Such Love III

Subtitle: Let's Be A People of the Spirit

John 16:8-11; John 7:37-39; Romans 8:5-8.

This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, April 16, 2023.

We will continue to look at the great love of God towards humanity, but now we are going to emphasize our response to God's great love.  God's amazing overture of love calls for a response from each one of us.  Tragically, some reject His love.  How can we say no to such a love?  Yet, people do it every day.

Our focus today will be on becoming a people of the Spirit of God.  This wording is group-oriented, but we should also personalize it.  I want to be a person of the Spirit of God. 

This is as opposed to being a person of the flesh.  I will talk more about this later, but we should recognize that those who live for their flesh will end up serving the purposes of the devil, the prince of the power of the air, and the god of this world.  Through our bondage to sin, the devil manipulates us on levels that we are not fully aware.  However, the Christian is given freedom from that by the Spirit of God.

Let's look at our first passage.

He directs us to believe in Jesus  (John 16:8-11)

In this passage, we have Jesus explaining to his disciples that he will send another "comforter" to them after he leaves.  This is described further in verse 13 as the Spirit of Truth.  There is no question that this is speaking of the Holy Spirit, or the Spirit of God.

The word translated as "comforter" is a word that describes someone who comes alongside of you for what you need.  Since our needs are various, it is sometimes translated as Counselor, Advocate, Helper, etc.  The Holy Spirit is all of these things and more.  The translation is not as important as understanding what it is saying.  The Spirit would come to help them similar to the help Jesus was giving them, i.e., another Helper to be in his stead.

This sets up a great act of God's love.  He sends His Spirit to dwell within those who put their faith in Jesus.  This Spirit would then fill God's people to overflowing.  Thus, God's love took on the nature of a man, sacrificed that life on a cross for you and me, and then takes up residence within us by His Spirit.  No one back then deserved this, and we have not arrived at a place where we deserve it today.  God simply loves us this much.

Ultimately, humans were designed to operate within intimate relationship with God.  The humbling thing is that we go all over the place morally and spiritually when we do not have a relationship with God.  Without a faith relationship with God by the Holy Spirit, we are forever put off-balance by our flesh through sin.  If it weren't for the gracious work of God's Helper, the Spirit of Truth, the Spirit of God, we would never see our need for believing in Jesus.

In John 16, we see that the Spirit of God is working on people even before they believe in Jesus.  Verse 8 tells us that the Spirit helps unbelievers through the work of conviction.

What is meant by conviction?  The context would influence what is mainly in view.  In this case, it is not a Judgment Day senario, but the Spirit working on the heart of an unbeliever in the present age. 

There are typically three aspects that are tied to this biblical word translated as "convicted."  The first has to do with exposing them to the truth.  As unbelievers, we work very hard to avoid such exposures to truth.  We often minimize, or ridicule, them as they surface in our life and in our mind.  We will typically create mental refutations to these exposures to truth. 

However, the second aspect kicks in with the Holy Spirit refuting our refutations of the truth.  A person may respond in resistance to the Spirit's work of conviction, but they are being hemmed in by Him as life shows them the emptiness of their "fig-leaf" philosophies.  This continues an ever tightening case by the Spirit of God in a person's heart that continually brings them back to a decision point.  We either are moved closer to God or further away.  No one remains static precisely because of the work of God's Spirit.

This brings us to the third aspect of conviction.  It has to do with the concept of proving the truth.  This doesn't mean that the person must surrender.  It just means they reach a point where they are convinced that they do not have a good answer, and the truth stares them in the face proven by God.  God will not force anyone to love Him.  We all still have a choice.  However, to reject God over the top of such conviction is to sear your own conscience, to cauterize your own spiritual eyes, and to harden your heart.

This work of the Holy Spirit's conviction is happening in everyone's life until the day that they die.  We can often underestimate just how much the Holy Spirit has worked on people that we think will never be open to the Gospel.  Some shout the hardest against the Gospel because they are fighting what they secretly know to be true in their heart, and yet don't want to accept it.

Now that we have dealt with what conviction is, there are three particular truths that the Spirit is working to expose, to refute, and to prove to them.

The first of these is sin.  The Holy Spirit convicts sinners of the truth of their sin.  Our society makes a big deal over defining sin.  It wants to define sin because then you can game the system in order to declare yourself not a sinner.  Such definitions are based upon the whims and desires of society, or even myself personally.  Such definitions can never be trusted because a future society (tomorrow, next year, decades, or centuries later) will come up with different ones.  You can never trust such definitions.

This is why the heroes of yesterday are often crucified as the blasphemers of today.  For example, many women who fought for feminism through the last half century are now being thrown under the bus today for the new and improved righteous cause of transgenderism.  I am not commenting on either, but rather, I am pointing out the unstable nature of such ungodly definitions.

Thus, the Spirit convicts unbelievers of God's definition of sin.  That is often done through the effects of the sin and the things they experience throughout life.   By the way, the worst sin really is unbelief.  The two thieves on the crosses next to Jesus were both sinners.  However, the difference was that one believed on him and the other didn't.

We could bring up the Apostle Paul as well.  He is forgiven of murder because he put his faith in Jesus.  However, he is not running around pretending like that is no big deal.  Rather, he pleads with others to join him in this deadly serious love of God.

The second thing the Holy Spirit convicts people about is righteousness, first, that they have none, and second, that Jesus has enough to save all of us.  Most humans are inclined to think that they are good enough, whether they believe in heaven or not.  Notice that Jesus says that the Holy Spirit convicts us of righteousness because Jesus went to the Father.  While Jesus was still on this earth, the people could see for themselves the righteousness of God.  Even sinners instinctively knew that there was something convincing about the righteousness of Christ that was missing in the lives of the Sadducees and the Pharisees.  With Jesus gone, the Holy Spirit is needed to replace that perfect witness.  We need the righteousness of Jesus.

The third thing the Holy Spirit convicts the unbeliever of is judgment.  He convinces us that God's judgment is looming over the heads of the whole world, but also ourselves individually.  He connects this to the fact that the ruler of this world has been judged.  He refers to the devil here, who is the ruler by the fact of his manipulation of sinful men.  If the ruler of this world is judged, then so too are those who serve his purposes.  The Spirit of God convicts us that we are on the wrong side and will not survive judgment, whether globally or individually.

Let's go to our second passage.

He works within the believer  (John 6:37-39)

A convicted sinner is readied and prompted to come to Jesus in faith, to switch their allegiance to Jesus.  In this passage, Jesus gives a promise to those who will come to him in faith.  That promise is the Holy Spirit.

Jesus pictures the Spirit as a river of living water flowing out of the heart of a person who comes to Jesus and drinks of him.  Just as a watershed captures the water that falls upon it and channels it through the ground to streams, then to creeks, and eventually to a river, so too the believer will receive water from Christ that will come forth from their heart like a river of living water.  Some rivers are bigger than others, but he speaks of the Holy Spirit who is immeasurable by definition.

This reminds me of Ezekiel 47.  There, he has a vision of water coming out from the threshold of the temple.  The further out it goes the deeper it becomes, until it ends up at the Dead Sea.  It begins to cure the waters of the Dead Sea until all manner of fish and plants are living in and around it. 

This is a picture of the individual who has the river of living water, the Holy Spirit, springing up within their soul.  Believers should not be a Dead Sea that hoovers up all the grace that God sends its way, but without cooperation with the purposes of God.  We can be like a person eating a plate of "grace" with our head down crying out, "I'm running out; Give me more!"  God help us to wake up to the vast volume of grace that He is pouring out upon us, and see it for what it is, a holy thing from Him.  May we treat it as such.

