Chardon church of Christ

We Need Each Other

WE NEED EACH OTHER
1 Cor. 12:12 – 27

OPEN: Centuries ago in Europe, a wealthy nobleman decided to build a church bldg. for the mountain village that he’d grown up in. Everybody, in the village was excited, but no one was permitted to see the plans, or the inside of the church building until it was finished. Finally, the day arrived, and people gathered on Sunday to marvel at the beauty of the new building.
But when they went inside... someone said, “Hey! Where are the lamps? It is dark in here. Where are the lamps?” Then the nobleman pointed to a line of brackets along the walls, and then he gave each of the families a lamp, telling them to “Bring your lamps each time you come to worship.” And he explained, “Each time you are here, the place where you’re seated will have light. But every time you are not here, your place will be dark. This is to remind you that whenever you fail to gather with the church, some part of the building will be dark”.
The point we are making this morning is this: When Christians aren’t together in worship there’s something missing. It’s like there’s a bit of darkness that settles over our hearts.
Because WE NEED EACH OTHER!
In fact, the Bible is very clear about that idea that God’s people need each other. Back in the Old Testament God declared: “Two are better than one... If one falls down, his friend can help him up. But pity the man who falls and has no-one to help him up! Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm. But how can one keep warm alone? Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.” (Ecclesiastes 4:9-12)

WE NEED EACH OTHER!!!
Paul tells the Church at Corinth “You are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.” I Corinthians 12:27
The problem Paul found with the Corinthian church was, lots of folks were arguing about who had the best spiritual gift, and some were thinking they didn’t have any gifts at all!
This Morning I would like us to consider three different attitudes, and see if you find yourself in any of them. First, the attitude...

The 1st attitude we will consider is found in vs 15 – 20 of the text
“I can’t do anything!”
This is the person who feels inferior, who thinks, “I have nothing to offer. The church doesn’t need me. I can’t sing. I can’t preach. I’m not good at anything.”
First, you are not inferior.
Ephesians 2:10 says, “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”
The word for “handiwork” is sometimes translated “masterpiece.” You are a masterpiece on the canvas of God’s creation. And you were “created in Christ Jesus to do good works.”
And that brings us to Paul’s favorite metaphor for the church: the “body of Christ.” He uses the word “body” 18 times in today’s text and draws on the picture more than any other in his writings. In fact, he sandwiches today’s text with this thought: verses 12 and 27 say the church is the body of Christ.
Back to the first attitude, “I can’t do anything.” Sometimes we’re jealous of people who have gifts we don’t have. “Why can’t I be more like them?” Drawing on the image of a human body, Paul writes in verses 15-17, “Now if the foot should say, ‘Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,’ it would not for that reason to stop being part of the body.Infra
And if the ear should say, ‘Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,’ it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be?”
Every part of the body is important. The foot is important, even though it’s not a hand. The ear is important even though it’s not an eye. The body needs every unique body part! Each of us are equipped to glorify God and his church in some unique way.

The 2nd Attitude is found in vs 21 – 25 of the text
“I have to do everything!”
In these verses Paul wrote to people who thought their gift was better than everyone else’s. So let’s correct that right now: You and I are not God’s last hope for mankind! This church could survive quite well without any one of us. No one is indispensable.
In verse 21, Paul says, “The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I don’t need you!’ And the head cannot say to the feet, ‘I don’t need you!’” He goes on to talk about how some of the most hidden parts of the body are absolutely indispensable. Think of your liver or kidneys. Quite hidden, but very important!
Sometimes I hear about someone who has been quietly praying for a person or for a situation coming up. Some have called these individuals the “knees” in the body of Christ, because they’re at least figuratively kneeling in prayer. We may hear about someone visiting a person who is hurting, or offering food, or comforting & encouraging the person who just lost their spouse. These little things that would often go unnoticed are no less important than the most stirring sermon or the leading a bible study. None of us can do it all. We need everyone to be at work in the way God has called them. Otherwise, the body is incomplete. And there are lots of churches with missing body parts.
So those are the first two myths when it comes to being church. “I can’t do anything,” or “I have to do everything.” And the last we’ll look at today is,

3. “I don’t need anybody else.” (vv. 25-26)
Every person counts in the body of Christ. And the truth is, we do need each other.
Paul writes for the need for unity out of our diversity. Listen to verse 25. Why has God given greater honor to the parts that lacked it? “So that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other.” God wants us to care about each other. That’s what being part of the church is all about!
Our world today is struggling between “Black lives matter” and “Blue lives matter.” I’m going to tell you, in God’s eyes, every life matters! Martin Luther King once said, “In a real sense all life is interrelated. All men [and women] are caught in an inescapable network of support, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be, and you can never be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be . . . This is the interrelated structure of reality.”
Martin Luther King was talking about society, and with God’s help, perhaps we can get there someday. And our greatest chance of doing so is if the church leads the way! The body of Christ should model for society that every life matters!
We are interconnected. Verse 26: “If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.” Elsewhere, Paul writes, “Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn” (Romans 12:15).
Our lives are caught up in each other. You know how, when you have a hang nail, it ruins your whole day? Or if you have a migraine, nothing else in your body is going to function well? That’s because the human body is inter-related. And so it is with the church. It’s ok to admit that you need your brother and sister in Christ. We are not designed to go it alone.

WE NEED EACH OTHER!
As Ecclesiastes reminds us - we’re in this together, and when we’re together - we have others around us to help us, to keep us warm, to protect us, and to keep us from being broken down by the hardships of life.
Now, God deliberately uses the imagery of us being the BODY of Christ. And in Ephesians 5:29 we’re told “... no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church”
God reminds us that WE (who are part of that body) need each other and we need to nourish and cherish the BODY of believers that we’re part of.
So, think about this for a minute: How do you nourish/cherish YOUR physical body?
ILLUS: Well, you feed it (sometimes you feed it really well); You cleanse it (showers/baths/shaving, etc.); If you’re sick, you see a doctor; If your teeth hurt – you go see a dentist; You put clothes on body that (at least) you think makes you look good; And once in a while you even pamper yourself/ entertain yourself. Those are just some of the ways you and I nourish and cherish our mortal bodies. But now, God is telling you that you’re part of a huge SPIRITUAL body, and He’s asking YOU personally to help take care of that body.
ILLUS: Francis Chan observed that “It’s no secret that most people who attend church services come as consumers rather than as servants.”
In other words, folks often don’t come to be involved with others, they come only to consume/receive. They don’t want to get involved!
ILLUS: Years ago, Snoopy (in the Peanuts comic strip) broke his leg. Believe it or not, 100s of “get well cards” came in from fans across the world. In one of the frames of the comic strip, Snoopy (with his leg in cast) says this: “My body blames my foot for not being able to go places. My foot says it was my head’s fault, and my head blamed my eyes. My eyes say my feet are clumsy, and my right foot says not to blame him for what my left foot DID....”
And then Snoopy looks out at his audience and confesses, “I don’t say anything because I don’t want to get involved.”
Now, why is that funny? It’s funny because Snoopy WAS involved. It was his foot, his head, his eyes, his feet! He was already involved because he was in part the body. And we’re part of the Body of Christ and the BODY needs you and I to be involved
Well, what can you do to involve yourself with the body?
Some of the stuff we already do: We pray for each other, we try to make people feel like they’re important, and we try take care of each other’s needs.
There are people here who will regularly call the shut-ins and sick, and there’s others who will send out encouraging cards.
That’s especially important in this post-Covid world. We don’t have the opportunity to interact like we once did. That’s why I constantly emphasize your cell phones. Call people. Email people. Contact each other on Facebook. Send cards and letters. Contact one another and see how each other is doing. Pray for one another.

WE NEED EACH OTHER.
In II Corinthians 1:3-4 we read “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, SO THAT WE MAY BE ABLE TO COMFORT THOSE WHO ARE IN ANY AFFLICTION, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.”
What those verses are saying is this: Each of US is comforted by God in our struggles/affliction, so that we can comfort others in their afflictions. God “TRAINS” us to minister to each other.
ILLUS: An old time minister tells the story of an “open mike” prayer time... and one Sunday a man stood up and said “I need your prayers. I’ve been struggling with alcohol most of my life and I’ve made the decision that I’m going to quit. I’ve not had a drink for the past couple of weeks and it’s getting tough.”
There was a pause, and then another man stood and said: “I had the same problem. And I didn’t think I could quit, but I did. I’ve been off the bottle now for 5 years.” And another man stood... and said roughly the same thing. And then another. About 3 or 4 men stood up that day and confessed they’d struggled in this and they all pledged to help the first man overcome his habit.
Do you know what happened there? What happened was that there were 3 or 4 men who’d been comforted by God and they in turn comforted a struggling brother – saying they’d be there for him. They showed what it meant to need each other.
Now, one last thought – WHOSE body is the Church? Who does the body belong to? That’s right, the body belongs to Jesus! It’s the BODY of CHRIST.
Colossians 1:16-18 For by (Christ) all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities — all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And HE IS THE HEAD OF THE BODY, THE CHURCH. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.”
Christ is the HEAD of the church. It’s HIS body!
That’s why the name on the sign out front says: “CHURCH OF CHRIST.” That’s who OWNS this church.
But (you know) it doesn’t matter what’s on the sign out front. Because, unless this church - not just the building, but the BODY - unless we as a body of believers belong to Jesus Christ WE’VE FAILED! You see, the marquee isn’t bragging about WHO we are. It’s bragging about WHO we belong to. It’s a proclamation that JESUS OWNS US: He’s our head; He’s our master; He’s our savior; and He holds US - the body of Christ – together.
And we call ourselves a Church of Christ because we love Him; because we belong to Him; and because we want to spend eternity with Him.
The question for you this morning is this – DO YOU? Do you love Him? Do you belong to Him? And do you want to spend eternity with Him?
You can do that this morning if you BELIEVE that Jesus is the Christ, the son of the living God. If you are willing to acknowledge that you have sinned and that you need to REPENT of your sins. If you are willing to CONFESS that Jesus will now be the Lord and Master of your life. And if are willing to allow yourself to be BAPTIZED – buried in the waters of baptism and rising up a new creature in Christ.
INVITATION

Sermon Contributor Jeff Strite

Holes In The Fence

"Holes in the Fence!"
James 1:18 – 21

A serviceman once wrote about a moment of comedy he had witnessed in the army. It happened during a company inspection. The inspection was being conducted by a full sergeant major. Everything had gone smoothly until the officer came to a certain soldier, looked him up and down and snapped, "Button that pocket!" The soldier, more than a little rattled, stammered, "Right now, sir?" "Of course, right now!" was the reply. So the soldier very carefully reached out and buttoned the flap on the sergeant major’s shirt pocket.

You see the officer had been quick to note the youngster's uniform problem, but hadn't noticed his own. And that’s a lesson we all need to learn because for some reason, the faults of others seem to stick out like a missing tooth, while our own faults are often hard to spot.

And what James is going to share with us today, are three areas which seem to stick out in most Christians, especially for young Christians in regard to the trials which we face. And as we go through today’s sermon, keep in mind that we need to apply what we learn to ourselves first.

James 1:19-20 “19 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath:
20 For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.
James says when it comes to our trials; the first thing we need to remember is, "be quick to listen."

He told us in James 1:18 “18 Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.

And then he tells us in James 1:21 Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.
And so, when James says that Christians are to be quick to listen, he’s talking about listening in regards to us being open to the word of God.

One of the first things immature Christians tend to do when they begin to face any trial, is they stop reading the Word of God. A strong Christian will always go to the Word of God for help, for encouragement, and for comfort. Because the mature Christian understands that God’s word will help them.

As someone once said, some Bible verses are like lanterns, they were made for dark places and dark hours. It’s a bit like the little girl who was going on a train many years ago. She couldn't understand why the trainman was going through the car lighting the lamps. She said, "Mother, it is the middle of the day and the sun is shining, why is he turning on those lights?" The mother smiled, and said, "Wait a bit and you'll see what the lights are for." A few moments later the train plunged into a long, dark tunnel, and then the little girl saw the wisdom of the lamp lighting process.

When we read our Bibles, it seems that they contain thousands of verses that seem very ordinary and unnecessary. And there are times when we can't see why God has gone to all the trouble of lighting those lamps of truth. But some day when you're going into the tunnel of bereavement, or the tunnel of temptation, or the tunnel of suffering. It’s then that you will find value and appreciate the verses that appear to be ordinary and unnecessary.

In other words when we are facing trials we need to be "quick to listen" to what God says to us in His word. James says when we’re struggling as Christians especially in times of trials; it’s then that we need the Word of God most of all in our lives.
We need to humbly and calmly be open to what the Word of God has to say to us. Because it’s only by reading the Word can we know that God cares.

But do you believe that? Do you believe that God wants to help you through those trails?
Isaiah 43:2 “When you pass through deep waters, I will be with you; your troubles will not overwhelm you. When you pass through fire, you will not be burned; the hard trials that come will not hurt you.”

Peter basically says the same thing over in 2 Peter 2:9 The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished:

God wants to help us but for that to happen we need to keep on reading His word and listen to what He has to say. You see immature Christians when they are facing trials not only stop reading God’s word; they usually start staying away from the worship assembly. But the mature Christian can’t wait to come to worship,

why? Because they know and understand, that they can get that help, encouragement and comfort that they need to help them through those trials from bible studies and worship.

1 Corinthians 14:3 “3 But he that prophesieth speaketh unto men to edification, and exhortation, and comfort. And I hope and pray that all of you receive, help, encouragement and comfort through the preaching and teaching which happens here, especially when you’re going through trials of any kind.

And so, one of the ways which is going to help us grow up into spiritually mature Christians when we are facing trials, is to keep on listening to what God has to say to us through His word.

Now the second thing that we need to learn to help us grow through our trials is we need to be "slow to speak."
There are a couple of ancient sayings I found which I would like to share with you because I believe we can learn from them.

One ancient saying says, “Men have two ears, and but one tongue, that they should hear more than they speak.”

Another ancient saying says, “The ears are always open, ever ready to receive instruction; but the tongue is surrounded with a double row of teeth, to hedge it in, and to keep it within proper bounds.”

You see ... as a Christian matures through trials they learn some things. And one of the things they learn is the ability to know when to speak.

Now I’m pretty sure we all know lots of spiritually mature Christians, even here within our own congregation.
And if there’s one thing I try to learn from them is just how much they speak.
When a young Christian is going through trials they don’t need to know every single chapter and verse in the Bible; there are times when just a few words are all that are needed.

