What Does God Really Want from Me? Part 6

1 Peter 4:10-11.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, February 20, 2022.

We continue today looking at the third purpose of serving one another selflessly through the natural and spiritual gifts that God has given us.  We are going to go back to 1 Peter 4, which we looked at during the purpose of spiritual growth.  You might read verses 7-9 just to refresh yourself on the context.

God gives gifts among us

Peter has been teaching us that a follower of Jesus will live in the light of the truth that all things are under the judgment of God.  Instead of looking at the things of this world and this life with the eyes of flesh, we look at them for the purposes of Christ. 

Part of that is loving one another.  In verse 10, Peter points each one of us to the gifts that we have received from God, and he tells us to use them to serve one another.  This is his main point.  It reminds us that we have the gifts we have in our life for God’s purpose and not just to bless ourselves.

Before we get into serving one another, notice at the end of verse 10 the phrase that Peter uses to describe how we should serve, “as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.”

Everything started and will end with the grace of God.  Peter tells us that it is a manifold grace.  The word manifold means that there are different kinds of God’s grace and lots of them.  They are spread all over the world and some of those are gifts are within ourselves.  We have received them from God.  Imagine all of the things that are the grace of God that are all around us, and which we often take for granted.  This great diversity of God’s grace comes to all of us.  However, part of this sea of grace in which we swim is a particular gift that God gives to each one of us.

The word that is used for gift is where we get the word charisma.  Now, there is a Greek word for a gift that emphasizes that it is something that has been given.  However, the word used for gift here emphasizes that it is a result of grace.  It is literally the word grace and a suffix that tells us it is a result of grace, a gracious thing, thus a gift that has been given to us.

This word is used by Paul in the context of spiritual gifts, but it doesn’t only mean spiritual gifts like: healing, prophecy, a word of wisdom, and all the others.  It is a general term that speaks to both the natural and the spiritual gifts that God has given us.  The gifts that He has spread out among us are just a small part of His provision of a smorgasbord of grace.

Now, Peter gives two examples of gifts in verse 11: the gift of speaking, and the gift of serving.  These gifts are not a badge of honor to distinguish us from one another, but as an empowerment to do a service for God among one another.  This empowerment, or enabling, is two-fold.

First, there is the giving of the gift into our life.  Peter tells us to be good stewards, good managers, of this gift that God has given us, and to use it to serve others.  This is a way in which we love one another as he told us in verse 8.  However, it takes time to discover the gift that God has put in you.  Am I a stingy manager, or am I a manager who is using all of the stock for my own pleasure?  Am I a faithful manager who is serving others on behalf of Jesus?

Second, there is an enabling that comes from God as we step forward in faith to exercise our gift.  He enables us in the moment of serving and speaking.  In verse 11, Peter says that we should do so with the strength, and ability, which God supplies. 

It can be easy to be intimidated and shrink away from trying to bless others, but God is calling us to step out in faith out of a motivation of loving one another, and a motivation of faith in God’s enabling.

We must always keep this ultimate purpose in mind.  Serving others is God’s purpose in my life, but it serves a greater purpose too.  It brings glory to God the Father through Jesus Christ.  As Christians, we are representatives of Jesus.  It is important that we are connected to him, growing to be like him, and serving like him.

Just as the only way to the Father is through Jesus, so the only way to bring glory to Him is through Jesus.  Jesus is the solid ground (foundation) upon which we stand, and He is the strength and empowerment by which we do so.  Also, He is the one that we will be like when He is finished working on us in this life.  He is the one to whom belongs all the glory, and all the power of ruling, in this universe. 

Always remember that when you serve others, you enter into this holy act of bringing glory to God and take your place beside the Lord Jesus Christ.  May God help us to selflessly serve one another and bring glory to God the Father!

Serve part 6 audio

What Does God Really Want from Me? Part 3

Grow Spiritually through Intentionally Becoming Like Jesus

John 15:1-8.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, January 30, 2022.

What does God really want from me?  We are answering this question in a series of sermons of which this is the third.

Our last two sermons focused on God’s desire for us to connect to Jesus through whole life Worship and to connect to his people through authentic relationships.  Everything starts there.  Without a real connection to Jesus, we will not be able to connect to His people.  These other purposes then become a lifeless exercise of a moral do-gooder, as they say.

