Jesus. This particular parable is given in a context though which is important to consider if we are to understand the meaning of this parable.  Remember last time we said that some parables are explained by Jesus, in some cases the central thought is given by the author, and in some cases we are left to figure it out on our own from the context.  In this case, Jesus gives some instruction beforehand  which helps us to understand  what He is teaching in the parable. 

So to begin let’s look at vs 13.  Jesus has been  teaching about the kingdom of God and suddenly a man from the crowd calls out to him. The man says, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.”  In effect, this man addresses Jesus as a rabbi, a teacher.  According to Jewish law, inheritance disputes could be settled by a rabbi.

The brashness of this man’s request showed that he really wasn’t interested in hearing about the kingdom of God, but he was interested in his own selfish concerns.  It’s as if he was sitting there listening to Jesus preach, and thinking, when is he going to get to something that I can relate to?  When is he going to tell me how I can profit from this?  And so he finally reaches the end of his patience and interrupts Jesus.  He wasn’t interested in what Jesus had to say, but in what Jesus could do for him.  For this man, Jesus represented an opportunity for financial gain. He can’t wait for the Lord to stop talking about heaven, salvation, God, forgiveness, revelation, and get to the really good stuff. This guy wants to turn it into a Tony Robbins seminar.

I think that kind of mentality is common today in the church.  That’s the kind of thinking that is behind the popularity of the prosperity doctrine.  They really aren’t interested in spiritual things, they are interested in carnal things, and how to manipulate God into giving them prosperity.

So Jesus responds with a warning against greed, or covetousness. Notice vs Luke 12:14-15 “But He said to him, ‘Man, who appointed Me a judge or arbitrator over you?” In other words, Jesus isn’t interested in arbitrating trivial civil cases.  Then He said to them, “Beware, and be on your guard against every form of greed; for not [even] when one has an abundance does his life consist of his possessions.’”

You know, when we think of moral failings, what the Bible calls sin, chances are covetousness is not something that readily comes to mind.  And even if it does, if we’re truthful, we really don’t think it’s all that bad of a thing.  After all, there are a lot of worse sins it would seem to us. But God thought enough of it that He made it one of the 10 commandments.  Think about that for a moment.  Of all the things He could have included in the 10 commandments, He includes coveting. And chances are, if you’re like me you probably don’t really think coveting is all that bad.  In fact, more than likely you do it all the time and never really feel guilty about it.

It’s interesting to me that this man who called out is coveting what his brother has.  I have a brother that is very close to my age.  We grew up doing everything together and competing in everything.  But we also were constantly fighting.  We had epic battles that sometimes lasted for days.  They were pretty brutal. As we got older we graduated to using BB guns in our battles.  It’s a wonder we didn’t put our eyes out.

But as we matured into adults we stopped fighting. However, I guess there is still some sense of competition between us.  My brother is a pastor as well.  And I have to admit that at times I have to guard against being jealous of how my brother compares with me.  We’ve both had churches about the same length of time.  But his church has about 600 people in attendance.  He has just finished his third building program and has a huge church, another large children’s church, and acres of property. Meanwhile, my church doesn’t seem to grow, and we probably will never have a building.  To make it worse, he just bought a new house on 20 acres.  It’s a horse farm with barns and a big Tudor style house.  And I still live in the same old farm house that we’ve been renting for 20 years. 

Now as I said, I have to guard against wishing that I had some of what he has.  The Bible calls that coveting.  And it’s a serious sin. In Colossians 3:5 Paul equates covetousness as amounting to idolatry.  And we would all recognize that idolatry is a serious sin against God. Coveting causes hatred, jealousy, anger, resentment.  It leads to theft, to murder, to adultery, to every form of greed.  Wars are often started by one country desiring what a neighboring country has.  That was the situation with Nazi Germany.  Or Saddam Hussein invading Kuwait.  

Politicians exploit coveting by class warfare, promising to give to you what belongs to your neighbor.

Covet is to desire what is not yours, to desire what belongs to another.  This man that called out to Jesus to tell his brother to share his inheritance with him was desiring what was not his.  It was his brother’s inheritance.  In Jewish culture, the bulk of the inheritance of the father’s estate went to the eldest brother.  According to the law of the day, the elder brother received two-thirds of the inheritance and the younger brother received one-third.  So this man wants what is not his.  He desired what his brother had inherited. That is coveting.

So Jesus tells this man, “Beware, and be on your guard against every form of greed; for not even when one has an abundance does his life consist of his possessions.”  Jesus uses the Greek word for life which is zoe, which really speaks of the fullness of life, not just physical but spiritual.  It’s the abundant, full life that we are given in salvation, which is everlasting life.  So Jesus says that the fullness of life does not consist of possessions, or of riches. You cannot find true satisfaction in riches or possessions.  Contrary to the popular mantra of our generation, he who dies with the most toys doesn’t win, and if that was what they lived for, they end up losing their very soul. So beware, Jesus said, be on your guard against becoming controlled by greed, being covetous, desiring more, desiring what is not yours.  That is a form of idolatry instead of putting God first.

So beginning in vs 16 Jesus told a parable to communicate the danger of covetousness. Jesus said, “The land of a rich man was very productive.  And he began reasoning to himself, saying, ‘What shall I do, since I have no place to store my crops?” Then he said, ‘This is what I will do: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods.”

The ground yielded to him a bumper crop.  It would seem that year after year it was very productive land.  This man in Jesus’ parable was blessed with fertile ground; we can assume that by adding hard work to the fertile ground, he was a financial success. He was so successful that he had trouble finding a place to store it.  But what he failed to realize was that it was God who provided the means by which it was prosperous.  God provided the nutrients in the soil,  the rain,  the sunshine,  the good weather that did not damage the crops.  God gave him the health and strength to plant and harvest.

God blessed him, but this man did not think of sharing his prosperity, or giving back to the Lord. It was his hard earned money.  It was his!  He thought it was due to his genius, due to his work ethic, due to some inherent goodness in himself.  This man never thought of giving anything back to God or to be generous with others who had not been so fortunate.  One sin that this man committed was that he  robbed God of His fair share of the proceeds. He really shows by his use of his riches that he has no regard for God or man and is selfish.

This man is described as rich.  Being rich is not sinful in and of itself. We see men in scripture who were rich, such as Abraham, or Job.  Or in the New Testament, Joseph of Arimathea.  Paul says in 1Tim.  6:10  “For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.”  So greed, making money an idol is the root of all sorts of evil, but having money is not sinful in and of itself.  But I will say that it is difficult to separate having money from the love of money.  It’s difficult to be rich and have your treasure in heaven and not make an idol of your money. It’s your attitude towards riches that are the problem.

The other description of this man is he is a fool.  That’s a pretty harsh thing to say about someone. But if it’s true, then it’s legitimate.  And God says that this man is a fool. He is a fool because he put his trust in material things, in temporal things.  He is not concerned with eternal things, but he is living for today.  He is living for all he can get out of this world.

To be a fool in Biblical terms does not mean that you are stupid or unintelligent. There is a difference between stupidity and foolishness.  To be a fool is to have a disregard for God.  The opposite of a fool is one who is wise.  And Psalm 111:10 says, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom.”  This man had no fear of God, and thus he was a fool.  The Psalms say, “The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God.’”  This man was a fool because he did not honor God.

So this man who gets a bumper crop, who has become wealthy as a result of God’s providence, talks to himself.  He does not thank God, or honor God for what He has done for him.  But he consults with himself. You know, when someone has conversations with himself that’s a pretty good indication that there is something wrong upstairs.  Or at least that you may be heading in the wrong direction mentally.  And when you talk to yourself and then answer yourself that’s a sure indication that they are going nuts.

So he’s not interested in God and he starts a discourse with himself. And he comes up with a strategy which is very typical of the natural man’s thinking.  Store up treasure on earth, build bigger houses, and bigger barns.  Grow your investment.  Manage your investments so that you can retire comfortably and then eat, drink and be merry. Work really hard and make the accumulation of wealth your primary goal for 25 years, and then retire on a golf course in Florida. That’s really the goal of most people’s lives.  The one who dies with the most toys wins. Live as long as you can, grab as much gusto as you can, eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die.  This life is all there is.  Make the most of it.

If you drive around Sussex County you may notice that it looks like one of the most profitable building projects that are going up are storage facilities.  There are more storage facilities than you would think would be necessary.  But they keep building more, and they seem to fill them.  And  it seems like every other local  that has some empty lots behind his house turns it into a storage lot for boats and trailers and RV’s.  And those seem to fill up with no problem as well. It’s amazing that people buy all kinds of things, and then they put them in storage so they have room in their house to go out and buy new things.  

This rich fool thinks that storing up his treasure and hoarding it and building bigger and bigger barns to keep all his possessions is the answer to a satisfying and rewarding life.  It’s a godless formula for happiness that can never provide the fullness of life that we were intended to have.

This rich fool talks to himself, consults with his own reasoning, and decides on his course of action that he thinks is going to set him up for the rest of his life. But then God speaks. Proverbs 16:9 says, “The mind of man plans his way, But the LORD directs his steps.”  God speaks and He’s not complimentary of how smart He thinks this guy is – He doesn’t congratulate him on how well he’s done financially.  God speaks; “You fool! This very night your soul is required of you; and now who will own what you have prepared?”

While this man was celebrating how well he had done, God brought the accusation of foolishness against him. That very night, the rich fool’s soul was demanded of him. God was not impressed or satisfied with the rich man’s wealth and possessions.  Sadly, although he was rich in treasures, this man was not rich toward God and was not prepared to meet the Lord.

“Tonight your soul is required of you.” In one night, all the man’s accomplishments and plans came to an abrupt end. He made business plans and life plans, but could not control the day of his death – and all his accomplishments and plans were instantly terminated.  The Bible says, “It is appointed unto man once to die, and after that the judgment.” Psalm 90:12 in light of that says, “So teach us to number our days, That we may present to You a heart of wisdom.”  

Jesus said in Matt. 16:26  “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? “You can’t trade God your possessions for eternal life.  God doesn’t want your house or cars or even your bank account in exchange for eternity.

“Tonight your soul will be required of you”.  That’s the  language of obligation. This man owed his life, his livelihood, and his wealth to God; but most of all he owed his soul to God, and that night it would be required of him. He was obligated to God every day of his life, but his soul would be required on the day of his death.

If the rich fool stood before God in eternity and said God I will give you all my possessions in my barns now,  God would say to that man, you no longer have it to give.  You can’t take it with you.  You didn’t really possess it then, you were merely a caretaker of what God gave you. It’s no longer yours.  You left it on earth and furthermore it’s the wrong currency in heaven. 

Everyone on earth looking at this man’s life would think the man in the parable was a great success, but God said he was a fool. Eternity proved the man a fool, and his story showed that it isn’t only sin to give earthly riches first place in your life – it is also foolish.

The rich man in the parable had thought that his possessions  was all for him. He said, “I will, I will, I will, I will, my crops, my barns, my goods, my soul. Everything was about him, and nothing was about God. But at the end of his life he found that nothing was his – even his own soul was subject to God. He no longer had any crops, any barns, any goods, and he was spiritually bankrupt.

He who lays up treasures for himself and is not rich towards God is like this man. So how do we become rich towards God? We must give first place in our lives to God. We reverence God, we honor God.  We come together to worship Him on the first day of the week.  We honor Him with the first fruits of our labor.  We use our possessions for spiritual purposes and not just to fulfill our fleshly desires. We become rich toward God by sacrificial giving to those in need. Luke 12:33 says, ”Sell your possessions and give to charity; make yourselves money belts which do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near nor moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”  And as Luke 18:22 says,  When Jesus heard [this,] He said to him, “One thing you still lack; sell all that you possess and distribute it to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.”

Another text that tells us how to be rich towards God is 1Tim.  6:17-19 “Instruct those who are rich in this present world not to be conceited or to fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy.  [Instruct them] to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share,  storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is life indeed.”

We can also be rich towards God by trusting in Jesus for the righteousness which no amount of money can buy. In Rev. 3:17-18 Jesus says, ‘Because you say, “I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing,” and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked,  I advise you to buy from Me gold refined by fire so that you may become rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself, and [that] the shame of your nakedness will not be revealed; and eye salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see.”

Jesus said in Matt. 6:24 “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.” (or riches)  We can’t ignore the fact that earthly riches often keep us from the pursuit of heavenly riches as we should. Paul wrote in 1 Timothy 6:9, “But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition.”  Most of us are afraid of poverty; we should be afraid of wealth.  Let us instead lay up treasure in heaven, where moth and rust does not corrupt.  Let us be rich towards God, so that in the day when our soul is required of us to stand before God, we will not be classified as a fool who wasted his life that God had so graciously given him, by focusing on the riches of this world rather than the true treasure which is God.

Posted in Sermons | Tags: church on the beach |

New life, new resolutions, Colossians 3:18-4:1

Dec

27

2020

thebeachfellowship

As we get close to the New Year, it’s interesting to hear about what sort of New Year resolutions people come up with. With my birthday being yesterday, I sort of feel like I get a double whammy with this sense that I need to do something different this year. So I usually start my New Year resolutions before Jan 1st. I start them on my birthday. And like most people, from what I hear, I tend to think along the lines of getting more disciplined in my daily exercise. After all the rich food and cakes and cookies consumed over the holidays I feel like I need to do something drastic to counterbalance all of that.

I suppose we make these New Year resolutions because we think that with the start of a new year, there is an opportunity to start fresh. And perhaps that analogy can be applied to our spiritual life as well. Paul says that now that we are made new, since we have new birth, since we have new spiritual life, we need to put away the old and put on the new. There should be a new resolve to live differently now that we are Christians. Our life is not the same and so our behavior should not be the same. Furthermore, Paul says that in this new life we should emulate Christ in our attitudes, in our actions, and our behavior.

As Christians we have a new life in Christ, and so we must begin a new way of living. Our relationships with others is going to be changed. Our actions towards others will be different. And in this context Paul through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit lays out our duty as Christians in our relationship to our spouse, to our family, and in our work environment. These areas of our lives are ones which should be most impactful as Christians. I believe that the foundations of society are the home and the workplace. And so as Christians if we want to change society, if we want to impact the world for Christ, we start in these areas first.

You know, there are many husbands who have testified to the fact that when his wife became a believer, she changed. And many wives have testified that when her husband became a believer, he started acting differently. The same can be said concerning children. They may have been rebellious, always getting into trouble, but when they became saved, there was a noticeable difference in their behavior and the way they responded to their parents. And vice a versa for the parents who may have been saved. The children noticed a big difference in the home. And many an employer has been able to say, “You know that guy that worked for me? Something happened in his life. I don’t know what it was. It seemed to have had something to do with religion. But, boy, is he different on the job.” And many an employee has said, “Something happened to my boss when he became a Christian.”

