Such Love IV

Subtitle: Let's Be A People of the Word

2 Peter 1:12-21.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, April 23, 2023.

We continue looking at the love of God, particularly as it pertains to salvation.  We have talked about the Incarnation, that God loved us enough to take on the nature of a human.  We then talked about Redemption and the fact that Jesus died on the cross to pay the price of redemption for humanity.  Last week, we looked at God's love in pouring out His Holy Spirit and dwelling within believers.

This leads us to our subject today, God's love displayed in creating the Bible, or the Scriptures.  This is not a gift that is intended to be received and then put on a shelf in order to gather dust.  We are intended to become a people of the Word.  That is, just like we should want to be a people of the Spirit of God, so too, we should want to be a people of the Word of God.

In fact, I would say that it is impossible to be a person of the Spirit, and at the same time, not be a person of the Word. I say this because a growing number of people emphasize that they are spiritual, but not religious.  I would suspect that the Bible is tossed into the "religious" side of their equation. However, the Spirit will point us to the Word, and the Word will point us to Jesus and the Spirit that he has made available to us.

Let's look at our passage.

The experience of the disciples

At the beginning of this section, the Apostle Peter recognizes that his decease, or departure, is nearing (v. 14-15).  It is clear that he is speaking of death from the added language of "putting of [his] tent."  These were clear metaphors that no one seriously rejects.  This has put in his heart a determination to make sure that they will "always have a reminder of these things" (v. 15) after he is gone.  Yes, he is alive now reminding them of what he had taught them, but he will not be alive in the future.

Interestingly enough, Peter uses a word for his upcoming departure that we know as the word exodus.  It is most known because of the second book of the Law of Moses, Exodus.  The word has the idea of a way or road out, and is often translated as departure.  The book of Exodus is about Israel's departure from Egypt, and here Peter sees his coming departure from Earth.  This word is used only three times in the New Testament.  It is used here and in Luke 9:31 where Elijah and Moses appear in glory and speak to Jesus about his "decease which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem."  The word for decease there is "exodus" in Greek.  The third place is in Hebrews chapter eleven where Joseph on his death bed reminds the families of Jacob that God has promised them an upcoming exodus from Egypt.

This is important because Peter uses several words that clearly connect to the Transfiguration in Luke 9, which he clearly speaks about in verses 16-18.  We will look at this in more depth in a moment.

So, how did Peter ensure that they would always have a reminder after his personal exodus?  First, he taught and preached the Gospel to churches, pastors, and bishops.  Though he would depart, other faithful people would be left behind to continue the work.  They do not so much take his place as carry the work forward.

Second, Peter is making sure a written record of his teaching is left behind.  Thus, we have the two letters of Peter.  His first letter is addressed to Christians who have been dispersed into the area of Asia Minor (Modern Turkey) due to persecution.  This second letter is basically written to anyone who is a Christian.  These are not just highly personalized letters from one individual to another.  They represent the basic teaching of the Apostle Peter, along with his sermons recorded by Luke in the book of The Acts of the Apostles.  On top of this, tradition teaches that Mark's Gospel has the Apostle Peter as its main source.  In 1 Peter 5:13, Mark spent enough time with Peter to be referred to as "my son," by him.

I believe that this is why Peter brings up the next section.  In a sense, you could ask this question.  Who wants to read a book from a first-century Israelite fisherman?  In verses 16-18, Peter establishes his credentials for caring about his teaching making it to the next generation and beyond.  An amazing outflow of God's grace has been given to him, and he feels the duty to ensure that it continues after his death.

Peter could have made a long list, but he focuses on one event, what is called the Transfiguration.  This is the word that Luke uses to describe this event.  Mark uses different words, but it is clear that they are describing the same event.  Peter, James and John see the face of Jesus transfigure, or rather transform, into a glowing, shining face of heavenly glory.  Even his clothing is described as becoming white as snow and glowing.  I always picture a mantle on a gas lantern when it is lit.

Now, there is a powerful parallel between the Transfiguration/Transformation event and what happened at Mt. Sinai in the book of Exodus.  The literary ties are too many to overlook.  There is a cloud of God that comes down on the mountain, God's voice is heard audibly from heaven, it is in the context of a new covenant being made between God and His people on earth, there is a mediator of that covenant, and witnesses to the powerful glory of God present, there is a mention of a tabernacle, and we could list more.

When Peter tells people about the power and future coming of Jesus in glory, he is not just following a cunningly designed story that he heard or made up.  He is an eyewitness, along with James and John, of a singularly amazing event.  Hebrews tells us that Moses was faithful as a servant of God to build the House of Israel for God.  Yet, Jesus is faithful as a son building his own house (the Church).  Jesus is not just another Moses.  He is the Greater Moses, just as he told the people "a greater [one] than Solomon is here."  Just as Moses took Joshua partway up on the mountain with him, so the Three disciples become witnesses to a greater glory of God.  Moses is enabled to see the back of God's glory, but the Three are enabled to see God's glory in the face of Jesus.  Of course, Jesus in human form is a mitigated form of the absolute glory of God.  Yet, the event signals that in some way we have been enabled to see the face of God, when mortals really cannot do so and live.  I could go on, but you get the drift.  Moses saw God's glory, but Jesus is the glory of God, the exact image of His person.  In Jesus, we have been given a glimpse of the glory of God.

