The Comfort of God’s Warning Signs
Posted: February 9, 2015 Filed under: God's Will, Prophecy, Sermons Leave a commentThis sermon can be watched or listened to at www.templebaptistchurch.ca!
Has God ever warned you about coming trouble or impending danger? I can think of a number of times that God has warned me about “icy roads” or “falling rocks” ahead on my journey in life. Lori has too. Just before we got married, she found a note on the board in the lobby of her dorm at college addressed to her. It had a rose attached to it, which had subsequently died for being there so long and it read: “Don’t marry Jon! He’s the wrong man for you; he will only be trouble.” This prophetic note from another suitor was partially true. I have been trouble to Lori. I took her away from her beloved and balmy United States to the cold northern climes of Canada.
Another time I remember getting several warnings from people who leaving my previous church to come to Temple would be very hard. I guess you have to define hard. Being part of the decision to close our beloved Academy was hard. Being here only 13 days when receiving notice of a lawsuit against Temple was hard. In fact, when Linda Kenyon, our Office Administrator came to notify me that there was a man who would only see the Senior Pastor, the Lord gave me a quick word of knowledge that the church was getting sued. God braced me for that blow. He does that! God braces us for blows in life if we are listening. Tonight I want to teach on the subject of the comfort of God’s warning signs. Warning signs might not seem very comforting, but isn’t it easier to take a blow when you know it is coming? The shock of unexpectedly tragedy is devastating, but understanding that God knows of the coming trouble brings comfort – comfort in His sovereign plan in our lives.
We see this in how the Apostle Paul found comfort in God’s warning signs in Acts 21:1-14! Let’s read how the mission of Jesus and His Church continues through God’s comfort by His warning signs. This will give us a better understanding of the purpose for prophecy. Read Acts 21:1-14!
I need to give you a different perspective tonight because I think we are often misguided about the purpose of prophecy. Prophecy is often taught as an exciting inspirational look into the future. For example, the Left Behind series and other fictional End Times books use Matthew 24:40-41 to warn about being left behind, “Then there will be two men in the field, one will be taken and one will be left. Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one will be left.” However, this verse is ripped out of its context. Jesus warns in the immediate context of Matthew 24:37-39, “For the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away; so will the coming of the Son of Man be.” Who were the ones taken in Noah’s day? Those who didn’t believe. Who will be taken in death when Christ comes? The ones who don’t believe in Him. So we see that the Matthew passage is actually referring to people who will be taken in judgment.
Prophecy is often God’s comfort through His warning signs to get ready to endure difficulty. As we read the Biblical prophets and prophecies, they are not so much declarations of how to avoid trouble, but how to endure trouble. They are often predictions of consequences. The warning to repent was in the hearts of prophets, but often what came out of their lips was essentially “Watch out!” Prophecies are often pronouncements of how to endure trouble. Here are a few examples:
- Judges 4:9 – Deborah said to Barak, “Surely I will go with you; nevertheless, the honor shall not be yours on the journey that you are about to take, for the Lord will sell (your enemy) Sisera into the hands of a woman.”
- 1 Samuel 3:11-12 – The Lord said to Samuel, “Behold, I am about to do a thing in Israel at which both ears of everyone who hears it will tingle. In that day I will carry out against Eli all that I have spoken concerning his house, from beginning to end.”
- 1 Samuel 15:26, 28 – After King Saul disobeyed God repeatedly, Samuel said to Saul, “I will not return with you; for you have rejected the word of the Lord, and the Lord has rejected you from being king over Israel…The Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel from you today and has given it your neighbor, who is better than you.”
- 2 Samuel 12:11, 14 – After David committed adultery with Bathsheba and killed her husband Uriah, the prophet Nathan came to see David and prophesied: “Thus says the Lord, ‘Behold, I will raise up evil against you from your own household; I will even take your wives before your eyes and give them to your companion, and he will lie with your wives in broad daylight… and the child that Bathsheba is carrying shall surely die.”
- 1 Kings 11:11 – “So the Lord said to Solomon, ‘Because you have done this, and you have not kept My covenant and My statutes, which I have commanded you, I will surely tear the kingdom from you, and will give it to the your servant.”
- 2 Chronicles 12:5-7 – Then Shemaiah the prophet came to Rehoboam and the princes of Judah who had gathered at Jerusalem because of Shishak, and he said to them, ‘Thus says the Lord, You have forsaken Me, so I also have forsaken you to Shishak.’ So the princes of Israel and the king humbled themselves and said, ‘The Lord is righteous.’ When the Lord saw that they humbled themselves, the word of the Lord came to Shemaiah, saying, “They have humbled themselves so I will not destroy them, but I will grant them some measure of deliverance, and My wrath shall not be poured out on Jerusalem by means of Shishak.”
- 2 Chronicles 18:22 – Micaiah said to Ahab, “Now therefore, behold, the Lord has put a deceiving spirit in the mouth of these your prophets, for the Lord has proclaimed disaster for you.” Notice how the false prophets were the ones who predicted that Ahab would avoid trouble and be victorious. False prophets are the ones who often predict peace and the escape from trouble. (e.g. Jeremiah 6:14; 28; Ezekiel 13; Micah 3:5; Matthew 24)
- 2 Chronicles 24:17-20 – “But after the death of Jehoida the officials of Judah came and bowed down to the king, and the king listened to them. They abandoned the house of the Lord…Yet God sent prophets to them to bring them back to the Lord; though they testified against them, they would not listen. Then the Spirit of God came on Zechariah the son of Jehoida the priest; and he stood above the people and said to them, “Thus God has said, “Why do you transgress the commandments of the Lord and do not prosper? Because you have forsaken the Lord, He has also forsaken you.”
