The Acts of the Apostles 25

Subtitle: Stephen's Defense I

Sorry about the delay.  We lost power this week for several days :)

Acts 7:1-8.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on November 27, 2022.

Stephen has been arrested and put in front of the Sanhedrin.  They have charged with multiple counts of blasphemy.

This chapter is Stephen’s answer, or defense, before the court.  It will take a while to get through this chapter, but Stephen is pretty much making the same argument through a multitude of examples from the history of Israel.  He is simply obeying God like Abraham did, like Joseph, like Moses, and like all the prophets.  They, however, are resisting the Holy Spirit just like the tribal patriarchs, the Israelites in the days of Moses, and all of those who persecuted the prophets.

This whole chapter begs the question, “Just who is on trial here?”  Or, we might ask it this way.  Stephen knows that he is on trial before the Jewish Sanhedrin, but he also realizes that they are all on trial before the God of heaven.  If anyone is being blasphemous here, it is the council who continually sits in the seat of Moses, contravening the truth of God.

Let’s get into our passage.

Remember Abraham (vs. 1-8)

The high priest asks Stephen what he has to say in regards to the charges against him.  Stephen starts with reminding them of the patriarch Abraham.  He is extremely important to Israel, the father of the faith.  God’s covenant with Israel was an extension of a prior covenant, or a greater Promise, that God had made with Abraham, their forefather.

Clearly, these men have not forgotten about Abraham per se.  Rather, they have forgotten what is most important about Abraham, and how that should impact their activity.  The most important thing about Abraham is found in Genesis 15:6, “He believed in the LORD, and He accounted it to him for righteousness.”  So, how was this belief, this faith, of Abraham displayed in his life?

First, God had called Abraham to leave Ur and to travel to the place that God would show him.  When you read Genesis 12, it appears that God speaks to Abraham while he is in Haran (a town on the Turkish side of the border with Syria).  Ur is a city much further south between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers.  We would call this Iraq today.  Historically it is also called Babylonia, Chaldea, Sumer, and Mesopotamia.  Yet, in Genesis 15, God tells Abraham, “I am the LORD, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to inherit.”  God seems to date His call upon Abraham back to his time in Ur.  This was the traditional understanding in the first century AD as well.

Abram displayed his faith by leaving his home country and heading out on the road.  He first moved into Northern Aram, Syria.  There he lived until his father died, and then he moved south into Canaan.

It is not clear how to read this.  Was Abraham disobeying to stop in Haran?  Of course, God said that He would show Abraham, as in, Abraham did not know the destination yet.  It is quite possible that God first moved Abraham out of Ur, and then later told him to head south into Canaan.  There is no hint in the Bible that Abraham’s stop in Haran was a moment of wavering faith, so we should not try to force it into that narrative.  Stephen’s language is “He [God] moved him [Abraham] to this land in which you now dwell.” (Acts 7:4 NKJV).  I believe it is best to see this as God leading Abraham in a staged fashion.

Ultimately, Abraham is depicted as one who believed God.  He believed God to the degree that he held nothing of his family and ancestors sacred.  He let it all go in order to follow God.  Imagine God speaking to you such a thing today.  Of course, God’s calling is not always about geography as it was with Abraham.  However, it is always about the things that make us comfortable and shroud the truth of God to us.  Abraham needed to leave Mesopotamia, and eventually Haran, if he wanted to fully know God.  We too will have to let go of things in order to fully know God and walk in the inheritance that He has for us.

Once Abraham was in Canaan, God promised the land to his descendants.  Abraham lived as a nomad in the deserted areas between the cities and towns of Canaan.  Thus, Stephen says that he did not have an inheritance.  Abraham lives the rest of his life in a land that he has no inheritance in and has faith in God’s promise that it would be given to his descendants. 

There are two facts that add to the amount of faith that Abraham displays.  First, Abraham was 75 years old when he left Haran and 99 years old when Sarah became pregnant.  So, this whole time he believed that God would help him, even though he did not have any offspring.  Yes, even back then, Sarah was considered past child-bearing years.

In fact, this is what led to the whole Hagar fiasco.  Sarah’s lack of faith led Abraham to also stumble in trusting God.  Yet, that stumbling was not without recovery.  God help us as spouses to be careful in this area.  We do not want to be a stumbling block to our mate.

