According to Luke 4:1-13 [NLTse]

On account of some insidious events going on around our congregation, last week’s sermon focused on the person and work of Satan, the devil. We started by showing how the Bible presents Satan  as an angelic being who fell from his position in Heaven due to sin and who is now completely opposed to God, doing all in his power to thwart God’s purposes.

We made clear that Satan is in no way the evil counterpart to God’s goodness, but that he is merely a created being whom the Bible shows will be readily and once-and-for-all defeated when Jesus returns for us at the end of the age.

Wondering whether we should be afraid of Satan and his devils, we saw that every human being who has not been born-again-into-God’s-Kingdom-through-faith-in-Christ lives under Satan’s power. (Which means that all other faiths [and lack of faiths] are in reality victories of Satan, because all the devil cares about is keeping people from coming to know the Father through the Son by the Holy Spirit.)

We ended by saying that Satan seeks to keep people from trusting in Christ 1) by nurturing doubt in us (that is, getting us to question God’s Word and God’s goodness); by discouraging us (having us look more at our problems than looking to God); by having us question God’s promises, our salvation in Christ, and by making us feel like such failures that we give up and stop trying; and, if all that fails, then by tempting us to delay so that we’ll put off doing the good God wants done in the hopes that we’ll never do it at all!

So we must take the threat of spiritual attack seriously: Praying; reading the Bible; living by faith; and, keeping close and in regular fellowship with other Christians.

This week I thought it might be helpful for us to talk about

Why God may have allowed the devil’s rebellion, and why the Lord has allowed his destructive and rebellious work for so long;

What some of the devils schemes and ways are so that we can recognize when we are becoming overly-influenced by him and beginning to participate with him in his work; and,

How we can seek God’s equipping and equip ourselves to stand firm, and arm and armor ourselves against the devil’s tricks and snares.

So, what does the Bible say as to why God may have allowed the devil’s rebellion, and why He may have allowed his destructive and rebellious work for so long? Oswald Chambers wrote: “Faith must be tested, because it can be turned into a personal possession only through conflict…” He goes on to say, “Let me say I believe God will supply all my need, and then let me run dry, with no outlook, and see whether I will go through the trial of faith, or whether I will sink back to something lower… What is your faith up against now? The test will either prove that your faith is right, or it will kill it.” (My Utmost For His Highest, August 29.)

As many have before him and many since, Chambers proposes that God allows Satan and suffering for the same reasons that a loving-parent might allow their child to struggle and even to fail in the present (if failure is the result), so that that same child might overcome and succeed in the future.

To support this, the apostle Paul writes to the Roman-Christians: “We can rejoice when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because He has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with His love.” (Romans 5:3-5)

Am I saying that the madness, horrors, and atrocities that Satan deceives people and manipulates them to are all worth it if we learn something by it? No. But I am saying that “what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory He will reveal to us later.” (Romans 8:18) “For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever!” (2 Corinthians 4:17)

As we believe God we can see through Satan’s attempts to cause us to doubt or be discouraged, to feel defeated or to delay. Knowing that the conflict the enemy seeks to bring gives us opportunities to prove our faith, knowing that even Jesus learned obedience from the things He suffered (Hebrews 5:8), and knowing that our Father works every-thing together for our good, we can love and trust God through our troubles and trials knowing that our crucified-King does and will deliver and save, and if not in this life then in the life to come, as we keep on loving Him and responding to His call.

As far as Christians being influenced and manipulated by the evil one, Simon Peter is a great example: When Jesus first shared with His disciples about His upcoming sufferings and crucifixion Peter couldn’t take hearing that, so he cut Jesus off and tried to correct and set Him straight. But Jesus told Peter that he was being used by Satan at that moment to discourage Him and distract Him from God’s things. So we can see that a person doesn’t have to be “demonized” or “possessed” to be used by, oppressed by, influenced by, or manipulated by the devil. And in that interaction with Peter, Jesus shows us how we can recognize when Satan is trying to do it.

Jesus said to Peter, “Get away from me, Satan! You are seeing things merely from a human point of view, not from God’s.” (Mark 8:33) So even though the devil has no power over those who have the Holy Spirit on account of their faith in Christ, we can be vulnerable to be influenced by the devil when we want something so badly that it doesn’t even bother us that it might not be what God wants! Adam and Eve show us the same thing.

In the beginning God told Adam, “You may freely eat the fruit of every tree in the Garden—except the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. If you eat its fruit, you are sure to die.” (Genesis 2:17) Even so, after listening to the devil Adam and Eve decided that the Tree of Knowledge was beautiful, and that its fruit looked delicious. And they wanted the wisdom it would give them. (See Genesis 3:6)

Where was Simon Peter’s focus? Not on what the Son of God had just told him God wanted but on what he – Simon Peter – wanted; not on what the promises or sovereignty of God offered, but on what he as a man could imagine and understand. Where was Adam and Eve’s focus? Not on God’s Word and what He’d commanded but on what they wanted; not on what the Lord had told them was spiritual-truth but on what appeared to be true to their eyes… And the same is true for us.

We can want things so badly. Think with me, for a second: What do you really want? What have you, perhaps, always wanted? … What if God seemed to want something else for you? And that conflict of wills can get us acting like the devil, can’t it? We can find ourselves deceiving – telling little white lies, trying to get our way; we can find ourselves accusing – saying things about others that may or may not be true, but that we think might help us get our way; directing those around us away from what God has said in His Word or away from seeking God in His Word or in prayer so that they might hear our side of the story so that we might get our way…

And yet, deceiving is what the devil does. Accusing is what the devil does. Drawing people away from God is what the devil does. And when we find ourselves doing these things we can be sure that – whether we realize it or not, whether we want it or not – we’ve been listening to the devil, and he’s succeeded in influencing and/or manipulating us and using us for his work…

We can also become aware that such things are going on around us simply by what we see going on around us: Christians set against each other, trying to get their way, talking about one another instead of to one another, pushing their position instead of seeking God’s position, strife, conflict, competition, splitting up into “us” and “them”…

Of course, it can all be more personal.

An indication that Satan might be seeking to block God’s purposes for your, or someone-around-you’s, life is when the temptations you’re experiencing seem especially strong, or when you find yourself beginning to rationalize giving-in and doing something you know is not of the Lord. In such times, call on Jesus. There is power in His name because when we call on Him He is present, with us. And when you realize you’re under personal attack, that’s the time to spend extra time in the Bible and prayer; that’s the time to get others reading the Bible to you and praying for you (since those can be times when it can be difficult to read and pray); and, perhaps, that’s even a time to consider fasting. (We’ll talk more about fasting another time; or you can ask me later if you sense you’re in the need for such things right now.)

Jesus faced every temptation you and I will ever face, and He did not sin. So study the Gospels. Watch Him. He is our role-model and mentor in all things, including how to overcome temptation and stand firm against the devil.

Which brings us to our last piece: How we can seek God’s equipping and equip ourselves to stand firm, and arm and armor ourselves against the devil’s tricks and snares?

And we do that by looking to Jesus: What do we see Jesus doing?

We see Him praying. (Sometimes late into the night. Sometimes all night long!) We know He’s in the Word because we always see Him quoting the Scriptures, and giving different Scriptures as the evidence for the different words He’s speaking or actions He’s taking. We see Him boldly living for God. And we see Him always in the synagogue or at the Temple with God’s people, or always on a hillside or in a boat with God’s people, or always taking a journey with or eating a meal together with God’s people. Always with God’s people. (And, of course, that’s where we got our list from that we closed with last week.)

And you may look at that list and say, “I already know all that, Pastor.” But I will ask you, are you already doing that? Most Christians know they should pray and read and study God’s Word and live surrendered to the Holy Spirit and keep in close fellowship with God’s people. But according to numerous and frequent polls taken by Christian organizations, not many Christian people actually do these things. And it’s not the knowledge of Jesus’ ways that save us. It’s having faith in Him enough to do them that we find ourselves transformed and empowered.

As a matter of fact, the majority of Christians share that it’s only when they are going through hardship that they more regularly pray and attend worship services. (Though hardship does not seem to influence Bible reading or living by the Spirit.) As a father myself, if I knew my kids needed my help each day but found that they only came and talked to me when they were in some kind of trouble, I’d allow them to get into some trouble, too!

We need to be doers and not merely hearers if we want to stand with Jesus against the wiles of our adversary.

Let’s review:

The Father wants us to understand the devil’s ways and scheme’s, and to understand His Own almighty plans and purposes for allowing Satan’s ongoing influence and work. At the heart of that is our Savior having so much more for us than just 40, 80, or 100 or so years here in this life. He’s preparing us for forever! For eternity! And all these hardships and heartaches Satan can try to stir up around us will all be so much more than worth it for all that He’s preparing us for!

The Father wants us to guard our will and our desires. When our wills are contrary to His will we make ourselves vulnerable to the evil one if we seek to get our own way and are not seeking God’s way.

When in weaknesses or vulnerabilities we sense the devil’s attacks to be too much for us, we need to call on Jesus, read the Bible more and pray more and have others read the Bible to us and pray for us and, if led to, fast.

Of course, as in all things, we need to be keeping our eyes on Jesus and always doing what He did and would do: Praying all the time (as we’ve already said); reading and studying the Bible (as we’ve already said); taking the Word of God into ourselves with the intention of living it out of ourselves – living and abide in Jesus so that He’s living and abiding in us!; and, keeping in constant touch with other Christians for the already-mentioned encouragement, advice, prayer, and support that are only available to us when we’re firmly established in the Body of Christ.

It’s a war we’re going through here – at school, at home, in our workplaces and neighborhoods. But it’s a war that has already been won on the cross and where defeat has already been conceded at the empty tomb. These troubles and trials that Satan’s been allowed to bring in the hopes of leading us away from God are simply the final skirmishes. No less threatening; no less deadly. But they are almost over. Stand firm. And keep your eyes on Jesus, and your heart and mind set on all He’s bringing with Him when He comes.