We all probably know of someone who we view as an extremely strong Christian. It might not be because of their example as a Christian, nor because of their knowledge of the Bible but because they are a person of few words. Their words carry so much wisdom and understanding. Their words are always helpful, encouraging and comforting.

My point is that for us to help each other grow up spiritually through our trials there may be times we all need to listen more and speak less.

Often the young Christian who is suffering just needs someone to listen to them and speak few words. And so James says a mature Christian is a Christian who is quick to listen and slow to speak.
And that brings us to the final thing that Christians need to do to grow through our trials, we all need to be slow to become angry.

You see the word ‘wrath’ is closely related to the word ‘anger.’ What we really need to understand is that the Bible has a lot to say about both.
For example the Old Testament says in Psalm 37:8 “Don't give in to worry or anger; it only leads to trouble”.

The Book of Proverbs says in Proverbs 14:17 “One who is quick-tempered acts foolishly, and the schemer is hated.

In the Book of Ecclesiastes, the Bible says in Ecclesiastes 7:9 “Keep your temper under control; it is foolish to harbour a grudge.”

In the New Testament Paul says to the church in Rome in Romans 12:19 “19 Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,”[a] says the Lord.

To the Ephesians Paul writes in Ephesians 4:31 “31 Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice.

To the Colossians he writes in Colossians 3:8 “8 But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips.

So, let me ask you, what is the difference between anger and anger? Because Paul says in Ephesians 4:26 26 “In your anger do not sin”[a]: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry,

Paul doesn’t seem to have a problem with a Christian becoming angry. He says, “If you become angry.”
We may know individuals who when facing trials may get angry not only with God but with everyone else around them.
And often they say something like ‘well Jesus got angry, I’m just following His example’.

They quote Jesus expressing anger towards the money changers in the temple as John tells us in John 2:13-17 and they say, ‘you see Jesus expressed anger.’

People who try to excuse their anger often go to passages like Psalm 78:49-51 where the Psalmist writes, “He caused them great distress by pouring out his anger and fierce rage, which came as messengers of death. He did not restrain his anger or spare their lives, but killed them with a plague. He killed the first-born sons of all the families of Egypt.”

People who try to excuse their anger often go to passages like Romans 1:18 where Paul writes, “God's anger is revealed from heaven against all the sin and evil of the people whose evil ways prevent the truth from being known.”

My point is this; we need to understand the difference between wrath and anger. How do we reconcile those passages which demand that anger and wrath is sinful and something to be put away, with those passages that speak of anger on the part of God, Christ and even the Christian?

Well, first of all we need to understand that God's anger is always a just reaction to evil. Because God is divine and all-knowing, His wrath is never misguided. In other words He is more than capable of properly directing anger and wrath. Whereas we, with our imperfections, are not so capable to do that. In our anger we’re often misguided whether it is through ignorance or misunderstanding.

Haven't we ever been angry about something, and later regretted it when we realize we were in the wrong?

Jesus had the ability to read the hearts of men and with such divine knowledge;
He could not mistakenly direct wrath and anger. His anger was always holy anger against unrighteousness which is detestable to God. And when Jesus was angry, He was angry only for God’s honour.

When He was personally abused, He said nothing. 1 Peter 2:21-23 “It was to this that God called you, for Christ himself suffered for you and left you an example, so that you would follow in his steps. He committed no sin, and no one ever heard a lie come from his lips. When he was insulted, he did not answer back with an insult; when he suffered; he did not threaten, but placed his hopes in God, the righteous Judge.”

Jesus said nothing, it wasn’t until someone acted against God, then He displayed "righteous anger." And that’s where we all fall down at times, we often use anger improperly. You see, were supposed to be like Jesus and follow His example.

And notice James doesn’t say a Christian doesn’t get angry, he says a Christian should be slow to anger. In other words anger itself is not the problem but the way we deal with the emotion of anger could lead to a problem.

Let’s go back to Ephesians 4:26 “If you become angry, do not let your anger lead you into sin, and do not stay angry all day”. Now to understand this verse we need to keep the verse in its context.

Especially since Paul writes just a few verses later in Ephesians 4:31 “Get rid of all bitterness, passion, and anger. No more shouting or insults, no more hateful feelings of any sort”.

Now what I believe James and Paul are saying to us is rather than trying to justify our anger, we should be looking at how to deal with it when it arises in our hearts. James says we should be slow to anger and Paul says in Ephesians 4:26 “If you become angry, do not let your anger lead you into sin.” What they are saying is that our emotion of anger needs to be kept under control.

In other words don't allow it to show itself in a sinful way.
I’m sure we have all had times in our lives when people have said and done pretty hurtful things to us.

But the mature Christian has learned to control that anger and the mature Christian knows that it needs to be dealt with very quickly. That’s why Paul goes on in Ephesians 4:26 and says, “If you become angry, do not let your anger lead you into sin, and do not stay angry all day”. Other translations say, "Do not let the sun go down on your wrath." Have you ever wondered why we need to get rid of that anger so quickly?

Well thankfully Paul tells us why in the very next verse, Ephesians 4:27 “Don't give the Devil a chance”. You see a mature Christian understand what happens if you don’t deal with that anger properly and quickly.

There once was a little boy who had a bad temper. His Father gave him a bag of nails and told him that every time he lost his temper, he must hammer a nail into the back of the fence. The first day the boy had driven 37 nails into the fence. Over the next few weeks, as he learned to control his anger, the number of nails hammered daily gradually dwindled down.

He discovered it was easier to hold his temper than to drive those nails into the fence. Finally the day came when the boy didn't lose his temper at all. He told his father about it and the father suggested that the boy now pull out one nail for each day that he was able to hold his temper.

The days passed and the young boy was finally able to tell his father that all the nails were gone. The father took his son by the hand and led him to the fence and said, 'You have done well, my son, but look at the holes in the fence. The fence will never be the same.’

You see, when we say or do things in anger; they leave a hole just like this one. You can put a knife in a man and draw it out.

It won't matter how many times you say I'm sorry, the wound is still there. As someone once said, 'A verbal wound is as bad as a physical one.’

A mature Christian knows and understands the damage anger can do. They know that the devil will have a field day with that anger and they know that the devil will use that anger to create division amongst God’s people.

James warns us in James 1:20 “Human anger does not achieve God's righteous purpose.” You see ... there is a place for anger, but only if it’s going to lead to the honour and will of God and that’s where we fail the test.

How many holes have we left in the fence with our anger? How many people have we wounded with words and deeds which we should have controlled?

If we want to grow up into spiritually mature Christians, we need to be able to control that anger. And the way we can help ourselves to control that anger is simply by applying the first two warnings of James, be quick to listen and slow to speak in our lives.

Sermon Contributor : Mike Glover

Escaping Your Prison

Escaping Your Prison
Ephesians 4:17 – 32

Back in the 14th century, in the region we now call Belgium, there was a duke by the name of Raynald III. Raynald had a nickname – Crassus. Crassus means fat, and he was fat because he really liked to eat. He liked to EAT ... a lot! In the course of time, he had a violent quarrel with his younger brother Edward which resulted in Edward leading a revolt against him. Edward took Raynald prisoner and took him back to Nieuwkerk Castle where he had a special room built around him. He promised his brother he could regain his title and property as soon as he was able to leave the room.
Now, for NORMAL SIZE people, that wouldn’t have been a problem. There were several windows and a door of normal size, and none of them were locked or barred. The problem for Raynald was his size. In order to leave the room he had to lose some weight. But Edward knew his brother’s weakness and he made sure trays of delicious food were delivered to his room each day. Thus, instead of dieting his way out of prison, Raynald grew fatter. When Edward was accused of cruelty, he readily replied: “My brother is not a prisoner. He may leave ... when he so wills.”
Being delivered from evil depends on not being led into temptation. No trial or temptation is neutral. They're ordeals that either strengthen or weaken, depending on how they're handled. Christ teaches us to pray to be delivered from not only evil, but also from what carries us there (Jam. 1:14). Temptation isn't sin, but sin can't thrive without temptation. Or in Raynald's case, his fight wasn't in how to get through the door, but in how to get around the food.
Raynald stayed in that room for 10 years and wasn’t released until after Edward died in battle. By then his health was so ruined that he died within a year. He died a prisoner to his own appetite.
As I read this tragic story, I was struck by several truths:

FIRST: Satan takes us prisoner by capitalizing on our desires, weaknesses and tastes. He doesn’t need to create those things in us, he just takes advantage of our appetites. And then he sets out to do his best to see to it that we stay sated with the pleasures of sin.

SECOND: Raynald had a choice – he could only eat as much as was truly necessary, he could have exercised in his cell, and he could have walked through the cell door after losing enough weight. But Raynald was too fond of his sweets and tasty delights – thereby becoming his own warden, held in a prison only by his own weaknesses. The same is true for us – Satan can’t keep us in the prison. It is our choice – to continue to smother ourselves and indulge in our passions and sin, or to leave the prison behind.

THIRD: We think that the things we long for in our human nature are what will make us happy – that if we have enough of something, then we will be free at long last, not realizing (or at least not admitting to ourselves) that we are only perpetuating our imprisonment. Freedom awaits us outside the imprisonment of our desires. What would you rather have: freedom or another piece of cheesecake?

Jesus tells us:
If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross.
This morning we read a warning from Paul to new Christians in Ephesus where he urged them: Don’t die a prisoner to your appetites.

Ephesians 4:17-20 17 This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as [a]the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, 18 having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart;
19 who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. 20 But you have not so learned Christ,

Now, that’s not the way they “learned Christ” BUT that’s how they grew up. They once walked as the Gentiles did because they were Gentiles, and they lived in Ephesus.

Ephesus was a thriving seaport, proudly referred to as the “Treasure House of Asia.” And it was highly prized by the Romans. They had invested a huge amount of money in building the city up and it was a center of the area, that the Roman Governor would often go there to hold legal proceedings.
But it wasn’t a very nice city. It was home to the Temple of Diana/Artemis - the goddess of fertility. Her temple was a huge structure that could accommodate over 24,000 people and is reckoned as one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. But because Artemis was the goddess of fertility, the worship there included the burning of incense and the playing of flute music and the whole atmosphere which was designed to arouse the worshipers into an emotional frenzy and engage in shameless sexual behavior (we’ll leave it at that).

Ephesus was also a city of criminals. The tradition in Ephesus, that if any criminal reached the Temple of Diana they were granted asylum for their crimes. They couldn’t be punished, so that’s where criminals ended up living.
So, Ephesus was an extremely popular city, but also an extremely im-moral city. And that’s where these Ephesian Christians grew up and that’s where they lived. As you might imagine... it would be a very difficult to live a Christian life there. The temptation to do evil things existed on every street corner, and the Ephesians lived RIGHT THERE in the midst of some pretty nasty stuff.
The question arose, how could Christians avoid getting dragged back into their old lifestyles?
How could Christians avoid becoming imprisoned in their appetites?
These are the same questions we face in our present world.

Well, one way would be to get bad folks to stop doing their bad stuff. I mean if we could just convince people to stop listening to vile lyrics in their music, or stop going to inappropriate movies; or convince them to stop sleeping with their girlfriends/boyfriends, or committing adultery/ treating women like sex objects; or if we could convince them to stop cursing, and saying (or writing) mean or hateful things... I mean, if we could just DO THAT.
Then being a Christian would be so much easier, don’t you think?
But Paul tells us that’s not going to be real successful.
Ephesians 4:18-19 tells us “(The Gentiles) are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.”
These folks have lived like this for so long if you’d asked them to stop, they’re gonna be like... WHY? They’re alienated from God. There’s a hardness and callousness in them. They’re so imprisoned by their lifestyles that Paul says they’ve “given themselves up to sensuality etc.” They’ve gotten to the point where they ask – What’s the point? It’s so hard to stop doing it... why bother?
Someone once stated that The Seven Deadly Sins (pride/lust/greed/ etc) are not evil acts, but rather universal human compulsions that can be troubling and highly enjoyable.”
In other words, many have accepted their cage of “compulsions” and accepted the idea that “I’M NOT GETTING OUT OF HERE!”

By contrast, the reason that WE (Christians) don’t buy into that is that is Jesus has promised to FREE us from the things (like this) that have made us ashamed. The pagan world isn’t gonna change just because we say they should.

Another way to escape the prison of sin would be to practice Social Distancing. Go live in a corner, lock yourself up in a monastery, or go and live in cave somewhere. That’s what people did back in the Middle Ages.
But Paul tells us... that’s just NOT practical.
In I Corinthians 5:9-10 he states 9 I wrote to you in my epistle not to [a]keep company with sexually immoral people. 10 Yet I certainly did not mean with the sexually immoral people of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world.
There’s no avoiding the fact that we live in a fallen world, and that’s where we’re gonna stay until Jesus comes again.

So if I can’t convince the bad folk to change their bad ways, and if I can’t practice effective social distancing by living in a cave somewhere, how can I avoid being imprisoned by MY appetites, just like everybody else?
Well this what Paul says we should do –
Ephesians 4:22 tells us 22 that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts,

In other words: determine not to live by your appetites. Decide YOU are not going to live like a pagan. That’s what repentance is all about. Repentance is the decision to turn around and leave the old lifestyle. This is such an abiding teaching that a lot of people measure their spirituality that way and say “Look at what I DON’T DO! I don't smoke, and I don't chew, and I don't go with girls who do.”
But if that’s your only way of measuring your Christianity, you’ve missed something. It’s not enough to STOP bad stuff. It’s not enough to TAKE OFF the dirty deeds of sin.

ILLUS: Let’s say you’ve been out in the garden, digging in the dirt, pulling weeds and sweating up a storm. You get all done, and you realize you that are supposed to go out to eat with friends that night. So what do you do? You go inside, take off your dirty clothes and take a shower. Once you towel off... are you ready to go out and eat??? I hope not. You’re naked! They arrest people for going around in public that way. So, what do you have to do? Well, you have to PUT ON clean clothes.
It’s not enough to take off your dirty clothes and take a bath. You have to put on clean garments! And in the same way, it’s not enough to TAKE OFF the sins of the past, you have to replace those sinful behaviors with something else. You have to put on clean deeds and clean thoughts and clean words.
Ephesians 4:24 says “PUT ON the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.”

And, just to help us out, Paul gives us some examples. In Ephesians 4:25, for example, he writes: “Therefore, having PUT AWAY falsehood, let each one of you SPEAK THE TRUTH with his neighbor....”
What am I taking off? “Lying!!!” What am I putting on? “Truth Telling!”
Do you remember my telling you Ephesus was a home for criminals? There were probably a good number of ex-thieves in the church there, and I suspect they were tempted to go back to their life of crime. And what Paul telling them to take off – stealing!
And what are these thieves supposed to put on? Get a job!