The Three would go back and tell the other nine disciples what they saw.  Of course, the nine had seen some amazing things as well.  They saw Jesus walking on the water.  They also saw Jesus stand up in a boat and say, "Peace, be still!"  When the wind and waves immediately stopped, they were shocked.  "Who can this be, that even the winds and the sea obey Him?”  They didn't see the Transfiguration, but it was in keeping with what they had seen.  They would have quickly believed.

The Twelve would go forth and speak these things to the people of Israel.  Yes, there were some that wouldn't admit any miracles of Jesus, but many knew there was something different about Jesus.  They had watched him heal people blind from birth, lame from birth, lepers, demon-possessed people set free, thousands fed with just a little food in the wilderness.  They may not have seen Jesus do all the things that the apostles did, but it would fit with what they knew about Jesus.  This is why the resurrection of Jesus was eventually believed by thousands of early Judeans.  Over 500 people had seen Jesus after the Resurrection.  With such evidence stacking up, it is hard to really claim conspiracy, lying, and trickery.  Just as something amazing happened to Israel in the desert and they came out a nation with laws and religious service to which they all agreed, so the early Christianity cannot be explained by natural means.  Something amazing happened in first century Jerusalem, and it has changed the destiny of humanity!

The Transfiguration to the Crucifixion to the Ascension is a Mt. Sinai moment in which the glory of heaven comes down, meeting with His people, and makes a new covenant with them, really with whosoever will believe upon Jesus as the Christ.  Jesus doesn't just talk with God; he is revealed as the very glory of God itself.  Peter thus speaks of him receiving honor and glory from the Father when He spoke at the Transfiguration.

There are few times that it is clear in the text that God audibly speaks.  Typically it is in a dream, a vision, or through an angel.  Peter hears the voice of God say, "This is My Beloved Son.  Hear him!"  This is essentially the same message as at the water baptism of Jesus, except it adds that last part.  Any Judean of the day would have recognized the term My Son.  They would not have connected it necessarily to being divine, but as being the Messianic offspring of David promised by God in 2 Samuel 7:14.  God promises David that One from his line would be a son to God and God would give him a forever kingdom.  This is also seen in Psalm 2 where the nations of the earth are chafing under God and His King Messiah.  They are warned to kiss the Son before his wrath rises just a little. 

The imperative to listen to Jesus may not have been as quickly recognized, but it is clearly tying back to Deuteronomy 18, where Moses tells Israel that a prophet like him will come later.  He tells them that God will require it of anyone who doesn't listen to this prophet.  Thus, God the Father goes on record before three mortal humans that Jesus is the Messiah and the awaited Prophet who would set up the New Covenant, like Moses had done before.

This is a kind of layered witness.  The whole nation saw amazing things from Jesus, Caiaphas included. A smaller group (the 500) saw even more amazing things than they.  The Twelve saw even more amazing things than the 500, and the Three saw the most amazing things of all.

The prophetic Word of God 

This powerful first-century witness of God's work in Israel leads Peter to then speak of the prophetic Word of God.   Such experiences as Israel had in the first century were the foundation to the Scriptures that Israel received from Moses. This was not a bunch of guys sitting around unable to explain the weird world around them, and coming up with a story to keep the masses under control.  This is modern man's explanation of religion, but it is not God's explanation of where religion comes from.  The Old Testament and the New Testament were proven to be the very Words of God by the spectacular, more spectacular, and most spectacular events that happened with Israel and an amazing mediator at the time.  This is then further added to by prophecy that points forward to things that couldn't be known in advance, and yet come to pass.

In verse 19, there is a question about what exactly Peter is saying.  He is either saying that the events of Jesus, especially the Transfiguration, have made the Scriptures even more sure, or, he is saying that the Scriptures are even more sure than his experience on the mountain.  I don't buy the argument that Peter sees the Old Testament as greater than his experience.  Like I said before, Moses wrote the Torah, The Law, in response to a great, spectacular event with God at Sinai.  It was revelation from God in the same vein as Peter, James and John experienced.  It wasn't a science of man that discovered either the Law or the Gospel.  It was a revelation of God.

This brings up the issue of science.  True science can powerfully discover how things work, and how to build technology to do things.  However, science can never tell you if you should do something.  What do you put in a petri dish to determine right and wrong, yes and no?  You are left with men making their best guess, which is a recipe for disaster.  When it comes to the heart of man and his spiritual condition, we need more than science to help us.  We need the revelation of God, which is exactly what Peter received.

Peter was an eyewitness, even an earwitness, of God's revelation.  The Old Testament was completely reliable before, but with the revelation of Jesus it is even more proven than it was before.  This would apply to the writings of the Apostles as well.  What they would write would be the blazing light of truth, powerfully confirmed in the first century as being from God.