Instead of fighting against the external workings of the Holy Spirit as unbelievers do, the believer is pictured as cooperating with the internal working of the Holy Spirit.  The same Spirit that led us to believe in Jesus will now work within us to make us a new creation: a disciple of Jesus, and a child of God.  We allow the Spirit of God to spring up within us, and then flow out through us to be a blessing to the people around us.  We are to be a source of the Spirit of God to the people in our life.

Yes, it is true that they don't need people to have the Holy Spirit working upon them.  However,  the work of the Holy Spirit on their conscience is like mercy drops in the dessert.  It is not intended to take the place of our submission to God's will.  The Spirit of God ALSO wants to work through us so that they will hear from Him like a river of living water.  That is so much better than an either-or scenario.

Jesus is telling us that we will become like a river of living water if we come to him in faith.  This is God's purpose and plan.  It will always be more than you ever knew it was because you are cooperating with an unlimited being.  You may feel like you really messed it up.  Yet, ten years later a person is sharing a testimony about how the Spirit of God really broke through to them by your willingness to be used of God.

Yet, even Christians have their struggles with the work of the Holy Spirit in their life. This brings us to our last passage.

Our flesh is hostile to the Spirit of God  (Romans 8:5-8)

In many passages, the apostles use the words body and flesh.  The body speaks of the organized system of physical appendages, organs, and other things, working together in a body system.  It emphasizes the natural and physical aspect of a human, pretty much what you thought.

Flesh can be used as a synonym for body, but also can take on an added sense that body does not have.  It can point to a nature that is rooted in the body, its senses, and desires.  It is sometimes translated as "sinful nature," and this is close.  It would perhaps be better to think of it as a nature that is rooted in the bodily sense, which leads to bondage to sin.  This nature is bent towards the pleasures of the body as opposed to what?  It is as opposed to being rooted in God Himself, the Spirit.

This is what Paul is talking about when he says that our flesh is hostile to the Spirit of God.  We use our body against God's work, but that resistance is directed by an inner nature that is rooted in the wrong thing.

For an unbeliever to surrender to the Holy Spirit, there must be a dying to the desires of the flesh, and a coming alive to the Spirit of God.  This internal battle may have been won at the moment of believing upon Jesus.  However, there is still a battle to be fought.

The Holy Spirit takes up residence within the believer and begins to teach them to root themselves in Him, in Christ, instead of in the desires of the flesh.  Though the flesh has been defeated at this point, there are still innumerable ways in which our inner man is rooted in the sense of our body.  Over time, the Spirit helps us to gain victory over the flesh, i.e., less and less roots down into our sensual nature, and more and more roots into the Spirit of God.

I like the image of Joshua leading Israel into the Promised Land.  It is full of giants and walled cities, i.e., strongholds, but God has promised to giving them possession and victory little by little.  It didn't happen all in one day, otherwise they would not have been able to truly possess the land.  Similarly, Yeshua leads us into the inheritance of our own soul by placing his Spirit within us to help us gain the victory one day at a time, one battle at a time.  This will only be done by a person who lives for the Spirit of God instead of living for the flesh.

In verse 5, Paul talks about what we set our minds upon.  A person of the flesh thinks about the things of the flesh.  They are motivated by a lower nature that is rooted in the body.  It prompts their purpose and desire.  It supplies the "strength" and vigor that they have for going after these things.  Such people spend their lives seeking to maximize their pleasures and minimize their pain.

This doesn't always look the same.  There are some unbelievers that are extremely self-disciplined in order to make money.  Their life may look extremely disciplined compared to another person who is a believer.  We can make our life look extremely noble by working for the most pleasure for the most people.  However, if all of this is driven by our flesh, then it is still for ulterior motives.

Contrarily, a person of the Spirit has their mind set upon the purposes and desires of the Spirit of God, which are the purposes and desires of Jesus, which are the purposes and desires of the Father.  God wants us to help one another to walk by faith in Jesus in love for Him and one another.

Of course, we must be alert to the tactics of the devil, who uses the world around us as pressure and temptation to live for the flesh.  They fill their minds with all manner of fleshly things, but not of God.

So how does this look?  Let's use the example of planning for dinner.  Both the spiritual and the fleshly will eat dinner.  We will die if we go too long without eating.  Thus, the Bible in no way pictures a super-spiritual person never eating.  They will fast from time to time, but they won't entertain notions of never eating.  So, the true difference between fleshly and spiritual thinking goes to the purpose and desire behind it.  The fleshly person only thinks about things of the senses like: what food would I rather taste tonight, what food would best impress so-and-so, etc.  In fact, people may fight and argue over what is for dinner because they are rooted in the flesh.  However, a Christian should not think like this.  We eat in order to better serve the Lord and bring honor to Him.  We make sure that the people we love in our life are getting the nutrition and sustenance that they need because that is part of a parent's duty to their children and dependents.  All things are spiritual things if you are a spiritually minded person.  Whereas, all things are fleshly, including church, worship, prayer, etc., for those who are fleshly minded.  This is why some Christians in churches will fight over the style of music, color of the carpet, who gets the solo, etc.  Let us always ask the question of our Lord, "How can I best please you and honor you in this?

In verse 6, Paul emphasizes that each of these lives has an effect.  A life of the flesh is death.  It doesn't just produce death.  The underlying verbiage says that it is death.  We must ask ourselves,  "What is the fruit of my life?"  Is it pouring death into my relationships and soul?  The fleshly mind can never fix the spiritual problems of humanity.  It can only double down on the problem and create an even worse hell on earth.  In our great human wisdom, we make decisions based upon our gigantic fleshly appetites and hope for Utopia.  We can build all the hospitals we want and even create buildings for mixed worship of all religions, but these things will only bring about more spiritual death.

However, a life of the Spirit is life and peace.  We could even add Galatians 5:22, which speaks of: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness, and self-control.  All of these are different facets of God's life, the living waters of His Spirit.  It is possible to enjoy all of the goodness of God's creation and still miss His heart.  This is because we become too enamored with His gifts, and fail to look to the Giver behind the gifts.  It isn't always an either/or situation, but if we were forced to choose between Jesus and all of the comforts and pleasures this life offers, we should choose Jesus.  Yes, God made us to be able to bodily enjoy many things in this world.  But, He never intended us to be rooted in those pleasures and to live for them.

This brings us to the last question brought up by Paul's words.  In verse 7, the question is this.  To what am I hostile, and to what am I submitted?  The fleshly mind is at odds and hostile to the things of God.  The woman who broke the flask of oil upon the feet of Jesus did so because the Spirit of God moved upon her to do so.  However, fleshly minded disciples nearby judged her and openly castigated her for her actions.  The flesh always persecutes the Spirit.

James touches on this in James 4:4.  He warns us that friendship with the world is enmity with God.  He then boldly states that whoever wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God!  He is talking to Christians.  We should note how he addresses those "worldly Christians,"  adulterers and adulteresses!  To live in such a way is to be unfaithful to the Lord Jesus and the Spirit of God that He has placed within us.  Our proper place as a child of God is serving the purposes of our Lord and following His Spirit.  Instead, we are like a wayward spouse, and a prodigal son.  When Christians fall back into fleshly living, it is called spiritual adultery.  We become led by the lusts of our flesh, the lusts of our eyes, and the pride of life.  We may even make it look noble by loving each other in our sin more than the Lord who calls us to help one another live holy.

The grace of God is that Israel did not cease to be Israel when they failed.  When Christians fail, the Spirit of God works discipline in their life in order to bring them back to God.  When God convicts us, it is always, "Take my hand and live!  Let me save you!"  He didn't hang on the cross for us to be an adulterer, and He didn't supply His Spirit for us to ignore Him and live for the flesh.  However, His had can only save us in this life.  We should take hold of it today!