Now, this is interesting – Paul doesn’t stop by telling them to get a job. He tells them WHY they should get a job. They should get a job so they have something to share with others.
This goes to the heart of changing a thief’s motivation – he used to steal because “what’s yours is mine, and I can take it.” But now, he is to think of his money (which he earns in a job) as something to give to others. His money is now the money he can give away.

And lastly – Ephesians 4:29-32 “Let NO CORRUPTING TALK come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for BUILDING UP, as fits the occasion, that it MAY GIVE GRACE TO THOSE WHO HEAR. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be PUT AWAY from you, along with all malice. BE KIND TO ONE ANOTHER, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.”
What am I supposed to TAKE OFF? Corrupt talk! Vulgar words! Curse words! Profanity!
And what am I supposed to PUT ON in their place? Words that build others up and make people feel good.
But that’s not all. Profane language isn’t all about using curse words. You can have corrupt language that doesn’t have a single curse word in it. You can have unwholesome talk that isn’t filled with profanity. In fact, there’s a CORRUPT talk that grieves God’s Spirit Who is inside of you!!!
These are words filled with bitterness, hatred, and slander of other people. And God says... get rid of that!!! Do not tear others down by what you say. God despises that kind of language!!!!
But why? Why would God hate that of language? Well, because God knows you and I... and He knows enough about us that He could say all kinds of nasty things about us. He knows things He could say about you that YOU don’t want others to find out about.
But He doesn’t. He won’t repeat those words about your past because, in Christ HE forgave you and me! IN CHRIST... all our shameful behavior been erased.
Since that is true, it’s inappropriate for us to gratefully accept HIM forgiving us... and then us turning around and NOT forgiving others of their behavior.

CLOSE: Now in the midst of the conversation about TAKING OFF sinful deeds and PUTTING ON good deeds, we mustn’t lose sight of the fact that we’re NOT doing all this because we’re nice people. We may think we are... but that’s not possible. Isaiah 64:6 tells us “all our righteous acts are like filthy rags” before God
In other words, we won’t be able to stand before God at the judgement and say “Hey, look at how nice I’ve dressed myself! Aren’t I pretty?” Oh no! This isn’t about dressing up in OUR righteous deeds. It’s about dressing up Christ’s righteousness.
In Revelation 3:18 Jesus said “I counsel you to buy from me ... white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen...”
It’s Jesus who clothes in pure garments. It’s HIS blood and His forgiveness that covers the nakedness of our sins. In fact, that’s how we come to salvation. When we’re baptized in Christ, Paul says “For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have PUT ON Christ.” Galatians 3:27

Sermon Contributor: Jeff Strite

The Bucket List

THE BUCKET LIST
Ephesians 5: 15 – 21

Did you realize all the things we do with time?
We “MAKE” time,
and we TAKE time, for things that are important to us.
We “SAVE” time with all kinds of gadgets and doodads.
We “MARK” time,
we “KILL” time,
we “RACE AGAINST” time.
AND (someone noted) that the worst thing you can do with time, is “WASTE” time.

ILLUS: One little girl complained to her mother after her first WEEK at school “I’m wasting my time. I can’t read, I can’t write--and they won’t let me talk!”

In our text today Ephesians 5: 15 – 16 15 See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, 16 redeeming the time, because the days are evil.

We may think that Paul was SIMPLY saying don’t waste your time. But it’s more than that. The Greek word Paul uses here is “exagorazo” which means to “REDEEM” the time. It’s the same word Paul used in Galatians 3:13 “Christ REDEEMED us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us...”

To REDEEM means - to purchase, to buy, to obtain by making a payment. Paul is telling us that our time is so crucial, so critical, that we must treat it like a valuable and precious commodity that MUST NOT be squandered and wasted.

We must redeem the time (he says) - but why?
What’s so critical about time that it must be redeemed?
Most of us would think the reason time is valuable because we only have so much of it. Sooner or later, we’re all gonna die. Now, if you’re blessed you may live 80 or 90 or100 years, but sooner or later your time is gonna run out. So don’t waste your time!!!
But that is not really what Paul says here. “Redeem the time... because the days are evil.”

ILLUS: What does that mean? Well, think about it this way.
Do you have a bucket list? A bucket list is a list of things you want to do before you “kick the bucket.”

And what people have on their bucket list tells you a lot about their priorities. They want to go to Europe,
make a “Hole In One”, swim with dolphins, go deep sea fishing, meet a famous person or jump out of an airplane.

There’s all kinds of things you could put on your “bucket list” - and there’s nothing wrong with those things (except maybe jumping out of an airplane).

It’s a wish list, and God’s OK with that kind of thing. But He warns us not to be foolish. He warns us NOT to leave one thing OFF that list. What is that ONE THING we must not leave off our bucket list?

“Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.” Ephesians 5:17
Everything else you put on your bucket list is just for fun, but this one – this “understanding the will of the Lord... this one is serious. We live in an Evil time, and the choices we make have eternal consequences. We live in a world of evil. All you have to do is watch the news, or spend some time on Social Media, and you KNOW things aren’t right!

It’s an evil world and since God has saved you and I.... he asks us to do something about it –
and that SOMETHING is for us to shine our light into this dark world. Ephesians 5:8 & 10 tells us “At one time you were darkness, but now you are LIGHT in the Lord. Walk as children of light... and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord.”

Jesus said “You are the light of the world”. That means you and I are called to reflect HIS LIGHT into this dark world, and the only way we’re going to do that effectively is to UNDERSTAND what God’s will is.

So, how do we do that? How do we learn God’s will?
Well, you’d think the answer would be - read your Bible. Memorize huge passages of Scripture.
Meditate on God’s Word day and night.
And that is good stuff because that’s what God expects of us.

But the problem is, if that’s all you do (immerse yourself in Scripture) you could end up like the Pharisees. The Pharisees knew more of their Bible than most of us, but there was something missing in their lives. And so, in place of asking us to Memorize and Meditate... Paul writes this in Ephesians 5:18:
“... do not get drunk with wine, for that is sin, but be filled with the Spirit”

What? What’s he talking about here? Well, he’s saying that in order for us to fully understand God’s will, we must be totally controlled by God’s Spirit. And then he makes an odd comparison: “don’t get drunk on wine” he says. That seems illogical until you understand what he’s trying to say.

ILLUS: Have you ever seen someone who’s been drunk? How can you tell if they’re drunk if you’ve never seen them take a drink? Well, you can tell they’re drunk by how they walk, by how they talk, by how they think and by how they act.
Everything about their drunkenness is obvious by their behavior. They are FILLED with alcohol... and it controls them.

By contrast Paul says, don’t be filled with alcohol (don’t get drunk) but be FILLED with the Spirit. In other words, the Spirit should so fill you that it controls how you walk and talk and think and act. That is crucial for Christians - we need to be so filled with the Spirit of God that people know it when they see our behavior!
So, how do we get FILLED with the Holy Spirit?
Well, first we need to understand that we already have the Spirit inside of us. Acts 2:38 promises us "Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive THE GIFT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.”

Ephesians 1:14 tells us - God’s Spirit “is THE GUARANTEE of our inheritance.” You can’t be a Christian without God’s Spirit inside of you. So, first we need to realize we already have the Spirit inside of us.

But here in Ephesians it says we need to be “refilled” with Spirit. What’s that all about? Well, first let’s examine what Paul tells us to do, and then I’ll try to explain WHY this is so important.
First, Paul says that in order for us to be filled with God’s Spirit we need to... SING. We should be “addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart” Ephesians 5:19

One group that I particularly enjoyed listening to was a trendy folk group called “Simon and Garfunkel.” As I listened to their music more critically, I discovered that one of their songs went this way:
“I have no need of friendship, friendship causes pain, it's laughter and it's loving I disdain... Hiding in my room, safe within my womb, I touch no one and no one touches me. I am a rock - I am an island.” (I Am A Rock).
It’s a Great song... but really depressing.
Another song declared: “Hello darkness my old friend .....
I’ve come to talk to you again!”

The Bible teaches us that music has a spiritual power over the Spirit world!
One of the greatest singers in the Bible was a little shepherd boy named David. The book of Psalms is a collection of 150 songs (or Psalms) that the Jews sang, and David wrote half of them.
He was so good at singing that people began to pay attention long before David ever confronted Goliath.
In the meantime, King Saul (the King of Israel) had decided to stop listening to God, and run his kingdom his own way.

So, God withdrew His Spirit from him and the King became plagued with an evil Spirit. He plunged into depression, and that EVIL SPIRIT so tormented King Saul that (on the advice of one of his friends) he sent for David to sing for him. And we’re told in 1 Samuel 16:23 that “David would take his harp and play. Then relief would come to Saul; he would feel better, and the evil spirit would leave him.”

Music has power over evil. And it has the power to bring peace to my heart and soul. So, when you’re depressed or struggling - find a song that glorifies God and sing it.

ILLUS: One song we could sing in most any situation in life is “This World Is Not My Home.”
“This world is not my home, I'm just a passing through. My treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue; The angels beckon me from heaven's open door. And I can't feel at home in this world anymore.”
The chorus “O Lord, you know I have no friend like you, if heaven's not my home, dear Lord what will I do? The angels beckon me from heaven's open door, and I can't feel at home in this world anymore.”
Now, it doesn’t matter if you can sing well and with much power. The point is: find a song that glorifies God... and sing it. Use the power of GOD’S music to lift your soul out of despair and sadness.

Secondly - Paul tells us, that in order to be filled with God’s Spirit, we need to be “giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ” Ephesians 5:20
Now, quiz time: HOW OFTEN do should give thanks? (ALWAYS), and FOR WHAT should we give thanks? (EVERTHING). There’s a lot of people who have a hard time doing that.

ILLUS: Rudyard Kipling was a great writer and poet who made a lot of money for his writings. One time a newspaper reporter came up to him and said, “Mr. Kipling, I just read that somebody calculated that the money you make from your writings amounts to over a hundred dollars a word; Mr. Kipling raised his eyebrows and said, “Really, I certainly wasn’t aware of that.” The reporter cynically reached down into his pocket and pulled out a one hundred dollar bill and gave it to Kipling and said, “Here’s a hundred dollar bill, Mr. Kipling. Now, you give me one of your hundred dollar words.” Mr. Kipling looked at that hundred dollar bill for a moment, took it, folded it up, and put it in his pocket and said, “Thanks.”
He’s right! The word ‘thanks’ is certainly more than a hundred dollar word. I would say it is more like a million dollar word. Thank you is one word that is too seldom heard, too rarely spoken, and too often forgotten. If we would all adopt an attitude of thanksgiving into our lives – our lives would be changed. We would cherish each day.
ILLUS: Studies have been done over the years where people have been asked to write down 10 things they’re thankful for and after an extended period of time the list is often still incomplete. Many people become so negative they struggle think of 10 things they’re thankful for. BUT, when given a tablet of paper and asked to write down things they were unhappy about, or disappointed with, or frustrated about, they could fill out an entire tablet of paper... and ask for another.

Why? Why are they so unhappy? Well, because most folks aren’t used to being thankful for what they have. For example, they don’t express thankfulness for the fact that they have 2 hands. Why should they? They’ve ALWAYS had those two hands.
And they’ve always had the ability to run and laugh and hear and see and sing. Why be grateful for those things?

By contrast, these folks tend to focus instead on what they DON’T HAVE.
They dwell on the wanting of a better job, or a better car, or a better spouse, or a better ... whatever. And that’s why they’re so depressed – there is ALWAYS going to be stuff that they don’t have, or that they can’t possess! So they end up being miserable/unhappy people.

Philippians 4:4-7 says “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice... do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

Learn to be grateful for what you have (and quit focusing on what you don’t have) and you’ll be so filled with God’s Spirit that it will change how you think and how you behave. And the world around you will notice.

Now, there is a 3rd item Paul mentions that we can do to be FILLED with the Holy Spirit, but we’re going to address that next week (you can read ahead... it will spoil the surprise, but go ahead and read it anyway).

CLOSE: But, I want to close by explaining WHY it’s so important to be “Filled” with Holy Spirit. We talked about HOW we could do that, but I promised to tell you why it was so critical to do that.
The Bible tells us that Spirit is a very powerful force. He teaches us, He comforts us, He helps us in our prayers when we don’t know what to say.

Romans 8:11 tells us that We have the same power living in us... that raised Jesus from the dead!!!! “If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.” Being “filled with the Spirit” is all about laying hold of the full power of the Spirit God has given us. You see, in order for the Spirit to operate fully in our lives, we’ve got to make our hearts decent places for Him to reside.

ILLUS: For example, let’s say I invite you to come to my house. But when you come in the door, the first thing you see is my clothes scattered everywhere, the dishes are piled high in the sink and all over the counters.  I have cats all over the place... 3 or 4 of them... and I have not cleaned up after them for weeks. Now, how comfortable are you going to be? How willing will you be to spend time with me and share with me? Not very.

The same is true for having the Spirit FILLING our lives. If we don’t clean up our lives by filling our hearts with singing and praise and such, God’s Spirit is NOT going to feel real comfortable with you. But when we learn to sing songs about God’s glory, train our hearts to be grateful and filled with thanks THEN God’s Spirit can be COMFORTABLE inside us, and be able to work His POWER fully in our lives.
But that’s only if you’re a Christian. If you don’t belong to Jesus, His Spirit isn’t going to be inside you anyway. That’s why we need to respond to His free gift of salvation as Acts 2:38 tells us "Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”

Sermon Contributor : David Dykes

Sometimes The Truth Hurts

SOMETIMES the TRUTH HURTS
Text: John 12:42-50

A woman was preparing some pancakes for her sons,
Johnny, who was 5, and Alex, who was 3.
The two boys began to argue over who would get the first pancake. So their mother decided that this would be a good opportunity to teach them a moral lesson.
So she said to them, "If Jesus were sitting here,
He would say, 'Let my brother have the first pancake,
I can wait."

Little Johnny quickly turned to his younger brother and said to him, "Okay, Alex, you be Jesus!"

And I guess the moral of the story is,
being a good example of Jesus needs to involve handling the truth like Jesus did. We are going to look at how Jesus handled the truth, especially when He was in debate with other people. We are going to learn how we should handle the truth
and come to the understanding that people will often be offended by it
and that’s because sometimes the truth hurts.

2 Timothy 3:16-17 16 All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for [a]instruction in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.
Timothy tells us that all scripture of God breathed. And you need to understand that when God says “All” He means “All”.
Everything written within the Old Testament and everything written within the New Testament.