So now, we move to the next purpose that God has for us, spiritual growth.  God wants us to grow spiritually through intentionally becoming like Jesus.

Similar to how connecting had an individual aspect and a corporate aspect to it, so too, there is a personal and group dynamic to our spiritual growth.

Also, don’t forget that at the heart of each of these purposes is the demonstration that Jesus is worthy of our whole life.  The way I connect spiritually and grow spiritually either tells God that He is worthy, or it tells Him that I’m only interested in doing it my way.  Thus, it is not merely a box to check off of a list. 

We are going to see in our passage that a true living connection will always create true growth.  Let’s look at John 15:1-8.

The Analogy of Spiritual Growth

Jesus shared this analogy with his disciples depicting spiritual growth.  This vine imagery is used of Israel by the prophets, so it would have been very familiar to the disciples.  Here are some examples: Psalm 80:15; Isaiah 5; Jeremiah 12:10f; and Malachi 4:1-2.  In this analogy, Jesus explains what the important elements are portraying right up front.

First of all, Jesus is the true vine.  The use of the adjective “true” should not be overlooked.  There is a true vine, but there are also false fines in this world.  Those false vines beckon for us to connect to them.  Deuteronomy 32:32-33 calls it a Vine of Sodom.

³² For their vine is of the vine of Sodom and of the fields of Gomorrah;
Their grapes are grapes of gall, their clusters are bitter.
³³ Their wine is the poison of serpents, and the cruel venom of cobras.

This is the vine that we were tied into before we came to Jesus.  It promises life, but, in the end, it sucks the life out of you.  There is no vine like Jesus.  He gives true life, and enables us to bear true fruit.

This vine imagery is mixed with another agricultural metaphor, the fruit tree.  God warned with the prophets that the fruit tree of Israel would be chopped down, but out of the stump a branch from the root of Jesse would grow up and become bigger than the original tree.  This is true also of the vineyard.  God spoke of Israel as His vineyard.  The vineyard has gone bad and sour, but a branch or a vine will grow up from the Lord to rebuild the vineyard.

Next in verse 1, we are told that the Father is the pruner.  There is a contrast between the word for “takes away” in verse 2 and “prune” in that same verse.  They both involve cutting, but one is a lopping off of the whole branch, whereas the second, is to cut out smaller parts of the branch so that it can be fruitful.  God is not quick on the trigger of lopping people off of the true vine, but He will if He has to do so for the sake of the other branches.

Another important point is that the word for “prune” in verse 2 and “clean” in verse 3 is the same word.  It essentially means to clean.  Thus, pruning was seen as cleaning a branch.  You remove the dead stuff, and make room for growth by also getting rid of perfectly good parts of the branch so that oxygen and sunlight can reach the fruit well.

This shows us a distinction in the work of the Son and the Father.  The Son’s job is to make a connection with us so life can flow into us.  The Father’s job is to maintenance the vine and everything connected to it.

The disciples of Jesus are, of course, the branches in this analogy.  In fact, anyone who believes today is a branch on the true vine of Jesus.  The analogy is showing that we are intended to be fruitful for The One who owns the vineyard.  Now, can you see why connection is so important?  It is what enables us to grow.

Now that we have all of the important elements of this analogy, let’s look at the teaching that Jesus gives us about spiritual growth.

The Truth about Spiritual Growth

There are many people who become disciples of Jesus, but that doesn’t mean that they are truly disciples of Jesus.  The truth is that there are fruitful and unfruitful disciples of Jesus.

We can be tempted to think of this as being about people who are strong and can “get it done,” versus people who are weak and don’t.  However, Jesus points to something more fundamental that just production.

Perhaps first, we should ask ourselves what is meant by “fruitful.”  It would be easy to only think of this as bringing other people to Christ.  This would be fruitful.  However, it is far more likely that Jesus sees fruitfulness here as being transformed by our living connection to him.  Over time a believer that has a living connection to Jesus will become more like Jesus.  Of course, this is not a mystical thing.  Jesus explains to us exactly why some disciples fail to become like him, and others do.

Twice in a row, in verses 4 and 5, Jesus tells them that they must “abide” in him, or “remain” in him in order to be fruitful.  At first, it just looks like God is getting rid of dead wood.  However, Jesus then explains that if you are really connected to him, you will bear fruit.  Thus, we are left with only one reason why the “lopped off” branches were unfruitful.  They lacked a real living connection to Jesus.