If you don't think Peter thought of the writings of the apostles as Scripture, then note chapter 3:5 in this same letter.  There he points out that scoffers are twisting Paul's words in his letters just as they did the "rest of the Scriptures."  They knew that they were righting down the Words of God, just as Moses knew that he was doing so.

In verse 19, Peter tells believers that they would do well to pay close attention to the Scriptures.  The verb here is an intensive looking into something that is important to you.  It is important for believers to spend time in the Word of God.  If you want to know God, then you will want to read His Word because it was written for our benefit.

Peter says that they should do this "until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts."  The "until" is a terminus to what he has talked about before.  Revelation 22:16 tells us that Jesus is the morning star.  So, does Peter mean that we should pay close attention to the Bible until we come to faith in Jesus, and then we won't need it any more?  I don't believe so.  The key is in noting the need for a light in a dark place.  It is true that we need the light of Jesus internally, and the believer receives such at salvation.  However, there is always a sense of "now, but not yet" with things pertaining to believers and the Church.  We are transported into the Kingdom of the Son of God's love, yet that kingdom is not fully realized on the earth.  We become the children of God, but our sonship will not be fully realized until the Resurrection. 

On top of this, we are still surrounded by a dark world in which we are shining the light.  Thus, the rising of Christ in our hearts and the Day dawning finds its complete fulfillment in the Second Coming of Jesus.

Lastly, I would say that darkness is not always associated with moral wickedness.  It is also associated with the lack of understanding in regards to the things prophesied in Scripture.  As long as believers do not have the full light of fulfilled Scripture, i.e., there are still prophecies to be fulfilled, then we need to pay close attention to God's Word, Old Testament and New Testament. 

Some people do  not buy this argument.  They have developed a sense that we have the Spirit of God, so we can just dispense with the Bible.  They see it as passé.  Does Peter make it more clear t hat we should not toss our Bibles and simply follow the Holy Spirit?

I believe this passage and others nip this idea in the bud.  In verse 20, Peter states that no prophecy came about from a person's own interpretation.  This is speaking of an idea that originates from within themselves.  Instead, the Scriptures (Old and New) came from the will of God, the Holy Spirit moving holy men to write.  Do you want to know what did come from the will of men?  False teaching and false prophecy came from the will of men.  Ultimately, even the false prophet is being led and played by the teachings of demons. 

On top of this, Paul in 2 Timothy 3:16 refers to the Scriptures as being inspired.  The word is literally "God-breathed."  Of course, the breath of God is a metaphor for the Holy Spirit.  This is exactly what Peter is saying.  The written Word of God, i.e., the Scriptures, are a product of the Holy Spirit's work over 1500 years.  Why would the Holy Spirit not want to use the holy and spiritual book that was purposefully made for the faith of believers?  Will the Holy Spirit simply start over from scratch with each new believer and try to compress all of that work into your life span?

The Apostles who were filled with the Holy Spirit focused themselves on the ministry of the Word.  They encouraged believers to pay close attention to the Word, and commended those who made sure that preaching lined up with the Word.

It has been said that the Old Testament is the New Testament concealed and that the New Testament is the Old Testament Revealed.  This is true, but we can miss the understanding that the New Testament is shining light precisely upon the Old Testament.  Without spending the time to know what the Old Testament, you will miss much of what the New Testament says.  In truth, God's Word will put in your heart and mind the concepts and ideas that will give the Holy Spirit leverage within your soul.  Through it, we work with Him in taking possession of our soul, and obtaining the wisdom of God in salvation for us and our community.

It is the Holy Spirit that illuminates our understanding in regards to Scripture.  This work will never end while we are in these mortal bodies.  Thus, let us be a people of the Word of God and a people of the Spirit of God.  Some have acted as if these are in contention, but I believe that I have shown that they cannot be so.

Some have put down being led by the Spirit and emphasize the Word of God only.  Yet, on the other extreme, there are those who over-emphasize being led by the Spirit, even referring to the Bible as being an old, stale word from the Lord.  Yes, we want to hear from the Lord in our hearts and minds, but this process will be fraught with pitfalls and errors if we are not a people steeped in God's Word.  Thus, this is a false dichotomy.

Without the Holy Spirit, the Scriptures will fall on deaf ears when it is spoken and preached.  This is where we should remind ourselves that Jesus is the Word of God long before there was anything to write on.  The Scriptures are a mediated picture of the Lord Jesus himself.  They point to him and help us to keep from getting off track as we are led by the Holy Spirit.  This is God's love, plan, and purpose for us.

The Pharisees are forever proof that quoting a whole book of the Bible and having a graduate degree in theology cannot save you.  Paul stated that the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life (2 Corinthians 3:6).  If you focus on the words without the Spirit of God, then you will end up being a Scripture twister like all of the other false teachers.  Humble yourself by the Spirit, and ask the Lord to help you hunger for His Word, and gain understanding by it.  Let's be a people of the Word!

