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!