Our Salvation: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit

May 26, 2013 Evening:

Title: God Bore Witness

Old Testament Passage: Psalm 89:1-4 – I have made a covenant with my chosen one

Gospel Passage: John 19:34-35 – Blood and water from the pierced side of Jesus

Sermon Text: Hebrews 2:4 Apostolic signs and gifts as God's witness to the great salvation won for us by Jesus Christ

Sermon Point: We need to get the right message from the signs and miracles of the New Testament church and glorify Jesus Christ and not ourselves.

[4] while God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.

We have been considering a very important matter: The great salvation that Christ has won for us.

Our salvation has not only been procured through the death of Jesus. It has also been declared to us. A powerful declaration was first made by the Lord Himself in His ministry on earth. It came to us through His teaching and His astounding actions. Most especially, salvation was declared in His own resurrection from the dead.

But that great salvation, which is waiting in heaven to be revealed to our senses at just the right moment, was not only declared to us by the Lord. It was also spoken and written for us by those who heard Him. They had a testimony of their own to give as those who had seen the wonders of salvation in the resurrection of the Lord of Glory. They also had a teaching that had been granted to them: the true meaning of the Hebrew Scriptures that had now come to an amazing fulfillment in Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

Can we be sure that the apostolic testimony was sincere? Is there some additional Word from heaven that supported the New Testament teaching? The answer is yes. God Him bore witness to the truth of the early kingdom that had been established. The Lord gave signs, wonders, various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit according to His will.

Some of these amazing marvels were never to be repeated. Consider the tongues of fire that appeared above the heads of the disciples in Acts 2. What a commendation of God that He was present with these leaders! The Lord had appeared in the wilderness as a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. Now He was showing Himself as a sign and a wonder on the heads of these appointed messengers of salvation.

Other gifts of the Holy Spirit continue forever, marking not only the first messengers of salvation, but all those who have the gift of the Holy Spirit. Chief among these gifts is love. (1 Corinthians 13) What a great salvation we have which shines forth in love!

Most important to our best use of the fact of these gifts in the life of the church is this: These are gifts of God, distributed according to His will. He gets all the glory since these gifts display something of the great salvation that only He could have won for us.

From the beginning of the story of mankind after the fall, we are saddened to see evidence of murder, deceit, and arrogance. People made progress in many skills, but they could not fix themselves. But now, our hope has come in the gift above all gifts. Jesus, the Captain of our salvation, leads His church forward as a new creation in Christ. What a privilege it is to give glory to the Son of God, by living a new life through the gift of love!

Spiritual Contention: Make it about the good news of Jesus and the Resurrection

How Can We Joyfully Give Glory to God in a Contentious World?

(Acts 21:15-26, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, May 26, 2013)

[15] After these days we got ready and went up to Jerusalem. [16] And some of the disciples from Caesarea went with us, bringing us to the house of Mnason of Cyprus, an early disciple, with whom we should lodge.

When Paul wrote to the church in Ephesus about the Christian life, he called himself in Ephesians 4:1 “a prisoner for the Lord.” He went on to urge them to follow Him as servants of Christ, urging them “to walk in a manner worthy of the calling” with which they had been called, “with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”

He went on to say, “There is one body.” This was a theme that Paul had already developed in an earlier chapter in Ephesians. The one body of Christ was made up of Jew and Gentile. The fact that body of Christ was one was a great cause for celebration. But not everyone was celebrating. Paul lived in a contentious world. Some of the strife was inside the church.

Compelled by the Spirit, he went on to Jerusalem, knowing that he would face trouble and persecution there. He had been warned in every city about this coming tribulation, and he had become spiritually prepared for the years that were ahead of him, years of trial and imprisonment. Paul was able to give glory to God in a contentious world. How did he do that?

[17] When we had come to Jerusalem, the brothers received us gladly. [18] On the following day Paul went in with us to James, and all the elders were present. [19] After greeting them, he related one by one the things that God had done among the Gentiles through his ministry. [20] And when they heard it, they glorified God.

Paul knew what the Lord had already brought him through. He was not a stranger to controversy. Through those years of ministry in Macadonia, Achaia, Asia, and Galatia, Paul had seen that the Lord was able to bring fruit from the preaching of the cross. His ministry in places like Ephesus and Corinth would change the world. When Paul arrived in Jerusalem and talked to the church leaders there, they joined with Paul in giving glory to God for what had already taken place.