People of the Word audio

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

Such Love-Part 1

Subtitle: He Became One of Us

John 1:14-18; Philippians 2:5-11.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Palm Sunday, April 2, 2023.

Today we begin a 6-part series about God's love, and how we should respond to it.

Love is a matter of call and response, or action and response.  In a way, God is always the initiator of love because of His eternal nature.  We are always the responders.

I want to refresh our memories of just how much God loved us in the coming of the one we know as Jesus, or in Hebrew, Yeshua.  On top of His love 2,000 years ago, we have His great love for us today, for you, and for others.  Do you not realize that God's amazing love will be embracing you even unto your last breath?  His amazing love will even be with humanity to the end of this age, and into eternity.

Let's look at our passage today, and remind ourselves of God's great love.

The Word became flesh (John 1:14)

In this chapter, John speaks of the One called "the Word" who is identified in verse 17 as Jesus Christ.  The Word becoming flesh points back to that moment in time when Mary first conceived.

The miracle of the incarnation is often doubted.  It is believed that Mary clearly made up the story.  However, does this square with all of the evidence?

Let's just go with the cynic on this one and assume that Mary did make it up.  Her pregnancy would have either been by Joseph, or some other man that she is unwilling to name.  Modern man may scoff that they didn't know science like we do today.  Thus, the people of Nazareth were easily duped.

Of course, this is not what happened and is very snobbish towards that generation.  They knew exactly how a woman became pregnant.  No one believed Mary's story at first, not even Joseph.  He was going to put her away silently.  However, Joseph changed his mind and married Mary.  They lived their lives with the stigma hanging over their heads that they had not waited for the proper moment to be intimate.  No one would have bought their story.

Here is the rub.  If Mary was lying, then Jesus should have fallen within the range of the Judeans of his day.  He might be a little smarter or not, but we would not expect him to stick out among the greats of Israel, much less all mankind.  The miracles of Jesus, his death and resurrection, are not explainable by a natural conception.  Of course, the skeptic continues to deny everything.  None of the miracles happened.  The resurrection didn't happen.  Over the top of all the eye witness testimony, the skeptic's biases reign supreme.   There is just too much evidence that something strange was going on with this Jesus of Nazareth.

In the opening verses of this chapter, it is clear that John is using language from Genesis chapter 1, "In the beginning..."  The apostles of Jesus had come to see the reality of who Jesus really was.  He is the Son of the Most High God, but not in the way that humans would understand sonship.  Even before anything was created, the eternal Son existed as the eternal Word of God.  How does John come up with the idea that there was a "Word" of God in the Genesis 1?  Well, primarily he doesn't "come up with it."  He understands it by the revelation of Jesus and the Spirit of God.  However, it is important to see that Genesis 1 describes the Father saying, "Let there be light,"  When we speak, words go forth from us.  Of course, God is not flesh and blood and there is no air around Him to propagate sound waves.  However, something greater is being revealed.  The One who created man, with the ability to speak and send powerful ideas out into the world around him, is able to "speak" and send forth "word" in a greater way.  What is not made clear in the text of Genesis 1 is explained in John 1.  The eternal Word was the eternal Son who went forth to accomplish what the Father desired.  John is also probably looking at Proverbs 8, in which wisdom is personified and depicted as working with God at Creation.  In a sense, John is saying that Proverbs 8 is not just poetry.  It is revelation that is not clear until the Wisdom of God, the Word of God, took on flesh.

This is the amazing part.  This One who has eternally existed not only with God, but as divine, became human.  This speaks to the depths that God was willing to go in order to save us, to show His love for us.  Yes, God is good and therefore He will do good things, but He doesn't have to be that good!  This call and response of love cannot be broken down into "laws."  Anyone who says, "This is what you have to do in order to love me," has something wrong in their heart.  They are not speaking with love themselves.  Love must be free to act and to respond.  Love must not be controlled and manipulated; true love will not dictate to other how they "must" show love.

This brings us to Philippians 2:5-11.  It uses language from Genesis 1 as well (verse 26).  In Genesis, man is made in the "likeness" of God.  He is not God, but is like Him enough that a personal relationship can develop between them.  We see this in Genesis 3 when it tells us that God would come down in the cool of the day to meet with Adam and Eve.  In Philippians, something is happening in the opposite direction.  Though man is made in God's likeness, through Jesus, God has taken on the nature and form of a man.  The Word didn't just become like a man.  Rather, He became a man.

This begs the question, "What was He thinking?"  The context of Philippians 2 is the kind of mind that Christians need to have.  Thus, Paul points back to the incarnation, taking on of flesh, of the Word of God in Jesus.  We need the same kind of mind that Jesus had when he agreed to such a plan.

Of course, becoming human is nothing to us because we are human.  Jesus was divine and the creator of all mankind.  Taking on the nature of a human is a big deal.  In fact, Paul parallels the act of Jesus taking on the likeness of humans with him taking on the form of a slave.  He didn't just become human.  He became a human slave for God the Father. 

