The Lies We Come To Believe II

Exodus 2:11-15; 3:10-12; 4:1,10,13-14; Judges 6:11-13; 1 Kings 19:1-4, 11-14.

This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Father’s Day, June 16, 2024.

I preached a sermon on Mother’s Day with this same title.  There we looked at Eve, Sarah, and Naomi.  Each of them had spiritual hurts and emotional wounds that made it difficult to believe God.  When a person is wounded in life, it always has a lie or half-truth that surfaces in our heart, perhaps more than one.  We can be tempted then to live our life believing those lies to be true.

Today we are going to do the same thing, but with three men: Moses, Gideon, and Elijah.  I want to make it clear that the lies we believe are not generally specific to whether we are female or male.

In fact, there are many different hurts that can lead us to believe the same lie, similar to how a geographical destination can have many different roads that lead to it.  Women can learn from the stories of men and men can learn from the stories of women because the specific details of our experiences are not the most important thing to them.  Rather, what is most important is to see the mistakes that we make and how the Lord gives grace for us to overcome them.

The flip-side of this title, “The Lies We Come To Believe,” is this: “And The God Who Saves Us From Them!”  Amen?

May we see a little bit of ourselves in these three men, and may we be encouraged to have faith in God for the week ahead of us.

Let’s look at our first passage.

Moses (Exodus 2, 3, 4)

We have skipped the story about the birth of Moses.  Pharaoh was afraid that his Israelite slaves were growing too numerous.  He decreed that all infant males born to the Hebrews would be put to death.  Thus, Moses is born under the threat of death.  I wonder if his mother had been reading or thinking about the account of Noah when she had the idea of making a little “ark” out of bullrushes and casting her little boy upon the waters of the Nile, hoping for God to protect him from the dangers of the world.  The Egyptian princess “just happens” to find the boy in the make-shift ark and raises him as her own.  The event of chapter 2 doesn’t happen until Moses is 40 years old, according to Stephen in Acts 7:23.  It “just happens to come to him” to check on the condition of his fellow Hebrews, and he finds that it isn’t good.  Moses kills an Egyptian task-master, has an exchange with a bitter Hebrew slave, and has to run for his life because Pharaoh found out what he had done.

Moses then goes into the land of Midian, which interestingly enough means “strife.”  He will spend the next 40 years living in this rustic place raising a family and being a shepherd.  When we come to Exodus 3 and the story of the burning bush, Moses is now 80 years old.  The Angel of the Lord appears to him within a bush that is on fire but not being consumed.  The exchange continues into chapter 4.  If you pay attention to this exchange, you will see that God is calling Moses to go to Egypt and help deliver his people out of slavery.  Yet, Moses is not interested.  He offers up several protests, or excuses, as to why it shouldn’t be him.  We will look at those in a second, but first notice Exodus 4:14.

The continual protests of Moses stirs up the anger of the Lord against him.  This is called trying the patience of God.  It is one thing to try the patience of people, but quite another to test God’s patience.  Yet, we see here that God’s mercy is still extended to Moses. 

Let’s talk first about the wounds that Moses received.  His life is divided into three very distinct periods of 40 years each.  He is a prince in Egypt, lacking nothing, from birth to 40.  He is a shepherd in the wilderness of Midian from 40 to 80.  Lastly, he is a leader of Israel in the deserts south and south east of Canaan from 80 to 120.  It is the event at 40 years of age in Exodus 2 that helps us to see his wound, which begins with the killing of the Egyptian.  Clearly Moses feels like he needs to do something, but in a moment of passion, he kills an Egyptian.  He believes that no one has seen him do this.  However, the next day he finds two Hebrews fighting.  He challenges the one who had struck his brother, but receives a bitter reply.  “Who made you a prince and a judge over us?  Do you intend to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?”  Are  you a murderer going to lecture me about striking my brother?  Are you who have lived a princely life wanting to play the prince of slaves?

We need to understand that bitter people who have endured bitter lives have a knack for wounding others.  They have so many emotional wounds that they cease to care about how they impact others.  The devil wants us acting out of the pain of our wounds because we will then hurt others instead of finding the healing of God, even being a channel of the healing of God.  Please read this paragraph over again because many Christians still live their lives rooted in legitimate wounds they received in the past.

The wound that Moses receives is one of rejection.  Pharaoh wants to kill him for daring to kill an Egyptian.  His own people aren’t interested in what little help he wants to offer.  The fact that Moses had never made a single brick in his life probably added to their distaste for him. 

You might object that this was only one man.  That is precisely the point.  Our emotional wounds are not always rational.  Moses had to run because Pharaoh had the power to find him and kill him in Egypt.  Yet, that bitter reply of another Hebrew went deep into the heart of Moses.  You have nothing to offer these people.  They don’t want you.  Rejection is a bitter pill and it really messes people up..

Here is the thing to ponder.  All wounds tempt us to believe things that are either blatant lies or are half-truths.  The wounds and the feelings about them are real.  We shouldn’t discount them.  However, our wounded feelings are extremely bad at discovering truth.  The gravity of our injured self is always towards a self-deception.  It takes a miracle of God to pull a person out of that trap.

Think about anger.  We are told in the Bible that “the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God” (James 1:20).  However, it does not say along with that, “Don’t be angry.”  Rather, we are told “’Be angry, and do not sin’: do not let the sun go down on your wrath…” (Ephesians 4:26; Psalm 4:4).  Anger is a powerful emotion that can result from unjust situations as well as out of our own sin.  When we allow anger to drive the responses we make (even when that anger is justified), we will find ourselves falling into sin.