The Revelation 12:1-12 [NLTse]
Then I witnessed in Heaven an event of great significance. I saw a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon beneath her feet, and a crown of twelve stars on her head. ² She was pregnant, and she cried out because of her labor pains and the agony of giving birth.
³ Then I witnessed in heaven another significant event. I saw a large red dragon with seven heads and ten horns, with seven crowns on his heads. ⁴ His tail swept away one-third of the stars in the sky, and he threw them to the earth. He stood in front of the woman as she was about to give birth, ready to devour her Baby as soon as it was born.
⁵ She gave birth to a Son Who was to rule all nations with an iron rod. And her Child was snatched away from the dragon and was caught up to God and to His throne. ⁶ And the woman fled into the wilderness, where God had prepared a place to care for her for 1,260 days.
⁷ Then there was war in Heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon and his angels. ⁸ And the dragon lost the battle, and he and his angels were forced out of heaven. ⁹ This great dragon—the ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, the one deceiving the whole world—was thrown down to the earth with all his angels.
¹⁰ Then I heard a loud voice shouting across the heavens,
“It has come at last—salvation and power and the Kingdom of our God, and the authority of His Christ. For the accuser of our brothers and sisters has been thrown down to earth—the one who accuses them before our God day and night. ¹¹ And they have defeated him by the blood of the Lamb and by their testimony. And they did not love their lives so much that they were afraid to die. ¹² Therefore, rejoice, O heavens! And you who live in the heavens, rejoice! But terror will come on the earth and the sea, for the devil has come down to you in great anger, knowing that he has little time.”

Sermon
This is a very sketchy memory, but let me try to share it with you. My family and I were living next door in the Manse and I remember waking up in the early morning hours – it was, perhaps, three or four o’clock – and I woke feeling terrified. Opening my eyes I remember seeing a man standing in the far corner of our bedroom, just standing there looking at me. He was dressed in a dark suit over a white shirt with a dark tie on. He had dark brown hair parted on the side and, to my eyes, he looked kind of like me. But I knew I was seeing the devil.

I’ve never before been so afraid that I couldn’t move, couldn’t even open my mouth to speak, but that’s how I was in that moment. I thought I was going to burst from the terror quaking inside of me! (I guess that’s what it’s like when people say they were “paralyzed with fear”.)

Lying there frozen, helpless, all I knew was that I needed Jesus. But I couldn’t open my mouth to speak! So I cried out to Him in my mind, so afraid, so desperate, as I stared at this very normal-looking but terrifying-to-my-soul figure across my room. And as I thought of the Savior and called out to Him in my mind my jaws and lips got a little bit of movement and I remember mumbling, “Jesus, Jesus,” and then being able to speak freely, “Jesus, Jesus, please help me,” or something like that. The next thing I knew the well-dressed me-looking man – the devil – was gone…

Some days ago I received the following email from a lady in our congregation:

I believe that Satan has planned the destruction of the work that the Lord has for this church and community… He always does this by attacking from within…

We always have a hard time recognizing who the enemy is, and attack each other instead of uniting and fighting the real enemy. We lick our wounds and walk or run away from the battle instead of holding together where we are strongest: In prayer and love together.

I was thinking about how the Roman army used to fight. They would form a “turtle”, each one covered by the shield of the others so that no weapon could penetrate the armor; each dependent on their training and each other for protection. Surely this is what God intends for us to do as believers. We cover each other, not just ourselves. No weapon that is formed against us shall prosper. We forget that we are one body, fit together for the purposes of God, and when we stand together the gates of hell shall not and can-not prevail.

This is the word of the Lord and it rings true and sound in our hearts: We are here to lift up Christ, and the message He sent us to proclaim, not our own feelings, desires, and agenda. We have been so conditioned to asserting our rights in this world of selfish, prideful greed that we do not always remember what He has saved us from, or the purpose He has for His body.

I believe that Satan has planned the destruction of the work that the Lord has for this church and community…

And then yesterday I received an early-morning phone call from one of you who had had an awful dream about me that you needed to share: That you’d seen me across a room from you, talking to a big man. We were passing a clipboard between us, so you thought we might be doing some business together. But you said that you saw letters behind the man that suddenly spelled out ANTICHRIST!

Add to all this that lately different ones of you have been sharing with me about evil situations you’ve been in and evil times you’ve been going through. (Your words, not mine.) So when earlier this week another person told me that they hoped I would preach about Satan sometime soon, my response inside was, “Do ya think?”

The Bible gives us a clear portrait of who Satan is and how he affects our lives. Put simply, the Bible defines Satan as an angelic being who fell from his position in heaven due to sin and is now completely opposed to God, doing all in his power to thwart God’s purposes.

Ezekiel 28:12-14 seems to be describing Satan as having been created one of the cherubim – apparently the highest created angel – and of being first among them. Satan does not look like the cartoon character in the red suit with a tail and horns and a pitchfork. In their heavenly state according to the Bible, cherubim are creatures up to 18 feet tall with 8 foot-long wings. In the prophet Ezekiel’s vision (1:10; 10:1-14) the cherubim had four wings, and under their wings were human-like hands that could be used to carry things. All the surfaces of the cherubim, including the wings, were covered with eyes. Each cherub had four faces, “the first was the face of an ox, the second was a human face, the third was the face of a lion, and the fourth was the face of an eagle.” The New Testament book of Revelation describes similar creatures, only with six wings each, with faces of a lion, an ox, a man, and an eagle. So, these creatures look nothing like the cute little cherubim you can buy for your garden or bookshelf.

The prophet Isaiah (14:12) possibly gives Satan’s pre-fall name as Lucifer, describing him as being “perfect in beauty,” and adorned with all kinds of precious stones. He wanted to receive the worship due to God alone.

Satan convinced one third of the angels to rebel against God. So Michael, one of God’s archangels, fought with God’s warrior-angels against Satan and his “fallen” ones, with Satan losing the battle and being cast with his angels-now-demons from Heaven down to earth, where he took on the form of a snake in the Garden of Eden to tempt Adam and Eve. (So, apparently, he can take on the forms of other creatures, as well.)
That being said, and with such fearsome grandeur described, let’s be clear that Satan is not God’s opposite, equal, or counterpart – he is not the yin to God’s yang, the darkness to God’s light, the evil to God’s goodness – as he is often portrayed. No. Satan is a created being. His defeat is described in the short and sweet words of The Revelation where, after deceiving everybody on the earth to turn against Christians, the Bible says, “But fire from Heaven came down on the attacking armies and consumed them. Then the devil, who had deceived them, was thrown into the Fiery Lake of Burning Sulfur… tormented day and night forever and ever!” (20:7-10) Big build up; no contest.

Clearly Satan’s no match for God, but what about us? Is the devil more powerful than we are? Should we be afraid of him?

I’ll answer that by saying, if by “we” you mean human beings, then, yes, Satan is more powerful than human beings because Satan is the king over human beings; he is the king of this world and his is the spirit at work in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God. (Ephesians 2:1-3) But in his letter to the Colossians the apostle Paul makes clear that on account of our faith and trust in Christ that Christians have been “rescued from the kingdom of darkness and transferred into the Kingdom of His dear Son.” (1:13)

Now it is God’s Spirit – the Spirit of Christ – that lives in our hearts! So if by “we” you mean Christians, then, no, in Christ the devil is no longer more powerful than us, and although we need to be aware of him we no longer need to ever be afraid of him.

We’re going to talk about this more next Sunday, but since myself, the church, and several of you seem to be object of Satan’s attention right now, let me end by sharing what I hope are a few practical things. First, remember that Satan is a deceiver, a slanderer, and an accuser and that his only power over Christians is when we believe his deceptions, his put-downs, and his accusations.

As I mentioned earlier, Satan’s single-minded intent is to thwart God’s purposes in the world, and, of course, God’s purposes in the world are to bring people to Himself through faith in Jesus. The devil does that by attempting to nurture doubt in us; getting us to question God’s Word and God’s goodness. (DOUBT) He does that by discouraging us; having us look more at our problems than looking to God. (DISCOURAGEMENT) He seeks to draw us from faith by having us question God’s promises, our salvation in Christ, and by making us feel like such failures that we give up and stop trying. (DEFEAT) And if none of these other tactics will work, he will tempt us to delay, so that we’ll put off doing the good God wants done in the hope that it never gets done. (DELAY)

So, first and foremost we must take the threat of spiritual attack seriously. 1) Our main defense is prayer, routinely asking God to protect us from the evil one and to help and strengthen us. 2) We need to be in the Bible to recognize Satan’s style and tactics and so that we can know God’s truth from the devil’s deceptions. 3) We need to believe what we read in the Scriptures and put it into practice in our daily lives. 4) Christian fellowship is of the utmost importance so that – like described in that email – we can live out this koinonia-life we’ve been saved into: Protecting one another in our prayers and God’s truth, and helping one another in our times of weakness. (Again, we’ll look at all this more closely next Sunday.)

Satan probably likes this depiction of him, since most people (including many Christians) are then apt to disbelieve in his existence. And when he is a “non-existent” force in people’s lives, Satan is then free to influence them without being discovered as the cause of many or any of their problems. However, the Bible says that Satan is a beautiful and powerful fallen angel, who would like to do nothing more than take away the joy of Christians through deception, and lead people into rebellion against God. Although Satan is destined for the Fiery Lake of Burning Sulfur, the Bible also makes clear that he will deceive entire nations and kingdoms before his final end comes.
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So, “Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. Stand firm against him, and be strong in your faith. Remember that your family of believers all over the world is going through the same kind of suffering you are.” (1 Peter 5:8-9) Yes, “Humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” (James 4:7)

The Gospel According to John 9:1-17 [NLTse]

As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man who had been blind from birth. ² “Rabbi,” his disciples asked him, “why was this man born blind? Was it because of his own sins or his parents’ sins?”

³ “It was not because of his sins or his parents’ sins,” Jesus answered. “This happened so the power of God could be seen in him. ⁴ We must quickly carry out the tasks assigned us by the one who sent us.^[a^] The night is coming, and then no one can work. ⁵ But while I am here in the world, I am the light of the world.”

⁶ Then he spit on the ground, made mud with the saliva, and spread the mud over the blind man’s eyes. ⁷ He told him, “Go wash yourself in the pool of Siloam” (Siloam means “sent”). So the man went and washed and came back seeing!

⁸ His neighbors and others who knew him as a blind beggar asked each other, “Isn’t this the man who used to sit and beg?” ⁹ Some said he was, and others said, “No, he just looks like him!”

But the beggar kept saying, “Yes, I am the same one!”

¹⁰ They asked, “Who healed you? What happened?”

¹¹ He told them, “The man they call Jesus made mud and spread it over my eyes and told me, ‘Go to the pool of Siloam and wash yourself.’ So I went and washed, and now I can see!”