I could go on, but you get my point. Most of the prophecies were warning signs of how to endure trouble, not to avoid it. Now that I have laid this groundwork, let’s focus on the prophecies in the New Testament regarding the Apostle Paul. We know from Acts 9:16 that Jesus said about Paul, “For I will show him how much he must suffer for My name’s sake.”
Now in our passage in Acts 21:1-14, we find that warning signs can be God’s encouragement to keep going and expect trouble. The Apostle Paul is heading into the impending storm in Jerusalem. Maybe you are heading into a brewing storm? Maybe God is sending you into the storm? How do you know if you should keep going? Here are three questions you should ask yourself: 1) Is the warning from a trusted and known source? THIS ANSWERS THE QUESTION WHO? 2) Is the warning a prohibition or an encouragement? Encouragement meaning to build courage! THIS ANSWERS THE QUESTION WHAT? 3) Is the warning about accomplishing God’s will? THIS ANSWERS THE QUESTION WHY?
Paul’s Third Missionary Journey
Let’s start with the question is the warning from a trusted and known source. This is extremely important because we are tempted to go with the person with all the pizazz. We tend to love the new preacher of peace. However, this is not what Paul did. In verses 3-4, we find Paul specifically goes to Tyre to find the disciples there, which you can see on the map above . This was purposeful because Paul switched ships. “Paul was uncomfortable with a ‘local coastal’ ship that stopped at every port; so he found a boat going to Phoenicia.”[1] Now the interesting part is that Paul had never met the disciples at Tyre in Phoenicia. In the Biblical record, we never find Paul going to Tyre. So what about receiving warning from a known source? Remember, I also said receive a warning from a trusted source. The disciples at Tyre could be trusted because they had been some of the same people who Paul persecuted 20 years earlier. Acts 11:19 records, “So then those who were scattered because of the persecution that occurred in connection with Stephen made their way to Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch.” So Paul unwittingly helped to start this church by chasing the Jerusalem believers to Tyre. Now the former persecutor was seeking their prophecies. It is important to listen to your detractors. Sometimes the people who don’t have a lot of love for you can be most trusted in their counsel. These disciples at Tyre could be trusted. They were either displaced from Jerusalem or their parents were displaced from Jerusalem by Paul. And yet their counsel to Paul “through the Spirit was not to set foot in Jerusalem.” (v. 4) Paul could trust them. They could have held a grudge or been suspicious of Paul but they actually spoke truth to him.
Paul also sought out two other people in this passage. When Paul arrived at Caesarea “he entered the house of Philip the Evangelist.” (v. 8) Now remember that Paul had helped execute Philip’s fellow deacon Stephen 20 years earlier. Do you think Philip wondered if Paul was back to finish the job with him? However, Paul again went to somebody who was known and could be trusted. Philip even had four virgin daughters who were prophetesses. Which as an aside, if you are single or a virgin or young as some scholars think these girls were under 16 years old,[2] God can use you. Though Philip’s daughters are not mentioned, they again could be trusted because for young girls to speak up to an imitating man like the Apostle Paul would need to be considered a message from the Lord. Many kids are shy and when they speak up, it is often God speaking through them. I try to listen to my kids and other little kids when they speak up. God might be saying something to us through them. The old adage that kids are just “to be seen and not heard” is not Biblical. The young have something to say. Doesn’t Isaiah 11:6 say, “And a little child shall lead them”?
Even if Philip’s daughters didn’t prophesy about Paul, they could act as corroborators for when Agabus shows up. We know from 1 Corinthians 14:32 that “the spirit of the prophets are subject to the prophets.” Philip’s teen daughters would have refuted Agabus’ prophecy if it wasn’t from God. But they didn’t! Furthermore, “Paul and Agabus knew each other from when they worked together to provide famine relief 15 years earlier.”[3] Acts 11:27-30 records Agabus made the prophecy about the famine while Paul was one of the carriers of the offering. Now after all this time has passed, Agabus has been pressed by the Lord to find Paul, which would have gotten Paul’s attention and then Agabus grabs Paul’s belt, ties his own hands and feet as a dramatic object lesson of what would happen to Paul in Jerusalem. Think about it! Taking off another person’s belt is pretty intimate. And then to say, “This is what the Holy Spirit says: ‘In this way the Jews at Jerusalem will bind the man who owns this belt and deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles.’” (Acts 21:11) How do you know if you should keep going? You determine that the warning is from a trusted and known source!
But you might be wondering why Paul would keep going when all these trusted sources were warning him of the danger he faced in Jerusalem. It is important to ask when people warn you of trouble as to whether it is God forbidding you from going forward or not? In other words, is the warning a prohibition? In the case of Paul, Warren Wiersbe states, “These prophetic utterances can be taken as warnings (‘Get Ready’!) rather than as prohibitions (‘You must not go!’).”[4] “The Spirit never forbade Paul to go to Jerusalem; these revelations only forewarned and prepared him to be ready for what awaited him.”[5] “The statement in Acts 21:4 does not use the Greek negative ou, which means absolute prohibition, but me, which can mean ‘You really shouldn’t.’”[6]
Therefore, you need to get a straight answer, whether this is a “no” or a “watch out.” I have often had my dad give me warnings about trouble ahead, but when I press him whether the trajectory I am on is not God’s path, he cannot emphatically say “no.” Often, my father sees the pain ahead for me and wants me to avoid it. However, God might be calling me to suffer. This is why you have to go back to the first question often and ask whether it comes from a trusted and known source. The trusted and known source may not be objective if they simply want to spare you pain. Acts 21:12 conveys the hearts of those in Caesarea “who were begging Paul not to go up to Jerusalem.” Paul responds, “What are you doing, weeping and breaking my heart?” Any parent who has had to go away knows that feeling. However, the cries of your loved ones can’t be the ultimate determining factor. Here is the deciding factor – is it sin or pain to be avoided? They are very different. If your parents are warning you about going to a school far away from them because they don’t want you to see you go, then this might not be advice from the Lord. If they are suggesting you stick at home to not go into the debt, then that might be the Lord. Ask the Lord, is this a prohibition or not? And you can find the answer to that question if it is explicitly forbidden in Scripture.
