Jesus: on Hell

Intro

In today's sermon, we examine Jesus' teaching on who's in the kingdom and who's out. He brings up the reality of hell: eternal conscious torment of sinful mankind. Below are some resources for you to continue your investigation into this teaching. Feel free to contact me to discuss anything you have concern about.

The Doctrine of the Bible Fellowship Church

Article 26 - The Judgments

26-1. The Scriptures enumerate several judgments that differ in time, place, subjects, and results. All judgment has been entrusted to the Son by the Father.1

26-2. Through the death of Christ on the cross, the believer's sins have been judged, and he has passed from death unto life.2 In no case do the redeemed come again into judgment concerning their eternal destiny. Each saint, however, will be required to give an account before the judgment seat of Christ regarding his works and conduct.3

26-3.The unregenerate will be judged, condemned, and banished to eternal damnation in the lake of fire.4

1 Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son (John 5:22).

2 I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life (John 5:24).

3 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Rom.8:1). For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad (2 Cor.5:10).

4 Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. Earth and sky fled from his presence, and there was no place for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what he had done. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. If anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire (Rev.20:11-15).

Article 28 - The Eternal State

28-1. There are two final, eternal destinies for man: heaven for the righteous and penitent, and hell for the unrighteous and impenitent.1 At the great white throne judgment, all of the enemies of God will be consigned to the place of eternal conscious punishment, from which there is no escape.2 The new heavens and the new earth shall be created3 as the final state in which the righteous shall dwell forever in the presence of God.4

1 Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life (Mat.25:46).

2 Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. Earth and sky fled from his presence, and there was no
place for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what he had done. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. If anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire (Rev.20:11-15).

3 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare. Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness (2 Peter 3:10-13).

4 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God (Rev.21:3).

Read our whole Doctrinal statement here

Links

Books

Orthodox

Doctrine: What Christians Should Believe by Mark Driscoll and Gerry Breshears

God Wins: Heaven, Hell, and Why the Good News is Better than Love Wins by Mark Galli and Randy Alcorn

Erasing Hell: What God Said About Eternity, and the Things We Made Up by Francis Chan

Erasing Hell promo video

In Error

Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived by Rob Bell

The Last Word and the Word after That: A Tale of Faith, Doubt, and a New Kind of Christianity by Brain McLaren

Webpages

If I Don't Preach on Hell by Jeff Hamilton of La Vista Church of Christ

The Teaching on Jesus Concerning Hell by RC Foster

What Did Jesus Christ Teach About Hell? by Kato Mivule

Where Everybody Knows Your Name

People crave relationship. God infused this desire into our very being. In trinitarian community, God made man and after fashioning Adam in His own image, and this was the first creation that wasn't good. Remember after each day... God said "it is good". But when He made man, He said "it is not good for man to be alone." So God set out to find man a suitable helper. No creature He had made was adaquate to be Adam's partner, so God made Eve. While there is immense and romantic imagery we could observe about husband and wife, we want to simply observe that humans need relationship. We need relationships of varying kinds (Romance, friendship, co-workers, family). It is not good for man to be alone.

Enter our society's answer to this craving. In a culture where good fences make good neighbors and where we do not know the name of the family across the street, we create spaces for friends to gather. Remember the theme song to the late, great tv show Cheers? "You wanna go where everybody know your name." Hopefully it isnt a bar for you, but can you think of a place where you and your friends gather to just be together. I'm a coffegeek and for my ilk, the coffeeshop is the place where friends gather. Howard Schultz, the CEO of Starbucks wants his shops to that special gathering spot for friends all around the world. He calls it what many marketers call it, The Third Place. The third place is that spot aside from home and work where you spend your time gathering. Ray Oldenburg coined the phrase and this is how he describes The Third Place. It is "a generic designation for a great variety of public places that host the regular, voluntary, informal, and happily anticipated gatherings of individuals beyond the realms of home and work." (Oldenburg, Ray. The Great Good Place. 1999. p.16.) These are secular guys expressing the Christian value of community.

So why not the church? Can the church be the Third Place for people craving community? I think so. I believe that the Church merges all the loftiest hungers of the human spirit. Think of it: the Church experience merges relationship, celebration, self-betterment, and spirituality all in one place. People look for these elements to life in a variety of other pursuits but they are all waiting in the one place so many people don't want to look.

As you experience Bethany, ask yourself how you can make it your Third Place. Ask yourself how you can make it someone elses's Third Place. As we find fulfillment within Christian community, let us give God the glory for His redeeming work of making His Church a family!