“All scripture is God-breathed.” But we are living in a time where some people want to rip the Bible to shreds and discredit it.
We are living in a time where many religions of the world, even so-called Christians are placing less and less faith in the Word of God. We are living in a time where so-called religious people are using and twisting the Word of God to suit their own needs.
But how are we going to handle the truth? Are we going to stand up proudly and say,
“Yes, we have the truth and everyone else doesn’t and that’s just tough”? Or are we going to handle the truth like Jesus did?

Turn your Bibles to John 12:42-50 42 Nevertheless even among the rulers many believed in Him, but because of the Pharisees they did not confess Him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue; 43 for they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God.
44 Then Jesus cried out and said, “He who believes in Me, believes not in Me but in Him who sent Me. 45 And he who sees Me sees Him who sent Me. 46 I have come as a light into the world, that whoever believes in Me should not abide in darkness. 47 And if anyone hears My words and does not [a]believe, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world. 48 He who rejects Me, and does not receive My words, has that which judges him—the word that I have spoken will judge him in the last day. 49 For I have not spoken on My own authority; but the Father who sent Me gave Me a command, what I should say and what I should speak. 50 And I know that His command is everlasting life. Therefore, whatever I speak, just as the Father has told Me, so I speak.”
Jesus has just performed miraculous signs in front of a big crowd of people and as usual we have our dear friends the Pharisees in the crowd. They have just questioned Jesus about His up and coming death but they didn’t understand what was going on.

But this was no surprise to Jesus because He knew that the reason they couldn’t understand was because
God had prophesied that this would happen through Isaiah prophet in Isaiah 6:10 where he says,
“Make the heart of this people dull,
And their ears heavy,
And shut their eyes;
Lest they see with their eyes,
And hear with their ears,
And understand with their heart,
And return and be healed.”

You see, like we saw a moment ago in 2 Timothy 3:16-17,
the Bible says the Bible is good for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training.
And it’s by teaching the truth that you can set people free.

Now let me ask you, what is stopping you from becoming free? What’s stopping you from becoming a Christian?
Is it embarrassment from your friends at work or school?
What if you are already a Christian, what’s stopping you from becoming free?

You see freedom is when your walk reflects the truth that you talk. But how can you walk and talk the truth,
if your best friends and your family don’t even know you’re a Christian?

What’s stopping you all from walking and talking the truth?
You see for the religious leaders at the time of Jesus, it was the Pharisees who stopped some of people from becoming followers of Jesus.
But it wasn’t just the Pharisees who stopped the religious leaders from becoming followers;
it was their love of praise from men.

John 12:42-43 states it this way, 42 Nevertheless among the chief rulers also many believed on him; but because of the Pharisees they did not confess him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue:
43 For they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God.
Remember these are religious men and they had a chance for freedom from all the religious ceremonies and sacrificing, which Jesus was bringing to an end anyway.
But they were afraid of loosing their jobs, their highly paid jobs, I may add.
But they liked their job, which was so much in the public eye, which was so well thought of by men and they loved it all.

You see, the Jews had the emotions of religion but they didn’t want Jesus as He was. They looked good and that’s all that mattered to them, but God knows the hearts of men.

Isaiah 1:10-17 10 Hear the word of the LORD, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah.  11 To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the LORD: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats.
12 When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts?  13 Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting.  14 Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth: they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them.  15 And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood.  16 Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil;
17 Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.

Now ladies and gentlemen that’s pretty strong language ...  but you need to understand that this is God speaking about His own people.
And we as Christian can easily go through the motions of our religion but not have our hearts in it.   We can easily talk the talk but never walk the walk.

Now that’s the truth and I know it hurts us sometimes but we need to be pleasing to God, not to people. You shouldn’t be ashamed of being a Christian because Jesus said,
your not just the light in your house;
you’re the light of the world.
You’re not the salt in a shaker;
you’re the salt of the earth.

Jesus said in John 12:44-46, "When a man believes in me, he does not believe in me only, but in the one who sent me. When he looks at me, he sees the one who sent me. I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness.”

Jesus has brought you into the light and out of the darkness. Colossians 1:10-14 “And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way:
bearing fruit in every good work,
growing in the knowledge of God,
being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience,  and joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light.

For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”
You can’t mix an ungodly walk with a godly talk.

It’s like the man who goes to the doctors and says, “OK doc, give it to me straight, tell me in plain English, what’s wrong with me, I can take it!
And the doctor says, “OK you are just plain lazy.”
The man says, “OK tell me the technical name for it, so I can go home and tell my wife.”

And that brings me to my next point; there are some people who are sharing the Word of God with others for the wrong reasons. Jeremiah calls them ear-tickling preachers.
In other words, they are just out to please people.
They tell people what they want to hear,  not what they need to hear.

Jeremiah told them that they were going to be in captivity for a long time because their hearts were hardened towards their God. And much like the people of the world today, nobody wants to hear bad news. So the people tried and tried again to get rid of Jeremiah and kill him because they only wanted to hear good news.

God describes what was going on in Jeremiah 5:31. “The prophets prophesy lies, the priests rule by their own authority, and my people love it this way.”

Then in Jeremiah 6:13-14 “From the least to the greatest, all are greedy for gain; prophets and priests alike, all practice deceit. They dress the wound of my people as though it were not serious. 'Peace, peace,' they say, when there is no peace.”

I love that phrase in there, where Jeremiah says, “They dress the wound of my people as though it were not serious.”
In other words, they looked great on the outside and carried on as though everything was fine but spiritually they were dying.

A mother put some turnip on her son's dinner plate, which was one of his least favorite vegetables, but she told him to eat everything. He cleaned his plate, except for the turnip.
She pointed out to him that if he had eaten the turnip first; he would have not been left with its taste in his mouth at the end of the meal.
The young boy said, "I suppose I was trying to delay the inedible."

When Jesus was speaking to the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law in Matthew 23 where He continually says, “Woe to you Pharisees and teachers of the Law.”
And He calls them “Blind guides and fools.”

Jesus said these things with the intent of getting them to look at themselves. He wanted them to realize that their ways were wrong and so bring about their repentance.

Now you might ask, where does it say that in the text? Well I show you, in Luke 23:34 when Jesus was on the cross, he said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing." He rebuked them because he loved them.

“For God so loved the Pharisees, he gave His One and only Son.” He was still willing to die for them.

Do you remember in Acts 2 when Peter preached the first gospel sermon and many responded? He repeatedly told the Jews that they were the ones who killed Jesus. They were the ones who had crucified the Christ.

The long awaited Messiah, God Himself, was brutally killed by them. Now can you imagine what that would have been like to have been there and been told that you are guilty of killing the anointed one?

Well, in a sense you were there because Jesus died for your sins too. So we are just as guilty as those who were there at that time.
But in Acts 2:37 it says, “When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, "Brothers, what shall we do?"

The reason they were cut to the heart was because they understood what they had done and now they are panickingNow Peter’s sermon offended many of them who were listening and so some people just went on their way because the truth hurt them.

But there were also 3000 other people who were offended but wanted to know how to make up for what they had done. That’s why they said, “Brothers, what shall we do?"

And it’s because Peter was preaching for a response, that’s why he got a response. He may have offended many people but it was for their own good.

And can you imagine how they would have felt after Peter told them what they must do? Acts 2:38 Peter replied, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”

I would imagine that they would be thinking to themselves, we’ve just killed the Messiah and now you’re talking about forgiveness and a gift! The truth hurts but sometimes people need to know the truth.

The truth about God,
the truth written within the Word of God
and the truth about themselves.

We ALL need to know the Truth.
We need to try and understand a little more of His Word, the Bible, everyday.

2 Timothy 3:16-17 says “The Bible is also useful for correcting”.
A three-year-old boy decided to put his shoes on by himself but his mother noticed that the left shoe was on the right foot.
She said, "Son, your shoes are on the wrong feet."
He looked up at her with a raised brow and said,
"Don't kid me, Mom, they're the only feet I've got"

And the point is that “There is only one body and one Spirit-- just as you were called to one hope when you were called-- one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.”

And when Jesus was talking about the words He spoke, he said in John 12:49-50 “For I did not speak of my own accord, but the Father who sent me commanded me what to say and how to say it. I know that his command leads to eternal life. So whatever I say is just what the Father has told me to say."

Jesus spoke the very words the Father told Him to speak. He spoke in the very way the Father asked Him to speak. We have the Word of God today,
which according to Hebrews 4:12 is “Living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.”

Romans 10:17 17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

Let me finish by saying this, “You can know the truth, and the truth will set you free."

Paul says in 2 Thessalonians 2:9+10 “The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with the work of Satan displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders, and in every sort of evil that deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved.”
People are going to perish because they refuse to love the truth and they want to feel good and look good.
Let me leave you with the words of Solomon, who had the right attitude towards our God. Ecclesiastes 12:13 “Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.”

We are here to obey God and to please Him, not ourselves. And if you’re not a Christian this morning then you too can please God by being obedient to His word. The truth will set you free

Sermon Contributor : Mike Glover

Who Crucified Jesus?

WHO CRUCIFIED JESUS?

Three executives were being flow across Seattle in a helicopter. When without warning, a huge cloudbank descended. It was too high for the pilot to fly above it and too low for him to fly below it. So he carefully flew the helicopter through the dense mist.
As he tried to regain his bearings, he could see a tall building through the cloud. As he flew towards it, he spoke to his co-pilot. The co-pilot took out an old map and wrote something on the back of it. When the helicopter drew near the building the co-pilot held up the map. On which he had written: “Where are we?” The people in the building recognizing their distress quickly wrote on a large piece of paper and held it up and it read: “You are in a helicopter.”
The pilot picked up a manual. Punched some co-ordinates into the on-board computer and flew the executives to their destination. When they had landed, one of the executives turned to the pilot and asked: “How did you know where we were, from a sign that read: ‘You are in a helicopter.” Oh that was easy,” replied the pilot. “I just knew that had to be the Microsoft building. Because they gave me an answer that was technically correct and absolutely useless!”

When we look at the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, one of the questions that have to be answered is: “who is most responsible for the death of Jesus on a cross?” This is a question, which has puzzled and intrigued sceptics and unbelievers alike.
It has produced many written works about the last days of Jesus trying to decide who was most responsible for putting Jesus on the cross. And that’s the very question we want to look at today: Who is most responsible for the crucifixion of Jesus?
I can give you the technically correct answer to that question. It was a nameless squad of Roman soldiers, commanded by a centurion, who crucified Jesus. The details are sketchy.
We don’t know their names. Scripture gives no indication of their feelings as they carried out the death sentence on Jesus. They did what they were trained to do, execute criminals. Crucifixion was a horrible and gruesome act but the Bible doesn’t go into that.

It just tells us that they took Jesus out and crucified him. An anonymous squad of Roman soldiers, hammered in the nails, raised him on a cross, and stuck a spear in his side. All of which resulted in his death. But if that’s the only answer you will settle for, you haven’t looked deep enough.
We need to look at the crucifixion like an old paint covered chair. We need to strip away the layers and reach a conclusion on: “Who really crucified Jesus Christ?” We want to begin by stripping away the top three layers. These three layers are three men whom scripture holds particularly culpable for the death of Jesus.
The first one is one of His own disciples, Judas. The first question, which is always raised about Judas, is: “How can Judas be held responsible, if his betrayal of Jesus was predicted?”

Yes his betrayal was predicted, but doesn’t mean he wasn’t a free agent, anymore than the Old Testament prophecies of Jesus death would mean that he did not die voluntarily. There are numerous Old Testament prophecies about the death of Jesus and yet scripture says quite clearly “his death was his choice”.
Well, in the same way Judas’ choice was exactly the same. It was his choice to turn Jesus over to the authorities and it was a choice that crucified Jesus. Have you ever wondered what Judas’ motive was to betray Jesus?
Again this is one of the questions of history that has been the subject of many books and much speculation. However, when you turn to scripture you will find that the answer to: “Why did Judas betray Jesus?” Is as simple as it was sinful.

We begin in John 12. Which as you remember,
is the story of Jesus being anointed by Mary with a bottle of very expensive perfume. Judas protests the money could have been used to help the poor.
But John goes on to say in John 12:6 “Not that he cared for the poor, but he was in charge of the disciples' funds and often dipped into them for his own use”! Judas was stealing from the pooled money.
So, the first point we note as to who crucified Jesus, we can say, Judas’ greed put Jesus on the cross. His greed crucified Jesus. And there is more evidence from scripture to support this. After Jesus was anointed by the perfume, Matthew records that Judas left the room, went to the chief priests and he said to them in Matthew 26:15 “How much will you pay me to get Jesus into your hands?'' And they gave him thirty silver coins.”
And do you know what? Judas was not a unique person. He’s only one of many people, who have sold out Jesus. Judas is simply a powerful illustration of a principle taught by Jesus when he said in Mark 8:36 “And how does a man benefit if he gains the whole world and loses his soul in the process?”
“You cannot serve God and money”. You will ultimately make a choice and Judas did. And his greed crucified Jesus. Judas is a tragic example of what happens when people go all out for materialism and in the process they lose their souls.
Judas made a poor choice. What about you?
Now we scrape away the second layer of paint. Underneath this layer we find the leaders of the Jews and in particular,
Caiaphas, the High Priest. He’s the one that clearly exhibits their collective motives. He’s the one who orchestrated the worst miscarriage of justice in legal history.

Lawyers who have studied the legal system of the Jewish people of that time are quite clear that, in his eagerness to get rid of Jesus, Caiaphas broke the law. And he broke it many times over. He shouldn’t have allowed the trial to go ahead at night.
He shouldn’t have allowed a criminal case to proceed during the Passover season.
He didn’t have two witnesses examined separately before the trial. And he certainly didn’t have all the evidence for the court, prior to the start of the trial.

What happened that would cause these men to conduct an unfair and crooked trial? Scripture has the answer. Matthew records that the Chief Priests and Jewish leaders were trying to find a way to get the Romans to pass the death sentence on Jesus. So they pack Jesus off, in chains, to Pilate but Pilate wasn’t conned by their claims that they cared about the future of the Roman Empire. He knew their real motive. Matthew says in chapter 27:18 “For he knew very well that the Jewish leaders had arrested Jesus out of envy because of his popularity with the people”.

Pilate knew it was out of envy that they had handed Jesus over to him. It was nothing more than sheer jealousy that motivated them. The envy of Caiaphas crucified Jesus. He and the other officials viewed Jesus as a threat to their position and to their prejudices. The first thing he thought was: “he’s a threat and I have to get rid of him”. And that that’s exactly what Caiaphas and his crooked cronies did. They convicted Jesus, not because he was a sinner, but because they were. Greed and envy handed over the Son of God. It did then and it still does.