The last question is about whether this warning is about accomplishing God’s will. Notice Paul’s statement in verse 14, “And since he would not be persuaded, we fell silent, remarking, ‘The will of the Lord be done!’” Paul was ready to die in Jerusalem like his Lord! Recall Luke 9:51 where it was said of Jesus, “When the days were approaching for His ascension, He was determined (lit. set His face) to go to Jerusalem.” Despite the pain, Jesus’ path was to Jerusalem and to the Cross. Paul was following His Lord and declared a similar statement to Jesus, “Not my will, but Yours be done, Father!” (Luke 22:42) This is the greatest prayer we can pray! Paul didn’t end up dying in Jerusalem, but Agabus’ prophecy came true in verse 27 and Paul was handed over to the Romans for long periods of imprisonment.
Is God warning you of impending danger? This can be very comforting if you know the answer to this last question: is it God’s will. If you know that your dangerous journey is God’s will, you might not be in the safest place on earth, but !
[1] Warren Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary (Wheaton: Victor Books, 1989), 488.
[2] “The use of parthenoi probably indicates that Philip’s daughters are young, under the age of sixteen at the time.” Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament (Downer’s Grove: InterVarsity, 1993), 385.
[3] Wiersbe, 489.
[4] Wiersbe, 489.
[5] R.C.H. Lenski, The Interpretation of the Acts of the Apostles (Columbus: The Wartburg Press, 1944), 862.
[6] Wiersbe, 489.
What Makes the Church Unique?
Posted: February 8, 2015 Filed under: Church, Resurrection, Sermons Leave a commentThis sermon can be watched or listened to at www.templebaptistchurch.ca!
What makes the Church unique? Is it because we exist for others and not for ourselves? I have heard it said many times that the Church exists for the good of others and not itself. However, I think many Not-For-Profits exist to serve others. Maybe the church is unique because we study the Bible? The Bible is extremely important, but those outside the Church will sometimes study the Bible maybe in their religion or literature classes. Maybe the church is unique because we uphold the truth like a pillar? Absolutely, according to 1 Timothy 3:14, the Church is called, “the pillar and support of the truth.” If you want to find the Truth, you should find it through God’s people! I don’t say this arrogantly, but humbly because we point people to Jesus who declares Himself the Truth (John 14:6). We live by the Truth, which is one of our core values here at Temple! We should be truthful because Jesus is! Not just so we can be trusted. This is why when the Church does cover things up, it is one of biggest turnoffs for people, because they inherently expect us to be truthful. On the other hand, when the church is proclaiming truth it makes a difference in society as this video will attest to!
Upholding the truth is part of the uniqueness of the Church, but it does not convey the full answer. To find out the answer, we need to read a story found in Acts 20:1-12. This story is another example of Jesus and His Church’s mission to change the world. To call people into a new Kingdom! To have the Kingdom of God change you from the inside out through the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is another distinguishing mark of the Church. The Church is indwelt by the Spirit and we follow His leading. This is why we are catching the Spirit. The Apostle Paul caught the Spirit and was on mission with Jesus and His Church. Let’s read not just Paul’s story, but our story. Let’s read about Paul and his encounter with a guy named Eutychus and find out why the church is so unique! Read Acts 20:1-12!
The Ruins of the Temple of the goddess Artemis in Ephesus
This story is the beginning of Paul’s third missionary journey. Things were getting more dangerous for him. He had been so faithful and fruitful on his previous missions that he was a wanted man. The context is found in Acts 19 where Paul was in the city of Ephesus. A wealthy Ephesian businessman named Demetrius, who made his money in making silver shrines for the goddess of Artemis, was starting to feel the pinch. Idol-manufacturing was downsizing. Why? The city of Ephesus were turning from following gods made by human hands to the God who made humans hands and their entire bodies – the one true Living God as revealed through Jesus Christ. Demetrius decided to gather up what amounted to the silversmith trade union and gives this speech in Acts 19:25-27, “Men, you know that our prosperity depends upon this business. You see and hear that not only in Ephesus, but in almost all of Asia, this Paul has persuaded and turned away a considerable number of people, saying that gods made with human hands are no gods at all. Not only is there danger that this trade of ours fall into disrepute, but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis be regarded as worthless and the world worship will even be dethroned from her magnificence.” Think about that speech for a moment. If you have to protect your god or goddess, is it really a god or goddess? Is it powerful enough to save you when you have save it? Instead, our God through Jesus Christ didn’t need saving. He has saved us. Nevertheless, there is a graveyard of organizations and businesses that make deadly choices based on trying to recoup market share instead of adapting to the times. If you want to adapt to the times and have a real future – an eternal future, then you need to follow Christ. We can see on the above picture what happened to the business of the Ephesian silversmiths and the Temple of Artemis – it lies in ruins.