Grow!

"I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus." - Philippians 3:14

In Sunday Morning Worship, we are reading thru Philippians together. We just came across the middle of chapter three this past Sunday, where Paul resolves for himself and encoucourages his readers to deepen their faith. In my last post, I mentioned a scene from Shawshank Redemption where a main character, Red, tells the lead character, Andy, to "get busy living or get busy dying."

A similar statement is true in our faith, we are either growing or backsliding. We need to be sensitive to what the Spirit is trying to do in our souls. What does He want to teach you? Where does He want to stretch you? Where has He been challenging you and where has He been chastising you?

God created us to mature. Look at our biology. There is a period in utero where we are safe and incubated. Then we are born and begin to unpack and grow. I just had a baby, or rather, my wife did. We just had our fourth child. In the womb, limbs are all folded up and the body is relatively scrawny. Now four weeks later, her legs and arms stretch out straight and she is packing on the pounds as she eats and grows. Biology shows us that we are created to mature. And the same is true in spiritual ways.

We begin this faith in a simple, stripped down way. Jesus is God. He loves me and died to pay the punishment for my sin. I need Him in my life. As we mature, we learn more about Him. As we mature, we use what we learn to make good, godly decisions. As we mature, we love Him more as we know Him more completely.

Press on toward that goal! Deepen your faith!

What Bothers You in God's Word?

Intro

In Morning Worship this Sunday (4/13/2008), we talked about things in the Word that we don't get, things that are hard to accept. The central character trait that God wants us to build in life is that of faith. Often, Jesus’ followers exhibit faith and still have doubts, confusions, misgivings. We see this in the Gospels when the man with a sick daughter cries “Jesus, I believe, help my unbelief.” We see this after Jesus was raised from the dead and shows Himself to the Eleven when we read “when they saw Him, they worshipped Him, but some were doubtful.” We see this in our lives when we read some difficult saying and ask the question “does He really mean that?” or say to ourselves “no, He must mean something else, it can’t mean that!” I know of a dear faithful woman that had read about God’s choice of some to be saved from sin and not others. She read in Romans 9:13 “Jacob have I loved, but Esau I have hated.” Her response was to accept the truth of God’s election. However, she also reacted to that verse by saying “I hate that!” Granted, that verse doesn’t beat around the bush on the matter, nor is it very sensitive. But it is what it is and we need to come to grips with our misgivings and doubts and begin to believe and do what God has revealed to mankind in His holy Word, the Bible. So buckle up, it’s going to be a fun, honest, open, frank discussion of specific concepts that bother us in God’s Word.


Things We Couldn't Get To

You write "Hosea – his life was tragic for an object lesson!"
Very interesting observation. Hosea was directed by God to do some very hard things. I don't want to brush over that. Yes, God wanted to teach a lesson to His people thru this one man's experiences. Yes, Hosea had a very difficult life for the purpose of an object lesson. Why would God USE someone like that? Writing about the years of wandering in the wilderness, Paul tells us that "these things were written for our instruction" and later "these things happened for our instruction" (1 Corinthians 10). That later phrase is very interesting. It is useful to see all of human history as redemptive history and instructive to our generation's struggles. It was true of Hosea, it was true of the exodus Jews, it is true for all history. The saying goes "those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it" and this saying is shown in the 1 Cor 10 passage. Is it fair or nice of God to do this to poor Hosea? Remember the notion we did present in the morning message, God is the conductor of the orchestra, He ordains it all to happen the way He wants. We do not answer back to the potter. Read Isaiah 45 and Romans 9 on this idea.


You wrote "Violence in Jerusalem"
I think that this respondent was referring to modern violence in the city of Jerusalem... the nation of Israel in its struggle with Palestinian terrorists. Yet this is a historic struggle between God's chosen people (Israel) and the enemies of God. All throughout the Old Testament, there were wars between these groups. Why can't people get over it? Why when the New Testament, in particular, invites us into a worldview of peace can't the world be at peace? How can the angels announce on the first Christmas "hosanna to God in the highest and peace on earth, good will to men with whom God is pleased" when Jesus didn't bring peace to this world? That is to say, Jesus incarnated Himself yet there are still wars. There isn't a good answer to this. All I can say is that Jesus has brought peace to the souls of His people. While war and aggression seem to be ever-abiding and while Christians debate over their level of participation in the affairs of civil government, the Christian is invited to be at peace with God. We were once rebels against Him, in enmity with Him, yet Christ made the peace between us when He killed our rebel spirit on the cross. That is some pretty Good News, as I see it.