Anger is not the only emotion that can take control of us because of wounds in our past.  No feeling should be used to justify sinful actions.  Rather, we must submit ourselves to the commands of Christ and his Apostles.

I do want to be careful pretending to be in the head of Moses.  This is not an attempt to psychoanalyze Moses.  Instead, this is about how we all respond to hurt and seeing the similar dynamic in him.  I want us to see ourselves in what he is going through.  We need to recognize how we have been wounded, and then, how God wants to heal that wound.

So let’s get into the five protests that Moses gives to God.  We will see that there is a lie or half-truth that is beneath these protests.

1.  Exodus 3:11.  Moses questions who he is to do what God is saying.  The lie beneath this is:  I am nobody.  Rejection always affects self-worth.  A person can’t help the emotional response that says, “What is wrong with me that you would reject me?”  Kids do this when their parents fight and divorce.  Generally, this has nothing to do with the kids, but they feel that way anyway.  In fact, it is quite common that people who hurt you aren’t even thinking about you.  They are thinking about themselves and not caring about what you think or feel.

The world’s answer to all of this is to boost up your self-esteem and kick the negative people out of your life.  If Jesus had done that, then none of us could be saved.  Jesus didn’t kick the negative people out of his life.  He loved them to the bitter end, entrusting His life to God.

For the believer, our self worth needs to be anchored in Jesus and his love for us (as well as for the people who hurt us).  You may be nobody in the eyes of the world, but this doesn’t make you a nobody.  You are somebody that is loved by God.  He  has a purpose for you, and no matter what it is, He will help you to do it!

2.  Exodus 4:1.  The next lie is this.  They will not listen, believe, or follow me.  Out of that injured self-image flows the doubting of what God can do through us when He calls us to something.  In fact, parents can do this with their kids.  You can be offended that your kids are responding to your wisdom, instruction, and correction.  This doesn’t give you the right to write your kids off.  God’s calling remains on you regardless of how your kids respond. 

In this case, Moses is somewhat right.  The story of Israel coming out of Egypt is full of the murmuring and protests of the Israelites against God and Moses.  They may have physically followed Moses into the wilderness, but most of them perished there because they didn’t trust God.  Their lack of faith often caused them to take out their frustrations on Moses.  However, this isn’t the problem of Moses.  It is God’s problem, and He is quite capable of taking care of His problems (and ours).

3.  Exodus 4:10.  Here is another lie.  I am not eloquent (skilled) enough to do it.  This is the same argument as before.  Doing something for God is never dependent upon your level of talent.  It is dependent upon the blessing of God.

The Bible tells us to ask for wisdom if we lack it.  I suppose we could also ask for talent if we lack it.  However, let me talk about wisdom for a moment.  When God does supply wisdom, what does that look like?  Do you instantly sound amazingly like Solomon?  Does everyone around start remarking about how wise you are?  Of course not.  Yet, God gives you wisdom, here a little and there a little.  It builds up.  You don’t have to “sound wise” to the world in order to be wise.  Perhaps, it is best if you don’t.

4.  Exodus 4:13.  The lie here is this.  Someone else would be better than me.  This is a cop-out.  Why would God be asking you?  Why would the Holy Spirit be stirring it up in you, if this was true?  Maybe it is better for you that you do it?  God doesn’t just “use” people to help others.  He is simultaneously helping the person who chooses to obey him and help others.  It is good for us to be both receivers and givers.  Receiving teaches us humility, and giving teaches us compassion and mercy.

Of course, the attitude that says for God to find somebody else can also be sheer laziness, but I don’t get that vibe in this passage.  Moses has tried that and has the proverbial T-shirt to prove it.

5.  Underlying this whole account is a final lie.  I can’t go back there.  This was Egypt for Moses, but what is it for you?  We can go anywhere if God is with us.  Whether out of fear or out of pragmatism, Moses is not interested in going back to Egypt.  Going back will only make things worse: a Pharaoh who wants him dead, and a people who despise this non-slave Hebrew.

Moses would have stayed in Midian another 40 years, if God had let him.  However, God had different plans.

In moments where God is calling us to go back and face painful situations, it can feel like it is impossible.  However, this is precisely why we need Jesus.  He will go with us and lead us forth in victory, not against people, but against the lies, half-truths, and spiritual enemies that you have.  You may feel like you can’t face it, but you can with Jesus.  God has a good thing in the task that He is asking of you, and you can trust Him.

Gideon (Judges 6:11-15)

We won’t spend as much time on these last two.  Gideon lives about 200 years following Joshua.  There has been at least three periods of subjugation over Israel with several stories of judges or people who accomplished vindication for Israel.

Gideon’s wound is found in that he is a no-status person within a subjugated people.  As Americans, we do not know what that feels like.  We have no clue.  So, when the Angel of the LORD shows up to explain to Gideon that God plans to deliver Israel through him, Gideon responds out of this mentality.

Gideon’s first response bristles at the idea that God is with them and for them.  If God was really with us, then things would be better than this.  This is a very common lie that we tell ourselves.  We will even see every bad thing in our life as proof that God is against us (or worse, we think of it in terms of karma).  “God, what am I doing wrong?  If I was doing it right, surely it would be better than this!”