This world cannot be saved with more flesh, even a fleshly life that is covered over with a veneer of Christianity.  I believe that this is what the high priest represented in the days of Jesus.  He was internally a fleshly, spiritually plundered man, but it was covered over with a veneer of God's commands and duties.  He looked like he was serving God to some, but others saw through it.  When God showed up in the person of Jesus and through the power of the Spirit of God, he had nothing internally to hold up that veneer.  He folded and caved in spiritually.  His following of God crumbled before the truth of what he really was.  Christians can be in danger of walking this same path.

Praise God that our eternity does not depend upon just one of our choices.  However, we want to take every single choice seriously, every single day.

May God help us to be a people of the Spirit of God instead of a people who are ruled by the flesh, and therefore, the devil.  Let's be a people who are led by Christ through his Spirit to do the works of our Father in heaven.

People of the Spirit audio

The Acts of the Apostles 34

Subtitle: The Sin of Simon the Sorcerer

Acts 8:9-25.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on February 5, 2023.

We are going to look at a man named Simon in our text today.  He is often referred to as Simon Magus because it is a Latin transliteration of the underlying Greek term here.  Magus is behind our word for "magician," but this probably brings to mind something more like David Copperfield, an illusionist.  A magus would have trained in the occult, magical arts.  This is why I am using the term "sorcerer."  As in any field of endeavor, some were more adept than others in these arts.

We should note two things about this, whether we are talking about 20 centuries ago or today.  First, there are real evil spirits that some people are able to contact.  They can obtain information and a small degree of physical power through these spirits.  Of course, God warns us in the Bible against reaching out to such spirits because they are deceivers and manipulators. 

The second thing we should notice is that these sorcerers will, to more or less degree, employ trickery in their activity.  Sometimes a spiritist is 100% a trickster, a sham, a con artist.  Other times, there is a mixture.

An example from before 2nd century AD comes to us through Hyppolytus in his work The Refutation of all Heresies.  He tells the story of a sorcerer in Libya named Apsethus who trained parrots to say, "Apsethus is god."  He then released them in the area where they flew around saying that Apsethus was god.  This was used by him to manipulate the people to believe in his "magical" powers.  Apparently, a man figured out what was going on and captured some of the parrots.  He then taught the parrots to say, "Apsethus having caged us, compelled us to say Apsethus is a god."  Upon the release of the parrots, the Libyans were not happy with Apsethus and burned him to death.

Humans can be highly manipulable when we are not grounded in Truth.  Even many who give lip-service to Truth can find themselves being manipulated by others.

Today, we are going to talk about the importance of true repentance when we become a Christian, a follower of Jesus Christ.  Philip has been preaching at Samaria along with amazing signs and miracles happening.  This brings us to verse nine of this chapter, where we find that there is a man in the crowd who is a sorcerer. 

This sorcerer appears to be saved at first, but his actions will prove to be false.  He was not actually converted to putting his faith in Jesus Christ.  Outward appearance without inner repentance will always express itself outwardly over time.

Let's look at our passage.

The Samaritans and Simon respond to Philip's message (vs 9-13)

Verse 6 mentions that multitudes were heeding Philip's words because of the miracles they saw him doing.  This brings us to the man Simon.

We do not know much about this man.  He has a Hebrew name, which would not be uncommon for a Samaritan.  He would not be considered a good religious Samaritan because of his sorcery.  However, he would most likely be familiar with Samaritan religious thinking, and Judean religious thinking to some degree.

Somewhere along the line, he was attracted to the magical arts of the occult.  He would have studied it and practiced it until he was adept enough to make a name for himself.  This is what he had done at Samaria.  He had been able to convince them that he had great power, even astonishing them to the point that they called him "The Great Power of god" (I refuse to capitalize god in this case).  There is no description of what great things Simon did to deserve this title.  Whether he used tricks such as parrots, or he was in connection with evil spirits, Simon was taking advantage of their spiritual ignorance.

Are we any wiser today?  It is easy to think of these Samaritans as ignorant, but not to see how much we can be like them.  Are we any less "wowed" by people and exhibit worship like activity towards them?  We may not call them gods, but we often act as if they are.  Whole groups today can come under the powerful persuasion of an individual, or an ideology, and it doesn't have to be religious.

Yet, the power of the One True God showed up one day in the person of Philip the Evangelist.  God is always "messing" with our little human rackets.  The power of the Holy Spirit through Philip clearly eclipsed anything that Simon had been doing.  He knew that he could not compete with what Philip was doing.

We are told by Irenaeus, the Bishop of Lyon c. AD 120 to AD 150, that Simon Magus turned back to the dark arts and mixed Christianity with the occult.  This gave rise to what would later be called Gnosticism.

As the Samaritans are believing on Jesus and being baptized by Philip, Simon the "great sorcerer" was not leading in any capacity.  He wasn't leading against Philip and he wasn't leading towards Philip.  Simon was somewhat paralyzed by the power Philip displayed.  However, he gets in line of those who are saying they believe and want to be baptized in water.

I will point out, in light of the testimony of Hippolytus and others of the 2nd century, that it never says that Simon was saved, only that he believed.  What exactly did he believe?

Simon clearly made a confession of faith and he is baptized too.  However, biblical faith that saves has an object for which believe, i.e., a good future, and a subject (foundation) upon which, or because of which, we believe.  It is supposed to be Jesus and what he has done that upholds our faith that God will not judge us, but instead save us for eternity.  We are told by James that the demons believe in God (His existence); they even tremble (His power).  Yet, they do not mix such belief with faith upon Jesus and towards glorifying God.

This is important because some people treat water baptism almost as a magical thing itself.  The idea that water baptism itself causes a person to be regenerated, made spiritually alive, rather than faith alone is called baptismal regeneration.  Going through the "proper" ritual by an "authorized" representative is the typical mentality that tries to give people a stamp of approval based upon an outward action.  If a person has true faith, then there will be certain outward actions.  However, outward actions can be done without true faith in Jesus.  This means that the absence of outward confession and water baptism lets us know that there has not been an inner transformation.   But, the presence of outward confession and water baptism cannot reveal what is really going on in a heart.  Only time can reveal if true conversion has happened in a heart.

We are told that Simon attaches himself to Philip because of his amazement at the miracles that Philip was doing.  Simon is used to doing tricks and magical arts to astonish people, even if demonic power was involved as well.  He seems to be trying to figure out Philip's method, as well as enjoying the show.

In this text, there is no indication yet that his belief was false, or insincere.  Yet, he will prove not to be right before God. 

Isn't Philip filled with the Holy Spirit?  Shouldn't he have known that something was wrong with Simon?

There are reasons why God does things in a certain way.  Just because you have the Holy Spirit, it does not mean that He will reveal everything in the universe to you.  God has His purposes and reasons for doing what He does.  It is possible that God left Philip in the dark because He is setting up a clash between Simon the Sorcerer and Simon Peter the Apostle of Jesus Christ. 

Yes, God could have used Philip to do this, but He didn't.  It is not a matter of power, and not even a matter of position like we tend to think of it, i.e., only apostles can do this.  God was laying down the foundation of the Faith for His Church, so it was critical that these apostles be involved in the expansion of the Gospel from Jerusalem into Samaria.  It is not a deficiency in Philip, but in God's desire to use someone else.  We might find ourselves saying, "Why not me?"  And, it can sometimes be an envious thing.  We must stop this.  The Spirit of God distributes His gifts as He wills, and Christ deploys them as He wills.  It is not for us to whine and complain about how He uses us.  In fact, whining is a good way to be benched and receive discipline from the Lord.  No matter how gifted you are, you need the gifts of the Spirit working through other people to be ministered unto you.  The picture is all of the gifts of the Spirit working through each of us so that we all will be conformed to the image of Christ (Ephesians 4:11-16).  It is not about any one of us becoming The Great Power of God!

