The Omnipotent Love of God

Romans 8:31-39.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Valentine’s Day, February 14, 2021.

It is perhaps a bit crass to call the Bible God’s Valentine’s Card to us.  If there is anything good about Valentine’s Day, it has its roots in the foundation of God’s love for us.  The Bible is indeed the truth about God’s love for us.

Last week we looked at our duty of love to others, but today we are going to look at the omnipotent love of God for us.  It is not common to speak of God’s love as omnipotent, but I believe this will make perfect sense by the end of this article.

Our God is for us

Before we break into Romans 8:31-39, I need to remind us that the 3 verses leading up to this passage contain a powerful statement about those who truly love God.  In general, it says that God is working all things in this life to their good.  Specifically, God has foreknown those who would respond to His love and has predestined them in eternity past to be conformed to the image of His Son (in short, to end up being like Jesus).  Because of these decisions in eternity past, God has called us and justified us within time.  I hope you can recall that time when you heard the call of God in your heart, believed upon Jesus and were justified in that moment.  Lastly, Paul reminds us in our current moment that there is one more action that lies ahead in our future.  He will glorify those who truly love God at the resurrection.  He is the God who foreknew us, predestined us to become like Jesus, called us, justified us, and will glorify us.

It is important for us as believers to understand this eternal and wonderful love of God that began even before the worlds were created.  Now it is time to make this personal.  God foreknew you, predestined you, called you, justified you, and will complete His promise to glorify you with a resurrected, immortal body.  Wow!  How much He loves you.

Of course, verse 31 starts out with the conditional “if.”  This conditional reminds us that we can pretend before others, or even delude ourselves on this point.  Many who reject the Son of God claim that God is for them, and many who pretend love for Christ claim it too.  It is those who truly love God who find that His love for them began in eternity past and will not end even into eternity future.

All of this glorious declaration is summed up in the phrase, “If God is for us.”  The preposition translated “for” metaphorically translates a word that primarily means “over.”    Thus, the picture is that God has taken His stand over us.  He is not just rooting for us in our corner, but He has stepped forth over us and declared us to be His.

This picture is over and against the idea of someone trying to be against us.  Again, the preposition translated “against” has the sense of something that is coming down on top of us.  If God is standing over us, then who can come down on top of us?  This begins the picture that Paul wants us to see.  The omnipotent God omnipotently loves us.  Even if something tries to be against that, what can they do?  Absolutely nothing.

I’m reminded of the woman caught in the act of adultery (John 8:3-11).  The forces arrayed against her were many and mighty: the religious leaders who wanted to stone her, the spiritual forces who were stirring up the crowd, and even her own sin.  She knew she was guilty and had no defense.  It could not be said of her that she loved God, but Jesus took his stand by or over her and against those forces.  He saved her physical life that day to show her, and to show us, what could be, if we would just love God.

This God who has from eternity past been working for you up to this moment, and has a future eternity in mind for you, who or what in all of creation that might choose to be against us matters anymore?  Of course, all of hell can be against us, and the whole world can reject us, but God is over us.  So, what of it?  Yes, it might be a hard path, but it is always working to our good and to our victory, if we love Him, because He loves us.

Do you still doubt God’s love for you after that?  Paul then gives us evidence that was done on earth and in full view of men, that was witnessed and testified.  God did not spare His Son for us!  Let us dispense with the juvenile notion that somehow the cross represents cosmic child abuse.  Please.  Jesus was the eternal Son of God who had stepped into time in order to pay the price for whosoever would believe.  He may be the Son, but He is not a child.  He is not helpless and has actually chosen to do this thing; he is not forced.  However, he is also performing the Father’s will.  They are united in this action, and they are both choosing the grief and the suffering of such an unthinkable love.  Knowing that the one thing that could save us was the death of His Son, the Father did not hold back.  The most valuable thing in all of the cosmos was His relationship with His Son, and the Holy Spirit.  Yet, He did not hold back.  Yes, Jesus suffered on the cross, but the Father suffered too.  He had to allow the unthinkable to happen in order to demonstrate His love for us.