Again, what was the eternal Son thinking?  What is this love of God that would go to such lengths, to such depths, in order to save us?  As humbling as becoming human is for God, this was not the depths of his love.

The Philippians passage uses three verbal phrases to describe the depths of God's love for us.

First, he "emptied himself."  It doesn't say exactly what he emptied himself of.  In the context, the mind of Christ is in view.  Thus, we might ask ourselves this question.  What would I have to empty myself of in order to do something like that?  Of course, Jesus is not proud and arrogant.  However, he did create all things, and has dwelled in eternal glory with the Father.  He would have to empty himself of all the reasons and thinking that would object to such a plan of salvation.  It would be an attitude that says, "I am this (a glorious God); I shouldn't have to do that (become human, etc.). 

As humans, we are altogether too familiar with that attitude.  It is not an attitude of love.  This is why Paul is pointing us back to the incarnation.  We need to first understand just how amazing it is that the Word would do this for us, and then make the leap to the fact that we should do the same for others.

Second, Philippians 2 tells us that Jesus "humbled himself."  At its root this word speaks of a lowering of position.  The eternal Son abased himself in taking on human flesh.  Yet, as a man, we see him washing the feet of his disciples.  He wasn't just becoming a great king of the earth that everyone would serve.  Instead, he was a slave of God to serve us.  He lived without purpose and will of his own, and instead, lived out only the will and purpose of the Father in heaven.  Since the men whose feet he washed were his disciples, they would then have to figure out how to lower themselves even lower than their master.  How is that possible?  Only by the grace and help of God's Holy Spirit; that's how.

Palm Sunday is all about the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem.  It represents all that we want in the natural.  Jesus presents himself to Jerusalem as her awaited Anointed King from God.  We do not object to God coming down and becoming human in order to conquer our foes and lay them at our feet.  However, we do balk because we do not know what our true enemy is.  One day we are saying yeah for team Jesus, and then he does something we don't understand and we are ready to crucify him.

Just as Israel was looking for Messiah to show up and conquer the Romans, so we do today.  The Ukrainians hope for God to show up and crush the Russians.  Americans may complain that if God would just show up and destroy those who are taxing us to death, then we would be good.  Really?  The truth is that Israel's problem was not actually the Romans, and the problem for American's is not your tax-happy State capital, or Washington D.C.  Our problem is sin that is entrenched in our own hearts.  We will point out every sin, but our own.  This is our greatest problem: we are in bondage to sin.

The Word dwelt among us

Back in John 1:14, we are told that the Word became flesh and then dwelt among us.  John again uses language from the Old Testament, this time from Exodus 25-40.  The word for "dwelt" connects back to the animal skins of the tent, or tabernacle, God had Israel build in the desert.  This verb could be translated as "and tented among us."

Yeshua is literally God,  Yahweh, tenting among us.  Remember, the whole purpose of the tabernacle was to create a place that God could dwell in among the people of Israel.  As they camped in the wilderness, the tabernacle was there in the center of their camp.  The presence of God was visible in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night.

This visible presence of the Lord had become a thing of the past by the first century.  However, it is important to understand this picture of God dwelling among His people within a structure of animal skins.

This brings up the age old contention between Christians and Judaism, the idea of the Messiah being divine.  Is this just a Christian perversion?  Are Christians teaching things that are not in the Old Testament, either because they don't understand Hebrew, or they are purposefully twisting the Scriptures?

The presence of God was always understood to be a mystery in ancient Israelite worship.  If one pays careful attention to the text, you might accuse the writer of contradicting themselves.  On one hand, the Scriptures pound home the idea that mortal humans cannot see God without dying, and yet God is able to reveal Himself in lesser, or mediated forms.  The bush that Moses sees is somehow Yahweh, and yet it is not fully Yahweh.  The fire and smoke on Mt. Sinai is somehow Yahweh, and yet not fully Yahweh.  The same scary manifestation of fire and smoke on the mountain, then moves to the tabernacle as a less scary pillar of cloud (a somewhat different manifestation, yet of the same).  We see Moses speaking with God in the tabernacle, but at the same time he asks God to look down from heaven (Deuteronomy 26:15).  Moses was not contradicting himself.  He simply knew that God was capable of manifesting in a mediated form on the earth, while still being God in heaven.

This is the mystery of the presence of God.  It is never fully explained.  It is simply revealed and discovered by Moses and Israel.  Even the New Testament does not completely demystify this mystery of the person and presence of God.  Yet, Moses had no problem accepting that God could be "tenting" among His people within animal skins (the tabernacle) while still being resident in heaven.  Thus, before the first century, rabbis would speak of the Invisible Yahweh and the Visible Yahweh (a mediated form of the invisible God).  God is One, and yet He can somehow localize without leaving heaven.

This comes to a head in Exodus 33 to 34.  There Moses is talking with God.  He is asking God to go with them, even though Israel has been sinful and rebellious.  God promises to send His Presence with them.  At this point, Moses asks God to see His glory.  God agrees to let him see His receding glory, that is, not its fullness, because Moses could not handle it. 