All of us will have difficulty walking in faith with God without stumbling.  We must be quick to admit our fault when the Lord holds us accountable, and we must be quick to repent and turn back to the proper path.  In Abraham’s case, repentance would not erase the effects of his lack of faith.  God can redeem these things, even though they will add difficulty to our path.  Abraham learned a valuable lesson about waiting upon the Lord.  God always has a better plan than we can make for Him.

The second fact that adds to the amount of faith Abraham had is that God revealed to him that his descendants would be slaves in a foreign land and not return to take up this promise for 400 years.  God makes some awesome promises to Abraham about judging that nation, and giving Canaan into their hands, but why let them become slaves in the first place.  Also, it would be such a long time down the road.  Can you imagine God calling you to a place in which you have no inheritance and dwelling as a nomad all your life, and it won’t truly “pay-off” for your descendants until 400 years down the road?

Knowing the future is not all that it is cracked up to be.  God in His mercy reveals enough of the future that we can have confidence, yet not so much that we would be overwhelmed.  Of course, people lose confidence in God every day, and feel overwhelmed with life.  However, this is not a lack of God’s grace, but a lack of my faith.

Following God is never easy.  It always calls us to live a life of faith and pass the torch on to the next generation.  Abraham’s life seems grand in the telling of it, but it was quite domestic in the overall living of it.  Long periods of time can grind a weak faith into powder.  However, that same time can increase our faith little upon little, layer upon layer.  Abraham’s journey to a life of great faith was a series of days in which he kept trusting God.

Stephen then touches on something that Israel took great pride in.  They were the circumcised as opposed to the uncircumcised Gentiles.  In Genesis 15, God cuts a covenant with Abraham, but it is in Genesis 17 that God reconfirms His covenant and gives Abraham a task.  He must circumcise himself and his offspring.  This circumcision is a sign, a symbol, or a token, of the covenant that God was making with Abraham.

Now, the Apostle Paul in Galatians chapter 3 makes a big deal about the fact that this covenant with Abraham is technically a Promise, whereas the covenant at Sinai had a great number of requirements that Israel had to do.  Yes, Abraham needed to walk before God in blamelessness and circumcise his offspring, but Israel would receive a whole set of laws that involved stuff beyond the moral realm of right and wrong.  This covenant of Sinai and its laws become the works of the Law versus the fruit of the Spirit shown in Abraham’s life.

May God give us a heart like Abraham’s that was not afraid to follow God into new places that we have never seen.  You will stumble along the way, but He will be faithful.  He will always show you your fault, and He will always point out the door of repentance.  Let’s walk through that door into life every day!

Defense I audio

The Acts of the Apostles 11

Subtitle: Peter Preaches Again

Acts 3:11-16.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on July 31, 2022.

The healing of the lame man at Gate Beautiful creates quite a stir on the temple mount as news of the healing spreads throughout the crowds.  Peter and John end up under what is variously called Solomon’s Porch, or Colonnade, or even Portico.  This puts them on the east side of the Temple mount under a roofed series of columns that was open towards the Temple.

The lame man is clinging to them.  It appears that he is excited and no doubt there are levels of hugging and not wanting to be separated from them.  Let’s say that he is most likely in a level of shock.

It is not clear how long this takes place after the Day of Pentecost excitement, but it seems to be a matter of days to weeks.  Acts chapter 2 ended with several general statements about that first group of believers that sets up this healing and preaching.  First, we are told that “many wonders and signs were done through the apostles,” and that they were meeting daily with each other in the temple.

Let’s look at Peter’s words to the crowd.

Peter contrasts their actions with God’s

Peter walks through the events with Jesus, but you will notice there is a sense that follows this pattern.  You did this and yet, God did that.  Or, we could state it as, God did this, and yet, you did that.  This will lead up to the reality that they need to repent and believe upon Jesus, but more on that next week.

The first focus is on the action of the crowd.  We are told that they are “greatly amazed” and “marveled” while looking intently at Peter and John.  They are giving more attention to Peter and John than they should be because they don’t understand the connection to Jesus.  Peter is going to be very careful to turn their eyes back to Jesus by verse 16.

This is a classic error whenever God does something either miraculous, or simply changing the order of things within a group.  We can become overly focused on the person or people through whom God is operating.  In this case, God is using a righteous man to do a good thing.  However, God can also use wicked people for discipline and to draw people to repentance.

We must not think that Jesus is inactive in heaven today.  All authority and power on earth has been given to him.  Just as we saw that it is he who was, and still is, pouring out the Holy Spirit upon believers, so too when history changes, it is by the authority of Jesus that it occurs.  We must never forget this aspect.  Whether great good, or great judgment, we must always humble ourselves and seek what the Lord Jesus is saying through the events, rather than obsessing on those through whom the events come.  When good happens, he gets all the glory.  When bad things happen (according to our perspective), we must humble ourselves before him in order to understand what he is saying, what his plan is through this.