In light of this, Paul asks, “How shall He not give us all things with Jesus?”  This verse should never be used to somehow teach that we can have anything we want in this life, if we just believe for it.  First of all, it is qualified with the phrase “with Jesus.”  We will have everything with Jesus, not before him.  Second of all, Paul has God’s eternal plan that ends in our glorification in mind.  He is not thinking of how we can get a better bank account, house, car, job, spouse, etc.  If God has planned for us for an eternity past, and then sent His Son to pay such an awful price, then can you not believe that we really will inherit all things with Jesus when we are glorified in the resurrection?  If I stand to inherit all things then it does not matter if I do not have all things now.  They will be given to me at the proper time along with all who have believed in Him!

In verses 33 and 34, Paul brings in another issue, Justification.  Here, we see that the picture of the woman caught in adultery is even more appropriate.  He brings up the specific case of someone laying a charge of guilt against us.  There are people that do this.  Yet, even more, the accuser of the saints, Satan himself, is our ultimate opponent.  Jesus did not justify the woman that day.  She was not a lover of God and could not be justified yet.  However, the one who is the justifier shows us that justification is a two-edged sword.  Even when the accusations of our enemy are true, it does not mean that they are justified to accuse us.  Jesus most likely wrote in the dirt that day something like, Mene Mene Tikal Upharsin (from Daniel 5).  In Daniel’s day, the finger of God wrote on the wall that the King of Babylon was judged and found lacking.  His kingdom would be lost and divided between others.  Somehow, Jesus writing with his finger in the dirt reminded these men of their sinfulness and unworthiness to execute justice.  Jesus tells the woman to “go and sin no more.”  In short, she should turn towards God in love, the God who saved her when she didn’t deserve it.  God stood against her enemies, not because they were wrong in their judgments, but because they were wrong in their hearts.

When you are loved by the One who is the Justifier, there is no being in all of the universe who can successfully charge us with anything that would rescind his justification.  Remember, Jesus will only justify those who love him and through faith are following him.   If God has justified us then who can condemn us?  No one of any matter.

Let’s end with verses 35-39.  Here, Paul ends with the declaration that nothing on earth and in heaven can separate us from God’s love.  The omnipotent love of God cannot be overwhelmed by anyone and anything.  He loves us, He loves you, that much!  Of course, it is a mystery.  You could spend the rest of your life asking why and never find the answer.  It is just who He is.  He is the One who has loved us and nothing can come between us, except your own heart and choices.

Paul lists a host of things that could threaten to separate us from God’s love: tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, or the sword.  He even quotes Psalm 44:22, where the Psalmist is struggling with the difficult things they are experiencing and the love of God.  “For your sake we are killed all day long.  We are counted as sheep for the slaughter.”  Then the psalmist would next say, “Awake!  Why do you sleep, O Lord?  Arise!  Do not cast us off forever!”  It is easy to believe that God does not love us when we face the circumstances above, but these things cannot separate us from God’s love even when our mind tells us that they have.

Paul interrupts his list to make the statement that we are called to be conquerors, or overcomers, over these adversities.  Rather than separating us from God’s love, they are making us victorious warriors who are made to be more like Jesus through them.  Our faith in God and our love for Him conquers all that our enemy may throw at us, and even any discipline that may come our way due to our own sin.  Jesus conquered the cross, the hatred of death spewed out by his enemy, by trusting the Father and embracing it.  No matter how hideous it was, it was being worked to the good for him because He loved God!

The list then becomes almost poetic in nature.  Not even death or life, angels, principalities or powers, nor things in our present, or things to come, nothing in the highest place, or nothing in the lowest place, not any created thing can separate us from God’s love.  That is, unless we let it rob us of our faith.  Nothing can take your faith in God’s love away from you, but you can surrender to lies and deception and lay it down of your own accord.  Everything is created, but God Himself.  This categorically states that absolutely nothing that happens to us, or comes against us, can thwart God’s love for you and for me.  This is the amazing love of an all-powerful God.

Let us live this week, and ever onward, secure in the knowledge of His love for us, and give Him great love in return!

Omnipotent Love audio

The Most Excellent Way

Romans 12:9-10.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on February 7, 2021.