Sermon

One of the reasons I believe and love the Bible is because it deals with the hardest issues in life. It doesn’t sweep painful things under the rug, or complex things or confusing things or shocking things or controversial things. In fact, it seems Jesus sometimes went out of His way to create controversy with the Pharisees and others so that more truth about Himself and about unbelief would come out, so that we could be warned by examples of hardness and drawn near by images of His glory.

One of the hardest things in life is the suffering of children, and the suffering of those who love them—especially when that early suffering turns into a lifetime of living with profound loss. The issue may be autism or Down syndrome or spina bifida or blindness or any number of rare and hard to pronounce conditions. Each has its own peculiar sorrows, its own peculiar ways of turning lifetimes into what you never dreamed or planned they would be. Married life is changed from what you thought it would be. Everything is irrevocably changed, and life will never be the same again. And God didn’t ask you.

What would I do as a pastor if I had to face these things—these children, these parents—with a Bible that said nothing about what they are going through? What if I was stuck thinking up my own ideas about suffering and disabilities and illnesses? What if all I had was human opinions on such things? I thank God that this is not our situation. Suffering and sorrow are woven through the Bible. This is one of the things that makes it so believable to me. It is filled with things that God has said and done to shed light on our sufferings and sorrows.

It is no accident that after telling the crowds in the Temple that He was the light of the world that having noticed this man-born-blind the Son of God repeats it, saying, “I am the light of the world.” God’s light has come into the world, and it is shining on disabilities and sicknesses and on everything else. God has not left us to alone to despair of any meaning, nor has He left us alone to have to make up our own meaning.

Our reading begins saying, “As Jesus was walking along, He saw a man who had been blind from birth.” He is a man now. But he was born blind. And it did not go easily for him. We meet his parents later in verse 18. But they were not able to care for him at some point, so he’d become a beggar. We know that because of verse 8: “His neighbors and others who knew him as a blind beggar asked each other, ‘Isn’t this the man who used to sit and beg?’” So he was blind and he was desperately poor. Life had been very hard.

Jesus saw the man as he passed by. And the disciples saw that Jesus saw him. Verse 2 says, “Rabbi, why was this man born blind? Was it because of his own sins or his parents’ sins?” That question is key. But notice that the interaction did not begin with the disciples’ question, or even with the disciples seeing the blind man. It begins with Jesus seeing the man: “As Jesus was walking along, He saw a man who had been blind from birth.” The disciples have noticed the blind man because Jesus noticed him.

And just as an aside, I would ask us – all of us – see people with disabilities. Notice them. Engage with them. And I don’t mean see them or notice them like the priest or the Levite in Jesus’ parable about our neighbor, passing by on the other side. This is our natural reflex: To see, be uncomfortable, and avoid. But you and I are not natural people. We are followers of Jesus. We have the Spirit of Jesus in our hearts. We have been seen and touched in all our brokenness by a Savior Who has seen and noticed and engaged us.

If you want to be one of the most remarkable kinds of human beings on the planet – a true follower of Jesus – see people with disabilities. See them. Notice them. Engage them. God will show you what to do and say.

When the disciples saw Jesus’ attention to the blind man, they asked for an explanation of the man’s blindness. “Rabbi, why was this man born blind? Was it because of his own sins or his parents’ sins?” Jesus answers their question but not as they’ve asked it. They are seeking to understand the cause: What caused his blindness? The man’s sin? Or his parents’ sin? Is his blindness a punishment for sins his parents had committed, or is it a punishment for his own sins – some kind of punishment-ahead-of-time for sins God knew would come along?

And Jesus answers. But He doesn’t speak to the cause of the blindness. He points them to its purpose.

Jesus says, basically, specific sins in the past don’t always match up with specific suffering in the present. The explanation for this man’s blindness is not found by looking for its cause but by looking for its purpose. “It was not because of his sins or his parents’ sins. This happened so the power of God could be seen in him.”

(Notice that Jesus is not denying that suffering came into the world because of sin. It did. Genesis 3 and Romans 8:18+ make clear that if there had never been sin then there would never have been suffering. All suffering is because of sin. And part of the meaning of the physical horrors we see going on around us is so that human beings might recognize the moral horrors of the sin we commit and that is committed all around us.

It’s a fine distinction: That the existence of sin in the world is the cause of suffering in the world, but that specific sins in the world are usually not the cause of specific sufferings in the world.)

“It was not because of his sins or his parents’ sins. This happened so the power of God could be seen in him.” So the explanation of the man’s blindness lies not in the past causes but in the present and future purposes!

Now, there are some pastors and teachers who do not at all like the idea that God might will a child to be born blind so that some purpose-of-God might be achieved. One of the ways they try to work around the teaching of this passage is to say that God had nothing to do with the man’s blindness but that his blindness merely gave God the opportunity to display His mighty works by restoring the man’s sight.

But that teaching doesn’t fit the context.

The disciples have asked for an explanation of the blindness, and Jesus’ answer is given as an explanation of the blindness. If you try to argue that God had no purpose, plan, or design in the blindness, but simply finds the blindness later and uses it, that doesn’t answer the disciples’ question. They want to know why he is blind? And Jesus give them an answer. He’s blind because God has purpose in it. There’s a plan. God means for His power to be seen in Jesus’ healing him.

Another reason that “work around” doesn’t work is that God knows all things. He knows exactly what is happening in the moments of our conception. When there is a defective chromosome or some genetic irregularity in the sperm that is about to fertilize an egg, God can simply say, “No.” He commands the winds. He commands the waves. He commands the sperm and the genetic makeup of the egg. If God permits a conception that He knows will produce blindness, He has reasons for it. And those reasons are His loving purposes. His grand designs. His eternal plans. God has never birthed a child for whom He had no plan. There are no accidents in God’s mind or hands.

And so, any attempt to deny God’s sovereign, wise, purposeful control over conception and birth runs head-on into Exodus 4:11 and Psalm 139:13, which say, “Then the Lord asked Moses, ‘Who makes a person’s mouth? Who decides whether people speak or do not speak, hear or do not hear, see or do not see? Is it not I, the Lord?’” and “You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb.”

Jesus is saying to the disciples: Stop being so concerned with fault and blame in your concerns about suffering; nor should you give in to thoughts of helplessness or hopelessness or meaninglessness. Set your minds to the purposes and plans of God! There is no child and no suffering outside God’s purposes!

“It was not because of his sins or his parents’ sins. This happened so the power of God could be seen in him.”

Now, this is not the whole explanation of suffering in the Bible. There are many other relevant passages and important points to make. But this passage and this point are huge! Suffering can have meaning, but it can only have ultimate meaning in relation to God.

Jesus says that the purpose of the man’s blindness was so that God’s power could be seen in Jesus. This means that for our suffering and any suffering to have ultimate meaning that God must be more important to us than anything else in life. More valuable than health; more valuable than our kids or our parents; more valuable than our husbands or wives; more valuable than life itself! Like many things according to the Bible, suffering makes no sense until God becomes more important to us than anything else.

For Jesus, blindness from birth and its challenges, poverty and hardship, etc… will all be worth it when God’s power is seen in Jesus through it all! In this case of the man-born-blind, God’s power shown in Jesus happens to be healing—the glory of God’s power to heal. And yet there is nothing that says it has to be healing. When Paul cried out three times for his thorn-in-the-flesh to be healed, Jesus said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” (2 Corinthians 12:9). I will let My power be seen, not by healing you, but by sustaining you.

And so, healing displays God’s power in Christ in John 9, and sustaining grace displays God’s power in Christ in 2 Corinthians 12. What is common in both cases is the majesty and supremacy of God: The blindness is for the glory of God; the thorn-in-the-flesh is for the glory of God. The healing is for God’s glory in Christ; and the non-healing is for His glory in Him, as well.

Suffering can only have ultimate meaning when seen in relation to the majesty and supremacy of the God Who is worth everything to us.

One last thing. Jesus says, “We must quickly carry out the tasks assigned us by the One Who sent us. The night is coming, and then no one can work.” And so, Jesus is going to heal this man’s blindness. Jesus’ works are God’s works.

But He must do so quickly, because night is coming and His work will be over. Jesus will turn from a ministry of healing to a ministry of dying. He will turn from the “day-work” of relieving suffering, and do the “night-work” of suffering in our place.

And we could join the disciples in asking: Why? Who sinned that Jesus must suffer? And the answer would certainly be: Not him. We did. That is the cause of His suffering. But that doesn’t explain it. The explanation is that Jesus suffered so that the power of God might be seen in Him: The works of wrath-bearing; and curse-removing; and guilt-lifting; and righteousness-providing; and death-defeating; and life-giving; and – in the end – suffering-removing—totally removing.

For “He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever.” (Revelation 21:4). Because every time we embrace sorrow and engage disability and face loss in faith to display the power of God in Christ, we display the power of God in us as spoken in 2 Corinthians 4:17-18: “For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever! So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.”

May God give us eyes to see that the display of His power in His Son’s suffering and in our sufferings and in our children’s sufferings are all expressions of His love.

A special thank you to Pastor John Piper, upon some of whose work this sermon is loosely based; desiringGod.org.

The Acts of the Apostles 2:42-47 [NLTse]

⁴² All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, and to fellowship, and to sharing in meals (including the Lord’s Supper), and to prayer.
⁴³ A deep sense of awe came over them all, and the apostles performed many miraculous signs and wonders. ⁴⁴ And all the believers met together in one place and shared everything they had. ⁴⁵ They sold their property and possessions and shared the money with those in need. ⁴⁶ They worshiped together at the Temple each day, met in homes for the Lord’s Supper, and shared their meals with great joy and generosity— ⁴⁷ all the while praising God and enjoying the goodwill of all the people. And each day the Lord added to their fellowship those who were being saved.

Sermon – Reunion
Koinonia is a Greek word that is important to understanding this famous passage from Acts. When we hear that, “All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, and to fellowship,” that’s koinonia. That “all the believers met together in one place and shared everything they had,” that’s koinonia. And the entire passage, describing these first disciples lives together is a most wonderful picture and definition of koinonia.