We need to be very careful with such ideas and questions.  God’s calling on Israel had not changed.  He had not rescinded it.  When we are in times of discipline because of sin, or even when we are in a time of discipline to make us stronger (i.e., not because of sin), God  is still with us and being faithful to us.  It is foolish to interpret the Fatherly discipline of God as a rejection from Him.  This is a lie.  The reason we entertain it is because of our past hurts, wounds, and even our sin, which always harms us and others.

We see a better response in Ezekiel and Daniel.  They were prophets during the period when God’s discipline cause Israel to be taken captive to Babylon.   Yes, Israel was in trouble with God.  However, after 70 years, they knew that God would bring Israel back.  Daniel knew that God would bring them back, and he put his faith in God’s ability to accomplish this.

It is very common for Christians to misinterpret the discipline of God.  We think of it as bad, and pray for God to return His goodness to us.  We tell ourselves that we have to trudge through the “badness of God” in order to get the “goodness of God” some day.

This is a lie.  The time in the wilderness was a special time of intimacy with God for Israel.  Many other generations looked back to the miracles that happened in those days asking where God was in there day.  We even see Gideon making this point in verse 13.  He is wishing that God would do for him in his day what God did for Israel back when they came out of Egypt (yes, during the times of discipline).

There were no gardens, no grain fields, and no fruit trees in the wilderness, but God supernaturally fed them day after day and provided water in a place where there was none.  Later, when they made it into the promised land (where they had all those “good things”), they tended to walk away from intimacy with God.  A man like David stuck out like an odd duck because he came to intimately know God and acted out of that relationship.  We spend entirely too much time accusing God of cursing us (letting bad things happen) when He is actually trying to bless us.

Gideon expresses the idea that he and Israel are forsaken by God.  However, this is a lie.  Jesus says this on the cross.  I believe he says this (“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”) for two reasons.  First, he is letting us know that he feels exactly what we feel when we have such a moment in our life.  You know, the kind of experience where you are asking God to deliver you and not let the bad thing happen, but then you are crucified anyway.  Jesus gets it.  God understands how we feel.  He has felt it Himself! 

However, there is a second reason Jesus says this.  This was a Hebrew way of telling people to pay attention to a particular passage in the Bible.  In English, we would say, “Turn in your Bibles to Psalm 22 and pay attention to what it says.”  The Hebrews generally used the opening word or line of a passage to refer to it.  “Turn in your Bibles to My God, My God why have You Forsaken Me, and pay attention to what it says.  That Psalm has a clear turning point: “He has heard me.”  The lament of a man dying on a cross suddenly turns into a rejoicing in the God who has heard him.  Try reading Psalm 22 as if it is Jesus speaking about his time on the cross.

When these kind of lies surface in your mind, you need to ask yourself these questions.  Who told me that?  How did I come to believe this?  Is this what God’s Word says?  The tough things you experience in life are not proof that God has or hasn’t forsaken you.  The Word of God tells you that He will never leave you nor forsake you, not even to the end of this Age!  See Matthew 28:20 and Hebrews 13:5.

I don’t have time to point out more, but we can look to Gideon’s response about his status in verse 15.  I can’t do it because I am a low-status person in a subjugated people!  This doesn’t matter when God is calling you to do something.

Elijah (vs. 1-4; 11-14)

On the heels of a great victory, in which fire comes down from heaven and burns up the sacrifice to Yahweh, Jezebel sends word to Elijah that she is going to have him hunted down and killed.  This causes Elijah to go on the run to the southern part of the Judean Kingdom.  From there, an angel tells him to go further south to Mt. Sinai.

Elijah’s wound has parts of it that are from rejection.  His life is being hunted by a king and queen who cannot restrain themselves from evil.  He was simply being a faithful prophet to Yahweh, and yet they hunt him down as if he were the one worshiping false gods.

There is one scene where Elijah shows up to confront King Ahab of his wickedness.  Ahab calls Elijah, the troubler of Israel.  Of course, it was Ahab and Jezebel that were bringing trouble upon Israel.  Of course, governments that reject God love to point to those who do love God as the problem

Elijah simply feels defeated.  He even begs God to kill him.  Life isn’t worth it.

I will point out three lies that have taken root in Elijah’s heart.  The first is this.  Nothing I do makes a difference.  There are a lot of young people today who are looking at the Church saying that it is not working or making a difference.  However, this assumes that we know what making a difference looks like.  It assumes we know what should be happening.  Of course, everyone should be repenting and believing in God.  This Republic shouldn’t be plundered by our spiritual enemy and fighting against one another, but we are.  What is the difference that God has us here to affect?  Be very careful in pretending that you know exactly what God is trying to accomplish through you, much more His Church.  Yes, He wants to save people, but sometimes we have to go through some tough things in order to get back to a place of true repentance.

In some ways, Jesus did not send the Church to make the world into a governmental paradise.  It could if we would all follow Christ and turn from sin.  In fact, there have been times throughout history in which particular families and particular nations saw some powerful things happen to turn the whole towards the things of God.  However, these often pass until we find a family full of people who don’t serve Jesus like their grandparents did, or a nation that no longer believes what their founding generation believed about God.

We are told that this varied experience will continue until the end of this Age of Grace.  There will be a wholesale apostasy against the truth of Jesus in these last days.  I am not saying that no one will be saved.  We are in a time similar to the days of Elijah.  Was he making a difference?  It didn’t look like it, but God was using him to encourage the remnant of 7,000 people who hadn’t bowed the knee to Ahab and Jezebel’s false god, Baal.  Yes, it is a discouraging time to work for the LORD, and our flesh doesn’t like laboring in that place, but it is where we are.  God sometimes needs us to be in that place.