Verse 13 points to the fact that God the Father had glorified Jesus before them.  I believe that Peter is making a similar point as he did in chapter 2 when he said that God had attested Jesus to them through miracles, wonders, and signs.  In this case, he uses the verb glorified.  We can also add to this the angelic visitations that occurred around his birth.  However, most of this was during the 3 ½ years of the ministry of Jesus.  Notice that this is what God had done.

He reminds them that this is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  The same God who spoke with them and did amazing things before them, was speaking to them now.  Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are commended because they believed God and followed Him in faith. 

Jesus is also described as “His Servant.”  All of the righteous of any age are in simplest terms, servants of God.  Jesus had come to serve God’s purposes, and that purpose involved serving Israel, and then the Gentile nations.  Jesus had come from God to powerfully serve them, and God the Father had been faithful to make it clear to them that Jesus was approved by Him.  Yet, how did they respond to that?

They had delivered Jesus up and denied him before Pilate.  God had given Jesus to them, and they in turn, handed him over to the Gentiles for execution.  God had testified to them that Jesus was from Him, but they testified that he was not.  The word “denied” has the sense of speaking against someone.  They did these things over the top of Pilate deciding that Jesus should be released.  This is not to say that Pilate is a righteous man. 

Peter makes this point even more pointed by calling Jesus the Holy and Righteous One.  Jesus had done no sin among them, was set apart by God for His purposes for them.  Jesus was The Holy and Righteous One, but they refused to stand with him, as the Father was doing.  This was not the actions of the Patriarchs!

Even worse, they had asked for a murderer to live and for Jesus to be killed.  They would rather a wicked person live than the righteous Jesus.  Peter gives Jesus the title Prince of Life to hammer home the horrifying nature of what they had done.  The word “Prince” here is not a word that refers to a king’s son who has no power yet.  It refers to the principal leader, and has connotations that go back to Daniel 9:25, which speaks of Messiah, the Prince (or “Leading One”).  Jesus is the source of life due to the fact that he was the principal agent of creation.  However, he has now become the principal agent of salvation, which offers life to those who have become entangled in sin and its resultant death, both in this life and the next.  Jesus is not just dispensing life.  He is both the source, and the only one who can lead us into true life!

Imagine having the One who is life and leads to life being killed while asking for a murderer who is his opposite.  Also, imagine doing all this while claiming to be the righteous ones of this world.  This is not a Jewish problem either.  The irony is particularly heavy in the events Peter describes, and yet every generation that has ever faced the man Jesus must answer as well.  Who are you really?  What will you do with Jesus, his message, and his people?  No matter how many moral cloaks the nations of this world put on, they one by one fall into the same pattern as Israel in the first century.  However, we have the added guilt of having an example clearly set before us.

They had killed Jesus, but God raised Jesus from the dead.  Peter and the other disciples were witnesses to this reality.  Jesus is not dead.  He is still alive!  Their plan didn’t work then, and it won’t work today.  God was overturning their decision.  However, it is better put in this way.  They had been trying to overturn God’s decision to send them Jesus the Prince of Life.  You can’t kill the source of life.  You will only end up destroying yourself.

The decision that this world is making, to ignore Jesus and make a better world without him, cannot overcome the decision of God the Father.  He has installed Jesus as King over heaven and earth.  Not only do we fight against this at our own peril, but ironically, we reject the only one who can lead us into life, and a better world.  Rather, we build upon a foundation of murder and death.  This cannot end well.

Are we not putting Holiness and Righteousness to death in our society?  In fact, are not many religious leaders and people today joining in this through redefining what is holy and righteous?  Can we not see ourselves in this mirror that the Lord Jesus has given to the world through Israel?  Yet, the true question for all of us is this.  What am I doing in my heart and in my mind?  God help my heart to humble down and follow Jesus so that I might know true holiness, true righteousness, and the true life that only he can give.

This brings us full circle.  In verse 16, Peter ties back to the crowd looking at him and John as if they had done this.  This healing of the lame man can only be credited to this same Jesus they had crucified.  What amazing grace.  They had crucified him, but Jesus was now still performing miracles in their midst.  Jesus had given this man the ability to walk, and to leap, and to praise God! 