And they said to him, “You see, brother, how many thousands there are among the Jews of those who have believed. They are all zealous for the law, [21] and they have been told about you that you teach all the Jews who are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, telling them not to circumcise their children or walk according to our customs. [22] What then is to be done? They will certainly hear that you have come.

But these leaders also acknowledged that Jerusalem was not a very safe place for Paul. Why? Because the Jewish world was in turmoil over the preaching of the Messiah to the Gentiles. Enemies of Paul had seen their synagogues disrupted by this new Word. They wondered why the preaching of Jesus as the Christ could not coexist with the customs of Old Testament purity that they considered to be the eternal law of God, at least for those who were Jews.

Paul's enemies in the province of Asia and beyond had spread a false report that Paul taught Jews to abandon Jewish customs from the Law of Moses. This enraged many Jews, both the thousands that had embraced Jesus as the Messiah, and the thousands that had rejected Jesus. These two groups found common ground in believing that Jews were still to follow certain ceremonial provisions of the Law that marked them as distinct from the world. They believed that the God of heaven and earth still had a purpose in the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob being distinct from others as Jews.

Paul agreed with them. See Romans 11. Paul was convinced that the Lord had a purpose in maintaining Judaism for some time to come. In Christ, the dividing wall of hostility between Jew and Gentile was gone. Christ had fulfilled the Law. Gentiles did not have to become Jews in order to become Christians. But Paul was not urging Jews to be Gentiles. Paul was vehemently against Jewish customs being preached as a part of the gospel. The gospel was Jesus Christ, our propitiation. The gospel was the love of God coming to us through Jesus, and now going out through us in a life, not of mere ceremonial holiness, but of true love as prisoners for the Lord in all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

Paul was vehemently against circumcision and worship practices like Old Testament vows becoming a distraction that turned people away from the only message that can really be called “good news,” the message of Jesus and the love of God. The preaching of circumcision was not good news. Urging people to place themselves under voluntary Old Testament vows was not good news. Christ as our circumcision and our true vow-keeper who redeemed us through His death and leads us forward in love through the power of His resurrection was the gospel.

[23] Do therefore what we tell you. We have four men who are under a vow; [24] take these men and purify yourself along with them and pay their expenses, so that they may shave their heads. Thus all will know that there is nothing in what they have been told about you, but that you yourself also live in observance of the law.

This did not mean that Paul was taking away the right of Jews to continue to be Jews. He believed in that right, and he believed that there would continue to be observant Jews as more and more Gentiles gave their lives to a Jewish Messiah without having to become Jews. Paul was a Jew. He had recently been under a vow. But he knew that Jewish customs and other arguments concerning the law were a divisive distraction that needed to be avoided.

Paul made this clear in at least three places in his letters: “For neither circumcision counts for anything nor uncircumcision, but keeping the commandments of God.” (1 Corinthians 7:19) “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.” (Galatians 5:6) “For neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation.” (Galatians 6:15)

[25] But as for the Gentiles who have believed, we have sent a letter with our judgment that they should abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols, and from blood, and from what has been strangled, and from sexual immorality.” [26] Then Paul took the men, and the next day he purified himself along with them and went into the temple, giving notice when the days of purification would be fulfilled and the offering presented for each one of them.

The apostles and elders in Jerusalem had already spoken regarding the Gentiles. See Acts 15. Now it was their advice to Paul that he demonstrate to Jews that the rumors about him making a stand against circumcision and Jewish customs for Jews were incorrect. He was willing to do this. Though it would not work. Yet Paul knew what mattered and He was prepared not only to preach what mattered, but even to suffer for Jesus and the resurrection. He was prepared to be a new creation. He was ready to let faith work itself out in love in Jerusalem. He was willing to put his life on the line to keep the true abiding commandments of God. Are we spiritually prepared to speak and to live out the good news of Jesus and the resurrection in a world and a church environment where everyone wants to get us all excited about some other issue?

Old Testament Passage: Deuteronomy 23:21-23 – If you make a vow to the Lord...