On one hand, He is ensuring that the baton of faith makes it to the next generation.  But another reason can be this.  Elijah was one of the “power prophets.”  God did powerful miracles through Elijah. This is in contrast to a prophet like Jeremiah.  We have no miracles of Jeremiah, except for his ability to tell people what was going to happen in the future, and be 100% correct.  However, the power that was expressed in Elijah’s life was not about him.  It was always about what God was doing in that period of Israel.  Jeremiah’s generation were only given a sign of truth being spoken to them.  They received no fire from heaven and no Red Sea’s being parted.

So, if you find yourself in a wilderness eating bread delivered by a raven, and you feel that normal feeling, “This isn’t getting me anywhere…This isn’t working,” then stop looking at your situation with the world’s eye, the eye of your flesh.  Look with the eyes of faith in God.  He has a purpose in it, especially when we don’t understand what it is.

Elijah could be killed at any time, but his life is in God’s hand.  We should never presume God’s protection, but neither do we fear when we end up in the hand of the powers of the land.  When Pilate challenged Jesus to speak to him, he emphasized that he had power to put Jesus to death.  Do you know what Jesus said?  Turn to John 19:11 and find out.  Jesus knew that God had a purpose for His life and if Pilate was part of that purpose, then who was Jesus to fight against it?  This is not an argument against his place in the Godhead.  It is an argument for the function and role he performs within the Trinity.

We should also notice the words of Elijah, “I am no better than my fathers.”  He had started out with so much hope, but now sees that he has failed just like those before him.  In some ways, this is the same message that Isaiah presents in his book.  He is faced with the absolute failure of Israel to bring forth any salvation in the earth, and yet he is also faced with the power of God to produce salvation by His own Right Hand, Jesus!

May God help us to surrender in those times that are hard on our flesh.  May we recognize that He is making our inner man stronger, and He is giving us a spiritual gift that we can share with others so that they may be free.

The righteous will walk by faith.  They will breathe, get up in the morning, and go to work by faith too.

Elijah was ready to quit.  There is not a one of us who can’t relate to him in that moment.  However, you need to trust that God knows how you feel.  Jesus knows the feeling better than even you or I do.

Many a parent has given up on their marriage and their kids.  Sometimes they are even still in the home, present, but really absent.  When we operate out of the woundedness of our past, we simply continue the pain, continue wounding others and ourselves.  Jesus wants to heal our wounds and neutralize the lies that we have come to believe so that we can be the devil’s worst nightmare when we run into others who are like we used to be.

I pray that God will help fathers and mothers, sons and daughters, to turn away from the lies of this world and turn to the truth of God in Jesus!

Lies II

What Does God Really Want from Me? Part 8

Matthew 28:16-20.

This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday March 6, 2022.

We will finish our series today talking about sharing Jesus passionately with those who do not know him.

Everything that we do as a Christian should revolve around the worship of God.  It is a whole-life worship that demonstrates the worth and value of God when we CONNECT to Jesus and his people through an authentic relationship.  We also demonstrate His worth and value when we GROW spiritually through intentionally becoming like Jesus.  Again, we demonstrate His worth and value when we SERVE selflessly through the natural and spiritual gifts that God has given us.  Lastly, we demonstrate His worth when we SHARE Jesus passionately with those who do not know him.

Last week, we saw the passion side of sharing Jesus with others.  How could I not share Jesus, and who could keep me silent when he has set me free from a life of begging and being spiritually lame, like the man at the Beautiful Gate in Acts 3.  No one was going to shut that man up short of putting him in prison and executing him, and then his death would witness even more loudly!

Today, we will look at the command and duty side of sharing Jesus.  Passion is not always enough to keep us sharing Christ.  We can get angry, wounded, or hurt.  In those moments when passion is low, the command of Christ is there to challenge our flesh.  I may not feel like it, but the Lord has given me a command, and I do not want to disappoint my Lord.

Let’s look at our passage.

Jesus uses his authority to give us a command

We talked about this last week, but we should always keep in mind the Daniel 7 passage where God judges the empires of the world, and yet, he then gives the kingdoms of the world to a Son of Man character who represents Jesus.  This Son of Man receives comes to the Ancient of Days riding on the clouds of heaven.  This imagery helps us see why Jesus purposefully used this title of himself.  Yes, it is a phrase that can essentially mean a human.  However, this phrase also had a connotation that reflected a mystery human who can ride the clouds like Yahweh, and will rule over the nations.  Many of the Jews understood this character as the Messiah.  We must never let this pompous, bloviating world take our eyes off of the fact that Jesus is the King of heaven and earth, and we will be judged on whether or not we were faithful to him.

All of that is to say that Jesus has left us with a purpose and a Great Mission, which is also called the Great Commission.  As we connect, grow, and serve, we are enabled to reach those who do not know Jesus with the Good News.

He could rapture us up to heaven the second that we believe, but that is not how God operates.  There is a spiritual battle for the souls of people happening on this earth.  Jesus shows us that God is not standing by silent.  We never become more like him than when we rise up to fight those principalities that hold humans in bondage through their own sinfulness (how sick the evil one is!).