This sentence comes across into English a bit clumsily.  However, Peter points to Jesus in three ways.  First, the name of Jesus has healed this man.  Peter does not mean this as if saying the name works like a mantra.  This is the pagan concept of “words of power.”  Jesus did not come to reveal some kind of hidden word of power that now heals people. 

In Hebrew thought, a man’s name had the sense of his reputation, which Western culture has picked up through the Bible.  We speak of a man having a good name in the community.  However, it also included the power and authority of the person.  Thus, Peter is saying that it is the power and authority of Jesus that has done this miracle.  Let us never forget that any powerful work of God is completely by the power and authority of Jesus.  This is foundational.  Without Jesus authorizing it and empowering it, nothing can be done, even by a person who has been powerfully used by God in the past.  No man should ever be given credit, or gazed at in amazement as if they had done it.  This is a huge problem within any group.  Pentecostals can be overly enamored with those whom they believe God is working powerful miracles through.  However, even other groups can be enamored with leaders that they believe God is powerfully using in more natural things. 

Let me repeat, no person should ever be given the credit.  They cannot do anything without Jesus authorizing and empowering it.  Also, let us dispense with the idea that Jesus gave a blank check authorization and empowerment to his people to do anything that they can have faith for.  There are seasons in which God is doing different things.  Even the most righteous must learn to walk in humility before God and cooperate with what He is doing.  The Church has continued to fail in this whole category.  We can blame it on the leaders, but the source of the problem is in the hearts of the people, which tends to elevate the wrong kind of leaders in their midst.

The second thing Peter says in verse 16 is that this healing was done through faith in the power and authority of Jesus.  Yes, Peter was used by Christ to be an ambassador of the healing power of Jesus.  But, more importantly, Peter represents those who still had faith in the power and authority of Jesus, even though he had been executed.  Of course, the death of Jesus precipitated a crisis of faith for Peter.  However, the resurrected Lord not only forgave Peter, but cured him of ever thinking that he could tell Jesus what needed to happen next.  Jesus knew what he was doing.  This group of believers were marked by their faith in the person and power of Jesus, not just what he did in the past, but also in what he is doing right now!

The third thing Peter says in verse 16 is that the faith that comes through Jesus had healed this man.  In a sense, Peter is saying that even his faith in Jesus had come to him through Jesus.  Peter is taking no credit for this.  He knew himself.  He knew that he would have not done anything if Jesus had given up on him, and hadn’t faithfully taught him.  Without the grace of Jesus, Peter would still be on the Sea of Galilee fishing.

May we be a people who are letting Jesus teach us and give us faith in him, so that we might be a conduit of the power and authority of Jesus.  Whether that is displayed in healings and powerful works is not our worry.  Our only focus is faithfulness, courage, and keeping our eyes upon him.

Today, we might accuse Peter of not being sensitive to people.  Yet, truth must risk offense, especially when eternity is on the line.  Notice this contrast between what God is doing and what they were doing.  This is the point today.  Always the challenge is keeping in step with what God is doing, rather than following the figment of our imaginations in the wrong direction.

Peter Preaches Again I audio

The Acts of the Apostles 10

Subtitle: A Lame Man Is Healed

Acts 3:1-10.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on July 24, 2022.

In Acts chapter two, Luke describes a powerful scene, the giving of the Holy Spirit, and then a sermon from Peter.  We have this same structure in chapter three.  An amazing healing occurs, which provides a hearing of the Gospel.

Acts 2:43 stated, “Then fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles.”  We have here one of those amazing wonders and signs done through the Apostle Peter.  It is the healing of a man in his 40’s who has never walked, but now he instantly is able to walk.  He was the beggar who was always at Gate Beautiful. 

This miracle was undeniable, reminiscent of the things that the executed Jesus had done, and was done through one of his disciples.  However, it provided a platform from which Peter could preach to the crowds in the temple.  Acts is invaluable because it cuts through almost 2,000 years of accreted tradition, and puts in front of us a sample of the kind of teaching given by those who walked with Jesus.

For context, this scene takes place at one of the temple gates in Jerusalem.  Peter and John are on their way to the temple and they are asked for money by a beggar.  The name “Beautiful” is not attached to any of the gates in any of the first century writings that we have.  Josephus does describe a gate made of Corinthian Bronze that was particularly outstanding from the rest.  This gate was called after the man who made the donation for its creation, Nicanor, and it was between the court of women and the area where sacrifices would be made in front of the temple building.  However, the story will end with Peter, John and the healed man in Solomon’s Porch, or colonnade.  This was a covered structure on the east wall.  A question then arises on whether it was actually a gate further out and they came into the temple compound? Or did they simply go back out to Solomon’s porch?  Ultimately, knowing exactly which gate this was will not change the story.