The even is described in chapter 33, but happens in chapter 34.  God tells Moses to stand on a certain rock.  God would then come down and pass before Moses.  God's hand would simultaneously place Moses in a cleft of the rock, and shield him from seeing God's face.  Yet, as God passes by, He removes His hand so that Moses can see His back as He goes away from him.  Meanwhile, God is "declaring" the name of the Lord.  I will come back to this declaration of the name of the Lord in a moment.

Notice that in this passage God is spoken of in human terms: face, hand, and back.  This is a mediated human form, yet not a human.  Thus, we can see that there is no great leap to understand that just as Yahweh could tent among His people in animal skins, appear to Moses in human form, all while being resident in the heavens, so in Jesus, Yahweh could tent among His people in human skin, while still being resident in the heavens.

Why would He do this?  What love is this?

We beheld His glory

Finally, John 1:14 tells us that they beheld his glory.  Just as Israel saw God's glory come down upon the mountain, then onto the tabernacle, so God's glory was made visible in the person and work of Jesus.

I would like to point out that God's glory is not just one thing in the Old Testament.  There are many different expressions, forms, and even layers to the manifest glory of God.  No human has ever seen the unmitigated glory of God.  We cannot handle it.  Then, we see the powerful glory that scares people like at Mt. Sinai: smoking fire, Loud voice, trumpet blasts, shakings, etcetera. 

Then, there is the kind of glory that Moses saw that is a human like figure.  This connects with the Angel of Yahweh passages as well.  This Angel is more than a created spiritual messenger for God.  God's Name is somehow in Him, and he forgives sins (Exodus 23:21).  Moses saw this human form of God's glory declaring the "Name of the Lord."  What was the declaration?  Exodus 34:6-7, "And the LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation.”  God's glory is displayed in God allowing Moses to glimpse what He could of Him, but it is also wrapped up in the truth about God's nature.  He is Mercy, Grace, Patience, Goodness, Truth, Forgiveness, and the fear of the guilty.  Thus, John alludes to this passage as well when he says of Jesus in John 1:14 that Jesus is full of grace and truth.  In Jesus, Israel receives a greater glimpse of what Moses saw on the mountain. 

Of course, some of Israel saw a greater glory in Jesus than the others similar to Moses seeing God's glory greater than Israel did.  The disciples saw Jesus do things that others didn't, like walk on water and calm a storm with just the words, "Peace, be still."  However, James, John, and Peter saw the Lord's face transfigured into a glorious brightness that the other nine did not see.

Yet, the miracles and such demonstrations were probably not the greatest glory that Jesus expressed.  A case can be made that his death on the cross was the greatest display of the glory of God.  On that day, he fully revealed the heart and nature of God the Father, not only to Israel, but also to the Gentiles.  The heart of God is full of Grace, and yet also full of Truth.  He will bend over backwards to save us, even to the point of dying for us, but we must turn to Him in truth.

Today, I want us to understand what it says about the love of God that He would even come down and take on the nature of a human.  The heart of God has always been about relationship with us, and to dwell with us.  Revelation ends with us dwelling with God and the statement, "They shall see His face."  We will have been fitted to not only dwell in His presence, but also to look into the face of the full glory of God without dying!  This relationship has always been His goal.  It was there in the Garden of Eden until the serpent and sin broke that fellowship.  It was there with Israel in the wilderness, until sin and rebellion broke it.

All humanity is full of rebellion against God, and against His Anointed King, Jesus.  Yet, even now He holds out His hand in an offer of peace.  He offers the joy of dwelling with Him throughout eternity.  This is the love of God.  How can I say no to such love?

Such Love 1 audio

The Acts of the Apostles 32

Subtitle: The Stoning of Stephen II

Acts 7:57-60.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on January 22, 2023.

Last week, we looked at Stephen's conclusion to his defense before the Sanhedrin, the highest council of Israel.  He tells them that they are resisting the Holy Spirit just like their forefathers did.  He tells them that they have betrayed and murdered the Righteous One, which had to be a hard hit to them.  Lastly, he tells them that they have not obeyed the law.

Each of these hits on an area that they would have thought they were performing well.  They prided themselves in having received the law and meticulously obeying it and teaching it to others.  They would have prided themselves in waiting for the Messiah and teaching others to wait for him in righteousness.  They would have thought that they of all people were not resisting the Holy Spirit, but instead, were doing what God had told them to do through Moses.

However, this isn't the first time that they have heard this.  Jesus took them to task on this.  Peter and John had also said similar things when they were before the Sanhedrin. 

Regardless, if Stephen's charges aren't enough to precipitate his stoning, his description of a vision of God's throne in the heavens pushes them over the edge.  This time Gamaliel doesn't step in.  Is he enraged too?  Or, has he decided that he has pressed his honor far enough, and won't take the risk with this angry group?

There is a powerful spiritual dynamic at work here.  God deals with us as individuals, but at the same time, we are often part of groups.  It is impossible to avoid the group dynamics that can catch us up in a wave of emotional response.