Simon's sin is revealed (vs 14-25)

It will be through the Apostle Peter that Simon's sin is revealed.  We wouldn't be human if we didn't fear having sin exposed.  This is part of sin's power.  It drills into your brain, "I can't be exposed!  It will ruin everything if it is!"  Of course, this is a lie.

Jesus said that you will know the Truth and the Truth will set you free.  Yes, knowing Jesus (who is the Truth) is important, but it is also the Truth about me.  I am a sinner and in bondage to sin.  When I face this, I can truly understand the offer that Jesus is giving to me.  We can make the mistake of trying to make people feel good by saying, "You're not really bad."  However, we diminish the love of God when we do so.  If I am all that and God loves me, then I will have an attitude that is entitled.  However, if I know that I am a sinner in bondage to sin, then the love of Christ catches me off-guard, and captures my heart with the unbelievable sacrifice that He made for whosoever will believe on him.  Hallelujah!  This is the grace of God to Simon that God sends someone to rebuke him of his sin.  At that point, true salvation can take place because Simon will be operating from a place of Truth and not deception.

It is from this part of the story that we see that Simon was not actually saved.

We are told in verse 14 that the apostles at Jerusalem "heard that Samaria had received the word of God."  It may be that Philip sent word, realizing that he would need some help.  He may also have wanted the apostles there to help supervise, or even out of respect  for their authority in Christ.

Next, we are told that the apostles decide to send Peter and John to them.  We could think of this as an inspection, but I am not so sure that is how it is functioning.  According to Ephesians 4:11-16, apostles are one of the gifts that Jesus has given to his Church.  It would then seem logical that some of them should go and be the blessing that God intended them to be in Samaria.  Notice that there is no hint that Peter is running the show.  The disciples appear to decide as a group.  However, there choice of Peter and John recognizes that God worked extraordinarily through Peter, even more than the other apostles, except Paul.  Paul himself recognized that God worked effectively through him among the Gentiles in the same way that God worked through Peter among the Jews (and we should add Samaritans- see Galatians 2:7-8).

These apostles of Jesus laid down a foundation for the early Church among the Jews, Samaritans, and the nations.  This gift of a sure foundation is important for us today.  We must build upon that foundation, and not try to see how far off of the foundation we can build without it all falling apart.  Yes, I know about the science of cantilevering.  However, there's no cantilevering in Jesus!

When the apostles arrive, we are told that they pray for the Samaritans to receive the Holy Spirit while laying their hands upon them.  We are not told why, but the Samaritans had only been baptized in the name of Jesus, and not yet baptized in the Holy Spirit.

The New Testament recognizes three baptisms among believers in that day.  The baptism of John the Baptist was a baptism of repentance that was to become ready for the Messiah.  This was specific repentance, but belief on the Messiah in general.  Jesus had not yet been revealed.  However, one day, John pointed out that Jesus was the lamb of God.  Baptism in the name of Jesus is still a baptism of repentance, but it also includes specifically believing that Jesus of Nazareth is that awaited Messiah.  From that moment on, the baptism of John would no longer be needed.  It's general function has now been specified in Jesus and by his apostles.

Baptism in the Holy Spirit was first shown in Acts chapter two.  You can think of it in this way.  At salvation, the Holy Spirit baptizes a person into the body of Christ.  This is the spiritual reality behind a godly person water baptizing one who has put their faith in Jesus.  At the baptism of the Holy Spirit, Jesus baptizes the believer into the Holy Spirit, completely immersed in God's Spirit (Matthew 3:11).

Another way of thinking about these two baptisms involves the picture of being filled.  At salvation, the Spirit of God takes up residence within a person.  However, at the baptism of the Holy Spirit, a person is completely filled with the Spirit to the point of it overflowing their life.  Jesus connected it to an empowering of the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:8).

That said, we can recognize that these Samaritans, who Philip baptized, were now believers in Jesus and the Holy Spirit had taken up residence within them.  This is a definite example of the Baptism of the Holy Spirit happening subsequent to salvation.

This same dynamic happened with the 120 Jews in Acts 2.  It seems illogical to say that they are not saved during those ten days that they are praying for the Holy Spirit.  Yet, we should recognize that the Bible never says that this is necessary.  A person can be saved and baptized in the Holy Spirit all at once.  God is able to do it as He wills.  This seems to be the case with Cornelius and those in his house in Acts 10:47. 

The apostles also placed their hands upon these Samaritans as they pray for them to receive the Holy Spirit.  This too is not a necessary component because we see the household of Cornelius being filled with the Holy Spirit without it, even as Peter is still preaching to them.  Thus, we should avoid terminology or ideology that treats the hands as if we are transmitting the Holy Spirit into people.  These hands are merely a symbol of the touch of God, and can be an aid to a person's faith in believing.

There is no ritual, or perfect way of doing things, to receive the Baptism in the Holy Spirit.  In fact, isn't that the kind of thinking that Simon the sorcerer would have, one of occult thinking, magical thinking?

Believers in Jesus should be water baptized and also pray to be baptized in the Holy Spirit, also called being filled with the Spirit.  We should not fret over the timing of this, but simply focus on looking to God in faith for what He has promised, and trusting that His timing is perfect for us.

It is at this point that Simon the sorcerer recognizes the laying on of hands coinciding with the being filled with the Holy Spirit.  We don't know exactly what he saw, but it was something visible to those watching.  Was it tongues of fire descending upon them like Acts 2 says?  Or, was it that they began to speak in tongues?  Regardless, Simon recognized that something significant was happening when the apostles laid hands on these believers and prayed for them to receive the Holy Spirit.

Simon offers money to the apostles so that they will give him this power, i.e., the ability to lay his hands on people and give them the Holy Spirit.  Let's be clear.  The New Testament never represents the apostles simply giving the power of the Holy Spirit to others.  They are cooperating with the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit is from God and is a being that comes upon people.  He is working with the apostles, not being divvied out by them.

Notice the occult thinking that Simon employs.  These men simply have a greater power than him and he can purchase the ability from them.  Like buying a spell book, or paying a master craftsman to teach him, Simon is simply trying to better his "spirit-powers."  Simon pictures himself in the driver's seat with this power, and no doubt, making a lot of money off of it.

We all have cultural thinking that can cloud how we respond to the Bible and God's things.  We also have another layer of trade-craft, or professional, thinking like Simon's occult training.  We see this with the Corinthians.  The Corinthian Christians were having trouble because they were trying to be a church while using their culture's thinking.  By the 10th and 11th centuries, there were several voices within Europe that spoke out against these practices slipping into the Church.  These issues continued and became a big part of the Reformation in AD 1530.  The things of God are not for sale, and those who sell them bring judgment upon themselves.

To this day, simony is a word used to describe the buying or selling of something spiritual, even a spiritual office.  It could be buying a position of authority within the Church, trying to buy the gifts of the spirit, or buying indulgences that purport to remove the guilt of sin.

Let me remind us of a story in 2 Kings 5.  This is the story of Naaman the Syrian General who becomes a leper.  Nothing can help him until he told about a prophet in Israel named Elisha.  Naaman travels to see Elisha and asks to be healed.  In the story, Elisha doesn't even come outside to see the General, but sends a message to him to go and dip seven times in the Jordan river.

This seems to upset the General.  Elisha doesn't do him the honor of speaking to him, and then tells him to dip in the Jordan, which he saw as a muddy river that was not on par with the rivers of Syria.  Naaman heads home in a huff, but one of his servants talks him into just trying it.  Naaman complies, and, when he comes up from dipping the seventh time, he is healed.