We can try and blame things on God, but that is a no-win game.  Jesus really is life, and if you really connect to him, his life will really flow into you.  The life that is within Jesus will flow into your life and it cannot help but make a change.

Jesus tells them that they are “clean,” or pruned, because of the word that he has spoken to them.  Of course, for us, it is the Bible, which is their accurate account of all that Jesus taught.  I must stay connected to the life of Jesus by daily taking in his word, and listening to the leading of the Holy Spirit.  As we hear the Word, and then do it, we are pruning off things like sin, and lazy habits, that keep us from being fruitful.  These for sure have to be cut out.  However, sometimes God prunes off things in our life that aren’t necessarily bad.  Just like a pruner removes good branches so that oxygen and sunlight can reach the fruit, so God calls us to remove things that are getting in the way of good growth. 

Sometimes people act like they don’t have time to read the Bible, or join a Bible Study.  Most likely, they have things in their life that are crowding out God’s word. 

Ask yourself, what is more important?  Nothing is more important than the word of God.  It is eternal life.

Let’s close by looking at verse 8.  Those who maintain a living connection to Jesus will glorify the Father.  Bearing fruit becomes another litmus test in the will of God.  Jesus is the first litmus test to those who claim to love God.  The real One True God sent Jesus.  If you really love God, then you will love Jesus.  Similarly, spiritual growth is the litmus test of whether or not I am truly connected to Christ.  You can try and fake it by making surface changes, but those changes will not be living changes, nor will they last.

The greatest way to show God the Father that He is the most important thing to you in the universe is to become like His Son, Jesus.  It is to say, “Yes,” to a life of discipleship.  If you are going to become like Jesus it will take a lot of repenting, a lot of studying God’s Word, a lot of introspection concerning what needs to change, and lastly perseverance, that is, not giving up.

The alternative is nothing to desire.  God is not playing games.  It is not enough to be in the right place and say the right things.  We must have a real living connection to Jesus by the Spirit of God and The Word.  Our life must really be that courageous life of fighting those battles, one by one.  Perhaps, we may lose one here or there.  Yet, always we will be helped by the God who loves us.

Grow 3 audio

Lessons from the Underground Church 6: The Moment of Crisis

This is a 13 week series that will not be posted on our website.  If you would like an audio of the sermon or a written article on the sermon contents then please contact the church at AbundantLifeEverett@frontier.com.  You can also leave a message at 425.438.1500.  Thank you for your interest.

The Cross of Jesus

Happy Resurrection Sunday!

John 12:20-26.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Resurrection Sunday, April 12, 2020.

Today, we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus from the dead as the Lord of Life!  We are going to put the Gospel of Mark on pause for a while, and we are going to turn to the cross of Jesus.  In the weeks ahead, I plan to walk through the purpose that God has for His Church and each individual who makes up that Church.

Now, for the topic at hand, many tyrannical places around the world despise the cross of Jesus.  This week stories came out of China telling how crosses were broken off of churches.  When the Byzantine Empire was taken out by Muslim armies, the churches would have their crosses removed.  The cross is the signature symbol of the Christian faith. 

Yet, even Jesus was troubled by the cross in his humanity.  There is a part in all of us that shrinks back from the cross and says, “Surely that can’t be necessary!”  Or, maybe we say, “Surely that can’t fix anything!”

I would like to present to you the only man who can both save the world, and save you as an individual.  From what, do you ask?  He can save you from everything.  He can save you from hopelessness, failure, physical maladies, the many forms of self-slavery that our cravings bring us, and even death itself.  Let’s look at our passage.

The cross is a demonstration of his glory

Our passage opens with some Greeks, who had come to Jerusalem for the feast of Passover, wanting to see Jesus.  Most likely, they desire some kind of audience where they might ask questions and learn about this Jesus first hand.

Remember that this is the final week before the crucifixion.  Jesus has been teaching in the Temple area while retiring to Bethany in the evenings.  Every day more and more Israelites arrive from around the world in order to participate in the Holy Day of Passover.  This is important because Jesus had made it clear that his focus was on the house of Israel and not the Gentiles up to this point.  This is not because he didn’t care about Gentiles, but rather, because he needed to reveal himself first to Israel.  It would be transformed Israelites who would then show Jesus to the rest of the world.