Gospel Passage: John 19:23-24 – They divided my garments

Sermon Point: We are under a powerful divine vow that moves us together in love for Christ and His church.

The New Testament Testimony and Teaching

May 19, 2013 Evening:

Title: A Well-Attested Salvation

Old Testament Passage: Deuteronomy 19:1-3 – Cities of Refuge

Gospel Passage: John 18:26-27 – Peter's Third Denial

Sermon Text: Hebrews 2:3c – The salvation achieved for us by Christ alone was proclaimed and attested to us by his disciples

Sermon Point: The disciples of Jesus Christ were reliable witnesses of both His suffering and His glory.

“and it was attested to us by those who heard,”

The disciples of Jesus Christ were not inherently strong, wise, and courageous men. Even when Peter confessed that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the living God, he wanted nothing to do with Christ going to the cross.

The others had a similar record. Though they had differing personalities, none of them seemed ready to turn the world upside down until they were filled with the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. Yet God worked through them, even through the persecutions they faced (Acts 8:4), in order to bring their testimony to the world.

That testimony was a testimony of salvation. Salvation is more than saying yes to Jesus. Salvation is the new creation that Christ is bringing with angels and the entire community of the redeemed, people who are already living in heaven. Salvation is a renewed world without sin. Salvation is a land of perfect love forever. Salvation is Revelation 21:1-4 right before your eyes; no, more than that, open and available to the fullness of all our holy senses, and not just for a moment, but forever.

The Lord Himself spoke about and displayed salvation by His powerful teaching and miracles. This message continued through these same men described in the gospels. Jesus had called them to follow Him. He, the King of the kingdom, was despised and rejected by men. They too would also face ridicule and danger for the Name of the Lord.

These men had two things that Jesus-rejecting people hated:

First, they had eyewitness testimony to salvation in the death and resurrection of Jesus. They could not deny what they had seen and heard. Peter had denied our Lord before, but that would not happen after the gift of the Spirit had been poured out upon the church. He would leave it to others to decide whether he should obey God or them. For himself, he already knew what he would do. These men could not stop testifying to what they knew to be true, even if it cost them their lives.

Second, they had Spirit-empowered teaching of the Scriptures that enabled them to show the necessity of Messiah's suffering and glory from the Law, the prophets and the other writings that comprise the Old Testament. This was a most wonderful gift for the ears of those who would hear their teaching with honest and open hearts, but it was a most annoying and troubling nuisance to those who refused to be followers of Jesus.

We have the reliable testimony and clear teaching of the apostles in the New Testament. Our lives have been changed. This has become our testimony and our teaching. We have not only heard of a coming salvation. We have experienced it together. As the disciples were different, so are we. But together we are the body of Christ, throughout the ages and throughout the earth. We believe. We follow. We have heard, and now we speak. We do not preach ourselves, but Jesus the Messiah, who died and rose again, as Lord.

Not My Will...

Let the Will of the Lord Be Done

(Acts 21:1-14, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, May 19, 2013)

[21:1] And when we had parted from them and set sail, we came by a straight course to Cos, and the next day to Rhodes, and from there to Patara. [2] And having found a ship crossing to Phoenicia, we went aboard and set sail. [3] When we had come in sight of Cyprus, leaving it on the left we sailed to Syria and landed at Tyre, for there the ship was to unload its cargo. [4] And having sought out the disciples, we stayed there for seven days. And through the Spirit they were telling Paul not to go on to Jerusalem. [5] When our days there were ended, we departed and went on our journey, and they all, with wives and children, accompanied us until we were outside the city. And kneeling down on the beach, we prayed [6] and said farewell to one another. Then we went on board the ship, and they returned home. [7] When we had finished the voyage from Tyre, we arrived at Ptolemais, and we greeted the brothers and stayed with them for one day. [8] On the next day we departed and came to Caesarea, and we entered the house of Philip the evangelist, who was one of the seven, and stayed with him. [9] He had four unmarried daughters, who prophesied. [10] While we were staying for many days, a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea. [11] And coming to us, he took Paul's belt and bound his own feet and hands and said, “Thus says the Holy Spirit, ‘This is how the Jews at Jerusalem will bind the man who owns this belt and deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles.’” [12] When we heard this, we and the people there urged him not to go up to Jerusalem.