He then goes back to Elisha extremely thankful.  He wants to bless Elisha with the wealth that he had brought, but Elijah refuses to take anything.  There is nothing wrong with what Naaman is doing.  He is simply grateful.  However, Elijah knows that this is a critical witness to this Gentile and those who will hear his story back home.  This is a holy moment, and he would not mess it up by sending the message that the God of Israel, the One True God, can be bought with money.  The power and work of God is so precious (it is paid for by the blood of Jesus) that we cannot let ourselves mix it with money.

The story goes on because Elisha's servant Gehazi is shocked that they don't take any money.  He sneaks out and catches up with Naaman on the road.  He lies and says that his master has changed his mind.  Of course, Naaman is happy to give to him whatever he wants.  When Gehazi comes back, hiding the stuff, Elisha confronts him.  He is told that Naaman's leprosy would now cling to him.  Gehazi immediately became a leper and ran out of the house.

There is too much commercialization going on within the Church of Jesus.  We need to repent and become far more careful about the things of God because we are sending the wrong message to the world around us.  God is not pleased, and judgment will come upon us (is coming upon us even now).

In verse 20, Peter rebukes Simon and details his sin.  The true problem in Simon's heart is fourfold.

First, Simon thought he could buy the power of God.  God's favor cannot be purchased.  You can't give God enough money to obtain His love, favor, or spiritual power.  This is the wealthy man's short-cut, and will only bring condemnation.  I am not saying that positions on church boards and deals don't happen.  I am saying that those people are bringing condemnation upon themselves.  Do not be deceived by the slowness of God's judgment.  Your sins will find you out; they will catch up to  you in the end.

The second sin, Simon's heart is not right with God.  He is not agreeing with God that he has been living a life of sin, and he is not humbly crying out for God's forgiveness.  This is a heart that is right before God.  Even after God forgives us, we walk in humility before him and our fellow man.  Learning how to become more like Jesus, not how to obtain personal gain from this new group of people.

The third sin, Simon is poisoned by bitterness.  The Holy Spirit helps Peter to see that Simon is sweet on the outside, but inside he is seething with bitterness.  Most likely, he is bitter with Philip for messing up the sweet deal he had going in Samaria, and he is probably now bitter with Peter and John.  Pretense on the outside and bitterness on the inside is not a person surrendered before God.

Lastly, Simon is still a slave to unrighteousness.  He has not died to the old life, and the old man.  He is not only looking back, as Lot's wife did, but he really hasn't even left Sodom.  He has lost power and position, and all he can think about is how to recoup some of that power and position.  This kind of passive-aggressive behavior is not of the Lord and is not pleasing to Him.  Such people are always looking for an opportunity for themselves and will stab you in the back if they can.

True believers do not have to worry about such people.  Yes, they can cause difficulty and pain in your life, but if you are filled with the Spirit of God, then you He will work all things to your good.

Peter tells Simon to repent and ask God for forgiveness.  Peter even adds the suggestion that God is not obligated to forgive Simon.  I believe this is more to impress the seriousness of the situation upon him.

Simon still doesn't get it.  He begs Peter to pray for him.  He still sees Peter as the magician who can fix his problem.  No one can repent for you.  Simon needed to be broken of that pride and cry out to God for himself.

It doesn't say here, but tradition tells us that Simon went back to his magical arts, mixing Christianity with his occult teachings.  This becomes a new form of Gnosticism that tried to used Christian ideas as a vehicle for their spiritual virus.  The Bible simply turns from Simon and moves on.  Simon's opportunity had come and gone.  God's grace had come to him and he was missing it.

The apostles then preach throughout Samaria and head back to Jerusalem.

Let me close with this.  We should put Simon the Sorcerer completely out of our mind because many today have the same problem.  They see the Bible, Philip, Peter, and John as merely religious charlatans.  Yet, the Bible is the Word of God.  There is a real power of the Holy Spirit.  When God shows up, all of the false powers of this world (whether outside the Church or inside of it) will take a back seat.  There was something different about Jesus and his apostles.  This true power of God is able to help us to become like Jesus.  It is not a power to make me famous, or powerful in the group.  It is about helping others, and them helping us.  Jesus is the baptizer in the Holy Spirit.  Let's be a people who are not trying to buy the Holy Spirit, or be good enough to deserve it.  Rather, we come to Jesus by faith with hands open saying, "Lord Jesus, fill me that I might be used to bless others, and help me to receive the gifts of your Spirit through others.  Amen!"

Sorceror audio

The Acts of the Apostles 31

Subtitle: The Stoning of Stephen I

Acts 7:51-56.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on January 15, 2023.

As Stephen's defense comes to a close, we come to a bitter sweet event.  In some ways, this is an awesome story.  Stephen is standing up for Christ like a mighty warrior.  He is a good image of Jesus.  This here is some good imaging of our Lord.  At the same time, Stephen is winning the martyr's crown.

Yet, this story is also sad.  It is sad because he will be executed for believing in Jesus Christ as the Anointed Savior for Israel and for the whole world.  It is sad because the grace of God was rejected that day.

It is sweet because Stephen dies, and death holds no terrors for the believer.  O, yes, it does hold terror for our flesh.  We may all want to go to heaven to be with Jesus, but it is the dying part that makes us squeamish.  Not all deaths are equal.  Some pull their feet up into bed at night, go to sleep, and never wake up.  That's almost cheating!  However, others come to death through great torture and pain.

I have been reading about the Scottish Covenanters in the AD 1600s.  They were tortured greatly before being put to death, simply for not yielding to a king's demand that they worship Jesus in a particular way.  Yet, to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord where there is no pain and suffering.  To be die is to be free from the battles against sin and wickedness.

Yet, we must be careful.  Yes, I long to be with Jesus, but the battle for saving souls is important.  It was important enough for Jesus to come down and fight it with us.  In fact, he fought for us when we were without strength.  There is something good in the battle.  It helps us to be more like him.  Our day of vindication will come from the Lord in due time.

It is sad because in this one moment they will prove the words of Stephen, and in this one act, they will make his case for him.  They could have repented, but instead, they did to him what they had done to Jesus before him.

Let's look at our passage.

The conclusion of Stephen's defense (vs 51-56)

Stephen comes to the end of his defense with a very hard conclusion.  He tells them that they are resisting the Holy Spirit like their ancestors before them.  On top of this, he declares that they are uncircumcised in heart and ears.

These men would be shocked by such a statement.  Circumcision was an outward sign that they were a part of the covenant of Moses, a son of the law.  Not to be circumcised would be to have no inheritance in Israel.  Neither was this just a male thing.  Women were part of the inheritance through only marrying circumcised men.   

Yet, in Deuteronomy, Moses made it clear that this pointed to a spiritual thing.  God wanted them to circumcise their hearts.  Stephen adds the idea of circumcised ears here.  What does it mean?  It is a part of my nature that keeps me from hearing and being touched by what God is saying and doing.  It needs to be cut away so that we can be sensitive to God.  If I want to be able to hear God, then I must remove from myself that flesh which keeps me from hearing God.  We could use any of the senses, such as eyesight.  If I want to see God, feel God, then I need to take up the sword of the spirit and do my own spiritual circumcision.

When Stephen mentions that they are resisting the Holy Spirit just like their ancestors, it reminds me of times when one parent will say to the other, "Do you know what YOUR child did?"  These are Stephen's ancestors too.  Also, we can note that not all of their ancestors resisted the Holy Spirit.

It might be good to go back through Stephen's defense and not all the people who resisted the Holy Spirit and all those who were obedient to the Holy Spirit.  In fact, you could say that Israel came about as a nation because Nimrod led a rebellion against the Spirit of God.

Stephen's argument starts with Abraham.  God cast away the nations because of their rebellion, but then turns around and says to him, "Abram, come follow me!"  Abram believed God and receives the promise that will lead to the nation Israel, and the promise to bless the nations.