Koinonia is a word that has to do with sharing, like when we are joint-owners of something with others, and yet koinonia has no place for those looking to selfishly get but, even when we have brought less to the relationship or partnership or community than others, koinonia is that attitude of will and determination that is always seeking to generously give: “I don’t have as much as others, but what do I have that I can give?”
Koinonia speaks of relationships, like when Simon Peter, James, and John were said to be “partners” – koinonia – because of their fishing business (Luke 5:10): Each actively contributing to the success and vitality of the whole, as well as sharing the burdens and the costs, as well.
Marriage is a koinonia-for-life where a husband and wife have all things – even their bodies – in common. And yet the marriage bond itself can also be spoken of as koinonia since it is the common interests of all that make up the couple’s common life hold husbands and wives together. It is when man and women lose their common interests and when they stop needing each other that koinonia weakens and marriages die.
Koinonia produces shared joys and pains, and opportunites for further and deeper sharing and giving, which continue to be acts of koinonia that strengthen the koinonia.

Russ Cohen once told me that redwoods – you know, the giant trees of northern California – have very shallow root systems, and how miraculous it is that they are able to withstand the powerful storms that come against them in that part of the world. But they stand firm and they stand gloriously tall because, although their roots do not go deep they go out and intertwine themselves amongst the roots of the other redwoods around them. The roots of redwoods bind them together. To make one fall, all must fall with it. Yet what happens is that when one is rocked and shaken the others hold it fast. And that is koinonia.

In the koinonia Christ has established with us, what is mine is yours and what is yours is mine, and all that is Christ’s is ours. My strength in your times of weakness, and your strength in my times, and Christ around us holding us steady. Our shared purposes and interests and values in Him bind us together in a weave of relationships and mutual responsibility and accountability for the benefit of us all. Knowing that the weaknesses and vulnerabilities of each will eventually doom the whole, our sins and brokenness are also shared, koinonia. And so healing and restoration are everyone’s shared responsibility and earnestly sought for all. For what benefits you benefits me, and what benefits me benefits you, and the riches that are ours in Christ benefitting us all. All for one, and one for all!
Eighteen years ago this church called me to be its pastor. I was fresh out of seminary and this church had just gone through some very difficult times.

I came to the church as someone very demonstrative of my faith. At that time First Presbyterian as a whole was not so demonstrative. I was a hand-raiser and a prayer-out-louder, and I encouraged people to raise their hands and pray out loud with me, if they so desired. I invited elders to pray instead of me during those times around church life when typically the pastor would pray. I would sometimes rock in my pew as I prayed and I would sometimes close my eyes and move with the music when we were singing various hymns. (Which I continue to do to this day which is why I’m not always the best person to be holding the clicker since sometimes I can be closing my eyes and worshiping and not realize that I’ve let us get a couple of slides behind. So anybody out there who wants to lead the “clicker ministry” please let me know.)

Soon, others around the congregation began raising their hands during different hymns and began rocking back and forth in their pews and moving to the music with me. And still others who did likewise visited the church and stayed when they saw it was welcome here.

Soon, different ones around the church began raising the idea of having to two different Worship Services: One Service for those who were more formal and reflective and a different Service for those who were more freeform and expressive.

Milford, Pike County, and our congregation were all really growing at that time, and although we didn’t need two Services (the Sanctuary was full but not packed), even so, we were at a place where we believed the Lord was calling us to move in that direction. So we began the two Services the Sunday after Easter, 2004, and we’ve been worshiping with a Traditional and a Contemporary Service ever since.

Even so, across all those years there has always been an underlying lament: “Wouldn’t it be great if we could worship together?” And I regularly hear stories from different ones of you about meeting someone in the congregation who’s been a part of the church for years but whom you’ve never met before because that person attends the other Service.
And so when people have said to me, “Wouldn’t it be great if we could worship together?” I remind them that it was God Who led us to the two Services and not my or anyone else’s idea, and then I typically ask them, “And if we did have just one Service again, what do you think it should it be like?” And if they were Traditional worshipers they would most often say, “It should be like the Traditional Service, of course,” and if they were Contemporary worshipers they would most often say, “It should be like the Contemporary Service.” [Just out of curiosity, who here wishes we could worship all-together as a church? If we were to ever do so, who here thinks that the one Service ought to be like this Service we’re in right now? Of course.]

Well, on behalf of the elders, I’m happy and excited to be telling you that on September 14^th WE WILL BE CELEBRATING REUNION AND BEGIN HAVING ONE WORSHIP SERVICE AGAIN! [Clap…] WILL NO LONGER BE HAVING SEPARATE TRADITIONAL AND CONTEMPORARY WORSHIP SERVICES. WE WILL HAVE ONE SERVICE!

The elders have been meeting at regular and special times across the past bunch of months to pray specifically and especially about this. Unless today is your first day worshiping with us (and if it is, “Welcome! We are so glad you are here!) then you have likely noticed the congregation growing noticeably smaller. We haven’t yet been able to identify the reasons behind that. As a matter of fact, talking to different ones we continue hearing stories about the many wonderful things that the Lord is doing in peoples’ lives here at First Pres: People coming to Christ; people having their faith renewed; people growing in leaps and bounds in their assurance of the Lord’s love for them and in their love for and faith in Him! And yet we are still missing so many. And such changes and continuing with two Services has begun to affect our ministry: Some leaders and servants around the church (you may be some of them) are involved in too many ministries. (It’s not good for Christians to be doing too much. Busyness can distract us from the Holy Spirit and result in less excellence than Jesus deserves.)

So we feel the Holy Spirit’s conviction to go to one Service, in part, as an act of good stewardship: We want our best teachers to teach Sunday School, not just those who don’t attend the Traditional Service; we want to have one group of Levites to serve in the Sanctuary and one group of Greeters to welcome us into the Lord’s house and one group of Nursery workers to love our kids and one group to host Fellowship Hour and so on…

Of course, with this week’s news stories in mind, another reason we believe the Lord’s calling us back to one Service is koinonia. Robin Williams’ suicide is such a sad and public display of how the people around us – even those who seem to have it all – joy, success, family, friends, money, a promising future – how badly, how desperately they need something more than themselves and just what this life and this world have to offer. What we have; Who we have: Koinonia. And it seems clear that reunion, and our building and strengthening our koinonia-together will give us opportunities to more blatantly demonstrate such interrelationships and security to Milford and the world.

At the same time, the Christians suffering so horribly and publicly in Iraq are horrific examples of another reason. The days are long-gone when it was popular to be a Christian and church was the place to be. We need each others’ support. We need to be tangled up in each other’s roots. Storms are here. Storms are coming. We need koinonia. There are powers rising up in the world that are not Christian powers, which are not tolerant powers, powers in our own country and in other countries. Powers willing to ruin people and even put people to death who do not agree with their agenda, or who bear the name of Jesus Christ. And simply because they bear the name of Jesus Christ and all His koinonia stands for. I do not believe it is an accident that at the very same time that we are seeing these things going on around our community and nation and world that God, at this time, is calling us back to one Service: To nurture the unity and koinonia He has established for us by the Holy Spirit in Jesus Christ.

(We’ll be talking more about what our Worship will look like in the weeks to come, but rest assured that your elders equally represent both our Traditional and Contemporary Services. They love God and love you. Reunion, and our return to one Service will be a blessing!)
God has given us a great work to do here at First Presbyterian Church. The impact that we all have through this church for the glory of Jesus Christ is beyond our estimation. It is worth all our efforts and all of our lives to preserve the great things we stand for and to move forward together: Koinonia; one…

[Go to the table…] The world tells us that we deserve to get whatever we want, to have things “our” way. But God tells us that it’s in giving up, in sacrificing, and by serving others, that He grants us our heart’s desires!
And we do so by coming together around this table. Because this is the center of our Worship, is it not? Not our songs or the ways we pray or how we’ve decorated the Sanctuary, but the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross: Offering His body, shedding His blood, that we might no longer be alienated from God because of our sins but be reconciled to God through His death and be one!

There is a unity that we manufacture and a unity that the Holy Spirit gives. Human-established unity demands that everyone be the same, that everyone like the same things, that everyone so things the same way. But the unity that God’s Spirit gives is supernatural. In the midst of all our diversity we experience a genuine oneness in Christ. It is not a unity that can be manufactured or enforced. We receive it. We treasure it.
As we come to celebrate the Lord’s Supper we recognize that our unity has been established by Christ and is eternal, and yet it is something that we as believers need to work to maintain so that the world can see it in us and be amazed and jealous to join us in Him. It is a unity that was established on the cross and that is maintained by the Holy Spirit across the ages across the church, and yet it is a unity that all believers must strive to make plain before a watching world.
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Come to the table. Come receive Christ’s body and blood. Come, let us give ourselves up. Let us humble ourselves and discipline ourselves. Here let us be reminded that we are one body. Here indeed we are made one body. Here we are welcomed as sinners who want so desperately to cling to our own wills, and yet here we are called to give our wills up to God and to find harmony and unity and koinonia with Him and one other. Let us pray…

PASTOR: Introduction

One of the great sources of comfort our Father in Heaven gives to us to enjoy and so that we might rest in Him each day is what theologians have come to call our “assurance of salvation”. I believe that is what Jesus is focusing us on this morning in our reading from John 8:31-47

ELDER: John 8:31-47 (48-59) [NLTse]

³¹ Jesus said to the people who believed in him, “You are truly my disciples if you remain faithful to my teachings. ³² And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

³³ “But we are descendants of Abraham,” they said. “We have never been slaves to anyone. What do you mean, ‘You will be set free’?”

³⁴ Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave of sin.  ³⁵ A slave is not a permanent member of the family, but a son is part of the family forever. ³⁶ So if the Son sets you free, you are truly free. ³⁷ Yes, I realize that you are descendants of Abraham. And yet some of you are trying to kill me because there’s no room in your hearts for my message. ³⁸ I am telling you what I saw when I was with my Father. But you are following the advice of your father.”

³⁹ “Our father is Abraham!” they declared.

“No,” Jesus replied, “for if you were really the children of Abraham, you would follow his example. ⁴⁰ Instead, you are trying to kill me because I told you the truth, which I heard from God. Abraham never did such a thing. ⁴¹ No, you are imitating your real father.”

They replied, “We aren’t illegitimate children! God himself is our true Father.”

⁴² Jesus told them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, because I have come to you from God. I am not here on my own, but he sent me. ⁴³ Why can’t you understand what I am saying? It’s because you can’t even hear me! ⁴⁴ For you are the children of your father the devil, and you love to do the evil things he does. He was a murderer from the beginning. He has always hated the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, it is consistent with his character; for he is a liar and the father of lies. ⁴⁵ So when I tell the truth, you just naturally don’t believe me! ⁴⁶ Which of you can truthfully accuse me of sin? And since I am telling you the truth, why don’t you believe me? ⁴⁷ Anyone who belongs to God listens gladly to the words of God. But you don’t listen because you don’t belong to God.”