The Apostle was on his way to Jerusalem, this despite the fact that he knew that there would be trouble for him there. Earlier, in his message to the Ephesian elders, he had said these words:

[22] And now, behold, I am going to Jerusalem, constrained by the Spirit, not knowing what will happen to me there, [23] except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await me. [24] But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.

Yet Paul kept on going. The warnings came by the Holy Spirit working through people who had the gift of prophetic insight. If the messages given to Paul in every city, now reinforced in Tyre and in Caesarea were not intended by the Holy Spirit to cause Paul to turn around and to change his plans, what was the point of these warnings? Paul's God-given determination to continue was a lesson to the churches in his day, and the account of these events remains a lesson for us today. Just as the Spirit of God led Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil and ultimately led our Savior to Jerusalem and to the cross, those who follow Jesus today may also face testing. We need to persevere in the right way, even though we may face trouble.

Notice how strong the warnings were for Paul. In verse 4: “And through the Spirit they were telling Paul not to go on to Jerusalem.” Later the prophet Agabus acted out what would happen to Paul. The Jews in Jerusalem would bind his hands and feet and deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles.

In addition to these true prophetic words, the people who loved Paul added their own voices to the chorus of many Christians who were saying “No” to this trip. This heartfelt recommendation came not just from the local Christians. Paul's own traveling companions urged him not to go. They were the “we” in these verses, including the writer of Acts, his friend Luke: “When we heard this, we and the people there urged him not to go up to Jerusalem.”

[13] Then Paul answered, “What are you doing, weeping and breaking my heart? For I am ready not only to be imprisoned but even to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.” [14] And since he would not be persuaded, we ceased and said, “Let the will of the Lord be done.”

Paul's reaction to all of these entreaties and to the Holy Spirit-given directives was astoundingly resolute. He wanted them to stop. Just as Jesus had set His face to Jerusalem knowing that He would die there, Paul did not want to be dissuaded from the task ahead of Him.

He was not questioning whether these warnings were true. He simply knew that the way before Him was both difficult and necessary. He set an apostolic example of steadfastness for the church.

What was His reasoning? He was “ready not only to be imprisoned but even to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.”

This reasoning and Spirit-inspired apostolic dedication was so powerful that it overruled the Spirit-inspired warning and the Spirit-empowered love and concern for Paul. Paul would not be persuaded to give up His plan to go to Jerusalem because he knew that God was calling him to go there, even if that meant his imminent death.

This determination had an impact on those around Paul. They ceased trying to convince him in a different way. Now of one mind, Paul and those around him gave themselves over to the will of the Lord with these simple words, “Let the will of the Lord be done.”

God's ways are above our ways. His thoughts are above our thoughts. He is building Zion, the heavenly Jerusalem. One stop along the way toward the glory of heaven for Jesus was the Jerusalem below. He knew what it would mean to go when he went there. He knew what would happen when He rode into town on a donkey in fulfillment of the Scriptures.

Jesus went to His death for us. That was absolutely necessary. He was building a kingdom that is not of this world. It does not take any spiritual gift to value the kingdoms of this world. That comes naturally. It does take spiritual eyesight to see today the glories of the Zion that will come tomorrow. And it takes spiritual power to go to the Jerusalem below, possibly to die, in order to fulfill the will of the Lord in His building up of His heavenly kingdom.

The church understands this. Our Savior prayed for us, knowing the challenges that we would face in this world. We have received the truth that Jesus came from the Father, died for our sins, rose from the dead, and returned to the Father. He has prayed for us, that we might be kept in His Name. He also prayed that we would be kept from the evil one. He asked the Father to sanctify us in the truth. By that living Word of truth we are kept in God and kept from the devil.

If we have been sanctified in the truth, we may object to suffering, and we may try to dissuade those we love from difficult paths, even when they are actually called to suffer for the Name of the Lord. But God is able to move us all together to the place where we are finally able to say with one voice, “Let the will of the Lord be done.”

We are called to be a part of an apostolic, worldwide church. We need to protect one another from evil, but we also need to encourage one another in love. Let the will of the Lord be done.