In Mark 12:29-31, Jesus gave us the two greatest commandments, which are really two sides of the same coin.  We are to love God with all of our being (heart, soul, mind, and strength), and we are to love our neighbor as ourselves.  Later, Jesus modified this second command among his disciples.  “Love one another, as I have loved you.”  That is quite the qualifier.  It is one thing to love one another as we think we should, but to love in the way Jesus did would be to love sacrificially and selflessly.

I say that these two commands are two sides of the same coin because the Apostle John challenges us in his first letter with this.  How can you say you love God, whom you haven’t seen, when you can’t even love your brother, whom you have?  Yes, it is easy to give lip service to loving God because he is not physically on this earth.  It is more difficult to test.  In fact, shouldn’t we see the second command as the litmus test of whether or not we truly love God?  I think so.

Let’s remind ourselves today to strengthen this duty that we have to love one another, the duty to love.

We are to love without hypocrisy

The command to love one anther is simple enough, but throughout Scripture, we are given qualifiers from time to time.  In Romans 12:9, it is qualified with a negative phrase, “without hypocrisy.”  Some translations have chosen to emphasize the positive implication of this phrase.  NIV says, “Love must be sincere.”  ESV says, “Let love be genuine.”  The NLT attempts to put both the negative phrase and its positive implication together.  “Don’t just pretend to love others.  Really love them.”

The reason that we need these qualifiers is because the actions of people do not always match up with their words.  There is an irony in our country today that, while we talk more and more of loving each other and being united, we are seeing more and more anger and hatred.  This is not a new thing.  There have always been those who said they were loving, but in the end they were not.  They weren’t sincere, or genuine.  In short, they were hypocrites.

The word hypocrisy, that we are not supposed to mix in with our loving of one another, was a word that came from acting in plays.  The New Testament writers took the word and used it to refer the moral evil of a person merely acting as if they are doing good.  Such people were wearing the acting mask of love, but behind that external mask, there were unloving motivations.

Acting is a powerful medium for getting a message across when people know that it is an act.  It helps us to think about the same situation as a group.  Of course, it can be manipulated to try and pressure the group to think certain things, which is itself a form of hypocrisy.  It pretends to open up discussion on a situation, but in truth is trying to force all to think the same. 

Let’s just say the obvious.  Christians are not called to make an amazing movie about love, whether on a screen or in our lives.  We are to be doing it, for real.  In other words, we are to live a life of love that is worthy of a movie, not to give a performance that people are willing to watch.  It is the difference between being an actor and being the real thing.  If Hollywood stars are any measure of actors, we know that actors are often empty of the good things that they portray, or at least fall very short of it.

Wearing masks with one another and having a superficial love is not God’s plan, and we need the help of the Holy Spirit to be brave enough to take them off.  Warning- when you try to take of masks, those who are still wearing them will be uncomfortable with it (even you will be uncomfortable with it).

Paul then describes what hypocrisy-free love looks like with two verbal phrases.  The first is “abhor that which is bad.”  While we love one another, we should be abhorring, or detesting, that which is evil.  Paul chooses a strong word here.  Christians are not to treat moral evil lightly.  In 1 Corinthians 13, Paul also writes, “love does not delight in evil, but rejoices in the truth.”

Moral evil is defined throughout Scriptures, and it is all those negative vices and activities that God warns against, of which hypocrisy is just one.  This is not just an instruction for me about the other person and their sin.  Rather, it starts with me.  I must detest and shrink back from the tendency to be insincere, or any other moral evil, in my “love.”  I must fight the internal battle of keeping my heart pure towards God and my fellow man.

Of course, when loving others, we will have to face their imperfections and sinful tendencies (and they ours).  Love never means coddling that which is evil.  Our society likes to pick and choose who it loves and what evil is protected.  This must never be among Christians, those who say that they are following Christ, rather than our culture. 

An example of this has to do with public advice that is often given to people in difficult situations.  A case in point is a letter that was written to Dear Abbey.  A mother’s adult daughter, who had been raised to be a Christian, had embraced homosexuality.  The mom was struggling with what it means to continue to love her daughter when she was embracing something that was morally evil (by Christ’s definition).  Dear Abbey’s advice was a surrender to cultural influence in which she was counselled to embrace her daughter and the homosexual lifestyle she was living.  Ultimately, our hearts can be pulled into evil even out of a misguided love.  Loving someone in this situation is something Christians should do, but not in a way that embraces the harmful choices of the individual.  I know that this is 180 degrees the opposite of today’s “wisdom,” but we are followers of Jesus, not today’s culture (or are we?).