Back to the story! The last part of Acts 19 records the riot that Demetrius started. However, Paul is able to leave Ephesus unscathed. We pick up what happened next in Acts 20:1-2, “After the uproar had ceased, Paul sent for the disciples, and when he had exhorted them and taken his leave of them, he left to go to Macedonia. When he had gone through those districts and had given them much exhortation, he came to Greece.” Notice all the exhortations that Paul is giving. He is sensing this is his last time seeing these people. You tend to get exhortative and instructive when you know you won’t be seeing people for a while. This past Friday night, I sent our oldest child and daughter Jessie on a retreat with 30 other youth from our church. It was her real first time being away from us other than with her grandparents. I guess I am a little over-protective. Any other parents here who are a little over-protective? Do you think I just dropped her off without a word? Of course, not! I gave her exhortations not to stay up late at night. I have done my share of youth retreats. I know how to sleep with one eye open. And I know that if you stay up all Friday night, you come back grumpy or sick on Sunday. I talked about how some of the youth will push the boundaries and she needs not to be a part of that especially playing tricks on the leaders. My point is that one gets exhortative when you don’t see people for a while and Paul knew he needed to give some last-minute instructions to the various churches he started.
Maybe Paul was also a little exhortative because he couldn’t find his protégé Titus. John Stott explains, “For Paul had also expected to find Titus in Troas, whom he had recently sent on an important fact-finding mission to Corinth. But Titus was not there to meet him (and didn’t have cell-phone coverage) and so, because he had ‘no peace of mind’, instead of staying to evangelize Troas, Paul ‘went on to Macedonia.’”[1] We can find Paul’s frame of mind in 2 Corinthians 2:12-13, “Now when I came to Troas for the gospel of Christ and when a door was opened for me in the Lord, I had no rest for my spirit, not finding Titus my brother; but taking my leave of them, I went on to Macedonia.” “It was later probably in Philippi, that Paul’s longed-for rendez vous with Titus took place and his anxiety was transformed into joy.”[2] 2 Corinthians 7:5-6 gives us insight, “For even when we came into Macedonia our flesh had no rest, but we were afflicted on every side: conflicts without, fears within. But God, (two of the greatest words paired together in the Scriptures), who comforts the depressed, comforted us by the coming of Titus.”
So we know that Paul was exhausted. He was afflicted from outsiders and supposed insiders. In Acts 20:3, the writer Luke summarizes the threats Paul faced, “And there he spent three months, and when a plot was formed against him by the Jews as he was about to set sail for Syria, he decided to return through Macedonia.” This evidences that the church is not unique because it is perfect or without trouble. You might come here and expect no trouble or discouragement. However, the church has always experienced trouble from without and from within. It can get depressing, but God, who comforts the depressed, the discouraged, and the drained brought people into Paul’s life. He will with you too, when you are ready to give up. When you are depressed, discourage and drained. We read in Acts 20:4 that God gave Paul “Sopater of Berea, the son of Pyrrhus, Aristarchus and Secundus of the Thessalonians, Gaius of Derbe, and Timothy and Tychicus and Trophimus of Asia.” “All nine men must have been the fruits of the mission and they helped carrying the offering needed for the poor church in Jerusalem which we read about 1 Corinthians 16:1-4, 2 Corinthians 8:9 and Romans 15:25-27.”[3] The people gave up their best and brightest for this mission. The world tries to retain its best and brightest, while the church gives them up for God’s Kingdom. However, this alone does not make the church unique.
We find out what made the church unique in what happens next. Paul and his companions arrive at Troas and verse 6 records that they stayed there seven days. Paul spends a week at Troas looking for Titus but also encouraging the believers at Troas. Most of the believers at Troas were like us. They were labourers who worked all day for other people. According to F.F. Bruce, “They met in the evening, a convenient time for many members of the Gentile churches, who were not their own masters and were not free in the day time.”[4] So notice that everybody is tired in this story and yet they gather together. Maybe you are tired? Maybe you dragged yourself here to church? We were talking in our Next Chapter class on parenting this past Wednesday led by Darryl and Cathy Brush about whether you should force your kids to go to church. I personally believe that church is not optional. It is what we do as a family on Sundays, even on vacation. It is not a habit or ritual as much as it is refueling and reminding us of how great God is. We want to be with other believers and worship Christ together, which is another reason why the church is unique. Nevertheless, all of us at times have dragged ourselves to church. Have you ever done that? And then God showed up in unexpected ways and you left comforted and recharged. This is what happens in this story.
Paul is preaching all evening long. The reason why is explained in verse 7, “he was intending to leave the next day” and they had one more opportunity to gather for His preaching and to break bread together. That term “breaking bread” together is not just having a meal together, though that might have occurred the last night of Paul’s visit to Troas. “Breaking bread” is the same term that is used in Acts 2:42, which the church devoted themselves to “the apostles’ teaching, to fellowship, to breaking of bread and prayer.” They broke bread because that is what Jesus did (Luke 24:30) and what He taught them. This last supper with Paul reminded the believers of Troas of the last supper of Jesus. Jesus commanded His Church to break bread together, “In remembrance of Me!” (1 Corinthians 11:24)
But before the Communion supper, Paul gives the believers some last-minute instructions. He had a lot to say. I have sat under some long sermons. In fact, I have even fallen asleep in church, so I’m sympathetic to you if you are a little sleepy this morning. Imagine though working all day long, and then you are listening to a sermon that is now approaching the midnight hour. No wonder, Eutychus falls asleep in the warmth under the lights. “Eutychus was between 8-14 years old”[5] at the time according to John Stott. Even sitting by the window didn’t help. Eutychus falls out the third story window and dies. We know he dies because the one writing was Luke, a doctor, who was there and confirmed the boy’s death. It would have been unsettling to the church there. You might have been in church when somebody faints or falls. I have! The meeting stops! I have even had a person die in church while I was preaching. She was visiting her son-in-law getting baptized. It was a killer sermon! The family was glad that she had her stroke at church and not while at home alone. Now, I don’t want that to happen to any of you today. As the late great preacher Charles Spurgeon once said, “Remember, if we go to sleep during the sermon and die, there are no apostles to restore us!”
