Acts 17:16-34 - Novelty in Preaching

Acts 17:16-34 - Now while Paul was waiting for them in Athens, his spirit was being provoked within him...he was reasoning in the synagogue with the Jews and the God-fearing Gentiles...he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection. Paul stood...and said..."God...does not dwell in temples made with hands....He made from one, every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times, and the boundaries of their habitation, that they should seek God,...for in Him we live and move and exist...God is now declaring to men that all everywhere should repent." Some men joined him and believed. 

Message: Novelty in Preaching

Time: Clearly written by Luke, this book follows the lives of Peter and then Paul after Jesus' ascension into heaven. The book was completed about 62 AD as Paul sat in prison. It provides an account of the growth of the Church and spread from Jerusalem, from a small group of frightened believers in Jerusalem transformed into an empire-wide movement of people who had committed their lives to Jesus Christ, and it should help us to be bold and have zeal in our walks with God.

What the Lord is Saying: We often have a thirst for new and improved. There is nothing wrong with improving a product but sometimes it begs to question what was wrong with the past. Yet it is true that our culture prizes novelty and the present. Our marketplace thrives on this, with new releases of phones, technology continues to improve and we must have the latest. 

I've always enjoyed pastors and teachers that simply take the Word of God and read through it verse by verse and preach it. This way, you get the whole package of truth instead of wading through it and packaging it a certain way. Granted, those types of messages can be appealing at times. It is great to hear the Bible presented clearly. I'm all for that, but we also need to be a people that looks at every part. 

Lately, I've been reading through the Bible, one chapter at a time each day and taking notes. Thinking about this God that doesn't change. And yet reading chapters like Ezekiel that speak of his wrath on kingdoms that do their own thing and elevate themselves over him. Hard subjects at times, but I am reading them nevertheless, trying to understand what they mean and how they fit into the larger picture. 

Jeremiah 6:16, "The Lord says, "Stand by the ways and see and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is, and walk in it."" We can look to the past to help plan out our present days. 

It is good to discover truths in the Bible that perhaps we have not seen before. It is also good to find truths that remind us of falsehood or falling away from our faith. On this sense it is good. But we need to be careful that we are not constantly on a hunt to find new ways of saying the same things that have been said before. 

Summary: There is novelty in preaching to encounter God's word and discover truths that we have not seen before. 

Promise: So often we think it takes courage to say something new, in our day, however, the truly courageous stand for what is true, regardless of its age. May we have the courage to proclaim the old truths of God's word as the only answer to the problems of this new era. 

Prayer: O God, your ways are perfect and true. You God know what we need and Your word is alive. Only today in reading from Ezekiel I discover truths of righteousness and sin and justice that I have never discovered before. Thank you for this discovery and the joy that reading your Word brings. Keep us alive to this preaching. But guard us into the feeling that we must invent new ways constantly. Help us to not do anything that distances the application of Your word and understanding of it. It is true we can find your truth in our world and what it values but it is also not hard to find clarity in your truth. We do not have to search for it by what the world offers. Give us wisdom. 

Galatians 3:24 - Law and Gospel

Galatians 3:24 - Therefore the Law has become our tutor [to lead us] to Christ, that we may be justified by faith. 

Message: Law and Gospel 

Time: Paul wrote to the churches in southern Galatia after having a hand in starting them on his first missionary journey to Asia Minor, making sure they were on the path of truth and not led off into deception. Paul wrote the book a few months before his attendance at the Jerusalem Council in AD 49.

What the Lord is Saying: This passage of scripture is a good reminder of the significance of the Law in leading us to Christ. The verse begins with "Therefore" so first we go back to earlier verses in this chapter. Chapter 3 starts with a call to "foolish Galatians" and Paul hearing among them that they are still focused on "the works of the Law" rather than by faith. He goes back to Abraham and shows his faith, "so Abraham believed God." But for his audience he communicates the purpose of the Law remarking that "no one is justified by the Law before God." He remarks that righteousness is not based upon law. 

Now, verse 24 makes more sense. "The Law has become our tutor." The Law shows us we are lost. Faith justifies us and saves us. 

The lesson here is it makes a difference in how we define the gospel. We are thankful in America that we have so many good places of teaching, but some areas are limited and don't have as many avenues for good learning. We need to be trained in this good teaching and go back to these good road maps for truth. 

Summary: The Law shows us we are lost. Through faith we are saved or justified.

Promise: We need both law and gospel to be equipped to know and serve the Lord. 

Prayer: Lord, thank you for your word. Thank you for truth. Lord, I pray that the truth of Your Gospel would shine forth and be clear to people. Help me to encourage this in others. Lord, be glorified. 

Isaiah 40:8 - Confident in the Truth

Isaiah 40:8 - The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever. 

Message: Confident in the Truth

Time: Isaiah, the prophet, the writer of this book, in Jerusalem. The year is 739-681 BC. Isaiah lived during the time of four Judaen kings and pronounced judgment on the people of Judah as they did not love their neighbors and serve God with humility, but offered meaningless sacrifices in temple. Isaiah asks them to return to Him. 

What the Lord is Saying: I continue to follow Tabletalk, to help act as a guide and direction for me in reading scriptures and studying them. After Tabletalk covers the lessons related to an issue, it often ends by compiling a set of lessons linking a teaching series by RC Sproul with devotions. Today's lesson starts with a reminder that we live today in a world that values 'relativism.' Relativism is the belief that there is no absolute truth. Personally, I think this came alive in the 90s with the Menendez brothers trial occurred and they got off murdering their parents because their parents misbehavior justified their killing of them. To me it chronicled this idea that each person gets to define their own truth based upon their environment they find themselves in, thus there is no absolute truth. 