The second verbal phrase is the positive implication of the previous.  We must love while holding fast, or clinging, to that which is good.  Most people tend to one side or the other.  We can focus only on detesting evil, and it becomes an excuse to disregard and ignore people who God loves.  On the other hand, we can focus only on clinging to what is good, and ignore the moral evil that is piling up around us.  Christians are called to the hard road of truly loving others, as Jesus loved us.  It is hypocrisy to say that we love someone, but then not really face sin in our life or theirs.  It is hypocrisy to call this love, or to pretend that love calls us to overlook sin, or at least redefine it.  It is also hypocrisy to write someone off because of their sins and failures, and not try to lift that which is good.

This tension is mentioned by Paul in Galatians 6:1, “Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently.  But watch yourselves, or you may also be tempted.”  Jude mentions this tension in verses 22 and 23 of his letter.  “Be merciful to those who are doubting; but others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment defiled by flesh.”  Even a person who is so destroyed by sin that they are essentially being thrown into the fire of destruction, we are to attempt to save, yet being careful not to be caught up in their sin.  This is a love that is tough on the person doing it and tough on the person receiving it.  However, it is only truth that can set you free.  Fake love helps no one, period.

We are to love as family

Another qualifier is given for our love in verse 10 of Romans 12.  We must love each other with the love that we would have for family members.  Christians are called the “household of faith,” “the children of God,” and we are destined to be the adult Sons and Daughters of God in eternity.  It is not that we pretend that the other is family.  In Christ, we actually are.  Paul uses two words that refer to this family love.  “Brotherly love” is the obvious one.  However, the “kindly affectioned” phrase is actually a word that speaks of the love between parents and children.

Our biological families are a microcosm of the larger family of God that we join when we become followers of Christ.  Even our local church is simply a microcosm of the larger family of God worldwide, and history-wide.  Like Israel coming out of Egypt, we are a part of a large nation of very different people who all will inherit form the same Father, who loves us all.  It is easy to forget that we are family in Christ, and that our Father wants us to learn to get along and love each other.  This is not a suggestion, or something that we can work on when everything else is done.  It is the litmus test of our love for God.  “Do you love me?  Then, feed my sheep,” aka, love my children.

Lastly, Paul speaks of humbly honoring others.  Sibling rivalry, or just family squabbles, are destined to happen because none of us are perfect yet.  Even those who are spiritual elders are not perfected yet.  It is easy to chafe at other believers, like siblings, and it is easy to have tensions between spiritual elders and young believers.  These things are a natural part of being family.  However, we are to work on them with the kind of attitude that takes the lead in honoring the other.  The NKJV translates, “preferring one another.”  This misses the mark in my opinion.  The word being translated has the concept of going ahead of others in this area of honoring.  The clash is that our tendency is to honor ourselves and “go ahead” by pushing ourselves above others.  If we are to “go ahead of others,” it is not to be in honoring ourselves, but in honoring them.

Honor has to do with value and worth.  We love what has value and worth to us, and yet, in our imperfection, we often value things that we shouldn’t and disvalue, dishonor, what we shouldn’t.  Believers have a value to one another that isn’t always understood by us because we get wrapped up in the thinking of our age.  Instead of seeing one another through God’s yes, and through His purposes, we can only see through the world’s eyes and its purposes, or our own selfish purposes.  The challenge to love in today’s atmosphere is only becoming more difficult.  This cannot be used as an excuse.  There are attempts from the culture to polarize and divide God’s people.  May God help us to resist these blatant attacks on God’s Church, and to remain in fellowship with the Spirit of God and His people.

Excellent Way Audio

Our Strong Foundation

2 Timothy 2:19. This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on January 31, 2021.

This world seeks to build a future that can bring about peace, safety, and greatness for humanity.  The problem is that the world is building upon a foundation that is not God’s foundation.  Instead, it is being misled by their own sinful desires, and the devil, a fallen spiritual being who hates mankind.  We are led into through an unhealthy trust in our own human reasoning and wisdom.  Such people are manipulated by spiritual forces in ways that they often do not realize.