It is easy to make the focus in this passage to be on the word “go,” but to do so is to miss the main point.  The main verb is “make disciples,” and it is modified by a phrase that explains just who we are to disciple, “all nations.”  Just so we are not confused, ask yourself who the subject of this command is.  Yes, it is his disciples, but not just those back then.  Jesus was to be with us to the end of the age, and therefore the mission is ongoing to the end of the age.  Since those original disciples are no longer with us, it is clear that Jesus intends this mission to be passed down from one generation of disciples to the next.

So, what does it mean to make disciples?  To make a disciple starts with being a disciple yourself.  We must become students of Jesus who are being transformed by the life and word of Christ.  This is the foundation of sharing the bad news and the Good News with others.  God’s Word is our powerful weapon because it is truth, and it is spiritual power energized by God’s Holy Spirit.  In essence, becoming a disciple of Jesus is another way of saying that we have connected to him as our Teacher and to his other disciples.  This means that we are a community of people who study and learn of Jesus.  Be must not become something other than that.

Jesus did not tell them to only reach other Jews, or any particular race, culture, etc.  The Gospel is to be taken to every nation as the Holy Spirit leads us.  We disciple those who respond to the drawing of the Holy Spirit no matter what their background, their sin, or their culture.  Not everyone fulfills the same task however.  There is a Sending, Giving, and Going aspect to this Mission.  Those who Go need a group behind them that are Sending them by continually praying and providing a support system.  Yet, we should be careful of drawing to strong of a distinction between those three aspects.  Technically, we are all called to go, but not always to go across the world to a completely different culture.  We should all be a prayer support for other Christians who are sharing Christ even if a person is a missionary. Can a missionary support another missionary in prayer and funds as needed?  Of course, they can!  So, we need to keep our eye on making disciples whether that is around the world or across the street.  All of us are working together in order to make disciples around the world.

Now, let’s look at the going component.  Going is necessary as I have already alluded.  We have to become a people who are learning to go to others.  I have to learn to step outside of myself, my comfort zone, in order to share Jesus with others.  Acts 1:8 gives us a picture of concentric circles moving out from Jerusalem.  “You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

All of us go, just like our Lord who left the great halls of heaven in order to go to earth and battle for our souls.  We must be led by the Holy Spirit to go out from a life that is only focused on ourselves.  However, it takes greater sacrifice to reach the opposite side of the world.  Thus, God calls some people to be missionaries.  They will have to travel to areas in which they do not know the customs, and the language.  They will have much to learn.  They will need supporters back home who will pray for them and give money to support them.  Yes, this can become a racket if we let it.  Thus, believers at every part of this must become a people of prayer responding to the Holy Spirit.  We see this in the New Testament as many supported Paul in his evangelistic endeavors so that he could take the Gospel into the area of what we call Turkey today, and onto the European continent through Greece.

Another phrase that Jesus adds is that we are to baptize those who become disciples.  Jesus has them continue this practice as a symbol or sign that a person has joined the community of the disciples of Jesus.

There are some who become overly worked up over what is said when a person is baptized.  This is not a mystical ritual that must be done just right in order to “work.”  Rather, it is the response of a person’s soul to the Spirit of God.  This is what makes it effective.  Jesus emphasizes that disciples are being baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Yet, in other places it doesn’t use this “formula,” as some call it.  As I have said, I do not believe that Jesus is giving us a “formula.”  To connect to the Father is to connect to the Son and the Holy Spirit.  To respond to one is to respond to the others.  Yet, this process of becoming a disciple is operated by each of them in different ways.

Jesus then emphasizes that they are to teach the newer disciples.  This connects to the earlier make disciples, but it is more explicit.  We don’t just hand a bible to new believers and leave them on their own.  The older disciples are to teach the newer disciples, not in a sense of being between them and Jesus.  The Spirit of Christ is the ultimate teacher, but Jesus wants the mature disciples to come alongside of the immature.

One might ask, “Isn’t the Word of God and the Holy Spirit sufficient?”  Sure, they are completely enough for any disciple, but it is not a question of sufficiency.  God has provided a community that new believers enter, and He also gives a command through the Lord Jesus for us to help each other.  Thus, we surrender to the will of God rather than lecture Him on the theoretical sufficiency of the Word and the Spirit.  All disciples need to keep their eyes upon Jesus and learn from him as he uses others to teach us.

Just like God is teaching us to battle the spiritual forces arrayed against His people and those who are lost, so He is teaching us to become spiritual parents that help His new children mature spiritually.  Spiritual maturity can be defined as simply learning to obey the commands of Christ through an intimate relationship with Jesus.  Thus, I can be a follower of Jesus for over 30 years and still be infantile spiritually.  Of course, it is not possible to be the essence of maturity in one day, but some grow into maturity much faster than others.  Of course, we should restrain ourselves from judgments in this area because we cannot see the heart, and some who appear mature may not be what they seem under pressure.

One last thought on this teaching issue is that you don’t need an official title or position to do it.  We are all supposed to become like Christ who was a teacher.  Thus, we are all to teach even while we are students to those whom God brings to us.  No human teacher has ever arrived.  They are still learning themselves.  In fact, I believe that you never learn more about Christ than when you are trying to teach others, that is if your heart is open to the Holy Spirit.

Well, that’s the mission.  It is still the mission of Christians today, whether you have been saved for decades or days.  Yet, Jesus ends this with the encouragement that he will be with us even to the end of the age.  He has not left us alone. This is more than a human saying that they are thinking of us.  Jesus is present with us today as if he was standing here in our church, or sitting there right beside you.  When you are in the most difficult place, remember that Jesus is with you.  He will give you the words; he will give you passion; he will give you wisdom, strength and courage! 