So when there has been a change spiritually, then there will be a change in behavior, and especially that will be evident in the nature of relationships. In this passage of scripture, Paul talks about a new kind of wife in vs 18, a new kind of husband in vs 19, a new kind of child in verse 20, a new kind of father in verse 21, a new kind of servant in verse 22, and a new kind of master in chapter 4, verse 1. All of a sudden, a person’s whole orientation to society is dramatically changed, because Jesus Christ has entered his life. There is a new, controlling authority in their lives which dramatically affects the way that they live.

Now today there is a lot of pushback on some of these principles because society believes that there is no place for submission to authority anymore. They especially don’t like to hear that wives are to be in subjection to their husbands. And young people don’t like to submit to the authority of their parents, or to the government, or even to the law. Look at what’s going on in Portland and other major cities. They want to overthrow any semblance of authority.

But there are many institutions of authority which God has established in the world. Whether you like it or not, there are certain authorities and they are established by God. There is the authority of government which is spelled out in detail in Romans 13. There is the authority of the church and it’s leaders as indicated in 1 Peter. And here we see that God has established authority in the home, in marriage, and in the workplace.

Now our scripture passage starts with a word a word to wives concerning submitting to authority in verse 18. Notice, it does not say “women.” Of course, to be a wife you must be a woman. That should be understood. But the admonition is not to women in general to submit to men in general. That is not what this scripture is teaching. It is an admonition to wives. So it is an admonition to women in a marriage relationship with their husband.

So verse 18 says, “Wives, be subject to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.” Notice that it says to your husbands. The KJV says to your own husbands. My wife is not being told to submit to another man who also happens to be a husband. It’s not a general admonition for women to submit to men, but in the marriage relationship, the woman is to take the role of submission to the husband’s role of authority.

The word “hypotassō” was a Greek military term meaning “to arrange [troop divisions] in a military fashion under the command of a leader”. In non-military use, it meant “a voluntary attitude of giving in, cooperating, assuming responsibility, and carrying a burden”.

But let’s be clear; submission doesn’t mean inferiority. It doesn’t mean you’re inferior to your husband, not at all. Jesus wasn’t inferior to God; but He submitted to the authority of the Father. Christ is equal to the Father, yet He submitted to Him. In Phil. 2:5-8 it says, “Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped (held onto), but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, [and] being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” So Jesus, though equal with God in divinity, submitted Himself to the Father by becoming obedient even to the point of death. Equality does not negate the imperative to submission. God has ordained the husband to be the leader in the marriage and in the home.

Notice what be says at the end of verse 18, “as is fitting in the Lord.” The only justification for submission is because this is the way God intended marriage. I think it might be helpful to remind ourselves of how God designed marriage in creation. Starting in Genesis 2 vs18 Then the LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him.” Out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the sky, and brought [them] to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called a living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all the cattle, and to the birds of the sky, and to every beast of the field, but for Adam there was not found a helper suitable for him. So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place. The LORD God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man. The man said, “This is now bone of my bones, And flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, Because she was taken out of Man.” For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh.”

So the order of creation should teach us the nature of marriage, and the nature of the relationship between husband and wife. The wife was made for man, and made from man. She was made to be a helper to him. And in creation, God established that authority of the husband and the submission of the wife. They have different roles in marriage. Even as Christ was submissive to the Father, yet equal in divinity.

It’s also helpful to consider what it says in Eph 5:22-24 “Wives, [be subject] to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, He Himself [being] the Savior of the body. But as the church is subject to Christ, so also the wives [ought to be] to their husbands in everything.” So the wife is to have the same relationship to the husband as the church has to Christ. That’s an astonishing principle.

It also puts a tremendous responsibility on the husband to be like Christ. Eph.5:25 says, “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her.” And that brings us to the admonition to husbands in vs 19, “Husbands, love your wives and do not be embittered against them.” Now these commands to the husband and the wife are not contingent upon the other party keeping their part of the deal. Love is not contingent. Agape love is not reciprocal. But the command is for the wife to be subject to her husband’s authority, and for the husband to love his wife. The command is to continue acting in love. A lot of men are all lovey dovey until they get what they want. And then they are self serving. But agape love is focused on serving the other to the point of self sacrifice. Love is not simply an emotion. Love is action. Love is the act of putting aside your prerogatives for the sake of another, to see them built up and edified. To see them benefitted.

If husbands truly loved their wives with a self sacrificing love, seeking their benefit and not his own, then I don’t think there would be a lot of problems concerning the wife being subject to him. The problem is that too often men seek their own benefit, and demand the wife submit to that. But as each serves the other then both are benefitted.

The second part of this admonition is “do not be embittered against them.” Some have suggested that this word “embitter” should be translated “harsh.” “Don’t be harsh toward them.” Well, either word emphasizes a harshness of temper. Harshness produces resentment that leads to misery, and often leads to divorce. In the Greek it’s pikrainō that is the verb here, it could be translated as “exasperate” or “irritate.” “Don’t irritate your wife. Don’t exasperate your wife. Don’t be harsh towards your wife.” I would suggest that the way to not exasperate your wife is you don’t lord your authority over her. You don’t treat her less than an equal. You may not be equal in size or strength or practically any physical characteristic, but you treat her as an equal in consideration of her dignity as a person, in her intelligence, in regards to her opinion.

You know, with authority comes responsibility. And in marriage the man is given a grave responsibility. Your family is going to follow your lead. They are going to follow your wisdom or lack of it. If you make a mistake, they are going to suffer with you. It’s a great responsibility to have authority in the family. You better lean on God’s word for wisdom. And if you’re smart, you better lean on your wife for advice.

But I will also say this. I think a lot of men shirk their responsibility to lead in the family, especially in the realm of spiritual things. And so the wife dutifully picks up the slack, and the man is actually relieved that he doesn’t have to make those decisions. But there are consequences to that dereliction of duty that may take years to come out, but they will eventually hurt the relationship. One thing for sure, is it will hurt the man’s relationship with the Lord. Wives, you need to support your husband in becoming the spiritual leader in your house. He may not be as smart as you in things of the Lord. He may not be as spiritually mature as you. But if you don’t encourage him to accept that responsibility then you damn him to be forever immature and unspiritual. And that’s going to work against your home and your marriage more than you can possibly know at this point. Don’t fall for that lure of the devil to overstep his authority and take the lead. Eve took the lead, and Adam was willing to submit to her. And look what happened as a result to the human family.

As archaic as this may sound today, I would suggest that the Christian husband should be chivalrous towards his wife. He should protect her, cherish her, honor her, give preference to her, serve her. If we loved our wives that way, I don’t think there would be too much problem with the wife not being submissive to the husband. I think that part would come naturally.

The next admonition is directed to children. Vs 20 says, “Children, be obedient to your parents in all things, for this is well-pleasing to the Lord.” Now one question that immediately comes to mind is who qualifies as children here in this verse? “Children,” ta tekna, is a very general word for a child, an offspring. It could be any age. What it basically means is, anybody who is still under parental guidance. You stop being a child biblically in terms of this word when you go out to establish your own independence and your own life. As long as you’re in the home, as long as your parents are responsible for you, as long as you’re under their leadership and authority, you have one command.

You know there’s only one command in the entire Bible given to children or young people living in their home with their parents. That one command and the only command is to obey your parents in everything; that’s it. Ephesians 6: 1 states it even more clearly, tying it back to the Old Testament commandment. Eph 6:1-3 “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. HONOR YOUR FATHER AND MOTHER (which is the first commandment with a promise), SO THAT IT MAY BE WELL WITH YOU, AND THAT YOU MAY LIVE LONG ON THE EARTH.”

One of the hallmarks of the last days, according to 2 Timothy 3:2, is that children will be disobedient to parents. Children today are taught to think that authority is something terrible, as unnecessarily restrictive. And parents contribute to this by focusing on trying to be their child’s friend, rather than being their parent. I think a lot of parents fail to properly exercise their authority, to properly maintain any discipline or control over their kids, and then because they are such poor parents, they then try to mollify the situation by overcompensating in terms of permissiveness and lack of authority in the kid’s lives. They excuse their own lack of discipline as a parent by saying “Well, I just want them to be happy.” But when there is no discipline, no boundaries, no guiding influence, then the child just ends up miserable and feeling like the parent doesn’t love them.

The unspoken command in this verse is actually directed to the parents. To exercise their authority and their responsibility to raise their children in the admonition of the Lord. So that the child will live in such as way to be well pleasing to the Lord, according to vs 20. In Ephesians 6:1 notice that it says obey your parents in the Lord. That’s the same idea. According to the desire of the Lord, to be pleasing to the Lord.

And I would remind you that Jesus when He was a child was under the authority of His parents, and He was obedient and submissive to them. The Holy Son of God, God Incarnate, subject to Mary and Joseph. And yet it was God’s will. It was pleasing to God. In Luke 2:51 it says, “And [Jesus] went down with them and came to Nazareth, and He continued in subjection to them; and His mother treasured all these things in her heart. And Jesus kept increasing in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.” So no matter how smart little Johnny may be, if Jesus could be subject to the authority of his parents then so can he.

Then Paul addresses the other side of the coin in child rearing in vs 21, “Fathers, do not exasperate your children, so that they will not lose heart.” There are some commentators who say this word translated “fathers” is broad enough to cover both parents. That may be so. I think though it is given to fathers especially because it is their responsibility to raise the children. It’s not something that should be shifted to just the mother. The fathers are the governing authority so to speak. I remember well my mother saying, “Just wait till your Dad gets home.” And I remember thinking, “I am happy to wait.” I knew that when he got home there would be a reckoning, and I didn’t look forward to it one bit.

But this admonition to fathers not to exasperate, or irritate some versions translate it, is a pretty broad statement. It doesn’t mean that we don’t exercise authority, or administer discipline. But perhaps it means that we do not use a heavy hand in doing so. It’s not always conducive to have the attitude that it’s my way or the highway. I have talked to a number of fathers that thought that they had to lay down the law and then issue and ultimatum, either do what I want or hit the road. And sometimes the child hit the road and was never heard from again. You can’t raise a child you don’t have.

I remember the worse whipping I ever got when I was a boy. My father thought I had tried to run away from home. And he never gave me a chance to explain. I’ll never forget that. Parents, fathers especially, talk to your children. LIsten to them. Don’t just administer your authority without considering their feelings and what they might be going through. You know the Lord is our heavenly Father. And if He always gave us what we deserved when we break HIs law then who could possibly stand? But He forgives. He is gracious. He loves us and administers discipline for our good, not for punishment’s sake.

The last category Paul addresses is employee, employer relations. Let’s read the part applicable to employees first starting in vs22 , “Slaves, in all things obey those who are your masters on earth, not with external service, as those who [merely] please men, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord. Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance. It is the Lord Christ whom you serve. For he who does wrong will receive the consequences of the wrong which he has done, and that without partiality.”

Now Paul addresses this section specifically to slaves or servants. But I think the admonition is applicable to employees. In ancient Rome it is estimated that there were 60 million slaves in that society. It was a vital part of the economy, it was a vital part of society. 60 million slaves would have been a very large segment of the population. And it is a certainty that a large part of the church were in fact slaves. By the way, historically, slavery wasn’t restricted to only certain races. In fact, the Jews as a nation were enslaved for 400 years. That’s longer than slavery was practiced in this country. In Rome, practically all nationalities of people could be slaves except Roman citizens. Even doctors and teachers were commonly slaves. It has been said that the Christian church was one of the only places in the known world in which slaves were considered to be on equal footing with slave owners. In the church, in Christ, there was neither slave nor free. But in society, it was a part of life which was not able to be easily done away with.

It’s also been suggested that the spread of Christianity was the primary means by which slavery was eventually done away with throughout the world. The Great Awakening spawned a realization that slavery was something that needed to be abolished, and within less than a century it had been outlawed in both America and England and soon throughout the civilized world.

But I really do not want to make this about the evils of slavery today, and what the Bible says and doesn’t say about it. I think the primary point Paul is making here is in regards to employee relations. When you agree to work for someone for a wage, you in effect are serving that person or that business for the hours that you have committed to. Some employers demand more than others. But for the most part, it’s safe to say that you abrogate a lot of your freedom and your rights when you go to work. The business, or the boss, is now the governing authority over that part of your life. In the manner of Paul’s speech, to some extent you are a servant and they are your master on earth.

So what does it say regarding employees then? To obey those who are your master, or your boss, or your employer. And not with just external service as those who merely work to please men. In other words, don’t just work for the eyes of men who may be watching, and when they are not watching then you have a different work ethic. But work as unto the Lord who is always watching. Do your work as unto the Lord. It goes back to vs 17, “Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father.”

I told the story of the cobbler last week. I won’t retell it. If you missed it, you missed one of my very few illustrations that aren’t found in the Bible. But the cobbler wouldn’t cut corners, even though the customer would never know the difference. And the reason he didn’t do that was because he did it as unto the Lord. You know, the Christian employee should be the best employee on the job site. That’s basically what Paul is saying. Your attitude, your work ethic, is your testimony to a watching world. And to do it as unto the Lord means that you will find favor with God and man.

And Paul includes in that admonition a warning that if you do what is wrong you will receive the consequences of that wrong, and that without partiality. I believe there are inherent consequences to sin. And when you sin, those inherent consequences take effect. God will not always deliver you from the consequences of your sin. He will forgive you if you repent, but he still may allow the consequences of sin to take effect. I know a few guys in prison who are living testimonies to the inherent consequences of doing wrong. And what else Paul seems to indicate is that the employer has a responsibly to administer justice to those who do wrong. And if he doesn’t, then it’s possible that God will. Because God is a God of justice. God will reward you for how you worked here on earth, and He will punish you for how you worked here on earth. If we are Christians, we have a higher authority than our boss who is watching us. Let us work for our heavenly reward. Even if you are slighted here on earth and don’t get that raise, or promotion that you think you deserve, God says He will reward us for our work. Vs 24, “knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance. It is the Lord Christ whom you serve.” Do your work as unto the Lord.

The last admonition then is to employers. And for that we look at chapter 4 vs 1, “Masters, grant to your slaves justice and fairness, knowing that you too have a Master in heaven.” If you are an employer, then God says you have the responsibility to be just and fair. At the end of chapter 3 we saw that God is concerned about justice in the workplace and also fairness. And so as the governing authority in the workplace which is established by God, masters or managers or CEO’s are to administer justice and fairness, because they will be judged by the same standard with which they judged. Jesus said in Matt. 7:2 “For in the way you judge, you will be judged; and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you.” God is going to judge managers, and bosses and CEO’s according to His justice and fairness.