You can do some online searching to be able to see this.  Many models have been made over the years of what is described by those from that time.

Let’s get into the passage.

The lame man’s plight in life

We do not know this man’s name.  We do know that he had been lame from birth.  Because of this, he would be carried to the temple to beg for charity from the religious people who were going in.  This would be a “target-rich” environment, to be crass, since they are on their way to worship before God and more inclined to give.

People who are born with disabilities all have a similar experience physically and mentally.  However, some factors can be vastly different.  Do they have family, and does that family love and help them?  Is the family rich or poor?  Also, there can be other mitigating circumstances that make the situation worse or better.  We know nothing about these aspects of the man’s background.

We do know that he has been given a tough situation for life, and nothing about it is fair.  It just is, and that reality is physically, emotionally, and spiritually tough.

In all of the ministry of Jesus and his disciples, this man had never been in the right spot at the right time.  It seems impossible that he had not heard stories of a miracle-man healing people like him.  Acts 4:22 tells us that he is over 40 years old.  So, he has been carrying this heavy load for a long time, and, when there is hope that someone can do something about it, the man is executed.  How discouraged this man must be at the very least, if not angry at God and life in general.  However, God did care about this man and simply had another plan.

The lame man’s plea

It is 3:00 PM when the time of the afternoon prayers began.  Peter and John were probably meeting with other believers to participate in the prayers and then spend time talking and teaching in the outer court under Solomon’s porch. For them, these are exciting times. But the lame man was there that day begging for his daily food once again. 

The men who walked by him were not outwardly any different than others.  He had asked them for alms and was already looking for another person.  He doesn’t seem to know who they are and rejection is a large part of the experience of a person who has been reduced to begging.

Let me just point out that the Greek word for alms here is similar to the English word “charity.”  Charity technically means love, but can come to refer to the money that is given to another out of charity, or love.  Similarly, the word translated alms here is literally “mercies.”  The man is begging people to give him mercies.

Charity and mercy are an important part of being righteous.  The Law of Moses states in Deuteronomy 15:11, “For the poor will never cease from the land; therefore I command you, saying, ‘You shall open your hand wide to your brother, to your poor and your needy, in your land.’”  God calls His people to help the poor and needy, and yet also states that they will never cease from the land.  This lame man is not in a position to help the poor and needy because he is poor and needy.  Those who were in a position to help needed to demonstrate their righteousness through helping them.  This didn’t make them more righteous than the poor, but was how they could demonstrate faith in God. 

This begs the question.  How does a poor person demonstrate faith in God?  They do so by not letting bitterness and anger rule them.  They do so by praising God over the top of their difficult situation.  They do so by waiting on the mercy of God, which may never seem to be enough to our flesh, but in which our spirit can be content.  They do so by not looking to people to be their answer, but recognizing that God uses people.  They do so by remaining humble even though it isn’t fair.

The lame man praises God for healing

We don’t know if the Holy Spirit urges Peter to do this, or if Peter simply thinks, “What would Jesus do?”  Christ had given his apostles power to heal and cast out spirits when he sent them out in pairs to the towns of Israel.  There is no indication that Jesus took this power back.  As long as Jesus was with them, he led the ministry.  However, now Peter is in a similar situation that he has seen before, with and without Jesus.  He had been prepared for this critical transition from being a disciple of Jesus while he was physically on the earth, and being a disciple of Jesus while he is seated in the heavens.  Jesus may have been “dead and gone” in the eyes of the religious leaders, but through these twelve men, he was alive and well.

Peter first tells the man to look at them.  He has clearly made up his mind what to do.  This would be an important moment in the man’s life.  From this moment on, he would not need to beg at the temple.  He would know that God has seen him, and had provided an answer for him.  Peter makes him look at them first so that he would pay attention to exactly what is happening.

“Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you.”  The apostles did not have any money.  They had not been working since they followed Jesus, and now Jesus was gone.  However, Peter knows that he has something else that he can give the man.  Peter has been given the spiritual gift of healing.

Now, healing in the Bible is not broken down into a science.  It doesn’t give us the 5 steps to securing your healing every time.

However, it does give some principles of things that impact healing.  Those who pray for others to be healed must have faith in God, and those who need healing must have faith in God as well.  Jesus himself did few miracles and healings in his hometown of Nazareth because most of them were full of unbelief that God was working through him (Mark 6:5).