In this story, Paul went down and like the Old Testament prophets Elisha and Elijah, he fell upon him and after embracing him according to verse 10, said, “Do not be afraid, for his life is in him.” (c.f. 1 Kings 17:21; 2 Kings 4:34) The boy was raised because of love. And now we are at the answer to our question. The Church is unique because it is the pillar of the truth, because it is indwelt with the Holy Spirit, because it preaches and worships Christ, but also because it is the only community that showcases the love and resurrection of Jesus Christ! We are a resurrected community filled with love and hope!
This story is a reminder through all the dangers, toils and snares that Jesus has risen from the grave. He has given us a new life. Paul in his sense of searching and loss of Titus was given the opportunity to proclaim and showcase the resurrection of Christ. As N.T. Wright states about this story, “This is a time of life, of restoration, of resurrection.”[6] This is why after the boy was raised from the dead, Paul goes back and they break bread together.
We are about to do that. I am going to invite all those who have trusted in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour to come up and break bread. By doing so, you are saying that you have received a new life from Christ. Your old life has died with Christ and you have a new life with Him. The old has gone and the new has come. Our church is experiencing resurrection.
We are going to sing and then I am going to serve our Elders and Deacons and their wives along with our worship leaders and musicians and then you come up. We have a gluten-free option on this table on the right of me. We take Communion to showcase the love and resurrection of Jesus Christ. He knew our weaknesses and yet He died and rose again for us.
[1] John R. W. Stott, The Message of Acts (Downer’s Grove: Inter-Varsity Press, 1990), 316.
[2] Stott, 316.
[3] Stott, 318.
[4] F.F. Bruce, The Book of Acts – NICNT (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1974), 408.
[5] Stott, 320.
[6] N.T. Wright, The Resurrection of the Son of God (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2003), 454.
Saying Good-bye to a Daughter of the King
Posted: February 3, 2015 Filed under: Funerals Leave a comment
Rebecca Jane (Morrell) Venturino
June 12, 1973 – January 30, 2015
When I met with the family and asked them to put in their own words what made Rebecca so special, they gave me some descriptions. Would you like to hear what they said? She was gentle, had a beautiful smile, was thorough (Rebecca knew all Ross’ passwords so he might not be able to get into anything on his computer for sometime). Rebecca was concerned for others. She had a good memory, and had a contagious laugh. She was the first-born chosen and adopted right out of the hospital. Rebecca also was an instigator according to her sister Martha. They shared a room growing up and once when they were supposed to be in bed, Rebecca kept calling their dog Thumper into the room. Ross kept getting the dog in trouble never knowing that it was Rebecca’s doing until yesterday when recounted the story to us. Apparently, Rebecca got all the pretty clothes too according to Martha. I also know that Rebecca loved Nascar. Any Nascar fans out there? Rebecca was a Sunday School teacher here at Temple. And she believed in Jesus as her Saviour. This is why when the doctor told her that she had weeks to live and asked her if she had any fears, she replied, “I have no fear, I know where I am going.” Which begs the question? Do you know where you are going? Today we are confronted with our own mortality. We are confronted with where our life is heading. Rebecca’s life verse from the Bible is found in James 1:12, “Blessed is a man who perseveres under trial; for once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.” Do you see how Jesus gives a crown and new life to those who love Him? Wer don’t earn our crown, it is given to us because we love the King. But why would you love King Jesus when it seems like He takes people you and I love away from us? Well, I know Rebecca wants you to see the bigger picture today. She wants you to know how to persevere under a trial, even the trial of her death. She wants you to receive a crown and new life. Her message comes from a story as told in 2 Samuel 9! Read 2 Samuel 9! (I can just imagine Rebekah reading this on her tablet.)
This is the story of King David and his kindness to Mephibosheth. I think Rebekah could identify with Mephibosheth. Maybe you can too? Let me tell you the background. 2 Samuel 4 tells us that Jonathan the prince and heir to the throne had a little son who was only 5 years old when word came from Jezreel of King Saul and Jonathan’s death. The boy’s nursemaid feared for his life, grabbed the boy and fled but in her haste Mephibosheth fell and became lame. So here is Mephibosheth who was supposed to be protected by somebody who was caring for him and in the midst of confusion and fear surrounding his grandfather and father’s death, he actually gets hurt – lame. He either was totally lame or walked with a limp. I think if we are being honest, all of us walk with a limp. Sometimes that limp is self-inflicted, other times it has been caused by people who have neglected us or were charged with protecting us. Maybe they even hurt us?