God’s people have always understood this about the world.  We must not yield for one second to the spirit of this world, and step off of the foundation of Jesus.  We must not join them in their great campaign to reject God’s foundation and make their own.  This endeavor will only be like the man who built his house upon the sand.  A great trial is coming upon the whole world, and this foundation of the devil and humanity will not hold.

Let’s look at our passage.

The solid foundation of God

Our verse comes on the heels of a list of actions and people who were causing troubles in the churches that Timothy was overseeing, no doubt, this also happened elsewhere in Paul’s travels.  Paul warns Timothy not to strive over words to the ruining of those who are hearing it.  He also warns him to avoid worldly and empty chatter because it will increase to more and more ungodliness.  Lastly, he warns that those who promote such will spread their message like cancer.  They will resist the truth, even to the point of some teaching that the resurrection was already past.  This was leading to the overthrowing, conquering, of the faith of some.

It is in this context that Paul reminds Timothy that there is a solid foundation of God despite the long list of negative things happening.  The word “nevertheless” operates in opposition to that negative list that Timothy is to avoid.  No matter how great the forces arrayed against God’s people, we still have a solid foundation that is from God Himself.  That is a great comfort in such times and has been demonstrated over and over again throughout history.

Paul does not define the foundation here, but it is made clear in many other verses.

For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, you are God’s building…For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.  -1 Corinthians 3:9,11 (NKJV)

Here, we see that the people of God, His Church, are a building that God is building in cooperation with the apostles and leaders of the Church.  Paul clearly states that Jesus as Messiah is the foundation upon which the Church is built.  It is unlikely that it means the external institution.  He speaks of the spiritual body of Christ throughout the world, and throughout all time.  Let’s look at another verse regarding the foundation of God.

Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.  -Ephesians 2:19-22 (NKJV)

In these verses, we see that the building in mind is a holy temple.  The people of God, both individually and collectively, are a temple in which the Spirit of God dwells and works.  We are built together and upon a foundation that is now described as being the apostles and prophets with Jesus being the chief cornerstone.  A similar image is given in Revelation 21 where the 12 foundations of the New Jerusalem are named after the twelve apostles.  This is not in contradiction to 1 Corinthians 3:11, but expands the imagery of a foundation.  In one sense, Jesus is the foundation, period.  However, it is also true to see him as being the most important stone within a foundation that had been laid over centuries by God through the prophets.

The historical record that we can read today has been faithfully delivered by the prophets of the Old Testament and the apostles, who were the prophets of the New Testament that were sent by Christ with his message.  This strong foundation is all possible, and built upon, God Himself.  We must remember that the foundation of what we believe and how we live is built upon God Himself.  And, because it is built upon God Himself, it will stand firm regardless what assails it.  The Spirit of God wants us to know that, regardless of what comes against us personally, or against the faithful as a group, we have been given a foundation that was set by God Himself.  It will not be shaken, and it will not fall, period.  Our true danger is in somehow getting off of that firm foundation.

There are a lot of strivings over words that are ruining God’s people.  There are a lot of profane and empty babblings that are increasing our people into more and more ungodliness.  Many are having their faith overthrown, or supplanted with a faith in untruths.  God help us to be careful in these last days that we not have our faith overthrown, or shipwrecked.  His solid foundation was given especially for times like these.  Countless generations before us have entered the fires of trial, and have found it to hold firm, and so will we, if we courageously stand upon it.  The purpose of God and the strategy, or mission, of God will prevail over the enemy!  This is the flip-side of standing with Jesus and making the Good Confession.  We not only stand beside Christ speaking the same thing as he, but we also stand upon Jesus, his word, and the apostles that he authorized to establish his teachings.  We must refuse to be moved off of him.

Paul mentions that the foundation of God has a seal on it.  This is important because the attacks upon our faith come from outside the Church and from inside the Church.  A seal functioned to show who something belongs to, and it also functioned to show that something was authentic or genuine.  Both are important for Paul’s purposes.  Those who truly belong to the Lord will stand upon, and be built up upon, the foundation of Jesus.  This foundation is both the written Word of God, and the person of Jesus called The Word of God.  The written is an expression of a being called the Word of God.  We must never isolate the written word from the person of Christ himself through our fellowship with his Spirit.