Before we move on, I would like to point out the interesting parallel here.  At his birth, Gentiles came from the East to worship him, and now at his death Gentiles come from the West to learn from him.  His life was and still is a magnet that draws all kinds of people from everywhere to him.

It doesn’t appear that Jesus granted these men their request.  Instead, he uses the opportunity to make several important points to the people listening to him.  As much as any of us may want to see Jesus, or God, in any particular way, we need to see him on the cross.  These Greeks are fascinated with what they have heard about Jesus.  Perhaps, they want to be wowed with his wisdom like the Queen of Sheba and Solomon.  Or, it is possible that they wanted a demonstration of his power through a miracle of some sort.  We all tend to approach Jesus with something in mind that we want to see, but what we “need” to see is something we would never think. 

Jesus refers to the cross as a time of his glorification.  The hour had come.  Now, things would change.  He would finally be glorified.  Of course, his disciples think they know what that means.  In our flesh, we all think of glory as something where we win and our enemies lose, and no doubt that is what is going to happen.  However, it will not look like winning for Jesus and it will not look like losing for his enemies.  These Greeks do not need to see Jesus as a teacher in Jerusalem who has all the answers.  Rather, they needed to see him in all of his glory. 

Typically, we picture the Second Coming as the glory of Jesus, and it is part of his glory.  However, we must not skip over the cross.  It was the beginning of his time of glory.  Can it be that dying on a cross was not the last part of his humiliation, but rather the beginning of his glory?  Or, perhaps we can describe it as a kind of twilight period of transitioning, where both exist and intermingle. 

Regardless, the world likes the message of a glorious savior to fix its problems.  Even today, it clamors looking for someone with all the answers.  Yet, the world does not see Jesus hanging on a cross as a glorious answer to their problems.

We can shout at God to come down out of the heavens to prove Himself, and yet, even then we want to control just how He does that.  Yes, God has come down out of the heavens, and He has pulled back the curtain of creation so that we can see Him, but not in the way that we are wanting.  To our flesh, the cross and glory are antonyms, but Jesus tells us that they are synonyms.  We need to see him on a cross, pause, and meditate on just why it is so glorious.

We are in a bind, both as a world and as individuals.  I can’t blame all the ills of the world upon society, and other nations.  No, I am guilty of my own sins and faults.  No amount of doing good can make up for the fact of the times that I didn’t do good.  I am continually heaping up more and more offenses against my fellow man and the God of heaven.

Jesus is the perfect Son of God who has come down from heaven, where he was safe and secure.  He made himself vulnerable by taking on flesh, and then he died in your place to pay the price for your sins.  His righteous act of sacrificing himself, outweighs every sin ever committed upon this planet.  It is that glorious and amazing.  The cross is intended to shock us out of our lethargy, and show us the depths of God’s love for each of us.  This is how much he loves us.  This is a glorious love.

Friend, understand just how much God loves you.  Yes, you are loved by your Father in heaven.  Without the cross, we wouldn’t understand just how far He is willing to go to save us.  With such a Father, we are never hopeless, though all the world be darkness.  Amen!

The cross is where he dies that we might live

The disciples had difficulty understanding the attempts of Jesus to tell them that he was going to be killed.  Part of that is because it seems like nothing can be accomplished by letting yourself be killed.  This is the amazing turning of the tables upon the devil and his cohorts.  Because of who he is, Jesus produces life for us through his death.

In verse 24, Jesus uses the metaphor of a grain of wheat.  The seed would normally be eaten, but then its life principle would be over.  If the seed is put in the ground instead then it produces much more grain than itself.  God has hardwired this teaching aid into His creation so that we can understand His power.  He has a plan that looks like a waste, but in the end, it produces more life than what you had.

This concept that life can come out of death is intended to give us hope.  The death of Jesus can produce life for you and me because he pays the price for our sins.  It is a legal action.

Yet, it is more than a legal action.  It is also an inspiring thing because he is going to tell us to follow him.  It is one thing for Jesus to die on our behalf, but quite another for him to tell us to follow him.  In a way, every generation of children watch their grandparents and parents marching ahead of them into death.  Why participate in such a macabre process?  Yet, if they have faith in God, they will grow up, create a family, grow old, and die in their own time.  The generation ahead of us marches forward challenging us to follow them.  There is life in this thing if you will just believe. 