PASTOR: Sermon

Many years ago I was driving with my family down to North Carolina to visit some of Amy’s family. Our oldest son, Noah, was ten or eleven at the time. We were driving through farm country surrounded by mounds of hay on all sides.

I remember Noah pointing out the window at the fields of hay in awe, saying, “Look at all those buffalo!” [Pull out the glasses.] It was then that we knew he needed glasses.

Our reading from John 8:31-47 takes place on the eighth and final day of the Feast of Tabernacles. As we read last week, Jesus interrupted those closing celebrations when He shouted, “I am the light of the world!” The Pharisees and religious leaders were furious that He’d disturbed their worship so they gathered to rebuke Him, and they were quickly surrounded by a crowd of onlookers. John ended his narrative about those events last week saying that “many believed in Him.” (V. 30)

So, having confounded the leaders the Lord Jesus begins to address those who have believed Him: Those who had come to think and look to Him as God’s promised Messiah, the Christ. And Jesus says to them, “You are truly My disciples if you remain faithful to My teachings. And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” So Jesus is telling them that it’s not just the acknowledgement of His teachings but the living-out of them that make a person His followers. And He goes on saying that once they’ve begun believing and living out His teachings that they will then recognize their bondage to sin and, as they continue following His ways and living out His teachings that they will then be set free from the power of that sin, as well.

But they don’t get it, even these Jews who believe in Him. They are children of Abraham. They are Jews. They are God’s people. What do they need to be set free from?

Their identity as God’s chosen ones, Israel, had blinded them to their bondage to sin and their need for a savior. They knew they needed a political-savior to set them free from Roman domination and abuse, but they couldn’t recognize their need for a spiritual-savior to set them free from sin.

“You are sinners!” Jesus proclaims to them. “Don’t you see? You may believe in Me now, but just a little while ago some of you had been planning with the leaders to kill Me. And God has said, ‘Thou shalt not murder.’ So you’re sinners, and whoever you obey is who you belong to: So you’re slaves to sin.

“It doesn’t matter that you’re descendants of Abraham. If you were ‘sons’ of Abraham you would have trusted God the way Abraham did. And because I’m not a sinner you know I come from God.” (Do you see down in v. 46 where Jesus affirms His sinlessness, asking the crowd, “Which of you can truthfully accuse Me of sin?”) “So,” Jesus continues, “because I’m free from sin, I’m a ‘son’ in God’s House, and so I have the authority to set free those who are slaves to sin, and I can make each of you a ‘son’, too. And I do that by teaching you, and you receive that by living out My teachings day by day.”

These people wanted to believe in Jesus but their spiritual heritage handicapped them from seeing their need for Christ. [Put on the glasses.] Jesus was showing them Himself but their assurance was in their heritage.

God sees us as we really are and gives us the Holy Spirit so that we can see ourselves more truly, too, and repent. A counselor helps us see ourselves more clearly – how we truly are (haystacks/sinners) and not merely how we’ve come to think of ourselves (as buffaloes/saved, and not as bad as the other guy). The Holy Spirit is God’s counselor – God’s glasses for us – Who leads us into all truth.

Like those first, believing Jews, the truth that sets us free is the knowledge that apart from Jesus we are slaves to sin, but trusting in Jesus’ sacrifice and living-out Jesus’ teachings we will be set free. The Lord wants each of us to know we are saved, to be assured day after day of our salvation. And He gives us, to have that assurance, His commandments and law of love to live out so that we can see His salvation – see His transforming power – in ourselves.

It all starts by living out Jesus’ teachings because it’s when we start to live Jesus’ teachings that we realize how very different they are from the ways we’ve always lived. When we commit to forgive all those who sin against us as Jesus has commanded us, only then do we realize how far from following and living out Jesus’ teachings we have been. Only when we commit to always do what we’ve said we would do – no matter what, do we see how far from following and living out His teachings we have been. Only when we commit to always give to those who ask of us, as Jesus has asked us to; only when we commit to never let the sun go down on our anger; only when we commit to never worry, but to seek God’s Kingdom first … [“What are some specifics that come to your minds when you think of Jesus’ teachings that you might not always keep?”] …

So it’s only when we commit to following and living out His each and every teaching that we can truly realize the depth of our sin and our need for the cross and His forgiveness. Because it’s only when we have that kind of focus and awareness that we can recognize our shortcomings and failures in all their detail, and can we truly understand how far from God we are even now that we believe! How much we need Him always! And the assurance He has for us in our obedience and His forgiveness.

We must not be like those believing Jews of old who thought that because they were Jews that they didn’t need a savior. We must never think that just because we’ve already received Christ that we are now “good to go”. “We’re Christians. We’re saved!” some proclaim. Buffalo! The apostle Paul warns us, “If you think you are standing strong, be careful not to fall.” (1 Corinthians 10:12) Haystacks…

Now when Jesus talks about our following Him and living out His teachings, He’s not saying that you or I will ever perfectly follow or perfectly live them out. No, but modern Christians have minimized the horrors of sin and made the grace Jesus established for us on the cross “cheap”.

When we’re tempted to sin and what we feel like instead of what God has commanded us, we should be afraid to! We should be afraid of what God might do to us. We should be afraid of what our sin and selfishness might do to God or to others around us or to our very selves. And we should let that fear of the Lord and dying in our sins keep us from wrong!

But too often Christians will minimize such faithlessness to themselves and to others, saying, God will forgive me,” or “God will forgive you.” And although that’s true and that He will, where in the Scriptures does it say that it’s okay for Christians to sin because God will forgive them? … [“Anybody?”] … It’s because there’s never such a sense anywhere across the Bible. Sin is death. Sin is what put Jesus on the cross. “We have died to sin,” Paul writes to the Romans, “how can we continue to live in it?” (6:2)

No, the devil uses “O, God will forgive me. He knows I believe (even though I’m acting faithless),” – the devil uses such ways of thinking to minimize in us the horror of sin, to minimize our sense of needing the cross, to keep us in our sins, to keep us living for ourselves and not for God’s Kingdom, and to keep us turning a blind or lazy eye towards other’s sin around us. (“God loves them anyway,” we’ve been taught to think. And thank God He does. But they will still die in their sins if they don’t start living God’s way, asking forgiveness, and repenting.)

And so our continuing to sin works against the assurance of our salvation because we know He’s set us free and we don’t see that freedom and self-control in our lives.

I am passionate about this because the Bible reveals that my faith and comfort and the assurance of my salvation are not in my perfection but in my faithfulness. I don’t want to fall to temptation and sin, and I fight and strive and hope to fight and strive harder and harder with God’s help to not sin. But, although He hates sin and died to set me free from sin’s power and to purchase me and fill me with His Own power, during those times when I do fail and do blow it and do sin I can confess my wrong to Him and/or to the one I’ve wronged and know I’m forgiven. And it’s not a blind or hoped-for forgiveness. It’s a promised forgiveness! And it’s not my making light of my sin by saying, “O, God will forgive me.” It’s my being sorry, and heartbroken that I’ve hurt Him, that I’ve nailed Christ to the cross all over again, and in such sorrow and regret, knowing that He’s made a way for me back to Him – each day and throughout each day – through the cross.

Some will say that it’s not much of an assurance of faith to believe that we are safe and secure only when we are actively living by faith. But it’s the only true assurance the Bible talks about: I’m living out Jesus’ teachings today and God’s Spirit tells me that when I’m living my faith that I’m free! But there are no promises for those who want to do their own thing and pretend it’s alright with God. No, their only hope is that in time – God willing – they will recognize and admit that “their own thing” has been sin, and start living “God’s Own thing”, confessing their sin and repenting of it, and starting anew…

The Bible doesn’t say, “Jesus knows you are sorry and forgives you.” No, the Bible says, “Confess your sins and you’ll be forgiven.”

So let’s live for Christ. Let’s live His teachings no matter what. Not even a hint or suspicion of sin. And let’s let sin be the big deal the Bible says it is so that we can see how even much bigger a deal the cross of Christ and Jesus’ sacrifice there is: For us and our salvation! Let’s live the truth and be free!

Introduction
Pastor Ben is continuing his preaching through the Gospel of John. Our reading today is from John 7: 31-44. It is fall in Jerusalem: The last days of the thanksgiving-like Feast of Tabernacles. As one of the three festivals all Jews are mandated to attend in person, the City of David is filled with Jewish worshipers from all over the known world. As prescribed by the Law of Moses, families have erected simple huts wherever they’ve been allowed, or been able to rent, space: On flat rooftops, up sidewalks and sidestreets, filling courtyards and market squares, lining the base of the Temple’s walls, and scattered up and down the Kidron Valley to overflow up the Mount of Olives.
As the rituals and celebrations continue, the Lord Jesus is teaching in the Temple courts…

John 7:31-44 [NLTse]
31 Many among the crowds at the Temple believed in Him. “After all,” they said, “would you expect the Messiah to do more miraculous signs than this Man has done?”
32 When the Pharisees heard that the crowds were whispering such things, they and the leading priests sent Temple guards to arrest Jesus. 33 But Jesus told them, “I will be with you only a little longer. Then I will return to the One Who sent Me. 34 You will search for Me but not find Me. And you cannot go where I am going.”
35 The Jewish leaders were puzzled by this statement. “Where is He planning to go?” they asked. “Is He thinking of leaving the country and going to the Jews in other lands? Maybe He will even teach the Greeks! 36 What does He mean when He says, ‘You will search for Me but not find Me,’ and ‘You cannot go where I am going’?”
37 On the last day, the climax of the festival, Jesus stood and shouted to the crowds, “Anyone who is thirsty may come to Me! 38 Anyone who believes in Me may come and drink! For the Scriptures declare, ‘Rivers of living water will flow from his heart.'” 39 (When He said “living water,” He was speaking of the Spirit, Who would be given to everyone believing in Him. But the Spirit had not yet been given, because Jesus had not yet entered into His glory.)
40 When the crowds heard Him say this, some of them declared, “Surely this Man is the Prophet we’ve been expecting.” 41 Others said, “He is the Messiah.” Still others said, “But He can’t be! Will the Messiah come from Galilee? 42 For the Scriptures clearly state that the Messiah will be born of the royal line of David, in Bethlehem, the village where King David was born.” 43 So the crowd was divided about Him. 44 Some even wanted Him arrested, but no one laid a hand on Him.