We might even take a moment to ask the question if Stephen should have toned it down a little.  Was Stephen being too judgmental?  Judge not lest you be judged?  In truth, that verse gets quoted a lot by people who use it as a moral cloak.  It is simply a warning to make sure your judgments are righteous because, when you stand before God, He will take the manner of your judgments into consideration.  You were harsh?  Then, He will be harsh.  You were merciful?  Then, He will be merciful.

There are times when God speaks strongly to us.  He does this because He loves us.  Stephen spoke some hard words, but they were from the heart of God who wanted these men to hear the truth.  He loved them enough to tell them the truth.

On the other hand, these men have to be careful how they judge, which looks like they merely judged by emotions.  This is the problem with the accusation that someone is being judgmental.  Even that accusation is itself a judgment.  If you are using it simply to stiff-arm dealing with your stuff, then you are not doing yourself any favors.  Ultimately, we will all stand before God, so it doesn't matter what the other person says.  It only matters what God says.  If God can speak through a donkey, then he can even speak through a sinner who isn't completely right.  Don't shield yourself with platitudes.  Instead, turn to God in prayer and seek the truth.

Let's look at our passage.

The reaction of the Sanhedrin (vs. 57-60)

The council had been listening to a man filled with the Spirit and exposing their sin.  What would their reaction be?  Would it be to fall on their face and cry out to God for repentance?  No, like a pot coming to a boil, the Holy Spirit has been convicting them of sin, and they do not like it.

Verse 54 tells us that the council members were cut to the heart, and they "gnashed at him with their teeth."  This may sound bad, but at least there was a reaction.  It was proof that the Holy Spirit was breaking through to them.  Of course, we don't want to try and make people mad on purpose, but when people do explode in anger, just know that the Spirit of God has touched a nerve.

Hebrews 4:12 says, "the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart."  God's word through Stephen pierced their heart, and when that happens we can become quite uncomfortable.

Paul tells us in Romans 1:16 that he wasn't ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus because it is the power of salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first, and then to the Gentiles.  We have all had the Holy Spirit convict us of sin.  How we respond is the critical thing.

Like parents dealing with a stubborn and resistant child, God deals with the reality that we need truth inserted into our life, but outward conformity isn't good enough.  Is my highest goal for my child that they not embarrass me in public; that they protect my "brand?"  No, the real issue is always the internal for God and for any parent who truly loves their child.

When the truth finally cuts through to the heart of a child or an adult, you will always get a big reaction, whether for good or bad.  It may seem harsh sometimes when a person is angry or crying, but God wants our hearts, and without the conviction of the Holy Spirit no true work can be done.  Praise God that this is exactly what He does (see John 16:8).  When God convicts a person, it is not about pushing that person down.  Rather, it is Him pleading with them.  "Why will you die?  Take my hand!"

Sadly, instead of falling on their faces in repentance, they covered their ears, cast him out of the city and stoned him.

Perhaps they are crying out, "Blasphemy!" as they did with Jesus in Matthew 26.  They may also be trying to shout him down, since they categorically reject that he is actually seeing the throne of God.

Also, they cover their ears, somewhat to keep from hearing more, and somewhat as a symbolic showing that they reject what he is saying.  Then, they rush at him.

All of these descriptions fall short of godly judgment of godly men.  However, the worst description to me is the phrase "in one accord."  It was if they were a single organism working with one purpose and one passion.  Unity is important precisely because the thing that unifies us can be bad or good.  I don't like one word mottoes like: Unity!  Love!  Equality!  They beg too many questions.  Unity around what?  Love of what, and how is this love defined?  What do you mean by equality? 

These men were just as unified as the 120 disciples were in the upper room of Acts 1-2.  However, a different spirit was animating and unifying them.  It reminds of that scene in Fyodor Dostoevsky's book The Possessed.  It is set in Tsarist Russia before the Bolshevik revolution.  A fire is set in a rundown section of town and everyone is scrambling to put out the fire.  A man who was demonstrably crazy throughout the book is running around yelling, "You can't put out the fire.  It's in the minds of men!"  Of course, no one is listening to him.  He's a crazy man, but it is the most salient point in the book.  The communist revolutionaries were seized upon by a fiery idea that would unify them to horrible things.

Groups, crowds, and protests can be powerful for good, but they can also be powerful for evil.  What spirit is animating the group?  More importantly, what spirit is animating me?  If the Spirit of God is animating me, then I will know if I run into a group that is not.  Of course, the Pharisees believe that they are led by God's Spirit too.  So now, we can have an event where one side says they have the Spirit and the other side says, no, we have the Spirit, a spiritual stand-off.

Some people become frustrated with such things and just walk away, even from church altogether.  How can you know who has the Spirit?  You make sure that you are in connection with God's Spirit, and if you aren't sure, then get out of the group, go home, get on your knees, and pray until you find God.  Time always proves what side has the Spirit of God.  In fact, sometimes neither side has the Spirit of God.  Yes, it is hard and difficult to go through such things, but it is the call of God to grow up in Christ.  Make sure for yourself that you are being led by the Holy Spirit, and leave the rest up to God.