The enemy is raging against God’s people in our society today- all over the world in fact.  Yet, until God calls us home, He is not finished yet, and so, neither are we.  Let’s go forward with our Joshua, who is Jesus, and know that he will be with us no matter what we face.  Then we will connect lost sinners to the abundant life that can only be found in King Jesus!

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What Does God Really Want from Me? Part 7

Acts 4:1-12.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday February 27, 2022.

We continue looking at this question of what does God really want from me.  We have talked about Connecting to Jesus and his followers, Growing to be like Jesus, and Serving one another like Jesus served us. 

Now, we turn our attention to our final purpose, and that has to do with Sharing Jesus with those who do not know him.  Again, we do so to connect them to Christ, and as an outflow of our living connection to Christ.  It is a part of our spiritual growth when we share the good news about Jesus with others.  Also, we are serving people who are spiritually lost when we do this.  Yet, it is unique enough to deserve its own place as another purpose that God has for us.

We should share Jesus passionately with those who do not know him.  Some of those people barely know anything about Jesus, and they often have misconceptions about him.  Others will say that they are Christian, but they are clueless about what that really means.  This wide range of people who are spiritually lost is very diverse, and the believer needs to be led by the Holy Spirit in sharing Christ with each one.  No one tactic will “work” with them all.

Sharing Jesus involves more than a message, or a downloading of information.  The message of who Jesus is, what he has done, and what he is going to do, has ramifications for every person on this planet.  They really do need to know the information.  However, we are more than people with information.  We have come into relationship with the one who is presently changing us.  Thus, we share a message and the powerful effect of having Jesus in our lives.  In short, we share Jesus himself with them in a spiritual way that they will not understand at first.

Of course, this needs to be a passionate endeavor.  If I am truly in relationship with Christ, then I am will be challenged to connect, grow, serve, and finally share Jesus, by the Spirit of God working within me.  This is the work of God’s Spirit stirring us up to do the good works that God has prepared for us to do!

Let’s look at our passage in Acts 4.

The controversy of proclaiming Jesus

It is understandable that it would be controversial to publicly proclaim that the leaders of Israel had unjustly executed Jesus.  However, Peter and John are not just crying out publicly for justice against an unjust government.  At its core, Christianity is a call for all men everywhere to repent, be they an individual who has a low position within society, or be they part of a criminal cabal that rules a nation (even the whole earth).

Let’s dig a little deeper into the background of our passage.

This event happens about seven weeks after the crucifixion of Jesus.  Peter and John had been preaching under the large portico called Solomon’s Colonnade.  It is sometimes called a porch, but it wasn’t attached to any building.  It was a series of columns with a roof that gave covered access to the courts surrounding the temple.  This preaching was giving a stir itself as many started to believe them.

Acts 3 records an event that shocked the temple crowds.  There was a man who had been lame since birth.  People would bring him to one of the gates at the temple compound so that he could beg for alms.  Of course, this would be a target rich environment because the people are generally coming there for spiritual reasons.  This man would have been a regular fixture that everyone would recognize.  “Oh, that’s that blind man who begs by Gate Beautiful.” 

This man is begging for money when Peter says to him, “Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you; in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!”  Peter then took him by the hand and the man was able to stand up, start walking, and even started leaping and running.  This is a miracle on many levels.  It caused such a stir and a crowd that Peter tells the crowd that this is done by the power of Jesus of Nazareth, and that they need to repent and believe on him.  Simultaneously, the commotion draws the attention of those in charge of the temple.  Peter and John are arrested and held overnight.

In a sense, the foundational human authority on this planet begins within each one of us.  You have authority over what you think, say, and do.  Peter had faced the truth about Jesus, and the truth about his own failure to stand with him.  The failure in that moment represented a greater failure of Peter to love God with his whole being.  Only such a person can then call others to face the truth about their own actions in the face of what God has decreed.  Without Christ, we are all rebels against the Creator-King of the Universe.  The Gospel is at once a sword into our heart, and a cure for our sickness.

This message of repentance sends a ripple up through the authority structures of this world, and challenges every authority (not just Israel).  You must bow the knee to Jesus, or perish as his enemy.  Verse twelve is a valuable statement of truth.  “There is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”  This is an unyielding decree of God the Father, and the world chafes at it from the high and mighty to the low and powerless.  The reality of Jesus ruffles everyone!

We can focus on the miraculous healing of the lame man.  However, operating in the power of the Holy Spirit is more than doing miracles of healing.  Peter’s ability to challenge the people and the leaders with the blazing truth of God is itself a miracle.  His public declaration of the truth about Jesus was directly empowered by the Holy Spirit.  This is how we should operate in all that we do for Christ.  Parents must pray that God will empower them to speak and teach their children the truth of God in a powerful and God-led way.

Being responsible for a child can be intimidating in and of itself, but the challenges become greater as we scope out to where Peter finds himself that day, in front of the national leaders of Israel.  For the believer, however, this should be no different.  When you have grown spiritually to depend upon the Holy Spirit for whatever you face, then in that moment, you become like David when he faced Goliath.  He had already faced lions and bears by himself in the field.  God has prepared you for whatever moment you face, but you will still need to rely upon the power and direction of the Holy Spirit.  Whether you witness to a person on the street, or speak before Congress, the Lord will be there to help you in that moment.