...more to come...

Careful Approach: a MetaNarrative Theme of the Old Testament

Intro

I'm still decompressing from the busy Easter Season. We had intense set of seven services between Thursday (the night of Passover when Jesus was betrayed and arrested) and Easter Sunday (when Jesus rose from the dead). This post is some gleanings from the season as we compare and contrast the Old System with our New Covenant.


My Theory

In the Old Testament, God's people were initially free to approach God how they thought best but as they began to enter in careless, prideful ways, God gradually restricted the method by which they could enter into worshipful relationship. By contrast, in the New Testament, we can enter boldly before the throne of grace within the heavenly realm of God's presence. That our sin, although we need to existentially conquer it, no longer precludes us from intimate fellowship with God because Jesus has claimed entire victory over sin and death.


What in the OT Has Driven Me to This?

There are two Old Testament instances where we see God limiting free worship of Him. The people previously had freedom to worship how they thought best, but through sin God limited it.


Passover: Pre-Exodus to Post-Kadesh

The first instance that came to my mind during the Easter season, came during our observance of Jesus' Last Supper on Thursday night. Today, Jews do not eat lamb during Passover as Jesus did on the night He was betrayed. Why not? In Deuteronomy 16:5-6 Moses writes God's new way of doing Passover:

"You are not allowed to sacrifice the Passover in any of your towns which the LORD your God is giving you; but at the place where the LORD your God chooses to establish His name, you shall sacrifice the Passover in the evening at sunset, at the time that you came out of Egypt."

Whereas the previous incarnation of Passover (the original one in Egypt), Moses had instructed the people to kill the lamb themselves for their household (Exodus 12:21), now they had to go to the professional religious leaders in the capital and have it done for them rather than do it themselves. What happened between the exodus in Exodus 13 and the commands of Deuteronomy 16? Lots... the golden calf, the rebellion at Kadesh Barnea, the constant idolatry, the pinnacle of idolatry at Baal Peor. Within these forty years of wandering, the people proved incapable of approaching God righteously. As David wrote 500 years later, "who may ascend Your holy hill? He who has clean hands and a pure heart" (Psalm 24:3-4). They lost their freedom for using it to sin rather than to serve God and others. Certainly there are parallels for us. Paul writes "do not use your liberty as a license to sin, but rather to serve one another" (Gal 5:13).


Day of Atonement: God Limits the Approach

The other instance I see in the OT of this process is within the Day of Atonement. Yom Kippur is a solemn day within the Jewish faith during the season of Fall. In 2008, it is October 21-22. So it has little to do with Easter. Jesus was crucified during the Passover Feast in Spring. But often, Christians associate the two events because of theological (not chronological) connections. The Day of Atonement is the one day in which the Jewish high priest can enter the Holy of Holies within the Temple and make intercession for the people. The Christian book of Hebrews connects this "once a year" principle with the once for all time sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. The author (I think Paul, but the book never says) tells us that Jesus through His sacrifice entered the real Temple of God in heaven not the shadowly, earthly temple of the Jews which is a representation of the real temple of God in heaven. So there really is a theological connection between Jesus death on the cross and the Day of Atonement... read Hebrews. Anyway, I realized listening to a sermon by Pastor Mark Driscoll that the Day of Atonement regulations were instituted in reaction to (or at least connection with) the "strange fire" offered by Nadab and Abihu in the Holy of Holies. Their sinful worship was in Leviticus 10 and Yom Kippur regulations begin in Leviticus 16. But listen to 16:1-2

"Now the LORD spoke to Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron, when they had approached the presence of the LORD and died. The LORD said to Moses: 'Tell your brother Aaron that he shall not enter at any time into the holy place inside the veil, before the mercy seat which is on the ark, or he will die; for I will appear in the cloud over the mercy seat.'"

So Day of Atonement is theologically a result of the sin of offering "strange fire." Haphazard worship was the reason for detailed regulations. Indeed as the author of Hebrews says "it is a frightful thing to fall into the hands of the living God" (10:31). But the regulation came as a result of the sin. One might say "perhaps God orchestrated the narrative events to unfold as they did because He desired to institute the regulative principle of Jewish worship." And I would certainly agree... God does not react to our decisions, instead He has foreordained to great sweeping and the small, seemingly inconsequential events of human history to the praise of His glory. But while we say this, we need to observe quickly that while in the OT, the letter of the Law limited man in his sin to enter God's presence, conversely in the NT, the wonderful grace of Jesus liberates men freed from the consequences and guilt of sin (which they are still wrestling against) to enter boldly to worship a holy God.