As the group begins to stone Stephen, Luke brings our attention to young Saul of Tarsus.  Chapter eight will begin to describe an outbreak of persecution upon the Christians, and Saul was a zealous tip of the spear in it.  There it says that Saul was "consenting to his death." 

In this passage, it says that they laid their outer cloaks at his feet.  He would be the guarding them as they focus on stoning Stephen.  Someone could steal them.  Similar to playing sports at the park, it is hard to watch your stuff while you are playing.  Typically, you get a friend to watch it.

Saul didn't throw any stones, but he was an accessory to the murder of Stephen.  Of course, he was probably glad to be part of cleansing Israel for God.  However, later he would look back on this moment and see himself as the chief of sinners.

Have you ever done that, looked back at your life and saw just how blind you really were?  Often, it is not just blindness, but wickedness too.  Saul would go by Paul after his salvation.  He realized that he had been the worst of the worst, and yet, God loved him.

What do you do when you know how wicked you have been, how resistant and rebellious, and yet God calls you, and tells you that He loves you?  We can protest that God doesn't know how bad we really are, but the truth is that He knows that we are even worse than we believe we are.  Yet, He still loves you.  Why?  How?  There is no real answer to that.  Try to tell your spouse, or kids why you love them.  You will end up with a list that seems trite.  Even if you say that you love them because they are so lovable, it dredges up the inevitable question.  What if you find out who I really am, an unlovable person?  You don't have to have a why when your kid is born.  You love them.  You don't know what their life will be like, but you love them.  However, God knows everything about us, past, present and future.  Yet, He still loves us.  He died on a cross for you, just as He died on the cross for Saul of Tarsus, and even Caiaphas.  God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should have eternal life.

In Stephen, God was goading and pleading with those men that day to accept the Truth about who Jesus was, and still could be in their lives.  We should be thankful to God that we are not stuck in the truth of what we were, or even what we are today, any more than Saul was stuck being a blind persecutor of God's people.

Let's finish by looking at the last words of Stephen.  The scene is a loud and angry one, and yet, Stephen is serene in the face of it.  Surrounded by hatred and people throwing stones at him, he demonstrates the love of Christ through his actions and words.

This is easier said than done.  There is a spirit of rage moving in the crowd that can be infectious to both sides.  It doesn't matter if you are right.  You can be caught up in a spirit of fighting and arguing that is not of God.  Now, you both are wrong.  However, Stephen does not rail against them.  He simply cries out, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!"  He is not calling down fire from heaven upon them.  He knows that he is about to go home to his lord.

Jesus had told the Pharisees within the hearing of the disciples that he would send prophets and wise men to them and that they would kill some of them.  So, these men knew that they had signed up for something that could cost them their life.

Stephen had come to the end of his race, and now the only thing left was to run through the tape into the arms of an awaiting Jesus!  It is interesting to me that it was a Hellenized Jew who was the first to die for Christ.  I don't think this was to slight Peter, nor was it to protect him.  Peter would give his life around 30 years later.

Regardless, for the believer in Jesus, to die is to be present with Jesus at the throne room of God the Father.  Stephen has lived a life that was a witness to the Truth of Jesus, and now he will give the ultimate witness by dying for Christ.  Jesus is worth dying for and he is worth living for.  In fact, it is only a person who has lived for Christ who can die for him.  They both go hand in hand, like two sides of the same coin.

Lastly, Stephen stays true to form by giving words of mercy to those who are killing him.  "Lord do not hold this sin against them."  It is clear that he is thinking about the death of Jesus.  Jesus committed his spirit unto the Father, and asked the Father to forgive those killing him because they didn't know what they were actually doing.  He perfectly images the Father in this moment because He is perfectly imaging Jesus, who perfectly imaged the Father.  I hope you followed that.

How could he do that?  He is unjustly being put to death by wicked men.  Clearly, the death and resurrection of Jesus had changed his mind about what his job in this life was.  His job wasn't to get justice, or rail against wickedness.  His job was to be a witness to the lost of the love of God that is calling to them even as they murder a man.  Stephen refused to become bitter, hateful, and angry.

Of course, this doesn't mean God will not judge.  In fact, it is precisely because God will judge that we can show mercy.  As long as they are alive, they can repent, turn from their sins, and put their faith in Jesus Christ.

Do I really believe that God is not willing that any should perish, even those throwing stones at me right now?  Do I really believe that He wants to hold out His hands offering peace through me, even those who are mistreating me?  How can a person have this kind of attitude?

We can only have this attitude by dying to our desires and plans, and asking God to fill us with His desires and plans by His Holy Spirit.  Only the Spirit of God can enable a person to love their murderer and pray for their forgiveness.  "Oh God, do in me what I cannot do in myself!"  Everyday people are slipping into eternity lost, and it breaks the heart of God.  Can it break mine too?  It can if I will seek to be filled with the Spirit of God, and His love.

Stoning II audio