The Sermon on the Mount XII

Subtitle:  Correcting the Righteousness of the Hypocrites III

Matthew 6:11-15.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on February 25, 2024.

We are picking up in the middle of the Lord’s prayer.  This is the center point of the Sermon on the Mount, and it is also a central issue, that of prayer.

Jesus is speaking to the way of righteousness in the area of prayer.  There was a lot of praying that happened in first century Israel, but not many righteous prayers.  Righteous prayer is not about quantity, but instead, it is about quality.  Thus, Jesus has pointed out that our desire for others to think well and highly of us can lead us off the righteous path in this area.

The first half of the prayer is praying for God’s purposes, i.e., His Name, His Kingdom and His will.  Of course, there is no question that these things are done in heaven.  The prayer is for these things to also be done on the earth.  Let your purposes be done on earth as they are done in heaven!

The emphasis here can be boiled down to praying in a way that demonstrates that we love God first.  We can also notice that the second half of the prayer focuses on our love for our brother or neighbor.  We not only should pray for God’s purposes because we love Him, but even when we ask for things from Him, there should be an aspect of love for others wrapped up in it- more on that later.

Let’s look at our passage.

The model prayer: prayer in relation to love for others (v. 11-13)

If a person didn’t get the imagery through the use of the term “kingdom” throughout this sermon, you should catch it here in this first request.  Jesus is in the wilderness preaching to the people, and he teaches them to ask God for their daily bread.  This would have stirred up the imagery of Israel in the wilderness receiving the supernatural manna each day.  It the recognition that we are dependent upon God for our daily bread.

We should not be too quick to jump over the natural aspect of this.  Just as Israel would have literally died in the wilderness, if God had not fed them, so we are mortal and in need of physical food.  Bread is often called a staple of life.  A staple food was the predominant food in any group’s diet.  We are spoiled today, but throughout most of history, regions had particular food that was the main source of their diet.  If it was destroyed, or ruined, then their lives were in jeopardy.  Thus, bread took on the metaphorical connotation of life itself.  No bread…no life.   Humans must eat, that is how God has designed us.  We don’t have to eat all of the time.  We don’t have to eat fancy stuff, but we do need to eat periodically.

This biological reality of life is recognized in this prayer.  “Give us this day our daily bread.”  However, God always uses natural, or material, things to teach us spiritual realities.  This is why Jesus taught using parables regarding the everyday life experience of first century Judeans.

Moses told Israel in Deuteronomy 8:3 that God had allowed them first to know hunger, and then to know His gracious supply of food in order to learn a spiritual lesson.  Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.  Thus, the literal bread that we ask of God connotes our need of spiritual bread.

In John 6:341 and following, Jesus said that “the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”  He then said, “I am the bread of life.  He who comes to me will never hunger.”  That is an amazing statement.  It is the same statement that he gives to the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4:14.  “[W]hoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst.”  Jesus is the spiritual water and bread that we need in this spiritual wilderness.  In Jesus, God supplies spiritual food to sustain your daily walk of faith with God.  Prayer is an important part of that.

We should also notice that the prayer is couched in us language.  Yes,  you need bread, natural and spiritual.  However, you are not alone and should pray as a part of a community.  This is easiest to see in a parent approaching God.  Of course, you pray for your daily bread, but I have kids who need to eat too.  A parent approaches God in prayer for the sake of the family, not just as an individual.  Yet, this dynamic needs to scope out to our extended family, our town, our county, our State, our Republic (or nation as the case may be), even to the whole of humanity.  I may pray alone in the secret place, but I am not to separate myself from others as I ask God for help.  Lord, help me so that I may be part of your help to others.

In fact, let us recognize that some people have plenty of food and money, but they still commit suicide because they have no hope or faith in the future.  This is a spiritual need that no food and money can supply, only Jesus.

I get it that people look at our world today (particularly in our cities), and they lack faith or hope.  Yet, Jesus lived in such a devastated time, and he said, “the fields are white unto harvest.”  He could do that because he spent time with the Father in prayer.  He had spiritual reserves that we are often ignorant of.  Even in the United States of America, we need a miracle of God to supply our daily spiritual bread, so that we might continue in faith, rather than fainting in death.

The second request asks for forgiveness for our sins, or debts.  In Luke 11, Jesus shares this prayer and asks, “forgive us our sins,” instead of “debts.”  There really is no difference.  The concept of debts had connotations of sin.  When someone sins against you, it is pictured as a debt that needs to be paid off through repentance and making it right.  We are asking God to forgive our sins.

However, it is connected to our forgiveness of others sins, or debts to us.  The preposition “as” is not giving a timing element.  It is not asking God to forgive us at the same time of our forgiving of others.  Rather, the word “as” is establishing a fact that should motivate God to forgive us, “as in fact, we forgive our debtors.  In Luke 11, it says, “for [because] we also are forgiving everyone who is indebted to us.”

In our private prayers, there is a strange sense in which others are always there, at least in principle.  This is my relationship with God, but I cannot relate with God without recognizing that He loves others.  If I ignore that, then it affects my relationship with Him.  This contingency recognizes that if I want God to forgive me, then I need to be forgiving of others.  Our relationships with one another affect our relationship with God, as far as it depends upon you.

This does beg the other side of the equation, i.e., when I have sinned against others.  We can demand that others forgive us, even pointing to the Bible, but that is between them and God.  It is your job to be truly repentant when you have sinned against others.  The rest is between them and God.  A truly repentant heart doesn’t require others to act perfectly.  Duh, we are admitting that we have done wrong and want others to have mercy on us.  None of this (repenting or giving forgiveness) will ever be done perfectly, without error.  Can you forgive someone for not perfectly forgiving you for your imperfection (sin)?  Of course, we can, but the truth is that too often we do not desire it.

This should remind us of Matthew 5:7, “Blessed are the merciful for they shall receive mercy.”

The third request is generally translated as being about temptation, but the word is bigger than that, and it should be seen as properly a time of testing.  “Lead us not into testing..”  We should again imagine Israel in the wilderness.  The wilderness is not in and of itself temptation, but you had better believe that temptation is a component of what goes on in the wilderness.