It is also clear that some Christians have the spiritual gift of healing where others do not (1 Corinthians 12:30).  All believers have the ability to ask God for healing, whether for themselves or their loved ones.  This is the dynamic of a child asking a father for grace.  God sometimes answers such prayers.  However, there are people whom God particularly works through in the area of healing.  They will see more healings than Christians in general, and even spectacular ones.  However, the spiritual gift of healing is not a kind of power that they control.  The healing comes from the Spirit of God.  The gifted person is cooperating with the Spirit and acting as the mediator of the healing.  The Apostle Paul asked God to heal him of a malady three times and yet the Lord told him, “No.” 

This means that God’s purpose and will is involved in a way that cannot be boiled down to a simple, “God always wants to heal a sick person,” or, “God doesn’t do that anymore.”  There are seasons in God’s dealing with an individual, an area, a nation, and even this world.  There are seasons where God is granting more miracles and healings than normal, but there are seasons where God is seeing what we will do with the grace we have received.

I’ve noticed this dynamic with my own group, the Assemblies of God.  In the early 1900’s when this cooperating fellowship of churches began, it was quite common to see, or hear, of amazing answers of God through the miraculous and especially healing.  Over time, these healings became fewer and farther in between.  At the same time, a social dynamic was happening in this group.  Early Assemblies of God churches tended to be on “the other side of the tracks,” and its people were typically poorer.  Today, the Assemblies of God churches are by and large on “this side of the tracks,” and its people are more middle class.  I understand that these are rough generalizations, but we need to see that there is more going on here than just the faith of the individuals involved.  God is ultimately sovereign, and all believers need to keep humble before Him, rather than building a system that goes to one of two extremes- God always wants to heal, or God doesn’t heal any more.

I believe that God still heals people.  However, more blessed are those who do not see and yet believe.  We will be tested on both these things.  We must believe God enough to pray for healing, and yet trust Him if the answer is “No.”

The story is told of Thomas Aquinas, a theologian of the Church who as also a Dominican friar and priest.  He was in Rome and the pope was showing him an incredible display of gold, wealth, and precious jewels.  The pope then says, “Peter can no longer say, ‘Silver and Gold have I none!”  To which, Aquinas replied, “And neither can he say, ‘Rise up and walk in the Name of Jesus!”  This highlights an age-old problem of becoming rich, comfortable, and uninterested in the work that God is wanting to do.  God help us not to love the world and the things of this world to the point where we become irrelevant to His daily work.

There have been many charlatans with “healing ministries” through the years.  However, Peter is no charlatan who is looking for fame on TV and an empire that has a constant flow of money into its coffers.  Peter commands the man to rise up in the name of Jesus, while at the same time taking him by the hand and pulling him up.  This took a lot of faith on Peter’s part.  However, he was full of the Holy Spirit and in some way knew that this was God’s plan.

It is easy to think that the man asked for money, but received what he really needed.  This may be true, but on a deeper level than we think.  What good does physical healing do if a person does not become a believer in Jesus?  Think about the amazing medical technology that we have amassed in our world.  Who needs a healing Jesus when we can solve the maladies of the world through science and technologies developed off of it?  Of course, we can recognize that there are still sick people in our world today.  Technology is not yet the god that the world wishes it to be.  Second of all, what good does a perfect body that has never been sick do for the person who never puts their faith in Christ?  Yes, the person struggling with disease generally needs people around them that will help them, whether physically, monetarily, or both.  However, fixing the disease will only make a difference in their natural life.  Ultimately, we all need to come to faith in Jesus more than we need the troubles of our life fixed.  It is in the difficult times that we learn to trust more in God.

If I have money to give to a person who is in a difficult situation, then that is good.  If I pray for them to be healed, and God heals them, then that is even better.  However, if they do not put their faith in Jesus as their Lord and Savior, then neither of those things will truly benefit them.  No amount of charitable giving, or healings, can fix the need of a soul to have its sins covered by the grace of Jesus made available through his death on the cross.

Think of it.  These weren’t even atrophied muscles.  He had never walked for over 40 years, and yet strength came into his legs, ankles and feet immediately.  This man was blown away.  He wasn’t healed in the name of Peter, or a particular ministry, or church.  He was healed in the name of Jesus.  Peter made it clear that he was representing Jesus, not himself.