This can make sharing the gospel then a challenge because of the idea that, "just because it is good for you doesn't mean that it is good for me." And so rather it seems today the only absolute truth is there are no absolutes that can be prescribed on every person. And yet our culture today in America does have absolutes now such as systemic racism and once a leader does something racist or abusive toward women, there is no forgiveness. So it seems like society or Satan really is coming against another key principle of the gospel: forgiveness. 

Yet God in His word is not wishy-washy. He had high expectations for the people of Israel and Judah. I have been reading a chapter a day since November in the Bible starting with Jeremiah and now in Ezekiel and in this time I am seeing a Lord God that hated idolatry and expects a people to be completely surrendered to Him. When they are, God is honored, but when they aren't, God will judge them. The secret is that God must be honored. And obviously this is not a great principle for man because man instead wants to be God. And so naturally society (Satan) will continue to seek to strip the ways of God from the way of the world. 

But as today's lesson is titled, we are to be confident and remain confident in the truth. Our church right now is having a series on evangelism and reaching our neighbors for Christ. It is interesting that we have to somehow manufacture this focus in our lives to share Christ with others. I find it odd in a way because as believers in Christ we should be bold and confident simply because of who Christ is in us (Acts 4:13 says, "As they observed the confidence of Peter and John..."). And yet Bobby and I hit the mall regularly to talk to people. In some ways we get out there and talk to people because we are trying to get our culture to re-align themselves to truth and in a way we need to remind them that there is a Gospel of Jesus Christ. And Paul also asked the church to encourage him to be bold in making the gospel known (Ephesians 6:18-20). The Old Testament lacks this, rather than it speaking of how we are to encourage one another to boldness, it seems to focus more on our direct commitment to God. But we live in a dark world and our minds and lives for that matter are like shifting sand. We get tossed to and from by this world and what it values as important. 

Today's verse is a great one, found in a book that I think is similar to Jeremiah and Ezekiel that speaks to a people that keep living life their own way. A people that was around almost 3,000 years ago and yet how they live is similar to how we live. And in the midst of this is a verse and word from God that says, "The Word of God will stand forever."  Life will shift, will ebb and flow, grass will wither, flowers fade, but God's word remains. Even in our day, what is important to people of the word is important now, but in 20 years it will be something different. But our lives and our message of live needs to remain confident in the truth of God and naturally then, with the help of the Spirit of God, we remain bold for Him. 

Summary: Life will shift, will ebb and flow, grass will wither, flowers fade, but God's word remains and we remain confident in the truth of God. 

Promise: Our confidence must be grounded in the Word of God itself, in our conviction that it is enduring and will always accomplish its purposes. 

Prayer: God, you are good, indeed so good and yes, your Word endures and stands forever. It remains the same and you remain true and you still deserve all of my praise and glory. Lord, thank you for the church and the refuge it is and the encouragement we have to remain strong in our faith and remain bold before You. Lord, help us as Your people to stay in community and stay engaged with our neighbors and with the people of God. Thank you for placing so many good people in our lives and the mission we have in this world. 

Acts 6:4 - Preaching and the Preacher's Task

Acts 6:4 - But we will devote ourselves to prayer, and to the ministry of the word. 

Message: Preaching and the Preacher's Task

Time: Clearly written by Luke, this book follows the lives of Peter and then Paul after Jesus' ascension into heaven. The book was completed about 62 AD as Paul sat in prison. It provides an account of the growth of the Church and spread from Jerusalem, from a small group of frightened believers in Jerusalem transformed into an empire-wide movement of people who had committed their lives to Jesus Christ, and it should help us to be bold and have zeal in our walks with God.

What the Lord is Saying: I have previously in these lessons, for these 10th month of lessons that celebrate the 500th year of the Reformation back in 2017, been looking at the focus for this month of the sacraments. While others hold to many varied sacraments, the reformers believe that two sacraments reign supreme - the Lord's Supper and Baptism. I have taken my time in studying each of these. What is clear in the study of these is these sacraments need the Word of God to come alongside them. They need clear explanation and scripture to be spoken as they are performed to provide context and meaning to them, otherwise it is taking another meal or taking another washing of some sort. 

Reformers such as Martin Luther and John Calvin became popular as they spoke, but the focused their hearers not on themselves but rather the Word of God. They labored in their study of the word of God to speak many sermons and teach the Word of God to their congregations. As I have studied them and even looked at later teachers like Charles Spurgeon and then into the 20th century like Charles Swindoll and John MacArthur, it is clear that all of these teachers have an incredible zeal to preach the Word of God in multiple times and multiple ways, going over and over the teaching of God's word. In other words, it is clear that their most important task is to preach and teach. As today's verse mentions in Acts 6:4, "They were devoted....to the ministry of the word." 

And as they did this preaching their lives and ministries, more importantly, have been blessed. People in churches often want their pastors to assume a lot of different roles, but we should only really expect our pastors to preach and teach God's word to us. 

Summary: Sacraments must carry with them the study and preaching of God's Word. 

Promise: God's word tells us that the primary task of pastors is preaching and teaching, so that is what we should expect above all from our preachers. 

Prayer: O God, you are glorious and God and your ways are right and true. I am thankful for the good teachers of the Word that you have placed in my life. I am amazed at their many lessons and teachings of the Word of God. For me, I am most thankful for Norm Boshoff as you drew me into fellowship and then later Tom Nelson who amazed me of this love and devotion of Your Words and then his great communication of those words. Thank you God for using these men to bring further excitement and joy to me in reading Your Word. And thank you for my mom and her great devotion to You and that daily excitement she set before me to also have that joy and desire to study and read Your word and walk with you every day in every way. You have placed great people in My life and I am so thankful for this.