God took Israel through the wilderness for several reasons.  They weren’t ready to fight all the Egyptian armies they would continue to run into along the coastal plain.  Also, they needed some time alone with God in order to get to know Him better.  This allowed a covenant to be made with God at Sinai.  Lastly, the wilderness would test their metal.  The wilderness is tough on the flesh.  There isn’t much provision in the wilderness for our flesh.  We do become tempted by the devil and the world around us, but we are just as much tempted by what our flesh likes and doesn’t like.

God often leads us into wilderness times of testing. However, we should not think that God is doing that in order to tempt us.  God leads you there because it will make you stronger spiritually, if you trust Him.  You see, when ore is tested, it is what it is.  You crush it and heat it up.  A certain amount of metal comes out of the ore and an assayer can determine how rich the ore is.  However, people are not inanimate objects.  Even as we are being melted down (thief on the cross), we can choose to put our faith in God.  In that moment, something valuable springs into existence that wasn’t there earlier.  The mercy and grace of God is with us in the time of testing.  We can choose, have faith, humble ourselves, and ask for help.  And, guess what!  There He is to help us in time of need.

There are some subtleties happening in the verbs of this section.  It can be explained easiest by translating the words this way, “Don’t just lead us into testing, but deliver us from evil.”  The point is really the heart of God anyways.  God deliver me from the evil (bad things) that I will run into in the time of testing, and there are a plethora of these.

By the way, some translations will say “evil one.”  It is true that we need deliverance from the devil and the lying demonic spirits that work for him.  However, the Greek here is simply an adjective that is being used substantively (like a noun).  The context is supposed to supply whether it is an evil man, woman, thing, or one.  In this case, there is some ambiguity, and I believe that is one purpose.  The bad things that can destroy us in the time of testing are the devil, his demons, worldly friends and societies, even my own stinking thinking.  We need delivered from any bad thing that would tempt us away from trusting God.

Are we not in a time of testing right now, as a republic and as individuals?  Yes, we are.  We do not have to be afraid of the wilderness.  If God delivers us from the evil, then only the good will remain.  The wilderness was good for Joshua and Caleb.  Do you know why they could defeat giants?  It wasn’t because they had honed the art of slaying giants while in the wilderness.  It was because they had learned that God could be trusted with even their very life.  They had learned to trust God.  Caleb was not the original trash talker trying to manipulate people into fighting giants, and scare giants with his crazy talk.  Rather, he knew that his God was greater than those giants who made him look like a grasshopper.

Be careful of thinking the lesson of this time is that Joshua and Caleb were better than the others.  No.  Joshua and Caleb were the same as all those others.  However, they trusted God over the top of the fears of their flesh.  We can all fail in time of testing, but the good news is that we can all succeed in the time of testing by trusting God with our life.

There is a question about how the prayer ends.  The second part of verse 13 is not in the earliest manuscripts.  It does show up in a 2^nd century writing called the Didache (Greek for “Teaching”).  This was a discipleship manual for early Christians and dates back to at least A.D. 130.  However, it is in a shortened form (I believe it only mentions the power and glory, leaving out the kingdom).

Regardless of whether it was original or not, it is a very biblical thing to pray, and we find it in 1 Chronicles 29:10-11.  David has been calling Israel to join him in bringing forth donations for the Temple that was to be built.  His prayer uses the same themes that are found in this closing and even matches much of the whole prayer, e.g., using the phrase “our Father.”

David was recognizing that they were all donating stuff that they had.  Yet, at the same time, all of this stuff had come from God.  We must never forget that everything we receive from God in this life (including our body and breath) is His.  The Church has often made this mistake through history.  God would give them power over natural kingdoms, but we forget it is still His.  Yes, we are His representatives on the earth, but it is always still His.  We are only stewards of His stuff.  We will one day stand before Him and give account for what we did with His stuff.  This is what is meant in Romans 11:36.  “For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to Him be glory forever. Amen.”  It all comes from Him, even through Him to us.  However, all we do with it is to be to Him, i.e., for His glory.  He is the source, the channel and the goal of it all.  When we forget that, we make it about ourselves and fall into the trap of the devil.

Let’s look at the last verses of this section on prayer.

An added explanation on prayer (v. 14, 15)

There is not much interpretation needed here.  Jesus is not teaching that we don’t need his death on the cross, that we can save ourselves by simply forgiving others.  Rather, he is showing us his heart (the Father’s heart).  This is who he is.  He loves the brother that you have trouble loving.  If you truly have faith in him, and love him, then you will trust his way, his path, of forgiveness.  This is in the category of things that are easier said than done.  It becomes a litmus test of our faith and love for Jesus.

In truth, none of us can forgive those who sin against us without the help of the Spirit of God, which Jesus has supplied to us.  Still, this is a challenge from our Lord to be the merciful ones of Matthew 5:7.

We see this principle throughout the teachings of Jesus, especially in Matthew 7, the end of the Sermon on the Mount.  There, he speaks about judging your brother.

No matter how much you believe on Jesus to forgive your sins, and no matter how willing He is to cover them, He will not do so if you continue to refuse to forgive others.

In Matthew 18:21-35, Jesus gives us the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant.  The servant owed the king 10,000 talents.  When he couldn’t pay and begged the king, the king had mercy on him and forgave the large sum of money.  The man then went out and found someone who owed him 2% of 1 talent.   Thus, if we treated the 10,000 talents as $10,000 (believe me that it was much higher than this), then he was throwing a man into debtors prison over 2 cents.  Of course, the king was incensed when he found out.

Jesus uses this story to get our attention.  Yet, in our flesh, we tend to think that God may have forgiven us 10,000 talents, but my brother’s sin against me is like 10 million talents!  The beam in our eye always measures our sin in small quantities, and the sin of others in great quantities.

Perhaps, we should look at it differently.  The story hinges on what we owe the king versus what we owe one another.  Have you ever thought that our sins against one another, that seem so huge, are a pittance compared to our sins against God.  When you sin against me, it is understandable because I am a sinful human myself.  I should be able to forgive it easily because I sin myself.  Yet, our sin against God is not understandable.  God is perfect, and has only loved us.  Our sins against Him are so great as to be impossible to quantify.  It is an eternal debt.  If I want God to forgive my eternal debt, then I would be smart to forgive people their small debts to me.  Which do you want, two cents from your brother, or a clean slate with God?

Prayer audio

Sermon on the Mount IX

Subtitle:  Fulfilling the Torah and the Prophets of God VII

Matthew 5:43-48.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on February 4, 2024.