They enter into the temple praising God.  The word for temple here doesn’t mean the main building where the Holy place was.  Only the high priest could enter there.  It means the temple compound, the large, flat structure upon which the temple building was built.  It is unlikely that he had ever been able to go in.  His job was to beg at the gate, but now he has something to praise God about, and he is leaping, shouting, and making no small commotion.

How many times can we indignantly look at others who are entirely too bubbly about praising God?  Yes, sometimes people can be putting on a show, but how do you know?  And, is your heart in the right place?  Excited praise is not always pretense.  Sometimes God has done amazing things in a person’s life.  Sometimes a person has learned to see the amazing grace of God that they are swimming in despite the lack of a healing, or miracle, or money.

Let us recognize that God does care about the poor and the needy even if they continue to be so.  It is not typically the rich and the healthy who are jumping up and down praising God, if they even go to church.  There is a day coming when God will wipe away every tear and restore all broken things to a pristine condition.  Where will I be on that day? 

Let’s be a people who are not so full of this worlds comforts that we have lost sight of the heart of God!

Responding to the Holy Spirit- Part 3

1 John 2:18-19; Mark 4:5-6, 16-17; Mark 4:7, 18-19.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on November 7, 2021.

Last week, we looked at those unbelievers who positively respond to the Holy Spirit.  The image of the chaste, virginal, engaged bride is used of those who keep faithful to him in this life.

Today, we are going to talk about the reality that not everyone who becomes a “Christian” is a believer, or remains a believer.  This is quite evident when you read some of the polls that are put out by the Barna Group.  Many people still like holding on to the label, but they aren’t holding on to the one it points to.  The former is useless without the latter.

Let’s get into our first passage.

Some who appear to believe never did

In 1 John 2:18-19, John is speaking about The Antichrist of the last days, and then transitions to talking about the many antichrists that were in his day.  Notice, though, where these antichrists came from, in verse 19.  “They went out from us…,” says John. In other words, these were people who were apart of the Church, “Christians,” for a time, but then left.  He calls them antichrists because they were leaving Christ behind, or at least the true Christ, and going after the spirit of this world.  John recognizes that such people were never really “of us.”  They can hang around the group for a long time, or they can be exposed and move on rather quickly.  Either way, these are people who were never really saved.  These are sometimes called false converts, or a false conversion.  They say the right words, join a church, and find a niche in it.  However, there heart is not with Jesus and His Spirit.

John knew that the people he was writing to were genuine.  Those who left did so because they weren’t.  In fact, they did so because they were really against all that is Christ, whether they understood that at first or not.  There can be a wide variety of reasons that people would come into the Church and not truly believe.  Some are not told the whole gospel and come in hoping for “there best life now.”  Others are charlatans and see the Church opportunistically. 

This raises a question.  Wasn’t the Apostle John guilty of this same thing when he left the synagogues of Jerusalem?  Of course, we should see that this question only looks at the issues superficially.  It is the same mistake that the false convert makes.  It looks like it is similar (i.e., one person leaving a larger group), but this doesn’t automatically make John an antichrist.

The truth is that the disciples of Christ were pushed out by persecution.  They were following the God that their leaders claimed to be following.  The problem is not a person leaving the group, but whether or not we are following Jesus.

This happens all the time in history.  Martin Luther of Germany was only wanting to see the Roman Catholic Church reformed, but they sought to put him to death.  Yes, he went out from the RCC, but it had become run by antichrists who stood in the way of God’s Spirit.  This is what John and the apostles faced in the first century.  The leaders of Israel had become antichrist (anti-messiah).  Oh, they gave lip service to a figment of their imagination upon which they put the label of “Messiah.”  But, when the true Messiah showed up, they hated him with a passion.  The institution had become antichrist, and true believers not only shouldn’t stay within it, but in fact, they would be put to death or pushed out.  This similar dynamic happened with in the Protestant Churches almost 400 years later with the rise of Pentecostalism.  These people were often run out of Protestant churches who should have known better from their own experience with Rome.

We see here that those who are not truly believers will generally leave a godly church.  However, some will remain, and over time (as they increase), they can come to influence the institution, even take it over.  This is not a problem for those other denominations.  It is a problem for any denomination of believers who are pushed out of antichrist systems.  Whatever they build will come under the same dynamics of the prior institution.  Constant vigilance and repentance are necessary to keep a church or denomination from becoming antichrist.

Of course, I will briefly recognize that some people who leave groups and start new ones are actually antichrist.  Yes, the antichrist spirit has raised up “churches” as well.