In the story, Mephibosheth aims the hurt not just at his nursemaid, but I think at David. He spends many years hiding from David. Eugene Peterson explains, “Mephibosheth was carried across the Jordan River valley to the safety of the small village Lo-debar. Lo-debar means pastureless. Mephibosheth’s bones knit badly. Mephibosheth was never again able to walk well. He grew up in obscurity, lame.”[1] Mephibosheth was a victim living in Lo-debar with no greener pastures in sight. David would have been most likely the source of Mephibosheth’s fear, but also his frustration. “It was because of David that Mephibosheth’s father and grandfather had been killed by the Philistines. If it hadn’t been for David, there would have no accident and no lifelong crippling disability.”[2]
Maybe Mephibosheth also blamed God? This appears likely since Mephibosheth’s name means “Seething Dishonour.”[3] We often wonder when we have been hurt, where is God? He could have prevented our problem. Douglas Wilson in his book Father Hunger writes, “We may hate God for deserting us, for leaving us. At the same time, there is an acknowledgment of the fact that we reject God first. We demanded that He leave. We hate it when He leaves and we hate it worse when He stays. This is all admittedly conflicted and contradictory, but one of the things we have to understand is that sin doesn’t make sense.”[4] Rebekah had some of these conflicted feelings. Her biological mother wasn’t able to keep her. Then she lost her mother Sarah Jane to the same cancer that later attacked Rebecca. Rebecca has felt rejection. This caused her to wrestle with God’s seeming abandonment, especially when the cancer hit. She took blow after blow of pain. Who could she strike back at?
And who could Mephibosheth strike back against? What Mephibosheth didn’t know was that David was not his enemy, but his rescuer. David actually loved Mephiboseth’s father, Jonathan, so much that Jonathan was David’s best friend. David loved Jonathan (2 Samuel 1:26). David wanted to take Jonathan’s son Mephibosheth and restore him. When Mephibosheth comes before his enemy the king, David says, “Do not fear.” (2 Samuel 9:7) That is a message for you and me today. It is why Rebecca and I could sing one of the last songs we sang together, “The Joy of the Lord is Your Strength.” That song is based on a verse in Nehemiah 8:10 which begins by saying, “Do not mourn for the joy of the Lord is your strength.” You no longer need to be afraid. And you don’t need to consider yourself like Mephibosheth did, “a dead dog.” Instead, David treats Mephibosheth like family. He welcomes him to his table. He even restores all that Saul owned as an inheritance to Mephibosheth.
I think about how Rebekah was welcomed in by Ross and Sarah Jane as a baby and again by Ross and Linda in her final days, but more important this story is about how Rebekah was welcomed in by David’s son Jesus. He came at the point of her rejection and picked her up. Jesus Himself knew rejection. He was innocent and yet He died for her and for you and for me. Then Jesus rose again for Rebecca and for you and for me. Jesus rose again so that death is not the final word. There is hope today! Jesus has welcomed Rebecca into His forever family, adopted her and she will eat at His table forever in heaven.
What about you? Maybe you have been hurt and rejected? Jesus is not after you. He is not hunting you to destroy you, but to make you family. Isn’t it time to let go of the bitterness and come home? Jesus has seen all the hurt and He wants to restore you. He persevered under the greatest trial so that you could have the promise of eternal life. All you have to do is believe in Him and receive the gift of his grace in the same way Mephibosheth did and just as Rebecca did. Jesus wants to be the King in your life. Will you trust Him? Will you love Him? Maybe you have thought of God as enemy when in reality He is the best friend and King you could have? Will you receive His invitation and live with Him and His family forever?
[1] Eugene Peterson, Leap Over A Wall (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1997), 170.
[2] Peterson, 171.
[3] Peterson, 171.
[4] Douglas Wilson, Father Hunger, 50.
Who is Going to Win Today in Your Life?
Posted: February 1, 2015 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a commentThis sermon can be watched or listened to at www.templebaptistchurch.ca!
Who is going to be the biggest winner today? The Seahawks or Patriots? Neither. NBC and CTV for making millions on advertising? Nope! Pizza Restaurants and Wing Joints? No! GlaxoSmithKline who makes Tums for after you hit the pizza and wings! Nope! The person who is going to win today is Jesus! You might think this is a losing day for Jesus because He has to compete with the football god, the NFL, on its most holy of days – the Superbowl, but I want to tell that Jesus is going to win today. He might even win you to Himself! You might be playing for the wrong team and Jesus is going to recruit you to His team today! If you sense that God wants you to join Jesus’ team today, please talk to me or one of the Elders afterwards. I stand up here each Sunday ready and willing to pray for you. I think maybe we are hesitant to come up and seek prayer because we wonder what others will think. However, we are family, a church family. We believe that prayer is always our first step and the barometer of our relationship. Therefore, anybody who seeks prayer should be applauded and is a champion here.
Now let me get back to the larger question: why would I say that Jesus is going to win today? Because there is going to be disappointment. Lots of people are going to be disappointed, even if their team wins because they will soon discover that achievement is fleeting. “There is no amount of achievement that will ultimately satisfy the emptiness of the human soul.”[1] And so why is Jesus going to win today? Because Jesus is the only true deliverer from disappointment! You might miss the pass! You might miss the field goal! You might miss doing well on your exams and assignments! You might miss out on that relationship! That promotion! You might miss out on the ability to save your loved one from dying! Disappointments pop up daily, BUT JESUS IS THE ONLY DELIVERER FROM DISAPPOINTMENT!