In fact, there is life even on the other side of this thing.  The death and resurrection of Jesus gives proof and hope that God really does have a plan to resurrect all who believe in Jesus.  He will then set all things right, both spiritually and physically.  We will enter into new heavens and a new earth in order to receive the reward that only the Creator can give to us.

Ultimately, Jesus says that if he didn’t do this then God would remain alone.  Sure, it would be Father, Son and Holy Spirit, the eternal being who is also a community.  Yet, there would be no human children of God entering into His family.  I don’t think God processes aloneness like we do, but Scripture is clear.  He would rather die on a cross than go into eternity without His human family joining Him.

The cross is where we let go of our life, and serve him

In verse 25, Jesus makes one of his classic statements that is more than a challenge; it is a warning.  If I love my life then I am going to lose it.  It is generally the second part of the statement that causes people to balk.  “He who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.”

Here, Jesus describes a tension between this mortal life that we live and the eternal life that only God can give.  Let me quickly explain the hate part of this verse.  Some versions actually translate the word as “not love.”  Jesus does not want us to have a kind of neurotic hatred of ourselves.  The Semitic mindset used this word for a broad range that went from an extreme disgust and dislike of something, or someone, to simply not choosing something.  One example of this is found in Genesis 29, where it says that the Lord saw that Leah was hated (i.e. not loved like Rachel was).  Jacob had been tricked into marrying her, and then worked 7 more years for Rachel her sister, the one he wanted to marry in the first place.  There is no indication that Jacob mistreated Leah, despised her, or was ever mean to her, but in the end, he would always choose Rachel over the top of her.  That must have hurt a lot for her, but our culture wouldn’t use the word hate for that. 

Jesus is challenging us to choose Him over the top of our lives every time.  He wants us to follow him into his sufferings, not just suffering per se, but the sufferings that are encountered as we do what God wants us to do.  In this sense, we become pilgrims, sojourners, or strangers on this earth.  Yes, we love people and love the life that we are able to live here on the earth.  However, in the end, we are really living for Jesus and the eternal life that only he can give.  That is what he is telling us.

We are familiar with the phrase from Jesus, “Come, and follow me,” but verse 26 adds the word serve to this.  We cannot serve Jesus without actually following him. They are to be inseparably linked.  Many people have tried to serve Jesus without actually following him.  They served as deacons, pastors, archbishops, lay members, and even popes.  Yet, they will never follow Jesus to the cross where their self-will is put to death.  Jesus was dying to the self-life and living out the purposes of His Father in heaven.  In the end, the pretenders may look like they are serving Christ, but they won’t follow him completely.  They actually serve themselves with a thin veneer of service to Jesus to help them fit in.  We can’t serve Jesus and ourselves.  We will hate the one and follow the other eventually.

However, we should neither confuse salvation with service.  We are not saved by our service to Christ.  We are saved for service, among other purposes.  Our service is to flow from a heart of gratitude to the Savior for covering our sins, and turning us from the self-life to the life led by the Holy Spirit.  This situation is difficult and is much like Jacob having two wives.  It created many difficult moments between his wives and their children.  May God help us to choose Jesus over the top of our selfish desires because only he has the words of eternal life.

This passage ends with two promises for those who follow Jesus and serve him.  He promises us that we will be united with him.  Sometimes it may feel like we aren’t getting anywhere, but if our eyes are on Jesus then he is leading us to himself.  When we leave this earth, we will be in his presence and at his side, never to be separated again.  When Jesus comes back to earth, we will be resurrected and come back with him.

This leads to the second promise.  We will be honored by the Father.  The biggest part of that honor is to share in the honor of Jesus as he returns to judge mankind and set things right.  That can be a day of honor for you or a day of dishonor.  It is our choice now that determines which we will experience.

Today, the cross of Jesus has been set before you.  It is not a lovely sight for any to behold.  However, there is life on the other side, and what a life it is.  Don’t let the allure of this life and the promises of this world draw your heart away from the only hope that we have.  Christian, hold fast to Jesus and love him more than life itself.  Sinner, let go of your life and what you want it to be.  Instead, put your faith and hope in Jesus.  He alone knows the way to eternal life and a perfect world.  He alone actually loves you so much that he would die on a cross for you!

The Cross of Jesus audio