The corrupt leaders of Acts 4 want to know by what authority Peter and John are doing what they are doing.  Who gives us the authority and power to call all people everywhere to repent, to call the great powers of the earth to yield and repent?  Yes, it is Jesus, but it is not us using Jesus as a poster child for holding governments accountable, or speaking truth to power.  It is me bowing the knee to the Lord of heaven and earth.  It is me agreeing with God the Father that I am guilty of a capital crime against heaven, and yet also rejoicing that He has given terms of pardon in the person and work of Jesus. 

We are all like that lame man of Acts 3 who suddenly finds that he can walk after 40 years of begging.  He was walking and leaping and praising God!  Who could shut him up?

God the Father has overruled all corrupt authorities, starting with myself.  Jesus is the Anointed King that He has installed over all authorities in heaven and on earth.  All people everywhere are under a death sentence until they flee to Jesus for shelter.  Each Christian is a person who has been set free from death by the grace of Jesus!  How can we keep silent, and who can shut us up?

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What Does God Really Want from Me? Part 5

Matthew 20:24-28.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, February 13, 2022.

What does God really want from Me?  That is the question we are continuing to look at.  The third purpose that God has for us is to serve.  He wants us to serve selflessly through the natural and spiritual gifts that He has given us.

Serving should not be seen as a level that we achieve, or cannot start until we finish growing to be like Jesus.  In truth, serving is part of our spiritual growth.  Yet, it is a part of our spiritual growth that is worthy of its own focus because serving others moves the emphasis from me to others.

Yes, I need to grow, but everything that I do cannot be only focused on whether or not I get something out of it.  Spiritual growth is not some sort of competition or point of comparison that we can brag about.  I used the word focus because this is a key issue.  Spiritual growth cannot become stuck in the quagmire of self-improvement.  Learning to serve like Jesus did is the only thing that can save us from this elitist’s box canyon.  Our focus is first and foremost on the will of Jesus Christ, and then he focuses us on the need of others around us.  This is part of our spiritual growth.

Of course, you will get something out of service.  You will become more like Jesus, and that is all we should ever need.  However, once our flesh realizes that we are serious about spiritual growth, it will quickly move to make that spiritual growth all about you.

Thus, we are using the adverb “selflessly.”  Of course, I am using my self to serve you, but I need to serve without my own desires and needs getting in the way of what God is wanting to do.  Serving others is part of our spiritual sacrifices.  Just like the Israelites under the Law of Moses could have used those bulls and goats for their own purposes, we also could use our time, money, and gifts for ourselves.  Yet, we help others as a free-will offering to Jesus.  In so doing, service becomes a true act of worship that shows God that He is worthy enough for me to sacrifice myself for the sake of the others to which He points me.

Lastly, we all have natural and spiritual gifts that come from God.  There are strong people and there are weak people.  We have trouble processing why “God made me weak.”  However, God in His wisdom is teaching us that we need others.  None of us can “do it” alone.  Some are strong to help the weak, and yet in so doing the strong learn something from the weak that they could never learn without them, and vice versa.  James 1:17 tells us that “Every good and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.”  Remind yourself often that you have gifts because God gave them to you for a purpose, and that purpose is to serve others.

Let’s look at our passage.

The human desire to be great

For the sake of time, I have jumped into the middle of this story.  The 10 disciples are the others besides James and John.  They are greatly displeased, or riled up, because they found out that the mother of James and John had brought them to Jesus and asked him to let them sit on his right and on his left when he rules in his kingdom.

Their anger is most likely not coming from a true sense of what is moral.  All of them were spending lots of time arguing about who was the greatest among them.  This is what was at the root of asking for the sons to sit on the right and left of Jesus.  Whether it was the mom’s idea or the sons thought it would be more appropriate coming from her, they are asking for the top two spots in the coming administration of King Jesus.  Of course, we can debate about whether or not those two positions are to be given to the greatest.

They all wanted the greatest spot for themselves, and they are probably angry that James and John beat them to the punch out of pure audacity.

Now, there is nothing wrong with wanting to be great and to do something great, especially to be and to do so for God.  However, the fly in this ointment is that our definition of greatness generally involves me being greater than others.  We find it practically impossible to separate the idea of greatness from being an indirect reference to others.  What if everything that every person ever did was intended by God to be great?  Could it be possible that the Great Creator God of every human being intends for each of us to be great in our own unique way?  Wouldn’t it be greater if we learned to dovetail perfectly together in honor of our great Lord, Jesus?

Yet, sinfulness often pushes us to want to stick out as better, or more important among our peers.  Ask yourself this.  What makes a mom or dad great?  Is it to be defined by those who get the “Mom of the Year” award?  Is it defined from society’s perspective, the child’s perspective, God’s?  How many moms and dads do a great service to their kids, and for society, by training their kids to follow Jesus?  Let us always remember this.  It is generally our desire to be great in all the wrong ways that gets in the way of doing the truly great things.

So, the key is in separating a desire for greatness from being attached to others around you, and then recognizing that we are lousy at knowing what is truly great.  We need Jesus to teach us.  Humility is saying, “Jesus, I know nothing of greatness.  Please teach me!”

In verse 25, Jesus takes them all aside and uses this moment to teach them (to teach us) about greatness.  He uses the fact that Israel has been under the thumb of Gentile empires for centuries.  Their desire for Messiah to come was heavily influenced by their desire to be out from under this “boot in the face” that they had endured for a long time.