So in conclusion, I want you to notice that in all of these admonitions, to each of the parties involved, whether it be wives, or husbands, or children, or parents, or employees or employers, all of them as Christians should live a life that is lived as unto the Lord. In vs 18 it says, “as is fitting in the Lord.” In vs 20 it is “well pleasing to the Lord”. In vs 22 it is “fearing the Lord.” In vs 23 it is “as for the Lord.” In vs 24 “It is the Lord Christ whom you serve.” And in ch4 vs 1 it is “you too have a Master in heaven.” The over arching theme is found in vs 23, “Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men.”

And in so doing, we will be found to be pleasing to the Lord, and gain favor with God and men. Let us resolve in this new life in Christ, to live in a way that is pleasing to Him and is a reflection of Him to the world.

Posted in Sermons | Tags: church on the beach, worship on the beach |

The fullness of our salvation, Colossians 2:9-15

Nov

29

2020

thebeachfellowship

As you know I just got back from vacation on Friday night.  And one of the interesting things you do when you come back from a trip like that is unpack your suitcases and unpack the car.  It can be an interesting experience to relive the trip through what you find in your suitcase.  Especially the smells.  I’m not sure I should explain all that though this morning. But I’m talking about the things you find there which bring back memories of what you did while you were away.  Some things are souvenirs, things you want to keep.  Other things are things you want to throw away, or throw in the washer as soon as you can.

Well, that’s a bad analogy for this passage before us today.  But the fact is that there is a lot to unpack in this passage.  And I am happy to say that it is all good stuff.  Nothing bad is in there.  In fact, what Paul is presenting here are souvenirs of our salvation by which we can remember what Christ has accomplished in our salvation.

But first as a reminder of the general context of this epistle so far,  Paul is continuing his letter to the Colossians in which he is attempting to turn them away from deceptive “wisdom” and philosophy which had infiltrated the church.  And of particular note in chapter one he had given a liturgy of sorts of Christology, the doctrine of Christ.  Now he does so because the pervasive false teaching was to indicate that Christ was not sufficient.  That Christ was part of an order of angelic beings that they could learn about God from, but there were also other angelic beings, and other philosophies and wisdoms and mysteries that could give a person a higher knowledge.

But Paul is arguing that Christ alone is sufficient, and in Christ alone is our salvation, and from Christ alone is our source of knowledge and wisdom.  So in vs 9 he reiterates that doctrine by saying, “For in Him (that is in Christ) all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form.”  Now we should really thank God that Paul felt the need to restate that principle.  Because if there is one constant source of demonic attack it is on the deity of Jesus Christ. If there is one common denominator of most of the cults and false religions of the world it is on this point of Christ’s deity. 

Now this is not the only place in scripture that attests to Christ’s deity, of course, but it is a very solid one.  But Christ also made the claim that He was God saying, “I and the Father are One.” And, “if you have seen Me, you have seen the Father.” Such claims were either the claim of a madman, or the God/man.  No one can be a  good man, and make such a claim, unless He was also God in the flesh.

There are a number of scriptures that make this claim of Christ’s deity, not the least of which is chapter one vs 19 of this epistle, which says, “For it was the [Father’s] good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him.”  That statement is expounded for us in chp. 2 vs 9, “In Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form.” They both say virtually the same thing, chapter one just shortens it.

But I would also point out Hebrews 1:1-4 which says, “God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways,  in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world.  And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,  having become as much better than the angels, as He has inherited a more excellent name than they.”  Now that statement at the end of vs4 answers the question of the Colossians about angels that possessed some sort of mystical insight about God, had the Colossians had access to that book at that time, which they did not.

But to go back to our text, Paul says that Jesus is fully God, or completely God.  And Jesus Himself said that He was the manifestation of God, which is directly correlated by Hebrews 1 which says that He is the exact representation of God’s nature.  Now that is a tremendously important doctrine.  Because if Jesus is not God, then Jesus cannot save.  The death of Jesus as just a man could never atone for the sins of the world. No matter how good of a man it is who dies, their goodness cannot possibly be enough to extend to save another person, much less the world.  Only God could atone for the sins of the world.

Now to that doctrine of the sufficiency of Christ Paul adds a number of qualifying statements or illustrations. And all of these statements are designed to illustrate the sufficiency of our salvation in Christ.  Paul uses another word though instead of sufficiency.  He uses the word complete.  He says, in vs 10, “and in Him you have been made complete, and He is the head over all rule and authority.”

So as Christ is the fullness of God in bodily form, we are made full, or complete in Him.  Now what does that mean, “ in Him?”  If you notice in our text, Paul uses that phrase “in Him” in vs 9, 10 and 11.  Then notice that he changes the phase to “with Him” in vs 12 and 13, and then in vs 15 he changes it again to “through Him.” Now I hope to deal with each of these phrases in order.

But first, what does it mean to be “in Him?”.  Let me give you a bad analogy, but perhaps a pertinent one since we are in an election season. It’s like saying you are in the Republican party, or the Democrat party, and you have a representative of that party which is the presidential candidate.  You are in effect, represented in that candidate.  You derive your benefits from that candidate.  He is your representative, and what he does in  that capacity directly benefits you.

Now thankfully, being “in Christ” is a lot more beneficial than we can expect from the elected candidate.  Not the least of which is that our benefit of being in Christ is eternal, whereas the best we might get from our elected official is only temporary.

What Paul is saying here though is that by being in Him, we are made complete.  We receive the fullness of salvation.  There is nothing more that can be gained through any other person or entity. There is no need for a secondary experience where we can get more from God. There is no need or benefit to seeking another intermediary or from some other source of higher knowledge.  He is above or the head of all rule and authority.  That speaks of not only earthly dignitaries and government officials and so forth, but also, and maybe principally, that He is over angelic principalities.  If we are in Christ, then He is superior to any other source, any other power, be it angelic or spiritual or of this world.  

For those of you who have come out of Catholicism, there is no benefit to going through an intermediary, be it Mary, or the Pope, or a priest, or a dead saint.  To use the analogy of politics again, if you have direct access to the office of the President, then what added benefit could there be to going to a lower ranked administration official?  We have complete, full access to God through Christ because He is fully God.

The second benefit of being “in Him” comes in vs 11, “and in Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ.”  Now what’s interesting is that Paul is speaking here to a predominately Gentile community.  They did not practice circumcision. And yet he says that in Christ they are circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands.  

So first of all, we must understand that he is not talking about physical circumcision, but spiritual circumcision.  Even though physical circumcision was a rite performed under the law by the Jews, yet there are multiple references in the scriptures to a more necessary circumcision of the heart.  That cut made in the flesh was but a symbol of the cutting away of the sin nature that has to occur in the heart.  As Moses wrote in Deut. 30:6  “Moreover the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, so that you may live.”

And also in the NT Paul wrote about spiritual circumcision in Rom 2:29 saying, “But he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter; and his praise is not from men, but from God.”  So the benefit of circumcision was to be a sign of God’s covenant people.  However, if we are in Christ, even though we are not physically circumcised, we are still circumcised in Christ’s circumcision.  What He has done, has been done also in us as our representative man.

Paul speaks of this circumcision of Christ being applied on our behalf, so that there is “the removal of the body of the flesh.”  In physical circumcision, the flesh was cut away from the foreskin which had significance in the sin nature which was passed on from generation to generation.  But in spiritual circumcision, the sin nature is cut off so that we might live in the newness of flesh.  

I was speaking to someone just the other day who was talking about their previous life of addiction.  And they said when they gave it up to Christ, then they discovered that Christ had removed the old nature, the old desire for that sin.  They had a new nature.  But that didn’t mean that it was impossible to go back to that old life.  It was still there, they just no longer were enslaved to it.  Though you have a new nature, you still live in your old body.  And as long as we are in the body there is still the possibility that we might go back to it.  So it’s necessary to die daily, to consider it as dead.  It’s necessary to constantly put off the old man, and put on the new man.  To walk in the spirit, and not in the flesh. There has been a spiritual operation in which the old nature has been cut off, and we’re given a new nature. New desires. Old things have passed away, all things become new.  That’s spiritual circumcision.

There is another benefit to our salvation, in how we have been made complete, and that is found in vs 12.  And now Paul changes that phrase from “in Him” to “with Him.”  So “in Him” being something that Christ does for us as our representative, “with Him” signifies something we do in conjunction with Him.  He does it, and we do it as well.   Let’s read what that benefit is in vs 12.  

Vs 12, “having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.” This rite of baptism is something that we do with Christ.  We that are saved are physically baptized in solidarity with Him.  

But like the rite of circumcision, Paul is saying that there is a spiritual component which is more important than the physical aspect of being immersed in water.  Being immersed and then raised out of the water signifies a spiritual death and resurrection with Christ.  In baptism, we identify with the death of Christ by dying to sin, and being raised from the water we signify that we are raised with Him to walk in newness of life.  

What baptism indicates then is that the power of God to raise the dead is employed on our behalf as we identify with Christ by faith, so that we have the power of God to walk in newness of life. We haven’t got the power to walk in this new life unless God gives it to us. We cannot walk in sanctification unless God gives us the power to do so. And as God had the power to raise the dead and give life to Christ so that same power is available to us as well.  Our identification with Christ provides the power of God in our lives to live the life that He has given us. As Phil. 4:13 says, “I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.”

Now Paul expands upon that principle in vs 12 and 13, explaining how that process happens.  He says “When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions,  having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.”

The premise of our salvation is that before Christ we were spiritually dead. Paul echoes this passage in Ephesians, detailing the deadness due to our sin, and the means by which we received new life.  He says in Eph 2:1-7 “And you were dead in your trespasses and sins,  in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.  Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.  But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us,  even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),  and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly [places] in Christ Jesus,  so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.” 

Now Paul says that is illustrated in baptism which we participate in with Christ.  Signifying that we were dead in sin, buried with Him indicating our old nature was done away with, and then raised up with Him, so that we are positionally already seated with Him in the heavenlies, and we live in the new life which God has given us, and empowered us to live.  What tremendous benefits are given by our salvation, not the least of which that we have been forgiven.  All the things that we have done, all the laws that we have broken, all the people we have wronged, all the sins that we have committed, God has forgiven us.  Forgiven is a concept that we should contemplate more than we do.  Quite a bit of our mental anguish in life comes as a result of guilt.  But in Christ we are forgiven.  God has punished Jesus Christ for our sins.  So that we might be forgiven.  He has cast them as far as the east from the west and they will not be remembered any more.

We may talk about forgiving someone, but we can’t ever forget, can we?  We may want others to think we forgive and forget, but deep down we don’t forget. But the Bible says that God forgets our sin.  Hebrews 8:12 says, “For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.”  And Isaiah 43:25 says, “I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins.”

Paul says back in our text that He has cancelled out the certificate of debt against us.  That also can mean that whatever crimes we have been charged with have been cancelled.  Forgiven.  Expunged.  Forgotten. He says God nailed them to the cross, and Jesus paid for them.  There is a legal term called double jeopardy, which means that you cannot be charged twice for the same crime.  And that is true in the justice of God as well. If Jesus was charged for our crimes and paid the penalty for our sin, then it would be unjust for God to charge it to our account as well.  And God is not unjust.  His justice requires that the penalty for sin has to be paid, but His mercy caused His stripes to fall upon Jesus, so that we might be set free.

Then finally, let’s look at the last illustration of the benefits of our salvation and that is found in vs 15. “When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him.”

As I indicated earlier, when Paul speaks of the rulers and authorities, he is not talking here about earthly dignitaries, but he is talking about spiritual rulers and authorities. Now he just referenced that Jesus was nailed to the cross to pay the penalty of our sin, but what is amazing about His death that is that though it appeared at the time to be a defeat for Christ, it was actually a victory for the kingdom of heaven. 

In Ephesians 4:9 Paul speaks of Jesus upon His death descending into the lower parts of the earth, that is Hades. Hades is the abode of the dead, which according to Jesus has an upper and lower compartment divided by a great chasm which no one can cross.  Jesus Himself said in Matthew that the Son of Man must go into the lower part of the earth for three days even as Jonah was in the belly of the whale for three days.  He furthermore said to the thief on the cross that today you will be with Me in Paradise.  Paradise being the upper chamber of Hades.

Peter elaborates on what Christ accomplished in Hades in 1 Peter 3:18-22 saying, “For Christ also died for sins once for all, [the] just for [the] unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit;  in which also He went and made proclamation to the spirits [now] in prison,  who once were disobedient, when the patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah, during the construction of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through [the] water.  Corresponding to that, baptism now saves you–not the removal of dirt from the flesh, but an appeal to God for a good conscience–through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who is at the right hand of God, having gone into heaven, after angels and authorities and powers had been subjected to Him.”

It’s interesting that Peter also alludes to the rite of baptism in this passage as an illustration of our salvation.  But the main point I want to emphasize that is made in this passage is the last phrase; “after angels and authorities and powers had been subjected to Him.”  Peter is speaking of those fallen angels and principalities and powers of the realm of darkness.  Satan is called the accuser of the brethren.  But our accuser and his satanic hosts have been defeated at the cross.  Jesus broke the power of Satan.  Because the power of Satan is death.

Hebrews 2:14 says “Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.” 

This victory is the tremendous blessing of our salvation that Christ has accomplished for us, and Paul says that He did so through the cross.  Through His death, He rendered powerless Satan, our enemy.  Paul goes on to refer to the triumph that Christ has accomplished. 

Vs 15, “When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him.”  A triumph in Roman times was something akin to a victory parade in our country.  But what was unique in those celebrations was that they also paraded their enemies as captives in their train.  And so the conquering victors would parade into the city in triumph, In a parade of sorts, with their defeated enemies held captive in the rear, subject to the mocking jeers of the citizens who were the benefactors of that victory.

That imagery is  what Paul alludes to in this passage, showing Jesus Christ as the victorious general leading His army in a victory parade, and those fallen angels and principalities who are our enemies, our accusers, who went about like a roaring lion seeking to devour us, those same foes are already defeated, their power being broken, awaiting their final day of punishment. 

What tremendous benefits we see illustrated there of our salvation.  And in all these examples, we see that Christ has fully completed our salvation.  Wee participate, we benefit through faith in what He has done.  But He is the One who has conquered sin and death and given us life.  By faith we are the benefactors.  We are His citizens.  He is our King, our Victor, our Conqueror. And we as His citizens receive all the blessings of being in His kingdom through His salvation.  In Him, with Him, and through Him.  We have peace with God.  We have the blessing of God. We have life in Him.  

That concludes the exposition of this passage of scripture.  But before we leave this morning I want to add one more prepositional phrase for us to consider.  And that is receive Him.  To receive Christ is illustrated by another rite.  Not the rite of circumcision, not the rite of baptism, but the rite of communion.  And I would like to invite you to participate in that rite this morning as an illustration of receiving Christ.  We receive Him by faith, faith in who He is and what He has accomplished.  