Today, we will finish the Master’s look at what it means to fulfill the Law.  In a sense, this is the sixth case-study, but it is also a summary for all of the others.  It challenges us to recognize all of the ways that we have been an enemy to people, choosing a path that is of the evil one.  It challenges us to see how we have not chosen to take the path of our Father in Heaven, and to change.

This law focuses not on how someone becomes an enemy to us, but on what do we do with those who are already our enemies, and for whatever reason.

Let’s look at our passage.

The Law of Enemies (v. 43-48)

Jesus lays out the teaching of the current day on how we treat our enemies.  “Love your neighbor, and hate your enemies.”  In a sense, you only love the people that God commands.

The idea of loving your neighbor can be inferred from the Ten Commandments of Exodus 20.  Jesus said that all of the Law and the prophets can be summed up in loving God and loving your neighbor. 

Of course, a legalist would ask the question.  “Just who is my neighbor?”  Jesus answers that later (Luke 10:25-37) with the parable of the Good Samaritan.  Here, however, Jesus jumps right by our neighbor and goes to the heart of the issue, our enemy.

Leviticus 19:18 says, “You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD!”

This passage does focus on neighbors being of your own nation or people.  However, there are other passages that add to this.

Take, for instance, Exodus 23:4-5.  It talks about helping your enemy, if you come upon him while he is in a difficult situation (most likely assumed to be another Israelite).  Don’t take advantage of them.  Also, Deuteronomy 23:7 tell Israel not to hate the Edomites and the Egyptians.

On top of this, the Law and the prophets signal a desire of God to bless the nations, whether through Abraham (Genesis 12) or Messiah (Isaiah 42, 49, and 60).  God cared about the nations, and Israel was His tool to reach them with the Truth.

So, how did the religious leaders come to the conclusion that we should hate our enemies?  It is a natural inference from the idea that God is going to judge the nations who have hated Him.  It would make sense that we should not love those who hate God.  Yet, God’s long delay for judging His enemies begs a lot of questions.  Why wouldn’t He just judge them and get it over with?  Did God really want Israel to hate His enemies?

I mentioned several prophetic passages earlier.  It is clear that there is some tension between a judgment of the nations and the light of Messiah going out to the nations.  Jesus is now shining the light of day upon this murky area.

Jesus tells his followers to love their enemies, which is the exact opposite of what they would have been told by the religious leaders.  We are not given any commentary on the crowd, but I have to believe that their were some audible gasps at this point.  It had to be a shock.  Perhaps, we could ask the question (like the young man in Luke 10 regarding his neighbors), “What exactly do you mean by love?”   Is Jesus telling us that we have to have fuzzy warm feelings for our enemies?  No.  The word for love here has to do with an intellectual choice that is not dependent upon the person we give it to.  It is a love of decision.

Jesus goes on to point out three particular ways to love your enemy.  The first is, “Bless those who curse you.”  This deals with the area of speech.  How do we talk about those who talk evil of us?  The second is, “Do good to those who hate you.”  This deals with the area of our actions.  What kinds of things do we do to those who hate us?  The third is, “Pray for those who spitefully use you (treat abusively) and persecute you.”  This is the area of our spiritual life.

I don’t believe that Jesus intends us to pray for their destruction.  The previous two examples clearly show a good and righteous response to the actions that are not good and righteous towards us.  This needs to be a prayer that can be categorized as loving, a choice to work for their good.

This doesn’t mean that we approve of what people do when they curse, hate, abuse and persecute others.  It doesn’t even mean that we pray for them to be happy in life.  A person who chooses to be an enemy to you is not following the Lord Jesus Christ.  They are lost.  Perhaps, that is what we should pray for them.  “Lord, help me to respond in such a way that they may turn away from being an enemy and turn towards being a brother in you!”

We need to understand that love is a weapon.  People who are doing evil are generally not prepared for someone to love them.  I guarantee you that no evil person has spent a minute training on what to do when somebody loves them.  The enemy of our souls (the devil) intends their actions to destroy your faith.  However, what do you think God intends to do by your actions back towards them?  He intends to break them free from the devil’s hold on their life.  He intends to break them free from a life of anger, contempt, fear, rage, abuse, etc.

The natural question rises at this point, “Who in their right mind would love those who curse, hate, and persecute them?”  Jesus follows up quickly with the answer why in verse 45.

Every person ought to ask the question, “Who is my Father, and what is He like?”  Jesus points us to God who is firstly our Creator, and for those who have responded by faith, a spiritual Father.  This new birth is necessary to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.  This picture of a child beginning to look like its father is important.  If you want to be a child of God, then you need to pay attention to what He is like. 

The image of God is more about spiritual things then it is about our physical appearance.  We automatically have the status of an imager of God by simply being human, natural birth.  However, status is not enough.  The activity of my life needs to be a portrayal of the Father.  This may sound extremely abstract, but look at the examples that Jesus gives following this.  “[He] makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.”  God gives sunshine and rain to everyone.  Yes, God can affect the weather and send droughts.  However, don’t miss the fact that God generally gives these things to all peoples.  Even with these particular judgments, God gives far more grace to the wicked than they deserve. 

This can cause those who are trying to be righteous to have a crisis of faith.  We may begin to doubt the goodness of God.  “Why does He bless those who curse Him?”  And, it may even cause us to doubt His very existence.  “What good is it to serve God, if the wicked are blessed too?”  Of course, these are very short-sighted questions.  What good is it if a person never has drought, nor an empty belly, but they go into eternity and are found lacking by the Judge?  Why am I having a crisis of faith because God is being kind and showing goodness?

To love your enemy is not to say that what they do is good.  To love your enemy does not justify them in what they are doing.  It could be said that it increases their guilt, if they don’t cease their enemy-ways.  Yes, God will judge all people, and He will judge all the nations at once in what is called the Last Days.  If God is good, then why does He delay judgment?  It is because He is not willing that any should perish.  To love your enemy is to recognize that they will be judged and found guilty.  Yet, God doesn’t want them to perish.  God desires them to have a change of heart, repent, and enter His Kingdom like little children.

Romans 2:4 says, “…the goodness of God leads you to repentance.” They may never repent, but God’s goodness gives them a chance.  If we choose to go into eternity over the top of all of God’s goodness, then He will judge you.  But, always remember this.  He doesn’t want you to be His enemy.