These last days will challenge you.  Are you going to stay upon the foundation and belong to God, or, will you lay your faith aside and step onto a false foundation that is not firm?  God help us to stay faithful in these times.

We are told that there are two statements upon this seal, which is actually a spiritual seal.  The first statement is, “The Lord knows those who are His.”  The second is, “Let everyone who names the name of Christ depart from iniquity.”

Let’s deal with the first statement.  It appears that Paul has the confrontation of Numbers 16 in mind since this first statement is a direct quote from Numbers 16:5. It may not look like it at first because most translations have Numbers 16:5 as, “the LORD will show who is His.”  The verb translated “will show” is literally “will cause to be known,” i.e. the Lord will cause to be known who is His.  The translation is good, but the different tack taken by the New Testament translators masks this connection.  Let’s talk about the Numbers 16 episode.

Moses had led the people to the Promised Land, but they had refused to enter in because of fear and unbelief when they saw the giants.  The people did not like the fact that they then had to go back into the wilderness for 40 years, so they tried to attack the giants and lost.  So, into the wilderness they went. 

Korah, a Levite who was related to Moses and Aaron, led a rebellion against Moses.  Why should Moses and Aaron have the say about where they go, and who gets to minister in the tabernacle?  Moses then tells Korah to prepare censers with incense and show up the next morning before the tabernacle.  Aaron and his sons would be there too.  Moses declares that, as they minister before the tabernacle, God would make it known who is His (or on His side).  Do you know what happened?  First, the ground opened up around the tents of those in league with Korah’s rebellion and they all fell in with their tents.  It is not clear if this was an earthquake event or a sinkhole event.  At the same time, fire went out from the Lord and killed Korah and 250 men who were offering incense before the tabernacle with him.

Ultimately, Korah and his followers represent those within God’s Church who are not happy with where things are and where they are headed.  Instead of trusting in the leading and foundation of God, they seek to take control of God’s Church.  However, God not only knows those who are His, but He will cause it to be known who are His at particular junctions.  You could say that the Second Coming of Christ will be such an event par excellence. 

The times of trials and shakings are for the very purpose of revealing who really belongs to Christ.  The Big Lie will be that those who stand on God’s foundation are the problem that is holding the world back, but God will shake this earth once more, and fire will go out from the Lord once more, and He will show who belongs to Whom.

Now, let’s look at the second statement.  “Let everyone who names the name of Christ depart from iniquity.”  This is connected to Numbers 16 as well.  Moses warned the people to get away from the tents of those in the rebellion, or they would perish with them.  To remain close to Korah would be to participate in his judgment.  Paul’s instructions to Timothy to avoid such people is not just good wisdom.  It is existential wisdom.  God’s people are to avoid those who claim to be Christians, but are caught up in iniquity.  We must not let them influence us.  Not all who claim to have the truth are of God.  This is why it is so important to be a student of God’s Word and to have a relationship with the Spirit of God through prayer.

This theme is an important end-times theme.  Revelation 18 speaks about the destruction of Mystery Babylon the Great.  In verse 4, it warns, “Come out from her, my people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues.  For her sins have reached to heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities.”  This is even a reiteration of Jeremiah 50:8, which speaks of the judgment of Babylon.

Listen, the world is trying to build a modern, but spiritual, tower of Babel whose foundation is anything but Christ.  Don’t let yourself be sucked into it, and deceived.  Those who truly believe in Christ and carry his name to the world will not fellowship with those who love iniquity.

Final Thoughts

There is a tension that exists between reaching the lost out of God’s compassion, and not fellowshiping with those trapped in iniquity out of love for God.  The separation is always a spiritual separation, and, from time to time, becomes a literal separation.  In fact, I believe this is exactly what God does in the rapture.  He removes his people because there will be no safe place on this earth to separate ourselves to, and so He takes us up to Himself.  It is our duty to remain spiritually committed to Christ and Him alone, to His Word and it alone, all the while warning people to flee the wrath hanging over this world.  May God strengthen our resolve to stand upon His strong foundation in the days ahead.

Strong Foundation audio

The Great Commission

John 20:21-22; Mark 16:15-18; Luke 24:46-49; Acts 1:8; Matthew 28:18-20.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty on January 24, 2021.