And we can participate in that through communion, or the Lord’s Supper. (begin Lord’s Supper) 

Posted in Sermons | Tags: church on the beach, worship on the beach |

The Ministry of Reconciliation, Colossians 1:19-23

Nov

1

2020

thebeachfellowship

Twice in this passage we see a form of the word reconcile.  Reconcile, or reconciled, is one of those Christian words that we hear so often in the church in regards to salvation and yet perhaps we really aren’t exactly sure what it means.  However, it’s a word that you may have also heard outside of the church. It’s used for instance, in divorce proceedings.  There usually is some sort of effort to reconcile both parties, the husband and wife.  And what that means is that they come to an agreement, they make up, they resolve their differences that had driven them apart, so that they can come back together.

In fact that is how it is used in 1Cor. 7:11 which says,  “(but if she does leave, she must remain unmarried, or else be reconciled to her husband), and that the husband should not divorce his wife.”

But it also has a financial meaning, which is often used in relation to balancing your checkbook.  To reconcile, means to make one account consistent to another.  The bank sends out your statement, and you take your checkbook and compare it in light of the bank statement (which is always the correct one, of course). And so you make whatever corrections are necessary to make your check book correlate to the bank.

Now both of those variations on the meaning of reconcile should help us to get a grasp on it’s theological implications.  To be reconciled to God speaks of a man being made right with God, his account with God being corrected in light of what God’s justice requires.

When Paul speaks though to the Colossians about reconciliation with God, notice that he first shows us the standard of righteousness which is in Christ Jesus.  In vs 19, Paul says that in Christ all the fullness of deity dwells.  He has just given in the preceding verses a liturgy of Christology, all the attributes of Christ which make up HIs deity.  And so he says in 19 that in Christ is all the fullness of deity.  So Christ is the righteous standard of God in every respect.  And if we are going to be made right with God, then Christ is the standard by which we are reconciled.  He is the statement, so to speak, that we balance our checkbook against.

And so Paul says that God is pleased in vs 20, that “through Him (that is Christ) to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross.”  God reconciles all things to Himself through Christ.  So not only is Christ God, as we saw in vs 15-19, but He is able to save. And we see that Christ is able to save in vs20-23. He is able to reconcile men to God.

Salvation, or being saved, is another of those Christian words that we use very often, but perhaps not always understood. Because when the Bible speaks of salvation, there are at least 6 terms that are often used  to speak of salvation. I want to review them with you for a moment.  Five terms used in salvation; and the first one is justification.  In justification the sinner stands before God as a guilty sinner and is declared righteous.  Abraham was justified by faith, and so are we.

The second term used to describe salvation is redemption. In redemption, the sinner stands before God as a captive slave and is granted freedom by a ransom, or a payment.  That’s redemption.  The third term that is used to describe our salvation is forgiveness. In forgiveness, the sinner stands before God as a debtor, and the debt, having been paid, is forgiven, wiped clean. 

Fourth is the term we are looking at today; reconciliation. In reconciliation, the sinner stands before God as an enemy and through peace offering of Christ becomes a friend of God. Fifthly, is the term adoption,  which also describes our salvation. In adoption the sinner stands before God as a stranger and is made His child.That’s adoption. And sixth, regeneration.  That which was dead has been given new life. So to summarize our salvation; We stood before God as the guilty sinner, and He declared us righteous. We stood before God as a captive slave, and He granted us freedom. We stood before God as a debtor, and He forgave us. We stood before God as an enemy, and He made us a friend. We stood before God as a stranger, and He called us His child.  We stood before God as dead in our sins, and we were given newness of life.

Now all of those speak of different aspects of our salvation, but today we are going to focus on reconciliation because that’s what Paul is addressing in this passage. And there are four aspects of reconciliation that Paul gives us here in these verses. The four aspects of reconciliation are the plan of reconciliation, the means of reconciliation, the aim of reconciliation, and the evidence of reconciliation. 

First, let’s consider the plan of reconciliation. Vs 20 “and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, [I say,] whether things on earth or things in heaven.”

Now the key phrase there is “through Him to reconcile all things to himself.” So God reconciles all things to Himself through Christ.  All things can be taken to mean all of creation. And there is a sense in which as a result of Christ’s atonement all of creation will be restored to rightness with God.  All of creation is under the curse of sin. We live in a fallen world.  But the apex  of creation is man. When man sinned all of creation bore the curse of that sin.  And in like manner, when man is reconciled to God through Jesus Christ then the rest of creation will be reconciled as well. As Romans 8:19 says, “For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God.”  And then in vs 21 it explains, “that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God.  For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now.”

All of creation is waiting for the reconciliation of God with man. Sin corrupted the universe. It destroyed the peace between one creature and the other, between all creatures and God. But the plan of God is that through Christ, the universe is going to be reconciled. It’s going to be restored to a right relationship to God. So that as Peter says in 2 Peter 3:13 “But according to His promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells.”

Now when Paul says that all things will be reconciled that does not mean that everyone will be saved, and  that even fallen angels will be restored.  But what it means is that sin will be done away with, those who have chosen to live in sin will be sentenced to eternal punishment banished forever from the presence of God, and those angels who have fallen will be cast into the Lake of Fire, no longer to tempt or deceive or bind men.  But it also means that those creatures, and every creature on earth and in heaven will bow the knee, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.  And sin and death will be done away with, and only righteousness will dwell in the new heavens and new earth.

In vs21 he specifies who is reconciled; “And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach.”  The Bible makes it clear that in our natural, sinful state we were enemies of God.  It says in Rom. 8:7 that we were hostile, that means to be at war with God.   It says “because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able [to do so,]”

And James uses a variation on that term, hostile, to designate the world as an enemy of God. James 4:4  You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.” But through reconciliation, Paul says, you who were enemies of God have been made the friends of God.  God made peace through our Lord Jesus Christ by His death on the cross.

Eph. 2:12 says, “remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace.”  This was the plan of God from before creation, to create a people for Himself, who are like Him, for fellowship and communion with Him, and who will enjoy Him forever.

So that is the plan of reconciliation.  Now that brings us to the means of reconciliation.  Paul says how it was accomplished in vs 20; “And having made peace through the blood of His cross.” How did Christ reconcile man to God, who were His enemies, and make peace? He made peace between God and man through the blood of His cross.  He is speaking of a peace offering, a sacrifice. Now when the scripture speaks of the blood it is not referencing some sort of mystical power in the actual blood of Jesus Christ. We should not view the actual blood of Christ in some superstitious manner.  But what Paul means when he speaks of the blood of Christ or the blood of the cross is simply the death of Jesus Christ. Blood refers to the violent manner in which someone or something dies, not in some power of the actual element.

We see the parallel between the blood of the cross and and death for instance, in Rom 5:10 which says, “For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.”  So we were reconciled through the death of Christ.  Not by some mystical element of the blood, but blood being representative of the sacrificial death of Christ.

In verse 22; it says it another way, “In the body of His flesh through death.” The death of the substitute Lamb of God was the way that God dealt with our sin, so that we might be reconciled to Him. The justice of God had to account for sin, and we had to pay the debt of sin, the penalty for sin.  But Christ offered Himself as a substitute for us, and by dying on the cross he satisfied that debt.

So the means of reconciliation was to offer Christ as as sacrifice and a substitute for our sin, so that our sins are forgiven, and we receive the righteousness of Jesus Christ.  By the death of Christ we are made right with God.

Then Paul addresses the goal, or the aim of our reconciliation. And we find the goal of our reconciliation in the second part of vs 22, “yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach.” In order to have complete reconciliation with God, there are three areas in which God has to make right.  We must be holy, blameless and beyond reproach.

To some extent these might look like synonyms.  But perhaps there are some aspects of each that have a particular meaning which might be instructive for us.  Holy refers to our relationship with God.  Blameless has to do with ourselves.  And beyond reproach refers to our relationship with others.  There has to be a holiness between us and God. There has to be a faultlessness within our own selves. And we have to be above reproach in our relationship to others.

Now when we are justified by faith in what Jesus accomplished for us on the cross, then we are made holy, blameless and beyond reproach.  But Paul adds an important little phrase, “before Him.”  In other words, we are holy, blameless and above reproach in HIs sight.  He sees us in Christ.  God sees the righteousness of Christ in us.  It’s what we sang about this morning in the hymn the Solid Rock.  “Dressed in His righteousness alone, faultless to stand before the throne.”

An important verse in this regard is found in 2 Cor. 5:21.  We will be looking at this verse this coming Wednesday night in our Bible study in 2 Corinthians.  But it fits so well into what we are talking about this morning.  It says, “(God) made (Jesus), who knew no sin, to be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.”  In salvation, God transfers our sin upon Jesus, and transfers Christ’s righteousness to us.  So that when God looks at us, He sees Christ’s righteousness.  He sees us as Christ is; holy, blameless, and above reproach.  That’s why Paul can say in Romans 8: 1 that now there is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.  

Now that phrase “In Him” also indicates our position before God.  In practice we may not always be holy in all we do, or blameless, or above reproach.  But positionally, we are in Christ.  And so God sees us as dressed in Christ’s righteousness.

Paul says in Ephesians 5 that we are  the bride of Christ, which will be presented without spot and without blemish.  And on that day, when the bridegroom appears, when sin will be done away with, when all things become new, when creation is reborn without corruption,  when we will be given a new, glorified sinless body, then we will become in practice what we are now in position.  Holy, blameless, and without reproach.

Now let’s look at the last point, which is the evidence of our reconciliation. Vs.23, “if indeed you continue in the faith firmly established and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the gospel that you have heard, which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, was made a minister.”

Notice that Paul says if you continue.  That’s the first evidence of someone who has been reconciled to God.  If you continue in the faith.  If you continue to walk by faith and not by sight. If you continue in the faith firmly established.  That means you haven’t deserted the faith.  You haven’t believed some higher level of intellectualism which denies the truth of the gospel.  Steadfast, means to tie your ship firmly to the anchor  so that you are not tossed here and there by every wind of doctrine.  This was really the danger in the church at Colossae.  It was in danger of being shipwrecked by false doctrines that denied the deity of Jesus Christ. 

In Luke 8:13, is the parable of the sower.  And as Jesus explains the parable, He says ““Those on the rocky soil are those who, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no firm root; they believe for a while, and in time of temptation fall away.”  What does to fall away indicate?  It means they were never saved. True Christians will continue. In John 8:30 it says, “Many believed on His name. But Jesus said, ‘If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of mine.’” The evidence of  a true Christian is he continues in the faith.

Listen to 1 John 2:19, “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us. But they went out from us, that it might be made manifest that they all are not of us.” And then in verse 24, “As for you, let that abide in you which you heard from the beginning. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, you also will abide in the Son and in the Father. This is the promise which He Himself made to us: eternal life.” Who gets eternal life? Those who continue.  And one more, John 6:66. “As a result of this many of His disciples withdrew and were not walking with Him anymore.” True Christians continue.

And notice what they are to continue in; “not moved away from the hope of the gospel that you have heard, which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, was made a minister.” The gospel is the message of Christ, the gospel of salvation. The gospel which Paul was preaching. They were to continue in the faith and hope of the gospel.  That is what we are preaching.  In 1Cor. 1:21 it says, “For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.” There is a lack of gospel preaching today in the modern church.  People don’t want to hear about sin, about salvation, about sanctification. So the modern pastor teaches about relationships, about finances, about receiving material blessings.  But God’s message is the message of Christ crucified.  It’s the message of the cross, the gospel of reconciliation.

Now, in closing, I would like for you to look at a summary of the gospel of reconciliation which is found in 2 Cor. 5.  This passage which we are “coincidentally” studying right now in our Wednesday night Bible study parallels and summarizes this gospel of reconciliation for us.  It’s like a series of bullet points, and I will not expound on them at this time, but just set them out as principles of the gospel of reconciliation. 

Number one, it transforms men. Verse 17, “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.” The gospel transforms people into a new creation.

Number two; it appeases God’s wrath. Verse 21, “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.” Christ bore our sins, so God could give us righteousness. It satisfies the wrath of God.

Number three; it comes through Christ.  Verse 18, “Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation.”

Fourth, it is our ministry.  End of vs 18, “He gave us the ministry of reconciliation.” And the end of vs 19, “He has committed to us the word of reconciliation.”  This is our ministry.  To tell the world that Christ has died to reconcile us to God, that we might become the children of God, and inherit eternal life in Christ. 

Vs. 20, “Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.”  From time to time I hear Christians ask what kind of ministry opportunity can I get involved in at your church?  I want to participate in some sort of ministry.  And usually they are thinking of something along the lines of a homeless ministry, or a children’s ministry, or maybe a music ministry.  But God has already given us a ministry.  That being the ministry of reconciliation, where we act as ambassadors for God, representing Christ to a world that is at enmity with God, and giving them the word of reconciliation; that God has sent Jesus to die as our sacrifice and substitute so that we might be made right with God and receive the righteousness of God.  Our ministry is to go to the lost, the unsaved, those that have not yet trusted Jesus Christ by faith and believed in the work that He did on the cross to pay my penalty, so that we might be given the righteousness of Jesus Christ.

That is our ministry.  That is our responsibility.  I pray that you accept that position of ambassador of the kingdom of God, and carry out that office, pleading with those that are at enmity with God to accept the peace of Christ, so that they might be reconciled to God.

Posted in Sermons | Tags: beach church, church on the beach, worship at the beach |

The prayer for the church, Colossians 1:3-12

Oct

25

2020

thebeachfellowship

In preaching through Romans and now beginning the epistle to the Colossians, I have somehow stumbled upon a series of sorts that has come out of my usual verse by verse exposition.  This series doesn’t have a title, but it has to do with the life of the church.  Perhaps this emphasis was brought to my mind as a result of the pandemic, and the ensuing restrictions that were placed upon the church.  It made me examine why we go to church, the reason for the church, and whether or not church was essential.  It seemed at the time that government had deemed the church inessential, whereas I believed that the church was essential to life as a Christian.  Church is not an addendum, it is not entertainment, it is not merely a social gathering.  But I believe that scripture teaches that the church is Christ’s body on earth, in other words, the church is the physical manifestation of Christ on earth, and as such the physical assembly of this body is absolutely essential.

Now I don’t want you to take my word for it.  Ephesians 5:23 says,  “For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, He Himself [being] the Savior of the body.”  As you can see, the church and Christ’s body are synonymous.  And then another one, found in the book we are now studying, which verse we looked at last week, Col. 1:18 “He (that is Christ) is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything.” Again the church and the body of Christ are synonymous, and furthermore, it says that He will have first place in everything. You might rephrase that to say that the church, Christ’s body is to be the number one priority in every situation.  I wish I could say that proved to be true in our experience.  But I’m afraid that for most 21st century Christians, the church is not their number one priority. However, the confession that Jesus is Lord means that He is to have preeminence in all things.