This becomes a heart check in which we all fail.  We do not naturally want this for our enemies.  We are not this compassionate and selfless, but God is; Jesus is.  Yet, don’t be discouraged.  This is what it means to follow Jesus.  Our flesh fights it, but the Spirit of God helps us to overcome.  Lord, change our hearts with each trial and decision that we face.  Let us become more like you!

In verse 46 Jesus gives some if-statements that challenge the kind of love that we might have for others.  He uses the verb form of agape for love here.  It is the idea of choosing to love, as opposed to a love that is more based in the heart (i.e., familial love, brotherly love, or romantic love).  If you only choose to love those who chose to love you, then how are you different than the world?  Tax collectors and Gentiles tend do this with those who choose to love them.  Notice that God chooses to love His enemies (i.e., act for their benefit).  Their life is still limited.  They will face judgment.  But, He is good to them while they live.

In fact, one of the greatest good things that God has done is design the universe with a principle of cause-and-effect.  Even when people dismiss the word of God, and refuse to listen to His followers, cause and effect meets them at every poor choice that they make.  Their evil acts themselves draw them into evil consequences that naturally follow their actions, words, and inner life.  Through consequences, God is calling them back away from the ledge that they are intent on plunging off.  This reality, along with His goodness, is a powerful part of everyone’s life.  There is a goodness to consequences that we may not yet even understand fully.

Jesus asks his followers to leave judgment in the hands of the only One who can do so perfectly.  We can trust God to do the right thing.  In fact, our hunger for justice and setting things right often leads to all kinds of evil things that we do.  You risk losing your own soul when you rise up to be an enemy to your enemies, when you hate them.  Besides, we really stink at getting justice for ourselves.  We carry the bloody flag against everyone else, but do not recognize that this is a conflict of interest.  It would be like having you play in the Super Bowl, but also be the only one who is the referee in the game.  There is too much at stake to expect that you will always make a righteous call.  So, why not leave it to God?  Why not work to make your enemy your brother instead?  Why not save yourself from a lifetime of hate, contempt, rage, death, and then a fearful judgment from God?

Finally, Jesus lays down a statement that is very fearful on its face.  “You shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.”  I’m sure there were some gasps on that one as well.

This phrase is interesting because it is in the future tense.  Therefore, Jesus is stating that you (plural) will be perfect in the future.  There is an encouragement of assurance in this.  He who has begun a good work in you will be faithful to complete it. 

However, the Hebrews also used the second person future as a way of giving a command to someone about something ahead.  This nuance adds another dimension to the statement.  There is no question that God will do His part in this.  However, this sermon has had several places of warning throughout it.  We might hear these wonderful words, but not persevere in following the Messiah.  We might grow weary, lose faith, and walk away.  Thus, this is also a command to be perfect.

Of course, the flesh of every human who has ever lived protests such a statement.  How can God expect us to be perfect?  First, let me point out that the Greek word for “perfect” here does not mean to never mess up.  It is actually a term that is used in building, growing, planning, etc.  A building has many stages to it, but we call the last stage the finish work.  When the house is ready, it is perfect, finished, completed.  It is what we intended it to be.  You are a child spiritually, but children grow up and become adults.  You shall be perfect, complete, finished.  God essentially guarantees it.  Yet, you must have faith in Him, in Jesus, and persevere in this fight against our flesh by the Spirit.

When we say a baby is perfect, we mean that it is exactly what it should be for the stage it is in.  However, if the baby never grew, we would quickly become concerned and not think of it as perfect.  Quit thinking of this like a legalist, and begin thinking of it in terms of the love of God.  As you die to your righteousness, come alive to His righteousness, and rely upon His Spirit to help you learn to love your enemies, then you will be a perfect baby Christian learning to walk, then run, and finally fly.  It is our relationship with Jesus through the Holy Spirit that makes our life perfect, even when there are dumb choices, and sin that we need to repent of.

In this life, Christians are not instantly zapped and made into the image of God.  Ephesians 4 12-13 pictures us growing up into the measure and the stature and the fullness of Christ.  This may feel hopeless at times, but should not co-labor with the Holy Spirit in hopelessness.  God is on your side.  How can you lose?  And how can you lose even when you fall down from time to time?  Jesus is the author (it was his idea) and the finisher (he will complete you) of our faith.  Guess when you will be done becoming like Jesus?  At the resurrection, God will accomplish the coupe de grâce (I mean that in an artistic way and not a military way).  Can we just take a deep breath right now and rest in the truth that we shall be like Him?  Yes, there is plenty of hard things to go through down here, and there is plenty of things that we may suffer.  However, we do these things with our LORD!  There is a certain glory that we have to go to war against our flesh, and against the devil’s work on this planet.  We were made to destroy the works of the devil with the help of Jesus!  We start by destroying the works of the devil in our own heart and mind by the help of His Holy Spirit.  Let’s go to work with Jesus this week!

Law of Enemies audio

The Sermon on the Mount IV

Subtitle: Fulfilling the Torah and the Prophets of God II

Matthew 5:21-26.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on December 31, 2023.

We will continue looking at the Sermon on the Mount today.

We looked at the Introduction that Jesus gives to the Kingdom in Matthew 5:3-16.  There he challenged his audience to quit looking at what they don’t have and to start seeing what they do have.  God was opening the door to the Kingdom for them in Jesus, in fact, he is The Door to The Kingdom (John 10:1-9).

Jesus then gave them three metaphors to help them see what God was wanting to do through those who entered the Kingdom.  He wanted them to be the salt of the earth, the light of the world, and a city on a hill.  Each of these speak to the spiritual impact believers in Jesus would have on the world around them.

Just like a door is a transitional spot between two different places, so the presence of Jesus brought Israel into a transitional spot between being the nation through whom God was primarily working to choosing to follow Messiah into a new reality.

In verse 17, Jesus begins to develop his first major point by stating his purpose to fulfill the Law of Moses, rather than destroying it.  In verse 21, he then points to six places in the Law of Moses in order to show how Israel’s leaders were missing the mark and how they could hit it.  Let’s look at our passage.

Six case studies in fulfilling the Torah and Prophets of God (v. 21-48)

Verses 21-26 are the first look at the Law, which focuses on the Sixth Commandment of The Ten Commandments in Exodus 20.  “You shall not murder.”

Before we get into looking at what Jesus says about murder, there are some structural issues to take note of in each of these six case studies.