Old Testament Passage: Psalm 87 – Glorious Zion

Gospel Passage: John 18:33-40 – My kingdom is not of this world

Sermon Text: Acts 21:1-14 – From Miletus to Caesarea with warnings for Paul

Sermon Point: It is the will of the Lord that the apostolic church be willing to suffer and even to die for the name of Jesus.

Love is salvation in the present moment.

May 12, 2013 Evening:

Title: The Inauguration of the Age of Salvation

Old Testament Passage: Psalm 85:10 – Righteousness and peace kiss each other

Gospel Passage: John 15:5 – I am the vine

Sermon Text: Heb 2:3b – It was declared at first by the Lord

Sermon Point: The great salvation for which the Old Testament prepared us was declared in word and deed by the Lord Himself

… It was declared at first by the Lord,

We have such a great salvation. It is far beyond any gift that could have come to us through the Law.

The law showed us our own disobedience. Because of sin, we did not have peace with God.

We would be satisfied with a system of peace with God that ignored the Law and our sinfulness, gave us the blessings that we desire, and left us without a true relationship of love from God. God would not be satisfied with that.

The salvation that He has agreed to is one where righteousness and peace kiss. What is righteousness? It is obedience to all the commands of God. That includes what we ought to be doing and not only what we should not be doing. The Lord demands perfect righteousness, and we have none of that.

Jesus is all perfect righteousness. But He is more than that. He is love in person, and we are His beloved. In Him, and especially in His death on the cross as our Redeemer, righteousness and peace kiss.

He has become for us the vine of righteousness and peace with God. He is the Source of all love, and through Him, love comes not only to us, but it goes through us to others.

Love is salvation in the present moment.

Love was first declared by the Lord. He declared love in His own obedience. He declared love in His miracles and in His powerful teaching ministry to His disciples. He especially declared love to us in His solitary death for sinners. But the cross was not the end of love.

The power of His love has been shown forth to us in His resurrection. Why did Jesus bother to meet His disciples after the resurrection? Why did He not simply go home to the Father and save His disciples from afar? He loved them. He met two of them on the road to Emmaus. He met Thomas in His doubt and unbelief. He met Mary Magdalene at the grave and called her by name. He met Peter and the others at an amazing breakfast by the sea. He had a purpose in each of these meetings.

He knows us too. He called us and gifted us individually, and He sends us forth in love together as those who are united with Him. But we are loved also in the record of His love for those who were with Him after He rose from the dead. We are loved in His announcement of salvation to them. Their salvation is our salvation as well. That salvation is experienced even now through His Word of divine love.

How can I love people with the love of God? Think PROPITIATION.

More Blessed

(Acts 20:33-38, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, May 12, 2013)

“...[33] I coveted no one's silver or gold or apparel. [34] You yourselves know that these hands ministered to my necessities and to those who were with me. [35] In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’”

The Apostle Paul had set an example for the men who were hearing these final words of their friend who was ready to board a ship to leave them forever. He was speaking to the beloved under-shepherds that the Holy Spirit had appointed as sacrificial leaders for the church in Ephesus. He had shown them the way to go. Now they needed to follow that good example.

Paul did not invent love. True love, which is the willingness to give yourself for the good of someone else, comes from God. He is the singular Source of this great gift. Love came to the church from Jesus. Jesus taught about love, and He lived out the way of love.

This Jesus, who gave His perfect life for us on the cross, loved His disciples to the end. He washed His disciples' feet, and then He faced the wrath of God that they could not bare. He gave. He taught them that it was more blessed to give than to receive.

This is the heavenly ethic. We have known from the Law of God that the Lord commanded that we love Him and one another. Even though this was an old commandment, it became a new commandment when Jesus came in person and showed us the fullness of love through His own behavior. Only then could we be instructed to “love one another as I have loved you.”

Love is a gift of God that needs to be received. We hear the Word of the Lord that calls us “beloved” and we believe it. Individuals within the church may have different feelings about that. Reports of our varied emotional responses to the love of Christ are not the essence of the love of Christ itself. We have no doubt that Peter experienced the love of Jesus differently than John just as Mary and Martha of Bethany were very different women even though they were sisters. We are interested now in what holds us together rather than those special experiences that demonstrate that we are different.