So anyway, in spite of being an expositional preacher, I have managed to preach a series of messages on the church which have come from our exposition of Romans and Colossians.  This series began with the worship of the church, then the essentiality of the church, then the love of the church, the edification of the church, the  model for the church, the fruit of the church, and the saints of the church. That finished up Romans, and as we began Colossians I skipped a few verses so that we might continue our series with Christ, the Head of the Church.  Now this week, I will probably conclude this series with what I will call the Prayer for the Church.

Paul begins this epistle, after a short introduction, with a prayer for the church at Colossians. And I will suggest to you that his prayer for the church, should become a model for the  prayer of the church.  We might learn to pray by studying Paul’s prayer, so that we might pray more effectively.

The scriptures make much of prayer.  Jesus made much of prayer. The One who would seem to need prayer the least, prayed the most.  Jesus spent many an entire night in prayer on a lonely mountain top. His last night on earth He spent praying for the disciples in the Upper Room, and then praying in the Garden of Gethsemane with the disciples before He was arrested.  And you will remember that Jesus implored the disciples to pray with Him, to keep watch for just an hour, and yet they fell asleep.

Isn’t it amazing that Jesus desired the disciples to pray with Him?  At this point they weren’t exactly spiritual giants. And yet Jesus wanted them to pray.  But Jesus wanted them to pray not only for Him, but for their own sake.  Notice He said to them in Matt. 26:41 “Keep watching and praying that you may not enter into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” I can assure you that a life that is prayerful, is a holy life. It is one in which temptation rarely overtakes you.  It produces a life that is focused on the Lord.  It produces a victorious life.

Now in scripture we are encouraged to pray for the church, for one another, and for ourselves.  In Ephesians Paul indicates that prayer is an essential weapon of the church. After listing the spiritual armor needed for spiritual warfare, he says in Eph. 6:18-20, “With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints,  and [pray] on my behalf, that utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in [proclaiming] it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.”  Prayer is direct communication with God.  And we are to pray at all times, for all the saints, that is the church, and for those who minister to us in preaching the word of God.

There are many such encouragements to pray found in scripture, but another one that I want to mention is found in Philippians 4:6 “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” Over my lifetime I have probably quoted this verse literally thousands of times in prayer to God.  A great strategy of prayer is to speak back the promises of scripture to God.

Philippians 4:6 has a lot of important points that can be made concerning prayer and the peace of God which is given in response to our prayer.   But what I would like to draw your attention to is two components of prayer which are laid out in that verse.  And the two components of prayer are supplication, which also can be translated as petition, and thanksgiving, which may also be translated as praise. Petition and thanksgiving.

Now I point that out because that is the same method that Paul employs here in his prayer for the church.  He begins his prayer with thanksgiving, praising God for certain things that are true concerning the Colossians.  Then he moves on to petitions on behalf of the Colossian church, and then he sums it all up with another burst of thanksgiving at the end of his prayer.

Notice first of all that Paul mentions that he prays always for the church at Colassae. Perseverance is essential to prayer.  In the verse from Ephesians 6 that I read  a moment ago the apostle exhorts us that “With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit.”  I think how we pray is secondary to how often we pray.  The frequency of prayer is important.  Persevering in prayer is important.  Staying in an attitude of prayer.  Prayer should be strategic.  Daniel prayed three times a day, everyday.  And look at the life he lived and how God blessed him, even to the point of this political exile being made an advisor to kings. 

Jesus taught a parable in Luke 18:1 “to show that at all times they ought to pray and not to lose heart.”  In that parable He equated prayer with a woman who came constantly before the king, so that he was afraid that she would wear him out if he did not grant her request. And in 1Thess. 5:17 we are told to “pray without ceasing.” So, it’s important that we pray frequently, which Paul says he does for the church.

Secondly, notice that Paul begins with thanksgiving to God for the faith that was found among the Colossian church.  Thanksgiving, as I pointed out earlier, is an important ingredient of our prayers.  Paul told Timothy in 1Tim. 2:1-2 “First of all, then, I urge that entreaties [and] prayers, petitions [and] thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all men, for kings and all who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity.”

But notice Paul gives thanks to God for their faith.  Faith is an individual decision.  But it is also a gift from God.  Ephesians 2:8 says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, [it is] the gift of God.”  So we pray that God would grant to a person the gift of faith.  That their eyes might be opened so that they will believe the truth.  I think salvation can be correlated to giving sight to a blind person.  God has to open a person’s heart to believe in order for them to receive Christ by faith.  And so faith is something we can thank God for, in the case of the church, but it’s also something we should ask God for, in the case of an unbeliever. 

Notice also that faith is not simply believing in the existence of God, nor believing in the existence of Jesus.  But it is faith in the work of Christ.  Paul says he is “praying always for you,

since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love which you have for all the saints;

because of the hope laid up for you in heaven, of which you previously heard in the word of truth, the gospel.”  Paul says their faith came as the result of hearing the word of truth, the gospel.  

He says in Rom 10:17 “So faith [comes] from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.”  The word of Christ is the truth of the gospel.  And the truth of the gospel is that God sent His Son Jesus the Messiah to earth to die for our sins.  Recognizing you are a sinner, that you are in need of a Savior, that you are in need of forgiveness, and repenting of your sin, believing that Jesus died in your place to pay the penalty of your sin, and that He rose from the dead and ascended to the Father in heaven- that is the gospel.  Faith in Christ’s gospel is saving faith. The Bible says that even the devils believe in God, but they are not saved.  Saving faith is believing much more than simply that God exists, and it starts with repentance of your sin. 

So thanksgiving is being thankful for the gift of salvation.  Then Paul adds to that thankfulness for the fruit of the gospel as it is being sown throughout the world.  He says at the end of vs 5, “the gospel which has come to you, just as in all the world also it is constantly bearing fruit and increasing, even as it has been doing in you also since the day you heard of it and understood the grace of God in truth.”

Jesus gave a parable about the sower who went out to sow and some fell on good ground, some found on stoney ground, some fell beside the road and so forth. I’m sure you all are familiar with the parable. But the point I want to emphasize is when Jesus explained the parable He made it clear that the seed the sower was spreading was the word of God. And the seed which fell on good soil is the man who hears the word and understands it and who brings forth fruit. 

That’s why Paul continues in his thanksgiving for Epaphras, who had ministered the word to the Colossians and had brought back the good news to Paul of the bearing of fruit that was occurring in the church there. It would seem that Paul had never been to Colossae, but Epaphras was likely the minister to the church, and his faithfulness to proclaim the word resulted in the fruit that was evident in the lives of the Colossians. We are to sow the seed, but it is God that gives the increase.

And in vs 8 Paul tells us what  the fruit of the church is,  saying, “and he also informed us of your love in the Spirit.”  In Galatians 5:22 Paul identifies the primary fruit of the Spirit is love. And in 1Cor. 13:13 he says concerning spiritual gifts; “But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love.” It’s interesting to note that in this prayer, Paul is thankful for their faith, in vs 4, their hope in vs 5, and their love in vs 6.  Love is the fruit of their salvation. Love for God and love for one another. Love is not just some sort of sentimental expression, but speaking the truth in love.  Love is being concerned about another person’s benefit.  And the greatest benefit that anyone could receive is to be saved, to be delivered from darkness and transferred to the church of Christ.  Telling someone that they are a sinner, that there is forgiveness by faith in Christ’s gospel, and telling them the truth even if it hurts your relationship is really acting in love. Love is not concealing the truth because you’re afraid of offending them.  Love is speaking the truth to a lost and dying world.

So Paul begins his prayer for the Colossians with thanksgiving.  Not simply because it is some formula, a way to somehow butter God up with praise so then you can ask Him for what you really want.  But because thankfulness shapes your perspective.  Thanksgiving for what God has done gives us confidence that God cares, and that God can and will help us, because He has so graciously helped us in the past. Thanksgiving releases an intercession which is formed out of blessing and not out of crisis.  It’s a certainty that there will be times of crisis, but our prayer life should not be founded on a response to crisis, but out of a response to blessing.  And when we realize our blessings, we should be inspired to offer up even more prayers and petitions to God from whom all blessings come.

“For this reason” then, Paul says in vs 9, he offers up specific petitions on behalf of the Colossians. Because of his thankfulness for God’s blessings of faith, hope and love in the life of the Colossians, he is spurred to ask God to specifically fill them “with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy.” 

Paul prays specifically, so let’s look specifically at what he is petitioning God for.  First, that God would fill the church with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. Spiritual understanding is discernment. I believe that is a spiritual gift that is too often undervalued in the church.  Spiritual discernment is the gift to be able to rightly divide the word of truth, to be able to discern false teaching, and determine false spirits. Lord knows there is a great need for that today.  And in Colossae, they also had a need to discern the false teaching that was gaining a foothold in their church doctrine.  I’m not going to go all into it today, but there was some sort of teaching which promised a deeper level of Christianity, which actually wasn’t the true gospel at all.  Some level of teaching which promised a deeper experience which was not based on sound doctrine.

But Paul knows that true knowledge of the will of God comes from wisdom and the discernment which is given by the Holy Spirit, and that does not lead to some “deeper experience” that the false teachers were teaching, but it results (as he says in vs 10) “in a walk worthy of the Lord, being pleasing to Him, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God.”  True knowledge produces a holy walk.  Christian doctrine is not just head knowledge, but it’s applied in day to day life.  It results in a different walk, a different life.

Paul details this walk as being pleasing to the Lord.  We talked about that last week.  If you love the Lord, you will seek to please Him, to serve Him, to be found pleasing to Him. Furthermore, a true walk results in being fruitful in every good work.  Ephesians 2:10 says, “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.”  Our walk is to do the works of Christ, to love one another, to serve the Lord in sowing the seed of the gospel. 

And finally this walk of faith involves growing in the knowledge of God. How do we do that?  We study His word.  We come to the true knowledge of God through HIs word. That is the only way we can truly know God is through His word.  His word is the only barometer of truth that we have.  Even if you had an experience in which you believed God directly spoke to you, you would still have to judge the truth of it by God’s word. To do anything less is to leave yourself open to being deceived.  

To know Christ is to love Him. We grow in our love for the Lord through reading His word, by meditating on Him. And as we know more of Him, we love Him more, and if we love Him more, we will keep His commandments, ie, do the things that are pleasing to Him.

Paul continues his prayer, petitioning God that specifically they would be “strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience.” Notice Paul prays that they would be strengthened by the power of God in order to be steadfast.  What does steadfast mean?  It means faithful, loyal, without wavering.  It carries the idea of standing fast in the storms and trials of life.  

In Ephesians 4:14-15 Paul speaks of stedfastness, saying, “As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming;  but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all [aspects] into Him who is the head, [even] Christ.”  The Colossians were in danger of being tossed about by a new wind of doctrine, and as such were in danger of spiritual shipwreck.  Paul’s prayer was that God would strengthen them so that they would be found to be stedfast, immoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord. (1 Cor. 15:58)

And that they would be strengthened to attain patience. Patience means endurance, perseverance, longsuffering.  Steadfastness and patience are basically synonyms, but with perhaps a different emphasis.  Patience has more a sense of endurance.  James speaks of trials producing endurance.  James 1:2-4 “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials,  knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.  And let endurance have [its] perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”

It’s interesting that Paul links joy with patience as well here in vs 11.  But also notice that though the idea of trials is indicated in his prayer, Paul doesn’t ask God to take them out of the trial, but to give them endurance and steadfastness as they go through the trial.  Because as James indicates, the trial is God’s means of refining us, of strengthening us, and giving us confidence in God.  So many times our prayers in crisis mode is “Lord deliver me.  Get me out of this!” But Paul prays “Lord, be with them as they go through trials, and give them steadfastness and endurance so that they come out of it perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

Finally, Paul concludes His prayer for the church with a final round of thanksgiving.  Vs 12, “joyously giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in Light.”  I believe that Paul here is giving thanks for the suffering that they were called to endure.  The inheritance that God qualified them to share in is not just the glory of heaven, but the sufferings on earth.  This is the biggest challenge yet to our prayer life.  To joyously give thanks to God for our sufferings. 

But I would remind you of the attitude of Peter and John who when they were arrested and scourged and thrown in prison, went away rejoicing that they had been counted worthy to suffer for the Lord’s sake.  Why would you have that perspective?  

Well, the answer may be found in Romans 8:16-18 “The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God,  and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with [Him] so that we may also be glorified with [Him.]  For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.”

We can rejoice because we have been counted worthy to share in the sufferings of Christ. Even our trials can be the source of blessing.  And as Paul makes it clear in Romans, if we suffer with Him here, we shall be glorified with Him there.  And the glory that we shall enjoy there, cannot be compared to the suffering that we share in here.  As we saw last Wednesday in our Bible study in 2 Cor. 4:17-18 “For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison,  while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.”

The key to enduring with patience the trials that are set before us is to pray at all times, pray without ceasing, giving thanks in all things with all prayer and supplication.  Phl 4:6-7  “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”  Amen.

Posted in Sermons | Tags: beach church, church on the beach, worship on the beach |

The Head of the Church, Colossians 1:13-20

Oct

18

2020

thebeachfellowship

Today we are beginning a new book of the New Testament, which normally we study verse by verse, and chapter by chapter.  But I am going to break tradition with this one, and start in the middle of chapter one.  I may end up circling back to the beginning material at some later date.  But I am doing it this way because I want to continue in a series of sorts that was begun in our study of Romans which we finished last week.  

As you will remember, starting with chapter 12 of Romans we began to look at a series of expositions about the church.  Practical applications of life in the church.  And we had a series of messages dealing with the church, such as the worship of the church, the essentiality of the church, the love of the church, the edification of the church, the  model for the church, the fruit of the church, and the saints of the church.

Now I had it in my mind that we were going to start Colossians after we finished Romans for quite some time.  However as I was studying the book, I was really taken with this particular passage in chapter one vs 13-20, and it’s theme of Jesus, the head of the church.  And so I felt this passage was a perfect continuation or better, a consummation of this series of messages on the church.  And so I thought I would forego for now the introductory remarks which are at the beginning of this epistle, and jump right in to this passage which makes the case for Christ, the head of the church.

We should all be well versed by now though with the doctrine that to become a member of Christ’s church we do not sign a paper, or submit to a vote by the congregation, or any manner of various means by which people join a church, but if you are to be a member of Christ’s church you must be born again.  Jesus said to Nicodemus that you must be born again to enter the kingdom of God, and that means you are born of the Spirit. 

How you are born again is spelled out in great detail in Romans.  And that rebirth is summarized in Romans 10:9 and 10 which says, “that if you confess with your mouth Jesus [as] Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved;  for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.”