Sermon
My name is BENJAMIN. It is a Hebrew name that means, “son of the right hand”. Growing up, in different classes across my elementary, junior, and high school years, I always thought that Benjamin was such a lame name. I mean, what does it mean to be the “son of the right hand”, anyway? But since coming to Christ I’ve learned in ancient times and in the Bible that the “right hand” was the place where a king or lord would seat someone who was their favorite or whom they were rewarding or who they were making their second-in-command. Calling someone “my right-hand man” still conveys a flavor of this sense of privilege, trust, and power. And when the patriarch Jacob’s beloved wife, Rachel, died giving birth, Jacob changed the boy’s name from the name Rachel had given him, Ben-oni, meaning “son of my sorrow”, to Ben-jamin, meaning “son of my favorite, son of my honored one, son of my power and greatness”. And we see that although Rachel’s firstborn, Joseph, was Jacob’s favorite and the recipient of many special gifts, that it was Ben-jamin whom Jacob doted over, who wasn’t allowed to go to Egypt in the event that something would happen to him and so break Jacob’s heart forever…
BENJAMIN: Son of the right hand; son of power; favorite one; mighty one; …

When the Temple guards arrived at the place where Jesus was teaching to arrest Him, Jesus said to them, “I will be with you only a little longer. Then I will return to the One Who sent Me. You will search for Me but not find Me. And you cannot go where I am going.” The Jews thought Jesus was speaking about fleeing Jerusalem to spread His teachings among the Greek-speaking Jews scattered across the surrounding empires. We, of course, have that wonderful perspective of hindsight to know that Jesus was really speaking about returning to Heaven from where He came.

The Bible makes clear the mystery that Jesus the Son of God came to earth from Heaven and – after His resurrection – that He returned to Heaven again.

Paul’s letter To the Philippians probably describes Jesus’ coming from Heaven most clearly when Paul writes about Jesus Christ, “Though He was God, He did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, He gave up His divine privileges; He took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being.” (Philippians 2:6-7) So, Jesus was the Son of God, but He took off being God to be born a human being.
And Acts describes for us Jesus’ return to Heaven, saying, “After saying this, He was taken up into a cloud while they were watching, and they could no longer see Him. As they strained to see Him rising into Heaven, two white-robed men suddenly stood among them. ‘Men of Galilee,’ they said, ‘why are you standing here staring into Heaven? Jesus has been taken from you into Heaven, but someday He will return from Heaven in the same way you saw Him go!’” (Acts 1:9-11)
The Lord Jesus Himself summarized it all later in John 16, when He said, “Yes, I came from the Father into the world, and now I will leave the world and return to the Father.” (John 16:28)
Jesus came from God and has returned to God, and since He’s now been given God’s stamp of approval in His resurrection and ascension, while He’s physically separated from us in Heaven Jesus has sent the Holy Spirit so that, by the Spirit’s ministry, Jesus might never be spiritually separated from us ever again.

Have you ever wondered what Jesus has been doing, now that He’s returned to Heaven? Well, Hebrews 10:12 says, “But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, He sat down at the right hand of God.” (Hebrews 10:12)
God’s jamin – His right hand – the place of highest favor, authority, and might. To say that Jesus is seated at God’s jamin – His right hand – is to say, in the words of John Calvin, that “Christ was invested with lordship over Heaven and Earth, and solemnly entered into possession of the government committed to Him — and that He not only entered into possession once for all, but continues in it, until He shall come down on Judgment Day” (Institutes 2.16.15).

In sitting at the right hand of God, Jesus sits on the “throne of His father David” (Luke 1:26–33). He is the Messiah of Israel, “the highest of the kings of the earth” and fulfills the Lord’s promise to keep a descendant of David on the throne forever. (Ps. 89:19–37). So, we are not waiting for Jesus to enter into His messianic reign, He enjoys it now! All of His enemies are being put under His feet as His gospel is preached and His Kingdom expands across the nations of the Earth (1 Cor. 15:20–28).

We know that Jesus is in Heaven because the Holy Spirit came at Pentecost. Jesus had said that once He returned to the Father that He would send His followers another Advocate – another Comforter – to take His place. So when the Holy Spirit came the disciples knew that Jesus was indeed in Heaven at the Father’s right hand as He had said.

But what is He doing there?

The Bible tells us He’s preparing a place for us so that we will always be with Him where He is. And we know that that place is ultimately a new Heaven and a new Earth; that this sin-stained Heaven and Earth will be destroyed when the End comes, and that then Jesus Himself will come and all will be new.

The Bible also tells us that Jesus is directing the affairs of His Church from Heaven: Baptizing people into His Body by the Holy Spirit; handing out the Spirit’s gifts among His Church to build up, expand, and strengthen His Kingdom here on the Earth; speaking to Christian people through the Scriptures and by His Spirit, advising and guiding us; overcoming all of His enemies as we seek His Kingdom and right-living day by day.
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More personally to each one of us, the Lord Jesus is in Heaven overcoming His enemies in our lives as He prays for us; continuing to forgive us our sins as we fall and fail; shaping our character and empowering our obedience as we abide in Him and live surrendered to the Holy Spirit; continuing to stand between the Father and us so that when perfect Father looks at us it’s as though He always sees Jesus’ righteousness and never our sins.

In closing, hear these words from the apostle Paul’s first letter To the Corinthians: “The End will come, when [Jesus] will turn the Kingdom over to God the Father, having destroyed every ruler and authority and power. For Christ must reign until He humbles all His enemies beneath His feet. And the last enemy to be destroyed is death… Then when all things are under His authority, the Son will put Himself under God’s authority, so that God, Who gave His Son authority over all things, will be utterly supreme over everything everywhere.

Introduction

On and off across the past year or so Pastor Ben has been preaching through the Gospel of John. As our reading begins this morning, it is fall in Judea and the week-long Feast of Tabernacles is in full swing. Tabernacles is a “Thanksgiving”-type celebration: The final harvests have been gathered-in and there is much rejoicing going around giving God thanks for His provision. The religious leaders have decided that Jesus is a heretic, and have determined to arrest and kill Him when the opportunity arises.

Knowing this, Jesus has come to the Festival secretly, but here during the last days of the celebrations He has revealed Himself and begun preaching and teaching the gathered crowds…

John 7:17-30 [NLTse]

17 “Anyone who wants to do the will of God will know whether My teaching is from God or is merely My Own. 18 Those who speak for themselves want glory only for themselves, but a person who seeks to honor the one who sent him speaks truth, not lies. 19 Moses gave you the Law, but none of you obeys it! In fact, you are trying to kill Me.”

20 The crowd replied, “You’re demon possessed! Who’s trying to kill you?”

21 Jesus replied, “I did one miracle on the Sabbath, and you were amazed. 22 But you work on the Sabbath, too, when you obey Moses’ Law of circumcision. (Actually, this tradition of circumcision began with the patriarchs, long before the Law of Moses.) 23 For if the correct time for circumcising your son falls on the Sabbath, you go ahead and do it so as not to break the Law of Moses. So why should you be angry with Me for healing a man on the Sabbath? 24 Look beneath the surface so you can judge correctly.”

25 Some of the people who lived in Jerusalem started to ask each other, “Isn’t this the Man they are trying to kill? 26 But here He is, speaking in public, and they say nothing to Him. Could our leaders possibly believe that He is the Messiah? 27 But how could He be? For we know where this Man comes from. When the Messiah comes, He will simply appear; no one will know where He comes from.”

28 While Jesus was teaching in the Temple, He called out, “Yes, you know Me, and you know where I come from. But I’m not here on My Own. The One Who sent Me is true, and you don’t know Him. 29 But I know Him because I come from Him, and He sent Me to you.” 30 Then the leaders tried to arrest Him; but no one laid a hand on Him, because His time had not yet come.

Sermon

The Bible shows us that sometimes the Lord Jesus knew things that there was no way He should’ve been able to know.

In Matthew 9:4 Jesus forgives a paralyzed man his sins, and the Bible tells us that the religious teachers who were watching thought to themselves, “Blasphemy!” But Matthew records, “Jesus knew what they were thinking”…

In Matthew 12:25 Jesus has been working on the Sabbath – feeding the hungry, healing the deformed, and setting-free the demon-possessed – and the religious leaders who are watching are shown thinking to themselves that His power must have come from the devil. But again Matthew records, “Jesus knew their thoughts”…

Earlier in John from our reading this morning, in John 2:24-25, Jesus had just cleared the Temple of all the money-changers and animal-salesmen, and John writes (starting in verse 23), “Because of the miraculous signs Jesus did in Jerusalem at the Passover celebration, many began to trust in Him. But Jesus didn’t trust them, because He knew all about people. No one needed to tell Him about human nature, for He knew what was in each person’s heart.”

When the Lord encounters a Samaritan woman He knows her marital history and her current adultery. (John 4) Here in our reading Jesus knew that the people were questioning whether or not He was the Christ and so He responds, “Yes, you know Me, and you know where I come from. But I’m not here on My Own.” (v. 28)

People take Jesus’ having such miraculous knowledge in-stride saying, “Well, of course Jesus knows people’s thoughts: He is God!” And yet the Bible makes very clear that God the Son had taken off His divinity to be born Jesus of Nazareth. The knowledge Jesus exhibited was because He’d been baptized with the Holy Spirit and was demonstrating the spiritual Gift of Knowledge. And we know this because we see the Holy Spirit giving such knowledge to the apostles and other Christians across the Book of Acts, as well.

For instance, the apostle Peter somehow miraculously knows that Ananias and Sapphira sold their fields for more than what they told him they did. (Acts 5:1-10) In Acts 9 the Holy Spirit told a different Ananias the apostle Paul’s exact name, where he was staying, and the fact that Paul had just seen Jesus in a vision. (And in case we’re thinking that only the apostles or special Christians received such gifts, the Book of Acts reveals Ananias to be just as plain and everyday a Christian as they come!) (Acts 9:10-19)

In Acts 10 the Holy Spirit tells Peter that three men would soon arrive seeking him. (Vv. 19-20) And Acts 20 shows several believers, across different churches, each being given Words of Knowledge to tell Paul that jail and suffering await him in Jerusalem. (Vv. 22-23)

So, although Jesus’ sinlessness did result in His being perfectly filled with the Holy Spirit, and God giving Him the Spirit without limit (see John 3:34), the Lord Jesus’ signs and wonders were empowered by the Holy Spirit that had filled Him and come upon Him, even as God has given us His Spirit and desires to come upon us to demonstrate His glory, as well. So the apostles, and even the most common Christians, are seen being given gifts of knowledge to convict them and those around them of God’s truth, to convict them of those things God was trying to reveal to them, and to prepare them and others for what was about to happen to them, too.