Jesus will always start out with what they have heard from their teachers in expounding the Law.  He will then contrast that with what he teaches them now.  Lastly, Jesus then moves to give some “therefore” statements, which highlight the fact that he intends us to think about the implications of what he teaches.  The therefore sections flesh out what it would look like to heed his teaching.

In each of these, if we treat Jesus like another rabbi, and if we approach his words like the Pharisees approached the Law of Moses, then we will only be focused  on the letter.  Jesus would simply be adding more laws to the 613 that they already had.  Yet, this is not what Jesus intends.  The words that he speak are a representation of him and what is in his heart.  They draw us into relationship with The One who spoke them so that we can be led by His Holy Spirit to “flesh out” his intention for us.

Another issue is this.  Any honest look at the Law of Moses will see that they are not all of the same kind.  There are different types of laws.  The most obvious are the moral laws, which say things like, “You shall not murder.”  Murdering is inherently wrong, evil.  It will always be wrong because we do not have the authority to murder people, any more than to rape them or take all of their things.

A second category are the ritual laws, sometimes called ceremonial laws.  These have to do with how the tabernacle, the temple, would work.  You will notice in these laws about sacrifices, etc., that there is nothing inherently good about killing a bull in a special way, and in a special place, every time you sin.  They were symbolically pointing to greater spiritual truths.  This is part of the tutor, or schoolmaster, purpose of the Law.  They are only a moral obligation because Israel covenanted with God to do them.  Like a parent telling a child what they should do, the moral issue is not something like what time you go to bed, but rather about whether or not you will listen to your parents, even greater, God.

Lastly, there are civil laws that described how Israeli society would operate and the things they would do to set themselves apart from the world around them, whether in diet or dress, etc.  Some of these categories have overlaps.

In the first century, Jesus had to qualify his teaching by stating that he is not trying to abolish the Law of Moses.  It is interesting to me that most would accuse me of trying to bring people back under the law.  This is not what I am doing.  To be clear, Christians are not under the covenant of the Law that began at Sinai.  Yet, we need to hear the heart of our master here.

The Law of Murder

There were laws that also talked about manslaughter and what to do in those cases, but let us stick to what Jesus is doing here.

Jesus begins with the phrase, “You have heard that it was said to those of old…”  As I said earlier, this points to the teachers that they are hearing in their day.  Jesus refers to their teaching in order to set up a contrast with his own teaching. 

More than contrasting, he is demonstrating that there is something that these teachers are doing that is in error.  On one hand, Jesus will show us how God intended the Law to be followed, and yet on the other hand, Jesus is preparing to cut a new covenant that would require his death and resurrection.  This gives us a dual point of how the law should be heard, but also moving on to the new thing that God is doing.

The shepherd of their day are not good shepherds.  So, what was their error?

Their teachers have been focusing on the letter of the Law, which over time had accreted a large number of precedents and rabbinical “case-law.”  They emphasized the outward conformity to the Law, but ignore that these are the instructions of a loving Father who is more concerned about the moral character that would drive their actions, than simply wanting outward conformity.

Have you ever listened to lawyers twisting every word that is said by someone in order to get their client off, or if you are the prosecutor, to nail the defendant to the wall?  To a lawyer, the law is merely a challenge.  It simply becomes something to be manipulated to your favor.  Surely, God could never be pleased by people twisting His words.

In the case of murder, they simply taught that you would be liable to the judgment if you murdered someone.  Of course, it is not bad to teach this.  The error is in what is missing, the heart of the One who gave the Law, and the heart of those who were receiving it.
It is interesting that the Bible begins with two chapters about the work of God in making all things “very good.”  However, the next two chapters are very bad.  Genesis chapter four is often seen as the first murder.  Cain murders his brother, Abel.  Notice that God sees that Cain’s heart is wrong (i.e., Cain hasn’t murdered anyone yet).  Like a good father, God speaks to Cain about what happened and what was going on in his heart.  He warns Cain to control himself because sin sought to have mastery over him.  Any true father is not content to merely have sons who don’t murder one another.  You want sons who have his heart for their brother.  He wants us to honor how He feels towards our brother, our neighbor, even our enemy.

By the way, Genesis four is actually a story about two murders.  Lamech kills a young man who had injured him, and we see him justifying himself.  The chapter ends with violence filling the earth.

Yet, don’t miss that Genesis three is also a story about two murders (or potentially, the murder of the human race).  The serpent, the devil, seduces Adam and Even into an action that brings death into their lives.  The pre-flood civilizations did not go deep enough.  They abused the mercy of God to Cain (not capital punishment) and refused to go deeper into their hearts.  In the end, the world was filled with murder because the hearts of men were full of murder.  All of this begs the Genesis :26 question, just who were they imaging?  It wasn’t their Creator, it was their own murderer, Satan.

After laying out what they were being taught, Jesus turns on the phrase, “but I say to you…”  Jesus does not have the kind of credentials that their teachers had.  Just who does he think he is?  Well, he is the One sent from God, and thus, he has credentials that none of them had.

Jesus gives three statements.  The first is about being angry with your brother.  The version that I have been using adds the phrase, “without a cause.”  This phrase is debated because there are some early manuscripts that do not have it.  The question then becomes, was it added or was it taken out?  There doesn’t seem to be a good reason to take it out.  But, if it wasn’t there, putting it in would soften a harsher statement.  I would simply say that the apostles would later teach us to be angry and sin not (Ephesians 4:26 quoting Psalm 4:4).  Anger isn’t so much the problem, as it is the source of our problem.  Anger has a lot of power and our flesh tends to use the force of anger in order to push us into sinful actions.  James 1:20 tells us that “the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God.”

So, even if my brother did something that I am rightly angry over, I am still in danger of sinning.  I will come back to deal with the warning Jesus gives.

This first one had to do with internal thoughts and feelings of anger.  Jesus then moves to two outward actions that show contempt for our brother who has angered us.  Calling someone “Raca” was essentially calling them an empty-headed person, a numbskull, a dunderhead, an idiot, and I could go on.  It is contempt for them intellectually.  Calling someone “You fool! (the Gk is from the word where we get moron) also had a sense of poor intellect.  However, for Hebrews this word also had spiritual connotations (it generally doesn’t for us).  The fool is a person who willfully ignores the teaching and ways of God in order to make their own way.  Yes, it is foolish, but it is also a rejection of God.  There is a immoral component to it.  Thus, this is to have contempt for your brother intellectually and spiritually.