Last week, we talked about the importance of making the good confession to the world around us.  In short, it is a declaration of our faith in Jesus and his teachings.  We stand with him.

Today, we are going to recognize that this confession and testimony that we should give about Jesus is part of a larger task, or commission, that Christ has given us.

Let’s look at our passage.

John’s Gospel

We will look at each of the Gospel’s version of the Great Commission.  They all highlight various things.  Ultimately, Jesus had been crucified and resurrected.  Over the course of 40 days, he appeared to them in order to prove the reality of the resurrection before he ascended into heaven, and to leave the apostles and his Church, that they would help build, with a task, a mission.  Thus, we speak of Christ commissioning his Church and call it the Great Commission.

John emphasizes sending.  We have been sent by Jesus as he was sent by God the Father.  We are sent for a purpose, to do what he tells us to do.  This is not a cultural thing.  Jesus is not trying to spread first century AD Israelite culture all around the world, much less white culture.  It is beyond culture.  In fact, if we must use the term, it is the spread of heaven’s culture.  All cultures are found wanting in the face of the Gospel and its obligation upon us all.  Christians must never confuse the Gospel with their own native culture.  Yes, some cultures have been impacted by Christianity more than others, but still, we are not representing our country, but rather Jesus and The Father.

John also shows Jesus breathing on his disciples and telling them to receive the Holy Spirit.  The receiving is emphasized, but it is not explained why.  We will save this for later.

Jesus also says that they, and we, will be a conduit to the forgiveness of sins for others.  This statement sounds like the apostles can keep some people from being forgiven, but that is a misreading.  Only Jesus can forgive sins, and thereby also refuse to forgive sins.  However, we are sent by Jesus as his ambassadors with his words.  We will be the representative of Jesus to those that we meet.  We don’t create forgiveness or deny it to those who desire it.  Rather, we announce it according to God’s Word, and the Holy Spirit’s wisdom.  Like the prophets of old, we can speak to people because of the authority of the Word of Jesus.  We can confidently tell people how to be forgiven of their sins, and how they cannot be forgiven.  The emphasis is not on their inherent ability, but in the function, they serve in being sent by Christ.

Mark’s Gospel

Mark focuses on our proclaiming the Gospel, or good news.  The NKJV uses the word “preach,” but the connotations of this word would be better translated as proclaim.  It is not about standing behind a pulpit in a church, but about sharing the Good News with anyone anywhere.  Mark’s gospel also emphasizes the scope of this mission, “all the world.”

A second aspect that we see here is the fact that powerful signs would follow Christ’s representatives.  Jesus doesn’t command them to do powerful signs.  Rather, the signs would follow them, and the signs listed are not an exhaustive list.  As God’s people commit themselves to this task of proclaiming the Gospel, signs would follow them.  Signs are not the focus, nor our job to make happen.  Our job is to be faithful to the task of sharing the Good News with people.

I will take a moment to clear up the passage about taking up serpents, due to the fact that some Christians believe they should prove their faith in Jesus by handling poisonous snakes.  Jesus is not talking about a means of proving your faith to onlookers, and neither is he talking about a test that all believers must do.  The best example of what Jesus is talking about happened to the Apostle Paul on the Island of Malta in Acts 28.  He was a prisoner on a ship going to Rome.  The ship was wrecked by a storm and they all jumped ship and swam to nearby Malta.  The natives met them on the shore and people began foraging for wood along the shore to build a fire and warm up the soaked men.  While gathering a bundle of sticks to throw on the fire, the apostle Paul was bitten by a viper on the hand and he shook it off into the fire.  The Bible tells us that the natives saw the viper hanging from Paul’s hand and figured that he would die, and that it was a punishment for some evil that he had done.  Over time, it became clear that Paul was not harmed by the poison.  This opened the people up greatly to hearing the Gospel.  The point is not invulnerability of believers to poison, but that these kinds of signs would follow them as a whole as they took the Gospel to the nations.  We too should expect that amazing things will happen from time to time as we are faithful to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Luke’s Gospel

In Luke, we have some of the content of the Gospel described.  First, Jesus had to do all of the things that he did.  They had been prophesied in Scripture, and they were functionally important for the saving of people.  Jesus lived a perfect life, and perfectly revealed the Father’s love by dying in our place, and being resurrected as proof that his sacrifice on our behalf was accepted.  It is also proof that he has the power to resurrect us at the last day.