Let’s look at what’s under another coat of paint. As we strip it away, one name appears. One person whose finger prints are all over the cross and that’s the Governor Pilate. It seems that Pilate was a man who valued justice and we reach that conclusion by the very fact that three different times, he publicly declared that Jesus was innocent. It’s recorded in Luke 23:22 “Once more, for the third time, he demanded,” Why? What crime has he committed? I have found no reason to sentence him to death.''
Pilate tried to avoid sentencing Jesus to death but Pilate’s downfall was that he was also a ideal politician. He knew that releasing Jesus would not please the crowd. So he tried to please the mob with a series of four cowardly compromises.

First, he packed Jesus off to Herod, claiming that Galilee was Herod’s responsibility. However, Herod sent Jesus back.

Secondly, he decided to compare Jesus with a gangster. Believing that the mob wouldn’t want a violent thug released to them. It didn’t work. The mob chose Barabbus.

Then thirdly, he decides he’ll have Jesus flogged within an inch of his death and that’ll come close to the real thing and satisfy the mob. Pilate should have known better. You don’t satisfy a pack of wolves by giving them a taste of blood.

And finally, he had a bowl of water brought to him and washing his hands, he tells the mob in Matthew 27:24 “I am innocent of the blood of this good man. The responsibility is yours!” And they said: “Fine, the responsibility is ours.” Every attempt he was trying to make to avoid sentencing Jesus failed.

And then the Jewish leaders said something that sealed it.
John 19:12 “Then Pilate tried to release him, but the Jewish leaders told him, if you release this man, you are no friend of Caesar's.”

From that point forward, Pilate drops all this business about Jesus being innocent. Pilate’s fear crucified Jesus. Pilate was afraid. Afraid that word would get back to Caesar that he was not loyal governor. Afraid that word would get to his peers that he was a weak governor. Afraid, the people would become restless and revolt against him.

Yes, Pilate wanted justice, but fear played a higher motivation in Pilate’s life than justice. And that’s the lesson we must all learn from Pilate.
People must decide what their ultimate fear is going to be. That’s something Jesus said in Matthew 10:28 “Don't be afraid of those who can kill only your bodies--but can't touch your souls! Fear only God who can destroy both soul and body in hell”. You see Pilate decided that his ultimate fear was what every politician fears: falling out with the people.
in Mark 15:15 “Then Pilate, afraid of a riot and anxious to please the people, released Barabbus to them. And he ordered Jesus flogged with a leaded whip, and handed him over to be crucified.”

That was Pilate’s fear, what’s yours?

You see greed put Jesus on the cross;
envy held the nails
and fear hammered them in.

But the scriptures don’t stop there. We’ve looked around the cross and identified the guilty. Now we must look above the cross and see who else was responsible for the crucifixion of Jesus.

Yes, men were guilty of the most heinous crime ever committed. But somehow in some mysterious way, even though their evil immorality was responsible for crucifying Jesus, God was also at work. The cross plan existed before Moses, Jacob, Isaac and Abraham. In fact the cross plan is older than this world.

God foretold the death of Jesus. Acts 3:18 “But God was fulfilling the prophecies that the Messiah must suffer all these things.”

Jesus himself said the same thing in Mark 14:21 “I will die, just as it is written about me”. And three of the sayings of Jesus on the cross are direct quotes from the Old Testament. It was God’s plan. Yes, the cross exposes human wickedness at its worse but it was also the revelation of how God was going to overcome human evil.

And so we can say that God was also responsible for putting Christ on the cross. And you’ll find that in scripture too.
Romans 8:32 “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all.”

Scripture says that Judas put Jesus on the cross.
Scripture says that Caiaphas put Jesus on the cross.
Scripture says that Pilate put Jesus on the cross.
And it also says that God put Him on the cross.

The cross was God’s ‘Plan A’ from the beginning.
Jesus knew that before he came.
That’s what the struggle in Gethsemane was all about.
He was praying so hard, he began to sweat blood.

Before the crucifixion, as Jesus Christ prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, the disciple and physician Luke noted in 22:44
“For he was in such agony of spirit that he broke into a sweat of blood, with great drops falling to the ground as he prayed more and more earnestly.”

What was the source of Jesus’ great stress and anguish?
Clearly he was in intense spiritual agony.
He has to make a decision.
The same decision that Adam had to make.
And the same decision that you and I have to make.
Will I do what I want? Or will I do what God wants?

God asked such a small thing of Adam. He put him in a beautiful paradise; told him to have anything he wanted, but just don’t touch that one tree. That’s all he asked of Adam.

But what did he ask of Jesus? He asked him to go and hang on a tree. That’s what Jesus was wrestling with and when he left Gethsemane, we know what his decision was because he didn’t back down. Do you know why? Jesus died before he was killed.

He died to self. He died to personal ambition. He died to personal desire. He didn’t walk to the cross like a victim. He marched to the cross as a man who had fully embraced the will of his Father. John 10:17-18 “The Father loves me because I lay down my life that I may have it back again. No one can kill me without my consent--I lay down my life voluntarily. For I have the right and power to lay it down when I want to and also the right and power to take it again. For the Father has given me this right.''

Jesus had to make that decision. His Father loved the lost children of the world and their only hope, was a perfect substitute, to take the penalty that they themselves deserved. Jesus loved his Father and he knew what his Father wanted.

So, we acknowledge that Jesus’ love put him on the cross. He chose the cross because he loved his Father so much and he chose the cross because he loved us so much.

John 15:13 says “And here is how to measure it--the greatest love is shown when a person lays down his life for his friends”

And Galatians 2:20 says “And the real life I now have within this body is a result of my trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me”. Does anyone want to guess what “gave himself for me” really means? Jesus put himself on the cross.

Yes, Judas, Caiaphas and Pilate put Jesus on the cross but in a mystery almost too complex for us to comprehend, the Bible says that God put him on the cross and it even says that Jesus put himself on the cross.

Jesus loved us and he put himself on the cross for us.
SO, it finally hits us that the very best answer as to “Who crucified Christ” is: our sins crucified him.

And like Pilate we want to say: “I am innocent of the man’s blood. I didn’t have anything to do with the cross.” Well, Pilate can protest all he wants, but scripture knows better.

WE can’t wash our hands of the cross.
Remember the song: “Were you there when they crucified my Lord?” Yes, I was there and so were you. Not just as a spectator either, but as a participant!

We will never understand the cross as something done for us, until we see it as something done by us.

In his painting titled the “Elevation of Christ”, Rembrandt depicts the cross being raised by men full of spite, malice and hate.
But, down in the left-hand corner in the dark shadows you can make out the face of Rembrandt himself. You see Rembrandt understood that in a very real way, he was there too ... and his sins were as much responsible for the cross as the men who were there that day.

Our fingerprints are all over the cross and the day that hits our hearts, is the day when we’ll get serious about discipleship! After the first gospel sermon, Peter finished by saying to the people that “they had crucified Jesus”.

They already knew that in their heads, but that day, it says they were pricked in their hearts.
Acts 2:37 “Hearing this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, "What are we to do, brothers?"

You will never own your cross, until you own up to His.
Jesus has a cross for everybody.
You and I will not truly carry our crosses until we are broken by the truth that our sins sent Jesus to his.
And until that happens, the cross will be just a story we read and not the center of who we are. Jesus handed over his life for you. Have you handed your life over to him?

Sermon Contributor Michael Glover

Anchored or Drifting?

ANCHORED or DRIFTING?
James 1:12-16

1 One day, a great storm broke out while this man was sailing in his small boat down the Thames, the wind was blowing and the river was raging, so he tried to tie his boat to the harbor wall.

The next thing he knew there was a great big cruiser ship which collided with his small boat and substantially damaged his boat. Furious, he yelled, "Are you aware that power gives way to sail?" to which the owner of the cruiser replied, "I am aware of this but I happen to be anchored."

Just recently in the news we heard of a young actress and mother who lost her life because she failed to anchor the pontoon boat she rented with her 4 year old son. Authorities stated that she did not anchor the boat so it started drifting away from her while her and her son were swimming.
She struggled to save him but then was unable to save herself. He was wearing a life jacket but hers was found in its original spot on the boat.

I’m wondering how your anchor is holding this morning. Are you anchored or are you dangerously drifting through life.
The New Testament is filled with warnings about the possibility of falling away from the Lord. That’s why John tells us in
1 John 2:15 “Do not love the world or anything in the world.”
The apostle Paul reminds us that, that world reliance can lead to us falling away. You see loved ones falling away is a real possibility for all of us.

In 1 Timothy 1:19-20 we find that “Hymenaeus and Alexander rejected the faith” and Paul says that they had “shipwrecked their faith” because of that rejection.

In 2 Timothy 2:16-18 we find again that Paul says that
“Hymenaeus and Philetus were replacing their faith with godless speech.”

And finally in 2 Timothy 4:10 Paul says that “Demas deserted him and the faith because he loved this world.” And so one of the ways to help us remain faithful is to understand why some Christians drift away from among us.

A new minister in a small Oklahoma town spent the first four days desperately calling on the membership, begging them to come to his first services but sadly he failed. He placed a notice in the local newspapers, stating that as the church was dead, it was his duty to give it a decent Christian burial. The funeral would be held the following Sunday afternoon, the notice said. Morbidly curious the whole town turned out. In front of the pulpit, they saw a high coffin smothered in flowers. The minister read the obituary and delivered a eulogy; he then invited his congregation to step forward and pay their respects to the dearly beloved one who had departed.

2 The long line filed by. Each mourner peeped into the coffin and then turned away with a guilty, sheepish look. For in the coffin, tilted at the correct angle, was a large mirror where everyone saw themselves. Take a moment this morning to take a look at the people around you. Who do you see? Faithful brothers and sisters in Christ. Who do you not see?

I know that many of us have seen many faithful brothers and sisters in Christ over years simply disappear into the sunset. Some still faithful to the Lord but moved homes or jobs and some who have simply fallen away.

And they fall away for a number of reasons, and the 1 st reason we’re going to look at is this, “Their anchor didn’t hold because it got tied up in temptation.”

When Jesus is sharing the parable of ‘the seed sower’ He says that “some of the seed fell among the rocks.”
And so, in Luke 8:13 He says that, “Those on the rock are the ones who receive the word with joy when they hear it, but they have no root. They believe for a while, but in the time of testing they fall away.”

In the film “Shawshank Redemption” which is about a prisoner called Andy who got convicted of crime he never committed. Now Andy was struggling to come to terms with life in prison and one of his friends says to him, “life in prison does strange things to a man, first you hate it, then you get used to it until finally you learn to depend on it.” And that’s how sin can work in our life.

Maybe you used to come to every worship service, every Bible study, every Men’s Class or Ladies Class, every time there was something happening at church you would be here. But then you started to miss a few of these days and you hated it at first, but now you are just in the habit of missing out
and now whatever it is your doing in it’s place
has become just too important for you miss out on.

You see that’s how sin works, sin grows and if you don’t put a stop to it, it will end up killing you. That’s what James was saying in James 1:12-16 “Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him. When tempted, no one should say, "God is tempting me." For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death. Don't be deceived, my dear brothers.”

James says that when you get involved with sin then it’s only going to lead to one thing and that’s spiritual death. And don’t be fooled loved ones, this testing that James and Jesus talk about can come to us in different forms. “Will your anchor hold?”

3 One of which Peter warns us about in 1 Peter 4:3-4 3 For we have spent enough of our past [a]lifetime in doing the will of the Gentiles—when we walked in lewdness, lusts, drunkenness, revelries, drinking parties, and abominable idolatries. 4 In regard to these, they think it strange that you do not run with them in the same flood of dissipation, speaking evil of you.

Peter says that our old friends can come along and test us.
We’ve all got history and we’ve all probably been involved in some ungodly activities at some point in our lives. But when we became Christians that ungodly behaviour came to a stop. And Peter says, “Listen, when you meet up with old friends, they are going to come along even though they know you’re a Christian and tempt you.” They are going to tempt you to go back to the way you were before. And so loved ones we need to be on our guard against that. Do your non-Christians friends have more influence in your life than Jesus Christ does? Because if they do, you could be one step closer to going out from among us.

Jesus continues to say in Luke 8:14 “The seed that fell among thorns stands for those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by life's worries, riches and pleasures, and they do not mature.” Now I believe that these are probably the most popular ways of falling away. Worry, riches and pleasures!

Christians get so tied up in this world and they get so involved in their jobs, their professions that their love for God takes 2nd place in their lives. There’s a big difference between working to live and living to work. Jesus said in Luke 12:15-21 “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions." And he told them this parable: "The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. He thought to himself, 'What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.' "Then he said, 'This is what I'll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I'll say to myself, "You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry."'
"But God said to him, 'You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?' "This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God."

Jesus says in Matthew 6:33 “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” You see money has caused people to fall; money has caused people to grieve.

1 Timothy 6:10 “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.” It was the love of money that caused Judas to betray Jesus according to Matthew 26:14-16.

Money caused Ananias and Sapphira’s death because they lied to God according to Acts 5. Which Tom mentioned in a recent sermon.

Hebrews 10:25 “Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another--and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”

If you’re spending less time with God and His people and spending more time in perusing sport and pleasures, or making money then you could be on the slippery slope to falling away.

And then finally some people fall away because “their anchor got tied up in false doctrine.”

John warned these early Christians in 1 John 4:1 he says,
“Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.”

Jesus warned His disciples in Matthew 7:15, He says, “Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing,
but inwardly they are ferocious wolves.”

in Ephesians 4:14 The apostle Paul described them as being “Tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming”

Now we need to understand that the Bible wouldn’t warn us about these things if they weren’t a reality. People would rather trust people than trust God’s word.

Paul said to the church in Galatia in Galatians 6:6-9 6 Let him who is taught the word share in all good things with him who teaches.  7 Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. 8 For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life. 9 And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.
Galations 1:7-8 "some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned!”   Because you see loved ones not only do those who teach false doctrine have a penalty to pay, so do those who fall away.

Hebrews 6:4-6 4 For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, 5 and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, 6 if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame.

You see the Hebrew writer was writing to Hebrew Christians who were saved. He says that they have tasted the heavenly gift. They have received the Holy Spirit. They have tasted the goodness of God’s word. They saw and heard about the miraculous events through the Holy Spirit.

But because Christianity wasn’t their idea of Christianity they wanted to go back to Judaism. Some people can become Christians and months or even years later fall away and don’t come back,

not because they can’t ... but because they won’t.