What about the patriarchs?  God raised up Joseph and gives him some special dreams.  The Spirit of God was on this boy!  But, what happens?  His brothers don't like it.  They persecute him, and no doubt, in their minds they are only persecuting a spoiled brat kid who thinks he is better than them.  However, they are resisting the Holy Spirit.  They could have said, "Hallelujah, God is really working through our little brother!  Maybe, I should get to a place where God can use me too."  Or, they could have said, "God is with our brother.  Let's help him and we will participate in the great thing that God is doing through him."  Instead, they hated "Little Joe," and wanted to kill him.

Do you remember Moses?  The people resisted Moses from the beginning even unto the end.  This same thing happens throughout their history.  God shows up and calls prophets, priests, and kings, and the nation resists.  This pattern of small groups touched by God and faithful to him, a repentant remnant, countered by a large group who are resistant and rebellious.

By the way, we should pay attention to the parable of Ishmael and Isaac.  The whole point is that it is not enough to be genetically descended from Abram.  The blessing would be upon those who were born of a miracle of God.  This child of the flesh contrasted to the child that is a miracle from God is meant for us to understand what God is doing.  What Abraham could not produce in his flesh, God produced by His Spirit.  We are all born of the will of a man and woman, of the flesh, an Ishmael.  But, the good news is that we can choose to be born again by putting our faith in God, in Jesus.  The physical birth cannot save us, only the spiritual birth can. 

Stephen is making the same spiritual point that Jesus made in John 8:37-47.  Go ahead and read it.  I will wait for you.....

Essentially Jesus tells them that they claim to be from Abraham, but they don't do the things that Abraham did.  Nothing went wrong in their genetics.  They are biologically descended from Abraham, but Jesus doesn't even bother with that part of the point.  He jumps right to the problem.  You are imaging your true father the devil.

This is not a physical thing that you are stuck in.  Some people try to make a big deal about the serpent-seed and people literally being children of the devil.  Or, some through theology make it out like you have no choice.  You were either born a child of the devil or of God.  You can't do anything about it.  That is not what I see in the Bible.  If you give the Bible to a farmer, or a shepherd, and they read the Bible, they will come to the conclusion that we have a real choice.  These guys had the Law of God and the witness of the prophets, but they refused to come into a spiritual relationship with the God of Abraham.  They remained children of the flesh instead of children born of a spiritual act of God.

I don't think any of the men on the Sanhedrin that day were purposefully choosing to image the devil, although it is possible some were mere posers.  Most likely they had fallen into it because they refused to have that relationship with God where they believed Him with all their heart.  They had been born into a system and a way of doing things that they didn't build.  I am sure that God was poking and prodding their hearts along the way.  Yet, they continued on without finding out what God was trying to say.  If you don't image God, you will automatically fall into imaging the devil.  You may start out trying to image your "true inner self."  However, the devil will manipulate you all day long.  He is the father of all rebellion.

This same dynamic exists in the Church.  It is not enough to be physically born into a church, or physically go to a church.  It is not enough to say with our lips that we love Jesus.  We must embrace Him in our heart and learn from him by taking his yoke upon us.  "Yes, Lord.  I will quit pulling my way, and will start pulling your way."  A young ox who is not used to using a yoke will be yoked in with an older experienced ox.  I wonder who the older experienced ox is with whom we are yoked?  It's Jesus!  And, believe me; he does the heavy lifting!

You may not like choosing sides, but sometimes God forces the issue through moral dilemmas that come our way.  Don't wait until you get into the moral dilemma.  Start today drawing near to God in prayer and seeking His readiness for the trials that lie ahead of us.

In verse 52, Stephen points out the unsavory truth.  Those ancestors persecuted the prophets and killed those who prophesied the coming of the Righteous One, the Messiah.  This was a common occurrence.  Later they would gather the writings of the prophet and decorate their grave like a shrine.  They might even have a holiday to remember old Saint Elijah et. al.  One might make the argument that none of these prophets were perfect.  How could God blame them for persecuting them.  Of course, we will embrace the Righteous One when he comes.  This bluff came to an end with Jesus.  He was the ultimate litmus test.  They had practiced so well with all of the prophets.  How could they not persecute and kill the Righteous One?

Had these guys learned the lesson?  Of course not.  They are now doing the same to the disciples of Jesus, and Stephen here.

Then we have the charge again.  You have betrayed and murdered Messiah (vs 52).  It is one thing to persecute or kill a servant of Messiah, but quite another to kill the Messiah.  It is not like God has a six-pack of Messiahs that He can send if we fail to recognize the first, second, third, etc.  They had been drawing near to God with their lips while their hearts remained far from Him.  Yet, the Lord is faithful in every generation.

How can you process the reality that you just killed the only Hope that God sent to fix everything wrong with this earth?  Sometimes we think that we are boxed in, that we can never yield and confess just how wrong and sinful we have been.  We might develop a kind of cognitive dissonance that fights against us accepting the impossible truth.  However, this is the very path of salvation.  God is so loving that He simply wants us to quit posing long enough to be truly converted.  Converted simply means to turn around.  It begins with the revelation of the Truth that I have not been in right relationship with God.  What will I do with that?  What should I do with that?  I should have a change of mind where I agree with God's Word, with God's Spirit, and I should confess with my mouth that His way is righteous and the only way for me.  I should turn around and follow Jesus by doing those actions of repentance to which he leads me.

Then in verse 53, he accuses them of not obeying the law that they pretended to be upholding and teaching others to obey.  In essence, they were frauds.  No one likes being called a fraud in public, and those who have power don't like it even more.  If someone were to stand up within the State of the Union speech in the House of Representatives and declare that everyone in that building were frauds, that they were not obeying the Constitution of these united States of America, it would not be received well.  That person would be bagged and tagged within seconds and the long knives would come out in every facet of our society.

The reality is that people like this have come to believe their own press.  They would say...  "The Constitution is what we say it is," just as these men would say, "The Law is what we say it is!  Who do you think you are?"

Yes, being exposed is never easy, but it is the only path back to life, to repentance, to Jesus.  Only the Truth can set you free!

At this point the leaders are gnashing their teeth at Stephen.  It is not going well.  If you were a preacher,  you would be praying, "Lord, what can I say to turn this around?"  It is at this point that God does a strange thing.  He gives Stephen a vision of the throne of God in heaven.  He see the Glory of God on the throne and Jesus standing at His right hand.  Stephen is so caught up in the surprise of it that he blurts out what he sees.  Like young Joseph who was excited to share his dream, but didn't understand completely the implications of sharing it, so Stephen goes from life to death.  God knew the hearts of the patriarchs and if they really knew God then they would have gladly bowed down to their little brother.  Why?  We would do so because we would know beyond the shadow of a doubt that whatever God has for me to do will make me more like Him.  It will increase my resemblance to Him and give me communion with He who is Life itself!  This Sanhedrin could not accept what Stephen said he saw.  If he wasn't already a dead man, this would seal the deal.

Why would God do that?  Jesus had warned the leaders of Israel in Matthew 23:34 that he would send them prophets and wise men, and that they would kill some of them.  If they thought Jesus was a one and done thing, and that they wouldn't have to make such a hard choice again, they were wrong.  God in His mercy will keep bringing us back around to repentance.  We may not like it, but He loves us too much not to try!  No one will be able to say on that day, "God, You didn't try hard enough!"  No, God puts us in a tighter and tighter place, forcing us to make a decision.  Which side am I on?