Wrap-Up

We see in this comparison the multifaceted and grandiose glory of our God, a confusing, all-wise Person of love and justice. A God who reveals Himself with this enigma throughout the OT:

"The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation" (Ex 34:6-7).

Forgiving, yet by no means clearing the guilty. In justice, keeping the faithful from access due to their faults. In grace, welcoming rebels into total access by declaring them righteous. What grace! What a change! Just as Paul declares to the Ephesians "how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ!" (Eph 3:18)

Our Amazing God - Sermon Series Intro

Intro

Over the next four weeks we will talk together about our amazing God. We've asked for your responses and here they are. I (Pastor Tim) am going to try to squeeze in all your responses during the sermons. Each week we will share your answers to one of four questions. To get you warmed up, here are your answers.


What Excites You about God?
3/30/2008, 11am

1. He was born again
2. The ways He brings people to Himself and the ways He works in the lives of His children to further His kingdom
3. Who He Is
4. His creation around me
5. The amazing things He provides us all
6. His love
7. His amazing grace
8. The creation of the world and everything in it
9. Everything
10. He cares for us
11. How He provides needs in unexpected ways
12. That He loved us to die for us


What Baffles You about God?
4/6/2008, 11am

1. That He who was perfect died for us un-perfect people
2. His idea of picking Israel. Israel’s relation to the Church
3. God could have made it so this world would be without sin forever, why didn’t He?
4. There isn’t much that baffles me
5. The grace of God for forgiveness
6. That He could love us so much
7. I’m baffled that children are allowed to suffer. You cant turn on the TV or read any kind of news without hearing about how a child was abused, starved, or forgotten. I will never understand that.
8. How God can let bad things happen to good people. Although I know in my heart he has His reasons.
9. Why God continues to love, guide, and bless me in spite of me.
10. How God Himself could come to earth in the form of a human and die for me.
12. How did Jesus get power?


What Bothers You in His Word?
4/13/2008, 11am

1. Not having a lot of friends
2. Sin seems to be running rampant in the world. Why people seem to be repelled by God’s plan of salvation and His love.
3. That I don’t understand it all.
4. All the different wars and fighting of different religions. Wouldn’t it be nice if God descended down from heaven and said to the whole world this is what I need from you all and this is the proper religion.
5. Implications that women are second class to men
6. Violence (Jerusalem)
7. If everyone believes in a God of peace, why is there so much wrong
8. That we have no idea when He will return. How bad does it have to get before He comes. He said it will be soon but it has been 2000 years
9. Hosea – his life was tragic for an object lesson!
10. Continual use of sexual language to describe intimacy with God
11. That the wages of sin is death


What Renews You about God?
4/27/2008, 11am

1. That He will forgive us when we sin, if we ask Him
2. His unchanging love and unending forgiveness.
3. He is everything we are not
4. That there is always hope in the world
5. The giving of His son for our eternal life
6. The hope to dwell in the house of the Lord for all eternity
7. His patience
8. His everlasting love in us
9. That He’s always there for me, never changing
10. His promises, eternal life, reigning with Him, freedom over sin
11. He died and forgave me

If you leave comments here before the Friday (two days) before the sermon, I may include your responses in the message.

Joy in the Journey

Martin Luther on Issue of the Christian Journey

"This life, therefore, is not righteousness but growth in righteousness, not health but healing, not being but becoming, not rest but exercise. We are not yet what we shall be, but we are growing toward it; the process is not yet finished but it is going on. This is not the end but it is the road; all does not yet gleam in glory but all is being purified."

- Martin Luther


Wow!

What helpful insight for this journey of faith we are on. Did you hear his heart expressed in these words? We aren't there yet, but we will one day by God's grace be there. There are two extremes in the discussion of sanctification. Both are unhelpful and are anathema.


The Extreme of Entire Holiness

One the one extreme is the teaching that perfection is attainable in this life. In this camp, many even say that unless one is perfect, they cannot be assured of their eternal destination. We ought to strive to attain perfection since God repeats the call dozens of times in the Scriptures "be perfect for I am perfect." What is unhelpful and dangerous to true piety here is the lie. The lie that some Christians are perfect, sinless, finished sounds nice and comforting but let us call to mind what John the apostle taught "if someone says 'I have no sin' he is a liar and the truth is not in him" (1 John 1:8). Conversely, we are growing toward that end goal day by day as the Spirit makes us like Christ.