The key to salvation then is believing, confessing Jesus as Lord.  And I would like to lay stress on that for a moment.  Jesus is Lord is the confession of a Christian.  In Paul’s day, the Christians were arrested and charged with treason against the emperor.  They were given the option of saving their life by making the confession “Caesar is Lord.”  Caesar demanded to be worshiped as a god.  And of course, Christians were unable to make that confession and so many of them lost their life.

So to confess Jesus as Lord is to confess that He is God, that He is to be worshipped.  That to Him belongs all power and authority. That from Him is life and peace. If Jesus is Lord, ie Sovereign, Master, Lord of all, then all we have belongs to Him – our life, our possessions, our will, our destiny.  Christ is Lord of all. And we must submit to that.

Christ is Sovereign Lord.  And a sovereign speaks of a kingdom.  Lord is a title given to a ruler. And so as Paul says in vs 13, through salvation God has made us members of Christ’s kingdom.  Vs 13 “For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son,  in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”

What that verse teaches is that we once belonged to another kingdom.  2 Timothy 2:25 tells us that we once were held captive by Satan’s kingdom, to do his will.  “with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth,  and they may come to their senses [and escape] from the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to do his will.” So we were held captive by the domain of darkness, or the realm of darkness, the dominion of darkness.  All of which is another way of saying the kingdom of darkness.  Satan is referred to in scripture as the prince of this world, the prince of the power of the air.  And so Satan is the prince of this kingdom of darkness. 

We were once held captive in the dominion of Satan. But through salvation we have been delivered, rescued and made part of the kingdom of Christ.  And I say to you that the kingdom of Christ is no less than the church of Christ. They are one and the same.  They are synonymous.   Jesus said in John 18:36 “My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, then My servants would be fighting so that I would not be handed over to the Jews; but as it is, My kingdom is not of this realm.”  The kingdom of Christ is the called out ones, the eklesia, the church of Christ, the assembly of believers, the saints of the Lord Jesus Christ.

We see this echoed in Eph. 1:19-23 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 and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly [places,] far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church,  which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.”

Notice back in our text that Paul says we were transferred to the kingdom of His Son. The word that is translated “transferred” had a special significance in the world at that time.  When one kingdom conquered another, the custom was to take the population of the defeated empire and transfer it completely to the conqueror’s kingdom.  I believe that is what Paul referred to in Ephesians 4:8 when he said that when Jesus rose from the dead, he took captivity captive.  We that we held captive to Satan’s realm have been transferred completely into God’s kingdom.  Everything we have and everything we are now belongs to Him.  

But this victory was not accomplished without the shedding of blood.  Paul says “In whom we have redemption.”  Redemption means the release of the captive by a legal ransom. And the price for our redemption was paid with the blood of Jesus, securing not only our freedom, but also the forgiveness of our sins.  Christ’s death was the legal satisfaction for the debt of our sin which we could never pay.

Then starting in vs 15, we have one of the most comprehensive statements of Christ’s divinity and His Lordship that can be found in the New Testament. Many Bible scholars think that Colossians 1:15-20 came from a hymn of the early church that described what Christians believed about Jesus. And that seems to be a possibility, but it can’t be proven conclusively.  Nevertheless, it stands as a magnificent statement about the divinity and Lordship of  Jesus Christ. 

Paul says in vs 15, “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.”  We should all be aware that the Bible states that God is Spirit, and thus He is invisible to the human eye, and that no man has ever seen Him.  But Paul says that Jesus is the image of the invisible God. 

One theologian told a story of a little boy who was drawing pictures on the floor one day as his mother was working nearby. And she said to him, “what are you drawing?”  The little boy replied, “I’m drawing a picture of God.”  The mother knew her theology though, so she said, “But no one knows what God looks like.”  The little boy responded, “Well, they will when I get through!” 

The application to Jesus is this.  The life and work of Jesus Christ created an exact image of the invisible attributes of God. What Paul meant was that Jesus was the perfect likeness and manifestation of the nature of God.  He is the great and final theophany.  The word translated image is eikon, from which the word for photography is derived.  So that we might say that we see Jesus as a photograph of God. He is the exact representation of the nature of God.

We find that same description by the author of Hebrews in chapter 1 vs 3; “[The Son] is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of the [Father’s] nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power.”  We cannot see God, but we can see Jesus, who is the exact image of God.  Remember when Philip said to Jesus “show us the Father.” And Jesus said, “if you have seen Me you have seen the Father.” “The Father and I are One.” 

Then notice that Paul says Christ is the first born of all creation. Some cults have wrongly used this verse to support their belief that Jesus was created.  Some even go so far as to say He is just a higher order of the angels, a brother of Lucifer.  That erroneous view seems to be some of the error of the Colossians to which Paul had written this letter, in an attempt to correct a false theology that was creeping into the church doctrine.

But first born has in this sense as Paul is using it as the heir, the owner, the possessor of Creation.  Dr. Carl Henry, regarded as one of the greatest theologians of his day said, “it should be translated as the Primeval Creator of all created things.” So Jesus is the one who possesses, as heir or owner, all things that are created.

Therefore, when Paul says, “Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation” He’s not saying that the Lord Jesus was the first created.  But in regards to his divine person, he is the eternal Son to whom belongs all things. In the OT, we see in the lives of the patriarchs this principle of the firstborn son who inherited everything of the father’s estate.  So firstborn signifies ownership, being the heir of all things, not a created entity.

This word, prototokos, which is used here for firstborn, is a term that has special significance. It is used in the translation of the passage in Psalm 89:27: “I also shall make him [My] firstborn, The highest of the kings of the earth.”  Furthermore,  in the Greek language, there was another word that meant first created, which is protoktisis. That word is never used of the Lord Jesus. They never say that he was first created, though the word was available to them. But in Scripture as a whole, when it says that He is the first born of the whole creation, it means that He is the heir of all creation.

Then in vs 16 he says Jesus is the Creator. “For by Him all things were created, [both] in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities–all things have been created through Him and for Him.”  Jesus is the creator of all things. Perhaps Paul lays stress on this doctrine, again for the sake of the Colossians error, to emphasize that Jesus was not created, but that He is the Creator of all things.

Notice Paul uses three prepositional phrases.  “All things were created through Him.” “All things were created by Him.” “All things were created for Him.”  All things were created through Him refers to the design of creation. Jesus was the architect of creation.  All things were created by Him refers to the fact that He is the builder of creation. And all things were created for Him means that everything was made for His glory.

One may illustrate it by the construction of a building.  The architect designs and draws the plans of the building. Then the builder  constructs the building according to the plans. And then when the building was finished, the building is used by the owner for their own purposes.

In the case of the creation, to apply that analogy, the Lord Jesus Christ is responsible for this universe as the designer, the architect. Further, he was the builder, all things have been made by Him. John 1:3 says “All things were made by Him; and without Him was not any thing made that was made.” And furthermore this whole creation, not only physically what we see about us, the earth and the heavens that we see, but the whole universe, visible and invisible is designed and built to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ.

Then perhaps again as an effort to correct the bad theology pervading the Colossian church, Paul emphasizes that even the invisible angels, described as thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities are created by Him.  Paul uses similar language to describe the dominion of darkness in Eph. 6:12 “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high [places].”  So that we might agree with the people of Jesus’s day, who said that even the demons are subject to Him.  Jesus created them and thus He has authority over them.

Now he goes on to say, not simply that he’s the architect and the builder and the one for whom the creation has been constructed, but He is superior to all things and He sustains all things.  Notice the 17th verse, “He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.” Before all things speaks not only of chronology, but also of superiority.   He is over all, before all, superior to all.  There is no one before Him. Chronologically speaking, He is before all, because He was from the beginning with God.  John 1 says , “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, The same was in the beginning with God.”  So Jesus is before all things and superior to all things and furthermore He sustains all things.

Paul says, “In Him all things hold together.”  He is the glue that holds the universe together.  Do you know that science tells us that the world is traveling through space around the sun about 67,000 mph?  Then in addition to that it is spinning at 1,040 mph.  How does the world keep it together with all these forces moving upon it?  The answer is that the power of Jesus Christ holds all things together.  Now that may be difficult for you to believe.  But I say to you that for me it is harder to believe that scientists say we are hurtling through space at 67,000 mlles per hour while spinning over a thousand miles per hour and yet the hair on my head is hardly moving. I’m not sure which takes more faith, to believe in science or to believe that Jesus holds all things together.  I choose to believe the scriptures. 

So Jesus is the Lord of creation, but he’s also Lord of the new creation. Notice the 18th verse. After having said that he’s the Lord of the first creation, Paul says, “He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything.”

Notice Paul says He is the head of the body, the church.  In 1Cor. 12:27 Paul says to the church, “Now you are Christ’s body, and individually members of it.”  That’s an amazing thing to consider, that we are called the body of Christ. Not just body as in an assembly, but body as a physical part of Christ. That’s hard to fully comprehend.  And yet it is more than an analogy, it’s a reality. The church is a new creation. The Spirit of Christ lives in us, so that we are His body on earth.  We are His hands, His feet, and we do His works, His deeds.  We speak His words. We accomplish His will. 

And Paul says, Christ is the head of the body. That indicates how inseparable the church is  from Christ even as our head is essential to the life of our bodies.  He’s the head of the body. The head and the body are not the same. The church  is called the body of Christ. It’s not called the body of Christians. And the reason for that is very simple because the church is His.  The head expresses ownership. Authority is suggested by head. Control is suggested by head. He’s the head of the body. He’s the head of the church. And consequently he controls the church. He owns the church. He has authority over the church. And also the head  refers to Jesus’ role as source of the life of the church,  similar to how we refer to the head of a river as the source.

So to put it another way the head refers to Christ’s relationship to the church. We are related to the head who is in heaven. And if we are to live a life that is acceptable to the Lord God, we must be submissive to the head, to the Lord Jesus in a personal sense. And as a body of believers who are under shepherds, it’s most important for them and for us to be under Him and to look to him for control and guidance and authority in the things that we do.

He’s the head of the body, the church for this reason, that he is the beginning and he’s the first born from the dead.  He’s the firstborn from the dead, because he’s the first and only one  to break the power of death. He triumphed over death in His resurrection, and He has the keys of death and Hades as a result.  He is head of the church, supreme and sovereign over it. Government is not in control nor does it have authority over the church. Only Christ has authority.  We acknowledge Christ alone as our head.  Not Peter, not the Pope, not the president or potentate.  But Christ alone is the head of the church.

Vs 18 says, “So that He might have first place, or preeminence in everything.”  First place, not second place or third place.  Jesus is preeminent in our worship.  Paul summarizes the doctrine of Christ by saying that Christ is to have first place in everything.  Jesus is fully God. Paul speaks in vs19 of the fullness of deity dwelling in Christ by saying, “For it was the [Father’s] good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him.”  The noted theologian Lightfoot says, The word fullness was “a recognized technical term in theology, denoting the totality of the Divine powers and attributes.” So Jesus is fully God.  And because He is God He is to have first place in our worship.  He is to have first place in the church. He is to have first place in our life.

Paul says, “And through Him to reconcile all things to Himself.”  One day, the scriptures tell us, every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess Jesus is Lord.  Those who do so today, by faith, receive salvation and forgiveness of sins.  They receive a part in the kingdom of heaven and are transferred into His church.  But one day at the consummation of the age, Jesus will return to earth, and every eye shall see Him, and every knee will bow, and the kingdoms of this world will submit to the kingdom of Christ.  Phil. 2:9-11 says “For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name,  so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth,  and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

When Paul says Christ made peace through the blood of the cross, that speaks to us of the real, physical death of Jesus Christ in our place, on our behalf, before God by which we are redeemed and receive forgiveness of sin. Faith in HIs  literal death in our place, and the literal judgment He bore on our behalf, is what saves us.  But those who do not believe  will not be saved, but nevertheless, all will one day bow, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.

I want to conclude today by proclaiming to you that there is a standing invitation by the head of the church to come and be a part of His body, to confess Jesus as Lord.  At the end of Revelation, after all the warnings and pictures of those who rebelled against the sovereignty of Christ has been foretold, Christ gives an invitation to anyone who hears to come to Him and be saved, to become a part of His body.  He says in Revelation 22:17, “The Spirit and the bride (that is the church) say, “Come.” And let the one who hears say, “Come.” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who wishes take the water of life without cost.”  That invitation still stands.  Redemption has been made possible by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ as the payment for your sins.  Come to Him today and find deliverance and be transferred into HIs kingdom, His church.

Posted in Sermons | Tags: beach church, church on the beach, worship on the beach |

The Saints of the Church, Romans 16

Oct

11

2020

thebeachfellowship

We have come today to the end of the epistle to the Romans.  It’s been a long, somewhat arduous journey.  Romans is a very thorough, very dense, theological treatise in the form of a  long letter to the Roman church from the Apostle Paul.  And as I have said quite frequently lately, the first 11 chapters were almost strictly theological, but the second part of the book beginning with chapter 12 are very practical.

Now they are practical because these last 5 chapters are dealing with the life of the church.  The first 11 chapters tell us how we receive life from God, how we are made a part of the church, that’s the theological section, and the last five chapters tell us how we are to live as the church, that’s the practical application.

Starting in chapter 12 we looked at how we worship as the church, the essentiality of church, the love of the church, the church’s attitude towards the world, towards their neighbor, and towards government.  Then we looked at the edification of the church, the model of the church, and the fruit of the church.  Finally, today we are looking at the saints of the church.  

Now I could just as easily say the people of the church, but I wanted to use saint because the apostle uses that word to describe Christians. Saint means holy one.  We need to understand that there is a difference between a saint and a sinner.  Yes, in one sense we are  sinners saved by grace.  But when we are saved we are no longer sinners, but saints.  We have been set apart, we have been sanctified.  We have been transformed.  We have been changed.  We no longer are controlled by our sin nature, but we are now controlled by our new nature, and that new nature is a new spirit which is born of God.

I feel a need to make that distinction because I see too many people who claim to be Christians and yet they are not living a holy life.  They are still trapped in their sin. They are still living in the world. And that’s evident when you talk to them.  They come to church, they move their mouth when we sing, they may drop some money in the offering box, but when you begin to talk to them it’s apparent that they are still living in sin. Listen,  Christ died on the cross not to make it possible for you to have God’s blessing on your business, not to give you perfect health, not just to deliver you from your crisis, but He died to cleanse you from sin.  He died so that you might have life, spiritual life, a life of consecrated holiness to the Lord.  He died to deliver you from the bondage of sin, to escape the corruption of the world, and to live for Him. And that is why the early church were called saints.  That is why you are called saints.  Dead people are not saints, but living people are saints who live sanctified, holy, obedient lives for God.  That is what the church is populated by, not just people who have a similar economic or cultural or moral background, but a people who have been changed from sinners to saints.