It doesn't matter who God uses to deliver.  What matters is that our God is great and can give us victory through anything.  He can use the guy who isn't even in the army.  He's just a young man bringing lunch for his older brothers.  Then he hears the big giant bellow while all of Israel is shaking in their tents in fear.  Perhaps they are all saying, "When is Saul going to go out and fight him?"  Yet, Saul is no doubt saying, "There is no way I can go out there and fight him!"  Saul who was head and shoulders above the men of Israel did not have enough of God to stand up that day.  Yet, the Spirit of God rises up in the young man David.  "Who is this uncircumcised (pause and think about that for a minute) Philistine to slander our God?"  Was there not 1 circumcised male in Israel who could have stood up to Goliath that day?  Why did God have to bring forth a young boy with lunch for his brothers?  Isn't the story greater because God uses an untrained fighter to take out a giant?  Doesn't it make the God of Israel even more awesome?  The truth is that it is kind of fun when God uses the least of us to spoil the enemy.  It shows His power instead of ours.  It puts fear in the hearts of our enemies in a way that defeat at the hands of Saul could have never done.

In our flesh, we become stuck on things like this.  Perhaps, it is because we just aren't quite converted yet; we haven't been bold enough to circumcise our heart yet.  Praise God that He is always working to bring us back to Him.

You might feel like God isn't doing you any favors, or only making it worse.  "Why did You let that happen, Lord.  Why did You do that?"  However, at the same time, it is the greatest grace of God to us.  Stephen was a blessed angel of Truth to this Sanhedrin.  The blazing, white-hot Truth about how they could participate in the Kingdom of God!  If we could only surrender to Him, we will later look back and see His great love drawing us in the perfect direction.  How blind am I?  Saul didn't know how blind he had been until Jesus knocked him off of his high horse, and blinded his eyes.

Maybe, I am fighting the very thing that is God's grace in my life.  Perhaps, this is the wisdom behind the verse, "In everything give thanks!"

Let's be honest.  Everyone of us has resisted and rebelled against the Holy Spirit at one time or another in our life.  Yet, the love of God didn't quit on you, and He doesn't quit on others.  It is His mercy.  He is not easily offended.  In truth, He cannot be offended.  He can only be rejected and lost forever to us, He who is the greatest good, the very definition of good!  Let us turn to God with a whole heart today and not resist the Holy Spirit!

Stoning I audio

The Acts of the Apostles 30

Subtitle: Stephen's Defense VI

Acts 7:44-50.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on January 8, 2023.

This is the sixth part of Stephen's defense before the Sanhedrin, Israel's high court at the time.  Stephen has reminded them of Abram's call, the Patriarchs, the first attempt of Moses to deliver Israel, God' sending of Moses back to deliver them, the events and prophecy of Moses in the wilderness, and now today, the tabernacle of witness.  The tabernacle is with them in the wilderness, but Stephen's point is significant enough to be broken out as its own point.  He is calling them to remember the Tabernacle of Witness.

Our church buildings are not simply houses of worship.  We sometimes use words without thinking through the full import of what they put across.  However, sometimes words and phrases are used to diffuse the truth of what God is doing in His Church.  We have seen in this Republic the tendency over the years to lump churches into the same boat as synagogues, mosques, scientology centers, wards, etc., with the phrase houses of worship.  Our laws are written equating all of these things, but they are not equal.  There is an intended spiritual sleight of speech that is being used to pigeon-hole Christians.

It would be more correct to call our church a house of the Lord, a house of Jesus, of Yeshua, of Yahweh.  It is a place that belongs to the God who created the universe, and to His Son, the Lord Jesus, God's Anointed Savior.

However, even this misses the greater point that we will talk about today, which is the point of the New Covenant, the New Testament.  It is not about the building, but about the people who gather there.  Everyone who has truly put their faith in Jesus has become a house of Yahweh, the place where His Spirit rests.  More than this, we are being built together into a greater house of Yahweh as a corporate tabernacle.

Think about how this would impact the Israelites of the first century A.D.  This place that was geographically located, and was restricted with laws that gave only the high priest access to the place of God's presence, would now be located within the hearts of believers, of me!  That which I had always been taught to treat as holy and sacred is now me.  I have become a special place where God wants to rest and commune.  Furthermore, the body of true believers are pictured by the apostle Peter as individual, living stones being mortared together by the Holy Spirit in order to create a group of people within whom the Spirit of God dwells.  There is something special, holy, sacred, and incredible about God's Church and their gatherings that the world cannot copy.  There is something special, holy sacred, and incredible about you when you put your faith in Jesus.

In fact, just as Leah and Rachel "built up the house of Israel," so the Church of Yahweh is built up as we walk in spiritual intimacy with God and birth new lives into the Kingdom of God.

No, we are not merely a house those worshiping the works of our hands and the desires of our hearts.  We belong to the King of kings and the Lord of lords over everything in the heavens and on the earth!

Let's look at our passage.

Remember the tabernacle of witness (vs. 44-50)

Stephen calls them to remember the tabernacle that was built in the wilderness.  The tabernacle was a portable tent structure that served as the place of sacrifice and meeting with God. 

The Bible uses several terms of the tabernacle. The first word, mishkan, simply means a dwelling place and is a reference to God dwelling within it.  The other word, ohel, also means dwelling, but at its root is the concept of skins, as in animal skins.  It most often is better translated as tent, even though it came to be used of even permanent structures as Israel transitioned from being a camping society (forty years in the wilderness) to a more established people.  The tabernacle was a tent-like structure with several layers of animal skins sheltering the Holy place, and the Holies of Holies.

Stephen uses the phrase Tabernacle of Witness, which in the Old Testament would actually be the Tent of Witness.  Incidentally, another phrase that is used is the Tabernacle of Meeting.  The word translated as meeting is hard to translate.  It refers to special appointed times, and was used of the feasts of the Lord, both as calendar dates to observe and as prophecies about special appointed times that they symbolized.  However, Stephen emphasizes the word "witness."  The tabernacle was not just the dwelling place of the God of Israel, but also represented His witness, His testimony to Israel and the world.  This word is used of the stone tablets that Moses brought down from the mountain.  He was told to place the Testimony, the Witness, into the ark of the covenant.  The ark was also referred to as the Ark of the Testimony, which was placed within the Tabernacle of Testimony.

The interesting thing about a witness, or testimony, is that it can have a warning aspect to it.  God's law and words to Israel were both a witness of the good that they should do and how God would respond, and a witness of the evil that would come upon them if they did not follow God.  Moses tells them, testifies on God's behalf, that they would be unfaithful to God and that God would kick them out of the land.  Yet, He would later restore them back to the land.  The testimony is a double-edged sword.

So, we should recognize that the testimony is that testimony that God has given of Himself, and it is connected to the place where He dwells.

Stephen points out that God appointed them to build the tabernacle, instructed Moses in how it was to be constructed, and lastly, accompanied those instructions with a visual.  Moses was God's mediator and would relay all of these instruction to them.

Stephen emphasizes in verse 44 that the Tabernacle was built "according to the pattern that he [Moses] had seen."  This comes from Exodus 25:40 where God reminds Moses to follow exactly the pattern that God had "shown him" on Mt. Sinai.

We get this picture in the Bible, and here, of God as a Master Builder.  I know that groups like the Freemasons make a big deal out of God as an Architect, but they are merely ripping off God's true nature for their own fleshly gain.  God is the builder of all creation, and He did not use random mutations to create it all.  When Chuckie Darwin introduced his book On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life (Yes, that is the full title), he believed that the cell would be confirmed as simply a box, like a Lego® brick.  He also mentioned that this theory required all things to be reducible.  You should be able to show how complex things like the eyeball could "evolve" from less complex things that originally had other purposes.  There would be a clear path of reducing an organism from a high level back to a single-celled level and even further.  Of course, over time science discovered that the cell is more complex than a modern city.  In fact, one protein is so complex that the odds of even the smallest of them being created through random mutations are astronomical, and that is just one aspect.  Another problem is that most mechanisms within different species are so complex that we find irreducible complexity.  Several things are useless in and of themselves, but work together to accomplish a particular function.