Notice that as Jesus moves through these three things that he starts with them being liable to the judgment, and then to the Council (the Sanhedrin in Jerusalem), and finally to the “Gehenna of fire” (my version says hellfire).  No human can put you in the Gehenna of fire, which was a phrase used to speak of God’s judgment.  This then begs the question of what judgment and what council he was speaking about before?  Regardless, something as small as calling your brother a name is coming from a dark place that God will not put up with.  They were definitely not thinking that they were in danger of God throwing them into Gehenna for calling their brother a moron. 

They should have gone deeper, but under the New Covenant that Jesus would cut with God at the cross and give to his followers, we do not serve as if following more stringent laws.  We follow and serve the purposes of Jesus by the help of the Spirit of God in order to do the spirit of the law.  We see this in Romans 7:6; 8:2,4; 9:29; and 1 Corinthians 5:7-8.

In verse 23, Jesus moves to his first therefore statement.  Notice that he has repeated the word “brother.”  It is reminding us of that first actual slaying of a human being, which was done between brothers.  Like Cain, our contempt and anger can push us to do heinous things against our brother, whom God loves.

This very same God desires us to reconcile and make things right.  Cain needed to see that he wasn’t imaging God and turn back from anger.  Even if there had been cause to be angry (in Cain’s situation, there wasn’t), Matthew 18 would later deal with what to do if you had cause to be angry.  You will notice there that Jesus is promoting the same thing that he does here, reconciliation.  We cannot come before God and pretend we are worshipping him while we know we have done our brother wrong.  Jesus actually puts the onus on the brother who did the offending.

We can’t force reconciliation, but we can do what Romans 12:18 says.  “If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men…”  Then verse 21 says, “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”

This is why Jesus boils the whole law and the prophets down to having a heart of love for God and our neighbor.  Such a heart of love will express itself in actions of love.  Yes, that is a hard task, but Jesus has done two huge things to help us.  He has removed our sins and their judgment from over our heads, and he has given us his Holy Spirit to help us battle sin in our life.  We first die to our own righteousness and then we die to our flesh.  We try to make things right with all who would have ought against us before approaching God in worship.

Jesus ends this section with a second practical therefore statement, even though he does not repeat the word. People who are angry do not always think well.  They are not as innocent as they may deem.  In such a case, you can end up getting yourself in a pickle.  Jesus envisions two angry men going to a judge and one of them is going to be shocked.  Jesus thus brings up the idea of settling out of court.  Would I push the issue if I was brought into court every time I became angry and ran the risk of a penalty?  Imagine how many times we become angry with people and don’t give it a second thought.  Yet, this is the turn of this small parable in verse 25.  Just who is your adversary?  Ultimately, your adversary is the devil.  He seeks to prosecute you before God.  You are even now on your way to the Judge of all men, the Lord Jesus.  Jesus is no respecter of persons.  You may win some judgments regarding your anger, but will you win them all?  Wouldn’t it be wiser to make your peace with your brother in this life while you can, before you end up at the judgment seat?  If something is settled out of court, then it seems that Jesus will not judge it.

Just as the fires of Gehenna were the danger earlier, here the danger is to be thrown into the prison.  The prison, the holding place of wicked spirits, is not a good place to go.  Some will point to the phrase, “you will by no means get out of there till you have paid the last penny,” as hope that Gehenna is not without end.  Be careful of that.  It doesn’t say that you can pay it off.  Rather, it emphasizes that you won’t get out until you have.  This begs the question.  How does a person pay off a debt when they are in prison?  If the price for removing my sin was the perfect Son of God dying on a cross on my behalf, then it seems very unlikely that I will ever “pay it off.”  This is intended to scare the anger out of you, or at least, wake you up to the true dangers you face.

None of us would survive such a judgment.  Our only hope is to try and reconcile with our brother and throw ourselves on the mercy of the court, which is merciful to those who have shown mercy.

Instead of using the lack of a murderous action as a cloak, through Jesus, God is calling us to overcome evil by dying to our righteousness, and coming alive to his righteousness.  This is that righteousness which laid itself down that we might live.

May God fill us with repentance, and then with His Holy Spirit, so that we can live out the righteousness of God.

Fulfill II audio

The Acts of the Apostles 62

Subtitle: Faith Working through Love

Acts 16:1-10.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on November 5, 2023.

Paul and Silas have started on Paul’s Second Missionary Journey, due to a disagreement between Paul and Barnabas about John Mark.

Today, we are going to look at this question.  What is the motivation behind what you do?  Two people (or more) can do the same action, but for very different reasons.  We could boil them all down to good motivations versus bad ones.  Of course, when we come to faith in Christ, we find out that Jesus isn’t content with only changing our outward actions.

Yes, he wants us to stop sinning (“Go and sin no more.”) because our sin causes pain and suffering to us and to the people in our lives.  God loves us and them too much to be content with us continuing to sin with impunity. 

Yet, if you only change the activity without changing the heart behind it, it will not be good enough.  It won’t work for very long.  Eventually, such people grow weary of “doing” good, and fall away from actions of righteousness.  So, Christ is not content to affect our activity.  He wants to change us from the inside out.

Let’s look at our passage.

Paul’s second missionary journey reaches Asia Minor again (v. 1-10)

Luke’s narrative jumps to the area of Derbe and Lystra in the middle of Asia Minor (Turkey today).  In short, they are going to travel between 750 to 800 miles in these 10 verses.

It is at Lystra that Paul recognizes a young man named Timothy, and he desires Timothy to join them.  Of course, Timothy is not just “joining” a missionary group.  He  really is entering into a lifetime of ministering for Jesus.  He becomes a son in the faith to Paul a father figure.  The dynamics here are significant.  Silas is a peer of Paul’s.  He is like a brother in the Lord, similar to Barnabas.  However, young Timothy is more like a son.  He will be mentored by Paul and Silas (really by the Holy Spirit through them).  In fact, there are two books of the New Testament written by Paul as a fatherly figure to Timothy (1 and 2 Timothy).  In fact, 2 Timothy has the feel of a father telling his son to stay strong as he is about to exit this life.