Jesus warns them that those in the top spots among the Gentiles lord it over those under them.  He says the same thing twice, but uses two synonyms for this concept of lording over others.  The first word is a combination of the words down and lord, and means to lord down on others, or to force others down under your lordship.  The second word does the same thing with the words down and authority.  It would mean to exercise authority down on others, or to force others down under your authority.  Notice the emphasis is that the Gentile way of being a lord and having authority is to emphasize that they are higher and you are lower.

Now, Jesus could have easily pointed out that the Sadducees, Pharisees, and Herod all suffered from this same world view, but instead he focuses it on the Gentiles.  You see, the problem with Israel’s leadership was not Rome, but that they had become too much like Rome.  Really, it started for them under the Greeks before Rome came to power.  The Persians had allowed them to go back to Jerusalem and rebuild, but under the Greeks, the leaders had begun to adopt the Greek ways of thinking and doing many things including leadership.

Nothing has changed so much.  Even today, our world is focused on who is on top and who is on the bottom.  Pastors and Bishops can be overly concerned with this vertical challenge that actually comes from an unbiblical world view.

Christians are not to copy this

Jesus basically says that this kind of thinking and action is not to happen among them.  He doesn’t deny that it can happen, or will happen, but that it is not supposed to happen.  His command is that none of us ever do this.  Of course, we have tragically failed in this matter throughout much of the history of the Church.  So then, what form should authority take among the followers of Christ?

In verse 26, Jesus speaks to those who wanted to be great in his kingdom, which again was not a bad thing.  He instructs them on what they should do.  Whoever wants to be great should become the servant of the others.  Notice that there is still a vertical aspect here, but that the great one should lower themselves to serve the others.  Isn’t that exactly what is wrong with many of our political and spiritual leaders today, that they refuse to lower themselves in order to serve?

Now Jesus uses the nice Greek word for servant here.  Its focus is on performing a service, but that service can be done by the king’s right-hand man, or by the helper of a village blacksmith. We could say that it is the respectable term for a servant that does not focus on how high the position is.  It is where we get the word for deacon in English.  Thus, serving is not a position that is about being above others, even though some servants may have servants that are under them.

Jesus is refocusing their concept of greatness from lording over others to humbling themselves in order to serve others.

In verse 27, Jesus basically says the same thing, but he changes a couple of the words.  Here are the two statements back-to-back.

You who want to be great should become the servants of the others.

You who want to be first should become the slaves of the others.

Being first is about being the greatest of the greats.  Jesus then uses a term for serving that is not the nice term, and is why most translations bring it over as slave.  So, it repeats the same concept, but calls for one to get even lower, to become a slave who has no rights and no self-purpose, only the master’s purpose.  This is what it means to have the first place in Christ’s kingdom.  The highest position is reserved for those who would take the lowest place among them.

Wow, that is sobering.  This is why the Apostle Paul would call himself a slave of Christ Jesus, and a slave of God.  He understood that he was the Lord of no one.  Jesus is the Lord!  Paul was simply serving God’s people on His behalf, even becoming a slave among God’s people.  Notice that God’s slaves don’t peel His grapes and fan Him.  Rather, they serve His purposes among His people.  Thus, Paul served believers, but they don’t get to boss him around because he is their slave.  He is following God’s orders.  However, no task is too menial for someone who is a slave.  Slaves do the dirtiest of jobs without complaint.

If spiritual growth is all about becoming like Jesus, then serving others is not enough.  I must learn to serve others like Jesus did, and in the way that he wants me to do.

In verse 28, Jesus points them to the example that he was living out.  Jesus was the fulfillment of all the promises of God, not just to Israel, but also to the nations.  He was the Messiah.  He was destined to rule from the throne of David over Israel and the nations.  Yet, he didn’t come to be served by others.  Of course, he was served by others.  People gave money so that he could travel and preach.  Others gave places to stay and food (often for 13 of them).  Later, certain ones would serve him by taking care of his body and placing it in the tomb.  These very disciples would serve him by taking the Gospel to the nations.

However, Jesus himself was not focused on what others should be doing for him.  Instead of making us serve him, he first served us in the role, not just of a servant, but of the lowest slave of all mankind.  The one who would take all the sins of the world upon himself and carry them away, if we would just believe on him.

Can we get real for a second?  No one deserves first place, but Jesus because no one can take a lower place than the one Jesus took.  Even to speak of who then is second place behind him is to actually diminish the perfection of our lord.  When Jesus is first place, no other place matters.  He became the ransom in the place of the many who would believe upon him.  They would live because he would die for their sins in their place.  These are the many who would believe on this lowest slave, and ask the Father to forgive them for such heinous sins, and such heinous lack of faith in Him.  These are the many who would be enabled to have eternal life because he laid down his eternal life for them.

This is our example.  The God of heaven humbled Himself and took on the nature of a human.  He then humbled Himself further by becoming the lowest slave to all humanity. 

It seems impossible that religious leaders throughout history have seemingly not understood what Jesus is saying here.  Yet, that is how sophisticated we can get.  We can rely upon a system of thinking and operating that blinds us to what our Lord is saying.  It doesn’t matter what tradition says.  What ultimately matters is what our Lord says, and he is asking you, “How great do you really want to be?”  Maybe even more pointed, “Do you really want to be like me?”  God forgive us for being selfish in the face of His amazing unselfishness!

Serve Part 5