Now first and foremost this should lead us all to praise the Lord Jesus all the more because of His omniscience: He is God; He knows all things; and He doesn’t judge people by our outward appearances, He looks at and knows our very hearts! (1 Samuel 16:7)

But this should also lead us all to seek the Holy Spirit’s gifts of knowledge, like the Lord Jesus, the apostles, and other Christians before us have in order to help draw those around them to trust in Christ.

You see, “knowledge”, or what’s sometimes talked about as being given a “word of knowledge”, is nothing more than God revealing to you or me a fact or some truth about a person or a situation that we could never have known through our own reasoning, education, or training. And, of course, it’s never something that we can make the Lord give us, it is knowledge He chooses to give us according to His good pleasure and sovereign will!

Even so, as simple and straight-forward as the gift is, think about it: God is telling us secrets that He wants us to know and share so that people will be drawn to trust Him more! It’s so simple, and yet isn’t our Father so cool to share such wonders, and to let us build His Kingdom with Him?

I think such glory should also humble us as we live Jesus’ life together. What I mean is, I’ve talked to too many Christian people who have taken offense at too many other Christian people because of they thought those other Christians thought about them: “They don’t like me”; “they have it out for me”; “they think they’re so great”; etc… And the evidence for such knowledge and offenses has been a stray glance, or the other person walking by without saying hello, or some other flimsy happening. And when I’ve told different ones that they shouldn’t base such offenses on such flimsy events I’ve been told time and time again, “Nope, I know it’s true, Pastor. I know people. I’m sensitive to stuff like that,” or other such all-too-certain nonsense. Because only God knows a person’s heart. And 1 Corinthians 13 reminds us that even the glorious and miraculous words of knowledge given by the Holy Spirit are “partial and incomplete.” (Vv. 8-9)

And then, of course, there are those things that Christians think they know about the Lord on account of how they interpret what they see or hear happening around them… Too often God’s people live by their five senses instead of living by faith in God’s Word, character, and promises…

So let’s be humble before the Lord, and if we think something’s true about the Lord then let’s search the Scriptures for evidence to make sure. And if we’re sure of something about some brother or sister, then let’s confirm it by asking them about it. And even if we find out we were right, then at least it’s out in the open and we can work together to be reconciled.

And let’s seek the gifts God’s Spirit wants to give us. Without exercising them in love none of them are anything more than an annoyance, but when exercised in love they provide opportunities to shake people’s worlds in ways that few other things can as they see God working miracles through us in their lives.

But perhaps most of all, let us worship God! and rest in the comfort that He knows all things: He knows the sincerity of our apologies when we fail; He knows the depths and genuineness of our needs when we pray; and He knows the burdens and desperations tempting to weigh us down when we find that we can’t pray. He knows our love for Him. He knows what’s been. He knows what’s coming. And He knows the angels surrounding us and the protection and provision that is often so invisible to our mortal eyes.

“The Lord is in His holy temple. Let all the Earth be silent before Him.” (Habbakuk 2:20)

Deuteronomy 6:4-9 [NLTse]
“Listen, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength. And you must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commands that I am giving you today. Repeat them again and again to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up. Tie them to your hands and wear them on your forehead as reminders. Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”

Sermon
Who here is a dad? Do any of you who just raised your hands want to be a good dad? Yeah… God’s the great Dad! And loving Him and being close to Him, I think we can’t help but want to be more like Him: And for us dads that means wanting to be a good dad.
Well, here are some things I’ve gathered together from across the Scriptures and from several “wise ones” around the Kingdom about how to be a truly good dad, like the Lord our Dad…
First,

A GOOD DAD KNOWS GOD AND LOVES HIM. A good dad is a man who knows and delights in God more than anything else! So knowing God is not something that simply pastors and missionaries or church workers should do. Loving God with all our hearts, souls, and strength is the responsibility of all of us, and especially dads.
Let me ask you, dads: Do you know God better than you know the New York Giants (or whomever you cheer for)? Do you know Him better than what you’re working on at work? or your yard? or your car? or your house? or whatever? (Or, at least, are you striving to know God better than you know those things? Do you spend as much time seeking to know Him as you spend time on any of these things?) I’m not sure that many of us can say that. But we need that. And God wants that of us. And we, really, want that of us, don’t we, dads?
As a part of that,

A GOOD DAD KNOWS GOD’S VOICE AND TRUSTS HIM, spending time reading the Bible to gain a deep understanding of God’s Word and getting to recognize God’s will and ways there, and committing wholeheartedly to living according to God’s commands as a way of showing Him our love and showing our kids and those around us that we love Him.
This includes apologizing to God and asking for and accepting His forgiveness when we fail and recognize sin in our lives, and asking for His grace so we might love Him better and more faithfully.
Deuteronomy 6 also tells us that

A GOOD DAD TEACHES THE FAITH TO HIS CHILDREN AND DRAWS HIS FAMILY TO CHRIST
Now, Moses isn’t just talking to dads in this passage, but it is surely true for us dads. And I know that some of you men may say, “But my wife is smarter, and she understands the Scripture far better than I do.” But our responsibility, dads, is not to be God for our family but only to lead our family to God. We don’t have to do it all! Maybe all we’re actually doing is getting everybody together saying, “Alright kids, let’s talk about this morning’s sermon,” or “we’re going to read some of the Bible together right now.” And then perhaps we pray, and then let others pray, and then maybe we have someone read a couple verses from the Bible, and then discuss what was read and try to explain things together along with our wives, and commit to try and get answers for those questions we didn’t know the answers to. Dads, we don’t have to do everything, but God is calling us to lead: To get prayer, Bible reading, and spiritual discussions started.

Not only that but our kids need to see an example of Christ in us, dads. Paul says to his spiritual children (in 1 Corinthians 11:1), “Imitate me, just as I imitate Christ.” Dads, until by faith we are following after Jesus ourselves, we cannot be godly examples for our own children. Only when we are living for and seeking to imitate Jesus in our thoughts, attitudes, and actions can we properly train and disciple our kids. And raising our kids to know God as their Father and to follow Christ themselves is the heart of what it means to be a good father!
Moses goes on to tell us that

GOOD DADS DO WHATEVER IT TAKES, including talking about God all the time, wearing special things that will remind us of the Lord, and even putting things up around our homes and cars and workspaces to help us keep God on our minds, and to help remind us of being a good man and a good husband and a good dad and a good worker and a good minister and a good friend and a good neighbor. Whatever it takes!

To close, dads, I’d like to tell a story, and then end by adding one last characteristic of being a good dad the way that our Father in Heaven is such a good Dad to us.
Right around the time when I was born my dad got a job with Chrysler Corporation. We lived in this great house in Massachusetts for a year or two, and then he got transferred. And so we moved to another great house in Massachusetts for another year or two, and then he got transferred to Florida.
His job meant that he got to bring home all the latest and greatest new cars that Chrysler, Plymouth, and Dodge were putting out at the time! And we lived in Florida for a year or two, and I made some good friends, and then he was transferred to another place in Florida for a year or two, and I made some more good friends there. And then he got transferred to Michigan…

And Dad was climbing the ladder. He was making it! He was doing well and we were doing well. But while in Michigan he and my mom realized that continuing to move around would always be a part of his moving up in Chrysler: In a house and a community and neighbors and friends for a couple of years; and then needing to move on to another house and community and neighbors and friends, and again and again and again. And so he quit. And we moved to Maryland, where my mom had some family. And though we moved around several times even while we were in Maryland, it was always around the same community, and we kept our same neighbors and schools and friends.

I didn’t realize it then, but my dad chose being a dad in making that decision. I was seven at the time – so it’s been forty-plus years – but to the best of my knowledge he has never since had the level of financial security or success he had while he was with Chrysler. But he chose my mom and my brothers and me in making that decision, and he changed our lives for the better, and he let us know that we were what was important to him.

And now, though it’s not in our reading from Deuteronomy this morning, here is one last characteristic of a good dad that’s in the likeness of our great Dad in Heaven:

A GOOD FATHER LOVES HIS CHILDREN UNCONDITIONALLY
Now “unconditionally” is a huge word. “Unconditionally” means that a dad’s love cannot be earned and that his treatment of his kids does not change depending on what they can offer him in return. I know that some fathers want their kids to be something or accomplish something to make dad look good or feel good in order to love them. But dad’s, that puts our focus merely on ourselves and on what we can gain from our kids, rather than simply unconditionally loving our children.
In the Bible I think of the father of “the prodigal son” who, though his son had treated him so badly, seems to have always kept an eye out in the hopes of his son’s return (Luke 15:20). And when the young man finally did return, the father didn’t judge the son or force him to earn back his favor, love, and approval. He simply embraced him and threw a great party for him (Luke 15:21-24). That father could do this because his love for his son wasn’t based upon what his son could do for him but simply and strictly upon the fact that he was his son. Such a great picture of unconditional love.

Acts 2:1- 21

On the day of Pentecost all the believers were meeting together in one place. ² Suddenly, there was a sound from Heaven like the roaring of a mighty windstorm, and it filled the house where they were sitting. ³ Then, what looked like flames or tongues of fire appeared and settled on each of them. ⁴ And everyone present was filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in other languages, as the Holy Spirit gave them this ability.

⁵ At that time there were devout Jews from every nation living in Jerusalem. ⁶ When they heard the loud noise, everyone came running, and they were bewildered to hear their own languages being spoken by the believers.

⁷ They were completely amazed. “How can this be?” they exclaimed. “These people are all from Galilee, ⁸ and yet we hear them speaking in our own native languages! ⁹ Here we are—Parthians, Medes, Elamites, people from Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus, the province of Asia, ¹⁰ Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt, and the areas of Libya around Cyrene, visitors from Rome ¹¹ (both Jews and converts to Judaism), Cretans, and Arabs. And we all hear these people speaking in our own languages about the wonderful things God has done!” ¹² They stood there amazed and perplexed. “What can this mean?” they asked each other.

¹³ But others in the crowd ridiculed them, saying, “They’re just drunk, that’s all!”