The Extreme of Laziness

The other extreme is not so much taught as it is lived out by so many Christians. I dare say that most of us settle in this camp than in the first. This extreme is one of apathy. People here recognize the reality that perfection is unattainable in this life. So their reaction is, well, one of disinterest and one of hopelessness. Here people fail to make efforts to grow. Here people wait to Jesus to act when all the time, He in His still small voice whispers "work out your salvation with fear and trembling for it is God who is at work in you both to will and to work His good pleasure" (Philippians 2:12-13). Too many Christians, I fear, have fallen asleep and just don't try anymore.


Now for the truth...

Luther builds for us a third way which is truthful, motivating, and grace-filled. He speaks the frank truth when he says we are not righteous even as Christians. That is to say we are justified... declared righteous... but we are not yet experientially righteous. This is what he had struggled with while in the Roman Church. He always felt unworthy because he was imperfect. The truth of Scripture is that "in the Gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith" (Romans 1:16). Did you catch righteousness in this verse that God used to save Martin Luther? Through faith in the Gospel, we receive the righteousness of God. It is not I who am righteous that earns salvation, but rather God who freely grants to me HIS righteousness. Righteousness is a gift from God to those He makes into believers. The message Luther gives to us is not only truthful, but it is also motivating. It is a motivational truth. Too many motivational speakers pump us up with emotion and challenge, but no substance, no truth content. Luther speaks the truth in a motivating way. We are not righteous, but are growing in righteousness. This speaks of the lifelong journey of Christians. We begin this journey at the moment of salvation and continue down this path with God as we progressively become more like Jesus. Paul describes this sanctifying grace this way "I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus" (Philippians 1:6). God began this work of making you holy when He saved you. It is He who will continue that work until Jesus returns. And not only is Paul pitching the idea of progressive sanctification, he also begins by writing "I am confident of this." How reassuring to our souls is God's Holy Word! Because I know that God is doing this great work, I now live life expecting it, looking for it, watching the quiet background for His change of my life. I now see it and am prepared for it. I now readily await the opportunity to say "yes" when He knocks on my heart.


Summary

We are all on a journey of faith with God. Where are you on that journey?

The Former Alcoholic Comment

Intro

I love when people at trekking with my sermons... when they're thinking and engaging and wrestling with the text and feasting on the Word. This past Sunday (12/16/07) we were thinking about Haggai and the promise of God's presence with His people. I relayed a story of one of my old friends who was rescued out of a life of drunkenness and carousing. The point of my story was to illustrate God's eternal presence with us... when we are obeying and when we are sinning. I think the main point was evident.

One of my guys came up afterwards and asked why I wouldn't just say that going into a bar was a sin. I had said in the message that I wasn't going to get into that question. Again, my point was to highlight God's omnipresence. Well, I thought about it a little and replied to my friend "The Bible never says going into a bar is a sin." We went back and forth for a bit and I said I'd have to pull the tape to find out exactly what I said. Below is what I said in it's entirety. You can listen to the sermon in its entirety here.


Pulling the Tape

So here is what I said on Sunday about having the sealing and indwelling of the Spirit this past Sunday (December 16, 2007).

I remember a friend who used to be an alcoholic and when he got saved he changed his life and he said "you know I'm not going to go to bars anymore." I'm not going to make any comments on going to bars but what I'm simply saying is here's a guy who was an alcoholic, he got saved, and now God's Spirit dwells in him. And he said "I'm not going to go to bars anymore." He wasn't saying bars are wrong but what he was saying is "I just can't take Jesus into a bar. I remember what going to bars was when I was a young, unsaved guy. I just don't want to take Jesus there." Do you believe you take Jesus with you where ever you go?

So let me know what you all think about God's omnipresence, going to bars, and/or the indwelling Spirit.

What Restoration Looks Like

Intro

This is the place to comment on Zephaniah the Prophet, my sermon from Sunday, December 2, 2007.

Listen to The Sermon
Read Notes on the Sermon
Read the Text (NASB)


So what are your thoughts and impressions of Zephaniah?



Let's face it, we all sin. Even having plead for the mercy of God to rescue us, even after our salvation, even after growing to love Jesus, even after growing to serve Him more and more faithfully, even still we sin. Let us not excuse ourselves... but let us confess the reality. When we do sin, we often feel the result of that sin, the consequences of them. He feel banished, chastised, unworthy, ashamed.