For those who believe the message about who Jesus is and what he has done for us, repentance from sin is in order.  Those who believe and repent of their sins will have their sins remitted from them.  Luke also records that this is for all nations, not just one people group.

Lastly, Luke also records that they were to wait for the Promise from the Father to come upon them and empower them before going out to accomplish this commission.  The Promise from the Father is talking about the pouring out of the Holy Spirit upon all of God’s people, instead of just a select few.  This is a task that is not intended to be done only by our power, strength, and abilities.  God Himself will work through us and assist us by His Holy Spirit.  Thus, we are not to hang back in fear, nor are we to rush forward in self-confidence.  We are to be a people who are led by the Holy Spirit, and empowered by Him.

This should remind us of Acts chapter 1 verse 8.  The book of Acts is technically Luke’s second volume.  It is not a second Gospel, but rather describes the apostles doing what Jesus told them to do.  We could think of Luke’s Gospel as the good news of what Jesus did, and his second volume as the good news that the apostles faithfully walked in his footsteps.  Another way to look at these to books is to see Luke as the acts of Jesus and the book of Acts as the acts of his apostles. 

Regardless, verse 8 emphasizes why we are to wait for the Holy Spirit and what the Holy Spirit would help us do.  The Holy Spirit would fill their whole being and enable them to be witnesses of Christ everywhere.  They would be empowered by God Himself.  A person cannot believe the Gospel without the influence of the Holy Spirit in their life.  He is the one who convicts us of the judgment that hangs over our head.  The Bible tells us that the Holy Spirit takes up residence or dwells inside of those who believe on Jesus and repent of their sins.  However, we are to also open up our hearts and minds to Him through prayer so that He can fill our whole inner being.  This is not a one-time thing, but a daily empowering experience that we can have to help us in our battle against sin, and our task to proclaim the Gospel.

Matthew’s Gospel

John emphasized our being sent, but in Matthew we are shown why that is so important.  Jesus has authorized us to go to all nations and call them to repentance and faith in him.  What gives Christians the right to tell Romans that the idols they serve are lies and they need to repent?  We could ask the same question today.  Multiculturalism has some good to it.  It reminds us that we should not look down upon styles of life simply because they are different from our own.  However, Christianity is not supposed to be a cultural oppression. 

The Spirit of God started with Israel and challenged the sin in their culture.  It then moved to all other cultures.  We are authorized by the God who made and loves all people.  All of our cultures were, and still are, full of sin and ignorance.  Satan wants to make people feel that they are doing something wrong when they tell people that God commands all people everywhere to repent of their sins and believe on Jesus.  We must not give into this persuasion.

Next, we are to disciple those who believe by teaching them the commands of Jesus.  The disciple is a student who is learning to become like their master teacher.  Another image that is used in the Bible is that we are children of God.  God’s people are a family that baby Christians are born into.  We help the spiritually young to grow up and become more like our heavenly Father, which has been perfectly imaged to us by Jesus.

Lastly, Jesus tells us that he will be with us even to the end of the age.  How important it is to know that Jesus is still with us through the Spirit of God that is within us.  He hasn’t forgotten us no matter how difficult it may get at times.  We must hold onto this promise.

The Conclusion

When we put all of these things together, we end up with a lot of powerful concepts, so I have broken this up into two statements.

First, we have been authorized and sent by Jesus to proclaim the Gospel to all nations that only He can forgive and remove their sins because of his life, death, and resurrection.

Second, we are to be empowered by the Holy Spirit, which will have powerful signs as we teach people the commands of Jesus.

All of this emphasizes the task and purpose that Jesus has given us, and so it is missing an important component found elsewhere.  God so loved the world that He sent His One and Only Son that whoever believes on him shall not perish, but have eternal life.  God’s love for you, for me, and for those lost in this world, could not sit by as we destroyed ourselves through sin.  The love of God and the demonstration of its depth by Jesus on the cross are the foundation of a relationship that we can have with our Lord and invite others to join.  This is the Great Commission.

Great Comm audio