1 John 1:6-9 “If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”

I want to leave you with some good news. Those Christians who fall away can return, if they so desire too.

James 5:19-20 “My brothers, if one of you should wander from the truth and someone should bring him back, remember this: Whoever turns a sinner from the error of his way will save him from death and cover over a multitude of sins.”

I don’t know how your anchor is holding up this morning, but I do know that God does. And please don’t think that you are beyond falling from grace, because nobody is. I have heard Christian after Christian say, “I will never leave the Lord and His church.” Only to find out a few years later they have fallen away.

6 Paul says in 1 Corinthians 10:12 “So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don't fall!” And if you’re finding yourself slipping from the faith then take Isaiah’s advice.

He says in Isaiah 55:6-7 “Seek the Lord while he may be found; call on him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts. Let him turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on him, and to our God, for he will freely pardon.”

Because loved ones there is only one thing more tragic that falling away from the Lord and that is dying in that same condition. Because it’s only faithful Christians who have the hope of eternal salvation.

Song # Will your Anchor Hold ...

Or Song # You are Drifting TOO Far From Shore ...

And Hebrews 6:19 tells us that, “We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.” And I hope that your anchor is steadfast and sure even though the billows are rolling. I hope and pray that your hope is anchored and fastened to the Rock Jesus Christ, grounded firm and deep in our Saviour’s love.

Will your anchor hold?

(compare to the regret that the actress had that she did not put on the vest before going swimming with her son....
It was available... it is something we all know would have saved her life ....
BUT, could have only SAVED her IF she had it on!!!!!

God’s Word is that LIFE JACKET that can save us but ONLY IF you take advantage of it’s purpose.

Be found faithful until death that you may receive that crown of righteousness that is prepared for us.!!!!!!

Problems In The Church

Problems In The Church
Acts 6:1-14

INTRO: Good morning. I hope everyone has had a pleasant and safe Independence Day. The pandemic situation does put a damper on celebrations and sometimes you have to get a bit creative.

Speaking of that, I heard about a minister in a little church who had been having trouble with the collections.
One Sunday he announced, "Now, before we pass the collection plate, I would like to request that the person who stole the chickens from Brother Martin's hen house please refrain from giving any money to the Lord. The Lord doesn't want money from a thief!" The collection plate was passed around, and for the first time in months everybody gave.

We all know how difficult it is to raise funds, but we must always find a way around that difficulty when a brother or sister is in need.

We live in a society where many people get overlooked; both the young, the old, the homeless, the ill, the poor and those who are alone. One preacher I heard from who has been fostering children told me this; “We have been doing this for some time and we have had children in our care who have been terribly neglected.”

“Some are neglected physically and some emotionally. We’ve had children come to us with no clothes but what they had on and look they like have not had a bath in months.” “We’ve had children who didn’t know what a home cooked meal was like because they had lived on fast food most of their lives.” “Some have never been hugged or heard the words “I love you”.”

My point is that neglect of others is a universal problem and in our text today we are going learn about some widows who were being neglected.

I. We will start at verse 1 of Acts chapter 6. Acts 6:1 – “Now in those days, when the number of the disciples was multiplying, there arose a murmuring against the Hebrews by the Hellenists, because their widows were neglected in the daily distribution.” As the infant church was growing, the number of disciples increasing; the Grecian Jews among the disciples complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food.

A. If you remember from last time, Luke told Theophilus that various people sold some of their possessions and laid the money at the feet of the apostles. Then he further reported that the money was distributed among the brethren according to need.
B. What Luke reports next in Acts 6 is about a complaint from a group of Jewish Christians called Hellenists. They were likely to be Christians from among the Jews who had been scattered throughout the world and now spoke Greek and followed the customs of the Greeks. Both the Hebrews and Hellenists were Christians but some spoke Aramaic and some Greek. In the Jewish world as a whole there was some tension, and this survived between the two groups, even after they became Christians.

1. The Hellenists or Grecian Jews felt that their widows were not being cared for as well as the widows of the Hebrews, or those who spoke Aramaic, in the daily distribution, or serving of tables as it is sometimes translated.
2. We don’t know how the charge against them came about but that isn’t really important. What was important was the more serious issue of unity in the young church. This is also where some congregations today make a mess of it.
3. Some Christians are a bit like the little boy whose mother put brussel sprouts on his plate. They were his least favorite vegetable, but she told him to eat everything. He cleaned his plate... except for the brussel sprouts. She pointed out to him that if he had eaten the brussel sprouts first, he would have not been left with their taste in his mouth at the end of the meal. The young boy said, "I suppose I was trying to delay the inedible."

C. Whenever a problem or an issue arises, some people tend to ignore the problem or sweep it under the carpet and hope it goes away because they don’t want to face the inedible so to speak. That’s not going to solve the problem and it’s certainly not going to help the unity of the church. What we need to do is address those problems immediately and come up with a solution just like the apostles did.

II. Continuing now in Acts 6:2-4 – “Then the twelve summoned the multitude of the disciples and said, "It is not desirable that we should leave the word of God and serve tables. Therefore, brethren, seek out from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business; but we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word.''”

A. When the apostles said, “It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables”, they weren’t suggesting that serving tables was beneath them. What the apostles were proposing was to "continue" as they had already been doing, namely, devoting their total resources to the propagation of the truth. They would continue in the serving of or the ministry of... “the word of God.” The priority of the word and doctrine of Christ was over every other consideration, even that of the care of the poor. Notice that neither area of responsibility is to be neglected; but the first duty is that of ministering the word itself.

1. How were they going to solve this “widow neglect” problem? They directed the members of the congregation to look among their own number to find seven men qualified to carry out this important task.

a. Did they get someone else from a nearby congregation to deal with their problems? No!
b. Did they choose the most popular people within their own number to deal with the problems? No!
c. The church chose men from among themselves, men that they already knew. Men who knew what it meant to serve.

B. You know in many countries today, people have a choice about who they want to lead their country. They can vote for the person who they believe will make the most of their position in authority and make a difference in the lives of the people. In the US the leaders are voted into office by the American people because they believe that those office holders can make a difference and steer the country to a better future.

1. If you want someone to lead you, you at least want to know that they have some sort of qualifications and experience to be able to do the leading.
2. The apostles tell the congregation in Acts 6, “the men you chose from amongst yourselves need to meet certain criteria”. Luke tells us that these men had to be full of the Holy Spirit, which means their lives should be displaying the fruit of the Spirit.

C. What is the fruit of the Spirit? Galatians 5:22-26 – “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. And those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.”

1. The apostles were looking for seven men who displayed this in their everyday lives.
2. These men also needed to be full of wisdom. A man named Elbert Hubbard once said, “Every man is a fool for at least five minutes every day; wisdom consists of not exceeding the limit.”
3. Wisdom, is not only knowing right from wrong, but also doing what is right. Obviously there is no wisdom in just knowing right from wrong if you continuously choose the wrong direction. Wisdom is knowing and doing the right thing.

D. The men to be considered needed to know how best to deal with the distribution of food to the widows in question. In other words they needed skills in the management of affairs. The apostles planned to appoint the seven selected to attend to this important matter so that they could continue to focus on prayer and ministering to others with the word of God.

III. We are about to read as we continue in Acts 6:5-7 they chose well and everyone was pleased. “And the saying pleased the whole multitude. And they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit, and Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas, a proselyte from Antioch, whom they set before the apostles; and when they had prayed, they laid hands on them. And the word of God spread, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests were obedient to the faith.”

A. With the requirements of men full of the Spirit and wisdom, the whole multitude of believers set about the task of selecting men that were qualified. The seven were then brought before the apostles, who laid their hands on them.
B. I want you to notice an important event which took place before the apostles laid their hands on them. The text says, ‘they prayed first’. The apostles laid their hands on them AFTER going to God in prayer. Sometimes people try to deal with a problem first and then pray to God about the problem. We all need to get into the habit of praying first to God and asking for His guidance and approval before we move on.

1. It is an essential practice for all Christians to approach God about any matter they are about to undertake, especially when church problems are involved.
2. The apostles prayed first and then they laid their hands on the seven men chosen, and by doing so they signified their appointment to the task.

C. The laying on of hands is an interesting study in the Bible. It was done for a couple reasons.

1. The apostle Paul wrote a letter to a young man named Timothy, and Paul says to Timothy in 1 Timothy 4:14, “Do not neglect the gift that is in you, which was given to you by prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery.” That word ‘presbytery’ is another word for elders.
2. Notice the word Paul uses here. He uses the word, “with.” He uses the word “with” in the sense of signifying attending circumstances or accompanying action.
3. In other words Paul is telling us that God gave this gift "by means of prophecy". Strong defines “prophecy” as “a discourse emanating from divine inspiration and declaring the purposes of God”. Paul imparted this gift to Timothy but at the same time, the eldership laid their hands on Timothy “with” Paul to indicate their simultaneous support and accompanying commendation.
4. We see this in Acts 6. The apostles were showing their support and approval for the seven, but at the same time it seems the seven received miraculous gifts.

IV. Let me give you one quick example of that happening. Take Philip who is mentioned there in Acts 6 as being one of the seven. In Acts 8 after Saul had been persecuting the church, the church was scattered everywhere. Philip ended up in a city in Samaria.

A. He was preaching the gospel and performing many miracles. There was a man named Simon who was a sorcerer and he was so impressed with Philip’s gifts that he wanted that gift too.

1. We pick up the story in Acts 8:14-21 – “14. Now when the apostles who were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them, 15. who, when they had come down, prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit. 16. For as yet He had fallen upon none of them. They had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. 17. Then they laid hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit. 18. Now when Simon saw that through the laying on of the apostles' hands the Holy Spirit was given, he offered them money, 19. saying, "Give me this power also, that anyone on whom I lay hands may receive the Holy Spirit.'' 20. But Peter said to him, "Your money perish with you, because you thought that the gift of God could be purchased with money! 21. "You have neither part nor portion in this matter, for your heart is not right in the sight of God.”
2. Simon in his own wisdom wanted this gift so much that he was even willing to pay money for it. The text clearly tells us that the apostles Peter and John laid their hands on them. The text clearly tells us that Simon saw how the gift was given through the apostles’ laying on of their hands.
3. Simon says in verse 19; "Give me this power also, that anyone on whom I lay hands may receive the Holy Spirit.'' There’s no arguing with scripture here about how the Christians in Samaria received the miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit.

B. Then thinking back we might say wait a minute, how did Philip get this gift? The text says that Philip had the ability to perform miraculous signs. In Acts 8:6 it says; “the multitudes with one accord heeded the things spoken by Philip, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did.”

1. Further down in verse 13 it says; “Then Simon himself also believed; and when he was baptized he continued with Philip, and was amazed, seeing the miracles and signs which were done.”
2. How did Philip receive this gift? His gift was given to him by the apostles! He got the gift through the laying on of the apostle’s hands.
3. Philip was one of the seven in our text in Acts 6.

C. Let’s look at the next verse, Acts 6:8 where it tells of another of the seven; “And Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and signs among the people.” The teaching appears to be that the apostles endowed the seven with miraculous powers.
D. The reason I mentioned this is because nowhere in the Bible does it say that anyone else had the capability to pass on these gifts. You know if I have a cold, I can pass it on to you and you can pass it on to your neighbor. We are acutely aware of how things can be passed on in these days of Covid-19.

1. The miraculous gifts in the New Testament didn’t work like that. Simon understood that. Did Simon ask Philip for the gift? No, he asked the apostles... and Peter answered him.
2. It’s common sense then to come to the only conclusion that is left. When the apostles died, there was no one else to pass on these gifts. When those who possessed these gifts through the laying on of the apostles’ hands died, all the miraculous capabilities of the first century church died with them.

E. Those who practice the laying on of hands today and those who claim tongue speaking and supernatural knowledge have got a big problem on their hands.

1. These gifts were never designed to last forever. They were designed to help the baby church grow into a mature church through the word of God.
2. 1 Corinthians 13:8-13 – “8. Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away. 9. For we know in part and we prophesy in part. 10. But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away. 11. When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. 12. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known. 13. And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”

V. Getting back to our text in Acts 6, do we see the difference when we handle a problem in the right manner? When people go about handling a problem behind closed doors with secret meetings or they chose to ignore the problem, all it is going to cause is division within the church.

A. Acts 6:5-7 shows us that because the problem was handled up front, with wisdom, and was Spirit guided, the result was further growth in the church through the spreading of the word of God.

1. In verse 7 “the word of God spread, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem”. Luke told Theophilus that “a great many of the priests were obedient to the faith.”
2. When we deal with church problems using God’s wisdom instead of our own wisdom, God will bless our efforts and add to His number. Of course if we know anything about being a Christian, we know that people will oppose our efforts and our beliefs. Take courage folks.
3. Luke goes on to tell us about another man who faced just that, opposition.

B. Acts 6:8-10 – “And Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and signs among the people. Then there arose some from what is called the Synagogue of the Freedmen (Cyrenians, Alexandrians, and those from Cilicia and Asia), disputing with Stephen. And they were not able to resist the wisdom and the Spirit by which he spoke.”

1. Remember what we looked at a moment ago. The miracles that Stephen performed could not be accomplished without the laying on of the apostles' hands.
2. The miracles that Stephen performed did exactly what they were designed to do. They attracted the attention of people, in this case it was the attention of a synagogue which was comprised of people from among the “Freedmen”, or freed slaves. People came from various cities to attend this synagogue.
3. Some of those who were in attendance confronted Stephen and began to debate with him concerning his teaching. Loved ones, when God is your guide, and His word is your wisdom, people can’t argue against such wisdom.
4. They argue with Stephen but did not prevail because his wisdom came from God, as Luke tells us in verse 10. There again is a lesson for the church today. Don’t waist your time trying to argue with people using the world’s wisdom. Proverbs 17:24 – “A discerning man keeps wisdom in view, but a fool's eyes wander to the ends of the earth.” [para]

C. Where do we look for wisdom? To the world? Or God and His word? All you have to do is ask, and God will give you as much wisdom as you need. James 1:5 – “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.”

1. Here is what happens when we share God’s wisdom with people.
2. Some people will listen and accept what you say as being wise.
3. Others will listen and not accept what you say as being wise.
4. Others will not listen at all but simply try to shout you down.
5. Then others will listen and twist what you say to suit their own personal agendas. That’s exactly what happened to Stephen.

D. Continue with me in Acts 6:11-14 – “Then they secretly induced men to say, "We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God.'' And they stirred up the people, the elders, and the scribes; and they came upon him, seized him, and brought him to the council. They also set up false witnesses who said, "This man does not cease to speak blasphemous words against this holy place and the law; for we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and change the customs which Moses delivered to us.''”