What do we do in this state? Bunyan would have called it the Castle Despair. Having fallen asleep, Hopeful and Christian were captured by a giant who continually tormented them for their sin. We, like Christian in that tale, can enter into periods of torment whether by God or by self or by the evil one. When we come to our senses, confess our sins, and wait on the LORD, He will restore us.


What a joy that "His anger is for a moment, but His love is for a lifetime" (Psalm 30:5, Isaiah 54:8).


So let me know what you thought...

Habakkuk the Prophet You Never Heard Of

Intro

This is the place to comment on Habakkuk the Prophet, my sermon from Sunday, November 25, 2007.

Listen to The Sermon
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Read the Text (NASB)


So what are your thoughts and impressions of Habakkuk?



I think it is tremendously important that this book actually "made it" into the Scriptures. Think about it... don't you feel guilty when you question God? Well, when a man of God does the same thing AND it is included in the Bible, we observe that God is "man" enough to take what we can dish out. He is big enough to take it. Our questions are never big enough to keep Him from being God.



While on the one hand we can question God and He even wants us to question Him... on the other hand, we should not perpetually live in a constant lifestyle of questioning doubt. Doubt for the moment can motivate us to the next level of spiritual development in Christ. In this sense, doubt is a trial. But eternal doubt is inappropriate for a person of faith.



So let me know what you thought...

Bearing Your Soul

Intro

This is the place to comment on Jeremiah the Prophet, my sermon from Sunday, November 11, 2007.

Listen to The Sermon
Read Notes on the Sermon
Read the Text (NASB)


So what are your thoughts and impressions of Jeremiah?


And what did you think of the worship gathering structure. No worries, we aren't going to it full time. But I thought it would be fun to try something weird and different. Maybe it illustrates the chaotic time of Jeremiah's generation. Anway, your thoughts on content of the books and the structure of the gathering are all welcome here.

An Incedent Proposal

Intro

This is the place to comment on Hosea the Prophet, my sermon from Sunday, November 4, 2007.

Listen to The Sermon
Read Notes on the Sermon
Read the Text (NASB)



So what are your thoughts and impressions of Hosea?

A Whale of a Story

Intro

This is the place to comment on "Jonah the Prophet", my sermon from Sunday, October 28, 2007.

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I probably took an unorthodox position on Jonah this past Sunday. Essentially, I called him a villain for a variety of reasons. While we could condemn him, we should probably observe that he was a type of all of his countrymen of that day. Countless prophets also illustrated the whole nation's insensitivity to their calling as God's representatives to the rest of the world. And while we could condemn Israel for not doing its job, I suppose we should also honestly observe that we as individuals and we as churches and we as the Church do the same thing. Not an outright "NO" to God's audible voice, but a subtle and lazy no to the Word of God when it says "you will be My witnesses both in Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria and even to the uttermost parts of the earth. List the ministries of your church and ask what you do for insiders and outsiders.


The Miracle(s)...

Obvious is the miracle of survival within the fish. Jonah calls it a great fish. Jesus calls it a sea monster. Was it a whale? A shark? A dinosaur? A really big tuna? (Remember this was before the ages of high-tech fishing techniques and high populations. Fish would grow larger as they aged given the chance to grow old.) Yet, some Christians, perhaps many, doubt that this event literally occurred. They say something like it is a tale which illustrates the seriousness of the nation's desperate carelessness to God's directives. To be sure, the story of Jonah DOES do this, but I would say, it actually happened. It is enough that it is in God's Word, but to add weight to the claim, Jesus Himself compares His death and resurrection to the actual event of Jonah's time in the fish. I'm not gonna call names, but these people are wrong.

The bigger miracle is that Nineveh repented. We happen to believe that it is God who turns a sinner's heart to Him through the preaching of the Word. It is not the convincing arguments of the preacher. It is not the cleverness of the recipient. Salvation is a work of God from beginning to end. God was certainly busy in Nineveh the day (notice one-day) that Jonah preached. Now on this one-day business. Jonah 3:2 says that the city was large and it was a three day's walk. Meaning, to get into every neighborhood and deliver the message to everyone it would take three days. Compared to Philly, New York, LA, this is a rather small city, but in that day Nineveh was enormous. How long did Jonah stay in town? One day and then chapter four tells us that he left to await their annihilation. Said annihilation never occurred... because they did repent, just as Jonah knew that God would act. So either Jonah was a truly fast walker, or the people responded quicker than normal, or he did his job half-hearted. Knowing what we know of Jonah, I venture to say he did it in a half-hearted way.