We see this in the life of the Early Church! The Early Christians faced many disappointments and much opposition as they went on mission with Jesus. The whole mission of Jesus and His Church was marked with disappointments and opposition. Recall how we have journeyed through the Book of Acts. I have a chart in your bulletin and on the PowerPoint that gives us this overview of the disappointments and deliverances of the Church in Acts. Acts 1 records Jesus leaving earth and ascending to heaven. His disciples respond to Jesus’ departure by huddling to pray! Then Acts 2 records the Day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit comes upon the disciples. They proclaim the gospel to the nations gathered there at Jerusalem and 3000 people were saved and baptized that day. Acts 3-4 describes how God heals a lame beggar through Peter and John. Peter gets to give another gospel sermon, but it means Peter and John are arrested and put in prison. Acts 5 records Ananias and Sapphira trying to steal from God and lie about it. They die for their sin and the Enemy thinks this is an opportunity to pounce on a stunned church and so he moves in to put the apostles in prison. The apostles are released and the gospel spreads house to house. But then the Church experiences growing pains. Acts 6 chronicles the dispute over distribution of food, which causes the church to learn about delegation and selection of deacons. Acts 7 depicts the ultimate cost of serving Jesus – martyrdom. Stephen is martyred after proclaiming the Gospel before his executors. One of those executors was a guy named Saul. Saul then persecutes the Church in Chapter 8, which scatters the Church. This results in people getting saved from other nations like a eunuch from Ethiopia who learns that Christ is the fulfillment of the Old Testament after an explanation from Philip. Then in Chapter 9, Saul is radically converted. Dorcas dies and is resurrected. Chapter 10 reveals the change that the Jewish church underwent through the loss of tradition in order for outsiders like the Gentiles to receive Christ. But Peter faces criticism in Chapter 11 for this change. Large numbers of Gentiles are then converted. In Chapter 12, James is killed and Peter is arrested by Herod. But Jesus delivers Peter from prison and Herod dies. Chapter 13 starts off glorious with the official commissioning of Paul and Barnabas as missionaries, but they soon face opposition from a magician and their co-worker John Mark abandons them. Nevertheless, Jesus saves the magician’s master! Later on, John Mark becomes useful to them both. Chapter 14 records opposition at Iconium and Lystra, yet many people became disciples. Chapter 15 describes the dispute over expectations of the Gentiles and also how Barnabas and Paul split. Nevertheless, the Council of Jerusalem decides to emphasize grace and table fellowship. In Chapter 16, we read that in Philippi after leading a lady named Lydia and her household to the Lord as well as freeing a demonized girl, Paul and Silas are put in prison. Paul and Silas are then rescued and the Philippian jailer and his household are saved and baptized. Then in Chapter 17, Paul and Silas face opposition at the cities of Thessalonica, Berea and Athens. However, Jesus’ deliverance came through the establishment of churches in each of those cities. Do you see how much disappointment and difficulty that the early church faced? But do you also see how Jesus is the only true deliverer from disappointment? Only Jesus could help this young fledgling church face one adversary after another and still continue on mission with Him!
Now, we are in chapter 18 and we find the same situation of disappointment and the need for deliverance. Will God come through one more time? Will God come through one more time in your life? Will God win in your life? We are going to find in the life of the Apostle Paul that Jesus wins! Let’s read how Jesus and His Church wins in Acts 18:1-22! Read Acts 18:1-22!
How does Jesus win? What is Christ’s game plan for you when you face opposition? Jesus will make three moves: 1) Jesus will give you teammates. 2) Jesus will send you to chase the chosen. 3) Jesus will open blocked paths. Let’s start with how Jesus will give you teammates. Last week we learned about Priscilla and Aquilla and how they made an apprentice of grace out of a Bible teacher named Apollos. As we backtrack a little to Acts 18:1-22, we learn that Paul arrives in Corinth and he meets Priscilla and Aquila. This is important because Paul needed some teammates, just like you need some teammates on this Gospel mission. You see, Corinth was a very wicked city. Paul was going to a modern-day version of Las Vegas or Amsterdam. Corinth housed “the temple of Aphrodite or Venus, the goddess of love. One thousand female slaves served her as prostitutes on the streets at night.”[2] “To act the ‘Corinthian’ means to practice fornication.”[3] It was worse than Californication! I love that Paul was willing to attack the kingdom of darkness on its home turf with the gospel and I hope we too will bring the light of Christ to the dark places of our community. Paul knew the wickedness of Corinth and understood that where there is great darkness, the light of the gospel can shine brighter and pervade the darkness. However, he needed teammates to make his light brighter. You can’t do mission well without teammates. And so Christ sent him teammates, particularly a husband and wife team. I believe in a husband and wife teaching team ministry, but I think Christ also sent Priscilla and Aquila to Paul because he needed a woman to minister to those temple prostitutes. Paul couldn’t do that by himself. It wouldn’t be wise. Even two men can get themselves in trouble with women, especially seductive women. However, Priscilla being there could block for the men while at the same time ministering to the women. The text doesn’t explicitly say Priscilla evangelized the women of the city, but we know that there was a church that was established in Corinth with many women. How? “Paul left the city, sometime in A.D. 51-52, and wrote the letter that we call 1 Corinthians approximately three years later.”[4] The church at Corinth still had massive issues after Paul and Priscilla and Aquila left, but we get a hint of Priscilla’s influence on the women because this book mentions women and how women and men should relate to each other more than any other of Paul’s other letters.