The response of the church to the fact of the dying love of Christ for us is something that can unite us. The command to love the weak is not a command to have an emotional reaction. Our emotions may vary, and we need to make sure that we don't emphasize them more than what we share in common here. The command to love is a call to action that brings greater blessings to the giver than to the one who receives the gift.

This gift of love, originating in God Himself, comes through your beloved and blessed hands to someone else in need. If that gift is received as what it truly is, God at work through you, it leads both the giver and the receiver to the praise of God who is the Source and Perfection of Love. John writes about this in 1 John 4:10-12.

In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.

This great love that is God's gift to us begins with Christ as a propitiation for His beloved church. This word “propitiation” is a very important explanation to us of the extent and character of the love of God. A propitiation turns away the wrath of God. We deserved His just anger, but the propitiation stood in the way of that oncoming wrath and turned it away. God's love through Christ is not a compromise agreement to ignore the holiness of God in favor of His love and mercy. It is a most loving determination to extinguish the wrath of God by satisfying that wrath with a perfectly holy sacrifice. Jesus is our propitiation. He is the love of God in action for us.

Paul, the Ephesian elders, you, and I, have found that love together with all who have called upon the Name of the Lord. This we share together. When God gives that love through us in all the varied ways that love comes through His church to those who are weak, we are greatly blessed. We can all experience that blessing. Though our gifts, callings, and emotions are different, God has made us each to be the perfect instruments of His heavenly love to others.

Ministerial covetousness among elders and pastors is repulsive. It is not the way of Paul. It is not the way of Christ. It is not heavenly love. It is not blessed. Ministerial covetousness looks at the sheep and dreams of fleecing them. Love looks at the weak and discovers ways to give ourselves to clothe them in Jesus' Name, preferably without drawing any undue attention to self.

[36] And when he had said these things, he knelt down and prayed with them all. [37] And there was much weeping on the part of all; they embraced Paul and kissed him, [38] being sorrowful most of all because of the word he had spoken, that they would not see his face again. And they accompanied him to the ship.

True God-sent heavenly love is a close friend of prayer. Both activities celebrate the greatness of our Creator and Redeemer. The church is blessed to give because we love to see God use us. We love to know that this same God hears us when we ask for wisdom, and helps us when we long to love others with the love that we have found from His generous hand.

Love prays and love weeps. Jesus sanctified both of these actions by His participation in them. The church is a community of love, because we have found a lovely dwelling place in Jesus, the Temple of God. He lives in us, and we live in Him. He gives through us, He prays through us, and He weeps and embraces through us.

This is the rich and blessed life of the Christian church throughout the centuries. Here we have something that we share together. We may have very different feelings and very different gifts and callings. We have different opportunities that come our way every day. But we share one destiny and one Source of eternal gladness. We have one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who has loved us with eternal love long before we were even born.

God sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. In that heavenly power He calls us to work hard, and to have something to share with those who are in need. Will you receive His Word to you this day calling you His beloved? Will you give with the love that He supplies?

Are you blessed today? Do you want to be blessed more and more? This is not an unattainable goal. Let us pray together that the Lord will show us the way of blessing, that the love of Christ would move forward in action through us. We are ordinary people living in an ordinary place doing ordinary things by the extraordinary love of God. What a blessing! God is very able to take an ordinary church like ours and to make His love shine forth in extraordinary ways. Then we will sing forth together with the fullness of Christian joy, “How lovely is your dwelling place, Almighty God!”

Old Testament Passage: Psalm 84 – How lovely is your dwelling place

Gospel Passage: John 13:1-7 – He loved them to the end

Sermon Text: Acts 20:33-38 – More blessed to give than to receive

Sermon Point: An apostolic church takes joy in the blessing of serving others in Jesus' Name.

More Trust and Obey, if you have ears to hear...

May 5, 2013 Evening:

Title: The Resurrection Salvation Today

Old Testament Passage: Deuteronomy 10:12-22 – Circumcise your hearts

Gospel Passage: John 11:43-44 – Lazarus, come out

Sermon Text: Heb 2:3 – The danger of neglecting God and His Word of Grace

Sermon Point: We have a phenomenal salvation through Jesus. Can it be safe to treat a gift like that as nothing?

[3] how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation?