From these two letters (1 and 2 Timothy), we know that Timothy’s mother and grandmother have been strong believers (2 Timothy 1:5).    His mother, Eunice, had married a Greek man who clearly was not a convert to Judaism as we will soon see.  His grandmother Lois and her daughter Eunice most likely believed in Jesus during Paul’s first missionary journey through Lystra.

By the way, we should guard against the idea that Judaism and Christianity were two separate religions.  Jesus did not come to start a new religion.  He was the Messiah, the fulfillment of all that the Law of Moses was pointing to.  The people of Israel had waited for Messiah to come for centuries.  Thus, we would not say that Lois and Eunice were saved, but that their saving faith in Yahweh to send Messiah, had now made the proper transition to faith in Yeshua, whom the Father had sent.  The early Jewish believers were simply obeying the Holy Spirit by getting up and following Jesus.

This brings up an issue.  We can be guilty of giving lip service to God’s promise of sending Jesus back again.  This was on display in Israel in the first century.  Many of them would give lip service to the idea that Messiah would come and set all things right some day.  However, most had given up faith that he would actually show up.  They had the correct doctrine, but their faith was gone in their hearts.

Yet, one day Jesus did come.  He caught most of them by surprise, or better, he caught them spiritually sleeping, spiritually intoxicated, and spiritually dead. 

They were so used to being the ones who  had the truth, that they had lost their ability to repent and follow God.  How do you exercise your ability to repent and follow the Holy Spirit, rather than resisting and rebelling against Him?

In short, you spend time seeking God in the word and in prayer.  You give him your whole heart in truth.  You seek what He is saying to you through the Holy Spirit and what He saying to you, where He is leading you.  Such a relationship will teach you to exercise faith as the Holy Spirit puts His finger on areas of your life that need to change.  If you will give yourself to this, you will find all sorts of ways that you need to repent, and every day.  You will find just how much we need His help, and, praise God, that He is giving it to us all the time, if we will receive it.

It is probably at this time that the elders of the church and Paul gather around Timothy and pray for him as is mentioned twice in Paul’s letters.  We are told that gifts of the Holy Spirit were given to him on that day, and that at least one prophecy was given regarding him.

Now, this is an important point.  They do not take for granted that they are doing God’s work and that He will just show up.  They take this moment seriously and pray over Timothy.  We should never take God’s promised help for granted.  We need to seek it, and pray for it.  What a powerful moment as they pray over this young man.  “Lord, fill him with your Spirit, and enable him to minister with Paul and Silas.  Give him courage and faith.  Give him perseverance, Lord!”  Whether Timothy was already filled with the Spirit at that time, or the Spirit came upon him for the first time, Timothy was readied to go with Paul and Silas.

On the flip side, just because God has enabled you, placed gifts within your life, and filled you with His presence, doesn’t mean that we should take His continued empowerment for granted.  In 1 Tim. 4:14, Paul tells Timothy not to “neglect” the gift that was within him, and in 2 Tim. 1:6 , he tells him to “stir up” the gift that was within him.  The gifts of God are not automatic.  I am not saying that God will withhold from us, but that we can grow stagnant in our spiritual walk.  If we are negligent and lose our passion, then stagnation creeps into our hearts and quenches the gifts of God in our life.  In fact, the greatest gift within any of us, is the gift of the Holy Spirit.  We can grieve the Holy Spirit and squelch His work in our life if we are not purposeful and intentional in prayer. 

How do we stir them up?  We do so through prayer, and prayerful study of the Word.  Also, we do so by seeking the Holy Spirit, and as He leads, exercising our faith through obedience.

We may be taken by surprise that Paul would have Timothy circumcised at this point.  He is carrying a letter from the Apostles in Jerusalem laying out the fact that circumcision is not necessary for salvation.  This may come across to some as a contradiction, but it really is not, if you look closely.

Notice that the issue in Acts 15 was about what was necessary for Gentile salvation.  The council made a clear pronouncement on this issue, but there was still some lack of specificity regarding Jews themselves. Of course, Peter made it clear that none of the Jews were saved by their law keeping, only by faith in Jesus.  Jews and Gentiles were being saved in the same way.

There is some dispute about whether Timothy is considered a Jew or not.  When a person’s parents were both Jewish, there was no question.  They were a Jews.  But, when one of the parents were not Jewish, a question could arise.  Today, Jews teach that Jewishness, or obligation to the Law, follows the mother.  If your mother is Jewish, then so are you.  However, if only your father is Jewish, you are not considered Jewish.  It is not clear evidence that the first century followed a “matrilineal” descent as opposed to a patrilineal descent (from the father).  I don’t think that it makes a difference either way.

I only bring up this issue because it begs the question.  Did the early Church expect, or teach that Jews should circumcise their children and follow the law of Moses?  Did they teach Jewish believers in Yeshua to continue to circumcise new babies?  There would most likely be some ethnic momentum in how Jewish Christians lived.  I doubt that they all started eating pork after Peter’s vision in Joppa.  It just wasn’t part of their culture.  Therefore, we are unable to determine exactly how Timothy was viewed by early Jewish Christians, but we would know how he was viewed by non-Christian Jews.

So we come back to the issue of whether or not Paul is contradicting himself.    Why would he say one thing about Gentiles and another about Timothy?  What is going on here?  As I said at the beginning, motivation is the key.  What is Paul’s motivation?  What is his concern?

Verse three tells us why Paul does this, “because of the Jews who were in that region, for they knew that his father was a Greek.”  Paul clearly wanted to minister to Jews in the region, but also knew that they would know that Timothy was not circumcised.  Most likely, Paul believes that Timothy’s status would become a distraction and get in the way of preaching the Gospel.  The Jews would be so upset by Paul having an uncircumcised Jewish person with him, that they would never get to sharing the Gospel.  Timothy would be a distraction.

I think that Galatians 5 is the best passage for settling this.  There, Paul makes clear the principle that he was following in telling some people not to be circumcised, and yet in this case, circumcising Timothy.

Galatians 5:1-6 has Paul speaking to Gentiles in Galatia (basically the area they are in here in Acts 16).  They were being persuaded by some to circumcise themselves.  In verse 2, Paul tells them that “Christ will profit you nothing [if you circumcise yourself].”  In verse 3, he tells them that if they obey this one point of the Law of Moses then they are “a debtor to keep the whole law.”  In verse 4, Paul says that they are severing themselves from Christ and falling from grace, if they do this.  These are strong words that imply that they could not be saved, if they were circumcising themselves as a necessary act.  Your faith is either in Jesus or in the works of your flesh.  You cannot have both.