Perhaps, Judas was of this group.  It is most likely that he never believed because we see early on that he was already pilfering money out of the ministry fund long before he ever betrayed Jesus.  However, we should not be dogmatic on that point.  Yet, it is good to see that betrayal is exactly what spiritual adultery is.  The things that I have described here are exactly that, spiritual adultery.  We were called to be a faithful engaged bride, but instead, they go after a different christ, a different spirit.

Let’s look at another problem in the Parable of the Soils.

Some who believe fall from faith later

In Mark 4, the Parable of the Soils opens the chapter as Jesus refers to 4 types of soil.  Later in the chapter, he gives his disciples an interpretation of the parable.  I want to look at two of those soil types.  We will look at both the parable and the interpretation for each, one at a time.

I would say that for this group we might not use the term false conversion, though some people do.  However, we should notice that Jesus never questions the sincerity of the response to the Holy Spirit and the implanted word for each of these soils.  The problem is that something causes their early faith to fall short of the goal.  Let’s look at the stony soil in verses 5-6, and then interpreted in 16-17.

Here, we are told about a soil that is filled with many stones.  The Word of God is unable to put down deep roots.  Jesus doesn’t get into what the rocks represent.  What is it in a Christian’s life that would keep the Word from putting down deep roots?  Perhaps, it is a pet sin of which we are avoiding God’s conviction.  It might be unforgiveness and a root of bitterness that we refuse to dig out.  Regardless, we are told that the growth caused by the Word withers during a time of trial, when the heat is turned up on them.  When our faith withers, it is directly connected to the withering effect of God’s Word upon our hearts and lives.

It is important to respond to God’s Word in our lives so that it can put some deep roots into our souls.  This only comes through responding to it in the works of repentance and the works of faith.  I say it that way on purpose because we are often unbalanced on the concept of works.  There are works that are acceptable to God, those done in response to the Spirit by faith in Jesus.

Jesus pictures the hot sun as tribulation and trials.  We all have trials.  In fact, Acts 14:22 tells us that part of Paul’s message was exhorting people to stay in the faith and not walk away.  “We must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God.”  God help us to dig up and roll out of the field of our life, those stones that may be preventing the Word of God from growing deep into our life.

The second problem soil is found in verse 7, and then interpreted in verses 18-19.  It is the thorny soil.  If the brute force of trials doesn’t knock out our faith, the seductive pull of the things of this world may work.  Jesus describes the problem thorns, weeds, as: the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things.

The cares of this world, the things that we fret over, can be things that are bad or good.  Jobs, houses, spouses, etc., can be things that we become so consumed with that it chokes God’s word from growing within us.  Notice that it is not just riches, but that the allure of riches is itself a deceit.  How many times do Christians think that the answer will come with more money?  The idea that money can solve your problems is a deceptive idea.  The third category is very general and pretty much covers anything that we desire that is not Jesus and His Kingdom.  Clearly, Jesus is talking about things in the natural that are part of this life.

In 2 Timothy 4:10, Paul refers to Demas forsaking him.  Demas was a companion and helper of Paul who is mentioned in the books of Colossians, and Philippians.  He had been with Paul through many difficult things, but this last situation, where Paul was imprisoned in the dungeons of Rome and did not look to get out, was too much for him.  Demas didn’t just forsake Paul.  Paul saw that his real problem was his “having loved this present world.”  Most likely he was afraid of death for himself.  It might be that he was tired of not having anything because his whole life had been helping Paul and pursuing God’s Kingdom.  Some Christians every day come to a point where God’s Word is so choked out in their life that they fall away from faith in Jesus.  They may grow weary of serving others and choose to “live for myself,” in life.  Regardless, if the Word is choked out, then the Holy Spirit’s conviction is choked out.  He then becomes grieved, until we one day don’t realize that He has left us.  Guard your heart from these things that come between us and our Lord.

Let me close by mentioning that both of these problems may or may not quit being religious, and going to church, even leading a church.  Like I said earlier, over time some churches and whole denominations have come to a place where they are led by a majority of men and women who are no longer true believers in Jesus and his Word.  They are no longer followers of the Holy Spirit.  Don’t get me wrong.  Most of them would be incensed if someone told them that this was the case.  Caiaphas the High Priest of Israel was such a man.  They have loved this world more than Christ, and they co-opt his Church for their own purposes, which they may believe to be Christ’s.  Like the Pharisees and Sadducees before them, they have become dressed up on the outside, but inside they are dead man’s bones.

Oh, friend, guard your heart and beware the things of this life that will choke out God’s Word from growing his righteousness within you.