We have been preparing for this verse for months. We now have had ample time to consider the reliability of the Old Testament, especially on the question of Jesus Christ. We have had many occasions to explore the purpose of God revealed to us in the Scriptures. We have admitted that the Law given through Moses was very serious for that nation and that day.

But now the Son of God has come in person. He is superior to every former prophet, priest, or king, He is far above every angel. Will we neglect Him? Will we neglect the Word of His grace? Will we neglect such a great salvation?

What would it mean to neglect Jesus?

We need to consider this from the vantage point of faith and obedience.

First, we neglect our great salvation, when we will not believe in the person who saved us or believe in the word of that salvation that God has given us in the Old and New Testaments.

Let me quote at length from an event that took place in the life of Billy Graham in order to illustrate this point:

Billy was having doubts concerning the Bible. He thought he saw apparent contradictions in the Scriptures. As he puts it, "Some things I could not reconcile with my restricted concept of God. When I stood up to preach, the authoritative note so characteristic of all great preachers of the past was lacking." Billy was waging the intellectual battle of his life. He had come to Forest Home to minister to the youth and he did not realize the vital way that the Spirit was going to minister to him.

One night as he walked down the trail in the woods, where practically every rock is a prayer rock where a spiritual crisis has been fought and won, and almost every tree has been used as a back-rest for Bible study, Billy was having his duel with his doubts. His soul was caught in a spiritual cross fire. Finally he knelt down in desperation, as almost all have at one time or another during their stay at Forest Home; kneeling before his Bible he said, "Lord, many things in this Book I do not understand. But you have said, 'The just shall live by faith.' All I have received from you I have taken by faith. Here and now, by faith, I accept the Bible as your word. I take it all. I take it without reservations. Where there are things I cannot understand, I will reserve judgment until I receive more light. If this pleases you, give me the authority as I proclaim your word and through that authority, convict me of sin and turn sinners to the Saviour."

He arose from that place of prayer with the firm fact of faith strong in his soul. At his very next meeting with the young people there at the College Briefing Conference, he gave a challenge for life dedication and four hundred of them immediately responded.

"I could feel an immediate difference," said Miss Mears. "I did not know then what had happened. But there was an authority, a sureness, a fire in his spirit, that hadn't been there when he first arrived.”

How will we escape the wrath of God if we will not simply receive the Bible as true? The Bible is the Word of Christ and of His salvation which He has procured for us. Many Christians have been assailed by doubts like an external attack on our souls. It is one thing to commit your life to faith and to still have attacks of doubt that you have learned how to repent over. It is another to give the upper hand to doubt as if it was the obvious voice of reason.

The Christian faith is true.

Secondly, neglect of such a great salvation is expressed in disobedience to the revealed will of God.

If we love God, we will keep His commandments. The word of God's grace is able to build us up and to give us an inheritance among all those who are sanctified. To be sanctified is to be set apart for that which is common. We are the Lord's holy possession. In former days the Lord had one holy nation and the rest were outside of His covenant. Now He has a holy people from every nation who have come to Him by faith.

This group of people, the church, are committed to the ethical purity of our Father. We have heard the voice of our Savior in the Scriptures. He says, “Follow Me.” If we are not willing to devote ourselves to growing in the grace of obedience, we are neglecting the Word of salvation that has come to us in the Scriptures.

This is a warning. It is not an accusation, or a reason for despair. We are not of those who shrink back from God's Word, but of those who believe and who seek the obedience of faith. May the Lord be pleased to sanctify His church through the power of the blood of Jesus Christ. He is our God, and He will do it!

If I absolutely had to leave the church behind...

God and His Word of Grace

(Acts 20:32, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, May 5, 2013)

[32] And now

In the verse before us, the Apostle Paul reached the high point of His message to the elders who had traveled from Ephesus in order to meet with him. There were a few more verses, but verse 32 contained the most important points that we could take away from this farewell speech.

Paul was very conscious of the moment. Not just the personal moment for him and for these friends and co-workers in the faith, but the moment in salvation history. Paul had been given a message to present to Jews and Gentiles according to God's instruction. He had accomplished that task through much teaching and suffering.

Many centuries earlier a different message had been delivered to Moses for the people of Israel. That message was summarized in the Ten Commandments, God's Law. The Law was different than the message that Paul had brought to Jews and Gentiles in the decades after the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The Apostle John summarized this contrast with these words from John 1: “The Law came though Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.”