1. Luke tells us that certain men in the Synagogue bribed other men to accuse Stephen of blasphemy. This was accusing him of speaking against God's words as delivered by Moses.
2. Isn’t it amazing how some people never seem to change? All the way through Jesus’ earthly ministry the so called leaders were looking for ways to trap Jesus and persecute Him because He spoke the truth. We saw Peter and John thrown into jail and persecuted by the religious leaders in Acts 4 because they spoke the truth.
3. Here in Acts 6 we see Stephen being persecuted because he spoke the truth.

E. We understand why they were upset when we put ourselves in the mindset of the religious leaders. In the recent shutdown many people have lost their jobs, especially in small businesses. That loss affected their whole lives. I can only imagine how difficult that must be especially if you have been in the same place for many years. That job is all you know. It’s your life and your livelihood. You depend on that job to keep a roof over your head and to feed your family. We can imagine how those people must feel when someone comes along and says it’s closing down.

1. You see, one of the reasons they were so upset with Stephen even to the extent of bribing false witnesses, was because Stephen told them just that. Stephen told them that God, through the resurrected Christ, whom they had crucified not so long ago, has now provided a new sacrificial system.
2. Hebrews 7:26-27 – “ For such a High Priest was fitting for us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and has become higher than the heavens; who does not need daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins and then for the people's, for this He did once for all when He offered up Himself.”
3. What Stephen meant when he said that Jesus "will destroy" the temple, is that; just as Jesus took away the basis of the old system on the cross, so now He will go on to dismantle its practices until it is no more.
4. In other words, Stephen told them that the temple is done for. Jesus has removed the need for it and will destroy it to make it clear to all that He alone is the One and Only sacrifice for sins, the One and Only high priest to God, and the One and Only habitation of the fullness of the glory of God.
5. Stephen told them the time was coming when they are going to lose their jobs, and their livelihoods because the temple would soon be destroyed which we know happened in AD 70.

F. The truth of the matter is, if these leaders had read and understood the prophets, especially Jeremiah, they should have been welcoming the end of Jewish sacrificial system because God told them it was coming.

1. Jeremiah 31:31-34 – “"Behold, the days are coming,'' says the Lord, "when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah "not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them,'' says the Lord. "But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel: After those days, says the Lord, I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. "No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,'' says the Lord. "For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.''”
2. Jesus was so right about these people when He said in Matthew 13:14-15 – “And in them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says: 'Hearing you will hear and shall not understand, and seeing you will see and not perceive; for the heart of this people has grown dull. Their ears are hard of hearing, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, lest they should understand with their heart and turn, so that I should heal them.'”
G. Even today people hear what I’m saying but still don’t understand. People see what the Bible says about Jesus and what He has done, yet can’t perceive it. We need to meditate on these scriptures to understand what Stephen’s words meant to those leaders and what it means for us today.

CONCLUSION: God sacrificed His one and only Son, Jesus Christ on Calvary’s cross and shed His blood once for all to pay for our sins.
His sacrifice and His blood could do something that no other blood or any other sacrificial system could ever do—cleanse our hearts and minds of sinfulness.
Hebrews 9:13-14 – “For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?”

Folks, may we be full of the Spirit when we talk to others about the Scriptures. May we be full of wisdom as the Scriptures teach, especially when it comes to handling problems that arise.

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We learn from the New Testament how to be saved. We need to hear the word; believe in Jesus; repent of our sins; we must confess our belief that Jesus is the Son of God; and be baptized for the remission of our sins... If we follow these steps, the Lord adds us to His church.

Perhaps there is someone in the assembly today with the need to be buried with Christ in baptism. If you have never done these things, we urge you to do so today. If anyone has this need or desires the prayers of faithful Christians on their behalf, we encourage them to come forward while we stand and sing.

# ???

Reference Sermon: Mike Glover

For This Reason I Kneel

FOR THIS REASON I KNEEL
Ephesians 3:14-21

A teacher asked a little boy, “Johnny, tell me honestly, do you say your prayers before you eat?”
Johnny replied, “I don't have to, my mom is a good cook!

A co-worker asked a friend why he got donuts if he is trying to diet. He said, “Well, I came around the corner where the donut shop was. I told God, if He wanted me to buy some donuts ...there would be an open parking spot in the front. On the eighth time around, there it was!”

And then there is the story of a man had a habit of grumbling at the food his wife placed before him at family meals. Then he would ask the blessing.
One day after his usual combination complaint-prayer, his little girl asked, “Daddy, does God hear us when we pray?”
“Why, of course,” he replied. “He hears us every time we pray.”
She paused on this a moment, and asked, “Does He hear everything we say the rest of the time?”
“Yes, dear, every word,” he replied, encouraged that he had inspired his daughter to be curious about spiritual matters. However, his pride was quickly turned to humility at his daughter’s next question.
“Then, which does God believe?”
There is really no need this morning to dwell upon the feelings of fear, anger, division & uncertainty that have surrounded our nation during the last few months. And the doubt about the impact of this pandemic is almost as bad as the pandemic itself.

A. What we must not forget is that we're not powerless. Our voices are heard in heaven!
We can & need to lift our voices in prayer; to ask God to intervene & give us guidance for ways we can respond to these feelings with the love of Christ.
In Ephesians 3:14-21 the apostle Paul is praying for the Christians in Ephesus, & he is also praying for us, for all those down through the ages who come to know Jesus as Savior & Lord.
He prays, “14 For this reason I kneel to the Father [a]of our Lord Jesus Christ, 15 from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, 16 that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, 17 that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height— 19 to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
20 Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, 21 to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

B. Sometimes our prayers seem to be more urgent when we’re in the midst of difficulties, struggling to understand & overcome the problems that weigh heavily upon us. If that is true, then we should be a praying people, earnestly beseeching God for His help in times like this.
Someone said, “I don’t feel like praying.”
His friend answered, “Well, why don’t you talk to God about it?” Prayer is simply talking to God. If you’re struggling with your prayer life, I want to assure you that God is still a prayer-hearing & a prayer-answering God.
You don't have to pray in any specific way, using holy words or repeating any religious phrases.
You don't have to pray in any specific place. Anyplace you spend time with the Lord is holy ground.
You don't need to pray a long prayer – what people have labeled as the Lord’s Prayer is rather short. You don't have to pray a flowery prayer – just speak from the heart. The important thing is that you take time to pray. And we're certainly living in a time for prayer!

ILL. In the humorous play, “Love and Death”, Napoleon walked by his lady's room & heard voices.
Suspicious of her faithfulness to him, he questioned her about it.
"I was praying," she explained.
"But I heard two voices," Napoleon said.
"I do both parts," she replied.

C. The reason we pray is not because we believe in the power of prayer. We pray because we believe in the power of God. We believe that He is the all-powerful God of the Bible, who has not put His power on hold.
Psalm 115:3 declares, "Our God is in heaven; He does whatever pleases Him." God does whatever He pleases, & He doesn't need our vote - nor does He wait for our veto.
Even King Nebuchadnezzar knew that the God of Israel had that kind of power, for he declared, "He does as He pleases with the powers of heaven & the peoples of the earth.
No one can hold back His hand or say to Him: ‘What have you done?’" (Daniel 4:35)
PROP. So if we're going to talk about prayer, the first thing we need is to realize the awesomeness of God. Some have been taught that the only reason to pray is to change ourselves. But that’s not the emphasis of the Bible at all.
Instead, the Bible teaches that prayer can make a difference in what God does, & that prayer can also have an effect on our circumstances.

I. PRAYER CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN WHAT GOD DOES

A. Do you respond when your kids make requests of you?
Of course you do. So does God.
He is the perfect parent as well as the powerful creator.
And the Bible teaches that prayer can make a difference in what God does.

ILL. For instance, remember when God brought His people out of Egypt by those great miracles? Then after seeing the sea open up before them, they traveled on to Mt. Sinai.
While Moses was up on the mountain having a long talk with God, & receiving the 10 commandments, the people got impatient. They took off their jewelry, melted it down, poured the liquid gold into a mold shaped like a calf - & guess what they got? A golden calf!
They worshiped that calf, sang hymns to it, brought offerings, & declared that the calf was the god who had brought them out of Egypt.
God was not pleased! He said to Moses, "I have seen these people...& they are a stiff-necked people." Then God gave Moses a command: "Now leave me alone so that my anger may burn against them & that I may destroy them. Then I will make you into a great nation." (Exodus 32:9-10)
Even though God told Moses to leave Him alone, Moses immediately began to beg God not to destroy His people. Deuteronomy 9:18 tells us that he kept pleading with God to spare the people.
In vs. 19 Moses said, “I feared the anger and wrath of the Lord, for He was angry enough with you to destroy you. But again the Lord listened to me.”
So what happened? Exodus 32:14 tells us, "The Lord relented & did not bring on His people the disaster He had threatened."
Isn't it wonderful that God listens to our prayers, & that prayer can make a difference in what God does? God listened to Moses & God changed His mind.

ILL. Then there was King Hezekiah. God told Hezekiah through the prophet Isaiah to get his affairs in order because he was going to die.
But Hezekiah prayed earnestly, & before Isaiah got out of the palace courtyard, God told him to go back & tell Hezekiah, "I have heard your prayer & seen your tears; I will heal you...I will add 15 years to your life." (2 Kings 20:5-6)
Some people say that God never changes His mind, but listen to what God says about that.
In Jeremiah 18:7-8 God says, "If at any time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be uprooted, torn down & destroyed, & if that nation I warned repents of its evil, then I will relent & not inflict on it the disaster I had planned."

SUM. While God will never change His goal,
the redemption of mankind,
He will & can change some particulars in response to the prayers of His children.
He has that right, & He has demonstrated that many times in the Bible.

II. PRAYER CAN HAVE AN EFFECT ON OUR CIRCUMSTANCES
Not only can prayer affect God’s actions, prayer can also have an effect on our circumstances
because we're talking to the One who has all power - yesterday, today, & forever. In Gen. 18:14 we read, "Is anything too hard for the Lord?"
When God was going to fill a valley full of water without any rain or wind, the prophet Elisha was told, "This is an easy thing in the eyes of the Lord." (2 Kgs 3:18)
An angel who came directly from heaven to Mary brought this message: "Nothing is impossible with God" (Luke 1:37).
Jesus, who knows God the Father better than anyone, said, "With God all things are possible." (Matthew 19:26)
SUM. If God, angels, prophets, & Jesus proclaimed the awesome power of God, then we who are Christians ought to proclaim it, too.
The disciples once asked each other about Jesus, "Who is this? He commands even the winds & the water, & they obey Him" (Luke 8:25).

B. We human beings are the only part of creation that God has given the freedom to listen to His command & then decide whether to obey or not. That's the reason God could say to the Red Sea, "Open up," & the sea opened up.
When Jesus commanded the fig tree to dry up, it did not have a committee meeting with other fig trees to decide what to do. Any time God speaks to nature, nature has no option but to obey
Remember when Daniel was thrown into the lions’ den? The lions were hungry, but God closed their mouths.
Remember when Jonah was thrown overboard? The Bible says that God provided a great fish to swallow him. That fish had no option but to obey.
Jonah was in that fish for 3 days & 3 nights. I'm convinced he tried every way he could to get out - but nothing worked. Jonah finally realized that he was in a crisis & started to pray.
And as soon as Jonah finished praying, "The Lord ordered the fish to spit Jonah up onto the beach, & it did" (Jonah 2:10 TEV).

SUM. You see, prayer does have power to affect circumstances.

III. WHAT ABOUT TODAY?

A. But what about today? Does God really continue to hear our prayers & intervene in our lives? I'm convinced that He does.
When we pray, remember:

1. The love of God that wants the best for us.
2. The wisdom of God that knows what is best for us.
3. The power of God that can accomplish it.

B. That does not mean God will always answer "Yes" to our prayers. We have all experienced the "No" answers. We must be careful lest we start to believe that we can order God around with our prayers.
Our God listens carefully to our prayers, agonies, & heartaches. But He will not permit us to dictate to Him what He has to do.
So how do we understand it when we pray for someone to be healed & that person dies? It does not mean that God loves some more & some less, or that God respects some & not others.
Psalms 103:11 says, "As high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His love for those who fear Him."
With that great love He also declares, "My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways...As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways & my thoughts than your thoughts" (Isaiah 55:8-9).
I believe we can trust in a God who is that big & has that much love for us.

C. When the answer does not come exactly the way we want or expect, our faith should hold hands with the faith of Shadrach, Meshach, & Abednego, those 3 men thrown into the furnace of fire, who declared,
"If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, & He will rescue us from your hand...
But even if He does not, we want you to know...that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up." (Daniel 3:17-18)
Our trust in the power of God continues not because we always get our way, but because we believe in the way of God!
To pray is to tap into God's power. Non-Christians do not believe that God still has power today. If Christians don't believe it, who will?
Isn't it time for us to catch up with our forefathers & believe in, teach about, & pray to God?

I would like to conclude by going back to Ephesians 3 and rereading the last 2 verses of the text we started with this morning ...here is what Paul wrote:
"Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us,   To Him be glory in the church & in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever & ever! Amen" (Ephesians 3:20-21).

That's the power of prayer.
It is the power of God!
It is tapping into Him who “is able to do immeasurably more than all we can possibly ask or imagine.”
What a God & what a privilege - to be able to talk to Him,
& know that He listens to us & answers our prayers!

Sermon contributed by Melvin Newland

When God Has A Mission

When God Has A Mission 
Acts 5:17-42

INTRO: Good morning. We are going to continue our study in the book of Acts and I invite you to turn to the fifth chapter of that book from which we will take today’s lesson. Our text will be Acts 5:17-42. In general, I will use the NKJV or the KJV though I may paraphrase at times.

We saw the last time we were together that fear can be a good thing, especially if it turns us towards God and His ways.

But first, a story that I heard about when Johnny had signed up to a university class which he said was very difficult. He said that one of the highlights of being a first-year student in this biology class was the monthly feeding of a caged rattlesnake kept in the laboratory.
Johnny said that one time, the entire class gathered around the cage in complete silence, and watched as the feeding took place. The instructor said, "I'm jealous of the snake, I never get the class's undivided attention like this."
To which another student piped up, "You would if you would swallow a mouse."

I guess the point is that if you feel jealous of someone be careful where that jealousy takes you.