Exam Time... Pencils Ready... Begin

So the test for you and I: to whom has God told you: "Go up and speak against so-and-so for their iniquity has come up before Me." What are you doing in keeping with this calling?


And your church? And then don't lament or gripe, but lead them in this!

Be a Man!

Intro

This is the place to comment on "Paul's Closing Reminders", my sermon from Sunday, October 21, 2007.

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Driscoll on the Church's Need for Men
Paul wrote in v13, "Be on the alert, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong." This is the clip I wanted to play in the message. It's just too rough around the edges for my people, but it's true and straight forward about getting men into Church. The whole thing is good, but I am referring to around 4:20 and onward...




and here are some others on the subject by him... looks like he worked with Desiring God.

Macho Man


Why Churches Need Dudes



Why Men Don't Go to Church

Just As He Said

Introduction

This is the place to comment on "The Reality of the Resurrection", my sermon from Sunday, October 14, 2007.

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There are Witnesses to the Fact

How many people need to say they saw things in the same way before you say "these witnesses proove that X happened?" Well, it says in verses 1-6 that over 500 men actually saw Jesus physically risen from the dead. Now this is important, it is not that 500 men believed He rose, but 500 men SAW His risen. There are around one billion Christians today, they believe that their Savior died for their sins and then rose fom the dead. But there are also one billion Muslims who genuinely believe in the doctrines of their faith. It's not the numbers who believe that validate the facts. It is the number of witnesses that can testify to having seen the teachings in action.


Our Faith Rests on the Fact

Imagine a Christianity without the resurrection. Imagine all the doctrines are the same but the resurrection is missing. Paul goes down thie rhetorical path for a while with the Corinthian church in verses 12-17. His conclusion: if Christ didn't rise then we are still in our sins (forgiveness didn't happen) and our faith is meaningless. There can be no Christianity without the physical resurrection of Jesus.


All History Culminates in the Fact

From beginning to end, all of history points to the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. In verses 20-26, Paul goes into a comparison of Jesus to Adam. Adam, the beginning of human existence brought death to his descendants. Jesus brings life to those who are "in Christ." And so, all of human existence points to the moment when God resolves our sin and death.


The Future Depends on the Fact

The Scriptures say that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. And so our future depends on what Christ has really accomplished on Calvary. Without His resurrection, we have no hope of eternal life. But the opposite is indeed true, He promised that even if we would die, we will still live.

Wrap-Up

What are your thoughts on 1 Corinthians 15?

Using Your Gift to It's Full Potential, Part One

Introduction

This is the place to comment on "Using Your Gift to It's Full Potential", my sermon from Sunday, September 30, 2007. It ended up being Part One since I yapped too long.

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Tongues and Prophecy

I get it. We don't do these things in our church, in the evangelical church. I get it. All week long, I wrestled with how and even why to present this text. I really genuinely felt passionate about the introduction to the sermon. WE CANNOT BE A MODERN THOMAS JEFFERSON. We cannot blot out things that don't apply to us. Just because we don't practice these gifts and just because we happen to believe that they have actually ceased from the roster of the Spirit's gifts doesn't mean God's Word is useless in this passage. So let us uncover the deeper principles that can transfer to the using of any of our gifts. AND THEN let us use our gift to it's full potential.


Wrap-Up

What are your thoughts on 1 Corinthians 14?

All You Need is Love

Introduction

This is the place to comment on "How to Use the Gifts of the Spirit", my sermon from Sunday, September 23, 2007.

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Weeding Motives

So, Love. Love ought to be the sole motive for our ministries. In the small church, many serve out of necessity or a sense of obligation. In a large church, many may serve our of a desire for fame or the admiration of others. Regardless, weeding the garden of our soul from all motives but sacrifical love is a difficult thing. But like those green nasties, spiritual weeds get worse too if gone unchecked. Get out into the fields and weigh your motivations for ministry.


Measuring Up

Of the list of descriptors for love, which are you good at, which do you fall short in? You can but don't have to reply to that, but certainly ask yourself and the LORD that question.




What Will Cease When?