Paul needed teammates and Christ gave him the right teammates at the right time. Paul was even reunited with Silas and Timothy who verse 5 declares “came down from Macedonia.” And these teammates helped him when he faced lots of opposition from the Jews. They freed him up to “devote himself completely to the word, solemnly testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ.” But then, “when they resisted and blasphemed, he shook out his garments and said to them, ‘Your blood be on your own heads! I am clean. From now on I will go to the Gentiles.” Notice, Paul took ownership for the salvation of people’s souls. Do we do that? Do we see people around us as going to hell and they need to hear about the Good News of Jesus? Let me clarify. Can we save people from hell? No, Jesus is the only Saviour. However, there is a responsibility to declare the truth that Christ has charged us with. Other people’s destinies are our responsibility until we declare the gospel to them. Nevertheless, as soon as people reject the Gospel, it is totally on them. We are released from our part of the mission. We can and should still pray for them. Paul did, even though he handed them over to God. We know this from reading Romans 9:1-3 where Paul says, “I am telling the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience testifies with me in the Holy Spirit that I have great sorrow and unceasing grief in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed, separated from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh.” We should never rejoice over being rejected. We should be grieved. Paul wasn’t saying, “Well, go to hell! I tried!” No, he was grieved! As an apostle who laid the foundation, he got walked over. Most apostolic leaders and missionaries get walked on and overlooked as they lay the groundwork for the gospel to become fruit. What should you do? Give your extended time to the responsive. Make the gospel and your ministry available to everybody, but focus on those who are responsive to the Word of God!
This will be tough! You may even feel like you are losing. Paul seems to have been afraid (c.f. 1 Corinthians 2:3). Even though Titius Justus (who scholars think was Gaius mentioned in Romans 16:23; 1 Corinthians 1:14) and Crispus, a synagogue leader along with “many of the Corinthians were believing and being baptized.” The Corinthians were coming to faith in Christ. Jesus was being the deliverer even though Paul felt disappointment. We know Paul was afraid because of Christ coming to Paul in a vision. Verses 9-10 records the words of Jesus, “Do not be afraid any longer, but go on speaking and do not be silent; for I am with you, and no man will attack you in order to harm you, for I have many people in this city.” This is one of the most motivating verses for evangelism in the New Testament. Christ sends us to chase the chosen. The elect should motivate our evangelism. Now that might seem new and unsettling to you. The doctrine of election is unsettling at first until you understand that salvation is all about grace. That God would choose people to be saved. And it isn’t because some people are better or God knew that some people would choose Him. That wouldn’t be grace. God chose us simply because that was His game plan. Some have been misguided over this doctrine of election and stopped evangelizing. However, that is insanely wrong. The elect should motivate our evangelism. Our mission is simple: we can’t save anybody but we are responsible to tell people about the Saviour. We don’t know who is going to be saved so we tell everybody we can. As Warren Wiersbe states, “You and I do not know who God’s elect are, so we take the gospel to every creature and let God do the rest.”[5] This is why we chase the chosen and because we don’t know who the chosen are, we chase everybody until they reject us. It is like in football when there is a fumble. The players just go after everybody until they find out who has the ball.
There might be a scrum in your life right now and its all confusing. You might feel like you’ve lost everything. Jesus is going to come up with the ball and more importantly, the victory! The last part of Jesus’ game plan when you face opposition is that He will open blocked paths. Luke records in verse 11 that Paul settled there a year and six months, teaching the Word of God among them. It takes time to disciple! But then there is a dust up. Verses 12-13 describes, “the Jews with one accord rose up against Paul and brought him before the judgment seat, saying, ‘This man persuades men to worship God contrary to the law.’” Disappointment comes once again! But notice how quick the Deliverer Jesus comes to the rescue. Verse 14-17 states, “But when Paul was about to open his mouth, Gallio said to the Jews, ‘If it were a matter of wrong or of vicious crime, O Jews, it would be reasonable for me to put up with you; but if there are questions about words and name of your own law, look after it yourselves; I am unwilling to be a judge of these matters.’ And they took hold of Sosthenes, the leader of the synagogue, and began beating him in front of the judgment seat. But Gallio was not concerned about any of these things.” The trial is dismissed before it got started and the Jews turn on one another. They tackle and beat on their leader Sosthenes while Gallio sits there ignoring them. This might not seem like a win for Jesus, but it was both individually and legally. As F.F. Bruce explains, “Gallio’s ruling that the gospel shared the protection, which Roman law extended to the Jewish religion, must have served as a precedent for other Roman judges and meant for 10-12 years a greater freedom for the gospel.”[6] In other words, Christianity, which wasn’t recognized as an official religion in the Roman courts, was now considered a sect of Judaism and experienced protection under the law for a dozen years. This enabled the Gospel to go forward because it could not be “charged with illegality.”[7] Disappointment turned into deliverance by Christ!
The other thing that happened was in Sosthenes’ life. He too was disappointed with the outcome of Gallio’s decision and would have been even more disappointed with how the Jews he led in the synagogue treated him by beating on him. But check out 1 Corinthians 1:1 written 3 years later, “Paul, called as an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God and Sosthenes our brother.” Jesus turned Sosthenes’ disappointment to his deliverance. Sosthenes became a brother! Sosthenes became a teammate of Paul because Paul chased the unknown chosen. Christ opened a blocked path. Who is the biggest winner today? Jesus! And you can be on His team. Go chase the unknown chosen!
[1] Ruth Haley Barton, Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership (Downer’s Grove: IVP Books, 2008), 126.
[2] John R. W. Stott, The Message of Acts (Downer’s Grove: Inter-Varsity Press, 1990), 246.
[3] F.F. Bruce, The Book of Acts – NICNT (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1974), 367.
[4] Gordon D. Fee, The First Epistle to the Corinthians – NICNT (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1987), 4.
[5] Warren Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary (Wheaton: Victor Books, 1989), 477.
[6] Bruce, 375.
[7] Stott, 300.
Commissional 