After the amazing and powerful events we learned about last week when Ananias and Saphira lied to God, a great fear came over the Lord’s church and also those who were not yet Christians. We read how God added to their number, and God through the apostles was getting peoples attention, not just in Jerusalem, but from afar.

It should be no surprise to us that other people are becoming jealous because of the attention the apostles were receiving. After all the religious leaders were jealous of the attention Jesus received.

Let’s start with Acts 5:17-18 – “Then the high priest rose up, and all those who were with him (which is the sect of the Sadducees), and they were filled with indignation, and laid their hands on the apostles and put them in the common prison.”

We recall the apostles had been warned before not to preach in Jesus’ name. Despite that earlier warning, they continued preaching in the name of Jesus. Remember what they are preaching? They are preaching the story of Jesus and His resurrection.

We saw last week that this teaching was contrary to the teaching of the Sadducees because they didn’t believe in the resurrection. People always forget who God is and that when God has a plan and mission in mind, no one and no thing is going to keep God from completing what is to be done.

I. Continuing in Acts 5:19-21 – “But at night an angel of the Lord opened the prison doors and brought them out, and said, "Go, stand in the temple and speak to the people all the words of this life.'' And when they heard that, they entered the temple early in the morning and taught. But the high priest and those with him came and called the council together, with all the elders of the children of Israel, and sent to the prison to have them brought.”

A. That’s a lesson for us. When God says ‘go’, He means ‘go’. In Matthew 28:18-20 – “Then Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, "teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

1. I wondered; what does He mean when He commands us to “go”?
2. Does He want us to go everywhere in the world?
3. Does He want us to leave our jobs, family, and friends and go preach the gospel?

B. When looking at Matthew 28:19 and Mark 16:15 we see that in these two texts different Greek words are used to describe who we are to reach with the gospel.

1. In Matthew, the word “nations” is “ethnos” meaning a multitude associated or living together, tribe, a group of people. We get our word ethnic from this. This doesn’t just refer to nations that are geographically distant from us; it also expresses the idea of different customs, cultures, and civilizations. The gospel is to be taken to people from every culture, custom, civilization, race, color, or ethnicity in the world. Today we do not need to go far from home to find these people.
2. In Mark Jesus uses a different word to tell us who we should carry the gospel message to. Here he uses the word “world” or kosmos meaning a harmonious arrangement, order, or government, an aggregate. This word carries the idea of a particular political system; a system of fashion; a system found in any part of society, such as a circle of friends; or any sphere where you live and have influence.
3. In other words, He wants us to preach the good news to our friends and family, those we work with, our neighbors, etc. He wants us to preach Jesus and His resurrection to the people we meet, be they in different ethnic groups, cultures, or civilizations. He expects us to invade every sphere where we have influence and to use our influence, and declare the Gospel to people who live, work, and function in those places, and to those people we meet or the people we are involved with, in our personal lives.

C. When God saw that His apostles were in prison again, He sent a messenger to release them and commanded them to go to the temple and preach the words which give eternal life. In other words, God is more powerful than any earthly authority.

1. The point I’m trying to make is that when God says ‘Go’ He means ‘Go’ but He will also give us the means to go. That’s why He sent an angel to the apostles to free them to preach in the temple.
2. That’s why He sent Jonah a great fish to get him to Nineveh.
3. God will give us the opportunities and we need to watch for them taking the gospel with us. And whether the door opens by a personal invite for dinner or a birthday party or by a funeral service of a friend, be ready to teach.

II. You might say the apostles have now played their God-sent get out of jail free card, and are preaching in the temple. At roughly the same time the high priest and his friends are coming together to discuss what to do with the apostles.

A. The high priest and the council with all the elders sent to the prison to have the apostles brought. Now in Acts 5:22-23 – “22. But when the officers came and did not find them in the prison, they returned and reported, 23. saying, "Indeed we found the prison shut securely, and the guards standing outside before the doors; but when we opened them, we found no one inside!''”

1. Luke tells us that officers went to get the apostles but discovered that they had gone even though guards were still there and the jail was still securely locked. They went back to those who had gathered and told them the apostles were gone. I wonder what was going on in the minds of those gathered there.
2. The apostles did not “escape” on their own or through some great feat of illusion. They were apostles of Christ, and God through the means of an angel set them free to continue their preaching about Christ and His resurrection.

B. Despite this clear sign that God was with the apostles; the high priest and those allied with him wondered what would happen. Acts 5:24 – “Now when the high priest, the captain of the temple, and the chief priests heard these things, they wondered what the outcome would be.” I find it interesting that there does not seem to be any doubt of how the apostles escaped, but rather a perplexity regarding the rapid spreading of the kingdom.
C. It must have been a shock for the council to learn that the men they had charged not to preach in the name of Jesus were... even as they met, preaching in the temple. These religious leaders now find themselves in a very awkward situation.

1. Acts 5:25-26 – “Then one came and told them, saying, "Look, the men whom you put in prison are standing in the temple and teaching the people!'' Then the captain went with the officers and brought them without violence, for they feared the people, lest they should be stoned.” The captain and his officers brought them back without violence because they feared that the common people, who sympathized with the apostles, would stone them.
2. Acts 5:27-28 – “ And when they had brought them, they set them before the council. And the high priest asked them, saying, "Did we not strictly command you not to teach in this name? And look, you have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine, and intend to bring this Man's blood on us!''” It amazes me that here in verse 28 the high priest says; “you are determined to make us guilty of this man's blood." Amazing, because it wasn’t all that long ago when Jesus was crucified, that these very people, along with a mob, were quite willing to have the blood of Jesus on their hands.
3. Recall what is said in Matthew 27:24-25 – “When Pilate saw that he could not prevail at all, but rather that a tumult was rising, he took water and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, "I am innocent of the blood of this just Person. You see to it.'' And all the people answered and said, "His blood be on us and on our children.''”
4. I recall a story about a teacher who gave his class an assignment for a five-page paper using the theme of "Courage." Each student was to describe the best example of courage that he or she had ever witnessed. One student boldly turned in five blank pages. The professor gave that student an A.

D. Back in Acts, we see that the answer of Peter and the other apostles to the Sanhedrin carries profound implications for every generation of Christians. Acts 5:29 – “Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said: "We ought to obey God rather than men.”

1. No law was considered by the apostles to be above God's law. After all, the limit of the Sadducee’s authority could be seen in the fact that they had crucified Jesus and God had raised Him up from the grave. Who has the greater authority; God or man?
2. To further prove God’s authority Peter and the others go on to say in Acts 5:30-32 – “The God of our fathers raised up Jesus whom you murdered by hanging on a tree. Him God has exalted to His right hand to be Prince and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. And we are His witnesses to these things, and so also is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey Him.” The apostles said God had now seated Jesus on the throne as Ruler and Savior. The Lord had been empowered by his Father to give repentance leading to the forgiveness of sins to all of Israel.
3. The twelve apostles stood as witnesses of God's working and the Holy Spirit confirmed the truthfulness of the events they related through the miracles He enabled them to perform.

III. So let me ask again; Who has the greater authority; God or man, and who should we obey?

A. Let me give you some possible examples.

1. Some of your friends ask you to stop off with them at a local bar after work for some small talk and a drink. What do you do? Do you obey God or obey your friends?
2. Maybe you are talking with some other Christians and they want your opinion about another Christian because they are looking for ways to put them down. What do you do? Do you obey God or obey them and gossip?

B. It takes courage to stand up and obey God. Courage to put God first and courage to say, ‘we’re prepared to be persecuted and treated like Jesus was. When we stand up and put God first, people are going to get upset and maybe even angry with us.

1. Just like we see in the next verse, Acts 5:33 – “When they heard this, they were furious and took counsel to kill them.” The Apostle’s words accusing the council of murdering Jesus enraged them to the point of being prepared to murder the apostles as well. See any irony there? However as angry as they were, they couldn’t take such action without the support of the Pharisaic members of the court. Remember the Pharisees were in the minority, but they commanded much more of the popular respect than the Sadducees.
2. Then Gamaliel, a highly respected teacher from among the Pharisees, rose to speak and asked for the apostles to be put outside, his words were instantly paid attention to.

C. Acts 5:35-37 – “Then one in the council stood up, a Pharisee named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law held in respect by all the people, and commanded them to put the apostles outside for a little while. And he said to them: "Men of Israel, take heed to yourselves what you intend to do regarding these men. "For some time ago Theudas rose up, claiming to be somebody. A number of men, about four hundred, joined him. He was slain, and all who obeyed him were scattered and came to nothing. After this man, Judas of Galilee rose up in the days of the census, and drew away many people after him. He also perished, and all who obeyed him were dispersed.”

1. Gamaliel warned the council against the actions they were thinking about taking on the apostles. He reminds them of two men, Theudas and Judas who both claimed to be someone special and led men in a rebellion. They had both been killed and those who followed them were scattered, and both rebellions came to nothing. For the moment at least these religious leaders are beginning to listen to wisdom.
2. Gamaliel goes on; Acts 5:38-39 – “And now I say to you, keep away from these men and let them alone; for if this plan or this work is of men, it will come to nothing; but if it is of God, you cannot overthrow it lest you even be found to fight against God.''” Gamaliel was saying when God has a plan, you will know what His plan is sooner or later.
3. If their actions were truly directed by God, the council could not stop them and they would be found in the un-envious position of opposing God Himself. Here is a man that recognizes that if God has a mission, no thing and no one could stop it from happening.

D. A woman was sorting through "treasured" stuff her daughter, Elizabeth, had accumulated over the years, when she came across a questionnaire Elizabeth had filled out while completing her master's degree. In response to the question "What was the most important advice you received from your mother?" Elizabeth had written, "Always rely on your good judgment." And to "What was the most important advice you received from your father?" Elizabeth answered, "Ask your mother." The world is full of advice and sometimes we take that advice and sometimes we choose to ignore it.
E. After hearing Gamaliel’s advice the council decided to take it. Acts 5:40 – “And they agreed with him, and when they had called for the apostles and beaten them, they commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go.” After being flogged, the religious leaders let them go with yet another warning not to preach in Jesus’ Name.

IV. Let’s look at their response after being flogged and sent off. Acts 5:41 – “So they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name.” The response of the apostles after being beaten and coming up against people who wanted to kill them is remarkable. Why would anyone rejoice after being beaten up? Why would anyone rejoice after coming so close to the possibility of death?

A. They rejoiced because they counted themselves worthy to suffer for Jesus’ name’s sake.
B. I wonder, in what ways are we going to suffer as a Christian today? Like those early Christians, we are a part of an unpopular cause. Those first believers turned to Christ with the full understanding that they were supporting an unpopular cause that could cost them everything.

1. Shortly after Pentecost, some were jailed, many lost all their earthly goods, a few were slain, hundreds were ‘scattered abroad.’ They could have escaped all this by simply denying their faith and turning back to the world. This they steadfastly refused to do.
2. When people are thinking about becoming a Christian today, the message is still the same. Paul will tell Timothy later in 2 Timothy 3:12 – “Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution”. The cause of Christ is unpopular and people don’t like it.
3. In the US today there is not much chance at the moment of being thrown to the lions because of your faith. At the moment there’s not much chance you will be thrown into jail because of your faith.

C. I say at the moment because no-one knows what the US will be like in the years ahead.

1. For now, the extent of your persecution may be losing some friends or even family members because they don’t agree with your beliefs. You are likely to get talked about because of your faith. You might even lose your job because of your faith.
2. When we think about it and compare the persecution we might receive today with the way these early Christians were persecuted, I would say we’re very blessed.

D. The message is the same; we are out there trying to plant seed and water it when we get the chance. We are tempted to play down the difficulties and play up the peace of mind and worldly success enjoyed by those who accept Christ.

1. When we talk to others about the gospel we need to tell our listeners the blunt truth that, as members of a race of moral rebels, they are in a serious jam, and one they will not get out of easily. If they refuse to repent and believe on Christ, they will most surely perish; and if they do turn to Him, the same sort of enemies that crucified Jesus will try to crucify them.
2. We can count it as joy because just like the apostles, we know how much Jesus had suffered for us on Calvary. The apostles felt that this was a small thing to do in contrast to such a great act of love.

CONCLUSION:
I will wrap this up with a few more scriptures. I’ll paraphrase 1 Peter 4:14-16 – “If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you. If you suffer, it should not be as a murderer or thief or any other kind of criminal, or even as a meddler. However, if you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name.” It’s not only an honor to be persecuted for Christ but Peter tells us it is a blessing. Peter saw that the Spirit of God was with the one suffering and God's name would be glorified.

Jesus says in His very first sermon, in Matthew 5:10-12 – “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

James 1:2 tells us; “My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials”
We usually stop reading right there and don’t read on to find out why we should consider it pure joy. James 1:3-4 – “knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.”
When we grasp that we will receive a blessing after we receive persecution, we will continue to grow in our faith. Persecution makes you stronger and it helps us to persevere.

You know the catchphrase “You can do it”. It’s a phrase that tries to encourage kids to keep going, to try their best and not give up. Folks, that’s not a new policy. That comes right out of God’s handbook for Christian growth. Perseverance means “You can do it”, don’t give up, try your best and keep at it.

When we keep at it, we keep on preaching the good news just like the apostles did.
Now to Acts 5:42 – “And daily in the temple, and in every house, they did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ.”

I heard about a new church building that had a sign outside its door next to some young trees. When they first opened the building people could see the sign clearly, it said, “We preach Christ crucified.” After a few years, the trees grew and the leaves covered part of the sign and all you could read was, “We preach Christ.” A little more time went by and the trees continued to grow then all you could read was, “We preach”.

The gospel that we proclaim is as simple as you want it to be.
When people hear nothing but bad news all day long, give them some good news. Tell them that Jesus is the Christ and He came to die by crucifixion so that He could give us life to the full, even unto eternity. When we preach we do not rely on our wisdom. We do not rely on our understanding. We do not try to be a philosopher.

We listen to Paul’s advice as he tells us in 1 Corinthians 1:20-25 – “20. Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? 21. For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. 22. For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom; 23. but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, 24. but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.”

God had a mission for the apostles and He has a mission for each one of us.
That mission is to preach Christ crucified to those we find within our personal lives.

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We learn from the New Testament how to be saved. We need to hear the word; believe in Jesus; repent of our sins; we must confess our belief that Jesus is the Son of God, and be baptized for the remission of our sins... If we follow these steps, the Lord adds us to His church.

Perhaps there is someone in the assembly today with the need to be buried with Christ in baptism. If you have never done these things, we urge you to do so today. If anyone has this need or desires the prayers of faithful Christians on their behalf, we encourage them to come forward while we stand and sing.

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Reference Sermon: Mike Glover