We had a good conversation Sunday night after Evening Worship about another point raised in the text. Gifts will cease, but the trio of faith hope and love will remain. But interestingly, Paul cites three examples of the gifts and chooses 3 revelatory or sign gifts out of the 25 gifts. Is he indicating that only revelatory and sign gifts will cease, but other genres will remain? The alarm sign that raises in my mind if some but not all have ceased, why hasn't the Bible clearly given us both doctrinal and applicational teaching to this end? God has prepared us in the Scripture for every good work, yet He has not instructed us on this point. That being said, the observation of "prophecy, tongues, and knowledge will cease" is a very important and interesting one.


Wrap-Up

What are your thoughts on 1 Corinthians 13?

We're ALL Charismatic

Order in Ministering Together

Let's talk about last Sunday (9/9/07).

What are your thoughts about the roles of different ministers in the church? Is it hard or easy to see yourself as a minister? Is it easy to recognize laypeople as ministers? Is it easy to see the pastor as one-among-many ministers? I'll post after a few go ahead. My sermon is available on the church site in audio and notes. My Greek Translation of the text is available on the blog.

Specifically focusing on 1 Corinthians 12, but other texts are okay too.

React to This!

How do you feel about the statement "all Christians are Charismatics" ??

Roles of Men and Women

Alright, I'm ready for it. Let's talk about last Sunday (8/26/07).

What are your thoughts about the roles of men and women (husbands and wives) in church? I'll post after a few go ahead. My sermon is available on the church site.

Specifically focusing on 1 Corinthians 11:1-16, but other texts are okay too.


Just Added!
I just read this interesting blog about the gender roles debate

Recent Study - Liberty

What is Christian Liberty?

At church over the last few weeks, we've been talking about Christian Liberty. Essentially, this point is: do whatever you want as long as God is cool with it. Too many unbelievers stay that way because they see Christians saying NO to everything. The fact of the matter is that there are very few "rules" for Christians and all of them are summed up in the chief rule, the law of Christ, "love God and love others like you love yourself."


So, Specifically, I Can...

So what can we do? Can we drink, smoke, play cards, dance, picnic, go to movies (even movies where people kiss), date, go to public school, work on Sunday? These are all things that Christians have for many generations in America have said NO to. Recently however, Christians, at least the BFC, have changed our mind on many of these things. Many of them used to be labeled "especially pernicious to youth." Which I never knew what that meant and as an ordained pastor, I still don't think I know what it means so thankfully we are no longer making that kind of statement.

Dan Kimball has a interesting article on the alcohol and junk food. Essentially he makes a good point, why are Christians cool with overeating but not drinking in moderation? The Bible is all about moderation. Even the qualification for ELDERS, "he must not be addicted to wine" (1 Tim 3:3). I love what he says about causing others to stumble

"When I often hear Christians say they don't drink in public because it may cause someone to stumble, and I ask them who is the 'some' that they mean. It always turns out to be they worry about Christians who would judge them for drinking, not someone actually struggling with alcohol and would 'stumble'. That seems to be unfair to the biblical text quoted and is then more about the fear of Christians than the original meaning of that verse. That's why its important to study the Scriptures on this issue."

That is so huge. We evangelicals really are a bunch of jerks at times. We spend so much time with each other that we really don't know anyone that would really stumble if they saw us drinking. So we've changed the meaning of Paul's statement to something other than what it meant... so "don't cause your brother to stumble" becomes "don't cause your brother to gossip about you." IF we really are free to drink, Biblically. And IF a brother in Christ sees us drinking. And IF he decides to tell someone (gossip). Why am I judged by someone else's conscience? I haven't done anything wrong. THe Bible permits me to use (not abuse) alcohol.


An Assignment

So here is a daunting, yet inspiring project. Go through the New Testament (Matthew -> Revelation) and write down all of the commands. It would be good to write the command and the reference. If you find a duplicate command, write the command once and include both references after it.

Why not the Old Testament? Aren't we bound to follow ALL of God's counsel? I'm lazy and don't even want to get into it now. Just do the assignment and like it! (Hopefully you hear the sarcasm here.) Seriously, it is a huge answer that Christians have been back and forth on forever. The answer is much larger than the scope of this post so I'll get to it later this week.


Listen Up Addicts

Now, in closing I need to make this statement since I am responsible for the outcome of souls: if you are an addict to something, God isnt cool with you even dabbling in your liberty. You aren't free to enjoy what others can. You have a track record of not enjoying that thing, but rather a track record of being controlled by that thing. So don't go away from this post thinking you could get back into some kind of moderate usage. Maybe after a lot of one-on-one counseling with a bonafide professional therapist or pastor, but even then I think your life would be fuller without that thing in your life at all.