Though I have taken some time to show the weakness of the Theory of Evolution, it is weak particularly because of the master building, master engineering, that God has done in the creation.  Like any builder, God considered all that He would make in its design, but also in whether it would be worth it or not.  In eternity past, God determined it was worth it.  Remember, the next time you feel that life isn't worth it, that God has said it is worth it, has said that your life is worth it!  Can you trust Him?  He's got this!

God is the builder of David's dynasty, and Jesus is the builder of the Church and the New Jerusalem, its dwelling place for all eternity.  Hebrews 8:5 explains to us that the tabernacle was a copy, a shadow, of the heavenly dwelling of God.  So, God had shown Moses a pattern.  I don't think He showed him blueprints, but most likely gave him a glimpse of the heavenly tabernacle.    We will deal with this point more in a bit, but humans were also built, or fit, to be a dwelling place for God as a replica of the heavenly tabernacle. 

God is the builder of history.  He is the One who tears down and builds up.  No nation rises up or falls, but at God's command.  We will all serve Him.  We will either serve him in righteousness, worthy of reward, or serve His purposes through our wickedness, worthy of destruction.

Stephen then reminds them in verse 45 that the tabernacle was brought into the Promised Land and used up through the days of David, whom God used to conquer all the land that God was giving them.

This tabernacle was more than just a symbol, or a metaphor, for God's presence.  God's presence was actually localized there.  The cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night would actually come down upon the tabernacle and could be seen by the people.  This visible presence seems to move to inside of the temple at some point.  Eventually, the prophets would speak of the Spirit of God leaving the temple and it becoming ichabod, without [God's] glory.

This is in contrast to the temples of the nations surrounding Israel and those in Canaan that they had come to dispossess.  Those temples were ornate and probably made the tent structure that Israel had seem unimpressive.  However, they were mere fictions and wishful thinking that had been taught to them by fallen spiritual beings.  God did not inhabit their temples, and if anything was there, it was a worthless fallen entity that was powerless to help them against the One True God.

It is as if God sees what the nations are trying to do and decides to authorize Israel to make a true tabernacle for Him.  I am not saying that God is reactive because He would have seen this coming and already planned to work it into His purposes.  In fact, we should note the God who created the whole universe, seen and unseen, humbled Himself to be localized in some way in a tent structure in the wilderness with the people of Israel.  This building of dead skins represents when we die to our fleshly nature and become a dwelling place of His Holy Spirit.  It is not the thing that God is wanting, but is only a stepping stone, a prototype that helps us to see.

It was perhaps looking at the temples of the surrounding nations that led David to want to build a permanent structure for God, a temple.  Or, it could have simply been recognizing that he was dwelling in a palace that he had built for himself.  Why don't I build a better place for God?  David then tells the prophet Nathan what is in his heart.  Nathan knows that God is blessing David, so he tells David to go ahead with it without asking the Lord.  Before Nathan even leaves the palace, God pulls him up short and tells him to go back and tell David that it wasn't his job to build God a house.  However, his son Solomon would do it.

In 1 Chronicles 22:8, David explains that he had too much blood on his hands from taking the land.  God did not want the violence of force associated with His dwelling place.  This does not mean that David shouldn't have done what he did.  David fought the battles of the Lord.  Yet, there is more to this than just David's bloody hands.

In 2 Samuel 7, God actually responds to David with the question, "Will you build a house for Me to dwell in?"  Think of it.  A man building a house for the One who built the Galaxies, and the atomic nucleus, whose wisdom and being is truly beyond our comprehension.  God reminds David that He has dwelt in a tent from Egypt to David's day (400+ years).  Hmm, I wonder where God dwelled before the tabernacle?  The tabernacle was not built because God was homeless.  It was built to point to a greater Truth.

Instead, God promises to build David a house (a dynasty) and his son will build him a temple.  This first temple would be built by Solomon.  Yet, Solomon fell away from the Lord towards the end of his life.  Also, the first temple itself, which was supposed to be God's "permanent house," was destroyed in 586 B.C. by the Babylonians (really by God) because Israel continued its idolatry in the face of God.  When they came back into the land later, a second temple would be built, which was in existence during the days of Jesus.  This permanent temple was destroyed in A.D. 70.  God's permanent houses are doing so well.

Solomon and the first temple were a fulfillment of God's promise to David, but they were a falling-short fulfillment that served as a shadow of the true Son of David who would build the true temple of God.  The destruction of the former two temples points to a better permanent home for God.  Jesus is the perfect Son of David who comes forth to build the perfect temple to God.  In fact, Jesus laid the foundation for the third temple while the second temple still stood (for only 40 more years).  The third temple is the True Church of Jesus Christ.  It is a physical temple in that humans have bodies, but it is spiritual in that God dwells in our hearts and minds.  Even this follows the previous template.  Our mortal bodies cannot be the permanent home of God's presence, but He humbles himself as He did in the wilderness and takes up residence within us.  The permanent Temple will also be "built" by Jesus as he resurrects the saints with glorified bodies that are incorruptible.

This brings us to our last point.  God is too great to be limited to a mere building on earth.  Stephen quotes from Isaiah 66 to drive this point home.  This greatness of God is a developing theme throughout the Old Testament.  At first the ark is spoken of as a throne of Yahweh.  The mercy seat had cherubim wings to serve as a kind of backrest.  Yahweh is spoken of as dwelling between the wings and above the mercy seat, sitting upon an earthly throne.  Later, the ark is referred to as God's footstool (Psalm 132:7-8).  Notice that God is getting bigger.  In Truth, God is not getting bigger, but He is incrementally expanding their understanding of just how great He truly is.  The Isaiah 66 passage expands this to the point where the whole earth is God's footstool and the heavens are His throne.  In fact, even the heavens fall short of the full glory of God.  All creation is truly His footstool.

Do you not see that God is not in need of us to build Him a house.  He is already building a permanent house out of us.  We do need to lean into this process and cooperate with God.  Instead of focusing on how nice our building is, we should focus on what kind of dwelling place we are for God.  Am I a shabby, dilapidated temple?  Am I a temple that has been devoid of the word of God like it was in the days of Josiah (2 Kings 22)?  God's time with Israel was a humbling of Himself and yet it was a real thing.  Through unbelief, they missed out on the fullness of what it could have been and ended up losing it altogether (as a nation). 

We too are in danger of hearing this truth and falling short.  In 2 Corinthians 3:16, Paul says, "Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?"  Perhaps, you find yourself saying, "Well, I don't feel like God's dwelling in me."  Really?  Where in the Bible does it say it is only true if you "feel it."  That would be like a husband not following through in the actions of faithfulness because he just isn't feeling it.  "I know God said we would become one, but I'm just not feeling it.  I want a divorce."  We judge ourselves by our own words.  Jesus didn't go to the cross because he was "feeling it."  While we were yet sinners, Christ died for the ungodly!  Love has feelings, but it must never let feelings drive its actions.  It is not even duty that drives love.  It truly is love itself that becomes the driving force behind the actions of love; God is love.

You cannot make yourself a temple of God, but you can cooperate and lean into the work that God is doing, even if you don't feel it.  Walk by faith and trust God to do the dwelling.  Jesus laid the foundation for your spiritual life and the Church as a whole.  He leads us like a master builder in our personal life and in the experience of your local church up to the Church as a whole.  God knows what He is doing so we simply need to trust Him!

You are His desired place of rest for eternity.  Yes, much of life calls for trust and faith in Jesus.  Like a marriage, we come to Christ and embrace his love by faith.  We don't know what all we will face in this life, but we will face it with him for better or worse.  Of course, he promises to work all of the "worse" stuff to our good.  What a deal; what a Lord; what a Savior!  His desire to dwell in you, and within us all, should lead us to turn to Him with all of our hearts.  We are His home, and He is ours!

Defense VI