You might think of Jesus as Noah’s ark.  You are either in the boat (in Jesus) trusting him for your salvation, or you are outside the boat trusting in your own ability.  However, you can’t be in the boat and not in the boat at the same time.  Faith in Jesus is the ark of the New Testament.

Yet, in verse 6, Paul gives his underlying principle, which allows him to say to one group that they cannot be saved if they circumcise themselves, and yet have Timothy be circumcised.  His principle is not, if you are Jewish, you should be circumcised.  Rather, circumcision or the lack thereof has no power to accomplish anything.  It is quite clear that he is speaking about spiritual matters here.  If you want salvation and spiritual power with God, then your circumcised status is powerless to help you.  Don’t look to that to help you.  Now, you can see why he speaks so strongly to the Galatians.  They were circumcising themselves out of the belief that it would help them with God, but it can’t.

What does have power with God?  Faith [in Jesus] expressing itself through actions of love.  This is exactly what Paul is asking Timothy to do.  Paul is not telling Timothy that he is almost saved, but only lacks being circumcised (an argument that was being made to the Gentiles by the Judaizers).  Rather, he is asking him to be circumcised out of love for the Jews that they will preach to.  It will remove an obstacle that would be hard for them to overlook.  Now, it will not be an issue, and they can focus on the Gospel.  Timothy’s motivation would be love for the Jews that they will preach to.  The Galatians improper motivation was to fulfill an act that they thought was necessary for salvation.

I should say that this is quite a big “ask” of Paul to Timothy.  Yet, love will make great sacrifices for those it loves.  May God help us to remove obstacles in our lives without sinning in order to help others hear the Gospel.  May God help us to make sacrifices of things that are not necessary for salvation, but might be necessary in order for others to be saved.

We are then told that they go through the cities delivering the decrees of the Jerusalem Council, strengthening the churches, and sharing the Gospel.  Note that it says they “increased in number daily.”

They are called to Macedonia (v. 6-10)

As they move from Lystra eastward, they pass through the provinces of Galatia and Phrygia.  At this point (unless they go south), they are at the end of the churches that Paul and Barnabas had started earlier, and towns that they had preached in.  As they reach these borders, it appears that they intend to go southwest into the province of Asia.  This is the area of Ephesus and the 7 churches of Revelation. 

We are simply told that the Holy Spirit forbid them to preach the Gospel in Asia.  The Holy Spirit can lead us by forbidding or blocking things.  We are not told exactly how they knew the Holy Spirit was forbidding them.  Such a strong term would indicate that there was some kind of prophecy, word of wisdom, or dream, etc.  Some powerful way that the Holy Spirit made His direction clear to them.

This may cause us to wonder at the idea that the Holy Spirit would forbid any one to preach the Gospel to another.  Yet, we can know by what the Bible says that it has nothing to do with God not wanting them to hear it.  We are not told the reasons, so I want to be careful here.  It is possible that God knows this area will be reached by churches later, or that Paul and company can only do so much.  Limited resources require strategy and timing.  It will be come clear that Paul and Silas were intent on traveling throughout all of Asia Minor, but God wanted them to jump the Gospel over to Greece.  Others would “backfill” ministry into the areas that Paul skipped over.

In such a case, we should recognize that it is not our place to question God.  He has His reasons and they are always righteous and for the good.  In fact, if we refuse to go where God is calling us to go, and persist in going where He has not told us to go, we will be much like Jonah.  Things will go better for you and the people you speak to when you are obeying the Spirit of God.

Paul is obedient and turns to go north into Bithynia and Pontus, but again, the Holy Spirit forbids them to go north.  Thus, they end up on the coast of Asia Minor in the city of Troas.  No doubt, they minister there, but also the question is pondered.  Where do we go now?

Let me insert at this point, that God is not stuck on any one way of leading and directing us.  He spoke to Moses like one speaks face to face with another man.  That is extremely rare.  Sometimes, He speaks to people through angels.  He can speak to us through visions and dreams, through a word of knowledge, or simply by a quiet voice in our heart.  It doesn’t matter how God leads us.  What matters is that He is the One leading.  Don’t  be fixated on needing to have God use any of these.  Simply respond to how He leads in your life.  In fact, notice that Timothy is being led by the Holy Spirit through the man Paul.

It is at this point that Paul has a vision.  In the vision, he sees a Macedonian man pleading, “Come over here and help us!”  Of course, there probably was not an actual man in Macedonia who was doing this.  But, God hears the hearts of a people.  The Holy Spirit was giving Paul a sense of what God saw in this region, a people crying out for help.

Of course, our hearts can cry out for help, but often we don’t even know what that help should look like, especially in spiritual matters.  Macedonia is northern Greece, where Alexander the Great came from.  Just as God used a vision to instruct Peter to share the Gospel with Cornelius in Caesarea, so God uses a vision to stir Paul’s heart for Greece.  This is not because God loves them more.  No, He wants all people to hear the Gospel and come to faith in Jesus.  However, Paul is mortal and cannot evangelize everyone.  The Holy Spirit is strategically leading him to spread the Gospel in a way that is more effective.

I wonder how many people and places are pleading for someone to come and help them, but no one share the Gospel with them.  You will never see it because it is a spiritual things.  And, they won’t even know that you are the answer of the cry of their heart when you first start speaking to them.  However, God sees them, and hears them.  We really need to learn to listen to God and be led by him as we share the Gospel with people.

Notice that Paul didn’t need a vision for everyone he ever shared the Gospel with.  In general, he knew that the Gospel needed to go everywhere.  He was doing God’s will in general until God needed him to do something specific.  This is where we need to trust the Lord.  If He needs to direct us, He knows how to do it.  I should not be paralyzed while waiting for a vision, when I could be doing what I know the Lord wants me to do in general.

I do think that we should develop the practice of talking with God in prayer about our evangelism plans, who we want to talk to, and when.  We should pray for the Spirit to go before us and prepare their hearts, and we should fast and pray for their response to the Gospel.  In short, it should be our faith in Jesus (and his purpose for us) working itself out through actions of love for the lost (sharing the Gospel).

Perhaps, this week, we can spend some time asking God what we can sacrifice, so that others may hear the Gospel.  May the Lord enable us by His Holy Spirit!

Faith through Love audio