John Newton, who wrote the famous hymn Amazing Grace, was a slave trader before he was converted and eventually became a minister.  And John Newton wrote a famous line which says, ““I am not what I ought to be, I am not what I want to be, I am not what I hope to be in another world; but still I am not what I once used to be, and by the grace of God I am what I am.”  I am not what I once used to be.  That should be the testimony of every man and woman here.  And if it is not, then you need to examine whether or not you have been truly saved.

In 1 Cor. chapter 6, Paul talks about sinners, how as unrighteous they will not enter the kingdom of God.  And he describes the unrighteous as fornicators,  idolaters,  adulterers,  effeminate,  homosexuals, thieves, covetous,  drunkards, revilers, and swindlers.  He pretty much covers the gamut of sinful activity.  And then he says and “Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.”  There was not only a change in position, but a change in behavior, from sinner to saint.  And so in almost all his epistles, he addresses those in the churches as saints.  And so it is in Romans 1, in his salutation “to all who are beloved of God in Rome, called as saints.”

So the people of the church are the saints of God.  A holy people, set apart and sanctified by God.  And as was the  typical format of letters in those days, at the end of the letter Paul addresses certain saints of the church that he knows of, either through prior association with or by reputation. 

Now this chapter is one that is largely skipped over by the majority of pastors, and I can’t say that I blame them.  Just reading the names listed here is difficult enough, much less coming up with a three point outline from this chapter. But I believe there are some very instructive things that are tucked into this final chapter which should be helpful to us as well.  Because the church is the people. It’s not a building, it’s not a denomination, it’s not an organization.  It’s the holy people of God.  And here we have some insight into what that looked like in the first century.

Now there are some general observations that we can take from this, and then we will look at a few particular people, and then a warning and a blessing upon the church.  First some general observations.  From history, and which is also confirmed in this passage, we know that there were not any church buildings associated with the early church until the middle of the third century.  For the first 250 years or so, the saints met in homes of various members.  Probably the more wealthy members of the church had the largest homes, and so they would have likely been the home they met in.

Also, as we can see from this passage, there was usually more than one church home in a city.  There are at least three mentioned here in this chapter, and possibly more. Perhaps they followed the pattern of the Jewish community, where synagogues were regularly spaced throughout the city.  They were not allowed to travel more than a Sabbath day’s journey to go to the synagogue, and so they would have one in every community.  And the standard was that if the community had at least 10 men then they could establish a synagogue.  I think a similar principle would have been in operation in the NT church. Not that they were prohibited from travel, but they were limited in the size of their houses as to how many people could gather together as a church.

I think a lack of understanding about these house churches has led to a greater misunderstanding in regards to church formation today.  When Paul and Barnabas established elders in all the churches in Acts 14:23, some have erroneously, in my opinion, thought that established the principle of a plurality of elders for every church.  But what it  actually says is they established elders in every church.  In other words, every church, every house church, they established an elder, or an overseerer, or what we might call today a pastor. After all, if a church had only 20 – 40 members in it,  if you had the principle that there must be a plurality of elders you would end up with all chiefs and no Indians.  There are some churches today that ascribe to that idea of a plurality of elders, but I don’t see  evidence for that in scripture.

Notice another thing about this church at Rome.  Paul mentions only 29 people by name, but indicates there were more with the phrase “in their house.”  “In their house” indicates there was a church in their house, and we have already said there are at least 3 house churches mentioned in Rome.  Once again, that indicates small, intimate groups of believers who met in homes as a local congregation, with a local pastor or elder.  And yet there would have been a recognition and even fellowship and sense of community with other congregations in the city.

Another thing worth noting in the names on this list is the fact that at least 30 percent are women.  That is striking in a culture that did not recognize women as much more than property.  But we can see that in the church they were highly valued.  They filled important roles in the church.  Not necessarily leadership roles, but then it is important in church that there are workers and not just all leaders. What’s amazing to consider is that God immortalizes so many people in these churches who were just average, otherwise unknown individuals who come from every walk of life.  Commentators tell us that many of this list were slaves, some were nobles, some were civic leaders, some were undoubtedly poor.  And yet they were unified in the church.  There was no recognition of rank or privilege in the church, and if one did have money or position according to natural means, then it was used for the benefit of the church.

What else is amazing is that this list shows us that there was a good amount of travel going on in the Roman culture. Fro instance, Aquila and Priscilla were first in Rome, then Corinth, then Ephesus, and then back in Rome again at the time of this letter. People traveled and lived in various places in the Roman Empire.  They had that sort of freedom under Roman rule, and the famous Roman road system obviously helped in that regard.  In fact,  the gospel was more easily carried throughout the Roman Empire by the fact that Rome had established a sort of peace throughout the known world, and their highway system enabled commerce and travel at an unprecedented pace, all of which contributed to the spread of the gospel. 

Now let’s look at few particulars regarding certain individuals.  First of all, Paul mentions Phoebe. “I commend unto you Phoebe our sister, who is a servant of the church which is in Cenchrea.”  It’’s widely believed that Phoebe was the one who carried the letter to the Romans from Paul.  It’s likely that she was a business woman, and so by this commendation from Paul the church so that they would accept her and show hospitality to her.  But most importantly, she is described as a servant of the church.  The word rendered servant is the same word from which we get the word deacon.  That doesn’t mean that she was a deacon in position in a church, however.  The word also can simply mean servant, or server. It was used to describe those who served in any capacity.  There are some churches that I am afraid have once again failed to interpret this passage correctly and from it have come to the conclusion that women are to hold positions of leadership in the church in the form of deacons or even ministers.  But that’s the danger of taking a indirect reference such as this and trying to use it as a proof text to substantiate a preconceived objective because of cultural preference. Paul’s letters to Timothy in regards to church organization and it’s ministers’ qualifications makes it clear that it does not permit women in church leadership, but simply to state this woman risked much to serve the church in the capacity of bringing the epistle to them.

Other saints of note in Paul’s epistle are his friends and coworkers in the faith, Aquila and Priscilla. It would seem from the text that they had a church in their house. That seems to be the case with this couple no matter where they were.  They were always serving the Lord and hosting the church in their house, whether in Ephesus or Rome.  Aquila and Priscilla are mentioned about 6 different times in the NT, and sometimes Priscilla is mentioned first, and sometimes Aquila.  And once again some teachers who perhaps have an agenda have tried to say that since Priscilla is mentioned first more often than her husband, that means that she was the one that was the teacher, the leader, and not her husband.  I think that’s another case of trying to find proof for an agenda that the Bible does not support.  I think it might say something about her personality, or about her character, but it is a real stretch to find support for something that 1 Timothy makes quite clear, saying that woman are not to teach in the church.  Scripture does not contradict scripture.  And when it seems to, then you must reevaluate your interpretation, not change Biblical doctrine.

Paul says that Aquila and Priscilla risked their own necks for his sake, and that all the churches owed them a debt of gratitude for their service to the Lord.  He goes on to mention Epaenetus, who was the first one saved in Achaia of Paul’s ministry.  He had a special place in Paul’s heart. 

Then Andronicus and Junia. These were apparently Jews (he calls them my kinsmen) and were imprisoned for the sake of the gospel (my fellow prisoners). They were well regarded among the apostles, having become Christians even before Paul did.  Notice it doesn’t say they were apostles, but they were of note among the apostles.  I think that means the apostles had selected them for special responsibilities to the church.

Then he mentions Amplias, of whom we are told there is found a tomb in the earliest Christian  catacombs with that name.  Then he mentions the household of Aristobulus.  Aristobulus is believed to be the brother of King Herod Agrippa. He was not a Christian himself but many of his slaves evidently were. He mentions Tryphena and Tryphosa, obviously names for ladies. Their names mean dainty and delicate, or something like that. But notice how Paul describes them, “Those women who work hard in the Lord.” So these ladies of likely noble birth, who are dainty and delicate but they work hard in the Lord.

He mentions, “Greet Rufus,” whose name means ‘red’. That’s interesting because in Mark chapter 15 there’s a passage about a man named Simon of Cyrene, who was pressed into service to carry the cross of Jesus.  He had two sons, Alexander and Rufus, and it is believed the whole family came to know the Lord as the result of Simon witnessing the crucifixion of Jesus. Tradition says that Alexander was martyred for the faith, but Rufus is now in Rome as a servant of the church there.  Paul calls the mother of Rufus his mother, indicating that at some point it’s likely that Paul lived with his family and was befriended by them.

Paul continues in vs 14, “Greet Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermas, Patrobas, Hermes, and the brethren who are with them. Greet Philologus and Julia, Nereus and his sister, and Olympas, and all the saints who are with them.” I think it’s interesting to note how often relatives are mentioned together, as well as people who are of the same household.  It’s illustrative of the way the gospel is spread, from one family member to another, from house to house, neighbor to neighbor. I think that kind of ministry is the key to effective church growth.  Our witness begins in our home, with our loved ones, and then to our neighbors, and then to the community. But far too often today I feel our family members are excluded from church rather than included. When our unsaved relatives come to visit, that’s an excuse not to come to church, rather than viewed as an opportunity for them to hear the gospel.

Then note the personal affection Paul says is needed in the church.  Vs.16; “Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the churches of Christ greet you.”  I wonder about such statements, whether or not God anticipated the Covid virus.  That must have been such a shock for God, to find out that we can communicate germs to one another if we come closer than six feet. I mean, I think it’s prudent if you’re sick that you don’t sneeze on people, you don’t drink after people, you don’t kiss people if you’re sick.  But somehow, someway, sooner or later there needs to be a return to normal behavior, and that includes shaking hands, kissing, touching, putting your arm around someone, or some form of showing affection.  

I will say, however,  that this kissing was not sexual in nature, but a perfunctory greeting in this part of the world.  And it still is common today in a lot of places.  It was usually a kiss on the cheek, maybe on both cheeks.  But it demonstrates a willingness to let down your guard, to acknowledge in a public way your affection and friendship.  That kind of brotherly love is necessary in the church.  Christian love is not just spiritual, but it also must be physical. Kissing isn’t customary in our society, but shaking hands is, hugging someone is. And Paul indicates here that such a physical sign of affection is essential to the church.

Then in the 17th verse Paul gives a warning to the church. “Now I urge you, brethren, keep your eye on those who cause dissensions and hindrances contrary to the teaching which you learned, and turn away from them.  For such men are slaves, not of our Lord Christ but of their own appetites; and by their smooth and flattering speech they deceive the hearts of the unsuspecting.  For the report of your obedience has reached to all; therefore I am rejoicing over you, but I want you to be wise in what is good and innocent in what is evil.” 

Paul is giving a warning against Antinomianism. That is, those who are professing to be Christians but live indulging the flesh. He says you should avoid such men. They seek to advance themselves he said, by smooth, plausible talk, by flattery. They flatter the ego of the saints and thereby lead them astray. It’s very easy for someone who has ulterior motives to appeal to your ego, to speak smoothly and plausibly to you, and to make you their disciple. That still goes on today in the church. From time to time we have people who come in, and after awhile it becomes evident they don’t really want to follow our teaching but instead they want to teach, to develop their own disciples. And Paul warns against such people who use flattery, who appeal to your ego, who appeal to your fleshly appetites, in order to take advantage.

But Paul rejoices in their obedience.  That’s the characteristic of the saint. Obedience to what God’s word teaches us.  That’s the mark of sanctification. That’s the goal of our instruction.  1Tim. 1:5 says, “But the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.” The deceivers and false teachers seek another goal, and that is to divide and deceive and lead the people of God astray to follow them, all with the promise that they will find fulfillment. 

He says, be wise in what’s good , and be innocent in what’s evil. That’s a refection of what Jesus said in Matthew 10:16, “Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves; so be shrewd as serpents and innocent as doves.”  False teachers always appeal to some thing of the flesh, some appetite of our baser nature.  Paul urges them to be on guard against such teaching and turn away from those people.

But Paul wants the church to know that God is fighting for the sanctity of the church as well. He says “the God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.”  Note first of all that it is God who will crush Satan.  Secondly, that he will use the church’s feet to crush Satan. And third, that He will do so soon.  God uses the church to accomplish His will.  Way back in Genesis 3:15 God promised to bruise Satan’s head by the offspring of the woman. And Christ struck a mortal blow against Satan at the cross, fulfilling that promise.  But there is also included in this passage a reference to the final crushing victory of God over Satan that will occur at Christ’s return for His church.

There is another list of people that Paul presents at this point, and I am not going to belabor it. These are his personal friends that are with him who send their greetings and prayers up for the church at Rome.  I could spend a lot of time with Timothy, who Paul elsewhere calls his son in the Lord.  But all these people were assisting Paul in his ministry to the church. He calls them fellow workers. Once again we see different types of people all engaged together in a common ministry, serving the Lord and His church. Tertius, the secretary of Paul, Gaius the host of the church where Paul was ministering, Erastus, the city treasurer, and Quartus, probably a slave, who he calls our brother.  God uses people from all walks of life to minister to the church.

Finally, Paul concludes this great epistle with a great doxology.  A liturgy of praise to God and a blessing upon the church.  He says in vs 25, “Now to Him who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery which has been kept secret for long ages past,  but now is manifested, and by the Scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the eternal God, has been made known to all the nations, [leading] to obedience of faith;  to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, be the glory forever. Amen.”

In this doxology Paul manages to incorporate many of the primary theological principles that he has previously delineated in this epistle.  It’s almost a review in liturgical form. He speaks of the blessing upon the church; that God will establish and strengthen them.  He speaks of the gospel of God, which he calls my gospel.  He had so thoroughly adopted it and believed it that it became part of him and was the sole purpose of his life. He speaks of the mystery hidden from long ages past: that mystery being the gospel of Jesus Christ, that Christ died to save sinners from all nations of the world and lives to make intercession for them so that they might have life in Him. He says this mystery is now manifested, it’s made clear through the scriptures, through the word of God and made known to all the nations, leading to the obedience of faith.  Notice the connection between faith and obedience.  Obedience is indelibly tied to justification by faith.  Jesus said; “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.” Sinners become saints, by faith in Christ and obedience to His word.

So there is it, the gospel, presented by Paul through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. What a gospel!  What good news!  And Paul says it is all for the glory of God through Jesus Christ.  There is salvation in none other.  No man can come to the Father except through the Son. The fact that God has chosen to send His Son to die on the cross for our sins, so that everyone who believes on Him might be saved and be a part of His church and His kingdom, is a marvelous thing that Paul rightly ascribes wonder and amazement to.  And I trust, it is something that 2000 years later we as the church of God can still say “Amen!” to as well. I pray that you will find inspiration in these testimonies of the saints of the church at Rome, and will likewise be found to be working for the Lord as holy, consecrated servants of God.