I commend you

Paul would no longer be among them as an example and as a teacher. Would they be OK? Their faith and goodness was never built on the rock of Paul, but on Christ, the far more solid Rock, who was Paul's trust and theirs.

Paul was aware of his own limitations. He had a job to do, and he had done it. Now he could not stay with them any longer. They would stand or fall based on someone stronger and better than Paul. In this great verse, their friend and teacher taught them to look elsewhere for the future before them, knowing that he would no longer be with them to guide them on their way.

to God

He set before them, first, one Being: Almighty God. If Paul had shown forth any wisdom, power, and love in the three years of daily ministry in their city, these good gifts had come from the Source. They needed to look to the Lord of Glory.

We can appreciate the good work of a gifted artist, and we should. But who made the painter and the paint? Who gave us this world, speaking it into being so long ago, and sustaining the spacious firmament on high until the day when He will roll it all up like a garment? The One God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit has done all this.

We can read the works of philosophers and theologians. We enjoy the stories written by novelists, and we may even try our hand at writing. So we should. But has their ever been a story like the Scriptures? God wrote it, both the words that He brought forward from holy men of old who spoke as they were told by the Holy Spirit, and even more amazingly, the great events and sure promises themselves have come from Him.

We are thankful for a mother's love, and for a social circle where friendship can felt. We should be with people of like faith, enjoy them, and extend respect to everyone created in the image of God. But how can anyone compare our actions and emotions of love with the greatest love that has ever been known, the love of Christ that was willing to go to the cross for us?

Paul commends the Ephesian elders to God. We like to see one another on the first day of the week, but we come here together to meet with God. We believe that God is, and that He is the Rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

and to the word of his grace,

This God has spoken. He spoke through Moses in the giving of the Law. That was a very good word to Israel, and it is still of great use to the church throughout the world. It has become to us a testimony of the moral excellence of the Law-Giver, and a plea for mercy to God for those who have not perfectly obeyed His holy precepts.

But now, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, we have a better Word of assurance given for sinners. Christ, the eternal of the Word of the Father, has become the Resurrection Man for us. He is our sure hope. He promises us an eternal resurrection kingdom. He alone is the one who can make that promise to the church with any credibility.

Paul commends the elders to God and to the word of His grace. This word of that has come to us through Christ is different than the Word of the Law. The Law told Israel what to do in order to live. The blessings of the Law were based on the obedience of Israel. The Word of grace was based on the obedience of the Man who became the Lamb of God for us and died for our sins.

which is able to build you up

This word of grace is not just a history lesson about what took place outside of Jerusalem centuries ago. It is not merely a literature class that examines a great work of writing to see what we might glean from it. It is God's Word to us for our lives right now, or it is a lie.

If it cannot help us now, how could we have confidence that it would help us after we die? This word of grace comes from heaven through the Scriptures, by the ministry of the church, in the power of the Holy Spirit, and it enters the souls of vexed and harassed people in a world with much sin and misery.

It is a present word of wisdom, power, and love to God's chosen people. It is able to give life to the dead, and to build-up the children of God into mature and vibrant followers of Jesus Christ. If it seems to fail, it is safe to say that it has not been earnestly tried. What do we mean by this? It was spoken and recorded to be believed. It will do nothing for the man or woman who will not receive it in faith.

and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified.

This word is not only for the present moment. It contains the plan of God for His people. It is a last will and testament. Is there some will among men that you would like to have a peek at? Do you find yourself wondering about the details of a future inheritance? If you had a few private moments with the right documents, would you be eager to see what was written? How much more should we eagerly look into the details of our inheritance secured for us by the blood of Jesus Christ? The final documents of men can be changed by spending an hour with a lawyer. But the promises of God will never be revoked, and they are of far greater and more lasting importance for all those who are the Lord's holy people.

Old Testament Passage: Deuteronomy 10:1-5 – New tablets of stone

Gospel Passage: John 11:17-27 – I am the resurrection

Sermon Text: Acts 20:32 – Paul commends them to God and to the Word of His grace

Sermon Point: Only God can bring salvation, and He chooses to do this through our continual consideration of Him and His Word of grace.