¹⁴ Then Peter stepped forward with the eleven other apostles and shouted to the crowd, “Listen carefully, all of you, fellow Jews and residents of Jerusalem! Make no mistake about this. ¹⁵ These people are not drunk, as some of you are assuming. Nine o’clock in the morning is much too early for that. ¹⁶ No, what you see was predicted long ago by the prophet Joel:

¹⁷ ‘In the last days,’ God says, ‘I will pour out My Spirit upon all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy. Your young men will see visions, and your old men will dream dreams. ¹⁸ In those days I will pour out My Spirit even on My servants—men and women alike—and they will prophesy. ¹⁹ And I will cause wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below—blood and fire and clouds of smoke. ²⁰ The sun will become dark, and the moon will turn blood red before that great and glorious day of the Lord arrives. ²¹ But everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’

Sermon

The person and work of the Holy Spirit are filled and surrounded by much controversy. But we need to get past the controversy and into a place of receiving this blessing that Jesus Christ has offered us to prepare us for being His witnesses.

The night Jesus was raised from the dead, after showing Himself alive to His disciples, opening the Scriptures to them, and proving to them that He was indeed alive, He told them, “And now I will send the Holy Spirit, just as My Father promised. But stay here in the city until the Holy Spirit comes and fills you with power from Heaven.” (Luke 24:49) Another time, during the forty days the Lord spent with the disciples before He ascended into Heaven, when He was eating with them, Jesus commanded them, “Do not leave Jerusalem until the Father sends you the gift He promised, as I told you before. John baptized with water, but in just a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” (Acts 1:4-5) And once when they were asking Him about God the Father’s plans for restoring His Kingdom to the Earth, Jesus responded, “The Father alone has the authority to set those dates and times, and they are not for you to know. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be My witnesses, telling people about Me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the Earth.” (Acts 1:7-8)

Nobody knew Jesus better than those first disciples: They’d all lived together with Him for three years! Yet Jesus told them, “Wait until you receive power from Heaven.” Their love for Him, knowing Him, trusting Him, all that was excellent, but according to Jesus, it was not enough. They would need God’s Spirit to be His disciples and to make disciples of others.

Christians can be so surface and emotional these days when talking about the Spirit of God. After attending a Worship Service where worshipers raised their hands and where tongues were spoken you might hear someone say, “It was a real Spirit-filled church!” But does that mean that a more staid and reserved Service where the gospel is rightly preached and taught and where people are merely quietly moved towards greater Christ-likeness isn’t Spirit-filled?

The Scriptures demonstrate two very different but complimentary expressions of the Holy Spirit’s work with human beings. One is an “outside” work, and the Bible talks about the Holy Spirit coming upon someone. In its context, this work of God’s Spirit is seen to equip and empower believers towards advancing the Kingdom of God around them and around the world. Some aspect of power is required, some type of activity needs doing, so the Holy Spirit comes upon the Christian.

But there is another expression of the Holy Spirit’s work with people that is more “inside” and gets spoken of using words and images that show the Holy Spirit living within a believer in Christ. This work begins with justification when the sins of the new Christian are forgiven and washed away on account of their faith and trust in Jesus. In justification, their sinfulness is exchanged for His righteousness and He stops being someone they’ve heard about and becomes someone that they know. It is now when the new Christian has entered into a personal relationship with the Lord. That Holy Spirit working within a person for forgiveness and washing leads to the Spirit’s inner work of sanctification where changes begin to take place in the person’s character and morality and relationships with others and the world around them. Their hearts soften in some ways and strengthen in others to correspond with Jesus’ Own meekness and strength over time. In the person of the Holy Spirit the person of Jesus dwells inside every true Christian’s soul!

What we see happening that first Christian Pentecost is born-again believers being empowered for Christian ministry. That is, disciples who had already been inwardly-filled with the Holy Spirit to trust in Christ being outwardly-filled with the Holy Spirit for the very first time to equip and empower them for the ministry God wanted done: And that day it was Peter and the others preaching and teaching the crowd resulting in 3,000 persons becoming Christians that day! Only God could do that! And so He sent the Holy Spirit upon – to equip and empower for the work He wanted done – those He’d already filled – having brought them to faith in Jesus and growing them into greater Christ-likeness by producing the fruits of the Holy Spirit through them.

So every true Christian is inwardly-filled with the Holy Spirit (nobody can say “Jesus is Lord” except by the Holy Spirit!), but not every true Christian is necessarily outwardly-filled with the Holy Spirit to equip and empower them for sharing Jesus with those around us. Yet we need both!

We all need to grow in Jesus’ character, and for our relationships to exhibit His forgiveness and love, etc… And we all need to grow in seeking and receiving God’s empowerment so that we might do Jesus’ works and change the world so that His Kingdom might come and His will be done here on Earth as it is in Heaven! And when the (outward) power and the (inward) love are both exhibited, those around us notice, and believe, and come to Him, and the church grows. “More love, more power, more of You in my life!”

We need to get past the controversy and into a place of receiving this blessing that Jesus Christ has offered us to prepare us for being His witnesses!

Are you facing the challenge of doing impossible work for Jesus Christ? Are you burned out in ministry or discouraged with having so little lasting fruit in your life? Are you tired of depending on your own strength to follow Jesus? If your answer to any of these questions is “yes”, then it is time to move beyond all the questions and doubts concerning the Holy Spirit. Now is the time to pray to receive this promise the Lord Jesus has made to all His disciples: The equipping for missions and ministry that Jesus Christ has promised all of us in the person and work of the Holy Spirit!

According to John 14:27 [NLTse]
“I am leaving you with a gift – peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don’t be troubled or afraid.”

Sermon – “What’s Keeping You From God?”
The Bible shows us that after His resurrection from the dead that Jesus appeared on and off to His disciples during a period of forty days. On that fortieth day (the anniversary of which was this past Thursday) Jesus was lifted up while His disciples were watching Him, lifted up into the sky towards space until the disciples lost sight of Him because of clouds.

Again and again across His visits to the disciples after He was raised but before He had ascended Jesus greeted them saying, “Peace be with you.” Every time He first sees them He blesses them saying, “Peace be with you.” It wasn’t a greeting He’d used prior to His sacrifice and resurrection. But now it’s the only greeting He seems to use, and Paul and the other apostolic writers similarly bless their readers saying, “Peace be with you” or “Grace and peace to you” or “Grace, joy, and peace be with you”…

I was studying the Greek word used across the New Testament for “peace” – the word eirene – and saw that eirene may have been derived from the Greek verb eiro which means “to join”. And I started wondering what joining had to do with peace… What I came up with is, by Jesus saying, “Peace be with you,” that He was calling the disciples to join with Him, to be on His team, to no longer be at odds with Him. At the same time He was declaring to them that they were joined with Him, that they were on His team, that they were no longer at odds with Him: “Peace be with you.”

And if that’s correct, then all the good things that are a part of God’s shalom – Christ’s peace – all the health and wealth and acceptance and contentment and fulfillment and wholeness and joy … that all the gifts and blessings of God – His salvation – are ours only as a part of joining with Him and our living joined to Him and our daily and throughout each day awareness of living joined to God the Father through Christ our Savior by the working of the Holy Spirit.

Whether this is absolutely true in the word peace/eirene or not, the idea is surely true in Jesus’ teachings about the blessings that come from abiding in Him and having Him abide in us. When Jesus speaks of Himself as the vine and each of us as individual branches, He’s telling us that the Father’s blessings, abundance, guidance, supernatural influence and authority, love, comfort, provision, care, etc… are all contingent upon our living joined with Him, nurturing our friendship with Him, giving our best to our relationship with Him, and our awareness throughout each day of being joined, being friends, living in relationship with God.

This truth is proclaimed and experienced in our celebration of the Lord’s Supper, as well. Jesus isn’t looking to merely have us believe that He is the Savior of the world or to merely have us believe that the resurrection is true. After all, a person can believe all those things and still not give their hearts and lives to Him. No, Jesus wants us to eat Him, and drink Him: To taste Him and see that He is good; and that means He wants us to experience Him and to savor and treasure His place and presence in our lives. (That’s why the communion bread is always the very best bread! And why we don’t get the 10% juice grape juice but only the 100% juice kind! Jesus is the best and wants us to taste and see!)

The Lord tells us that if we love Him we’ll obey His commandments and that then He’ll send His Holy Spirit so that we’ll know Jesus and the Father with us forever! He’s not giving us His commandments to ruin our fun or to get those around us thinking we’re weird. He’s given us His commandments so that we can taste Him and see how good He is; so that we can experience how good life abiding in Him and Him abiding in us is; so that we can experience His peace – this kind of peace  that the world can’t give and that keeps a person from every being troubled or afraid ever again.

Would you like that, to never be troubled or afraid ever again? Then, “Peace be with you.” “Taste and see.” “Have faith and live by that faith.”

I used to think that Jesus saying, “Peace be with you,” or the apostles writing, “Grace and peace to you,” were a charge or a challenge to us to remember something: To remember that since Jesus went to the cross that now nothing exists to stand between us and God. I thought that remembering that truth gave us power and grounding in what Jesus has done and its impact on our lives. I used to think it was important knowledge to help live abundantly day by day. But it’s so much more than that!

Jesus has come and died and given us the Holy Spirit so that we might be joined with God. It’s not that He’s given us something to carry around in our heads so that we can try to remember and get our thinking right. (Though meditating on His truth can help us change our thinking and help us live our lives more based on the truth.) But I know now that Jesus’ peace is so much more than merely “right thinking”. He’s made us into something new. Before He brought us to believe, we were on our own, cut off, separate, independent, divorced from the things of God. But now Jesus is with us (by the Holy Spirit that He’s sent to us), and now we’re joined to Him, we’re a part of Him, we’re dependent on Him, and we’ve become married again to the things of God, and to God Himself!

So what’s keeping you from God? It’s surely not anything on God’s side of the relationship. He’s made a way, a living Way, more miraculous than any parting of the Red Sea. He’s given us His Word; He’s given us His Son; He’s given us the Holy Spirit. What’s keeping you from receiving? What’s keeping you from tasting and seeing – trying and experiencing – His goodness?
He’s given us His commandments; are you loving Him by living by them? He’s given us the Lord’s Supper; are you feeding on bread and juice or are you participating in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ? He’s given us worship; are you singing hymns and worship songs or are you thanking, praising, and offering yourselves to Him? He’s given us His Word; are you reading the Bible or are you listening to Him speak to you? He’s given you His love; are you looking for more or are you letting it fill your hearts and satisfy your souls?
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Come! Eat and drink. Love Him. Follow Him. Peace be with you!