Posted in Sermons | Tags: beach church, church on the beach, worship on the beach |

The fruit of the church, Romans 15:22-33

Oct

4

2020

thebeachfellowship

We are coming to the conclusion of our study of Romans. And as I have said previously, the last few chapters of Romans, starting in chapter 12, are not doctrinal so much as they are practical application. And that application is particularly focused on the church. In these three chapters, Paul has written concerning the life, worship and fellowship of the church in great detail. Now at the end of chapter 15, he speaks about what might be called the fruit of the church. At the beginning of the epistle he stated that he wanted to see some spiritual fruit from the church at Rome back in chapter 1vs 13. Now in vs 28 of chapter 15 he speaks again of this fruit of the church.

Now spiritual fruit is a desired outcome of our faith, isn’t it? Spiritual fruit is the desired outcome of spiritual life. It is the purpose of spiritual gifts, to produce spiritual fruit. The question though is what is spiritual fruit? A lot of times we tend to categorize conversion as spiritual fruit. But actually, the scripture indicates fruit is not the beginning of spiritual life, but the result of spiritual life. As the Holy Spirit lives in you and leads you and works in you He produces spiritual fruit in you. Galatians 5:22-23 tells us that “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.”

So in these closing remarks to the church of Rome, Paul is going to emphasize four areas of fruitfulness in the church, which should be applicable to all churches. That’s not to say that these four are the only four fruits of the church, but they are ones that we should be exhibiting if we are truly a fellowship of believers.

The purpose of the church is not just to house a gathering of people who enjoy each other’s company. You can have fellowship at a ball game. But Christian fellowship is a body or a group of believers who are connected in spirit and united in the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Fellowship in the things of Jesus Christ is the reason we are in communion together, and that sort of fellowship will produce spiritual fruit.

Now there are four areas of spiritual fruitfulness that are described in this passage. I have managed to ascribe alliteration to them for the sake of helping us in our study. The first fruit is providence, the second fruit is the present, the third is prayer, and the fourth is peace. Paul starts out by talking about providence. Now providence as a word does not show up on any list in scripture of spiritual gifts. But I think it encompasses the fruits of faithfulness and patience and goodness. Providence speaks of the will of God, the plan of God, worked out among His people. When we speak of providence, we mean an act of God, which is worked out in the affairs of men through their circumstances and their plans. A lot of times as Christians we want God to perform the miraculous. We want Him to interrupt the natural order of things and impose a supernatural event in answer to our prayers. But providence is no less than a miracle. In fact it may be more of a miracle for God to work through His foreknowledge and work through our circumstances to bring about His will.

William Cowper wrote a hymn in 1774, which has the famous line; “Judge not the Lord by feeble sense, But trust Him for His grace; Behind a frowning providence, He hides a smiling face.” And John J. Murray, a noted Scottish theologian wrote a sermon almost 200 years later with part of that line as his title. And he goes on to describe providence this way; “Providence is an old fashioned word and has a strange ring to modern ears. Yet when we break it down into its parts the meaning becomes clear. It comes from the Latin video ‘to see’ and pro ‘before’, meaning ‘to see beforehand’. In our lives we plan beforehand but we do not see what is going to happen. God has planned everything for His creation and because He is the sovereign God everything will come to pass as He purposed. Providence is that marvelous working of God by which all the events and happenings in His universe accomplish the purpose He has in mind.”So providence includes not only the plans of God, but also the plans of men.

Now remember that Paul did not found the church at Rome, it had been founded by others. And so consequently he did not regard it as one of the churches he had planted. He wanted to visit Rome to help them, but as he stated in vs 20 his plan was not to build on another’s foundation. So he says, “I want to visit Rome, I want to see the believers there, I want to have some time with them, but I want to pass on to Spain.” He wanted to pass through Rome and have fellowship with them and so he’s speaking of his plans.

But Paul did not consider his plans as something of human origin. In fact, he says in vs 18, “For I will not presume to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me, resulting in the obedience of the Gentiles by word and deed.” In other words, “I don’t want to speak about anything except the things that Christ has done through me.”

Paul glorifies the Lord in what he accomplished. Paul had plans and he speaks of his plans. He wanted to come to Rome. So he speaks of these plans beginning with the 22nd verse through the 24th verse. It’s a very interesting picture, I think, of faithfulness in ministry. It’s important if we are to be faithful that we are strategic and deliberate in our plans to serve the Lord. We need to be strategic and deliberate in our evangelism, and yet the fruit is the Lord’s. Paul said elsewhere that I planted, Apollos watered, but God causes the growth.

But in regards to the overriding principle of providence, we see Paul’s plans were flexible. They were changeable as the will of God was manifested in his experience. He was persistent, he had wanted to come to Rome for a lengthy period of time and he kept after it and ultimately he will get there, but not as he had anticipated. But he appealed to the church to help him in prayer that he might accomplish the things that he felt led to do.

He said in vs 22, “For this reason I have often been prevented from coming to you.” In one of the other epistles of the apostle he speaks of being hindered by Satan and in the earlier part of this epistle in the 1st chapter he says also that he was hindered from coming. He doesn’t tell us exactly why but implies that it was because of his missionary journeys. He says in vs 19, “from Jerusalem and round about as far as Illyricum I have fully preached the gospel of Christ.” If you look at a map that’s a rather tremendous amount of ground that he had covered. Fourteen hundred miles between those two points as the crow flies, but Paul had covered so much more territory than that, zig zagging all over Asia Minor to preach to every significant city in between.

So the fruit of trusting in providence encompasses the spiritual fruits of faithfulness, of goodness and patience in ministry. Making plans, being strategic in our evangelism, being deliberate, but also leaving room for the will of God and the direction of God. As Prov. 16: 9 says, “The mind of man plans his way, But the LORD directs his steps.” We are the Lord’s church, the Lord’s people, and we are to be about the Lord’s business and so we trust in His providence as we make our plans to serve Him.

The next spiritual fruit of the church that Paul talks about is what I have called “the present.” A present is a gift, and in the context of the church that gift is an offering. I believe there are some things that this passage teaches us in relation to Christian giving. Giving is a spiritual fruit which correlates to the fruit of kindness or compassion and love. It’s evidence of spiritual maturity. As a Christian grows in their walk with the Lord, they should grow out of the gimme stage, and grow into the giving stage of their faith. Jesus said it is better to give than to receive.

Paul talks about this gift of the church in vs25. “For Macedonia and Achaia have been pleased to make a contribution for the poor among the saints in Jerusalem. Yes, they were pleased [to do so,] and they are indebted to them. For if the Gentiles have shared in their spiritual things, they are indebted to minister to them also in material things.”

Now there are a couple of principles that we can learn from this passage in regards to giving. First of all, I want you to notice that Paul never makes an appeal for money for his own benefit. He mentions in other places that certain churches had supported him, but whenever he mentions collecting money, it is always in relation to others and not himself. This business of churches and Christian ministries always begging for money is not biblical. Now don’t get me wrong, I am not saying that giving is not biblical, but that asking for money is not biblical.

In fact Paul makes clear the principle of giving here by saying if you share in spiritual things from someone, then you are indebted to minister to them also in material things. He says in Gal. 6:6 that “The one who is taught the word is to share all good things with the one who teaches [him.]” And in many other places he emphasizes the principle of Christian giving. But he doesn’t make an appeal for offerings to benefit himself. The offering is being collected in this case for the church at Jerusalem, who because of persecution were experiencing poverty.

The Old Testament law of tithing is different than what the New Testament teaches. 2Cor 9:7 says, “Each one [must do] just as he has purposed in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.” So to whom do we give? The New Testament says we support those in the family who are needy so that they might not be on public support, we support needy fellow Christians, we support the church, we support those who teach us, we give liberally as God has given to us. We are not limited to the tithe, or 10%, we give proportionally according to the way the Lord has prospered us.

I read of a great example of sacrificial giving in the case of the famous minister John Wesley; the first year he had thirty pounds for his income, he lived on twenty-eight and gave two pounds to the Lord. The next year he had sixty pounds, he lived on twenty-eight and gave thirty-two to the Lord. The next year he had ninety pounds, he lived on twenty-eight and gave sixty-two to the Lord. The next year one hundred and twenty pounds and he continued to live on twenty-eight. When John Wesley died he had practically nothing. He had given away over thirty thousand pounds which was a significant amount of money in those days. That’s the kind of giving that lays up treasure in heaven.

But Paul considers such giving to be voluntary and not under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver, but at the same time he calls it an obligation for those who benefit spiritually to respond with material things. And that kind of response is a spiritual fruit. Notice that he calls it a fruit in vs 28. “Therefore, when I have finished this, and have put my seal on this fruit of theirs, I will go on by way of you to Spain. I know that when I come to you, I will come in the fullness of the blessing of Christ.” This present to the church at Jerusalem Paul considers a blessing of Christ. Material things can be the means of spiritual blessings.

Next, another fruit of the church that Paul talks about is that of prayer. Prayer is a spiritual discipline that needs to be exercised often to be effective. It needs to be practiced. And the apostle Paul was a fervent believer in the efficacy of human prayer. In his mind he saw no conflict between divine foreordination and the determination that all things happen according to the counsel of His will and at the same time this earnest exhortation to pray. Prayer is a ministry of the church that everyone is called to do. Not everyone is called to preach or teach, but all are called to pray.

He says in vs30 “Now I urge you, brethren, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to strive together with me in your prayers to God for me, that I may be rescued from those who are disobedient in Judea, and [that] my service for Jerusalem may prove acceptable to the saints; so that I may come to you in joy by the will of God and find [refreshing] rest in your company.”

Now we know the Bible says that God always answers our prayers. But sometimes we forget that the Bible never tells us that he answers our prayers as we wish them to be answered. He always hears our prayers and he answers them. But His answers are His answers and are not always our answers or the answer we want to hear. We find that illustrated when we compare this passage and Paul’s earnest prayer that he might be delivered from the unbelievers in Jerusalem and that his ministry might be acceptable to the saints as we compare with it what actually happened as recorded in the Book of the Acts.

But notice that Paul is imploring the church to pray for him. He was very concerned about his journey and the dangers that were ahead of him, as well as the possible reception by the Jews. He urges them to join in his struggle by praying for him. Prayer is a struggle – it is part of our arsenal for spiritual warfare, according to Ephesians 6.

It’s also interesting that he enjoins the entire Trinity in his prayer. He says by the Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit. He gives the full title and name of Jesus, encompassing both His office of Lord, and Messiah (Christ). And when he says the love of the Spirit he is referencing the love which the Holy Spirit has poured out into the hearts of those who belong to Christ. So we see that prayer is a fruit of the Spirit, as a result of our love for one another. We hear so much in the NT about love, and how we are to love one another. And yet it’s hard to sometimes put a finger on how we can do that. I would suggest Paul says that love for one another is accomplished by praying for one another.

Paul calls it a struggle. Prayer is a means of engaging in spiritual warfare. Ephesians 6:12 says, “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high [places].” And then it lists the spiritual armor we are to put on; the sheild of faith, the helmet of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the sword of the Spirit and having shod your feet with the gospel of peace. But then immediately it adds the following, “Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints; And for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel.” Prayer is essential to this struggle, and it is the fruit of love, because of the love of the Spirit which is poured out in our hearts towards our brothers and sisters in Christ.

Now he prayed, he said in verse 31, “That I may be delivered from them that do not believe in Jerusalem.” Here is the great apostle, the great apostle of prayer, telling us that he prayed that he might be delivered from the disobedient in Jerusalem and that his ministry might be acceptable to the saints there. What kind of answer did he get? Acts tells us the rest of the story. When Paul got to Jerusalem he was in difficulty immediately. The saints went out and said “look Paul, you have a reputation of being a person who’s against the law and against the temple and that kind of thing and so you better take a vow.” So Paul took a vow but he was seen in the temple area and immediately there was a riot and if it were not for the intervention of the Romans the apostle might have lost his life in the city of Jerusalem. He prayed, “O God deliver me from the disobedient in Jerusalem,” and the answer was, “No.”

He was arrested, but while in confinement the Lord appeared to him and said, “Paul, you’ve ministered to me in Jerusalem and I’m going to give you a ministry in Rome.” What kind of ministry? Well the apostle went down to Caesarea, stayed two years in prison there, finally under the pressure of the trial said, “I appeal to Caesar.” And so they sent him to Caesar. So in confinement he left and went to the city of Rome in chains. God answered Paul’s prayer in God’s way and in God’s timing.

When he got to Rome it says in the Book of Acts that he dwelt two whole years there in his own hired house and received all that came in unto him, preaching the kingdom of God with all freedom. He saw great fruitfulness there even though he was in prison. That’s the fulfillment of the word that God gave to him when he was in confinement in Jerusalem. But far beyond the apostle’s anticipation God gave him deliverance and acceptance through the epistles he wrote while in prison that continue to bear fruit for the Lord 2000 years later throughout the whole world. That’s the way God does things. He answers our prayers. Sometimes with a no, sometimes with a yes, sometimes with a wait, but according to His providence and plan.

There is one more fruit that is mentioned here in the closing line of this chapter. And that is peace. Peace is one of the spiritual fruits mentioned in Galatians. The Bible speaks much of peace, and it can have a variety of applications. But at least here Paul indicates that the God of peace is the God who is the author of peace. Apart from peace with God there is no peace. Basic to peace is reconciliation with God through the death of Jesus Christ. Peace is knowing that your sins are forgiven, God is working all things together for good, and nothing can separate us from the love of God.

But I think also indicated in this blessing of peace on the church is peace within the church. When love is the operating principle in the church, when others needs are considered as more important than your own, when unity of doctrine is prevalent, then there is peace in the church. So when Paul expresses the blessing of peace upon this church he means that his desire is that the God of peace will provide peace in their lives as they rest in the providence of God, in the midst of whatever toils and dangers or trials and tribulations they may encounter. Peace coming in knowing that God works in mysterious ways but we can trust His providence.

As we yield ourselves completely to God, we can trust in God to work His will in us and through whatever circumstances we may encounter. I want to close our time together this morning by reading the hymn written some 200 years ago by William Cowper, as we trust in the providence of God.

God moves in a mysterious way, His wonders to perform;
He plants His footsteps in the sea, And rides upon the storm.
Deep in unfathomable mines Of never failing skill
He treasures up His bright designs, And works His sov’reign will.
Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take; The clouds ye so much dread
Are big with mercy and shall break In blessings on your head.
Judge not the Lord by feeble sense, But trust Him for His grace;
Behind a frowning providence He hides a smiling face.
His purposes will ripen fast, Unfolding every hour;
The bud may have a bitter taste, But sweet will be the flow’r.
Blind unbelief is sure to err And scan His work in vain;
God is His own interpreter, And He will make it plain.

Posted in Sermons | Tags: beach church, church on the beach, worship on the beach |
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